dualislogs | children, wake up; hold your mistake up

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children, wake up; hold your mistake up

WHO: All new and remaining Dualizens
WHAT: A mysterious return! And the start of Act II.
WHERE: Begin at the dorms, move on to wherever else in the city you want.
WHEN: Right meow c:
WARNINGS: Please use these in thread headers if applicable!

Maybe it’s a stream of sunlight that invites you back to consciousness. Maybe it’s a sound - a slammed door, your roommate’s snores, panicked shouts in the hallway. Whatever it is that wakes you, you find yourself in a plain bed inside a plain room, groggy and disoriented.

Maybe this room is a familiar sight, or maybe it’s a place where you’ve never found yourself before. Whether you’re new to town or an old hand at navigating the neon-lit streets of the city outside the dorm room window, one thing is for certain - you are one of only a very few people still populating this city, and not much about Dualis is as you last remember it.

Time to wake up and start looking for answers.

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At the Dorms: Closed to Duke

It had been a while since Seifer had awoken so groggy and sluggish. Typically he was up and out of the dorm well before daylight, perhaps not always in the best shape but nothing quite like this. He groaned as he came too, flopping over to try to fish for his phone through the heavy fog of still clinging sleep.

Eventually his seeking hand found the device which he dragged over to peer blearily at, squinting at the illuminated numbers. Later than normal. Then he noted the date.

"The fuck?"

No, there was no way. Surely his phone was wrong? Or Duke was fucking with him, yeah Duke was probably fucking with him.

Out and about: OTA

No rest for the wicked or however that saying goes. It wasn't long after the rather startling revelation of a whole two months of lost time that Seifer decided ruminating on it wasn't going to get him anywhere. He had work to do, and a hell of a lot of it to catch up on.

The downside? His buyers were gone. The upside was he didn't actually have to pay them back for the machines they lent him to build weapons with so... silver linings? This gave him more freedom and time to work on his own projects, which mostly involved still churning out weapons but now of more varied design and deadliness. These were for defense, after all, and there was no time like the present to go scavenging for anything and everything he could use to start building his arsenal.

Of course driving in a massive city with absolutely no one else on the road was weird as hell, but hey at least there wasn't anyone to yell at him for digging in their scrap piles anymore, right? He was hard at work filling the bed of his truck with all manner of random piles of trash as he skirted around the city, ever alert for any signs of motion or life. After all, now that it was dead out here, someone out on the streets stuck out like a sore thumb.

Himself included.

In almost any other scenario Duke would have been fucking with Seifer, but it wasn't his fault this time. He turns over in bed, muttering "later, Evi" and snuggles unconsciously into his sheets.

He's sleeping comfortably for once, not getting up unless his roommate demands he does. Duke snuggles deeper under his comforter, making a quiet happy sound.

A kinder roommate would have noticed that Duke was unusually comfortable and left him to his sleep. Too bad Seifer's not particularly kind nor considerate, and as far as he's concerned they have an emergency on their hands.

If Duke wasn't responsible for this he needed to know, if he was he didn't deserve comfortable sleep anyway. Seifer chucks his pillow at him across the room.

"Hey! Quit dreamin' about your girlfriend and get up, we've got a situation." He snapped, the adrenaline powering him through that unusually heavy sleep as he got himself up to go try to find Duke's phone to verify. If they both had the wrong date then he'd know it probably wasn't just a technology glitch.

Kind and considerate aren't priorities in a bizarre situation, which Duke knows. He's been through more than enough to be ready for that quickly, although he still takes a few seconds to sit up and glare in annoyance as if this is any other morning.

He throws the pillow back at Seifer and sighs, getting out of bed. "My phone, please?" he requests dryly, reaching for it. "What's the situation?"

Kind and considerate are very rarely priorities in Seifer's book, much less in the midst of a situation. One that surely had to be a mistake... right? After verifying that Duke's phone was also showing the same date Seifer handed it over.

"Check the date." Voice as grim as his expression. He didn't know what was going on yet, but it sure was weird. Just out of curiosity he moved to the window, letting that pillow lay where it landed after clipping him. Whatever, more important things! Maybe it was just an error and everything outside was...

Empty.

"...This ain't good."

In the half-second between throwing the pillow and checking the date, Duke watched the pillow whiff off of Seifer and was disappointed he didn't react more. Then he understood exactly why he didn't react and bolted upright, throwing the covers off and immediately reaching for his pants. Next he digs under his mattress for the handgun he'd stashed there.

Third, he joins Seifer at the window and takes in the sight of the empty street, frowning.

