Bayou Buffet

[ReaptheMusic]

Leaving the Gas Works, Seina had looked back the entire time. It was apparent she'd made it to her original destination but... looking for Kris would have to wait. Instead she had to focus on keeping up with the ice conduit as they went back through Flood Town to get to the swamps. She had trouble staying close to him, often falling behind in her venture of running between roofs and swirling into darkness to keep up with him. Half the time she told herself it was practically a race. But, it really wasn't. The vermaak 88 was damn fast, he didn't need to stop and run, ice skating as he was across the risen water of the town.

She caught herself admiring the way he controlled his power. She'd never really seen ice skating in person but, he made it look really cool... Oh. No, apparently he was pretty opposed to ice puns. Um... he made it look... warm...???

The dork nearly tripped laughing at her own joke in her head.

Aside from her burst of giggles, the rest of the trip they made in silence. They took to running after a while. Though her legs were long, she occasionally had to dash to run beside him, with his body and legs being a little longer, her medium-heeled ankle boots giving a satisfying click every time they hit the pavement. At last, the weather became visibly humid, sweat dripping down the back of her neck as the moisture in the air was unbearably acute, the trees in the swamp looking gloomy and ominous while fireflies buzzed around them. At last, she felt her stamina, which had increased with her being a conduit, running low right when they hit the docks.

"Hey, I need a minute..." Seina slowed to a stop, letting out a small 'phew...' as she put her hands on her legs. They'd made it here in good time. She took this moment to look around... These swamps were more foggy than they were dark... Ah, She noticed the vermaak's shadow cast dimly by the surrounding fireflies. She outstretched her hand, pulling the shadow into her arm. The darkness swarmed like a small tornado around her arm and into her chest. The shadow conduit shivered, flinching and pulling back as her feet tapped a few times. "Ah... It's like a cold shower..." She relaxed, stretching her arms over her head. "Alright, I'm all juiced up..."

She padded forward a few steps ahead of him on the docks, but then paused, her hands behind her head, her tan jacket slightly open and parted with her pose, one pair of shoes' toes pointed downward. She half turned to the side, looking at the open water and the lonely looking trees. Even more water here than in Flood Town. She spaced out for a moment before pivoting her upper body toward the ice conduit, fireflies lazily swirling nearby her. Unaware, two dragonflies perched themselves on her as she stood still, one on her upward elbow and the other on her hair, appearing similar to a hair ornament. Her blue eyes looked the vermaak 88 up and down, only finally getting a good look at his neat suit.

"So uh... what do I call you, by the way?"

[Ex249]

The trip through flood town was much faster than usual, 249 wanted to be there and back not too late into the night. Night attracted the corrupted as well as other forms of smaller, less harmful, but still disgusting swamp vermin. He noticed he had been constantly lengthening the gap between himself and his new temporary partner and took every moment he could to skate over the water to show off a little. Usually he just got looks of pure terror, so he was going to make the only person not terrified of him a little bit impressed. At least he hoped she was impressed. He didn't know why he cared if she cared but he did.

Once at the swamp, the fireflies came out full force. A bad sign, they were like small beacons for the corrupted. Natural flares. The sun was still up though, so maybe they were still busy building and maintaining their nests. The girl asked his name, he didn't even have the words to tell her he did not know. "249. That's all you'll get from me on that topic. What should I call you should I need to?" The ice conduit gestured to the numbers stitched onto his right sleeve while also swatting at a firefly, freezing it mid flight and letting it's glowing corpse drop to the ground, thaw, and fly away.

"Do you remember where in the swamp the map lead us to? There's no way I'm searching this entire place, especially with the sun this low and the weather this hot."

249 noticed that ice crystals were forming on his jacket periodically. The swamp was humid enough to keep his coat looking like it was covered in glitter which wasn't too fun, considering he was basically becoming a walking dragonfly with the sun glimmering off of him. He was constantly brushing the small bits of ice that didn't last even a second after they got more than two inches from his body. He was happy about though, considering as long as the air froze around him, he wasn't in any danger from the heat. He looked around the swamp for any signs of corrupted and found none, he glanced back at the girl and waited for her to point the way.

