hello (heart)gamers. im here w some special guest stars

[finalbows]

WHO: all who dare enter angie's literal mind palace. it's OPEN HOUSE! no invites needed!
WHERE: in front of miku's salad (and yours)
WHEN: evening 73.

[ in the middle of running a perfectly innocuous miniquest, Angel Devil falls down.
His clothes have twisted away into bone-white rags, leaving a body covered over with only thick swathes of red fur, and downy feathers. His long tail is curled into a tense arc, banded fur standing on end.

The air wavers like he’s a heat mirage, not a man. He’s boiling away with absolutely stupid amounts of arcane power… and, most frighteningly, he does not seem in control of the fact that it is there and being brought to bear. It’s impossible to get any closer to him.


When he speaks, it’s quite timid. ]

Oh.
Oops.
...Thought I had... a little more time.

[ (and in a blinding flash of light, there is the sound of something breaking.) ]

~KRRSHHK~

[any observers will see, strangely see-through and superimposed on the scene, some kind of vast tree, illusionary roots twisting over and around to frame a door.  the door itself is wrought of opaque stained glass in blacks and whites and greys; a stylized rendition of Angie in that strangely ragged, feathered form, curled in on himself, eyes closed.  Angie himself is nowhere to be seen. ]

instead, a shadow . . . steps into view from behind the door.  for a moment it looks like nothing so much as a second genome – then it turns, gaining features and definition with the movement.  The monkey tail separates into three plumes; a ponytail unfurls into wings that lift up from the sides of the head.  

Teleute(?) is here, dressed in her customary black, but there is colour in her skin, and her hair and eyes are blue.  she’s frowning.]

. . . well.  This is the least I can do before I go, in exchange for the safe harbor.

[she lifts her head, nodding to any observers, and gestures at the door.]

You’ll want to head in there now if you don’t wish to lose your flockmate, I think.  Even the false-death of this place won’t be much help to him, if his soul is left to finish pulling itself apart.

My sisters and I can maintain the way into and out of it for you, but we were not made to knit such wounds by ourselves.  Have a care.

Comments

[electricflock]

Yeah, is one kind of view. Sometimes. I can fly, so isn't as much for me, but lot of people will go up towers or go hiking just to see. But is about having interesting things to look at too! Like pretty scenery or cool buildings. Or sunsets, if are above ground.

[finalbows]

[ added to the mask: little stripes of red, painted in to accent the eyes. faster than anything else they've said-- ]

"I would find a view of a sunset preferable."

[electricflock]

[waves his hands above him, imagining swathes of clouds across the outcropping above them]

Would be best view! All reds and golds! And purple clouds.

[finalbows]

[ reaches up a hand in the air, mimicking him. ]

"Red and gold... together...
I... if the opportunity was available...
...I would..."

[ the mask has fully changed shape.

the final dam breaks. all at once, as his hand clenches into a clawed grip, the body beside him looks like Quetzal. after all, it's always been him. he just needed the help to get there.
his voice is raw with yearning. ]

"I want to see it. I want to see it-- if only one more time...!"

[electricflock]

[reaches for him, wrapping his hands around quetzal’s and pulling it down to his chest]

—Only one more time? Is… Have to see more. Have to, are all different.

[finalbows]

[ CLINGS. like he's his lifeline. and, well. he is.]

"Can I. Really...?"

[ ...in the wall beside them, it seems a new entryway has opened, lit by red.

...the fingers clutching his, fade away.
The love in Quetzal's heart, his appreciation for beauty, have both been coaxed back to life...


But it feels like there's something left unsatisfied, right? ]

[electricflock]

Quetzal!



