towerofanimus | the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth, and the landscape of merry and desperate drought

Entry tags:

[ou] saki asami

the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth, and the landscape of merry and desperate drought

Characters: The witch that was Saki Asami and OPEN.
Setting: Floor 61 - general interactions on May 11th and 12th, witch killin' on the 12th
Format: Prose to begin, either in replies
Summary: Whenever a girl makes a contract and becomes a magical girl, a seed of despair is planted within her. Eventually, that seed will take root and blossom within her. The moment the seed blooms, the girl becomes a witch, and we all know what happens to bad witches in fairy tales, right?
Warnings: Character depression, including suicidal thoughts. Violence, possibly including but not limited to limb loss/decapitation via witch-Saki trying to bite people's body parts off. Character death. Will update if more come up.

The reminder post for and original OOC post should cover everything you need to know. If you have any further questions, please let me know!

...could you really prepare yourself for your own fate? Knowing that you would hurt your friends, that you would die? Did it even matter anymore?

The weight of it all was heavy on Saki as she laid in one of the solid patches of grass on floor 61. She had certainly tried, but you could only fight fate so far in this place. She'd been trying and trying to go on, to convince herself that things were okay, but that had been lying to herself. There wasn't time for that, not anymore. She would just have to hope that if, for some reason, she didn't come back after dying this time, that someone else would step up.

...or that if she did come back after dying, that things would be better. Saki honestly didn't know which would be better.

Her Soul Gem was in one hand, and she turned it this way and that, studying the jewel. It held barely any hint of its normal lavender, instead being mostly filled with cloudy, inky black. Normally, she would be far better about making sure all of its taint was gone, making sure it shone brightly, but she'd long since grown careless. She'd grown weary. She hadn't been having it purified, and she couldn't bring herself to care anymore.

It had always fallen to her to be the strong one, the sane one. The one that took care of the others. She had done that so dutifully, for so long, but finally, finally, she had seen too much, after the last month. After seeing Mami turned into ribbons and unable to speak, seeing Kyoko forcibly turned into a witch, seeing Madoka and Homura's graves...and Kazumi.

Kazumi, with that smile, saying she would continue to cause despair...brainwashing or not, it had been too much. How was she supposed to go on after seeing that?

So many girls like herself, with contracts, with wishes they wanted to have come true...and all of them brought down to nothing. What else could Saki do but give in to the despair that she'd been trying to fight for months?

That dim Soul Gem was the proof of how much pain she felt, how much hurt, how much anger. Now, it was a time bomb with only a few short moments left before it would explode.

If she had been at home, she would have done the responsible thing as soon as she knew she couldn't handle herself anymore: asked the other Pleiades Saints to perform Tocco di Mare. A touch of the sea to separate her Soul Gem from her body temporarily, and a long sleep in the Freezer, until they could break the curse.

"Let the princesses sleep forever, waiting for the prince's kiss." Saki laughed ruefully, letting tears mix with her laughter. There would be none of that for her. No Freezer, no magic spell, and certainly no one to kiss her to break the curse.

One of her bitter tears touched the gold casing of her Soul Gem, and the quiet splash seemed to echo impossibly loudly as the last of the lavender faded, leaving only black for a moment, before it cracked.

All Saki could do was laugh - or was it sob? The two were one and the same for her, as she bent over and let all of her pain, her sadness, her anger, and her despair flow freely. The blackness from inside the Gem rose to meet her, and soon swallowed her entirely before spreading to cover the entire floor.

When the blackness faded, things looked different, and there was no trace of the despairing girl that had been there before.

===

Floor 61 had always been filled with flowers, hadn't it? Flowers, and platforms, and hadn't it always been something of a maze? A maze with a monster at its center. Best not to get too close. The kiss of a witch will lead you off your happy path and into despair.

This particular witch is already angry, already ready to lash out. If you try, early enough, you might be able to speak with her, early in the weekend. But it may not end well. There's no changing her back into a human, after all. The magic is too strong.

Later in the weekend, all she'll want to do is lash out. No humans should suffer a witch to live, lest they be drawn into despair. Witches only exist to cause hurt and destroy hope, after all. It's all too easy, when al their own hope is gone.

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If you've managed to wind up on Floor 61 this weekend, you'll find that it definitely doesn't look right. It looks like something psychedelic; flowers dance and twist in ways that shouldn't be possible. There are lilies with ripped petals in the background, broken fleur-de-lis symbols. It's a decently maze, so be careful you don't get lost.

