Girls get love, Toys get broken [Currently open for anyone]

Mirja went to the kitchen, and Cultivated, for ten hours that she did every day. Still feeling like each ten hours was a drop in the ocean, even with her Iramasha Gem. But hey, every ocean was fed by a thousand rivers. She'd work at it and eventually she'd get there. With a very crippling definition of eventually. Still, she woke after the ten hours and started to grind up medicine for Ceal, creating a lot of paste that stunk to high heavens. Which was sort of the plan of the person who made the formula. His subtle punishment for getting wounded in the first place.

She then went to Ceal, and smeared it over her wounds, before returning to the kitchen, and making breakfast. It was a simple affair of porridge and oats, but she thought it might entice the fox girl. Unfortunately, Mirja spent twenty minutes trying to coax her to eat something before finally just strapping her down to the built in restraints on the bed and pouring the food down her throat with a funnel. Because fuck if she was spoon-feeding anyone. Mirja didn't have the time, patience, or mentality to do something like that.

And then she stared, letting her out of the restrains after breakfast was finished with.

"You know, I don't know what has happened to you, and I don't really care. It is yours to say if you ever will. But just know that you aren't leaving this bed until you recover, and I sure as shit ain't cleaning up after you. So you better recover pretty quickly or this room is going to start to smell bad. Honestly...we were just getting somewhere and then you go and pull a stunt like this. Makes dumping you back with Arianda for Rakki's sake an appealing prospect..."

Ceal's slumber was full of dreamless sleep. Nothing but darkness for hours. It would be hard for her to understand the passive of time while her physical form slept. Still, she just sat, her knees tucked into her chest and her face buried in them. She looked like a little girl lost, separated from their parents in a scary, foreign place. She appeared this way but the reality was she had placed herself here. Away from the pain, away from the anxiety, away from everything so she didn't have to feel at all anymore. This was what she wanted for herself. Given up, defeated and broken.

One of the very few fires that kept alight within her was the thought of Mirja, the thought of her domineering presence providing her life some semblance of stability, some measure of order midst the chaos. Other figures in her life didn't even compare. Not even Mana, the wonderful queen who had given her a secondary purpose, who replaced the sun in her heart with a glorious dark star. She idly thought of how much she wanted the asthavon queen to be next to her, to erase her fears and replace them with autonomy. At least she would still be able to find some use at being her weapon.

There was some solace in these thoughts, but it wasn't enough to pull her from the bog she had swamped herself in. She just didn't care enough. In this bog she barely even felt the other 4 senses while she watched through her eyes up on the canvas that played her life in front of her.

There was... something on her body, she thought it might felt slimy, thought it might smell terrible. A sluggish mind could only tell someone that it was basically some sort of medicine, though she didn't know what for, somehow forgetting -or not caring- about the cuts she had inflict upon herself.

The girl hadn't even reacted to food before her, not wanting and unwilling to eat. She just wanted to waste away into obscurity, so food no longer held meaning. She didn't desire anything that was felt undeserved, which for a person as cracked as her, felt apt. Eventually, she was forced to eat it regardless if she wanted to or not. Mirja would not take 'no' for an answer.

Just then, she heard words. Again they were Mirja's. Or course they would be, She would be the only one she would see for likely a long time. Her lazily drooped ears didn't even twitch to her comment, not giving any recognition she'd even heard the fox speak. She just laid there, on the bed, the bags on her eyes not completely gone yet.

It was fine, anyway. She didn't deserve this woman. She didn't deserve anything. It was a mistake for her to assume she could go on with her life as if she wasn't supposed to die that night. Inami had made it painfully clear, just as Mirja did, just as many others, Ashlei included. She was a pathetic excuse for human existence.

Mirja was not one for threats. She was one for action. And so when she told Ceal that she was not going to force her to get better, or to try and coax, coerce, and convince her to return, Mirja meant it. She just waited for a few seconds, and then rolled away outside to do some farming. Outside, with her tool in hr hands, things were simple. She split the earth, put in seeds, and then tilled the earth back so it would have a warm bed. Looking on at her herb bed as she had finished, slightly sweating from the sun and the exertion, she wondered why Henrex had brought Ceal here. What was Mirja going to do? She was the opposite of mental stability.

