"troubled times, caught between confusions and pain"
Who: Tronzler Rinzler and you.
What: Glitchy sometimes-blue program going around being crazy and/or helpful.
Where: All over.
When: "Friendly Reminder" days 2 onwards. 2-3 preferred unless plotted otherwise. Specify in your tag?
Warnings: Rinzler. (...mindrape, mental/physical trauma, violence, blood (not his), general CRAZY.)
( 'distant eyes, promises were made in vain' )
What: Glitchy sometimes-blue program going around being crazy and/or helpful.
Where: All over.
When: "Friendly Reminder" days 2 onwards. 2-3 preferred unless plotted otherwise. Specify in your tag?
Warnings: Rinzler. (...mindrape, mental/physical trauma, violence, blood (not his), general CRAZY.)
( 'distant eyes, promises were made in vain' )
At the moment, Rinzler wasn't giving Aqua any mind. Unfortunately, this had less to do with his overconfidence skill in a fight, and more to do with his current level of alertness. He simply hadn't noticed her yet.
The program ducked under a dropping shape, rolled aside to come up in a crouch, disks scything the air to either side. Most of the nearer shapes fell back, whether from injuries or brief retreat, but a low shape grabbed at his leg, dragged its misshapen form closer. The program stabbed down, severing the limb, but the appendage clung. A hindrance.
Rinzler hated these creatures. More than any of the others. He'd faced massive gridbugs, long coiled attackers, brittle barely-coded limbs that tried to drag him down, rip him apart. In comparison, these were slow. Stupid. Weak.
But they bled.
A gout of red fluid spurted from the severed appendage, what was left of the form lurching forward. He flinched, circuitry flickering (blue/red/dark) before he slashed out again, nearly bisecting the form. Dark liquid spilled across the ground the saggy sack of flesh going limp as the program froze, stared down at the blood soaking his blades and form. He hated this. But he was getting past it. For some reason, that bothered him more than anything.
The helmet raised slowly, the program scanning the threats around. Then. Froze. Past the strange-limbed creatures. Blade in hand, faint glow still lingering around the tip. Threat. User. Her. Rinzler's attention snaps toward the other, barely-coherent functions scrambling with new priority, new readiness. Why now?
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She was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this all brought a sickened look to her face as one by one she trapped the blasted creatures in sheets of ice. Something, anything to get them to stop attacking. Freeze to death... the last word in that trail of thought sickening her even more. Were it not in self-defense, she would be hating herself even more.
Aqua detested this senseless violence, wanted nothing more than for peace to be restored so that she wouldn't have to fight anymore. A grimace, only visible because now half of her mask is gone, is apparent as the blast fades and the ice shatters like glass. These were more pathetic than the Unversed, whose cries of agony she could still hear echoing in the back of her mind as much as she could see them fade away to nothing. Only here was it even more apparent.
These were once human.
She noticed the flickering of the circuitry, and couldn't help but wonder why he was like this now as she floats just barely off the ground. Only then does she realize what's behind him: a snake, poised and ready. "Look out!"
That's the only warning he gets. Be prepared for confusion, Rinzler, for she just launched a pearl of Light above and past your head and into the snake's mouth; it recoils.
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The program tensed as the blue user cast out towards him, already dropping, rolling aside-back-from whatever effect she planned to launch. He hated this user-hated not knowing what her attacks would do. Not being able to-
...what?
The burst of light flew past overhead-well overhead-just as the program collided with something solid behind. Rinzler flipped up from the roll, disks out, turned to... stare. Up. That was a large threat.
The attack hit, and the creature fell back, coils twisting, shifting. One length slammed against the still-staring program, knocking him back, down. Rinzler snapped back to focus, combat, disks stabbing out at the flailing length as it pressed above, on top of him. But the thing was armored. And huge. His disks sunk in only partway, the enormous coils twitching in reaction, but hardly disabled.
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That would have been counterproductive, though.
