middleofsomewhere | So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

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So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

YOU R̴̨̬̗̞̺̖̣̱͌̋̅͊͒̃͘Ų̴̨̨̦͎̭̥̰͍̞͙̲̰̞̭̎̆̓͂́͒̑͌̆̉̕͝Î̶̲͖͙͍̮̮̯̭͘͝N̵̡̢̢̛̛͔̳̲͚̙͕̘̠̞̈͊̂̋̆ͅÉ̸͖̟̻̯̪̭͉̭͖̱̙̠̺͎̥̿D̸̥́͒̈́̔̓̅̋͛̉̀͒̇̚̚ MY WORLD

A TL;DR notes version of days/prompts: (click to show)

EVENT BASICS:

DAYS 8-9 (M11-M12):

Buildings had begun to disappear during days 7&8, facilities and even whole streets begin vanishing. There are signs of crumbling infrastructure everywhere they look.
In the early morning of Day 9 (M12), the cracks in the city - in this illusionary world - finally spread. The void sky above shines brightly in its colours. Chaos - also referred to as the Entity, or That Guy - is heard screaming of vengeance against the Voidtreckers, blaming all that has happened onto them. It shows what happened to the original Diagad: It was destroyed by blocky shapes in the sky that came down and destroyed it, while Chaos itself fell into the void.

There is also some light mind torture, as a treat, to really wake people up. Memories, visions of their past assail them. This is the sort of stuff the voidtreckers have been training against and it's a good time for them to put all that work to the test.
Anan's group then takes over any electrical device still left. She explains that they have a way to get the non voidtreckers (4th wall characters and npcs) home and also a way to temporarily seal the world. The entity takes offence at this and the screens smash. The entity appears as a cyclone of crackling colourful energy.
Illusionary creatures are sent around to find and attack Voidtreckers, but they're also going after 4th wallers/NPCS. There's also monsters from other worlds leaking through, real monsters. People will have to move around more carefully, as going out on the streets is dangerous.
However, there's word that buildings are disintegrating/disappearing farther out from the centre sector. People see where the city limits are as the illusion of there being more to the city has completely faded.
Their SCA's begin to work fully, including comms. Of course not everyone was wearing their SCA when they got pulled and the 4th wallers don't have one so it will be up to those who do to make sure everyone is kept in the loop.
The main tasks are as follows.

"YOU. YOU WISH TO RUIN MY WORLD. TO TEAR IT ASUNDER, BREAK AND CRUMBLE AND INCINERATE ITS EXISTENCE AGAIN. AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. I WATCHED IT. THE END OF DIAGAD, PURPLE SKIES, THE CHILDREN WHO LAUGHED IN JOY, THE SMILES I BROUGHT TO LIFE. THE REASON I WORKED AND WOKE AND WHAT KEPT ME GOING EACH AND EVERY DAY. MY EXISTENCE. MY BEING.

FALLING. FALLING. FALLING. I FELL AS IT CAME, BLACK TERROR WITH A HUNGER. HOW DID THE CHILDREN CRY? DID THEY SUFFER? I CAN HEAR THEM ALL, I CAN IMAGINE THEM. SEE IT. THE POSSIBILITIES, THE MAYBES, THE TRUTH. THE WORLD-- MY BEAUTIFUL DIAGAD, OH! THE VOID HAS BLESSED AND CURSED AND DAMNED AND DESTROYED AND BROUGHT TO ME A CHANCE TO SAVE IT THIS TIME, I WILL SAVE DIAGAD, I WILL HEAR THE CHILDREN LAUGH AGAIN, NO ONE WILL DESTROY MY CITY AGAIN. NO ONE, NO THING, IT WILL BE BEAUTIFUL AND SAVED AND IT WILL PROSPER FOREVER.

ALL WHO HARM US! ALL WHO STOP OUR RETURN! I WILL FIX WHAT HAS BEEN BROKEN. NEVER AGAIN SHALL YOU YOU VOIDTRECKERS HARM MY WORLD AGAIN. TWISTING AND RUINING OUR HOME NO MORE NO MORE I WILL END YOU."

