saturations | Week 6 cyoa: hei, jiuqing, vin, and kashuu

[RUBY REALLY JUST OUT HERE STABBING THEM BOTH WHEN THEY'RE ALREADY COLLAPSED HUH. Honestly, it's probably a good thing that another creature comes out of nowhere at this moment - because at least it's something to focus on, even in the midst of all of the anguish of war and loss. Vax, Aymeric most likely, Yasusada, Horikawa, Kanesada, so many, many, many others--

It's a weight heavier than the greatsword in his hand, which he'll use regardless of Vin's words and her half-hearted stance. What's the point? The point is his existence. Who is he, if not a sword? What is he, if not something forged to protect? What should he do, if not stand here? What can he do, if not press on, fight, fight, fight until he breaks once more?

He won't stay behind Vin. He'll rush forward instead, with a 19 roll and his blade aimed for this creature that strikes out in Vin's direction, attempting to cleave into its side.]

[it's halfhearted, but she focuses as the creature approaches, at least - when it tries to reach out and grasp her face in its hands, she slashes outwards with her sword at the serpent's body at the same time as kashuu.

so much has been lost today, but she will at least make sure he doesn't join that number. even with this swirling feeling of inevitability, a numbing ache in her chest, the claws miss her face for now with her dodge roll of eighteen, and her attack is a fifteen.]

[throws dice maiden into the garbage. you guys have injuries you said you wanted and i WILL give them to you.

but wow, these two tanks sure are tough! kashuu's blade cleaves into the monsters side, and vin's slashes up her chest. it lets out a pained hiss, blood gushing out from the wounds and splattering them, and poor sweet innocent vin will likely have a mixture of blood and venom splatter from the creature's fangs as it thrashes wildly.

vin is right in front of it, and it lunges again despite the way the motion aggravates its wounds. it won't stop until it's well and truly dead. its claws come up for her face again - but this time, they're aimed at her eyes. no details here for eye gore but what happens with the eyes is up to you.]

[Kashuu is of a similar mindset to Vin; he doesn't want to lose her on top of everything else. It's so, so hard to keep pushing through, but if it's for the sake of another person, for someone he holds close, then he can do it. He will do it.

But as he raises his greatsword for a second blow, the tide of that vast despair crashes against him and he ends up losing some of his momentum as he morphs into a depression twink. He only brings his sword into her with a 5.]

Edited 2022-03-31 16:41 (UTC)

[she tries to dodge, but her earlier blow has left her in close proximity to the creature, and when it scratches out at her face - the claws sink deep, arching from her forehead, over both of her eyes, and into her cheek before moving off.

there's a dizzying moment before the pain sets in where she realizes she can't see, and then it hits her like a brick, both physical and emotional pain. because she's useless, now - she can't see at all, so what good is she in this fight? how is she going to be able to protect kashuu, to make sure they bring vax and aymeric back with them, to stop anything further from happening to ruby? how is she going to stop the people she loves from being taken from her? and if she can't stop that from happening, how can she ever claim to deserve to have them here with her? they should leave her, if she can't stop this from happening to them. they would be right to.

with her roll of four, these thoughts coalesce until she can't focus on anything else but the fear, the agony, and - smoke starts to pour out of the wound on her face. it billows outwards and surrounds her, sinking into her skin, which starts to go black as her body elongates. her flesh starts to change into scales that look as though they're made of ash, black tendrils of smoke spreading out from her back to form a pair of wings.

unfortunately, before this transformation has a chance to go too far - her roll of eighteen means that rather than being an instant release from the pain she's feeling, she can tell something is happening, that she's changing and shifting and becoming wrong. halfway to her new form (with wings of smoke and ash rather than what's pictured) while her body still contracts and shifts, she brings her hands up to her face with a muffled scream.]

Stop - stop it...!

[that's the last thing she gets to say before she loses herself, and then she turns towards where she remembers kashuu to be, teeth bared. smoke and shadow ripple across her as she faces him.]

