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!
[ 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.]
[ Important. She talked with Rio about that. Does she have an answer now? She looks lost, but the more Vakama speaks, the more there is for her mind to grab onto. Because she does have friends waiting for her, if not at home than in the repurposed warehouse where she sleeps.
She doesn't know how many would still call themselves her friends, if they knew. What she'd done, how she hurt them— ]
Do you promise?
[ She asks, breathless, knelt and huddled, holding onto Vakama like a lifeline. ]
And, more like the visions she may be used to, Ashley will find herself seeing, despite where she sits. Bits and pieces, like a broadcast not coming in just right.
You follow, right behind the lingering ghost of a figure with the bold voice of the Toa who does not listen; every step unsteady, on a path crumbling underfoot, as the fog grows denser amidst the buildings. A monument, a grave, more than a city.
You follow.
You see energy crackle forward through the bare air to hit the ghost of your leader.
And only a moment later, your own body is hit, going completely rigid against your will.
Paralysis.
You crumple. All you hear is an absence. Too silent. Far, far too silent.
--everyone okay--
right behind you, fearless leader... literally--
bickering won't get us out of this--
noooo, but think-talking before charging straight into a TRAP might have--
Eyes that are not your own - Vakama's - scan frantically. You see the bodies of so many of your fellow shardbearers.
Nothing.
He can't do anything.
The swarm quickly overtakes him.
It overtakes all of them.
Not even willing to face the consequences, even now.
It falls into a flash of feelings and imagery, broken and indistinct.
Teeth and webbing pressure and pain prickings against every surface the course of something foreign pulsing through your body
Panic, that grows, less purposeful, less sentient, less in control, and more like--
An animal.
A monster.
The change happens without warning. A ripple effect, in one limb, that rapidly moves down the body you cannot see and can hardly feel, left only to sounds. Metal and muscle suddenly twist. Crack. Bending out of shape to reform to another. Bulging, adding, changing. Armor merges with structure, masks sinking to join with faces, chest expanding as limbs outstretch and an anxious mind twists ferally within its own skull.
A mouth opens to scream, and a strangled roar rips from his throat instead.
The vision snaps. And Ashley is back on the beach, right where she left off.
It's quiet. It's so, so quiet.
And the longer the silence stretches, the more that she feels she is no longer alone.]
[ When Ashley wakes from her nightmares, she practices being still. She practices, just in case she'll ever need to, because that one time she had to was one of the worst moments of her life. She watched it smash Mike into the wall, heard his bones crack. She heard Sam's scream as it gutted her. She felt the heat as the lodge exploded, because Mike of all people sacrificed himself, to save her.
Ashley fell into the snow and stayed still, arms wrapped around her knees, willing herself to freeze if it would just keep her from moving.
So she is good at being still. Even when snippets of vision kaleidoscope in and out. Even when a scream chills the blood in her veins. Even when she can see them, all of them, Percy and Viktor and Mafuyu, Wolfwood and Wednesday, Ed and Yves. Ashley stays fucking still. She doesn't not move.
But when a flash of something primal cuts her from the inside out, when the feeling of a limb crack to something new and bestial overtakes her, Ashley not only jerks out of her curled up state.
When she comes out of it, the roar boils her blood until she's screaming for him, sharp and quick and panicked. ]
—Aaah! Ahh, ahh...! Oh, oh no, oh no no no no—
[ She stares at her trembling hands and sees them normal, not long and clawed. She feels her skin, her teeth.
It's at that moment that she realizes something is there with her. That moment where she remembers, she has to be still, and she's not. ]
Ohh my god, oh my god—
[ Now she's still again. But it feels too little, too late. Her eyes dart around, searching. ]
The sounds of others crawling to unsteady feet far in the distance seems to echo. In pain. Confused. Horrified.
Furious.
Ashley will feel a comforting touch against her. Voices that reassure, trying to pull her away to somewhere else. Stay with the group. Stay together.
Leave him.
--We'll find a way. Together.-- --We can still talk about this. You know, group-like.-- --If he wants to do it on his own, let him. So what if he finds something really bad--
The growling against the air rolls subtle, the stalking steps moreso, like the prowling of a giant cat who knows exactly where to find its prey.
