sacral | 𝚒𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚡 — 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚗𝚒𝚊.

[ It's how all ghost stories begin. Something familiar, wrong. Made wrong, or — wronged itself.

And this is destruction reimagined. Rage and sorrow, a wave and its undertow, crashing through his senses. Subaru takes Choi's hand, but it's not enough. Whatever descends on them nearly snuffs out his warmth and familiarity in its entirety. The chill lances through him as soon as it breaks free into the sky, the streets, a feral warning signaled in his synapses as much as his marrow. He glimpses the mortar of the surrounding buildings beginning to weep, the brick coating in wet, myriad colors.

Subaru steels against the disorientation, following Choi into doubling back. But he's a bit slower, instincts blooming into allergy. ]

Something is here, [ he warns, breath catching on the air in a flare of white. ] and it's also breathing.

[ Such is the fate of snowfall, for its prisms and natural symmetry to melt beneath too close of a touch. Science decanted by a single breath. ]

Do you suppose a totem crafted in reality as we're experiencing it right now... [ Sleep's Manhattan ] would have the same effect?

[ Subaru thinks that would stand to reason, but it bears asking.

It wouldn't be the only thing from home refashioned. ]

[ their surroundings sink around them, and the atmosphere alone, chilled as it is, is heavy in itself. the lights continue flickering out one by one as the feeling of dread travels down the street, and their feet sink into soft ground beneath them. agent choi does little to hide his concern. ]

Aha... Let's hope we don't run into it then, yeah?

[ his gaze as it sweeps over their surroundings is measuring. by now, his own limp has faded—but that doesn't mean he thinks that subaru is in any state to fight yet. not unnecessarily. neither does choi think him the type to sit back and happily enjoy the show while he does so himself, and therein lies the preferred scenario: one where they do not encounter something at all. it's a task easier said than done when their environment is rebuilding itself ]

If you see any good cover...

[ they could probably use some right now. ]

There is a–caveat. [ Because it isn't foolproof. Something he found out fairly early and had to rely on other methods. A familiar paranoia slithers up his spine, draping itself over him with the heaviness of velvet: what if he isn't in reality? What if this is limbo and he's just convinced himself that he's in the real world? What if waking up from this nightmare is as easy as putting a gun to his temple and pulling the trigger, like he's done in dreams hundreds of times?

Would he wake up or would he be following Mal ten stories down, thinking he needed to get back to his life?

The precise click and whir of his thoughts stumble, gears grinding against a screw in the spokes. Releasing a noisy breath, the well-oiled rotations begin again, the stopper disappearing between steel teeth. ] Sleep can influence small pockets of dreaming to appear, so the totem isn't always accurate. Typically, they're not too large, though, and they pass with some time.

[ At least, that's been his experience. ]

It's not as dependable if you don't train for it, but in those moments, the best way to tell the difference is to trace your steps back to how you got there.

[ Usually one to stand his ground, a feeling like cold static rolls up his spine, diffusing in the back of his eyes, his throat. So strong he can almost taste the unfamiliar anxiety of it. But if he can't resort to a fight, then he won't resort to idling, either.

His attention darts aside when the noises come — the desecrated hiss of rot blooming, buildings and asphalt cracking as they shift, wet like broken bone. And beyond that, movement, whispers of aggression, sounds of something breaking free and going on the hunt. Warding Agent Choi aside, his free hand lifts to trace something against the air as if writing on a clear pane of glass. It should be familiar.

It's the same pathcutting sigil once traced on the back of his hand. ]

This won't cost me much to cast. [ He explains quietly, invoking it in a soft spark of light. It pulses, magic racing ahead and around a corner. ] This way.

[ Subaru pushes ahead first to follow its lead, urging Choi to follow close behind with a firmer lace of his fingers. ]

[ He extends his hand to receive the soft mess of a shadowy paw reaching from a place where it shouldn't be. All the parts are in constant flux and he's surprised to find its texture like liquid on his skin. Cold and strange, but linked to something (someone) undoubtedly alive. It reminds him a little of a shiki. A creature bound to the spiritual force of its master — but this one is so incohesive as a structure that if that was actually the case...

