@ -ZEN- [Hell End]

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cokerpilot: Apr 23, 2010; Battle Brothers! Stop coming to meetings drunk and trying to adopt Tevery Best!

Lord General! Stop standing on the table and making up stupid operation names!

Emperor, why do I put up with these people?

Black August posted:

*Steamed Hams Seymour voice* Yes!

Black August the Megalith is on fire!

# ? Nov 20, 2021 23:31

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 06:20

Razakai: Sep 15, 2007; People are afraid
To merge on the freeway
Disappear here

Bleeder is going to be approximately 1/8th of a lord after this scene ends

# ? Nov 21, 2021 00:12

taiyoko: Jan 10, 2008

Or will be interesting if we glitch into Schrodinger's Bleeder like with Momma Fireswamp.

# ? Nov 21, 2021 00:35

Rubix Squid: Apr 17, 2014

Well this is certainly a thing!

# ? Nov 21, 2021 01:32

Ars Arcanum: Jan 20, 2005; Best friends make the best weapons

I can�t believe I missed this thread for over a year.

Thanks to Black August for the awesome work, and thanks to the posters providing recaps/interpretations/etc.

I got to binge read the whole thing up til now and now I have to wait for updates like everyone else. :cry:

# ? Nov 22, 2021 22:14

Razakai: Sep 15, 2007; People are afraid
To merge on the freeway
Disappear here

I pretty much lean over and hit F5 on this thread every morning on waking up. It's something special.

# ? Nov 22, 2021 22:19

taiyoko: Jan 10, 2008

Razakai posted:

I pretty much lean over and hit F5 on this thread every morning on waking up. It's something special.

Only once a day? Weak. :cheeky:

# ? Nov 22, 2021 22:34

pumpinglemma: Apr 28, 2009; DD: Fondly regard abomination.

Yeah, this thread is basically the reason I check my SA bookmarks every morning as well. :shobon:

# ? Nov 22, 2021 23:13

XkyRauh: Feb 15, 2005; Commander Keen is my hero.

This has been my first Black August experience, and I've enjoyed it immensely thus far.

# ? Nov 22, 2021 23:26

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

Harrowing posted:

҉
The car's on fire.

The only reason it doesn't end inferno is because the hurricane is here.

Cabin is half full. But it will stay only half full, because a stream is running down the hill through the single small gap. Air will creep in from the rain-drip gaps above, but slow enough to feel constant suffocation.

After surviving so much, this was how it ends at the very last of Hell.

You're bent and slumped into the smallest fetal space. Nothing broken. Just dozens of rips and tears. Reeking red. Crying into your arm while your bite your heavy sleeve with the rat's terror of knowing it had just designed itself a coffin and serve.

Your eyes grow bloodshot; a weight has descended. First of four. It's the wings; horrorheavy with their feathered size. Gently, the mangled carweight around you compresses just enough to make it one degree more tomb. ...but it looks like it can't get in.

It's been so long. You're terrified to breathe too loudly. It's still there. Squatted red and true demonic with its Holy Seventh Day ascent, able to smell your slow soft sanguine all the way through wreck and storm.

You jump too hard when the car vibrates. Floating. The angry one. It was so loving freakishly tick-swollen with hate. Opened its arms, flesh curtain hug, out come the bones. Please God. You're crying again. The next one will be following. They'll all follow. They're the only 4 left. You hosed up your evac, and there's not much blood left for them to hunt down now. They won't approach the peak, so they caught up with you.

Vibrating... lulling your wounded sore head into a horrible twilight of not being able to fall asleep, and unable to fully wake up. You roll and crawl around the little metal tomb in the haze, whispering to yourself as you feel the approach of the third and fourth together. Scuttling. Millions of tiny boneclick legs supporting that maggoty bulk. The other, largest and lightest with the swimbody teeth. They're here. Just waiting. Dragging in your bleed scent. Opening orifice with addict's longing. The rain is so loud. Their weight has compacted the tomb to ultimate box. Then it- then it's suddenly so warm.

