towerofanimus | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Characters: Nyarlathotep and His Fun Friends (You)
Setting: Any Floor of the Tower besides the power-limiting ones
Format: Up to you!
Summary: Nyarlathotep has returned only to discover a rumor has been passed. The rumor is that "Nyarlathotep" is no longer in the Tower. Shedding his identity, all that remains of him is an inky pool of chaos.
Warnings: Death, maybe, if it comes to it. Maybe some graphic imagery too.

[The "shadow of man" never originally had a name. There was nothing to call it, really, nor was anybody interested in pondering what title would best identify something so unattractive and vile as mankind's destructive potential. The essence of evil should lack a name. It should also be inky, dark, squirming, and all around cold and unpleasant. All it was was "the Shadow". Chaos. An impulsive, yet not unintelligent mass of mortal filth.

It lacked a name. It wanted a name while never understanding that. Perhaps to its own fortune, that opportunity would soon come.

Sometime during the cycle of its infinite life, it was finally given a name. That was when the chaos finally awakened. It became Nyarlathotep. It developed a personality. It learned amusement. Nyarlathotep from then on never stopped sneering at mankind, always pursuing and watching from all corners and cracks.

That was the mask Nyarlathotep wore. He coveted that mask. But the mask isn't all of him. It was only an identity he was allowed to borrow by embodiments of greater nightmares.

What would happen, now, if that mask was to be removed? Then even it would return to the Chaos. The personality of Nyarlathotep was curious about it too. And so, for once, he willingly took it off. The Tower has called to him once again. The Chaos answers. It wanders in the form of a murky, black puddle, both mobile and aimless.

It only searches to feed itself.]

OOC: Bit of a note here, but any chance you could list which one of the Greater Arcana your character might fall under? Thanks!

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[Naoya stands at one of the windows, looking out at the clouds. The fog below troubles him - it shouldn't be there so constantly, blocking the view of what there is to see. It's as if they don't want them to see what's there.]

[Of course they don't. But why? What could be down there? Perhaps sometime he'll find out. He searches through his memories, pulling up a memory of a slightly happier time in one of his lives, and he closes his eyes, leaning against the glass.]

[Lucifer hadn't put much faith in the idea of The Crawling Chaos being gone when he had heard it. As easy as it was for him to personally dismiss Nyarlathotep he wouldn't believe for certain that he was gone without ample evidence. Paranoia and suspicion were traits that came naturally to Lucifer, as much as he would attempt to pass them off as just being survival instinct.

There was a lot about Lucifer's nature that the demon would like to try and hide. Both from others and from himself. It was a matter of contention on just how well he hid it from either.

For the time being Lucifer had taken to exploring the Tower as best he could. Of looking through every corner and crack and seeing what he could find. To memorize the new terrain he had found himself in should it become a battle field.

The possibility of that has become quite a bit greater now that he notices as the puddle oozes, as it crawls about the area.

The scowl that crosses Lucifer's face feels like a ten-ton weight, and it's appearance is so immediate it might as well be that heavy. Of course the Crawling Chaos wasn't gone. It was stupid of him to get his hopes up, even a little.

Still. It wasn't a total loss. After all after a month of having them restricted Lucifer now has an ample chance to test his powers again.

Heads up Nyarlathotep. Just casting Agidyne at ya.]

[The deep void drags itself up the stairs, reaching the 38th Floor. Despite its size and mass, it was surprisingly quiet. It might as well have glided across the floor. The only sound it makes is something that can be likened to paint dripping. It expands and begins to surround the area where Naoya is leaning.

Whether or not he notices, it doesn't care in the least.]

[Sheesh. The sooner Adachi's finished with this damn patrol, the better.

I mean, really. Bloody handprints everywhere? Shrill screams echoing across the walls? Gimme a break. This floor's a little jarring, sure, but he's seen worse. He's not scared.

Yet.]

[If the puddle was anything like the tar it looked like, maybe it would have combusted all in an instant. The spell hits the Chaos and a pillar of flame shoots into the air from where it had struck. An odor fills the air.

It's not unlike the smell you'd whiff after cremating several bodies.

The burning bothers it. It feels pain. As mentioned, it's not unintelligent. And just as it feels pain, it's also capable of feeling angered. Vengeful. The puddle covers up its own burnt area. Like if it was pinched, a fold starts rising. Ah. Folds, rather.

