daybreakacademy | Payback Time

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Payback Time

PAYBACK TIME
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The daemon base was large, a massive obsidian skull carved from the base of a black, foreboding mountain within the Outlands and surrounded by a forest of dead trees. This was inevitable, as accompanying faculty could explain. As much as it could influence the human world, the Outland was heavily influenced and shaped by human thought and culture. Weaker daemons, such as those within the base, would find their personality, forms, and even desires inexorably shaped by the thoughts of humanity and what was perceived humans would expect and fear.

The focus of the two main assault groups would be the clearing of the main hall and the lower dungeons. The groups will be divided as follows:

Main Hall:
Ky
Mav
Kanata
Tyzias
Gunvolt
Bumblebee

Main Hall Support:
Toki
Kano

Dungeon:
Valvatorez
Goro Akechi
Ren
Minako
Naoki
Keith

Dungeon Support:
Ekkehardt
James

Control Room Supervisor:
Yang

To get through to the fortress proper, the students will have to make their way through the forest. This is an open log, even for those who didn’t sign up and will consist of clearing a path and fighting off living trees and mimics in the form of any number of objects that would otherwise be expected in forests such as rocks, brambles, bushes, and other foliage..

The Main Hall is lined with massive rooms full of daemons such as the banquet hall, treasure vault, and throne room where the daemon lord resides. The Daemon Lord is the target here, and he’ll be well-guarded. Beware! Many of the rooms are trapped with mimics taking the form of treasure chests, braziers, boxes, barrels, and just about any other item.

The Dungeons are where captured humans are kept and tortured. The objective is to free the humans and defeat the Jailer, a powerful Daemon who runs the chambers. Students should beware, doppelgangers are said to be commonly slipped in amongst prisoners to ferret out rebellion and will be hidden in with those who are to be rescued.

The Control Room is located in the Citadel, with a massive monitor visualizing the area with floor plans and video feeds. All students and faculty will be wearing small cameras that will record live footage, and will be wired with a communication earpiece that will let those in the Control Room communicate freely. Students working in the Control Room will be able to relay data and information, and use the powerful supercomputers to analyze items on the ground in near real-time.

code bases by tricklet

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Odd-Eyes growls as Nana's knocked away, throwing the limp mimic at the tree before moving to her side. He nudges her gently to help her up, and they're lucky the tree isn't able to move from where it's rooted.

The light from Yuya's circle gets brighter as something materializes in it. It starts as gold dust that concentrates into a brighter and brighter form until it almost washes him out.

What comes into focus, slowly, is a golden bird of light--almost like a Phoenix in its form. The bird looks around with a high-pitched trill. Then it flaps its wings, bringing itself up into the air.

Yuya's still on his knees, staring up with wide eyes. He feels it, as soon as it comes together--the weight of it's feelings, confusion and growing alarm. He's become used to Odd-Eyes in his head, but this is another distinct voice. The two of them together, agitated, is a cacophony.

He expected it might be like this, but he really hadn't anticipated how it would feel.

The Phoenix shrieks and dives at the tree, it's whole body a burning fury of magic.

Edited 2019-03-16 01:55 (UTC)

Nana glances down at Odd-Eyes, and then she nods her thanks. She dusts a little dirt from her white coat, the stuff falling to the ground a little too easily. It's as if her coat tries to stay white. She sees the circle growing brighter, and Nana chances a glance over her shoulder -- just in time to see the Phoenix appear.

She gasps, despite herself.

Nana follows it, carefully, and sees it slam into the tree that seemed so utterly dangerous a moment ago. Flame, she dimly thinks, would be effective against the trees. Her nose wrinkles with the thought.

Then, she nods -- and a little more emotion leaks through, as she looks and sounds genuinely proud. "Good job, Yuya!" she calls out. "Keep it up!"

The phoenix spreads its wings, and its radiance seems to cause the tree to wither under its radiance.

Yuya doesn't seem to hear her. He's stuck, on his knees as he stares ahead. It's like his own thoughts are being buried under the both of him.

He jerks suddenly, hunching over as he tangles his fingers into his hair and dig his nails into his scalp. It's so loud, and his chest is heavy, and he feels like he's going to be sick.

