Island Church (??? World)

[scribble_puppet]

Voices

Crackling

Headache

Ash

Amber blinks.

White dress

Charred bars

People in robes

Torches

"SHIT!" She scrambles up, briefly tangling herself in the trailing sleeves of the dress that she has never worn before.

A brief flash of horrified realization- someone else changed her clothing- flickers in her brain before she takes in the greater horror.

She's in a cage. Suspended over a large brazier filled with wood. The woman is there, and Johnny, and people she doesn't know, all holding lit torches. The circle symbol is patterned on the floor. The woman is chanting something. Everyone is focused on Amber, with strange, reverent expressions.



Amber screams, rattling the cage door.

Comments

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"Only you heal us these wounds," Johnny chants with the rest of the attendants, faltering only slightly at the girl's terror. Mama already explained to him about how the sinful parts of the Mother would fight, trying to stop the resurrection. So it isn't really Amber doing that. He shouldn't worry.

"Each morning, afternoon, evening and night, we call out your name and pray for the day of the miraculous descent," he continues, by heart.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"FUCK!

"FUUUUUUCK!"

She beats at the lock desperately.

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO"

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"As proof of your miraculous power, guide our obedient and willing souls to the Road of Paradise."

Andrea tilts her torch over the brazier. The rest of the congregation follows suit.

"Oh Lord. We will not give in to the power of temptation as long as we have you in our hearts."

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Words give way to screams, harsh and panicked.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"Oh Lord,
"Save us, with your compassion."

The flames trickle from the torches to the kindling.

"Oh Lord,
"Shower us with your blessings."

They grow, red and hungry and hot. Johnny steps forward then, drawing a knife.

"Oh Lord,
"Favor us with your abundance."

The blade glitters as he rakes it across his arm, wincing.

Blood drops into the flames, sputtering.

They rise, clawing around the cage.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"GOD WILL COME AGAIN."

[futures_of_ash]

It was rather handy that whatever was terrifying Amber was weaken the barriers between reality already wasn't it? That meant Rachel could come through far quicker than might otherwise have been possible without dire result!

She wasn't a happy mutant either, wrapped in flame Wrath so thick and choking that it might as well have been an army at her heels. They were hurting her friend. With flame.

Cue the brazier, the torches, candles, any sign of flame except her own dying in an instant. Not just dying but plunging to cold and dead, no heat left in them at all as Rachel pulled the energy from each screamed; a sound full of starsong and the hiss between planets.




Oops...wrong entity?

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Chaos

Terror

Confusion

The bonds of reality shattered here

The dress glows

Amber rises, arms spreading

tendrils spreading out from the sleeves, red and glistening

her eyes are open, but she doesn't seem to see.

[futures_of_ash]

Rachel ignored everyone in the room except her friend. Really, as she was now she didn't care if they tried to attack her. In fact...she looked forward to their attempt. What held her attention though was Amber.

Her friend was...diminishing under that second mind.

And worse, as she'd seen earlier, it seemed to be able to block her telepathy, so there was no easy pathway into help Amber. If she'd learned one thing in her life though it was no shield was perfect. There was always some point overlooked where a talented person could, if not enter, supply aid.

In this case Rachel latched onto her friends terror, her friends fear, her panic. No matter what the raw emotion did to her, it was an entry way for strength. As much strength as Rachel could send to the person who could still feel under the weight of that alien mind.

It was strength in raw, coursing energy. It was strength in emotions, sights, and sounds so alien to the dark world that she doubted any person in the church would recognize them. Grass, light, laughter. Love. Joy. Awe. Wonder.

Even in these circumstances, in this world, Rachel had an infinite well of those glittering, steel strong emotions to lend.

(1/2)

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"ra... chel...?"

She blinks, some semblance of light returning to her eyes.

The tendrils lash, winding around the bars, and Amber grunts in pain, struggling against it.

"fuckin'..."

The pop of joints displacing

The rip of tearing skin

Fluids spatter the cage floor and the brazier beneath.

Something emerges from Amber- a horrible, half-formed angel of starvation and rot, bones laced together with scarred sinew and charred flesh.

The cage tumbles, door bursting open when it hits the brazier.

(2/2)

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

"She came!" Johnny announces, overjoyed.

"God's come to save us!"

Re: (2/2)

[futures_of_ash]

That was an ABOMINATION. Not in the eyes of the humans present perhaps, but to the force within Rachel? The force of CREATION and DESTRUCTION within her? Oh yes, this was a thing that should never be.

