2023-05-06: Odyssey
- Log: Odyssey
- Cast: Anastasia Valeria, Marivel Armitage, Eleanor Klein, Ashley Winchester, Josephine Lovelace, Brad Evans
- Where: Memory Maze
- Date: May 06, 2023
- Summary: Ashley, Eleanor, Josie, and Brad have been pulled into the Memory Maze. Fortunately, wherever they go, they are not alone.
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
The ones who laid low Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus have found themselves in the Memory Maze.
It is a brilliant place, but it is also a dreary one.
Mist stretches as far as the eye can see. Through it, rows of stone columns can be seen. The whole of the place is lit, like a sunny day, but there isn't a sun on the horizon. There is light everywhere, dispersed evenly.
And, through the mist, someone approaches.
Anastasia Valeria is a young woman of perhaps twenty. She has long blue-purple hair, with an armored violet and white dress. Her dark eyes scan the group, as she gets closer -- and then she nods, once, at them.
"...So..." She says. "...You've found yourself here." Across her back is not only her blade, but the blade: Argetlahm, the sword of legend. She tilts her head to the side.
"Welcome," she says. "And I'm sorry. I am Anastasia Valeria."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel returns with the others (for Ana, Marivel dragging everyone off to interrogate them is probably well and expected and hilarious). She grudgingly admits, "They seem cool," like her stubborness is conflicting with what she's seen with her own eyes and felt with her own heart so now she's kind of pouting and trying (and failing) not to show it.
It is pretty adorable and those cheeks remain very pinchable.
"Hey," She says because she can't help herself. "I'm Marivel. I'm a cool vampire engineer."
Hob and Nob hover nearby, chirping excitedly.
"Yeah, yeah," She smiles. "Almost as good with tech as Ana."
She jerks a thumb over at Ashley.
"He has a girlfriend."
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
It's like a sunny day... But it is not so warm and pleasant as one, for Eleanor. She's still tired; much of her magical jewelry is broken and melted, her attire singed at the edges. There are some bloodstains, though her magic has restored the flesh beneath, for herself and for others.
And through the mist...
"You don't have to be," Eleanor assures Anastasia, looking over her armor, the sword of legend, known to any noble of Meria...
And to her face.
"We are, I believe, meant to be here 'now'. This is 'fate'."
"My name is Eleanor Klein." She smiles, but it's not a happy kind of smile; it's a little wistful. She regards Marivel, again, and is much quieter this time about 'the future' for some mysterious reason.
"...He does," she agrees.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Wh--
Ashley is not even one step out of the grey fog of memory when PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT HIS LOVE LIFE. "Wh-what's that got to do with anything!?" Oh no, his ears are red. That's not a surprise, considering his entire face is red. "I was all ready to meet the Sword Magess and--" Eleanor confirms Marivel's terrible rumor mongering. "Guuuuuyyys--"
He had one chance to properly introduce himself to the Sword Magess, and this happens!?
Ugh. Ughhhhhh.
The fate of an Ashley Winchester is dire indeed...
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's not every day one gets to meet a legendary hero from thousands of years ago -- a hero so great that the stories of her triumph survived not only the fall of Zeboim era, but at least two catastrophes that had come after.
In retrospect, Josie suspects it might not be mysterious why the story of the Sword Magess might have fallen a little to the left of what had apparently actually happened.
"Sure did nail your appearance in the artwork," she remarks to Anastasia, because even in this most portentious of moments, in a time that should not exist, Josie is still Josie.
"But, well... pleased to meet you and all that. Call me Josie, right?"
Perhaps she ought to give a legendary hero her real name. But--
"Better'n whatever else you could call me, yeah?"
Cue her attention turning Ashley's way.
"...Well, well," Josie says, looking for the moment like the cat who caught the canary. "You fixin' to wed the lovely lady? Or are you just playing the field, like?"
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
The mist parts.
Brad Evans is, by a miracle, shorter than the pillars that give this place some implication of structure, though he is wider. It's hard to know what to note, here; nothing feels real which means either nothing matters or everything does. Brad's escaped from unworlds before, but this is...something about it, the mechanics he's finding behind it, feels...constraining.
Even a Slayheim rebel knows the look of the Sword Magess. Guardian Blade Argetlahm...Is it sorcerous, is it an ARM? Unimaginable that he'd have the chance to even think it.
"Evans," he says, because it's habit at this point. His eyes find the hero's, a moment of confirmation and contact. "Brad Evans."
The preoccupation with Ashley's love life earns a faint quirk of a grin.
DG: A party led by Anastasia Valeria is now entering Memory Maze. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Ever-Encroaching Light *>====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The Memory Maze stretches on, endlessly, before you. It is a flat expanse of
misty ground, and the mist hangs low enough at your feet that it makes your
shoes hard to see. It billows, moving like fluid clouds, all around you.
Ahead, there are countless stone pillars -- columns, mismatched from every
era -- that form a path leading onward.
It seems placid.
The threat is placid, too. It comes from behind you: a huge, glowing light
that spans the horizon. It is bright; brighter than the midday sun,
reflecting off the mist to make it hard to look in any direction. It comes
at you with a deceptive quickness.
Whatever it is, it is something you must run from.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Slow:_Agility_Down! and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
"I'm sure," Ana says, with a smile -- and a roll of her eyes -- in Marivel's direction. She smiles a little more, though, before she looks back at them.
Her eyes meet Josephine's. She smiles, though she looks uncertain for a moment. "Artwork, huh... I feel a little embarrassed. Very well, Josie."
Then, she looks to Brad, and she nods. She smiles once at him; then she adjusts the sword on her back. It would appear to be more magical than ARM; one of the most ornate swords that he has ever seen.
She sucks a breath in, and she does her best to look serious.
"The Memory Maze is a prison," she says. "I will try to help you find your way through it. But... you should know that it may be impossible. Still, we must try. This is a burden that I..."
Marivel says that Ashley has a girlfriend. Eleanor confirms it. Anatasia's eyes widen a little; Ashley, also, essentially confirms it.
"R-Really?" Her eyes widen. "That's delightful! Oh, you should tell me about her. When did you meet her? How did it happen? Did it--"
She bites her lip, then sighs. "...r-right, we don't have time, oh except we have all the time in the world, and--"
It grows brighter.
Anastasia interrupts herself, to look at the horizon in the direction they came from; the light has grown from 'bright' to 'blinding.' It only gets brighter, as it seems to rush for them.
"--We have to hurry," she says. "If that reaches us, we will be lost for... I can't say. Longer than we should. Let us move!"
The Sword Magess turns -- and she starts to hurry forward, away from the ever-encroaching brilliance.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ever-Encroaching Light.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Fate. Marivel looks at Eleanor when she uses that word. She's certainly paying attention even if she is giving Ashley Winchester shit. Her Superior Crimson Noble bloodline means that she can give Ashley Winchester shit and see what the lady who is clearly the mage of the traditional 4 hero party is up to. No party is complete without the rogueish type as seen with Josephine (she's even giving Ashley EXTRA shit which clinches it) and Brad must be the big guy. Every party needs a big guy or girl to fill out the roster.
She gets this huge shit-eating grin as Anastasia starts plugging Ashley for details about his relationship and she seems content to just let it happen forever until...
That light. "Oh dangit!" Marivel says, sighing at Ashley. "Sorry, you'll have to tell us all about her along the way. But let me amaze you with something I bet you've never seen before..."
She POOFS into a cloud of smoke!
And then a bat flies out of that smoke and drops down, landing on Anastasia's shoulder.
The bat smirks at everyone as if she expects them to all be very impressed at this ability they've never seen before, leaning against the nape of Anastasia's neck. She doesn't want to get seperated so she's going to stay close whenever they have to hurry.
Baby Marivel's batform has permanent blush stickers on for extra kawaii that she'll grow out of when she's older.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Tomato Juice From Grownups toward her party's challenge, Ever-Encroaching Light. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor looks back to Marivel, as she uses the word. She doesn't specify a lot more for now. ...For now. But--
"Don't worry, Ashley," Eleanor says. "You should be proud! She's very lovely." Then a laugh, at Josie's question, and it is perhaps a rare genuine laugh in a place like this. She's so tired, and yet... And yet that's nice. She's at least marrying hers, but--
Well, Marivel isn't supposed to know that yet.
A prison... Yes. "Even if it's impossible," Eleanor says, "You're right. We must." She doesn't inquire into the burden. But they don't have time, or they do have time, and then they very much don't.
"Oh, let's," Eleanor says, and prepares to move--but she's not nearly fast enough on foot. She watches Marivel turn into a bat, and... smirks. "Very good. However..."
Eleanor extends her arms and then flash, in a burst of light and smoke she is a beautiful owl, racing along the way next to Anastasia and the others to get away from the light.
"Hurry!"
'Hurry' is unskippable, of course.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Rauru's Flight toward her party's challenge, Ever-Encroaching Light. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Why would anyone bring up his love life in front of the Sword Magess!? She's a hero among heroes! A <L E G E N D> unlike any the world has seen since! There's no way that she'd be interested in that sort of thing!
And then he remembers: This is the lady that Marivel is infatuated with.
OF COURSE she'd be interested in that sort of thing.
"I-- ah--" The fog might be thick, but Ashley's face is shining like the red nose of the proverbial reindeer, a beacon that almost effortlessly penetrates the swirling mists. "We... I um," he pokes his pointer fingers together awkwardly, because he has to do SOMETHING with his hands and he can't just cover his face. "We were childhood friends...? And when I went to see her right before we left for the Gazzo, we uh-- M-marriage!? I, maybe after we deal with--"
SHOULD HE BE SAYING THIS NOW? HERE!?
"W-we should go! Yeah! Run, fast! Ahaha~" The mist closes in. To be lost in the fog of memory is... probably not something that any of them want to be. After all, in a place like this, it might mean more than merely meandering through the mists. If your face disappears in a place of pure memory, then... What does that mean for the people back home...?
Ashley doesn't want to think about that. Instead he hucks a boomerang into the fog. It quickly begins encircling the party, whirling like a protective shield-- or perhaps like a giant fan-- to stir and disperse the surrounding mist before it can cling too cloyingly near.
Marivel turns into an adorable bat. ELEANOR turns into an adorable owl!? "When did you learn to do that!?" He seems to be referring to Eleanor, here. Probably. Marivel might take it another way. But her little blush stickers are adorable, it's true.
Perhaps even... too adorable...
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Magic Boomerang toward his party's challenge, Ever-Encroaching Light. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Don't you worry about it or none, Ana," Josie says, swiping her hand through the air as if to dismiss the matter entirely. "You looked great. Or will look great, maybe?" She screws up her brow, as if deep thought, only to shrug. "Something like that or what," she settles for, nodding once, twice.
It's hardly the first she's heard of Marina, of course, but perhaps in the wake of their previous conversation regarding significant others (and the potent fact that she and Eleanor are absolutely none of the sort) she had been put into the mood for it, such that it is. THUS--
"Oh yeah? So you'll make an honest woman of her?" Josie continues on without missing a beat. "Been a while since I've been to a wedding."
Though for that to happen -- if it was actually in the cards, all considering -- first they'll have to get out of here, which is not a promised thing. "Ain't like we'll do better hanging 'round here, yeah?" she remarks. "C'mon. I've places to be. Lead on!"
The fog within is thick and swirling, seeking to mislead them, to drag them deeper into the abyss of time.
At least one of them will make it out the other end again, Josie considers, breaking into a run. Whether or not the rest of them do -- or even if they land in the right decade -- is an open question. Still, there's no time like the present.
Or the past, or the future.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ever-Encroaching Light.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Prison...she says. Brad grimaces. "Seen one or two of those," he says, mostly to himself, and rolls his neck. Taciturn as ever.
Magic swords are not his turf so he mostly stops worrying about it once he becomes certain it's not going to unfold into a sweet cannon or something. He settles for being deeply entertained by Ashley having no idea how to handle some light generational teasing. Anastasia's immediate, intense interest catches his attention, though, because that's...sure not his image.
But he knows a thing or two about the gap between a hero and their image.
Marivel transforms into a bat. Amazing! Brad blinks. "Oh, this one's smaller," he says, distantly.
Light looms upon him. That...wow, he HATES that. "Right. Running," he whispers.
Brad Evans can only really run in a straight line so let's hope there's no curves...ramps...logs...laundry...
DG: Brad Evans has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ever-Encroaching Light.
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Ever-Encroaching Light *>====================
| Type: Entry | Dungeon Ability: Agility | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The Memory Maze stretches on, endlessly, before you. It is a flat expanse of
misty ground, and the mist hangs low enough at your feet that it makes your
shoes hard to see. It billows, moving like fluid clouds, all around you.
Ahead, there are countless stone pillars -- columns, mismatched from every
era -- that form a path leading onward.
It seems placid.
The threat is placid, too. It comes from behind you: a huge, glowing light
that spans the horizon. It is bright; brighter than the midday sun,
reflecting off the mist to make it hard to look in any direction. It comes
at you with a deceptive quickness.
Whatever it is, it is something you must run from.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, |
| Slow:_Agility_Down!, and Stupify:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========================<* Memory Maze - Round 1 *>=========================== ======================< Results - Ever-Encroaching Light >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anastasia Valeria 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Tomato Juice From Grownups 2 Agility Effects: Cleanse and Sacrifice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brad Evans 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 0 --(12)--> 12 Fail Rauru's Flight 2 Agility Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Magic Boomerang 2 Agility Effects: Resilient -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Anastasia Valeria 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Anastasia Valeria has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
Anastasia's lips form into a line as Marivel sweeps ahead of her -- and her eyes widen a little, as Eleanor does too. Two people can turn into something that flies!? This, she decides, is terrible cheating. Terrible cheating!
They all hurry, though, as the sky goes brighter and brighter behind them. It is fortunate that they run. A few times, it is a near thing -- the light nearly enveloping Brad and Eleanor, a couple of times -- but they manage to outrun it.
As they run, Anastasia's arms flail.
"M-M-M-M-Marriage~!?" she wails. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you were holding out! That's great! Congratulations! Aaah, I'd love to come, but--"
She sighs. "...you know."
Anastasia slows, as she runs. The light is a distant thing. But ahead, she sees a glimmering orb. "Ah... a memory," she says. "This place has them -- it will draw on yours. And they can come to life. Be careful."
DG: Anastasia Valeria has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing azure orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
The room is resplendent. Gentle, multicolored light filters through stained
glass windows and paints a rainbow across luscious, gold-trimmed, scarlet
carpet. The air is warm with the scent of incense and the ineffable aura of
holiness.
It is also thick with the stench of blood.
