1617/What is evil
From Radiant Heart MUSH
| What is evil | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 01 June 2024 |
| Location: | Dusk Boundary |
| Synopsis: | Keaka is run into by Sunset of Sora while examining things in the dusk zone... it goes about as well as could be expected. Keaka learns a valuable lesson... jerks were jerks, even when they were, once, on your side. |
| Cast of Characters: | Keaka Hoshiko, Hinoiri Kirara |
| Tinyplot: | Sunset of Sora |
- Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
THE DUSK ZONE
This 'Dark Kingdom' of Beryl's can only be reached from her office and can't be reached from the Dusk Zone, supposedly. ...But just how thoroughly has anyone checked that?
Keaka is standing in what looks sort of like a dark mirror of one of the cafeterias in Obsidian Tower, with long eating tables and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the strange, twisted urban mazescape of the near Dusk Zone outside. They're watching on holographic screens as an Area Search spell attempts to scan the interior of this 'structure'. Another hologram assembles a map, but... the sensors start to drop out, or other parts of the map start to rewrite themselves as a returning sensor finds the path it took leads somewhere else instead of back to Keaka. It's a mess.
Keaka sighs. "I thought of this, you know. Back when I was a TSAB agent, I customized my mapping software to be able to handle shit like an area not corresponding to exactly 3-dimensional space. But of course, I lost it in the crash..." She looks up. "If it's even still intact now, we're sure not getting it...
"You can probably program it again, right? I can help!" Sarida chimes in, in dry and then chipper tones.
Sarida takes a breath, and nods. "Yeah. I hate redoing things, but I guess I can think of some ways to make a new version better... let's head back to the office."
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora could feel it. Something... someone. Was here. What was it? Someone... they had feelings. Real feelings. Not the weird, disjointed ones you found in the dusk zone, but actual emotions. Frustration, it felt like....
And so, just like that, everything would go so, so wrong.
One moment, Keaka was alone. Then there was fire. On the upside, they didn't need to worry about getting anywhere else now. Because it was then that there was an explosion, just to their right, and fire erupting from it in all directions. The strange, scaled girl appeared. She'd undergone a few... changes, recently. She still had the fuku and the scales, as well as the tail. But now? One of her wings was fire and the other was... blue.
"You... you aren't from here..." she said, grinning with that cold, cruel grin. "I will give you one chance. Only one."
"Give your power to me... and it'll only hurt a little. Fight? And it'll hurt so, so much more..."
- Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
"Powering Strife Drives." The holoprojections are dismissed. A barrier is projected around Keaka to turn aside the flame as her henshin activates: There is a sense of Keaka falling away, even though she doesn't seem to be moving in relation to other objects, and darkness shot through with stars pours over them, leaving her in a fancier outfit and with eyes of night and falling stars. The darkness fades and so too do the eyes, back to their 'normal'.
They turn to face Sunset. Smiling a bit at the costume. "I like the labcoat. Good taste."
"I've heard you've been going around, asking people to serve you in destroying it all, and draining their powers when they refuse."
She takes a breath.
"But you see, I signed up to destroy the world." She blinks and the eyes of night and stars are back, then the next time she blinks they're back to 'normal'. "It's wrong, and terrible, and hurts people like us no matter what we do, right?"
She holds out a hand, smiling, but sadly. She wasn't really expecting things to reach this point this soon, and even if the world is wrong and awful, there were some parts of it she liked, after all.
"I'm ready to help you. What's the plan, oh Sunset of Sora?"
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Asking might be a strong word for what she was doing, but in theory she was asking. However, the rest of it? Made her blink a few times and look confused. "Destroy it all? The tartarus are you talking about?"
She lunged out to grab the hand and Keaka would feel it, the power beginning to be taken. Forcefully drained from her. "I am Hinoiri Kirara, the Sunset of Sora. I will destroy all those who opposed me, I will take what was rightfully mine from the beginning. Power. Authority. And I will destroy Sora, I will eclipse her as the ruler of Kirakirafantastica. Why would I destroy this world? It will be *mine* just as everything else will be!"
- Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
"I uh... what?" Oh boy, that is an awkward misunderstanding. "Um. Look, can we--" "WARNING! Losing Resonance reserves. She's redirecting our Resonance to herself. That shouldn't be possible! She's stealing it!"
Alarm flashes over Keaka's face. Then she looks resolute. "Give me everything. I'll pay for it later if need be." "Powering Void Drives." the gauntlet chimes, as Keaka takes a fighting stance as a magic circle appears at her feet, and two more appear above her shoulders, facing Sunset.
