Bears the Test, Views the Chest--er Crest

SLAP!!!

The sound reverberated against the walls, continuing to give the guardian a reminder of the slap she gave him across the cheek. The searing pain soon followed once  he got over the inital shock and finally moved his face from it's frozen in place expression.

"OW! "He held a hand up to his tender cheek, carefully massaging the strucken area. "What the bloody hell was that for?" His eyebrows glowered over to the attacker, who had now regained her own footing. Standing perfectly well up from the ground while also, pointedly, folding her arms defensively over her chest. 


"Because you were looking at my boobs, pervert!" If there was not enough emotion in her voice to showcase her lividity, the glowering stare she gave him had easily upped the ante on that factor. Eyes wide, brows furrowed deeply, even her nostrils flared as though it was taking most of her willpower to not scream at him any further. That or she was still speechless from the accused action, he wasn't quite sure but he was inwardly thankful she wasn't screaming anymore. Her expression didn't falter, eyeing him warily as he stood up and returned the scowl with one of his own.   

"First off, if you're going to be barreling into someone then don't go throwing," he paused momentarily, finding it hard to even say the word despite it was only needed for his explanation. Instead he gestured with his hands, having them cupped as though they were holding oranges or some other slightly larger fruit while waving them about his chest area," These...around in their face!"

"Oh, please. How can I control where I'm falling, if you saw me coming you would've gotten out of the way!" She countered, cheeks growing in hue, now barely a few tones darker than her red hair.

"And as for the second," Elias continued, ignoring her comment as he lowered his hand from his face. The cheek was alarmingly bright red against his skin, but it blended well into his own flustered face. " I wasn't looking at your-...your chest," there was a small break in his speech as he shuddered, finding that somehow using the formal name was still undignified," I was looking at that!" He pointed towards her again, and as before his attention was towards the chest area. "Your crest!"

"My chest?!" Vivian repeated, her voice louder.

"No, not chest, crest! C-R-E-S-T," he sounded each letter out annoyed as though he were speaking with an impudent child. "The one on your necklace."

At any other moment, it might've been easier to see his claim to be somewhat true, but as of now being offended along with angry had taken over any other rational thought she had in mind.

"Look, whatever excuses you have, save 'em.  I don't have time to deal with you." As she made her way to step past him, Elias kept his ground

"As much as I'd rather agree to that idea, I can't allow you to leave just now."

"Why, you gonna goggle me at other places too?"

"No! I--"

" Then let me go back to my clams!"

"--think that it is very important that I show you--Clams?" As they had been speaking (or rather yelling) over each other's sentences, Elias had shifted his left arm slightly as though he were trying to pull something off of his sleeve. But at the mention of said clams, he glanced over his shoulder behind them seeing what she was talking about. Just a huge pile of larger-than-average mollusks all cluttered together in a huddle. Some lied on top of each other while others kept to their own space, all of them staying perfectly still as though they all agreed it was nap time. Nothing about them seemed very threatening, in fact, he hadn't noticed they were there earlier while he was helping Teddy finish the laundry. Elias turned back to the younger wizard, quirking an eyebrow.

"They followed you?" The way he asked this question made it sound as though living breathing clams walking on their own was the most ridiculous thing in the world. Had it been a year ago, she would've agreed the same. "How?"

The look she gave him was completely dry pan, mimicking the same tone his question towards her had but hers was more condescending. Or angry. Around her he usually assumed the latter since that always seemed to be her default emotion.

"We live in a magical house where anything that could be possible, is possible, and you're asking me how clams can walk?" She wasn't fuming as badly as before, but now was more annoyed. Elias' lips formed a tight frown and before he could continue she went on, " it doesn't matter how they followed me. What matters is that they're going to make a bigger mess-- look!" Looking past his shoulder, she pointed with a nod of her chin to the area she mentioned. As he turned to follow her line of sight again, the once peaceful picture of the clams was now replaced with rolling, erratic, and very-much-indeed alive clams.

"They must be confused with being out of the water for so long," Elias mused.  The clams that were piled on each other had finally rolled off, landing unceremoniously onto the grained floor before righting themselves up. The ones on the bottom of the pile, undeterred by the sudden absence of weight, moved a little faster than before, noting the Guardian and Wizard and heading in their direction. Instinctively, Elias held a hand out to signal her to stay behind him, turning his head quickly towards the basket of clothes where his spear stood.  "Stay back," he muttered with no haste, long legs not failing to give his stride an extra boost of swiftness.

"I don't--" Vivian began to speak.

"I've got this, don't panic." He lifted his spear effortlessly out of it's placement in the hold of the laundry basket, his reflexes guiding him into a defensive stance he learned to use from years of training.

"That's not going to cut it." The Fire Wizard continued to chide from behind him.  Whatever her reasons for warning him, they seemed to be in vain. Aside from picking up in speed, the clams seemed somewhat harmless. Nothing that a pushes from the blunter end of his spear couldn't fix. The nearest one was the last of it's herd to awaken, now aware of how close it's "intruders" were, it rolled over ready to charge first. Elias readied his spear, preparing to putt it away when it hit the right momentum when

It stopped right in front of his boots.

