Cryptic Chaos [Mana/Cali] [WW4 Interlude]

Calypso trembled as her conflicting thoughts went off in her head, clamoring and screaming within her flesh commenced, internal arguments breaking out within herself. To do, or not to do, this horribly tempting action of violence, to let all of her emotions gush forth and exact suffering upon her mother, was what screwed with her, twisted a thorn deep within her heart, and ensued confusion that she couldn't help but be stuck on. Was this what she truly wanted? What was she asking, what she truly wanted? To be like this, or to hurt her mother?

Did she want to hold back like this forever?

Such a thought snuck into her mind as she was in such a state of shaking and fear, which caused her to halt, and begin to dwell on it, as she was able to hear her mother once more, speaking about not giving a damn if she hit her, and to just make up her damn mind already. Calypso spent the first quarter of her life hiding and being afraid of the world, not wanting to interact, despite having desires to help and aid, and now... Was she any better than back then?

She felt sickness where her stomach would be, as a hand rested on her forehead, the girl in absolute silence as her breath and heartbeat were the only things clouding and ruling over her senses. Did she even make much stride in moving forward, and becoming her own, from back then? Or was she just fabricating progress in her mind? Was she truly just a failure thinking she was succeeding? Was she truly just letting everyone down around her, and crying from the results? Was she truly just creating suffering for herself from the inevitable? Merely spitting on those who wished to guide her into becoming something from her inaction?

Was that who she was? Here and now? This useless restraint? This rejection of her nature? If she couldn't even truly release how she felt, and what she wanted to do, how could she call herself free..?

"Please don't do it."

Calypso was momentarily taken out of reality, existing within the dark depths of her mind, as her eyeless 'clone' grasped her arms tightly, visibly trembling, "That isn't who we are, please.."

"Then who are we?!"

The eyeless Calypso whimpered and shrunk down, "W-we're nice.. A-and.. Kind.. And... Helpf-"

"WHAT IS THE POINT OF THAT IF IT MEANS WE CAN'T FUCKING DO ANYTHING?!" She wasn't sure what lead her into it, but she grabbed her duplicate by the neck rather tightly, as she demanded for her to answer.

"K...Kind... People... D-don't... H-hurt... P..People.. I thought... That's... How..." The creature whimpered and cried blackened tears.

"How can I call myself kind.. If I can't even stop a fucking fight with my own two hands?! And just cry instead of stopping the carnage around me..?!" Calypso shook in her mental space. She felt anger, she felt sadness, she felt blinding rage. Towards herself, and towards her surroundings, and most of all, currently...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

She wasn't sure if she physically or mentally screamed, but regardless, if Mana made no action to move or retaliate, a flurry of shadowy, tendriled hands would break their embrace, roughly pushing the woman backwards, clawed fingers attempting to tightly penetrate flesh, their owner roughly panting as she stared piercingly at the one whom she let off the beginning of her assault. Calypso's vision had darkened, and at the center of it was Mana, whom she was focused on, the desire to make her bleed, feel hurt, feel suffering... Was on fire within her.

She took several pounding steps, her gait quickening as her hands tightened into fists, "I.. want to.. break you..."
Her voice spoke in a rough, unkind, but gentle tone, before increasing in aggression and volume, "LIKE A FUCKING KIT-KAT BAR!"

She yelled, and if nothing was done in regards to her second attack, her fist would be geared to sock her mother squarely in the fucking face. Regardless, she'd be screaming, and going for any opportunity to hit her again.

Pain, after pain, after pain, she was hit with. First, the limbs she had sent off to grasp and cause harm to her mother burned, dozens of eyes opening up along them, tearing up, her flesh making an agony-filled shrieking noise as it retracted to their owner, who in turn wished to scream in pain, but still went for her anger-filled attack, pain twisting her face. Secondly, she screamed in response to her mother's question, obvious agony and anger in her voice,

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Calypso's pained, angered face quickly turned to shock as she realized her fist did not connect with her mother's face, rather, it was being held tightly to prevent any shock. Then she felt her body hit the ground with a mighty slam as she felt as if something weighing several tons fell on her. Holy fuck, did she hit her? No, she didn't feel anything hit her, aside from gravity itself. She hit the ground brutally, belly up and releasing a pained yell, coughing up her blue essence from the shock, breathing heavily and hoarsely as she was pinned to the ground.

