necromanswers | Lup | IC Contact Page

Your form would affect the way you are able to think and perceive as well.

[Should Lup go ahead with the change, she'd just have to double her own mindfulness somehow. Hopefully. Though in any case, there was still seeing how other tests fared in this environment. The varied elements, and of course, life and death.

While she couldn't see the flowers, she definitely was aware of them this way. Whether they'd dry up from the noxious air or change in other ways, that would be interesting...]

Yeah, but I can drop it whenever I want. It also depends on which one I pick, so don't worry about it.

[She shrugs and floats towards the next building, intent on giving it a proper examination. They don't have time to stand around debating the merits of one dumb plan after another. It's all reckless, who cares.]

Then I trust you will choose wisely.

[She does feel responsible for Lup being there, and even if they'd known there'd be danger in this.

But she does know that Lup knows her stuff, even if they're both on the reckless side. As messed up as they both were, they really didn't get to the sort of states they were in by not knowing what they were about, when it came to testing and examining.

The atmosphere felt cloying, more weighted, but perhaps that's just because she was wrapped up so tightly now in her attempts to ward it all off. She continues her own examinations, taking pictures of the exposed, broken bits of wall. A selfie, to gauge the appearance of the flowers. Shifting through the ground, still looking for changes in the soil's coloring, as time continues to pass.]

Oh snap, the pressure's on now.

[Her tone's a bit whimsical as she pokes through the wall, silently examining the interior. Within thirty seconds she pulls back again, shaking her head. Nothing really new or unique, just another house. Same style, same design, not even a pile of bones to poke at. It's weird how a result like this can be both reassuring and disappointing.]

Any buildings that aren't, like, residential? I don't know how much we'll learn from collapsing old houses.

[Consistent enough at least to confirm the city had been something like this for a while.]

Not yet. There must be some marker of another district somewhere, if we compare where we are on this outer wall to how the inside of the city is structured...

[She glances back toward the wall as she considers their current distance and position.]

However it is likely they had already installed their more important buildings centralized from the start, like their research facilities. Given their priorities. Perhaps the same goes for the temples as well...

Depends on how big the city is. Back home there could be six different temples to the same god due to population and adherent numbers, but there were also dozens of gods to choose from. A place like this, with only four gods? I bet they had more temples on the outskirts.

[Lup floats upwards a bit, not too far, just enough to try and get a more aerial view. The scenery really isn't much to look at, and the dull, dead grey in the air doesn't help with visibility any.]

Perhaps there are other statues to locate as well... ones that may have reacted to the resurgence of the gods' energy. Unless the threat could sense the changes on its own.

[The threat being the very large monster still lurking... somewhere out there. It felt hauntingly familiar in a way she did not like, having been on... well, both sides of this very situation.]

I have a feeling we won't be able to stay out long enough to get that far. Don't like the idea of leaving the rest of town to handle itself.

[They're getting close to the end, that much is easy enough to recognize. But that doesn't mean they can afford to take unnecessary risk.]

Then we will file that away for another opportunity.

[She just hopes to make progress on any of her other goals for out here. She feels as though she's moving slower, and she doesn't like that. Better snap some more pictures...]

Yep. Best not push our luck.

[Satisfied - or unsatisfied more like - she lowers herself back down and finds herself an open space, crouching low to the dirt.]

I'm gonna change for a bit. I can't respond when I'm like this, but I should still be able to understand you.

These homes... all seem so similar. As though they were only accommodations, intentionally made uniform. Much as they seem, is it not?

[She still is uneasy about that plan, but they had already agreed to it for Science. The air feels heavier, her pulse quickens, but she only does her best to force mind over matter. Surely, that would work. They didn't need much longer out here, but it would be nice to bring back some tangible clue aside from her photos.]

... Very well, if it is time.

[She offers up one last nod before arcane light flares up around her, weaving through her spectral body and shifting it as it shrinks, and shrinks, and shrinks... and in a matter of seconds, the wings of a small blood hawk spread outwards, and she flutters and takes a few steps, adjusting to her new body. It's always strange, polymorphing as a lich, and requires a little more effort than usual to hold on to her focus. She takes a deep breath, letting the air fill her newly-realized lungs, and-

-oh. Oh, she does not like how that feels one bit. With an uncomfortable, scratchy chirp, she takes wing and flies over to Honerva. She'd rather stay close so they can watch one another.]

[Lup's magic is always something to observe, of course, and even here, in the midst of all this she can feel it: the shift in her magical presence, her arcane aura constricted to the new form that is her and yet almost a fraction of her, buffered by the form.

So faint. Fragile, even, though perhaps that was the point of the act. To gauge how a more fragile form would fare, to calculate such dangers while they had their own resources to record it.

On her own head, the flowers remain, though their colors still are faded, even altering, as even the outermost tips of the petals seem to slowly develop blemishes.]

Stay close. We can double back along the perimeter. Perhaps there is something we overlooked there.

[Funny, how much her concern increases when she actually cares about the subject in question. She feels an uncomfortable sensation around her eyes, no matter how much she adapts them, to deal with the air. She can't shield them as well as the rest of herself.]

[She can't speak in this form, not exactly, but she's intelligent enough to send back subtle concepts; an acknowledgement, understanding. She circles around where Honerva walks, never straying too far. A few times she sweeps down to land somewhere, studying the terrain for signs or clues, ducking her head and squawking out a pitched cough as she does. Bird lungs, it turns out, are quite sensitive to this shitty air. Who knew.]

