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

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!"

Yurine -

But it's not her, she wouldn't be here like this, and he's graceful enough to twist so the sword misses her by millimeters. He sticks the landing - probably harder than is healthy - and jumps back just in time for the pain to hit.

It's worse than anything he's ever experienced - emotional pain is nothing compared to what he's feeling right now. It's only practice that keeps him from dropping the sword, but he staggers back. Even after the pain lifts there's an aftershock, his mind not fully comprehending what just happened.

Otoha gasps in pain and fury and fear before shaking it off.

"You're corrupted. And you're attacking people I care about. ... That means you have to die."

But how, when it's not physical? He slices through debris headed at the group while he tries to think of a plan.

"I get what you are trying to do with the illusion of my boyfriend and all I can say is no matter what happens once you are a connection. It's hard to break it."

But Yugi was soon quick to hear someone mentioning to kill them and was quick to snap back over briefly.

"No! It means we have to show them compassion. Violence isn t always the answer to everyones problems. Sometimes showing a little bit of kindness even if they haven't been that great to you works a lot more."

Mami's resolve falters a little. Alone, alone...but she's not alone, is she? They're all a team. A team that she pushes the pain aside for. She looks around at the group, only to see threats flying at them quickly.

"Hang on!"

Her yellow ribbons shoot every which way, gently pulling people out of harms' way. She can't reach everyone, and it's leaving her vulnerable...but she can handle a few attacks. It's just pain. Her lich body is built to tank pain, isn't it.

"But I don't have to do this alone! No one does."

She fires again, her aim slightly thrown off by that surge of pain from Chaos. Ow. But she can't...give up...

Razzy had been a little distracted making her way here with all the monsters, but she heard the spiel, arrived to sudden buildings appearing from nowhere, and a pain in her head with visions that are frankly-

Extremely familiar, and a desperate question that was just as familiar. She knew these feelings, she knew these fears, this tragedy, this screaming because Razzy is fourteen, she's really two, and she had thirteen years of a girl who died during the end of the world, and spent untold centuries eaten by the earth.

She had done all she could to help Feramis, and what had remained of the other girl gave her the strength to do it.

She can see the appearance of her brother, Edward Elric, she sees Tide (Chrono), in his demon form, and she ignores them because she knows this game, and she needs this things attention-

She flies towards the cyclone, grabbing a building, turning it intangible, cancels its weight, and dislodges it, before throwing it at the cyclone because she wants it to hear-

"Because the world rots!" She shouts. "I have seen the end of the world, I heard the screams, I heard centuries of suffering from all the trapped souls because the last of power didn't let go of a husk of world! They tried to make it okay, they tried to make it paradise, but things started to break, and they had to get energy from somewhere and all they had were the trapped souls!"

"You want to know why you need to let go?! I can show you! I can show you all the centuries of suffering the gods inflicted on dead souls, on people they dragged there, I wasn't even thirteen and I've died so many times to maintain their illusion! Until I had to help kill those who couldn't just accept that they could never have back what they lost!" She threw back a blast of ice as Chrono gets too close, since the demon could fly unlike Edward, freezing his wings. "But if you're willing to trust people, willing to let them help, you can have something! There were a few we could save because they would just let us! But if you don't, you can throw all the terrible you like, because I've been through this before, and I know how to help people get through it, and you're not going to win this fight!"

She didn't want to kill anymore.

But she learned sometimes people didn't give you a choice.

The air around where Freeza had been, anyhow; the discs send off in arcs with nothing to connect with. On the other side of the illusion, Freeza holds himself in the air, arms uncrossing to aim one flattened palm toward the doppelganger -- though not quite; his body shines Golden.

And he has grown rather tired of illusions, much less poor imitations.

A point-blank blast in one hand fires at the other Freeza, and his other palm calls into being a sphere larger than even he is, gaze turned toward the true enemy.

"About as rarely as I use contractions, you infant," he spits.

The blast sent at his back is dodged, but the point-blank punch--Trunks throws up an arm to block, before lashing out with one of his own. "All I have ever done is fight for the FUTURE!" Anger in his yell, fueling his determination further. Lashing out at the illusion with a hard punch-kick combo. Hadn't this being learned that anger was fuel to a saiyan?

