bravenewworld | Descent into Darkness

Descent into Darkness

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.]

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[The hand on her shoulder draws her back, calling her back to reality. She's not new to the illusion-in-a-cave thing, or even to shadows of herself, but this was new, different. This version of herself, she could tell at a glance, was older. Battlehardened, scarred, and dangerous. Almost like a barbarian, and indeed if she had to come up with a single word to describe her? It would be that.

Her voice comes out falteringly, and she leans against that hand all too willingly.]

Stars above...Takeshi, did we drink anything crazy before we came down here? I mean, you are seeing this, right?

[The shadow narrows it's eyes...but says nothing further, yet.]

[He didn't know for certain what this illusion was meant to be, or if it was dangerous- but this version of Yuuna wasn't right. His grip grows a little firmer when she leans into it, against his better judgement. He didn't like the way this strange Yuuna was looking at the Yuuna he knew.]

I am. What's causing this...?

Does it matter, sweetie?

[The shade's gaze flits from the real thing to Takeshi, her jaw set deliberately, a calculating smirk playing across her lips.]

You're both here. And it's been a while since I saw you. You're just like I remember, before all this started.

[Heatedly, the real Yuuna has to ask:]

Before all what started?

[That sets the shadow off, a cold laugh erupting from her throat. It echos throughout the arena, joined by the assembled crowd.]

Why, before Gigas came to town. Before you were given your full potential. Before you became me!

[That laugh coming from Yuuna's likeness was bad enough. But the moment she mentions Gigas he goes rigid, and the rest sends a hideous chill down his spine.]

[It couldn't be. For how little she'd said, her meaning was crystal clear to him. This was some kind of... nightmare scenario, that was all. It wouldn't come to pass, it wasn't real.]

[How would someone like you know?]

No...

[His voice is a little winded. He'd been taken off guard. He'd never even considered the thought of Gigas getting their hands on Yuuna, before now.]

[But after the horror came the fury. No, never again, not to Yuuna, not to anyone. His grip on her shoulder tightens briefly to painful levels before he lets go of her completely, stepping forward, this time with steel in his voice.]

She will never become you.

[She winces when she feels that hand squeezing, and she knows. She...understands...somehow, what this thing is saying, and she stumbled back, suddenly very, very afraid.]

You mean...no...no...

[To get that kind of reaction out of Takeshi was bad enough, but that anger? She hadn't seen that in him in a long, long time.]

Yes.

[That simple word is punctuated by the double holding up a fist, surrounding it with a chittering ball of lightning. And the crowd goes positively wild. Shouts of Thunderfist! Yuuna the Merciless! The Arena Goddess! are audible, and the woman shakes her head in acknowledgement.]

Anyone with potential was brought in. Everyone else? Well, let's just say you don't wanna know what happened to Merrill and Eluvian, my dear. Or to this strapping gent, failure that he is. He was acting a lot like this. Almost heroic. It was kinda sweet. But really? In the end? It doesn't amount to anything more than a pile of Tauros shit. Because I became strong, and I learned how to survive.

[Each statement hits Yuuna like a ram, blow after blow. She knows why there was the emphasis on that name. and she knows exactly...somehow...how this nightmare played out. Deaths upon deaths, the scars on the double's arms are indication enough of far too many fights...]

No...

[Failure. The voices echoed the word back at him in his head. But more than that, this illusion masquerading as Yuuna- it angered him. It angered him because she was so unlike Yuuna despite wearing her face, because she spoke of strength and survival as something that you had to trade your humanity for, because the idea that should he ever fail to protect her she could become this frightened him.]

[He turns his back on that Yuuna, putting himself between her and his Yuuna. He takes both her shoulders, gently once again, and though he's keeping the anger mostly out of his expression now, jagged red scars are clear on his face.]

Yuuna, you don't have to listen to this. It's not real.

[Yuuna can't help it. She leans against Hongo, practically doubled over. She'd already been feeling her foundations crumbling since Sanctuary. The fact that she'd just failed so completely there, been so utterly ineffective...it's beyond troubling. She can't keep the tears from coming, hot with anger and cold with despair, and she begins to shake just a bit.]

