♈ Aradia: Dream badly.

[psych0p0mps]

Who: Aradia and/or YOU
What: Nightmares!
When: Between October 5-8
Where: Nightmare land
Rating: Probably no higher than PG-13

It's dark here. Not in the sense that there's no light, since you can still see, in a way. It's more that there is a darkness, stifling and tepid like the secondhand breath of some monstrous creature, thick with the stench of potency. Something lies here, vast and deeply rooted. The closer you come to it, the louder the sound becomes - a steady thrum, thrum, like the pounding of a massive heart. It teems with life, and not just its own. There are people down there, some screaming, some laughing, as the beast slowly consumes them.

Above this floats Aradia, once again in robot form, and around her an assortment of other people, suspended in midair by her telekinetic powers. Some may be familiar, some not, but all are or have at some point been residents. At an awful noise from the monster below, she flicks her wrist and another one plummets into its mouth - and it is all mouth. Though her robot face is cold and impassive, those with the right senses to hear her screaming thoughts may realize she's acting against her will.

So, what will you do?
Are you a victim?
Are you the robot?
Or are you the one who's here to kill her, and put an end to all this?

(Because someone has.)

((ooc: So yes, three options: 1. be one of those Aradia is feeding to the horrorterror, 2. be in Aradia's place and killing your fellow residents, or 3. fight/kill Aradia. All are open to multiple occurrences of course. :3a))

Comments

Jane: Be the Victim

[cyan_maid]

[Now that would be really odd! Skeptical, practical Jane, the victim? Is there really no way to get out of this one, gumshoe?

Unfortunately, there isn't. In this sort of situation, wit and a curly mustache really don't equal agency. Jane is a victim, and she's got eyes for the unfathomable beast below.]

Oh...oh, God...

[psych0p0mps]

[Well hello there, Jane. It seems you're one of those floating within earshot of the robot girl, who speaks with a pronounced, metallic hollowness.]

St0p whining.

[cyan_maid]

[Jane's head jerks up to look at the robot. It looks...really familiar, but she never met any robots in Paradisa. Still, that symbol gives her a strong feeling of deja-vu, although...isn't it in the wrong color?

Maybe something will come to her in a moment, but for now she's frowning at the robot.]

Maybe I'd stop if I wasn't about to be eaten by a...a horrible, terrible thing!

[psych0p0mps]

[What, the horns weren't a dead giveaway? Well, whatever. Aradia doesn't care. Except, you know, she totally does. She wants to break out, fly away, take all those who are still alive with her, get them to safety, but she can't, the thing has its claws too deep in her think pan, it always did. All she can say is what it forces out of her mouth.]

So is everyone else. You're not special. All will be consumed.

[cyan_maid]

[asdfghjkl But it CAN'T be, you're a ROBOT!

Dammit Jane, sometimes it IS.]

Why, though? Why can't they eat something else?!

[psych0p0mps]

[Because it's evil, she wants to scream, it's an abomination against nature and life and time! But nope.]

We are its living sustenance. That's why it called us here. It can't be stopped. It has already begun to digest you.

[cyan_maid]

[Okay. That last bit? That just hammers the nightmarish aspect even further in.

Jane might have thrown up in her mouth a little.]

W-What?!?

[psych0p0mps]

[Omg Jane she's so sorry-]

It's been preparing us for sweeps. Simmering us in our own juices. You're missing pieces already. We all are. This is just the inevitable feast.

[cyan_maid]

[No stop talking, she might throw up for real-]

This is wrong! You have to stop!!

LET'S DUKE IT OUT

[not_mafia]

[Tsuna starts off with a surprise attack, blasting a torrent of flames at the robot. He's hoping that he can break its concentration long enough to release its telekinetic hold on the residents, so that they could fall to the ground-- and he could swoop in and save any that were falling too close to the monster for comfort.

He hasn't gotten a good look at the robot yet, so he isn't aware it's Aradia; all he knows is that the people are in danger, and he needs to do everything he can to stop any more sacrifices.]

FUCK YEAH FISTICUFFS

[psych0p0mps]

[The attack, as intended, takes Aradia quite by surprise! Her concentration falters, but she regains it within a couple of seconds, cutting everyone's falls short. And really that may be for the best, the monster is really big and most of the victims are within its mouth radius.

The robot's metallic hair smolders red, but other than that, it doesn't look like a great deal of damage has been done. She turns to face Tsuna, blinking unevenly at him.]

Oh. It's you.

[not_mafia]

[Tsuna manages to get two people, at least, and sets them on the ground. He looks up at the robot with a disapproving frown.]

What are you trying to accomplish?

[psych0p0mps]

[She pauses for a second. She's trying to fight it, but... nngh...]

