A Splitting Decision

[Whatevr89532]

"I want all kinds of things," Lyra says to Oyoki in a tone of voice resembling a verbal shrug. "You're a person I've pretty much brought back from a second- or third-level death when I had every opportunity to just annihilate you for the final time. I'd love to be able to set you free somewhere and not have to go through a whole bunch of trouble first, but I think we both know why I don't have that option. Now, this usually doesn't hurt at all but you still might be inclined to brace yourself." Back in the control room, the witch pushes "Go" on a sort of magical-program she's scripted up into the Lexica system, targeted right at the little fox-girl.

((Okay, I'll level with you here. Lyra's plan at this point is basically to almost totally depower Oyoki. The red energy is a "temporary depower" where if she were cleansed of it or even if it was replaced by some other color like Blue her powers would all be there and work again, and Lyra isn't inclined to let her out while that risk exists. The things she's having Lexica do are an overall attempt to make it so even if the color energy were removed she'd still be an almost mundane fox-girl. Is this OK or should we discuss some other way for events to go?))

It begins with a special kind of magical potential draining spell; in RPG terms, it pulls out a person's Max MP stat, lowering it, and converts it into a form anyone could use to raise their Max MP by the same amount. The rate of draining is moderately slow, and this spell is very costly, moreso the more a person has capacity to resist, and more still the more of that MP a person has available rather than spent, but Oyoki's resistances are at an all-time low in her current state, and she's probably used up most of hers in the last few minutes or so. The converted energy is removed from the room's reality as it's drained, scanned for any kind of curse or harmful effect on another person who takes it, and stores it separately from "safe" energy if it has something like that. Secretly, Lexica watches Oyoki's mind and spirit for the activation of any skill or technique she knows that allows her to "learn" the abilities of others and imitate them. The particular spell used on her now requires a visible target other than the caster, so she doesn't currently have an opportunity to try it out even if she were somehow able to cast it despite the high cost and her powers (even new ones) restricted in effectiveness by the Red.

--

"The fruit was in the cookie you ate, so she would be affected by it as soon as she appeared," explains Lyra, taking a seat on the couch and gesturing an offer to take any of the other available seats. "It's a special fruit inherently possessing what's known as color energy, Red in this case, which makes things cute. I tuned it further to make someone functionally harmless, and obedient to adults--both of which effects are much weaker on you since some of that Red was drained out of you mid-change. It had to affect you too to be sure it worked, but I always planned on clarifying the Red back out of you once she was dealt with.

"Our first order of business, though: You've not had a moment of peace since coming into existence." Her eyes seem kind and hopeful. "After what you've been through, and the heroic efforts you've made in that brief period, you more than deserve to be your own person, and have an identity. You should have a name, is what I'm saying." She nods slightly. "If you don't have any ideas I could throw out a few suggestions."

[xGoggles]

As soon as Lyra said ' brace yourself ', Oyoki immediately put an unusual hand-seal and took a deep breath, now given in her original form this barely took any energy at all and given this was likely the most harmless technique she had, even the Red would likely not even restrict it much... Not like it was anything effective necessary for the scenario, more so a last hope attempt to dodge something that would be instant or hard to avoid any other way; what this specific technique did was just, very temporarily, but quickly, remove her from existence (in all traces, besides her presence in the past or memories that she did, in fact, exist) for a few moments and then let her reappear again, shortly after, at the same spot.
To her it would be like locking herself into a certain time-frame, unable to even move, as locked in time herself beside her mind, then skip head several time-frames later, to when she guessed would be enough. Though, even when it overall use can be nice to dodge attacks; targeting spells that were badly made, and unable to relocate to their original target later on, might just ineffectively disappear.
Nothing knowing what to expect, she made herself reappear five seconds later.

(( That's fine, go ahead, don't want her to get some revenge if she suddenly got struck by orange or something either~ ))

Even though, Oyoki did have a lot more MP than many other kitsune, especially for a one-tail; most of the magic she used was due to 'borrowed magic' that she got from her dark-links that in her current form have ceased the connection; either by it not able to recognize the person they were bound with or maybe just refusing to work with anything as cute and harmless as her now. A way to imagine it is to think of her using her magic as a small container to scoop up from a giant pool of dark magic she had access to.
Without any preventive charms protecting her, the drained energy from her is overall safe.

