You fight me / flat on my lonely face I fell

[reconjunction]

Characters: Irvine and you.
Date: 1-5 August 2015 (2016 in-game)
Location: All over the city
Situation: This situation looks awfully familiar, and Irvine is convinced that this is all a trick/imprisonment by his canon’s big bad. The solution? Find the ‘people’ that don’t fit the setting and kill them to unlock the exit.
Warnings/Rating: Almost certainly violence.

A: He who fights and runs away … [1ST OF AUGUST ONLY]
The buildings and street faded up from white blankness like a staticky connection – at first in black and white, then in colour, then with sound. It wasn't the place he meant to be. Nowhere near. What was this? They beat the sorceress, why was he walking out of that damned whitespace and into some city he’d never seen before?

Irvine’s heart pounded as he scanned the area, walking long-legged down the street with his coat flapping behind him and his hat shading his face from the sun. Most of the people on the street were humanoid, but some of them have … things, scales and wings and horns. Monsters? Some new junction? Was this the sorceress’s endgame in case she lost, just shoving them into some space filled with monsters crossed with people, as if that would stop them from fighting back?

Damn. In Irvine’s case, she was probably right.

One of them came at him and Irvine’s shotgun jerked up, and they backed away instead. But it drew attention; some of the others started eyeing him, and Irvine decided that discretion is the better part of valour. Even if they were all just constructs, like the fake sorceresses right as the time-compression began, the last thing he needed was to turn the whole setting against him.

And he didn’t even know where the others were, either. Whether they were following. He hoped they made it out. He’d call, but what if there was something else nearby, something that couldn’t see him in among the constructs, and he called attention to himself?

Dangerous. It was all dangerous. So Irvine didn’t yell, and stuck to walking by the sides of buildings, watching and looking for portals. It took about two hours before he realised why he felt so weird — because he didn’t have access to his junctions, just like in the castle. It had taken one of the others pointing it out before he noticed then, too. He wasn’t used to having junctions on the whole day, every day. He wasn’t used to feeling weird about not feeling them.

That definitely meant he couldn’t shout for the others. He had no way to defend himself, except Exeter, and Exeter was a wonderfully advanced gun but she wasn’t made of magic.

So he walked on, not drawing attention—or trying not to, anyway—avoiding anyone who spoke to him, to the point of running if necessary.

[ooc: Irvine will retreat from any prolonged interaction, but feel free to chase him! I would like for him to escape no matter what, before he finds out too many details about Keeliai, for continuity purposes.]


B: … lives to fight another day.

Finding a place to sleep wasn’t too difficult, for Irvine. He made use of the heights, because not many people had a tendency to look up. For all that it was easier to fight on the ground, alongside comrades, he’d always felt safer when he was higher than everyone else. It still wasn’t ideal and he woke up fitfully every couple of hours, but that was good. He didn’t have comrades here. That was fine. He was used to that. Used to waking up every two hours like clockwork, waking up in an instant at the most threatening sound.

It sucked, that kind of schedule, and he hadn’t missed it. But it worked and gave him time to put together the details, and not go nuts from exhaustion along the way. It kept him safe enough until his junctions came back, which was frankly a surprise. A welcome one, but a surprise. Wasn't going to stop him from using them. If he couldn't use his junctions, he was screwed no matter what.

He still didn’t know a couple of things. Didn’t know where the exits were. Didn’t know whether the local were real and transplanted, junctioned, fake. Didn’t know whether this was a city from the past – maybe Centran – or a city from the future he hadn’t experienced. Didn’t know whether he’d meet the sorceress herself here, from some point in her timeline before they killed her.

But Irvine knew about the Foreigners. They were the ones that didn’t fit, the ones with powers, like the seal guardians in the sorceress’s castle who kept the GFs and all their bestowed powers contained until they were dead.

It was pretty obvious, after that. Killing the seal guardians had released the GFs’ powers, one by one. The so-called Foreigners didn’t fit, so they were the ones that were real and keeping this whole place together, whether leftover time-compression or something else. Prison, maybe. Maybe the others were all locked up in whitespace and relying on Irvine to get them out, and this was the final gateway.

Irvine couldn’t let them down. He wasn’t very good at a lot of things, but he wasn’t going to let his comrades down. So he watched. Tracked. Waited. When timing was right, he struck.

[ooc: Skulduggery’s thread in (B) will come, date-wise, before any others, but feel free to tag in whenever. I’d prefer Irvine didn’t die, which is fine because he’ll run away if he’s overpowered, but he’s definitely aiming to kill others, so lemme know if you’re prefer that didn’t happen and we can arrange for some method of escape on the part of either him or your character as needed!]

