Have Yourself a Very Crimson Christmas

#1

It was Feastday in The Encampment, the Paxian holiday was set on the same day as the famous Christmas one, already an amalgamation it had gained even more meaning here. This time, Feastday Eve had passed without incident and decorations that covered the entire town remained just that. The night had been peaceful apart from rowdy, drunken groups of a few friends. Nothing untowards had happened at all. On the day, the townspeople of varying different species decided to risk an outdoor celebration. They set up tables with their own decorations, with the chefs from the Inn and Hotel alike cooking a huge feast. Overall, it was a good day. They could almost forget the past horrors of the previous holidays.

But the horrors never forgot them.

A woman stood on the edge, watching it all. She had red hair, green eyes, pale skin and wore a tattered black outfit with an even more tattered black cape that fluttered in the icy wind. There was no longer a hole on the top layer of shirt, however, she had stitched on the letters "RL" onto the front in bright red. She watched the festivities in mounting frustration. She had been doing so in the shadows for a few days. But now, watching this. This frustrated her more than ever. Literally incapable of feeling anything else, the woman screeched like an angry albatross before picking up the house she was standing next to and tossing it at the assembled gathering.

The sudden screams of terror and confusion only further fuelled her.

#2

The Goddess Mirri was making her rounds, checking out all the tables with their colorful knick knacks and holiday cheer. She had adopted a human appearance, wearing a Santa Hat atop her head and smile on her fave. This season was always so beautiful and bright...

... at least until someone tosses a house at the crowd. She couldn't believe her eyes, watching it arc down toward all of them. With only a second to act, she threw up her hands and willed it to stop in the air.

The recoil immediately blew her shoes apart as she slid back across the ground. She wasn't cut out for this... These sort of heroics were her sister's cup of tea. She simply didn't have the strength for it, her knees knocking as she set the house down (rather inconveniently) in the middle of the street.

"Whew..." She collapsed to her knees.

Jent · #3

This certainly a day to be remembered for the ever busy man. Bombardment of excited squeals and occasional tugging for attention was both tiresome and fulfilling. The Jentil that went by the name Drausus stood along with the parents of the boundless youth... Well, apart from one. "Do you like the pretty colors?" he asked the two green-eyed hybrids nestled in the specialized jacket against him. Their father's features largely dominated the twins, though the girl took a bit more after her mother...

A slight jolt pricked the Distortionist's mind. Two of Blue's own children bickered again, alerting him via the magenta colored band on their wrists. In fact, all the children he watched over had a specially colored strap; green, violet, orange, and blue. Four different categories, with each further customized to relay important information regarding status and location to their receivers.

"Cut it out the both of you-"

The Jentil, normally on guard for the wild surprises thrown his way, stared as Mirri protected the group ahead from a thrown building. "Berde, Ubel, Laranja, Urdin." Drausus muttered under his breath, summoning four additional surveyors for the children. No discernible details could be seen, only apart the fuzzy colored images of green, violet, orange, and blue. The first apparition swiftly swapped the twins under the controller's care, so the Distortionist wouldn't need to worry about them-or any of the kids getting hurt.

#4

Ariel was riding high on the power of faith that the holiday brought with it. She had enough power to do the midnight run as Au'Marui, and still enough to transform into Ariel so she could leave her prison today. She had her Glamour in full effect, even forgoing the glowing eyes today, trying to enjoy the holiday without undo attention.

That was until someone decided to ruin the celebration by throwing a house at a crowd.

Ariel: "Really, every friggen year! Why can't people leave this holiday be?"

#5

Zerexe was standing near Drausus, helping tend tot he children. Without a moment's hesitation, she grabbed her bow and spun around to look at the source. "Seriously! FUCK! OFF!" Her scream echoed for miles as she ran t the source. Ain't no one fucks with golden momma. Ain't no one.

#6

The woman who had just been standing there, watching the other one blow up her shoes and get knocked back looked back over at the crowd. The panicked screams and even the ones that stopped to watch the house get put down in the street only made her more frustrated. The crowd frustrated her. The save frustrated her. Nothing around her didn't frustrate her.

However, she only stood still to watch that. Despite Zerexes scream that probably blew out the ears of everyone not incredibly resilient nearby, this woman ignored them. In fact she shot up into the air as the golden screaming woman got too close and then came down into the very centre of the celebrations with enough force to cause an earthquake and crack the ground along with knocking normal people over from the shockwave.

