Ecdysis

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Ecdysis - TBD Vhalar, 718

________________________

The dirt tasted particularly disgusting in this part of shithole country. Rynmere. The shitstain on the world, draped in grays and browns, the whole country sighing under the tyranny of a mad King. Of course Fiona couldn’t resist the opportunity to visit such an inviting place. What the heck had gotten into her? Two sparks in and she thought going to the only country that burned people for having bonded with a spark was a smart idea? She’d left him to his own devices in Rharne, but he was going to be better than her. He’d actually make the effort to drag her kicking and screaming out of the grave she’d dug for herself, whether she wanted to be saved or not.

Somewhere between being dragged to Skywatch’s keep, being portalled out of it, wandering around in a bog for a fortnight, and finally taking a ship from Volta, he’d shed any pretense of innocence. Maxine had brought back the boy from Etzos. Not the slack-jawed toddler that had first greeted her. Not the child that had been destined for Rharne prison. This one was the one that had made mistakes over and over, but had gotten back up everytime. This one was the only one that knew how to get by without getting stepped on, pissed on, and dragged himself along by the skin of his teeth. To hell with niceties.

Groaning, he rolled over onto his back, jumped back onto his feet and flared his nostrils at Maxine’s smug face. She reminded him of his horrible sister in more than one way. Maxine too had that annoying tendency to be better at everything, and of course she had to rub it in at every turn, just like Fiona. Unlike Fiona, she would have the honor of tasting fourteen arcs of cropped up disdain flying into her face. Once he'd done that, he drag her by her hair to the small stream at the edge of the clearing they camped on and shove her face into it so she could have a good taste.

The back of his hand slid across his lips, wiping the dust and blood away before he spat a thick clot at the ground. “Screw you,” he snarled at her. She might hit hard, she might be better, but refused to give up. His head buzzed, his ears rung and something trickled out the corner of his mouth, and yet all he could think was that he’d had worse, and that he wouldn’t stop until he’d pressed her face into the muck at least once.

But only a fool tried the same thing over and over, expecting things to change.

This time he didn’t go in swinging. Nah, she’d come to him and he’d counter her just as she had countered him, with mean, fast strikes and little regard for the other’s well being. “You think you’re jus’ it, dontcha? You think you’re so tough cause you crawled outta that prison? But jus’ look at you. You’re a fuckin’ selfish addict, always whining, always complaining like a fucking baby. It's always someone else's fault, innit?”

He spat again.

“No wonder you don’t have any friends. The way you’re treating Blackwood? You’re lucky she doesn’t strangle you in your sleep or sneak a poison into your drinks. You make raging alcoholics look bad. Fuck me… if you ain’t already poisoning yourself. You, Max?” he gestured carelessly at her. “You tell me you’re Kasoria’s special little girl? What’d he do? Drop his pants and stick it in? Wouldn’t even work, you’re so uptight.”

Now brace.

[Max]

Little made sense in the world to Maxine anymore. Fighting, however, remained one of the damn few that clicked in her mind like nothing else. She'd been doing it her whole life for as long as she could remember, long before she even met the O'Connor siblings in the orphanage in Etzos even. Before she learned how to throw a proper punch she'd learned to take hits. Once she did pick up the concept of striking, she was hooked. Her temper grew short. Her fuse was quick to light, and as soon as it did, her fury rained down with a level of impish wrath that surprised those in charge of the ward. She graduated from playground tiffs to ship deck fights. Tavern brawls followed soon after that, and before she knew it, she was beating men and women to death on battlefields and in the dark tunnels of The Beneath. Her life could be a whirlwind of violent chaos and confusion, but in combat her head was never more clear.

Finn was no longer the adorable, innocent little boy that dashed in the foot steps of his older, more brutal sister. He was not yet a man, but there was a hardness in his eyes that Maxine recognized. It was a bitterness that every downtrodden orphan knew eventually. The world kicked them, humiliated them, and beat them down repeatedly until, like hot steel pounded upon a blacksmith's anvil, it crafted them into something other than the person they started as. Was this what the Old Man saw when he first laid eyes upon her? Was the hopelessness in the idea of altering that look so damning that it was so clear he was better off directing it?