Oh. The rain. It stopped seeping in, because four masses shield the meatcan from the storm. But now, the rain is warm and clear-red and viscous. It's starting to slime and seep down in torrents, oh, oh it burns like ice! You can't get away from it. They're starving mad in want of your red, drooling idiot into the water prison. It burns so bad. You can feel infection crawling into your blood. You can feel thous̨͜a̶n̢͝ds̶̨ ̸͢of͢҉ ̨lit̴͟tl̷͠e͏ ͝pa̷̕͡r̨a̧s̶͢͡i͘͢t͘͏es͟͜ ̧͠C̵̨͞h͢͢͞h͏̢͢e̵͏͝W҉́W̶Ì͜nǹg̷g̶͞ ̵̴th̶́r̶ough your papery veins.

You're going to drown to death on clear red. You're going to be turned into a soggy meat pile. Nobody is coming to save you. Nobo ҉

The weight is gone. Something huge and gold is pushing the car up. There's a crow peeping at you with a bent head, and you see a wolf stalk past. It's noon Sun and the sky is cloudless silver.

"Bleeder,"

This isn't how it happens. Who-

"You're safe."

That's a lie. You-

"Look at this."

҉

Your armor is dying. Wilting off of you in sleep-sighing strips. You feel the heat of the bleak, knowing that one hundred hating hands have somehow managed to make a liar of your Lordship. They're going to see you, now. You're going to be bare and disgusting and they're all going to say one final evil before their hands tear you to bone.

But then,
The Valkyrie gowns you with your lost cloak, clasping it closed with pyrite.
The Ranger grabs your head and rubs hands dog-rough through your shrift of hair, your nightmare headpain cooled by the snake oil salve of a doctor miracle.
The Miner hauls you up and shakes you down, making a point to snap your sword apart with a big meat-crack while keeping you supported and half-hidden from view.

SURVIVOR'S ANXIETY: [ ??? ][ ??? ][ ??? ][ ??? ][ ??? ][ ??? ][ ??? ][ ??? ][99%]

It's peeling off your legs now. So much left inside but you're numb and can't feel it for once, sickless as long teeth detach for good from vein and way. You huddle under your cloak hard but realize that the army - they've all gone to rest. Comfort of the wounded, the last dregs of will and art to prolong relief from pain or the stay of scythe, the weary of the exhausted dropped into the embrace of a praying sleep. All violence left.

You start to cry, because you don't know what emotion is crowning you. You don't understand what's happening. This isn't what was promised by the Dryad. This isn't what you survived for. But it came and made every reality of the Island a lie and now it wasn't going to kill you. You know that's what the emotion is coming from. You know they're not going to hurt you. You don't know what's happening. You don't know what they're going to do.

Look at him. Small and plain. Rock and leaf. Flesh and water. Just a red robe, tied eightfold. You're so tired. You remember when you first saw him. The Holy Land... why did you bring Burner's gift to them that night? Why did you honor the ask of something forbidden? It's why this is happening, isn't it? This was why you shouldn't have gone.

You met your Eidolon, oh that second's sharpness, and you knew your faith was lost.

So why isn't it ending in ruin? Why is there an 8th Lord? He's smiling. He's doing something. He's asking a question. You lean against the Miner's hold, and look down at your hands. One is taken and held loose, open palm on open palm. The other is touched once, before he holds his hand up.

"Bleeder,"

His hand...

"Does this make sense?"

# ? Nov 23, 2021 21:11

Randalor: Sep 4, 2011

So... there is an 8th Lord of Heaven's End and four? 8th Lords of Hell's End? Did anyone else read it that way?

# ? Nov 23, 2021 21:24

CoolCab: Apr 17, 2005; glem

i am glad we are talking to bleeder. it kind of seems like being alive is pretty awful for them?

# ? Nov 23, 2021 21:30

Da_Boyz: Jul 4, 2021

CoolCab posted:

i am glad we are talking to bleeder. it kind of seems like being alive is pretty awful for them?

I think this is still a flashback to Heaven's End? We're in the middle of having a savage one on one with Bleeder while high off of vampire blood, though it looks like thing have come to an end if we received Ofiara. Maybe?

# ? Nov 23, 2021 21:47

Randalor: Sep 4, 2011

Da_Boyz posted:

I think this is still a flashback to Heaven's End? We're in the middle of having a savage one on one with Bleeder while high off of vampire blood, though it looks like thing have come to an end if we received Ofiara. Maybe?

It's also possible that we "saved" Bleeder from whatever Hell that was tormenting him. The 4 "Lords" sounded like aspects of his vampirism, and were cast away by the holy sign.

