Scene #2500: Defusing a Time Bomb

Owner	Pose
Kyra Hyral	The 'Detention Zone' was supposed to be just a myth. A little legend that's spread to younger students at Alexander Academy to keep them in line. For a school so prestigious, bad behavior wasn't entirely THAT common-or at least, uncommon enough for students to question whether or not certain methods of punishment actually existed. But the detention zone was real. The exact mechanics of it were not explained to the average student though some of the Behemoth-class Time Mages had their theories as to how such a place would operate. Those that stepped out of line enough to try to earn a trip were punished through alternate methods. The staff, after all, wanted to guard the secrets of their windowless, doorless 'Detention Dimension' carefully. Nothing got in and nothing got out without the proper spell. This would include moogle calls. Much to Kyra's dismay, her phones are pretty useless, cut off from the real world. She slumps over one of the desks filling the room bonelessly, terribly bored and altogether miserable. She thought she was being careful enough to not be noticed as she had her private conversation with Septette earlier-but she was wrong. Fortunately, the Detention Zone would only take two hours of her life today.
Helena Celba	Helena may have provoked the spell on purpose... She can be found at the back corner of the wall, seemingly testing something. There was a rumor that a certain mild mannored Soan broke free of the zone...but how? It was probably just a rumor, but... Helena sighs, dramatically, and continues trying to unlock the secrets...after all, she needed to know. Magic, it's secrets...perhaps for nefarious purposes! When Kyra got in, she proceeded to work more quietly.
Kyra Hyral	Kyra hadn't noticed Helena at first. But when she did: "Oh shit." she swears, abandoning her first desk and scooting to the other side of the room like a cat dangled over a bathtub of water. "Great, and I was doing so well evading you, Helena." That much was obvious, at least. Ever since the incident at the club with the "Lute Date," Kyra had gone out of her way to avoid Helena. Near as she could tell after that conversation, it was what both of them needed.
Helena Celba	"Yeah." Helena says, still doing her experiment. "You were. Now we are here, together, and you are going to make a big deal about it." She says, perhaps a bit icly. "So what will you do next, Kyra?"
Kyra Hyral	"I don't /want/ to make a big deal about it." Kyra snaps back. "I kind of just want to serve my two hours and get out of here. Without another incident like last time. Do you think that can happen? Or are we going to rehash past shitty behavior that I /tried/ to apologize for." She drags her desk around so she puts her back to the wall and her face towards where Helena is working. In a way it serves as a bit of a barrier in case the scant possibility that Helena flies are her face becomes reality.
Helena Celba	"Do you think an appology is enough? Or do you just want to clean your concious so you feel better? Typical people, caring not for others they harm...so long as they feel better and the other person acknowledges it so that they can feel guilt free." "If you are looking for an easy out, you chose the wrong woman." A pause, "If it were just a fling, it wouldn't have mattered, but you know it was more than that...or at least you let it be more than that. Then you revealed it was all a stab at your parents...well congrats, it worked did it not? Now not only are you disowned, they send assassins after you. I sure hope it was worth it."
Kyra Hyral	"It's about /both/ of us feeling better and moving on." Kyra frowns, resting her chin on the desk and pulling her hood down over her head. "But since you're not, then that can't happen, /can/ it? I told you already, yeah, it started out that way. It started out as a fling but then I really started to like you. I couldn't fucking help it, okay? You're wild and I realized I like that in girls." Kyra pulls her hood even tighter downwards, obscuring her face completely. "Yeah let's not talk about the Cherem thing. Or the ADVENT thing. That's my problem. But for the record, I do think it was worth it."
Helena Celba	There is a long pause, Helena doesn't immediately say anything. "You couldn't at least let me in on that? Tell me the truth? I do not let many people get close to me...for a reason." She says, quietly. Very quietly. "People are animals, they want to get close to you...to get what they want from you and to hurt you. Some people, I guess, are different...but the truth of the world is that. We are petty, short sighted things...no different than surviving on Odin, or in Ramud. At least on Odin, it is straight forward." "So what are you going to do about it? Not talking about it gets nothing accomplished. You started this, so what are you going to do to finish it?"
Helena Celba	There is a long pause, Helena doesn't immediately say anything. "You couldn't at least let me in on that? Tell me the truth? I do not let many people get close to me...for a reason." She says, quietly. Very quietly. "People are animals, they want to get close to you...to get what they want from you and to hurt you. Some people, I guess, are different...but the truth of the world is that. We are petty, short sighted things...no different than surviving on Odin, or in Ramud. At least on Odin, it is straight forward." "So what are you going to do about it? Not talking about it gets nothing accomplished. You started this, so what are you going to do to finish it?"
