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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Following Alice, he looks around as if he's taking in the surroundings in a different way. With a different purpose than earlier.

"Of course," he replies to Alice's question, and Mort gives a pitiful squeak. Mort has returned to his Chthonic Companion self, unable to move freely and give comforting nuzzles or wake-up nips to the person he desperately wishes he could now. "I will not lose him here. Has a VoidTrecker plan been made?"

Well, at least Mort is still here. And Thanatos is still acknowledging the other's presence, so that's good - even though that seemed to pull less of a reaction out of him than Alice thought it would.

"No," she instead says, following up on his question first. "It's not exactly as if we had much time to plan."

Not with that vision, or all the chaos going on.

"Everyone is just trying to protect what they can, it seems."

Mort feels miserable, or the part of Thanatos that still manages to project onto Mort does. However, there's no helping the mouse now. Too much is happening. Action is needed now.

"More people will die if they try to remain here." He's felt it. People have died. "However, the train cannot hold the entire city population."

The train may be large, but it's not that large. Even if they fill every available space, not everyone will fit.

.. that is true. Maybe if Alice had been in control of her full senses, she would have heard the announcement, known what exactly people were trying to do - but it's totally gone over her head, so she just shakes her head.

"I don't know what to do about it either."

She's just one girl, after all. One girl with freakish strength, sure, but still just one girl.

"I'm just trying to keep people safe as I see them." .. the ones who don't attack her, either way. "You should be careful though. There are more of these illusions around that were bothering us during the previous missions."

And she's seen - very up close and personally - just how much those bothered Thanatos before. Even if he's acting much, much different right now.

The memory attached to those illusions, or rather their aftermath, are what caused Thanatos to become what he is currently. Thankfully, these illusions seem to grasp a wider audience rather than something so personally targeted.

"Do not concern yourself with me." (The damage is already done.) Still, Thanatos summons his sword. Nothing will come close to them. "Let's meet up with some of the others."

Hm. With all this chaos, what would be the best way to locate them? Going in a random direction could put them further off course.

"Are you good with heights?"

Alice would protest about the whole 'don't concern yourself with me' business. But admitting to caring to someone out loud is very embarrassing, even though she is very much worried about Thanatos' sudden shift in attitude. And then there's also the fact that they're in a rather chaotic situation. There's no time just yet to fuss over him when they first have to make sure to make it out of here alright, alongside everyone else.

So she shakes her head, instead focusing on his question.

"Of course."

Please, you have no idea how many cliffs she's been on. Wonderland was wild.

".. Why?"

Thanatos looks upwards but then changes his mind and looks back down towards the ground.

"I can fly and give us the advantage of height to locate the others. However, doing so brings me closer to the lights." By now Alice must know that bright lights hurts Thanatos a lot. "If you help me look in the air, I can limit my time so close to it."

Look for the rest of the VoidTreckers, look for people who need help, look for obstacles to avoid, and so on.

She does remember. Back on the platform he had said something along those lines, didn't he? At the very least that he prefered that darkness there over bright lights.

"Don't be stupid," he says. It's not entirely said in a way that sounds like she's snapping at him, but the words are firm, like she's not going to give him room to argue against this. "You shouldn't put yourself into danger just for something we can do while traveling on the ground by foot. If we walk around for a bit, surely we'll see where everyone has headed soon enough."

Alice really doesn't give him room to argue, but Thanatos also decides that if the ground suddenly opens underneath their feet, he's flying them the rest of the way. He can float. Alice cannot. (Or at least he has never seen her float.)

Too bad Alice's White Rabbit isn't here to give them direction to start with if they are going by foot. A loud crash then fills the air somewhere behind them. Thanatos looks at Alice. Start in the direction away from that?

Alice turns her head the moment she hears the loud sound. She's on high alert in the middle of this situation, after all, and she so is not going to let them get caught up in whatever is going on over there. Not when Alice's head still feels a little fuzzy. She doesn't want to test how many battles she can handle in this state.