Oh boo hoo, now you're just gonna cry, huh? Just like you, when things get really tough. Let me guess, you just want to run away, don't you? Just take off, let Takeshi bail your ass out, like back in the old days? Weakling. Small wonder it took losing it all to make you into anything useful.

Edited 2015-07-22 22:51 (UTC)

[He was the one who kept trying to run anymore, but right now running was the last thing on his mind. Not when it was his friend who was suffering right in front of him. Seeing her this shaken, this upset, it hurt. In part because he hadn't been there this past year, to support her through the hard times. He was starting to understand just now much she'd changed. As much as he wanted to protect her, that what she needed right now wasn't a guardian. She needed a friend.]

[He doesn't stop her from leaning against him, only tense from his anger at this apparition. He even moves his hands from her shoulders to hold her in a gentle hug.]

You don't believe that, do you? You've always been strong, Yuuna. You've always gone wherever your whim takes you, but your strength is the one thing about you that never changes. I've always admired it.

That's why I know none of that will come to pass. Your spirit is far too strong to break.

Is it now? Are you so sure about that? Whims...fantasies, that's all you know, isn't it Yuuna? Weakling. Coward.

[The hands on her shoulder are shrugged off. Her eyes slowly rise, the hidden steel she often buried away finally coming out. Anger filled her, suffused her. Because she understood. This was a test. Of resolve. Of will. Of spirit. Takeshi's words had called that to mind, evoking images of past triumphs and happier days.

And the red marks on his skin reminded her of something else: That she hasn't got time to dwell on those failings. That she simply doesn't have the luxury of being weak. She has a duty as a Ranger and as a friend. And that, if anything, is a task she will not run from. Especially not here, in front of the one person who really knew her as she was.]

You're right. I did used to be all about fantasies and dreams. I still like those things. But then, you? Look at you. There's no way you could ever have been me, or you'd remember that. I'd rather fall on my sword than become you.

[She steps free, drawing her sword with a rasp.]

If it's a fight you want, then fine. Otherwise? Leave. Now. You aren't me. I reject you, phantom.

[Gods, he was tired of hearing those words. But they weren't directed at him this time, and they weren't true of Yuuna. He lets her move away, uncertain until he sees the look in her eyes. There it was. There was her strength.]

[When she draws her sword, for a moment he's torn. Should he make that challenge alongside her? Or was this a foe she should face for herself?]

[Stay away. She doesn't need you.]

[He sets his jaw against the voices, but says nothing as he moves aside.]

[She steps forward, the sword point rigid and aimed at her double.]

I reject you.

[Her off hand reaches back, taking Takeshi's in a firm grip. Surprisingly so, almost inhumanly so. Adrenaline, perhaps? Or something more.]

We reject you. Begone. Test us no more.

[Her strength is surprising, even if it doesn't feel like much to him- his hand is inhumanly hard beneath his gloves. But more surprising is that she took his hand in itself. We, she said, even after he'd been out of her life for this long.]

[He couldn't just stand aside, after that.]

[He takes a deep breath and steps forward to stand beside her.]

If we're to fight, she won't be fighting alone.

Your funeral!

The shadow of Yuuna draws her own sword and rushes ahead, aiming a strike at the pair. Yuuna doesn't let go, instead simply batting aside the swipe with an expertly timed one. No power needed, simply grace and skill. Dipping and letting go of Takeshi's hand now, she slides forward, her blade driving towards her double's shoulder.

The crowd roars, and the double's fist comes up, swinging forward with a potentially lethal electrical current. And without help? She's not stopping it in time.]

[He learned much of his fighting skills from Yuuna. But he hasn't used them more than once or twice in the past year. As soon as their swords clash, he can feel his chest tighten. He didn't want this, he'd never wanted to be a fighter.]

[But that was what his body was built for, now. That was his duty.]

[Yuuna lets go of his hand, and he yanks off his right glove, the first time he's removed one where anyone can see. He has not time to remove the other, not when he sees that strike coming. There's an unsettling sense of deja vu as adrenaline spikes and he's moving with no hesitation.]

[He catches the shadow's fist in his own clawed steel hand, his own enhanced strength helping to counter hers but he takes the electricity head-on. It's jarring and painful, spiking through his entire body, but he knew his body could take more than a human's. And he wasn't letting go. His claws dig into her fist as he shouts to Yuuna.]