The spiel comes in the early morning of Merriment 12, their ninth day on this strange world, though morning and night are indistinguishable now with the void-scarred sky burning above Jinnjar. Little exists of the sectors but the education and political district, and everyone has had to take shelter in its buildings, on cold tiled floors and with few blankets. There is no waking comfortable, feeling at ease. The city continues to crumble, and the citizens turned into the Entity's Heroes never quit their search and harassing of people who may be secret Voidtreckers, regardless of the ruinous world around them.

And then it speaks. The Entity's voices wakes everyone, enters into dreams, reality and the fake undefinable between one another. Scenes switch from one to another. A sky. Purple, serene and calm. A feeling of great contentment. But then come the shadows. Dark clouds filling the sky, blotting out that most perfect sky. A scream. No, a thousand screams. A world of screams echoes in every ear. A shadowed figure falling into the void. Pain erupts through the body, the mind, madness and grief suffocating every sense, every fibre of the being, and more attempts to fill and drown each and every person in Diagad. There is grief, there is love, there is despair. A longing and desperation that can never be fulfilled that cries out.

Once it's over, many have collapsed from the experience, and there are screams of those scared for their lives. Go out into the streets if you haven't already, and you will see the streets breaking, buildings being pulled like cubes, splitting people and trapping them. And there is a surge that hits people - Voidtreckers, others - with a brainwashing that makes them think of only one thing:

NO MORE. END. WE WILL END THE VOIDTRECKERS.

In amongst all of this chaos screens switch on. Any screens left working in buildings, on buildings, peoples phones. All show a young woman, a droid sat on her hair, metal legs curled around her head.

"Malin?"

A woman's voice. "Yes, go Anan. Now."

"LISTEN UP!" Anan isn't as loud as the booming voice echoing through the city, but she makes herself clear. "We need to evacuate and seal this world. It is falling apart." Stating the obvious, perhaps.

"We can temporarily seal it and we think there is a way to get the others back to their worlds. I know you Voidtreckers have had no training and this is advanced and really dangerous but everyone who is not a void traveller is in a lot of danger."

In truth, even the void travellers were in danger, but she doesn't want morale to be too low.

"Anyone willing to help meet me in the big park. You'll know it, it's the only park left!"

'HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU THWART ME. NO. NO. YOU DON'T. THIS IS MY CITY. MINE NOT YOURS. NOT YOURS TO DESTROY.' There's a huge crack as the sky itself seems to crack apart as colours twist and turn, a cyclone that forms at the edgez of the city, slowly beginning to devour it.

Over the camera Anan looks visibly shocked, terrified even, lost for words. An older man with reddish greying hair steps towards her, putting a big hand on her shoulder.

"Focus Anan. Voidtreckers. We do not ask it lightly. Please those that can, fight. Buy us time to set the seals. Buy time for those with no void craft to evacuate."

The screens flicker in colour before it cracks into static.

'NONE OF YOU WILL SURVIVE.'

A DISJOINTED REALITY

[ FALLING CITY. ] The city has been torn apart, fragments of roads, buildings and structures floating in a horrible mess. Friends and comrades split apart, some trapped in rooms that once had exits, or with no way out than to fall to nowhere. Pieces may stitch back together again at random, but with the same unpredictably, tear apart.

And if it couldn't get any worse, those core lights buzz around the environment, searching for individuals. They will do anything to hinder our heroes: turn into monsters from their minds, attempt to encase them inside illusions of their fears; even try to make them see pathways that don't exist, to make them fall into nothingness.

But for those who honed their resistances against illusions, this time may be different from the last. And with some experimenting, or just some lucky wishful thinking at the right time - some will find they can bend the illusions to do as they want, if just for a while. Stitch back together pathways so they can be crossed over, or make a weapon appear where it's needed.

It requires concentration, will be exhausting with too much use, but still - when isn't an axe or road on call handy?

[ HINDRANCE OR HELP. ] But it isn't only the core lights and environment they need to worry about. There are monsters coming out of the void - monsters they may recognise, monsters they may not. But unlike those of illusions, these are real, monsters - mechanical, ghostly, flesh and blood, something else entirely - slipping through from other worlds to rampage here.

There are also civilians, those who remain brainwashed, going after the Voidtreckers with powers of their own: telekinesis, pyromancy, superstrength and endurance, and so forth. Their skill levels vary, but the strongest of all are those who features have become twisted, chaotic. Streaks of colours dance under the skin, and they listen to no reason but their own. The entity - no their god, Chaos, is remaking the world. Remaking it the way it should have always been.

