towerofanimus | Endgame: Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams

Entry tags:

Endgame: Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams

Characters: open
Setting: floor 101/hidden floor; June 2
Format: action brackets, please
Summary: Something arrives.
Warnings: psychological horror, physical horror, violence

[The thing arrives on the twenty-third floor where no one is around to see it. But even if there was anyone except the retrieval units there, they would hardly have a chance to spot a single shadow, as the Tower pushes around and caresses the thing, hiding it away. The Tower ripples, then, and delivers the thing up and up, skipping floor after floor.

Floor one-hundred and one goes dark, and the glamour fails entirely. There's a thing lurking about in the darkness, approaching the way to the hidden floor. It can't be seen in this gloom, but it can be heard taking heavy, laden footsteps.]

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Fool.

[The word is a response to Enoch, perhaps, spoken with a snarky yet mechanical undertone, and a moment after it is uttered a coil of twisted metal emerges from the wall, shooting out toward the light--

But then it twists and changes direction sharply in midair as Patchouli calls upon her danmaku shield, darting through them to scatter the projectiles. Minato's healing is effective. Maybe too effective, because it's made him a target, and once the coil has finished whipping its way through the projectiles it sharpens at the end and thrusts straight toward him.]

No!

[Ryoji hadn't arrived on the hidden floor until just a few moments before, just in time to see one of his most important friends about to get attacked. He doesn't have time to ask if he can help or see where he'd be most useful. All he knows is that his friend is in danger, and he quickly transforms into Thanatos to block the attack with his sword. Hopefully this form will be enough to hold it off, even if it isn't real. At least the blade in his hands, taken from one of the monsters, is.]

*It's exactly as he expected. Riki would aim for his weapon. Not that he's necessarily invisible in the dark, considering the lack of glamour, but he has shown he can draw attacks. For a second. Not enough, he wouldn't let anything through.

So he had to do something else. He dashed ahead, closing his Arch to be that much less light on the field, hoping the presence of Ryoji's enormous form on the field was enough to distract Riki, just long enough he didn't see someone else coming at him from the side. If he made it to him, he'd open his Arch and lash out in a whirling strike in one fluid motion, hoping to injure Riki enough to force him to try to compensate, to focus on repairing himself, or to distract him with the pain. Or maybe, if he was lucky, he might sever or nearly sever that foot. Maybe. Either way, he'd let the momentum of the whirl carry him to the side in the hopes of avoiding a counterattack.*

[It's been long enough and she had not figured out where her name had come from and the common enemy in the room pulls her attention once more. Of course now is the time she finally pulls out her abilities, rainbow colored ki forming around her arms.

Meiling isn't in the best of shape still, due to the bot she received but she again charges, going to the opposite side of Enoch, her fists flying at high speeds. Mostly out of the hope that is one attack misses, the other will hit and do damage to Riki.]

[Ryoji's shielding of Minato works. The combination of his massive form and stolen sword are enough to keep Minato from harm, though the coil of metal does attempt to wrap around the blade and tug it out of his hands.

Before he can get far with that, Enoch's strike lands and so does Meiling's, and they come in such quick succession that he isn't able to fire off a counterattack. He is forced back a few feet toward the elevator, and he digs his heels into the ground, which ripples under his feet and makes mechanical whirring noises as his wounds seem to mend themselves.

The group has a brief respite while he's doing that, however.]

[Thankfully, Ryoji manages to keep his grip, and once Riki is forced back, he turns to the rest of the group.]

Tell me how to help, and I'm here.

[He manages a small smile at Minato as well, relieved that he seems to be safe. He'll protect the group's healer for now, unless anyone has a better idea.]

[It's been long enough that Riku's opted to check in on the situation, and when he sees the chaos unfolding, he shudders. With the others caught up in their fight, he hopes, prays for an opening. But rather than opt for an offensive strike, he fires off a blast of wind at Riki in the vain hope that he might push him closer to the floor's edge.]

[Riki straightens up as the mechanical whir fades out and he advances on Ryoji and Minato--

Only to be hit with that blast of wind. It has the desired effect, pushing him just far enough that he is only a pace or two away from the floor's edge. Before he topples over, though, he digs his heels into the ground (literally, as the floor ripples and shifts around him to encase his ankles) and snaps his eerily-glowing gaze toward Riku.]

Nice try. [It sounds like a guttural, mechanical laugh. A moment later, the ground ripples again and the floor under their feet shoots out toward Riku like a crashing wave.]

[When metal coils come for him, Minato tried to have Throne shield him. He's not fast enough, but Ryoji shielded him in time. His eyes widened a bit, before he smiled and nodded. He turned his attention back at Riki, just in time to see him blown away from them by a wind spell.

Throne's immediately dismissed, before he summoned another Persona in its place. Cu Chulainn appeared with a brief flourish, before he buffed everyone's attacking power (physical, magical, other technicalities here) with a spell.]

[It's taken him a bit to get here. Trying to wade through the chaos, through all of this - but he has to fight. There's no other choice. He sees things moving, sees people attacking, and he takes a deep breath before running forward, Evoker pressed to his head.]