Odd-Eyes goes still, seemingly sensing something is wrong... but before he can respond another mimic jumps down from the trees above, onto his back, and he roars as he tumbles to try and knock it off. It seems every time they cut through one of them, another shows up.

It takes Nana a second to realize something is wrong. She turns from the tree as it seems to wither -- and from Odd-Eyes, as something seems to freeze him in place. She looks at Yuya, seeing him hunch over, and that breaks down her cool, collected exterior. She tried to keep him safe -- she tried to make sure nothing could get close -- and now he looks to be hurt.

"Yuya!"

She starts to run over towards him. "Yuya, what's wrong?" she calls out. "Did something--" The second question doesn't finish. She hears the crash of a second mimic, as it slams down from the trees and hits Odd-Eyes's back. Nana spins, eyes widening.

She is torn for a moment between helping Odd-Eyes or running to Yuya's side. She realizes, though, that she doesn't know what she can do for Yuya. So, instead, she lunges forward. Nana slams her shoulder into the mimic, knocking it away from Odd-Eyes, and hits the ground. Her feet skid over it.

"Get away from him!" she shouts, angrily, at the mimic.%r

The mimic tumbles off qirh some awful sound, but it rolls quickly back on its feet and leaps at Nana in retaliation. Odd-Eyes snaps at it with his jaws, but he's just short or reaching it while he steadies himself.

Yuya tries to look up, but his head swims too much and he lowers again with a scream as he tries to breathe through the strain of both familiars pulling and pushing against his soul and mind.

He's too distracted to realize the golem lumbering its way back, returning from being pushed by Nana's wall and approaching him as the closest invader. The golem lifts its fist...

But the phoenix swoops in, claws catching on the golem's body as it lights up again, engulfing the area as its wings flap heavy.

Yuya shrieks.

The mimic slams into Nana. Nana might be tall, but she is slim and doesn't weight a terrible lot. The weight of the mimic slams her into the ground hard enough for there to be a loud thud -- that's the back of her head smashing into the dirt. She is dazed for a moment, until she sees the mimic's teeth about to clamp down. Instinct and training take over, then.

Nana dropped her right-handed sword. She still has the wakizashi in her left hand -- and she stabs it forward, burying it into the flesh of the mimic's mouth, but not without cost. Its canine shreds through the white fabric of her coat's sleeve and then into the muscle of her bicep, blood welling instantly and staining the whole coat.

"GYAAH!" she screams, twisting the weapon -- and then yanking her hand out, leaving her sword buried in the mimic's mouth. She kicks the mimic away from her, with both feet, and springs to a stand.

Her head ringing, Nana turns and runs. She scoops up the katana in one hand, before she ducks low. Nana leaps and tackles Yuya away from the phoenix and the golem alike, rolling over the ground a few times with him.

She comes up, kneeling, and with the katana buried into the ground.

She looks up, desperately, at the golem. It's with an afterthought that she makes a faux stone tower -- wood painted grey, really -- rise underneath the mimic she left her wakizashi in. Her left arm hangs at her side, limply; two deep gashes run where teeth bit in, and she tries to ignore how much it hurts -- or how she's left a bloody streak across the ground.

The phoenix grapples with the golem, thankfully keeping them both occupied as Nana tumbles away with Yuya. Odd-Eyes finally snaps his jaws around the mimic, tearing into it violently.

And Yuya's limp below her, his expression contorted into pain with paler skin. Under his uniform, long sleeves and pants, he doesn't look immediately injured... there's no sign of blood, and yet his suffering is unmistakable.

He takes a deep, shuddery breath as he twitches. His head is ringing and they're so upset and aggressive and now his body hurts, so much he can't even tell where the worst of it is.

Nana watches, though she has almost no faith that another mimic will not be along shortly. She concentrates only a moment; her wakizashi appears again at her side. She looks at Yuya, and contemplates. They need to flee. Can they do that and be sure that Phoenix and Odd-Eyes will follow? Nana grits her teeth.

"Yuya," she says. "Hold on."

She sheathes her katana. Weapons at her side, she uses her one working arm to get his arm around her -- and tries to stand up with him. She contemplates, for a moment, if she can carry him.

She only has to glance at her bloodied, limp left arm to know the answer. "Walk with me," she says, even if she doesn't know if he can hear. "We need... we need to get out of here."

