tushanshu_logs | ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 2

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ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 2

Characters: ALL!
Date: Mid-Late November
Location: In the Dreaming
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

Locating the Vilii Stone has been dealt with and now it's time to take on Malicant directly. It's a relatively simple interpretation that proves the answer to the conundrum of how to share the object between all involved: shatter it, and make sure everyone has a shard. It clears any remaining taint of Malicant's essence from those who still more it and makes said evil furious. They're all feeling it now-- the throbthrobthrob of his telepathic presence has swamped the caverns where the stone once lay, and the only safe harbour is the Hotel. There's only so long even the Hotel will be able to withstand that force.

Inside the Dreaming, that force can't be felt. Inside the Dreaming, the caverns are reflected on long smooth lines, riveted by sinew and muscle, a true combination of the realms in this space that becomes a living maze to work against them. There are many offshoots, and when the Foreigners arrive in the Dreaming they will find themselves separated, both willingly and unwillingly, three or four apiece to each individual set of caverns that seal behind them. They're going to have to move fast and defend one another. Their collective power is all that remains between Malicant and everything else, and every part of him must be defeated.

He's waiting, but he's not without a plan.

The Foreigners will find that they are facing the embodiments of their greatest fears and weaknesses. An enemy they were never able to defeat, a friend who betrayed them, a fateful event that they couldn't outrun, even a physical feat they could never overcome. Malicant has had a long time to study them, to befriend them as Asti, to gain their trust and exploit their secrets. Where there are individuals, these embodiments will be targeted and where there are groups, they'll be something that encompasses multiple forms.

But the Foreigners are not without recourse: they are in the Dreaming Realm, a plane shaped by willpower, by desire... and even to a degree, by the very fears they are facing. The Gha'nal venom will allow them to manipulate what they perceive as the "reality" around them, and the shard of Vilii Stone they've been given will become a weapon or tool fitting to the situation, to help them.

LINKS
Part 1 - Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Part 1 - Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC - Plotting Post

OOC
So here's the final log! There's a lot of freedom for players to write what they feel will be their biggest obstacle to overcome, and how Malicant will appear to be challenging them. The common traits to what all players are going to face are listed in the description above. This log will be open until the end of the month, at which point an interim log and OOC post will be going up.

Threaded | Flat

Tazendra was fearless. Almost foolishly so, and the almost was questionable. Famed for it. Malicant could create any being, and the more powerful it seemed, the more eager she would be to fight it. Given willpower was the best weapon one could weird in the Dreaming, they'd all be home in time for tea if Malicant summoned an old or new enemy of Tazendra's.

Since Malicant was not, in fact, stupid, he wasn't doing that,

Tazendra crouched near a man lying on the ground, an arm twisted at angles that indicated broken bones (and the position of legs under skirts that suggested the same), and his breathing labored. If he wasn't dying, he was clearly heading that route. He was clearly of the same species/race as Tazendra, if only because he was clearly her height or even taller. A sword lay discarded on the ground, Tazendra's blades were sheathed, and Tazendra held the man's good hand and spoke to him in a low voice.

Sometimes strength and weakness are two sides of the same coin. Loyalty means you won't let a friend die, especially when you learned a rescue attempt for you was what killed him. Not quite a regret, but an action Tazendra would correct if given a chance.

Edited 2014-11-20 03:55 (UTC)

The fact that Enjolras and his friends had been abducted over a year ago still hung heavily on his mind, today of all days, natural though it might seem, and the present situation seemed to echo it a little. In feeling if not in the scenery provided for this trip into the Dreaming. It reminded him too much of how things had gone before, not because he had been in thrall, but because he had been powerless, because Malicant had had him on his knees and at his mercy, and there had not seemed any way of breaking that sort of a hold, no matter what he did.

Enjolras had not been a stranger to fear, at home, he had been terrified at a few very specific occasions in his life, but he had moved through them using that terror to his advantage. Bold and courageous action, after all, did not require that a man be fearless, merely that he use his fear as something of a spur to action. Being afraid was one thing, and, long as one was not petrified, and used the fear to his advantage, it was not so bad. He had understood the fear of death as it applied to others of his friends, of losing those who were beloved to him, but those had served, in the end, to make him better.

The fear of being left at the mercy of someone, or something else, as he had been then, and at Malicant's, who knew better than anyone what could make him break and beg, had been new, and started after their encounter, and it had been the most common in the year and some time that had followed it. The fear of pain that might be caused if he disobeyed while held under the dark being's mercy was there too, but it was lesser, compared to the point itself. Still, he would have as soon avoided that all together if he could. Simply because one would not give in if they were hurt did not mean it would be pleasant. Simply because Enjolras might endure something like torture with a smile to show he did not care, did not mean he would welcome it.