Kindred spirit or not, the boy she once knew was now pissing her off since they escaped the Rharnian hold. The adorable child in the orphanage was useless in the world they walked in now, but she quite preferred him to the venom-spitting juvenile he was now. Finn had challenged her first with a friendly spar that was far too easy for the woman to accept. It seemed they continued to be more alike than she wanted to admit. Just as she did when Kasoria beat her down over and over again, Finn's frustration in repeated defeat had brought him to hurl digs as often as he threw fists. Kicking him into the dirt a couple times had been satisfying enough that she didn't feel obligated to return the favor. Now her smirk was quickly clouded over by a far darker expression.

"You're going to get yourself fucking hurt speaking on things you don't know shit about," Maxine warned him grimly, eyes flashing with poorly restrained ire churning just beneath her surface. She plucked the joint of Ambrosia from her lips and stared down at his dirt-smeared face. White smoke existed her nostrils in one forceful plume. "You wouldn't have lasted five fucking trills down in that shithole, Twelve. Crawled? I didn't fucking weasel my way out of The Beneath. I fucking killed the Junior Warden and the most prestigious guards in Slags Deep. Crawled? I walked out of those fucking gates wearing the fucking Warden's clothes, richer than I went in. Go fuckin' fish with that shit, O'Connor."

Another drag on the joint and the world seemed to draw further into focus. She tilted her head toward either shoulder, an exhale of relief coming with the onset of the drug in her system. Finn was wrong. She wasn't an addict. Not like before. She could stop whenever she wanted. She could. This wasn't going to be like last time. She didn't regret the riot or going after Earth Mask. She only regretted the way in which it all panned out, and the complete spiral she rode as she let her fear and paranoia lead her into a crippling madness. This time she wasn't going to use it solely to avoid her nightmares. She could control herself. She could.

I've never really hit a kid...but I'm about to fucking start I swear to every fucking Immortal.

Maxine had nearly calmed before the boy gathered himself and continued running his bloodied mouth. This time he attacked from a new angle. Presumptions. The boy was filled with presumptions. Perhaps he was smarter than he looked, taking details from small exchanges he'd heard here and there to jump to his conclusions. Her fingers curled into fists at the mention of Sephira.

"The shit between Blackwood and I?" she growled. "More shit you know nothing about. Mind your fuckin' business. Another word, Finn. Go on. Test me one more time." And of course he did. Like a fool unsure how to get around a combatant's defenses, he swung as wantonly as he hurled insults to get under her skin. The last straw was half a bit ago when he first opened his mouth. Now? Now he went too far. The line was crossed. There was no going back. And as Max crossed the inner threshold and shed the thin restraints on her ever-hot rage, it seemed there would be no backing up from her incoming escalation either.

As soon as he finished making his gesture, she was on him. The gap between them vanished. In a split trill she was in range, the jab hurtling in rapidly toward his nose with a sudden snap of her arm. The violence and the commanding power of the attack was no true attack, but a furious rouse. Just before her fist reached its mark, the hand snapped back to protect her face at the same time a vicious overhand hook sought to sink through the flaw in his defenses should he have fallen for the feint. Immortals bless him if he did. Maxine was going to take every inch of opportunity to punish him that was involuntarily offered to her, and for his insolence, she'd pay him back twofold in kind.

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Ecdysis - TBD Vhalar, 718

________________________

He could've avoided all of this. What use was it getting her all riled up like? Nothing much, he supposed, but he had time to pass and craved to feel something else than cold and worry seeping into the marrow of his bones.

Max had been happy to oblige.

Cold and worry were only vague memories buried by a litany of sore spots and fresh bruises vying for attention He thought he'd stood a fair chance. He had. What with her looking like a raised corpse and gulping down more liquor in a day than most Rharnian’s did in week. She couldn’t be tough to beat, he’d thought.

