middleofsomewhere | The Will to Fight: Ongoing: Red and Purple

The Will to Fight: Ongoing: Red and Purple

Dawn Attack

It's been a busy few days of fighting demons, attacking keystones and fighting both on the demon and human planes. On the morning of day nine of the month of Kazoo a gate opens close to the base camp that the two teams have made.

It seems the demons have decided to focus on this unexpected threat, because it is a sizable force, with a number of the large demons. They march towards the camp with single-minded focus, the opportunity to stop these unwanted defenders taking precedence over their desire to destroy the city.

The advantage to the landscape being as ruined as it is, is that there isn't much to stop the lookouts from seeing this force headed towards them. A gate opening is not subtle. There should be enough time to make sure the defenders are ready.

Scouting Ahead

Once that skirmish is won those on the Red team will find their SCA's beeping, with an exclamation point far out to the east.

A group of demons is congregating at the location indicated. Investigate why, defeat the demons and close any gates nearby.

It will take a while to get there and there is plenty to do on the way for those that follow the exclamation point. Roaming packs of demons, gates to be closed. Exhausting work, especially for those going in and out of the demon gates.

Protecting the City

Once it is clear that these defenders are not going to be easy to wipe out, the attacks on the city itself get more frequent. The demons have changed tactics: rather than sending in large groups they open many small portals, sending small strike teams to harry and target individuals.

Some of the attacks are clearly meant as traps: they open the gates in or very close to the city, to lure the Voidtreckers in to where they will be affected by the spell. Ranged attacks may be useful here.

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"Maybe that's why people don't cop to being devout on my world," Devero says, sour himself. He squeezes Koumyou again, with just the one arm. "--Maybe that's part of what I like you so much, holy man. You're not terribly devout."

Koumyou gives a tired laugh at that, and buries his face in the side of Devero's neck for a moment at the squeeze. As exhausted as he is, he's still very content to lay here and talk and enjoy Devero's warmth, both literal and otherwise.

"Devout implies faith, faith requires belief in what can't be proven."

It's something he's had to explain more than once. Recently, even.

"I've had too many annoying conversations with the Gods -- actual, back and forth conversations -- for their existence to be a matter of faith. And I've protected two sutras, which as you know sort of... defy earthly things like science, or even conventional magic. But they're real, and they're tangible, as is what they can do."

Once one gets past the insanity of what they are, accepting what they are is easier.

"I don't have to have faith in anything I haven't observed with my own senses. There's only one thing I can think of that could qualify, and I'm still not sure it does."

Koumyou reaches back behind himself for the sutra, not pulling it free from where it sticks out of his back jeans pocket, but just touching it.

"I may not have seen existence and nonexistence, light and void, and everything in between get created... but I don't find it hard to believe the sutras were used to do it. Or, sutra. It was all one piece, or so the story goes.

"I can't even begin to tap into the sheer power of even one sutra. What I can do with it isn't even a drop in the bucket! And it's just one piece, torn from the rest. How could I not think it likely that the story of the sutra is true? It feels true, more than just a human need for belief. The part of me that's bound to it feels like it's true.

"That doesn't feel like faith, either."

Edited 2021-03-27 05:26 (UTC)

"You don't have to have faith in the power of your gods when you can hold a portion of it in the palm of your hand, do you?" Devero says. They've touched on this before; he nods along now, cheek moving a little against Koumyou's hair as he does. "I can see why you don't need to have faith to believe the story of the creation of your universe, either. Not when you carry so much raw magical power around with you every day."

Koumyou nods, too. "So there you go," he lifts a hand to yawn into, "--that's why I'm not terribly devout."

He is, however, very likely to pass back out again here.

Dev too, honestly. Koumyou's yawn triggers one of his own, which interrupts his wordless sound of acknowledgement. He pulls the priest closer and snuggles down against him. "Sleep?" he suggests. "We can probably catch a few more hours before we have to get back to it."

"Mm, yes please."

Sleeeeeeep. It won't take Koumyou more than half a minute to drift back off, either.

It takes Devero a little longer, if only because he's a worrier and it's hard to get his brain to shut off sometimes. But he's also exhausted, and soon enough he sleeps too...

He has an alarm set for roughly around dawn, local time, but that's not what wakes them. Before the alarm even has a chance to go off a voice comes blaring tinnily out of Devero's Interface and Koumyou's SCA both.

