Abandon

"A difference... a difference towards what end? For the sake of friends? What friends? The only one I have left that might be considered a friend... is you."

Another pause.

"...I may have been crafted from the viscera of multiple psyches and bound to you by fudged game mechanics and attained standhood, but, I want to exist for more than just your sake. I'll follow you and your desires for the protection of those you hold dear, but, I don't want my needs to be swept off the table so easily."

"I... hope you understand that."

Such great enthusiasm and acceptance...

"...thank you. I was worried that you wouldn't think of me as someone qualified for something like that."

A smile, but with most brash displays of gratitude muted. It's definitely there though.

"...I'm not sure what the future will hold for either of us, but I'm hoping we'll be able to find something out there."

"HOLD ON, LAMBDA!"
Tears are streaking down her face as Charlotte keeps running.
She can't lose her friend now! She will fight Winter with her bare fists if she has to! Lambda is going to survive this if it's the last thing she can do!

Just a little further...



And soon enough, they arrive at the gathering place. The ruckus of gunshots, cuccos, and live (dead?) music fill the area. A rather large square hole in the ground is nearby, as well as a guilt-stricken bubble boy.

Charlotte, shaky and exhausted, can barely even stand at this point-- her limits have caught up to her.
With as much grace as she can muster, she attempts to at least fall in the safest manner possible for her passenger. Without the breath to even speak, she lies there on the ground, gasping for air.

Nate, having just gotten done with a conversation with Smoke, quickly notices the two fallen girls. The fact that they both look very much chronos-like in appearance is a little off-putting, but maybe there's a rational explanation. Besides, they look like they really need help right now. It shouldn't matter if they resemble such a controversial figure.
"Hey smoke, they need some medical attention badly. Can your troll bro do anything for them?" Nate asks his host, quite clearly alarmed.

Sam stares at the yellow sphere, that his friend just vanished into. He... honestly wasn't sure what to do. He sighed, before speaking up. "So uh... any ideas on how to get him out of there?" He shook slightly, as he tried not to let his panic show. It had been way too long since he had read any comics, and he didn't trust his knowledge all too well. "Didn't lanterns have a weakness to the color yellow? Wait, no, that was green lanterns. Who was it that had the weakness to wood again? Wait, was that the doctor? I can't remember this stuff!"



Jessie finally stops running, flopping on the ground near where the music was being played. She made it. She was safe. And there wa- sonofabitch there was a glowing yellow ball over there.

Creatures scatter in the wake of the group's attacks, some sinking back into the depths, others falling apart and crumbling to nothingness. The crowd gathers, drawn by the former beacon and playing music, in what becomes a sort of nexus of activity, the Knight bringing his spear down to pin an encroaching creature and using it as fulcrum to drive both feet into the eye of another, sending it tumbling away. It scrambles to what might be a standing position before exploding, eye and eye and eye again bursting in time with gunshots from not far off that quickly render it a quivering pile of goo and give the one responsible a wide smile.

"Nice to see you again Kyana!"

"I got a little sidetracked, it happens. But its not just me, everyone's here!"

A low quake rumbles as Falks completes her descent with a foot that drives one of the monsters in half, grinding it into the ground on landing and swinging her body in a full revolution haymaker to clear out what's left. Further back a trio of ghosts led by Jerome split off from one another to engage another batch of the creatures, the boy bringing a signpost overhead in a crushing swing to flatten one as two of his companions slice their way through another with two pairs of knives each, a flurry of four dicing up the multi-armed monstrosity handily!

From the darkness more creatures rise, bearing more weapons and more aggression still as they scatter with bloodlust evident in their frantic gait. But by the second the group is joined by more, ghosts drawn by the music, freed of their despair and fighting back tooth and nail. Lost players of the void, living among the dead but living all the same. An all-out battle ensues as the red splits in reality grow more numerous and the darkness above, deeper.

"Doesn't matter if I'm dead, because if even one of those sessionmates of mine is still alright... I'll take on the universe to keep it that way!"

"I haven't got much but I might as well put it on the line for this, right?"

"A chance to meet like this doesn't come often... But if you wanna ruin the reunion I've got some words for you!"

"You won't drive us apart! Not again!"

Peh... Everyone, so quick to shift blame for your own betrayals? The people you claim to love and cherish, you turned on them because you saw the same truth of the universe I did!

"And that was the weakness in our hearts! And its the awesome friends and family, those guys that would accept us after that, that mean we can stand here like this! Our mistakes won't make us, we're not like you like that!"

Ghost and living alike share smiles, before they turn steely expressions back to their mutual foes and throw themselves back into the fray!