Should you navigate the maze successfully, you'll be rewarded with a flower-filled meadow. Oh, the usual pratfalls of the floor still apply; there are still pits, should you misstep. But you should be safe enough on the platforms.

...for values of safe, given that witches are known to eat humans. You should still be able to escape, though, if you're careful...

Edited 2013-05-11 05:06 (UTC)

By now, Witch Saki has grown angry. She's lashing out, actively attacking those that grow too close. She will make you feel her despair and her pain, by force, should she have to, whether it's with the bite of sharp teeth or the crackle of lightning.

There's only one way that this can end. Will you step up, or will you let her power grow?

Edited 2013-05-11 05:11 (UTC)

Given the nature of this place, it was always hard to say what kind of trouble was out of the ordinary. But given it's proximity to the kitchen floor, it was impossible for Kazumi not to notice the barrier. The way her soul gem reacted, chiming lightly as it hung as an earring, was unmistakable. There was a witch, and this time she didn't think it was Madoka this time...

Stepping off the stairwell, she donned her outfit as she stepped into the maze.

Magic called to magic, as it always did. The witch sensed the magical girl entering the barrier, and the path she was following branched suddenly in response. The left branch and right branch looked almost identical. The right would lead to a familiar; the left further down inside the labyrinth to the witch herself.

Kazumi started a bit when the maze suddenly changed before her. Was it reacting to her presence? She couldn't be sure.

Manifesting her soul gem and holding it out in her palm, she tried to decide which path to take. If only Niko were here, she might be able to calibrate it better... but in the end, Kazumi just couldn't tell which path to take. Leaving it to gut feeling, she started down the right path.

That would prove a mistake; one of the larger lilies peeled itself away from the wall as Kazumi approached. It began spinning, its petals fanning out for a moment before it stopped. When it stopped, the petals would harden, sharpening themselves like blades. Then it moved forward again, letting out a high-pitched noise - the sound of laughing and crying mixed - as one of those petal-blades aimed itself directly at the girl.

Kazumi jumped back as soon as it started peeling away from the wall, staff in hand. She was cautious, not sure how it would attack, but as soon as it started flying her way, she jumped up into the air over it, leaping towards the familiar.

The petal-blade slashed in midair, acting not unlike a sword. Kazumi's jump meant its first strike would miss. It made that noise again, then quickly moved to strike a second time.

So it was coming back around - Kazumi had hoped it would just fly off and she could concentrate on the main body. Turning, she made to slash at it with her staff, using magic to sharpen the strike so it would tear through it hopefully.

"Take this!"

The familiar might have been fast, but Kazumi's strike would prove faster. The magic enhancement on the girl's staff shredded the blade, and seeing as how it was still attached, the point struck between the blade and the main body, effectively skewering the familiar.

Kazumi pushed forward, using her small weight to drive the point of her staff in further, pinning it down before releasing the destructive magic she'd stored in the blade, hopefully destroying it.

Her heart and mind wrapped perpetually in darkness, it didn't take long for Madoka to figure out what had set Gretchen's senses afire that day. It had to be a Witch and what did one do with a Witch? Brutally destroy them as soon as possible.

First she would have to find the creature, and that in mind, the half-witch dropped any pretense of her humanity and ventured into the maze with a very specific goal in mind.

There was something strange about this floor. Something that made his hair stand on end. Some quality that seemed as if it just didn't fit. Perhaps his divine blessings protected him from a Witch's Kiss. Perhaps he was simply unaffected by it. But for whatever reason, Enoch was not overcome by despair when he stepped off the staircase to look at the maze, to investigate it.

Well this floor had always been odd, but there was definitely something different from the smiling faces that usually plastered the mountains. Maybe it was the entire change of scenery. Maybe it was also how it looked like a drug-outed video game.

There was definitely something amidst (you think?) and he wasn't patrolling for nothing. Maybe it was stupidity or just the heroic protagonist blood. Stepping inside, he had his arm to his sword, Persona ready should he need to call for one.

With a sharp cry, the familiar seemed to bleed out a stream of bright red petals as that magic hit home. Those petals faded to black a moment later before it dissolved entirely. When it dissolved, the path that was blocked would open up.

There's a light ahead, should Kazumi want to follow.

But a Witch would always fight back. If it didn't, what was the point?

The magic signature wasn't the same as a normal magical girl's, and the Witch could tell. One of its own?

