nieve | Ladon/Jin PSL

Ladon/Jin PSL

The storm off the horizon had already stirred up the ocean. Choppy waves hit the sand with resounding slaps, and the darkened waters roared like some great, angry beast. The wind had reached that stage, beyond steady or gusting, when it swirled about at the flaps of coats and hems of skirts like a confused dog, chasing its tail in directionless currents that twirled through the boardwalk. It caused the few patrons who'd braved the gloomy evening to duck their heads, grab their hats, and flee for cover. That is, other than the four men lurking by the railing, who everyone gave a wide berth when seeking somewhere to hide from the incoming wrath of Mother Nature.

Ladon contemplated this as he leaned on the creaky wood balustrade and toyed with his pocket watch. "Mother Nature" as the humans called her, was apparently a cruel, unpredictable mistress that they had built walls to keep out, and who they blamed for everything they couldn't systematically control. The ocean had been given a misnomer as well, but Ladon hardly paid enough attention to sailors to figure out what it was-- only that, like nature, the ocean was apparently female, and thus capable of tantrums that ripped apart ships, drowned brave men, and wreaked havoc on the shoreline.

He wasn't sure why there was always a female quality attached to dangerous, uncontrollable things. Clearly the humans who dubbed mothers as horrible had never had a father like his.

Odds are, they'd just known women like Camilla Flow.

Ladon had given up on lighting a cigarette the traditional way, the weather had squashed all attempts at keeping his lighter lit for more than a blink of the eye. Instead he waited until a human couple rushed by, the man with his arm around the woman, and then sneaked a zap of electricity to the tip of his cigarette. It did him little good, as the wind with one good huff extinguished the tip before he could even get a puff in.

He rolled his eyes and glanced at the man hanging around him.

"Any sign of 'em?"

The big were known as Domino shook his head. The reason the other patrons on the boardwalk avoided them was mostly because of Domino. This was less because the man could change into a grizzly bear and rip any of them in two, and more because he had a dark complexion that marked him as an outsider. "None yet."

"I got a feeling they aren't showing," Guivres said, before leaning next to him.

Ladon gave the younger dragon a good nudge with one elbow. "Yeah? How'd you know? Don't think I seen your eyes anywhere but the skirts of the dames walkin' by."

Guivres gave him one of his wolfish grins. "Love it when it's breezy, don't you?"

"No." Ladon swatted him upside the head. "Show some respect and stop oglin'."

"Yeah yeah," Guivres muttered.

The tallest of the bunch was Rugby, so it was natural he'd spot something first. He motioned to Ladon, who stepped around Guivres and headed over to see what the were had spotted. "Something up the beach."

Ladon dug a small set of binoculars from his pocket-- dragons had decent eye-sight, but nothing compared to weres like Rugby-- and used them to get a good look where Rugby was pointing. Something was there, all right, but nothing that Ladon had expected.

"That ain't our contact," Ladon said. "That's somethin' burrowin' under the sand."

"Something?" Guivres leaned in, and Ladon let him take the binoculars for a good look. "Maybe it's a gopher?"

"One hell of a gopher." Rugby shook his head, then looked down at Ladon. "Boss?"

"Hold on," Ladon said. "Let's see what it does."

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He had a love-hate relationship with coastal towns. The people, the culture, the food, that was always brilliant. Coastal towns were port towns, prone to trade, prone to travelers. Good for gossip, good for seeing all the things he always loved about humanity.

But the weather. Ugh. Sure, the planet was always so gorgeous from space, all that blue, all that water, but you got up close to it--you got yourself right on the edge of that water and you remembered how badly fire and water go together. Humidity, storms, rain. Monsoons. He preferred not to think about monsoons.

Machines seemed to go out of their way to drag him into miserable situations, and the Centipede--the first he'd managed to find after a day of searching--was no exception. He'd been watching it for a few hours now and had asked around. The people who had actually been willing to talk to him had mentioned that the beach had been prone to sinkholes lately. Some teen had been digging out there and suffocated when the sand gave out beneath him. And it was a busy area, even now with the storm kicking up, right by the walkboard. Board...something. It was a rather new thing, sort of like a stationary carnival. He'd never actually seen any until coming here.