The Gohan the entity had pulled form his memory, whether the alternate younger one in the past that Trunks had met, or his own version from his own timeline... Neither had passed Super Saiyan 1 to Trunk's knowledge. With Trunks unleashing his fury and his new level, hopefully it would be enough.

Edited 2021-07-22 13:43 (UTC)

The staggering overload is not what starts the tears that flow unimpeded down the planes of his face, but it anchors them, his heart and body and soul feeling the pain of an ache that cannot be ignored, the influx of everything that cannot be solved, and he's a big brother who failed his family too, and some costs are so staggeringly high he cannot help but stagger underneath them. Every bone aches, his head pounds unceasing, and he's regulating breathing just barely enough to not break down in sobs. To play.

Lan Zhan, illusion, rises as Lan Zhan, one of three train-borne truths, arrives. He can guess which, but any of them have the same importance, have the same inscribed trust. His song only pauses when the illusion lashes out, and Wei Wuxian doesn't have the time to tell Lan Zhan no, not either Lan Zhan, and memories of a blade bright in blood and the incredibly efficiency of Lan Zhan's mercy, the ruthlessness of his attack, honed in his attraction to the heart of chaos itself; Wei Wuxian is there, flute redirecting the illusion's blade, stepping in close.

Giving Lan Zhan his back to guard, as he trusts so often for him to do.

"We can never make the world whole again," he says, reaching out to try and wipe the trail of blood off a face he knows far better than his own. "But we can take our pain, our memories, the love we carry, everything, and not let the same mistakes take even more from us. We can share burdens and realise even in the worst of it, we don't have to stand alone."

And he plays on, sorrow and pain and love and the improbability of hope, plays for the four Lan Zhan's he's known here, the two Wei Wuxian's, his two sons, the Wen Qing who left after his arrival, the spectre of his older sister, and the countless bubbling of worlds across universes, where each one is a gem cut to different facets, where each one had a different chance for a different outcome. Where not every story follows the same narrative, and they are not his worlds, no, but they are a shared warmth, they are a borrowed promise, and they are what linger in the music when the breath of a natural pause means he tries to pull the illusion in, giving the man who does not exist and now exists and will always exist in memory the kind of embrace Wei Wuxian had to relearn, painstakingly. To speak, beyond his shoulder, to the one he is borne of, to the brother who smiles at his sister, to the home that was haven now destroyed, to the crushing of a heart and soul and mind to madness, to everything lost, to feeling there is nothing, nothing that can be gained, nothing if we can't make the dead return to us.

"You don't have to bear your grief alone. If there are other worlds, let us save them; let us stop the force that swallows universes, let us protect the memory and truths of those we love and loved, as only we can. From our abyss, we will always find there is more than nothing to hold onto. We are here, and you do not need to be alone anymore. We can survive and strive together."

It is... comedic, seeing someone play flute like this, and for the moment, he doesn't try. He hums and still the melody lives on his lips, because it is the song, the music, that lives like this, and he knows what it is to surrender before a hallucination, a recollection, an outstretched hand of one you love. It's seeing them in everything, seeing the world you had before it was shattered reflected back at you for every surface, and finally, finally, being unable to turn away and facing why it shattered, discerning those impossible truths, because you lived, and someone had to.

Lan Zhan is not a jealous soul, by every marker Wei Wuxian counts. He is dedicated, he is warm, he is quiet, his thoughts run deep. He is loyal beyond reason, he is firm in his belief, he is a leader of cats herded in all their yowlings, he is a Light shone down on a world that clung to shadows.

A man like that stands at his back, and an illusion like that stands before him. It is Chaos, in the end, who needs to let him go.

So he lets go first, and he lifts his flute, and he plays for what may come. Love, and sorrow, and cycles of life and death. The brush of the wings of birds on takeoff, and a sister's smile. Not alone, not alone, not alone except by choice. Don't forget, don't forget, don't forget why she matters. Why any of them matter. She will not thank you for the cost. She will not thank you for the innocents who are dying.

'Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblahblahblahblahBLAHBLAH.'

This is what Katsuya receives without most of his novella being delivered to the world; filling his own ears, as well as the jeers and booing, the stage of this fight darkening around him. A male voice, actually addressing him this time.

'You talk too much, never getting to the point! Endless babbling, endless blahblahblah! You know nothing of theatre! If it's your own voice you wish to hear, then I will grant you this -- ELSEWHERE, AMATEUR.'

And so Katsuya will be teleported from the boss battle, and will not be able to return - trying will only send him away again, put obstacles in his path. He will have other things to do with: like the parade of parrots that follow him around, resilient until the end of the event, mimicking his voice and speaking of all sorts - personal, mundane, something he was doing last week.

By the looks of things, Chaos doesn't like people who talk more than him.

Otoha may need to think about what's above him, in the meantime - as the illusion of Yurine also drops with him, coming down. Will he let her fall to the ground? For she will show as someone who did, anyone, as naturally - or, she can be saved.

(However, there will be a reaction based on Otoha's choice.)

But there may be a lot for everyone to consider, when Razzy throws the building into the vortex, disappearing before it even comes close. And yet, half of her speech may be cut in half when large chunks of multiple buildings blow back and out across the battlefield, air and all.

Yugi will want to watch out- though the Seto sees what happens, says his name and pulls him with him to shield him with his body. But still, they're only human (well - mostly). Possibly, Mami's ribbons were able to grab at Yugi to save him.

If she isn't distracted by Kyoko's body picking itself up, bloodied, shot at. Her eyes glowering, teeth gritting through the pain.

Large building rubble may not mean much for Freeza, but, despite it being a copy, he still fights himself ~~even if bro, I said give me IC leeway~~. Eyes on the cyclone, Freeza - even with his speed - cannot outmatch his own speed as one of his own hands grabs his head. Bigger than it should be, but anyone who sees Freeza will see that the comment of infant has brought the comical genius out of Chaos.

Around them, invisible, the air boxes in - all of it an illusion, everything controlled. No ability to escape, as the clone does the exact move that Freeza did to its other counterpart.

However, for everyone the atmosphere begins to become more oppressive, more frantic. Some of the illusions, but not all (and not before anything they do above) flicker, glitch: Lan Zhan's, showing more of a face that he would make, to have done what he did - Seto, Razzy's brother, Tide, and Edward Elric. They each wear the faces, act as they would if knowing what they had been doing, might've done. Gohan also - the one who left the future to Trunks.

"No no no no NO I WILL STOP THIS, I WILL PUT AN END TO IT, I WILL CREATE THIS WORLD ANEW, I WILL GIVE THE WORLDS WHAT THEY DESERVED, I WILL STOP THIS MEDDLING NOW."

Chaos's voice booms out across the area, and the vortex begins to glow and expand.

( A new phase of the 'battle' is about to begin - I will give people a chance to respond to the above actions. )

Edited 2021-07-22 16:19 (UTC)

He had sensed the movement behind him, knew the illusion was coming. But Wei Ying was faster. Moving between them to block the blade as he turns to watch. If this illusion does anything to hurt Wei Ying he would slice it down with no hesitation. Just the emotions he is seeing running over the man's face as this enemy forces him to feel more then he should on a battlefield is enough to make him want to destroy the cause of it. For the most part he continues to ignore the ranting, all his attention now on the illusion and making sure nothing else comes at them, ready to stop anything that tries to get between them. He knows Wei Ying trusts him to watch his back and he will do just that.

He has vowed to always stand beside this man, protect him with everything he could. He has to make up for all the things he failed to do all those years before. The guilt and weight of his actions leaving him broken for many years. He will not watch him die on this battlefield and the last thing he will allow is for his hand, even one based in illusion, to be the one to deal that blow.

The man before him is strong, able to face an illusion that is threatening them and still have compassion. It is one of the things he admires of him. But something is changing around them. He tenses as he becomes ready for anything that might try and draw them apart or harm him. His hand on the sword tightens as he prepares to defend.

"Be careful."

Chaos doesn't like people who talk more than him? And he pulled in Wash? Bless his overly dramatic heart.

