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CHARACTERS: Lucina, Koltira, Sans, and Olivia (technically)
DATE: backdated to immediately post-crash landing
WARNINGS: Empathy powers gone amuck and fighting! will updated as necessary
SUMMARY: Olivia's on the fritz, Lucina wants to protect her mom, and the world's worst duo stumbles into something they shouldn't.

The crash seemed to happen in slow motion. Blaring alarms, shouting inmates, a sense guards angrily instructing each other to brace for impact. People seemed to slow down, their movements made deliberate by the clarity that comes with chaos. From inside their cell, Sans' mind goes naturally to Papyrus, and some vague internal pull to get to him somehow.

Teleportation had its limits, and being on a ship rocketing towards the ground made precise maneuvers a little tricky.

The same went for broad movements. A fact Sans was made aware of in spectacular fashion when impact rattled the ship, driving a steel support strut down towards their cell. Much like everything else, its trajectory seemed to carry at half speed. Sans could see it, eye sockets widening just a hair as his magic reacted for him.

Sans wasn't good at much, but dodging? He was pretty good at that.

On instinct, he looks over at Koltira, as much in the line of fire as he was. Things had been tense between them since their shouting match-turned-heart to heart, but a different brand of tension than usual. Sans found himself at odds with his usual apathy, actively uncomfortable under the elf's surveillance. He was tasting his own medicine and boy, talk about bitter.

But Koltira was Papyrus's friend, and that was all that mattered in the end. One moment, they were both staring down a thick steel beam. The next, they were laying in the sand, surrounded by enormous walls. Sans blinks, rubbing at his socket, surveying their new locale with a defeated rictus grin.

"Welp."

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Koltira groans as he sits up in the sand, pain lancing through his chest and legs. The beam had missed him, fortunately, but the impact itself was a little more impossible to avoid. He winces as he looks around; the ache is a quick throb, intense but fleeting. It will fade into the rest of his raw nerves soon enough.

Debris from the crash litters their surroundings--chunks of the ship, mostly, in the form of shattered glass and cracked girders and other bits pulverized beyond recognition. A burning lump of fused plates pins Koltira down; he grabs hold of it, his fingers denting the metal as he tosses it aside. Gingerly, he rises to his feet, spotting--and hearing--Sans nearby.

"You are intact," he says, without any particular emotion.

"I'm as surprised as you are, buddy." There's a sense of quiet sincerity in that statement, couched as it is in Sans usual noncommittal tone. He stands, eyelights travelling up the walls with mounting dread.

He looks as if he's about to comment, or joke, or something, when a cry rips across the strange landscape. It sounds close, muted by the maze walls rather than distance.

Satisfied that Sans requires no aid, particularly given that response, Koltira turns toward the unhappy cry. His ears prick forward, sensitive to the noise, and he reaches instinctively for Byfrost--but it's not there.

A matter for later, he supposes, though he knows he cannot put it off for long.

"This way," he says, just assuming that Sans has enough good Samaritan in him to follow.

Perhaps not in all circumstances, but in this one -- separated from the rest of their Team, and specifically a few monster members of that team -- Sans doesn't hesitate.

They were moving for a while, Sans keeping up the only way his short legs could... by appearing a few feet ahead of Koltira every time he rounded a corner or sprinted forward. The cry came again, closer. And then again, just beyond the wall they were next to. It was in rounding the final corner that--

"Liv?"

There was Olivia, on the ground, clutching her head. Over her, standing vigil, was a woman Sans had never met before yet recognized instantly: her daughter.

Once she could get her bearings, she begins to search the wreckage. Most messages sent on the Magitek were returned; simple check-ins, ensuring that the friends on the team were ... alive, at least. A small mercy, if nothing else, that while people were hurt, no one was out of commission.

... All except one. Perhaps the most important one, in some ways. It's what had Lucina's steps only move faster, urgency rolling off of her in waves, shoulders tense. The bright pink had been a blessing, at first ( the pink, without a pool of crimson surrounding her. It's not a sight she wants to see ever again ); but her mother, collapsed on the ground, has her pulse pick up, anxiety spiking up at what it could mean.

A fierce need to protect, and to ensure that Olivia would be alright. Simple emotions, wishes that she's held with her ever since joining the Audentes — except here, it's amplified, overtaking her reason, eyes wide and frantic. Almost manic, with the way her hands shake and her knees give out — once she's close enough— in a way that makes sense to her and only her.

