March Event: De L'autre Côté de L'eau

[lifeaftr_mods]

MARCH EVENT: DE L'AUTRE CÔTÉ DE L'EAU

Who: Everyone condemned to the Water, and those who see fit to rescue them
What: A rescue is implemented!
When:Predominantly on March 19th
Where: Ai'tuoh, and the small islet just off its coast
Warnings: Mark as needed!

Just Sing For Me All Night

It's time for your captured comrades to be recovered, and by none other than your fine selves! While the Storyteller will detail the elements of said rescue below, they very notably don't say anything about how they plan for you make it through Ai'tuoh, and then to the islet off its coast.

You have their tacit blessing to make your way there however you would like. Through stealth, through diplomacy, by salting and burning the earth...whichever you prefer. It is, as it turns out, awfully difficult to discern the innocent from the perpetrators when they all look alike.

Whatever course of action you choose, bear in mind that there will be consequences. The Storyteller will be sealing off Ai'tuoh's mana pool once everyone who has been retrieved has come through, but that doesn't mean that the island will be gone forever.

And If I Shout For You, Never Doubt

While the details of the rescue's mechanics can be found in the Storyteller's explanation below, we ask that, if your character was captured and needs to be rescued, please let us know HERE. This will make it easier for other players to account for who might be their focus, and why!

A few guidelines for each of the groups:

[ ♆ ] Group One will be predominantly busy fending away militia, who you can assume will be pouring forth to protect the Water from these intruders at a fairly concentrated rate. Most of the fighting will likely be grouped around the Water itself, leading to a risk of being forced into the Water or slipping in yourself. The militia largely fight with spears, swords, and shields, but are not above attempting to sedate you if they can get close enough, to make it easier to tip you into the Water.

[ ♆ ] Group Two will be serving as the tether, meaning they will be holding onto the thread the Storyteller has provided. This means physically remaining on our side of the abyss and holding onto the thread very tightly, as well as mentally focusing incredibly hard on the Water itself. When the thread is deposited into the Water, it will open a dark tunnel into the surface itself, leading all the way through to the other side. The Water will not take kindly to this; it will attempt to close, and exert a tremendous mental pressure upon your mind to do so. In order for this portal to remain open, your focus must be wholly devoted to keeping it open. It may feel very much like a mental game of tug-of-war, and you may very well feel a very physical tug on the thread itself as well; you must be actively concentrating on bringing everyone home.

[ ♆ ] Group Three will then have to grab hold of the thread in some way or another and not let go as they're swept into the dimension and through to the other side. As long as they remain in contact with the thread, they will be able to make their way back and be immune to the soporific effects of the strange void, as well as detect the opening the thread makes in the landscape of the netherworld on the other side of the Water. If they let go, they will lose their way and be vulnerable to the somnolent effects, and must be drawn back by someone who is still tethered.

Just remember: once you've found who needs recovering, you cannot, under any circumstances, look back at them while you guide the home.

You simply have to trust that they will follow, and that will be what leads them back to you.

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] March 19th: Characters are taken to the Standing Water, and the rescue is facilitated
[ ♆ ] March 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs as usual
[ ♆ ] March 31st: Ai'tuoh disappears, and anyone left on it or in the Water will suffer a death

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

The Storyteller | for those still on Ensō

[story_teller]

[A familiar dream, for many. Familiar, but rank with the stench of doubt. Their rabbit-shape is smaller than usual, their ears laid flat against the snowy white fur of their back, their nose quivering as though scenting the salt on the air.]

These people are not our allies.

[An obvious beginning, yes. But so, in fairness, is "once upon a time."]

I'd not realized their...predispositions against me, when I first caught wind of their presence. If I had, I would not have drawn them close. They do not worship stories, and they reject them in all forms.

And so I am not welcome.

[A pause. The rabbit stands up stiffly, jerking back on their hind legs to survey the remaining travelers gravely.]

Your friends, your allies, those under my care...I cannot retrieve them. My power does not extend beyond this island, my home. The most I can do is open the way through that... [A shiver races up the length of their spine, pricking their fur into nervous spikes.] ...that which they call the Standing Water. If you do not act quickly, they will be trapped there.

[The Storyteller looks down. At their feet, nestled in the sand, lies something that was certainly not there before.]

[A spool of soft red thread.]

The people of Ai'tuoh have purged most of their past, as they have all forms of their stories. It was not easy, but the...the Water is not impenetrable, no matter what they would have you believe. There are means to retrieve those who are indispensable. They call it -

[A pause. The rabbit's ears flick upwards, standing up straight, as though they're adjusting their posture to allow the term the weight and gravity it deserves.]

The Trial of Orpheus.

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis finds himself torn between relief and worry as he listens to the Storyteller's words. He is relieved they have managed to fill some of the gaps from the planning meeting. After all, he's not going to kid himself. They had ideas, but very little way of implementing them. Not that this 'trial' the Storyteller so dramatically mentions sounds all that reassuring. It is, if nothing else, a start.

Still, it's not the trial Ignis is focusing on right now. Let others ask about that. For the moment, he has something else in mind.]

If you didn't know they were like this, then who was responsible for the dream I saw when I returned from being sent home a couple of months ago? Back then I brushed it off as being related to what I experienced while I was away, but this is too coincidental to ignore.

[The pool. The stillness. Guards making sure there would be no escape. Ignis can only imagine that's how it will play out with those who are captive now. Only, he got to wake up. There will be no escape for their friends unless they do something and fast.]

threadjacking encouraged probs?

[hellawrath]

Every time some shit like this happens, Lup finds herself more and more relieved to have the Storyteller on their side. Showing concern, doing what they can to help. They don't have to, they could shirk this responsibility even if it's kinda on them for not realizing the dangers sooner, once again. Let the dumb mortals duke it out and just pull back whoever makes it, revive whoever doesn't. If they can even do that, if their power doesn't reach the other island? Whatever, it's a comfort and a vindication that Lup doesn't have the time or interest to unpack.

She paces by the fire, angry and focused. Breaking the prisoners out on the way to the execution or whatever was always gonna be their best shot, those barracks are impossible to get into and even just skulking around their perimeter, the elves could feel the magical nullification field screwing with them. Not their first dance with one of those, after all, and they knew they'd have been useless in there.

