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

2

[foxhands]

[He's fighting, slashing, losing himself to the thrill of battle because it's easier than wondering who he is or what he's wearing, easier than accepting that tiny nagging feeling in the back of his head that he has no fox here (hasn't had one this whole time, surrounded by cats and dogs and humans, talking on his own without the comfort of that high-pitched voice or that fur upon his cheek), and someone is running at him - no, the shadow next to him? Either way, his instinctive reaction is to jump out of the way, blade raised defensively, quickly focusing on his new opponent--]

......Haru-? [And then another shadow jumps in between them, because why not.]

[probablynoteren]

[Lenka doesn't respond, at least not at first, though his shoulders twitch imperceptibly at the name -- his name, their name, there are too many names and not enough of him; fractured between his recognition of his surroundings (the subway at his back, the small plot of lilies and hydrangeas a few minutes to the north, how high the moon would be in the sky through the stormclouds) and the familiarity as well as the utter alienness of fighting these small and hard-to-spot foes.

Small, hard to spot and deadly fast, as they're both finding out while they're distracted -- Lenka flings the initial Shadow away with a quick flick of a sword, preventing it from latching on to Natsume -- somebody shaped like Natsume -- Natsume's clothes.]

Natsume. [he manages the name with a surety he doesn't feel, only momentum and battle focus turning it into a call instead of a question] How many?

[He's not keeping count, precisely, but there are a lot of these and Lenka has a vested interest in making sure all of them are gone by the end of the night. He'll fight all night if he has to, but... Then there's a hiss, as the other Shadow lands on his head.

Now, how will they get it off without stabbing him in the face, the eternal question.]

[foxhands]

[Is he Natsume? He is, yet he isn't - two identities swirling together to create a mess he doesn't have the time to puzzle out right now. Instead he gives a curt nod, opens his mouth to give an answer--and then suddenly Haruka gets a facehugger.

If only stabbing in the face was a viable answer...but no, after a split second's hesitation the thought comes into his head that he has spells now. Maybe spells could work?]

...Garu.

[The shadowy bird behind him flaps its wings, and a cutting gust of wind attacks the Shadow on Haruka's head. Hopefully that works, because it's definitely not the only Shadow in the area, and whoever either of them is, Nakigitsune wants his friend to get out of this safely.]

[probablynoteren]

[That's the thing with fighting amorphous Shadowcreatures -- it's definitively harder to judge whether you're stabbing deeply enough to give a comrade a new orifice when they have a Shadow for a hat, and although Lenka is somewhat sturdier than Haruka by virtue of training and unrealized Persona shenanigans, a sword in the face would still be a rather large inconvenience.

Hypothetical defacement aside, Lenka somehow recognizes the word when it's uttered -- Garu, the dead leaf crackle at his shoulder lets him know, is something he possesses as well -- but that doesn't exactly help him anticipate getting a gust to the head at point-blank range. It doesn't really hurt, but combined with the weight of the Shadow what it does do is unbalance him.

Lenka's unwanted hat jerks backwards and then dissolves in a cloud of darkness and unsettling writhing movement. Lenka himself falls spectacularly on his butt, though he manages to more or less catch himself so that at least he's back in a crouch a moment later. A little winded, a little wounded in the pride and the backside, but--]

... Thanks. [he's not looking at Natsume as he says it, but that's because there are more Shadows inching closer, drawn by the sounds of battle and fallen prey] I'm not that... I only know how to use these swords right now.

[Sure, he's done more than his fair share of bladeswinging, but dual wielding is something else. He's not entirely sure how the hell anything here is working, even though it is. That too, however, is its own breed of familiar. What is his life, really.]

[foxhands]

[Honestly that's the first time he's ever used magic in his life (lives? maybe he shouldn't be thinking too hard on that right now) so he can't help watching as the Shadow gets blown away by it. It's weird. Powerful, useful, a convenient skill to have on hand when a comrade is wearing an enemy for a hat, but. Weird.

Does knowing magic mean he's something like a low-level saniwa now? No, that's not quite the same, is it.]

I'm...not sure how I knew it. [There's a small moment of hesitation, a glance back at his Persona(???), before he hurries to help Haruka back up. He can see the approaching Shadows as well, noting their numbers silently in his head, getting back into a fighting position as soon as his comrade's back on his feet.] I only ever knew swords, before.

[probablynoteren]

[Before.

All of them are fighting on two fronts at least, caught somewhere between the Shadows and whatever else the visions have thrown at them (continues to throw at them, flashes of enemies much larger than this disrupting his focus, the knowledge that he shouldn't touch the the bark that he keeps brushing up against because--). But there are upsides, too.