"Mother, mother—" A faint groan, but otherwise nothing. She's conscious, some part of Lucina notes, and yet she can't find herself to be relieved just yet. "We'll get you out of here, you'll be alright—" Her voice rises in volume ( whether the cry they heard was Olivia's or Lucina's, will probably be a mystery left unsolved ), and for now, she hasn't taken notice of the new audience members.

... Probably won't for a while, with her focus zeroed in like this.

Urgency isn't Sans' specialty. Even now, mentally piecing together the fractured scene he'd walked in, things move slow. A step, a furrow of his brow bone, taking careful note of the fact that Olivia seems to be alive.

Another step, and he's right beside them.

"Hey, hey... Lucina, right?"

Koltira feels it, as he's felt it before. The press of Olivia's power, rolling off of her in waves. He grits his teeth, denying its access as best he can, forcing it back and away.

He cannot teleport, but he moves with unholy swiftness nevertheless, his boots swirling with sickly green magic as he draws up close.

"Something is wrong," he says, always a consummate master of the obvious. "What's happened to her?"

He gestures to Olivia, but his eyes are fixed on Lucina, on the disordered state of her, the wild fright in her tone.

Edited 2017-08-13 16:43 (UTC)

It's her name, of all things, that startles her back into reality — an unfamiliar voice uttering it, voice laced with uncertainty, and too close. Quickly followed by a deeper timber, one that is familiar this time; when she turns, she's faced with an unlikely duo, an elf and a skeleton, staring back down at her.

Instinctively ( or, more accurately, thanks to the instincts that have been amplified ) she slides back. Shields Olivia's body with hers, from the two newcomers, whether she realizes or not.

"Mother, she—" Her words get stuck in her throat, and she tries again. Head turning once more to check that Olivia hasn't gone anywhere, before staring directly up at Koltira, eyes still wide. "Something's wrong." And she doesn't know what.

Being a monster -- and lacking a truly physical body; or even a brain -- the effect of Olivia's powers are slightly different. They seep in slower, stranger, but nonetheless there's an especially, uncharacteristically panicked note to his voice as he looks down at Olivia.

"We gotta get her to someone who can help." His eyelights flick back up to Lucina, as if trying to communicate that to her. "Here, I'll--"

He reaches without thinking -- something entirely unlike him, but that he can't seem to stop -- going to put a hand around Olivia's arm and hoist her up.

"Sans--" Koltira can see the future of this moment, just briefly, just right before it happens. Lucina is too on edge. She reminds him of a cornered animal, liable to strike out at any perceived threat. Without warning; without prejudice. He looks from Sans to Lucina, but he's not quite fast enough for whatever's about to happen next.

"Don't touch her!"

She acts before she can think — arm lashing out to shove the skeleton's arm away before he gets any closer. There's force behind the way she lashes out, dangerous with the intent to harm; and yet when she thinks about it, it makes perfect sense. Her mother is in danger. No number of familiar faces will convince her that they're here to help, not when they don't even know what's wrong.

( She won't lose her mother like this, not like last time when Lucina was helpless and unable to do anything. She needs to be the one to protect her. )

There's no apology that follows. Just tense shoulders and a glare as her eyes dart from Sans to Koltira, then quickly back to Sans again. A hand that moves to her waist, where the Falchion remains sheathed; a warning, as well as preparation for the worst case scenario. "Don't you dare lay a hand on her."

The motion catches at the corner of Sans' socket just as Koltira's words do, and Lucina will find her shove hitting open air. Sans, a foot back from where he was before, stares at her with renewed realization in his fixed expression.

It's lucky he was good at dodging. Intent to harm was all it took to turn a monster into tissue paper, and Sans shredded more easily than most.

"Alright, easy." He says, stepping back to further the gap between them. It went against the impulses screaming at the back of his skull -- the worry, the desire to help, the anxiety -- but he didn't move forward again. "Nobody's gonna touch her."

"It's Olivia," Koltira says, bluntly. "Her powers are affecting Lucina's mind."

He stares Lucina down, his lips pursed in disapproval. Disappointment, perhaps.

"You must try to master yourself," he says, taking a careful step towards her. "We are here to help. You know this. Think it through."