The rabbit's plan sounds ominous as fuck and they haven't even explained it yet, but they have to get there first. "Do you know where the Standing Water even is? Nobody in the city would tell us, and there was jack shit about it in the library."

a daring escape | for those condemned to the water

[aftrnpc]

The first to be condemned is a child. Their face is ashen. Their hands have been bound in front of them. Their lower lip quivers. They step forward, carefully, delicately, and the militia guarding their approach to the terribly still waters look on, stony-faced.

There is one among their number that many of you will recognize. They call her 41916. That is her designation. And as the child extends one foot to step forward into that chill, glassy surface, her expression contorts into something pained.

"Let..." Her gaze darts to her fellow militia. None of them pay her any mind.

She should not be doing this. She is meant to be restrained. Controlled. She was trained better than this. She can maintain her absolute objectivity. Her absolute impartiality. She could do it in the face of these strange people, for the most part. But...not entirely.

But the outsiders, they all cried and railed and screamed freely. Many of them, they acted as though this - this was something she wanted. Something she supported. And many others...

Some of them...they treated her almost kindly. As though she was not their jailer. Some of them scoffed at her. Some of them acted as though she would sit idly by, while a child is led to the Water for their cleansing. While a child that she knows is drawn closer and closer to that edge.

If they step through, she'll never see them again.

That is what parts her lips in a desperate, forbidden cry:

"Ninth!"

The child twists around, shock painted cleanly on their features. The heads of the surrounding militia snap around to regard the source of the outburst - many with palpable surprise and concern, and some with a bristling menace. One of their own, responsible for such an emotional outcry. What a disgrace.

41916 charges forward, so abruptly that she manages to bowl over the first of the guards that attempts to restrain her. Several more converge upon her, abandoning their prisoners as 41916 starts to scream, louder, louder.

"Ninth! Ninth! Let them go!"

For a moment, every militia in the vicinity is distracted, and all other prisoners are unguarded.

Will you run?

[ooc: Feel free to use this top-level as a jumping off point for reactions and escape attempts - or escape successes!]

[thermalwind]

It all happens so fast. He'd been waiting for his chance to break out and take a shot at getting everyone out alive. Then everything is going to hell and the water swallows the girl he'd fought with and the child...'ninth'.

No.

He turns and whips a kick out at the back of a guard that's left his side. He needs a weapon or something to free his hands. Then he has to get to them.

--

His hands are free and there's no time to waste. He races across the space and dives in without a shred of hesitation. The cold hits him like a fist to his stomach. It doesn't matter. None of that matters. His focus is solely on his goal. It's a shame he doesn't have a name to attach to her face but he has one for the child. It's enough he thinks, as the cold and surreal world around him tries to steal his resolve.

But nothing, not even the one who could had ever done that.

No matter what he'll get them free even if it costs him his life.

[savedbyasong]

Shion is beyond terrified. He feels almost calm, not in a peaceful way but more that his panic and his fear and his overwhelming anger are all balled together in his chest and feel stuck. There's nothing he can do, no way he can overpower their guards and rescue everyone. But there is also no way he can not try.

He just had to keep going, even if his instinct was to curl in a ball and scream wordlessly. He couldn't do that. He would escape and he would rescue all these people. Somehow. He had managed to help restore hundreds of worlds he could help save his friends and these children.

This city killed their children. These kids, they were as old as he had been when he had screamed out his frustrations into a storm. As old as Nezumi had been when they had shot him and hunted him like an animal. Children condemned to death for not obeying rules.

41916's shout surprises him, but only slightly. She had spoken to him, despite the fact she wasn't supposed to. Hope surged in him and he was able to move.

It wasn't to the exit he ran though, he wasn't leaving without everyone. He trusted that the others from Ensō would run or fight themselves. Though he would help any who looked like they couldn't. But the children and the other prisoners from the city. They might not run. If they accepted this as normal... they might not take this opportunity.

"Come on!"

[sorewatopsecret]

When the week past in such horrid conditions, Takane was silently resigned to thinking that none of the island adventurers, herself included, had gotten through to that guard who expressed curiosity and apprehension of their new prisoners. Such failure... she was supposed to be an idol, one that captivated and brightened the hearts of those whom she's interacted with. Something she will have to work on, or would, given that they all were to face impending drowning.

Though normally sliding between the scales of politely smiling or being deadpan and stoic, a rare look of apprehension and hostility was on Takane's face as The Standing Water came into her view. Something about it... was wrong. It behaved nothing like how water should; it reflected nothing, nor could nothing be seen through it. Rather than water, it felt more like a giant pool of nothingness. Takane's entire being shouted within her that, no matter what, she must not step foot anywhere near That Water, and must resist anyone and anything forcing her to do so. She assessed the situation in her mind, considering her options, opportunities, and obstacles that could possibly be involved in an escape attempt...

However, her thoughts were interrupted by shouting, from a source that was most unexpected. It seems that an escape tactic will have to manifest through her intuition, rather than careful planning. As much as she would love to celebrate the guard's acceptance of her own humanity and aid her, she knows it would only create more liability. She will just need to have faith that someone more able can accomplish such. For now, Takane places her bound hands on the closest fellow captive she had within reach, lightly pulling at their arm in a gentle urge to follow along.

"Come," though her voice is soft, there is a tone of firmness, almost commanding, to it. "We must exercise silence and swiftness."

[souris_keteer]

Mickey's heart hasn't stopped pounding in his ears since he first saw the children. How could any civilized land do this to their young? But without his sword, what can he do? His magic isn't strong enough to save himself - let alone another.

But then, a number is called out - a name - and all heck breaks loose. Mickey takes one look at the situation - and then sprints toward the child, crying out, "No! Stop!" in a desperate urge to grab them, save them, sacrifice himself if need be.

[seafriends]

[ Lined up with the rest of the prisoners, Kanata peers into the glassy pool with a transfixed gaze, waiting for a ripple to spread across its surface that never comes. The weight that's settled in the depths sinks heavier when he hears the scream, tearing his eyes away from The Water to watch the guard from the prison cell fight her way to the child-- Ninth, he thinks?

