Dissonance and Despair (Alicia/Invite)
Jan 8, 2018 0:40:46 GMT
Post by Alicia Westfield on Jan 8, 2018 0:40:46 GMT
It was a brilliant plan, really, all things considered. But there were so many reasons it shouldn’t have worked. Even as Greymon hunkered down, pinning the wounded cybernetic dragon underneath him at Mitsuko’s direction, he had his doubts about this. Were they even in the right forms to invoke it? Wouldn’t Alicia need to intentionally contribute? All factors that should’ve shot this plan down. Nothing short of a minor miracle could’ve made it work.
And yet... It had somehow succeeded. A bridge was created where none should’ve existed in this condition. Though it was a very weak connection. Perhaps it was only his focus on the goal that made him fail to realize just how faint it was, as if they’d made a patchwork replacement for a form Alicia did not currently possess. But that was crazy, right? How could she be evolved without her D-Scanner on her? Regardless, nothing seemed right within her mind.
And as the angel made his way deeper, breaking apart the warped strands, the source made itself known, hissing and howling wildly. Perhaps in his peripheral vision he would see the fiend scuttling about, human-like in figure but certainly far too bestial to be Alicia herself. A flicker of red hair tinted dark, a flash of steel coated in curses like so much stained oil and grime. A wing or tail might’ve even been noticed and subsequently ignored.
The Monster could not make a move against such resolution. It could find no chink in MagnaAngemon’s armor to exploit. It’s threatening noises were just that, empty threats. It wanted the intruder gone, especially as his intention became more and more clear. But it couldn’t drive out such potent light. However, that hadn’t been what the angel had to push through.
The closer he had gotten, the denser the layers had become. As they broke apart they carried with them echoes of agony. In her mental landscape the holy warrior might’ve even seen flashes of torturous treatment Alicia had endured, the pain and rage she’d felt at the hands of a heartless crimson beast. Beyond the blood-like sheen of metal, the Spirit User had done everything she could to blot it out of her memory out of instinctive reaction.
And indeed Alicia was quite the mess, only barely acknowledging the light of MagnaAngemon’s presence. ‘Wha...?’ Her lips hadn’t moved. In here her thoughts could be heard without her having to speak. But at least she had woken up enough to realize what was going on now. ‘Magna... Angemon...? Why...? After all this...?’ She couldn’t meet his gaze. With the battle having wound down the adrenaline that let her struggle against her own madness had rapidly faded.
’Am I really worth saving...?’
He certainly seemed to think so. She hadn’t had the chance to say anymore before the angel burned his holy energy for all it was worth. It was something so warm and comforting that it invigorated her spirit after so much cold and cruel melancholy had practically chilled her blood to near freezing. She weakly grasped his arm as he held her, tears in her eyes. ’Ah...’
She hadn’t had time to answer him, his form broke apart before her eyes. The thread was simply enough to spot, and she reached for it.
It wasn’t quite over yet though. She was stubborn and defiant to the end. It made sense that any alternate version of her would carry those qualities over. Before she could grasp it and follow it, a warped and clawed hand sliced the thread apart and she was forced to stare at the incarnation of her insanity.
It looked so much like her, but twisted by her Beast Spirit, one eye was nothing but a solid red light, one of those fiendishly twisted horns sprouted from the other side of her head. The right arm was monstrous compared to the still human left arm. The wired tail swished behind her and a singular wing beat at the ‘air’ around them. The Monster would not let her go free that easily. With a scream it lunged at Alicia, who in turn had slowly closed her eyes. Black strands reached for her again despite the angel’s radiance burning so much of it away.
‘You have ruled my soul too long already.’
Glimmering chains intercepted the black webbing, breaking it apart once more.
‘You’ve hurt everyone you could find, even my most dear friend and brother.’
Shackles latched down upon the wrists and ankles of the Monster, yanking It away from her.
‘Back to the abyss with you.’
It shrieked and writhed as it was dragged way, It’s claws gouging the ‘earth’ beneath it until it was sealed away in the darkest corner of her mind. She couldn’t afford to come to terms with it yet. More pressing matters had to be attended to. And those wounds were still far too fresh for her to overcome at this time anyways.
Alicia followed where the thread had once been dangled for her, once more regaining full control of herself.
Back in reality, though, Greymon had snarled as the Devidramon reappeared, looking even more insane than before. His back was too it, and the demon dragon was too fast to intercept. Still, he owed it to this Spirit User to try!
The saurian had lifted himself up, had managed to turn around... but that was all the time he’d had. Mitusko had already been struck down, having thrown herself into the path of the attack. What had she been thinking!?
