Descent into Darkness

[bravenewmods]

As the characters arrive, they will find what appears to be a rather deep cavern. Upon entering, the caverns are quite narrow, with twists and turns everywhere and different tunnels that all seem to be interconnected. As characters travel deeper within the caverns, reality around them will start to warp, they will start to see and hear things that aren’t necessarily there - images of old enemies, past failures, voices of condemnation, visions that strike at the soul and core of the characters. Once this begins, it will only increase in power and volume, demanding it be confronted, lest they be trapped within these caves forever.

[OOC: This event will run for a week. All characters who enter the caves will be subject to some of their deepest fears, darkest demons, and most abject failures. To overcome them, characters must help each other out, finding their purpose through strength of character and resolve to move forward. In general, these visions should require characters to come to grips with themselves. Illusory images and voices can and will appear and can take any number of forms, depending on what is most appropriate to a character. Additionally, characters may thread with each other and are encouraged to help each other out to overcome these personal demons. For those who wish to take part, they are able and encouraged to narrate their own personal demons, which will be on display for everyone who enters their thread. IC threads may be made in this post.]

Comments

[expertonshutters]

[Oh. Oh this was such bad news for so many reasons. The implications of what to come, of what this strange fake!yuuna has done. This. This wasn't anything like the friend he'd made. Screw that. He stands so that he's right at her side, but his expression turns downright venomous as he looks at the doppelganger.]

Tch. What a crock of Taurus shit. Come on, Yuuna. Don't listen to this garbage. The Gods are playing tricks on us.

[rainsrespite]

"No such thing, Hayato. They're just Pokemon, and Gigas captured them all." The double returns Hayato's glare, stepping closer and sneering at both of them.

"I know you want to believe, but there's no reason to follow that old ghost of a religion. The world's changed. Only the strong survive. now."

Her attention turns towards Hayato and she laughs now, a cold, cruel sound filled with malice and disdain.

"Like this guy. You know he tried to stop them from taking me to their labs. But he was too weak. And really? Best thing that could've happened, really. I was given something and I ran with it. And over idiots like him and Takeshi, too."

[expertonshutters]

[He raises his hands like he expects a fight. His posture goes tense and his gaze is sharp, never leaving Yuuna's double. The more this went on the more it made him sick. No world, made up or not, should end up like this. Yuuna being taken in by Gigas and made an Enhanced- her becoming something like this. It made him angry and it shows.]

[The scars burn brightly on his face- red lines searing their way up and across his cheeks, his eyes. Left over from his incomplete procedure and the one thing he could never cover up because it reacted to his emotions. He pays it no mind this time.]

[Instead of snarling or spitting back that anger he takes a deep breath. And starts to laugh.]

[rainsrespite]

Yuuna took one look at the laughing form of the Enhanced to her left. And something in her just snapped. Fear was broken by something different. Something terrible. Suddenly everything in her just saw red. Pure, unadulturated fury. She charges forward with her sword drawn, bringing it down with thunderous force against the hastily drawn blade of the shadow.

Maybe there was more force than a human should have. Maybe not. It might just be adrenaline.

"You shut your fucking mouth!" Yuuna roared, swinging again, a hammerblow that battered the shade's defenses.

"Good! good! Get angry! Give in! That's how it all started!"

[expertonshutters]

[...Not even Hayato was able to keep up with that, it happened so fast. Hayato, who was a moment or two away from explaining his exact thoughts on the darker Yuuna's boasting. He blinks, startled, before his reflexes kick in. No, this was not a good fight. This was not something to be fought with that kind of anger either.]

Yuuna! Don't feed it!

[He rushes after them.]

[rainsrespite]

Yuuna barely registers the words as her sword slams against her double's. She cannot believe it. This...thing claiming to be her was working for Gigas? Was...happy to be Enhanced? Was talking about Merrill and Takeshi and Hayato and others that way?

"I will never become like you!"

Her sword swings out again, guided by more fury, and the clone stumbles back under the continued force. Her leg almost gives out, and she goes down on one knee, fending off strikes as best she can. Hayato may need to do something drastic to stop this, or something is really going to snap.

"You feel it now, don't you? You're taking what's yours! Grab hold of it, don't let go!"

[expertonshutters]

[Nope, nope, nope, this had to be stopped before it went too far.]

[Hayato never really fancied himself a person to carry weapons. He considered himself to be enough of a weapon. So, it's with very little hesitation that he rushed in between them, aiming to separate the two and hopefully halt Yuuna's rage.]

