▶ TDM .013

[prismods]

Final Countdown

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You awaken amidst the darkness with only a faint light to greet you. Your body is hemmed in by shards of crystals, gently sparkling and possibly pricking your skin. The surrounding landscape is dyed in the pinks and purples of the dusk filled with crystals protruding from the ground, some as large as a skyscraper. After an hour or two of wandering through the crystal wilderness, a group of people find you worse for wear. They are the gallant Moon Knights from the planet of Prismatica. Because of the strange phenomena during the past months when scientists observed the sudden appearance of rainbow crystals in the sky, the government has been feverishly combing through the moon for more Moonblessed to be rescued. You’ll eventually be brought into Iris’s moon government center.

You all may have your usual inquiries — Where are we? Who are you? What's going on? — and the Prismals are almost too eager to answer. They tell you about their world and about the first appearance of the Moonblessed as the medical staff give you an examination to make sure you’re not carrying any viruses or biological hazards. If you react violently, you may be restrained and nerfed with a specialized neurotransmitting gun that releases a numbing agent through the top of your spine. Once the examinations are over, you’re informed that you will be provided accommodations on their planet during your stay. You will then be escorted to the docks, and led onto a large transport vessel that makes frequent trips back and forth between the Iris moon and the planet. Faces onboard vary from both old and new Moonblessed as well as the local Prismals.

The next destination: Prismatica.

▶ Welcome to the Jungle
Iris Moon, Government Center (Arrival) and Planet Prismatica, City of Lunatia | top

Welcome to Prismatica’s hub, Lunatia, the city of your dreams! A bustling metropolis lush with bright lights, vibrant colors, luxuriant plant life, and all the conveniences of technology absent from your own world… It seems like paradise to all the uninitiated. After a quick tour of the city, new arrivals can find themselves getting cozy in their new homes.

 A  Settle in your new home at Level 2 to find new roommates and say hello to your neighbors! City officials will give you directions to the designated districts across Level 2 and instruct you to pick out a unit. Each apartment complex has a different aesthetic, some may look cozy, some stylish, and some bizarre. The free accommodations have a basic living space that can only fit two or three people at most in one unit.

Starter Chromaspace furnishings are provided which can be controlled with the touch of a built-in panel. Examples are color-changing curtains, transforming sofa beds, cabinets turning into tables, etc. Customizing your apartment or moving out will have to wait until you earn more chroma. Until then, why don’t you check out your new neighborhood or explore the city levels? Maybe your new roommates or neighbors can give you a “hand” with allowance for dinner.

▶ Let’s Do the Time Warp Now
Lunatia | top

Time is relative, but the days do seem shorter — or longer — than usual. A minute passes like an hour. An hour passes like a minute. Everything appears to be moving along as normal, but the numbers and hands on clocks flicker and spin with an unusual and worrying slowness or quickness. Eventually you notice that the darkness of the night barely lasts long enough for you to fall asleep while the sun seems to glare down upon you for an eternity. The temporal shifts disorient your body, which now grows lethargic from being overworked and underslept. Soon, the temporal abnormalities reach a critical point…

 B  Due to the temporal distortions, Prismals and Moonblessed new and old feel their bodies sporadically transform in the strangest of ways. Your joints ache like they’ve carried a lifetime’s weight of misfortune and regret. Your voice turns high-pitched like a certain pair has yet to drop. You turn into a confused infant in one moment and the seasoned fighter you always wanted to be in the next. Your memories also shuffle around along with your apparent age, leaving you confused and unsettled. The transformations can occur and last for as long as the 11th, when everything turns back to normal without incident. That time your baby self peed in your pants? Never happened. Until then, moonlacing seems to stabilize the weird abnormalities.

▶ Starlight, Star Bright, First Star I See Tonight
Lunatia | top

The city’s landscape is not spared by the erratic flow of time. Buildings and streets continuously flicker between the beautiful and vibrant paradise it has become to the ruins of glory days long past. Your eyes may struggle to adjust as you try and convince yourself of what is real and what is not. High rise towers one moment will become wreckage the next, filled with technological debris and the echoing cries of the terrified, and the mighty wingspan of an unknown creature continues to hovers in the distance. The illusion will only last but a minute before you’re back in the present, going about your daily business. However, your trip from the future and back is far from over.

