thenearshore | 011 | Black Parade

Entry tags:

011 | Black Parade

Who: Everyone!
What: Parade of the dead
When: All day May 26
Where: Shinjuku
Summary: The Near Shore needs a little protecting from the dead

The last few days have been filled with festival food, high energy, and lots and lots of parades. Near Shore residents really know how to enjoy their holidays, stopping up traffic for hours on end as floats and palanquins go by and filling the streets and courtyards in the area with food stands and festival treats. Many Far Shore residents may have found themselves drawn to this particular festival, as it is being held in honor of a shrine.

When an unexpected parade starts up, the people gather round to watch the impromptu spectacle. It's a little strange, yes, but nothing too terribly off-putting. That is until the parade reaches the shrine itself, at which point all hell breaks loose as the members of the parade start attacking anything and anyone in their way.

The Heavens will then call upon all the gods and shinki who are available to help, because these attackers are not normal at all - they are, in fact, the undead.

Let the Festivities Continue

The festival is a large, booming one. There are dozens upon dozens of food stalls set up all over the place with so many different kinds of foods that it could make your eyes go buggy, most of them fried in some way. On top of that, there is live entertainment walking around, stalls with souvenirs, and lots of excellent company nearby. Surely you'll be able to enjoy the festival to its fullest.

The Walking Dead

It is not immediately evident that the parade is being manned by corpses, but keen observers would be able to pick out the noticeable rotting elements of the dead. Anyone with a soul-sensing ability might even realize that they're not soulless, just lifeless. When the parade reaches the shrine, every god and shinki will be needed in order to protect the Near Shore from this menace. Corpses must either be exorcised or completely mutilated to the point where they can no longer move in order to release the soul.

Not Rootbeer Floats

On top of the mass of dead bodies being possessed by stray souls, some of the floats on wheels in the parade seem to have been taken over as well. They are moving slowly and with purpose towards anyone that crosses their path. At first, it may seem like the float is just veering a little off course, but it will soon become evident that it's headed towards you. They may be slow, but they're very large as well, meaning there's a lot more than needs to be destroyed to release the soul.

Souls, Souls, and More Souls

In Summary:

Enjoy the festival
Help save Near Shore residents
Take down the dead bodies
Try not to cry
Cry lots
Have fun~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jakob can’t even stop to think of what Add might do to him now, not with the undead drawing ever nearer and the searing pain in his leg, the site of the fractures already swelling up tightly within his trousers. He gasps for breath, face pale and cold sweat trickling from his brow, looking his master up and down, heedless of the threat Add seems to pose for him.

He isn’t injured. That’s good. He turns away before he can see him drop that sneer and tries to rise to his feet, before collapsing to his knees and biting back the renewed pain in his leg. This won’t be easy but…he can buy Add some time, at least. He doesn’t really know what Add might do now and he doesn’t want to waste time thinking about it. Instead, he pulls out a dagger from underneath his uniform and flings it at the nearest zombie, watching it stumble back as the blade sinks between its eyes, but that alone won’t stop the zombie’s advance, nor will it free the poor soul inside.

There are less than a dozen left on his person. Frustrated, he cries out, without even turning to look back at his god—“What are you waiting for, Add? Leave this place at once! I’ll cover your escape.”

With that said he tosses out another dagger. And another. Soon he’ll have nothing left to throw at these monsters but himself.

When the first knife goes flying Add snaps back to attention again, worried for a second that Roxas might have been injured—it hits a different zombie, thankfully, though he's still surprised by Jakob's continued determination. He's clearly in pain and trying to get in Add's way, but at the same time he's... trying to help him, maybe?

"Why?" is the first frustrated noise out of his mouth, because none of this makes sense to him right now. "Stop— stop attacking them, if there's a chance we can do something then isn't it worth trying?! You'll destroy him just because he told you to?! This could be our only chance!"

