AWAKENING

[cordibus]

Who: Everyone
When: Midnight, June 6th
Where: Green Valley Orchids
What: It is time.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

The subway stop near the orchards was not the type of place that most people liked to be when darkness fell. The orchards near the school were set up almost like a public park, which wasn’t so bad in and of itself, but it’s also the area where over half of the murders happened before the curfew was first put in place. It was a place people didn't go unless absolutely necessary and most had started taking alternate routes to avoid the stop. As one of the first subway stations built in the city, its architecture didn't really mesh with those that came after it. It had jagged corners where the smell of wet earth lingered, making it unpleasant even for those brave enough to continue to use it, and there had even been talk of closing it permanently once routes and nearby stations had been revamped to be better able to take care of the traffic.

Due to this, it only has the bare-bones of a shelter, fallen into disrepair as the curfew was enforced city-wide, and a couple of night guards, (probably already asleep due to the lack of activity they’re expecting), so characters arriving there will be mostly unnoticed. For a place that had such a bad history, most people rightfully avoid it.

For most of them it will be their first meeting with each other. There will be a bit of time to talk before their phones display a zero. Plenty of time to talk about what they suspect and what might just happen...and that horrible vision they had shared. Then there’s that countdown on their phones...ticking away the last few minutes.

ZERO UNTIL MIDNIGHT

The lights go out when the countdown ends. The lack of sound is, for lack of better word, worrying. Very soon, only the light of the phones serves as makeshift flashlights for the small group. But soon, even as words get displayed, a deep male voice echoes, which could be much more worrying.

FINALLY! Ahahahahah! Ahhh, damn does it feel nice to be able to speak and not
just write. Hey lambs, are you all ready?

Considering the choice of words, that might be Luci.

It's time. Can you feel your heartbeats increasing? Your mind about to explode? Questions swirling in your mind? Just make sure you don't go alone. Groups are
best, go all together and you'll never find the answers.

The voice laughs again.

Not that you have much of a choice at this point! Have fun, give them hell, and tell
them I sent you! I'll be taking care of that pesky guard problem for you.
...Let's go for a night stroll."

Communication ends just as abruptly as it started. No time to back down now, as the door where the guards are staying is quickly locked on its own before the subway system itself appears to be taken over by a virus that flashes on every available screen. With a click, the locked doors to the outside are swung open.

A voice in your mind warns you this might be the biggest mistake you'll be making in your entire life...and yet your heart feels like it's going to burst from your body from the joy you feel...

AWAKENING

It begins with a scream nearby. The same noise that they heard during the vision. The trees begin to turn grey as the sounds of hundred of creatures moving can be heard from all sides. The application opens, displaying them all in real time.

The group is surrounded.

By all logic, they should be running, but their legs feel bolted to the ground. They can't move.

The creatures begin to get closer. The trees start to rot nearby.

Breathing begins to increase. The sound of voices and memories quickly flashing before their eyes that might cause some to clutch at their head...exactly the same thing that the man had been doing back in the vision. If they look down at their hands, they will see them fading, see-through.

Yet for them, something is different. Just as the creatures are about to attack, they stop. A vision of the Velvet Room flashes before the eyes of those gathered as the two attendants silently nod. Then a return to reality as a light of color pierces the night from their hearts. A single voice can be heard, drowning out anything they might be hearing.

The time is now. I am thou, thou art I! Your mind is trapped, but I can set your soul free! My other self, will you die, or fight back?

Accept me for who I am! Forge this contract by letting go of your fears! Revolt against this world, and TEAR OUT YOUR HEART!

It laughs and fades, as time quickly returns to this world. There's only a few seconds to react before it all goes to hell. A faded hand to reach into your chest.

The choice is yours. Death...or Awakening.

THE BATTLE IN APPLE GROVE

It’s a feeling unlike they have ever felt. Never have their bodies been so alive. Their minds fill with lost memories, their bodies adapting into tools to defeat the creatures before them.

Defeat...destroy...unlock the skills of your heart and show them what it means
to cross you."

