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Emi gasps at the implications that the hourglass would give her many more years with her friend than a normal viper's lifespan. Her eyes glisten as she gives Bonnie a tender hug. She bids the elderly couple farewell. "What shall we do next, Naja?" she asks, wiping off a bit of moisture from her cheeks. The snake whispers in her ear. "Sounds like a plan," she agrees.
"I find myself unsure about where I wish to go at this point," Emi admits. "But I am sure that I no longer feel the need to rush to my next destination." She looks at the hourglass reverently. "This is your source of youth. I wouldn't wish to take this from you, if you aren't certain. But if you are, I would treasure it greatly. Naja as well."
Emi-na pulls herself out of the wreckage, clutching at a small wound at her side. She looks around, bewildered, amazed that they still live. Naja hisses, and she smiles. "Quite right." * * * "Hello, Other Jeff," she says as the sand mage approaches. She inclines her head toward the woman she presumes is her wife. "Thank you for the scrolls. They were most useful." She turns her face toward the water, letting the breeze blow her hair back. Somewhere across those seas was the land she was supposed to go. She had cursed her luck when she was blown off course and forced to land here in Southtopia. But perhaps she didn't feel so bad about it now.
Nightmare:
Emi-na's heart sinks as she sees that she really hasn't escaped Imhotopia after all. She sulks at the table, waiting on her soon-to-be-husband and the wedding feast. She can't bring herself to look at him, and instead focuses on the platters of food bring brought out. She doesn't really want to eat at this point, but rules were rules. She offers the servant a fake smile as they bring out a can -- so strange, why would it be a can? -- and twists off the top. She shrieks as serpents shoot out, hissing and biting. She feels fangs sink into her skin. She pushes them away, determined to do this herself rather than call out to her betrothed. She didn't want him thinking she owed him anything. Maybe if they scarred her face he wouldn't want to marry her anymore. "For dessert, Chilled Monkey Brain!" The palace crumbles, crushing the other dinner guests. She finds herself strangely okay with that, but the massive ape that comes crashing in terrifies her beyond rational thought. She gets up on the table and runs away. Giant four-pronged spears jab down at her as she runs back and forth, trying to escape the brain-headed ape. She screams again, running this way and that as the forks come slamming down around her. Sometimes she had thought that death was preferable to getting married, but now as oblivion approached she found herself terrified of dying. Part of her wanted to relent, to call out to him for salvation, but the rest of her wanted to keep fighting. To live or die on her own terms. It was touch-and-go. The ape's giant foot grabs her and tosses her into its mouth, and her last chance to call out to him was about to pass. "You... dummy." That... was odd. That wasn't an Imhotopian insult. It was childish, simple, and broke the spell, but only barely. Ragged and raw, she spits her last strength at the Mother Brain.
"You will not have me!" she rasps.
Eh, just saw this after I posted. Should I edit my post?
Emi holds fast to herself and refuses to give the Mother Brain an opening. All the while, she wracks her own mind, trying to identify a weakness that the brain may have. "Ah! The copper domes of Imhotopia's great cities can turn away the strongest spear, but the grains of sand find their way into everything!" She sends a blast of sand at the Mother Brain, dispersed and seeking, working their way around and inside the brain's hull.
The combined form rises up out of the sandy beach like a leviathan clawing its way out of the depths. Naja's humanoid form is proudly at the front, her two arms ending in powerful pincers. The rest of the sand body becomes armored like a massive scorpion, with a tail curling back and over its body ending in a vicious barb.
Within the sand form, Emi-na reels underneath the Mother Brain's attack. She remembers her lessons of magic, taught in secret because she wasn't meant to learn such powers as they were only reserved for those of the priest caste. She wasn't, so she was unworthy, un-- She shakes her head out of that bitter remnant of doubt. She directs the giant pincers to take hold of the Mother to let the sting strike at her weak spots.
The damage both to her allies and to the titan shakes Emi-na out of her panic. The monstrosity has been drawn in close enough, she hopes, that whatever the magic in the scroll does it will be enough. She unleashes the copper scroll with a scream.