To add further injury to grievous injury, as Caly was trying to gain some form of recovery from the shock, she felt a terrible flash of heat on her chest, over and over. Her body was healing quickly, but the pain kept stacking and stacking, growing more and more unbearable as she screamed. Her fists were so uncontrollably tight she thought she'd start bleeding from her palms, but despite her current position, she coughed loudly, and tried to flip herself over whilst being whipped and weighed down, her screaming turned into strained yelling as she forced herself to turn over, feeling a few hits to her head and back, she still tried to get up, regardless of the pain and suffocating pressure that was on her.

"C-cmon.. Get up... Work.. Work...!" She whimpered to herself, begging her limbs to actually move and work. She was trembling from the pain, but had enough strength to look up and stare at her mother as she spoke to her and gave her an upfront choice; Eat away the madness in her, or keep struggling against the demon queen in an unwinnable challenge, was her mother friend, or foe?

The young demon's hands covered the top of her head as she slumped with such a choice, ration and logic not enough to overcome and suppress her currently wild, out of control emotions. So of course, she screamed, probably the loudest and most pained scream she had done so far, as the confliction within her caused such an adverse reaction. She wanted to break her mother for how she made her feel, tear her apart, make her innards her outtards, hear her scream.. Hear her crunch.. But didn't she love her? She loved her, didn't she? Didn't she want her to get better? But she had to pay for abandoning her on the shitty premise of wishing not to put investment in a weak child! She had to pay! She has to be loved! But she should feel pain and revenge! But that isn't who Calypso was!

Despite not retaining a majority of her injuries, it was plain as day that Calypso was a mess. She certainly was, as she dragged her pained, trembling body, bit by bit, closer to her mother's feet,

"..I don't know what's right... I don't know which to choose... I don't know what's the right choice..."
She sniffled and hiccuped, a tightened fist forcing itself open to grasp her mother's ankle tightly, her head faced to the dirt as she breathed coarsely, dark hair an absolute mess on the terra below her as her body became ink black and unfocused, far more nightmare-ish in appearance,

"...It hurts so much, I want it to stop... I can't decide.. I'm so sick of not being... Able to do anything... Just watching everything go by... I want to stop being so fucking useless..."

Tears of gold ran copiously through her eyes as her heart was wracked with sadness and vulnerability, as she lied pitifully before her mother, the only act she could manage to do was tightly grip her ankle, her body wracked with pain and suffering. Voices upon voices cried of pain in her mind, reflecting her inner thoughts, her inner conflicts. It made it hard for her to stay totally focused, but she had been weakened to the point that her discord-filled heart was quieted for now. She felt the sensation of the hot chain striking her back dull and fade, the young one cautiously looking up weakly to meet her mother's gaze. She sensed her emotions.

She wasn't deriving any pleasure or enjoyment out of any of this.

That was honestly the surprising part of it. She remembered the last time her mother beat her silly, this time did not feel like that time at all. It sort of scared her in a way, that her mother wasn't taking her seemingly sadistic tendencies out on her now. She heard her mother's words, some childish parts of her mind surfacing, not wanting to 'move on', that she felt fine how she was, Mama was wrong, Mama was wrong.. Mama... Is...

Her gaze looked to the flickering of emerald flames surrounding her now, the swell of power in the area not of malevolence, which only added to the young demon's surprise. She honestly thought something kick started the drive to harm and she was going to get a good burning or something for a second. She heard her mother's words once more, her heart faltering to the shock of it all. She wanted her to be wrong. She wanted her to be how she had presented herself prior, in some inner desire, as the malevolent demon queen. Calypso never saw this side of the queen before, it felt alien, it felt strange, it was almost as if she didn't constantly identify herself as herself, she'd be another person entirely wearing her mother's skin to the girl. She wanted her to be wrong, but didn't she want her to become more understanding..? She.. She... Mama...