Portions of the Chaos begin taking shape. The folds mold together and form shapes and volume. An obese, masked abomination rises. It has six arms, all chained together by gold, and it rides a rocking horse. Accompanying it are two tables set neatly with cloth that bears a frowning mask. Swords, cups, and wands fly around it in the air.

Nyarlathotep will answer Agidyne with a Bufudyne. The Jotun of Evil rocks faster and casts the spell.]

[Maybe it was drawn to the screams. The scent of blood is certainly strong enough to catch its attention. And in a normal scenario, perhaps it would have. This, however, wasn't one of those. After all, the man pacing around the floor isn't someone anybody would call "normal".

Perhaps it's the darkness inside him that the Chaos was most attracted to than the floor's decor. It follows while dragging itself persistently.]

[Lucifer grits his teeth as the Bufudyne spell hits, pushing him back from the force of the blow. He can feel the bitter cold, and the dryness of the cold as it strikes him. It's painful, but then again. Lucifer was a creature built to endure a great deal of pain and the resistances his body was built with shaved quite a bit of the damage off. He still felt it to be sure, and the blow would have been far greater if his abilities had been stripped from him. But at the moment it was only a flesh wound. A smarting one but not one he had to consider seriously yet.

Anger and vengeance too was something Lucifer could match this form in. They were things that always empowered him, that he ran on much of the time when he did find himself in combat. In most cases Lucifer wouldn't enter combat if he could help it. Not out of fear but out of the idea that there were too few beings out there who would be worth his time. Who would be a challenge or fun to fight.

But the sight of you is just too much Nyarlathotep. Is too loathsome, knowing what you are. He cannot abide your continued existence. Perhaps permanent death is beyond him here, to slay you utterly, but he will still do his best to create some chance of that impossibility occurring.

Lucifer spreads his arms apart slightly, eyes focusing on the Jotun. Above it the air starts to warp and crackle. It becomes distorted as the color drains out of the area above it and starts to fold in on itself. Starts to fold and take a circular shape as a black orb forms, writhing with power, before the orb loses its form and explodes, releasing refracted light and energy through the area. And perhaps a spark of the divine, hidden within that refraction, is released as well.

Megidola.]

[You'd be surprised, actually, just how "normal" the outside world used to perceive him. How strangely, creepily ordinary Adachi used to be before...

The detective suddenly comes to a halt. There's a low rumble in the back of his head. A warning from Magatsu-Izanagi.

Adachi isn't alone.]

H-Hey! Who's there?

[Adachi whips around, only to discover... a Shadow? At least, that's what it looks like. A Shadow. Here?]

[The King of Hell may have weakened, yes, but his powers were still formidable. Why, even the Chaos had reason to fear. And beside that fear came envy. Ambition may be one of man's most unique traits allowing them to build and become greater than anyone could possibly have predicted. Jealousy, another human quality, had the potential to cripple or fuel ambition. The Chaos felt it now towards Lucifer. It was irrational. There was no basis for it. But it envied his strength.

You too are loathsome to it. In this form, it doesn't know why. Negative emotions simply explode from within. There is a consistency, however, in this chaos. It shouts for and demands your existence to be smeared away from all universes.

The Jotun dissipates into black fog, leaving only the two Sleeping Tables summoned. They clop away from the dark mass and surround Lucifer. Both are prepared to cast spells of their own with Lucifer as their targets. The air warps and crackles similarly to the spell Lucifer had cast. But it's different, a little.

Rather than color being drained from the area, the whole room is illuminated right from the start. Two orbs of burning, white light simultaneously appear above Lucifer and drop down towards him. The sheer, Almighty power being held and concentrated from within its core is released into a divine explosion. Power from it ripples. The Tower might've shook had it been one of ordinary construct.

Megidola.]

[Fear and envy were feelings known to demons as well. The difference from a man feeling them and a demon feeling them, however, was immense. The demons could only react negatively to such feelings; could only desire the destruction of what had caused them. But for a man, while discomfort might come with such feelings so could inspiration. Ingenuity. With this negative force man might destroy but he can also build. And that was a massive part of what set him apart from demons.

That, more than anything, Lucifer envied.

The light generated by the Megidolas is blinding. The pain is too but he manages to make not a sound as it strikes him. The Lord of Chaos has fought so many battles over so many planets and worlds and dimensions that pain has become a friend to him. Perhaps his most intimate one.