And shot out a spit-full of lava.


It was the size of the shot that alarmed him, it was no bigger than a penny but the first few warning shots were always small. In order to make way for the bigger cannon fires. No, it was the fact it breathed fire. The whole lot of them did. And for all he could guess, it possibly lived in fire--what in the world were they doing in the water wing then if they were fire aligned? Taking off a holiday?


"Yeeeah about that, from what Aristar mentioned earlier: They don't like water too much." He turned back around at the sound of her voice, seeing that she had smartly kept to a safer distance away.

She looked more chalant about this, idly scratching the bridge of her nose in thought.  Flicking away non-existent dust, a clear sign of boredom. Wasn't she aware of how dangerous these things were?

"Oh. You're done now, Mr. Hero?" Her tone did not help answer his thoughts. As he backed away to the now deemed "safer" region where she was, giving an annoyed glare. 


"They're more in your expertise, aren't they? Fire wizard, fire clams--"

"Lava," she corrected.

"What. Ever. Point is, I stand corrected. This seems to be something that you could probably do. Tell them to go on home," he ushered at them with a hand. "Their rightful home isn't here."


"It's not in the Fire Wing either, I can assure you that." She glanced over at the trio of clams knocking into each other in the same corner, spitting lava at each other to get one of them to move. "And I don't speak Clam, isn't that a Water thing?"

"Earth, I'd imagine. They're creature aligned--WATCH IT!" From watching the other clams stuck in the corner, a few other mollusks had managed to bypass their line of sight and made way to shoot  a near quart size full of lava. Right where Vivian's right foot used to stand had Elias not tugged the back of her vest to pull her away in time. She broke away from him, stepping side ways until there was a reasonable enough distance between them. 

'He got lucky with that one,' she thought to herself.

"Regardless," The guardian continued. "We need to get them out of here now, before they do something worse. Like harm Teddy."

"Teddy? Teddy who?" A tentacle rose out of the pool area, looking frightened and anxious. Or about as scared as a tentacle could look, it would've been easier to tell if there was a face to add to this, but with the clams shooting this way and that, it was a close safe bet that it was worried.

"That's Teddy."

"Oh."

"Mhm."

"Is he always just a tentacle or--?"

"Can't say I know for sure, but it's best not to question it."

"And he can't just beat the clams for us because...?" Vivian turned to Elias, not buying that a large kraken or whatever it was lurking in the water was afraid of objects that were just smaller boulders in comparison to him. 

"He just can't. He's peaceful." Like before another clam shot it's spool of lava at them, this time in Elias' direction. Vivian however returned the favor, managing to signal out the clam before it fired so he could run out of it's range. At this rate, the clams were going to back them against the wall and then they'd literally be toast. There was the water, but with how fretful this "Teddy" was, that was out of the option. The clams could still shoot at them while they were in the water, risking the tentacle to turn into fried scampi. 

"You had a good point going with your spear, except not how to use it. Remember those larvae?" She pointed towards the top sharp end of the spear. "Why not use snow clouds from that?"

"No."

"Freeze 'em and we're done and we can go on with our lives."

"No," he repeated.

"It's really easy, you don't even have to touch them with your own hands--"

"I SAID, NO!" She blinked his sudden outburst. What was his deal, he had a large weapon on hand so it wasn't like he needed to actually be touching the clams. A good smack with the spear or two would be good enough. It was the same like before, when she had used a small  fireball for the first time. He overreacted then too. Getting close to things burning or on fire, or sizzling hot lava did not bode with him at all. Oh well, time for a plan B.

Or C.

Plan A was to just roll them out of the Water Wing while they were asleep. Plan B was to freeze and that was a bust. As for Plan C...

"Any other bright ideas?" Elias asked, not bothering to explain himself for earlier. Vivian didn't care, whatever issues he had he can work out in counseling elsewhere.


"Well. They're not very sight-oriented as you can tell. While they can follow us, they don't have eyes. So they're actually shooting blindly."

"I don't think it's shooting blind if they're able to nearly hit us each time."

"I'm getting to that," Vivian sighed, gritting her teeth. "They work on a sensory system, sort of like watching by body heat but theirs is really.....off."

Elias gave a nod, understanding this. "Right, but it's not like we can just wait for them to all be on a rest mode before shooting lava again. They're not on the same pattern."

"Not unless we make them go onto the same pattern." She eyed the grate below them, it's surface wouldn't do any good because the ingredients would fall right through. Testing the wall behind them she tapped along the tooth of the wall. Nothing with holes, pretty flat and solid and full. "Do you think you can make a distraction of some kind? This might take a minute--" The thuds along the metal grate from his boots alerted her to his attention, watching as he held his spear in both hands in concentration. With the clams momentarily quiet, he used this time to summon his patron's power. Ignoring the ominous feel of it, a sudden rush of cold air air filled the space between them and the clams.

'Finally, he's useful. After that bull from before.'