The way she 'imitates' abilities has little to do with her knowing them, and more to do with her using a charm that is able to request a similar effect, that she can recall, to happen by forming metaphorical copy of the one that performed set action. However, most of the techniques she used so far were either her own abilities or things she learned in the past. But, who knows how many actions she has seen through her existence that she could potentially recall; if using the charm wasn't that costly to use though.

--

The former-armor takes a seat and listens to Lyra's explanation of the fruit and how she used it, "So you didn't put an end to her, just made her harmless?"

She blushes slightly, "I... I'm thankful, you welcome my efforts, but you don't have to reward me... I was made for this. If anyone would be deserving of your appreciation, it would be my creator, masters that shared their experience with me or.. that fox-man that turned me into this."
Looking down, unsure if she was being modest or sad, "I'm but a tool put in motion by them, I'm not worthy of an identity for myself."

[Whatevr89532]

Lexica's programming doesn't seem particularly bothered by Oyoki temporarily disappearing and reappearing, carrying on its work once she comes back. Continuing the draining spell, Lexica gives up on activating and easily catching some kind of specific "Learn" power and starts with the spells and abilities she's used just from the time she appeared in this room. What it does is pull out the specific memory of how to use that power: Things like the incantation of the spell, what to write on the charms, the right way to flick your wrist to make the power work, so on, and copy it down into a special scroll held elsewhere, the reading of which would grant one that ability. It's a cut-and-paste action like any computer could do, and the scrolls are safely scanned in a similar way to the drained magic potential. And while it starts pulling out those abilities, Lexica searches her mind for the thing that lets her copy the powers of others, and probably finds it fairly soon, immediately prioritizing that to take over other powers.

After she reappears, Lyra's voice can be heard again: "I know I know, some powers are a part of one's identity, they make you feel like yourself and being without them just feels wrong. This is a terrible thing to do to a person, and I wish it could be some other way. But I know from experience that if I don't do this, you'll never listen to me, you'll always be busy thinking about how to go back to normal, how to escape, how to get revenge, so on so forth. The first thing I think will get your attention is that I'm not destroying anything; in fact I'm planning to give it all back. But I do that when I see that you've come to understand something first, something I can't just tell you."

--

"Perhaps I should reassure you by answering your first question first," says Lyra. "Oyoki is a class of threat I call 'sealed evil in a can'. It's a kind of entity you can't just kill. The people of your original world tried that, and now look, she was coming back all over again anyway! If I killed her after she split from you she'd go back to being buried deep in that dark aura curse whatever back on your homeworld, and even if I cleansed it from the whole world who knows how many other objects with that aura came off, and could spread it to someone or something susceptible. I have a procedure for dealing with this kind of threat that works a lot more often than trying to just kill it or seal it better, especially when it's a thinking person and not a monster or force of nature, and it starts with sealing their power as I have hers.

"Now, I need you to understand that an identity is not a reward for anything. You're a person now, and every person gets one; I suppose I was saying maybe you deserve one even more than some others, but that's beside the point. For another thing, it's super awkward to not have anything to call you besides 'that girl who used to be a suit of armor'." Lyra shrugs.

[xGoggles]

The knowledge of the few abilities she did use, or at least tried to use in the room, got successfully transferred down on the scrolls. However, taking the nature of many of them, the caster would need quite a few requirements that many would interpret as 'evil'. Oyoki, lost the resources and the knowledge to perform any of these abilities now, but still remembers what they were used for, their effects and where she learned them though.
Most of these were pretty destructive in nature, as she later on just tried to break open the room instead of using any more defensive techniques.
The feature to 'copy' other's abilities, had to do with time-magic technique in combination with illusion-magic to create a plausible copy of the other caster, by use of a talisman, to then do the same action over again; without the need for the same amount of energy, ingredients or other requirements to do so. A bit different from other mirroring techniques but usually the same result. Oyoki, however, had to see these abilities in action first though before she could ever recall them like that.

"So you are taking away my powers, and expect me to believe you'll ever give them back at some point?", she starts to laugh out loud, even though it feels rather forced. "Oh, what do I need to understand, that people fear me? That they'll lie in my face, promising me great things, while they take away my powers behind my back?!", her forced laughs sound more like restricted sobs at this point, "Y-you are just like them... You know nothing about me!"
By now the little girl is unable to hold her tears and start crying; covering her face with her arms.

