Life Moves On

Life Moves On
Date of Scene:	25 May 2013
Location:	Cornelia
Synopsis:	The Hyral sisters discuss their future...
Cast of Characters:	Kyra Hyral, Alma Hyral

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Alma Hyral has posed:
Well. That was, liberating.

She'd learned just exactly how far Souji Murasame had fallen. And even though Abramson still had a hold on her.. it was lessened by her resignation.

And so the first thing she did was trade in her Ma Belle and Linkpearl for new ones.

The second thing she did was go to Cornelia, to the inn where she knew she'd been staying at. She was wearing the same dress she'd worn during that day in Costa Del Sol again, with the scarf wrapped around her neck and shoulders. Her hair was allowed to flow freely, and she was carrying nearly everything she owned in a small briefcase at her side.

When she reached the inn door, she knocked briefly. Then she removed her Ma Belle, and Linkpearl, shut them off, and stuffed them in the briefcase.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Those looking for Kyra will find her easily enough. Of course, she's made it clear to the rest of Alexander Academy where she was staying in case they did need to find her! But lately this place was starting to grate on her.

The lack of technology, it was. She wanted somewhere that at least had running electricity! So at this moment, she's packing up her things and preparing to ship out in search of a more suitable city that, subconsciously, is a lot like more her home continent.

There's a knock at the door to her room. "One sec!" Kyra finishes stuffing something into her duffle bag before heading to the door, opening it to find... Alma there.

Her gaze goes flat. "Hello Alma. You feeling any better?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
The girl manages a smile, she didn't seem quite as depressed as before, but it was still tinged with sadness. Her voice did seem calmer than usual. "I do. I've resigned from the Murasame Zaibatsu. You were right about him. I think I always knew that you were, but had hoped.. well, it doesn't matter what I hoped, I was a fool."

She looks around the hallway, to the left, and to the right, "May I come in, Kyra? I'd rather not discuss this out here."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Interesting. No stuttering. Kind of odd, given Kyra's prickly demeanor right now. Mentally, she files this oddity away for later as instead surprise registers on her face. "You've resigned?" Even more surprise follows along once she says she was /right/ about him.

Right about him being a jerk? Inadequate? Or any number of uncharitable things Kyra has thought about him? A frown graces her face, "Come in, then. Clearly something happened to percipitate this drastic change of tone."

Alma Hyral has posed:
"Yes." She'd walk into the room, putting her small briefcase down as she walked inside. She noted that Kyra was packing, looking pointedly at the dufflebag. "Are you moving, Kyra? I knew it was just a matter of time.. Cornelia always seemed a little too outdated for your needs.."

She'd seat herself down on the edge of the bed, "Well.. I'll give you the short of it. Miss Abramson was interested in my research. But there was something /off/ about her. I learned that the.. the Dennous, Legion. Friends of mine. She considers them one of her pet projects, a science experiment. I tried to contact them anonymously to run a background check on her. But Abramson's surveillance on them is absolute. She's omniscient to everything they see, do, or hear. She knew it was me despite taking every precaution, and drew me into a twisted sort of social experiment to see if I would adhere to my morality.. or if I'd sacrifice a living node of Legion she keeps in her lab to hurt her. If anyone tells the Dennous.. Legion, about any of this, if they don't investigate and discover this node on their own, without my aid, or the aid of someone I have told? She'll kill the node with a touch of a button."

Her voice remained steady, even, throughout all of this. "She had my radio bugged, Kyra, and was giving me constant directions. Changing the terms of the deal on a fly.. trying to learn more about me, and you. She's interested in us both. She wants to turn the two of us.. into /her/. Amoral monsters that have no care for ethical considerations in their experiments. That is why I couldn't tell you, on the road. And that's why I'm hesitant to tell you even now.. as Abramson's sick experiment still stands, even though I'm resigned. If she finds out I've told anyone.. if Legion finds out from anyone I've told, inadvertently or not.. then Abramson will kill her."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"I am. And you have it right on the nose. It doesn't rain enough in this place. Recharging things is such a pain...and of course, no access whatsoever to a lab." Kyra sighs, "There must be something better. Something....not-Souji. Perhaps Shinra will work with me."

Though Alma is here, Kyra quickly go backs to packing her things as she speaks. Seems she's pretty eager to get out of this place. "The Dennous? Oh, I know them, quite adorable." she remarks, albiet surprised to learn that they were HER experiment. On another hand it did make sense. Cloning maybe? "...hrrrm..."

Her eyes are narrowed, giving Alma a little hint as to how she really views this sort of 'science.' While Kyra could be amoral herself, there were...limits.

