Excuse me... your car is on fire.

"A conversation" is a fairly illustrative standard.

[Crowley willed the door open and follows after.]

From:

Mmm. Hold that thought, will you?

[At 7-18, he knocks. The grip on his sword shifts subtly - from a carry to a ready stance.]

From:

[It's the knock that makes her suspicious, perhaps ironically; not only are there limited people that clink when they knock aboard, but anyone that she trusts anymore just walks in. Anyone looking to kill her or knock her out and rob her again tend to be a bit more timid these days.

So she answers with a gun in her hand, pulls the door open and stands in the doorway with her jaw set.]

You are without a doubt the least convincing Witness I've ever seen.

From:

Oh come on.

[The Admiral powers come in handy again and Crowley fuzes Arthas' armor in place with a thought, as sturdily as if it had been forged that way. To Letty he shook his head.]

First walk in the park, sorry.

From:

[Arthas hears the hiss, the smell of burning kevlar, and snarls. YOU HAVE RUINED HIS ARMOR. He only makes one real try to move - pulls against the straps until he bruises his arm trying.]

Light damn it!

[He strains against the metal again, then abruptly decides against it entirely. He can't move, but he doesn't have to.

His eyes flare glacier-blue. Deadly cold explodes from him in every direction. The paint on the walls peels and freezes solid. It howls like a blizzard at full tilt, wind carrying slivers of ice fast enough to make them deadly shrapnel.]

From:

It's a-

[Letty flicks a glance at Crowley, opens her mouth, barely has time to register what's happened before she sees the glow from Arthas's eyes.

She's not sure she really needs to raise her hand to trigger her own Admiral powers, but it makes it easier for her to focus when she imagines the forcefield dropping down into place over him like a snowglobe.]

I was expecting him.

From:

[He had told Arthas to warn him next time the ice came out. He pushes on his own end, limiting the wave of cold. Arthas can keep an aura of ice shrapnel and chill winds going as long as he wants, it just won't extend more than a foot away from his body.]

Relax, I'll set it right when we've all calmed down a bit.

So. Someone share the juicy details.

From:

[The Remorseless Winter range contracts, spills up and frosts the side of the rounded force field nearly opaque. Then even that dissipates, and all that's left is a few inches of snow, useless, a waste of effort.

His eyes don't go back to normal, and when he speaks it's more like a rumble of thunder than a human voice.]

I made a promise.

[He lets go of his sword. It hangs in the air as if held by an invisible hand, then makes an enthusiastic attempt to stab Crowley in the face.

The sword across Arthas' back frees itself as well. It'll be heading for Letty shortly.]

From:

[Letty, in her turn, strengthens the forcefield.]

He insists on being stupid, is what he means.

[The moment she notices the sword on his back moving, she'll retrieve that one just as she did the previous sets of weapons, if Crowley doesn't get to it first.]

Speaking of stupid: which idiot gave you this shit back?

From:

[When he sees the other sword hang in the air Crowley has only a second before it shoots for him and he sets up a forcefield of his own.]

You don't have to answer that.

This promise, though...

From:

[Crowley's sword screeches tip-first against the shield the demon made; it chips ice but what's more worrying is the second sword suddenly vanishing into Letty's hand. Arthas curses in Vrykul.]

I don't take orders from either of you.

[He pushes more of his will into each of the swords. Splitting his attention would be dangerous if he wasn't paralyzed anyway, so fuck it. Crowley's channels a spell to put a block of ice around his shield, swallow them both whole.

Letty's is more simple. It bursts into icy needles in her hand, like a four-foot long Prince Rupert's drop.]

Edited Date: 2015-06-28 04:26 am (UTC)

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[The comment from Crowley gets him a strange look - ] One: he doesn't have to do anything. [- which causes her to miss the fact that Arthas's focus has changed.]

Two: I didn't give you an order. I a- sonnuvabitch! [She lets go immediately but the damage is already done, of course; the ice slices into her hand in the splitsecond it takes her to instinctively shove everything away from her using the power she's already using.

She glares at Arthas, shoving the gun into the waistband of her jeans so she can hold her injured hand with her non-injured one.]

