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

[ 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!

Not far! [ There's a bit of a wheeze and a gurgle in his voice as the blood welling up in his lungs is fighting against his slowed healing. The drop of the barrier helps in one way...

But in another...

The first of the Stings lands heavily in a building, chittering wildly. Whatever it eats causes the first mitosis- and then another.

The shattering just makes more eyes, each turning, bulbous, to track them as they bolt through the throughway.

The crowd gets denser at the port- they're not the only ones thinking of escape. As the moon starts to pour in around the gossamer wings of the truly massive Giant Sting, Sett's run goes to three canine-like legs, bounding over the rising throngs in literal leaps and bounds.]

There! The ship at the end!

[ The glowing subsides. The fear isn't under control, not really, but the fog induced by the stellaron has lifted some-- now she can see, and hear, and take in the horror that is descending. She meets one of those eyes, knows its shape, and the unsettling realization that that is not THEM. That is something else-- a horrendous copy, a parasitic infection. She looks down instead at the ground rushing below them-- releases the dagger (without removing it, so Sett does not keep bleeding out even with his healing) so she can instead fist her hands in his clothes and hold on.

Dan Feng is coming with them. Why is he coming with them? There's a Stellaron? The Swarm is killing people. Why are they going to the docks? She-- ]

I-- I need to help, they can't--

[ Her voice is hoarse when she finally speaks, weakly trying to push off of Sett as they come to the ship (the door opens automatically, of course). But she's still breathing too heavily, her limbs still trembling, staring up at the giant insect as it descends to land, straddling buildings. ]

[Dan Feng may be a Hand of the Plagues Author, but even he is not foolish enough to try and fight against the vast, unending numbers of the Swarm. He bolts into the ship's hold - and doubles back when Sett and Val slow down.]

Hurry up. This is your fault, Valencia, and by the blessing of my maker's hand, you are going to fix it. Get her inside, Settrigh, this port is lost.

[He vanishes his spear and looks around, trying to figure out the model of the ship, and where the cockpit is.]

We must leave. We will need to do a hyperspace jump at least fifteen parsecs away once the Swarm is on us, so we lose its trail.

Edited (ENGLIIIISH) 2024-08-14 19:19 (UTC)

[ It's just a few bounding steps into the ship before Sett lets Val go. She's going to move faster than he does at this point and his vision is mostly red at the moment. ]

Door!

[ He snarls at Dan Feng around a muzzle full of canines, his form already shrinking back down to a more Foxian one. ]

[ She stumbles, when he sets her down, staring into the chaos of the port as the door seals closed, muffling the screams of panic and fluttering of wings.

... Her fault, how was this her fault? Everything was fine until Dan Feng appeared. If he'd just left her alone-- if the police had just listened to her--

Briefly, the light beneath her shirt surges, brightly, before petering out again. Val's expression goes blank, focused, and she shoves past both of them to the cockpit-- fix it. She can fix it. Imbibitor Lunae was right, there was nothing she could do for this port, not one woman against the Swarm. A stellaron-- Dan Feng was sure to be in possession of it, whatever he meant, his job being what it is. She could fly. She could get them away and hopefully lead the swarm out as well.

She slams on the ignition with practiced ease and awakens the engine, the gentle whine of a high class ship; she doesn't bother to warn either of them before the ship jumps into action. She whirls it around, steering around the myriad other ships trying to escape and taking every slight avenue she can to burst through the tear in the failed shields and pick up the pace into the atmosphere.

She's a very good driver so there's that. ]

[Once he sees Val make her way towards the cockpit - he's changing direction, already on his way to look Sett over. Val's dossier made specific mention of her piloting capabilities, so he's not worried about that.

He's a little more worried about Sett, because nobody else can break his toys except for him.]

Come. [He snaps his fingers imperiously in Sett's direction, already sweeping his own hair up into a bun and baring the crook of his shoulder.] You can bite to heal, since you are one of m-- [Great there he goes flying clean across the ship's hull, because while apparently being a good driver meant she had zero fucking finesse.]

[ Sett looks blearily up at that, somewhere between ANNOYED AT BEING SNAPPED AT and too out of it to really formulate a response. What the hell there's got to be better ways to do this-

And then he's flung into the far wall and the knife nicks something RATHER important in his chest.

