BAD END

[has_a_blog]

[Months in the future, but not many...

It all went wrong six months ago, when Hiroshi tried to banish the oni. It didn't work as expected. In fact it did the exact opposite. The rod only effected maybe one person in ten, but that was more than enough. Each effected person had exploded, revealing a fully formed, blue, mindless killing machine. Within a week, half the city was dead or worse, the rest running for their lives. Now Sirocco is in burning ruins, with oni wandering the streets, chasing and killing anyone they come across.

The last survivors are holed up in the laboratory at the heart of the city. The oni haven't managed to find a way in quite yet, but it's only a matter of time.

Dave abruptly stands up from where he had been sitting in the corner, getting some rest.]

That's it. I give. This is a lost cause.

[ooc: Just as described, this is in the future. However, it's not the only future. This is a splinter timeline, and none of the events leading up to this are actually going to happen after the Ao Oni plot is resolved. To that end, when tagging this feel free to make up various horrible or heroic things that have happened over the last few months. The vast majority of the game's cast are probably dead or turned to Oni by this point, so if you don't tag here, it's likely you're dead.

Again, these events will not come to pass and have no effect on the game outside of this post beyond what Future Dave and Supernova remember.]

Comments

[life_is_megas_wonderful]

*Her long hair is chopped short, the result of a desperate gambit due to an oni snagging it. One arm is splinted, but she seems to be making a good go at helping the other survivors calm down as much as she can.*

Well, it was a good effort, at least. Guess there's only so much you cans do at this kind of an impasse, huh?

[has_a_blog]

This has got to be a splinter timeline. It's the only explanation. Which means we were all fucked from the start.

[mokomanjuu]

[The thing that was once Mokona pounds steadily at the walls outside.]

[has_a_blog]

[Yelling out the window.]

STOP.

FUCKING.

POUNDING.

[life_is_megas_wonderful]

Moko-nyu... why'd ya have to be one 'a the victims...

[hatefriendleader]

[He hadn't thought it was a big deal at first. Everyday life on Alternia wasn't much better than the early stuff. But once the scale of the problem was clear, Karkat had gotten involved. His blood color was revealed at some point. Maybe he even randomly filled a quadrant or two in the extreme circumstances. He's certainly been through a lot and proven useful, and he's developed a weird sort of annoyance-respect for Dave. The point is, he's around.]

Whoa, whoa, hold the fuck on. Has it occurred to you that maybe that should be a group decision?

[has_a_blog]

What's there to decide? Option A: Go back in time and change things so at least the alpha timeline can survive. Option B: Sit here and get killed by blue dumbshit ogres.

[washurhair]

[Her shredded clothes barely cover her body and her arms are covered in scars but she's still alive and that's all that matters to her. She shakes off the hot water that she doused herself with. By now, everyone knows about her cat curse.]

Ah, just like a man to give up huh. Either way, Shampoo can't find a way out of the lab without finding one of those things hanging around.

[has_a_blog]

And I'm the manliest motherfucker there is.

[Yeah, that was one last attempt at flapping the Strider Ego.]

I'm out of ideas, though. I mean, Valvatorez was the only one to ever kill one, and he died in the attempt. I'm not even sure how he did it.

[number_one_dime]

[Scrooge had been blinded in one eye thanks to flying shrapnel. He quietly turns the dial of a telegram/radio he built himself, listening to the signals, only receiving static in response to his tapped out codes]

... I'm sorry lads, there don't seem to anythin' outside the city... or inside.

[has_a_blog]

I don't think I seriously believed there were any more people out there.

[canhandleacape]

[Technically, Supernova gave up on keeping his identity secret months ago. There wasn't much point in it when every day was a life-or-death struggle like this. Well. A life-or-death struggle for everyone else. With the ability to disappear into another dimension in the blink of an eye and no need to eat or sleep, he's at considerably less risk of a sudden, unpleasant end than the others, and that fact has been unfortunately proven true more than once. Unsurprisingly, he's also given up on pretending that anything's OK. Even if he wasn't in the habit of always wearing his mask, he'd still barely be recognizable as the same man he was when this all started, hardly ever speaking to anyone, and always very direct when he does. Most of the time, he spends away from the others, looking for food and other necessities to send back to the lab.

There hasn't been as much lately. One way or another, time is definitely running out.

Just as Dave's wrapping up his last good-byes, Supernova appears in a familiar flash of light. He briefly looks over the assembled survivors, checking if anyone's missing from the last time he was here, before he focuses his attention on Dave.]

Going somewhere?

[has_a_blog]

[Shampoo is conspicuously absent.]

Yup. You know as well as I do what needs to be done.

[youngestboxer]

[Yuta had made it only thanks to his powers of isolation. As such, he'd spent much of the time hiding himself and, if at all possible, others.

He wasn't always able to get the others in time.

