The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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15strangers2023-07-21 10:18 pm
strangerpeople) wrote in 15strangers2023-07-21 10:18 pm
Entry tags:
FINAL TRIAL
(1 of Hekatombaion)
[When the time comes, Charon arrives on a boat, hrrhrrhrring a little tune as he rows. No need to worry about space, even with all of the shades coming with. Fluffles, unsurprisingly, doesn't go; he does see everyone off, at least, before he falls asleep.
With a final hnnnngrrrgh, they're off. Charon is the master of the Styx, in his own way, deftly avoiding roots and branches from the Qliphoth as he guides his charges up through the layers of the underworld. From the dark and gloomy green of Tartarus, to the lava-flooded Asphodel and it's giant many-headed bone snake, sadly snarled in demonic roots (without thinking, Zack waves to it), on through the lazy rivers of Elysium, and lastly through the pitch stink of the corridors of a temple separating the underworld from the living world.
Throughout, there is eerie quiet. No shades appear to watch their procession-indeed the few wisps around seem to be fleeing, hiding. No rats try to bite Zack's face off. Aside from Lernie, there's truly nothing but tree, tree, and more tree.
Finally, though, the surface air hits, and it is...not cold, but not warm, either. Though, as everyone disembarks, that's probably not what catches everyone's attention. No-it is the barren fields of ancient Greece, just outside the entrance to the underworld-and there is only one thing alive in the area.
It is late afternoon, and the silhouette of the new moon is the only thing that emits real light now in the grey. Indeed, if there is a sun, it is blocked out by the massive, massive roots in the sky, swirling into the stratosphere. The roots in the underworld were in fact more akin to greedy branches; the roots in the sky of the world of life, however, are far more massive, and it's clear the tree is fully grown. And-if the dead grass and trees and barren lands around the Temple of Styx are any indication-it isn't simply feeding on human blood-it's affecting the life of the earth itself, greedily lapping up what it can as it further embeds itself, further spreads, further grows. Further destroys.
It won't stop. There is obsession and power, and Delta is right-it will never stop unless someone intervenes.
Wordlessly Delta points to a Spire of blood in front of them. Yup-they need to enter it to get to where they need to go. Lovely.]
Through here is the core of the tree where the fruit of the Qliphoth is being cultivated. Come.
[Well, no turning back. With luck, the Catillac has some extra towels.
So, immediately after squishing into the...blood elevator?...everyone is schllllorped on a ride akin to w water slide, going up and down, left and right, up, up, up, then down, down, down....down.......
d
o
w
n
into the depths.
And when they emerge...]
[Bright flowers grow on the vines. There is distant birdsong, and the sun shines among fat, lazy clouds. But you can see the shine of glass in the corner of your eye; the air is too perfect to breath, too cold to touch. You don't feel the grass or dirt underfoot that you can clearly see The smell of blood is everywhere.
An illusion? A dream? A delusion? Something else? Who knows. There is a patio table laid out with tea, and four seats. It's almost as if the owner simply got up and left for a moment. It's all strange, all...wrong.
Still. You're finally here. You're in the core. You freed a possible god from the grip of forced ignorance. And you have-you hope-everything you need to end this. But there is still one question:
It is time, Strangers. By the seas, the heavens and the earth, by blood and darkness, it's up to you.
Good luck.]
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[Still, he seems...more serious when she says that.]
And I see you do not see the Vergil and Dante with us as your sons, thus...did they truly perish, or have you seen their futures and decided it was a path you could not let them go down upon?
[...]
I may not be a mother, but I do understand...something of a parent's love, I suppose.
vague DMC 5 spoilers
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...Or, in the end, was all of this merely punishment? To those wayward monsters, and to ensure the safety of all?
And in so doing, douse your own hands in just as much blood as those rejected sons of yours?
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You are mistaken. I intend to end this, once I have my sons back.
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Oh? And do tell, how do you plan to do that? Since I am mistaken, please do eludicate.
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I will create my children with the power of the fruit once more, and breathe their memories back into them. And then I shall raise them as I should have. I will do it right. I will make sure of it.
[The shades of said actual children, meanwhile, are...well, Vergil just came back, and Dante looks like he's been stabbed a thousand times in the gut.]
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[And suddenly, there's...
disgust and disdain.]
...How distasteful. And how...disappointing.
Truly, I expected better than you merely following in the footsteps of Beast I - the Beast of Pity, Goetia.
Only in your case, you are a woman that refused the gift in front of you, instead of embracing it.
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Well. That seemed to do something.]
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Your repeated failure, Eva. Why do you think that is?
Is it because that the souls of your sons still live, that their new bodies can never come to be?
Or is it because, deep down...you know your goal will never be attained? That in reality, all you really wished for your sons is to never have to do such things in the first place?
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That in the end, you merely wish you could do it all over again, so they would never be hurt? Never have to suffer so?
Or is it that you long for those days when your husband was still around? When you were all happy and together.
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The grass begins to fracture.]
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It's not something he takes enjoyment in.]
Those days will never return.
[It's firm, as he says it.]
No matter how many lives you sacrifice, nor how much you wish it, regret it...you cannot change what has already happened.
Your husband is gone, and your sons have grown. You missed their raising, and could not protect them from the pain they undoubtedly suffered for so long, at the hands of demons and perhaps even at human hands.
Perhaps, your plan could work. But you would have to do the one thing you never did, even after all this time.
After all, you've left their souls alone when you could have crushed them in an instant. You've let us even approach you, speak to you.
In the end...
You want to be stopped before you truly hurt your sons, do you not?
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Let me guess... You will be with them at all times, telling them how best to live. Though you establish your ultimate authority, you will coddle them so they never forget that you do this out of love. A perfect family living in absolute harmony. Is that how you think this works?
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[Isn't that so reassuring, Eva?]
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But surely, you must be aware of what else.
Unfortunately Eva.... There are limits to what nurturing someone can do. One's nature cannot be denied by anyone.
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