Mama is...

"..Right." Calypso softly conceded, "...You're.. Right. I don't know... What I am in this world.."

Her mother giving her the assurance that the seal wouldn't bring any madness to her was definitely reassuring. Nothing she sensed from her implied deceit or malicious intent, rather the opposite, which was further crumbling to the girl. She was emotionally exhausted, and sighed,

"..I don't get myself. I thought this is what I wanted, this side of you to show itself to me... I thought it'd make me happy, so why am I in so much disbelief and misery..? Why...?"

Her teary eyes shut, as she completely conceded,

"..If you really want to help me, then do it. Give it to me."

Calypso wasn't entirely sure what kind of sensation to expect when the flames came upon her being, but it was already too late for her to ask. At first, her vision was filled with a vibrant, green inferno, but it felt as if she was at the bottom of the ocean at the same time. At first, she felt nothing, nothing in the sense that her senses almost felt robbed from her, and then suddenly sensation slammed her like a waterfall. For a minute or two, Calypso screamed a scream of suffering, the sense of pain she felt wasn't anything that could be described physically. It didn't burn, it didn't sting, it didn't chill, nor did anything feel suffocating...

It was all mental pain, the young demon on her knees, holding her head, and screaming in pain as the beginnings of the seal began to etch itself into her soul. Her eyes shut, as black fluid was coughed up amidst her screams, splattering on the earth, and soon the sensation of suffering dulled, no sound was around her, the air becoming as if it was the bottom of an endless sea...

She had awoken within her Conceptual World once more, but this time, this "other her", was clinging to her for dear life, at their feet was the bright light of an unknown surface, cracks forming along it's surface as emerald lights swirled the space, shadowy eyes watching the events unfold. Her eyeless doppelganger was being burned, releasing pitiful cries.

'NO! NO! PLEASE REJECT IT!' She begged, her voice sounding as if it'd shred her throat.

"Why?" Calypso stared at her, eyes narrowed. For some reason, she didn't care if this being was suffering. None of her usual sympathy was welling in her chest.

'SHE'S HURTING US! OKAY?! SHE'S TRYING TO CORRUPT US, DON'T YOU SEE?!'

Calypso didn't give a response, only giving this creature a stare,

'PLEASE! PLEASE! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! SHE'LL RUIN EVERYTHING!'

"Why do you keep holding me back?" Such a simple question left her lips

'.. Huh...?!' The being cried as she sunk to her knees, entire body shuddering and convulsing as flames continued to develop and chip away at her essence.

"Every time, every time I could do something, something stops me. This fear, that i'd end up like Mama, or get killed, or fail. You're that fear, aren't you? So answer me, why do you keep holding me back?"

'I... I.. Just.. Want to keep us safe..'

"Keep us from growing and moving sounds more apt." Calypso walked towards and proceeded to grasp the form by the neck, hoisting it in the air, her fingers squeezing her neck as the copy struggled and whimpered in her grasp.

'But if I die we'll just-'

"Be better off. I was scared as a baby, and I don't feel like I can fly that way anymore." Calypso smashed the form into the ground beneath them, which only added to the fragility, the sound of shattering glass sounding beneath her as Calypso's hair flowed as if it was in water, "Give me one good reason why you need to be here."

'... I'm just trying to protect us! The world's so scary and big, you know it is! I just don't want.. Us... Getting hurt.. Again and again.. Weren't you afraid every time you tried to stop someone from dying, that something bad happened and did? Don't you remember that scary lady with the flames, who just slaughtered everyone without a second thought?! How many more horrible nightmares will convince us that hiding is better?!'

The creature was crying as she held it down, she could sense her own fears radiating off of it like a nuclear explosion's heat. Calypso sat there for a moment, silent, before giving her a big smile, and gently stroking her hair with a shadowy tendril. The being beneath her nervously smiled, as if thinking her main counterpart had come to reason, til Calypso opened her eyes a squint, and gave her a cold smile,

"I made you, my personified fear, didn't I? Wow, I honestly didn't think my abilities would stem to that point, even if it made something that hurt me in the end. Listen, i'm tired of the guilt, shame, and fear. I'll be fine without you."