Soon, breaking news reports will inform the city about the sudden vanishing of certain celestial bodies in the sky. Though the moons remain where they should, the nights grow longer and darker as the stars in the sky start disappearing one by one until only the sun remains, eclipsed by some mysterious force. Lunar Scientia has already sent capable teams to investigate the abnormalities, so they ask the public to be patient as they wait for the reports. Until then, they have issued safety guidelines and measures to effectively light the city. The Caelus Tower appears to burn brighter than ever.

 C  For these dark hours, Lunar Scientia releases their latest Chroma-powered technology for Moonblessed use: star lanterns. When a star lantern is held by two Moonblessed, it absorbs newly generated Chroma from them, enabling it to light up the missing stars in the sky as you travel from place to place. The light’s color and intensity will depend on you and your partner’s bond, the spectrum ranging from a violet of hatred to a red full of love. Indifference, however, will not light the lantern at all. It also comes with a float function so that it can be released into the atmosphere without needing to carry it everywhere. Since the technology is limited in stock, Moonblessed may only have one star lantern in their possession.

One of the issued guidelines is to never walk through dark alleys alone even with the lanterns, as the crime rate has increased lately due to those taking advantage of the chaos. This is especially rampant in Level 3, at the mouth of the Lightless.

▶ Oh, They Just Can’t Wait to be King
Outside Lunatia, Port Sylvel | top

On the ides of the third month, an emergency broadcast appears from Captain Natela:

Captain Natela

Greetings, Prismals and Moonblessed.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that Port Sylvel has been completely crystallized. The Moon Knights are currently recruiting willing explorers and scientists to investigate the cause. Investigations are still pending, but the outlook is grim. The only survivors were among the few we carried out of the city last month. The rest perished from the crystallization.

Our heart goes out to those affected by this plight. There is no cause for panic. There is no sign that the crystallization is spreading beyond Port Sylvel. We Moon Knights stand with the people of Prismatica, as we have done for centuries. We are not mere defenders of a city but protectors of a planet. We endeavor to find the cause of this tragedy and bring peace and justice to the lives it claimed. Until then, we ask for your cooperation. Stay calm and press onward.

Those who volunteer to participate in the expedition will be rewarded for their efforts. They will be assisted by experts from the Lunar Scientia as well as the bear Prismal and Moon Knight Fahrouk, who looks worse for wear after hearing the news.

Officer Fahrouk

Oh, Moonblessed. It's you. Yeah, Hala is doing good. Won the spelling bee! I think she might make the nationals. ... I… I don't think I ever told you. Port Sylvel was our hometown. My wife is buried there. We’d go there every spring. Hala loved picking the flowers there. Did you know that different flowers grow in Port Sylvel compared to Lunatia? Haaaah...

Moonblessed! I know you think I'm not cool enough to hang out with you, and all I do is ask for your help, but please let me go with you! Please… This is something I have to do as a soldier, a husband, and a father.

… What? You always thought I was cool?

Finding strength and resolve after the participants tell him he's supposed to assist them on their mission anyway, Fahrouk distributes LIFE suits to the participants as he briefs them on what they're about to do. He and the participating Moonblessed will then be transported via a large transport vessel.

Port Sylvel is hardly recognizable. What was once an idyllic coastal town is now a site of tragic beauty — crystal formations encase buildings and Prismals like jagged glass coffins, as if preserving life in its final moments. Readings from life detectors tell you that everyone in the crystal has passed on, but you and your fellow Moonblessed think you can still hear their cries of distress carried along by the wind, warning you about the Prideful King.

 D  Gigantic crystal lions flank the passage of the port city, their wings spread open and blue flames pouring forth from their mouths. You hear rumbling guttural noises, and if you approach them, their roars will escalate to warn you about proceeding any further. Beware: a single bite from these lions can easily tear through the LIFE suit and cause your body to crystallize quickly unless someone rushes in to moonlace with you to halt the effect. These lions are unlike the beasts you’ve fought before: their otherworldly strength is overwhelming, and nothing seems to wear them down. Destroying them seems pointless, as they quickly regenerate the minute they are obliterated.

