Titanomachy Rebirth (IC)

**SnowSpartan** · June 13th, 2022, 10:15 PM

Willow Durand
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Detached Building – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“Eh, uh, what? Zhong did, whuh? Hey, you sure this guy didn’t get hit in the head?”

“No, I’m more concerned on how he got it right with the undead thing.”>

Turning from Marie, Willow listens to the others responding to the intercom boy. A sigh of relief escapes her. Seems like the gang member isn’t angry. You never know with Zhong’s gang. Though, she thinks she heard the reporter say something ridiculous. The boy was right about the undead? There’s no way, right? How would he have known? No, wait, zombies are real?

This is beyond Willow. She shakes her head, pondering these things are only stressing her out. Instead, Willow checks back up on Marie.

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“Ah… it’s no problem. I’m… I’m alright, really.”

Willow's heart melts when she notices Marie sidling closer to her.

Oh my god, she is so cute!

Her distracted beaming is interrupted when a thump resounds across the room, startling Willow before she could respond to Marie. The sound came from the blockaded door, which had shifted from an unknown impact. Upon hearing the thud, urgency fills the room and Bryanna quickly introduces the others.

Willow waves at the others as they’re introduced. Connie… Willow had always kept her distance from Tamara’s group. She never liked to gossip. However, Willow is willing to give the girl a chance.

As Bryanna moves on from the introductions, Willow moves to grab a nearby broken chair leg.

Bryanna’s presence, at least, was a comforting one. Her taking charge makes this situation a lot easier for Willow to handle. She always did find Bryanna to be a reliable person. That didn’t mean that Willow wasn’t wary of the Newspaper Club’s reputation. Even she has things she doesn’t want to talk about or see in the newspaper.

The gun that concerned her initially is now the only real sign of security that she has in this strange place.

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“Anyway, here’s a summary of things:

…

“Any questions? I think that door will hold by a bit more, so if you got anything to ask, get it out of the way now.”

That’s… a lot to throw at a girl who just woke up, especially one who just woke up in a room with a bunch of corpses. Zombies? Ghosts? Slimes!? If this wasn’t coming from the reporter, Willow might not believe what she’s hearing.

In all honesty, Willow still has a lot of questions. The whole world was just turned upside down, after all. The awful smell of the corpses are a grim reminder of how serious this situation really is. Given that, she doesn’t have the time to waste on trivial questions.

“Bryanna, is there a plan? Is there anywhere safe?”

**RacingeR** · June 13th, 2022, 10:37 PM

Alexandra Gray
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Courtyard – Tree Garden)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Wrong Neighborhood
Turn 2

You run away from the approaching murder, taking care to skirt by the radius of the trees. Despite the obvious anger you can feel from the one that first attacked you, evidently the vines have a limited reach as well, or otherwise it just isn’t angry enough at you to push the issue.

In fact, as you turn your back and start running, you notice one of the vines has disappeared, and you hear the pained noise of a crow that had come too close for the tree’s comfort. So, they definitely didn’t get along.

As you run, the two already engaged follow after you. There are more approaching, you think, and the fact that they are flying means they can follow a more straightforward path compared to you, so they’re still gaining despite your slightly superior speed.

Meanwhile, you take pains to avoid the radius of the trees. It is difficult to do so. The trees aren’t of a standard size, and it is difficult to calculate by eye. Thankfully, they don’t seem to engage as long as you don’t approach them past their external radius, which makes passing through areas where their reaches overlap tenable.

The downside is that the crows know that, too.

You do note that there are trees around that seem normal, and judging by the behavior of your pursuers, those are harmless.

But the moment you note that, your two persistent stalkers catch up to you. This time, you are ready.

Impact Guard

Battle calculation

Steel-hard fist meets incoming beak head on. It is not a spectacular clash, but it is quick and brutal. Strength meets strength, and your attacker’s is found wanting. The beak shatters apart under the force of your punch.

A caw full of pain comes out from the crow’s broken and bloodied mouth as the bird rockets away, lamenting loudly. It is not out of the fight yet, but like its comrade, it ain’t looking good.

And speaking things that ain’t looking good, you feel a weight settle itself upon your back. While you were fighting the unharmed crow, the one you had hurt before had slowed down, perhaps more to do with the wound inflicted upon it that forced it to fly lower than the other one.

However, it had reached you now, and while your body was still recovering from the clash, it had pounced on you and grasped onto you, talons piercing through your gi and the skin beneath.
Activated Rending Talons

Battle calculation

It can’t hold on. Although it is in an awkward position, only the fact that you were busy fighting the other crow had let it grab onto you like that. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t tear your back to shreds meanwhile. And make you stumble with its weight that definitely doesn’t belong to that of a normal crow.

Easy to deal with, but painful. And it slows you down.

And to make matters worse…

Encountered Mutated Crow x2

Two more crows made its appearances, overflying you, cruel beaks at the ready.

Codex update

**Zagrin** · June 14th, 2022, 05:48 PM

Aster Hunter
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Broken Rooftop)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

So far, so good.

The approach had went well so far, the zombie was still none the wiser to Aster's presence. Unfortunately, it did not seem as though the same could be said in regard to the crows as even with the bountiful feast laid out before them it seemed they still wouldn't be willing to leave well enough alone. A problem, but one that would be dealt with after the more immediate issue.