Seeing the sheer destructive force of the titan unleashed against her sand barrier, Emi-na's resolve falters. She hastily tries to restore the barrier, launch an attack, or something, but her magic doesn't work as well on glass as it does sand.
Emi-na decides to keep the scroll in reserve, considering that she didn't know its true effects yet. She hated the thought of the magic running out before the end of the fight, or the titan figuring out a counter to it mid-battle. Besides, there was a sandy beach. Unlike the wizard Donny, she was in her element. With a grandiose motion raising her arms up, Emi-na draws the sand up into a massive bulwark to hold the incoming titan at bay and to protect the cannons.
Emi-na shrieks at the surprise attack, but reacts quickly. She weaves her spell, drawing the sand from the sphinx statue she had left in the courtyard into a wave that blasts the robots coming in from the south.
Emi-na reacts with excitement when the scroll changes Naja once more, this time providing much-needed healing to her compatriots (though her cheeks redden when she sees that Naja is left nearly naked after the ribbons are used up). "Um, good job! I'll keep the rest of this scroll at hand in case there's something else that's needed," she tells her serpentine friend.
"No need to be rude," Emi interjects. "Badia apologised. She knows Naja is a friend and ally to her."
"Ahem!" Emi exclaims while her friend Naja draped over her shoulders lifts her head.
It's the fuchsia sand snake, isn't it?
Emi-na stays quiet during the revelation of the knights' strange fate. At least one of them remains to uphold the memory of the true knights. But what they faced and lost will be something that her team would soon have to confront. Hopefully they would avoid becoming robots themselves.
"The healing spring magic was very powerful. I hope Donny the wizard is up for another casting, but do not expect him to be able to create the spell again soon."
Emi-na throws her hand up, a defensive spell flowing from her fingers. She pulverizes the brick to rubble, converting it to sand that she redirects back to Floyd.
Emi-na keeps weaving fluidly to stay out of harm's way. This time the crossbow bolt grazes past her arm but Naja is there to keep her safe from the poison.
She keeps the sand in Sir Robert's face, and with a clenching motion of her hand makes it harden until it is like sandstone. She sends more sand underneath the knight's armor to coalesce around his joints and tries to harden them as well. "Call on your knights. Have them surrender," she demands.
Emi-na sidesteps the shield barely, the heavy plank of wood and steel fanning her hair as it whistles by. Rather than trying to batter through Robert the Strong's bulwark, she causes her enchanted sand to rise up behind him so that it attacks his unprotected flank.
Emi pauses, concerned that the knights seem out to kill them.
Emi-na spares an irritated glace at Randy. "I am willing to wait until I have all available information before choosing my course of action." She turns back to the chimera. "It is a legitimate question. Where are the other knights?"
Emi-na frowns sadly at the injured creature. Naja perks up, however, her head rising to get a better view from Emi's shoulders. "No, not right now," she says. Her sands keep swirling around her, but gently and with a light, purplish hue.
Emi sighs and starts weaving a spell that has her sands swirling softly around her, ready in case violence erupts.
"Must we?" Emi-na asks. "Face it, I mean. Is it hurting anything living up here? Well, except for those who go to it to do battle."
The peace and happiness Emi-na found splashing and swimming fade quickly as the sounds of battle reach her. "That is the beast we are to face next?" She shivers, still damp from the water.
Emi-na claps in delight as Badia flips in the air and comes down with a splash. She tries to match the leaper's height, but can only get high enough to complete a single somersault before hitting the water again. When Randy goes to Badia for help, Emi decides to explore deeper and ends up finding herself in the lagoon. She spends some time exploring the shipwreck until Naja comes and gets her, telling her that it's time to move on. With staggering reluctance, Emi pulls herself out of the pool and wills the magic to fade. Naja similarly returns to being a normal-shaped viper and takes up her position on Emi's shoulders.
