darkinferno | [narrations + overflow]

Um, hello, bug zapper.

[She waves her hand as she says that, and a trail of lights follow, like a lit sparkler on the fourth of July.

Aww come on Dante, that thing's full of mud, why. Arlene ducks again, this time to avoid the inevitable splashback as they rattle through the trench. Despite her complaints though, she can't help laughing, pleased with the adrenaline rush despite the mess.]

[There we go. Dante's pleased when he hears Arlene's laughter; this is fun! Come on.]

Have you gotten any further with using that since last time? Or is it still only enough for a couple minutes' worth of power?

That's still about it.

[She pouts a little. Being able to do magic at all is still pretty awesome, but it would be nice if she could do more with it.]

Huh. I wonder if it's like my swordfighting, where you have to practice it to get better at it?

I've been practicing.

[Mostly making little sparks to show off, but she's tried using it to charge various things. It goes further than it did, but not much, and she's not sure why. There's no way it tops out at this. On the bright side, it mostly only happens on purpose now?]

It doesn't mess up my hair anymore--wait. [She holds her hand up, warning him to shut up for a moment.] Did you hear buzzing?

[He frowns. It's strange--why would they have given her something that couldn't be developed?

...wait a moment. He's doing it now, too, assuming that it's Retrospec that's been giving them these different abilities and memories. It's definitely the most logical thing to think, though...]

That's really weird. What do you--

[But then Arlene's warning him to shut it, and Dante's brow furrows as he tries to take a quick glance over his shoulder, looking for whatever it is she's heard.]

Buzzing?

[Arlene leans out the window, straining to pick up the sound again. There it is again, less of a buzz than a rapid whirring, and she doesn't see the source yet.]

Actually, more like a sprinkler--

[Something shoots past them, narrowly missing the windshield. Arlene throws herself back in her seat, swearing. That was much bigger than the one that startled her before.

And it's coming back.]

[There's a curse from Dante as well as he swerves slightly--it's not intentional, but what do you expect when something as big as they are shoots past the two of them? He swears again, the RC car not as smooth a ride as on the open road, trying to get a look at what it is that's coming at them while keeping the car under control.]

All right, Miss Bug Zapper, let's see what you can do!

[He's slowing the car as he speaks. Is this bug after them specifically, or were they just accidentally in its flight path?

Unfortunately, his gut says the latter, and he's itching to get sword in hand. For some reason, he already feels more comfortable with it in his hands, as though he can take on anything that comes his way with it. COME AT HIM, CICADA.]

Don't mind if I do!

[Arlene sits up as tall as she can without unbuckling the "seatbelt" (sorry, Dante, she doesn't trust your driving that much.) Holding out her hand with fingers splayed, she wills the magic to come. She imagines not just a shower of sparks, but a bolt, arcing from her open palm to fry the bug in midair and holy shit, it does. The flash momentarily dazzles her vision white, but there isn't much left to see.

Too bad that's only going to work once, because there are more whirring noises and they seem to be getting closer.]

Whoa, nice!

[Dante lets out an appreciative whistle as Arlene pretty much fries the cicada, watching the bug drop to the ground and crunch under the RC car as they drive on.

But there are the sounds of more, and Dante doesn't know how much juice Arlene's got left in her.]

Here, can you drive? Take this!

[He's not wasting time waiting for an answer before he's shoving the remote control her way. Hope you're a fast learner, Arlene! Particularly because Dante's reaching down and unwinding the bread tie from its anchor, sliding it back enough to allow him to pull up into a crouch on the seat. He keeps his right hand wrapped in the rubber band as he switches his left up to the jeep's top bar, straightening up so that he can look behind them as he quickly hooks his leg through the makeshift shoulder-belt for a bit more stability.

There are two more cicadas flying after them--why are cicadas flying after them?! Dante didn't think they even ate bugs! But there's no time to think about that now; he jerks his hand down, Soul Eater appearing in a a coil of darkness there. He lifts his sword up, ready for them.]

Come on!

Of course I can drive-

[What oh hello there remote. Arlene can drive a car, but she hasn't touched an RC vehicle of any kind since she was little; the whole thing jerks to the side as she pushes on the wrong stick, and she swears loudly. But okay, now she knows which one is forward. She glances at Dante, just to check he's still hanging on.]

