1307/Put On Ice

Put On Ice
Date of Scene:	18 March 2024
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Queen Beryl has opinions on Sunbreaker's failure to obtain the Orange Rainbow Crystal. Lacuna, summoned to help one of her charges, has opinions on that. Unfortunately, no one but Queen Beryl leaves happily.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Beryl, Fuyuko Yuuhi
Tinyplot:	Rainbow Crystals

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Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker looked like shit. She was covered in mud, limping, and had an orange rainbow crystal in hand. This was an improved version, made using the information she'd gleamed from the one Takashi had stolen before.

She was certain this would fool her. But, for now? She just had to look exhausted.

She just barged into Beryl's office, limping to her desk and... "Mission... accomplished," she said, leaning on it and lightly tossing the (slightly muddy) orange gemstone onto the desk. "The stupid youma inside it *attacked* me and broke that black crystal, and I had to fight off half a dozen of those stupid sparkle skirts, including two of your ex employees, a few of those sailor girls and some jerk in a tuxedo and mask and blow through two weeks worth of gathered energy, but I got your stupid orange gem. You're welcome..." she said, the exhaustion finally catching up with her and she just fell to her knees, giving a light retching spell and spilling some mud on her desk. "Not... ever... d-doing that again... I'm going to go... shower... and sleep for like... a week... But there. I hope you're grateful for your stupid novelty project, I've got Eclipse Zones to manage... just... as soon as I can stand again."

Beryl has posed:
Director Beryl's office is, as usual, an orderly place. The expensive wooden furniture, the plush (throne) leather arm chair rather than a simple rolling desk chair, the ornate desk with itss modern computer set up and gothic desk decor - it all contributes to a stifling atmosphere, the sort of place where one might fear breathing wrong for the risk of breaking something.

So Sunbreaker's sudden appearance, forcing open the door, dripping mud and water on the plush rug that covers the area of the floor directly before the desk, is appalling.

The orange crystal, which lands with a wet thud, spattering mud, and leaves a trail of yet more mud on her wooden desk, is appalling.

Queen Beryl is stock-still for a moment, frozen not in horror or disbelief but in the kind of cold predatory anticipation that seizes the serpent in the instant before it strikes down the feeble mouse.

And all the while, Sunbreaker speaks.

Her every word is a hammer swing, nailing shut her coffin.

And then she falls to her knees and retches there in Beryl's office. Over her rug. Over her desk. And dismisses her -

"Grateful?" she speaks finally, voice frosty. "For an incompetent failure, and the disgusting display you'vce left strewn across my office?"

In her long fingers, she holds the orange crystal, cleaned with a flicker of effort.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker groaned and then rolled her eyes. "'Incompetent failure'? What, did someone else bring you back TWO of those little rainbow rocks of yours while I wasn't here? Because unless they did, last I checked I was the only member of Obsidian actually 'succeeding' in the tasks you need from them." Pause. "And, heck, I'm not even a part of your department. But fine. Be ungrateful. Next time I won't bust my flank trying to get YOU the pretty little rock you wanted to much," she said bitterly.

"... Is this why your whole department just up and left you? No wonder the two of them there had nothing but bad things to say about you..." She gripped the edge of the desk and started to haul herself back to her feet.

"You're welcome, anyway."

Beryl has posed:
"This isn't one of the Rainbow Crystals," Queen Beryl says flatly, and crushes the gem in her fist, glittering fragments falling to her desk. "And either you are such a fool that you failed to notice a fraud under your own nose, or you are as much a traitor as those fools you listened to."

She stands from behind her desk, rising to her full height. Beryl is no ordinary human, no ordinary woman. At her full height, she is seven feet of cold beauty, the majesty of a icy peak made human, flaming hair falling past her waist in waves.

In a swift motion, she is beyond the desk, in front of Sunbreaker - dangling the girl by the throat, her hand in a crushing grip about delicate flesh. With their height difference, raising Sunbreaker to eye level leaves more than a foot of space between the floor and Sunbreaker's feet, her entire body weight supported by Beryl's cruel grip.