He doesn't want to watch this, unable to do anything but stand by with his hands bound in front of him. Beside him, abandoned and unguarded prisoners nudge at each other to start escaping, but Kanata doesn't move even when his common sense tells him to. He wants to see what happens- knowing full well he would do the same for someone he cared about, he wants to know what the consequences are. And if he must- saving someone like this, it's ridiculous to think about in terms of how he's played hero for pretend, but Kanata won't hesitate now to try it for real. ]

OTA!

[finethanks]

[Eichi looks worse than ever. While normally he can rely on his own pretty face, and his burns had been healed thoroughly, the sedative used to capture him and his jail time have left him a wreck, unable to make himself presentable. Hands are bound so he can't dry the occasional tears leaking from his eyes. They're red, irritated, and he feels like he might be sick.

If it weren't for that guard, Eichi wouldn't have been able to escape. He realizes that in the instant that the guard holding him stumbles away to try and stop her, and his eyes are wide, trying to meet hers. His lips open to call her, but that wouldn't help, would it? Nothing he can do would help. He's trying to communicate that he can't help, that he hopes she can get away.

But he can't stay. He's afraid. Stumbling backwards, Eichi bumps into someone else. Another guard, maybe? Or a fellow prisoner. Maybe he shakes a few more people free in this clumsiness from his violent cough, or maybe he's just getting in the way. Either way, he's definitely going to need help getting out of here, or he'll just end up on the ground coughing and captured again.]

[ishotyouuu]

A distraction. Wade's been in this situation enough times that he knows he's only going to be afforded a few seconds, and those few precious seconds are all he needs to make a deliberate choice and follow it through. Before his healing factor rendered that a moot point, sometimes his life was reduced to a few seconds of action.

But he does not even think of escape; doesn't even think of running away to save his own skin the way others probably would have. It hadn't been on his radar from the moment he'd seen that small and scared form being pushed onto the docks toward certain death.

Wade's hands are tied, but his legs are not. He rushes toward the chaos, slamming his shoulder into the back of the guard closest to him, hoping to knock them off balance long enough to steal a weapon and get his hands free. He needs to save the child. He has to. Nothing else matters in that moment but preserving that one tiny life.

In the void | Ota in the void, Aster is the one bringing him out

[savedbyasong]

He had gotten caught again once order had been restored. He wasn't sure if anyone had escaped. But he hoped some of them had. It had been chaos, he had been dragged to the water fighting all the way. He didn't want to die. He had promised Aster he wouldn't die and yet there was nothing he could do. He hadn't been quick enough to escape. And no matter what he had promised to Aster he wouldn't have been able to escape and leave the others. Leave the others from Ensō, leave the children from the city to their fate.

He fought to the last but it was not like he was strong, he couldn't fight this. In the end he couldn't keep his promise to Aster. Tears streamed down his face as he was pushed into the ever still water and plummeted downwards.

It wasn't... it wasn't water though. There wasn't the feeling of water filling his mouth. He was just falling, falling down a cold fathomless abyss.

Then he slowed and all at once he was still. He wasn't dead. But the relief about that meant nothing because where he was... it was grey, it was cold, a biting cold that cut to the bone, everything was not right. Not solid.

Where... where was this? Fear flooded him as he span round. A void, colourless and endless. No way out. Panic surged in him, he had to get out, had to return.

He looked around, his eyes adjusting and that's when he saw them. Bodies. Children. Adults as well but so many children. Still and lifeless.

His mind was humming with fear but he forced himself to act through it. To move despite the fear and then heaviness to his limbs. He rushed to the first body, a quick examination showed they were not dead. But they were asleep. Shion shook them, shouted. Nothing.

He knelt in numb horror. This place. A place of nothing he had been cast into. The city did not kill their citizens but instead condemned them to eternal slumber in this void. It surmounted to the same thing... except at the same time this seemed so much more horrific. Death at least was final whilst this was eternal.

And this was his fate. An eternal slumber in a void so far away from his world. "No." It wasn't loud, he didn't have enough energy to shout, the scream was trapped inside him. He couldn't... couldn't let it end like this. He had promised his sister. They had fought together...

After everything they had done, everything they had fought for. To come so far and fight so hard for it to end here. In this cold eternal void. Sobs bubbled out of his chest. Anger building inside of him.

Was there one place? One world out there where people were not awful. Where those in charge did not murder their citizens? Where children were not experimented on. Where children were not created as weapons and then left to rot? A world where people were kind and good to each other. Every world he knew. Every single one was awful.

He wanted to scream, but the tiredness was smothering him. It would be so easy to lie down and rest. To sleep and join these children in their eternal slumber.

No. He would not let it take him. He couldn't... He had promised. He had promised Aster, he had promised the person in the cell next to him that he would help them. He couldn't...

His mind was adrift, thoughts struggling to be completed as the horror and fear and anger all fought for dominance. He forced himself to stand, stumbled forwards a step and another. He had to... for Aster, for his family. For Nezumi. For those he had met here. He had to help them. He couldn't give up.

But soon he was on his knees again. It would be so easy to sleep. To stop. Tears streamed down his face now but the sobs had stopped, no more energy for such things. Only tiredness as he lay down on the stone floor.

sobs I'm here

[attheclocktower]

The gold thread is wrapped tightly around her hand, almost uncomfortably so, to cut into her skin. She didn't care. She needed it, Shion needed it, and she wasn't going to lose hold.

This... world. Whatever it is, whatever it was supposed to be, was horrifying. She'd already tried shaking a few of the children, lying ashen-faced on the ground, but to no avail. They were all so much sleeping dead weight. How could anybody do this to their own people, no matter what the circumstances???

It's at that point that she finally saw a familiar face, a shock of white hair, only a little taller than her. Falling, crumbling to the ground. Exhausted. Defeated.

"No!" she shouted, suddenly at a sprint without fully being aware of having gotten there, "Shion!"

the drifter | one closed, one open!

