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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

FACE ME. COWARDS AND FOOLS. I WILL BE YOUR DOOM

At the edge of what remains of the city there is almost a cyclone of energy, colourful crackling as whatever power they are dealing with here takes form.

(OOC: For this part please all reply in one single thread under either battle 1 or 2. Each round will be marked by an NPC tag and then each character may tag once before the next round begins. If you are late joining or miss a round don’t worry! Just tag into the most recent round and either assume your character was always there or got caught up with the many illusionary or even real monsters!

Important Note: The entity may directly attack characters with illusions or attempts at control- if you do not wish your character to be targeted with these please write 'opt out' in the subject line of your first tag in!)

The park is large and mostly intact, even if the ground is cracked and there are gaps in the ground that require some jumping and scrambling.

More importantly there is one of the large bands of colours, curling over the park, almost like a very other-worldly rainbow. It is in front of this that Anan stands.

"Do you have an anchor setting on your SCA?" Is her first question, a strange one perhaps but if they check they will find that they do. It's new. But there is a small symbol, an anchor.

"I'm so sorry, this is so advanced, I barely understand it but we don't have time to call for any more backup even if we could get a message out." And bringing more people to this hellscape just sounded like a bad idea all round.

"The anchor will help keep your grounded, we need to hold onto them, as we unhook them from this world and send them back to their own. Help them hold onto who they are. It should... I've never done it but even though it's all metaphysical your minds should visualise it. Once you have hold of someone do not let go, not until they are home. You'll know what to do, once you step in. Just... It will be tough, it will hurt probably and your going to be feeling it for a while."

Light crackled around them through the sky as the battle in the distance commenced. "I wouldn't ask it of you, but there's too many for me to do on my own."

She will go first though, to demonstrate. It seems so simple, activate the anchor, step into the light. Arms outstretched as she seemed to enter a trance.

Any voidtreckers who follow will find themselves in a river of chaos. Colours yes but also voices, images, past, present, a million worlds, a million voices. The anchor helps, keeps their feet firmly on the bed of this river, keeps them upright and not drowning.

Those heading home step one by one, reaching out to grab their hands. Anan is right, their minds visualise it, giving a simple analogy. This river of chaos is a true river, the evacuee must hold on to their anchor and they must move across the river together to the far shore.

Images batter them, voices call like sirens. Those the guest has loved, those they have lost. Just let go, they call. Join the chaos. It is beautiful here. Fear and grief batter their minds but their anchor, holding tightly too them can guide them through.

They will find they can talk, move. The river crossing is perhaps the width of a swimming pool and it is tough going. Once they have crossed the guest can leave the light, stepping out into what they can only hope is their own world, their own place.

Perhaps luckily for the anchor they will find themselves back at the start of the river, without having to wade back on their own. Ready for the next evacuation.

((OOC: Any voidtrecker who has their SCA on them can be an anchor. Please top level here to do so. Due to the all encompassing nature of the task they won't be able to be in the boss battle if they take on this task.

4th Wall guests can tag to them if they wish to play out their crossing, feel free to play with memories, hopes and fears and have a nice and dramatic farewell. There are many 'npc' 4th wallers and so it can be assumed that the played 4th wallers are among the last to leave if you wish to play with the other parts of the finale first!))

Xue Yang is pissed. Pissed that everything has been a lie and the world he had been living is cracking around him and he is once again going to be unable to protect the one person he wants to. His swords crackle with electricity as he walks towards the edge of the city.

He wants to let lose the frustrations of the last month and he is going to do it on whatever creature decides to finally show itself. Illusions or whatever the hell it is going to attack with, Xue Yang plans to destroy it all.

"Let's get on with it. You're going to lose no matter what you do."

Considering how deep she has fallen into the illusion, she feels that this is the best way to make amends. The path forward was difficult, and many times she had thought she was going to be spotted by the spotlights.

Then, this. After healing the explanation she raised her phone above her head and address anyone near. "Hello. My name is Agent Eight of The Squidbeak Splatoon!! Please let me help you. I will not let you down!"

"We will get you through this!! Trust me!!"

Escorting
She'd never fully gotten into her healing trance-sleep, but at least she's on her feet. Raven can still feel the strain, the mental wound in her head, but she's up and moving. Nowhere near access to her full powers, so hopefully levitation and dark-energy are enough.

She can be found helping escort evacuees to the park by shielding them from and distracting the monsters. She absolutely will need help from others.

