thebastion | Day 174 | [CLOSED] The pictures in his mind arose and began to breathe.

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Day 174 | [CLOSED] The pictures in his mind arose and began to breathe.

Who: Yukio and Rin Okumura. Possibly Bon later?
Open: Closed
When: Day 174
Where: The Skyway, in that convenient chunk of True Cross that's still lingering.
What: Siblings are reunited. Put on your hard hats, this can't possibly end well.
Format: Action
Warnings: Hurting of the brain meats. Probably language. And, of course, Rin.

[This was impossible. Completely unthinkable.

Yukio closed his eyes for a moment and took several deep breaths, trying to still the trembling in his hands and block out the unbelievable world around him by focusing on the things he knew to be true. The things he remembered. Falling down the funnel and into the darkness below, hearing the snarls of approaching zombies and the frightened shouts of his team (his students, his brother), and then... nothing.

He opened his eyes again, but nothing had changed. Those unreliable organs were insisting that he'd fallen through the floor of a shopping center and into... another shopping center. But there was no ceiling above, not even the pipe he'd fallen through. Only sky, and all around scattered chunks of rock and concrete leading to a street that Yukio had once known like the back of his hand. A street that should have been hundreds of miles from Inari. Not that something so trivial as distance would matter in a place there the ground was not actually the ground, but pieces of land suspended in mid-air by nothing.

He shook his head. Impossible.

He tucked his flashlight away, but kept his gun at the ready as he carefully ventured toward shops that were both familiar and strange at the same time. Where was his team? Where was he? If this was supposed to be True Cross (no, it couldn't be), where was everyone? What sort of trick was this?]

... Is anyone there?

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[They were going to throw a fit if they knew she'd come out here alone. Even before Night's death everyone was told not to go out without another person, and now that such a tragedy had occurred it was even less advisable to go out alone or even in pairs.

Yet here she was, treading quietly through the shopping district quietly, both swords at her sides, because she just couldn't stay away. It was a part of home, a part of her former life, and seeing it and the church brought back so many painful-happy memories.

She didn't want to bother anyone that early in the morning to go (though some part of her knew that at least one of them would have gone with her) and she just wanted to go.

Even if it was just for a little bit. Even if it mean trying to get back before Bon was awake. Even if it meant risking a lot of people throwing a fit at her recklessness. That wasn't the first thought on her mind right now, though.

She paused at the shop windows, frowning at just how barren they were. They hadn't been that empty when she was there yesterday, but trying to puzzle out just what had caused everything to vanish in that time period was far beyond her.

Sighing, she moved her messy hair back over her shoulder and kept moving, a flash of black catching her attention in the distance.

A familiar jacket. A familiar stance. But something was off...]

Yuki-chan... ?

[He had to be dreaming. He'd hit is head when he'd fallen, and now this was just his mind's convoluted way of trying to comfort him, by sending him home in the best way it knew how. Or maybe he'd been drugged, that was entirely possible. He'd just been captured by the enemy after infiltrating their base, after all.

But neither of those possibilities explained his current level of clarity and focus. He could still feel adrenaline running through his system, sharpening his senses and adding to that light shaking in his limbs that he couldn't quite will away. This wasn't what unconsciousness felt like, and if he was beyond unconsciousness... well, that couldn't be right either. If this was the afterlife, it was a poor excuse for heaven or hell.

The sudden voice drew Yukio out of his thoughts. It wasn't very loud, but the complete lack of life around him made even the quietest noises seem deafening. He turned quickly, gun pointed safely at the ground as he immediately began to search for Shiemi. No one else called him "Yuki-chan", and it only registered a few seconds later that the voice he'd heard was not Shiemi at all. It was still feminine, but deeper, and (like everything else around him) strange and oddly familiar at the same time.

There was a figure at the end of the street. A girl (definitely not Shiemi) or average height with dark hair and... a tail? It almost looked like...]

... Niisan?

[Floating pieces of True Cross and Rin in drag. Alright, maybe he'd settle on this being a hallucination.]

[Yeah well you're wrong on so many accounts, Yukio. Sorry to say.

Not that Rin was right on her account, either. Seeing him turn around, her moment of slight excitement at the thought of her sister finally, finally being there was completely crushed.

Yukio. Not Yuki. The Okumura that Bon knew, not the one that Rin knew. Her mouth worked, but no voice came out, pain twisting in her stomach and clutching at her heart. There was so much to explain, yet she couldn't even get his name out without feeling her throat close up.

And they weren't going to get much chance to talk, either. She had noticed on her way in that some strange looking flowers had begun to crop up, against buildings and coming out of cracks. They looked like tendrils reaching for the sky above, and they were definitely not native to Japan.

