What their Eyes See: Finale

[voidtreckermods]

It’s been a weird mission. The Voidtreckers have been busy investigating, making headway in mapping and saving citizens from the video games and strange illusionary creatures. Those in the fourth tier have made contacts, followed leads and gotten close to the high and mighty of the criminal underworld.

Yet what exactly is happening here is still unknown. Their new found ally Anan is as stumped as the rest of them, but even so, the hackers and technological knowledgeable voidtreckers have been successful in isolating the virus to study and make an anti-virus. A netpoint network has been set up across the city, and enough access data stolen that they can start throwing everything into the systems and networks across the city.

While the illusions remain a mystery and how they got there, finally the world is purged of the strange virus as the anomalies begin to clear up by noon of day ten. Spectura victims wake up in hospital beds, dazed and confused, while no more sightings of the impossible plague those on the other tiers.


On the morning of day eleven, the once housebound and terrified citizens leave their shelters with the first tendrils of light reaching through the fog surrounding the enclosed city. An exodus of people, from fighters of tier four to elites of tier one, are making their way into the streets...and heading down into lifts and outside, out into the smog-filled wasteland.

“It’s so beautiful,” is heard, a rumbling through the crowd as people smile, laugh or wave into the fog.

”I won.” Fighters from tier four look around in wonderment. Other exclamations, about a blue sky, a greeting to a friend fill the air.

There is a pull. The voidtreckers will feel it too, though to them the world looks and feels no different. This pull is easy to resist, or they can follow and investigate it, attempt to lead citizens back inside the city. It’s not safe in the smog, no one has canisters, but none will heed the warnings.

Nor is there time for better efforts when a crackling sounds in the air, light and colours flashing in the smog, everywhere at once and too quick to get a hold on.

“STOP THWARTING ME!” booms out, and a great force pushes them back while pulling the citizens farther into the wasteland, sand and dirt kicked up in a frenzied storm. The voidtreckers can hear the civilians in the smog, but getting to them will prove harder than they may like.

Grabbing an air canister is highly recommended for those who prefer life.



CIRCLE ONE: THE MAZE
No matter where one leaves the city from, they will find themselves in a maze of walls, of metal sheets, each blending into each other. It feels surreal, as if nothing is quite real, nothing quite solid.

But it is solid. For those voidtreckers who cannot see illusions it will look like they are merely stood in the wasteland of the world. But when they begin to move they will learn those walls are tangible, and those that look close enough will see the same almost-light as the creatures that purple team have been fighting as the source.

For those who are not immune to illusions it is a strange place indeed. No smog to be seen, just high unyielding barriers. The pathways are different colours giving off hues of brightest pink, red, purple, neon green, glowing white, darkest black. Sometimes there are symbols on the walls, Capsule Corp, royal insignia, ravager flames, HYDRA, marks of royalty. They are emblazoned on the walls, the floor, sometimes even in the sky. And the deeper in they get...

➤ WINDING ROADS
It's noisy as they move around. As well as the distant noise of the citizens in the distance they can hear an acoustic guitar, erratic piano playing, the sound of bamboo on stone. Or perhaps an eagles cry, a lullaby or a song is heard as they move their way through the maze.

Objects stand in their way, blocking paths and needing to be moved or destroyed. Larger than life playing cards, red apples, flowers. Spears and daggers hang in the air as does the moon and the sun. Water often cascades through routes, making it difficult to move through or fire creeps up walls, nonthreatening but ever present. There are clouds of butterflies and ravens perched on walls, watching their every move, and the smell of sugar often hangs in the air.

But it’s better to navigate these turbulent passages with perseverance than violence. Daggers and apples will shatter and slice apart to attacks, creating a way through to begin with - but those that try the method of destruction to solve their problems will find these walls crowding them tighter, rising higher, becoming all the harder to destroy than they were before. They will become trapped, and will need assistance from the outside to untangle them from webs or jails made from crystal.
➤ STALKING THE STREETS
It isn’t just the Voidtreckers or locals who wander the maze. Wolves, dogs, zombie sheep and ghost animals mostly mind their own business, sometimes inclined to growl or bahh, but easy to pass. But other times, you may sense that you’re being followed, a presence hovering over you...while another companion will see as well the large shadow shrouding you before a decaying hand grabs at you from above, threatening to send its victim to some other part of the maze if not stopped.

