Scene #6498: Plague of Mind II

Owner	Pose
Zero Kiryu	There was only ever one path that could be taken away from the Kiryu Household. The winding road out of the hills towards the town beneath had yielded not a clear road to town however, but a fade-to-next-area that had gone beyond the town. The arrival point is the front entrance of another house. The Cross Household is a manor situated on the edge of a lake, within the sprawling grounds of Cross Academy. The front door of the house stands opened, a much younger Yuuki Kuran standing within the doorway. She is more vivid than the surroundings and, on close inspection, much more clearly remembered than everything else. Not necessarily in a strictly flattering way, either, exactly -- this ten-to-twelve-year-old Yuuki Kuran is remembered ACCURATELY, and has no dreamlike qualities at all. She is simply more real. Actions play out here like a sketch show. Words are clearly exchanged, but there is no sound or any idea of what might have been said. The motion is too stunted, too... sketchy to read the lips of the people talking. This may simply be a result of how closed-off Zero is as a person. The observed memories are sketchy and uncertain because /he/ doesn't offer a clear picture of himself, either. It is only upon stepping inside that Zero Kiryu as-he-was actualizes into an observable form. He's around Yuuki's age, then, too-- a hair taller, but nowhere near his modern height. An oversized jacket is draped over his shoulders, and a great smear of blood covers his left cheek. On closer inspection, the blood is a great gruesome ruin that runs down his neck (corresponding, not coincidentally, to Zero's tattoo) and shoulder, all the way to his upper chest. But he doesn't actually do anything. He doesn't even respond to clear inquiries towards him. The CROSS HOUSEHOLD can easily be explored. There are no barriers to exploration. The Cross Household is however located on the grounds of CROSS ACADEMY. A paved path leads to a dormitory building. Another, smaller residence is tucked back away from the SUN DORM, but it is blurry and indistinct-- Zero very clearly didn't go there often, if at all. From the front gate of the Sun Dorm, a bridge with a gate upon it leads across a lake, coming to a Y-shaped intersection. The path forward leads to Cross Academy's MAIN BUILDING, beyond which is the main gate and TOWN. The other path leads across another gated bridge, beyond which are the MOON DORMS.
Starbound Flotilla	Imagine being so anime rich that you can take your entire anime mansion with you to anime boarding school. Now that's anime rich. Moonfin can admire that, specifically in the artistic sense of admiring the architecture. But he's not here to admire architecture, he's here to purge the mind of sickness. That means finding the damage, and tracing it to the source. This... Hmmm. It doesn't seem like damage. Not the neurological kind, at least, the kind he needs to deal with. "Take in the artistry of this place," He says. "And any foreshadowing and clues therein. But I can little imagine hallowed ground such as this is host to the effects of our target. His double, after all, is too well-defined." He turns from his examinations, and heads towards the path forward. This place has mostly not been damaged by neurological sickness, right? Moonfin wants to at least see what's going on in the TOWN, which means taking the path to CROSS ACADEMY'S MAIN BUILDING. He suspects that it's likely where he might get some hints on where to find the damage he's looking for.
Raziel	Raziel looks around, trying to make heads or tales of this mental landscape, though not much different than the twisting shapes and awkward sounds and sights of the spectral realm. With a heavy sigh, he looks towards the two figures that are both the most defined, thinking on what was being said about finding the mental sickness. 'It was like being caught in a dream that was hosted in the Spectral Realm. People and places ill-defined, or with such clarity that it made them stand out by just comparison. The house we were in was likely the house of Zero's youth, and leading on a winding road was a building...a place of learning perhaps? Though it seemed less important by the sheer measure of detail that was sorely lacking. Whatever the case, we needed to find the source of this illness and aid our compatriot.' Raziel's head turns towards Moonfin, and with a nod, he speaks pointing towards the young Yuri. "The figure here is too, full of detail. If you are going to that building, then I shall aid in checking out this home," he says and starts moving towards the interior of the manor itself. He does not know exactly what he is looking for, but imagines he'll know when he sees it.
Priscilla	The two Real Kids (the Realboy and Realgirl) of course immediately attract Priscilla's attention. It's only fair and all. She borderline hovers around them to try and watch through the exchange, and actually almost has something to say about how --okay not adorable but-- it is to see tiny Zero, but then the horrid injury across his face and neck halts her mid-speaking-inhalation and her brows to twist in consternation. "If thou were to speaketh of 'damage' . . ." Priscilla instead just sort of sighs in Moonfin's direction. "Well, go as thou shalt, with thine three eyes of appreciation for the design of this place. That is half again as perceptive." she says. Priscilla has her own mission for the time being. That is: follow baby Zero&Yuuki (or just babZero if they split off) around as much as possible to see where they go.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki is the last to come up to the CROSS HOUSEHOLD, but the scene is familiar in the way looking at a picture that you're in after it's taken is familiar. "This is when I met Zero for the first time. Chairman Cross, who had adopted me a few years before this happened, brought Zero home. He was... a mess. He had been bitten by a pureblood - Shizuka Hio - after Hio killed his parents and took his brother away. As the Hunter's Association head of the time, Kaien Cross decided to adopt him too." "He had been clawing at his neck for days, where he had been bitten, and it was months before he started to really calm down. I don't... remember what I said, but it doesn't seem like it mattered. It was a difficult time, but looking back, Chairman Cross saved his life." The implication, of course, being that Kaien Cross ("Chairman Cross") was the majority-actor here. "Oh! Moonfin, if you go by the dorms, if they're wearing white academy uniforms, be careful! In Zero's memories, the Night Class are probably a bit less... social, than in mine."
