[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 ] ]
[the cure makes it - easier to walk, at least. she feels less like yartzing! which is good, because there are more enemies, and she's getting tired of this battle royale. she clutches the singed paper in her left fist, taking a deep breath. closer. there can't be too much more of this, she thinks. jiro and saburo are counting on you. don't fuck up.
she feels fuzzy. feels - scared? which she hates, more than anything. not a lot scares beauregard lionett, but her memories feel like soup, a little, and caleb is gone. something else is gone too. something important that pings her especially hard when she looks around at the others slowly dragging themselves up the stairs.
are you guys glad you gave the paranoid-afflicted one the shield yet
she watches ichiro go straight for the feetsy boys, and beau takes a deep breath and shoves the paper caleb in her pocket, shifting her keyblade. squares her shoulders. and goes for the big icy boy in front of them. beau darts forward, aiming to smack it with her blade, and then - well, instinctively, she punches it. hm.]
[well. there's a nod of thanks for the cure as it means he can walk with slightly less stiffness, but it doesn't matter much. they make it up to the platform, and he recognizes himself obviously. he recognizes yamato. but it's the other two that the details are a little fuzzy on thanks to ichiro having memories of his partner and him having memories of only a grandmother that really cared for him.
he faintly remembers, and realizes, maybe, that this girl must be very important to him. is it possible? could it really be true that there's someone else? it's...stupid, maybe, to hope for something like that but he wants it anyway. he wants what the others have, relationships that matter and people important that are still here. yamato's not here. yamato's out there and yamato's making other friends anyway, including people like beau. people like ichiro. people that he likes better.
but whatever this is, whoever this is, maybe she's meant to be his and only his. it's why he walks forward across the glass, a passing, uncertain look at the three figures in the bubble before he dashes across the field and toward the pod. here's hoping he can get past the large icy boy that beau's taking care of, but he does jump a little to swing at the little feets of the floaty boy, too, as he attempts to get to the pod to open it.]
Well. To be fair to everyone else, maybe a little, sure.
She makes it onto the platform, and that's what matters! Same song and dance, same important people in pods. It's pissing her off that they are getting toyed with like this, that they're being played like this, with illusions or not of people they cherish. It pulls at the sadness of her heart, and she only gets angrier to try and combat it.
If the boys want to indulge in their feetish, Kainé will go about seeing if she can't get frostbite on top of her many burns.
It's a good idea to fight next to the really paranoid one, right? Anyway, she's going to try to hack at the blizzard boy in time with Beau's punch. ]
Because Ichiro connects! It bops the little bell-shaped creature enough to knock some sparkle off it. But! It sends a ripple of electricity down the conductive keyblade and straight into Ichiro's body.
Taichi can't quite reach the other one because it's so high. That's fine. Its little bird feet wiggle as its body shakes, and it zaps Taichi with a bolt of electricity from afar.
The Blizzard Lord bobs in the air until Beauregard and Kainé dive in. It tanks the hits--they cause sparks to fly off it, but it doesn't look too worse for wear, not even from the punch.
Beauregard can see... through its stomach? Like a globe. Weird. There is a vortex of... ice and snow inside...?
The belly starts to grow!!
The Blizzard Lord draws in a huge breath as it tips a little back. And then it rolls forward, blowing a wide, cone spray of ice out in front of it. It's so cold it burns, bad!]
by which i mean, fucking hell does that hurt. the metal connects, he wallops the bell shaped thing, and realizes the gravity of his mistake about a half second later. being shocked like that feels like getting hit with a mic in all of the worst kind of ways - the percussive nature of it and the white hot heat that comes with sizzles through his body, and ichiro this time lets out a shout of pain, unable to hold it back as he's thrown backwards and away from the lightning boy, left shaking with the force of the electric shock as it works through his system - the arm of his jacket smokes and he can feel the pain of injury vaguely before he goes down hard, and for a second, the whole world goes completely dark.
at least ichiro is used to taking a stupid amount of internal damage, which is such an unfortunate sentence, so his consciousness returns to him a moment later, blood trickling from his ringing ears, heart pounding, alive, but in a fuckton of pain.
