One way vacation

Rai’s elven ears twitch as she visibly tries to relax. Ever realize TRYING to relax is an oxymoron? She slowly takes in a deep breath before laying back in the beach chair. “Is it normal for there to be ‘weirdos’?” She asks, trying to burying the demon-killing itch.

The topic of her age struck her as strange, she realized to humans age meant a bit more than to her. For reavers there were only two mile stones that mattered, 25 and 100. None really kept track of their own age until one day you’d be called to Cappella Sistina and be given a black cloak and then a while later you’d be called again for your white cloak. “I’ve been killing demons since I was spawned but I don’t really know how long ago that was exactly. Reavers consider age differently than humans do.” Rai crosses her arms, drumming her fingertips along the wooden armrests. “Our lifespan tends to be rather short, most of us die within two or three years. However that black cloak I wear, that means I’ve been in service for at least twenty five years. If you ever get the chance to see one of us with a white cloak, they’re at least a hundred”

Rai perks at the slow, lumbering souls in the water, perking as if she’d seen some strange alien creature… too bad she didn’t get to examine it closer as the whales immediately turned tail and fled. “I am considered very old for a reaver. Only about a fourth make it to twenty five and one of about a hundred make it to one hundred. I don’t have as much…” Rai has to think on a word for a moment but the word never comes to her. “Humans do not like me as much as they like a white cloak, however if there were a siege I would likely be put at the head of a unit of fresh reavers as a commander.” Rai tries to convey what she means, not really knowing how to describe that she had almost zero social respect but a fair amount of responsibility.

Rai begins trying to put the pieces of the place together. Animals flee, the people are no alright and the place reeks of demonic energy. “I think we’re on a giant demon nest. Like a moving lair, except instead of dragging people in, whatever is here is just enticing them in. Like fishermen use bait to lure fish into their nets.” Rai sits up, narrowing her eyes as a particularly dazed man stumbles by.

“We won’t find what we want by enjoying the bait. Can you help me sneak down to the lower levels of the place later?” Her voice dips into a whisper, trying to dodge prying ears.

Aria looked at Rai and wondered just how long her natural life span was, if it was the same as other humans. Aria was quite old in human terms but she also had no idea how long her body would last. She had memories of being in psycho-stasis, being able to hear, see, touch, smell and taste but having no control. She vividly remembered one of the bio engineers saying she could theoretically repair and replace cells and DNA forever. Aria sometimes forgot she was in her 80's now technically, hard to really pinpoint age when you've been artificially grown to a certain age then just stop.

Aria was a bit shocked as she cocked her eyebrow and turned to Rai, her hushed tone a little more urgent and hiss like. "The whole fucking ship? Is the ship like... Listening to us?" As she leans right into Rai's ear. "I got um... Hold on." From a small bag Aria pulls out a plastic tube filled with some liquid. "I got this from one of the shops on the pier, some weird trinket selling shop. It says it's holy water... I have doubts but maybe?" Her tone less than confident. Aria paused a moment when Rai mentioned sneaking down inside the ship, I suppose there was no time like the present to poke around. It's not like there was any reason for the entity to be suspicious of Rai and Aria, though it did strike Aria as curious that Rai was so resilient to the ships effect, inside even she could feel something weird with her thoughts. But being close to Rai and talking with her somehow gave her clarity, was this some evil magic? Was Rai naturally repelling it? Aria didn't know what to think or say.

"Ok then Rai we can go below and try to get into the lower decks, shouldn't be hard to navigate a cruise ship. Been on enough boats to know my way around." Aria closed her eyes for a moment and thought of a way to try and get past security. "Alright then I'm gonna need a bottle of booze first for this to work."

“Possibly they could be listening. But what are we going to do about it? We’re in their nest in the middle of the ocean. The better question is what are they going to do about it? They’re also trapped in their own nest with us.” Rai leans back in the seat for a moment, watching people go by and occasionally keeping an eye on the ceiling. A little too calm for someone who just admitted that in all likelihood they were in a bunch of demon’s kitchens.

Rai perks as Aria mentions something called ‘holy water’ and hands her a tiny plastic bottle. Much to her confusion she pops the top off the tube trying to figure out what was in it, only for a small drop to drip off the lid and onto her wrist. She jumps as smoke rises from her skin as it seems to bubble up like hydrogen peroxide in an open wound and a small bit of black dust spills off from the spot. In the process she drops the bottle onto the deck out of shock and the spilled water only seems to burn into the wood of the deck much like it did on her hand.

