2015-09-30 - The Essence and the Descent
| Title: The Essence and the Descent | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Queen Beryl issues a challenge to every protagonist at once. | |
| Who: Queen Beryl | |
| Where: Your Reflection | |
| OOC - IC Date: 09-30-2015 - 08-28-2014 | |
The event occurs precisely at sunset, when the last sliver of a burning red summer sun vanishes beyond the horizon.
The next time you see your reflection --
-- in a mirror --
-- or a window --
-- or a drink --
-- or the door of the train --
-- your eyes catch the light, and burn an inhuman, demonic gold. They aren't your eyes at all, but eyes that have seen civilization rise and fall. Eyes that watched the world burn.
Eyes that want to watch it again.
They meet yours, and are supremely unimpressed, coolly sizing you up and finding you so wanting that you hardly deserve to be a footnote in history.
And the lips of your reflection move of their own volition. You hear a voice, and it isn't yours, but a seethingly rich contralto, impregnated with the malice that only multiple lifetimes of dedication could hope to bestow.
"Greetings," Queen Beryl murmurs with your face, the nicety itself a melting facsimile of a benevolent leader, and an incredibly intense challenge, all at once. Her eyes blaze. "I grow weary of these endless skirmishes through Tokyo. Tomorrow, humanity will be wiped from this world by these very hands."
Her gaze flicks down to the hands of your reflection, and she smiles, an expression that has nothing to do with happiness. The threat is a promise sworn on her very soul -- and yours.
"Stop me if you dare. I shall even show you where, children of this rotten era. The world will be reborn in ice -- and fire, into... my... image."
A flash draws your gaze away from your reflection and up to the sky, where what can only be described as a pillar of darkness, rather than a pillar of light, is jetting upwards into the sky like a geyser torn from the heart of the world.
It comes from the North, and always will, until it is reached.
By the time you look back, your eyes are your own again, but you can't quite shake the feeling that you're still being watched... that the paradoxically, comparably pale shadows cast by the black energy in the sky might have enemies lurking in all of them...
...especially in yours.
OOC: Every protagonist has this experience. It is an IC invitation to find a way to the North Pole for the finale. The Tuners will be sending helicopters; the Magic Association is opening a portal. Many magical girls have their own, unique means of transportation as well. The 'dark aurora' in the sky is also reported on news networks, and is a source of considerable, worldwide wonder and bafflement.
