ange "the definition of chuunibyou" ushiromiya (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
entreats) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
deercountry2023-03-13 08:29 pm
entreats) wrote in deercountry2023-03-13 08:29 pm
(open) you're looking at me like you don't know who i am
Who: Ange, Ruby, Break, and anyone who knows any of them.
What: Corruption turned Ange into a true Umineko witch who decided the best way to keep the people she loves safe from this town is to drag them into a pocket dimension.
When: For a while in March.
Where: Ange and Ruby's house-turned-small-pocket-dimension.
Content Warnings: Potential violence if anyone acts particularly antagonistic. Potential talk of violence or gore. Other warnings will be added when things pop up.
Perhaps you have seen Ruby's odd network post and decided to check things out. Or maybe you're just wandering around Trench and notice that Ange and Ruby's house suddenly looks.. different.
The house has been completely overgrown by way oversized roses, big thorns growing out of all the stems, completely obscuring the structure that's supposed to be underneath it. If you get close enough to the cluster of roses, you may feel your connection to any of the three people inside suddenly pull you in. (Please note: only people who know either Ange, Ruby or Break will be able to enter the pocket dimension because of this!)
If you give in to the sensation, everything around you might go black, and when the light returns, you seem to find yourself in.. a hedge maze. A rather odd one, though. As you stumble through it, you may suddenly find yourself in random rooms, and then back out of them into the hedge maze once more. The Moss King's wild plants seem to have even invaded corners of this place, so you might want to watch out you avoid having those snap at you. Retracing your steps through the labyrinth feels impossible, like the way is changing up behind you with every step. Some rooms make perfect sense - like a neat and elaborate kitchen, or a library - and others seem to consist of nonsense with stairs leading upside down or to nowhere, or gravity not working in a specific room at all.
Flying throughout the entire maze are golden butterflies. They seem to fly with direction, and if you follow them, you might find them leading you to one of the people you were looking for..
What: Corruption turned Ange into a true Umineko witch who decided the best way to keep the people she loves safe from this town is to drag them into a pocket dimension.
When: For a while in March.
Where: Ange and Ruby's house-turned-small-pocket-dimension.
Content Warnings: Potential violence if anyone acts particularly antagonistic. Potential talk of violence or gore. Other warnings will be added when things pop up.
Perhaps you have seen Ruby's odd network post and decided to check things out. Or maybe you're just wandering around Trench and notice that Ange and Ruby's house suddenly looks.. different.
The house has been completely overgrown by way oversized roses, big thorns growing out of all the stems, completely obscuring the structure that's supposed to be underneath it. If you get close enough to the cluster of roses, you may feel your connection to any of the three people inside suddenly pull you in. (Please note: only people who know either Ange, Ruby or Break will be able to enter the pocket dimension because of this!)
If you give in to the sensation, everything around you might go black, and when the light returns, you seem to find yourself in.. a hedge maze. A rather odd one, though. As you stumble through it, you may suddenly find yourself in random rooms, and then back out of them into the hedge maze once more. The Moss King's wild plants seem to have even invaded corners of this place, so you might want to watch out you avoid having those snap at you. Retracing your steps through the labyrinth feels impossible, like the way is changing up behind you with every step. Some rooms make perfect sense - like a neat and elaborate kitchen, or a library - and others seem to consist of nonsense with stairs leading upside down or to nowhere, or gravity not working in a specific room at all.
Flying throughout the entire maze are golden butterflies. They seem to fly with direction, and if you follow them, you might find them leading you to one of the people you were looking for..
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What do you mean?
[ It'd be so nice if that was a question meant for Anna's last words right there, huh. If it wasn't the endgame, and Anna's insinuation that it was is what makes the witch frown.
But that isn't it. A fact that becomes clear rather rapidly as she continues, her cup of tea seemingly completely abandoned for the moment. Ange still is seated, not moving closer to Anna, but her full attention seems aimed at the other now. ]
Why couldn't I just stay here?
[ Because that is definitely the plan. ]
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Listen, Ange. I understand that you're a really, really powerful witch. I get that you can do anything you want to do, and that means that you definitely can just create this whole... everything. But hiding away in here instead of facing the world outside... [she chews at her bottom lip and looks away.]
[if she says what's on her mind, it will make everything worse. if she says what her gunpowder lungs are begging to set free, it will hurt ange directly, and it might also get anna hurt. she sends a clear thought to kainé: about to say something stupid to the golden witch. she looks back at ange.]
It's not safety. It's cowardice. You're being a coward right now, and it's not going to protect anyone in here when the Pthumerians come knocking.