“Ah. You mean consecrated water. So that’s why we’re not allowed to touch it.” She realizes out loud, examining the burn on her wrist. Luckily the holy water had stopped bubbling but had left one gnarly burn along the ridge of her thumb down to her wrist where parts of the skin seem to have eroded away into dust. She looks down at the smoking puddle on the deck. “That isn’t good. This place isn’t just a little desecrated. I’d say it’s bordering on… cursed.” Rai thinks out loud, not realizing she’d used the wrong word. There wasn’t a word in english for what she was trying to say as English doesn’t have a step above desecrated. Probably due to this world’s considerably rare encounters with such desecrated areas. Haunted might would be the closest word she could have used, but even that wasn’t quite right.

“Booze? I mean…” Rai looks to the other side of the chairs to find an unattended bottle of fireball sitting on the cooler of some drunken college kids… She stands, doing her best to copy Aria’s “I own the place” attitude, and nonchalantly going over to pick up the bottle as if it was hers and much to her shock, no one seemed to notice her taking their liquor. She sits back on the chair, handing Aria the liquor. “I have no idea what it’s for, but here.”

Aria was a little less than alright knowing that this entire ship was infested in some way. It was a shock when the holy water burned Rai, Aria made an effort to conceal what was happening from the other people nearby. "Whoops, gonna have to make a mental note of this." The entire ship being cursed or some kind of monster in itself gave Aria an ironic sinking feeling, having her powers dulled also made her very uneasy and uncomfortable, but she didn't want Rai to worry about her like a liability. Despite her lackadaisical attitude when she was around Rai, Aria came to like this woman quite a bit.

Aria took the bottle a little impressed by the confidence Rai showed "Might be some hope for you yet sweety, anywho right the plan. So..." A shift in her body and gaze followed her uneasy voice "There's something you need to know, in order to get these tickets I may have had tooooo Iunno... Make up some lies maybe, nothing big really. I may have said that you and I were a couple, a romantic couple, this may be a cruise for lovers. Don't get upset it all fits into the plan." Aria gets up and gives one last look for prying eyes before scampering off down a hallway, she stops near a doorway leading down into the crew area.

Further down in the bowels of the ship crewmen load cloth sacks of God knows what, the sacks have squishy contents that are quite audible as they are moved along. This deck looks nothing like the rest of the ship, it's rusted and worn down aged and outdated in design. Blood stains trail the walls and blood drips from every sack as well. The crew in the depths of the vessel reveal their form as rotting corpses of sailors long since dead, the magic veil that allows everything above to appear pleasant doesn't stretch to below.

Rai shakes her scorched hand, the dust from the burn falling to the ground in a fine dark powder. “I’m alright, just burned the skin.” She shows her hand to reassure Aria she’d be alright. The burn didn’t look normal, instead of being red and irritated it looked more like lightly singed paper with the affected flesh having been turned to ash.

“Lovers?” Rai repeats, as if processing what that word meant. Did Aria just call them losers? Last she checked a loser had bad connotations so why would that get them free cruise tickets? Then she suddenly remembers that there was a difference in consonants between the two words. “Two women can be lovers publically?” She asks incredulously, was it a concept she’d never heard of. In Dis men and women could be somewhat public, although public displays of affection were very frowned upon by polite society. Any of that between two people of the same gender could bring some bad social consequences.

None of this really mattered to a reaver though. Reavers weren’t supposed to feel anything at all, so any public display of emotion at all would bring problems, as well as the fact Rai couldn’t really tell the physical difference between a male and female. “I won’t be upset. I just don’t understand what that entails.” The reaver honestly admits. Romance was the major social norm she just couldn’t understand. Going from a very repressive social climate to a touchy feely and emotionally accepting culture was a major shock so far.

Rai keep’s her voice down to sneak along with Aria. She stops at the door, taking in a breath before reaching out a hand to her friend. “Wait, Aria. I smell blood. And decay. We should go back to our room and get my scythes first. The magic in them is diminished for some reason, but they are still useful against anything undead.” Rai suggests, not necessarily wanting to get into a possible undead situation unarmed. Seeing undead was already hard enough due to lack of souls, being forced into unarmed combat could be much worse. “Unless you can be sneak.” She mumbles, botching the pronunciation as her voice trails, scanning around for any souls below deck.

