256/How to be decisive

How to be decisive
Date of Scene:	18 August 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Firefly goes to Zoisite for some advice... and both end up getting a lot more than they bargained for. Forcing Riventon to rush in before things get too... dangerous. But on the upside, it seems the device helps! ... For a bit.
Cast of Characters:	Hotaru Tomoe, Zoisite, Takashi Agera

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Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly had been thinking a lot on what Takashi had said. She needed to be more decisive. Act harsher. Less... even if she wanted to be the girl's friends, she had to be more willing to act. More willing to strike. For her good. For theirs. What they were doing was right.

And if she kept failing... she'd drag them both down. She needed people who were... strong. Tough. Who acted hard. Who knew how to put their foot down. She'd been thinking on it long and hard before finally coming to an answer. Beryl's team had a lot of rather... decisive sorts. At least, from what she'd heard. Hematite was there as well. So...

It was for that reason that the young girl had made her way to Beryl's division and was now looking around, her glaive resting on her back. Trying to stay out of the way whil she searched for one of the members she kind of vaguely knew...

Honestly, the one she was considering most was Zoisite. Why? Because... he was nice. He'd been so generous, bringing everyone food to that meeting. And if he could be nice AND decisive, well, that was what she needed to learn! But first... she had to find him.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite can, indeed, be difficult to find if he doesn't want to be found. He can practically render himself invisible through the use of Glamour and teleportation. In this case, he is not hiding or invisible. What he is? Wearing a floral-printed button-up shirt with a folded collar, a pair of dark sunglasses, burgundy-colored leisure pants, and a pair of leather boots with six-inch heels. Because of course. He is lounging in a (currently) unused office, at somebody else's desk, with booted feet thereupon, and his shirt hanging wiiiiiide open. Maybe he's hoping that Kazuo will somehow stumble in.

    Either way, he is there, lounging in someone's office, using their chair and desk, almost-napping if not for the pink rose he keeps toying with in his hand, while the other holds onto a gallon-jug of black coffee that dangles a few centimeters above the carpeted floor. Maybe he just had a really hard night of drinking.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly was, eventually, directed to the office. And, well. She was JUST a child. How could she be subjected to such FABULOUSNESS so early in the morning?! No, no! She was an innocent. Alas. Fortunately, she walked into the room and paused for a moment to peer over the desk, a confused, but focused, look on her face.

The... the office wasn't his, was it? The name on it wasn't his... Finally, she shrugged and walked over to the desk, giving a polite bow. "Zoisite-sama? Do you have a moment to talk? I need to ask your advice on some things," she said, before standing up straight and smiling at him. Granted, if he told her to leave she would. "Oh! Right, I'm Firefly, in case you forgot me. Riventon-senpai's assistant," she reminded him. Well, she could hardly expect him to remember her, after all. They'd only actually met, face to face, the one time. And it wasn't like she made that much of an impression.

Zoisite has posed:
    After realizing he's being spoken to, and it's not just someone's kid running loose in the halls, or that damn Pyrite again trying to haunt the place, Zoisite raises the hand with the flower and flips up the sunglasses part of the glass. Looks like it's one of those 'detachable shades' style of eyewear. He looks at Firefly for a moment, green eyes wide and uncertain. Why is a child approaching him? Then, with the explanation, he rolls those eyes and heaves a big sigh. "Oh, gods, it's you again. Ronald's... Yes, assistant whatever." She literally just said Riventon's name, and Zoisite still got it wrong...

    What does a 12-year old even assist someone with? Answering the phones? Scheduling appointments? "Yes, I remember you. What do you want?" He may be a bit abrupt and acerbic, but in his defense, that's his default state.

    He raises the gallon jug of coffee -- cold by this point -- easily and drinks directly from it, like some sort of plebian. Needs must, when the hangover drives. He got into the really good stuff last night, that his healing factor is still trying to repair the damage from. He stares up at the ceiling blankly for a bit, trying to remember what exactly he drank. Was it alcoholic? No... Was it intoxicating? Not quite... Was it paint thinner? It might have been paint thinner.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly cocked her head to the side, looking somewhat confused. "Are... you okay? Do you need a doctor?" she asked. "I ummm, I can do some healing if you need it. But if it's anything too serious, I don't think I can do that. Though, I guess I helped Takashi-senpai's leg when it got... broken. So maybe I can?" she said. "Oh, and it's Riv-en-ton. It's like the first part of river, the first part of enough and then the weight. Ton! Like the river is enough, it weighs a ton. That's just a little mnemonic I used when I started to learn it."