He could scarcely be more wrong.

Every swing was blocked and countered, every kick swept aside and punished with fast, fierce strikes. There was some consolation in seeing her reach for a habitual smoke. Every other time he’d seen her drag in a deep breath and hide her face behind a cloud of smoke it had been to calm or award herself after some tiring endeavour, be that escaping murderous Lightning Knights or stomping off after the latest spat between her and the Special Assistant.

He knew he owed the permission to tag along to the fact that both women were too preoccupied with each other to question his presence much. Max fumed on her daring escape from Slug's whogivesashit and bragged about licking a Warden six feet deep, but he paid her little mind. She wasn't the first nor would she be the last to try to get under his skin by questioning his maturity, but that particular insult had ceased to yield an effect long ago.

She was on him like a wild animal. Finn's arm shot up in defense. Her punch was a lazy, predictable, straight-ahead swing, easily caught and deflected except-

A blur of motion from the rear blindsighted him. He threw his arm to the side as though swatting away a fly, but merely grazed her arm, just managing to direct it away from his jaw and-

The world turned mute for a trill as his head snapped to the side. A white-hot imprint of Max’s fist glowed on his ear and he stumbled over his feet as he tried to regain his balance. Grimacing, he retreated several paces out of reach and idly touched the side of his head while keeping some distance between them. One thing was certain: she wasn’t holding back anymore.

Once upon a time he’d had a combat instructor who was also a part-time sister, caretaker and general nuisance to the powers that be. Her lessons had been unforgettable for many reasons, but one of them was the oft repeated rule she’d drilled into his head.

Cheating is winning.

He stopped backing away and dug his heels into the soil that grumbled its dislike for the emaciated woman and was all too happy to serve. Through his spark he prepared the ground, softened it before Maxine’s feet and grew tendrils of dirt, moss, and root underground, ready to strike out like snakes at his command.

“Struck a nerve?” he sneered. Even muffled, there was no mistaking the smugness in his voice. “I knew you had low standards, Max. But old Kas? Really? Tell me, is his cock as hairy as his head? Did you get to tug it when you did well? Don’t you think he’s a little old for you? Ah, but you must’ve been drunk of course, like real, real drunk t’make you think you were gonna’have a good time wiv 'im-”

When she charged at him, the ground sunk away under her feet and arm-like clods of dirt shot up from the ground, clutching at her ankles. In the same moment, a loud crackle would be the only forewarning Maxine would get as a shivering spear of pure ether raced through the air, directly at her, followed by the full weight of Finn as he threw his arms around her waist determined to take her down.

[Max]

Now you've fucking done it...

Few things in the world were as satisfying as the sensation of knuckles driven home into a target. The solid impact was like a lullaby to her angry soul, no, a hit of Ambrosia. One taste and she needed more. Demanded more. The desire to land successful strikes again and again possessed a mind that thought of little else. Finn may have retreated with his stumble, but Maxine merely followed after her prey with a dark expression.

"What's the matter, Finn?" she mocked with a hollow laugh. "Feeling all vulnerable without that cunt sister of yours? A little insecure and feeling the need to overcompensate? Make the world see you as anything but the weak little boy you've always been?" The mirth in her voice vanished as her mind settled on him, violence all-consuming. "I'll have you calling out for her before we're done. Just as you always have."

Before long the boy realized that fleeing was not a way to win the fight he'd started. He dug in with a new strategy palpable in the air. The same insolence continued. Was it really talk of the Old Man that pissed her off? The suggestion that their relationship had been anything but appropriately student to mentor? She suspected not. She was tired. Tired of people digging, prodding, and jabbing into her private life. She was finished with the idea of people drawing their conclusions without all the facts, or worse, pointing out realities she herself remained unwilling to accept. It was all of this that merited her unforgiving ire. Finn's furtherance of disrespect only justified what she planned to do to him next.