A chilling scream cuts through the solemn mood. The door splinters and
shatters. There, a horrible, demonic thing shambles through. Its skeletal,
barely-human form seems formed entirely of sickly green flesh twisted into
gangly limbs and a too-narrow waist. It groans, raking a three-clawed limb
into the marble doorframe as it emerges. Where one comes many. They swarm
after you, clambering desperately upon you with vicious claws and grotesque
strength. You have no choice. You must fight. You must kill.
...
Only after the end do you see the mirror.
The only demon reflected in it, standing amid a tangled mess of limbs and
savaged bodies... Is you.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Madness:_Wits_Down! and Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"I-I-I-I mean!" Ashley is a stammering mess AND NOT IN THE WAY HE EXPECTED TO BE after meeting the Sword Magess. "I don't even know when it'd happen! Maybe we can get you out before then!?? I mean! It's possible! Ahahahaha~ N-not that I'd put it off until then or anything. Hah. Hahaha. Haaaaah."
(Nevermind that it'd be terribly inconsiderate, and Marina would murder him if he did.)
(Arm-flailing and squealing like a schoolgirl was absolutely not what he expected from Anastasia Valeria, but maybe given Marivel's proclivities, he probably should have.)
"O-oh, a memory? I don't suppose there's any general trend to these sorts of things so we know what to expe--" The blue orb swallows him up. It swallows everyone up. When the light fades, they're... somewhere familiar. The visitors to this place have probably been here before at least once in their lives. There is a lush red carpet underfoot. It and the equally crimson curtains are both trimmed in gold thread that might actually be spun with the precious metal. There's a lot of red in here, actually.
Red. On the walls.
Red. On the windows.
On the door. The carpet... is wet with red.
Something is on the floor, something twisted and gnarled and wholly alien. It looks as though something had torn open its hollow chest, mangled its limbs and left it to bleed. But before its corpse can be inspected, there's the sound of wood splintering. Claws like raptor talons but enormous and grotesque carve through the door. They rake across the polished marble as another one of those things pulls itself through.
They're... they're monsters. Mottled and green, the humanoid things have a waist that is little more than a spine, an exposed ribcage cradling an orb of baleful hellfire. And there are so many, each climbing over the other to swarm into the room a tide of demonic flesh.
And Ashley--
Ashley is-- frozen stiff.
The only thing in the room that isn't red... Is his utterly pale and bloodless face.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel smirks a little more as Ashley is clearly impressed with her ability to turn into a bat even if it's stymied a bit by Eleanor's ability to turn into an owl which Marivel has to admit is pretty cool. She's never heard of a sorcerer able to do that before but--well--this is clearly some wild future sorcery shit. And she's SMIRKING at her in challenge!!
But Marivel isn't going to lie, "Yeah that's pretty neat. I mean, not as cute as a bat, but if I couldn't turn into a bat I'd definitely go for an owl so."
Brad says she seems smaller. "Wait what? What??"
But before she can comment. A memory.
Ashley mentions getting Anastasia out and the bat's eyes widen faintly. "...You... are going to try?"
Marivel hits with a memory and...
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_I1MWCTkyQ&ab_channel=KensukeUshio-Topic
Marivel's initial instinct is that this is one of hers and she tears through one of the skeletal creatures with a claw. The smell of blood is intoxicating, of course. At a certain point it's like being surrounded by appetizers and being expected to refuse the server trays. Marivel doesn't seem to think twice about it. After all...
Unlike everyone else here, she always WAS a demon since day one so while she does feel strange and her claws don't look quite right, she has no reason to not think this just isn't her battling through an old memory.
She tears through demon after demon. She is too angry to yell what she wants to 'COME AT ME BLAZER'.
It's so visceral that she forgets that this is supposed to be a memory. For the moment, this isn't so bad to Marivel. She gets to get her bloody vengeance.
The true horror will sink in later.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool My Mike toward her party's challenge, Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly. Embolden! Party Combat boosted! Liability! Failure will result in extra Exhaustion!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"True, you win on adorability," Eleanor agrees wit Marivel good-naturedly. Eleanor smiles when Ashley fumbles over marriage. It's very cute. But she can't smile over much else in the moment, nearly falling beind as she does. At least the boomerang helps her out. She's just... not very fast, and being an owl can only make up for that so much.
It's definitely cheating, though.
"When you two get married," Eleanor says, as she turns back into an elf, "Who's going to make the cake? You can't very well make your own. It isn't done!" To Anastasia attending, though, "Of course he'll try. That's the kind of man he is. ...I've intentions to help, as well."
A memory...
The blue orb swallows her up, too,and Eleanor loks around to a place she recognizes... except it is different, in how it is now. Wood splinters. The things pull themselves through. Eleanor's eyes widen in alarm, because every sense she has screams that these things are wrong. "Look out!"
She pulls a Crest, and begins to incant a spell. Protective shields of shimmering light appear before each of them, which may serve to protect from a few swipes, perhaps more.
Then light gathers at her hands, and she shoves the one that comes to her with a blow that sends searing holy radiance straight through its chest.
They get too close. She can't do more than fight them off as hard as she can.
DG: Eleanor Klein has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly. DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"No, no, delay a wedding too long and you're liable to make a girl sad, like," Josie says, shaking her head vehemently. "C'mon now, you only want the right kind of tears on a wedding day...!"
Ahead of them lies a memory, Anastasia says.
"You did say memories were lurkin' about. Reminds me of the Elw. Ain't they got something similar-li--"
The memory overtakes them before Josie can even finish the last word of her sentence.
Where... are they now? "Looks... like the..." Shit, she knows where they are. Look at that glass. Look at it. "See, I told you, Ana-- they've got images made of--"
There is red on the walls, the floors. There is red where it should be. A single drop falls from an ornate doorhandle and Josie turns, following the flood of red that has poured from a single source. "What the... hell?" she utters in the moment that follows.
And then the door breaks in.
Demons are just stories made to scare the overly superstitious -- a certain Lord Blazer's business aside. Josie has faith, but never has she believed in things like that. And yet, what else can you call these?
"Look alive, kid!" she calls out to Ashley, frozen stiff in fright. She goes not for her ARMs in the heat of the moment but for the spells she learned from her sire: electricity leaps from her hand as she hurls it forth for the leader of the pack.
"Nora, Evans, kiddo, it's all you!"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad is not entirely sure what the sensation he gets when the light settles over his shoulders like a cloak is but he decides he hates it. That lets him push harder.
Eventually, they gain enough ground on it that he can slow down. He doesn't have the build for marathons.
"Took 'im long enough," Brad grunts to talk of marriage. He'd look around but there isn't exactly much to do but keep an eye on the Horrible Light, and the blue bubble.
He elects not to explain himself about Marivel becoming smaller, his attention turning with focus. "A memory." A maze of them, after all. How literal.
The world expands and changes, swallowing them up and moving them along to....to....
Brad can all but feel himself pulling up old memories. Old coping mechanisms. Reaching for the old SLA bandana to cover away the charnel house scent of a brutal, close-up battlefield. He doesn't have it. But that's not what this is, anyway.
Battles have lines, have logic. Have sides with goals. This, this is...
"Massacre," Brad says, low. "Slaughter."
And the cause appears soon, lurching, terrible things. Demons, some part of him knows to call it, but he can't assess why so easily. He flicks his hand into a familiar configuration for the Mechanical Glove and one of his laser grenades drops into it. He yells, "Careful!" and then throws it, and a second later a lance of light rips out of the seam of the grenade, mercilessly carving through the horde.
DG: Brad Evans has used his Tool Lawnmower toward his party's challenge, Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly. Stalwart! Party shielded from some Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
"Hmm... I wouldn't mind that," Ana says. And there is a smile -- but it's a little forced. Because a part of her thinks: she can't leave this place. She looks at Eleanor. "If... you can, and do so safely..."
But she can't take away Marivel's hope. And, perhaps, her own hope.
Who could maintain Lord Blazer's seal, otherwise? Someone must, from this side -- just as others must, on the other side.
And then they are swallowed up by blue light.
She hears what Josie says. Surprise shoots across her face, to see herself in stained glass form; then, though, she registers the red.
She registers the monsters.
For Anastasia, it is a moment where her expression changes; something severe, something determined. Argetlahm swings down in her hand, and red-tinged light reflects off its silvery blade. She looks at the splintering wood, and the thing pulling through.
Her eyes snap to Marivel. There is fear there; there is concern in her eyes. She worries for her, for a moment.
But they have other things to be worried about. It is, as Brad says, a slaughter. And she has her own memories and defense mechanisms for such sights.
"Ashley," she says. "You have to focus. It's a memory. It's real... but it's what was. Not what is, and not what the future holds."
And then she launches herself forward. Anastasia moves by stepping forward, foot hitting the ground, and boot turning into a pivot. And one of those creatures sees a flash of bright blue -- and then Argetlahm comes crashing down for it, to slash the Proto-Blazer and beat it backward.
"I've fought you before," Ana says, "and I still can! You don't get to have Filgaia! Or these people!"
DG: Anastasia Valeria has used his Tool Argetlahm toward his party's challenge, Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly. Rally!
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Combat | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing azure orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
The room is resplendent. Gentle, multicolored light filters through stained
glass windows and paints a rainbow across luscious, gold-trimmed, scarlet
carpet. The air is warm with the scent of incense and the ineffable aura of
holiness.
It is also thick with the stench of blood.
A chilling scream cuts through the solemn mood. The door splinters and
shatters. There, a horrible, demonic thing shambles through. Its skeletal,
barely-human form seems formed entirely of sickly green flesh twisted into
gangly limbs and a too-narrow waist. It groans, raking a three-clawed limb
into the marble doorframe as it emerges. Where one comes many. They swarm
after you, clambering desperately upon you with vicious claws and grotesque
strength. You have no choice. You must fight. You must kill.
...
Only after the end do you see the mirror.
The only demon reflected in it, standing amid a tangled mess of limbs and
savaged bodies... Is you.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Embolden:_Combat_Up! and Madness:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========================<* Memory Maze - Round 2 *>=========================== ===================< Results - Ashley - In a Mirror Darkly >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anastasia Valeria 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Argetlahm 3 Combat Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass My Mike 3 Combat Effects: Liability and Embolde -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brad Evans 17 --(0)--> 17 Pass Lawnmower 2 Combat Effects: Stalwart -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 12 --(0)--> 12 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Anastasia Valeria 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Madness Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Anastasia Valeria has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"It's-- it's not the fight. It's not--" Ashley mouths, his face a rictus of horror and trauma. The others have the right of it-- this, whatever this is, it's just a memory. Just... just a memory. A memory of carnage. Of slaughter. And it is a slaughter. Marivel is a demon beyond these mere embers of the Blaze of Disaster. Claws carve through skeletal bodies, severing spines and ripping open chitinous frames. Blood. Blood spills everywhere. Covers everything.
Several of the monsters sluice through, parting around Marivel like the proverbial river around a rock. One surges for Ashley-- only for a barrier to spring forth around him. In the same moment, another charges Eleanor, only to be incinerated by a bolt of holy light-- power utterly anathema to these monsters. It slumps to the ground, embers of golden flame still burning from the gaps in its form.
Josie unleashes another spell of her own, shocking the largest of the beasts into a paralytic fit. An arc of skyfire leaps to a smaller blazer nearby, sending it sprawling and smoldering to the ground. Brad's grenade carves through a small legion, mowing them down in an instant, clearing the way for Argetlahm to carve the apparent 'leader' in two. The Guardian Blade hews through the thing like a knife through butter. And finally, finally it all goes quiet.
"It... it was never the fighting," Ashley sobs, choking out, "It was--" His hands are bloody. At his feet, a half dozen of the demons. No. The world pops and hisses as if swallowed by a fleeting burst of static. His hands are bloody. No. His claws. Ashley is gone, there is just a pale demon there, standing amidst a pile of corpses, all wearing the livery of Meria's Musketeers, their bodies shredded and ruined at the hands of something truly monstrous.
Around them-- each of them, the tragedy repeats. The creatures surrounding Marivel are gone, replaced with-- Kamui, Gami, Anastasia, Althena, other familiar faces, all mauled and almost unrecognizable, staring at her with glassy, blood-flooded expressions. At Eleanor's feet, Milly's corpse lays, her eyes burnt out and blackened by hellfire. All around, soldiers of the Slayheim Liberation Front are strewn and slaughtered to the man. Billy's bisected body bleeds over Brad's boot heel.
Smoldering near the middle of the pack, covered in electrical burns, Lily lays insensate, next to...
Someone very near and dear to Anastasia's heart, the blade Argetlahm buried deep in their chest.
And all at once, the walls seem to be covered in mirrors, and each and every one can see that the only demons here--
Were them, themselves.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
=================<* CHALLENGE - DELTA - The Present Forever *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing violet orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
You see the world through a thousand eyes.
The memories come flooding at you, all at once. Images of cities of steel
and glass, aflame; images of war, soldiers fighting rifles and blades;
sorceries hurled into crowded streets of fleeing people; fire and death on
the horizon. It is everywhere. It is constant. It is a moment that the world
ends, and it replays over and over for you.
You have no body. You are in all of these places, across Filgaia, all at
once. And they cry out:
"Everything is falling apart!"
"This position can't hold!"
"We've lost this city!"
"They're... they're all dead..."
"No one will help me..."
Somehow, you have to push on. You have to push through this. You have to
push through, even if it changes you, because your task -- no, your
/function/ -- is to take all of this information, to share all of it, and
then let them all speak through you.
No matter what it does for you. No matter if this moment is all that you
will experience, again.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Embolden:_Combat_Up!, Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, |
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
Anastasia tears Argetlahm back -- and then stumbles backward, as she sees that it is Marivel's body that lay at her feet. "N-No--"
It isn't real. She tells herself that; she only half believes it. She swallows, as she looks down. Her eyes squeeze shut for a moment. It takes far longer than it should for the bodies, the cathedral, all of it to fall away into mist. It dissolves, slowly.
And the red stains seem to stay.
"This place... isn't kind," Anastasia says, softly. "And I think, sometimes, it would like us to not be kind, either. We... we'll have to keep going. It won't--"
She she sees it. They all do: another orb, this one violet, drifting forward.
It expands outward, and it engulfs them, then.
It is terrifyingly disorienting.
Their consciousnesses suddenly expand -- outward and outward, with a flood of information pouring in. They can only partially see each other; there are images before them. Images of war and death; of cities aflame; of people fleeing, to no avail.
It is the death of Zeboim, and with each, people call out to them. A thousand voices, echoing endlessly in their minds.
"Everything is falling apart!"
"This position can't hold!"
"We've lost this city!"
"They're... they're all dead..."
"No one will help me..."
And somehow, somehow, they have to push through it. It's buried in the memory: not a goal, but a function. Something they were created to do. Anastasia closes eyes she doesn't have, and breathes out.
"Luceid."
A spectral version of the Guardian Lord forms -- and then pushes forward, into the noise and the voices, which are somehow tangible. Streams of data form against the wolf-like Guard, but they push onward.
