Kill the Numbers [Dark Data]

[Ebonywood Hellscythe]

Post starts are some point where Eb and co. are in the cage. 

The cage didn't bother Ebony. Not by itself. It was just metal. She actually liked small enclosed spaces, and while strange she felt more comfortable behind the steel than in the open, exposed, Nexus. The dull omnipresent white light gave her shivers. Yet it still symbolised something. It signified that she had lost. Failed to help Morene, and Morene had failed to protect her. Maybe if I wasn't there. I'm useless. 

She crouched down, leaning forwards into her knees and trying to cover herself with the cloak. The fabric felt nice, and she liked pressing herself against it, being surrounded by it. There was someone else in the cage besides Morene, both were thankfully still alive and well although Morene seemed to be sleeping off her injuries. She didn't know who the other guy was, but he'd fought the darklings as well so he had to be good.

It was hot, yet Ebony still found herself shivering. Leaning on Morene didn't provide any comfort on a physical or emotional level, not through the hard metal, not in these conditions. Yet Ebony did so all the same, shifting one of her hands and looping it under the woman's arm. Her friend was slouched back against the side of the cage, breathing steadily.

"Hello! My name’s Summer Murdoch, but please call me Sonny. Everyone does." The blonde man spoke in friendly and light manner. Almost happy, warming to Ebony's ears.

Ebony looked up at the voice, face still partly hidden under the hood's shadow, her green eyes shined up at the man as she continued hugging her legs and Morene's arm tighter. 

He continued, still optimistic. Speaking as if he was sure of himself. It was uplifting to an extent, and while Ebony was never the pessimist, fear tended to skew one's mind. "I’m one of the people who came here to help deal with the darkling problem. Didn’t go so well the first time, but the sun hasn’t set on us yet. So I hope we can work together..." He looked at Ebony expectantly, green-grey eyes calmly looking down on her. After making a slight gesture with his hand, he straightened his arm down towards her, opening his hand and readying himself to pull her to her feet.

She eyed the appendage, looking back and forth between it and Morene, causing light to flicker across her face, revealing a stray tear stain she herself hadn't noticed. Taking a deep breath and moving her free hand in front of her face, she twisted her wrist and elbow oddly inwards before extending her arm out sideways while she carried out the pre-prepared routine. "I am Ebonywood Hellscythe." A pause, silence. Her free arm lingered in the air, slowly drifting back towards her knees. "B-but you can c-call me, Ebony."

"Nice to meet you Ebony, and don’t worry about your friend there. She looks sturdy enough. Just give her a few minutes and she’ll be right as rain." Sonny smiled.

Ebony shook slightly, relaxing her grip on Morene and clasping her fingers around Sonny's hand. Belt buckles shook and boots thudded against the floor as the two pulled Ebony to her feet. She didn't let go, subconsciously pulling his arm closer to her and invading the man's personal space. He stepped back, shuffling away awkwardly. Ebony's arm was locked, making her upper body close the distance. Except her legs didn't move. It wasn't a large motion, but it pulled her off balance. And when people fall off balance their arms reach out for something to pull them upright. In this case, that happened to be Sonny. With one arm already locked up around his hand, the other reached forwards, grabbing onto his shoulder.

Her belts shifted and Ebony's cloak briefly flew in the wind as she planted herself into Sonny's chest. In an attempt to stand up straight, she shifted, bringing her arms behind him and gripping onto his back. It worked well enough for its purpose, and it wasn't until afterwards, she realised she was hugging him. But he was warm and a bit squishy. It was hard for her not to continue clamping onto him. He was like a radiator, like her scythe in that regard, but more comfortable to hold. Her head tilted sideways as she gripped tighter; the top of her hood pushed her victim's chin.

Slowly and clumsily, Sonny moved his own arms behind Ebony, slotting them under her cloak and lightly pushing against the back of her black shirt. She shivered at the contact. It wasn't a bad shiver or an "I'm cold" one, it spread warmth throughout her, making her feel tingly. She just didn't expect Sonny's gesture (and had almost forgotten he was anything besides a warm huggable squishy object) but it was appreciated. She could almost forget what had happened and where they were. Her knees relaxed slightly as she slumped, ear now pressed against his chest. Faintly, through the fabric of her hood, she could hear the steady beating of his heart.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum...

"Ahem." Morene's voice. She was awake.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Strangely, it seemed to be beating slightly faster now that Morene was consious.

Sonny's arms fell limp, brushing against Ebony's back as they returned to his sides. Outside of her range of vision, Sonny looked at Morene, visually begging her to help pry the girl off him - as if he didn't enjoy being hugged.

"Ebony dear, perhaps you should let go of..."

"Sonny," the hug-dummy helpfully interjected. His voice sounding a tad strained.

"Morene." She nodded towards the man then continued with her main point, laughing heartily at his predicament as she spoke. "Perhaps... perhaps you should let go of Sonny now."

Ebony mumbled into her cloak, making vague nondistinct noises of dismissal. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. It was back to normal again.

Sonny looked down at her, placing his warm hand on her head, fitting it under the hood and ruffling her hair gently. It felt weird to Ebony, no one had done that before. Not that she disliked it. It just felt strange to have someone else play with her usually hidden hair. Normally she was the only person who touched it, brushed it, adjusted it. Again, she mumbled aimlessly, pressing against Sonny. Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Morene shook her head, chuckling, then coughing and wincing in pain. Her wounds may have closed while resting for the most part, but they were still there. Even as a Prime she'd still need to rest longer to fully recover.

