the final week

[airlockedmods]

[Eight weeks. Eight weeks of friendship and love, death and loss, hope and despair all muddled together in a cocktail that's too sweet on the tongue and leaves an acid-y pit in the stomach. With nine of them left (ten counting their dear but lone surviving host), things look darker than ever. Come Sunday morning the last of the Champions missing memories will be returned to them while they sleep. For some of them this will reveal answers, for others it might just be a fate worse than death. They could even be death.

But how does the song go? "It's always darkest before the dawn"?

There are no announcements from PAL this week. Not even morning and evening announcements.

Sunday Monday Tuesday



[ooc: Welcome to endgame, everyone! We're all very proud of you for making it all the way to the end. As you can see this is going to be a short IC week but we promise things will not be going down until this weekend (7/7-7/9). On Tuesday we'll be unveiling the OOC post for what to expect during the final investigation. There is no official AC this week, just a check-in and as mentioned above characters will be at their true canon points on Sunday morning.

Buckle up, kids, the ride's not over yet.]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

[Sunday came and went in much the same way as a Thundaga. Sudden, bright, and with a lot of ensuing chaos.]

[But all things considered, when Monday rolled around Ardyn seemed in reasonably good spirits; the occasional blank looks and general distant stares seemed mostly under control as he went to the kitchen early in the morning. It occasionally registered as strange that he had to actually eat and sleep again--memories of living so long otherwise tended to make one forget--but heaven forbid he fail to take advantage of the others' cooking.]

[For most of the afternoon, Ardyn was in the dance studio. The glass vase with its flowers was set outside the door (it seemed a waste to risk damaging it) and his black coat was left draped over the bar with Luscinia perched beside it.]

[Ardyn himself would be standing at one end of the hall, taking careful aim at an invisible target...and then throwing an ordinary pen like it was a knife or a dart. Normal enough, until the next fraction of a second when he disappeared in an outline and trail of bright red light, reappearing only a few feet away and catching the pen out of midair.]

[He'd glance back at where he'd come from every time, as though evaluating the vanishing trail left behind. Ardyn went back and forth that same way four or five throws at a time, and whenever he stopped he was out of breath but confident in whatever results he was looking for.]

Dance Studio

[goteachother]

[Queenie had come up here to collect a bottle of lavender oil from the spa. Tani had said it was his favorite and now it seemed appropriate to use it as perfume. But the flowers in the hall made her curious and then...

She smiles, watches the first couple passes he makes. Then the next time he caught the pen, before he moved to throw it once more there was a soft crack from the hallway and following not a moment later a sharper crack! directly behind him, echoing slightly in the open space and Queenie was directly behind him, plucking the pen from his hand.]

[scourgingstars]

[He was starting to run out of energy--damned power limiting, this used to be much easier--so maybe just one or two more and-]

[...the question of 'what was that noise' had only barely registered before he realized his makeshift weapon was missing, and he turned to face Queenie in slight confusion.]

My dear, I am liable to need that back. Where did you come from?

[goteachother]

I'm sure you will, honey.

[A smile, offering the pen back with one hand, the other skimming down his arm, casual touches, overflowing affection at all times.]

I told ya, I can do somethin like that too with my wand and well- [Oh lookie, wand~]

[scourgingstars]

[He took the pen back with a light smirk, twirling it in one hand before returning it to an inside pocket of his vest.]

Is that what that sound was?

[goteachother]

Mmmhmm... sure was.

Not the easiest thing ta hide but most no-maj's in the city don' think nothin of it.

[scourgingstars]

It sounded easy enough to pass off as an engine backfiring, so I can't imagine it would draw much attention in a larger city.

dance studio

[serrata]

[ Yuuri isn't going to be able to escape weddings this week. At least this one isn't hers but she still feels a little awkward about the whole thing. But lord above, her little sister is getting married today apparently and she's going to make damn well sure she looks the part of the beautiful blushing bride.

She's actually on her way to the spa when she spots the flowers sitting outside the dance studio and pauses, giving them a little frown. Those had never been moved outside, had they? So she peeks inside to see what manner of fuckery is going on today. She's half expecting to see Church lube-skating again so when she sees Ardyn it's a bit of a-- WHOA, OKAY, THERE HE GOES. ]

Wh-- so that's warp-striking?

[ YOU DIDN'T TELL HER IT LOOKED AS COOL AS IT SOUNDED ]

[scourgingstars]

Less 'striking' and more just warping. But the difference is a matter of semantics.