"They'll pave the way for us," Ana says, her voice shaking. "We have to follow. This is... this is what we were trying to stop. The suffering, the death... we tried."
DG: Anastasia Valeria has used his Tool Luceid Call toward his party's challenge, DELTA - The Present Forever. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round!
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel thinly hears Ashley Winchester. In this memory, it's not as if anyone had full control of their actions and Marivel is no different, affected strongly by the strong remnant this memory had left on him. She knows, of course, that these beasts were once men. She'd seen these creatures before but she also knows that men like this cannot return to being human and then...
Marivel blinks and she is surrounded by familiar corpses. Her eyes widen as she sees Kamui, Gami, Althena, Anastasia, Sakura... All dead. Marivel stumbles back, bringing a claw to her mouth in horror. She looks to one of the mirrors and sees...
...Another. Marivel doesn't have the strength to swing her claws again. She has been KOed due to morale loss.
"I ... I did this..?" She whispers.
Ana says it's just a memory, it's not real. But outside of the horror of seeing her loved ones dead at her own hands...
There is the horror of knowing that she ensured or allowed this to happen.
Ana's words reassure her.
And then Ana's words reassure her again.
"Ana..." Marivel follows along, returning to her true form. "I..."
She's deeply troubled but what just transpired. In her own way, Anastasia reassures her. It's this place that isn't kind.
"Y...yeah..." Marivel agrees. Some things are best left in a bloody hallway. She looks back towards Ashley Winchester though.
This guy lived through that. Said she was responsible and still gave her a donut?
She isn't sure what to say or if she should say anything.
"...Ashley... Why did you forgive me?" A soft, uncharacteristically quiet voice like there's something she just doesn't understand and knows she doesn't understand and wants to understand.
The next horror is, comparatively speaking, a relief simply by being less personal.
Unfortunately that doesn't mean it isn't IMPERSONAL. Just like with Ashley's memory, this too is a stake directly in the heart.
Her consciousness expands with the next memory. Maybe, Marivel thinks, it's for the best that some memories fade into the event horizon.
Marivel sees the death of the Zeboim before her. She hears a thousand voices, echoing endlessly. It's impossible for Marivel to forget that she heard many of these same screams.
"Ana," Marivel assures her. "We have proof that there's still a Filgaia out there. It wasn't in vain... If people as kind as these people can still live then...it wasn't all for naught."
She looks back to Eleanor. "Right?" Then to Brad who she doesn't think will lie about it. "Right?"
Her eyes trail over to Josie, asking her wordlessly the same question.
She doesn't try to punch through.
Instead, she offers her own infinite consciousness to lay a metaphysical hand on the infinite consciousness of Anastasia's metaphysical shoulder.
"Maybe we didn't stop all of it, but we still flung some hope into the future..."
She smiles at the spectral Luceid. "You get 'em buddy."
DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, DELTA - The Present Forever.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Massacre. Slaughter. As Eleanor hears the words, she knows it to be true, but she is overwhelmed at first. Her spells help, but it is a frightening experience, even as Anastasia clarifies. It isn't 'real'. It isn't 'the truth', and it isn't that moment, or a moment in the future. What 'was'...
But when it's over, and she sees her sister--
Eleanor pales, visibly. "This..." She knows. She knows, in her heart, that it's fake.
"What a cruel place," Eleanor says, and averts her eyes, reaching up to wipe what might be tears from her face. It is not a surprise, in the end, that they triumphed over what was only a memory.
But Eleanor will see that image again.
"...Right. This place is hostile to us. I should remember that." She sets her jaw. "...It's what's 'trapped' here, isn't it...?"
She doesn't answer about how she can save Anastasia, meanwhile. She knows they can't know, and knows that speculating about how might alter their history with Marivel. But she hopes, all the same. Especially learning what she has.
The orb drifts...
There is too much. Eleanor is able to cope, at least, with the surge of information, to a degree. But the horror of it is still awful. The death of a civilzation makes her queasy; it makes her remember her own dreams.
It is disorienting, to say the least, but people echo in her mind, and--
Luceid appears, and will guide them. Eleanor, for a moment, regrets having told Marivel what she did--because of that question. Forgiveness... However.
"Filgaia still lives," Eleanor confirms for Marivel, though she may not trust her words. And then.... She pulls the Power Bracelet at her wrist, and looks to it, focusing deeply on it, and extending her hand--
Her power, too, will help push away this tangible oppression.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Power Bracelet toward her party's challenge, DELTA - The Present Forever. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
That should be enough, with their powers combined. Josie exhales a long sigh and takes a step back, her one hand half-raised before her.
'It... it was never the fighting.'
It was--
In a blink, she can see the massacre in which they have participated in, bodies strewn all about where the demons had fallen. No, they hadn't been demons. Rather, they had been their...
"..." Josie lifts a clawed hand to her face and covers her mouth. As if stricken, she turns her head. There, where the one she had struck down had lain, there lies instead a familiar figure, with a familiar tangle of long black hair.
These are their memories and fears, for this place seeks to break them.
"...Right," Josie says as she at last straightens and looks and doesn't look at the images that dance about her and all the rest of them, as Anastasia explains. "Right. ...Ain't... much worse'n I've done," she continues, finally. "...C'mon. We've much worse to face yet, I figure."
It's right on cue, that other sphere that comes floating into this massacre's aftermath. "Don't let up by halves, does it. Right, you, come on--"
And they are everywhere, all at once. This is Zeboim, and Zeboim is in the process of being annihilated. She thinks fleetingly of the machine in those old ruins, the one that had begged to die, because even the end of the world hadn't done the trick. "Shit--"
And yet they can't but push on through. They can't but soldier on, even as the world falls apart.
It's not a mattock. It's the memory of a mattock -- or the avatar of one, forming in the streams of data before her.
Before whatever it is that constitutes 'her', formless like the air.
"Come on. We ain't done... yet!" She swings it, a broad sweep in the digital realm to cut through the noise, to move past all those she can't do a single thing for and seek out those who might yet be saved.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, DELTA - The Present Forever. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
It isn't kind. This place isn't kind. It shows the most heartwrenching memories. Is it trying to remind them how life is full of suffering? Is it trying to crush their hope of escape with images of utmost despair conjured from the depths of each of their hearts?
By the time the bloodstained memory finally, finally fades Ashley is left on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. He squeezes a hand over his heart, blood pounding in his ears. For months, he'd seen that very scene every single night. It had been seared into his brain. For the longest time, it had been... cauterized. But when he finally remembered...
...How could he forgive someone for putting him through that? How could he? How could... anyone?
A flood of violet light swallows him up. The memory is displaced. Ashley feels as though he's expanded, stretched thin and removed from himself all at once. In a strange, twisted way, the resulting dissociation is... a blessing. It gives him the chance to breathe with nonexistent lungs. Even as his senses are bombarded with-- with all the worst things. The most terrible things. So much suffering. So much death. So much despair. And yet--
"I... You were so sad," he says, softly. "And... sincere. How could I... Not? If I did-- with this thing in my heart, how do I turn away the only person who seemed to know how to... save me from it? Even if she did put me in that position in the first place. Even if I don't know if I can ever really, truly forget."
"...We can still move forward together," he breathes, taking unsteady 'steps' through the stream of data, following in the wake of the Guardian of Desire. "Just because you've hurt me... doesn't mean I won't take your hand. I don't want to live in a Filgaia where hatred and pain can keep people from learning to love each other. And besides--"
"If it means I can go home to Marina someday, I'd forgive Valmar himself!" He steps forward, firmer in his 'footfalls' now. "So you better make it up to me in the future, Marivel Armitage-- or you're going to have to live with the guilt for the rest of your eternal life!"
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, DELTA - The Present Forever.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad's grenades are brutally effective at scything through enemies. He relies on that; he is not, himself, so good at dealing with threats up close.
The body that splatters to a halt at his feet makes the wrong noise. That's his first clue. He looks down and a horrid noise gurgles in his throat. "No, no, no--" he stammers out, something surging up in him, a directionless energy that strips his thoughts away like the jacket of a wire, peeled and pulled and--
He tears his eyes away, fists balled, one up to his face like he would stop a cough - or a vomiting episode.
Neither comes, but instead he gets to see himself, enormous and powerful, looming triumphant, clad in killing carapace, and his lips curl down and his throat tightens into a suppressed scream.
Eventually it fades. He croaks, "Yeah," in response to Anastasia. "Keep going despite it." ... "I know that one."
He pulls a kerchief out of his pocket and dabs at his eyes and mouth. "Not kind," he says, rough, the words in his throat with the rest of his soul. "It's the only way to trap something that needs it, I bet."
He leans on a pillar, looking green, deeply set eyes peering out across the group. They can't stop. They'll never start again. He doesn't say it.
He gives Marivel a long, long look...and straightens.
"World's still spinning. There's still people worth toppling and people worth protecting." He rallies himself, forces himself to think of the courage he found. A hero is someone who--
"We're trying to go back, right?" he says, but he can't muster the grin.
The next image is somehow worse despite eliminating the possibility of his physiology imposing state upon him. No presence at all, merely a receptacle for new data. Waves of it. A world, wailing its ending. But they can't be stopped by it. Mustn't be stopped by it. He stomps forward, feeling form appear as he commands it. He's never been much for subtlety.
He rears up that big body and kicks the infinite wall of tragedy hard enough that the world might shake.
DG: Brad Evans has used his Tool Kick Boots toward his party's challenge, DELTA - The Present Forever. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
=================<* CHALLENGE - DELTA - The Present Forever *>==================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing violet orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
You see the world through a thousand eyes.
The memories come flooding at you, all at once. Images of cities of steel
and glass, aflame; images of war, soldiers fighting rifles and blades;
sorceries hurled into crowded streets of fleeing people; fire and death on
the horizon. It is everywhere. It is constant. It is a moment that the world
ends, and it replays over and over for you.
You have no body. You are in all of these places, across Filgaia, all at
once. And they cry out:
"Everything is falling apart!"
"This position can't hold!"
"We've lost this city!"
"They're... they're all dead..."
"No one will help me..."
Somehow, you have to push on. You have to push through this. You have to
push through, even if it changes you, because your task -- no, your
/function/ -- is to take all of this information, to share all of it, and
then let them all speak through you.
No matter what it does for you. No matter if this moment is all that you
will experience, again.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Exhaust:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, |
| Madness:_Wits_Down!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, |
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========================<* Memory Maze - Round 3 *>=========================== ===================< Results - DELTA - The Present Forever >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anastasia Valeria 17 --(13)--> 30 Pass Luceid Call 3 Brute Effects: Strengthen and Sacrif -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 5 --(13)--> 18 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 5 --(38)--> 43 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brad Evans 17 --(13)--> 30 Pass Kick Boots 2 Brute Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 12 --(13)--> 25 Pass Power Bracelet 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 5 --(38)--> 43 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Anastasia Valeria 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Madness|Tire(2)|Weaken(2) Effects: Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Anastasia Valeria has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
"Mm. Yes. It forms part of Lord Blazer's seal," Ana says. "Though... not all parts are like this. Sometimes, I've seen better memories. It's often... more balanced. But I think so many of us draws attention. And... the thought we could escape."
She glances to Marivel. Then, the Sword Magess nods; they made it so Filgaia could have a future. This moment cannot last forever. She sighs, her shoulder tangible under Marivel's hand.
Eleanor pushes ahead with her bracelet; Josie with her mattock. It's the idea of those things, helping push past all of the voices, all of the terror. Ashley speaks of a Filgaia very different than the fear they cut through, now.
"That... sounds like a better Filgaia," Anastasia says, her voice very quiet.
She looks to Brad -- and she nods. Even if she isn't trying to go back. She is trying to maintain this -- to stay in this place. This place that isn't kind, even when she is.
She nods. "No matter what is against us... let's get to where we need to be."
They press on. The mist dissolves around them -- the countless images, the screams, everything else turning into mist -- and they're left looking at another orb.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Brad - That Holy Light *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing green orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
"That BASTARD lost his mind!"
Someone comes barging into the room where you and a few other members of the
Liberation Army have gathered. You're in the heart of the castle, now. Even
now you can hear distant fighting in the halls. Nobody has time to demand
answers before the man who stormed in gives them: "The King activated the
Angel Halo!"
Gasps of horror and furious hubbub, before the leader, tall and blonde and
blue-eyed, sucks in a breath. He looks at you. You know the technical stuff.
"There has to be a deactivation code," you suggest. "Go beat it out of him
if you have to."
"If I could, I'd be doing it," the soldier says. "Son of a bitch blew his
own brains out."
More gasping. But the leader barks for calm, and then says: "Fine. I'll get
that sucker turned off," with a flash of a big, confident grin. "Y'all get
out of here."
The soldiers don't need to be told twice, but the ice those words put in
your gut roots you to the floor. You stumble toward him. "No, you can't! We
can't afford to lose you!"
He swings around. He's half your size across and near a foot shorter but he
still lays you out in one punch. "I don't plan on dying," he says, grinning
down at you. "Besides, you still have something of mine, right?" he teases,
and tugs out his dogtags with a smile.
It falters. It fades to seriousness. "Take care of Vinsfeld for me," he
says.
And then he's off like a shot.
Recovering, your head is spinning and your heart is heavy. Big as you are,
unthinkable as it is, if he fails, you won't possibly make the airship by
raw speed. You'll have to get creative to get out of here alive.
However much you hate it, you must get out of here alive.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, Strengthen:_Brute_Up!, |
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
A true hero, enduring eternity for the sake of others. Brad watches Anastasia rally herself. That's...not what it should be. "Yes," he says. "We should go to where we need to be," he agrees, and means something else.
The data flows fade into a different orb, glowing green in the mist. Its shine takes away all sense.
The wooden door explodes inward as a man in the blue jacket and pants of the Slayheim Liberation Army uniform kicks it open. Impressive architecture: It stays on the hinges. But there's no time to be impressed:
"That BASTARD lost his mind!!" the soldier appearing says, swinging his assault rifle up onto his shoulder. He stumbles forward, slams his hand onto the table at the center of the meeting. "The King activated the Angel Halo!"
People around the room gasp. It's a gathering of advisors, not the average soldiers, but nobody really believed he'd do it; they're as shocked as anyone. Someone all but gurgles, "That'll wipe out the whole country...!"
The man at the center of it gains an edge of forced calm. A leader in his element, bringing order to burgeoning chaos. He doesn't even speak.
He looks at you, with trust and confidence in his eyes, and nods. The knowledge is there to be spoken: "There has to be a deactivation code. Go beat it out of him."
The intruding soldier scoffs. "Love to. Maniac blew his brains out."
