[attr="class","star2tsu4"]The wellspring mask shatters, and with it, all of fezandipiti's beauty. Like the rest of the ugly ward's prisoners, the bird is ugly on the inside- scrambling, crawling around, trying to piece together what once had given it the power to charm others. [break][break]
Tsubaki watches, the spell on her heart broken, as the avian grasps desperately at the mask's shards for remnants of love. She can't help but look at it with pity.[break][break]
"You don't get it, do you?"[break][break]
Tsubaki speaks to it, whether her words can reach it or not. [break][break]
"Wasn't love the mask gave you. Was just the illusion of it. It was all fake, like the rest of the tera crystal's creations. Your desperation for love - your desires - were a prison you put yourself in. Now you'll die, alone and unloved."[break][break]
Tears roll down her face, like the mask the bird once wore. She turns away, as the bird's neck is snapped.[break][break]
Two days happen in the span of a minute. [break][break]
The chaos whirls around her as she's thrown, angel-clad against the ship's floor. The parasite releases her as a beam of light from ultra space hits it, and it begins to resonate in the glow. [break][break]
Baki crawls from the black ichor, skin sizzling, but still awake. [break][break]
She looks up. Watches everything, taking it in with horror on her face. [break][break]
A city covered in the veil of night, the same dark she remembers from the end of the dream devoured by the black knight. A lone megalopolan pleads for mercy. For themselves, and for the core of the toxic chain. [break][break]
She's seen what it's capable of. It's dangerous, just like any weapon in the right hands. [break][break]
But does being powerful mean you must die?[break][break]
The holder of the drake of ideals thinks so-- that must
Remiel Calcifet's ideal world, a world where everyone is weak. Those who have the strength to do what they please are put to death. No trial, no chance at redemption. Judgement at the hands of a god, for daring to step out of line. That's his 'justice'.[break][break]
The black knight steals life, as he has stolen everything else. He takes, and he takes, and he takes. Now,
Zev Harcourt wants even the freedom of the megalopolan general. To chain him, as he once was chained. Will his hunger ever end?[break][break]
An exemplar steps forward next, one of its storied heroes. A shining beacon for every officer in the land, bastion of hope,
Greyson Connors stands at the ready. And like every officer Tsubaki had ever met, save one, he answers a plea for mercy the same way they would always answer hers-- with abject violence, and intent to kill. [break][break]
Next is the bearer of one half of creation,
illeana reyes. She is incensed. She is ruled by fury. The powers of creation are wielded for nothing but the act of destruction, tearing at a Rocket that dares rise against the elite four member's hatred. [break][break]
Finally, Tsubaki glimpses the councilwoman,
freya morningstar. The woman she's placed her trust in. The woman she sees in herself. She watches, as her mentor casts her lot in with
Elisabeth Fiorelli-- violence for different reasons, but violence all the same. [break][break]
Where does the distinction lie between them in the end?[break][break]
"No... stop!"[break][break]
She mutters helplessly under her breath, knowing she's powerless to do anything about it. She turns her head down, unable to watch. But before she can succumb to that helpless feeling, he catches a glimmer of red in the corner of her eye, and turns. [break][break]
Hideo Kino,
Eris Halla, and
Cassandra Kubrick gather around one another and begin to forge something red. Something she recognizes from Eris's story back in the simulation. A gift bestowed by angels, to reign in the rampaging gods.[break][break]
A red chain. [break][break]
She watches as
Melody Miro and
Isaac Merlo lend their support, and the physical barriers of
oscar clayton's and
Navy's Urshifu are erected to hold back the tide. Tsubaki scrambles to her feet, offering a brief glance to her Nihilego, floating amid the light cast from Ultra Space, lost in a dream.[break][break]
No. You don't deserve to die just cause people have used you.[break][break]
There's no time. [break][break]
No. You don't deserve to die just cause you've hurt others.[break][break]
No time to wake Manju, nor to grab another ball at her belt.[break][break]
No. You don't deserve to die just cause you've made mistakes.[break][break]
She runs, and hurls herself in front of the Urshifu, Cyllora, Pecharunt, and everything else, trying to shield them with her body.[break][break]
It's all she can do. [break][break]
mY1FWO6u
[break][break]
+ @everyone[break]
+ tl;dr - tsubaki watches, disillusioned by her peers; the effort by eris, hideo, and cass (plus more) to spare cyllora and pecharunt break her out of her disillusionment, and she tries to shield the urshifu, cyllora, pecharunt, and anyone else with her body - with no concern for her own well-being
3XDLKNcC