Aster looked back and noted that the hole in the fence was too far a distance so as to make use of it from this position. There were some cavities dotting the center of the rooftop, a possible choice to get rid of the problem, but it would most likely only be temporary. No doubt if he tossed the creature into one of those it would just show up in his way as soon as he took the stairway down. No, if he was going to deal with it, he'd need to go with sending the zombie straight off the roof. Nonetheless, it seemed that various parts of the fencing on the roof seemed more fragile than others, specifically the parts around the border area. No doubt that with a little force it would create a hole comparable to the one on the opposite end of the roof.

As for the best way to go about the endeavor, it was clear that he would have to do it in one clean swift motion. If he allowed this thing even a moment to understand what was going on, his plan wasn't likely to work out. Unfortunately it wasn't quite as simple as those tennis club members from earlier, those witless fools could be tossed around without much a care and therefore something like the neck made for a good spot to grab onto to toss them. Not so in this situation, his foe was larger, stronger and more difficult to try to grasp in such a manner from this position.

No, instead he would have to go for the ankles. The thing was already on its knees, a swift jerk would send it face first into the ground. Doubtful that it had the thinking capacity to understand what exactly would of happened, and so all he would have to do is continue hauling it while standing up in a similar circular motion as from the encounter earlier at the school. The momentum combined with him actually using his full strength would, most likely, be enough to toss into and break down the battered fencing, eliminating that problem.

Well that was the thought anyways, now to see if it would work.

Having snuck up behind the zombie, Aster seized both of the zombie's ankles and heaved with all of his might.

**RacingeR** · June 14th, 2022, 09:54 PM

Kaguya
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 6th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

You make it just in time. Before the walking corpse can get to you, you jump past the doorway, and Hiyori closes the door in the Ghoul’s rotten nose.

Immediately, there’s a thump and a tremendous noise as the Ghoul’s claws hit the door and start tearing at it. It proves to be much tougher than the other door, as it resists the assault even as you see it starting to rot upon contact with the gray aura surrounding the carcass.

You have no key (you doubt one exists, as you are fairly sure this door didn’t exist before in the school building), and no way to lock the door, so Hiyori is the one who holds it closed, exerting all of her strength to keep it closed even against the insane strength displayed by the monster.

As this occurs, you examine the place you are at, which turns out to be another hallway, one in a much worse state than the one you had just traversed. It is covered in debris and rubble that has fallen from the ceiling, opening holes that reveal a strange and eldritch sky above.

So, you are in the sixth floor. That’s new information, if not useful at all right now.

There are no corpses, just a trail of blood on the wall as if someone wounded had leaned onto it as he walked. And not much else you can use or see: the hallway is quite dark, with just a very few lamps here and there illuminating it.

“This… motherfucker’s been… hunting us… before…” Hiyori manages to say, winded, and busy holding the door closed against the monster’s rush. It can maybe hold two more hits at most before it is broken through. “He’s a lot… tougher than… the others. Fucker’s… a lot smarter… too.”

You recognize the implicit warning. That thing is not just a feral beast: it possesses at least a bit of intelligence, so you have to be careful with what you try. Deceiving it won’t be as simple.

Not that you have much to work with, here. But you aren’t able to think that much more before being interrupted.

Are these screams coming past the hallway’s darkness? Is there someone over there? You have a hard time judging the distance of the sounds, they’re strangely muffled and dull, as if they came from much farther than they should be.

But at least, there’s someone over there. Someone human, hopefully.

Codex update

**Mormarth** · June 15th, 2022, 01:05 AM

Alexandra Gray
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Courtyard – Tree Garden)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

I clenched my teeth over a yelp of pain, that injured crow having swooped down behind its unharmed brother's countered attack and clamped down tight on my shoulder, digging its claws into my skin.

Ultimately, I estimated that the wound was superficial. It hurt, certainly, and enough of them would put me down same as anything else.

But this presented an opportunity.

Lightning quick, over-large talons entangled in cloth as my hand reached up, grabbing the crow by a leg as my legs kept pumping beneath me, even as my mind whirled.

It stung, certainly, but it wasn't anything serious, scarcely more than a flesh wound.

Even now, I could crush its body in my grasp, but I needed it for now.

I took a long, slow breath. The world slowing to a crawl around me as I took in everything that I needed to consider.

Those crows need to close the distance, so it logically would make sense they'd go for that burst of speed, or, possibly, try to latch onto me and slow me down for the group still growing closer.

[New Crows Receive: -3 to STR]

I shift my running pattern, micro-adjustments to keep off from one singular path, making my movements less predictable.

[Language of Violence activates!]

[Death Flight is countered by Predictive Measures - If I know where they're going to hit, and how they're going to hit, I can take the blows where and how I want to. STR bonus reduced in effectiveness]

Likely not enough to entirely dissuade a strike, but, given my knowledge of their movements, their speed, and their habits, if these two specimens are any example...

It should give me enough of an edge to slip away the worst of anything they can throw.

[Rending Talons is countered by Ragged Cloth Aegis! Using expert control of her shoulder and back muscles, Alexandra uses the torn gi to her advantage to foul and dull any grappling attempts by giving cloth where one expects flesh.]

Or, perhaps, just let a blow take care of this little passenger of mine.

Either way, I'd need to protect myself from either.

My eyes picked out the jittering avian in the air that I'd just sledgehammered with my fist.

It was close to death, closer than the one I'd slapped out of the air with a kick, and that one could hardly fly after what I'd done, as seen with it weakly shuddering in my grip.

I'd have to make this move perfect, no mistakes.

One heartbeat, two heartbeats.

My bare feet thud against the ground, the strange and alien texture of this bizarre place prodding at my senses. My breath heaves in and out like a great bellows.

The darkened world grows dimmer and brighter in equal turn as my eyes narrow and dilate with the surging adrenaline.