That's...that's the moment it leaves your hands. The sinking impossibility of escape settles into your gut at the same time as the leader, the hero, your hero clucks his tongue. "Dirty pool. Fine. I'll get that thing turned off." He gives the whole room a grin. "But just in case, y'all get out of here. Spread the word, all units, out."
The memory flickers - the ensuing several minutes of assurances barely registered. Not as much as you stumbling forward through an empty room. You have to stop him. They need...everybody needs--! "You can't! We can't afford to lose you! *I* can't--!"
He whirls around and with the decisiveness of a leader and the skill of a warrior, knocks you flat on your ass with one punch. He holds up his dog tags. "I'm not planning on dying. Besides...you have something of mine, right?"
You look down at the tags around your neck.
BRAD EVANS, they say.
"Take care of Vinsfeld for me," is the last words you hear from him before he runs.
Brad is all but pulling himself out of the convergence of the memory, stumbling away from the person that was him in the moment, fist clenched tight around air.
He watches the door slowly click shut.
"...it's too far to run to the transport," he says, numb. "Gotta be clever to cut the distance down. I."
...nothing else comes out.
DG: Brad Evans has used his Tool Quad Scanner toward his party's challenge, Brad - That Holy Light.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel doesn't think Eleanor is lying if only because she said nothing that her presence here didn't really confirm. Brad provides some extra context which gets her to feel more at ease. Marivel may loathe some of the deeper horror of the setting but it's not like she wants ADVENTURE to be over. That's just part of life. Even she knows that. Isn't much worse than Josie's done...
But she rubs at her neck and says, "I don't know, it is usually more balanced like Ana says. But I'm guessing the seal doesn't want us to leave. Or maybe... it's because Lord Blazer's come along with us in a way," She nods to Ashley. "...Actually that'd make a lot of sense. Since yours isn't as sealed away as ours--it might be encouraging our darker memories to come forth in order for our suffering to fuel him."
But naturally it's Ashley's words that Marivel reflects on the most. Someone like him... Maybe someone like him really could defeat that which is sealed within him--not that there's anyone living that can exist that can hold off him forever. It's hard for her to expect a better vessel for the Great Conflagration, though, even if even the best vessel ultimately has to feel feelings. Someone who can be hopeful 100 percent of the time simply does not exist, least of all without a demon inside of them trying to encourage the opposite outlook.
"You're really something. If I really did that, you're right. I'd be guilty forever unless I could at least get you back to your lover. So let's do that."
When did girlfriend become LOVER??
Marivel thinks about Ashley's words. And she doesn't stop thinking about them.
And she won't stop thinking about them, though she has no idea what the fuck a Valmar is and for once she doesn't ask.
She does not immediate answer his demand otherwise, though. She has all the time in the world to think about it.
She squeezes Ana's shoulder.
"It's a great dream."
Marivel follows after Ana. She follows. She thinks.
And then--
Marivel is punched in the face and she goes sprawling. She feels the tags around her neck and looks at them.
...Wait. What?
She gets a little crosseyed. "Eh?" She asks, looking over to the real Brad.
IF HE IS THE REAL BRAD? TURNS OUT MAYBE HE ISN'T BRAD AT ALL!!
"...You exchanged dogtags?" She asks breathlessly. "...That's...that's so cute..."
She stands up, hoping that this isn't the last time Brad SAW him at least. But that's not her role today. Her role today is to help everyone escape. This is well before TOOL - WISDOM OF THE CRIMSON NOBLES existed so instead Marivel uses TOOL - HOB AND NOB. The two drones fly ahead, blasting away at debris with laser eyes and occassionally using hacking tools to open up new paths.
"Let's try this way..."
She glances back to Brad and wonders if she spoke too soon about the cuteness.
She swallows faintly. At least this one isn't her fault but... It seems like this one ends sadly too.
"...Brad..." She says, her tone as kind as she can manage though she doesn't know what other name to use.
"How do you bear being seperated from the ones you love?"
Seems AShley isn't the only one getting an impossible question.
DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles toward her party's challenge, Brad - That Holy Light. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Brad's right. They are trying to go back.
But it forms part of Lord Blazer's seal... that's another confirmation. It's not all like this, but, "So it doesn't want us to escape. Or maybe... It doesn't want anything to escape." She pauses. "A maze like this..."
"I'm sorry," she says.
But Ashley... Ashey wants to live in that Filgaia, and Eleanor smiles. "That's the heart I want to have, too," she says, though she knows she doesn't always. ...No, not at all. Perhaps she can't.
But she can try.
And where they need to be... Eleanor nods to Anastasia. "Yes. But no one needs to be in one place forever. We all must move, sooner or later." She hopes that it's encouraging. ...She hopes. She's gotten wary of trying to meddle in memories... Marivel has a daunting point though. Eleanor doesn't answer that one for now. But... The orb comes.
"Brad?" she wonders. "No, that's not..."
She does not answer for Brad. She watches instead. "So it was the King..." She looks down, troubled by much. And then, "...Right. We must escape. Brad, I..."
It seems hollow, to say she's sorry. But this is the 'Brad Evans' she has come to know. So instead, "Thank you. For protecting us all this time."
She pulls her book, an ancient green thing with text in an unknown language. She does not explain how she knows how to read it. "...There's a spell of speed outlined in this. Between it and the memories..."
"I can make us go much faster. If I can get the spell right." And if she can, it will spread around them in green and the power of an ancient divinity.
"Josie," she says. "Can you help me? It's hard to set up a proper circle while we're running, but if you and I stand at opposite sides of the group--"
They aren't done yet.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Book of Mudora toward her party's challenge, Brad - That Holy Light. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"'Our' Filgaia... It's a rough place. It's... dying, I think. But we're all still trying. We haven't given up hope yet."
Not yet.
Not... ever.
"You think it's because this place thinks 'our' Lord Blazer is trying to escape...?" It does actually make a lot of sense. Memories can't all be horrible and god-awful. The fact that they've all been that way is... unusual, objectively speaking. But if it's becaue Lord Blazer is intentionally feeding himself with their suffering... Then is all of this why he's able to loosen his bonds in the future? Or... is there more to it than that...?
No time for reverie. Marivel calls Marina his 'lover.'
Ashley almost falls over himself into the sea of quanta. Instead, he catches himself and turns to loom high over a tiny little vampire--
And reaches up to pinch her cheeks. "Rude," he says with a huff. He's not... fully recovered yet, but it seems he's feeling a little better.
...At least until a fist slams into his face and sends him sprawling to the ground. "Ghh--" Did Marivel punch him? MARIVEL HAS FISTS LIKE A GIANT MAN!? No. It's someone else. Someone... whose name is Brad Evans.
But... their Brad Evans is Brad Evans. Unless he was never Brad Evans to begin with. Unless he never was a 'hero'...
...
"Come on," Ashley slaps a hand across their Brad's back. "No matter what your name is... You're still the 'Brad Evans' we know and love. Let's go." This... is Slayheim. And everyone knows what happens in Slayheim after the Angel Halo activates. The original Brad is never going to make it out of this alive, is he...?
...
"You need to survive this," he says, pulling a radar of his own from his pack. "We all... need to. After all... You're not the only survivor, right? You have to be there for them, too. Help us out, Booty Call!"
The box goes ping.
"This way!"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Nani the fuck" is Marivel's immediate response.
DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Booty Call toward his party's challenge, Brad - That Holy Light. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
"What?" Ashley asks, doe-eyed and innocent, "It's the name of my empathite radar! It goes ping when it finds treasure! It responds to the heart's calling for booty!"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"...Makes sense," Josie remarks. "Probably, causing some sort of distortion in here with all what we brought with us," she adds, tapping the side of her head pointedly. "So he's at the heart of the distortion... huh."
And they have to find their way through without waking the beast, so to speak. Or at least, not more than it already has been, she considers, stealing a sidelong glance at Ashley.
They push through. They push on through. That was how it was at the end of the world, at the end of so many people's worlds. What did the system manage? Did it manage anything at all?
Marivel and Ashley speak like they understand it -- know it, even.
But the mist dissolves, and that's all there was and all there is, at least, until the green sphere rises to meet them.
They stand within a place Josie knows not at all, at least--
Not until the name of a certain weapon is dropped handily into the proceedings.
"Good god, we're in Slayheim," she remarks, looking hither and yon about the room. "Must've been the-- wait, now hold a moment--"
Her body is saying and doing things without so much as her leave. It culminates with her getting knocked on her ass by a punch she never sees coming. "Wait, now hold on a moment--"
A set of dog tags are thrust into her hand; she has but a moment to read the name there.
Oh. So it's like that. She gazes up at the man before her and then slightly, oh so slightly, sneaks a glance at 'Brad'.
As if to say, in that passing moment, 'we're not so different, are we'.
And then she rises to her feet. "Right. Don't plan on getting ashed, myself, and I reckon you don't, neither. Now-- there's gotta be some sort of shortcut, here, and... what, help you with the spell? Guess I can give it a go, but let's double up and see if we can find a..."
Coo.
There, sitting on the back of chair, is a familiar black and white pigeon. Penelope eyes the lot of them and then, abruptly, takes flight to wing out through a nearby door. Perhaps, if she is feeling benevolent, it's even the way Ashley's box has indicated.
"...Right," Josie says, once again, once she recovers. "Guess that answers... nothing, eh? C'mon, Nora, you lot-- let's go after that pigeon!"
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Penelope toward her party's challenge, Brad - That Holy Light.
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
"I hope... one day, I can see it. As long as we can make sure it's still there," Anastasia says. She smiles, when she does.
Maybe she didn't want to sacrifice herself -- but she still loves Filgaia.
The next memory washes over them. The shout makes Anastasia tense.
The words don't mean anything to her -- though she wonders if she should recognize the Angel Halo. The scene before them demands her attention; she can follow, well enough. She sees the dog tags, and--
And she realizes that a sacrifice was made. She may not know what it was, but she sees it.
She looks down, then, when Marivel asks that. Ana swallows for a moment, before she opens a small book; it's a notebook, filled with designs, with schematics, the like. Her hobby and passion, though she never got to do that.
"I can look at any machines we find," Ana says. "I'm not too bad with them."
And then Ashley mentions the Booty Call. And a pigeon flies off. Anastasia stares for a moment, then raises the book to cover her face.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has used his Tool Engineer's Notes toward his party's challenge, Brad - That Holy Light. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Brad - That Holy Light *>====================
| Type: Exploration | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing green orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
"That BASTARD lost his mind!"
Someone comes barging into the room where you and a few other members of the
Liberation Army have gathered. You're in the heart of the castle, now. Even
now you can hear distant fighting in the halls. Nobody has time to demand
answers before the man who stormed in gives them: "The King activated the
Angel Halo!"
Gasps of horror and furious hubbub, before the leader, tall and blonde and
blue-eyed, sucks in a breath. He looks at you. You know the technical stuff.
"There has to be a deactivation code," you suggest. "Go beat it out of him
if you have to."
"If I could, I'd be doing it," the soldier says. "Son of a bitch blew his
own brains out."
More gasping. But the leader barks for calm, and then says: "Fine. I'll get
that sucker turned off," with a flash of a big, confident grin. "Y'all get
out of here."
The soldiers don't need to be told twice, but the ice those words put in
your gut roots you to the floor. You stumble toward him. "No, you can't! We
can't afford to lose you!"
He swings around. He's half your size across and near a foot shorter but he
still lays you out in one punch. "I don't plan on dying," he says, grinning
down at you. "Besides, you still have something of mine, right?" he teases,
and tugs out his dogtags with a smile.
It falters. It fades to seriousness. "Take care of Vinsfeld for me," he
says.
And then he's off like a shot.
Recovering, your head is spinning and your heart is heavy. Big as you are,
unthinkable as it is, if he fails, you won't possibly make the airship by
raw speed. You'll have to get creative to get out of here alive.
However much you hate it, you must get out of here alive.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, |
| Injure:_Exhaustion_Up_On_Failure!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, Slow:_Agility_Down!, |
| Tire:_Exhaustion_Up!, and Weaken:_Brute_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========================<* Memory Maze - Round 4 *>=========================== ======================< Results - Brad - That Holy Light >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anastasia Valeria 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Engineer's Notes 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Inefficie -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 18 --(0)--> 18 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 43 --(0)--> 43 Pass Penelope 3 Wits Effects: Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brad Evans 30 --(0)--> 30 Pass Quad Scanner 3 Wits Effects: Efficient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 25 --(0)--> 25 Pass Book of Mudora 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 43 --(0)--> 43 Pass Booty Call 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Anastasia Valeria 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Injure(2)|Madness|Slow(2)|Tire(1)|Weaken(1) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Anastasia Valeria has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
"The name...was more important," Brad says, quietly, as people figure him out. "Didn't matter who was wearing it...people needed the Hero of Slayheim."
A glance to Josie. Nods. Just so.
Ashely slaps his back. His lips curl up, not quite a grin, and he nods.
Taking off at a run, frantically scrambling - knocking over walls, preparing spells mid-run. Brad gets his scanner out as they move. "That's what a hero is. Someone who can show people they can be brave, too!"
Ashley's Booty Call announces a path, and off they're going.
To Marivel's question, he says, "...try not to think about it," with the chuckle of gallows humor. He tilts his head down to her after though, slowing at a crossroads. "...and carry on the way they would want. To be the person they would want to see again."
He scoffs lightly, tsking as his scanner beeps at him. "Or someone they won't mind meeting. Guess that works."
A knocked-out hole in the floor is flanked by infantry Gears. Brad barks, "Anastasia, that one has a bridge projector, can you get it moving?"
She can, of course, while Brad busies himself with ripping the cannon arm off another Gear and firing it downrange to blast a hole for Penelope to seek the windows through.
It's close. Especially with no real sense of when the bomb will go. But in the end, the group is able to get to the transport - an old flying machine - and start coptering away...
Just before the castle disappears in a horrible sphere of pure-white light, which expands, growing closer and closer.
"Yeah," Brad says, quietly, responding belatedly to Ashley's words, as the light comes near to engulf them.
"He's waiting."
Instead of death, the surging light sees them deposited back in the Maze.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Marivel - The Promise *>=====================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing crimson orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hAJBDZe21w&ab_channel=Yzui
A flash of heat and ash hits your face in a flash of light. Your eyes tear
at the memory of it as ash gradually filters down upon your body and into
your face. A dire wind presses up against you.
You see thick piles of ash, roaming skeletal beasts that are familiar to
Ashley Winchester, but there is only one person who is alive. A pile of ash
remains in both her hands. There she sits, droplets of blood dripping onto
the blasted earth she has collapsed onto.
The wind picks up again and the ash drifts from her hands into the open air.
She screams and grasps futilely as it escapes her and then she collapses
back to the earth in utter defeat. It is a moment she has never really
escaped from, not in the past, not even in the modern day. She is trapped in
the Memory Maze even as she escaped it, unable to leave irrespective of the
evidence otherwise.