Disgusting... All disgusting! Clinging to each other as if you could actually forgive and accept everything without hiding your grudges and your true feelings. The jealous of not being the one to live... The hurt of being betrayed by someone you imagined unimpeachable in your head, because they died for you! These bonds you cling to so tightly are all just you creating an imaginary ideal and projecting that onto the ugly reality that is ugly people. And everything branches outward from lies like that... Lies like 'it'll be okay' or 'we can win if we just try'. Lies that let you refuse reality on the promise of a game that lets you rewrite it, only to find that was a lie too! That all you've really done is swap out one shitty set of rules for another.

And a lie that if you just fight and try as hard as you can, if you never stop fighting, victory is guaranteed. So even know you fight in the darkness thinking if you just keep it up, you can beat despair? If you stab enough meaningless constructs and hit some arbitrary goal everything goes back to your peachy fake world!

"That sounds like your assessment, not any of ours!"

The Knight clears some room for himself with a spin, three-bladed weapon tearing a gap in the crowd before he charges forward with a flurry of stabs with the spear held in the other hand.

"Nice cherry picking there. But the real reason we fight here should be obvious."

A trio of creatures leap for Falks, surrounding her on three sides before pouncing! But the shock that colors her face barely lasts a second as she reels forward with a haymaker to blow back the one in front of her, leaving the creatures to her right and behind her in her blind spot. Killing blows close in... Only to be wiped away by simultaneous strikes on the attackers, a bullet piercing two eyes of one and a sign crushing the other in short order.

And Falks throws a thumbs-up and grin over her shoulder, Jerome and Kyana throwing them right back with wide smiles.

"It's to live! No matter what no matter where, in the dark, against impossible odds..."

The ghosts and lost pawns push back against the crowd surrounding them on all sides, refusing to give even an inch even after all this time.

"To get to that future we've been striving for!"

THERE IS NO FUTURE! THERE'S NO PAST, THERE'S NOTHING HERE IN THIS REALM BUT THE PRESENT, AND YOUR FAILURE!

The sky above warps, a pulse sending shivers down everyone's spines and forcing their eyes to the darkness above. There's nothing there... Nothing. Nothing. But, descending now...

The sky above, metal, descending. Dull and gray and dead, it eclipses everything below like a planet, something of twisted clockwork that defies explanation or perception. And right above them, a circular gap in in it, borders glowing red.

"What...?"

"What is that?"

"Holy shit..."

The Knight's eyes widen, a shiver running down his spin as he gulps. Something about it instills a deep sense of apprehension in him... Meanwhile, Raz's grip on Ophelia tightens, his smile fading as he stares into this thing feeling much the same way.

You think if you swing your weapons hard enough, fight hard enough, you can kill despair. Such foolishness. You can't even recognize when you're being toyed with. That's the power you'll use to bring a future? THAT'S  a crock of shit. You don't deserve it... No, none of these people deserve mercy. No matter how much you may cry for them, how short the life you've lived i and how you offer it up, hubris begets punishment. We all pay for our sins... We all pay for the hopes we use to hoist ourselves up, when those hopes crumble.

Red light gathers in the eye above, the assembled combatants lifting their weapons in defense!

"Watch out! Something's-"

A pulse outward throws the words back down the speaker's throat, driving her to her knees. Impossible gravity pushing down on everyone knocks the weapons out of their hands and drives most to the knees, some to the ground as pain lights up every nerve ending and shouts that aren't aborted by the sheer effort of speaking cry out. One by one they fall, shoved into the ground by the immense force pushing down on them and driving them crazy with pain.

Don't pity me... Don't you DARE pity me. As if you're in a position to!



And the Knight, forced to one knee, weapons glued to the ground, looks to the sky with viciously grit teeth, forcing everything he's got into keeping his arm taut.

No...! No, way, not like this...! Ggrrgrrrggaajhhhhhh..!!!!!!!

But this fight, he can't win. The ground rushes up to meet him, darkness taking the edges of his vision as he manages to keep one eye turned upward. Above them... in the center of that red eye in the sky so far away.

A gray flame shrouded by black light flickers.

Siren, despite her fury, despite her determination, despite her resolve, is easily slammed down to the ground by the perilous forces above. There's nothing but pure pain.
She can't move.
She can't even speak.
She tries to look out at the others nearby, but she can barely even move her head. It's like she got strapped to the gravitron and an endless array of torture devices, all while facing the wrong way.
The last thing she can even do at this point, is cry.
At this point, she doesn't care if she's considered a crybaby. She's helpless and in ultimate pain.
She should be able to express her anguish at this point.

---

Jake, despite being a knife, feels everything their adversary has thrust upon them, and is knocked to the ground, out of Jasper's hand.
He's alone again.
He's got nothing but the echoes of an unknown pain from a body he can't even find...

