HOTARU
She's in a long black coat tonight
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
Is it crueler to use their daughter as bait in a way that ensures she will witness what will come? Hotaru doesn't know - maybe she never will. In fact, the rug is so swiftly pulled from beneath her feet that her reaction is utterly instinct.
He lunges - she meets him halfway in the knee-jerk response to brace over Flora, back utterly bared to him in an effort to shelter her daughter. But once it's clear those hands and appendages reach for her -
Hotaru screams, formless but terrified.
Every cognizant part of her brain shrills and alarms as she writhes, skin shifting in gruesome waves in desperate attempt to find a suitable counter to Remi's grip. Scales, feathers, fur. Electricity sets her hair to floating, but the confined quarters and surrounding ocean - Flora, Flora is still right there - don't hurt her, can't hurt her - ensure it remains caught beneath her skin.
In disturbingly chaotic layers the Valkyrie floods the space with the violence her body can't safely carry out; the shrill of her voice, the Attuned bond's simultaneous echoes of each spoken word, the secondary emotional spill of utter terror and denial wherever his hands touch her skin. No, please please no "- I didn't do anything -" wrong! She isn't here. She's everywhere she's been before; tiny newborns being taken from her hands, empty beds and filled graves, a shattered unicorn horn in someone else's palm, a veil of flames and a wall of bars. Hotaru is no stranger to having everything taken away because of her mistakes. But where did she go wrong? Her only plan was to leave. Has he been waiting all this time to tie up the loose end she's always been to an otherwise perfect family?
Desperately she rips her magic to the fore and tries to reassert it over Flora with an animalistic scream of, "SLEEP!" Don't let her watch her mother die the way I had to. There is no other ending to this violence that she can think of, not with Ronin's name echoing in her ears. So she fights. She fights with every drop she has left to give. Every talent, shift, and magic. Claws, teeth, venom - anything that might loosen Remi's grip. Ru knows she can't win this fight even without the handicap of Flora's presence. Her fighting is just a testament of her spirit. Given she hasn't rested since the transmission, it won't be much of one either.
What a fitting, cruelly ironic punchline.
What few tethers she may have instinctively reached for in this moment - Sunjata, Deimos - they are far away with no hope to intervene. And Gods she wants to be with her sons at last, but she promised Enzo she would live. Frey, she sobs with every ounce of worthless soul the herald once saw fit to remake. It's functionally worthless - Hotaru came to this world tainted and unwanted by its gods, she's never known the security of answered prayers - but like a dying soldier calling for their mother halfway across the world, it's an instinct she can't fight.
- - -
Magic: Compulsion | Outside of a KQ/PQ+, can influence a target within 10ft of her to do something they would realistically find themselves doing. In a KQ/PQ+, gives disadvantage against 1 target within 30ft. ((END+LUCK+d100 contested roll).
Type: Dark | Rank: Upgraded
He lunges - she meets him halfway in the knee-jerk response to brace over Flora, back utterly bared to him in an effort to shelter her daughter. But once it's clear those hands and appendages reach for her -
Hotaru screams, formless but terrified.
Every cognizant part of her brain shrills and alarms as she writhes, skin shifting in gruesome waves in desperate attempt to find a suitable counter to Remi's grip. Scales, feathers, fur. Electricity sets her hair to floating, but the confined quarters and surrounding ocean - Flora, Flora is still right there - don't hurt her, can't hurt her - ensure it remains caught beneath her skin.
In disturbingly chaotic layers the Valkyrie floods the space with the violence her body can't safely carry out; the shrill of her voice, the Attuned bond's simultaneous echoes of each spoken word, the secondary emotional spill of utter terror and denial wherever his hands touch her skin. No, please please no "- I didn't do anything -" wrong! She isn't here. She's everywhere she's been before; tiny newborns being taken from her hands, empty beds and filled graves, a shattered unicorn horn in someone else's palm, a veil of flames and a wall of bars. Hotaru is no stranger to having everything taken away because of her mistakes. But where did she go wrong? Her only plan was to leave. Has he been waiting all this time to tie up the loose end she's always been to an otherwise perfect family?
Desperately she rips her magic to the fore and tries to reassert it over Flora with an animalistic scream of, "SLEEP!" Don't let her watch her mother die the way I had to. There is no other ending to this violence that she can think of, not with Ronin's name echoing in her ears. So she fights. She fights with every drop she has left to give. Every talent, shift, and magic. Claws, teeth, venom - anything that might loosen Remi's grip. Ru knows she can't win this fight even without the handicap of Flora's presence. Her fighting is just a testament of her spirit. Given she hasn't rested since the transmission, it won't be much of one either.
What a fitting, cruelly ironic punchline.
What few tethers she may have instinctively reached for in this moment - Sunjata, Deimos - they are far away with no hope to intervene. And Gods she wants to be with her sons at last, but she promised Enzo she would live. Frey, she sobs with every ounce of worthless soul the herald once saw fit to remake. It's functionally worthless - Hotaru came to this world tainted and unwanted by its gods, she's never known the security of answered prayers - but like a dying soldier calling for their mother halfway across the world, it's an instinct she can't fight.
- - -
Magic: Compulsion | Outside of a KQ/PQ+, can influence a target within 10ft of her to do something they would realistically find themselves doing. In a KQ/PQ+, gives disadvantage against 1 target within 30ft. ((END+LUCK+d100 contested roll).
Type: Dark | Rank: Upgraded
singing "Baby come home" in a melody of tears
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