Eventually, transmissions from the LIFE suits announce an order for escape. Buildings collapse and shatter in your wake, and the ground quakes violently as something awakens in the far distance...


▶ questions

If you have any questions regarding this test drive meme, please ask them in the Questions thread below.

WHO CAN POST? ▶ Test drive memes are for new characters only. Existing players may not post starter threads in the test drime meme. However, current players are more than welcome to use these prompts for their own posts in the IC communities, personal inboxes, catch-all posts, etc.!

IS THIS CANON? ▶ As our test drive memes are game canon, feel free to keep any threads that happen here as canon for your character should they be accepted.

ANNIVERSARY ▶ Happy first anniversary, Prismatica! Thank you to all of you who have been with us since the beginning. We appreciate it immensely! Remember that we always welcome input and suggestions from players. This event is a little out of the ordinary because of our anniversary celebration.

OPT IN AND OUT ▶ For current players, please do not be alarmed! As always, you do not have to be affected as there are safe areas across Lunatia that remain as is.

AGING UP AND DOWN ▶ You have free reign over how long and how many times your character will be affected. If a character doesn’t have a canon appearance from the past or future, you are welcome to provide one of your own from imagination and use your own PB. You are allowed to speculate on how they’ll look, act, their potential future, and so on. All of these will be temporary to this event. The intensity of the effect is also up to you: whether it will only affect appearance alone and retain their current memories.

IMPORTANT ▶ As a reminder, writing sexual content with characters below 15 years old is a violation of the game's rules and potentially Dreamwidth’s ToS. Players caught doing this will be banned from the game.

Comments

Fray Myste | Final Fantasy XIV

[affrayed]

I. Welcome To The Jungle

[ Keeping his shit together was fucking paramount, right now. No doubt there were a few prismals left shaken and discomforted by their conversation with the knight, and frankly so might anyone else. Every word he'd said in that short, clipped, no frills conversation had sounded like the heavily armored man was on the very edge of total outrage, only the reminder that no one in this current room seemed to be to blame for this keeping him from laying hands on his weapon.

... Might not be so acquiescing for anyone else he happens to run into on the way to his unit though, depending on how well he's going to be received here. Find a place to stay first? Well fuck no. A decade plus change of paranoia isn't going to just pick itself up and see itself out just because he's in a new town. There's too many fucking questions here and he didn't even halfway get all the answers he wanted. There's a few deeply pressing ones.

One a little more pressing than the rest of them, as he listened to the sound of his heartbeat thumping in his ears. Amazing how loud that seemed now that it'd been officially reinstated.

Someone's going to get an unpleasant surprise though, because he still needs to test something out here, thoughtfully examining a hand as, for a short time, he'd linger under a street lamp. Woe be unto they who enter that light with him, shit's about to get fucky here.]

I have a question for you.

[And it doesn't sound like he's willing to entertain a refusal on an answer here.]

II. Starlight, Star Bright

[Darkness suited him just fine, of course. The threat of being attacked in a dark alleyway? Why would that dissuade him? The lantern would have just been abandoned in his unit, had he lacked the proper humility to lug it around regardless. Even if he couldn't find someone to help him light it (and he doubted he would, really), it might still do in a pinch to cave in some faces.

Not that there wouldn't be the occasional, cursory attempt to fiddle with the light, perhaps trying to get the thing to light up on his own. One might even find him rather calmly tinkering with the thing, as if bored, heedless of the supernatural darkness.]

Not as if I could get it going with a partner anyway.

[Muttered mostly to himself, rapping two metal clad knuckles against the lantern lightly]

III. Wildcard!

[Wanna do a thing that I didn't list? Go nuts!]

II.

[superultra]

[ as it so happens, banri had also been trying to tinker with his light to see if he could get it to work on his own, and was looking for something - anything, that could help. he manages to catch that mutter, turning to look at him brooding in the dark. ]

Why the long face, man? Having trouble making friends?

