Actually took the time to edit this one

-*- cunningConnery ...Sigh, no, of course it wouldn't be a prideful squid. That would be far too easy, wouldn't it? Contrary to belief, it was the vain ghosts and goblins that were the easiest to outwit. They were so busy clinging onto their customs and traditions and titles and so on and so forth that it was all too easy to trip them and knock the living hell out of their proverbial shins, so long as you didn't play by their rules.
-*- cunningConnery It was the ones that didn't give a flying fuck, the ones that realized that time wasn't in their favor and had all but thrown out the rulebook, that you had to watch out for.
-*- cunningConnery They wanted what they wanted and didn't care how they got it, so long as it was theirs.
-*- cunningConnery He was starting to get the sinking feeling that this was one of those kinds of monsters.
-*- cunningConnery The real monsters.
-*- cunningConnery Ohhh Lord, how he wish he were a praying man right now.
-*- Nitro (its not that hard silly!)
-*- Nitro (you just talk :3)
<-> You are now known as abstersiveTournure
<cunningConnery> (nitro no)
<cunningConnery> (you're)
<cunningConnery> (KILLING ME)
-*- abstersiveTournure (She always said things like that, when it came up. God wanted to hear from his children, after all.)
-*- abstersiveTournure (All of his children? Really?)
-*- abstersiveTournure (...But of course, he'd never had the heart to say that.)
-*- cunningConnery It took every bit of his self-restraint to bite down on that natural instinct, that well worn fight or flight panic that had served his kind so well throughout the years but certainly wouldn't now, to stand his ground against this Chesire Cat wannabe.
-*- cunningConnery (More like a goddamn Chesire Tiger if you asked him--)
-*- cunningConnery It'd only bring the inevitable that much quicker, after a-- No, no, he couldn't think that just yet. There had to be a way out of this. There was always a way out of this. It'd hesitate for a second too long, or shift to somewhere it shouldn't, or-- or something.
-*- cunningConnery Something had to give.
-*- cunningConnery In his haste to find that something, to find that nick in the wall that would somehow free them and get them out of this mess, he hadn't even noticed Vergil shuffling closer to him.
-*- cunningConnery ...But it wasn't unappreciated.
-*- cunningConnery C'mon, think, think, there had to be something. Something that would keep him alive  and keep Vergil not in eternal suffering and then they could get the hell out of dodge and run away together and--
-*- cunningConnery ...Dinner--?
-*- cunningConnery He had barely a second to let those spine chilling implications before the shadows came and suddenly, tentacles. All over and under and around him like coils of darkness tightening more, more, more and dragging him into the nothingness.
-*- cunningConnery It had all happened so fast he hardly had time to think, let alone react. There was darkness and a face and too many teeth and gentle but rough, rough hands and fUCKING HELL WHY COULDN'T HE MOVE--?
-*- cunningConnery And in that one moment, while that horribly raspy tongue licked up his jaw like he was a fudge popsicle on a too hot day, his mind could race to only one thing. To only one primal, pressing thought.
-*- cunningConnery Well, two thoughts.
-*- cunningConnery One, he had never felt so terrified in his entire life thus far.
-*- cunningConnery Two, he was a dead man.
-*- cunningConnery And somewhere beneath it all, dully pulsing underneath the terror and finality of it all, a disconnected thought wondered if this was what a mouse felt as it was being swallowed whole by some snake or other.
-*- cunningConnery By the time his reflexes finally kicked in, reminding him that he wasn't just any mouse and mother of fucking God he should do something already, it was much too late.
-*- cunningConnery The darkness disappeared without a trace, vanishing into thin air in all but a second, and suddenly he was on the ground and breathing all too fast and hard and ragged and--
-*- cunningConnery VRRRRRRRRAAACK--
-*- cunningConnery ...And there it goes.
-*- cunningConnery It would've probably been a beautiful explosion too, had he been watching.
-*- cunningConnery (It would've been more beautiful if the damn terror was actually in the explosion too, at that.)
-*- cunningConnery Alas, he was much too busy hunched over ground to notice.
-*- cunningConnery Trying not to vomit seemed like a much, much more pressing issue at the moment.
-*- cunningConnery Oh, Jesus Christ...

-*- Nitro How /dare/ he.
