The Castle (IC) [M] {04}

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog stumbled forward for just a few steps before catching his balance, turning neatly on the ball of his foot to face the scrabbling spider. She didn't seem hostile, immediately, but the wolf wasn't going to take any chances with her - he kept his sword in a middle guard, one foot swept backwards for balance.

He narrowed his eyes at her question, and spat to the side. "We walked." he said, the brief sizzle of spit punctuating his sentence. "And yes, I'd like nothing more than to kill you. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...and people lose arms, don't they." he nearly snarled. "If it hadn't been for you, we might have been able to help Aisha before that demon tore her limb off. But instead...well. Here we are."
"So then. Do you know the way through?" Cog said, the obvious threat unspoken.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

When Jeremiah didn't respond to their shouts Mel assumed that he was hurt too badly to speak. Stone steps were not forgiving. They couldn't leave him at the bottom of the stairs. It didn't take much debating with herself to know the right thing to do. "I should go down to see how he is. He undoubtedly needs healing."  Nervously she lit the crystals in her staff in preparation for the descent into heated darkness. The ice dragon swore she could already feel the heat weakening her. She vowed that when she got out of this place she was going home and hiding under a nice cool flame-free glacier for at least a century.

[Gareeku]

When no response from Jeremiah came from their calls, Gareeku's concerns for the frog grew and more by the second. Turning to Mel as she said she would descend into the darkness to help him, the white-furred wolf reluctantly nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Ok then...be careful though. And if you need any help at all, just say." Gareeku replied to Mel, watching her descend, and then disappear altogether, into the blackness below as it seemed almost to swallow her whole. "I just pray to the gods that they will be alright. All of them..."

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha became concerned when there came no reply from the darkness below.  Her teeth clenched as she tried to listen...nobody's sharp senses could discern anything from it.  It must have been such a distance fall...had the stairs disappeared, perhaps?

"Dammit," the panthress muttered, before glancing up to listen to Mel.  She was prepared to go down after him, and although Aisha was still hesitant about letting the group split up, it appeared that there was no other choice...they couldn't leave Jeremiah down there hurt and at the mercy of Hell.

Aisha nodded to the dragon.  She was the one with wings, perhaps she retrieve him once found.  "Good luck, Mel.  We'll be standing by if you need us."

And so they watched as she prepared and dropped into the shadows...to the dark and unknown recesses holding the castle up on its foundation.  "I agree," Aisha said quietly as she heard Gareeku's statement.  Her hand was gripping the amulet about her neck.  "I want to say they're safe, but it's hard to be sure..."

[Angel]

Once her eyes became accustomed to the darkness, Ketefe had to clap her free hand over her mouth to muffle the shriek at her first glimpse of Sal. She vaguely remembered someone saying something about a creature like her in this castle... but she hadn't expected any more spiders to turn up. In any case, Cog seemed livid at the spider-woman, and Keaton was incensed into speech. When she asked how they'd gotten down there, the masked cat immediately thought a message to her parasites: If you use me to utter so much as ONE WORD - if you control me for even ONE SECOND while she's around - I will stab myself through the head, you hear me?!

At Cog's accusations, the feline's eyes widened, then narrowed into a murdersome glare. So this woman was the reason Aisha had lost her arm... She hissed softly and tugged at the webbing a little harder. "If you're not planning on killing us, was this necessary?" she spoke up. "Seems like a waste to set up such an elaborate trap when you don't intend to do any harm." Just because she wasn't going to kill them didn't make her trustworthy.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The air once Mel was past the gate was hot and dry and ashy and made her feel like she needed to cough but the half dozen charms against heat and fire she had secreted on various articles on her person kept her body temperature normal. The steps seemed endless and by the time she reached the catacomb at the bottom the frog was nowhere to be found. Only a few drops of blood marked his landing spot. Either the local wildlife were particularly neat eaters or he had wandered off. Doubting the former she cast about for the likely direction he had disappeared to.

