dormheads | WEEK 6 CYOA - TAICHI, MALIK, RITA, MANWOL

[ malik sees claude(?) and uses what energy he has left to try and back away, and manwol swerves in to his defense. with her between them, malik feels safe for about a microsecond before the nausea overtakes him.

he can't run anymore, and he's trying to get as much air as he can before he starts to gag. there's nothing more he can do, he can't even be bait until he catches his breath- which is going to be nigh impossible with dear Father nearby.

he knows he shouldn't look, but as he starts to retch from the sickening smell, he does. his gaze is pleading and desperate.

too bad that's not really his dad. ]

[while manwol's off to deal with claude, rita's looking around in alarm for the two enemies that just vanished! she takes a breath and a stance, ready to fight or dodge if the fake taichi shows up again.

if it's the other thing... she's not so sure what she'll do.]

[manwol and malik are dealing with claude and malik's father, and two of their enemies vanish from sight. he pauses in his steps, trying to squint at the ceiling even if he moves to pick up any sort of heat emitting from his clone.]

Watch the machines. [it's enough of a warning, and he's looking to see if there're any walls they can back into. it doesn't solve the ghost problem, but at least his clone can't teleport behind them that way.]

[Claude is doing badly enough that Manwol can knock the sword away! What she and Malik will quickly realize, though, is that this is the case because... well, neither are they, now. Longer exposure to this nauseating smell is actually poisonous, and they're starting to feel worse the longer they stay near it.

Meanwhile, Malik gives him that desperate look... and his eyes glint as he stares back. Despite knowing that smell is very bad news now, Malik isn't going to be able to move a muscle until the petrifaction wears off, frozen in place.

Rita and Taichi, while on observation duty, will notice some of the machinery beginning to whir again as parts that previously looked pretty solid begin to detach-- and one comes crashing down towards the two of them.]

[Manwol barely has enough time to celebrate when she staggers, gasping for air at the same time she tries covering her mouth, she glances to the side and sees Malik -- frozen? he's not moving, and while she's not sure why she knows that it's bad.

the sword (wherever it is) or malik?

she grits her teeth, staggering, and then tries to drive the pointed end of Tsuyukusa's staff into his father's heart. she normally has good aim and the staff gives her a little range, but she's already pretty close,

maybe one of the others will see the sword, but for now]

[ malik feels his muscles tense and his body freeze. he knew it was a bad idea. there's nothing he can do.

he wants to tell manwol to run, it's not worth it, but his jaw is unmoving.

then she goes right for the heart, and malik really, really wishes he could close his eyes.

he's just stuck here, and now he's getting sicker by the second. wonderful. ]

[it's a good thing rita's watching that machinery, because she's ready to move when it comes crashing down. she can only hope that taichi does the same.

in her desperate sprint she ends up throwing herself to the ground and rolling, but manages to fling herself in the direction of that sword. she scrambles over and grabs it.]

Taichi! Take it!

[she's hoping he didn't just get crushed by falling machinery, because this weapon is too big for rita to handle properly, so she's going to climb to her feet and throw it to him.]

[SEE WATCHING THE MACHINES WAS A GREAT IDEA. it means both of them can dive in opposite directions and likewise, he rolls and gets back to his feet. trying to move on his burnt leg isn't really great, but he's stubborn and malik's petrified and manwol's busy and rita's throwing a sword--

--wait, fuck, rita's throwing a sword. he barely grabs it, squinting harder to focus on the target ahead before he takes it and darts off.]

Watch the machines and try to help Malik! [it's hard to say if they can do anything for malik, but they have to try? at least with the fake claude distracted, taichi sprints across the room and adjusts the sword in his hands to try and stab him through the front, similar to manwol's stance.

godddd he's going to owe a lot of springs a lot of apologies later.]

[Manwol drives the staff into Malik's father's heart, and while he does look over to her, it seems he can't do the same trick twice in succession. It sinks in, and he tries to reach for her, to grab at her, but... a few moments later, he slumps to his knees, and then to the ground.

