2906/Breaking in the New Year

Breaking in the New Year
Date of Scene:	01 January 2026
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Following Auld Lang Syne, where Adrien seeks the support of friends, Gabriel Agreste seeks the validation of rage. He finds that, for a time, with his newest akuma, Madusa, but thankfully for Mitakihara's New Year's Morning, Pulp Noir, Amy, Rashmi, Kaiju Hime, Tuxedo Mask, and Cute Wolf Tsukiko are there to help.
Cast of Characters:	Gabriel Agreste, Rashmi Terios, Ikiko Hisakata, Kaori Jira, Hinote Kagari, Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust

---

Gabriel Agreste has posed:
It's the first day of the New Year and it's still terribly early in the morning, not quite eight in the morning. Many may have been awake, having waited through the night or risen very early to witness the first dawn of the New Year. Others may have traveled to temples and shrines, to complete their first visit of the year. Still more have been sleeping in, warm and comfortable in the peace of the New Year. Some have received a text message from Adrien Agreste, in desperate need to talk about his parents.

Hawkmoth, who has ascended to the height of his lair in Obsidian Tower to glower over Mitakihara, is doing none of those things.

No, Hawkmoth's efforts to have a happy start to the New Year had crashed and burned with the realization that his own son had been as callous and cruel as to think his mother was dead without even mourning.

Where were the dramatics?! Where were the uncharacteristic fights, the overly moody displays of grief, the tears, the experiments at drinking and drugs that Gabriel would have been disappointed in but understanding of? Where was the rage, the fury, the devastation?!

Hawkmoth thought of this - his fury and upset at their son's quiet and avoidable grief, which did nothing to honor his mother - because it was much, much easier to face than his own horror at the depths of his failures. Three years, and Emilie's son had already accepted a world without her. Three years and already he was letting her go. Three years, and he'd nearly cost her her son.

Three years without her, failing to rob a pair of foolish, naive children, and he -

Was going to channel those feelings into power. Into an akuma, which flew into his hands white and departed a deep purple, and flew from open window.

"Fly, my little akuma," he demanded harshly, eyes wild behind the mask. "Fly to the one who shares my rage."

Better that he turn these feelings into something useful than risk hurting Emilie's son further. He is far from the only one miserable and enraged on New Year's Day - the city is alight with millions of sufferers, millions lonely and depressed, enraged and frustrated, gnashing their teeth, wailing, vengeful. His akuma just has to find the one who feels it most keenly, most closely.

Soon, it will find them, as it flits and flies and soars.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The Great Christmas Robbery -- Wherein she had to fight a *Nightmare,* and in previous years other, luckier mahou got to *help Santa Claus save Christmas* -- has had Rashmi doing some very serious thinking; mostly along the lines of how the spells she'd been developing to account for weaknesses in her toolbox have had the unfortunate side effect of *moving her away from her and Nicomachea's specialties.*

And having woken up early on New Year's Day, and unable to get back to sleep, Rashmi grabbed an early breakfast just outside the campus, and settled down for miso soup, grilled fish, rice, and serious consideration over her notebook. As it's not very different from the working breakfasts of any number of creatives, the doodling, scribbling, and weird diagrams punctuated by distracted bites? They aren't even given a moment's consideration by anyone around her.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
The strays local to RHA were getting a small holiday treat from Ikiko -- not homemade fired chicken; she had finished distributing those across Tokyo before the year had ended -- but other than the hour and the fact that these were durable chew treats, it's a pretty average session of the younger girl tending to her canine friends.

Besides, with Bliss-chan roaming around in Tokyo, Ikiko wants to make sure the strays aren't being forcibly happified.

Kaori Jira has posed:
Find rage? Well, even after her little time away and respite, Kaori Jira's anger tended to bubble under the surface fairly consistantly. Something about cramming all that was a titan into the body of a teenaged girl tended to come with a bit of a temper to say the least. Today, she was up early, no temples or prayer to her, just simply the desire to feel active and alive rather than simmering away in the dark on her own.

Kaori had been running, probably for a good half-hour, only to come to a stop and exhale a breath. Dopamine and adrenaline rush aside...it always felt like such a small distance to travel now that she was so...small.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir stalks an alleyway, hand in a pocket, the other clutching a large flashlight in the alleyway as he flashes the light on the shadowy figure! "You can't escape me..., bub." he says, cooly as he runs after the figure, leaping a dumpster, hitting the edge with a foot and sliding into the figure, arms outstretched as he chase the early morning threat in the still dark alley! He takes the figure into his grasp and---!

"Shhhhhhh. It's okay, it's okay sweety!" he says to the shadowy black cat in now Hinote's grasp as Tracy looks LESS than enthused. "What do you mean the cat was just plain lost and not stolen by that CAT BURGULAR, Tux-his-face!?" Tracy says to Hinote, in an unbelieving tone.

"See! We found the missing cat! Now we can return it to the owner and the case can be closed--- yes it can!" he says as he baby talks the cat, scratching under it's chin.