"Okay, this is some Haven-level shit."

See this is why Seifer wears clothes to bed, Duke. Because shit will hit the fan at a moment's notice and he'd rather be ready to move as soon as it did. Frowning out the window Seifer moved to open it so he could stick his head out and listen, just in case there was more commotion within the city elsewhere.

Nothing. Nothing at all. Few things could be more eerie than a effectively silent city.

"I'd ask what Haven is, but if it's like this I dunno if I wanna know..." Whatever had happened. He glanced back at Duke, his typically surly and over-confident demeanor having given way for once to some genuine worry. Grim worry.

He doesn't say anything more, instead going to check his own phone for any messages. Surely people will start cropping up to ask what's going on, right? Unfortunately there didn't seem to be anyone sending messages out just yet, so he sent a few to the couple people he had been working with last he remembered.

Now what? He looked back over at Duke. "Hey, how good are you at usin' that thing?" The gun, of course.

Edited 2020-05-16 12:51 (UTC)

Seifer's got a point, but sleeping comfortably pays off 99% of the time whereas sleeping prepared pays off 1%. It's a risk Duke is usually willing to take.

The silence is loud for Duke too. As they look out over the empty city he can just hear their breaths and the breeze moving between the buildings, something he isn't sure if he's heard before.

"Haven's the town I'm from, and weird things happen there," he explains briefly. "Everyone disappearing is -- I'm pretty sure it's been done." Including him. "Audrey mentioned something about that," he adds, mostly to himself.

Memories of his hometown aren't pressing, though. This moment is important, and in it, Seifer's face looks darker than Duke had ever seen it. He frowns.

"Good enough at it." Not that he's proud of it, but Duke knows his way around a gun and is more than a decent shot. While he's no veteran or police officer, he's held his own against both in firefights. "But I'm hoping we don't need it. No one's moving down there, which might mean no one to fight."

Sure, but that 1% could be the difference between life or death! Then again, Duke probably didn't need to worry about it as aggressively as Seifer did.

"Any idea how it got fixed?" Other than robot overlords becoming less of an asshole than they currently were. Somehow Seifer doubted asking nicely would do the job. And no, they aren't, but once Seifer seemed satisfied with Duke's answering he'd ducked under the bed to pull out a large gym back that was... much heavier than a gym bag had a right to be. Along with it he heard a grumbling croak, sleepy and quiet, but familiar enough.

Seifer tossed himself on the floor to get a closer look. "Eos! You look rough." About as tied as they'd woken up, but Hyne is he glad to see his pet made it. Yep just going to work on coaxing him out while continuing his conversation with Duke.

"Ain't for people, Iterations, those fuckin' clone bots. Just 'cause we can't see or hear 'em doesn't mean they're not waitin' for us to come crawling out." Which meant it was time to be ready for anything. "Hope you don't have any plans, I'm takin' you on a field trip."

Yeah, Duke wasn't from a place where folks sneak up on sleeping people often. Why would they when some people didn't even need to be aware or present to kill? Subtle wars, man.

"Yeah, I got an idea." Once again Duke thought just how much easier things would be if Audrey were here. If anyone could've convinced the Head to stop, it'd be her. "But she's not here, so we'll have to come up with something else."

At least the dog's okay. Duke has a soft spot for that croaky little scaleboy.

"Why wait for us to come crawling out?" he asks. "If they wanted to kill us now, why didn't they come in here and shoot us in our sleep?"

Assassination was a real threat, as was surprise all-out-war in the middle of the night. They were trained to be ready at any eventuality to dispatch into a war zone. There were plenty of them to pick from, after all. And if there weren't, well... Garden would just make one. That was their business plan.

"Sounds like that option's out the window in our case," Unless Audrey conveniently showed up to lend a hand. Somehow he doubted they'd be so lucky. He plucked the dog up from the floor, gave him a good squeeze, then plopped him on the bed so Eos could spend a few moments waking himself up at his leisure while Seifer went to work unpacking and loading his gunblade. Which, yes, that's what he's been hiding in that gym bag. A big fuckoff sword with some sort of trigger mechanism attached.

"More fun to watch us squirmin' like maggots while they pick us off?" Alright maybe Seifer's morbid. Or maybe there's more to it. "Whatever the purpose of leavin' us alive is, I intend to make sure the Head knows it was a mistake." Provided his forge is still in place anyway. He regarded sleepy Eos a moment, and now with Helios unpacked... went to grab the backpack he stuffed Eos in when they had to go for a long trek. No sense in wearing the poor dog out.