CLARTHAS ANODE
User of the blue/grey gauntlet Pure, SARIDA
"DEATH..." "Stop whatever you're doing to me and we can talk about it." "...BLOSSOM..."
As she speaks, the magic circles glow brighter, charging energy for... something nasty, probably. Although, Sunset can feel new power flowing into her at least as fast as it must be flowing into those circles.
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Stop. Don't. Let's talk. We can discuss this. Don't. Noooo.
It was always the same. Always about talking. She held tight to the hand as the flames began to crawl across Keaka's skin. She leaned in close, a tail reaching out to wrap around her. Eyes inches from hers.
"No. I am done talking. I have talked. And I have talked. I have suffered. I have been hurt. I have been torn apart. I am NO LONGER being anyone's foal. I will rule by my strength and destroy any who oppose me. You? Are nothing... just another insect blocking my way. Destroy the world? I have that power. And you? Could never imagine it... and you dare to, in any way, believe you are worthy of even a fraction of my might? I am the Sunset... and you are just another speck in my way."
There it was, though. The madness in the girl. The desire for vengeance, for the hurt to stop... There wasn't any negotiating with it. It was hate and hurt and anger and pain, all rolled into a barely coherent shell.
- Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
Sunset is done talking.
"CANNON." Twin beams of blazingly-intense energy, wider across than Keaka, lance out. Sunset can presumably block them, especially with the power she's gaining -- if she does so in a way that allows some of them to pass by her or be deflected, they blow out the windows behind her and cut into some distant building, possibly even making its upper floors collapse if there's animation budget for it.
The light illuminates a grim expression on Keaka's face.
The gauntlet buzzes in alarm. "Wait! This is a bad idea! If Sunset is rerouting our power, Void Drives remove her limits as well!" And that's when Keaka's expression goes to 'oh shit'. "If she can use Resonance now too, fighting her will only make her stronger! If she's stealing ours, she'll get stronger twice as fast!
Now they look almost panicced. "Shit. Void Drives off. Umm... shit, shit, put everything into Motion Drives!"
The gauntlet chimes, but the 'eye' made of lines wthin the crystal suddenly stops emoting. "RESONANCE RESERVES CRITICAL. Shutting down. Thank you for assuming the duty of destruction. The voice starts to slow down and fade like a dying tape player. We have return e d. T o g e t h e r w e ' l l e n d--" The lines disappear, leaving a crystal that slowly shifts between blue and grey.
Curiously, what Sunset might have assumed was a 'barrier jacket' doesn't revert into clothing; but she can feel a palpable change in the way her own strength, resilience, speed, and command over magic have increased.
"No! Sarida!" Keaka screams in alarm, but upon looking at the gem seems satisfied that this state isn't what passes for 'death' for the strange device.
"How wonderful for you. Unfortunately for you, I've got a very strong will to survive. You might even say I am the will to survive, heh heh." Keaka starts to hover in the air, her hair splaying out as if underwater but gathering into bigger tendrils rather than individual strands.
THE GHOST OF MASLOW PEAK
I couldn't protect him...
Dark Energy gathers in her hands and then fires towards Sunset in a pair of bolts, but the Ghost turns and runs. Well, flies. Towards the exit of the room. Even now, they just can't. Stop. Talking.
"YOU'VE talked?! And suffered?! And been hurt?! I'm ALL THAT'S LEFT after he tore himself apart! I've been there, sister! I played the heroes' games until they threw me out! I stopped playing by the rules and their enemies threw me out! I fled to this backwards planet and this was the only path left to me, and this is where it gets me?! We can't let it end this way!"
But as she tries to lead Sunset on a chase through the building, her flight slows. Darkbolts thrown to keep Sunset at bay get weaker and weaker. The energy Sunset was draining changed, slightly, but she's still getting it. Until it stops as Keaka stumbles to the ground. There's... resistance, like she has to push through something to take more, but with Sunset's power, it shouldn't be a problem.
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Unfortunately for her? No, unfortunate for THEM! The Sunset of Sora just growled and refused to let the hand go, draining their power for their own. Perhaps, were she herself, she might have empathized a bit more with this person...
Told them things didn't have to be this way. That hurting others to make up for the hurt you suffered din't make it better. But, if she were in that state, she wouldn't be doing this at all.
Instead, she tore out the power and magic from Keaka, like a claw ravaging and assaulting, tearing out bits and pieces of what made Keaka whole, until their device finally collapsed... Fortunately, it seemed they did have some dark energy control....