He's curled up by his own bit of wall, resting and waiting. He can isolate them all once more if it comes down to it, but he knows that it won't last out. Even if it can hold out against the oni, it's not like they can just sit in a box for the rest of their lives. They won't even have time to starve - their oxygen would run out before anything else.

...It's times like these that make him think of the man who had gone on about spreading the word of the price of death to him so soon after he became a comrade. It sounded stupid at the time, but now... he can't help but wonder...]

[alittleblackmagic]

[Two weeks ago, Palom had snuck out of the laboratory in the middle of the night, and the oni attacks had ceased, if only for a few days. Not far from the laboratory, the green grass gives way to a patch of solid, unyielding gray.

In the middle of a few dozen grotesque oni figures stands the statue of a small boy, raising a granite staff high. The expression on its face is peaceful.]

[has_a_blog]

[As Dave catches sight of the boy's last stand, he gives a slight nod with the same gravity that a soldier might salute the tomb of a famous war hero. Apparently Valvatorez WASN'T the only one to ever defeat an Ao Oni.]

[promised_victory]

[Arturia's lost an arm and a wound in her leg that never wuite heal right, making it painful to even stand, much less fight, but she refuses to be useless. She refuses to even give up any hope she has because what else can they do but fight?

So she trains, Excalibur in the one hand she has left. It's a large blade and she's a small woman, but she's also a Servant. She knows that now. A Servant, a former king, and had once fought for the Holy Grail itself. If she returned home it would be to her death and she would be fine with that.

But damned if she was going to go back without some pride. It's why, after months of training, she's able to wield Excalibur with one hand and the adrenaline of battle makes it hard for her to focus on the pain in her leg, though she knows standing so much wears it down.

She's not going to get any better. She knows that. And so with one last swing at the invisible enemy, she turns, sits, and sighs.

The end is near and, no matter what, Arturia intends to go out with a fight.]

[has_a_blog]

[Dave had a thought just before he was going to leave.]

Hey. Can I see your sword for a second?

OOC

[theheirofbreath]

[Yeah, go ahead and assume John died because that's what he does in doomed timelines.]

[has_a_blog]

[Time to save Dave's stupid ass again

You're fucking welcome.]

[gogoghostpowers]

[About two and a half months ago, Danny burned himself out. He fought too hard, even used some newly-remembered powers, to try and fend them off, but in the end there were too many and they were too resistant to his attacks. And he was left too weak--so weak, in fact, that he transformed back to human form.

Danny has no idea what happened--after all, as far as he can remember, he's always been dead. All he knows, though, is that he can't fight at all and is unusually, uncomfortably weak now. He no longer heals at an accelerated rate and can't bounce back as quickly, or at all.

He's just another helpless sitting duck now, and he hates it.

When Dave speaks, he looks up from his own huddled position on the floor, curled up in a blanket.]

What do you mean, 'give up'? How do you give up on just trying to survive?

[has_a_blog]

I mean this timeline and everyone in it is doomed. I've been putting off on admitting it, trying to learn more about those fucking things, but there just isn't any point anymore.

[rookierabbit]

[Barnaby was one of the first people to die. He'd done his best, really--gone out to get some more supplies and rescue more survivors--but five minutes can only do so much.

There's a simple memorial where he fell, perhaps put up by one of the remaining survivors.]

[the_ko_stands_for_tiger]

*It's not the only memorial there.

Kotetsu wouldn't let him go alone. Not with those things out there. And so they'd gone down together.

Tiger and Bunny. Over and out.*

[trustycrowbar]

[Look who else managed to survive the apocalyptic influx of an extra-dimensional species thanks to a mishandled anomalous object?

[Yeah, he has a bad habit of doing that.

[Gordon is quiet, lately. That alone was probably an indication of just how boned they really are. His leg mangled from an oni attack just outside the labs, he hangs onto a makeshift cane made from a piece of rebar as he scribbles temporal entropic relay hieroglyphs onto a whiteboard. Most of his memories came back to him surprisingly quickly after the world went to hell... It's ironic that he couldn't do a damn thing about them now; he could barely walk, let alone fight. He looks back at Dave.]

What're ya going to do now that you've decided that? Just waltz out there? Maybe drench yourself in barbeque sauce beforehand to give 'em some variety? Don't be an idiot, we're still alive, and that's enough of a cause as far as I'm concerned.

[has_a_blog]

Actually I was going to deep fry myself for them.

[gandere]

[ Despite everything that happened, Rin's rather calm. Their cries don't really bother her much anymore, the sound almost melodic within her mind. It was easy to speak incantations in between them without interruption - a skill that took her less than two weeks to accomplish. ]

If only that knight from my memories would come. [ A wistful sigh. Surely the man with blue hair could make quick work of these guys. ] Or that deplorable man from before...

[ Archer.. She spent the last of her Anemoi to remember just who he was. Thinking on that time leaves her to curl up more in place, enjoying the shadows to keep her weakness hidden. ]