So instead, all she does is jump up into the air even higher, allowing her own magic to propel her even higher before firing off another blast as she aimed for the eyes once more. "Go for the head." -that's the only other bit of advice she'll give for the time being as her feet touch the ground again with arms crossed in front of her. The aura around her changed into a shade of pink before she was suddenly floating on air currents. After all, what better way to strike at a tall creature's head than to be able to float in the air itself for a height advantage?
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Rinzler stabbed upward, disks slicing at the bottom of its jaw, sinking deep to provide a new hold. More effective. Not enough, though. The creature lunged forward in a striking motion to slam the clinging program against a nearby building. He drew inward, turned to reduce impact-visuals caught on...
Was the user flying now?
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Breathing erratic, heart racing, rings around her eyes. It's a miracle she's going strong still as she aims another slash at its nose.
...Flying? This is falling with style~
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The creature's head drove against a low rooftop, slamming down on top of Rinzler as he clung to the underside of its jaw. Calculations ran quick and rough through processing already buzzing with overactivity, malfunction, grinding broken conflict. He twisted aside, drew in, curling to avoid the force. It almost worked.
He tucked to avert the upcoming structure-and felt a crunching wave of pain as one of his anchor points got caught. The program had been holding on through the dug in disks, and said hold caught directly between corner and creature as the rooftop/wall slammed close, ground sideways. There was a sharp pressure, a breaking sound, and he felt his arm go limp, near-bisected just below the shoulder. An orange disk darkened, fell from his loose grasp to the roof/ground/wall below.
Oh, and it hurt, too.
Problem (/error/mistake). Rinzler found a sort of lightheaded clarity of motion, the immediacy of external threat and pain briefly overriding the internal conflicts. He jerked on the hold by his functional left side as the creature pulled back with a sharp hiss-reaction to the user's strike? Rinzler pulled hard, an awkward flip up with only 0.75 of his body functioning as desired. It worked, though, and the program landed unsteadily atop the creature's head. He stabbed down for contact almost immediately. Well, contact and attack. The user had the nose, right? Rinzler's remaining disk found an eye.
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The injury didn't escape her notice, but at the time being she was also trying to avoid being swatted at by the snake's tail. She doesn't really even think about it, only swinging in repeated-fast strikes. What she lacked in strength, she compensated briefly in speed. At least, until it opened its mouth to hiss in pain of being blinded; a big mistake.
Instincts took over. She stuck the overly large key directly into its mouth, allowing frost to coat the blade before suddenly casting Blizzaga right into its throat. The ice coats it, and the beast slows. ...Of course. It's more active when warm like any other reptile, ice and slashing wound be the only logical way to defeat it unless she summoned the flames from hell. For some reason, she does not think that the one she has temporarily teamed up with would appreciate that all too much.
Aqua fires the spell once more before she removes her Keyblade to avoid being bitten, but it doesn't stop her from being struck by everything else. She feels the head slam into her side before it registers with her field of vision-everything fades into black for a brief moment as the sound of shattering armor can be heard. The frost had slowed it down, but it had also made her main source of protection far more brittle.
Gasping in pain, she stayed there, embedded in armor and concrete a brief moment as she was-quite literally-swatted from the sky like all the locusts she fell with her blade. Ouch.
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He'd just moved over to the other optic when the head lurched forward, smashed sideways. The creature seemed unsteady, but it's movements were still huge and sudden; the program quite nearly found himself launched off. He dug his disk into the nearest armored scale, clung on grimly as it jerked forward towards another building. There was a shattering noise (derezz?) before the head slumped sideways, shook slightly, motions sluggish and uneven.
He couldn't see the user.
There was a flicker of unease (panic) before Rinzler refocused. Redirected himself. She was an enemy-it was an enemy, it was a threat. The program stabbed down again, focused accuracy this time to cut through the other eye, drive deep through not-blood fluid into-what was that?
It seemed effective.