"I had suspected that might be the case. Which is why I was trying to urge you to shut it off yesterday." Kyra sounds irritated, "Unfortunately that didn't work. Tch, she can learn what she want, I have no desire to /change/ on behalf of another person I barely know. Is this the explanation for your absolutely dismal mood these past few days?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
"Maybe. You could also try Rena, she's trying to set up her own business, it's for a field you might even be interested in..."

She says this idly, before moving on to the next subject of conversation, "If I'd shut it off, then she would have not only been able to still hear and see what we were doing, but she might have been offended enough by my /sass/ to push the button that would turn off the feeding tube for the node of Legion."

She'd give Kyra a pointed look, "In part. It is more that she wanted you so badly to work with her that.. I feared that you'd be willing to do it just to spare me the torment."

Her voice grows soft, "It wouldn't be the first time. You don't have to do that anymore.. Kyra. I'm gone from the Zaibatsu. You don't have to let Helena embarass you for my sake."

She breathes out a sigh, raking a hand back through her hair to clear some of the idle strands from the front of her eyes. "Souji is further gone than any of us thought, I think. It's not worth relating the entire discussion but, he's fully willing to let Abramson kill this sentient being.. and he threatened that given my morality, and beliefs it would probably be better if he killed me himself, then gave my body to Abramson so she could study my.. retardation."

Her lips curl into slight amusement, but then it waivers, and she looks down at her hands. "I was a fool, Kyra. I'm sorry.."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Rena was setting up her own business? News to Kyra, though good news, especially if that business would be competing with Murasame. Kyra did know a thing or two about the Shivan's family.

"And we could have stepped /away/ from the Dennou that was inadvertantly monitoring us." she adds, her anger rising, "Instead, I stood around, worrying about you, unable to do anything to help. Cosma damn it..." Carelessly, she tosses a bundle of clothing into her duffle bag and turns to face Alma.

"You really think that's what it was about? Working with me? If she wanted that, then she would have actually approached me. No, I think this little exercise was about something else entirely. Controlling /you/."

Angrily, she zips her bag closed. "I know you know I'm not too fond of our family, Alma. I know you think I don't care about you or even see you as a burden. But you're still my fucking sister and right now you're the only sister I have."

She seems extra angry about this. Like she'd just realized that she actually missed her family more than she wanted to admit.

"And don't think you not working for Murasame is going to spare you from Helena's torment-at least not with me around to put a stop to it. It's Helena and you present yourself as the /perfect/ target to mess with. Vulnerable. She might have even been restraining herself before because you were coworkers so...ugh, don't worry about the Helena thing, I can handle it. I know her."

Kyra seizes her bag off the bed and throws it over her shoulder. Then she picks up a smaller messenger bag and throws that over her other shoulder. Then she picks up her laptop case and throws THAT over her shoulder.

She turns towards Alma suddenly, "Souji Murasame said WHAT?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
"And then she'd /know/ Kyra. Stepping away from the Dennous, turning off my radio. What conclusions would she draw if I walked away with you like that? I'm sorry but it just...wasn't the time. I had to take it. Still, I'm sorry.."

She rubs her eyes behind her glasses, "I know it was about controlling me as well. She's.. fascinated by me, by my research, and my magic but she's disgusted by what she regards as antiquated morality. Part of it was seeing what I would do to protect /you/."

Then she looks down at her hands, "And there's nothing I wouldn't do to protect you, Kyra.. even though I know you feel like I'm the one that needs protecting.."

She looks up at Kyra, her lip quavering, one of the telltale signs that she was becoming upset, emotionally distraught, on the verge of a breakdown, but still she doesn't.. "I /know/ you care about me. I know... I don't know if you think that I'm a burden or not but.. I know. I'm sorry that I ever gave you the impression that I thought you felt otherwise. I love you Kyra. And I know you love me..."

Clasping her hands together, she looks back down at her feet, "I don't care if Helena targets me now. I'll deal with it. All of it. I can handle her abuse, now. Even though I know you think I can't..."

She just sort of, nods her head vaguely, her voice growing small, "To put it into context, I was purposefully goading him.. but I had to break that emotionless facade he put up, to see just.. a glimpse of what he was truly like. And that's what he is... Kyra. There's nothing left of the man our sister loved under there. Or far worse is the possibility that the man she loved never existed.." She closes her eyes, sniffling, "For h-her sake.. I'll b-believe the f-former."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"It could have just been that her sister was concerned and wanted to talk to you without anyone else around." Kyra says bitterly.

