[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. ]
[There's fall damage because y'all wanna be chaotic. :pensive:
The keyblades clock the Large Boy great on the noggin on both sides. Taichi and Ichiro plummet to the ground, and the Large Boy promptly flops over when its legs give out from under it. Stunned, it sits on the platform with very literal stars spinning around its head.
Which helps when Beauregard tries to bounce the fireballs back. When firing, the lil bird feet Nocturnes can't dodge, so the one firing at Beauregard eats one of its own attacks. It erupts in a fiery blast. The next fireball shoots right by its flaming body, smacking the Large Boy in the back. OW!
Not far behind, Kainé Louisville slugs the shit out of one of the fireballs. Doesn't feel great on the burns, but it does return fire the red Nocturne. The hit sends it spiraling over and back, smashing into the back of the Large Boy, exploding in fire and sparkles. Just as the big creature starts to come to, the last hit does it in.
The sparkles it leaves behind as it blows up rain down on Ichiro and Taichi. It sears them like embers, but the burns look more radiant than they do like the ones from flames. Four pieces of notebook paper flutter to the ground where the creature use to be, pictures scribbled onto them:
Two younger brothers holding hands, a weathered grandmother with strangely kind eyes, a terrifying bone monster, and a POS somewhat short, pudgy man with widow-peaked dark hair.]
[ the fall knocks the wind out of ichiro immediately - he feels another crack that is probably one of his ribs and goes down like a sack of bricks, but they at least manage to knock out the big guy. it's something. he looks to taichi, quickly, hissing out a - ] Fucking ow - [ at how bad that hurts, but he is not dead. he's not sure if he can get up that easily, but. hey.
they are not dead! that's a good sign. he's got about enough reaction time to check on taichi and then the large boy gets fuckin fastball special'd. ichiro puts his keyblade up to try and shield them both, persistently annoying because if taichi is going to be all Edgy Lone Wolf then ichiro's going to keep protecting him out of sheer spite, but it's not gonna cut the blast radius nearly enough to do much besides protect their faces.
he takes the burns that come - they sear his jacket and leave painful burns on his shoulders and his arm that's holding the keyblade aloft to try and deflect - then looks down at the papers as he opens his eyes from where they were squinted shut against the brightness of the explosion of sparkles.
he's got that paper of the red haired kid in his pocket from earlier, but his heart lurches at the sight of the bone monster. some part of him thinks maybe he should tear it up, anger at his own failures prevalent and visceral, and he grabs the paper... but only just crumples it a little bit and picks it up.
ichiro takes a breath. wheezy, painful, and calls out - ] ...Everyone okay? [ fuck. he knows the answer is no. he is definitely not okay. but he's holding onto what that voice said. you have to be a leader, even if the ground crumbles under your feet. maybe it will? that's what anna says. he taps the ground. ] These - papers, these papers are here.
[ and it's so strange; ichiro's eyes keeps drawing back to the one with the two younger brothers. he cannot figure out for the life of him, why. ]
beau just. flops on the ground again for a second when the little enemy guy explodes. her everything hurts. wow. long pause.
but ultimately, this is a small tag because beau pulls herself to her feet eventually and doggedly makes her way to the pod. give her caleb, you stupid pod asshole. she will beat the fuck out of this pod with her fists until it opens!!
for flavor she steps on the face of the pudgy man on the paper as she passes, ignoring ichiro entirely.]
[fucking ow x3. down they go and there's a loud smack as he lands. he doesn't break his spine, but that's definitely going to leave a huge bruised area that'll make it difficult to move for a few days. while he's busy kinning dub yamato, he tries to roll out of the way but finds he can't move fast enough to shield himself from the blast. ichiro's guard is thrown up and he waits for the explosion to subside. the embers fall and burn holes in his sleeves and through his pant legs, leaving burns along his legs so i can finally force him to stop playing soccer for a while. but it's stubbornness that means he rolls to his knees.
he watches ichiro take the picture of the weird bone monster and something tugs at his brain, a little weird and something akin to a loss that doesn't quite fit. it's with a strange kind of tenderness that he picks up the picture of his grandmother though, folding it properly to tuck away in his pocket.]
...grab Caleb if we can. Papers too. Where the hell are the stairs...?
Her movements are not great for her burns, but pain is not new to her. She's fought with worse, but she's even slower and less agile now. Maybe she'll remember her keyblade can heal eventually.