Zero Kiryu	CROSS ACADEMY'S main building is... normal, for the most part. There is a vague, distant buzz of chatter, the likes of which you can easily find in school hallways and lunch rooms the world over. The farther away one goes from the Cross Household, the more things begin to be contextualized not only by the ordinary spectrum of sights and sound but also by smells. The rich, metallic smell of spilled blood fills one's nostrils, but there is no spilled blood to be found. There are ambulatory spots of slightly different scents where blurry figures move. Varying qualities of flavor waft here and there in great streaming trails, the potent scent of copper yielding up little bits and pieces of the lives of the people here. Although the feeling is certainly 'not one's own', it is impossible to walk in this place without feeling desperately hungry and parched all at once. Moving down the drive towards TOWN, there are THREE BUILDINGS that have clarity to them in the distance. Once is rather large, fortified; another is plainly an apartment building; the last is merely a cafe, and reasonable to rule out as anything but passingly personally meaningful. The CROSS HOUSEHOLD becomes a different world upon stepping across the threshold. It is warm, and comfortable. But a distortion of perception occurs here as further aspects of how Zero experienced this place asserts itself. A cold like anesthetic in the veins creeps in along the neck of anyone who stays here, building to a steady pulse in rhythm like a heartbeat. Gradually, perhaps without being fully recognized, a sourceless anxiety begins to build into a feeling of filthiness. On the first floor is a SITTING ROOM, DINING HALL, and KITCHEN. On the second floor is a HALLWAY, a BOY'S BEDROOM, a GIRL'S BEDROOM, and a BATHROOM. Priscilla chooses to FOLLOW A SPECIFIC MEMORY. The initial exchange plays out again, and the older man -- their guardian -- waves at the pair of them after telling Yuuki something, departing down the walkway away from the manor. Yuuki flounders a little as Kaien goes, eventually asking something. Though it is impossible to hear or read the lips, it's fairly easy to infer that she asked if she could touch Zero. He doesn't respond, but she takes him around the shoulders and he allows himself to be lead. Yuuki leads him to the BATHROOM, where she stops at the door and says something. A bath evidently had already been drawn before his arrival, the nearby tub already full of water. Again, he doesn't respond. Another question, met by silence. Yuuki lifts the jacket off of him. The wound underneath looked worse than it actually was--or perhaps it healed. There are no visible puncture marks, though the smear of blood is still extensive enough to suggest that it was far from a trivial injury when it was incurred. Though Yuuki continues to ask questions, doubtlessly inquiring for consent, Zero never answers. He's staring off into space. The memory trails off shortly after Yuuki cleans the blood off of him.
Raziel	"For a pureblood, this sure is messy," Raziel says, without any hint of irony. "Members of my clan would not be so callous as this...besides, what good are children as a vampire? You get far more trouble than it is worth, and then to abandon the fledgling..." Raziel scoffs, as Yuuki fills them in on the details. Raziel starts with the SITTING ROOM first and moving on to the DINING HALL. He moves calmly and carefully, wanting to not skip any details as he gets a feeling for the place inside Zero's memories. Though a part of him sympathized with him. He too did not get the choice of the dark gift. It was thrust upon his unwilling corpse. 'While the home seems comfortable upon first glance, the perception of the memory of our compatriot seemed to distort the images and feelings. A cold, numbing feeling crept along my neck, much like a medical ward, and the unsettling beat like that of a pulse could be heard. As I crept through the home, a feeling of uneased expanded. The urge to simply stop exploring was stronger than expected, but with a bit of willpower, I pushed through.'
Starbound Flotilla	There's a short nod, acknowledging Yuuki's advice. "I shall take care among the pale, both in skin and in cloth, for those who abstain from the marks of the earth are those who can well afford to tread beyond its reach." Moonfin says. What the fuck is that even supposed to mean? What a pretentious git. Ah, yes. The Anime School Noise. It bears down on Moonfin's perception with a familiar weight. It is like the sound of cicadas, built into how Hylotl culture functions and speaks in media language. He also is already chomping on some properly weeaboo snacks and it still isn't helping. It's rare for a Hylotl to be parched. The sensation is wrong. He doesn't like this place. He must move on. He steps further forward, his face scrunching up like chaotically crumpled origami. The town meets his eyes and he seems more pleased by that. "To seek the animal impulse of mental decay, I must find where Zero's own mental image of himself would be, but where such an impulse could stay comfortably hidden among the many memories." He mutters to himself. "Perhaps...?" He thinks, webbed hand to his chin. Why would Zero have spent time at apartments like that, when he was so busy being terribly proximate to rich people so much? Maybe there's something that stands out there, some root to things. Or maybe it's just an apartment where an important thing happened. Who knows! Moonfin tries out visiting the apartments.
