[PRP] Checking up (Rep + Legacies)

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

The first thing Rep could think of was how dark everything was. It felt like sensory deprivation, and he fell, sinking into a strange, dark liquid of silence.

He sank for what felt like a long, long time, unable to move while submerged, until his feet touched the bottom lined with white crystal-

- And everything tilted upside down like a fever dream and the water was replaced only with fields of glowing white crystals hovering below a transparent glass-like surface. On the surface were the two earlier arrivals.

"I CAN'T SLEEP," it howled and the crystal resonated and there was just noise and words that made no sense other than raw emotion. " I WON'T SLEEP." It thrashed out all directions, a nest of limbs, thorns, and vines, and seemed almost impossible to approach.

Baneful

VERSUS CREATION V 12323

HP: 50/50 (regular dice mechanics apply)
Auto damage: -10 (each touch causes the same dizziness as usual)

 

[Baneful]

"Everything sleeps." Rep said with a grim sort of certainty, his stomach twisted in knots with the perspective. He'd been dying for sleep and in his haze of exhaustion had begun to consider more and more the line between dreams and memories, artifacts were made of memories, dreams were something to do with dreams. It all felt so close yet just out of reach and he wanted to rest.

"You need to stop."

And here at least he could summon, here he could fight, even if it looked overwhelming and Tracey came to hand with a familiarity borne of years of working together.

He struck out at the vines, even as they also lashed out at him and the pain for now was nothing.


HP: 50
DMG: 14
Charge: 1/3

Creation hp - 36  

[WE ARE HALLOWEEN]

Downgraded Caelius nearly missed the vines entirely as he stopped to stare incredulously at Rep as white crystals shattered from proximity damage with Rep's weapon. "Watch the <******** crystals," he managed just as a wreath of red butterflies escaped from the collateral damage and a distinctly female voice laughed maniacally as they flew upwards.

If he was going to say something else, he didn't have much of a chance, struggling a little more than usual to disengage his weapon from the nest of it.

Baneful

36 - 4=32 HP remaining

 

[Baneful]

It was always really hard with Tracey to avoid damaging everything in the vicinity. He was not a weapon made for neat and tidy aimed damage, instead designed for huge sweeping cleaves and generally wrecking everything in his path.

"He's not Circe." he said apologetically, making Tracey huff in irritation.

He did however lean back from the butterflies, remembering the last time he had a run in with them. "The ******** is she doing in here?" he said, a little rattled.

Still, it made him swing even harder the second time, trying to get this over with before anything else went wrong.



HP: 40
DMG: 16
Charge: 2/3

Creation hp - 16  

[Zoobey]

The area wasn't exactly the largest, and Tracey's collateral involved two more crystals shattering like being made out of pure glass and also about five strands of Caelius's hair.

"Are you ******** blind?" the Death lead yelled about an octave too high over the roaring of the vines and what sounded like it crying.

Baneful

16 - 10 = 6 HP remaining

 

[Baneful]

"I'm TRYING NOT TO." Rep said in panic, genuinely trying not to hit the crystals or Cael.

The thing's thrashing was getting severe and he could feel that taking a toll on him just like everything else.

He twisted and swung, cleaving into the vines again and hoping.


HP: 30
DMG:11
Charge: 3/3

Creation hp - 0  

[Zoobey]

The crying was growing louder and louder and there was no resistance as the vines unfurled and there was the eyeless child. "Go ahead." It began to bleed into the white, a little less green. "It's not even FUN anymore."

Everything was becoming a little too bright again, and the broken crystals were making Rep's head hurt, vastly different from the green.

'It will return', nudged a voice in Rep's head and it didn't feel like Tracey or Circe, or any other potential visitors. 'Summon me and I will protect you and make sure it never returns'.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

"Okay." he said to the voice. "Okay." He had been fighting this thing for what had to be years now, and if this was enough to calm it or halt it even for a moment, even for a day, people would be saved and that was what mattered.

