Character:Squire Selenga of Ida Location: H5 Action: Lifting Gemstone, following the path
Selenga reached into his subspace at the urging of the supernatural force, taking the gemstone from it. It glowed, and as he cast his eyes about, he knew immediately what it meant. What it was they were to do.
"Come on, guys!" he shouted to Kaifeng and Helene, holding the gemstone aloft. "We need to follow this! I think all of these gems are creating a path for us to get out of here on, and if we don't hurry, that elevator door might close without us!"
Without waiting for a response, he turned and followed where the glow was leading him, all of them, eager to leave this place behind, and still holding the gem up high, hoping that everyone that saw it might follow with. That more people might see it if he just kept it high.
He didn't want anybody to be left behind, stuck up here forever, out to die in space. None of them deserved it, no matter who they were up here, Chaos or Order.
Eternal Sailor Tjilaki had been present throughout the battle, her presence subtle amidst the chaos. She hadn't taken center stage, but her commitment to the cause was unwavering. As the confrontation with the Calamitous Hollow reached its climax, a surge of black lightning coursed through the battlefield, striking indiscriminately.
Location: A7. Action: Being summoned, caught, and set down by Ashanite. Then, Distracted By Shiny.
Getting yote like a shot-put was not something Nekoite had ever considered experiencing. Nor had he ever particularly wanted to experience this (or at least he wouldn’t have wanted that if he’d thought about the possibility literally at all). Yet, as he sailed through the air, the sensation wasn’t bad? As long as he didn’t think about the inevitable crash and what it would likely do to his poor bones, getting thrown about so casually by some senshi who was much bigger and more powerful than Nekoite himself, he could probably even enjoy this.
In preparation, he closed his eyes. Bit down on his lip.
But the inevitable crash never happened.
Realizing that, Nekoite gasped, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself in the arms of General Ashanite. Tension he hadn’t allowed himself to think about too much burst out of Nekoite in a heavy sigh of relief. Good. This was good. One of his Generals had summoned him, and General-King Jet was here too, and a lot of people who Nekoite didn’t recognize but they were fellow operatives of the Negaverse, so in his mind, they were good, safe people until proven otherwise. At the very least, all of them would stand together because that was just what the Negaverse did!
“Oh, Marika’s transcen—ethereal caw—member,” Nekoite said as Ashanite set him down. It was only by a miracle of self-control that he caught himself about not saying Marika’s transcendent c**k, something that was fine on stream but, like, definitely not in the current meatspace context. For one thing, cussing too much in front of a General-King was a bad look and seriously unprofessional or something, probably. On the other hand, transcendent might’ve sounded too much like transcended, which, as Nekoite had learned in the past six weeks or so, had a very specific meaning that was generally anathema to the Negaverse’s collective happiness.
Straightening up, a bit unsteadily, he nodded and gave Ashanite a salute (definitely not full-on military proper, but at least, thanks to practice, Nekoite had stopped saluting with his left hand). “A bit banged up, but still standing, sir!” From the bright smile with which he met his General and the perky tone in his voice, one could’ve been forgiven for thinking Nekoite hadn’t gotten banged up at all during the fight. “Looking forward to writing up a report later. Just as soon as we……get……”
He’d intended to say “home.”
But something else caught his attention, coalescing not too far away from him.……
Sure, whatever, fine: nobody had ever promised fairness out of life, only that it would be eventful.
Yet, as Andesine stared down the Dark Star, with its crack like some giant egg full of evil and the roiling clouds of energy around it, that simple refrain played itself over and over again inside her mind: it’s not fair, it’s not fair, it’s NOT. FAIR.
Maybe if she pretended that she wasn’t crying, she could will it to stop happening. How, after all, could she weep like this without a body? How could she be collapsed on her knees, clawing at a ground that technically wasn’t present—clawing at the void, maybe?—and sobbing like some wailing widow in a Greek tragedy, when she needed a body for all of those things to happen?
Yet, she didn’t notice the bracelet on her wrist.
Something itched in the back of her mind, but she let herself ignore it. She let herself ignore the feeling of something calling to her, calling her back. All of her plans and concepts and organized, color-coded charts, wasted. All of the work she’d put into getting them perfect before she could take them to Ashanite, completely pointless. All of the late nights out in Destiny City, gathering energy and starseeds with Amylthia while they bounced back and forth with ideas, nothing—all because of this Dark Star that thought it had any ******** right to send its heralds to Earth.