[hyperlit]

CLOSED to LUP ; i never thought that i'd get this cold

They had not protested very heavily, when the forced march began. They had not the wherewithal to do much more than follow the chain of prisoners, conceding to the poking and prodding and spoken orders of the armed guards. They were grateful to board one of the vessels, as it allowed them to sit for a time. The irregular lapping of waves against the sides of the boat lulled them into an uneasy half-doze, up until the moment where they were sent stumbling toward the edge of the eerily still, unnaturally glassy pool of water.

When the scuffle broke out, they hardly stood a chance. They lurched toward the exit in an attempt to break free, but a fit of coughing, a spray of neon-tinted blood, quickly put that dream to a stop.

The world rushed from color to black to grayed-out shadow. Once again, at last, things were still.

They practically collapse against the smooth side of something that almost seems like a building, sliding down along the length of wall until they're sitting up against it. Just the way they did, after Judgment's final death throes sent spurts of vibrant pink spattering across the rhombus-etched floor. They wait for the jackal's spectral form to survey them, to guide them once more to those shadow-ringed gates, or perhaps even to allow them another image of pure, clean water, of a world where a sun might rise and the toxicity of the land might be cleansed away.

The Drifter's eyes grow heavy almost at once. They stay where they are - their skin too bare for their liking, too much of who they are packed away in the things they carry, now gone. They cannot even say that they will die a drifter, this time around.

It is that thought, and no other, that fills them with terrible, tired shame.

OPEN ; but spirit is something i could use more of

[They are barely functional, once she gets them out.]

[It's clear that they're still discombobulated, still adjusting to the deactivation of their sprite, still stumbling wildly in an attempt to walk in a linear path. Stripped of their belongings, deprived of their mantle, their vibrant red cloak, the Drifter cuts a very sad figure indeed. Even more pathetic is the fact that they can hardly walk for the hoarse coughing fits that leave them spitting up wet gobbets of blood, doubled over and groping for the nearest solid object for support.]

[Mostly, they just want to get out of sight - and they don't seem to discriminate in regards to who. No one should see them like this. Not even friends.]

open!

[buryyourfriends]

[Seto's much in the same boat, upon his own rescue. Woken from a sleep he had no intention of taking but was grateful to be pulled out of, his own sense of balance was off once the young boy's feet were back on solid ground.

But that's not stopping Seto from going to help people in need. As wobbly as his steps may be, once Seto spots the Drifter he's going to make his way over to give them a hand.]

Here, take my hand!

[They may not see it given how much blood the Drifter is coughing up so Seto will actually try to take the Drifter's hand, if they let him.]

Closed to Takane and Eichi

[seafriends]

[ For what it's worth, Kanata isn't afraid of The Water. It's a cold, glassy, lifeless pool that stands unshaken even in the midst of the chaos around it, unperturbed by the bodies that have begun diving into its depths. There's nothing he can do in the way of fighting the way others seem to, even now that his hands have been freed after scraping against the blade of a sword. He can feel blood streaking down one of his arms, but it has to wait; right now he needs to break through the wall of people edging him closer to The Water.

Again- he's not afraid of it, despite how the surface refuses to break, each person swallowed without emerging even once. It can't be that they can't swim, either, no- it's something else. If it's really so holy, it can't be a fate as simple as drowning. The thought eats through Kanata's head as his feet are pushed further along the slick, wet rocks surrounding The Water. He's not afraid, but he's transfixed, turning to look back at it as he attempts to cut sideways through the crowd.

It's one look too long though- a guard grabs him roughly by the shirt and thrusts him backwards, Kanata's balance escaping him as he stumbles back to the very edge. It feels like a million years and the blink of an eye as he scrambles for footing and ultimately fails, colliding with the water with such force it knocks the breath from his lungs. The penetrating cold that follows stings straight through to his very core that he can't even think to gasp in shock, curling in on himself as he becomes lost in the black depths that begin to swallow him whole.

There's no way to tell just how much time passes, but steadily, the air around him changes. He can breathe just fine; in fact, there's no water to speak of except for what little dampness still clings to his hair and clothes from the initial fall. And for what surrounds him as he finally reaches the ground, Kanata rubs again and again at his eyes until they hurt just to be sure he isn't imagining it.

The city, at first, dark and fuzzy at the edges the same way he knows things to be when looking at them underwater. He tries to step closer out of surprise, only for his foot to be stopped by the second shock. The bodies. A chill even more piercing than that of the water settles under his skin and courses down his spine with a slow, horrid realization. He's never seen anything like this, never heard of anything like this, even from tales of the gods told from long ago. From what he can tell, they seem to be still alive- not dead, just sleeping. And that might even be reassuring, if not for the heavy tiredness that seems to seep into his bones the more time passes.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the common sense telling him to struggle and stay awake becomes more and more diluted by the need for sleep. It's all he can do not to outright curl up on the ground right there, keeping space from the rest of the bodies. Rather, he sits down and draws his knees up to his chest in a compromise, letting his head rest on top of them while he clutches at the wound lacing his wrist. What's left of his dwindling consciousness catches on sharp thorns of regret, having not fought back enough, having gotten caught and leaving Shinobu on the surface alone somewhere. His eyelids falling heavy for the last time, he wishes idly for the warmth and bravery of the hero he's been too afraid to call on to come and cut through this cold and rescue him. ]

finally I'm here

[finethanks]

["It has to be me."

Watching Kanata vanish below those depths as he was forced away himself was a nightmare. If anything, their positions should be switched. His body had been weakened even further than normal, and Shinkai had been unlucky enough to be forced too close. His heart sinks, he feels like he'll be sick— but the moment he hears the Storyteller has options, there's hope. Determination.

"Takane-chan, would you be able to hold the string?"

So, that's how they got here as they are now. Right back to the edge of the water, with Eichi holding his hand out expectantly to Takane.]

I'm ready. The effects of that drug are beginning to wear off, so it shouldn't be an issue. I'll find Shinkai-kun and bring him back. I trust that Takane-chan will be a reliable tether to this world, as well.

[He smiles a little, which maybe he shouldn't be in such a tense situation. But of course, he's treating it too casually.]

Once you place the end in my hand, I won't stop. Fufu, it's a little like a red string of fate, isn't it?