... He had wondered the same thing in the twilight haze that came from being near death’s door step when Alicia had expended so much effort to bring him out of those accursed caves and lent him the strength he needed to escape to safety and recover. The dinosaur decided he’d never truly understand humans fully, and just had to roll with whatever happened as a result. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help Mitsuko at this time. Not with the Devidramon so close to her. All he could do was-...
...
Watch as the crazed demon seemed to collapse on itself in frustration after a howl, and devolve back to an injured, unconscious, but otherwise normal Impmon. What the hell was even going on with this day...? The angel also suddenly devolved to Rookie as well, which made sense given his partner was out of commission and could no longer energize him. With a grimace, he winced as Patamon screamed the human’s name, presumably. He could get it. His partner was all but dead right now and there was nothing he could do about it. He could have the decency to not lose his cool like that and scream so close to the saurian’s ear though...
”Can it swine!” The Greymon barked out, grabbing Patamon with on hand. ”She ain’t dead yet so shut up and let me work.” That said, he took a breath and brought his tail around, using his Mega Flame on the blade to heat it up significantly. Alas, he had to be careful with how hot it was. Humans seemed oh so fragile... While he was monitoring the heat, he reached his free hand down and flipped Mitsuko over so he could get at the stab wound, and brought the heated tail blade down carefully. With a sear, the wound was cauterized and most of the blood loss stemmed, and Greymon huffed in turn.
“Mit... suko...” a voice behind him choked out, Alicia finally reverting to her normal human self. Greymon looked over, and quirked an eyebrow at what he saw. It seemed she was too out of it to realize what had occurred to her. He was certainly happy to leave her in the dark for now though. Less screaming was a good thing. Instead, he just grabbed the warped human and set her on his back, near the spike on his shoulder blade. ”Hold onto that.” he demanded. Too weak to argue, Alicia grimaced and followed suit, casting a scared glance at the silverette and the Impmon.
”You’ve gotta be kidding...” Did she seriously count that guy among her comrades, too? Alicia looked up to him, a weak and pleading expression in her eyes, her voice too hoarse to speak properly at the moment. Greymon resisted for all of two seconds before he sighed and hung his head. ”You’re holding him, got it?” He didn’t wait for her to respond, reaching over and grabbing the Impmon and unceremoniously tossing him to Alicia. The Steel Spirit Wielder offered a weak, offended gasp as she caught him and cradled him close. Finally, the saurian scooped Mitsuko up in his hand.
”I’d say you owe me for this but... well...” He trailed off after that and marched off, moving as quickly as he could without jostling any of his passengers too badly. Now if only the blasted bat pig would stop struggling...
((OOC: Yikes. This dragged on longer than I anticipated))
And yet... It had somehow succeeded. A bridge was created where none should’ve existed in this condition. Though it was a very weak connection. Perhaps it was only his focus on the goal that made him fail to realize just how faint it was, as if they’d made a patchwork replacement for a form Alicia did not currently possess. But that was crazy, right? How could she be evolved without her D-Scanner on her? Regardless, nothing seemed right within her mind.
And as the angel made his way deeper, breaking apart the warped strands, the source made itself known, hissing and howling wildly. Perhaps in his peripheral vision he would see the fiend scuttling about, human-like in figure but certainly far too bestial to be Alicia herself. A flicker of red hair tinted dark, a flash of steel coated in curses like so much stained oil and grime. A wing or tail might’ve even been noticed and subsequently ignored.
The Monster could not make a move against such resolution. It could find no chink in MagnaAngemon’s armor to exploit. It’s threatening noises were just that, empty threats. It wanted the intruder gone, especially as his intention became more and more clear. But it couldn’t drive out such potent light. However, that hadn’t been what the angel had to push through.
The closer he had gotten, the denser the layers had become. As they broke apart they carried with them echoes of agony. In her mental landscape the holy warrior might’ve even seen flashes of torturous treatment Alicia had endured, the pain and rage she’d felt at the hands of a heartless crimson beast. Beyond the blood-like sheen of metal, the Spirit User had done everything she could to blot it out of her memory out of instinctive reaction.
And indeed Alicia was quite the mess, only barely acknowledging the light of MagnaAngemon’s presence. ‘Wha...?’ Her lips hadn’t moved. In here her thoughts could be heard without her having to speak. But at least she had woken up enough to realize what was going on now. ‘Magna... Angemon...? Why...? After all this...?’ She couldn’t meet his gaze. With the battle having wound down the adrenaline that let her struggle against her own madness had rapidly faded.
’Am I really worth saving...?’
He certainly seemed to think so. She hadn’t had the chance to say anymore before the angel burned his holy energy for all it was worth. It was something so warm and comforting that it invigorated her spirit after so much cold and cruel melancholy had practically chilled her blood to near freezing. She weakly grasped his arm as he held her, tears in her eyes. ’Ah...’