First to ground. Then to metal. The chassis of the boat creaks with the weight of something on top of it. Above her.
[ The touch reassures and comforts. It makes her think for a moment there's even still a group to stay with—but of course that gives way to an oppressive, suffocating atmosphere.
She'd felt it. She'd seen it. And still, when he starts speaking, still Ashley can't help but yelp. Part of her couldn't believe it. She'd never thought of a being like him mutating like this. ]
Va- Vakama...?! No. No no no please, don't hurt me.
[ He's still talking to her. If he's still talking to her, maybe if she begs, he'll leave her alone. ]
[There's the creak of metal with a sound of effort from above. A body goes flying to crash against the rubble-covered sand and come to a halt in the surf. It's the Matoran Vakama, now unresponsive.]
Empty promises, misguided words -- when has it ever not hurt? When has it ever done anything but hurt???
[The sound of claws scrape the metal. He's right there. He's toying with her.]
You understand. If all one becomes is a burden... It doesn't matter if one hides, or leads, or hunts.
Cornered by our own powerlessness. What is left for us?
To be abandoned by anything who called us "friend"? [Bitter. Resentful.] To lay down and let it end, all being for nothing?
Tch. To the universe? We deserve it. Every second of it.
[ The smaller Vakama's body crashes into the surf and Ashley yells reflexively, jerk back. She should run. No, running would just draw his attention. But she already has his attention—
The beast mocks her, but Ashley scrambles to the Matoran's side on hands and knees. ]
Vakama. Wake up. Please. Please, please please please don't leave me here alone.
[Ashley bolts from cover, and something snarls unabated as it follows; leaping from the chassis with elongated limbs, motions that are far too coordinated for how lopsided the creature is, a snapping ferocity to how it tracks her. A crash into the sand and water, a feral pursuit of prey.
The Matoran stirs under her hands, coughing and sputtering as his eyes try to focus. But as he gains clarity to the thing hot on her heels, he tries to scramble to his feet, a hand reaching out to try and get her behind him.]
No, NO, you will not--!!!
[Teeth bare as a jet of fire comes forth to slash towards them. But with another flash of movement, of form changing, Vakama launches forward - the real Vakama, now a mirror copy of the creature bearing down on them, eyes still the same familiar gold rather than the sickening green of its counterpart - wrenching that flamed limb backwards in his jaws and yanking his fellow beast into the sea. Animal fighting animal, with Vakama's claws tearing open a line of wounds that leak fuming clouds of shadow from the creature that howls in pain at the action.
Their pursuer temporarily downed, Vakama staggers back towards Ashley with the motions more of a feral cat than a person, a monstrous limb pointing up back into the city.]
Run! Don't listen to anything he says, don't accept anything he tells you -- you run, Ashley! Get out of here!
[ Focused so much on waking Vakama, Ashley doesn't realize the beast is upon her until he's up and moving to intercept the strike. Belatedly, she screams and stumbles back, even as the two Vakamas clash. Her eyes track the fight, as she has to keep which one is which straight in her head.
It pays off, as she doesn't startled in the moment before she can see his eyes.
She wants to say, but what about you? and it doesn't come out. She's too scared for it to have a chance of coming out.
One step back, then another, then another, and then she turns on heel and runs as fast as her body can carry her. ]
[ Coward burns hot against her, a truthful brand, Beware of Chicken, she will leave you high and dry.
It hurts, but it doesn't stop her. Nothing does. When it even feels like her muscles will burst, she keeps running. When the ground itself gives out, her legs flail in facsimile running away until the end.
When she wakes, she curls into herself, shivering as she wraps her arms around her not broken body, what she just experienced still fresh and real in her mind. She shivers. Coward rings softer but continuously in her head. She grips tightly, letting the feeling come back to her limbs by digging her fingernails into the skin.
She'll try to shake the things she'd seen and felt. She won't be able to. ]
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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.
no subject
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
She doesn't know how many would still call themselves her friends, if they knew. What she'd done, how she hurt them— ]
Do you promise?
[ She asks, breathless, knelt and huddled, holding onto Vakama like a lifeline. ]
1/2????? 3??? im so upset goodbye
I promise.
