Your success in retrieving Knuckles has brought your three colorful allies back together, thus marking it a resounding success. Still, it's highly unlikely Eggman is going to overlook the destruction of his robots at that base or Knuckles going missing... But strangely, it seems as though life goes on as usual in Chicago.
The patrolling robots have had their numbers cut; a sign that you're doing something, at least. Unfortunately, the humans of this world still don't react to your presence at all, and there's no stopping the chroma slowly overtaking the city. More buildings and wildlife have been affected this week, even though Eggman hasn't set foot here. It's not exactly the most encouraging thing even if this weekend was a success.
THE CITY
Now that you're familiar with Chicago and how to find your way back to the base, you're free to explore as you see fit. You want to venture out into the suburbs? You want to take a day trip to wander even further out? Sure thing! Just be sure to let Tails know where you're going so he doesn't have a heart attack if someone goes missing.
While you're out exploring, you'll likely run across Knuckles or Sonic - both of whom will immediately beeline into the nearest robots to smash them with extreme prejudice. Regardless, they'll gladly help you if you need a hand with anything, or will otherwise carry out their tasks for Tails.
Unfortunately, the rest of the city is as lifeless as it was last week. The humans will scarcely pay attention to you, wildlife will go about lifelessly, and Eggman's unique white chrome slowly overtakes more of the city. In fact, some buildings seem to have been entirely renovated from last week - you'll find more and more "Eggman" versions of stores, attractions, and landmarks.
NIGHTMARES
The biggest difference this week has nothing to do with the world around you at large, however. Instead, you'll find your nights are far more difficult - for absolutely no reason that anyone can pinpoint. If you're lucky, you'll have unsettling dreams that leave you feeling a little worried when you wake, but otherwise fairly well rested.
If you're unlucky, you'll have horrific nightmares.
You may dream about an unwinnable battle - is it against hordes of robots? is it against your enemies back home? - where you simply don't have any choice but to fight, even though you know you can't win. The odds are stacked too high against you, no matter what you do. Will you give in? Will you fight?
You may dream about your fears - the things that threaten to seize you in a vicegrip and never let go. Are you scared of failure? Then you will experience your greatest failures in detail. Even the simplest, most mundane fears will be wildly twisted out of control - and you're powerless to wake yourself up, trapped within the dreams until the night is over and you finally, finally wake up.
You may dream about your past - whatever horrible incidents that haunt you or frighten you to think about will return in full force. These are never perfect recreations of the past, instead twisted facsimiles that only make those thoughts worse. Reliving it is one thing, but having the experience changed on you may be even worse.
Regardless of your dreams, you may find that you're not alone. Others here can be pulled into these dreams - trapped with you until either the dream ends and you wake up... or you die in the dream. Those seem to be the only ways out, no matter what you do. Still, having a buddy with you to help fight might help, right?
When you do wake up, you'll see blood red and you'll feel tired no matter how long you slept. Perhaps a nap is in order - but these dreams are just as likely to infect your naps as well.
SHARDS
You should feel fairly comfortable with using your shard power by now. You may also find that the more you use it, the more things you're able to do with it. Starting this week, your shards' powers are more pronounced, allowing you to do more with them than you could before.
As you fight with your allies - particularly those you have a close bond with, positive or negative - you may feel the tug of something in the back of your head; it tells you that you can do more. Together, you can become more powerful. You can use your shards together. Doing so will grant you a new power, or strengthen the one you already have. The more you trust one another, the easier this power will be to use.
It might be good to experiment with these new powers; after all, you never know when you may need them.
TAILS' TASKS
As mentioned to some of you, the rings that Sonic and friends use to hop between worlds have been dwindling in number, given how many were used to visit all of you and bring you in to begin with. Your job - should you choose to accept it - is to track down more rings. Tails will grant you with a tracking device that will allow you to find the exact locations of these rings. All you have to do is figure out how to get them.
Rings, as it turns out, are not quite as easy to collect as one would expect. They can appear anywhere throughout the city or the surrounding areas, but they always appear in some sort of frustrating place. Perhaps one has manifested at the top of a tree, or on top of the bean. Maybe it's hiding behind rows and rows of items in the W*lmart. Maybe you'll have to break into an employees' only room or a restricted area for one. Regardless, no ring is going to be simple to collect, and it's up to you to figure out how to get it. Every single ring counts, after all.
ENEMIES
This week's enemies are the same as last week's, though lesser in number. Like last week, you shouldn't let them escape, but you're growing stronger: they should be easier to beat than last week.
Badnik Surveillance Units are primarily made for reconnaissance. They can be found flying overhead, observing the people go about their lives and following scheduled flight paths and patterns to ensure every inch of the city is being observed. Well, mostly. You can find some back alleys and hidden spots here and there, and these Badniks usually won't go into buildings or out into the woods. They will immediately try to flee upon spotting you. They're easy to take down, though a bit more durable than one would expect, given Eggman's designs. If cornered, they are capable of shooting a simple laser beam that will hurt and possibly leave a burn.
Badnik Drones are the most common combat robot you will find. Small chrome white orbs with red eyes, they are capable of scanning and detecting abnormalities. They are not quite as common as the Badnik Surveillance Units, but you'll still spot several of them floating through the city at any given point in time. Unlike the Badnik Surveillance Units, these come ready for combat. They can fire lasers as well as shoot small homing missiles. The homing missiles thankfully aren't very fast and can be outrun or otherwise blocked, but they pack a punch if they do hit! These robots will stand their ground and fight if they spot you, but they will call for backup - if you aren't fast enough, you'll find yourself facing many of them!
