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. ]
The orbiting ice cubes continue to spin across the platform, trying to hit Taichi and Ichiro without any organized reason up until--well, the lightning isn't very great, is it? A chunk of them wink out of existence in a flurry of sparkles under the zapping of the Nocturnes.
(Who end up smacking directly into each other because they are trying to zoom after Taichi and Ichiro together. Doing so cause a loud thunderclap to echo over the platform.)
The rest of the ice cubes hastily start zipping to one side of the platform to reorganize back into Mister Blizzard Wizard. Strangely, looking through his transparent stomach--the vortex of ice inside is withered up and thin, barely going. His stomach enlarges again, but this time when he rolls forward to breath out...
...it's just a puff of cold air.
Beauregard and Kainé manage to break free of their icy shackles with the renewed energy given to them by Taichi! Yay!]
anyway - Ichiro sees beau’s memory too, and part of it is familiar. he already knew molly was dead, but to see him taken over like that is shocking in real color. it builds the determination of their conversation just a few days beforehand, though. she’s gonna get him back. he’s too good of a guy not to. (the critrole gods said so.)
he’s feeling emboldened, now. there’s not too much time to focus on the memory, though. he has to dodge out of the way of ice cubes, wincing when one catches his ankle but refusing to let it hold him for too long. the cold sucks, but he smacks the edge of the keyblade against the ice sticking out and keeps running- The thunderclap makes ichiro’s already ringing ears ache - he reaches up and claps a hand over one of them but otherwise, that worked great!! he throws Taichi a huge grin and a - ] Nice work, man!
[ because hey, they make a hell of a team!
he’s then rushing over to beau and kainé, immediately moving to give either of them an arm, to help pull them up to their feet if they need it, so they can face the remains of this blizzard fucker together. ] One more, one more!
the ice shatters, and beau drops to one knee, instinctive. her brain feels like soup, after all of the memories, but it's fine. she's going to pull herself up on her own, except ichiro is there, reaching to help her up, and she just... lets him. the paranoia screaming in her head is uncomfortable, and she can't help but pull her arm away after he helps her up, but it's okay. she can apologize later. for now, they have a monster to kill.
she picks up her keyblade, and shakes it out. gets ready. she can't really hear anything at all after the explosion and the thunderclap, but she doesn't need to. all she needs to do is beat the shit out of this big dude in front of them, which she will do!]
[even when the thunder echoes and makes him flinch there's a grin back, strangely, and oh yeah. oh yeah, this is what he's all about, isn't it? working with others. protecting people. fighting monsters and saving the world. right. so he nods when ichiro says one more, but he mimics the motion and tries to shatter the ice around his arm with his keyblade before turning his attention on the nocturnes again.]
Take care of the big one, I've got these!
[he may not got these, actually, but he's hoping the nocturnes are disoriented enough and still clustered together as he runs at his usual athlete speed, jumping once more as high as he can to strike across both of them in the hopes of eliminating them, electrocution be damned.]
[ Kainé drops to her knees and hands once she's free. If she gives herself a second to think, a second to rest, the cold will set in and she won't stop shivering, so she doesn't. She gets right back up, accepting Ichiro's help and ignoring the pain with the help of the renewed energy.
She won't be shaken. One more, one more, or however many more it is after this, they are getting through this no matter what.
Taking her keyblade, she'll help Taichi, if his strike doesn't take care of it first. She has been frozen enough, and a little electrocution never bothered her anyway.* ]
Both of the annoying little Nocturnes get slashed into a spray of sparkles. These don't hurt, thankfully, but they do sort of make a little shiver go through the body. Spicy.
The big one is all that's left. He's looking pretty worse for wear, honestly. He can't even make it very far off the ground, not at all like he had been doing before. The quick double-team with Ichiro and Beau--
They cut through, everything around them and their movements slowing down almost to a stop as it bursts into sparkling nonexistence. Very Kingdom Heart. And then they speed up again, returning to normal. Four pieces of papers flutter down. Doodled onto the pages are: something monstrous, a man, two boys, and a group of friends.