After he's dead, Malik will find he can move again, but even though his body disappears (and the stench with it), neither of them feels any better.

Similarly, Taichi can go ahead and run that sword through Claude, but once he has a hold of it... hm. It's weird. Hey, remember how one of fake Claude's attributes was Aggressive? Taichi feels that too, now. He may end up stabbing Claude more violently than he really intended to. Rita held it briefly enough that it didn't quite trigger, but holding it with intent seems to have done the trick.

As Claude slumps to the ground, fake-Taichi abruptly appears just behind the real one. He'll feel the heat from him.

Meanwhile, Rita will see another piece of machinery clunk to the floor, then another... then they attach to each other, the machines making a horrible grinding wail that sounds a lot like that ghost. Exposed wires and cables extend from it here and there, sparking.]

[Manwol's both high on adrenaline and sick from the poison -- her mind feels cloudy, and she thinks about how the man she's just killed looks so similar to the memory she saw, -- looks so similar to Malik, but there isn't time to think. she just rips the staff out and looks wildly towards the others

she sees claude slump to the ground (it's not him, it's not him not him not him,) and then sees the other Taichi teleport, and it's instinct]

Taichi -- get down!

[and she throws the staff as hard as possible in his direction, towards the fake-taichi]

[ malik continues to be useless and sits down. he feels so sick. it's not just the poison, either-- but dealing with his daddy issues will have to happen at another time, because he's either going to die or puke and right now he wants to do neither of those things!

meanwhile, the machinery is doing it thing. manwol seems to have taichi covered, but rita-- ]

Rita! Try to overload the machine!

[ He's not quite modern but he has working idea of how they function. maybe it's like his bike -- overclock it and burn out the engine? ]

[rita's eyes widen as she watches the spirit take control of the machinery...]

Overload what? That thing isn't running on logic right now, it's--!!

[though as she says it, she'll look over the mass of parts for anything that can be used against it. those exposed wires could be turned against it... maybe there are other vulnerabilities?]

[well.

sorry to everyone in the room, but having an apparently cursed sword means he's jamming the blade just a little harder into claude's chest before ripping it out with little care for what happens to the corpse. manwol shouts and it helps him pinpoint a direction...not that he needs it, given he can feel the heat.

he flat out ignores her warning though and while the clone is (hopefully) distracted by the flying staff, he'll move out of the way as best as he can while he turn around and attempts to jam the sword into his clone, too. with luck both the staff and the sword will cause enough damage. if they have to fight their way out, fine. he'll put up a good enough fight.]

[The wires might do something, yeah! There is also a point in the center where something seems to be glowing.

While they do their thing, though, this machine golem is going to swipe a makeshift 'arm' at Rita. It's patchwork, jagged; this thing doesn't need weapons, it is one.

Fake Taichi... ducks the staff Manwol throws, because she did literally yell his name and tell him to duck! But he's not prepared for real Taichi and his cursed ass sword. He shouts in pain, reaching out to try to grab Taichi's arm with burning hands, but... in the battle of sword vs. soccer boy it's pretty easy to see who wins this one.]

[hm, well that works! your did it kids!

Manwol, now weaponless, turns her attention to the golem trying to take Rita out. she's less fast before, her movements are hampered by the poison she feels still circulating inside her, but she runs forward too to try and catch the golem's attention. wow, if only she had her ghost powers!! sadly, all she has is her voice --]

Hey!!! Look at me, you stupid ghost!!

[pot calling kettle tbh]

[ ok manwol is running diversion this time. malik also has to get up because he will probably have to run again at some point - if his body is able to, but, whatever.

he clearly wasn't... clear... enough... and tries to be a little more helpful with his yelling demands at rita: ]

If you overheat the machine, it should stop working!

[ he has literally never played a video game in his entire life, he doesn't understand the importance of THAT GIANT GLOWING WEAK SPOT ]

[there's a look of revelation as she stares down the machine-ghost-beast.]