"You have ever been an arrogant fool, Sunbreaker. You think that the power which makes you a mere rodent among ants makes you the equal of a queen?"

And she throws her against the wall with bruising force, rattling the framed pictures.

"For your successes, I have tolerated that mouth - but you are not a success now, and your idiocy irritates me now. Beg my forgiveness, and I may yet overlook your indiscretion."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker went still. "What?" she asked. And, well... she had her roommate to thank. Her performances were getting much better than they used to be. "A FAKE?! But the black crystal was reacting to it! It brought me TO IT!" she snapped, the anger clear in her voice. "Then the stupid youma attacked me! It has t--" And then Beryl broke it.

And Sunbreaker looked legitimately shocked, her mouth falling open. "But... but I..."

And then she was dangling. She urked, choking and reaching out to grab the hand. "W-wha... what ar--"

And then she slammed into the wall. It would have been nice if said wall broke under her hit. Cause, you know. Instead her back absorbed it. And she was already pretty beat up from her earlier display. She looked to Beryl, then the crystal... bit...

And actually looked afraid. Just a little. "B-but... t-that's... impossible. I-I didn't fail! I fought them off! I almost killed myself to do it! I almost got bodied by that stupid one in a tuxedo and--" And then she looked alarmed. "When he slammed into me, he must have... that... bastard... w-well, fine. So they're more clever than I thought. If that black crystal had actually worked, they wouldn't have had a chance to pull that. Instead I had to fight all of the sparkle skirts AND deal with attacks from that stupid oversized youma. So, fine, I guess I made a small mistake. Sorry," she muttered.

Not nearly the apology that Beryl was likely hoping for.

Beryl has posed:
Sunbreaker is afraid. It gleams in her eyes, it quakes in her voice. But it is too little, too late, and Queen Beryl holds no mercy for those foolish enough to stand before her a failure.

So she walks to her, in slow and deliberate steps, the transition from soiled rug to hard wood marked by the click. click. click. of her heels.

It is only when she stands towering above Sunbreaker that she stops, looking down at her slumped form, leaning against the wall.

"A boy in a tuxedo got the better of you?" Queen Beryl is smiling now, a cruel and vindictive thing, red lipstick seeming like a spattering of blood. "You, who will break the Sun, could not manage the Sailor Senshi and their pathetic little allies? Could not handle a single boy in a tuxedo?"

Mocking her, now. Daring her to argue.

It's not near enough of an apology. It's not near enough groveling.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
What... What was this chill going down her back? Staring up at her, Sunbreaker felt... scared. She felt legitimately scared. She took a small step back... or would have, if she could.

But there was nowhere to go. And, oddly? She felt like she had so long ago... cornered in the library... trapped under the gaze of someone far stronger than her. And she shrunk down a little bit. This wasn't something she could explode out from. But she couldn't run, either. And since she couldn't flee, she attacked back...

"If it had been just him, I could have handled him... but I couldn't handle him, and sailor moon, and the other five sparkle skirts, and the youma attacking me, all at the same time. I-I'm going to break the sun, but I'm not there. It's not like you were out there in the field or would have done any better. But... but fine. I'm sorry I didn't meet your expectations. Maybe you could have one of the people who are actually in your department do this, then."

"You know, the ones who didn't flee from you like their suits were on fire. Maybe La Crima, then she could stop interfering in my work," she said bitterly, not meeting Beryl's gaze.

Beryl has posed:
"Your problem," Queen Beryl muses, "is that you don't know when to quit. Perhaps, had you ended your little tirade with 'I'm sorry I didn't meet your expectations', I would be letting you walk out of here right now. But you don't know how to act. You don't know how to speak around your betters. And you certainly don't know how to kneel."

She reaches down. Her fingers trail through Sunbreaker's hair, gentle, delicate - until those caressing fingers tighten into a fist and force her head down, low, lower, until her forehead was nearly pressed to the floor.