Naja rises gracefully from the water, sporting her own finned tail. She whispers to Emi, who calms down some. "Well, of course! You're used to not having legs! This is--" she notices herself swimming effortlessly in the spring "-- not unpleasant, I suppose." Emi-na hears Badia bemoaning the fact that she also has a fish tail. "I think this is temporary. Walter did this for us to have... fun." she says to her. Emi dips underwater, letting her tail propel her through the water to pick up speed, then launches out of the water over Badia's head. She splashes back in the pool, spinning around underwater before breaking the surface, a glint of joy in her eyes. "You can still leap, Badia! How high can you go?"
Emi-na's eyebrows furrow in some confusion over Randy's explanation of mermaids -- the former desert-dweller not familiar with aquatic creatures. "That's very odd. Why would Walter's ex-wife want to beeeeeYAA The giant, sinewy tail covered in iridescent scales and ending in a wide fin that has replaced Emi's lower half thrashes in her surprise. She pitches off the smooth stone she'd been sitting on and splashes fully into the pool. She surfaces with a sputter, nearly in a panic over the strange sensations coming from her new mermaid's tail. "What's happening?!?"
Emi-na watches with astonishment as Naja is transformed and helps petrify the ape. She takes several steps back from the grotesque halves after Badia cracks it in two. "Um, well struck," she offers. Naja slinks back to her side, still in her new shape. She whispers something in Emi-na's ear. The sand sorceress nods, but still seems unsure. "Ahem. Well done, team." Naja hisses again. "I mean, well done team!" she repeats with more enthusiasm. She throws a very awkward fist in the air. She turns her attention to the beautiful spring and garden the wizards made. "Thank you. It has been a long while since I have soaked in a spring. Southtopia does not have nearly enough. I hope to see you again before I leave." She lowers herself into the water to enjoy a soak. "What's a 'mermaid'?"
Emi-na's relief at the destruction of the zombies is fleeting, as the giant ape is bearing down on her... team? Are they a team? What are those people to her anyway? A hiss in her ear silences her dithering as Naja calls to her attention that the ape was turning a different color. Teal. "I'm curious too, Naja," she agrees, pulling out the teal scroll. She causes some sand to shift to a matching color, activating it and letting the magic surge.
Emi-na twists her body as the grotesque fists launch at her, instinctively drawing the sand barrier in closer to create a more solid barrier against the projectiles. Thankfully, the denser sand creates an ablative field against the spattering acid, and she dances out of the way.
She lets the vortex drop fully, casting a spell to make the sand a smaller whip that she lashes out at the closest zombie, trying to lop off its other, intact hand to lessen its threat.
Though these undead were a far bit "juicier" than the desiccated corpses back in Imhotopia, she didn't let them rattle her. With her arms still waving to keep the vortex spinning, she stomps her foot to send a smaller spear of hardened sandstone lancing at one of the zombies.
Emi-na gestures, and the sand wall dissolves. The grains of sand flow back toward her as she continues to sweep her arms in graceful patterns. As it surrounds her, she spins in a pirouette-like dance, causing the sand to swirl and blow upwards in a column. She spins and spins, speeding up the grains so they will scour away anything trying to get close to her.
Emi-na isn't fazed by the stench, though she scrambles away from Randy's vomiting and Badia's dreadful pun.
She chants a brief spell while making complex gestures with her hands, calling up a barrier of sand that solidifies into a low wall. Then she sends it to push against the barbarians, hoping to send them off the cliff!
NPC:
"My team? What do you mean?" She gets out before the sand castle dissolves around them. Emi-na blinks as she realizes she is in unfamiliar surroundings. "Where--?" She recognizes the half-orc and the uncouth person. "What's happening?"
NPC: Emi-na takes the scrolls with a grateful nod as Naja slowly twists along her shoulder to get her own view. "I see. Well, thank you. Though in truth I am merely looking for passage to Utopia. I won't keep you any longer, because you would be going with your team on the... hunt, correct?"
NPC: Emi-na watches the grains of sand fall through the glass, thinking about the implications of such a spell. She snaps out of her reverie when he asks about Naja. "Oh. Naja is a female, though it hardly matters. She isn't looking for a mate at this time." She looks around at the sandcastle. "As for teaching you to color sand? I can try. You have to find the color within the sand. It has been around as long as the world, and has seen every color in existence. You just have to... coax it out of the grains." She runs her hand along the wall behind her, causing it to turn the ruddy hue of a desert sunset.