[ReaptheMusic]

Several questions bubbled to mind when he mentioned his name. That's all she'd get on the subject? Her eyes scanned the number's he'd promised attached to his sleeve, her face falling a little. That was a bit sad. She didn't know much about the Vermaak but, going on the numbers on his arm, she could guess they were his ID of a sort. Seina allowed the silence to hang between them as she watched him swat a firefly, who froze and hit the ground. Then it thawed, harmlessly, and buzzed away. She pressed her fingers to her lips, stirring the dragonfly on her arm who flew away, and couldn't help but giggle at it all. She smiled at him from beneath her fingers, pulling them away to part her lips.

"I'm Seina. She nodded to him, her voice soft. The cyan colored dragonfly on her hair fluttered its wings, but stayed on her head.

"Do you remember where in the swamp the map lead us to? There's no way I'm searching this entire place, especially with the sun this low and the weather this hot."


"Weren't you looking at it longer than I was? Seina folded her arms and pursed her lips. Then she lifted her hand, waving it dismissively. The cyan colored dragonfly in her hair shifted at the movement before fluttering away. Seina lifted her head to examine the dragonfly leaving, then took note of 249's predicament. She let out a soft 'oh,' admiring how his body glittered in the sunlight, the frost covering him made him look like a diamond or a glittering statue. Her blue eyes widened at her awe. Then she turned whilst clearing her throat, He was certainly captivating but, he'd probably get angry if she didn't continue her thought. She wasn't exactly into being chained up in that cold warehouse again, or worse, killed. She tapped her finger against her cheek as she walked across the docks towards the water with her back to the ice conduit, trying to get to a point where she could see through the trees and fog better.

"It's on one of the islands or something, towards the center of the swamp. I got this. We'll be back in that warehouse with you all juiced up before you can even say--"

cr-AACK

The plank her foot landed on next gave way, the piece of wood splintering in two. Seina's hands threw themselves up as her leg went down through the docks, the sound of clothing being ripped also heard throughout the swamp. Luckily, her other leg caught herself on the part of the docks that were still sturdy, her hands also catching themselves on the old wood as her body was crumpled against the docks. Her body trembled.

"A-aah..." She sucked in air between her teeth. She leaned back on her hands, using her free leg to crawl backwards slightly. Her leg that went through the docks had a long gash in it where a nail had torn through both the flesh and the leggings she wore, red blood dripped from her leg and into the water below. She shuddered to think of what creatures could smell it.

Of course though, the shoe aside from the splinters in it was fine.

She sat with her butt on the docks, a few feet from the hole in the wood she'd created, closer to 249 from before. She examined the wound with her lips pressed together.

"Good thing I'm a conduit..." Despite the nastiness of its appearance, she could already feel her body healing itself. The leg of her stockings though, it was ripped to shreds. With some careful tugging, she ripped it to just below her shorts, leaving one of her pale legs out in the open whilst the other remained in its dark cloth.

"Let's get going," Seina grunted as she moved to pick herself up, blood drying against her pale flesh on her leg.

[Ex249]

The docks were fairly obviously gone without maintenance. No civilians dared go near them since the second blast somehow turned people into bug monsters. The swamps were too dangerous and now, as made clear by this girl falling through the dock and cutting her leg, the docks were no safer. He instinctively reached for her but she fell too fast, cutting her leg pretty bad. If she weren't a conduit she would probably need a hospital visit but luckily she was a bit more durable than the average human.

"Nice. To be fair, I was more focused on the other parts of the map. Mainly the fact there were other locations throughout New Marais. I saw that that one graveyard was marked too. Probably safer as well but this circle was biggest. Pull yuhself up, brush off and lets get onnit, yeah?" 249 said, a bit of his frustration mixing with the bit of himself trying not to laugh going through as well. He turned on his heel and took a step off the dock, landing on a chunk of ice that formed beneath his foot. Always a good sign. He took a few more steps, making a path that was anchored to the docks by his original step. He made his way to the base of a thick tree covered in Spanish moss and had a now drowning and frozen swarm of gnats surrounding it. He looked around trying to find a sign of something. Anything.

A sound in the water a bit away startled him. Hopefully something that was supposed to live in the swamps made it. Giant bugs were harder to freeze in their tracks than a gator or an angry but quite large turtle. He reinforced the ice bridge he had made, as it was already melting and beckoned the shadow conduit to join him.

