[closed]

[kagenonadeshiko]

Who: Ayumu, Goku, Hakkai, Chikusa, Ken, Ginia, Gojyo, Shun, Lavi, Nia, + brief appearances by Chinatsu and Caster.
When December 8th and 9th
Where: Goku's temple and various locations in the Far Shore's western district.
What: What starts out as an ablution to purify a blighted shinki turns into utter disaster in the western district.
Warnings: Character death, body horror, graphic violence, potential references to torture, sexual violence, and suicidal ideation in the ablution thread. Will add further warnings if necessary!

[The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Even in Heaven.

In the wee hours of morning before dawn, a loud, inhuman, cacophonic shriek shatters the silence in the western district. Afterward, a large, black mass hastily passes through the region. It skitters and softly thumps across rooftops in both pursuit of prey to sate its ceaseless hunger and flight from those intent on its destruction.

As it travels through the dark, the upper silhouette of a woman astride a giant spider can be glimpsed, ghosting and leaping across distances many more lengths than its size with stunning agility. For those that can steal a glimpse of the woman's face, they'll discover that the features are those of Ayumu Yamazaki - if hideously deformed by the addition of three extra pairs of beady, black eyes sprouting up over its forehead and beyond.

Those tracking its trajectory will realize that the ayakashi is bound for the northwestern edge of the district as if seeking desperate escape from every vestige of Amaterasu's realm and influence.

A telltale sign of the ayakashi's passing are faint wisps of spidersilk hanging from high places or bits littered across the ground. However, these secretions are dangerous to the touch, blighting anyone who comes into direct contact with them. A very faint, tar-like odor lingers in the air where it's been.

Maybe it'd be wise to keep under cover or at the very least, steer clear of its path until the danger's passed.]


[OOC: Ayumu's ayakashi form looks similar to this minus the skulls, with furrier black legs, and the aforementioned resemblance and eye deformities. Players are free to reference or comment on any of the description above in their own threads or posts if they like!]

Comments

Ablution - Goku's temple

[kagenonadeshiko]

[Since the beginning of the ablution, Ayumu's been a silent figure within the barrier of the borderines. She's sat prone in a seiza position for hours now without so much as a word or flickering acknowledgment of the gathered participants. Her face is calm, impassive, her gaze distant as if fixed upon a point no one else can see.

In contrast, her appearance is disheveled, her hair in wild disarray and her nightgown creeping off her shoulder. From what's visible on her skin, ugly purple blight has spread its way extensively and there's no telling how much worse it is where its hidden from view. There's dark circles of exhaustion under her eyes. Her sleep has been deeply disturbed the last two nights, screams tearing through Goku's temple in the middle of the night as she's woken from nightmares she can't quite remember.

The feelings of overwhelming dread that flares up whenever Ayumu's thoughts stray obsessively toward her forgotten past are no longer enough sufficient restraint to keep her shackled. In life, she'd always been immensely capable of extreme degrees of emotional repression and that quality hasn't changed in the slightest. If anything, she's become desensitized to the dread meant to act as a safeguard for shinki, the more she tests and assesses an obstacle, the closer she comes to the brink of finding a way to surpass it.

It's what Ayumu does. It's what she's always done.

Despite looking downright terrible, there's a simple, quiet air of dignity and grim acceptance about her now. It won't be long now.]

[rockthemonkey]

[Goku has not be properly prepared for this.

The nightmares he could handle, it's nothing he hasn't experienced before. He didn't tell anyone else about those, because that's not what you do with nightmares, you just quietly make sure the other person knows you're there and let them calm down on their own. Waking up in terror and taking five minutes to realise it's not his own fear is new, but he hasn't been sleeping much lately anyway. The blight on his neck and the dread in his heart keep him awake, despite all efforts to reason with himself.