Brows pinching, he slips his hand beneath the paw as if to shake it. ]

What do I give you to help?

[ To condense these shadows a little more, to give it something more substantial to lead him by. It must be trying hard, right? He can't make heads or tails of the energy it's using to maintain itself, but he can only assume from the persistence of its gaze that the answer lies ahead.

Straight into the Void now descended onto the park, reality warping, bending, beckoning by its will made manifest by their host herself. ]

[ what can he give when the connection the feline has is so strong with joy, an indescribable joy that shouldn't come from that certain someone. a foreign feeling outside of fear and worry, and the cat can only push itself past subaru towards his shadow before falling right inside of it. it's like a splash into a puddle, even pieces of shadow splash up before falling back into place.

the man's shadow warps only by a little, the shape of himself falls out of line with his body by standing up, and now his shadow points towards the park. the shadow's body glitches though, as if the cat has crossed bounds it shouldn't and causes the shadow to jerk here and there. the issue here is that, a cat hardly knows how to be human, and in the corner of subaru's eye will he see his shadow... drop down to hands and knees and begin to crawl in direction of the park.

completely stripped from his body and possessed by cat like means... until...

the cat is shot out and goes splat against a sign, a pile of mush, until it falls onto the ground in some sort of goopy cohesion until it attempts to "right" itself.

what's left of it is half a body, the back half completely gone, and a warning as it weakly tries to get up only to fail. the wisps that extend from the cut half of its body, a weak attempt at moving around and then it completely stops moving. large, red eyes staring off into the park.

subaru's shadow? it's returned back to where it was... as if it never left. ]

[ subaru isn't the only one who can sense the arrival of something—many somethings. ah, but luckily one of them is able to be useful here, with that familiar shape. goodness, imagine being jealous of the air.

but there's no time for that, really. subaru's fingers lace with his, pulling him along, and he squeezes back even as he falls into step with the other—though the cool touch of his skin is noticeable against his usual warmth. around a corner, ducking into what may have an alley, the cover alone is something to be grateful for. even more so when they cut through the block and come out the other side, finding something useful before them.

closing the distance, the gentle light that had led them here sputters out, but it's more than done its job. what it's led them to is a post locker, lined with compartments of various sizes, including...

one that might just be big enough to fit the two of them.

there's some doubt nagging in choi's mind as his gaze rests on it, but beggars can't be choosers, and this is where subaru's sigil led them after all. he'll disentangle his fingers from subaru's with a smile tossed in his direction—let him handle this. then, he makes his way right up to the largest of the lockers, takes the handle in both hands, and pulls.

there's a groan from the structure, but after a moment, it gives with a resounding crack. something that might draw more attention than is preferable right now, but can't really be avoided either. that just means it's all the more important for him to start gesturing for subaru to come over, to step inside first. ]

Come on, you first.

[ His doubt is one Subaru mirrors for all of the few seconds it takes to break his way in. If the architecture will betray them, maybe the space of this object won't? That echo of the locking mechanism coming apart rifts his attention between the noise and the unnerving silence that follows. It's the silence of being perceived. And in it, a tumultuous wave surges: it's rage and it's agony, it's the lulling dance of a viper's tongue licking at its edges.

On the edges of it, creatures come calling on them to make a choice. He hears claws on pavement, dripping.

Subaru follows Agent Choi's bid to get him in first, though he makes a face when he realizes that he intends to put himself closer to the door. Inside, the space is taller than it is wide — to call it enough room would be gracious. But even hurriedly clambering into the dim metallic scent of disuse, they fit. Balancing a palm on Choi's middle, he loops his opposite arm around him to get at the door's lock. Sternly, he refuses to entertain the strange psychic runoff he's feeling from One and from Sleep. Just for a moment. ]

Hold the door closed as tightly as you can.

[ Voice thinning to a whisper against his arm, he starts tracing another glyph onto the door, something to invert force placed against it. It should, theoretically, act as a second lock. It's also not the only magic emitting soft light in the dark.

All the places they touch blur with a similar glow, too. ]

[ Subaru's patience for just about anything incorporeal and strange is high; too high. Even seeing his own shadow stolen from him and refashioned into some manner of creature is tolerable. And still he winces when the cat gets launched back out, splattering into a melted mess on the pavement. Concern creases his expression first as he crosses the short distance it flew, then knowing while he kneels. He cups his hands around it, reforming some of the wisps.

