Dark Places PV Closed

@Erin Ryan, @Eris Fawley, @Max Avery, @Rosie Parker, & @Carson Miller

OOC: haha, sry abt the late response lmao, that’s totally my bad

Maggie hadn’t ever really considered herself to be smart, but it didn’t take a prodigy to realize that this definitely wasn’t a hugging circle.

“So, death witches or midget giants?” Erin had asked, her voice dripping with meanace.

“What the fuck?” Maggie exclaimed, chuckling a little bit. “How is she able to say midget giants while keeping a straight face?”

“Eris and I are death witches.” Max declared, making Maggie cringe slightly. “And these people are midget giants. Will you help us take them down, Erin?”

Maggie’s eyes widened considerably once she realized that they were the midget giants. Okay, maybe her and Carson hadn’t been that discreet. Eris sent her a weird sort-of smile, of which Maggie returned with a halfhearted wave. Yeah, this was gonna go well.

She shot a glance towards the Hufflepuff girl, who didn’t really seem like she wanted to beat anyone up at the moment. In fact, she honestly seemed kind of chill, considering the situation. Maggie almost felt like she could count on her not trying to beat the shit out of her and Carson.

Maggie felt her hand drift down to her wand at her side, but she knew her efforts would be futile. She’d hadn’t ever been an A+ student, per se, and the only charms she confidently knew were the green and red sparks charms. All of these kids were in their third year, and they were all like, smart. They probably knew a shit-ton of spells, so Maggie tucked her wand safely back into her bag, dropping it onto the ground slowly.

“What’s up?” Maggie asked, rubbing the back of her neck nervously as she approached the group. She was being a dumbass, sure, but it’s not like they hadn’t seen them, right? Plus, being a dumbass was kind of Maggie’s thing.

“Listen, uh— Carson, and I, weren’t not into that whole getting-the-shit-beat-out-of-us shabang, so we’re gonna like, head out. You guys are free to finish your cult meeting or whatever...” Maggie laughed nervously, her behavior mimicking Eris’s in that aspect.

“Have a good night, guys! Don’t like, make any blood sacrifices or anything— I heard they’ll give you infections.”

@Erin Ryan, @Max Avery, @Eris Fawley, @Rosie Parker, & @Maggie Parker

“That’s what you’re worried about? Dude, she probably wouldn’t crack a smile if we told her that she’d just won the lottery.” Carson answered, only half-joking. Still, what the fuck was a midget giant? Death witches? The hell was going on here?

Max Avery mentioned something about beating up the “midget giants”, and how he and his friend were both death witches? Yeah, Carson was confused— what’s new?

He noticed Maggie’s hand drift down towards her wand, and he was suddenly able to connect the dots. They were the midget-giants, weren’t they? That made sense, seeing as Carson was positive two of the four other students were definitely evil. He wasn’t so sure about the redhead— she seemed like she’d be okay if she wasn’t in a cult meeting.

Carson didn’t bother going for his wand— he was shit at anything that had to do with magic, besides Quidditch and stuff. Maggie seemed to realize that they didn’t have a chance against these guys when it came to dueling either, so she dropped her wand into her bag behind her, Carson mimicking her actions and doing the same.

He didn’t know what he was going to do, exactly— but it definitely wasn’t what maggie was doing. He shot her a bewildered glance as she stepped out of their not-so-great-hiding-spot, and he desperately grabbed onto her arm, trying to pull her back.

You could always trust Maggie to be a complete dumbass, huh? A loveable dumbass, but a dumbass all the same.

He paled Maggie mentioned cults, and he felt the need to jump in before they dipped out of this scary-ass dungeon for the night.

“Yeah, er— looks like you’ve got this handled. See you all tomorrow!”

Sorry for the delay, I have been on shift all week. Catching up on posts today.

She gave Max an option, he had to be one or the other. That was the only thing that made any sort of sense. She eyed the growing crowd with a sense of growing dis-ease. She was not going to win this fight, as confident as she might carry herself, she was not foolish enough to believe that she could hold her own against five other students even if they were comparative weaklings. 

