soul_logs | [OPEN] Mission 155

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[OPEN] Mission 155

Characters: Open to those who signed up here.
Location: An unmarked cavern system outside Death City.
Rating: Various.
Time: March 18th, sunrise.
Description: Shibusen agents brave underwater caverns to take out the first of three Madness emitters.

Missiongoers pile out of the mirrors early in the morning, just as the first hints of sun start to color the walls of the sandstone canyon red and purple; it'll be the last bits of real light they'll see for at least a few hours. The atmosphere is electric -- there're quite a few new (and old) arrivals who're eager to see some action, but just as many people who're feeling rather more apprehensive… And for good reason.

The only way to their destination is blocked by a few hundred yards of sunken tunnels. Luckily they've been provided with mouthpieces, breathing apparatuses with enough oxygen to last about ten minutes: more than enough time, provided that the guests don't lose their way in the dimly-lit, twisted caverns. It's as easy as following the person in front of them, right?

Upon emerging safely from the pool onto mostly-dry land, they'll find themselves in an immense cavern, illuminated by countless, blue fungi clinging to the walls and ceiling, looking like stars dotting a night sky. Already the first signs of the way Madness has been corrupting the wildlife are evident: the mushrooms exude strange spores that make some people's head pound the same way the increasingly noticeable Madness wavelength does.

As they travel further into the watery caves and explore its many branches, they'll begin to encounter creatures twisted by Madness: moles, snakes, beetles, centipedes, all grown to monstrous proportions, some with a venomous bite that quickly turns their victim feverish and delirious. The more daring fighters can easily dispatch those and delve even deeper, and it's near the source of the Madness, in the chamber housing the emitter itself, that they'll encounter the kishin eggs.

There're dozens of them-- eyeless, white, vaguely human-shaped things, but despite their blindness they have no problem finding their quarry, fighting with claws and exuding their own Madness wavelength. If the missiongoers can stand strong against the kishin eggs and the ever-present wavelength given off by the Madness emitter, Shibusen's specialists will have enough time to shut the machine down for good.

OOC NOTES.
- The event summary post containing all relevant links is located here.
- Make your own threads, but please indicate in your subject line [CHARACTER(S) | LOCATION | OPEN/CLOSED] and, if applicable, if you need a kishin egg NPC!
- The locations are the sunken tunnels, the medics area, the cave system, and the emitter chamber, but only the medics will have their designated sub-thread.
- If you have any further questions, the mod thread on the coordination post is here!

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They'd done all that they could. At least, from what Kanji could see. He'd passed by numerous bodies of local fauna mutated by the Madness, unmoving, destroyed utterly by the combative efforts of the Shibusen agents sent to clear out the tunnels. With his path lit by the luminescent mushrooms, Kanji could only see shapeless heaps, step through their gore as it spilled openly from wounds both fresh and aged. The smell... it could not be described.

But it was something else entirely that turned his stomach, caused his head to pound incessantly, his mind filled with the whispers and giggles of voices he could and yet could not recognize. The voices would not stop no matter what he did, only seemed to get worse as he grew closer to what he assumed was the chamber that held the Emitter itself. Surely he could turn back and make his way out, but something compelled him to move at a steady pace, his long stride carrying him over puddles of standing water, that gore as he sought just one more foe to fight, one more twisted, faceless bastard to tear apart. To focus on the fight was to temporarily drive away the voices, his pounding headache, smooth the static in the resonance he had with his partner right now.

"You pickin' up anything else? 's too damn quiet here..." He spoke through their link with as much control as he could muster, his breathing starting to become labored again as he felt another mild panic setting in. In his eyes, it looked as if the mushrooms were going dark, one by one.

Edited 2012-08-25 23:14 (UTC)

As they'd been fighting, Tifa had felt the Madness in her partner all the time, starting small with the twinges of a headache, growing steadily until he'd reached this point. There was much to focus on--getting rid of the kishin eggs, keeping them busy so the techs could do their work, staying alive. By now, Tifa felt Kanji and she were a formidable duo against their enemies, but the environment they were in...

He was breaking away from her, the more the Madness seeped in. Their resonance grew shakier, and his blood lust was starting to turn her stomach. They'd already done what they could for now, so she didn't see the point in getting closer just to take on a few more, especially just for the sake of killing. This place didn't need more bloodshed, not from them; the bodies and the gore that surrounded them were ever present in Tifa's mind.

"Kanji," she spoke quietly, keeping her tone even, "I think we should turn back. We took down a lot of them already, we did what we could. Let's go back."