Monsters also stalk these paths from various realities. The dead will be met in robes of white while others in armours from medieval times. All are fast, unrelenting in their attacks, unconcerned with pain or stopping without being properly slain. Ghouls of all shapes and sizes search for prey, and many more seek victims.

How they act and how to defeat them may be known to some, but not all. Is it worth the effort to stay and fight illusions, however? Sometimes those illusions don’t give a choice, but in other instances, a person from the city may be found on the ground unconscious, the smog air getting to them. They’ll need help, and fast.

CIRCLE TWO: IS THIS HOME?
Voidtreckers will realise they’ve left the maze when they find themselves in an open field. It spreads out far with vineyards in the distance, a campsite, all of this leading into a forest of childrens board games. While the campsite is not a true campsite as many will realise, it is the first moment everyone will have to come together, to perhaps plan ahead. Air canisters are essential in this environment, and locals have been found needing, unconscious. Backtracking through the maze is a death wish for many, but with the talents of the voidtreckers, setting up a checkpoint here may not be that impossible before going on ahead.

And then, when they finally do…

➤ FAMILIAR
It is almost dream-like as they walk, areas changing without them fully crossing the distance needed. One moment they are in a shopping malls food court, the next the interior of a spaceship; streets of palaces, temples, and mansions line up as a mish-mash of glamour, while others offer more humble abodes, taverns, family homes, bakeries. Medieval structures blend into tech bases, maintenance bays and dark rooms. Beautiful gardens, beaches and dusty souks all share space. But as they move through it, they will be tempted towards what is theirs.

And these can be anything. Ships, palaces, home, and even singular rooms: all of these are seen, doors providing access, doors that draw your character towards it, as if they know what’s on the other side. Spaces personal to the viewer, and with the constant pressure of these illusions, somehow draining to be around, they will find it harder to doubt what they see. Even if their bedroom leads towards a volcano, a blacksmith housing hospital beds right beside it, it will not seem so bizarre to find these natural.
➤ DEARLY BELOVEDS
But it’s not only structures that exist in this labyrinth of streets: there are people, animals - family, friends and pets. Beloved mentors, a smiling loved one. The night sky will wash over, the ocean within view; your favourite plush rabbit, a worn jumper. Your favourite song playing, losing you inside this new reality.

Even people from the Voidtrecker Express are around, whether or not they’re still passengers. Feanor, Zetta, Noctis, Cassie Cage, Jin Ling; Elfnein, Link, Mami, Gyousou, Duo; Senku, Jiang Yanli, Olivia, Bucky Barnes. They walk this plane, friends and lovers of the voidtreckers, coaxing them further into the illusions. Assuring them everything is alright, offering reasons to give in.

Over all this though, they can still hear the citizens in the distance; their voices sounding more confused, frightened even. To push on the voidtreckers must walk away, ignore these temptations and push on to the third ring.

CIRCLE THREE: TWISTED HEART
For those who manage to get through the second circle, pushing away the temptations of home, they will find themselves back in the smog filled wasteland. But through the smog they will see more, always more. Once again the scenery blurs into impossibilities, from testing labs with padded beds, to other imagery associated with asylums of old, to dark cramped spaces, to hallways raging on fire. They sense fear itself, and even the most stoic will find apprehension digging into them as they make their way forward. Is this their fear? Or is it your own?

It may be hard to discern in this twisted reality.

➤ MISERY LOVES COMPANY
This time, as the scenery shifts around them, so does their own sense of self try to match what these places mean. The despair of being lost in darkness, the belief that they can’t be seen by others, all sound fading from their ears. They are on the moon, trapped there for years; at the edge of the vast ocean, on the bank of a river of lava, despair in their hearts. In a wrecked city, their own city destroyed almost beyond recognition. By opposing forces, by weapons of mass destruction.

They have lost everything. There’s no fixing this.

A Pandora box of fears have been unleashed, with seemingly no hope. Your worst enemy has been granted a second chance, family stumbling towards you on the verge of death before your eyes; forces that you were meant to be dealing with back home have found you, surely leaving your own world in ruins, from titans to ayakashis.

Or they might stumble upon a graveyard, stretched out as far as they can see where every name is someone they care about.

