[Minako barely registers the ripple of power from Thanatos, only looking at his back in dismay. Things have gotten way out of hand way too quickly, and since she's essentially useless and in danger staying where she is, Minako scrambles back towards the kitchen area for cover, praying that Ryoji can hold off Noah's strange arm while she figures out something, anything, to help.
She blinks hard, and forces herself away from panicky thoughts, instead directing her focus into observing. The other Minako had a navigator feeding her information about Shadow resistances and weaknesses, but with nobody like that here, she has to rely on herself.
Please god, let her be enough.]
Ryoji, keep defending, save your last Moonless Gown for now!
[Even if Noah knew about Ryoji's monster form, he had never seen it in person- so that alone causes him to pause as the large creature form from the shadows in the room. Were he not dealing with the current situation, that alone would be enough to give him a jolt of fear. It was different than Yu summoning Izanagi, this thing was a lot stronger and bigger looking.
But right now, Noah has other matters to attend to, like attempting again in vain to try to stop this claw. With his human hand, he attempts to grab onto a counter top he can to keep him away from his friend. ]
W-we were just talking! [Wait no] Then Ryoji touched my hand and this thing appeared! I don't know what it-
[Unfortunately, his human strength really isn't any match for a weapon that could feel the mass of dark energy in the room, not when his mind isn't the slightest bit synchronized to this weapon. The claw yanks him hard enough to break his grip on the counter- and then tries to take a swipe of claws straight at him.
Luckily, at this level of strength? The claw isn't strong enough to do that much damage to Thanatos. If it hits, it'll at least hurt some just from the sheer force that it's swinging - along with taking out a few chairs.]
[ Minako tells him to defend, but what can he even do in this situation? The counter is destroyed, there is glass everywhere, Thanatos crosses its arms in front of its face to guard against the blow that forces it back to slam against the wall. Some of the decorations fall and clatter to the ground, but Thanatos is already up, able to withstand physical attacks and shrug them off like nothing. Thanatos can stand and take it for as long as he needs it to. But that's still not doing anything.
If Noah doesn't know, then how is Minako supposed to tell what the arm's weaknesses are unless they fight? But how is he supposed to draw his sword against Noah? He can't. He could so easily blast him apart with magic, he could use Ghastly Wail and knock him out right away, but how could he fight Noah? He can't do this on his own, without instruction, wary glances between Noah and the wall that shields Minako from all of this. ]
Noah, tell me about your arm before it turned into this! Can it bleed? Does it have tendons I can cut?
[The claw lurches forward again, trying once again to go for the attack even though it's clearly not effective against Thanatos. Noah once again tries to hold it back, but it seems like he's putting up an even more pitiful effort than before doing so, simply out of exhaustion. He stumbles and is breathing heavy with his face paling. The energy for this weapon has to come from somewhere after all, and Noah's nowhere near the level of a host that can maintain this form for a long time.
So, Minako and Ryoji have one of two choices: try something to stop the claw from attacking anymore and hope it doesn't damage Noah or the store too badly in the process, or try to withstand the attack until it exhausts it's energy source and hope it doesn't damage Noah or the store too badly in the process.]
[ "I've never been able to" meaning you've tried before, Noah? Because why the fuck.
Still, it's information and he'll take it, Thanatos' grip tightening around the hilt of his sword. He has to fight. He has to try. He has to—
-—he's staring into ice blue eyes. lifeless eyes. gunpowder is thick in the air, blinding lights flashing at his eyes like a strobe in its stubborn perseverance in trying to break the barrier that protects him. he does not move; does not have to do anything but stand there and exert the pressure that comes off him in waves-- the persona shatters, and alongside it, his friend—-
Thanatos starts from where it had been standing motionless, Ryoji's voice coming after, dazed. ]
...Minako. I need you to cover your ears.