The Badnik Transformer Model B33, more affectionately called Buzz Bombers by Tails and friends, is... well, it looks like a bee. A hornet, rather, as that stinger is actually a precision laser that moves fast. These robots typically look like Badnik Drones, but are capable of shifting and uncoiling themselves to become the B33 units. They are fast, they hit hard, and they are relentless, pursuing you nonstop until they've been destroyed. They will not call for backup, which is possibly the only saving grace about fighting them. Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell if a Badnik is a Drone or a B33 until you're actually in combat - and by then it may be(e) too late.
Badnik Tanks are mini... well, tanks. They stand about the size of a large dog and roll around on treads through the city. They're much rarer than the other robots, but it seems some have been sent to Chicago after the destruction of the base. These tanks are capable of shooting a large laser that deals significant damage to anyone it hits, and they're quite durable. When severely damaged, they start sparking - they'll explode when hit, and you probably don't want to be in melee range!
[ Her friends, he says, and her stomach lurches. No way does she want to bring them into this. To think about them would throw her back into the raging storm that is Mount Blackwood.
But she focuses on Vakama's hands. Just like when they first met, they are warmer than she'd expect them to be. Focusing on his hands helps her focus on his words. ]
[The tugging feeling at the mind is starting to get insistent. But Vakama tightens his grip at her commitment.]
...With me, then.
Come on.
[The pull to movement will be clumsy, with the height difference. But with her in hand, he leads the way.
White starts to flake away to metal streets, though the sides of your vision never get any clearer. The smell of smoke and molten metals thickens the air with warmth, the lighting going red and dark under towering cylindrical buildings, walkways that stacked on top of one another, foundries and conveyors, shipping and processing yards fenced up several stories, smokestacks that seem to stretch far off into the sky.
The district is cramped, but empty. Quiet.And every few steps, that pain flickers, and with it, so do the surroundings. Darkened skies. Destroyed catwalks. Enormous towers split down the middle and spilling their molten contents over miles and miles of buildings, the roar of fires and failing structures groaning like the cry of some far off dying animals, all as the sky rumbles.
Every flicker gets worse, like a warning bell in the mind, and it only seems to stop if Vakama halts completely.]
[ Ashley wants to funnel her vision forward to keep from getting swept up in whatever horrible thing she may see—but the flickers make that nigh impossible. With each one, she flinches, both from the jolt of pain and the devastation blinking in and out around them. Every so often, it's punctuated with a small whimper. ]
Vakama. Wha... What is all this?
[ She tries to think of things that are real and hers. She really does. But every thought draws her back to memories of the horrid night where her life came apart. So instead, she asks. ]
[The sounds doesn't go beyond his attention, and he tries to slow his pace despite the protestations from their surroundings.]
Ta-Metru. It's my home.
It... was my home, at least.
[Signs of life echo like whispers of ghosts in amidst the foundries and rubble; nameplates and personal touches, well worn metal underfoot, paint on bars worn down from constant usage, hundreds of carved tablets hung with everything from workman's lists to accolades, banners hung with the district colors, monumental screens that once might have displayed something important for a huge crowd, now cracked and blackened. Enormous support rings, once holding some sort of transportation chute system that stretched in every direction, now lay empty and cracking.
The more they walk, the more the rubble fills in. Wildlife making nests. Webs stringing together broken pipework. A deep, poisonous fog of green.
The voices twist, a mocking tone that is hard to pinpoint as genuine or not.
...A cataclysm. A being who took over our city... and claimed to set the Great Spirit himself to sleep.
Nothing was ever the same after that. The bioquakes, the ocean itself... the suns and the stars.
No one truly expected it. No one, except...
[Him.
The ground snaps forward as though being yanked through space by an invisible hand. You feel unsteady and will need to catch yourself.
You can hear the echoes of reaction as you do so - warbled, confused, distant. Someone, somewhere, elsewhere.
"Is everything alright?"
"What's with him?"
Though Vakama is stumbling right along aside Ashley, he does at least try to reach back out to her as soon as he has his footing again.]
Easy. Easy, that... that will happen a lot, I'm afraid.
[The space you raise up into has has the ceiling and one of the walls completely blown out, revealing the darkened sky and smoke filled walkways trailing up and up into forever. It's a foundry, an enormous forge set in the center with equipment and tools strung from every available piece of metal, parts and craftings and molds and masks scattered like so much debris.
At the foot of the ruins lies a sphere. The hatch is open, with lights blinking on and off. But the sphere itself looks empty.
Vakama's exhausted demeanor only deepens at the site of it, choosing to ignore as he tries to get a better view of his bearings. But surely it would be fine to take a closer look.
Surely you would trust your h̴̠̣̪̊̊e̸̯̚r̷̢̬̹̾o̷̻̭̭̾͑͂̓̋e̴̢̡̪̋̂̇̓ͅs̷̛͉͖̥̬̯̈́̓]
And this... this is my foundry. About the same as I left it. [Save for that one very obvious detail in the middle of the room.]
Edited (I FORGOT THE LINK OH NOOO) 2025-01-31 00:14 (UTC)
[ Ashley tries to just stay alongside Vakama as much as she can. That's what he was talking about. The visions, how difficult they could be, he learned that with his home. ]
About...? Then, what's this supposed to...?
[ She gestures towards the sphere. It wouldn't hurt, if she tries to get a better look. She's not leaving his side, but she is certainly looking at it! ]
[The closer she walks towards it, the harder it is to step away.
A conversation echoes.
"What are these?"
"Storage containers, but most odd-looking."
A sound thumps in the ears.
Loud, but slowing. Slowing. Slowing, as your limbs start to grow cold and weak. Your memory starts to blur at the edges, as though something is crawling in and eating away at the inside of your skull.
"Matoran of Metru Nui.
Rejoice.
For today will be a momentus climax to your history."]
I, uh... trashed the place last time I was here, unfortunately--
...