They can feel the memories of them being pulled away, torn from their grasp. They're gone, but not swapped. Instead, they are replaced by another one: a reunion.
The pod on the other side of the platform opens, but nothing is left inside except a drawing on a piece of notebook paper of a young girl who looks like Taichi, smiling. The final set of stairs folds open, spiraling up, and up, and up.]
[ ichiro can feel the pull of a memory, and he hates it. as he stands up from this speed down and slow up nonsense, breathing heavily and pushing himself up onto the keyblade, he reaches and grabs the front of his shirt, as if he can hold onto whatever it is.
but like that, it vanishes, and he watches the papers, as the one with the man in the sunglasses landing by his feet. it doesn't matter. he's pretty sure it doesn't matter. ichiro pays it no mind as the reunion appears, though, and it just - it aches. it aches like something familiar. it aches like being pulled away from something you love, like watching someone who you can't remember scream how much they hate you, it aches like the relief that ached through ichiro's body when he was reunited with something important, something that was taken from him.
the name, riku, feels familiar, but when they shift into the darkness and he sees his face - well. by the time the memory fades, ichiro blinks into reality, and looks up towards the stairs, trying to get his bearings before looking at the other four. wearied and battle scarred, but alive. the girls are probably freezing - he starts to take off his coat as he processes what he's seen. ]
... that was Luke, right? [ riku.
ichiro's head hurts. he shakes off a chill and nods to the other four. up the stairs to kainéland. ]
time zooms right back to normal, and beau actually - reaches out. she reaches out for the memory she's losing, for the people she's losing. her family, the people keeping her standing. but she has - no, that's not right. right? she has two brothers, and she... can't remember what she was doing before this. she was in the snow? she was out in the snow alone, she was there for some reason. it was important.
was it to find sora? kairi? that must've been it. she was supposed to find sora, out in the snow. with the help from her brothers. her mind desperately tries to fill in the gaps as she forgets an entire year of the family she found.
a beat, as she looks down at the singed paper again. who... who?
she seems very disoriented.]
Riku. [she mutters. and then stumbles after ichiro. up the stairs.]
[teamwork!!! he feels the pull of a memory and he tries desperately to reach for it, feeling the last threads of yamato ishida slip through his grasp. as he feels himself forgetting their bond, forgetting omegamon, forgetting the way the two of them are always in sync when their partners fuse, it’s like he can hear yamato’s voice whispering as the paper flutters away.
“... I can't... lose you again. I can't do it again.”
…but what does that matter? maybe it doesn’t? he’s just a strange blonde boy he’s seen around campus. it’s not like the bond from the reunion he’s witnessing. no. the reunion that’s his? are these people he’s fighting for? are they the ones waiting for him? it’s hard to remember what he’s doing here the higher they climb and it’s almost on autopilot as he goes to collect the paper drawing from the pod.
the smiling girl’s face means nothing to him, but he folds the paper to tuck in his pocket anyway. he’ll take the other paper, too, he guesses.
he’ll follow ichiro’s example and begin shedding his coat, ignoring the frostbite and the burns on his arms from fire and ice. the girls need to stay warm. it’s up to them if they’ll take it though and he begins to climb the stairs.]
Sora... [why does he say that name with such certainty, suddenly? onward and upward.]
[ Before she knows it, it's gone: one of the major signs of how much her grandmother meant to her is gone. Her years' quest for revenge and how she was eventually befriend by Nier is gone to replaced by a reunion that aches as much as it gives her warmth, these hearts that are connected, these hearts that should always be connected.
These hearts that are connected to hers....?
She shakes her head and collects whatever papers are left. She doesn't know what they mean, but they have to mean something even if that grotesque monster (it looks like it could be a Shade, but is it...?) would be better abandoned and destroyed.
Her right hand curls around her left arm where all the bandages have burned away. ]
You're still Riku, no matter what.
[ She echoes softly under her breath, as she walks up and up. ]
The voice from before speaks into their hearts. The deeper into the darkness you go, the longer in the darkness you stay, the more you lose sight of the light. It feels like the things hanging heavy on their hearts are growing. Anger, fear, jealousy, sadness.
