Location: Inside - Headquarters
Phase: Awake
Date: Now
Weather: Humid
"All hands, assemble!"
The room fell quiet as
slammed her metallic foot into the floor, clearing away the arguments and debates with a cold
CLANG. The room's occupants, amorphous beings of abstraction given form, turned their feelers towards the only artificial being among them, questioning, filled to the brim with feelings just ready to pour out. But they stayed silent. For the moment.
"Good," Discipline said, adjusting her glasses.
"Now, let us discuss. Calm?"
"The land is in an uproar, Ma'am," said Calm.
"The Kingdoms are destabilizing. The generator is overloaded with an unknown emotion. If it continues on this course... Prushka will faint. Within the next ten seconds."
"Let her!" roared Passion.
"Her heart is aflame! Abuzz! Atwitter!"
"I CONCUR," Panic agreed, along with several other Sanguine temperaments. "AND ALSO I'M FEELING REALLY ATTACKED RIGHT NOW SO JUST GIVE ME SOME SPACE OK"
"Clear away from Panic, everyone," said Discipline.
"Calm, attend to her. Then let us turn the topic of discussion to why Panic is feeling attacked."
They turned towards the viewing window. It was covered in ass. Several pictures. Several angles. The most intimate detail. Ass chiseled out by divine craftsmanship, never before seen.
"Wew," Discipline admitted.
"That's pretty good actually. Though I think I know who presented this evidence... Propriety?"
The matronly emotion stepped forward, huffing and puffing, and stood ramrod straight. Her upper lip quivered as her stern gaze surveyed the room, then landed on Discipline. She harrumphed, cleared her throat, and...
"This," she said.
"Is not my fault."
A roar of denial and accusations surged behind her, before being silenced by another CLANG. Discipline did not seem amused; Amusement was busy poking a picture of Ubon's abs in the corner.
"Propriety," said Discipline.
"You have caused most of Prushka's freakouts for the past several years. You are the reason we show no mercy to awful humans. You built me to serve as a last-ditch defense against complete personality collapse. And now you're saying this isn't another of your ultimatums?"
Propriety sniffed. Her face was flushed, and flapping at it did nothing to help.
"N-not at all," she said.
"While it is highly improper to be exposed to such criminal anatomy, we are at a beach. It was bound to happen. Prushka prepared herself for it. I will, however, take credit for the Dove affair."
"Don't even bring that up," Discipline grumbled. "Thanks to you we've got yet another problem to deal with. Again."
"All for the best, dear."
"Don't 'dear' me. Now, if Propriety didn't do this... who did? Come forward so we can resolve the problem."
The room was silent. Even Propriety stepped back into line without one of her usual snippy remarks. Not a single hand went up.
"Fear?" Discipline asked.
"Was it you?"
"Eeep! No! I swear! I didn't do anything!" squeaked the jittery emotion.
"I mean, yes, I'm sorta kinda terrified right now because those buns are a walking hole in reality, but I barely did a thing! By the time I got to the generator it was already full to bursting! I couldn't siphon any Odic Fuel even if I'd wanted to! Please don't crucify me..."
"...fine, fine. You're free to go." Discipline was beginning to develop what she suspected would turn out to be a painful headache. She scanned the room.
"Anger? What about you?"
Anger shrugged.
"Don't look at me, hoss. Dove's a JERK-ASS-PUNK-BITCH-LYING-PEDO... but Souma's cool in my book."
"Then who!? Sadness? No, it's fine, don't answer, I can see you crying already... Disgust? What, not gross at all? Even though it's a boy and he's got cooties? Fine, fine, I get it... Joy? No? Yes? You're saying it might've been a cousin of yours but you're not sure? What does that even mean?"
It was no use. None of the feelings Discipline was familiar with could lay claim to the issue. She didn't know why Prushka was hyperventilating, and with nearly five seconds passed, the prospect of keeping her conscious seemed nearly impossible.
Until.
Until the door to the Headquarters slammed open, and a figure appeared, silhouetted by a bolt of lightning.
"..." It was dripping wet, pale, scrawny, and so weak it seemed as if a stiff breeze might knock it over. But the emotion none of them recognized wore a big triumphant smile on its sticky face.
"Ladies," it said.
"I have come. And I am here to stay."
They parted before it, as it advanced, step by step, towards Discipline. The construction stood before the command console, arms folded, staring the strange new feeling down without budging an inch.
"Who are you?" asked Discipline.
"Haha... you don't recognize me?" The feeling tilted its head.
"No, I suppose you weren't... you've only seen me in others, after all. Take a good look then!" It spread its appendages, revealing the light below, dazzling the rest of Prushka's feelings with its damp radiance.
"Behold! You have awaited my arrival for years! And yet, you did not truly think I would come! Only Hope remained steadfast in her beliefs, even as you belittled her naivete. Well, I am here, and I am ready to assume my place."
"Who?" repeated Discipline, feeling more and more like Panic by the second?
"Who!?"
The newcomer brushed past, then placed itself upon the command console, interfacing for the first time with its birthright.
"Ladies," it whispered.
"I am the harbinger. The Alpha who will beckon the Omega. I am she who heralds the coming of , the shattering and rebuilding of this world, the one who will unmake and remake this girl's perception of reality. I am destruction and I am creation. I am famine and feast both, and to you..."
The room pulsed red. Once, twice. The generator whined, surged, and then slowed to a more sustainable level as the new feeling was acknowledged for the first time.
"...you shall know me as Lust."