Billy Kaplan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wearingthestars) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
revivalproject2021-05-19 09:13 am
wearingthestars) wrote in revivalproject2021-05-19 09:13 am
Sometimes you don't know how much something means to you
WHO: The darknesss/shadow/thing, OTA
WHERE: Billy's city
WHAT: Spreading darkness and despair
WHEN: Mid-End of Event
WARNINGS: Dark themes
It started small, a passing shadow inflicting a little chaos here, a few dark thoughts there, but slowly it grew. It became more and more solid, a definite humanoid figure beneath the gauze of smoke, and despair. And over time its influence was felt more and more across the city, shaping and corrupting the hearts and minds of the people who lived there.
For some, there was no fight at all, a simple whispered word in passing and a light touch, and their mind turned. That darkness spread through them, leaving an empty, hollow feeling. Every loss, every heartbreak, every fear, they were all achingly present, and then- the freedom of no emotions at all.
For others it was more of a battle, hard fought and bloody but in the end, the same result. No one could resist once that darkness took hold.
...It was easier this way.
[ooc: So-- for anyone who would like their good guy to go bad, or bad guy to go worse, here's an opportunity. Billy's magic and grief are separate from him in this world, and they've gone rogue.
People can reply to showcase their succumbing to the darkness, to play out encounters/fights, or this can be stand alone and you can use this knowledge for your character's transformation. You can also use this to witness it turning other NPCs (or real characters) and escape unturned, maybe spread the word? It's hard to see it's form, but it is a little familiar for anyone who has met Billy. And for anyone with empathetic powers it would feel even more like him than the NPCs do, and very powerful.]
WHERE: Billy's city
WHAT: Spreading darkness and despair
WHEN: Mid-End of Event
WARNINGS: Dark themes
It started small, a passing shadow inflicting a little chaos here, a few dark thoughts there, but slowly it grew. It became more and more solid, a definite humanoid figure beneath the gauze of smoke, and despair. And over time its influence was felt more and more across the city, shaping and corrupting the hearts and minds of the people who lived there.
For some, there was no fight at all, a simple whispered word in passing and a light touch, and their mind turned. That darkness spread through them, leaving an empty, hollow feeling. Every loss, every heartbreak, every fear, they were all achingly present, and then- the freedom of no emotions at all.
For others it was more of a battle, hard fought and bloody but in the end, the same result. No one could resist once that darkness took hold.
...It was easier this way.
[ooc: So-- for anyone who would like their good guy to go bad, or bad guy to go worse, here's an opportunity. Billy's magic and grief are separate from him in this world, and they've gone rogue.
People can reply to showcase their succumbing to the darkness, to play out encounters/fights, or this can be stand alone and you can use this knowledge for your character's transformation. You can also use this to witness it turning other NPCs (or real characters) and escape unturned, maybe spread the word? It's hard to see it's form, but it is a little familiar for anyone who has met Billy. And for anyone with empathetic powers it would feel even more like him than the NPCs do, and very powerful.]
Burnout
Slabs of concrete bore testament to his experimenting with the solar fire he'd found he still had access to, scorched or crumbling where the super-heated flames had been most concentrated. At the moment it was eerily still, but not too long before bright light had lit up the crusty windows, empty oil drums bounced in their hollow, noisy way and piles of forgotten, rusted, iron piping had been disturbed from their resting place.
There was no clear face to glare at, and that made it more unsettling, really. Cayde found himself pinned against a wall, impossibly so as the shadowy form was so slight. Strangely familiar, but he couldn't put a finger on it. He still made an effort to glare. His hands and the lower part of his arms still glowed from his expenditure of golden flames in the earlier fight.
Why do you resist?
The words seemed to transmit right into his head but they were still coming from the thing in front of him.
You feel it. It eats at you. You've lost everyone even though they're right there. But they seem happy. They just don't know you.
The Exo struggled to get loose but nothing was budging. "It's not right. None'a this is right," he insisted, like he was trying to convince himself. He clung to those words, that truth, but he also realized the words the darkness spoke hadn't necessarily been in disagreement.
Then make it right.
