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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At first Devero freezes with indecision as the three identical girls rush him. He doesn't want to fight a child, especially not a child with preternatural powers and double-especially not a child who's not in control of her own mind--

A child who he first met carrying a gun. A child who's holding that knife like she knows how to use it. A dangerous child-- three dangerous children right now. (Damn it, why didn't he ask Koumyou how her abilities worked?!)

--His hesitation lasts only a moment. Then old Guard training kicks in and he dodges away from the initial rush of the three Buttercups, putting his long limbs and larger size to good use. He grabs for the knife hand of the nearest one with intent to disarm.

"He was not!" he protests while he's moving. "He was miserable! Couldn't you see it?"

She twists, trying to unlodge herself from the grip. Her fingers tighten around the dagger and she kicks out, trying to make him let go of her. The other two rush towards him again, aiming their daggers to make him let go of the first.

"He was not miserable." All three yelled. "He had me and Genjo. We were okay!"

So her dad was sometimes forgetful, often anxious. But that was fine. No one blamed him for that. "He wasn't miserable until you turned up!"

He can hold on to one twisting little girl, even if she's started kicking him. He grimaces but focuses on the most important thing: applying just the right pressure to get the knife out of her hand. He releases her as soon as he's done so and dances back again, trying to avoid the rush of the other two.

"He was a mess before me!" Devero protests. "I used to visit him on campus all the time, I--" He stumbles over his words there, because those are fake memories. "No. No I din't! Because none of this is real! Koumyou died on another world when Genjo was thirteen, Buttercup. The train caught him up and that's where we all met!"

The knife dropped to the floor and all three girls cursed as the girl fell to the ground, scrambling for the knife as the other two tried to coordinate, one going low, aiming at Devero's leg while the other jumped in from behind.

All three growled as he spoke. "You lie! You lie you stupid voidtrecker! My dad is not dead. He didn't die! Not on no other world. Not here. Don't say that!"

It wasn't true. It couldn't be true. She knew it wasn't true. Her dad was fine. He taught at the university. He didn't die on another world when Genjo was thirteen!

Devero staggers under the double impact, catching himself just before he'd go down and somehow managing to stay upright. He's more concerned about the knife, lunging to try and stamp down on it before the third Buttercup can reclaim it. Enjoy that ride, kids.

"He's not dead," he agrees fervently, then continues insistently, "because of the train. It gave him a second chance at life. I'm not lying, Buttercup, please! Listen to me!"

"Trains don't bring people back to life!" That was the most stupid thing she had ever heard. He must be lying. It doesn't make any sense otherwise. She could remember her dad for all her life, so he couldn't have died and been brought back by a train.

"I'm not lying either! And I know what's inside my head!"

"I know you're not!" He twists, trying to shake one or the other (or both, ideally) of the girls off. "I know that what's inside your head seems real. I-- I get it if you want it to be real--" It's hard for him to say that, selfishly, because if Buttercup's family was real he wouldn't be a part of it and that thought makes him so upset he could vomit.

"--But it's not. It was put there by a very selfish and very upset entity." He looks down, trying to meet the eyes of at least one of the girls. "Don't you remember sitting in the cabin with Koumyou while he showed you how to clean your gun? We talked about why I try not to kill and I'm pretty you and Koumyou both think I'm bonkers because of it? Think, kiddo, please. Doesn't that ring a bell?"

"No." She yelled, without even thinking about it. She doesn't just want it to be real. It is real. It is real because that's what her dad said.

"If I can perceive it then it is real. That's what reality is. That's what dad said."

When did he say that? She had been upset... But she can't remember. Just like she can't remember ever sitting in a cabin cleaning a gun.

But if he remembers? And reality was just perception then...

What does that mean? Being the kid of a philosopher is hard.

He flinches as she/they yell in his ear, but doesn't. Instead he goes carefully to one knee and tries to take the shoulders of the little girl in front of him. "What if someone was tampering with your perceptions? What if there's someone out there who's altering your reality as they see fit, for their own ends?" he asks insistently. "Do you just accept that? Go along with it because it's a nice alteration?"

She wrinkled her nose. "This is the only life I know." She told him stubbornly, "It's not fake."