Add growls, electricity crackling around him again before he extends a hand towards Jakob, smashing another thin crack into reality. Rather than hit his shinki a second time, though, it disrupts the path of one of the corpses that had come a little too close for comfort. It topples back to writhe on the ground uselessly.

"Is it because you think I can't do it? I've done more impossible things than this before, even if it takes a few tries to get it right...!"

He's not going to let any of the zombies tear apart Jakob, at least, but he's not ready to let him off the hook yet either. This is now about trying to get validation for his crazy ideas so he doesn't have to feel guilty about anything. The desperation in his voice couldn't be any more obvious.

“I’m not saying it’s impossible!” He doesn’t even flinch when Add raises his hand at him, though he does wince when he sees Add’s powers affecting another zombie. Ugh. The corpse probably felt that too.

And he hasn’t forgotten a conversation with Sora in what feels like a long time ago, about the possibility that Roxas might still exist somewhere even if the afterlife should’ve been the end of everything. And others have hinted as much to him, that vanished gods might have simply returned to their old lives, or moved on elsewhere, but hope can only go so far when you are dead and your god has left a very real void in your lives. It’s one thing to think that Roxas might be living happily in some other plane of existence, but quite another to see evidence to the contrary, and with no reliable way to return him to normal.

He can only trust Add so far. “I’m telling you that it isn’t necessary!” He reaches inside his uniform, counting out the remaining knives with his fingers. About four left. They should be reserved for Roxas and Ludger. They only need to come closer…

But Add is still here, and quite determined to argue with him about the morality of this entire affair, besides. “Like it or not, Add, you won’t keep me from my duty. And you don’t…you don’t have to see this.”

Add should be the last person who needs to be told about after-afterlives. He's already been through this mess twice himself, so of course he knows no one is truly gone forever. Their thoughts on the matter are still similar, though, even if they've come to completely different conclusions on how Roxas' soul inhabiting a rotting corpse should be handled. If this is what happened to him after he disappeared, who's to say something worse won't happen to him once he's freed?

But the fact remains... even if they lose both their comrades again, they can still keep searching for another way. Add was never betting on a chance encounter like this to solve his problems. This doesn't have to be the only way to bring them back.

Is this really what Roxas wants? ... Would it be hypocritical of Add to refuse, when he'd once asked for the same?

His shoulders wilt, determination beginning to waver. "So I should just let you kill them, even though they're right here?" Could be right here, still no solid evidence to prove it's them— "It doesn't matter if I see it or not, do you think that makes it any easier to accept?!"

He can't accept it. He's a terrible friend, he can't even do this much for Roxas...

“Then you have every right to punish me for it! Later.” Later, when he’ll probably consider the matter more thoroughly and probably come to a very different conclusion regarding how to handle the corpses of their former housemates. But in the heat of battle he can but remain pragmatic, and despite his determination to do this last duty for Roxas, he can’t help but feel a touch distracted that his feckless god is still here and still trying to stir up trouble.

He has to throw another knife at a zombie hobbling far too close to Add. Three left.

“Damn you.” Glaring at Add, silently hoping that he might take offense at that and leave him to his rightful fate to die in the service of his master—“Stop wasting any more of my time and leave already!”

He flinches at the knife flying past him and the sputtering gurgle of another corpse falling backwards. This is a dangerous situation, they both should leave...

"I'm not going anywhere, so stop asking!" he growls, meeting Jakob's eyes with a stubborn glare of his own. They're both far too stubborn for this. "What's punishing you going to do?! That doesn't change what happens here, if you can't do it right in front of me then you're not doing it at all!"

And he will have to do it right in front of Add, because Add isn't going to leave. Maybe Jakob doesn't have the guts to do it in front of his god. There's a small chance he might still be able to have his way...

Not that he can even be sure anymore that what he wants is really what he wants—is it really better to try to save them, or should they follow Roxas and Ludger's wishes to be set free...? Cowardly as it is, it's easier to push that decision on Jakob.