Ashley? Ashley, hey, d-don't--
[Vakama's voice will sound distant, even though the echoes persist.
"--No-- t-the Matoran, they're in danger--"
"What? What do you see--"
It's a sudden flash of an image, another flash of that vivid pain. Storage containers for miles and miles, up and down into infinity, sealed up tight, filled with
curled limbs
dim heartbeats
cold bodies
--
"Nothing. Nothing, sister.
Nothing at all."
Through numb limbs, Ashley will feel Vakama's hands gripping hers, trying to pull her forcefully away.]
Ashley -- A-Ashley, just focus on me, okay? Don't close your eyes. Don't close them.
[Who was responsible?
(9)
Though in a mental fatigue that will be hard to shake, Ashley will still get a nice visual head-start of the enormous, twisted tendril of shadow and plant matter that rises from the rubble and immediately snaps forward to grab at her, and only her.]
[ This is...so much more than the power of her shard, isn't it? Feeling half in-sync with herself, half outside of herself, Ashley jolts from one vision to another, and the moment she comes out of it, feeling somehow hot and cold at the same time— ]
Aaghh! [ She jumps, pointing wildly towards the rubble. ] The- there, it's com- coming for me!
[It's enough of a warning to get Vakama to immediately look in the direction of her hand.
A brief moment flickers once more, of his form shifting like an illusion - no longer Matoran, back into Toa, grabbing one of the many metal disks laid around the room and chucking it at the widest part of the vine with a deep flash of ice on contact (16). An unholy screeching noise rips through the space, a noise that definitely should not be coming from something that looks like a plant as it tucks away.
But as the first retreats, a second tendril whips up to snake around the Toa's ankle. With a sudden shift back to his smaller form and a yelp of alarm, the vine snaps back and then forwards, slamming him against the top of the forge.
Answer, Vakama.
It's a voice that echoes from nowhere, piercing but echoing. A reverberation, not a source.
we're wasting time--
--hunting down just because of--
--so sure about this--
Who is responsible?
The heat starts to rise suddenly. Drastically.
As Ashley stumbles away, the surroundings morph again - the wreck of an enormous open furnace almost unfathomably tall, s̸͕͓̄ǒ̴̱̪͈̠͌͐ṁ̸̛̠͌̑ḙ̷͍̺͂̿̕͝ť̶̫͌̊h̸̛̛͓͓͈̾̒į̵̘͙͉̀̈n̴̢̩͉̺̏̎̀g̵̨̙̎ boiling in its catastrophic flames.
With a whipping snap, Vakama is fully thrown across the room like a ragdoll.
What time was wasted in your incessant searching?
What lives brought to suffer?
For a split second, as Vakama struggles to his feet, his Toa form flickers back -- stumbling towards Ashley, a hand outstretched that wraps with building, swirling fire.]
Ashley -- hold on, I won't let you fall to this--!!!
[But that same shadowed tendril grips him tight by the waist, and his form changes right back, yelling and shoving for purchase as he's lifted right back into the air.
Ashley will find her limbs drawn down on the spot in a rain of unavoidable projectiles. Hundreds of thousands of seeded capsules fall from the ceiling; cracking open where they land, growing quickly like a mass of writhing, multiplying snakes of rot and plant and darkness, grasping out to wrap her still and drag her to a fiery death.
No matter whether she acts or stays still, she will feel that some sort of innate power in her is draining without replenishment, a slow exhaustion.]
[ Ashley's not shy to scream, not when the furnace materializes before them, nor either time Vakama is tossed about the room. The worst of them, however, is when the capsules open. ]
No no no- ah! Vakama, something's- mmmnngh, pulling—!
[ Mmm. Restraints. Awesome! She loves that! She tries to move, to flail out of the way like always, and for a shining moment (19) she manages to move her heavy limbs, legs kicking up to avoid the nearest snakes.
It's a short-lived victory, overall, because suddenly it's like she's bleeding energy. She stumbles back, shouting: ]
Get back, get away! Get- ohh—!
[ Really stumbles back, tripping over her feet in her haste and toppling over backwards (1). She's winded for a moment, and that's all the time the mass needs to slither around her and start pulling, taking her ever closer to the flames, like the flames of the lodge that should've consumed her too— ]
AAGHH NOOO!! Help- help me, please—!
[ No, that's the worst scream. ]
1/2 continuing cw (i do this part on my phone just for u until vakama is freed from the IP mines)
It's taking every ounce of effort in Vakama, hand outstretched as the vine holding him shrieks at the change in size and tries to squeeze him harder. But it his shard he uses this time - a break in the space, something that doesn't belong, the Toa wrestling visibly with the concentration needed to both hold his restraints still and pull Ashley backwards. An equilibrium only at first, keeping her pinned despite how the swarms of vines try to yank for purchase.
There's the distant sound of Vakama's voice behind both of them - detached, etheral, like a ghost of a memory.
"Keep going! Together, at its heart! We will win!"
Equilibrium turns to backward motion. Slow, but successful, even if Vakama himself looks about ready to pass out.]
Try! Keep-- keep trying, Ashley! Don't give up yet--!
But it's getting hard to breathe - from the heat for Ashley, and from the pressure around him for Vakama, as his form once again flickers back to a Matoran, the pressure only that much greater under diminished size. Suffocating, suffocating.
--Vakama, are you sure about this--]
We did the--- the best we could, th-- the best I could--
[The floor dips out beneath them both, vines and furnace vanishing as the surroundings snap to black in a free fall.
There is no time to catch their breath. Though the Matoran reaches for her desperately, both Vakama and Ashley's bodies will ricochet off repeated hard surfaces of metal, off grand flooring split into hexagonal shapes; shooting up rapidly in columns, tossing them about like dolls, slamming them into high stone walls under the jeering boos of a crowd.