-*- Nitro It wasn't a coherent thought -- rather, it was the snarl grinding painfully in his throat, the burst of silent fury in his chest -- /how/ /dare/ /he/ --
-*- Nitro -- but he still couldn't move, rooted in place by panic and terror and uselessly looking on as the shadows lashed out, prehensile tendrils of dark, wrapping and dragging and --
-*- Nitro No, no, no no no -- not again, he can't watch it again -- can't can't can't --
-*- Nitro His thoughts struck (almost literally, every flickering word another stinging blow) rapidly, half-formed concepts more than anything else. Cut the shadows? Fool's errand. Kill the source? It could escape easily. Attack while it held Cael? It could use more shadows.
-*- Jaspersprite You could politely ask it to stop! :0
-*- PurpleKoopa no mean no, shadow monster
-*- PurpleKoopa say shadNO to shaDOWS
-*- PurpleKoopa protestancle the tentacles
-*- Nitro (Something in his mind, drowned and muffled beneath the hurried rush and rage, laggingly screamed a reminder that he could use Cael, too. A fresh human fillet still gurgling on its own blood, wallowing in its last moments of fear and betrayal --)
-*- Nitro (No no no not again --)
-*- Nitro (He wished he could close his eyes this time.)
<-> You are now known as abstersiveTournure
<abstersiveTournure> [frowns @ name]
<abstersiveTournure> [I am so used to already having it changed, haha]
<Jaspersprite> [[Ffff]]
-*- abstersiveTournure He could hear the unnatural appendage slither and rasp sickeningly against human skin, something that set his stomach turning and sparked a low, constant growl humming in his throat, instinctively hiding the terror lumping in his throat, the panic lodged in his chest. His rational mind held steady, unwavering in its control: if he acted now, if he simply acted, he would die.
-*- abstersiveTournure But every other fiber of his being was shrieking, all fury and fear -- do something, do anything. Tear it to pieces -- retreat -- look away look away look away --don't sit by this time you idle worthless coward --
-*- abstersiveTournure The thoughts cut off and he lunged forward, kneeling (VRRRRRRRRAAACK -- he made no attempt to slow, couldn't so much as think to) protectively over his fallen comrade, not touching but hovering and watching the shadows with a hard, wild-eyed look -- all an automatic, mindless reaction.
-*- abstersiveTournure It took a moment for the reality to hit, the seized gears in his head slowly spinning again: he was okay -- he was alive, he could hear it in the stuttering, too-rapid thud-thud-thud-thud (too rapid, too fragile). Shivering hands grasped at Cael's shoulders, grip tight, warm, as reassuring as he could make it (as if he wasn't trembling so very violently).
-*- abstersiveTournure There wasn't -- wasn't any time to rest, he reminded himself. "(C-come on; get up,)" he coaxed, swift and hushed. It was still there, still watching in amusement, still ready to return at any moment and snatch them away (as if they weren't already in its clutches). There was no room to linger in weakness, to let their helplessness show. "(I'm sorry, sorry,)" he added, more a breath than anything, every sense madly alert, paranoid of even the slightest movement. (It was his fault, after all -- if he'd kept his mouth shut, if he hadn't provoked it -- he should've known.)
-*- abstersiveTournure "(I'm sorry, sorry,)" he added, more a breath than anything, every sense madly alert, paranoid of even the slightest movement. (It was his fault, after all -- if he'd kept his mouth shut, if he hadn't provoked it -- he should've known.)
-*- abstersiveTournure But the apology was brief, cut off by another fear-scattered thought. "(Stay close to me. Hold on -- please get up.)" He couldn't bear to watch him buckle under terror and impending doom -- they had to keep fighting, had to -- he couldn't accept his failure. (Why wasn't it ever his own life at risk because of it -- why?)
-*- abstersiveTournure He took a shaky, stabilizing breath, wrapping one hand around Cael's arm to straighten up and pull the magician to his feet. Please try, please try -- don't just lie down and fear. He didn't know what he'd do if -- he was scared --
-*- abstersiveTournure He had to get out of here, had to get away and find his brother and never leave him again, and the thought of anything less was unfathomable. But to do so alone was --
-*- abstersiveTournure No no no he couldn't let that happen, he couldn't. He wouldn't.
-*- abstersiveTournure (He was terrified and he couldn't face it alone. Not again.)
-*- abstersiveTournure "What will it take --" He ground the words out carefully, his terse fury seeping into his voice, free hand poised to grip the materializing scabbard of his beloved weapon. Not yet -- don't provoke it again, just. Just hold on. "-- for you to let him go?"
-*- abstersiveTournure (He silently, desperately begged his friend to listen. He had no life to spare in that fragile little human form for nobility.)