Three.

I pivot on one foot, nails digging into the earth as I lunge for the tree ahead of me, crouching low to the ground, eyes locked on the wavering crow, its compatriot still locked in a death's grip.

There's a silent pause in the world of an instant's breath, then I gather my legs beneath me and push off the ground into the air, an arm seizes a low-hanging branch for the single half-breath, quarter-beat, instant of thought it takes for my body to bend to my commands.

I shift, my posture adjusts as I firmly tell my own body that the tree next to my flying form is, in fact, solid land, same as anything else, and to jump off of it at .057 miliseconds in a 265 degree angled jump, favoring my left foot.

My relationship with my body is not king and horse.

That would imply there was any true difference between mind and body.

For good or for ill, I suppose.

Still.

My mind paints an augury for my kick in the slow, dream-like world, I know how it will move, its strengths, its weaknesses, my instincts tell me that I do not know every thing about this bird.

But I know enough to know this:

My strike will land true.

**Sei** · June 15th, 2022, 05:48 PM

Sakura Sumeragi
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

"We can't stay here..."

I whisper just barely loud enough for the girl next to me to hear.

My hands are starting to sweat. I can feel my entire body starting to burn up and it feels like chills are racing across my skin at the same time. And most of all, my heart is pounding so fast that it's starting to make my head spin. Hard to say if this is all a result of adrenaline or my body reacting to this macabre environment. Regardless, the fact of the matter remains the same. We need to move.

I cautiously turn to look at the other two. I shake my head once. Hopefully there's enough situational awareness between the three of us to get on the same page.

Whatever is going on, we can figure that out once we're in a better spot.

**Spinach** · June 15th, 2022, 07:45 PM

Cyrus Ferdinand
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

An inherently self-centered person, Cyrus woke with his head spinning, his mouth dry, his ears ringing, but most importantly, his heart indignant. That weight which bore down upon him at all times was heavy, thick. Cyrus felt that something of his had been violated, something of his had been taken from him. Unfairly, cruelly. But most cruel was his ignorance as to what.

All that he felt was that something had gone awry, that he had been wronged. But how…

“Fucking wake the fuck up already! Fuck!”

His train of thought derailed with a scream. One of Zhong’s gang, he was sure he’d seen her before, screamed at another girl to wake up. The gang-member was beat up, or rather burnt up, by something. Half her shirt was gone, the exposed skin revealed multiple open wounds. The girl herself was screaming at someone, trying to rouse her, and seemingly succeeding.

Two other students stood in horrified silence. Cyrus followed their eyes, still like deer caught in headlights.

Why was the sunlight trickling in from the windows a dull teal? What was that horrible noise, like rough metal dragged down a concrete runway, which echoed in his ears?

Just what was that yellow mass which crept down the hall, so fast as to inspire fear, yet so slow that observing it felt like a small lifetime?

How did he get here, in the middle of the hallway opposite of that thing?

Why exactly did that sight feel, rather than terrifying… familiar?

Cyrus glanced through the windows which should have shown him the endless nothingness of midwestern USA. Instead, he saw darkness, lit up by a faint blue light which fluttered down from a sky shattered like a cracked windshield. The sky reflected the kind of property damage Johnny left for a wise guy to ponder what he said wrong, and what he better say next.

The boy turned back to the girl from the gang, looking at her again. Thinking about it, he knew her. Everyone just called her Bitch, but that wasn’t her real name. Cyrus thought for a minute. It was something girly, something short. How had he gone and forgotten it? Did he even know it in the first place? It was on the tip of his tongue…

But that thing was going to get to them before his memory caught up.

His head jerked, eyes peering down the hall. This wasn’t any hall he knew in Zeus. There were no doors in sight, it was just lined with windows to let that uncomfortable, alien light in. A perfect tube to keep him and the rest trapped by that acid blob with nowhere else to go.

Cyrus grabbed Cecily by the shoulder, turning her around.

“Come on, Bitch. Enough alarm clock duty. We gotta run,” the unfeeling eyes beneath his hat glanced from Cecily to the slime, then back to Cecily. “And unless you feel like taking chances with the window, there’s only one way to go.”

**Plue** · June 15th, 2022, 09:04 PM

Eilian Aubrey
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

The tall Swiss girl stiffens at the metallic scraping. Twisting her head towards the sound she tries to focus as best she can before it goes silent, and nothing more. Fighting the feelings of a shiver down her spine she reaches out and mirroring the blue haired girl grasps Rika's sleeve, tugging on it once to get her attention.

It was possible that it was another student, but somehow that metallic sound bore far more malice than should be possible. She had heard countless similar sounds, but none had left her heart racing so much. Perhaps it was merely the environment, yet still, somehow...

Waiting for the other girl to turn around she gestures towards her ear and then points north. From their lack of reactions they didn't seem to notice. Perhaps the other way was safer?

**Airen** · June 15th, 2022, 09:31 PM

Rika Griffin
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

"..."

Death.

Smell of death, of something rotting, a macabre scent that sends a wave of nausea shooting through her entire form, a choking sensation that makes it impossible to speak for a moment, as her body frantically tries to adjust itself to the conditions of a nightmare made manifest. Yes, something behind this door has died, it is not wounds, it is not injuries, it is not a sparring match or other light battle, it was a murder, someone was killed just past here, and...

"..."

Sickening.

---Still, some part of her springs back to life in spite of everything.

It's the part that remembers the nightmares, the part that sees this whole scenario as somehow familiar in a manner similar to a deepset trauma, one that can be overcome because of that familiarity, and indeed...

