Dies Irae

[terreifying]

Characters: Rei, Hojo, Jade!Eridan, and the rest of you
Setting: Floor 27, then the rest of the tower
Format: any
Summary: Rei has finally fully embraced her Angelic side. Details here.
Warnings: Body horror, possible graphic violence

Floor 27 (locked to Hojo)

There was no warning when Rei Ayanami's body changed. The girl didn't even have time to gasp before her mind and her body finally gave out before the overwhelming energy of her core.

Her body collapses into a white, constantly shifting mass. The only thing it has in common with her form seconds ago is its mouth filled with jagged teeth and the thousands of eyes that litter whatever shape it takes. Sometimes it has wings, other times arms and legs spouting at strange angles, and other times spines and tentacles. Once, the center of the mass even turns into Rei's normal eyes and face. No matter how it shifts, the glow of its core shines from within its body. It is too bright. It seems to be something that might explode any second.

Heeee~ey. Brothers? Where are you?

The gaping maw sings in a language unfamiliar to the ears, but all too comprehensible to the mind

Come back. Come stay with me. Let us all be one.

It reaches out, trying to find its brethren. At the same time, it is listening for anyone to possibly respond to its message.

Throughout the Tower

The thing that once was Rei creeps through the tower, sometimes walking on strange limbs, other times shuffling forward because it can't hold a form. Those in the area may feel the heat radiating from its body. Every few "steps," it stops, as if it has thought of something or entered a familiar place.

Those are the only moments that "Rei" can actually think. But what remains of the girl's mind has too many questions and too few answers. What is she now. Where is she. What is she doing. And even that moment is all too brief before the Angel's songs fill her mind again, leaving her with only on urge.

She has to take her brothers back. Back to the womb of their Mother. All of humanity must be one existence again. Even if she must destroy their bodies, she will take them back.

When she encounters a human, her body will shift and lash out. If they are unfortunate enough to get too close, she will devour them with her jaws or envelop them with the ever-changing mass of her body. But her core glows. It is like what remains of Rei is giving those who would resist a chance to stop her.



[OOC: Jade!Eridan will be the one to finally kill Rei]

Comments

[chronomancer]

...survival instinct?

[Though even he laughs at that. Because. Yeah. Eridan Ampora and survival instinct don't go in the same universe.]

[terreifying]

The life I offer goes beyond flesh. It is life everlasting. Life with Mother.

[The words from another person echoes in her mind. Her friends would reject her offers. They would be distraught. They could not accept life without their bodies.]

[If he was right about this, then what else was he right about?]

[Even with her doubts, she does not stop her attacks.]

[chronomancer]

[Something in Eridan recoils violently at that, enough that she manages to get the last one of the clones. Fuck.]

No one wants to live forever, sorry.

[terreifying]

No...one?

[She stops her attack. Something he said has jogged her memories as a human.]

[A life that lasted eternally was meaningless. Humans came into the world. They laughed and cried and loved. And in the end, they died. What made life worth living was the fact that it was limited. Everything you wanted to do and needed to do had to be done in one lifetime, which made for one wild ride.]

[That was the life she had lived as a human.]

[But she was an Angel now.]

[But she didn't want to be.]

[But she had to be.]

[Because it's her destiny.]

[chronomancer]

No one.

[He snarls a little, adrenaline helping to keep him warm. He has feeling about living forever, but he's not so far gone he'll scream his suicidal tendencies at a bloated monster trying to eat him. At least not yet.]

[terreifying]

Angels do. Mother does.

[Though she's not sure on the second one. Mother wanted to live to see her children multiply. That would be a long time, but she doesn't know if it would be forever.]</small.

[chronomancer]

Well I'm not an angel.

[He snorts, gripping that rifle with white knuckles.]

And I reserve the right to heatshot any fucker who calls me Mother.

[terreifying]

I am not an Angel either.

[Her human side is pushing through again. She cannot be a normal human, and she does not want to be an Angel. She has only one way of identifying herself, and that's by the name of "Rei."]

But I should be.

I just don't want to be.

[chronomancer]

Rei, you're making me utter lines straight out of badly directed mood-lifting action movies, and I might never forgive you that, but you don't have to be anything you don't want to be.

[terreifying]

[It's exactly what her mother said to her so many times as she grew up. She could be anything she wanted to be. She didn't need to be anything she didn't want to be.]