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Quite literally, because the teacup that was resting on the table only a moment ago - not even close to the edge, mind you - suddenly drops to the ground and shatters into tiny pieces. Something that usually would be completely impossible, but this world is so interwoven with Ange herself and her existence as a witch that it responds to her feelings right away. Even just in little ways like these.
She rises from her seat, taking a few steps in Anna's direction, but still leaving some distance between the two of them. ]
Cowardice? [ She repeats the word like it's something dirty, like the insult she perceives it as. It's like the golden light in her eyes flames outward. ]
What do you know?! I'm keeping the Pthumerians out right now! I am keeping people safe!
[ She spreads her arms, as if to gesture at the world around them, the sea of roses. ]
What are you doing to keep anyone safe, Anna?! You think turning yourself into a monster on purpose and abandoning those you care for is the less cowardly thing to do?!
[ It's the sort of thing Ange would never use against Anna if she were herself, no matter the hurt she experienced back there.
But silly stuff like inhibitions clearly aren't there anymore when you're corrupted enough. ]
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[and maybe by being angry, she can snap ange out of this. she calls on the spirit of the woman she's terrified of and fills her lungs with sparks.]
No! No, I don't! That's why I don't do that anymore! [she almost laughs, incredulous as she is.] I saw how badly acting like that hurt somebody who matters a lot to me, and I made a vow then and there to never raise my sword again unless it was in defense of another person. But I guess because that happened outside these hallowed halls, it doesn't matter.
[she's been polite this whole time, believe it or not. the venom rises.]
You're condemning anyone who isn't your family to death outside the gates of your golden realm and I'm somehow the one who can't keep people safe? You've fucking lost it, Beatrice.
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[ It's almost as if the world grows a little bit dimmer around them. Somewhere in the distance is the sound of thunder.
Of course a reaction like this sure isn't going to make the witch's anger subside. ]
I told you. Anyone can visit here. Anyone can stay here. [ She even said she'd prefer it - which she meant! She did tell Break and Ruby that she'd pull more people here as soon as she had rested her powers enough to be able to expand this world.
There's no dream more ideal to Ange than being somewhere safe and surrounded by the people she loves, after all. ]
Do you care so little about me that you'd only come here to insult me? To not even listen to me? You're caught up in your own business so far that you have no idea what is even going on with me!
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[yeah, like. yes. she is being single-minded. myopic. but anna is losing her sister to something right now. and she doesn't... she can't do it again. and she's not strong enough on her own to pull ange back normally.]
Anyone can visit and anyone can stay, sure. For now. Until this golden bullshit starts driving you further and further over the edge like it's been doing for months now. And either you drive everybody out because they're a threat to this peaceful little lotus eater machine you built, or you get high enough on your own farts to start calling yourself a god.
[this is dire. all of this. and she doesn't know how to get through, but right now she's just so damn close to seeing red.]
And I don't know if you've fucking noticed, Ange? The gods of Trench don't like competition. And you're not as strong as they are. So I need you to get your head out of your ass and come home. Now. [and, in a quieter voice,] Please.
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She knows that what Anna is saying isn't true, after all. She's in perfect control right now. And - as she is right now - she can rival the Pthumerians, she just knows it. She's been given this power for a reason, and it's to keep everyone safe. If she's the one who's been given this much power, she has to stretch it for all it's worth-- because if she doesn't do it, who will?
Who will stand up against those beings? ]
Come home, and then do what? [ Her tone isn't quite as biting, but she doesn't seem to believe a word of what the other is saying here. ] Go through the same thing over and over again? Watch you get hurt? How come you can't see this is better than that?
[ Because sometimes--
Sometimes you're just tired of hurting. ]
Why can't you see this the way Ruby can? She's understood me! Even before we went here-- all of these months, she got why it was so hard, why this had to happen! [ (Since, you know, that's kind of what happens when you're spiralling into corruption at the exact same rate together, so neither of you can pull the other out of it.) ] She gets what I'm trying to do for everyone's sake!
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[she can't even think of how ruby factors into it all. for all she knows, ruby's been corrupting at the same rate. they could have been feeding off each other for months now, eating their own tails until they've consumed each other whole. alles wiederholt sich. naturally.]
I've done this before, Ange. I spent five years—five years in a chemical haze, and I felt nothing. I was... I was safe from the world around me, sure, but I didn't do anything except sit with my own problems letting them get worse and worse because I couldn't work up the energy to go outside and live my goddamn life. All I cared about was making it to the next day keeping everything I still had left between my fingers, and the whole time people were forgetting about me. People were losing me and I didn't even know enough to stop the bleeding.