Eventually, the blight is so bad he can't ignore it any longer. Talking to Ayumu doesn't help, not when she doesn't want to, holy water no longer has an effect and he doesn't know what he's meant to do. Luckily, Goku hasn't fall so far into repressed despair that he can't turn to others for help.

Not that their solution seems to be working much better. Goku gave up on trying to talk Ayumu through the process an hour ago, back when there was still some hope of this working. Now he's kneeling on the grass, arms wrapped tight around himself as he tries to focus on anything but the growing panic, fear and dread inside him. Telling himself they aren't his feelings doesn't help, not when they feel so real and trigger his own insecurities and nightmares as well. But he has to be strong. If he's strong and Ayumu is strong, they can make it through this and everything will be okay. They can have dinner and play games with the kittens. If he thinks about that and not about how cold it is outside, about how Ayumu had felt dying in the rain, about how quiet it had been in the cave, about how Sanzo still isn't here, about how Ayumu doesn't even seem to want this to work-

Maybe he can make it through this without breaking down. ]

[kokuyoyo]

[They're not going to be able to last much longer.]

[Chikusa knows borderlines. He knows ablutions. More important than all of that, he also knows his partner, and he knows that this is seriously testing the limits of Ken's endurance when it comes to borderlines, even with the improvement he's shown.]

[Oh, Chikusa knows for a fact that he can probably outlast most people in the Far Shore at this rate, with shinki of the old guard being an unknown factor, and Ginia could maybe go for a while.... but Ken won't be lasting for much longer. He's certain of this.]

[She wouldn't talk to her god, and Chikusa has been content to let the more 'emotionally intune' people try talking to her... but that's clearly not working. Looking as implacable as usual, he takes in a deep breath and finally shifts from his own position as part of the ablution.]

....Ayumu. Do you care about Goku?

[unlucky7]

[This is a mistake Ginia will wear as a scar for the rest of her life.

It's strange; she doesn't know Goku or Ken at all, only met Ayumu a week ago (how time flies in the Far shore), and does she really know Chikusa considering how stoic and aloof he is? But he asked for help and she couldn't say no.

(Too good, too caring, too stubborn, too prideful, too idiotic, too ruled by the chronic hero syndrome that's ruined most of her forgotten life, maybe one day she'll figure out why she couldn't say no.)

How long has it been? There's a heavy numbness beginning to settle into her limbs from the sustained position, the sustained borderline beginning to feel like a heavy weight on her chest, her mind. But Ginia is stubborn if nothing else; she can grit her teeth and keep going.

Ginia briefly glances at Chikusa and his pointed question, looking back at Ayumu as she steels herself.]

[reformedsinner]

[Goku is huddled on the ground, blight a living, shifting thing across his shoulders and down his arms as it threatens to grow. Hakkai is on one knee beside him, watching the ablution.

His jaw clenches at Chikusa's question. It had worked for him, in the end: cruelly leveraging a shinki's responsibility to their god to force them to relent may be the only way, with stubborn types, once it's gone too far.

It's not his place to try to talk Ayumu through this. It's not, given the way Ayumu tends to respond to Hakkai's perspectives, even a good idea.

He turns his attention back to Goku, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. Pain is one thing. Guilt, grief and despair are harder to endure, even secondhand.]

Take deep breaths, Goku.

[He keeps his own voice quiet, calm and even despite the fear icing his marrow. This is taking a long time. Chikusa can hold the barrier -- but Ginia is an unknown quantity, and Ken? Hakkai will be shocked if Ken can hold out much longer. Ayumu has not yet begun to confess.]

I know it's hard, but you need to stay calm.

[junkyarddog]

[It really doesn't help that Ken is increasingly scared and upset and desperate.

Ken's made a lot of progress with borderlines, and when he'd heard Ayumu needed them he'd wanted to help, and he'd been proud when Chikusa looked at him levelly for a bit and declared he'd probably do. (This, from Chikusa, is an impressive level of acknowledgment. Especially since Ken knows Chikusa cares about Ayumu, so he wouldn't let Ken help if he thought Ken was bound to screw it up.) And Chikusa had been explicit - if not overly thorough - in his instructions of how to conduct this ablution. Stay calm. Stay focused. Maintain his borderline. Repeat these words when prompted. Make sure Ayumu confesses her guilt. And prepare to be worn out afterwards.

