serefin "tranavia's greatest idiot" meleski (meleski) wrote in valloic, @ 2022-09-14 19:05:00
WHO: Serefin Meleski and Lila Pitts WHAT: You know, just fighting some darkness monsters with starlight, cue Lila's powers coming back and making it look cooler than Serefin. WHEN: Wednesday, sometime after the power loss in the city WARNINGS: There's just an enormous amount of talk about eyes, if that weirds you out. STATUS: Complete
As a former blood mage, gore was not usually an issue. Serefin had seen far too much blood come out of himself and others and strangers that it didn't register as disgusting—only concern when it came out of people he loved due to injury. But some things were worse than blood. Some things were obsessively slimey or confusingly gigantic. Some things had too many eyes than were necessary, showed up like an amorphous gang out of the darkness, and shot laser beams in a wide expanse.
Some things were currently being obliterated by himself, and Diego's pregnant paramour, Lila Pitts. How they had managed to get separated from others was another story for another time—one Serefin might blame on alcohol and his own lack of depth perception in darkness—but right now it was stay alive. And also keep Lila alive or he would be dead because Diego would absolutely, unquestioningly stab him. Serefin figured it was a fair trade off.
"Are you certain—" Serefin began, a burst of a supernova in his palm and a smattering of moths fluttering in front of half a dozen eyes on one of the monsters. He had lost count of how many of these multi-eyed terrors had come for them, and that they had taken down. But the darkness wasn't subsiding, and neither were the attackers, and Serefin was feeling exhausted by the sheer celestial power he was pumping out.
"—that you should keep getting that close to them? Can you not throw the knives? Or just stay out of range of the beams?" One of the said beams shot between them, burning a hole through a tree behind them. Serefin felt it nearly singe his knuckles. Blood and bone, the sentient flan had been aiming for the star in his hand. "Ah, well nevermind then. Continue."
“Worry about yourself, mate. I’m doing just fine!” Vallo hadn’t been very welcoming to Lila so far. But she would take a dozen fights like this one over the emotional gymnastics she’d been forced to do over the last two weeks. It was a mindless thing, using her borrowed weapons and dancing between targets with a manic cackle. There was a little hesitation, here and there, when something got a little too close for comfort or she thought too hard about the growing life inside of her.
But it was the resonance of Serefin’s power that eventually froze her mid-step. She nearly dodging an attack too late, but managed in the end, and flung a knife into one of her attacker’s eyes. It shrieked and retreated, giving Lila a second to breathe.
Was that what she thought it was? That feeling? She’d started to adjust to have no powers. And it felt different but familiar.
“That flash you’re throwing around, it’s not like a spell with magic words and whatnot,” she said. “It’s more like an extension of yourself, yeah?”
Impressed with her shot, Serefin made an appreciative sound, though it might have been lost in the monster shrieking. He could understand, more than ever, how Lila and Diego got on, even if he hadn't believed it before. It made sense, but he could ponder the romantic inklings of his mentor later when he wasn't about to be vivisected by a laser-beam-shooting eyeball mound.
He shook his hand and another star grew in the palm. He was moments from slinging it at the retreating monster, when her question stopped him short. His hand went back down, Serefin looked at her in a way that did not account for the urgency of the situation. "Is that the question you want to ask right now? I mean, if there is any time for honest conversation I suppose now would be it. No time to overthink or lie, but you know I haven't really thought about it much."
The retreating monster had come back, angry now, with Lila's blade in one of its eyes. Serefin whipped his hand across his body, using all the tricks and skill he learned from Jacob and Diego to throw a knife, but to throw the star. It burst in a spray of light into one of the eyes, and burrowed and burned deep into the socket.
"But yes, not really a spell. I feel as though it would be too complicated to keep up if it was." Another blast of laser and Serefin was nearly a hair too late, ducking away and closer to Lila. Oh this was going about as mediocre as possible. "Why? Anything you'd like to share with me and the rest of our friends?"
Lila made a thoughtful noise. "If I just told you, that would make it a lot less fun, Serefin."
The feeling had grown as Serefin neared and that was all the proof she really needed. Her ability had always gotten "louder" as powered individuals got closer. It's how she'd known Viktor was outside of the closet Diego had locked her in at home. Thinking about Diego right now was not what she needed, but it did fire up her blood and give a sharper edge to her grin as she reached out and copied Serefin's move down to the exact position of his body.
A mirror image of his star magic fired from her hand into the creature with so many eyes. Why so many eyes? Well, they were good targets anyway.