Kyra Hyral	"You would have rejected me from the start if I did. I'm sorry but you have to admit, if I went up to you and said 'Hey I want to have a relationship with you to piss off my parents', you would have said no. Though maybe I should have because then we wouldn't be in this position right now, would we? You would have rejected my idea just like everyone else rejects my ideas." She doesn't sound bitter about this, just clinical. A noise of frustration escapes her. "I don't friggin' know. We're not hooking up again. It wouldn't make up for the shitty thing I did to you. I don't think anything would make up for the shitty thing I did to you. The best I can do is to offer to be your friend because you should at least have somebody close to you. Alternately, we could just agree to leave each other alone. Don't you see, Helena? I /can't/ end it. I can't make another person accept anything. It's you to decide."
Helena Celba	"Actually..." She says, with a bit of a mischevious hint to her tone.. "Well, that depends, I suppose." She says, and stands up from where she was... "I never suggested hooking up again. That ship has sailed, and besides don't you already have a crush and or relationship? And poligamy is my game." She shrugs. Perhaps, it hurts a little...she frowns but keeps the look to herself. "I can deal with friends..." Though she won't be able to afford the same protection she could in the past... Honestly, at the end of the day all it does is hurt there. "I actually, however, was asking what you are going to do about the Cosma slaves and your parents."
Kyra Hyral	"Yeah, that ship has sailed." Kyra agrees with a hint of sadness. "I know about the poligamy thing. I'd be okay with it too but only if all my partners are okay with it. And I asked Dominic already-he's not okay with it." Lute, of course, was pretty disappointed by this too though he likely still thought Kyra was 'on the table' for him. She doesn't like saying these things either. But there's just no way to soften the blow or avoid the truth, not if she doesn't want bigger problems with this in the future. Maybe it was that lack of boundaries thing that caused so many issues with this in the first place... "...what, that? What's that got to do with anything? I dunno, I'm Cherem now so I basically have to do what I can to avoid getting stoned to death or whatever they do to Cherem these days. Yeah, it's a big fuckin' religion that's gotten all over Galianda but the multiverse is even bigger. I don't have to deal with that shit if I don't have to, not even at school. You're not actually suggesting that I get in their face, are you?" At that last sentence, Kyra has unwound her hood from her head, peering at Helena skeptically.
Helena Celba	"Why not? What gives them the right to kill you? They are not a political force, they are just some crazy half cocked, say one thing but then turn around and stone you if you don't agree with us." She says...turning her sadness into anger. She does not dwell on the Dominic thing...the sting was real, made worse by who he was. Her hand crackles for a bit... "They have no real power except for the power granted to them by people and their blind faith." "Shake that faith. Show people the truth." A pause, "I mean, the boy that I got cracked without me even TOUCHING him."
Kyra Hyral	"The sects do have power. I mean, like, it's not really the power to tell people to go /die/ but..." Kyra grumbles. "They don't have a right unless they can really prove I'm 'of the Enemy'. There used to be procedures and stuff for that and now my parents are just using the label to punish me just 'cause they're big dick priests in Naturalis." Kyra pushes her hood back. "Tch. If the people can't see the truth in all the stuff I stream on the Light Warriors feed, then they're unconvincable. I'm not of the Enemy and I don't need the Faith to function." She pauses, then stares at Helena, "...you mean SpoonyMic? He..." That's right, Audrey took him away. He must've been 'questioned' by KIRIN. "Well." Kyra says smugly, "He /was/ just a Bard."
Helena Celba	"That is the problem with faith." Helena says. "They don't need proof. They need blind devotion...you can show what you want on the feed, but they can also say you are not telling the truth. Faith makes people do stupid things...they will rather believes the sweet words that keeps their worldview straight...than what they can with their eyes." "The other issue is...how do you continue to function without the faith? What it represents is a threat to them, Kyra. They will kill you, purly to make sure the faith remains unchallenged. It does not matter that you are their daughter or not." "The greater good and all. Obviously under enough torture the 'truth' they want will come out. Obviously by destroying your magic they will win.."
Kyra Hyral	"Then what I say and do won't matter to them if their faith twists it into something evil." Kyra says bitterly. "They won't change. So it's up to my friends and people that support my break in faith to defend me from those idiots." That smug smile returns. "Oh, yeah, not functioning without Faith. Huge thing for the white mage...you don't see too many non-Cosma following white mages, do you? Because Faith to Cosmos makes that function, right? But not for me, not anymore. It's been hard learning to focus without the Faith but I'm starting to get it. I have people from outside of Galianda helping me with that." she confides. "Arthur Lowell and Orphen are teaching me. I've been keeping it secret but they're going to notice eventually that my white magic is still working." "I won't die, Helena. I wanted my freedom and now I have it." Kyra narrows her eyes.