As they were talking two security guards came strolling down the hallway, it would be seconds before they came around the corner and found Rai and Aria sneaking around where they shouldn't be. It was now when Aria put her ruse into effect. She takes some of the liquor for the bottle on her finger and rubs it on Rai's neck and her own, the smell gently wafted off of the both of them. To any passer by they might just appear as two drunks. Aria then grabs Rai by her hips and pins her to the wall "Just go with it." she whispers before locking lips with Rai in a rather deep and passionate embrace. She giggles drunkenly as she leans into Rai being quite intimate with their limited space, the guard eyes them both as he comes down the hall.

"Excuse me ladies, this is a uh... "He pauses for a moment when spotting the two clearly drunk couple that wandered over here for some private fun. His orders are to keep any nosey people or threats away from the lower deck, but the ruse had worked in that he didn't consider some drunk young girls to be any sort of issue. "Listen just... Dont let me catch you here on my way back." Aria lifts her head from its place on Rai's neck, a pink blushing hue on her cheeks and lude stare. "Our mistake sir, we'll be outta here in a second I promise." With that the guard strolled along his route going downstairs and Aria broke off the guise. "Well that was a little tense but I think he bought it, I think we can make our way downstairs now as long as we're quiet."

Aria thought about what just happened and a thought occurred to her "Hey... If you tell Cebra this story, maybe leave out this part." Aria uses here telekinesis to unlock the heavy steel door and slowly open it.

Rai hadn’t really noticed the lumbering guards drawing near, she was far more interested in the smell of rot and decay. She’d never paid much attention to the noises humans made, they were never of any concern to her, however only then did she realize they were actually a bit of a problem. She didn’t have much time to think before Aria was rubbing liquor on her.

“Uh, wh-” She starts to protest, not even really hearing what Aria said about going with it. Stumbling back into the wall of the ship and stiffening as she was rather abruptly kissed. The amount of thoughts running through Rai’s mind was beginning to get wild, never really finishing one thought before rolling right on to the trailing thought of another. On the outside she was way more stiff than normal. Sure her body was naturally a bit more solid than the normal flesh and blood person, but at the moment she felt like feeling up a marble statue, and she was about as warm as one too. Even the inside of her mouth gave off no heat and didn’t have the usual taste either. It was a more metallic taste, similar to blood. Her hands timidly draped over Aria’s back, claws threatening her skin with the stress.

She was still frozen even as Aria came off her for a minute , averting her eyes from the guard just as he walks away and Aria peels herself off her. She had no color to her cheeks, despite how much Rai felt what should have been heat there. “Ah, right. I- um.” Rai was out of words to use, having momentarily forgotten how English worked. “Won’t tell Cebra.” She confirms, choosing to not look Aria in the eyes after that.

Aria can vaguely pick up on the images going through Rai's mind, they're not completely clear but they're clear enough to see how shocked she was. She should probably tell Rai this isn't common and that she's just a little less wary of personal barriers, but later maybe. "Also I dont think we'd be able to sneak bac here with your weapons in hand, we gotta go it as we are, but you'll be fine just fight hand to hand. Not really waiting to hear her response for that with the security now gone it's safe to descend to the crew area, it's a twisted series of hallways below that seems impossible in its design. Perhaps years of magical augmentation warped the very space the ship was in. Navigating the halls was hard as they grew narrow and wide randomly, shot out dangerous heated steam and every so often crewmen needed to be evaded and hid from. The only guiding force down in those metal and pipe halls was Rai's instincts and abilities.

The stench of spoiled blood mixed with the rusting iron hallways to provide a less than pleasant smell, the floor had a light layer of water that looked tainted with blood and iron a deep burgundy. Every once in a while there was the sound of metallic screeching like steel gears grinding together. Through the grotesque maze there was a room that had heavily reinforced doors guarded closely by two very odd looking crewmates. They were unnaturally tall for a human if that's what they were, bones under their flesh seemed a little more bulky and even pressed against the bare skin in some places. Their faces were gaunt looking and the jawline was a little stretched.

Aria takes a hidden position behind what looks like some kind of generator or other device and peers over to get a good look at the guards. She whispers to Rai "Ok we made it this far on stealth, we need some distraction to get by these two."

Rai was actually doing great in the stealth department.

Her steps were almost weightless, falling silent and she moved swiftly enough that even without all the movement her armor and cloak caused, she still almost seemed to be difficult to pin down while in motion. However the hallways were distorted, she didn’t seem to have much trouble with the nausea inducing magic.