Once the light dissipates and the room returns to view it casts a bloodied Lucifer in the center of it. Still not near death but the damage he's taken is beginning to show. His mouth has turned to a taut, thin line. His anger isn't evident now, not just by looking at him, and he spreads his arms a bit further away. And spreads his fingers a bit wide.

In both of the furthest corners of the room there's a few brief sparks before all hell is unleashed. Three columns of purple energy blast from both sides of the room and meet in the middle, crossing and cutting through the Sleeping Tables in front of Lucifer. It's raw power, Lucifer's raw power unleashed and demonstrated upon the world. A testament to his authority among the Demon World.

High King.]

[The sound catches his attention, and he turns, staring at the rapidly-expanding darkness. He frowns, and waits to see what's going to happen - this is odd, and it's worth observing at least.]

[He had found this place, and it was calming. When he wasn't swimming in the water itself, he was just sitting on the staircase, watching the surface of the lake. This was his element, the thing he was aligned with, and he simply wished to stay here a while, letting his thoughts drift away as if they were leaves upon the water.]

_{[...Ugh. She always forgets the mean trick with this floor, and Sayaka is currently trudging through the intricate depths of the hedge maze with clear aggravation. She could transform and use magic to jump the darn thing, but - no, okay, she's not stupid enough to waste it on that. This is currently just inconvenient at best.

She supposes it's not that these gardens aren't pretty. It's just... does it have to do this every single time? C'mon, tower.]}

[Anti-Almighty isn't a skill known in the Persona world. While the Tables are some of the more powerful Shadows, even they have no defense against Almighty attacks let alone one of Lucifer's signature spells. Helpless against the Demon King's power, the collection of furniture is sliced apart. They dissipate into fog once again. It's a humiliating defeat all in all. Humiliation is exactly what the Chaos felt.

Mindless, though not unintelligent, the Chaos knew this was a losing fight. Even against a weakened Lucifer, it knew it stood little chance of winning. Mind you, it knew it wouldn't die. Being unable to win against someone and being at risk of dying weren't the same thing. It was reluctant. Maybe if it had its treasured mask, it would be a little bolder. Maybe then it would have known to avoid this scenario as much as possible.

The Chaos attempts to flee.]

[The Chaos rises, or rather stretches, from the ground into the air, towering above Naoya. Like an amoeba, it will consume. It plans to dissolve Naoya into it and assimilate him into the rest of humanity's ilks and waste.]

[That's correct. It is a Shadow. Or more accurately, it is the Shadow. However, it's different. Despite having made contact with Adachi, unlike the Shadows of his world, it does not immediately take whatever symbolic, grotesque form makes up its being. It had too many to choose. And lacked the patience.

The black slime expands, surrounding Adachi.]

[Soothing, isn't it? Water at its purest form lacks color. It's completely clear and what it does is lighten in almost a cleansing way other colors around it. Water has a cleansing property in both the physical definition of the word and otherwise. There are some things that the water cannot cleanse, though. Rinse as much as you'd like, but grime at times manages to leave marks or stay where it is, completely caked to whatever surface it's on, floors, walls, and hands.

The infinite Chaos slid across the depths of the water Fou-Lu happened to be watching. It remained blacker than darkness even in the waters.]

[Chaos wanders through the mazes, having no trouble whatsoever finding its way. It knows all of their dark corners, even ones that are ever-changing. There has never been an occasion where it has been lost. It's well aware of exactly where it is inside the Tower. The darkness inside the labyrinth grows thicker. Escape will become more difficult.]

[Ah. Now this is an experiment he doesn't want to be a part in, and so he darts to the side as fast as he can, throwing a Megidolaon to attempt to either damage or simply deter the shadow.]

[Fou-Lu jerked slightly upon seeing the Shadow cast by the water. True, he would be considered more dark-aligned than his other half, but that didn't mean he liked this creeping sense of foul darkness. He summoned a beam of energy to his hand, crackling in the shape of a sword, and stood, chin held high and defiant as he looked around for the source of this corruption.]

Gah---!

[No no no no no this isn't happening... He would stagger backwards if he had any room to do so, but as it stands? Adachi's been flanked. For a moment, his mouth hangs dumbly open. Then...]

[...with a crash...

...Adachi lets loose a scream, hands rushing to his head. But why bother struggling? It was because Adachi had struggled to keep his power in check last month that he was denied what he wanted, but this... this is exactly what he needs. A chance to finally tear himself out of Adachi's innards... and to tear into something else in the process.