Edited 2021-07-21 12:08 (UTC)

So this is the bastard behind it all.

Awesome. Wow.

Wash can't help but smirk a little. It's been nothing but running, shaking the cobwebs out of his brain and trying to hide people who only wanted to help, acting like he was still whammied, and it fucking sucked, but this? A huge fight, massively outgunned, against some bastard who thinks reality should bend to his will? This, he gets. This, he can handle.

He's found a length of pipe that feels solid enough - because Improvised Weapon is good for a lot of things - and he flips it over in one hand, the beginnings of a fireball spell gathering in the other. Now all he needs to do is draw aggro and give everyone else time to get their feet under them. He can be a damn good decoy, but how-

Oh. Right.

Wash is naturally loud, and running military training only helped with that, but when it comes to sheer vocal volume, nothing beats Thaumaturgy. He takes a deep breath, casts the spell, and-

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, THEATER KID!"

Come at him, asshole, he's ready.

Edited 2021-07-21 05:44 (UTC)

Crumbling away
It is all crumbling away. Everything he had thought was real, been clinging onto desperately despite the fact that every day he became more and more aware that this wasn't actually his life. For once he had seen what it was like to have a family. To know what married life would have been like. To see the man he cared so much about without the scars that he caused.

And now it is all going away. Disappearing around him as he sits on a bench in a place that barely looks like much anymore. Wondering if maybe he can drag someone from this world back onto the train with him.

"Seems only fitting that everything is going to get taken away again." Not like he deserves the happiness he has felt over the past week.

Monsters
This is what Xue Yang does on missions. Kill, destroy and work out all the frustrations of being locked on a train for weeks. And so when monsters started showing up he knew that the end of their time on this world was coming. They had already been here too long and things were starting to break apart.

Jiangzai slices through a smaller monster with ease, not caring who or what sees him destroying the creatures. He desires violence and blood and death and he is going to make everything on this world understand just how bad a problem he is when he is angry.

He hears someone approaching, "Better just stay out of my way." He won't feel guilty if he cuts someone by accident.

I can make it so I don't feel pain and I'm stubborn as a mule, so count me in. I'd like to be smashing the drama queen's nonexistent face in, but this is more important.

[Kyoko is in her transformed state, spear in hand. Several of her Phantoms have spread out to form a perimeter guard.]

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

Alright, let's go then. There's no time to waste here!

[There's no question about it. Masumi can't reasonably fight the entity, not as a normal non magic human, and there's so many people who need help returning home before it's too late, so she doesn't hesitate to activate the anchor option and step into the band of colour after Anan demonstrates it.

All at once she's almost overwhelmed by the flow of images and voices, but holds firm, ready to help people across. All the evacuees have to do is take her hands.]

I know a few things about navigating the flow of time.

[Zelda muses ruefully, taking a look around at those crowding into the park before stepping forward.]

Perhaps it will be of use in helping these people home.

[In the flow of chaos about her Zelda is a steady light, humming the songs of her own homeland to calm any nervous souls. Maybe herself too. This is a strange place, after all.]

Edited 2021-07-21 07:49 (UTC)

We're not going down without a fight

Siebren reaches the evacuation zone, ushering a number of people who had needed help, and it is...well, chaos, both upper and lower case. He listens to Anan's briefing and turns away. Anchoring is for those with strong, stable minds; this mission has proven to him that his is neither.

His talents lie elsewhere.

He stands, for a moment, at the perimeter of the madness, and simply breathes. His objective, here and now, is to hold the line. The evacuation must proceed uninterrupted; he is here to prevent those who would interfere from doing so. This is the task best fitted to his skills; more importantly, this is his decision, free of illusion or doubt.

Siebren de Kuiper's role in this mission has ended. Sigma's is just beginning.

He rises from the ground, hovering a good six inches above the grass. His hyperspheres, bound to him as ever, come to his palm at a thought; his left hand flexes, ready, well aware of the dirt and debris available to him as weaponry if need be. His experimental barrier is missing, but no matter - he will do without it. He is capable, and there is a mission at hand.

"Stay behind me," he says, terribly calm in the face of everything. "I will protect you."

Ryo's place is not in the fight itself - he knows this. His role begins after the battle is over, helping to put people back together. He's tempted to wait for that, but Anan needs help, and what she says-

Help them hold on to who they are.

Once you have hold of someone, do not let go.

