escordvi | closed 🪶 i'm in the end, just what you made me.

[Somehow, Jill is wholly unsurprised that Benedikta is still very demanding and rude in the midst of being attacked. Simply saying the words "help me" is probably beyond her, yet Jill is still making a beeline towards the goose because she isn't going to wait for that two-word phrase to fall out of Benedikta's mouth.

The goose isn't seeming patient enough for that either as Jill eyes one of the heads aiming for the sword so she slaps it away with as much power behind her hand as she can muster up without actively hurting the animal. It doesn't seem to do much but anger the bird enough to have one of its many heads peck Jill in the side of her head.]

Let go of her!

[The cat isn't being ignored as another head cranes the long neck it's attached to and gives a great big honk directly in Bluetooth's ear which earns a loud growl and a sharp tooth snap in response.]

["Help me" is not a phrase in Benedikta's vocabulary. Sorry, Jill.

But she is grateful for the help, however unwanted the company is, because it has two heads swerving around, distracted by the new company now. But having a slap fight with an eight-headed goose is not working as well as either of them thought, so...]

Shut up!

[Benedikta reaches down to snatch the bill that's pecking at her sword to slam it shut between her fingers. She is only mildly successful, because there are five other heads that are free, and when another one reaches around to honk at the cat at its tail—]

Is this your cat!?

[If Jill wasn't so preoccupied with ducking down out of the way of the goose bill going for her head, she would wonder if that shut up was directed to the fowl or to her or even to the both of them. With Benedikta, no one ever really knows.

So Jill's slap on the goose seems to be more like a little pat with how the bird doesn't even flinch. While she doesn't care much for attacking innocent animals, this is clearly no angelic creature, thus she aims another slap--much harder now--hoping to at least knock it off guard long enough to protect Bluetooth who is still holding her own.]

This isn't the time for questions!

[Does it matter whose pet it is when they're helping to control this stupid goose?]

[No, it doesn't, but why is there suddenly a cat coming to her aid!?

At any rate, Jill's little slapping fight with one of the heads is working, at least a little bit. It catches the goose off guard, its head snapping back away from the cat that's still clawing and gnawing on its tail feathers like a cat should attack its prey, but that will only do so much for Benedikta as it now snaps its beak around the pommel of her sword and pulls, sending her, the goose, and the cat all reeling back in Jill's direction.]

Can't you... freeze it, or something?

[Because it's a warrior cat and what do warriors do? They fight and defend, even if the ones they defend have questionable morals and detestable personalities. Benedikta shouldn't question things so much lest Bluetooth changes her mind.

Where did this goose come from anyway? Why does it have eight heads and why is it so angry? What did Benedikta do to offend it? So many questions, but indeed, it is not time for any of them. Though she doesn't care that Benedikta is suggesting she use her magick on the bird (because the idea of being told what to do by Benedikta of all people rubs Jill wrong), it is a pragmatic solution.There's no room for arguing.

With a bright blue light, frost is cast out from Jill's palm, encircling the bird. In no more than a second, the goose is encased in a solid block of softly crackling ice, frozen still. It'll eventually melt as ice is wont to do, but for the moment, they can catch their breath.]

Are you alright?

[Benedikta has certainly seen better days, but even before the sudden goose attack, she'd been much more worse for wear than normal. Mostly within her eyes, less sharp than they used to be, with darkened circles beneath them. Now, though, her hair is a dishevelled mess thanks to the goose, her sword hangs precariously from its sheath on her waist, and her clothes could use some straightening. Needless to say...]

I am fine.

[... she doesn't look very fine.

Stubbornly, she smooths out her shirt with one hand and her hair in the other without so much as a word of gratitude to her... saviour. Ugh.

And she whirls her gaze around to the crowd of people standing around, and then back to Jill.]

Whose bird is this anyway!?

[Her mouth says fine (and doesn't say thank you), but the rest of Benedikta's constitution says differently. Jill marks that up to the attack because no one comes out of an altercation with an angry goose in immaculate condition, much less an eight-headed one.

The crowd backs up a little from the pointed question, looking as guilty as one group of actually innocent people can, with most of them shrugging or shaking their heads. Jill shakes her head too, turning to check on Bluetooth. A quick once-over and a soft meow lets Jill know the cat is just fine and ready to go again. Too bad for the warrior cat as the goose is frozen solid and...

...not there anymore. All that remains is a full block of ice that hasn't even begun to melt or even crack, as empty as any normal ice cube.]

By the Founder... Where did it go?

[As soon as she realizes that the goose is not in the ice where Jill had left it, Benedikta whirls around on the spot, spinning once, then twice back in the other direction in a bit of a panicked search for it.]

Where did it go!?

[She echoes Jill's question, and throws a violent wind up into the sky for good measure, but... nothing. Just the silence filling with the flabbergasted whispers of this useless audience that they seem to have drawn, to whom Benedikta shouts—]

What are you all staring at!?

[—before they scatter, and she turns back to Jill.]

What happened to it?

[As if she has the answers, though the woman looks just as confused as she does.

