2811/KTF: Focus Point A
From Radiant Heart MUSH
| KTF: Focus Point A | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 26 October 2025 |
| Location: | Yumegahama Ward |
| Synopsis: | Yuyami makes her first appearance working for Obsidian - talking from behind a shield while youma attacks the Mahoujin. Ginga Bishonen and King, Yellow Pearl Voice, Cure La Licorne, and Amy Faust successfully stop her, and try to talk some sense into her... less successfully. |
| Cast of Characters: | Yuyami Kagayaki, Takuto Tsunashi, Madoka Kaname, Sugata Shindo, Hinoiri Kirara, Amanda Faust, Coco Kiumi |
| Tinyplot: | Kill the Fade |
- Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
In a section of Tokyo's Yumegahama Ward, two individuals in labcoats - a tall, silver-haired boy and a shorter girl with long black hair with a single purple streak and single pink streak, tied up in a bun, are pacing around a section of street.
"You've ran the numbers tiwce?" Riventon asks Yuyami.
"Yup. The spire is ready for deployment with a margin of error in the nanometers." Yuyami replies, her eyes bright and shining.
"And the first four generators?" he continues
"All ready and working. Tested them in the Zone." she continues.
"And the external generator is..."
"Active and buzzing." Yuyami confirms as she looks at the clipboard in her hand, taking a pen from her hair bun to scribble notes in it before returning it.
"Alright." Riventon nods. "We've absolutely set you up for success here. Just follow the plan and don't get involved in a fight yourself. We just need the work finished here. I'll open the gate."
Yuyami nods as Riventon raises two fingers into the air and suddenly the area becomes dim like the sunlight above no longer reaches it. Four strange devices like tesla-coils phase in from the Dusk Zone and slowly a purple dome generates with them just slightly inside it. A spike-like object with a top that appears to be a gnarled mix of purple crystals, technological device, and stranger things appears above the stop and suddenly drives down into the ground, crackling purple and blue lightning from the coils to the centered spear and back, as the device both drives slowly deeper into the ground and the crystals atop the hilt of the needle grow outwards. Yuyami paces around the spire in the center, taking notes.
"Don't forget to call me if you need me or if you need Night Hope to evac you." Riventon says, and then waits for Yuyami to nod before he duskports as the energy surges between the unknwon devices, the purple dome growing as a solid wall of energy with Yuyami and the device inside. Far above the dome, a large thing seems to be looping, shadowed and hard to make out, occasionally sending surges of purple energy down to the dome each time it grows in size. The energy from whatever Obsidianis doing is absolutely something anyone nearby can feel or be alerted to.
- Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
There's a bright surge of blue-white energy in the distance, a twinkle, a radiance. A moment later, there's the scream of an approaching jet--
Oh-- no, it's the GINGA BISHOUNEN!
He rockets right up to the dome and then pretends his foot's a reverse thruster and slides to a halt in midair above the dome. He peers in, his coat hanging down, and then he reaches forward and knocks on the dome while saying, "Knock, ow!"
He pulls his hand back and shakes it, looking put out. But he cheerfully calls down anyway, "Trick or treat!"
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
"Well I want to go to the Museum!" insists a tiny science fairy.
"You can literally go there at any time," responds a slightly overwhelmed pinkette.
"Yeah but I want you to go with me and learn things." Rens tiny arms are crossed. She is not taking no for an answer. "You're the one who's curious about--"
There's a dome.
Madoka and Rens both notice it at the same time. The pink girl frowns as she looks at the dome's direction. "I hope this isn't another Eclipse zone. Rens, come on..."
Hand motion. Chara in egg. "My Heart: Unlock!"
Hope Blossom is now walking down the sidewalk towards the dome, wearing a white-with-pink-lining labcoat and a pair of cream colored reading glasses that always seem to shine in a subtly threatening light. Hope adjusts her glasses and says, "You know... I don't think we've ever done this before. Sorry, Rens-chan."
She's not leaping into action this time. She's taking a slow and measured approach, watching what happens, considering her next step. Ginga Bishounen knocks on the dome. Looks slightly painful, but not too much.
"Um! Excuse me!" she calls out. "Sorry. Do you have a permit for this dome? I don't think you cleared this with the proper authorities."
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
Trailing behind the sound of a jet - no wait, the sound of the Ginga Bishounen - is a distinct swoosh, like an electric motorcycle nyooming by on the freeway. It's not an electric motorcycle though - it's the Ginga Kingu! Airskating like Shadow the Hedgehog, a pulsing trail of blue-white energy left in his path.
Unlike Takuto, he doesn't try to knock on the dome. Instead he stabs an energy sword into it, and frowns when Diamante just kind of ...sticks there. Annoying. As Hope Blossom walks along the edge, he adds his voice to her inquiry.
"You most certainly have not obtained the correct permits. You can pack up and leave or we can set back your project with unplanned demolition."
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Every.
Single.
Pain.
In.
Her.
Flank.
Tracked back to RIVENTON this month it seemed! And for some reason she STILL stuck up for him! Why? WHY did she stick up for him? Save her life ONE TIME. Fine. But there had to be a LIMIT where good will ran out, right? There had to be SOME POINT where she stopped trying, right? Oh, if only it were THAT EASY.
But she supposed they never stopped trying for her, so she'd keep trying for him. But. YUYAMI KAGAYAKI! SERIOUSLY?! Her REPLACEMENT?!
The ONE THING she knew was going to be a problem here and it was ALSO RELATED TO HIM?!
To say she was furious was... an understatement. So she felt it. She had... feelings towards it. So some of them might hear the sound of 'Righteous Indignation!'
And then they'd ALL hear the sound *very* similiar to that of a falling bomb. Moments before a miniature sun slammed into the top of said dome via concussive kick, coating the entirety of it with flame that lasted a good three or four seconds of burning orange and red flames... before Cure La Licorne bounced back and leaped back...
"RIV-EN-TON! WHERE--" Pause. "YOU! YUYAMI! ARGH! LISTEN! WHERE IS YOUR BOSS! I'M THIS CLOSE TO--" She had to pause and... actually... Ow. Ow. okay... maybe that kick was a bad idea. That actually hurt more than she wanted it too. "ACTUALLY ALL I FEEL RIGHT NOW IS BURNING RAGE SO ONE OF YOU DO THIS NICER THAN I CAN! ARGH!" Ow ow ow ow ow walk it off and pretend she didn't just kick a wall and now she didn't just hurt her foot with that move. "HOPE BLOSSOM! AMY! YOU'RE NICE! ISH! YOU TALK TO HER!" As she turned turned and stormed and definitely DID NOT LIMP...
... Too much.
"... AND I GUESS YOU CAN DANCE AT HER!" she told Bishounen. She... really... hadn't met him that much, admittedly. He seemed nice, admittedly. But the most she knew was that he had moves. And she was just... kind of frustrated right now.
- Amanda Faust has posed:
SUNDAY. The only day students get ENTIRELY off. Sleep in, relax.
Amy's got the room to herself and some new manga in. Let's see... protagonist is a red-eyed redhead, although with the opposite hue difference from what she has. That always sticks out to Amy now. Well, let's see where it goes this time...
And just when she's getting to a good part, she can feel that gross darkness in the air. Something pretty big and far away too. "[Are you F---ING KIDDING ME?!]"
After running and superjumping off the campus grounds, she finds someplace to start rocketjumping... Since she can just detonate explosions right next to her without actually having to hit something, she can propel herself through the air this way, too! Although it rather lacks fine control, maybe it can be worth a shot for speeding over moderate distances. It does help, to be up high enough to be able to go in a straight line and ignore buildings...
And so, a red speck in the distance comes in FAST. "Alright, what the hell is aaaTOO FAST TOO FAST!"
She's using explosions to brake, but accelerated so much that she flies right over the dome and overshoots the site by a block or two, disappearing behind the roofs of nearby buildings.
She arrives after a rocketjump, just as Hope Blossom is asking about permits. "Does that ever matter to anyone who uses dark energy?"
Amy looks at Yuyami. She looks at Hope Blossom. She double-takes and stares at--
"KAGAYAMI-SAN?!"
"...Well, I guess we did know you worked for Obsidian, but damn... wait, why can I recognize you? Did you not henshin? ...Do you not have a henshin?"
Amy shakes her head. "More importantly... what is this? And why?" She can't really feel, like, betrayed or anything, under the circumstances, but... it still hits, to see the shy, awkward girl she was so sympathetic towards now in full mad science drip and doing some big Darkness Thing.
- Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
Yuyami walks to the dome and looks at the fabulous boy outside of it - maybe even a slight flush of her cheeks right before her eyes narrow at him. "Sorry, no trick or treat here. Science is Happening. Please Go Away."
She goes to turn around and return to her work, but Hope Blossom also yells out, and Yuyami turns back. She lifts her hand to her glasses to slightly adjust/reseat them on her face. "If you're a scientist, you should already know what's going on but... I've got relevant permits from the only authorities that matter - the pursuit of knowledge! And also Riventon-sensei. So..." and she doesn't finish the sentance, but makes a sweeping/go away motion with her hand. She turns to the Ginga King. "You can certainly try - but this barrier was designed by Riventon-sensei and myself, so really there's no chance of you knocking it down by blasting on it. All you'll do is give us data on your energy signatures."she says.
And then there's explosions and there's Amy asking a similar sort of question. And she looks skeptical. "A labcoat doesn't make you a scientist. You need to follow the method... and have discipline... and an open mind... and most especially you have to write this down." she says, tapping her clipboard. "I don't see any of you taking notes so you're clearly just acting the part. Please stop, it's kind of offensive. I don't come to your job doing... whatever it is... and pretend to be one of you." she says, lifting her glasses again.
Then before she can even turn back, LaLicorne's flaming foot slams into the dome too and, for a moment, she's got a little nervousness as the inside of the dim dome lights up. Maybe even a bead of sweat - until it holds and she smirks. "See, I told you. Riventon-sempai and me built this, there's no way you can just brute force it."
But she sighs. "You know, if you keep bothering me, I'm not going to be able to keep an eye on the Focus Point or complete my research, and Riventon-sensei will be dissapointed. Also there's the chance of some sort of catastrophic failure if I miss something... so I need to be able to divert at least some attention to it." she says, tapping her cheek with her pen. "Oh, I know! Duh." she says, snapping her fingers. "The external generator!" she says. Then she looks up to the shadow in the sky. "Hey, keep them busy so I can do my work!" And despite the distance, it seems to hear her.
And the shadow above suddenly comes closer, and whatever it is... is very large. Very, very large. With the head of a bear, fur-covered black and white skin with yellow splotches, standing on two legs, but with two pairs of bear arms, red compound eyes, antennae instead of airs, and delicate-looking insectoid wings that are far too small to be carrying it. And a lower torso that bends forwards and ends in a gleaming stinger.
It is also the size of a rather large house. It lands and the ground shakes, and it roars while its wings beat in a buzzing thunder before flying forward, a huge and slow but dangerous storm of bear claws, stinging attempts, and biting attempts from large fangs.
- Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"The number of times your teacher has tried to kill me is nonzero, so you'll have to live with me delighting in his disappointment," The Ginga Bishounen says to Yuyami, but she's gesturing and then talking to the air, and there's a shadow, and Takuto looks up. And then his gaze follows the youma down from the sky to the ground, and he just stares at the thing, slowly climbing higher in the air.
"But it looks so dumb," he objects, then starts to laugh and scrambles for his phone to take a picture. And then he buzzes around to take another picture and put his phone away--
And then he thumps one fist to his chest and pulls out a bright green sword, "Star Swordo! EMERAUDE!!" and then the other fist to his chest for a blue energy sword and calls out, "Star Swordo! SAPHIR!!"
He circles the bear's giant head once before going in to attack the wings at the base. "GALACTIC CROSS SLASH!!"
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
"Anyone curious about how the world works is a scientist in their own way," says Hope Blossom, hands in labcoat pockets as she defends her costume. It's not like she has a real choice in how her henshin looks. Not a conscious one, anyways. "However, there are such a thing as 'research ethics' and Dark Energy use generally violates them. Don't act like you have an intrinsic right to do whatever you want if you're going to endanger people."
So... this is Riventon again? Madoka's feelings regarding him are... incredibly mixed right now, but generally it's a bad idea to let darkness users do whatever they want. Sayaka may be giving him another chance, but... it's not as if Madoka is going to give him a free pass.
A monster approaches. It looks ridiculous. Which is to say that it looks like a youma. She extends her hand as her branch bow forms in a flash of pink petals, because changes to her costume don't result in significant changes to her power, and she immediately aims at the bugbear. A single shot splits into many, each of which explodes and fills the air like so much pink sparkly flak.
- Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Alright, so it should be somewhere just around here", Coco mumbles, taking. right turn when she sees the electronics shop her phone was showing her. "How could a whole box disappear just like that...", she mumbles, double checking the ping her phone makes. Did she get the wrong road?
She is about to turn back, and yet she stops, her gaze snapping upwards, to the feeling of dark energy that strikes her from a distance.
<PHONE> Coco Kiumi texts Nikora Nanami: Obsidian emergency, will be late.
Curving her hands in a vague x-shape around her shell locket, yellow light radiates in around Coco, and a kaleidoscope of colour flourishes over her form.
"Yellow Pearl Voice!" The rainbow energy glimmers and clings, warping into pale yellow boots that flow into overlapping fabric. Rising up, a golden yellow dress and a short yellow pleated skirt blossom onto her and her pearl gleams and expands, settling comfily into her hand as her trusty E-Pitch microphone, with the yellow jewel nestled safely in the head's center.
It doesn't take long for her to reach the scene and give a sigh of relief at seeing that the threat is already being contained. Whatever the threat is in this case. No youma?
"Kagayaki-san?", Coco mutters with raised eyebrows as she notices the figure behind the forcefield. What a surprise, the intern from Likely-Obsidian was indeed an intern from Obsidian.
Possibly. She can't explicitly rule out a third party. They have had one or two.
At least until Yuyami clears the air by mentioning Riventon. "Kagayaki-san, are you ok? Can we talk about this? Why you are doing it?", the yellow mermaid inquires.
Even as the youma starts forming, Coco's eyes don't leave the girl in the lab coat, ignoring the ridiculousness of its appearance. "Do you really want to write down people getting hurt? That's what this will lead to", she questions, collecting herself.
The Live Stage starts shining brighter in response to her will, and Coco brings the E-Pitch to her mouth. "What do you feel when you hear this song, Kagayaki-san? Do you remember it? Is it friendly?"
The rainbow wind blows at a far off coast
Before dawn, there was a melody I heard
It's a very nostalgic song
The birds that fly towards the eastern sky
now escape to the treasure island using this shortcut.
Where the paradise of the seven seas lies
After the stormy night, to tell my love I will be born again
Even if there comes a day where everyone...
Is to journey away from here, as long as we sing the melody of the seven countries
I'll never forget.
Purifying energy starts filling the area, shining like joy and serenity, a calmness that fills with vigour those with peace in their hearts, and the bane of all that is evil, disrupting dark energy and hurting it wherever it is not intense enough.
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
Just before Cure La Licorne's kick landed on the dome with all the brightness of a miniature sun, Diamante disappears. No need to risk an ally impaling themselves, right?
But when the fire has dissipated and Yuyami stands smug and proud?
"Oh, well if it was made by Riventon it shouldn't even take half an hour to undo," Ginga Kingu says with a smirk and a toss of his head. "And my sincere apologies, Kagayami-san. I failed to consider that you would believe mad experimentation in a public area might qualify as science. I recalled that proper scientists seek approval for their research from accredited bodies rather than corporate shells, but of course, quacks never care about the recommendations of anything so simple and basic as an ethics board."
Cure La Licorne called for someone nice to speak up. She got Sugata Shindo instead.
As the insectoid ursine descends from the sky, the Galactic King's eyes shine with the challenge. He abandons antagonizing Yuyami in favor of pressing a hand to his chest -"Star Swordo-"
and withdrawing his shining energy sword once more.
"Diamante!"
As the Galactic Cross-Slash and the many arrows fire, Ginga Kingu launches himself into the air after them, launching into a blitz of sword strikes aimed for the bugbear's eyes and snout - with Ginga Bishounen aiming to remove wings from the back and Hope Blossom aiming to fire upon the great bulk of the creature, he's hoping that between the lot of them at least someone will get through and accomplish one of their subgoals.
- Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy rolls her eyes at the dismissive attitude of science is happening, go away. "I mean, I'm happy to 'provide data' and test your barrier here, but..." She frowns a little as Yuyami continues. She points. "Now see here! I was a m-uah-uh-person of science all my life and that still hasn't changed just because I understand emotional stuff better now! I can't take notes until I know what I'm looking at, and you're one to talk: Your safety goggles are pushed up where they can do no help, and if magic acid or fire or whatever gets on your coat will you be able to get out of it quickly with those belts tightened around the arms? It looks good though, seriously. Although if you're taking after Riventon, you'll want to get a longer one, everyone knows a good MADO SAIONTISTO labcoat's gotta come down to like, the calves."
Amy holds her arms out to her sides, palms up, switching from a Washuu costume to a Hououin Kyouma one with a longer coat over shirt and slacks.
"So, tell us about this Focus Point and External Generator." she asks, but then the group is besieged by bugbear.
Amy stares up at it in shock. "WHAT. Why is that here?! You recreated one of Sunbreaker's monsters?!"
Amy has to leap out of the way of its attacks, returning to her normal outfit as tooth and claw and stinger assail her!
"Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I guess they think Sunbreaker did good work! ...Was it this big before, though?!"
Amy's more focused on talking than attacking at the moment, but she does blast it with puffs of high-velocity cold mist to the face, perhaps the monster version of spraying a cat to discourage it. (she tried to get 'bear spray', it didn't work, she kind of went with the nearest thing before she could think more about it or decide on an alternative)
"Hey, uh... any idea what its weaknesses might be?" She asks her friends, trying not to be clearly and specifically asking La Licorne.
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne narrowed her eyes on Yuyami. Oh. That. That brat... Her fists clenched. She couldn't...
Then... "Wait... WHAT?! When did the bugbear escape Tartarus?!"
... Well, there was a sentence. "And wonderful, now it's working with Obsidian, de-lightful. I'm going to have to write such a report about this later..." Cure La Licorne muttered, shaking her head. "Okay, well... I've read some of the reports of you, you big buzzing pain in the flank. I--"
Then paused. And...
"W-wait. No. You're not the--"
And then... then her cheeks were starting to get redder as she remembered... "O-oh... oh sweet Sora..."
She'd been on so, so much dark energy then.
So much. And Amy reminded her. She gave a squeak and... "O-oh... r-right... u-uh... y-yes. G-go for... for the wings... h-hit it... in the... wings... it's... v-vulnerable... t-there... w-watch out for... for the stinger... heh... heh heh..."
As she poked her fingers together. Cheeks so bright red. Poking her hands together. Not her fingers, her hands together, the fingers limp, and one might get the impression of an embarrassed pony poking their hooves together in a fiddling, 'Oopsie', manner as they remembered a VERY embarrassing moment.
- Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
The Bugbear lands, roars, dives in - and so does the Ginga Bishonen. Yuyami raises an eyebrow and mumbles out loud do her self. "Lack of an appropriate fear response. May indicate a dyfunction in the amygdala within henshined individuals. Something for further research." she says. Meanwhile the swords strike home - or rather, they strike the bear as it whirls in a storm of attacks, though it leaves gashes in the back of the creature rather than the wings, being on-target but not quite a critical hit in so many ways. The creature doesn't bleed normally from the strikes though - rather, a purple liquid more like sticky sap seems to seep out of its wounds before hardening instantly. Still the roar makes it clear it's injured, and it tries to strike at the Bishonen with its stinger a few times, being surprisingly nimble at it for a creature of its size.
Arrows pepper the creature and leave similar marks, and Kingu's sword misses the eyes but leaves a gash across the side of it's mouth. With Blossom so far away it focuses on Kingu, trying to bite and snap its oversized jaws at him - though it stops after a few as it gets a blast of some sort from Amy. It seems to pause and look equal parts confused and annoyed by the act.
"Hmm. Incorrect fear response to a larger and more dangerous creature does seem to be common, with fight being chosen over flight." Yuyami remarks out loud but to herself. Then to Kingu she has to respond. "Sorry, but it's been made clear to me that you are in a relative age of alchemy and geocentrism, denying facts and trying to refuse information and evidence, so I don't really care to listen to you all. The authorities you have me listen to tried to prevent me from knowing about magic, just because I have affinity for energy you deem unsavory!" she says. "But Riventon-sensei showed me the truth and earned my trust. So YOUR regulatory bodes CAN'T REGULATE ME ANYMORE." she says, her hands in dramatic evil scientist claw-laugh pose as she says it, her eyes flickering brighter purple for a moment.
Yellow Pearl Voice's song hits at about that moment and she groans out - her eyes still flickering dimly purple like there are half-powered LEDs back there. She winces and moves her hands up to her ears, which results in her clocking herself in the side of the head with her clipboard. "owwww. I was fine before you started signing! How can a song hurt! I'll research that later, but right now, stop that!" she groans. Then she looks to the youma. "Hey, you, make her stop that!" she yells and points to Yellow Pearl Voice. She must be okay with some folks getting hurt, since the youma fixes its red compound eyes on Coco and opens its mouth. There's a crackle of purple energy between its teeth and it roars - and this time when it roars it unleashes a gush of Dark Energy in a line breath-weapon style, and starts by aiming it at the yellow mermaid and trying to sweep it across to hit Hope Blossom too. This is probably NOT a normal bear OR hornet thing.
- Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Don't forget we're all--" hack hack, then more strongly irritated, "--right in the middle of having terrible risk-to-reward ratios, just like you--" and the Ginga Bishounen turns on a dime in midair and starts his battle ballet, the same way he fights in Tauburn. He spins in the air with one toe pointed down and flings his swords out to his sides, turning himself into a blender for a few rotations in the middle of a loop-de-loop around the stinger, trying to chop the thing off and laughing breathlessly. "And of course we're not scared, this is just a house-sized youma with painfully annoying powers like bear laser roaring. You sound like you're lost in the sauce, high on Riventon's supply, getting all your information from one person? Like even if we were lying, you should really do more interviews."
- Amanda Faust has posed:
Go for the wings. "Got it. No dragonroach bullshit here... If any of you want to borrow weapons, let me know."
Lack of fear response?!
"DUDE. I have fought Witches and I've fought world-ending folks like, at least three times! If you think me not being terrified of this doesn't make sense... ask Riventon."
Injuries to the bugbear bleed self-sealing sap? "That's interesting..." Amy notes.
"Also? Yes it's dangerous but also this is our job and we're kind of used to 'fighting big scary monster.' It's like a fireman charging into a fire -- our transformations provide us with the magical equivalent of the appropriate safety gear and tools to handle the situation as long as we're not careless. Dark energy misaligns your emotions more than our transformations do."
When Yuyami goes on about regulatory bodies, Amy has to speak up. "I mean... to be fair... while accredited organizations can make reccomendations, regulation bodies can be beholden to corporate interests that stand in the way of any research that won't make them enough money... Also she can hardly ask any civil authority for permission to do something with magic when they can't remember it exists. Science is the process of observing the world, then making testable predictions about how it works and testing them."
"Organizations and published journals can be just dressing as easily as labcoats. When's the last time you heard of a replication study or a study with a failed hypothesis being considered an important contribution to the field?"
Amy has lept to the live stage for cover, only for dark energy to come this way. She ducks low, trusting the Live Stage to hold. "Oh, no. It's a... BEAR-bee... with darkness in its mouth and when it barks it shoots... darkness... at you..."
She leaps out of the Live Stage, and in midair summons a version of her imitation Boom Gun that's sized more for use as a regular shoulder launcher. Explosively launching small clouds of tiny flechettes, which scaled down this far aren't an effective anti-armor weapon anymore but are, she hopes, an effective anti-wing weapon. If she can hit those wings!
"Here's a science question: Can you explain how this thing flies with such tiny wings?! And nobody quote Bee Movie."
Also just because they can't punch through tanks doesn't mean hundreds of tiny needles don't hurt to get shot by, although that sap can probably fix the damage fine. She might just be making it mad though...
- Coco Kiumi has posed:
Well, so much for that. Guess she will have to treat this like any other case, and push back against her until they can get her to understand. Whether that's now or in 10 thousand years.
"Wait, you know this thing? I thought you didn't have youmas in KiraKiraFantastica", Coco turns to Hinoiri. Considering how much the air itself was tingling with joy when she visited, it would be hard for her to imagine a youma forming.
"It only hurts because it's the dark energy you allowed in your hurt burning as it's being purified, Kagayaki-san. No need to test things", the idol of the sea replies matter-of-factly to Yuyami. "And it is unsavory. Do you want to destroy what you cherish? That is what dark energy does."