[Stygian]

Cogidubnus' answer seemed to disappoint the spider, because her face fell into a frown and she muttered. Her gaze passed between Keaton and Ketefe, with just a neutral, inquisitive look at the feline and a shake of her head to the jackal.
   'I'd say as I said before; this place is just trying to mislead you', Sal commented, then looked up and back to Cog. 'But if I were to join you, which is out of the question, I'd count as one of you, now wouldn't I?' She looked them all over once more, eight eyes shifting back and forth. 'I might be able to lead you on your way though... if I know that you'll actually make it on.'

[Cogidubnus]

"I hadn't figured that out, really." Cog said, keeping his sword in-between him and the spider. "And yeah, it'd be out of the question." Fog smoked from Cog's sword, the superchilled blade out of place in the fiery surroundings.

Cog paused a quiet descending over the wolf, and he seriously considered just stabbing the spider right then, or calling down a lightning bolt on her head, or a thousand other ways of killing the arachnid assassin. She could not be trusted, at all, and Cog knew this, and in a toss up between trusting a demon and trusting Sal, Cog was almost willing to trust the demon more. Almost.
He bared one fang.

"We'll 'make it on', yeah. Or we'll die. But I think I know why you're here too." he said, glancing at her neck. "And we're going in the same direction. "So, whaty'll it be, then?" Cog shifted just slightly, his back foot twisting so that both feet faced forward. "If hell's being nice to you, well, we'll just follow. Or we can kill each other now."
Cog narrowed his eyes. "I shouldn't trust you at all, really. I'm comforted by this place, though. If I die, it's not like I'll have very far to go to find you."

[Stygian]

For a while, the spider just stood there and looked between the three of them, thinking. Then, she let her head slump, and sighed. Turning a bit, she looked to Ketefe.
   'You. You think I'd be down here without doing my best to try and take every advantage to survive that I have?' she asked the feline, then nodded toward the silk all around them. 'I didn't really expect to catch you, but...' Turning, the spider shook her head, and then looked up back to Cog again. 'Look, I'm sorry. Okay? But this is sort of difficult for me. I can't help you, but neither can I keep you here, even though God knows that's what I'd most of all like to do.' She looked at her hand - the lowest of her right ones - where already she had a few fine threads of silk hooked to be able to pull more out on quick notice. 'You shouldn't blame me for that, at least', she said in an accusatory tone, and looked between Cog and Keaton. 'I never had any business with you people from the start, and I still don't want to hurt you.'
   Ketefe's arm was still solidly attached to the web from the wall. But then, for a second, it felt almost as if that web shifted a few centimeters, and the tugging feeling became just a fraction stronger.

[Cogidubnus]

 "Let us go, huh?" Cog said, suddenly wishing for his shades again. As it was, however, being able to see Sal's blueish outline with the magical lenses of his current ones somewhat made up for the lack of secrecy. His eyes regarded her coolly, at first, and with somewhat with the light of recognition.
She didn't expect to catch us. So, she is trying to catch -him-...

"Let her go, then. And we'll be on our way." Cog said suddenly, his tone less hostile. His eyes, however, were just as venomous as before, and underneath his foot there was a glimmer of something round and gold...

[Angel]

Ketefe growled a little, but she couldn't deny the spider-woman's logic. Still, who had she been planning on catching, if not them? From Cog's look, she could tell he'd figured out something she hadn't.

Suddenly, she felt her trapped arm shift, just a little, as if the web to which she was attached had moved. The pull of the web on her skin was a little stronger too. She avoided showing any reaction on her face, keeping an even, dangerous look on Sal as the muscles in her free arm tensed. If she really meant them no harm, she'd let Ketefe go. If not... well, she was still an okay fighter with her left hand.