There are even voidtreckers of now and old opposing you: Danny Fenton, Lan Xichen, Darth Vader, Vegeta, Xue Yang. Kerry stands pointing a gun straight at a fellow passenger while shadowy ravens and terrifying dragons swirl in the sky.

All this emotional turmoil will do a number on the voidtreckers, but there is strength in numbers. More civilians have fallen unconscious at this point, and those willing to aid them can take them back to the city. But no matter how the voidtreckers move, they must keep their nerve and hold onto hope as they cross the final hurdles.

Comments

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou keeps his grip on Devero's hands even as the big guy goes down, and as he gets stepped on. This time, when a tendril of the sutra appears out of nowhere, it darts toward Valdana's knee--

And through it. Her flesh and clothing may as well be warm butter to the razor-thin, indestructible paper.

cw gore

[subcircuits]

And no handy cauterization this time, is there? Her lower leg parts from the upper with a wet sound and a spurt of blood, which spatters across Devero's chest and face. This time the attack affects the illusion; the giant Valdana howls in pain and alarm, lurching backwards with an awkward hop. Her remaining leg goes out from under her and she begins to topple backwards.

Devero yanks one of his hands free to shove the severed limb off his chest, scrambling away from it/her. He pulls frantically at the hand he's still gripping, not even really aware of who it's attached to in this horrific moment.

[its_dad_sanzo]

Shit. He should have cauterized that one, huh? Koumyou genuinely forgets that not everyone is inured to being coated in blood and meat and limbs and--

Nothing to do about it now.

He changes his grip on Devero's hand, but not to let go. No, he takes it in both of his, now. "Come on Dev, up."

[subcircuits]

Devero is about as far from inured to this type of carnage as a person can be, really. He can feel it, her blood on his face; the pattern of the spray hangs like a ghost in front of his eyes--

His hand is being pulled. The eyes he turns up to Koumyou are shocked and hollow. "You-- you--"

"And you think I'm a monster, my dear?" The stump of Valdana's leg is pulsing blood but that hasn't stopped her from pushing herself up on an elbow to pick at Devero again. She holds up her other arm, showing that stump as well. "Look at who you rushed to give yourself to. What a savage your holy man is."

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou lets go of Devero with one hand, the other still firmly wrapped around the bigger man's. He points at Valdana. "Keep talking and I'll rip -- not cut, rip -- your tongue out of your mouth. I'll fuse your parts back on backwards. I'll break every bone in you until you can only move like the parasitic worm you are. I'll feed you your own eyeballs and teeth. Try me. There's no Gods here to tell me to stop, you said it yourself. No one from your world could even conceive of what I can do."

And he glances down at Devero.

"Up. You can't run if you're not on your feet first."

Run from her, run from him, Koumyou's expected the latter eventually anyway... but he wants Devero up first. On his own two feet. Standing under his own power.

[subcircuits]

Devero is taken aback by the specific violence of Koumyou's threat, and therefore the illusion is too. The color drains from both their faces simultaneously.

Devero meets Koumyou's eyes again, his own gone even wider than before. "Ko-koumyou," he protests faintly, "don't." He squeezes tight on the hand he's holding and tugs, trying weakly to pull the priest down to him. When Koumyou doesn't bend, what choice does he have but to rise to him, instead?

He gets to his feet, shaky but upright, and wraps both hand around one of Koumyou's biceps. "You don't have to go that far," he continues. And the magic issues one more sally through Devero's mouth: "I'm not worth it!"

Not this level of violence, not this staunch defense. He's nothing.

(he's nothing but koumyou loves him, he's just said it, he wouldn't say that if he didn't mean it)

[its_dad_sanzo]

"You're worth more," Koumyou tells him firmly, despite the darkness and violence writhing inside of him that he'd just let both the real man and illusory woman glimpse the very edge of. "You're worth everything. For you, and for my son, I would rip the world apart."

He could do it, too. With his mastery over the sutra -- over multiple sutras, if need-be.

"She," Koumyou is still pointing at Valdana with his other hand, and jabs it at her, "is nothing."

Oh, she looms huge in Devero's mind, and many of his mental scars are in the shape of her hands, but ultimately? To Koumyou?

She may as well be the dirt under his boot.

[subcircuits]

He starts to shake his head, a tiny and automatic movement that he's able to arrest again almost immediately. He knows Koumyou too well to even be able to lie to himself that the priest doesn't mean it, or that Devero's misunderstanding him, or that the words are some kind of trap laid to toy with him.

