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4 yrs ago
Current "So curious, Draugr! To make me monologue about my evil plan, that is your strategy?"
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"Come out, come out, wherever you are~," Chiroptera's voice lilted over the piles of scrap as she stepped with slow, purposeful strides through the yard. "C'mon, Grimm... why don't we make today our last date? Those Eagle 5000 XS UHD optics will make fine additions to the colony... They'll look real~ nice next to the 3000 series eyes I took from you last year. That hydraulic jaw? Just think of how many implants I can tear out of your friends with that."

F-ffuck, Grimm hissed quietly in response to the eerie, humorless monotone. The quiet flutter of wings overhead alerted him to the fact that stepping out from the engine compartment of the wrecked semi-tractor he was hiding in would immediately get him spotted. He held his breath and tried to quiet the pounding of his heart as one of her beastly, taloned, digitigrade cybernetic feet silently fell into view just a few paces outside the grill. He flinched as his audio implants registered the harmonic *ping* of muted ultrasonic waves bouncing off the outside of the compartment.

The microscopic vibrations caused a bolt to dislodge and bounce out of an adjacent scrap pile. Chiroptera's movements were like lightning. Grimm's UHD optics barely registered that she was out of frame. An afterimage seared his vision for a moment while the optics compensated, and he cringed away from the shriek of an integrated mono-molecular vibro-sword rending rusted steel and air alike.

Confrontations with that predatory, cybernetic wraith were always tense. She had some kind of hyper-advanced neural acceleration or wired reflex unit that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Probably some fucked up Tinker implant. It made her ungodly fast- the boys were always drooling over it like it was some kind of cybernetic Holy Grail. "If we could only-," they'd say, while scrawling up plans for an ambush some hotheaded scrapper would undoubtedly fuck up. Even if they did manage to pry it out of the bitch, they'd all kill each other fighting over it. Idiots.

To make matters worse, his call for help had only yielded the shrieks of over-amped cyberpsychos screaming about some cloaked lady and Rat pulling swords out of thin air, and something about Mantablack pulling a tasty haul from Shieldtown. Like, no wonder everyone considered them uncivilized monsters right? Not that he could talk: he'd done his fair share of "forcefully repossessing" implants, and other unsavory things. The only thing that made this situation different was that his one fear in this wretched world was gliding around outside like a goddamn ghost just steps away, and he could feel the amped emotions of the nearby swarm itching at the back of his skull.

Rip. Kill. Consume. Revenge.


Chiroptera paused in her stride, turning her masked face towards something in the distance only she could perceive. Grimm nearly took the attack of opportunity. The reason he didn't? Well... that's how he lost his first pair of eyes.

"What luck," she breathed, knocking on panels with her alloy knuckles in "Shave-and-a-hair-cut..." as she strode past. "Two-bits!" banged against the engine compartment loud enough to make him jump. "Looks like 'all I can eat' over at Shieldtown, and all~ your little friends are coming. Hope I see you there, Grimm..."
Yue's eyes flicked from Dean to Raudd and back. She did feel a little bad, but technically she'd done exactly as Raudd asked, and everyone walking on magical eggshells around her was very quickly wearing thin on her patience. She almost preferred not knowing... almost. Yue didn't exactly understand the implications of what Dean had said about Alex but she knew that Haze was generally bad, particularly in concentration. If he was hoovering it up, it probably wasn't a good thing.

Fuck this waiting around shit. Yue pushed past Raudd for the door, though she'd only just managed to swing it open when waves of [Anger] tinted, glass-jagged static blue cascaded down over the town, sending rivers of ice down her spine. The announcement had only just begun as Yue began to strip off her shirt and shoes without regard to modesty. Her hand vanished near to the elbow into a black disk she fished out of her belt, and her clothes ended up in an unceremonious heap as she pulled on the fresh Templar undersuit.