There's a moment of panic, a leaden feeling of doom, and two stuttering heartbeats later, his world narrows down into a single moment. A single scent.

He's not even AWARE of when he had pinned Dan Feng down, shoving his face into the floor. Just the sweet taste of his blood after flesh and meat parts under teeth.

Sett rips the blade out of his side without letting go of his prey and lets it drop with a metallic clatter. The skin heals into a scar instantly. ]

[ Thank fucking god she's too focused to hear or see any of this. She weaves between Swarm trying to cling onto her ship, pressing proverbial peddle to the metal-- her ship maxes out on cruising speed somewhere a few hundred miles out of the planet's atmosphere, streaking past other ships and insects alike, dull clattering against the hull from the few small ones she doesn't bother to swerve around.

And then-- still pursued-- they're free and in the open vastness of space; there's a handful of buttons pressed, the kh-chuk of a lever pushed upwards, turned, and yanked down again, and the soft robotic warning of

Warp Jump Imminent. Warp Jump Imminent. Please remain seated. Warp Jump Charging. Please remain seated. Jump Proceeding in Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

and then there's the strange-- and familiar, to them both-- sensation of being pulled and stretched, then flung forward like a rubberband; it pins them both down against the wall they'd been slammed into, and Valencia into her seat.

He'd said fifteen parsecs so she'd mapped for sixteen; the ship cruises on the warp path for a good ten seconds before finally slowing, stars no longer streaking by like comets, the vast emptiness of space around them like a silent and comforting blanket. The ship's warp drive gives a brief warning-- low power-- before a couple of lights go out to conserve energy as a precaution, leaving the ship dimly lit.

Val stares blankly out the window for a long moment before she exhales, like she'd been holding her breath, her whole body slumping and exhausted down into her seat. ]

[Thankfully for her, Dan Feng has spent about the last thirty minutes actively dying under Sett's mouth, which makes him too busy to criticize her driving. There might have been some screaming - some unholy metallic screeches as he digs nails into the floor, and his tail swinging up to strangle and/or keep Sett close.

When Sett is finally, fully healed - emanator flesh is potent - he kind of just lies there, mostly dead, regenerating almost petulantly.]

I want. [He gurgles,] Fruit juice.

[ On the other hand, Sett has never felt better in his LIFE than when his fangs pull out of Dan Feng's throat. The racket wasn't even a deterrent. It'd struck some PERFECT chord between drunken lust and a blood rage.

So he's standing there, looking down on this wreck of a monster that. Okay he's not sure how much he spent feeling up and how much he spent trying to close off that windpipe for good and they ARE THE SAME FEELING IN HIS MEMORIES.

He's going to have so much to repress tonight.

He just. Picks him up by the waist and. Starts towards the kitchen-

It's minutes later that he darkens the doorway of the cockpit, Dan Feng, now with a cup of juice, and still dangling. ]

Hey boss. Good flying. Uh... how we lookin'?

Edited 2024-09-09 16:51 (UTC)

[ She's quiet for a long moment, just staring out into the empty darkness. But she finally speaks, her voice flat and a bit rough. ]

... Low on power. Need to find the nearest star so the panels can charge up while I inspect the outside for damage.

[He doesn't really struggle in Sett's grip, his tail curling up around Sett's collar like a scaly, azure scarf. He's busy floating the juice up out of the cup, and snapping at the orbs like a murderous guppy.]

No. [Glug glug juice.] I need the Stellaron contained first or she will corrupt that star's core.

Edited 2024-09-11 14:52 (UTC)

[ Well at least the tail isn't trying to choke him out anymore. Nevermind he was also trying to kill the dragon but that's details.

His grip tightens slightly and he just considers shaking the smaller man. ]

Contain how?

[ Clueless, apparently, because she slowly pushes herself up so she can start charting a course to the closest sun, the dashboard giving a few warning beeps as the ship begins to move again. ]

Then contain it on the way and call your Hunters to come pick you up. We won't be making landfall any time soon and I won't be housing you or your star cancer on my ship longer than I have to.

Denial isn't very a good look on you. Oh, where is my suitcase.

[He twists in Sett's grip like an eel, trying to climb up his (massive) chest; how far he would get is up to the much larger man. He may be trying to bribe Sett with an orb of juice.]

I can reach into her and retrieve it, she's not the first receptacle I've handled. She'll be little more than scrap afterwards.

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