<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: Courier;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 16pt;"><strong>S T O R Y T E L L E R</strong></span></span><hr/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9c/f2/14/9cf214e265e1cc035c7fd00be49fb65a.jpg)</div><div class="floatright">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c3/f9/d4/c3f9d481c20242bdf24872f0ccb333f3.jpg)</div><strong>Dramatis Personae:</strong>Goblin Quartet<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>As Pictured<br/><br/><strong>Time:</strong><em>10:00 AM XST</em><br/><strong>Location:</strong><em></em>Showdown! Orchard<br/><strong>Tagging | Mentioning:</strong>Crystelia Coven Members |<br/><strong>Notes:</strong>Initiative order: Melody and Mugi 13 > Fennu 12 > Goblins 10 > Alexis 8<br/><hr/>If it were just one on one, the goblin might be able to hold off Fennu’s attacks for a few moments. However, Mugi manages to nimbly close the distance, and her blade slices easily through goblin flesh, drawing out a gout of brackish blood and a screech of pain from the monster.<br/><br/>Bridgette, quick to get back up onto her feet and continue the fight, finds herself managing to score another killing blow against the Bomber. For a brief moment, she feels as if this isn’t the first time she’s done the bloody work of ending existences; though in truth, the thoughts flow from the crystal, along with a feeling of perfunctory satisfaction.<br/><br/>The goblin lets out a strangled sigh of a death rattle, eyes full of rage glaring into Bridgette’s before the life and light flees from those eyes, and the goblin, like the others, explodes into a cloud of foul smelling black dust.<br/><br/>Melody’s thoughts of putting out the fire with something that isn’t water (which would merely spread the oil around) is a good one, but unfortunately, the choice of using a powder that is highly flammable, rather than using a dry chemical powder, means that she’s about to cause more harm to them all than the goblins ever could!<br/><br/>Fennu can feel the flames; but she can also feel the hunger of those flames; their desire to grow and consume. She can feel the first ecstatic moment of pure dopamine when the flour makes contact with the flame, and begins to spread. The hiss-crackle of the fire-speech sounds a lot like gleeful giggling.<br/><br/>And then she begins to interact with the elemental forces at work, and at first, the fire does not really care. It identifies her as more-flame, therefore good, and not worth noticing. There is plenty of fuel to go around, after all.<br/><br/>But then she seizes control of it; panic and worry flood through her mind. The fire does not understand why it can not consume, why it is being oppressed. But she smothers it, pulls it into an orb that she tries to hang onto…<br/><br/>But there’s a problem. Fire needs fuel. She has stopped this entire house from exploding, possibly killing goblins and women alike, but the fire has been cut off from fuel. It begins consuming itself rapidly, trying to keep even a mote of its essence safe to propagate; but it’s going to run out of energy, and fade to nothing.<br/><br/>Now, there’s a second problem that Fennu should be worrying about, but thankfully, Alexis comes up with the best support of the match, and snipes the goblin with an energy bolt before it could hamstring the pyrokineticist. As the shock travels through the goblin, it’s constitution fails it; it collapses to the ground, writhing in agony, before spontaneously exploding into black dust, just like the others.<br/><br/>A strange quiet then immediately descends upon the group. The atmosphere feels thick, like they’re suspended in gelatin. As they look around themselves, they can see each and every foul-smelling mote of darkness zoom inwards. They collide into each other, compress, denser and denser, until all the darkness has taken on the form of a small sphere, the size of a playing marble. It’s predominantly black, with wavy streaks of disconcertingly sickly purple and aggressive neon green.<br/><br/>Time resumes normally, and the atmosphere goes back to normal. The marble, formed in the air, falls to the ground, and begins to roll away.<br/><br/>Of all the girls, Mugi is the one who will have the easiest time tracking it’s movements, because it’s extremely condensed Mana, and therefore, it has an annoyingly bright, impossible to ignore, glow to it. In fact, it glows so much, it’s actually difficult, should she try to pick it up, to do so; the Mana it emanates makes it impossible to actually see the object itself, so she’d have to guess.<br/><br/>Now, the women are alone in the house. The widow’s location is uncertain; the living room is a little charred, but damage has been kept to a minimum; there are no goblin bodies (nor even a single speck of blood). There’s just the quiet of the post-battle.<br/><br/>What do they do?<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Elsewhere<br/><strong>Time:</strong>10:05 AM XST<br/><strong>Dramatis Persona:</strong>Wouldn't you like to know<br/><br/>Unseen eyes continue to watch the battle unfold. “Hmmm. The Mistress won’t be pleased with this.” Hisses the voice, picking up quill, and putting pen to parchment, begins to write. “Filthy heroes…”