From:

[Arthas switches tack and Crowley winces, not at the layer of ice building around his shield but Letty's now-bleeding hand. He can reshape the shield around the sword, outpacing the ice, but he can't do anything about someone else's wound.] Except keep a promise, apparently.

Which I probably shouldn't get in the way of, but he made one to me too. [He turns to Arthas with his arms crossed.] Don't try to deny it.

I'm still lost here. How'd she get under your skin?

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She's right. I don't. [He snarls at Crowley.

If he had his plague, a cut would be all he needed, but no, he can't Infest, he'll have to be creative some more...

He keeps his warden busy with the ice and starts a Defile underneath Letty - or tries. The shield makes it difficult, and the carpet turns into a devouring tarlike sludge in a neat circle around her.]

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It's a talent.

[She snarls this, because about the time she notices what the ground is doing, about the time her hand really starts to throb, about the time he refuses to even pretend like he has a sensible cell in his body, she loses her patience.

She's done it once already, and she knows she'll pay for it later - possibly before this conversation is done - but it's not getting anywhere otherwise. She borrows the Admiral's powers one more time to in turn siphon Arthas's from him, since they're obviously too much of a distraction.]

Arthas, just stop for a second, goddammit. Please.

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[He feels the magic go, the ice sword falling dead to the ground, the glow on the surface of his eyes fizzling out. He's frustrated, he's furious at everything, at being trapped, at being alone again, at being a toy for wardens to deprive or reward at their leisure.]

Why the hell should I?

[The whites show all the way around his eyes and he throws himself against the fused armor, squeezes the frozen joints until the leather creaks.]

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Because you are not this stupid!

[He's furious, and she's shouting to be heard over his efforts to beat himself senseless on nothing, pissed off and bleeding all over her goddamn shirt because she presses her hand to her side a moment later, wraps the hem of her tanktop over top and grips with her good hand, swears low and rapidfire in Spanish when her breath catches.

But.]

I talked to Sylvanas. She told me some shit that makes sense, and I want to know if it applies to you too. But no one can actually listen to you if all you're doing is making them into popsicles or trying to stab them in the face for literally no reason!

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[Crowley just holds up his hands in bewilderment. That was going to be part of his point, and there Letty beat him to the punch just when Arthas is guaranteed not to listen. He sighs deeply and shakes his head.]

No, that makes perfect sense. In five minutes you'll want to stab me in the face too.

Thanks for stopping that, by the way.

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Very funny.

[Arthas narrows his eyes at Crowley.]

I can't now and you know it. Doesn't mean I don't want to.

[He looks a little calmer, but the armor still has telltale creaks.]

What did Sylvanas say?

From:

[It's the breather she was looking for, and now that she's content it will hold, Letty disappears back into her cabin for a minute. She comes back with a handtowel wrapped firmly around her hand so she stops dripping on the ground, and addresses Crowley first.]

The promise he's talking about is that he's going to kill me, because me and some other wardens put his ass in Zero after he tried to kill the ship, or the Admiral, or both. He's been working on that one for at least a month, 'cause Pounce got in the way, and now here we are.

[Then she levels her gaze on Arthas, dark and considering.]

She said she would never stop trying to hurt the ship because it's the only way she doesn't feel like she's suffocating. Literally, is what I took from that conversation.

Is that what it's like? For you?

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That was going to be my guess.

[He looks over at Arthas in mild embarrassment. Not because Arthas just attacked another warden, but because it was such bad strategy. Somehow, he now thinks Sylvanas was responsible for a lot of the plotting that happened when the two tried to take over.

But Letty's is a question he intended to ask Arthas himself.]

From:

[Arthas laughs, bitter. The armor creaking finally stops.]

Not the only way. There are two ways. The ship breaks or I do.

From:

[Letty, throwing up her hands, turns her attention fully on Crowley.]

Get your own, huh? And what's your plan of action now then?

From:

Yep, get your own. He didn't kill you, so he's not your problem anymore. Now go fix your hand.

[He turns back to Arthas and arches an eyebrow.]

I'm going to fix your armor and we're going to talk -- about why that didn't work, to start with. Did you really think it would? Even I know better than to attack someone on their own ground when they've got backup.

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