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]

He doesn't seem to notice she's there at all.

[incanted]

Well, he's hurting, right, she can tell that much, but if he can't tell her how or why she's going to have to try something else.

Devotion gives feedback.

"Devotion," she whispers.

[cardistry]

Someone else has been fingerpainting on Brilliance's nervous system. He is covered in indiscriminate high-intensity sensation, as though someone took the whole map and dunked it in a vat of pain.

[incanted]

...Fuck. Fuck, no one else is supposed to be able to do that, this is supposed to be impossible - they're not even here -

Can she use her own system access to turn it off? This is theirs, this is their thing, fuck if she'll let whoever owns this place hurt her Brilliance -

She buries her fingers in his hair and closes her eyes and tries.

[cardistry]

Everywhere she turns her attention, the pain fades.

Brilliance gasps in a breath and dives into her lap with a whimper.

But there's a strong counterpressure; if she lets up for an instant, the pain starts blossoming again wherever she isn't looking.

[incanted]

She has a lot of brain capacity. She can - only just - keep it up everywhere. She bites down on her lip; her arms go around Brilliance on sheer autopilot; she concentrates.

[cardistry]

He curls up closer, still whimpering faintly.

A voice over some kind of loudspeaker says, "Hey! Who the hell are you?"

[incanted]

"Who are you," she snaps back, and she loses a bit of one of his hands, snatches it back with act of will, hugs Brilliance tighter.

[cardistry]

Brilliance huddles against her and cries.

There is a short silence, and then a soft noise from behind Bella, as of a door opening.

[incanted]

Bella manages to look over her shoulder without losing her focus on Brilliance's pain map.

[pythbox]

An unfamiliar person is taking aim with an unfamiliar staff.

[incanted]

She can't think with more than a percent of her brain, she has to keep Brilliance okay - she's invincible - he's not but he torches and - she slips a little on the non-body-map part, recaptures it, grits her teeth - he will not hurt more if they are shot.

She holds still. She holds Brilliance.

[pythbox]

The stranger fires their weapon.

Invincible or not, the dull grey beam still knocks Aurora all the way back against the opposite wall. Wrecks hell with her clothes, too. Brilliance is undamaged, but the force of impact separates them and he only travels half as far.

[incanted]

Bella focuses on the pain map.

If she can hold down the pain long enough, he'll recover, and he'll be able to do - something she can't currently think of because she has to focus on the pain map.

Don't hurt don't hurt don't hurt don't hurt.

[cardistry]

The stranger walks up to Brilliance and grabs him by a fistful of his shirt, then starts dragging him out of the room. He struggles weakly.

[incanted]

- Not on.

Bella fights with her brain, trying to control Brilliance's pain, and then, for lack of any sophisticated solution, teleports in exactly the position she is in now to where Brilliance is, and then puts her and Brilliance and not the stranger back across the room where she was sitting.

She slips. A little. Not much. And then she focuses again.

[cardistry]

Brilliance clings to her as soon as she's within reach.

The stranger shrugs and takes aim again. This time, though, it's harder to knock them apart. The beam just slams them agains the wall and holds them there.

[incanted]

Bella leans over Brilliance, like a shield; she's the one with all the fancy defense wishes that Jokers disdain.

Don't hurt. Don't hurt. Don't hurt.

[cardistry]

"Look, I don't really care what you think you're doing," says the stranger. "That thing's mine, and if I have to pry you off it with a crowbar, I will."

Brilliance shivers.

[incanted]

"Mine," says Bella.

She'd have a sophisticated argument about Brilliance's personal autonomy if she had more brain, but she doesn't. Even a very little brain can declare Brilliance more hers than this creep's.

Don't hurt don't hurt don't hurt.

[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.