savetheearth | [closed]

Friend. Yeah. Anais sure has friends here, in that they're people she talks to more often than most, but Marina isn't really sure either.

Still.

Frankly. It's kind of shit that Anais is hanging around and just standing there being a lump, and while this isn't necessarily a tradition that Marina's pitched to a few people as a dare, there were plenty of dares like it.

"Hey! Hey Anais. We've got an idea for you to actually be interesting!" 'We'. Mostly Marina being a pain.

She rolls her eyes. She's well aware Marina can't be planning anything good. "Who says I want to be interesting?"

"Come on. It's easy enough, I'm sure you're not such a wimp that you can't do it." Not elaborating on what it is just yet.

"You calling me a wimp isn't exactly something I care about--but I'll listen if you'll leave me alone afterward." Anais is taking no shit, she's already got a headache.

"See? See, it'll get people to stop bugging you to get involved. Just one little thing. One little dare." And then they can see just how no-nonsense Anais really is!

Grinning, Marina holds out a can of red spray paint. "There's a building... not really in the Dead District, but kinda just on the edge? Held some mental patients at some point in its history, I think you can guess that whole story," probably untrue but still, "now it's all dilapidated and drafty." A quick shake. "But you should be able to get close enough to spray a nice big pentagram on it anyways. It's not like you'll summon the souls of the damned or anything though, right?"

"... Soooo, vandalism is what you're saying, right?" She rolls her eyes. "I'm not six, it's not like I'm afraid of brick walls."

And that's all asylums were, right? Walls. But if it gets Marina off her back, she can always go check it out and then come back. She doesn't actually have to deface any property.

Oh, no fun. "Yeah, yeah, vandalism. It's not like it's anywhere that people give a shit about y'know?" It's probably scarier in person.

"Don't pussy out either." Holding out spray paint. Take it. Come on.

She takes it with a frown. "It's not like I'm scared."

"Tough girl huh?" Hands on her hips. "You say that now."

"It's just a building. You'd be stupid to be afraid of a building." It's the Dead District that scares her more.

"A building like that? What it was, where it is?" She's not even sure if it's a proper asylum. Was. Whatever.

"A building is a building." She shrugs. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it." Boring girl.

...Marina finds herself wishing she had something black on her to follow Anais more easily, but at least she's not like, blond and pale? So she should be less visible.

She's kind of glad for an excuse to leave the party, even for a little while. She's sure her "friend" won't wander off too far while she's gone.

She immediately ditches the spray paint in the nearest trash can, rolling her eyes. Might as well go look. For all she knows, Marina's friends are waiting to call her out on never showing up.

Quietly, Marina follows behind, looking into the trashcan, sticks her phone in, and takes a picture of the spray paint before retrieving it. That was nearly full don't waste shit Anais, God.

Anais seems otherwise focused on at least going, though.

She's throwing it away so someone doesn't decide to vandalize something else jfc, Marina.

She arrives and she shivers a little because at the very least she has absolutely zero desire to be caught by someone else--no one with honest intentions is going to be out this late.

What if they use it for real art? What. If?

Apparently, dumb teenagers are the people out this late, but anyone else, in the Dead District, is probably drunk and/or up to no good. The danger hasn't properly hit Marina though, wondering if Anais is really going to toss the paint and still go there.

Yeah. So sure. The kind of girl who goes to parties and dares people to vandalize property. Real art.

She is. She's going to stare at the building curiously, mostly, wondering what makes it so special that she got dragged out here. Then she checks her phone because it's late and her mom will worry if she doesn't check in at least, and she wants to make sure she didn't get called in to babysit.

It's not Marina's spray paint anyways, someone else had it. Probably for... mischief...

But. Still. Art. Mischievous art!

Marina stops by a tree, peeking around it at Anais, wondering what she's doing with her phone. Calling for a ride? Maybe? What a pussy.

And then Marina jumps and nearly makes a sound when she hears a loud noise from the direction of said building.

Anais fumbles the phone and her head darts up. She shoves it back in her pocket and looks around. It's gotta be Marina.

"... Hello?"

It would be wonderful it was JUST Marina, but no. No, a man with the whole Blood Keys get up staggers around the building, hands in his pocket, chuckling. There's a little sway to his step, like he's indulged in a bit of New Year's partying himself, but he's still a cyborg gangster.

Marina takes a few steps closer, unnoticed, before freezing up on the spot.

What is she supposed to do about a guy like this? What if Anais dies? It'll be her fault! She can't have that on her conscience!

Anais falls back a few steps. This is not a good thing. Maybe she can make it out of here before he really focuses in on her because.

