locked to meridian + ota

[warmare]

[Hayame had plenty to say about this disgraceful farce the moment she had regained consciousness... But she waited. She waited, so that her emotions would be as locked down and as under control as she could manage. Until only harsh anger and the burn of judgement come through- at least, for now.

First, she addresses only Meridian.]

I hope you are proud of yourself.

Those of you who have been too weak to commit properly to this cause, content to let those with drive and will do the winning of Oracles on your and your world's behalf.

Those of you who claim allegiance to Meridian but have been content to play "neutral" and hide like a weak little bug in the shadow of those more powerful than you.

Those of you who could not draw a single line in the sand and loved playing friend or whore too much to break off relations with people working to ensure that the lives of everyone in your world are snuffed out permanently.

Those of you who have refused to shatter the shards of our enemies, whining about the sanctity of a soul, even though that is the only way to kill someone properly in this twisted world.

Mourn that sun goddess for the power she possessed that our faction has lost. Mourn the kindness she showed you, if you so wish. But I will impart a lesson unto you- If someone is kind to everyone, then their kindness means absolutely nothing. That empty-headed fool of a woman had her shard shattered by the very man whose shard she protected, after I and another killed him in the labyrinth of the Harbinger Oracle trial. If she had given that foul thing back to us so that I might crush it beneath my hoof, then she would be alive today.

That is what kindness of that nature will reap you. A disgraceful public execution at the hands of a wizened, corpse-gnawing gaki barely managing the veneer of a man.

If you wish to dedicate yourself further to the actual cause you claim to serve, or if you wish to train and empower yourself, I will gladly help you. It would be my honor.

But if your plan is to continue living the sort of shameful existence that helped allow for the assassination of Springstar's Tribune at his own godsdamned home, then either purge yourself of that treacherous weakness... or I will try to find the time in my days to do it for you.

[Maybe this is where she could stop, take a breath... But she does not. The rest, cold and hateful and roiling with anger, is said to everyone, Zenite and Unharmonized alike.]

To all those who still claim allegiance to Zenith... I will not waste breath trying to convince you of anything at all, let alone now, after what your faction has wrought upon countless innocents. Whether you are a poor thing who would abandon every life in your world simply because you were treated badly, whether you are a pathetic thing who cannot muster the will to hope for anything but that sacred bitch on high and a committee of degenerates making a new world for you to exist in, or whether you are a sick thing who delights in watching worlds burn and people die... I, Hayame of Echigo, do not care, and I will not show mercy to one any more than the other.

Unlike, it seems, the many dishonorable among you, I say this to you plainly and clearly.

I will disable you if I see you step foot in Springstar.

I will hunt down your cornerstones and smash them to pieces.

And I will kill you if you put yourself between me and the possibility of returning to my world and my duty.




... Ah, yes. To those of you who have still not chosen a side, even after seeing what has occurred this moon... My advice to you is to stay Unharmonized, to pick up a hoe, and to go tend crops in Alenroux. You obviously lack the determination required for this conflict... and the people require food. Go on.

If you need a recommendation for a farmer looking for labor, I know plenty. Do you fancy turnips, or buckwheat?

Comments

[baltimores]

[ There's a blink of surprise as the anger suddenly cuts through to his mind. It's just a blink, though, before Amos settles back to listen, so passive his presence might not be registered at all.

At least not until he speaks, at which point he offers a curious question, and nothing more. ]

So, deal's off then?

[warmare]

[It is her instinct to shove this conversation quickly into a private corner, somewhere that no one will ever see it. She despises her personal business being on display.

... But Amos had proven before his willingness to use the words they had exchanged, the things they had seen about each other, against her in a way she never would have without further cause. She cannot discount the possibility now... That he might spin a private attempt as cowardice or scheming. That he would try to discredit her much the way he had in the debate over Manon.

Besides. The answer is a simple one. Let them fucking hear it, then, that-]

Any foolish hope I might have once held on to...

You murdered it with the Tribune, Amos Burton.

[baltimores]

[ He would have just dragged the conversation back out into public, anyway. No skin off his back that she spares him the extra step.

There's the sensation of him tilting his head as she answers him, thoughtful and calm. Her anger washes right over him, flows over his presence and down into nothing at all. It's acknowledged, but only barely. ]

Guess we'll see what you say when Zenith wins.

[warmare]

[How pathetic. To think, she had been told in the Iconoclast Oracle trial that... and if she had...]

What makes you think I will be able to say anything?

I will never allow Zenith to win.

[Not while she still draws breath, anyway.]

