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.]
[a memory gone and a memory replaced, but it's so seamless it's like nothing's changed at all. the only thing that resonates is a pang of bitterness, at knowing there are people that have a support system left and knowing they actually aren't on their own. strength in friends...is important. it would mean more if his friends were here. wouldn't it?
the two girls are too close to the detonator but he doesn't have time to react. instead, ichiro's here and there's some sort of fury in his voice when he snaps back.]
I don't need your help!
[which is true enough, except there's still that angry, annoyed part of him that knows he has to protect these people and get them back to people who care about them. it means he's attempting to stab his keyblade into the platform as something to ground him, to avoid being sucked in and attempting to swerve both himself and ichiro out of the way even if it means an elbow to the gut. sorry, not sorry.
She no longer has someone who loves and accepts for everything that she is. Instead, she has a father that is like her entire village, someone who hates her and wants her dead, someone who'd be more than happy if she never came back. It only makes her angrier. It only makes her sadder.
It only makes her life worse.
It means Nier had to try twenty times harder to get her to join his party somehow.
The new memory weighs her down even more, and she can no longer dodge in time. The warnings are all too late. Her melancholy is too great. The explosion catches her fully.
She doesn't even scream as she flies and goes down on the stained glass. ]
[Can't believe you blew up both my Detonators. This is fine.
The Large Boy finally takes a good hit to the back! The smack peels sparkles out of it, and it stumbles over forward. But it's still standing! It bounds fatly out of the destruction of the blast. Both arms come up and then slam down on the platform, sending shock waves toward Taichi and Ichiro to try to toss them high into the air.
Two new creatures appear in the air, twitching and bobbing. (Please look at their lil feet, I love them.) They doff their hats at them!
--And then a ring of magic forms in the air behind their backs, and they start firing balls of flames in Kainé and Beauregard's directions. Hope... they got up...?]
[ alright. well! well, ichiro is sent flying with that in a jumble of his limbs right after taichi managed to elbow him in his ribs that just took a pretty nasty hit, so he's not great! but it's fine. he almost shoots him a look because what the fuck, dude, but thankfully, being yeeted into the sky is a nice redirect for that!
his body hurts, and the keyblade feels like it weighs a ton in his hand, weighed down by what's missing, or by the heaviness of remembering. he's supposed to have courage. isn't that what happened? he was afraid, and his fear cost his friend everything?
he grits his teeth as gravity kicks in, and this time, the fall is not going to be as light as it was when they landed. ichiro shouts and swings his arms up as he attempts to gets his wits around him as he's falling, hoping to bring this keyblade down onto some kind of monster's head, trying to focus all of his fury into defending the people here. that's what anger can be good for. that's what he's used his attacks for, protecting other people, even if they aren't ready to be protected.
fuck it! he's gonna hit this motherfucker and then probably break like five bones on impact but whatever at least he's gonna cause some damage first! fuck! ]
[well, it looks like both girls are down, at the moment, but beau isn't weighed down by the knowing her father thinks she's a waste of space, though, so she's got that going for her.
stubbornly, beau pulls herself up to sit. not for herself, so much. she has to. everything hurts, and she - well. she doesn't look great. she is... covered in burns, and she probably is like, bleeding from the ears from how loud it was? she can't hear super well. it's fine. explosions are bad.
the fireballs come flying at them, and she looks up just in time from where she's mostly slumped on the ground - she brings her keyblade up to half-assedly protect herself. more than anything she wants to bounce the fireballs back at the little flying bitches than she cares about being not-burnt further.
she does not protect kainé, though. can't trust her. she's paranoid.
... gotta make it back to the pod, too. caleb's in there and she's got the brain scramblies, so she can't remember shit's not real.]
[oh. okay! fuck! there's a startled yell as he and ichiro are thrown straight into the air. does this game have fall damage? it doesn't matter. beau can go off and save her friend or whatever, and kainé knows how to take care of herself better than he can, he thinks. all of these people are stronger than he is. it's like someone told him when they first came to this stupid school. he doesn't know how to fight. he can't even defend himself.
maybe it's that need to prove it wrong, or it's the way he wants to be better that means he redirects his keyblade for a downward strike in a spot ichiro isn't aiming for, not even thinking about how he might land. fuck off already!]
