[ Suffers Eastern European-flavour angst while three kids are being fantasy-shonen behind him.
Stop it. Why are you defending him. He flinches when Elise all but dives to protect this ugly-ass doctor and the plant digs into her neck. He waves it off before it can rip out a chunk of her, running to her. The logic portion tells him obviously this is unreasonable, that this can't be happening anyway, and she died a -- not a long time ago, but a while ago -- but he still hates seeing this. Her defending this madman. Why did you choose this over him? Why did you leave? ]
Elise—
[ ELISE YOUR NAT1. I have a F&H D&D parody video where they all just roll ones actually very funny and relevant. Looking at her like god, it's you, it's you and not that wizened, sallowed face with the stitches. And that makes it so much harder to watch her get injured, instinctively reaching to cover that bleeding with his hand. What the hell is this tube, though? ]
His sister's only ever been a fighter in spirit, and it would be easy to outrun her, but the closer she gets, the harder it is to remind himself this isn't real. He'd lost the details to her face years ago, time distorting his memory and no photo for him to look back on as a reminder.
But now that he's been confronted with her image, her person, it's all returning to him. The memories, the promises to keep him safe, his eager wish to do the same, and then the way he hadn't been able to do so in the end. He grits his teeth and doesn't run. Instead, he chooses to meet her head on to tackle her to the arena floor and send them both rolling. ]
[ aerith doesn't necessarily startle when the sword comes to slash at the line at her collar, but she's very quick to try to block away that strike with the guard stick. she knocks away kanda's first sword and then twists her guard stick to keep the second one from nicking at her collar. and then back to trying to bonk him again, uh ohh
alma does similarly, kicking away at cloud's sword, preferring to take the shock from the zap than put the tubing at risk. his tail comes around, curling around cloud's arm to keep him in place before his mouth opens to spew out a series of spikes to attack him.
you know how in old school shounen they like interrupt the fights for lengthy periods of time to explain lore and everyone just stands there shouting at each other for a while. anyway, dr. ichigaki laughs at the sidelines ]
Did you think it would be so simple, boys? These bodies are all resurrected!! If you cut that line, then they'll be gone forever again! Do you think that you could spare them? How disgustingly kind! Hahaha!!!
[ ok asshole.
meanwhile, divorce era! elise is bleeding out because A 1 IS SOOO CRAZY, but daan tries to save her. it's touching. it's sincere. she looks at him and almost seems to hesitate for a moment. her hands come up to ghost over his, as if afraid to touch, before she places them on his shoulders. and then his neck. and then her thumbs start to squeeze into his windpipe. neck trauma! they can match.
okay well aventurine's sister REALLY isn't much of a fighter because first of all she trips on her way to him, and then he tackles her down! that's horrible! that's horrific! when he does tackle her, he might feel the way that there's... something on her back. an uncomfortable lump beneath her clothes. but more importantly, that dagger she had is unsheathed, and while it might cut at aventurine a bit in the roll, it's... now digging into her own abdomen. whoa... you could even call it... bad luck. when she looks at him, really looks at him, her voice escapes her. just two words: ]
[Similarly to Cloud (shocking), Kanda is half-distracted watching Cloud and Alma--Aerith, at least this one, can fight well enough that he can't afford to be completely distracted, but his priorities are. Y'know. Over there.
And then Dr. Nutchin starts his shitty little spiel which isn't weird at all to Kanda because he's also from a shounen where this happens, so normally he'd just ignore it and focus on the fight, but the actual words he's saying are enough to trigger his rage. Can people stop doing this to him and Alma specifically for five goddamn minutes. Please.
Did you know his hair turned light purple last time this happened. Now you do.]
Fuck you!
[BREAKS HIS SHOUNEN MANGA RATINGS!!!!
His distraction means Aerith can get a good bonk in, maybe on the side of his head, but it also means he's going to try and kick her away at full strength. What if he tries to use the fucking. Sword javelin technique to get away from her and try to get over to Alma instead. Can he do that.]
[ WHY CAN'T HE SAY FUCK NORMALLY I'VE SEEN WHAT HAPPENS IN DGRAYMAN
final fantasy is a jrpg so battles stopping so someone can monologue for a bit is just called moving onto phase 2 so he is also used to this, though he's mad at the doctor for a different reason entirely: ]
She's not dead!
[ well. okay, actually, she is, but so is he, so that's complicated, and if he thinks about it too hard there's static in his head and the side of his vision goes blurry, and maybe he should be thinking less and concentrating on alma more, because woops! there is a tail around his arm. ow. that's the arm he's sensitive about. physically. because of the curse.
kanda can you please explain why your friend is part lizard and can spew spikes from his mouth. it's very distracting. cloud tries his best to block while being held in place with his sword arm occupied, but there's not much to do about spike mouth mcgee, and the spikes go in his other arm. thank god he is wearing a hoodie, normally this would be worse. downside: the white hoodie is stained now.
kanda's doing whatever to try to join them but cloud is not paying attention to that because now he's trying to either tug his arm free or tug alma by the lizard tail closer so he can kick him in the face. or chest. or just kick him in general, the fuck away from him. if he can tug himself free instead then he will simply go back to swordfighting but i don't see that happening
he has spirit guns he didn't forget but he is limited to 4 uses so he's only gonna pull those out when he has no choice, like hoarding items during boss battles because what if i need it later guys? ]
[ This is fine. He thinks maybe this would be a kindness, because he's so, so sorry Elise, the reason why you died -- surely it must be him. If only he'd kept his mouth shut. If only he hadn't gotten you involved in his life. He's bad luck walking and everyone who loves him eventually disappears.
It's as the cat says. He was never fit for that sort of thing. He should've always minded his own business.
He can only be pained (emotionally) when she touches him so gently, leaning into it naturally even when it starts to become pained (physically). It's alright -- he reaches for her anyway and forcefully hugs her close instead of pushing her away. Maybe that'll make it harder for her to strangle him anyway. He'll recover from a sore throat.
