Willow (
frogfear) wrote in
deercountry2022-07-04 01:31 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
July Catch-All
Who: Willow Rosenberg (
frogfear)
What: Closed Starters for July
When: July
Where: Trench (Various)
Content Warnings: Death, Violence, Blood, Corruption, Slushies. Will update as needed
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
What: Closed Starters for July
When: July
Where: Trench (Various)
Content Warnings: Death, Violence, Blood, Corruption, Slushies. Will update as needed
6 - The Final Fight (Closed to Faith and Ozpin)
Tara might too, for that matter, especially left unconscious out under corrupting influence of the moon's orange glow. For far too long, she's felt at odds with her love, and recently has the situation begun to improve, only to completely unravel again. She would not complain to have them back on the right track again.
Unable to return to the cottage, Willow retreats to the top of the clocktower in Gaze. It doesn't seem like a bad spot to spend some time for now. She leans against the rail and looks over the city sprawled out beneath her as she considers her next move. She's had a problem with Never Mind since his boat trip prank last year. It wasn't funny, being trapped on a tiny canoe, floating down a river composed almost entirely of dead, decomposing bodies. He's even conveniently close by.
How hard would it be, she wonders, to take down the dean of the School of Mutter? Easier than Mariana, probably, but she suspects it would still be a hell of a fight.
It is tempting.]
no subject
She looks to Ozpin, something panicked to her gaze. The corruption's visible but it's not getting worse.]
I need to get her indoors. Keep Willow talking. Try reasoning with her. She's a lot more powerful now, but I think I can still sneak up on her.
[It's cold, the feeling inside of her. She remembers how Buffy had looked as she'd stepped inside Faith's apartment, with Faith dagger, dressed in Faith's leather. Is this how she always felt? This resolve in making a decision? A sacrifice?]
...This has to end tonight.
no subject
[ And he does, truly. The woman up there atop that spire is not the Willow he knows; she will be warped, ruined, malicious. It is only a few steps removed from facing a Chill in the body of a loved one. She will regret every violent action she takes, once she is back to herself, and he owes her the dignity of averting that damage. He understands what may need to be done.
He still isn't prepared for the way she looks.
When Ozpin reaches the top of the tower, he looks upon the girl he's known for years now, turned pale in the moonlight— eyes black as ink from edge to edge, dark veins highlighting the edges of her face— and he freezes. ]
no subject
It's exhausting, it's getting old, and she's very quickly losing patience for it.
Still, this isn't entirely unexpected. She figured Ozpin would find her sooner or later. Trying to avoid him was a good part of the reason why she chose to abandon the cottage after running into Ford there. Between him and Faith, someone was likely to spill the beans about where she was operating out of.
Willow turns to face him with her black eyes, black hair, black veins, the mark of the Corruption that's overwhelmed her, and her expression remains cold. Most of those she's closest to, she's already tried to talk into joining her. Faith was the closest she got, and even that soured far too quickly.
There's no point in even trying with Ozpin. Not unless she knows her attempt with Tara is a success, at least.]
Look, I'm sorry about Oscar, but this is a real bad time for a talk. I'm not changing my mind. I'm not going home, or to the Sanctuary, or anywhere else. There's a kid out there who really, really needs to die as soon as I figure out how to kill them. Now, back off.
no subject
At least someone was saved today. It wasn't Johnny. It wasn't herself. It wasn't Willow. And it wasn't Maul or Savage or Sayo.
She lets out a small sigh, closes her eyes and readies herself for what she's about to do. It's outside, in the corrupting light of the moon, that she takes a step back, readies herself, and leaps until she can grab hold of a windowsill. Until she can climb the rest of the way.
It's important Willow doesn't see her.]
no subject
She looks so much like— but that's suitable, isn't it? So did Chara, in their way. This is the look of a person corrupted.
When he finds his voice, it is with his knuckles white over the grip of his cane. The blade in it is sheathed for now, but he fears that will not hold for long. ]
I want them stopped as much as you do, Willow.
[ He means it. Ozpin steels himself into a step forward, his free hand spread in entreaty. ]
But not if this is the cost.
no subject
She lifts a hand, palm facing him as he steps forward.]
That's close enough, I think. Thicken.
[The air around Ozpin solidifies to stop him from moving. She's well aware magic is her advantage over him here, and that in a purely physical fight, he would no doubt overpower her easily. She doesn't intend to give him the opportunity.]