"Ooh hoho, that's fun. Maybe you can stay," she crowed, dodging a reactionary blast from the monster. She was good at multitasking. "What else can you do with this one?"
Clearly surprised, but intrigued, Serefin whistled low. "Now see, that is a little more exciting than throwing daggers. Why didn't you do that at first?" Serefin asked, in a casual rhetorical sort of way, not realizing that it had even been a problem to begin with. Simply Lila withholding to prove some kind of prowess without powers. He wouldn't fault her—there had been a time when Serefin wanted to be more than magic. It was how he found his way to the Underground, to Diego, and to Jacob.
"Now you cannot make me look bad by doing it better," Serefin said, flicking his hands open and a constellation of stars floated around him. With another push through the air, the stars took off, a barrage of light—some hitting the targets, some missing, but the monsters hissed regardless and Serefin took that as a win.
"Normally I would get closer, shove my hand right inside one, but I doubt taking out one eye would be as well received as taking out the correct eye." Unlike Lila, he was not as skilled at multitasking. As he reached for a blade he kept in his boot, one of the lasers dinged him in the shoulder, and he nearly toppled over.
Serefin recovered quickly, though in clear pain, as he did a trick he had done a dozen times before with Jacob. The blade, as he passed it to Lila, was thumming with starlight and glowing like a beacon.
"You can light it up, Lila." He paused, then added, "Or you can do it yourself now, if you insist on self-sufficiency."
"I didn't have my powers anymore, but something must have changed," Lila shrugged. She didn't promise not to do it better; she'd be lying if she said she wasn't going to try and do exactly that. With a devilish smile, she spun away from another blast and then spread her hands to fire off a cloud of stars. They weren't any more accurate than his, but it was still impressive. The one thing her mimicry had always given her was an easy ability to channel the powers she borrowed without much of a learning curve.
Serefin getting hit snapped her attention back to him. While she wasn't exactly attached to him just yet, she knew very well that Diego was and the people Diego loved were important to her by default.
"Easy does it, I've got this." She took the blade he offered and pulled her last borrowed knife to duplicate the effect. Launching them at two strategically chosen eyes, she watched the creature seem to light up from within before it started squealing in pain and it exploded into bits of carnage and light. "Ooh yeah. You can definitely stay. How's that shoulder?"
"It's been better, but I can't complain, you know, reflects poorly on my training to suck it up," Serefin said, flashing a cheeky smile through the pain. What Serefin wanted to do was sit down as exhaustion was more of a determinant to him than the buzzing ache of his shoulder. Did her powers still work if he was unconscious? Serefin wasn't keen to find out, and forced himself back up to his feet.
A bit of Lila's recently exploded carnage slid to touch his foot. He regretted, almost, wearing those terrible crocs. Perhaps he'd rethink his shoes when it came to fighting things that were blowing up. He kicked it toward her like a ball.
"You dropped this, if you are the type to take rewards for your battles. I would not put it past you, there's a charmingly savage part to you I haven't expected." Much like Diego. Again, another reminder of how well the two of them fit together, if Serefin was to have any say about it. He didn't, but he liked to think he did—some self-importance as a former royal didn't completely go away.
Another star flickered to life, and he rolled it back and forth across the back of his hand, a distraction from his shoulder. "How long does it stay?" Serefin asked, nodding toward Lila, indicating her mimicry. "Am I going to have to take the reins again? Does Diego know you can do that? You can answer in any order, I'm not particular."
Lila raised one sharp eyebrow at taunting that was clearly aimed at Diego, the corner of her mouth lifting in amusement. If he got away with teasing Diego, without driving the man away, it spoke to a closeness that surprised her. It didn't explain why he felt the need to kick mangled bits of eye monster at her, though.
"Thanks but no thanks. I like my trophies to be cold hard cash or time travel briefcases. Maybe a weapon or two." She cheerfully kicked the splodge back at him and pulled up three smaller stars to mock juggle between her hands. "My you are a nosy one, aren't you?" She didn't like answering questions that might hide information that could someday be useful if a person turned on her. Trust no one, the Handler had taught her. Of course, she'd gone and mucked that up good but then the Handler had also shot her dead once so Lila figured it was all a wash.
"Diego knows. Though apparently he didn't actually live that bit because he was here with you lot." She pointed at him with a starlit hand, her face shadowed behind the curve of light. "Anyway, if you've got somewhere to be, don't let me keep you."