Her armor growled to life as she stepped into it, armor plates unfolding over her skin as she quickly tied her hair up into a tight bun just before the helmet closed around it. Glowing red telemetry scrolled across the front of the glossy black digital expression display covering her face, and the Templar's signature V-shaped visor slammed down just as the four stylized eyelets illuminated menacing red. Her gauntlet glided over the Templar great sword, Brute Stick, and Sword of Justice leaning against the wall, dissolving the weapons into white light that disappeared into her palm as she strode towards the door with a purpose. For just one moment she paused next to the table where the spear was before she stomped the shaft pommel with her foot, flipping the weapon into her hand.

"I'm borrowing this," she stated firmly from her modulated vox, as it vanished into her gauntlet in a flash of white. It spun onto the selection wheel in her HUD as the system registered the new weapon. The cold, stoic mask of Silver Fang quickly took over as she pushed outside. She flexed her fists, taking a deep breath, which hissed through the helmet's exhaust vents as she exhaled. "Coming? Or no?" She asked, barely looking back over her shoulder towards Dean and Raudd. Her posture made it clear that she wasn't waiting very long for an answer.

[The Astral Sea - Region Unknown]



Vision white.
Skin burns.
Eyes burn.
Falling through the endless void.
It hurts.


Heat had never burned her before. When the temperature of your skin could melt steel, being burned by things was a non-issue. This was different: ID's skin [BURNED] beneath the surface with Astral fire. For the longest time, all she could do was thrash against this new pain. ID [screamed] into the Astral Sea. Her voice was [fire] and, though it seared her insides, she continued until she could no longer make sound. Eventually she no longer had the energy to scream or thrash, and her Astralform collapsed into loose coils in the nothing.

Traumatized nerves hummed unpleasantly, and the burning white in her eyes eventually faded to cool black. For a short eternity, she floated in the darkness, trying not to move or speak lest she start burning once again. After a while, she cautiously opened her [Eyes]. The residual haze of [Light-Creation-Shines From Heaven] slashed painfully at her vision, causing her to recoil away from it.

Dumb.
Definitely bit off more than we could handle.
That was dumb.
...Now what?


ID was stuck Astrally Projecting, separated from her physical body, lost, hurt, and mostly blind. Her Astralform rumbled unhappily as it slithered towards cool darkness to buy a moment to recover.

Yeah, I know... but what do we do about it?


Where the hell was her body for starters? For a normal Mage, being separated from their body for extended periods wasn't a huge deal, particularly if they had someone taking care of them. ID was dual natured: whatever happened to her Astralform happened to her. It was an inseparable piece of her, which meant that her physical body was literally dying somewhere. She was on strict time limit, made even more difficult by the walls of [Sun]light raking the astralscape, likely through the plate gaps. The normally welcome sight seared her vision painfully and burned uncharacteristically against her astral flesh. She couldn't even get close.

The Astral Sea was a shadowy mirror of the Material swirling with color, emotion, and ideation. Spirits and other entities glided through ambient Mana currents, and around pale shadows that only vaguely represented the physical world. Matter, form, and solidity ceased to matter, and without Material landmarks, there wasn't much exploration to be had. ID's Astralform slumped into the darkest nook it could find, deflating with a long sigh.

What... So this is it then?


Yeah. This is it.
Cut off from the [Sun].
Hurt. Blind.

Let me rest.


Just gonna let Susanoo bully you into a cave?


...


Amenouzume ain't here to get drunk and cheer you up with a dance... Do I need to get naked for this?


Nope. Not doing it. Ain't happening. Fuck off. Cry about it. Don't care. I will piss on your belongings. Try me bitch, I will make you regret letting air escape your lungs.


No, fuck you! All your bitch-ass has right now is ME!
I. AM. NOT. DYING. HERE. TODAY!
SO GET YOUR ASS UP!


ID wrestled her Astralform roughly into motion despite its protests and glided back towards the light as closely as she dared. It singed her wingtips as she searched in a bloodhound pattern for anything that might give a hint at where they were and... that's when she felt it. Like someone plucking a tightly wound guitar string, something dragged at her attention. A familiar energy. ID dove towards it instinctively, pulling her wings in tight to pick up speed. A surprised sprite leapt out of the way.

PLUCK


ID's wings snapped open and she banked towards a signature she could now sense clearly headed for the wall of [Sun]light at high speed.