[One hand cupped atop both her own where she holds to him so tightly. Gripping it, shaking it - believe him, please believe him.]
I promise, Ashley.
[He will let her hold on as long as she needs. But as soon as she relaxes enough to let him go, he lets their hands drift apart.
His exhale shudders as his eyes glance up the coast. Away from her. Off towards the echo of his own voice.]
2/3
And, more like the visions she may be used to, Ashley will find herself seeing, despite where she sits. Bits and pieces, like a broadcast not coming in just right.
You follow, right behind the lingering ghost of a figure with the bold voice of the Toa who does not listen; every step unsteady, on a path crumbling underfoot, as the fog grows denser amidst the buildings. A monument, a grave, more than a city.
You follow.
You see energy crackle forward through the bare air to hit the ghost of your leader.
And only a moment later, your own body is hit, going completely rigid against your will.
Paralysis.
You crumple. All you hear is an absence. Too silent. Far, far too silent.
--everyone okay--
right behind you, fearless leader... literally--
bickering won't get us out of this--
noooo, but think-talking before charging straight into a TRAP might have--
Vakama--
---what do we do?]
3/3 cw: body horror (everyone put an F in chat for ashley)
He can't do anything.
Eyes that are not your own - Vakama's - scan frantically. You see the bodies of so many of your fellow shardbearers.
Nothing.
He can't do anything.
The swarm quickly overtakes him.
It overtakes all of them.
Not even willing to face the consequences, even now.
It falls into a flash of feelings and imagery, broken and indistinct.
Teeth and webbing
pressure and pain
prickings against every surface
the course of something foreign pulsing through your body
Panic, that grows, less purposeful, less sentient, less in control, and more like--
An animal.
A monster.
The change happens without warning. A ripple effect, in one limb, that rapidly moves down the body you cannot see and can hardly feel, left only to sounds. Metal and muscle suddenly twist. Crack. Bending out of shape to reform to another. Bulging, adding, changing. Armor merges with structure, masks sinking to join with faces, chest expanding as limbs outstretch and an anxious mind twists ferally within its own skull.
A mouth opens to scream, and a strangled roar rips from his throat instead.
The vision snaps. And Ashley is back on the beach, right where she left off.
It's quiet. It's so, so quiet.
And the longer the silence stretches, the more that she feels she is no longer alone.]
f,
Ashley fell into the snow and stayed still, arms wrapped around her knees, willing herself to freeze if it would just keep her from moving.
So she is good at being still. Even when snippets of vision kaleidoscope in and out. Even when a scream chills the blood in her veins. Even when she can see them, all of them, Percy and Viktor and Mafuyu, Wolfwood and Wednesday, Ed and Yves. Ashley stays fucking still. She doesn't not move.
But when a flash of something primal cuts her from the inside out, when the feeling of a limb crack to something new and bestial overtakes her, Ashley not only jerks out of her curled up state.
When she comes out of it, the roar boils her blood until she's screaming for him, sharp and quick and panicked. ]
—Aaah! Ahh, ahh...! Oh, oh no, oh no no no no—
[ She stares at her trembling hands and sees them normal, not long and clawed. She feels her skin, her teeth.
It's at that moment that she realizes something is there with her. That moment where she remembers, she has to be still, and she's not. ]
Ohh my god, oh my god—
[ Now she's still again. But it feels too little, too late. Her eyes dart around, searching. ]
no subject
--all right???? You call THIS all right???--
--how are we supposed to--
The sounds of others crawling to unsteady feet far in the distance seems to echo. In pain. Confused. Horrified.
Furious.
Ashley will feel a comforting touch against her. Voices that reassure, trying to pull her away to somewhere else. Stay with the group. Stay together.
Leave him.
--We'll find a way. Together.--
--We can still talk about this. You know, group-like.--
--If he wants to do it on his own, let him. So what if he finds something really bad--
The growling against the air rolls subtle, the stalking steps moreso, like the prowling of a giant cat who knows exactly where to find its prey.
First to ground. Then to metal. The chassis of the boat creaks with the weight of something on top of it. Above her.
And the voice that rolls out falls heavy on unnatural breath and predatory rumbling under every syllable, despite the familiar cadence far underneath.]
