triumph is a hollow, brittle thing, pockmarked with guilt.[break][break]

he inhales, once, sharp and quick. exhales, sharper and quicker. cold fingers spasm, tangled knuckle-to-white-knuckle around smaug’s neck.[break][break]

“smaug,” he starts, before his voice is wrenched away from him. his arms close around empty air. overhead, the porygons studding the substitute sky blink, ersatz stars watching silent and still as he pitches backwards and backwards and —[break][break]

bodiless, all bytes, he lurches down; his reflection, all uncanny form and cold, knowing eyes, swims up to meet him.[break][break]

—

the riddle has found better brains and hands. there are too many gaps in his knowledge for him to be of any use; he hovers at the periphery of the discussion, cataloguing the conversation with a silent focus. [break][break]

as he listens, his eyes drift over the crowd, stuttering in its meandering path as it lands on holes, carved out of bloodless flesh as if cauterised. he relaxes for a moment, a knot of tension melting when he sees that Andrea Vaneau and PENELOPE LIVY are unscathed and whole — only to have it tangle again, tight and hot, when his gaze runs across Isaac Merlo in the distance. a tunnel through his head where his eye should be, a mockery of a telescope framing the backdrop behind him.[break][break]

guilt bites at him. he takes a faltering step forward, and then another. sherlock shimmers into place on his shoulder, expression placid and knowing.[break][break]

“i,” — i’m sorry, he almost says, but swallows it — “sherlock can help. if you want. pain split.”[break][break]

he trails off, awkward and anticlimactic.
[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"] @ CYBERCHASE [break]
• offers to have his litwick lessen Isaac Merlo 's pain with pain split[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-litwick"]

The soft rasp of angelo vestri 's worry tickles up her finger, and she doesn't have to think before mimicking the gesture - fingers entwined in wordless affection for each other, before the world encroaches upon them.

Mutually reassuring themselves of the other's well-being. 

"On the warpath? I can see that." She follows Eris Halla ' movements as she fires off on Razz and Locke alike. Kindness drains from her words faster than lightning, reflecting a surface of icy reproach. "Everyone else too." Certain Rocket members included - which did not bode well for the young ranger.

Who the fuck let kids in?

Skyler's animosity isn't partial to details like age or context, and it doesn't hesitate before spreading to encompass the child. When Eris moves away to undoubtedly spout off some more nonsense, the captain approaches Raziel Beckett . 

"Heya Razz. D'you need healing?"

While the captain would usually greet her friend with a hug or some equally enthusiastic (and awkward for the ranger) gesture, she refrains from it this time. Her hands glow a light-blue, on the verge of summoning her Aqua Rings.

'Are you okay?' Is what she doesn't say. The answer seems clear enough, given his haunted expression.

Reassuring people is far from being Skyler's top qualities - in fact, she's downright awful at it. But her loyalty is a steadfast and stubborn thing, reflected in a reaching hand towards Razz. Always there, whenever he had need of it. 

"I wouldn't pay much mind to annoying gnats." Is she referring to Eris Halla . Yes, yes she is. The description isn't an exaggeration, not at this time. "Thanks for not letting us burn to a crisp, Razz. Would've been kind of a bad time." 

Thank you for saving our lives. Now let me heal you.

TLDR;
- hello angelo vestri dear, glad you're still surviving thriving and kicking ass
- who dares scream at razz. sorry Eris Halla , you're on skyler's shitlist now 
- offers to heal Raziel Beckett , should he accept next post
- riddle? who dat?

☉

the simulation came down, xurkitree turning into nothing. she hadn’t noticed that her middle was gone yet.[break][break]

”there you are,” she said to her reflection as her data traveled over it. ”what are you doing?” shouldn’t her copy be trying to fight her to the death?[break][break]

why did it look dead already?[break][break]

she couldn’t tap the glass, she soon realized. only moments later, then, she materialized with the rest. many of them had missing parts, but seemed fine. prompted by their own concerns, she looked down to realize the middle of her own torso was missing.[break][break]

”fuck.”[break][break]

was she dead? was that why the copy looked dead?[break][break]

no. she refused to believe it. this whole game was a trick. there had to be a way to get their parts back. and if not… she’d just steal it from her copy.[break][break]

she looked over, noticing Katherine Fairburne still whole as she helped with the new puzzle. rage filled her, just barely stifled as she moved strategically in the outer edge of the crowd, careful to stay in FERNANDO SILPH ’s blind side. her gaze shifted around, regarding the porygon briefly before searching casually for luka chêne , again. just to keep an eye on her. two, even.

