this chaos, this calamity
Characters: The Queen of Hearts (rosestolilies) and any PCs who come after her.
Date: Starting Thursday, March 24th and continuing until Tuesday, March 29th.
Summary: The Queen is trapped in the Labyrinth, along with her promises of home. What's to be done but go and find her?
Warnings: Creepiness tailored to the characters.
( this garden once was perfect )
Date: Starting Thursday, March 24th and continuing until Tuesday, March 29th.
Summary: The Queen is trapped in the Labyrinth, along with her promises of home. What's to be done but go and find her?
Warnings: Creepiness tailored to the characters.
( this garden once was perfect )
And then, several things happen at once.
If the group is sensitive to that kind of thing, they could feel a surge of energy sweeping through the cavern. Would they try to run? That's fine, but for some reason, only Batgirl can move. The four l'Cie, who seem to have been pulled apart thanks to the shifting ground beneath them, are frozen to their spots by some kind of invisible force.
And that's when the pain starts.
It's different for each one of the four: for Lightning, the stabbing pain is centered on her chest. For Hope, it's on her wrist. For Vanille, it's high on her left thigh, and For Fang, the pain is burning brightly - quite literally - on her right arm.
They know what this means. It's the thing they've been trying to avoid, the thing that's been haunting several of them since they began this journey.
Batgirl, who can only watch helplessly, might notice something strange; light, shining from each of the points the pain is centered on. While she can't see what exactly is causing it on Vanille, Hope, and Lightning, one look at Fang's arm is all it takes.
A strange tattoo, comprised of many twisting arrow patterns, with a bright red eye staring back at her.]
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--the sudden pain is startling, and the spear falls with a heavy, metallic clatter, echoing throughout the cavern. She stumbles forward, clutches at her arm. Her brand...it burns, white-hot. She can feel heat radiating from it, seeping through her fingers. But why? It's frozen, all of theirs are frozen, twisted. Ruined. The same as hers had been when she woke up in the Pulse Vestige. This shouldn't be happening, not here. Not to her, and not to the others. She remembers, distantly, Lightning's warning about the Queen, that she reminded her of a fal'Cie, but there is no time to regret not listening now.
She jerks her head in Batgirl's direction, and yells, sharp and hoarse:]
Get out of here! Find somewhere safe!
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Hope knew she had been to naive to think that they would have nothing to worry about here, she knew it but she let herself believe it. Why wouldn't she? Her brand here was nothing more than a burned and ruined reminder of the borrowed time they were living on back home. So why was this happening?
Somewhere in the distance, she's sure she can hear Fang's voice but it's hard to tell when it's becoming clear the pain is all she can focus on; the pain and the red eye centered in the mass of arrows once again staring back at her. )
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The force that rushes in is nothing like Vanille has ever felt, and she barely has time to pull the bind rod from its place at her back before she loses her hold on Fang's clothes, feels herself yanked away, held in place and unable to move.
Then agony flares from the brand on her leg, and Vanille doesn't have to look to know the white there has burned itself black and red again. And though she presses her palm against it, as if she can push the bright light of pain back in, as if she can will the eye closed, she knows it's no use. The open eye is the end.
There is no time, Vanille thinks, and it is strange to her that she would want more now, after her nineteen and five-hundred years, when all she wanted in the days after waking was to fall again into crystal sleep, to avoid the Focus that loomed before her as cruel and terrible as ever.
But she had dared hope as they had arrived here, brands frozen, that they could forget about Cocoon and Pulse, that they could stay, and make a home in the Gardens when they could not in either world they might have called home before. Now that hope is shattered; they have been tricked by fate once more.
And it is her own fault, that these people who have come to mean so very much, have been dragged down with her. )
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Not all at the same time, though. While the rest of the group can only watch in horror, Vanille slowly begins to change. It doesn't happen in an instant, or relatively quick at all; it's agonizingly slow, as if the fal'Cie that cursed them was mocking them. They were able to run from their inevitable fate for this long, so now it's time to sit back and enjoy the show!
The first thing that begins to change is her arm. It stretches, elongating to a length well past the norm, and the skin dulls to a pale, sickly gray. Her fingers, too, are growing, changing into horrible red claws.
And during all this, a voice much like her own warped into a low growl, mutters in her head.]
She promised she'd always protect us. She promised this wouldn't happen! But she lied! I hate her! I HATE HER I HATE HER I HATE HER!!!
[That last bit, while still in Vanille's mind, can also be heard echoing through the Labyrinth's hall.]
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When Vanille begins to change, her head snaps up, her eyes go wide and bright with terror. She tries to move--she has to. She cannot bear witness to this. Anything but this. She'd tried so hard to prevent it, had nearly destroyed Cocoon simply to spare Vanille and would've done so again. She can't let this happen...]
Vanille-- [The word is choked out, weak and breathless. Her throat is tight with pain, with desperate, panicked grief.] Vanille, no! [She strains to break free of the magic binding them. She has to break free. She has to break free. She'll claw forward on her hands and knees if she has to, but she needs to get to Vanille, to the others. If anything, the voice that rings out through the cavern makes her more determined--she struggles against the magic as hard as she can.
She's talking now, without realizing it, speaking in a frenzied, strangled whisper:] I'd never, I'd never--no, Vanille, please--hang on, hang on!
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She can't even bring herself to look at the others, to see the people she saw as family in pain. She drew her strength from each of them, but now she is left unable to anything but wonder if her vision is beginning to haze from the pain or the tears welling up in her eyes.
It's Fang's voice that finally draws her focus up from the floor and to Vanille. her breath leaving her with a shallow gasp at the sight. No, no, no, no-. Not this. Not after how hard they had fought, all the tears and blood that had been shed, and the promises they had made. It just couldn't end like this. Not here, not now.
She's struggling in her bonds, fighting to move even an inch, but her desperation and agony do nothing to free her from the magic holding her in place.
It's just like before.
Again she can't do anything, just like she unable to do anything for her mother. She's given no choice but to watch as the one person in the immediate aftermath of that event to show her kindness, to help her, to push her forward be swallowed up by the curse that had been hovering over them all this time. )
N-no, Vanille... no! This can't... you can't...
( Her voice is shaking, as she struggles harder against the force. She can't accept it, any of it... but especially these thoughts of losing any of them to this. Even when the voice rings out around them, she struggles even more to move. )
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