[Sunblink]

Instead of fixating her expression in a tense masque of fury, or even looking mournful, Keaton's lips were twisted in a perfectly, insidiously insincere smile which quite obviously didn't touch her eyes. She was looking straight at Sal contemptuously, like how one would assess a rodent or a bug squished beneath one's heel. Or, as Keaton had adopted during her childhood, the way one of her fellow Jyraneth Cubi would gaze upon a lowly Being. She was unaware of the subtle shifting and tension of the webbing; they just didn't register in her anger. Right now all she wanted to do was swipe Sal down with Catastrophe and start bashing away at her skull, or something equally grotesque, but for now she limited herself to a derisive rebuttal in response to Sal's apparent remorse.

"You're so full of shit." Keaton snarled in a low, guttural growl, then trudged angrily after Cog. There was still some use for Sal, but that was only temporary. Sal's usefulness would undoubtedly stretch thin after a while, and then she'd be all hers.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Boog]

In continued to bully Jeremiah down the hallway. It was easy; when the frog was all loopy from the stress of the curse taking hold you just had to give him a sharp nudge in whatever direction you so pleased that didn't contain loud noises or unpleasant relatives and he'd trundle along until something distracted him or got in his way. If In were doing this for pleasure rather than business he might even have made a game of it. However, In had Obligations to fulfill. The other personae had been scheming, Bal almost arrogantly overt in his objectives. Plic was off playing with treasures somewhere, and Cab was rather keen on pulling an agreement out from under you. He'd formed an alliance with what had seemed like the best choice; dangerous, resourceful, but without enough of the prior qualities to counteract his naiveity should he become inconvenient.
Jeremiah staggered on with a whimper, maybe three twists in the corridor away from Mel. Deep in his mind, In's ally laughed and played with its marionette. Two more drops of blood fell to the ground. The vagrant went on.

[Boog]

OOC: In other news, justice was served this evening when the internet of Jeremiah's writer was finally justly put to death in a fire started by ravenous, internet eating knife-birds (which are, as you know, much like normal birds save that they are made of knives and crave internet flesh). Seeing as nobody will particularly miss the deceased, police have called off all investigations. "It had just caused a double post on a forum anyway, the little jackass. Got what it deserved." A local creep was recorded as having said.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel increased the light coming from her staff. She risked attracting natives but coming down here in the first place had been the bigger risk. Casting around for a moment she spotted the first tiny droplet of blood. The dragon had excellent distance vision but the droplets were spread far enough apart that she had to search for each one. "Jeremiah?" she called softly, not wanting to attract more attention than the light already had.

[Stygian]

But Ketefe hadn't noticed everything. Not yet. Then, as Sal seemed to turn to move further down the slope, the cat felt something prickle her. Not figuratively, but literally. A nearly tickling, skittering movement over her shoulder was much too clear to pass her by. But she did not manage to react. Not before she felt a sharp jab at the base of her neck.
   No! You're not supposed to be...! Foolish girl, what have...?! Crawling! Creeping and skittering...! The voices in the feline's head snapped and snarled. But they were all pushed back, driven away by the sheer surprise and single-minded force of something entirely different. In an instant, the cat's thoughts became a violently thrashing mixture of anger and fear and conflicting desires. But something drove through them, like a blade, nailing them like still-squirming insects to a wall.
   'I-I'm t-he one...!' the cat heard her own voice say, her body painfully stiff and her muscles almost cramping for some reason. 'I g-got us down heeeere...!'
   Instantly, the spider turned on her heel. 'Thanks for that, sweetie!' she said with a smirk, before flashing out claws like kitchen knives. For a second, Ketefe thought she was dead. But then, Sal's weight collided with hers, and the silk around her arm snapped.
   Feeling the hideous scrabbling of the little spider-like creature still attached to her neck as it fought with controlling her, Ketefe tumbled together with Sal over the edge of the path, and fell.