The voice is encouraging, almost. To those with navigator skills, the voice speaks up once more as well.

Lead them into battle. Hone their skills into true annihilation!"

It’s time to reclaim the night.

[OOC: For the purpose of this battle, the shadows all have 1HP and are strong against nothing. That means any attack will be able to kill them, weapons and guns included. For this log only, CHARACTERS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO COMBINE SPELLS, as knowledge of this will be unlocked later on. There are about a HUNDRED shadows to be defeated, so there are as many needed for your characters to enjoy killing off. You are free to NPC them and to create situations and close calls.

An OOC PLANNING POST can be used to ask questions or to form teams.]

Comments

i came in like a wreeeeecking ball / i never hit so haaaaard in love

[withoutred]

[ There's something else audible in the breeze. It sounds kind of like someone screaming, constantly, at the top of their lungs. But that could be anyone in this orchard, right...?

She hasn't stopped to think about what's happening, what she's wearing, or what that awful thing chasing her is - is that a lion in a suit? Really? - or what it wants. All she knows is she's alive when she shouldn't be, on a Gameboard that shouldn't exist, and she can't. Get. Out.

It's like being a small bug pinned on display behind glass, except for once she can't feel anyone watching her from Above. The absence is somehow worse. She should be enjoying her freedom, but she shouldn't have it, didn't want it (but she does, she does, she does) and wouldn't know what to do with it anyway. So it doesn't matter. Tear it out like the useless lump of meat in her chest that lies abandoned about five feet back and never mention it again. All that matters now is now. And the first order of business is getting rid of anything obstructing her path.

The wind rises in tempo, as Cyclone Erika crashes into the Shadow horde with the all the force of a 5' freight train in heels. Duck. ]

[catchthishand]

[ Everything is happening all at once- there's screaming, both inside his head and outside, the wind is howling -

And there's something to punch. His brother is at his side, and it's obvious who the bad guys are. The wind howls, and the wolf flickering in and out of his shadow howls with it, wings flaring and a bright light ripples from it to his brother- Rakukaja.

He's got no idea what he's doing, but Okuyasu is faster than he's ever been before, and the things attacking them are shattering under his fists.

Shadows are falling from the sky, but that just means they shatter apart easier. It's easy to fall into a simple pattern of sticking near his twin and hitting out at anything that comes too close. It's easy, almost fun, a release of the slowly building tension of the last month-

And then the wind picks up again, as something slams into the group, and Okuyasu can feel himself growing even faster, even as he feels his stomach twist in something like agony.

He ducks out of the way of the flying shadows, grabbing for his twin's arm to pull him along as he throws himself backwards, tripping as he goes far, far faster than he's used to, and tumbling head over heels. ]

[onlythankyou]

[Shax isn't Chronos, not at all. This Persona is partly avian, but the bottom of it is split open to reveal a mass of tentacles tangled around metal stakes and humanoid forms, bleeding yellow. It's uncomfortable, it reminds Jun of things he cannot focus on not right now. These aren't demons.

Shax isn't Chronos and these aren't demons, but he still knows what to do. Green light and howling gales rip the beasts apart before they hit the ground, and he knows what the sick feeling means - ignore it, he has Dia - and he feels light in there, too, he can wield it. But he's not the only one commanding the wind, and his power and speed rise alongside his defenses, rise again. Shax doesn't warn him of incoming danger, doesn't tell him how many strong they are, and he can't share with anyone. It's clear the game's changed.

There's a cold efficiency to him, he's content to stand and let Shax fight. He only moves when he needs to to get a better angle; a well-timed flower keeps many a Shadow away from his - Lonán's - brother. He won't lose any more family, real or fake, when that family has been so....kind. But he's feeling even sicker, and wobbling in place, vision swimming...he hates being this weak, like all his years of experience mean nothi--

The other teen grabs him, yanks him back, and they practically go flying across the grass with the force of it.]

Careful! [He looks for the source and spots Erika. What is she doing?] You-- [Rommy? Romulus? Who are you?] --how badly hurt are you?

