Seventh Jiggy | [Action/Voice] | Backdated to May 15, fff

[talontrot]

[Action | Early in the day]

[It was cloudy and overcast when Kazooie was dropped on her face in the dirt the day before. The weather had mirrored her mood, a cruel reminder of the darkness cloaking her the week before, right before the explosion of light, sound and pain had robbed everything from her senses.

She couldn't bring herself to go home. Instead, she wandered through the forest, avoiding everybody, hunkering down in the brush. Some stubborn, angry part of her didn't want to see anybody - didn't want to be reminded of that failure, that irreconcilable fact that she had failed utterly and entirely. She didn't want to go back and see the look in the eyes of her friends...

... Because the signs of her ruination were physical.

But she can't stay away forever. And this is why she walks home today, taking the quickest path to House 45 that she can from the pocket of forest she's been nesting in. She tries not to be seen - but who knows how successful that will be? She is still bright and colourful as ever, after all.

Anybody who gets close enough to her will be able to see the scars of her defeat - her wings have been mercilessly clipped, pinioned to the point she can't use them properly.

That's why, whenever she gets to the door of the house, she's forced to peck it, thudding her beak against it until she gets a response.

And then she waits for the inevitable.]


[Accidental Voice]

[Whenever she can, Kazooie will try to get away from the others long enough to get to her journal. She needs to be sure of what day it is - just to convince herself that what happened did in fact happen.

She has to struggle to get it open, wedging her toe and beak under it and then using her shortened wings to push the pages apart. In the process, she hits the recording button.

Sure enough, it's the fifteenth. A week and a few days. That's longer than she's ever been dead before...

The journal catches her sigh of resignation and the subsequent spoken words.]

... This is crud. How the heck am I gonna do anything now? This never happened when I died at home...!

I can't even Fly - whoever heard of a dumb bird who couldn't fly...?!

[Her voice almost breaks there, from anguish she wouldn't normally admit.]

Stupid Malnosso-guys. Stupid, stupid...!

[Stupid her.

... She doesn't notice the journal's on, and sounds like she could use some comforting. Any volunteers?]

Comments

voice;

[catbro]

[He frowns. Poor girl sounds distressed. He doesn't like butting in because it doesn't look like anything intentional, but what the hell?]

Hey Kazooie, you ok?

voice;

[talontrot]

[... Voices? Journal?

Kazooie looks up from where she was hunched and realizes...]

Aw crud -

...

[Her voice is forced-sounding when she next speaks.]

Never been better.

voice; sob im so sorry this is late

[catbro]

[He doesn't really buy that. Especially from what he heard.]

You sure about that? It don't sound like you're ok.

voice; Don't worry. Late is my middle name it seems :'D

[talontrot]

[Bah. Kazooie knows she's an open book right now, and it hurts.]

... That's 'cause it was sarcasm, dummy. [Her voice lacks the usual bite, though, and it sounds more like she's given up.]

You wouldn't be too happy too if you were missing half your wings. And no, not the rubbish Luceti kind.

[Voice/Filtered]

[eyesofstrength]

[It is only because Kazooie is so much like a kid in some ways that Leonhardt is being generous here. He knows it was an accidental transmission most likely, but she's obviously feeling bad enough without adding that in. So he'll make it sound like she meant it to be filtered and offer to add one to this.]

Do you need some help with your filter? I'll make this private if you prefer.

[He'll address the rest of that shortly.]

[Voice/Filtered]

[talontrot]

[She hadn't meant to say it; hadn't meant anybody to hear it. But this is almost comforting.]

Yeah, okay. I... I can't get a hang of the dumb things.

[Her voice is low; almost shaky.]

... And now I can't, well... hit the buttons right...

[Voice/Filtered]

[eyesofstrength]

[Leonhardt takes a couple of minutes to make the whole entry filtered, 100% unhackable. Won't prevent people from hearing it who were listening around that time, but will at least prevent people from going back unless they responded.]

Everyone has trouble with them. At least we can go back and fix it later to lessen the effect.

[And even a perfectionist like Leonhardt has had things record he didn't want to, like the result of his own death penalty.]

[Voice/Filtered]

[talontrot]

[Better than nothing. For that alone, Kazooie is grateful - though she doesn't really have the words to express that.

Still. Leonhardt heard her complaints, so... she might as well explain.]

... Malnosso-guys can do whatever the heck they want to us, huh? But... why this? Why would they... take away my wings?

[Not her whole wing - but enough of it, and the most important part, for Kazooie to be truly shaken.]

Do they do that to everybody who kicks the stupid bucket here? Like... take away something really important?

[Voice // Filtered 20%]

[wildkotetsu]

[Kotetsu vaguely remembers Kazooie's face from a prior conversation, but he definitely remembers hearing her voice. Back there. When Pao-Lin was trying to kill him, successfully killed Barnaby. Even someone as forgetful as him remembers it vividly.

He's frozen for a moment, unsure what to say, how to say it.

This person died protecting them, and trying to help Pao-Lin.

What can he even say? Something, at least.]

... Are you gonna' be alright?

[Voice // Filtered 20%]

[talontrot]

[... Hey. It's... it's one of those human-type guys, right? The one who called himself a Hero like Pao-Lin did.

Kazooie takes the opportunity to deflect.]

Hey, you were the one doing that bleeding thing on the ground...! Why the heck are you asking me that?!

[Voice // Filtered 20%]

[wildkotetsu]

Well... I mean—yeah. But I was just hurt. I'm not worried about me as much as I am you guys, y'know. It happened because you were trying to help us and Pao-Lin...