Yuuki Kuran	"That's not precisely how things work, Raziel. I've done a little research on how 'other' vampires work, and what you describe is more of the norm than ours. More common?" Yuuki raises a finger as she explains, dropping into Teacher Mode. "The interaction between humans and vampires is usually of prey and predator, or citizen and nobility, but not of slave and master directly. Most vampires, even 'noble' ones, can't create more vampires by biting them. They can have children, and the strength of the child's vampiric powers depends on the 'purity' of their blood." Yuuki's hand moves to her neck as she speaks, quietly rubbing the cold feeling spreading across her neck with a sympathetic rythm. "It's only Purebloods that can turn a human into the lowest quality of vampire - a 'level D'. From there, they can either offer some of their blood and 'stabilize' them: a level C, a mature if common vampire, or let them degenerate slowly into a level E - a crazed, hunger-driven monster." "The reason is..." Yuuki sighs. "It's simple. Something I had to fix inside myself, too: Purebloods, and nobles, and born vampires are comfortable with their monstrous nature. It's normal to them, they live with it. Born humans, though, having this ravenous monster enter into their minds can create problems. Shizuka Hio used this as a weapon of torture: she bit Zero as revenge for his family's innocent misdeed in executing her lover - who had been placed upon the elimination list." "She wanted him to suffer and degenerate. Years ago, a really... complicated series of events bought Zero a lot of time, but Shizuka Hio was killed before she could be forced to stabilize Zero." Yuuki brightens. "So you see, the entire reason we are here is to right a wrong, and release someone important to me - to us - from a torment that has been with them for over a decade. To destroy the part of Zero that was placed there by Hio, the 'degenerating' monster that we bought so much time for." Yuuki blinks a few times, as if realizing something. "I suppose, what we're doing is purifying him, in mind and blood."
Priscilla	Hearing that Zero went on to injure himself causes new shades of worry to invade Priscilla's intense, downturned stare, as if it what were contained in this little frozen pastiche of the past had any further relevance to the present. The numbness and throbbing in her own neck is a background annoyance, until she catches herself squeezing it with her own hand, and then slowly lets her hand fall away, her expression gradually blanking again as she lags behind the remembered Yuuki and Zero. "In such a state, it is simply the sound of one speaking to thee that matters." Priscilla says to Yuuki, nostalgic in a precisely neutral sense. "One is not prepared to withdraw their attentions from inwards, from what it is that fills their mind, and to dedicate so much as to answer any question, but the company of another at least attempting to interact doth help it from spiraling inwards." Her voice warms incrementally. "Thou were an especially polite girl for such an event, though." The corner of Priscilla's lip twists slightly at Raziel's intended-to-be-rhetorical question. "What was the purpose of slaying his parents and abducting his brother? Either they were completely mad and cared not as to the consequences of their actions, or there was some plan or another behind it. I wouldst not attribute it to sheer stupidity or carelessness." Priscilla just takes Moonfin's words on 'the pale' to mean that very pasty, especially white-haired, waifus are the strongest and most anime of all, which she wordlessly accepts at face value. When Yuuki explains, Priscilla mutters something inaudibly, then barely louder, "Mad it is, then." "Well, wherever its representation lies, it is not at the site that it was born. There art clearly memories here tinged with the misery of living as such a monster, times defined by its presence, which may be wise to follow, but if this period were defined by thee as 'buying time' --as staving it away-- it may well be further yet, whence that choice was forced." One more question though. "I had meant to ask before, as well. What of the Night Class and Day Class? The Sun and Moon dorms? Am I to understandeth this place to specifically tutor vampires as well?" %
Zero Kiryu	The SITTING ROOM is adjoined to the dining hall by a set of double doors that are presently open. The older man is present, along with Yuuki and Zero. They're still relatively young, but a little older than the first memory here. This memory is very quick-and-dirty, though. Yuuki approaches a dark-haired young man from the sitting room, and Zero rapidly transitions from tense observation to just straight up driving a butter knife into the man's hand, all the way down to the hilt. The perspective shifts in the DINING HALL itself. The entire environment seems to be slowly rotting, and a great, ominous black wolf lies in the middle of the table. The stained wood of the table has gone dull and unstable beneath it, and the air surrounding it is a haze of colorful flakes that appear to be bleeding out of the environment around it. However... Although the black wolf is certainly a psychohazard, it is plainly too far removed from Zero himself to be the specific thing that is being hunted. It also doesn't appear to be proactively hostile, though it's impossible to look at it and not get the impression that if you invade its space too much it'll get nasty. Meanwhile MOONFIN transitions to the APARTMENT BUILDING, which is reached with a similar lack-of-intervening travel as childhood home to CROSS ACADEMY. It is a plain-looking building, and the instinctually correct path leads up the front stoop and down a hall to the right. The wall has been patched next to the door, where it looks like someone of human proportions simply up and punched through it. A studio apartment with precious few possessions within it is beyond the door. Paper packets litter the room and hundreds, perhaps thousands of little tablets are scattered across the floor in highly visible and uncomfortable-to-walk-upon quantities. There is a wardrobe with blood seeping out from its doors. The sound of the apartment building's front door opening and closing can be heard, accompanied by footsteps and the sound of a tiny bell tinkling as it comes closer. PRISCILLA witnesses a final memory near the bathroom that once again influences the entire mindscape. Within the bathroom stands Zero Kiryu, almost as he exists at this point in time. He's looking at his hand, for no apparent reason. At that moment... The world begins to flake apart. It's slow. So slow. It could take years and years, but the fact that it is happening is plain and undeniable, a ticking clock that delineates a clear, observable limit on Being. Tiny little chunks of it simply pull back from the fabric of space and drift off into the ether, leaving behind colorless dead zones.