"It's only your meager successes that will allow you to keep your life. You have, after all, been quite adept at gathering energy, even if you've chosen the slowest means possible. But your failure to identify the difference between a personal project and a professional directive have shown me that you aren't ready for the level of freedom you've enjoyed. No, you need a chance to be... educated. To learn your place, without the distraction of your other tasks."

That cruel smile widens, and she releases Sunbreaker's hair. She steps away, and snaps her fingers.

"Rise. Climb to your feet."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker let out a soft sigh of relief when she was unhanded. Feeling the woman's fingers in her hair made her.... uncomfortable. No, that wasn't the right word.

It made her feel dirty. It made her feel sick and twisted and vile. It made her want to go and wash her hair. More than the mud had.

And she had resisted, just a bit.... but had given in, in the end. Beryl was stronger than her. "I... understand..." Sunbreaker said softly, lowering her eyes. A scolding, it seemed. Wasn't good enough. She wasn't good enough. Well, so what? What did Beryl know?

She was a wannabe queen. Hinoiri had served the sun itself. This? This woman was an overgrown child who couldn't take care of her toys. Let alone.... anything else.

She wasn't... that... scared of her. And you know what? Fine then. She just... wouldn't work for her. Again. That'd take care of that. No problem then, right? She slowly got to her feet.

"What... do you mean distractions of my other tasks? I've been trying to teach the people in easter how to manage the Eclipse Zones but aside from a very small number of people within Eclipse, nobody but myself has managed to properly understand them. A few of the DG girls are... starting... to show potential, and I suppose Utau might manage it. But nobody here seems to properly understand how to properly utilize a leyline sail, let alone one that doesn't just get knocked over the moment there's a hiccup of some kind."

Beryl has posed:
The moment Sunbreaker is standing, Beryl's eyes shine with delight. No, wait, not that - with power.

A beam of light strikes Sunbreaker even as the last of her words leave her lips, and magic flickers around her in the shape of a crystalline structure. Ice covers her feet to the ankle, and then begins to climb, covering her shins, and then her knees, and then higher still, over her thighs, trapping her in an enormous ice crystal.

"If your work is half as well constructed as you believe it to be, your projects will manage without you. Besides - it is time for my DG Girls to strike out on their own. To sink or swim, at my pleasure. This is a valuable lesson for you, Sunbreaker. The opportunity for self-improvement you have sorely lacked."

And still the crystal-ice climbs, up to her waist now, and still rising.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker felt her heart begin to beat faster when suddenly ice began to rise up. No. No no no. It was a bluff, right? It had to be a bluff! "H-hey! HEY! Stop it! I'm sorry, okay?! They pulled a fast one on me! You can't just freeze me, or, or whatever this is! I'm not your-- STOP THIS!" She was, legitimately, starting to panic. Because the look in Beryl's Eyes? It made her suspect that... maybe this wasn't quite the 'insulting' experience she'd imagined. That this lady might actually be crazy enough to...

"STOP!" she yelled, fire forming in her hands and she flashed it down, singing the carpet. However, the ice kept growing. "Let me out of this! I'm not one of your lackeys, you can't just do with me as you please!" Sunbreaker yelled, trying to teleport out of it.... but even that was ineffective. "LET ME OUT!"

As panic began to set in, she did the only thing she could do here...

She grabbed the HR lady's pen from her pocket...

And tried to STAB Beryl with it, calling for help!

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
There's a tingle in the air, a shout on the wind, and then emptiness tears at the space in Beryl's office as Lacuna appears between the two, darkness swirling in her hands. The unimpressed expression on her face cracks with surprise as she takes in what's happening - Sunbreaker, trapped in climbing ice, her pen shattered against Beryl's skin - and she does mean shattered, a spray of ink dripping from Beryl's pale skin.

Lacuna swears.

