melodiesofeternity | Apocalypse || Sen Riqeaux Castle

[ Please use this thread to post any open thread between the Heroes of Light as they ride the airship towards Sen Riqeaux Castle. ]

Edited 2019-03-19 11:50 (UTC)

The airship landed by the highest level of Sen Riqeaux Castle, in an open air area. From there, the noises caused by the fighting going down in the city and in the castle's lower levels could barely be heard. Looking up at the sky, there were turbulence seen nowhere else across Vaikuntha. Lightning even striked down. Perhaps this would really be the site of Bahamut's summoning?

In the distance, one could see a gigantic armada of Airships, all ready to welcome Bahamut with their all. There were well over a hundred of them, by the look of it.

And on the opposite side of the open area, there was the Empress. She hadn't reacted to the airship arriving. Her back was turned to the Heroes of Light as she looked down upon the city in contemplation.

[ For the sake of getting the main event started quickly, we will try replying multiple times a day with the NPCs. Please, keep all of the character's interactions within a single thread. There will be branching paths where the characters can have their own small thread if they have questions to ask or things to do that do not correlate to the main thread. ]

Nozomi was tired. Oh, sure, she had gotten some sleep, but between being slapped around in the Golsauscia and having to escape Nakagawa by the skin of her teeth, any sleep she had was quite fitful.

But, this was it. this was where everything would be determined. She had to fight on and rest when they win or lose.

She just hope it was enough.

This was way too big for her. This was something her loved ones back home would handle. A problem that Tsunami should just swoop in and fix herself. But, that wasn't happening. The world made sure she would do this with what it gave her.

And it scared her. She honestly wanted to just go hide somewhere and let the others handle this.

But, that wouldn't be right, would it?

So, she had taken a seat, hidden in the armor of her Magitek Knight gear.

Plague Knight taps Nozomi on the shoulder.

Should she turn to the rather short stranger, he simply holds up a vial, and says, "Speed Drink? Better than coffee. I was brewing these all night. If we're going to face the end of the world, we're not doing it tired, hee!"

He's not the best at raising morale. But he's trying.

“Mm? Oh, heh, thanks.” Nozomi said. She took the vial and opted to go ahead and drink it. “Sorry, it’s been a terrible few days.”

[Plague Knight pulls a few rather large- just big enough to fit- bags out of his bottomless pockets, once the airship is underway.]

"Speed Drinks, coffee, tea, fresh bread and butter, and cookies baked to scientific perfection. I know you're all probably not in the mood for sweets, but I bet most of you forgot breakfast, so eat, drink, and steel yourselves. I'm not going to try and give some rousing speech, hee! I'm an alchemist, not a public speaker."

[Plague Knight draws a vial from his robe and sticks a bendy straw in it.]

"But make sure you're fighting fit, awake, and ready. If we lose, we're going out with a BANG! Haha!"

"No kidding! I never thought I'd think the Sorceress was a chump, but she definitely never could have managed something this terrible.I don't think I could have managed something this terrible if I wanted to!"

Plague Knight sighs, "But here we are! There's nothing to do but keep your chin up, and laugh in the face of death. Like this! Hee!"

The alchemist twirls his cane, "Perhaps you will find it cathartic. It's certainly the only thing that's kept ME sane. Well. Sane-ish. Haha!"

Nozomi couldn't help but giggle. "We have to do something. We can't just mope and feel bad about ourselves; everyone's counting on us!"

She clutched her fist in determination. "We'll make it through, smiling all the way!"

Normally, Red was sure he'd have a few choice words for the Empress by now- given everything that had, apparently, been coming together right on her doorstep and under her nose- but, perhaps due to the gravity and gloom that surrounded the lot of them, he couldn't manage much more today than a bone-chomping look halfway between anger and determination.

Already fully geared for battle and riding the DAHAK Mk III, Red trudged onto the castle's heights with heavy, metallic footsteps. He wasn't sure whether he should be envious of the approaching air battle or whether he'd want to dedicate his next game to their memory.

"...So what's your plan now?"