The marked woman took off after the boy, and for the first time, Finn actually surprised her. Earthy hands wrapped around her feet. The sudden stopping power jerked her back mid-run, eyes widening and peering down to discover the Defiance in play. She scoffed her disdain before turning her gaze forward. Just in time to catch the length of hurled ether heading her way. Now that was new.

Shit.

Maxine dropped her body down as the spear whizzed overhead, both of her gloved hands simultaneously activating to slam against her earthen trap. She could hear the hasty foot steps of an mage eager to make the most of opportunity. Music to her ears. She smirked, feeling the earth fall loose around her ankles as though its ether master had never given it command. There was a trill she could've been preemptive. A trill she could've used to counter what she could see so clearly coming. Yet the mind was never more vulnerable than when it believed to have scored a singular victory, no matter how small.

Finn's body slammed into her, driving her toward the ground. She exhaled before her back struck it, and not a moment later, she'd used the momentum of his attack to quite literally turn the tables. A shift of her hips and a quick rotation, and Maxine was in a high mount way up on his chest. Her knees sunk in tight against his ribs just under his arms. Comfortable in her position of dominance, she hurled elbows down at his face with full, unrelenting power one after another. They came with the same intensity and willingness to damage as hail falling in a storm.

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Ecdysis - TBD Vhalar, 718

________________________

There wasn’t any time to celebrate. As he pulled back his arm to swing at her the world was flipped upside down and for the third time that trial he tasted dirt. He shoved the tangle of limbs away from him. Tried to anyway, but it returned an instant later as legs pinched his sides and a heavy weight pushed the air from his lungs.

An elbow smacked across his face like a club and knocked his head to the side. Yelping, he raised an arm in defense and-

Wrong side.

This time something crunched under the violent swing of another elbow coming from the other side, slamming into his face. His arms shot up to protect his head, and not a moment too late as the third swing came hammering down. Like a door being cracked open with a sledgehammer, his defenses wavered and budged under the assault. His bones rattled, but the lock held.

For now.

He tasted sticky, wet blood pooling under his nose and flowing down his face, and still he refused to yield. Not that she’d let him. Even with his head knocked half-unconscious and lulled uselessly to the side he knew Max wasn’t about to let up anytime soon.

And neither was he, hadn't she got that message by now? He would never surrender to her, he'd never show her weakness. The moment you showed weakness was the moment you signed your own death warrant. She had to know. Didn't take more than a season amid the sewer rats of Etzos to learn that. Of course she knew. She'd been with Kasoria, the proverbial king of the sewer rats. He'd probably been the one that taught her all of this shite. It wasn't just pure, unguided violence. There was a focus to her strikes, an efficiency that echoed the way he'd seen Kasoria move and kill. A far cry from the bits and pieces of skill he'd gained through the arcs. There wasn't much technique or form to it, and the only guiding principle stemmed directly from Zipper, Queen of the rats, and her core principle could be summed up as cheating.

So cheat. Again.

Charging at her had been a mistake. Taunting her had been another. Doing both had turned out even worse, but she wasn’t without flaws either. No matter how satisfying it had to be to her to get up close and personal, it was also a dreadful mistake.

Max’s angry, contorted face was but a blur as he reached for the smaller of two sparks and found it buzzing with vengeful excitement. The thrill of violence was almost instantly converted into palpable ether, flickering and crackling underneath, hastily massaged into a rapidly bulging sphere of raw, unbridled ether.

Just as another elbow came flying at his face, he grabbed at her arms with both hands, pinched her skin, dug his nails in and-

“Dwodge thwis!” Finn spluttered as the raw ether surged forward, sending goosebumps up his arms and arcing over directly onto Max’s skin through their touch.

[Sephira]

The outdoors were great and all, so long as you had a warm bed and a roof to return to, but the Special Assistant was so over this camping nonsense. It was cold, damp and traveling with a crabby ex-convict and a boy that attracted trouble like a magnet was getting old. At least Rey’na was reasonable and easy to work with.

