Shin Megami Tensei Persona: Dissonant Strain (Private RP)

[ShadowFolk]

Temporary or not, the brave young man by her side was now her knight. Kumiko shrunk against him, keeping her eyes shut. 'How can they be so calm?!' This wasn't something she could have handled on her own. It wasn't so punk in an alley making fresh remarks. None of it could be real, 'Those bodies, those faces, this train...'

Her body stiffened hearing the disembodied voice. She shook her head. No part of her liked the sound of relinquishing anything or the eerie sounds coming from the darkness. Kumiko shook her limbs and took a long, deep breath. "Get it together, Kumiko." she said to herself.

'Panicking is how you get yourself killed. Calm down. Own this moment.'

She stopped trembling and looked forward, ready to kick the faces in of whatever came after her.

 

[ShadowFolk]

(edit)

 

[Rosen2012]

Kojiro listened to the voice. His heart was racing, his mind was too. There were so many questions, so few answers. He had a wish, yes...but was this thing really going to grant it? He shut his eyes and thought about the dreams and the bodies on the floor. So many people had come here to have a wish granted and died...

When he opened them and saw the darkness emerging on the car, he remembered the monster. He remembered the last words of the dream.

"We're to judge the world..." he muttered. "I can't judge what I let go...No!" He pulled out his sword and faced whatever was coming their way. "No! We don't want your wish! This is not the fate I asked for!"

 

[Daren58]

Rin tried to block the voice out. Her body was stiff with fear. This wasn't anything like the dreams she had. She couldn't stop looking at the bodies even though she just wanted to shut her eyes. She struggled to keep her breathing calm, she needed to not panic. 'Did they all come here for the wish just to die?' She shook her head slightly.

She gripped her book tightly in her hands. Thoughts of it being a foolish weapon were far from her mind. "No..I don't want any wish offered like this."

 

[Cinnonym]

Isoroku: You offer your will to the voice on the train. You feel your senses slowly being cut away from you: your lips and fingers go numb and your vision blurs. You feel a fatigue of the soul. As your legs give way from under you, something thick and wet snatches you away into the shadows. You are aware inside, but worthlessly. There is no sight or sound or touch to bring meaning to your world.

"We will take your anger, your joy, and your sorrow. Return to the darkness."

In the recesses of your subconscious, you are aware of yourself standing within a tailor's shop. This is no dream, but a memory. You recall being fitted for your school uniform--because of your above average height, everything standard-issue was too small. Even your mother can only hug you around the middle when she does so. "You look wonderful! This is worth every penny we're spending on it." She fusses at your outfit. You remember rolling your eyes at this part. "You'll be happier, Rokutan, you'll see."

"You know what you were expected to do."

Your mother is angry. She very nearly slaps you in the face, but her hand just twitches uselessly as though she can't bring herself to do it. "What is this, Isoroku?! All the work I've done, all the money I've spent--What IS this?!" You know what it is. She's been waving it around for twenty minutes. It's your report card from Akaito. You sit quietly at your computer desk and pretend to care. "You're on the verge of failing half of these classes! Where will you be if you don't graduate?! This isn't the kind of life I wanted for you! A dead-end job! You're going to end up just like your father--" You weren't sure if it was her or you who finally slammed the door. You were just glad it was shut.

"You know what you wanted to do."

You shove your mother into traffic. A car's brakes shriek, but not quickly enough to avoid hitting her. The way she bounces off the hood is almost comical; the groceries she was holding spilled out of the paper sacks and into the street. They roll little further than she did.

Wait.

That never happened. Your mother is alive and well at home. You just spoke to her last night. And yet, the vision feels so familiar. Quite at home in your brain.

"There is darkness in your soul. You are unworthy of the life you have been given."

"Cleanse thyself! Be assimilated into the whole!"

Will you fight to own your own soul, or will you accept the peace of death?

 

[Cinnonym]

"Save it--that is not the life I want!" He held his knife out in front of him defiantly, "I do not want to die!"

Eber swung his arm out to emphasize his point. In the blackness there was a garbled sort of groan, something he heard and yet it seemed as though it was coming to his ears through a receiver, a radio just one point off from the right station. The shadows shifted around them and grew together, enveloping everything. The German stepped in front of Kumiko to shield her and he shouted a warning to the others to brace themselves.

"It's coming!"

The black mass surged upward and spread, becoming the walls and windows and floor of the train car, blacking out the windows completely. It gives its deep, distorted laughter again and two yellow eyes swim back and forth in sight against the far wall.

Prepare for battle!

 

[Rosen2012]

Kojiro stood at the ready, he turned to Isoroku, only to find him fainted. "Damn it! its not even started and we're one down already!?" Like Fridmund defended Mizushima, Kojiro steped in front of Rin.

"We're going to get through this, Rin, don't fear!" He gripped the hilt of his rapier, this wasn't like practice or a competition. This was life or death, he was ready to win.

 

[ShadowFolk]

In the mass of black, Kumiko could just barely see the two yellow eyes over the tall boy's shoulder. She mentally prepared herself, 'Don't let your guard down, don't let you guard down.' she repeated to herself. 'Don't drag anyone down. We're going to make it out of here...'

Kumiko steadied herself into low gravity stance.

 

[duckflesh]

His mind floated in the dark abyss, naked, without feeling but berated by sounds and visions.

Did he really feel that way about his mother? He hadn't realized, and yet he was not as disturbed by the image as he might have expected. Was this the future? No, he did not think so...

"There is darkness in your soul," the voice told him. "You are unworthy of the life you have been given."

