Eridan Ampora ♒ chronicAugustus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chronomancer) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2012-09-09 02:07 am
chronomancer) wrote in towerofanimus2012-09-09 02:07 am
Entry tags:
[OPEN] And then you find you're running out of time
Characters: Jade!Eridan, his shadow & anyone who wants to help take down the bastard.
Setting: The meadow floor
Format: Action
Summary: shadow!Eridan manifests, in true annoying Eridan fashion. Expect an endurance test battle.
Warnings: Gore, doomed selves, lots and lots of jade, a very obnoxious endurance-based boss battle and a philosophizing eldritch abomination.
[As soon as the denial was delivered, the fog around the shadow darkened and concentrated around it in a slow swirl. Two rips in time delivered two Eridans by the scene, one that hauled the unconscious Alpha over his shoulder, and another one that reached for Equius, to try and pull him away from the hit zone.]
God, I fucking hate myself.
[It wasn't clear which one let out the grim comment, as the transformation truly took hold. Clockwork rose from the fog, dull bronze glimmering along complicated machinery that ticked and clicked together in several different patterns, some faster than others. The cacophony was both quiet and maddening. Time players or observant individuals might notice, however, that the ticks matched seconds, and various fractions of a second, precisely. And then, in front of the strange construction, the main body itself rose in size, several times Eridan's natural height. It retained some of his features, like his horns or the stripe of jade in his hair, but it was very clearly not a troll anymore. The horns looked more like jade blades, fanning out of the skull, and the face itself was black and featureless, except for the unhinged, gaping jaw full of teeth, and the white stripe framing glowing yellow eyes. A mockery of a jade scarf wrapped around its neck, falling down along its body, which seemed to be made entirely of black fog concentrated in a humanoid form. The arms stretched down its shoulders, melting into the black fog at the base of its body, seemingly without ending.]
You're dead.
[After that exceedingly creative taunt, the shadow raised its arms, which turned out to be whip-like and several times long as it was tall - and that was a lot - and then slammed them down on the ground, causing the clockwork mechanism to stop abruptly, just long enough to let the sudden silence echo. Then it began ticking backward - or forward? - like a timer of some sort, and the monstrous thing roared again, glowing as it cast a spell.
Several more rips in time delivered more Eridans, rifles at hand and expressions universally grim and near emotionless. They didn't waste much time opening fire on the thing, aiming for the clockwork and the shadow equally, but even the usually devastating power of his laser gun didn't put much more than scratches on the monster. And those were already healing back, thanks to the spell. This, clearly, was going to take a while.]
Setting: The meadow floor
Format: Action
Summary: shadow!Eridan manifests, in true annoying Eridan fashion. Expect an endurance test battle.
Warnings: Gore, doomed selves, lots and lots of jade, a very obnoxious endurance-based boss battle and a philosophizing eldritch abomination.
[As soon as the denial was delivered, the fog around the shadow darkened and concentrated around it in a slow swirl. Two rips in time delivered two Eridans by the scene, one that hauled the unconscious Alpha over his shoulder, and another one that reached for Equius, to try and pull him away from the hit zone.]
God, I fucking hate myself.
[It wasn't clear which one let out the grim comment, as the transformation truly took hold. Clockwork rose from the fog, dull bronze glimmering along complicated machinery that ticked and clicked together in several different patterns, some faster than others. The cacophony was both quiet and maddening. Time players or observant individuals might notice, however, that the ticks matched seconds, and various fractions of a second, precisely. And then, in front of the strange construction, the main body itself rose in size, several times Eridan's natural height. It retained some of his features, like his horns or the stripe of jade in his hair, but it was very clearly not a troll anymore. The horns looked more like jade blades, fanning out of the skull, and the face itself was black and featureless, except for the unhinged, gaping jaw full of teeth, and the white stripe framing glowing yellow eyes. A mockery of a jade scarf wrapped around its neck, falling down along its body, which seemed to be made entirely of black fog concentrated in a humanoid form. The arms stretched down its shoulders, melting into the black fog at the base of its body, seemingly without ending.]
