Raven

Raven thought she didn't have any guests at graduation (though she had hoped a little that her mother would appear). It was a relief, since everyone else related to her tended to be evil, and since her dream about her brothers and her brush with her father, she'd felt especially wary.

After the ceremony, she'd wandered away to town and the park, seeking a relief from the strong emotions around her. The Pride was delicious, too much so, and she needed a break from it as well as all the anxieties about the future and happiness and love from visitors. That last she may have been a tiny bit envious of as well.

It felt good to relax, both her shields and herself, and she looked up at the night sky, wishing the clouds weren't in the way so she could see the stars.

( The moment of peace wasn't going to last. )

[Follows this.]

Trigon had risen, his strength now restored. He was too late to save his daughter, and her death filled him with anger. She would be avenged.

"I FEEL THE POWER NOW, FOUR BILLION SOULS ALL IN MY POSSESSION," he said, relishing the suffering all around him. "I FEEL THEIR ENERGIES AND THEY GIVE ME STRENGTH. THEY CRY OUT TO ME, PLEAD WITH ME. THEY WANT DEATH AND DISSOLUTION, BUT I GIVE THEM NEITHER. I HAVE NEED OF THEM. FOR CONQUEST OF THIS WORLD WAS BUT A MEANS TO ACHIEVE MY TRUE GOAL."

He gazed down at the figures on the street below. ( ''My name is Trigon the Terrible. You killed my daughter. PREPARE TO DIE.'' )

[WARNING for character death and assorted acts of violence. Preplayed with blondecanary, brat_intraining, furious_maximus, furnaceface, glacial_witch, icecoldfrost, justwantsquiet, life_inshadow, longislandiceme, not_a_parakeet, and sith_happened. NFI and NFB but OOC, as always, is welcome.]
 

[Follows this.]

Raven felt the tides of each dream turning, and smiled coldly. "I am victorious!" she gloated to Tara and Arella. "One by one, they give into their dark sides. And one by one they fall under Trigon's sway. Trigon has won!" The ground around them began to shake, and stone exploded into smaller shards as a bolt of lightning struck the ground where those trapped in nightmares lay. ( When the resulting cloud of dust dispersed, they were all standing, eyes gleaming red. )

[WARNING for character death and assorted acts of violence. Preplayed with blondecanary, brat_intraining, furious_maximus, furnaceface, glacial_witch, icecoldfrost, justwantsquiet, life_inshadow, longislandiceme, not_a_parakeet, and sith_happened. NFI and NFB but OOC, as always, is welcome.]
 

[Follows this.]

Raven teleported herself atop a building that overlooked her former friends, watching over them as they laid upon the ground, bodies thrashing as they fought against their darkest fears. She smiled and drank it all in, savoring their suffering. Soon they would be hers. Soon they would serve her father. ( Just as she did, they would have no choice. )

[Preplayed with blondecanary, brat_intraining, furious_maximus, furnaceface, glacial_witch, icecoldfrost, justwantsquiet, life_inshadow, longislandiceme, not_a_parakeet, and sith_happened. NFI and NFB but OOC, as always, is welcome.]

[Follows this.]

Black storm clouds roiled overhead as the group appeared on the streets of New York, and thunder boomed as lightning split the sky. All the people around them were looking upward in confusion and fear when Raven appeared floating in the air far above, red and terrible.

"Humans, hear me now!" she shouted. "They call me Raven -- and though my mother was born of this earth, my soul belongs not to this planet, but to him who sired me. Universe after universe has fallen before his might. No one who has opposed him has ever survived. Lay down your weapons! Submit to his will or this pitiful planet will soon be little more than a wasted, lifeless husk! He comes, humans! He comes!"

She threw back her head, and her Soul-Self, red now instead of black, rose from her shoulders, growing in size until it dominated the skies. Trigon stepped through it and loomed above the city, straddling two tall buildings. Raven hovered beside him, continuing to speak. "From this moment forth he expects your total subservience and your complete obedience. You will view him with the respect he demands! And you will accept that he is your god, for your meaningless lives are his to play with. Now, bow before your god! Bow before Trigon the Terrible! For if you do not submit, this will be your fate!"