Still out in the open. I can hear it.
How terrified you are.
What point was there in listening, little one, when you're told to sit and wait for your death? Did you think that promise would ever be answered?
no subject
She'd felt it. She'd seen it. And still, when he starts speaking, still Ashley can't help but yelp. Part of her couldn't believe it. She'd never thought of a being like him mutating like this. ]
Va- Vakama...?! No. No no no please, don't hurt me.
[ He's still talking to her. If he's still talking to her, maybe if she begs, he'll leave her alone. ]
cw: brief suicidal ideation
Too late.
[There's the creak of metal with a sound of effort from above. A body goes flying to crash against the rubble-covered sand and come to a halt in the surf. It's the Matoran Vakama, now unresponsive.]
Empty promises, misguided words -- when has it ever not hurt? When has it ever done anything but hurt???
[The sound of claws scrape the metal. He's right there. He's toying with her.]
You understand. If all one becomes is a burden... It doesn't matter if one hides, or leads, or hunts.
Cornered by our own powerlessness. What is left for us?
To be abandoned by anything who called us "friend"? [Bitter. Resentful.] To lay down and let it end, all being for nothing?
Tch. To the universe? We deserve it. Every second of it.
no subject
The beast mocks her, but Ashley scrambles to the Matoran's side on hands and knees. ]
Vakama. Wake up. Please. Please, please please please don't leave me here alone.
no subject
You don't get to choose this anymore!!!
[Ashley bolts from cover, and something snarls unabated as it follows; leaping from the chassis with elongated limbs, motions that are far too coordinated for how lopsided the creature is, a snapping ferocity to how it tracks her. A crash into the sand and water, a feral pursuit of prey.
The Matoran stirs under her hands, coughing and sputtering as his eyes try to focus. But as he gains clarity to the thing hot on her heels, he tries to scramble to his feet, a hand reaching out to try and get her behind him.]
No, NO, you will not--!!!
[Teeth bare as a jet of fire comes forth to slash towards them. But with another flash of movement, of form changing, Vakama launches forward - the real Vakama, now a mirror copy of the creature bearing down on them, eyes still the same familiar gold rather than the sickening green of its counterpart - wrenching that flamed limb backwards in his jaws and yanking his fellow beast into the sea. Animal fighting animal, with Vakama's claws tearing open a line of wounds that leak fuming clouds of shadow from the creature that howls in pain at the action.
Their pursuer temporarily downed, Vakama staggers back towards Ashley with the motions more of a feral cat than a person, a monstrous limb pointing up back into the city.]
Run! Don't listen to anything he says, don't accept anything he tells you -- you run, Ashley! Get out of here!
["You're free.
That's an order."]
no subject
It pays off, as she doesn't startled in the moment before she can see his eyes.
She wants to say, but what about you? and it doesn't come out. She's too scared for it to have a chance of coming out.
One step back, then another, then another, and then she turns on heel and runs as fast as her body can carry her. ]
no subject
The sound of an animalistic roar of pain echoes behind her, a slamming of bodies that is painfully dragged away from her. Over, and over.
Coward.
She runs.
Through streets littered with glass and metal and debris and webbing, fog that feels so thick as to be choking.
Cowards.
Both of you.
The greens of poison turn dark. The fog feels like a hand against her throat.
But she runs.
Until her feet suddenly hit nothing.
Completely opposite of the stark white of their starting point.
An absence. A pit.
Worthlessness, at the end.
Powerful, and yet still so powerless.
At the end you see the truth.
What good is a mentor who sends his pupil to her death, Ashley?
Her body impacts.
And Ashley will immediately wake up in a sea of red across her vision.]
cw light self-harm imagery
It hurts, but it doesn't stop her. Nothing does. When it even feels like her muscles will burst, she keeps running. When the ground itself gives out, her legs flail in facsimile running away until the end.
When she wakes, she curls into herself, shivering as she wraps her arms around her not broken body, what she just experienced still fresh and real in her mind. She shivers. Coward rings softer but continuously in her head. She grips tightly, letting the feeling come back to her limbs by digging her fingernails into the skin.
She'll try to shake the things she'd seen and felt. She won't be able to. ]