erroneous messenger, sleep!

[incanted]

Brilliance is probably the first person to notice Rainbow's Janepoint broadcasting the message, "error 112358: inferior pattern recognition".

Comments

[cardistry]

"Your funeral," says the stranger, taking aim.

The beam doesn't hurt Bella, but it damages Brilliance. Nowhere near enough to torch him - but enough to make Bella's job just a little bit harder.

[incanted]

"Brilliance," murmurs Bella. "Sunshine."

She might've been about to say something else but she almost slips, she mustn't slip, he mustn't hurt, not allowed.

Don't hurt.

[cardistry]

+i love you,+ he says, hugging her tight. +i love you i love you i+

The stranger's attack barely lets up. Brilliance's shirt and jeans have almost completely disintegrated anywhere that the magical onslaught can touch him, and the skin underneath is halfway gone. There's a strange flickering hollowness to the parts of the nerve map corresponding to pieces of Brilliance that aren't physically there anymore, and that plus the uneven distribution makes it harder to keep everything suppressed.

[incanted]

Bella might say something. His name, his pet name, the same thing he just said -

She can't say anything. She has to concentrate. Don'thurtnonononononono -

[cardistry]

Her control is slipping around the edges. More and more, of what they're pushing on him with Devotion and what the blast is doing to his physical body, starts to get through.

Weirdly, that's what calms him down.

This isn't going to work forever. It's barely working now. He can wait and hope, or he can do something about it.

Any ability he might once have had to cast a spell or make a wish is a million miles away. He's too terrified to think straight. But Bella's right here. Bella can do things.

Bella is busy.

+let it go,+ says Brilliance.

[incanted]

"Sunshine," she murmurs, and she lets slip just enough that she can evaluate the idea, and it's the only idea, and she lets him go, and she gets up.

[cardistry]

He has enough time to show her that he loves her before he starts screaming again.

[incanted]

The first order of business is to take this asshole's staff. She squares it out of his hands, and out of the way; it might be loyal and explode or something if she tries to handle it herself. "Restore." For the damage already done; it's not much but it's something and it takes two syllables. "Who's hurting him?" she asks, pouring aura out; the threat sensor should help find the answer if this creep won't. This creep doesn't likely have her attentional capacity and she was losing it at the end; someone else has to be doing it.

[pythbox]

The major threat on board this ship is a magical weapons system attached to the ship itself. The asshole's staff is the next one down. Apart from that, there are a few more devices here and there that barely register, and then some humans with varying magical potential.

"Hurting who? The device? Lady, what are you after?"

[incanted]

Turn weapons system off. The staff's being quiet for now and might be alive; she lets it be for the time being. "The device. Who's hurting him? I am after it stopping right the fuck now. Who do I have to fucking kill to make it stop?"

She'd be less casual with the death threats if she didn't expect Jane back eventually to let her rethink any lethal decisions she might make.

[pythbox]

"Are you even armed?"

[incanted]

She flares aura, brightbrightbright, a powerful sorceress wants your entrails for decorations. "I don't have to be fucking armed! Do I have to magic your head from your shoulders to threaten the next asshole with? Who is hurting him?"

[pythbox]

"Calm down," the stranger says irritably, looking around for their vanished staff. "What's your stake in this? The noise is annoying, but you didn't have to come here and listen to it, now did you?"

[incanted]

Wish.

Aurora is now the first Bell to wish for super-strength she didn't already get accustomed to.

She grabs the creep by the throat, floats into the air so as to lift all involved feet off the ground, and goes looking for the next ping on her radar, posthaste.

She is not careful about offering air supply.

[pythbox]

The creep struggles ineffectually.

The next ping on her radar is a roomful of people - six in all - watching Brilliance from several angles on a row of screens.

When Aurora appears carrying their friend, with her aura still going strong, it causes something of a stir. (As one side effect, the distant sound of Brilliance screaming gets a little quieter.)

[incanted]

"Who," she says distinctly, "is hurting my Device, and how many of you do I have to murder before it stops?"

[pythbox]

"Look, put Gem down and we'll talk," says one person.

"If it's yours then why was it abandoned on an uninhabited planet?" says another.

"If we let it up it'll kill everyone! We've heard stories!" says a third.

[incanted]

Bella sets "Gem" down. Technically. She keeps her hand around their neck.

"Because we can fucking teleport, so it's not actually uninhabited, and he is not the one you should be worrying about killing you," hisses Bella, "let him up now, this instant, and I might not."

[pythbox]

Gem coughs and says, "Shut it down, shut it down," gesturing urgently. One by one, the other six people disengage from Devotion.

The distant screaming stops.

[incanted]

Bella releases Gem's throat.

She pops to where Brilliance is and scoops him up into her arms, hugging tight, and then pops back into the control room.

"Now," says Bella, "you're going to tell me who you are and how you got access to my Device's functions."

[cardistry]

Brilliance clings to her and whimpers.

Everyone else flinches.

"We had its access codes," says Gem. "Look, if you want it, take it. We won't bother you again."

[incanted]

"How did you get his access codes?" Bella asks, threading her fingers through Brilliance's hair.

[cardistry]

Brilliance sniffles and hugs her.

"From a combat cyborg named Teno. He said he worked on the original project," says Gem.

[incanted]

+Sunshine, are the access codes something I can change for you? Boot them from the system...?+ "The original project should have all died."

[cardistry]

"Take it up with Teno, if you can find him," snorts Gem.

+don't know. don't - don't,+ says Brilliance.