What did catch the reaver off guard was Aria’s sudden stopping. “What two?” She asks, looking around for a minute until one of the oddly ogre-ish men shifted, scratching his mealy skin, which immediately caught her attention. “Ah. Undead. Always undead.” She groans under her breath. She knew it as soon as she smelt the stench of death there was no way in hell they weren’t going to deal with moving corpses.

“Somehow I don’t think the drunk distraction will work with these two.” She whispers, looking around. She wasn’t entirely sure what could be used to distract a pair of hulking zombies. As far as she knew they might be literally mindless. Or they could be fast. Fast zombies were the worst kind of zombies.

“Do you have one of those… um. Boxes. Things people send messages on?” She asks, not necessarily remembering the words for the cell phone. “Those make loud noises. Make it go off elsewhere?” She asks, not necessarily even knowing if that was an option.

Aria was fixin for a fight, however it was probably the wiser idea to go with what Rai was thinking. "Hm, my cell phone? Right I got ya." Aria peeks again getting a good scope of the space the undead are guarding. She reckons she can quickly toss her phone across the hall and not pass their line of sight. She tosses her phone making it land in a narrow space between some pipes gently landing it with her telekinesis. She uses her power to activate the screen and bring up ring tones. She turns one on and the chime rings loud off the metallic halls. The creatures instantly take notice with a furious grunt, the stomp towards the noise far down the hallway to the right of where the girls are hiding.

After they go Aria stands out of her cover and looks at the door they were guarding, it was now or never since that distraction wouldn't last long. She whispers back to Rai "Alright let's go" She crouches low and gets up to the door opening it up slightly to peek inside, all she could see was the glow of some eerie pale green light and what looked like a web of coral reef adorning the walls and ceiling. Aria creeps in and hides behind a mound of coral and shellfish, what she sees next really makes her uncomfortable. A trio of deformed humanoid creatures that looked like they were stitched together from things in the ocean. One was short and hunched over with a gnarled cane of fish bone, her face hidden by a hood. One was rotund and tall with scraggly hair and arms like a bears, her face was also hidden behind a tattered burlap sack with one eye exposed. She also carried a staff of a much larger size looking as though it could give a harsh whack if need be. The last was a tall spindly looking woman with jagged teeth in her crooked grin, all of their skin was blotchy wet and pale but hers was also pocked with boils.

Aria cant help but compare them to every witch stereotype she had seen if not a little more gnarly and ocean based. It was odd for her seeing these things that lived in fairy tales here in the flesh. The three of them were huddled over some kind of device, it looked like a giant marble the size of a beach ball being held in place my some moving pieces as though it were a globe. The marble like object was a deep amber colour and got near black the closer to the center it got, every few seconds it would let out a moan as a ghostly image of a gaunt looking human floated by on its surface. Aria held her hand over her mouth when she saw what she could only assume were souls being held in prison, but it got worse when the tall spindly hag reached her hand in the solid object like it was warm wax and drew out a soul. She wrapped it around her hand like a piece of fabric before sinking her teeth into it. She devoured the screaming soul as her sisters joined in eating right from her hand and slobbering like animals.

Rai perks as she sees movement well after the noise, struggling to exactly see the undead creatures, but she trusts Aria’s claim that they were out of the way for the time being. Filing in behind Aria she noticed a fine layer of dust on the ground that glowed a bright blue. To the human eye it was transparent and blended in, and was so fine it slipped through one’s fingers like the finest silk. However to Rai it glittered like the finest sapphires described to her.

She runs her fingers through it, having no idea it would be difficult to impossible to detect to those without devil’s sight. Rai had to think for a moment on what this was until her hackles raised at the unmistakable feeling of a demon. Her senses were kicked into overdrive as the feeling of irrational fury floods into her mind.This was definitely a nest of some kind, and as soon as she noticed the orb, it became clear what this was along the floors.

She quickly drops the dust, brushing her hand off on her dress as quickly as she could. The law of souls was much like the law of energy or matter, souls must go somewhere even when their vessels expire. What became of souls sans-vessel was up for debate, however what was not up for debate was the few times where a soul was actually destroyed. The resulting material was referred to as ‘Remnant’ by some circles. She’d never seen it before, but only when Rai saw a soul literally explode into dust before her very eyes in the teeth of some pox-riddled hags did she make the connection.