"Director Beryl," she bites out, reaching backwards for Sunbreaker, clasping one hand on her shoulder, digging in, "This isn't an approved form of discipline. I'm sure that whatever Sunbreaker did to displease you, we have more appropriate measures than turning the girl into an ice-cube -"

Teleport. Teleport. Teleport!

She thinks it to herself furiously, straining at her power, but there's no response - oh, sure, the darkness seethes violently against her hands, flowing to cover her from wrist to shoulder, a roiling mass of inky black speckled with the drowning light of distant stars, but the teleportation doesn't work -

"Oh, shit," she hisses under her breath.

Beryl has posed:
Queen Beryl steps back - just one step, as the space in her office twists and distorts, light vanishing into a single point that solidifies into a woman with shoulder length dark hair and an inky black dress, purple and white striped leggings the only pop of color.

She can almost approve of the purple.

Still, it's obvious this interference has been summoned on Sunbreaker's behalf, and she has absolutely no interest in holding herself back for any of the other wretches here in Obsidian.

The crystal-ice sparks as the woman tries and fails to do something, and that mean smile spreads as Queen Beryl watches the failure.

"Did you think you could simply call off my punishment? Eternal sleep is greater than you, greater than her, and I will not be stopped!"

And then she lashes out, grabbing Lacuna by the throat as she had so easily done Sunbreaker, and she throws her into the window.

No, she throws her out of the window, as the glass gives away, and the woman goes falling.

Oh shit, indeed.

"That will teach you to send memos about the appropriate use of furniture," Queen Beryl mutters, before turning back to Sunbreaker. The ice has climbed to her bust, now, and unless her arms are held above her head, likely covers them to the elbow as well.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker shattered a pen on the other woman's arm and... and nothing. She watched helplessly as Fuyuko was sent flying out a window.

She'd yanked her arms up, as the ice went over her. Trying light light her own fire. To flow it. To resist.

"Eternal sle-- YOU CAN'T STATUE ME!" Sunbreaker screamed. "I'm not YOURS! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! LET ME GO!" she screamed.

But it was growing. It was still growing. "STOP! STOP THIS! IF YOU DO THIS YOU'LL NEVER HAVE A CHANCE OF GETTING ACTUAL POWER! I'M THE ONLY PERSON IN THIS ORGANIZATION GETTING ACTUAL RESULTS! What are you doing to do, go out and do the job yourself?!" she yelled, trying to regain some semblance of control of the situation...

and failing.

Beryl has posed:
"Oh, I just might," Beryl says darkly. There is a boy out there, with a rose, a boy that may well be the boy who should be hers, who was hers once in body and soul and who will be again, no matter what she must do to him. Perhaps it is time for her to take the field. Perhaps it is time for her to teach these children fear.

As she has taught Sunbreaker fear.

"You are mine to do with as I please, child. This is Obsidian. There is no one to protect you from me. In choosing to keep yourself apart, you've made sure no one will care to put themselves out for you."

And then Lacuna punches her in the back of the head, snarling.

"I told you this isn't an approved disciplinary action! Let her go Director -"

And then Beryl backhands her into a wall.

The ice climbs to Sunbreaker's chin, freezing her head in place so that she can watch the fight.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker stared at her and had to bite her tongue. She... she couldn't do this.

Sunbreaker was nowhere near as 'apart' as Beryl thought. She had people who cared about her. How would... this couldn't...

She wouldn't be trapped. Her hands up, she tried, desperately, to escape. Her body erupted in fire! And... aside from some burns, nothing. There was actual fear in her eyes.

... She had friends. She had people. She... she had people who wouldn't allow this, right? She had...

She couldn't move. Couldn't fight. All she could do was stand there, helpless, as she was slowly frozaen. Her eyes locked on the member of HR...

Her soul defender in this.... in all of this.

It'd be okay.

She'd be okay.

She HAD to be okay. She knew she did. She... she'd be okay.

Please, please let her be okay.

"H-help..." she whispered softly. Lacuna... please.