You're dead.
[After that exceedingly creative taunt, the shadow raised its arms, which turned out to be whip-like and several times long as it was tall - and that was a lot - and then slammed them down on the ground, causing the clockwork mechanism to stop abruptly, just long enough to let the sudden silence echo. Then it began ticking backward - or forward? - like a timer of some sort, and the monstrous thing roared again, glowing as it cast a spell.
Several more rips in time delivered more Eridans, rifles at hand and expressions universally grim and near emotionless. They didn't waste much time opening fire on the thing, aiming for the clockwork and the shadow equally, but even the usually devastating power of his laser gun didn't put much more than scratches on the monster. And those were already healing back, thanks to the spell. This, clearly, was going to take a while.]
ITP: Gira is the worst writer on the planet
This particular thought was far too mundane to be at all appropriate for the situation at hand, but it was the one that came to mind nevertheless. During the previous conversation, Equius had been held in place only by a desire to not intrude; Eridan was having a bit of trouble dealing with his Shadow, and obviously, if Equius spoke it would only complicate things further. Even when Eridan collapsed with a little noise that really shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did, he couldn’t bring himself to even flee. That was kind of sad.
The two Eridans that jumped out of the timestream surprised him only because his mind was so scattered already. Maybe, months ago, he would have paused at the idea of another Eridan appearing out of nowhere to get him – them – him out of trouble. Now, however, he was perfectly complacent as the temporal Eridan tried to drag him and the alpha out of harm’s way. None too soon, as well, judging from what they were looking at soon afterward. From the gears to the fog to the whatever that was; if Equius had stayed in place just a second longer, he would have been dead.
As it is, he was alive but… unarmed. Great. Equius pressed back a bit into the Eridan that was grabbing him. Even though he normally didn’t like to ask too much of Eridan’s Time powers, at that moment he found himself wishing for more of them – the kinds with rifles and magic and whatever other kind of weapons they had hiding under the dusty-red jackets.
Needless to say, Equius didn’t take it well when he realized exactly how much damage they were doing to the creature’s health bar. But all he did was mutter “oh god” under his breath.
ITT: Eridan's snarking.
[The monster opened its mouth and spat out a wave of fog. Most of the Eridans fell back, away from it, but two or three got caught in it, and seemed to stumble a little, confused and disoriented by it.]
Fuck.
[The one holding onto Equius hissed, tightening his hold on him instinctively as the whip-like arms came next. And then two of the three Eridans were reduced to stains on the floor with a hollow, almost comical sound.]
Equius.
[And while one wanted to start a quiet conversation in the back, Eridans at the front were running the snark commentary almost on auto-pilot.]
I'm boring? What about you!
After Hephaestus, you're a disappointing drop in challenge.
Am I supposed to be impressed by this? Because so far I'm only disappointed.
[They sneered and taunted, focusing the shadow's attention on them. They shooted at it when they could, hammering away with the lasers and trying desperately to chip away the clockwork, but it regenerated too fast for just a couple dozen of them to manage. Of course, the alpha was somewhere. Or rather somewhen, breaking and breaking and sending more reinforcements, but on their own, it would take a very long while to get it done. After all, they had to concentrate on keeping the shadow's attention on them, not on Equius and the unconscious alpha, make sure it wanted to kill them and not everyone else. There were more of those disturbing, hollow sounds as more and more Eridans died. And more and more slipped into place, taking up their spots and trying to keep their number steadily increasing.]
That's all this is about, isn't it? Another stage production of yours to show off.
no subject
[Not the time to be thinking about that, huh. Yeah. Probably not the time.]
[Instead, he looked over at the Eridan who had addressed him, but only long enough to let them know that he had heard; for obvious reasons, he didn't want to take his eyes off of that giant monster for too long. Even if there were hundreds of temporal clones shooting at it.]
...Yes?
[There was probably no need for his voice to be so quiet, considering the din around them could have comfortably drowned a shout. But this is Equius. He never raises his voice, clearly.]