Strangely, but luckily, not everyone is harmful. Amongst those out there are a peculiar sight: a short hybrid between child and woodland-creature. They're keen to help, particularly anyone young or good of heart. They will help to lead them to safe shelters - the safe-houses made by Voidtreckers, the protected rooms all that are left. They may even interrupt the core lights from harming youngsters, knocking and shattering them, and then staying close to the youngster.

[ THE EVACUATION. ] For those who manage to make their way to the park, Anan is there, looking grim. One good thing though, as voidtreckers rush towards the entity or get ready to protect those helping evacuate this world- those with SCA's will see them burst into life, comms online.

The evacuation area needs protecting. Those acting as beacons aren't able to fight for themselves and the evacuation process is intense, slow and there are many many people in this city. The main entity is distracted but the monsters are drawn towards this gathering of people. Holding them back is vital to this plan working.

It's going to take everything the voidtreckers and their new friends have, to pull this plan off.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

FACE ME. COWARDS AND FOOLS. I WILL BE YOUR DOOM

At the edge of what remains of the city there is almost a cyclone of energy, colourful crackling as whatever power they are dealing with here takes form.

(OOC: For this part please all reply in one single thread under either battle 1 or 2. Each round will be marked by an NPC tag and then each character may tag once before the next round begins. If you are late joining or miss a round don’t worry! Just tag into the most recent round and either assume your character was always there or got caught up with the many illusionary or even real monsters!

Important Note: The entity may directly attack characters with illusions or attempts at control- if you do not wish your character to be targeted with these please write 'opt out' in the subject line of your first tag in!)

So this is the bastard behind it all.

Awesome. Wow.

Wash can't help but smirk a little. It's been nothing but running, shaking the cobwebs out of his brain and trying to hide people who only wanted to help, acting like he was still whammied, and it fucking sucked, but this? A huge fight, massively outgunned, against some bastard who thinks reality should bend to his will? This, he gets. This, he can handle.

He's found a length of pipe that feels solid enough - because Improvised Weapon is good for a lot of things - and he flips it over in one hand, the beginnings of a fireball spell gathering in the other. Now all he needs to do is draw aggro and give everyone else time to get their feet under them. He can be a damn good decoy, but how-

Oh. Right.

Wash is naturally loud, and running military training only helped with that, but when it comes to sheer vocal volume, nothing beats Thaumaturgy. He takes a deep breath, casts the spell, and-

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, THEATER KID!"

Come at him, asshole, he's ready.

Edited 2021-07-21 05:44 (UTC)

"YEAH WHAT HE SAID ASSHOLE!" Katsuya maybe isn't the best one for this fight. Red-Eyes is there, sure, but his pokemon aren't around (he hopes to hell they were left on the train), and ultimately he's a person.

But hey, when have the odds ever not been like that for him right?

Just after shouting that though he has to pause.

"Wai', theater kid? I miss somethin'..?"

"Trust me, it's appropriate."

With that, Cassie readies a pair of the largest green fireballs she can throw. Her brow furrows with concentration before she unleashes a rapid volley at the center of the vortex.

"NOW STAY OUT OF MY FUCKING HEAD, YOU DICK!"

Other people are doing a good job of shouting at this...thing. Which means Trunks doesn't waste time, and just powers straight up. He'll make a pretty good target for this thing, with the golden aura (shot through with crackling lightening) around him. Fortunately, he can also take quite a bit of damage and deal it out just as well.

Launching himself into the air, readying his own kiblast between his hands before letting it fly.

[OOC: For any who care/want to know/can sense energy-levels--he's at Super Saiyan 2 now, thanks to some story/char growth.]

There's a laughter, far-reaching and ecstatic, in response to the megaphone'd equivalent insult thrown by Wash. As the attacks are thrown into the vortex of power, Cassie's green fireballs and Trunks's ki lighting the vortex in green and yellow hues that mix and swirl within.

"YOU WANT THEATRE, DO YOU? A LIVE PERFORMANCE? THEN PERMIT ME TO BRING THE SHOW TO YOU!"

From the swirling vortex, the colours of void above are drawn it, making it glowing in neons, in shades bright and acidic. Then there's a burst that spreads out from it, enough to knock anyone not braced off their feet. But this is not the attack: the attack is those important to Cassie, Trunks, Wash, and Katsuya have appeared before them - from Johnny Cage, Gohan, to anyone this represents, in a way that reflects their own memories.