She considered her options, forfeit her pride and run -- no, they would likely catch her anyways. Talk her way out of it -- they already know that she is onto them, that is why he brought so many. Fight -- if she was going down, take a few of them with her on her way out.  The last option seemed like the most attractive. she steeled herself to take down Max, likely the highest ranked Death Witch or Midget Giant. Perhaps if she took him down fast enough, she could demoralize his minions. 

That seemed like her best option.

She just needed a confession. She needed to know what he was, what they were before thy ended her. Death witch or midget giant.

"Eris and I are death witches." 

OK, so the giants were working for or with the giants. 

"And these people are the midget giants. Will you help us take them down, Erin?"

What! She tried to conceal her surprise. Her astonishment that-- that-- that they were not working with the giants. No, they were against them. Was there some sort of split among the Prefects. She stared at Max wide-eyed for a moment. She knew that the giants were a problem, Quinn Healy had proven that fact when she confronted him a few months earlier. It was only a few second, but to Erin it felt like several minutes. She could smell metaphorical burning as the gears in her head spin and tried to make sense of this situation.

"So you have a problem with them too..." she concluded, "good." Her hand balled up into a small, yet incredibly powerful fist [15 strength]. She would attempt to sucker-punch ____ [the next poster that is a "midget giant"]. If she was successful and if they were somehow conscious, her right hook would be followed up by a knee from her left leg as she took into consideration the force of their falling form away from the source of initial impact, their actual mass and the power of her leg shooting up towards their midsection. If she missed, they evaded her initial attack, she would simply try to grab them by their hair and pull them back. Erin does not fight clean nor does she fight nice. She needed no other reason than the fact that the three of them: Rosie, Carson and Maggie were part-giants. For once, Erin was the hero.

In the midst of her attempted or successful pummeling she would make a simple inquiry of dire importance. "Is Kovacs a midget giant as well?" It effected what she was going to do with him, how she planned to hurt him. She was certain he knew something, be it a death witch that betrayed his brethren or a midget giant himself from the start, it was obvious that the Hufflepuff pretty boy was doing very little to stop Quinn. "And what of Kaegen Deathmote?" A name at least one of them knew. "He warned me against you. What is he?" Erin had seen Kaegen as a potential ally, a resource in this battle. Yet be eluded her at every turn. She tried to violently restrain him to no avail. He was hiding truths he would not share. No, he was lying wasn't he? Was he a midget giant too!

don't stress. your reply was worth the wait!

@Rosie Parker, @Erin Ryan, @Max Avery, @Eris Fawley, & @Carson Miller

Maggie and Carson had almost made it. They’d gotten so close to leaving without getting into any trouble, to leaving this all behind as a funny story they’d tell their friends the next day. That is, until they heard the yelps and thuds from behind them.

Maggie immediately turned, her stomach twisting and sinking all at once, like someone was giving it a swirly. Her hair immediately turned a pale red color, a mix of the sickening feeling she was feeling at the sounds of someone getting beat up and anger. Confusion was somewhere in that color as well— they were turning on eachother? Maggie had thought that they were all friends, that they all were chill with eachother.

She walked back down the hallway, her pace much more brisk and confident this time. She came into the room just in time— but as Erin was absolutely pummeling the poor Hufflepuff. Guess they hadn’t been friends, huh?

Before she knew it, Maggie was standing before Erin, who had just finished beating the shit out of the Hufflepuff, who looked a bit dazed, but at least she was on her feet. Maggie, not having been in many fights before, suddenly felt a bit vulnerable— confused, unprepared, and vulnerable.

It was like her emotions had picked her up, carried her over, and plopped her into the middle of the horrific scene. Thanks, guys. Maggie wasn’t stupid, though, and she knew she had to do something before the Hufflepuff got hit again.

Balling up her fist, she punched Erin right in the stomach, the only thing her now jelly-like brain could come up with at the moment. She couldn’t tell how much she’d hurt the girl, she could only try again, pushing her shoulders and causing the girl to move back.

“Fuck off!” she cursed, glowering at Erin. Her light blue eyes began to darken, turning into a dark, navy blue that looked almost black in the dungeon light. Combined with her now bright-red hair, she probably looked a sight.

