[ closed ] The boys are back in town

[swordfucker]

Who: Dave, Dextera, Guren, John, Okuyasu, Ryo
Where: All around town
When: 6/26, mega forward dated
What: Bogeyman take down! This goes throughout the town ending at either the well or the harbor, depending on how things go, but they'll be working to keep it out of the line of people.
Warnings: Violence, gore, horrible monsters, death

[They've gathered together, they have a plan, and now the Boys™ are ready to take the monster down before anyone else gets hurt! Guren has made it clear that his group is going to draw it out first with Dextera's magic and immediately fling it at Dave's group, continuing in a ping pong sort of pattern until they end at the well, or the worst case scenario, all the way past it to the harbor, the second "ideal" open area decided on.

That's the gist of it!! Separate top levels below for each group and the aftermath.]

Comments

[apocalypticist]

[ Ryo lowers his weapon and looks to Dextera as he collapses. His arm is throbbing with pain underneath his tattered sleeve, each movement a new introduction to hurt, but he's doing his best to ignore it. ]

We don't have time to rest; we have to keep moving. [ He wants to catch his breath too, to let his racing pulse slow down, but they don't know how much or how little time they have before the other group sends the bogeyman back at them for another round.

...Briefly, he wonders if it's going to turn into Guren's fears next time. ]

[swordfucker]

[They don't have time, that's right, but he still wants to make sure Dextera can keep moving. He's bleeding, Ryo is injured, and Dextera is fine physically so far, but Guren knows that's a mental press on him that he doesn't need.]

He's right. Let's keep going.

[To Dextera. But as they do, and as he places his left hand over one of the gashes on himself to try and slow it, he glares down at it.]

It's messing with my demon. I'm not healing. I could try a drug, but I need twenty seconds for it to be useful, and then I've only got fifteen minutes before I crash. [He doesn't know if it will help. It might not be worth the risk, or the pressure on his body.]

I'll see how it is when he comes back.

[passio]

[ dextera doesn’t want guren to strain himself, even if he might be better off with one of his drugs after all—

this is bad. they’re definitely making progress, that much is true, but there’s no way to ask the other group to balance the bogeyman a little longer just to give them all a chance to heal.

the heart drugs—it’s not fair. he doesn’t even need them, like this, while guren and ryo are injured and dextera has nothing useful to repair their wounds or at least to fix guren’s demon. he wants to do more than this, but his own trembling hands feel quite useless as they proceed. ]

I’ll fight.

[ he already was, but he means to ask them to let him take the lead—he’s unharmed. ]

[apocalypticist]

[ Ryo considers this for a couple of seconds, weighing the risks and benefits of those drugs as he runs disaster scenarios through his head, before nodding his head. His arm is injured, Guren is hurt and on top of it he can't heal properly like he normally does; letting their unharmed party member take the lead and see how that goes seems like a good course of action, at least for now. ]

All right.

[swordfucker]

[ Guren is quiet at that, but he watches Dextera, thinking it out. He doesn’t deny him, either, but there’s dread in the pit of his stomach that he’s not sure is just leftover from the bogeyman’s touch.

The fight is taking longer on Dave’s side, and that’s worrying too, but at least it means they get to their destination right before the well. Guren is near Dextera, even if he had planned on fighting first, because he’s trying to see when it’ll come. It’s bound to target him next, anyway, and when he sees shadows approaching, he braces himself.

Dextera can lead the fight for a swipe or two, but his light is really getting to the bogeyman at this point. It moves, suddenly, morphing from its shadows, and when Guren’s sword stabs past it in the form change, something sharp runs through his chest. It’s blinding, with so little help from his demon, and he barely has the time to react before he’s crumpling to the ground, stabbed through the heart.

The bogeyman’s form is Guren himself, but he’s off. Black sclera, fangs on a wicked grin, and a single horn protruding from his head. He’s not done with the Guren on the ground yet, raising his sword like he intends to kill him off for good and take his place. ]

[passio]

[ this has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. it wasn’t getting better, before, but dave’s group had bought them a little time, and—

there’s a sword through guren’s heart. a blade, run cleanly through guren’s chest, and it’s worse than even his brother—it’s worse than anything, dextera thinks, worse than any fear that the bogeyman could conceive from anyone’s mind. he’s moving before he can think about it, not pausing to consider how useful or how completely stupid it is to throw himself in the line of danger.