Nieve. It was kind of a strange town, full of suspicious people and new technology. And of course the constant rain and sea breezes that always made him sneeze.

The Centipede had finally popped up to the surface, though, scraping through the sand as the light dimmed and the wind kicked up. Jin stood up from where he'd been hiding under the dock, stretching to work the kinks out. He'd wanted to wait until the storm started proper. It would be that much more miserable, but it would also mean less chance of being seen. He had to just trust the low light and poor visibility. Judging by the amount of taillights leading away from the boardwalk--yeah, that was it, boardwalk--people were wising up and getting out before the rain started.

He sighed, pulled his newsboy cap lower (human fashions, they were so hard to keep up with) and walked out from under the dock, tugging the clockwork cats free from their bag. He gave them both a wind as he made his way carefully toward the Centipede. He had to be cautious, otherwise it would disappear beneath the sand again.

He and the cats stayed silent, keeping at the Centipede's back as they approached. The Centipede reared up and he froze as it looked around, clicking its mandibles as it scanned the boardwalk. Lightning flashed out over the water and reflected off its metal plates.

"Storm's getting close," Guivres said, handing Ladon his binoculars back. "We're gonna get drowned, boss."

"Thought you knew how to swim, kid." Ladon rubbed some rain off the lenses before scanning the beach again. "Or you woulda died under the docks when the tide came in."

"Not in that." Guivres flinched at a bolt of lightning that split the sky and lit up the entire boardwalk with a crack of thunder.

"Guiv's right," Rugby said, and Guiv mouthed a thank you over Ladon's shoulder. "It'll get bad out here before long. I don't think the vamps're coming with this storm."

"If they're anythin' like Joe, this's exactly how they'll show. Rain was his style." Ladon frowned. His stomach always turned sour the moment he thought about the vampire mob boss he'd had to off. If he had it to do over again, he'd make the same decision, but what a mess the whole thing caused. All because of a young mage and her strange and horrible family situation.

Dames. Trouble in all sizes.

"You wanna go hide in the car, go."

Guivres didn't need more than that. He left with his light coat collar turned up over his neck. Ladon sighed to himself as the younger dragon left, a sound of exasperation lost on the wind.

The weres remained. In fact, Rugby had tensed considerably and was starting to growl, a feline rumble that started in his chest and echoed in his throat. Ladon looked up at the tall were.

"Rugs?"

"There it is."

Ladon pulled the binoculars out again, swore under his breath. It sure as hell wasn't a gopher tunneling along the beach. The creature reared out of the sand, lit by lightning and looking like a worm mated with a train engine. "What in the fuck is that?"

Domino was sniffing the air, sorting a strange scent out from the salty and briny odor of the sea and atmosphere of an active lightning storm. "Someone else's down there with it."

Ladon leaned over the handrail which protested with another creak, trying to get a look at whoever it was, and hoping it wasn't some poor drunk bastard who had been sleeping under the walkway.

The Centipede was spooked and distracted by something near the boardwalk, which meant Jin was out of options. Any second it was going to burrow back beneath the sand and he'd lose his chance.

All he had to do was nod and the cats transformed. The flash of white light had the Centipede whipping around toward Jin and firing off a barb from between its mandibles all in the same movement. It was fast, but Jin was faster. The scythe was slicing the Centipede in half before the light had even faded.

"Got--"

There was a flash of lightning, which hopefully concealed the light from his transforming scythe, but before the thunder could hit Jin heard it--a rushing sound behind him, like sand falling off some kind of--

He was in the process of turning when two Centipede legs pierced him from behind. One dug neatly between his ribs, the other scraped past his spine and out through his chest.

It was more surprising than painful, because there was a damn second Centipede and they had set a damn trap for him. Since when were Centipedes that clever? And there was something else, some crackling current running through the Centipede he'd never felt before. Electricity? But no, it was...different. Acting like electricity, making his hair stand on end as the Centipede tried to electrocute him, but still somehow different.

That was doubly weird, too, because even a Centipede would know better to try to use electricity--or whatever it was--against a sun dragon.