Raziel	The knife goes through the man's hand and Raziel's eyes go wide for a moment. That certainly escalated quickly, but he feels there is something missing of the picture of cause and effect. Still, whatever the catalyst for that, it must have been big. Yuuki also explains the situation better for Raziel, to which Priscilla adds onto. There is a contemplative look from him for a bit before he seems to acknowledge that using his world's vampirism with another world is foolhardy at best. Still, it does seem irresponsible to him but knowing that it was done out of madness and revenge... Well, revenge is something that Raziel is unable to judge on. While there was a limit to what he would do...he knows all too well the rawness of the emotion. Even as he is now, he still at least feels that as keenly as the betrayal he felt when his wings were torn off of his body, and he was thrown into the lake of the damned. "Mine apologies then, I should do better than to speak on things I am not entirely aware of," he says towards both ladies until he comes across the wolf. 'Here I found a strange creature, far removed from the memories that I expected, but clear and resonate all the same. However, it was not hostile either, though I could feel an ominous air near the creature. There was a haze of colorful bits seeping into the world around it, and whatever it was it could not be healthy for our ally. However, engaging it may not be the best idea for the moment. I should consult with the others, before advancing too far and gaining its ire.' "I seem to have found something, though I can not tell exactly what it is besides a wolf," he says to his associates, keeping his distance from the wolf. However, this seems to have brought the others forward to attack the creature. Raziel, not fearful of conflict brings the soul reaver to bare. He dives in at the creature, aiming to thrust the Soul Reaver directly into the creature, aiming to repeatedly thrust the blade into the hide of the animal.
Priscilla	Priscilla almost flinches at the sight of Zero slamming the knife through the mysterious stranger's hand, though mostly she just subtly stands to attention. It isn't the violence of it --indeed, she herself has done far worse, many many times-- but the wild transitional aggression from the remembered Zero. Even as a very young manifestation, it's nothing close to what she'd expect, even with Yuuki involved. The lack of context doesn't help. Turning around to find the big, black, wall-rotting wolf, staking its territory atop the table and jealously corroding its own little spot of Zero's memory of this house in which he spent so much time, doesn't sit well with Priscilla. Her eyes harden, her shoulders relax and roll back slightly, her fingers spread and stiffen, and then a beam of the aurora borealis blue that had been in the sky of her own mind's eye then flashes into her hand, coalescing into the glittering silhouette of a sword. For whatever reason, she eyes the wolf not as the curious things to be experimentally exterminated like in Yuuki's head, or the dramatic enemy of Rucks' own traumatic memories, but with the tense and bristling, almost possessive glare of an alpha tiger being unwilling to tolerate a younger tiger's intrusion on its borders. "I hath no doubt of some association of it with that man." she responds to Raziel in one, short breath out. Experimentally, she spins the psycho-Moonlight once over the back of her hand, and finding its weight and balance acceptable, immediately grips it in both hands and brings it cleaving straight down into the wolf and through the table; all one motion. Even though most of the sword's arc is is all glittering motes, glints of moonlight, and ringing bells, however, a dark, blue-black paintbrush streak, rippling and writhing follows it, perhaps unavoidable in the psychoscape.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki shakes her head again, remaining patient and restrained as she had the entire time they had been pacing through the Kiryu House and the Cross Estate. "It's fine. I understand we are rather exceptional exceptions to most rules of the fact. If it wasn't for being nocturnal, some similarities in power, and the... blood..." She trails off in an 'all that stuff' sort of way. As if 'oh yeah all that BLOOD STUFF' was a discrete set and not the majority of problems most vampires of the physical varieites faced. The memory of the dark-haired man in the Sitting Room causes Yuuki visible distress, but she doesn't comment, more 'feeling' the danger and the memory of the blood spilling than anything else. "Priscilla... We should go. Something's wrong." She leads the way back to the Dining Room. The black wolf in the Dining Hall is cause enough for another explanation. "That... shouldn't be here. Kaname was here, but never his familiars." An odd sentiment, but not entirely misplaced: And everyone in the memory now would at least be somewhat aware of Yuuki's own black wolves, though hers still exuded a starkly different energy. Certainly similar in build, hers were much more gentle in mein than this psychohazard: hers were hunting animals, but gentle like well-trained pets. This was angry, cold, and lurking. A promise of violence. "We should remove this. In fact... We should probably destroy anything of my brother's in here. I'm certain of that, especially if he let things lurk." Yuuki flicks her hand, and sends a mild 'shoo shoo' burst against the black wolf's nose. Which, well, with her powers, was more like a right cross right to the snout to establish dominance.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin regards the room with a palpable sense of unease. Packets, tablets. Is this about vampirism? The addiction? The situation catches his nerves badly. Someone on edge, full of that hunger and pain, perhaps. "Who are you, who have spent so long in such starvation?" Moonfin whispers, as his webbed fingers trace the lines of the patched-over hole... He thinks for a time. "If it was a victim of the hunts against feral vampires, there would not be so many tablets... Zero?" For some reason, he has worries in his mind that something terribly, terribly important will happen when the one with the bell reaches this place. He knows he's going to need to see what terrible secret is inside that wardrobe, if the one who's arriving doesn't look at it first, so he goes with his gut on whether or not to open it before the new arrival gets here. "Show me. What is it that was found in this den of urban suffering, this pit of malaise and hunger? Or what visited you when you found yourself in it?"