Though she is angry now, she waits, letting Alma talk, react to all the things she just said. She barely knows anything about this Feige person beyond a name and already she dislikes her...but Feige didn't need to know that, should they meet. Hopefully Feige didn't know about this meeting either. She'd be curious to see if thise woman actually did wind up approaching her.

She'd have to figure out how to tank Helena's ministrations a little more covertely since seeing any of it in public clearly made Alma go nuts. "What exactly got Feige so interested in you in the first place? Your unusual magic?"

She sighs, rubbing the back of her head, "Y..yeah well don't spread it around, okay. I'm still not a fan of Cosma and I still want my freedom."

So what was the deal with Souji? He became an emotionless monster. "No I...he must've really been like that before Tira died." she says quietly. "That man passed with Tira." After a moment she reaches forward, pulling Alma into a hug.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Her voice is quiet, "Could have been.. but I'm not willing to risk a life for making assumptions on what Feige Abramson might interpret something as."

She shakes her head, "No. She loves my field, regards it as the great unknown. She's very supportive. She states she wanted me to be.. respected, loved, for my research.. and then she asked me to find a world shard for her to experiment with. If I did that, then she'd leave you alone, for good. Then.. I don't know. She learned something about my magic, but it was all /assumptions/ made by someone, Helena maybe. I don't know. So she probed a little more deeply and I had to tell her something of it.. she tried to find out about yours too, but I wouldn't tell her anything of yours. She redirected everything back to me.. once.. once she found out something of the truth."

She breathes out a sigh, "Alright.. so long as the two of us..know." And then a pause, "I'm not interested in bringing you back, Kyra.. I'd.. its not for you. I'm not even sure it's for me, any longer. I'm a terrible person, to masquerade around like I'm such an pious adherent when I don't... even believe all of it any longer."

She allows herself to be pulled into the hug, and then she begins to cry. It wasn't uncontrolled sobbing, as usual, just tears, and plaintive sniffling. "I just d-don't k-know anymore. I d-don't know w-what to b-believe..."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Kyra makes a faint cranky noise-Alma did tell her that she had problems with 'creativity' before though it seems she has no problem thinking of all the ways that something could go wrong.

'Asked her for a world shard.' "Wait, that one we found, you didn't /give/ it to her, did you?" she interjects suddenly despite all she's said about Feige's interest in Alma and her's magic. Though in Kyra's case, it's less about actual magic and more the untapped magical power inside of her which she continues having difficulty controlling.

"I'm alright with letting you know I still love you, sister." Kyra says softly. "And don't call yourself a terrible person."

She actually seems vaguely worried now. "Well, you look at the stars all the time. What do they tell you, Alma? Is it something you can put faith in?"

Alma Hyral has posed:
She shakes her head back and forth, "No. That's why I gave it to Soan, so Feige and Souji wouldn't ask for it. She was going to send me on a seperate expedition with the other employees. I'd.. well, I'd already set plans in motion to make sure they never got that shard either.."

In Kyra's case that would be /exactly/ what Feige would find interesting.

She sucks in a deep breath. "You know what d-daddy would do if he were h-here. For all y-you've done, he c-could still forgive you, n-not that y-you'd want it. For me... t-there wouldn't be forgiveness. I'd be a h-heretic, an a-apostate, or ... a m-m-monster."

She takes looks up to Kyra suddenly, looking her in the eyes, wondering, then deciding... "I t-told you o-once that I d-didn't p-prove she e-exists.. well..."

Her voice grows quieter, "T-That's not strictly.. t-true. J-Just not to a s-scientific c-certainty. I.. k-know she e-exists, and that she i-isn't r-really mute... but s-she d-doesn't give me.. g-guidance."

A short pause, as she seems to collect herself, "I j-just told you that I g-got g-glimpses.. but t-that was j-just at first... e-eventually, I b-began to hear it. A-All of c-creation is her s-song K-Kyra. And if I... f-focus. Then I h-hear it. I-It doesn't make.. s-sense, not to my m-mind. But it b-brings me p-peace. And w-with peace comes.. u-understanding. N-Not into her m-mind, but just into how my m-magic works s-scientifically. H-How the u-universe is put together. W-Without listening to it, I c-can't do much. And w-with it in mind, I can do m-much more."

She looks away suddenly, while still in her embrace, "T-That's my sin, K-Kyra. F-Feige calls it stealing f-fire from the g-gods. R-Rena c-calls it a k-kid stealing a cookie from the d-divine cookie jar. E-Either way, is it r-really faith a-anymore when I'm /certain/ the C-Creatrix exists?"