Comments

B

[needmetoo]

Heights had always been something Xion was fond of. They hearkened back to the days that she spent with Roxas and Axel at the Clock Tower, days that were starting to seem further and further away. It was a little scary sometimes, thinking of how much time she'd spent in Keeliai compared to home. Some of her harsher emotions, her homesickness, how much she missed her friends, had slowly become more muted over time. They were still there, but not nearly as harsh as they had been.

Being on heights also gave her a chance to think, and it was for that reason that she made a corridor up to one of the roofs in the Water district. Generally speaking it was easier to make corridors than to ask someone if she could go on their roof.

Once she found a good spot, she sat down at the edge, letting her feet dangle over while she stared out over the streets and canals below. Looking but not really seeing, lost in thought as she was. Even though she's wearing native clothing, rather than her ruined Organization coat, she's still not sure how long she'll stay up here. It's so hot.

[reconjunction]

Sleeping on the roofs was usually Irvine's best bet. Or napping, as the case may be. So was eating on the roof, mostly because eating meant he'd just stolen something from one of the locals, and even though he wasn't wholly convinced this place was 'real' it was at least real enough that he could eat and stop being hungry.

Irvine wasn't on the same roof, but one a little taller two buildings over. If he hadn't caught that show of ... whatever it was, transportation magic or Haste or something ... he would've thought she was just one of the locals enjoying the sights.

But he did. And he lowered the bread in his hand and looked away, because this was low, making the seals in the shape of kids. Irvine was tired of this, really tired. There were too many people. Too many possible seals. This whole place was ... it was structured to beat him down, done on purpose to make him doubt and not want to fight anymore.

It was smart. Irvine hadn't thought the sorceress was this smart about how people thought, but it was working.

Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.

Every chance he got, he looked at their pictures in his journal. Read his entries. Reminded himself why he had to get back. Last year he wouldn't have cared that much. He'd have kept running out of fear but he wouldn't have kept fighting when he had nothing to fight for. This place wasn't killing him. He had nothing in Galbadia to go back to. It could've been a good life, if he'd gotten here last year.

But now he had them. And he had to get back to them. They'd promised each other they'd face all this together. For once in his life, he wasn't going to let them down.

These people weren't people. They were just constructs. They were just seals, like the monsters in the castle, cast to be harder to kill not because they were hard to kill but because they looked human. Irvine tossed the chunk of bread over the side of the roof and climbed to his feet, and walked across the roof perpendicular to the girl until he was hidden behind a chimney stack. Then he leaned back against it and took stock. He was tired. Too tired to take on a seal?

No. No way to get out of it, unless he wanted to swallow the bitter pill of saying he hadn't even tried.

She's a little girl.

Shut up.

No fire. Too dry. No lightning either.

She's a little girl.

... He should make it quick. Irvine took a deep breath and made sure his junctions were squared, then readied Death and pointed at the girl. The spell manifested as a Reaper, with skull-mask and scythe, and all it would take was a swing of that scythe. A hit with that scythe.

It didn't always hit, sometimes for not much reason, but Irvine hoped it would this time. He didn't want to have to fight a child, and at least this would be fast.

[needmetoo]

Thank goodness for Organization training and reaction time. Whether the spell would've hit or not on its own, they'd never know, because a split second before it swung, Xion glanced back, sensing the movement behind her... and fell forward, off the edge of the roof.

She turned as she fell though, catching the edge of it with her hand. The scythe swung harmlessly at the air where she'd been, and once the blow had passed, she - with the ease of long amounts of practice - hauled herself back up. And looked for a way away from the edge. Having a wall to your back was a good idea. Having a sheer drop was not.

"What are you doing?" she yelped, eyes first scanning the Reaper, then further out, to see if there was anybody else, or even just a better location to do this from. She could always make a corridor away if need be. And she had the Barrier spell Aqua had been teaching her. There was some comfort in that, though not much.

[reconjunction]

The Reaper faded, good only for one swipe, and Irvine felt a little cold. He always felt a little cold after that spell, and didn't know whether that was Death's warning or Carbuncle's disapproval at being used to summon the Reaper.

But it meant the chances of Death working a second time were slim to none and he couldn't afford to waste those spells.

Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.

Instead Irvine went around the side of the chimney stack, jumped from a lower building from an angle he hoped she wouldn't see. She was on her guard but if she thought it was just a random attack, maybe she'd calm down, let him take her out fast, before she suffered for it.

[needmetoo]

Unfortunately, that attack was a little too... well, flashy, for Xion to let her guard down anytime soon, even as the Reaper faded. And she could swear that she heard movement on the edges of her vision, out of sight.

