recolle | [OPEN] ❁ don't let it get the best of you, you'll make it out alive

[Die, that silky voice chimes in pleasantly, from somewhere unseen, and Fawkes goes just a little bit paler in the face.]

Y-You can't see them...can you...

I can't.

[And that limits his options severely, but-]

Hey, asshole with the creepy voice, why don't you show yourself?

[At that, Fawkes starts to open his mouth to say something, but it's too late; speak the monster's name and he appears, taking his sweet time as he moves across the platform up by where Fawkes is standing, unconcerned with whatever it is that Fawkes is so apprehensive of.

I've never been one to share, the crow says quietly, waving a dismissive hand in Shuji's direction as he advances on Fawkes instead. You should mind your own business.]

You should find somebody who 'wants to feel it' without you trapping them. That's pathetic. You're pathetic.

[Shuji can't do anything from here except shout insults at this monster, but if he can goad the crow into getting close - if he gets close, then he might be able to hurt him.]

[It's an interesting ploy, actually, because it seems as though the lanky black monster in Fawkes's proximity is susceptible to precisely that variety of goading; for a second or two, his focus on Fawkes seems to wane, and he turns his attention more directly to Shuji.

Why don't you come save him, then? the crow says, openly inviting. Come and fight. The winner among us can keep him.]

[The best solution would be for the monster to come to Shuji - but given that keeping both of them still seems like a major part of his strategy, he won't do that without more provocation, and Shuji doesn't know this guy well enough to target his weaknesses.

The book Shuji has taken to carrying around with him in a bag is there when he reaches for it. And then it's a scythe half his height. The transformation isn't flashy - harmless book one moment, weapon the next.

Come and fight, he says?]

I'll meet you in the middle.

[Because even if something horrible happens there, at least Fawkes will probably be outside of the danger zone.]

Those aren't the...rules...

[And yet somehow the weak protest dies quickly on Fawkes's lips, as even through the haze of his own nightmare, he seems to remember something from his waking hours. Hadn't Chuuya said, no friend would just stand by and watch, rules be damned? Hadn't he said that someone would've found a way to get him out, regardless of the strict stipulations that kept him in the ring and everyone else out?

Perhaps in reality, things were different, but this is a nightmare. And at the end of the day, it's still bound to dream logic, and the ultimate source of that logic is Fawkes' sleeping mind itself.

So perhaps in reality, this never would have worked. Maybe in the waking world, there had been no way out, and Fawkes was left stranded and alone.

But in the dream, that rule gives way, and the crow leaps down from the ring where he's standing, the tails of his coat spreading out like ragged wings as he lands gracefully on his feet and takes up a casual stance.

If you want to die, who am I to refuse you? he says casually, with his hands in his pockets and his limbs loose.

But then, desperate, a shout comes from Fawkes, from the ring the crow has just abandoned.]

He uses bombs!

[Now, now. Wait your turn; I'll be back for your pretty death later, says the crow, and motions idly with one hand, and a second later Fawkes's warning proves itself true in practice as an explosion goes off at the side of his leg, searing into the skin and ripping a scream from his throat.]

Got it! Hold still!

[The advice is welcome. Invisible bombs - that's something Shuji will have to figure out how to deal with between now and when he reaches the crow.

That span of time won't be that long, because he immediately starts walking towards him. Not a run, since the crow seems like he'll wait for him to get there, but at least a power walk.]

[This is going to end badly, Fawkes can't help but think as he chokes down a whine of pain in the back of his throat and watches, all but helpless, as Shuji and the demon called Karasu wind up in a standoff. This is going to end terribly, because the truth of the matter is that he doesn't know how to beat the demon in question; that's the whole reason why this is a nightmare in the first place. He remembers doing everything he could, and it wasn't enough. How can Shuji hope to fare any differently?

He doesn't know, but hopefully Shuji does. And he'll soon discover that the crow's attack pattern tends to be doing his dirty work from a distance, making good use of ranged-attack bombs while staying out of reach of enemies that might try to get close and injure him.]

[Of course he's a long-ranged fighter. Of course. And even if Shuji's scythe has decent range for a weapon he's holding in his hands, it's easy enough to get out of his reach and explode a bomb in his face.

What he has that makes him fare differently isn't any of his strengths: it's the fact is that you can't die in a dream. You always wake up before you hit the ground. And even if Shuji knows that a bomb exploding at point-blank range should kill him, it doesn't.

It makes him scream with pain every time. It leaves him bloody and bruised and missing parts of his arms or his legs, and it makes it harder and harder to try to charge at the crow, try to get a hit in before the crow dodges away and blows up another bomb.

But he won't die.]

[It's wrong, to just stand around watching this. Even knowing that he's pinned, even knowing it may kill him to try, it's wrong to stand here idle and not do anything while Shuji wades into the fray again and again and comes away with nothing but agony to show for it.

It's wrong, but what else can he do? There's no way out, and he's too strong.

But something he'd said offhandedly, earlier, gives Fawkes pause. The winner can keep him, he'd said, and so maybe, just maybe —

He can only buy one chance, like this. One lucky break, one lone opportunity for Shuji to get in a hit while the crow is distracted.

He can only hope it'll be enough.

Closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, he waits until Shuji is just close enough that he might have a chance, and then he hurls himself to one side of the arena, covering his face as the minefield of invisible bombs around him all trigger and go off at once, creating an explosion so large and unexpected that the crow can't help but stop and look in that direction, just for the briefest of instants, distracted by the sight of his prey sacrificing itself for the sake of escaping his trap.

But of course, even a fox will gnaw off its own leg to escape a trap, won't it?]

[One chance, one he can't waste. Shuji doesn't look towards the explosion, even to see if Fawkes is still alive. He doesn't waste his chance with a blow that won't reliably kill.

Say what you want for a scythe as a weapon: Dazai knew how to use it, and now so does Shuji.

The attack from Shuji, powered by strength greater than a normal human's and desperation greater than he's felt before in his life, is aimed to slice the crow's head clean off.]

Edited (space bar why do you betray me) 2017-10-08 20:12 (UTC)

[In a nightmare that Fawkes were facing alone, an outcome like that never would've happened. This nightmare is supposed to be about being helpless, being trapped, being tormented for his weakness.

But this nightmare is also supposed to be about isolation, and with someone else here, that defeats the fundamental purpose behind the horror, right to its core.

Quite simply, the crow dies. It's an unsatisfying death, one in which he as much disappears as he does outright dies, but one way or another the threat is gone, and so are the bombs.

In the distance, a roar goes up from the crowd (the crowd?), and it's not a happy sound. But for the moment, in the center of the clearing, all that's left is Shuji with his scythe and Fawkes with his wounds, reeling in the aftermath.]

[It's better that he disappears than that the severed head remain. Shuji wouldn't regret what he did, but he still doesn't want to see the results.

The crowd can boo all it wants. Shuji turns towards Fawkes, taking in the extent of his injuries, but also-]

You're going to be okay...

[Shuji tries to take a step towards Fawkes, but all the adrenaline that has kept him going is gone now, and he collapses to the ground, his scythe returning to book form when he drops it.

He's not dying, at least. Just too weak and in too much pain to keep moving.]

[OPEN] ❁ don't let it get the best of you, you'll make it out alive

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who hates writing battle scenes, it's me

it's fine you're fine

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