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.

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Zagreus for his part focuses on keeping the path clear for other fleeing Voidtreckers and remaining stragglers, smashing debris that threatens to fall their way and picking off any remaining monsters that threaten their lives, and once everyone is evacuated, he will focus on freeing Wei Wuxian from the tendrils, not with Stygius if he can help it, but he will if he has to to avoid getting caught himself. He still believes Chaos can be reasoned with, despite the battering the Voidtreckers have been giving them.

"Life is fleeting too, Master Chaos! Death comes for everyone! I know it brings you snippets of pain to recall them now that they're gone to the Afterlife. I know it hurts, even deeply sometimes, but remembering them also brings you the moments of shared joy, pieces of mutual adventure, bits of fun and laughter, the times you've loved and lost and loved again! Please, Master Chaos, this is not the way to honor your friends, your family, your loved ones! Remember the good times, too...!"

Mami's attention turns inevitably to the rising voices of despair. She notes the emergency and steels herself to prepare for the evacuation, and conjures as many ribbons as she has left to clear a path and shield from debris.

"When we create memories...we create ourselves. Nothing lasts, everything is fleeting. And our reward for not giving in to despair is every little beautiful moment...that's what I fight for."

It's said more to herself than to Chaos, as she's chosen to pull back and escort those who need to evacuate now. But it's a promise.

Shit. He moves towards the loud blond guy, raising his voice.

"I know you gotta save these people, but it's time for you to get going! We need to get you to the evacuation point before it's too late!"

"Memories are the difference between a fool and not! Memories are the building blocks we use to learn to not be taken advantage of, and how to forgive and help ourselves and others. If you think memories are pointless if you can't go back to the past, then you don't know the value of them!" Razzy shouted, phasing up through the platform as the shadows attacked. With the numbers thinning, it would be a lot more helpful to help while flying.

Returning ice and ecto blasts at errant shadows.

"One of those gods who rotted the world really loved messing with memories. Luckily for her, my memories when I got them back made me very forgiving because I had to make the call. Do you think you'll br so lucky?" She asked, firing down another shadow.

"I have to go," but she can also clock 120 miles an hour during flight. "Before I go, how about you do a scan and see what awaits you if you don't learn to let go of what you've lost?"

She doesn't have time to have a debate or be overly kind, but thoughts are fast and she can at least make the offer. Maybe Chaos would learn something.

With the people all safe, Trunks turns his attention to the debris and the shadows. "Go. And thank you!" Shouted to their allies, with a salute-wave thrown their way. Looking to continue dealing with the debris and protecting his fellow fighters.

Trunks, as always, will have someone next to him, lighting up the shadows with green light and dodging and smashing the debris as it comes. She loves to talk more than most, but she's had nothing to say to this Chaos that would be fit to repeat in front of children.

The tendrils don't seem to be hurting Wei Wuxian, but they do hold him up in the air, as the music flows, as the tendrils pour hurt and hearbreak into Wei Wuxian, as the voidtreckers keep speaking. The tendrils bat Thanatos away, entangling his legs and trying to pull him away from Wei Wuxian.

YOU LIVE FOR THIS? FOR THESE MOMENTS? TO LIVE SO FLEETINGLY AND FEEL SUCH PAIN. A tendril comes to wrap around Danny, to feel what she is trying to explain. She's going to have to be quick, to evacuate on time.

Jin-Roh is still speaking. "Everyone else get ready. When we call it you need to leave. If you don't have your SCA on then get to someone who does.

Razzy sees the tendril and decides to totally avoid trying to talk. She knows how much can be transferred in a touch, and just how quick it can be. She's had months dumped in her head in moments. So she focuses and she touches the tendril-

She hadn't been lying when she said she hadn't even been thirteen.

She's little more then two.

And she has suffered greatly. Born in a body falling apart, only held together for months by pure force of will. Only to be killed temporarily by her father ripping her apart molecule by molecule. And then she agrees to a devil's deal, a wish for being forced to relive her life bit by bit while playing in games against other teams. Some were kind. Many were not. She's been maimed, tortured, and killed over and over again, only to be stitched back together. She has blood on her hands, from hard choices, mistakes, and being a puppet. She knows the dangers of intangibility first hand.

And through it all, Razzy only wants for two things. To not die, and to have a home. A family. A place where she can belong.

