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(closed) These violent delights have violent ends
WHO: Abby & Ellie
WHAT: Two girls one mission
WHEN: they least expect it (October)
WHERE: Wounded Coast
NOTES: Violence, mention of old trauma and past violence/torture/murder
WHAT: Two girls one mission
WHEN: they least expect it (October)
WHERE: Wounded Coast
NOTES: Violence, mention of old trauma and past violence/torture/murder
The Wounded Coast is colder than she thought it would be. There's a southerly blowing up off the top of the water that sets Abby's horse stamping in place, shifting restlessly when she tethers him up near the sparse tree-line. She presses her palm gratefully against his cheek, and offers him a bruised apple from her pocket; the later is the real treat. She leaves him munching, and descends down the track to the beach to get a better scope of the area, hands dropping to her hips as she breathes in.
Scouting wants people out to mark new enemy supply lines up the coast, and thinks they could run into a bit of hassle along the way. It's why she's here and working with somebody out of her usual division: she's the muscle, as per usual. She doesn't mind. Means she gets to do a bit of exploring by herself while she's at it, and it's nice to be away from the Gallows, out in the salt air.
Abby just hopes she hasn't been paired with somebody quiet, or boring, god fucking forbid. Guess she'll have to wait and see.
She's waiting on them to arrive, after managing to worm her way out of getting on the back of a griffon. Yeah it would have been faster, but some how Abby doesn't think it'd work out so good for her. She's trying to make a good first impression here. Sorry, Lev. She'll get back to facing her fears... later. Promise.
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"You are such shit at stealth," she says, but they're down at the bottom at last, and in one piece. It's generally without heat- and Ellie feels guilty for that, too. Awkward and fucked up. Because if it weren't for their history, if she were some other Abby from another world, an Abby who hadn't crossed her path that winter...
Her anger has no place here, and without it to shield her, it just hurts.
"Are you afraid of spiders?"
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"Not afraid of spiders."
A moment, an awkward breath. "I– should have said something. About..." She gestures at the cliff, and can't quite look Ellie in the eye when she mutters, "Sorry."
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There's a lump in her throat, all that impotent feeling sitting there like acid, burning through the back of her tongue.
Sorry.
For a second she hates her so much she wants to swing at her, and her missing fingers throb in time with her heartbeat. She squeezes them into a fist so hard she expects that she'll start them bleeding, even though they're long healed. She does this until the horrible feeling passes.
It leaves her feeling empty and small.
The wind flutters her cloak, slaps it against her legs, and Ellie makes herself release the pressure.
"Anything else I should know?"
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Abby holds everything tight inside of her. She lets it curdle instead. Sure, she'll feel sick and unhappy for the rest of the day but there's nothing she can do about that. Just like there's nothing she can do about her fucking vertigo.
Breathe. Let it go. Do your goddamn job.
She inhales through her nose, and hikes her pack up on her shoulder.
"No."
A brief glance at her, how rigidly she's holding herself– she catches the fist balled up against her arm, the two fingers missing from it, and Ellie's thumb pressing hard against what remains.
"... Let's keep going."
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Ellie's voice is quiet, too tight to contain real heat. Inexplicably, she feels bad for rebuffing Abby's apology. Like she's snubbed some kind of olive branch, even if it feels like there's no way she could have accepted it.
"Fucking get it together," she hisses to herself under her breath, hopefully quiet enough under the sound of the waves. She leads on, heading into the mouth of the previously-hidden cave. A small squeaking noise echoes from within.
"Giant spiders and deepstalkers in here, mostly," Ellie says. "They're not crazy dangerous unless they swarm you, but try not to get pinned down." She pauses, then realizes that Abby would actually know what she's talking about.
"The deepstalkers act a lot like stalkers where we're from. They look like little lizardy things."
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"Right," she says evenly, lowering her voice to a hush. She can't stealth, but she can at least pretend that she can (although, glancing down as they enter the darkness, she notices the green light of her anchor is slightly visible, even through the glove she has over it. She holds it tight by her thigh, pressing to keep the faint glow from view).