And no, her eyes totally are not darting this way and that on the lookout for it, as she picks off the feathers from her clothes, cowering slightly with her magicks at the ready when she hears the sound of birds flying away from the roof above her.]

[She feels Benedikta is asking all the wrong questions because Jill doesn't have a single answer for her. Never in her life has someone—or something—managed to get past her once she froze them, much less left the ice untouched and undamaged in their wake.]

I don't know! It was right here!

[Soon enough, it become obvious that it's not the birds above that Benedikta should be worried about. It's the one that's crashing through the legs of the retreating crowds, sending them running with all sorts of screaming and shrieking: "It's back!" "It'll kill us for sure this time!" "Run!" "Tell my mother I loved her!"

If the goose was merely angry before, it's full on pissed off now and it heads straight for Benedikta's feathered collar. Perhaps it thinks she finished off another goose for fashion and wants revenge, who knows. Not Jill who has only a moment to shoot off another spray of ice at the bird, only to miss as it sidesteps the attack.]

Benedikta, behind you!

Oh, for fuck's sake—

[She can hear it. The tippy-tap of its flat feet and the honks that grow louder among all the screams. The timing of when she whips around to face against it is so poorly timed, because when the goose leaps for her collar, she meets it literally head-on—with her face in its belly, and all of those tiny feathers stuck to her lips.

That she would be taken down by another bird!!! She won't stand for this.

She grabs hold of it with both hands and wrenches it off of herself...

...

...and throws it back into the crowd of people who scatter, the winds helping to propel it back.

Which should give Jill a small opening to try again. Or her cat. Whoever, just get rid of it!!!

And Benedikta is going to toss some green aether its way, too, though how much good wind magicks will do against a bird, she has no idea. ~~Spoilers: it's horrible.~~]

[Jill can't help but wince when Benedikta's face meets the widest part of the goose. She tried to warn her and she feels a tiny bit of guilt at the idea that her warning came too late, but at least Benedikta got the stomach and not one of the beaks.

Bluetooth bolts for the bird, claws scrambling against the paving stones beneath then, growling all the while. She snaps at one of the necks, just missing it by a feather, and she looks royally peeved about it. Another try, another miss. It seems the goose being twisted and turned all around by Benedikta's winds is making it more difficult for everybody, including Jill who has had as much success as Bluetooth with her ice shots.]

Stop with the wind! I need it to stay still!

[Jill, telling Benedikta what to do? Certainly that can't end well.]

Ugh!

[She practically screams in her frustration because no, she does not appreciate being told what to do, by Jill of all people, no less. And while the breeze does stop, there is one last sharp wind that rips through the air and grabs the goose before it can either fly or fall to hold it in place.]

Better?

[She could make this little bird pop, but she thinks freezing it to death would be a much worse fate than a quick death for what it's done......]

Edited 2023-12-07 03:09 (UTC)

[There was an attempt to freeze it already and surely Benedikta can remember how that turned out? Jill is just so annoyed at this point, both at the goose and at Benedikta's ungrateful attitude that she just runs up and thrusts her spear through the fowl.

No pomp, no circumstance. Just pure adrenaline, a sharp sword through soft flesh, and an particularly uncommon phrase (by Jill's standards) that tumbles out from between her lips:]

Begone, you absolute fuck!

[The goose's end is completely overshadowed by everything else. Shiva lunging at the bird, sword drawn, and more importantly, the word that tumbled out of her mouth as she plunged that rapier right through its belly. The bird falls limp and the wind stops, dropping it as far as the blade will allow it to go, as Benedikta—in all her feathered glory—just stares at her, jaw slackened in disbelief.

...

....

Before she busts out into a bark of laughter that echoes off the buildings.]

It would seem the goose has brought out a whole other side of you, Shiva.

[It's mostly silence after Jill let loose a word not even Clive has heard her mouth form. Only the sound of her panting as the adrenaline coursing through her veins begins to die down can be heard in the seconds before Benedikta's laughter slices through the air, yanking on Jill's attention.

Founder, what has come over her? It's not the first time she's faced a difficult foe, but it is the first time one has pushed patience to the edge that she lost control of her temper. And in front of Benedikta of all people.

Jill frowns and reaches up to push the bird's corpse off the end of her blade, watching it fall to the ground with a harsh plop. If she doesn't entertain the other woman's commentary, perhaps they can all forget Jill turned into an uncensored sailor for a second there.]

That should be the end of it.

[Of the goose or her ever cursing again?]

[Nope. Not ever forgetting that in this lifetime, or the next.]

Well, you certainly put an end to that bird. As it has done to you.

[She's snickering quietly to herself still.]

I had no idea you had it in you.

[With a huff, Jill sheathes her rapier and tugs on her sleeves, just to have something to do with her hands. She's internally aghast at her own behavior, allowing a simple bird and Garuda's Dominant both to get to her so. Jill can't even remember the last time she let such a word pass her lips.

Someone should bring out the bar of soap at this rate.]

A simple word of gratitude would do nicely, Benedikta.

[You know, thank you is a useful phrase.]

closed 🪶 i'm in the end, just what you made me.

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here is a gift for being so patient with me.

a most beautiful gift :')

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