# ? Nov 23, 2021 21:54

PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

Razakai posted:

ngl my inner murder hobo was hyped for us to kill lords but now I'm just feeling a bit uncomfortable

Yeah, it's really excellently done.

# ? Nov 23, 2021 23:23

Grond: Mar 31, 2016

Randalor posted:

So... there is an 8th Lord of Heaven's End and four? 8th Lords of Hell's End? Did anyone else read it that way?

The 8th lord is the Archer. He only exists, as far as we know, in the Home timeline. Those four things that attacked Bleeder are, I think, the last 4 survivors who fell to the Vampirism parasitic infection, on the final night in the Island, before he arrived at the Holy Land and created his Megalith. Seems like Bleeder tried to escape by car in that last night and crashed, possibly due to the storm. Looks like he got rescued after his harrowing by the Giant of Light and the Bird of Night... and a wolf. Possibly Kaigen, maybe? Or they could be the three wanderers now that I think about it.

Chronologically I think it went like this:

quote:

Hundreds of them. How can you deal with that? So many died that week, so many many more those final three days, oh and the very many most that final final final night. That hurricane-teal tinted night. You tried, you tried and you succeeded at saving someone three times, but then you were at your limit; you run by hundreds suffering more. One is screaming because they've died all over again and now their heart is beating in reverse and producing oil; One is screaming because they know they can't cut off their limbs fast enough to stop the sickness from crawling into their spine to reach the brain; One is screaming because they remember that when you Survive you have to do it for the rest of your life because everyone can sense a Survivor and that means you will never be helped and cannot be touched and will not be saved.

quote:

It's past midnight, but so long before dawn.

The horn is wailing, the lights are unblinking, and you can't move. Screaming only attracted more of them. They can't get at you, but you can't escape the wreck. You're helpless, and you don't know if the storm will still be going when the Sun comes. You're curled up sick and high, face darkened while you cry.

quote:

The car's on fire.

The only reason it doesn't end inferno is because the hurricane is here.

Cabin is half full. But it will stay only half full, because a stream is running down the hill through the single small gap. Air will creep in from the rain-drip gaps above, but slow enough to feel constant suffocation.

After surviving so much, this was how it ends at the very last of Hell.

You're bent and slumped into the smallest fetal space. Nothing broken. Just dozens of rips and tears. Reeking red. Crying into your arm while your bite your heavy sleeve with the rat's terror of knowing it had just designed itself a coffin and serve.

Your eyes grow bloodshot; a weight has descended. First of four. It's the wings; horrorheavy with their feathered size. Gently, the mangled carweight around you compresses just enough to make it one degree more tomb. ...but it looks like it can't get in.

It's been so long. You're terrified to breathe too loudly. It's still there. Squatted red and true demonic with its Holy Seventh Day ascent, able to smell your slow soft sanguine all the way through wreck and storm.

You jump too hard when the car vibrates. Floating. The angry one. It was so loving freakishly tick-swollen with hate. Opened its arms, flesh curtain hug, out come the bones. Please God. You're crying again. The next one will be following. They'll all follow. They're the only 4 left. You hosed up your evac, and there's not much blood left for them to hunt down now. They won't approach the peak, so they caught up with you.

Vibrating... lulling your wounded sore head into a horrible twilight of not being able to fall asleep, and unable to fully wake up. You roll and crawl around the little metal tomb in the haze, whispering to yourself as you feel the approach of the third and fourth together. Scuttling. Millions of tiny boneclick legs supporting that maggoty bulk. The other, largest and lightest with the swimbody teeth. They're here. Just waiting. Dragging in your bleed scent. Opening orifice with addict's longing. The rain is so loud. Their weight has compacted the tomb to ultimate box. Then it- then it's suddenly so warm.

Oh. The rain. It stopped seeping in, because four masses shield the meatcan from the storm. But now, the rain is warm and clear-red and viscous. It's starting to slime and seep down in torrents, oh, oh it burns like ice! You can't get away from it. They're starving mad in want of your red, drooling idiot into the water prison. It burns so bad. You can feel infection crawling into your blood. You can feel thous̨͜a̶n̢͝ds̶̨ ̸͢of͢҉ ̨lit̴͟tl̷͠e͏ ͝pa̷̕͡r̨a̧s̶͢͡i͘͢t͘͏es͟͜ ̧͠C̵̨͞h͢͢͞h͏̢͢e̵͏͝W҉́W̶Ì͜nǹg̷g̶͞ ̵̴th̶́r̶ough your papery veins.

