Mickey Flash

Congrats. 😄 🎉 My sister walked twice through the line because they didn’t announce hers right. She wrote what they should have said on the card, and they read it and let her through twice. 😄 She believed as you did, that she worked hard for what she’d accomplished. She deserved to be recognized for it.

There have been quite a few posts after mine. I don't believe I can keep up you guys. I think it'd be best if I withdraw from the thread. Then the others won't have to wait when trying to interact with my character. It's been fun. Maybe I can post with you guys again some time. ☺️

Lorial looked at Malia for just a moment. A moment in Malia's time, but longer for Lorial who's ability to move fast made it necessary to think faster too. She thought about how stubborn this little queen was. She would never let Lorial just drag her away. She would insist that they save the women, strangers, people Lorial didn't give a fuck about. But Lorial did feel.... soft feelings toward Malia, which almost made her flinch. She didn't want the little queen to be disappointed. She slowly started to smile, as the thought of fighting off some kind of predatory creature began to seep into her bones. She felt a rush of adrenaline, and her eyes turned a darker pink. She felt the energy begin to build up in her body. She worried that Malia would be vulnerable though. Weak and alone. Then she remembered that Malia could adopt others abilities. Yeah, it was a fairly new ability, but this would be a great opportunity for her to practice her new powers. Her eyes narrowed on Malia. "I'll help them," she said slyly, "but only if you help them too." "Me?" Malia asked with a squeak. She had seen the changes over Lorial's face in that moment, not understanding a single one of them. Now she began to worry. "How can I help them?" "Touch me," Lorial said. She had prevented the queen from touching her until now. Not because she was afraid that the queen would adopt her powers, but because she didn't want to use her controlling ability on Malia. She liked her too much to make her one of her puppets. Not everyone became puppets, but quite a few of them did. "I.... I thought you didn't want me to," Malia asked in confusion. She watched as Lorial pulled up the damp sleeve of her black blouse. "Are.... you sure?" She could see where Lorial was going with this, but they didn't know the consequences of her abilities yet. And she'd never tried to do it on demand. "What if I can't?" "I'll help you," Lorial soothed her. Malia reached over and grasped Lorial's arms. Nothing happened. She sighed. Lorial snaked her hands around until they were touching Malia's skin. A slack look came over Malia's face. "I want you to loose whatever it is that is blocking you from taking my powers. I want you to just take what you need. No more. No less." Suddenly Lorial felt a pull from her arms, as if something was under her skin and was being pulled toward Malia. It was an unsettling feeling. She almost pulled away, as she felt her body feel a little weaker. It was almost the same feeling she got when she was hungry. She suddenly realized that Malia could suck all of her power out, and leave Lorial to die. It was the first time she realized the little queen's true power, and respect suddenly filled her. Suddenly she was released. She fell back a step, and Malia looked up at her. "I... I..." Malia couldn't think of what it was she wanted to say, but she could barely think. She felt the power in her smaller bodied frame, and it was enormous. "Let's go," Lorial snapped. This wasn't a bonding moment. It was a taking care of business moment. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ The screeches that the creature was making wasn't just in protest to the damage being done by the lion. It was calling out. Calling out to its family. Not too far away you can hear more screeching, reassurances from the pack that they were on the way to save their brethren. Two more creatures burst from the brush onto the fighting scene. One of them was the same size of the creature involved the fighting. The other creature was bigger. Lorial and Malia appeared not too long after the other creatures arrived. The vampire speed was not lost on Malia. She touched Lorial again, getting a shot of her strength. Lorial closed her eyes as a flash of weakness went through her. Then she pointed at the larger creature. "Hey! Big brother! Come get some." She motioned him to come to her, and her eyes were almost totally red. Her fangs had lowered, and she was ready for battle. Malia moved over toward the tree that one of the women was clinging to. "Hello. We're here to help." She pulled herself up to the branch with no trouble. She didn't realize, but her eyes were slightly pink now. "I'll make sure you'll be safe." She knew it might be confusing to the woman, after seeing her in the exact same situation just moments before. "I got a jolt of power. And Lorial is really powerful. She'll kill the creatures in no time. She told me she killed a dragon once, by herself." She hung on the limb like a monkey, her balance unusual and animalistic. "I'll just watch until it seems like she may need me." She smiled reassuringly at the red haired female.

