POTS TSAL ♞ FFATS HTFIF

[beknightedheroine]

Characters: Sayaka Miki, anyone who was interested in a Witch's Kiss, and the Nuke Squad.
Setting: Floor 28, and on the way to.
Format: Any is fine, but I prefer prose.
Summary: My wish is somewhere not here.
Warning: Spoilers for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, death.

On the path to Floor 28.

Sayaka has become despondent, over this last week (well, eight days, to be more specific). It felt like all her feelings fell away, one by one, watching the battles in the labyrinth - only a few days in, she'd lost all will to pay attention to it at all, and stopped making appearances in places she would normally be found in.

Anyone who's attentively lived through the start of this month, on either side of events, wouldn't be surprised by this in the least. But it's over now, right? So why does this girl look just as hopeless as if the worst was still to come? She's shuffling relentlessly forward, with some sort of purpose - but it doesn't look like a happy one.


Floor 28.

There's something different about this floor today. Something on a more unsettling, dangerous caliber than the usual fare - it's the tower, after all. It's never safe. But this is on a whole different level.

The air feels heavier. 'Humid' might be the correct descriptor, though that makes no sense - there's no water significant enough on this floor to cause an atmosphere like that. A close look would reveal that it's the truth, though - on some of the instruments, a bit of condensation has appeared. It's more obvious in a specific part of the floor - and anyone who can significantly sense magic will have been drawn there, anyway.

Because here, in the strings section, where a song gently waves through the air - there resides a Witch.

Comments

Dorm Hallways that gives plenty of room for running

[morituramfides]

"Sayaka...?"

He was already worn out, and tired, and upset, and pissed and-- he remembered the last time he saw her was with the white-haired guy and Moros. And frankly he wanted to ignore everything, and he was kind of numb but--

Right. The stuff that girl had told him about the Witches and the soul gem. Had to say something, he figured.

[beknightedheroine]

Sayaka scrutinizes Jin for a moment, more looking past him than at him - then she pushes at her bangs, and smiles in an unsettling way.

"...hey, Jin. I thought about what you said a lot."

Her voice is flat and dull, but the sound is oddly familiar - just like the time that they first talked, actually.

[morituramfides]

Her smile was unsettling-- he didn't like it. He didn't want to talk to her, he just wanted to go find Chidori and Minato and Ken and reassure himself that they were here and alive and existed and-- but. Maybe it was because he was so rattled, but he didn't like the way she was talking. Or the way she was smiling. Or anything else.

"...What about it?"

Path to floor 28 - Just as shit is going bad

[lamentless]

Roxas had been feeling sick and emotional himself, but it had been all he could handle to try and keep his room mate from being too depressed at the situation. Xion was also having issues, and sometimes when he'd been working the library, he'd taken a peek and...regretted it instantly.

But when the majority was over, he'd realized something felt off, and had gone to find that missing piece. Sayaka was emotional, he'd definitely realized that by now, and she probably hadn't been taking the situation well. She wanted to protect people- and now he wanted to make sure she was okay. He was kicking himself for only doing this now, but if he'd gone any sooner, he wouldn't have been in the mental shape to help her.

"Sayaka...!" It was only as he approached floor 28 that he'd get lucky at all. If anyone could count that as 'lucky'.

[beknightedheroine]

She stopped, nearly mid-step on the stairs - wrapping her hand around what passes closest for a banister, Sayaka manages to catch herself.

...it might've been kind of funny if she tumbled down at this point, though, one half of a staircase away from her destination. She definitely would have laughed at it. Sayaka doesn't speak, but her stop is a clear indicator yeah, she heard you, Rox.

[lamentless]

She...did not look good. It didn't take a genius to figure that out.

"Sayaka...? Are you okay?"

He didn't waste time in getting closer, standing on the other side so he could catch her if she tumbled. "Are you sick?" Or just, emotionally drained. He wouldn't be surprised by either anymore.

Floor 28, before teaming up with Lina

[wretchedlaugh]

Even Naga could feel it. That chilling sensation that kept you wary of anything and everything around you wasn't normal. Even compared to the events that transpired down in the labyrinth, this feeling was still different from whatever this tower had shown her so far.