Etched into the stained glass of the last platform is Kainé, reclined against the curve of the circle with a blade in her hand. A white-haired man, a round-faced skeleton, and a book sit in the stylized bubbles near her. The egg-shaped pod at one side of the platform is already starting to close around Nier, tucking him in for sleep.
But... standing in front of him is a girl with a notebook in her arms. She turns around to face them.]
[ ichiro skids into the top floor once he's sure these two angry punchy ladies are okay enough to keep moving, still holding his keyblade in one hand, and the front of his shirt in the other. he's not - his head is pounding, as he holds onto that reunion, that feeling of return, of love, of determination. it's so frustrating, he feels like he doesn't even know why he's here. what's he fighting for? is there even anything? angry and alone, has there ever been anything?
(there's the three people with him. beau, taichi, kainé. he knows them, and he knows they've struggled up these platforms together for some reason, and now he's holding onto riku's memory as tight as he can as a reason to keep moving forward.)
when he gets to the top of the stairs, ichiro stops, putting himself in the front of the group with the keyblade in front of him and making enough room for everyone to get up, ready for a fight. he looks past the girl for just a second and spots nier -- and then feels that anger bubble ferociously in his chest. ]
Who - who are you. [ is what he manages to say, white knuckling the blade. please do not let him attack naminé. ]
[oh i realized he took his coat off for them and forgot to respond to it because i was so emo about riku kingdomhearts. kainé can have it though. oh jk both of them did, beau will take one i guess!
beau is shivering by the time they get up to the top, holding her keyblade tightly. she's - kind of shut down a little, expression harsh. funnily enough, though, like - when she sees nier? she startles. wow! someone she still knows! and the fear bursts bright and sharp in her heart as she takes a few steps forward, like she's going to be able to get him out of the fucking pod.
she stops, though, when ichiro holds out his keyblade defensively, and clenches her fists.
she's not going to fight whoever this is, but. she's wary.]
[up they go, and when they reach the platform he spots nier disappearing into his egg. goodbye nier. there's a still barely-there flutter of bitterness upon realizing that kainé has nier still, and he thinks about the journey upward. he's trying to hold on to the thought that they're working together and they have each other, but...there's still so much missing. there's so much he wants, and so much he will never have.
how much more does he have to give to have something that gives back?
he holds his keyblade loosely in his hand, though he steps ahead to make sure he isn't blocking kainé from seeing what's going on.]
[ oh i was also too emo about riku kingdomhearts to respond. jacket for beau!! and jacket for kainé!! she'll take it because she doesn't care to be that cold. thanks for the kindness.
The more you lose sight of the light, the voice says, but the lights in her life are etched on glass on the platform. Only... she doesn't... recognize the skeleton....? Who....? Something irreplaceable is missing, too many irreplaceable things are missing or replaced, and it brings out an emptiness that makes her want to cry.
She sees Nier being enclosed in the pod and doesn't stop to think. It may be an illusion, but it doesn't matter. She may have seen every other floor below and how it worked, but all that goes flying because it's Nier, and she can't lose him— ]
No!
[ The others have the questions down. She runs for the pod. ]
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no subject
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!]
no subject
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. ]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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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The orbiting ice cubes continue to spin across the platform, trying to hit Taichi and Ichiro without any organized reason up until--well, the lightning isn't very great, is it? A chunk of them wink out of existence in a flurry of sparkles under the zapping of the Nocturnes.
(Who end up smacking directly into each other because they are trying to zoom after Taichi and Ichiro together. Doing so cause a loud thunderclap to echo over the platform.)
The rest of the ice cubes hastily start zipping to one side of the platform to reorganize back into Mister Blizzard Wizard. Strangely, looking through his transparent stomach--the vortex of ice inside is withered up and thin, barely going. His stomach enlarges again, but this time when he rolls forward to breath out...
...it's just a puff of cold air.
Beauregard and Kainé manage to break free of their icy shackles with the renewed energy given to them by Taichi! Yay!]