The ring finger on her E-Pitch taps the microphone. "This will help you, and if you won't cooperate, then I will help you anyway. You will feel better later", she promises.
But the laser of the bugbear puts the continuation of the song on hold, and it rages and crackles when it comes into contact with the white light of the Live Stage, piercing through the white light and missing Coco by a hair's breadth.
Even then, the sensation of the dark energy so close to her is enough to send a fit of pain through her head, like the onset of a strong headache. The mermaid princess grits her teeth as she forces herself to focus on the song, and the song only.
Clouds slowly float away, vanishing away as they aim for the rainbow's end
And then the stars, like pearls
can start releasing a powerful, wondrous light.
From the southern sky, a whistling sound could be heard
Yes, this is the time that's finally come, the time for me to become an adult.
While embracing the kind mother's wishes in her heart
She wished that everyone would journey on a miracle-filled adventure
With overflowing tears and prayers, I just don't know anymore
But their still remains a fantasy of a night where stars fall for the shining future!
It takes longer for Coco to gather that same feeling of joy in her heart, and the purification wanes several times before finding a stable point.
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
Incorrect fear response? Really? "As long as you keep ignoring data that doesn't line up with your assumptions, you'll never really learn anything," responds Hope Blossom. "Also I don't know which 'authorities' you're talking about. The Veil isn't something that 'the authorities' are doing." Unless of course the authorities refers to Queen Serenity from 14,000 years ago. "Also while I can't discount out of hand the idea that some mahoujin out there is using actual alchemy powers, I'm not sure why you'd bring up geocentrism when Tux-kun isn't even here."
She is, of course, missing the point. Maybe on purpose. Maybe if Madoka confuses Yuyami enough then she'll question her current life choices?
No, probably not.
A bear laser is firing at Coco, triggering a moment of concern from Hope Blossom, but then that laser starts sweeping towards her and well she gosh darn well better dodge. Hope yelps as she stumbles and leaps backwards, getting away just as the laser tears through the edge of her lap coat.
As she lands, Hope says, "Red-chan's right though. We've defeated things that threaten gods." The pinkette leaves out the fact that she's one of the gods who end up getting threatened. She raises her bow, keeps in mind the comment about the wings, and unleashes another volley of homing arrows that swoop around the youma and try to come at it from behind.
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
The Bugbear's eyes are spared, but its mouth has been slashed open, and Sugata is going for a second slash to even out the mess when the creature begins to snap its jaws and bite, forcing him into evasive maneuvers, slashing at the coming teeth when they get too close - eventually, the creature manages a bite, and Ginga Kingu grimaces as teeth grind against his lower leg, even as he thrusts Diamante up and into the roof of the bugbear's mouth.
"You suspect dysfunction of the amygdala simply because your borrowed beast isn't very frightening to anyone with their own power? Hypothesizing cause without considering all angles of effect is just another bit of evidence that you're not very good at what you do," he snorts, and with another forceful shove up, tears himself free, leaving behind bits of fabric as he does. Thanks to the strength of his henshin, he's not shredded the way a person would normally be after being bitten by a bear, but he's bent one leg to better support the injured one in the air.
Somehow that hasn't chased away his obvious enjoyment of the challenge.
As Amy goes in for a long diatribe however, he states clearly: "Organizations and publishing journals are no more subject to corporate interests than research conducted by a corporation. Particularly research conducted by an ill-educated intern who accepted the first source of magic she found as the one she had an affinity too, rather than attempting to test her aptitude with various forms of magic. Truly, I begin to think that heap of books you toted around with you were mere symbols to demonstrate your wished for intelligence. You have yet to demonstrate a single fact, nor share a shred of evidence - a good deal of show, without much tell."
He raises a hand to the air and a bright light builds in the sky high, high above them. Ginga Kingu raises his voice loud enough for his allies to hear, a necessity without Rashmi's telepathy along on this battle.
"Takuto's been insisting that I should warn people before I do this. Consider yourselves warned."
The glow intensifies.
"King's Pillar."
Blue-white light pours from the heavens in a stream of energy fired as though from the cannons of an immense weapon. The Bugbear and the dome are both caught in the blast, and the areas they're standing in are both pulverized by the sheer force of the energy, sand flattened to glass, trees reduced to pulp and particles of dust, stone crumbled to pebbles.
"Let's see how much your senpai's technology has improved..."
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne was still very flustered, poking her hands together... as Yuyami ranted and raved and... wait. She... she was never that bad, was she? 'Regulatory bodies can't regulate me anymore'.
... Oh gosh, yes, she had been that bad. Oh gosh... But she had NEVER called Riventon... sensei. Oh gosh. She took a slow, deep breath. Watching Yuyami conk herself with a clipboard helped. 'How can a song hurt'? Oh, this girl still had so much to learn about magic.
"Huh. My bear never did that..." Cure La Licorne admitted. "Okay, Yuyami. You want some data? How about this? The people who tamper with dark energy end up overwhelmed by it. They end up trying to destroy the world, end up killed by it, or turning away from it for their own good or the good of others," she said. "There's a whole lot of data about the kinds of magic you're playing with, and it's a *lot* more dangerous than you have even begun to understand if you're still asking questions like how can a song *hurt*!"
She then ran at the bugbear, before her body erupted in flame and she tried to kick the bear! "Ambitous blazer!" However, rather than trying to kick it twice, she kicked... Once.
... One foot still hurt from kicking the dome. However, when she kicked it... She launched herself back, and away?! To... Take cover, back over by Yellow Voice, sliding under one of her stages! "Hey, Yellow Voice! And no, it's not really a youma back home. Just kiiiind of a jerk. Turns out you don't need dark energy to be one, who knew? And a *lot* of trouble."
- Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
The stinger is - for no discernable reason - solid like metal or iron and the blender bishonen smacks against them at first, clanging - but it does a good job of protecting the Bishonen and eventually starting to leave marks in it, as though wearing down the defenses by rerpeated hits, so the bear yelps and shirks away from the Ginga Bishonen for now.
Yuyami just *looks* at the Red Puella. "Uh, I have no experience with what you are going on about? It sounds like you shouldn't be fighting me - you should like, write to your representatives. I kinda want the Bugbear - that's what it is, bearbee just sounds silly, and we made it out of a hornet - to eat you now though. And also it flies because of magic, same as your rockets. Seems silly to bother making them all military-hardware-like, you could just fire bolts of magical explosives. I mean, unless you don't know how."
She does get confused by Hope's arguments, because they're just related enough to be on point but not. The Yellow Mermaid also is singing and throwing her off too - and she yells. "There is ALWAYS a need to test things!" she growls as Coco makes that comment, but the purification is warring with her, and Yuyami seriously wishes they'd made the barrier block sound as well as everything else. "Wait... if it's just sound..." she says, and groans her way over to one of the devices, making some quick on the fly adjustments. "Agh, still sucks, but sucks less..." she says. This has the effect of distorting her voice, making her sound lower pitched and kind of more amusing. "There, see, my science, beating your song." she says in her new lower voice. It's still affecting her a little, but less now.
"You all talk about fearing destruction or danger. And you run into fight our monster for your beliefs. So why would I not be willing to do the same for mine? To understand things fully, sometimes they must be destroyed. From investigating the dead to splitting the atom, science has always come with a little destruction... to save more." she says, directly. "And you make such assumptions, like I didn't try several things. Now who's operating without data!" she growls.
And then outside of all of this is the bugbear. Hope's homing shots track it as it tries to protect its wings, and when they land, it's also opened up for Amy's blasts to slam into it as well. Then La Licorne's good foot finds a good hit as well, sending it staggering back near the dome. In time for King's Pillar.
For a moment everything in the vicinity is brilliant blue. As it envelops the dome, Yuyami's jaw is open wide for a moment. Before she whipers. "amazing..." and scribbles. Then she's not visible anymore underneath the waves of energy...
But when the Pillar ends, the area outside the barrier, including the bugbear's charred and leaking body, shows the devastation of the attack - but the Dome, while pressed back slightly, stands, with the gear and the scientist still within. "I suppose you had to test it yourself, but... I did tell you. It's not going to be something you can accomplish, what with denying an entire source of magical energy." she notes.
