[SERIOUSLY, WHAT ARE THESE THINGS. he's really not into the wiggling and he watches one of them kick ichiro in the back. he doesn't have time to even see if he's okay, but out of the corner of his eye he's watching him spring back up.
two of them circle him and he thinks, maybe, if he times it right he can knock them away.
it's the other two that he isn't anticipating and when beau calls out to him there's a startled yell of surprise before he reacts. there may not be time, but he attempts to kick one of the circling ones like a soccer ball, using the keyblade to swing wildly to put some distance between him and the other three.]
Get to the pod!
[now is not the time to actually double-down on the plan to draw attention away. but here we are.]
[ It's very valid for the Dusks to be scared of Kainé. Too bad she doesn't want them to run away? ]
Get back here, you little bastards!
[ But she is listening, and she will try to multitask which is hard for someone who is usually so single-minded? But hey, it's like Taichi selected the option in her game where you can tell Kainé to either come help you or go the fuck away and fight somewhere else.
He can be Nier for 0.1 second. I'm allowing it.
She cartwheels her way across this beautiful stained glass platform, towards one of the wiggly boys that slithered away from her but once it sinks into the platform and she can't drive her heel down onto it, she switches gears and sprints for the pod.
Which is to say, she Naruto runs, and I hate it. ]
[The downfall of the wiggle boys is that they're wiggly. The second one throwing hands with Ichiro is so busy worming around that the breakdance-y worming back gets it. Pa-yow. It explodes into nonexistence.
(Did Nobodies ever exist to begin with...?)
The poor paper Duskatori follows the same fate as the others: bursting into a sparkle of nothingness. A piece of paper with something scribbled on it flutters into place where the Dusk had been as she fires the shield off.
Two doodled women, one with wings, and the other being carried. The memory starts slipping from Beauregard's mind. Someone helped her... A well-built girl from Wiwaldi, right? She knows a girl from one of the classes...
Around Taichi, the air hardens and shines briefly with something translucent. The two Dusks from Kainé sneaking up on him mount their attack with the others, but hit the shield and are thrown back. One of the other two keeps its distance as Taichi swings the keyblade, but the second one... You KICK Wiggle Boy? You kick Wiggle Boy like the FOOTBALL? Digital jail for Taichi! DIGITAL JAIL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!
Which is to say, these it peels out of the ground to do somersaults around Taichi to block him in while the other three double back for an attack.]
[ okay if ichiro wasn't having a crisis right now he would probably have just fallen in love with kainé on the spot. sick cartwheels sick fight moves AND naruto running? swoon
anyway
ichiro slams his fist into the pod once the second nobody disappears, kicking up to his feet like the true b-boy he is and immediately turning around. for a minute, there's just panic, and he doesn't come to help right away, because that's his little brother. ] Jiro -- Jiro!
[ but -- caleb said it to him last week, too, that he ran into illusions of the people he cared about, on one of these little adventures. he stops, hand on the pod, and looks down at the stick figure sketch, again, of what has to be kuko. he looks like a fucking little gremlin like that, doesn't he? he stares at it, stares a little longer. after that, i was tired of its illusions.
...get it together. he takes a big, deep breath, grabs the picture, shoves it in his pocket. then, he slaps his hand against the pod, once. i have strength. and his strength's right here. ] Big bro's got this. Okay? I've got it. You're with me.
[ and then takes off running to pick off one of the stragglers trying to attack taichi with his own bigass keyblade. ] Back off!
[well, it's nice, because beau's crisis means that she forgets her goth girlfriend and does fall in love with kainé on the spot --
no, it's more that beau just. pauses, midfight. she catches the paper when it floats through the air, staring at it. someone - someone. someone? she knew someone here. she knows someone here, tall, and sweet. they'd exchanged numbers, they'd gotten hot chocolate once. that's right. yeah. hm.
she should remember what caleb said, but beau's mental guard is not quite as good as his.
so instead of fighting, she puts the paper in her pocket, and pushes her hair back out of her face. right. next!
she turns, aiming to help the rest of her team to get rid of the rest of these dusks.]
[HE WILL KICK YOU AGAIN, WIGGLE BOY. as it is, he's trying to keep his eyes everywhere on the battlefield to watch his companions, checking on ichiro at the pod as he comes charging back, watching beau with the paper also looping back and watching kainé dash across the field itself. part of him wonders if the glass beneath them will crumble the longer they're here.
he doesn't have much time to think of that though, seeing how he's being blocked in slowly. he's holding the keyblade with both hands, swinging to strike at the dusk somersaulting around him almost like one would hold a baseball bat. get lost already!!]