Rai makes a gesture across her throats then nods back toward the door with Aria. Hopefully Aria got the memo that challenging these three in their layer on their terms was an absolutely horrific idea that would likely get them killed. Rai only knew a few things about hags, that they were stronger in groups, and in their own nests they could take up to ten reavers to kill. Starting this fight was a terrible idea, however if Rai knew Aria by now, there was likely no going back… besides, she didn’t know how much time the phone distraction bought them and by all likelihood, they’d be caught on the way back and dragged here anyway.

She groans under her breath, eyes shutting as she realized there wasn’t much of a choice here.

Rai motions toward the hag with the soul, assuming that was the one in charge. Usually taking out a commander quickly was the way to go, so she could only hope hags operated the same way.

Aria caught Rai's signal, she didn't know what to expect but never did shy away from a scrap. Aria leapt over her cover and made a B line for the tall one, she got about half way there before the hags took notice of Aria with mild surprise. Before she could get in close a large wall of coral rose to block her path, it was covered in black and stinking anemones and snails with barbed shells. The big one came from under the floor behind Aria and gabbed her by her foot. "Uh shit!" As the chunky hag rose up and held Aria by her ankle upside down. "Geeeheheh little guppy should not be here in sisters home." She mumbles through her jowls and drooling sea water.

"An intruder?! Is it that psychic slut?" Comes a nasally, sharp voice from behind the wall as it slowly crumbles away. "Who the fuck you calling a slut?!" Aria says turning her head and torso to face the tall one. "Oh my it is her. I did not foresee her finding her way down here... She escaped my vision, odd." Comes a hissing mousey voice from the short one. "So where is your friend you little cunt? The horn head bitch? She might be skulking around here as well." The tall hag uttered through grinding teeth. "I keep telling you to watch out for telepaths and hunters Kha... er Sister." The tall one and fat one both look at the short one as if she had almost said something unforgivable. "Gah watch your tongue Sister, at any rate dispose of her quickly and find the other one."

"'Dispose'? Unlikely." Aria's skin takes on a very shiny sheen suddenly, her musculature strained under her skin rendering her extremely defined which her bikini left just a little to the imagination. She gave a great twist of her torso wrenching her foot from the large one and dropping down, on the way down she is cat like in her reflexes and gives her a drop kick to her gut. "UHF!" She bellows as she stumbles back, keeping upright by bracing herself with her club like staff. The small one backs up into the shadows and begins to utter something under her breath, the tall one reaches out her hand to the murky puddles of water, from them she summons a swarm of crab claws like a tentacle cluster. Aria looks at herself surrounded and smiles "Rai if you're late to dinner there wont be any left for you."

Oh Rai was really regretting being unarmed. The hags would be in pieces already if she’d had the forethought. Seemed Aria was unbothered by this though and she came thundering out of the gate. She waits, biding time. Hags were absolute hell to deal with armed, she was fixing to have to face them down unarmed. At least she had Aria. She did however, perk as the hag almost mentioned something detrimental to some species of demons. A name? She knew some demons were weak to their own names in some cruel sense of irony, however without it they were out of luck for now.

Rai follows Aria’s lead, going straight for the smaller hag. Of what she knew, words meant magic, right? So might as well try to shut the one speaking up. She jumps on her like a wild cat leaping on a gazelle. Her attack was nothing like Aria’s. She didn’t know how to throw a punch, however she could grapple pretty well as accomplishing a good throw was a huge part of armed combat. She was attempting to pull her arm around the hag’s throat and if all went well, break her jaw or even her neck. She had the strength for it, she just had to hope she’d accomplished it right. Usually this would be followed up by a bladed hit to the back, but she didn’t currently have that luxury.


She gave a heavy growl that let out into a trilling reptilian hiss. Rai was trying to keep her head unclouded to fight, she just had to take out one for now.

The big one must have ben shocked by Aria's sudden burst of strength, she quickly recovered and hefted her huge staff up like a hammer. She swung at Aria repeatedly with tremendous force that felt like a fierce gust followed it. She managed to avoid the hags swings but her footing was thrown off from the harsh winds that were like a storm breaking upon the shore. One of the crab claws got a hold of Aria's leg and squeezed on her with a vice like grip as it lifted her up. She screamed in agony as the claw tried to cleave and rip her foot from her, shaking her around. She manages to curl her torso up as she's hanging to avoid another swing from the big bitch, but the claw is really crushing her ankle now. Thinking quickly Aria manages to use her cryokinesis to freeze the claw in seconds and shatter it like brittle glass.

