June 2022 Event Plotting PART 2

[jigokumods]

Who ⬤ The selected teams
What ⬤ Finding the source of the cursed energy and putting an end to this.
When ⬤ /waves hands vaguely
Where ⬤ Kaigo no Bou
Content Warnings ⬤ Horror imagery, possible gore.

The tower that is Kaigo no Bou is an intimidating sight on normal days, but the way its black figure cut into the deep crimson of the cursed sky made it that much more imposing as the teams approached. Evidence of just how devastating the initial waves of the cursed energy had been to the nearby buildings was on clear display, everything looking warped and disfigured into shapes no longer identifiable as anything built for humanoid needs. Even the streets themselves seemed twisted and knotted, turning into something more like jagged slopes than thoroughfares. Even the entrance of the tower has been shifted from its original glass displays to a giant steel gate that Toraguma struggles to open for the rest of the group.

Within the tower itself, it's much the same. The Enma officers that had been brought along to help navigate each team would find themselves struggling just slightly, almost immediately, as the interior of the building was a menagerie of rust and decay. It was if the building was rotting, but not as a structure, but as a once living thing now reduced to a cadaver for them to navigate.

Well... it could be worse. Time to split into their teams.

Comments

[identitycrisiscore]

[ Cloud says it reflexively. I'll go. And like that, everyone divvies up the supplies. As Anna fits him in her coat- it fits him decently, surprisingly. But it's big on her, so that makes sense. He gives a nod as she tells him the coat's story - he'll bring it back. The talismans get divvied up between Andy and Felix, as they clear the room to the best of their ability - fire and lightning and Anna's own arcane talisman streaking mayhem across the room. He pulls out the charm he got from Matoba, sticking it square on his chest, as he picks up the Hi'hirokane knife. He puts a hand to his left bicep. It'll have to do. ]

[ He nods to the others, and breaks out into a sprint, breaking the perimeter of the chalice's protection in a dead heat toward the wall of darkness. ]

[ He hits the darkness full bore, the charm casting a light around him briefly, before it's consumed. The curse burns away at his insides - his lugs hurt, his chest seizes, but he keeps moving, his eyes focused on what they came here to do, his sword thrown to the side so he can keep both hands on the knife. ]

[ For all of the protective ability of Anna's coat, and Matoba's charm. It's not enough. He's driven himself straight into the heart of things. His vision swims. And he's not really... 'here' anymore. Not really. It's a good thing he has one of the cameras on him so people can review the footage later: Cloud Strife has checked out. ]

[ The sleek, manufactured walls of the Mako Reactor. The pounding in his eardrums - frighteningly plausible, even as it's his body telling him he's in dire jeopardy. He's stumbling forward for a few steps. A corpse close by - an unconscious girl - he knows those well. He also sees what ahead of him clearly. ]

[ Sephiroth. Turning to face him. Small, knowing smile behind those cat-slitted eyes. Hands outstretched, half-welcoming the attempt to challenge him. Darkness seeping off of him, unnaturally. Cloud's gut shrivels and twists. ]

[ Cloud's body moves forward on instinct, running towards the man. Hatred wells in his body, nearly freezing him in place, knuckles gripping tightly the blade in his hands as he thrusts forward with all of his might- ]

[ Cloud Strife plunges the scarlet metal knife into the pulsing heart of darkness. He does not retreat, holding onto the blade as one might a lifeline as he tries to sink it as deep as it will go. ]

[jigokumods]

[ The knife, against all odds, finds its purchase within the "heart", the pulsating form of an aeon's old grudge given profane life. It beats all the faster, feeling the sacred metal of that blade pierce what made up some facsimile of its flesh. There is a screech, a horrific cry of pain and agony, from this thing that had not persisted by its own choice, but only did what any living creature was programmed to do; survive.

Light bursts from the dagger, consuming, clinching, desperately and ravenously cleaving its way through the formless beast. The darkness cries, but the light only devours. It fills the entire room, the entirety of the vision of every actual person there, blinding in its purity.