You're going to drown to death on clear red. You're going to be turned into a soggy meat pile. Nobody is coming to save you. Nobo ҉

quote:

The weight is gone. Something huge and gold is pushing the car up. There's a crow peeping at you with a bent head, and you see a wolf stalk past. It's noon Sun and the sky is cloudless silver.

What I'm wondering right now is how Dancer and the rest didn't get caught up in that mess. I'm guessing they got away from the Island before the mass parasitic infection triggered in those last three days? And the survivors that couldn't get away ended up becoming vampires and dying to the parasites, before entering an endless loop of death and resurrection(?) caused by the Island oil.

Thus they were given the freedom of undeath, eventually becoming the congregation cult after the Dryad did... whatever the hell she did to turn these people from mere survivors into Lords and Cultists.

I think this 'Ofiara' might be the name of the Dryad. It means Victim. If nothing else it would be an appropriate name. I'm also suspecting she might be the Mythos Magi that hosed up the world working with the world king way back when, but this is just a hunch.

Grond fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Nov 25, 2021

# ? Nov 24, 2021 01:39

PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

Grond posted:

The 8th lord is the Archer. He only exists, as far as we know, in the Home timeline. Those four things that attacked Bleeder are, I think, the last 4 survivors who fell to the Vampirism parasitic infection, on the final night in the Island, before he arrived at the Holy Land and created his Megalith. Seems like Bleeder tried to escape by car in that last night and crashed, possibly due to the storm. Looks like he got rescued after his harrowing by the Giant of Light and the Bird of Night... and a wolf. Possibly Kaigen or the Ranger, maybe?

Chronologically I think it went like this:

What I'm wondering right now is how Dancer and the rest didn't get caught up in that mess. I'm guessing they got away from the Island before the mass parasitic infection triggered in those last three days? And the survivors that couldn't get away ended up becoming vampires and dying to the parasites, before entering an endless loop of death and resurrection(?) caused by the Island oil.

Thus they were given the freedom of undeath, eventually becoming the congregation cult after the Dryad did... whatever the hell she did to turn these people into Lords.

I think this 'Ofiara' might be the name of the Dryad. It means Victim. If nothing else it would be an appropriate name.

Huh, I interpreted Ofiara as Bleeder's name, or the name of the color of his soul. There's also an interesting bit in that first blurb I think might be worth looking at again:

quote:

One is screaming because they remember that when you Survive you have to do it for the rest of your life because everyone can sense a Survivor and that means you will never be helped and cannot be touched and will not be saved.

This makes me think of Bleeder. He didn't... technically survive(???), but he was the last survivor and he was uplifted to a point of Lordship and he's both trapped and protected in his parasitic suit like the frame of the car trapped and protected him during that final, final harrowing night. He's clearly dealing with, uh, a lot of anxiety and body dysphoria, he's referred to as quite young I believe, like, a teenager, he's trying to help his congregation as best as he can but he can't ever actually help them, and he's in a deal with the Island and I think that's pretty clearly not a good thing. But he has to live up to his position. Nobody can actually see him or touch him through his suit*, the other Lords are clearly dealing with their own issues so they can be companions and friends and family for him but they can't really help him or save him. Nobody can.

Unless...???

* Which, since he doesn't want to be seen, works out for him, it's pretty clear in the narrative that kindness isn't peeling him bare and looking at what that reveals but giving him dignity and privacy after the removal of the suit, but not being able to be touched directly can suck.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 02:33

Grond: Mar 31, 2016

Yeah, Ofiara being Bleeder's name might also be a possibility. I dunno, whenever I see Polish words thrown around in this story I tend to assume the worst, heh.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 02:50

t3isukone: Dec 18, 2020; 13km away

This is so so loving good, holy poo poo. No idea on Ofiara-though the phrasing and the context of this being said to Bleeder(?) makes me think it's not Bleeder's name as I don't think he really realized his own false holy. Color or the Dryad could work.

I'm curious about how the Errant comes into this. Bleeder mentions-meeting?-him right after he brings up giving Home Red's cloak. (Also, Eighth Lord wearing the cloak when it's so heavily associated with the Tyrant Child gives me Thoughts.)

