event: portal seven | the void

[mayfield_mods]

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.]

Comments

[wizardoftheweek]

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...

[then_there_were_none]

[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.]

[not_so_great_wall]

[ 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—

[badladyscramble]

[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.