mayfield_rpg | event: portal seven

Entry tags:

!event

event: portal seven | the void

The final portal doesn't seem to be a portal at all. It's a glitch hole.

Located on the lawn of the library is a hole much like the ones that have plagued every new location for the past week. As with them, it hurts your eyes to look at too long, but even if you should muscle past the pain and stare straight into it, you can make out nothing on the other side. Nothing, save for a shifting, twitching, swirling void.

Unlike the portals, which were vertically placed like doorways, the hole at the Library is strewn across the lawn: if you want to enter it, you're going to have to jump. Of course, there's no guarantee it will even lead anywhere. Touching the hole or sticking your arm in doesn't have any effect: you'll pull your arm out unharmed. As far as jumping in completely goes, those who jump in disappear from sight. As long as you're on the Mayfield side, there's no way to tell what lies beyond the hole.

There's only one way to find out.

[ooc: Feel free to roleplay up to the point your characters jump in, assuming they do. A single group subthread will be created in a few hours revealing what happens on the other side.]

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-It was indeed too late. By the time the lights finally faded, Patchouli was collapsing, unable to maintain herself any longer. If she wasn't caught, she'd be as good as dead...-

[ The panic of that sight cut through her hesitation. Meiling dashed forward to take up Patchouli's hands. ] No, no! We have to keep moving! [ She will carry everyone if she has to, but they HAVE to keep running! ]

Patchy!

[Remilia swoops down, Flandre in tow, but when Meiling takes her hands, she leaves it to the gateguard. With those two so tired, defense was no up to her]

Flandre, go to Patchouli.

[Letting go of her sister's hand and leaving her by the other two, Remilia dove into the strange drones, tearing into them with inhuman speed and strength, regardless of her own injuries. A true monster.]

[Flandre is jostled awake quite suddenly; distracted from the voices yammering at her head incessantly as her sister flew down to land. The tea--no, blood-smell was stronger now, and the vampire couldn't help but look up for it despite herself.

Patchouli...that was still Patchouli, wasn't it? But bleeding, everywhere--she seemed more red than purple. The scent hyped up her aggression...and deadened it back down again, because this was Patchouli and she was hurt and this wasn't supposed to happen!

When Remilia let go of her hand, the smaller vampire keened like some distressed animal; glancing from Patchouli to her sister and back again. The wizard couldn't walk anymore, it looked like, and the bubble was still moving. Flandre whined again, and tried to curl her arms around Patchouli's torso and lift her that way.

They needed to move, to follow Remi, to get away from here...]

-Patchouli had little choice but to be cradled by Flandre. She weakly clung to the red fest, coughing into the fabric violently.-

I'm sorry... I had no choice...

[ Let no one ever say that her mistress was unable to live up to her title. Even Meiling felt a tinge of fear traveling down her spine at the sight of all that bloodshed.

They won't last for long, at this rate, with Patchouli drained, and herself and Flandre busy keeping the wizard upright and moving. Meiling keeps one hand free to let loose the occasional blast of chi when a drone steps too close, but she can only cover so much area like this without letting go of someone (which she stubbornly refuses to do).

The minutes have dragged on to hours, though it feels like much more time has passed. There must be an end in sight. There must be a point to all this. ]

[Flandre's wings flattened to her back as Patchouli coughed into her vest, pupils dilating out as she glanced from the wizard to Meiling in distress. Eventually, one of the wings came back out, folding around Patchouli's back like a hand--and helped carry her that way.

Remilia tearing apart the drones both relieved and...wound her up again. Even made her feel slightly jealous. She should be there, by her sister's side...

Flandre started growling again, and what few drones made it past her sister and Meiling were abruptly bisected by an outsized flaming sword. She couldn't move it much, swinging it around one-handed as she was, but for now she didn't need to. That anger that had been shoved to the back of her mind was slowly coming to the fore again--and worse, this time.]

[Fingers, teeth, tear at her flesh, quick to regenerate but painful nonetheless. The hordes fall easily before he strength, but sheer mass and numbers are starting to overtake her. And she can't help but look back at her family]

Patchy!

[Her cry of concern becomes a hiss of pain as she's assaulted, tears in arms and in her wings as she struggles to break free. She wants to go to their side but she needs to keep these things back]

Get... away!

-It was starting to fall apart. Their ability to fight off the horde was dwindling. More and more, the rear edge of the sphere grew closer.-

So this is how... it's going to end...

[One drone that Flandre had missed escaped her attention for a moment--but only a moment. It grabbed her free wing while she wasn't paying attention, and Flandre shrieked--less in pain, but rather surprise. She flinched forwards, then back, then in her panic dropped Laevateinn to claw and smash at the drone holding her wing. It didn't keep her there for long; the vampire sank her claws into the arm, twisted the wrist until the bones snapped, and threw the drone bodily away from her like a ragdoll.]

Remi, Remi--!

[They had advanced too far for her to retrieve her staff, at least not without letting go of Patchouli. The staff stayed unhelpfully still, this time.[

No! It's not over! [ Relying more on strength of her body than of her will, Meiling trudges on, exhausting every resource she has. Flandre had been in pain, but had taken care of her threat. Laevateinn becomes the first loss of theirs to the void but she can't look back — won't look back. ]

Remilia, please get down!! [ The shout comes a mere moment before she brings up her free hand and sends two of her slow, but large chi blasts right at the group of drones. They don't have the best reflexes, so hopefully it will work.

—but her own reflexes are muddled by the chaos ringing through her mind. Things are speeding up all around them. The voices all echo and overlap until it's just a clamor ringing between her ears. She winces. If only they could stop time. If only Sakuya were here...