Anyway why are you all stopped in time to let this madman do his villain speech? He's not from a shonen so he doesn't understand. You can just shoot enemies dead in the overworld while they're busy reacting and slowly turning around to face you.
So over Elise's shoulder, he glares at Dr. Ichigaki, PhD, Asshole Extraordinaire. If Elise can't move and he's too busy monologuing then he's wide open, right? His terrible carnivorous plant with a mouth is still around. Get his ass! ]
Aventurine wishes he could do the same but he's currently preoccupied. Down they go to the floor and he does indeed feel that strange lump from under her clothes, but he's not left with a lot of time to wonder what it is when he's being nicked by a dagger. He keeps his own hands away from his sword and gun, not wanting to hurt her despite his earlier shout. And with the mad doctor's words echoing in his ears, he's especially reluctant. He could be lying, Aventurine thinks, panic rising in his throat, but turns out, he doesn't really have the time to be worrying about that either.
—Because his sister ends up with a dagger in her abdomen, and Aventurine gasps, rolling them over so she's on her back and her injury isn't further jostled. He breaths come out short as he tries to keep her from moving, and when he hears her voice for the first time in years, he struggles to maintain himself. ]
Don't, [ he whispers. It's not her, it's not her. She can't die again, he can't lose her again. ] Don't move. Just keep still. This fight is over for you.
[ She's... she's incapacitated now. The announcer had said... had said... He looks up, searching for the announcer in the hopes that this is enough. ]
kanda lets aerith get away from him, that's cool and fun. but the man eating plant sent by daan is off to ichigaki, and the second that one of these girls (or alma) has a free second then it's back to meat shield era. aerith dashes over there with a surprising strength, just in time to get her arm chomped on as she tries to physically wrestle the plant back
alma is truly the fighter carrying so much of this team it's funny. cloud's kick lands—but alma doesn't show pain. he doesn't show any emotion at all. instead, he gets throw back but he throws his palms open to either side of him. electricity shocks through to hit both cloud and kanda, rattling them to their bones
elise gets pulled closer. this is such a het fight. but as she gets pulled closer, she doesn't stop. her hands tighten more and more on daan's throat, looking to crush his neck. she brings up her legs to try to kick at him, to try to get him away from her. this kind touch doesn't make sense. this kind touch isn't enough.
aventurine might hear the way that the announcer starts the count '1... 2...' except his sister, even with a dagger in her gut, refuses to accept this. instead, she forcefully pulls it out of her own stomach, covered in her own blood, to try to stab it into his face, aiming for those cursed, cursed eyes
[Wowie!! Electricity!!! Damn this sure is familiar. His body recognizes it, even if it doesn't work properly here, his skin burning when it should already be healing over, new and exciting pain to deal with even if the adrenaline helps him power through. Kanda is really bad at following his own life philosophies so if he can tank any of this hit for Cloud then he will--but even if he can't, he spins around, throwing a handful of Spirit Sword Shards in Alma's direction. It doesn't even matter if they don't hit, he's just trying to get Alma's attention on him.
To Cloud:]
I've got it, go deal with that bastard!
["That bastard" being Dr. Fuckface BUT ALSO AERITH WHO IS CONVENIENTLY OVER THERE WOW]
[ well he was already going to do that but thank you kanda. electricity hurts but that is actually a pretty common thing he has had to deal with, so he endures the pain of being Crispy pretty well. although he has to switch sword hands briefly because his messed up arm spasms after that-- it's a two handed sword type of deal and he's not fully ambidextrous, but he's good enough that he can give a nod of thanks and rush over to the other side of the arena.
"get that bastard" seems like the easy answer, but cloud also doesn't want aerith to die eaten by a plant. he hesitates for a second but despite really not being okay with aerith being attacked like that, she's not fully incapacitated. the faster he gets rid of the doctor, the faster this whole thing will end.
(right?)
so he's rushing sword out to stab this nut sack or slice him in half, whichever is more satisfying, electricity at the ready. it'd be just like killing hojo, one of his many dreams in life! surely nothing else can stop him!! ]
[ Aerith!! Stop it!! God he's going to use that inside-out explodey plant on Dr. Whatshisface at this rate. But no sorry he's a little less nice about illusion-Aerith than he is about hurting illusion-Elise so she can go toe-to-toe with Audrey II over there. Aerith is an actual fighter anyway.
Dr. Ichigaki: nothing matters! The Nood Doods: Women matter. Dr. Ichigaki: sorry
Anyway this fucking sucks. He can't really bring himself to be violent against Elise, not like this, but there is a certain point when his survival instinct kicks in because guess what! Getting choked out isn't as sexy as you think when it starts hurting real bad. Safe word, safe word. By which I mean at this distance surely he'll be able to grab at The Tubes? Can he yoink. Forcefully keeping her close even with the attempts at kicking him away, even if it hurts, even if it bruises. ]
[ Cloud rushing the doctor distracts Aventurine enough that the point of the dagger comes dangerously close to his eye. He jerks back in time that it cuts down the side of his neck, but it isn't deep enough to do anything but sting.
It's not the pain that he pays attention to, anyway. It's the fact that she was insane enough to rip out the dagger from her abdomen. ]
You're going to kill yourself!
[ In a flash, he grabs his sister's wrist and pins both it and the dagger down on the ground. And then, using his other hand, Aventurine pushes his bangs to the side to reveal that strange eye that's suddenly grown on his forehead. While he isn't too accustomed to using it, he still gives it a try now as the eye opens and directs its gaze to Ballsack Nuts McGee in an attempt to mind? control?? him into place so that he can't dodge the oncoming attack. ]
alma and kanda continue to fight. alma shows no hint of recognition, no remorse—on his face. but the words that come out of his mouth, now that kanda is closer are half-baked: ] Kill.... Kill....
