[do you know how hard this is to tag after feet kisses and love potions are flying around my head hurts
but scien is getting impaled and stabbed and destroyed and—he gets up. he gets up and lumbers after shoma to try to keep him safe. blood pours from him and he has some distant recognition of diluc and dion in the periphery but all he sees are people that he can't save.
even if he'll keep trying until his last breath leaves him]
[Dion's grip tightens, and he crushes the life out of this figure breath by stilted breath. Here they are, the one that had snatched his father's life away from him (but isn't his father safe at home, waiting for his precious son to return with a fresh set of baked goods? and isn't his father already gone far away, guts spilling out instead of brain?). The figure will take a few more swings at Dion, but their movements slow and slow and eventually slow to a stop, their body stilling in contrast with the carnage they'd wrought.
Dion's body is also heavy now, blood pouring from the wound carved deep, head ringing from blow after blow. His vision begins to blacken at the edges, though the chaos rages on around him. Has anyone he cares for escaped? Are his hands the ones that have helped lead people to their ends? What does he consider in these last fleeting moments before unconsciousness sweeps him into near-death?
Diluc tries to sidestep the axe, but it whacks into his shoulder, cleaving a bleeding gash. He can fight and fight, but at the end of this battle, the numbers game just isn't in his favor. The ground is strewn with bodies, body parts, viscera, red iron. Guards and prisoners lay side by side, and yet, there doesn't seem to be an end to the enemies Diluc has to cut down. Due to his own stubborn nature, he pushes forward, pushes forward, until his limbs leaden down from the combination of his injuries and a loss of blood.
As he starts to slow, maybe he'll catch sight of Kaeya's lifeless corpse, the light gone from his eyes in a very literal sense. Maybe he'll see Shouxue, captured by some tattered-looking Royal Guards and hauled away from the carnage kicking and screaming. But what can he do? Try as he might to save those around him, life just slips between his fingers. Even his own. What confronts him as darkness sinks in?
Scien, too, is a person who won't lay down and die for nothing, even if his efforts prove to be in vain again and again and again. Try as he might to keep Shoma safe, his body is failing him, failing them both. The toll of his injuries weigh him down, his life hanging on the edge of a needle. As he starts to fade out, he'll catch sight of Shoma just barely making it to the exit-- before a jealous, dying prisoner grabs at his ankle and sends him crashing into the ground, his head cracking hard against the brick.
Yuri's corpse cools in the dungeon. Shoma's may join her not fifty feet away. Not a single life that stands out to him is one that he's led safely from this situation. In this last, lonely moment, what runs through his mind?]
[ It doesn't matter, he supposes. This death doesn't matter. He was meant to be—a beacon of hope for his people, a dutiful son, a compassionate partner, a dependable leader. But here he is, in this hallway, blood and desperate prisoners, guards and bystanders around him, and it doesn't matter at all.
Not their deaths, not his own.
Though he had hoped it would. Before, he waited for the relief of death and the last of his burdens easing from his shoulders. Later, he had hoped that he might continue to fight, and feel a desperation to survive for the sake of the relationships that he'd forged.
That he feels nothing at all is the most disappointing outcome.
In the end, he lived pointlessly, and died pointlessly. ]
[ as darkness bleeds into his vision and a chill settles into his bones, all diluc can feel at first are the searing dregs of anger and resentment—at himself and towards this outcome.
for having failed those dearest to him, and having abandoned his duty. (and for what? to die like a dog in the bowels of some forgotten dungeon?)
but those harsher emotions eventually fade like embers, too, unearthing a choking sorrow. the horror of it all is distant, somehow, even if death is immediate.
(he's failed them, and each fallen name is a regret burned into his mind. regret, upon regret, upon regret.)
the fight bled out of him, diluc finally closes his eyes, and succumbs to oblivion. ]
almost almost almost. it is not the first time or the last time that a life has just barely slipped out of scien's grasp, even though this is the first time that he finds himself able to feel so much about it. he collapses onto the ground and experiences the entire gauntlet. frustration, rage, futility.
in his bleary gaze, he sees yuri. shoma. fallen and out of his protection. he finds himself crushed under the weight of his own care, a heart without a limiter now breaking.
that crushes him far worse than any injury. and this cold, numb feeling is so terribly familiar. he has died countless times.
[As the trio drift into oblivion, they might catch some last sights and sounds before their twinkling snatches of consciousness fully fade. The sound of shouting, of guards and prisoners alike moving away. Bodies are trampled in the rush - maybe even theirs, like god spitting on them one last time.
But if there's one wonderful thing about Death's choking embrace... It's that you don't have to worry about it.