Dude cyborg gangster. Maybe she should've just like. Kept her phone out and called 911 or something but that would've brought the cops.

Network. She could've called someone on the network. That could've been a thing but it's too late now. She just smiles sheepishly and tries to duck away because this shit is balls.

They don't want the cops. They don't want... anyone, really, other than their own kind, and who of those can help them?

Of course, Marina has her phone, but it's not like anyone'll make it in like, two seconds. Better to just...

...

...not die? And run?

The guy takes a few steps closer. "What's a little thing like you doin' around here? Shouldn't you be partyin' or somethin'?"

Clearly the very bottom rung of Blood Keys at least and oh. What a time for her head to feel like this.

She's still stepping back, wondering how fast she can run in winter boots.

"I'm just... on my way to meet my friends... they're just a few doors down..." Oh god she's going to die here. She's going for her phone in her pocket, her heart pounding in her throat.

His eyes widen. He can't have her calling help while he dicks around - no, maybe she's one of them, and he'll be really screwed if he gets ganged up on. Best to just put her down and take what he can get and hope things can get covered up for him. "You picked a few doors wrong."

Marina's eyes widen. There's the flash of a knife. Anais isn't one of the ones with powers, and she's just a girl, Marina's age, and not one she's really invested in but there's an image in her head anyways of protecting... Anais? And some redhead? Blades made of crystal or ice instead of steel, and an all-consuming need to do something and she's sprinting before she knows what's happening. "Watch... out!"

Her first thought is that she's really got to stop freezing in fear, because this deer-in-the-headlights bullshit is not going to work anymore. Her second thought is the stupid "use her arms to shield herself" strategy because that will work, throwing up her hands and arms in front of her face and chest reflexively.

And then she realizes Marina is there--and she dimly recognizes that she knew she was following her, hah!--and she really thinks there was a better way to do this, like call for help first and then rush out because all she can imagine now is that there's going to be two stabbed girls on the news instead of one, because she's absolutely sure she doesn't know anything that can actually help them.

"What are you doing?!"

The Blood Keys eyesight is not based on motion. They will see you no matter how still you are Anais.

Fortunately(?) Marina's yelling at least gives the thug pause, but it's not like Marina actually has a plan with this. Running to help is instinctive, throwing herself in between them comes more naturally than it really should; she's pretty sure that normally she'd run with her tail between her legs and call for help.

But her not plan starts to fall apart when she ends up between them just to take a knife in the gut.

"Ah... ah!"

There's something else coming to her, though, and she raises her hand, hardly even thinking about the sudden flow of power through her body...

No they won't they're like T-Rexes.

There's a rushing sound in Anais' ears, as she rushes forward to grab Marina, because after a knife in the stomach, she doesn't imagine standing is going to be too easy. And there's a huge problem here because even if she can manage to catch Marina, what's she going to do, glare the guy to death? So when she grabs Marina it's with shaky hands and hitched breath and a stomach in her throat.

There wasn't any time to think about pain - memories were flooding into her. Of fighting a (somewhat scantily clad) woman, friends being hurt, desperately asking for magic.

Magic.

It was in her, rising up, and for a moment she was steady, arm raised, eyes focused on the man in front of them. There was one solution to this, and she knew that she could protect her friend(?) this way.

More energy. Rising. "Water..." and the element coalesced around her from nowhere, "Dragon!" and Marina threw her arm forward, the water forming into a massive serpent, surging like raging rapids at the Blood Key.

Needless to say he wasn't ready for any kind of magic, and was thrown into the nearest wall, almost ten feet away, with a loud cracking sound. Marina stood there, staring, eyes wide.

Anais falls back, tripping over her own feet and falling on her butt, fear in her eyes more than anything else. She has absolutely no idea what's happening anymore, and she's pretty sure that was magic.

And it takes her a second to snap out of it and scramble forward to the long-haired girl, taking her by the shoulders. Images are snapping into place, faces merging over other faces. Marina except with vivid blue hair, a girl with a fiery red braid, that douchebag with green hair, a moving marshmallow, and blood.

A lot of blood. Except that's less merging and more actually right here and her voice catches in her throat, about to say a name that decidedly isn't Marina. Her head feels like it's pounding, and she doesn't know what's going on, really anymore.

Your compassion is powerful--it is your source.

"M-Marina? You're okay, right? You're going to be okay?"

There was more blood, there, then, maybe. Probably. But they had armor and weapons and were throwing magic all over the place; she had blue hair! Whatever it was, it wasn't anything like this life.

For a moment a sense of triumph swells up in Marina and she turns to face Anais, "we should get out of..." and then it hits her.