[ He's not going to fight Noah. He can't, not after seeing that memory of him and a friend fighting head to head, how easily she was blown apart. But if there's a way to get Noah to fall unconscious, maybe his hand would stop functioning as well... It's the last move Thanatos has: ghastly wail. If Noah hears it, he would fall unconscious. Or die. Hopefully just unconscious. Ryoji's out of ideas otherwise, turning to the wall for Minako's confirmation or rebuttal. ]
[Though she doesn't see the memory he sees, Ryoji's sudden switch from determination to reluctance throws Minako into a similar daze, and she has to shake her head physically to stop herself from succumbing to their connection. If she gets distracted, she's going to miss something that could potentially help end this...!
But she thinks she might be onto something anyways. Noah's arm so far has only targeted Ryoji. It's in a rampage, yes, but it's not blindly destroying the other parts of the shop at all. It's unlikely that Noah has a part in encouraging that, since his efforts to command the arm to do anything seem to be in vain, so Minako can only assume the arm is reacting to Ryoji. All of this had apparently started when he'd touched Noah's arm, too.
Ryoji's idea to use Ghastly Wail is too risky to try just yet. Neither of them want to hurt Noah if they can help it, and Minako intends to try every other option at her disposal first.
Option three: get Ryoji out of the shop ASAP. Hoping he heard her flurry of thoughts and reasoning, she commands in a voice that brooks no argument:]
Not yet, Ryoji. Dismiss Thanatos and then on my signal, run for it. I'll call for you again if we're in danger, but for now, just get as far away as you can. [And then in a louder voice, her Evoker tugged out of her purse and at her temple:] I summon you! Kartikeya!
[The deity spins into existence, cramping up the already crowded shop with his peacock, but he's only there for a moment to lift his spear into the air, casting a Masukukaja over her and Thanatos before disappearing.]
[ Thanatos' head snaps over to look at Minako, clearly spurning this proposal: she's asking him to abandon two of his closest friends— how is he supposed to do that? If something were to happen, how is he supposed to live with himself?
But all it takes is Minako summoning Kartikeya. There's no room for another soul, and Thanatos reverts, Ryoji severing his connection with Minako and taking his distress and reluctance with him where she can no longer share in. He ducks around the splintered walls and towards the door— but where is he even supposed to go? What is he supposed to do? How is he supposed to leave...
Ryoji squeezes his eyes tight, pausing at the doorway with what little time he probably should not waste. Trust her. He would trust her with his life without hesitation, but her life? Noah's life? ]
—Keep me on speaker.
[ And he's out the door. Not two seconds later, Minako's phone will ring. At the very, very least, keep him in the loop. He can't share in what Minako thinks and feels as Ryoji, but this way, he can at least hear and lend his voice. ]
[To Noah, it's all a flurry of activity that is rather confusing. Minako giving orders, putting a gun to her head. That alone gets a loud surprised noise out of Noah- a new one than the ones he was making before. But instead of her getting her brains blown out, another giant creature appears- almost reminiscent of the one Yu summoned a couple months ago.
Then Ryoji is human again. The claw tries to make another swipe for him as he darts for the door, one last grab. Fortunately, it's not able to reach him.
And the moment the dark presence is gone? The claw makes a few more swipes, but since it can't sense anymore of that darkness in it's immediate vicinity, it calms down and stops moving.]
I-it stopped?
[But before Noah can really breath or think, the claw suddenly reverts back to it's normal form. At the same time, Noah falls to his knees and starts coughing- going so far as to having a little blood being hacked up in the fit. He's hit his physical limit on his powers, he's as pale as a sheet. ]
[True to Ryoji's wishes, Minako answers the phone and jams the speaker button on before shoving it into her apron pocket. She's well aware of how much more in danger she's in now that it's only her and Noah, especially when she can't be sure if her hunch was correct, so she tenses on her feet, ready to bolt for it and praying that the Masukukaja will help her evade any punches--
And then things fall quiet save for Noah's hoarse coughing. Minako exhales in the same moment she's hurrying forward to his side.