"Don't baby the cat!" Tracy insists. "But the cat is a baby look at him!"

"Prrrrp?" goes the cat. "Hehehehe." goes Hinote. "Oh brother." goes Tracy.

The First Case of the Year! Closed already!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The Tsukinos' New Year's Party, fun to say and tricky to apostrophise [phrasing (c) 2026 Amy Faust. -Ed.] was amazing, everyone playing games and watching shows until midnight, at which point everyone got longevity noodles-- Mamoru got his kisses-- all the little gifts were given out...

Even though Junichi and Shingo facetimed daybreak, Mamoru and Usagi like sleep too much and don't get enough of it. Ikuko and Kenji took everyone to the shrine except for Mamoru and Amy, who Usagi explained weren't Buddhist, so now?

Amy and Mamoru are in the Tsukinos' kitchen and Mamoru is surreptitiously eating leftovers from last night, scrolling through his social media feeds and drinking coffee.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Christmas was not normal -- whatever normal is, now -- thanks to a Nightmare, but New Year's Eve...

    Hanging out with the Tsukinos and their friends felt... normal.

    It was like something out of life before magic, when her grandparents were alive and extended family still gathered for the holidays sometimes, except even better because she was with friends she's closer to than she ever was to family, and she doesn't have to feel awkward for not being able to stand the taste of alchohol past a third of a glass of champagne, and of course, she's more herself than she ever was back then.

    It's a happy and warm memory that could still have happened in a world where she was changed but not magic, and one she will still remember mostly-truthfully even if the Fade one day takes her.

    Amanda is, wonderfully, allowed to sleep in. She dreams of being on some fantastic adventure with her friends, perhaps an extended visit to another world, or the discovery of another secret world of supernatural phenomena on Earth previously mutually veiled from mahoujin. Whatever it was, it's gone except for a vague memory of excitement and happy feelings when she wakes up, well-rested, eventually making her way to the kitchen and heating -- and eating -- leftovers.

    Amy looks up from reading manga on her phone -- she finally got around to seeing how The Choice Is His And Hers ended -- and wonders, "So what do you check on your phone every day, anyway? Like, d'you follow Tweeter or Mastadon or something or just catching up on memes posted in Datcord servers? I don't... actually know what's usual for people. I basically stubbornly ignored BookFace."

Gabriel Agreste has posed:
The akuma flutters through the sky, twisting, turning, and seeking, following the trail of emotional energy it can sense as clearly as it can the pheromones and chemicals that true, organic, butterflies can follow. It isn't after a chance to mate or an opportunity to feed, but the chance to make blossom the intoxicating mix of anger and humiliation and grief it can sense from its target.

Said target is a severe-looking woman with graying hair, standing at the side of a dining room table filled with young people gone silent with surprise, each of them staring at her in surprise. Chisato Ryougi had greeted the dawn alone, her children and their partners sleeping fitfully after a night of partying with friends rather than sharing the holiday, her grandchildren sleeping soundly after a night of rowdy play as she tried to soothe them with games and snacks.

She had made the family breakfast alone, her children and their partners and grandchildren opting to lounge about and idly mention their hunger, casting hopeful glances with no offers of help.

She had served the family breakfast alone, her children and their partners setting grandchildren down or rushing back to get phones for social media posts of the first meal of the New Year or texting friends about plans -

And all of that, she had endured willingly, because she was happy to have her children here, visiting her in the family home, the apartment she had raised each of those children in with her husband, gone two years.

But now.

"You're leaving?" she repeats, hoarse, looking each of them in the eyes as they look at her as though she is the one gone mad. "Each of you, you're leaving, to - to celebrate the New Year with your friends?"

"Mother, you're making a scene," her oldest son says, his voice scolding, "It's not so bad as you make it sound. You know Miyuki and I live all the way over in Itabashi now, it's hard to get together with our friends still here!"

"Yeah, come on mom," her second oldest joins in, ever quick to side with his brother over his mother, "The kids are always in school, we're always working, of course we're going to go out, you can't think we'd want to just hang out - I mean, wait, that sounds bad -"

"I didn't think Tensei and Hayasi were also going out," her daughter sounds apologetic - and scolding, as she glances at her older brother - but not compromising. "But I really was hoping to meet up with my friends -"

Chisato does not bow under their combined surprise. She only twists her hands around the small towel in her hands, the towel she'd been using to wipe up spilled miso soup as her oldest and youngest - the only one who had remained silent - ignored their children in favor of checking text messages, and feels it glide against prayer beads.

"Because you didn't get enough of them last night, when the lot of you went to gorge yourselves on sake instead of spending the New Year with your children?" Or me, she added, silent, upset, "You all offered to stay with me! You said you wanted to spend the holiday together!"

Gabriel Agreste has posed:
"And we do, we do," her youngest says, breaking under the pressure, "But just, you know, isn't this spending time together, so, now we can just go ahead, and, really I don't think anyone drank that much -"

"You walked into the kitchen wall," Chisato says sharply. "One of you walked into it at two in the morning and knocked the picture I have of your father down -"

"Ahhh, Mom, I picked it up, isn't that enough?"