[alone again. muffin picks himself up off the hard ground and gathers his masks. the scenery that made a quiet refuge seems silent and isolating now, but he’s not so alone, is he? everything around him is Quetzal.

muffin looks towards the red light]

[finalbows]

[ that red is for the glow of fire, far overhead and raging down below. ]

he's still on Terra, but... in this vision of the dead world, its perpetual stillness has been replaced entirely
by a terrible spectacle of destruction. Darts of deadly mana zip through the air, crashing into whatever they can and blooming into dazzling displays of blue, purple, heat and light-- and fire, in their wake.



there's a visible epicenter, to all of it. ]

[electricflock]

[yelps an alarm call like a swear and ducks, flinching away from the sound of explosions. he's never seen destruction like this. he's never even seen a movie to imagine a disaster like this. the urge to run and hide is almost overwhelming, every instinct begging to panic, but the danger isn't the most alarming thing. not with where he is.

muffin stows his masks and shifts quickly, leaping off the ledge and winging towards the center of the wound]

[finalbows]

[ the epicenter, of course, is named quetzal.


he hangs in the air like he's been strung up with puppet strings, hand outstretched with wilting exhaustion, as these unfathomable pyrotechnics pour forth from his palm.

his face is covered over by a smiling red mask, yet there is not a shred of joy evident within him. ]

[electricflock]

Quetzal!

[flaps around him, hovering. he makes a short attempt to land on the extended arm before flitting back into the air again. aaaaaaaa.]

Stop!

[finalbows]

[ his hand drops.
that red devil's mask begins to be eaten away by blue, like a paper burning up. ]

"This day was the birth of the greatest desire I've ever felt... ugly, isn't it?"

[electricflock]

Is… something! I wanted to um, have abandoned? Left to decay. Forget Terra.

1/2

[finalbows]

[ shakes his head. ]

"Well. Now you know the truth.
...this is the day I learned I was to die. I felt such an incredible desire, in those moments... not to live..."

Sorry for leaving you on the 1/2 had an appointment

[finalbows]

[ he stretches his arms out to his sides, as if embracing the chaos--]

"But to destroy! Anything, everything in sight! Until there's nothing, absolutely nothing left! I wanted to rend across the cosmos the story of my pain!

it builds TENSION

[electricflock]

[instead of chaos, he’s getting a distressed gryphon trying to land on his chest]

Did it work?

1/2 🥴

[finalbows]

[ he rests
a hand upon that gryphon's delicate, feathery head.
the most dangerous part of him, in this moment;
the main point of contact with the world of this live wire of anguish. ]

"No."

2/?

[finalbows]

"I still feel it."

3/4

[finalbows]

"I still feel that hunger. It just doesn't end! For so long before the highest height-- never ending, however low the simmer, after-- as long as I exist, it's never! Going! Away!"

4/4

[finalbows]

"It's never.
Never...

...
I could make you just a cinder like this, and part of it, it would kill me, but I'd never be able to stop thinking about how-- how much I--"

[electricflock]

[he could. would muffin even flinch? he presses his head into quetzal's hand, eyes shut and huddling into his arms, like climbing into the middle of a fire for shelter]

You want to live.

1/2

[finalbows]

"I.
Want to live."

[ the blue starts
to vanish, from the mask. ]

"...but as long as I'm alive, Muffin, I'll never... want anything more..."

2/3

[finalbows]

"Than I've wanted to see people H̸̖̣̯̼̺̠̰͓͔̰̠̫̳̬̗͙̒͗̾̔͘Ù̸̫͆͋̋̈́͛͘ͅŖ̵́̌̑̐̐̆́̀́͗̃̄͒̕͠T̶̗͙͚̭͔̦͓͉͙̹̘̈́̓͒̇͛̀̂̀̿͂͌͗̑͜ͅͅ!"

Including--
You!


[ then everything around them, everything, including the hand squeezing tight, too tight--

is fire, heat, and light.

where the darkness had swarmed him before, muffin's drowned in the light: ]

3/3

[finalbows]

[ and is faced with another choice, from disembodied Chaos voice.]

~ which mask to wear? ~

MASK OF NO MEANING
"Actions matter more than feelings alone."

MASK OF CRUELTY
"It's just one more part of you."

[electricflock]

[muffin turns in circles in the light, searching blindly for quetzal, he needs to go back he didn’t send that part back

when Chaos speaks, he lashes out furiously at the interruption. he grabs for the black mask and then, growling, makes a grab for the white too]

Is both! One gives meaning to other!