Add probably won’t get nightmares if he watches Jakob go at it anyway, right? Because Jakob highly suspects that very little fazes Add—except something like this. These zombies are, in the end, weaklings compared to the creatures he’d faced off in his previous life. But he doesn’t know that, and knowing that their former comrades are trapped in those bodies is horrific enough.

He wishes he’d wake from this nightmare himself.

“Then watch from a safer distance!” Although the only place of safety he does know of is the shrine, and that’s a ways from here. It’s not that he doesn’t want Add to watch, in the end, but he doesn’t want Add to die while Jakob uses the last of his weapons to finish off Roxas and Ludger. If only he’d understand that…

He ducks at the swipe of a nearby zombie and thrusts the point of his dagger into the creature’s foot, stopping it in its tracks before it can get anywhere near Add. To free his previous master, or to save his current one…he only has three daggers left, and even less time to decide before he feels a slimy, rotting hand grasp at his hair and yank his head upward with force enough to make him drop his weapon with a yelp. Two daggers left, and he has to quickly draw one before this thing tries to get past him and at his master.

Add doesn't have time for a snide comment before something grabs Jakob by the hair—stupid, he should've been paying closer attention—

"Dynamo!" he commands sharply, arms spread out to direct his tools. There's a loud hum of electricity as patterns of light rapidly spread out from beneath him, tracing a circular zone of a few meters in diameter—just wide enough to reach under Jakob from Add's position at its centre. In an instant, all the corpses within range are frozen in place.

Time-stop wasn't an ability unique to Ludger, after all.

Although, Ludger's method might have been more practical... regardless, Jakob shouldn't have any difficulty wriggling free of the corpse's grasp while Add maintains the field. He lets out a thin sigh, struggling to keep calm between the stress of the situation and his abilities beginning to reach their limit.

"If I'm watching from a safe distance then who the hell is going to keep you from getting yourself killed? If you're going to do something then just shut up and do it already! If you don't do something then I will!"

And here he’d thought that this would be the end of the line. Once time stops for their encroaching attackers Jakob quickly frees himself from the creature’s grasp and hacks away at its arm for good measure. Rotting flesh or no, the human body is still a tough thing to kill and knives can only do so much.

Does he even have enough to finish off even just one of their comrades? Can he risk it?

He grits his teeth, feeling his throat ache as he flashes a glare behind him, the tears beginning to pour out as he struggles to his feet, even bracing himself against the immobile zombie. Putting so much weight on his bad leg will only make it worse, he knows, but he’s got little choice in the matter now.

“I would rather die!” he snaps at Add’s retort, and seeing his master as weakened and scared and desperate as he is…

He really would rather die. He’d failed his previous two masters already. What’s a third?

“But that would solve nothing.” He shoves himself away from the zombie and stumbles toward his master, throwing his arms around Add as Jakob collapses against him, the flush of his anger now drained away to a pain-laced pallor, his leg twisted under him.

“So get…get moving!” He’ll give Add a mighty shove then, never mind if that means he’ll drop back to the ground. He doesn’t know how much longer the time-stop effect will last, but he’d rather Add be leagues away from here before he finds that out.

It's difficult to watch while Jakob is in pain and struggling, knowing that he and his temper are the cause for at least some of that pain. Not just the physical injury, but the emotional as well, as baffling as it may be to Add. Why does Jakob have to be like this? Just because Add is his god... even if Add did try to outright kill him, would he not even resist or care?

And it doesn't make it any easier when Jakob collapses into him so helplessly. Electricity crackles across his skin, and no doubt Jakob is getting an uncomfortable static shock from that first contact, though fortunately it's not enough to do any damage. Add's body stiffens, equal parts trying not to interrupt the Void Field and being completely unsure of how to handle this development. Jakob is practically hugging him here. As if he needed more things to confuse and distract him, now his shinki is crying into his chest and begging him to leave.