She could torture Ceal. Twist her mind like putty to suit her needs, to use this situation to turn Ceal into more of a toy for Mirja when she wanted something to play with. Something to torment, and something to scream beautifully for her while she pushed it to it's edge and then forced it to collapse into a puddle of bodily fluids. But why? That was just the sobs of her soul, so brutally wounded by the world. And now she had Niflhiem to sing too, she didn't need something to torment. Mirja looked back into the house, and shook her head. if Ceal couldn't recover on her own, then she was best off laid up in bed until she died. Mirja was not going to be there to hold her hand through everything, not now she had people so important to her. Niflhiem was hurt by the idea of Ceal, and that had immidiately driven a wedge between Mirja and any further plans for the Fox girl. Now all she could do was keep Ceal around because there was literally nowhere else for her too be.

What was she even doing here?

She was a human with an expired license on life. A pathetic existence of a person. Just what even was she by this point? What happened to the happiness, the color in her life? How did it end up like this? It hurt to live, it hurt to try. She was locked away in this abyss in an attempt to give her time to think, time to consider. To observe her emotions from afar objectively, tactfully.

Is that why it came to this? In the end she knew.

She knew that Mirja didn't love her. That was the truth. She was a wolf in the very heart of the word. Selfish, loner, conniving. She lured the fox in, gave her a false sense of purpose just after re-nicking on the whole thing. She let her in, but for what? To make it all the more beautiful just before the fall?

In the end Mirja had to know this would happen, that the disconnect between the two of them would end in something like this.

She was so stupid.

Passively, the energy from Ceal's seal of Eris leaked out. It influenced the air around her, warping the walls, the bed she was on. The lights of the room dimmed as the tattered cowl from Ate manifested over her shoulders, hooding herself, shrouding her face. She had lost all semblance of control over herself, over the seal. Ate was more than happy to accommodate her into the pits of hell, to lead her right into the path of her fall.

It was the easiest transition into her Chasm Revival she'd ever had. She didn't have to think, she didn't have to move. She just merely knelt down on the ground in front of the bed, the cold, hard surface soothing to her bare knees.

”By chains of delusion... be bound.” her voice was weak and emotionless. Like a doll programmed to say words. They were empty, hollow as she chanted. ”Witness the fall of a Nation.... Be reborn in the age of Calamity. This, I pray: Ruination Seraph ”

This would be the final time she would chant those words. Her power surged around her, building, overwhelming. It screamed out. Howling as light clutter among the room fluttering about from the eerie power. Ceal's soul was screaming, crying out. The pain she felt was being unleashed all at once, her energy depleting quickly as the aura ravaged the walls, tearing at the bed, at the dresser, the shackles, everything.

The broken girl was crying, tears falling from her reddened eyes now. Her whispering banter spanning across anyone who had the Seal of Eris, telepathically linking her to them. It was accidental in her loss of control, but anyone with it would know immediately her heart's desire. They would know she would be taking her own life.

Scarlet fluid dripped from Ceal's mouth, her fangs digging into her lips, breaking the skin and drawing blood as she let out a strangled grunt. Her arms were hugging around her as she lurched forward, her eyelids painfully open, an expression of pure agony, of pure madness in her eyes as memories flashed before her.

People she had met, people she had lost, they appeared in her mind one after another. Henrex, Arianda, Inami, Aiko, Mana. ….Mirja.

Ceal let out a pained gasp, a near yelp as she jerked her hand, grabbing at her chest so hard her claws dug into the flesh. Even this pain, even it felt so... unfulfilling to her. Nothing could over power her emotional void. Her heart had bled dry. Her life force had been metaphorically flowing from this metaphorical wound all this time. She needed to find something to close it with, to plug it with in the form of love. A form that she never got from the one person she wanted it from.