"SUCKS TO BE YOU." She growled to the overjoyed congregation. Really, they thought this was a good thing? Yeah, she was just going to reach in there and keep the soul-shrinking, horrid thing from leaving. she couldn't care less about the safety of the other people at the moment, but who knew what bits of Amber the thing would walk off with if it was allowed to?

So yes, one flaming, barring hand was laid on the twisted thing's shoulder, a flaming body added as a door to get through where iron had failed and fallen. The important thing was following those tentative emotional pathways to Amber, finding her again the mess. ::Yes. Me. Hold on.::

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Amber crawls out of the cage, head spinning, body screaming. She's in two places, her insides running two bodies, and it hurts, even more than the raw, red parts where the flames lashed her.

The angel howls, something bestial and insane, and swipes at Rachel with claws dripping with murk.

[futures_of_ash]

Rachel swayed away, letting Amber clear, but then swayed back, using both hands to hold the thing's shoulders now. Yes, she was going to take the risk that those claws could get through her teke and flame. It was better than the alternative.

::Amber, we need to get you together. Stay close. Put your hands on my shoulders and let me in.:: Getting a mental invite from the girl would hopefully allow Rachel in deep enough to work out the way to end this.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Rachel... I



Her limbs are tangled in her mind, branching like cables into endless parallels. She manages to stand, swaying.



...where's my stuff?

Mom?

Mist slips into her thoughts, twisting through tunnels and cracks, winding around everything that was her.

The angel rises into the air, red and black crackling around it.



are my bless...

Bad. That word is bad.

Why?

Mom gets upset.

Mom knows. She keeps us safe. Keeps me safe.

Amber's hand rises, shaking.

can't see right... where...

[futures_of_ash]

::Put a sock in it:: Rachel growled at the abomination, throwing power over the the thing in a net to keep it grounded. She was not letting it get away until they sorted things out.

"I'm here Amber." She spoke out loud for the girl's benefit, trying to avoid confusing her any more given her current mental state. "Just step forward, I'm right in front of you. You can lean on me, that works fine too, we just need to fix this alright?" Because they were going to fix it.

Nothing else was acceptable.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

As the net drags it down, it looses the energy around it in a shockwave. The room gleams red with firelight and blood.

Screams all around. The God doesn't seem to care much whether it harms its followers.

Amber takes a shambling step forward, untouched by the flame.

"can't... "
see...


Her hands are up and reaching.

[futures_of_ash]

Yeah, Rachel had pretty much expected it to turn on it's followers. It was a nasty piece of work like that. Calling the people idiots wouldn't have helped anything though.

She braced herself through the shock wave, still grimly pulling the damn thing to the ground as she waited on Amber. "You're close, Amber." Feel that warm flame? It felt almost solid as it teased along Amber's fingers, guiding her...

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

By a certain logic, it's not turning on them, merely purifying them, as they had its host.

Fire SHITSHITSHIT
Amber jerks back, tumbling when her legs twist underneath.

The angel pulls back slightly, and dives for Rachel.

[futures_of_ash]

Aw crap. "Amber!" Rachel called, worried. "That was just me, it won't burn you. You know my power looks like flames? I need that power right now. I promise, once we're okay and free I won't wear flames around you but you have to trust me right now!"

Yes, she really needed that power, especially considering the diving angel thing. The best thing to do when someone is diving at you like that? Haul a leg back and kick the attacking solidly.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

God is strangely vulnerable to being kicked in the chest. There's a wet KRAK and it reels back.

Panic bursts through Amber, searing and .

it hurts it hurts it hurts I'm going to die here it hurts

The angel glows red again.

[futures_of_ash]

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE, AMBER. I am a being of Life, and if that means I have to hold you together with my bare hands I will." And the very air rang with the promise in those words. She was pretty sure she could negate any damage done to her friend through the abomination, but she didn't like the connection going on at all.

She shifted a foot back, altering her stance in order to bring her ankle closer to Amber. "Reach out, touch my leg. Please." Out here was hectic...but in an inner mindscape they could have all the time they needed to figure things out.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Something

glowing

against the black

She reaches forward

Her fingers close around the ankle.

[futures_of_ash]

CONNECTION.

Rachel flooded through that contact like a tidal wave leaving something warm and soothing in her wake as she did so. The outside world could go hang for a few heartbeats, in here there were much more important things to handle.

She reached out, crafting a mindscape that would be soothing to the girl, something familiar where Amber could find her feet again. A subway train, clicking through a dark tunnel. Rachel sat upon one of the worn seats, wearing a leather jacket and jeans, just waiting for her friend.

[hollow-way.livejournal.com]

Amber floats, white dress glowing around her, hugging herself. Red, gooey chains stretch like wings from her back, reaching past the ceiling.

rachel...