THAT was nothing,though, left to a loss of agency, a single moment on one's knees crying for mercy, or worse, sinking into terrified obedience at the hands of one's enemy. Enjolras had feared a moment like that, woken up on countless nights, Malicant's name on his lips as the scenario had appeared before him, again and again, and he did not appreciate the reminder of it just now, particularly as his own mind seemed to be creating it.

For a moment, he paused, gathering his strength, and nerve all up at once again, then stroking one of his earrings for courage, glad he had worn the audacious scarlet waistcoat and the hoops today, for all the comfort that they gave him going forward. Surely Malicant would not dare try again, would have moved on to new and better tactics? Whatever ones he chose, Enjolras knew he must be ready, and that he must fight with every dying breath he had.

"Never." He vowed, striding forward, despite the fear of the unknown. "Whatever else, I shall not be a slave again."

Edited 2014-11-20 06:45 (UTC)

Lit by the breath of flames and doused in the sense of chaos, these caves were too familiar for her to ever forget. The towering arches, deep caverns and jagged walls of the den had been ingrained into her memory and it seemed that the enemy had pulled her current surroundings straight from her darker past.

Her paws carried her through the familiar halls, her paws almost silent on the dark, glassy surface, the caverns seemingly empty of any sign of life. It began with a single bone, bleached white as if by the sun, and she barely gave it a single thought as she passed, but soon the sun bleached bones were everywhere and the deeper she went, the more tarnished the bones became. Darker, redder, fresher, until soon she was passing fleshed bodies.

These were no longer the dens she remembered. Hounds did not bring their kills home, did not leave such messes. Her hackles began to rise as the darkness moved, revealing the faces of the dead. She recoiled, stumbling backward, away from Wan's body, only to trip over the bodies of Zuko and Malachi. She swung around, her gaze never lingering as she tried to find a safe place to rest it. The faces of Anton, Dante, Zelgadis and Raine...all frozen, as if they had merely ceased to breathe. Everywhere she looked, more familiar faces, people she knew, even people she hadn't known she cared about, they were all gone. The horror slowly faded into a new emotion, one more painful than returning from death.

She was alone.

A low cackle came from the darkness, and it folded back upon itself, allowing the massive form of the King to pass unhindered. His eyes glittered bright, blood-red in the darkness, his height and weight easily surpassing her own. She would have called him magnificent, but that would have required some sense of nobility on his part. Her ears flattened against her head and she bared her teeth at him, but as he approached, the pressure of his presence caused her to step back, lest he come too near.

"Do my senses deceive me?" He asked, his tone low and somewhat amused, "Or does the Queen tremble at the mere sight of her King?"

Edited 2014-11-21 22:09 (UTC)

After having overcome Malicant's possessive influence earlier, Zuko was feeling confident as he strode through the caverns. Intent on finding that fiend and putting an end to him. He had been tormented enough, and was set on not allowing it to happen to him or anyone else ever again.

Little did he know what was in store for all of them.

Gripping his shard of the Vilii Stone, Zuko paused as he heard an ominous laugh. A laugh that he was all too familiar with. A pair of figures appearing right in front of him. A tall, imposing man in regal clothing colored in red and gold. A shining golden flame of a crown sitting atop his head. Next to him stood a girl not much younger than himself, her lips twisted in a cruel smile. The man grinned tauntingly.

"Well well well. If it isn't the traitor and his friends."

Zuko could only stare in disbelief for several moments at the familiar figures. They were none other than his father, Fire Lord Ozai, and his sister, Princess Azula.

Dante had been separated, but he's not worried. There are very few foreigners who can't hold their own here, and that holds especially true for the ones he had come to regard as friends here. Right now, he had just one thing on his mind- he was going to be the one to kill Malicant. He had a job to do, and quite frankly, the guy was pissing him off, big time.

Except it wasn't Malicant who appeared before Dante. No, the man who turned the corner was far more familiar to Dante. If Dante had been more clean-cut, it may have been impossible to tell the two apart, but the other man's mode of dress gave him away instantly: this was Sparda himself.

"Well, aren't we orginal. You're what? The third person to try this little stunt on me?"Or perhaps it was Malicant after all. Anyone who had met the Legendary Dark Knight would know that this a mere mockery. This was no Sparda, it was a perversion created by Malicant, and the embodiment of every one of his son's wounds. This was the demon that Dante had created in his mind as a youth, the same demon who had left their family to die. And he was the very same demon that Dante was charged with finishing the work of, whether he liked it or not.