Mirja.... Why..

She began to tremble now, her emotions reaching a breaking point mixed with the amount of blood she'd already lost. Crimson splotches stained the floor as wounds in her chest continued to bleed.

Everything just hurt so much. Mentally, emotionally. There was no reason for her to be here anymore. There was never one to begin with. When her family died was the day she should have too. She would join them. It might be a few years late, but eventually... she'll see them again. She'd see them again and Mirja would no longer have to worry about the baggage she manipulated into tagging along with her. It was over.

It was over; and it was too late.


Ripples from the walls appeared, signifying Ceal was summoning up several bladed chains, all of which thrusted directly at the girl, impaling her in several places on the torso. She couldn't help but react to these with a jerk, another strangled grunt and a bloody cough.

Even this..... Even this didn't hurt as much as the wound in her heart though. The pain of rejection, the pain of betrayal.

Finally, just as the last bladed chain snaked it's way ever so slowly to the girl's throat, she cupped up some of the dripping blood in her hands, using her finger to draw a small phrase on the floor.

“I'm sorry”

The demonic red hue in her eyes began to fade now as her energy reserves ran on low, her stamina sapped as blood flowed freely from the several chains that had impaled her. In fact, the very life of her eyes began to fade as well. Her consciousness once again slipping.

Then, with a sleight of her hand, it was done.

The final blade ran it's steeled surface cross her throat, causing a cascade of crimson.

She would be dead within moments. The girl known as Ceal would have expired from this world in that time.

'Maybe you were a little cruel, you know? Ceal looked to be in really bad shape and to just leave her to get better on her own without help...' Hvit chipped in. When an Inner Hollow was telling you that you had been cruel, then it was time to buck up and listen.
"I...uhh, Hvit. I can't, ok? I can't go in there and play nursemaid. I can't care for her like she deserves because I just, can't bring myself to do that" She exclaimed and squeezed the hoe as hard as she could. And it pissed her off that the dam thing didn't break. This weakness, this uselessness, she hated it beyond anything else.

"I can't love Ceal. Because if I do, then she is just another thing to be used against me. I can't care for her because then when I lose her, I don't know if I can handle it. So I just keep her here because she loves me more than anything and I am wholly undeserving of it. I hate saying it, even to you. Because saying it forces me to acknowledge it. Rather than allowing myself to just ignore it" Mirja shook her head, but turned back to the house anyway. "But you are right. I can't just leave her all alone. I should show her some support. As a friend, if nothing else"

And so Mirja rolled her way back into the house, and opened the door, immidiately assailed by the stench of blood. And not just a little blood like she had reopened her wounds either. Cursing loudly, Mirja rolled swiftly to the bedroom and saw Ceal bleeding to death from multiple cuts, inflicted by her very sharp blades. Mirja had first hand experience how well those cut.

"No...Bitch! You just? Why?! Gyahh! You had to go and do this when I had no way of fixing it and still...." Mirja cut herself off. There was blood everywhere, and Ceal was still pissing it out of multiple wounds.
'I know what you are thinking and no! You can't do that. You will die. I know you've had some close shaves and always scrapped through them, but this is not one of them. There is no doubt, no way to avoid it. And there will be no resisting through tenacity. I will die, you will die, we will cease to be!' Hvit shouted, inside Mirja's head. But she had already made up her mind.

"But Ceal...will live" Mirja muttered. And then she ignored the rest of Hvit's rants and focused herself inwards. To say she had lost all of her powers was a lie. The truth, was that she couldn't use them anymore. Her body had been stripped of that capacity, and her Reiryoku ran amok. But she could still dip her fingers into the stream of Spiritual Power, and grasp it, guiding it towards a purpose. The only problem was, the power would tear her asunder. Leaving nothing but bits of Mirja all over the place. Not exactly how she wanted to go, but to save Ceal, a girl that loved beyond sanity....well, there wasn't much worse.