Edited 2022-03-31 17:04 (UTC)

[blood drips down the snake creature's claws, and it rears back as if to strike her again - to tear into flesh, to rip her apart and drink in her blood and her aether - but then she's consumed by those tendrils and begins to change.

vin was in front of it, bright and fierce and alive, but what's left is an empty husk that turns toward kashuu. the creature that was once jiuqing turns, too, drawn to his aether - his life - and barely notices as he strikes and his sword nicks its scales, glancing off.

it unhinges his jaw and lunges, aiming to plunge fangs into his shoulder. they're sharp and large and clearly inhuman, and poison drips from them - it's going to hurt if it manages to bite.]

[WELL.

OKAY!!!!! Kashuu's busy engaging a monster in combat, but it's not like it's easy to miss Vin just having a wholeass crisis over there. He manages to look over just in time to see the smoke pour out of her wound - and what an awful, awful wound it is - and hear that agonized cry, and he's panicked and confused and startled, the emotions cutting through the tangle of his despair. It's too much like familiar things, horrible and familiar things, and he feels his heart drop.]

Vin—!?

[By comparison, it's almost as if something in this helps to shove aside the weights that had been slowing down his movements, dragging them into a state of sluggishness. He's alive again - though of course, to creatures like this, he always has been.

The funny shit here is he still doesn't know the other monster is Jiuqing so even though it faintly registers that this might be A Person, he's fully focused on Vin.]

Vin—!! What-- what the hell - are... Can you hear me?!

[ANYWAY HE'S SOUNDLY DISTRACTED so Jiuqing gets her poison bite in and he yells in shock, first - then in pain. The 15 roll is for sweet Jiuqing, who naturally gets the brunt of his violence because clearly this is just an NPC??? as he swings his broadsword toward her again, this time in an attempt to just get her upper body away from him.

For Vin who he DOESN'T WANT TO SWING A SWORD AT, there's just a blast of snowflake magic her way with a 13.]

[the snow hits the heat of this new body, extinguishing the smoke coming off it's wing for just a moment, and it roars in anger. there's nothing human about the noise, nothing that kashuu will find familiar, and - well, he can't look into it's eyes, but there's no recognition or hesitation in the way it moves.

the blast he sent this way gives it a better idea of where he's located, and so the creature moves towards him, claws raised, before trying to rake them over whatever part of his body it can reach. it doesn't have a particular aim or goal other than to draw blood, to wound, to kill. it cries out again, but after the monstrous roar that it lets forth, he might hear, a little bit quieter:]

Ka...shuu... Don't leave... me...

[eli 🔪 vin Roll: [18] Result: 18]

[the broadsword catches her sharply enough that she shrieks in pain, loosing her fangs from kashuu as she reels back. she crumbles to the ground, bleeding heavily, glaring up at him with eerie, glowing green eyes.

her lips move, but she's choking on blood and it's hard to hear what it says. there's a suggestion of pain in her expression, but it's hard to see clearly underneath the black blood and the gore.

...it doesn't last, anyway. heedless of her wounds, she surges forward again, claws outstretched to rip and tear at his leg, attempting to sink her fangs in there, as well.

britt 🧃 sip juicing Roll: [18] Result: 18]

[Haha. Well. The funny thing about this is that arguably, despite this being a much more depressing situation than the weight of what had occurred when their Permanent Depression first settled over them, the wisps around Kashuu seem to be... fading? Hm. It had started when Vin changed, and the number continues to drop even now, though it's not really notable to two creatures who are just husks of what they had been before, huh. The weight that had settled in his chest is no longer foreign like a binding shackle wrapped around his ankles, tugging him down, down into the bottomless sea. It's familiar, now - a heaviness with a clarity of thought. Ah. We're here again. We're back at this place, back in this bad situation. An endless cycle of hurt and hurting.

But maybe - hope catches in him, like the warm amber necklace he'd held so fiercely onto nights ago - this means they're almost, almost done.

He's crying again, maybe from the cathartic ease of that foreign weight, or from the heaviness of the new but familiar one. It's certainly not from the claws of what used to be Vin as they tear through his very nice jacket that he got from that elf he hit on a thousand years ago, or the ones that tear into his leg, severing flesh and muscle and tendon. He's a blade, after all. He's made to take a serious thrashing, even without being a tank on top of it.