What else is Reliver technology for? The people have long since lost sight of its original purpose: to extend life just enough so that more research can be done to understand and end the curse afflicting the island. Now, death is something cheap and disrespected, and life is even cheaper still. What does it matter if you die? If your loved ones die? What do any of your painful efforts to survive and protect the lives of others matter at all? As long as you do your backups - not a problem at all for Royal Family members and a wealthy nobleman - then the grim reaper can't lay a finger on you.
For one of you, it's rote. A third body. For two, it's a new experience. But sure enough, death doesn't stick, and soon you awaken past the border, beyond death's permanence.]
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no subject
but scien is getting impaled and stabbed and destroyed and—he gets up. he gets up and lumbers after shoma to try to keep him safe. blood pours from him and he has some distant recognition of diluc and dion in the periphery but all he sees are people that he can't save.
even if he'll keep trying until his last breath leaves him]
no subject
Dion's body is also heavy now, blood pouring from the wound carved deep, head ringing from blow after blow. His vision begins to blacken at the edges, though the chaos rages on around him. Has anyone he cares for escaped? Are his hands the ones that have helped lead people to their ends? What does he consider in these last fleeting moments before unconsciousness sweeps him into near-death?
Diluc tries to sidestep the axe, but it whacks into his shoulder, cleaving a bleeding gash. He can fight and fight, but at the end of this battle, the numbers game just isn't in his favor. The ground is strewn with bodies, body parts, viscera, red iron. Guards and prisoners lay side by side, and yet, there doesn't seem to be an end to the enemies Diluc has to cut down. Due to his own stubborn nature, he pushes forward, pushes forward, until his limbs leaden down from the combination of his injuries and a loss of blood.
As he starts to slow, maybe he'll catch sight of Kaeya's lifeless corpse, the light gone from his eyes in a very literal sense. Maybe he'll see Shouxue, captured by some tattered-looking Royal Guards and hauled away from the carnage kicking and screaming. But what can he do? Try as he might to save those around him, life just slips between his fingers. Even his own. What confronts him as darkness sinks in?
Scien, too, is a person who won't lay down and die for nothing, even if his efforts prove to be in vain again and again and again. Try as he might to keep Shoma safe, his body is failing him, failing them both. The toll of his injuries weigh him down, his life hanging on the edge of a needle. As he starts to fade out, he'll catch sight of Shoma just barely making it to the exit-- before a jealous, dying prisoner grabs at his ankle and sends him crashing into the ground, his head cracking hard against the brick.
Yuri's corpse cools in the dungeon. Shoma's may join her not fifty feet away. Not a single life that stands out to him is one that he's led safely from this situation. In this last, lonely moment, what runs through his mind?]
no subject
Not their deaths, not his own.
Though he had hoped it would. Before, he waited for the relief of death and the last of his burdens easing from his shoulders. Later, he had hoped that he might continue to fight, and feel a desperation to survive for the sake of the relationships that he'd forged.
That he feels nothing at all is the most disappointing outcome.
In the end, he lived pointlessly, and died pointlessly. ]
no subject
for having failed those dearest to him, and having abandoned his duty. (and for what? to die like a dog in the bowels of some forgotten dungeon?)
but those harsher emotions eventually fade like embers, too, unearthing a choking sorrow. the horror of it all is distant, somehow, even if death is immediate.
(he's failed them, and each fallen name is a regret burned into his mind. regret, upon regret, upon regret.)
the fight bled out of him, diluc finally closes his eyes, and succumbs to oblivion. ]
no subject
almost almost almost. it is not the first time or the last time that a life has just barely slipped out of scien's grasp, even though this is the first time that he finds himself able to feel so much about it. he collapses onto the ground and experiences the entire gauntlet. frustration, rage, futility.
in his bleary gaze, he sees yuri. shoma. fallen and out of his protection. he finds himself crushed under the weight of his own care, a heart without a limiter now breaking.
that crushes him far worse than any injury. and this cold, numb feeling is so terribly familiar. he has died countless times.
this is the very first time he regrets it.]
no subject
Maybe they'll see the edges of white lab coats dusting the floor as feet run toward them. Maybe they won't. Darkness falls fast in Arpéchéle, after all, and the people here are more beloved by Death than any other in the world.
But if there's one wonderful thing about Death's choking embrace... It's that you don't have to worry about it.
What else is Reliver technology for? The people have long since lost sight of its original purpose: to extend life just enough so that more research can be done to understand and end the curse afflicting the island. Now, death is something cheap and disrespected, and life is even cheaper still. What does it matter if you die? If your loved ones die? What do any of your painful efforts to survive and protect the lives of others matter at all? As long as you do your backups - not a problem at all for Royal Family members and a wealthy nobleman - then the grim reaper can't lay a finger on you.
For one of you, it's rote. A third body. For two, it's a new experience. But sure enough, death doesn't stick, and soon you awaken past the border, beyond death's permanence.]