Well, he'd warned her to run. Max held back a wince of distaste as Erin immediately resorted to physical violence and began beating the living shit out of Rosie. He'd preferred using magic with his bad arm and worse strength level, however if this was the way it was going to go then he may as well accept it. Erin, for her part, was completely cool about the whole thing and even asking him questions as she continued destroying Rosie Parker. Max took a moment to consider her questions, the sight of violence right in front of him doing nothing to stop his mind from turning what she'd asked over.

"Kovacs - " he began, about to acquiesce simply because he didn't know the boy well. But he knew a couple of his friends were friends with Reid Kovacs, and he supposed he ought to give Rosie something since she was currently taking a beating. If he claimed Reid as their ally, it could be just the thing to give Rosie permission to pass out and avoid the rest of the pain Erin seemed determined to heap onto her. "A death witch. Let's call him an ally of ours." There, that should be enough, correct?

Kaegen... the fact that he'd warned Erin against them pissed Max off. Not knowing Erin was referring to death witches instead of him and Eris personally, he made a split-second decision despite having little information. "Kaegen is a midget giant. He'll betray you given the first chance." Because that was what it felt like; betrayal. Not to Max, since he barely knew the guy, but to Eris. Eris and Kaegen were friends so if the scarf-wearing little bastard was going around warning people against her, he deserved a little pain. Max wouldn't stand for people betraying his friends.

He would've pushed for more information on what exactly Kaegen had said had Maggie not come running back to throw a punch at Erin. Before anyone could react, she had punched the other girl in the stomach and started yelling. Now that wasn't acceptable for Max to allow to happen to his new ally. "Eris, can you handle Parker? The Gryffindor one, I mean," he said, as he turned to the Hufflepuff boy who'd come with her. The kid had been about to leave but if his friend was getting into a fight there was a possibility he would go running for the prefects to stop it. Max certainly couldn't allow that.

Snapping his wand whip-quick in the boy's direction, he snarled a quick "Flipendo," intent on knocking the boy down so he could run over and seize him before he got away. Whether or not it hit would be up to Carson's reflexes, but Max was bolting at him either way to try and knock him down.

Everything was happening too quickly for her. One moment, Eris was judgementally staring at Erin, trying to figure out what the girl was talking about. She reminded Eris of Kaegen, with the strange titles and the apparent willingness to turn to violence. Shocked and confused, Eris was too busy trying to find possible reasoning for Erin’s behaviour to notice when Erin started to beat up Rosie. It was only the noise of impact that snapped Eris out of her thoughts, once again.

Her silent shock faded away into a panicked state, then. Eris bit down upon her tongue to muffle a scream, looking down at Rosie. She took a step forward, the singular step seeming like an eternity to her. For a moment, Eris reached down to try and help Rosie. For a split moment, she was reminded of the fact Rosie was one of her closest friends, or had been for a long time.

It was the action of Rosie getting hurt that broke through Eris’s confusion over actually seeing the hufflepuff, and finally broke through the tangle of memories that had made Eris silent and dim-witted in her presence for the past few days of school.

Now, instead of thinking about her conflicted thoughts, Eris thought about how Rosie was a muggleborn. How Rosie had supported the masked man. How she had tried to stop Eris from finding and hurting Ben. Eris’s lips curled in distaste, as she watched Erin punch Rosie. Any doubt in her mind that Rosie was terrible was solidified. Slowly, speaking her first words in the midst of all the new chaos, Eris attempted to make eye contact with Rosie.

“That’s how it feels. That pain is what I felt when Ben tried to burn me alive. You deserve to be hurt. You supported him. You supported violence like this. Now, you get to know what happens. Pratice what you preach, arsehole.” Eris felt heat rush to her cheeks, anger blistering and solidifying her dumbfounded new hatred. But, the underlying message was clear enough. The underlying pettiness of a young girl who had just wanted the support of her friend was clear in the infliction of every word.

