Futuristic Arterius Heart: Simulacrum

[Khocolatte]

SIMULACRUM KEY UNIT 66

KIMARIS

Location: Ruins of Paymonia

It was within this moment that Kimaris realized how much she had taken others' leadership for granted, or perhaps she only felt that way because she never spoke up to express her gratitude for it. Even so, she could not have been any more appreciative of her fellow simulacrums' like-mindedness regarding their escape from the tower. She had not needed someone to guide her out, but she felt much safer in knowing that the group was going to stick together as they scrambled towards an exit.

It felt like the world shifted as the top half of the tower leaned forward, their vision growing dizzy, as if they had suddenly been flung into a merry-go-round, while their bodies harshly made contact with the wall-turned floor. Kimaris winced slightly before she shook her head profusely to regain focus, and was surprised to find Seere already back on his feet.

Despite Seere calling out to the others, the simulacrum was unable to process a single word he had uttered. Her hearing had been muddied by her fall, but no matter. His reaching out to her was the only thing she needed to steady herself again. With a simple sturdy nod, Kimaris ran closely behind him, assuming the rest would follow in their best interest of staying alive. Without a second thought, she jumped right after him... which may not have been as good an idea as she thought.

Just a second too late, she remembered the need to grab onto something, and her fingers slipped from Seere's grasp. Within mere seconds of free falling, her arms flailed wildly in desperation to find purchase, and found herself crashing into a hunk of metal. A weak groan escaped her lips as she slumped to the floor.

When Kimaris regained her composure, she looked around her to find the metal object alive and charging a giant beam towards Barbatos.

With haste, she threw her arms from behind the creature and aimed its head upwards just enough to send the beam flying over the albino's head while she searched for better ground. In response, it thrashed around furiously, sending Kimaris flying towards the former simulacrum's direction. Springing back onto her feet, she scampered over to where she saw Barbatos last, knowing that the beast was to strike again, and quickly came across the crater-like hole where she hid.

Hiding her pain, Kimaris descended down the hole with the distressed Barbatos, and spoke in response to her slightly panicked cries.

"You're right. It isn't safe out there, which is why I'm staying down here with you until it all blows over. You always make sure to bring safety to others, but do you ever consider to protect yourself in the process?" she asked, a newfound courage suddenly taking over her for a moment. "Sure, you may have discovered this hidey-hole by yourself, but did you ever consider what kind of dangers lurk out here in this vast space, especially when you're all alone?"

She was met with silence, which prompted her to take a deep breath.

"You were the one who first suggested the buddy system, and I think it'd be a good idea to keep it that way, don't you think?" she asked in a softer, more mellow tone while keeping an eye out on her surroundings, more specifically the chests that seemed to stand out among the darkness that nearly swallowed them whole. From what she could tell, the chests were perfectly intact and left ajar for the two to search through, and so Kimaris carefully ran her fingers over its contents, making sure not to prick herself in the process.

Although she couldn't see very well, she could tell that this chest consisted mostly of tools or worn out armaments: a hammer, crowbar, jack knife... and then some more bizarre weapons like the power saw, along with some flammables. Kimaris picked out the crowbar, believing it to be the most efficient tool for defense.

Well, isn't this convenient? If only I could get Ipos, Seere, and Alloces could get here without attracting much attention from... Hmm, maybe if I...

She used the back end of the crowbar to smack it against the metal grate and hoped that the others would learn of their whereabouts—save for the beast, of course. She wasn't sure if the noise would even travel far enough for them to hear, but she could only wish for the best.

 

[Larry]

SIMULACRUM KEY UNIT 22

IPOS

Location: RUINS OF PAYMONIA

The simulacrum struggled to hold back whimpers; perhaps it was due to his only being alive for so brief a time but Ipos' endurance left much to be desired. Even in his pained state, he realised his lack of capacity for sufferance. Yet, with the monster raging about, the white-haired youth slumped back into a prone position, a mingling of intention and weakness arising from the amount of unused-to pain, forcing him to the ground. We're never given a moment's rest, Ipos mentally groaned as he tried to order his breaths into a more steady rhythm. Craning his head to see over his chest, as though he were peaking over the crest of a hill to see the grassy plains below, he noticed the creature bellowing still, though in one direction it seemed to have it's attention drawn. Perhaps one or more of his siblings had found a refuge from the attacks of the beast, who suddenly had so appeared to wreck the formation of new plans.