[By catching his blade while it was on it's way down for another strike. It hurts, and even with his steel typing, his metal bones, it's with effort that he's able to catch it all, and even with what he was, he still bleeds.]

Yuuna.

[rainsrespite]

The blow hammers against Hayato, and if he had any doubts that she was strong they'll be erased now. That strike had been meant as a killing blow, and it was obvious. Electricity seethes down the blade, and something (Fighting typing? Adrenaline?) makes him feel it far more than he should.

But? It has the desired effect. Her eyes go wide, and the sword drops, clattering to the ground.

"H-Hayato?! What?! What are you..."

"Showing you the error I never saw." the shadow answers as the roar of the crowd and the arena begin to fade out, folding back into the cavern. The doppelganger remains, panting and climbing to her feet.

"Maybe...things will be different for you. Don't be afraid of power, don't be afraid to admit you need it, but don't let it go to your head. Or you'll be just like me." is all she says before she too fades out, leaving only the pair of them in the dark, Yuuna standing in stunned silence.

[expertonshutters]

[Wow. It's been a long time since he's felt pain like this. Once the sword clatters to the ground he takes a deep breath that he didn't realize he was holding.]

[He only glances a little over his shoulder as the Double talks. So- is that what this was? A terrible future? Something shown so that it could be avoided? He didn't know if he wanted to buy that or not.]

[He scoffs a little, lowering his hands which are still throbbing and bleeding. Figures the one time he wanted his body's pain receptors to short out, they didn't.]

Cliche as that sounds .....s'not bad advice. But- however things come to pass- [He looks at her again. The scars that appeared on his face earlier, starting to fade.]

I'd never peg that for your future for any reason. Union is stronger than it thinks. Same goes for you. [He shakes his head.] You have anger, but I know that you have a good heart, too. Gigas will never win against a thing like that.

[rainsrespite]

Yuuna sinks down to her knees, head in her hands, and she just begins to sob. Wracking, pained sounds that come from deep in her chest, rocking her whole body through and through. It's hard to even process what she's just seen. A...her...so obsessed, so far gone, that she was barely anything more than pride. A her that took pride in fighting, killing, being a part of that?

A her that was more concerned with strength than in taking care of people. Someone...so very Gigan.

"I...but...I...just..." she cries, unable to make words form. Everyone with potential was taken in. You would definitely be someone they'd want. And admit it. You wouldn't mind being stronger, would you?

[expertonshutters]

[He kneels down and starts to told his hand out, stopping part way because wow- he was an actual mess. He unties his ascot and wraps it around his hand and tries again, gently taking her shoulder.]

That won't be you. I know it won't.

[rainsrespite]

"How...how do you know? Anyone...they could grab anyone..."

They'd grabbed Takeshi. They'd taken you too...

[expertonshutters]

[He shakes his head.]

Because I believe in this city and the people in it. This so-called raid of Gigas that shadow talked about? You couldn't pay me to believe it.

[And then his expression shifts a little. Somewhat sad, somewhat pained.]

Even if they got their hands on you, even if by some stroke they made you like me- like Takeshi, I still don't believe you'd turn out that way. What's important, and what I believe in is here. [and he does point to where her heart is.]

That's stronger than anything Gigas can do to you.

[And then he smiles lopsidedly.]

And then I imagine Takeshi and I would come and burn the whole place down ourselves if they so much as thought about it, so there's that.

[rainsrespite]

That, at least, has some meaning to her. She understands the idea of heart, of how important it can be and how it can affect the world around them. Heart, as cliché as it sounds, is at the truth of all things. Battles are won with heart, as is love. Peace is found by heart, as is strength. Never forget that had been one of the first things Master Yashio had told her. Her tears, still falling, slacken significantly and she nods once. She also has no doubt that if she was grabbed up, Takeshi, Merrill, Haruka, Hayato, and others would not just sit around.

“I’m just…I’m afraid of a war. I know it’s coming. It feels so…inevitable. Just, what if you’re wrong? Not about me. I won’t…I refuse, I’ll fall on my own sword before I become something like that. But Gigas is full of trained soldiers. We’ve…been lucky before. But for how long?”

This, as much as anything personal, is her real fear. She’s no soldier. She knows that. Her confidence is shaken at best, foundation crumbling at worst, after Sanctuary. That had been bad. So very, very bad.

