tushanshu_logs | You fight me / flat on my lonely face I fell

Entry tags:

You fight me / flat on my lonely face I fell

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!]

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It had been decided between himself and Skul what was to be done. Whoever the stranger was, whatever his reason, he needed to be stopped. Someone was going to get hurt. They had decided on routes and were keeping contact via their radio sets, and so far, nothing.

It wasn't that Klaus didn't have any sympathy for the stranger. For most, being plucked from your world and thrust into a completely different one would be an utterly horrifying experience. Still, the man was a little too trigger happy for Klau's comfort. He and Skul were of like-mind that the man needed to have the situation properly explained to him before something truly regrettable happened.

Klaus scoured the markets for any sign of the man. Being tall had its advantages - he could see very well in crowded places. The disadvantage was that he stood out like a sore thumb and anyone with a working pair of eyes could spot him a mile off.

By the time Klaus and Skulduggery had agreed on a general plan, carried out the plan, and caught sight of the powerful newcomer, Skulduggery was finally starting to get the hang of being alive. He'd slept, for one thing. Not for very long, but he'd managed to sleep, and that was the important thing. He'd even managed to eat something.

It was frankly amazing how such small changes made such a large impact on his general performance. It made it easier to think. Easier to make decisions. No wonder Valkyrie insisted on food breaks so often.

"I found him," Skulduggery told Klaus over the radio. "If you're still patrolling Central, I think he's headed towards you."

"Which direction is he coming from? I'll head him off if you can keep tailing him," Klaus answered, quickening his pace.

His eyes scoured the crowd again. This was not looking good, especially if things came down to a fight.

"Is there a way to steer him to a less populated area?"

"We might not have to," Skulduggery pointed out. "He deliberately didn't attack me until there was no one else around, and from everything I've heard, that's his modus operandi. If he thinks we're following him, he should lead us to a less populated area."

And if he didn't, they could deal with it from there. Skulduggery had a hard time believing someone incapable of shooting an unarmed man on the ground would be capable of opening fire on innocent bystanders.

"Of course, then he might try to kill us," Skulduggery mused, "but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And speaking of crossing bridges, We just left Earth. He's circling through Water, but headed towards Central. That should give you a few minutes."

Skulduggery was right. Irvine wasn't too good at knowing when he was being followed, because he was usually the follower. It wasn't until he got to Central and spotted the tall man with the fangs in the crowd that he hesitated. He was tall but not nearly that tall.

Still. Ten to one the tall man with fangs was one of them Foreigners, and at least he wasn't a kid. The question was how to get him to follow somewhere there weren't any crowds.

But when Irvine caught the man's eye, the man moved toward him. Maybe he'd heard about the other attempts. Either way, the man was following, so Irvine ducked down an alley into the strings of backways, where there would be fewer people and the buildings were empty. He'd learned from fighting that water-girl.

Klaus nodded at the radio. "Understood. I'll head him off there."

He had no trouble getting through the crowd. It parted naturally. Most had the sense to get out the way of a brutish looking man of seven foot and three hundred pounds.

"I've spotted him. I doubt it will look good but let's try to lead him down an alley. If it does come to a fight, I don't want casualties. Accidental or otherwise."

Irvine seemed to have spotted him as well, though that wasn't much of a feat. Anyone with a working pair of eyes could spot Klaus coming a mile off. It was fortunate that Irvine headed down an alley - it saved Klaus trying to herd the cowboy-looking fellow somewhere less populated.

He followed, calm as could be. As he turned the corner, he raised both arms so that Irvine would see he had no intention of attacking. That could change at a moment's notice, but that was up to Irvine. Klaus preferred talking first.

"I would ask that you explain yourself as to why you're attacking the people here," he said levelly.

They needed more Foreigners like Klaus. Not that Erskine and Bakura and various other morally questionable people weren't helpful, but every now and then Skulduggery wanted an ally he could trust without restraint. And Anton had a Hotel to run.

When Klaus followed the man in the duster coat down the alley, Skulduggery stopped and changed direction to circle around and approach from the other side. Like Klaus, he wanted to try talking first, and more than one person approaching could have been seen as a threat. It was a threat. Admittedly, trapping someone in the middle of an alley was also a threat, but at least in that scenario Skulduggery would be able to stop the man from escaping.

He wanted to try talking first, but he was fully expecting that not to work.

By the time Klaus came around the corner Irvine had already got up onto the roof for the height advantage. For this guy, he'd probably need it. And maybe that would've been okay, except that the guy raised his hands and started talking at him, like he knew Irvine was still there. Because he probably did.