Ichiro gets one of the Dusks in the back since it's too busy being worried about harassing Taichi. It's obliterated so quickly even the memory of it is gone... Goodbye, wiggle boy. A piece of paper flutters out of the space it occupied, twisting by Taichi.
It's a scribbled drawing of a boy with brown, fluffy hair (this is just Sora), and someone else sitting by a table. Taichi remembers, but then it begins slipping away into something else. A teacher at Wiwaldi thought he'd go far if he kept going to school there. He has to dream big, right?
One of the wiggle boys does a spiraling flap in the air, trying to cartwheel over Taichi's head and nyoom down at Beau. Kainé finds out she can throw her keyblade! She's throwing it at the last one to help Taichi, but the one going for Beau falls down right in the way unfortunately. The keyblade slams into it, splitting it into a thousand sparkling pieces.
A paper flies out with another doodled drawing: Kainé holding hands with a boy in a blindfold. But the memory starts slipping away. Wasn't there... a boy at Wiwaldi she reassured about not being hideous...?
Uh oh! The last Dusk leaps onto Taichi from behind like a Redead. It squeezes him painfully from the outside, but somehow, it feels like his heart is being squeezed more.]
goodbye, dusk! punk ass. at this point, he's looking at the other dusks, keeping an eye on the other three to make sure they don't do anything shitty while this paper floats through the air. as the last one snatches on, ichiro yells - ] Taichi!
[ his keyblade is probably too huge to smack at it without hitting him, which is so unfortunate, but he's rushing over to help anyway!!! hopefully running on his dad's face again ]
anyway, i've lost track of the combat. beau is running over, dropping her keyblade in order to rip the dusk off of taichi's back so she can beat it up? hello, here are her fists. can she even drop the keyblade? she'll just pull a roxas beating up the computer if she can't.
actually - she'll try to rip it off taichi, punch it, and throw it to kainé, honestly. teamwork!]
[i'm glad sora's here. anyway, so there's a lot going on here. he's watching one dusk get obliterated, paper fluttering and he immediately snatches it out of the air to try and take a look. but as the paper rests in his hands he feels himself slowly starting to remember...who was that man who had tried to tell him which way to go? he has a future still, doesn't he? what does he want to do with the future anyway? there used to be someone who believed in him but now...
he doesn't get to think too much on it mostly because there isn't time. another dusk bites the dust in a shower of sparkles, and he doesn't even see the second paper or what's happening behind him because for whatever reason, wow, his plan backfired! who'd have thought!
there's a strangled kind of noise even as he's trying to flail his arm uselessly, grip tight on his keyblade as the bind takes its hold. physically he could withstand it, but the crushing in his chest is a little too much to juggle.
the paper flies out and she makes a grab for it because for kainé, drawings and pictures are something that can make someone live forever, and she knows, remembers a boy who sacrificed his body, sacrificed his life to save her time and time again. she remembers nights around bonfires where he managed to get her to talk about herself the way no one else could. or does she?
because there is a boy sweeter and more earnest than anyone else she knows here at school, right? someone she listens to with fondness as he talks about the boy he has a crush on, someone for whom she’d break the teeth of anyone who’d bully him even during kindness week.
beau is the most valid, and it’s a good thing kainé can act on instinct and gut because as soon as she sees the dusk flying her way courtesy of beau, she spins so she can try to slam her elbow into it and kick it down onto the stained glass floor.
The poor (no) Dusk tries to cling to Taichi, but it really isn't expecting Beauregard to just rip it right off? HELLO? Its body from the neck down wiggles and jolts every time she gives it a good punch.
And then its tossed like a rag-dog through the air at Kainé. It bursts into a sparkle of nonexistence under her foot just like the others.
A silence descends on them. No more Dusks wiggle out of the platform. In the distance, the petals of the pod give a shifting sort of hiss and fold open. But Jiro isn't inside. All that's left is a piece of paper with three familiar boys hugged together drawn onto it.
Another set of stained glass stairs rises from one side of the platform, spiraling upward.]
once the last one is dispatched, ichiro can't help himself. it does not matter if his Wizard Dad is smart enough to say things like "it was probably fake" anymore, at least for a moment, because he has to sprint back over to pod when it starts to shift, and he skids to a stop in front of it, ready, hope high in his chest that it's fine, it's fine -
and by the time he gets there, it's empty.
ichiro just stands there for a long moment, his heart thudding against his ribcage, staring at the picture. gutted, for a second. it's not real, but holy shit, seeing jiro wrenched something inside of him that's now turning to some kind of fiery, furious anger.
he clenches his fist at his side, slowly, and then unclenches it, and reaches out to take the paper. it's so familiar it hurts. he closes his eyes for a second, holding the paper like it's s the most precious thing in the world, and then takes a deep breath to try and calm himself down. in, out. it's not real. whatever this place is is just trying to use jiro and saburo against him, and he has to be stronger than that. they need him to be stronger than that.
he turns back to the group, holding the paper tight, and rolls his shoulders back. ]
...come on. If everybody's okay, we gotta keep moving. [ and gives a little jerk of his head up towards the new stairs. ]
[okay, beau can't help herself - she absolutely whoops when kainé beats the shit out of the dusk. GET IT.
but then - it's quiet, or at least. quieter. and ichiro zooms across the way to the pod. beau glances at the other two with a bit of a frown, like... oh no, our mom is sad. and then she follows him over to the pod, resting her hand on his back when he stares down at the paper. and when he turns, she nods, but she's keeping an eye on him.]