It's a last, fleeting thought before a whisper behind her grabs her attention. Her next step is one too slow, and the turning of her head is met with a hand coming for her face landing its finger right in her eye socket. ] Aaaah!

Flan!

[Those plaintive cries get the vampire's immediate attention. That desperate voice she'd swore she'd never let herself have to hear again. With a burst of strength, she tore away from the drones, wounds practically sizzling as they tried to regenerate only to be torn open again by clinging hands. Flinging them away, she moved back closer to the group.]

Flan!

[Ducking under the chi blasts, Remilia took that opportunity to break away from the horde and take out the drones directly assaulting her sister and the others. Flandre... she had to keep Flandre safe.

She wants to scoop Flandre and Patchouli carry them, but then Meiling was injured as well, and now that she looked. the drones were closing again in despite those previous blasts. There was just no way... no!]

Not yet!

[She still had a trump card left. Turning and facing the oncoming drones, the vampire stood firm. There was a second of doubt as the masses started close in, threatening to drown them in their mass, then a blast of scarlet light, shooting upwards and burning a cross in the air]

「Red the Nightless Castle」!

[An invincible defense that burned away the opposition, protecting her and those within its circle from these invaders... and remained completely stationary. She'd protected her family from the enemy she could fight, but by the time it finished and she dropped down next to Flandre and Patchouli, the barrier was already...]

Water Sign: "Jellyfish Princess"

-One last spell, all she could manage any longer, to put them in complete safety... for the brief moments they had left together. It was impossible now. The four of them were too far behind, the wall of drones between them and the others too thick. Not even the Hakurei Miko, try as she might, could stop the inevitable.

Patchouli clung, as much as she could, to Flandre and Remilia, the bubble of the Jellyfish Princess forcing Meilign into the gathering as well. Her tears ran freely. This... was it.-

I love you all so much... I'm so sorry...

[Flandre held her shredded wing close to her back as she huddled over; Laevateinn disappeared into the chaotic void even while she watched, without so much as a twitch. Meiling obliterated the last of the drones trying to attack her, and she whined after the staff--but then her sister was calling her, calling her name. She straightened, looking back over her shoulder at her sister.]

Remi, I'm here!

[Then Meiling screamed behind her--just there, right there, it seemed, and made Flandre yelp and fall forwards, even as her head snapped in the other direction. The little vampire's image split, and another Flandre materialized in the air next to her. The second vampire eeled around Meiling to tackle the drone's torso, knocking it back and tearing at it more out of the same shock that drove a cornered creature than properly vicious ferocity.

But with how distracted she was by the voices and pain and...just, everything, she couldn't keep the spell up for long; the doppelganger vanished mid-snap, leaving the drone staggering with a ragged semicircle bitten out of its side but still very much alive. It disintegrated in the red light before it could get much closer--as did all the other drones around her, around them.]

Meiling, Meiling, come back--Meiling!

[Despite the twinges of pain, Flandre stretches her wing out to the gate guard, like a hand reaching for an embrace. Briefly, she wondered at the field springing to life over their heads like a roof, a shield...and how peaceful things were. She could still see glimpses of the chaos beyond, of the drones attacking others and the swirling colors growing closer and closer. But it was like looking through imperfect glass; the pictures were fuzzy, indistinct. They didn't see, to matter so much; even the voices shouting at her mind seemed to quiet down.

But...Remilia was here. Patchouli was here, Meiling was here, Sakuya...was already gone, like Patchouli's little familiar.

Flandre reached her hand out to her sister, rather than speaking more. It seemed...strangely final, though she had done that same thing countless times before.]

[ Half blind, Meiling took all the coaxing she could get to lead her back to the group. There was a moment of severe panic when the copy of Flandre disappeared like that out of the new barrier, but when she turned swiftly she saw that it was just that — a copy, and not the real thing. It still stung on some level, to see it happening, so she clung to everyone ever tighter because of it.

She told herself that she would not cry when she was useless. She would take in that weakness and make herself stronger because unlike the relative comfort and peace of home, Mayfield was a nightmare. Its peace was only there to accent the trials and hardships they faced when the powers-that-be decided that everyone was having too much fun. That's the way she saw it. That's what pushed her to be strong for the others, just like today.

It was no longer that any one of the group were weaker than the others. Patchouli showed herself to eliminate the doubts that Meiling might have expressed at one point, and Remilia had let some of her true nature show. Even Flandre's instincts were obviously there, cutting through what could have been seen as an innocent, oblivious, ignorant facade... which isn't to say it was untrue, just that right now she could move past it. To act on those instincts.

But it wouldn't help them. Not in the end. Their combined resistance, and the help of those around them who worked to beat away the drones and keep on pressing forward — it was all in vain. ]

[ So why couldn't she be sad for them? ] We did... our best. [ It's true, isn't it? Even as the void collided with and swallowed their last defense whole, she looked to each of them and tried to smile. ] We stayed together. [ Her grip tightened and a tremor shook her. Fear, yes, but also stronger emotions, like loyalty and love. ] I'll see all of you... on that other side—

[Wound hissing as bone and sinew reconnected, exhaustion overtaking her, but still fiercely determined... she'd protect them all. Then that barrier overtook her and for a moment, peace.

For a moment, weakness.

In her mind, gauging the enemies, her own strength, her prodigious regenerative abilities, she knew that there was a good chance that if she clawed and fought and tore her way forwards, she might make it. She could survive. And no one else would.

And what would matter then? An empty victory... no, not a victory at all. Anything without these people she held closest to her wouldn't matter at all at that point. She discarded that frail, desperate notion as quickly as it had came, and turned to gather close with them in their ever shrinking space and time.]

Together. We'll always be together, no matter where, no matter what.

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event: portal seven | the void

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