instead of using his sword, he just shoves. it doesn’t help protect him, from the nature of the beast—as soon as his bare hands make contact with the demon guren, he freezes up, his body going rigid and his eyes glazing over with that distant look of trauma. by now, both ryo and guren know what his worst memories are. what he must be seeing now. ]

Ah…

[ the bogeyman doesn’t even flinch, really, with that kind of powerless, pathetic display, but it does stop guren from being potentially beheaded. ]

[apocalypticist]

[ The tides of battle are fickle at best—things certainly weren't getting better, but it didn't look like they were going to get worse, at least not so abruptly. Ryo turns his head just in time to see the bogeyman move to stab Guren and he has no time to react, no time to aim his weapon and shoot the damn thing in the head before Guren crumples to the ground like a spent candy wrapper.

Fuck. This isn't good, this is getting worse with each passing second and now Dextera has gone still like a statue again (why is that idiot touching it with his bare hands?!). He draws in a sharp breath, refusing to let his composure waver even one degree as he takes aim, blinking raindrops off his lashes and fires. It's not a headshot this time, but he does manage to hit the Guren lookalike in the neck, clipping an artery. ]

[swordfucker]

[Guren's on the ground, bleeding out, pressing a hand over the wound on his chest to try and speed things up. Mahiru. Even while looking up and straining to see past that frozen image of Dextera, seeing the horns, the ceremonial robes of his father's, as if to rub it all in— just seeing himself as a demon should make him hold back from asking for so much power. But he can't. Mahiru!

He's terribly afraid.

What doesn't help is that even as Ryo's bullet clips the side of the fake Guren's neck in a gory mess, it's only a matter of seconds before the wound begins to closer over. A demon can heal so quickly. And even if the bogeyman did actually take damage, is actually worse for the wear, the image of it taking none at all is what's adding to Guren's fear.]

Get away... [His voice croaks from the ground, and he's struggling to push himself up, but it's not enough. He coughs up too much blood, and the bogeyman is going straight for Dextera, laughing in his voice.]

Turn back! Both of you, retreat! [He'd rather be left here than go on risking this. It's also just the fear getting to him. The overwhelming helplessness of it all as his life drains with barely any help from his demon.

Mahiru cups his face from behind, though no one else can see her, whispering gently into his ear. "It's about time you let me take care of things, Guren." His shoulders sink a little in his desperation.]

[passio]

[ dextera doesn’t want to leave guren, and he’s not thinking any of this through anyway. he’ll get ryo, he’ll find a way for them to somehow come back, and guren will be fine, ryo will be fine...

his mistake is, of course, turning away from the creature to try to get ryo to go. ]

—!

[ there’s a sword through his back, suddenly. pain blooms out from the wound, and dextera gasps, a wet sound from the blood already bubbling up—death is nothing strange to him. he’s died before, but he’s never been so terrified, the bogeyman’s induced fear crawling up through every vein, every muscle, making him want to sob with the terror of of it all.

ryo is in front of him, so it’s ryo he reaches out for, even as the demon guren withdraws the sword and catches him by the collar of his coat. like a dog, or a puppet.

dextera is scared. it’s been a long time since he felt like this—the cold dread of the unknown, the feeling of his heart nearly choking him. he fumbles for one of the potions in his pocket, but it slips from his fingers and spills across the ground instead, easily soaking into the wet earth. before he can try to scramble for it, or for a second one, he’s being hauled back, and there’s a cold, shadowy hand right across his chest. guren’s face, even wrong as it is, grins wickedly at him.

the last thing he can acknowledge is trying, again, to force ryo to move.

a moment later, when the bogeyman’s hand comes away from his heart, dextera is dropped lifelessly to the ground, and the bogeyman even licks his fingers like it was tasty. ]

[apocalypticist]

[ This is bad, almost unbelievably so. It isn't though he hadn't considered a scenario like this happening, but it's one thing to play out a disaster scenario in his head and another to actually witness it unfurl before his eyes in an unstoppable, aching slow motion, yet too fast for him to properly process.

His fight or flight response is kicking in, flooding his brain with adrenaline, noradrenalin, cortisol and other chemicals; the only thing that matters now is survival. He's getting out of there before this turns into a total party kill, because Ryo isn't some kind of shounen hero or noble warrior who fights to his last breath no matter how bad the odds are. Cowardice, some would call it, but only a fool fights a battle he knows he cannot win. Genghis Khan himself said so. Better to live to fight another day than to die a meaningless death.

Ryo turns on his heel so fast he nearly stumbles and starts running.