"What?" he asked slowly, trying to assemble his thoughts. "Worthy?" He spit the word out with a laugh, the kind of laugh one indulges in out of pity for a very old joke. "What does worthiness have to do with anything? It doesn't matter what I deserve! It only matters what I have!"

"Cleanse thyself! Be assimilated into the whole!" It screamed at him.

"I have no interest in your cleansing! Release me!"

Even without a body, he struggled.

"I command you to release me!"

 

[Daren58]

Rin followed Kojiro's gaze as he cursed. Yoshida was on the ground and Rin felt her fear soar. Her hands shook viciously, but she still gripped her book tightly. Not trusting her voice to work, she merely weakly nodded at Kojiro.

 

[Cinnonym]

((Character portraits are now available in the profiles on page 1! Thanks, Sa'Rithven!))

 

[Cinnonym]

You all brace yourselves for the impending battle:

Eber, impatient and unwilling to give the monster the first move, lunges forward with his knife to attack. He swings, and rather than hit the wall it connects with viscous shadow. He jumps back, startled, and shudders, "What on earth is this thing..."

You see the corpses from earlier emerge from the darkness like grim puppets on the end of a sinewy black tentacle. They advance towards the group, clumsily swinging their arms, attempting to injure or separate you.

-------

Isoroku: You hear a monstrous roar, distinctly familiar. The dragon from your dreams towers over you, but it looks different from before--demented and unnatural. Its eyes and teeth are numerous, and it looks as though its flesh is rotting away from its body. It does not appear to have changed in size, however. It's massive.

It screeches and lunges to attack! Combat the darkness to regain control!

 

[duckflesh]

Isoroku fumbled for his gun and was enormously relieved when he felt the reassuring coolness of the metal against his palm. He pulled the weapon out, flicked off the safety, and pulled back the slide, chambering a round. As he brought the gun up in a two-handed grip, he spread his legs in a shooter's stance and took aim.

Looking up was disconcerting-- preparation could not have taken more than a few seconds, but lunging death was now mere moments away. Aiming for one of the diseased thing's eyes, Isoroku pulled the trigger three times in quick succession. At this point his instincts forced him to throw his body to the ground, rolling gracelessly out of the thing's path.

 

[ShadowFolk]

Kumiko shrieked in utter disgust. The mangled corpses were moving. She couldn't let those things touch her.

Her adrenaline started to pump and her body went into fight or flight mode. As there was no where she could run, she instinctively chose to fight. Springing up off of one leg she spun herself mid air to gain momentum before snapping out a leg in a spiraling crescent kick onto the animated body of the departed.

She took a quick step backwards, not wanting to stay too close to the thing.

 

[Rosen2012]

Kojiro resisted the urge to vomit. The dead were moving...this was worse than the dream. Far worse. He stood his ground, not wanting to be parted from Rin and the unconscious Isoroku, he started to slice and stab at any of the shambling bodies that came near.

"Rin! Protect Isoroku!" He cried as he kicked a body back. But with so many on the train he wondered how long they could keep this up?

 

[Daren58]

Rin gives a small squeak of terror as the corpses begin to move. Her book feels heavy in her hand.

Kojiro's call to her breaks the fear that had been gripping her. She musters as much courage as she can and quickly steps closer to Isoroku's body. She swings her book spine first, trying to hit any corpses in the head that get to close.

 

[Cinnonym]

Eber succeeds in cleanly severing a corpse from the appendage controlling it. It flops onto the ground and starts to seize, never once losing that eternally contented expression. He nearly loses his lunch watching it dissolve into the floor to be one with its master. "Disgusting!"

He keeps beside Kumiko and Kojiro, together shielding Rin and Isoroku from frontal attacks, though they're coming from all directions, "Get rid of the bodies!"

The creature howls and the entire car shudders; the onslaught continues, but indeed the number of bodies is reducing, the attacks less and less frequent. One whips around and slams into Kojiro to knock him aside, two more bearing down on Rin from above.

------
Isoroku: The beast throws its head back and gives a shrill cry into the darkness of your soul. There's a violent rumbling and blade-sharp icicles rain down from nothing. During the onslaught, it writhes and its long body thrashes around the empty plane, the technology of your weapon foreign to its ancient body.

 

[Rosen2012]

Kojiro holds up is arms in an attempt to lessen the blow from the body. Unsure of how it go so close. He stumbles and pushes back at it, trying to force it into the two hovering over Rin.

 

[Daren58]

Rin fights the urge to run and puts herself between the two approaching corpses and Isoroku. She can feel her heart thudding in her chest and she swings her book harder, trying to keep them at bay.

 

[duckflesh]

A shudder wracked his body as its horrible cry filled the air.

Isoroku threw his hands over his head and felt searing pain as several icicles sliced open his sleeves and drew his blood. His left arm was hit particularly badly, and was now bleeding quite freely. Nevertheless, he howled in triumph as the beast reared back, and he even ran toward it.

As he did, he growled. He liked this thing. When he'd dreamed about it, he'd felt so comfortable with it. How dare it turn against him? What was this disease that had stricken it?

"That's right, you son of a *****! Fuck you!"

He fired again and again, aiming always for its face, the spent bullet casings raining to the ground. At some point he realized he had expended far more than eight bullets. It was only when he realized this that the gun began to click empty.

He frowned at the gun.

"I should have brought more bull--"

He stopped. He felt the weight of a box of bullets in his pocket.

"Ah. Ah, I see."

He unslung a rifle from his shoulder and crouched back down, aiming it up at the thing. He looked down at the rifle, and smirked-- American, vintage 1942. Figured.

It was an automatic rifle, firing powerful bullets. He resolved to put as many of them into the serpent as he could, and went to work.