Ken's done everything he was told, to the best of his ability. He doesn't think he's screwed up anything; Chikusa surely would have told him if he had. But the ablution hasn't gone right. Ayumu's supposed to confess, but she's not saying anything. She barely seems to know, or care, that they're there. Ken knows that the ablution is slowly killing her, and the longer she sits there, the stronger the impression gets - she's waiting to die. She's going to let herself die while they watch.

Death doesn't mean people vanish in the heavens, Ken knows. But they come back without their memories. They forget the people they knew, and the things they did. Ayumu's going to forget them. She's going to forget him, just like Hibari did. Just like Zero did. Just like Hakkai did. (Although at least Hakkai got better.) And it doesn't help that everyone who's forgotten Ken for good eventually disappeared, too; it might not stop with just forgetting them.

When Ken thinks of making cookies with Ayumu, of being curled up by her bed watching her heal, eating dinner with her and Hakkai, Ayumu smiling as she pets his hair...he doesn't want her to forget. He doesn't want all those memories to be for nothing. He doesn't want her to look at him without recognition.

But it seems like Ayumu wants that. Because she knows what dying means, too. She's smart - definitely smarter than Ken. Why does she want to die? Why can't they do anything? Why can't he do anything?

Part of the desperation is pure emotional distress, but just as much of it is the weight of his borderline slowly growing more and more unbearable. If Ayumu is just stalling them until the ablution fails or she turns into an ayakashi, she's going to get her wish soon. He'd hold his borderline indefinitely until they convinced Ayumu to confess, if he could, but it's becoming clear he can't. There's a tangible time limit here. If Ayumu doesn't cooperate soon, she really will die.]

Ayumu! [His voice is anguished. He's kind of derailing Chikusa's efforts, but he can't help himself.] You gotta tell us what you feel guilty about, or you're gonna die!

[Which, you know. She should know already. But Ken is trying to convey the urgent imminence of it.

So much for being calm and focused, anyway. Ken wasn't so bad at it at the start, to be fair...but it's all gone now. And Chikusa...may have entirely neglected to mention - and perhaps never knew - that sympathy for the blighted shinki is a problem. It's not like Chikusa regularly has problems with excess emotion.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

[Oddly, it's Ken's desperate outburst that stirs a faint whisper of feeling in Ayumu's heart and for the first time in hours, she shows acknowledgement of her surroundings. Her gaze shifts to Ken, her expression still stoic but there's a hint of genuine sorrow and regret. It's not enough to make her change her course but it's enough to prompt her to speak.]

I'm sorry. I'd hoped you and Chikusa wouldn't have to see this.

[Her tone's disturbingly mild and conversational for a woman so intent on her own demise. She'd hoped for a lot of things, really. None of them had ever worked out quite the way she'd wanted them to but that's life isn't it? And death, too, it seems...]

But it's nothing to cry about. I'm already dead. And you'll be just fine without me. Hakkai takes good care of you all, right?

[That last bit is as much for Goku's ears as it is Ken's, really.]

AYAKASHI FIGHT THREADS

[kagenonadeshiko]

[The fighting teams are:

Hakkai and Gojyo
Chikusa and Ken
Lavi and Shun
Goku and Nia

As stated in the plot post, the pair to deliver the deathblow has been chosen via RNG. Ayumu will be rended by Shun and Lavi.]

Running Battle

[kagenonadeshiko]

[So much succulent energy all around her, hidden away within buildings, behind windows. Most of her mind is gone, leaving only a dark, insatiable hunger that threatens what little reason the ayakashi's capable of. But she's patient and disciplined, as much an ayakashi can be, quickly but intently approaching the outer wall of one of the temples in the western district.