Zero Kiryu	The Black Wolf is stabbed repeatedly with the Soul Reaver, and in spite of this it rises. At this distance more details of it come into clarity. It has an obnoxiously magnetic scent-- pheromones, or some such thing. The 'obnoxious' quality may not be objective, though. It may be a facet of Zero Kiryu's own observations. Since this is his mind, it's hard to tell. He's usually fairly matter-of-fact, but even he isn't an altogether reliable narrator, after all. It is like stabbing water. The flesh of the wolf is disrupted and displaced, blood is drawn, yes-- but it flows back into place steadily, though each wound inflicted should be dire. The wolf leaps off the table as Priscilla comes at it, though in spite of evading the bulk of the blow a great spray of blood peppers the surrounding walls and ceiling as it lands to one side, a lingering wound in its flank. Contrary to what a wolf /should/ do when confronted with violence, the Black Wolf doesn't trouble itself with actually going in to try and bite anybody. It seems to sense what Yuuki is going to do and barks once, loudly-- matching force for force. But it underestimates Yuuki. A counteracting burst of invisible force meets hers and is overwhelmed, blasting the wolf backwards and slamming it into half of the cleaved table. It barks again as it scrabbles back to its feet, a line of telekinetic force not unlike Yuuki's own thundering forth like an invisible club swung by a giant towards its assailants. At first, MOONFIN receives no answer. But the footsteps and the sound of the bell ring through the outside hallways. The door creaks in time with the opening doors of the wardrobes, inside of which... Bodies. The wardrobe is impossibly large, sprawling outwards like meat processing warehouse. There are exactly ninety six bodies that simply 'are' in the wardrobe. The ninety seventh is Yuuki Kuran. The ninety eighth is Yuuki Kuran. The ninety ninth through hundred and seventh are also Yuuki Kuran. But they're not quite the Yuuki Kuran of present. They're all younger versions of her, in one way or another. One looks close, clad all in white with the same ludicrous movie star long hair, but she is -- was -- visibly younger, in some undefinable ways. Most of them are doubtlessly the Yuuki Kuran from her days at Cross Academy, dressed in a school uniform. Standing in the doorway is... Zero Kiryu? No, not quite. The young man in the doorway would be identical to Zero if his hair were shorter, but it's long, bound up with a ribbon from which a bell hangs. "Did you find what you were looking for?" The young man asks. He also sounds identical to Zero, though they speak a little differently. This one is softer-spoken.
Raziel	The force of the BARK was enough to send poor Raziel flying right out of the room and causing to roll around on the ground ass over teacups. blue 'blood' splatters where he lands, and he groans as he kicks himself back to his feet. The Reaver glows ominously as he dismisses it for a moment. He reaches out towards the creature, aiming to focus the power of his mind against the creature's own skill. With a force of will, Raziel attempts to try and hold the beast in place, aiming to give his compatriots a better shot at hitting it, and hopefully, able to dispatch the thing faster...lest he suffers another humiliating bark.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin's hand is immediately resting on the hilt of his katana, projected just slightly out of his Matter Manipulator like the hilt of a blade might hang out of the sheath. "It is possible that my search has come to an end." He mutters, tensely. "But even one with such grand and powerful perception as myself can be at a loss for such matters. Are these," He gestures with the hilt of the katana, towards the wardrobe and its gruesome contents. "Yours? I can hardly imagine the Director's rightful end is such an outcome, and I can hardly leave unscrutinized such a disrespectful burial." Is this the destructive mental aspect? Is this the evidence of their destruction? Almost all others have ignored the incursion, instead acting through crystalized memories. But this one spoke to him. Does that make it an agent rather than a memory in this space? Moonfin isn't sure, but he's wary. But the decision that the self-aspect would make would undoubtedly be confrontation, or so Zero had thought. Moonfin eyes the young man warily, tensely, but still given over to pretentious pacifism even when the situation drips with menace and hazard.
Priscilla	Wolves. Priscilla doesn't particularly hate wolves, but she doesn't like them. They'd been one of the few 'natural' animals existing in the Painting, and as the fabric of it was polluted and decayed over the centuries, they'd eventually become something the dwindling number of living people had come to fear out in the snow. They were always disquieting, howling at night. Never an end to them. Never so decent as to come out into plain sight. She's seen enough of Yuuki's vampire TK blasts to recognize it when the wolf counter-blasts at her, and so the second bark she is prepared for. She swishes moonlight at before her, catches the wave of force on the blade with a resounding, shimmering clang, like it'd struck a silver windchime instead. She is shoved back into Nothing, behind which she disappears with an errant breeze of drifting snow, but not before quickly clutching a pair of standard, narrow throwing knives from her sparses silver quickslot belt and thwipping both of them at the wolf on the way out. Even they cut trails of liquid abyssal hues through the air, hitting with spurts of anti-colour, as opposed to just colourlessness.
Zero Kiryu	On closer inspection, the man with Moonfin is too clear and conventionally imperfect to be a memory. He doesn't have any dreamlike qualities to him at all-- he just is, and is fully cognizant of the world around him. But there's something missing, too. It's hard to place exactly what it is. The young man looks from Moonfin to the wardrobe. His lips curl into a smile, but it is a distinctly bitter thing. It is not an expression that Zero Kiryu really wears-- he doesn't usually have it in him to fake a smile when he clearly isn't feeling it. He shakes his head, "No. While I still lived, I did partake of the blood of a vampire in order to remedy my physical infirmity, but I never had the honor of being transformed into a vampire. You're looking for my brother's shade, then." Zero's brother takes a few steps forward to get a better look inside the wardrobe. He nods, "It's not exactly a burial. The shade is smart, but it doesn't think like that. I think that these only exist because the shade's impulses are troubling to him. Most of this is metaphor, obfuscation." "It likes to prey on memories of her, when it can." He adds, in explanation.