Lenka would be just as fascinated by the spell Nakigitsune had pulled out of nowhere if he could have had a proper look at it. As it is he's got some confused impression of it coming from their shadows, but being some kind of ranged attack -- but magic? It's not something he's ever really thought about using. It doesn't even occur to him to call it that, even with his Persona's innate knowledge brushing up against his consciousness.]

Swords, and guns. Other weapons. [he lets Nakigitsune pull him to his feet, trying his best to get whatever is left of the Shadow (nothing?) out of his hair as he hastily readjusts his swords] But... this is--

[--familiar? He's not sure what to call it. It's not a God Arc. He isn't wielding it in any way he recognizes. But it's there when he thinks, breathes, like an extra muscle. An extra muscle that somehow resembles what they're fighing. Of course.

This metaphor falls apart somewhere around there, maybe.]

[foxhands]

[Nakigitsune is incredibly confused right now. He sees the shadows in the orchard, sees Personas all around (Camio settling on his shoulder, the comforting weight not helping his momentary confusion), gets distracted by occasional glimpses of the enemies he'd fought with his comrades and thinking for a moment that they're here rather than in his memories--but Haruka (not Haruka? another thing to file away for later) is here, there's a battle to fight, he needs to focus on the now and that's really hard but he's trying.]

You're right. [It is...something. Something that feels familiar as his blade, something he'd never even heard of before tonight, technically still hasn't "heard" of at all. He raises his sword, glances at his persona again, considers--] ...But we still have swords.

[Ready to fight! With a kind of weapon he's not only familiar with, but was familiar with more than ten minutes ago!]

[probablynoteren]

[If there's one thing Lenka has going for him right now, it's his ridiculous ability to focus on a battle to the exclusion of (almost) all else: the fact that he doesn't quite know who he's fighting with, the Persona and the extra weapons, that he has no idea how he's stabbing creatures of darkness, that he also has no idea what he's wearing... If he let himself get distracted, he could be distracted forever.

So he's only a little distracted.

Luckily for them, their little knot of Shadows isn't very numerous or concentrated, and it's easy to shake them off one at a time (apart from the one Lenka was wearing a little while ago). The fighting is pure reflex -- soothing, single-minded.]

Yeah, swords. [Natsume seems more invested in their weapons than he is, despite being able to use more of them; but there's no time to find that odd when everything is odd right now. Still... Lenka glances back at the unsettling creak of his shadow. Eligor. Waiting.] But, Garu. I think I can use that. What does it do?

[He's of a mind to give it a shot himself, just to get his Persona to shut up, but it seems a little inadvisable to throw it into the battle when he has no idea what's going to happen besides being knocked to the ground.]

[foxhands]

[He's definitely invested in their weapons - or just the swords, at least. The sword he's got now isn't him, but it's still an uchigatana and therefore more familiar than anything else going on right now. The magic is useful; he realizes he's got a crossbow now but doesn't feel like bothering with that when he can just run in and stab things instead. Anyway, magic is long-range too, right? He can think of Camio like a catapult troop, only it's a bird and it shoots spells.

Does this make him a bird sword now? Nakitori? Nakigarasu? He isn't exactly an expert on bird types....shaking his head. Haruka just asked a question, and that's something he can actually answer right now.] Wind.

[He points his blade at another Shadow, and hits it with another Garu spell. Demonstration!]

I think....there's others, too.

[probablynoteren]

[A Camiopult......

Nakitori the delicious wind bird isn't the only one having trouble remembering he has a physical long-range option: Lenka is used to having an all-in-one gunblade-with-pocket-shield, and his range weapon is a little odd besides, so they can bond on a spiritual level about the superiority of running in and stabbing things.

At the same time, this whole Garu thing? If he doesn't think too hard about where it came from, then it is pretty damn cool; both of him are still enough combined teenager to acknowledge that.]

There are. [he's forcing himself to pay a little more attention to the voice beside his consciousness] Frei. And... others, for support.

[It's the confusingly magical cousin to how versatile their guns are (did you know they have healing lasers??), so if he just lets the muscle memory flow, then...] Garu.

[Lenka's still not used to commanding his Persona whatsoever, and also the Shadows are fast little buggers, as established. Instead of hitting one of them, he manages to break an apple-laden tree branch that ends up smacking the Shadow on the way down...

Congratulations! We've discovered gravity.]

[foxhands]

[Frei? He doesn't know that one...Naki cocks his head, going over his own mysterious mental list, wondering if these count as support sp--ah, it's Newton Lenka's law of gravity.

...Yeah, let's just not think too hard on that stuff for now.]

Kouha. [A flash of light! It grazes another Shadow, but it also lights up the area! Awesome.] ...Too bright.

[Maybe not so awesome?]