[ and he'll try to do just that, those electricity shocks coming off that much stronger as he tries to fry kanda exactly where he is.
cloud goes for dr. ichigaki... again! which is so valid and fair, that happens in yyh too. however just like in yyh, the puppets are moved to protect him. aerith wrenches her arm free from the plant, just in time to throw herself in front of cloud. his sword starts to cut right into her abdomen, and it'll take quite a bit of reflex to stop from slicing right through her.
words seem to be beyond their opponents, but you know what they can do? scream when they feel pain. daan yanks on the tubes and he gets to hear the shrill, painful shrieks of his beloved wife who he might be divorced to now. she lets go out of his neck and tries to claw directly at his face with her bloodied hands, just to put some distance between them.
aventurine tries out his new strange eye power, and gets a semi-decent 13! that's not bad!! he'll notice the way that dr. ichigaki freezes up, a shocked expression on his face though uh, aerith is currently getting in the way of him actually getting sliced. his sister continues to struggle against him, she has another hand still and uses it to try to push at him. her words rasp out: ] Save... you... me....
[ ignores rolls to cause trauma
but the dark tournament has no rules. it also is a cesspool that their team simply isn't meant to win. there is suddenly a beeping noise that emits through the speaker system. a foreign voice, of a very professional announcer woman giving a customer service discussion speaks up: ]
The Invited Guests seem to have lost sight of their opponents. For further aggravation of Team Manager Dr. Ichigaki, measures will be taken against them.
[ what are the measures you might ask! well,,
sounds of struggle and familiar voices come from one of the tunnels. large, imposing demons come, dragging along a few people that the nood doods might recognize. pickles struggles against a demon's hold, lenalee looks more beat up since kanda last saw her, laudna looks terrified shaking as she's pulled along, and even topaz looks aggravated as she's dragged out to the arena.
[You know--this is worse than last time, actually? Because at least last time, Alma had been... himself, kind of. He'd been caught up in his rage, clinging to hatred as a cover for his true intentions, yes, but--it wasn't like this. This mindless slaughter is so deeply reminiscent of Level 1s that it infuriates him.
(This is exactly what would happen if someone had managed to find him, isn't it? Aventurine said it wasn't real, but this--it's too convincing. It's too much.)
So it hurts, body and soul, but he doesn't waste time with words. No pleas, no attempts to break through this mind control, nothing but the hum of the spirit blade in his hand as he tries, unsuccessfully, to dodge another blast.
(Alma's heard everything Kanda wanted to say to him anyway. No else gets to.)]
Alma!
[He's just yelling to shounen yell as he slashes at Alma--still aiming for the tubes, mostly, but not too concerned about maiming him. He's hit Alma with worse a thousand times.
Of course--then the other demons arrive, and that throws him off, which is a perfect time for that 6 to come into play.]
[ normally! normally. normally. cloud would absolutely have the sort of reflex necessary to stop his movement once it's started. abort button press and what have you. but today, cloud has been feeling weak, and full of bloodlust and rage, and his arm grip isn't right because his arm isn't right due to a completely unavoidable curse, which means--
it goes right through her before he can fully let go and when he does the sword is clattering to the floor seconds before aerith is, cloud rushing to catch her with a gut wrenched scream like he's the one who was stabbed with a cool zappy sword. if there's any strength left in her she's probably gonna try to still kill him while like this, but cloud doesn't care about that at all.
she's been--again, again she's bleeding out, he can't hear or see anything else around him, every thing focused on her. his vision is flashing as he alternates between seeing her with this wound, from this sword, or a different one, smaller, dark feathers on the ground in a blue area. he can't make out where he is, can only make out the blood on his hands and he's drowning, all the noises of the arena turning to pure static. he can't make sense of anything anymore. she can't be. she has to be fine, she has to be, and maybe if he presses his hands on her GAPING WOUND he can stop the blood flow.
what laudna. anyway have fun guys he's dead weight for a bit ]
Anyway that's. Fucking fine. (CW eye gore/violence sort of) She can end up ripping off his eyepatch, finger digging into his empty socket under there. It hurts enough that he finally lets go once he feels the tube give way under his grasp, letting them have some distance. It's fine. It's fine! No more being forced to live only to be under the control of somebody else, forced to fight and be barely a person. It's fine. That's mercy, right?
He hacks and coughs as he falls back, feeling the burn in his throat and his face. His vision is so blurry and there's too much noise going on with the announcement. What the hell is going on?
He ain't got anything to yell all shonen like :(.
Sorry Aerith for still having to deal with Audrey II, although he'll maybe have enough wherewithal to keep in mind that he doesn't want to rip-crunch her apart. The plant can spread roots and vines across the arena ground, aiming to entangle the legs of all hostiles. ]
[ It's not enough. He watches with wide eyes as Cloud cuts down Aerith, as Kanda becomes distracted, as Daan gets fingered in the eyehole. Aventurine stays where he is, holding his sister down and barely feeling the pushes against him as she feebly tries to fight back.
Everything's going wrong. He stares as Topaz and the others are brought out, breath quickening at the sight of Pickles because what is Pickles doing here?
He hears the new announcement, but it feels like it's coming from a million miles away, so distant even though the words register in his head. He's not thinking anymore. He's acting. Topaz is in danger and she's very much alive. His sister passed away years ago, and while he agonizes over her death any time the nightmares appear, he knows the real version of her is waiting for him with their mother and father. ]
I'm sorry... You're not her.
[ His movements are inhumanly quick, one second, he's speaking to her, the next, the sword he'd been given is used to try and slice through the tubes connected to her. He'll return to the rules of the arena. There are living people he needs to protect. ]
[ kanda slices away, but alma continues to make his attempts to dodge. kanda just narrowly misses the tubes, though alma does still suffer damage from the spirit sword. however when that 6 comes into play, it's when his tail wraps around kanda's neck, keeping him right in place so that he can fire a blast of dark matter from his mouth directly at kanda's head. take the damage you want from this pixi it's so shounen up in here
cloud is so thoughtful with aerith, so kind. she coughs up blood, dark and viscous even as he tries to hold onto her. the guard stick drops nearby, but her fingers still seek to finish what she started. she brings her hands up to his neck, still staticky, and they shake as they try to choke him. her eyes well up... not with tears, but blood. she whispers to him ] Sorry.... I'm so.... So...