The bear is doing less well. It's clearly wounded from the attacks, energy steaming off of it, the sap flowing and hardening into strange lines across its body. And its back, which was closest to the blow, has a full opening on it, where the purple gunky liquid is flowing out of it, revealing some sort of strange device within the creature - similar in style yet different in ways from the four devices within the barrier. And a stream of energy flows out of it towards the barrier for a moment, to reinforce it, as the sap-like filling of the youma begins to harden again.
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
"Warned about what?" asks Hope Blossom, looking up at Ginga Kingu curiously.
Blue.
It's a really really good thing she's wearing ever-glare glasses right now. Even if the pink shine on them has turned purple for a moment. Hope has to blink her eyes a moment or two to get rid of the spots. "Oh geeze. That thing again."
The bear is down. The bugbear is down. Hope Blossom still has spots on her eyes but the youma is healing and they need to strike now.
She draws her bowstring back, charging an arrow as a wall of runic circles and lines appears in front of her.
"Lux Magica!"
As she looses the arrow, it impacts the wall and turns into a wide beam of pink magic, all aimed at the downed bugbear. Then she turns towards the dome and the person inside and asks, "Well? Are you writing that down?"
- Amanda Faust has posed:
"There are no representatives, what are you on about?!" You can just fire bolts of explosive magic-- "I can't actually! It doesn't work that way! ...I think?" She does briefly wonder if, yes, she simply hasn't figured out how to shoot actual 'explosive elemental' energy. What would that even look like?
Has any Puella Magi developed powers in that direction? ...She'll need to ask around.
Sometimes they must be destroyed.
"That's just it! Of course I want to know how my magic works, but also it's keeping me alive! If you have an artifical heart you can't exactly tinker with it to see how it works!"
Amy smiles as she remembers those early days, Chrono telling her she had an artificial Linker Core. "Man, it was kinda cool thinking I was a magic cyborg before I learned the truth... I guess it's still true, in a way..."
Amy 'immediately leaps away from the bugbear and the dome when the Ginga Kingu says 'consider yourselves warned.'
In midair, her head whips around when someone else calls out a _____ blazer! attack name in red text. "Ooh, that's a good one!"
"To be fair," Amy continues dialoguing with Kingu as she lands away from the destruction of King's Pillar, "I also took the first form of magic I found? Like... she might not have the potential for any other kind of magic... or what if, like with me, Kyubey's the only one that offers? Dark Energy may not go anywhere great but you do have to at least acknowledge the possibility that you're asking her to give magic up entirely. And because she has potential? Until she fades, she'll know. That there's more out there and that she'll never get to find out how it works."
"I dunno what the answer is, but you gotta consider your audience, man."
To Hinoiri she notes, "It's also bigger now! They clearly did stuff to it!"
The bugbear is hurt. The barrier looks weakened. Amy smiles and turns toward Yuyami, planning out words in her brain and then trying to focus on Coco's song and feel it and let it fill her -- she bobs and sways to the music a little as she talks, pacing back and forth as if lecturing. "Ya know... I have had to learn so much about optimal shaped-charge designs, and nosecone shapes, and different propellants and explosives and materials... do you think learning how to fly with my own powers wasn't science? That figuring out more attacks I can do didn't involve testing ideas and hypotheses and experimenting?"
"If I may remind you, the reason science supplanted alchemy and ritual is that it works. Predictably, repeatably, the things you figure out can be used to get desirable results. So! Let's put my scientific results and engineering, and your scientific expertise, to a test!"
- Amanda Faust has posed:
"Question one: What's the terminal velocity of one of these?" She conjures what looks like a metal needle an inch wide and about two and a half feet long and casually tosses it -- not point-first -- towards the dome. "And the actual ones are like 70 percent denser than lead."
"Question two: If I go really high up in the air and use a tiny, tiny fraction of the emotional energy of my soul to conjure some, where does their gravitational potential energy come from, and what will their kinetic energy be at time of impact with your shield"
"Work fast! We'll be coming to check your answers at 9.8 meters per second squared! Can anybody throw me high up?"
And as someone does, flames change her costume so the flight boosters can kick in and she propels herself upwards with several explosions as well...
When she returns, it's after a cloud of several of those heavy projectiles, conjured without the rest of the launcher or explosive and simply allowed to fall, abusing magic and physics and having a big stationary target.
She almost fired them, but she wasn't sure off the top of her head if air resistance would then slow them, and also make her speech even more technically incorrect! The last thing she wants is Yuyami pointing out that projectiles fired at mach 5 or so will slow down as they fall, being told the premise of your test is wrong would be embarassing! She needs to look up how to work out if that's the case, later.
Her costumes thrusters and more explosions are used to brake her -- if the tesla crystal things are still intact by the time she lands, she'll just try to put holes in them like normal.
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne couldn't help but grin when Yuyami had to distort her own voice to keep talking. Ahhhh, wonderful. This girl still hadn't learned much about this world's magic... However, she thought about saying something, but went silent. For now?
She cracked her knuckles as she walked out from under the stage of Yellow Pearl Voice's. She launched herself forward, dashing at the bear once more and, as Amy made a callout, she grabbed her by the collar from behind, twisted and LAUNCHED her into the air precure style! She kept dashing at the bear before leaping into the air, her hair radiating with the light of the sun.
"Scorching ray piercer!" The sunrays from her hair turned once more into swords similiar to those of a well-known puellas.
La Licorne, however, couldn't help but feel a little for the girl. She'd been where she stood right now... and admittedly... Well... It was chaotic. More than that, though, it was the words. Have everyone yell at her. The constant arguments. The fighting, the violence hadn't been so bad. But she'd always had to fight and debate with everyone in those battles...
The constant need to defend herself there had always made her double down. Adrenaline pumping... It had been when they were off the battlefield, when the violence had stopped, that was what made the fights so much harder.
... Damn. It. Riv. En. Ton.
WHY WAS THE ONE THING SHE THOUGHT WOULD FINALLY NOT BE RELATED TO YOU ALSO YOU? She almost wondered if it was actually worth putting him at risk by revealing she was Cure La Licorne to him... with a Cure Punch to the Broken Jaw.
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
It would have been pleasant for King's Pillar to have finished everything off, but Ginga Kingu isn't too surprised to find monster and dome alike still standing - King's Pillar couldn't handle a Cybody in third phase either. It would only make sense for their enemies to be as durable, given how much the lot of them have grown under the immense pressure of Tokyo.
Kagayaki's yapping is no longer acknowledged - instead, Sugata is focused on the weakness revealed by the King's Pillar, the opening in it's back, the machinery that shines with energy and light even as it slowly begins to heal -
Calling for Takuto is unnecessary. Diamante is unnecessary, when between the two of them, it's Takuto's sword that fells the great beasts.
Ginga Kingu closes the distance between himself and Ginga Bishounen as Takuto flies back in, consolidating energy in his body, in his hands. "Shall we finish this together?"
The words are meant to be a tease, but they're delivered in a voice too low, eyes dark with intent. When they're close enough to one another, Sugata slots behind Takuto, chest to back, and reaches his arms around him, hands grasping the hilt of each sword, pouring Drive from the mark on his chest, from the two hands clutching the hot energy that is Emeraude and Saphir.
They're so close that Sugata's laughter, warm and husky, shifts Takuto's hair as he leans in to whisper in his head. "It's been a while since we did something eccentric together. Don't tell me you forgot how."
Just a bit of provocation, winding his boyfriend up before they drive home the finish.
- Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"I'm sorry, Kagayaki-san, but the buzzing coming out of your mouth is louder than the bugbear's," yells Takuto, glancing at Amy for a second, poleaxed by her rejection of That Which Stops Navelgazing In Science: Peer Review. "And you're not doing a lot better right now, Red." But he looks back to Yuyami. "All I can hear is 'other people's opinions don't matter to my genius', like a little echo of the boy who had all his previous cute girl sidekicks call him 'senpai' instead of 'sensei' -- and while Red should know better than to discount peer review, you're provably on dark energy and your judgment is therefore compromised."
Sugata gives the warning and lifts his arm, and Takuto SIGHS and rockets out of the blast radius for a moment, flying back to the Ginga Kingu swiftly as the dust settles. As Sugata closes the distance between them and looks at him like that, the Ginga Bishounen starts blushing. For a half second he's confused as Sugata goes past him, but then he's not confused at all, he's blushing fiercely and grinning like his face is gonna break. "Yeah," he murmurs, and leans back into Sugata, opening himself up to the blue-white Drive transfer that will power the eccentricity of their combined attack.