Soon an offensive set of tendrils were entangling the lifeform within her mind's body, the personification of her hindering nature, she sighed wistfully, "It's time to put the scared kiddy feelings behind, I don't need a personal chaperone for my own actions. Bye bye."

A short scream was quickly reduced to silence, as she was seamlessly torn apart, and reduced to shadows, the dark pieces floating off to join it's pitch black ocean that was her immaterial body. Calypso looked down at her hands, thinking, ".. Maaaan. I really have to be more careful with my stronger emotions."

She plopped down onto her bottom, looking at her surroundings as the large glow of the floor was forced to leak out of the cracks. She guessed that the seal was probably doing something, along with her trashing her desire to keep whatever was below her feet down there. It didn't look like it would be a fast process for whatever this white stuff was to leak out, even with her mother's power assisting, though the current state of things made her feel sort of queasy and dizzy, like a headache was coming on. Did she ever even get headaches? Well, she certainly had one right now. Probably growing pains she didn't really let do their thing.

She felt something slither upon her leg, hearing cusses in a tongue she couldn't understand, the exhausted girl only brought her gaze upon the creature. It was a snake, as black and shadowy as the abyss of her body, red gleaming eyes narrowed almost like a human's as it seemed to pull it's body from one of the crevices the flow of green energy had forced open. It had finally pulled it's tail from the crevice, making a sound almost as if it was making an exasperated sigh.

"Good lord that took far too long to do.. First Algos' vile energy stirs me, then She gets her own input with..."

Calypso stared tiredly at the snake, as the snake stared back at her, looking as if it's mouth was agape, "..Sup?"

"...Oh my gods." The snake's voice sounded more as if it spoke in her head rather than her ears, as the snake began to size her up, looking her up and down, a humanistic look of surprise on it's scaly face, ".. Bloody hell, how long have I been asleep? You're so.. Big."

"..Uhhh... Maybe because you're small?" Calypso appeared wholly confused by this entire situation, tilting her head, "What exactly even are you?"

"What in the hell are you talking about you wee inkstain?! I'm.. I... I.. Am..." A look of realization seemed to dawn on the creature's face, "...Ohhh lord. How could I forget.. Such irony. Allow me to catch your puny mind up to speed. Ah.. Uhm.. Lord this tiny body is pathetic! A moment."

The snake seemed to turn away, almost as if she were trying to hide what she was doing, convulsing for a minute before turning back around and placing what looked like a shimmering stone, which seemed to pulsate with... Some sort of familiarity, "Uh, what am I supposed to do with this?"

"Eat it."

"What?! Why?!"

"It'll make you remember what you bloody lost you ingrate!"

"How can I even trus-"

"JUST LISTEN AND EAT THE DAMN STONE YOU PSYCHEDELIC MORON!"

Calypso was greatly taken aback by how the snake shouted, but she guessed this was probably something she felt strongly about. Her emotions didn't read was wishing to do harm, just great annoyance with.. A pinch of longing? So Calypso did so and grasped the stone, raising it to her mouth,

"If this does weird shit to me.."

"It won't, my gods, I wouldn't do something so bloody ridiculous to you, now quit being obnoxious."

The snake's attitude was a bit of an eye narrower, but she placed the stone in her mouth, and swallowed, and in that instance she was suddenly slammed with many things. Images, sensations, feelings, plagued her mind in a strong impact. It was her time before birth, when her mind was still locked within an unborn body, she had existed with another...

Pseudologoi.

Next thing she knew, she was crying, and held the snake tightly in her arms, gentle hiccups as she cried her golden tears, which flowed off into the abyss, rather than splatter on the floor.

"I suppose you're up to speed, whelp?" The snake's voice sounded more wistful than irritated.

"Yeah. Yeah.. W-wait why are you a snake?"

"Are we going to be playing twenty questions, girl?"

"Uh, no. That's my only one for now."