# ? Nov 24, 2021 06:16

Razakai: Sep 15, 2007; People are afraid
To merge on the freeway
Disappear here

I took Bleeder being "rescued" at the end as something that didn't actually happen originally, and that was just his brain interpreting being spared by the 4 from Home's army. The whole "this isn't how it happens" thing and being called Bleeder during the flashback.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 09:02

Grond: Mar 31, 2016

Razakai posted:

I took Bleeder being "rescued" at the end as something that didn't actually happen originally, and that was just his brain interpreting being spared by the 4 from Home's army. The whole "this isn't how it happens" thing and being called Bleeder during the flashback.

My personal take regarding that is that we may be in a time loop scenario. Back when we were seeing the movie about Galen, he mentions at the end how he's going to be rescued by the Giant of Light and the rest moments before it actually did. That and some references ro Kalpas and Buddhism make me believe that this has happened countless times before, but this loop may be going off the tracks. The biggest irregularity may be the presence of the Archer, he was described as something that normally couldn't exist, and yet did.

And I think he wasn't called Bleeder in the Island itself, that's why that "isn't a memory", but rather something he heard on the radio while he was having that PTSD flashback.

I'm actually also curious to know why the colony attacked the Bloody Megalith to be honest. We have Śmiercią breathing down our neck, so it's obvious why we're doing it, but what's their deal? Maybe the contamination of the Holy Valley waters by Momma Fireswamp is what spurred them on?

But anyway now that this unimportant sidequest is over we can focus on the really crucial part: Getting Paprika's stuff back. Preferably without getting murdered or kidnapped or hopping between ends or encountering some glitched monstrosity or tearing apart the fabric of reality in the process. It's totally gonna happen, right guys?

...guys?

Grond fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Nov 24, 2021

# ? Nov 24, 2021 10:05

Randalor: Sep 4, 2011

Step 1 is returning home to our chicken to make sure he's safe. We can swing by Paprika's place on the second trip out, I'm pretty sure her home was right by the exit from the valley anyways.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 12:43

Rubix Squid: Apr 17, 2014

Kwiat is the highest priority.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 13:45

Grond: Mar 31, 2016

I was thinking we had to go through the Cultpartments on the way back to the Holy Valley from the Windmarch anyway, considering the geography. Unless there are some more Back shenanigans. And we'd probably need to forage along the way unless Kwiat suddenly develops a taste for cheeseborgars.

I mean, if I wasn't worried about the chicken I'd like to gently caress off and investigate the unliving mountain, sounds like there might be some weird poo poo going on in there :v:

Well, we still need to come back here when we go after Dancer so there's that I guess.

Grond fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Nov 24, 2021

# ? Nov 24, 2021 14:01

t3isukone: Dec 18, 2020; 13km away

I hope we unlock fast travel or an overworld map or something. IDK how long we can keep this up or especially how long Kwiat can keep this up.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 16:22

Razakai: Sep 15, 2007; People are afraid
To merge on the freeway
Disappear here

We just need to teach Kwiat Conjure Cheeseburger and we're sorted. The natural cycle of mana>burger>egg is complete.

# ? Nov 24, 2021 16:39

JT Jag: Aug 30, 2009; #1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

t3isukone posted:

I hope we unlock fast travel or an overworld map or something. IDK how long we can keep this up or especially how long Kwiat can keep this up.

In theory the robot we grabbed will give her a throne to ride on as we travel

# ? Nov 24, 2021 18:45

taiyoko: Jan 10, 2008

JT Jag posted:

In theory the robot we grabbed will give her a throne to ride on as we travel

I know the robot is much larger than a Roomba, given that it's considered to be encumbering the Tyrant Child, bit I still can't help but picture

E: other thoughts: why is Bleeder so insistent that he not be seen without the vampiric suit? Because it makes him look weak? Because the way it was attached left him looking horrible? Because he has some sort of dysphoria even before the Island?

taiyoko fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Nov 25, 2021

# ? Nov 24, 2021 19:05

PetraCore: Jul 20, 2017; 👁️🔥👁️👁️👁️BE NOT👄AFRAID👁️👁️👁️🔥👁️

taiyoko posted:

E: other thoughts: why is Bleeder so insistent that he not be seen without the vampiric suit? Because it makes him look weak? Because the way it was attached left him looking horrible? Because he has some sort of dysphoria even before the Island?