The first is Danny, but to rely on Danny means asking him to hurt for her. She knows if she asked, he'd do it. She doesn't ask. Ultimately its why she agrees to the deal. A wish for what she wants without hurting Danny.

And while there is flashing of that suffering, once she's in the underground cave, Sabra, there is joy. She meets friends, finds family. She can ask questions without fear, share meals, play with others. She has comfort for her bad memories, and bad games. She can rely on others without guilt for the first time.

Sabra, however, was on borrowed time. An untold number of souls trapped in the earth, consumed so the gods may buy themselves more times. The last of their people, and those who came for wishes. But more and more souls are needed, more and more suffering necessary.

There are two goddesses that have made Razzy suffer greatly. One a sadist, but she finds full of despair and rage, people beg to give her a chance, and while Razzy doesn't forgive her the harm she caused her, despite holding the weapon to easily kill her, she spares her. Because its like her father. If he had let people in, could he have been better? Hopefully she could be with people to support her.

Another, she's hurt her through a desperate need to understand. Not on purpose, just a lack of information. She gets to know her, feels empathy for her naive nature, knows how much harm she's caused Danny and others from her own lack, and understands her desire to see more. When she's about to die, its Razzy who manages to save her life.

There were many like that, when Sabra ends. There were gods who made bonds, who found a life beyond. Others laid to rest with their people. But many had to be killed because they continued to hurt people and wouldn't change. They either had to be stopped, or the souls would continue to suffer. So they ended it.

And once it ends....

She sees the stars. She sees rolling fields of green. She sees a house. She sees her family, her friends. And after two long years of near constant suffering....

She's happy. She can see everything she wants to see, new worlds, her important people, and never has to be alone again.

"I have seen enough to know this; when you're hurt, you can choose to make the world worse, or you can make it better. I've been hurt by too many people who decided to do the former, so I'm going to do the latter. And I'm going to enjoy every moment of happiness I get because I've earned it. I earned my friends, and family," Razzy said, letting go of the tendril. "And I've learned if you want something better, you have to let yourself have it. Even if its not exactly the way you imagine. I've seen enough kindness to know the only reason you're stuck in a hopeless haze is because you won't let yourself have otherwise."

"I hope you learn to take something new when its offered," she finishes and then she turns, heading for the evacuation, flying as fast as she can to use her speed for all its worth.

"Wei Ying!" Lan Zhan's voice is raised as the man gets lifted, resisting the urge to destroy those tendrils. His knuckles white from clutching Bichen so tightly. The other man has a plan and it is clear, but Lan Wangji cannot help but be concerned. he can feel the resentment around them, the air thick with emotions. But he will stay by Wei Wuxian's side, making sure no debris comes his way, keeping the extra tendrils at bay. Cutting away at the ones that try to grab the man that came to also assist. No matter what happens, he will try to make sure that no harm will come to those close to him.

Even as the voice is telling them to prepare to leave. He finally lets go of his sword and lets it lift him up into the air to make sure he stays even with him. He doesn't need a tendril to help with that, he has his own means of flight.

"I won't leave." Not without him. They both have those devices, don't they? Certainly they will leave together.

He hears the warning, and Wash's eyes snap to Yosuke - god damn, is that even actually his name? He doesn't know, and he's not going to get a chance to find out, and God damn it all he does not want to leave before this is finished-

But if he stays, then what? Win the battle, lose himself to the void while the rest of Faerun fights off the Hunger without him? There's a bigger battle to be fought once he gets back, and he needs to trust that this one will be taken care of. It's about all he can do, isn't it.

He locks eyes with Yosuke - "Finish this one for me, will you?" - and gets to his feet, with one more Thaumaturgy for good measure.

"ANYONE WHO'S NOT A VOIDTRECKER, GET TO THE EVAC POINT! WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!"

That's as good as it gets. He does one last sweep of the battlefield, then turns and heads for the evacuation point himself. Time to get the hell out of here.

"No-!" Zag struggles against the tendrils, his feet automatically heating up any of the tentacles touching them, but it may not be enough to break free. Still, he is not abandoning Wei Wuxian nor his friend Lan Zhan, so he shoots off his Bloodstones, aiming away from Lan Zhan to free Wei Wuxian from Chaos' grasp with the blasts. Only then will he go to slice himself free, if he has to. Then, once he's definitely free, Zag will be using his very few short-range teleports to grab Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan, and try to get them both to safety.