I think we're all good. [she says, glancing up at Ichiro.] ... It's probably not real.
[she knows he probably knows, it's just. you know. sometimes the words help.
she shoves her hand in her pocket to hold onto the little sketch there. thinks. the girl, waiting for her. out on the campus. gotta get back to her.
she'll lead the way up the staircase, if nobody objects.]
[the dusks are gone and everything grows quiet, save for a small gasp from taichi once the squeezing stops. what the hell was that? but he doesn't say anything, standing upright and adjusting the grip on his keyblade as he watches ichiro and beau.
...winters stick together, don't they? he lets that thought rattle around inside his head a little, thinking about that bond before he lets a hand stray to his pocket. whatever he's looking for isn't there and he frowns to himself.
even if this isn't real, that doesn't change much. but he doesn't bother saying that, leaving it to someone better with words.]
[As they step onto the beautiful glass of the stairs, the voice from before speaks into their hearts:
The farther you go in your journey together, the longer you spend in the darkness. Don't be afraid, even when the darkness closes in around you. Together with your friends, you can pull through.
On the stairs, each one of their hearts grow heavy with burden. The anger in Ichiro's heart swells; he's angry easier, angrier more often, or reacts with anger first. The fear in Beauregard's heart rises. She's more paranoid of others, more frightened by uncertain situations. The jealousy in Taichi's heart grows. The things others have--love, family, friends, success--he wants bitterly, and he's more prone to be greedy. The melancholy in Kainé's heart weighs her down. As they go, she finds she is sad more than she is anything else, and she is prone to being morose.
They arrive at the next platform. The light here is a little brighter, like it's growing the higher they climb. The stained glass here is a vibrant blue and gold. Beauregard is imprinted in the glass along the circle of one side, reclined, eyes closed. In the bubbles of decoration beside her are a woman with long, dual-toned hair, and three slitted eyes.
At the back of the platform is another egg-shaped pod, petals open. Standing in the middle is Caleb who reaches up just as the petals encase him, tucking him in to sleep.
Nearby, something appears, swirling into existence. It's almost four times larger than the creatures from before. Beside it, two other creatures appear. The wick sticking out of their heads are suspicious...]
[ the warmth from beau and the touch from kainé are both really, really appreciated. he gives beau a nod, and kainé gets a surprised, meaningful look, and then up the stairs they go! ichiro gives taichi a clap on the shoulder, too, as they ascend the stairs
and then
(ichiro voice) i would like to rage
ichiro's always been angry. since he was younger, since his mom died, since everything happened with his dad - it ate away at him and sent him into blind fury when he didn't want it to. it was what mozuku cultivated in him, and what the world wanted out of him, but ichiro has done his best to try not to give in to it at the worst moments. right now, he steps onto this glass platform with the others and takes light literally, as the world gets a little brighter, and sees caleb. and ichiro really likes caleb! a lot! therefore it is so easy to get angry. should he wait? probably! for the second time! does he wait? no!
he's going for the big guy first. by now, the routine seems pretty established, and he shouts and launches himself at the big guy, promptly bouncing off of its giant belly because i'm rping him and therefore that has to happen at least once.
he will, however, keep attacking it, though, aiming to fend it off and keep the big guy away from the others, and from the sleeping illusion of caleb, too. ] C'mon, your target's me! Pick on someone your own size!
Edited (hello where did the sentence go? ) 2021-06-30 00:41 (UTC)
[oh, funny thing about that - beau would also like to rage.
but hers is different. her rage is - scared. uncertain. she doesn't know the woman on the tile, or - or she can't quite grasp it. and the eyes are even worse. the eyes make her panic. watching caleb get pulled away - and she forgets everything else. the enemies, the other students, it doesn't matter. she can't trust them. but she can trust caleb. right?
he'd be so mad if he knew she was falling for this. but she's scared. she thinks about him stumbling out of the woods last week, she thinks about - a flash, mist, a sword swinging down into purple skin, and she refuses to let that happen again. so she runs.
beau sprints across the platform, and launches herself at the pod, trying to beat it open with her fists, her keyblade - anything. get him out.]