Yuuki Kuran	"I don't remember brother's familiars having this power!" Yuuki complains lightly as she is forced to raise a hand and hold against the sheer power of BORK BORK. The flensing danger breaks around her, causing her to skid back as she leas into the blow and is smashed against a wall of memory. Then again, Kaname has this power, and his familiars are just him: So it is more accurate to say 'Yuuki has never been against an aspect of Kaname seriously trying to stop her'. It's a little (a lot) different than the waking world. "Well... It's probably closer to how Zero thinks my brother is. Which... Well, let's just say I didn't imagine getting his consent first to clean these out was necessary!" With Raziel aiming to hold the wolf in place, Yuuki dashes forward to just hit the dumb dog. Leading with a knee, mostly she 'educatedly flails' at the dog - restraining herself from just windmill arming at the doggo like being petulant at her brother. It's not her brother. It's far worse. It's ZERO's idea of her brother.
Zero Kiryu	A revelation strikes Raziel as he seizes hold of the Black Wolf with the strength of his own will. This is not the 'whole being' behind this creature. It is... a hand, perhaps a finger. A strand sent forth to perform a task, or perhaps simply to observe in the greater entity's stead. A familiar. It turns its head towards Raziel slowly, considering him. The action helps. The wolf has nowhere to go to avoid Priscilla's blades, an additional pair of great gashes opening up -- like the parting of a sea, more than a true parting of flesh -- before the knives embed themselves in the opposite wall. He looks /absolutely/ baffled at Yuuki just kneeing it right in the face and flailing more-or-less effectively while it is still immobilized. Since it /is/ immobilized, it doesn't get moved around very much. But the same strange disruption of the phantom-stuff it is made of is eroding the amount of 'it' that still exists here. A low growl begins to emanate from the Black Wolf's mouth as it directs the intensity of its own will towards Raziel. This, in this moment, is not tenable to contend with. It is like drawing a rubber band forth and having it snap back at you-- the Wolf overpowers him momentarily to get free and sends a bolt of minor telekinetic backwash at him. Yuuki is closest and is the first to be attacked directly. The Black Wolf springs forward, jaws opening wide as it tries to latch onto the leg with which it had been knees and hurl her across the room with a toss of its head. Priscilla is attended to simultaneously, the knives that she had thrown -- now embedded in the wall -- abruptly seized by renewed telekinetic force that whips them around in a frenzy of motions that tear effortlessly through the walls in their search for some purchase.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin's eyes narrow, but his palm takes a much easier place on the hilt. "I see. The dead well sympathize with the pain of death, I am certain. I do not seek the corpses of the hunted, I seek an end to the hunter. The shade, you said, we are here to put a stop to their destruction. What are its hunting grounds? There is no shortage of Yuuki in this realm, no space where her influence is found lacking. She is the omnipresent glue of all of this, the ever-binding force that preserves what can be preserved. Where does the shade strike at the vulnerable places in the memories?" He has to hope that Zero's relationship with his... what, brother? Some kind of relative? Was a good one. Otherwise this might get uncooperative or silly fast. Moonfin also... closes the wardrobe door. Because, metaphor or not, he doesn't like looking at the corpses of his boss.
Raziel	Raziel is temporarily forced back by the creature, the backlash is enough to force Raziel to lose his grip, and for blue stuff to run down from his eyes. Overall, it could have been worse...but it wasn't exactly /good/ either. Breathing out in deep breaths, due to the backlash, Raziel drags himself to his feet and speaks. "This is not the whole being. This is like an arm or something...perhaps a pair of eyes. Whatever it is apart of, it knows we're here now," He says, but there is a plan behind the eyes of the ghost. The Reaver returns to his hand, the ghostly blade glowing with a hungry light as Raziel advances. Raziel, at the last second, rolls in and attempts to repeatedly thrust at the creature again, trying to break through its defenses before holding the reaver up and releasing a burst of power from it, trying to send the creature back. What's worse, something would burn on it, from the inside out as it tried to transfer that energy back to the source; Raziel himself.
Priscilla	A dining room, even in an anime mansion, presents a limited amount of space to maneuver. Not much distance to really gain, nothing much to break up a line of effect, not really any difference in verticality. Spinning a couple of knives around in the air like a buzzsaw in a bunch of different angles has to eventually cut something, and after a few dozen whiffs, a loud cling and blue sparks, a couple more whooshes through air, and two more clashes, one of the knives flicks dark red blood across the table, coming away stained in the stuff, with a faint sound of ripping cloth. That's the point at which the table flips with a loud, thunking crash, pretty much spinning on its long axis through the air and being smashed into the wolf familiar. It's not actually just landing on its own, but being stomped down from its under(upper)side to block both knives and squash the thing in the process.
