⚔ // to the beginning

[fionnuisce]

WHO: Waver + open
WHERE: A labyrinth.
WHEN: Early November. Continuity is a lie, just vibes.
WHAT: Waver gets lost in his own head, this time in a more literal sense.
WARNINGS: Fire, death, mortal peril, toplevels are all marked accordingly!


[The world beyond the tear is, upon first appearance, empty. The ground underfoot reflects the skies above as if it were a mirror; countless stars spread across heaven and earth, illuminating the darkness of night and the black moon overhead. Drifting past at eye level are shards of crystallized light no larger than palm-sized, as though the smallest stars couldn't decide whether to come to rest in heaven or on earth. Each floating fragment holds something within it like a vision within a crystal ball--in one, flickering orange of fire. Another, a swirling spiral of colors in gold, crimson, and black. A third, silhouetted trees in a dark forest. Fourth, the pale glow of a city skyline.]

[Somewhere in the paths of this labyrinth is the one whose memories have shaped it. Dead, alive, in danger, there is no way of knowing.]

[To move forward, all that must be done is to reach out and take a star in your hand.]

Comments

cw: natural disaster-adjacent, offscreen death, implied immolation

[fionnuisce]

[The world within the fiery fragment explodes.]

[It had been a residential district in the southwest of a large if quiet city. Opulent homes of old mage families had stood upon that ground for generations, and now the Makiri and Tohsaka estates were no more than flaming rubble in an unrecognizable expanse of fire and death. Overhead if one could see through the fiery haze, even the moon itself seemed an endless black void...but only so for a fleeting instant before a cloud of smoke passed through the sky, returning it to a dim yellowed glow overhead in a blazing orange sky.]

[Dozens of Fuyuki City's homes--the remnants of them--collapse as fire encompasses the land in all directions, creating a hell that seems to have no end. Faint screams echo through unbearable heat carrying choking smell of smoke and burning flesh. To stand still is to die, and to move forward could easily mean the same.]

[But the only way out is through.]

oh boy oh boy

[missingache]

[This was a lot. As someone who had gone through the ice gate, and so many others, this was just a lot. Having never been near more than a bonfire in his life, the heat was rather unbearable. There's vague memories of having been surrounded by flames before. A man with vivid red hair and just as vivid green eyes. Those memories could be shoved aside as Roxas moves forward.

Drowning out the noises was impossible even as he coughs louder than he thinks he ever has in his life. Just what was going on? The smell of burning flesh at least is foreign enough that he doesn't register what it is at this time.]

H-Hello! Is anyone there?!

[fionnuisce]

[This was bad. This was almost as bad as things could possibly get. Being trapped in the worst night of his life was not what Waver had wanted or expected today, and hearing the voice of one of his students made the sickening feeling of dread a whole lot heavier in his chest.]

Over here- [There was a harsh crack almost like a whip, followed by an explosion of debris as if knocked aside by some barely-controlled force. On the other side was an ash-stained professor and some kind of animated silver liquid at his side, coiling and trembling like an agitated serpent struggling to hold its form.]

[missingache]

[The debris being destroyed makes Roxas jump, his hands balling into fists as light gathers to form his Keyblades. Upon seeing it was his teacher, they're dismissed as he runs over. The silver liquid stuff does cause some pause as he stops short to catch what little breath he can.]

Where are we? And-[Should he question that stuff?]-Is that your weapon?

[fionnuisce]

By necessity, not choice. I can't control it well, so try to stay out of its way--no, forget that, are you alright?

['Where' was, of course, completely glossed over.]

We have to get out of here. I'm not entirely sure where the tear out of this labyrinth is, but I can at least get us out of this.

[missingache]

[That silver thing is going to be avoided for sure. It looks... concerning.

The "where" part better be answered later.]

Lead the way then. I can fight if we run into anything.

continued cw for all that shit above

[nmc0204]

[ Though the place, the time and the cause are all surely different, Ryoko remembers it being something like this. Heat and smoke and an acrid taste in your mouth, screams buffeted to you on the wind and knowing that no matter which direction you go, you're as good as dead. She'd been convinced that having seen and pushed through this once before would be enough to give her the strength to do it again but she's dismayed to find that her insides have frozen over. She tries to take a step forward but a long-buried terror and helplessness has reared its head and she's glued to the spot. ]

What... what is all this...?!

[fionnuisce]

Shinonome-!

[Waver half-staggered out from a nearby mess of debris and ash, mildly singed and very upset that today was going from bad to worse to catastrophe.]

Over here--are you hurt?!

[nmc0204]

[ At the sound of his voice Ryoko jumps and spins around. There's a look of panic, of cornered animal alarm on her face that, while it's what you'd expect any reasonable teen in this situation, looks utterly out of place on Ryoko. It's a little uncanny valley, almost. ]

I'm not– [ Pause. Swallow. She's trying to regain her composure and visibly failing. ] I'm not injured but– what is this?!

