themightybosstone | [StarRail PSL]

[StarRail PSL]

[The world was one of a constant, strange, cyclical war.

When the night fell on the highest moon of the furthest month, a Howling Storm took the planet, cut its cities off from each other and the visitors from their homes, When the Storm's first whining, hot wind struck, the imposing gates of the iridescent metal of this world would close, folding up and over, in a wall only Qlipoth could love.

The thud of bodies, the scrape of claws, mandibles and fangs added to the cacophony that the setting of the red sun provoked. It ebbed in the morning, but never enough to be safe. Never enough for the walls to come down.

In defiance, however, in these little hubs of survival, the nightlife was something quite impressive. Loud music played, lights blared, the night market was a roar of throats - the call of sellers and the flirtation of buyers.

All to carry on like a shield wasn't holding back the certain death of nearly everyone in the spaceport.

But you're here, waiting for the tired relief of morning. For the spaceport to open back up in a week.

It should have already ended. It SHOULD have been open yesterday.

But the Storm is longer than it's ever been here...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[In the time that it takes for Valencia to yell at the prison guards, Dan Feng would have slid the entire nail out, and would now be using it to pry at the anchors of his other chains.]

You know who I am, yes? What I hunt?

[He needs a little more regeneration to be able to summon his spear, but he can wait. This is fun. He manages to get his hands free- so he can slam against the glass, in Sett's direction.

He drops his voice. Almost lovingly, he says:]

How much do you think you can get for a Stellaron?

[ It isn't the splatter of gore across the clear polymerized shield, or the way the flecks of Dan Feng already start to freeze to the surface in bright red blooms- ]

[ It's the CLICK of those few dedicated, hard working neurons that put it together. Oh she's got a world cancer. Is one?

Fuck, that Swarm really ISN'T going to leave.

Little nuances like, oh, normally people just immediately blort into fragmentum on contact or oh hey she has PARENTS obviously are frankly lost on Sett. He's not a Nameless or a Stellaron Hunter. He only knows that if he's here on script-

- shit he's here on script -

then they're in deep shit.

Is deep shit.

Okay thoughts beyond THAT are beyond his pay grade. ]

[ Oh, that LAST SENTENCE.

A growl from someone the size of Sett sounds like an engine starting, honestly. ]

Nope, nevermind. She's right. You can fucking rot.

[ And with a crunching snarl, he goes to find Val- ]

[This is the point where the chains holding his feet shatter, made brittle in a cold they weren't manufactured for. Valencia had better be inspiring the fear of Ena in the guards, and quickly, because Dan Feng regenerates what's left of his face in the span of time between smearing himself on the glass and the locks on the sides of the cell disengaging with sychronized beeps.]

You would not even keep hunting me? [PLAINTIVE???] I enjoyed your hands in my ribcage greatly! I suppose it was too much to hope from a mutt to finish what it started.

Lost the chance at that buddy-

[ His ear swivels back at that beep and he pauses mid step.

That wasn't what he thought it is, is it?

It couldn't be.

There'd be like. A BILLION alarms.

Wouldn't there? ]

[ Sure are!

Sett can hear Valencia's voice raising down the hall with his enhanced hearing, in noisy argument with the on-duty guards-- as they threaten in return, tired of her, "If you don't leave the station right now we'll have to--" ]

-- And if you don't listen you're putting everyone here and yourself at risk! If you would just--

[ And then something happens, impossible to ignore.

As the security is disabled and the latches undone, a blaring alarm casts a painful silence over the entirety of the station, robotic tones of Alert. Cell Security Compromised. Alert. Cell Security... begin to repeat throughout the halls, automatic doors latching closed one by one.

Val jerks back and scowls at the guard she'd been arguing with, as the others scramble to gear up. ]

-- May the Great One take pity on your ignorance. Sett!

[ And then she tries to make her escape out the front door, before it can latch closed in an attempt to keep their charge contained.]

Edited 2024-07-30 16:34 (UTC)

[Everything happens all at once:

1) It only takes one well-placed kick to shatter the glass, now that the locks reinforcing and keeping it in place were turned off
2) Dan Feng bolts out of the cell, and in the direction of Val's voice - he's not about to let her leave
3) and, to add insult to playground injury - as he passes Sett, tries to, he's not picky, he's going to reach out and yank hard on his tail.]

[ THEY TOOK HOW MANY BLASTS THIS MORNING AND FOR SOME REASON THIS IS THE ONLY THING THAT HURTS. The roaring yowl can be heard by the guards AND Val without any additional need for electronics or super senses.

HIS PRIDE!!!!