Irvine hesitated with his finger a hair from Exeter's trigger. Unarmed. He hadn't been able to shoot an unarmed man back when he was adrenalised and it was that skeleton he'd accidentally resurrected. He couldn't shoot one now, after having spent three days trying to kill children.

You'd think an unarmed man would be easier.

Quistis. Zell. Squall. Rinoa. Selphie.

Irvine slumped against the wall and took a deep breath, and wasn't wholly surprised to find his cheeks were wet. "Sorry, guys," he whispered. "I tried." But he wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't anymore, and even if this wasn't, it hit him right where he hurt.

He couldn't kill unarmed men.

He couldn't kill children.

You were always too weak to be SeeD, Kinneas. The only reason you were willing to kill Seifer was because you hadn't seen him in years and didn't even like him the first time.

Irvine let his head rest back against the wall. "It kinda sucks," he said to the man in the alley below, "but you're all seals and you're keeping me trapped here, and I promised I wouldn't leave my friends alone. It sucks because it isn't your fault that I have to kill you to get out, but that's how it is anyway."

Slowly Klaus lowered his hands to his sides, still keeping them in plain view. It was as he thought- the man wasn't a dangerous maniac. Whatever his situation was, it sounded like he'd been trapped in some kind of illusion.

He didn't correct Irvine. They weren't seals, but people. If he said that though, Irvine had no reason to believe it. He wasn't here to escalate the situation. Irvine looked young. Probably too young to be toting around heavy firearms, but he knew in some places people had to grow up fast. He couldn't have been more than eighteen though, and the last thing Klaus wanted to do was physically injure someone who was still legally a child in his world.

"My name is Klaus Reinherz," he said, even toned. He took a cautious step forward so that he was more in Irvine's sight. "Would you tell me your name? And what has happened to you?"

He didn't think he was killing real people. That explained quite a bit.

Skulduggery stepped deliberately into plain view on the other side of the alley, but didn't interrupt and didn't try to get any closer. He wasn't any more physically intimidating than Klaus was at the moment, and Klaus was handling the situation well. So long as no one else came barging in at the exact inopportune moment, there was actually a pretty good chance this could end well.

Great. Now the seals were giving him names. And asking questions. Why would they do that? The sorceress had been manipulative as hell, but that was just to get Seifer on side. Why would she bother to play this kind of game? She didn't do this for fun, she did it for power.

Why keep up the charade?

Irvine didn't really like the potential answers. Like the fact that maybe these were real people and the sorceress had put seals in 'em anyway. Was that possible? If it was possible she'd have done it already, wouldn't she?

Movement caught Irvine's eye and over the edge of the roof he saw the man he'd accidentally resurrected step into view. That was stupid. Irvine hadn't known he was there. It was stupid in that way of people who didn't actually want to hurt anyone. Like him.

Constructs weren't that considerate.

"Irvine," he said at last, and tiredly. "Irvine Kinneas. There was a sorceress. She did a time whammy. Compressed the past, present and future. We beat her, but ... then we had to find our way out. I should've come out in my time, with my friends. I shouldn't've come out here. I don't know this place. So it's gotta belong to her, or be someplace in my future. Or way into the past."

Everything made sense now.

"And this is why you believe killing the people will set you free." There was nothing incredulous about his tone. He didn't sound like he was mocking Irvine or that the fact they were people should have been obvious.

He just nodded. Because it made sense.

"It sounds like you've walked through hell and back," he continued. "But this... this is none of those places. It's another world entirely. The foreigners here are like you; brought here rather... unexpectedly."

He gestured to Skullduggery who'd finally made his presence known. "Mr. Pleasant and I are from different versions of a world called Earth. I understand that this is a lot to take in, and your situation sounds unique, but it is the truth."

In that case, mentioning sorcery didn't sound like a very good idea, not until Kinneas was more inclined to talk. Then again, if someone from Kinneas's world could have that kind of resurrection magic, that kind of power, and still not be considered a sorcerer or sorceress... then it really wasn't any wonder Kinneas reacted the way he had. Whoever the sorceress was, she sounded a little like a version of Mevolent.

"We're outside of the regular flow of time," Skulduggery added, taking a single step closer. "The world you come from has been put on hold. Your friends are probably fine. If you were supposed to return to your own time with them, that's exactly what you're going to do when you go back. Not a second will have passed."

The concept was a tad complicated for some, but Kinneas had been the one to bring up time travel. Odds were, he would understand it pretty quickly.