She's hates the implications of everything that just happened (will Noah and Ryoji ever be able to be in the same room again? How is she going to stop Ryoji from feeling like this is all his fault? What is going to happen to the store?) but one look at the droplets of blood on the linoleum and her scattered thoughts are gone.]
Noah, can you try and sit up properly? I'll get you some water-- Ryoji, go tell Lucian what happened, we'll be right behind you.
Ryoji breathes a sigh of relief upon hearing those two words, hardly hearing the others. There's Noah's voice he hears from where he holds his phone in a death grip. That's Minako's voice giving him orders, and for how muddled his thoughts are, he needs that to focus on and concentrate on nothing else but grab somebody who can help.
[He hears Minako's orders. Lucian...that's the doctor that Noah saw a few months ago. The one that couldn't tell him anything about his arm. The bitter and angry part of him thinks that there's not going to be shit that doctor can do for him right now if he couldn't do anything before, why bother...
But the anger is fast to turn away to Lucian and focus more on himself. That claw attacked his friend. It attacked someone who had been nothing but kind to him. It wrecked the place he worked, the place that Minako worked so hard to help run and that the owner put so much of herself into. And he couldn't do anything to stop it.
Demon arm, that's what people kept calling it. Maybe they were really right. Maybe it was a demon arm, or he was the demon. Or at least some kind of monster. What else could he be if he did this? Lots of people got powers from retrospec and they didn't do this.
He has another round of coughing and hacking, this time with less blood. He then pushes himself back so he's sitting on the floor properly. He's exhausted from having so much strain on his body. Hungry too, but he feels too sick at himself to even address that.]
I'm sorry...fuck...I should've been more careful.
[He's not sure how, he hadn't known this could happen. But he was the one who messed this all up, so he had to have done something wrong. He does a lot of things wrong, after all]
[The words are firm but her voice is soft, hands equally gentle as she helps him lean up against the wall. She flits away from his side for a moment, bringing back a glass of water to him, dimly realizing that her hands are trembling from some mixture of adrenaline and exhaustion.
What else can she do to help? She has to do more to help. Minako pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and starts to dab at the sweat on his face, pushing back his bangs to get a better look at him. Sitting up to do so reminds her that her phone is in her pocket too. With some hesitation, she takes it out and sets it down on the ground, the speaker still on.]
[He tenses up when Minako touches him, even flinching a little. If he had more energy, he'd pull away -- purely out of fear that whatever happened will get set off again. But when it clearly doesn't, he eases up a little- in time to hear Ryoji's voice over the phone.
God, he feels so bad.]
I-I'm fine, it's stopped. Minako looks okay too.
[He's exhausted, store, and he's probably got a number of scrapes from being dragged around- but like hell is he going to talk about. Not to someone he attacked]
I'm fine, don't worry about me. You don't have to apologize either.
[ If Ryoji could get up and run, he's fine. Any injuries that Thanatos incurs doesn't get directly transferred to himself; he simply feels exhausted, but who wouldn't be exhausted after seeing everything that had happened? ]
How did you get it to stop? Are you two still inside the store? You should get out if you can, just in case walls or roof collapse.
You would never on purpose, so it's not your fault.
[ It's easy pushing these sentiments onto somebody else, when not too long ago he'd been in Noah's shoes beating himself into the ground with guilt over the very same thing. ]
...If it's a time limit, that makes things simpler, at least. I could come back? I don't need to grab a doctor on foot, I can call.
[Yes it is, he wants to argue- but he knows Ryoji can be rather stubborn when he thinks something. So he grits his teeth a little to bite back the urge to fight. Too tired for that.
But at the suggestion...Noah is unsure. He's not an idiot, he knows it happened from Ryoji touching him, and calmed down when Ryoji left. Could it possibly happen again? But at the same time, he doesn't want to banish Ryoji and maybe it is safe.