Wei Wuxian, being tenderly cradled, or at least tendrily cradled, had continued playing, aware of Lan Zhan keeping at his side, and Zagreus charging forward to free him. He's not been worried, and to Lan Zhan he'd flashed the blue banded SCA around one wrist; Zagreus, however, at minimum takes them both on using a kind of portaling Wei Wuxian has not yet seen and is definitely, certainly surprised by.

He's still channeling all that hurt and heartbreak, improbably enough he only breaks in song for a moment in more surprise than the rest, and he's reaching back—because he hadn't been planning to let Chaos go. It's in music, in a shared heartbeat of pain, in reaching out with a tendril of what impossibly seems similar with that borrowed power to take hold of another of Chaos's tendrils that he acts in the process, sharing emotion more than words, but intent thereabouts:

To have loved and cared so deeply to know pain. To live to honour it. To hold precious the ones lost. Don't give in to the despair. Live on. You don't need to be alone. You don't need to continue staining yourself with blood unending, destroying yourself and others in grief. Somewhere the cycle has to end. Let it be here. Let it be with you. Come with--

If there is or isn't a potential Chaos monster bear apparating on platform to wave a paw angrily at retreating backs, we just don't know.

Razzy will feel a rush of acknowledgement, of hope and sorry as she and Wash rushed to the evacuation point, leaving the voidtreckers surrounded by colours.

As Lan Wangji and Zagreus continue their fight they will find themselves moved, through tendrils or their teleports into what seems almost like a nest of tendrils. And there is Wei Wuxian. Still playing. Unharmed, sage.

LIVE TO HONOUR PAIN. HOLD PRECIOUS YOUR MUSIC. AH IF ONLY. BUT NO. NO I WOULD NOT DEPRIVE THESE ONES OF YOU.

I SHALL FORGET NONE OF YOU. BEAUTIFUL OCEANS. MUSIC OF SORROW AND PEACE.

Jin Roh's voice comes through the SCA's. "Almost there. Be ready. On my command..."

Zagreus thankfully settles safely into the nest, glancing over at Lan Wangji with no small amount of anxiety in his voice. "Do you have him?" He asks, and when he gets a confirmation that Lan Wangji is going to be evacuating Wei Wuxian to safety, he will thank them both, and he will call back Jin-Roh. "Three of us left on the battlefield. Is everyone else accounted for? Is everyone else safe?" If he gets a negative, he will say he's taking up the rear, ready to get anyone else that hasn't left yet to relative safety. If he gets an affirmative, only then will he finally let himself relax even slightly.

Once he gets word back from Jin-Roh, he will turn to Chaos' tendrils in the nest, and place his hand and forehead on a tendril. "Live on, Master Chaos. Live well. You will find your happiness again, one day." And as he says this, part of him instinctively calls to mind...

... his first sunrise, the pinks and lavenders and oranges glimmering over the expansive ocean and sparkling against the pristine snow on giant firs and pines. The warmth of rays against his skin fighting back the bitter cold. The first time he stepped into his Mother's garden, warm and sunny and verdant, lush and full of wondrous fruits and vegetables and fields of wheat for which he didn't have names. The first time he felt like he was truly at Home. Like he Belonged.

He pulls away, either placing his hand on his SCA, ready to triple-tap as soon as it's called, or leaping back into the action below if there is anyone still struggling and falling behind.

On my command...

Wei Wuxian bows his head forward, not because that's a direction of particular note: he's accepting the words granted, and hoping this is an indication of Chaos choosing to not only linger in the worst of despair, but to live like is being said now.

Like they all learn to live, even when they've been monsters.

So he waits, for the countdown or whatever tether will pull him back in, a flash of gratitude to Zagreus and Lan Zhan, and a memory that lingers: Yunmeng Jiang, at sunset on the river, with the lotuses and the laughter of the shidis and his shijie, splashing water and playing. Of Gusu Lan, standing at the top of the waterfall looking down over the landscape, Lan Zhan standing at his side, and the wrongs not all better, not undone, not fixed: but the future, there, for them each to stride into, earning the merits of their names.

So in that final playing: be well. do well. and if the stars we walk among remain the same, if worlds exist and oceans thrive and shores remain there for waves to crash on, we may yet meet again.

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So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

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ROUND

Re: ROUND

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Exit, hopefully not pursued by a bear

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