For now, she grabs the pieces of notebook paper that are left on the ground even if she'd rather leave that piece of shit on the ground where it deserves to be. They're probably important for this somehow, but she doesn't have the brain to figure out how or why because - nothing seems too different....? Even if there's a pang when she sees Taichi pick up the one of his grandmother.
She looks for stairs, too, now that Taichi mentions them. ]
[The crack in the glass of the pod crackles when Beauregard bangs against it. After a moment, the petals shift and begin to fold open, and they will absolutely smack her if she doesn't back up.
Inside, Caleb is missing. But left behind in a piece of notebook paper, looking worse for wear. The edges and pieces of the middle are singed and charred. The scrawled, child-like picture of a man in a scarf with a cat isn't looking to great either.
Bits and pieces of him have been colored in black. One of his eyes is large and golden.
Stairs on the side of the platform raise up out of the nothingness, spiraling upward. Above them... another platform.]
[ it's slow getting up, but ichiro pushes his keyblade into the ground and uses it to help himself stand up. he's not doing good, chief! but up he goes, coughing once and letting it rattle around. that can't bet oo good.
ichiro casts a quick glance to the others, to make sure everyone's at least breathing. even if he feels angry, still, that low pulse of pain helps keep him grounded, and he glances over to the platform.
don't be afraid. well. he's not. he's angry and confused and feeling scattered - he watches kainé pick up the last picture on the ground, of the two younger boys, and sucks in a deep breath that aches at his ribs. ]
Me too. [ tired of this shit. he looks over at beau and sees the drawing and feels his heart lurch. that can't be good. ]
Stay together. [ he says, leaning on the keyblade and waiting for the others, nodding back towards the pod. ichiro likes caleb, a lot, and caleb was the one who said his little trip was full of illusions - he's gonna hold onto that. gonna force the pain and those thoughts forward. gonna keep moving. he pauses by beau, and says - ] ...They might be up further ahead.
[ he can't remember who was down on the floor below. but he knows, knows they were important to him, and ichiro won't give up on the fact that they could be gone. ]
[she does not back up. smack her, she doesn't give two shits!!
in fact, she pushes through them, trying to climb into the fucking pod itself, but. nothing. just a paper. she crouches down next to it, a fear rising in her throat. no. no, no. she doesn't like that it's singed. she doesn't like that he looks like this. it's the eye that fucks her up the most. it's not red, but it makes her feel sick to her stomach.
or maybe that's just the pain from stumbling around with a shitton of third degree burns! who knows.
she doesn't quite hear ichiro, expression tight as she stands up, unsteadily. keep going. move up. find him, find your way out, and get back to your brothers. she has a goal, and fuck the rest of them.
[he's starting to kind of hate being here, but he doesn't say so. the longer they're here, the less he finds he has to say. they all have a goal to reach, and all he's doing is...what? wasting time? helping them get what they want? it's hard to say.
likewise, he uses his keyblade to get to his feet even if every time he bends and moves his body would really love him to not. nevertheless he's on his feet and he watches beau walk past them.]
Be careful. If there's more of these things they're probably gonna get worse. Don't push yourself.
[it's a quiet aside, but he lifts his head a little higher and begins to walk forward to head up the stairs. losing them would mean people back at wiwaldi would be upset. too many people care about them to let that happen. he's already failed to save other people. this isn't the time to continue that pattern.]
[ Being tired and sorrowful doesn't make her that much of an asshole actually, not much more of one than she usually is anyway. She sees everyone move with so much effort, and she remembers (even if there is so much else she doesn't) what she can do.
She can heal and tries to do just that. Just a small Cure (can it even do more than just Cure) so they can move better because everyone deserves their injuries to frighten all their CR like good and loving people who do no wrong. There are more platforms to go and more monsters to fight, she bets, and they need to be able to beat the shit out of all of them.
They have to keep moving. They have to get to the bottom of this place—or to the top.
[The third rounded platform is a wash of blue, too, but it's lighter, a little greener, and the edges are tinged with a bit of orange. Taichi is here below their feet in the stained glass, cradled along the circular edge with his eyes closed, holding a strange device in his left hand.
The bubbles etched into the glass near him total three: a girl with short, coppery hair and red eyes; a familiar blonde boy; and a very small, orange reptile.
