Raven loves waffles more than life itself (ofevilsfire) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-05-16 00:06:00 |
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Darkness. All around her there was darkness. It was sinking into her skin, scarring and burning into her blood. It was as if her veins were on fire. She was above it all, floating and watching. The sky was black, the moon red. Buildings were being swallowed whole as the ground gave out and there was so much blood. Reaching out, the teen felt as fear and pain and death washed over her in waves, each stronger than the next, each knocking her backwards.
And now she was falling, the tendrils of darkness reaching up and grabbing her ankle. Pulling her downwards. She could feel it press into her, clawing desperately at whatever she could hold onto and screaming, a scream lost in the various screams and death that were all around her.
In the waking world in the midst of meditation and levitating, Raven did scream, a burst of demonic energy radiating from her and shattering all the light bulbs in the house. Her eyes were wide, with no iris or pupil, just white. Red markings glowing along her body angrily. Hell was calling.
Difficult to miss not only the scream, but the shattering of delicate glass and tungsten. Zee was in bed, reading, and these days she half expected to get a call from someone somewhere about needing a healer for a dream-related injury that occurred in the middle of the night; it’d happened a lot lately, so she was on alert. But when the bulb in her stained-glass lamp by her bed suddenly burst, she was gone because of another reason entirely. There one moment and in Raven’s room the next.
The smell of something heavy and metallic in the air, something burning in the woods. The pulse-point of magic, it beat, it ebbed and flowed around her in gossamer trails in the darkness and her eyes were glittering and blue, widened with concern.
“Raven!” She was just attempting to get the girl’s attention, bring her back to the present and away from what she had seen. “It’s just me. Take a breath, it’s just me.”
She was lost. Everything around her was covered in blood. She was being pushed and pulled apart by darkness, as if she weren’t completely there. It was terrifying and undoubtedly terrifying to see given the levitating, white eyed bit.
“The city will be bathed in blood, the screams of the dead calling.”
Because that wasn’t creepy at all, her voice echoey and not quite hers. Head snapping back, the teen remained in her trance, throat exposed.
“Her feat will set him free.”
And with that, the trance was finished, Raven falling the short distance from air to her bed, gasping and shaking as she pressed herself against the wall and looked around frantically. It was as she was clawing at her neck to get rid of the invisible tendrils of darkness that she noticed the familiar markings along her arms.
“N..no….”
Even in the darkness and without the glamour to mask the demon skin, she was pale and terrified.
Zatanna was on Raven’s bed too, sitting there, as if to catch her when she fell. Of course she hit the mattress, it was a soft surface, but there was concern there anyway because the feeling of dread in the pit of the magician’s stomach could not exactly be ignored. “Raven, it’s alright,” she spoke firmly, husky voice absolute, and she just needed to try and calm her down for the moment. Calm.
“Thgil,” she spoke, and the bulbs in the room were busted - but from Zatanna’s hand there appeared a glowing bit of luminescence that was warm, and illuminated the room sufficiently. Better than sitting in the pitch black, anyway; this way Raven could focus and see she was there. Then she smoothed the girl’s hair, an attempt at comfort. “What did you see?”
Finally it seemed as though Zatanna’s voice managed to break through the haze. Raven was still terrified, she could still feel the oppressive nature of death all around her, the silence that was deafening. But she wasn’t trapped there anymore. Tensing and jolting at the light, the teen struggled to catch her breath. She didn’t want to go back there. She didn’t want to see that again…
“Death.”
That was helpful. But it was the overwhelming feeling she had gotten, that had tried to drown her.
“The ground opening up. Swallowing buildings… darkness… things crawling from the ground. Claws. Blood...so much blood…”
It took a lot to scare Raven. Part of it was the fact she really hated admitting to being afraid (even though she had learned the hard way that she couldn’t just suppress it because then things manifested and that got ugly) but given the dreams and being half demon… But she was so unsettled.
“So much blood and death…”
It was in her voice. She wasn’t completely there. She wasn’t in the trance, but the vision, the images that had tormented her meditation had left a mark on her.
“Hell.”
Because the markings on her had to mean hell. And it confused her because it wasn’t like the dreams she’d had about her own destiny. But the markings meant hell.
With a frown, Zatanna studied the markings on Raven, all on her arms. They looked familiar to her too, Mistress of Magic she was, a scholar of all things occult-related. “Hell,” she agreed, but now it was just a matter of figuring out what that all meant in the scheme of things. As it related to what was dubbed ‘home’ here. “Something’s happening here. Or will happen. I’ll let the others know. We have to be prepared, as best we can be.”
This was a premonition. To sit back and do nothing would be foolish. It’d be like letting hell rain down upon them, without extending some sort of an umbrella.
“I’ll make you some tea. Come into the kitchen with me? Unless you’d rather get back to meditating.”