It's not nearly enough.

And the akuma, which flits through the open kitchen window to settle on - and then in - the prayerbeads around Chisato's wrists knows it. So does Hawkmoth.

<<How could it possibly be enough?>> He asks, as the purple butterfly alights around Chisato's face and the prayer beads turn purple. <<When you slaved over the noodles they didn't even bother to eat, cleaned the house alone when they should have helped you, and now, these ungrateful wretches fail to see that the point of a holiday is to spend it with family?! Who would use your home as a - a hotel and daycare to drop their children and leave you with the work while they flit about reenacting their careless youth?! No, you aren't being unreasonable at all. They've taken advantage of your good will and your care, they've forgotten that you're the matriarch of this family, that you matter, and that just can't be allowed to continue, now can it, Madusa?>>

"No," Madusa says, as the purple light creeps over her form, and her pinned up hair writhes and twists, freeing itself in coils that hiss and snap, as she grows taller, and taller, as her family - who would have left her without a thought except to how useful it was to be fed and to have their children - turn to stone. "No, it can't be allowed to continue. Not anymore, never again, holidays are a time for family!"

Twenty minutes later, and whole buildings in Mitakihara are quiet, people frozen in place as statues if they dared to leave their homes and otherwise ignorantly, quietly, happily enjoying the morning together, as Madusa stalked the streets, the snakes of her hair freezing in place those sneaking about alone or in pairs.

Kaori Jira has posed:
Too quiet. That was the sort of thing that tended to tell animals or creatures like that something was wrong. Everything fleeing, dead or...in this case, a little too still. Kaori straightened up, lowering her water bottle and looking about with a frown already on the features of the girl who'd very much spent the holiday alone.

Rounding a corner, her eyes finding the sight of those frozen brought a chill down her spine and causing Kaori to pause.

She'd exhale a breath, a roaring noise that didn't match her throat and rising cloud of glowing speed announcing her transformation.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
    << *BONG!* >>

While the alert sound makes Rashmi start, she manages to remember to take out her phone and pretend it was accidentally set too loud.

<< ALERT. MASTER. ALERT. CORROSIVE ANOMALY DESIGNATE 'Akuma' ACTIVATION, >> booms Nicomachea into her head.

Welp. So much for a chill New Year's Day morning.

Hurriedly she gulps down her soup, devours her rice, and the rest of the fish is still in her mouth like toast as she pelts for the door. Family emergency, perhaps?

Once she's found an alleyway and broken line of sight with the rest of the world, she henshins in a flash of golden light, and the Page Mage takes to the skies, headed straight for Mitakihara. << Ugh, an akuma... Nico-kun can you tell me who-all's in the area and headed this way? >>

    << *BONG!* >> << COMMAND INPUT EXECUTE. >> the book replies, and a moment later;

    << TELEPATHY >>

<< Check check check, >> Rashmi's voice says in the minds of whoever Nicomachea has pulled into the comms net. << Welcome to the New Year, and I guess Hawkmoth is the person who gets to start us off. If you see a little purple butterfly, take *special care* to target it and not the monster, because the monster is a person. >>

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari is walking with the cat home to keep it in his room as he intends to call the owner who's name was on the Missing Cat poster, make their New Year, kiss mom goodbye on her way to work because Police Sgts. don't get holidays and call his dad because he's off filming for this upcoming years big blockbuster 'The Man in Black'. He'll spend it home alone. Well. Home with Tracy and a Black Cat who's name is 'Shadowy' according to the Poster.

He walks past a statue. "Huh. Must be a New Years Eve art Instillation." he says. He passes another one. Another one and Tracy flies down in front of him. "Hey, Listen!" he goes. "What do you gotta say?" he asks Hinote.

"No, I mean. Listen." he says, motioning to his ears. Hinote does and...it's.. quiet. Even more quieter than it should be on New Years Day. The cat hisses at nothing in particular. Tracy frowns. "I sense something ahead anyways, we outta..."

And indeed, the two remerge, a henshin phrase said 'My Heart, Unlock!' and soon, Pulp Noir peeks around a corner quietly, quickly, is able to catch a bead on Madusa and move back. He swallows. 'Is that a f*****ing medusa. Like from Mythology' he asks himself mentally as he draws a pistol from the inside of his coat.

OH. The cat? Perched on his shoulder, peeking with him that short moment he did. He considers a plan of action and then there's telepathy from Rashmi and he breathes. << Hey. Yeah so she's turning people to statues. Purple Butterfly. Person. Got it. So what's this thing? A Mythic? >> he asks as he peeks back around the corner, trying to make himself a smaller target behind cover as he fires a jet of water towards Madusa. It'll hurt. But the water isn't lethal, at least.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
At first, the fading local noise doesn't catch Ikiko's attention, as she's heavily focused on her canine friends... but Rashmi's comms message definitely gets her attention!

