Black★Rock Shooter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
darkshooter) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thebastion2015-07-26 07:42 am
darkshooter) wrote in thebastion2015-07-26 07:42 am
Entry tags:
Day 333 ★ 004 ★ [Open]
Who: Ikuri and anyone who wants to encounter her.
Open: [Y]
When: Day 333 [backdated] - Dusk
Where: Several places within the Bastion. Pick your location when you tag in: fresh from nightmare haze, she .
What: Nearly two weeks after the tragedy, Ikuri still gets nightmares.
Format: Action brackets because habits
Warnings:
-Jumpy, sloppy prose of purple, particularly as I'm slammin' this out before work.
-Sol Man is a dork who's terrible at this RP thing.
-Nightmares and body horror.
-Text wall.
Note: The Bastion's calming field will prevent assault and outright aggression, but odds are she's still going to be jumpy and jittery.
(( Preface ))
[She saw them again.]
[The faces of those long gone. People she'd known and loved...or perhaps, more properly to say, known and longed for; while the emotions of hers that reached for them and were touched by them could be somewhere close to love, she'd not the chance to truly know such a thing. But how she'd wanted it - how she craved it, even now! How dearly she wished that they weren't dead, that she could reach for them anew and pretend nothing that took them...]
[...could ever happen...]
(( BGM: The Bastion - Ikuri's Dread [Final Fantasy VII: Those Chosen by the Planet- [Shinra Mansion Version] ))
[And then she saw the black sky above her: the void that threatened to pull her from her feet and tear her away from the world, the hunger that she knew lay in wait. She felt the icy touch, the emptiness of bone, pressing against her skin and face: the one skeletal finger just a little close to her eye.]
[She saw Dead Master, now truly dead: on the outside, appearing as Ikuri had always known her, but in her eyes...in there, something that came from the void of the sky: kin and yet not kin. The Dead Master that was here, only barely held together: Black★Rock Shooter knew, because Master wanted her to know, that within the latter lay a mass of writhing worms - that she was infected, yet animate, and the parts of her that still feel, felt hatred towards Shooter (though it was a dull thing), for the events of their prior meeting - for being burned away into nothing.]
[What was left of her hated Shooter, hated her profoundly, for taking Yomi from her. She had wanted to human too, once - not any longer. Now there was only the void, controlling every action like a puppet and string, governed solely by hunger.]
[And then she pressed closer still, the flesh peeling away to reveal a skull.]
**
[...Crona.]
[The body riddled by arrows. Shooter moved to protect her, to shield her - but it was over. Dead before the instinct to protect had even beckoned.]
[She saw a broken body, saw the eyes looking blankly back at her. The skin peeled back of its own accord, slowly, revealing flesh - revealing what could only live again one other way. Crona's face became Dead Master's, smiling back.]
**
[And the vision came again and again.]
**
[The fifth time, the person in the clearing was Mato. Ikuri clenched her head, screaming in defiance, but Mato's voice came out of her.]
**
[No. No, no, no -- Mato wasn't there. Mato hadn't died here. Mato was...]
[...Mato had died in the Calamity. Zuko's words; all of the knowledge Ikuri had learned here, claiming that only certain of those amongst each world had been saved. Dead Master, Strength...Matagi...and Gold Saw. They were all truly gone. Now there was truly no hope of saving them.]
[You...are all that's left.]
[I am carried within you, and I will blossom.]
**
[...Ibuki's body, riddled with electricity. Ibuki, pierced by arrows, blood pouring freely from her mouth.]
[Ikuri jumped toward her dearest friend to save her. The black blade pierced her instead. It wasn't enough. She had to be saved.]
[Even as the flesh peeled back, even as the horror crawled from Ibuki's mouth, opening wider than it should, showing full well the depth to which the human in her had been melted away-- Ikuri's hands closed around the girl's throat, squeezing tighter, clutching in defiance of the infection - she had to save her, had to. Without Ibuki, without her family-]
[Everyone would blame her. The Bastion would recognize her as the carrier, the one who brought the darkness here. The wolf who played at being human, who would later become the monster: she had to be killed for the good of everyone.]
[She cried for help, and people came with their weapons. Zuko looked at her with disgust and contempt, no longer recognizing her.]
**
[Ikuri's hands squeezed tighter, desperately.]
[The girl beneath her, the perfectly healthy human girl - tears flowing freely, screaming for help, screaming for her guardian Ippo...]
[No, no he can't come too soon. I have to save you first. I have to kill you so you won't see me like this, so you'll be safe from the arrows.]
[Ippo came...no, too late. Too late. You can't save us now; you'll have to kill us both. She looked up at him, pleading...but it was not Ippo who stood there. It was the engineer, looking back at her - staring in that way he did when he meant to hurt her, or when he wanted her to feel afraid.]
