Numb Feeling, Whole Dizziness

[gorgeous_sin]

WHO: Lust, Ira, Mikleo (Open to anyone else she's got enough CR with that she would have invited them)
WHAT: Lust doesn't think she represses anything about herself. She's about to discover how wrong she is. There WILL be a monster fight in this one.
WHEN: November 12th
WHERE: Palitutu's Laboratory - Aqures Ixen


Lust surrendered her crystal to the Moogle and folded her arms. The white crystal was flat and round, much like a skipping stone, but the facets sparkled deep like diamonds, reflecting a tiny glimpse of multiple colors when it caught the light just right.

"Which job do you want to keep?"

"It doesn't matter. Pick one," she sighed, flicking back some of the dark bangs that hung in front of her eye. There really was little point to this, if she didn't have a shadow to begin with. For one thing, she was sure this didn't apply to humans. For another, she had nothing to repress. As long as she'd been alive, she'd harbored no shame for her crimes and selfishness. That was simply who she was, and the way she was made to be.

Her gaze drifted to the few who had come to attend this pointless ceremony. If they truly insisted upon being here, so be it. It made them feel like they were being good friends, and it wasn't as if she were bothered by their presence or concern. They'd see soon enough that their worries were entirely unfounded.

The machine hummed, and Lust turned her head back to the empty space in front of her. As she suspected, there was nothing there. For several moments she waited, until she exhaled and let her arms fall back to her sides. "I think that's long enough, don't you?"

"You're afraid."

The voice was so soft, barely a whisper. And it was coming from behind her. It took Lust a moment to realize the origin of the voice, and she spun around to stare at a woman's back. She recognized the raven hair, the pale skin, and the clinging black garments. But the figure was so translucent that she was barely there, completely transparent in some places. Slowly she turned at Lust, and smiled with a gentleness that looked entirely foreign on that lovely face that was usually so cold and uninvested.

Lust narrowed her eyes. This wasn't right. She'd only witnessed a few shadows, but she'd seen enough to know that they were supposed to be vicious, tearing their counterparts to pieces with their words and insults. This one looked at her with pity.

After gauging Lust's reaction, the Calamity homunculus chuckled, not unkindly. "You didn't think I existed. I can see that part of you still refuses to believe in me, but I assure you. I am there."

"...What are you?" Lust was not convinced. She shot a dark look at the Moogle operating the machine before that poisonous glare moved to the others assembled close by. Had they set this up in advance?

"Come now. You know what I am, though you're not entirely wrong to blame them for my existence." Calamity Lust shook her head, still wearing that sympathetic smile. "I'm your humanity.

"Impossible." Lust almost bit off the word, her expression cold.

"Is it? I wonder~" She reached a hand toward Lust's face, only to have it swatted away with a backhanded slap. "Don't reject me, Lust. I may be weak, but I am there, waiting for you to acknowledge me. And let me grow." She reached for Lust again, this time with both hands, and the homunculus took several steps back, hand resting on the pommel of her dark sword. "Is it really so hard to believe that I could exist without the use of a magic stone?"

Given the hateful disgust written clearly on Lust's face and the tension of her body, she did indeed find it impossible to believe a word the Shadow was saying.

It continued to watch her with a sad smile, but the glow of her eyes was steadily growing dangerously bright.

Comments

[dammit_yuri]

This was going to be tricky. Yes, Lust was hardy, but hitting her wasn't going to be something Flynn or his companion could do without hesitation. He didn't know Mikleo that well, so Flynn took it upon himself to take the lead - he seemed like the kind of kid who shouldn't have to do something like that, not unless there was no other choice. Flynn would gladly take that on. Not because he had to or wanted to, but because it was who he was - someone people could count on when things got rough. It was only a shame that Yuri wasn't here, his perfect partner.

Quickly side-stepping so that only his cape got singed by the impact from her attack, Flynn also took the time to push Mikleo out of the way. "Keep her busy," he quickly whispered. Jumping into a backflip, Flynn aimed a kick at Lust's Shadow to hopefully get her off-balance and create an opening for Mikleo.

[water_meebo]

Mikleo was surprised when Flynn shoved him aside. He skidded back a few feet, grounded and missed the attack thanks to Flynn. He was in a daze when Lust's shadow declared that it was going to start a fight with the two of them. It didn't register in his mind since he was still trying to process why she was being so hard on herself. He didn't understand why she didn't want to accept these things but at the same time, Lust was mysterious. He hardly knew enough about her to make judgement.

"Got it! Be careful and fall back if you get injured!"

Flynn was someone he felt was used to these sort of battles and thus taking the lead. Mikleo nodd his head as he pulled out his bow and arrow for the time being, firing non lethal shots at Lust to help throw her off balance as Flynn dove at her.