Fuck. Copper. I love you but... you're about to kill me, can you slow down for just ONE second? RRGH!


She drove her wings down to gain altitude as Copper's hover sled whipped past just out of reach... Maybe we should have left a note saying that moving our body would be bad.

Yep. 20/20 hindsight there, princess.
Get the lead out!


Though it seared her skin, ID pulled on threads of mana. Her Astralform exploded with [Light-Creation-Shines From Heaven]. An enormous winged serpent made of incandescent [Sun]fire coiling for one last lunge into the wall of light that raked her eyes and scorched her hide. She pulled on threads of [Light], sling-shotting herself upwards towards the ascending sled just as it vanished into the [Sun].




ID's body lurched and she drew a ragged breath, only to scream as her skin blackened and smoked against the sun's rays. A lance of flame erupted from her throat as she thrashed against the restraints, coming dangerously close to engulfing the sled's crew. She threw herself against the straps, breaking a buckle and wrenching the steel cot support out of shape and grabbing for... anything, until she found purchase on the corner of her cloak and pulled it roughly to shield herself.

"F-ffuck...," ID croaked through lacerated vocal cords, finally calming down. She was quiet for a long time following her outburst and besides her gentle shivering, she let the occasional quiet sob escape.
HK was content to let the women talk. There was other work to be done. [DenGuest-BikeBabe01]'s statement registered as truthful in the vocal analysis, and [HOST] had passive recording enabled for their conversation. HK would listen to it later and flag any inconsistencies in [DenGuest-BikeBabe01]'s vocal patterns. For now, HK had other things to monitor.

[QueryResponse ActiveDrone] . . .
[Albatross01 - ActivePatrolling]
[Albatross02 - ActiveWidePatrol]
[Manta01 - LockdownSuite Standing By] -|
[Albatross01 SweepVisuals]
[Running Path_To_Victory.sim] . . . -|


HK panned the drone's camera over ShieldTown and looked for inconsistencies. [HOST] had agreed with the additional vigilance protocols HK had suggested they implement due to the previous day's disturbance. [BigGuy] was roaming the market with [ShieldTown - SpecialGuest - Aegis02], the one that came in with [RudeRobot] earlier in the morning. [ShieldTown - SpecialGuest - Aegis01] had come back after making a ruckus and nearly disturbing the [FuckingMeanBats] close to the Plate ceiling. At least they weren't wasting more ammunition and fuel on those things after the unscheduled hunt, so that was a thing.

HK's attention wandered for a second, logging two guests from [AllyStoneworks] near the West entrance. Another sleepy day in Shieldtown, thankfully... that was, until something... purple? caught HK's attention. They whipped the gimballed camera towards the source of the disturbance and-

[Albatross01 - Connection Lost] . . .
[Queue Diagnostics]
[Running PingRequest] . . .
[Connection Timed Out] -|

[Albatross02 Report - Crash Detected]
[Cause: Unknown]
[Running Path_To_Victory.sim] . . .
[Alert Host] -|


Wolf flinched as she was leading Astrid across the threshold to the conference room, pausing in the doorway with indecision. Normally she would go investigate a disturbance herself, but she also wasn't about to ditch Astrid before they had a chance to talk about... whatever it was she needed help with. She inhaled, reading HK's suggestions in her HUD silently for a tangible moment before she pressed her hand to the sub-vocal Vox around her neck.

"Hey, I just got a notification that Albatross One might have gone down in the Market. Can I get someone to run out there, diagnose the issue, and clean up that wreck before they yell at us?."

"On it!" Jade chirped optimistically over the comms, and the accompanying *WHOOSH* of wind in the corridor leading towards the Zipline to ShieldTown signaled that the overenthusiastic girl was already on her way before Wolf could protest.

"Be careful!" Wolf hissed with resignation before turning back to Astrid and flopping into one of the conference room chairs with a note of exhaustion. "Sorry about that. You seem to have me at a disadvantage... Officially, I'm Wolf."