[fionnuisce]

A really, really bad memory and I'm sorry you're caught up in it. Come on--there's no time to stand here explaining, we have to get out of here.

cw: lovecraftian horror

[fionnuisce]

[Within the spiraling fragment lies a massive and wide river, coated with a purple haze spawned by deeply dark and cursed magic. Perhaps it's better that the air--smelling of rotting fish and blood--isn't clear, because that would reveal the form of the colossal monster that stands in the river's center.

[On the banks where you now stand, unspeakable monsters crawl from the water. At least four feet tall, they almost resemble starfish in shape--massive tentacles lined with compound insectoid eyes, a mouth full of too many sharp teeth grinding and scraping together in their center. Some appear even more malformed than others--spindly segmented legs and transparent wings twitching uselessly in places they did not belong, ambling along the ground in a threat of numbers more than power.]

[High overhead, a golden airship circles erratically...as though it's somehow having trouble remaining airborne.]

[poisontippedcure]

[Rose "lucks" out into finding this fragment. She's prepared for a fight, she always is, but that doesn't make the scene in front of her easier to comprehend. She's fought gods. She's fought eldritch abominations. Hell, she even nearly turned into an eldritch abomination once.]

[But this isn't something that she was prepared for. At most, it reminds her of the rampant destruction on the First. She wasn't a fan of it then and she isn't a fan of it now. Unfortunately, she's been in enough of these to know that the only way out is through, and so she draws her scythe and starts to get to work. She cuts down several of the smaller monsters, but they keep forming. Lovely.]

I don't know whose this is, but I could use your help! These are too persistent for my liking.

[fionnuisce]

Shape ist leben!

[The incantation was snapped harshly, magical energy channeled through wire that shaped itself into a rudimentary sparrow. The glowing bird flitted through the monstrous creatures, circling around them before the man at the other end of the line pulled sharply to draw it tight enough to cut through several at once.]

Sorry about this, but we definitely need to get the hell away from the riverbank!

[The golden airship was, gradually, looking much less golden--slowly but surely being overtaken by some horrible black corruption, it shook as though two people were fighting over the controls.]

[poisontippedcure]

[For all the strangeness that is happening today, Rose doesn’t look twice at Waver’s magic. She rushes as far away from the river as she can, black wisps surround her as she moves.]

[When she eventually reaches somewhere that feels safe, she can’t stop panting. Escaping from a weird eldrich abomination is exhausting, apparently.]

What in the seven hells is that?

[fionnuisce]

Great question, one I can't answer--call it a summoned monster, because that was all I ever figured out about it!

[Looking back as if measuring the distance, Waver scowled in annoyance, frustration, or a complicated emotion that was several forms of 'infuriated' at once. the reason for this--or one possible reason-- was that the airship turned sharply as they withdrew, immediately putting itself on a collision course with the tremendous creature silhouetted by mist and choking fog.]

[It struck with a massive splash of water and trembling earth from the point of impact, the creature's pained shriek causing the very air around them to shudder for miles around and to even the city beyond. Paired with that was the rending of corrupted golden metal as the wounded monster began to rip the airship apart with countless tentacles from its barely discernible form; amidst the mist, water, and utter unmitigated chaos, it was hard to tell just what had transpired at all in only a matter of scant seconds.]

...It's not over yet. Are you hurt?

cw: standard mortal peril

[fionnuisce]

[The forest seems endless, an expanse of trees mostly bare in the early winter season. Night has long since fallen, and the forest cover is so thick it's barely possible to determine direction by the stars or moon.]

[It's silent and still. Perhaps even tranquil in its isolation and quiet; this forest holds some ambient feeling of magic in the air, a presence of something powerful enough to make the area itself feel like a world cut off from the outside. No sounds of the distant city, no lights of the skyline...just the night air and the trees.]

[Until the distant sound of splintering and collapsing wood resound through the night, trees either knocked down or torn out from their very roots. Much closer is the sound of frantic approaching footsteps and a flash of black and green between the trees--which is to say, the Professor himself running for his life. He'll reach out to grab your hand or arm and pull you along insistently, snapping:]

Don't ask questions, just fucking run and don't stop until I tell you to!

[In the direction he'd come from, the sound of metal grinding on metal and an unholy scream cut the chilled winter air.]

[hoshikiri]

[In the blackness of space, what other option has Takame ever had but to seek a crystal's light?

To be met at the end of it with deafening silence was more alarming than abject chaos. To be surrounded by trees and naught else made his keen eyes dart everywhere to find a way forward, a path or anything. He would make one himself if he must. But this incredible presence even he could sense...