[ he assumes, of course. both the face thing and the friend thing. he can't see what he looks like but that line was just so depressing. ]

[affrayed]

[The helmed head tilted, and off white eyes locked on the other man for just a moment, before casually hefting the darkened lantern up.]

I was never much of a social butterfly.

[That tone was dull, and cool, if not perhaps a touch sarcastic. He might be a little bitter about these friendship is magic lanterns. Just a little bit.]

The instructions for these are asking a bit much of me. I really fail to understand why we couldn't have just been given a torch. At least then you'd have a proper multitool.

It's remarkably hard to rob someone when you're on fire.

[superultra]

[ he can't help but laugh a little at that sincere answer, pulling out his own and turning it around to look at it better. it really was just... so useless on its own. no better than a toy lamp and hell even those light up sometimes. ]

You know, that's not a bad idea. We could wrap a piece of cloth at the end of it and light it up. Wham! Instant torch.

[ is it allowed? who knows. but will it work? also who knows. ]

[affrayed]

[And a soft, dry, short laugh is pulled out of Fray at that answer, carelessly tapping the lantern against his hand.]

Light up both and place them at the ends of a stick, and I imagine you'll find no better light source around.

I'm sure no one would bother us for our money, either. I can't see any reason why we shouldn't try.

[Look, he's very frustrated, and the idea of setting these stupid lanterns on fire and knocking about some clueless highwaymen sounded like a good way to vent his spleen to him.

Wasn't like he was actually going to be able to utilize these the right way anyway.]

[superultra]

[ his idea was well-received? wow. banri grins from ear to ear, happy that this guy seems willing to try it, if nothing else. but, he shrugs. ]

It sounds fantastic, right? But I'm not sure if they'll make us pay for them if we wreck them or some shit. I'd hate being indebted to the perv aliens.

[affrayed]

[Well, they need light, right? Fire gives off plenty of light! More light than a crummy magic lamp that needs affection to work.]

Ah... I'm afraid I've already got a fairly hefty debt owed to them. ... I suppose then it might be a bit uncalled for, to break their things.

Even if they don't work.

[That last word stated with a touch of frustrated venom, tapping the lantern just a little harder to punctuate that.]

What did we need these specific lanterns for? To light up the stars? Seems a bit pointless to me, a gas lamp doesn't require the buddy system and I really don't care very much about their stars.

Do you?

[superultra]

Honestly, I could not care any less about the damn stars. But I'd hate for someone to break into my place when I just got some new digs, so I guess someone's gotta do something about the light, right?

[ someone that isn't them, of course. ]

This is just like recycling. Let's just let someone else do it.

I.

[wearingguess]

[ the person who joins him in the light of the street lamp is... a petite blond with a silver rapier at one hip!

actually, titus came over on purpose out of curiosity about this gentleman's highly unique fashion. so being addressed first is a nice surprise! ...probably? ]

Oh! Really? Then I shall do my best to answer.

[affrayed]

[Red mage? Maybe. He supposed it didn't matter too much, it wasn't as if magic ever alarmed him any. Fray began to remove a gauntlet from one hand, meticulously undoing the buckles that held the metal against the leather glove beneath.]

How, precisely, does the generation of 'chroma' work here? Apparently it's very important that I not run out.

I understand the basics, but please: Explain it to me as if I'm five. I think I might have missed a few things in the initial rundown.

[Because it was actually remarkably hard to concentrate on words when he was that mad.]

[wearingguess]

[ perfect; one of titus's very favorite people is five!! ]

Very well! Chroma is the name for the life energy in this world; it is similar to what in my world we call magoi or chi, and what others call mana. Chroma, however, is fundamentally different from magoi. Instead of its source being the rukh in each individual soul, it can only be created by two or more people. This cooperative generation is called moonlacing. Essentially, moonlacing is physical contact; the more direct, sustained, and intimate the contact, the more chroma is generated, but even something as simple as a handshake can be used.