Just... completely having the dismissal and rudeness fly over her head.

"And well... I ummm... wanted to ask you for some advice. Riventon-senpai says I need to try and be more decisive when I fight the sparkle skirts. Learn to... be more willing to strike and knock them down so they don't keep coming back to fight. From what I've heard, you are pretty decisive and strike hard when the time comes. So, ummm... I guess I wanted to know if you could give me some tips? Some... lessons, even? On how to like... finish... ummm... properly defeat sparkle skirts?"

At least the request was incredibly vague. And her cheeks were a bit red now and she was nervously shuffling in place a little, fiddling with her fingers in front of her.

Zoisite has posed:
    'Sparkle skirts'. That is certainly a thing that some people call them. Others refer to them as 'Mahou', or simply 'the Enemy'. Some foolish creatures even call them 'heroes'. Zoisite? Zoisite has a list of names that he won't soil this poor innocent waif's ears with. "Right. Well, nice of him to give me a heads-up before sending you over. Very useful of him. Well, whatever Roomba may think, I am, obviously, quite busy." He again takes a long swig from his jug of coffee and flips his shades back down.

    "But it would be amusing, I suppose." he says airily. "Very well, show me what you can do." He gestures with the flower-holding hand and flips the rose through the air to land on the other side of the office. Then he resumes languishing in his own fabulousity.

    The rose morphs and mutates into a simulacrum of one of the magical girls from the aquarium. The firey demon girl who looks like she'd fit better on the side of Obsidian. It's just a pale-pink silhouette of her, a few indentations on the face to suggest eyes and mouth. Disguise magic is a hell of a thing, so more detail than that is both unavailable and unnecessary.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly blinked a few times. Roomba? That was... a cute nickname for him. But she was wondering if the name was just too hard for Zoisite to remember. Well, that was okay she supposed. He was a nice person, she wouldn't draw attention to his condition. "Oh, I can go," she said quickly, not wanting to interrupt him from his... well. It looked like a nap, but just because it looked unimportant didn't mean it was.

But then he said it would be fun! Well... she let out a gasp when he threw the rose. Oh my gosh! Her eyes almost SPARKLED when he made the magical girl from the rose and she ACTUALLY gave a light applause! "Wow! That's so cool! Right! What I can do... uhhhh..."

She drew her glaive and then held it up like a rifle, moving a bit away, she shot at the rose-by-any-other-name. The blasts themselves were... weak. At least, by mahou standards. They might leave a bruise. The fact there was a bunch of them made them slightly more dangerous, but even then it wasn't very damaging.

She then charged in and... Slashed with her glaive. It was how she handled the glaive that was odd. The glaive was far too big for her, yet when she swung it, it was as if she'd swung it a thousand times before, as if she'd been born to wield the oversized weapon. Cleaving through the thing entirely. She cringed though, pulling back. "Y-yeah. That. I need to find the... middle ground between ummmm... innefectually shooting them and... the glaive. Riventon-senpai says I should use the glaive more, because I could... c-cripple them," she said that word with a bit of a struggle, though. "But... I don't want to really do that. It's one thing to hurt them and get them out of our way. But... I don't want to actually kill them or anything, you know?" she asked before looking back at him. Obviously expecting him to just 'get it'.

Zoisite has posed:
    It's unclear if Zoisite watches the skillful takedown of the psychoplasm construct from behind his super cool, 90s beach boy clip-on shades, since there's no apparent reaction outwardly. It's not until after Firefly finishes speaking that she gets a response. The construct already dispersed, that's fine. But he has a poignant question to ask in regard to Firefly's stated intentions.

    "Why not?" Zoisite asks without changing position or raising his head at all from his leaned-back position.