[expertonshutters]

War is terrible, and that's for sure. I don't think there's a really good way to be ready for it. For all of Caldera's boasting of strength, even we almost lost. But the reason I learned we didn't is because we got something Gigas didn't have.

[He shrugs a little.]

Allies. Help from Union. Union is a strong force of nature because it's a city that has been relying on not conquest, but compromise. That's something Gigas doesn't understand.

You all also have an infectiously stubborn set of morals that I don't see you guys letting go. Honestly I don't think Gigas will know what to do if Union has to jump into the fight.

[He stands up and offers her his hand.]

But the best we can do now is be ready.

[rainsrespite]

She accepts that hand, letting him pull her up, and then she steps forward and hugs him. Her face presses against his shoulder and she coughs, worn out from the experience.

"Yeah. I guess...that's probably right. Getting ready, I guess. As much as I don't want to militarize like that."

She chuffs a weak laugh, her hand reaching up towards Hayato's bleeding arm, unbothered at all by the scarlet leaking out onto her glove. She's a medic, she's dealt with worse.

"Sorry. I guess I got you good, too."

[expertonshutters]

[He offers her a wan smile.]

Better safe than sorry.

[He hates war and conflict, himself. Wanted nothing more than for there to be peace but ...after all of this he's also come to realize that hoping isn't going to be what stops forces like Gigas. Some times you had to stop it without your own hands.]

[So it was.]

[He laughs a little looking at his arm.]

You really did. Hurts a lot more than much of anything in the last several months. Kudos.

[And that wasn't even sarcasm. Pain was a weird thing to him these days. It was kind of nice to feel it sometimes.]

[rainsrespite]

"Good thing for you, before I changed career paths the night before graduation? I was on the medical track. Pissed Takeshi off."

She's alreay letting him go, wiping her eyes on a sleeve as she goes for a medical kit.

"That doesn't add up though. You're what? Steel typed? My sword is Electric."

[expertonshutters]

Oh yeah? That's pretty convenient. Do you have any embarrassing stories about Takeshi that I should know? You can't tell me you don't.

[He let's her go pretty quickly. Hugs were ...something he was getting used to. Honestly the contact still scared him but between her and Honoka he was loosening up a bit.]

[As for the arm he frowns a little.]

I dunno. I'm Steel and Bug, but I don't have any particular weakness against electricity. It honestly should have hurt a lot less. Maybe you're just that tough!

[rainsrespite]

"I do, but I'm not sharing yet."

She smirks and starts dressing the cut. It's way, way deeper than it should be, almost to the bone...

"And I may be. It had to have been adrenaline. Because I shouldn't be cutting you like that."

[expertonshutters]

[Which explains why it actually hurts so damn much. He winces a little as she dresses it. He might actually need stitches for this. Crazy.]

Aw. Oh well.

[But yeah, she's got a point. Not much has been able to hurt him like this in a while.]

Adrenaline might explain it. It can ...get a whole lot done.

[He sighs.] Figures the one time my body doesn't short circuit is the one time I need to not feel pain.

[rainsrespite]

“It really can. I’ve seen some pretty crazy things come from adrenaline.”

She chuckles, rubbing the back of her head and going to work, cleaning the cut with iodine and the like.

“Sorry, but you did kinda jump in the way. Lucky you are steel typed or you’d be an amputee. And I’m no good with prosthetics on the fly.”

[expertonshutters]

[Adrenaline is what got him and Takeshi out of Gigas, so he certainly knows. He opts to just laugh at that last part.]

I'm bug, too. Maybe it would have grown back.

[That's a joke but now that he thinks about it he just kind of looks horrified by the thought.]

On second thought, I'm glad you didn't lop my arm off.

[rainsrespite]

"I'm glad too. I'm not good with emergency field repair like that. And I don't have a Heal Pulser on hand. I should...really...get Kokishi to learn that sometime."

This is all joking, of course, as she keeps on working.

"Thanks though. Seriously."

[expertonshutters]

[He waves his hand in a 'don't worry about it' kind of way.]

You seem like the kind of person who would probably do something similar if our places were swapped.

[And he would have been content to let her keep working after that. However a moment or two later and he starts to feel an odd tingle in his finger tips. He snaps his eyes open wide and tenses. Ah, there it was.]

[It was an almost cold feeling- or maybe that was just the way he almost always felt panicked when it happened- but it spreads throughout his body. Cold and then followed by complete and utter numbness. ]

Dammit.