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

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.

Freeza's appearance on the battlefield is sudden, a flashing arc of white and jewel that comes to a hovering halt, sending three pointed discs of ki firing off immediately from his hands, two reserved for illusions and a third directed at the entity. His palms raise again, at the ready, energy sparking about his fingers.

"Have I missed all the fancy speeches already?"

Edited 2021-07-22 00:13 (UTC)

Mami tries not to waver...it's hard. She can't quite manage it. Her voice trembles, and the illusion gets a hit on her, sending her crashing to the ground. She grabs a rifle to prop herself up with.

"No...I can stand on my own! But no one should have to!"

She blasts at the illusory Kyoko with a rifle in one hand, and aims for their main target with the other. Not a super-strong attack with her attention split, but she's gearing up.

Prompto didn't have the worst time in the illusion, just possibly the most embarrassing time, but the thing was he wasn't going to remain captured. It wasn't an option. Both he and Noctis had things to do.

He felt the same thing about the train but it was one thing at a time.

These are attacks, this was no longer just speaking and so his gun was summoned to his hand so he could begin firing rounds from his handgun.

Don't make him pull out the big firepower.

Entering the battlefield to see a version of himself laying there bleeding is a little unsettling, not that the man lets it show on his face. He merely heard the tune of a song he knows far too well reach his ears and had followed it to its source. Because there is only one person who could bring those notes to life and if that song is being played then it means there is something important going on and he will not hesitate to fight beside Wei Ying in that moment.

He lands easily and lightly on the battlefield Bichen already in hand, stepping forward until he is in step with the man he was seeking. He doesn't have his own instrument to make the song into a duet or any way to help ease the minds of those that are being faced with the illusions of their friends and family. But he can fight and make sure that the person causing those illusions is stopped.

"Wei Ying..." He is here. He is real and he is ready to protect him from whatever attacks this enemy decides to throw at them.

Otoha: As he jumps, moving through the air, right in his path - defying gravity, with nothing underneath her - appears Yurine. She will be solid, his Yurine, her eyes wide and the two about to make contact.

Katsuya: The illusions may be false, but they are real in pain, to feel, to be in front of him. Clinging onto the flying beast, scraping with Katsuya. The female Seto Kaiba in front of him, glaring at him, as ragged a mess and he's made her.

'You idiot, what are you even arguing? Do you have a point here? Or will you do something productive? Well? If you insist on wasting oxygen, use it meaningfully!'

Trunks: Trunks flies, but he will be followed by Gohan, a ki blast sent at his flying back, before Gohan appears in a flash of speed in front of Trunks, a punch coming to his face.

'Trunks! I don't want this more than you do, but we don't have a choice! You have to show that you're ready! Ready to fight for the future!'

Dukemon: The beam is sent out on Takato's 'No!', but neither of the two can stop it. Guilmon is getting onto his feet again, and so does Takato, turning to Dukemon and addressing them:

'You can't just destroy pain! Look at what you're trying to do now! We need to save people, and you're going after the one keeping this place together! Look!'

Dukemon will not need to look far, as the ground around them begins to shatter more - under Dukemon's footing, even the copy of Takato and Guilmon, with Guilmon taking Takato into his arms to jump to a safer place.

'We need to save people!' Still, Takato doesn't stop trying to reason.

Cassie: As the punch comes in, Johnny takes the opening to fire a green fireball before she can come in, attempting to follow it with a split kick forward during a stun to knock her back.

Saying, even if it shouldn't be possible: 'C'mon, you're a Cage! Is this going to stop you?'

Wash: The fireball engages with the vortex, scattering fragments of chaotic colours around, a booming yell - that turns into a booming laugh. From the fragments, there comes a group of armoured Tuckers Some pulling out swords, the others rifles.

All voices incredibly loud.

'AWW YEAH, BACK IN ACTION BABY!', 'TIME TO SHOW WHAT BLUE TEAM'S ALL ABO-er, shit, wait, fighting Wash, nevermind', 'HEY LOOK, BIG FUCKER UP THERE LET ME HAVE A BIG VOICE TOO. LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON!'

Multiple Tuckers have entered the battlefield. Which, unfortunately for them, some get already blown up as Freeza makes an experience to the scene. Appropriate, probably.

Freeza: But as for the third disc, it is met by another of the same kind - from another Freeza, hovering and in wait of the real one.

'Hm, and I wonder what it is I'm doing here. But no matter, we're done with the speeches, aren't we?'

So Freeza dashes forward, with two more Death Saucers sent flying at the other - a distraction, so that when he comes close he can pull off a Death Slash, causing the air around Freeza to explode in purple if it manages to hit.

And in Freeza's head, his own voice asks. 'But go on, if you wish to amuse me. Say your piece. We rarely gave others the opportunity.'

Mami: Kyoko comes down with her, running for an attack, but the blast hits - and Mami hears her scream, loud in her ears. While even deeper, inside her own mind, she hears Kyoko sneer:

'Can you really stand on your own? Do I need to remind you what happened the last time you tried doing that? You're nothing when there isn't someone by your side to help you!'