Sorry it took me so long everyone. I'm back now though! And ready to start stomping through the marsh. ☺️

Jo began to remember why it was that she was a lone wolf and didn't follow the pack anymore. She pulled the wavy curls back from her face, sighed, and faced the group again. She began by looking at the rather large horned male. His silver comment wasn't so strange to her. She was a bit allergic to the coin too, and didn't hold it in her palm for very long. She pointed at him so that he, and everyone else, knew she was addressing him. "I don't care what you buy the silver with. You can have all the apples you want. And I'm sure any store owner would be glad to take the silver off your hands for an apple or two, if you're fool enough to trade all the silver for a couple of apples. You mentioned nuns. How long have you been away from the nuns.... huh.... whatever your name is?" Subtlety was not Jo's way. If she wanted to know something, she asked. If she thought you were doing something stupid, she'd tell you. Before the horned male could respond, she turned toward the jovial male who'd sat at her table uninvited in the first place. "And you! Godric, is it?" she pointed at him now. "I don't ever sign anything. If you fuck up and get killed, that's your problem. Not mine. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I don't know about any 'Book Ends corporation,' if that's where you came from. This is a journey, mission, quest, whatever you want to call it. It's for the Shadow Grimoire. You know what that means? That means it's hidden in shadows, and hard to find." She let her finger fall, as she quit pointing at the cocky male. Her head turned toward the male who'd brought the hell hounds. "I may be your employer, but I'm not going to hold your hand. You guys can do what you want to do, as long as it gets us closer to the grimoire I have no problem with it. And you better be able to control your dogs. I don't have much luck with their kind. They tend to want to fight me, and believe me... they wouldn't win." She didn't even try to look threatening. She didn't need to. She knew what she was, and she wasn't trying to show who was the biggest badass either. She was honestly giving him the first and final warning concerning his pets. If it came to them or her, she'd pick herself every time. And she fought dirty to survive. She looked down at the glass of whiskey in front of her. It looked refilled, and she wondered when that had happened. The waitress was a good one. She'd remember to tip her before she left. She took a large gulp of the fiery stuff. After it burned its way down to her stomach, she grimaced and placed the now empty glass back on the table. She addressed them all now, not favoring one or the other. She wasn't used to giving speeches, so she wasn't eloquent. She was impatient, and ready to start their journey. "Ok, here's what we need. We need trackers, fighters for protection, someone who knows the area, and a virgin." The last word she almost choked on. As an afterthought, she also added, "Oh. And I don't know all of your names. Mine is Jo. Nice to meet you and all that." She lifted her hand up in a halfhearted effort to be civil. "I can track, and fight. Please introduce yourself, and the talents you have that we may need for this .... mission." She used mission for lack of a better word, but she felt for herself it was more of a calling. She was meant to have this book.

Jo didn't have alone time anymore. As a matter of fact, it looked like her table was drawing quite a crowd.... well a crowd for this place anyway. First a blonde haired male swaggered up to her table, backpack filled with travelling gear. He spoke as if he knew her, mentioned a name she'd never heard of, and then sat next to her. She didn't know how this male had come to her small neck of the woods, or what he wanted..... oh wait. She'd put out that ad for help at The Bewitchin' Marsh, asking for experts and offering a small fee. This must be one of those that answered the ad. It was either that, or one of her pack friends called in a favor for her and told others she needed help. This just reminded her that she needed to keep her big mouth shut about her private affairs. Just because she was a lone wolf, didn't mean she was helpless. Far from it. Before she responded to the male's overconfidence, the door opened and she caught a strange whiff in the air. It smelled like hounds.... hell hounds, as some of her people fondly called them. The ones she'd seen weren't too keen on werewolves, finding a reason to growl, bite, or chase one of them any chance they got. Maybe it was a canine thing, or just those particular hounds. She wasn't sure. She didn't care, really. Any werewolf half their salt can face a hell hound without much trouble. They were just a pain in the ass. And there were two of them, which meant more difficulty. She looked up at the stranger who seemed to have control of them. Impressive. She had to give credit to anyone who was able to have hell hounds as pets. In her limited experience with the creatures it seemed that was a rare occurrence. The hound's master asked about the book too, which almost made Jo cringe. Did everyone know about her semi-secret, now not secret at all, mission to get the Shadow Grimoire? Last, but not least, a horned giant, or giant compared to Jo's five foot five inch frame, came barreling in. He didn't seem to know what was going on, but joined their group on the simple basis that they were talking about books. Jo let her head fall in her hands and rubbed her eyes. She sighed, and pasted on a sharp smile. "Alright. I'm going into the Bewitchin' Marsh to find a lost magic book. I will pay three silver coins to those who want to help me in my journey. Three gold coins will be given if you succeed in helping me find the cursed novel. You pay for all your own food and lodgings along the way." She thought for a minute, and then added, "This whole journey is dangerous, and there is a chance at death....." she added the next part in a muted voice, "or whatever death allowed a person in a place like this." She then spoke up where everyone could hear her again, "So. You travel at your own risk. Who's in?"