[Shax doesn't tell him anything and he feels so blind.]

[probablynoteren]

[Not far from them, Lenka stirs from where he's been slammed into yet another tree and likely through a few Shadows -- he managed to get his swords up in time to parry, pure dizzying unfamiliar agility and much more familiar survival instinct. The pressure from his own elemental spells clashing against Erika's a moment ago when she decided to cannonball into the fight was the more dazing blow: he feels like a pinball being tossed around, he knows what a pinball is, he's never played pinball, he--

Forces himself to his feet, shakily, slipping on the wet dirt and leaves as rain prevents him from getting a good look at who the attacker is. He hasn't been this dizzy since the last time it rained, a thunderstorm that went on and on and on without end (it wasn't a thunderstorm). His stomach feels like a nest of spiny snakes, but there's no blood when he lowers one hand to check it.

It doesn't help that he's fighting down clawing panic by sheer force of will and rush of battle, surrounded by monstrous figures with too many limbs and teeth, and the only thing keeping the itch in his hands for a much larger weapon at bay is the fact that they've ignored him thus far. He doesn't see the whites of their eyes, if they have any. The one at his side is harder to comprehend, like an extra limb that he sometimes remembers to stretch; but he knows how to use it. Eligor. Not a God Arc.

Persona.

His Persona rises beside him as he points his swords at the epicenter of that blast of wind, twisted roots spreading themselves outward, ready, waiting. Somehow this has turned into a standoff.]

[withoutred]

[ Another Shadow falls. And another. There's a metaphor about wheat and scythes to be had here, somewhere, but right now she doesn't care. It's easier to just keep swinging blindly, whirling like some nightmarish toy at anything that comes within reach. And keeping away, at all costs, from that thing trailing behind her - it's connected to her, she can feel that, but that doesn't mean she likes it.

Except- she missteps, in her haste. She's used to moving at lightning speeds but not like this, and for once wearing heels is a bad idea.

Her foot catches on a snag of uneven ground, and down she goes like a sack of bricks. It's all she can do to let go of her weapon before she crashes, except even then the momentum throws her further - where, exactly, she doesn't know. Only that she hits the floor and keeps rolling, hands flung desperately over her face.

At least The Thing following her vanished when she dropped. Even the small victories count for something. ]

[catchthishand]

[ Okuyasu stares at the ground for a second, wheezing for air before pushing himself up enough to start detangling himself from his twin. The Stands haven't turned their attention to them, yet.

The good thing about this kind, they were dumber than he was. As long as they didn't get their attention, they'd focus on the more obvious targets. ]

I'm good. Kinda queasy, but-

[ He's not sure what happens- just that one second the mass of shadows were focused on the girl in their midst, and then the next there was a fast moving object slamming into him and sending him back to the ground.

The shadow stands left behind by the girl cyclone waver, then pivot, clawing their way towards the pile of teens. ]

[onlythankyou]

[He and - Rommy? - have just barely started getting up when something fast-moving and purple-blue sends them to the ground again. He can't just-- His head whips around, trying to reassess the situation. The girl with the scythe is no longer over there, so...

No time to search for her, they have the not-demons' attention. He struggles to at lest push himself halfway up-- the other him's twin said something about feeling queasy; Jun feels it too, he knows what that is.]

That would be the poison. [There's a demon getting too close to the other teen (Haruka?) -- He still can't focus enough to call Shax back out, so flowers it will have to be. It's an iris that skewers through the Shadow's head and drives its stem about two inches into that tree's trunk.]

[probablynoteren]

[Haruka startles, so focused on the extremely strange disaster dominoes rolling through the clearing that he's failed to watch his own back -- he should know better, get your back up against something when there are this many enemies, he would have failed but this is absolutely not a simulation -- and the clean swish of flower slicing through shade and wind and wood divides his attention.

(He's still not sure what that was, the thing that crashlanded, but he'd been lowering his guard because it continuously ignored him and went for the Shadows; and that had been the other mistake. He's not used to fighting things this small and fast, under conditions like this. He's not even sure what conditions these are anymore.)