"Are they as big as little... lizardy things? Or are they– Christ."
Something just darted past them in the half-shadow, she fucking saw it.
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So Ellie loosens her glove and pulls it back to inspect it.
"They're like the size of a dog. A little smaller-"
Something rushes by them, and Ellie pauses, her eyes narrowing, and she goes still.
"... is your anchor hurting you at all?" she asks, her voice level and careful.
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It's tender around the edges, but Abby chalked it up to being further away from the Gallows for a few hours. She understands that it hurts to stay away from other Rifters, but she doesn't understand the timing of it; sure, it seems odd, because she's with another Rifter, but it isn't bothering her. She's ignored it.
There's definitely something skirting around them in half-circles... Infected were never this coy.
She draws her sword, casually.
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Ellie gives a soft sigh, masking the fear. The green light in the cave might not be entirely from their hands, and the thing skittering around in the darkness might be much, much more nasty than a spider.
"Might be a Rift nearby. They start stinging. You ever closed one?"
As she speaks, she draws out a knife; it fits nicely in her hand, dwarven make. It's the one she used to stab Abby. Her shoulders are tense despite the way she talks.
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Something darts at her from the shadows to attack while she's distracted, but Abby automatically kicks out and sends it flying backwards with a high-pitched shriek. It doesn't come rushing in to try again, but she doubts she killed it.
"Right." She manages, still tense, "Lizardy things. I see what you mean."
The cove goes in deeper. When she steps forward, her anchor does sting. She might not have registered it otherwise. "Can two of us close a Rift?"
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There's movement in the shadows, and as the creature comes out of the dark, Ellie automatically closes the distance to guard Abby's flank, to keep her from being surrounded if there are more of them. It's how Stalkers hunt. One will charge, and the others will try to take a bite while you're busy fighting that one off.
It's not something that Ellie consciously realizes is from home.
The creature limps off into the darkness, yelping and growling, and something deeper in the cave gives a hoarse screech.
It was not a Deepstalker.
"Guess we'll find out."
A deep breath, and she heads in deeper, her hand out to let the shine of the anchor light their way. Something with too many legs pulls out of sight, skittering deeper into the darkness, and it gives the unsettling impression that the cave walls are moving.
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"Great," she mutters, copying Ellie as she trudges deeper into the darkness. Two anchor lights are better than one.
Abby has a strange, reflexive need to reach back and check that her gas mask is there even when she knows that it isn't. It seems odd to her that the air is so clear down here, albeit damp, almost wet, and stagnant. The rock is slick underneath of her feet as she follows. Condensation perhaps, or some source of water nearby.
Giant spiders, tiny lizards... she can handle those, Abby isn't worried. Not about those.
"Will there be demons?"
There was last time. One big one that Abby couldn't kill by herself.
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"Probably," Ellie answers, remembering the one that had come through the rift with her. Tough fucker. She'd needed help.
... good news, is that if she remembers anything about how Abby fights, then she's in good company for that. So long as she doesn't get scooped up and torn in half.
"If it's something we can't handle, we get the fuck out."
It feels messed up, falling back on Jackson rules. She wonders if Abby had those, or anything like them. Shuts that out of her mind, because she knows the answer. They were loyal to each other. Almost too loyal. Her skin crawls and the anchor aches. Even the nasty things in the cave know to stay away from a hole torn in reality.
They go deeper, and a dull scream rends through the air, reverberating.
"You ever heard anything make that sound?" she asks, her sweat cold on the back of her neck.
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"... Yeah," she says, her voice oddly strained, "I have."
The cove is like a messed up spin on the depths of the hospital, the cold, stagnant air and the glowing lights. Green, instead of red. Abby pulls a breath in, and holds it, and keeps moving despite the foreboding in her gut.
