middleofsomewhere | So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

Entry tags:

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

Fresh from the fight he's ready to help anyone who needs it through. Seeing that daddy with his little girl, that soldier that's already fought too much at his age, and that's enough to make him glad to do it rather than some kind of grudging duty.

"C'mon." He offers out a hand to someone, ready to go. "I'm here for ya."

The moment they step in will be wildly unpleasant, battered by color and emotions and far too much overstimulation. But he's ready for it. At this point, it can't be worse than anything else, and he knows to keep their attention.

Wash knows what his role is when fighting gets wild like this. Keep Rose safe. He's never been much of a fighter, but he's real good at baby holding.

So when things go to hell and there's an option to get his daughter out of here, he's not messing around.

Rose is generally a happy child, but she is once again crying because all of this is scary when she doesn't have her fairly impressive array of powers.

"I've got you, Rosie. We'll get somewhere safe soon." He looks up to Yondu. "You can help?"

"Yeah, we'll get you through." He says it with confidence, even if he's never had to do this shit before in his life. He'll push through with the power of pure stubborness. There's a man who's actually a good father and a baby girl that needs to make it home.

"It's gonna be real scary," he warns Rose. "Hold on to your daddy real tight."

And it's then that he offers his hand, ready to pull him through. Sometimes baby-holding is the best thing a man even needs to do. She's small. She needs the attention.

Rose doesn't have to be told that twice. She clings to Wash's neck while he holds her close in one arm. She's getting big, but he needs one hand free for Yondu.

"We'll go home and see Mama and you can be in charge of your surroundings again." It'll almost be nice, seeing the kid manipulate the nature of reality instead of whatever brought them here.

"I've got her."

He puts one arm around Wash's back and starts guiding him. It's intense. He doesn't dare use his fin because he'd probably crumple from sensory overload. If that little girl's abilities kick back in, it might be a nightmare for her.

"Come on darlin'. Don't stop thinkin' of your mama. You'll be home soon," he promises. At least that he's sure of.

This is doing it right. This is making up for that life he messed up. If he can get this poor mostly normal man and his powered daughter back to where they belong, he'll feel like thing have been set proper.

It's different. Usually when they return to liminal space after a jaunt, there's no real transition. They're just back. No raging rivers to cross. No one trying to tempt him away.

Don't they know there's nothing more important to him than the child in his arms? "Close your eyes, Rosie."

It's a lot, too much for a little one. She doesn't have to see to walk, so why make her?

This is certainly it's own level of hell. He keeps hold of them both, agreeing with Wash. "Yeah, keep your eyes closed! You're real tough, I know you got it."

Even if she's torn up. Even if those sounds she makes in this kind of maelstrom remind him of shit he doesn't like to think about. It's working. He's inching them over there, minding Wash's step every bit of the way.

He doesn't want to see him lose his step. What he's carrying is too important.

Right about now the bits and pieces he's learned to defend over the course of his Travels would be very useful. But as it stands, he just just has to hold on to the knowledge that something is trying to fool him with illusions.

Illusions of a dark skinned woman asking him to come this way are particularly unfair. But not entirely thought through. "You really think she'd ask me that when I'm holding the baby?"

Zoe might be the person he wants to see most right now, but she's also the last person who would ever put Rose in danger.

"Not a baby." Rose keeps her eyes closed, but she can't let that go unprotested.

"You're right, you ain't no baby. You're a big girl, ain't she?" He asks Wash, wondering what he's hearing. It's just a whirlwind of indecipherable light and sound to him.

"Just ignore it. It's just you an' me an' we're still crossin', okay. We're still crossin'. She got a song she likes or somethin'? A story? Somethin' you can say to her?"

Anything to keep her little mind distracted.

"Hey, Rosie, this is kinda like the problem the little engine had, right?" Stories are the one thing she can't just make herself in liminal space. His gift of choice.

Rose nods against his shoulder. "I think I can, I think I can!"

"Yeah... I think so."

"Yeah you can." He knows nothing about little engines except for actual engines. But he still roots her on, if nothing else it's 'cause the overstimulation of this place makes even him sick.

"I think we're gettin' there. You're both doin' it. You'll be home to your mama soon!" he promises. Which... honestly, something that he feels good about saying, after everything.

He'd herded all the people he could to the evac point before being told in no uncertain terms that he needed to get the fuck out of dodge himself. Wash is expecting an exit; what he isn't expecting is a weird rainbow light river with a number of people standing in it, beckoning towards them.

...though it's not really any weirder than fighting off Community Theater Cthulu, is it.

He scans the river for any familiar faces, finds one reaching out to him, and heads for Yondu, reaching out for his hand. "Would you believe this isn't the weirdest thing I've seen today?"

Yondu had skipped out on dealing with that bastard in favor of getting people out. As much as he loves a good fight, it felt like his place was out here, drag assing across this river of chaos over and over.

He grasps his hand firmly, near the wrist like he's about to pull him up over the edge of a cliff or somethin'.

"Yeah, well. I got my head repaired by a talkin' raccoon and saw a six-inch twiglette fling a man off a balcony and I saw my son punch a planet. I got a high bar for weird shit. Let's just go with it."

He nods towards the river they've gotta cross. "This is gonna fuck up your head real good. Don't worry, I'm gonna keep hold of ya, even if it messes with ya." He promises, because who knows if it'll drive him to try and let go. He hopes not, but he's seen how bad this can be.

Edited (edit for groot size) 2021-07-25 07:34 (UTC)

He raises an eyebrow but doesn't comment. This isn't really the time for a Weird Shit I Lived Through contest, though god damn does he regret that he can't spend some time with Yondu to just shoot the shit without the end of the world breathing down their necks. Not his biggest regret, but another one for the pile.

"First time someone's warned me before they fucked with my head," he says brightly, like that's a completely normal thing to say. He takes a breath and lets it out. "Thanks. Let's go."

He's already been running rounds, ready to go for yet another one. Personal stakes here 'cause he does like Wash. And it's a little easier, 'cause so far he's been grabbing a ones that'd look like they'd fight back. He thinks he's the one best equipped to haul them.

A dubiously gotten skill, but right now it can return them to their lives.

He's ready to grab the back of the man's shirt if he needs to for a tighter hold, but for right now he starts wading them across. "Well, y'know, always should warn people when the fuckin' might be rough." Old man gives inappropriate joke in the technicolor hellstream. "Think of the shit you wanna get back to! Don't let it convince ya to let go."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

Yondu Udonta | Blue Team | OTA

Re: Yondu Udonta | Blue Team | OTA

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Finally leaving that boss fight

no subject

no subject

no subject