Burning the city- Laurent is stopping him but ota who wish to join in destruction/fail to stop him

[savedbyasong]

[Out of the water Shion for a moment stood still. As if he had to take a moment to understand that he was out. He was not going to subcomb to eternal slumber. Aster had saved him and for a moment relief was all he felt.

But he stood and he saw, those of the islands fighting, pulling people out of the standing water. Brave souls throwing themselves into danger to rescue their friends. All because of this city. This city that sent its children to eternal slumber.

The fear was gone now, the panic subsided. But the anger was still there. Aster had gone back in. Gone to rescue more people. Because she was a hero. They wouldn't be able to get them all though. They wouldn't be able to rescue all those people, all those children that had been cast into the depths over years, how many years? How many years had this city been doing this while all the time it's citizens allowed it. Allowed their families to be taken. Allowed their city to be blank and colourless and without... without hope or love or hate or anything that made them human.

The anger grew but it did not boil. It was not like when he had lost control in the past. Instead it went cold. Sunk into him as deeply as the cold of the void had. Except instead of the urge to sleep there was the urge to destroy to take it all and burn it. Just like in the void Shion stopped fighting, let it wash over him. His eyes went hard and his expression grim.

He picked up a weapon from a fallen guard, "I'm going to destroy this city."

His voice was blank, devoid of much.

It was not difficult, he was not the only one who felt that way. He held Ignis' firey daggers in his hands as he stalked the city setting fires. This city was going to burn, it was going to pay for every crime.]

[crosslaced]

[Laurent is normally cold. Emotion does nothing in these situations; people die whether it's fair or not, regardless of if it hurts. What matters is if you're able to do something so people don't have to hurt. What matters is those who don't, people who are too often collateral to someone else's crusade. Breteau, Tarasis. The meek have nothing but blessings.

So when he calls out to Shion, cool and seemingly unarmed, it doesn't matter that they've drawn Chocobos on old walls together. He’s circling the civilian districts for one purpose and that is to beat the shit out of anyone who thinks the city is theirs to raze.]

What do you think you're doing.

[Unseen, his Soul Gem sings under the fabric of his clothes. This is your only warning.]

Seto - two closed, one open

[buryyourfriends]

A - closed to Ren and Crow

[The moments after the guard goes for the child, the moments when all hell breaks loose, Seto honestly couldn't remember even if he tried. There was just panic, fear and a desperate attempt to free himself so he could get at Ren and Crow again.

It's one of the first few times that Seto can recall he was ever this scared. But it worked. Somehow they all got free. Hand-in-hand, they have no choice but to run. There are many people here, people that needed help but Seto didn't - couldn't - want to lose Ren and Crow. Not again.

His grip on their hands as they tear down the streets filled with destruction and panic is like iron. He won't let go.]


B - Closed to Lup

[Coming back here....going back to the Water was probably not the best idea Seto's ever had. But he has to make sure that neither Ren nor Crow ended up back here. He has to make sure they're safe. Even if they're on the streets still, it's better then facing the danger here.

Unfortunately, he won't get a chance to worry about it. Seto doesn't know if he slipped or if someone pushed him. All he knows is that his world tips backwards before becoming consumed in the cold Waters.

He had imagined flying, once before and had been at a real risk of dropping off of Tokyo Tower when he had been battling Shin. It was more the latter then the former as the boy dropped down into the dark abyss.

He did have a chance to look around once his sense of gravity became normal. The city underwater, the bodies. The other children who were only a little younger then Seto himself. All the people who didn't get to live because of that Law.

He presses his hands against his face and can't help but cry.

Seto knows that he should keep going. He needs to find an exit, he needs to find Ren and Crow again and make sure they're safe. But even as he forces himself to move, a sort of drowsiness begins to consume the young boy. A drowsiness that feels horribly familiar.

From the thoughts and feelings left behind of the people who fell asleep one day and never woke up again. From the second attempt at reviving the Glass Cage Project.

From the so, so quiet world that he came from.

Seto's last thoughts before his mind fades to oblivion is of Ren and Crow.]


C - Open

[He gives himself a moment of rest before getting back up.

It's not because Seto is anything special, or so he thinks. He just has something he needs to do now that Lup saved him from the Water.

Now that he's back on Enso, Seto has to find Ren, Crow and anyone else he knows and make sure they're safe. Even if it's only for a minute. He has to know.]

A

[tomodachi]

[Crow didn't even think twice about that poor child that the guard went after. The moment his hands were free, and then grasping Seto's, he had simply taken off running, following after him and Ren. Hell, given his own speed, normally he could run faster and near drag the two, but the time spent in captivity, away from the Mana Pool, has drained him a little.

Even so, running away is what he's good at. All that matters is that Seto and Ren, the two most important people in his life right now, and himself are able to get away, get away.]

Are they still following us?

[Crow hasn't looked back to check yet, but even if they weren't, he might still just want to keep running away. Put as much distance between them and the guards as possible.]

gabe goodman | the barracks on ai'tuoh | ota

[ungrieved]

[Thanks to a certain small child and their apparent proclivity for carrying explosives, Gabe Goodman came well-armed for this endeavor. He's good at blending in, and he's even better at being invisible. Slinking into the city wasn't any more difficult the second time than it was the first.]

[Besides, it goes to show that the militia have divided their attention - busy ferrying all their prisoners to that secluded little islet.]

[It's time to divide them even further.]

[He sets the charges close to one of the walls, and shifts back, back, back, in preparation for the timer as it winds down. It's for the best, all things considered, that the bomb's set-up is simple enough for even a child to manage it. He settles back on his haunches, and waits.]

[He doesn't have to wait long.]

[ BOOM. ]

[The bomb detonates, taking out a sizeable bite from the barracks walls with a cloud of clay-sand and pinwheeling chips of shrapnel. Couched amidst the roar of the chaos is the undeniable sound of complete and utter glee.]

[Gabe is laughing.]

[yourattention]

Gloat later, we have to go.

[Connor is maybe only here because he wasn't entirely convinced that Gabe wasn't going to kill himself setting off this bomb. And he did sort of help, but if anyone asks? Gabe did this. He is never going to admit to being present.]