Around the corner: the Rift in all of its terrible splendor, taller, thinner than the one Abby came through, a tear in the empty cavern before them. Her anchor spikes, pulsing light, hurting enough to get a bitten-off sound out of her– and then the Shades drag up to face them from through the stone. Maybe three? Abby can't count them well in the dim, sickly green lighting– thankfully, her eyes fall upon the Wraith pulling purposefully back from the crowd, and she points it out to Ellie with a wild gesture, "Move!"
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The Shades are familiar enough, she knows how to fight them, but the wraith is new. It has goosebumps prickling across her skin, a sick feeling in her stomach. Something that bursts into icy dread as Abby scream at her to move.
She doesn't think, just reacts, darting to one side, upper body first, throwing herself into the shadows and out of range of the attack that bolts between them, shatters rock.
"Fuck-" she gasps, and pulls out her bow, nocks an arrow. Thank goodness they have enough room; knives don't do near enough for these fucking things, not unless she holds her breath and gets far too close.
"Give us some room!" she yells, pulling the string back to her cheek, aiming at the wraith. She has no idea whether it will hit -- if there's anything to hit -- but as she takes a breath, her eyes flare to life with a bright, burning gold in the gloom of the cave. The arrow, when she releases it, burns with that same light.
Slams into the wraith, and staggers it. It shrieks, the cries rending the inside of the cave walls.
But it looks like it has plenty of fight left.
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"On it!" She builds on the momentum, running a tight circle out around the throng of Shades, and Ellie sinks a golden, glittering arrow squarely into their target from the opposite side of the cave, a fantastic fucking shot.
Abby wouldn't have thought it corporeal, but it ripples, and sags in the air. It'll take a sword just the same, then. It's already raising an arm to send another blast at Ellie, so Abby shouts wordlessly, enough to distract it, and by the time its changed course she's upon it.
Magic bursts against her breastplate when she strikes out with her sword. It's a good swing, strong and true, and though the blade goes through the Wraith it still seems to hurt it.
She slashes again. It raises an arm, undeterred by her attacks, taking them but moving with them, twisting around each blow to charge another spell, ready to throw at her.
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Apparently, because it reacts to Abby's blows, but it still blasts her with magic, and Ellie's not sure how long she can stay standing under the onslaught.
She doesn't have time to consider it, though, as the Shades are nearly on her. Falling back on classic measures, Ellie pulls a molotov from her pack, quickly lights it, and smashes the bottle in the midst of them, splashing them all with burning grade alcohol. They set up a deafening shriek, twisting in the flames, and Ellie backs off, pulling back on her bowstring to aim another shot at the wraith. Again, strikes true, though this one doesn't come with a glittering golden tail.
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Another arrow comes sailing across the way, and hits the Wraith square in the middle. Fucking hell. Abby's close enough that it could have struck her, and it didn't; she strikes it again, and it fizzles out around her sword.
There's fire behind her. She heard the smash of glass, and hears the roar and lick of flames, the shrieks of the Shades in stereo around her. No time to worry about them when the Wraith is sagging in mid-air, the arrow almost caught in it. One more hit and it goes, and Abby reels backward, panting, her braid whipping around as she turns her attention back to the meat of the fight.
The fuck was that thing. Ghost? Whatever, "It's down!" she shouts, and takes a step backward to reassess.
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The shard in her hand gives a pulsing ache of pain, and Ellie ignores it as best she can, instead falling back on her knife, lashing out at the nearest of the demons. It bites deep, scores through a vital area, cracking whatever serves as bone in the snakelike body. Black blood splashes out across her face, and the lingering fire singes her arm.
They're all too close, and she doesn't know if Abby will get there in time to flank them. They've got her backed up to the cave wall, nearly surrounding her, and she'd used up the time she would've used to get away with taking another shot on that wraith.
Still, she's got a few tricks up her sleeve.
Ellie takes a deep breath, feels the buzz of the magic pull over her whole body and hide it from view -- and bolts for the opening between the two Shades.
