Heart Theft (Keaka Hoshiko)

Heart Theft (Keaka Hoshiko)
Date of Cutscene:	17 January 2024
Location:	???
Synopsis:	Keaka lets out a breath as she hits 'save' on her computer and kicks back, the chair rolling away from it a little. The workbench in her office has the plans for Sunbreaker's eclipse towers on it, along with electronic bits and bobs that might be used to assemble a control system. But she needs a break from working on that.
Cast of Characters:	Keaka Hoshiko

---

January 17, 2024
Keaka lets out a breath as she hits 'save' on her computer and kicks back, the chair rolling away from it a little. The workbench in her office has the plans for Sunbreaker's eclipse towers on it, along with electronic bits and bobs that might be used to assemble a control system. But she needs a break from working on that.

She rolls up the plans and sets them aside. "Eureka, I need tools."

The gauntlet sitting upright on the table is silent.

Keaka shakes her head. "Sorry. Sarida. I don't know why I said... I'm sorry."

"It's alright." the gauntlet tells her. "My predecessor was quite useful, according to you. I aspire to one day be of even greater help. Unfortunately, I lack the functions to create protoabstractum at this time. We are limited to making things one element at a time."

"Ghhh. How hard can it really be? We have to start somewhere..."

After a run to the supply department, Keaka has a pile of tiny metal rods. She pinches one between Sarida's thumb and forefinger. Sarida begins to Unshift, to fade from reality. The rod disappears. Her fingers begin to disappear. Keaka moves her hand slightly. The fingers fade back in. The rod is gone. "Fudge."

Far too late at night (or perhaps, too early in the morning), after accidentally scattering countless metal rods to the Dusk Zone, at long last one that is only partially faded sits on her desk. She holds the end of another partially faded one and holds it near the one sitting on her desk. Which part of the rod is faded starts to change... and then it fades completely, and takes the one she's holding with it. She swears.

DAYS LATER
It is again far too late at night. Carefully, Keaka positions a piece in some sort of half-there k'nex contraption of clockwork parts, some of which don't appear to connect to anything, or disappear partway along their length. She pulls her gauntleted hand away, and lets out a breath of relief as nothing happens.

She takes a breath and lets it out.

"Ready?"

"Always." comes the gauntlet's reply.

Keaka flips a series of switches on one side of the machine, and then a final switch apart from them.

A cacophony of clicks and clacks comes forth. Parts spin in and out of reality. Energy arcs and sparks. The lights in the room blink. There is the un-sound of 𝓝ot hearing a thunderclap.

On the other side of the machine, some of a series of armatures connected to switches move, lighting LEDs connected to them.

"YES!" Keaka screams in triumph, standing, her chair rolling back to knock against her desk.

February 21, 2024
"With the resonance we've gained," Sarida intones almost happily, "I believe I can fine-tune manipulations of Abstract technology. Would you like me to--"

"Do it." Keaka says, directly.

Sarida chimes. "Done."

Keaka rolls the chair from her workbench to her computer. There are wires, now, connecting one end of The Machine to the computer. She types some commands.

𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝚈. 𝚆𝙰𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙵𝙾𝚁 𝚁𝙴𝙼𝙾𝚃𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝚅𝙸𝙲𝙴...

She rolls back to the workbench. "So, do I just...?" She holds out her left, gauntleted hand.

Sarida responds, "Allow me." and chimes.

Without touching the switches -- they're disconnected anyway -- the machine begins to move. A cacophony of clicks and clacks comes forth! Parts spin in and out of reality! The arcing part arcs, and the sparking part sparks! The blinking part blinks! There is the un-sound of 𝓝ot-thunder!

And on the computer screen, one character every half-second or so, appear the words:

𝙷𝙴𝙻𝙻𝙾 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙻𝙳.

Keaka smiles.

Back to the computer. Her fingers dance across the keys.

^𝙲

> 𝙰𝙱𝚂𝙲𝙾𝙼.𝙴𝚇𝙴 >> 𝙰𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙴.𝙴𝚇𝙴

Back to the workbench. She holds up her hand. Sarida chimes.

A cacophony of clicks and clacks comes forth! The clicking parts click! The clacking parts clack! The wheels and cogs of the machine do turn, within and without the limits of the physical world! Humans taught sand to think! Mid-Childa taught magic! But lo! Why stop there, when the very interface between what is and what could be can work for you?! Half-real energy arcs between reality and the 𝓝ot!

And slowly, byte by byte, Sarida transmits software to Keaka's computer...

February 24, 2024
Keaka returns to her office after the successful test of Project Eclipse, and the confrontation with the Yuushas.

"I believe I now have enough resonance to begin protoabstractum construction." states Sarida.

"Finally!" Keaka almost shouts in excitement. "Dealing with that primitive thing was a pain!" She gathers some parts, a little circuit board with a USB connector, holding it in her non-gauntleted hand. "So you can...?"

Sarida chimes. The circuit board glows and energy arcs between it and Sarida, and when the glow fades, a round, clear crystal is fused to it. Keaka looks it over with a smile, then disconnects The Machine from the computer, and plugs in her new crystal-y USB stick.