As she began to float into the air, Immie started to feel a nervous fear. Her eyes widened, and she wondered if she should continue this or ask them to stop. She wasn't use to so much focus on herself, or such strange methods being used. She also was afraid of the unknown. Would this hurt? Would she be able to survive it? What if this killed her? Shouldn't she have told her adopted family and friends about doing this before she'd taken this leap? She hadn't even told them she was helping to kidnap a queen, which she was sure her parents would not have approved of. Neither did she, now that she was more aware of the situation she was involved in. And here she was... in a cluttered laboratory... with a mad scientist... and a fairy... getting some kind of magical blockage enema. This was by far the most stupid thing she'd ever done in her long life. She could feel something pulsing around her, like it was small fingers pulling at the covering of her skin. She could almost feel the outer shell of herself, and the fingers were picking at it. Pulling and tugging, trying to get the shell to crack. She wanted to scream, because it began to hurt. She couldn't scream. She felt immobilized, even her vocal chords. The shell was cracking, ripping from her. It felt as if pieces of her skin were being torn away. Tears leaked out of her eyes, falling onto the floor underneath her. Her breathing became labored, and she felt like she was going to have a heart attack. Maybe she wouldn't survive this. Just when she thought that death had found her, the whole of the shell shattered, like a crystal glass being slammed onto a marble floor. She felt a multitude of sensations in that moment. One was that the shattered pieces hadn't disappeared, but floated around her as if waiting for a chance to come back to her where they originally thought they needed to be. Another was the rawness of her skin, exposed and naked. She felt like she was free from a weight and her skin was finally able to breathe. And the last thing was the gathering of some type of latent energy. She could feel it growing, seething, angry, and powerful. She couldn't control it, and didn't know if she wanted to. She could only get out of its way. This was going to happen with or without her consent. The energy wasn't going to expel from her person, but became like a vacuum. It began to suck other energy from the air. What she didn't know was that it was taking life force. Life force from the two beings that were alive in the room. It was a build up of generations of suppression. If this wasn't stopped soon, their life forces would be drained away.

Lorial coughed up what seemed like gallons of water. It very well could have been. She'd been thrown overboard during the raging storm, and into the chopping, violent waves. If she'd been one iota less vampire she would have drowned in the dark depths. Instead she'd swallowed quite a bit of water, and waded her way to shore. She knew she would find land, since they hadn't been too far from land when the storm it. They just hadn't quite made it. The sun was going down, and she had mixed feelings about that. Being part vampire, she felt her vampire abilities strongest in the darkness. The wood nymph half of her flourished in the sun though, and she felt a pang as she saw the sun disappearing into the horizon. The wood nymph half had always been her favorite half, for she despised everything about the vampire nature. She sniffed the air and could smell the queen. She'd been here, and she'd been alive, which was a relief. Lorial didn't know if Skacharm would allow her to live if she didn't do her duty and protect the little elven female. She had also made the mistake of liking the new queen, which she rarely allowed herself to do. She was just so... naive. She really didn't know the first thing about saving her own ass, or suspecting others' nefarious intentions. And for some reason Lorial was fond of her for it. Maybe it had something to do with the rarity of it. And the fact that her innocence wouldn't last forever, so Lorial was witnessing a special part of Malia's life. Whatever. She just couldn't help liking the girl. Lorial heard a strange screeching in the distance, and it immediately alarmed her. She didn't know what she was running into, but she used her vampire speed to follow the sound. She hoped she wasn't too late. She stopped for a moment to sniff the air, and she could smell the queen stronger now. The ground was trampled with claw-like footprints, a sure sign of some large predatory animal. Lorial growled low, and her eyes lit up a bright pink. She felt the need to kill something. ________________________________________________________________________ Malia could see the two women off into the distance, right into the creature's line of sight. Her eyes widened as she watched them run, and the creature took chase. They might be able to outrun this one, but they wouldn't be able to outrun the others that were going to show up to ambush them. Raptor's were rare, but they stuck together. They always ran in packs. Lorial showed up out of the greenery, like a wet amazon warrior. She was growling and staring intently in the direction of the raptor, probably thinking it had killed her charge. "Lorial!" she screamed, then realized a minute too late that Lorial would have been able to hear her if she'd whispered, "I'm over here. Please get me down." Before she could take her next breath, Lorial had her out of the tree. She knew what Lorial would do next, if Malia didn't say something quickly. "I know you want us to leave, just in case the raptor comes back... but we can't. There were two other women that were being chased by the creature. If they hadn't have showed up, he would have had me for dinner. We have to save them."

Michelee turned to see who addressed her, relief flooding her being at the thought of someone, anyone, dealing with this crazy situation right along with her. The male she saw was very tall, and had metal hooves for feet. His inquiry hit her as funny... well met. Were they well met? Were any circumstances such as this a way she wanted to meet anyone? She thought not, but was aware that it was a common saying to those newly introduced. She heard the tiger walk up, and wasn't alarmed in the least. How can she be scared of a normal tiger? She was a far more fearsome creature. She let time go by, soaking in just a moment to gather her thoughts. "Hello kind sir. The last thing I remember was a airship crash that apparently I participated in." She knew those words sounded weird, but she couldn't think of a decent way to describe what happened. "I believe there are people in jeopardy that are... in my care. Will you please escort me back to the site, so that I may tend to those who are unwell? I am a healer." She didn't plan to tell him that she only planned to tend to those that weren't pirate. As far as she was concerned, the pirates deserved what they got.

I believe the majority rules, and we are posting a flexible posting order.

Hello Shen. 😀 I just changed my theme over to the dark side. Gonna try it out for awhile. Welcome back to Val.

Welcome back to Val. 😀