[attr="class","ooc"]

tldr:[break]
• loses part of torso[break]
• plots to steal her copy's torso[break]
• bein a creep[break]

[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-poipole"][attr="class","pkspr pkmn-alakazam"][attr="class","pkspr pkmn-porygon-z"]

The chaos had completely overtaken Lethe, overwhelming them as they’d tried their hardest to battle alongside @aries . The mud shot had hit, to Lethe’s relief, and they guess they spent a second too long looking at the effects of that. They’re moving as soon as they see the psycho cuts, trying to back away from the things with Aries, keeping themself closer to them than Aries in an attempt to keep them in their sight. It’s hard to stay focused on it all, the sounds and chaos around them distracting and drawing their attention.

Somewhere in the chaos, a feeling comes over them. They know they’ve been hit — they’re not sure by what, or by who, it had been at a range. They’d probably failed to dodge the psycho cuts of the Cresselia. To be honest, whatever it was doesn’t matter. What’s important is that they had been hit, and there’s this absolute nothing that accompanies it. It envelops their left arm, which they’d clumsily failed to move out of the way of an incoming attack. This feeling is the only thing that tips them off. They’re afraid to look at the damage; maybe the shock could hold things back for now, if they just didn’t look.

Lethe is not the only one to have been impacted, though, and they can see that the injuries aren’t right. There’s none of that blood and gore they’d been fearing so heavily, and instead just… emptiness. As horrifying as this fact is, it pushes them to look, driven by morbid curiosity.

They’ve seen injury before. And this… this isn’t it. It’s unlike any injury they’ve ever encountered. Unlike those they’d been most intimate with in the past, this is followed by no visual signs of injury. Just like the sensation, the only thing they can see is nothingness.

Attention is needed elsewhere, though. The setting around them is changing, the porygon once more around. Worries about a new battle surface in Lethe’s mind — they aren’t sure how effective they’ll be without an arm. Soon though, Chive is returning to her ball.

Next thing Lethe knows, they’re back to their previous path. This is admittedly one of those things Lethe knows they’ll be horribly overwhelmed by when they get the chance. For now, it’s time to push those emotions down.

Fearing a battle, they look down at their missing arm once more. Something past it catches their attention, though. A copy of them, a version whose one-eye seems disturbingly dead.

They turn their gaze upwards, not wanting to look at it any longer.

Apparently, there’s a new riddle to be solved, and god, they hate riddles. Nearby, a discussion on it appears to be taking place. They try to listen in on it, to figure out different branches of logic one might take to answer it. Tempted to ask Aries, they glance at her to see if they can get a hint of what she may think on the riddle.

---

tldr:
- lethe lost their arm (probably to those psycho cuts), they’re scared and confused
- they try to repress any emotions they may have on the situation for the sake of being able to focus
- they’re still trying to chill by aries

☉

A lash of wire strikes him across the face without warning. Suddenly, the world around him seems to glitch in and out of existence. It takes Remiel a moment to figure out whether it's a result of his own state, or the surrounding digital environment itself.

He doesn't even notice his HUNTAIL dragging him away from the conflict until it releases him, draping itself defensively across his torso as it snarls.

Well... that certainly hadn't happened during the real thing. He almost chuckles as he staggers up from the ground, prompting his Huntail to slide off of him and encircle his legs instead. As he begins to regain his bearings, however, and soaks in the chaos surrounding them, the ambassador notices something... odd.

Reaching up, he finds... an empty space where the left side of his face would have been. It seemed the lashing he'd received had ripped out a significant portion of it.

♔ ♔ ♔

Even when Remiel Calcifet is returned to the main terminal with the others, the royal finds he's still walking around like some half-drawn Phantom of the Opera. Grateful for his arms and legs, however, he tries to shake off that uneasy feeling and focus on the new riddle at hand. And he tries, sure, hovering by Martín del Mar to be privy to the discussion being had.

But what he'd seen on his way here... his own doppelganger... it reminded him of what they'd faced in GEOMANCY. And he couldn't seem to rid himself of the memory of that wretched imitation's smile. Not until he catches sight of familiar pink hair nearby.

The one cobalt blue eye he has left widens in shock at the sight of luka chêne.

---

📝 TL;DR

♔ Remiel Calcifet "loses" the left side of his face to Xurxitree whip
♔ Remiel Calcifet hovers near Martín del Mar after returning to the main terminal, but is going through a bit of a rough spot mentally
♔ Remiel Calcifet notices luka chêne and is shocked

CYBERCHASE + ABRAHAM

☉