ow.
get up. he tells himself, reminiscent of a battle a long, long time ago. they need you. get up. so with that, he's going to try and struggle back up to his feet and go back to helping and not hitting the lightning boy with his keyblade again. ]
beau, on the periphery of her vision, sees ichiro go down, and for a second there's a panicked response - this week in particular is bad for watching people go for an attack and get knocked out instead, haha - and not even her brain scramblies are enough. she can't trust any of them, but... she doesn't want them to die. right? that's not what you promised yourself you'd do.
but she doesn't have much time else to react, because the big guy that she and kainé are fighting expands, and she gets about two seconds to get out:] Oh, shit --
[before it's blasting both of them with ice. it's always ice, huh? it's always ice.
it burns, and it especially does not feel good on top of the other injuries she has. beau's tough but even she can't stop the yelp of pain as the ice covers her. she stumbles back, one, two steps.
the extra bad thing is that it's memshare week, and she's had a few memories that she's locked away knocked loose. for a second, she's in a different place. she's in several - a long dirt road facing down a demon that took - her friends? her brothers? she can't remember - she's frozen, a purple tiefling holding her up by the throat, grinning. it's always ice. and there's too much fear in her heart for her to move.
it is up to anna whether or not she actually memshares these since this is her fuckhouse but your local lesbian is dissociating a bit while mostly frozen, thank you have a nice day.]
[well. fuck. the bell-creature strikes with lightning and he yelps as the bolt hits, not quite the same amount of electrocution ichiro’s going through over there but enough to dizzy him and shock him briefly. the snow monster’s still attacking and he can hear it moving and growling...while he can’t entirely see the field behind him he knows they’re all taking too many hits to keep going much further.
what can he even do here? he doesn’t have a way to heal, and he doesn’t have a way to get them out of here. even if it’s with the risk of getting shocked again, he tries to jump even higher to knock out the little feety boy above him.
at the same time though…what was it that voice said? strength. they need strength to get out of this and they still have to work together. it doesn’t matter what the others have and what he doesn’t. he has the ability to help, somehow.
even his own selfish, lonely feelings aren’t enough to deter him from trying to swing his keyblade and send extra strength to the others. is that how it works? he doesn’t know. all he knows is that unlike the others he can keep moving easily and begins making his way to the pod once again after that.]
[ oh, this is bad. this is very bad. she’s only seen snow for the first time this week, so she can’t react in time to the ice, and it burns her skin in ways she’s never felt before.
she drops to the ground and rolls with a screech that turns into a groan. beau is frozen, and she can’t stay down. she can’t stop.
she has to move, and she gets to her feet, struggling through the pain. but she’s used to pain, isn’t she?
with newfound strength, she launches herself again at the blizzard lord with her keyblade. she knows nothing of elemental weaknesses i’m sorry. ]
First of all: good boy Taichi does pretty much the equivalent of Amp It Up. All four of them feel a swathe of energy swoop up through their bodies from their core. A strong, warm, burning fuel straight from the heart. They feel rallied! They feel strong, and a little bit faster which blankets over the pain of their injuries.
Also, Beauregard is literally frozen. Memshare can happy because that's sad and funny. Everyone gets a mem! Kaine can be frozen, too, if Ara wants to be really mean. If so, both of them will be encased in a thin layer of ice and trapped. It sears their skin, but more importantly, it makes their heart heavy with chill. Cold. Dark. Suffocating. They might can break free if they struggle...
Meanwhile, Taichi and Ichiro are on tank and DPS duty when the Blizzard Lord--pops? It explodes into what look like ten cat-sized ice cubes. They scatter in every direction toward Taichi and Ichiro, skating through the air. Here come the icy boys! If the ice cubes hit them, that body part will freeze, so... try not to do that!
What's interesting is the lightning boys are still shooting bolts of electricity at them, too, but... the bolts hit one or two of the ice cubes. And the ice cubes explode into sparkles and vanish. Hm!]
