Closed Meme-Inspiration.

[my_belfry_of_fun]

Who: Future Trunks Briefs (light_of_willpower) and Will Stanton (lightbranded)
What: Fulfilling their roles as guardians of Light in the Library.
Where: A Non-Canon Central Library Setting
When: Not sure it matters.
Warnings: Will be updated as needed.




Despite some hiccups and a learning-curve, the Head Librarian was still grateful for those whom he had brought in to help him in his task. It was time to set them a difficult, but necessary task though. One he could only help in a limited way, as could the Cat. Darkness and nothing was encroaching, a constant threat--and they would now be venturing into some of the darker parts of the Library.

Sent in as small teams, each given a section where the Darkness and Void was encroaching. Things had escaped books, or been corrupted, and the danger was severe. For this task, those who went would be allowed full use of their abilities--but please, try to not damage the Library or Books too badly, while you're attempting to save them.

Comments

[lightbranded]

Will had taken the assignment of duties solemnly. This was not the Dark, but it was a darkness and that was close enough for him. Here was a task for him.

Silently he glances over at Trunks, wondering what he should expect from the older boy. Will's power lay in mind and magic, in knowing and in the Old Speech. He suspected that it was not the same for Trunks.

[light_of_willpower]

Part of why the Librarian had asked the two of them to work together on this, was their skills could compliment each other. Trunks's skills lay in more obiviously physical combat style, but he also could sense life-force, and was durable. He would be guard and protector, and his own will and mind were stubborn and strong to help keep him focused.

A glance back, and Trunks nodded, as they set off through the halls. If Will opened his mind, that 'veil' over Trunks that was not his own was gone. And as they walked, getting closer to the area they were meant to be, he could likely see also that the 'veil' of Trunks own making was cast off too. It wasn't the active powering up, the preparation that Will had seen when they first met. But it was ready to be accessed, burning fire and will prepared to be used.

The lights were dimmer, the Library starting to seem like it was filled with Twilight. Bookshelves took on stranger shapes, and sometimes odd configurations as they moved. Things becoming dimmer, more chaotic.

[lightbranded]

As they move Will reaches out with his mind. He feels the bonfire that was Trunks, a blaze on a hill free from the intervening veil, as it never had been in the Library before. But putting that to the side, Will seeks out the feeling of the darkness waiting for them.

[light_of_willpower]

"So," Trunks kept his voice low and his footsteps quiet and ready. "Any idea what kind of 'darkness' we'll be dealing with?" Escapees from books were likely, but that still didn't give Trunks much of an idea of what they were facing, or would face.

[lightbranded]

"I do not know what shape it may take here. It is darkness, but it is not quite the same as the Dark that was on my world. But even there, the Dark could take many forms. There were the riders, agents of the Dark in the form of men, who could take many different shapes. There were those men who had chosen to swear themselves to it. And there were creatures as well, both of magic and of the mundane world. Rooks were its eyes, and minks and polecats and milgwn its servants. All the animals that killed for no reason but the joy of killing."

Will keeps his mind and senses ready as he speaks.

[light_of_willpower]

Hmmm...that didn't help as much as he'd hoped. Looking around as they went, and then he stopped. Moving closer to one of the bookcases as it stretched up towards the ceiling. It was slightly tilted, off-kilter, and the books in it deep on its shelves in shadows and quiet. "We can probably assume that anything we encounter is going to be warped--even from the strangeness this place can usually be sometimes."

It wasn't the first bookshelf they'd seen like that too, the architecture slightly misshapen, dark, and off and wrong as if it were covered in something obscuring it. The whole area felt off honestly, in a low sense of unease.

Looking up, Trunks frowned a bit---as the view in open areas of the Library was usually of celestial skies with unknown constellations. Here, it was the deep dark purple of twilight shading into navy and black the more it went up, and as thick as velvet with no shine. "...wonder how far up this goes."

Coming back to be closer to Will, and he held a hand. Manifesting his ki, a small ball of burning energy in his palm, before looking up and raising that hand. Firing the blast up, studying how long it took before it vanished, or if there was anything else lit along the way. It was a mile, roughly, when it simply seemed to fade and be absorbed by the seeming-void above them and had shone like a tiny star up until that point.