Sonny was released from Ebony's grasp so quickly he almost fell over, having been accustomed to the changed weight distribution for the majority of their time in the cage. Ebony turned around, looking at Morene, completely forgetting about Sonny after hearing her friend in pain.

"I'll be fine. It'll take more than that to bring me down, hun." Morene grunted, bringing herself to her feet, metal clanking.

Ebony was about to reply, still concerned, but Sonny spoke up.

"Looks like the head honcho himself is coming out to pay us a visit. Wanna guess what that means?" He paused and straightened his back slightly before speaking again, this time in a much deeper tone. "The fun’s about to begin."

Ebony wasn't sure she agreed with that last statement, but it was obvious something was happening. Maybe they'll let us free?

---

The moment the cage door slammed open, Ebony instinctively shifted behind her friends. The guy with the swords scared her. Really scared her. Even if they had a common foe now, she didn't trust him. It wasn't a grudge - Ebony didn't keep grudges - it was a lingering fear, and little could be done to ease that. Him winking at her certainly didn't help in the slightest, but before she could even consider that Sonny changed, hair turning to black (a much better colour in Ebony's opinion), and storm pushed down around him, expanding outwards towards the monsters.

It looked awesome. 

Morene's response following the storm brought some brief relief to her fear over the sword guy, but it was superficial. Just a small chuckle from the circumstances, nothing more.

Like before, Ebony had very much struggled to find her place in the fight. Even with Morene's guidance and the now blonde again Sonny positioned to protect her, she couldn't find the will to move forwards. To take the next step. The time with Sonny softened her resolve, gave her time to think and compose her thoughts. Decide what she actually wanted to do for herself. Stepping into a fight now was like leaving one of those heated shops. The ones that blast hot air at you just as you exit into the freezing cold. Sonny was that hot air, and while it felt nice at the time, it didn't help her determination in the slightest.

Part of her wished to get back to that 'hot air', even if it wasn't the time right now. But in truth, what Ebony really wanted was to go home. Not like before where she longed for her old friends, the crew of the ship, back at the Nexus. Right now, she just wanted to lie down on her hard bed on the boat and go to sleep. It was uncomfortable, she could always feel the wood through the mattress and her skinny body would do little by itself to prevent that, but that didn't matter right now. She just desired to go back to that familiar place, to rest in comfort. Her body was fine for the most part, eyes still wide open and attentive, but although she couldn't have been gone from her home for more than a matter of hours, it felt as if days, or even weeks, of stress, shock, fear, and excitement were condensed into such a short period of time.

It was too much. Breathing and trying to calm herself did nothing. She could still barely think. What was my name again? Not Ebony, Ebonywood Hellscythe, the real one. Her birth name. The one buried under layers upon layers of wishes, years of neglect, and desires for something new. A part of her she'd attempted to smudge over in her usually futile attempt to become something she was not. It was strange for the question to crop up in her mind by itself. She didn't know why she thought of it but felt it was important somehow. In truth, it was the only thing she truly had connecting her to home. She would never admit it, always refusing to accept or acknowledge the likely fact, but Ebonywood Hellscythe died with the ship. Lost. Forgotten. No one would remember that her or that character. Thus, at this very moment, without her old name, she had more ties to this world than her own - something that couldn't be allowed.

Scrape. Ebony shuddered, any line of thought she had broke from the noise of the sword guy's blade against the rough ground. She dreaded that sound; it left her reeling, unable to act properly should she so much as acknowledge it. Trying her best, she attempted to ignore its reoccurrences.

Amongst all this, her mind felt drained. Tired. The cogs of thought turning slowly regardless of any force pushing against the handle. It was too hard to even consider anything through the internal turmoil and overwhelming fear and panic. The Ashen Blades still scared her, some much more than others, regardless of Morene's actions against one of them. Just thinking about it left her quivering in her boots. 

So she stopped.

Ebony stopped thinking.

She was magic. Magic cast spells. Spells could fight the monsters. Fighting the monsters helped her friends. And that was all that mattered right now.

Words rolled over her tongue out of an instinct she didn't know she had. Fire, water, ice, air, darkness, light, rock, lighting, raw magic. False, and rarely real, elements fired from her palms. One after another and another and another and...

1998 words

The start was fluff. Because Ebony needs it.

For fighting, Eb's pretty much just using Meta Magic: Elemental Blast (the basic 5 second charage -> damage version) on everything that looks like it might hurt her/her friends while hiding behind Morene and Summer/Sonny. Maybe some air (knockback) versions (still 5 sec. charge) on things too close to her, but most would probably be the usual damage.

If Morene posts again and goes through the portal (or goes through for whatever reason), Ebony will follow. If Sonny goes, she might follow. Eb is scared of basically everyone and everything besides Morene and Summer/Sonny (their storm thing was cool, and she warmed up to them while in the cage), although she's "in the zone" right now, so probably won't start acting scared until properly damaged.

Slight reminder that Ebony would probably use Counterspell on anything ranged (that she's able to react to) that looks like it's going to damage and hurt her/her friends.

Note: The "Scrape" sound is a reference to my fight post last round when Renji (Kuzuru) took on Ebony and Morene.