'Just my luck to get burdened with the craziest girl in the world' Hvit said. With a tone of amused resignation. 'You'll die in seconds. Let me help' And so Mirja felt a Hollowfied hand on her own as she grasped her Reiryoku and began to use it. To have Hvit with her in these final moments was more than Mirja could ask for. Truly, she was a nutjob to have her closest friend as literally a voice in her head. But when had Mirja ever had anything remotely resembling sanity?

The hit to her body was immediate, and it was painful. She felt bones shatter, blood thicken in her veins, she coughed enough blood to make a dozen black puddings, and her vision took on a red tint as blood vessels popped in her eyes.

But she still managed to raise a hand, and channel her energy through it. Her arm muscles tore apart, and her bones shattered into shards as the berserk Reiryoku tore through it, holding it in place by sheer inertia of the Spiritual Power within in. There she drew the Runic Symbol, Urd, and focused her energy and her will into it. Seconds into the act, her heart did not merely stop, but actually exploded from the tension. Mirja slumped in her chair, energy still following her final command as she was only still alive because she deemed it. And then the rune was complete, and it's power flew forward, fastening onto Ceal and sealing her wounds in an instant. It then propagated new, fresh blood to replace that which had been lost, and gifting Ceal with one last thing. A vision of a smile from Mirja, and an ingrained drive to live on. To flourish and prosper, in memory of the wolf.

And then Mirja's body fell apart. Skin was ripped apart, bones, organs and nerves snapped and flayed her body from the inside, before she fell apart, leaving bits of Mirja all over the floor, and her chair. While she had managed to survive some wounds before, the total dismantling of her body was not something that the Wolf was going to come back from. And yet, there was a soft voice in Ceal's head.

"No, little Fox. It is I who am sorry. For all I have done to you...."

Fade, Fade Fade.... Fade to black....

That was all she saw. That was the only thing left for her now. She had killed herself. She had died. Her body felt heavy, felt numb. The brief little bit of her sanity had felt a small tinge of regret from it. Was this the body's own way of invoking whatever survival instinct she had? Heh, how funny. It was absolutely hilarious to think about. Ever since that day, she had been on this quest to find just the right way to die. She finally found it. She would die here today, what would happen with her soul? Nobody knew. She sure as hell didn't. The only thing that mattered is her dying here today would immortalize her love for Mirja. To go into the soul society or wherever she'll end up for eternity loving Mirja.

Heh, she really was a dummy... that wolf. She was so hung up on that quincy that she never noticed her. She never saw that all of this, the kink and the smiles, the searching for her and the speeches. She never noticed that was all because she loved her. She would die here, would that finally tell her? Would she finally notice her now? She wouldn't have to worry about her getting caught out by her enemies and dying at least. Maybe she would keep some part of Ceal for herself as a keepsake. She could take the collar back now, if she wanted. She could hang it up in remembrance.... How silly that all sounded when you were dying.

….Until you weren't.

The rush back to reality was jarring, it was like a hand gripped her from the other side by.... well, her whole body and pulled her back in. She was back, in that dark room. The one she killed herself in, she was there and the stench of blood was everywhere. Slowly, sluggishly, she looked down. Her clothes were destroyed, in tatters and bloody. Nothing was sticking out anymore and she started to flip out.

What could have happened?! She felt disturbingly invigorated for someone supposedly dead! Her wounds? Gone, her blood? Well it still caked her clothes but there was not a trace on her body. She tried to wipe her chin off, but alas, it had since dried. So did the pools around her, some were dry, others were cold. She... how did she come back? Her mind was going a mile a minute to consider what it was. She was looking around and it didn't take long after her eyes adjusted to figure it all it

She shouldn't have figured it out

Literally anything but this...


”M-M.....Mirja... Mirja, where are you wh-!” Her voice was low and shaky, she called out to the room, fighting back the urge to vomit. If... If what had happened she thought happened. Mirja's chair was there, Mirja's chair was there and remnants of flesh and bone scattered about the room. It was scattered but it was easy to tell it originated from that chair!

