flower a garden of rage

[valeas]

WHO: Emilia di Carlo & Kamala Khan
WHEN: February 20
WHERE: Northern Watch Tower
WHAT: Emilia learns of the chaos and seeks to protect.
WARNINGS: This is Emilia with a hell hound, so. Violence.

[ Kamala is north and Red is south. Hermione, east. (Sarah, west.) Emilia half-keeps track of the towers this way.

The first one is falling and she does not wait.

Wrath stays behind to contain hell's fissures, but not before pressing the summoning ward into her palm — and so two beasts leave the Room of Seals. Emilia fights her way through damage and chaos alike, the pulse of her magic traveling like lightning with her steps. She keeps an eye out for any civilians that might be caught under rubble.

Keeps an eye out for Kamala, specifically.

The snow-colored hellhound does not remain pristine for long: the blood of its first kill splatters on fur, a pair of harpies having swooped down intent to fly off with soldiers. Vines with oversized thorns erupt from the earth to wrap around the other harpy before it can take flight again, binding it to the ground. With the sharp of her blade, Emilia strikes fast and she strikes merciless. Delivers the final blow with cold violence that matches her companion's.

Kamala, where art thou? ]

Comments

[cosplayqueen]

[She doesn't believe the Northern Tower will fall until the bitter end. They've endured so much at this point. It can't really end like this, right? Unfortunately, it very much does. The best Kamala can do is jump off the structure onto one of her platforms and help the men trying to repair the tower to do the same.

From there she runs and jumps around looking to get more people to safety and fight off any attackers trying to get in her way. It's the harpies trying to steal away the soldiers she's only just rescued that have her heading in Emilia's direction.]

Back off, jerks! [She screams out as she tries to run towards them. Kamala would have been too late to rescue them. Emilia is naturally (in Kamala's eyes) perfectly on time.] Emilia!

[She breaks into a huge smile, jumping from one of her purple platforms made up of hard light to the ground. She breaks into a run to hug the other woman, heedless of the violence going on.]

[valeas]

( ... Okay, so once Kamala is no longer in imminent danger — and ideally once they've sorted this hell situation out — they'll need to talk about those platforms. Emilia has never seen anything quite like it, though the beautiful color is achingly familiar.

As it is, the hug is like a shock to the system. The tenderness creates dissonance, at first, with the violence Emilia has been both fighting against and handily delivering. A litter of harpy corpses surrounds her, some of them still wrapped in scorching vines.

It'd been an unquenchable thirst for them she could not hope to satiate, a fire that burned from within.

And then. Then a pair of trusting arms encircling her, tethering her back to the human side of her, Emilia and not Fury. She releases a short and hot breath, one arm coming around Kamala to hold tight. Protective. )

It's all right. We'll get you out of here. The tower —

( There is no saving it, but whatever she'd meant to say is interrupted by an oncoming projectile. Another catapult launch. Emilia tries to turn them sideways, lifts her other hand up to summon a protective ring. It flares up around her, creating a shield for the tower.

What's left of it. )

[cosplayqueen]

[It is weird to hug someone who is clearly killing all so many living creatures around you. Kamala knows her beliefs aren't everyone else's. She doesn't think less of Emilia for how she's protecting them. She's simply grateful to have her. Kamala knows on some level this job to protect the tower is done. She needs to leave before anything happens to her. It's hard to accept even while literally being shielded by the cool lady who is always nice to you.

Kamala summons her light around her to back Emilia up. It never goes any further than settling on Kamala's body in a thin layer from the chest down. Her eyes go big as she looks at this latest display of ability from Emilia.]

Wow... you're really powerful.

[valeas]

( Their lights combine, purple hues giving way to rose gold as a dome-like structure erects around and above them. Emilia keeps an arm protectively around Kamala, noting that she does not look scared, does not look rejective.

At the end of a borrowed world, surrounded by violence, she finds wonder.

It breaks Emilia's heart a little to see it, to know it. What would she not tear down to keep someone like Kamala safe? )

So are you.

( She looks up, the fire of the next catapult absorbed by the dome, but who knows how long she can keep it going. ) We move. We help anyone on the way that we can, but we move. Don't look back.

[cosplayqueen]

[It's one of the most beautiful things she's ever seen. Kamala thinks that maybe it's a sign that even when things are so ugly out here that they both are able to create such a beautiful light to protect other people. They were meant to be here to help together.

Kamala snaps back to attention as Emilia offers sound advice. Right. They need to get people out of here. She'll have time to fangirl how amazing Emilia turns out to be at every turn later. She nods firmly, serious, but hopeful. Nothing ever seems to dim the light in her eyes that comes from the belief that they can overcome anything with time, effort, and sticking together.]

Got it. Together we can save them. [Kamala smiles shakily, closes her eyes and focuses. She imagines her power is ready to burst out at a second's notice to shield others. She knows once her eyes open again that is exactly what it will do now.] Let's move. I'm ready.

[valeas]

( No sooner Kamala asserts she's ready, Emilia is on the move and leading the way. Their shields combined hold back the catapult assaults coming their way, but soon enough, they run into someone needing help: a dwarven soldier ahead dangles from what's left of the crumbling structure.

There may be more, she isn't sure.

Emilia's seen the platforms that Kamala can create, knows that she's primed to help them. But there's a barrage of attacks at their back still, and so she won't be able to assist on both things at once. Worry catches in her throat as she realizes this, her main goal being to protect Kamala and take her to (relative) safety. In the midst of battle, however, there is no room for indecision.

Her grandmother(?) only ever taught her rudimentary magic; always defensive, never offensive. She kept Emilia tame and in the dark. Refused to let her act and refused to give her the tools that may help, calling it protection. She would not do that to another young girl. )

Go. I'll hold the rest of them back, go.

( There's confidence in her eyes when they meet Kamala's, a firm nod to convey it's all right: Kamala's got this. And then Emilia doesn't, can't, wait. She turns around, hands outstretched to direct her ring of protection toward the lingering harpies, the oncoming catapult. She can feel her magic wavering, and something in her almost snarls in refusal, pushes back.

What once was a protective dome becomes a wall of moonlight, and she thrusts it forward. When the debris and shrieking harpies collide against it, she ignores the shaking of her arms, the sweat in her brow. As though Ratthaku himself can hear her, she bites out, ) Weak.