Maybe Duke will do the honors of holding on to him since he's got range on his side.

Duke's last time avoiding an assassination attempt had turned into drinking wine at his friend's apartment and they'd still been successful. He doesn't envy Seifer his instincts, however right they might be.

"Sadly." If there was one person he believed could bring things to a nonviolent conclusion it was Audrey. Seifer apparently has already discounted that option, and Duke tilted his head as he pulled the gunblade out and loaded it. "Does that thing work? Because it doesn't look like it'll work."

"You think it's that kind of sadist?" Because he did. Slipping on his jacket, he reached out for the backpack with the crocdog in it (whatever that weapon is, it didn't look easy to move with). "Do you have a plan for that?"

Seifer was never a diplomat, peace talks aren't exactly his wheelhouse. As far as he's concerned peace was never an option, but then again he's never experienced such a thing. How would he know what to do? The Head's kidnapping them was an act of war, Seifer will respond accordingly.

But his focused destruction paused at Duke's question and he shot him an incredulous, offended look. "Does it work!?" He handed Eos over, now wholly consumed with being offended.

"I'll have you know gunblades are one of the most powerful weapons anyone could hope to master, and I'm one of the best." He's arrogant, but he's not lying. "I've already killed one of those Hyne-damned clonebots with this and a fuckin' dragon. Does it work he asks." He muttered that last part in a huff. With that said he went about strapping his harness on and sheathing the blade like it was light as a feather for him, all while giving Duke a scandalized look.

He was too offended to even remember Duke's last question.

Edited 2020-06-12 13:41 (UTC)

"Are you serious? That thing?" Once the crocdog pack is safely attached Duke points at the gunblade with an arched eyebrow. "That looks like a disaster waiting to happen. I don't know what's going on in your world, but in mine you'd blow your arm off with it."

He slipped on footwear while Seifer grumbled and prepared himself. "When the hell did you kill a dragon?"

Evidently he's just going to have to show Duke the gunblade in action, because he just was not going to believe him. "'Course you can blow your arm off, you can blow your arm off with anything if you're dumb enough. Damn thing doesn't shoot, how d'you think it works?" Gosh, Duke, obviously.

It's too bad he doesn't have Squall around to challenge to a fight anymore. That'd solve the mystery. "Just before we went down for our nap. I need to go check and see if everything's there, and you're comin' with me." Duke has been volunteered, evidently.

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exceptionalcrook - 2020-06-14 08:57 (UTC) - Expand

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firacrux - 2020-06-16 11:31 (UTC) - Expand

[Seifer's not alone.

The relative silence of the city ends abruptly, with the heavy drone of an engine. It's in the distance somewhere, rising in pitch in acceleration, falling abruptly and picking up again just as soon. The sound seems to fade away for a few seconds. Maybe even half a minute. But then it's back, and it seems to be getting louder.

Perhaps Seifer can identify it as a motorbike. Perhaps not. But it's coming, and if the sound of it is anything to go by, it's coming at some speed.]

[Huh... Well now, that's definitely the sound of someone or something moving about the city. And here he was being the only traffic in the street. The roar of an engine, one he wasn't paying quite enough attention to right away to bother differentiating between bike or car, was warning enough that it was about time to pack up and get out of dodge while the getting's good.

Dragging his last pile of scrap into the bed he hopped back into the cab in an attempt to make a hasty get away. Whatever was coming for him he wasn't in the mood to play, had far too much valuable to get back to the shop, thank you.]

[Closer, closer, and closer indeed.

By the time Seifer should have got back in his cab, the dim gloom of the barely lit street shouldn't... be like that at all now. Because there's a single headlight shining directly in front of him- perhaps 20 yards, give or take.]

...

[Whoever this is sees you. Perhaps Seifer could make him out- or perhaps not. Headlight and all. It hardly matters. What does matter is that the figure is staring, moving only to pull something from a holster on his back. The gear is slipped, and the bike shudders into life as it advances.

Then there's a gigantic bang. The sound of metal scraping against metal as said object pulled from the back collides with the side of Seifer's van. Perhaps it's enough to jolt the vehicle. But it's certainly enough to take a lot of paint off.

The bike circles, and comes back<. Perhaps this time the rider's going to try and put a window through./small>]

[He sure can't see who it is, nor entirely make out the shadow being drawn off its back. What he can make out is the obvious threat, and unfortunately it's about then that he really regretted that this old truck didn't have a lot of horsepower.

The whole thing rocked from the impact, some of the over-stacked scrap clattering from the bed onto the street.]