He tried to wrench himself off the Centipede's legs but it just gripped tighter and ah, yes, there was the pain, enough of it that Jin's legs almost gave out. A third leg dug into his shoulder, trying to get him to drop the scythe.

Dammit dammit do something hurry!

"Guys, curve!"

The scythe flashed again and curved like a snake going for the strike. The Centipede clearly wasn't expecting this. The Centipede let out a shrill cry and spat a barb, but it clinked off the scythe's blade. The scythe bent around and slashed deep into the Centipede's neck. The machine went rigid--and then limp. It started to dissolve away with its legs still embedded in Jin's flesh. The sensation was more painful than anything he'd been expecting and he dropped to one knee, hissing, his teeth sharpening from the effort of keeping himself together. He let the scythe fall to the sand beside him.

"Jin Tian..." the cats said in unison.

"I kn-ow." Blood was already hissing in the sand, turning it to glass. He had to heal himself and get to safety before he glassed the whole beach.

It was about then that the rain started.

My luck, Jin thought as he sank to the other knee, squeezing his eyes shut to focus on closing the wounds.

Ladon leaned over the railing further, trying to get a good look at what was going on further down the beach. It was then that the boardwalk's tendency to err on the cheap side (cheap labor, cheap prizes, and cheap building materials) decided to give Ladon a new appreciation for the hardy construction of the banisters in his jazz club. Because he had a way of leaning against things, and despite weighing little, the weather-worn wood didn't have the strength to support him.

The railing split, cracked, and bent from under him, and though Ladon grabbed at the quickly disintegrating wood, all he could get a handful of was splinters. Rugby and Domino lunged for their boss, but Ladon tumbled suddenly, off the boardwalk down to the beach a good twelve feet below.

He landed hard on the sand, all air knocked out of his lungs, and he laid there a moment, coughing up smoke and trying to assess if he'd broken anything. His hand hurt like hell, he was going to have one hell of a bruise and possibly a cracked rib, but otherwise the sand seemed to have cushioned his fall. Rugby and Domino peered down at him, yelling over the roar of the wind and ocean.

"Boss! You all right?"

"Yeah," he coughed back. "Just fuckin' dandy. God damn cheap assholes. Call my lawyer, I'm suin' for emotional distress."

"You don't get out of there, we'll be sending the search boats out," Domino said. Ladon looked over his shoulder to find the waves pummeling the beach not far away, enough that salty spray and foam hit him square in the face and rained down on his black coat. He swore to himself and struggled to his feet. He gave the two weres a withering look.

"Yeah, yeah, don't go through any trouble for me, fellas. I'll find a way back up."

"Attaboy, boss."

Rugs and Dom were at least managing to muffle their laughter. Ladon was thankful for the pain of his injured ribs and hand. If anything, it kept him from turning bright red in humiliation. The guys were not going to let him live this down.

He moved into the legs that held the boardwalk high above the swirling tide and made up an intricate maze of wooden pillars half-eaten by salt water and ready to cause some catastrophic incident in a few years time.

He'd found Guivres in a similar setting not yet a year ago. The green gave him hell, but he probably wouldn't have lived long if Ladon hadn't taken him in. Dragons have to worry about being washed out to sea just as much as the hobos who would normally call this place home did.

Speaking of which, none of the homeless were around. They'd been smart and retreated to safer places when the storm had started. It was only idiot mobsters like Ladon that bothered being by the shore at this point.

Once he'd retreated far enough into the underbelly of the boardwalk, he heard it. The voice of the man Domino had caught the scent from. He was talking to himself, telling something to curve, and then Ladon spotted it, a flash of light that dug into the neck of the massive animal-- machine-- what the hell was it? Dead, either way, and turning into dust before his eyes. Ladon finally got a good look at the stranger, his weapon, and the fact that he was bleeding profusely.

The sea was starting to close in behind the kneeling man. Ladon wasn't the only one who would need to find a way back up to avoid being captured by the waves.

"Hey, buddy!" Ladon shouted. He made to wave, and immediately regretted doing so when pain shot up his side. "You needa get the hell outta here, yeah? You're gonna wind up feedin' the fish."