    He lets that hang in the air, hopefully letting the girl think about how wise and cool that was, and figure it out for herself. There's no way she'll have any questions in response. He's such a good teacher. Maybe he should do this part-time.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly blinked and stared at him. Why... not? "Because... if you kill someone, they're gone forever," she said gently. "Crippling them isn't..." She sighed and looked away. Zoisite didn't know about her, so she couldn't expect him to understand why the idea of that upset her so. "I just... don't. I just want to gather the needed energy, to drive them off and continue with my day. But... I know it's not that easy. I know I need to learn how to be more..."

"I need to be more willing to hurt them, otherwise I'll just... eventually I WILL have to hurt them to get them to stop. Or accept that I can't do anything." Her hands clenched the glaive tighter. "And I don't want to do that ever again. I'd rather hurt someone a little bit now, so I don't have to hurt them even more later. So... how do I do that?" she asked.

He might be a good teacher, but she was apparently an awful student. That or she had entirely wrong ideas about what it was they did out here. For what it was worth, though... she definitely thought he was a good teacher. For the moment. And his shades weren't at all dated.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite gives a looooooooooooong sigh after Firefly stops speaking. That almost seems like his entire input on the response, but after a few seconds he takes his boots off the desk and puts them flat on the floor as he pushes back and rises from his chair. Well, 'his' chair. "Alright. Let's start over." He idly buttons his shirt one-handed while he speaks, and gestures with the same hand holding the now half-gallon of coffee as it sloshes around inside. "Why are you here? Not just this room, but here, in Obsidian? Is the only reason you're doing any of this because you were told to? You say you don't want to hurt or kill or maim, but here you are, trying to get advice on how to do so more effectively."

    Zoisite starts walking around the desk to where Firefly is. "Is there any reason to learn how to be decisive, if you are so confused and weak-willed that you can't even make decisions for yourself about what you should be doing?" It's harsh, but still fair to ask.

    Finally, looming over Firefly at his huge... Five feet... Seven inches... (Okay, so he's big in Japan) the Third of the Four Heavenly Kings, the youngest, the shortest, and also the commander of the entire European Division, places a hand on Firefly's shoulder now that his shirt is buttoned (mostly) and says, "Listen. Listen. Are you listening? Okay, good. Listen:"

    "If you don't kill your enemies now, then you'll have to kill them later, after they've hurt or killed the people you care about." he lets that sink in, and then lets go and steps back. "Are you going to be able to tell yourself, 'well, at least I have the moral victory because I was too wishy-washy to do what I should have. Sure does suck that my dad and friends are all dead now, but at least my hands are still squeaky clean!'? Is that what you're after? Because that's your future if you can't commit yourself fully."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly lowered her eyes when he spoke up. Why... was she here? In Obsidian? Because... because she had to be. Her daddy was here. They were... while some of what they did wasn't the best, there were still good sides. Sides that just tried their hardest... "I-I can hurt them," Firefly said softly. "I-I just don't want to... the rest... I want to know how to hurt someone without going too far... Without..."

But when he came over to her... her eyes lwoered. Decisions for herself? No. She could... make decisions. Sometimes. When... when she had to. There were people who.... had to be stopped. To be...

She took a small step back when he was towering over her. It didn't help that while he was big (in japan), she was... not. She was still quite young. Even with the high heels of her uniform(seriously, what twelve year old had heels THAT high?)

"I'm listening..." she whispered.

But oh. She was listening. Her eyes went wide and she looked up at him, staring. "K-killed... but... but they... don't they think... they're the good guys? I mean... they wouldn't... kill.... d-daddy? Riventon-senpai? They... they're... don't they think they're helping?" she asked. Her hands were now shaking, making the glaive rattle slightly. "Even if they're wrong, they're... they're still trying to do the right thing, aren't they? They'd never.... daddy is doing what's best for everyone. They'd never.... they wouldn't... wouldn't ever..." Oh, that had struck a deep, dark chord in her, it seemed.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite nods along sympathetically and says gently, "Yes, they may believe they're good... But so do we, don't we? Perhaps we don't always live up that ideal, but we are trying. Not just for ourselves, not even for the world or whatever. It could be as simple as wanting there to still be a world for our loves ones to live in. Right now... By trying to stop us... They're condemning other little girls and little boys to a life of loneliness and abandonment, without anyone there to love them. The world is broken, little Firefly. We're trying to fix it. But sometimes, in order to fix something, you have to break it a little bit more, so that you can get out the bad parts. And those girls... Those people..."