[The Den - Outskirts]

[A XianaEvermor / Sepokku collaboration]



The Den was an ominous black shape silhouetted against the residual light of ShieldTown’s sun lamp in the distance. The structure’s angular surfaces occasionally shined dull matte, suspended hundreds of feet over the crater floor. Astrid passed the occasional curious rock, wreck, or ruin on her approach. They seemed oddly out of place until it became apparent they had been intentionally placed and marked with numbers in thermo-reactive paint that counted down steadily. 3800… 3700… 3600…

'Distance markers? Smart.'

Astrid's foot pressed gently against the kickstand as she gave an awkward glance to the Den. As the stand snapped into place, she hesitantly stood up and cursed herself for accepting this job. Had she been just a few days earlier, the bombing wouldn't have happened yet and she could be doing some other work that didn't require her to head back topside. Not that complaining ever got her anywhere. With a sigh, she slapped her hands lightly against her face twice, holding them there for a second while she composed herself. It had been over a decade since she truly had to rely on someone else, but short of hijacking the elevator by force, it seemed she had no other option.

'I just need to be amiable, lay on that ol' Grunewald charm.' Her reflection stared back at her from the bike's metallic sheen, disbelief painting its face. She let out an entertained snort, “I know, right?” Deciding that her apprehension wasn't likely to go away anytime soon, she started towards the building.

"I'm looking for a..." Her hand fumbled for the note in her hoodie's pocket. Unfolding the paper, she read the words hastily scribbled onto it, "Wolf? I heard she could help me out..."

“Found her,” a voice answered. A dot illuminated dull red in the perpetual gloom outside of the spear of light from Astrid’s motorcycle and a figure slid part way into view with practiced, near silent steps. The pointed, canine cyber-cochlear implants of her namesake were alert and probing, twisting this way and that to catch anyone else hidden in the dark while the watchful red glow of HK settled on Astrid.

“You look pretty capable,” she noted, adjusting the sub-machine gun slung unabashedly across her chest so that it could be brought to bear in an instant. “Where did you hear I was helping people?”

Biting down a sarcastic retort, the former Scotswoman did her best to remember where she had first started hearing the rumors about the Den. In truth, it had been a variety of people, though if she had to say who the first was, then it would have been , “Ripperdoc, the one who did your ears, I think.”

Wolf squinted at Astrid long enough for the dull red glow behind her right eye to flicker slightly. Her ears twisted in thought for a moment before checking the surroundings in a paranoid flick.. She finally exhaled and let the tension in her shoulders uncoil.

“Pascal has a big mouth,” she muttered grumpily, though her ears perked up with interest and one of her eyebrows stretched for her hairline as she first looked Astrid up and down, and then fixed her gaze on the motorcycle. She let out a low whistle. “Whelp,” she turned and signaled overhead. Lights clacked on and flooded the crater floor.

“Bedroll? Or a body bag?!” Someone called down from overhead.

“Bedroll!” Wolf shouted.

“Ah, shit. Y’all heard her, clean out a new bunk!”

“Stowaway! Stowaway! Stowaway!”

“Send out the lifter, we got a machine for the vehicle bay!” Wolf ordered. The Den was suddenly abuzz with activity overhead, and a pair of zip lines were lowered, each with a lift-rig. “Come inside and try not to think too loud, we got a True Esper that’s not so great at the whole ‘filtering out’ thing,” she invited, hooking a foot into the rig and letting it haul her up into the structure.

The buzz of activity came as a slight shock, the place looked relatively abandoned upon approach, but, ‘I suppose it couldn’t have been, if the rumors were to be believed.’ She took a cursory look around the now illuminated crater. There was quite an operation going here, she could probably fit all of her siblings in the building, at least all of the ones that made it to the states. Stepping into the other lift-rig, Astrid pondered exactly what sort of thoughts constituted “too loud.”

The notion made an intrusive thought appear, a vague memory of being thrown from her father’s arms into those of one of her siblings, and then being hauled away at a breakneck pace; a staccato of gunfire, the smell of smoke mixing with violence. She did her best to put her thoughts back in order and focus on the present, ‘Go to your happy place. That hill overlooking the Atlantic, the sea breeze; home.’ The ground sped away from her as she was hauled into the “Den of the Wolf.”