[she's gotten far less angry. now, she's just desperate. now, she wants to remove ange from this place herself. and she hopes there's still enough of her sister in there to get through.]
I know the world outside fucking sucks. I know we're only going to keep getting hurt. But no matter how sure you are that all that glitters is gold, this ain't heaven you're walking to. [she steps forward and tries to place a hand on the shoulder of the golden witch.] Please. Let me take you home.
hang on, i'll ask josh to throw ruby in after this tag!
She doesn't do any of it. Ange doesn't know what it is, but something about all of this paralyzes her, unable to do any of those things. She just stands there as the words repeat in her head, especially those last few. The hand on her shoulder, not stopped due to Ange being so unmoving in this moment, feels like it burns against her dress, against her skin.
She wants to scream.
Because it hurts, something hurts, she wants to get Anna away to get rid of the pain but there's a tiny part of her that warms it's a bad idea to hurt Anna.
But the more she thinks about those words, the more it hurts, something warring inside of her that's too overwhelming for Ange. Anna may notice it, since it comes out of Ange's mouth as a whimper, her golden eyes shutting closed as she frowns like she's pained, her shoulders a little hunched.
Though - it's not like Anna is the only one noticing it. Because that pain and conflict is being sent straight across Ange's bond, where Ruby can notice her wife and witch being in pain as well. ]
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A Huntress' job was to give to protect the people at the cost of her own life. As Ange's furniture it was her job to serve her witch with all that she was. She would protect her witch with her very being.
There's a rustle from a patch of nearby bushes. A moment later flurry of tiny deadly sharp stakes erupt from the growth and speed past Anna to bar her path from Ange. They don't look to connect just yet. A final warning out of courtesy. Once the stakes arrive at Ange they reform into the shape of Ruby and generates the large energy scythe from her video. She stares at Anna with deadly coldness.]
Leave her alone.
Leave this realm and never return.
If you don't, I will remove you.
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[the stakes arrive, and they sprout up like roses between anna and her sister, and anna stands there staggered for a moment. and, of course, it never could have been anyone else—she frowns seeing the way that love has corrupted both of them. she wants to support ruby and ange. she wants to be happy for both of them. but ange is out of her mind, and ruby has been sinking just as deep for just as long.]
[anna places her hands in front of her with her palms out once she's regained her composure. it's just to show that she doesn't have any weapons on her, that she's not a threat... but it doesn't mean that she's going to roll over.]
I'm not gonna do anything to either of you, but I'm not going anywhere until you and Ange wake the fuck up, Ruby. [she says it like she really thinks she stands a chance. it must seem quaint.]
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But the corruption is so heavy and strong inside of Ange that she can't fight it so easily. At least it means that she isn't helping Ruby in getting rid of the intruder, as her corruption would tell her to do, but it also means that she isn't stepping to help out Anna either.
She can't do a thing. She's just standing there behind Ruby as the girl has forced herself between the two. Her gaze shifts between Ruby and Anna, her mouth hanging open slightly, and as her gaze lingers on the latter for a moment, Anna may notice the way Ange's eyes shift back to normal for just a moment - with an incredibly terrified and helpless look in her eyes, hidden to Ruby since Ange is staring at her wife's back right now.
A moment later they're a complete glowing golden again, but she still doesn't move, nor tells Ruby to stop. ]
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If there were a little more of Ruby in the picture- she might be a bit more aware of what was actually going on here. Unfortunately the part of her that was now Ange's dedicated furniture was at the wheel and unwilling to give anything about this more thought.
A wicked little grin plays up on her face.]
That's awfully selfish of you.
But I think I can grant you your wish.
[Ruby had mostly dedicated the closed rooms she had to made to people she wanted to keep safe. If someone was going to be too stubborn to leave- Well she was sure she could make a bit more room for Anna too.
Ruby blurs out of existence as she suddenly becomes the flurry of tiny stakes again. This time when they shoot through the air they're aimed directly at Anna. Each one looking to pierce through her friends body and drive her away from Ange.]
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[she should be paying attention to ruby. ruby is the one attacking her, ruby is the one who's an active threat right now, but she sees the gold disappear if only for a couple frames in this horrible movie scene that is her life, like a projector that's long outlived its usefulness and belongs in the scrap heap. she takes a stake to the side, then another, and she's twisting around to try to avoid this barrage of lilliputian bullshit machines that ruby has turned herself into inside ange's imagined paradise, and she ends up—extremely unceremoniously—on the ground.]
