06-25-2016, 04:30 PM
“Talk? Wait, whuh-- what about?”
Suddenly I feel uneasy, looking at my-- er, Purple Heart’s-- face. There’s something about me-- er, her-- that’s not quite right, and I can spot it almost immediately. Which, I’ll admit, is a bit uncharacteristic for me.
...Okay, very uncharacteristic, but you get my point.
Her eyes narrow to the point that if they were tangible, the power buttons in her eyes would be getting squished. “You never were the brightest, were you?” she comments, lifting her boot from my stomach. I take in a long breath, noticing as the rather great amount of pressure that was placed on my is alleviated, I can actually breathe again.
Huh. Hadn’t noticed I wasn’t breathing, I think to myself and stand up, gasping a little.
“You see, we’re supposed to be working together, running Planeptune as we see fit and to the best of our abilities,” she begins to explain. My eyes roll the moment I understand where she’s going. “I’m the muscle of this operation and you’re the brains. Wrapped into one, we’re the perfect leader, no question about it,” she continues. As I listen disinterestedly, I note that she’s walking circles around me, easily two arm’s lengths away from me at the least.
Distance doesn’t seem to mean much here, though, I note, what with this place seemingly stretching out as flatlands forever and ever.
“However,” she adds, seeming almost irritable all of a sudden, “it’s clear one of us isn’t doing their job right.”
I immediately feel hot and uncomfortable all over my body. I manage to conceal that feeling by playing dumb, though. “Aw, c’mon, I’ve been busting my tush over here. Obviously it’s you that’s the problem - you haven’t even been here for the past--... uhhh…”
I take a moment, tapping my chin and thinking. Purple Heart-me is not amused. “How long has it been?”
“Two days at most,” she comments. “I’ve been here, but you’ve been weak, so I haven’t been able to help.”
I beam, continuing the dumb act. “So it is you! Don’t worry, since you’re accepting the blame, I’m not gonna punish you or anything. Besides, you’re me, so that’s gotta be some kind of masochism or something--”
“SHUT UP!”
I let out a little eep and cover my ears as Purple Heart-me lets out an incredibly powerful bellow. It doesn’t really take a lot of time thinking to realize we’re not exactly on good terms right now. “What’d I do?”
She sighs and, in a blur, appears before me. She presses a finger against my chest accusingly. “You only just picked up the slack two days ago is my point. Unless you have to, you don’t do anything is what I’m trying to say. If you had me to lean on here, you wouldn’t be working as hard as you are.”
As she speaks, I notice Purple Heart-me’s eyes look almost… reddish-orange in colour. For a moment I try and see if I can remember a time that happened to me, but it’s not ringing any bells. I can’t help but shudder a little, wondering what’s even going on.
...Nope, no dice.
“Whaddaya mean, I don’t do anything?” I shoot back, mimicking the accusing finger of Purple Heart-me. “I do lots of stuff! Like that one time with the Dogoos--”
Purple Heart-me glares at me. “That was ages ago. You humiliated yourself, then got help from me to make yourself look like you weren’t a complete fool by saving Noire.” She laughs a little and continues, “unless you mean that one Dogoo you fought here, in which case, OH, BRAVO. What a wonderful job you did, defeating a single cannon fodder monster all on your own,” she says, applauding and giving me what had to be the most sarcastic expression to ever be worn by anybody ever.
I grit my teeth and exhale hard out my nose. I try and think of something, anything I can toss in… my own face, but nothing comes up. Nothing that couldn’t be used against me, at least. “What’s your deal, anyway?!” I shout, frustratedly materializing the Holy Fang Blade. I separate it from its sheath, discard the sheath and grip the hilt of the blade in both hands. “If you’re trying to piss me off, then good job, you did it!”
A smirk crosses Purple Heart-me’s face. She materializes what looks almost like my Trinity Blade, though it appears to glow the same reddish-orange colour as her eyes did. As I make that observation, I check her eyes and see that colour in them.
This can only be bad.
“A fight to the death?” she says arrogantly, taking the battle stance I know all too well - wings appearing behind her, with her blade running diagonally across her flight-readied body. “It’s been too long!"
In what feels like a blur of movement, Purple Heart is upon me, hacking and slashing away at me. I barely manage to turn the flat of my blade towards her, flipping and turning it to try deflecting her attacks. I notice, through my frantic attempts at blocking, that one stab manages to make it past my sword, cutting a hole in my parka dress but fortunately not breaking skin. I immediately return my focus to defense - but I can’t just defend forever, I decide, so I need a plan… some way of getting through my own defenses.
