I Hate Medbays, or, Worthless (Keaka Hoshiko)
| I Hate Medbays, or, Worthless (Keaka Hoshiko) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 02 June 2024 |
| Location: | Obsidian Tower - Medbay |
| Synopsis: | Burnt and broken after her encounter with Sunset of Sora, Keaka forces herself out of bed to see that the end of the world is going on without her. |
| Cast of Characters: | Keaka Hoshiko |
| Tinyplot: | Sunset of Sora |
Keaka was never really... good at the whole, being-a-bedridden-patient thing. In her memories of being Martin Wreuse, the former TSAB agent's extensive precautions against bodily harm (and just a touch of forbidden technology, damn that it's lost now) meant he almost never ended up with a long stay in a TSAB medbay after a mission.
And Keaka's no different. She wants to be involved. She wants to be doing things. That's not possible, with Sarida in some sort of coma thanks to Sunbreaker and even the dark powers the Lost Logia created her with drained away, but at least if she's out of bed she can tell herself she isn't helpless and bedridden.
So in her recovery room in Obsidian tower, she's standing. Ironically, with the darkness drained out of her, she almost looks healthier, skin pink instead of ashen, except for all the burned parts.
Bracing herself with her IV stand like a staff, she turns to the window. It's dark outside. It shouldn't be dark outside, and there wasn't any mention of an eclipse. She wants to see what's going on.
Of course, with the lights on inside, all she can see is her reflection. Her hair hangs limply without the usual floating effect; She could hide that before, of course, but somehow now it just looks bedraggled. She brushes it out of her face, and eyes like windows to a night sky full of falling stars stare back at her across the room. Maybe they're stuck like that until someone defeats Sunbreaker. Or if they don't... well, it won't really matter.
She trudges over to the light switch, gritting her teeth and soldiering through the pain of her sore burns, and turns the lights off, then shuffles over to the window.
The city is in chaos. Heroes are fighting monsters. There are dancing star-bears on magical stages. And while it might not be clear from any one exchange, a 17-year veteran of interdimensional magical conflict can tell that the heroes are losing. Hope is losing.
They can't see the sun.
Hope is dying.
Sunbreaker did it. The Eclipse Zones were just a start.
The world will drown under a tide of void and stars.
It will wash away everything that's wrong, all the pointless suffering, and free of mortal detritus, everyone's perfect and pure selves will stand
before the bleak and lightless gates of a Far and Sunless Land.
Sunbreaker... no, Sunset of Sora did it. Victory is nigh.
So why is she so sad?
In the end, the thing that had been Martin, the Ghost, Clarthas, Keaka... Had no part to play in the grand scheme of things. Hero, Vigilante, even Villain, it bent and contorted and broke to fit into one mold after another, to matter, but no matter what it did, matter it did not.
Tears start to well up in her eyes. No. She doesn't want to feel this. She doesn't want to feel worthless and meaningless at the end of the world. She doesn't want to feel.
So with a screech of frustration, she plunges her hand bloodlessly into her chest and rips out her own heart, flinging the glittering gem and metal against the wall and collapsing against the window, sliding until she's crumpled on her hands and knees on the floor.
(It's lighter than it looks, impacting harmlessly with a dull thwack and falling to the floor much like if she'd done the same with some pens.)
Without her heart, she can sense things around her just like she does in the Dusk Zone.
She can't feel the sun. It should be filling the sky with its sunniness, and it isn't. Sunset of Sora put something else in its place. It's just an ever-present reminder of... of everything, of all of this, and closing her eyes and looking away won't stop her from feeling its absense.
Good thing she doesn't have to feel anything (emotionally) about that. She definitely doesn't care about that! Nor about how much her burns pressing against the window and now floor feel. Ow.
She also doesn't care that she did that without Sarida. That might be an important revelation for someone who is not heartless-Keaka to analyze later, but she doesn't care, damnit!
Despite this assertion she wholeheartedly-- err, no-heartedly believes at the moment, a general malaise hangs over her. She may be refusing to care but this whole situation still just kinda sucks, you know?
So she doesn't bother moving until a nurse that heard the scream comes in and helps her back to bed.
Afterwards, her heart skitters over to the bed, glittering metal tendrils moving like legs and trying to climb up but finding no purchase in the bed's smooth metal supports. Its useless scrabbling makes a soft tink, tink, tink and a bit of a scritching noise.
Keaka doesn't care.