    He takes off his sunglasses completely and kneels down to be closer to eye level. Okay, not kneeling, that's too low. A half-squat then.

    "Why do you think they wouldn't kill us, Firefly-chan?" He lowers his voice even more, so that the girl will have to really listen to hear him. "After all, that's what they've been doing this entire time."

    It's true. Youma, robots, jellyfish, all manner of beings that are on their side have been going out to perform a job, and either coming back dead or not returning at all. "The Magical Girls aren't aiming to just hurt, scare off, or cripple. They are killing us every day, multiple times a day, because to them... We're not people. Our friends and allies who have sacrificed their lives for us are just monsters to them, judged on the basis of how they look. And us? Ones like you and me?" Zoisite leans in really, really close, and whispers, "To them, we're just monsters that look like people. They think that, under our skin, there's no difference, because we work with those they call evil. But think about it, Firefly-chan..."

    Zoisite whispers quietly, but still forcefully. "...How many of them have we ever killed?"

    Then he sits back on his heels, and waits.

    The Magical Girls and Boys and Cats and whatever else have been slaughtering Obsidian the entire time, without a single loss on their side. Clearly, the act of going easy on them and not seeking a fatal outcome doesn't affect their actions one way or another.

    "For them, it's a crusade. They believe they are just, so all actions they take must be just as well. They will never actually wonder if they're on the wrong side. Not unless we can show them that. And if they won't let us... They'll just keep killing us, until we're all gone, and then they'll write us out of history like we never even existed. Just another dirty little secret that the 'normal' people are better off not knowing about. They've done it before."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly blinked a few times. "Condeming... children to lives of loneliness and abandonment?" she asked. They were... how? She didn't understand? Just what kind of research WAS Beryl's division doing?

However, her eyes went wide when he said they WERE killing them! But that, she had an answer for. "Do... you mean the youma?" she asked. "But.... those aren't... actually people. They're not creatures. I've seen how they're made, w-what they do. I've used them myself. They're just like... things. The... the sparkle skirts wouldn't kill an actual.... person... would they? Have... they?" she asked. After all, she'd used youma. Summoned them. If they... if they were actually creatures, wouldn't that be... wrong? Weren't they just facsimiles? Her eyes went wider still when he whispered they were the same. "They... see us as... youma?" she asked softly. "But... they've never tried to... purify... me or Riventon-senpai... who... have they..."

Oh, yes, she was shaking now, clutching her glaive in both hands.

Until he asked how many they had killed. And her mind flashed back to Yochu. To those files. How many... how many...

And the shaking stopped. Her eyes narrowed and she looked directly into his eyes. For the first time since he had stood, she didn't look frightened. She looked... determined. And he'd hear why, a moment later. "Dozens," she said firmly.

And he likely hadn't heard about that. How many 'victims' there had been. But those hadn't been magical girls. They were just... normal people. And she found her mind going back to midnight tokyo. How many would be lost if that plan... worked? It couldn't work. But she, unlike many in Obsidian, knew *exactly* how high the death toll could be when Obsidian went too far. She almost left. She glanced back towards the door and was on the verge of leaving. When something he said caught her focus. "It... happened before?" she asked. "When? How long ago did... that happen? I thought the whole... sparkle skirt thing... was new?" she asked, looking up at him in confusion. Of course, a lot was likely hidden from her. But... if there was something like that, something she didn't know... she wanted to.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite stays quiet until Hotaru decides whether or not she's going to leave. He was the one exorting her to choose. He isn't going to interfere in that process. Only at the end, when she stays, and asks about what happened long ago, does he slowly stands up and hop up to sit on the edge of whoever's desk this is, folding one leg over the other. "I'll start off by saying that not all of Obsidian are good people, just like not all of the Magical Girls are bad people. There's no one who can do evil like a good person who is convinced they are doing good things. We have some of those over here too, just like everywhere in this world. And I am not going to make excuses for them."