[gorgeous_sin]

Lust's spear spun neatly in her hand, her long fingers elegant and dextrous. She deflected all of the arrows save one, that just nicked her shoulder. She should have winced, or flinched.

She smiled.

"Oh my, you really do wish to fight, don't you? It must be tearing you apart inside. Don't worry..." Her shoulders began to quiver as her smile widened, a low throaty chuckle soon rising into a peal of laughter as she tossed her head back. "I'll end all of your pain and suffering!!!"

A grotesque ripple rolled over her flesh as her body buldged and snapped. Narayana's Curse had activated, and the transformation was dramatic. Her slender legs melted together into a long winding tail that curled sinuously around her as she rose up, wings bursting out of her back with a splash of black ichor. One was red and leathery, the other white and feathered. Her black hair hung all the way down to pool on the floor as she rose up, stretching her arms, and flexing her fingers. Impossibly long nails jutted out from her fingertips, and with an idle scrape, she left a deep furrow in the floor.

The Ultimate Lance could cut through anything. It was supposed to have been lost when she was brought to this world, but now in her full Calamity form, it seemed she saw fit to bear her old weapons once more.

The wound on her shoulder closed in seconds. With rapid healing at her disposal, the two of them were in for a tough fight indeed.

[dammit_yuri]

Given that there was just the two of them, it was unlikely that magic would have been a good choice. The sword he had wasn't exactly Niren's, but it was good enough and the objective wasn't to kill Lust, just injure her enough so she could regain control. Maybe. He wasn't sure how this could go down, but he couldn't abandoned her when she needed him. Lunging forth, he thrust his sword at the elongated tentacles and attempts to stab at them. That should have taken up their focus so that Mikleo could do what he needed to.

[water_meebo]

"This is bad."

Mikleo breathed slowly as he watched lust deflect his arrows. He'd have to fire more lethal shots at her if he was going to have any hopes of stopping her Shadow from losing it again. He ran the opposite direction of Flynn. Her laughter was downright chilling since he was used to Lust being usually herself and not quite deranged as the Shadow was.

"We have to figure out how to stop her regeneration! At this rate we're wasting our energy. Flynn!"

He shouted, as soon as he watched her become even more unrecognizable. This was really bad. Mikleo quickly activates Camouflage to give them both time to regroup.

[gorgeous_sin]

The sinuous tail flicked with seemingly little effort to throw Flynn away from her, possibly sending him to crash into the lab wall if he wasn't able to dodge the attack quickly enough.

The fog pillowed out from Mikleo's position, roiling across the damaged floor and lending a beastly quality to Lust's monstrous silhouette.

"Now now, there's no need to hide from me," she purred, an ominous flash of orange light igniting somewhere near the shape of her head. It wasn't much of a warning, because just a split second later, thick rivulets of intense flames burst from her mouth, spewing in a sweeping arc from one end of the laboratory to another with her Dragon's Breath.

[dammit_yuri]

Crashing ingloriously into a lab table, there was no time to brush off the broken glass from the beakers off of his person. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to recover enough or move after the Camouflage art to get away from the Dragon's Breath, and his cape was completely gone in addition to Flynn suffering burns all over his body. Metal armor was not ideal to wear while fighting someone with fire capabilities, was it?

"Trying to stop her regeneration, huh?" Flynn thought aloud. He wasn't well-versed in magic or alchemy, and he had no idea how to go about muting her regenerative powers. "Any ideas on how to do that? Maybe one of these books has something...?"

[water_meebo]

The water seraph dove out of the way to avoid burns since he was the furthest away with the active camouflage skill.

Mikleo swapped quickly over to the White Mage job so he could cast Curaga on Flynn to stop the burning of the injuries. They had camouflage so they'd be at least safe for a time until she could see again. Honestly, he didn't know how to stop her regeneration but there had to be something they could do to prevent her from regenerating quickly.

"I haven't the slightest clue! I've never encountered a Calamity version of someone where we had to engage in a fight! I can try the books but how long can you hold her off?! I can't read that fast!"

He shouted back while still up in the white mage job.

[gorgeous_sin]

Whatever lingering damage has been inflicted on Lust was fully healed as she cast Dark Ascension on herself. She prowled around the outside of the fog, scales scraping softly over the lab floors. The two of them were in there somewhere, and as soon as they made a move, she'd be able to strike them down for good. Perhaps a little heartbreak was all her other self required to gain her true humanity, to suffer the pain of real loss.

"Do you intend to hide forever?" she frowned. "If you insist on cowering in your little cloud, I'll leave this place. I don't think your little lab friends will appreciate a visit from the true form of this abomination."

The two of them were so ridiculously selfless and altruistic, she was certain the threat would goad them into action. If not, then she'd just have to make good on that threat so neither would risk calling her bluff.