My mind immediately turns to the serrated edge of the Trinity Blade. If I were to catch the Holy Fang Blade in one of the nooks on the edge, I could push it in the opposite direction of the swing and try to throw Purple Heart off-balance. That could give me the opening I need.
In practice, it might not be so easy, but it’s all I have so far.
I grunt, pushing Purple Heart backwards with my blade, sending her hovering backwards into the air. It’s hard to do that, what with a CPU with Hard Drive Divinity active being significantly more powerful than a CPU in human form, but I manage, panting and sweating already. “Getting tired, are you?” she teases, her expression turning slowly sadistic. “How about you turn in early, then?”
She does just as I hope - she flies toward me with her blade high over her left shoulder. I need to push it away… so my weak arm is my left one, which means I’ll want to make her rely on that. So I’ll push left and down!
With a shout I clash swords with myself once more, focusing all my might into disarming her or at least throwing her off. I look into her fiery eyes for a moment - she’s powerful, but she certainly wasn’t expecting that, based on the look of fear behind the flames. “I’m the brains, huh? You must be pretty DUMB, then!”
With one last push, I hear a gasp escape Purple Heart’s lips and her weapon leaves her hands. With hope renewed, I attempt to plunge my blade into my opponent’s chest--
Only to feel resistance. Very powerful resistance, in fact. My eyes widen and I look up to Purple Heart, who appears confident as ever. “And I’m the muscle. I’m stronger than you.”
It’s then that I notice the sword I had just disarmed had reappeared in her hands. A little indent had been made on the blade’s flat where my thrust had landed.
There’s so much I want to say. You couldn’t possibly have recalled your sword that quickly, for instance, or how did you do that, or ANYTHING, really, but nothing comes out.
Unfortunately, Purple Heart sees fit to knock something out: the wind from my lungs as she knees me hard in the stomach. I wheeze and fall over on my side.
“Well, that was disappointing. I don’t know what I was expecting, though,” she complains. “You really never were the brightest. You had your morals and your friends, but without me to give you power, you would have neither.”
I cough and gasp on the ground, my shaky arms hugging my chest. The Holy Fang Blade has its point embedded in the ground in front of me - if I had it in me, I would stand up and pluck it from the ground, but I just feel so drained.
“Wha-- wait,” I say, struggling to sit up. “One… one question.”
Purple Heart sighs. “What now?” She sticks her sword in the ground and folds her arms. “I’d really like to just get this over with.”
I attempt to focus on Purple Heart’s eyes for a moment. “What’s the deal with your eyes? I’ve… never seen me like that.” A weak cough escapes my lips as I finish my sentence.
For a moment she seems almost puzzled, then a smirk crosses her face. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a little storytime for the one about to die. I’ll explain, and then I’m in charge. Deal?”
Rookie mistake. “Deal.”
She starts off, “there are a few points you’ll remember that I need to tie together for you to understand all this with that peabrain of yours. First, when you lost your memory. Second, when you regained your status as a Goddess. And third, before you lost your memory.”
Even though I had said I didn’t want to know who I was before I lost my memory, my interested piqued just now. I can’t say why, to be honest, but I kind of wanted to know. That, and I had the feeling it would help me figure out who exactly this was. I got the feeling this wasn’t really me.
“So when you lost your memory,” she continues, “you didn’t have your powers as a Goddess. You remember that, right? You were just podgy little Neptune with a wooden katana you found in the trash. Then when the need arose, Histoire managed to force you into HDD.”
My composure returns as Purple Heart speaks, and my breath comes with it. I blink and raise an eyebrow. “Okay, I know I could drop a few pounds, but what’s your point?”
“I’m getting to that,” she replies somewhat angrily, then continues calmly, “when you regained your status as a Goddess - after Arfoire had stolen it from you - that means of regaining your power was strikingly similar to how Histoire gave it back to you. The catalyst was faith: in the case of after your memory loss, it was Histoire’s faith in you to save your friends. In Arfoire’s case, it was the people’s faith in you as somebody responsible for heroic acts.”
“I think I’m getting the point here,” I respond. “But what’s so important about before I lost my memory?”
“Right, the part that involves me,” she replies. “A CPU’s power is linked to her identity. When you lost your memory, your identity was buried away in your mind, so when you became Purple Heart again…” My heart skips a beat.
“...That Purple Heart wasn’t the same one as I am.”
My eyes widen and my jaw drops. “So-- you’ve been acting this whole time?!”
“Partly. I’ve been watching - I’ve always been able to - and seeing how stupid you are is frustrating. Very frustrating. Now, then--” she smirks. “Time to die, airhead. I want my body back!”