Yuya feels something hurt when his arm is pulled, and he lets out a yelp as he staggers against her. It shakes him with enough urgency to open his eyes, squinting as he tries desperately to focus on Nana. She's saying something, but he's having a hard time getting it through.

"It's so loud," he hisses, stumbling with another wave of nausea when he tries to move forward. She's trying to help him, he's faintly aware, but help him do what?

After a minute, Odd-Eyes comes up behind them and lowers his head, sniffing loudly. There's blood in his mouth, but it's not his--he never bleeding like other creatures do.

Loud? Nana doesn't understand, at first. Her head is swimming; pain and blood loss make her thoughts feel like something that has to swim through molasses. She starts to walk, but her feet stumble, as he isn't moving with her -- and her own feet aren't cooperating as much as she would like.

She swallows, looking back at Odd-Eyes. She sees the blood in his mouth, and knows what that means: he must have defeated one of the mimics. Good, Nana thinks.

But what does she do now?

"We need... we need to get him to safety, Odd-Eyes," Nana says, her voice strained. "Something's wrong. I--I don't know what. Maybe with the summoning. Maybe..." She was supposed to protect him. "...I don't know what."

Odd-Eyes growls, and reaches with his claws to get a firm grasp on Yuya to pick him up himself, holding him tightly. He lowers his body once Yuya is secure in his arms, giving Nana a chance to get on his back.

He smells the blood on her, so of course both of them are getting out of there. He doesn't seem occupied with the phoenix as long as it isn't getting closer.

It takes Nana a second to realize what Odd-Eyes means. She climbs up, but it's slow and awkward -- she has to do so one-armed, because something is torn in her left arm's bicep. She finds it has little strength.

She grunts, though, and then pats the familiar on the back.

"Okay," she says. "Let's... let's get going."

Odd-Eyes rises slowly, looking over his shoulder briefly at the phoenix as it begins with fight with another mimic transforming out of a bush. But he doesn't linger long before charging back to the base camp.

Yuya grips his head again, and mostly seems focused on his own pain and dizziness. At least that means he's staying in place in Odd-Eyes' hold.

Nana's eyes close, as Odd-Eyes starts moving.

She isn't asleep. She isn't even tuning everything out -- she tries to keep an ear out, at least. She wouldn't be caught unawares if another Mimic came. But, with the adrenaline rush fading, her arm hurts in ways that she has never experienced before. Worse than that, Nana feels another pain.

She didn't keep Yuya safe. It is a bitter, self-effacing thought --- and not knowing what happened makes it worse.

She stays quiet, for most of the trip back.

Enough students have left their path back clear that at the speed Odd-Eyes moves at, they don't have a lot of trouble. When they make it to the encampment, he lowers himself so that Nana can get down at those that waited behind come to help. Yuya's passed on, stumbling as he tries to stay on his feet and blinking rapidly to focus.

Ultimately he sits down and holds his head between his knees, but Nana's bleeding is probably a lot more urgent. Still, once she returns from being ushered off to deal with that she'll find Yuya in the same position.

Nana gets the short version of the treatment: a bandage and some light magical healing, to knit the worst of it. It is made clear to her, in no uncertain terms, that she should not use her arm for anything and get to the infirmary as soon as she can. But, the idea of abandoning Yuya entirely is unacceptable -- even if she has a bad wound on her left arm.

When she comes back, she has changed out of the white coat and skirt, and is wearing long track pants and a tanktop instead. Clothing she doesn't mind getting ruined with blood (because the blood remains when she ends the transformation sequence). Her left arm has bandages all around the bicep, and it still shows some red from the blood seeping into it.

She kneels down in front of Yuya, her worrying increasing exponentially as she finds him sitting in the same position she left him in. She swallows, then reaches a hand out to his shoulder.

"Y-Yuya?"

It takes a second before Yuya slowly lifts his head, looking dazed and weary. His thoughts feel less jumbled up with both his familiars now, with the phoenix still further in the forest, but he still has to take a little longer to process them.

"Nana," he breathes, about to say something else until his gaze locks onto her arm. He lifts his head. "You're hurt."

'You're hurt.'