[that encouraging voice would be nice, maybe, if he had his friends here. it’s an ugly thought, but it’s one he can’t really shake off. the higher they climb though, the more he realizes that perhaps it isn’t a thought that he needs to think much of because…isn’t it true? the three of them have a connection that he can’t quite fit into. it’s obvious from watching them that he’s the outsider here and it’s really not fair, is it? fairness has never been a factor in his life, not since he was chosen for something he didn’t ask for and not since he was forced to make the hard choices nobody else wanted to…especially when they weren’t choices at all.
this wasn’t a choice, being here with people that have things to get back to and people that love and care about them. if he thinks about it too long, he thinks about family that doesn’t even know he’s gone, a sister that may never forgive him for choices he’s mad, friends who moved on without him, a best friend that he keeps disappointing over and over again, a bleak future with no direction…that’s right, right? everyone else around him seems to have a purpose, a place, and accomplishments.
it’s bullshit, frankly, and it’s that desire to do something and prove himself worthy of these things that sends him rushing across the platform toward one of the smaller creatures. rationally, yes, he should watch what they’re doing before attacking but who the fuck cares?
he wants to do something right for once, and it’s why he thinks nothing as he slashes at the creature immediately, keeping an eye on the others to make sure they’re focused on their own tasks.]
[ It is terrible that very little changes for Kainé because sorrow is what is at her core, and she has been weighed down for so, so long. She is already so weighed down, but she has been buoyed by the important people in her life, and now that -
Some of that is gone, right? Some of the light in her life has slipped away, and her darkness has always sang of despair and solitude.
Anger and spite and violence have always been crutches for her, to cover for just how sad she is inside, and she's slower now, but she is no less violent.
Fuck. This.
[ She goes after one of the Detonators with her keyblade. Hope she blows up! ]
[I am so glad you guys picked effects that were already there so they're ten times worse, wow.
The Large Boy slaps its stomach right before Ichiro charges. It's tubby and rotund, and--bouncy? Ichiro bounces right off. The attack doesn't seem to have done anything at all...
The stomach seems to laugh and jiggle, even if it only makes a strange, incomprehensible noise. And then it charges directly in a line in front of it at Ichiro. Please don't get crushed. But that isn't up to me, it's up to Sisi. Just know it hits very hard. The gravity of how heavy it runs by is something Taichi should look out, too! It'll suck Taichi in closer without warning.
Beauregard can beat on the pod. When she hits it with the keyblade, the glass splits, a hairline of a crack. Light, bright and blinding, shines out of it. Something happens.
They can feel another pull to their heart. Memories slip away: Ichiro's two younger brothers, their love and their existences; Taichi forcing his digimon partner to evolve, he's desperate, he needs this to work, but something goes wrong, it's not the right form, and it turns on him; Beauregard's father finds her a disgrace, unruly, uncontrollable, he tells her to leave the home she's known all her life; a wild and bold grandmother with a mouth, Kainé's, the only woman who has shown her love. They leave their hearts, pulled out.
And then swap. Beauregard has two younger brothers she loves more than life itself; Taichi's grandmother is the only person he's ever known, the only one to offer him love and acceptance; Kainé's father finds her a disappointment and exiles her from home, from her family; Ichiro made a decision to push his digimon to its limits, and it backfired. It hits them and rattles them to the core.
And yeah, the Detonator is going to absolutely blow up when it gets close to Kainé because Ara is mean.]
[ no crush me. ichiro bouncing off just makes him angrier - he's about to round on the thing again when it starts laughing at him, the fucking bastard, and right as he does, it starts running and slams into him. it's like being hit with a microphone, the pain wrenches in his stomach and blossoms out to his ribs, and it sends him flying backwards. he lands with a "kch-!" noise and gasps for air, the wind knocked out of him, and hears a crunch, but he's not down.
he can't be knocked down forever. why would he be knocked down forever. what the fuck thinks that? he thinks of -
- he thinks of his partner. he thinks of pushing him too hard and it hurts, as hard as the hit from the monster did. he thinks about the pain he must have caused. that was cruel, he doesn't want to, he never wanted to hurt anyone - his eyes shut, tight, and he takes a breath that hurts and rattles in his ribcage, and...
