[Semi-Closed] Dance in the Fake

[nachetanya]

WHO: Natalia and some Unfortunate Souls (Eleanor, Cleo, Eren, Nanashi, Kasen, Andrew, Elliot, and Michael) + an OPEN prompt for the longer term aftermath of the body of this log
WHERE: Recolle University near a coffee shop on campus
WHEN: March 14th, mid afternoon
WHAT: Natalia regains Nachetanya's Saint of Blades powers and a particular memory at the same time, loses control, and people get hurt.
WARNINGS: People getting cut by flying swords. Also Eren might lose a limb. Insane laughter?

[ It's a fairly normal day at the university. Natalia just got done with afternoon classes, she's not actively thinking about the past life, she's considering if she should go home to her apartment or just head right to the Stone Pegasus Casino, thinking about monsters or cute people-

And then it happens. At once, she gets a new memory and a new power out of nowhere at the same time. Her red eyes widen, and without really noticing what she's doing, she makes to grab the side of her head. Small tears form at the corners of her eyes and she mouths more than she says, her voice soft. ]

What was I doing out here, again?

[ And, reliving that memory, her arms gesticulating a little bit, begins to laugh. ]

Comments

The Moment [Closed]

[nachetanya]

[ This is the thread for the initial flurry of blades! People get injured here or get to be witnesses. This is limited entirely to the people who signed up in my various outreaches this month and Natalia is mostly just losing it a little here while I can/will chime in as people request me to, for the most part this ought to be threaded amongst each other without worrying about a threeway from me. As plotted, this will resolved by a combination of Nat cooling down and Cleo's actions. ]

[ Natalia laughs, crying at the edge of it because she doesn't know what else to do. The memory flows through her, and as usual it's a mess of contradictions. It's a mess of contradictions, but it also, this time-

This is the first time I've known this - this is was true anger feels like.

This time, in unison with the way her arms start to move out here, at the edge of a university coffee shop, blades begin to form in mid-air. The blades in in varying sides, from the size of a scalpel to the size of a short sword this time. All of them are crystalline in structure and incredibly sharp. They aren't (currently) very dense or sturdy, but that's arguably irrelevant as more or or less the moment there form, as Natalia curls in on herself, her arms moving some still-

Isn't it wonderful, Goldov?!

Because the blades move fast. Following the command of her arms and her own will, the blades been to fly and spin around her, soaring in a wide arc of several meters in a circle with her at the center of it. A hurricane of swords, if you will, slicing a nearby tree into dozens of pieces, ripping apart a nearby bench into shreds of twisted metal from the rapid impacts of incredibly sharp objects. The ground itself gets cuts in it and the nearby exterior wall of the coffee shop ends up with jagged cuts in it. The scene ends up looking like some strange bomb is going off, less of an explosion than a blasting of raw energy and shrapnel.

I'm going to have many, many new experiences, won't I?!

The light hearted words she remembers saying are incredibly at odds with the cold malice she feels in the heart of the memory, it's more than she can bare. The feeling and intention of wanting to murder someone. She's brushed on it before, the cold detachment. But this one is hot, this one is a burning feeling that threatens to coil around her soul.

I want to know, if you lose yourself to rage and slice apart an enemy, then how do you feel?!.

And so caught up in that feeling and those actions, the blades dance. Unfortunately for anyone who happens to be in the immediate area. ]

[reaquila]

[Today's going to be a relatively normal day. That's what Nanashi thinks at first, anyways.

Nanashi isn't a university student and he doesn't know his way around campus too well. Unfortunately, he gets lost while looking for the history professor. He starts asking some students for information at the coffee shop nearby. A few minutes pass by and things seem relatively okay.

All of that comes to a halt though.

The distinctive sound of a crash rings out and it gives him a pause. Nanashi isn't sure what's happening. He looks up in confusion and tries to reassess his surroundings.

He can feel a burning gash on his arms. It kind of hurts, but he's not too worried about that. There are more important things at hand here. Nanashi stares at Natalia in fear and bewilderment. ]

Hey, are you okay?

[Is Natalia hurt at all? His voice is filled with concern. ]

[nachetanya]

[ She can't respond to that. Or rather, she doesn't have a frame of reference to respond to this? Right now, it's just a blur, a terrifying realization of a feeling she's never felt before, a strong desire to murder someone, a rage bubbling through a feeling of calm. It's not the petty sniping she's felt before, it's more...