[ its okay this big man's keyblade was ichiros destiny i deeply feel like theyd be bros
anyway! that surge of energy hits ichiro and for a minute, he completely forgets that he got shocked within an inch of his life as he jerks himself back up to his feet and slams down on the ground, defiant and ready to push back. taichi's energy flows through him, and he manages to put himself back into the moment in time to watch the little ice cubes come popping out. they're kind of adorable but once electrocuted, twice elemental shy, so. he dodge rolls out of the way of a lightning bolt that fires a cube next to him, blinks, and realizes something. ]
Taichi! [ taking on a fight alone is what made ichiro fail, didn't it? being terrified, pushing his partner into changing too fast, too soon? is he going to let that happen now?
fuck no. ] We got this, come on! Split up the ice guys!
[ he is hella not interested in getting electrocuted, again, so he pushes off from where he's standing and starts running, leading a few of the ice cubes after him - he deflects one that leaps at his wrist with the keyblade and keeps his eyes on the stupid lightning lantern that attacked him earlier, hoping to draw half of the ice cubes in his directions.
if there's one thing he's good, it's being super loud and drawing attention to himself, so that is exactly what he's going to do. he hears a little voice in his head that sounds like viola that says "please take better care of yourself" but absolutely ignores it and yells at the lightning boy - ] Hey! Come on, motherfucker, light me up!
[the strength feels nice! she feels rallied, but she is also frozen and in thin ice, and that just makes the little wisps of memory stronger. cold, dark, suffocating. she almost doesn't want to fight.
It's snowing. And you're in pain.
You've never felt anything like this before. Not ever, this sort of pain - you're used to it, normally. You've spent your whole life being punched, and you'd revel in it because it makes you feel alive, but not this. No, this - this is searing. You can't think, you can't move.
You can't see it, but you can feel it, under the shrieking, white hot agony pulsing through your head - blood, pouring from your eyes, your mouth, your nose, your ears. You're dazed by the sensation, but not enough to not notice the purple tiefling in front of you. He lifts you off the ground by the throat and you can't even scream. It's too much, it's too much.
Distantly, you hear him. His voice, shouting to the others, to your friends (friends? are they your friends, where did you meet ichiro, taichi, kainé?), out in the swirling ice storm:
Is this really how you want this to go?
As he carefully slides the edge of his blade up his chest - you can see the iridescent glow of the sword in the corner of your vision, but you're fading. You're dizzy with the pain, trembling, unable to even grab for the hand around your throat. He's going to kill you. You're pretty sure he's going to kill you, and you --
You're sad.
it's always the cold. she fights a little, trying to breathe, trying to take the warmth from taichi's ability and use it. she's sad. she's scared.
It's chaos.
This dirt road - this isn't how you'd all really planned to do this, so much. The plan is haphazard, but that's how you do things. None of you think, before you jump in. It's cold, the snow makes it hard to see - you can still feel the ache of sleeping on the icy ground in your bones, but you ignore it. You have to, because you're in the middle of a fight, your fists clenched so tightly you can feel the fingernail crescents in your palm forming.
You frantically look ahead of you, as Mollymauk - as Mollymauk stumbles, and drops. Blood drips from his sword, as his knees hit the dirt, and he stares up at Lorenzo with an unfocused gaze. And the bastard - Lorenzo doesn't falter. He strikes.
The blade sinks seven inches into Molly's chest - blood splatters from Molly's mouth, and your blood turns to ice. No, no, no, this won't happen. You won't let this happen, you've already lost some of your friends to this asshole and you refuse to let him win. You try - you try to hit, you swing, and you miss, and he just grins in your face.
Lorzeno looks you in the eye. "An example it is," he says. He's bleeding, Molly is bleeding, scrabbling at the blade in his chest, but when Lorenzo turns to him --
Molly, the son of a bitch, spits blood in his face.
"Respect," Lorenzo says, wiping the blood away with the back of his hand. And then he twists the blade, and there's a crack in the air as you watch the life leave Molly's eyes.
and beau - shouts, because no. not again. not her friends. no amount of brain scramblies can stop her from wanting to protect people. so she struggles, and fights to break free of the cold trying to pull her under. that's her turn!]