He's also a blade that knows his limits.

The words that come from what used to be Vin twist into him, and he knows he'll carry them for life, along with every other scar he's collected here. Is that fine? Is any of this? It'll have to be, he guesses. He reaches out almost on reflex toward Vin, but pulls his hand back at the last second.]

--M'sorry.

[But he can't kill her, and he refuses to die here. He uses that 2 roll in an attempt to give poor sweet Juiqing a last strike which will probably also just bounce ineffectively off of her scales help, but the 15 is for his escape. He's attempting to tear himself away from both of them, turning away from where Ruby and Real Vax are and booking it out toward the city proper, where the sounds of war still cry.]

[a fourteen just falls under his fifteen, so he manages to get away - but the monster is pursuing quickly, just a little bit behind him. it can still hear him even if it can no longer see.

besides, if he's heading to the city... as they approach, it starts to sense that there are other people nearby, more aether to be torn away and consumed. it's still following after kashuu, but as soon they get closer and it begins to hear the noises of the remaining fighters trying to protect the civilians—

another roar bursts out of the monster's throat, and it's trying to head towards these people, mindlessly seeking blood.

eli 🔪 vin Roll: [17] Result: 17]

[the monster that was once jiuqing pursues him with a single-minded determination - blood, aether, it needs to kill, it needs to drink it all in -

and suddenly, there's a veritable feast laid out in front of it.

kashuu can keep running.

it's going to begin attacking any poor soul that is in its path.

britt 🧃 sip juicing Roll: [17] Result: 17 Reason: pursuit]

[Goddammit he hates it here. He doesn't want Vin (or this other?? maybe-person????) out here killing a bunch of innocent civilians, but he is just One Heavily Injured Peanut with a single greatsword and literally no spells he can currently use on himself. He can't save them, kill them both, get out of here alive and protect the civilians all at once - not that he knew they'd be this voracious and mindless about who or what they attack, anyway.

The wisps increase, but not by much, as he just fckin books it on his absolutely wrecked leg. It'd be very funny if blood loss got to him before anything else because he is frankly bleeding quite heavily by this point and it's making his vision blur at the edges thanks to one of those 3 rolls. Still, he has the clarity of mind to shout at any survivors as he zooms:]

Go—!! Get to the sides - don't engage with them!!

[He would try to defend but that's his other 3, so he's disrupted by this hei-gifted 10 roll monster that just APPEARS IN FRONT OF HIM he's just fckin trying to dodge around with his 14 he hates it here so bad. He's also rolling a 14 for General Booking It and running in the direction of where some dragons seem to be, but he's keeping an eye out for abandoned shields to pick up as he goes, too.]

[ The knights and adventurers (7) that caught "Vin" and "Jiuqing's" eyes do not all get to the sides like Kashuu commands. They do try, but with the number of them fighting off other monsters and dragons, a number of them fall by these larger monsters. Kashuu witnesses them for a very short instance where they end and he (along with our monster friends) starts seeing these people are others from home, or from the Prism.

Ishgard becomes duller in color, greyer and more monotonous than it already was, but the sky keeps its blue for a moment longer. In a blink of an eye, however, it turns into a deep crimson. Fire rains from it, like star showers. It would be an amazing sight if it didn't start turning the warriors on the field into monsters, too. Slowly, each one succumbs to their despair and fear. They turn and join "Vin" and "Jiuqing" on pursuit for any being with aether.

He may have another shield. There are probably so much weaponry on the floor from dead soldiers.

The dragons, for some reason, are unaffected by this spreading disease. They attack almost in the same fashion, but with a 19, they do pay attention to Kashuu when he dashes toward him instead of the ruin they're sowing. One wyvern squawks, then launches itself at him with claws out. It grazes him by with a 6 to his side, ripping only some.

With "Jiuqing's" higher roll, so being closer to Kashuu, the wyvern doesn't stop its charge and clutches onto her with its talons. It shrieks, surprised to be here? And so forth its claws dig in tighter, one deep into her clavicle, then the other on the crook of her neck with a 20. Thanks to her dragon eye, though, it doesn't instantly kill her.