She's starving now, after having been forced to flee the place of her birth. Now all she can do is hunt. Find a place to hide herself away, a rooftop to perch on to wait for a tender little morsel foolish enough to step outside. Then she'll pounce and slash with her bladelike arms, jaw extending much further than any normal human mouth could in an attempt to devour her prey.

Nothing in sight yet. So she waits.]

Hakkai & Gojyo

[reformedsinner]

[Ayumu -- or the creature that had once been Ayumu -- had run, after the ablution, before Hakkai could recover from the shock of feeling Chikusa's death and calling him back from it. She had been in the western district then, near Goku's temple.

She may have roamed far from her original location, but she can't have gone too far. Hakkai had left Chikusa and Ken at home, to recover, and because he can't imagine taking the two of them into danger again so soon; but he's not foolish enough to go alone. He had asked Gojyo.

There may be other things he'll need to deal with, eventually, but he can't let Ayumu continue to roam like this. In her place, he knows what he would have wanted... and it is to know that he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else.]

Have you seen anything?

[He pitches his voice low as his glance flicks over the tangled vegetation. It's harder for things to hide with the trees mostly leafless for winter, and he can feel the unsettling energy of an ayakashi nearby. Even out here, at the fringes of the Heavens, that's not normal. It must be her.]

Re: Hakkai & Gojyo

[erogappa]

[ Ayumu's gone. Tsuzuki's vanished, "gone home" people say but he's dead, recycled, maybe stored somewhere to be reused later. Chikusa died, and came back as something... something different, and Ayumu's gone. ]

She's nearby, but I don't see her. ...It.

[ There's no coming back from this -- nobody has ever become un-ayakashi'd, not when the blight spread this far. She's dead, and all they can do for her down is find the thing her corpse became and put it down.

With a deep breath, Gojyo fights against the rising grief, trying to focus on the battle at hand. Hakkai's got enough to deal with between Ken and Chikusa, and Goku...

Goku's suffered enough today already. ]

Transform me, okay? I can't protect you like this.

[kagenonadeshiko]

[And there. Her patience is rewarded. The scent of her meal wafts to her and she quietly maneuvers herself in its direction, cautious to keep her bulk hidden in the shadows as much as possible. Her field of vision is wide; she should be able to get into their blindspot without compromising her own position.

But despite her cunning, she's still only an ayakashi and her hunger, coupled with the close promiximity of her prey drives her to attack quickly, leaping down directly onto them from somewhere above.

Think fast, boys.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai -- luckily may not be the word -- has years of experience being ambushed. Chitinous legs scrape above them, and there is movement, a great bulk descending.]

Come, Shaki!

[Even as he calls Gojyo, he's moving, a dive out from under the growing shadow of the ayakashi's bulk that becomes a roll as he strikes the ground on his left shoulder, hands thrown wide to catch the umbrella's handle, and rolls up again to his feet. He spins towards Ayumu, and, in the same movement, strikes at the joint of her nearest leg.]

[erogappa]

[ There's jsut the smallest flash of movement in the corner of his eye, the briefest feeling that something is happening, something nearby, something dangerous... but then his body shifts and the world opens up. Hakkai's hand is warm and secure on his handle as he swings forward, aimed for her -- its -- leg. The moment he feels contact he'll snap his canopy open, quickly out-and-back, to try and force her away.

ItIt's not Ayumu. The body sprouting from the spider's torso isn't Ayumu -- not anymore. It's the thing that killed her, and that thought lays cold rage down Gojyo's spine. He thrusts out again, jabbing for any soft space on its body he can find, anything to make it hurt. To make it suffer for what it has done. Anger makes it easier.