[he's momentarily frozen by the memories that hit. one of them is familiar, a memory he saw from beau previously. but the other...the other's gutwrenching, horrific and just plain sad to watch the death of a friend and know there wasn't a way to stop it.
isn't that a familiar pain? (is it? it's hard, memories muddled and confused in a tangle of what is and isn't really his.) friends betraying friends, friends being used, friends dying as an example.
he can't stand it. he stalls just a beat too long before he realizes an ice cube runs straight at his left arm and he doesn't have time to deflect, the arm freezing a bit too literally. there's an angry yell as he tries to move it, the arm encased in a block of ice before he registers what ichiro says.
it doesn't matter what people do and don't have, how strong their bonds are with other people and he thinks about something beau said to him just earlier this week. he has something to prove for the people he wants to be friends with. ]
Right! [he's run on worse injuries before, back when...when...that fucking clown tried to kill him and he had to protect...he had to wait...
...?
it doesn't matter. all that matters right now is following ichiro's lead as he rounds up the other half of the ice cubes, darting under the lightning boy and swinging his keyblade one-handed to get its attention.]
Hey! You missed!
[very glad it's two morons trying to get electrocuted again, good job.]
Kainé is frozen. It's not an unfamiliar feeling, only colder, much colder than what she knew. The memories slam in and suffocate her. They claw and pierce at her and her heart for how painful and heartwrenching the experiences are. It's the pain, the sorrow, the heartbreaking loss—
It resonates in ways that only amplify her worst feelings, her worst fear. The coldness brings out her solitude and loneliness, the unbearable loneliness that comes every time she lost someone she cherished.
However, the strength, that fuel from the heart surges through. It washes over her and reminds her she isn't quite alone. There are still people fighting, there are still people waling, there are still people who, for some reason, don't want to lose her— That overrides everything else.
She struggles to break free because she has the strength to go on. ]
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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
POSsomewhat short, pudgy man with widow-peaked dark hair.]no subject
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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she feels fuzzy. feels - scared? which she hates, more than anything. not a lot scares beauregard lionett, but her memories feel like soup, a little, and caleb is gone. something else is gone too. something important that pings her especially hard when she looks around at the others slowly dragging themselves up the stairs.
are you guys glad you gave the paranoid-afflicted one the shield yet
she watches ichiro go straight for the feetsy boys, and beau takes a deep breath and shoves the paper caleb in her pocket, shifting her keyblade. squares her shoulders. and goes for the big icy boy in front of them. beau darts forward, aiming to smack it with her blade, and then - well, instinctively, she punches it. hm.]
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he faintly remembers, and realizes, maybe, that this girl must be very important to him. is it possible? could it really be true that there's someone else? it's...stupid, maybe, to hope for something like that but he wants it anyway. he wants what the others have, relationships that matter and people important that are still here. yamato's not here. yamato's out there and yamato's making other friends anyway, including people like beau. people like ichiro. people that he likes better.
but whatever this is, whoever this is, maybe she's meant to be his and only his. it's why he walks forward across the glass, a passing, uncertain look at the three figures in the bubble before he dashes across the field and toward the pod. here's hoping he can get past the large icy boy that beau's taking care of, but he does jump a little to swing at the little feets of the floaty boy, too, as he attempts to get to the pod to open it.]
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Well. To be fair to everyone else, maybe a little, sure.
She makes it onto the platform, and that's what matters! Same song and dance, same important people in pods. It's pissing her off that they are getting toyed with like this, that they're being played like this, with illusions or not of people they cherish. It pulls at the sadness of her heart, and she only gets angrier to try and combat it.
If the boys want to indulge in their feetish, Kainé will go about seeing if she can't get frostbite on top of her many burns.
It's a good idea to fight next to the really paranoid one, right? Anyway, she's going to try to hack at the blizzard boy in time with Beau's punch. ]
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Because Ichiro connects! It bops the little bell-shaped creature enough to knock some sparkle off it. But! It sends a ripple of electricity down the conductive keyblade and straight into Ichiro's body.