    Zoisite's clothes shift to a gray military uniform with shiny black boots (with heels, of course). His Shitennou uniform. He holds his hand palm up, and rose petals form there out of thin air. "Not all youma are just 'things'. There are many of them who arent'. In fact, the majority of them are thinking, feeling people, like you and me. They may look different, or act differently, or talk differently... They may have different culture, traditions, or dietary habits than we do. But there are countless numbers of them all throughout the Dusk Zone, and sometimes even elsewhere. They didn't choose to be born youma any more than you or I chose to be born..." Zoisite hesitates a moment as though remembering something unpleasant. "...Who or what we are."

    He regains his composure, as the petals swirl together and congeal into the form of a girl in a serafuku. Just a randomly chosen appearance. No special meaning to it. It's probably a coincidence it looks like Sailor Mercury, given Zoisite hasn't even met her.

    "I'm going to tell you a secret now. You have to promise not to tell anyone else. Not even Riveter-san. Not yet, at least. Not because I don't trust him, but because there are things worse than bad people out there. They might hurt or kill him just for knowing the secret. But you? I think you can handle it." The psychoplasm model of a generic Sailor Senshi rotates slowly above the Dark General's palm.

    "There are beings manipulating things in the background. Not people. Not monsters. Entities that do not have our interests at heart, best or otherwise. We are a means to an end. These beings can... Do things." Zoisite swallows before continuing. "They can make us forget. They can make us act even when we don't want to. They give us power, and then that power becomes a lever they can use to replace our free will whenever they want. There are many of these beings here, using us in Obsidian. I believe they are responsible for some of the people here who may be good doing terrible things and then not remembering..."

    He gestures to not-Mercury with his other hand, which has thankfully set down the jug of coffee by now so isn't sloshing everywhere. "Them? Girls like this? They're on the 'other side', and they might not be trying to hurt or kill 'innocent people', but they don't even try to talk to youma. Not even the smart ones. They don't ask, 'Can I help you out of your situation, so that you don't need to do what you're doing?' They don't offer friendship, warmth, compassion or understanding. Much like you, people who don't know better -- or do know better but lie -- pass on the false explanation that youma are things, that because they are made they cannot ever become people. They may not all be smart enough to learn how to act like we do, or how to live peacefully, but deciding that for them by ending their lives isn't an answer I am willing to accept."

    He crushes the figure in his hand, and then opens it again, and a new figure is there. Some sort of... Rabbit thing. A ball with rabbit ears and four short stubby legs, and squinty eyes with a little cat-like mouth like =w= that looks totally harmless.

Zoisite has posed:
    "There are the same types of beings that influence people here, but on the other side. They adopt a cute, friendly appearance, take children in dire circumstances, maybe in the middle of a dangerous situation so that they either say yes or die, and then they give them a weapon and magic powers, and tell them to go out and fight evil, and oh, hey, how convenient, all the evil just happens to be beings that don't look like we do. Maybe they lie, and say they'll grant a wish, or fulfill a dream, or whatever, but they are arming children barely old enough to even understand the concept of right and wrong, and sending them off to fight and kill. Some are as young as ten. Maybe even younger. Do you expect those little girls and little boys to know the difference between good youma and bad youma? Between monsters and people who look like monsters? To decide, 'even though they work with and command youma, they must still be human' instead of 'they're monsters wearing humans like fleshsuits and we have to kill them despite how they look'. Or 'purify' us. Or whatever."

    Zoisite sighs. "A very, very, very long time ago, we, humans, the people of Earth, were shunned and ostrascized by those beyond our world. Even though they were the aliens, they decided that we shouldn't be allowed to be among them. We were lesser, we were inferior, we were primitives. Even though we all looked the same, we were no more than animals to them. Us. Humans. They did not wish us to befriend them, they did not wish us join them among the stars, they did not wish to teach us or help us or heal our sick or save us from disasters or anything else for that matter. We were just beasts to them. Beasts in human clothing. Right up until we gathered our strength, and fought back. For our survival, for respect, for acceptance. For them to just see us as PEOPLE!" He crushes the mascot creature like he did the one before it.

    There is quiet for a time, then Zoisite says more subdued. "I see it sometimes. In my dreams. The Moon there floating above us, with its riches, its opulent palaces, its good fortune, and learning. Looking down on us while styling themselves as merciful rulers who decide when and if we can ever be like them. I see the day we launched ourselves towards the Moon, desperate for them to just say, 'Perhaps we were wrong. Let us speak as equals.' And then the Pale Queen, the High Hypocrite of the Moon, with a light that hurt everything, everywhere, slaying us all. After that, there's nothing. Not for a very long time."