It's a little ironic, maybe, considering how often people had tried to talk him down when he was lost to the gale force winds of his own scattered mind. But Lucina was not cursed. She needed no blood to sate her, she was not guided by unholy truth. She was a good woman, strong-minded. Determined. It was shameful for her to fall like this.

The air still crackled with magic and unspent adrenaline from the fight. Sans wasn't quite sure where they were -- it was risky, borderline stupid, to teleport them in a place he didn't know the layout -- but the sound of Koltira's magic from not too far off gave some context to their location.

It was considerable magical output, fighting and fleeing. And as sweat poured down Sans' face and his metaphorical breath caught up with him, it took a moment for him to remember he wasn't alone.

Right. Crap.

He takes advantage of the momentary disorientation that almost always comes to those unused to teleportation's effects and waves a hand, turning Lucina's soul blue with an effortless gesture. At least that part was still easy.

It makes sense, in her head — emotions swaying from one end to the next, a sudden rise of regret and guilt at what she's done. It's not right. She is strong, determined, and tries to keep her emotions from getting the better of her again ( a hint of frustration, aggression, both at herself and towards Koltira, that she pushes back into the depths of her mind ).

Tries, as she always does, except for all the propriety and levelheadedness, this has always been where she falls.

Lucina doesn't respond — not yet, anyway, and her hand still doesn't move from the hilt. But she goes still, eyes darting from Sans to Koltira. Inhales, straightens her shoulders.

"What will you do to her?" As a middle ground, a potential peace offering. Talk about the plan at hand, instead of focusing on the anxiety crawling up her spine, the need to raise her sword against anyone who dares to take another step.

She doesn't know what happened — one moment, her sword raised, body tensed in an attempt to defend her mother from everything else, the next ... nothing. A completely different part of the maze that she's never seen before, while her limbs struggle to coordinate as her brain tries to right itself again. How—

Getting back to Olivia is the first priority ( but now, away from the affects of her mother's powers, a part of her can't help but wonder if she'd help matters by going back ); she shifts, ignores the heavy weight on her legs, because surely that's simply a side effect.

... Until it's not, and she realizes that it's hard to move. Only then does she look around the rest of the labyrinth, eyes wide as she grits her teeth, parts of it coming together when she comes face to face with Sans.

"... What have you done."

It's not exactly the first impression he was hoping to make.

"Easy." He instructs, willing his voice to sound calm despite their circumstances. "You're not hurt, it's just a little magic. And she's not gonna be hurt either, I'm a friend."

The swell of Olivia's empathic abilities makes it hard for Sans to talk for a moment, his own emotions uncomfortably heightened. For a man who lived his life at two, suddenly having his metaphorical heart dialed to eleven was an experience unto itself.

But he shakes it off, long enough at least to try and string together a few sentences.

"Stop whatever this... field is that she's emitting." He blinks his sockets, looking down at her, bones prickling. "I dunno how, but that's what she'd want."

You tried, Sans, and therefore no one can judge you.

"A friend." Her mouth is about as dry as her tone. She can't see Olivia anymore, which sets her on edge much more than she'd like to be — only that's not entirely true, is it? To her, the skeleton in front of her ( a familiar face, at best ) is less of a friend and more of an enemy. Her eyes are harsh, lips twisted as she studies him a moment longer.

Tries to struggle against the gravity weighing her down, slowly. "Unhand me, then."

It's hard to miss the acid in her voice, coloring over her lack of trust with anger. They're too far now for Sans to blame it on the heightened emotions brought on by Olivia's empathic powers; this was in earnest. Oh well.

"Heh, sure thing, as long as you promise to put that big sword away." He grins, shooting for affable despite the beading of sweat at his brow. "Deal?"

In theory, Sans is also an ALASTAIR member — an ally, in the strictest of terms, and someone she needs to be working together with to get out of the maze. That definition alone is what has her consider his words in the first place. She's been taken from her mother, yes, but while she trusts Koltira to know what's best—

That doesn't mean she has to like any of this.

And yet, there's nothing she can do when she can't even stand. "... Very well. You have my word." She's not looking to fight a teammate ( anymore ).

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After Sans teleports Lucina away from the scene...

slides in pretending i have sbux but in reality i just never got a notif

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ty for the frap pal 8D

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