Even if it may be with a 'Sorry, Cass', spoken as they would speak, they'll go for the individual with the strength and skill that the person knows them to have - and the same will happen to anyone else who appears to the scene.

Edited 2021-07-21 14:20 (UTC)

Mami's spent the last while swinging from what remnants of the city remain, using her ribbons to tether people across. A quick recharge, and she's up, facing...their enemy, the wounded soul using its reserves of power to lash out.

She responds as she usually does, calling a line of rifles to the ground in front of her that anyone can pick up and use, but each only has a single shot. Mami lifts the first, but then...

...they're in front of her. Sakura-san. Spear in hand, as if Mami's the one who's lost her mind and needs to be stopped. Why is that familiar?

She's hit with a blast, flies back, the spear comes flying and...no. More violence isn't the answer. She thrusts her hands in front of her and summons a wall of solid yellow ribbon, stretching it around herself and perhaps one other person on either side of her. Buy a little time to fight off these illusions.

"Remember...what's real...I can't give in..."

There is a problem with the Entity's strategy.

"AAAAAAAH! FUCK YOU DUDE!"

The problem is that those most precious to Katsuya lack power- it only takes moving upwards on Red Eyes to avoid the worst of it and as is, that's time enough for him to focus on talking.

Besides. They aren't real.

It definitely gets his temper going though. "You're so pissed about this!? Th' place was breaking apart b'fore we even got involved! And don't get all 'It's fine if it's me' on us! You don't get t' mourn a planet so much you'd make it again, and then justify RUINING it! As if th' lives you lost don't fuckin' matter! As if the ones YOU lost don't matter!"

Takato arrives to the battle late, but taking one look at the cyclone of energy and what was happening to the other fighters is enough to make a decision for him. He nods at Guilmon, and a moment later they are stepping out of a spiraling column of light as Dukemon.

Taking out his shield, Dukemon charges it and fires a beam of light at the cyclone.

Sometimes you're the guy who shows up to the fight with a flute, and cupped hands around your mouth to yell back up at Chaos. Mostly to be heard, it's fairly loud in the, ah, chaos of its construction breaking down around it.

Grief, he understands. Anger, he understands. Loss, every living creature knows. This, however...

"Abducting people from their homes won't bring back the ones you've lost! You had your world and universe taken from you, and I'm sorry! That loss is beyond reckoning! Those people, Diagad, they're gone. No matter how much you wish they weren't! You're still here, and you have to remember them all, and miss them all. You survived, have you wanted to look for the real cause behind it? Why blame the people protecting the laughter of children on other worlds from being silenced by your grief?"

Not that he expects an answer, or acknowledgement. He just has to say it, before he lifts his flute and lets the people who are set to fight in ways he cannot do as they will, and he plays... steadying, soothing music, a calmer mind to acknowledge the anger, the loss, and everything else, but to encourage not being overwhelmed, ruled by the strength of those hot, burning emotions, for whatever good it may do.

"He's right, doing all of this won't help you in the long run. Yes, what you went through is awful and I cannot even begin to imagine that, but wouldn't they want you to move on and be happy?"

Why was Yugi of all people here? Because he wanted to at least try and help in his own way and it seemed like the abilities that were just illusions were still there somewhat... SO he was going to at least try and abuse the crap out of that when he gets the chance.

"Fly as he might on the winged beast, the young man cannot escape the clutches of his friends; they cling onto it, one dragging itself before him and oh, screaming, sobbing! Why, why must it be this way!?"

For our poor Katsuya, clever as the move was, Chaos is about the performance before the possible - and it will bend the rules of what makes sense to have those loved ones do exactly as what Chaos narrates happens, bringing Katsuya's words cut off (or, at least, very distractedly shouted). Illusions as they may be, they are still firm, solid, grabbing at Red Eyes and also at Katsuya, as if trying to shake them and bring them down.

For Dukemon, its emergence brings out both Takato and Guilmon, split. There's shouts from them both, of 'No Dukemon!', 'Wait, stop!' before it's Guilmon that leaps to try and stop Dukemon, taking the blast. Takato shouts his name, running over to where his friend is on the floor, the pair before Dukemon.

"This is real," Kyoko asserts to Mami; her spear readied, but she doesn't immediately attack. But there overcomes around her an old fear, though not one so old at all...