But as Keaka tried to run? Each bolt Sunset caught in hand, absorbing, using that little, temporary bond to drain more power from Keaka... before disappearing in a flash of fire, just to reappear in front of her. Cutting her off.
Until finally she tackled the girl, digging her flaming claws into her skin, taking the power mercilessly. "All will be MINE! ALL WILL SEE ME AND REVERE!"
- Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
Keaka stumbled to her hands and knees. "You're gonna be in charge?" She croaks out. "We've seen what people with authority are like. Who do you think tossed me out?!"
She slowly stands, turning to face Hinoiri. Her eyes, and Sarida's gem, are like windows into a night sky of falling stars. Though haggard, there's still an aura of danger, albeit one that is as an insect to Sunset as she is now.
CLARTHAS ANODE
Emanation of death and remnant of light
Magi? of the Bleak Academy
With no real attack that could threaten Sunset, they lash out with venomous truth: "I heard what Beryl did to you. You're no different."
If anything, that'll only make Sunset madder. Sunset's trying to tear her apart, before she can even use whatever powers she might have left!
NOW Keaka looks uncomfortable. Pained. Clutching at her body as tendrils of dark energy are drawn out of it to Sunbreaker. "Wait. No! Don't!"
This isn't right... what's wrong with you?
Keaka crumples to her knees again. Sounding choked up. Is she crying? She finally gets it.
How could you?
"It figures. After everything... I tried to do right... I tried to do wrong... I go out like I don't even matter... I coulda at least gotten a proper death at the hands of a hero..."
You know what, it figures. You're just a bad seed. I knew you were always going to be a dissapointment.
Keaka's body seems to crack as the energy's drawn out, and mixed with the darkness is the sense of the world's judgement; Specifically, that you have been judged malicious. That no matter what you do, it's seen as evil and wrong.
If there were people here they'd probably start to turn on eachother in suspicion. But there's only darkness...
Still, it's not hard to imagine the disapproval of everypony you ever cared about.
Keaka seems to be suffering from the same thing, at least. Long-gone friends and figures from their own past, the judgement of countless societies that they are bad and wrong weighs on her, crushes her.
"NO! I was only trying to be good! I'm not bad! I swear!" She shouts in a panic, holding her head. "Even now... I'll... I'll either make the heroes stronger from fighting me, or free you all from pain! Please believe me!"
Empty words. Liar. Deceiver. You're bad to the bone and always were.
Keaka can't take it anymore. She has to escape... and this time, ironically, instead of leading Sunset on a chase, she does what probably would have been smarter and
Duskports back to reality.
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Sunset of Sora nodded. "Exactly. The people in control have been wrong and *I* will be better than them. I'll *earn* my right to exist!" she yelled. Tearing. Ripping. Not caring as she burned and hurt this person. And she was right. Calling her Beryl, well... "Beryl made a deal with a DEMON for her power! I EARNED MINE!" she yelled.
And when Keaka tried to flee, she came with her, clutching and holding her, the two of them appearing in Obsidian Tower as she tore out the last vestiges of power....
And then paused. When she realized where she was. She wasn't insane. She knew, even like this, she couldn't take on ALL of Obsidian tower. As youma began to approach her, she grabbed one of them, tearing its power out, before erupting in an explosion of power, magic and flame that those on the nearby towers could feel and *everyone* in the towers heard, blasting a hole through the side of the building and fleeing out, screaming the whole way and uncaring of the misery she left in her wake, even as the worker's of Obsidian moved in to engage and contain the destruction... and get Keaka to medical.
- Keaka Hoshiko has posed:
Back in reality, Keaka immediately falls prone, groaning. Delirious, she mutters, "You'll find no vengeance here... Go home..."
The darkness ravening out of her and spreading into the air almost invokes a great pair of wings as if mimicing Sunset's. The workers are suspicious. Keaka clearly deserves whatever happened to her, and it is only out of pity and the self-righteousness of their hearts that they'll even bother helping her. That and contractual obligation.
Still, Sunset didn't take everything from her. Whatever the hell is inside Keaka Hoshiko isn't completely unleashed; Darkness stops pouring out of the fallen magi and the 'cracks' close up as the workers arrive and get ready to move her to a stretcher.
As she's wheeled to medbay, Keaka looks up at the workers' dismissive gazes and then turns away from them.
It figures. I thought we got along, but I was a fool. Even someone else who got thrown out threw me out. She thinks to herself. There really is no place for us in this world, even here.
It hurts, to know that. Maybe even more than the pain of a body that was almost torn apart.
She looks at the gem on her gauntlet. That's why one day we'll bring it to an end, friend.
Keaka closes her eyes and rests.