Marivel lowers her head. "...It happened so fast. I thought we were going to
win the war and save the world and...Everything would be okay. I could be
with her. We could be happy... Lumen, Kamui, Ana, Althena, Yue...and me...
Then he came..."
Marivel says softly, "Why did I do it?" She is traumatized. While the
Marivel you've known masks it with humor and occasionally rage--in this
moment there is no mask. No wisdom of the ages to get in the way. Not even a
Crimson Noble's pride and arrogance.
Right now it's just a child crying over the loss of her family, her friends,
and the pain those that remain yet endure.
"Why did I insist on fighting Lord Blazer? Why did I believe that we could
beat him? Why did I let myself think that humanity could win?"
"Believing that..." She sniffs. "...I lost everything... And that's not the
damning thing..." She rubs at her eyes, leaving red stains across her
sleeve. "....The damning thing is I still believe. I still want to."
She looks to Ashley. "When you said I was not alone. When you said 'Let's
protect Filgaia together'... Did you mean that?"
There is a flash of crimson in her eyes as she extends a hand. "Do you
promise?"
What do you say to give this kid the ability to endure for five thousand
years?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, and Madness:_Wits_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Ana, help, he's precious." Marivel says but Ana is already hiding behind her book. That gets a laugh out of her.
But she also thinks: Empathite, huh...
She smiles at Ana faintly. "You'll make it home. I'm sure of it. They promised right? If not today, then..."
Hob and Nob float over to reassure Ana--THEIR MOM--with little robo kisses!!!
She looks to Brad as he has his answer. She laughs, fair enough, at Brad's first answer. That's definitely a fair answer.
But the second answer rings with her. Can she do that? Can she be as strong as Brad, who may not be the Hero of Slayhelm but is still--quite impressive to Marivel Armitage and will be for the whole of her existence. Can she be that strong? She wonders. "...That's a good Answer..." She says. These Drifters have very good Answers to questions she couldn't find on her own. Maybe Filgaia...Is still worth protecting. Not just because she wants to, but because there's still something there worth it all.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hAJBDZe21w&ab_channel=Yzui
A flash of heat and ash hits your face in a flash of light. Your eyes tear at the memory of it as ash gradually filters down upon your body and into your face. A dire wind presses up against you.
You see thick piles of ash, roaming skeletal beasts that are familiar to Ashley Winchester, but there is only one person who is alive. A pile of ash remains in both her hands. There she sits, droplets of blood dripping onto the blasted earth she has collapsed onto.
The wind picks up again and the ash drifts from her hands into the open air. She screams and grasps futilely as it escapes her and then she collapses back to the earth in utter defeat. It is a moment she has never really escaped from, not in the past, not even in the modern day. She is trapped in the Memory Maze even as she escaped it, unable to leave irrespective of the evidence otherwise.
Marivel lowers her head. "...It happened so fast. I thought we were going to win the war and save the world and...Everything would be okay. I could be with her. We could be happy... Lumen, Kamui, Ana, Althena, Yue...and me... Then he came..."
Marivel says softly, "Why did I do it?" She is traumatized. While the Marivel you've known masks it with humor and occasionally rage--in this moment there is no mask. No wisdom of the ages to get in the way. Not even a Crimson Noble's pride and arrogance.
Right now it's just a child crying over the loss of her family, her friends, and the pain those that remain yet endure.
"Why did I insist on fighting Lord Blazer? Why did I believe that we could beat him? Why did I let myself think that humanity could win?"
"Believing that..." She sniffs. "...I lost everything... And that's not the damning thing..." She rubs at her eyes, leaving red stains across her sleeve. "....The damning thing is I still believe. I still want to."
She looks to Ashley. "When you said I was not alone. When you said 'Let's protect Filgaia together'... Did you mean that?"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
There is a flash of crimson in her eyes as she extends a hand. "Do you promise?"
What do you say to give this kid the ability to endure for five thousand years?
You can't take her place. You can't live this through her because this reality is hers alone. There are still elves and humans in Filgaia so no matter where you go, you are never alone.
Her eyes are square on Ashley who made his demand clear already. She offers Ashley her hand and he knows, should he commit to what he said and take hers...
All those horrors that happened to him will still happen. And all the horrors that happened to Marivel will still happen.
But they'll at least walk through that Hell together for so long as they both shall live.
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
"Ah... right," Ana says, with a smile to Marivel. "You're right." She reaches a hand up -- and pats Hob and Nob both with that heavy glove.
Then she feels the heat of it. Anastasia knows that heat; she felt it on the day that she left Filgaia. The Blaze of Disaster was quite literal. Her eyes scan the horizon -- and she feels sick, as she sees the ash; the bodies; the scorched landscape.
Then she looks at Marivel, and she is quiet for a moment. She closes her engineer's notebook -- useful earlier to help with the bridge projector, but less so now -- and slides it away. This needs her attention, not her notes.
Does she have an answer for Marivel?
She doesn't. She turns away, pointedly; it's not to put her back to Marivel, so deliberately, but to not distract her from the way her composure starts to break.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has used his Tool Engineer's Notes toward his party's challenge, Marivel - The Promise. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round!
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Seeing the Angel Halo swallow up Slayheim in person is... Something else. A weapon that literally turns land and people alike to salt...
Who would build something like that? Who would use something like that? The King of Slayheim was... truly mad. Or was he just that afraid and spiteful over losing his power? Ashley watches the terrible dome light expand, devouring all in its wake. And... Then they're out again. They're...
Somewhere else. Somewhere at once alien and simultaneously familiar. The skeletal horrors shambling across the ashen landscape. Filgaia rendered blasted, sterile. Is this what the future holds? Is this hellscape from the past Filgaia's inevitable fate? Ashley's expression turns as ashen as the burning world; he wonders for a brief and terrible moment, if this is what the Blazer leaves in its wake... Do they stand a chance? Really...?
...Marivel's voice breaks the smoldering silence.
Why? Why fight this? Why not go calmly, peacefully into the night? Why endure all this pain? All the pain to come? Ashley's heart aches. This is the moment it all begins; this is the moment all is set into motion. If the loop is closed, then all this suffering-- all these nightmares-- will become reality. And Marivel would have to endure all of it, and more. She could stay here. Stay with the one she loves. Rest, finally, and let the Crimson Nobles slip away into the deep dark of history.
Ah, Ashley thinks. Is this why he forgave her? Did part of him know...
That he'd be condemning her to hell someday, too...?
"..." Ashley takes a knee, brushing bloody tears with the fingers of his heavy gloves. "Filgaia... The Filgaia you fought for, the Filgaia you sacrificed so much for, is worth so much more than these nightmares. That's... that's Lord Blazer's greatest trick. He makes you look at nothing but the worst. Makes you feel nothing but emptiness, desolation, hopelessness. But there's more to life than this. More than grey ash, or colorless fog."
He smiles softly, gently. It's a cruel thing. A terrible thing. "Someday... you'll be reunited with so many friends you thought you'd never see again. You'll be surrounded by people who love you, old and new. There will be pain, but there will be joy. The Filgaia you and I love is one where people like Ana and Marina live. So... how could we not fight for it? I promise, you'll never be alone. From now on, let's protect this world."
"Let's show Lord Blazer that no amount of despair can ever smother the world we love." He reaches out and takes her waiting hand, "Together."
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
One day, Anastasia says. "...I believe that you will," she says. "I don't know when. But I believe it." She will make it so. She promised, in a time like and unlike this one. Marivel doesn't know that yet.
But the machines... And the--
"Pigeon," Eleanor says. "...Pigeon."
Eleanor does go after.
But a 'hero'... Yes. Eleanor believes that, too. But it's very close, and...
And here, they come to Marivel's memory. The heat reminds Eleanor of visions upon visions, the same one that haunts her so many nights. She knows, without having to ask, what this is. She knows, before Marivel speaks of it. Marivel is alve, and everyone else is not. She is alone, there. Eleanor quiets, watching her, and she looks around at the others. She was not the one who was asked. ...But she sees that Anastasia has no such answers. She watches for another couple of moments, before she looks to Ashley. His words will come first. It is his time.
Eleanor wondered if it would happen the way it must; had she altered things, by explaining what came later? Had she changed the past...? But fate is not so weak as all that, it would seem.
No... Ashley is not so weak as all that.
She recognizes it, when it happens. It is a moment of such import, a moment that time wends around even in this place enough that it is almost tangible to her, is practically visible to her naked eye. And she watches it in silence... and smiles.
She pulls a book, and looks down at it. "...Long before, and long after this 'moment'... The people of Filgaia will struggle on."
"That 'despair'... It will never win out. We are part of something grander than any of us can say, a part of the ongoing story of this world. And you, too, carry that light. ...I'll be with you, as well."
And then she moves to stand next to Anastasia. She faces Marivel, rather than at Anastasia, but she stands next to her all the same, a quiet presence of what she hopes is support.
She says nothing else, for now.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Book of Mudora toward her party's challenge, Marivel - The Promise. Enlighten! Party Wits boosted! DG: Ashley Winchester has used his Tool Booty Call toward his party's challenge, Marivel - The Promise. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There are probably more people like her and him in this world. Many more.
Though she catches up not to Penelope as the pigeon aids to lead them through the desctruction of Slayheim -- through the paths that are cut open to create their road to survival -- the bird ever remains in the forefront.
As if, in spite of it all, she was their guide.
There, in the distance, traces the end of Slayheim. She glances at 'Brad' just once more and does not ask the question that comes to mind.
She knows it herself. Some things do not bear repeating.
Here one memory fades. There, another memory rises to take them.
And here they are at the end of the world, once again. At the end of someone's world.
"...So it's your go, kiddo. Huh... Is this memory, or is this..."
She surveys the ash that the world has been reduced to and knows the answer.
"Because you had hope," Josie says after Marivel spills her grief to the universe. "'Cause you hung on," she continues, drawing out a cigarette and lighting it, exhaling smoke to a world thick with it. "'Cause it was better than, I dunno. Giving or the like," she continues, gazing up at the skies above. "Ain't such a bad thing. Sure, it leads us down some dark places, chasin' that hope, that light in the darkness... but, hell. As long as we still breathe, that's something. Maybe it'll be something more, in time."
She casts her cigarette, still smoldering, into the ashes.
"It's all we can manage, in a world like this -- hope. But it sure beats not havin' any at all! Now, chin up, kiddo."
She crouches by Marivel and hands over... a single unlit cigarette.
"Maybe it weren't immediate, like, but eventually... this world had a future. So calm yourself, have a smoke break... and get back in it."
She rises to her feet, evidently pleased with herself and as if she did not just suggest to someone who looks quite a lot younger than she is that she go have a smoke.
...To be fair, Marivel doesn't need to breathe.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Pack of Cigarettes toward her party's challenge, Marivel - The Promise. Cleanse! All negative effects will be cleared at the end of the round! Shortsighted! The party will suffer a penalty next round... but not this round!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad can't say he's at peace with what happened here. It's the moment that changed his life. But...much like the first time...
Fight's over. Time to find the next one. Even though the emotional assault is just as brutal as back then.
Onward. Into the more literal end of the world.
His eyes scan across the tumbling mounds of ash. "The Blazing Demon," he murmurs. "So this is..."
Their friend and enemy. The power he brings to bear. A world turned to dust, no different from Slayheim.
No. A little different, actually. Slayheim has ghosts, at least. This place has the thunder of total absence. A place that has been truly and finally rendered silent.
Brad hangs at the edge, while Ashley assures the young Marivel that this sorrow will be overcome.
"...a hero shouldn't have to be someone who tears themselves apart for people who don't care," he says. "It's not about how many of your arms and legs you can give away."
"It's about showing people that Courage is real, up and down your life," he says.
He scratches the back of his head and huffs a sigh. "Well. Not like even that much is easy. But it's worth it."
DG: Brad Evans has used his Tool Quad Scanner toward his party's challenge, Marivel - The Promise. DG: Marivel Armitage has used her Tool Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles toward her party's challenge, Marivel - The Promise. Fanfare!
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
====================<* CHALLENGE - Marivel - The Promise *>=====================
| Type: Climax | Dungeon Ability: Wits | Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing crimson orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it expands outward -- and you are somewhere else.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hAJBDZe21w&ab_channel=Yzui
A flash of heat and ash hits your face in a flash of light. Your eyes tear
at the memory of it as ash gradually filters down upon your body and into
your face. A dire wind presses up against you.
You see thick piles of ash, roaming skeletal beasts that are familiar to
Ashley Winchester, but there is only one person who is alive. A pile of ash
remains in both her hands. There she sits, droplets of blood dripping onto
the blasted earth she has collapsed onto.
The wind picks up again and the ash drifts from her hands into the open air.
She screams and grasps futilely as it escapes her and then she collapses
back to the earth in utter defeat. It is a moment she has never really
escaped from, not in the past, not even in the modern day. She is trapped in
the Memory Maze even as she escaped it, unable to leave irrespective of the
evidence otherwise.
Marivel lowers her head. "...It happened so fast. I thought we were going to
win the war and save the world and...Everything would be okay. I could be
with her. We could be happy... Lumen, Kamui, Ana, Althena, Yue...and me...
Then he came..."
Marivel says softly, "Why did I do it?" She is traumatized. While the
Marivel you've known masks it with humor and occasionally rage--in this
moment there is no mask. No wisdom of the ages to get in the way. Not even a
Crimson Noble's pride and arrogance.
Right now it's just a child crying over the loss of her family, her friends,
and the pain those that remain yet endure.
"Why did I insist on fighting Lord Blazer? Why did I believe that we could
beat him? Why did I let myself think that humanity could win?"
"Believing that..." She sniffs. "...I lost everything... And that's not the
damning thing..." She rubs at her eyes, leaving red stains across her
sleeve. "....The damning thing is I still believe. I still want to."
She looks to Ashley. "When you said I was not alone. When you said 'Let's
protect Filgaia together'... Did you mean that?"
There is a flash of crimson in her eyes as she extends a hand. "Do you
promise?"
What do you say to give this kid the ability to endure for five thousand
years?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Cleanse:_All_Effects_Removed!, |
| Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, and Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
=========================<* Memory Maze - Round 5 *>========================== =====================< Results - Marivel - The Promise >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anastasia Valeria 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Engineer's Notes 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Inefficie ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Marivel Armitage 18 --(5)--> 23 Pass Wisdom of the Crimson Nobles 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Josephine Lovelace 43 --(5)--> 48 Pass Pack of Cigarettes 2 Wits Effects: Cleanse and Shortsigh ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Brad Evans 30 --(5)--> 35 Pass Quad Scanner 3 Wits Effects: Efficient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eleanor Klein 25 --(5)--> 30 Pass Book of Mudora 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ashley Winchester 43 --(5)--> 48 Pass Booty Call 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Anastasia Valeria 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Madness Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1)|Shortsighted(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Anastasia Valeria has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
PREVIOUSLY
Marivel definitely made an adorable noise when Ashley pinched her cheek and went, "nyeeeh!"