He's seen these kinds of shadows at work before. ]

Alright, I think I understand. Come with me.

[ It's not an easy task, getting a goopy cat to hold onto its cohesion long enough for Subaru to scoop it up in steady hands.

But he manages what he can, briefly wondering if its halved remains will fit (or stay) in his coat pocket. He turns then, makes his way on brisk footfalls to the park. Already, he can see it's been subsumed under some chilling influence, an interstice lacking warmth, and completely devoid of light. But this is where its red eyes signaled, and so...

His fingertips brush together as if to remind himself of what it feels like before he presses palm first into the wall. It's biting cold, but it gives, and soon he emerges into the pitch black of the other side. Everything that once stood here — light posts, structures, even the ground itself, have become malleable and wet with growth. Even the air hangs heavy in his lungs. And when he fans his senses, trying to feel for what the cat brought him here for, it's as if he's underwater, in blood-warm liquid.

He'll need something stronger than the Murmur to find what he's been asked to look for. ]

[ the cohesion of a cat bleeds through fingers, tail, ear, eye, nose, what may appear to be a whisker all melts and and splits. it's like oil in water with how the body separates in his hands and it attempts to draw itself back together. only half of it remains, it drips between fingers only to be caught in subaru's attire, and rolls off the fabric of his clothes onto the ground right before he enters.

inside of the questionable space, it's like time stops, but the growth continues to take and take and take and overwhelm the area. trees have made claim to the land, their limbs reach out covered in fungus and mold, various colors of sleep's love drawn to swallowing this place whole and banishing any light from above. it's silent, the wind never blows through, and on the ground right outside where he entered to come inside... a black substance smears out of his shadow. it bubbles and pops, it's in shapes that hardly reflects the likes of an animal, but the unusual body properties that it holds resembles the animal in his arms.

if he keeps moving, he'll see that the shadow parts remain on the ground turning into ooze, as if its having trouble existing outside of the void.

they may not have moved that far from the entry point, but the cat reaches out in direction of the sludge like... it wants him to bring those pieces along too.

subaru may choose to pick them up, or he may continue to go forward, but the longer they stay outside the infected area.... the worse off they become. the ups and downs of being outside this domain compared to inside. ]

You were right. About the shikigami.

[ No preamble, just a jumble of mixed feelings from their tether. Relief, mostly, but there's some frustration and a bit of guilt underneath it, too. ]

[ closer to the door, yes, and ready to shut subaru inside and pull aggro if they don't happen to be quick enough too. there are options here—a necessity as the beings hot on their trail continue to approach, shambling steps pulling a twitch from choi's spotted ears even as he steps inside the locker himself.

one elbow rests against the cold metal over subaru's shoulder, while his other hand holds the door shut tight behind him. the space is cramped, if just sizable enough to do the job, but there are certainly worse positions to find oneself in—and worse people to find oneself with. as for the instructions, choi will offer this much: ]

You don't have to tell me twice.

[ but that's all he'll say—all he can say aloud, before those heavy steps come closer still, catching up with them at last. the sounds outside of the locker are wet and raw. lips smacking and teeth clicking together, panting and whining and growling; none of it spells anything good for the two of them inside this locker as the spongy sounds of claws against fungal matter begin to spread out around them, surrounding them.

those creatures know they must be here, and it's just a matter of finding out where now.

as for agent choi, he's lowered his head now, ducked down by subaru's shoulder, breath warm against his skin for a few moments before he leans in. his lips are by contrast cold, but soft as he presses them against subaru's neck. ]

You were wrong. About Fushiguro Megumi.

[ Rather than try to divine the synapse from the sinew of the matter himself, Subaru simply asks with the intent to allow Megumi to safely disentangle it: ]

I'm glad. [ That is foremost. ] What happened?

Was I? How so?

A complete summoning like I was taught doesn't work here, but I was able to bring out Kon by keeping his form insubstantial.

[ He doesn't sound terribly glad about it himself, though the reason for that -- ]

...I got the idea from something Sukuna did.