THE HORRORS OF OBLIVION | [@]MERIDIAN

[damnpire]

[D's communion into Meridian aligned minds is like a very polite knock at the door, except when the door is finally opened, a rush of icy wind blows in. No warmth or mirth can be found in the space of his mind, though it's a surprisingly gentle, dark void despite the chill. It's familiar for anyone who has had a communion with him, but probably kind of eerie for those who haven't.

It's also pretty quiet now actually.]

I made an attempt to Reincarnate the late Tribune. [He delivers this all very clinically, very factual.] It failed, but not because he hadn't been willing.

Something else had been inside him. [Can Nothing be something?] It had cleaned his soul out, if he had one at all, and left him as a husk. There was no soul to shift into another body.

It spoke through him. It said, "We never would have been able to Enter without the Choices that have been made."

[:wooper:]

Comments

[warmare]

[She might need it- that shock to her system. It freezes her in place, trembling with anger, glaring at... not at him, in particular, but everything and everyone... But she has always been vulnerable to this type. The type that stood steady in the storm, who respected it... who did not try to force her to stop or force their way through it, forging some middle ground.

... What is she supposed to do with those people? (Well, one she took as a lover and the rest are her "friends".)

The anger lashes, boils, rages, because he agrees, it even agrees, this shouldn't have happened, she shouldn't have let it happen, but it doesn't... It doesn't do anything. And with D just standing there... it eventually begins to die down.

But what is she supposed to say, in that new failure's wake? He had now been cowed, or abandoned her, or suppressed beneath her will. So-

She's just standing there now, too, like a mare exhausted from attempts to break her to the saddle, panting and ready to lash out and sink teeth into anyone who came close... Even if that's what she might need the most.

And this is what will later make her realize she needs to wait before making her own communion post, but.]

[damnpire]

[YOUR COMMUNION IS A LIL UNHINGED, HAYAME... but he is a soft squish on the inside.

The silence with full presence doesn't bother him. He is often silent, standing, staring with no conversation. He lets her have some peace, waiting patiently as always.]

You don't have to move forward alone, [he finally says.] Do you still consider us friends?

[warmare]

[Look it helped her realize she shouldn’t communion until she could get the emotion and memory bleed aspects back under full control… not that she should edit her word choices…

She hates this.

D sounds like Liem did. In that space between worlds before Horos.]

You said we were, did you not?

[Hayame… has never been able to think it first. “I want to be his friend”. Or “we are friends”. Others say it…

And she either trusts them or not. Decided they are lying… or aren’t.]

[damnpire]

I did. [He will be the first, that's alright.] I still consider us friends.

[So far, nothing has happened to make them not friends. Though that may not be true for Hayame after he made the decision to slap a hand on Cyrus's forehead.

It would be alright if she changed her mind; he will let her have the autonomy to decide that.]

I'd like to investigate those who have died whose body may have been infiltrated by what spoke to me. To do so, I will have to look inside them for a soul with Reincarnation. Is that okay with you?

[warmare]

[...]

You are just looking for their souls?

[She finds it unnatural and wrong, the thing he has done. She is angry at him, for doing that to a man like Cyrus, who no matter how she might have disagreed with him... she did not doubt he wanted the best for his people. But...]

Not trying to bring back those already dead?

[damnpire]

[Looks at the other thread. Thank you, Liem.]

Yes. I would just be looking to see if anything had happened to their souls. If they're gone, it could be a cause for concern.

Cyrus was the exception, being a Tribune assassinated. It isn't an ability that should be abused.

[warmare]

[He is trying, bless.

And to her credit, she is trying, too. Through the weakness, and the discombobulation, and... Trying to trust him. Someone who calls her a "friend".]

... Then if you are merely looking.

I will-

I will look away.

[damnpire]

You don't have to pretend, or even think it acceptable. I won't force you to look away, but I want you to know that is what my intentions are.

[To look inside someone's corpse for whether or not they may have a soul lingering behind, willing to reach out toward the call of reincarnation.]

What Liem says is true, but everyone has their own morals.

[warmare]

[Hayame's morals have been in conflict with so many others of Meridian for so long that she sometimes laments that she might never feel what its like again, since leaving her world. What it was to feel "right" or have most people agree with you.

So her instinct is to have to just blind herself if she wants to get along.

He says he does not have to, but-]

... Then.

Then I know your intentions.

[And as long as he stuck to them...]

[damnpire]

[It's still so humorous that he and Hayame are so fiercely Meridian sometimes.]

Alright. I'll let you know what I find, if I find anything, if you'd like. Thank you.

[warmare]

[Fiercely Meridian AS THEY SHOULD BE and obviously everyone should be etc etc...

But, no. This is the time when other people might say... "I am sorry", or perhaps their own "Thank you", but. Hayame says,]

... You are welcome.

[Which, to be fair, is still more than she would have done months ago, so, credit where credit is due. She thinks... her head hurts, but she feels like she had another thing to ask D about, something that makes her blearily press the heel of her palm into the bandaged side of her face, but...

Ah. Right.

But it isn't... how can she ask such a selfish thing now? So she shuts her "mouth".]