    Zoisite finishes off by folding his arms and saying, "I don't know the details. It was so long ago. Another life, even. I was reborn here, now, as Yoshimitsu Zaibatsu, and then Hematite woke us Shitennou up, one by one, and we remembered the past. That time called Silver Millennium. That's... All I can remember. But you won't hear it discussed. You won't find it in history books. If you mentioned it to someone out there in the world, they would look at you in confusion, and ask, 'What is Silver Millennium?' The very fact that people existed back then, who just wanted equal rights and recognition, is gone from history itself. Like we never existed. But somehow, Hematite and Her Majesty have brought us back. And now we have a second chance."

Zoisite has posed:
    "There are people on both sides who are good, but doing the wrong things, maybe even believing they are doing the right thing. I won't make excuses for our side or fully condemn the other side." Zoisite's eyes squint at Firefly. "Firefly-chan, I don't know about you, but I don't want my friends and loved ones to be forgotten like they never existed. I don't want them to suffer, die, or be 'purified' into not even being themselves anymore, replaced with... What the Enemy wants them to be. Suppressing them and twisting them into the very fascsimiles they claim youma to be. If I have to hurt or kill to keep that from happening, even I am sick to myself over it afterwards... I know which side I'm on. So, before we go further, you may wish to think about it." He hops down from the desk, picks up his jug of coffee, and starts heading for the door. "Which side are you on? The ones who erased us and will do so again if they can? Or the ones who just wanted to be seen as people?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly nodded and, admittedly, agreed with him. There were definitely bad people in Obsidian. But she'd never... thought they had bad people on their side. Dumb, yes. Misguided, certainly. But not bad.

His talk of youma, however, made her eyes go wide. They... were? They were.... but... no. She had to ask Takashi about that. If they were... if they were sentient, thinking creatures, then why did Obsidian use them? Why did they use them? The daemon weren't actually thinking creatures. She'd seen them. Their creation. But... were others? But... she'd need to ask Takashi more. Because there was that doubt.

Then the rose girl. It made Hotaru's heart hurt. It made it ache. Like she'd seen this girl before. Like... she knew her... "I... won't tell anyone," she whispered softly. She leaned in a little closer, asif he was the adult telling the child the secret... and she wanted to know. Trusting him. Listening to him. And the more he talked about 'creatures' that gave power... She lifted a hand over her chest. What girls were, what their enemies were, made her heart race. Made her breathing get faster.

"... So when I... hurt people... when I... change and... destroy... everything... it's... one of those?" she asked softly. "Is that why it feels like there's... something tearing me out from the inside?" she asked softly.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly looked to her glaive. Her power didn't come from a monster, though. An animal. It was from the device. The dark energy that was inside her. The device helped manage it. Didn't it? But... but what if it didn't?

But then his talk of the past made her stand at rapt attention. Her breathing stopped. Humans were... looked down on? What? That didn't make any sense. That didn't...

But then he mentioned the moon and he could see her eyes going wide. When she dropped her glaive. Her arms wrapping around herself. As if it could protect her. The more he talked, the more it seemed to affect her.

No. That wasn't how it was. Was it? No. Yes? It.... it felt weird. It felt familiar. But that wasn't right. So familiar and yet so wrong. The high hypocrite of the moon, she... that wasn't.... she.... she didn't exist. The pale queen? Her nightmare came over her again and she took a small step back. Tears flowing down her face.

"Silver... Millennium," she said softly. And it was so familiar. She looked up at him, confused, torn. "W-why... does that... that sound so f-familiar?" she asked softly. "W-why do... do I... I know that name. I've heard it before. I..." And she wiped her eyes, but the tears wouldn't stop. She felt another rush of pain in her chest, making her gasp and shudder, crumbling to her knees.

But she could feel it. That familiar feeling. That... "W-why do... do I know that name? Why does that name h-hurt so much? Why does it feel so... so incredibly lonely?" Why did that overwhelming pain flow through her. That desperate want, need even.... to be a part of it. She was so isolated. So alone. Like there was nobody but her.