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anyway - Ichiro sees beau’s memory too, and part of it is familiar. he already knew molly was dead, but to see him taken over like that is shocking in real color. it builds the determination of their conversation just a few days beforehand, though. she’s gonna get him back. he’s too good of a guy not to. (the critrole gods said so.)
he’s feeling emboldened, now. there’s not too much time to focus on the memory, though. he has to dodge out of the way of ice cubes, wincing when one catches his ankle but refusing to let it hold him for too long. the cold sucks, but he smacks the edge of the keyblade against the ice sticking out and keeps running- The thunderclap makes ichiro’s already ringing ears ache - he reaches up and claps a hand over one of them but otherwise, that worked great!! he throws Taichi a huge grin and a - ] Nice work, man!
[ because hey, they make a hell of a team!
he’s then rushing over to beau and kainé, immediately moving to give either of them an arm, to help pull them up to their feet if they need it, so they can face the remains of this blizzard fucker together. ] One more, one more!
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the ice shatters, and beau drops to one knee, instinctive. her brain feels like soup, after all of the memories, but it's fine. she's going to pull herself up on her own, except ichiro is there, reaching to help her up, and she just... lets him. the paranoia screaming in her head is uncomfortable, and she can't help but pull her arm away after he helps her up, but it's okay. she can apologize later. for now, they have a monster to kill.
she picks up her keyblade, and shakes it out. gets ready. she can't really hear anything at all after the explosion and the thunderclap, but she doesn't need to. all she needs to do is beat the shit out of this big dude in front of them, which she will do!]
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Take care of the big one, I've got these!
[he may not got these, actually, but he's hoping the nocturnes are disoriented enough and still clustered together as he runs at his usual athlete speed, jumping once more as high as he can to strike across both of them in the hopes of eliminating them, electrocution be damned.]
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She won't be shaken. One more, one more, or however many more it is after this, they are getting through this no matter what.
Taking her keyblade, she'll help Taichi, if his strike doesn't take care of it first. She has been frozen enough, and a little electrocution never bothered her anyway.* ]
Just die already!
[ *citation needed. ]
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Both of the annoying little Nocturnes get slashed into a spray of sparkles. These don't hurt, thankfully, but they do sort of make a little shiver go through the body. Spicy.
The big one is all that's left. He's looking pretty worse for wear, honestly. He can't even make it very far off the ground, not at all like he had been doing before. The quick double-team with Ichiro and Beau--
They cut through, everything around them and their movements slowing down almost to a stop as it bursts into sparkling nonexistence. Very Kingdom Heart. And then they speed up again, returning to normal. Four pieces of papers flutter down. Doodled onto the pages are: something monstrous, a man, two boys, and a group of friends.
They can feel the memories of them being pulled away, torn from their grasp. They're gone, but not swapped. Instead, they are replaced by another one: a reunion.
The pod on the other side of the platform opens, but nothing is left inside except a drawing on a piece of notebook paper of a young girl who looks like Taichi, smiling. The final set of stairs folds open, spiraling up, and up, and up.]
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but like that, it vanishes, and he watches the papers, as the one with the man in the sunglasses landing by his feet. it doesn't matter. he's pretty sure it doesn't matter. ichiro pays it no mind as the reunion appears, though, and it just - it aches. it aches like something familiar. it aches like being pulled away from something you love, like watching someone who you can't remember scream how much they hate you, it aches like the relief that ached through ichiro's body when he was reunited with something important, something that was taken from him.
the name, riku, feels familiar, but when they shift into the darkness and he sees his face - well. by the time the memory fades, ichiro blinks into reality, and looks up towards the stairs, trying to get his bearings before looking at the other four. wearied and battle scarred, but alive. the girls are probably freezing - he starts to take off his coat as he processes what he's seen. ]
... that was Luke, right? [ riku.
ichiro's head hurts. he shakes off a chill and nods to the other four. up the stairs to kainéland. ]
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time zooms right back to normal, and beau actually - reaches out. she reaches out for the memory she's losing, for the people she's losing. her family, the people keeping her standing. but she has - no, that's not right. right? she has two brothers, and she... can't remember what she was doing before this. she was in the snow? she was out in the snow alone, she was there for some reason. it was important.
was it to find sora? kairi? that must've been it. she was supposed to find sora, out in the snow. with the help from her brothers. her mind desperately tries to fill in the gaps as she forgets an entire year of the family she found.
a beat, as she looks down at the singed paper again. who... who?
she seems very disoriented.]