"Thank the gods, I somewhat dreaded the day you gained your own voice. Those wide white eyes always seemed like they had something to ask me. As for your current question.. I couldn't exactly take up my entire being with how bloody tightly you wound your essence up in it's own little trap. So, I parted one of my serpents and possessed it, til the day you finally let that tightly bound energy fly."

Calypso let out a gentle huff, "Sorry about that."

"No need for pointless apologies, it was a failing on my end, expecting you to mentally contain both our energies into life was foolish. Boo-hoo-hoo, what a shame, you had such potential to begin with."

Pseudologoi almost seemed to pout as she gestured to the energy slowly leaking away, "My word, it will take forever for it to truly bind to you and become yours... Oh well, good things come to those who wait."

Calypso was taking her time in processing this, taking in the feelings that were surging in her mind, new and old, as she stared at the snake, her feelings of missing her guardian slowly acclimating to her current mind. It felt like she had finally pieced together something she had lost such a long time ago,

"...How did I forget you?"

"..Well, do you know what happens when you overflow something with volatile elements and try to force it through a narrow hole? That was your birth. Just a giant steaming hot pile of garbage in your mind. You connected to every existing bloody mind in the cosmos, I believe. You would have gone insane if I didn't do anything, so do be grateful you're capable of functioning today. I plucked memories of the event from you, but I ended up being put to sleep. Seems I took too much and you forgot my beautiful face."

"So.. Where are those crazy memories?"

"Oh, you know, locked away, not to be touched til your puny weak mind doesn't snap like a twig. By the by, seems our time is up for now."

"Wait wha-"

"Aaaahh!"

Calypso came to her senses as the seal was properly taking root in the fertile soil of her soul, breathing hard as she felt the exertion on her body. Her face was drenched with strange black fluid, such fluid having pooled all over the floor before her, the liquid seeming to shimmer with nearly invisible stars if one looked closely. Her hair was longer, curlier, and she had horns sticking out of the top of her head, both being rather small and short, however one was visibly longer than the other.

Despite her rather messy state, she felt more awake than ever. She didn't feel scared. She felt like she was there. She looked up at her mother as she asked her question, her fingers digging into the dirt beneath them,

"Alive! More than ever."

Rubbing black fluid off of her chin, the newly awakened demon stared up at her mother with a neutral expression, new thoughts, emotions, and memories having taken place in her mind. The young one had finally found a piece of herself that she had lost, and in this moment being radiated by her mother's influence, she felt some form of peace. It was a bit odd, placing old thoughts from long ago with new ones, but at the very least she wasn't losing her mind. She knew she made a good decision.

Rather than staring at her mother in fear or anger, she more or less had a passive look to her, definitely not a stupid-headed pacified one, but her golden gaze definitely no longer screamed "I want to tear your fucking jugular out". She heard her mother speak, sort of wishing she wasn't so strenuous on the whole "big gal" thing; that went without saying. She had clearly noticed the appearance of both portals, and as she was talking about the portal that actually seemed useful to her, Calypso was already heading over to it as her mother moved onto where the other one would take her; Back to Demon World, far too soon.

But merely a few feet in front of the portal to remain in this realm, Caly turned to look at her mother with an almost clueless look, as if she just advanced towards one of them without even thinking about it,

"Huh? What? I'm sorry, I was just too busy going for the actually good option to hear you just now," She cupped a hand around one of her ears as if she wanted to listen more intently, "Could you repeat that last part again? Ohoho, wait," She let out a faint chuckle, as to fully dress her sarcasm, "No, no. I was listening.. Returning to Demon World now, when I could have as much time here as possible to prepare myself, instead of being in a huge stupid rush all the time, just sounds like the stupidest idea, EVER. I'm not interested in making stupid hasty choices like that anymore, got it?."

Calypso let out an exasperated sigh, as she shrugged her shoulders, "So yeah, having ample time to train myself up into being ready, over throwing myself back into the fast-paced, steaming hot, stinkin' bullshit that's fixing Demon World as I am now? Yes! Thank you, i'd rather not throttle myself rushing."

Her voice and mannerisms were heavily laced in sarcasm, as if the best option was the most obvious, and having the worst one at the moment presented to her was completely stupid.