"We might have to do this slowly, The water is much warmer here than in flood town, harder to freeze. Just ah, maybe float from tree to tree if you want to go faster?" He said, he still sort of needed her. Only the two of them had seen the map other than the ones who made it who happened to not be present.

[ReaptheMusic]

"Nice. To be fair, I was more focused on the other parts of the map. Mainly the fact there were other locations throughout New Marais. I saw that that one graveyard was marked too. Probably safer as well but this circle was biggest. Pull yuhself up, brush off and lets get onnit, yeah?"

Hmph. Rude. Though, she did find his accent endlessly amusing. British, right? Something like that. She hobbled to the edge of the dock as she watched him walk across the water on ice.

"We might have to do this slowly, The water is much warmer here than in flood town, harder to freeze. Just ah, maybe float from tree to tree if you want to go faster?

"Ah, good idea!" Seina called out to the conduit. She tapped her bloodied leg against the dock, the gash already scabbed over and the skin healing over quickly. "Good as new. Hup!" She hopped onto the edge of the wooden railing, crouched down, then leapt off, her body bursting into a spiral before landing above the ice conduit in the trees branches. The romantic draping lichen framed her as she peered down.

"Think you can keep up with me this time?" She teased, a grin on her face. She hurried off for the next tree, giggling to herself. She was having fun despite the odds of her situation. From behind herself, she could hear the ice conduit mumble something in a different language she couldn't identify and attempt to hurry to make it to her. He failed, always staying just slightly behind her.

Now it was her turn to show off. Whenever branches would elongate and extend toward the other, Seina's high heel ankle boots ran quickly along the lines of the bark and leap off at the end of the branch to forge into shadows and appear on the other branch. She looked like a black cat, elegantly slinking her lithe body along the narrow branches, keeping her balance without fail every time. She reformed on another branch as she made her way into the center of the swamp, her body reforming to do a cartwheel on the edge of the lichen-draped branches and keep running with ease. It was incredible how much more... alive she felt, how her body was able to maintain balance and coordination much easier. Her joy showed itself by a giggle bubbling to her lips after her cartwheel and continuous running along the branch.

They came to a small island in the center of the swamp. Ahead of 249, Seina lined her heels one over the other, then perched at the edge of her branch of the tree over the small amount of land to look down at it, her head cocking to the side. Something purple shimmered just below the water, glowing brightly even through the murky surface.

"Ah...?" Seina's shadowy form danced through the air and off the branch, onto the shore of the small island on the edge of the water. She peered at it closer, taking a step towards the murky depths. No doubt about it. The purple ethereal glow emanating under the water was too distinct and strange a color for it to be of natural origin. She perked up, grinning in relief.

"H-hey 249, I think I found it!!" She looked in his direction as he came closer to her location. Oh... but he seemed to not hear her. Oh, well. She turned back to the thing she assumed to be a blast core, then at the water. Ugh... God knows what's in this water. Alligators... snapping turtles or pollutants with harmful chemicals... She didn't want to think about it. Though, the idea of mutant, conduit sharks crossed her mind faintly again. She shuddered. Then Seina scowled.

She had promised the ice conduit this much, and he seemed to have a hard time getting into the water from what she saw earlier. Maybe she'd ask about it later. She pushed her sleeves up her arms, her eyes glimmering as of course, shadows wrapped themselves protectively around her ankle boots. With a silent gulp, she waded into the water.

She audibly groaned, shuddering the entire way as the murky water went to just above her hips. Seina's hands hesitated over the waters surface as she leaned down to pick up the core.

[Ex249]

249 was getting warmer, he could feel it. not bad enough that he couldn't get back and have half an hour to spare, but that was a half an hour he would like to keep open to get back to his warehouse, any warehouse really. Hell, he'd be okay breaking into a freezer at a fast food joint. He did his best to keep up but between the ice he made getting thinner and his mind wandering the way it was there was no possible way for him to keep up with the girl. He swore some Afrikaans at her and did his best.

He saw her a bit ahead, just out of ear shot. She jumped down next to the biggest nest he had ever seen. It was like it's own land mass. He could see a few Ravagers making their way out of their holes with a small army of the usual swamp monsters following suit. They weren't exactly being stealthy but the bugs and other things masked their noises and they moved in on the girl. 249 couldn't even think to yell, he just used a majority of his powers to dash into the girl and catch her waist in his arm and keep moving, whipping her away from whatever caught her eye and skating a good 30 feet away and hoisting her over his shoulder fireman style, spinning around whiles still sliding and pumping a shotgun blast at one of the prawns who decided to leap onto his icy path.

