imeeji_frontstage | (no subject)

[Some people are out here trying to exercise...

well, not really. He's just out walking and moping about]

[He is absolutely not covered in blood and injured, because this is pre other murders]

[Which is to say, he's approaching like things are normal,]

A little late for a walk, isn't it?

[was too distracted to notice him approach]

Huh?

Oh, nah... it's technically morning.

[Making as though to join him]

A little early, then.

Why're you up? Kinda early for lives.

We don't have any lives to do anymore.

Our terms have changed.

[He slips a hand into his sleeve - draws it out again, casually, holding a piece of paper]

Yeah? What do the producers want now?

[well paper never hurt anyone. He really should've looked at the guest teams' power sets, huh]

[Probably, yes]

[He presses it to Gladio's back, casual; the word written on it is "paralyzation"]

A lot more.

[Freezes. Cuz, you know. Paralyzed]

What.

...you wouldn't have been my first choice.

But we have to make our target.

[He reaches to uncork his hyotan bottle; the ice-slush water that flows out of it forms an ice spike that hovers just above his palm]

Fuck's sake, kid.

[well. Guess he'll die]

Give Pep a heads up for the revive, will ya?

Your team?

...fine.

[And just like that, the ice spike drives inward, hard, slipping between ribs to aim for his heart]

[At least it's quick?]

[at least he's used to ice damage. And getting mortally wounded.

He makes a small sound, a breath really, as the spike goes through his chest. He's a little annoyed that his hoodie got ruined but he doesn't worry about it for long because he's dead in a few moments]

[He leaves the body, for now - but true to his word, he comes back to collect it later and drop it on pep's landing]

[Seven Hells, if there'd been any doubt left in her mind about where exactly she'd ended up...

[Once the hotel has stopped doing... whatever it is it's doing, or at least reached enough of a cesura to allow an extremely overinvested teenage girl who still thinks she should at least be trying to save the whole world single-handed to step away for a moment? Alisaie is taking that moment to find anywhere else to be and scream into her hands.

[She's wet. Her skin is singed. She's far tireder than she has any right to be at this hour. She's seen a man blown to pieces in front of her. Someone tried to drown her in a kitchen. A day or so back there was a beach party, and before that they were murdering each other, for points.

[If there was any time it was justifiable to scream and punch whatever's handy, this is probably it.]

Edited (too many moments) 2021-06-06 16:47 (UTC)

[Probably]

[It looks like this kid in a kimono has been having a time, too, by the ginger way he's moving and the claw marks on his face. Whatever the rest of the injuries are, they're hidden by his outfit]

[He pauses, when he sees her, head tipped slightly to one side]

[Which, of course, she notices.

[Half-turns, and is shocked by the sight of him.]

Are you all right?

[It's not easy to tell. The visible injuries are clearly only the half of it, from the way that he's moving, and holds himself. And she's out of the loop, firmly and fatally - doesn't know why the man in the hotel was set on self-immolation, doesn't know anyone well enough she'd have been filled in about YOU-kai, the deal they'd been offered. She can think only that he must have been caught in the explosion, and so she starts forward.]

You're hurt. Here, let me - I can't heal, but maybe I can take a look at it.

I'm fine.

[But he makes no move to step backward - lets her approach]

You don't look fine.

[Yes, Alisaie absolutely will call people out on doing things that she absolutely does herself, all the time.

[She moves closer, reaching out a hand as if to touch him. Thinks better of it. This boy may be on his feet, but he looks like he could drop at any moment. Touching him at all may well do nothing but make matters worse.]

sensitIV... are probably busy, but I'm sure one of them could find the time if we paid.

I'm afraid I don't have time.

Our terms have changed again. There's a lot to do.

[Alisaie shakes her head.]

You won't get anything done in that condition. What did they say? Mayhap we can work something out - all of us.

[They want us set against one another.]

I know things are terrible right now, but - we mustn't forget who our enemies are.

I won't forget.

But that doesn't mean I can afford not to take this deal.

[He reaches out a hand toward her - touches her arm]

[In a blink, they're not standing on the ground anymore. They're standing on the edge of the rooftop of a nearby skyscraper]

[Or rather, he is]

[Her feet are above open air]

What--

[Oh.]

What do you think you're doing?

[Can she move?

[Twelve's sake she's going to try. Objective: any kind of solid ground. And - Alisaie knows how this works; she knows she doesn't really want to hurt a child, still less one who's been offered some new kind of devil's bargain. She knows there's no way she'll be able to do him any real harm--

[She's drawing her Heart Weapon all the same.]

[She can indeed move, though she might not have time to]

[There's nothing holding her up, now that they've arrived here, and gravity is cruelly determined]

[No.

[No, there isn't any time. Optimistic of her

[wasn't it?