"Hee hee! That's the spirit! Everybody's counting on us, and besides. All our stuff is on the world, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have it destroyed! Hee!"

Plague Knight lifts his potion vial with a bendy straw up in a mock toast, and then takes a big drink from it.

"We won't lose. There's bread and butter, and more speed drinks- or coffee or tea- if you want it. Keep your strength up, and... Keep smiling, never forget that we're (however ill-advised) the Heroes of Light! That's got to count for something."

"Perhaps it might be prudent to seek the Summoners in the ensuing mess regardless of how he proceed, considering we may have the bead on where the apex of their ritual lies."

She looked up briefly from the tuning of Vespertine. She was seated awfully comfortably for what may be the end of all worlds.

"They may linger to see the fruit of their handiwork, feel a tad relaxed. Make mistakes."

"If they didn't straight up cut outta town already. But I don't think like bullshit death cultists."

Kanji was pacing. He'd gotten his affairs in order, and he was ready to give it his all. He had to think of it like 'you fight one, you've fought them all', and he'd taken down gods before. He just had to keep from relaxing, getting too cocky. But he had to be firm in putting a boot in some dragon ass.

"Anyway, I ain't much of a speech guy, but let's prove a hell of a lotta naysayers wrong today, yeah?"

"I'M WITH KANJI!!! WE MUSTN'T LOSE FAITH, EVEN IN THIS DARKEST HOUR! WE MUST BAND TOGETHER, FRIENDS, COMRADES, WARRIORS SEEKING A GREATER TOMORROW!"

Papyrus punctuates this with a dramatic point. For now, he's opting to wear his Cool Scientist asterisk, but with Chemist and Magitek Knight fully maxed, that gives him a lovely level of diversity, should the need arise.

For the time being, he's hovering close to Madhuri. Here, he'll even set a supportive hand on her shoulder.

Frisk, meanwhile, is squeezing Papyrus's hand as hard as they can. They wish they had his confidence. They really, really do. But a tiny part of them, a part that was too loud for Frisk's liking, was saying that they couldn't do this. That they were all going to die.

It had really sunk in when Kuja and Snow had shown up on their door, uncharacteristically bedraggled and despite whatever they asserted, terrified. The two's entire home had been destroyed before the fight had even begun.

But, well. Fake it 'til you make it, right? Maybe, just maybe, if they acted confident enough, they'd be able to get through this. It had always worked before, anyways. Putting on a smile, they say, "Does this dragon loser compare to Great King Moggle Mog? I think not, and we kicked that guy's butt! We can take whatever Bahamut throws at us."

Standing near Kanji, already in her Summoner garb, Naoto had to do the same as the Empress for a moment. Not much considerably had happened in Ka'Pandol, but she had seen it before, helping to pilot airships and ferry survivors away as the situation got worse. While she didn't like their odds... if they did stop Bahamut and the Calamity right now, those cultist would be embarrassed - also, she'd make sure they serve time and plenty of it, Leviathan help her.

Raising her head, she focused on the sky again. What really was punching one more god in the face at this point? He could have the decency of not wasting anymore time. Some people didn't exactly erase their schedule to permit the apocalypse.

Tyzias has nothing to add. No pithy comments, no snarky one-liners, not even a bit of gallows humor. She's too tired for that. And not in the normal sense--Tyzias made sure to be well-rested before the big day. No.

She was tired of the death and destruction. She was tired of all the suffering, all the hopelessness. She was tired of the sheer injustice of it all. Tyzias was tired of watching the world fall apart. If nothing more, all the victims of the panic were owed the peace of destroying its source before it could wreak more ruin.

Tyzias joins Naoto in looking over the balcony. Her knuckles are white. "We're ending this today," she says, voice quiet but filled with an incalculable determination and rage. Notably, for the first time since she's arrived, she isn't slurring.

Vimes was smoking. Quite a lot, actually- the deck around where he was sitting was littered with ash and spent cigar butts, and his eyes were fixed on the red lights in the sky, unfocused. It was clear to any observer that he was worried, and yet, oddly... the Captain was singing. Softly, off-key, under his breath, but singing, even so.