It's visceral. It feels like a lump in her throat.

To one side, that bench has been ripped into strange metallic scrap and threads but as a response for Nanashi, of sorts, her right hand digs into her scalp even as the left (the prosthetic one) waves in roughly the direction of the last sound she heard. And as if responding to that lazy movement, within the existing tornado of blades, three blades (two scalpel sized and one the size of a steak knife) fly in the direction of the young man. Two of them might not hit - but one of them just might fly incredibly fast into - perhaps even through - his chest ]

[angealwings]

[ Andrew really has been looking into the whole returning to study thing, so he's on-campus today, to pick up some reference materials from the admissions office.

And then there are suddenly swords in the air. (Of course it's swords.)

For a moment, he just stares, before leaping into action, grabbing somebody by the shoulders to push them out of the way of one of the swords which was just about to slash their stomach. And he keeps moving, shoving people away so that even if the swords touched them, it wouldn't be vital. He can't get to everyone, and the swords don't stop.

It's only after some time (a minute? A few minutes? An eternity?) that he spots the one spot of peace in the middle of it all. ]

Natalia!

[liberal_arts]

Natalia!

-No his voice wasn't suddenly in stereo, there was, in fact, another man nearby shouting the same name at the same time, attempting to rush into the flurry of steel, steel of his own flashing and trying to cut through the chaos in vain. As good as Kasen was with his sword, he wasn't nearly a match for something so raw and fierce as that metal storm.

Andrew gets to witness the man fight, lose, and be sliced right in the span of barely a scant few moments, red staining the grass below. Kasen couldn't tell how deep his wounds were, but he found himself a bit surprised at just how little they hurt, how little he cared. So much so he hadn't even noticed Andrew that close by.-

cw for eren why (limbs)

[usurpers]

[ all he was doing here was paying a visit, to catch elliot by surprise after his classes and take him out for some juice. he wasn’t even supposed to be here.

but, he was, and before the scene plays out and before anything could be done, blood is spilled far more in one place than anywhere else. most people get by with cuts, a few deeper lacerations— eren shoves a passerby out of the way of one of the many fleeting blades. it still cuts skin, it bites through bone, it slips past muscle like paper with alarming ease. the saved passerby faints the moment he sees the dangle that was his savior’s arm, slashed apart and barely held together by a strip of untouched flesh. blood pools from there in an instant, like someone had slaughtered an animal from where he once stood.

once. he wants to help, he swears he does, but the quickest scan shows him that no one else was as injured as he was. they’d rush to him when he didn’t need it, they did. staying would only deepen the crises and make it even worse for natalia and those still around them. don’t ask him how he doesn’t scream, how he doesn’t fall to his knees and cause a scene. he feels the pain, excruciating, his eyes wide and urgent as he guards his wound and leaves a stream of deep red behind him. the distressful ribbons of blood and footprints are brief if one were to follow it, turning into drops that lead to the wall behind a bathroom— the stalls were full, but hopefully all of the attention to the “blast” lets him run away. he could just be mistaken for a startled student after all.

a passing eye would only show a young man taking a nap in a quiet place alone, legs propped up, arms hidden behind them and face buried into his knees. his shoulders tremble, he wheezes, he chokes back the sounds that cough from his throat. he’s definitely not napping, but the place is secluded enough to pass.

there’s something frightening about such an injury and scene, and once the tremendous rush of adrenaline passes, leaving him huffing, nearly gagging on his breath, the tears truly come. the bleeding’s already stopped and so does the pain that should’ve come with it, and right now he’s not sure if he’s crying because he’s startled to have just lost a limb or if it was because of the momentary pain involved. maybe it was something else entirely.

it didn’t mean his belly wasn’t soaked, and that there wasn’t an actual severed limb obscured in his lap. what does he even do with this? he has to think, and he has to calm down so no one notices. ]

E R E N

[angealwings]

[ Andrew thought he saw a flash of a familiar face, and, once it doesn't seem that anyone is quite at death's door, he follows the big trail of blood.

He's had soldiers try to crawl off to die away from the carnage. He has to check.