The monster inside of Tohru Adachi snarls dangerously. Let him out.

Let him out.]

Magatsu-Izanagi!

[Magatsu-Izanagi is there in a roll of thunder, and like lightning---

Vorpal Blade.

---he slices into the darkness.]

[ It's quiet here, which is how she likes it. Even though she'd been isolated for many years, until recently, she enjoys solitude when it's of her own choosing.

Besides, the cathedral here reminds her somewhat of Kyoko. An absent friend, who had suffered great tragedy.

It's been a while.

Her footsteps are muffled by the carpeted floor, and she moves quietly anyway. There is the indistinct murmur of a voice, but she can't quite make out what it's saying.

She doesn't mind, though. It's peaceful here. ]

[If he wasn't at Eikichi's band practice or overlooking some of the plant life, he was in the library, researching any number of topics at once just like he had during his off time back home.

So he stood in front of a bookcase, eying an empty section on the shelf suspiciously, and leafing through the books that were nearby. An entire section just missing...?]

Edited 2012-07-12 23:30 (UTC)

((ooc: Kuja would definitely fall under the Moon. Not only does he deceive others, but also himself. He also blooms under the more creativity aspect interpretations, and fear... Well, Kuja has it, buried in a shallow grave...))

[Usually Kuja would skip this floor, but he was feeling in an exploratory mood. The darkness never really frightened him, more of an inconvenience than anything else. Still, he lights up a magic light in his hand, although its radius seems strangely constrains, illuminating nothing he can see.

The odd thing about this floor is that when he takes more than a few steps off the staircase, the ceiling slopes down. Being a tall man, Kuja has to lean down to progress, until he has to crawl to make any progress. What a strange floor! It reminds him of an attic, and what the negative space might be hiding.

Kuja flinches when his hand falls into a puddle, wiping his hand on the ground. How did he miss this dark liquid..? He brings his handful of blue light closer to investigate.]

Edited 2012-07-13 01:19 (UTC)

[Lucifer can't hide the smile of satisfaction that crosses his face as the Crawling Chaos begins to flee. Run. Slither and crawl away like the pathetic worm you are at your very core Nyarlathotep. Lucifer knew that's what you always were to begin with.

The urge to chase after the black puddle is strong. To try and deliver a finishing blow to it or to humiliate it even more at the very least. The fact that such actions wouldn't mean anything barely kept Lucifer under control and from pursuing the demon as it fled. After all it was always more practical to take an enemy down for certain rather than leave it wounded, even if death was not a permanent state within the Tower.

Still the demon was not his responsibility at the moment and finishing it off would provide little satisfaction. Whatever game Nyarlathotep was playing at the moment it didn't see like the demon had any intention of truly dealing with or speaking either. Or of assuming a guise that could truly challenge him. Thus a victory over the shapeless mass would in the end be quite hollow.

And it was no responsibility of his if others should be harmed.

So Lucifer watches as Nyarlathotep flees before turning to continue his own exploration.]

_{[Everything at the corner of her eyes grows dimmer, and she'd almost say the light was flickering into something dimmer - but this floor had natural light, which definitely couldn't flicker. All these plants couldn't stay so infuriatingly grown without it, right?

Sayaka picks up her pace. successfully unnerved. It's not unusual for things like this to happen in the tower. And things like this are not unusually bad news.]}

My oh my, aren't you interesting.

[Asakim had been standing before the dark being, a smirk on his face. Crimson eyes began to glow with interest at what kind of monster was before him. Nothing but a puddle, but Asakim was no fool. Having dealt with the likes of Volkruss, it would take more than a simple form to fool him. The real question that puzzled him was what in the world this creature was.

Discalibur, the sword of blood, soon appears in his hand. He may not have Shurouga ready for combat, but his own skills would suffice. If there was a fight, but he knew of these beings. A fight was guaranteed, and honestly, Asakim wanted one ever so badly, judging by that smirk on his face.]

Lost, or perhaps you are looking for a meal? Or maybe you want to chat? Do tell me.

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[38] - Tower

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[17]

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[11] - Emperor

the dice say 29 - Fortune

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[1/???]

[2/3]

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Floor 13 - Empress

Floor 19 - Fortune surprise surprise

Floor 9 - Moon

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gonna guess Devil