"Ah, unfortunately I seem to have misplaced my cold hard cash, haven't a clue about the briefcase situation, and you have taken the last of my weapons. However, I do think you are better with it than I would have been, so the loss is well spent," Serefin said, well. Rambled actually. Just keep talking, just keep being nosy—which he preened like a goddamn peacock at her noticing. It usually took a few more poking questions before people caught on to his mini-interrogations.
Serefin was staring off at the direction the monsters had been coming from, waiting for more movement. After fighting them for a while, the unexpected downtime felt suspicious. Until Lila answered his question. He slowly, curiously, canted his heat toward her.
"Are you jealous? That he was here with us?" Serefin asked. He was usually the jealous one; he was certainly not used to being on the receiving end. "I promise you it was not all cakes and cookies and sweetness or whatever else you may have thought. Lots of things like—" Serefin gestured to the dead monsters and the endless darkness, "—this."
He pointed his own starlit finger back at her, mocking, endlessly annoying because he wanted to see how far he could push. "And I cannot leave you, I'd like to stay alive, and the abandonment of Diego's lover ranks quite high on the Stab Serefin List. If there is one, I don't actually know, but I can assume."
Lila let the stars in her hands fall away with an annoyed huff. "I'm not Diego's lover, you twat. I'm not Diego's anything." She knew there was a very good chance Diego had told his friends about the baby, but she'd be damned if she was going to acknowledge it to virtual strangers until she had no choice. Another month or two and her body would betray her anyway. Why the rush?
"If you won't leave me, then I'll leave you. Jealous," she scoffed, turning to wander back in the direction this had all started. "If I'm jealous, it's of the sweet meal ride you lot have here. Morningside is high-class digs. And apparently they pay people to fight monsters. But you don't really do that, do you? You work at a joke shop." She'd done her fair share of stalking the last couple of weeks. Sending a smile over her shoulder, Lila skipped childishly across the forest floor. "All that power and what do you use it for besides fights you got dragged into by accident? Glad I got to see you show off a bit, at least."
"I quite enjoy working at the joke shop, considering retail is—" Serefin stopped walking after Lila, and grinned, as if finally catching on to the joke. To be fair, he was exhausted and his shoulder was throbbing, the fact that he hadn't caught on right away was not because of his usual inability to be observant. "You said that like an insult. Wait, were you insulting me? I think you were, with a little compliment at the end. You will have to try harder than that, you know, I am unflappable much to everyone's annoyance."
That was partially true; there were a few things that could grind right under Serefin's skin, but he wasn't going to give that up to Lila right away. And not when they were fresh off a monster battle. Serefin wasn't quite sure if it was even over, only that they found a respite and needed to find the others.
"But fine, you're right. You're not Diego's lover, but you are Diego's something. Or Diego is your something. Is that what you prefer?" Serefin had caught up to her now, walking side by side, with a handful of stars leading the way like he was holding a lantern. "Either way, he would do that little angry grumpy thing he does when he doesn't want his feelings to show if something happened to you. So you are, unfortunately, stuck with me until you are in your high-class Morningside digs or what have you."
He paused, before adding, "He would also do that same angry grumpy thing if something happened to me. Also, Jacob would be upset, and I do hate upsetting him the most."
Lila shrugged. “If I really want to hurt your feelings, I’ll put more effort into it. Cross my heart.” She crossed a pinkie over her heart for dramatic effect. The information offered about Diego and Jacob wasn’t a surprise, but it still made something uncomfortable close to bitterness swim around in her stomach. Diego had a family beyond the Umbrella Academy here; it just wasn’t with her.
“But sure, fine. Diego is my something. Which I suppose means I can’t leave you to fend for yourself, whether you’re capable or not.” Sighing, she threw an arm over his shoulder and pulled him out of the way of a laser shot suddenly breaking through the trees and coming a little too close to them both. It was lucky timing, but she made it look intentional. “Got enough left in you to keep up, kitten?”
Serefin was torn between pain and surprise. He hadn't seen the beam (surprise), but Lila's hand on his shoulder was like salt rubbing deep into the burn (pain.) But at least he wasn't dead, thanks to her quick thinking. He could survive being stabbed but he was still unsure about the lasers from eyeballs, and he didn't want to find out.
Serefin sighed, full of all his puffed up dramatics, toward the way of the beam, and the inevitable rest of the daemons. A few stars winked to light around his head like a halo, irony at its finest, as he waltzed right past her toward the trees. "I suppose we're just going to have to find out if I do, aren't we?"