Anyway, dragon is spooked. This was an accident. ]

Edited 2022-03-31 19:11 (UTC)

[later, these moments will haunt her.

but for now, the creature that came from her pays no mind to the fact that she once knew these faces. with a roll of ten, some of them are merely wounded, while some are killed before they can turn. there are familiar faces among those it attacks - if he's at all able to pay attention to what it's doing, kashuu might notice teeth and claws sinking into clarte, damien, and itsuki, among some unfamiliar faces to him - but it doesn't stop despite this.

by the time the rest of the crowd who haven't been killed turn into monsters, her mouth is red with blood, and since there is one single living person here - she's rushing back towards him, fangs bared as she tries to bite at him with a roll of twelve.]

[

well!

this accidental attack by the dragon sure is slowing the monster formerly known as jiuqing down. with a roll of 6, it isn't able to free itself from the wyvern's claws. it thrashes, trying to break free, and maybe smacking down some familiar faces - percy, vax, emet-selch, ruby (sorry vin), itsuki('s twin, apparently), clarte('s twin), and others - with its tail, but it's nothing that will be fatal.

kashuu at least will only have to deal with the vinmonster for now.]

[WELL OKAY BYE WYVERN AND ALSO JIUQING MONSTER. That's a thing that's happening over there and he's just kind of keeping an eye on it for the time being but otherwise ignoring it, and also just kind of fckin booking it away from both the wyvern and monster especially after EVERYTHING ERUPTS INTO CHAOS. HELLO!! He's taking like .5 seconds to look at fire raining down and everyone living turning into monsters and another .5 seconds to look at doubles of the same people get knocked around and this is truly hell?? The wisps also decrease again for some reason why the fck. He's still of clear mind for now, with the death-grip of despair not fully regaining its grasp.

Anyway he's blocking Vinster's attempt at biting him with a 15 and rolling to keep running with just a sad, measly 5, which makes sense considering his leg is truly just having a time of it. But now that he's got a shield again, he's also casting Holy Sheltron. His beefed up defense!! He's got a Divine Veil on top of that because stress is unlocking his powers (his awakened mode is here), so he casts that toward the nearest group of non-monsterfied people with a SOLID 20. THOSE PEOPLE ARE GONNA BE SO PROTECTED. Hopefully Aymeric is in there.

His 9 roll means he isn't bleeding out yet but he's not very steady on his feet anymore.]

[ Aymeric has not been seen… Vin and Jiuqing ruin these people. They could have had a peaceful “death” turning into monsters, but a handful die before they can turn. Knowing that they’ve caused them pain for NO reason whatsoever will stay when all of this is over, even if the reasoning for doubles is strange. Maybe your eyes just aren’t working well. Kashuu’s Divine Veil, at the very least, let’s some of them die slower… And also allows a couple to escape. Good job, Peanut. Maybe it’s Clorte. Or Itsaki.

With a 6, the Wyvern can’t separate itself from “Jiuqing,” so it flaps like a scared chicken. Dragons also feel the lack of aether in these monsters… And seeing something dead move is disturbing. Thrashing about, Jiuqing’s wounds worsen by 15, but that’s enough for it to break free and abandon this engagement. They’re here to fight Ishgardians, not this.

Of course, dragons are also full of aether. However, who “Jiuqing” pursues is up to Britt/dice.

Popcorns vinshuu clash. ]

[with kashuu's five and the monster's eighteen, it's able to catch up to him easily. it's a good thing he immediately used a spell on defense, because it's moving to attack again - by now, it's getting tired of the back and forth, of the chasing. it pays no mind to the people it attacked who are already dead, bleeding, or monsters - it wants more.

it's also lucky that the creature can't see anymore, because while it would ordinarily be going for his throat, the fact that it can only follow him based on noise complicates that. all the same, it's lashing out, trying to bite and scratch at him at the same time with a roll of thirteen.

however, as it does that, he'll hear, in a voice inhuman and wrong:]

Help... me...