In his internal narrative, there's him being convinced it'll reveal what he 'really is' and people will abuse him over it, and it really pinged me similar to the Tyrant Child losing their poo poo over things like crying and showing fear. I dunno if it's gender dysphoria the way it initially pinged me, but I'm pretty sure Bleeder's been abused before even before the oil spill hit the Island.

# ? Nov 25, 2021 05:31

taiyoko: Jan 10, 2008

PetraCore posted:

In his internal narrative, there's him being convinced it'll reveal what he 'really is' and people will abuse him over it, and it really pinged me similar to the Tyrant Child losing their poo poo over things like crying and showing fear. I dunno if it's gender dysphoria the way it initially pinged me, but I'm pretty sure Bleeder's been abused before even before the oil spill hit the Island.

Now I want to give all the hugs to both the Tyrant Child and de-vampire'd Bleeder.

Also, have a meme, everyone

# ? Nov 25, 2021 06:01

StillFullyTerrible: Feb 16, 2020; you should have left Let's Play open for public view, Lowtax

PetraCore posted:

In his internal narrative, there's him being convinced it'll reveal what he 'really is' and people will abuse him over it, and it really pinged me similar to the Tyrant Child losing their poo poo over things like crying and showing fear. I dunno if it's gender dysphoria the way it initially pinged me, but I'm pretty sure Bleeder's been abused before even before the oil spill hit the Island.

I think it's because he's filled with vampire parasites, so he's hideous to his own mind. If he's wearing the armor, it's the armor that's hideous. if the armor is gone, it's him that's hideous.

# ? Nov 25, 2021 07:56

Razakai: Sep 15, 2007; People are afraid
To merge on the freeway
Disappear here

Plus probably a bit of a link between the initial trauma of the car wreck, which both trapped and crushed him but offered protection from the outside.

# ? Nov 25, 2021 09:30

Grond: Mar 31, 2016

Yeah. Now that I think about it the fact that there were exactly 4 survivors after him in the flashback had to be relevant. I think those 4 were the three wanderers and the Archer, the last 4 people standing in Home's army. I think he was perceiving that whole fight as if he was still trapped in that car. He never really left the Island, his memories were blending with his actual situation. Dude has some serious PTSD at the very least.

# ? Nov 25, 2021 10:16

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

[Hey. It'll be late, but there will be a holiday bonus like last year. Happy Thanksgiving!]

# ? Nov 26, 2021 04:57

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

Bleeder wakes up from his holy dream when the sword drives in.

(!Tyranny - Heartstab) 18(-5) [2]+[6]+[1] = 9 - Success.

He doesn't want to die like this. If they were going to die, it was supposed to be together at the will of the Island.

^{[150 damage.]}

His heart is chunked. Exposed torso stir-cut as easy as the knife opens the doll. The suit is reacting triage with fear now, undulating into lancing laces of bone that quickly hypercirculate blood and matter from the muscle to the mutilation, the heart literally pulling itself back together by a colony of stringy parasites squirming to regenerate their Lord.

Bleeder isn't able to scream from that much force. Instead, he has a look like confusion; the kind that shines when the terror is so sudden-strong that the world goes glassy clean light, every sense focused to ultra on the numb curiosity of your destruction. The completed beauty of medical trauma.

(ST Overwhelming) ▯▯ [5]+[5]+[4] = 14 - Success.

Next is the grab-and-tear. The parasites are going as fast as they can but those bloodmad little hands are so tensed with hate that they just CRUSH and rip off entire layers of the sopping suit muscle. Some of the long teeth extended deep into Bleeder are forcibly torn out. Some are left in. The Lordly armor is soon crippled into dissolution, parasites screaming as they burrow out of the muscle layers or try to fold into Bleeder's body to hide and keep him alive. The suit peels off with failed strength, drooping like rotten ground steak, pulsating into foam when it dribbles into the blood pooled below.

Bleeder's just a big loving red mess, huh? Look at him; hands driven by sheer habitual instinct through the pain to cover himself. His eyes can't close, and his face moves in slow motion, trying to whisper out a sentence that can't seem to get past the first syllable.

(!Tyranny - Harm) 18 [3]+[2]+[2] = 7 - Success.