Yes. Letting people know. That would be good. That was the smart and responsible thing to do. And it wasn’t like Raven was in any sort of mindset to be helpful. Getting the words out had been hard enough. The message was received though. Hell. Death and bad things….
“Yeah…”
Because that was all there was to it. It was more than a nightmare. Raven had plenty of those, but this hadn’t been like that. No, this was something so much more. And then the offer of tea or meditation. God she didn’t want to go back to that. Not yet.
“No...tea’s good…” She was still scared. She was still just a kid when it all came down to it and that vision had shaken her. It was like the prophecy all over again. Finally detangling her limbs, the teen got off the bed so that they could go get tea.
Before they went into the kitchen, Zatanna pulled Raven into a hug - a protective one, recognizing that as grownup as she was forced to be, sometimes there were occasions where all Zee saw was a teenager, still technically a child, and who needed that protection when things got strange and when her fears were perfectly valid. She didn’t think Raven would hug her back (she was sparse with those) but it was just to show her that she was there.
“Erif,” she told all the candles in the space - she kept many spicy scented ones, some unscented, all on shelves and things, and at once they all lit up to provide illumination for tea-making. Which Zatanna got to doing right now, kettle on and set to whistle at them. “Is chamomile okay? It might help you sleep.”
Physical contact in general was not something Raven tended to do, first because it wasn’t in her nature, even as a child, but the added fun of empathy made it a bit more painful. She could block out some people, those she was used to so that they didn’t overwhelm her, but it was still something she didn’t do. So while she did tense at the contact, she didn’t push Zatanna away. It was the small things.
It really was a good thing for all the candles, what with the accidental breaking of all the lights. She’d feel bad about that later once she was more aware and not so lost in the fear of what she had seen. Whatever it had been, it was going to be bad.
“I guess.”
Raven really didn’t see herself going back to sleep, but she also knew that she’d have to at least try. The last thing she needed was to be up for days on end and cause a freak out at school like she had done when the sleep thing hit the county.
If need be, Zatanna would knock her niece out for some rest. She wasn’t a potions master, didn’t plan to brew anything, but a bit of spoken peels ought to do the trick. It was something she hadn’t tried, not in this world (there was a lot she hadn’t tried - her magic was intimidating and endless) but she was certain it would work. First, the chamomile, which was also an ancient remedy.
The tea was best with some honey, so she added a spoonful when it was brewed, stirring carefully. “I’ll send a message, let those with magic know what you saw. I want to test something too...”
It was then she poured the tea into her own cup, without using a strainer. “Let’s see how good my divination is.” Memories of her father teaching her, in dreams, learning in this life too - tricks of the trade in the circus, a family friend imparting the wisdom - came rushing at her like a tidal wave.
As annoyed as Raven might get about being knocked out, it wasn’t like she could claim a moral high ground given she had done the same thing to Ed when she’d finally found him and it had been clear that he needed the sleep. Even so, Raven really didn’t want to experience any of those images, images she knew would haunt her if she were to close her eyes.
“Yeah….”
Because maybe they would know. And Raven wasn’t really the best at reaching out in general. Best let Zatanna handle that since it was her guild. Though she did tilt her head to the side at the mention of divination. It was something she knew she had learned, or at least absorbed the information for, though she usually followed energy signatures when searching for people so divination wasn’t something she’d used.
“It’s worth a shot?”
She didn’t have time to drink the tea and enjoy a leisurely indulgence right now, so Zee poured the tea out carefully and then gave the cup a swirl. Her intuition kicked in, maybe a bit of that magic too that ignited her veins, and she started at the handle and worked her way down like her father had taught her; the future could be seen in the bottom of the cup, the far reaches. The symbols, however, were clear. Or rather, there was only one that was prominent.
“See that?” She showed Raven one of the squiggly shapes. “That’s a snake. It means enmity, hostility, facing an enemy or foe. There’s going to be a showdown.” No, this didn’t bode well at all.
List of things to work on. Divination. Raven figured it was probably possible with the whole absorbing of information thing she’d done, though she wasn’t certain. She was too wired yet exhausted to really think about that though and instead just watched as Zatanna did so. Instead she just sipped her tea and then looked to where Zatanna pointed.
Great. An enemy or foe. A showdown. That really didn’t make her feel any better about it being Trigon. Perhaps she would always worry about that though. Just because nothing seemed to have happened the first time she became a portal didn’t mean that the threat wasn’t real. There were a lot of threats though for the Orange County, so who could really know.
“...Great.”
Zatanna chuckled, but it was without any real amusement. “Guess we’ll have some interesting things in store for us.” She blew out a few of the candles, not wanting to leave them burning and have her house catch on fire. “Finish your tea, get some sleep. I’ll check on you in a bit too.”
To make sure that Raven really was getting some shut-eye. If not, Zee would try other methods - but she wanted the girl to rest, be refreshed, and gear up for what looked to be an interesting domino effects of events coming up. Yes, get sleep while you could. You’d need it.