"Go back to sleep." he said to it, and mentally reached for the help he knew had consequences.

 

[Zoobey]

Despite literally telling Rep not to break things, the Death lead was shattering several fragments himself, looking for something at specific points. The most interesting thing about the interaction was how the crystals, even the ones Rep had taken, seemed to grow back, always pristinely bright. He got as far as the third crystal in before he suddenly turned around to stare at Rep like a hawk. "Don't-"

It was too late.

Rep could hear the terrible laughter, one that sounded like butterflies and what seemed like thousands of them cascaded from the sky and surrounded the child, picking at his green until there was nothing left.

"It's over," she - Rep - stood up and reached for the thousands of butterflies that swarmed around her, "I emerge victorious.."

Somewhere on Deus, Lucky's jar would shake quite aggressively, still sealed.

It wasn't like Creation, Rep became Destruction as she scattered white all directions, he was her wrath and anger, he was her unbridled hatred and uncontrollable chaos as everything plunged into dark water again and then he was just red escaping from the white all directions, swarming and he was caught in the madness of the maelstorm-

- Someone knocked on Rep's door, the house next to the blue kingdom, and it felt urgent.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep didn't have time to respond, to resist in any way as he was taken. In it's way it was glorious when it happened, swept along in rage, hatred, fury and chaos without anything to stop him. It was relentless and a rollercoaster he couldn't get off of and some small part of him thought maybe there'd be good reason not to, maybe this was somehow better.

The door was being knocked. The door. That door.

It focused him enough to pull him there, to answer it, realising again that he needed help, that again he was at the whims of something dangerous and malevolent.

 

[Zoobey]

And this time it was actually the sword.

At first it didn't feel like it at all, at first it just seemed like a very watered carbon copy of Harrison, the little flaws in the details oddly obvious that stood at the doorway and didn't come in.

"You cannot do this any more," said Harrison, in a very un-Harrison-like voice, "you need to close this door."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

It was impossible not to trust Harrison, and even the figure which wasn't quite Harrison was one he'd come to trust completely.

"Okay." he said, with a grim sort of weariness. "How do I close it?"

 

[Zoobey]

"Every time this door opens, you become a little less," this Harrison reprimanded sternly, "no matter who, or what comes for it, you cannot ever let anyone in."

He leaned against the other side of the doorframe, nodding to Rep just once, curtly. "You are already protected. When you have the confidence to realize what you already know, then you will have everything you need. Now, on my count of three, close the door, and keep it closed until the screaming ends."

Before Rep could ask what screaming, Harrison was already counting. "One-"

- Already there was a buzzing noise, like a ringing coming from far away-

- "Two"-

- The noise grew closer and rattled, and then thousands of butterflies descended outside of the door, fluttering against the walls and attempting to batter the other down. He remained sturdy.

- "Three - CLOSE THE DOOR."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep obeyed, slamming the door closed as best he could, he'd had a lot of visitors to this strange place but the butterflies were worse than Circe, worse than anything hed seen before and he was genuinely scared of what would happen if they got in.  

[Zoobey]

And then the screaming began, a loud wail that was butterflies and pure red and cascaded through everything and threatened to rip the walls straight down from the foundations. It wasn’t like Circe, it wasn’t like Excalibur, or Alice, or even Creation, it was violent and malevolent and hungry.

The door rattled like it was made out of thin paper and Rep could hear his own mother yelling through the other side.

"I GAVE YOU DESTRUCTION" shrieking, howling, ""I GAVE YOU TRUE POWER."

The screaming turned into loud wailing and moaning, like Rep was a child again and his mother was on the other side and she was mad but he didn't know why. It seemed to continue on forever, longer than any other visitor, until, when it finally left, it felt like it was still there.

The door had been sealed with thin blue chains, but it seemed nothing would budge them now, and the apparition of Harrison was gone. It was just Rep and Tracey now, and the urgent feeling of him needing to wake up. Something still felt wrong.

Baneful