Ignis Scientia | Final Fantasy XV | OTA | Nearby & At the Water

[shatteredlenses]

[When Ignis places plans into motion he likes them to be as neat and organized as possible. Infiltrations. Rescues. They are all the same. Organized plans mean that when things inevitably go wrong, he can jump easily to plan B, course 6, route 2 without thinking about it. Flexibility can mean life or death in these situations.

Early on, he accepted that in this rescue plan organized chaos was the most he could hope for. There were too many unknowns and variables, too many distractions needed, too many infiltration destinations to pin down all the details. The most they could do was spread as much information as possible and then work together to save everyone who needed saving.

It wasn't a lot, but in the end, the distractions work as distractions are suppose to. Infiltrations are smoother than they should probably be and their destinations are narrowed down to one--the island cave holding the Water.

Ignis can't find himself surprised by the cave. It was in his dream after all and at this point, he isn't bothering to question anything from it that ends up matching reality. Instead, he allows himself to be surprised by the fact that when they arrived to drop chaos on the heads of those who have taken their friends, chaos is already there.

There is little time to waste being surprised, though and in only moments, Ignis has stormbound his daggers and sent himself into the fray. Orders are yelled for those who will listen, but eventually his focus shifts completely to being a barrier between the guards and those working on rescues. Perhaps it is foolish, especially after he has flamebound his daggers and passed them to Shion, to draw so much attention to himself, but he still has his spear, and he wastes no time using it and the extra air that his spear-skills grant him to drive the guards back.

After all, it's hard to catch one who doesn't allow himself to remain on the ground for long. However, it is a tiring way of fighting, especially without his vision. It's not long before he has no idea how far behind him the tethers--and more dangerously, the Water--are. Still he keeps going without concern for himself. He's here to make sure the others are saved. His safety comes after that and always will.]

[scourgingstars]

[Ardyn really couldn't say he usually cared for getting his hands dirty, but...sometimes one simply had to work out one's frustrations, didn't they? And it was delightful to be causing a bit of less than organized chaos once more. Last time he'd tired himself out with so much magic use, so now he leaned more upon swinging the massive greatsword one-handed as ever. Perhaps, amidst the clashing of metal, a maniacal and unhinged laugh might be heard now and again in the middle distance as the fight wore on.]

[But eventually, the flash of familiar warping magic came with a corpse-cold grip on Ignis' wrist to stop his retreat, the soldier that had been advancing on him met with a blast of Thunder magic from Ardyn's other hand.]

My, this is hardly the time to go swimming. I'm not interested in losing the offensive edge, and I'm certainly not going in after you.

Ardyn Izunia | group one, ota

[scourgingstars]

[He's really not seeing the reason everyone's in such a downer of a mood. Ardyn was having a great day. Learning from his overuse of magic last time things decided to go to complete chaos, he seemed quite content to default to taking a giant sword in one hand to cut down the advancing militia.]

[Maybe a little too content, considering how he kept laughing on the few occasions he threw the massive scarlet-toned greatsword at a target only to vanish in magenta light and reappear holding the blade once more. When he did venture to use magic, it was in quick and short blasts of frozen air or sparks of lightning from his free hand.]

[Oh, today was fun.]

Taako | Closed to Magnus

[ohshitsweetflips]

Taako isn't sure he's the right elf for this job. It's one thing to put your soul in a jar to drag your friend out of hell, but he trusts the Storyteller's thread a lot less than he trusts his own magic, natch. He trusts this bullshit not-water even less. He'd love to go into this rescue mish believing neither of those factors will come into play for him personally, but he's not gonna try and dupe himself like that. Be optimistic with one hand, and actually prepare to get shit done with the other, is not how that saying goes.

But Lup is already doing plenty, is likely to have done too much before this is all over, is a source of firepower desperately needed elsewhere, so he's the elf they've got. Unfortunate. He still wouldn't have it any other way, this place needs a fire lit under it pretty fuckin bad and that's gotta be her. Metaphorical, physical, Taako's not usually picky but he's developing a pretty clear preference the longer it takes him to spot any of his specific people. (Family, the word for that is family, Taako.)

The problem is it's all just a big chaotic mess of fighting and people falling into the water and attempting to escape, exactly the kind of thing he specifically avoids mixing in with, like as a core tenet of the Taako belief system. He's not above delivering a strategic Magic Missile if it looks like it's gonna make a difference, but he's not here for this.

He's here for-- Well, that mountainous punchnado with sideburns seems like a good place to start, actually. He's takin it to the grave but that's a sight that lifts his spirits, a tiny bit, under all his helpless anger and worry for Ren. He skirts the bulk of the action like an asshole and grins, almost managing patented Taako-brand battlefield insolence, unless someone knows how to look for the strain. "'Sup Mags, how was prison? Fuck this island, amiright?"

[proficienciesouttheass]

Let's back up for a second here. It's been a really shitty couple of days. Humongously shitty. Ginormically shitty. Astronomical, even.

First, new city. Magnus, making full use of his own patented Rustic Hospitality™️ and a side of his inherent ability to rush into things without a probably necessary second thought, made his way into the new city to try and meet the locals. So far so good, right? Yeah! He was being all polite and shit! Didn't even challenge anyone to a fight, or stole anything. He was being pleasant, cordial, and an all around good guy.

Then these assholes locked him up. They knocked him out, locked him up, took his ax, his gloves, and, worst of all, they took Steven. Not to mention all the other people they locked up for no reason, Erika, Guzma-- Ren! Of all people, they locked her up!

And, as if that wasn't enough? Pulling them all into this crazy-ass ritual with spooky unmoving waters and whatever the fuck. When Magnus saw this, when Magnus watched that kid sink into the water and not come back - that's when he snapped.

So, yeah. Flash forward, and he's pretty easy to spot. Being weaponless doesn't seem to slow him down, as he's quick to throw himself on some guards or militia without much care. He can hand a few hits. He's more interested in figure out if they can.

He grabs a militia's weapon, slamming his foot into their chest and knocking them off the edge and into the water, when Taako enters the scene.

"Wh--Taako!!"

Obvious relief washes over his face, only briefly interrupted when another member of the militia rushes him - and Magnus is quick to duck and use the previously snatched weapon to sweep their legs and kick them off the edge.