He stares uncomprehendingly at the petals by his shoulder for a split second (iris, an unhelpful and faded voice pipes up), stumbles as he finally turns and properly rips into the shadow with one of his swords, making sure it's nothing but shreds by the time he's done. His vision is still blurred from the pain in his midsection and he can't focus on any one thing for too long, but--

There's nothing wrong with his hearing, and he knows the whisper and drag of Shadow movements by now even through the rain. The misstep has sent him to his knees, but he has something that can reach what his muddy swords can't right now. He gets one hand up, still clumsy with commanding his Persona, and Eligor sends a vicious slash of wind right down the middle of the milling Shadows. It doesn't directly damage most of them, but it does successfully blow them a good deal further away from the pileup.

Which is probably an ally. Or a few. It's hard to tell.]

[withoutred]

[ Well that sure was a thing.

Before anything else, assess the damage: she's fine, if incredibly dizzy. Her ankle might be sprained, or at the very least a bit bruised from that fall, but she can't tell say for certain until she tries to stand up. Something in her stomach has started to ache like she ate something rotten, but that can be dealt with later. She's- lying on something, apparently. What?

Erika gingerly moves her arms away from her face, and pries her eyes open again now that the immediate danger of self-impalement has passed. It takes her a good long moment before she realizes something is a person, one that she presumably just cannonballed into. It's another moment before she scrambles backwards onto solitary ground. ]

What.

[ That seems like a good place to start. ]

Who- [ -are you people? No, wait. A better question would be... ] What did you do?! I had it handled just fine!

[ Her throat is surprisingly hoarse from all the screaming, but good lord is that a trashy accent. She'll get back to mauling the odd shadow-things in a moment. Complaining at people always takes priority.

... even when it's not their fault. ]

[catchthishand]

[ As soon as Okuyasu'd regained his senses from the crash landing, he's shoving at the girl to get her off of him. It takes him a moment, but he manages to detangle himself from Lonán, pushing himself to his feet and off of his twin. He can already feel the start of what's going to be huge bruises from Lonán's damn knees.

One hand rubbing at the twisting mass of pain in his stomach, Okuyasu turns to look at the Stands, seeing how close they'd gotten- and frowning in confusion at how far back they'd been pushed.

How- they'd been so close before?

Still, that gave him time to do the important things.

Scowling at the girl, Okuyasu turns to offer his twin a hand up, figuring Lonán probably needed it after having had Okuyasu fall on him.

Twice.

Oops. ]

Us? What the hell did you do? You're the one that landed on us!

[onlythankyou]

[Poison's taking its toll. Not good - he's so much weaker than he should be, and blind and-- focus. The other people here are in over their heads, even more than he is.

He takes the hand up, turning to scan the demons' locations. He calls Shax forth again but not to attack this time. This damn poison... Lonán is still in there, still has some influence, still knows who one (all three?) stranger is--

The stork demon spreads its six angelic wings to cast patra and purge the poison from Okuyasu.]

Not the time. Stay focused; you should already know how to use your Persona.

[probablynoteren]

[This is what he gets for trying to be helpful, it's turned into some kind of playground fight in the middle of what is distinctly not a playground, unless you're talking about the frolicking Shadows -- which are starting to recover, albeit slowly and some of them are wandering off. Still, Lenka repays favors in battle, and it's only polite to keep alive the people who keep you alive.

--Even if he's still not sure what was up with the flower. When Lenka finally manages to make his way over to what looks like a gathering of fellow humans (and attendant monsters), he's carrying the iris that Jun threw, stashed in a pocket. Some confused notion of maybe returning it. He doesn't understand these weapons, or why there's yelling, but he does hear and see the movements of their monsters. Persona.

He's moving easier now, slowly getting used to working around what feels like seasickness spreading through his system. He doesn't think about that for now. What's one more layer of fear and confusion slapped onto the deluxe mix currently dancing a jig on his insides?]

What landed...? [some of what's been said is finally registering by the time he and Eligor reach the group] You landed?