A lich, you're a lich - you're not human, you're not anything - nothing but a monster, the very air tells her without a voice. Inside her head, inside herself, trying to make that fear weigh heavier over her.

For Wei Wuxian, Lan Zhan appears, speaking the name that he would before Wei Wuxian presses his lips to his flute. He doesn't attack him, but through his music, he hears a voice, hissing like a demon's-

'What would you know about grriiief? About the right thiiing? Everything, everything! I would give it all for them to return! The people, the world! I want it back, mmyyy life! You think you can make a difference? Make a chaaaange? I will give myself to this, MYSELF!"

Lan Zhan draws out bichen from its sheath; eyes set on Wei Wuxian, expression quiet.

For Yugi, Seto appears in front of him, taking a hold of him by the wrist.

'Would you be happy if I left you behind, Yugi? I would never stop searching for you, even if we got separated. We made a promise.'

Edited 2021-07-21 18:58 (UTC)

"I HIT A NERVE?" He might have to deal with being pulled and fighting back, but he talked back to worse while under pressure before- a mountain of others won't shut this guy up.

"CAN'T TAKE TH' HEAT, SO YER STICKIN' COTTON IN YER EARS, THAT IT, HYPOCRITE? BET IT'S REAL EASY TO SAY YER THE ONE ALWAYS RIGHT WHEN Y' GET T' TWIST THE RULES FOR YERSELF!"

There's a familiarity to this that Wei Wuxian feels like a knife in his marrow, and he looks from the Lan Zhan who isn't, with a small nod of his head: once, I said that if any were to strike me down, I wished it would be you. Now, I would never burden you with that pain. Hears the Wei Ying from Lan Zhan's illusioned lips, and swallows it down with the air he uses to play.

Bichen, drawn, is not unknown. He lifts his gaze, focussing instead on the storm, the chaos of Chaos's creating. Grief, so much anger, so much pain. Not wanting to accept, wanting to be the sacrifice that brings it all back.

If music is the voice Chaos will speak to with him, then he can pour his emotion into that, can turn the melody into an acceptance of the anger, an acceptance of the grief, an acceptance of the injustice, and a way to breathe with all of it constricting his chest.

The song reaches its natural end, and he takes that pause to lower the flute, to look back to the Lan Zhan that Chaos has provided him with as a distraction, a warning. Speaks to him, who doesn't exist, for the one that does, beyond him.

"We would all give ourselves to bring back those we've lost. There is no right or wrong in it; we grieve, we mourn, and the pain doesn't stop, it ebbs and flows like a river, through the seasons. I'm sorry for your pain, your heartbreak. I wish no one had to know it, but we do, don't we? Those who survive," he says, lifting his flute again, "We have to remember the pain, and the helplessness of what we cannot undo. But what we can prevent from happening again, those we can stop from creating the same harm, should we not try? For the sake of all we've loved, shouldn't we try?"

He resumes playing, and the song is the same as before, though somewhere in its middle it shifts, turns into the song that the illusion before him wrote in truth. The song of heartache and longing and hope and sorrow, of the world that changes, of the life and death written into it. Of singing, soaring, not bending to break before it, but to know, in waking, this is no dream.

Wash is, quite frankly, real tired of this shit. It's not enough that they're up against someone who makes Marky Mark's theatrical oeuvre look like a masterpiece - no, this asshole has to pull the fight your friends card.

Fortunately, Wash has three things going for him when facing off against the illusory Tucker in front of him: 1. He taught Tucker just about everything he knows about fighting; 2. He picked up a few talents on Faerun that Tucker wouldn't know about; and 3. He knows for a fact that Tucker and everyone else on his team and world and goddamn dimension is gone, consumed by the ravenous extradimensional force known as the Hunger.

So really, fuck all of this.

Disarming Tucker and putting him in the dirt doesn't take too long - there's something to be said for Champion, and for the fact that this Tucker facsimile was accurate enough to the original to be distracted by an attractive blonde woman throwing fireballs and stopped fighting to make jokes about his dick - and Wash is once again on the goddamn warpath against an entity that had killed people and fucked up worlds in an attempt to get back what it had lost and oh god dammit that's it, isn't it. He casts Thaumaturgy again.

"YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHOSE ENTIRE WORLD IS GONE!"