--The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
Your durability is high enough that you're not killed. But you're too exhausted to do anything but withstand it. That innate power in you sparks but no longer answer. Ghost-like forms of familiar faces -- your fellow shard-carrying teammates, your friends -- pick themselves up off the floor, beaten and barely on their feet.
Someone high above you laughs.
"Let us praise these jesters. Perhaps they sought to entertain us during this difficult time.
Or, are they imposters? Responsible for our true Toa's demise?"
The sounds of the unseen crowd roar in fury.
All the effort to be made a fool.
Half your teammates go flying backward to vanish into an unseen space beyond, pulled by the wind itself. The rest scramble for one another, for their weapons, for an escape, as an enormous swarm of robots marches in advance on them.
For people saw true colors, not your empty attempts.
You can do nothing but run. Run. Run, hide, search through muddied dark spaces with your bare hands. You're exhausted. You're all so exhausted.
Empty attempts. Misguided efforts.
The jeering echos of the crowd slowly die to eerie silence. The clicking hiss of a hatch unlocks in the outstretched darkness. An empty sphere, mocking and alone, as lightning starts to crack overhead.
--Tell me, Vakama. The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
The gentle voice amidst the mockery earns a pained flinch from the Matoran, even as he stands in front of her with his arms outstretched and trembling.]
None of us could have known--!!! Nothing was clear! [A bold but desperate snap up into the void, where the stars of the sky seem to black out in response, two glorious suns eclipsing as though the universe has shut its eyes to their efforts.] We tried! I tried!
[You fled.
The sound of a violent sea crashes in their ears, surrounded by darkened rock pitted by centuries of waves. A body, golden and feeble and frail, ricochets past them in the dark with a trail of dark energy, immediately drawing Vakama's attention with a choke of distress.
To the ends of the silver sea, leaving your people behind. Suffering for sake of your
COWARDICE.
Ashley will see an enormous claw of shadow reaching out beyond the sea like a giant swatting a fly, intent on smashing them both against the sea wall.]
[ First, the pulling, between Vakama's ability and the vines. Then, the heat and sharp fall—bouncing, tumbling, being thrown about like this— Ashley's head feels like it's spinning with how disoriented she is. All of that, she should be dead, and it's a rare moment of total lucidity that reminds her—she would be, were this not a dream.
The voices chew out Vakama, and Ashley, she...
...she starts to see the ghosts.
It's her friends first. Athletic Sam, gregarious Mike, resourceful Emily, irreverent Jess, sociable Matt—Josh, Chris. The sight of their ghostly figures stills the very blood in her veins. She even tries to reach out, before—
They go flying into the nothing (Josh, Jess). They futilely try to reach for the other (Emily, Matt). They right themselves, face down the impossible odds, end up swallowed up by robots (Sam, Mike).
Ashley does not see what happens to the ghostly figure of Chris. Maybe he just vanished.
Kneeling rather than standing, she wants to curl into a ball behind Vakama. Maybe then the jeering will stop. Maybe everything will stop. She catches the twinkling of a shard in one of the ghostly figures' hands and she jerks her head away, because she doesn't want to see any of her new comrades in this state, primed for her to let them down. ]
Vakama...
[ Even the stars above flicker out. ]
Vakama...!
[ The shadows become a claw, and Vakama is focused on that golden body, but he has to— ]
Vakama, look!
[ With any strength left, she pushes herself to her feet and tries to pull him this time, to move out of the way of the shadowy claw. ]
[Frozen where he stands at the sight of the body, Vakama starts as Ashley grabs ahold of him and tugs, an active effort to try and get them both out of the way.
Though it is close enough to feel the air crackle in its wake, Ashley is successful - they both tumble clumsily against the rocks soaked with the salt of the sea, right before the dark appendage crashes fully into the enormous sea wall with a thunderous boom, a rain of rock and mud collapsing into the waves below as it withdraws.
It's hard to see if Vakama has entirely registered Ashley at first. He trembles as he tries to push himself up, eyes still stuck on the maskless body lying broken and barely visible in the darkness.
//a body left laid out in the snow, glasses cracked and discarded, skin paling, blood soaking down and already going cold from something so easily ripped off and thrown aside---
"That was meant for me."
Murderer.
His breath catches.]
I... That wasn't...
[The rock starts to dissolve into itself, a dizzied run of spiraling tunnels. The bodies there, yet unreachable, slowly growing distant, like a brand to the mind fading to a horrific scar.
You fail him more if you continue to refuse.]
cw: mention of decapitation. ...also my icon. also dissociation+ptsd
[ Covering her head to avoid the debris, Ashley also tries to rise, a whine rising from deep inside her. ]
Vakama, we have to—
[ A body...laid out in the snow...
Right. So that's where Chris went. Ashley stares at him. It. It's missing its head but she remembers it, the twisted expression of fear, shock, disbelief, betrayal.
Vakama and the loss he grieves may as well be a million miles away. Ashley doesn't move towards the body.
Murderer. ]
I didn't... I didn't... It was too late.
[ She's frozen completely, everything in her heavy like ice. ]
[Vakama, at least, can break his gaze away. A corpse that hurts deeply, coldly, that makes him nauseous and furious in waves. But a corpse nonetheless. So he looks to Ashley as their grow claustrophobic and foreign, smelling of earth and ocean, horrifically dark.]
...Ashley.
[He follows her eyes, to the patch of snow and the body that lies so still in the distance, the blooming of red...
No. Oh no. In all shared things, why was this, too--
Sucking in a choking breath as he rapidly tries to pull himself together, Vakama stumbles to her, once again fumbling to take her hands. Gripping, despite the tremble from his own.]