-this is healing, to a point. He's held fast to people's lives, tethered them to his as he's repaired their bodies, made them whole again. This is different in form, but the purpose is still the same. These people have been torn from their worlds; this is simply returning them to where they belong. Putting all the pieces back in place and healing the wound. This is what he does.

How could he say no?

He activates the anchor, steps into the light, and gasps for a moment. It's a lot, but his SCA will not let him drown; now he, in turn, needs to do the same for others.

He turns back to someone waiting, hand outstretched and, despite everything, a gentle smile on his face. "It'll be alright," he says, repeating the words that gave him comfort and courage when he'd needed to be pulled out of darkness himself. "I've got you."

Edited 2021-07-21 06:33 (UTC)

There were plenty of younger people available to do the fighting. But the strength of mind required to anchor someone? Leia had that in spades, and knew that she was probably more suited for the task than most anyone else there, for multiple reasons.

She centered herself in the Force and activated the Anchor option. Sounds, colors, and images swirled around her, wild and chaotic. But the Force remained steady. It was her anchor as she prepared to be one for others. She held out her hand to the nearest person. "Take my hand," she said. "Let's get you home."

Nara'a is one of the last to leave, having made sure others are safe before he heads out himself. He's immediately drawn to this boy, wearing an expression that's familiar. He's worn it himself when acting as a healer.

He reaches out and takes the boy's hand as he steps through the light, but he's almost immediately knocked over by the force of memory, of loss and pain trying to drag him back. Of a man appearing in his mind, smiling.

"My friend, you've done so much. You should rest. You may rest here." He turns away, trying to reject the false vision, but it has him wavering in the river. He's so tired... but that man is gone.

'Yeah. Yeah' Was the only thought that was going through the young mans head. So many people say that they would be their doom but he had yet to see it personally. But he could also stand to be surprised.

He was just glad that he was at least allowed now to step out and actually do something, but as to the what yet he didn't know. But his claw was ready to go.

"Can we at least try and do this without going straight to 'lets kill them', please."

When it comes down to it, it has everything to do with Mythra, and aproximately nothing else.

Oh, he wants to kick Illusion Bastard's teeth in, sure. Make that guy pay for what he's done, justice singing in Jade's viens like an old friend. But. If Jade goes into the fight, so does Mythra, and then she'll never get home, will she?

So Jade ignores the siren call of Justice, and embraces the Truth that is his foundation.

Who better than a Truth blade to remind others what they need to hold onto?

What is a river against the kind of glacier that simply refuses to be moved?

Once he's seen Mythra safely across and himself made it back to the starting shore, he's fairly confident in what he's doing. Steady, now.

He holds out his hand to the next person.

"Shall we?"

"YEAH WHAT HE SAID ASSHOLE!" Katsuya maybe isn't the best one for this fight. Red-Eyes is there, sure, but his pokemon aren't around (he hopes to hell they were left on the train), and ultimately he's a person.

But hey, when have the odds ever not been like that for him right?

Just after shouting that though he has to pause.

"Wai', theater kid? I miss somethin'..?"

Emporio's managed to barely stay out the whole time, but now it's time to help out. With Weather quickly doing everything he can to clear the skies around them and keep things safe, he shouts- the air carrying his voice naturally.

"This is Emporio Alniño, from Rescue team Orange! Please, anyone who is trying to get home, come over here!"

He's seen people like this one aboard the train, and Ryo takes his hand, grip firm as they head into the river. It hits the man like a ton of bricks, and Ryo holds tight as the man wavers, shaking the vision of the stranger beckoning them to rest out of his head. "We need to keep moving," he says, gentle but still firm. "You can't rest here."

Kiyoiri is maybe an odd one out. She's if anything expecting to be hit at the mind, shouted at there instead.

(She's ready for it. The shouts he's cried out, it's cried out, they are all too familiar and she is ready to throw them back with as much ferocity as possible in the process of calling it out on its failings.)

One good thing about this, somehow.

Takechirou sits on her shoulder, and with three command spells again, she breathes in.

Every time her bird got blasted back into the illusion, their own dropped.

Thanks, she thinks, for the refresh.

"Takechriou- at my Command," she intones, voice low as she stares ahead. "Take the form of someone who can defend themselves and others against such madness!"

"CAW!" It might not work the whole battle- honestly as powerful as the bird is, it's one seventh of a servant. But the bird transforms- a glowing beacon for a split second, before taking the form of a child in heels and a formal suit.

Armed with, Kiyoiri notes, a paint brush.