    (one silvery glow later...)

<< Any word on where this monster is? >> Cute Wolf Tsukiko asks as she jumps to a rooftop for a better view, slightly marveling to herself at how the fuzziness of how she "hears" telepathy seems to be inversely proportional to her own fuzziness.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I have a boring insta and a spicy tumblr," Mamoru says absently, then looks at Amy over his phone and his glasses. "Can you keep a secret? For real for real. Like a really funny secret that really does need to stay secret or it'll stop."

There's a th-THWUMPH as Anko jumps up on the kitchen counter between Amy and Mamoru and headbutts Mamoru's arm hard, joggling his phone and making him blink owlishly at her. "What are you doing here--?" asks Mamoru.

"Luna said Mitakiharrrrra, Mamorrrru. Amy. You will go, and you will get sashimi for Anko, yellowtail and salmon."

"Go where in Mitakihara?" Mamoru says, feeling very silly as he slides off the high kitchen chair he was perched in and pockets his phone.

"Where it is quiet because everyone has turned to stone, stupid," says Anko, grooming her face and sitting, SITTING her CAT BUTT, on the COUNTER, and Mamoru looks scandalized. "Amy-chan, go, I'll catch up with you Anko get off the counter where's the Lysol--"

They will not arrive together.

<< I'll be there in a minute! >>

Gabriel Agreste has posed:
Madusa is tall, far taller than Chisato had been - about six and a half feet tall, covered in scales on her scalp and hands. Everywhere else her skin is as stone, her eyes and mouth carvings in that stone, cracks allowing movement. She's wearing a mourning kimono, all black layers and black obi, a stark contrast to her stone gray skin, but the snakes that make up her hair are naturally the centerpiece, each of them between two and three feet long and stark white save for their gleaming purple eyes.

She's carrying prayer beads, worrying at them between her hands as she passes, and everywhere she goes, statues are left behind, though not everyone becomes a statue. Couples with children, gatherings of young and old, these are left alone.

Young people gathered together, couples out alone, individuals - these are the ones turned to stone.

Madusa is a little more pleased with every statue created.

<<They won't be going anywhere, now,>> Hawkmoth crows, smug. <<They'll stay exactly as they are, until you're ready to let them go - when they've earned that, the chance to be let go, and become something new. When you're ready and not a moment sooner. All you need to do is get me the Miraculous, and you won't have to spend a holiday alone. Your children won't be able to disappoint you anymore.>>

"No, they won't," Madusa agrees, and the violet eyes of each of her serpents flash. She strokes a thumb over the prayer beads. "They thought they could just use me, well -"

Before she can finish the thought, she's struck with a blast of water and goes tumbling in surprise, her back stinging, and her stone skin striking against the ground with a sound like struck flint, sparks flying and quickly doused. She surges to her feet, turning, the snakes snapping their jaws and flashing their tongues, and when she sees Pulp Noir, she hisses at him.

"Ungrateful cur! Why aren't you with your family?!"

And the serpents flash their eyes, and Pulp Noir's hat and domino mask begin to turn to stone along with the very edgs of his trenchcoat.

"You... aren't a statue?!"

<<Those with magic of their own must be more resistant than ordinary humans,>> Hawkmoth muses. <<]But no matter - it might take longer, but it is working. Get him, before he can succeed in stopping you.>>

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I never did get on insta, but ooh, Tumblr. It seemed like it became a ghost town after the-- well, I've seen a few good blogs there but whenever I go check it out I just end up liking and reposting a bunch of stuff. Haven't really... written anything there, in ages. Besides finding memes to forward, I mostly check Datcord -- and mostly regret it, and forums -- and mostly regret it, and sometimes I search Tweeter and mostly regret it." She frowns at this stated pattern. "Sometimes there's something good among all the garbage, or cool posts about projects from indy hacker types, though."

    "A secret?" Amy echoes, nervously. "You know I... I can try to keep a secret, but if I'm ever asked a direct question, my face will give it away. Am I gonna have to worry about accidentally revealing it to the wrong--"

    th-THWUMPH. Amy blinks. "Oh, hi Anko." She reaches her hand out over the table to offer scritches.

    "Uhh, Mitakihara?"

    Everyone has turned to stone. "[Aww, f***.]" Amy swears in English. "Now the garbage is in reality, too."

    She stands and moves to the door, hesitating when Mamory stops to clean cat shenanigans. "I'm pretty sure teleporting would be faster, though..."

    If he insists, she starts roofhopping her way over after transforming, and either wa gets in touch via communicator: << "Do we know anything about why people are turning into statues? Is it a medusa or basilisk monster you have to meet the gaze of? Or is it stone-ifying gas breathed by a gorgon-like monster, or something's claw or bite, or something weirder?" >>

    Yes, she does know about every conceivable mythical thing that can turn you to stone.