He ends up glancing over at Minako, the expression on his face reads one that doesn't know what to do, and is looking for her input. For her to lead.]
[Minako has been quietly listening to the conversation until now, taking the moment to let herself feel exhausted-- but when Noah glances her way she straightens up out of her slump, alert once again.]
Yeah. Come on back, Ryoji. But be careful when you come in, okay?
[ Careful because of... broken glass, he's supposing, or the aforementioned potential building collapse, but he about-faces immediately to head back. ]
Minako, could you summon me? That way, I'll be there in an instant.
Nnnnoo? It's more like I can summon him. [A wry smile.] One sec.
[She brings the Evoker to her head again-- sorry you have to see this up close, Noah-- and fires it off, her voice a murmur instead of her usual shout.]
[ There's a flash of light, almost blinding, before the space before the two of them seems to plunge into darkness with the contrast. From that, Thanatos materializes into view, like a mirage of first, then solid and real. ]
[NOPE NOPE THIS IS BAD. He can feel the energy build up in his arm, like it wants to activate again thanks to the sudden MASS OF DARKNESS in front of them. Fortunately, it still doesn't have enough energy to fully activate, so it more like twitching spasms with a few crackling sparks of gray energy as Noah does his best to cling to it and keep it from going nuts]
[Well, that answers the question of whether or not Thanatos was the one to activate the arm. Minako immediately jerks her Evoker away from her head, mentally dismissing Thanatos so that only Ryoji will remain.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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She blinks hard, and forces herself away from panicky thoughts, instead directing her focus into observing. The other Minako had a navigator feeding her information about Shadow resistances and weaknesses, but with nobody like that here, she has to rely on herself.
Please god, let her be enough.]
Ryoji, keep defending, save your last Moonless Gown for now!
Noah! What were you two doing when this started?!
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But right now, Noah has other matters to attend to, like attempting again in vain to try to stop this claw. With his human hand, he attempts to grab onto a counter top he can to keep him away from his friend. ]
W-we were just talking! [Wait no] Then Ryoji touched my hand and this thing appeared! I don't know what it-
[Unfortunately, his human strength really isn't any match for a weapon that could feel the mass of dark energy in the room, not when his mind isn't the slightest bit synchronized to this weapon. The claw yanks him hard enough to break his grip on the counter- and then tries to take a swipe of claws straight at him.
Luckily, at this level of strength? The claw isn't strong enough to do that much damage to Thanatos. If it hits, it'll at least hurt some just from the sheer force that it's swinging - along with taking out a few chairs.]
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If Noah doesn't know, then how is Minako supposed to tell what the arm's weaknesses are unless they fight? But how is he supposed to draw his sword against Noah? He can't. He could so easily blast him apart with magic, he could use Ghastly Wail and knock him out right away, but how could he fight Noah? He can't do this on his own, without instruction, wary glances between Noah and the wall that shields Minako from all of this. ]
Noah, tell me about your arm before it turned into this! Can it bleed? Does it have tendons I can cut?
sorry to break thread order!
[The claw lurches forward again, trying once again to go for the attack even though it's clearly not effective against Thanatos. Noah once again tries to hold it back, but it seems like he's putting up an even more pitiful effort than before doing so, simply out of exhaustion. He stumbles and is breathing heavy with his face paling. The energy for this weapon has to come from somewhere after all, and Noah's nowhere near the level of a host that can maintain this form for a long time.
So, Minako and Ryoji have one of two choices: try something to stop the claw from attacking anymore and hope it doesn't damage Noah or the store too badly in the process, or try to withstand the attack until it exhausts it's energy source and hope it doesn't damage Noah or the store too badly in the process.]