He's deep in his own mind for the time being while he concentrates on healing. He doesn't hear the loud crack of the rail breaking, doesn't feel the cold rain, doesn't even react when a particularly large wave breaks only a few feet behind him, rushing up to splash his feet and knees. All he really notices is his energy draining, from both blood loss and the cold wet. He doesn't react to anything until he hears a voice dangerously nearby.

His eyes snap open as he's startled out of concentration, his injuries about half-healed. There's a man standing nearby, little more than a dark shape in the dim light beneath the boardwalk. Jin mops water and hair out of his eyes and blinks hard, adjusting his eyes to the gloom. A pretty nondescript guy, on the skinny side, wet sand clinging to his clothes. What is he even doing here?

Jin panics for a moment and struggles to his feet, gritting his teeth and forgetting that all of them are looking rather inhuman.

"I...what?" He takes a step back. Had this stranger seen everything? The Centipede's head is still dissolving near Jin's feet; no chance to hide it now. "The fish? I..."

A wave crashes and floods up to Jin's ankles. He squeaks in dismay.

"Wah! It came up so fast!"

He dances back from the water, stumbling a bit. The water recedes, and that's when the third Centipede bursts out of the sand right behind Jin, sparks dancing across runes carved into its body.

"Shit! Watch out!" Ladon pulls his gun from under his coat with a grimace, but it's hard to let a little broken rib bother you when you're staring down some metal deathmonster in the middle of a heavy storm. He can hear heavy footsteps on the boardwalk as his weres rush over to find out what the hell is going on. He manages to squeeze off several shots at the creature, only to watch the bullets bounce ineffectively off its metal hide.

He attempts to call up electricity in one hand, but in this wet weather, all he can produce are sparks that sting his fingertips and do little else.

"What the hell is it?" he hisses, holding his side with his unarmed hand.

The Centipede barrels over Jin in an effort to get at Ladon, who is now clearly the new threat. Jin goes down face first into water and sand and for a moment he panics, thinking he's drowning.

Get up get up get up before the waves come in again get up you have to save that guy--

He forces himself back up to his feet, only to almost be knocked off balance again as a wave crashes into his knees. He wobbles but straightens himself. There's no time to think. The Centipede is attacking the other man, despite him shooting and despite what appears to be electricity crackling around his hands. No time.

Jin brings up the scythe again and swings downward, right as the Centipede leaps toward Ladon's face. The blade catches it midair and slams it into the wet sand, impaling it up to the scythe's tang. The scythe destroys the machine's power center before it even realizes what's happening. It twitches once and then the lights of its six eyes go out, its body starting to dissolve.

Jin sinks to his knees and almost drops his scythe.

"Ah, damn..." Another wave rushes up and almost reaches his neck. "We...need to get out of here before more come..."

Even Jin has the rare moment when he recognizes that a fight needs to be postponed. And he and this stranger are both injured and in danger of drowning if they stay here much longer.

"The fuck--" That's all Ladon manages before a crack of thunder booms above, cutting him off and signaling that they are much too close to the storm for it to be safe. Still, he gawks a long moment at the dissolving creature, then even more pointedly at the scythe.

He's torn between confusion and awe, and that instinct that told him to squirrel away a savings account to rival royalty and buy up all the real estate he could with the remains wants him to just go for it. Grab the thing. It's new, it's different, it's powerful. He wants it.

The second whip-snap of thunder and a snake of brilliant lightning that barely proceeds it above their heads holds him back. He glances up at the blackening sky, feeling the electricity in the air. Fulgurmancer or not, a strike of lightning would still fry his scales off. He leans out then and grabs Jin with his good arm. The ocean has soaked both of them, and the blowing sand is sticking to his face and shoulders.

"Come on!" he shouts over the approaching squall, and starts to yank Jin further beneath the boardwalk, angling down the beach away from the crashing waves and beneath the groaning wooden boards which could very well give out above them and trap them in the debris.

Damn cheap, shoddy workmanship. Ladon was going to give Sophie an earful about her lowest-bid tourist trap by the sea-- that is, if he made it out alive.