[she's looking up and wincing in pain as the scent of her own blood and motor oil fills her nose. her hair is curtaining around her, and she can't even bring herself to realize that some of the wounds she's taken match the ones from the sleeper farm exactly. she was an idiot to not immediately reach for her sword the second ruby showed up; the closest she's gotten is one hand wrapped around the tsuba, the metal handguard rubbing roughly against her own metal palm, her arm bent around her back and her elbow pointing above her head. she glares through the only eye she has left.]
I would do anything for Kainé, but you're taking this too far, Ruby. You're a person. You're not her fucking furniture.
CW: We're going into some eye injury from here on out. Some attempted murder too
Only when she reaches for her sword does this change. The stakes all converge into one spot above her before forming into Ruby Rose once again. One boot lands on her elbow to prevent her from unsheathing her sword. The other lands on the ground at her side. Ruby stares down at her with grim determination. Both hands raised up and holding the massive energy scythe in her hands. The blade turned outward like a spear.
Before the words can process in her head she's already thrust the spear down at Anna's head.
Then... The words sink in. Hit her at her core. The part of her that was still Ruby Rose on the inside.
It's in that moment she relents just a little. Enough to stop the blade from going right through her friends head.
Not enough to stop her from piercing the eye though.
She just stares down. There's not confusion in her eye. It's still that blank, vacant look that's been there since she changed. But something that did get through to her. If only for a moment.]
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This is what Ruby was supposed to do, after all. It's alright, because she's alive again, she's no longer dying. Look how active she is. They were going to take care of this place together, and that's what they're doing right now. Ruby said she'd keep her safe, just like how Ange kept her safe by keeping her from dying.
But something about it feels wrong. That sentence - that they're keeping this place safe, that it's supposed to be safe - sticks in her mind, and something about it in combination with what she's seeing here feels wrong, even if she doesn't know why. There's something that shouts at her that this shouldn't be happening, but she can't figure it out.
It's like having something stuck under your clothes, under your skin, and it keeps bothering you and you can't find it and it's like Ange is chasing in circles after the thought in her mind to try and find out why it bothers her--
And then Ruby's weapon is already in Anna's eye.
Without realising why, Ange lets out an instinctive, blood-curdling scream, almost as if she was the one struck instead of the person on the ground. It's like a wail of anguish, something emerging from the deepest part of her soul. Memories blast to the forefront of her mind involuntarily, out of context.
A light-haired girl slumped over in the Sleeper farm-- 'Cause I'm your big sister. And I'm supposed to protect you.
(Why are those words so familiar--)
A dark-haired girl sitting on the beach, frozen like a statue-- ...But what if I lose you too? What if I can't protect you and keep you here.
(--and why are they coming to mind?)
Her appearance doesn't change, the corruption not letting up so easily, but Ange drops to her knees on the ground. ]
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[there is a searing pain through her body, radiating from the socket. it's not a neat pierce. there's blood almost immediately as shards of glass dig into parts of her flesh that was never supposed to be injured. when she'd lost her eye the first time, it had been painful, but it had been clean, and it had been over quickly. here, now, she's present the whole time. her face feels warm and the pierced eyepatch is already turning red, she's sure of it.]
[all of these thoughts happen in a handful of seconds before she screams, the kind of anguish that she hadn't thought herself capable of in a long time. it sounds like the cry of a raven. it sounds like the reveille of an eternal war. she screams out ange's name, and she yells for her to stop, and her eye is fucking bleeding and what isn't red in her vision is blurred with tears. she tries rolling away too late, like that's going to do anything, and just gets her eyepatch caught on the spear and she can't even fucking tell if it's still in her eye or not because everything hurts, everything hurts. she cries out one more time, a blind plea to see if her sister is actually still in there.]
Call her off!
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That was it. That was it for sure. She knew it. She was doing her witches bidding, keeping her safe. Keeping her safe from anything that could hurt her.
She steps off Anna for a moment, but she's not done here. She reaches down and grabs for a handful of intruders hair and yanks her from the ground.]
Stop hurting her!
I warned you when you came here. Told you what would happen if you caused trouble.
This is all your fault.
[There's venom in her voice. As she drags Anna along the path- Eyes darting around until she finds the nearest door sticking out of the maze. With a brisk pace she quickly enters the room dragging Anna along with her into the darkness. The door slams shut with an ominous finality.]
A few moments later.
[What feels like an instant later. Ruby emerges from some bushes and distinctly not the door she had pulled Anna through. She's rushing to Ange's side scooping her up into her arms.]
I'm sorry- I'm sorry. I never should have let her come here. I shouldn't have let her hurt you.