[baltimores]

[ There's the sensation of him shrugging. ]

Can't predict the future. I got no inclinations to smash your shard, though. [ They may be on rocky ground now — an understatement — but it wasn't that long ago Amos has openly considered her a friend. ] I mean, I guess that could change, too. But for you? I was willing to hold up my end of the deal.

Still am, if you ever come around.

[ Not out of mercy or pity, but because he is an Exalt who values his people, and he doesn't care to write Hayame off entirely. It isn't so much an olive branch being offered, and more a sentiment: I can wait for you. ]

[warmare]

And why should I come around, Amos Burton?

[He had seen it, that vision of a potential future in which she might be driven desperate enough to crawl to Zenith for a single shard, a broken mare and not the proud(?) warrior she was meant to be, so-]

Even if you are so fooled by that witch and her ability to manipulate hearts to think that your world is gone, to believe they all are--

You still expect the rest of us not to even try to bring them back? To abandon all those lives just because Zenith says "oh, well, let us move forward and try to create a new world", never mind that those playing god to create it include the likes of soul-eating demons and chaotic murderers?

[To abandon that village, those children she had sworn to repay her debt to and protect--]

I have yet to hear a single argument that even begins convincing me.

[And she won't say he was a good leader, necessarily, because she disagreed with him on many matters, but one thing she did not was-]

And now that you have slain the Tribune, a man who always only wished to protect the citizens of Springstar and did not even take a hardline stance against Yima and her ilk?

You spit on any charity that could have been yours.

[baltimores]

[ He is impassive in the face of her initial proclamations. Calling Yima a witch, crowing about how their worlds aren't gone — Amos ignores it, because Hayame is pulling her stereotypical hopemonger shit again, in his eyes. It'd be pitiable, but he knows not to bother with that sentiment with her. Just that he already knows she will not be convinced — not now, anyway — and so it is not worth addressing.

Talk of Cyrus, though. There's a shift in him, something uncomfortable and vaguely upset, and his voice is much softer when he speaks again. ]

Never thought Cyrus was a bad guy. [ True, he'd only ever really spoken to him once, but it still stands. He didn't. ] I'm sorry it had to go down like that.

But I ain't asking for charity. I know I don't deserve it. Still willing to provide it to you, though. And if you decide in the new world that you still want nothing to do with it? I'll crush your shard myself.

[warmare]

He was not.

[She grinds that in with a metaphorical hoof. If she had a doubt on that, she does not display a single ounce of it now, certainly not in front of the man who had killed him.]

Did you come up with that idea all by yourself, or did that witch gently hold you and ask you nicely?

[As if she would let him be the one to... Hah. Maybe she would still have to rely on him for that.]

[baltimores]

[ There's the sense of him lazily tilting his head, eyes boring into hers. Not shying away, nor backing down from any of it. ]

This is me.

I still got people I care about, after all.

[ And Hayame has been among them for quite some time. He doesn't know if she still is, but the fact that she was still means something to him. It's not like she betrayed him by going down the Meridian path; if anything, they've both been honest with each other, and he sees no reason to stop that.

He cared. He maybe still cares. It's more than enough of a reason to still give her one last chance, when they reach the end. ]

[warmare]

[Of course. Of course he simply does not hear her, giving no satisfactory answer.

It is like striking at water and expecting the hit to do damage.]

Ah.

[She should be angrier. He killed the Tribune. He had been skulking around Springstar for months, learning the layout of the streets, perhaps monitoring where the guard posts were, perhaps doing any manner of preparation for his despicable move. That useless bitch Ruby had come forward with news of having caught him doing something suspicious in the city months after it happened, as if it could prove her loyalty that fucking late. And even if that had been the first time-

What had he done in Springstar, after that day they ate that peculiar pocketed meat on the street? After she had held his hand on that day the pollen was heavy in the air? She-]

I know it is you, Amos Burton.

[Resigned. Unable to even hate him as much as she wanted to beyond her anger over his recent action because... She had never not known what he was and what he was capable of.

And even knowing he may not even answer, depending on so many factors she could not comprehend, like what regard he might have left for her and how it weighed against potential orders or intent for Zenith... Even knowing it would be best for her reputation just to cut the contact with a last condemnation...]

... How long did you plan this?

[baltimores]

[ The sensation of him inclining his chin at his name, as if to say: Yup. Me. He doesn't catch her resignation; from his point of view, this is just the two of them holding a conversation. Maybe more charged than some of the previous ones they've had, but is it really that different in the grand scheme of things? Especially lately?