The witch pinned down by Rai is less than nervous about her predicament, she even seems rather amused. As Rai tried to break her jaw the flesh on her hand turned purple, blue and eventually a rainbow of colours. Rai's arm started to grow coral on it. The curse pushed along her arm and fought with her regenerative abilities. More crab claw swarms came for Rai as well now snapping at her and aiming for her throat and feet. Aria wasn't faring too well at the moment, she manages to dodge quite a few of the big ones swings but her ankle and the magical wind from that mace like staff trips Aria up. The staff cracks her brutally on the side of her head and she goes flying back smashing through a coral stalagmite and skidding to a stop. After a second she reaches up grabbing onto the wall and hauls herself to her feet, Aria is definitely bloody and hurt but still good to go.

"Oh dear, seems our young friends are no real match for us sisters. Make them suffer for their impudence." The tall one reaches out her staff to the water forming a swirling portal from which gurgling and bubbling noises rise from.

Rai had not realized the hags had seen them, even more so, she hadn’t realized that going for the face was an obvious move. Her hand begins to turn all sorts of colors Rai was blind to, but then begins to solidify like a living stone. She shakes her hand only to feel the pinching of little pincers across her legs and crawling up her body

Giving just a moment to reassess she realizes this isn’t dis, there are no other reavers to bombard these three with. It was just her and Aria and their gross underpreparedness. The whole place reeked of vile desecration, to the point it almost brought her to a blinding fury, but then she found the focus point. An orb in the middle of these three hen’s. It had eaten souls, turning them to remnants before her eyes, the entire room was covered in a fine layer of soul powder. They were in a magic powder keg and that orb was only adding fuel to the fire. She might not be able to stop the hags, but she could stop them from turning souls to dust.

Rai ducks her head in a charge that looks as though she was about to hit a hag, but instead swings her newly acquired solid hand right into the orb. A chill was sent over her as she touched the horrible thing. As if every soul it had consumed screamed at her all at once. Each life throws itself in her general direction, desperately clinging to her in hopes of occupying the corpse, but fading away into oblivion as the body they wished to claim was already taken.

“Uh… Aria. I think I messed up.” She yelps, taking a step back as she was about to feel sick from all the fading colors and noises in her head.

Aria's head is spinning in such a way she can barely register what's going on around her, there are strange siren like sounds and screaming of some sort, certainly not human. As the fog cleared she came to understand her predicament a little more. Smoke and sparks from everywhere, what looked like tendrils of black ichor consuming the room from the core of what was once the magical orb. "Rai what did you" The sound of metal bending and straining under pressure cuts through the panic of the hags scrambling about, the tension in the air is thicker than the steel hull and just as such it explodes. The ship is violently hit on the port side and lurches over tossing everything to one side, it lurched back almost as harshly once again throwing passengers and things about. Aria looks upwards as something pierces through the decks above like a torpedo being dropped, just smashing through until finally a massive black tendril entered the room. It ripped and tore everything it could reach asunder like a maddened beast, Whipping at anything that it could.

"They freed it! Run my sisters! We flee this vessel" The hags all scramble to a large ring made out of coral in the floor , the coral ring holds a pool of deep blue water that despite the breaking of the ship remained still as glass. Upon the wave of the tall ones hand and a whisper of some secret magic the pool glimmered and an image of a beach came into view. The beach was tropical with palm trees and great ferns along the coast and inland as far as the eye could see. Overhead were dark clouds and fierce thunder, a storm blowing tree bending winds and rain so raging it might feel like a cursed paradise. The hags jumped into the pool making no splash, just a few small ripples. Aria stumbled a bit and barely missed getting a blow from the wild black tendril "Rai! The portal thing!" She yells as she hobbles now with slightly greater speed than her stumbling.

Hull breaches start to flood the room with water, if that wasn't enough of an incentive to move for the portal then the monstrous security ghouls busting in through the doorway certainly was, there's no sense fighting on a sinking ship. Aria makes it half way to the portal when she is wracked with a horrid pain in her back, the tendril whipped and struck her right in the back so hard it had pierced her and damaged her spinal column. A gush of blood meets the water as Aria falls down face first in the gathering shallow water. She's so stunned by the strike no sound escapes her as she lay just at the edge of the portal.