She swallows once.

Hard.

And that's the end of it, more or less. The creeping sensation remains but the nausea fades, like her instincts recognize that being sick here would not only be fatal, it might even send the two other girls into a panic that they simply do not need right now, so...

"..."

She can do this.

Her phone lights up, distracting her from both the smells and the people pulling at her body. It's Bryanna, a somewhat upset Bryanna, one that had apparently called her quite a few times to no answer, one who certainly seemed to be alive, and...

Text

...she responds in a machine gun-fire of taps.

To the others it might not seem important, but to her it is very much so; Bryanna was the type to worry, so causing her undue stress would be no good, still...

"..."

One girl shakes her head and declares they need to leave, the other pulls at her sleeve and points north, as if she had heard something coming from up there...

Neither make any further decision than that, in other words, they're forcing the choice on her.

"..."

The path in front of them is a no go. Saving others is fine if it's possible, but it's the sort of door that screams of a horror movie villain's lair, the sort you go into and then don't come back out of, and to be frank, she just wasn't going to do it if she didn't have to, it was needlessly risky, a sentiment that the shaking head girl (who was still clinging for some reason) seemed to agree with, so-

"...You're right. But not this room."

-whispering this, she turns as smoothly as she can with someone attached to her arm, and moves towards the door no one had checked yet. The overly tall girl seemed spooked by the northern door, so she might as well see what their options were altogether before deciding on anything, and to that end...

"Be ready to run. There's zombies around apparently."

Her finger hovers over the flashlight prompt on her phone.

If she can't see anything in that room either, she'll check it out with the light.

If something happens?

Well...

They'll deal with that then...

**palad1n** · June 15th, 2022, 10:33 PM

Kaguya
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 6th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Kaguya cursed as she pondered whether she had made a mistake and doomed them both.

The "fucker" as Hiyori called it is apparently tougher and smarter than others (there are others?!) like it, so her initial plan likely wouldn't work in the first place. This hallway has rubble scattered about, but the fucker is fast... The only person that might outrun it in her mind is Jordan J Jones, and even then she wasn't sure.

So what else could they do?

Just as she pondered that, a scream erupted from the other end of the hallway.

Kaguya bit her thumb - her nervous tick - as she tries to think. The scream sounds human, so if they can run to the end of the hallway maybe they can get some help; but at the same time the scream sounds muffled, so maybe they are farther than they seem... Not to mention that there's probably other enemies there too.

No matter how she looked at it, there are no easy or "correct" options.

Simply put, both she and Hiyori are probably fucked, and the possibility of escaping this thing unharmed is close to zero, if they can even escape it at all. Running is futile, fighting is futile, there doesn't seem to be anything they can use...

Kaguya exhaled, narrowing her eyes as a plan is formulated in her mind.

It's a shitty plan. She's not even sure if it could be counted as a plan, but it's better than nothing.

"Hiyori, listen carefully." She said, trying her best to sound authoritative to hide her own fear and nervousness as she moved and crouched behind a particularly large rubble that hides her from view - at least from the door. "The moment you can't hold on any longer, run like your life depends on it to where the scream comes from at the end of the hallway, and get some help. I'm going to try to trip our chaser and keep it busy so it won't catch you."

It's crazy. Stupid, even. While she isn't frail, physically speaking Hiyori is much better suited at this distracting and keeping the corpse busy as the captain of the Martial Arts team than she'll ever be; but at the same time, she would never try to order someone to their potential deaths as long as they had done no wrong. The only life she's willing to risk is hers and hers alone, for life is precious, and she isn't like them.

"If there are more monsters at the end of the hallway, then... decide whether to help them or come back here. I'll survive, somehow."

Kaguya couldn't hide the tremble or fear in her voice, but at the same time there's steel and certainty in that last sentence.

'I'll survive, somehow.'

This wasn't the first nightmare that she was thrown into, and just like how she managed to survive and clawed her way out of that hellhole on her own, this would be no different.

A tiny part of her mind whispered that this is different, that everything that she had used to survive previously is rendered null or moot by this fucker, but she banished those thoughts to the deepest recesses of her mind.

She'll survive. She must survive! She doesn't know how, but she'll live!

"If you understand, then go!" She commanded, preparing to either trip or tackle the undead the moment it crossed her. If that fails, then to shout or do anything to get its attention so Hiyori can safely run and hopefully get some help.

She hadn't come this far just to die like this-!

**RacingeR** · June 17th, 2022, 11:47 PM

Kaguya
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 6th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“It won’t work.” Hiyori states with the absolute certainty of someone who has seen the monster in action, and knows just how ridiculous that creature is. The student that was with her is not the first one she’s seen fall victim to those claws.

“Whoever stays behind will die before any help comes.” She grunts with effort as one other hit rocks the door, the claws ripping stripes of the door on the other side. Only by placing her entire weight into it is she managing to keep it closed. At this rate, it will take perhaps three more hits or so before it is destroyed.

The blonde scans the hallway behind her with despairing eyes, her eyes noticing the rubble strewn about. “Shit… there’s one thing we can try. That guy’s movements are weird. Pile up as much rubble as you can on the width of the hallways and then get ready to run. Now!”

Rika Griffin, Sakura Sumeragi & Eilian Aubrey
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Text

New messages pour onto Rika’s phone as Bryanna delivers a machinegun answer of her own, before finally going silent.

After she reads the answers, the trio peruses the western doorway. Like with the other two, there’s nothing but darkness there. The same rank smell that came from the eastern doorway and indeed pervades this room can be felt coming from here too, although it is lesser than in the other one. At least it is breathable in comparison.