[Sunblink]

As Ketefe inexorably started babbling their secrets, Keaton jerked her head in the masked feline's direction, feeling her expression warp into a startled snarl. What did that girl think she was doing? Was it those demons inhabiting her head? Only when Sal snapped her wrist back, pulling the ensnared feline toward her, and smirked at them, did Keaton realize the arachnid woman's role. Pure rage flared inside the pit of her stomach, quickly consuming her insides, and along with that, her rational thought. Bruise-hued electricity swelled and swarmed around Keaton's fist as it clenched, Catastrophe surging with the same corrupted energy.

"You FUCKING WHORE!" Keaton shouted in Sal's direction. Before she could assail Sal with any further verbal abuse, or try assaulting her on a new level, the arachnid-woman rolled away from the path amidst her fury-fueled inaction and vanished from sight. Keaton felt whatever fire which was keeping her insides alive flicker, sizzle, and then extinguish altogether, almost anticlimactically. Panicked concern replaced it as she realized that Sal - she was taking Ketefe with her. "Oh - OH FUCK!"

Her heels slapped against the ground, propelling Keaton to the edge of the path in a few, quick strides. She was standing there, staring down into the abyss, desperate for any signs of life.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Angel]

Ketefe continued to glare at Sal as she descended the slope... and then, in one fell swoop, nothing mattered. Ketefe had no time to swat the skittery little creature off her shoulder before a pair of fangs sunk into her flesh.

Her demons turned panicky, fighting for control against something unseen, something much more powerful. Once again, thoughts, emotions, and desires that were not hers whirled around her head - before something silenced them and seized control.

Ketefe felt her unwilling mouth open and heard herself say, "I-I'm t-he one!" She felt like a statue, her muscles feeling like they'd snap at any second. "I g-got us down heeeere...!" Sal pivoted to face her with a smile, and everything became painfully clear. The spider rushed Ketefe, gigantic claws shining and deadly. The cat shut her eyes, not wanting to see her own death.

After a time unit so small it seemed like an aeon, she was still alive. Ketefe opened her eyes just in time to see the silk holding her captive break as Sal crashed into her and sent them both toppling over the edge of the path.

"NO!" Ketefe shouted, struggling fruitlessly as the spider still skittered around on her neck, trying to wrestle Sal off her as they fell deeper into the suffocating blackness...

[Cogidubnus]

Cog was faster than the spider, but he wasn't that fast. He'd forgotten about the mindspider's, hadn't suspected the spider to use them as she had, hadn't through she'd...sacrifice herself like that, hadn't though she'd just tackle the feline swordsman over the edge, like she had. Cog wasn't able to move more than two steps before they both tumbled into blackness, and just like that, he'd been tricked again, and they had no guide and were down one party member. The wolf screamed.

"DAMMIT!" he snarled, and stopping just short of the edge tried to make out any sign of the two tumbling down into darkness. He couldn't see anything, of course, not even with his glasses. He snarled again, a vicious sound that could not be normally associated with the calm wolf - vicious, and nearly feral. Through incredible force of will, he managed to keep himself from hitting the walls and probably hurting himself.

He stalked away from the edge, certain that all the powers of hell were laughing at about that moment. He stood up straight, and closed his eyes, and took a breath. His hands shook. He stood there for some time, until the shaking in his hands stopped. He exhaled.
"Stupid." he said, muttering. "Stupid..."
The wolf paused. Something flashed in his eyes. She wouldn't sacrifice herself...not if there was another way...

He waked back to the edge. They could continue to wander through hell, he supposed, lost and without a guide, and probably would continue to do so until they died of starvation or thirst. Or he could chance it.
"No." the wolf simply said, and without preample jumped from the edge and into darkness.

[Aisha deCabre]

Well...the light's gone.

Rynkura let out a slow and silent growl, the same kind that she had been sighing since she had released the little ball.  Perhaps it had dissipated before it reached the top; who knew if it even found the others, if even magic could be fooled by the illusions wrought upon by hell.

Now, the tigress was just trying to substitute something--anything--for the worry in her mind.  For example she allowed her curiosity of enchanted things to go over the chains she was bound by and wondered if they had any anti-magic properties.  She certainly still felt drained of her power; any regular metal chains she would have destroyed or corroded even if she only had one finger free to move.