Ashley. [Repeated, a little firmer.]
...Let... let them be, Ashley. [He squeezes her hands, tries to pull her to face away.] Let them rest.
[He doesn't challenge that. All he can do is just press his hands tighter to hers.
It is too little, too late. It always was. But you have a job to do.
You have a JOB to do.
The claustrophobia stretches. And while the comments have been mocking, now they grow genuinely angry.
--who died and made you Mata Nui anyway--?
--you're not the only one trying--
--maybe if this wasn't coming from a leader who doesn't know when to quit--
--we can't keep going like this, Vakama!!--
Arrogance.
Recklessness.
Foolish, childish decisions.
The poisonous fog that had laid out in that cityscape returns, thick and suffocating, before Ashley drops - suddenly all alone - straight into the depths of an angry, stormy sea, the battered parts of a craft pushed too far sinking slowly into the rocking depths beyond them.
And where did that lead you?
Guilt disguised as bravery, your chest raised with eyes blinded.
Claiming atonement.
Another jerking lunge, and she will be washed on the shore of a beach filled with nothing but rubble. A skyline that criss-crosses with thick webs. A stillness broken only by the deafening roars and cries of wildlife that had not been there before.
And Vakama stands, at the precipice of the nearest hill, looking down towards Ashley with an expression of nauseated regret, even as his own voice echoes, unattached, off in the distance with an almost pompous arrogance, the voices mumbling constant and increasing disapprovals through the air.
As though you could drown it all out.
As though your bold words could change any of it.
"Are we going to stand around all night? Nothing changes! We go to the Coliseum, we rescue the Matoran, and we leave!
[As soon as he sees she's fully out of the surf, the Matoran's face twists with a palatable, angered distress, paining and softening when he gets closer to her to try and get her out of the waves.]
No, no, I am not -- this isn't going to happen, I'm not going to let you keep going through this. Not this. You don't deserve this. Any of this...
[You have a job to do.
Vakama tenses noticeably, but does not let go of her.]
We're... we're going to find somewhere for you to hide.
[ From Chris' body, Ashley drops, down, into the ocean, a scream stolen by the surf. The waves batter her, and before she knows it, she's coughing up salt water, shivering from cold and fear alike.
She keeps wondering, why doesn't she just—
Footsteps against the beach, and her head jerks up to see Vakama through stinging eyes. Again, she's relatively easy to move, a bone-deep exhaustion set into her from the memory of her sins.
Her eyes don't focus on him for a long moment. But then they do. She's starting to cry, so he's blurry. But regardless...
She nods, against her better judgment. Just the sight of his body... She feels cold. She feels empty. She feels alone. ]
[The feeling of solitude will only get stronger, forced and seperate. But Vakama guides her anyway. Matoran shifts to Toa in his drive, machinery and debris being shoved aside as biomechanical crabs scatter in their curiosity of the wreckage. The remainder of a craft's hull, mostly in pieces, but still a temporary shelter.
It's here he guides her, here with hands that feel warmer than normal, a glow to them that seems to touch the air in the space and let the temperature rise slightly.
Tears are new. Tears are uncertain. He doesn't know what to do with them. But this sorrow, this emptiness, this fear...
That, he knows.
Had Lhikan felt this way, being hunted? Standing over him with the risk of Vakama's safety, duty firstmost in mind but compassion abundant, having to still watch someone defenseless be caught in his conflicts?
[ She blinks, a few times, to get the salt from her eyes, and the tears as well. She feels soaked to the bone from the ocean, but she could swear she's dry. ]
I... I don't want to be here.
[ It's a weak, frank protest to the events at large. It feels like all she can do.
He flinches hard, but keeps that grip with her steady.]
Remember what I told you.
This... none of this... is your reality. So remember what is.
Remember your name. Where you are from. What is important to you. You have friends on the true side of this, Ashley. Remember the ones who are waiting for us. Back in Chicago.
No vision, no nightmare, will ever change what is the truth.
[You cannot hide from the truth.
The mental tug grows excruciating, enough that Vakama stumbles from where they are knelt. But he shakes his head, grips her hands tighter, expression firm.]
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no subject
But she focuses on Vakama's hands. Just like when they first met, they are warmer than she'd expect them to be. Focusing on his hands helps her focus on his words. ]
O- okay. Okay. O- kay, I'll try.
no subject
...With me, then.
Come on.
[The pull to movement will be clumsy, with the height difference. But with her in hand, he leads the way.
White starts to flake away to metal streets, though the sides of your vision never get any clearer. The smell of smoke and molten metals thickens the air with warmth, the lighting going red and dark under towering cylindrical buildings, walkways that stacked on top of one another, foundries and conveyors, shipping and processing yards fenced up several stories, smokestacks that seem to stretch far off into the sky.
The district is cramped, but empty. Quiet. And every few steps, that pain flickers, and with it, so do the surroundings. Darkened skies. Destroyed catwalks. Enormous towers split down the middle and spilling their molten contents over miles and miles of buildings, the roar of fires and failing structures groaning like the cry of some far off dying animals, all as the sky rumbles.
Every flicker gets worse, like a warning bell in the mind, and it only seems to stop if Vakama halts completely.]
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Vakama. Wha... What is all this?
[ She tries to think of things that are real and hers. She really does. But every thought draws her back to memories of the horrid night where her life came apart. So instead, she asks. ]
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Ta-Metru. It's my home.
It... was my home, at least.
[Signs of life echo like whispers of ghosts in amidst the foundries and rubble; nameplates and personal touches, well worn metal underfoot, paint on bars worn down from constant usage, hundreds of carved tablets hung with everything from workman's lists to accolades, banners hung with the district colors, monumental screens that once might have displayed something important for a huge crowd, now cracked and blackened. Enormous support rings, once holding some sort of transportation chute system that stretched in every direction, now lay empty and cracking.