... he thinks about how being angry has only ever caused him and the people around him pain.
he remembers the orphanage head, and his smug, slimy face. he remembers beating it in, and he can't remember why, but he remembers how if he'd just kept his cool, he could've made things right. he was going to lose something, that's what he threatened, he was going to take something from ichiro that mattered more than anything in the world, and that was why he snapped, and he lost it anyway.
because he was angry.
as the large boy starts running again, and it does seem like he's going to be crushed, ichiro's eyes snap open.
he thinks to himself, with the sort of determined ferocity that has carried him forward to this point - not again. and he springs back to his feet and rolls out of the way of being stomped on. even it hurts, he forces himself to think, watches the fucker with his stupid stomach and realizes, oh, no shit i can't hit him, then spins around and tries for a strike at its back.
coming down from that, he sees the light a second too late. kainé is far and beau is too, but taichi is important and taichi is right here, and ichiro throws himself in his direction, hoping to grab him by the collar or shield him from the detonator with his body, or something, and shouts - ] Watch out!
she loses something, but she can't remember. she can't remember what it was, sand in an hourglass. something in her feels lighter, but at the same time, heavier. whatever is gone wasn't important, but what is is the memory of her her brothers, who she loves more than anything. they are relying on her. it's been a long couple of weeks, missing them.
you don't have friends. you don't have anyone besides your little brothers, and you have to work for them, every day. have to get good grades, have to go to school, have to work this shitty dirty job, have to work the clean jobs, have to do everything you can for them, and you're okay with that.
she thinks about jiro, in the pod before, and how she would throw every single one of the people around her off this damn platform if it meant he was safe. she can't trust any of them. for a long time, it's just been her and the two of them, jiro and saburo, and she has been alone.
but... caleb? but caleb. molly?
she stumbles back a few steps away from the pod, and looks... confused.
just in time to be too close to the Detonator! yay, the two foulmouthed fight girls get to explode together.]
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two of them circle him and he thinks, maybe, if he times it right he can knock them away.
it's the other two that he isn't anticipating and when beau calls out to him there's a startled yell of surprise before he reacts. there may not be time, but he attempts to kick one of the circling ones like a soccer ball, using the keyblade to swing wildly to put some distance between him and the other three.]
Get to the pod!
[now is not the time to actually double-down on the plan to draw attention away. but here we are.]
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Get back here, you little bastards!
[ But she is listening, and she will try to multitask which is hard for someone who is usually so single-minded? But hey, it's like Taichi selected the option in her game where you can tell Kainé to either come help you or go the fuck away and fight somewhere else.
He can be Nier for 0.1 second. I'm allowing it.
She cartwheels her way across this beautiful stained glass platform, towards one of the wiggly boys that slithered away from her but once it sinks into the platform and she can't drive her heel down onto it, she switches gears and sprints for the pod.
Which is to say, she Naruto runs, and I hate it. ]
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(Did Nobodies ever exist to begin with...?)
The poor paper Duskatori follows the same fate as the others: bursting into a sparkle of nothingness. A piece of paper with something scribbled on it flutters into place where the Dusk had been as she fires the shield off.
Two doodled women, one with wings, and the other being carried. The memory starts slipping from Beauregard's mind. Someone helped her... A well-built girl from Wiwaldi, right? She knows a girl from one of the classes...
Around Taichi, the air hardens and shines briefly with something translucent. The two Dusks from Kainé sneaking up on him mount their attack with the others, but hit the shield and are thrown back. One of the other two keeps its distance as Taichi swings the keyblade, but the second one... You KICK Wiggle Boy? You kick Wiggle Boy like the FOOTBALL? Digital jail for Taichi! DIGITAL JAIL FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!
Which is to say, these it peels out of the ground to do somersaults around Taichi to block him in while the other three double back for an attack.]
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anyway
ichiro slams his fist into the pod once the second nobody disappears, kicking up to his feet like the true b-boy he is and immediately turning around. for a minute, there's just panic, and he doesn't come to help right away, because that's his little brother. ] Jiro -- Jiro!
[ but -- caleb said it to him last week, too, that he ran into illusions of the people he cared about, on one of these little adventures. he stops, hand on the pod, and looks down at the stick figure sketch, again, of what has to be kuko. he looks like a fucking little gremlin like that, doesn't he? he stares at it, stares a little longer. after that, i was tired of its illusions.
...get it together. he takes a big, deep breath, grabs the picture, shoves it in his pocket. then, he slaps his hand against the pod, once. i have strength. and his strength's right here. ] Big bro's got this. Okay? I've got it. You're with me.
[ and then takes off running to pick off one of the stragglers trying to attack taichi with his own bigass keyblade. ] Back off!
[ (sora voice) etc ]
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no, it's more that beau just. pauses, midfight. she catches the paper when it floats through the air, staring at it. someone - someone. someone? she knew someone here. she knows someone here, tall, and sweet. they'd exchanged numbers, they'd gotten hot chocolate once. that's right. yeah. hm.
she should remember what caleb said, but beau's mental guard is not quite as good as his.
so instead of fighting, she puts the paper in her pocket, and pushes her hair back out of her face. right. next!
she turns, aiming to help the rest of her team to get rid of the rest of these dusks.]