[Please help Ibuki. Ikuri said it, but there was no voice. She could not even move.]
[And his response...no, it's too late for Ibuki. You took her from us. Restitution must be paid.]
**
[But they didn't kill her. They did worse. They removed her fighting spirit, extracted it somehow- then they maimed her, an act of pure cruelty, twisting her arms until they were bent and useless things. Left her with only her legs, but bent those too, so she would have to crawl and couldn't run. Couldn't jump or climb.]
[And they put her back in the void.]
[We don't want you anymore. Return where you came from.]
[And she could only lay on her back, staring up at the terrible void that stared in turn, hoping her own tears would choke her before they came.]
[She know that hope was futile, too. Just the same as every hope she'd ever had. Ikuri was a lie: Shooter was who she was, and Shooter had nothing left in her but the horror. No fighter, no warrior, only a monster. The human in her, the poor poor human, nothing without her other, nothing without family or love--]
[The Bastion made her into an offering. A sacrifice to save themselves. There was nothing in her worth saving: they abandoned her with gladness, and watched as the monster came on, waiting for it to take revenge on their behalf.]
[Ikuri could only cry.]
[But nobody would lament with her. Nobody would mourn her. She would be forgotten.]
[She felt them now, closer.]
--
* * *
(( Scenario: Uncertainty))
[And then she awoke.]
(( BGM: The Bastion - Nightmares... [Baldur's Gate OST: Ruins of Ulcaster] ))
[...her grasp on reality remained tenuous for some time. The pitch dark of the room seemed to hide other threats, leering faces in the shadows...but she found the fighter in her, her focus, and tried her best to drive them away. Only her mind, only her eyes...she only thought she saw them...]
[Unwelcome indeed when they laughed and screamed instead of fading.]
[Ikuri scrambled to her feet, expecting the dark to lunge forward and take invitation - but it did not, and light filled the room. There was nothing in here but the furnishings: the bed she never slept in, the window she rarely opened...]
[It was all normal.]
[But she was still unable to bear remaining within her house.]
[Ikuri stumbles out her door in a daze, not bothering to close or lock it behind her. For that matter, she didn't even turn off her bedroom light.]
[No mind is even paid to where she's headed; her feet move, and she goes along with them. They might just take her toward you - wherever you are, whatever you're doing.]
[And it might disturb you to see that she walks with black blade unsheathed, semiconsciously braced to react to threat. The dullness of her eyes may make a slightly different suggestion of her awareness, though.]
[Will you disturb her?]
Open: [Y]
When: Day 333 [backdated] - Dusk
Where: Several places within the Bastion. Pick your location when you tag in: fresh from nightmare haze, she .
What: Nearly two weeks after the tragedy, Ikuri still gets nightmares.
Format: Action brackets because habits
Warnings:
-Jumpy, sloppy prose of purple, particularly as I'm slammin' this out before work.
-Sol Man is a dork who's terrible at this RP thing.
-Nightmares and body horror.
-Text wall.
Note: The Bastion's calming field will prevent assault and outright aggression, but odds are she's still going to be jumpy and jittery.
(( Preface ))
[She saw them again.]
[The faces of those long gone. People she'd known and loved...or perhaps, more properly to say, known and longed for; while the emotions of hers that reached for them and were touched by them could be somewhere close to love, she'd not the chance to truly know such a thing. But how she'd wanted it - how she craved it, even now! How dearly she wished that they weren't dead, that she could reach for them anew and pretend nothing that took them...]
[...could ever happen...]
(( BGM: The Bastion - Ikuri's Dread [Final Fantasy VII: Those Chosen by the Planet- [Shinra Mansion Version] ))
[And then she saw the black sky above her: the void that threatened to pull her from her feet and tear her away from the world, the hunger that she knew lay in wait. She felt the icy touch, the emptiness of bone, pressing against her skin and face: the one skeletal finger just a little close to her eye.]
[She saw Dead Master, now truly dead: on the outside, appearing as Ikuri had always known her, but in her eyes...in there, something that came from the void of the sky: kin and yet not kin. The Dead Master that was here, only barely held together: Black★Rock Shooter knew, because Master wanted her to know, that within the latter lay a mass of writhing worms - that she was infected, yet animate, and the parts of her that still feel, felt hatred towards Shooter (though it was a dull thing), for the events of their prior meeting - for being burned away into nothing.]
[What was left of her hated Shooter, hated her profoundly, for taking Yomi from her. She had wanted to human too, once - not any longer. Now there was only the void, controlling every action like a puppet and string, governed solely by hunger.]
[And then she pressed closer still, the flesh peeling away to reveal a skull.]
**
[...Crona.]
[The body riddled by arrows. Shooter moved to protect her, to shield her - but it was over. Dead before the instinct to protect had even beckoned.]