Zelgadis had waited to go into the Dreaming until after they got the stone. He figured it was safe enough now, as he clutched the fragment of stone like a weapon.

But now he was lost. And missing most of the main group. And aware that there was a time pressure, and feeling a bit vulnerable.

"Maybe your wish wasn't such a smart idea?"

Zelgadis turned to see the form of the boy that had called himself Asti and told Zelgadis he was the spirit of Tu Vishan. Who was really Malicant's seeming. "You!" he said.

"For someone who claims to not trust people, you were pretty trusting of me," 'Asti' said, almost conversationally. "One dream, and you were willing to let me change your body to my whim. You couldn't even muster the pragmatism as an adopted father."

"Shut up!" Zelgadis demanded, trying to fire the first spell he could think of at the boy.

The problem with that was belief. Zelgadis had trouble believing he could beat Malicant, even with the stone fragment. he didn't need the taunting to demoralize himself, though it wasn't helping. Not that the seeming was going to reveal that.

Getting separated from his charge had been a misstep. Cain had no idea where Solomon currently was or how his own mental fortuity was going to stand up to the current labyrinth and whatever tricks lay inside. There was a lot that could be done in a place like the Dreaming, and Cain was rapidly discovering that it meant he had to be ready for literally anything. It was setting him on edge, and more than that, he was determined to take Malicant down so that they could leave. This wasn't the sort of environment the lucid should visit.

Meeting up with Raine had been a pleasant surprise. Someone he recognized who had a level head besides. Not that he put it past anyone to lose their shit should something go down, but it was always better to start with solid foundation over a shaky start and Cain was willing to take the advantages as they came. Sticking together only made sense.

When Cain noticed the presence of a robed figure following almost idyllically behind them, he had to slow down and perform a shadow check on both himself and Raine. Their shadows were there, so it looked like they were safe, but someone's Reaper was clearly on the prowl to find them before they died in this maze and that was all the encouragement Cain needed in order to keep his own guard up. This place was deadly.

Not that he expected Raine would be able to see the Reaper or make the same connections he did. Instead of commenting on it, he said, "Did you find anything before we met up? Something useful? Map, or markers that we've passed anyone else, maybe?"

So far, Sokka has been a driving force in driving the nail into Malicant's coffin, keeping everyone moving forward and addressing the evil influences in those closest to him as they continue towards the Vilii Stone. Now that Sokka has his own shard of the stone, and even after helping Zuko defeat his own inner demons, Sokka discovers that he's not the invincible warrior that he thinks he is. While challenge and daring are not things he's truly afraid of, his past is his weakness, and Malicant takes that opportunity to spring a trap for Sokka.

"Come on, let's keep moving," Sokka will say one moment, but the next, suddenly he finds that whatever light was in the room before seems all but extinguished. For half a minute, everything is blackness, and Sokka finds himself stumbling forward without the eyes to see.

"Uh, hello? Is anyone there?" he calls out. "Guys? GUYS?"

And then, as quickly as the lights went out, suddenly there's a bright flash before him, and slowly that light fades. Sokka slowly unshields his face from the blinding light before finding a rather familiar white-haired woman before him. Sokka's eyes open wide, and his jaw drops, mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"Yue?"

She refuses to acknowledge him as she lay almost lifeless upon the black ground. Yet still her head is raised, almost puppet-like, from the earth before her lips open. "You failed me," she replies with scorn.

Still shaken up by his experience with being possessed, yet shoving those feelings aside to be dealt with (or ignored) later, Akito continues forward. He feels uncomfortable and uncertain in himself, but confident in his knowledge that the Vilii stone will lead to Malicant's downfall. With the stone shattered and Malicant's anger pulsating through the realm it's clear to him that this is the end - whether for them or for the destructive evil has yet to be decided. But Akito has a say in the outcome, and he's not about to let that asshole win. Even if he's weak, he can still do something. Hopefully.

"How tacky," he comments to himself, eying the muscle and sinew that make up the strange tunnels. He doesn't mind the sight, having always been fond of anatomy, but it does seem rather cliché. Like something out of a video game.

It amuses him - being in an almost literal 'belly of the beast' - and his confidence slowly begins to recover right up until he turns a corner and sees his father. Definitely cliché, he thinks, until 'Kaito' whips him. Shoots at him. Tells him he's trash; worthless. Nothing but a pet and a weapon to be used. Then all Akito can think about is how hard they worked to move past this abuse and how the words hurt more than any whip or rubber-coated bullet.

