IC Contact post for Mask or Menace

[dun_moch]

"You have reached Count Dooku. I regret that I am unavailable to answer your hail. Kindly leave a message, and I shall respond at the earliest opportunity."

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Comments

voice;

[darkimitation]

[He takes a moment to calmly explain himself, but then finds a way to do so.]

I... I need to know if you can train me to cut off my emotions. The darkness inside of me, it's feeding off them and I might be losing control of myself and my powers. I don't want to be swallowed by it or else I won't be me anymore.

voice;

[dun_moch]

[There's a pause before the Count responds. What in the stars has happened to his apprentice?]

I cannot do this for you, Kagami. I have told you before: your passion is your strength. To cut off your emotions would leave you weak, and that is unacceptable.

You must confront the source of your feelings, and gain control of the darkness within you. Don't let the darkness consume you- bend it to your will, and make it serve you. Do this, and you will be unstoppable.

voice;

[darkimitation]

[Confronting the source of his feelings. Bending the darkness back to his will to serve him. Did he really want that? A part of him says no, he doesn't. He doesn't care about his emotions. He doesn't care about power right now. All he wants is for everything to stop. Yet he can't speak what he's thinking and instead acts like the obedient boy he's meant to.]

... I understand. I'll do as you say, sir.

voice;

[dun_moch]

Good.

[But Dooku won't leave it at that. He speaks in his kindliest voice.]

You must be in great stress to seek such a drastic option. Tell me what is the problem, Kagami. What has happened to make you desire an end to feeling?

voice;

[darkimitation]

... The best way I can explain is in my world, darkness feeds off negative emotions of the heart and using it too much or allowing too much negativity into the heart causes the wielder to be consumed by it and turned into a heartless.

voice;

[dun_moch]

A 'heartless,' you say.

[That doesn't sound like such a bad thing to be at all, in Dooku's view.]

And I suppose that is some form of... creature?

voice;

[darkimitation]

It's a black creature with no heart. I think they also consume hearts to feel whole again or something, but I only know what Riku knows and some memories are hazier than others.

[This is what happens when you're a clone after all.]

voice;

[dun_moch]

I see.

[So even Kagami's knowledge is just a copy of Riku's, as well as his body. No wonder he is so tormented by the nature of his existence...]

Do not fear, Kagami. You will not become a Heartless. I will not permit it.

But it would be helpful to know why the darkness within you is growing so uncontrollably.

voice;

[darkimitation]

[He lets a long pause draw out before he's able to answer.]

It's because... I allowed my weakness to overwhelm me. I wanted her to only have eyes for me, but she doesn't. Love is a weakness, Master. I see that now. I don't want it to keep causing me pain.

voice;

[dun_moch]

Ahhhh. Her. I understand now.

[Some dim part of Dooku that still understands empathy flickers with light for a moment. Yes, love is noise, love is pain, love is these blues that I'm singing again. People are better off without it.]

You have learned an important lesson, even if it is at a painful cost. Love is weakness. To love is to be vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to risk destruction.

But consider this, my young friend: if you allow this pain to drive you into cutting off your power, you will have allowed her to hurt you even further. Her humiliation of you will be complete. Don't let her influence weaken you any further.