Battle of the Minds
Feb. 24th, 2021 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breezeshadowI hate when the weather abruptly warms or cools. We have been having beautiful winter weather the past few weeks, but this week it decided to go from 20s to 50s, and my body hates it. Joint and muscle pain, sinuses, the works. Come back to me, winter!
Anyway. I have for you a bonus scene I wrote two NaNoWriMos ago, when I once again got an idea and added an unnecessary plot point to AG. And this one was big enough that it required me to restart rewriting part II, as I need to properly incorporate it in. I think it'll be worth it, though -- it adds an overarching storyline that will lend a mystery-novel quality to the second part, and allows the telepaths to showcase their shit.
Title: None
Genre: Fantasy
The Troops: Nur, Mahli, Meander, Rose May
Status: Incomplete and rough
Summary: Sometimes, to fight a monster, you have to combine monstrosities.
Prompt: NA
Rating: PG-13 for disturbing implications, violence
Author's Notes: This scene can't appear in AG proper since it's told strictly from Rose May's POV, but I just had to write it as it is such a fun moment to miss. It's also a fantastic moment for Mahli, who gets to show off his telepathic powers for a good cause for once. Poor Rose May, though. She probably wishes she would die in that fire Tadhg set after living through this.
The first sign of danger occurred when Nur’s connection to Rose May suddenly severed.
That was not the first sign of concern, of course. That had begun when the vampire was woken up by Rose May feeling nervous. That in itself was not something to become too worried about — everyone experienced some nervousness once in a while, and generally over utterly benign events. Whatever it was, the feeling would likely dissipate in a few minutes and Nur could catch a few more hours of sleep before work.
It got stronger. Furthermore, Rose May was thinking at someone that Nur could not sense.
With a frown, Nur pushed out to Rose May — and found that she could not get a hold. She could hear and feel the woman’s emotions, but not make contact.
The vampire got out of bed and tried again to reach Rose May. It once again failed. Rose May’s unspoken words were even, but foreboding, and Nur could feel the worry beneath them. Clearly someone was in Rose May’s mind; why couldn’t she feel them?
She was about to push to Meander when the connection cut entirely.
Nur knew what it felt like when someone died. It was like searching through an empty space — even if she could see the person’s body in front of her, there was nothing that she could get into, nothing to sense. Whatever threads that being had once produced were gone, and except for memories, it was like they had not existed.
This was different, though alarming. She could sense that someone was in the spot where she had sensed Rose May moments before. Was it the unknown telepath that Rose May had been speaking to? Rose May?
Meander, I think something is wrong with—
And her own telepathy got cut off when a single word blasted from Rose May’s mind, coated in fear and someone else’s pain.
NO!
Meander—
I heard her. Fury blasted into the vampire’s mind. Of course; Meander was in Rezten, Rose May’s last sensed location. He would have heard her loud and clear. I go.
Nur felt when Meander slammed into whoever was in Rose May’s mind and winced. Different vampire covens had different ways of killing cattle, but hers had used a particular method on calves who were permanently maimed or ill. With their telepathic defenses not fully developed like in the adults, one was able to go into their mind, and essentially burst their brain with telepathy — quick, painless, leaving the rest of the body intact.
Humans had excellent telepathic resistance for creatures utterly foreign to Garanee, but even they could only last so long under a lot of duress. And judging by the continued lack of Rose May’s presence, she was under immense duress.
Meander was powerful, even if untrained. If he couldn’t oust the attacker…
Mahli. Someone is trying to kill Rose. I can’t even find her.
She threw on a cloak, and waited.
~~~
Meander had never been in a real telepathic battle before. A scuffle or two with Mahli, sure, but that had been between their minds, in the open air. Fighting in someone else’s head was a different battle.
The being within her mind was malevolent, spreading fear and pain throughout Rose May’s mind. It was pressing down on her with steadily increasing pressure. It did not want a quick death. It wanted something slow and terrifying. And now Meander was trying to ruin its fun.
Rose May’s aura — it was the best word for it, really — was a slate blue, and it was trapped under thick red slime. On Meander’s initial slam and push to free her mind, he got some of it out, but then it fought back, leaving Meander with the distinct feeling that he had been kicked through his teeth and straight into his mind.
She is mine. The voice hissed, leaving Meander’s ears ringing without external noise.
No. Leave. It was hard to think cohesively, but if he didn’t, then Rose May would die.
Rose May would die. He couldn’t have that. He would die first if he had to.