A once-fine shoe worn-war drives into the Lord's exposed ribs, demanding he stand back up. The ribs give, but the organs don't burst purely from the protective latticework of teeth still trapped inside. The parasites surge and remanage blood. The shock is mounting and happening too fast.

^{[84 damage.]}

While he breaks, Bleeder's mind is felt out by something that has the sense to lay low. But it can't help but subtly sporeshape into the little reception dishes necessary to understand.

The fungus' caps are tied. Everything is in complete red-tint chaos, every single system gone adrenaline supermax. The mushrooms can't directly interface with the sealed Silver Mind for help; Silver by its nature is fungicidal, and Silver thoughts were absolutely not compatible with brain-circulating vampiric megablood. This leaves the spores to stand quietly in their dark corner while supercell blood hormones explode like artillery all around the hemispheres. There's only time to passively peer at Bleeder's dissolving aura.

BLOOD'S ANXIETY: [ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][ 🌴 ][12͏̵0%̴̀] [Disquiet] [Regression] [Shock]

It just doesn't make any sense to him. The Island is the ultimate force. It blessed them Lorded, true of divine. What is this gravity? Where did it come from, how is it so sudden? He's lost again. Alone and helpless and about to be touched to death again. There's nobody he can scream for again. His strength as 7th means nothing. Megalith is not sanctuary. He really, really believed it. He really did, when he first wore the crown Lord.

He thought it was finally going to be safe.

(!Tyranny - Harm) 18 [5]+[3]+[1] = 9 - Success.

Bleeder is dragged up. Shaken violently, face and chest raked. One shoulder grabbed and crushed useless with violence - arm for an arm, Bleeder. The Lord reels back and grabs onto something sturdy to stop his fall. Glassy-hue eyes realize it's his sword... what remains of it, smashed to pieces and leaving nothing but a slender blade-sliver of vampire bone, trapped into stone.

^{[93 damage.]}

But wait now. Like this. Exposed and wounded, parody made genuine. That fast, fallen. What was going to happen to the others? He was supposed to watch out for them. How can he warn them? How can he stop being so helpless? Like this. Wait now. Wait. Fall back into that moment. That last All-Black Day. The hours that earned the eternity of Lordship.

[Survivor]

The fungus curls back into hiding when the Lord's aura grows awful with the hues of sapphire, topaz, and emerald.

Bleeder remembers the Island.

(!Yellow Island Magics - Lifecurse) 20 [1]+[6]+[3] = 10 - Success (By 10).
vs
(WL - Resist) 20 [5]+[4]+[4] = 13 - Success (By 7).

Yellow Island Magics posted:

The Colours of the Island through the lens of the 7th Lord have tinted your soul and repainted your body and mind.

'Unliving' status inflicted!
9 Lives disabled!

STATUS EFFECTS posted:
UNLIVING
You are in some way different from living flesh, such as one of the undead, a robot, or a magic construct. You will automatically die at -1xHP!

HP: [ -9? / 19? ]
FP: [ 30 / 30 ]

Status lasts for 3 seconds...

It was what defined the Survivors who became Lords. What made them worthy of the Eidolons. When it came down to the harrowing hours of the longest night, they each discovered what happens when you decide to reach within and turn the void inside-out.

Bleeder gets it. there's a holy-hot clarity to it in that second. It's all down to pure luck and the timing of the twitch. A meteor collides with a small moon; who's to blame? So he does it again bare-sullen terrified, holding a sword he doesn't have the strength to whip, slaying a vampire ready to eat him to bone. It's going to happen forever.

His broken hand shudders, trying to push into an absent pocket to search for the metal of some keys. The good hand slings up the sword slowly, knowing it has enough for a few good hits. The frail body supporting it only has that many left to take, patchworked internally by the chain-embraced weeping parasites. The blood is going fast, and there's no time to lie down and let drink.

Duel posted:

It's still there. The warm dirge of blood-black nothing.

Bleeder thinks about the beach.

He limps to time a slow jog, hefting the sword to give it a little backswing kinetic. What he's trying to kill is somewhere he was supposed to be, in Lordly slay of a worthy threat. Redmad. Absolute berserk. Dancing prancing animal killer. Sword swung like the crack of a gun. It's bounding at him now. Its eyes can't see but for the shape of his bloodflow.