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he doesn't have much time to think of that though, seeing how he's being blocked in slowly. he's holding the keyblade with both hands, swinging to strike at the dusk somersaulting around him almost like one would hold a baseball bat. get lost already!!]
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She's going to yeet it at one of the dusks doubling back to attack Taichi.
She doesn't know a Kingdom Hearts. ]
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Ichiro gets one of the Dusks in the back since it's too busy being worried about harassing Taichi. It's obliterated so quickly even the memory of it is gone... Goodbye, wiggle boy. A piece of paper flutters out of the space it occupied, twisting by Taichi.
It's a scribbled drawing of a boy with brown, fluffy hair (this is just Sora), and someone else sitting by a table. Taichi remembers, but then it begins slipping away into something else. A teacher at Wiwaldi thought he'd go far if he kept going to school there. He has to dream big, right?
One of the wiggle boys does a spiraling flap in the air, trying to cartwheel over Taichi's head and nyoom down at Beau. Kainé finds out she can throw her keyblade! She's throwing it at the last one to help Taichi, but the one going for Beau falls down right in the way unfortunately. The keyblade slams into it, splitting it into a thousand sparkling pieces.
A paper flies out with another doodled drawing: Kainé holding hands with a boy in a blindfold. But the memory starts slipping away. Wasn't there... a boy at Wiwaldi she reassured about not being hideous...?
Uh oh! The last Dusk leaps onto Taichi from behind like a Redead. It squeezes him painfully from the outside, but somehow, it feels like his heart is being squeezed more.]
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goodbye, dusk! punk ass. at this point, he's looking at the other dusks, keeping an eye on the other three to make sure they don't do anything shitty while this paper floats through the air. as the last one snatches on, ichiro yells - ] Taichi!
[ his keyblade is probably too huge to smack at it without hitting him, which is so unfortunate, but he's rushing over to help anyway!!! hopefully running on his dad's face again ]
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anyway, i've lost track of the combat. beau is running over, dropping her keyblade in order to rip the dusk off of taichi's back so she can beat it up? hello, here are her fists. can she even drop the keyblade? she'll just pull a roxas beating up the computer if she can't.
actually - she'll try to rip it off taichi, punch it, and throw it to kainé, honestly. teamwork!]
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he doesn't get to think too much on it mostly because there isn't time. another dusk bites the dust in a shower of sparkles, and he doesn't even see the second paper or what's happening behind him because for whatever reason, wow, his plan backfired! who'd have thought!
there's a strangled kind of noise even as he's trying to flail his arm uselessly, grip tight on his keyblade as the bind takes its hold. physically he could withstand it, but the crushing in his chest is a little too much to juggle.
so that is to say he's useless this round, help.]
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the paper flies out and she makes a grab for it because for kainé, drawings and pictures are something that can make someone live forever, and she knows, remembers a boy who sacrificed his body, sacrificed his life to save her time and time again. she remembers nights around bonfires where he managed to get her to talk about herself the way no one else could. or does she?
because there is a boy sweeter and more earnest than anyone else she knows here at school, right? someone she listens to with fondness as he talks about the boy he has a crush on, someone for whom she’d break the teeth of anyone who’d bully him even during kindness week.
beau is the most valid, and it’s a good thing kainé can act on instinct and gut because as soon as she sees the dusk flying her way courtesy of beau, she spins so she can try to slam her elbow into it and kick it down onto the stained glass floor.
teamwork makes the dream work! ]
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The poor (no) Dusk tries to cling to Taichi, but it really isn't expecting Beauregard to just rip it right off? HELLO? Its body from the neck down wiggles and jolts every time she gives it a good punch.
And then its tossed like a rag-dog through the air at Kainé. It bursts into a sparkle of nonexistence under her foot just like the others.
A silence descends on them. No more Dusks wiggle out of the platform. In the distance, the petals of the pod give a shifting sort of hiss and fold open. But Jiro isn't inside. All that's left is a piece of paper with three familiar boys hugged together drawn onto it.
Another set of stained glass stairs rises from one side of the platform, spiraling upward.]