What had Gregory warned him about? Coming in too strongly? Yet he had no choice at that moment. He pushed again, but this time the slime slid only a bit before solidifying. A brick wall would probably be more mobile.
You’re a friend of hers then? Come to be the savior? The presence mocked him, locking into Rose May’s mind. You can feel her die.
And then telepathic energy burst out, sending Meander yelping and collapsing to his knees. Barely aware of where or who he was, he traced back to Rose May’s mind, punched a hole back into the red, gritted his teeth at the unholy screech—
Then someone else entirely — painfully bright green, leaving spots before his eyes — slammed into both of them, and Meander felt as if his brain went skidding across the wooden floor of the language academy.
It was not a great thought to pass out to.
~~~
The moment Rose May’s presence returned, Nur traced it and teleported.
She materialized on an unknown street, startling a small group of people into backing up. She found Rose May quickly — slumped over, eyes not quite closed, breathing shallow. Alive, though. Alive.
“I need an officer and a powerful telepath.” Nur cradled Rose May against her — the woman’s body was far too cold.
“How powerful?” A man jogged over, the group instinctively separating to let him through. He radiated concern and, out of all things, guilt.
“More powerful than you. This woman was…” This was the worst time to not be a native speaker. “Attacked telepathically. They tried to kill her.”
Another man materialized out of no where, getting a few gasps from the crowd. Wherever they were, this was clearly the best entertainment they’d had in weeks.
Nur, I need you. Mahli’s voice was pure, calm fury.
“Winston, head telepath of the Rezten courts. What happened?” The man knelt down.
Gently, Nur lowered Rose May to the ground and backed up. “This woman was just attacked telepathically. She needs to be brought to a hospital, but no one can use telepathy on her. Even a little could kill her right now. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” One nice thing about fellow telepaths — they could tell without asking or guessing that Nur was being truthful. Winston rose to his feet and glared out at the crowd. “Well, you heard her! One of you flag down a carriage, now!”
A woman was skittering off when Nur was teleported.
~~~
The first thing she noticed upon arrival was that she had been teleported within someone’s telepathic shield — and from the pressure in her head, it was a strong one.
The next thing she noticed was that shield shattering.
An unknown vampire let out an unholy screech of pain and fury as the shield was destroyed. The air was left with a greenish tinge, a few bright lines tracing to wherever Mahli must be. Nur tossed her cloak to the side — wherever they were was dark, and it would just get in the way of a fight.
The vampire’s presence was clear the moment the shield fell. Focusing in on him, Nur fell to all fours and ran in. She barely made contact with his shoulder as he rolled away, wings snapping out and fangs dripping venom.
That shield shattering should have incapacitated him. How powerful was he?
“You are in my home!”
The vampire spoke *vampirelanguage*. For a moment, Nur could only stare at him, stunned. Then she heard the slightest whimper, and she realized that there were others in the room, and a vague shape in the shadows like little bodies—
She felt the other vampire’s presence in her mind for only an instant before it was knocked away, green lights scattering around her. Nur pounced, but the other vampire shook off the telepathic blow and shifted; she spun on one foot to face him, and barely got an arm up in time before her face was raked by claws. Pain shot through her arm, but vampires at least were immune to their own venom — her skin tingled, but the muscles did not go numb.
The vampire tackled her, wings snapping shut around her and claws digging into her own wings; she clawed at his face as he went to bite her and hit one of his eyes, causing him to pull his head back, hands slacking and wings slacking. She rolled him, putting him on his back, then snapped out her wings, forcing his down and away from her.
He pushed mentally at her, and once again got knocked away. Then he teleported out from under her.
Trying to teleport on top of Mahli was a grave mistake. As Nur scrambled to her feet, she watched as the vampire materialized behind Mahli, claws aiming for the man’s neck. She then observed as the vampire was launched backward, shrieking, and unceremoniously into a wall. Nur took off; this time when she pounced, she struck home.
“Don’t kill him.” Mahli’s telepathy punctuated his words.
“Why not?!” Nur glared at the telepath.
“Mostly because they’ll try to blame everything he’s done on you, since few families will accept ‘he was killed by another vampire who will not harm you, we swear’ on good faith.” Mahli leaned heavily on his cane; from behind him, the shapes in the shadows were moving. “But also I think he’d find having to face consequences fairly tortuous.”
And also, the girls behind us are already very, very frightened.
He had kidnapped children. For food, no doubt. Only trembling tears from the shadows kept Nur from ripping out the other vampire’s throat. Welen’s court system was a shit show, but Mahli had a point — killing the vampire would only make the children feel worse, not better.