"By gods," she just shook her head, speaking in a normal tone.  It probably didn't matter if the bat could hear her or not.  "I wish there was a way to see what was happening."

At least the angel could be comforted by the fact that she wasn't dead.  Only useful as bait, she'd be dead by then if nobody were living.  Heaven help the ones to find her first.

*     *     *

There was a few long moments of just staring into the darkened pit, while ignoring the temptation to go after the dragon and frog.  Aisha simply reminded herself that there was little point.  After all, not a few hours ago she was fighting for her life, and it wouldn't be wasted again with a jump into the unknown.

She finally managed to tear her crimson gaze away from the gate, instead glancing to Gareeku.  They were the only two left on the surface, in the silent and broken remains of a cathedral.  She hoped that they were enough to guard the gate...she knew how powerful the wolf was, but herself...

The panthress stepped away from the altar and tried to take a deep breath.  While she did, her hand went to the boomerang in her belt.  With a quick motion, she took aim at one of the smaller motionless statues and released the weapon.  The thing hit its mark, but when it returned, she only just managed to get it by the handle when a portion of a bladed side nicked her thumb.  She put it back to her belt with a hiss...apparently there was more practice needed with her off-hand.  Another demon would just laugh.

"I don't know about you, amigo," she said and turned back to him, her voice tinged with frustration on the whole matter.  "...But I doubt I or one of the others will tell stories about this place, if we manage to get out of it.  It's been too horrifying."

[Gareeku]

Like Aisha, as Gareeku gazed into the darkness which Mel had descended into, he too longed to go after them. To help them. And yet, thinking of Aisha and her condition, he couldn't. Going down after the others and either leaving her there alone or taking her with him was out of the question. He was simply not prepared to take the risk.

Gareeku would only look away from the darkness where he heard Aisha move away from beside him. Turning round to look, the white wolf watched as the pantheress released her boomerang towards one of the smaller statues that had remained motionless. Looking on as the weapon successfully hit its target, a look of concern then appeared on his face as Aisha nicked her thumb on the bladed side of the boomerang. It appeared she had not quote gotten the hang of only using her weaker arm as of yet.

Observing Aisha refasten the weapon to her belt, Gareeku listened to what the pantheress said, nodding in agreement as a grim expression made itself present on his face.
"Indeed. I will not be in hurry to tell of what we have witnessed and experienced inside this house." the white wolf replied, looking for Aisha gaze at the surroundings all around them, before looking back at the pantheress again. "I will be keeping what I have witnessed and experienced to myself. I would rather not share such a dark story, if we get out alive, that is."

[Aisha deCabre]

The panthress nodded slowly, thoughtfully, as she listened to Gareeku's agreements.  Unless there was a way to dispel the immediate curse on the Castle, or prevent any subsequent ones, none of them should have wanted to be responsible for letting the existence of the place reach the ears of other adventurers; of course whom would go far as to stumble into the place only to go through what their group had.  Death, dark magic, possession...

"Nor I," Aisha assented.  Walking back to stand near the wolf, she carefully licked the tiny wound on her thumb, pausing just to smile softly when he gave her a look of concern.  "No adventurer wants to walk into this.  I doubt it was even worth the prospect of coming.  I forget why we did in the first place, actually."  She sighed.  "I just wonder if we will get out alive.  And if we do, what will happen to us next?"

She lowered her gaze to the floor and hummed.  Now that they had some quiet time to think about it, the latter question was a good one.  "Well...I don't know what will happen to me, at least.  It must the trauma talking, or the hellish crap all at our feet, but it's gotten hard to see any hope."