[ daan pulls at the tubing but death isn't instantaneous. of course it isn't! why would it be that nice! instead, blood continues to spill down elise's front. she chokes on nothing, a struggling, suffering sound. her hands continue to blindly reach for him, as if to take him to the afterlife with her. she finds her voice and only says ]
D... aan... Daan.....
[ hubby :(
i was going to give it aventurine because his sister rolled a 2 and that's so embarrassing but now she rolled a 16. so she flailing, somehow luckily clashing against his sword as she tries to tackle him right back. it cuts against her face, right by her cheek, and he'll feel some of her blood fall right against him. her eyes well too, bloody red that spills over. she speaks again, voice heartbroken ]
Kaka... vasha...
[ hostages continue to have a bad time but since the boys are occupied and not actively breaking rules they aren't being harmed ]
[You know, I could take that 15 and use it as a chance to go help someone else BUT I WON'T!!!! FUCK THE RULES!!!!!
The tail catches him as Alma starts to explore his erotic asphyxiation kink, but Kanda did not consent to getting getting blasted in the head with dark matter, so he struggles, one hand reaching up to claw at the tail, the other grasping the spirit sword and slashing upwards, trying to cut Alma's tail clean off so that he can regain the advantage here. He can't do a lot of dodging like this, but he throws his head to the side so that the blast only gets half of his face, and--well, that fucking hurts, and it probably should've blown his face off or whatever, but that's not how anime works so now he's just burned and bloody. You know what, let's say he lost an ear from that. As a treat. This is what happens when your regen is nerfed.]
[ rolled a six on being useful this tag. "you weren't rolling for that" rolled a six on
aerith has no strength when she brings her hands to his neck, circling it, and that touch of static as encircle it is so different from her usual touch. his vision is blurry, and cloud thinks it might be tears, but he's not--sure. the whispers in his head are louder than ever. he can't even hear what aerith is trying to say over them.
(you couldn't stop yourself. that rage filled your hollow heart, puppet. and now you've lost again. everything but me. so why don't we show them?) ]
Please. [ he doesn't know what he's begging for. ] Just hang on. You'll be okay.
[ it's a lie. he knows it's a lie as he watches the blood drip down from her eyes, but he can't let her go. not yet. his own blood pulses for him to pick up that sword and do something, but. ]
Don't leave me.
[ cloud could you please be useful for FIVE seconds ]
[ Elise. He can't even say her name back, his throat is so raw right now. You did this.
He can only look back at her with such a deep level of exhausted grief and the extremely present desire to just die with her, get away from this nonsense and the city and the world -- but not in front of this garish audience. All he does is grasp that hand with his own, even if its clawing in a last-ditch effort to hurt him and nothing else.
Folks! He wants to die. But he can't, so he's only here long enough until this terrible manifestation of Elise bleeds out her last from these tubes that supposedly keep her alive, until she stops moving, or Audrey II -- poised and ready to consume -- eats her first, if she has the strength and wherewithal to Hulk out one last time despite the circumstances. Everyone else can deal with their own shit, man, he's already got so much on his plate. Let a man get widowed again in peace. ]
[ The entire arena is in shambles and Aventurine is going down with this sinking ship because i rolled a hearty one.
She tackles them both and Aventurine falls, his back hitting the ground enough to momentarily knock the breath out of his lungs. And then she's up and over him, hot blood falling from the cut on her cheek down to meet his own face. The sound of his name, the way she calls it in such a heartbroken manner, transports him back to that rainy day when she'd taken him by the arms and begged him to run.
He chokes back a sob, arms coming up to wrap themselves around her shoulders and pull her in for a hug. He wishes he could tell her how much he's missed her, the hardships he's had to suffer, the hardships he's overcome, but he can't. All he can do is tremble and bury his face into the side of her golden hair. Hold her one last time and think about when all they had for warmth and comfort were each other during the cold desert nights.
And then he raises the sword, driving it into where she'd already been stabbed by her dagger, pushing it through her body with such a force and an angle that the blade sinks into him too. It keeps them in place as he lets go of her shoulder with his other hand and reaches out to wrench those tendrils out of her. ]
[ lots of choking in this round but honestly that's what i get for not giving so many of these people weapons
with a lovely 9, kanda is able to get alma's tail clean off. alma roars in pain, this horrible wail. the response is to try to bash his head against kanda's angrily, trying to make that brain soup rattle around in there. this is just a fight that's continuously going because the rest of the girls in this fight are kinda normal-ish
cloud is not useful. cloud is losing his wife again. but doesn't he know that that's what she's apologizing for? for leaving him again. for still not being able to stay. for everything that she wanted for them to do together, but failed. she tries to smile, if only so that the last image he sees doesn't have to be her crying—but the bloody tears don't stop. her last word, as her body starts to grow cold is simply this: ] .... scared.
[ audrey ii can go ahead and eat daan's wife if he really wants. the hand that he's holding is still fighting—for what? to kill him? to live at all? to be with him, in whatever form, even if it's this twisted form of love? her fingers dig into his hand until they draw blood, trying to clutch onto him. the plant grows wildly out of control as daan loosens his hold on it, and it will begin to eat at his wife's soon-to-be-corpse, munching on her piece by piece.
aventurine knows how to use a sword, and immediately wielded it to give us all depression. his sister cries out in pain when the blade sinks into them both, and then screams again still when he rips out the tendrils. red coats them both, until he's drenched in the blood of his only family. he ends his people again, this time with his own hand. but with her final breaths, she brings a hand up to his hair. at first her fingers curl like she's about to pull—but instead her hand trembles as she tries to pat him on the head. broken, off-tune noises leave her mouth in fumbling notes. one last lullaby. ]
[He's heard Alma screaming before, but--last time, he was so, so focused on his rage. The pain in his voice now hurts far more than any of these physical attacks, cutting into him where he's deaf to the cries and screams elsewhere in the arena.