The last sentence had a touch more force to it, more like a command. In his state, she knew he'd be hard pressed to listen so she tried to make herself as direct as possible to get through to him.

That voice which rang crystal clear in his mind just hours ago now sounded as if she spoke from behind a closed door, muffled as Kanji's eyes slowly widened. The mushrooms winked out in his mind, one by one, blue slowly drowning in black as it crept closer to him. His heart had started to race as he realized the voices grew in volume the darker this chamber became.

His breathing grew ragged. If something was coming, he'd fight it. With a bellow the teen charged forth, ready to meet this unseen entity head-on.

"We're fine! We gotta buy 'em more time, damn it!!"

She couldn't stop him as she was right now. The resonance that usually flowed through them and helped them understand each other was stunted now and she couldn't rely on it.

Decisively, Tifa severed their resonance and transformed back into her human form, staggering just a little as the exhaustion set upon her from their fighting. It was clearer now that they'd been fighting for long enough and even if the Madness wasn't bringing him down, they'd probably be done soon anyway.

But she recovered herself quick enough to plant herself in front of him, holding onto his arms to try and keep him from advancing.

"Kanji! We're not fine, we're done!"

He felt that warmth, though muted, pull away from him as he moved. The last of the mushrooms winked out in his mind, leaving nothing but false darkness. As Tifa moved to intercept, Kanji's aimless charge slowed, eyes wild in the blue-lit tunnels as he realized he couldn't see an inch in front of his face. Kanji couldn't feel her presence anymore, either. Had he somehow lost her and didn't realize?

He felt something grip his coat sleeves and he looked up, face ashen as the bloodlust was replaced with temporary relief that flooded his mind at the sight of her. She was speaking to him, but he couldn't hear anything. Kanji watched as he saw something dark start to pour from her hairline and down her face, more from her nose. She was hurt... she was hurt, why the hell didn't she tell him?! There was toughing it out, and that was what he always respected about her, but why didn't she--?

He lifted his hands and tried to mop up what wasn't there, hands trembling as he swept a thumb across her forehead here, the end of his sleeve over a cheek to try and mop it up, the gray in his eyes unfocused and glassy. He'd help her, damn it, he'd fix this and maintain control of the situation. He was fine, they were fine--

We never did know when to hold back, he heard his own voice say in a far off corner of his mind, in a tone he thought he'd never hear again.

They had to get out. As he stared at her, uncomprehending on the situation, she felt it more seriously than even before. His hand on her face chilled her rather than comforted her because it was almost as if he was trying to wipe away something, when there was nothing there.

Swallowing, she raised her own hands to his face, trying to get him to focus on her, read her lips if he couldn't hear her.

"Kanji... we're getting out of here."

Knowing it would be pointless to try and bring him to his senses in here, like raking leave while they were still falling, Tifa slipped her arm around him for a better grip, steering him back the way they had come. She only hoped her wouldn't fight her on this, but there was little hope he would help her along. It would be a long trek out of this place.

Proverbial hackles raised, hearing that voice was his first sign that something was wrong... very wrong. He hadn't heard that voice since last May, back when his heart was laid bare before a group of strangers. That other side of him was accepted, all of his desperate desire and frustration with the world around him. He shouldn't be hearing it anymore!

But his Persona was locked away thanks to BREW. Was it possible to have his Shadow Self come back, break free and start everything all over again? Had he lost sight of everything he'd been fighting so hard for?

Her hands were warm against his face, dispelling those thoughts and some of that hissing static, his own skin far too cool and a little clammy. His eyes narrowed, unsure as they focused on her lips and not those trails of blood still running down her face. Tifa was speaking to him, but his ears were full of television static, those whispers to hear. He caught his name, and 'out'.

The boy was turned, and his legs felt stiff, heavy when he finally moved them again. Where were they going? Weren't they going the wrong way? Yet despite his struggles, his snarled "NO"'s, there was no breaking her grip.

His size and his locked stance weren't the thing that really made it difficult getting him out; as Tifa continued to ignore his protests and drag him back, it was the strain in his voice, the incoherent gaze in his eyes that pained her to push him still.

They'd waited too long. A heavy guilt filled her that she hadn't recognized it sooner and pulled him out before he'd reached this point. He should never have come to it this badly, and she could have stopped it.

Past the caverns where the large insects had first plagued them, to the water where they'd entered. Practically shoving the mouth piece into his mouth, she spoke before replacing her own, looking him in the face once more, trying to walk him through it even if he couldn't hear her. It helped her stay calm to verbalize, and part of her hoped in some corner of his mind he understood her.

"Keep that in, we're swimming back. I'll help get you out, but try to swim."