[She saw a broken body, saw the eyes looking blankly back at her. The skin peeled back of its own accord, slowly, revealing flesh - revealing what could only live again one other way. Crona's face became Dead Master's, smiling back.]
**
[And the vision came again and again.]
**
[The fifth time, the person in the clearing was Mato. Ikuri clenched her head, screaming in defiance, but Mato's voice came out of her.]
**
[No. No, no, no -- Mato wasn't there. Mato hadn't died here. Mato was...]
[...Mato had died in the Calamity. Zuko's words; all of the knowledge Ikuri had learned here, claiming that only certain of those amongst each world had been saved. Dead Master, Strength...Matagi...and Gold Saw. They were all truly gone. Now there was truly no hope of saving them.]
[You...are all that's left.]
[I am carried within you, and I will blossom.]
**
[...Ibuki's body, riddled with electricity. Ibuki, pierced by arrows, blood pouring freely from her mouth.]
[Ikuri jumped toward her dearest friend to save her. The black blade pierced her instead. It wasn't enough. She had to be saved.]
[Even as the flesh peeled back, even as the horror crawled from Ibuki's mouth, opening wider than it should, showing full well the depth to which the human in her had been melted away-- Ikuri's hands closed around the girl's throat, squeezing tighter, clutching in defiance of the infection - she had to save her, had to. Without Ibuki, without her family-]
[Everyone would blame her. The Bastion would recognize her as the carrier, the one who brought the darkness here. The wolf who played at being human, who would later become the monster: she had to be killed for the good of everyone.]
[She cried for help, and people came with their weapons. Zuko looked at her with disgust and contempt, no longer recognizing her.]
**
[Ikuri's hands squeezed tighter, desperately.]
[The girl beneath her, the perfectly healthy human girl - tears flowing freely, screaming for help, screaming for her guardian Ippo...]
[No, no he can't come too soon. I have to save you first. I have to kill you so you won't see me like this, so you'll be safe from the arrows.]
[Ippo came...no, too late. Too late. You can't save us now; you'll have to kill us both. She looked up at him, pleading...but it was not Ippo who stood there. It was the engineer, looking back at her - staring in that way he did when he meant to hurt her, or when he wanted her to feel afraid.]
[Please help Ibuki. Ikuri said it, but there was no voice. She could not even move.]
[And his response...no, it's too late for Ibuki. You took her from us. Restitution must be paid.]
**
[But they didn't kill her. They did worse. They removed her fighting spirit, extracted it somehow- then they maimed her, an act of pure cruelty, twisting her arms until they were bent and useless things. Left her with only her legs, but bent those too, so she would have to crawl and couldn't run. Couldn't jump or climb.]
[And they put her back in the void.]
[We don't want you anymore. Return where you came from.]
[And she could only lay on her back, staring up at the terrible void that stared in turn, hoping her own tears would choke her before they came.]
[She know that hope was futile, too. Just the same as every hope she'd ever had. Ikuri was a lie: Shooter was who she was, and Shooter had nothing left in her but the horror. No fighter, no warrior, only a monster. The human in her, the poor poor human, nothing without her other, nothing without family or love--]
[The Bastion made her into an offering. A sacrifice to save themselves. There was nothing in her worth saving: they abandoned her with gladness, and watched as the monster came on, waiting for it to take revenge on their behalf.]
[Ikuri could only cry.]
[But nobody would lament with her. Nobody would mourn her. She would be forgotten.]
[She felt them now, closer.]
--
* * *
(( Scenario: Uncertainty))
[And then she awoke.]
(( BGM: The Bastion - Nightmares... [Baldur's Gate OST: Ruins of Ulcaster] ))
[...her grasp on reality remained tenuous for some time. The pitch dark of the room seemed to hide other threats, leering faces in the shadows...but she found the fighter in her, her focus, and tried her best to drive them away. Only her mind, only her eyes...she only thought she saw them...]
[Unwelcome indeed when they laughed and screamed instead of fading.]
[Ikuri scrambled to her feet, expecting the dark to lunge forward and take invitation - but it did not, and light filled the room. There was nothing in here but the furnishings: the bed she never slept in, the window she rarely opened...]
[It was all normal.]
[But she was still unable to bear remaining within her house.]
[Ikuri stumbles out her door in a daze, not bothering to close or lock it behind her. For that matter, she didn't even turn off her bedroom light.]
[No mind is even paid to where she's headed; her feet move, and she goes along with them. They might just take her toward you - wherever you are, whatever you're doing.]
[And it might disturb you to see that she walks with black blade unsheathed, semiconsciously braced to react to threat. The dullness of her eyes may make a slightly different suggestion of her awareness, though.]
[Will you disturb her?]