OKAY IF HE HAPPENS TO KILL HIM ON THE WAY NO ONE CAN BLAME HIM!!

Sett is not built for speed, but the LENGTH of the legs are somewhat unfair. He just. Needs to get to Val before the STUPID LIZARD DOES
THEN CAN MASH HIM TO PASTE
????
PROFIT]

[ She flinches-- and she can almost sense Dan Feng before she hears him, sees him, the malicious energy behind his pursuit.

She doesn't know what happened to Sett, or why or how, but the pressure of Dan Feng's power closing in stokes a real fear in her and--

There's nothing she can do, not here, not in these closed quarters. She bursts through the door and takes off running, scrambling to get her footing and take her rifle off her back. ]

[Dan Feng destroys the hydraulic frames of every door he passes, keeping them slid open (you're welcome Sett), but he also is a lot shorter than mr long legs here (you're not welcome Sett), so they'll probably catch up to each other when Val is in sight.]

Valencia! [She'd probably not want to go out the main entrance, where there are approximately 8392679435493348 soldiers armed with rifles and various things that can kill a person. Or maybe she does! Who knows!] I'm not done with you!

[ IF HE WANTED CHASE!!! HE GOT IT!!!

Sett's footsteps thunder behind him, even as Dan Feng makes it to Valencia.

He'll think about the reinforced doors that were torn through like paper, or the force that took to break the containment glass, and realize just how outmatched he is later. Very later. Maybe never later.

Instead, his claws extend even as he tries to sink them into Dan Feng's back. Scruffing by the a grip around the collarbone? Maybe. ]

YER DONE WHEN I SAYS YER DONE!

[ She doesn't know the building well enough to escape through a side route, though those doors to the outside are already undoubtedly latched securely shut; not a problem for Dan Feng or maybe even Sett, but certainly no match even for her skills, supernaturally empowered as they are.

Dan Feng hot on her tail she instead crashes through the front door, heedless of the soldiers undoubtedly lined up out front to take their shot at their quarry; in fact she dives onto her belly the moment she can, dodging a handful of bullets and skidding onto her back, rifle at the ready. It's only a second for the power to make its way through the barrel, the white-hot ammunition exploding out of her weapon in a trail of fire and, hopefully, directly into Dan Feng's face. The ones that don't certainly hit his extremities-- and unfortunately, perhaps Sett, given his proximity-- because the moment the bullets make contact they explode outward into bits of molten slag, raining down over them. ]

Edited 2024-07-30 18:24 (UTC)

[That instantly vaporizes the entirety of Dan Feng's chest and head, and the bloody meat that falls to the ground has slag sizzling into parts of it. Cloud-Piercer clangs on the ground with Dan Feng's hand still attached.

There's a really loud silence as the soldiers just kind of stand there in shock, gore splattered across their armor like really shitty rain.

"Oh, wow," one of them says, out loud, and they immediately get whapped upside the head by the soldier next to them.]

[ Sure, slag has ripped through Sett's side and a part of his arm, but like. So what?

HE'S SOAKED.

A bit falls on his head from where it was launched and. HE ONLY HAS ONE PAIR OF CLOTHES. ]

[ He drops what's left of the man who wiped out an entire flagship. ]

That was anticlimatic.

[ Most of the IPC grunts are too shell shocked to react when he starts walking towards Val. ]

[ There's a very brief moment as the spear clatters to the ground where Valencia just stares, wide-eyed. It's almost hopeful, but she knows better, and when Sett starts to move and she meets his eyes there's something-- regretful, fearful, growing in them. Maybe it's a weak apology for blowing a chunk of his side out.

Maybe it's for Something Else, because she whips around to yell at the guards again, throat hoarse-- ]

Run.

[ And-- this time, presented with a woman with a power far beyond theirs, a mutilated giant still walking, and a half-obliterated body still standing on its feet even released by Sett's grip--

They run, practically scrambling over each other to escape, and Val turns back to quick-reload her rifle again, something below the fabric over her chest faintly glowing. ]

Edited 2024-07-30 18:45 (UTC)

[They'll turn back in time to catch: the embodiment of the abomination Valencia hunts, rapidly putting itself back together wetly, sinew by bone by nerve, into the doll-like unnatural perfection of a thing remade by the Plagues Author themself. His pants are still intact, thanks Val, very generous.

His eyelids grow back last, over irises dilated gold and crimson. The stragglers who did not run and had the great misfortune of being in tail swiping distance are turned into bloody splats on the nearest wall.]

That wasn't very nice, Valencia. [He says, hoarse, a little oily, a little sticky, a lot like the things that squirm in the dark.]