But he doesn't budge from Jakob's shoving. He gnaws his lip, trying to turn his gaze to the side but finding it difficult to look away when there are frozen corpses on all around them. If Add moves from this spot, the field will disperse and all of them will converge on Jakob.

"I'm not leaving you, so stop asking already," he growls low, straining to keep his voice even. "I'm already bad enough of a god... as if I need a dead shinki on my record. No one else would be stupid enough to follow me. So you're not allowed to die under my watch. Is that clear?"

He can't abandon Jakob, but he's driven himself into a corner. Void Field is only useful if someone else can escape or clear the monsters while Add has them busy. If Jakob refuses to do either, all he did was delay them for a little while.

If Jakob won't act, then...

"... there's only a small chance of them being real, but... the chance of casualty is much higher..."

Trying now to preserve the specimen would mean leaving Jakob unguarded, in the way, and at a high risk of injury or death. That's not something Ludger or Roxas would want him to do for their sakes. If it's not even guaranteed to save them, or even that they're really here... the scales are too unbalanced, even if he measures Roxas' friendship as infinitely more valuable.

There will be other opportunities... ones that won't involve his friends begging for release.

"... I won't ask you again. If you're going to do it, then do it now. Don't tell me you've already lost your nerve. I can't hold them still forever, you know." And the exhaustion is rapidly seeping into his voice, as much as he's willing himself to hold on.

He barely even feels the static anymore, not with the pain screaming in his leg and the prospect of Add in danger still looming ever closer, but desperation is enough to make him forgo dignity, to keep him from arguing with Add’s orders any further. All he wants now is for Add to come out of this alive and unscathed, and it hurts him that he wants that even more than he wants Roxas and Ludger to be free.

“Forgive me,” he mumbles, to Add and to the others both as he pulls away from that sudden embrace and sinks to the ground. He’d never really thought he’d ever bend the knee to Add like this, but troubled times…

“I can’t kill them.” And it’s not an easy decision to make, not when he’s crippled and lacking in proper butchering implements. Even if he could crawl his way to Roxas and dismember him, he’d still leave Add in the thick of this mess. And that…that irks him to no end. Must he always be too weak to protect his master?

“My powers are insufficient, and if I leave your side…”

He doesn’t know what to think, save that he’ll only fail Roxas a second time if he should ever let it happen. He lifts his eyes to meet Add’s then, resolve shining through despite the puffiness of emotion.

“We have another option left to us: you must use my vessel form to fight your way out of here and escape.” Jakob can’t be killed in that form anyway, unless someone deems to shatter him. And, pointedly, he avoids mentioning the whole freeing Roxas and Ludger part.

Can't; not won't. Unsurprising, considering their predicament, but...

"They're not insufficient," he states firmly, ignoring the growing quake in his arms from the energy coursing through him. Only a few more seconds left. "And I hate leaving things half-finished. This is something we have to do."

They can't just leave Roxas and Ludger like this, regardless of what choice they make. No, it's up to them to see this through. To end this.

Add takes in a deep breath, steeling himself. Jakob will be easier to deal with in his vessel form anyway. Hopefully he won't be too damaged from the broken leg in that state... but it should be at least enough to kill two corpses, if they rend them properly. Dynamo can hold back the rest with the remainder of his power. They may not be able to clear out the horde, but they'll be able to make a narrow escape if they're quick enough.

"Your vessel better not still be a teapot," he adds wryly. Probably should've checked that before deciding on this plan, but oh well. "This might be close, so give it everything you've got. Chaki!"

He drops the field to catch Jakob's vessel, the light below them quickly fading. They'll have barely more than a second before the corpses start moving again.

And if he ends up wielding a harmless teacup or an apron... well, maybe he'll still have enough time to cast a quick seal on himself.