[and then

[then there's not
[a lot

[to think on but the ground

[the wind in her ears, and the cruel inevitability of gravity

[and maybe she's screaming, she can't tell, but there's a part of Alisaie that's still thinking clearly--

[--and it's that part that activates Henshin.

[She isn't sure what to expect, but there's a flash of light

[and she only barely has enough time to register a difference before the ground rises up to greet her with a hard, bone-shaking crack.]

[Silence]

[Somewhere far above, a glance downward, to make sure this will count]

[There are words she could be screaming right now. Wants to.

[As it is, she simply grits her teeth and fights to catch her breath, stunned and jarred and unable to believe that actually worked. The armor she barely even realized she had been magicked into cracks and snaps when she tries to make herself move. It should have shattered completely. She should.

[Alisaie doesn't quite know why she hasn't.

[Breath hisses out between her teeth as she struggles to move: there's light again, she's herself again, and the inventory of damage she's trying to write herself is coming up surprisingly non-critical. Aches in her head, her shoulders, her back, one hip; she's winded, she's stunned; moving is no treat, but it's startlingly possible. And she has to move, she has to, because--

[--because--

[Matron's teats that kid just tried to kill her...! and he won't be happy to find out he failed. Cursing under her breath, Alisaie rolls over onto one side (it hurts, it hurts, it can't matter that it does) and tries to push herself back to her feet.

[There's going to be no problem with the Heart Weapon now.]

[Hm]

[Getting back up is no good]

[He steps off the side of the building onto a rippling sheet of ice - rides it downward, toward the ground, so that he won't shatter when he gets there]

[As he reaches her, the blood that's leaked from her henshin begins to freeze, too - flow up and toward him, joining the mass of ice]

[She's not fast enough, of course.

[She's on one knee by the time he gets back, bracing herself with a palm planted firmly before her; she's holding her rapier, but it's in a hand that shakes in spite of everything she's trying to tell herself: don't panic, don't panic, pretend you can switch off the pain. Pretend you didn't see your own armor leaking blood. Pretend that you'd ever be able to just straight-out kill a child, a child...! no matter what he tried to do to you...]

Stay back.

[Her voice sounds steady enough, at least.

[The frightening thing is that she can. She can switch all that off - or at least push it firmly back and away and tell it, later. That if it's him or her she has the will, at least, to try and make sure that it's her.]

Can't you see it? You're playing right into their hands!

If we had more time, we could have fought to undermine them.

[Some of the ice peels up off the platform that supports him, forming glistening shards in the air as it sets him gently on the ground]

We don't, and I won't give up what I came here for.

[He lifts a hand and the ice rises up, as well - catches the sun and glitters, blood red crystal, as it rushes toward her]

You fool--

[There's no time for anything more.]

[She moves, but can't move fast enough.

[Whatever it is Alisaie is missing, whatever it is that keeps her wrong-footed and off-balance, she's never felt it more acutely than she does now. Can't close quick enough. Can't hit hard enough. Something's wrong--

[And then the ice hits her, knocks her backward: even as she feels its teeth burying themselves into her, sharp and sudden and cold, oh so terribly cold. It's buried in her chest, sticks between her rips, it tears straight through her and it's so, so cold.

[She tries to scream. She chokes on it.]

[The momentum drives it through her - all the way, and out the other side]

[When it's clear, he resumes control of the ice, whipping it back around the other way to drive them in again]

[It's quick, though: mercifully so.

[She feels the first impact: the tearing, the cold, the first rush of blood. Not so much the second. By that point, stupid with shock and with pain and the cold, clear knowledge that this is not survivable, everything's already closing down. It's only that, that second strike, that's holding Alisaie up by now. After that she's falling, after that she's spent. She drops sure as a stone.

[Still it hurts, but she feels it only distantly.

[Oh, she's thinking, so this is what it's like.]

[The ice melts faster than it ought to, leaving her in a puddle of water and blood]

[He watches, for a long moment or two, to be sure she's still]

[This time, she doesn't move. There's blood on her lips, her hands, her clothes--

[Alisaie is still. Silent. Extinguished.]

[He turns to go, leaving her where she's fallen - slips away between the buildings, and is gone]

[She's just out here minding her own business when she finds a body with no murderer. For a moment she's dumbstruck, dropping her bag of snacks at her feet.]

... again?!

[Immediately looking around for a culprit, ready to zap should anyone get close. When she doesn't see anyone, she pulls out her phone and tries to reach out to SensitIV.

While she waits, she'll just crouch beside the victim and get a look at that injury.]

I really hope the guests go away soon.

[It's a nasty one. Something has, very thoroughly, ripped clean through chest and torso, leaving a series of jagged, bloody tears. At least it couldn't have hurt for long.

[You're definitely going to need a sensitIV.]

[Well, it probably isn't good to just wait here so she's careful in picking this poor dead girl up off the ground and whatever else needs to be brought back with them and then using Quick as a Wink to zoom them back to the dorms.]

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