[Boog]

The skittering of either a very large pillbug or, in this situation equally likely, a spooked Jeremiah Ac'Gregor echoed down the hallway back to Mel. Someone was looking for him and, in his curse-addled state, this probably meant something bad. Most things that were after him lately did not have his best interests at heart. Several of them had too many teeth. One or two may not even be there, but he wasn't taking the risk of hypothetical monsters waiting under every third cobblestone reaching up and grabbing him by the ankle.
There is no high quite like panic.
In's job was comparatively easy; with Jeremiah hurdling along in fear it took but a minor nudge to send him in the appropriate direction. Eventually the frog ended up in a room full of, apparently, junk. It piled around the room, blocking off the other two doors. Boxes and open crates, spindely umbrellas with abnormally fleshy-looking tops resting next to a phone with a mouth and an ear sticking out of its receiver and speaker on top of a plushie of some sort of fetus (although most certainly not a furrae one). It was like the backstage area of some sort of play about the horrors of LSD, or the horrors of creative taxidermy. The most worrying thing in the room, however, was the Pipe Organ. The organ was made of body parts, not removed nor lashed together but seemingly grown from some seed planted in the stone itself. Teeth made up the keys, furrae arms reached up to hold the massive bone pipes in place. It was a wonder, a horrible wonder of this macabre place, in a half of the room clear of debries.
Jeremiah was simply very glad he couldn't play it. In his current state, he would have been far gladder to have noticed what dreadful repair the floor was in...

[Stygian]

It really was a pit. A tunnel, bored straight down into the depths. And he was throwing himself down it. The madness did not pass the wolf by. Then again, for all they had seen he might just keep falling and falling forever, or until he found some unlikely way of slowing himself down.
   Down below, or in front of him, however one chose to see it, Sal was obviously struggling with Ketefe. The feline had somehow found it less than too hard to break, or at least disturb, the control of the spider-thing on her neck. For the first time the voices did what she wanted them to, and that was to rid herself of this thing! But then there was the problem of the spider woman herself. Hissing, she thrashed, trying to hold Ketefe still while they caught speed through the ashy and gas-saturated air.
   'Shut...! Stop! Hold still you little...!' the arachnid screamed, hissing and flailing as they rolled. Then, her eyes flashed upward, and an expression of shock struck her, though it was hard to see until she managed to kick Ketefe away for a second, and turn her grimacing face and narrowed eyes upward, toward Cog.
   'You idiot!' the spider shrieked, barely audible over the speeding winds, her words echoing throughout the caverns. 'I'm doing you a favor! You bloody fool!'

[Cogidubnus]

 This was madness. He was going to hit the ground and splatter his guts on the rocks like so much falling fruit, and Cog found it very hard to keep his heart out of his throat as he sped down, down, down, darkness closing down over and around him. At least, until he saw the spider tumbling along with Ketefe, still attempting to get control over the feline.

She saw him, and pushed the feline away, screaming at him. As the saying goes, however, there are none so deaf as those who will not listen - and six times bit by the spider, he couldn't listen to her anymore.
She'd pushed the cat away. Good - it made things easier.

No longer frightened, but instead using his rage to quench his fear, and fighting to calm himself into serenity even here, the wolf took a deep breath, and made a grasping gesture with one hand, his fingers taut as he drew his hand back, like claws pulling a rope. Making sure to keep the edge of his sword far from him, he nearly tried to throw a wave of force at the spider - then thought better of it.
Twisting, for just a moment he planted his ragged boots on the rock wall beside him, and thrust forward with his right hand. A wave of force slammed into the wall, and the airborne wolf rocketed away from the wall at an angle. Twisting, the wolf made a neat spiral in midair, raising his sword as he turned.
Headed straight for the spider.

His blade a silver blur, the weapon arced for the arachnid like molten silver, the wolf himself moving at a tremendous speed.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Tracking by both the skittery sounds and the widely spaced drops of blood Mel tracked the frog down corridors that twisted and turned in bewildering directions. She hoped they would be able to find the way back to the surface. If not she would have to try tracking either Keaton or Cog by the magical items she had given them. Eventually she got to a doorway that was left slightly ajar. Behind it she could hear gasping that she thought might be an injured, frightened frog trying to catch his breath. "Jeremiah?"

