Art by Chopup!
Name: Kokone Hoshino
Name Kanji: (optional)
Age: 25
Hair: Ginger orange, in a bob
Eyes: Deep blue, round, expressive
Height: 5'3"
Weight: Unknown- athletic build.
Familiar: A puffy gold and white bird. Quite soft.
Active Period: High school to beginning of college, and some intermittent episodes during college. (14-18, minor episodes till 20)
Alias: Cosmic Vega
Team: Cosmo Queens (the team often joked about needing to change their name to "Cosmo Royals" if someone of a different gender joined)
Team Role: Power-wise, Vega was the defensive powerhouse, able to generate eggshell shields when needed and even encase an enemy/ally in an egg for a quick escape opportunity or defense at the cost of mobility. Team wise, Vega was the reliable one, the one who came along on every mission. At a certain point, she was almost an enabler for Er Rai's manias, and realizing that was part of the reason she pulled away from everyone.
Team Members: Polaris: Vanished, unresponsive to contact, possibly deceased but could also have finally freed herself from ever having to respond to the magical girl call again. | Er Rai: Estranged because she's straight-up delusional at this point, but every once in a while Vega will get a text from her asking for help on her "missions." These texts are typically ignored. | Kochab: Estranged, though it's more like they drifted apart but could still be on good terms if they reached out to each other. | Thuban: the only one Vega talks much with, and it's never about the past. She seems happy without her magical girl duties on her shoulders, and Vega is glad for that.
History:
(Just in case: TW for an abusive "friendship," though not directly involving Kokone.)
Kokone was actually the first of the Cosmo Queens to bear witness to Layers and awaken as a Magical Girl. She made the mistake of following an unusually colorful bird too far, and she was greeted with a bizarre landscape dotted by giant eggs. She touched one, was sucked in, and spat out as the newly minted Cosmic Vega.
The second Cosmo Queen's awakening wasn't too far behind, as a friend was following her own peculiar omen: Junko Saitou, now Cosmic Er Rai. The two discussed their experiences, and formed the Cosmo Queens. Junko was confident in her purpose as a magical girl, and her enthusiasm for her new power carried both girls through the beginning. Junko's first mission was to gather more team members, and she recruited Cosmic Kochab (Mika Inoue) through what might have been considered a sort of kidnapping (less force, more luring). The fourth and oldest member of the Cosmo Queens, Cosmic Thuban (Aina Kimura), veritably waltzed onto the team without any kind of cajoling due to a desire to make her life more interesting. For a while, things were fun and good.
Junko surveyed the team as it stood now, put some connections together, and quite suddenly decided that the group needed a Polaris to serve as "leader" to the pole star-themed team. As for Kokone, she had simply been going along with Junko's whims, believing her to be just very devoted to the idea of being a magical girl. However, as the two-year quest for the group's Polaris went on, Kokone began to notice red flags. Junko's devotion seemed to turn into a raging fanaticism, to the point that it extended into a rejection of anything not magical. Said rejection ranged from disdain of normal people to outright anger at anyone who dared to suggest that she was behaving oddly or the group needed a break or anything that wasn't outright enthusiasm for the "Cosmic Cause."
The girl who would become Cosmic Polaris, Suzu Miura, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had accidentally wandered into Layers while the group was on a mission, and her flashy awakening as a magical girl lead Junko to seize the opportunity and just about snatch the poor girl into the squad. Suzu suffered frequently at Junko's hands as she pushed and pushed to make the shy, nervous girl into a leader and force to be reckoned with. It was true that Suzu possessed unusually high base power for her offensive attacks, but she wanted nothing to do with Layers or the magical girl lifestyle, and Junko undeniably made her life hell.
Kokone's worldview, previously powered by Er Rai's enthusiasm and her own enjoyment of a new way of life, began to crumble as she watched Suzu break down over time. Suzu may have been meek, but she didn't seem to be actively depressed until joining the Cosmo Queens and having Junko annex her. She tried hard to defend her view of things and believe in Junko and the "Cosmic Cause," even as she was confronted with the reality that Junko was evolving into a monster and ripping the group apart from the inside. Aina often remarked on the unnerving atmosphere when all five of them were together, and when Mika directly called Kokone Junko's enabler to her face, Kokone's gears began to turn.