Poor Nur, never gets to kill anyone. Maybe someday, love.
Tschuess.
Anyway. I have for you a bonus scene I wrote two NaNoWriMos ago, when I once again got an idea and added an unnecessary plot point to AG. And this one was big enough that it required me to restart rewriting part II, as I need to properly incorporate it in. I think it'll be worth it, though -- it adds an overarching storyline that will lend a mystery-novel quality to the second part, and allows the telepaths to showcase their shit.
Title: None
Genre: Fantasy
The Troops: Nur, Mahli, Meander, Rose May
Status: Incomplete and rough
Summary: Sometimes, to fight a monster, you have to combine monstrosities.
Prompt: NA
Rating: PG-13 for disturbing implications, violence
Author's Notes: This scene can't appear in AG proper since it's told strictly from Rose May's POV, but I just had to write it as it is such a fun moment to miss. It's also a fantastic moment for Mahli, who gets to show off his telepathic powers for a good cause for once. Poor Rose May, though. She probably wishes she would die in that fire Tadhg set after living through this.
The first sign of danger occurred when Nur’s connection to Rose May suddenly severed.
That was not the first sign of concern, of course. That had begun when the vampire was woken up by Rose May feeling nervous. That in itself was not something to become too worried about — everyone experienced some nervousness once in a while, and generally over utterly benign events. Whatever it was, the feeling would likely dissipate in a few minutes and Nur could catch a few more hours of sleep before work.
It got stronger. Furthermore, Rose May was thinking at someone that Nur could not sense.
With a frown, Nur pushed out to Rose May — and found that she could not get a hold. She could hear and feel the woman’s emotions, but not make contact.
The vampire got out of bed and tried again to reach Rose May. It once again failed. Rose May’s unspoken words were even, but foreboding, and Nur could feel the worry beneath them. Clearly someone was in Rose May’s mind; why couldn’t she feel them?
She was about to push to Meander when the connection cut entirely.
Nur knew what it felt like when someone died. It was like searching through an empty space — even if she could see the person’s body in front of her, there was nothing that she could get into, nothing to sense. Whatever threads that being had once produced were gone, and except for memories, it was like they had not existed.
This was different, though alarming. She could sense that someone was in the spot where she had sensed Rose May moments before. Was it the unknown telepath that Rose May had been speaking to? Rose May?
Meander, I think something is wrong with—
And her own telepathy got cut off when a single word blasted from Rose May’s mind, coated in fear and someone else’s pain.
NO!
Meander—
I heard her. Fury blasted into the vampire’s mind. Of course; Meander was in Rezten, Rose May’s last sensed location. He would have heard her loud and clear. I go.
Nur felt when Meander slammed into whoever was in Rose May’s mind and winced. Different vampire covens had different ways of killing cattle, but hers had used a particular method on calves who were permanently maimed or ill. With their telepathic defenses not fully developed like in the adults, one was able to go into their mind, and essentially burst their brain with telepathy — quick, painless, leaving the rest of the body intact.
Humans had excellent telepathic resistance for creatures utterly foreign to Garanee, but even they could only last so long under a lot of duress. And judging by the continued lack of Rose May’s presence, she was under immense duress.
Meander was powerful, even if untrained. If he couldn’t oust the attacker…
Mahli. Someone is trying to kill Rose. I can’t even find her.
She threw on a cloak, and waited.
~~~
Meander had never been in a real telepathic battle before. A scuffle or two with Mahli, sure, but that had been between their minds, in the open air. Fighting in someone else’s head was a different battle.
The being within her mind was malevolent, spreading fear and pain throughout Rose May’s mind. It was pressing down on her with steadily increasing pressure. It did not want a quick death. It wanted something slow and terrifying. And now Meander was trying to ruin its fun.
Rose May’s aura — it was the best word for it, really — was a slate blue, and it was trapped under thick red slime. On Meander’s initial slam and push to free her mind, he got some of it out, but then it fought back, leaving Meander with the distinct feeling that he had been kicked through his teeth and straight into his mind.
She is mine. The voice hissed, leaving Meander’s ears ringing without external noise.
No. Leave. It was hard to think cohesively, but if he didn’t, then Rose May would die.
Rose May would die. He couldn’t have that. He would die first if he had to.
What had Gregory warned him about? Coming in too strongly? Yet he had no choice at that moment. He pushed again, but this time the slime slid only a bit before solidifying. A brick wall would probably be more mobile.