He really does. Koumyou really loves Devero. Maybe he can't say it often, but he shows it to him all the time, and this promise of violence is just that love spoken in one of the only ways that the people of Koumyou's hellish world could understand.

Devero releases the priest's arm to take up handfuls of the front of his robe, turning Koumyou physically away from Valdana. "Then-- then let's go," he says, shaky and urgent. "If she's nothing, then-- don't waste any more of your energy on her. We can go."

cw gore, also bad touch and nc-17 warnings in play until they get out of the illusions

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou nods, and opens his mouth, and says something--

But it's silent.

Everything is silent.

The priest's brown eyes widen a little in realization, and he grabs onto Devero's shoulders and actually tries to pull Devero down against his chest, shielding him.

In the next second, the noise is wet and sharp and loud, and blood sprays out from where Valdana had been. Blood and tissue and clumps of meat. This is what Koumyou's trying to shield Devero from, letting it all hit the priest from behind instead.

"Yo... Koumyou," that's an unfamiliar voice, for Devero, but the clothing the newcomer is wearing is identical to Koumyou's. He steps past the carnage, his own Sanzo robes immaculate. "She seemed to be bothering you, huh?"

[subcircuits]

Devero's too shaken to resist; down he goes, pulled in against Koumyou, his arms going around the priest and clutching just so he doesn't fall back to his knees.

He has never heard a sound like the one he hears now; the closest would be the sound of Koumyou's sutra severing Valdana's leg, but this is writ so much larger that he doesn't even equate them right away. It's not until he pushes out and away from the priest and sees what's left of her that he realizes.

His eyes are drawn then to the newcomer-- a stranger in Sanzo robes, who speaks so familiarly to Koumyou. Devero keeps one hand fisted in Koumyou's robes and steps slightly behind him, not even realizing he's doing so. "You-- you killed her?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I just finished what Koumyou started," the other Sanzo replies simply, taking a cigarette from his sleeve and lighting it with the same trick Koumyou always uses to light his. One tap of a fingertip to the end.

"Ukoku," Koumyou says in greeting, half-turning to see him without disloding Devero's hand on his robes, or spoiling the unconscious cover Dev's taken, "was that necessary?"

"Nope," the heretical Sanzo smiles around his cigarette, "but it was fun. She was going to die anyway, you know, so why not? At least I made it quick."

Unlike Koumyou's threats. Had he heard all that?

Had he heard everything?

"Say, who's the big guy?"

[subcircuits]

Ukoku. The name sends a chill skittering over his skin. Ukoku, who embraced Koumyou's hold nothing philosophy so wholly that his soul drained away; Ukoku, who killed Koumyou in the act of trying instead to kill his son.

"No she wasn't," he protests. "We were going to leave." He looks down at Koumyou, his eyes dark. "Right?"

Koumyou wasn't going to kill for him. He wasn't.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"...She probably would have bled out before we got out the front door," Koumyou tells him gently. "When I severed her leg, I severed an artery. And she was more interested in running her mouth than in applying a tourniquet."

He absolutely would kill for Devero.

"This is Devero," Koumyou adds to the raven, lest he take offense at being ignored. "But I suspect you knew that."

"Koumyou! You wound me!" Ukoku puts a splayed hand against his own ceremonial bamboo breastplate, but the smile he's got on his face is lazy and cruel... and amused.

And then the dark Sanzo steps in close, drapes a wrist over Koumyou's shoulder, and leans in to get a good, close look at Devero's face.

"You know... your new toy looks a bit like me, doesn't he Koumyou? Is this revenge for that kid I picked up with hair like yours?"

[subcircuits]

...Of course. With his first responder training he should have realized that, he should have-- acted? If he'd applied the tourniquet, would Ukoku have killed her so horribly?

(Does he really want to know the answer to that?)

Devero recoils as this dark-draped Sanzo leans into his personal space, his lip curling. "You don't look anything like me!" he blurts out.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Hmmm, maybe not at the moment, but Koumyou's seen me get all... scruffy and overgrown. Right, Koumyou?"

Devero recoiling while Ukoku's leaning on Koumyou's shoulder is perfect in the dark Sanzo's mind. Let's see if we can make him move away even more! Ukoku's free hand comes up, reaching for Devero's face to scratch at his stubble.