The thing twisted-spasmed, but too sluggish, too stiff and slow. Rinzler ducked the whipping tail as it flew past, dropped low and slammed his disk in deeper, twisted. The thing's jaw opened-cracking with the cold-and the head dropped.
A moment's pause, and Rinzler straightened, right hand twitching faintly as diagnostics ran in the back of his processing. Not completely nonfunctional. Good.
...where was the user?
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She was in shock for a brief moment, blinking until her vision returned, until she could see clearly what was going on. A blurred, black and somewhat glowing blob she figured to be Rinzler seemed to hesitate slightly-but why?-before he continued to stab at the head. She heard the crack of ice as well, which meant that her last spell had worked after all. The Master gave a faint smile, then immediately grimaced as she began to sit herself up. It's shaky at best, and now even more of her mask is gone, but her arms support her as she finally gets to her knees at least. Where was her Keyblade-?
Ah, there. Aqua held out her hand for it and it flashed back into her grasp just as the head dropped. Upon resummoning it, all she could manage was holding up the blade and casting Group Curaga. Green petals fell from seemingly nowhere, floating down around the enemies as the same glow surrounded the two of them-breathing became easier, thoughts clearer, and like with every kill, she reached out to see how the others were-
Aqua let out a gasp of both pain and shock, like someone had struck her with her own Thundaga Shot.
"Are you... alright?" Her mental voice seemed to be impaired by a sob. Not again... She could feel another presence so close to her flicker-another Heart so closely tied to her own begin to fade from existence. She sat there, fists grasping either Keyblade or a shard of her own armor that broke off-the white light of a star-shaped pendant hanging around her neck flickering on and off, dimming slightly each time.
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That other user's armor had looked familiar.
For the second time in as many days, Rinzler felt the wholly inexplicable sensation of recompile not directed by his disks. Code flitted back into place, broken connections reattached, inactive circuitry relit as his damaged arm twitched, moved freely. Even his other injuries repaired somewhat-the punctures in his back filling in, the rough damage from the grasping hands shifting back into alignment. He wasn't completely fixed, but it was a vast improvement.
The blue user got all of an instant of utterly frozen stare before the helmet jerked aside, the program leaping back (out of range, out of reach). That was-what. Why would she-why? Her. He dropped into a crouch, newly-functional arm flashing downwards to dig through the rubble for his dropped disk. He gripped, jerked it free, and took another step back, helmet still locked on the user. She was-trying to repair him so she could reinjure. Or trying to balance the terms of the next Game? That made sense (not really). The program's weapons came up, focus tense on the threat as-
...That didn't sound hateful.
Rinzler's disks faltered, dimmed faintly in his grip as his stance shifted. It wasn't the words (users lie). It was the tone. Pain. Loss. (familiar.) His gaze caught on the fragmenting armor-circuitry?-dimming, flickering unsteadily. The program glanced down at his own unsteady glow, back up to the user. He nodded.
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Yet she still had to at least offer that small act of kindness, try and show that not all users were so black and white.
"Good. I'm...glad." No matter how to the contrary it sounded with her current tone. She was hurting, but maybe, just maybe they could set aside their differences at least until this was over. "Keep fighting, okay? I can see you're strong, and even if you more than likely hate me..." -hate every user; she had no idea, so it was all guess work at this point. Her shoulders shook as she got to her feet, and there was a point that she realized she's needed elsewhere.
Aqua glanced at the unsteady glow in his circuitry, visibly worried for his state of being even more now. Maybe it had something to do with what Quorra shared about him, or maybe her heart was just taking the pain of loss and turning it into pity. Either way, she turned her back to him and broke into a sprint. "-See you when this is all over."
If things hadn't changed, she'd accept a rematch. Maybe this time it would include following the law of gravity.
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No.
The program stayed still, watching. She was gone soon enough. And there were other threats. More important.
(She didn't make sense.)
After a moment, Rinzler turned to walk away. 'Keep fighting'. He wasn't sure if this would end.
But he didn't doubt he'd see her again.
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