"All the little angels rise up, rise up.
All the little angels rise up high..."

[This Frisk, on the other hand, might be acting just the opposite of their double. They're hovering on the other side of the room— several inches off the floor, actually— keeping their eyes on everyone and saying nothing. There's no calming words or verbal assurances, only a blank look as they consider all the people gathered here.]

[Well, perhaps not totally blank. There's a fire in their eyes, and it's with that same fire that they casually pull out their iMog and tap out a message which they play using text-to-speech.]

We're going to win.

[They haven't said a single word out loud all day, but somehow the bland computerized voice manages to convey the absolute certainty that they feel. It's not just another assurance for their fellow Heroes. They don't care how they feel. It's just a statement of fact.]

It's the end of the world, and for some reason, Richard Conway has brought his saxophone. He wasn't any good with it, of course. But every now and again he'll play a chain of notes, abortively cutting it off before picking back up every time he screws up.

When Vimes sings, he tries to play along.

The Empress remained silent the entire time, only silently nodding in reply to Tyzias's words.

"You are correct. We are ending this today." A pause. "Today is the conclusion of a story that began before the very birth of this world."

Finally, she turned around to face everyone. Those who had approached the balcony would be able to see there was something different about her. To be specific, her eyes weren't the same color they had been when they had met her before.

"My dear, my dearest Heroes of Light... How long have I waited for this moment?"

Purple eyes looked at every present Heroes, before focusing on Red.

"I am afraid I have no plans, dear Red. Well, no plan you would approve of to be certain." A smile. "Worry not, we have yet a few more minutes before Bahamut's arrival. Pray, entertain me. What are your plans to stop Bahamut?"

He'd spent frankly exorbitant sums of money on Ethers. Kuja reflects, privately, that he probably isn't prepared for this. He'd fought Bahamut, yes, but he'd been nearly-invulnerable then. Opalescence, at least, was present for this fight as well. Somehow it felt poetic that she'd be with him here, again, to fight Bahamut.

He hadn't actually worn his old robes in quite some time. He wore them now, pristine white, makeup immaculate, hair just so. He'd spent more time preparing his outfit this morning than anything else; somehow it just didn't seem right to show up to the end of the world looking sloppy. "The heroes assemble at the end of the world, ready to fight off an insurmountable threat. My, my, doesn't this look familiar... Seeing it from the other side, however, that's new."

Of course, that all changes when 'Her Majesty' changes tone. Aha. Time to [Focus]. "And to think I thought you could not be so stupid as to attempt a betrayal. Goodness, Rama, I thought so much better of you. And, if I may be so bold, violet is really not your color."

Finn had walked out of the ship and straight to the balcony's edge. His eyes looked over the fighting beneath to the airships laying in wait on the horizon. All of those soldiers were going to die, but it was needless to stop them when everyone else was going to die, too.

This all seemed so stupid and pointless, but he was here. Where else could he be? But there were no poetic words or morale he could give. Instead, he walked forward to the Empress, knowing whatever orders or suggestions she had for them now would be just as useless as those before. It was all useless.

But then she turned to them and-... Finn was disappointed in himself that he wasn't actually surprised.

He let out a groan, rubbed at the bridge of his nose, and took out his gun. His Aim set on the Empress. "I know it's useless to ask at this point, but how do we stop it? Consider your answer carefully, Empress."

Vimes just growled. The Beast was already howling. "Dunno, your Majesty. I figured I'd kick 'im in the nadgers and do 'im for 'behavior likely to cause a breach of the peace. Gods, do I hate kings."

[Vengeance] would be forthcoming for a betrayal like this. How the hell did he not see this sooner?

Apocalypse || Sen Riqeaux Castle

Airship || Mingle

CASTLE EXPLORATION

The Apocalyspe

Nozomi Yumehara | OTA

Sasami | OTA

Re: Nozomi Yumehara | OTA

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Re: Airship || Mingle

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Sam Vimes | OTA

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Re: Sam Vimes | OTA

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