Astrid landed on the platform gold to emerald way too much eye contact, face to freckle speckled face much too close. Astrid’s rig stopped at the platform in her hand with a tiny jolt.

“It’s much prettier without the blood and guns,” she mumbled after an awkward silence. Wolf’s steel knuckled hand rumpled the girl’s sandy blonde hair affectionately, breaking the staring contest stalemate. She flinched at the contact, and a sharp *CRACK* of rushing air gouged one of the battered plates on Wolf's forearm, showering the chamber with fine metal dust.

“What have I said about private thoughts?” Wolf asked, without malice, ignoring the damage.

“But I’ve never seen the ocean before! Nobody ever thinks nice thoughts about the beach, I might not get to see it again after she goes up,” Jade pouted, with a huff. Wolf raised an eyebrow, flicking a glance towards Astrid momentarily before gently shooing the girl towards the facility interior.

“Go see to her machine, we can’t leave it out there for the Scavs or Rippers,” Wolf ordered, hanging the rigs as the hulking freight drone settled on its repulsors in a plume of dust, scooping up the motorcycle effortlessly. All at once, what was a flurry of activity efficiently buttoned up, portals closed, and lights clacked off, shrouding the crater in gloom once again as though nothing had happened.

[A Fate001 / XianaEvermor Collaboration]



A bolt of [Crimson] ripped down her arm, hitting the bass tone with a wave of distortion. As she locked eyes with him a wave of amber flickered through them. Yue took a breath to speak her mind to Raudd before a reply from Dean took her attention. Instead she scraped some of the static [Blue] from the widest part of the spear into her hand like a spilled piece of frosting, and let go. Raudd seemed to want it so badly, and since he had such a firm grip on it... The spear's mass returned abruptly and the full two-hundred pounds of the weapon was left in his "care."

”Well in your hands just about any weapon would be balanced I take it." Not even visibly worried about her casualness with the empowered weapon, the earth mage seemed content stay in his chair. That came from the confidence of having been able to transmute the inner walls of the house into basically adamant with the help of golem.

"I mean... that's partially accurate. My touch seems to draw out the best qualities of a weapon, but it doesn't alter mass and density or weight distribution like the spear was doing. Well... I guess it does to a point: any weapon I hold feels appropriately weighted regardless of how heavy it actually is," she explained with a bit of a grin, tilting her head back towards Raudd as she began meticulously separating the wavelengths of the signature in her palm.

Dean didn’t even glance in their direction. Engrossed suddenly in a raw piece of jade he pulled out from somewhere and began to work at like it was clay. His geometric spellcraft naturally flowing into his hands as he worked. ”It has a monsters core in it. So I guess you can say it’s bio-powered.” Yue raised an eyebrow at that, flicking her gaze first to Dean, and then the patterned spellcraft at his fingertips.

He refrained from elaborating and jumped in after Raudd’s point. Stopping the stone shaping to give Yue a confused look. ”Big guy has been in, [Blue] for as long as I have known him. Kinda his thing. Also you don’t just ask people if they are blue. Spirits, I thought heroes were supposed to have thorough sensitivity training.” The sarcasm was laid on thick as he went back to his work.

"I-I did have sensitivity training," she answered defensively. "The color and quality of Aether signatures wasn't covered," she continued as-a-matter-of-factly, crossing the room and holding her hand out for Dean to examine. "Look, it has three wavelengths. That one is him," she explained, pointing to a section of her hand. "But these two? I don't know, but they feel related, and they came out of the [Blue]," she said, indicating another length of her palm.
Yue slapped the spear with her hand, allowing it to roll up her forearm just as Dean was telling her to be careful with it. She swatted one end, spinning it over her arm and into her other hand, allowing a couple rotations before she gave it a hard push. It spun once quickly and popped up lazily, coming to a sudden halt balanced steadily on her palm. She raised an eyebrow at Dean.

"He thinks this isn't balanced?" She asked with a note of incredulity. "I guess it'd be a little unwieldy in tight spaces... thought it would be heavier to be honest," she muttered, throwing the spear pommel forward with a flick of her hand. The weapon spun in place once, landing back in her palm. "Rocket... powered?"