He closes his eyes for a split second as Sugata's hands slide down his arms, and then the energy is filling him up and he can feel it like adrenaline in his fingertips, and then Sugata's voice is in his ear again, and he moves, releasing all their power at once. Tau Eccentric Pillar!
Takuto slams the swords together to make one that blazes green-blue-white, then brighter, then brighter, until it's a white as blinding as arc lights on the freeway at night, and they reach up together, and bring down the immense thing, toweringly long and thick, on the back of the bugbear right where the hole is.
- Yuyami Kagayaki has posed:
"What's really impressive to me is when someone does that sort of thing but by making them fall up, absent propulsion, via magic." Yuyami says to Amy, adjusting her glasses again. "You're retreading old knowledge, and I already learned such things years ago. What I'm seeking is new and un-"
and she gets cut off because Amy's attack still does carry explosive magical payloads, slamming into the creature as it tries to get up. So does Lux Magica, the pink beam of magic slamming into it and both attacks preventing it from recovering. In fact one of its arms is off, oozing liquid from both ends, as the liquid tries to meet and pull the arm back. Still the leaking ooze seems to be coming from somewhere and the machinery is further exposed. The same thing happens with a large wound from Ray Peircer, finally allowing the machinery to be fully, visibly exposed to the open air; the combined work from the others leaves the opening necessary for the Tau Eccentric Pillar to strike home. The creature roars one last time, flickering with Dark Energy, and so does the barrier.
Yuyami looks back at the spear in the center of the barrier, and guages its completion percent. Well, what was it the book Riventon pointed her at said to do in war? When you're strong, appear weak, and when you're weak, appear strong? Yuyami puffs up and laughs. "For as much as you talk about Riventon-sensei, aren't you wondering where he is, what he's been doing when you were all over here, dealing with this large obvious problem? I mean I would be." she says, pleased with herself externally, but due to the lie more than being an effective decoy.
And then Night Hope - in the body of a particularly small little robot familiar to two Gingas - appears. "We must go..." she says. Yuyami nods, and Night Hope puts a small robotic hand on her shoulder to take her through the Dusk Zone, just as the barrier falls and all of the equipment within seems to fade back into the Dusk Zone as well.
- Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne blinked a few times and her mind immediately went to where she imagined Riventon was right this very moment.
Watching or studying this, while doing something else, likely paperwork of some kind. Because why put himself at risk when he could have someone else do that risky thing for him?
She was the one who liked to really get her hands dirty and put herself in the action, to run face first into the magic itself. Was it dangerous? Yup. Of course it was. Why wouldn't it be? But LIFE was dangerous, often. And learning was useful. He liked to learn from reading and watching. She liked to learn by doing. And sure, it backfired on her... a lot...
... But that statement didn't exactly fill her with fear as the youma fell.
She was more concerned with the fact that... Yuyami was working with Riventon. Because, well... She watched her leave and shook her head, before turning and just walking away. Her mind in... many, many places now.
Most of them involved punching a certain dork.
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Why would I be worried about Riventon's location?" Ginga Kingu actually rolls his eyes. "We can guess where he is - wherever he can indulge his kleptomaniac impulses."
The dome has gone down. The monster has died - thankfully, sans an explosion of goo - and Yuyami Kagayaki departs with a small robot that causes Sugata to peel away from Takuto and shoot him a look. "I still can't believe you let them model Tauburn and Wawna for that."
The look is one of judgement, of course, even if he's not exactly peeled himself far away, lingering close.
That said? Takuto isn't the sole target of his judgement.
"If her only option for magic is dark energy, then I am telling her to abandon magic, Faust-san. I know my audience - ignorant and brilliant, and convinced she knows more than she does. Dark energy will destroy her as it destroys everyone else, and if she grows to present a greater threat to the world, then we may have to destroy her. It is in her best interest to quit while she's ahead, and seek other options."
Sugata is simply not receptive to the pity for the magic-less that some have, particularly when that pity comes with an illusion of sympathy for those who choose to wield magic that harms all simply for the sake of having power.
- Amanda Faust has posed:
It was intended as intimidation and distraction. Amy thought she'd nerd snipe Yuyami by giving her a problem she'd be tempted to calculate, with the urgency of needing to know the answer reinforced by a desire to know how much danger she was in. Instead, Yuyami brushes it aside, and instead points out that if she's the distraction, what was Riventon doing? Amy looks concerned, hesitating as she considers the possibilities -- too late does she notice the equipment fading out and BANG! but it's too late, it's gone.
Amy sighs. "Okay. I know I used to be the kind of person who'd watch anime and go 'Well why didn't they just do what seems like the smart thing to me' until I had to live it, but like..."
She waves her hands at where Yuyami was. "Was I ever that bad?! She thinks she knows more about our powers and what we're dealing with than we do and she just... rrrrgh!" She stomps a foot. "It's so annoying!"
Amy sighs. And then she looks over to the Galactic Prettyboy. "And I was saying peer review and basic research doesn't happen enough in the current system, because people are disincentivized from doing the work needed to really shore up scientific understanding in favor of trying to make money. Among other problems. I'm saying I get breaking some conventions, but she's throwing the baby out with the bathwater."
And as for the Galactic King... "I know! But there has to be something... like, she could still study magic like Entrapta does! It's not as cool as what she's doing now must feel, but... it's better than giving up this part of the world entirely."
Amy looks down at the busted-up street, unable to stop herself from wondering if she would really be 'okay with' giving up magic, even with such consolation prize as she's proposing.
Her brain says that the logical thing to do if your magic will only make problems is to stop, obviously, but her heart is silent.
- Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
The Ginga Bishounen vanishes his swords, just luxuriating in the daringness of being close to Sugata in public for a moment-- until the Ginga Kingu makes like a banana and leaves. Takuto looks bereft for a moment, then turns it into ham and clasps his hands over his heart. "He doesn't love me anymore just because my Cybody is more vain than the weather."
Finally, he watches Hinoiri leaving-- he calls out, "HEY CURE LA LICORNE BYE!" and waves, then looks back to Amy and looks-- really, really apologetic. "I honestly-- I couldn't pay attention to everything you were saying. Or, well, most of what you were saying. Because it was the middle of a fight and we were doing stuff. But... she's brand new, she only just got fed the crazy juice, and she's not gonna listen when she's new AND more wrong than a troll doing it on purpose. I mean, you do you, but it felt kind of like we were trying to argue with a book-smart five year old."
He goes over and kicks at the ground where the equipment had been, looking for evidence that a giant needle had shoved itself into the ground right there. "We should get somebody with scannery stuff to look at this place."
- Coco Kiumi has posed:
There is little time for Coco to hear the warning that Ginga Kingu had started giving, between her song starting and ending and the very close call with the disruptive beam of the bugbear that had limited her option considerably.
She could count herself lucky that she wasn't really close to the bugbear when Kingu sent his orbital strike against it, and so her song did what it could to strengthen the Live Stage against the hammering might of his attack, and wait for the pressure to end.
She is not entirely convinced that Ginga Kingu is following the Ginga Bishounen's advice to the letter, but the middle of a fight is very much not a time to start arguing among themselves.
"If Riventon want to have his own rodeo with that bear and another group of us, everyone got to have little joys in their lives", Coco quips back at Yuyami gloating about the fulfillment of her goal.
It has done its job though, and if her gloating is sincere, they have to quickly start contacting others, spreading the message that Riventon was likely doing something bad elsewhere, and if anyone happened to be around.
Considering the project about the likely hastening of the Fade, she is willing to give Yuyami's words enough weight as more than a taunt to save face, or rather she has to. As much as she would have liked to try to talk sense into her again before she disappeared, that was quickly sidelined in her mind by the news.
"You have all heard, right?", she asks slowly, biting her lower lip. "If this is about making the Fade worse, we might have to be a lot more careful about more possible distractions", she considers.
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
"I mean if Riventon does anything too jerky I'll just tell his girlfriend on him," retorts Hope Blossom. Not that she thinks it'll do much good, considering the recent drama with his own brother. It's the kind of retort that Yuyami's attempt to psych them out is going to get, though.
Then any further room for retorts is gone, because so is Yuyami.
Hope Labcoat just kinda silently listens to the exchange between her allies for a moment before responding. "Yeah sometimes corporate interests and politics can get in the way of scientific review, but real scientific progress happens anyways. As long as you aren't trying to decide whether or not sugar is healthy by looking at a study funded by Coca-Cola."