Still frowning at the way the blood trail changes, he hears the wheezing, and runs the rest of the way, the gash at the back of his leg only stinging a little. ]

... Eren?

[ The hell, kid. Andrew walks over to squat beside him, wondering if this will be the case of what he read in the document that Eren himself sent him, a few weeks ago only. Bringing people back from the dead. ]

[cattack]

[Cleo still has a couple of classes at the university, that she was trying desperately to make up for after missing a month. But... As soon as she hears the chaos, she's off running. She hears it. She has to get to the source. She has to protect people. She doesn't know what to expect- A mundane mugger? A Retrospec monster?

She doesn't expect Natalia. She doesn't expect Natalia, laughing, but- Is that even a laugh anymore?]

Natalia?! Are you all right?!

[She knows, on some level, what Natalia's power is like. Natalia told her, after all. But she doesn't know much about it. Is it uncontrolled? Is it Natalia, or the power that's doing this?

She doesn't dare approach just yet.]

[nachetanya]

[ The line is probably somewhat blurred at this point. Trapped in a world of memory, the feeling of murderous, burning anger played out in the corner of her mind... her red eyes are wide and the laugh, warbled as it is continues to play out even as he arms are gesticulating. Making a spinning motion of some sort of as she conducts the swords around her. Is the the Blades themselves? Is it her?

Honestly, she's not even really sure?

But all the same, the blades fly with the direction of the arms, ripping apart the tree nearby, slicing into the wall - some blades shatter into silver on it even as they leave gashes, but some more form even as they do. There's a lot of power on display, but... no real control. Or a disjointed control, at least. But either way, there's no answer. ]

The Immediate Aftermath [Closed]

[nachetanya]

[ This is the thread for the immediate aftermath! Thread amongst each other again, or if you want to talk to Natalia between when she calls for Elliot and when she's taken out for police questioning feel free! Elliot will be around for healing, so honestly that's the main focal point of this prompt but do with it what you will! ]

[ Of course, this isn't a fantasy world where things can happen without consequences. Even if - mercifully - the people injured by this quick but chaotic display are mercifully light, the evidence is still there. A tree and a bench are sliced to pieces, many people are bleeding, the exterior wall of this coffee shop is not looking in too great of shape - it might be threatening collapse, really - and the sidewalk leading to it has many deep gashes in it. At the center of it is Natalia, fumbling with her phone to make an emergency call to someone she knows she can trust, perhaps mirroring how some NPC onlookers are no doubt calling the police or campus security or both to clear this up.

Still, maybe someone else should speak for her? Either way, she fumbles out, her voice at once trembling and wet sounding. ]

Elly- Elly I need you please come - quickly. It's - I hurt a lot of people. [ Inhale. She should have texted but her fingers are trembling too much. The phone itself is shaking some as she's making the call ] Outside the Starbucks near the sociology department on campus please. Help me?

[angealwings]

[ Andrew hears Natalia's call, and, well. All right. He knows enough, between Zack and Eren, that she is making probably the right call, all things considered.

So he'll focus on things in front of him for the moment.

Yes, he's kind of bleeding, too, but his dark clothes make that easier to miss, and while he can feel the sting, a little testing let him know that nothing vital seems to have been hit. So he'll focus on those who might be in more trouble.

Habits die hard. He's not a field medic, but he's had enough training to be able to do something.

He slips into the Starbucks to beg for a big wad of napkins. They're not quite sterile, but they'll do better than anyone's clothes.

Then he's back outside. Kneeling by somebody and holding out a handful of the white tissues. ]

Here, use this. Put some pressure on it.

[ He's also eyeing the wall and anyone who may be standing too close to it, but for now, he'll focus on the person in front of him. Long experience has taught him that he can't be everywhere at once. But if he's efficient, he may seem to be. ]

[fiddlestick]

[ It took a little while to get there, but once Elliot does arrive? He tries to do everything he can. Keep himself busy, then you can't get upset about the carnage around you.

He spots Andrew hovering over another person that's injured, and heads over. He's a small teenager - no taller than 5'4". With him, he's got a staff with him, though other than that? He looks like a normal freshman.]

How bad is it?

[nachetanya]

[ With the call finished, she drops her phone.