The sounds here are also mostly indistinguishable here as well, although you hear some noises that definitely sound like… shuffling?

You don’t get to listen all that much more.

The scream this time starts from the northern doorway. You first hear it as a high-pitched, muffled keening rapidly approaching your room, the volume increasing as it approaches, and then, with lightning suddenness, the scream acquires clear, eardrum-rupturing intensity, the scream of a woman on the throes of terror so deep it has already entered the terrain of insanity.

A blur passes through the room. Turning around by the time the scream started, you now barely manage to catch a brief glimpse of a girl, a fellow student, passing through the air, blood trailing from her chest.

Then, still accelerating at supernatural speeds, she crashes against the wall opposite to the doorway, with expected results. She explodes into a fountain of blood and gore, a horrid mass splattering onto the wall and floor.

Sakura and Rika lose 10 Self due to trauma
Eilian loses 5 Self due to trauma

Something laughs in the distance. The laughter arrives muffled as if from a great distance, the noises are inhuman, not something any of you could imitate. But there’s no mistaking what it is: laughter.

A monster having the time of its life, enjoying and reveling into slaughter and massacre.

**palad1n** · June 18th, 2022, 05:49 AM

Kaguya
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 6th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Originally Posted by Hiyori

“Shit… there’s one thing we can try. That guy’s movements are weird. Pile up as much rubble as you can on the width of the hallways and then get ready to run. Now!”

"I... okay."

There was more that Kaguya wanted to say, but in the end the urgency of the situation made her choose to save her breath for the task ahead. She's not that physically strong, but she's not weak either; with a lot of effort, she could indeed move some of the rubble. Adrenaline definitely helped in this regard, because she doubts she'd normally be able to do this without completely winding herself from the effort.

So she did as Hiyori ask, piling rubble as fast as she possibly could.

She'd thank the girl for potentially saving her from her own stupid plan later, if they both actually manage to survive this.

Wise Up

**Plue** · June 18th, 2022, 09:39 PM

Eilian Aubrey
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Eilian stares at the body? No it can't even be called that any more.
The projectile that shattered against the wall.

The amount of force required for that would far exceed even a high speed car crash.

She hadn't even begun before, and now this.

Still accelerating.

Her gloves creak as she clenches her hands.

The force didn't matter, the generation of such would be possible.

STILL ACCELERATING.

If she were anyone else she would doubt her eyes, but it was simple for her to visually measure the speed.

Air resistance, gravity, intertia.

That is not how that works. This is not how any of this works.

She can accept that they were kidnapped.

She can accept that her classmates were murdered, are being murdered before her eyes.

And yet here some absolute fucking pile has gone and broken something so fundamental.

"This absolute..." Her words descend into crude German swears, lips splitting as she bares her teeth.

The steady tick tock of her personal time grating even more against what she feels here.

ould she have to start over from scratch?

Was everything she had learned, worked for and built meaningless now?

"Eilian."

She introduces herself brusquely. Red eyes still wild.

It is the work of a mere moment to flick her phones compass open.

"I find myself no longer interested in remaining here."

Shoving phone back into her coat pocket she finds that strange not time piece, was it merely a coincidence it appeared before all of this happened?

Already starting to walk towards the unexplored doorway she flips the cover open and glances at the face.

Eilian Stats

**RacingeR** · June 19th, 2022, 11:53 PM

Myo
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Courtyard – Northern Yard)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

You dash due south, leaving the rats in the dust. Or at least you intend to leave them into the dust.

They’re fast. Although they fail to catch you before you abscond, they manage to cling to your trail much better than you’d have expected for mere rats. Overall, they’re more agile than you are normally.

But in a dash, you are still faster than they are. Eventually, you’ll leave them behind, so you center your attention on the school building for a bit.

Your sense of distance feels all off. You think the school is nearer than it looks like, but it feels as if a filter of shadows had been superimposed over everything. The alienness and size of the courtyard isn’t helping matters, as it feels entirely too wrong and different while being familiar.

Something’s going on here, more than meets the eye.

But the profile you see is definitely that of the Zeus High school building. You are sure of that one. Even if changed and warped (was that a whole hallway jutting out of the sixth floor and looping around the building?) it was still recognizable as such.

You didn’t get too much time to ponder what’s going on.

First you see the mutilated corpse of a male student, half their face missing and looking like their body had been thoroughly chewed on. Then, a nearby bush moves, and out surges the third rat.

Encountered Mutated Rat

They had an ambush prepared for you. The third rat was supposed to sneak around while you fought the other two and catch you by surprise from behind. Ironically, your refusal to engage the initial approach had completely wrecked their simple scheme, and now the third rat was forced to scramble out of its hiding spot to get in front you.

And then it jumped at you.

Battle calculation

Blood spilled out of your side as the rat’s iron fangs found purchase, tearing through your uniform and sinking into your flesh. Blood spilled as you instinctively batted the creature aside and jumped back, creating some distance.

With quick, shallow breaths, you quickly controlled the pain. The wound was deep, but thanks to some miracle, it wasn’t bleeding that much. You calmly reassessed the situation.

You were trapped in a triangle. The two pursuing rats hadn’t quite arrived yet, there was some distance still, but were close enough that any attempt to dash through the sides of the triangle would be interrupted by one or two of them. The breakthrough, if any, would require you to fight through no matter how you approached it.