--

The former-armor still has a look of concern about the sealing of the power but doesn't speak out about it, as she considering Lyra likely has more understanding of magic than she does.

"But..." she hesitates for a bit, "Do you think I should be a person? Maybe I'm better off going back to be an armor... All these strange feeling and instincts I have now... they appear to be an impediment" She tries to come up with a reason to aid her point.

[Whatevr89532]

Of course, Lexica doesn't stop at taking recently-used powers, those are just in some sense the easiest to locate. It starts going after other powers and abilities afterward, just combing through the mind for them, and using the same basic procedure on those as well.

"There there..." The witch's tone is genuinely a bit motherly for this, and a box of tissues appears on the free side of the couch in case Oyoki wants to take some. "Of course I don't know anything about you, that's part of the point of all this. I don't think it's fair to say I'm doing anything behind your back, though, I'm being pretty up-front about it."

--

"I absolutely think you should be a person," says Lyra, with a cheerful nod. "If you feel more comfortable physically being a suit of armor like you were before, that's pretty understandable, and after we take care of some other issues Oyoki caused you I could probably rig something up to let you go back and forth to that. But what you were before the Crimson blast was a complex web of enchantments and essences woven over an object, while what you are now is a proper being with a soul and an actual, fully-fledged mind. That's kind of a one-way conversion, and even trying to go the other direction would amount to killing a person, which I'm deeply uncomfortable with."

[xGoggles]

The program likely also comes across quite a lot of different summons, many summoned in similar ways, beside a small change in requirements or phrasing. Many advanced ones did require offering or sacrifices to summon first.

Oyoki meekly pushes away the box of tissues, not liking the sense pity of what the witch offered. After the mention 'behind your back', she squirms and quickly grabs hold of her tail; holding it up close in a way to comfort herself or maybe an attempt to protect it? "I have nothing to tell you, leave me alone!", she screams out while crying.

--

"But I was never tasked to be a person.. a fox person of all things! I have no experience on any of these things. I have no reason to desire this form beside--.." she shuts her mouth, deeply blushing, as a single reason did come to mind; one that she would be little too embarrassed to share.

[Whatevr89532]

Of all things, Oyoki's tail seems perfectly safe from what Lexica is doing. It isn't changing at all, and it is nice and fluffy and comforting to hug. The 'little-girl' mental effects from the dose of Red she was hit with respond to it like hugging a stuffed animal, a deeply comforting feeling.

Lyra doesn't speak to the fox-girl for a moment. Back in the control room, to herself and without the effect that makes her audible inside the 'holding' box, she sighs. "This part's always the hardest to see," she remarks, not really to anyone.

--

Rather than asking anything about the 'besides', Lyra responds to the first part of her guest's statement. "Well, being unfamiliar with something is a great reason to experience it--I mean, at least as far as obviously unharmful things. If a person does the same thing all the time, they don't improve. On the other side of things, a person can grow and learn from new experiences." The witch pauses, catching on to something. "See--now that you're a person you don't have to wait around to be improved by someone else, you can grow better on your own initiative and effort."

[xGoggles]

The hug sure was comforting, even when it was just her hugging herself mostly. It sure has been a long time since she felt a nice warm hug.
She softly cries, her tears mainly taken by the fluffy fur of her tail.

--

"Growing on my own..? I could improve my own techniques without having to practice the basics every time I had a new user... I can train now like my masters did before, but with my own tools and methods!", this idea very much grew more in favor the more she thought about it. As unappealing her current form might be and the struggles that went with it, the thought of potential growth through her own hard training because a form of desire the former-armor never knew she wanted before.
"I have never thought about it that way. Thank you very much for your inspiring words Mistress Lyra.", she nods her head very happy with the idea.

[Whatevr89532]

Eventually...Lexica's work is done. Oyoki is left physically the same as when the red got through with her, with enough magical potential to perform a few basic cantrips and not much else, and devoid of the knowledge of how to do even that much--though, one may note, her memories are unaffected as far as when and how she learned things in the first place, when and how she used them, what their results are...the missing information is entirely how to perform the techniques and spells. And...if she's still hugging her tail at this point, the first thing she might notice is a smell, a delicious meaty smell. Removing the obstruction to her vision will reveal that the couch with Oyoki on it has relocated into a nice-looking kitchen--which probably isn't the appropriate place for the couch, but regardless, there's a table in front of the couch now with two plates on it, one set before Oyoki while the other is on the opposite side. Each plate has about the same meal on it, a nice dinner which is clearly the source of the smells. A moment later, Lyra appears on the opposite side of the table, sitting in a rolling desk chair. Rather than saying anything right away, Lyra waits for the fox-girl's response. When was the last time she actually ate food, anyway, much less something that smells as good as this?