Was she a part of... it? "W-why does it feel so... so alone? What... what's happening? Who... who are... t-they?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly latched onto it. What he had told her. 'Desperate to be a part of them'. To be acknoweldged. Seen. To be... amongst them.

"Z-zoisite-senpai... why do I feel so... so... trapped? Why does it feel like... like I'm a prisoner? Why are they all hiding me away?! WHY?!" she yelled.

Oh. Her device was giving a few warning beeps as messages were being sent out. Alerting Takashi that her vitals were going insane.

The story he told... and the feelings she'd had, the dreams, it didn't line up perfectly. But it lined up enough for her to feel it. To experience it. That mind numbing pain flowing out through her chest. She didn't fight. But she was just as much a prisoner. Held in seclusion. Isolation. Feared her. Why? WHY?

She was shaking, now. Her device starting to let out a low alarm.

<Emergency, dark energy reaching critical levels. All obsidian personel, please vacate. Emergency, dark energy reaching critical levels. All Obsidian personel, please vacate.>

"I-I can handle it!" Firefly yelled, trying to control it. Trying to bury it. But oh, he could see it. The way her body was shaking, the pain coursing through her... Something very, very, very bad was going to happen.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite's eyes widen as it finally clicks that Firefly... Might also be a reincarnation. Like him. Like them. There's enough evidence to conclude that at least. He looks down at this crying girl, holding herself like she feels the pain is going to split her in half, and Zoisite sees in her himself, at a similarly young age. Bare chested, covered in welts, arms wrapped around himself to cover as best as he can. Look up tearfully at a giant of a man. Yoshimitsu, begging with his eyes for the pain to stop, to know why he is so hated, what is wrong with him, why he must be punished. What's wrong with how he looks? What's wrong with who he loves? It hurts... So much. The man who should love him unconditionally, who can only look at him with disgust. Like he's a worm. Less than nothing.

    No one reached out to him then. No one saved him. It was the same back then, he thinks. The people who judged, and whispered, and slighted, all because he looked more girl than boy at times. Because he liked roses, and dresses, and butterfies, and makeup, and handsome men in addition to beautiful women, and because of how he carried himself, his body language that was so offensive for its femininity, and those chaste kisses he stole for the first time with a boy and a girl each, his close friends, the innocent exploration of love, and... Them being taken away by their parents, never to see him again.

    Because of him.

    Because he was less-than.

    Alone. Isolated. Never knowing what he was doing wrong or why he was seemingly hated just for being born. There's darkness clouding those memories from long ago, when it was Earth against all the worlds in the sky, but there's enough similar to his childhood here, now, in the present, in this life as Yoshi, that watching Firefly weep over the pain of loneliness is reopening his own wounds that have yet to scar. So, perhaps out of selfishness, or perhaps out of sympathy, he turns, puts down his jug, and kneels down in front of the poor girl. Then he puts his arms around her, and hugs her close, with one hand stroking her hair. He knows it. "It's alright, child." he says quietly while she gasps and cries and hurts and alarms blare. Zoisite is familiar with Dark Energy, obviously, but he doesn't know if he can take the burden of it from his little kohai if it erupts. He's going to try.

    "All the people who look down on us... Who see us as monsters for things we can't control... The ones who want us to be alone instead of just reaching out a hand in friendship..." He whispers into Firefly's ear. "Don't worry." He sits back a bit, pulling her into his lap for a closer hug. The embrace he wished he'd gotten but never did. "We'll show them." His eyes gleam green as his anger, hate, pain, and loneliness all mix together, in his energy, and Firefly's as well. Bolts strike out from both of them, and soon there are green flames sprouting up in the hallway, in the office, on the walls, and floor, and ceiling. They are both lost children.

    "We'll show them all." Zoisite promises.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly was shaking, was hurting. It was so terrible. She looked up at him, confused, hand clutching her chest. Help. Someone please, please help. What was it? What was it about that place, those words, that struck at her so terribly? How much more could she take? Her body, was it collapsing? Was she going to die? Was... whatever inside her finally going to burst free? Was--

Then she was being hugged. Her eyes went wide and, just for a moment, the pain... was forgotten. She wasn't alone. Someone was there. Someone cared. Someone... held out their hand to her... when she needed it. And it placated, for a moment, those feelings.