They even had an excuse for the time stuff going on. And it sounded really good. Well, okay, it sounded really bad, because if it was true then Irvine had been going around trying to kill real people--and some of them had been kids--but what if it wasn't? If it wasn't, then it was just a trick. A really good trick.

How can it be real? It's too convenient. No one else would send someone who looks like Matron here.

Irvine wiped his eyes and gripped Exeter tight, and exhaled slowly. He'd spent too long talking, and there were two of them. But they didn't seem to be expecting him to attack anymore. It'd be a good strategy.

"I saw her," he said, sliding so he could cover the resurrected man down Exeter's sights. "Kinda. I saw a woman here who looks just like my Matron. The sorceress took her over and used her body from the future to reach back into the past, and I saw someone here who looks just like Matron before she was even possessed. That's not a coincidence. That's a taunt."

He had the shot. He should've taken the shot. If he'd been in Galbadia, they'd have told him to take the shot, and he probably would've screwed it up out of nerves. But ... the man had said 'go back'. Like there was a way out, one that didn't involve killing people, real or constructed.

So Irvine just rested there, his coat hiding Exeter's gleam while he aimed at the resurrected man, and waited to see how they'd answer.

Klaus was baffled by this for all of a moment. He'd seen the way Irvine moved the way he'd shifted his weight just so. So he was a sniper. Probably very skilled. Perhaps not the virtuoso that K.K. was, but she had a good twenty years experience on Irvine. If he hadn't fought at her side hundreds of times, he'd probably have missed the nigh imperceptible change.

Klaus moved slowly so that he was nearer to Skul, just slightly in front of the man. If his Shield of Sanctification couldn't be damaged by an oncoming monster of several tons, or an attack from a Blood Breed, he'd be very surprised if a shot from Irvine would do the trick. But he'd have to react quickly.

"I don't think it's what you believe it to be. There are parallel realities at work here, which I would surmise to be the most likely explanation. The woman you met may have looked like your matron, but it wasn't to taunt you. Which is why-"

Klaus bowed. He was a brute of a man, immovably stubborn and proud, but he was not above such an act of humility.

"-I ask you reconsider your course of action. I understand you have no reason to believe this, but murdering foreigners here won't get you home."

China. Inwardly, Skulduggery groaned, and since he didn't quite have control over his facial muscles yet, it showed. China did mention coming across this Foreigner when Skulduggery saw her last. She neglected to mention that she terrified him even further.

In retrospect, he should probably have guessed that.

"Black hair?" Skulduggery asked. "Blue eyes? Beautiful beyond compare?" He nodded. "The woman you met is a friend of mine with the annoying ability to make people she meets for the first time trust her without question. She can't help it. Her name is China Sorrows. So you're right; she is a taunt. She just isn't the sort of taunt you're thinking of."

Klaus covered the rest, and there wasn't much more Skulduggery could say without sounding suspiciously insistent. He hadn't missed the step Klaus took, but didn't move at all himself. Further suspicion was the last thing they needed.

Just like that, the opportunity for the shot vanished. The big guy was really observant, if he'd seen that. Or maybe he'd just worked with snipers before. Or maybe Irvine was as tired as he felt, and he'd missed some tell he wouldn't have usually.

He felt relieved, that the big guy got in the way. No one would do that if they didn't have a shield spell or something. It gave Irvine an excuse not to fire. Especially since that description matched the woman he'd met.

Especially especially since the big guy--what was his name, Klaus?--then went on and bowed, like Irvine couldn't just take the shot over his head. Crap, they were really serious about this 'don't hurt people' thing, weren't they? They'd have been eaten alive in Galbadia. Or maybe they'd have been deserters, like Laguna.

Like Irvine.

The both of them were terrible soldiers, because they didn't want to kill, even though they could. They preferred to turn traitor than keep killing. Betraying Galbadia had just ... never hurt Irvine quite as much as the thought of betraying his friends, if he didn't turn up where he was meant to be.

"How?" Irvine asked. "You said when I go back. How do I do that?"

"That's the thing, no one knows," Klaus explained, his tone still even. "But it seems to be inevitable. I've been told very few of those originally brought here remain. Some have gone and been brought back from later points in their lives, but mostly the return trip tends to be permanent."

He took a deep breath. Klause very much doubted Irvine would want to hear this next bit, but lying to him could only incite another incident.

"The only thing is to be patient. Those brought here often seem to be people who can, in some way, help this city and her people."

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You fight me / flat on my lonely face I fell

Forward-dated to August 6th

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