But one of them moved. Diving down under the ground just out of the corner of her eye. She could hear it, burrowing in the ground beneath them, in that small space between bottom of the earth and the sky.

Oh. Shit.]

... we have to go. We have to leave, right now!

[Yukio moved forward, his frown growing deeper as he drew closer, oblivious to the source of Rin's panic. Hallucination or not, he had to operate under the assumption that this was all really happening until evidence was presented to confirm otherwise, and if that was the case...]

Why are you-? [No, why Rin was in a skirt wasn't important. Very strange, but not vital information at the moment.] Do you know where we are? Where are the others?

I can explain later! Please, we need to go now--!

[Too late. Yukio's obliviousness, and his intent to demand questions from Rin was leaving him a sitting duck. The ground rumbled louder beneath their feet, and Rin cut her own words off to dart forward and close the gap between the two of them.

There wasn't enough time to grab Yukio and start running, though, only enough to shove him out of the way just as the teeth of the creature came bursting through the asphalt of the road, clamping around Rin.]

[Yukio cried out in surprise as he went tumbling, years of training and habit the only things that kept his gun clutched safely in his hand. He rolled to his feet quickly, automatically raising his weapon to aim at the... thing that had burst out of the ground.

That thing that was biting Rin-!]

Niisan!

[Ignore the incorrect pronoun, because he's going to go ahead open fire on the plant monster that's trying to eat his sibling.]

[She wasn't about to correct him, not at that moment. Of course he was going to be confused - Bon had said more than once the Rin in their world was male. She was the odd one out.

But again that was the least of their worries, considering this thing was doing a damn good job of chewing on her, sharp inner teeth tearing at her clothes and the tougher, longer outer ones keeping her trapped inside.

At least until Yukio started firing. It let out a shriek and thrashed about, tossing Rin out and sending her rolling end over end. Blood snaked down her bare legs, staining her shirt at her upper arms and a faint cut at her cheek added to the crimson on her skin.]

F-fuck... fuckin'... ow...

[Yukio ran over to where Rin landed, emptying his magazine into the monster and reloading before he got there, waiting to see what it would do next. He'd never seen a demon quite like it, so there was no way of telling what its next move would be. They were out of its immediate range, though, so would it tunnel back underground again?]

Are you okay?

[Rin looked a mess (he'd feel bad about that later), but Yukio knew better than to think that something like that would put his brother down for too long.]

[Luckily for both of them, this one had made the mistake of raising itself up in order to take a bite out of the two of them, leaving the softer body exposed up high where Yukio started shooting.

It was wounded, not completely out but willing to retreat after having an entire magazine unloaded in to it it.

But there were others around, and that's what Rin was worried about...

With a groan she got to her feet shakily, wincing at the deep cut on her leg. It would heal but it was impeding rapid movement at the moment.]

I'll live. There's more of those things here, though.

[With the monster gone (for now), Yukio took a moment to look at Rin. Really look, and what he saw only made the current situation more confusing. Slight differences in the face and the way Rin's clothing hung, the voice...

Was this person his sibling? Or just an incredible lookalike? His eyes narrowed a bit.]

... Do you know the way out?

[She knew why he was giving him that look. She knew and it hurt far worse than she was willing to admit even to herself. It made her throat lock up again, her fingers tremble just so, and she had to force herself to speak without a tremor to her voice.]

Y-yeah. Follow me.

[Yukio followed without any extra fuss, but kept his gun at the ready in case more strange monsters decided to take a shot at them. And certainly not because he was completely out of his element and had no idea of what to make of the person leading the way.

Of course not.]

Where are we?

[Because if this person knew the way out, they must have known where they were.]

[For the moment, they were in the clear. The first one had obviously been delivered enough of a blow that it wasn't eager to go after them again, and the rest of it's companions had all but fled.

Rin was limping a bit, the cut healing but still deep enough to be an annoyance, but she kept herself a pace or two head of Yukio. Out of determination to get them out of there or to hide her face, it was almost impossible to tell from that angle.]

That's a long story. But... the land below us was called Caelondia before it was destroyed.

Caelondia? I've never heard of it...

[He stayed back those few paces, swapping between keeping a wary eye on their surroundings and studying Rin's back. Who was this girl ad how did she know so much about this place?]

How did I get here?

[Because if he was here, the rest of his team might be, too. They might be in some other part of this strange world dealing with monsters like the one Yukio had just taken a chunk out of.]

. . . this really ain't the place to be talkin'.

[That... was an odd dodge of his questions, but very Rin-like in the manner she did it. No real reason given, just a short answer that was cagey and a little short. She just wanted to get back to the Bastion before anything else happened, where she could get cleaned up and pretend for a little while that she wasn't out here alone.