Wash is not above ripping open his own wounds to make a point.

"EATEN BY THE DARKNESS WHEN ALL YOU COULD DO WAS WATCH!"

He pauses long enough to hurl a fireball through someone else's illusion - c'mon, snap out of it, they have a job to do - and keeps going.

"BUT YOU CAN EITHER FIGHT BACK, OR YOU CAN GO AFTER EVERYONE WHO'S TRYING TO HELP, AND LET ME TELL YOU, YOU MADE THE WRONG DECISION!"

Yugi didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit. As much as he wanted to say something, he had to remind himself that it was just an illusion, but an illusion with a rather decent grip it had to be said.

He knew what the honest answer was. They did promise and Yugi sure as hell wasn't going to back down now. But yet...Yugi never did serch here. He actually took a while to get out of this illusion. But it just made him a tiny bit more angry.

"What would I know about grief, huh? You really want to ask that question? We've all lost people important to us at various points in our lives. But we move on and remember those we've lost. We grow and change into the people they would want us to be."

"No..."

Mami falters, but she will not fail. She swings one rifle to deflect a spear, then another.

"I am who I need to be to keep fighting!"

She uses her ribbons to bounce up, daring the illusion to chase her...but she wants to get a better look at this chaos. And to add her voice to those calling out to it.

"Destroying us may satisfy you, but will it bring back your home? Or an illusion of it? And if you choose illusions...they have a way of keeping you stuck, unable to grow, don't you think?"

"HEY WHAT THE HELL MAN, WHY DO YOU GET TO BE LOUD BUT YOU KICK MY ASS BEFORE I GET TO SHOW OFF TO THE LADIES? HEY LADY HEALERS, MAN DOWN AND IN NEED OF SOME SWEET HEALIN' IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

MY DICK, I'M TALKING 'BOUT MY DICK. BOW CHIKA WOW WOWWWWWWWW."

Was that a reply? Was that just Tucker being Tucker? It seems to be what Wash gets for his efforts, while Katsuya really should be doing more than talking at whoever in front of him starts to push their thumbs into his eyes.

For Yugi, Seto's illusion doesn't leave, still before him. He stands real before him, visible to everyone. Taking Yugi's words as his partner ignoring him as he urges-

'Yugi, listen to me! You're the one I promised to be with. Being with another from another world... that's not my plan. Is that thing-' he gestures towards the vortex '--more important to you right now than us?'

It's Lan Zhan's illusion that Wash's fireball hits - not attacking Wei Wuxian, but with bichen in his hand, who can be sure of his intentions? It burns up the side of Lan Zhan's robe, dropping him to his knees, turning to look where it came from, and then, when he looks back to Wei Wuxian, blood is dripping off from his mouth.

But with Wei Wuxian's music playing, there begins to show in the scattered, torn remnants of where they've scattered figures of people, blurred faces and flickering and imaginary: the people of a city, laughing, chatting, moving through streets and hanging out with friends and existing, existing in a time and life gone.

Desperation, longing and a crazed grief contaminates the air; so palpable, that it digs into them, that they can also sense the need to escape beneath it.

Mami is followed by Kyoko, where the spear comes to clash against her, the red-head scoffing at her.

'Unable to grow? Aren't you the one who's still clinging to anyone who will give you even a scrap of attention after all this time?'

Otoha's late, but he's managed to get a sword. Where from? Who knows. Either way it's enough of a katana to be comfortable, and he steps into the scene of -

... Chaos. It's chaos, but it doesn't matter. He moves swiftly and climbs up the nearest tall thing - a bit of a building, a tree, it doesn't matter. "Hey." His voice travels, despite how quiet it is compared to some of the other noises here. "Shut up."

And that's all the warning the entity will get before he launches himself off, trying to at least get close enough to the thing to slash at it.

He's not sure it'll do anything, but he has to try.

Bold of anything to assume Katsuya talking means that he isn't fighting.

A low sweeping kick to trip up legs, just as Red Eyes proper uses their full body. Throws, to simply launch anyone even momentarily thinking of the eyes, over the shoulder.

He is panting heavily, sweating just as much-

And he does not. Shut. Up.