It was the last thing he needed, she knew, to submerge in the cold, dark water once again. It had probably been the first thing to drive his mind towards the edge, but there was no choice. One step at a time.

Edited 2012-08-29 03:58 (UTC)

Kanji's breathing was uneven, glances cast about at their first fallen enemies. They too didn't move, soundly defeated upon their entrance of the cavern system. That beetle was still lying there, just as large and misshapen as it was in life.

And then they stopped, and Kanji looked ahead. The lights had somehow come back on, giving his mind just a temporary relief. His struggling, his repeated denial silenced for now, he just found himself fascinated by the glowing fungi again. Maybe they were going the right way now, away from that heavy, terrible darkness and those awful whispers. They were a little quieter now, and Kanji could just barely hear himself begin to think again.

But on the outside, Kanji looked miserable, still pale. He hadn't even felt the apparatus being shoved into his mouth. What he did feel, however, was that cold water creeping up his ankles, past his thighs.

Then he heard a distant scream, deep in his head. He knew this voice.

Shit... Oh god, he hadn't thought about that! She was here, too! Kanji charged into the water without a second thought, the Madness tricking him once more: For all the Meister knew, he was back in the loch.

He moved from her, suddenly bursting with energy brought on by the Madness. Tifa made a startled sound before dashing in after him, grappling to keep his shoulders in her grasp. The water was freezing, colder than she remembered it, and holding on to him in this while he was thrashing wasn't going to be easy.

But she wouldn't lose him, not here. Getting ahold of him, she locked her arms around him and wasted no time before submerging them both. There was no time to be gentle or use kid-gloves on him; he couldn't recognize it anyway. It was better to get it over as quickly as possible and deal with the guilt of pushing him later.

Heading in the direction they'd come in, Tifa just tried to keep as good a grip on her partner she could, trying to swim for the both of them.

His mind was prepared to swim with everything he had, eyes keen on finding her in the dark, cold water once more. But with the arms around him, moving him in another direction, Kanji's struggles began anew.

Biting down on the mouthpiece of the breathing apparatus, his eyes turned to Tifa and his eyebrows knit, wondering what the hell she was doing. She was keeping him from moving down any one of these smaller pathways, the pathways he swore he heard something down. She was here somewhere, damn it, and she needed his help!

Kanji's hands frantically grabbed and pushed as he tried to worm his way out of her grip, but halfway through that tunnel he found that that wasn't working: In such a weightless area, even if he struggled, her grip would endure.

But as that screeching static began to build once more in his ears, he looked up and froze, every muscle tensed. Naoto's eyes were glassy and dull as she drifted through the water, moving deeper into the dark. Her limbs weren't moving, the fight having left them. With his heart lurching, Kanji kicked and swept his arms with renewed vigor to get closer, reaching out and snatching for those sleeves again. She needs... she needs to breathe, damn it, she doesn't belong here, she'll die down here! He can't let that happen!

But Kanji was snatching at empty water with a look of panic on his paling face, the amount of bubbles pouring from the exit port of the apparatus indicating that he was all but hyperventilating, using up too much air down here.

He was seeing things, she knew that clearly now. Earlier when he'd looked at her strangely, and now in the dark water where he thrashing at nothing. Gritting her teeth against her own breathing apparatus, Tifa put more effort into yanking him along, not willing to let him swim off after some illusion.

However determined she was to get him out, Tifa's strength was steadily waning. Not only had they just undergone a tough fight in which she'd used Beat Rush enough times to exhaust, but now using such strain underwater where limbs moved slower, she felt her muscles burning, energy running out.

Knowing she had to hurry or they'd both be stuck down here, she dragged him as best as she could, feeling immense relief that the further they got, the closer the light from the surface became.

The closer they got, the more Tifa felt herself slowing down. It seemed like her body wouldn't move as she commanded it to anymore. It was possibly the best feeling she had in awhile when they finally broke the surface of the water, emerging from the darkness. With a choking gasp, she spit out her apparatus and began trying to drag her partner to the nearby ground.

He almost had it... if he could just grab the sleeve, pull her closer, he could take her up to the surface. Something about all of this felt distressingly familiar, but his mind was too frazzled, heavy with the exhaustion of resonance to really think clearly through the emitter's induced Madness.

Kanji reached, putting everything into that last attempt to grab the detective, and it was then that Tifa renewed her effort in pulling him to the surface. The smaller girl slipped from his grasp, and a cold feeling of dread bloomed in his stomach, started to spread out into his limbs. There was a brief, cold look sent the woman's away - what the fuck was she doing, didn't she see there was someone else down here!? - before he watched with his eyes widening as the image of Naoto disappeared into the dark.

