Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-5999656-20190205035159/@comment-5999656-20190901050246

One second, she was standing stock still on the deck, arms crossed as she stared down a pale mobster with barely concealed hatred written across her face. The next, well, Lustra wasn't sure what had happened. There was a gap in her memory, a blank space, caused by fatigue, or stress, or something else. Maybe she phased out temporarily. It didn't really matter. All that mattered was that all of a sudden she was perched on top of the railing crouched like a monkey as the vessel tilted far, far in one direction, as the downpour thundered down relentlessly on the motley crew of the battered yacht, making the already dark night almost impossible to see through. So much shouting, movement from humans in every direction marred by bright white flashes of gunfire and their deafening rat-a-tats and rumbling and the reflection from the millions of droplets splattering painfully down upon all of them. And then there were the tentacles, Lovecraftian appendages clad in jagged white breaks and gleaming red orifices all along their slimy black lengths. More than eight of them, there were, that was for sure.

As the world tore itself to pieces around her, somewhere deep inside, it began to dawn on Lustra that, maybe, just maybe some of this was the fault of her own blind, dumb anger. Her rage - just like a drug to these beasts of the void. Despite herself, her mouth opened, and the plaintive words tumbled out on their own.

"Gods," she said, "I'm a fucking idiot."

But there was no time to lose. Lustra leaped to the side as a tentacle raised itself ominously above her, ready to slam its full weight down on her tiny human body. She landed just as she glimpsed Diaboli plunge feet-first into the black sea, and whipped her head to the side to see Dust racing towards Hazel's still, charred body. Behind her, there were sounds of metal clashing on bone. She blinked as words echoed in her head, a nameless memory of an order. A hole?

Right, a hole.

Lustra's hand plunged into her pocket, and she withdrew the last remnants of the Dust crystals Nozomi had given her. Altogether, it was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. But it was enough.

Lustra looked up again, as the wind whipped her bare skin and the rain plastered her hair against her face. She would leave herself enough Wind Dust, just enough to get out. The worst thing, the very worst, she had always believed, was to live guilty of having done wrong, and burdening others with that guilt. Sometimes, she'd even thought it was better to die honest than to live guilty.

A single laugh escaped between Lustra's teeth. Yeah, they'd always called her mad. Anger sure did a number on the mind. And if there was one thing she had never been lacking in, that was anger. As the only real Huntress on the boat, she couldn't do dishonor to her occupation by not taking the fight to evil's face. So... that was that.

She clenched her fist tightly around the crystals, feeling their warmth piercing her cold skin. She took a deep breath, and then, lightly as you please, she let go of the railing. A moment later, she had doven into the raging ocean after Diaboli, ready to unleash all that was left of nature's fury in the palm of her fist inside the hole.

_________________________

One moment, they'd been sitting peacefully inside the bridge. The next, they were sprawling on the windshield, hands fumbling blindly at the controls that were now beneath their bodies. Maris got up first, just for a resounding kaboom to echo just outside the window and the boat to flop in the opposite direction with a heavy splash. Maris stumbled to her feet and was outside the cabin in a flash, finally taking in the image of the others fighting tooth and nail with the massive tentacles. Less than ten seconds later and her shotgun was cocked and loaded, firing again and again into the black masses flailing aimlessly above.

She spotted the young girl with the decimated legs drag herself away from a particularly thorny-looking appendage, and without hesitating Maris ran forward and slid in front of the girl, letting loose a volley of shots at the already shredded-looking thing. To her surprise, the tentacle burst open in a spray of black and white, before retreating quickly into the ocean. She turned around for just a moment, her wide red eyes meeting those of Jett.

Meanwhile, Sorrel was pounding the controls, trying to replicate the reverse order of buttons that he had seen Diaboli shut off the engine in. The engine sputtered to life, and Sorrel seized the steering wheel with both hands as he breathed in a quick sigh of relief. What he didn't catch was the massive tentacle lifted up to the window, red eyes blinking one by one. Before the agent could realize it, the serrated triangle-headed appendage lanced forward, smashing through the window in an explosion of glass, and splattering his skull on the opposite wall like a power drill into a watermelon.