[lightbranded]

Will feels the intent and release of that same strange bright energy. It pierced through the sickness Will had begun to feel in the area, burning through it with brightness for just a moment. He watches it rise up and fade, swallowed by the darkness.

"It will be soon, I think." he says. "Whatever waits here will not wait long."

Not after such a signal as that.

[light_of_willpower]

It had been a calculated risk, as far as Trunks was concerned. They both probably stood out already. "Anything we should be particularly worried about?" Also Trunks' way of making sure Will was okay. Keeping his own senses alert, but knowing his partner would likely sense things before he would.

That sense of menace did increase again, but nothing happened for several minutes. Trunks moved to take point, venturing further into the dimmer section of the Library and keeping Will close. Rounding a corner, and through an archway--and their perspectives shifted along with a sudden spike in that unease. The entire new 'room' they had found themselves in was filled with hallways that lead in other directions, but it resembled something from an M.C. Escher painting. Likely it was only the barest illogical-gravity that was keeping Trunks and Will anchored to their own position, as they were perpendicular to the 'floor' now, and stairs lead off in different directions.

Again, the architecture was simply off. More misshapen shelves, twisted and slightly warped and resembling steps themselves. The only consistency in the room of hallways now was 'up', as the ceiling remained that black-velvet darkness oriented above the pair's heads.

[lightbranded]

Will looks around wearily as he feels the oppressing feeling of the darkness pressing in on them grow heavier. There was an expectant silence to it now, as if there was something here anticipating their every move. As perspective and gravity twist (although he barely notices, caught up in the feeling of darkness that lay everywhere now), Will stiffens as he feels anticipation shift to intent. He quickly calls a warning to Trunks as he brings up his hands, a spell of protection on the edge of his tongue.

[light_of_willpower]

Will stiffening up suddenly was a good warning, even as he appreciated the call as well. They didn't have long to wait, before shapes--humanoid shapes made of inky blackness started to appear in the hallways. Even as Will started his own defense, Trunks is moving to place himself in front of his partner.

Sensing ki was so much easier now, but Trunks got nothing from these beings. Did that mean they weren't alive? Then again, he supposed it didn't matter; hands moving in a quick and complicated pattern of movements before his thumbs and forefingers formed a diamond. Energy gathering in a sphere at his command--"Burning Attack!"--and fired, clearing the first layer of the swarm that had gotten close to them.

Following up from that, with his sword drawn and darting quickly. Through it all, that burning will-and-fire stayed steady inside him, though it never manifested in the real world yet. Trunks also ignored the weird physics, as that same burning-will-and-fire held intent occasionally--allowing him to float, to move in the air.

[lightbranded]

Will takes the moment the shadows are busy with Trunks' attack to sketch out a quick circle about himself with his foot. No sooner is the invisible circle complete, than it is marked with blue flames rising out of the ground, burning without consuming anything. Here, in the circle, he was defended. Reaching out, Will sinks his mind into the flames and silently asks for their aid. They rise, growing and gathering in the air above him like a tree, and then, with a snap, lashing out into the darkness, burning through one shadow after another.

[light_of_willpower]

The swarm seemed endless at first; no matter how many vanished more remained. It was...frustrating. "Is this the best you've got?" Not quite a battle cry, more a snarl of annoyance from where Trunks was cutting his way through a group. Turning at the end of his run, both hands coming forward and a blast of ki fired, dissolving more.

"Any objections to my clearing a way through?" Called to his partner, as right now they were in a bad position they couldn't defend. Especially since Trunks was now using both sword and ki actively. They needed to move!

[lightbranded]

"Lead the way," Will calls back as he sinks his mind back into the flames and sent another strike of blue fire through the shadows. "I will follow."

[light_of_willpower]

The tricky part was figuring out a direction--even if right then the priority was getting space. "Keep that circle up, then get ready to move." Trunks called, ducking and then slashing through one of the taller humanoids--this one with 4 arms. These were manifestations of darkness right?

He'd bought himself a space and checked where Will's position was. Sword sheathed, and gathering his own ki inward. Part of his blood sang at how easily it came again without the Library dampening things! Especially calling on his heritage, light and energy gathering around him in a golden glow in 1 heartbeat, 2...