So wrapped up in her own outrage at the unfairness of it all, Andesine didn’t notice anything about her body piecing itself back together—not until the Dark Star had almost entirely faded from her view.
Not until she landed on her feet, lightheaded and wobbling, but back in front of Ashanite.
Looking up at him, wide-eyed and vulnerable, Andesine felt as though she should have said something. But with her mind reeling like this, she couldn’t think of anything.
Andronicus Knight of Uranus Location: G2 Action: EMOTIONAL DAMAGE, looting without really thinking? almost murdering Ashur with a hug
The lightning had hit her hard but she kept herself standing. Barely. The world swam but the fight wasn't done and she had to, she had to keep going. Dani needed her to keep going. Remi needed her to keep going. Ashur needed--
She watched her fellow Uranus knight disappear and her staff fell from her hands. No no no no, not Ashur, no! Hopelessness clung to her, ate at her, threatened to consume her.
She'd spent the last several years out of the spot light, out of the war entirely. She'd been happy, she'd been content. The world kept going on and everyone, conceivably, ignored her. Yet whenever she did show up again, whenever she did feel it necessary to answer the call.... things went sideways.
It wasn't her fault, she knew that logically. She knew that no one could have predictably literally anything in the last decade of time, especially not a serpent not even the Moon Kingdom could kill off. She knew that the entire universe did not revolve around her, but in that moment? Watching Ashur fade from view and one of the last people she considered a friend slip from her reach?
Andronicus' world shattered.
The knight didn't scream, didn't sob, didn't wail. She just sank to her knees and stared into the roiling clouds beneath her. The fight continued around her, slowing as it stopped as the Hallow was truly trapped again. She looked up at the shield keeping the Hallow in place.
They were trapped. They were trapped and she couldn't even tell Dani what happened. Or Remi. She would die here, alone.
Maybe this was for the best, to be honest. Maybe it was for the best that she would die here. She wasn't exactly a great Knight, or a great team player, or even a great person anymore. No one needed a waste of space like her. Why she bothered to collect some of the scales - mostly small ones and one larger one - and an odd grayish mask with a few cracks through the front of it - she didn't know. Maybe it was to keep her busy in the end. Maybe it was some need to still... be useful.
Maybe she was already dead and she was just moving through the motions of being alive.
And then, Ashur called out to her.
She snapped her head up, seeing him stumble a little in her direction. Her staff abandoned on the ground, she launched herself up and sprinted at him.
"ASHUR!" Andronicus crashed into him, clinging to him in a tight hug. They might still be trapped in this place, they might still be dying, but maybe there was a better chance together.
itspao_
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 4:11 pm
Commander Andreiya Location: F3 Action: Stressing but being a wallflower
Andreiya was, he thought, handling this quite well considering all of the alarm bells were going off in his head. The Calamitous Hollow wasn’t attacking anymore but the storm was still raging. He wanted to move a big closer to Aliez but he didn’t want to crowd him. The electricity made his whole body feel a bit sore, and the stress wasn’t helping.
And the Commodore–well, he looked okay. Which was expected, of course.
Actually, most of the Vanguard looked okay. Some of them, not great, but as he looked across their numbers he started to realize that so many of them were here. In one piece. Alive.
He breathed, not quite easily, and the adrenaline that was keeping him alert and active had yet to fade so he had that going for him.
He was going to crash, hard. He just hoped it was after they got out of here.
Nervously, after scanning the crowd to find Velencians and identify the humans closest to them, he looked to Lyndin. He didn’t need to speak to ask any questions.
He wanted to know how to get out of here. Lyndin would know, certainly.
Anxiously, he plucked at the bracelet on his wrist. It was glowing white, but–
Was it? No, maybe it was just reflecting all of the lightning.
Afraid that the Senshi and Negaverse agents might decide to pick a fight, it was safest to be clustered with other members of the Vanguard. For a moment, he watched the Senshi who had come with Lysanna and Vyn, but she seemed harmless. There were others here, not from Earth. A senshi from another world caught his eye but he didn’t want to talk about anything here. If there was still a Earth–and he hoped there was!–maybe he could find more of them to speak with. Later. Right now, he needed to–
Need to what? What was there to focus on? He didn’t know how to get out of here, and he was afraid this storm was going to get worse, or the Calamitous Hollow was going to come back, or they were going to start fighting each other.