This platform has a pod, too, on the far side. Hikari stands inside of it, both hands curled close to her chest under her chin. The petals fold up around her, encasing her in sleep.
A challenger materializes out of the darkest ether of the heart. Two other lil feety boys appear. Hm.]
[ that little cure feels like jakurai’a mic - a wash of warmth that surges through his veins. Ichiro takes a deep breath and lets it out as he feels some of the pain leave him - and when kainé comes by, he gives her a grateful smile.
after that, it’s onwards and upwards, though. by now, this is routine, and after seeing everyone get fireballed to all hell, when they make it up the stairs, ichiro’s using his big ass keyblade to aim for one of the lil feety boys. he’s really tall, so therefore, he’s gonna try and whack these flying bastards into each other. He doesn’t know the girl, but by now, this is good. they’ve got this. even if these stupid fuckers won’t stop flying out of his reach, which is exceedingly annoying and pissing off his temper even worse by the second, but Ichiro grits his teeth and swings high. fuck u ] ]
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no subject
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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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! ]
no subject
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 subject
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!
no subject
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.]
no subject
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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The keyblades clock the Large Boy great on the noggin on both sides. Taichi and Ichiro plummet to the ground, and the Large Boy promptly flops over when its legs give out from under it. Stunned, it sits on the platform with very literal stars spinning around its head.
Which helps when Beauregard tries to bounce the fireballs back. When firing, the lil bird feet Nocturnes can't dodge, so the one firing at Beauregard eats one of its own attacks. It erupts in a fiery blast. The next fireball shoots right by its flaming body, smacking the Large Boy in the back. OW!
Not far behind, Kainé Louisville slugs the shit out of one of the fireballs. Doesn't feel great on the burns, but it does return fire the red Nocturne. The hit sends it spiraling over and back, smashing into the back of the Large Boy, exploding in fire and sparkles. Just as the big creature starts to come to, the last hit does it in.
The sparkles it leaves behind as it blows up rain down on Ichiro and Taichi. It sears them like embers, but the burns look more radiant than they do like the ones from flames. Four pieces of notebook paper flutter to the ground where the creature use to be, pictures scribbled onto them:
Two younger brothers holding hands, a weathered grandmother with strangely kind eyes, a terrifying bone monster, and a
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they are not dead! that's a good sign. he's got about enough reaction time to check on taichi and then the large boy gets fuckin fastball special'd. ichiro puts his keyblade up to try and shield them both, persistently annoying because if taichi is going to be all Edgy Lone Wolf then ichiro's going to keep protecting him out of sheer spite, but it's not gonna cut the blast radius nearly enough to do much besides protect their faces.
he takes the burns that come - they sear his jacket and leave painful burns on his shoulders and his arm that's holding the keyblade aloft to try and deflect - then looks down at the papers as he opens his eyes from where they were squinted shut against the brightness of the explosion of sparkles.
he's got that paper of the red haired kid in his pocket from earlier, but his heart lurches at the sight of the bone monster. some part of him thinks maybe he should tear it up, anger at his own failures prevalent and visceral, and he grabs the paper... but only just crumples it a little bit and picks it up.
ichiro takes a breath. wheezy, painful, and calls out - ] ...Everyone okay? [ fuck. he knows the answer is no. he is definitely not okay. but he's holding onto what that voice said. you have to be a leader, even if the ground crumbles under your feet. maybe it will? that's what anna says. he taps the ground. ] These - papers, these papers are here.
[ and it's so strange; ichiro's eyes keeps drawing back to the one with the two younger brothers. he cannot figure out for the life of him, why. ]
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beau just. flops on the ground again for a second when the little enemy guy explodes. her everything hurts. wow. long pause.
but ultimately, this is a small tag because beau pulls herself to her feet eventually and doggedly makes her way to the pod. give her caleb, you stupid pod asshole. she will beat the fuck out of this pod with her fists until it opens!!
for flavor she steps on the face of the pudgy man on the paper as she passes, ignoring ichiro entirely.]
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he watches ichiro take the picture of the weird bone monster and something tugs at his brain, a little weird and something akin to a loss that doesn't quite fit. it's with a strange kind of tenderness that he picks up the picture of his grandmother though, folding it properly to tuck away in his pocket.]