Zero Kiryu	Ichiru Kiryu falls silent and briefly re-opens the wardrobe to look out towards the bodies again, counting them and assessing the iterations of Yuuki that are present. After an uncomfortable and dramatically appropriate amount of time passes, he closes the wardrobe and says to Moonfin: "Judging by the state of 'that woman', it seems that he prefers to prey on the version of her that is a few steps removed from becoming a vampire. The main school building and the Sun Dormitory will be the most likely place to discover him in the act. But..." "The problem is distinguishing him from the memories there. You see, before he was stabilized..." But Ichiru ceases that train of thought, and trails off. "Is that all you're looking for?" He asks, boldly CHANGING THE SUBJECT.
Yuuki Kuran	Getting chomped on is, in fact, the thing that Yuuki broadly expected to have happen. It is an unruly dog - and her brother. It biting her is something she is accustomed to twice over. Both from petting many angry dogs along the street without fear, and from... Something Something Vampires Dot Jaypeg. Raziel and Priscilla both use their tremendous powers - that which caused Yuuki to invite them to help - to fight back an unruly dog who shouldn't be ALLOWED IN THE KITCHEN! "Right, so, I think you asked about the Sun and Moon dorms!" Yuuki begins, as she grabs the dog by its neck and flips back with it, to elbow drop the dog into the ground after Raziel's blade and Priscilla's literal tableflip bap and boop the dog, aiming to choke it out and crush the pupper. "So Kaien Cross and my brother got together to try and get vampires to acclimate to human culture and prove they could coexist! So they made... a school full of horny idiot children to fawn over the super pretty mind-controlling monsters and also Hanabusa." "Afterwards, even if the times we had were great, the Night Class dorms shut down because my brother left. Probably because it was really stupid to start with a high school!"
Zero Kiryu	An infectious series of stabs culminating in the drawing out of the power that was pushed into the Black Wolf render it a ragged mess, standing fast in spite of its dreadful and mounting energies. One can only suspect that it is used to fighting in this way-- simply taking it, and reacting to the best of its abilities. The 'inside' of its body, such as it is, is a hollow thing bereft of true anatomy or substance. Immediately afterwards the Black Wolf is SLAMMED to the ground by the flipping of the table, where it -- increasingly lacking the mass to fight back against this sort of thing -- struggles to keep itself from being utterly crushed. It sags to the ground and one leg snaps soundlessly, its substance bleeding away. With its remaining limbs however it pushes up and obtains the space necessary to... Well, 'exist'. A telekinetic blast pushes it out from beneath the table, sending it skittering below to the middle of the room on three legs. At which point it is immediately seized and POWERBOMBED by Yuuki, which is so categorically unexpected that you can practically see the ??? showing up above its head moments before a quarter of its remaining mass is just crushed out of existence. What remains twists in place, re-assuming the form of MUCH SMALLER DOG. The miniature Black Wolf does not scrabble to get free of its predicament. It does, however, demonstrate just how disquieting a howling wolf can be when it raises its head high and howls into the ceiling. A great wave of force rolls out into the dining hall, shattering windows, destroying what remains of the table, sending shards of glass into the wall and utensils through the wall. The walls themselves shudder and threaten to buckle under the force of it, cracks spiderwebbing through them as they're strained and twisted partway out of place.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin remains standing in a kind of motionless, eyes-closed stance as Ichiru examines the interior of a literal closet full of skeletons. But thankfully, the Hylotl have done enough war crimes that he's well okay with someone giving it an extensive examination. "The Sun dorms. We seek any way to help Zero. This is simply the one way we are most aware of, and the most grave threat." He detects the change of subject, but the man himself is arrogant enough to have trouble deigning to focus on what sounds like personal woes. "If it will be hard to trace him, then we will need to find someone who can see the difference more clearly. A connoisseur, or a critic. Do you know where to find someone who has great insights into Zero, and would have the piercing nature that could see through the facade and fakery necessary to allow us to find our target?" Moonfin knows Zero very well enough to know a man like this feels pretty regularly like he can't hide his flaws from at least one or two people in his life, so Moonfin needs to find /them/ to solve this tracking issue.
Raziel	Raziel goes flying once more, the psychic BORK being far too powerful to stand against, and impossible to avoid. Truly, Zero's mind was a dangerous place to the Ghost, as he now comes to his senses impaled by the glass and on his back. Pieces of the glass fall off of his body as he stands again, groaning at the motion. "I really dislike dogs," He comments to nobody, raising a claw towards the creature. Once more he attempts to grapple the dog at a distance, attempting to slam him against the wall, before trying to launch it at the glass that was nearby. See how he likes it. He really needs a soul right now.
Priscilla	The wolf is faltering and flagging, as is understandable under the sustained assault of three high-level Elites. It results to one of those trump card desperation moves that blasts the whole area; a scripted HP loss that all the healers are supposed to pre-heal for. Out of everything, that seems like the one that should be guaranteed to hit Priscilla, even invisible. That's basic strategy. Where the glass and wood shards and raw force bombard every square inch of the walls and floors and ceiling though, they are joined by no drops of blood, nor sparks of blue light. She'd gone somewhere already. Outside the room. Who knows where. They probably know how, though, in just a moment. The empty space in the dining room ripples behind the wolf --not in the sense of a mirage, but like a disturbed pond. The view through it darkens, as if staring down an extreme depth, and then a pair of pale white hands suddenly reach out of it, snatching the Wolf and wrestling it back to drag it back through the ominous distortion --through the thin skein over the darkness behind it, contextual takedown/jumpscare death style.