"We're gonna drown if we don't get back up, yeah? There're stairs further up that lead to the midway."

"Yeah..." he only half hears Ladon and lets himself be tugged along, stumbling every time a wave comes up. Darn ocean. Darn rain. Darn Centipedes. He's dizzy from blood loss and from the wet and cold which is now starting to make its way down to his bones. He's distracted as well, busy concentrating on closing his wounds before he bleeds on this newcomer.

The underside of the boardwalk goes by in a dark brown blur, punctuated by the dark gray of the waves, crashing higher each time. Eventually Jin can see the stairs ahead, as rickety as the rest of it but salvation all the same.

Just get there just get to the stairs that's the goal get to the stairs...

A particularly powerful wave slams into them and Jin nearly loses his footing. He grits his teeth and presses on, still gripping his scythe and holding tight to Ladon. He doesn't want to lose either of them right now.

He's soaked, he's cold, he's miserable, his ribs hurt and he is going to deliver a few smacks upside the head to his men before the night is over. Rugs and Dom have gotten complacent, to say nothing of Guivres. It takes too long for the damn stairs to come into view, and when Ladon finally sees them, he swears a blue streak if only because he doesn't need to save his breath for any more waves that could knock him off his feet. He hurries around to the creaky, wet wood staircase and heads up into the midway.

The rain is starting to come in bursts, pushed across the boardwalk in cold, wet blasts with each gust. Ladon is shaking like a drenched cat and looking just about as sad in his wet clothes. He glances down the boardwalk, but can't pick out Rugby or Domino through the torrential storm.

"Shit!" he yells, and after glancing behind himself to be sure Jin is keeping up, he heads over to one of the buildings beyond the shut-down rides and starts banging on the door. "Cleo? Cleo! You in there?"

Step by step, one goal at a time. Get to the stairs, get to the stairs, now...go up the stairs. Get up the stairs get up get up...

It's harder than he wants to admit, but it shows in the way he clings to the railing and stumbles on each step, struggling just to lift his legs high enough. The other man has gone on ahead, but all Jin can focus on is the slick wood beneath his feet, the cold wet metal of the railing and the rusty smell that came with it, and the wind at his back.

It seems like an eternity before he's at the top of the stairs, and by then Ladon is banging on the door of some building. Jin lets out a sigh and sinks to midway floor, wet and still sticky from dropped food and candy. He winds one arm through the railing and just leans on it, clutching on for dear life as he catches his breath. He feels like he could pass out at any second.

Unbidden, the scythe flashes white and separates into the clockwork cats, Tick and Tock.

"We must return to this area as soon as possible," says Tick.

"There is something wrong with the Centipedes," Tock agrees.

"Something very wrong."

"Outside manipulation, perhaps."

"See that you recover quickly, Jin Tian."

Jin can only nod vaguely.

Ladon doesn't hear the cats talking, not over the howl of the wind and the booming of thunder all around them. Even if he did, he'd explain it away as being a hallucination from the cold and wet and very unpleasant condition he's in.

Just when he thinks the door's never going to open, it does, just a few inches.

"Cleo, lemme in."

"You're soaked," the succubus remarks, and it's only because he's shivering uncontrollably that he doesn't roll his eyes.

"No shit, c'mon. Some other fella got caught out in it too." He waves over his shoulder at Jin, then shoulders his way into the room. Cleo lets him. She could have kept him out with one hand alone if she'd wanted.

"Come on, pal," she shouts. "I'm not keeping this door open forever. The break room's going to flood."

He's pretty sure that he passes out for a moment. When he comes to, someone is calling for him. There's a woman standing in a doorway, holding the door open for him.

It seems so far away...

"Get up and walk, Jin Tian," Tick growls.

Jin grabs hold of the railing, grits his teeth and hauls himself to his feet. He hauls himself across the rain-slick boardwalk, holding his shoulder.

Get to the door get to the door...

Finally he reaches the door and that's when his energy disappears. He practically falls inside, his cats leaping away to avoid getting caught under him.

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Ladon/Jin PSL

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ALMOST A MONTH LATER... derp.

lmao it's all good