Emi-na pauses for a moment, studying the Stranger's face before nodding once. She goes to meet the Other Jeff. NPC: She inspects the craftsmanship of the sandcastle briefly, then takes a seat at the invitation. "Thank you. I don't know if I am into brevity, but I am into propriety. So... 'Other Jeff,' why have you asked to see me?"
The silocokinetic gives Randy a glare. She then gives her sand platform steps and walks down them to the ground level where she moves to her booth where she collects a *very* venomous viper that climbs up her arm and rests upon her shoulders. It hisses into her ear and she shakes her head. "I don't think so, Naja," she tells it.
Emi-na's eyes narrow at the mispronunciation of her name. "Did you find those noise-cancelling sand earphones? Emi-na Amun." She pronounces her name clearly.
An involuntary eeep! issues from Emi-na as she's hoisted up by the half-orc. She quickly casts a spell and a large tendril of sand rises up to pluck her out of the large woman's hands. The column of sand solidifies under her feet, and gently lowers her down, yet keeping her at a level to look the half-orc in the eyes. "I am on no-one's team, and--" she catches the uncouth one's words. "And I will most certainly not be calling you that. You may address me as Emi-na Amun, only."
Don't take Emi-na's reluctance as anything serious on the part of the player. Every heroic team needs that one character swept up against her will and forced to be a hero!
Emi's head whips around as it seems like she's being lumped into the group of hunters. "Wait. No, I'm an artist! Not a Huntress! I take commissions, and I'll do a fantastic sculpture to commemorate this--" she gives a sweeping gesture towards the surrounding pomp and circumstance -- "Whatever this is."
Emi-na saw the sales evaporate before her eyes. Excited at first by the half-orc's interest, she got immediately distracted by the request for sand-based earplugs. "I'm selling art, but I think I can--" she gets out before being interrupted by the fanfare announcing the king and his innumerable consorts. Hmmm... Emi-na begins to form a new plan. She follows the crowd, thinking that maybe she could catch the eye of one of the queens -- at least one of them are bound to like her works and have the coin to pay. She pushes up closer to see, using the leaping half-orc as a guide. She tries to make herself obvious, controlling her colored sands to weave and swirl in pleasing patterns.
Emi's eyes go wide when the large, green-skinned woman drops out of the air in front of her. She is speechless for a moment, but a snake next to her hisses. She blinks out of her surprise. "Oh! Yes! I offer many styles of sand-based artistic works of... art." She twirls her hands in sweeping gestures, and the obelisk disintegrates into a pile of sand which then reforms into a statue of a woman-headed lion. The nose promptly falls off. She offers a weak smile. "Many like it better that way!" she recovers. The snake hisses at her. She turns to it. "What? Oh, right." It hisses some more. "Okay, fine." She rolls her eyes, forces a smile, and turns back to the half-orc. "How can I make your sand-based artistic dreams come to life?"
"It's sand." "Sand art. Which means, it has value. Look at the designs, the artistry, the--" "Sand. Which is everywhere." "Grrr! Not like this! Mine has color, patterns, aesthetic! So, buy it and add some flair to your drab existence!!" As the potential customer walks away, Emi-na Amun stomps her foot and the sands in her design shift to a simmering red. "What?" she snaps at the soft hissing in her ear. "Oh, do you think you could have made the sale?" she asks the snake as it crawls up from under the table where her sand designs are displayed. She rolls her eyes at Naja's response. "All right. Next customer who comes by, you can try." She looks up and down the street which is bustling with excited crowds looking forward to the commencement of some strange tournament. Emi-na wasn't sure what was the occasion, but with people, there were possible customers. If she could sell some of her sand art, she'd be that much closer to buying a ticket away from Southtopia. She smooths her traditional Imhotopian dress and puts on what she hopes is an inviting, charming smile. "Sand art! Exotic art from across the sea! Come see this wonderful new art form that will amaze your friends!" she calls out as her hands weave a complex pattern that causes a pile of fine golden-colored sand to swirl and rise up into an obelisk next to her small booth. |