The air thrummed strangely. You observed the enemy, noting details almost automatically. Up close, they looked even more grotesque and misshapen. There was a teal circle on the center of their foreheads you hadn’t noticed before, too. Their eyes were entirely red with bloodlust, and you could feel their murderous intent almost physically.

They were going to eat you. No ifs or buts. This was a battle where the fittest would prevail, and the weak would be eaten and forgotten.

Ratatouille
Turn 1

Codex update

**RacingeR** · June 20th, 2022, 01:58 AM

Johnny Justice
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Zombie Jamboree
Turn 2

You twisted within the grip of the monster, changing your posture inside his hold. If the zombie had enough intelligence for that, he’d probably have been quite surprised at the borderline inhuman maneuver he had witnessed.

Sadly for him, all he really tried to do was to bite you, and he couldn’t do that when a chunk of his neck had been replaced by fist.

Precision roll

Battle calculation

The brain is the natural weakness of a Decayed Being and the monsters that have evolved from that archetype. The brains are where the maddened spirit and the dark magic animating the carcass reside, and without a brain, the body can’t function.

Even breaking the neck of an undead won’t be enough to kill it per se. As long as some sort of connection remains, the brain, or rather the magic within, can still somehow reach the limbs and keep the creature moving.

However, the most basic, the weakest of all the undead is much too frail, and Johnny’s fist is much too strong.

This feat would be impossible under any other circumstances. As of yet Johnny still remains a mere human, however abnormal he may happen to be. But the distances involved, and the adequate execution of something that resembles the One-Inch Punch of martial arts legend.

The fist hammers into the neck, and shatters flesh and bone entirely in a disproportionate impact. The rotten, softened flesh gives under the pressure, snapping and severing alongside the muscles, separating along the path of the fist.

The head of the monster tilts to the side, now only connected through mere skin tissue and nothing more. The hands grabbing Johnny suddenly let go as the arms go slack, and then the zombie toppled backwards and ceased moving forevermore.

Decayed Being (Human Schoolboy) has been slain

But then other arms replace the ones that let go, as the last living member of the original trio jumps at you while you are too busy dealing with the other one to avoid his grasp, and his hands grab with much more strength than expected.

Strongarm activated

Battle calculation

The claws grabbing you sunk into your flesh, tearing through your cloth and skin, drawing blood as they carved your flesh. Then teeth came down and bit at your left shoulder with incredible strength.

Once, you’d heard someone say the muscles of the jaw were the most powerful in the human body. You weren’t sure if that was true or not, but right now you were willing to bet for the first option. The pain was excruciating.

But you were used to pain and wounds. The teeth reached to the bone, but didn’t crack or crush it.

Issue is that it was not letting go, claws still sunk into you, teeth still biting into you, stubbornly. But that was fine. You had learnt a valuable lesson just now.

Learned Strongarm (Lesser)

At the same time you had slain one of the zombies, Timothy had nodded curtly at you, and then charged towards the incoming threat. His massive fist tore through the air as it advanced straight towards the face of the zombified schoolboy that’d been approaching.

Battle calculation

The effects of this simple attack were rather spectacular. No matter how tough one was, a truth of the world was that in bare-handed combat, size mattered. Mattered a whole lot, in fact.

The poor zombie was blown away by this revelation. Literally, sent flying backwards by the impact, flopping and rolling into the floor by the unexpected impact. Not slain, but simply thrown away where it couldn’t do any harm for the moment.

The giant of a boy shook his fist again, dripping pulverized flesh still attached to his knuckles. Then, the zombified girls attacked him, and he did nothing at all to defend himself, other than a token attempt to get out of the way.

Battle calculation

And the zombies accomplished a whole lot of nothing at all. Their hands, wielded more akin like claws, hit and scratched at him, the nails tearing through clothing and hurting the skin somewhat, but that was all.

They might as well have been hitting a plank of steel. That was how tough the body of this juggernaut was.

He was showing off. This boy was definitely showing off-

“I don’t fight women.” Timothy explained with a troubled expression, the first time you heard him speak. His voice was grave and powerful, rumbling. So he wasn’t showing off, exactly…

He eyed the zombie grappling you, with the clear intent of attacking it to allow you to fight off the zombified girls without wasting any more time.

Codex update

**Alliceron** · June 20th, 2022, 07:12 PM

Xavier Augustus
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Twisted Classroom – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“It’s a slime.”“A slime is a slime!”

Great, at least he could be sure that he wasn’t seeing thi…

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“Maybe he hit his head when he was thrown in!”
“Maybe he’s just not very smart!”
“Good-looking guys tend to not be!”

You’ve got to be kidding me.That’s just my luck. I wake up in a bizarre room with a slime straight out of a cheesy 80s horror movie, and my only source of information is a ghost girl that happens to be just as much of a brat as Cynthia.

Conflicting emotions flashed on his face for a moment. At least he now had a better idea of how to approach this situation. Xavier just had to suffer the insults to gather more information. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t strike back.

“You know, I’m going to ignore that last comment. As for hitting my head, it’s a possibility. My head hurts like hell though part of that may be from the demonic screeching that woke me up.” He said with an exasperated smile.

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“And isn’t that obvious?”
“That you are in the Warped World!”
“In the place where everything is warped.”
“Even you yourself!”

Fantastic. A vague non-answer! At least some of it was useful. If he was “warped,” whatever that meant, it might explain that feeling of violation lurking at the edge of his consciousness. Don’t think about that now. That’s a problem for another time.

With that, the sensation faded slightly. It was still present but much less noticeable.

“Warped World, huh? Can you elaborate on exactly what that is? I somehow doubt we’re in Kansas anymore…” He said, before chuckling lightly at the joke.