"FUCK all of this!"

Ren | ota (enso)

[catpiper]

[It’s too much.

She’s been walking and stopping and idly turning behind her, rubbing at her eyes that never quite shook the sedative effect that put her in the jail to begin with, hoping to see Seto appear. There had been too much chaos-fighting, pushing, pulling people out of the water and away from the people trying to get them all in. The woman who tried to save that kid-what caused the uproar to begin with and-

She’s so tired. It doesn’t matter how desperately she hums that same old shaky melody to herself or how many times she spins to look behind her, trying to catch the eye of a brown haired boy who absolutely has to be safe. He has to be okay. The water can’t hold him back and his heart is strong enough to out, to reach out to those who had been wandering in, to do anything to survive because that’s how he is.

Her heart’s already pounding wildly and there’s a tightness to her chest that forces her pace to be slow and languid. There are multiple points where she just has to stop and rest-trying to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand and she doesn’t pass out. Not great. Not good.

Because she just needs to get home. Seto will be there-she can make sure he’s safe and warm and covered in blankets. She can make sure Magnus made it back. Can see the elves, maybe, one more time before she has to force herself to leave if her pills don’t make their way back into her hands fast enough. But those are all problems for another day and if she thinks about Seto, then she can make it back.

Feel free to run into this sleepo beepo post ai'tuoh madness anywhere on the island. She’s moving like a sleepy snail, hiding behind rocks when she needs to rest and humming to keep herself awake.]

closed to edward

[catpiper]

[It's absolute chaos. Even with the haze covering her mind like a crappy blanket, the loud sounds and noises and people blurring into friend and foe-it all combines into one absolutely terrifying being she needs to run away from. All of it. From the woman who turned from guard to friend, when she tried to save that child, from people she recognized and others she didn't-it's scary. It's too scary.

She forces her eyes open, frantically looking for Seto. For Crow. For the last two people she had seen before-

And now she can't see him at all.

There's no way he fell into the water. No way someone wasn't out there trying to save him. His kind heart was probably trying to lead others to safety, to find a way to get everyone out because that's what he does. He protects and helps and she's not like that. Not at all, but this time-

With her heart pounding and beating and thrashing in her chest like it's going to explode out her body, she inches her way back into the crowd. Towards where she last saw him. Towards where she thinks she can help him because he can't be alone in a place like this.]

Lup | closed

[hellawrath]

closed to Munin

Getting into the city is easy. Having spent the week robbing the place with Taako like a pair of invisible magpies means Lup has the whole grid layout memorized, navigates the streets unseen and with her head down. If she's got her timing right, all hell is gonna break loose over at the barracks and probably some other places any minute now, and she intends to bring her own fireworks to the game.

The library is as ugly and desolate as ever. Like some sort of merciless monument to their hellish laws, their literal outlawing of any sort of joy or warmth or, or kindness, it stands apart from the other buildings, cold and brutal. And it's empty, it always is, because these people already know the laws by heart, they know what they're consenting to every fucking day, not standing up to it. Jailing their kids, sending them off to be executed, kidnapping strangers who never even had a fucking chance to learn their bullshit laws. Jailing other people's kids.

Lup imagines these are the sorts of people who could listen to some eloquent asshole telling them existence is horrible, and they'd roll with that, too.

She ignites a few books here and there with Firebolts, small flames eagerly eating up the dusty paper. To be honest she'd love to wreck the whole thing all to hell with a Fireball, but she's gonna need her slots today. Better to let the fire grow slowly anyway, so it'll have consumed most of the trash in here before somebody notices. On her way out, she stops, kicks an oil lamp off its fixture on the wall, and shoves it into her knapsack. Dipshits ain't gonna need that anyway.

Back to the docks, she's kinda hauling ass a bit more. But like, not in a suspicious way. There's some sense of unrest in the air now, people trying not to look worried because that's fucking illegal too, but whispering, glancing towards the barracks, some packing up their shit to head somewhere safer. Lup doesn't make eye contact with any of them. She knows, in her heart she knows, the people of Enso are going to shake this place to the core today. And it's gonna suck for these people, a lot. But maybe, just maybe? They can grow something better out of the ashes.

By the time the flames finally burst through the windows of the library, Lup is already outside the city walls near the coast, looking for a ride to the real party.


closed to Frisk

Boy it sure is a shitshow down here. Somebody definitely started the party without her. Lup's pretty dang pleased to see how many people she recognizes holding back the militia, but they're still relentlessly driving people into the water with spears and swords. And the water, it's... it's fucking weird. Impossibly still, glassy and clear, it's almost like a circle of black glass but where her glass has a horrible grim weight to it, this is just, nothing. A total absence. And it fucking, swallows people whole. It gives her the heebie jeebies, as it were.

She joins the fray without hesitation, blasts a path through the mess with her umbrella to get as close to the water as possible. Dodging attacks, fighting dirty with Fire Bolts to people's faces, she keeps looking for a flash of silver hair, keeps hoping Ren is just hiding in the chaos. But the whole thing is being funneled towards the water, the pressure of the guards is relentless and more and more people are stumbling, slipping in. There's no way a small, scared kid like her could avoid it, no matter how good she is at running away. Lup skirts the water's edge, calling for Ren anyway, calling for Taako too, because she's gonna need someone to hold that thread for her. She thinks she spots his hair once but it's gone instantly like he Blinked away. It's okay, he knows what he's gotta do if they can't meet up. For once, she hadn't tried to talk him out of any part of this.

And then somebody knocks into her and her foot finds no purchase in the air above the water.


closed to Shepard

Stepping into the water, thread wrapped tight around her arm, it's like going through the mana pools, only way fucking worse. A biting cold seizes her and she didn't really need the reminder of that time she was bleeding out in the snow, thanks. And then she's falling, that just, super choice feeling of being vored by a fucking puddle pulling her down and down and down. Look, a mana pool is like, a trust puddle, whenever she steps into one she forms a silent contract with the Storyteller to fuckin let her out on the other side. This thing? She can tell it wants to gobble her up and keep her trapped forever and she's not into this on like, so many levels.

