all kids go to heaven — team 6 silver round
…Cold. The first sensation that hits him upon his return to consciousness, flecks of ice, burst forth from the enemy’s terrifying gaze, dancing across chilled skin.
The ice falls away, and there is a beat of wings with it, a lifting sensation.
Blinding light, again, floods Andrei’s vision as he opens his eyes with a gasp, his name in a ragged whisper the first thing he registers. (Survive.) Then the light relinquishes his sight back to him, and Julia’s fallen form appears, on the ground below.
An inferno, that she’d survived. The sensation of raising the Ruyi in his hand. Falling. Falling.
“…W-what happened,” he whispers, quiet and vulnerable, as he looks over at the others, Lloyd airborne beside him and Nyna just feet away. Weapon strapped to his back momentarily forgotten, Andrei’s shaking hands clutch, still, at Edain’s instrument from before, its weight real, solid. Grounding.
It wasn’t real. Before. This is a dream. But this… His gaze bores into his allies. The axe in Lloyd’s hand, the bow in Nyna’s. (I’d have wanted a bow, a petulant thought manages to break halfway through the haze in his mind.)
Gaze shifts down to Ophelia’s unseeing gaze, to the shroud of fog that appears to separate them from the rest of the world.
(He can be useful. He will be useful.)
Andrei tugs on his pegasus’ reins, descending to a stop beside Ophelia. For the third (no, first. first.) time, Andrei raises the Ruyi, willing the dim shroud to lift and redirect.
andrei recovers 2hp from bond and amaterasu
andrei hp: 7/10
andrei uses ruyi!
ophelia is no longer isolated
mimic is now isolated
The feeling of using the Ruyi is much different from what he’d imagined (and that imagination had been brought into reality, he remembers numbly), more a light tugging sensation than anything more substantial, but it draws the mist from around his target, sending the affliction in the direction of their enemy. It doesn’t appear much affected, but Andrei’s eyes search out Ophelia’s, searching for any sign of recognition.
“Can… can you hear me?” he asks, voice still weakened in the wake of his recent revival, “We keep falling to the enemy… but it cannot keep us down. We will overcome this.” This dream will end eventually, as it always does.
They’d all be safe. The Ruyi in his hands seems to promise such a hope as well.
OPHELIA RISES TO THE UNSTEADY HEARTBEAT in their chest. their robes— whiter, lined in gold, longer, heavier— are coated in a thin layer of dirt, thus pushing instinct for the heroine to sniffle and cover their cough. there’s a ringing in their ears that attempts to soften the sounds of the arena around them. he catches his breath and forces it into a rhythm that relaxes his tension, clearing the noise of thrumming above all else. gray eyes look upwards from the ground—
heroine’s gaze fixates upon the wide, glossy eyes of a beast. panic seals them frozen, unable to utter a syllable as the mimic tilts its head, contorts its gaze, but does not move from where it looms above them. julia’s voice echoes in its reaches, pulling ophelia from his trance and startling the beast too. before they can move, it moves for them.
mimic has copied ophelia’s inventory and weapon, luce!
mist solidifies into ghastly reflections. a gray eye, a gloved hand, deft fingers— too large, too long—; ophelia cannot bring themselves to look away. it is my own self, they think. they recognize. all features spread apart across a canvas with too many angles, too many edges. it doesn’t fit and does not seem like it should.
ophelia blinks and it is away, having retreated back from its position before them, but not far. julia speaks and they struggle to form the right words. “ no... i do not think so... ” a stutter of their breath. “ surely, that... that can’t be me. ”
mimic! roll d20 = 20! ‘many-eyed gaze’ isolates, voids, and freezes ophelia.
there’s a flash of light that spills from the mimic’s eyes— its eyes, not ophelia’s. julia shouts toward them, a wish of protection but ophelia cannot uproot themselves from their place when her friend moves away.
they’re cold... there’s footsteps. someone is speaking. ophelia cannot move ( but they want to, they so badly want to; their body is no longer theirs for this moment ). over their hip, luce trembles and pulses as if magic is being drawn from its pages. but that would be impossible... not when ophelia can’t feel their hands beckoning a spell or wish or—
ophelia recovers +2hp from bond and amaterasu. ( ophelia hp = 7 / 10 )
andrei! uses ryuji. ophelia is no longer isolated, mimic is now isolated.
they inhale a breath that clears their vision of darkness. the arena blooms before them now, everything a stark contrast of color. andrei calls to them and, bleakly, they move their stare to his. “ andrei... a-andrei? ” they whisper his name and nod, unsure of what it is they’re nodding to until andrei promises their ability to overcome the dream. then, they snap back to themselves. their eyes wild and searching, finally registering their surroundings in a full circle. “ alright, i’ll... thank you. dusk will do her best to push us forward. ”
ophelia! rolls d2 = 1! ‘invoke’ summons perfectly, soldiers appear.
alert stance+ activates and grants ophelia +6 avoid through enemy phase!
soldiers! roll d20 = 5! ‘silver lance’ barely hits, 1.5 damage. ( mimic hp = 35.5 / 40 )
the gold lining of their robes glimmer beneath the raise of their hand. they wield a magic far different from that of what they know, but there is no denying that it is magic all the same. so, ophelia pulls from their mind a channel and gasps at the brightening of their palms. an image appears, then multiples, before a division of soldiers formed by light stand before the heroine. they rush forward in a glide of footsteps, steel singing through air as it cuts into flesh.
it is only then that the light simmers enough for ophelia to see her. to see julia. “ j-julia, ” they move towards her, certain that their division of soldiers will distract the mimic enough to grant them a moment of grief. they kneel, their robes brush against julia’s, and the remnants of luce spill from her wounds. it is a truth they cannot deny. it is a truth that killed their friend.
@alunyna & @fangedjustice !!