[voice]

[fierybluebird]

You can't fly?

[voice]

[talontrot]

[... Oh, Marco.]

... No. Not... not anymore.

[Kazooie tries not to look down at her ruined wings, but the phantom sensation of her pinioned feathers doesn't go away.]

[voice] 1/2

[fierybluebird]

Oh Kazooie... I'm so sorry.

Is there anything I can do?

[voice] 2/2

[fierybluebird]

A-and there are plenty of birds that don't fly. Like ostriches or emu. Or penguins! Plenty of birds, eh. You're still you at least.

[voice / filtered 40%]

[i_am_not_cute]

[If Pao-Lin still had her appetite, she would have lost it the moment she heard Kazooie's voice on the journal talking about her death penalty. She presses the heels of her palms to her eyes to stave off the sudden burn of tears, and the next few breaths she takes are shuddery. With her back against the wall of the empty apartment she's taken to camping out in since she returned to CH7 from House 28, she curls into herself, wanting to disappear.

It takes a few minutes before Pao-Lin can think past the heartbreak and shock of being confronted with the stark reality of her actions. Is it too soon to talk to Kazooie, she wonders? Or too late to talk? What should she even say? Pao-Lin both does and doesn't want to talk to her, but then again she supposes that what she wants shouldn't factor into the situation at all. The fact is that she did something wrong, and she's obligated to try fixing it somehow. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Still, Pao-Lin forestalls the inevitable. She spends the next hour repeatedly flinging Ginia's throwing knives at the wall, as though she can drain the grief and pain from her heart that way. And, well, it actually does work for calming -- or numbing, rather -- her mind enough so that she can send a voice reply without immediately wanting to cry.]

Kazooie...can we talk?

[Straight and to the point, with a dead flatness that's never been present in her voice before. She doesn't have the energy for niceties right now. Not with this situation.]

[voice / filtered 40%]

[talontrot]

[At this point, the raw anguish of finding her wings disfigured has left Kazooie, and now there is only the dullness of the realization she has to live this way, possibly for months.

The last time she felt so restricted, she was chained down in a cage, and at least then there was the hope - the promise - of struggling free, and of vindicating herself once more against Gruntilda. This time, there is no promise. There is only an agonizingly-long wait for a bird whose perception of time is already skewed.

She may be angry, yes... when is she not? But Kazooie isn't angry at Pao-Lin - not in the way she's angry at the Malnosso, and not in the way that she's angry at herself, for failing... for allowing what happened to happen.

When Pao-Lin's voice - flat and with a hard edge Kazooie has never heard before - comes over the journal, it's a surprise at first.]

... Pao-Lin...?

[There's a flood of sudden emotions, which Kazooie is glad aren't able to picked up by the journal.

She almost says 'I'm sorry' but then she stops. No. This isn't the right time.]

... Yeah. Yeah, we can talk.

[voice / filtered 40%]

[i_am_not_cute]

[It's strange to think that she'd actually forgotten Kazooie's distinctive shrill voice. Not that that was the most significant thing the Malnosso had made her forget.]

Okay. Can I come see you? [They need to talk in person, no matter how much it hurts. There's no way a journal conversation can hold the weight of this.]

voice

[risingwinds]

Kazooie?

[...Oh dear. Ven's never heard that kind of anguish from her before. It's enough to immediately catch his attention, and he cautiously continues.]

Hey, what happened?

voice | /tags both of your guys with maximum sad

[talontrot]

[...

... Ven. He's like... one of the last people Kazooie would want to talk to about stuff like this. It's stuff he never seems to want to dwell on - the sad, hurtful part of life, the part that visits Kazooie only very rarely.

What can she say to him about this that wouldn't make it obvious how hard she's fallen?]

... Just... just a dumb mistake.

[...]

... A fight I didn't win.

[Nobody would have won it. Never could've won it.]

voice | Noooo, not the sad ;w;

[risingwinds]

[A fight she didn't--

...oh. Oh.

He takes a moment to listen in on her entry again. That's when it hits him. Died... So she--

Give him a second to let this soak in.]

... I'm so sorry. I wish I could've been there.

[Because his friends mean a lot to him, and the idea of any of them dying is just...]

action

[wannabolt]

[Dash has been wondering where the heck Kazooie's been for days. She's probably done a few flights around the enclosure, even, to scope her out. So, when she hears a knocking at the door, you can bet she's there in a flash, opening it up immediately.

...but what she sees totally leaves her speechless. What the heck happened to Kazooie's wings?

At first she just stares, then, after soaking it all in...]

Hey! What happened?

action

[talontrot]

[Her first instinct is to hide her mangled wings from her friend and confidante. How will she ever be able to race Rainbow Dash now? How will she be able to Fly with her or try to outspeed her Sonic Rainboom with these tattered ruined feathers?

But that's ridiculous. She can't hide something so painfully obvious.

Kazooie can't even bring herself to force a smile for Rainbow Dash.]

I game overed.

[Flat. Emotionless.]

And then the Malnosso-guys took my wings.

action 1/2

[wannabolt]

What?!

[...Oh. Oh.

Dash's initial expression is a look of pure horror, but it quickly shifts into one of anger. Frustration... and disgust.]

action

[wannabolt]

... Grrrghhh. If I ever see those creeps, I'll give 'em a piece of my mind!

[She flutters her wings, kicks her front hooves, and glares at nobody in particular.]