She whipped her head around as she searched, reminded of the Stealth Sneak she'd once spent several days hunting down repeatedly; with her Keyblade gone, every time she'd taken the thing out it'd just sprung to life again. She hated Heartless she couldn't see.

Still keeping a sharp eye out, she made good on her intention of getting away from the edge, moving towards the middle of the roof. And as she did so, she called Kingdom Key to her hand. Just in case. She had no real intention of attacking, but being caught defenseless - as she very nearly had - did not appeal.

"Who's there?" There was a definite edge of unease in her voice. She half wondered if she should call Aqua or Ven up on the radio, let them know where she was, in case something happened.

[reconjunction]

Okay, well. Kid had training. Good training, too, for someone young. Practically Galbadian, even.

Yeah, don't think about that.

Irvine didn't answer, but the words and the tone wormed into his head and he took some deep breaths to keep that twisting overture of panic out of his gut, his back against a closer chimney stack.

Instead he dug into a pouch on his belt, finding one of the magic stone pieces and tossing it across the roof to make her look away. Without stopping to see if she had, because if he stopped he'd choke, Irvine swung out and raised Exeter, sighting and shooting with smooth practice, his heart hammering in his chest.

He tried not to hope she was faster than his aim was good.

[needmetoo]

If he'd come before April, it may have connected. If she hadn't been shot once already, if Aqua hadn't spent the months since training and drilling her in barrier spells, if she hadn't gotten into enough trouble because she hadn't been able to beat all those traps in the sewers, then she might not have been fast enough.

The moment Xion heard the shot, she screamed - a short, panicked thing - and dropped, simultaneously raising her arms to create the Barrier spell that Aqua had taught her, that she'd been practicing after the sewers over and over. And so instead, a spherical magical wall formed around her, that rippled where the bullet hit it.

In the first second after, the barrier held, and Xion cringed against the injury that might have been. In the second, Xion slowly lifted her head as the barrier fell. And in the third, she bolted, white-faced with panic and scrambling to her feet as she went . She hadn't seen where the bullet hit the barrier, so she had no idea if she was going the wrong way or the right. But she knew she had to get out of here. Yosuke wasn't here to help this time if she got shot again. Nobody was.

So advanced was her state of panic that she didn't realize until a few seconds later - and two rooftops over - that dismissing her Keyblade would help her move faster.

[reconjunction]

Irvine wasn't expecting that. Well, okay, yes, the barrier, which had sprung up fast--good draw on this one. But not the shriek and not the instant attempt to flee. He wasn't ready, and it took a couple of seconds before he lunged forward to follow.

His legs were longer, but she had adrenaline and fear. It took him longer to get across the divides between buildings, his coat snapping behind him as he ran. He breathed easily, his junctions affording him a boost in stamina--if he could just keep on her long enough, even if he couldn't catch up right away, he might be able to run her down.

[needmetoo]

She could hear his footsteps behind her, and the snap of his coat. There was someone after her. But who, and why? It only fed into her fear, making her try to push herself even faster. Try, at least.

Another minute in though, and another trickle of reason - like the one that had made her dismiss her Keyblade - worked its way into her mind. How had she gotten up here in the first place? Nobody else she'd seen knew how to use corridors. Stupid stupid stupid for not thinking about it sooner.

Waving a hand, a corridor bloomed into existence some twenty feet ahead. She sprinted through it and spun for just a moment to see who it was who'd been chasing her. A Foreigner, by the look of his clothing, and chasing after her fast. She didn't dare pause any longer, or else he'd run in after her. Waving her hands again, she closed the opening behind her, cutting off her escape.

She took a few shaky steps back, half terrified he would find a way to run in after her. And then her knees gave out as she let out a choked noise that could have been a sob. Not that anybody could hear it in the darkness of the corridor. She couldn't stay here. She didn't have a coat.

Aqua. She had to find Aqua.

[reconjunction]

Irvine was gaining. Not by much, but by enough, right before that black portal erupted in front of her. There was darkness in that place, the kind of darkness that still made his stomach turn over because it was the opposite of the white-space he'd walked through to get here--the complete absence of everything else.

Then it closed and Irvine tried to stop before he had to find a way to the next building or fall off this one. It was a near thing; he wavered on the edge for a moment before regaining his balance, and then searched the area where the portal had shown.

He even tried Scan, but the spell didn't latch onto any target, and in the end Irvine was left there with his heart pounding.

Kid had gotten away, and he kind of felt relieved.

But she had direct access to a portal. Definitely a seal. If he only had to kill some, and not all, then this one would have to be on his list. And that left a rock in Irvine's gut bigger than the flip when he'd seen the darkness.

Another moment and he realised he should probably leave, before anyone else saw, or just in case reinforcements showed up. A few seconds later, the roof was empty.