A chain reaction. Two forces collide. Chemistry. Fusion. Diffusion.

A soul is not destroyed when it changes form. It merely takes on a different shape.

The last thing any of them see, within that blistering light, in the last clump of the cursed darkness, is a form, not unlike that of a humanoid person.

It smiles brightly (too bright), and widely (too wide), and speaks. ]

"They cannot save you."

[ And then just like that, it's gone. All of it. Everything just sort of collapses and the five of them find themselves in a pile of clay dust, inside the cylinder of the containment center.

Nothing is rotting, nothing is rusty or decayed. It looks, ostensibly, as it should. The door is wide open, and the machines are all silent, and the darkness is just as thick as it had been without any power in the facility but...

... It was normal. The first normal thing any of them had likely seen since the beach party.

Toraguma doesn't speak. He digs. He knows Cloud is in there. He calls to the others. ]

Come on! We need to get him topside and to a doctor! No time to waste!

[littleshield]

[ . . .

Whatever Felix is thinking about regarding that thing doesn't matter since before he knows it, it's over and done with. His fingers do tighten on the hilt of his blade despite the silence that stretches across the area.

Everything appears to have been settled.

For now.

Felix doesn't say anything when Toraguma calls out, but he does after a moment's hesitation sheathe his blade. No more hostiles are around, after all.

Then, he'll hurry on over, and help him dig as well. Probably in between kicking mounds of clay dust around, but alternating back to using his hands. ]

[killtime]

[ Fuck — Andy sprints over with Felix, sheathing her own blade as she comes to help. What she wouldn't do for a fucking shovel, but at least her gloves make it easier to dig through the rubble. It hasn't even really sunken in yet, that they did what they came to do. That they survived. Won even, for their part. Maybe it'll feel more real when she makes it back outside to see that the blood rain has finally cleared. Or when she can lay eyes on her people again. Or sleep in her own goddamn bed.

But her head isn't there yet. The adrenaline hasn't died down, and her focus hasn't broken. The moment it does, her newly mortal flesh will give up. So she just digs. ]

[notched]

[ She has no Hunter tricks for this, no special tools. It's been a long time there was anyone left to save. She follows more slowly, not as frantic as the rest with the sedative in her system. She drops down on her knees to dig with her hands, pulling big scoops of debris away. She holds fast to the belief that Cloud was well-protected. That armor has seen her through fates worse than Hell. It won't fail them now. ]

[identitycrisiscore]

[ It might take a minute, but between the four of them, one of them finds Cloud's sword from the Sutoku's armory, discarded in the heat of the moment. ]

[ The man himself, as they will likely realize, is not far from it - buried under the debris. When they find him, it's - well. He's in a bad way. ]

[ Anna's coat, thankfully, is still in plenty wearable condition - perhaps slightly worse for the wear than it had been before it was force to bear the brunt of the curse, but not notably more tattered, if in sore need of some cleaning and treatment. Matoba's charm, with had been placed against Cloud's chest, is torn to little more than scrap paper, having done its best, but been overwhelmed when Cloud charged in. ]

[ The man himself seems to be clinging to consciousness like a drowning man, his breath ragged and his eyes unfocused. He can just barely make out the blurry shapes of the rest of the basement squad as they break him out, but understanding where he is, what he just did, is beyond him - a cursory examination is all it would take to realize the frenzy's symptoms have seeped down to his very bones, and it's a combination of two layers of protection, a stubborn will, and sheer luck that he's even alive. ]

[ He opens his mouth to speak, a rattling breath escaping him. The young man's entirely on autopilot now - he's clutching at his bicep in a death grip with one hand. His skin is pale and clammy, his entire body locked up as if already in rigor mortis. ]

Not... getting rid of me... that easily...

[ That's all you're getting out of him, basement squad. He's not even really here. ]