Generating chroma replenishes our individual energy—and it is the only way to do so. The Prismals themselves seem to operate under some other sort of framework, but for us Moonblessed, to run out of chroma is to die. And since chroma is life energy, everything we do uses it up, at least a little. So moonlacing is as necessary for survival as eating or sleeping. ...But, that said, living a normal everyday life is not particularly taxing, chroma-wise, so it is really not necessary to moonlace all that much in order to maintain one's... you know, standard condition. But using magic, or any other techniques that draw on the power of the soul, will naturally cause chroma to be depleted much faster!

There is also a separate important function of chroma, which is money! When we moonlace, the amount of chroma we generate is tracked and quantified, and that recorded amount becomes available to us as funds. So although people often speak of spending chroma, it's not our actual life force we are trading for goods and services.

...
So, those are the basics of generating chroma, as I understand them!

...Do you want to try it?

[ titus figures he must, since... why else would he be working on getting his hand out, or whatever? ]

[affrayed]

[And, now that he was far calmer and clearer headed, he found it far easier to stand here and listen to Titus explain everything, thoughtful as he tucked the gauntlet itself away, and began tugging off the leather glove.]

So, aether. I believe I understand that well enough.

[Enough to have a basic grasp of it.]

Something about this place then inhibits the creation of it, and touching people is the only way to gain it back. ... I suppose I'll have to be careful about how much energy I use then...

[His hand freed from the glove, Titus' answer would be a hand held out to him. Just going to start this out on a simple note.]

A handshake works just fine. I don't get very intimate on the first date, I'm sure you understand.

[That tone couldn't sound more flat and facetious, really]

If I'm going to have to do this with any kind of regularity, I should at least figure out now if it's going to be troublesome.

[wearingguess]

Ah, aether! I've learned another new term for it.

[ he chuckles at the joke, then readily takes fray's hand!
the thing about chroma that titus forgot to mention is how generating it tends to feel really good. a handshake is normally just a handshake, but titus feels a sort of spark from this one—a pleasant warmth; a sense of restoration and well-being.
...though these sensations are quite subtle. after all, it's just a handshake. ]

But you know... though I understand that it is troublesome for those who prefer to be solitary... in many ways, I think chroma is far superior to the magoi of my world. Even though magoi is self-replenishing over time, there is no way to restore it externally or to increase its rate of regeneration. So a person who goes beyond their body's limits and uses up too much magoi will simply die, without there being anything anyone else can do about it. And there is an upper limit to it, as well... the natural capacity that a person has is, for the most part, as much as they will ever have. But here there are no limits, and no matter how much chroma we lose, it is a simple matter to gain it all back and more. I think that is truly wonderful!

[affrayed]

[He was expecting something. Not sure what, precisely, but something. So at the very least, he couldn't claim to be surprised when it was indeed something, that he got, but he wasn't actually prepared for it to be as... pleasant, as it was. He stiffened for a moment, Titus actually managing to make it a decent way through that explanation of magic from his own world before he remembered to actually take his hand back.

A warm, comfortable hum of energy, pleasantly thrumming along his palm and skin. The only comparison he could make would perhaps be the sensation of resting in a sunbeam, a calming and almost lazy sort of feeling, and one he was both hesitant and conversely eager to break from.

Strange.]

Akin to aether, from what I know of it. I'll admit, I'm not a mage. My grasp of how magic works is fairly basic.

[Does he sound a bit hazy? It's almost as if there'd always been some sort of edge to his words, and for the moment, that's all been ground away and softened.]

So long as I remember to shake enough hands, I don't think I'll be wanting. I really don't think I'll have to get intimately involved with anyone.

[After all, how much chroma could his own dark arts burn through? Surely not that much, right? Perhaps that was also something best tested before he got too free with it.]

How can you tell, precisely, if you're running low? I imagine the symptoms are fairly evident, since you need it to be alive. Would I become incapacitated before death if I allowed it to dwindle too far?

[wearingguess]

Ahh, that's a good question! I cannot speak for everyone, but in my case I begin to feel exhausted and light-headed. But symptoms like that tend to come on gradually, and I have a habit of overusing magic, so I have dealt with my fair share of letting it get too low before I even realize it. [ he laughs, because it's hilarious how dangerous that is?? apparently?? ] When chroma loss becomes extreme, it becomes very difficult to move, and the body itself begins to crystallize. At that point, you will indeed be in quite a lot of trouble if you are in an isolate location or otherwise unable to contact others for assistance.

kinda a II-ish wildcard?