She hadn’t had time to answer him, his form broke apart before her eyes. The thread was simply enough to spot, and she reached for it.
It wasn’t quite over yet though. She was stubborn and defiant to the end. It made sense that any alternate version of her would carry those qualities over. Before she could grasp it and follow it, a warped and clawed hand sliced the thread apart and she was forced to stare at the incarnation of her insanity.
It looked so much like her, but twisted by her Beast Spirit, one eye was nothing but a solid red light, one of those fiendishly twisted horns sprouted from the other side of her head. The right arm was monstrous compared to the still human left arm. The wired tail swished behind her and a singular wing beat at the ‘air’ around them. The Monster would not let her go free that easily. With a scream it lunged at Alicia, who in turn had slowly closed her eyes. Black strands reached for her again despite the angel’s radiance burning so much of it away.
‘You have ruled my soul too long already.’
Glimmering chains intercepted the black webbing, breaking it apart once more.
‘You’ve hurt everyone you could find, even my most dear friend and brother.’
Shackles latched down upon the wrists and ankles of the Monster, yanking It away from her.
‘Back to the abyss with you.’
It shrieked and writhed as it was dragged way, It’s claws gouging the ‘earth’ beneath it until it was sealed away in the darkest corner of her mind. She couldn’t afford to come to terms with it yet. More pressing matters had to be attended to. And those wounds were still far too fresh for her to overcome at this time anyways.
Alicia followed where the thread had once been dangled for her, once more regaining full control of herself.
Back in reality, though, Greymon had snarled as the Devidramon reappeared, looking even more insane than before. His back was too it, and the demon dragon was too fast to intercept. Still, he owed it to this Spirit User to try!
The saurian had lifted himself up, had managed to turn around... but that was all the time he’d had. Mitusko had already been struck down, having thrown herself into the path of the attack. What had she been thinking!?
... He had wondered the same thing in the twilight haze that came from being near death’s door step when Alicia had expended so much effort to bring him out of those accursed caves and lent him the strength he needed to escape to safety and recover. The dinosaur decided he’d never truly understand humans fully, and just had to roll with whatever happened as a result. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to help Mitsuko at this time. Not with the Devidramon so close to her. All he could do was-...
...
Watch as the crazed demon seemed to collapse on itself in frustration after a howl, and devolve back to an injured, unconscious, but otherwise normal Impmon. What the hell was even going on with this day...? The angel also suddenly devolved to Rookie as well, which made sense given his partner was out of commission and could no longer energize him. With a grimace, he winced as Patamon screamed the human’s name, presumably. He could get it. His partner was all but dead right now and there was nothing he could do about it. He could have the decency to not lose his cool like that and scream so close to the saurian’s ear though...
”Can it swine!” The Greymon barked out, grabbing Patamon with on hand. ”She ain’t dead yet so shut up and let me work.” That said, he took a breath and brought his tail around, using his Mega Flame on the blade to heat it up significantly. Alas, he had to be careful with how hot it was. Humans seemed oh so fragile... While he was monitoring the heat, he reached his free hand down and flipped Mitsuko over so he could get at the stab wound, and brought the heated tail blade down carefully. With a sear, the wound was cauterized and most of the blood loss stemmed, and Greymon huffed in turn.
“Mit... suko...” a voice behind him choked out, Alicia finally reverting to her normal human self. Greymon looked over, and quirked an eyebrow at what he saw. It seemed she was too out of it to realize what had occurred to her. He was certainly happy to leave her in the dark for now though. Less screaming was a good thing. Instead, he just grabbed the warped human and set her on his back, near the spike on his shoulder blade. ”Hold onto that.” he demanded. Too weak to argue, Alicia grimaced and followed suit, casting a scared glance at the silverette and the Impmon.
”You’ve gotta be kidding...” Did she seriously count that guy among her comrades, too? Alicia looked up to him, a weak and pleading expression in her eyes, her voice too hoarse to speak properly at the moment. Greymon resisted for all of two seconds before he sighed and hung his head. ”You’re holding him, got it?” He didn’t wait for her to respond, reaching over and grabbing the Impmon and unceremoniously tossing him to Alicia. The Steel Spirit Wielder offered a weak, offended gasp as she caught him and cradled him close. Finally, the saurian scooped Mitsuko up in his hand.
”I’d say you owe me for this but... well...” He trailed off after that and marched off, moving as quickly as he could without jostling any of his passengers too badly. Now if only the blasted bat pig would stop struggling...
((OOC: Yikes. This dragged on longer than I anticipated))