Ipos, at least in the fret of the moment, didn't recall seeing anybody else barrel out the hole at the top of the building after him, so the rest of the simulacrums must be scattered about the immediate area. With a quick darting of his eyes about the scene before him, Ipos, unfortunately, couldn't espy the figures of his siblings. A spectre of worry began to hover about his person; could his fellow simulacrums have died in their flight from the crumbling building? Indeed, if one were to step back and view such a situation, a painful passing might have been the more likely occurrence. That the white-haired youth found himself cut and bruised, rather than broken-boned and gushing blood, was a state that he should thank the Maker for. But Ipos was still in the dark as to what the intentions of the monster were. Did it know that the five of them were in there at the time? Or was it just bad timing? Might it have attacked the building anyway? These questions swirled about Ipos' dizzied mind, which stimulated him enough to shift over on his side to a kneeling position, his left leg, drawn back, struggling to keep him in a more upright form.

Straining to a standing position, Ipos, though a good distance away, stood to face the monster when, across the cacophony, a most out-of-place sound dinned across the area; namely, the striking of metal upon metal. Trying to focus on the source of it, Ipos found his ears drawn to a crater in the road, quite close to the monster actually. It seemed too abnormal to be simply be a mechanism ringing out now that it had been exposed to the open air, and the inconsistency of the sound itself, sounding weak and strong in alternating order, alerted Ipos to the possibility that it might be his siblings. Trusting his breakdown of the situation, as inclined to hope and impeding of prudency as he was wont to do, Ipos slowly but surely burst his way into a sprint towards the hole. Mindful, even in such a nervy situation, not to try and alert the monster to himself or his siblings, if they were in the hole, the simulacrum bounded in fewer steps but greater strides towards the crater, as though he were participating in a long-jump competition. Then, as the moment came, Ipos leapt through the air, his blue-eyes trained on the creature, only for the sight of the creature to be subsumed by the darkness of the crater, and the room that was found within.

But the prize, to the white-haired youth, was the sight of Barbatos and Kimaris, relatively alright, discussing amongst themselves what to do.

"Y-you're both alright!" Ipos exclaimed, his heavily tired arms wrapping around the back of his two sisters' necks, bringing all of them cheek-to-cheek, "How did you find this place?! Did you know about it?! Wait...you couldn't have...could you? If you did, it was inspired thinking from you, leader! If you didn't, that was as fluky a gamble as I've seen in my half a day's existence!"

Releasing them from his filial grip, a jovial flush and a smile from ear-to-ear appearing as though a brush stroke across his face, Ipos turned to examine the contents of the room and his eyes were drawn to a steel-wrought work, gleaming with the tinge of whatever menial sunlight creeped into the crater. Reaching for it, the simulacrum lifted the oval-shaped targe from the wall, placed as it was on a rack. Scrutinising further, the white-haired youth realised that there was a plaque, inscribed with writing, beneath it, which read, 'Sea-like emotion sweeps all before it.' Ipos reflected on the phrase for a moment, perturbed as to how apt it described him out of all his peers. With the designs of the Maker, of which one he was, the white-haired contemplated to himself whether these weapons were left in store for them by him. Thanking the thought of such beneficence, he fitted the shield, embossed on the outward-facing side a studded imitation of a wave, onto his left forearm, fitting it through the first enarm, fastening it and then clasped onto the grip firmly. Just below was situated a kris dagger, wave-like and asymmetrical, and Ipos admired it's lack of uniformity.

He then turned to his siblings.

"I don't know about you two," he began, a furious glint in his stormy blue-eyes, "But after all that, I'm feeling really pissed off."

 

[pomme]

SIMULACRUM KEY UNIT 52

ALLOCES

Location: Ruins of Paymonia

Alloces was still reeling from the harsh fall when another round of cacophonous sounds overtook her. It roused slightly less panic, and she got up with a determined resignation despite the pain resounding in her chest. She was getting better at this. Keeping close to the tree, she crept around its side, looking for her siblings. Quick scans of the grass came up with nothing, until her view lit on the white-clad silhouette of Ipos. But just as he had been there, he disappeared, jumping yet again. It too felt significantly less strange. The oddities were doubling over, folding into themselves until they fit compactly into her view of a "regular" world.

The monster stood off to the side, its head drawing lazy arcs. The discrepancy between its casual movements and the destruction wreaked in front of it was striking. It hammered again the already-chiming toll of discord in her chest. She narrowed her gaze: from the creature, to the dip in the ground where Ipos had disappeared, here and then back again; and the second it turned, its discolored skin twisting against its sinewy neck, she ran.

Her feet skidded across the grass, heels and ankles aching with every strike. She felt as if her soles had been slicked, the world turned out from under her; as she approached the spot where her brother had stood, the 'dip' in the grass instead a gaping whole of black, she stumbled and slid to a stop just paces away from the bunkers entrance. She flattened herself to the grass, fingers digging into the tufts of emerald, eyeing the monster from the side. Its ugly head was rearing back again, making another stop on its lazy arc, but soon it once more turned and she crawled closer to the hole. Just enough light crept in the illuminate the top-down views of her siblings. She was struck with an odd feeling, knowing that she had never seen them from such an angle. It splashed a darkness across the intimate pictures of them she'd already fostered in her mind.