But they were free. They were free, and Kanda will not let that be taken from them. It doesn't matter how Dr. Fuckface made this happen, it doesn't matter how much it hurts to cut down his soulmate yet again--Kanda won't let him stay trapped in this wretched state of bloodthirst.
So, he tanks the hit and fights through the burst of pain, the way it rattles his already soupy brain that is now sizzly and ringing from blood loss and ear loss. He grabs Alma's neck with his free hand, pressing his head hard against Alma's to keep him close--and then tries to run him clean through with his spirit blade. Maybe he can make it quick.]
[ he says it like it's a wretched thing. it's not like being with her did anything. scared. she's scared. she... was scared. that's the last thing she felt before she died.
i'm less worried when it's with you, aerith had said, and cloud hears that echo briefly. (no... not scary at all, she told someone else, and he can't think about him without it skipping through like a faulty record, but there's the ghost of a hand ruffling his hair and staring down at someone else as they lay bleeding and dying, but-- that's not right. it morphs into a girl with dark hair and that-- did that happen? is any of this happening right now?)
he can't make sense of anything in his brain, so he stops trying. he lays aerith down so, so gently, wipes the bloody tear marks off her face. he gets up, grasping onto his sword, blood splattered all over the white of his new outfit. he can't feel the pain in his sword arm anymore. he can't really feel anything anymore. all he can see is the man who made her suffer, that mad scientist laughing at them-- he took her mom and he took them and made him and the lines are a little blurred right now about which scientist cloud is seeing, but that doesn't matter. what matters is
he is going to run doctor nutsack through with his sword now.
heyyyy did you guys like having hostages cauuuuuuse ]
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no subject
Stop it. Why are you defending him. He flinches when Elise all but dives to protect this ugly-ass doctor and the plant digs into her neck. He waves it off before it can rip out a chunk of her, running to her. The logic portion tells him obviously this is unreasonable, that this can't be happening anyway, and she died a -- not a long time ago, but a while ago -- but he still hates seeing this. Her defending this madman. Why did you choose this over him? Why did you leave? ]
Elise—
[ ELISE YOUR NAT1. I have a F&H D&D parody video where they all just roll ones actually very funny and relevant. Looking at her like god, it's you, it's you and not that wizened, sallowed face with the stitches. And that makes it so much harder to watch her get injured, instinctively reaching to cover that bleeding with his hand. What the hell is this tube, though? ]
no subject
His sister's only ever been a fighter in spirit, and it would be easy to outrun her, but the closer she gets, the harder it is to remind himself this isn't real. He'd lost the details to her face years ago, time distorting his memory and no photo for him to look back on as a reminder.
But now that he's been confronted with her image, her person, it's all returning to him. The memories, the promises to keep him safe, his eager wish to do the same, and then the way he hadn't been able to do so in the end. He grits his teeth and doesn't run. Instead, he chooses to meet her head on to tackle her to the arena floor and send them both rolling. ]
no subject
alma does similarly, kicking away at cloud's sword, preferring to take the shock from the zap than put the tubing at risk. his tail comes around, curling around cloud's arm to keep him in place before his mouth opens to spew out a series of spikes to attack him.
you know how in old school shounen they like interrupt the fights for lengthy periods of time to explain lore and everyone just stands there shouting at each other for a while. anyway, dr. ichigaki laughs at the sidelines ]
Did you think it would be so simple, boys? These bodies are all resurrected!! If you cut that line, then they'll be gone forever again! Do you think that you could spare them? How disgustingly kind! Hahaha!!!
[ ok asshole.
meanwhile, divorce era! elise is bleeding out because A 1 IS SOOO CRAZY, but daan tries to save her. it's touching. it's sincere. she looks at him and almost seems to hesitate for a moment. her hands come up to ghost over his, as if afraid to touch, before she places them on his shoulders. and then his neck. and then her thumbs start to squeeze into his windpipe. neck trauma! they can match.
okay well aventurine's sister REALLY isn't much of a fighter because first of all she trips on her way to him, and then he tackles her down! that's horrible! that's horrific! when he does tackle her, he might feel the way that there's... something on her back. an uncomfortable lump beneath her clothes. but more importantly, that dagger she had is unsheathed, and while it might cut at aventurine a bit in the roll, it's... now digging into her own abdomen. whoa... you could even call it... bad luck. when she looks at him, really looks at him, her voice escapes her. just two words: ]
Why... you...
[ roll for damage or self-assign again hehe ]
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And then Dr. Nutchin starts his shitty little spiel which isn't weird at all to Kanda because he's also from a shounen where this happens, so normally he'd just ignore it and focus on the fight, but the actual words he's saying are enough to trigger his rage. Can people stop doing this to him and Alma specifically for five goddamn minutes. Please.
Did you know his hair turned light purple last time this happened. Now you do.]
Fuck you!
[BREAKS HIS SHOUNEN MANGA RATINGS!!!!
His distraction means Aerith can get a good bonk in, maybe on the side of his head, but it also means he's going to try and kick her away at full strength. What if he tries to use the fucking. Sword javelin technique to get away from her and try to get over to Alma instead. Can he do that.]
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final fantasy is a jrpg so battles stopping so someone can monologue for a bit is just called moving onto phase 2 so he is also used to this, though he's mad at the doctor for a different reason entirely: ]
She's not dead!