Helena Celba	"You won't have it until they are gone." Helena says. "Until they are broken, they will hound you...and if not you, then the people closest to you." "They are still playing early, Kyra...but how long before they start exherting influence on people's families? Start hiring out bigger and better and competant people?" "Or lean on royal families..? Do you want to be the cause of your friends suffering...or put them in a positionw here it's you, or their other loved ones?" "I mean, after all...what happens IF you can use white magic while being Cherem? Either they'll have to take back their words...or say that somehow The Enemy took it? Either of those things are damning."
Kyra Hyral	Kyra makes a face. She was okay with violence being directed at her. She could take it. They couldn't reach her everywhere. But... at her friends? "....I don't want my friends to suffer too." she says quietly, angrily, then slams a hand down on the desk she sits at. "They won't do that! My friends are stronger than that, they won't be cowed by a bunch of gutless fanatics. I don't regret what I did to get here. It's Spoony's fault he decided to be a little frayed circuit and betray me." She looks to Helena, "You're not a follower of Cosma, are you? What's your stake in all of this." It strikes her now that Helena's interest in all of this might be a little worrisome.
Helena Celba	Helena looks at Kyra a little hurt. "I thought we were friends?" She says, turning back to her work. "But besides that, you mean my dislike of Cosma craze nutjobs? The ones that forsake my way of life because it doesn't fall within their preconcieved notions?" "And you're friends are strong...sure, they won't break. But..." "Is it right for them to have to suffer, when you could take it to them?"
Kyra Hyral	"Sorry! Sorry...ugh." Kyra says hastily. "I mean...it's just that I thought Spoony was my friend too. And you have spent the last few months being justifiably mad at me. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think you might want to put a dagger in my back too. But you clearly hate the fanatics /more/." Kyra makes an unhappy noise. She's a white mage, she's supposed to /aleviate/ suffering, not cause it. "They shouldn't have to." Kyra mutters. "Landon especially." She looks at Helena's back. "Take it to them? What do you mean, fight the fanatics myself? I can't do that. I can't even keep the comments on my Mogtube channel civil."
Helena Celba	"Then find a way." Helena says, sounding a touch distracted. Maybe she has found...something. "Perhaps ask your friends, who are at your back for ideas. Surly they may have ideas, and something willing to do now before things get worse..." "Of course you could always show them your power."
Kyra Hyral	Kyra finally stands to go investigate what Helena is up to since she does sound a little distracted. She observes her work quietly. "Yeah? So what's /your/ idea, Helena?" Helena suggests that she 'show them her power.' "...do you think that'd work? And, you know, deter them?" White mages in general weren't exactly known for /power/. Chemistry, on the other hand, definitely had some possibilities. "Mass poisonings could get me called a /terrorist/ in addition to Cherem."
Helena Celba	"You cooking for more than ten people is a terrorist act." Helena says, bemused. "Well, if everyone KNOWS you can use your power, without the blessing of Cosma or whatever..." She shrugs. "You might get support, especially if your ideas sound better than theirs. It might be slow..." She shrugs. She seems to be litterally messing with the universe of the place itself. And then suddenly a door opens. "So that is how he did it...that clevers on of a bitch."
Kyra Hyral	"...hmm. It shouldn't be too hard for me to get the word out about that at least." Kyra considers, peering over Helena's shoulder. "Maybe make a new channel for it seperate from the Light Warriors unless they want to join me on my ranting." It sounds like she really doesn't think they would. Who wants to /willingly/ poke the huge beehive known as Cosma? "...what the, how'd you do that? There wasn't a door there before!" Kyra exclaims, peering through the open door.
Helena Celba	"Magic." Helena says, and steps through. Ladies first and all. If Kyra follows, it's a hallway between demensions... it will take a bit longer. "That might be a place to start."
Kyra Hyral	Of course Kyra follows. Even though she probably only has a half hour left of punishment in the Detention Dimension. She does what she wants! "I'll do that. They're coming after me anyway. Might as well. What are they going to do, kill me twice?"
Helena Celba	"That's the spirit!" The hallway eventually leads back into the school proper. "Mmm...I think this is where we part ways, unless you want to go back in for bonus time?"
Kyra Hyral	"Oh hell no, I'm outta here. I'll take the points on my bounty record before going back in there." Kyra says huffily. "I'm not going back in. In fact, I think I'll flee to the Great Span now."
Helena Celba	Helena chuckles... "I doubt they'd even notice you. Reguardless...Tootles." She says and makes her own way.