ITT: Stupid Time Players
She was fashionably late, but sort of just in the nick of time-- she appear out of nowhere above the shadow, rolling through the air and jamming the bayonet of her rifle into any part of the Shadow she could. Her small size was a convenience now, as she found some feeble footing on the giant creature, and pulled the trigger. It didn't matter if her aim sucked if it was point blank after all.]
Gotta say, you're not too fucking enthusing either, buddy.
[Normally she's shut up and focus but. She was doing her best right now not to pay attention to the clocks.]
Re: ITT: Stupid Time Players
[Eridan pointed to the unconscious Eridan the other Eridan was carrying. God, fuck Time players and their dozen clusterfucks. Around the same time, Jade arrived, and there was a ripple among the ranks of the jadebloods. Fire stopped long enough to let her get her shot in, which only served to make the shadow stumble and flail its arms.]
STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDER!
[The booming screech by the shadow easily overwhelmed the screams from the jadebloods, chorusing the girl's name. They opened fire again, piling on around her, trying to compound on the damage that was already healing back. It seemed, however, that even if it healed, it wasn't healing perfectly. The realization traveled around them in waves, and they began to shoot at the same places, unfazed by Jade being right in the middle of it. They are too damn precise to worry about risking it.]
Jade, get your grubfucking human ass out a range, you crazy bitch.
[It was hard to see which one had spoken the line, dripping panicked vitriol. Oh god, he was going to scream his head off at her once they were done. Or he hoped the alpha would, if he went and died. Or something. POINT WAS, there was going to be much screaming and it was all going to be aimed at Strider.]
I will fucking end you.
[The thing's... jaw unhinged more, if that was even possible, miasma spewing out in tentacle-like shapes, and then pouring out in waves and rolls. The Eridans standing closest to it got caught in the wave and found themselves stumbling and coughing as they were poisoned. Then the first strike of those whip-like arms, one aiming for Jade herself, the other taking out any Eridan not fast enough to get out of the way.]
no subject
[Or maybe she didn't come to grips with it, and... uh, this happened? That was a possibility too, he supposed, but oh he was talking to someone let's drop that subject now. What a great idea. Dropping the subject. Talking to the Eridan. Brilliant.]
[So Equius nodded yes to the clone -- because speaking would probably be a futile effort by that point -- and took Eridan's body. It was really the least he could do, being powerless as he was; if the Eridans' guns couldn't make a dent in the monster, there was absolutely nothing that one archer could do. But as it turned out, Eridan was pretty light, more so than he expected. That was a surprise. Granted, he'd never handled anyone's unconscious body before, but it had always seemed to him that he would really suck at taking care of it because he couldn't even move the thing anywhere.]
[But, you know, details. Eridan probably wouldn't come to his senses until the whole mess ended, and the boss was gone. So he just kneeled down and held the body in place, hoping that the distance and clones between himself and the monster would make the unconscious Alpha's location not as obvious.]
[It would be harder if they had to run, but. You know. Preservation of energy. Details.]
no subject
[Jade sure was blatantly ignoring whatever time clone had just yelled at her. She tried to get the snark out as easily as she could now that she had just breathed in some kind of freaky miasma poison, but it was getting really hard to not cough between every other word. Though this also left her completely defenseless with the tentacle knocked her away, and she only had enough time to keep a grip on her gun so that it came with her when she was knocked off the Shadow and away.]
[She used her gun to hoist herself up, still grunting and coughing and holy shit that tentacle was probably going to leave a mark if she wasn't already bleeding. She couldn't really tell at this point, honestly.
Her eyes darted behind her sunglasses to glance at Equius real quick, making sure he and the Alpha were already, before she became disappearing and reappearing in differnet places to take a shot at the wound that was already left ont he Shadow's body.
Just had to make sure the time loop was stable it was a relatively small one anyone so it wouldn't be that big of a deal just had to be real careful about doomed offshoots and oh my god someone make the clocks stop ticking--]
no subject
And then the clocks stop abruptly enough the silence lingers, before reality ripples.
The clockwork rewinds sharply, resetting itself like a timer, as the shadow itself glows green and regenerates a little.