[ well. okay, actually, she is, but so is he, so that's complicated, and if he thinks about it too hard there's static in his head and the side of his vision goes blurry, and maybe he should be thinking less and concentrating on alma more, because woops! there is a tail around his arm. ow. that's the arm he's sensitive about. physically. because of the curse.
kanda can you please explain why your friend is part lizard and can spew spikes from his mouth. it's very distracting. cloud tries his best to block while being held in place with his sword arm occupied, but there's not much to do about spike mouth mcgee, and the spikes go in his other arm. thank god he is wearing a hoodie, normally this would be worse. downside: the white hoodie is stained now.
kanda's doing whatever to try to join them but cloud is not paying attention to that because now he's trying to either tug his arm free or tug alma by the lizard tail closer so he can kick him in the face. or chest. or just kick him in general, the fuck away from him. if he can tug himself free instead then he will simply go back to swordfighting but i don't see that happening
he has spirit guns he didn't forget but he is limited to 4 uses so he's only gonna pull those out when he has no choice, like hoarding items during boss battles because what if i need it later guys? ]
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It's as the cat says. He was never fit for that sort of thing. He should've always minded his own business.
He can only be pained (emotionally) when she touches him so gently, leaning into it naturally even when it starts to become pained (physically). It's alright -- he reaches for her anyway and forcefully hugs her close instead of pushing her away. Maybe that'll make it harder for her to strangle him anyway. He'll recover from a sore throat.
Anyway why are you all stopped in time to let this madman do his villain speech? He's not from a shonen so he doesn't understand. You can just shoot enemies dead in the overworld while they're busy reacting and slowly turning around to face you.
So over Elise's shoulder, he glares at Dr. Ichigaki, PhD, Asshole Extraordinaire. If Elise can't move and he's too busy monologuing then he's wide open, right? His terrible carnivorous plant with a mouth is still around. Get his ass! ]
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Aventurine wishes he could do the same but he's currently preoccupied. Down they go to the floor and he does indeed feel that strange lump from under her clothes, but he's not left with a lot of time to wonder what it is when he's being nicked by a dagger. He keeps his own hands away from his sword and gun, not wanting to hurt her despite his earlier shout. And with the mad doctor's words echoing in his ears, he's especially reluctant. He could be lying, Aventurine thinks, panic rising in his throat, but turns out, he doesn't really have the time to be worrying about that either.
—Because his sister ends up with a dagger in her abdomen, and Aventurine gasps, rolling them over so she's on her back and her injury isn't further jostled. He breaths come out short as he tries to keep her from moving, and when he hears her voice for the first time in years, he struggles to maintain himself. ]
Don't, [ he whispers. It's not her, it's not her. She can't die again, he can't lose her again. ] Don't move. Just keep still. This fight is over for you.
[ She's... she's incapacitated now. The announcer had said... had said... He looks up, searching for the announcer in the hopes that this is enough. ]
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kanda lets aerith get away from him, that's cool and fun. but the man eating plant sent by daan is off to ichigaki, and the second that one of these girls (or alma) has a free second then it's back to meat shield era. aerith dashes over there with a surprising strength, just in time to get her arm chomped on as she tries to physically wrestle the plant back
alma is truly the fighter carrying so much of this team it's funny. cloud's kick lands—but alma doesn't show pain. he doesn't show any emotion at all. instead, he gets throw back but he throws his palms open to either side of him. electricity shocks through to hit both cloud and kanda, rattling them to their bones
elise gets pulled closer. this is such a het fight. but as she gets pulled closer, she doesn't stop. her hands tighten more and more on daan's throat, looking to crush his neck. she brings up her legs to try to kick at him, to try to get him away from her. this kind touch doesn't make sense. this kind touch isn't enough.
aventurine might hear the way that the announcer starts the count '1... 2...' except his sister, even with a dagger in her gut, refuses to accept this. instead, she forcefully pulls it out of her own stomach, covered in her own blood, to try to stab it into his face, aiming for those cursed, cursed eyes
more rolls or self-assign yeehaw ]
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To Cloud:]
I've got it, go deal with that bastard!
["That bastard" being Dr. Fuckface BUT ALSO AERITH WHO IS CONVENIENTLY OVER THERE WOW]
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"get that bastard" seems like the easy answer, but cloud also doesn't want aerith to die eaten by a plant. he hesitates for a second but despite really not being okay with aerith being attacked like that, she's not fully incapacitated. the faster he gets rid of the doctor, the faster this whole thing will end.
(right?)
so he's rushing sword out to stab this nut sack or slice him in half, whichever is more satisfying, electricity at the ready. it'd be just like killing hojo, one of his many dreams in life! surely nothing else can stop him!! ]
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Dr. Ichigaki: nothing matters!
The Nood Doods: Women matter.
Dr. Ichigaki: sorry
Anyway this fucking sucks. He can't really bring himself to be violent against Elise, not like this, but there is a certain point when his survival instinct kicks in because guess what! Getting choked out isn't as sexy as you think when it starts hurting real bad. Safe word, safe word. By which I mean at this distance surely he'll be able to grab at The Tubes? Can he yoink. Forcefully keeping her close even with the attempts at kicking him away, even if it hurts, even if it bruises. ]
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It's not the pain that he pays attention to, anyway. It's the fact that she was insane enough to rip out the dagger from her abdomen. ]
You're going to kill yourself!
[ In a flash, he grabs his sister's wrist and pins both it and the dagger down on the ground. And then, using his other hand, Aventurine pushes his bangs to the side to reveal that strange eye that's suddenly grown on his forehead. While he isn't too accustomed to using it, he still gives it a try now as the eye opens and directs its gaze to Ballsack Nuts McGee in an attempt to mind? control?? him into place so that he can't dodge the oncoming attack. ]
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alma and kanda continue to fight. alma shows no hint of recognition, no remorse—on his face. but the words that come out of his mouth, now that kanda is closer are half-baked: ] Kill.... Kill....