...that simply meant it had to be destroyed faster. The maze twisted itself, three lily-familiars peeling themselves from its walls. This time, as they sharpened their petals, they linked their centers together, in a mockery of a fleur-de-lis.

It didn't fit because it wasn't of the Tower's making - at least not directly. The source of the despair that had led to the birth of the Witch was the Tower, certainly. However, the contract - the power that came with a curse - that made it possible for the Witch to be born at all? That had been made long before the girl who was now the Witch had entered its walls.

Investigation, on its own, was fine, but it needed to be watched. Those vines growing up the labyrinth walls, and the black flowers blooming along them? Don't mind them. They were meant to grow all along.

The smiling faces were long gone, the mountains covered in a pile of flowers. It might have been beautiful, if the flowers themselves didn't look wrong - roses shouldn't look like bloodstains. Morning glories shouldn't look like they're constantly in bloom and following your every movement.

And lilies shouldn't be able to peel themselves away from the walls. Perhaps it's a trick of the ever-changing lights? Perhaps it isn't, as this one is going to shadow Naoya as he patrols, petals razor-sharp and ready to attack at the first sign of danger.

Kazumi stood, panting a little in the aftermath. So, a familiar... she'd have to be on her guard for others, then. Seeing that light, she carefully headed down that way, cautious for any others that might pop out and attack her.

Playing witness to the all-to-familiar danger of a witch's familiar by summoning from the ether a pitch black bow that, like her dress, dripped of some otherworldly substance and reeked of dark magic.

Her eyes closed, she form an arrow of similar darkness and aims its square at the familiar's center. Drawing back the bow's string she unleashes it towards the target swiftly, hoping to destroy the target in one shot.

The movement of the growing flora following him was enough to get him to ready his Arch, its light casting a faint blue sheen on the armor it was nearest. He watched them warily as he made his way through the corridors, using his ability to jump off air to keep himself from falling into any pits that he may have missed.

A vine of black flowers would sprout from the place the familiar had first appeared, but all it would do at that point would be track and follow Kazumi as she approached the light.

At the end of the tunnel, there would be a giant meadow, filled with flowers. The eyes that normally covered the mountains were replaced with roses - only roses shouldn't look like bloodstains, should they?

...interesting, interesting, interesting. The familiar broke itself apart from its fleur-de-lis formation at that shot being fired, two of the pieces breaking off and flying to the sides. The third took the brunt of the shot, turning into blood-red petals that turned black and then disappeared.

One down. Two left, and one of them made a high, screeching noise before it rushed, two petals hardened like swords.

Magic. A threat. And threats needed to be dispatched.

A lily peeled itself off the walls, silently this time, and shifted form, two of its petals becoming blades. It followed the path of the petals, and the next time Enoch jumped, it would rush forward with a high-pitched cry.

Enoch heard the cry, and spun around midair to try to catch his attacker. The arch deflected the blades and Enoch landed on his feet on the other side of the hole he'd jumped over. Both hands were on the Arch, and he watched the lily, and the others on the walls, warily as he backed up through the maze.

Having passed it, she didn't notice her stalker, so she hurried on to the opening.

It was stunning, to be out in the open again, in a place that was beautiful but so foreboding. There was definitely a creepy quality to this place... was this where the with was residing?

The blooming vine wrapped itself around the doorway, eventually snaking back off into the maze. That was all right; the girl had found her way to its heart.

Yes, Kazumi. This is where the Witch is residing. It's going to turn its face - or what, at least, resembles its face - towards you now. Do you have anything to say? Have you figured out who this was?

The deflection of its blades pushed the familiar back into the wall, but only for a moment. It would rush forward again a moment later, spinning faster. As it spun, it would reveal its weak points: the tiny gaps between the blade and its body. A strike through one of those would certainly be enough to kill it.

It's chilling, being so close, but even more so, there was a bizarre sense of familiarity to it. Was this... no, it couldn't be... but those flowers, those lily of the valley, that aura...

"...Saki?" she asked in a stunned voice.

Such a small target was hard to hit. Enoch's attempt at catching it as it came at him again was foiled. But it didn't seem to be of much harm when it did strike, only sending cracks through some of his armor; none of it broke off. Enoch turned to it and tried again with a downwards sweep meant to either stun it or by some stroke of luck hit one of those tiny weak points.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth, and the landscape of merry and desperate drought

general interactions;

witch-killing fight; dated on the 12th

Re: general interactions;

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Wandering the maze first before jumping to the fight?

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fine by me!

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And then I was slow again x_x

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don't worry about it; I've been slow myself x_X

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