melodiesoflife | Don't Be Afraid: Southern Continent of Ruin

Characters: Jade, Anise, Selphie, Sonic
Where: Haunted Ruins, en route to New Mysidia
When: March 5th
Summary: The four awaken in the middle of ruins swarming with vengeful spirits of the dead and Calamity-infected T-Rexes. It all goes downhill from there.

The first thing that happened was this: Jade stepped on his own hair and cricked his neck.

"Urk--!"

Somehow, in his haste to get up and survey the situation, he hadn't quite registered that his hair had grown to almost Sephiroth-level lengths. He hadn't even known his hair could grow that long. But more importantly...

Pushing his overgrown bangs aside, he was finally able to look around. It was dark, but the ruined structures looming all around looked faintly familiar. At least the architecture did. The oppressive silence was broken by distant sounds of... what? People?

No, not people. Human beings didn't make sounds like that. Neither did monsters, for that matter.

Once he was certain there was no immediate threat, Jade turned and saw the others waking up. And stared.

'How long were we unconscious?'

"I guess there's not much point asking if everyone's all right." Despite the dry comment, one could tell his heart wasn't really in it.

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It was clear Jade wouldn't be able to easily reach his mid-back to return his hair to its normal length. Oh well... This would have to be a rush job.

Caliburn's blade cut through the worst of the mane, the mass of hair pooling at his feet. He wasn't eager to bring a sword near his face though, so he tossed it back to Sonic and switched to Anise's pocket knife, quickly hacking off the bangs. The result was uneven and much shorter than it had been in decades. Hopefully Rukia wouldn't be too disappointed, given how much she'd liked to play with his hair.

He didn't even entertain the idea that she might not be alive. Getting distraught wouldn't help anyone right now.

"First we run. Then we find high ground to make navigating easier." Air currents might work. Or landmarks, if they could see any in the dark. But that could wait until they found a safe spot.

Taking back his sword, Sonic nodded at what Jade suggested. "Sooner we're out of this place and into somewhere open, the better. I hate being cramped up." He said.

"I hate saying this, but I can watch the rear so we aren't ambushed." He'd rather be far ahead. Very far ahead. He wished he had used his Custom Job and not the Onion Knight.

Anise picked up her knife. Any other day, she would say something about Jade's hair, but they were in actual danger, and that fact was slowly starting to dawn on her.

Still, she was nothing if not impatient, and she was starting to get uncomfortable where they'd woken up. She nodded at Sonic as she stood up.

"Okay, but we've gotta get out of here. The faster the better, right?"

When she walked out in the field, she turned white. What she'd heard hadn't been one ghost, but several roaming around the open area. Could they take on the ghosts? She wasn't sure, but death was real and this was one bet she didn't want to take.

Without thinking, she immediately darted to another group of nearby walls. It was making progress, technically, but it didn't make her feel any better to be separated from the group, and she didn't feel comfortable staying out long enough to signal to them.

Tokunaga was still tucked away in her bag, and she propped him up on one of the outer walls. It wasn't much of a signal, but it was the best she could do.

Jade peered out into the opening and clicked his tongue when he saw the same thing Anise had. "Dear, dear," he murmured. Unless they wanted to get swarmed by enemies they couldn't fight, they'd have to watch where they stumbled out.

He kept behind a wall until he saw Tokunaga pop up, then followed in Anise's wake, staying low. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of the ghosts. Some were merely faint silhouettes, but among them he could see lanterns hanging in the air. Poes. He had seen them before during Octobers.

Something about these ones felt different, though. Perhaps even ghosts weren't safe from the Calamity infection.

"Well, that's just great..." Sonic mumbled, noticing what they were dealing with. "What's the plan now?"

Selphie stayed close to Jade, trusting his sense of direction far better than her own. She pressed herself up against the wall as she watched a series of ghosts go floating past. She gripped the hilt of her sword nervously as she felt cold sweat trickle down her back. Her experience dealing with ghosts was minimal to say the least and wasn't something she was in the mood to relive.

"I guess we can't just tell them to move," Selphie whispered jokingly.

Anise wasn't afraid of ghosts to the extent that some of her friends were, but she wasn't a fan of them either, and she didn't think her usual threat of "I'll kill you bastards!" would do any good for something already dead.

"We could always tell them to piss off," the language felt strong, even coming from her, but if she had to deal with being an adult she was going to act like it! By basically still acting like a child, and pretending she wasn't terrified.

She took another glance out the field. Those things were literally everywhere, and even as someone who didn't really worry about ghosts, she was still shaking noticeably.

"Language, Anise," Jade chided mildly, patting her shoulder. Naturally, he didn't actually care about a little swearing, but being his usual teasing self seemed like the right thing to do at the moment. It always helped to have an unfazed person around in a stressful situation.

"Let's keep moving from cover to cover. Carefully. If we go along this side of the clearing, we should be able to get past our friends here unnoticed."

Unless one decided to just pop out through the wall without a warning. That was the trouble with ghosts. They had an unfair advantage in hide and seek.

With a nod, Sonic returned his Magitek Armor and kept his head down as he headed on. Best thing about who he is? Being short is an advantage!

Selphie couldn't help but grin as Anise used some dirty language. It had her recalling far worse language that she'd heard at Garden with a shrug of her shoulders. She was grateful that Jade was there to keep them from falling apart or lunging for each others throats.

A roar in the distance however, had Selphie pressing herself even tighter against the wall in fear. She remembered that roar from home but was wondering just how deadly it would be after five years. There was no way to know for sure but it wouldn't be easy.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is..."

Admittedly, cursing (and subsequently being scolded for it) did make Anise feel better. She wasn't used to being this tall, but sticking to the wall and avoiding being seen? Shouldn't be that much of a problem.

That was until she heard the same roar Selphie did. Crystallis was out to get them, she was sure of this.

"Okay, that's it. This place is officially the worst."

She was trying to use sarcasm to cover it up, but she was visibly shaking again. This was it, she was convinced, they were going to die.

"Good grief."

Was Jade going to keep understating the severity of the situation? Yes, he was.

"Come now, let's keep moving. There will be plenty of hiding spots in the ruins."

This was a problem, though. They could hide from a T-Rex, but they couldn't outrun one. They could outrun ghosts, but no hiding place would be perfectly safe from something that could go through walls.

They would be in constant danger no matter what they did. What fun.

Don't Be Afraid: Southern Continent of Ruin

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