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[she's brought into the darkness of an unfamiliar room and she's still in so much pain that it's hard to even speak. her fingers are shaking, and as impotent as she is, she tries to reach up and at least remove the eyepatch. so she doesn't have to worry about one of her memories from home bleeding into another. ha. they're both gone now, aren't they? and what does she have left? a bloodstained t-shirt from a band that doesn't exist in trench. her katana, which isn't even hers. what else is there that she brought over from recollé when she washed up on the beach a year and a half ago?]
[she'll think more on that later. she won't have a choice depending on what her captor has planned for her. wordlessly, anna runs her hand through the trail of blood coming down her face and flicks it at ruby.]
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It might be why the room Anna finds herself being dragged into isn't as perfectly decorated as the ones she had found for Penny, Oscar, or Blake. This one was cold, dank, with stone walls with manacles hanging from them. This didn't have the illusion of a guest room to protect the person inside it, it was clearly a dungeon to protect the people on the outside from Anna.
Ruby brings Anna to the middle of the room and drops her there. She turns to face her just in time for the blood to hit the tie of her uniform. The red glow of her eye adds a certain menace to the smile on her face in the darkness.
There's a snap of her finger and the manacles on the wall extend to clasp over each of Anna's wrists and ankles. Then pull back to lift her from the ground and force her to stand with outstretched hands.
Ruby's hand move to clean wipe the blood from her tie, but there's a dark splotch that won't come clean.]
You don't know when to stop, do you?
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Careful. [in the darkness, in the red glow of ruby's eye, she's smirking like she's got the upper hand.] The last person who chained me up like this, your golden witch blew up like a fucking piñata. [but that's an empty threat and one that really, really won't work here. she's still in pain, and her body just wants to pass out and give up, but if she does that, she loses. if she passes out, that's a victory for the girl who got so corrupted that she took out anna's artificial eye. and her sister.]
[she doesn't actively think this, but in the future she knows that she'll forgive ange and ruby for everything. they're corrupted. people do stupid, terrible shit when they're corrupted. it's the same as any mental illness and to blame the two of them for it wouldn't do anyone any good. in the moment, however, her smirk turns into a deranged smile.]
Why not take out the other one, you fucking pussy? Afraid of what might happen when Kainé finds out?
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When that happened. You were her ally. You're anything but that at the moment.
[Spoken with absolute confidence regardless of how wrong it may be. She does consider the words gently.]
I'm not taking it out of respect to the relationship that you and my witch have shared in the past. Out of hope that you might change your mind and stop causing trouble for us.
But I'll crush anything or anyone who tries to cause harm to the world my witch has created.
[And she steps in to grab Anna by the collar of her shirt, not worried if it soaks her hand or sleeve in blood to do so.]
Whether it's the Pthumerians, whether it's you, or anyone else who decides to be a nuisance.
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Cw: just a little but of torture. As a treat.
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When Ruby pulls her into her arms, it's almost like a reversal. Back when this entire thing started, it had been Ange pulling Ruby closer, Ange taking Ruby into this world with her. But now Ruby is making the moves, while Ange isn't resisting as she allows herself to be dragged into the other's arms like a ragdoll. Like somehow the intensity shifted between them, especially with Ange still so shaken up by everything she saw.
And how it truly jostled everything in her brain. ]
.. Ruby.
[ At least Ange doesn't seem completely broken, since she does speak the other's name after a moment. Her hands even move to latch onto Ruby in turn, something about her grip almost desperate. ]
I don't-- I don't get it.
[ Something feels wrong, but Ange can't understand what in the middle of her still corrupted mind. (It's easy to tell it's still corrupted, considering she isn't asking what happened to Anna, or where Ruby left her, her mind still too stuck to think about any of that.) But the odd feeling hasn't left, even not now what she just witnessed is technically over. ]
no subject
It's nothing that you need to worry about.
She's gone now. She wont question or hurt you ever again. I promise.
[That was good, right? That Anna had been dealt with. Ruby carries Ange back toward her table and tea set. Clearly she just needed time to rest and recover. ...Even as the trail of blood from Ruby's outfit and arm gently trails along behind them.]
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She's far too lost in thought right now to actually hold back onto Ruby in turn. There's so much to think about, and none of her thoughts make sense - and the absolute worst part is that the harder she tries to think about any of this, the more-- ]
It still hurts.
[ She even sounds like she's in pain as she says those words. Ange doesn't even notice the blood that's now getting onto her as well, sticking from Ruby's outfit to Ange's own golden feather dress. ]
She's gone, but it.. it still hurts. Why isn't this feeling going away..? [ She swallows thickly. ] Something is.. wrong.
[ But she doesn't know what.
It's just that simple thought that keeps returning to her mind, over and over, without any seemingly obvious reason. Something is wrong. ]
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cw: vomitting (kind of)
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