Yue frowned, letting the length of spear roll and slide down her fingers until it nearly touched the floor looking for buttons or switches... though she was swiftly distracted by trying to find a point on the weapon where it would not balance.

"So... he, what... puts premium in this thing? What's the mileage?" she asked with a note of sarcasm as she balanced one of the barbed edges of the spear on a finger. She was only half listening to him as she watched threads of [Silver] rush up her arm towards the spear. The spear's static [Blue] haze seemed to solidify into a translucent crystalline array of polygons wherever her skin made contact. Turning up the time dilation let her feel its mass and density shift, creating a perfect balance point wherever she held it.

"Hmm...," Yue grunted as her gaze focused on the very edge of the weapon's aura where the [Blue] seemed to fray and separate subtly into other wavelengths. She propped the weapon up against her shoulder as she inspected it, grasping it with her fingers experimentally and smearing the edges apart to get a better look at the irridescent [Green] and [Red] aura wavelengths. "Okay... surprised that worked," she muttered... mostly to herself.

"Has Alex ever been... not... [Blue]?" There was a note of confusion and hesitation in her voice like she couldn't find the right phrasing for the question she wanted to ask. Mainly she was interested to know if anyone else had used or maintained the spear. TankTastic had a... thing for Blue... his aura cosmetics, particle, and Aether effects in Final Odyssey had all be customized to be blue... his eyes were blue, hell even his avatar's skin was blue, though that particular change had been made leaning in to the theme of their guild after it had been founded...

Might not be important... finding the button or switch that turned the ROCKET on, however, was.
The cool light of the dual moons overhead touched my cheeks. The soft blades of the Veldt’s grassy field tickled the back of my ears, causing them to flick occasionally while I unconsciously wove the velvet purple fur of my tail between my fingers. I could be doing something productive with my playtime, like gathering crafting materials, or raiding a dungeon packed with fiends and monsters. Instead I basked in the moonlight on the tallest hill in the Veldt region, watching the drifts and currents of aspected Aether. My friend, the blue-skinned Oni, TankTastic, or just TT fidgeted beside me, mind lost in his 'nothing-box' as ever-shifting constructs of shimmering [Blue] orbited his head cartoonishly while we waited for Tekkie to finish... something.

"Hey," I broke the silence, and couldn't suppress a smirk as his constructs popped, showering us in blue Aether sparks. "Entertain me. I'm borrred," I commanded imperiously. A low chuckle hissed through my teeth as he squinted annoyance. "Tell me where you're from," I interrupted, before he could retort.

"Oh... I'm studying Electrical Engineering at the Aerie," he replied after some hesitation. Most likely realizing that I would continue to pester him until he gave an answer.

"No shit?! I live in the tower too!"

We should meet in person...


Yue stood in the doorway of Dean's house for a long minute staring into the space between. The oversized cherry pit pressed stickily against her palm. If she had voiced that thought to him would he still have died? It was much easier for her to be social as her online persona: TetsuKasha, and she'd pinned the idea at the time.

No. He wasn't dead. Alex wasn't at the University during the attack. She struggled to reconcile the fact that "TT" and Alex were the same person as she stepped inside.

Didn't keep him from vanishing... and it didn't save Tekkie.


TankTastic and TekkieRave both stopped logging on to Final Odyssey following Usurper's attack on the university. Tank... Alex told her they were friends, and she'd always just assumed he'd met the energetic cyber-medicine enthusiast in one of his engineering classes. So when they vanished from Final Odyssey two years ago...

Yue's vision shifted. She could feel the firm tingle of her lenses flexing as a table came into focus, drawing her attention to the object that was laid across it. She sensed some vague dissatisfaction from Dean's direction, but more pressing was the aura of static [Blue] that rippled across the weapon's surface, intermingled with accents of caramel and [Green] wisps trailing from the edge of the jade piece.

She leaned forward, reaching for it instinctively until her fingertips pressed against the spear's shaft. The living room resonated as the spear struck an electric bass note, with a subtle background alto playing in harmony. Burgundy eyes flicked up towards Dean as she was pulled back to the present.