“Midget giant bitch!” Even for all her rage, her voice cracked then. It was the only sign alluding to the fact that Eris was genuinely hurt, for some strange reason, over Rosie’s presence and the unresolved conflicts from last year. Even speaking the epitome of hateful words out loud, having actually called someone a foul name, Eris felt no joy from it. She didn’t feel superior to Rosie. She just felt betrayed and bristling. She wanted to say what was most hurtful, so Rosie would feel hurt too. Even though, she was clearly getting the shit beaten out of her.

Eris turned towards Max and Erin, who seemed to be conversing, despite the circumstances. Friends with both Reid and Kaegen, Eris nodded her head to Max’s words and turned away from Rosie, like nothing had happened. It felt like the superior punishment. To look away and ignore the suffering hufflepuff, just like Rosie had ignored Eris when she had been hurt in the hospital wing. Or how Rosie had ignored Eris throughout their second year, when Eris was alone. Or how Rosie had proven herself a shitty muggleborn, when Eris had wanted to hope that she was proof that not all muggleborns were bad. Eris was starting to realize she had a lot of pent up rage when it came to Rosie.

Eris had nothing to comment, besides a muted agreement. “Reid is an ally.” She hadn’t spoken to him much lately, but wouldn’t want to send Erin after him. Then at the comment about Kaegen, Eris went silent. Tonight seemed a night of betrayals. He had warned Erin about her and Max? Or about Death witches? Didn’t Kaegen hate death witches? If Eris was a death witch, did that mean Kaegen would hate her?

Eris was busy trying to sort through her feelings, her emotions already drained from her yelling at Rosie. Opening her mouth to defend or damn Kaegen (she wasn’t quite sure, considering his lack of trust in her), Eris shut it as the form of another redhead ran down the corridor.

Then Maggie was running towards the scene to help Rosie. Eris blinked, once again thinking of the similarities between Rosie’s fight and her fight with the masked man last year. Both had been unfair fights, which had been stopped by friends coming to the rescue.

Hearing Max bark out a request to get Maggie away from Erin, Eris ran over towards Maggie and tried to tug her away from Erin, and the scene. “This isn’t any of your-” Eris grunted, putting her [1] strength into pulling Maggie back. Not much was happening, but it wasn’t like she could use a spell to fling Maggie away. “Business.” No spell right now. Not yet, anyway. She’d give Maggie a chance to run away first.

“Get out of here, now. Or else I’ll make you.”

@Carson Miller I have not beaten you up yet, get back here! I can't beat you if I can't find you, stop flirting in those other threads and get back here!

YES, I will delete this in a few days... 

OOC: sorry mum

“Jesus fucking Christ— she’s done it again.” Carson cursed under his breath, watching as Maggie turned to go fight Erin fucking Ryan. While it was incredibly stupid for her to do so, his own morals had been tugging at his conscience when he realized that Rosie Parker wasn’t a part of this mystery-cult.

He watched in horror as Maggie punched Erin in the stomach, to transfixed with the scene to realize that, oh yeah, he was a target. He really was dense sometimes, wasn’t he?

And then, Max Avery was approaching him. His heart beat a little faster once he realized that he couldn’t really see Maggie anymore, and he desperately wanted to bolt past Max and help out Mags.

He couldn’t, though, because Max Avery was now throwing hexes at him. Carson couldn’t do anything but watch as he pointed his wand towards Carson, the word Flippendo reaching Carson’s ears as Maggie, Rosie, Erin, and Eris fought in the background.

He tried moving out of the way, but the spell still hit him. He stumbled back, trying to keep his balance as much as he could. Thank Merlin, he’d grabbed his wand as he and Maggie had been leaving.

He almost tripped over himself, but quickly regained his balance. His mind scrambled for a spell, something that’d keep Max from firing at him again so he could go help Maggie.

“Fumos!” he casted the spell, his voice hasty and slightly panicked.

errr idk how to do stats? like, how did max’s spell affect carson?