--

"I thought you might like that," the witch nods. "On top of that, if there's something you don't understand but another person does, they can teach it to you. But if you want to meet people who might provide new experiences or teach you, they'll find it easier to get along with you if you have a name." It doesn't seem like the topic of getting her an name was ever actually dropped.

[xGoggles]

After slowly picking up the smell of the very delicious looking food, peering past her tail towards the table. Then glaring at Lyra as she appears. Still holding her tail like her personal dearest plushie, feeling quite hungry yet speaks up, "If you think you can lure me in with food, you are sadly mistaken... I have spent years without any!" The rumble of her stomach didn't help her stance very much, but the girl still didn't budge from the couch, she was quite stubborn.

--

"A name... I only have been called out as my creator's or master's gear, and maybe some fierce titles.. but a name just for my own? But doesn't tradition tell, that a person is named by their parents?", she was unsure; it's hard to consider her creator in such a way like to feel as if they were a parent. Regardless her creator was gone over more than a few thousand years. Though maybe she should look at it more towards the creator of the body worth to be called a person.. then her parent would be...
Blushing again, "I.. I think I might know a person that has the authority to name me..." Hating how this embarrassment emotion felt, why did this body have to be so love-struck!

[Whatevr89532]

Lyra just leans her elbow on one of the arms of her chair, and her cheek on that hand. "Does everything have to be in terms of hostile actions with you? I'm just offering you food because I thought you might like some after being in the wrong state to actually eat for, I dunno, centuries? Look, anything I could possibly want to do to you through a trap, I already have every opportunity to just directly do it without the extra trouble."

--

"Hmn..well, getting named by one's parents happens more because a new person created that way just lacks the mental capacity to give their opinion at the time than because it's any kind of rule. When someone comes into existence with a proper mind it's different...sometimes even people who were named by their parents pick new names for themselves later if they feel something fits them better." She shrugs. "I could get ahold of Fox if you're more comfortable with the idea, but I have to tell you, Wolf was always terrible at naming things. I mean--he called himself Wolf because he had vaguely wolf-like ears, and 'Fox' probably for the same kinda reason. I wouldn't put it past him to suggest the name 'Arma' because it sounds vaguely like 'Armor'."

[xGoggles]

After yet an other rumble from her stomach, Oyoki pushes herself off the couch, crossing her arms as she walks closer to the table. She wasn't going to admit Lyra had a point, so when she got closer she kept on her pout, "Then why don't you? Why go through all this trouble to act all nice, when there obviously is something you want out of this?"
She takes a seat, only giving a small glance to the meal, returns to glaring at Lyra, maybe a bit less now with an angry stare but a bit more of a puzzling look as if trying to figure out her motives, "Don't think I didn't notice you probing through my mind... So you took away my body and my magic; seriously what more do you want you can't just take already anyway!", well, that last part was a bit of a shout, maybe a bit louder than she wanted to but still.. she was upset.. maybe more about the situation than anything personally towards Lyra.

--

"I have no preference or knowledge on what a good name might be; I always thought 'Wolf' was a very fitting name for Master Wolf.", the former-armor nods her head. But if you wouldn't recommend me not to ask him, I'm willing to accept any name given by my other owners. (Guess that would include either Lyra or Goggles now, I guess)

[Whatevr89532]

Oyoki doesn't need to actually get up to reach the food; her couch is positioned right up at the table where a kitchen chair probably should be, close enough one might have to climb over the chair or under the table to really leave it. Lyra sighs, leaning back a bit in the chair. "I'm in an annoying situation anyone who's ever had a lot of power should be familiar with. What I really want can't be given or taken, especially not by force. To begin with, a conversation. You ever try to steal one of those?"

--

"I'm not saying you shouldn't, I'm just giving you a warning. I just want you to have a name you'll be happy with," says Lyra. "If you like Arma you could go with it. Or...I was gonna suggest something like Saiya, 'cause it means shadow and you can do the thing with the moving your shadow and stuff...or like, Brunhild, which can mean dark, noble, or just denotes an armored battle maiden. And if you want Fox's input, like I said, I can get him to visit."