    << "What's going on? ...You'd better not all be stone too..." >>

Kaori Jira has posed:
Kaiju Hime wasn't immediately put onto the network of telepathy, unless someone decides to let her in. An outsider that had been absent for a time, only to make a heck of arrival. Compared to water cannon introductions, the tall girl with the tail and partial scales bursting through the wall that was absolutely someone's guarden to emerge behind the Madusa was absolutely unsubtle.

"You," she growled, a small gout of glowing blue flame carried on her breath, "are interrupting my morning!"

Clearly she'd calmed down enough not to immediately sick tooth and claw (or atomic flames) on the fellow partial scaled creature, but the slam of her tale against the ground that splintered concrete and shook the ground might as well be taken as a warning.

"Stop. It."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir blinks and suddenly darts back as he feels his mask, and the edges of his trench coat seem heavier than usual and he curses. << LINE OF SIGHT. >> he suddenly blurts out. << She just needs to look at you but. Like. I'm not stone. But boy do I feel heavier at the edges. >> he says bluntly into the telepathy.

He frowns and edges away from his hiding place and suddenly the ground shakes and he looks back and---

Is that a smaller but also a Kaiju? Wait. << Wait! Be Careful of the statues! They're people, dollface! >> he blurts into the telepathy. He ducks into an alleyway to try to climb a fireescape quickly. He needs a new plan of action.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
<< Miraculous, >> Rashmi corrects absently, as she banks over a conbeni to home in on the center of the disturbance... which is, thankfully, where Pulp Noir is. << Short version, henshin device with its own fairy to go with. >>

Her elevated perspective lets her *see* the Kaiju Hime moving to burst through the garden wall, and all at once she decides this is a *really good time* for a Barrier.

    << *BONG!* >> << TIME-SPACE BARRIER >>

A bubble of gold-black-staticky energy forms over Nicomachea's pages, and rapidly expands to cover several blocks, shifting the new battlefield half a dimension to the left. The fact that the statues made of people stay where they are... oh *that's* a nest of potentially horrifying possibility. << Akuma powers usually have something to do with the damage that let them become an akuma in the first place, Amy-chan, >> Rashmi says, *very carefully not mentioning her firsthand observations.* << So... your guess is as good as mine. But I'll bet lunch she'll help us figure it out by yelling. >>

"Hey!" she shouts into the silence. "Clearly you have beef with young couples, but this is kinda much, isn't it? Like... How many of them have moms that'll miss them?"

It's a roll of the dice, but best-case is that actually slows the scaled gorgonette down. Worst-case, Rashmi'll get targeted alongside an informative monologue. Win-win, really.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko follows the 'direction' of the telepathy, using that (and some of the crashing and yelled outbursts) to find her way towards the fight. As she's getting closer, there's the shift of Rashmi's Barrier, plus some warnings from Pulp Noir... oh.

Oh no.

The wolfgirl adjusts her landing to hide behind a roof access shelter. << I'm not sure I can outrun being looked at, even at Silver Wolf Tackle speeds, and that's before getting weighted down, >> she admits. << And, um, I didn't get that good of a view of the area on the approach, so... which of the two are we supposed to be stopping? >>

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
<< Akuma, >> Mamoru says shortly over the telepathic comm net, << given the purple butterfly warning. >>

"Whatever that's fine," is what he's saying out loud, digging under the sink, then sanitizing the counter with an orange-smelling spray. Anko turns up her tail at him and stalks off into the shadows.

He henshins in the kitchen, because there are some things it's exciting to do when no one's in the house who would get mad at him for it, and then takes Amy's hand and teleports them to his favorite behind-stuff alley in Mitakihara, and there's someone out there taking a smoke break -- totally unaware of what's going on a mere block away -- and Tuxedo Mask waves awkwardly as they proceed to VTOL and rooftop it to where the action is. << How awful to have a bad new year's day! >> he thinks with feeling, and remembers-- that-- Usagi would consider this ruining hers...

...he gargoyles on the edge of a rooftop, unaware of the poetic temptation he might pose, and sighs. At least there's a lizard person who isn't Double Trouble here with Pulp Noir. << I'm going to wait for her answer before coming down there. >>

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Teleport it is, then!

    And there's a mundane in the alley with them. "Uhh... magical girl business, this area's dangerous, stay inside, citizen, and Happy New Year." Amy runs onward.

    She quickly encounters a statue. Creepy. There's a sharp intake of breath from Amy as she glances over the statue, and then quickly finds trying to use a mirror or her phone to only look around indirectly is too damn cumbersome, so she decides she'll just have to hope it doesn't see her first and starts searching.

    Although she does try to set up a failsafe, but it turns out no, her phone does not understand commands like 'in five minutes, text <name> I am stone come get me after the fight.'

    Also, she realizes after checking this, the victims' possessions also turn to stone, so that wouldn't work anyway.

    And then she's hit the telepathy network and hears the sounds of magic attacks in the distance, gathering details, and leaps up to the rooftops to try and find a place where she can peek out at Medusa, fire, and duck out of sight before she looks back.