[ He hears it, SMELLS it, the sweet, intoxicating smell of abundance itself, annihilation in flesh and blood. (Like ambrosia, sticky, sweet and lethally poisonous.)

He drops, scrabbling out of the way as that gun lowers again.

And the glow welling up from her chest, reflecting off gunmetal and halo alike, gives his fur as much lift of danger-]

Val! Get back t'the ship!

[ The sirens from the prison start to echo around the enclosed city. ]

[ How? She wasn't faster than Dan Feng-- he would catch her. The curtain was still drawn over the city. The swarm still skittered and screeched outside, muffled in the distance, fiercer now with the activation of the thing within her. She couldn't take the ship. She couldn't leave. She could, neither, leave Dan Feng alone here to obliterate the innocents, undoubtedly triggered to violence by her act as he must be.

The golden threads of Yaoshi's influence, the sweet scent of life, unfettered make her nauseous. Is that what she's going to turn into, infected by Dan Feng's touch? Is this the endless life she has to look forward to, somewhere in the future, when the Plagues Author deigns to notice her affliction? Surely not. Surely...

She flips her rifle back up and releases a volley of fire-shots at Dan Feng again, because... what else could she do, really, except try to rid the universe of something she was truly no match for. ]

[Those shots don't even get to hit Dan Feng this time, as he blocks them with Cloud-Piercer, tail wriggling behind him like a really excited worm.]

You are bad at following instructions. [He wrangles a battered phone from his pocket - and the lovingly murderous look on his face abruptly drops, replaced by a look that would be called vague panic on a lesser creature.

His head whips around to look for Sett. How does he convey this woman is a nuclear warhead with his face?] Valencia. I need you to calm down--

[ He catches that, if only because, when he sees the dawn of that terrible light, and the shuddering of fragmentum boiling up out of the asphalt, opening eyes after eyes after eyes after eyes after crystal, malignant eye-

He was telling the truth. She's..

Above, the 'sky' ripples as it starts to split- allowing entry. An effect of the Stellaron? Arrival of the Xianzhou? The Swarm's victory?

It didn't matter.]

VAL!

[ He scrambles towards her, and with half a chance, he'll just loop an arm around her, and just- pick her up to run for the ship.

If they get away, it'll all be fine? Right??? RIGHT??? ]

[ For a long moment the world narrowed down to that single, horrifying pinpoint, as Dan Feng easily disrupts her bullets, the curtain of molten slag raining down behind him like fireworks. It certainly sets a visual; a universal horror backlit by fire, and her the only thing standing between him and... and what, the destruction of this planet? Could she really even help? She had to try. She couldn't just let him do what he wished.

She could barely hear his words, muffled by the smothering terror that had filled her mind, cotton-like, a bright and blinding light,

(unbeknownst to her, as the thing within her glistens and glows, fed by the terror of imminent death, begging like that, like that, that's the way. It is your destiny. It has always been your destiny. I am here, with you, and I will see you to paradise, and we will go together, where the Merciful One cannot hold fast to us, and keep us long within THEIR grasp, like this pitiful creature. Fight, and fight, and save what you must, and perish under that blade, and you will know THEIR touch and rejoice in harmonious order. I promise you, I promise you, I promise you--)

so that she did not even see Sett anymore, somewhere to her left, or the victorious shrieks of the swarm snapping carapace and leg and mandibles through the weakening curtain, or the alarm and discordant panic throughout the city.

So when Sett grabs her it's more than a surprise-- on reflex she releases her gun to yank her dagger from its sheath and viciously stab into his side, every inch of her tense with fear and rage, and then-- ]

[ Oh, she's moving. Dan Feng is somewhere in the distance, and the strange cracks spidering in the street slow to a stop, and the sweet whisper of death calling her quiets to a bare murmur, and she stares at the ground quick-moving beneath their feet and the blood dripping over the handle of her dagger and into her palm with wide, confused eyes. ]

Edited 2024-08-01 15:11 (UTC)

[The curtain of Preservation steadily lifts - but it is too fast, too soon, for it to be any of the Xianzhou warships after Dan Feng's blood. It is the tearing of a thousand, thousand chittering teeth, compounded by the fragmentum tearing at the vast defensive systems that power the planetary shield.

The eyes follow them as they run. Dan Feng is a blur behind them - beside them, and then in front of them as he slices apart fragmentum in their way, the eyes crying, all of them having the same pupils as Ena the Order.]

How much further? [Yelled, as the first Stings wriggle their way into the spiderweb cracks.] The Stellaron is attracting them!

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