Not really. ]

Couple of months. Bit longer than that, actually, but it kicked into another gear about a month back. [ When he accepted Zenith in his heart in full. He was working on this before then, but it had yet to really take off. And then it did. And he remains as transparently honest as ever, because there's no real point to him lying here.

But, also: ] Y'know, now that I think about it, the shit your side shot at us? That didn't come from nowhere. Maybe it took as long as I was taking.

[ Because it's not like Meridian are innocent little victims here at all. ]

cw: promotion of honor suicide

[warmare]

[Even though she knows that the knowledge he gleaned any time he was in Springstar had to have been factored in to things, had to have aided him at least in generalities...

She does not consider him to be lying, even now.

At least he had not been scheming to murder the leader of the faction she had chosen while she was holding his hand and thinking "ah... finally... finally, someone understands--"]

You will have to speak to the people who built it.

[Hayame did not know anything about where the gun came from. It was not her idea, not a device she understood in anyway, and though she had supported the concept of a weapon that could be used to strike back...]

But no, it surely did not come from nowhere.

And it is not as if such a powerful thing could just have been magically finished immediately after you decided to play assassin.

It must have been done and capable before. And yet, it was not fired. Not until we were attacked.

So perhaps you owe Highstorm an apology.

You have that dagger still, do you not? That was a very fitting weapon for slitting open one's belly in shame.

cw encouraging suicide

[baltimores]

[ And finally, she gets something other than the zen impassivity he's offered her in the midst of her near-palpable rage — and it's a derisive laugh, harsh and sharp. ]

It would've been fired regardless. Somebody has a twitchy trigger finger, I'm sure. Killed him while he was cavorting around after.

[ Set. He was interrupted before he could crush his shard, but he'd held it in his fist. He was ready to finally put an end to him.

Oh, well. ]

I don't got shit to apologize for.

You think a lot about killing yourself though, don't you? Fuckin' weird, trying to project that on to others when you could be sorting your own shit out first. Maybe you should focus on that.

[warmare]

It seems we will never know that, Amos. Because of you. All that remains in history is that we had a weapon... and once attacked, we attacked in turn.

[It does not surprise her, in one way, that Set had been killed. Because... he did that on purpose, making himself a target, crowing responsibility for the firing of that weapon so that the uncritical among Zenith would focus their hatred on him and think of little else. Just like he told her he would- he made himself the evil god that all could despise.

... She wished he would not. He could be so glorious, he could shine so brightly as a god of war if he were not so obsessed with the dark side of himself. ... But it seemed he would never heed her on that matter, as much as it hurt her, no matter whether she debased herself as a woman to beg, if she fought with him as a friend wounded by perceived betrayal, or if she bowed down as a warrior and submitted a plea for her god to listen.

As a Meridian, she thinks... at least they did not lose both their gods from their forces in one godsdamned blow. As whatever else she was, to both of them, she thinks at least-]

My affairs are sorted.

[She had promised Set she would try to come up with a strategy to take back to that village or orphans, find some way to save them that did not come at the cost of sacrificing her own life. And she had promised Khalid, on the floor of her home clutching the eye that the demon had forced into her head, that-]

Unfortunately for you, I have promised not to die, no matter what must be done in the process of returning to the duty I must fulfill.

[She cannot trust the rest of Meridian to fulfill their mission if she is gone, anyway.]

You will crush my shard for me if you are victorious?

When I am, I will give you the opportunity to take your own life as a warrior, rather than striking your head off like a common criminal.

It is far more respect than you gave to the Tribune. Be grateful.

[baltimores]

[ There's the sensation of him rolling his eyes; like he gives a fuck what history will say, the past irrelevant. He's left his behind more than once, and when there's a new world he'll leave it behind again. Just the way the world works.

But as Hayame continues that roll shifts into a narrowing, his focus very much on her. There's a forceful exhale at her last two words, angry and dismissive all at once. ]

Told you that honour shit was going to get you killed, didn't I? [ Why would he have given Cyrus any kind of advantage to begin with? He was doing a job, and wasn't looking to die himself in the middle of it. ] If you got a new lease on life now you might want to watch out for that.

But hey, thanks. Your consideration for me is noted, and also unnecessary.

[ Because she will not be victorious, and he isn't going to die. ]

[warmare]

[The past is supposed to stay. Because if it was not... Why has she not been able to outrun hers, yet?]

You did. Didn't you.

[When she had disgraced herself to ask she be given the dignity of the choice to take her own life if need be, and he had thrown it in her face. She will not deny it. But though those words are usually said as a question... she says it as a dismissal.

Because he will not be victorious, and she isn't going to die (again). She can't. ... Not yet.]