[tmw i say only a roll of 5 or less will have her keep fighting this wyvern and i roll a fucking 2

anyway, the monster that was once jiuqing really wants to get at this dragon's aether? it has developed a taste for it because of the dragon's eye, i guess. it pursues the wyvern, lunging forward with a roll of 18 to sink its teeth into its hide.

dice maiden is hateful ganba kashuu and vin]

[ Out of nowhere (17), as "Vin" is about to attack Kashuu with with its claws and teeth, Kashuu will notice a shimmering, light gold and somewhat translucent tether that attaches to him and connects him to another.

This mysterious person takes all of Vin's (13) damage done on peanut!

For Jiuqing quickly, too, the screeches as it starts flapping to the sky (16). It's high enough to take her, but not enough to shake her off. It wails as it can feel its own life being taken by this monster it didn't mean to fight. This is the consequence of its actions... With a 9, only one other dragon sees its fellow kin struggling, so it goes to call for help. Maybe monster Jiuqing will escape? Coincidentally? Not that she can perceive what it means to live or die, just to kill. ]

[JIUQING'S REALLY OVER THERE LOCKED INTO A DEATH MATCH WITH A WYVERN HELP. MEANWHILE KASHUU'S JUST ??? WHO'S HE CONNECTED TO. WHO TOOK HIS DAMAGE. HE HAD A SHIELD FOR THAT. He'll be looking for the source of this glimmering gold thread, but with a 5 roll, that ain't going so well so perhaps it will remain a mystery to him. Maybe sweet Vinster will figure out who it is and kill them. just kidding updates in realtime with chat, i also dont need my 4 roll anymore either throws that out because the tether only lasts one tag round.

Anyway with all of those bites and scratches being TAKEN by someone ELSE, Kashuu's making it through this bout without any additional injuries. He's also rolling a 14 to engage Vinster in COMBAT - though he freezes, on hearing that. A call for help.

As if unlocking a gate, the wisps return in a strong tide. It's not enough to completely overwhelm him just yet, but he falls to a knee, feeling something shifting in him - in his body, in the very fabric of his being. This is fine, probably.]

[in any other situation, his distress and despair would have been able to stop her long ago. but now, the fact that he's not hurt, not bleeding - the creature doesn't bother to look towards who took his damage, because what matters is the figure here in front of her and the aether he still possesses.

even as the wisps move around him and he bends, the monster is trying to attack again, though it's not too effective this time due to rolling a two. maybe it's confused by the sudden shift. either way:]

My... friend...

[meanwhile the dragon fight continues. the monster formerly known as jiuqing thrashes and keeps trying to bite and claw at the dragon. with a roll of 11, it's doing well enough to just stay in place and keep gnawing. if it had rolled less than a 10 i would have had it fall.

hiss, scratch, etc. we're really having a monster fight in the background while kashuu and vin have an emotional moment.]

[ SKATES IN AGAIN

We can address Jiuqing. The wyvern doesn't survive this encounter and its kin couldn't find more of them to help. It cascades down during its last moments and it crashes into one of the buildings, falling through the stone completely. It and Jiuqing slips here and knocks onto other structures there, then finally hits the ground... It struggles for one moment, one more breath, before dying.

... A familiar face approaches Jiuqing with a cold gaze. It is Cheng Gang, holding an Ishgardian bow, donning armor. He looks down at her and aims with a 14.

For Vin and Kashuu, they fight, but Kashuu can perceive again because of a cough. At first, it looks like a bloody Aymeric tethered him and took the blow... And this would be his last, but then his form flickers, too. It flashes between all of Kashuu's owners, his favorite commanders, every person that wielded him with love and adoration before it settles on Okita, coughing up blood. He snickers, laughing a bit happily despite the weariness laced between each word.

"This is definitely better than last time." Because Okita didn't die on the battlefield like he wanted. He would die to disease, pitifully, and alone. "Don't let them take you."

Okita smiles with blood dripping down his lips, lining his jaw, and settles his back against a wall before slipping. Slowly, but surely, his eyelids are too heavy to keep open. Once his eyes close, he—and everyone who wielded Kashuu—dies. ]

Week 6 cyoa: hei, jiuqing, vin, and kashuu

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cw body horror just in case,

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1/2 :3c (also body horror warning)

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