So without saying an extra word about the sound, she just starts running in the opposite direction, trusting Thanatos to follow her. It's not like wandering around separately is going to be much better than going together, after all.

"No matter what we do, we have to make sure to stay away from those.. those soldier people, or police people, whichever they are. They have been after us all this time, and I don't trust them to give up even in this situation." With chaos everywhere.

Once Alice starts running, Thanatos follows. This feels very familiar to what they did in the last mission. However, this time Thanatos feels in control rather than trying to fight against his emotions and mental demons. All that matters is getting the job done.

"I don't trust them either, but some of our own are among them." Under the illusion, of course. "We'll need to do something about them."

Hopefully, someone else can do something because Thanatos can bring people somewhere, but he has a horrible track record for breaking people out of illusions.

"I do not think my usual methods will help much with that."

Aka hit people first, ask questions later.. If they were regular enemies then Alice would have very little trouble with smashing their heads in, but she's grown too fond of people on the train - whether she admits it or not - to actually do it to most of the people there.

.. with one or two exceptions.

"Doesn't the evacuation option on our SCAs work? We could just forcibly send them back." Look, it's just more efficient than trying to argue with people who don't want to listen!

Thanatos knows of the evacuation function on the SCA. Lightning and Persephone used it right in front of him last mission. However, that isn't an option here.

"We risk escalating the situation. There is no guarantee that will break the illusion, and we'll be sending compromised people to unsuspecting passengers."

Not everyone leaves on the mission, and with such reduced numbers and skills, those who stayed on the train won't have the resources to deal with a sudden influx of people. There's no way to contact them either. They could send VoidTreckers back before them, but there is still a shortage of help. For both sides.

Alice lets out a sigh.

"The situation is escalating either way." Regardless of whether or not they do that. Not that she's necessarily saying it's a good plan, but.. well, the people who are still under the spell of the entity doing this to them are going to be a pain to deal with here regardless. Especially if they're getting aggressive under the influence, just like-- "Some of the civilians here already attack us on sight."

The difference still is who faces that aggression: ones who expect it or ones who would not. Hypnos's power would have been perfect here. He could put them all to sleep and buy time for them to figure out how to break the illusion. But Hypnos isn't here. Thanatos is, and he has a job to do.

Thanatos shifts to be taking the lead as they move in this direction. "I am used to being attacked by those who do not understand. Stay behind me."

...

That causes some silence from Alice. Partially in surprise, because it's still so, so odd to have people bothering to protect her. It's not the first time on the train, certainly, but it's for sure more than anyone has ever done back home.

It's weird. And a little uncomfortable, knowing that someone else would be willing to get hurt for her sake.

So it's all she can say at first, still partially stuck in the surprise as they move.

"You will get hurt."

"And you won't," Thanatos replies as if it is an obvious fact. "Mortals are fragile. Gods are harder to kill." (And could Death actually die?)

There's little room for argument because there isn't any in Thanatos's mind. He's all too familiar with mortals dying through his work as a psychopomp for the House of Hades and as Death Incarnate.

"Your concern is unnecessary. I have encountered worse."

"'Harder' is not the same as 'impossible,'" she points out.

Not that it's a full protest. After all, with the way Alice is, a full protest would for sure involve her pushing herself ahead of him. She's not subtle enough to not argue back with words if she was really trying to full on stop this plan.

Instead she's still just gauging the situation. Thinking about it. How much of a threat is this situation to someone like Thanatos, an actual god? Alice isn't too sure.

"I am Death. I know gods can be killed." Thanatos may not have experienced death himself before, but he feels it every time, is aware of it every time. Death Incarnate cannot escape his awareness of the dying.

The true threat to the god is all emotional: attacks towards heart still too newly realized to properly defend itself. The only strategy his has is to shut down and hyper-focus on doing work.

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So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

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i'm so sorry, dw apparently thought i didn't need this notif!

No worries. I know how DW is ;;;;

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