Before he could think much, some kind of path was being made and suddenly Takame was running. Running with his hand grabbed by the Professor. With no explanation.]

What is--?! [He was told not to ask questions and just run. So he did. But he couldn't help looking behind him and reaching for the hilt of his Gunblade upon hearing that horrid scream.] An enemy?!

[fionnuisce]

Sort of-?!

[Pouring reinforcement magecraft into his right leg, Waver glanced back over his shoulder as he ran; the chaotic sounds of grinding metal and splintering trees was closer than he would have liked, but its source wasn't yet in sight.]

Don't bother, you can't fight this--mortals don't stand a chance!

[hoshikiri]

Mortals? [Even in the thick of it, the word choice was too strange for Takame not to notice. Indeed, Takame was mortal but he's eliminated gods before.

He'll not ignore the advice, but if the Professor was in danger too.]

Will aether work? Can it be shot? Kept at bay?

[fionnuisce]

Only by something as strong as itself, which neither of us are!

['Humans' sermed too light a term. Left room for argument where there was no time to waste on the semantics. The creature chasing them was beyond the demons of the Qliphoth, beyond anything that could be fought or killed--more akin to a force of nature than a living thing.]

If--if we can just get the hell out of here, the exit to this damn labyrinth has to be somewhere-

nothing bad happens in this one i promise

[fionnuisce]

[On a hill high over the city, a curving road beneath the dark of a fading sunset lined by streetlights. The city skyline can be seen in the distance, and if one looks further out they can just about make out the shape of some colossal impact, as if the river had been struck by a meteor near the bridge.]

[Something horrible had shaken Fuyuki in recent days, and perhaps it was the aftershock of that something which led to tonight feeling so quiet as if in the tense calm of a temporary ceasefire.]

[Two figures walked along the road in the silence of a lapsed conversation. A few steps ahead, a man resembling someone in his early thirties--'resembling', because something about him felt much, much older. Though he wore ordinary dark clothes and a green scarf against the early winter chill, nothing about him was 'ordinary'. Anything more than a passing glance would reveal there was something ethereal about him, some kind of flawlessness that brought to mind demigods and fae alike. Everything about his presence would feel inhuman to those who could sense as much; like he radiated ancient magic beyond all mortal power. Despite all of that, there was nothing threatening in the way he moved. He carried himself with the pride and strength of a knight, with all the power in the world to protect others. Wavy dark hair was pushed back out of his face, and golden eyes were hidden by a pair of dark sunglasses.]

[Walking behind him was a figure far less remarkable. No more or less than a mortal human and a full foot shorter than his companion, he looked far younger than his likely age. Green eyes were downcast with straight black hair hanging in his face--young or not, he looked exhausted. Like he'd walked through hell the past couple days.]

[In much the way of shades and memories, they passed by without notice of any other presence, continuing down the road overlooking a city on the brink of a future disaster.]

[...And in the direction from which they'd come, the click of a cane on the pavement heralded the person hesitating to follow them, staring off into the distance in silent unease. A person with straight black hair and green eyes...wearing very familiar sunglasses.]

[robopriest]

...

[It feels like nothing, it feels like everything. Two men, one after the other, in silence. Hansa stares for a long moment, something like a heavy weight settling over the scene. A brilliant hero, a tired young man.]

[He turns for a moment, catching the sight of a familiar face, and something clicks, he thinks. That story he had been told, about that grand man he looked up to...]

[Hansa finds himself reaching out to the older version of the two - unsure why he is even here in a memory, in something private, but he's worried, regardless.]

...Waver.

[fionnuisce]

[He'd taken half a step to follow when he heard his name--his real name, even--and that caused him to hesitate more than the situation at hand already had.]

...Hansa. [Waver didn't dare look at him; as though looking away from the surroundings would turn them all to the nothingness of a dream at dawn.] Sorry, I...didn't mean for anyone else to get caught in this.

[robopriest]

Don't apologize.

[He can tell the stalwartness of the man's stare, stubborn as always - it sparks a pang of fondness in him, even if the man isn't addressing him head on. He understands that. His own one-eyed gaze turns towards the two men walking away, silent for a moment.]

This is...your memory, isn't it.

[fionnuisce]

...from a long time ago, yes. I was only nineteen--hadn't even fucked up my leg yet.

[Despite the flippant remark, everything about Waver was tense now--a short distance away the pair had stopped, younger mage looking out to the city and speaking in indistinct words but a tone of quiet frustration. The taller Servant raised his sunglasses to rest on his head, wearing a mildly bemused look and answering in the same barely audible words but far more matter of fact and at ease.]

Hansa, I--you don't have to stay or anything. I'll find the way back out of here in a minute, I just...