“And while we’re on the subject of location, where in the school are we? I was in the music room before I passed out, but this room is definitely somewhere else.”

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“And behold, you are in the presence of the great!”
“The magnificent!”
“The beautiful!”
“The perfect!”
“Infis!”

As the girl floated up, he found himself with a growing bit of respect for the ghost. She had a certain flair for the dramatic that he could appreciate as a performer. He was content to let her have her moment, even if her ego seemed to be out of control.

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“Infis! Hey! Wait a minute!”

And then it was ruined. He could already feel his headache getting worse as a second ghost emerged. As the two descended into arguing, Xavier zoned them out and tried to come to terms with the fact that he now had an additional nuisance to deal with.

Originally Posted by RacingeR

“Better than admitting that I have no idea of who I am, right?!”
“Maybe I was a student in this school? And then I bit it.”
“Gave up the ghost!”

He snapped back to attention just in time to hear that she was almost as confused as he was. It just kept getting better and better. Ignoring their morbid potential origin and atrocious attempt at a joke, he pushed ahead.

“Can you two hold back on the bickering for a second and explain...” He gestured wildly at both of them, “Whatever is going on here? Are you two ghosts working together or just one ghost split in two?”

Ultimately, he didn’t care about their answer, he just needed to quiet their cackling so he could think for a moment.

Even though they were obnoxious, they seemed to be quite strong. He shot a glance at the slime surrounded by ghostly flames. If they were correct, that monster would have eaten him without their intervention. He needed to stick by them, at least for now.

“Well, I suppose it’s nice to meet you, Infis. I don’t recognize you, so I doubt you’re a Zeus student. It’s a big school though, so I can’t say for sure. Why don’t we stick together and look around for a while? We might be able to find some information about your identity, and I could find some of my friends.”

Wait! How could he have been so stupid!?

He quickly pulled out his phone and checked it. By some miracle, the school’s wifi was still up. That stuck out as slightly odd to him considering the shape of the room he was in, but that was a problem for another time. He had gotten so caught up in the ghosts’ pace that he had forgotten the most basic tool of communication he possessed.

As if possessed by a sudden fervor, he rapidly typed out a message to the music club group chat.

Text

Once he hit send, he sat back and anxiously awaited a response from both the ghosts and his phone.

**RacingeR** · June 21st, 2022, 01:37 AM

Jordan J. Jones
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 4th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

You gingerly scoop Adelyn up. She doesn’t weigh all that much, thankfully. As average in weight as she was in height. A rude thing to think about a girl, for sure, but you are quite thankful for that right now.

Carrying her for too long is going to be troublesome, but right now you can do so with ease. Waking her up here was a bad idea. In fact, you suspect that no matter when you wake her up, she’s going to freak out either way.

The blood and gore were splattered quite thickly inside the classroom, which now that you look at it, seemed to be a bit smaller than a normal one. You’d had trouble avoiding the pools of blood, and your shoes had gotten stained a bit. Adelyn’s hair and uniform were also soaked in blood.

No, this girl wouldn’t have a good awakening no matter what you did. Better to not rouse her up until you were sure you wouldn’t attract any nasties to your position.

Almost absent-mindedly, you noticed a pair of blood-soaked school IDs, the plasticized cards you had to show the guards at the school doors for them to let you pass by, one of the many security measures the campus had in place. Right now, those were the only identifiable remnants of some of the people here, and you pocketed them without thinking about it.

You exited the classroom, and showed your message to the blonde girl. The girl hadn’t seemed pleased by your actions, but seemed to have understood them. But her eyes widened and her face paled when she saw you again and noted the blood clinging to your shoes, as well as the much greater quantity soaked on the back of Adelyn’s clothes.

Then, she paled even further, and her eyes widened so much her pupils practically became dots. You heard a sizzling behind you, and almost felt your soul leave your body.

You hadn’t considered that the slime might not have been eating the door and the surrounding structure alone. No, in fact, that mess you had witnessed, had been the creature’s true feast.

It was only natural that the moment it determined that the noise it had perceived hadn’t been done by anything organic, it would turn around to return to its meal. Just in time to witness you leaving the classroom.

You turned your head around almost robotically.

Two tentacles surged from the slime’s mass as it screeched loudly, the gelatinous body trembling along with the sharp, headache-inducing noise. And then it went off after you, moving at a speed unbelievable for something that looked like it did.

The blond girl lost her nerves. She whimpered audibly, then turned around and bolted, obeying your order to run.

At least, all your maneuvering had created quite the bit of distance for the slime to cover before it could catch you, and you were quite fast yourself. But would you be able to run away from it entirely, especially when weighed down by the student you were carrying?

You’d have to try.

The chase was on.

**RacingeR** · June 21st, 2022, 02:46 AM

Eleanor Lansing
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Abode of the Endless)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

It pulses under you, sometimes.

You can feel it. The endless blood pool seemed so stagnant, that despite being only high enough to reach your ankles, your steps barely make a splash. But sometimes, without prompting, it pulses. It beats, as if alive. And the waves are big, even though oddly enough, they don’t splash.

The waves guide you. You follow them almost automatically.

How long have you been wandering? It can’t have been all that long. It can’t have been longer than a few minutes, and yet in scant moments, you have lost all sense of time and space.

It is so freezing cold that you are trembling despite yourself. You feel like you’d been just stuffed nude inside a fridge. This is not the kind of cold a human being can live with for long, not without a few more layers of thick clothing than what you were wearing right now.