You’re a friend of hers then? Come to be the savior? The presence mocked him, locking into Rose May’s mind. You can feel her die.
And then telepathic energy burst out, sending Meander yelping and collapsing to his knees. Barely aware of where or who he was, he traced back to Rose May’s mind, punched a hole back into the red, gritted his teeth at the unholy screech—
Then someone else entirely — painfully bright green, leaving spots before his eyes — slammed into both of them, and Meander felt as if his brain went skidding across the wooden floor of the language academy.
It was not a great thought to pass out to.
~~~
The moment Rose May’s presence returned, Nur traced it and teleported.
She materialized on an unknown street, startling a small group of people into backing up. She found Rose May quickly — slumped over, eyes not quite closed, breathing shallow. Alive, though. Alive.
“I need an officer and a powerful telepath.” Nur cradled Rose May against her — the woman’s body was far too cold.
“How powerful?” A man jogged over, the group instinctively separating to let him through. He radiated concern and, out of all things, guilt.
“More powerful than you. This woman was…” This was the worst time to not be a native speaker. “Attacked telepathically. They tried to kill her.”
Another man materialized out of no where, getting a few gasps from the crowd. Wherever they were, this was clearly the best entertainment they’d had in weeks.
Nur, I need you. Mahli’s voice was pure, calm fury.
“Winston, head telepath of the Rezten courts. What happened?” The man knelt down.
Gently, Nur lowered Rose May to the ground and backed up. “This woman was just attacked telepathically. She needs to be brought to a hospital, but no one can use telepathy on her. Even a little could kill her right now. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” One nice thing about fellow telepaths — they could tell without asking or guessing that Nur was being truthful. Winston rose to his feet and glared out at the crowd. “Well, you heard her! One of you flag down a carriage, now!”
A woman was skittering off when Nur was teleported.
~~~
The first thing she noticed upon arrival was that she had been teleported within someone’s telepathic shield — and from the pressure in her head, it was a strong one.
The next thing she noticed was that shield shattering.
An unknown vampire let out an unholy screech of pain and fury as the shield was destroyed. The air was left with a greenish tinge, a few bright lines tracing to wherever Mahli must be. Nur tossed her cloak to the side — wherever they were was dark, and it would just get in the way of a fight.
The vampire’s presence was clear the moment the shield fell. Focusing in on him, Nur fell to all fours and ran in. She barely made contact with his shoulder as he rolled away, wings snapping out and fangs dripping venom.
That shield shattering should have incapacitated him. How powerful was he?
“You are in my home!”
The vampire spoke *vampirelanguage*. For a moment, Nur could only stare at him, stunned. Then she heard the slightest whimper, and she realized that there were others in the room, and a vague shape in the shadows like little bodies—
She felt the other vampire’s presence in her mind for only an instant before it was knocked away, green lights scattering around her. Nur pounced, but the other vampire shook off the telepathic blow and shifted; she spun on one foot to face him, and barely got an arm up in time before her face was raked by claws. Pain shot through her arm, but vampires at least were immune to their own venom — her skin tingled, but the muscles did not go numb.
The vampire tackled her, wings snapping shut around her and claws digging into her own wings; she clawed at his face as he went to bite her and hit one of his eyes, causing him to pull his head back, hands slacking and wings slacking. She rolled him, putting him on his back, then snapped out her wings, forcing his down and away from her.
He pushed mentally at her, and once again got knocked away. Then he teleported out from under her.
Trying to teleport on top of Mahli was a grave mistake. As Nur scrambled to her feet, she watched as the vampire materialized behind Mahli, claws aiming for the man’s neck. She then observed as the vampire was launched backward, shrieking, and unceremoniously into a wall. Nur took off; this time when she pounced, she struck home.
“Don’t kill him.” Mahli’s telepathy punctuated his words.
“Why not?!” Nur glared at the telepath.
“Mostly because they’ll try to blame everything he’s done on you, since few families will accept ‘he was killed by another vampire who will not harm you, we swear’ on good faith.” Mahli leaned heavily on his cane; from behind him, the shapes in the shadows were moving. “But also I think he’d find having to face consequences fairly tortuous.”
And also, the girls behind us are already very, very frightened.
He had kidnapped children. For food, no doubt. Only trembling tears from the shadows kept Nur from ripping out the other vampire’s throat. Welen’s court system was a shit show, but Mahli had a point — killing the vampire would only make the children feel worse, not better.
Poor Nur, never gets to kill anyone. Maybe someday, love.
Tschuess.