[He tossed the pen to himself with a worn out but confident smirk, flipping it in the air and catching it again.]

Junpei didn't show you while he could? What a wasted opportunity.

[serrata]

[ Now she's sure she's not going to be bowled over by a stray ex-antichrist, Yuuri walks in properly, her eyes bright with interest. ]

No, no, he just told me -- he said you'd been showing him but he never really got the chance to demonstrate.

[ Junpei had demons in him. Yuuri was a toku monster. It was a rough week. ]

It's a very flashy way of getting around. Did it look the same when he was doing it, though? With all the lights.

[scourgingstars]

It did--it's all residual magic energy. If one should be fighting a particularly unintelligent monster, the afterimage comes in quite useful as a diversion.

[serrata]

[ She's nodding along. ]

I see... it's a little bit like what we'd do back home. If we had to get to somewhere and there were zombies between us and the place we wanted to get to, the best way of luring them away was always with something bright and noisy. Usually glowsticks, if we had them. It nearly always worked.

[scourgingstars]

That does make sense. Bright light and motion are usually the best way to present a target.

[zombies, daemons, same shit]

...Would you like to try it? I should be able to manage once more before I'll need to stop for a short while.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church is much more out and about today, at least compared to the chaos of yesterday (and the chaos of the day before that). His head is clearer--not clear, but clearer, and he doesn't look like he's ready to murder.

So naturally his piss-poor sense of timing has to come back in full swing. There is a moment when he knows someone is in the dance hall and moves through the door to greet them, a moment when Ardyn has already let go of the pen that, should it complete its trajectory, would whiz past his ear, and a moment when what was Ardyn becomes an afterimage of magenta and then Ardyn reconstitutes right into him.

Congrats on a successful warp strike?]

[scourgingstars]

[DAMAGE x1.5]

[Or it would have been, were that an actual weapon and not a damn pen.]

[Ardyn himself snapped back into existence in the manner he'd least expected, colliding directly with Church and sending them both crashing to the floor in a tangled mess. Once he was over the brief moment of being stunned and set aside the combat instinct that briefly showed itself, Ardyn spoke up in confusion:]

Where did you come from-?! [Ardyn propped himself up on one hand, all concern and a little annoyance with a magenta aura leaving him like the rising embers of an extinguished fire.]

I'm sorry--are you hurt?

[This could not get more shojo anime.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[It's very nearly a KO, but thankfully it's more like a tackle than...y'know, a shanking. He wouldn't be happy with a shanking. He coughs and catches his breath, just a moment dizzy, but hey, there's glowy Ardyn again, fucking sparkle and all. So. Not all bad?]

Through the door, jackass, where do you think? Was wondering who was in here. 'm fine, just dazed. You could be a hell of a quarterback like that.

[scourgingstars]

In less than a second? Your timing is astounding, Church. I might ask if you hit your head, but I'm sure it's dense enough to break the floor if you did.

[And I mean. Can't let him get up until he's sure Church doesn't have a concussion, right?]

[motherfucking_ghost]

That's what she said. [mumblegrumble] Maybe you need to warn someone before you start throwing shit around, huh? Then you won't have to worry about my pretty little head. I much prefer it when you've got an arm around me instead.

[scourgingstars]

Perhaps you need to watch where you're going instead of walking around carelessly.

Dance Studio

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Oh my what is this poofing lightshow nonsense. Junpei pokes his head into the studio.]

Oooh, so that still works. Good to know, good to know.

[Someone may or may not be sustaining himself these days with vivid imaginings of how to systematically raze this place to earth. Or, well, not-earth. Considering.]

Just you, or can you do the thing like you could with your army? Asking for a friend. The friend is me.

[scourgingstars]

I think it's just me. I can barely manage more than a few feet at a time, right now.

Of course, you'll be the first to know if that should change.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yesss. That was fun, I can't believe Scourge-Junpei could barely appreciate it. Well, I can, because obviously; but also, I'm so ready to do that again with one hundred percent emotional capacity.

[FISTPUMP.]

What's even up with that, though? Queenie's got her wand, you can do that... are all of us getting our powers back?

[scourgingstars]

I don't think so. Truthfully, I hadn't tried warping until recently.

[until queenie yELLED AT HIM gosh]

But I still can't manipulate magic or call up the Armiger. The ring's just as useless as ever, too.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Awww. Poor Dad. Rings are useless for most people, you know. They're generally restricted to a symbolic function.

[scourgingstars]

Most people don't throw around immeasurable power, either.