He wanted to talk to his friends, wanted to reassure them, wanted to make a plan.
He just didn't want to make any enemies or get in the way.
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
a-disgruntled-dragon
Offline
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 4:13 pm
Corporal Neryn Location: B9 Action: So very tired, pulling out their stone
Somehow, somehow the damn thing was trapped and beaten. It was still a threat, but slowly shrinking. So was the prison, but maybe there was still a way out. Maybe. Probably.
They gave a tired little smile at Lysvi. "For the most part? We still... have to get out of here."
Neryn pulled the red stone out of subspace and frowned a little. It was glowing, and there was a faint little red line that stretched across the arena to other locations. That was probably a good thing? Maybe.
post 123456789 Location: I7 Action: Supporting Ekstrom, confused on Chariklo's gem, collecting scales, general ???
She might have laughed, in other circumstances. That viciousness that she'd clung to for years, cloaked herself in as a means of repurposing the rage and the hate and the grief and the loneliness... and so, so much guilt. It would have made it easy to laugh now, if she were able to let herself fall back into that cocoon. The world-eater, the great beast, the storm that consumes worlds... it was thrashing like a speared fish. It'd tried to run, she realized belatedly, first assuming the constant black lightning, the attempt to fly back into the clouds, were all some other preparation for some devastating blow. But then the spikes reacted, ignited, and it was trapped.
She'd might have laughed at it, sneered at its pitiful sparks and glare. Not so great now, huh? or some other cheap line.
Now, she just wished this burden had never been placed on this generation, this world. Beggars can't be choosers, as the saying went.
Lightning crashed and crackled, and Solaris hissed as she brought her right arm up to shield her face from debris that erupted when the strike, only to snarl soundlessly when pain and burning shot across her upper arm, along her shoulder and to her back. Breathing heavily, she opened her eyes, wincing as she gingerly lowed her arm. It burned, but she saw no blood or warped flesh through her uniform. Something to deal with later, then. She could try to move Ekstrom--she wasn't really sure she was strong enough to lift her, but maybe one of the knights--
The sick, icy feeling that left in her chest only made the burning along her arm and back feel all the hotter.
They needed to get out. Move the fallen--the bodies? She couldn't tell how many were down. More lightning struck nearby, and she turned quickly while still holding onto Ekstrom, eyes wide as she looked to Chariklo and Xibalba. "You both--" The man began to laugh, couple tattoos, and Solaris gave a dry huff of a laugh. Well. At least they were standing. But the Eternal drew something out of subspace, and Solaris' head tilted somewhat as the gemstone... and floated up? Joined with others. "Where did you get that..?" She followed the trails, barely there mist, but they lead... out?
She opened her mouth to ask for help with Ekstrom, but a sudden sound down at her lap made her jerk, igniting more pain in her arm but that was ignored as she stared down at... breathing, coughing. Living. Shivering..? Solaris was frozen for a moment, unsure what emotion to feel, too many warring and clawing their way through her chest and throat and rim of her eyes and mind and---
Numbly, she moved her arms to help the blonde sit up, keeping one behind her shoulders in case she needed the support. "Calamitous b***h is trapped," she said before she realized it, autopilot motions. "Storm's worse. We need to get out."
It was likely nothing more than a trick of the lighting, as all of it around them was zapping and crashing. For a split second, looking at the Knight's face, trying to check for injuries or or something--why where her eyes so weird?--but a split, tiny moment. Ekstrom almost looked like someone she'd not seen in such a long time. It squeezed her heart in a vice, and she felt the pressure at her eyes increasing. The lighting only made it worse. Brought up memories she'd buried ages ago. She could only swallow thickly, pushing away the welling emotions. Instead, she reached for some of the scattered scales near them, holding one of the larger ones up and waving it slightly at Ekstrom. Even if the motion triggered more pain to zap through her arm and shoulder. "And hey, look! We get souvenirs." Her smile was brighter than it should have been, her voice chipper than it should have been. She shoved down the emotions and the pain and the grief and the guilt. Things to process later. Her eyes still were red-rimmed, but she could ignore that.
She focused instead on scooping up some of the smaller scales, sending them immediately into subspace along with the larger one. Not that she had any idea on what to do with them, but it was something to occupy herself with.