Save her from the world's worst boss.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Lacuna's skin splits on shards of glass as she experiences the joy of non-self-propelled flight.

Wait, it's not joy. It's that other thing. Utter frustration. If Lacuna were younger, she might be afraid - might be terrified, in fact, of the ground rushing towards from nearly fifty floors up -

But she isn't younger. She's a veteran. And teleporting powers demanded exercise - so of course, this isn't the first time she's had to teleport from freefall.

This time she appears in Beryl's office with no flashy effects, just an instance of presence before she's throwing herself forward with all the ferocity she was known for in her youth.

Which is why it's the second time in a month she's being backhanded, and she slams into the desk with a bone-jarring thud, hissing through her teeth at the agony in her back. But Sunbreaker is screaming and pleading and ice is climbing her skin and Lacuna might not be able to win but she can go down fighting because what the fuck else is the point of all this?

And so she gets back up, eyes dark as night, empty voids in her skull, split lip bleeding, red darkening her cheek, and she lunges forward, a pitch black blade - that of a scythe - bursting from the rippling darkness, reading to sheer Queen Beryl in half -

But the blade drops away just before her forearm strikes Beryl's cheek, and Lacuna snarls in fury. "No! Not now, not now you fuck, I'm doing the job -"

"You're failing at the job," Queen Beryl says cruelly, and slams Lacuna into the floor. Into the floor, the floorboards creaking and then giving under the force. "This is not a matter for Human Resources. This is a matter of professional discipline."

Lacuna wheezes.

"Director... that's... literally... what Human Resources... means..."

And Beryl lifts one heeled foot and stomps down on Lacuna's back. Once. Twice. Three times.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunbreaker could feel the ize climbing over her. It was one thing to be instantly frozen... that... that would.... be horrific.

But this? This was so, so much worse. So many, many times worse.

She could feel it. The loss of control. The helplessness.

The inability to stop this. 'Eternal Sleep'.

She'd escape. She'd break free. She'd--

And as she was trapped, unmoving, unblinking... even unfeeling...

She realized.

It didn't hurt. It didn't ache. She didn't feel much of anything...

But she could still see. Could still hear. It wasn't a sleep. It was a horrible, awful.... terrible trap. Sealed away... to watch.

To wait.

Unable to even scream.

... H-help... Please... somebody... anybody... help me.

Beryl has posed:
The crystal ice flows up. Over Sunbreaker's head. Over her mouth, her nose, her eyes. Her lungs aren't moving, in the ice, the crystal holding them tonight. She can't breathe.

But she doesn't suffocate. Despite whatever fear must seize her, she doesn't die. She can't die. She doesn't physically suffer at all.

But she can see. She can still see it all, as Queen Beryl stomps Lacuna into the ground, and only when she stops mouthing off does she stop.

"She will be released when I am satisfied with the length of her punishment," Beryl says coldly. "You cannot stop her. You cannot help her. What you can do, Assistant Director is summon Riventon to my office. I need to have a word with, him, about his subordinate La Crima, and his failure to produce results on his assigned project."

Lacuna wheezes once more, and her henshin flickers, dress replaced by business attire for a moment, before it solidifies again.

"Fuck you," she says. "Fine. But if you don't let that girl out soon -"

"You'll do nothing."

Lacuna's face was one of fury and defeat, and the glance she sent Sunbreaker's way was one of helpless fury. And then she was gone, teleporting out.

And Queen Beryl walked to the crystal and looked upon it with smug satisfaction. "And now, Sunbreaker, you'll have a chance to think about your failures, and learn from your mistakes. First things first... custodial services."

And she sits down at her chair, behind her desk, wind blowing through the open, shattered window, the desk itself spattered with mud and blood and cracked from the force she'd thrown Lacuna into it with, and she reaches for the office phone.

"Custodial services? Yes, Director Beryl speaking. I expect a team here within ten minutes, ready to replace my flooring, window, and furniture."