Fucking bitch, fuck you! ]

Goku and Nia

[rockthemonkey]

[Goku feels a lot better now. He feels terrible- full of grief and anger- but better than before. He'd feel guilty about that, about everything, but he has a job to do now. That's something he can deal with. He's a little late to join the Ayumu hunt, having been in no shape to start fighting right after the ablution, but he remembers the direction she'd ran in after her transformation. He knows what he'd want to happen if it were him. Chikusa already-

He's kind of glad Gojyo went with Hakkai. Lasers are cool, but after that ablution he's not sure he wants someone else in his head again. Ishi is completely silent, even by his standards, while in his vessel form. A simple, plain katana in Goku's hand. Not a weapon he's used to, but he's seen enough people use swords to be fairly confident.

Staying close to the walls for shelter would be anyone's first thought, but Goku keeps slowly walking down the centre of the street, looking around carefully for any signs of an ayakashi with way too many legs. If he can just draw her out...]

... Ayumu!

[It's not really her. But maybe she remembers the name. He just has to find her before anyone else gets hurt.]

[sassywelshcatgirl]

What the hell?

[Who's yelling? Honestly, you can't go anywhere without someone being rude, it seems.]

[Nia strolls out of a connecting street, having been poking around maybe a little bit where she shouldn't have been out of curiosity and a sneaking suspicion that there's more going on around here than is obvious on the surface. Oblivious to any danger, she cocks an eyebrow at the kid.]

You lose someone?

[kagenonadeshiko]

[Something smells good. Really good.

But the ayakashi's learned a lesson about striking with haste. She hops from one rooftop down onto the ruined upper story of an abandoned temple. There's a wall obscuring most of her body from view from the street. However, there are windows through which glimpses of the ayakashi can be seen. Once she reaches the far end of the structure, she leans out the window to get a closer look, the giant spider body hidden within the interior, so only the upper humanoid portion of the body is visible.

From this distance, it might be harder to see the multiple sets of eyes on the woman's face or make out the serrated blade arms draping over the window sill. One of these arms has been disabled, broken and hanging loosely from her torso.]

[rockthemonkey]

[Goku can't see Ayumu, but he can feel eyes on him. Something is here. His head snaps around at the sound of Nia's voice- but no, it's not her, she doesn't feel threatening at all. He jogs over to her quickly, to take up guard.]

Yeah. [He doesn't look too hard at Nia, focused on scanning the area and holding his sword defensively in front of him.] She- She's an ayakashi and I'm looking for her.

[No sense beating around the bush.]

You might wanna get outta here.

[sassywelshcatgirl]

Hold on. [There's no way Nia can't regard that question with suspicion, and one hand drops down to her waist out of pure muscle memory -- but she doesn't have any weapons there no matter how much her body expect them.] You're looking for an ayakashi and calling a name?

[Just who is this guy and why is he doing something so blatantly sketchy?]

Abandoned Temple Retreat

[kagenonadeshiko]

[Wounded, bleeding ichor, legs mangled by previous skirmishes - the ayakashi's objective has switched from hunting for food to retreat. She needs safety - a place to rest and recuperate far from her attackers. After a period of recovery, her desperate, unreasonable hunger will drive her out into the immediate area once more to seek nourishment.

For now, the place the ayakashi has chosen to rest is a seeminigly ancient ruined temple almost completely consumed by the thick dense rainforest blanketing the expansive grounds. There are no inscriptions marking its former owner and all the religious icons have faded to be unrecognizable. The myriad of broken towers and remnants of buildings are done in architecture that appears vaguely reminiscent of southern Asia but are too ruined to verify for certain.

Three things are clear, however. One is that the crumbling outer walls, remaining arches, pillars, and remnants of buildings are very tall, the tops disappearing into low cloud cover and obscuring whatever may be lurking at the top.

Two is the temperature feels unseasonably warm and humid on the abandoned temple grounds, as one might expect from the heart of a rainforest environment in sharp contrast to the weather outside it.

Three is that the place is absolutely infested with snakes. Some are venomous but most are non-poisonous; they just seem to have accumulated here in unusually dense numbers.