    Of course she knows to be careful of the statues, but she's glad someone else thought to remind folks. Most people haven't considered -- or previously encountered, thanks to Hawkmoth preying on Adora -- this scenario and she has no idea if most people would think to worry about that or not.

    ...But also, given the Akuma is a person, and there's something she can do much more constructive than shooting her, Amy isn't going for damaging attacks just yet.

    Instead, she fires a cluster of fireworks that should go off around the medusa in blinding flashes and loud bangs -- although she's not trying to be deafening this time so they can talk, it's still loud -- and leave a lot of smoke. If she can't see them, and they can't directly see her, she can't use the gaze attack Pulp Noir confirmed she has, after all!

    "Yeah, what do you have against couples and lonely people who have nowhere to be on New Year's, anyway?!" Amy calls out, after Rashmi's question.

    << If it's an Akuma... how do we tell which object the butterfly is in this time? >>

Gabriel Agreste has posed:
Madusa is glaring down at Pulp Noir, her snakes hissing and snapping and turning his clothes to stone, as they work to turn him from the outside in -

And then the garden wall behind her explodes as a tall scaley girl tries to intimidate her.

Madusa lifts herself to her full height, and the snakes on her head snap out at Kaiju Hime, dozens of them all together, and they lunge forward, aiming to bite. Their eyes burn, and the monster girl's clothing - the little of it she has - begins to turn to stone, wearing her down. The edges of her hair, long and thick as it is, begins to turn to stone, too.

"You are the one interrupting my morning!" Madusa declares, and if any of the bites connect, they sting too, trying to dig through scales if they encounter them and digging into meat if they don't.

The tail that rattles the ground shakes the statues - but the barrier goes up, casting the world in golden sepia tones, and the statues that fall aren't quite the same as the statues that were there before.

"If they CARED about their mothers, they would be spending the morning with them!" Madusa snaps at Rashmi, incensed - the snakes set to rattling, and she moves from near Kaiju Hime in great undulating strides, her mourning kimono hiding her lower body.

"They're out carousing with their friends instead of thanking their mothers! They're out enjoying themselves instead of greeting the mourning with their children! These people have plenty of places to be and that is their problem." She snarls this last bit at Amy, just before popping explosives leave smoke and smog heavy in the air, making it hard for her to see them but equally hard for them to see her. "Holidays are to be spent with family! And if they will not spend it with their families, they will be a warning about taking advantage of the good will of others!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Informative monologue it is, then. And *what* an informative monologue it is. A complicated expression crawls across Rashmi's face as she takes the Madusa's words, multiplies them by akuma, and comes up with an answer that has her wincing. Mostly because... she can actually understand.

Letting out a long sigh, she pulls her head into the game, because for all that an abandoned mom's upset is *ultra valid,* turning people into statues... less so. And so they need to figure out how to stop that.

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR BIND >>

It's not perhaps the *best* idea, but aiming a Bind spell to, hopefully, wrap around the upper head at least has the *possibility* of interrupting the enstonification of the Kaiju Hime. And that makes it worth trying on its own.

<< ...So uh... dumb question, but there wouldn't happen to be like a shopping bag or traffic cone nearby anyone? Because Everything I can think of'll only work for a very little bit. >>

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"My parents are dead," Tuxedo Kamen's voice rings out from above, and he calls out thereafter with a sweep of his arm and a fling-back of his cape, "Tuxedo Rose Exfoliation!"

A single rose flies through the air, sparkling with brilliant red magic, and hits Madusa petals-first so lightly, like a pat on the head, and it explodes into so many petals and glitter in the air around her, and it's followed by its cape-billowing thrower, who lands ta-tap, and he says, "Your children, I'm so sorry. They sound horribly rude and ungrateful, and you deserve to have a happy time with the people you love around you, appreciating you for all you do, and more importantly, just loving you back. I wouldn't be any of those things, but I'll help you do the dishes and clean up, and then maybe you can come to my fiance's parents' house and have breakfast there with us?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
The rant is definitely informative, and gives Tsukiko some food for thought. Probably shouldn't mention that this interrupted me while I was spending time with 'found family', then, is one of the thoughts, as is I kinda doubt that explaining 'disproportionate retribution' would get her to stop, even if she wasn't currently chock-full of dark energy.

<< I have a rooftop access shack right here, but there's three-- no, wait; two reasons it might not be a good idea, >> the wolfgirl offers to Rashmi. << One, it might be overkill, and two, it's a bit out of my weight class for lifting. >>

A pause, and then << Although if someone wants to try moving it themselves, you're more than welcome to do so; just let me know so I can find a different chunk of cover to hide behind. >>

Kaori Jira has posed:


The statues are people? That much she'd figured out...but she hadn't quite been as careful as she should. Careful wasn't generally her thing. The snakes biting at her? Kaiju Hime wasn't going to abide, snaping out with her own teeth to try and bite off one of the reptile locks that had been trying to bite her.

Fair was fair.

It was only as she felt the akward tug of stone in her hair that she'd finally give a little noise of annoyance, shaking her head only to blink at the voices filling her head of the telepathic network.