Now!

[She recalls those times they'd worked together. She appreciates the memory, and the fact that he's actually remembering some of them. That catch was superb, and a stunning reminder of his strength.

However, this other Yuuna? Is stronger. Battle-hardened, with years of experience and a control over her powers that a new Enhanced just doesn't have. Her hand begins to shake, and if it wasn't for the claws she'd have ripped free without any real trouble, but that's not the plan. Electricity pours from her, flowing into him, the smell of heated metal beginning to fill the air.

Yuuna doesn't hesitate, though. Her sword drives forward, blade first. It bites into the illusion's shoulder, drawing a spurt of something black...oily. Something profane, if she had to put a word to it.]

Let go!

[Her offhand palm slams into her double's sword-holding wrist, a savage strike now that her furnace is stoked. Enhanced strength or not, there's a cracking sound as the fragile bones give under the blow. Adrenaline sings in her ears as the shadow howls in rage and pain.]

Takeshi!

[He can't keep from crying out as she bears down on him, but even through the white-hot agony and smell of heated metal mixing with charred flesh he puts his entire focus into not letting go. Letting go wasn't an option, not until Yuuna-]

[-And there it was. The double's wrist cracks, and he somehow lets go though his hand feels virtually numb. He stumbles back, holding his hand by the wrist with his still-gloves hand. Even with that he can feel the heat through it, his metal carapace retaining the heat of the electrical onslaught.]

[It would hurt more later, when the adrenaline wore off. There were more important things, right now.]

I'm fine! Don't let your guard down!

[With that done, with Takeshi clear, and the opponent's hand crippled, the crowd goes absolutely wild! Cheers of bloodlust, of fury, all of it...ring out through the arena as Yuuna drives forward. Her palm slams into her double's face, sending her flying backwards with inhuman force, and she's on top of the prone figure in a flash.

Sword bared, digging into the flesh of the shadow's throat, Yuuna snarls down.]

Don't you think, even for a second, you're like me. You cannot take me, not when I have my friends. All that power, but none of the strength.

[The shadow's eyes go wide with fear, the expression of a captured predator, of someone used to winning taken completely off guard...]

Finish it then. You won.

[Those cheers make the whole 'illusion' even more unsettling. As if a fight to the death was just for sport.]

[He takes a shaky step forward, still holding his arm.]

We've made ourselves clear. It's already finished.

He's right.

[That simple statement is enough to draw her back, the sword shifting and her body rising to a standing position. She's watching the shadow, and even as the crowd boos the arena begins to fade back into cave.]

Idealistic fools. You won't last long with that attitude when the real fight starts...

[He can finally relax, if only marginally, when the cave begins to reappear. It really was finished, thank the Gods.]

[Those parting words were enough to give him a chill, however. The real fight was coming. That much of her words he could believe, even if he didn't want to. His voice is softer, not directed at anyone, as his scars slowly fade from his face.]

We'll do what we have to.

We always do.

[The shadow fades out, a haunting laugh the final sound she utters. It's that laugh that sends a chill up Yuuna's spine, and she drops her sword to the ground with a clatter. Very nearly falling over, she sinks down onto the cavern floor.]

Gods...what the...why that...

Yuuna-

[He was just glad it was over. He hurries to her side, or at least tries to, the pain and weakness in his arm more distracting now that the threat was gone. He holds that arm aside as he kneels to take her shoulder with his good hand.]

Whatever the reason, it's over. Are you hurt?

Hurt?

[She looks up at him, putting her hand on top of his.]

Me? No. Thanks to you, at least. That would've been really bad.

[She chuffs a weak laugh.]

That's another one I owe you.

Edited 2015-07-26 20:40 (UTC)

Don't mention it. You don't owe me anything.

[This was the least he could do after his absence. He tugs his hand out from under hers so he can push himself to his feet and offer her a hand up.]

Idiot.

[Up she does go, but she shifts at the last second and gives him a big hug.]

Now, show me your arm. I've got some Burn Heal and my medkit. We'll get that fixed up.

[And, after a minute of looking away, she finally says.]

Sorry, I guess...that's...probably what I'm most afraid of. Becoming that.

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haaah I forgot brackets

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