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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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.

There has been a lot of running for Potato. On the one hand she's literally indestructible- nothing can actually take her apart, or cut her, or anything. Something could perhaps briefly impale her, but it would be as if it was never there at all once removed. Or even during the time it was there.

The trade off however, is that she can't really use any force herself- hence the running. For the indestructible, it's still not a very fun time to be chased down by monsters.

Which, speaking of, this guy seems pretty good at taking care of. "Woah..." She can't really feel bad about it. Everyone was saying they were like, fake right? Really, really good fakes, like a video game or...or something. "...you're really good at that..."

She finds herself thinking of Assassin. Assassin was pretty good at killing things. That was sort of his deal. Assassin and his Master also seemed to really, really like killing things, which feels like the case here. Or at least something similar.

At any rate there's only one thing to do when someone like that is going to town, as others put it- "Mhm! I'll do my best! No distracting!"

She's already distracting, isn't she.

Even if someone is distracting, Xue Yang is still pretty good at killing things. He has always had to deal with a lot of distractions of dealing with multiple opponents at one time. SO the addition of another person is hardly going to slow him down. She just needs to stay out of the way.

He doesn't really care if some is around, but he isn't going to go out of his way to protect them. He is more interested in just the destruction.

"Distractions won't matter. But I won't hesitate to cut you if you get in the way."

Staying out of the way might be hard.

Not right now of course- right now she's just sort of fumbling and toddling around to the side. But maybe when things get going?

"Oh! That's fine," she cheerfully says, even bouncing a bit. "Cuts don't stick! I've had lots of things cut right through!"

Strangely, no one knows if this thing has bones despite this! Or much of anything else. "I'll try not to get in the way though, so you can cut the important stuff," she huffs with some determination.

And he is doing a very good job of cutting through everything that seems to be coming towards them. He doesn't recognize most of these things but it doesn't matter. If it can bleed even fake blood, then it will taste sword. He has been trying to find a way to release his anger over a lot of things and this is the perfect opportunity.

"Keep talking like that and I'll want to see that for myself."

Test the theory.

Tragically for Xue Yang (and perhaps far less so for Potato), bleeding is definitely not a thing she does.

Ah well!! As it stands, Potato just pouts- quite impressive given she has to keep moving while she does. It's not as if Xue Yang is about to be stopping for a chat in the middle of all this after all. "No way, that's less of the things you're supposed to be cutting then..!!" She's like the civilian target in the shooting gallery, you'll lose 'points' sir, you will!

It's a good thing that Xue Yang is very practiced with only killing the things he wants to kill, in an order he wishes to kill them. It's hard to say if it is lucky for Potato that she encountered Xue Yang or unlucky.

"Am I supposed to be cutting these? Because even if I am not then I am going to do it anyway."

"I don't know, I'm pretty sure though!" These are extremely contradicting statements! "But since you're still doing it, it probably doesn't matter," she points out, nodding to her own words as if they were some piece of sage wisdom.

She's probably not wrong though.

"It's just people from the train we can't cut, but these guys definitely aren't from the train." How she knows this- if she knows this- is also unclear, but it once again probably doesn't matter. There's definitely stuff to be cut though!

"I've cut people from the train too. Why should they be excluded?" Now he is just being playful. But he has killed on the train before. He doesn't lie about such things. But she is the one that has put herself in his path so she might as well be informed of just whom she is putting her trust into.

"Well it's kinda rude," she huffs, which probably only encourages the matter. "...But I guess that Assassin did lots of stabbing and cutting to people we were supposed to get along with too, so you can get a 'free pass'."

She does tap her chin, narrowing her eyes though. "But not too many free passes, probably."

Well she's nothing if not accommodating it seems!

"I've already used up one free pass. But if I don't know they are from the train because they are wrapped up in all of this, does that still count as hurting someone I shouldn't?"

Is he trying to find a loophole around not being able to cut people? Maybe.

"WhhhHHHAT-!" What!

"How'd you use it before I even gave it!?" What!!

...Well. "Hmmm....it's not very nice, but you're just trying to cut the bad guys, so... ...I don't think it counts?"

Potato, no!

Good. Then that means he won't have to hold himself back. But for now they seem to have a breather. He had taken down all the enemies in this area. He sheaths the sword and starts towards a new area of town.

"Then I guess I'll keep doing whatever I want."

Woah.

"Woah...You're really good at that," Potato mutters, looking at the cleared area. Look at all this space to walk! And move! ...And...There he goes?

"Is whatever you want just more cutting things?" Potato can't help but call out after him, not following.

"That is my intention. Is there a better way to spend my time?" He doesn't believe that there is. He won't get to cut things on the train so he has to get out all of his pent up energy while he can.

Is there? Is... ...well his favorite thing is cutting, so-

"...I guess not huh..." She guesses not...................... "Well...In that case, I hope you find lots of stuff to cut!! Good luck, mister!!"

Her heart's in the right place. She's got the spirit. She has no idea, what she's saying,

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So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

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MONSTERS

I am so sorry...Ive been really busy this week. Feel free to drop if it is too late.

NO YOU'RE GOOD thank u for continuing potato thread...

I'll be a little slow until next week but I will definitely continue!

It's all good!!!

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ah, to be the genre-breaking member of a brutal battle royal storyline,

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potato what have you DONE, (not....that she wouldve changed a thing i'm sure)

XD

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