The hell? [This time, she swears out of surprise.] How come you can do that?

[He has to check his balance when the jeep jerks to the side, but aside from that Dante's doing fine! He's eyeing the cicadas flying toward them, judging the distance and wondering if he dares to try this yet again.]

Why they didn't give me a boomerang...

[For how he's been using it...!]

Don't ask me! I had to fight a spider off and suddenly I had a sword!

[Aaaaand... now! Dante hurls Soul Eater toward the closer of the two cicadas, sending the blade spinning end-over-end toward the bug. It's not his best shot, considering the movement of the jeep and his inability to set up properly, but he does still manage to slice through its wing, sending it veering off-course.

Of course, his sword's gone now too, but he'll summon it back in a second. He's taking a moment now to glance down toward Arlene, calling over the whine of the car.]

You doing all right down there?

What? You're not seriously gonna-

[He's seriously gonna throw it.

And it worked. That shouldn't have been allowed to work, does this look like a video game or something]

Fine! I've got this, you deal with the other one!

[At least, she's kind of got this? Oh shit there's another puddle she doesn't got this. Caught off guard, she can't slow down or steer around before they barrel into it, kicking up an even higher splash than before. Arlene splutters, wiping at her face as they come out the other side. Please tell her it at least drove off the other bug.]

All right!

[Look, he knows this shouldn't work the way it does. But for some reason, it does, a fact he won't question for superstitious worry that maybe it won't any more if he does.

Soul Eater begins to appear in his hand again, but Dante's facing their rear and so he doesn't see the giant puddle before they splash into it. For a moment he's knocked off balance, sword disappearing before it's fully-summoned, swearing up a storm as the muddy water splashes all over him while he tries to regain his balance.

It doesn't seem to have had any effect on the other cicada, though; the bug zips up and over the puddle, coming back toward them.

A glance toward their front shows Dante that they're headed toward uneven ground; he'll never have a clean shot toward the bug if they hit that, and it'll probably slow them down enough that the cicada will catch up to them.]

...I'm gonna do something stupid. Arlene--keep driving!

[He's not taking the time to explain. Instead, Dante swings himself over the top of the driver's seat into the back, summoning Soul Eater once he's gotten himself ready. He studies the cicada for as long as he dares, something within him able to calculate their speeds in a way he can barely begin to understand... and then Dante lets go of the top bar, stepping once up onto the backseat, twice onto the back of the jeep, and leaping out into space, sword arcing overhead toward the oncoming bug.

It shouldn't work. It's impossible. And yet it does--the sword strikes true, slicing clean through the cicada, its two halves dropping out of the air as Dante dismisses the sword just in time to drop knee-deep into the mud, momentum carrying him forward so that he winds up catching himself with his hands, which will be similarly muddy when he straightens up.

Honestly, he's just lucky he didn't faceplant, all things considered.]

[Arlene actually has her eyes on the road like the sensible person she... well, isn't, but that's not the point. Like a sensible person, but she can guess what happened from the swearing. She snickers without making the slightest attempt to avoid being heard.]

Stupider than what you just did?

[And then he answers that question by jumping out of the goddamn moving vehicle. Arlene swears, yanking on the control sticks to pull the jeep into a tight turn that throws even more mud about, and jerks it to a stop.]

Seriously. Seriously?

[He doesn't look the faintest bit sorry as he starts back toward her, wading out of the mud and grimacing down at his jeans.

(Those, he's a little bit sorry about.)]

Seriously what? Did you see that?

[That was awesome!]

You got lucky.

[She huffs, folding her arms. That was incredibly stupid and badass, there's no way it should have worked, and somebody's jealous.]

And you're going to get mud all over the car.

[Tossing the remote back into the driver's seat as she says that. Hint, hint.]

So what? It's just a toy. [Yeah, you're not harshing his joy, Arlene. Dante wipes his hands on his jeans as best he can, but there are still smears of mud up his arms as he climbs back up into the cab.]

You're just jealous because I pulled that off.

[He grins, pulling the controller into his hands again, and starts to work on getting them back in the right direction.]

But hey. We share a lot of the same memories, right? Maybe you could do something like that too.

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all i can say here is fuckin' cicadas man

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