[ and he'll try to do just that, those electricity shocks coming off that much stronger as he tries to fry kanda exactly where he is.
cloud goes for dr. ichigaki... again! which is so valid and fair, that happens in yyh too. however just like in yyh, the puppets are moved to protect him. aerith wrenches her arm free from the plant, just in time to throw herself in front of cloud. his sword starts to cut right into her abdomen, and it'll take quite a bit of reflex to stop from slicing right through her.
words seem to be beyond their opponents, but you know what they can do? scream when they feel pain. daan yanks on the tubes and he gets to hear the shrill, painful shrieks of his beloved wife who he might be divorced to now. she lets go out of his neck and tries to claw directly at his face with her bloodied hands, just to put some distance between them.
aventurine tries out his new strange eye power, and gets a semi-decent 13! that's not bad!! he'll notice the way that dr. ichigaki freezes up, a shocked expression on his face though uh, aerith is currently getting in the way of him actually getting sliced. his sister continues to struggle against him, she has another hand still and uses it to try to push at him. her words rasp out: ] Save... you... me....
[ ignores rolls to cause trauma
but the dark tournament has no rules. it also is a cesspool that their team simply isn't meant to win. there is suddenly a beeping noise that emits through the speaker system. a foreign voice, of a very professional announcer woman giving a customer service discussion speaks up: ]
The Invited Guests seem to have lost sight of their opponents. For further aggravation of Team Manager Dr. Ichigaki, measures will be taken against them.
[ what are the measures you might ask! well,,
sounds of struggle and familiar voices come from one of the tunnels. large, imposing demons come, dragging along a few people that the nood doods might recognize. pickles struggles against a demon's hold, lenalee looks more beat up since kanda last saw her, laudna looks terrified shaking as she's pulled along, and even topaz looks aggravated as she's dragged out to the arena.
uh oh ]
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(This is exactly what would happen if someone had managed to find him, isn't it? Aventurine said it wasn't real, but this--it's too convincing. It's too much.)
So it hurts, body and soul, but he doesn't waste time with words. No pleas, no attempts to break through this mind control, nothing but the hum of the spirit blade in his hand as he tries, unsuccessfully, to dodge another blast.
(Alma's heard everything Kanda wanted to say to him anyway. No else gets to.)]
Alma!
[He's just yelling to shounen yell as he slashes at Alma--still aiming for the tubes, mostly, but not too concerned about maiming him. He's hit Alma with worse a thousand times.
Of course--then the other demons arrive, and that throws him off, which is a perfect time for that 6 to come into play.]
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[ normally! normally. normally. cloud would absolutely have the sort of reflex necessary to stop his movement once it's started. abort button press and what have you. but today, cloud has been feeling weak, and full of bloodlust and rage, and his arm grip isn't right because his arm isn't right due to a completely unavoidable curse, which means--
it goes right through her before he can fully let go and when he does the sword is clattering to the floor seconds before aerith is, cloud rushing to catch her with a gut wrenched scream like he's the one who was stabbed with a cool zappy sword. if there's any strength left in her she's probably gonna try to still kill him while like this, but cloud doesn't care about that at all.
she's been--again,
againshe's bleeding out, he can't hear or see anything else around him, every thing focused on her. his vision is flashing as he alternates between seeing her with this wound, from this sword, or a different one, smaller, dark feathers on the ground in a blue area. he can't make out where he is, can only make out the blood on his hands and he's drowning, all the noises of the arena turning to pure static. he can't make sense of anything anymore. she can't be. she has to be fine, she has to be, and maybe if he presses his hands on her GAPING WOUND he can stop the blood flow.what laudna. anyway have fun guys he's dead weight for a bit ]
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Anyway that's. Fucking fine. (CW eye gore/violence sort of) She can end up ripping off his eyepatch, finger digging into his empty socket under there. It hurts enough that he finally lets go once he feels the tube give way under his grasp, letting them have some distance. It's fine. It's fine! No more being forced to live only to be under the control of somebody else, forced to fight and be barely a person. It's fine. That's mercy, right?
He hacks and coughs as he falls back, feeling the burn in his throat and his face. His vision is so blurry and there's too much noise going on with the announcement. What the hell is going on?
He ain't got anything to yell all shonen like :(.
Sorry Aerith for still having to deal with Audrey II, although he'll maybe have enough wherewithal to keep in mind that he doesn't want to rip-crunch her apart. The plant can spread roots and vines across the arena ground, aiming to entangle the legs of all hostiles. ]
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Everything's going wrong. He stares as Topaz and the others are brought out, breath quickening at the sight of Pickles because what is Pickles doing here?
He hears the new announcement, but it feels like it's coming from a million miles away, so distant even though the words register in his head. He's not thinking anymore. He's acting. Topaz is in danger and she's very much alive. His sister passed away years ago, and while he agonizes over her death any time the nightmares appear, he knows the real version of her is waiting for him with their mother and father. ]
I'm sorry... You're not her.
[ His movements are inhumanly quick, one second, he's speaking to her, the next, the sword he'd been given is used to try and slice through the tubes connected to her. He'll return to the rules of the arena. There are living people he needs to protect. ]
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cloud is so thoughtful with aerith, so kind. she coughs up blood, dark and viscous even as he tries to hold onto her. the guard stick drops nearby, but her fingers still seek to finish what she started. she brings her hands up to his neck, still staticky, and they shake as they try to choke him. her eyes well up... not with tears, but blood. she whispers to him ] Sorry.... I'm so.... So...
[ daan pulls at the tubing but death isn't instantaneous. of course it isn't! why would it be that nice! instead, blood continues to spill down elise's front. she chokes on nothing, a struggling, suffering sound. her hands continue to blindly reach for him, as if to take him to the afterlife with her. she finds her voice and only says ]
D... aan... Daan.....
[ hubby :(
i was going to give it aventurine because his sister rolled a 2 and that's so embarrassing but now she rolled a 16. so she flailing, somehow luckily clashing against his sword as she tries to tackle him right back. it cuts against her face, right by her cheek, and he'll feel some of her blood fall right against him. her eyes well too, bloody red that spills over. she speaks again, voice heartbroken ]
Kaka... vasha...