The Rupturer had left the camp with an exasperated sigh when her two irritable companions started having a go at each other. This entire trip had been a struggle for the woman. Between breaking Rharnian law and trekking through a stinking marsh she needed a moment to herself before her patience utterly snapped.

What in the world had Kura been thinking when she sent THIS team to Rynmere? Why not send a group of properly trained Flame Elements who actually knew how to take orders?

A splash of water from the stream sent shivers down her back as droplets of water streamed down her face. Rubbing at her temples Sephira drew in a deep breath, feeling her Sparks tense for a split trill as she tried to silence her jittery nerves.

A thump sounded several yards behind her toward the camp, then a sharp whizzing hiss followed. Perhaps it was a soldier’s nerves but the woman was on her feet in a flash and sprinting back toward the camp.

The armored Rupturer arrived just in time to see tendrils of earth crumbling from around the marked woman’s legs as she crawled on top of a disarmed Finnegan.

Shit

“Hey!” Sephira shouted with disbelief, stomping toward the pair as they continued to brawl. Maxine was pummelling the lad with her elbows and the Element sighted the flare of ether just before and electric flare erupted from the Defier’s hands.

Her Rupturing Spark flared to life with a ravenous hunger and it greedly devoured the swell of ether hastily thrown it’s way as the Ingress of a portal opened with a boom directly to the right of Maxine and opposite the side of Finn appeared the Egress. With a deft flick of her hand the Pull was executed, sternly yanking the Maxine away and pushing Finn out from under her. Both were sent tumbling toward the crackling crimson portals. The ruptures in space sealed almost instantly and the gravitational force released the pair, dumping them unceremoniously into a swirl of dust.

“What the hell do you think you two are doing!” Sephira swore hotly, her face flushing red with indignation.

She was on Finn in an instant, snatching him up by the collar and towing him a few steps away from Maxine before depositing him in the dirt. Her face was warped into a sour scowl as her brows knit together.
“The next time I catch you using magic on her I swear I’ll send you back into that cell O’Connor!”

The boy had no idea the ex-con’s trepedations when it came to magic, especially earth Defiance. He was lucky she hadn’t ripped his head off. Maxine had clearly been restraining herself.

Disappointment gleamed in her onyx eyes before the mage snapped around on her heel to face where she had left Maxine to gather herself.

“And you, beating up children now? I didn’t know you were capable of sinking any lower!”

Sephira huffed sharply, shaking her head as she rubbed painfully at her temple. Maxine always let her worse instincts take over. She could be so much better than she was. Sometimes Sephira could see a glimmer of something more, then the woman had to go and smack a boy who had barely hit puberty.

Dialogue|Thoughts

[Max]

Bouncing Finn's head repeatedly off the ground with her merciless elbow strikes had been a guilty pleasure. Beating the boy toward submission wouldn't return the words to his mouth. It didn't bring her any real power trip for there was no status from this to be earned. This was about pride. This was about shoving an O'Connor back into their place where they belonged, and conditioning yet another person to keep her name out of their mouth. Few things were more provoking than someone prying into one's personal life. Maxine was intent on making it clear just what the price was for someone who dared to do just that.

With a bloody mockery, Finn lunged up to grab one of her arms like a fierce spider-monkey. She looked down at the ridiculous vice and cocked her other fist back to war the limb free. In the distance she heard the Special Assistant Buzzkill shout just as her noticed something strange happening up the boy's arm. Then came the damned portals. Whatever ether-fueled counter Finn was cooking never saw its fruition, for in the next moment, the two fighting parties were hurled violently way from one another at the literal flick of the Element's wrist.

Maxine landed roughly on her back, coughing the dust from her lungs. She wasted no time rocking up to her feet with her homicidal stare locked firmly back on Finn. The commanding yell could echo about the camp all Sephira wanted. The bad blood between Maxine and the O'Connors ran deep. Deeper than an islander who never saw the inside of an orphanage could comprehend. Max began to advance back toward the boy when the Element dragged him a safer distance away from her. The ex-convict's feet planted and a growl of annoyance rumbled from her throat. Then came Sephira's loud, threatening defense. That made Maxine's surprised smirk from behind the woman's back all too wide.