She starts typing commands. "Alright. Let me send you a test program to try making..."

Obsidian Tower: Break Room
"No that's the wrong remote."

"You said I needed the other remote!"

"No that's the-- there's four remotes. One goes to the smart TV. Another one goes to the set-top box. Another one goes to the DVD player. And the other one's for the Obsidian FlameTV™ stick."

"So which one is this then?!"

"That's the... I think that one goes to the old TV."

"Argh!" One of two Obsidian employees standing in front of the couch turns and flings the remote into the couch in frustration. "Why do we even have a DVD player?! Who watches DVDs anymore? I just wanted to watch King of the Hill!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm a bit of an Americanophile, it's a great look at--"

"Allow me!"

Keaka strides into the room, coat and scarf flowing behind her, and dramatically holds out a TV remote with a hemispherical clear crystal embedded in the end. She presses a button.

"Dangit, Bobby!" The TV changes from showing a program schedule to the requested cartoon from whatever streaming service the employee was trying to use.

The two office workers who were staring at him turn to look at the TV. One smiles, "Thanks!"

"AHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! NO MORE SHALL WE HUNT FOR REMOTES! THE PROTOABSTRACTUM REMOTE CONTROLS ALL OF OUR ENTERTAINMENT DEVICES! I, CLARTHAS ANODE, HAVE BROUGHT AN END TO POINTLESS FRUSTRATION ON OUR BREAKS! Also, it doesn't need batteries." She tosses it to one of the workers, then fills a cup from the water cooler, sipping it as she walks back out of the room.

Keaka holds her left forearm in front of her and looks down at the crystal on the back of the gauntlet, speaking to it. "So. Now we can move onto a real project. What were those rifle things they were making so much fuss about a few months back?"

March 1, 2024
"Do I uh... I can go home after this, right?" The intern sitting in a chair in an unfinished room asks. "This isn't gonna hurt, is i-- is that a gun?!"

"It doesn't shoot bullets. It should be fine. If it works like it's supposed to, we can pop your heart right back in afterwards." Keaka fiddles with something that looks a lot like the heartstealer rifle but is covered in extraneous loose wires and has a clear crystal prominantly embedded in the side.

"My what?! AAH!" The intern shouts and flinches as Keaka aims and pulls the trigger, but nothing happens.

"Huh." She tries again, but nothing. She makes some adjustments and tries again, still nothing. Eventually she sends the intern home.

March 4, 2024
"I've been working on this all weekend. Sarida thinks, perhaps, that we can't perform this kind of action at a distance; that it can't be carried out by a bullet or a beam. So I've made some modifications to the design we'll be testing today."

The intern nods, pretending they understand what she's talking about. "Coffee? Two creams and two sugars, right?" They're holding two cups. They extend one arm towards Keaka.

"Yup." She takes the offered coffee with her right hand. On her left is Sarida, but on the right is... With the look of an unfinished prototype, this crude brass gauntlet appears to have some kind of electronics connected to a clear, spherical crystal built into a small box on the back of the forearm. Five wires on the back of the gauntlet run from the box to nubby little rubber-enclosed antennas along the back of the proximal phalanges.

Ssssip. "A bit hot." Keaka notes. "Just needs a little time to cool." She sets the cup on a table, and motions for the intern to do the same before flipping open a molly-guard on the back of her forearm and flipping the switch underneath.

"So, what are we doing heURK." says the intern, as Keaka plunges her right hand into their chest. There is no blood or physical trauma; it's like their body is intangible to her hand, and the gauntlet. Her eyes widen as she moves her hand around, trying to feel for something. The test subject looks uncomfortable.

And then she pulls her hand free. Held firmly between her fingers is something like a gem-and-metal squid, or maybe one of those viruses. It's radially symmetric, with a definite 'head' and 'tail'. The 'head' of this particular intern's "heart", or whatever she just pulled out, is a red gem maybe the size of a chestnut or walnut encased in a cage of black iron. From one end extend multiple segmented tendrils or tines, which wiggle like the limbs of an animal struggling to escape, gently clinking and scraping uselessly against the palm of the metal gauntlet. Despite the dark color of the metal, it glimmers brightly in the light.

Keaka just stares in wonder. "It worked."

"Congratulations!" cheers Sarida, from her other hand.

After a moment of utter shock, the intern's eyes focus on the heart, like an animal that sees someone has food and is waiting for someone to set it down.

Keaka looks over the heart. Its tendrils... tines? wiggle. She looks over the intern. "You're still conscious. ...Are you conscious? Hello?"

"Bwuh?" responds the intern.

"Are you okay?" Keaka looks from the test subject to the heart held in her fingers. "I suppose not. Well then, um..."

She plunges her hand into their chest. And then pulls it back, without the heart.

The intern coughs, and takes a gasping breath.

Keaka points at them. "Wait right here. I gotta show this to someone."

She picks up her coffee on the way out, taking another sip as she walks through the door.