[From the baffled and critical look he's giving Erika... Well, for one, she seems too short and unarmed to be a deadly wind meteor. It seems wiser not to say that, though. Instead, he hands Jun back his iris. Priorities.]

[withoutred]

[ Erika protests rather loudly at being shoved back, however deserved it was - partially from indignation, partially because the movement jars her ankle, and a shock of pain shoots up her leg. Which answers that question, really, but dealing with that mess can still wait for later.

As much as she hates to admit it, one of the people she landed on (Lonán, but she refuses to remember the name) is right. Now is not the time for bickering. But she still bristles as the latest newcomer sizes her up, mistaking his confused look for a dismissal. ]

Yes, I landed, and it wasn't my fault! Something tripped me up, okay?! I'd never make a idiotic mistake like that otherwise. [ Guess who's gunning for the last word of the argument.

It takes her a moment of annoyed focusing, but Erika's scythe re-materializes in her hands, and is promptly used as a brace to pull herself back to her feet - this, at least, doesn't feel much different then what she's used to. ]

Ugh, whatever. Just looking at those disgusting things is making me sick. [ 'Those things' being the Shadows, still struggling to regroup after the latest gust of wind, if her affronted sneer is anything to go by. ] "Persona", was it? I can manage using it until I know what rules apply here, I suppose.

[catchthishand]

You mean the Stands?

[ The light washes over him, and immediately Okuyasu feels better, shooting Lonán a grin. ]

Besides, they're easy to use, they're us.

[ His shadow flickers at his feet, morphing into a wolven form as Okuyasu bounces on his heels, watching the stands coming back at them, waiting for them to be in range.

He has a crossbow, sure, but he's too used to waiting for them to get close enough to bother with it. ]

[onlythankyou]

Just focus. These at least communicate enough to let us know what they can do...that's all, though. The rules have changed.

[Annoying. Now that he's thinking about it, though, Shax is distinctly different from any Persona he's used before. Any power he's used before. Different source - he can't even hear Shax like he's used to (there are voices in his head, alright, but they sound like they're external, from other people, not from the sea of the soul). He just -- feels it. Coursing through him like blood.

Huh.

He's about to rid himself of the poison steadily sapping his strength when Haruka(?) approaches. Oh...the flower. He already has a carnation in hand for next time something gets too close, but he accepts the iris back. He probably can't throw it again, one is about all the stems can handle, but he'll find something else if it makes it out of this fight. If they all make it out of this fight. He's never seen so many demons...or so many Persona-users...in one place.

There's a quiet growl of frustration that Shax won't or can't tell him what his new companions are capable of. And the demons are getting too close to have a nice chat about it-] Blow them away.

[Wind. Blades of wind whipping through his enemies. That, at least, is the same.]

[probablynoteren]

[Persona? Stand? There were rules?

The more Lenka listens to their bickering and attempts to disentangle things, the more confused he's getting; he's learned what he can of his Persona through trial and error and a few waves of Shadows on his own way here as a clumsy wind meteor. Of a sort. Trying to put words to the thing next to him (in him, they're us are words he'd really like to ignore at the moment) is more hindrance than help. So he lets the words pass him by, watching their enemies and their actions instead.

He doesn't know many scythe users, but they're not unheard of amongst Fenrir's Units -- he should probably try to stay out of range of this one, though, and he carefully puts some distance between himself and the loudest and shortest member of their party. He leaves the argument where it lies -- it seems a better bet to focus on Lonán(?), who mysteriously seems to have become the instructor here.

And those poor Shadows are just destined to be used as windy bowling balls and never getting anywhere, as Lenka reaches out to Eligor after a moment and aims at them too.]

Fly. [and there they go a-flying; he apparently doesn't need to straight up use Garu as an incantation, but speaking of which...] ... You have wind, too. You, too.

[His curious stare encompasses both Lonán and Erika and, after a moment, Rommy as well... in case he's hiding a magic gust or two under his hair or something. He's met another wind user tonight, but this is more like a miniature convention.]