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once the last one is dispatched, ichiro can't help himself. it does not matter if his Wizard Dad is smart enough to say things like "it was probably fake" anymore, at least for a moment, because he has to sprint back over to pod when it starts to shift, and he skids to a stop in front of it, ready, hope high in his chest that it's fine, it's fine -
and by the time he gets there, it's empty.
ichiro just stands there for a long moment, his heart thudding against his ribcage, staring at the picture. gutted, for a second. it's not real, but holy shit, seeing jiro wrenched something inside of him that's now turning to some kind of fiery, furious anger.
he clenches his fist at his side, slowly, and then unclenches it, and reaches out to take the paper. it's so familiar it hurts. he closes his eyes for a second, holding the paper like it's s the most precious thing in the world, and then takes a deep breath to try and calm himself down. in, out. it's not real. whatever this place is is just trying to use jiro and saburo against him, and he has to be stronger than that. they need him to be stronger than that.
he turns back to the group, holding the paper tight, and rolls his shoulders back. ]
...come on. If everybody's okay, we gotta keep moving. [ and gives a little jerk of his head up towards the new stairs. ]
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but then - it's quiet, or at least. quieter. and ichiro zooms across the way to the pod. beau glances at the other two with a bit of a frown, like... oh no, our mom is sad. and then she follows him over to the pod, resting her hand on his back when he stares down at the paper. and when he turns, she nods, but she's keeping an eye on him.]
I think we're all good. [she says, glancing up at Ichiro.] ... It's probably not real.
[she knows he probably knows, it's just. you know. sometimes the words help.
she shoves her hand in her pocket to hold onto the little sketch there. thinks. the girl, waiting for her. out on the campus. gotta get back to her.
she'll lead the way up the staircase, if nobody objects.]
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...winters stick together, don't they? he lets that thought rattle around inside his head a little, thinking about that bond before he lets a hand stray to his pocket. whatever he's looking for isn't there and he frowns to himself.
even if this isn't real, that doesn't change much. but he doesn't bother saying that, leaving it to someone better with words.]
Be ready for more of those things at the top.
[but he will follow up the stairs as well.]
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on the way to pick up her keyblade, she brushes her fingers against ichiro’s elbow. ]
I’ll beat the shit out of them.
[ she’s not great with words, but up the stairs she goes, too. ]
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The farther you go in your journey together, the longer you spend in the darkness. Don't be afraid, even when the darkness closes in around you. Together with your friends, you can pull through.
On the stairs, each one of their hearts grow heavy with burden. The anger in Ichiro's heart swells; he's angry easier, angrier more often, or reacts with anger first. The fear in Beauregard's heart rises. She's more paranoid of others, more frightened by uncertain situations. The jealousy in Taichi's heart grows. The things others have--love, family, friends, success--he wants bitterly, and he's more prone to be greedy. The melancholy in Kainé's heart weighs her down. As they go, she finds she is sad more than she is anything else, and she is prone to being morose.
They arrive at the next platform. The light here is a little brighter, like it's growing the higher they climb. The stained glass here is a vibrant blue and gold. Beauregard is imprinted in the glass along the circle of one side, reclined, eyes closed. In the bubbles of decoration beside her are a woman with long, dual-toned hair, and three slitted eyes.
At the back of the platform is another egg-shaped pod, petals open. Standing in the middle is Caleb who reaches up just as the petals encase him, tucking him in to sleep.
Nearby, something appears, swirling into existence. It's almost four times larger than the creatures from before. Beside it, two other creatures appear. The wick sticking out of their heads are suspicious...]
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and then
(ichiro voice) i would like to rage
ichiro's always been angry. since he was younger, since his mom died, since everything happened with his dad - it ate away at him and sent him into blind fury when he didn't want it to. it was what mozuku cultivated in him, and what the world wanted out of him, but ichiro has done his best to try not to give in to it at the worst moments. right now, he steps onto this glass platform with the others and takes light literally, as the world gets a little brighter, and sees caleb. and ichiro really likes caleb! a lot! therefore it is so easy to get angry. should he wait? probably! for the second time! does he wait? no!
he's going for the big guy first. by now, the routine seems pretty established, and he shouts and launches himself at the big guy, promptly bouncing off of its giant belly because i'm rping him and therefore that has to happen at least once.
he will, however, keep attacking it, though, aiming to fend it off and keep the big guy away from the others, and from the sleeping illusion of caleb, too. ] C'mon, your target's me! Pick on someone your own size!
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but hers is different. her rage is - scared. uncertain. she doesn't know the woman on the tile, or - or she can't quite grasp it. and the eyes are even worse. the eyes make her panic. watching caleb get pulled away - and she forgets everything else. the enemies, the other students, it doesn't matter. she can't trust them. but she can trust caleb. right?
he'd be so mad if he knew she was falling for this. but she's scared. she thinks about him stumbling out of the woods last week, she thinks about - a flash, mist, a sword swinging down into purple skin, and she refuses to let that happen again. so she runs.
beau sprints across the platform, and launches herself at the pod, trying to beat it open with her fists, her keyblade - anything. get him out.]