"Fucking keep your eyes open next time, that's a hive!" The ice conduit yelled, still back peddling. 7 shots remained in the gun and he intended on continuing to move backwards. "Mind telling me when to turn, seeing as you're the only one facing the direction we're going?" A two more gunshots and the sound of splashing and ice breaking filled the swamp. The ravagers were making their way through waist deep water just fine, unfortunately.

[ReaptheMusic]

The sound that spat from her lips when her waist was suddenly clotheslined at a certain mph that she wasn't expecting was more high pitched and surprised that she intended. The sensation of hands on any part of her was unexpected, and the subsequent blush made her face glow. Her shock and blush remained, her confusion growing more when she realized it was actually 249 holding her--and that now she was over his shoulder. And now they were spinning. And now there was a shotgun--hhh.... Her face was getting a little green instead of pink. She meant to speak in a firm, harsh tone.

"Whahhhh....."

Oh. Um, once more. She swallowed, her hands propping her hands up.

"What's going on!?" Better.

"Fucking keep your eyes open next time, that's a hive!"

"What?! A hive?" She shouted back at him, lifting her head to look over his opposite shoulder as her butt was in the way of the one directly behind her. Her eyes grew the size of saucers upon seeing the corrupted. "What the fuck are those?!"

"Mind telling me when to turn, seeing as you're the only one facing the direction we're going?"

Seina turned to look forward in the direction they were going and caught a scream in her own throat as another Ravager baled through the water right for them at an alarming rate, and the were headed right for it.

"Hang onto me!" She'd only done it on her shoes but... she pressed one hand to the small of 249's back, a black and purple tendril zipping around his waist like a belt while her other hand shot out toward the Ravager. Two identical tendrils shot out on either side of the trees around the Ravager and she yanked, hard.

Her hands clung tightly to 249's trench coat as the two of them went airborne, slingshotting straight over the massive beast.

[Ex249]

"What do you mean hol- AH!" 249 yelped. He broke out of his persona for a second as he was ripped from the icy surface he made sure to leave only on his own consent by this shadowy conduit girl. He tensed up, dropping the shotgun that kept him from using his powers and wasting what little energy he had for keeping himself cool into the bayou below.

He felt his feet kick the head of the beast, a thin film of frost forming over it's wet body and agitating it further. It ducked it's head down and let out a sickening call that was too well made to be a random screech. As they flew 249 could see prawns rising out of the water in response to this whooping and screeching. Each had a blank look in their eyes as they started running after the two conduits, several making a circle around where it looked like they would land.

"Fuckin prawns.. Clear our landing, I'll worry about the water." He called out to Sena, his feet glowing a bright white and blue light, creating a mist in the air as the vapors from the swamp froze beneath him. His breathing was very heavy now as if he was overheating but his body was still very cold to the touch. If he didn't get back soon he would surely be fucked in every way possible. He bent his knees, ready to pound the water and freeze anything within 10 feet of the impact.

[ReaptheMusic]

The darkness based conduit clung even tighter to the ice conduit as they rocketed into the air with the help of her shadow tentacles, having slid back just slightly to wrap her arms around his neck instead. Her eyes automatically shut tightly feeling the cold arm wrapped around her pale legs, one feeling moreso than the other as she'd ripped off one of her leggings earlier once it was torn by the nail in the dock. The wind whipped through her dark hair, tousling it into a tangle behind her back. When she heard his command, her eyes snapped open. Clear the landing? How?!

"Uh--uhm, er, I'll... Uh!!!!?" Her hands trembled as they soared through the air, pulling her arms from clinging around 249's neck. She did make those tentacles just now, right? So, maybe?? She could? Ugh, it'd be hopeless!"After earlier, you seriously think I know how to fight!?"

She brought her hand down fast as she spoke, punctuating her words with her movements. As she did, a long, thick tendril of shadow whirled itself from her hand and shoved aside the Ravagers,

flinging them into the swamp.:

Her blue eyes widened, blinking furiously before she shakes her head, her hand going back to cling onto his shoulder.

"We gotta go back, the blast core, I think I saw it in the water!"

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