The more they walk, the more the rubble fills in. Wildlife making nests. Webs stringing together broken pipework. A deep, poisonous fog of green.
The voices twist, a mocking tone that is hard to pinpoint as genuine or not.
--you should not blame yourself
you are a mask maker
matoran in armor
let us praise these jesters
imposters
you are a mask maker
not a--
]
I loved it dearly. I still do.
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What...did this to it?
[ She asks in such a small, brittle voice. ]
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Nothing was ever the same after that. The bioquakes, the ocean itself... the suns and the stars.
No one truly expected it. No one, except...
[Him.
The ground snaps forward as though being yanked through space by an invisible hand. You feel unsteady and will need to catch yourself.
You can hear the echoes of reaction as you do so - warbled, confused, distant. Someone, somewhere, elsewhere.
"Is everything alright?"
"What's with him?"
Though Vakama is stumbling right along aside Ashley, he does at least try to reach back out to her as soon as he has his footing again.]
Easy. Easy, that... that will happen a lot, I'm afraid.
[The space you raise up into has has the ceiling and one of the walls completely blown out, revealing the darkened sky and smoke filled walkways trailing up and up into forever. It's a foundry, an enormous forge set in the center with equipment and tools strung from every available piece of metal, parts and craftings and molds and masks scattered like so much debris.
At the foot of the ruins lies a sphere. The hatch is open, with lights blinking on and off. But the sphere itself looks empty.
Vakama's exhausted demeanor only deepens at the site of it, choosing to ignore as he tries to get a better view of his bearings. But surely it would be fine to take a closer look.
Surely you would trust your h̴̠̣̪̊̊e̸̯̚r̷̢̬̹̾o̷̻̭̭̾͑͂̓̋e̴̢̡̪̋̂̇̓ͅs̷̛͉͖̥̬̯̈́̓]
And this... this is my foundry. About the same as I left it. [Save for that one very obvious detail in the middle of the room.]
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About...? Then, what's this supposed to...?
[ She gestures towards the sphere. It wouldn't hurt, if she tries to get a better look. She's not leaving his side, but she is certainly looking at it! ]
1/2 cw: mild body horror
A conversation echoes.
"What are these?"
"Storage containers, but most odd-looking."
A sound thumps in the ears.
Loud, but slowing. Slowing. Slowing, as your limbs start to grow cold and weak. Your memory starts to blur at the edges, as though something is crawling in and eating away at the inside of your skull.
"Matoran of Metru Nui.
Rejoice.
For today will be a momentus climax to your history."]
2/2
...
Ashley? Ashley, hey, d-don't--
[Vakama's voice will sound distant, even though the echoes persist.
"--No-- t-the Matoran, they're in danger--"
"What? What do you see--"
It's a sudden flash of an image, another flash of that vivid pain. Storage containers for miles and miles, up and down into infinity, sealed up tight, filled with
curled limbs
dim heartbeats
cold bodies
--
"Nothing. Nothing, sister.
Nothing at all."
Through numb limbs, Ashley will feel Vakama's hands gripping hers, trying to pull her forcefully away.]
Ashley -- A-Ashley, just focus on me, okay? Don't close your eyes. Don't close them.
[Who was responsible?
(9)
Though in a mental fatigue that will be hard to shake, Ashley will still get a nice visual head-start of the enormous, twisted tendril of shadow and plant matter that rises from the rubble and immediately snaps forward to grab at her, and only her.]
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Aaghh! [ She jumps, pointing wildly towards the rubble. ] The- there, it's com- coming for me!
cw fires, tentacle/snake imagery just to be safe
A brief moment flickers once more, of his form shifting like an illusion - no longer Matoran, back into Toa, grabbing one of the many metal disks laid around the room and chucking it at the widest part of the vine with a deep flash of ice on contact (16). An unholy screeching noise rips through the space, a noise that definitely should not be coming from something that looks like a plant as it tucks away.
But as the first retreats, a second tendril whips up to snake around the Toa's ankle. With a sudden shift back to his smaller form and a yelp of alarm, the vine snaps back and then forwards, slamming him against the top of the forge.
Answer, Vakama.
It's a voice that echoes from nowhere, piercing but echoing. A reverberation, not a source.
we're wasting time--
--hunting down just because of--
--so sure about this--
Who is responsible?
The heat starts to rise suddenly. Drastically.
As Ashley stumbles away, the surroundings morph again - the wreck of an enormous open furnace almost unfathomably tall, s̸͕͓̄ǒ̴̱̪͈̠͌͐ṁ̸̛̠͌̑ḙ̷͍̺͂̿̕͝ť̶̫͌̊h̸̛̛͓͓͈̾̒į̵̘͙͉̀̈n̴̢̩͉̺̏̎̀g̵̨̙̎ boiling in its catastrophic flames.
With a whipping snap, Vakama is fully thrown across the room like a ragdoll.
What time was wasted in your incessant searching?
What lives brought to suffer?
For a split second, as Vakama struggles to his feet, his Toa form flickers back -- stumbling towards Ashley, a hand outstretched that wraps with building, swirling fire.]
Ashley -- hold on, I won't let you fall to this--!!!
[But that same shadowed tendril grips him tight by the waist, and his form changes right back, yelling and shoving for purchase as he's lifted right back into the air.
Ashley will find her limbs drawn down on the spot in a rain of unavoidable projectiles. Hundreds of thousands of seeded capsules fall from the ceiling; cracking open where they land, growing quickly like a mass of writhing, multiplying snakes of rot and plant and darkness, grasping out to wrap her still and drag her to a fiery death.