Nana almost loses her composure then and there. Her voice catches; her eyes widen, and she feels the threat of a sting behind them. She commands herself, mentally, to not cry. She might be wearing plain clothes, but she still has a role to play. That role doesn't end when the fighting stops. She smiles, strained, and shakes her head.

"Yuya... it's fine. I'm fine." Nevermind that it needs more attention. She can tell him that later. "...Are you okay? What happened?"

He doesn't look convinced, but Nana turns the conversation back around on him before he can counter and he's suddenly ashamed.

"I..." Yuya rakes his hand back through his hair. "I'm sorry. I knew I was going to feel both of them, but I didn't realize how hard that was going to be when I summoned another familiar."

He's probably explained it before, the connection he shares with Odd-Eyes that lets him understand. But to someone not experiencing it, it's hard to put it in the words that don't seem strangely fantastical and anchor them in normal experiences. Not everyone knows what constant telepathy feels like.

"It just got hard to think with both of them. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that..."

"It's..."

Nana doesn't, really, understand how summoning familiars works on the practical, emotional level. She swallows, staring at him -- feeling that pang of a guilt, sick emotion. Something hurt him that she cannot protect him from; that she cannot even experience herself, to understand fully.

"...It's okay, Yuya," she says, instead. She hesitates, before she leans forward and wraps her one good arm around him. The other is still limp at her side, in a stark refutation of the very thing she just said. She still manages to make the hug tight with her one arm.

"You had to try," Nana finishes. "And... and if someone has to be hurt, to make sure all of you can do what you need to, then... then I would rather that someone be me. Okay?"

But did somebody have to be hurt?

Yuya's chest is heavy agai, but this time it isn't the pressure of anything but his own emotions. Weak, too weak to match the bravado of confidence he expressed and Nana paid the price for it. It's worse than not being strong enough to protect her, to not even be able to handle himself and Nana has to be the one hurt looking after him.

Yuya blinks rapidly when he feels tears, but he looks up over her shoulder and refuses to let them fall. He wraps his arms around her, no matter how it hurts on one of them, firm around her waist.

He knew it wouldn't be easy. He'd been warned two at once would be hard, and he picked a mission to test it. Stupid, thoughtless like he always is.

"Hey," He starts, his tone light and soft. "Don't think like that. What are we supposed to do if we lose our star?"

Nana can guess, having known him as long and as well as she has, that Yuya is close to tears. She knows it, and it makes her feel that much more sick. Her chest feels constricted, and her expression is straining. Her eyes begin to burn, and to sting, and--

She makes a small, half-whimper in the back of her throat when she hears Yuya say, 'Our star.' It's a kindness she doesn't deserve. It's something she fears she can't be for them -- isn't for them -- because, in the end, she doesn't know how to protect them and be the person she wants to be at the same time. With Kano, it was easier to admit that.

With Yuya, it's impossible. She fears it would hurt him in ways she can't begin to unravel.

"Y-Yuya." She tries to not cry, and the willpower she exerts is only enough to keep from sobbing. Her eyes sting and blur. "...I'm sorry. I just... I don't want you to think you're a burden to me. Or that I mind, if I have to hold you up sometimes."

She shouldn't have to hold him up for his carelessness, but that's something that's really on him isn't it? He can't ask Nana to care less, to be kind less. He needs to do better.

He needs to do better now.

Yuya takes a shuddery breath, reaching from around her to wipe his eyes. No tears, he's worried her enough.

"Just because I'm so much shorter than you..." his expression twists wryly. "I know, you're so nice. I wouldn't ever doubt that."

Nana can't reach up to her eyes with her one arm -- at least, not without stopping the hug, and that isn't something she is willing to do. She swallows, looking down.

And then she laughs, softly.

"I guess I do have a height advantage." She sniffs, glad to be looking over his shoulder (or, well, the top of his head). She just has to be stronger. If ending up hurt ends with Yuya feeling like this, then she can't let that happen. She doesn't see a way out; a way to have both. Even if it gives him reason to doubt some day.

"It's okay," she finishes. "This should be healed up soon. It's not that bad. You can... you can take all the time you need. Okay?"

"You too, right?" He squeezes, briefly. He knows they're at this school to fight, for this to become their lives, but... Nana doesn't have to go back and take that burden right now. She's wounded, and it's enough of an excuse for Yuya to keep her right here.

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