Trigon raised his staff above his head and the world became transformed. The streets shuddered and split, holes appearing to swallow vehicles whole, and buildings groaned and crumbled, their facades turning to cracked stone. Grotesque faces and clawed hands erupted from the stone to decorate the buildings like enormous demented gargoyles. But worst of all, the people, every living being except those who had just arrived from Azarath, became twisted together into living columns of flesh, bodies contorted in agony and faces frozen in silent screams.

Above it all, Raven smiled, arm outstretched as she soaked in the pain and suffering her father had just created. Trigon himself gazed impassively around at his work, then moved to sit atop the former United Nations Secretariat building, which had been reshaped into a throne. ( He closed his eyes and was still. )

[Preplayed with blondecanary, brat_intraining, furious_maximus, furnaceface, glacial_witch, icecoldfrost, justwantsquiet, life_inshadow, longislandiceme, not_a_parakeet, and sith_happened. NFI and NFB but OOC, as always, is welcome.]

Raven sat on the floor of her room, completely dark but for a single candle. "Azar, I beseech you," she prayed. "Hear my words, answer my prayers. I need you, Goddess. I need you. My mind is a battleground, whipped and ripped asunder, torn from the very fabric of reality. He, that demon who is Trigon, that demon who is my father...he calls for me. And his summons becomes so hard to resist."

She heard nothing from her former teacher, no words or comforting touch on her mind, but she hadn't really expected she would. Still, it hurt to have that last bit of hope crumble. "Then my course is charted," she murmured. "And my sad destiny awaits."

She'd leave in the morning. She'd run like she'd run from Azarath, a last attempt to protect those she loved before the evil churning within her consumed her. But for one last night she'd pretend Fandom was still her home.

Raven blew out the candle, crawled into her bed, and cried herself to sleep.

( Raven wasn't the only person still awake. )

[And away we go. Preplayed with glacial_witch. NFI and NFB, but OOC, as always, is welcome.]

Raven hadn't slept at all the night before, but despite how tired she was, she decided to go out for a walk in the Preserve, hoping the peace and quiet would calm her troubled mind. And the cold might help wake her up. She didn't need as much sleep as others did, but no sleep at all plus the restlessness of the two previous nights was wearing on her.

( One step she was moving beneath the trees, and the next she slipped into a dream without even realizing it. )

[Warnings for me just being mean. Dear potentially confused squirrels, all you saw was Raven walking, then stopping and just standing there with her eyes closed, then freaking out. :) ]

Raven was prepared for her father this night, or at least she thought she was. It took her awhile to fall asleep due to being so tense, but eventually she managed to relax enough to slide into sleep.

( She shouldn't have been surprised about drifting into a dream about something that had been on her mind for the past several days. )

[Warnings for taking advantage of The Black Jewels messed-up canon in very unpleasant ways. Door is closed, post is open.]

It was good to be back in Fandom and back in her own bed. Being crowded in a room at Sookie's had been like an extended slumber party, but she was happy to have her privacy again. The presents she'd received had been set lovingly atop her bureau and desk, all except Jono's bracelet. That was still around her wrist and would rarely leave it except when she bathed or slept, and sometimes not even then, since she'd drifted off to sleep last night before taking it off.

( Her dreams had been undisturbed over the holiday, though that was about to change. )

[Warnings for boyfriend abuse. Mostly establishy since Xmas is over and it's time to start being mean to my girl again, but what the heck, door is close, post is open.]

mrs_theterrible

After Trigon and Raven had vanished and the demons had all disappeared, Arella turned to address those from Fandom. "I will return you to your home as my daughter requested," she said. "Unless...." She hesitated and glanced toward the Temple of Azarath, damaged but still standing.

( It wasn't over yet. )

[OOC: Preplayed with the spectacular spectacular blondecanary, brat_intraining, furnaceface, glacial_witch, longislandiceme, joan_notjane, life_inshadow, oops_mbad, psychic_wonder, sith_happened, and weetuskenraider. YAY THE ENDS OF PREPLAY. NFI and NFB, but OOC always welcomed!]