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

[roseblooms]

WHO: Fawkes and YOU!
WHERE: All around Recolle during the nightmares/fog event!
WHEN: Various times in the month of October!
WHAT: Nightmares, fog encounters, and etc.
WARNINGS: Will be attached to the headers of various top-levels within!

Comments

it's fine you're fine

[roseblooms]

[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?]

[thesettingsun]

[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.]

[roseblooms]

[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.]

[thesettingsun]

[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.]