"... What's this?"

[Paracausal Research Facility: Muriel]



A fraction of a moment stretched on at that temperature that turns earth and steel into soup, locking eyes with this "Anara" as it... as He spoke. Even as this second plodded along at a snails pace, his [Voice] hit with authority. What was this speck of inert matter, rapidly losing molecular cohesion in the face of her [Radiance]? Who was this that defied her so, in his last scrap of existence?

What was once a moment that was happening agonizingly slow, all at once became much too quick to perceive as though the scene were playing catch up after a spike of network lag. His words etched into the flesh of her Astralform, and thus into her. ID reeled with sudden vertigo as her vision exploded into painful white, stabbing deep into the back of her skull. She felt something sticky and wet in her eyes... probably blood. A cold slimy sensation slicked across her skin, and her whole body ached and felt sick.

As ID tumbled blind through the Astral void, the window that she had projected through slammed shut, severing her connection between her Astral and physical bodies. The violent storm of impossible heat and wind roaring through the facility's main entrance halted, filling the air wit the metallic crinkles, cracks, and bangs of rapidly cooling metal and the insistent nearby rumble of thunder. Snow piled urgently onto the landing platform.

ID's vitals flat-lined in MG's visor.

[May 14th, 2043 - Templar Tower - Aerie University]



Yue tried to breathe. The impact absorbing gel layer of her suit hadn't been enough. Nor the armor, which had practically shattered. Her lungs burned. She couldn't feel her left side. Static erupted over the still functioning half of her visor as the flash compensator attempted to tune out the knife of light stabbing aggressively through the dust, nearly blinding the eye her smashed helmet no longer protected.

Thump.

She was aware of noise through the tinnitus. A voice. Discordant screaming drove her to move through the grinding of bone and the sharp prick of numbness in her ribs. The paper-doll damage readout flashed orange and red urgently as she pushed herself up. Scrolling characters she couldn't make out through the spiderweb cracks rolled across the screen. Most likely a list of everything that was broken.

Thump!

The air was thick with the smell of wet copper and dust. Her hands were slick with blood. Eyes raked the surroundings frantically. A kid? Student. Evacuation missed someone? For a short eternity she just stared, trying to pull herself into the present. Arms, legs... a not insignificant portion of their torso, all crushed beneath the rubble and lacerated with glass and steel. Bleeding. Couldn't move them, the weight of the rubble might be the only thing preventing them from bleeding out.

THUMP!!

The light behind her blotted out. Ice water poured down her spine. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't move, she was the only thing between the monster and this civilian who was screaming for her to do something, anything because... he didn't want to die anymore. The monster spoke. Voice like shifting gravel in an earthquake.

Are you really gonna let me kill all these people?
All you have to do
is step down out of your ivory tower...
Show the world you're just as rotten inside
as everybody else.
What's it gonna be, P̶͑ͅr̴̩̃ị̷̯̞͗͛n̵̢̓c̸̺̣̓̂è̷̳̜͓s̶͕̔s̶͖̈́?


Yue forced herself to take a breath. It slashed the back of her throat. Her lungs ached. Those familiar thorns squeezed her heart. Bolts of [Crimson] raked over her arms and every fiber of muscle in her shoulders coiled.

Right. Present Day.


It was just somebody's memorial. Hardcase? Someone she didn't know. Dean was staring at her, hopefully not expecting a response. Yue shook out her hands vigorously until her fingertips tingled, forcing herself to exhale slowly. Raudd was there offering her some kind of fruit, which she accepted and numbly bit into. She was expecting an apple or something, and nearly spit it out.

"The hell?" She muttered, staring and distracted for just a moment from the lingering dissonance of reliving a traumatic memory. Burgundy eyes flicked between the enormous cherry, to Raudd, to Dean, who was probably expecting an explanation she didn't want to give. She turned on her heels and pushed ahead of the group.

Right, because that's not gonna raise any questions...


Yue busied herself with walking and eating the cherry rather than say anything, and focused on the tart sweetness to keep from sinking back into her memory of that day.
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