”N...No... No, No! No No No No No! Mirja...?! Mirja?!”

The girl became more hysterical by the minute, her voice cracking. She was desperate, but she was in denial. She was in denial for as long as it could be before the logical part of her brain pieced it all together. A sinking feeling was in the pit of her stomach, it was unlike any other. This was not... it. This was not what she wanted at all! She... She.. Mirja...

Mirja must have sacrificed herself to save her!

This was not what she wanted, this was a joke.. right? IT was all some joke or a nightmare and she was actually just living in hell right? They say that people who commit suicide go to hell right? That's it! They must be tormenting her because she took the easy way out right!? It was all just an eternal nightmare!

Then... laughter filled the room, it filled the room and it came from Ceal, none of this was real! It was all fake news and she was the one to call them on their bullshit. But.. that laughter did not last, for as the fit of momentary insanity faded, all that could be heard from her was sobbing. It was such a pained and anguish sobbing that only perpetuated itself the longer this nightmare lasted. It was no nightmare.

She had really killed her loved wolf.

”Mirja.... Mirja. Mirja. Mirja.. Mirja... why....?”

Ceal. Couldn’t this brat go a single day without some kind of trouble arising? Or atleast, that was the thought that went through inami’s head as she sensed distress within her fellow agent of chaos, her dear dear brother. It was such a pure unadultered fear and rage that it was jarring to the senses. Enough to spurr the lazy queen into action. Her thoughts racing, chaotic and incomprehensibly all over the place as she tried to make sense of the situation. ” Whats going on, has ceal become injured? Has my dear brother encountered some entity that is a threat to him? Why do i have this bad feeling in my stomach?” These thoughts and many more bounced within the queens head as she tilted her head back and for lack of a better term, ripped a hole in the frabric between demon world and the world of the living, honing in on that familiar signature of ceals as she bridged the gap and teleported.

Soon, as she passed through the dimensional space, a pinprick of light expanded from a dot in the distance. In this dark space, between the realms it was as if with every moment the fears she had emboldened to run amuk within her mind. However her fears, her . . . emotions hadn’t prepared her for the sight that greeted her as she ripped through the dimensional space, her feet gently striding from the tear to land upon a floor that was dyed red with the blood of a life that had been reclaimed by the embrace of oblivion.

The coldness within her. As her eyes surveyed that scene it caused an ache within her that was impossible to quell. Her heterochromatia glanced at the parts of a body that laid here, strewn about this place as her expression darkened as she could feel the spiritual residue of the very energetic wolf it had once belonged to. The wolf that she had crippled, the wolf she had pushed away so that she would learn a lesson that she needed to have hammered in her head. The wolf that had always tried to forgive her, the wolf that had tried ceaselessly to pull her closer to the light. A pure soul whose mission was tomfoolery and an irritation that had weighed upon inami’s soul.

Because the darkness often cannot stand within the light. Because the light often causes the darkness to cease to exist. Mirja shined brightly, too bright sometimes. With such . . . Obtuseness. Inami hadn’t known her well but the thought that crossed her mind was not how did this happen. Because the tears of ceal easily made it clear that the girl had done something that had resulted even if unintentional in the death of this strange anomaly of society. So inami’s first action was not one of mourning for the dead. No, instead as the girl cried, as she sobbed from the sorrows of what was lost, of the life that had left this earth too soon, She bridged that gap.

Her motions had no inflection of maddness, there was no sultry smile. There was no curve of the lips and glinting hints of madness within her eyes. No, there was a weariness so raw that it spoke of a soul that had endured and survived more than anything shoul have too. It spoke of a soul that wished for release, but knew it could not have it. She merely kneeled in a motion that was as smooth as water, her moon kissed limbs curling around ceal. One of them moving around her waist to draw her back against her. The other carefully covered her eyes, the feeling of ceals warm tears as they flowed ceaslessly from her eyes was enough to cause the queen of brutes, the dictator of the nation of strength to bite her lower lip faintly.