It's hardly anything Chaos hasn't heard by now. Accusations of hypocrisy, waste of life, in less eloquent words. A false Kaiba's blow glances across the face- (and in a way this is what helps ensure he finds the illusions false, more than experience, than training, than even his worn pendant- either the people he sees would be pants at fighting, or they wouldn't be using fists at all. No need to sully ones hands.)- his lip is bleeding, and there is blood on the teeth, and with a feral grin he sneers.

This one. This one might be new.

"Know what though? Least when th' TRAIN kidnapped us, it let us keep our damn memories! YOU AFRAID YER 'PEOPLE' WON'T LIKE WHAT THEY SEE IF THEY WAKE UP?"

Edited 2021-07-21 21:18 (UTC)

It was...well...Chaos. Even for the usual mess that a battlefield could be. Trunks had his hands full with an illusionary Gohan, but he kept fighting. "Oh no, I dealt with this once already. You're not him." Snarled at the illusion.

Breaking off when he could, dodging and weaving between the ground and in the air. Between dealing with the illusion, he looked for anyone who needed help. Or took a moment to fire off ki blasts at the entity.

Dukemon pulls back his attack at the moment the other Takato and Guilmon appear. The other Guilmon is still injured.

But the Takato and Guilmon within Dukemon... they know. Being an illusion, being data, doesn't mean you can't be real. And whether the other Takato and Guilmon are real or not, they would take the same attack.

Dukemon watches long enough to be sure that the other Guilmon had survived the attack, that the other Takato could watch for him.

And then he addresses the question.

"I, Dukemon, have seen grief before. And the rage that it brings in its wake. And I, Dukemon, can say that it brings nothing but pain. I, Dukemon, can no longer allow this to continue."

Charging his shield again, he releases a beam of light aimed straight at the center of the chaos.

Cassie grits her teeth as her father appears before her. His eyes are glowing red. She shuts her own for a moment, as though she feels the same is happening to her.

"Your mind's weak, punkin. 'S'why they got you on Shang Tsung's Island. Why they got you here. Why they KEEP gettin' you."

Cassie snarls. "Good thing I only need my fists against you!"

She hovers above the ground and descends to deliver a Superman punch to her not!Dad. She's not falling for it this time.

Tucker hadn't been there the day Wash had inadvertently shown the Reds and Blues the vocal amplifiers in their helmets, and he'd never really bothered to make sure Tucker had learned about his. For...reasons. Either illusory Tucker had figured it out, or the Entity had just given the illusion Thaumaturgy; either way, that's a distraction in and of itself.

Bold of the Juilliard dropout to assume that Wash wouldn't just ignore Tucker's shitty dick jokes, like he always does.

The grief and desperation in the air are something else, and for a moment Wash staggers, feeling them resonate with the all-encompassing horror he'd been suppressing since the day he'd arrived in Faerun - that his entire home dimension was gone - that he'd lost everyone important to him again - that there were no more second chances -

But this isn't the first time he's had to deal with someone else's emotions in his head. He'll never be grateful to Epsilon for the experience, but right now, it's helping him shake off the ambient hell.

And he goes right back to sassing his opponent, because this is what he does.

"OH I'M SORRY, ARE YOU SCARED? CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS A LITTLE TOO MUCH TO HANDLE?"

He waves a hand forward and detonates the biggest fireball he can manage right at the base of the cyclone.

"GOOD."

Wei Wuxian steps forward, heart constricting, because he doesn't like seeing any Lan Zhan hurt, real or not. It's still real in its own way, like the memories they all hold of the days spent here, like the memories all those pulled here from other worlds will carry.

Illusions aren't sustained realities. But memories, memories keep illusions alive, and mistaking an illusion for reality helps no one.

He steps forward, still playing, the named-but-not to him song, closer to the injured illusion of Lan Zhan. A dip of his eyes, a nod of his head, and then he looks beyond him, into the ongoing storm. Accepting the grief, the difficulty of breathing, the despair that's there too to echo in him, and letting it pass through. Letting the hollowness come behind it, and fill with determination. With the ache, the sorrow, and the gratitude that in a life missing so many that he loves, he's had chances to connect, to love, to care again, even when it hurts.

Remember. Remember who you are, and who they are, and live for them, those who cannot live for themselves. Those who are already gone.

Boss Battle 2

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okay joining the theatre kid callout

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[please pretend these sound somewhat IC thank u]

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Finally a keyboard so i can describe the faito

Dang this was going quick!

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Tucker's is perfect and I'm dying

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