In a  non-moderated situation (such as this) we try to participate in cooperative roleplay, meaning that everyone is just reasonable with what they can do and what hits them I cannot god-mod I successfully punched Max for example but I can state that I tried. Max might look at my accuracy and say it is pretty darn close to his evasion so a 50-50 shot. Does he want to claim I hit him or that I missed him... Which is more interesting and more thematic for him to roleplay? He might decide to miss and attempt a counter. he might take the blow like a champ, then realize Erin is built like a tank and RP that she did some damage to his very pretty face.  The same goes for Erin, while she is a third year and IC a pretty experienced brawler, even a bully like Erin can be overwhelmed with numbers, creatively rolepay to distract her moderate intelligence, just be unlucky, etc.

Rosie's flesh was soft and pliable. Quite pleasant to strike, would punch again - 5 stars ★★★★★. The poor girl would stumble back, the fact that she was still standing at all was a testament to the young Hufflepuff's endurance. Well, standing was an overstatement. The girl had been knocked on her ass, but she was conscious.

"Wh-"

She sounded as if she was surprised. As if she did not know that this would devolve into a battle for survival. She was a midget giant, ally or subordinate of the actual  or rather bigger more gianty giants such as Quinn Healy. She did not understand their plan, it was only a wild guess that the giants were consuming the missing students and that was why there were no bodies, no rooms filled with kidnapped and missing students. She hoped that there was some creepy basement somewhere that was just collecting them, but when she confronted Quinn with her fears he fled. She took that as nothing short of confirmation. Perhaps Quinn enjoyed the flavor. Perhaps they were the means by which giants such as he derived their uncanny strength and gigantic size. 

Rosie seemed weak and ineffective. The perfect cover really. Perhaps Rosie was malnourished, underfed or suffered from some glandular issue or dwarfism. A dwarf/midget giant of some sort. 

“That’s how it feels. That pain is what I felt when Ben tried to burn me alive. You deserve to be hurt. You supported him. You supported violence like this. Now, you get to know what happens. Pratice what you preach, arsehole.”

Eris did not care for Rosie. More important than that was what she said. Rosie favored the masked man. Reid had also. Were they somehow connected -- these midget giants and these death witches in some manner to the masked boy? To the glove? To those thefts that barely made it into the paper? The school did not even warn them that they might be in danger, that they knew that the criminal was on these grounds with such a dangerous artifact. The actions of Ben were obfuscated. The boy, protected. "Like Reid..." Erin grumbled out loud. She was not speaking to anybody but she was not hiding it either. Ben and Reid were friends. In fact, Kovacs protected that degenerate when she confronted him.

“Midget giant bitch!”

Eris shouted but did nothing. She did not raise a fist or wand, just words. 

Soft spot?

A liar?

Curiosity had gotten the best of her, she needed to know about Reid. Which, or rather what was he? 

"Kovacs - "

Max's voice trailed off a bit as he repeated that surname.

"A death witch." Like them. "Let's call him an ally of ours."

Strange turn of phrase. Erin eyed him, a glint in her expression. You don't call someone an ally. They are or they are not. There is no calling someone something, unless they are something that they are not.

“Reid is an ally.”

Eris confirmed. Erin's stomach sank. Not because she had any want for Kovac's friendship, rather their statement just then suggested that those two were no friends of hers being allies of Reid Kovacs. She took a deeper breath, that the only external indicator of her growing trepidation and dis-ease. "An ally..." she repeated, the edges of her lips tugged downward. She wanted to remind her that Reid was Ben's friend too. That Kovacs was likely fine seeing all of them damned, but then Eris might turn on her. While Erin was only moderately intelligent in most regards, she had an uncanny skill reading certain aspects of people. 

The way Max put it, they were not friends. The way Eris had, they were. Divisions in the death witch ranks it would seem. 

Play the ally for now.

"Kaegen is a midget giant. He'll betray you given the first chance."

Max added. No shocker there. Of course he was a midget giant. How could she be so blind!

Erin would eye Carson Miller. There was something that just seemed wrong about hitting a girl again.  That and Max Avery was already tromping towards the Hufflepuff. A two-on-one to get the 'larger' of the three down. Rosie was a non-threat and that other one seemed like she would not be much of a challenge either.

"Leave him alone. Both of them."