---

Shiny, still trying to get Patrick to his feet to no avail, is struck down by the gravity and pain.
But, at least she's not alone.
She lands in between Patrick and Sponge, closer to the former. How close to Katie, she can't tell, but hopefully not too far.
She tries to say something, despite the crushing forces against her.
"...we... have to continue..."

---

Dylan, before he can get a handle on the boy, is distracted by the sudden chill. Looking up, he sees presumably what has trapped them here.
And then, he gets slammed by the gravity.
Down to the ground. Others seem to be in agony, but as usual, he feels nothing. He tries to fight against the gravity to speak.
"Where did you take Jessica! Tell me!"

---

Just when things seemed like they were getting better, with the odd doctor and all, things have gotten worse. Charlotte is already on the ground and the forces push her somehow even closer to the ground. What is she even supposed to do here???

---

Jessica and Mimi get smacked down, though Mimi tries to stop the crushing by phasing. It fails spectacularly. In addition to the crushing force not subsiding, along with the pain, she has also slipped through the ground and has begun falling at extremely high speeds.

So now, Jessica is alone... again.
It wouldn't be the first time though. With her space seer powers, she can tell that the gravity in the entire area has been heightened for everyone. It's getting difficult to focus however.
There are two other space players in particular that she can locate however...
Though without the ability to even leave her prone position, it's practically useless information.
At least she's not entirely alone out here, against that thing in the sky...

The second of those space players, though slightly pissed that he's the second in this list, is none other than the timespace menace himself.
Having being jolted from his dance, he looks up to the sky and sees his rival and their booming voice. Chronos wishes he could have a cool booming voice like that here.
Maybe later he can arrange to still have global voice back at the black bubble.

He squints, not that it really helps. There's a red eye staring down back at him. Obviously compensating for something.

And then, the pain hits.
Chronos tries to brave the onslaught thrust upon him.

With minimal shuddering, he appears to take it like a champ.
The heavy gravity only compacts his form down to a reasonable height for a moment before he starts using his space powers to counteract it's effects.

Cringing slightly as he stares up at the crimson eye of the storm, he forces out a hoarse laugh.
"...H▲ H▲ H▲! IS TH▲T, ▲LL YΘU GΘT? YΘUR ▲TTEMPTS TΘ BRING ME DΘWN ▲RE P▲THETIC! SURELY YΘU C▲N DΘ BETTER TH▲N TH▲T!"

---

Having just disposed of those writhing armed things, Thoren checks up on the two in his network. Seth and Raine are both doing quite well, noticeably excited from the scuffle, but well primed for further combat. Minimal injuries, but largely either recently healed or only an annoyance.

Together, they wait for whatever may come next, but that is soon interrupted by that disturbing shiver that's ran down all their spines near simultaneously.
If you thought that was creepy alone, it's even worse when connected.
Needless to say, the sensation catches the party off guard.

Thoren and Seth look up at the seemingly immense being that appears to dominate this realm, still vaguely shaken.

The all encompassing voice of their adversary begins speaking again. Making claims that they didn't know they were being toyed with. Of course those arm beasts were merely the appetizer. It's well known that when a bigass voice is mocking you, you've gotta look for something big, or something very central looking, to find your true target.

And it seems it's right above them.

But before they can even formulate a quick plan to begin any sort of attack, the gravity begins to press down upon them. Not only that, but all of them are overloaded with pain.

Strangely enough, once you reach max pain, if connected to another person feeling max pain, you won't feel any more than before, considring you physically cannot feel any more pain than your own maximum pain output.

That being said, those connected to Thoren can tell quite well from each other that their pain is the same, and in this, their bonds strengthen further together.

Seth and Thoren, in their resolve, grasp for eachother's hands to hold onto tightly, even as the gravity brings them down to their knees.

Thoren reaches out for Raine's hand, so they can hold on together. Seth tries the same with Kat, though can only guess at the pain she must be feeling.
Connection or not, he still wants to be there for her, and perhaps its the lack of absolute certainty that compels him.

With their efforts made to stay together, Thoren looks up at their enemy, absolutely blazing with fury. It seems his long-time experience with enduring his own self-destructive guilt and the weight of his sins has prepared him quite well for a two-pronged attack of this exact type. If he can carry himself on an average day with the atrocities he's committed in the past, he sure as hell can carry himself, and maybe help his friends against this malice motherfucker.

Thoren channels his inner strength to fight against the weight and the pain afflicted against him, and offers the same to Seth and Raine.

"You, you can't stop us! No matter how hard you try, we're not gonna quit! You say we're ugly and unworthy of mercy. You say you've found the cold hard truths embedded in the universe. We may be impure, but we're not gonna let a shitty ass perfectionist destroy what we have!"

