[Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

[castaside]

WHO: Macaque, Red Son, Wukong, Korone, Donnie, Cole, Wash
WHAT: Soul fixin'
WHEN: March 9
WHERE: Red Son's house, Blossomcrown
WARNINGS: will be marked

Comments

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[forgingfires]

"Its empty besides whatever it is," Red Son said, shaking the bottle slightly to have it clink and show there's no liquid inside.

But then he's gonna look inside.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

You look inside the bottle...

Whatever's inside isn't a golden item like the ones you've been finding. It's dark.

And it rushes up directly at your eye.

You see it coming (ha!) and manage to yank your head away as whatever's in the bottle escapes it at ridiculous velocity and vanishes into the wall.

Since your reflexes are so stellar, you can tell vaguely what it was: a shadow.

And now you feel strongly like you're being watched. Stalked, in fact.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[forgingfires]

"....ah." Red Son said. "Weeee should figure out what this room wants and get out of here quick," he said.

Time to grab the broken glass then.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[noodleboi]

"AH!" MK yelped way louder as something came rushing out of the bottle and into the wall?! It wasn't like the shards though! MK looked around and grabbed the Molotov cocktail without thinking.

"What was that?!"

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

You grab the Molotov cocktail--

People have hurt you. But it's always been that way, hasn't it? They hurt you, so you learned to be dangerous. You learned to be vicious. You learned never to let anyone hurt you again, by hurting them first.

And if anyone does? Simple: you'll punish them. But they won't, because you don't let anyone get that close again.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[noodleboi]

That dangerous feeling was a huge red flag. Oh no. MK quickly turned on gold vision and looked around. Where? Where is he? He checked everything, even their own shadows.

"We need to fill the voids. This place is dangerous. I think the glass cage was safer."

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

You look around with gold vision. Your own shadows look to be normal. You scan the room. Nothing over by the dance floor, nothing by the tables, then you look behind the bar, immediately behind you--

You spot the shadow a split second before it pounces. It moves impossibly fast, even by the standards of those with the powers of the Monkey King. This is its turf, after all.

Do you try to flee, or fight?

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[forgingfires]

There was the anger and resentment. Oh boy. This is definitely the last out room.

Red Son reaches out to put a hand on MK's shoulder. He pulls out his phone and types out a message. Hand on keychain. Do not remove from bag until use.

He keeps the phone close to his chest and only pulls it away from it to show to MK before deleting the message.

Then he let's go of MK's shoulder and moves to the tables, just to see if there's more there.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[noodleboi]

MK's breathing was quick. His hand went to the keychain in his pocket. He looked at the message quick then his eyes say the shadow. Red Son needed time! He pressed the button and shoved Red Son away. Blazing bright golden energy flooded off MK as he tried to catch the shadow as it came at him.

"I'LL HOLD HIM OFF! FILL THE VOIDS!"

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[forgingfires]

Red Son is shoved away and oh shit, there's the shadows. "Possession rules!" He shouts and scrambles to his feet. Moving to the table, checking for any items as he pulls up his phone. What is good anger that isn't WORSE anger?

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

MK's golden light catches the shadow's hand, and seems to burn it. It hisses and snarls and then vanishes through the floor, and comes up behind MK, along with half a dozen shadow clones of itself. The clones try to grab MK -- it's fine if they get burned -- while the shadow itself launches a bunch of deadly purple energy directly at the keychain, trying to break it and sever the link to MK's power that Macaque set up.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[noodleboi]

His light hurt the thing! Good to know. MK's eyes move. The clones come in. He lashed out with his tail and an arm, slamming them into the clones. Clones shouldn't matter, right? Just the original. He saw the blasts coming at him. He formed a large rock in front of him to tank the hits.

"Nice try. You'll have to do better than that. The real Macaque would know better!"

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

The clones pop n a fizzle of purple light.

Macaque's energy makes the rock explode, and another fwoosh of power directs the rock shards toward MK. It won't do anything, of course, but he's only after a distraction.

The shadow smirks at the taunt.

"The real Macaque doesn't care about you enough to beat you up. He'd just leave you. Again."

Then the shadow turns and vanishes through the floor again, and the next thing the ceiling is caving in on MK's head at the same time he's being struck with a shadow-version of Macaque's staff from below, trying to take out his feet.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[noodleboi]

The rock quickly dissolved to sand and hit MK without causing any pain. It was a good distraction. He looked up and formed sand up to try and hold the ceiling up. The staff hit home and MK's legs were taken out from under him. He fell backwards as he forced the sand up and hardened to keep the ceiling from collapsing. He hit the ground and tried to quickly roll away from the shadow.