Those words didn't sound at all reassuring for their encouragement. A shadowy hand stretched across his face even as he tried to jerk his head away. "Nn-" His thrashing became a little more desperate, but the cold concrete at his back wasn't budging and neither was the shadow holding him. And then came the emptiness. All those he'd lost back home. Everything he'd lost and had only fragments of memory to know it. His usual tactic wasn't going to help and he knew it, but there was a spike of despair and panic when even the face of his queen, the idea of her started to fade. He shouted out but it seemed swallowed by a void. The glow around his fists snuffed out. The emptiness swallowed him, and the chill of a blissful nothing came at its heels.
β πΈπΆπβ― π½β―πβ― π»πβ―ππ½ πΆππΉ π·β΄πβ―. π’πΆπβ― β―πβ―ππππ½πΎπβ πβ΄ ππ½β― πΎπΈβ―.
Frost formed on the warehouse windows. Moments later, great, icy shards exploded through them, leaving a crystalline image of an explosion suspended in time.
no subject
She did not expect the chill of Darkness when she came to visit Cayde and see what he learned. The chanting in her mind echoed loudly, booming violently and the air was painfully chilly. Ikora had years of experience hearing the Darkness and pushing it back. She hardened her will against it pushed it down just as violently as it shouted.
"Cayde?" she called as she cautiously walked into the frozen warehouse. Something was very wrong here.
no subject
She'd find Cayde deeper in the warehouse, which was nearly completely frozen over, giant icy shards lining abandoned materials and equipment, frosted over rusted chains that dangled from above. The Exo was crouched at its chilly epicenter, metal fingers tracing across the frozen floor, his clothing rimmed with frost.
no subject
That it chose not to fight was a relief.
That it might have claimed her friend... scared her. Even in her fear she still cautiously approached Cayde.
"Cayde," she called again, watching him closely. Hunters were very good ambush killers. "I need you to answer me. What happened? Are you with me?"
no subject
"...No."
That same pale light began to creep up from his fingertips and over his forearms, accompanied by a faint tinkling like shattering glass, wafting off a faint mist, and when he abruptly curled his hands into fists, ice glittered over them like crystal gauntlets as a pair of sickles formed in his grasp. He plunged them both down into the ground with a sharp, cleaving crunch that seemed to burst an unseen bubble of the stillness around them, erupting into a blizzard-like maelstrom.
no subject
Ikora leapt back but no far enough. The edges of the ice storm slashed at her, as sharp as the sickles in Cayde's hands. This was no Light. This was Darkness. She could feel it almost radiating from Cayde, a persistent, horrifying chill.
She called on her modified version of the Light and hurled a burst of Solar energy at him. Not exactly a grenade but the magic behaved like it, detonating to leave behind a spot of burning sunlight on the ground.
"Sundance!" Hopefully, Cayde's ghost was in her right mind and could possibly help. Ikora wasn't sure killing Cayde would drive the Darkness from him but he might leave her no choice.
no subject
From Sundance, there was no response. She'd never made an appearance since the city shifted, and right now was far from the Exo's mind.
He came from behind, flinging frigid throwing stars at Ikora. Their touch brought along with them its icy grip, although it didn't immediately freeze over, but it was meant to hinder. The Hunter would be following up with his kama to do that.
no subject
And it started to spread through her body making her movements slow and heavy. The last thing one wanted to be around a Hunter was slow.
Ikora called on a rift, the power swirling around her feet in the opposite direction of the icy winds around her. It would, hopefully, keep Cayde's next attack from putting her down. She wasn't sure what to do about him. Without Sundance she wasn't sure he could come back.
"Cayde, don't make me do this," she said as she scanned the shadows around the ice.
no subject
Ikora's power counteracted against the already dying winds. Above, the frozen chains creaked and cracked as they swayed in the tapering winds. And then there was a gleam as another frozen shuriken came flying out from the farther shadows.