Riku. [she mutters. and then stumbles after ichiro. up the stairs.]
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“... I can't... lose you again. I can't do it again.”
…but what does that matter? maybe it doesn’t? he’s just a strange blonde boy he’s seen around campus. it’s not like the bond from the reunion he’s witnessing. no. the reunion that’s his? are these people he’s fighting for? are they the ones waiting for him? it’s hard to remember what he’s doing here the higher they climb and it’s almost on autopilot as he goes to collect the paper drawing from the pod.
the smiling girl’s face means nothing to him, but he folds the paper to tuck in his pocket anyway. he’ll take the other paper, too, he guesses.
he’ll follow ichiro’s example and begin shedding his coat, ignoring the frostbite and the burns on his arms from fire and ice. the girls need to stay warm. it’s up to them if they’ll take it though and he begins to climb the stairs.]
Sora... [why does he say that name with such certainty, suddenly? onward and upward.]
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These hearts that are connected to hers....?
She shakes her head and collects whatever papers are left. She doesn't know what they mean, but they have to mean something even if that grotesque monster (it looks like it could be a Shade, but is it...?) would be better abandoned and destroyed.
Her right hand curls around her left arm where all the bandages have burned away. ]
You're still Riku, no matter what.
[ She echoes softly under her breath, as she walks up and up. ]
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The voice from before speaks into their hearts. The deeper into the darkness you go, the longer in the darkness you stay, the more you lose sight of the light. It feels like the things hanging heavy on their hearts are growing. Anger, fear, jealousy, sadness.
Etched into the stained glass of the last platform is Kainé, reclined against the curve of the circle with a blade in her hand. A white-haired man, a round-faced skeleton, and a book sit in the stylized bubbles near her. The egg-shaped pod at one side of the platform is already starting to close around Nier, tucking him in for sleep.
But... standing in front of him is a girl with a notebook in her arms. She turns around to face them.]
You made it. Oh. You brought them. Good.
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(there's the three people with him. beau, taichi, kainé. he knows them, and he knows they've struggled up these platforms together for some reason, and now he's holding onto riku's memory as tight as he can as a reason to keep moving forward.)
when he gets to the top of the stairs, ichiro stops, putting himself in the front of the group with the keyblade in front of him and making enough room for everyone to get up, ready for a fight. he looks past the girl for just a second and spots nier -- and then feels that anger bubble ferociously in his chest. ]
Who - who are you. [ is what he manages to say, white knuckling the blade. please do not let him attack naminé. ]
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beau is shivering by the time they get up to the top, holding her keyblade tightly. she's - kind of shut down a little, expression harsh. funnily enough, though, like - when she sees nier? she startles. wow! someone she still knows! and the fear bursts bright and sharp in her heart as she takes a few steps forward, like she's going to be able to get him out of the fucking pod.
she stops, though, when ichiro holds out his keyblade defensively, and clenches her fists.
she's not going to fight whoever this is, but. she's wary.]
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how much more does he have to give to have something that gives back?
he holds his keyblade loosely in his hand, though he steps ahead to make sure he isn't blocking kainé from seeing what's going on.]
And brought what?
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The more you lose sight of the light, the voice says, but the lights in her life are etched on glass on the platform. Only... she doesn't... recognize the skeleton....? Who....? Something irreplaceable is missing, too many irreplaceable things are missing or replaced, and it brings out an emptiness that makes her want to cry.
She sees Nier being enclosed in the pod and doesn't stop to think. It may be an illusion, but it doesn't matter. She may have seen every other floor below and how it worked, but all that goes flying because it's Nier, and she can't lose him— ]
No!
[ The others have the questions down. She runs for the pod. ]
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