He failed. He couldn't reach her. His limbs felt heavy, and the fight in him stopped. When Kanji broke the surface, all he could do was remain on his hands and knees, head hung low. He pounded a fist into the rough stone floor as he struggled with the pain, and once more to try and make sense of why everything went wrong, and how he was going to face everyone. He was only left with a bleeding hand, cut by the sharp stone.

The Meister slipped completely as he gave one long, awful wail.

Tifa had to fight not to collapse immediately once they'd pulled themselves onto the rocks, completely drained by the time they'd made it out of the water. She wanted them to be safe now, for everything to just suddenly be better once they were free of the cave.

But she knew Madness didn't work like that. The horrible thing that crept into people's minds here, their hearts, it didn't go away once free from the source, and no one seemed to know how long it took to wear off entirely.

Kanji's wail startled her, brought her back to the fact that he was still suffering. Whatever he saw down there, it was haunting him and keeping a steady grip on him. At this rate, who knew what he'd do.

Moving over to her partner, Tifa moved swiftly to flip him on his back, almost slamming him back as she pressed down on his shoulders with her hands. Water dripping from her and breath panting out, she glared down at him and spoke as clearly and loudly as she could, trying to shake him from it.

"Kanji! There was nothing down there! We're out now!"

He wailed until he had no breath left to shout, uncaring of the echo chambers in the caverns and how much it probably unsettled any who heard it, unknowing of the source. His arms shook as he clenched his teeth, at a loss of what to do.

Kanji didn't see it coming when he was flipped onto his back, felt an immense pressure on his shoulders as his head began to pound. Her shouts were suddenly crystal clear to his ears, and her face was soaked with the cavern's water, not blood. Nothing made sense anymore...

"Whadda you mean, 'nothing'!?" He shouted hoarsely back.

"I almost had her, damnit!"

"No!" She held on tight to him, face contorting as she heard the strain in his voice, the very real fear and agony in his voice. "It's the Madness, it's not real! Naoto wasn't down there!"

There was no saying how long it would last, or how she could pull him out of it. But she had to have faith that it would be over for him soon. She'd do anything she could...

"Kanji, please..." her voice softened, grew more pleading as her features did as well. She didn't release him yet, swallowing as she stared down at him. After another moment, she drew back from him but slipped her arms around his shoulders to pull him against her in a comforting hold. "Kanji, I'm here with you, and everyone's okay. Please..."

Edited (now with more hugging action!) 2012-09-10 05:31 (UTC)

Yet his mind continued to rage, even with his shoulders pinned like this, looked right in the eyes. Something about the word 'Madness' seemed to ring true for him, and listening to her now, he pressed his hands to his face and tried to make sense of something, anything at all. He saw the detective sink, could practically feel her sleeve between his fingers. But Tifa... Tifa was his partner. She wasn't- she wasn't lying, was she?

His thoughts stewed together in a slurry, and his body felt heavy when arms wound around his shoulders, tightened. Kanji felt a pain in his chest, some hopeful corner of his heart hoping that he hadn't messed things up, that maybe he was seeing things.

Tifa was warm, despite being soaked to the bone as he was. His arms finally had sensation in them, and one hand thrummed in pain from the cut. He didn't care as his limbs lifted from the stony floor and wound around the woman instead. With a shuddering breath, he pressed his face to the crook of her neck and let himself tremble a little.

"Every-... everybody's okay?"

The response sent a sudden rush of relief through her, that something had gotten through to him. It didn't matter if she knew something like this would pass--while in the moment, it felt like it would never end.

Holding him closer to her, it vaguely crossed Tifa's mind that they had never embraced like this, never really gotten this close. The most contact they made was when they were laying punches or kicks or throws on each other, not shows of affection. But that was irrelevant now, like something distant in her mind.

"Yeah, everyone's fine." Truth be told, she didn't know that for a fact. Many people were still fighting, and she didn't really know where Naoto was. "No one is hurt, we're all okay, alright?"

Leaning slightly against him now, Tifa let out a slow, shaky breath as she continued to keep him against him. As soon as he was more able, they'd have to get out of here.

It was like a dark, heavy veil was pulled off of his mind. Kanji's grip upon her tightened as sensation returned to his limbs, and he firmly believed that things were going to be okay. Those he held dear were still alive, still fighting the best that they could.

And it was at that time that the engineers got what they wanted. Whatever awful mechanism powered the emitters, somewhere deep in the caverns, finally powered down. The heavy vibrations in the air, the steady buzzing in everyone's ears, what drove the local fauna to madness slowly subsided, then lowered to an average level.