You know, I'm getting really tired of all you people thinking you know what's best for me. Luz, Luna, Faith, Tara... Ford.
[She pauses and gives him a malicious grin. She hadn't actually attacked Ford, just teleported him back home where he belonged, but she doesn't mind needling Ozpin into thinking otherwise.]
I wouldn't have hurt any of them if they had just stayed out of my way. I can stop Chara. And I will.
no subject
She looks Ozpin in the eye from her position, but doesn't give herself away to Willow yet.
The knife is tight in her hand. The same knife that Buffy buried inside of her.
Faith isn't the monster tonight. She's the Slayer. And no matter how blurred the lines between the two become, a truth remains absolute. There's only one gift she can give Willow right now.
She watches the fight between Ozpin and Willow - not that it's much of a fight - ready for her cue.]
no subject
It shows in his eyes: he believes that she would do it again now. If Ford came after her, stood up to her when she was in this state...
Stanford would hate that Ozpin thinks him so incapable, and yet he finds it so terribly unlikely that he could stand against this. Willow even speaks like her, with the same inhuman sense of cold distance.
He has very little up his sleeve except to keep her talking. ]
You won't stop at Chara. The Willow I know wouldn't want this— she wouldn't want a single person she cared for in harm's way. Certainly not for something so hollow as revenge.
cw: negative self-talk
The Willow you knew was a coward; too afraid to use her own power, even if it meant dying instead. She knew something like this might happen some day. It was about time she stopped hiding from it and just embraced it.
[Her focus is on Ozpin, and if she is aware of Faith's presence, it doesn't show at all.]
And now... Well, with the body count I've left behind - the dead, the injured, the corrupted. There's no going back from that.
no subject
She sees what she wants to be. And now, here she is, dressed up in big sister's clothes. As ever, she's breath-taking in them, pulling at chains to convince herself that she's still in control. She remembers a time when the roles were reversed.
You have a lot more than most people. You have friends. People who loved you.
People like me.
She leaps like the predator she is, silent right up until she isn't, and crashes into Willow.]
And yet, she was a hell of a lot stronger than you. [She growls out in a snarl. She grips the knife that she didn't point toward Willow's back, that she didn't use the opportunity to go for the kill with, and she raises it, angry tears trailing down her cheeks.
Heartbreak. It's been a while since it was this fresh.]
no subject
You again! I already kicked your ass once, you don't think I'll do it again?
[She raises her arms and perhaps for a moment, it looks like she just intends to shield herself from a potential blow from the knife until she releases a torrent of dark energy and lightning from her palms to try to strike at Faith.]
no subject
They cannot let her continue.
Her hold on him has dropped. The two girls go down in a tangle, and Ozpin moves forward. He unsheathes the dream-antler blade of the Long Memory with a flick of his fingers. And then he does what he must.
Distracted as she is, perhaps Willow won't expect the sudden stab of pain through her arm, to pin it to the ground and snuff out her lightning. He had promised an opening. ]
no subject
But this is Willow. This isn't someone that can be snuffed out with a stab or a stake. This is someone she loves too. Someone who also needs to be avenged. And so Faith's fist strikes Willow below the ribs, in the solar plexus, to force the air out of her lungs.]
People loved her. I loved her. Tara loved her. That's the part of you that's worth saving. You know it. We know it. So just stop.
[And her hand wraps around Willow's neck, and she knows what she has to do, she knows and she knows and she knows
And she still hesitates and gives Willow the opening she needs.]
no subject
The lightning fizzles out immediately.
It's fine. It's fine. The wound is nothing that can't be healed in an instant as soon as the sharp blade of the cane is removed, and for a moment, that's where Willow places her focus - into grasping the Long Memory with magic to force it back.
She barely has the chance to make the attempt when Faith's second attack distracts her, and she loses her focus to trying to draw breath back into her lungs, as Faith's hands find her neck. Willow's free hand lands on Faith's face and she tries to heave her away. She needs seconds, just seconds, to free herself and turn the battle back in her favour.
Something animalistic rises from deep within, begging to be set free, and the only thing that keeps it from surfacing is the knowledge that it means giving up on magic. Still, the snarl that rises from Willow's throat as she tries to dislodge Faith is inhuman.]