Yet this only fuelled her never ending spiral of frustration.

Jent · #7

The colored bands vibrated in response to the high frequency. Each of them echoed a faint warping signature to reverse any hearing damage to the children, something Drausus expected might happen with the golden woman around. "..." The Jentil gave silent glances at three of the ghostly figures. All apart from the orange one grab the designated children together and relocated them on the other side of town, away from this battle. The remainder, programmed to watch over Zerexe's children, radiated a similar essence to their mother to help coax them to follow to the other children. Just because they were sturdy youth, doesn't mean Drausus would put their lives at risk.

"Your chaos is not welcomed here," he retorted, re-calibarting his own hearing and balance from the dual shocks by screaming and quakes. The Distortionist plucked out his grey locket from a pocket... Letting it fuse directly to his chest.

#8

Zerexe stared, punching into the ground and hoisting a hefty rock over her head. She held it and waited, trying to minimize her collateral damage...something she struggled with greatly.

Meanwhile, the fluffballs, now starting to lose their fluff and form their armors, were split between following the ghostly figure and going to get into the fight. Well, points for confidence, right? Right...?

#9

The extremely frustrated woman watched both of them, eyes twitching from each before they settled on Drausus. One of the problems from being frustrated all the time was a severe lack of ability to pay attention to everything.

The red headed woman hissed like a mad goose before taking in a deep breath-and then blowing powerfully forwards, creating a literally freezing wind that froze the tables and chairs ahead of her in place as it headed for the Jentil.

#10

What the red haired woman had not anticipated was the Mad God - all glamour gone, with her pair of japanese scythes, jumping onto her back, attempting to drag her back down to the surface.

"You don't get to ruin my Day!"

Jent · #11

Drausus gazed ahead at the formidable figure floating up in the air. Unfazed, his eyes cloaked in darkness stared silently as the freezing torrent barreling over-manifesting a strange reality wedge in front of himself. The triangular formation split the icy blast apart on either side of the Jentil and his company beside, protecting them from getting frozen. "Nice try," he spoke in a serious tone. Quietly, he dispelled the solidified space-time, returning that patch of reality to common air.

#12

The red haired, black caped woman stared at the Jentil as he moved the ice she'd created out of reality. Perhaps even more disconcertingly, she looked straight into the shattered pieces of reality, as though she could see into it.

However, the sudden appearance of the Mad God on her back did indeed surprise the woman, making her produce the high pitched screech of a seagull as she twisted around in the air fast. Both the Jentil and Zerexe, the other two threats, immediately disappeared from her ever frustrated and only ever frustrated mind. She resisted being pulled down to the ground purely because this other redhead screaming about this being her day or some nonsense seemed to want her down there.

In fact in her attempt to spin around and get to Ariel, she span so fast she created a miniature tornado around them.

#13

The spinning did nothing to dissuade the Mad Goddess, if anything just made her angrier as they formed the Vortex. "Gods this would be so much easier with the Sanity Blade" Ariel said as she kept one of her scythes still wrapped around the angry woman and reached up with her left hand to touched the woman's head. She was hoping to at least disable this angry woman while Ariel went into the Mindscape - whatever was this woman's issue, SURELY it'd be within Ariel's domain to fix, right?

#14

The Mad Goddess managed to touch the frustrated womans head whilst they spun around. This actually managed to stop the vortex-as the celestial entered her mindscape, the strange bird-lady succumbed and lost consciousness. She would plummet and hit the ruined ground hard if nothing was done.

Inside the incredibly strong womans head Ariel would find herself submerged in a boiling ocean of Frustration that was just starting to simmer down from being unbearable. There wasn't any ground above it here-or even any sky for thst matter. Yet at the same time it looked somehow, not quite right. Like a new coat of paint covering several layers of old wallpaper. There wasn't any other emotion in here at all, but a rather large, modern and yet also historical city lay under the waves.

Jent · #15

The Jentil braced against the high pitched shrieks from disorienting himself. Drausus fell in sync into this showdown, even though it appeared the Mad Goddess seemingly stopped the aggressor. "She entered that woman's mindscape, Zerexe," he explained briefly to his fellow ally. A spare hand radiating an aura of mental energy was offered to the golden woman.

~Let's go inside to help Ariel out. I'll help patch you in.~