For the moment, Koumyou's no help. Literally anything he does is going to encourage the shitty raven, and he knows it. It takes this long for him to say, "Devero, I'll meet you outside. Go, please."

Get out of Ukoku's sight and maybe he'll find something else to peck at.

[subcircuits]

It works: Devero weaves back, reaching up to grab Ukoku's wrist before the other Sanzo's hand can touch his face.

His heart is hammering in his chest, fear and adrenaline combined, and he doesn't want to leave Koumyou alone with this man. Not given what he knows about him; not given what Koumyou just did to succor him from his own tormentor. But he's shaken by what Ukoku did so casually to his Madame-- and he remembers a conversation, months ago, where Koumyou had tried to get him to promise to leave Ukoku alone if they'd ever met.

Well, as far as Devero's concerned, they're meeting, and Koumyou's asking him to go. He swallows hard and nods, releasing Ukoku's wrist and backing off. "All-- all right," he says. He tugs on his handful of Koumyou's robe just a little, saying in a low voice, "Be careful. Please."

Only then will he release his Sanzo, and start to back away.

cw horror with corpses

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou is the only one who's ever been able to handle Ukoku. He can match him, wit for wit, darkness for darkness, blinding light for void. He's the only one.

So, the ground opens beneath Koumyou's boots while he's focused on Devero and Ukoku, and while the raven leaps nimbly away... Koumyou goes down.

Into a wide pit.

Full of corpses that he somehow sinks beneath as if drowning. Most of them are in grey Taisouji uniforms, but two near the top are in white Sanzo robes, a tiny youkai and a large man with a thick mane of black hair. Kouryuu's broken body is somewhere on top of the pile, too, and a copy of Devero himself, sightless glazed eyes open to the sky, mouth agape.

Flies, everywhere.

Worms.

"Oh dear," Ukoku says, looking down into the pit. "Looks like it's just you and me for a while, Dev-chan."

[subcircuits]

"Koumyou!"

Devero's backed far enough away to be on the edge of the pit, far enough that he doesn't fall in himself. He looks down into the gaping hole and he feels his stomach churn when he realizes what it is he's looking at. He doesn't know most of these people, but he can recognize Kouryuu, and--

It's seeing himself in there that impels him out of his shock and into motion. Ukoku absolutely forgotten, Devero drops down on the edge of the pit, dangling his legs inside and pushing off without a hesitation. "Koumyou, I'm coming!" he cries, his voice cracking a little at the end.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Not so fast!" Ukoku grabs Devero around the waist with an arm that's just as strong and nearly as wiry as Koumyou's, through his uniform. Just gonna bodily drag Devero off the edge of the pit and up to his feet again, right up against Ukoku's front.

"You and I need to have a little chit-chat. He'll claw his way out eventually, he always does."

Other than that one time he'd just died when a trap wasn't even for him. But Ukoku would rather not think of that time right now, it could annoy him.

And Devero probably would rather he not think of that time right now, too.

[subcircuits]

The fact that Ukoku is able to haul him up and out of the pit with apparent effortless ease probably should give Devero pause, but it doesn't. He struggles against the restraining arm, baring his teeth in a feral grimace.

"Let me go!" he demands, eyes still fixed on the pit where he last saw his Sanzo. "You and I have nothing to talk about!"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Now, now, Dev-chan," Ukoku coos, and suddenly pivots to fling Devero down onto the blood and gore soaked carpet. "Is that any way to talk to a friend of a friend?"

[subcircuits]

Not expecting that move in the slightest, Devero lands hard, actually skidding a little in the gory mess. Only now does in start to sink in that he's alone up here with someone that Koumyou considers profoundly dangerous.

He finally looks up at Ukoku, and knows he should probably be afraid, but when he opens his mouth what comes out is, "Don't call me that."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Why ever not?" Ukoku steps in nice and close, and then crouches down, weight on the balls of his feet in his sandals and his arms folded atop his knees.

"Don't you want to be friends with me, Devero-kun? Maybe I can even help you..."

[subcircuits]

Devero runs his tongue nervously along his teeth, leaning away from the dark Sanzo. "Help me with what?" he snaps. "I don't need your help."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"So you're fine with not being good enough for someone like Koumyou?" Ukoku asks, and pouts, "That's a real shame."