"That girl has been sold on aesthetics and vibes more than truth and inquiry. I think your point was lost on her."
Coco talks about Obsidian making the Fade worse, and she says, "I've heard something about that, but I was under the impression that Riventon was on the other side of it. At least, according to him."
After a moment, Hope Blossom drops henshin, because Rens has opinions about a lot of what's being said and Madoka isn't letting her use her as a mouthpiece! ... Unfortunately Rens is also talking really fast and really squeaky so it's hard to keep track of what she's saying. It sounds really sciency and intelligent, though.
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
"I wouldn't know if you were that bad. We didn't meet when you were that green."
No one else has responded directly to Amy's commentary on that end, so Sugata might as well. When she addresses him directly... well, unfortunately she does so by raising an argument that might be more effective if it were raised to anyone but Sugata Shindo.
"There doesn't have to be anything like that. It's very possible that she could have no magic, no affinity for any other source, and no way to maintain contact with this world after she's purified. But right now, you're over-empathizing with what Kagayaki-san might want instead of what's good for the world, and to a lesser extent, her: removing her from Obsidian by way of purifying her Dark Energy. There wasn't a chance, this time. That should be a priority while it's still the more practical option."
His words are precise and curt, and largely unemotional at that. Her comments to Takuto, about peer review and basic research, raises skeptical brows, but he chooses not to comment on what sounds far too much like conspirational thinking too him. It's irrelevant, though he nods as Hope Blossom takes over the point. Besides -
"Obsidian is trying to worsen the Fade?" His attention focuses sharply at that - the Fade is something he, Wako, and Takuto have discussed rarely, given their limited experience with even the Veil prior to reaching Tokyo. "If that's the case... perhaps Rashmi or one of her fellows should come here, see if any traces were left behind of what Kagayaki did hope to achieve."
- Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy furrows her brow at Ginga Bishounen's comparison. She has been a book-smart five year old, but too long ago to remember. But she can remember being book smart with far less life experience... "Sounds about right, yeah. Well... honestly? Coulda been any internet commenter..."
She looks to Hope Labcoat. "...Not just aesthetics and vibes. Magic. Real magic. Do you remember what life was like before? How exciting it was when your life changed and you became able to Chara Change... and then to become Hope Blossom?"
She's not sure what to say to Ginga Bishounen. "I can't purify, though."
Her eyes widen as she looks at Coco. "Wait... they're making the fade worse? But then why'd they give Hinoiri information???" She nods in agreement with Hope Blossom.
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
"So actually... you know what? We really should not be discussing this in the open air," says Madoka, as Rens continues her squeaky rant about scientific integrity, Global Warming, the differences between how media presents science and how science actually is, something about MeTube, and so on. Madoka just kinda talks over her the whole time.
Madoka starts proclaiming loudly in a really forced, fake, almost sarcastic voice, "OH NO. I CAN'T BELIEVE RIVENTON WOULD DO SOMETHING SO MEAN. HOW HORRIBLE!"
A tiny Labyrinth portal opens up and Kamiko pokes her head out. "What are you being so noisy about?!"
"Riventon is plotting against us! Surely we are doomed!" goes on Madoka, with Rens still yapping behind her.
Kamiko squints. "You know... that works when Homu-chan does it. It doesn't work when you do it. Wait--- are you worried about being overheard? Look, just henshin with me."
Madoka becomes Hope Concept, opens up Wake Labyrinth and turns the place into a cloud world. Then the goddess says, "Okay, now we can talk about this as much as we want."
Rens says, "-- and furthermore... is that ice cream I smell? Hey wait!"
- Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
Takuto shrugs, running his hands through his red-and-yellow spiky-fluff hair, letting it drift in the dusty wind and starting to look around at the devastation. "Sugata-kun..."
And then they're suddenly in Wake Labyrinth and he says, "Making it disappear doesn't make it go away! Sugata-kun there was no barrier. You GOTTA stop doing that." He softens it by reaching to take Sugata's hand and squeeze it.
Then he says, "Honestly I'm not unhappy to reap the benefits if he's helping us and also break his jaw." He looks to Amy and lifts a hand to rub at the back of his neck. "I can't purify either. Wako-chan can, I leave that part to her. Or," he nods in Madoka's direction, "Hope Concept. Or Sailor Moon. Or Mou Fubuki. Or-- you get the idea! It's not something everyone can do. We support the purifiers and make sure they get a good shot. We should have honestly combo'd with-- I mean, next time we can combo with Coco-san, or Hope Blossom, or whoever else."
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
He can't purify either - that's why his suggestion is to defeat her, as quickly as they can, rather than empathizing. "Then I hope you can accept it if she loses her access to this world when someone can."
The devastation? ...Somewhat bad. But quickly gone, as they're transported to the Wake Labyrinth, and Hope Blossom loudly proclaims that they are blaming Riventon and clearly there is more than he was aware of at hand. Most importantly, though, there is a Takuto expressing his frustration, and while Sugata does not pull his hand away, but he does look unrepentant.
"There was no barrier, and no property damage, this time. The surrounding terrain took the brunt, and that can be fixed. Beach combers will probably be delighted about all the glass..." The trees can be replanted. Mature trees are sold - he would know, he'd purchased several for his home! Takuto looks very earnest, and Sugata is decidedly uncomfortable because - "It created an opening that allowed us to destroy the monster."
What's the big deal?
"...comboing with Hope Blossom or Yellow Pearl Voice," yes he's using her full title, of course, "Would have been a good idea if she'd stuck around after the barrier was down - but she didn't. Focusing on the monster seemed the most effective strategy. We three -"
he gestures to himself, Takuto, and Amy -
"Can't purify, so we shouldn't try to talk down the enemy, either. We can't fix them."
- Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco nods when Ginga Kingu suggests purifying her. It would be good for her too if she were purified, but she doesn't think they were going to achieve that today. "She is too set in her thinking right now. We will have another chance next time, and we will be sure to do better now that we know what she is doing."
She scoffs with slight amusement when Rens start going into her rant. Charas really never change. "The blonde girl gives her a last glance and then looks at Madoka, smiling thankfully when the pinkette opens the Labyrinth. "We definitely need to know more. Great idea the Labyrinth, Blossom!."
"The fact she didn't stay is a shame, but you don't get to where you want if you never take the first step", Coco tells Kingu. "We have started warning her, and if she really is as methodical as she says she is, she will have to look into things, and find out her own answers. Even if she doesn't, we keep at it until she does, or we have managed to make her stay."
- Amanda Faust has posed:
"And..." Amy takes a breath, tensing a little. "I'm not good at a lot of social stuff, it's true. I'm not good at... getting by in the world, and meeting expectations of a lot of 'normal' stuff. Honesty, Empathy, Compassion... There's a lot of times when they're a problem."
"But I'm a magical girl." she switches from the flight armor to a magical girl dress. "Shouldn't they be a good thing?"
She balls her fists, drops them to her sides, and looks away, down at the cloudy ground. "...Perhaps not. I don't draw power from that, after all." She looks at her left wrist but her communicator's there now -- oh right, the bow. She looks there, and pulls out a grief seed to remove the little bit of corruption that's started to creep into it. "Thank you again, Coco. Every little bit your song saves me helps." She puts the grief seed away again and turns towards--
It's weird how that happens. Her friend, the one with the pink hair and the round name, becomes hard to remember, while Hope Concept is here.
Can even Hope Concept remember her old self while she's like this?
It's been awhile since Amy's seen her like this, especially in a context where they're not in the middle of focusing on a fight or something. Amanda looks... concerned, as nebulous worries about differences from other magical girls and whether her personality quirks are a liability try to find the right words to come out as, but also bump into the supportive aura of Hope Concept, which stops her from being more deeply concerned about it in the moment.
"Just because we can't purify... Is there really no way our hearts can reach theirs?"
The qustion wasn't really meant to be directed at Hope Concept specifically, but after saying it Amy focuses on her and that feeling of hope as if it might somehow provide an answer.
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
Rens zips off into the distance. She's going on a quest to study the deliciousness of whatever ice cream Kamiko apparently has stored in here.
Hope Concept crosses her arms and nods at Bishounen while smiling. "Of course, I would have been happy to join with Coco to purify her, but I don't think my Open Heart was going to get past the dome. I mean if King's Pillar didn't..."
She glances over to Yellow Pearl Voice and says, "Though... your song was getting through. Maybe I could've helped that somehow?"