There's nothing to accomplish. All will be consumed. You can only delay the inevitable.

[not_mafia]

[He looks around. There are too many people that won't make it, if he fights the robot and breaks her concentration again. The monster was too big...

So the obvious thing to do, then, was to get rid of the monster.]

Hm. We'll see how inevitable it is.

[But it'll take some time to charge an attack, and he can't do it without knowing the range of the robot's abilities. So he takes a stance, as if charging...]

[psych0p0mps]

[Aradiabot doesn't seem to respond to his stance-taking. She just watches, impassive, waiting to see what he'll do.

Inwardly she's a little excited about it.]

[not_mafia]

[... huh, she's not trying to defend it.

Either it thinks he's really weak, or that monster is really strong. Possibly both.

Not that deters Tsuna any. Now he really begins to charge an attack, a light flickering in his eyes.

Softly:]

Double X Cannon.

[A huge burst of flames erupts from his hands, shooting towards the beast.]

[psych0p0mps]

[Probably both. The flames hit the monster dead-on, and it lets out a terrible roar of pain. A cloying stench of burning, rotting flesh rises from the point of impact. Aradia twitches.

Then, impossibly fast (because yay time powers), she's right in front of him, throwing a full-force robot punch at his gut.]

BRING IT!

[dupable]

[ That is to say that John is raring for a fight here! Or mostly raring to save the people she's dropping into the waiting mouths of the terrible horror beast below. Even if some of them seem to be laughing joyfully about the entire weird... feasting/feeding deal, John doesn't feel right just letting (probably) innocent people drop to their deaths.

Plus being devoured has to be one of the worst ways to go.

The bad news is that trying to snatch people up one by one isn't very effective. The good news is John's skills are great enough that he can blow a battleship through the air, and he can definitely do the same with a pile of people. He tries to lift them up and out of the way of the gaping maw below. ]

[psych0p0mps]

[Aradiabot, of course, notices that windy thing yanking people out of her psychic grip. She executes a quick scan for the source, but his signal's obfuscated and she has to actually look around like a normal person, at the same time as trying to snatch them back from him.

After a moment she spots something blue. Oh, it's John. That explains a lot. She takes one recently reacquired resident and flings them at him at high speed. Use what projectiles you can get, right?]

[dupable]

[ Holy crap! John has to admit he didn't expect that she was going to start chucking actual people at him. Aradia definitely isn't playing around here, and that's going to make this pretty hard. She's a tough girl. At least, John is pretty sure she is, he's never actually gotten into a fight with her before, and kind of never wanted to.

He zips forward arms outstretched and ready to catch the flying man. He does manage, but the force sends John flipping backwards through the air. His concentration also breaks enough that Aradia can probably get her psychic grip back on the people she was trying to feed to monsters. ]

[psych0p0mps]

[Well there we go. Aradia takes a split second to reestablish her grip on the victims, then uses her time powers to appear in John's path almost instantaneously. Unless he avoids it, she's going to send a full-power robot punch straight to the kidney - and she doesn't seem to care if the guy she just threw at him happens to get in the way, either.]

[dupable]

[ The good news for that guy is that John manages to toss him out of the way via wind before Aradia can get her punch in, so he safely (well... sort of safely) ends up flipping away. The bad news for John is that he doesn't have a chance to get out of the way and the kidney punch hits him hard. He spins backwards through the air cursing loudly until he manages to right himself again.

Sort of. He is doubled over, arms wrapped around hands clutching around the side she hit him. ]

haha i fucked up my keywords and now it looks like she's just gleefully beating him up orz

[psych0p0mps]

[Perhaps surprisingly Not surprisingly at all, Aradia's already coming back for more. This time she's aiming her first for his other side, trying not to give him time to recover. C'mon, John, up the ante!]

OH NO Ahaha aradia why?

[dupable]

[ What about a huge gust of wind RIGHT TO THE METAL FACE? Is that upping the ante enough? Because that's happening as he takes the other hit. Jeez, she's one tough cookie to have to deal with! He's glad that most of the time she's on his side, he wouldn't want her as an enemy. ]

Re: OH NO Ahaha aradia why?

[psych0p0mps]

[It actually is upping the ante enough! She goes flying backwards like 50 yards end over end. Eventually, abruptly, she manages to recalibrate and stop herself, albeit upside-down. Okay, now she'll have to account for wind - and keep the feast in the air - and predict John's movements - all while desperately trying not to do any of those things.

She flies back toward him again, both hands extended, the afterimages of red clocks fading in around them. As soon as she's reasonably close, she's gonna try a spell to slow the hell out of him so she can get some "villainous" dialogue in.]