[Honerva tracks Lup as she continues on, though still testing the ground for any signs; any reactions, but the denseness of the erosion was almost too steep.

There's a vague sense of movement behind some nearby buildings: the sound of clicking across the rubble, certainly not the sound of anything human-shaped moving around.]

...there is company.

[She can't tell from where just yet, but it doesn't seem that they've been spotted, yet.]

[Lup offers no reply, flying silently around and keeping her eyes glued to the ground, searching for movement of any kind. Her choice of form was calculated; the blood hawk's eyes are sharp even in the dim light of their surroundings. It doesn't take long for her to catch movement through the wreckage, a small group of the spider creatures skittering in the direction of the wall. She circles around the group once, indicating to Honerva their location with a muted cry, and begins to fly above their walking path.

Whether Honerva wants to avoid them or ambush and fight, she's letting it be the call of the one who still has a normal people-brain.]

[Her actions all depend, rather, on the size of the group. She was not one to put herself into danger without need, their... current circumstances aside, but exploration was different than getting into battle.

But she was still powerful, however with Lup's condition it wasn't as if they could easily pincer the group. She needed a vantage point, squishy that she was. Higher up, even if the air was worse up there, but what difference would it make, but for a moment? She scans the buildings, watching Lup's flying pattern.]

Find me a roof from where I can cast.

[Whether she would or not--well, that really all depended if one could be found in time.]

[That, she can do. Once she's certain of the path that the spiders are taking - and thankfully their single-minded route towards the broken wall means they're sticking together - she speeds up and flies ahead, estimating what buildings they might conveniently pass under. Once she's decided on a building with a sufficiently solid-looking roof that is likely to still hold a person's weight, she lights down on the corner, keeping herself in view of where Honerva is.

She folds her wings at her side, and then, intentionally, she stretches them again. She flaps them in place, counting off: one, two, three, four, five, six. As soon as she's done, she takes off again and moves herself to a different roof, ahead and opposite of the other. She doesn't want to lose her Polymorph, because seriously, what a waste of a spell slot, but if need be she can pincer-attack from that side.]

[Lup has her attention. Honerva observes her; despite the irritation in her eyes it's not affecting her vision, she vanishes from sight after the signal seems to end, reappearing on the roof opposite Lup's new position.

The air definitely was worse up here, even without having to breathe it. She could feel it, and for a moment she almost seems unsteady, shuddering for a moment, but then she focuses again, adjusting to the vantage point and eyeing the path of the monsters. She'd have to be quick and certain about her aim, even if it would take a moment to power up.

The dark energy crackles to life in her palms, a sphere forming in first one hand and then the other, growing larger as she holds them, first to her sides as she gathers the magic to her. There might be no need for a pincer if she could align this-

She brings her hands together, the energy coalescing, and she aims, the large blast of dark energy landing right in the middle of the pack, wiping a few of them right out almost immediately; the rest of the blast nicking a building and shaking down some rubble, and definitively maiming anything that might have been left over.]

[Lup watches closely from the other roof, watching the spiders die; for a few seconds after, she scans the grounds carefully for any movement, any sign that one of them could have survived. Nothing seems to move for several long heartbeats. The ambush was quick and effective, the attack powerful enough to eliminate the threat. With a satisfied call, she launches herself upwards and soars towards where Honerva is waiting.

About halfway there, the hawk's body suddenly jerks in mid-air, seizing in place, wings bending and folding inwards, her victory cry becoming the shriek of an animal in pain. It only takes a second or so before she's suddenly dropping out of the sky like a broken clay pigeon.]

[No time to savor such a victory.

It's almost a thoughtless action, that when she spots Lup's sharp decent, that Honerva reaches out with her magic automatically, to stop the rapid decent, and to pull the hawk's body toward her, to catch in her arms unless something else changed. So long as the form was there, Lup was still holding on to it with her magic.

And since the entire point of the exercise was Lup testing how long the form would last against the atmosphere, not the impact of slamming against the ground, it was the only way she could hope to salvage that. Her flowers were faring little better, now, since traveling to the higher area. How long had it been...? Not very, all told.]

[As soon as she's caught and held, Lup makes a soft coo and huddles closer, her breath coming out in wheezes, the hawk's body slowly shutting down. She could drop the spell - indeed, her focus is already floundering, and if she wasn't a warcaster she'd have lost it at once - but she's stubbornly holding on, fighting back against the timer. How long has it been? Barely any time at all. Minutes.

How in the world would a normal creature survive out in this weather?]

[It feels almost wrong to be cradling her like this. Not quite the same as cuddling her in cat form, but a form, nonetheless, and yet so fragile, for the moment, while life ebbs away.

She stoops there, holding her, for the moment remaining quiet.]

[It doesn't take long, mercifully. Hawks aren't very durable. A minute more, at most, of soft wheezing and huddling, and the bird's body finally gives up the ghost- literally, since it morphs back into Lup's spectral form at once and she phases through Honerva's arms, floating a few feet backwards, her path wobbly and off-balance.]

Whoa, fuck. That's... a trip.

[Her body gives an involuntary shiver, when Lup changes back, partially at the tingle of a magical shift having taken place in her arms. Or from the effects of holding onto a diseased creature, her layers aside. She's... cold? But also not. It doesn't make sense. But that's not really her concern.]

That was not very long. [If they look back at the tablet later, they'd be able to calcuate the timing much more accurately. For now, though:] Are you all right?

Lup | IC Contact Page | Hugtopia

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