In addition to these features, there are piles of broken rubble and large tree roots coming up out of the ground to trip and perhaps break an ankle if one isn't careful. Not to mention there may be a risk of sinkholes in some areas.

Perhaps it'd be best to tread and fight with caution when on the ground.

There's more bits of blight-inducing spidersilk littering the area and that tar-like odor. It's clear that the ayakashi has been here and may be hiding somewhere on the grounds watching and waiting for her meal to come closer.]

[lostinshadows]

[When Lavi first saw her, he didn't want to believe it.

How the hell did Ayumu reach to this point? He had no doubt that an ablution would've needed to take place, especially if there were people closer to Ayumu than he was to have noticed it beforehand. However, if she ended up turning into an ayakashi anyway, then it didn't mean well for anyone. He doesn't know what happened to those who took part in the ablution or to Goku, but this--

He can feel something inside of him become numb.

No. Not Ayumu. Not. Ayumu.

Why did it have to be her?

Lavi wants to scream, but he doesn't. No, right now, a job does have to be completed and he's relieved when he does run into Shun on the way, the god no doubt having spotted her, too. When they're led to what seems to be an abandoned temple, Lavi is quick to cast borderlines around just in case, needing to corner her.

He has his hammer out, but shinki techniques really do come in handy.

Gritting his teeth, he glances over at Shun, silently asking if he's ready.]

[revolutionfalcon]

[While Shun could go for the option of baiting on the ground, with the combination of the snakes, plant life and webs Ayumu has left, he's instead taking the option of flight. He's perched on a relatively small one of his monsters, a green and blue bird with the occasional exhaust pipe sticking out of it, and he's scanning the area from a bit higher up.

He's not moving too far from Lavi, though. For one thing, it doesn't seem like Lavi is entirely comfortable with this situation - Shun is a little unsettled himself knowing who the ayakashi is, but he mostly knows Ayumu as an occasional ally. Someone closer to her is much more likely to be hit by this. And for two, considering the shape she's taken, Shun doesn't imagine splitting up is at all a wise option.

He's got a cracked war hammer in his hand, Kotori's vessel form, but he's not sure that's going to do the job this time. But that's a question he'll have to put to Lavi when the time comes.

Looking back over to Lavi, he gives a short nod, moving a bit further into the temple area. He's purposely keeping away from walls to lessen the chance of being attacked from above, but considering how high the temple structure goes, he's not discounting the possibility entirely.]

[kagenonadeshiko]

[The temple remains quiet and still, save the sounds of snakes slithering and hissing en masse on the ground. None are moving to strike just yet but may should one be stepped on carelessly. The air is thick and thrumming with tension but there's still no immediate visual of their quarry. However, there is that prickling sensation that comes from being watched.

She's here. Somewhere.

A higher view from above will reveal a bit more of the layout of the place. There are a number of places Ayumu can strike down from above as well as broken buildings large enough to conceal a large ayakashi from view. The temple may be full of rubble but it's strewn about in ways that to do a thorough inspection of the grounds, one will have to change vantage points.]

[lostinshadows]

[The hairs on the back of his neck seems to stand up, aware that they're being watched. It's hard not to feel that, after all, especially with what she has become.

Lavi does end up venturing closer to the temple, quiet as he keeps his senses alert for wherever she might end up popping out. No doubt that she'll be waiting, making sure to be able to grab them both in one swoop if necessary.

He clenches his jaw, activating his hammer enough so that he can be able to go up into the air a bit.]

Cameo /fingerguns

[redmare]

[ Chinatsu had woken up earlier than usual, and unable to go back to sleep, she decides to go for an early morning run. It was nice, quiet, at least until piercing noise cut through the air. That had her stopping in her tracks, pulling out her earphones and glancing around for the source. Something fast--but big-- suddenly dashed across the rooftops. She didn't get a good look, but she was certain she had seen more than two or four legs on that things. ]

What the hell..?