So I need faith, I think. I’ve found faith in one person and I’ve found faith in a group of people. So if it doesn’t matter how many people believe in me, that has to mean--
Squared-off, dark greenish zeroes and ones storm around me. I look up and into Purple Heart’s eyes - she’s shocked, to the point that her blade is lifted over her head, ready to cut me down, but it isn’t moving. She seems almost captivated…
And it’s then that I feel different. Powerful, unlike I’ve ever felt before. My eyes dilate and adjust - everything looks a little bit more blue than it did a moment ago, and a pair of very faint power buttons appear centered in both of my eyes.
A few words rush through my mind: BLAST PROCESSING ACTIVE.
“If nobody else will… I’ll have faith in myself!”
I recognize my voice. It’s deeper, it’s more commanding - it’s Purple Heart’s. The Holy Fang Blade embedded in the ground becomes the Trinity Blade - it whirs to life, glowing purple as I take the hilt in both hands.
The tables have turned, I think, taking my flying battle stance. “It’s time that we end this!”
In anger, not Purple Heart lashes out at me chaotically, but I find that with an incredibly unfamiliar sort of speed, I quickly overwhelm her - I match each blow of hers with one just slightly more powerful until eventually she’s on the defensive, sweating at the brow and visibly panicking. “No… no, it’s not supposed to end like this,” she hisses. “IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO END LIKE THIS!”
I let out a battlecry and slash hard at not Purple Heart’s Trinity Blade. It shatters, leaving behind zeroes and ones in its place. I kick my opponent back down to solid ground and stop hovering, planting my boots on the earth once more. “You made one mistake,” I declare proudly. “You took the monologue bait.”
At last I plunge my blade into not Purple Heart’s chest and, in a flash, she vanishes, leaving behind a cloud of binary. I let out a sigh of relief and, suddenly, feel a little bit uneasy. Maybe I’m not quite in the right condition for a transformation right now…
Suddenly I catch something - a voice, Purple Heart’s voice. You will reach the greatest heights the Omniverse can offer, it says, or you will plummet to its greatest depths.
My eyes widen. Your fate is as the Omniverse's new Goddess, or as a failed usurper in its Hell.
I hear a sound like something shattering and suddenly feel weak. Consciousness slips between my fingers and everything goes black.
Suddenly I feel uneasy, looking at my-- er, Purple Heart’s-- face. There’s something about me-- er, her-- that’s not quite right, and I can spot it almost immediately. Which, I’ll admit, is a bit uncharacteristic for me.
...Okay, very uncharacteristic, but you get my point.
Her eyes narrow to the point that if they were tangible, the power buttons in her eyes would be getting squished. “You never were the brightest, were you?” she comments, lifting her boot from my stomach. I take in a long breath, noticing as the rather great amount of pressure that was placed on my is alleviated, I can actually breathe again.
Huh. Hadn’t noticed I wasn’t breathing, I think to myself and stand up, gasping a little.
“You see, we’re supposed to be working together, running Planeptune as we see fit and to the best of our abilities,” she begins to explain. My eyes roll the moment I understand where she’s going. “I’m the muscle of this operation and you’re the brains. Wrapped into one, we’re the perfect leader, no question about it,” she continues. As I listen disinterestedly, I note that she’s walking circles around me, easily two arm’s lengths away from me at the least.
Distance doesn’t seem to mean much here, though, I note, what with this place seemingly stretching out as flatlands forever and ever.
“However,” she adds, seeming almost irritable all of a sudden, “it’s clear one of us isn’t doing their job right.”
I immediately feel hot and uncomfortable all over my body. I manage to conceal that feeling by playing dumb, though. “Aw, c’mon, I’ve been busting my tush over here. Obviously it’s you that’s the problem - you haven’t even been here for the past--... uhhh…”
I take a moment, tapping my chin and thinking. Purple Heart-me is not amused. “How long has it been?”
“Two days at most,” she comments. “I’ve been here, but you’ve been weak, so I haven’t been able to help.”
I beam, continuing the dumb act. “So it is you! Don’t worry, since you’re accepting the blame, I’m not gonna punish you or anything. Besides, you’re me, so that’s gotta be some kind of masochism or something--”
“SHUT UP!”
I let out a little eep and cover my ears as Purple Heart-me lets out an incredibly powerful bellow. It doesn’t really take a lot of time thinking to realize we’re not exactly on good terms right now. “What’d I do?”
She sighs and, in a blur, appears before me. She presses a finger against my chest accusingly. “You only just picked up the slack two days ago is my point. Unless you have to, you don’t do anything is what I’m trying to say. If you had me to lean on here, you wouldn’t be working as hard as you are.”