See? Don't know shit, Twelve.

She mouthed the words at the boy and snapped her jaw shut as soon as the Special Assistant shifted the focus of her ire. Disappointment. It was an expression on the woman's face that Maxine had come to endlessly expect. She folded her arms and arched a brow at the leader Kura had appointed for the Scalvoris team. Just when was it that Sephira was going to significantly lower the bar of her expectations for Maxine's behavior to a level it belonged? At this point, she might as well go out of her way to do something especially unforgivable if only to stop having to weather being the subject of another letdown.

"Beating up children?" Maxine rolled her eyes darkly and gestured toward Finn. "Sorry. He stands so small in his big sister's shadow I could hardly tell how young he is." She dropped her arms to her sides. Her fingers curled into fists as she glowered at him again. "It's lucky for him you showed up, Blackwood. To save his sorry ass. And to remind him just what he is. A fucking child."

Whatever minor surge of control that came over her had shattered in an instant. Memories of what he'd said and the ether he'd wielded against her came sharply back to mind. Just like that the marked woman was storming toward him again. Part of her itched to slip one of the daggers from her belt into the comfortable embrace of her hand.

"No worries, Finn," she hissed as distance started to close. "If you forget, we can always come right back here and I'll remind you again myself."

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Ecdysis - TBD Vhalar, 718

________________________

“I had her beat!” he fumed at Sephira the minute she dropped him at her feet. The pained grimace on his face was directed solely at the Special Arseling Blackwood. “I had her beat!” he snarled. “You ruined it!” Searing anger unearthed a hidden pool of raw ether, clawing its way out of his system, bundling at his fingertips with lethal intent. He jumped up and paced after the pouting fanny Scalvoris had put in charge of a pebble hunt. “Oh you’re going to send me back because you’re too inept to control her? Is that it, Sephira?” he almost gagged at her name. She had done nothing but lead them into bogs and dead ends and was about as fun as a corpse. No, that was an insult way corpses. “When are you going to get it through your THICK skull that she ain’t your friend? All what’s called her friends is dead! Don’t you get it? Once she stops needing you...”

His head snapped back in Max’s direction at the mention of his sister. Blackwood was forgotten in an instant, Max's irritating voice made certain of that. He turned on his heel and stared back at the ex-convict with burning cheeks. “Shut up! Don’t talk about my sister! You don’t know her! You don’t know ANYTHING!”

He stepped in her direction. “I'm not afraid of you. You're nothing. Nothing.”

In that moment the last of his ether pooled into a singular goal. The earth itself seemed to sink and shrivel at what was to come. Moments before Max closed the distance between them the earth groaned. Columns of flame shot up out of the depths of the earth, the air boiled and quivered and a blinding glow radiated from the wall of fire that encircled him.

It wouldn't stop Max.

It wasn't designed to stop Max.

The flame and smoke all but obscured those contained within from sight. The small, grimacing figure at the center of it became a shadow, then a ghost and then couldn't be seen at all.

His knees buckled from exertion, and yet he kept up the cage of roaring flames.

Come on you coward…

And just like that she was upon him, slamming into him like a bull, toppling him over. The earth cushioned his fall and the suns above were blotted out as Max pulled back her fists once more. But his eyes weren’t on her fists or her ugly scowling face, and it wasn't on the inferno either. All he saw through his tired, bleary eyes was opportunity. While one lazy arm half-deflected the first blow, the other shot forward, grasped the hilt of the nearest dagger and yanked it out of its sheath. Cool steel bit into Max’s side, slicing all the way up from her waist until the edge pressed against her throat. “Apologize,” he demanded through gritted teeth. “Or I'll slit your throat.“

The fire waned around them and as the wall fell back into non existence, so too did his strentgh vanish. A searing headache came on, likely but the first reprimand for the unholy amount of ether he'd expended.

"Stay out of it Sephira!" he snarled to the formless shadow entering into peripheral view.