[She wanted to be human, so she became human.]

[She wanted to be Mommy and Daddy's daughter, so she played that role to her best extent.]

[She wanted to be someone who could protect humanity from Angels, so she chose to pilot an EVA]

I want...

I want...

[She goes into a repeating loop again. Her nature as an Angel was fighting her nature as a human.]

Iwanttobehuman.

[The human side makes an assertion with the little bit of control it can wrest from the Angel side.]

But I have sacrificed that to deliver my brethren from this limited life.

[And it hurt. If those multitudes of eyes could cry, they would.]

[chronomancer]

[He's no expert at this - really, is there anyone who's an expert at this? But talking seems to be working a little. Talking was getting her to think and she wasn't attacking while she was thinking, and Eridan was all in favor of things that stopped her from trying to gobble him up like a midnight snack.]

Here's a novel fucking idea, okay? Take it back.

[terreifying]

I cannot. Having ascended, I can no longer descend.

[If it were possible to convey emotions with telepathy, then Rei's words would be tinged with sadness.]

And my body is...

[Her body is being so strange.]

[chronomancer]

Why the fuck not? It's like rolling down the stairs only no one fucking dies, and seriously, Rei. Rei.

[He wants to say it'll be okay, but of course it won't be okay, it's never okay in the long run but people always want to hear the sweet, sweet lie.]

You're still you, right? Body and all. Just roll down the fucking metaphorical stairs, goddammit.

[terreifying]

Stairs...

[The face contorts in pain as the rest of her body begins shifting and compacting. In the end, she becoms a grotesque, naked copy of her human form, with two more arms and a great number more eyes than she should have had. Crystalline wings also spread out of its back]

Like...this.

[This form lasts but a moment before it collapses back into the former amorphous shape.]

[chronomancer]

[If he weren't made of sterner stuff - stuff that has seen rotting shuffling zombies from up close - he'd have lost his lunch over that. He nearly did, resisting the urge to gag as her body shifted back into a blob.]

...well. That was an attempt.

[terreifying]

I can no longer be a human. I can only be a Savior.

[But even so, she feels like arguing with herself. To her Angel side, her human life is a lie, just like her human form. The Angel she tried to reject is the truth. But even so, her human side is still there, trying to retake control over this body. Because she doesn't want to disappear. Because she wants to keep living and having fun with her friends. Because she doesn't want to kill innocent people<./i>]

I will save everyone.

[Maybe this was meant to reassure him. Or maybe it was meant for the remaining shards of the human Rei.]

[chronomancer]

I don't suppose your meaning of saving has changed in the last five minutes into something other than murder everyone.

[Eridan looks uneasy, watching Rei warily but not maliciously, at least not anymore. He's tense and focused and too busy deadpan snarking at her to really get freaked out about it.]

[terreifying]

Is it still murder if they live within me?

[Her multitude of eyes begin to shape themselves into spikes. Spikes that would shoot out at him unless he moved fast.]

[Or not, as she is perfectly still after the spikes form. As much as the Angel side wants to get it over with quickly, the human side is still holding her back.]

[chronomancer]

Yes.

[Why is this so hard to understand, holy shit. Also tensing up like a coiled spring at the sight of those spikes. You're gonna make him run, aren't you? But not run away. He won't run away until this is sorted out.]

[terreifying]

[One minutes, then two, then three pass.]

Then run.

[And then the spikes shoot out.]

[chronomancer]

[He's counting seconds. He's counting fractions of seconds while she makes up her mind.]

Fuck.

[He dodges some, shoots others and very nearly loses a horn in the process. Yeah, about having a really shitty day? You're not making it better, Rei.]

[terreifying]

[At leaast he was luckier than the last guy who had spikes fired at him.]

I do not wish to see pain. I do not wish to see death.

[The human and Angel sides can actually concur on something.]

I have sent down my scourge and my sword only to make you see truth.

[chronomancer]

Lady.

[Eridan snarled.]

You can take your shittastic scourge and your grubfucking sword and shove them up your goddamn nook for all I care. Stop trying to kill me.

[terreifying]

This is...killing.

[The sounds emitting from the mouth are quieter and slower, as if she is mumbling something she just realized.]

But I cannot stop. I will not stop. My body does not stop.

[chronomancer]

[...fuck this shit, Eridan is just going to let out a strangled, incoherent scream of sheer frustration.]