But it was still inside her. Still... trying to burst out. Still dangerous. And she could feel it. She might not remember it later, but now? She could. And the alarm.

And his words strike a chord in her... "I'm not... a monster..." she whispered. "I don't... want to be... alone... again..." she said, looking up at him. Enjoying the warmth... but...

Another sharp pain in her chest reminds her. She doesn't have long. She can't stop it for much longer. But Zoisite's action had given her a few, precious seconds. "T-thank you... Z-zoisite-senpai... B-but I need t-to go," she said, pulling away from him as best she could. "O-or I'll hurt... y-you..." It was there. Inside her. It had only been a few seconds since the alarm had started, but she was stopping it, for just a moment. Aided by the device... The glaive that was alarming them, abandoned in the center of the office...

But fortunately, she also knew someone else was on their way. Someone who had seen this before and knew just how incredibly dangerous she was. Only allowing herself a single moment to glance back before she hobbled/crawled/limped out the door of the office...

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon appears, moving rapidly out of the Dusk Zone in mid-step. But not... just one Riventon. Several Riventons. One of them moves leans down to pick up the device and Dusk Jumps, and some others move towards Zoisite, before detonating. Not into an attack, but into barriers, thick walls of inky, semiliquid Dark Energy that create a thick line of energy between him and where Firefly has moved to - cutting Zoisite off from her. Or protecting Zoisite from her. Or both.

    The real Riventon is in this strange mirror image procession, too, though. He collects Firefly in his arms, in a smooth motion swooping her off the ground into his right arm and with his left hand throwing a bead into the wall. The bead makes a hole in the wall - a hole in space - and he's dashed through it before it closes behind him.

    The whole 'Parade Of Riventons' moment lasts only a few seconds itself, though the inky Dark Energy barriers in front of Zoisite take a little longer to dissapate, assuming he doesn't cut or fight through them directly.

    On the other side of the portal, Riventon is holding Firefly and they are... somewhere very quiet. Well out over the ocean. "I've got you. Nobody can get hurt here." he tells her. Well, nobody but him. They didn't Dusk Portal out, though. He knew the sort of things she worried about and had gone out of his way to make sure they wouldn't be concerns for her - no dusk portal, no people.

    "You're holding it back. Good. Keep it up. I won't let anyone hurt you and I won't let you hurt anyone unintentionally either." He says, trying to -gently- draw the Dark Energy out of her. He'd burned a lot on the procession anyways, he had an awful lot of space in his 'tank'.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite watches the unusual goings-on, even the barrier explosions, with a calculating eye. He is calm. Calm except for the seething rage, hate, and pain that makes a black flame visibly flicker around him. Even the green flames that had spawned before are now pitch black. They'll disappear eventually. But as soon as the barriers are gone, Zoisite teleports from his sitting position on the floor to... Somewhere else. To a place in the Dark Kingdom. The Temple of Metallia. One of the most avoided places in the entire Dark Kingdom, despite her basically being the Goddess of the youma. He stands outside the chamber doors leading into that temple, one hand hanging over the ring-handle that will allow him to open it.

    He could go inside right now. He could cut open Metallia's cocoon, and spill her wounded, incomplete self into the world, and hope she dies from the premature emergence, or at least that someone else can finish her off.

    Unlike most, as a Shitennou, he has a chance of surviving it.

    He thinks about it. The black flames around him recede, and condense until it's just a humming ebon aura hightlighting his silhouette.

    He lowers his hand.

    He turns around, eyes glowing solid red, and walks away. He needs to tell Her Majesty that he may have found another reincarnation who needs her memories awakened properly.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly was lucky. Very, very lucky. She wasn't holding it in for very long. Or very well. but fortunately, she didn't have to. The barriers were up, then... Riventon had her. They were safe. They were...

She was holding it back. But he could definitely feel *something* inside her. Something of darkness. Stronger than it had been before... No matter how much he tried to draw the dark energy out, it refused to give into it. She held it back... but it was a losing battle.

Then, finally, the crying went silent... And she'd look up with those hollow, dark purple eyes... that manic grin...

And her hand would reach out, gripping his throat. On the upside, they were in the ocean so there wasn't... a lot she could destroy.