Oh. This again.

<<Fine...what -can- I break?>> the titan girl seems to rumble through the mental links.

Tsukiko's question about which one to stop? Hopefully she had an answer now...if only just.

Kaori Jira, Kaiju Hime, didn't have powers like Moon Healing Escalation or anything like that. She was strong, near indestructable, had claws, teeth and could unleash destructive energy.

A tank, but not a 'curative' Henshin hero.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    That monster could be someone's mother. And from what she says, she probably is. Amy's sympathetic, until Madusa starts demanding that people always spend time with family. She's aware that quite a lot of people in the world have families that rejected them, and others-- well, that's Mamoru's place to tell her off for, not Amanda's.

    Speaking of how people are spending time, Amy went this long without even wondering if the stones people are trapped, immobilely aware of all this. Wow! Maybe she's getting more positive after recent revelations, or just years of being around her current friends.

    Amy was going to start a lecture about found family, but honestly, Tuxedo Mask's approach and offer of kindness and time spent together is something she doesn't want to marr.

    "It's this... darkness that's got hold of you!" Amy shouts. "I understand your anger, but you didn't even check if any of these people were on their way to see their parents or children, did you? Because the power doesn't care about you, or what you care about, it just wants you to use it!"

    "Please," Amy shouts, "Take his offer, and let's talk and figure this out?"

Gabriel Agreste has posed:
The bind catches Madusa's head and snakes, leaving them still, and then slow-moving, creeping and crawling through the air rather than snapping and striking. This means that Kaiju Hime is more than able to bite a couple of the snakes - to bite through them in fact, leaving oozing, bleeding headless snakes in her hair, and Madusa shrieks with rage and breaks the bind.

Her snakes snap their heads at Kaiju Hime and the petrification advances, spreading to some of her spikes, weighing down her pants, her hair -

And then that cry roars out, followed by a single rose that erupts in glitter and petals and warm color. Madusa and her snakes struggle to blink glitter and petals from their eyes as Tuxedo Mask gets out his apologies and offer.

It's so thoroughly sincere that she wavers, and Hawkmoth's butterfly flashes, over her face, trying to urge her on. <<If you surrender now, he won't really bring you with him! He won't fix your problems, only YOU can fix your problems! With power! With the power that I'm giving you, you can fix it, the way you have!>> It's not his most persuasive argument, but he is as angry as Chisato had been, angrier, even, a boiling pot that can't believe his son would dare to think his mother was dead, would think that she was dead and that Gabriel wouldn't follow her, would think that she was dead and just accept it -

Angry and aggrieved and grieved enough that he doesn't strictly control the flow of emotion and thought between he and the akuma. Madusa hears the pleas that the children are making and she understands that the man who has empowered her is motivated by his own emotion. That this is not just for her. Their words reach a heart that wanted to be heard and understood.

The heroes can't hear Hawkmoth, only see the butterfly that shows he's communicating. But they can certainly hear Madusa when she says,

"As angry as I am, none of this will fix anything. My children... my ungrateful children, taking me for granted... keeping them close in stone won't change how they made me feel. Would getting those Miraculous change how you feel, Hawkmoth?"

She says his name with a touch of sympathy, of compassion. How can she not? She's so upset, and he'd heard her.

"Thank you, for sharing my anger, and standing for me. But I'm tired, now. These young people have a point, don't they? And I'm even keeping this young man from his parents' grave."

Hawkmoth is silent for a long moment. When he speaks, for the first time, the butterfly illusion projects his voice for all to hear, roughened with emotion - banked fury, leashed grief.

<<"Those Miraculous are the only things which can change how I feel. I will have them, even if I have to tear through every heart in Tokyo. ...but not yours, Ryougi-san.">>

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Oh, Tuxedo Mask, you deserve a hug and a free breakfast for that idea. And it's a *good* one, especially as it begins to get through to the poor woman... And then Hawkmoth finishes the job himself. And when the butterfly projects Hawkmoth's voice to all, Rashmi... feels somehow even sadder. Nothing about this battle has the rush of victory, even the fact that barely any violence even needed to happen.

"Ryougi-san?" she says, as if to verify the name Hawkmoth spoke was correct. "My friend is right; I'm sorry your own kids aren't very good to their mom, and we can't really fix that... But we can *be nice* like you deserve, at least. And Hawkmoth...?"

Turning to face the butterfly full on, Rashmi's gentle sadness doesn't change. "I'm so... *so sorry* to hear that. Because they way you're going about it, you probably won't ever get what you want."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Kamen's face, masked as it is, is soft with compassion-- and a little startled and appreciative that Ryougi-san was moved to cite him, honestly. And then--

--he looks really startled at the grief in Hawkmoth's voice. "Have you tried asking us for help? There are other miracles," the boy says a little slowly. Then he adds apologetically, "Dark Energy just makes you dumb. I know. I used to be a Dark General."