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Still, it's information and he'll take it, Thanatos' grip tightening around the hilt of his sword. He has to fight. He has to try. He has to—
-—he's staring into ice blue eyes. lifeless eyes. gunpowder is thick in the air, blinding lights flashing at his eyes like a strobe in its stubborn perseverance in trying to break the barrier that protects him. he does not move; does not have to do anything but stand there and exert the pressure that comes off him in waves-- the persona shatters, and alongside it, his friend—-
Thanatos starts from where it had been standing motionless, Ryoji's voice coming after, dazed. ]
...Minako. I need you to cover your ears.
[ He's not going to fight Noah. He can't, not after seeing that memory of him and a friend fighting head to head, how easily she was blown apart. But if there's a way to get Noah to fall unconscious, maybe his hand would stop functioning as well... It's the last move Thanatos has: ghastly wail. If Noah hears it, he would fall unconscious. Or die. Hopefully just unconscious. Ryoji's out of ideas otherwise, turning to the wall for Minako's confirmation or rebuttal. ]
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But she thinks she might be onto something anyways. Noah's arm so far has only targeted Ryoji. It's in a rampage, yes, but it's not blindly destroying the other parts of the shop at all. It's unlikely that Noah has a part in encouraging that, since his efforts to command the arm to do anything seem to be in vain, so Minako can only assume the arm is reacting to Ryoji. All of this had apparently started when he'd touched Noah's arm, too.
Ryoji's idea to use Ghastly Wail is too risky to try just yet. Neither of them want to hurt Noah if they can help it, and Minako intends to try every other option at her disposal first.
Option three: get Ryoji out of the shop ASAP. Hoping he heard her flurry of thoughts and reasoning, she commands in a voice that brooks no argument:]
Not yet, Ryoji. Dismiss Thanatos and then on my signal, run for it. I'll call for you again if we're in danger, but for now, just get as far away as you can. [And then in a louder voice, her Evoker tugged out of her purse and at her temple:] I summon you! Kartikeya!
[The deity spins into existence, cramping up the already crowded shop with his peacock, but he's only there for a moment to lift his spear into the air, casting a Masukukaja over her and Thanatos before disappearing.]
GO!
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But all it takes is Minako summoning Kartikeya. There's no room for another soul, and Thanatos reverts, Ryoji severing his connection with Minako and taking his distress and reluctance with him where she can no longer share in. He ducks around the splintered walls and towards the door— but where is he even supposed to go? What is he supposed to do? How is he supposed to leave...
Ryoji squeezes his eyes tight, pausing at the doorway with what little time he probably should not waste. Trust her. He would trust her with his life without hesitation, but her life? Noah's life? ]
—Keep me on speaker.
[ And he's out the door. Not two seconds later, Minako's phone will ring. At the very, very least, keep him in the loop. He can't share in what Minako thinks and feels as Ryoji, but this way, he can at least hear and lend his voice. ]
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Then Ryoji is human again. The claw tries to make another swipe for him as he darts for the door, one last grab. Fortunately, it's not able to reach him.
And the moment the dark presence is gone? The claw makes a few more swipes, but since it can't sense anymore of that darkness in it's immediate vicinity, it calms down and stops moving.]
I-it stopped?
[But before Noah can really breath or think, the claw suddenly reverts back to it's normal form. At the same time, Noah falls to his knees and starts coughing- going so far as to having a little blood being hacked up in the fit. He's hit his physical limit on his powers, he's as pale as a sheet. ]
F-Fuck...
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And then things fall quiet save for Noah's hoarse coughing. Minako exhales in the same moment she's hurrying forward to his side.
She's hates the implications of everything that just happened (will Noah and Ryoji ever be able to be in the same room again? How is she going to stop Ryoji from feeling like this is all his fault? What is going to happen to the store?) but one look at the droplets of blood on the linoleum and her scattered thoughts are gone.]
Noah, can you try and sit up properly? I'll get you some water-- Ryoji, go tell Lucian what happened, we'll be right behind you.
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Ryoji breathes a sigh of relief upon hearing those two words, hardly hearing the others. There's Noah's voice he hears from where he holds his phone in a death grip. That's Minako's voice giving him orders, and for how muddled his thoughts are, he needs that to focus on and concentrate on nothing else but grab somebody who can help.