The Hunter came directly after it, rebounding off icy structures and darting towards Ikora. When he drew back his hand it wasn't with the icy kama, but that frigid blue light tinged with darkness at its edges. He thrust his hand down towards the ground, sending that cold energy blazing along the ground at her in an attempt to engulf her in dark ice.
no subject
Intellectually Ikora could see the tactical advantage to this icy cold. It was a spider and a web. It grabbed and trapped, allowing a Hunter to close in safely. The prey could struggle but the Hunter would be faster and hit first. Kill first.
As a Guardian, she was furious at allowing herself to get caught. The ice climbed up her legs and trapped her at the hip. She watched Cayde, chin raised in defiance. She had Ophiuchus. There wasn't anything he could really do to her but being hunted by him was... hard to rationalize.
She held a hand out and summoned the Dawnblade. The fire of the sun to counteract the chill of his ice. "Cayde... please don't make me," she said, ready to fully commit to the fight if he pushed her but her heart was not in it.
no subject
He feared nothing of her words. He simply didn't care. Such was the freedom the darkness had brought.
no subject
But instead of throwing flaming swords at him Ikora turned the blade down and stabbed it through the floor of the warehouse. The ice shattered around her legs as the flames spread around her. A golden tether of light wrapped around her and its warmth melted the frost from her clothes.
She didn't have guns in this world. She would only fend him off with the strange magical powers her Light had transformed into. "Cross the flames, Cayde. Embrace the Light."
Could the flames of Light burn the Darkness from him? Only one way to find out.
no subject
A thin sliver of doubt wormed its way into his mind, but he was committed, and he pressed his offense and his speed in the quickly vanishing space between them, which hadn't been all that much at that point. He shifted his arms so both blades curved outward before him, and then he lept.
Light and dark sizzled as his frozen blades met the warmth of the golden flames.
Car #7 CW: Acid Spit
At least they were, until a shadow passed in front of said car. He cried out, yanking the wheel to avoid it. One of the other drivers who was doing the same thing clipped the back end of his car, sending him into a spin. The airbag went off, leaving him disoriented. Shaking his head, he looked around and realized he was up on the sidewalk and, from the looks of it, had taken out a fire hydrant. "Shit!" He pounded his fist on the steering wheel. He unbuckled and extracted himself from the trashed car. Water pounded down on him from above, soaking him to the bone as he looked around. He turned and was face to face with that shadow. He gasped, stumbling backwards away from it. The thing brushed him as it passed, but that was enough.
He looked around with new eyes. Everything in the city was designed to get in his way and ruin his life. If he couldn't be happy - why should anyone else? His gaze fell upon a new building under construction. Ignoring the sirens and shouts around him, Eddie walks towards the corner of the structure. He's no architect, but those beams looked very important. A dark smile crossed his face for a moment before he opened his mouth and spat a stream of acid at the steel support beams. They began to smoke and melt. It would only be a matter of time before the building came crashing down. He didn't feel a need to watch. Turning, his mind began to fill with ideas of what to do next.
no subject
"You have to fight this," she demanded, her flames and his ice fighting for dominance in the area. "Cayde! You've never let anyone control you. Don't let it happen now."
The Dawnblade would keep her empowered but it couldn't last forever. She needed it to outlast his ice storm. Hopefully, then, she could bring him around to fight the Darkness out of himself.
Or, at least, regain control.
no subject
The light of his optics flickered, his metal brow furrowing as Ikora's words dug into those cracks for purchase. Eyes narrowing, he felt the strain. This was a dangerous position. That he was able to consider options other than oblivion served to spur him into a different course of action.
His arms still crossed before him, curved blades still bearing the brunt of Ikora's solar sword, Cayde forcefully turned his forearms outwards, to bring his scythes in contact with each other, exploding in a fresh burst of frigid wind and icy shards. A diversion more than an attempt to counter. Something in him registered this as a dangerous predicament. The clearest course of action then was a tactical retreat, and should Ikora give him the chance, that was exactly what the Exo intended to do.
no subject
But she had seen it, a flicker of Cayde's heart, his soul. Her friend wasn't gone. The Darkness didn't have a permanent hold on him. If she could get through to him like he had done for her, she could get her friend back.
Ikora threw down another rift for more protection against the storm but when she looked up... Cayde was gone.