He holds out his hand to Ryougi-san and smiles, gentle and warm. "I'd let you see my face, Obaa-san, but I don't want Hawkmoth to see it, and I know he can see what you see. So, once he's left you alone, I'll take off my mask and I'll come help you out before I go visit my parents. Tsukiko-chan, are you bitey today?"

Kaori Jira has posed:
Words solving problems was very much -not- how monsters tended to solver problems. Kaiju Hime was literally tasting blood in this moment even as she was turning to stone little by little...because attempting to get into a close-quarters fighting with something that could petrify you wasn't a smart tactic.

It was just the sort of Kaiju Hime tactic she'd employ.

But...the creature was weakening, slowing, leaving Kaori to exhale a slow small flaming breath.

Thinking about family and seperation was a sensitive step on her mind. The only of her people caught on this reality with no way to reach out to her own kind?

Yeah, she'd deal with that another day.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks at the woman-turned monster, trusting -- too trusting -- her words. She approaches, weaponless, pink sparkles changing her henshin to a school uniform. "I get that there's... that there can be something special, when a relationship lines up. Believe me, I would... like a mother to connect with, given recent revelations in my life. But because of magic... I've been lucky to spend several hours with my mother over the last two-and-a-bit years, and that only because of Santa's intervention, after helping save Christmas."

    Beat.

    "...I don't know if Christmas didn't need saving this year, or if he sought aid from other people, instead. I could perhaps find a mother-figure, but even if I did, we wouldn't have that connection, of knowing me from childhood."

    "The rest of the year, she can't remember me very well."

    "...There are ungrateful parents out there too," Amy continues, "who see the life they created and raised only as an extension of themselves. Making them see is difficult and often impossible, just as making your children understand you. The world sucks sometimes. You can reach out and communicate, but you can't make anyone agree with you. I'm sorry."

G"I hope an act of kindness can make your life a little better. I think you're the first person who didn't already have magic, who's been talked out of dark power. I only was for a stupid reason, once, and then horror at what I was becoming, the next time."

    "Communicate with your children. Let them know your needs and expectations. That's all you can do. I'm sorry."

    Amy looks at Kaori Kira, and wonders if kaiju have mothers, have family.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko listens from up on the rooftop, then heads to where she can peek over the edge when things start turning more conversational. "Look, biting those burger-zombies was a joke that worked," she giggles to Tuxedo Mask. "But for something like this, there's a better solution." She takes a deep breath--

    --and begins to howl.

The wolfgirl's voice wordlessly sings a song, respecting Ryougi-san's hurt from the disrespect that she suffered, and cheering on the idea of spending New Year's Day with people that enjoy being with you for the sake of being with you. There's also a background riff of support for the entire concept of found family, and an auditory bow of light mourning of how sometimes things change and people drift apart, with an added trill of forming new traditions when the old ones no longer fit.

And while none of that was particularly aimed at Hawkmoth, the purifying nature of the Soulful Howl probably wasn't particularly pleasant for him to hear, either.

Gabriel Agreste has posed:
Madusa is no longer quite so mad, even if she is still, always, Ma, and for the moment, dusa. She is still upset, still angry, still saddened - but she understands, now, that none of this will help her. She is willing to try something new, even if her patron is not.

And her patron is most certainly not, for when Rashmi tells him that she is sorry -

He scoffs, callous and angry, the grief already being tucked away, in some hidden place, buried under raw determination and anger, a devout sense of surety. <<"You would think that, girl, but I am unafraid. I will have what I seek. Ladybug and Chat Noir cannot keep me from what I seek. I will not let another year go by without what I seek.">>

And that might have been the end of that, Hawkmoth huffily tuning them out, but Tuxedo Kamen speaks up next, capturing Madusa's attention, and with it Hawkmoth's, and he scoffs, <<"Miracles are not given, they are taken. When you want to make the impossible happen, you have to do it with your own hands, against everyone, and everything's, advice.">>

He is deeply offended by being told he's being stupid (even if indirectly). He is being stupid.

Madusa accepts the offered hand, patting Tuxedo Mask's gloved hand in that little old lady way, even though she's only in her very early sixties. "You're a sweet boy, aren't you? Thank you, dear."

And she looks at Amy, too.

"It's hard, when your family doesn't appreciate you, or want you. When they only want what you can do... I suppose it's harder, when they make it so very obvious. I'm sorry for troubling you. I suppose I can only hope they'll listen..."

As she listens, to Tsukikiko's howl. It reveals her feelings, and shares in them, and she does not feel so alone.

And Hawkmoth's symbol slips away, and soon after, the akuma, slipping from the prayerbeads purple, and then, white, as it floats away.

Chisato Ryougi will take these children's help, and she will go home, and she will try, again, and maybe, the experience will have given her children a reason to try, too.

And Hawkmoth stands in his lair, alone, but for the slow, painstakingly slow, beep of his wife's heartbeat, as she lays in her stasis chamber. Those children know nothing. He will get what he wants, because there is no other way. He is not Adrien, content to accept Emilie as dead simply because she is lost.