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this wasn’t a choice, being here with people that have things to get back to and people that love and care about them. if he thinks about it too long, he thinks about family that doesn’t even know he’s gone, a sister that may never forgive him for choices he’s mad, friends who moved on without him, a best friend that he keeps disappointing over and over again, a bleak future with no direction…that’s right, right? everyone else around him seems to have a purpose, a place, and accomplishments.
it’s bullshit, frankly, and it’s that desire to do something and prove himself worthy of these things that sends him rushing across the platform toward one of the smaller creatures. rationally, yes, he should watch what they’re doing before attacking but who the fuck cares?
he wants to do something right for once, and it’s why he thinks nothing as he slashes at the creature immediately, keeping an eye on the others to make sure they’re focused on their own tasks.]
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Some of that is gone, right? Some of the light in her life has slipped away, and her darkness has always sang of despair and solitude.
Anger and spite and violence have always been crutches for her, to cover for just how sad she is inside, and she's slower now, but she is no less violent.
Fuck. This.
[ She goes after one of the Detonators with her keyblade. Hope she blows up! ]
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The Large Boy slaps its stomach right before Ichiro charges. It's tubby and rotund, and--bouncy? Ichiro bounces right off. The attack doesn't seem to have done anything at all...
The stomach seems to laugh and jiggle, even if it only makes a strange, incomprehensible noise. And then it charges directly in a line in front of it at Ichiro. Please don't get crushed. But that isn't up to me, it's up to Sisi. Just know it hits very hard. The gravity of how heavy it runs by is something Taichi should look out, too! It'll suck Taichi in closer without warning.
Beauregard can beat on the pod. When she hits it with the keyblade, the glass splits, a hairline of a crack. Light, bright and blinding, shines out of it. Something happens.
They can feel another pull to their heart. Memories slip away: Ichiro's two younger brothers, their love and their existences; Taichi forcing his digimon partner to evolve, he's desperate, he needs this to work, but something goes wrong, it's not the right form, and it turns on him; Beauregard's father finds her a disgrace, unruly, uncontrollable, he tells her to leave the home she's known all her life; a wild and bold grandmother with a mouth, Kainé's, the only woman who has shown her love. They leave their hearts, pulled out.
And then swap. Beauregard has two younger brothers she loves more than life itself; Taichi's grandmother is the only person he's ever known, the only one to offer him love and acceptance; Kainé's father finds her a disappointment and exiles her from home, from her family; Ichiro made a decision to push his digimon to its limits, and it backfired. It hits them and rattles them to the core.
And yeah, the Detonator is going to absolutely blow up when it gets close to Kainé because Ara is mean.]
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he can't be knocked down forever. why would he be knocked down forever. what the fuck thinks that? he thinks of -
- he thinks of his partner. he thinks of pushing him too hard and it hurts, as hard as the hit from the monster did. he thinks about the pain he must have caused. that was cruel, he doesn't want to, he never wanted to hurt anyone - his eyes shut, tight, and he takes a breath that hurts and rattles in his ribcage, and...
... he thinks about how being angry has only ever caused him and the people around him pain.
he remembers the orphanage head, and his smug, slimy face. he remembers beating it in, and he can't remember why, but he remembers how if he'd just kept his cool, he could've made things right. he was going to lose something, that's what he threatened, he was going to take something from ichiro that mattered more than anything in the world, and that was why he snapped, and he lost it anyway.
because he was angry.
as the large boy starts running again, and it does seem like he's going to be crushed, ichiro's eyes snap open.
he thinks to himself, with the sort of determined ferocity that has carried him forward to this point - not again. and he springs back to his feet and rolls out of the way of being stomped on. even it hurts, he forces himself to think, watches the fucker with his stupid stomach and realizes, oh, no shit i can't hit him, then spins around and tries for a strike at its back.
coming down from that, he sees the light a second too late. kainé is far and beau is too, but taichi is important and taichi is right here, and ichiro throws himself in his direction, hoping to grab him by the collar or shield him from the detonator with his body, or something, and shouts - ] Watch out!
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she loses something, but she can't remember. she can't remember what it was, sand in an hourglass. something in her feels lighter, but at the same time, heavier. whatever is gone wasn't important, but what is is the memory of her her brothers, who she loves more than anything. they are relying on her. it's been a long couple of weeks, missing them.
you don't have friends. you don't have anyone besides your little brothers, and you have to work for them, every day. have to get good grades, have to go to school, have to work this shitty dirty job, have to work the clean jobs, have to do everything you can for them, and you're okay with that.
she thinks about jiro, in the pod before, and how she would throw every single one of the people around her off this damn platform if it meant he was safe. she can't trust any of them. for a long time, it's just been her and the two of them, jiro and saburo, and she has been alone.
but... caleb? but caleb. molly?
she stumbles back a few steps away from the pod, and looks... confused.
just in time to be too close to the Detonator! yay, the two foulmouthed fight girls get to explode together.]
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