Ginga Kingu mentions removing Yuyami access to this world and the goddess winces a bit and frowns. Yet she can't really be too critical considering the way she usually deals with Witches. "Well Kamiko is very loudly pointing out to me that she was kinda talked down, but like... also if we're being honest we basically bribed her by giving her what she wanted: our cooperation in saving a pair of Witches. Purification magic was also involved. Still, talking does in fact work sometimes. I don't think it's wrong to try, but... at the end of the day sometimes you really do just need magic."
She's not sure what to say about the property damage. Wake Labyrinth isn't something she can really do as Hope Blossom, but she still feels a little guilty about it. Instead of thinking about that too much, she smiles at Coco and says, "Thanks!"
"Right so here's the thing. Riventon gave us the Jar of Memories and mentioned that Obsidian was trying to make the Fade worse. The jar is related to that somehow. Riventon likes to imply that he's trying to do the right thing but like... it's what he thinks is right, so who knows? I think he at least wants us to think that he's on our side in this, but that's not something we can mention outside of a Barrier we control. That's the gist of what I know so far."
She doesn't really mention Sayaka by name. She's not sure how much attention the bluenette really wants drawn to her situation.
- Takuto Tsunashi has posed:
"Oh no we can reach their hearts. If they have them. You can talk them down from little things. You can't talk a cult member down from their platform, though, and she won't debate you when she can just make a bear laser you. Maybe just be her friend in school. Be kind, you know? Or you can be the one who argues with her, it's just..." he shakes his head. "I dunno, I guess. Don't give up hope but call for purifier backup."
He nods at Coco, then headtilts at Amy again. "Don't take Sugata-kun to heart. Your compassion and empathy and honesty are really good things! Your timing is just um, kinda shitty."
He looks sheepish about it, but then he says to Hope Blossom, "I have to drag my boyfriend off before he clouds up Red-chan's soul gem," as he curls an arm through Sugata's and tugs. "And tell our girlfriend he wrecked the boardwalk at Yumegahama." And he doesn't just tug now, now he pulls properly. "Later, everyone. Please let us out, Hope Concept--?"
- Sugata Shindo has posed:
"Honesty, empathy, and compassion aren't good things when you're so busy empathizing with the enemy that you make Riventon's arguments for him," Sugata points out coldly. "Or did you think highlighting that Dark Energy could be her only option in front of her was going to help her loosen her grip on the stuff?"
He shakes his head as she transforms from armor into a loose, hyper-feminine dress.
"Surely, you've figured out by now that manga written by people who think magic isn't real isn't a guidepost for our lives."
Hope Concept stands before him, and she's mildly difficult to remember, in the sense that he knows she was someone else, before, and can't quite recall who now. He doesn't care for it - the sense of losing sight of his knowledge, the pieces that matter. She raises points, but also counterarguments to her own points, though Yellow Pearl Voice shares some of that insight, and her own position, and Ginga Kingu nods, shortly. He's being tugged at, and glances at Takuto, and slowly walks backwards.
"Thank you for sharing insight about Riventon. I can't imagine he actually wants the Fade to stop, unless it's so he can rob us before we lose our magic-"
Around then, they're probably let out by Hope Concept, and the last thing they may hear is Sugata complaining -
"I didn't wreck the entire boardwalk-"
- Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy's fists tighten again as Sugata chastises her. "It's honest." she meets his gaze with a determined frown. "I won't use lies and deception to trick her into making a life decision like that! It's... it's wrong!"
Takuto listens, at least. She looks kind of... neutrally frustrated at how talk won't work in the situations they so frequently find themselves in -- well that's always been how life is, really, but it would have been nice if it were different. She looks a bit miffed at being told her timing is shitty. "My soul gem wasn't gonna darken that easily... but thank you."
After the boys leave, she looks back to the girls. "So Obsidian is making the fade worse and Riventon is maybe tryng to stop it or at least to be able to stop certain people from fading. ...Great."
Her fingers go to the soul gem on her chest. "I guess a chance to not feel like we're on some kinda clock was too much not to ask for..." She sighs, and drops her hand. "Hopefully we'll have that data he shared recovered soon. I guess it's hard to say more about the situation until then."
Beat. "Um..."
She looks to Hope Concept. "You don't really... talk about how you feel about..." she gestures vaguely. "I mean... you're the goddess of Puella Magi, kinda, like Sailor Moon's the queen of the Senshi. I guess it's not like either of you have a choice about that, really, but... I talked to her the other day, and like... it made me think of how we handn't talked that much. Although maybe another time would be better."
- Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco nods when Ginga Kingu suggests purifying her. It would be good for her too if she were purified, but she doesn't think they were going to achieve that today. "She is too set in her thinking right now. We will have another chance next time, and we will be sure to do better now that we know what she is doing."
She scoffs with slight amusement when Rens start going into her rant. Charas really never change, and turns to Amy. "You are welcome, Red. You know where to look for me if you need that or healing, or something against turmoil."
The blonde girl gives her a last glance and then looks at Madoka, smiling Rens when the pinkette opens the Labyrinth. "We definitely need to know more. Great idea the Labyrinth, Blossom!."
"The fact she didn't stay is a shame, but you don't get to where you want if you never take the first step", Coco tells Kingu. "We have started warning her, and if she really is as methodical as she says she is, she will have to look into things, and find out her own answers. Even if she doesn't, we keep at it until she does, or we have managed to make her stay."
She smiles again at Hope Concept. "Maybe you could have. I think we could have made a big difference together. We still can, another time."
- Madoka Kaname has posed:
Hope Concept gives Amy an understanding if somewhat sad smile as the Red Puella argues back. The two boys are able to leave almost the moment that they ask, the portal opening to let them out and closing as soon as they pass. None of her friends are forced to stay here against their will, though this part of the Labyrinth isn't that far away from where Koan...
Concept stays silent up until the point that Amy asks her a question, and then she blinks. As if she thinks it's odd that she's being addressed at all. She stares back as if Amy had just looked Directly Into The Camera and asked a question to an audience that wasn't there. Except that she is here and she's not an outsider and why is it so hard to remember that she exists when it's her natural state?
"Eheh... sorry. I spaced out for a moment. How I feel? Um..." Her golden gaze looks up and she tilts her head. "I guess all I can say is that I feel things that I don't know how to express in human language. In fact, a lot of the things I feel in this form don't really carry over when I drop out of henshin. They're so far out of mortal experience that my human body can't even retain knowledge of it."
She taps her chin, and then looks at Amy as she hovers overhead. "I guess when I'm like this I feel like I'm outside, looking in. Like I can no longer truly connect with human experiences. I know that sounds lonely, but it's not, because I see so much kindness, so much love, so many hands reaching out to try and understand one another. The view from here isn't so bad. The world really is a beautiful place, but even though we carry that within our hearts... that beauty remains hidden."
She shakes her head to say, "I don't mean to say that the world is perfect, or even that everyone is kind. Some have shut their hearts off so firmly that they can never be reached, and there is sadness in that, but I'd like to think that there is hope for every soul. To heal. To become better. It's like... how Serenity made it so that the Black Moon Clan could be reborn, hopefully under kinder circumstances, so that they could maybe learn to be kinder people."
The goddess giggles, covering her mouth and feeling a little embarrassed. "Sorry... I guess I went off on a little tangent there. I don't know if that really answers your question. I'm not sure I can really confirm or deny whether or not this is a choice for me, but even if it's not I know that I wouldn't have it any other way."
She glances off into the horizon, frowns, and then says. "Um... I have to go. Rens got stuck in the ice cream again. Just call out when you need to leave, okay? The clouds will make a portal for you."
She then fades away. One of the clouds turn to smile at Amy and Coco. No voice, no words, just an empty, friendly emoticon smile.
- Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy nods and smiles to Coco, and then listens, fascinated, to talk of deific emotions, and makes a mental note to ask.......... her friend again when she's... not this. (Amy's pretty sure there are times when she's not this. Hope Concept literally just mentioned it...)
But one thing the goddess says gets a perhaps unexpected reaction. "You can see it???" She steps forward, hands clasped together under her chin. "In me?"
Although after a moment, she remembers, and drops her hands back down. "Right... I guess a lot of my friends do these days..." Sugata just... touched on old feelings, she guesses.
Whether the goddess responds or not, Amy is left with a cloud.
She looks at the cloud.
The cloud smiles.
"...Can you make the portal open a little closer to Radiant Heart...?"