NOW
Marivel listens to everyone. Even those who aren't specifically Ashley Winchester she listens to. Even those who aren't talking, she listens to them too. She answers Eleanor first, "My mother said I would never be alone, no matter where I went. But even here, at the end of time, I am not alone. Filgaia...will be a lot harder than here..." Her eyes settle on Anastasia for a moment before looking back to Eleanor. "For all the horrors I've seen come from humanity... I've never seen them give up on each other either. Two sides of the same coin, perhaps... But it is easy to say that, harder to live through. The world turns slowly. Somehow, humans gave me this gift. Maybe it's what they gave me because I loved them so much." She looks to Anastasia again. "...Love her so much. It's a painful gift but... I still want to thank you for it. I'll make sure you're never alone too, Eleanor." For Eleanor had taught her the value of the long arc of time. Marivel will not forget that.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM9ky7FxzZ0&ab_channel=JeremyMage-Topic
Josephine asks a question that is answered by the ash of her loved ones and the ash of the world she loved. But Marivel listens to her all the same. Hearing words like that from a hardass like Josie--it's hard not to smile at it, so Marivel takes the easy route and smiles. "You're real tough aren't you? I doubt a girl like you holds on tight no matter what life throws at you. I'm not so blind as to be totally oblivious to what follows you. ... Yes, even when it's hopeless... It's better to hope anyway since the alternativve cannot be borne."
She takes the cigarette, she gives it a strange look and she runs a hand over it, drawing the soul of the cigarette out and solidifying it into a carbon copy of that cigarette. The cigarette, as it turned out, is a cigarette. She turns it around her hand and says, "I like it." She keeps the original too as well as the counterfeit. "Thank you, Josie." She looks to Penelope for a moment. "...Your friend's coo-te."
Brad too is seperated from his loved one, so she has to listen to him. Instead of reassurance, he gives her advice.
"Courage is never easy." Marivel says. "We like to think it is, but it isn't until the fear hits you that it's tested. A fear that is easily overcome is hardly a fear at all. True Fear," You can hear the extra capital. "That lingers with you and never goes away no matter how you overcome it. To encourage others to rise up with Courage... We did manage that at least. And I see you are the sort of people who can do that too. If you can have the Courage to run from the one you love, then maybe..."
But it is Ashley naturally who gives her that last push. The most important push. The desire to try again. Just as Eleanor reminded her of the love of the people of Filgaia. Just as Josie reminded her of the importance of Hope. Just as Brad reminds her of the need to share Courage.
Ashley brushes her tears away. This is their shared hell. Their Ouroboros of misery that they built together.
It is your past, Ashley, and her future.
"...That is his trick." Marivel says softly. "Every time I succumb to despair and Desire nothing but oblivion... He wins. He achieves his victory over me and my people are gone. EVery time I insist to keep going. I stay strong."
She grasps Ashley's hand. "Then I will make this Promise with you, AShley. You give me that. You give me what you said I'll get. Reunited with my friends. Surrounded by people weho love me old and new. The pain, the joy. Filgaia. Happiness for Ana and Marina. Showing Lord Blazer that he didn't win."
"That he can't win."
"And I will be your servant forever." Marivel says. Then she shakes her head. "Your friend forever, Ashley. By my true name Ouroboros, I seal this Pact with you."
A dark aura ripples out from Marivel and into Ashley. It's brief, and fades soon. IT feels--it doesn't feel evil. That has been purified by the Guardians long ago. But it is definitely Dark.
* ASHLEY WINCHESTER GAINS THE SPELL: APORT
"The Pact is sealed." Marivel says, standing up.
"...And I know where my exit is. And it isn't here." She looks to Ashley. "...I'll see you soon."
She looks to everyone. "...Thank you. Thank you all. We'll walk into Fire together."
And so she turns and walks to Anastasia.
She embraces her. "I don't want to go." She says. "I don't want to say goodbye so..."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Scenes...Memories flash by rapidly, snippets of an ancient life.
A gentle push from Anastasia guides her out of the maze. She looks up as she falls, feeling both betrayed and grateful, fearful and hopeful, loving and aching. It has to be this way, Anastasia's eyes tell her. Only one of them can leave. The other must continue guarding the future from the other side of the gate. And Marivel knos it to be true. She asked for this.
The Promise.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FfC7YkrLCY
She wakes up in a World of Ruin. She steps into the future and she plants seeds and builds guardians. She could just wait, she could sleep peacefully all the while but her nature does not allow it. Until the day she meets with the man she has forged this Pact with, she will work with everything she has as hard as she can to ease his burden... Because she promised him that they'd fight to protect Filgaia together. And this is still Filgaia, even if she can barely recognize it. That's what Love is. It carries on no matter how many scars linger on its face. She rescues children, she fails to rescue many more. She sees so many of their bodies that their souls carve into her heart. She devours the world's poisons and they burn through her as she digests them. She eats an atom bomb so it will only poison her and not the land. She eats and she eats the suffering of Filgaia to try and ease a loved one's pain.
She visits Sakura, an enemy turned friend. Sakura still lived, Marivel thinks with hope in her heart. They may have not always gotten along, but she is something that remains. She's something. But Sakura screams at her and blames her for Anastasia's death, blames her for the death of Filgaia. 'You call this victory?!' Sakura shouts at her. 'Anastasia's GONE, I loved her and she's gone because you insisted she fight! And this world...is worse than dead, it's doomed!' Even the careless swinging of a stake from an unexperienced hunter can find a demon's heart eventually. Marivel flees the shelter and never returns but she reminds herself that she has another she can fight with in the future.
She remembers Josephine Lovelace. A rival, perhaps? Someone to challenge? And be challenged by? She could see in that woman's eyes that she was a woman who would grasp for her own goal no matter the scorn placed before her. Even a woman who surely had a rough go of it like her was able to hold on hope. Marivel draws out that unlit cigarette and lights it up with her finger. She smokes and she breathes in the hope. Nicotine just doesn't have the same effect on her but the gesture brings her comfort all the same. They'd fight together.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
The Promise.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpv0mKxWIHw
She wakes up in a World of Ruin. She steps into the future and furiously reads books about botany and agriculture that she recovered in the first days of the fall. She nearly gets eaten by a tree. Trees didn't do THAT before. She finds the descendents of the Valerias and swears to help them when she can. She educates them despite knowing that she is largely self taught except for what Althena and Lumen gave her. So she finds Lumen. She never finds Althena. She visits her last remaining friend often until in a blink of an eye Lumen is old. And she dies, leaving her daughter to Marivel. Marivel doesn't know what to do with a daughter but she's missed Kamui so she decides to take her home. She introduces Kamui to the staff, the monsters and strange things that have sought refuge from the world. Strangely, the monsters recognize Kamui as one of them. Marivel feels an ache in her heart that wasn't there before... the price of eternity. She doesn't want to pass that on to Kamui. More than anything, she wants Kamui to have nothing but happy memories and she doesn't quite understand why. She missed her in the Memory Maze and she's all she has left. She has no idea where Yue is. She has no idea where Gami is. She assures Kamui that Gami is free to come here whenever she wants, though, just so she knows. She reads books about humanity and studies them in recovering settlements. Giving your old clothes to family is something you do, she learns, so she's making progress.
She remembers the quiet strength of Brad. If he can endure in strange and unexpected circumstances, perhaps she too can share some of that strength and persevere through the strange. It's like a collar on her neck but it won't be there forever. All too soon, Kamui will stand on her own two feet and she'll be nostalgic for that collar. And though Filgaia has forgotten her, and fears her... Heroes never die. Not so long as they have the will to fight. Even in fights like this. She remembers his Courage. They'd fight together.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
The Promise.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86icWXs0CQ
She wakes up in a World of Ruin. She allows herself to step on fire and joins a new war against the Metal Demons. She really doesn't have a choice. They are killing loads of Elw and her peoples' alliance with them still stand and she certainly doesn't want the Metal Demons' actions to reflect poorly on Gami and Kamui. Her attempts to reconcile with the Metal Demons fall on as deaf ears as if they were the ones summoned by Lord Blazer himself. She has long lost her max level ultra forged equipment so she builds new ones. Lucifer already existed, but she assists the Elw and the humans in building gears. She builds an Asgard because what is needed now is a Guardian, not a scourer of the Earth like Lucifer. Despite everything, despite working with so many people, with everyone... She can only save a quarter of Filgaia this time. Is this the price, she wonders, for trying to build a better future when she should have kept still? So much of her long work destroyed in a blink of an eye. She cursed the Metal Demons for their cruelty. She cursed humanity for their fragility. She cursed the Elw for dying. She wept and she wept and she wept and she told herself again and again she'd never cry again. She desired nothing more to save Filgaia.
But apparently that desire was not enough to match Boomerang's. She sees Luceid fighting with Boomerang of all people. Marivel doesn't understand. She can't understand why a Guardian would fight with Filgaia's enemy. No matter how many times she fights with Boomerang and Luceid over the course of the war, she can never understand. Why, Why, Why, WHY???
She remembers the blinding hope of Eleanor. Like a sun, she shined, didn't she? Even torn away from her loved one and trapped, she still seemed as hopeful and kind as ever. Marivel picks herself back up and keeps stepping into the fire again and again. She is slower, her movements are rougher and stilted like a zombie's. She hobbles metaphysically and literally, pushing through the war. The heroes she assisted become the bulwarks of the new Kingdoms of Humanity. She ensures Klein will be one of them by recalling the dating advice of her own mentors (though she is certain that noble streak would've surely borne it out anyway). House Valeria chooses a life of service as of course they would, guided by the curse and imagined mandate of Anastasia. Eleanor also carries a heavy burden, so can she. She remembers her Love. They'd fight together.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
The Promise.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niw000TDiPA
Marivel wakes up in a World of Ruin. The Metal Demons don't stand a chance this time and the cruelty of it makes Marivel lose the taste of vengeance. She isn't going to be a party to this. Rather, the movements of something called Valmar has her daughter...
Her daughter...with the enemy. Her precious Kamui. No, no no no... It's like Luceid all over again but this is her daughter she'll fight harder for her. She battles against the strange abominations of Valmar but biology was never her strong suit. She was an engineer soe she used the solutions of an engineer. Cut. Smash. Purge. She would fight with humanity and save her daughter and...
...and humans use the machines she helped give them, her GIFT to kill each other, to devastate the world once more! Those machines are for Filgaia's enemies, not each other but it is like the Fall of the Zeboim again. Time doesn't change, Marivel realizes. It's a closed circle. Humanity is an ouroboros itself. She vows to find a way to break the loop, even as she is an Ouroboros herself, constantly chewing at her past. She'll save Kamui and then...
Ah...
There was her daughter's corpse. Pieces of her are scattered about across the floor. Humans dance around her body. Laughing with relief.
Marivel sinks to her knees. Everyone. Everyone is gone. She has been mired with humans more than she has with her own people at this point and she has learned so much about them. What she thought humans had, what she desperately sought... Was it an illusion?
She looks at her dead daughter. She looks at her and she looks at her and the humans are starting to notice her presence since she no longer has the will to hide herself. She tries to find a word. She can't find a word. What does she call these humans? She could never find the cruel words they could find so easily. She never understood cruelty, only cold practicality.
A familiar word comes to her. A word so cursed that humans only use it for their greatest and most vile enemies. Beasts so alien and monstrous that they cannot be understood, that violence is the only language Filgaia can offer them.
"You... DEMONS!!" Marivel screams as she kills them all with her fangs and claws. She vows she will never shed tears for humans again. Not in her heart. Anastasia and Lumen were flukes, that was all. The noble heroes were illusions. Stories, just like in the tales she read when she was young.
She collects the body of her daughter She mindlessly puts the pieces together and then curls up with her, waiting for a death that would not come.
'You call this victory!?' Sakura screams into her heart, stuck firmly between her ribs.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Years pass.
And Marivel remembers two last illusions. Ashley Winchester and Marina Irington. She remembers that donut of all things. She remembers that dumb smiling face. She remembers how he would bear the weight of Lord Blazer. She could still have her revenge on the one who stole her everything. She still had one thing left.
The Promise.
Marivel wakes up in a World of Ruin. She continues the work alone. Occasionally she is visited by brave frightened children. Jack pulls her out to the world. He lives with his grandmother. He mourns his lost mother. He wants to build airplanes. Marivel subtly guides Jack into learning how. A little more loudly, she guides him to accepting his family of choice just like Lumen had done for her. She plants seeds. She visits House Valeria occasionally, as any scary godmother should. She visits all of the Noble Houses, checking in, lending a bit of advice here and there--but she used a light touch. Slowly but surely, the world begins to heal again even if the desert is growing maybe--
MEMORY ERROR
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCE3e1-jNHw
--Filgaia is already doomed. Desert covers most of Ignas. Marivel learns of Bernadette too late to save her. Another little piece of Anastasia she couldn't protect...
Guilt fills her heart as Josie's sister dies in flame. If she had visited perhaps she could have given them a gift, something, anything that could protect them....
A man wakes her in the castle. His name is Irving Valeria and he has something he'd like to show her. Something's coming to Filgaia that will devour it all. Something more frightening even than Lord Blazer.
She looks through the telescope. THAT is coming to Filgaia?
Marivel swears to serve Irving Valeria to stop it. She knows the catalyst. She saw what happened and she knows who has to be there.
Guilt prevents her from suggesting Josie but she insists on Brad, Eleanor, and Ashley Winchester. Keep moving forward, she tells herself. This will be your last gamble. Even if your heart isn't in it anymore, you only need to last long enough for this. She'll throw every card she has on the table. She'll throw herself into the flames with Irving if she has to and even if they are cursed until the end of time, at least Filgaia will have a future.
Can she see it?Marivel puts one step in front of the other, trying to remember... trying to remember...
Odessa will be planning an experiment using the initial batch of ARMS agents as the guinea pigs. Ashley Winchester will be there. Irving asks for her insight though Marivel is certain he already made his plans and she's just clearing a draft and checking it over for anything he might have missed. He really does feel like a man after her own heart. It brings her comfort in a way, knowing she isn't...
They had told her she had put Lord Blazer inside of him. And they had made a Promise together. It is time for Ashley to uphold his end of the bargain.
"Leave Ashley with them," Marivel says softly. "It has to be that way... And he already agreed to fight with me. Ana will do the rest."
She couldn't be there to protect the King of Adlehyde because it was a lynchpin. This is a lynchpin too. So many horrors she had to let happen.
And she learns of Althena' own dark fate. Why weren't you there, she wonders, as she seeks her Answers.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX7Doyjkrag
And she seeks.
And she seeks.