Devero jerks awake, groggy enough that he hears only the alarmed tone and not the words. "Wha'...?"

Koumyou tiredly reaches over to his pack and drags out the music carriage headphones he has stowed there, pulling them onto his head without seeming to open his eyes.

He listens for a moment, then sighs.

"No rest for the wicked."

Time to get up.

Devero scrubs at his eyes with the heels of his hands; it does very little to clear the grit. He pushes himself upright anyway, fumbling his Interface out of handheld mode and back onto his face.

His reaction is not nearly so sanguine once he parses what's going on. He sits horrorstruck for a moment, a barely audible, "Rust and ruin," passing his lips, and then scrambles upright so carelessly he almost takes the whole low tent with him.

"I have to get back--!"

"I'll come with you," Koumyou backs out of the little tent on his knees and one hand, dragging his pack and sword with him. "It'll be okay."

He is, however, going to take the extra thirty seconds or so to pull on his robe, belt it, and settle his breastplate and sutra over his shoulders again. The sword scabbard goes through the sash holding his robe closed, and he slings the pack over one shoulder.

"Do you have someone to move us or are we running?"

Once Koumyou's free of it, Devero doesn't strike the tent so much as shove the whole damn thing haphazardly into the ARMS band, before grabbing his own shed equipment and gearing up. For all the scrambling panic he'd shown a moment ago, his hands are steady and sure as he buckles on his holsters and pulls on his own armor.

Koumyou's suggestion makes Devero gape at him. "We're not going to make it in time if we run!"

"Well, by 'run' I mean 'fling us through the air in a semi-controlled manner via the sutra'. Not as fast as a teleport or proper flight, but better than using our legs!"

It's a trick he used a few times on Nion. First time by accident, when he'd almost gone into a ravine.

"...Oh."

This is clearly a possibility that never occurred to him. There's a moment where he wrestles clearly with A Concern over Koumyou's proposition, but--

They're needed at camp. The camp that he made his responsibility, the camp that he left behind to come spend the night here with Koumyou.

Oh, if his absence costs his people anything, he will never forgive himself.

Steeling himself, he straightens up and nods. "Copy that. Whatever it takes to get us there as quick as possible."

"Here," Koumyou takes off his rucksack and hands it over, "ARMs band that for me for now, would you?"

They don't need extra stuff flopping around during this.

Once that's taken care of, Koumyou steps up against Devero's side and wraps an arm around his waist-- and then a tendril of the sutra, too. A few, actually, sticking them firmly together.

A few more tendrils appear, ends curling against the dirt all around them like a tripod, and then--

They're being lifted up into the air by the bands wrapped around them! Effortlessly, of course.

Way, way up into the air.

"Ready?"

They sure don't; Devero stashes the pack away without comment, and anything that's loose on his own person as well. His arm goes automatically around Koumyou's shoulder, and though his fingers grip with particular tightness when several tendrils of paper bind them together, he doesn't react beyond that.

He swallows hard as his feet lift the ground. His pounding heart transfers from his chest to his throat, but... something ignites in the space it left behind. Adrenaline sparks a visceral thrill at being lofted so high, so easily; anticipation fans the flame.

He looks down at his Sanzo and his eyes are alight as he nods. "Ready."

"Here goes nothing!" Koumyou says with some of that ridiculous cheer of his.

The sutra doesn't have to cock back or bow down to prepare to launch them, it just -- does. An explosive burst of energy has them properly airborne and flying. Sort of. It's still very much in an arc, if a rather long one.

Every time they get within a hundred or so feet of the ground, tendrils of the sutra reappear to tap the surface and fling them back up and forward. It's not exactly smooth or elegant; Koumyou's timing isn't quite perfect yet, having only done this once before and by accident at that -- but it can't be denied they're moving fast.

It is not a comfortable ride. In fact, it's jarring and fairly terrifying and thoroughly exhilarating. Devero laughs in Koumyou's ear, partly from that adrenaline high and partly because if he doesn't laugh, he'll probably scream. He hangs on tight, knuckles white where they grip Koumyou's robes, his whole body so tense he's trembling-- but he doesn't ask him to slow down or stop.

Not when the camp needs them. Not when they'll be there in no time, traveling like this.

And Koumyou holds on just as tight, his focus almost entirely on what he's doing so that they don't go crashing to the ground, especially at this speed.

It's not an ideal way to get somewhere, but at least it's fast.

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The Will to Fight: Ongoing: Red and Purple

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