There’s just the endless hallway, with the odd lamp lit above once in a while, with the endless rows of windows from which dying teal light pours, and from where you only witness an endless teal void.

Kaitlin hasn’t answered your message. In fact, while it has been sent, it doesn’t appear like she has read it. Strange. But everything is strange and alien here.

At some point, you just can’t cease wandering. You are moving, the beat pushes you onwards, and you can’t stop. As if you were being called, summoned.

And you arrive at last.

Past the doorway, opens something that resembles a classroom, if only in a grand scale. The insides are a mess. Desks and chairs are thrown around everywhere, broken, in mountains, so many of them that you lose count.

All of them soaked in blood. All of them covered in gore and human remains. Adults unknown to you, the majority of them still clad on white helmets, with their white body armor now stained red.

Thirty, forty or so. All dead. They couldn’t be any deader.

And standing at the center, before the biggest mountain of debris, the biggest mountain of corpses, there’s a single figure, clad in black.

Encountered Unending UNKNOWN

You don’t know how long you remain there, paralyzed by the grotesque spectacle and the sheer alien aesthetic of the scene, but finally, the figure speaks out loud.

“I see. I was deceived.” They said, speaking to the empty air. “Truly cunning. He hasn’t lived as long as I have for nothing.”

The voice is soft, cold, lacking in emotion, and is as androgynous as this person’s appearance, though you detect a slightly mannish intonation into it, barely. They look your age, perhaps a bit older, and their black suit is liberally coated in blood.

Blood. The blood pulses almost in time with their voice.

The person turns around, and you notice almost immediately that no matter how perfectly human it looks, this cannot be human. You can’t even put your finger on what tips you off to that, or how you even come to the conclusion.

Perhaps it is how perfectly androgynous this being looks. Perhaps it is something about those red eyes that suddenly focus on you, the intensity of their regard. Perhaps it is something about their gait as they walk towards you, something not quite right with it, moving in a way a human shouldn’t be quite moving.

It is just uncanny.

And the being now steps towards you, and you find yourself paralyzed.

No, paralyzed is not quite exact. You are free to move and speak: it is just that whenever you try to move, step away or to the side, you find out that… you simply haven’t, and are still standing there, waiting for the creature to approach you.

“Hm. Curious. You aren’t what I’m looking for.” They stop three meters in front of you, and those red irises now examine you almost scientifically. “You are not like the four from before, and yet you have been sent here.” Although their voice remains emotionless, there’s a faint note of curiosity to it now.

“Perhaps you possess the potential to be like them.”

**Sei** · June 21st, 2022, 02:53 PM

Sakura Sumeragi
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Ignore it...

Don't pay any more attention to anything that's happening. This whole situation stopped making sense long ago. Trying to work your way through the details will only cause you to get hung up on unnecessary things.

Ignore it.

There is no need to think about who that girl is. Was... And it's definitely not in my interest to contemplate the events that led up to what just transpired. It's already taking all of my brain power to push past all this confusion and fear. If it becomes any harder to move my legs, I might as well be dead weight.

Ignore it. Suppress it. And desensitize yourself. You'd be stupid not to expect more to come. What just happened made it clear that this isn't the time to stand around in shock. Now is the time for action. I can get counseling when I get out of here alive.

Still, my mind wavers. Though briefly, I can't help but consider the girl I never met. And the nonsensical way in which she met her end.

In the midst of everything that happened, her student ID landed near us. Hard to say if it happened while she was flying through the air... Or as the result of... not flying through the air. Regardless, I release the silver-haired girl's sleeve and pick the girl's ID up off the ground. The blood on it is still warm...

"At the very least, we should do our best to let people know what happened here..."

I whisper. Not to communicate my thoughts. Simply to motivate myself.

Tucking the ID into my skirt pocket, I get up and reposition myself at the silver-haired girl's side.

"Sorry," I apologize as I grip her sleeve once more. It doesn't seem like my hand has stopped shaking, "I don't think we should go this way."

**Airen** · June 21st, 2022, 03:09 PM

Rika Griffin
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

---Don't think about it.

Why had she even looked at it? The sound of that scream, the terror in a garbled voice, all of that should have been enough to warn her instincts not to look, that she's not going to like what she sees, and yet...

Like a car crash, she hadn't been able to look away.

Like a car crash, her brain had looked too far into the details. The body moving far too fast, the sudden stop, a crimson mist, details she didn't want to have exist in her brain that exist there now, that she'll never be able to forget, a brutal nonsensical end that wouldn't have been out of place in the nightmares, yes...

The nightmares.

She's inside them right now.

They just happen to be real this time, real and unforgettable, a crimson-red trauma newly traced in the depths of her psyche, and yet-

"..."

-her body keeps going on it's own, flicking on the light of the phone and aiming it towards the western darkness. Of course her body had always been good at that, at taking over when necessary, deepset instincts picking the right responses on their own to escape a dangerous situation, but...

Was anything 'right' here? Was there a correct choice? A way to guarantee survival?

She doesn't know.

Just like she doesn't know why one of the girls stops to pick up an ID, is willing to touch that sort of mess... Or how one has a strange fit that doesn't seem to be aimed at the proper thing, yes...

The other two are strange people.

---But perhaps she's strange too?

After all...

She hasn't screamed at all, not even once.

"West it is."

Quiet.

Aiming the light into the darkness, I follow after the girl that is a bit too tall; it's a joking thought that does not fit the scenario, that is probably just her brain trying to cope with something truly horrific, but...

"Anywhere is better than here."

Thread: Titanomachy Rebirth (IC)

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