The thought that he’ll be more useful as crockery than as himself is maddening enough, though not quite so much as the feeling of sheer helplessness that comes after, once he’s been made into an inanimate object. What if something goes wrong? What if he can’t keep the zombies back from him? What if—

“This…This is new.” And a welcome respite from the aches and pains of his human body, surely, but what appears in Add’s hands is hardly the teapot of old. In its place is an ornate tray with sharpened edges, and Jakob can hardly believe it. Has he become a weapon…? He doesn’t have long to dwell on that once the zombies start moving again, and with the pain gone his more martial instincts have resurfaced in one sharp command:

“Quick! Throw me—now!”

"Weapon" might be a bit of a stretch, but it's better than a teapot. He holds the tray a bit awkwardly, unsure of what to do with it. How is he supposed to use this thing?

But Jakob is kind enough to give him some guidance, even if the idea of throwing his shinki doesn't seem like the best idea. He's not in a position to argue right now. Gritting his teeth, Add pulls back and flings the vessel like a frisbee, praying that it'll be able to hit the right target—or at least land somewhere safely out of harm's way.

He can’t really say why or how he’d come to think of himself as more weapon than dishware, but thankfully Add doesn’t demand an explanation. And in spite of all appearances as a vessel Jakob manages to be sturdy enough to lop the head off of one zombie and slicing into another nearby before he finally loses momentum and clatters to the ground.

But as far as Jakob can tell, he hasn’t managed to reach far enough to decapitate his former liege lord. Damn it.

“I should train you later on,” he sighs, not at all minding if Add can’t hear him at the moment.

The throw ends up better than he expected it to be, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. It only damaged two corpses, and Roxas and Ludger are still unscathed.

"I should design a disc-shooting device later on," he mumbles to himself. Maybe Dynamo could be modified to use a railgun formation with Jakob's vessel as the projectile, or something like that...

Now isn't the time to be working on designs, however. Add is still surrounded by a horde of ravenous zombies, and with his shinki now several feet away as a plate on the ground, he's the only appetizing target left. Normally all these small fries wouldn't be a problem, but he needs time for his dynamos to recover after using so many huge attacks in a row. He hisses through his teeth, hastily shoving back a lunging corpse with a burst of electricity.

"If I have to retrieve you every time, throwing isn't going to work! Can't you do anything else?!"

“You were supposed to run away!” he retorts, his old temper swiftly returning with Add’s failure to fucking escape after what they’ve all been through. If he were back in his usual form again he might very well have shoved Add toward escape. Alas, for he is now at the mercy of an obstinate master who might soon leave this place of existence if Jakob doesn’t do something, and soon—

“Must I move your legs for you as well, milord?”

"I'm not done here yet, so shut up about running away!" Back to their usual antics could be seen as a good thing, at least, though it doesn't really help with their current situation. He forces another zombie out of his way, taking a half-step back towards more encroaching corpses. All that stalling for time left them heavily surrounded.

Or just Add, since Jakob is out of harm's way. Perhaps now would be a good time to activate the Seal of Time...

It'd be easier if he could just get Jakob's stupid plate back. At least throwing that doesn't drain his energy as much as using Dynamo. He peers through the barrier of bodies to where his shinki landed.

"Chaki!" It comes to him during the transformation, so it's worth a shot, right?

Jakob feels himself rising up off the ground then, and furthermore he finds himself spinning backward toward his master this time, lopping off the legs of zombies on his way over until he’s returned to Add’s grasp in short order.

And that…that’s pretty surprising for him, too, though he doesn’t say anything more articulate than a sigh of relief at having managed to decimate further zombies. Really, it feels as if he can cut things better than if he’d used his dagger or his flimsy borderlines.

He's a little surprised when his idea actually works, catching the plate with both hands when it reaches him. He almost drops Jakob a second later when he realizes its covered in the oozing rotten juices of their adversaries. He's wearing gloves, but still...

Ugh, he'll only do it because it's necessary. Hopefully Jakob doesn't mind the repulsed expression on Add's face when he grips the plate to give him another throw. This isn't a weapon he's used to, but now that the path is a bit clearer he'll try actually aiming it.