[ hostages continue to have a bad time but since the boys are occupied and not actively breaking rules they aren't being harmed ]
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The tail catches him as Alma starts to explore his erotic asphyxiation kink, but Kanda did not consent to getting getting blasted in the head with dark matter, so he struggles, one hand reaching up to claw at the tail, the other grasping the spirit sword and slashing upwards, trying to cut Alma's tail clean off so that he can regain the advantage here. He can't do a lot of dodging like this, but he throws his head to the side so that the blast only gets half of his face, and--well, that fucking hurts, and it probably should've blown his face off or whatever, but that's not how anime works so now he's just burned and bloody. You know what, let's say he lost an ear from that. As a treat. This is what happens when your regen is nerfed.]
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aerith has no strength when she brings her hands to his neck, circling it, and that touch of static as encircle it is so different from her usual touch. his vision is blurry, and cloud thinks it might be tears, but he's not--sure. the whispers in his head are louder than ever. he can't even hear what aerith is trying to say over them.
(you couldn't stop yourself. that rage filled your hollow heart, puppet. and now you've lost again. everything but me. so why don't we show them?) ]
Please. [ he doesn't know what he's begging for. ] Just hang on. You'll be okay.
[ it's a lie. he knows it's a lie as he watches the blood drip down from her eyes, but he can't let her go. not yet. his own blood pulses for him to pick up that sword and do something, but. ]
Don't leave me.
[ cloud could you please be useful for FIVE seconds ]
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He can only look back at her with such a deep level of exhausted grief and the extremely present desire to just die with her, get away from this nonsense and the city and the world -- but not in front of this garish audience. All he does is grasp that hand with his own, even if its clawing in a last-ditch effort to hurt him and nothing else.
Folks! He wants to die. But he can't, so he's only here long enough until this terrible manifestation of Elise bleeds out her last from these tubes that supposedly keep her alive, until she stops moving, or Audrey II -- poised and ready to consume -- eats her first, if she has the strength and wherewithal to Hulk out one last time despite the circumstances. Everyone else can deal with their own shit, man, he's already got so much on his plate. Let a man get widowed again in peace. ]
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She tackles them both and Aventurine falls, his back hitting the ground enough to momentarily knock the breath out of his lungs. And then she's up and over him, hot blood falling from the cut on her cheek down to meet his own face. The sound of his name, the way she calls it in such a heartbroken manner, transports him back to that rainy day when she'd taken him by the arms and begged him to run.
He chokes back a sob, arms coming up to wrap themselves around her shoulders and pull her in for a hug. He wishes he could tell her how much he's missed her, the hardships he's had to suffer, the hardships he's overcome, but he can't. All he can do is tremble and bury his face into the side of her golden hair. Hold her one last time and think about when all they had for warmth and comfort were each other during the cold desert nights.
And then he raises the sword, driving it into where she'd already been stabbed by her dagger, pushing it through her body with such a force and an angle that the blade sinks into him too. It keeps them in place as he lets go of her shoulder with his other hand and reaches out to wrench those tendrils out of her. ]
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with a lovely 9, kanda is able to get alma's tail clean off. alma roars in pain, this horrible wail. the response is to try to bash his head against kanda's angrily, trying to make that brain soup rattle around in there. this is just a fight that's continuously going because the rest of the girls in this fight are kinda normal-ish
cloud is not useful. cloud is losing his wife again. but doesn't he know that that's what she's apologizing for? for leaving him again. for still not being able to stay. for everything that she wanted for them to do together, but failed. she tries to smile, if only so that the last image he sees doesn't have to be her crying—but the bloody tears don't stop. her last word, as her body starts to grow cold is simply this: ] .... scared.
[ audrey ii can go ahead and eat daan's wife if he really wants. the hand that he's holding is still fighting—for what? to kill him? to live at all? to be with him, in whatever form, even if it's this twisted form of love? her fingers dig into his hand until they draw blood, trying to clutch onto him. the plant grows wildly out of control as daan loosens his hold on it, and it will begin to eat at his wife's soon-to-be-corpse, munching on her piece by piece.
aventurine knows how to use a sword, and immediately wielded it to give us all depression. his sister cries out in pain when the blade sinks into them both, and then screams again still when he rips out the tendrils. red coats them both, until he's drenched in the blood of his only family. he ends his people again, this time with his own hand. but with her final breaths, she brings a hand up to his hair. at first her fingers curl like she's about to pull—but instead her hand trembles as she tries to pat him on the head. broken, off-tune noises leave her mouth in fumbling notes. one last lullaby. ]
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But they were free. They were free, and Kanda will not let that be taken from them. It doesn't matter how Dr. Fuckface made this happen, it doesn't matter how much it hurts to cut down his soulmate yet again--Kanda won't let him stay trapped in this wretched state of bloodthirst.
So, he tanks the hit and fights through the burst of pain, the way it rattles his already soupy brain that is now sizzly and ringing from blood loss and ear loss. He grabs Alma's neck with his free hand, pressing his head hard against Alma's to keep him close--and then tries to run him clean through with his spirit blade. Maybe he can make it quick.]
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[ he says it like it's a wretched thing. it's not like being with her did anything. scared. she's scared. she... was scared. that's the last thing she felt before she died.
i'm less worried when it's with you, aerith had said, and cloud hears that echo briefly. (no... not scary at all, she told someone else, and he can't think about him without it skipping through like a faulty record, but there's the ghost of a hand ruffling his hair and staring down at someone else as they lay bleeding and dying, but-- that's not right. it morphs into a girl with dark hair and that-- did that happen? is any of this happening right now?)
he can't make sense of anything in his brain, so he stops trying. he lays aerith down so, so gently, wipes the bloody tear marks off her face. he gets up, grasping onto his sword, blood splattered all over the white of his new outfit. he can't feel the pain in his sword arm anymore. he can't really feel anything anymore. all he can see is the man who made her suffer, that mad scientist laughing at them-- he took her mom and he took them and made him and the lines are a little blurred right now about which scientist cloud is seeing, but that doesn't matter. what matters is
he is going to run doctor nutsack through with his sword now.
heyyyy did you guys like having hostages cauuuuuuse ]
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