beneath the black, the sky looks dead

[couldbeavoided]

WHO: THE VOID and YOU?
WHERE: Around the City and the Brooklyn Bridge
WHEN: Sunday, 8/2
WARNINGS: Violence, death, chaos
SUMMARY: The Sentry loses control.
FORMAT: Quick.


[ There was no abrupt revelation, no struggle; when Robert Reynolds had opened his eyes that day, the Sentry was simply nowhere to be found. He'd flown from the mansion into the sky, a poisonous oily creature wearing Bob's skin and the Sentry's clothes until even that began to shed. Red eyes and an aura like fire and toxic ash, sharp tendrils coiling out behind and around him like sentient shadows.

Years. Years here, trapped, ignored, denied. Bob was done fighting, and hurting; his mind went blank so that someone else could use his body to fight back. But it was his body, too -- the Void celebrated his freedom by flying into the sky, raising his arms and calling upon the sky to darken in deep reds and purples. Clouds collected and rain started pouring; he raised his face to the rain and smiled, before he dropped from the sky and flew cleanly through the Brooklyn Bridge. ]

Comments

[hellionated]

[ The tentacles connect again, sending a fizzing, cloying reverberation through his shield. Under their pressure, it falls away again. It's too much to try and shield himself and send energy at the Void at the same time, and right now neither of those were working - the tentacles had lanced through, and the Void was still fine.

Fuck. What the hell is he supposed to do?

He feels tentacles at his ribs, surrounding him. They're crushing, and it's hard to breathe. He has to fucking stop this. ]

If you've killed her, I swear to God, you're about to follow her on her way. Go to hell!

[ He focuses on another wave of energy, this one attempting to crush the Void. His concentration breaks halfway through as a tentacle pierces his shoulder. This fight is way too big for him.

[couldbeavoided]

[ When a tentacle connects, the Void doesn't waste the opportunity. He stabs it deeper, wanting to plunge Julian deep into the depths of his own painful memories. He wants him to realize how very alone he is, how small Jenny's body was against the world that ended up crushing her. Hopelessness. Futility. ]

Why don't you? This whole world will be hell once I'm through.

[ He twists the tendrils before he wrenches backward, snarling and preparing to go on his way. ]

[centurybaby]

[ She has this vague thought that she's going to probably bleed to death and it feels like she's broken at least two or three major bones in her body. It hurts. A lot. But the funny thing is, she can't bring herself to be afraid to die-- just pissed the fuck off, that her powers failed her, and worse, that she was about to fail Julian and Terry.

That's what she gets, for pushing at a universe that wasn't hers. For thinking she was that strong. She remembers the Doctor, and his butterflies, and how he'd died too and the irony of having godlike powers but still getting fucked over.

Her last thought before the world goes black is that she wishes her dad was there. ]

sorry for the delay!

[hellionated]

[ The tentacle pierces his shoulder and seems to burrow inside. At this stage Julian can't tell if that's his imagination or not, since the effect it has on him is far more than physical. He can feel it cloying, burning, seeming to spread under his skin and send out tendrils of damage in its wake.

At the same time, his vision seems to cloud and darken, and his focus flickers in and out of reality. ]

No...shit, what are you...doing...

[ His voice trails away as the darkness takes over again, making him falter. He's only kept aloft because of his powers, and if he loses focus on them he has a long way to fall.

But this time the darkness wins. It drags him somewhere else, makes him picture things that aren't here and shouldn't be on his mind. He can't stop thinking of Jenny. He needs to find her, and then they both need to find Terry, and then...

He remembers others, other friends who have fallen, names that he tells himself don't matter anymore. Names that will always matter, like Brian. People who are lost to him, like Sofia. He can't lose these friends the way he lost those others. He has to stop this. He has to not think about it.

But he can't. Because he's so alone, and this fight is too big. And the last time he was in a fight that was far too big, he woke up with two less hands. Suddenly, for all that he hates this, for all that he wants to knock the Void out of the sky, fear grips him and he doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know where to go, and the one thing he's sure of is that there's no one to ask for help. Somewhere, from very far away, he can feel the tendril of darkness burning its way through his shoulder. He can feel its brothers clawing at him, attacking his chest and his other shoulder. But it feels like a long way away.

By the time he starts falling, he doesn't even realize it. He thinks he's in another world, in another fight. He doesn't see the Void in front of him. All he sees is the Nimrod that almost killed him before. He's aware of trying to pull his powers back, of trying to shield himself again. It flickers in and out. And then he's crashing towards the ground. ]