As she speaks, I notice Purple Heart-me’s eyes look almost… reddish-orange in colour. For a moment I try and see if I can remember a time that happened to me, but it’s not ringing any bells. I can’t help but shudder a little, wondering what’s even going on.
...Nope, no dice.
“Whaddaya mean, I don’t do anything?” I shoot back, mimicking the accusing finger of Purple Heart-me. “I do lots of stuff! Like that one time with the Dogoos--”
Purple Heart-me glares at me. “That was ages ago. You humiliated yourself, then got help from me to make yourself look like you weren’t a complete fool by saving Noire.” She laughs a little and continues, “unless you mean that one Dogoo you fought here, in which case, OH, BRAVO. What a wonderful job you did, defeating a single cannon fodder monster all on your own,” she says, applauding and giving me what had to be the most sarcastic expression to ever be worn by anybody ever.
I grit my teeth and exhale hard out my nose. I try and think of something, anything I can toss in… my own face, but nothing comes up. Nothing that couldn’t be used against me, at least. “What’s your deal, anyway?!” I shout, frustratedly materializing the Holy Fang Blade. I separate it from its sheath, discard the sheath and grip the hilt of the blade in both hands. “If you’re trying to piss me off, then good job, you did it!”
A smirk crosses Purple Heart-me’s face. She materializes what looks almost like my Trinity Blade, though it appears to glow the same reddish-orange colour as her eyes did. As I make that observation, I check her eyes and see that colour in them.
This can only be bad.
“A fight to the death?” she says arrogantly, taking the battle stance I know all too well - wings appearing behind her, with her blade running diagonally across her flight-readied body. “It’s been too long!"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In what feels like a blur of movement, Purple Heart is upon me, hacking and slashing away at me. I barely manage to turn the flat of my blade towards her, flipping and turning it to try deflecting her attacks. I notice, through my frantic attempts at blocking, that one stab manages to make it past my sword, cutting a hole in my parka dress but fortunately not breaking skin. I immediately return my focus to defense - but I can’t just defend forever, I decide, so I need a plan… some way of getting through my own defenses.
My mind immediately turns to the serrated edge of the Trinity Blade. If I were to catch the Holy Fang Blade in one of the nooks on the edge, I could push it in the opposite direction of the swing and try to throw Purple Heart off-balance. That could give me the opening I need.
In practice, it might not be so easy, but it’s all I have so far.
I grunt, pushing Purple Heart backwards with my blade, sending her hovering backwards into the air. It’s hard to do that, what with a CPU with Hard Drive Divinity active being significantly more powerful than a CPU in human form, but I manage, panting and sweating already. “Getting tired, are you?” she teases, her expression turning slowly sadistic. “How about you turn in early, then?”
She does just as I hope - she flies toward me with her blade high over her left shoulder. I need to push it away… so my weak arm is my left one, which means I’ll want to make her rely on that. So I’ll push left and down!
With a shout I clash swords with myself once more, focusing all my might into disarming her or at least throwing her off. I look into her fiery eyes for a moment - she’s powerful, but she certainly wasn’t expecting that, based on the look of fear behind the flames. “I’m the brains, huh? You must be pretty DUMB, then!”
With one last push, I hear a gasp escape Purple Heart’s lips and her weapon leaves her hands. With hope renewed, I attempt to plunge my blade into my opponent’s chest--
Only to feel resistance. Very powerful resistance, in fact. My eyes widen and I look up to Purple Heart, who appears confident as ever. “And I’m the muscle. I’m stronger than you.”
It’s then that I notice the sword I had just disarmed had reappeared in her hands. A little indent had been made on the blade’s flat where my thrust had landed.
There’s so much I want to say. You couldn’t possibly have recalled your sword that quickly, for instance, or how did you do that, or ANYTHING, really, but nothing comes out.
Unfortunately, Purple Heart sees fit to knock something out: the wind from my lungs as she knees me hard in the stomach. I wheeze and fall over on my side.
“Well, that was disappointing. I don’t know what I was expecting, though,” she complains. “You really never were the brightest. You had your morals and your friends, but without me to give you power, you would have neither.”
I cough and gasp on the ground, my shaky arms hugging my chest. The Holy Fang Blade has its point embedded in the ground in front of me - if I had it in me, I would stand up and pluck it from the ground, but I just feel so drained.
“Wha-- wait,” I say, struggling to sit up. “One… one question.”
Purple Heart sighs. “What now?” She sticks her sword in the ground and folds her arms. “I’d really like to just get this over with.”