Seth speaks out too. He is straining more than Thoren to keep it together, but he holds fast all the same.
"...Even if it isn't real enough for you, it's better than the truth you've found! I'd rather live in an illusion than die in your shitty truth!"

Though the pain afflicting them has not quit, they refuse to back down.

---

Not too far away, Kusari was fighting against the beasts with the helping hand of his victim, but now... now he's pinned to the ground by weight and pain.
it feels worse than any of the points where he did or almost died. There's just no comprison. He tries to scream, but the sound can hardly escape him. It winds up being a breathy whine instead.

Then again, he probably deserves this anyways. Why should he fight his punishment?
a glance nearby tells him exactly why.

She's obviously in immense pain.
She doesn't deserve to be treated like this.

But, what can a weakling that took the easy way out even do here?

---

At the site of the band's performance, it seems their crowd has become one and the same with the one that had followed the light before.

When the pain and gravity hit, the band was silenced to a dead stop, being thrown to the ground and forced to drop their weapons. The summoned cuccos disappear in a poof of dust.
To make matters worse, the organ of evening calm, having been played by Mac, has decided to topple down upon him. Even if he can't be in any more pain than he's already in now, it still brings back flashbacks of his death.

He still remembers how it felt being crushed by that piano.
How it felt when the last of his air escaped his lungs, leaving him breathless underneath the weight of that piano.
How his last dying thoughts were of sheer embarrassment. After all he had done, after the long trials he had to endure, His life would end underneath a fucking piano. He doesn't even play the piano usually! But the ONE FUCKING TIME HE TRIED IT, THE PIANO TRIED TO KILL HIM.

And from the results, it can be said that it succeeded.

Meanwhile, the nightmare pit and the rest of the endless standing plane have re-aligned to the same elevation, effectively lowering the rest of the ground to the pit's level.
Revealed are the hundreds of dead seths, either pinned or trying to get back up, as well as that corpse of Ikin that persists in the middle of the area with the spoon sticking out of the pocket.

Rid, having never even left the ground from his last slamming, has been pushed down to the ground. Not only can he feel pain everywhere upon his form, but even the dastardly phantom pain from his impossible to see intangible arm.

Hypnos, still holding Medi bridal-style, has been knocked to his back. He holds her closer, despite what cold she may still emit. Nothing can be worse than the pain that has assaulted him here.

Meanwhile back at the band's area, one of the link seths, specifically the one with the coral triangle, (the one that was denied the 8th and final instrument and died of a sheer loss of hope while in his coma), is trying to get up. Maybe he had no hope before, but something here... it compels him to strive further. They have everything they need to succeed, all he has to do is fight the despair that had already took his life. A thing more easily said than done, but to him, this will be achieved in a very attainable manner.
With the easiest instrument to play.

With all of his strength, he reaches out to the triangle on the ground. He can hardly move his hands, let alone his arms, but he reaches out anyways.
He grasps his hand upon the wand, as if it would assist him in some arcane incantation to cease this pain.
Without any sense of tact, he swings the mallet at the coral triangle over and over. its chime dulled by its likewise prone position, but heard all the same.
it's taking an incredible amount of willpower for him to do this, but with each strike, his rhythm grows more steady and focused.

The cellist, the link seth who had intersected with a plant, still lies upon the ground. he feels trapped once again, but, the well-timed dings of the triangle compel him to fight once more.
He reaches for his bow and grips it fervently.
The forces playing against his will test his arm's steadiness. He can hardly control the trajectory of his arm. But, with the triangle's rhythm to guide him, it has given him less points in time to focus moving his arm at, allowing for better control. His cello rests face-up, barely within reach. He crawls closer to his baby, and then, holding its neck, as if strangling a goose. He tries to aim the bow's string against the cello's strings, succeeding in making ghastly creaking noises upon the occasional successful brush. But he keeps trying, letting the triangle guide the timing of his strokes.

The horn-blower, the link seth that drowned, hears the efforts of the two that have tried to play onward. He too reaches for his instrument from his grounded position. Holding it tight, he brings the conch horn to his mouth.
The ocarina player, the link seth that was struck down by the ghost of his own father, does the same with his ocarina.

Unfortunately, there's hardly any air for them to blow with.

And Mac, still locked in place by his own terminal memory, has yet to emerge from his toppled organ tomb.

Despite this, the triangler and the cellist keep trying to jam together, despite all the pain and weight holding them down.
They can't quit at a time like this! They truly believe their job is the most important one of them all here. To defy the Red Eye's desire to spread the gospel of despair and keep playing their song.
And that is why they try so hard at their duty, even under the worst of conditions they could possibly imagine.

Because if they don't, there will be no hope for them.

So they keep going.