No matter whether she acts or stays still, she will feel that some sort of innate power in her is draining without replenishment, a slow exhaustion.]
continued cw
No no no- ah! Vakama, something's- mmmnngh, pulling—!
[ Mmm. Restraints. Awesome! She loves that! She tries to move, to flail out of the way like always, and for a shining moment (19) she manages to move her heavy limbs, legs kicking up to avoid the nearest snakes.
It's a short-lived victory, overall, because suddenly it's like she's bleeding energy. She stumbles back, shouting: ]
Get back, get away! Get- ohh—!
[ Really stumbles back, tripping over her feet in her haste and toppling over backwards (1). She's winded for a moment, and that's all the time the mass needs to slither around her and start pulling, taking her ever closer to the flames, like the flames of the lodge that should've consumed her too— ]
AAGHH NOOO!! Help- help me, please—!
[ No, that's the worst scream. ]
1/2 continuing cw (i do this part on my phone just for u until vakama is freed from the IP mines)
- until something pulls back.
It's taking every ounce of effort in Vakama, hand outstretched as the vine holding him shrieks at the change in size and tries to squeeze him harder. But it his shard he uses this time - a break in the space, something that doesn't belong, the Toa wrestling visibly with the concentration needed to both hold his restraints still and pull Ashley backwards. An equilibrium only at first, keeping her pinned despite how the swarms of vines try to yank for purchase.
There's the distant sound of Vakama's voice behind both of them - detached, etheral, like a ghost of a memory.
"Keep going! Together, at its heart! We will win!"
Equilibrium turns to backward motion. Slow, but successful, even if Vakama himself looks about ready to pass out.]
Try! Keep-- keep trying, Ashley! Don't give up yet--!
2/2
But it's getting hard to breathe - from the heat for Ashley, and from the pressure around him for Vakama, as his form once again flickers back to a Matoran, the pressure only that much greater under diminished size. Suffocating, suffocating.
--Vakama, are you sure about this--]
We did the--- the best we could, th-- the best I could--
[The floor dips out beneath them both, vines and furnace vanishing as the surroundings snap to black in a free fall.
There is no time to catch their breath. Though the Matoran reaches for her desperately, both Vakama and Ashley's bodies will ricochet off repeated hard surfaces of metal, off grand flooring split into hexagonal shapes; shooting up rapidly in columns, tossing them about like dolls, slamming them into high stone walls under the jeering boos of a crowd.
--The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
Your durability is high enough that you're not killed. But you're too exhausted to do anything but withstand it. That innate power in you sparks but no longer answer. Ghost-like forms of familiar faces -- your fellow shard-carrying teammates, your friends -- pick themselves up off the floor, beaten and barely on their feet.
Someone high above you laughs.
"Let us praise these jesters. Perhaps they sought to entertain us during this difficult time.
Or, are they imposters? Responsible for our true Toa's demise?"
The sounds of the unseen crowd roar in fury.
All the effort to be made a fool.
Half your teammates go flying backward to vanish into an unseen space beyond, pulled by the wind itself. The rest scramble for one another, for their weapons, for an escape, as an enormous swarm of robots marches in advance on them.
For people saw true colors, not your empty attempts.
You can do nothing but run. Run. Run, hide, search through muddied dark spaces with your bare hands. You're exhausted. You're all so exhausted.
Empty attempts. Misguided efforts.
The jeering echos of the crowd slowly die to eerie silence. The clicking hiss of a hatch unlocks in the outstretched darkness. An empty sphere, mocking and alone, as lightning starts to crack overhead.
--Tell me, Vakama. The heart of Metru Nui, do you have it safe?--
The gentle voice amidst the mockery earns a pained flinch from the Matoran, even as he stands in front of her with his arms outstretched and trembling.]
None of us could have known--!!! Nothing was clear! [A bold but desperate snap up into the void, where the stars of the sky seem to black out in response, two glorious suns eclipsing as though the universe has shut its eyes to their efforts.] We tried! I tried!
[You fled.
The sound of a violent sea crashes in their ears, surrounded by darkened rock pitted by centuries of waves. A body, golden and feeble and frail, ricochets past them in the dark with a trail of dark energy, immediately drawing Vakama's attention with a choke of distress.
To the ends of the silver sea, leaving your people behind. Suffering for sake of your
COWARDICE.
Ashley will see an enormous claw of shadow reaching out beyond the sea like a giant swatting a fly, intent on smashing them both against the sea wall.]
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The voices chew out Vakama, and Ashley, she...
...she starts to see the ghosts.
It's her friends first. Athletic Sam, gregarious Mike, resourceful Emily, irreverent Jess, sociable Matt—Josh, Chris. The sight of their ghostly figures stills the very blood in her veins. She even tries to reach out, before—
They go flying into the nothing (Josh, Jess). They futilely try to reach for the other (Emily, Matt). They right themselves, face down the impossible odds, end up swallowed up by robots (Sam, Mike).
Ashley does not see what happens to the ghostly figure of Chris. Maybe he just vanished.
Kneeling rather than standing, she wants to curl into a ball behind Vakama. Maybe then the jeering will stop. Maybe everything will stop. She catches the twinkling of a shard in one of the ghostly figures' hands and she jerks her head away, because she doesn't want to see any of her new comrades in this state, primed for her to let them down. ]
Vakama...
[ Even the stars above flicker out. ]
Vakama...!
[ The shadows become a claw, and Vakama is focused on that golden body, but he has to— ]
Vakama, look!
[ With any strength left, she pushes herself to her feet and tries to pull him this time, to move out of the way of the shadowy claw. ]
cw: mention of decapitation
Though it is close enough to feel the air crackle in its wake, Ashley is successful - they both tumble clumsily against the rocks soaked with the salt of the sea, right before the dark appendage crashes fully into the enormous sea wall with a thunderous boom, a rain of rock and mud collapsing into the waves below as it withdraws.