But finally she has some sort of ground under her feet and it-- Are you kidding? The Ethereal Plane? Or some version of it, and some version of Ai'tuoh that's even drabber than the real thing. Colorless the way things go when the Hunger cuts a plane off from all its bonds. That's exactly what the laws are for too, isn't it? No connections, no emotions, no companionship through games or clothes or writing. The buildings, everything looks like she's seeing it through tears, and no amount of blinking fixes it. Gross, and creepy, and her heart is hammering in her chest from the fall.

And then it sinks when she sees the bodies. A mass grave of horrifying proportions. Most of the bodies are so small-- Lup can't help but to turn one over, and gasps when she realizes the little boy is breathing. But no amount of jostling and pleading will wake him up. She, she can't help, the rabbit said they have to follow on their own strength. It breaks her heart but she gets up and checks the next body, and the next. She checks in small alleys, in secluded doorways, any place that would-- that would appeal to Ren, for curling up and resting like all the other sleepers here seem to have done. But she's not gonna be too late for Ren the way she is for the other people down here.

Lup tugs on the tangible bond in her hand, reassuring herself of its presence and she begins to wander this ghost town, thinking of flower crowns and chalk drawings, of a floral cape hugging her shoulders and spices in jars. Hearts that feel like the sun, that will call to Ren and bring her home.

ROLLS IN DAYS LATE WITH STARBUX

[souldeterminant]

They're small. They're just a kid. They know it; they've thought it; they've heard it, time and time again.

This world, that tells children they can't do things and then puts them through even worse trials. It's just more of the same. They won't let it stop them now.

Their knife is out, and they hear someone calling -- not for them, but what do names mean to them, anyway? As a guard dives for them, Frisk feints to the side, lurching around them with the relative ease of someone who's dodged much faster things. Someone else tackles into the guard's side, which gives Frisk ample opportunity not to rise out of their roll --

-- but to slam the blade of their knife into an eroded crack in the stone, wedging it firmly, and letting their momentum unroll their arm towards Lup as she goes careening. Their fingers latch onto some part of her, and the brutal yank of her weight crackles through their shoulders like electricity, but they dig their knife in harder and grit their teeth, pulling back.

The Water can't have her.

Keith | Voltron: LD

[thermalwind]

Closed to Team Rescue

The Water is still and silent. It reminds him of space. The red thread rests easy in the gaps in his Blade armor, wrapped around his fingers and all the way up to his shoulder. His breath comes out slow and deep as he strides for the water. His mind blanks and the sounds of battle recede to background noise. One breath in.

He dives in, plunging down into the depths without hesitation. He has no idea what he'll see or face. The cold slams into him like an open handed slap to the face. The colors are a pale shadow of the real world and he rolls as he falls, setting himself up as if he still had a jet pack.

He lands in a world that ripples and shifts reminding him he's under water. He ties the red thread tightly to his forearm and takes in the buildings, the monochrome shades of gray, of black, and white. No sign of the girl or nine. He itches to draw a blade. No time to lament.

Keith moves through the world in the silent way of the scout and nearly stumbles when he spots the small, still bodies of children. His heart freezes in his chest as the number steadily climbs with every step he takes. Bile rises in the back of his throat and he swallows it down. He kneels and checks. Breathing. But nothing he does makes any one respond. He can't fix this.

Keith grits his teeth and forces himself to walk on. It's going to haunt him but he can't delay. He has to fix what he can fix. Tracking a child would feel fruitless. He looks for a larger body, the girl's features committed to his memory. "Hey, Ninth! Guard girl! Time to go!"

It can't hurt to call out. "It's Keith! I'm here to get you." Either they'll respond or he'll have to possibly wake them up. ...if he's in time.

[prettypurpleparlor]

Keith?

[The voice that calls out to him isn't the one he was planning to speak to, but it is familiar. Muffet steps forward, looking concerned- she's been trying to free everyone she can, and while she might not be allowed to look back until she's lead all her people out, it certainly isn't forbidden for her to stop along the way and find more.]

I'd heard that you were captured, are you all right?

[Really, no one here is all right, she knows. But sometimes you still have to ask.]

Muffet | Group three

[prettypurpleparlor]

[For all that they say monsters aren't Determined the same way humans are, Muffet seems to be managing lowercase-d determination perfectly fine today. She doesn't strike out at any of the Ai'tuoh guards to injure as she approaches the Water, merely using the threads of her purple magic to catch anyone who tries to get too close and toss them safely out of her way.]

[Head held high and back straight, she enters the Water without so much as a flinch. Her faith in the tethers is firm and her will is resolute.]

[Even before she starts her journey through the drowned and silent city, she doesn't bother looking back.]

Hinata | Closed

[thisisourfuture]

He hadn't know what to expect when he joined the others in carving a path to the Water. What Storyteller had told them bothered him. It settled into his bones with this nagging feeling that he should beware. As he cuts and cleaves through the militia like wheat in a field that feeling grows and grows until he realizes why these people bother him so much.

It's the very opposite of the world he came from. Where Talent, life, and being vibrant is revered. Here it is shunned. He'd have done just fine here. Miserably shamed by his desire to be so much more than he was. Distracted by the shift in his thoughts he spots the warning signs of trouble far too late to parry or prevent it. His stolen blade goes flying as a group of milita drive him into the Water.

He'd have cried out but the water takes it away. The cold reaches in with icy fingers and wraps around all his thoughts and feelings. His fingers that had clawed for the edge, go still and he drifts down as the brightness of spirit turns drab and gray.

Everything fades as his feet touch the bottom. No wonder. No joy. No...nothing. He remembers feeling like this but even as Kamukura and solely him, there had been the burn of decisions. The turn of logic that lead to the future he'd known and predicted. Here there is nothing.

Yet he tries to fight it. He tries to turn his mind against it. Except the gun that is his will is dissolving. His mind starts to shut down.

[despairing_hope]

"-nata kun?" Komaeda's voice rang out through the chill. "Hinata kun!?"

When he had heard Hinata had fallen in he did not hesitate to go after him. Holding tightly onto the thread he walked through the desolate place as quickly as he dared. He had to find him. There was no other option. It didn't take too long, though it felt like an eternity.

"Hinata kun! You have to grab this thread."