I attempt to focus on Purple Heart’s eyes for a moment. “What’s the deal with your eyes? I’ve… never seen me like that.” A weak cough escapes my lips as I finish my sentence.
For a moment she seems almost puzzled, then a smirk crosses her face. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a little storytime for the one about to die. I’ll explain, and then I’m in charge. Deal?”
Rookie mistake. “Deal.”
She starts off, “there are a few points you’ll remember that I need to tie together for you to understand all this with that peabrain of yours. First, when you lost your memory. Second, when you regained your status as a Goddess. And third, before you lost your memory.”
Even though I had said I didn’t want to know who I was before I lost my memory, my interested piqued just now. I can’t say why, to be honest, but I kind of wanted to know. That, and I had the feeling it would help me figure out who exactly this was. I got the feeling this wasn’t really me.
“So when you lost your memory,” she continues, “you didn’t have your powers as a Goddess. You remember that, right? You were just podgy little Neptune with a wooden katana you found in the trash. Then when the need arose, Histoire managed to force you into HDD.”
My composure returns as Purple Heart speaks, and my breath comes with it. I blink and raise an eyebrow. “Okay, I know I could drop a few pounds, but what’s your point?”
“I’m getting to that,” she replies somewhat angrily, then continues calmly, “when you regained your status as a Goddess - after Arfoire had stolen it from you - that means of regaining your power was strikingly similar to how Histoire gave it back to you. The catalyst was faith: in the case of after your memory loss, it was Histoire’s faith in you to save your friends. In Arfoire’s case, it was the people’s faith in you as somebody responsible for heroic acts.”
“I think I’m getting the point here,” I respond. “But what’s so important about before I lost my memory?”
“Right, the part that involves me,” she replies. “A CPU’s power is linked to her identity. When you lost your memory, your identity was buried away in your mind, so when you became Purple Heart again…” My heart skips a beat.
“...That Purple Heart wasn’t the same one as I am.”
My eyes widen and my jaw drops. “So-- you’ve been acting this whole time?!”
“Partly. I’ve been watching - I’ve always been able to - and seeing how stupid you are is frustrating. Very frustrating. Now, then--” she smirks. “Time to die, airhead. I want my body back!”
So I need faith, I think. I’ve found faith in one person and I’ve found faith in a group of people. So if it doesn’t matter how many people believe in me, that has to mean--
Squared-off, dark greenish zeroes and ones storm around me. I look up and into Purple Heart’s eyes - she’s shocked, to the point that her blade is lifted over her head, ready to cut me down, but it isn’t moving. She seems almost captivated…
And it’s then that I feel different. Powerful, unlike I’ve ever felt before. My eyes dilate and adjust - everything looks a little bit more blue than it did a moment ago, and a pair of very faint power buttons appear centered in both of my eyes.
A few words rush through my mind: BLAST PROCESSING ACTIVE.
“If nobody else will… I’ll have faith in myself!”
I recognize my voice. It’s deeper, it’s more commanding - it’s Purple Heart’s. The Holy Fang Blade embedded in the ground becomes the Trinity Blade - it whirs to life, glowing purple as I take the hilt in both hands.
The tables have turned, I think, taking my flying battle stance. “It’s time that we end this!”
In anger, not Purple Heart lashes out at me chaotically, but I find that with an incredibly unfamiliar sort of speed, I quickly overwhelm her - I match each blow of hers with one just slightly more powerful until eventually she’s on the defensive, sweating at the brow and visibly panicking. “No… no, it’s not supposed to end like this,” she hisses. “IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO END LIKE THIS!”
I let out a battlecry and slash hard at not Purple Heart’s Trinity Blade. It shatters, leaving behind zeroes and ones in its place. I kick my opponent back down to solid ground and stop hovering, planting my boots on the earth once more. “You made one mistake,” I declare proudly. “You took the monologue bait.”
At last I plunge my blade into not Purple Heart’s chest and, in a flash, she vanishes, leaving behind a cloud of binary. I let out a sigh of relief and, suddenly, feel a little bit uneasy. Maybe I’m not quite in the right condition for a transformation right now…
Suddenly I catch something - a voice, Purple Heart’s voice. You will reach the greatest heights the Omniverse can offer, it says, or you will plummet to its greatest depths.
My eyes widen. Your fate is as the Omniverse's new Goddess, or as a failed usurper in its Hell.
I hear a sound like something shattering and suddenly feel weak. Consciousness slips between my fingers and everything goes black.
![[Image: KBSao70.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/KBSao70.jpg)