... She's not sure what else to do. She should probably help - she's one of the least injured people here, of course she should - but... she's just here on her knees looking at nothing in particular. How could she look at anything? Move more than this? Blades might appear again, but more to the point she...

Inhales sharply.

... Yeah oops. ]

[fiddlestick]

[Fortunately, Elliot was on campus that day. He was in the music building when he got the call. When he saw it was from Natalia, it already pinged his worry- Natalia usually texted him, not called.

The call itself only proves his fears, even if it's confusing. What happened?]

Nat-? [I hurt a lot of people. She was calling so he could heal. Something..somehow went really wrong.] I-I'm on my way. Just hold on.

[He hangs up the phone, grabs his bag that has his staff stashed away, and runs for the area she told him. He's not on this part of campus often, but he knew roughly the general area.

He arrives there a little later, a little out of breath. Your healer is here guys! He's a winded short redhead with a very shocked looked on his face at the scene. By now, he's managed to get his staff out of his bag, leaning on it some]

Oh no...

[nachetanya]

[ Natalia herself isn't injured, or at least not significantly. At worst, she got some splintered wood into her legs. She might've gotten a bit of a gash from twisted metal of the sliced up bench. But she looks haunted, looking down at her hands and the ground, on her knees. She's not quite crying - Natalia's slow to cry, she always has been - but there's a horror in her red eyes. She's ...

She's not.

Sure how to handle any of this. She did this, she did this, she hurt all these people and can make swords appear and. Elly. She focuses on Elly showing up, helping people. She can't smile at him, but she looks at him with a trembling lip but a grateful look. ]

[usurpers]

[ eren covers alarming tracks that could’ve put natalia in even more questioning the best he could after help. what happened? he doesn’t know. what about that blood? beats him. what’s that he was carrying around earlier? clothing bundles. he only goes back to his car to take his shirt off and put on a light air force exercise jacket, sticking his empty left sleeve in the pocket and washing himself in the public bathroom sink before returning to help the rest.

natalia was already gone for questioning, so with the rest of the injured being tended to, eren attempts to shepherd the remaining ones into the right direction, to a very busy healer that he keeps looking over at with concern. it’s not something to talk about here, and he does want to let him work. at least he wasn’t around when it happened— but what about natalia?

he hasn’t actually tied a knot to the sleeve though, to keep it as unapparent as possible, giving him room to grow back what he lost. he’s sweating profusely at some point as he helps you perhaps, hot, red in the face, one might even see the steam beginning to rise from the collar of his jacket and his behavior becoming anxious. this was a public place that would not take kindly to what was happening under there, so—

so much for that surprise visit. he doesn’t leave, not entirely, there are people here he cares about and going home just wasn’t on the list. he still rushes to his car some paces away though, a rather flashy thing, leaving tinted windows cracked open and the air conditioning on at maximum, to keep the steam from fogging everything up. if he could hit something out of frustration right now, he would, but he’s trying, keyword, trying, to keep it together.

lizard growth is going to take the rest of the day, probably, but he’s not leaving. maybe the car is cool, maybe you saw him acting weird and decided to follow. maybe you saw everything, who knows. ]

[reaquila]

[Nanashi's pulled himself together somehow. His clothes are torn and he's covered in dirt. Other than that, he doesn't seem too bad off. His injuries were fairly minor.

Natalia can finally speak her mind. Will she finally tell him what went on back there? Why did she go berserk like that? He understands that Natalia might not want to speak up about everything right away. She's probably exhausted too.

All he can do is offer her a cup of water and a reassuring attitude. He's not mad at her yeah.]

[nachetanya]

[ She doesn't know the boy. Honestly, to see the water offered is...

it's strange.

she looks at it dully and then makes no motion to grab it before just sort of, ]

Did Elli---ot already get to you?

The Longer-Term Consequences [Open]

[nachetanya]

[ This is the part of the log open for anyone! Involved in the log and want to do a followup with Natalia within the next few days? One of her friends and heard about it after the fact (the only people she's going out of her way to tell are her family though - network wise I'll put something up on the Fairweather Chat but this can be used for action)? Pissed off family or friend of one of the people lacerated? Just heard about the fact the university probably locked down part of campus after that and tracked it down to her? Have at. This can be either action or network if you want! ]

[ So Natalia Fairweather was brought in for police questioning about the incident, as the only one not injured at the scene. There was initially a fear that a bomb went off - a serious crime at a university, obviously - but no components of a bomb was found. None of the victims (hopefully) pressed charges, but there was some property damage. No one can really explain what happened though, and so in the end the case was made quickly, ramrodded through - and she's ended up with a fairly substantial fine and mandatory community service.