[xGoggles]

Still not sure what Lyra's motives, sure there was a reason why she kept her alive but what.. Link to the dark realms, maybe an ingredient for a blood ritual, or maybe just as her personal pet? Still, none of those would require her to be nice at all...
Glancing back at the meal, her mouth watering, not just by the sight but the aromatic spell too. Trying to pull her mind of the distraction, she grins at the question, "Ohhh, I never had the need to steal, most of the things I had... people just gave for free~"
And sure even now when her stomach is still empty, at least she talks full of herself again, "Sure, maybe I could be a bit 'convincing' at times, but if personal slaves give me all they have, who am I to deny their offering~" And with that she grabs the silverware and starts eating.
Well, at least she is eating now... Though the smirk on her face doesn't seem like she'd really deserve it at this point.

--

"I think, I like the name Saiya. I remember a brave and honorable woman once by that name." She looks back at her own shadow which is pretty normal now, "Will my shadow still return? It feels weird without its presence."

[Whatevr89532]

Lyra doesn't move to stop Oyoki from eating, but resumes her cheek-on-hand-over-elbow-on-armrest pose from before. "I know what state you were in not very long ago. Your world killed you, killed everyone you could possess--probably a lot of nice and innocent people in there, sealed away stories about you and left you as a small trace of magic on a few objects here and there. I was gearing up to ask how you managed to get into such a pathetic state, but I guess I know now."

--

"Alrighty, Saiya it is," Lyra nods with a grin, "at least for a test run, if you come to dislike it you can change it. Anyway, all your powers and stuff will come back when I clarify off the Red energy in you, they're just sort of 'hiding' under that. Before I do, though, we or more specifically you have a problem that needs to be addressed." The witch stands up, producing a pointer stick from nowhere while a presentation clipboard thing appears with a cartoon of a circular glowy thing with a pie-slice taken out of it and a shadowy "demon"-looking thing flying toward it.
"I mentioned earlier that Oyoki left some scars in you. More specifically, she actually kinda, tore off some of your soul and mind. And, that stuff would maybe grow back with time, but the problem is that if some other evil spirit or something wants someone to possess, the hole in your soul and mind will give them a huge opening. Before letting you out into the world I want to offer to fix that."

The image on the clipboard switches to three evenly-sized columns, separated by vertical lines. "Now, the mind holes are easy enough; your mind is ultimately data, Lexica is very good with data, she can make it like nothing ever happened. Soul repair is a lot trickier." She points to the first column: A glowy circle like before, smaller, but with a crack in it. "I can sort of stitch it together; you'll be left with less soul-mass than normal and heal slowly, but it'll still be more vulnerable than a normal soul to possession and such. This is the quick, convenient, risky method. Orrr..."
She points to the middle column, which shows a differently-colored pie-slice of glowy stuff moving to enter the hole seen in the previous image. "There are some fragmented souls of various heroes I have around, slowly incubating and healing so I can hopefully either give them new bodies or send them properly to an afterlife. You could pick out one of those and agree to, uh, merge. Their mind would fill the hole in yours and their personality would be like a second person in you. It's...a big decision to suddenly be one of two people in one body, but you may benefit from the experience being a person that they have. When this kind of thing happens, the souls either heal separately and can eventually be separated into two bodies as completely separate people eventually, or the souls grow together and eventually the two personalities become one. I don't know which of those will happen. I'd call this the safe, quick, very inconvenient method. Finally..."
The third column shows a smaller soul like the first one does, in a stick-figure silhouette alongside a pink-haired stick figure which seems to represent Lyra; the difference in height suggests the non-Lyra silhouette is fairly young. "Your soul's current size matches, uhh, a person of about age twelve or thirteen. I could do some magic that patches together your soul completely by changing your body's true form to one about that age. Your soul would be entirely yours and completely healed, and as you grew back to physical adulthood your soul would naturally regrow to the size it's supposed to be. I think the result of the trueform change would be a much milder weakening of your usual powers and abilities than the effect you're under now, and as you grew they'd return to normal and being that young would allow you to learn a bunch of new things to go along with those abilities even easier than you can now. This is the safest method, but sort of inconvenient and by far the slowest."