...grab Caleb if we can. Papers too. Where the hell are the stairs...?
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Her movements are not great for her burns, but pain is not new to her. She's fought with worse, but she's even slower and less agile now. Maybe she'll remember her keyblade can heal eventually.
For now, she grabs the pieces of notebook paper that are left on the ground even if she'd rather leave that piece of shit on the ground where it deserves to be. They're probably important for this somehow, but she doesn't have the brain to figure out how or why because - nothing seems too different....? Even if there's a pang when she sees Taichi pick up the one of his grandmother.
She looks for stairs, too, now that Taichi mentions them. ]
I'm tired of this shit already.
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Inside, Caleb is missing. But left behind in a piece of notebook paper, looking worse for wear. The edges and pieces of the middle are singed and charred. The scrawled, child-like picture of a man in a scarf with a cat isn't looking to great either.
Bits and pieces of him have been colored in black. One of his eyes is large and golden.
Stairs on the side of the platform raise up out of the nothingness, spiraling upward. Above them... another platform.]
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ichiro casts a quick glance to the others, to make sure everyone's at least breathing. even if he feels angry, still, that low pulse of pain helps keep him grounded, and he glances over to the platform.
don't be afraid. well. he's not. he's angry and confused and feeling scattered - he watches kainé pick up the last picture on the ground, of the two younger boys, and sucks in a deep breath that aches at his ribs. ]
Me too. [ tired of this shit. he looks over at beau and sees the drawing and feels his heart lurch. that can't be good. ]
Stay together. [ he says, leaning on the keyblade and waiting for the others, nodding back towards the pod. ichiro likes caleb, a lot, and caleb was the one who said his little trip was full of illusions - he's gonna hold onto that. gonna force the pain and those thoughts forward. gonna keep moving. he pauses by beau, and says - ] ...They might be up further ahead.
[ he can't remember who was down on the floor below. but he knows, knows they were important to him, and ichiro won't give up on the fact that they could be gone. ]
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in fact, she pushes through them, trying to climb into the fucking pod itself, but. nothing. just a paper. she crouches down next to it, a fear rising in her throat. no. no, no. she doesn't like that it's singed. she doesn't like that he looks like this. it's the eye that fucks her up the most. it's not red, but it makes her feel sick to her stomach.
or maybe that's just the pain from stumbling around with a shitton of third degree burns! who knows.
she doesn't quite hear ichiro, expression tight as she stands up, unsteadily. keep going. move up. find him, find your way out, and get back to your brothers. she has a goal, and fuck the rest of them.
off she goes!]
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likewise, he uses his keyblade to get to his feet even if every time he bends and moves his body would really love him to not. nevertheless he's on his feet and he watches beau walk past them.]
Be careful. If there's more of these things they're probably gonna get worse. Don't push yourself.
[it's a quiet aside, but he lifts his head a little higher and begins to walk forward to head up the stairs. losing them would mean people back at wiwaldi would be upset. too many people care about them to let that happen. he's already failed to save other people. this isn't the time to continue that pattern.]
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She can heal and tries to do just that. Just a small Cure (can it even do more than just Cure) so they can move better because everyone deserves their injuries to frighten all their CR like good and loving people who do no wrong. There are more platforms to go and more monsters to fight, she bets, and they need to be able to beat the shit out of all of them.
They have to keep moving. They have to get to the bottom of this place—or to the top.
She climbs because she won't stop. ]
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The bubbles etched into the glass near him total three: a girl with short, coppery hair and red eyes; a familiar blonde boy; and a very small, orange reptile.
This platform has a pod, too, on the far side. Hikari stands inside of it, both hands curled close to her chest under her chin. The petals fold up around her, encasing her in sleep.
A challenger materializes out of the darkest ether of the heart. Two other lil feety boys appear. Hm.]
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after that, it’s onwards and upwards, though. by now, this is routine, and after seeing everyone get fireballed to all hell, when they make it up the stairs, ichiro’s using his big ass keyblade to aim for one of the lil feety boys. he’s really tall, so therefore, he’s gonna try and whack these flying bastards into each other. He doesn’t know the girl, but by now, this is good. they’ve got this. even if these stupid fuckers won’t stop flying out of his reach, which is exceedingly annoying and pissing off his temper even worse by the second, but Ichiro grits his teeth and swings high. fuck u ] ]
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