"The same one as always. Shem remembers you...see?" The cloak flushes a purple pattern as it nuzzles at Kefka's hands. "But your magic will likely be more efficient than ker work."
Karakael...doesn't have the energy to get than angry anymore. Conquest is a young man's game, something that held no more interest or release for him anymore.
But if he could turn Kefka's anger at himself, rather than the world...well. Anger was something the Inquestor knew. It was something he could control (as long as you don't let yourself become involved, Hokh'Ton).
"No. Please, the boy is in enough pain already." A pause, while Karakael remembers. "It was a few years ago, community time. One of my child-soldiers had gotten involved in a fight, he being the aggressor, and I had been called in to tear the two apart. I was so angry I did the first thing that came to mind, snapping him into a tacheon bubble while I sorted out what happened."
His face tenses beneath the mask. "In the few minutes it took before I understood the situation, the girl he had struck became hysterical, terrified for his sanity. She was babbling about how he had snapped during a war-game and how he hated darkness. By the time I realized what she was speaking of, the damage had been done."
Another pause, this one taken up with a blank stare out the window.
"Most of my child-soldiers are from broken homes. They're the only parents willing to sell their children for the profit. Almost only, at least. Yen's mother had locked him in caves on his homeworld when he spoke out. And Tacheon bubbles are made of pure darkness. He assumed...I had sent him back there, when I got angry."
"It took five minutes to find that out and disengage the bubble. In that time he cut off all of the fingers of his left hand, using the digits as targets for his lasers. It was the only way he knew how to make light to keep the darkness at bay..."
"He was my responsibility, and I failed him. None of my children asked for this endless life - but they have served me over a thousand years as loyally as they would have under a two year contract. They deserve better than a fool like me as their leader."
"Do you understand, Kefka, why I am so afraid for those innocents we meet on the community? It takes barely a word, a mere instant of thoughtless action, for one to destroy a child's life. But they deserve a life of their own - a life where they can make friends and mistakes - a life where their choices are their own, not dictated by an outside force. That girl...I see reflections of so many of my own children, some of whom are dead or grown, in her."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
tl;dr - Depressing Story Time!
Date: 2012-04-09 05:08 am (UTC)Karakael...doesn't have the energy to get than angry anymore. Conquest is a young man's game, something that held no more interest or release for him anymore.
But if he could turn Kefka's anger at himself, rather than the world...well. Anger was something the Inquestor knew. It was something he could control (as long as you don't let yourself become involved, Hokh'Ton).
"No. Please, the boy is in enough pain already." A pause, while Karakael remembers. "It was a few years ago, community time. One of my child-soldiers had gotten involved in a fight, he being the aggressor, and I had been called in to tear the two apart. I was so angry I did the first thing that came to mind, snapping him into a tacheon bubble while I sorted out what happened."
His face tenses beneath the mask. "In the few minutes it took before I understood the situation, the girl he had struck became hysterical, terrified for his sanity. She was babbling about how he had snapped during a war-game and how he hated darkness. By the time I realized what she was speaking of, the damage had been done."
Another pause, this one taken up with a blank stare out the window.
"Most of my child-soldiers are from broken homes. They're the only parents willing to sell their children for the profit. Almost only, at least. Yen's mother had locked him in caves on his homeworld when he spoke out. And Tacheon bubbles are made of pure darkness. He assumed...I had sent him back there, when I got angry."
"It took five minutes to find that out and disengage the bubble. In that time he cut off all of the fingers of his left hand, using the digits as targets for his lasers. It was the only way he knew how to make light to keep the darkness at bay..."
"He was my responsibility, and I failed him. None of my children asked for this endless life - but they have served me over a thousand years as loyally as they would have under a two year contract. They deserve better than a fool like me as their leader."
"Do you understand, Kefka, why I am so afraid for those innocents we meet on the community? It takes barely a word, a mere instant of thoughtless action, for one to destroy a child's life. But they deserve a life of their own - a life where they can make friends and mistakes - a life where their choices are their own, not dictated by an outside force. That girl...I see reflections of so many of my own children, some of whom are dead or grown, in her."