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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[Tears in her eyes. The blood in them starts to lessen.]
I have a mastery over time.
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C-can you help them?
Please?
All the people who were hurt in this game... the ones who died. Can you heal them too?
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[Hermes wiggles one of his front legs. It would be so much better if the infection went away entirely...
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Save them all...I don't know. Little one...everyone.
Let me try.
Mother-wait--
[Vergil looks stricken. His eyes are misted, and he takes his mother by the shoulders.
She smiles, sadly, and gives him a gentle kiss to his forehead. He closes his eyes. Dante, meanwhile, brings a hand to Vergil's shoulder.
After a moment, they slowly stand back.]
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[She takes another step forward, uncertain, still making little half formed movements.]
Can we help you?
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Pray for me. Forgive me, for all my sins, if you can. That's all I ask.
[She touches the bangle on her wrist.]
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[ Like the man of faith he is, he's got both hands clasped together and his head bowed. He's murmuring things under his breath, snatches of prayer all meant to be for her.
If this is all he can do right now... so be it. ]
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Come on, Greek v1s. Come on, Roman v1s. Come on, Limbo Gods.
...Come on, dev team.]
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[Ugh. He hasn't honestly prayed since he was 10. But he can... attempt. If just for the sake of his allies.
He'll even mumble in the strange latin mishmash of Fodlan]
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But that doesn't stop him from lifting a hand up to hover over the silver cross hidden beneath his shirt anyway.]
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He knows exactly who to pray to...if She will listen. People will be able to hear him whispering in Enochian, a desperate prayer to Queen Sheba to give Eva the power she needs to fix her mistake...and to grant her soul clemency, so that she won't suffer for her husband's efforts to preserve the balance and integrity of the Trinity.]
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Who could Ritsu possibly pray to? No God made her. She does not believe. If there is a God, they probably aren't listening.
But if she's supposed to pray...
She can choose the closest she's got. Someone who always listened, and had nearly godlike power, who did have a hand in her becoming who she is.
It might not be a prayer, exactly, but...maybe calling on Korosensei is close enough.]
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Are you the one who took them away with your "magic"?
If you reverse everything you did...
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Look at me.
[She's smug and barely even triumphant when "Eva-chan" was so clearly beneath her, but there's also a hint of the small clingy Makima that only he's seen.]
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[Kira's heart races. His saw wheels spin in place loudly as he catches her. Of course he looks at her, while she looks directly at him. Then it sinks in how she used that particular phrase.]
You'll get to meet Killer Queen...
[and live, he doesn't say out loud, because it's still strange even to him. He won't comment out loud on her own powers she might be excited for. Kira is egocentric after all. He pulls her closer, smiling with anticipation.]