There's a moment of hesitation before he flings the vessel forward, vaguely in the direction of Roxas and Ludger's corpses. Part of him hopes it misses... but whatever happens, he's ready to call Jakob back again as soon as he's cut through the crowd.

If he could make a face at Add he would—who’s the one who’d been injured in the first place? And forced to serve up his attacks through such close quarters? Really, no one ever seems to appreciate the servants around here.

But spinning keeps him from focusing on any one zombie, and when he finds himself cutting through yet more rotting flesh, he can but hear the moans of someone familiar—maybe Roxas, or even Ludger? He can’t tell—before he finds himself smacking into the face of a nearby zombie and clattering to the ground once more.

The next time Add recalls him he’ll just tell him to clear a path to escape and run. The best they can do now is let the rest of the Heavens take care of the corpses.

The good news is that they actually land a hit on their targets this time! Unfortunately, they only sliced off Ludger's arm, and both he and Roxas are otherwise still intact. Add winces, briefly wondering if he feels any pain from that injury...

Probably better not to think about it. He sighs, calling his dynamos down so he can step onto them now that more space has been cleared. He nearly stumbles off a second later, a wave of dizziness rushing over him—damnit, he's really used too much power today. He manages to stay upright only thanks to the magnetism holding his feet in place.

"Chaki!" If his catch is a little sloppy this time, hopefully Jakob won't notice. He's not sure how many more attempts at this he can make before his body starts to give out on him. He just needs one good throw...!

“We must go,” Jakob declares once he’s safely back in Add’s possession. Sure, the firmness of his tone of voice might not come across as well when he’s in this form, but he’s seen what it’s like there. And he sees what Add is like now, and once again feels a twinge for how he’s failed his master.

Is this…really the end then? Are they just going to leave after so many sacrifices, without even accomplishing what either of them had been planning to do?

“The undead are pressing ever closer as we speak. Retreat—” the word is almost spat out, disgusted as Jakob is with himself for even considering it, given all that unfinished business approaching them. “Retreat is our only option.”

"I said shut up!" he growls, "It's your fault for being such a stupidly hard to aim weapon!" Which isn't very fair to bring up, since Jakob didn't choose his vessel, not to mention he's still doing a fine job of saving both their asses right now. But there's no way they could just give up after going through all this trouble. He's already decided they're both seeing this through to the end.

He just has to hit the damn target.

Add hisses out an irritable sigh, gripping the edge of Jakob's vessel tightly. To hell with this—he'll just move in closer before the horde starts crowding around them again. He takes a deep breath and leans forward, the dynamos responding automatically to his will. They glide unevenly as Add tries to avoid the grasping limbs of fallen corpses below them, or crashing into the standing ones still shambling on all sides of them, or crashing into the ground in general thanks to how exhausted he is, but Jakob will surely be pleased to see that they're going deeper into the horde rather than away from it.

Getting out might be a bit more tricky now, but more importantly, he's charging straight towards Roxas and Ludger. As the distance between them closes Add quickly cancels his momentum, throwing Jakob at the same time. At point blank, there's no way they'll miss this time. That plate is going clean through at least one of these corpses.

"Chaki!" ... and they'll hit the other one on the return trip!

In the end, Jakob really has no choice but to follow the whims of his master. Strange how reluctant it makes him feel anyway, where Add is concerned. It seems so much better that he refuse Add’s orders for his and everyone’s sake…

He feels the tension in Add’s fingers and then yelps out a feeble, “Add, please—” before off his master goes, charging in the wrong direction, until he’s finally flung straight at the agonized face of his previous master, slicing Roxas’s head off…

And despite himself, Jakob chokes out a sob, barely even hearing the wispy sound of “Thanks” as Roxas’s soul begins to flee from his vessel before he finds himself tearing through Ludger’s rotting ribcage, watching the ghoulish remnants of his soul fly out next.

This is going to give him horrible, horrible nightmares after this. Worse, Add might, too.

011 | Black Parade

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