[ It takes considerable effort for Kainé to get up. Burns litter her front, and her breaths come in as hisses and gasps. She grits her teeth as she rises to her feet only to see fireballs coming her way.
Great! Just what she wanted when she's feeling like shit. At least spite keeps her going.
Not unlike Beau, she's going to try to hit a fireball back. She shifts her stance and holds the keyblade like a bat. Perhaps she's keeping in mind the things Luke could have told her about baseball if that mingle didn't hit captcha and I wasn't too weak to do captcha.
Who knows if she strikes out or not? Anna can decide if Kainé deserves a little kindness. ]
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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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the two girls are too close to the detonator but he doesn't have time to react. instead, ichiro's here and there's some sort of fury in his voice when he snaps back.]
I don't need your help!
[which is true enough, except there's still that angry, annoyed part of him that knows he has to protect these people and get them back to people who care about them. it means he's attempting to stab his keyblade into the platform as something to ground him, to avoid being sucked in and attempting to swerve both himself and ichiro out of the way even if it means an elbow to the gut. sorry, not sorry.
and yet there's a yell to the two girls as well.]
Dodge!
[which, well, it's probably too late, huh?]
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She no longer has someone who loves and accepts for everything that she is. Instead, she has a father that is like her entire village, someone who hates her and wants her dead, someone who'd be more than happy if she never came back. It only makes her angrier. It only makes her sadder.
It only makes her life worse.
It means Nier had to try twenty times harder to get her to join his party somehow.
The new memory weighs her down even more, and she can no longer dodge in time. The warnings are all too late. Her melancholy is too great. The explosion catches her fully.
She doesn't even scream as she flies and goes down on the stained glass. ]
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The Large Boy finally takes a good hit to the back! The smack peels sparkles out of it, and it stumbles over forward. But it's still standing! It bounds fatly out of the destruction of the blast. Both arms come up and then slam down on the platform, sending shock waves toward Taichi and Ichiro to try to toss them high into the air.
Two new creatures appear in the air, twitching and bobbing. (Please look at their lil feet, I love them.) They doff their hats at them!
--And then a ring of magic forms in the air behind their backs, and they start firing balls of flames in Kainé and Beauregard's directions. Hope... they got up...?]
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his body hurts, and the keyblade feels like it weighs a ton in his hand, weighed down by what's missing, or by the heaviness of remembering. he's supposed to have courage. isn't that what happened? he was afraid, and his fear cost his friend everything?
he grits his teeth as gravity kicks in, and this time, the fall is not going to be as light as it was when they landed. ichiro shouts and swings his arms up as he attempts to gets his wits around him as he's falling, hoping to bring this keyblade down onto some kind of monster's head, trying to focus all of his fury into defending the people here. that's what anger can be good for. that's what he's used his attacks for, protecting other people, even if they aren't ready to be protected.
fuck it! he's gonna hit this motherfucker and then probably break like five bones on impact but whatever at least he's gonna cause some damage first! fuck! ]
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stubbornly, beau pulls herself up to sit. not for herself, so much. she has to. everything hurts, and she - well. she doesn't look great. she is... covered in burns, and she probably is like, bleeding from the ears from how loud it was? she can't hear super well. it's fine. explosions are bad.
the fireballs come flying at them, and she looks up just in time from where she's mostly slumped on the ground - she brings her keyblade up to half-assedly protect herself. more than anything she wants to bounce the fireballs back at the little flying bitches than she cares about being not-burnt further.
she does not protect kainé, though. can't trust her. she's paranoid.
... gotta make it back to the pod, too. caleb's in there and she's got the brain scramblies, so she can't remember shit's not real.]
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maybe it's that need to prove it wrong, or it's the way he wants to be better that means he redirects his keyblade for a downward strike in a spot ichiro isn't aiming for, not even thinking about how he might land. fuck off already!]
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Great! Just what she wanted when she's feeling like shit. At least spite keeps her going.
Not unlike Beau, she's going to try to hit a fireball back. She shifts her stance and holds the keyblade like a bat. Perhaps she's keeping in mind the things Luke could have told her about baseball if that mingle didn't hit captcha and I wasn't too weak to do captcha.
Who knows if she strikes out or not? Anna can decide if Kainé deserves a little kindness. ]
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