With that boost, Kanji had begun to stir. "I..."

"I'm a'right..." He uttered as he slowly pulled away from her. He looked up in the dark.

"That weird buzzing's gone. Is it over?"

At the sounds of the emitter shutting down, Tifa began to pull back as well, looking back towards the caverns to see if anything could be seen. They'd done it, finally. Heaving a sigh of relief, she nodded back to his question, turning more to him.

"Yeah, sounds like they did it. We won this one."

Sitting back a little from him, she gazed over her meister with a concerned expression.

"It's was the water, wasn't it?"

She didn't know how to overcome something like that, a traumatic imprint on his memory that would probably rear its ugly head whenever they were were exposed to swimming and Madness. But at least they had the heads-up from this experience.

"Things went bad in the Loch Ness. Guess I couldn't really get it outta my head..." He spoke, uncertain. She wanted to go back, get that kishin egg that nearly brought about her demise, and he did too. Kanji guessed he still had some fear of something going wrong again... but if today was any indication, he couldn't let this shit haunt him forever.

"But don't worry about it. Let's get the hell outta here." He needed- he needed to find her, just to be sure she was okay. He started to bring himself to his feet despite his limbs feeling like rubber, but nodded to Tifa. He was fine. He'll be okay.

Despite his reassurance, she helped him to his feet, feeling the ache in her own muscles as well. She'd helped him along this much, there was no sense in dropping the ball now.

"The mirror should be close by."

There was a pause as she walked slowly along with him, the cold air beginning to prick their soaked skin.

"You'll get through it. I know you can keep fighting it."

It was quiet encouragement, all she could muster for the time being. If he wanted to talk about it more later, he would. If not, it wasn't something she'd push unless it really seemed to become a problem.

Part of him was more than a little relieved that the mirror was close. He was ready to get out of here and regroup, gather his marbles. Noticing their labored effort to reach the thing, Kanji poured in just a little more, pushing down that rubbery feeling in his body for both their sakes.

He focused straight ahead, that previous fear and panic coloring his face gone. He'd let himself succumb to Madness, again. While he was glad he hadn't severely beaten countless people this time around, this was still something he felt he would need to take some time to work on. He pondered speaking with Death the Kid about some sort of defense.

"I told Shibusen I'd fight for 'em, and that's what I'm gonna keep doin'. This shit ain't gonna repeat itself," he assured mostly himself through grit teeth.

But that flash of guilt over letting the Emitter find an opening quickly died down. When they reached the mirror, he turned his eyes to his partner, his expression softened.

"...Hey. Thanks for puttin' my head on straight."

Tifa looked up at him, watching him with a searching expression before she smiled softly.

"Don't mention it," she nodded at him, raising up a hand to affectionately brush back some of the wet hair that dripped around his face. It occurred to her how quickly people could get attached to each other here, how the situations they were forced into caused people to band together so closely. It was how she'd always known it: struggling together for survival, seeing each other's cores and true colors in the face of danger. It was familiar to her in a way that strangely made her feel more like home.

Her smile grew more warm as she realized all she would do for Kanji, to keep him safe and sane.

"You'd do the same for me."

"I would," he replied with a nod. At first he didn't know how, even in the face of a Madness Emitter, Tifa didn't let this stuff get to her. But with every mission together, evenings spent shooting the shit about nothing at all, laughing over stories told from their respective jobs he knew now. Tifa was such a strong person who'd faced so much more than he had, and the courage that could be born from so much strife was never anything to sneeze at.

He wanted to get better at this. When the Madness wasn't toying with his memories, amplifying his greatest fears, it made a game out of his anger. Kanji will never be a calm, cool, and collected individual, but maybe he needed to be a little more courageous. Maybe he could take a page from her book, and do more than just get people to understand him as he'd promised to himself. Maybe... he had to understand himself a little better still, and by doing so have a better control over his temper, or shut away any cracks in his demeanor that these waves would happily worm their way into.

"I'm gonna see about talkin' to the Shinigami-sama about Madness. The next Emitter's gonna go down with style!" And a firm nod, before they stopped short of the mirror, waiting as others stepped through.

"You go on through. ...y-...y'mind if I hang out here for a little bit?" He asked quietly, with a meaningful glance. He didn't have to say why, did he?

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heart_rhythm - 2012-09-18 05:53 (UTC) - Expand

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topgun_textiles - 2012-09-18 17:33 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[OPEN] Mission 155

[Kanji/Tifa | Cave System, nearing mission's end | Closed]

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