The cave’s damp air chokes me, a cold fist squeezing my lungs. Each drip of water is a blade, slicing through my skull, stoking the storm in my chest. My heart hammers, a frantic drumbeat, as the green glow from Lily’s tech stuff pulses in the shadows, mocking my mission to collect the Marbles of Energy.
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I let myself unravel at the riverbank, and Brut—my daimon sister—found Lily. Her wide, trembling eyes burn into me, a raw wound that steals my breath. If I’d stayed RoseBud, locked tight, perfect, she’d be safe. They’d all be safe.
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I huddle against the cave wall, its jagged edges biting my spine, too raw to face Log or Lizy across the dim chamber. Their silence strangles me, tightening with every shallow gasp.
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Log’s steady breaths hide the sorrow he buries under quips, a mask I can’t pierce. Lizy’s uneven hitching betrays her fear, her need to speak but not the words. They see my failure. They’re slipping away. My stomach churns, dread and shame coiling like thorns.
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I spoke of the orbs, and Brut came. Lily’s terror is my fault. My nails dig into my palms. I can’t break again. I need control—RoseBud’s control.
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My trembling fingers graze my journal, its leather a fading anchor to my purpose—collect the orbs, honor Kartheina, restore balance. But doubt poisons me. Log says the Royals are liars. Lizy nods. They think the orbs are a lost cause.
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The unfairness sears my throat, a bitter fire. Why does being Yoyo shatter everything? Why does the world demand RoseBud and curse my truth?
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“RoseBud?” Lizy’s whisper barely cuts the cave’s suffocating quiet, her silhouette faint in the torchlight. “Are we… staying here?”
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Her words stab, sparking my paranoia. She doesn’t trust me. She knows I broke Lily. My pulse roars, drowning the dripping water.
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I nod, my voice a brittle, model-student shard. “Yes. It’s secure.”
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Log shifts, his shadow looming. “Secure? No portal dance, Yoyo?” His playful lilt cracks, a shadow of pain slipping through, unnoticed by him, before his grin snaps back.
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His grey-red hair glints, but his eyes pierce, seeing my mask as I see his.
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“It’s practical,” I snap, RoseBud’s tone sharp as flint, my hands clenching to hide their shake. “We need rest. I’ll set up the portal system.”
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Lizy steps closer, her robe whispering against the stone. “Miss RoseBud… we’re okay, right?” Her voice quakes, her eyes pleading yet shadowed. She’s scared I’ll ruin them, like I did Lily.
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The cave collapses inward, the green glow pulsing, choking me. My thoughts fracture—Tesoro’s taunts, slaps, Kartheina’s plea: “Show more emotion.” Her fall, my fault, because I let her go. Always my fault.
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My chest burns, a scream clawing my ribs. It’s not fair. Yoyo breaks everything—Lily’s fear, Brut’s hunt. RoseBud traps me alone. I can’t win.
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“I’m fine,” I lie, my voice cracking, a flimsy shield. My hands shake, fumbling the portal device. Be RoseBud. Be useful.
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It slips, clattering like a gunshot, echoing my fracturing heart.
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“Stop it, Yoyo.” Log’s voice drops, his mask slipping into raw urgency he doesn’t notice. “You’re not fine. You think hiding saves us? We see you breaking.”
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He forces a grin, his quirkiness a reflex. “You’re tougher than that, yeah?”
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His words rip me open.
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Yes, it does!
Yoyo brings Brut, terrifies Lily, makes you strangers!
My vision blurs, not tears—I haven’t cried since Tesoro—but chaos, searing and jagged.
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The world hates Yoyo, shatters my truth, leaves me alone in RoseBud’s cage.
Why?
My skin burns.
My halo’s Union energy surges, a wildfire I can’t contain.
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“I can’t keep breaking you!”
The thought wasn’t in my head anymore—it was in the air, tearing out of me. My skin prickled, then crystallized. I was floating outside myself, watching RoseBud’s perfect shell crack apart. This was Yoyo. The real one. The broken one.
My ponytail unravels into crystalline tendrils, pulsing with sickly blue-white light.
They clash with Lily’s green glow.
My limbs crack into sharp, angular shards.
A broken statue bound by glowing fissures.
My eyes blaze, kaleidoscopic, mirroring warped Yoyos and RoseBuds.
Chains of light—my halo’s wreckage—coil tight, snapping wildly, scorching the walls.
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I’m a Shattered Warden.
A protector who wounds what she loves.
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I see myself from outside, a stranger, my paranoia screaming: This is Yoyo. Truth destroys. This is what I feared.
My voice, a warped chorus, accuses me.
A ghost trapped in my own ruin.
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Lily, curled by her glowing tech, gasps.
My tendrils lash out, caging her in jagged crystal.
Her eyes reflect my blue-white chaos.
Her hands clutch a wrench.
The tendrils hover, sharp edges glinting green.
I scream inside: No, not her!
She whispers “RoseBud,” reaching out.
Her trust is a knife in my heart.
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My horror surges—this is my fear, my apprentice trapped by my chaos, like Brut’s hunt was my fault.
The green glow pulses, her terror a mirror to my guilt, and I’m powerless, a ghost watching my failure.
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I stagger, my tendrils searing the walls.
“What do you want from me?” My warped voice shakes the air.
“I try to be real, and it falls apart!”
“The orbs—Brut found Lily!”
“I let Karth go, and she fell!”
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My voice splinters.
A sob I choke back.
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“I can’t keep breaking you!”
“I just want you safe!”
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Log freezes, his eyes wide, his mask gone, raw sorrow flickering. Lizy gasps, her hands twisting, but she stays.
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The cave stills, my ragged breaths and crackling energy deafening.
“Yoyo,” Log says, stepping closer.
His voice is low, then catches with a chuckle.
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“You’re scaring the tech, not us!”
“Brut’s not your fault.”
“Lily’s here because she trusts you.”
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His quirkiness returns, burying the pain.
Lizy moves closer, her voice trembling but firm.
“Rose… you’re not breaking us. Brut’s my friend, and she’s wrong, but she’s not you. Don’t hide.”
Their words pierce my storm, a faint light. I don’t believe them—I drew Brut’s chaos. I hurt Lily. Guilt crushes me, unfairness burns.
But Log’s forced grin, Lizy’s hope, Lily’s whispered trust—they hold fast.
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They’re wrong… but they mean it.
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They’re still here. My chest aches, not just panic, but a fragile warmth. I don’t believe them, but I feel why they stay.
My tendrils falter, Lily’s hand steadying my fractured heart.
I close my eyes.
Breathe deep.
Open them, determination flickering.
I clawed my way back into my body, one shard at a time. The light receded, the tendrils weaving back into a simple ponytail. The crystal softened into skin. I was still cracked—I could feel the fissures—but I was contained. I was here.
The cave shifts.
Torchlight warms.
Water drips gently.
The green glow calms.
Brut, the orbs, my guilt—they loom.
But I can breathe.
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I grip the portal device, its metal grounding me. “Let’s set up camp,” I say, softer, less guarded. “And… maybe talk about the orbs. Really talk.”
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“Whoa, Rose! You just—poof—went huge!”
“Teach me that trick!”
His mask is back, teasing like the rawness never was.
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Lizy’s faint smile anchors me. Lily exhales, her wrench a lifeline, her trust a quiet flame.
A calm resolve settles, fragile as firelight. I don’t buy their faith—guilt cuts too deep—but I feel their belief. Brut, the orbs, my daimon sister—they wait. For now, I hold this: torchlight, friends, a crack in my mask like a window.
ns216.73.217.39da2
and then Add to home screen.