And duplicates.]
Now then.
Where were we?
[More than one Eridan broke down into a swearing fit over it, while the rest just settled in to try and shoot the shit out of both monsters. Though thankfully, it seemed they hadn't healed their damage entirely. It was annoying, though.]
no subject
[He didn't say it under his breath like the rest of the things mentioned. No, it was closer to a normal volume, which still didn't seem to make much of a difference over the screaming Eridans and the cursing Eridans and oh god, so many Eridans. He'd been more or less sitting on the ground this entire time, clutching onto the alpha much harder than he really intended to; they just kept dying and dying and dying, and there were a lot of things in the back of his mind telling him that this was a Bad Thing even past the fact that, due to this fight, he'd probably seen Eridan die just as many times as Eridan had seen him die.]
[Because he'd have to have died at some point during all those timelines, right?]
[It gets worse with the reality shift. The thing at the back of his head, mumbling that there was just something wrong about this monster? It wasn't at the back of his head anymore. It was EVERYWHERE. And somewhere in there, he just made a quiet noise like someone was strangling him and held on even tighter to Eridan. The poor guy was being treated like a rag doll. But they had to stay together, and Equius had to cling to something, and unfortunately there was an Eridan in the space where his legs should be.]
[No pillbug formations today, kids. Just a whole lot of pain because Space does not bend that way, dammit, and probably a little bit of contemplation about how worthless he was in this entire battle between the Eridans and Jade and the fact that they weren't doing very much damage at all. But, again, nothing he could do. Puny archer. Right.]
no subject
She used the cover of the still-shooting Eridans to hop over to Equius, letting out one more residual cough from the poison.]
Hey Colonel Mustard-- chill out, alright? [She didn't have time to glance at him though, too busy focused on the monster, so she set her gun down on the ground next to Equius and the Alpha Eridan.]
S'gonna be OK. If you think you can aim, feel free to take some shots at it yourself. Otherwise stay the fuck out of the way or try and skedaddle with the drop dead movie star.
[She dashed forward and slipped around the Eridans and the Shadow, jumping into the air and in between the two Shadows, extending her arms out towards both of them and a bringing a red clock into the air for a moment or so.
She was completely frozen in place for the moment, but hopefully one or both of the Shadows were too. They weren't the only one with bullshit time powers.]
no subject
But they weren't enough, they were never enough, and the shadow was distracted enough now that it focused on attacking the Eridans, but they were getting killed too fast. There weren't enough to distract the shadow from attacking Jade and to hit the frozen shadow and attack the rampaging shadow and the clockwork kept creaking in protest, angry and sullen and tugging at the threads of Time in a way that was almost physically painful for the Time players.]
no subject
[Aim?]
[That was just such a horrible idea, on so many levels, that Equius actually forced himself to stop and think about it -- just to stop himself from trying it out. There was no way he could actually handle a gun. Equius wasn't completely clueless on how they worked, he'd built more than a few and had done a fair bit of research on how to have the machines fire effectively with recoil and so on, but... he couldn't do it himself. That was Eridan's thing. He'd never be any good at it. He'd miss, anyway; probably hit an Eridan, or worse, Jade. He definitely didn't want to be responsible for that.]
[Still, after a few moments of sitting there and watching the struggle, he found himself reaching for the rifle anyway. Jade had it covered. She would get out of the way if there was another shot fired at her. And the monster wouldn't even notice if there was just one more bullet combined with all the others. Eridan's body was set lying down next to him, still in reach in case something happened and they had to flee like Jade had mentioned, but in the meantime she had explicitly told him that he could fire a few if he wished. And, yeah, there was probably a part of him that had always really wanted to try out those guns.]
[Predictably, his first attempt really... sucked. Not that it was too easy to miss with such a huge target, but still. It took a while, and a few more experimental shots, for him to get the aim anywhere close to settled; once he did, the gun was still not accurate by any definition, but he at least knew what it weighed and how it worked.]
[There was no way to know how effective he was being, of course. But he quietly set that thought aside for the time being, because doing this was better than doing nothing.]