The motion was hard enough that blood dripped from inami’s mouth as she exhaled and said to the girl, to ceal in a tone that was soft, and hushed. Far from the monster that she had been to ceal that had almost driven her to death. No this voice was careful, as if she was dealing with a being that could break with the faintest touch. As if dealing with a being that was already almost broken.

”Shh.. Shh… It’s okay. Shh. . .still your tears dear one. . Just rest for me, sleep. Listen to my voice and drift into a dreamless slumber. “

Her voice was hypnotic as inami utilized her zao ka’s influence to warp the world around them, manipulating the very chemicals in the air to create a concoction that would cause ceal to essentially pass out. Her motions as soft as a mother doting upon their child. She did not smile, she did not mock. She merely held the girl until she fell asleep before she once more looked at the sight before her. A sigh escaping her lips as she spoke gently.

”Maybe, just maybe. . . You might have shined too brightly poppet. A star that burns it’s brightest quickly will burn itself out and fade away. That might just be what fate had for you, a method of balancing the scales, of setting the world right again. “

The queens voice, usually so sure and smooth, so. . Calm and contained had something happen to it that was quite unthinkable, or atleast to those who knew her was unfathomable. Her voice became hoarse as she exhaled and cleared her throat, the somberness of her tone was soft and hushed, while she continued to speak.

”..It’s a pity. . . because i wished to see you grow, and blossom. I wished for you to shine radiantly in the muck of this world. Only light can combat the darkness that dwells around it. To provide shelter for the good that it brings with it. Maybe though its because you were such a light. . . “

An exhalation left her mouth as she mumbled softly, a tendril of darkness leaving her lips and fading into the air as she slowly stood with the girl who had been knocked out. Holding her with the one arm that was curled around her waist. Gently the duo would begin to float in the air, her words echoing gently.

” It’s sad, because you will die without a grave, not even befit to be ashes. . . Because we both know, that if i leave this place intact, ceal will ruminate. She will continue to come here, and beat herself up. She will destroy herself trying to find a way to come to terms with what has happened. I cannot allow her to feel such pain anymore. I cannot allow her to once more slip into this destructive cycle. Thus, this is a little secret between me and you as you depart to the next world deary.”

As they floated further, inami’s body began to glow like a dark star as she glanced down upon this place. The place that mirja had lived after inami had crippled her. The home that wasn’t grand. This home that did not befit her. Inami’s hand splayed as within it darkness gathered. Inami’s lips curved in a haunting arc, the chill of them laying in the sadness that obviously mired them. Yes, not insanity, not remorse and not glee. Sadness that was as encompassing as a sea.

”Let the world think you were smote. Let them think that something terrible had transpired here. Let them come, and let them mourn. And let ceal at last find peace from this cycle of hatred. “

Soon as inami’s hand opened, a single orb rose from it, 50% of her entire energy reserves slowly becoming ammassed as the queen entered her puppet god x state. It grew until this orb finally exploded and was released as a blast that would rock the entirety of the country that this house was in. It would erase the house, and reduce everything within miles of this location to merely a desolate slag of rock, unbefitting of life. Cracks marred with magma would boil from below.

As inami looked at burning wreckage, at the blast that roared out at the heavens. At the desolate waste that now was before her? She averted her eyes and raised her hand, and cut a lock of ceals hair from her body, and then utilized it. Wasting another 25 % of her energy she utilized it to create a shell of ceal, the energy was close enough to ceal as well for the purpose that she needed as she spoke gently.

” From now on, ceal will be free of this pain. She will be safe . . thats all that matters.”

As she spoke she blew up the vessel that she made, having it’s body parts splattered across the ground, ripped apart across miles, while the “fake “ ceals head rolled into the center of the crater. To any onlooker it would look like she was brutally ripped to pieces. Her ribcage ripped open, bones broken back in a macabre display of sadism. This body would be all that was left to those who arrived on the scene.

Thus with her work done she receeded back into the portal, making sure the location absolutely stank of her energy before she said one last time.