To be fair, Wash has been a bit preoccupied, because one Tucker is hard enough (oh god dammit) but a dozen of them is way too many. He actually buckles down for this fight, and it goes well enough - especially when he disarms one of them and has a rifle of his own again - right up until the wave of memories and agony rolls over the battlefield again, staggering him enough for an opportunistic Tucker to put an energy sword in his shoulder and send him sprawling to the ground. He snaps back to reality on his back, in pain, and you know what, fuck that-

The great thing about Fireball and its easily defined radius is that he can cast it far enough up to roast every Tucker who's still on their illusory feet and only get enough heat himself to singe his eyebrows.

(And his mind, if he's going to be honest with himself. If he lives through all of this, he'll be seeing that in his nightmares, along with everything else that's taken a crack at him over his life. God damn.)

The sword deactivates when its wielder falls, and Wash gets back to his feet to see illusions starting to flicker, pieces of the world glitching in and out like a shitty Skyrim mod, and off-brand cosmic Tommy Wiseau still yelling above it all and you know what, fuck this guy.

"WE DESERVE TO GO HOME, ASSHOLE! WE HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THAN BE PART OF YOUR HALF-ASSED COMMUNITY THEATER BULLSHIT, AND THIS IS THE WORST PLAY EVER! OF ALL TIME!"

Though it looks like curtain call is coming up, and Wash braces himself for whatever fresh hell that'll bring.

Cassie has been a little too focused on dealing with her not!Dad's taunting to listen to what this swirling cosmic anus has to say. But she is absolutely dealing with him. She's gotten much more powerful in the past months - stronger than her father had ever been. And she's pretty sure this fake Dad can't fly, either.

She catches his foot, spins and tosses him with all her might.

"I'm more of a Cage than your Harvey-the-Rabbit ass!"

An inclination of his head, to the Lan Zhan who speaks behind him; he sees the vortex, he feels franticness in the oppression, watches the face of his illusioned soulmate, for such a word lacking proper depth to meaning. Be careful, and they both shall be, as careful as anyone can when their companions are evacuating hundreds and thousands, when the void is leaking into this landscape, when monsters and crazed 'citizens' alike strike nearby, with Chaos a roiling, destructive emotional mess before them, fractured and shattered and dangerous, as powerful things always are.

There are inconceivable levels of power from all kinds he doesn't try to grasp or hold onto; he sees it in glimpses of those fighting, the fluctuations even noted at a distance. Everyone's angers are justified, and he is not some limitless fount of energy, not calling on hundreds of thousands of restless, resentful spirits; he is a song in the winds and chaos.

The drop of his flute, millimetres below his lips, another moment for an intake of breath, after the shouting, as illusive reality flickers

"What was her name?"

Then, as he has been, he continues playing, letting himself feel what he feels, what he's feeling from outside, and the pressure, the ache, coursing through. Something was coming, but it'd been coming from worlds away, culminating here, and now, and something more lurked beyond it, in the cause behind those cubes dropping from the sky, in the reason why a whole system disappeared, swallowed, and why it sounded as if it was not the only one, or the last.

"Noc...tis?" Prompto paled a little bit when he was confronted with his best friend holding him at swordpoint. He faltered a moment.

No. It wasn't Noctis. Noctis wouldn't do this to him, and he knew that. He knew that very well that they would never turn on each other. No matter how he felt worried or concerned, Noctis would never draw his blade on him, threaten him. Insecurities aside, he was sure of that much.

Prompto responded by playing dirty, sweeping the apparition's feet out from under him, and summoning instead his bazooka. He hoisted the thing on his shoulder and aimed at the vortex. Would it help? He had no idea, but he fired all the same.

"NEVER USE MY KING AGAINST ME."

Mami manages to catch herself, but the illusory Kyoko is still after her. She gulps and swings away, trying to tie her up with another ribbon. An old trick, might not work...and oh, Jonouchi-san...she hopes he's all-right.

She readies her rifles and calls out.

"If anyone needs a heal, come to me!"

Her ribbons are on offer. But...boy, she might be overextending a bit.

He doesn't bother with the illusion, as sick as it might make him. He keeps cutting through things to protect the group. If he were in his armor he could do more, but he's not sure where Yurine is. He knows his soul is safe though, and that's what matters.