"My worthless pet," croons the not-Kaito in a deceptively affectionate tone, heard over the cracking of his whip. "I should lock you in your 'home' and leave you to rot." It's then that Akito notices a replica of his cage nearby, and he can't help but shudder. "Nobody would even notice you were gone."

Kaito has always been terrifying to him, but this isn't Kaito. He tells himself this over and over again, like a protective mantra in his mind.

With the first phase of the fight done and the Vilii stone shattered, the foreigners have been entering the Dreaming proper, hunting down their enraged and weakening foe. And that's great, except that the caverns have now become a shifting maze of muscle and sinew, which: one, is just totally gross; and two, has resulted in Tony and Gene getting separated.

Tony does not like that at all.

He knows Malicant probably intentionally did it to rattle them, so he's trying really hard not to be rattled. After all, Gene should be free of Malicant's taint now, and he can handle himself as well as (if not better than) anyone else. There's no good reason to be worried. Still, Tony is... uncomfortable with the situation.

Also contributing to his discomfort is the fact that he has somehow ended up with, of all people, Solomon. He really doesn't like that, mostly because he really doesn't like Solomon. The obnoxious necromancer definitely wouldn't have been his first pick for his teammate in the final battle.

But it looks like they're stuck with each other, so Tony walks through the caverns, senses alert and weapons primed, and tries to ignore his companion.

Jackie's found himself alone, naturally, and he clutches the shard of the Vilii Stone like a lifeline, muttering to try and psych himself up. He'd been mortified that he'd attacked his friends, but there hadn't been much time for apologies before they'd all been split up.

So he skulks down the caverns, jumping at shadows and trying to talk himself up, when one of those shadows gives him a reason to jump back.

It's Tong. Shit, it's Tong, it's Liu Shen Tong, Big Smile Lee's enforcer, and Jackie remembers with sudden cold clarity the effortlessness with which he'd plunged the machete into his stomach.

It's not every day you confront the man who killed you, or someone wearing his face.

"Get away," Jackie snarls. "Get away!"

"He didn't come to save you," Tong says, mocking him. "He never really cared."

"Shut up! You're lying!"

Tong steps back, and changes forms, and quite suddenly there's someone standing in front of him he thought he'd never see again.

"...Wei?"

It's Malicant, he knows it's just Malicant wearing the form of his best friend, but it's so unexpected that he falters.

"It's true," is all Wei says, and Jackie spies the glimmer of a badge on his chest. "Tong was right, Jackie. I'm a cop. I've always been a cop."

"Stop--"

"I was using you this whole time, and I got you killed--"

"Stop, cut it out!" Jackie howls. "Shut up, you asshole, shut up! You're lying, you're lying, all you do is lie, you get in people's heads and you lie to them!"

There's a long moment's pause. Then, Malicant in Wei's shape says, "I lied to you. I was always lying to you."

It's not true. It's not. It can't be, Wei would never, Wei was a son of Old Prosperity just like him, and there's nothing that people coming up in Old Prosperity hate more than diulan cops! Tong had put the idea in his head, true, but Jackie hadn't broken under torture then, and he's sure not about to now.

Jackie hefts the stone in his hand, and he grins recklessly. "You're lying now," he says, "Wei's my friend, Wei wouldn't turn traitor on us, Wei wouldn't ever turn traitor. He's Sun On Yee through and through. You know what? You talk too much," he says, and before Malicant can do anything else to try and break his spirit, he shoves his shard of the Vilii Stone into the impostor Wei's mouth.

The shard has taken the form of a pork bun.

Malicant-Wei takes the bun out of his mouth, looking puzzled. "That's not how this is supposed to w--"

And the shade disappears in a burst of thick smoke. The shard has done its job...as unorthodox a method as it had been.

And Jackie collapses to his knees, weeping with his head in his hands, terrified despite himself that Malicant had been right.

Edited 2014-12-05 06:10 (UTC)

Threaded | Flat

Tazendra | OTA (Content warning: injury and death)

Enjolras! Part One!

Valdis | Part 1 | Closed | Warnings for Blood and Gore

Zuko | OTA

Dante|Part 1|Closed

Zelgadis | OTA

Cain | closed to Raine

Sokka | OTA

Akito | closed to Gene ??? (cw: reference to child abuse)

Tony | closed to Solomon, Gene & Akito to follow