[bloodspiller]

( no one in eorzea or otherwise would have accused sidurgu orl of being stealthy.

and yet here he is, doing his damnedest to remain unseen and unnoticed as he tails a figure of haunting familiarity. there is much to this scenario that complicates it — or there would be, if he was paying any attention to it. the celestial heavens being blotted out by choking darkness, the slow degrade of temporal stability within the confines of this bizarre city; these were things one should probably be concerned about, but sidurgu could only look at with a nonplussed eye. it always felt as though they were staring down the barrel of one potential catastrophe or another back home. it tended to dampen one's concerns in times like these. well, that, and this concerned him far more.

the armored figure splits off from a road down a darker alleyway, and sidurgu slowly makes to follow. there's a burn in his throat, a mixture of anger and grief. when he enters the mouth of the alleyway, he reaches to take his greatsword from his back, his jaw setting as he starts toward the humanoid silhouette.

he doesn't say anything. the sword speaks for him, a heavy swing that makes a loud whoosh as the steel cuts through the air towards fray myste.

except that it isn't him. it couldn't be. fray myste was dead, and sidurgu orl would not suffer some hells-blasted shade to taint his memory. )

<3

[affrayed]

[Every step, it seemed as if the armor clad figure was unaware of his tail. No indication that he knew he was being followed, no tip of his head nor even a pause in his steps, nothing that would otherwise suggest any level of alertness here.

Down into the alley way, moving remarkably well in spite of the darkness. Here was where most anyone else would have met their end. Sidurgu after all, was no unskilled, clumsy murderer, and that blade most surely would have struck true.

Had it not clashed instead with the steel claymore that had been drawn in the blink of an eye, the shriek and crash of metal seeming all the louder in this pitch black, narrow little passage way.

... He'd not known what to expect, when he first heard footsteps behind him, tailing him just long enough to make it obvious he was being followed. Perhaps another strange native, or another Moonblessed looking to take advantage of the darkness. He'd expected to carry through with his block, and take it right into a slicing sweet towards the legs. He'd expected... anything else, other than the face in front of him.]

... Sid?

[Surprised, confused, alarmed-]

c: <3

[bloodspiller]

( the clamor of steel on steel sends a shock wave up his arms, rattling his chest. a less experienced swordsman wouldn't be prepared for such a thing, might flinch, recoil, or even lose their grip on their weapon, but sidurgu has many years long, hard experience with this weapon. even the way that he had been blocked — he grits his teeth, brow knitting together. how many times had fray fended him off like that? even the faintly-numb resonance of the blow in his arms feels familiar. it's so much so that he's already twisting his sword to block the inevitable low sweep that he would follow that up with —

but he doesn't. the shade feigns shock. he would prefer not do such a good impression of him. it just makes it more difficult to look, just makes him angrier...

the moogles and everyone else have already done a few things to help him, but grief is something he still doesn't handle particularly well. )

Shut up!

( don't use his voice.

he adjusts his grip on the claymore and sweeps it laterally out at the armor-clad specter. )

[affrayed]

[There was... a lot to process here. A lot running through his mind at once, and ye Gods, he'd just started to wrap his head around the concept of not being dead anymore, of not being in Ishgard, nor anywhere near Eorzea anymore.

It was starting to feel as if every time he got his feet under him, something else came along to take him out at the godsdamned knees. Just seeing Sidurgu here would have been surprising enough on its own. Where was Rielle, then? Had he arrived in the same way? What had happened here?

But it was something else entirely, to find himself forced to defend himself against what he damn well knew would have been killing blows. He was trying to kill him. It was a thought he could barely abide, with so much else tumbling and crashing through his mind right now]

Sid!

[He snapped his blade upwards again, barely managing to catch the incoming blow with that, the impact rattling through him and shaking him from what would have been a growing stupor. If he didn't pay attention, he was going to be cleaved in half, that much was now disquietingly clear.]

Shit- Sid, godsdamnit, STOP!

[Don't make him hit back, don't make him draw blood.]