It can't be fake because there's nothing else. But remembers another life, one where they cleaned a gun in a cabin. One where her dad had died long before she was even born.

What did it all mean? Her head hurt and the world was crumbling around her. "What if it's your reality that is wrong? What if someone is altering your reality?"

"They already has!" he says, nearly shouting it. "The being doing this has already gotten in my head-- again and again. They tried to make me kill your father-- the man I love! They's tried to kill me, filling my head with pleasant distractions and horrific ones so I wouldn't notice that I was suffocating on toxins-- and they's done it you, too! They's done it to all of us!"

He hunches in on himself, burying his face in his hands. "They's trying to do it now," he continues, now running his hands up to take up great fistfuls of hair. "I've had to fight the damn thing every day, every hour, every minute since I woke up in Jinnjar and realized that my life here was a fucking lie!"

This is all too confusing. The man is yelling, the man has his face in his hands. He is upset. Something had gotten in his head, he had almost killed her dad? Anger rose in her and then confusion. He loved her dad?

This was too much. He was fighting a monster in his head. But it was his monster. "Nothing did be making me kill anyone." She told him.

"I didn't almost die. Not ever. I just lived here, my whole life. It's not a lie."

Because if it was then... who was she? Who was Buttercup Sanzo? Was she even real? She was trembling now. She's so confused. "In your world, where you do be loving him. Do I be his kid?"

"No," Devero says, simple and direct. "Everyone on the train is from a different world." Generally speaking, but he's not going to confuse her with nuance. This is hard enough as it is.

"But we all take care of each other, despite that," he adds. "We're a team."

A team. Perhaps. But his words still made her stomach twist. Koumyou was not her dad, in his reality. A teammate perhaps. But not her dad. "And Genjo? Do he no be being my brother either?"

If reality was just perception then she would much rather live in this place, with her family.

Devero doesn't answer immediately-- which hesitation might be answer enough-- and grimaces when he finally says, "Genjo Sanzo is Koumyou Sanzo's son, but he's... not a passenger on the train."

She glares at him, as that moment of silence draws on. Then he speaks and her eyes narrow "Do in your reality, Genjo does no even exist? And I'm not Koumyou's daughter. But you love him and..." She scowls further, understanding now. "He loves you?"

No wonder he wanted that reality more. But she didn't. She didn't want that. "Well what if I want this world. With him and Genjo. I don't want Genjo to be gone and neither will my dad!"

He liked him, he liked her. They were his kids. She doesn't want a world where that is not true.

"Yes," he says softly. "We're together." That is exactly why he wants that reality more, and why Koumyou's fighting for it as well.

His hands curl into fists. "Kid, this world is falling apart!" he says. "You can't stay in it, even if you want to!"

Her hands also curl into fists as she looks around. "Well why do you think I do be trying to stop them."

She let out a shuddering breath. She was so angry, so terrified. The world was literally ending and this man wanted her to be in a different world, one where her dad was just a teammate and her brother wasn't there at all.

"I will be fixing this."

"Buttercup--" he starts, then just looks down at her in despair. Koumyou had been easy to wake up out of the illusion. Murderbot had been easy, once Devero figured out the key. But this stubborn, scared little girl? He's at a loss.

Good thing for him he has another option as his disposal, and it has to do with being about 87 times her size. "Kid, I'm sorry," he says, and then he lunges, trying to grab her.

If he has to evacuate her manually to the train, he will.

She twists, struggles as he tries to grab her. He's huge and she is tiny but she's been trained to fight giants. To slip away from people much bigger and stronger than her. Even if her mind doesn't remember, her body does.

She tries to twist away from his hands, to evade him as he tries to grab her. And if that fails, if those hands make contact. Well then she has teeth. She can bite.

So he does manage to get his hands on her, his long reach serving him well to snag at least a sleeve and hold her close enough to close a big hand around her little arm--

And then she bites him.

Devero bellows in surprise and shock, dropping her and jerking back reflexively.

Good. She scrambled away, glaring at him before she darts off, rushing off into the chaos as fast as she could. Away from him, away from his grabbing hands and his stupid terrible words.

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So Familiar a Gleam: Finale

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