"Just what's with this feeling... Hnn, everything turned so inexplicably cold when I got to this floor.

It's all coming from..."

The music Naga hears becomes louder. An orchestra, is it...? The scantily-clad sorceress stands now, witnessing what appears to be the source of it. A monster? ... Mazoku? Just what was it? Even the ever-confident Naga felt wary.

gonna play fast and loose with imagery a bit

[beknightedheroine]

Naga's found the source, indeed - and thanks to being a sorceress, she's able to actually identify it.

In accordance with the fades in and out of the music, a complex sigil ripples in and out of vision - it's too hazy to make out any real symbolism from it, but it's a tempting sign of what's really going on here.

This spot feels as if it draws in everything in the area around it, like it's trying to drag the rest of the tower into the mad pattern of the song.

[wretchedlaugh]

Once you identify the problem, you can begin to rectify it. Indeed, and here, Naga identified what the problem was. That sigil was the source of this magic. Once he recognized the problem, the only thing she had to do now was remove it. All the while resisting the sigil's pull, Naga raises her elbow and puts the side of her hand to her mouth. She draws breath and...

"Ooooohohohohohohohoh!!"

Laughs. But that was unnerving. Even her infamous laugh couldn't pierce through the music.

"I'm not sure what's going on here, but it seems you're to blame all along. No doubt, though, you didn't expect a sorceress of my capabilities to notice an anomaly like this early on. Very well, then! I, Naga the Serpent, second to none, hereby declare my intentions to put a stop to this!"

She raises her arms now in the air and begins an incantation, blue light surrounding her all the while. "You who cross between sky and earth, gently flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power!

Demona Crystal!"

An icy fog surrounds the room. Anything and everything within the fog begin to freeze up. A tower of ice surrounds the sigil, the main target of the spell.

Lina and Sayaka's Dorm - After Naga's first run-in with Oktavia.

[dragonspooker]

Despite what was going on, there was one person that was very unaware of what was going on.

Unfortunately, ignorance was not bliss, this time.

Lina was curled in a fetal position on her bed after waking up after spending a day and a half under torment of her sister - or someone that looked a lot like her. Either way, she didn't care - whatever it was, the person was close enough. She'd caught punishments from her sister before, but nothing like what she had experienced just a few hours prior.

She'd be quite a sight to anyone who had met her prior - her normal bravado and mouthing were long gone. In there place was a whimpering, broken girl, hiding under her covers and pillow, quietly begging forgiveness from someone who wasn't there.

[wretchedlaugh]

"LINA!"

A voice yells out from behind the dormroom door followed by a series of banging. They aren't getting any quieter no matter how much Lina would hesitate. "LINA INVERSE! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE, SO COME OUT THIS INSTANT!" she cries out.

[dragonspooker]

Naga will hear a panicked, but slightly muffled wail after her initial 'inquiry'. It's followed by an equally unsettled voice - "GO AWAY! I'M SORRY! IDONTKNOWWHATIDIDBUTWHATEVERITWASIDIDNTMEANTOSOPLEASEDONTBEMADSIS!"

On the path to Floor 28

[disbear]

One might say that at this point, Monobear developed a sixth sense for despair. No, perhaps that's wrong. Despair to Monobear comes in the form of all five senses. And he can hear it in Sayaka's soft footsteps. The silence around her was oppressive more than how natural silence ought to sound like. These sounds drew Monobear and once he saw her, the blue-haired girl shuffling around, his suspicions have been confirmed.

"How interesting... Pupupupu."

And he decides to watch and follow. Could this girl be planning on starting a Despair Party soon?

lemme just say despair party had me laughing an age

[beknightedheroine]

Sayaka doesn't do much of beyond her initial behavior at all, as she continues on her unwavering path - occasionally muttering something overly wordy and unsound if she stumbles, but she doesn't lose her way once.

She's paying far too little attention to catch Monobear tailing her.

Floor 28-Where is Jun 2K12

[vvvroom]

This was the only floor he could think of where Jun might be. The three of them have been in here every day so far, so when he didn't see Jun this morning and Eikichi hadn't either...it was the only logical place.