She was just stabbed, and the pain finally hits her, and Marina looks down. Red. Fear and pain turn her legs to jelly and she drops hard onto her knees, one arm clutched around her stomach, blood soaking through her top, into her sleeve - what is she going to even say about that? - and her other hand clamped over her mouth, muffling a scream.

Fictional characters walk this off all the time and that's why they're fucking fictional Marina thinks.

Anais drops down with her, still holding onto her shoulders. There's a warm feeling in her throat, and she wants to ignore that she knows that there's something inside of her that she needs to use because she saw it and it's just the same and--

"Don't move. Please don't move, you'll make it worse."

She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes and wonders if this will work or not, but she tenses and--"Healing Wind!"

And the wind is warm, and every inch of her body tingles and she feels like she's going to be sick but please, please don't die Marina.

Not moving is easy. It hurts, and she's whimpering, crying, pathetic - in front of someone else of course - and it's not the most deathly severe knife wound but it's deep. Marina can feel it deep, and she can feel her blood, warm and thick, ruining her clothes among other more important things, like not being in her body.

There's Anais next to her, and Marina wonders if she knows enough first aid to help or if they'll need to call, and the words she speaks hardly get through to Marina.

Then something does get through, and the suddenness makes Marina gasp in surprise, and gasping in surprise should hurt but it doesn't. The next thing she feels is like a warm embrace, if warm embraces could hug every cell of your body. It flows over and through Marina, the pain receding and fading, and her fear with it.

When the spell finishes, she leans forward, both hands out, hunched over, and turns her head to Anais. "You totally just healed me."

Anais pulls back, and it's obvious she's kind of freaking out. "I don't know--It was an accident! I didn't--I don't do that normally!" Oh my god, she's a total freak now, isn't she?

It's a good thing that she and Marina are not dead, but this is a startling and new development. She shakes her head. "You're the one who did the weird magic thing first!"

"Fuck that noise!" Also, yelling that loud is probably going to attract the one kinds of attention. Maybe the attention of the kind that just stabbed Marina. "I'm not dying of blood loss, I'd be happy if you did a fucking sparkly magical ballerina dance to heal me!"

Practically leaping to her feet, she grabs Anais by the sleeve and tugs on her, walking fast, almost a jog, away from the Dead District. "Let's go let's go we don't need his back up showing up come on!"

Even with magic, still terrified.

She is following. The last thing she's going to question is getting the fuck out of there, even if her hands are shaking. "Oh my god this is not how I expected tonight to go..."

She's flipping through her phone to find her friend's number to text that they're going home as soon as she gets back, thanks.

Except wait... "W-wait, did you kill him?"

"Who cares?!" her voice is panicky, but when she sees Anais' phone she at least has enough presence of mind to grab her own. Send off a group text that she hurt her ankle and Anais is helping her home and they'll be fine, and no she'll be healed up for tennis there isn't a problem.

"I just hope my parents don't see all this blood because... because..." Deep breaths.

"I do! That's kind of murder!" Oh my god she's an accomplice in a murder case now.

"And what blood? Look down!"

"He's... murder! Was going to! Fuck him!" Shouting again. Honestly, she doesn't want to know if she killed him (with water?) because actually killing someone isn't a thing she will deal with very well.

Pausing, though, she looks down at her clothes, sans holes, sans blood stains. Marina takes a moment, pulling at her clothes, making sure that she's not seeing things. "...your magic fixes clothes?" Marina stops.

She really really hopes he won't die. Just be really injured enough to never pursue them again. She's sure he's not dead if she tries to convince herself enough.

"I don't know! It's the first time I ever used it!"

"I like it." The first thing she hasn't shouted or rambled near-incoherently since they were attacked.

Anyways, the Blood Keys were supposed to be tough; she couldn't just kill him with an attack like that. Right?

"...this is so fucked up. I just..." She looks down at her own hand, still remembering how to cast her spell. Was it limitless? "God, I don't even know how to feel about this."

"Freaked out. I feel freaked out and I think it's totally justified. This isn't normal and what if our bodes are all screwed up now or something..." She's still running and she really won't stop running until Marina stops or they're somewhere way more safe than where they are because hahaha, fuck this shit.

"If you weren't freaked the fuck out..." Running. Breathing. Trying not to freak out too much! "Then I'd think you were insane!" More.

"We'll be fine, we have to be fine. We'll just... be fine with a bonus!" That's all it is, a bonus. Maybe it'll help to think of it that way.

"Is there a returns department on magic? This isn't a bonus! I don't want it!"

"Good luck leaving the city!" The only way anyone had figured out, random chance aside. "I'd say bring me with you but we'd kill each other."

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