[The green rabbit is an excellent distraction. China is by now reasonably sure he's no sorcerer, but she's still markedly off her guard, bemused first by the summoned creature and then by its magical work, when her own magic comes bouncing back at her. It flings her back -- she regains her balance without going all the way to the ground only by dint of being quite practiced -- and she has time to marvel, distantly, at how this has escalated. This is her new counter-example the next time Skulduggery suggests she attempt to be more helpful in her everyday life.]
[And the stranger is doing something else. By now quite put out, China goes for the tattoos on her thighs in what proves to be possibly the best timing she's had all day. When green light flares into a truly massive laser, China blurs.]
[Toward him, of course, this is now not a conflict that can be solved by running. If it ever had been. She's out of the path of the Meltdown and reaching for him, his outstretched arm, incongruously not outright striking; the only indication something else worrisome might be in the offing is the glow of the symbols on her palms.]
no subject
[And the stranger is doing something else. By now quite put out, China goes for the tattoos on her thighs in what proves to be possibly the best timing she's had all day. When green light flares into a truly massive laser, China blurs.]
[Toward him, of course, this is now not a conflict that can be solved by running. If it ever had been. She's out of the path of the Meltdown and reaching for him, his outstretched arm, incongruously not outright striking; the only indication something else worrisome might be in the offing is the glow of the symbols on her palms.]
[Cold, precise:] I am not what you think.