... And no idea how to return to normal life after that. At least for the first week. And so for about a week after the incident, Natalia actually takes off from work and classes both, only really leaving her apartment to get food or to start said service hours. She'll be back to normal after that, because... what other options does she have? But for now, at first, she's going to ...

Keep it slow. Flinching every time she accidentally activates her new power. A little - justifiably - terrified of herself. People can visit her apartment or text her or... whatever. ]

[usurpers]

[ you thought you saw the last of him

eren could care less about his arm— precisely because it wasn’t a loss. by night time, it had grossly grown back (he’s seen and felt it in memories, but experiencing that was going to take some extra time getting used to, hrk). it was perhaps, a gift at this point, regeneration giving him chances most wouldn’t have. he remembers james as he makes his way over to natalia’s apartment after figuring out when she’d be there, his head ducked and a thoughtful frown pulling at his lips.

of course he was worried about her, and of course he wasn’t angry at her. just two months ago, eren suffered the same memory slip and turned into a rampaging beast that could’ve done much more than it had. he figures, the talk is needed. she was there when he had been the mess, right along with elliot. he was here to do the same because he wanted to. he had yet to be a fairweather legally, but elliot wasn’t the only reason why he was here. he considered them part of his life, or at least, he wanted them to be.

knock knock, or ding dong to her door. it’s eren, with some food and morale, complete with all limbs and scratch free. ]

[nachetanya]

[ It's a nice enough apartment somewhere on the border between the university and entertainment districts of the city. She's sort of holed up in here, not sure how to handle anything. When there is the knock on her door, she hesitates a long moment before walking over to look through the peephole and...

Eren is...

She swallows hard, and when she opens the door, she's not smiling (of course she's not) and she doesn't have her left arm in, leaving it just a stump cut off at the elbow. She sort of bows her head a little and - well, it's hard to tell what she's been doing. Her eyes are red, after all. But her little dog, Porsche, does head on over to greet Eren more than she does. ]

[concasse]

[It's during Natalia's break that there's a knock at the door of all things, and even stranger is whose standing there, body language nonchalant except the fact he's determinedly looking elsewhere by the time the door opens.

But he'll greet her, that much he can do before forcing his eyes to find hers]

I catch you at a bad time?

[nachetanya]

[ She's... yeah, it's amazingly surprising to see Sanji here actually. (I assume you mean her apartment but if it's a break at work or something then shrugs I can adapt) She wonders if the man knows - but she's opening the door with her left arm not in (leaving it as a stump ending at the elbow) and a somewhat sheepish look as she wills herself to seem stronger than she feels.

Sooooo... ]

Not the worst, no!

3/30

[heritrix]

[Well, Rin might miss a lot of the going-ons in the city these days thanks to how much she works, but it's hard not to hear about such a big incident at her own school. Geez, what a mess. It makes her think of something she saw in her memories weeks ago; the hallways of that other girl's high school, with floors pockmarked like mines had been laid under them.

This damage and that damage aren't completely alike, though. It unnerves her how sure she feels of that with just a glance.

It doesn't take long for word to get out about the person supposedly responsible for the crime, either, and that's... Well, how are you supposed to react to something like that? It's creepy enough when a disaster happens in a place you frequently go, but when someone you personally know is involved? It's such a strange feeling.

Rin gives herself a couple weeks to get numb to it, then heads down to the casino at the end of the month. She still owes that money, after all.]

[nachetanya]

[ By the end of the month, though she's haggard from having to do public service, school, and work but... Natalia is ever the entertainer on the night of. Tonight, she's actually running one of the card tables, at least for this particular shift. She wears a lot of hats at the Stone Pegasus depending on what's needed.

But yeah, she's not at all hard to find. Her uniform here also exposes the Mark of Six Flowers prominently on the center of her chest. Because that is the curse of cleavage outfits, oops?

Still. Need to summon her to the door, need to come in and find her? Need to just drop it off and flounce?

She's doing her best. ]