[Stygian]

The speed of Cogidubnus' attack was more than impressive considering the circumstances, but so seemed the reaction time of the spider. Screaming, almost shrieking in the speed of the air around them, Salticia grabbed Ketefe painfully hard and threw her around, using her as leverage to get out of the way of the immediate direction of the cut. It glanced her still though; her and the feline. The spider gritted her teeth as she felt the blade graze over one of her arms and cut a long hole right into part of her garment. Likewise, while the overwhelming adrenaline rush distracted her, Ketefe was still aware of the searing pain as the blade bit into her leg and traveled up over it, onto her side.
   'NO! STOP IT!' Salticia was screaming, watching Cog's back as the wolf sailed past, moving against the other side of the chasm. 'ARE YOU CRAZY?!'

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog hit the side of the wall hard, rocks breaking off from the side as the Were tumbled down the sheer face for a moment. The rocks tore the wolf viciously, and sent rolling for a second the wolf dropped his sword, the thing gleaming softly in the darkness as it fell, like a crescent moon spinning into the black. Cog spat out a curse, his torn boots finding purchase on the rocks and pushing him back off - but the wolf had lost too much speed, and his sword tumbled into the black.

The wolf turned a vicious eye towards the spider above him, snarling, and growling at the spider's use of Ketefe as a shield - and his hands clenched on air. Weaponless.

He didn't have many options - although he then remembered something, something that had been useful against the spider once before. His hands clenched into fists, and then opened lightly, the fingertips just barely touching. Lightning sparked in the wolf's eye.
Not responding to the spider's scream, he began to chant silently, the wind stealing the words from reaching his ears, and with a final, silent syllable, produced a red-glowing orb directly in front of him - and manipulating his hands quickly, like a man flying a kite or controlling a puppet, sent it hurtling at the falling spider, dodging and weaving as it flew to meet the spider.

[Angel]

I'm fighting for my life, in freefall, in Hell. If I wasn't possessed, getting mind-controlled by a spider-woman, and unable to grab my weapon, this would be the coolest thing EVER.

Ketefe continued her struggle against Sal as the two fell towards certain death, the spider hissing for her to shut up and stop. The cat paid no attention, if anything, fighting harder. The mind-spider's control had been disrupted somehow, her demons actually helping her and overpowering the creature. But she couldn't reach her sword and hold off the spider at the same time...

That's when Sal paused for a moment, looking up. Ketefe's eyes moved to see Cogidubnus plummeting towards them. The cat winced as she was kicked out of the way by Sal, who took a little time to scream at the wolf. The glint of a sword became visible above then, and Ketefe was pulled back over by the spider - only to be sliced in the leg and side by Cog's sword. She growled, partly because of the pain of the slash, but mostly because of her indignation at being used as a meat-shield.

"What do you mean, is HE crazy?!" she hissed through her pain, trying to wriggle out of the spider's grasp. She twisted her head and watched as Cog's sword slipped from his grip, before shooting a glare at Sal. She was coldly curious as to why the spider would say she was helping them. Somehow, the cat never believed that people acted out of simple cruelty. No matter what a person had done, no matter how awful they were, they had the right to explain themselves at the end. But before she could open her mouth to ask the question she'd asked all her victims, she saw the lightning spell zigzagging towards Sal and herself. Immediately, she struggled harder to free herself, a ferocity in her motions now. Sure, she may not have wanted the spider to die yet, but that didn't mean she wanted to risk being a shield again.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel pushed lightly on the door and was kind of surprised when it swung easily open. This just seemed like the sort of place where the doors would open with a shiver-inducing screech. Glancing inside she didn't spot the frog at first, the decor was too distracting. She swore some of the toy animals were drooling. She definitely would not be asking for the name of the decorator unless it was to better avoid them. "Jeremiah? Where are you?"