INTO THE VOID

[oneandmikleonly]

[A STUBBORN AND FOOLHARDY GROUP OF EXPLORERS FALL ASLEEP AND SWIM INTO A DEEP DARK OCEAN ABYSS

There’s no punchline that’s actually what they’re doing. ]

((you can go ahead and join in even if you didn't sign up for the mission in the planning post! read here for info and assume you got a brief background rundown. there’s toplevels for different bits of the trip; go ahead and poke around wherever you want to be and jump each other freely!

if your character would ask a question or perform a particular important action at some point that isn't covered yet, please check with the mods directly at that comment for results!))

Comments

[onethousen]

[ She loops the length of fabric back around, tying it off to her own arm. Don't bother. It's not that easy for her; but moreover, it just rubs her wrong. ]

Then are you going to heal yourself? Because otherwise it's not a waste!

[ s t u b b o r n, or more don't tell her what she gets to consider as useful or what or who is a waste of her time. Her friends are the people that others have been willing to toss aside.

She kicks out closer again, watching the lava that's about to head their way out of the corner of an eye. Stars, she's been dodging so far, but it's not like she can give up just because it's frightening and the Dragon's throwing a tantrum. ]

I'm not fast enough that I can just wink away, and I don't have magic. Unless we can use memories to fly —

[ Because her memories of Haku are strong enough that she can call on that to maybe, maybe speed through the water, caught up in a repetition of a journey from another world. The more faithful it is, the easier to maintain, right? (She doesn't know. She's only called him up to talk and touch, not to ride.) ]

[smileyfaced]

[There's little humor in Chara's grin. If anything, it looks like a painful grimace. Chihiro was stupidly helpful. That attitude was going to get her killed one day, and there won't be any magic to help her.]

I can't die. Quit fussing, you baby, and try what you just said.

[They can feel DETERMINATION singing through their veins, a magical strength filling them from head to toe. As long as they continued to believe in the impossible, their crazy plan may just work.

Chara tries to edge Chihiro away from the lava's path with their body. She may be getting an elbow in the ribs.]

I'll handle the lava.

[onethousen]

[ They succeed in nudging her away with their body, though her outward response is a grunting sound more mental than anything else for the elbow in her ribs. Her own determination isn't magical; Chara's prompting that she stop fussing and try what she's said has her focusing fully on the memories and emotions that strengthen them. In the Void, to be pulling on anything that counter to even the song here should feel counter-intuitive. Yet it's those places where she's touched on hopelessness before that reminds her what it is to have faith and believe in herself, and the ones she loves. It's what can remind her so firmly of her own love, and the desperation and determination of doing everything she can to save her important people.

There are no excuses for not trying. That's simply another choice made, and she won't make it.

Chara's plan is likely to come to fruition before the confusing mass of emotions that Chihiro is exuding seems to do anything. Love is a warmth and a form of determination in and of itself; love, duty, the desire and need to act in order not to lose important people. Fighting for things without the inherent violence of taking up weapons. It takes her longer to pull those memories and emotions and shape them into a figment with enough presence that the dragon that was Haku on another world curled around underneath both of them, bright and swimming and serpentine, ceaseless in his motion. A strong memory, still wrapped in with strong emotions, and an underlying determination of her own.

Not that Chara's belief is wrong. Chihiro is stupidly helpful — for those she cares about. It won't always serve her well, and in more self reflective times, she'll even be able to acknowledge that. Just... not right now. Right now, she's rather one track mind focused on what's going on, the fear and the rest shoved aside because it isn't as important. It's acknowledged, felt, and allowed to be while the rest takes precedence. ]

Handle it now!

[smileyfaced]

[Good memories are difficult to dredge up. There's too much bitterness intertwined with the past's warmth, too many snares in their heart to sort through for summoning something powerful enough to save both of them. If they focused, they're sure they can do it. They've transformed the dreamscape into something resembling their childhood home, but they don't know if they can strengthen such memories when they're in the thick of battle-- much less to save themselves. Frisk may be able to draw their DETERMINATION from the strength of their friends.

Chara draws DETERMINATION from another source: fear.

They remember what it's like to die. They remember the countless resets they've suffered, the agony of being slowly poisoned. They let it fill their lungs and brain until it feels as though they're suffocating and their breathing comes and goes quickly, heart pounding in their chest. They don't want to suffer like they did before--

They hold out their palms.

The center of the lava hurtling their way bursts into dust-- thick and heavy. Globs of cooling liquid fly askew, fading around them. Chara exhales, teeth gritted, when they feel a strange warmth surrounding them. Was this Chihiro's memory? It's so comforting, unlike the aura they were exuding.]

Let's go.

[It's a quiet but urgent command. It's best not to test their luck.]

[onethousen]

[ Her memory of Haku explodes forward beneath them at Chara's words. Chihiro moves, wrapping an arm around Chara's chest, pulling them close as Haku moves like she remembers, brushes by them both until her hand finds a horn and she takes hold, bringing Chara along with her. She knows this routine for all she's only lived through it twice... no, three times. She forgets the first, as she perhaps always will. Three and about to drown and saved by the spirit of the river she'd fallen into. ]

Hold on.

[ It's more suggestion than command. She has every confidence she won't let go or lose them; every confidence she can hold on to the feelings and memories that make Haku tangible, if never truly real. She has to. She's too stubborn to believe otherwise, but it might explain why Haku surges up beneath them with Chara placed in front of Chihiro. It's easier for her to keep her focus when she won't have to worry about someone falling off.

Past that, it's the memory of how it is to fly, only here, in the water, reminding her of what it wasn't like to drown. With remarkable (and mentally taxing) speed, the memory of Haku serpentines them out of the immediate, target range of the Dragon's fury. Part of that joy of a thrill from the flight back from Zeniba's trickles through the warmth, but she holds on hardest to the feeling of love; the motivation that had set her out on the train to beg and apologise for Haku's misdeeds to save his life. ... Even if she still doesn't know he technically had already been saved before she left, but details. SHE'S PRETTY SURE THE JOURNEY HELPED. ]