It's hard to see if Vakama has entirely registered Ashley at first. He trembles as he tries to push himself up, eyes still stuck on the maskless body lying broken and barely visible in the darkness.
//a body left laid out in the snow, glasses cracked and discarded, skin paling, blood soaking down and already going cold from something so easily ripped off and thrown aside---
"That was meant for me."
Murderer.
His breath catches.]
I... That wasn't...
[The rock starts to dissolve into itself, a dizzied run of spiraling tunnels. The bodies there, yet unreachable, slowly growing distant, like a brand to the mind fading to a horrific scar.
You fail him more if you continue to refuse.]
cw: mention of decapitation. ...also my icon. also dissociation+ptsd
Vakama, we have to—
[ A body...laid out in the snow...
Right. So that's where Chris went. Ashley stares at him. It. It's missing its head but she remembers it, the twisted expression of fear, shock, disbelief, betrayal.
Vakama and the loss he grieves may as well be a million miles away. Ashley doesn't move towards the body.
Murderer. ]
I didn't... I didn't... It was too late.
[ She's frozen completely, everything in her heavy like ice. ]
no subject
...Ashley.
[He follows her eyes, to the patch of snow and the body that lies so still in the distance, the blooming of red...
No. Oh no. In all shared things, why was this, too--
Sucking in a choking breath as he rapidly tries to pull himself together, Vakama stumbles to her, once again fumbling to take her hands. Gripping, despite the tremble from his own.]
Ashley. [Repeated, a little firmer.]
...Let... let them be, Ashley. [He squeezes her hands, tries to pull her to face away.] Let them rest.
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She can't imagine any of them resting after what happened.
Especially not Chris. ]
Too late. [ She sounds so light and fragile.
She doesn't fight him, but it will be a fight to keep her engaged. It's more like he can pull her along. ]
1/2 because ashley sure is breaking my script
It is too little, too late. It always was. But you have a job to do.
You have a JOB to do.
The claustrophobia stretches. And while the comments have been mocking, now they grow genuinely angry.
--who died and made you Mata Nui anyway--?
--you're not the only one trying--
--maybe if this wasn't coming from a leader who doesn't know when to quit--
--we can't keep going like this, Vakama!!--
Arrogance.
Recklessness.
Foolish, childish decisions.
The poisonous fog that had laid out in that cityscape returns, thick and suffocating, before Ashley drops - suddenly all alone - straight into the depths of an angry, stormy sea, the battered parts of a craft pushed too far sinking slowly into the rocking depths beyond them.
And where did that lead you?
Guilt disguised as bravery, your chest raised with eyes blinded.
Claiming atonement.
Another jerking lunge, and she will be washed on the shore of a beach filled with nothing but rubble. A skyline that criss-crosses with thick webs. A stillness broken only by the deafening roars and cries of wildlife that had not been there before.
And Vakama stands, at the precipice of the nearest hill, looking down towards Ashley with an expression of nauseated regret, even as his own voice echoes, unattached, off in the distance with an almost pompous arrogance, the voices mumbling constant and increasing disapprovals through the air.
As though you could drown it all out.
As though your bold words could change any of it.
"Are we going to stand around all night? Nothing changes! We go to the Coliseum, we rescue the Matoran, and we leave!
Follow me!"
...]
/2
No, no, I am not -- this isn't going to happen, I'm not going to let you keep going through this. Not this. You don't deserve this. Any of this...
[You have a job to do.
Vakama tenses noticeably, but does not let go of her.]
We're... we're going to find somewhere for you to hide.
Can you trust me with that, Ashley?
cw dissociation
She keeps wondering, why doesn't she just—
Footsteps against the beach, and her head jerks up to see Vakama through stinging eyes. Again, she's relatively easy to move, a bone-deep exhaustion set into her from the memory of her sins.
Her eyes don't focus on him for a long moment. But then they do. She's starting to cry, so he's blurry. But regardless...
She nods, against her better judgment. Just the sight of his body... She feels cold. She feels empty. She feels alone. ]
no subject
It's here he guides her, here with hands that feel warmer than normal, a glow to them that seems to touch the air in the space and let the temperature rise slightly.
Tears are new. Tears are uncertain. He doesn't know what to do with them. But this sorrow, this emptiness, this fear...
That, he knows.
Had Lhikan felt this way, being hunted? Standing over him with the risk of Vakama's safety, duty firstmost in mind but compassion abundant, having to still watch someone defenseless be caught in his conflicts?
...]
Ashley.
[The pull tugs. You have a job to do.
But Vakama stays put.
"If we cannot help those in front of us--"
(viktor's voice - brief, distant)
His hands squeeze hers.]
Please. Talk to me.
cw dissociation but less this time
I... I don't want to be here.
[ It's a weak, frank protest to the events at large. It feels like all she can do.
She grips Vakama's warm hand. ]
I don't... It's terrible. It's all terrible.
no subject
He flinches hard, but keeps that grip with her steady.]
Remember what I told you.
This... none of this... is your reality. So remember what is.
Remember your name. Where you are from. What is important to you. You have friends on the true side of this, Ashley. Remember the ones who are waiting for us. Back in Chicago.
No vision, no nightmare, will ever change what is the truth.
[You cannot hide from the truth.
The mental tug grows excruciating, enough that Vakama stumbles from where they are knelt. But he shakes his head, grips her hands tighter, expression firm.]
Stay. Stay here. Stay quiet.
I'll come back for you.
cw dissociation one more time
1/2????? 3??? im so upset goodbye
2/3
3/3 cw: body horror (everyone put an F in chat for ashley)
f,
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cw: brief suicidal ideation
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cw light self-harm imagery