Yuuki Kuran	An attack that centers around being hellishly barked at. A terrible feeling that involves being physically consumed, surrounded in the night-terror feeling of wolves howling. It's jarring, draining, the anxiety only enhanced by Zero's mind-realm. The very real fear of the wolves that prowl in the woods coming to 'get' you. How Kaname, the 'wolf' in question, is the one that circles around Zero and waits for the day for his neck to be bore out. But there's a resistance to Priscilla's awful jumpscare veil, and Yuuki was ready for this to be over. "If you're a wolf - you should know who owns these woods! And if you're my brother..." Yuuki adjusts her stance, steps forward with bleeding ears and nose, and punts the dog like a football into Priscilla's waiting 'effect'. "You should know better that dogs who bark like that aren't liked by anyone."
Zero Kiryu	"The only 'connoisseur' of Zero Kiryu is already among you visitors," Ichiru Kiryu replies to Moonfin, "but you might be able to find a critic at his place of employment. You can't miss it -- it's the very sturdy building out in town. But Zero is not an open person. I don't think he can be. He does not have a Woodsman. I'm only here because I forced the matter." The Black (mini)Wolf is thrown into the wall with a strangled yelp that no longer really resembles the noise that a canine makes -- it has lost too much mass -- before being quite literally rolled around in glass. Another burst of telekinetic force propels it out of the telekinetic grapple, and at first it manages to avoid SLASHER DRAGON with a similar burst of telekinetic evasion, even as its cumulative wounds bleed away its substance further. But. Yuuki kicks him, sending him hurtling straight back into Priscilla's trap and-- to whatever doom she intends. It does not reconstitute or reappear. The fight is over, for now. The Dining Hall's perspective splits. There is the den of the beast, shattered and broken by battle. There is the dining hall, table set, lights dimmed. The den is beginning to fade, though it does not do so instantly or even rapidly. It is like drawing poison from a wound, and though the poison is now gone, the wound still must heal. But still... the second dining hall is there. There is a faint flicker of motion. A memory replays. The young Zero Kiryu stabs the young man in the hand with a butter knife. The memory resets.
Raziel	Without the enemy to fight, the wraith blade finally returns to it's swirling form on Raziel's arm. Claws on his 'knees' allow him a moment's respite as he finally stands back up fully to rewatch the scene. There is a breath released from the ghost before he turns towards Yuuki. "Without context, this scene seems rather...out of character for Zero. He always seems so calm and collected..." He says, not judging really or even prying for more. It was simply an observation from a position of ignorance. "Though I suppose we do not have the luxury of time, we should continue to press on.." "Though before we do, are you both okay?"
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki's fingers go to her ears to wick the bits of blood that dribbled down, immediately transitioning to her mouth to lick clean her fingers. "I remember you had a vedetta against a betrayer, someone who twisted your destiny and ruined things for their own selfish desires. You are likewise cool, and collected, aren't you? A vampire knight." Yuuki gestures around to the room. To the memory replying of An Angry Boy Kaien Found In The Gutter attacking Depressed Dark-Brown-Haired Fuccboi Dracula, Kaname. "That's my brother. Kaname Kuran." "The vampire king." "The man who swerved Zero's destiny to be my protector. Zero keeps a lot bottled up, but there's a reason we should remove the black wolves like the one we saw, even if they're not our target. The howls that circle at night."
Priscilla	The wolf goes wherever Priscilla goes when that happens. It doesn't come back, because there is no coming back. Not for anything else. She doesn't have to do a thing. Only reappear in the dining room, anyways, wiping away a gash in her side with her thumb, frowning at the tear in her dress, even if it is a fake dream dress. "Well enough, for what it matters here." she says to Raziel. She then puts her hand to her lips when Yuuki drops that one, clearly trying to politely screen the intensely amused smile that comes to them. "Thou wouldst be left in wonderment, how greatly people may change. How fast as well, for humanity." She lowers her hand slowly. "On that, we agree in sheer principle, Lady Kuran, whomever and whatever thine brother was to Zero."
Raziel	Raziel would frown at this if he could. Mostly because she is not wrong about him. It is something that sometimes brings him shame, to be motivated by revenge. At the same time, he still feels the burning of the water that he was thrown into, the loss of his wings is a loss he feels as keenly now as he did then. And the fact that Kain's death would bring stability to his world was not something he could so easily dismiss either, which only seems to fuel the 'need' in his mind for the death of his sire. "Then destroy them we shall."
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin presses his lips together like he's trying to prevent a live animal from escaping his moputh. "He need not be an open person. Only one who finds himself vulnerable to the perceptions of others. If the one who can see through him and find his flaws can do so well enough, then it simply stands to reason that the shade can be found through his insight. If not his, then he will know who else's." He steps out, heading out of the apartment. He has leads to offer his allies in this. Hopefully it'll make up for the fact that he didn't help out with the horrible wolf business. Ideally they can pursue the fortified building or the Sun Dorm!
Zero Kiryu	If there is any answer to be had from Zero Kiryu himself about the contents of his mind, or the reason for the presence of certain things, he offers no comment. There is a momentary sensation of being watched that ripples throughout the mindscape, but it fades quickly. Ichiru Kiryu follows after Moonfin, for a little while-- but eventually he splits off, wandering off into the little cafe building that is the only other distinct building in town besides Zero's place of employment and the lone apartment building.