Oh you son of a-

[Wait. With the bike wheeling around he could actually make out the stupid hair and even more stupid sword]

Yo! What the fuck, Cloud!?

[Alright. Now he's pissed. And really fucking mad he didn't have any magic stocked. Well, just going to do this the hard way. Before Cloud could ram into him again he grabbed his gunblade from the seat and hopped out, using his shadow tendrils to help brace the vehicle should Cloud come in for another pass while he's trying to orient himself. Guess someone's in the mood for getting his ass kicked, huh?]

[The appearance of the shadow tendrils do nothing to put him off. Instead, he simply looks at them- his gaze neutral- eyes cold, unchanging. He doesn't even respond to his name- instead swerving sharply toward the van, in the intent of wedging Seifer between it, and his bike.]

...

[Think fast, almost SeeD!]

[Oh. Good. He's a robot. Well, that's annoying.

All the more reason not to go easy on him, however. A disgrace like this using Cloud's face? Unthinkable. Don't worry buddy, he'll avenge your untimely death.

Gripping the top of the vehicle with his tendrils he used them to heft himself up even as Cloud was rapidly approaching. Though, instead of taking shelter up there he used the side instead as a launching point, trying to time a roundhouse swing and fire with his gunblade for right as Cloud got close to him.

Gotta try to knock him off that annoying bike somehow!]

[Seifer's efforts would be rewarded with a success. A partial success anyway- the blast from Seifer's gunblade hits the front of his bike, and the thing veers, topples, and drags with a loud screech on its side- sparks dragging along the floor as it passes him.

...Great, right? Well. ...Kind of. Because as it does, Cloud's upright on the thing- standing with straight legs on the side of it as it drags along the asphalt. As it passes him and the van, he slices to the side- sword cutting through two, three, no, four of the tentacles holding the man off the ground.

Then he jumps from the bike, sword raised high to catch him with it as he falls.]

...

Edited 2020-05-23 21:25 (UTC)

[Success is success, no battle worth fighting is won in a single blow. He feels the tentacles dissolving as they're broken by Cloud's blade before he sees the swing, instinctively tucking himself in a roll that would allow him to get his feet under him in a crouch as soon as he hit the ground.

Which was good, because Cloud's blade was coming down on him hard. There was no sense in trying to block that attack unless he wanted his gunblade shattered, and instead flung himself in another roll away from that crashing blade. In response an aura of shadowy flame burst boiling hot from around him, this time using the momentum of his roll to push himself to his feet and into a spinning slash toward his target as swiftly as he could.

Cloud was stronger, no doubt about that, but Seifer could move with surprising speed when he got himself going. That aura of burning darkness only served to fuel the strength behind his swing.]

[His sword crashes upon paving slabs with a terrible sound, cracking them and kicking up quite a bit of dirt and concrete dust. That... Should be it, right? No way anything alive would be after that. But as the dust clears, he finds nothing but broken ground underneath.

Then he hears it. The sound of Seifer's power causes him to turn, and it's all he can do to deflect the blow by raising his sword diagonally between himself and Seifer. It's... not exactly easy. He gets there in time- of course he does- but he... was really travelling at some speed. The force of the deflected blow pushes him back just a little- and the soles of his feet scrape against broken slabs as he's pushed- perhaps half a foot, back.

Time to finish it.
He moves his sword in front of him again, pushing himself forward this time in a leap- to try and impale him straight through.]

[That's cute, thinking Seifer would be an easy kill. Sure had he taken the blow he'd be undoubtedly dead, but Seifer cut his teeth on dinosaurs, Cloud wasn't all that different from one.

Using the force of the deflected impact Seifer pushed himself away from Cloud, landing fluidly to return to his combat position. For someone so large, he was remarkably light on his feet. He let the aura die for the moment so it wouldn't be tearing him up too much while he was out of Cloud's range. That's a spell best used for emergencies, of which this certainly was one.]

Disappointing. [He mocked.] I make you this big ass sword, and that's the best you can do with it? [He crowed, hunching low and preparing a spring for Cloud's charge. With such a heavy weapon he wasn't likely to be making quick turns, so Seifer was going to take the chance in staying put...

Just long enough to let him get close, before dancing to the side in yet another spinning slash, aiming to try to catch Cloud along the shoulder. Again the roaring bang rang out as the trigger was pulled just as the blade should impact. Now more than ever he was glad for the trigger modifications, his timing could be even more precise.]

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children, wake up; hold your mistake up

Seifer Almasy | One closed and OTA

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out and about ♥

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