(She doesn't know it, but there was a reason he chose Van Gogh; for the Foreigner's own madness and dedication to act as a stop-gap, a measure of protection that could, like Kiyoiri herself, simply move alongside what would strike out at them)

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

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

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

FALLING CITY

Murphy's having one of those 'He's had it with these motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane' moments. Just replace 'plane' with plane of existance there and replace snakes with just eat his whole ass. Every last bit of it.

He notices early on that finally he can do something. He can imagine his sword back. He can imagine up a wall where he needs to. And that's when he's finally really ready to fight himself, and not just piggyback off enhancing others.

Someone's about to fall into one of those tricky sinkholes when he holds out a hand and weaves a bridge under them. "I don't feel stoned enough for this, but I guess we're goin' anyway."

HINDRANCE OR HELP

Murphy doesn't care all that much about civilians. Maybe. Probably. Okay, he cares more than he used to, and that's a small little something. But he's out there actually swinging for once, ready to move in and get someone's back. Now, he's not going to mess with any big monsters. Not unless he's dragged into it. No thank you, someone else can handle that. But he'll be here picking off little guys.

Okay, maybe not guys that are too little. He winces as he watches a little... what is that? What the fuck is that? They're helping, not like some of the other things, but what in this fake-ass world are even those?

"Are those Nymph Oompaloompas?" He asks the person next to him.

You know what? He's just... gonna go back to stabbing. There's too much happening.

"I... I know. I'm sorry." He walks along with Ryo, trying to ignore the ache in his heart. He has to ignore the feeling of people staring at him, begging him to rest...

He blinks tears out of his eyes. "Can't rest. Not here..." Not ever, apparently. But he has things he need to do and he can't do them here. "I'm... I'm okay." He has to get back. He has to go home. There's people here who will help the people here. His home needs him to defend it.

These last few weeks have been unerringly cruel, the perfect storm to brew in an uncertain heart nothing but pain, rage and loss. To find home and world is forever barred from him, destroyed by his own actions, every person he trusted viewing him with naked hatred and fear, then ... then, oh, this world, this 'Entity' returns to him all he'd lost, and he'd fought, fought so hard to keep the illusion even as it came apart around him, because with it came family and purpose and a place to belong...

And that too has been torn away.

This world too, is ending. His family is nothing. Has never been. And as the Entity screams Its fury against them, it's not with the Voidtreckers, his 'own allies', that all of his sympathy resides with. No. He knows the loss, the despair and grief and pain too keenly to easily ignore it, it had dogged him since the very moment the train took him and dropped him on a platform and then obliterated the mystery and wonder by serving up those of his world facing him with bloody-minded intention. It is with only fury and grief and loss that Theodore - Xehannort - whichever, did it really matter anymore - that he stands in the street as it comes apart, watching the sky flicker and change, the roar of Darkness, of countless hearts mired in nothing but the shadow of terror and rage, a constant thundering cacophony. There is no light here in this place, not anymore. This world will fall. And in it, the whisper of his own Darkness.

I would help you, if I could.

But he can't. And so he does what he can, and turns away.

There's a woman who knows what the SCAs can do, and that's something, isn't it? A way for others to escape. A way out for some, when so many others would not be able to. And so, like other Voidtreckers, he listens to the directions, watches Anan's demonstration, and with little hesitation, follows.

In the light, he throws a long, dark shadow. It shifts like a living thing, rises around him like smoke, and intensifies by degrees the longer he remains, absorbing the grief and fear and pain that seethed around him. It is not with comforting hands of brilliance that he offers to those seeking evacuation, but quivering Darkness. That too might be a source of comfort against the chaos of the river, any stable point is a welcome one isn't it?

...Isn't it?

Edited 2021-07-21 10:44 (UTC)

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Page 1 of 41

So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

Boss Battle 1

Boss Battle 2

Farewell New Friends

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Agent 8 | Purple | OTA

Raven | Purple | OTA

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Kyoko Sakura | PMMM CRAU | Team Blue | OTA

Masumi Sera | Purple Team | OTA

Zelda | Orange Team | OTA

Siebren de Kuiper (Sigma) | OTA

Ryo | Orange Team | OTA

Leia Organa | Blue | OTA

Heavansward Spoilers!

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Jade Curtiss [AU] | Tales of / XC2 Fusion AU | OTA

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Emporio Alniño | Orange | OTA

no subject

no subject

Yondu Udonta | Blue Team | OTA

Murphy | Red Team | OTA

no subject

OTA - Xehanort, Orange Team