Of course bringing Yukio back with her was going to blow that out of the water, but maybe she could make up a convincing lie.

Maybe.]

There's a safe place here. ... the only safe place. We'd be better off goin' there before more of those things show up. Or somethin' worse...

[That was an extremely Rin-like dodge, and it was only the follow-up mention of more of those monsters that kept Yukio from stopping them both dead in their tracks and demanding an answer.

It was incredibly frustrating, not knowing. Not knowing where they were, what had happened to his team, or what this girl might've had to do with it... but he would hold his tongue.

For now.]

[Good, because she really didn't think it was such a good idea to stop and have a lengthy conversation about the state of the world(s) right where they could easily be attacked again.

She could be dumb, but even she knew that was a terrible plan.

Especially since those plant things were getting gutsy again, and she could feel and hear the rumbling of their returning numbers some distance behind them.]

... damn it. Hurry up!

[Ignoring the still bleeding wound on her leg, she picked up her pace, heading for... what looked like a dead end.]

[He didn't appreciate that tone, but she knew the monster was coming last time, so there must've been more on the way.

Yukio sped up to match Rin's pace... at least until he looked ahead and saw just where they were going. There wasn't anything beyond that ledge, was there? Was this girl crazy?]

We can't go that way. It's a drop off!

[Well she might have been crazy for other reasons, but not for what she was doing right now.

Of course she knew that it was crazy to ask what she was about to, but she also knew there wasn't much choice in the matter.]

Just trust me!

[And to make sure he didn't get left behind, she snagged his wrist with her hand (much smaller than the Rin he knew) and dragged him along.

Just as it seemed like they were going to run out of ground to flee on, they hit... something at the end of the broken off road, and all at once Yukio would feel a disorienting pull upwards like he was being dragged through the air by an invisible hand, tossed aside and left to free fall until a current of incredibly powerful wind snatched them up and drifted them along back to solid ground...

on a much larger piece of floating land quite a distance away.]

[Trust her. That might've been asking a bit much, but that grip on his wrist didn't leave him much choice, and it was out of his control completely once they hit that something at the end of the road.

A rather undignified yelp escaped him as his feet left the ground, but to his credit he managed to keep any further evidence of panic under wraps... at least until they landed.

He went to his knees when they hit solid ground again, wide-eyed and breathing hard, as disoriented as he'd been when he'd first woken up in this impossible place.]

... H-How...

Edited 2014-04-03 07:07 (UTC)

[Which she knew, and which was why she grabbed him to force him to the end of that pathway. But they were back now, and even she found herself stumbling a little and slumping to her knees with a heavy sigh of relief. She really did not want to wind up in the mouth of another creature today. Or ever again.

(But that was probably asking for too much in this place.)

A second to catch her breath, and she crawled over to Yukio to check on him, just barely catching that uttered, shocked word.]

Sorry... I'm sorry, I had to--

[Okay, no, forget the apologies, he needed an explanation.]

This... this is the Bastion, and that out there was the Skyway. The thing that destroyed this world also made all of... this. Includin' the winds that got us back here. No, I dunno how it works, but it's the only way we have to get around right now. Even if... the landings do kinda suck.

[The sudden flight and landing hadn't caused any irreparable damage, and after a few moments he shook his head and began pulling himself back together again.

The Bastion? Alright, a floating haven in the sky surrounded by a monster-infested Skyway and-... wait.]

... "This world"? Are you really trying to tell me that this is a different world?

[Good, because even if she's healing on her own more or less, she's probably going to need some tending to after whatever explanation she can get out.

She nods to Yukio question, worrying her lower lip with a fang.]

Mhm... it is. And... there's no easy way to tell you this, but. Our world? It's... gone. What we found out there, that's all that's left of it. The Calamity - the thing that destroyed this world also destroyed a bunch of others.

[Yukio stopped halfway through trying to climb to his feet, staring hard at the ground for several long seconds before looking up at Rin again.

Hopefully Rin wasn't expecting immediate acceptance, because her brother from another world looked ready to call bullshit.]

... I don't know how I got here or who you're really supposed to be, but this isn't funny.

Edited 2014-04-04 02:39 (UTC)

It's not a joke!

[Oops, there goes her voice raising. And it's still fairly early in the Bastion, so the relative quiet does a lot to make her voice carry.]

I wouldn't joke about this, Yuki...

[She knew that wasn't his proper name, but she couldn't quite convince her brain to fully recognize the disconnect between the two. Dropping "-chan" at least made it slightly less abnormal, but there was a halt in the way she said it that held just how much she wasn't ready to accept this version of her sibling.

And considering just how much he wasn't ready to accept any of this it made sense. It had only been a few minutes after all.]

I've been here for months. Months hoping that my sister was still alive out there. Instead I found...

[You.]

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