Be okay. Be okay. Please be okay. ]
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But the anger is fast to turn away to Lucian and focus more on himself. That claw attacked his friend. It attacked someone who had been nothing but kind to him. It wrecked the place he worked, the place that Minako worked so hard to help run and that the owner put so much of herself into. And he couldn't do anything to stop it.
Demon arm, that's what people kept calling it. Maybe they were really right. Maybe it was a demon arm, or he was the demon. Or at least some kind of monster. What else could he be if he did this? Lots of people got powers from retrospec and they didn't do this.
He has another round of coughing and hacking, this time with less blood. He then pushes himself back so he's sitting on the floor properly. He's exhausted from having so much strain on his body. Hungry too, but he feels too sick at himself to even address that.]
I'm sorry...fuck...I should've been more careful.
[He's not sure how, he hadn't known this could happen. But he was the one who messed this all up, so he had to have done something wrong. He does a lot of things wrong, after all]
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[The words are firm but her voice is soft, hands equally gentle as she helps him lean up against the wall. She flits away from his side for a moment, bringing back a glass of water to him, dimly realizing that her hands are trembling from some mixture of adrenaline and exhaustion.
What else can she do to help? She has to do more to help. Minako pulls a handkerchief from her pocket and starts to dab at the sweat on his face, pushing back his bangs to get a better look at him. Sitting up to do so reminds her that her phone is in her pocket too. With some hesitation, she takes it out and sets it down on the ground, the speaker still on.]
...do you two want to talk?
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Yes! Noah? Noah, is everything okay now? Are you hurt? Bleeding? Minako too?
[ He can't see and it's endlessly frustrating. ]
Do either of you need an ambulance? First aid? What should I tell Lucian?
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God, he feels so bad.]
I-I'm fine, it's stopped. Minako looks okay too.
[He's exhausted, store, and he's probably got a number of scrapes from being dragged around- but like hell is he going to talk about. Not to someone he attacked]
Are you okay?! I'm so sorry.
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[ If Ryoji could get up and run, he's fine. Any injuries that Thanatos incurs doesn't get directly transferred to himself; he simply feels exhausted, but who wouldn't be exhausted after seeing everything that had happened? ]
How did you get it to stop? Are you two still inside the store? You should get out if you can, just in case walls or roof collapse.
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[Even if he had no way of knowing this would happen, he still feels responsible.]
It- It just stopped. I feel really drained, so maybe it just...just ran out of fucking energy? [...] I'll move in a moment.
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[ It's easy pushing these sentiments onto somebody else, when not too long ago he'd been in Noah's shoes beating himself into the ground with guilt over the very same thing. ]
...If it's a time limit, that makes things simpler, at least. I could come back? I don't need to grab a doctor on foot, I can call.
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But at the suggestion...Noah is unsure. He's not an idiot, he knows it happened from Ryoji touching him, and calmed down when Ryoji left. Could it possibly happen again? But at the same time, he doesn't want to banish Ryoji and maybe it is safe.
He ends up glancing over at Minako, the expression on his face reads one that doesn't know what to do, and is looking for her input. For her to lead.]
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Yeah. Come on back, Ryoji. But be careful when you come in, okay?
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Minako, could you summon me? That way, I'll be there in an instant.
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You can summon people...?
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[She brings the Evoker to her head again-- sorry you have to see this up close, Noah-- and fires it off, her voice a murmur instead of her usual shout.]
I summon you.
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[NOPE NOPE THIS IS BAD. He can feel the energy build up in his arm, like it wants to activate again thanks to the sudden MASS OF DARKNESS in front of them. Fortunately, it still doesn't have enough energy to fully activate, so it more like twitching spasms with a few crackling sparks of gray energy as Noah does his best to cling to it and keep it from going nuts]
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