Their motions moved together as though they shared the same mind. While Elias' back was turned to create the shield, Vivian's hands moved quickly to attack from beyond while the clams were still. But not for long, the sudden rise of ice set off their internal temperatures, making them anxious and ready to attack again. This time, through a charging tactic. Soft thuds against the ice wall provided the only white noise in her mind as she created a circle on the ground with the chalk from inside her pocket, thankfully she remembered the exact ones she needed with her today. Getting the goop to stick along the wall wasn't a problem, getting the camphor was. It would've been easier to do this on the floor, but with the floor not being stable, she had to make do.

Pouring it onto the goop was just as good, right?

He rose his spear to direct the barrier to grow upwards by a bit as she finished drawing, writing the word clams inside the circle and placed the items. The mound of items here, and x there, Vivian pressed along the wall with both hands. The same chilling air that rose when Elias summoned the ice shield, was replaced by the onset heat wave created to spark the hex into action. The guardian looked back to where she kept to herself along the wall, wondering what she was doing, then back to his own work to make sure the ice wall hadn't cracked yet. 


No words were exchanged let alone actual glances. 

Within a crackling flash the mollusks were paused in time, falling limp to the paralyzing hex. There was a moment's pause before either one of them dared to move. Unsure if the instinctive plan worked. If it did, great. If it didn't, then her theory was proved false with sticking the camphor to the goop and they'd have to figure out a different solution. However, there wasn't any sounds of hostile ramming into the ice wall from the other end. So that was a good sign.

As Elias used his spear to summon the ice back down to gain a better look, Vivian joined him at it's edge. Sure enough, every single clam was now lying along the floor. Limp and paralyzed.


All of the bickering from earlier seemed really small and insignificant to the momentary display of teamwork.


As one they turned slowly to regard each other, light silver meeting deep grey-jean blue.


A single thought flashed across both of their minds though they dared not to speak aloud, afraid that the other would say something different: Was this what it felt like to be fused with someone?


Coughing, Vivian turned away, heading towards on of the nearest clams. "C'mon, they won't last for very long. Let's just drown them while we can."


Now that the hard part was over, the easy part was getting rid of them. Again, as silently as they were when fighting, Vivian began rolling the clams nearest her and over the edge into the wharf. Elias, also keeping his distance, had made to do the same with the clams on his side, while a now friendly and somehow-now-grateful tentacle of Teddy wagged happily as the paralyzed mollusks fell into the water one by one.

Whatever off-chance synchronization they had before had diminished, for while they kept a steady rhythm of one being near the edge dumping the clam over and the other being far away as possible to round up the other stunned ones. But eventually they came to the same area, the clams on hand rolling and crashing right into each other. Vivian looked up briefly, catching his eyes before turning away, pulling her own clam back with some effort and began rolling it off the edge. Her mouth in a firm pout gave off the impression she was not going to speak.

Elias however, was still curious, so he ventured lightly with a safer topic: "You keep chalk in your pockets?" Referring to the writing utensil she used earlier to create the hexing circle.

"Never know when I might need it," she answered curtly, keeping her own focus on rolling the next clam over to Teddy.

"Why chalk of all things?"

"It's easier to keep and write on any surface."

"And you keep random ingredients on you?"


"Never know when I might need it. Like today." She repeated herself, the response sounding clipped. Clearly the anger she had from before was still stewing inside like a grudge. With her own side finished, she glance over towards Elias, eyes narrowing as he too found the last clam to roll over. He must've felt her gaze on him, because as soon as he stood up he faced her with frown.

"What?"

"You wanted to explain yourself earlier, didn't you?" Vivian crossed her arms, lower lip in a thin line for her usual pout. "Your excuse was that you were looking at my necklace." Her left hand moved as if on cue, holding the pendent in her fingers while tugging on the chain trying to shake it at him. "So what of it?"

Whatever anger that was left in his face diminished, he still looked guarded but more enthused now with the chance to explain himself. "It's the same as mine."

"Beg pardon?"

"I'm serious--look." To prove his point, Elias turned around, pointing towards the back of his over shirt with a thumb. Red eyebrows loosened from their furrowed state, now raising in altitude in curiosity. He wasn't wrong but he wasn't exactly right, either. In all the commotion from earlier, Vivian hadn't bothered to pay attention to his shirt or she would've noticed this sooner. It was a bird, like hers. Shaped and tilted in a way that symbolized the Yin Yang symbol, also like hers, and had a certain gem color in the eye region. But the similarities stopped there,  since all but color scheme was the only thing keeping the two from being alike.

"It's not the same," she pointed out flatly.

"Well of course it's not exactly the same but it's still connected." Elias turned back around, pointing to her necklace with a finger, "That symbol. It has the same meaning as mine," he gestured towards himself using the same hand he pointed towards her with. "It's a long withstanding token showing the bond between the Blackwoods and the....Reids." He paused in between saying her last name, the word and it's sound now just dawning on him in sudden clarity. Closing his eyes, the taller male made some sort of curse under his breath, followed by a bemused snort of laughter. Apparently he didn't like where this was going either.

"You're last name is Reid, isn't it?" 

Not bothering to give him the confirmation of his question, she only replied, "You're crazy."