The closer they got to the floor, the more worried Tatsuya became. He ran down the steps faster. When they got to the floor and there was no piano music, out came the lighter, click click click, being held so tight that the knuckles on his hands were white.

And when he felt the oppressive presence here, he went pale. This...no. Something happened, something bad, where was Jun? Where the hell was he!?

[deathboss]

OH MY GODS MAN CAN YOU STOP CLICKING THAT THING Jezus it was making even Eikichi on the edge. You know, just before that oppressive presence ALSO hit him and even Hades felt something was terribly wrong.

Again.

This place tended to have that problem. Well okay, if he wasn't speaking, Eikichi was going to.

"The hell is he?!"

[vvvroom]

DUDE HE CAN'T HEEEELLLLLLP IT, it's how he fidgets. And he fidgets a lot. When he's nervous. Like right now, okay?

"I don't know. I don't..." Tatsuya stopped clicking his lighter, though it was less because it annoyed the piss out of Eikichi and more because he needed silence.

"Shhh. You hear that?" It was faint, but it sounded like notes, even though they weren't from a piano...

floor 28 - reposting to clarify this is before magical nuke squad funtimes

[riflesandtea]

As soon as she passes Floor 28, she's immediately on alert. The heavy, oppressive feeling is all too noticeable, and her Soul Gem glows brightly in warning. There's a strong magical signature here.

She carefully steps off the staircase, transforming in a flash of light, and proceeds through the instruments, looking for the source of the heavy atmosphere and condensation.

[beknightedheroine]

Woodwinds, percussion, brass, all of that is passed by without the right 'ping.'

The strings, though. That's where she'll find it.

The place is still frosted from Naga's earlier visit and retreat, icicles hanging off of dropping strings, light and spiraling designs of ice lain across each instrument.

The entrance to the Labyrinth is clear and brightly shining, nearly impudent. There is a song flowing from it, trying to snake its way into drawing in anyone whose ears would fall prey.

28~

[thanabro]

Ryoji's managed to make it up to the higher floors today. He needs to get up, get away from people, and the music room is usually relatively unpopulated.

... But today he hears someone, and he tenses. Not just because of his urge to be on his own - though that's part of it - but the entire feel of the place is... wrong. He steps forward, trying to brave a smile.

"Hello? Who's there?"

whoop i'm the latest i'm the greatest

[beknightedheroine]

The voice is far from human, more something vaguely meaningful that lies in the notes of the growing song - it does have a message, though.

It's imploring is sincere and earnest: won't you guide others to the destruction that the singer has fallen to? Wouldn't it be better if everyone were to hear this song?

He might notice a light sting to his neck as this attempts to draw itself on his skin.

Floor 28

[viditlibertas]

The atmosphere was brooding and dark, but that wasn't as effective on the star as it was to many of the others who would no doubt visit the labyrinth over the course of the day. To him, more compelling was the melody speaking so clearly, enough for him to understand. It wasn't that there were any literalwords, just that the nature of the song was in a language he could understand. And who could turn their back on someone so in sadness and longing?

However, when he found himself to the strings section of floor 28, the flow of notes began to take a more familiar shape. The tone and pattern was almost...familiar.

[beknightedheroine]

For someone who could actually understand the real tune of the song, finding the source would be far too easy.

It's a plaintive cry for attention - someone begging not to fall into an abyss alone, but certainly sliding into that darkness anyway.

Floor 28 -- MAGICAL NUKE SQUAD ASSEMBLE

[morituramfides]

Running through so many floors was certainly a chore-- and Jin didn't really have any idea where Sayaka was heading. Not only had she gotten a head start, she was also faster than him. But it didn't take a genius to figure out something was up when he for to the 28th floor.

Gripping his brief case in his left hand, he slowed and stopped in the music room, glancing around. He glanced at some of the instruments, ran a finger on some of the instruments and looked at his figure curiously when it came up wet; this place wasn't normally so humid

Now the only problem was figuring out how to get to the source....

[dragonspooker]

Shortly after Jin inspected the instruments, Lina enters the room, and pauses a few steps in. She swallows as she looks around. "...yeah, there is something here." She frowns at the air around them, then looks to the woman who followed her. "Kind of an odd place to find a mermaid, even with the humidity."