Taichi can't quite reach the other one because it's so high. That's fine. Its little bird feet wiggle as its body shakes, and it zaps Taichi with a bolt of electricity from afar.
The Blizzard Lord bobs in the air until Beauregard and Kainé dive in. It tanks the hits--they cause sparks to fly off it, but it doesn't look too worse for wear, not even from the punch.
Beauregard can see... through its stomach? Like a globe. Weird. There is a vortex of... ice and snow inside...?
The belly starts to grow!!
The Blizzard Lord draws in a huge breath as it tips a little back. And then it rolls forward, blowing a wide, cone spray of ice out in front of it. It's so cold it burns, bad!]
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by which i mean, fucking hell does that hurt. the metal connects, he wallops the bell shaped thing, and realizes the gravity of his mistake about a half second later. being shocked like that feels like getting hit with a mic in all of the worst kind of ways - the percussive nature of it and the white hot heat that comes with sizzles through his body, and ichiro this time lets out a shout of pain, unable to hold it back as he's thrown backwards and away from the lightning boy, left shaking with the force of the electric shock as it works through his system - the arm of his jacket smokes and he can feel the pain of injury vaguely before he goes down hard, and for a second, the whole world goes completely dark.
at least ichiro is used to taking a stupid amount of internal damage, which is such an unfortunate sentence, so his consciousness returns to him a moment later, blood trickling from his ringing ears, heart pounding, alive, but in a fuckton of pain.
ow.
get up. he tells himself, reminiscent of a battle a long, long time ago. they need you. get up. so with that, he's going to try and struggle back up to his feet and go back to helping and not hitting the lightning boy with his keyblade again. ]
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beau, on the periphery of her vision, sees ichiro go down, and for a second there's a panicked response - this week in particular is bad for watching people go for an attack and get knocked out instead, haha - and not even her brain scramblies are enough. she can't trust any of them, but... she doesn't want them to die. right? that's not what you promised yourself you'd do.
but she doesn't have much time else to react, because the big guy that she and kainé are fighting expands, and she gets about two seconds to get out:] Oh, shit --
[before it's blasting both of them with ice. it's always ice, huh? it's always ice.
it burns, and it especially does not feel good on top of the other injuries she has. beau's tough but even she can't stop the yelp of pain as the ice covers her. she stumbles back, one, two steps.
the extra bad thing is that it's memshare week, and she's had a few memories that she's locked away knocked loose. for a second, she's in a different place. she's in several - a long dirt road facing down a demon that took - her friends? her brothers? she can't remember - she's frozen, a purple tiefling holding her up by the throat, grinning. it's always ice. and there's too much fear in her heart for her to move.
it is up to anna whether or not she actually memshares these since this is her fuckhouse but your local lesbian is dissociating a bit while mostly frozen, thank you have a nice day.]
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what can he even do here? he doesn’t have a way to heal, and he doesn’t have a way to get them out of here. even if it’s with the risk of getting shocked again, he tries to jump even higher to knock out the little feety boy above him.
at the same time though…what was it that voice said? strength. they need strength to get out of this and they still have to work together. it doesn’t matter what the others have and what he doesn’t. he has the ability to help, somehow.
even his own selfish, lonely feelings aren’t enough to deter him from trying to swing his keyblade and send extra strength to the others. is that how it works? he doesn’t know. all he knows is that unlike the others he can keep moving easily and begins making his way to the pod once again after that.]
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she drops to the ground and rolls with a screech that turns into a groan. beau is frozen, and she can’t stay down. she can’t stop.
she has to move, and she gets to her feet, struggling through the pain. but she’s used to pain, isn’t she?
with newfound strength, she launches herself again at the blizzard lord with her keyblade. she knows nothing of elemental weaknesses i’m sorry. ]
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First of all: good boy Taichi does pretty much the equivalent of Amp It Up. All four of them feel a swathe of energy swoop up through their bodies from their core. A strong, warm, burning fuel straight from the heart. They feel rallied! They feel strong, and a little bit faster which blankets over the pain of their injuries.