He ignores any injuries he's getting from things hitting him, dodging out of the way the best he can. He doesn't care i he's bloodied or bruised, what matters is keeping other people safe. If he can't attack, at least he'll defend.

Otoha hears Mami's offer but ignores it for now. He's fine. Everything's fine.

Freeza takes the blast seemingly full force, and the energy in his hand dissipates, momentarily. Some of his composure lost, like a constant interruption. A sphere of ki surrounds him to shield immediate attacks, get his bearings, see past the imitation.

"Is anyone putting a scratch in these tiresome things?" he demands.

It wasn't Gohan. It couldn't be. Trunks kept repeating to himself as he and the illusionary saiyan traded blows. Between that and the staggering force of emotions beating down on them from the Entity, he didn't even realize there were tears in his eyes.

Tears of loss, tears of anger and rage; just like the night he'd discovered Gohan's corpse in the rain. Then it had fueled and been the trigger for his first transformation into a Super Saiyan. Now, it was still fuel for him to keep fighting.

"This isn't you, Gohan." Trunks snarled before managing to break apart for some space. "You'd be fighting this thing trying to control us--to put us under a different reign of struggle and terror--just as hard as I am."

Razzy is a clone of Danny. Action does little to make her stop talking if she wants. It helps air isn't an issue.

The building chunks are and she is quick to move, shooting out blasts of ecto and ice to at least divert their path from people. Mostly. Its a lot to take care of. Much easier to phase through chunks herself.

She notices the guilt on her their faces, ignores thebpain in her heart. She had to drag them out of a fake fantasy of paradise. She's hurt them because of those same gods, the ones who rotted with their world, and those who escaped. Because they all suffered with the rot until they decided to change.

Though at least destroying and phasing through chunks gets her some distance from them. Being land bound is a major disadavtange and while Tide can match her speed, he has to deal with obstacles the brute force way.

"And maybe it will work! For a while! But not forever. How long did it take for your illusions to break this time? What will you do to maintain it? How many more children will you rip from their homes, their families, how many will you make scream just because you refuses to accept things have changed?!" Razzy shouted. "Tragedy happens, it hurts, it rips you apart. Worlds fall apart and that pain will weigh on you, and that's only going to change if you stop forever or you let people help you! This isn't either! This will only cause more pain in the end!"

No. NO THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW OF ALL. SEE HOW REAL IT FEELS. SEE HOW YOU WEEP. EMBRACE THE PAIN. WEEP. LAUGH. SCREAM.

And then abruptly they vanish. The illusions of friends and family, popping like bubbles that have been burst.

BUT IF THIS BORES YOU THEN ACT TWO AWAITS!

Tendrils of colour break away from the main mass, coming down to each person here. But instead of attacking they aim to push, or wrap themselves around limbs and pull. They can be destroyed, there are more. They don't go far, just to where people can be seen, the many many citizens moving towards the evacuation point. A group moving across a semi-stable platform.

IF I COULD. I WOULD SAVE THEM. MY DIAGAD. WOULD YOU? COULD YOU? WILL YOU HELP?

Shadows begin to crowd in, shapes in the sky. The shadows from memory- though those who have seen them before will realise these are illusions. They do not feel the same, though it will be difficult to pinpoint how exactly. Circling the people on the platform.

ARE YOU HEROES? OR ARE YOU HYPOCRITES?

The first blast doesn't hit any of the civilians, instead one of the still standing buildings, which begins to crumble. The people scream.

Edited 2021-07-23 04:45 (UTC)

Trunks doesn't hesitate. Even if the illusionary Gohan were still around, he wouldn't. He's diving from the sky towards the building. Ki blasts from his hands, aimed at the crumbling building. He even invokes the power this world gave him--a form of chronomancy.

Using that precious time while everyone else was stopped around him, to move people away from the building's debris. He wasn't sure how long he had, but the longest this power would last was 5 seconds. It had to be enough.

Cassie flies in behind Trunks, looking to grab anyone he isn't able to get to. As she closes the distance, she makes use of her own temporary power, growing as large as it will let her so she can grab them literally by the handful.

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rapidly uses my pre-work keyboard time <A<

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