Prompto: Prompto sets off blasts, but as he does, a sword comes to knock his gun away - belonging to Noctis, who stands before him now, an anguished look on his face.

'Prompt, don't make me do this,' he says.

Wei Wuxian and Wangji: The Lan Zhan kneels, but isn't stand. And as he arrives, the other Lan Zhan rises again - and will slash at Wangji with the same blade as he holds, will slice at his back if he doesn't hurry to turn.

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian will find his mind with the playing of his song, a world, an older life: Diagad, with its real purple skies, with its real people. Memories, the beauty, the love; a performance out on its streets made from illusionary hardlights. The kids and the adults and the elderly that would come and watch the shows. The cramped small apartment that would be returned to, a younger sister loved, adored, even as she goes through the phase of caring about her own life, on her phone, reading the gossip about superheroes, talking to her friends.

The older brother at the table, watching her. And you know she will die, she will be dead. She will be gone, she is gone, but she could return, everything she and I loved, all that love, all the pain and WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME TO GIVE THIS UP WHEN THERE IS NOTHING LEFT, NOTHING, NOTHING, I NEED IT BACK, I NEED IT, I MUST MAKE THIS WORLD WHOLE AGAIN, WHOLE!'

AROUND THE ENVIRONMENT where it breaks and cracks constantly, suddenly buildings try to re-emerge, structures, signs, walls. They threaten to appear under people's feet, even those flying, a stop sign the size of a house, air taxis appearing from off-screen and being thrown out of the air and crashing all over. Like assets loading up where they shouldn't be and getting flung for it - the perfect game glitch for an imperfect, glitching out world.

IN PEOPLE'S HEADS, they will continue to feel a misery, but also flashes of images: that of the void, of worlds crumbling away; a sharp, horrendous pain to their psyche as they feel the shadow of their bodies being torn apart, continuing, no end to it, they fell and there was no end to their falling. No end to the billion voices of lives, of worlds and existences that they were cursed to listen to, to be filled with.

It lasts for a few seconds, but the experience is staggering. A taste of what would drive most insane, as memories are being called forth on this battlefield - the memories of the one who controls this fractured world.

ATTACKS sent out to the vortex do not seem to be having much effect. But with the antics going on, it is being distracted, not moving from its place. A stream of void being swallowed into its centre...

That's conversation.

That's conversation it's conversation, and even as he clutches his head and screams (It's triggering, very literally, the pain- it brings memories of a crowd led under the tunnels, all of them cursing and screaming at him as he's forced to the front of a sacrificial line in another life.)-

Red Eyes blasts flame, torching as much as he can while his partner is incapactiated- but with a pained, forced grunt, Katsuya makes himself answer.

"My point," he bites out, "Is that we ain't the ones going around destroying shit- not from where we stand! I don't KNOW why the Train keeps finding places yer at- other than that we picked up a 'D'stress Signal'! That thing around a Sun," Alright so he's forgotten it's called a Dyson Sphere again, so sue him, "Was malfunctioning, so we cleared the virus- an' it THANKED us in reply. Th' world of demons, the people were going to die- they were going to die and you wouldn't even let them realize how! So we closed up the portals, and gave 'm a chance! And then Kamakan...you pulled them out into air no one could breathe! We had t' pull every one of 'm back, give them air! 'Cause hell, hopeless as that place seemed, THEY STILL DESERVED THAT MUCH!" he screams, and for now the dragon is doing the fighting for him- not because it takes focus to shout, but rather, the focus it takes to shout through the pain, pain, pain in his head.

"And I get it, you're PISSED!" Someone makes it through the flames- gritting his teeth he tackles them, and throws them back. "You want your home back! BUT HOW THE HELL IS DESTROYING SOMEONE ELSE'S TO GET IT ANY BETTER? WHAT WOULD TH' HEROES OF YOUR WORLD SAY, HUH!?" The words are just in time for a car to launch hum up in the air with a cry, his dragon panicking in attempt to catch the blond before he falls.

"NGHK...Hahh..." No. If this thing wants the Point, he'll make the Point.

Nothing like a taxi to the chest to jolt focus, right?

"The Train finds places 'f Crisis, drops us off, and says 'FIX IT'. If you saw us wherever Diagad was last," he croaks, swallowing the blood in his mouth rather than spit it as he wants while he looks to the storm, "...Then I guess we weren't good enough for whatever did it..."

Katsuya is set back down. He remembers... "...Makes sense," he rasps, gearing up to charge at the storm in nothing but a run. "...Train couldn't stop it from taking its home either, if this thing's what I think it is."

He didn't see that memory, but they all heard the story. The train escaped to the void with a skeleton crew, came back to nothing. People forgot the planet, the train, anything associated with it, even living people.

They can remember Diagad, but he wonders how much of that is the fact that this thing remains from that place too. How much of it is the train already having 'impossible records' thanks to being impossible itself.

Another swallow.

"...Can tell y' this much though," he wheezes, weakly shouldering another illusion and managing to come out 'winner' entirely through luck. "You think we're gonna sit back and die while that thing's still out there, while people are fallin' through hell, YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!"

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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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ROUND [1/2]

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rapidly uses my pre-work keyboard time <A<