Solaris forced her breathing to calm, forced her mind to resettle and focus, and after shoving what she could into storage, she carefully moved to get up, glancing about for Dagon, Urania, d'If, Mystras... really, everyone who'd been in the area. "How's everyone doing?" The bracelet she wore felt... urgent, though she couldn't understand why. Carefully, she offered a hand to Ekstrom in case she needed the help getting up. "So uh. Anyone know what those lights are?"
The fighting and awakening was taking a lot out of him. But as all their gazes went to the Serpent, awaiting another wave of pain to pass through them, it was with awe as the creature was pulled down and gripped into the net of light. Fixed in it's spot, it was angry but still. Scales dotted the ground like shards of seashells all around and it seemed, at this moment, everyone was calming down.
The fight - was over.
But with that came the answer of what to do now. People moved all around, moving to find friends lost in the battle or information from others on what the plan now was. Arthur just decided to watch for what would happen, leaving down to pick up a few shells and pocketing them. With that, he wrapped a arm around Pherkad's shoulder to help them stay steady. "I think we are good sticking here with everyone else until they tell us how we return home. Okay?"
((will fill in specifics a bit later tonight I am so sorry, nothing significant in this one!))
General Arsenopyrite: Alive but hurt, putting the bracelet on and wondering what exactly it does.
Youma Ram: Also putting on the bracelet but doesn't like it.
Drombeg: Puttiing on the bracelet, hoping that they can still get out of this okay, alive, and with Earth in tact.
Caliban, Eternal Senshi of Sealing Location: E9 Action: The beast couldn't be attacked anymore but Caliban was still shaking from the entire experience, especially after seeing Earth "destroyed". He still wasn't sure if it was, but his brain was now finally catching up to the situation and he couldn't help but shake. It was too much like his Homeworld. Only they had possibly failed here. He looked over at Gorner and grabbed her hand, squeezing it a little. They had to do something, anything. They couldn't be stuck here, could they?
It was then that he felt a tug, a need to put on the bracelet that had come in the bag that they had all received. Skillfully opening it up with one hand and slipping it on his wrist, he wondered what exactly it was going to do.
In truth, Elsa refused to believe that this was the end. He refused to accept it. Refused to believe that Earth was doomed, that he was trapped here forever, that he’d been ripped away after finally getting everything he wanted.
“Let me go back,” he snarled at the dark, looming abyss in front of him. “You can’t keep me here!”
Rage. Rage, against the dying of the light.
And lo.
There was a light to rage towards.
Elsa gasped, sharply, and launched himself towards it, with as much force as he could manage. And it hurt. To be ripped apart and then pulled back together, to be remade by whatever magic he was grasping to—it didn’t matter how much it hurt. What mattered was that he had to get back. That he couldn’t leave his new life behind.
He was just starting to get used to being Elior. Just resolving to do what he’d promised he would, when he spoke to that mirror version of his previous self. And he would not fail.
Her, Murikabushi, or himself.
When he came to, he was on his hands and knees, and everything was dark ad blurry, and he could feel something under his hands—scales, maybe--and with half a thought he tucked some into his subspace as he sat back on his heels.
“Muri?” He could see blurry shapes, and one looked like those gorgeous skirts. “I can’t see very well right now, so I might need a little help getting out of here.”
Location: A4. Action:the battle’s lost but tell me, who has won? emotions and finding something.
The last bolt of black lightning that had come for Ilmari…… It felt so powerful. Pain had wracked his body. Electricity, but it had felt like fire. Searing through him with endless amounts of force, trying to rend him apart as so many others on the battlefield had been. By all rights, it should have taken him out.
Yet, Ilmari remained standing.
He wavered on his feet, but he didn’t fall from them.
Looking around at the team, he crossed one arm over his chest and dug its fingertips into the other arm’s bicep. Haymitch had fallen, dropping out of Albite’s hair and dissipating before he hit the ground. Tama had followed him, reverting from a proud Mauvian senshi into a cat before he dropped. Tincalconite had gotten a healing berry but had yet to rouse. And Faustite himself, more of a wreck than entirely made sense at the moment. Even though the steps of how he’d gotten that way clicked together, something in his mind refused to let any of this make sense, as if he could will the devastation to stop being real by denying its right to exist.……
Ilmari shivered as he looked everyone over, but at least had the decency to be quiet about it. He’d been loud enough for ten lifetimes before the battle had started. And he’d failed. Hestia had told him to fight for the team, and he had, but what did it matter if he’d allowed any of them to fall like this anyway? What did anything matter if Ilmari talked so big and didn’t live up to it?