Unfortunately, running means he no longer has the rifle pointed at the bogeyman and it doesn't take many seconds before it seizes the opportunity to go after him without the risk of taking another bullet to the neck. It catches up in almost no time at all, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and lifts him off the ground with inhuman strength. Ryo tries to kick it into letting go but it's no use, and the next thing he registers is pain and the sound of shattering glass as demon Guren flings him through a window.

The stunt glass people jump through or punch in movies is made of crystallized sugar or some form of plastic. It shatters easily and is unlikely to cause any serious harm—actual glass, however, will seriously fuck you up. Ryo gets to experience this first hand as dozens of shards slice through his skin, drenching him in his own blood, and then he hits the wall with enough force to break his neck—

—Except it doesn't. Everything hurts and his lungs burn as he draws in several gulps of air, but he's still alive. Looks like that amulet Dextera gave him did what it was supposed to do. ]

[swordfucker]

Dextera!

[Even bleeding out on the ground, Guren can't look away. The images are blurry, but they're clear in all the worst ways. Dextera turning to run like instructed, and then he's caught, and now he's lifeless on the ground and Guren can't believe it. He struggles, crawling across the floor to reach his body, fingers grabbing at him, his other hand stretching closer to check his pulse.

"Don't look, Guren. Don't look." Mahiru, in her own way, is trying to help. But he can't stop. His heart beats hard, and as he comes to the conclusion that Dextera is gone, really gone, tears are forming in his eyes. He can't help it.

But he can't stop here, either.]

Asuka—

[Before he can mutter out demands there, he's gone, thrown, and Guren yells in his anguish. This can't be happening like this. He buries his face half into Dextera's corpse, fists curled as he tries to struggle past the bleeding, but that effort fades, and eventually he's unconscious.

Or, it seems that way on the outside, for a good few seconds. His sword on the ground inches a little to the side, hinting at what's to come.]

[passio]

[ there had been so many things he had wanted to do.

dextera had wanted to live—truly, this time, a decision made after walking through those memories for the sake of a quest. he’d wanted to make friends. all the people he’d met here, he’d wanted to become closer and closer to them.

minato, ochako, noctis... kaoru and shiho... joshua and estelle... even ryoji, who isn’t here anymore. even ryo, who dextera had slowly been able to call a friend, no matter the strange tension that hung between them. it was ryo he wanted to protect in the end, after all, and he hadn’t been able to do that.

and guren, guren—

all of those people, no matter what, he was glad he met.

dextera had wanted to continue to learn about life, to protect the delicate things he’d begun to nurture, and it was a true resolve to stay alive that had carried him up to this point. it was not strange for him to die—but it was strange to try so hard not to, and lose to it in the end anyway.

the rain washes away the blood as it comes down on all of them, and no part of dextera moves. ]

[apocalypticist]

[ For a brief moment, Ryo doesn't move; maybe if he plays dead, the bogeyman will move on and leave the area and he'll be able to go home and see to his injuries and decide what to do from there.

The problem with that strategy is that if an animal attacks with predatory intent, your playing will likely turn into reality. It only really works if it the animal was targeting you in self defense, and once the threat appears dead or disabled, it might not waste its energy on you and leave. Another problem is that this is no ordinary creature, so he has no idea what kind of behavior it's most likely to exhibit.

He can't give up every possible advantage he might have and put himself in nature's hands like that. Ryo grits his teeth and forces himself back up on his feet, ignoring the pain in his body as he moves to pick up his rifle, making sure the magazine is still fully seated into the receiver before stepping back out into the rain.

His expression is set into a scowl, a flicker of determination sparking across those blue eyes. He might die here, but not before he empties the rest of his bullets into the bogeyman's head. ]

[swordfucker]

Don't bother.

[Something has changed over where Guren and Dextera were piled. His voice is serious, dark, and there's something different behind his words. A force that makes it sound odd. He's pushing himself to his feet slowly, and as he reaches out with his hand, the sword floats easily into it, almost as if someone were passing it over.]

Don't waste your bullets, Asuka. I'll tear him apart myself.

[The next movement is too fast for human eyes to follow, but it catches up with his sword driving through the heart of this Guren-wannabe. Something falters in its image, and it dissolves into shadows. It's realized that this isn't the same person he's dealing with— those same fears aren't there.

Flicking his sword back out again, he swipes, and it's demonic energy that comes out— but it still works to chase the demon back one more time. They're at the well. Dave's group should be aiming to head over here any minute, and all Guren had to do was hold it off until then.]