She would step in with too little too late. An expedition through Layers was going south. Junko tried to "guide" Suzu into taking the reins without much success. ("Where do you think we should go next?" "Home." "Other than that?" "Away." "Please take this seriously." "I am.") Kokone noticed that Suzu's emotional affect had completely flattened, not even showing distress in her voice like she normally did. Kokone finally reached out and asked Junko to stop, and asked Suzu if she was feeling alright.
This was the straw that broke the camel's back. Suzu grinned, chuckled darkly, then erupted into a massive outburst of power that sent the group reeling as she screamed out her denial of okayness. She savagely tore into Junko for ruining her life and being obsessed with magical girl life, and then she turned to Kokone, confirming the dark fear lurking in her mind: she'd allowed all this to happen. She'd turned a blind eye to an obviously wrong situation to preserve herself. She had enabled Junko to go mad with power and corrupt everything she touched.
Suzu transformed into a monster made from her own power, and she lunged to try and put an end to it all by killing Junko then and there. Kokone tried to intervene but was hit with a blow that would give her a burn-like scar on her side after the battle. Suzu was lost to her own rage, and Junko wanted to kill the "traitor" in return. Seeing that no satisfactory ending could come from this, Kokone encased Junko in an egg and rolled her out as the group fled from Layers, leaving Suzu behind.
Kokone did not stick around to be punished by the enraged Junko once she hatched out of the egg. She fled, running as fast and as far as her enhanced magical speed could take her, and that was it. No one pursued her. Overwhelmed by disgust, grief, and self-loathing, she was nearly catatonic and unreachable for several days, and it was at that time she decided that this life was no longer for her.
She would go on to do a few rare extra missions with Mika (once) and Aina (a few times), but aside from that, she was done.
Recent History:
Nowadays, Kokone has moved to Araragi-Cho in mixed hopes of putting her past behind her and of seeing how Layers has treated others outside her bubble. She works as a bartender at the Sugar Star, a charming establishment known for serving sweet treats alongside booze. She happily partakes in both when she can. She's hardly a town drunk, but does she delight a bit in drowning her sorrows? Yes.
She still talks to Aina every now and then, happy that she managed to move on. The two have a long distance sisterhood, in a way. She often thinks Aina is her only friend but longs to have more contact with people.
Magical Girl Outfit: Currently, it's a white bodysuit with white puff sleeves, gold under sleeves, and a gold overskirt. There's a bow with a slightly lighter gold on her chest, and wing pins in her hair. She has a long blue back bow. Her boots are thigh-high and blue, which sets the pattern for the blue accents on the outfit. The outfit used to be a bit cuter and frillier.
Weapon: Vega's weapon used to be a wand with a big heavy egg on the end (kind of like a club, really), but it turned into a dagger with a wing-shaped blade. The blade can extend to a more sword-like length as well.
Powers: For some reason, Kokone's powers are themed around eggs. She can throw them at enemies, rapid-fire shoot them, create eggshell barriers, encase people in them... and, alarmingly, make them explode into sharp shell shrapnel.
Transformation Sequence:
Kokone didn't want to have to do this again, and if she did, she wanted to do the fast version where she just curled up in an egg of light and then popped out as Cosmic Vega. Unfortunately, the situation called for the whole rigmarole song and dance, and so she'd have to put up with a real-life unskippable cutscene.
Sucking in a breath, she extended her arm, and her familiar landed on it. "Star of Vega, grant me guidance," she murmured, and the bird suddenly poofed into a swirl of golden light. Kokone levitated three feet above the ground as she was wrapped in golden ribbons that popped into the different parts of her magical girl outfit. To cap it all off, the ribbons began to form an egg of light around her, and when all was done, she popped out of the egg with a flourish. Her familiar regained form as well. "Cosmic Vega, here to light your way!"
Something felt weird about this transformation, however. Something was missing. Maybe the magic was responding to her trepidation and lack of enthusiasm. There used to be more pops and glitter, and she was in fact the type to give a stylish speech as she was transforming. There just wasn't much to comment on this time.
"Sorry, normally there's a little more oomph to it," Kokone said with a sheepish smile and an awkward scratch behind her head.
BB Code: #edcb1f