Only two things kept him from slipping too far into those thoughts. First, the pain. Gripping his arm so tight, grounding himself in the moment as best he could.
Second, one of the monster’s rifts had opened above his head. It crackled, drawing Ilmari’s attention, and he looked up just in time to see a box come falling out. Thinking fast, he caught it.…… So much damage to the exterior, but the wood must have been quite fine at one point. A broken latch of tarnished silver had once kept the box closed up, but now, it yielded to Ilmari’s fingers and let him open it up.
Furrowing his brow, Ilmari frowned down at a silver chain necklace and a crystal pendant. It looked like a cherry blossom, or at least he thought it did.…… Huh.
Time stretched endlessly, in this space between spaces. Even farther removed from the reality of the world, here in this dark space with the Dark Star. The calamity he only wished he could be.
But he’d failed, hadn’t he. Struggled this long to stay alive, and ******** died anyway, because he was weak.
Greyna had always been right. He wasn’t suited to the role of Sailor Pyrrhus. Too soft. Too fragile. Too weak. And he had proven that, hadn’t he?
He’d destroyed everything he loved.
But—Troilus was waiting. He hadn’t disappeared, when Pyrrhus had—and Pyrrhus couldn’t just…leave him alone. Especially not if Thalassa was really gone.
So when he saw a light in the distance, even if part of him felt as if he ought to just stay, as if he ought to just give up—he followed it. Let it pull him back.
The feeling of knitting back together was almost as painful as the feeling of coming apart.
He came back to himself, alone, and lightning cracked down, striking him on the hip.
Winding down his leg was a strange serpent-mark.
A toll paid for his weakness, he supposed.
And he was left, alone, half-blind and afraid, but he forced himself to stand. Sheer stubbornness had gotten him this far. It could get him just a little bit farther.
General-King Faustite Location: A4 > E5 Action: Attempting to murder Cybele and getting insta-gibbed by black lightning
Faustite snapped awake, immediately astonished to have found himself on the ground and out of plain reach of their adversary. Despite the familiar groans of overamped muscles, Faustite gathered and pushed himself upright, lurching just so with the sudden swim of his vision, and then the world — or what could be called a world — righted itself again. Their target clamored at the air and mangled the sky in wretched, showy bolts before it was at least seated within its new prison. A prison that, to his deep chagrin, would not drain off all that infinite energy and repurpose it for Metallia.
It was still a win, of sorts. Their enemy was contained, baleful and ravening though it was. Enemies and allies alike had fallen. Likely some of his own team, too, though he chose to believe that the ones he couldn't immediately spot had relocated while he was unconscious. Slowly, carefully, Faustite struggled to his feet.
Albite, Heliodor, Fafnir — good. As he waited for the fog to clear from his head, his attention rotated between the three of them while they exchanged pleasantries.
He supposed, then, that they were all at that point of no return. The warning that Almadel gave hadn't faded from his mind. Now they were all stuck with each other, beyond the possibility of reclamation. Perhaps they were even beyond the reach of the rebirth cycle. Lightning still struck the field with deadly virulence, tears into other realities shrank, and the cold notion that they were abandoned to this otherworldly space threatened to counter even his bracelet's beg for attention.
Not yet, he decided. Even if by some rare grace, Almadel secured them passage home. There, across the battlefield, was Cybele, all cuddled up with her wretched gaggle of knights. Coddled like the delicate, broken thing she was fast becoming. If this threadbare dimension was to be their tomb, then he deserved a little satisfaction before slowly starving to death, didn't he?
Faustite summoned his shotel to his grip once more. He raised it high as he often had to command attention, though with a subtle cant that belied an executioner's strike. He vanished, then, his thoughts placing him beside one of the many winged women that taunted him with their continued survival. His expression unmoved, he had just begun to bring down his weapon upon his target. And just as his wrist tilted, a heavy black bolt struck him true, and the weapon fell to the ground in a useless clatter of volcanic glass.
In his last fragment of consciousness, he beheld an incomprehensible darkness, wreathed in crystal, as if dressed in the universe's capacity of starseeds melded into one. He hadn't time to process such a sight before that, too, was gone.