She envies those dragons whose souls burned out long ago. At least they no longer hurt just like her parents no longer hurt. Why must she be a dragon that hasn't burned? Why must she be the Ouroboros?
And as the memories fly by her, her hands and knees on the ground as she's crawling along through the muck...She sees ahead of her. Her other self. The one that is returning. The head intent on biting down on her tail.
That other Marivel reaches down and lifts her up and embraces her. The younger Marivel's tears fall freely.
"You fought real hard, Ouroboros. But you no longer have to encircle this world alone. You no longer need to carry that name." The older Marivel pulls back and jerks a thumb back, grinning through her own tears as she had learned to do. "We can be Caduceus now and carry their stories with them into the future. Can you see them?"
She can see them. She sees Mariel's declaration that they will be alone together. She sees KK's offer of trust and Liath's sisterhood. She sees Ragnell's chiding friendship. She sees Clarine and how she bore her own time in the dark alone. She sees Acacia, a legacy of a lost friend but even spicier. She sees Ida, the heir of Luisa, struggling with her own anxieties and trying to build a House she can be proud of. She sees Kamui, risen again, and Gami along with her. She remembers their love. She finally learns the name of Eleanor's dumb crush and sees that she is quite the shining light herself, even if she isn't sure she'd ever be able to tell her. It's Xiumei! A better choice than Marivel could have imagined. Worth the surprise, however she might grumble. She sees Venetia, a sorceress literally from the dirt who may well be one of its greatest. She sees Erzebet, someone she hopes will be with her for a long time. She sees Ruth, a monster just like her who can't stop crying. She sees Azoth and the rest of the family Kamui had found. She sees more and more past that. She sees Yuna's kind heart and...
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
One last memory. Of herself on a boat with a sphere. She runs her hand over it.
The sphere lights up to show Tidus, sober-faced, sitting cross-legged at the precipice between the Calm Lands and the Macalania Woods; crystalline trees phase into plain grass in the background.
"Hey, Marivel. We already just talked a little bit ago, so this feels kind of weird..." He rubs the back of his head. "Um, I didn't want to freak you out, so I didn't mention, but... I might not come back. Not just because it's Sin we're fighting, but..."
He takes a deep breath and heaves it out. "So... there are these fayth stuck in the side of the mountain at Mt. Gagazet, on the way to the ruins of Zanarkand. They're all summoning something all at the same time, and Bahamut's fayth told me... they were summoning Zanarkand. My Zanarkand. That it's just one big living dream. And... since I'm from there... I'm a dream too."
He pauses. "I know it sounds pretty out there, but I have a feeling it won't seem too out-there to you. So... when we beat Sin, and let the fayth rest finally... the dream will end. And so will I.
"Maybe," he adds quickly. "He also said that, me and my old man, we were touched by Sin, so we're more than dreams now. So maybe I won't fade away! Maybe we'll meet up after all this is done and you can give me a good smack for worrying you over nothing. Well, actually, hopefully you haven't watched this already like I asked and I can just take it back without you ever getting worried in the first place." He deflates. "But... yeah." Another pause. "If I don't come back... I'm sorry for not telling you to your face. And... thanks again for everything. I hope your stuff works out for you."
One last pause.
"Goodbye," he says, and then reaches over to turn off the sphere.
That old and tired Marivel cries and cries and calls him a dumb idiot over and over and over again hoping that she'll believe it so it can stop hurting but instead she cries and cries until she realizes that maybe this is why he couldn't tell her to her face. No matter how many times she searched, she would never find the Answer to that question as to why good boys and girls like him had to die, and monsters like her had to keep on living.
But after she mourns and aches, she remembers her new name. Caduceus. She will not loop into the past again. Instead, she will turn her gaze around and to the future and fly there, fangs and claws bared. She will smile and weep openly because Tidus taught her to do that too and maybe she finally learned the trick to it. To laugh, no matter how hard you have to fake it, in the face of adversity.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.
Marivel was not there to see that moment, but she didn't need to be. He was that kind of guy until the end. For all humanity had taken from her, they had still given her that gift. That is her Answer.
Those smiles and laughs that buoyed her throughout time. That is what Marivel will gamble on.
That is what Caduceus will gamble on.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has drawn a new Challenge.
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Zophar - The Will of Destruction *>===============
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing violet orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it shimmers -- and then shatters like glass. Sparks
of something like static replace it, grains of black and white raining down,
and then a new orb forms in its place.
It is solid black.
In the next moment, you are a god.
You conscience is vast. It spans the whole of Filgaia; the whole of a world
set ablaze, of armies given to madness, of desperate battles across the
field. And, more importantly, you are not alone. You do not see Lord Blazer
as his body, but rather an all-consuming fire that fills the whole horizon.
His voice speaks into your mind; into your being.
You must /resist/. You must /endure/. You must summon all of your strength,
all of your might to withstand this terrible oppressive flame. It cannot be
beaten.
ZOPHAR. I HAVE NEED OF YOU.
It was a mistake to ever cooperate with this being. You hesitate for a
moment, but only a moment; you are a thing of darkness and corruption, but
your influence on this world remains limited. The Elw have made it hard for
you to become a part of it. One day, perhaps... but...
Then, you speak: WHAT IS IT YOU DEMAND OF ME, MY LORD?
Lord Blazer's reply comes a moment later, with a pulse of fire: ALTHENA
PREPARES HER DEPARTURE. SHE INTENDS TO SEND WORD TO ANASTASIA. YOU WILL STOP
THIS.
No. No, you cannot risk drawing the Elw's attention. She has done something;
something that risks your entire machination. Perhaps he can be reasoned
with. ALTHENA IS IRRELEVANT, MASTER--
I WILL NOT ALLOW MY BATTLE WITH ANASTASIA TO BE INTERRUPTED! I AM
DESTRUCTION! I AM CONTEST! I AM GLORY! ONLY SHE HAS GIVEN ME THOSE THINGS!
Your being -- spread across all Filgaia, across all existence -- hitches.
Like a breath that cannot quite escape. You have no choice. You will have to
take the chance.
HER MESSENGERS SHALL NOT REACH ANASTASIA. I SHALL BRING MY FURY DOWN UPON
HER.
But nor will you forget this slight. Lord Blazer has taught you much. To
have true power -- to have mastery of Filgaia -- you will become part of
this star. And you will be sure that Lord Blazer receives his due, all in
time.
Because to a god, what is time?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Enlighten:_Wits_Up!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, and |
| Shortsighted:_All_Stats_Down! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
Anastasia hugs Marivel. She hugs her tightly, bites her lip, and bows her head. "...I'll see you later," she finishes. She looks up at her -- and she gives her that gentle push.
She watches as Marivel moves away from her -- receeding into the mists -- and then she knows that she might not see her again. But she has to hold out hope. She has to believe.
She stands there, looking as Marivel leaves. She looks after Marivel left, when there is nothing but mists and columns. She brushes at her eyes.
"...We should keep moving," she says, her voice soft. "I... hope it won't be much further, for you. I can't be sure."
They keep walking.
And walking.
It's some time later, when they find the next memory's sphere. It is a violet one -- one of Ana's own, she knows. She starts to reach a hand out, but then sparks of black and white tear through reality. Grains of it rain down, and it shatters like glass. Anastasia gasps, backing up.
It is a midnight orb that expands outward.
She thought her consciousness expanded before; it is greater now. She is a power in this world, though apart from it. She knows Blazer well -- but she sees him as she has never before.
"L-Luceid--"
She stammers it out, as she -- all of them -- remember speaking words. They remember emotions. They remember being something alien to Filgaia. There is a force of will they must exert, to push forward.
So Luceid comes, answering to Anastasia's desire -- her scream -- and their HOWL, as the Guardian Lord tears forward. He surges ahead of them, to guide the mortals through the storm of gods.
DG: Anastasia Valeria has used his Tool Luceid Call toward his party's challenge, Zophar - The Will of Destruction. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted! Sacrifice! The party will take slightly more Exhaustion this round! DG: Marivel Armitage has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Zophar - The Will of Destruction.
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
What is the weight of eternity? Ashley has suffered so much, but his mortal lifespan encompasses mere instant compared to the hell that he has condemned Marivel to. With one little flame of hope, the ouroboros is set-- and Marivel is doomed to thousands of years of pain, loss, toil, misery, joy, reunion, love and so much sorrow.
"It's a deal, then," Ashley says with a smile-- and then something rushes into him. A wave of darkness washes across his soul and settles into the crevasses like a sea of cats. And yet, it feels oddly... comforting. Has he merely gotten used to feeling dark powers churning in his soul? No, this darkness is very different from the Blazer's unwarming inferno.
* ASHLEY WINCHESTER GAINS THE SPELL: APORT
...Vampire-bonded on top of daemonhost? Winchester, you gotta stop stacking templates...
"I'll see you on the other side, Mari. I... I'd wish you good luck, or a pleasant journey, but..." He smiles sadly, "Instead, I'll just say I'm sorry, and I hope to see you soon."
She falls away, disappearing into the mists. Ashley sighs as the memory fades away. "...Let's go," he says, walking off into the fog, always following Anastasia close behind. She is their guide, and more than that... She's going to be very, very lonely once they leave.
So, to give her the comfort of at least some company-- is the least they can do.
...
...
It takes an age. An aeon. Or it seems to. They come across the next memory, and Ana seems to recognize it. And then--
A pulse shakes the world. Ashley winces and grabs at the side of his head. His temples throb and pulse, something feels like it's bursting out of his skull. The orb shatters, replaced by a vantablack sphere-- that swallows the world.
...And when it finally resolves, this--
This.
"Lord... Blazer..." Ashley wheezes, squeezing an eye shut like he were trying to keep his brain from bursting out of his sinuses. He knows that voice. He knows that voice. It sounds like fire devouring your childhood home. It sounds like an inferno of nightmare sucking away all light and color and leaving behind only despair. It sounds like the end of days. It sounds like the eternal peace beyond absolute oblivion. He's heard it many times before, but...
Why does it sound... so different now...? It's almost... obsessed...?
How does an entity of such absolute destruction have the awareness to recognize a mere human...?
There's another. One closer at hand. This one the presence in his soul rages against. If the Event Horizon could tremble and quake, the Other Voice would be shaking the Memory Maze to its foundations. It feels like anger. It feels like laughter.
"Don't-- don't try to block it out," Ashley winces, his voice crackling like it were full of static-- or perhaps as if it were burning from the inside. "You can't. The voices, the will, they're too strong. But... You have to let it pass through you. Hold on to everything that makes you you and endure it!" He grits his teeth, an ember flickering in one eye as something inside thrashes furiously for the opportunity to extinguish this petty obstinence--
"Zo...phar..." Ashley whispers as he follows after the Guardian of Desire through a void strangled by the wrathful nataraja of the two evil gods, "He remembers...!"
DG: Ashley Winchester has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Zophar - The Will of Destruction.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Marivel goes, pushed along by Anastasia gently--and Eleanor's eyes flash golden. She Sees, and she Sees, Marivel through the ages. Flashes of insight, flashes of knowledge not through the Memory Maze alone but through the power of a Sage. She sees Marivel, whispering in her ancestor's ear; she sees Marivel, screaming of demons over Kamui's body. And she sees Marivel, speaking of 'leaving Ashley'...
Her story.
And then she is with the world again. She is with Anastasia.
"...It will be longer for you," Eleanor laments to Anastasia, her heart sad for it, with the weight of it. "But I promise you. It will not be forever. We will find a way."
And some long time ago... There. That midnigt orb--
There is a scream, and Eleanor realizes eventually that it is hers, after it fades. She remembers it, all right. The expansive consciousness, beyond even the memory and the Sight, and--
And the world on fire. Again.
This energy, this force, she knows: it is utterly anathema to her very being. Eleanor wilts visibly, paling and stumbling forward. "This is--this is WRONG," she cries. "We cannot--we cannot allow it! This MUST NOT--"
But she knows, even as she says it, "...But it has already been. We can do nothing."
Eleanor takes a step forward, and another step. "Nothing, but... Endure." Luceid howls forward, and Eleanor takes them as a beacon, as she extends her arm. The Power Bracelet looks strangely fragile for a moment--But it is not that that Eleanor goes for.
"Help me," Eleanor asks. "I can't--"
But there is one thing she can do. One thing, shining in her bag, that was not there before. Eleanor pulls the Flute, and stares at its silvery gleam. It shimmers with all colors, faintly. And she knows what it is.
"...You must remember," Eleanor says. "Remember your own selves. Remember why we must go! What is still there!" Her voice is weak, but she calls as loudly as she can all the same. 'Hold on'...
She sets it to her lips. "...If this is all that I can do, then I..."
She begins to play on the Flute of Memory a melody of the ancient world, and it somehow rises into the storm with them, audible despite the crush and despair. But she will need help; it is all she can do. It is the hope she can offer, the thing she found, that Ashley called for. Because the Sage was Eleanor, first, and she loved this world before it was her duty.
DG: Eleanor Klein has used her Tool Power Bracelet toward her party's challenge, Zophar - The Will of Destruction. Fanfare!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"I've my own way of doing things," Josie says, rolling her shoulders in a loose shrug. "That's all it is." Her lips quirk in a slight smile, though. "But I'm also the stubborn sort, yeah? Ain't cared for losin', much. So I'll stick it to the end, just to spite them that'd wish to see me otherwise."
She gazes off to the horizon.
"Ain't such a bad thing sometimes, spite... but chin up, now. You've got a long road ahead of you, and it won't get any shorter for you sitting 'round here!"
Penelope alights on Josie's shoulder then and not for the first time, she has a double-take at her avian companion. "...So you are real," she remarks, perhaps as a non sequitor. "Still," she says, getting back on the right foot with Marivel, "Don't you go inflating her head, now. She ain't needin' the help!"
And with that, it is time for the Marivel of the past to take those necessary steps and head on to her future.
And their past.
They, themselves, continue not long after. Marivel escaped -- Josie knows she escaped. But will they manage it as well? The only way in which to find out is to press on, towards whatever unknown future lies ahead for them.
The orb that awaits them here in the mists of memory is pitch black. Were it not for the swirling whites and greys, she might never see it coming. "Wonder whose memory--"
She is everywhere within this world. Her power roots her to the world's font. And she knows, she knows she is a god. But not just any god--
"Shit," Josie hisses, even as her will responds quite differently to the flame that bids her support and fealty. The flame that dwarfs her darkness, in the way that night shrinks from a campfire's beacon.
He is Lord Blazer, and she is Zophar. And his will shall consume her should she fail in her resistance.
Her will takes the form of a mattock as she pushes, hammering back at all the places in which Lord Blazer seeks to burn her away.
"Forget... forget blocking it-- no, I'll--"
Don't fight back, rings out Ashley's voice. But don't give in. Remember who you are, speaks Eleanor. Her hands -- her presence, really -- close around the haft of the mattock as if it were her anchor and she bristles against the flame.