... There's a core! I'm going to--

[nope, instead she's going to get swung at. rita tries to jump back, but the creature's "arm" still hits her with enough force to send her flying. she crashes against the floor and rolls a bit, then lies there, stunned.]

[while all of this is happening...taichi's busy suddenly realizing that he truly let adrenaline take over and he's watching himself (?) die by his own hands. hm. that's going to be nightmare fuel for a while, but he presses the blade in a little deeper to make sure the clone stays down.

once he removes the sword, he fumbles a little to try and grab the piece of the staff to take it and the sword with him. this is about the time rita goes flying.]

Rita! [farewell! he doesn't move just in case she needs a hand getting up, but he does turn in the blurry direction of the machine.]

Take your staff back! [yeeting the staff! sorry to tsuyukusa. hopefully it's heading in the right direction, he's doing his best. but it's maybe something that'll help? he'll stay back just to keep an eye on things from a distance in case the ghost moves, and also to make sure he's close by to both malik and rita just in case they can't get up on their own.]

[Manwol yells for the ghost, and... it seems to draw its attention! The golem lashes out at her with some of those sparking cables, like a whip.

Malik is, for the record, in what seems to be a relatively safe spot for now, with the golem occupied. He gets to catch his breath a bit.

Rita likely comes up against one of those dropped pieces of machinery, stopping her roll before she's thrown too far out of the fight by this; Taichi should be able to help her if she needs it, thanks to that.]

[Manwol catches the staff in one hand in a very cool like moment that is immediately ruined by her throwing herself to the floor to avoid the cables, possibly banging her head a little. wow, self-inflicted injuries...

she staggers back on up, because Malik and Rita are talking things like "overheating" and overheating means something like her hair dryer burning out because she keeps on using it for too long, right?

she has to keep moving and force this golem to keep moving after her, preferably away from Rita and Taichi]

I'll send you on a bus straight to the afterlife!!

[the way this only makes sense to manwol]

[ manwol is very cool and we all respect her. although you can literally just walk into the afterlife, it's fine, there's a door-- manwol there's a door? just walk through it?

anyway.

malik does appreciate the minute to breathe, since he can't do much else. actually, he can keep yelling, since that seems to be working out well enough: ]

Just hit the thing with magic! Overheat it!

[rita's still for a few tense seconds, but soon stirs with a gasp, and scrambles to get to her feet with taichi's help. she's unsteady, but she's up.]

Shut up already! I'm working on it!

[she sucks in a shaky breath, lets out sigh that's a mixture of irritation and resignation, and starts casting.

she squints and tries to focus on that glowing inner part she saw before, and aims her fireball at it. she fires at the machine! wherever it makes contact, it bursts for some extra damage.]

Why a bus? [that's not even important? he's still holding the sword but he helps rita to her feet, stepping back out of the way when she begins casting.]

Manwol, move!

[because rita is throwing a fireball into a machine and it's likely going to explode.]

[They can all do what they're doing! The important part here, though, is the fireball.

This is a pretty makeshift golem, so when the fireball hits it, it just sort of flails around-- anyone too close is at risk of being slapped with its cables or jagged limbs, and the fireball's burst causes a brief shower of debris.

For a moment, it seems like that might be it, as the core shorts out and ceases to glow, then bursts in a little shower of sparks.

However-- that ghost had Death Burst on it, and the central piece of machinery explodes, before a chain reaction starts taking out all of its other pieces. It's still pretty close to some of the other machinery, too, so they're going to have a pretty big explosion problem on their hands in... oh, a couple of seconds.

The door across from them slides open.]

[OH BOY!!! Manwol throws herself out of the way before Rita's fire makes contact, and just when she thinks they did it, the whole place starts shaking. a jagged piece of machinery flies and buries itself into her left shoulder, and she swears out loud.]

Come on!!

[and she's reaching out to grab Malik by the arm so they can start hobbling their way towards the door sliding open]

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