Dike!

[The armored woman appears, sending lightning streaking towards Riki. He's mechanical... hopefully this can help overload him.]

[Where Ken goes, Chidori understandably follows, and while her eyes widen at the sight of what they find, she recovers quickly enough to feel the effects of Minato's buff and take a deep, grateful breath. And then if Dike's electricity isn't quite enough to get through to Riki-]

Hecate!

[She can to this without her Evoker now, thanks to Naoya, and the Witch Goddess appears in a swirl of smoke, sending flames swirling toward Riki's legs.]

[Ken and Chidori arrive just in time for their spells to be augmented by Minato's buffing; electricity and fire streak toward Riki in tandem and the electricity courses through him, fire heats the metal to the point where it becomes white-hot, and he shudders, the ground loosening its hold on his ankles as it ripples under him to mend his wounds--

But he stumbles back, over the side of the edge he had been so close to already, and vanishes from view. The floor does not ease its rippling.]

[When the floor shoots at Riku, he immediately dodge rolls to the side, throwing up his Keyblade in a blocking maneuver. Thank goodness the others manage to hurl Riki over the edge-- or so he thinks, until he realizes that the floor's still rippling. Something is amiss.

All he can think is that Riki is hanging onto the side. If not that, then what else could it be? Gritting his teeth, he fires off a blast of Thundaga over the edge of the platform.]

[On the one hand? Patchouli's glad the shielding worked at all.

On the other? The situation's too dangerous to sit back and relax. Doing something is better than nothing.

She's not going to get too close to the edge, but she is going to direct - ironically enough, given the name - a Non-Directional Laser down over the edge.]

[He frowns, before he dismisses Cu Chulainn and bring Throne out again for a cautious defence buff on the entire group.

Until they can confirm Riki's defeat and/or death, he'll assume their opponent is hanging off--or attached?--the edge. Most of them couldn't tell without going over to check, which have its obvious risks. Unless...]

Chidori-san, can you sense where is Riki?

[It'd be too much to hope for Riki to tall out of the tower completely, as horrible as that might be.]

[Chidori starts slightly at hearing her name, but once Minato's request registers, she nods slightly, fingers tightening in the fabric of her sleeves.]

I can certainly try.

[And try she does, extending the awareness that Hecate gives her over the edge of the tower, trying to see if she can sense Riki there at all. She hopes, more than anything, that she won't be able to sense him at all.]

[Chidori's hope is not misplaced, in this case. There is no presence visible to Hecate's eye over the edge of the Tower. Riku's Thundaga jumps along the rippling metal briefly before the floor ceases its wave-like motions, falling still beneath their feet.]

[...that seems too easy. Feferi steps up to the edge of the floor and looks over the side, just to confirm that they actually did knock Riki off for good.]

[Feferi will get an eyeful of Riki--literally, if she doesn't step back, as he's warped the Tower to catapult himself back up and he'll barrel her right over if she doesn't get out of the way.]

WHAT THE FUCK --

[The yell comes as she jumps back; Riki will take a chunk of her film-hair with him as he catapults back up. Feferi doesn't stick the landing; she lands hard enough to knock the wind out of her.

[The film loses its shape and drips right off of him as soon as it's detached from Feferi. The floor once again warps as Riki lands, bending and buckling around him to prevent him from skidding across it.

He turns, his eyes glowing blindly, angrily bright.] Good trick.

[Behind him, from where he emerged back onto the floor, metal tendrils shoot in from the outside of the Tower and through the open wall, sharpening as they dart for Riku, Patchouli, and Minato.] Not good enough, though.

[David's been spending most of this time trying to recover from that blow he took from Riki. The blow sent him too far to be affected by Minato's invocation of Throne—but he's not so banged up as to be completely out of the fight. By the time the Persona users knock Riki off of the floor's edge, David's managed to roll over and push himself up and start looking for wherever that Orcish sword lay.]

[After a bit of stumbling, he finds it and picks it up just in time to see Riki erupting from the tower's edge and back toward the assembled multicolor souls-in-a-jar fighting the Administrator.]

Got a full-on archvillain here ...

[That's said more to himself since he's still rather far away, but it's all the motivation he needs to start hurrying back into the fray.]

[Ryoji quickly deflects the tendrils heading for Minato, and lets out a frustrated grunt as he sees they're also heading for Riku and Patchouli. He'll attempt to get close enough to defend them as well, but it's not clear if he'll be able to make it in time.]

[The metal creaks as Ryoji deflects it away from Minato--he's fast enough to take Patchouli's tendril off course, but not Riku's.

For getting in the way, the floor bubbles before surging up under and around Ryoji in thick spikes, trying to either imprison him or impale him.]

[Thank goodness for Ryoji's quick reactions. Minato dismissed Throne for another Persona, calling forth Suzaku for a group speed buff.

They got both their offence and defence, that simply leave their own speed left.]

Ryoji, move!

[Unfortunately, after he ordered Suzaku to cast the spell, he noticed the floor bubbles forming around Ryoji. Hopefully, the speed buff would help.]

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