Rosie demanded. Erin eyed her, shaking her head. "Leave who alone? You? Them?" She scoffed, referring to her midget giant allies rather than her really shitty friends. The girl could hardly stand, as she struggled to rise. She considered finishing her off, one down... two more to do. That would give the bespectacled boy and his female companion a chance to flee. This was her chance and for whatever reason the Death Witches (Max and Eris) were allied with her for the moment despite their stated affections for the former Head Boy. She believed it to be a trick, some sort of ruse to gain her favor or trust, but she would do with it for now. It was better to have two allies than none.

"Eris, can you handle Parker? The Gryffindor one, I mean."

Max was making a game-plan. He was giving Eris orders. Between the two of them, if there was a pecking order, max was in charge.

 "Should have thought of that before you--" she started to answer Rosie, her attention on Carson. She was about to say aided Healy in his heinous acts of cannibalism when something impacted her in the gut. 

Ooof!

A strength of 6 was not enough to topple the monstrous youth. The air rushed out of her lungs in a single, large burst. Carson was temporarily saved an ass-kicking by his little girlfriend.  Erin has been struck by someone she had labeled in her mind as temporarily irrelevant -- Maggie Parker. Not that Erin knew her victim's name, she did not really care. It was like knowing the name of the store clerk thatis serving you. their name, their identity -- irrelevant. The name tags offered the illusion of humanity and human contact, but really it was a tool to identify who wronged you or in those rare cases one could suppose righted you. Maggie was whats-her-face, soon to be smashed in. 

The girl was the definition of innocuous with her mousy brown hair and plain features, hanging out with that cliche nerd Carson. No wonder nobody realized they were villains, they looked like they would be bested by a blind-folded muggle.

Erin instinctively swung at Maggie, a wide arc with a stiff arm that had the girl's weight behind it.  If the attack struck Maggie or not, it mattered little as it was a wild motion chosen on impulse as the part-Veela turned to face her mediocre adversary. The palms of the girl's hands pushed at Erin's shoulders, but they failed to force the Slytherin bully to stagger back more than a step.

“Fuck off!”

The suicidal Gryffindor cried. 

Eris ran over towards Maggie and tried to tug her away from Erin. 

“This isn’t any of your-” 

She tried (1 strength, probably failed but I do not know) to pull Maggie back. [According to Eris' own narrative, unsuccessful] While likely a failure, it was potentially a distraction. 

“Business.” 

There was little thought put into fighting, it was mostly muscle memory built on experience. Erin was very experienced at fighting.  Her answer in a magical school, full of spells was to cast her strongest spell -- Erin cast punch. 


“Get out of here, now. Or else I’ll make you.”

Eris warned her. Tried to give her an out. A second example of potential duplicity. 

"Not a damn chance!" Erin roared. A simple, straight blow aimed at Maggie's nose. She was taking these giants down now. She would deal with Eris after.

"Flippendo!" Avery utter the incantation with authority and sent Carson, the midget giant back. Death witches can certainly cast. A pro in this case, but a con in future encounters surely. Ultimately she would have to betray the two of them, after all they were death witches. They were also the bad guys. It was only by fortuitous providence that she happened upon a skirmish between these two factions that were previously working together. Either that or they were antipathetic to the shared intentions of Death Witches and part-giants. She knew for certain that Kovacs and Healy were allied, it was likely that Kovacs was the brains of all of this somehow. A brilliant mind hidden behind the face of a beautiful idiot. Traitorous subordinates? Likely. Neither Eris nor Max looked particularly intelligent.  But playing dumb might be merely a ruse used to settle her. She could not be certain as of yet. Besides, they were either taking down their allies or enemies, but either way they were still her enemies. 

"Fumos!"

Carson countered Max wuith a swirling motion of his arm. A cloud of smoke would creep into the corridor, fogging vision of the passageway. Erin would ignore the smoke as it started to thicken. As long as Maggie stayed within arm's length she would be able to pound the girl into the ground. Hell, Rosie and Carson would have a harder time saving the Gryffindor midget-giant from Erin's brutal assault if they could not see the carnage. Erin would attempt to grab Maggie by the collar before the smokescreen would take her vision entirely.