[bloodspiller]

( the story was probably much the same as fray's, albeit without the whole "resurrection from the grave" wrinkle. he had showed up in some thrice-blasted crystal coffin on a moon of all places, only to be scraped up after a day of wandering and shuttled down to this city. he hadn't been able to find rielle, or anyone else familiar, for that matter. that was, until he had caught sight of a very familiar set of armor.

the blades crash together once more, ever-so-briefly illuminating the darkness with the flash of sparks. rather than glancing off, they remain connected, locked in contention between the two dark knights. sidurgu responds at first only with a low, grumbling growl — he steps forward, putting his full strength against the claymore, doing everything he could to push the shade back. he replies through grit teeth: )

I said be quiet, shade...!

( all he needed was one second, one instance of him being off-balance or distracted... )

[affrayed]

[Shade.

The pieces clicked together. Ah. So, that was the story, then... His arms locked against the Au Ra's advance, grinding his teeth as he fought to keep that blade from getting any closer, from himself being knocked to the ground. He'd not forgotten, how powerful the other man was, no. The ache in his arms was familiar, though the situation made the sensation just a little more dire.

He'd kill him. And find out, the hard way, that the armored hyur was no shade. That idea, above all, prompted his next actions. With a snarl, he loosed a wave of darkness, mindful of how powerful he allowed Unleash to be. Stopping Sid, that's all he wanted, he needed some fucking space if he had any hope of ending this with as little bloodshed as possible]

It's me, you swivving arse-

[Angry, fury borne not of hate but of fear. This wasn't a lesson he wanted the other man to learn like this, not like this.]

[bloodspiller]

( fray had always been nimbler, more versatile in his style of fighting, but sid had strength and size on his side. if this continued to be nothing more than a contest of brawn, he would eventually win, and that's what he's relying on. a harsh, brutal press on the attack — one of their master's teachings, one approach of many.

the shadows of the alleyway shift in a way that is all-too-familiar, warping and baring pitch-black teeth. sid grunts as the unleash bites into him, though it's in flinching back from the damage that he realizes that... it wasn't as potent as it could have been. perhaps a paltry imitation from a shadowy simulacrum, but also — perhaps he was holding back, not wanting to hurt him? the mask of anger that his face had become cracks with a moment of doubt, one furthered by the very fray-esque response.

he withdraws a few steps, lowering his sword though not entirely breaking his stance. he looks untrusting, but allowing a single moment's vain hope. )

Fray is dead. So explain quickly, while my patience holds.

ii

[instaqueue]

[ ((Qih'sae is a wol but has not done any tanking so let me know if this ok!))

As a keeper of the moon, he has no trouble navigating the dark. He's carrying his lantern largely for others who might need it, as he is wont to do, when he spots Fray muttering to himself in the dark. Rare enough to see someone clad in full armor around these parts. Was there something familiar about this one...? No, there's nothing to recall.

To Qih'sae, Fray is a stranger cloaked in dark. Suspicious or no, he approaches nonetheless. ]

Do you need help with that? Your lamp?

[ Quih'sae's smile is steady, though this being Fray, he might catch on to it being a well-worn mask. Clad in robes of cloth and leather armor, he's not the strongest looking adventurer, but he's seen more than enough for those he could not save. ]

[affrayed]

[The knight glanced away from his darkened lantern, looking to Qih'sae for a moment. An unfamiliar face, but if nothing else, a familiar race. It was good to see some hint of Eorzea here, he supposed, even if it was in the form of a stranger.

He dangled his lantern casually at him, his tone even.]

I doubt there's much to be done about it. I don't quite have what it needs, and I doubt that you do either. No offense.

[Just a bit of bitter realism, he was sure.]

[instaqueue]

[ He shakes his head. None taken, he's heard much ruder. ]

It needs physical touch, doesn't it? All it takes is two people.

[ He'd gotten a basic explanation of it, but that was all he knew, really. True, it was probably hard to light with a stranger, but that doesn't mean Qih'sae won't try. ]

Unless you're fine in the dark? I can see fairly well, myself.

[ Not everyone who stands in a dark alley is lost, obviously. ]