It's chance, really. Total bullshit, but one of the creature's flailing, sinewy arms slams directly into her chest as she tries to duck under it. She doesn't register the pain, or the sudden impact, she just ends up on the slippery cave floor, gasping painfully for breath. Dark spots swim in front of her vision.
She has barely breath enough to scream when the demon begins to rain blows down onto her, hitting with bone-cracking force.
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Her break is short lived; Ellie is gone. Disappeared into the clump of demons that had been pressing her back against the wall. Abby takes a couple steps forward, scanning rapidly, remembers she can vanish, and surges ahead to attack the cluster while their backs are turned.
One of them takes the blade of her sword right through the center of its body. She stabs deep, snarling, twisting with both hands as hard as she can, and then Ellie pops back into existence so suddenly it startles her. She's prone and vulnerable, taking every blow with a ragged whump of breath, and Abby slams her shoulder up into the one responsible with a wordless shout.
She knocks it off course, giving Ellie just enough respite to grab her hand so she can yank her upward, and back into the fight with a pant of, "I got you," without thinking–
A direct parallel of the moment that Joel pulled her out of the snow.
But she won't realise that until later. The adrenaline is enough to keep the thought at bay.
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Blood's spilled across her face, down over one eye, turning everything a horrific shade of red. She gropes for her knife, wraps her fingers around it, but leverage is shit from below -- and the second Abby slams bodily into the Shade, sending it careening into the cave wall, Ellie takes a gasping, wheezing breath of relief.
She reaches up and clasps Abby's forearm without thought, relying on her strength to help her get to her feet, head spinning. But there's no time to think on her hurts, or on Abby's gruff, familiar words. The sound of her voice so tapping into something well-worn, the steps of a dance burned into muscle memory.
"Look out," Ellie chokes, bringing her knife up as the Shade pushes away from the wall, shaking itself, singed and screaming, to come back at them.
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Surface level. She's fine, but she left her fucking sword in the back of the other Shade. At least it's having an odd time moving around because of it, trying and failing to spin around and face them properly.
"Fuck," she grits out, and kicks the one that clawed her, hard enough to send it backwards and colliding with the third.
They're not out of the woods yet. "Go," she seethes, thinking of the accuracy of Ellie's arrows as she whips around to seize the handle of her sword and wrench it out, much to the howling displeasure of its host.
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Abby kicks the thing back into the third shade, where it hits the wall with a sickening crunch, and Ellie scoops up one of the heavy, glasslike cave rocks on the slippery floor. With a motion that involves her whole body, she spikes it directly into the hulking creature's skull. The impact crunches it against the wall again, and it seems that the combined blows between her and Abby were enough.
It drops, green tendrils of light sucking at the edges of it, drawing it back into the Fade Rift.
"Got you, fucker!" Ellie growls, and moves back, whipping out her bow, backing up to get enough room to flank the one Abby's tangling with.
Two left.
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The blow goes wide and misses completely, but that's fine. It makes the Shade back up at any rate, and Ellie is already rushing backward out of the corner of Abby's eye, finding her range. They'll pick the other two off easily like this.
Abby had no idea how skilled with the bow she was. Like Lev, the way she finds her target, exhales, and hits it precisely, viciously.
"Come on!" She bellows at the Shade eyeing her up, lunging falsely at it just to make it duck, and weave. This gives her an opening; she takes it, and plunges her blade into its shoulder, ripping as far down as she can at an angle.
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Ellie expects to be afraid of her. To be terrified of the woman who crushed someone she loved with that strength, who had nearly squeezed the life right out of her, too- but she doesn't.
It's far better to stand behind her.
Abby's blow rips the Shade right open, and Ellie doesn't have to see the streaks and cracks of sickly green light to know it's done for. Instead she pulls back, lets another arrow fly, and staggers the shade that's moved to flank her, interrupting what could've been another blow.
She pulls back another arrow, fighting dizziness, muscles screaming with adrenaline, and shoots.
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