"The real Macaque cares! I know he does! And I'm never doubting that again!"

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

Tendrils of shadow reach up from the floor to try and grapple him and the staff keeps striking at MK, viciously. Like he tried to teach MK when they first met: your first strike should be your last strike.

"Please. He cares about Wukong. You're nothing but a substitute for what he can't have." The tone is as vicious as the strikes.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[noodleboi]

The tendrils grabbed hold. At least the guy wasn't going for the keychain now. He took one strike. Then another. And a third. He growled as his eyes narrowed.

"That's the easy answer. But I'm not Wukong," MK's eyes glowed brighter as he ripped himself free from the shadows. He caught the staff with the forth strike.

"Wukong couldn't beat the Jade Emperor!" He shoved hard to force the shadow to hit itself with the staff.

"Wukong couldn't get you to turn on the Lady Bone Demon!" He moved in close and brought his knee into the shadow.

"I did that!"

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

"You did that. You also pushed Macaque away. Told him you didn't need him anymore. The one thing he's always feared most. You did that."

The shadow barely gets that out before he has to dodge his own staff, and then it's sinking through the floor again and more tendrils lash out, in addition to the entire area being wrapped in shadow so that MK can't see anything coming.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

There are two items over on the tables:

> A curl of barbed wire
> A sea urchin

And there's something flat in the middle of the dancefloor.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[forgingfires]

He's going to grab the barbed wire. See if he can determine what the flat thing is on the dance floor while doing so.

At least if anyone is grabbing angry things, at least its him?

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

The object on the dance floor appears to be a torn piece of canvas with coloring on it.

You are Macaque, and you are learning.

Your shadows needed taming first, but you've managed that. You learned how to fight with a blade of a bow, with your fists and fangs. You learned by spilling blood, yours and others. You learned with bruises and broken bones.

You relished those lessons. They taught you the most important lesson of all: trust no one, show no mercy.

So you don't. When you strike, it's vicious. When you act, it's without any feeling but glee.

You relish taking anyone who challenges you apart. It can't fill up the hole inside you, but for a little while the adrenaline helps you forget that it's there.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[forgingfires]

This all tracks and Red Son's hair flares with the emotions of it, but while his temper and anger has always been volatile and loud, its rarely fully beyond his control. This anger is no different once he'd out of the memory.

He grabs the sea urchin next.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

You are Macaque, and you are furious.

You don't even have a good reason why. The Lady Bone Demon possessed MK and told you that you'd been replaced by some vampire who thinks that Wukong doesn't need to change, and the next thing you know, you're shouting at him. Telling him that he's hurting MK by spending time with her, calling her a leech, a soulless monster.

You didn't want it to go this way. But you're jealous, you're pissed, and who the fuck is he to get on you about a single thing after he murdered you?

So you shout at each other for a while. He tells you that apparently everyone is right about him, and obviously not in a good way. So you grab that third rail that you never mention, telling Wukong that he got to keep his life at the least, so who is he to feel sorry for himself?

And then you portal away, still fuming. What were you thinking, trying to have an actual conversation?

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[forgingfires]

What was the thing the Pigeon Girl said?

Same hat? Same hat.

Time to grab at the canvas and see what that's about.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

It's a portrait of Macaque, with both eyes crossed out. It's ripped more or less halfway down, through his neck.

You feel inertia and helplessness. A riptide of anger that carries you away too often, and you most often don't even try to fight, because it feels good. Better than the alternative, at least. So you convince yourself that you really like it, that it fulfills you, rather than being a poor substitute for what you can never have.

Re: Level S (sub 1) - North door

[castaside]

You are Macaque, and you've got a plan. Vaguely.

You're with the scholar, Tang, inside a huge lamp, trying to swipe the ring of the Samadhi fire before he can. It's not that you want to take away humanity's best hope, as he calls it, but you need to get the Lady Bone Demon out of you and gone. Maybe with the fire, you can manage it.

Tang tries to tell you that you need to stand together against her. He's so naive.

You tell him that's funny, coming from someone who just got put aside while his friends were out there being useful, allegedly. They're idiots, but they're trying.

You tell him not to take it personally. Wukong only values people by how useful they are to him. You should know. You're an expert on what happens when one gets too close to the King.

You smash your fist against the internal workings of the lantern. Wukong didn't care, in the end. You couldn't free him from the consequences of his own mistakes, so he threw you away. Best that Tang learn this now, really.