Green-eyes, hair blond and spiked up as if a wind had blown through it, and Trunks let himself be the center of a sphere of that same energy as it exploded outwards. Shadows vanished and vaporized, and he held out a hand towards Will's direction, as the room cleared entirely. It would not last long, but it bought them time.

"This way!"

[lightbranded]

For just a moment, WIll flinches as the sense of other suddenly magnifies, burning like a bonfire at the edge of his mind. He dodn't understand what Trunks had just done, but now was no time for questions.

Will allows to the circle of flames to flicker and vanish as he begins to run after Trunks with the swift ease of an animal, like and unlike to the long loping run of a deer.

[light_of_willpower]

As soon as Will is close, Trunks is grabbing his hand and pulling. Enough up to grab, and then he's flying. It made them a target, but Trunks was less worried about that right then as he kept a tight grip around his partner's waist.

Will likely sensed that Trunks was extending that aura of his ki around him, protecting him as they moved through hallway, then doors and around turns, then more hallways as the architecture remained twisted. Several minutes, before he powered down and put them both on the ground. From the blaze to masking his ki again, and they needed a strategy.

Especially since they were deeper in the heart of the twisted and dark section now. "What we need is a better place to defend if we're going to be dealing with swarms like that. A choke-point between us and them." Looking to Will, as he has more experience. "Also, either I can't sense their ki, or those things weren't alive."

[lightbranded]

Flying was not new to Will. Once, he had learned to fly as an eagle, to rest on the wind and ride the rising air currents. From the Eagle of Gwernabwy himself he had learned the words to control wind and storm, sky and air, cloud and rain and hail.

But this was a very different kind of flying. All he can think to do is hold on as whatever it was that Trunks had become now, bright and burning and otherness and yet a very human kind of Light. All he can do is hold on and trust in what he could feel of Trunks. That no matter how different he felt now, that above all, he felt like a mortal that had chosen and held on to the Light through everything. Like Gwion, in some ways. Like Bran and Arthur might have felt, had they not held a place within the High Magic.

He takes a quick breath of relief as Trunks powers down. He felt no threat in him, but to his senses that other form was terribly distracting.

"I can sense them. I cannot say whether or not they are of alive, but they are of darkness. As for a place to defend... Would that not hold us down to a single place? If we must search, it may slow us down."

[light_of_willpower]

He was right, and Trunks knew it, and now they had some room to breathe. "Depends. How likely do you think it'll be that it'll try the same thing twice?" Because so long as it didn't swarm them, they'd be fine. That was Trunks' main concern with finding a place to defend.

"Any idea where we should start searching?" As twisted as this area had become, Trunks had navigated mostly on instinct and a vague feeling of 'presence' that was and was not like when he sensed ki.

[lightbranded]

"Difficult to say. I may be able to sense them, but I do not know them as I knew the Dark. If they are as it was, then they will not try again a tactic that has already failed."

Will frowns, and closes his eyes as he reaches out with his mind. He did not know what he was searching for, but after a moment he feels something. It did not stand out to his sense. More the opposite. It felt as if it was the center, as it was more real than anything surrounding it.

"That way," he points. "I do not know if it is what we are looking for, but there is something there."

[light_of_willpower]

"How different is the Dark, from a void and chaos though?" Because that was what it sounded like they were dealing with to Trunks. Academic-question though, ultimately as they had a mission to focus on first.

"It probably depends if there's any kind of intelligence guiding things." A sigh, reaching up and brushing his bangs out of his eyes. "Something that way is better than nothing." It probably wouldn't make a difference, but it was habit now--especially now that they had an idea of what they were facing--for Trunks to mask his ki. For now, he'd keep it hidden until necessary.

"Direct me, and I'll take point." A glance to Will, confirming that's alright. He didn't doubt the younger boy's talents or abilities. Trunks was still used to throwing himself between others and danger though, and they were paired together for a reason.

[lightbranded]

"It is both and all and something entirely different. All at the same time."

Will simply nods. "I do not know how far away it is. It simply feels as if there is something different in that direction."