She'd actually laugh to herself, "S-Sometimes I w-wonder if I j-just d-drove myself mad, from all the s-stress, and t-that I'm h-hearing things. And t-that if I r-really w-wanted to I c-could do all of t-this without it... but I g-guess.. if t-that's the c-case I d-don't want to be sane."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Good. I'd be -quite- angry if Souji took credit for all that work we did. For all his posturing about how good he is, I didn't see him fighting a zombie dragon." Kyra huffs, "Though it sounds like you won't have any involvement in this expedition now."

Alma is stuttering again. Perhaps because of thoughts of their father. She grossly overestimates his forgiveness, Kyra thinks. "Tsk, if anything, you would be forgiven over me."

She looks down at Kyra, squinting slightly. "No, to know she is there is to eliminate faith...but at the same time, should such a thing get out, I could see them...spinning it about differently. I could see them telling the world 'hey, we were right, now cast those children aside and worship the mother'." She reaches up to brush some of Alma's hair aside from her face.

But this was fascinating to hear. The music of the stars is the song of creation. "Is it sin to channel the goddess like that? Really? Perhaps it's not so different from Nik's martial arts. -anyway, what I'm saying is is that you should be /proud/ of what you can do."

Alma Hyral has posed:
"Even when I was in his company, and believed that he might be a good person deep down, I still realized that Souji is a complete...." And then she seems to realize that she lacks a word that wouldn't be a curse.. "...jerk, on the surface." She says lamely. "I wasn't going to let him take them. Those shards wouldn't be safe with me.. but they will be with Soan."

And then, Alma just laughs, and then laughs even harder, until she's crying again, "Oh c-come on K-Kyra, h-he'd never b-believe me. H-He'd just h-hear I was e-experimenting with my m-magic and t-think t-that a C-Chaos spawn had a-arisen in his m-midst. And w-what if they d-did. W-What would the g-great C-Church of C-Cosma N-Naturalis then t-teach everyone? T-That you should study s-science? T-That you too s-should e-experiment, and m-maybe, just m-maybe you'd j-just stumble on the s-same m-methodology that lets me combine f-faith and s-science so well? E-Even I'm not that naive as to think t-they'd c-change that much. I-It's not s-something I c-can even t-teach a-anyone how to do, b-because I b-barely know how I did it."

She breathes out a sigh, "M-Maybe.. I j-just don't k-know. I d-don't feel s-special, like N-Nik. I f-feel like a Thief."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Kyra leans in. Is Alma going to swear? IS SHE!?

No. Inwardly, Kyra sighs with disappointment. "They'll be very safe with Soan. Nobody can steal from /him/."

Alma laughs at her suggestion and Kyra palms her face before stepping toward the door. It quickly becomes clear that Kyra really wants to check out, though it would mean the end to their privacy. "You're so pessimistic." Kyra sighs, "You always think the worst outcome of everything." It's the confidence, she realizes. The lack of self confidence. "I do have some good news though. Our Father isn't here. The Cosma religion isn't practiced. There is no one here to judge you that way. You are /free/."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma stands up, looks at Kyra, and then quietly states, her voice steeped in sorrow, "I know. I'm the only one left."

There is a slight pause, as she sees that Kyra wants to check out, she considers this for a time, and then she asks, "Kyra.. I don't really have a job now. My research won't cost much from now on, so that's fine... I'll need to find something to support myself... but what I'm trying to ask is this."

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and then opens them again, "Can I come with you? I think.. look I don't want to tie you down. I'll be in and out... all over the place really. But.. even though I'm not so interested in your field I can still be a competent.. assistant. And there might be some things I can teach you.."

Her voice grows quieter, "I'd just like to get to know my sister again.. that's all."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
PESSIMISM!!!

"I'll bet that Rena is looking for openings. She's a great person...so i think that's the best place to start." She's quick to supply, "I might do so myself at some point."

Ah, but the real reason for bringing this up is quickly revealed. Of course, Kyra should have figured. "Sure. We can find a new place together." She reaches over, grasping her by the shoulder and gently guiding Alma over to hug her with that one arm.

"It's probably better this way."

Alma Hyral has posed:
She's guided into the one-armed hug, and she whispers conspiratorially, "I'd actually invested most of my salary into seed money for Rena and Selly's businesses. Mostly because they're my friends but... also because I think Galianda deserves to be represented by better people in this new world than Souji Murasame. I have a feeling that Rena will have no problems with us working for her."

She'd nod with a smile, "I'd like that..." She'd grin, "...maybe a place with a kitchen. I've been taking.. cooking lessons."

And then she'd smile, perhaps a bit more optimistically, "Probably. Let's find out for ourselves."