(!Lord) 18 [5]+[5]+[1] = 11 - Success!
vs
(!Tyranny) 18 [5]+[5]+[1] = 11 - Success!

Dead Match!!!

^{[Bleeder did 1 damage!] [Bleeder took 96 damage!]}

And that's fine.

It's fine, to be standing perfectly still. Bleeder's thinblade caught on the perfumed red silks. He realizes he's looking at a lovely white feather crowned in blood, floating on the heat of the organic breeze. He leans a little to exhale and see it better, resting the wounded hand on the stone sword now struck through his weakened heart. Bleeder inhales, tears welling up in his eyes in anticipation of the pain. Nothing else is going to overcome the sheer Hell that is a Lordly Parasite multiplied by the nightmare that has come alive to End him. It has to strike divine.

The resting hand shreds itself open. Flesh couples and bonds over bone while small lattices begin to circulate blood and pull in air. Fat and sinew droop before snapping taut, rich red marrow growing bright with blight as they flower out within the organic cannon. The Lord pulls his killer close, and thinks smiling about how Hider will love to hear about this.

(ULTIMATE HELL ART - 'MARROW CANNON') - AUTOMATIC HIT
^{[Bleeder -7 HP!]

[Marrow Cannon: (7d7-7)-(DR)x(2)] - [22 damage!]}

HP: [ -31? / 19? ]

[FATAL DAMAGE]

Bleeder shuffles backwards when the body falls to the ground. The curse had more than enough time to snuff them out while the parasite trapped inside died, or was reclaimed by the Megalith for healing.

He can barely walk. The black sword is pulled out and thrown down, parasites working overtime in slither under taut flesh and through ruined vein. They keeps the stiff legs moving back to the staircase while the rest harden the spine and mend the second heartkill. One more. ONE more strike would have done it. The Lord victorious leans on his sword as he moves pilgrim, ready to fight the long ascent back up to sanctum and restoration. His mind whirls with the unbearable high of a survivor at death's limit, thinking manic through the fog at what this could all possibly mean. What should he do? Burn the corpse? Raise it?! Take it for the others to see? The great red lake cradles the dark form left sizzling dead in its waters, while a Lord delivers himself to the well-earned of trauma's respite.

It had to be something to do with that day two weeks ago...

# ? Nov 30, 2021 00:13

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

# ? Nov 30, 2021 00:14

t3isukone: Dec 18, 2020; 13km away

Still wanting to hug Bleeder.

Also, those thoughts about the other Lords... They do seem to genuinely care about each other. Which makes the possible fallout of all of this with Burner and Dancer still A Whole Thing.

# ? Nov 30, 2021 00:54

habituallyred: Feb 6, 2015

"Yes... But War does not preserve its enemies..."

# ? Nov 30, 2021 00:55

Black August: Sep 28, 2003

A shadow rises to one knee... and forces its corpse to stand.

[Deadwalk]

Two, three seconds. That's as long as it gets to live before the scythe comes down. It has to find a way to turn back the clock on the fatal lifecursed blast. It has to use every evil strength it's robbed the world of. It has to pray for a miracle, as it unknowingly holds a redwhite feather.

The good hand traces something cold and elongated into the sweat-heavy air.

(WL - Vo̷orįsh Şig̴n͘) 20 [2]+[1]+[3] = 6 - Great Success: +14 added to the next spell.
^{[Co̡rr̷u̴͟͡ṕ͢t̀̀͢é̢d͏.̨́.́.]}

A dead biology has to remember. It HAS to remember strongly enough to believe it was alive again.

(Bubbleblood II) 13(+14) [3]+[4]+[3] = 10 - Success (by 17)!

(But is it enough to live...) 2d+20 [1]+[2] = 23 HP Healed!

HP: [ -8? / 19? ] (Yellow Island Magics wore off!)

[DEADWALK SUCCESSFUL BY 1 HP]

[THE SCYTHE LOWERS]

(Sheet updated with new abilitt̵̢͟i̸̷̢̧͞ ҉̶̕͟͠ ̸̵̀̕͠ ̷͢͞ ̶̡̡̀)

LOADING...

...LOADING

# ? Nov 30, 2021 03:03

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# ? Jun 5, 2024 06:20

CoolCab: Apr 17, 2005; glem

oh bleeder. you should have stayed down :sigh:

# ? Nov 30, 2021 03:12

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