Also, Beauregard is literally frozen. Memshare can happy because that's sad and funny. Everyone gets a mem! Kaine can be frozen, too, if Ara wants to be really mean. If so, both of them will be encased in a thin layer of ice and trapped. It sears their skin, but more importantly, it makes their heart heavy with chill. Cold. Dark. Suffocating. They might can break free if they struggle...
Meanwhile, Taichi and Ichiro are on tank and DPS duty when the Blizzard Lord--pops? It explodes into what look like ten cat-sized ice cubes. They scatter in every direction toward Taichi and Ichiro, skating through the air. Here come the icy boys! If the ice cubes hit them, that body part will freeze, so... try not to do that!
What's interesting is the lightning boys are still shooting bolts of electricity at them, too, but... the bolts hit one or two of the ice cubes. And the ice cubes explode into sparkles and vanish. Hm!]
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anyway! that surge of energy hits ichiro and for a minute, he completely forgets that he got shocked within an inch of his life as he jerks himself back up to his feet and slams down on the ground, defiant and ready to push back. taichi's energy flows through him, and he manages to put himself back into the moment in time to watch the little ice cubes come popping out. they're kind of adorable but once electrocuted, twice elemental shy, so. he dodge rolls out of the way of a lightning bolt that fires a cube next to him, blinks, and realizes something. ]
Taichi! [ taking on a fight alone is what made ichiro fail, didn't it? being terrified, pushing his partner into changing too fast, too soon? is he going to let that happen now?
fuck no. ] We got this, come on! Split up the ice guys!
[ he is hella not interested in getting electrocuted, again, so he pushes off from where he's standing and starts running, leading a few of the ice cubes after him - he deflects one that leaps at his wrist with the keyblade and keeps his eyes on the stupid lightning lantern that attacked him earlier, hoping to draw half of the ice cubes in his directions.
if there's one thing he's good, it's being super loud and drawing attention to himself, so that is exactly what he's going to do. he hears a little voice in his head that sounds like viola that says "please take better care of yourself" but absolutely ignores it and yells at the lightning boy - ] Hey! Come on, motherfucker, light me up!
[ sir this a kid's game ]
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it's always the cold. she fights a little, trying to breathe, trying to take the warmth from taichi's ability and use it. she's sad. she's scared.
and beau - shouts, because no. not again. not her friends. no amount of brain scramblies can stop her from wanting to protect people. so she struggles, and fights to break free of the cold trying to pull her under. that's her turn!]
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isn't that a familiar pain? (is it? it's hard, memories muddled and confused in a tangle of what is and isn't really his.) friends betraying friends, friends being used, friends dying as an example.
he can't stand it. he stalls just a beat too long before he realizes an ice cube runs straight at his left arm and he doesn't have time to deflect, the arm freezing a bit too literally. there's an angry yell as he tries to move it, the arm encased in a block of ice before he registers what ichiro says.
it doesn't matter what people do and don't have, how strong their bonds are with other people and he thinks about something beau said to him just earlier this week. he has something to prove for the people he wants to be friends with. ]
Right! [he's run on worse injuries before, back when...when...that fucking clown tried to kill him and he had to protect...he had to wait...
...?
it doesn't matter. all that matters right now is following ichiro's lead as he rounds up the other half of the ice cubes, darting under the lightning boy and swinging his keyblade one-handed to get its attention.]
Hey! You missed!
[very glad it's two morons trying to get electrocuted again, good job.]
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Kainé is frozen. It's not an unfamiliar feeling, only colder, much colder than what she knew. The memories slam in and suffocate her. They claw and pierce at her and her heart for how painful and heartwrenching the experiences are. It's the pain, the sorrow, the heartbreaking loss—
It resonates in ways that only amplify her worst feelings, her worst fear. The coldness brings out her solitude and loneliness, the unbearable loneliness that comes every time she lost someone she cherished.
However, the strength, that fuel from the heart surges through. It washes over her and reminds her she isn't quite alone. There are still people fighting, there are still people waling, there are still people who, for some reason, don't want to lose her— That overrides everything else.
She struggles to break free because she has the strength to go on. ]
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