Once, this was her sister's--
She digs in, and she waits for the storm to end.
DG: Josephine Lovelace has used her Tool Well-Used Mattock toward her party's challenge, Zophar - The Will of Destruction. Strengthen! Party Brute boosted!
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
Brad watches Marivel go - ejected, really. So that's the trick to the Maze. Magic and ARM-technology are not the same, but systems are systems, and can be analyzed, the what if not the how.
"See ya soon, old lady," he says to nobody, some cheek from his younger days filtering into him from that harrowing memory of his own.
Then it's onward, again, pushing on into the mist. He occupies his mind by comparing his minimal understanding of just how Marivel...works, to the place they stand within, but they need to keep themselves focused. They have somewhere to go. They have somewhere they must be.
The next orb appears. He grunts, readying himself.
Rather than engulf, expanding in a way that is both unmoving and absolute, it explodes. A chill shoots through him. Another orb forms. In this place of white and grey and the tiniest dots of color, it is black.
Brad braces himself in expectation, but one cannot brace onself for ascension. He becomes one with everything.
The others hold together better; understand the esoteric more. Brad finds himself absorbed in the information, the blazing lines of Ley and horrid demons, and it takes a moment for the others calling to him to crystallize enough Brad Things that they remember there is a Brad.
Eleanor calls him forth, and there's a horrible hitching breath as Brad remembers he breathes enough to actually do so, like waking up from a nightmare.
This information...he can tell that was momentous. A memory of something so large that encapsulating it as an event is almost a mockery. But.
....Brad is a man of circuits and wires. This isn't something he knows how to pull apart. And so, as a man dealing with things beyond him does, he responds desperately and with full force.
He tugs the activator on the Kick Boots storage until it hums like a camera flash, and then he lashes out at the morass of eternity, a massive explosion of stored kinesis blasting outward.
Then, his thought finding it easiest to lock onto Eleanor, he finds her motionless, and scoops her up into a princess carry so she can keep playing while he dashes after Luceid.
DG: Brad Evans has used his Tool Kick Boots toward his party's challenge, Zophar - The Will of Destruction. Resilient! Party shielded from some exhaustion next round!
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
===============<* CHALLENGE - Zophar - The Will of Destruction *>===============
| Type: Final | Dungeon Ability: Brute | Challenge Rating: 3 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
A memory awaits. It is a small, glowing violet orb in the center of the
midst. As you approach, it shimmers -- and then shatters like glass. Sparks
of something like static replace it, grains of black and white raining down,
and then a new orb forms in its place.
It is solid black.
In the next moment, you are a god.
You conscience is vast. It spans the whole of Filgaia; the whole of a world
set ablaze, of armies given to madness, of desperate battles across the
field. And, more importantly, you are not alone. You do not see Lord Blazer
as his body, but rather an all-consuming fire that fills the whole horizon.
His voice speaks into your mind; into your being.
You must /resist/. You must /endure/. You must summon all of your strength,
all of your might to withstand this terrible oppressive flame. It cannot be
beaten.
ZOPHAR. I HAVE NEED OF YOU.
It was a mistake to ever cooperate with this being. You hesitate for a
moment, but only a moment; you are a thing of darkness and corruption, but
your influence on this world remains limited. The Elw have made it hard for
you to become a part of it. One day, perhaps... but...
Then, you speak: WHAT IS IT YOU DEMAND OF ME, MY LORD?
Lord Blazer's reply comes a moment later, with a pulse of fire: ALTHENA
PREPARES HER DEPARTURE. SHE INTENDS TO SEND WORD TO ANASTASIA. YOU WILL STOP
THIS.
No. No, you cannot risk drawing the Elw's attention. She has done something;
something that risks your entire machination. Perhaps he can be reasoned
with. ALTHENA IS IRRELEVANT, MASTER--
I WILL NOT ALLOW MY BATTLE WITH ANASTASIA TO BE INTERRUPTED! I AM
DESTRUCTION! I AM CONTEST! I AM GLORY! ONLY SHE HAS GIVEN ME THOSE THINGS!
Your being -- spread across all Filgaia, across all existence -- hitches.
Like a breath that cannot quite escape. You have no choice. You will have to
take the chance.
HER MESSENGERS SHALL NOT REACH ANASTASIA. I SHALL BRING MY FURY DOWN UPON
HER.
But nor will you forget this slight. Lord Blazer has taught you much. To
have true power -- to have mastery of Filgaia -- you will become part of
this star. And you will be sure that Lord Blazer receives his due, all in
time.
Because to a god, what is time?
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Madness:_Wits_Down!, |
| Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, and Strengthen:_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
==========================<* Memory Maze - Round 6 *>=========================== =================< Results - Zophar - The Will of Destruction >================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anastasia Valeria 35 --(10)--> 45 Pass Luceid Call 3 Brute Effects: Strengthen and Sacrif -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marivel Armitage 23 --(22)--> 45 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Josephine Lovelace 48 --(22)--> 70 Fail Well-Used Mattock 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brad Evans 35 --(10)--> 45 Pass Kick Boots 2 Brute Effects: Resilient -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eleanor Klein 30 --(10)--> 40 Pass Power Bracelet 3 Brute Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Winchester 48 --(10)--> 58 Pass Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Anastasia Valeria 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Madness Effects: Resilient(1)|Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Anastasia Valeria has successfully explored Memory Maze!
===============================<* Memory Maze *>================================
=========================<* CHALLENGE - The Way Home *>=========================
| Type: Discovery | Dungeon Ability: Conclusion | Challenge Rating: 4 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information >----------------------------
The memories come to an end.
You escape from that final memory to step upon a misty plain, one more time.
The mist billows and swirls around you -- and the columns stretch on,
endlessly, before you. It is like you have made no progress at all. Almost
as if you never managed to get here.
But then you notice something.
It might be hope; it might be your doom. But it's something that doesn't
belong here.
Pyreflies drift up around you.
============================= Dungeon Conditions: =============================
| Bad_Luck:_All_Stats_Down!, Hesitate:_Agility_Down!_Wits_Up!, |
| Madness:_Wits_Down!, Resilient:_Exhaustion_Down!, and Strengthen:_Brute_Up! |
= Digger 2.0 ===================================================================
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
Together, they push through. The voices and emotions of gods are as a storm, and it is one they must push through. They do so with Ashley's familiarity; Josie's resolve; Brad's strength; and Eleanor's flute that is new yet was always there, a melody that cuts through and guides them. They still hear the voices, but they come out on the other side. As they do, Luceid winks away into nothingness.
It resolves, again, into mist. Endless columns stretch on -- mist stretches out forever. They are free of whatever that was.
But it seems, at first, as if they have made no progress. The same expanse stretches out as always.
Until Eleanor notices them: a few pyreflies drifting up, then a few more, and then a few dozen. Anastasia tilts her head and blinks, before she steps forward with them. But when she steps forward, she draws no closer...
...and they move away from her.
They promised they would find a way.
But it would be a very long time and she will be very lonely.
Anastasia stares at them fo a moment, as they grow more distant. The blue-haired woman hesitates for a moment, before she speaks. "It seems... it seems this is as far as I can go. I can't approach something from the outside."
Her eyes close. "It seems this is where we say goodbye."
<Pose Tracker> Ashley Winchester has posed.
Familiarity? Maybe so. It's a curse unlike any that has been inflicted in all the world before him. But constant exposure to Lord Blazer has had... not 'benefits,' nor 'advantages' or 'perks' but 'peculiarities.' Ashley is familiar with the sensation of being the sole recipient of a god's burning gaze. It's this that sees him through to the end of the memory.
No.
Not quite.
It's a promise. A thread that guides him through the endless dark. He has a promise to fulfill. No amount of familiarity makes up for that. That singular purpose. That deep and unstoppable desire that endures through even the harshest of divine drama.
Ashley emerges on the other side... Whole, intact, if not still... scarred.
The others make it out, too. Relief displaces the terror that had filled his heart-- and is shortly thereafter replaced by exhaustion. How long have they walked this way with Anastasia? It can't have been more than a few hours, but... How does time relate to this place...? So close to the event horizon, perhaps these past few hours have become thousands of years on the outside.
Still, he has a question-- a burning, awful question: "Ana... did it sound to you like somehow you were important to him too...?"
Ashley-- sincerely hopes that he's only been around Marivel too long and is seeing certain emotional implications where they actually aren't. But.
There, breaking through the fog, the prismatic sparks of pyrefly light. Ashley exhales and takes a step towards them--
Only to see Anastasia rebuffed.
He stops, staring into the fog. Then, he turns and--
Gives the Sword Magess a hug.
"Thank you," he says. "For getting us here. We'll return the favor. You won't have to be alone here forever. That's... what I promised her, after all." He takes a step back, back-treading towards the pyreflies with a smile on his face. "I can't promise you'll make it for the wedding, but we'll do our best."
But will it be good enough...?
Marivel has tried for so, so long. But now that the Ouroboros is broken...
Maybe, maybe there's a chance...!
"Her name is Marina, by the way," Ashley's grin widens as the Pyreflies swirl around him. "Marina Irington-- the woman that I love! We work in her parents' bakery togwther! Here--" The Memory Maze is a strange thing, but matter is still material here, just as much as memory is. When Ashley presses his pack into Ana's hands, it overflows with baked goods. A memento from a musketeer who is never without snacks. "I don't know if it'll tie you over until we come get you, but I hope you enjoy them! I'd love to be able to say that the Sword Magess endorses our donuts!"
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor half-collapses against Brad when he picks her up, far too light in his arms. But when they escape the memory, a little bit of life returns to her cheeks. She stops her melody of Time, sets down the Flute of Memory, and returns it to her bag. "Did we make it...?"
But the expanse stretches before them. Unsteadily, Eleanor puts her hand to Brad's arm to ask him to put her down, and regains her feet. She dossn't look so terribly small anymore. "Thank you," Eleanor tells her large friend. And she walks ahead. "We made it," she breathes in relief, and then she notices who isn't standing with her.
She turns, as Anastasia speaks, and there is sorrow in her expression. She wishes it could be different, but...
This, too, is 'fate'. And it is one that must not be changed, yet... But she doesn't have to enjoy the moment.
"For now," Eleanor tells her fervently. "He's right," she says. "We will. And our best is very good, I can assure you!"
"...It isn't right," she says. "That you should be here all alone forever. That's not the 'Filgaia' I want to protect, one that has no place for a woman who saved our world."
She smiles. "They're very cute together," Eleanor says of Ashley and Marina. "You'll get to see for yourself."
This, she is not sure of; it may be past Ashley's lifetime that they succeed. But she hopes that it will be sooner. That they will definitely succeed at all.
She doesn't move to give Ana a hug herself, but she puts a hand over her heart. "Thank you," she says too. And then she realizes it. "Something from outside..."
She smiles. "They did it. I don't know how, or why pyreflies, but I know it's them, everyone."
"...Which means we have a way back. To find you. So please hang on until then."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There had been another fire for her, once.
Almost, her will isn't enough. Almost, the flame consumes her. The heat, the burn of it -- it brings her back to that time.
But she had escaped back then, too. If by another's hand.
She staggers as she emerges from the maze, her eyes taking in the by-now familiar horizon of this twist in time. "Oh... right back 'round the other side, eh?" she breathes, patting down her hip for her flask. "Well, tell you what, once I've had five, I'm up for... challenging it ag..."
She has turned in that last moment and finally seen what she had overlooked: there stands Anastasia, unable to pass the boundary they have crossed. Pyreflies flit in the air about them, if just faintly.
"Oh," she says, her hand falling away from her pocket. "So this is it, huh. Here's where we say goodbye."
Josie ducks her head in a nod, as one big sister to another.
"Her name was Josie," she says quietly, here just past the boundary, "but I was Kat. I'm living on for her sake, too. You know how it is, yeah...? Bein' a big sister. Even when they're gone you're still lookin' out for 'em."
Her gaze passes between Ashley and Eleanor.
"But those two are right. So long as you're alive... it ain't over. It ain't over yet. So you hang in there, Ana... and we'll figure it out."
Her smile has returned to her. "Someday."
<Pose Tracker> Brad Evans has posed.
It's nearly impossible to hold on. To himself, to Eleanor, to the concept of selves and eleanors. But he does it. With her song and their friends, he's able to push through the psychic maelstrom and emerge, at the end, in the mist.
Is it the same place they started? Is there a place they started? What is place and starting? He grits his teeth and shakes out his thoughts.
Eleanor lightly asks to be let down, and he does so, letting her down feet first. He's still reorienting himself when the pyreflies appear. That's...new - unfamiliar, to this place. And it couldn't be something they brought, either. The battle with Heimdall Gazzo was on a whole other planet from Spira, after all. "Think that's our exit," he notes, and steps forward, and looks back - and then sees that Anastasia can draw no nearer.
"Ah," he says. "...'course. This isn't Illsveil. Prisons have wardens."
..."Can't say I know top or bottom of a thing like this. But I'll make sure Ashley doesn't let ya down, at least." He lets himself chuckle, an attempt at mirth here, at an ending. "Probably doesn't bear saying by now, but he's not someone who'll give up."
Giving hope in hypotheticals, Brad finds that's not the kind of courage he wants to give. Instead:
"When he says he'll get you out...believe in him."
<Pose Tracker> Anastasia Valeria has posed.
"It... it did. When we fought, I... wondered. The demon seemed to enjoy the battle, as much as I didn't," Anastasia answers Ashley. "But this other... thing. This Zophar. I've never heard of it before..."
And yet, she has an answer to why Althena never came. It's something.
She answers, and then she looks up at Ashley -- and makes a surprised noise when Ashley closes the distance and hugs her. It's only a moment later before she hugs him in return. "...thank you," she says, her voice quiet. "I... I'd like that. I'll stay here, as long as I must. But..."
But she doesn't want this. It's only something she has to do.
She steps back from Ashley. Then, her eyes flicker to Eleanor, and she hesitates -- but nods to the elf, with a smile. "Thank you, Eleanor," she says. "I... I'm glad that you think so. I would like to see them. And you, and all of you, again and some place else."
The Sword Magess looks at Josie -- and her dark eyes widen, just a little. "Ah... Kat, then." She smiles, before she nods her head. "I know how it is. I... thank you. I'll do my best to wait, then, until you can all return."
She looks, finally, to Brad. He tells her to believe in Ashley. Anastasia hesitates for only a moment.
"I will," she says. She hesitates. "I haven't dared to hope in a long time. It's... dangerous. So... please don't let those hopes down."
Anastasia smiles at them all. She bows her head lowly, for a moment. "I'll see you again."
She turns, then, in a ruffle of her dresses -- and walks away from them. In a few moments, she is left in the mists -- and the pyreflies drift up, all around them.