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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"She wouldn't have done it. Malon and I are the only ones who can even get a foot in the stirrup." A ghost of a smile. "I've never had to worry about her eating anyone, though. So that's a point for each of them."

Link glanced back towards Clef. "We need you to focus on a real emotion that isn't the product of an illusion. Maybe...someone important to you from Cephiro. I already mentioned your princess, and she wasn't enough. Maybe those girls you took from their homes to help yours? Your magic knights?"

Link gently, subtly, but firmly, steered him slightly away from Shadow, and the albums.

"We can't carry anything. And I'm not joking about freezing your access to the library car. I will make you be social if it kills us both."

"I guess that's a good point," Shadow said with a hum. "But she was also very particular about who she let on her. So I guess Epona and her had soem stuff in common."

"The albums are fake," Shadow said bluntly. "And I was upset for reasons ya should understand later if ya'd been paying attention," he added. Because he's told Clef how he is, how that was the reason for their first fight. He should know.

"Ya have to find the emotions that are weird. Off. Those are the ones telling ya the truth. Gut instinct," he said, keeping out of Clef's reach. "Cephiro would be good."

"Not sure what you mean by a library car but... Don't damage the library."

He looked to Shadow. Leaving the albums... hurt. But his boys mattered more than the photos of them did. He tried to focus on them. "Emotions that are off," he repeated, nodded. "Tell me more about things that are different from here... please."

“The Great Deku Tree told us a few stories about dragons. They were always very intelligent.”

Link felt his frustration grow, hearing Clef continue to try and think instead of feel his way out.
“Not your princess, not your home, not the real us—-not even your books. What matters to you?!”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. Bombchus it is.”

It was either that or angering a cucco, and his Bending wasn’t strong enough to replicate life.

"Wise, to be sure. But judge of character is a different sort of intelligence," Shadow said. He paused and hummed. "Maybe that's why she liked me."

"I already told ya the important stuff between us," Shadow said. "Only thing that's gonna take is either Link pushing real hard, or Cephiro. I'm not important enough."

He looked at Link with a raised eyebrow. "Want me to put up targets?"

"Of course you're important!" he snapped at Shadow. But weakly. Both because he was afraid of driving his on off and because, again, days with little to no food.

"I suspect I do not want to know what a bombchu is," he added, glumly.

“Yes, please set up a few,” Link grinned for just a second, before solemnly producing a mouse shaped bomb through Bending.

“This is a bombchu. It’s a Hylian toy. I’m going to blow up a few targets. Then I’m going to hold one until it explodes.”

He waited to see Clef’s reaction.

"No. 'I'm' not," Shadow said. "So we'll work with something else."

He's going to make sure there's no one inside a partially wrecked building before Bending up some targets for Link to throw bombs at. He'll then move to a higher perch, just so he can make sure no one appears where the targets are, or draw in trouble.

"You are not going to play with bombs! NEITHER OF YOU!" Oh look, pure panic was giving him some strength back.

“It’s an adorable little mouse shaped explosive. We know how to have fun in Hyrule.”

Link grinned at Clef before sending the bombchu on its merry way towards the target.

He just hoped this would be enough.

"Ya know, I really should play that one of these days," Shadow said.

Target go BOOM.

"STOP THAT! YOU BOYS COULD BE HURT! THAT ISN'T A SAFE THING TO PLAY WITH! WHY WOULD YOU THINK BOMBS ARE TOYS?! STOP IT!" Well at least he was sounding more like the old Clef. Hard to be sure, though, if that was just a panic he'd always have or if the Clef they knew was breaking through.

"Because, it is a toy. Shadow, do you want a turn? Oh, hey, I could try to replicate my bomb mask. That thing was pretty slick."

He'd press Clef a bit, just to see if there was a chance this was working.

"Sapling, ya know even I didn't like that," Shadow said with a sigh.

He looks around. "Should be okay to do a round." He'll float on down and hold out a hand to accept a bombchu.

"NO! NO! STOP IT! YOU COULD GET HURT! BOMBS ARE NOT TOYS AND JUMPING OFF OF BUILDINGS IS NOT OKAY!"

Wait... what?

There was a familiar tune. Link felt a small spark of hope that this approach might work, but, he was going to have to go all out. And fast. Before more of this world crumbled.

"Don't be silly, Clef. I'm not jumping off a building without a cucco, gosh."

"I found a way to shield myself and just blow up targets with it. Regular bombs are still better, better, but, you don't have to carry as much with it." He handed Shadow a new bombchu. "Clef, are you sure you don't want a turn?"

"When did ya see Sapling jump off the roof anyway?" Shadow prompted.

Shadow takes the bombchu. "Well, at least yer shielding," he said, turning with the bombchu and then releasing it at the target. It goes past before it blows and he huffs. "Too early."

"STOP IT! BOTH OF YOU! YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED! AND WE DON'T KNOW HOW THAT WORKS HERE! WE CAN'T JUST PRESUME THAT..."

"That...."

That... what....? He was so confused. His head hurt, felt like it was splitting. He stumbled as his power from this world flickered.

“Ohhh, tough break,” Link sympathized as the little bomb exploded before the target.

Link caught Clef’s arm. “Toys aren’t going to kill us.”

"I'll get it next time," he said.

"Presume what?" And bending up another bombchu.

"STOP IT!" he yelled. Then his power gave out and he collapsed to the ground. "Please... stop it..." He was shaking and crying. "Please, I can't lose you boys. Please. We need to get back to the castle until the Stor.... what? What?" he was so confused and his head hurt. Faces flashing in his mind, wisps of memories teasing at him. He cried out as his head felt like it was splitting open.

Link tried to pull him upright again. He hoped another nudge would do it.

“Castle? Where?”

Shadow tosses the bombchu from hand to hand.

"What castle? What storm?"

"The..." his head shot up. "Zelda? Where's Zelda...? We have to find her... Make sure she's okay too..."

“Why? Why is that important?”

Link couldn’t tell if he was coming out of it, or circling back again.

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Re: Rescue & Au Revoir (Clef & Shadow Link)