She wedged her sweaty palms onto the edges and lowered herself down, unceremoniously clanging to the floor. She hadn't even had time (or the wits about her) to doubt if the new space was safe or not, or even examine it at all, before her mind accepted the shelter. Regardless of the feeling of unease her instinctual decision had left her, the shade was cooling and welcome, and she was glad to peer back up and no longer see the beast.

The trio leaned over what looked like crates. The sight of the contents within sent a jolt of excitement through her, but the tinge of heavy words hung thickly in the air. It was only when Ipos spoke that she was inspired to sort through them further, stepping up besides Kimaris. The first thing her hand met was a bright handle of some folded-up contraption—a few presses and a shining blade jumped out, its point almost slicing her finger in its cheery entrance. She turned it over in her hand, testing its weight before tucking it firmly in her grip. The coolness of the metal sent a heaviness through her hand that felt comforting.

"I think there's at least a 5% chance we can kill it." She glanced back to Ipos. "If that's what you meant, of course." She paced around the borders of the room, running her fingers across one of the walls. It was smooth and flat, and save for dust, relatively well-maintained. After the quick lap she returned to the middle, jumping up and fruitlessly reaching for the hole's ledge. The impact dislodged something tucked in her waistband—when she reached down into the dark, she came back up with the thick book she'd all but forgotten about. The cover was almost dry. "Hey, do you think we should read these?" Her mind flashed back to the ghostly boy, the warm greenery of the lab's courtyard. "If the first one gave us so much about Heinrich, it might be worth our time. We don't want to be leaving too early anyways."

 

[voracity]

SIMULACRUM KEY UNIT 70

SEERE

Location: RUINS OF PAYMONIA

Seere found himself alone quite suddenly, but he was not afraid. In fact, he was emboldened by the heroics of Kimaris, if anything, and watching the two simulacrums disappear into hidden in a crater implied they were well and sound of mind, to avoid further aggravating the creature.

Seeing Ipos make his risky leap, and then Alloces training her stubborn eye onto the suddenly languid and docile creature, Seere understood at once what was needed. Picking up a sharp pebble, he judged the distance between himself and the creature, suddenly grateful that he was not as cut up or abused as some of the others, he wound his arm back and threw the pebble in the direction of the creature.

Of course, the pebble ended up completely off the mark, but it provided the perfect opportunity for Alloces to run off. And while it worked a second time, it did not work a third when he tried to inch his way closer to the hole. When Seere threw his last pebble and turned to make a run for the hole, the creature bent its torso, and its rounded clawless paws grasped onto the leftover rubble in front of it ...

"Brace yourselves!" He howled, hoping that his voice would reach them in time, as he ducked out of the way. To his horror the rubble landed right next to the hole, plunging through the surface of the ground and dropping down into whatever secret hideout had been uncovered by Barbatos.

Thankfully for the rest of the simulacrums, the sudden meteor-esque slab of rubble that dropped down into the bunker did not land on anyone. It found itself crashing into the two chests instead, breaking them down, and any weapons too brittle or made of wood splintered from the impact. While the loss of the chests may have been tragic, it also provided a bit of a footstep for them to clamber out if they so desired.

Now that there was a safe landing, and a widened hole to slip through, Seere hopped down through the new enlarged opening, just in time to hear Alloces's warnings, and in lieu of a greeting, he gave a warning of his own on top of Alloces's.

"It's definitely a poor idea to go back out there right now. I don't know if that thing can do anything between 'destroy' and 'idle' but I don't think my provocations helped in keeping it idle and peaceful," he winced before seeing their hands clutched with glinting silver and sharp edges, but it was a flash of red that caught his attention strongest. Turning on his heel, Seere tilted his head, peering at the cracks in the wall behind the broken chests. In the smallest of those dents and cracks, was a soothing red haze that peeked out. There was a way out from here!

"If we can just ... get past this," He murmured, kneeling down among the remaining weapons left strewn and unharmed from the chest-xplosion, he picked up a tool that took on a far different from than the other simulacrums' choice of arms. Pointing the barrel of it at the cracks in the wall, Seere gave himself a mental countdown before pulling back the little trigger mechanism. He gasped audibly as a projectile jetted out from its barrel, hitting the wall with a plink ... but when nothing happened after that, he turned to look down at the tool in his hand with a disappointed, but understanding: "Ah.".

He turned instead to Kimaris who held a crowbar in her hands and thought that perhaps the others had chosen better weapons given the endless utility of even a mere crowbar, given its unique shape. Abandoning the guns, he picked up a hammer instead. Eager to work past the embarrassing show he put on earlier, he gave a loud grunt as he swung the melee tool into the wall, breaking it down, and revealing another path. This one lit by small torches left on its walls.