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

[kaientai]

Not in the way you and I would understand it, sure, but dying a hundred deaths to be reborn under the Tree would be an ordeal all the same.

[ He might've expected this response, though. ]

I would say there is one significant difference between her and me — I have a limit. Her capacity for love and forgiveness could be infinite because gods and humans aren't the same. Do gods even really care if the world dies? This is like a game for them.

[ Ryouma imagines gods can decide they'll throw everything else away to preserve one soul because worlds probably come and go all the time when you have that much power. Having turned down that power twice, it doesn't really appeal to him. ]

Honestly, you're trying to argue with the wrong guy because I'm on your side, but it's never going to be my first choice. I've had to pay that kind of price before because that's the job. You can't un-ring that bell. It's something you carry with you forever.

[ Communion conveys a greater meaning to his words than they would possess on their own. He does not doubt that Hayame understands the significance of what she's proposing in whatever way she chooses to believe, and he is also sure that she has already accepted that.

Even so, Ryouma can't help but want to spare her the ordeal. This is a path he had chosen for himself the night he died, whether or not he'd known the reality of it when he'd agreed. That's the gamble involved when you trade your soul for something. Hayame is just a person who was going about her life and never asked for any of this; that's precisely the sort of person he exists to protect, although Ryouma would never say so out loud and risk offending her pride by implying she needs protecting. ]

Besides, if this conflict could be resolved just by destroying each other, I'm sure it would've been resolved cycles ahead of us because you're unlikely to be the first person to take that stance. Success will ask something more of us than that.

[warmare]

Except we do not need to put our enemies through an ordeal, we need to eliminate them.

[And it was the bullshit belief in thinking they could somehow neutralize a Zenite without shattering them that led to Quetz's death. Surely it's fucking obvious at this point? And though it would probably be more sensible just to gloss over that more hyperbolic question-]

No. The so-called gods among us do not give one single ounce of care for whether the worlds survive or crumble as long as they keep what they want for themselves and have fun.

[... Of the three (three?), she is already hating one, hated another, and knows she is one or two more wrongs from potentially hating the other. Set, who she had even sworn her loyalty and violence to, and was called "friend"... As long as he had his son......

But as for the rest-]

You are the one who came to me announcing that you would not do as I say, that you will be foolishly striving for as bloodless a fight as you can manage, so do not pretend now that I argue for no reason with a man who supports me.

I think you vastly overestimate the previous shard-bearers if you think this would have been resolved before us. What makes you think that every generation wasn't exactly like this one, with weaklings dragging the entire war into some mixed up, half-assed mess that ended in no one winning and accessing the power of the Oracles at all?

[kaientai]

I'm not surprised that you'd think so. Over the years, my ability to support someone completely and also work toward the same goal in my own way has been a source of some confusion.

[ His tone is mildly apologetic. He knows but makes no effort to change it. ]

Consider this, then — what if one of the Oracles casts judgment? Magic that has a will of its own tends to have arbitrary rules; imagine it's only willing to side with the faction that has shattered fewer Shards during that cycle.

If you look at it that way, Quetzalcoatl protected Meridian and paid with her life, saving you the dubious honour of being the one to doom the faction.

[ No point in sugarcoating it. ]

Never forget the Oracles are magic.

Always assume magic has a hidden agenda.

We're playing a game without knowing the rules, so I would only caution against flirting with potential mortal sins and offences against heaven and the like until we know whether or not it counts toward the final score.

[warmare]

Do not speak to me like that when you are the one who has never experienced a trial. The Oracles have passed judgement- and every time, they have made it at least passingly clear to us what it is they wish to see.

[... She can't say. Totally clear. But. There's. Vibes. Except that weird first one. ANYWAY-]

You are obviously just looking for some strange twist of reasoning to make that sun goddess into a hero who saved Meridian rather than acknowledge her for the idiot she was.

This world was the one that made it impossible to die properly. It cannot blame me or anyone else if they must now kill the "soul" when we have been robbed of the ability to kill the body.

[kaientai]

Nah, not really; I have a funny idea about heroes anyway. I'm only pointing out that the possibility exists. One of the few things I have going for me is a lot of experience with weird and dangerous magic.

[ Which he realises is a little out of line with his Nobody from Tosa persona he's been living with all this time, but that had all been filed under "it's complicated" once upon a time. ]

This world made us this way, but the Oracles aren't necessarily carrying out the will of Kenos itself. Their motives are still unclear.

Anyway, in worlds like ours, people die if they are killed, but just because you can doesn't mean you should. They call this a war, but it shakes out as more of a popularity contest when we need the Oracles' favour to win it. Killing our enemies permanently isn't necessarily the key to winning, in that case, since murder usually gets you disqualified from those back home, too. Just some food for thought.

[warmare]

The possibility exists that we will all die tomorrow. That does not mean I argue with people about it.

[She isn't buying this Nobody shit anymore!!! It was sus from the very first conversation!!! Why would someone recognize him from a book if he was a no one???]

You can take your food for thought and devour it yourself.

There are Zenites who, if left alive, present far too much of a threat to Meridian victories. And you- you would have us waste the effort attempting to capture them, or only dissipate them and then allow them to return full of vengeance for us?

[kaientai]

Not much to argue in that case, is there? With how things have been looking lately, we could all die tomorrow.

[ Someone would have to be deliberately obtuse to deny the signs. ]

And yes, I would. Destroying a soul is an extreme act that could have unknown cascading effects I'm in no hurry to find out about, even if it doesn't cost us a victory altogether.

[ Ryouma recognises he's getting into speculation — which he never likes to do — but in this case, he feels it has a greater purpose. ]

That's vague, so I'll give you another example. We don't understand Oblivion, but it doesn't seem passive. We could be providing more footholds for dangerous entities in this world every time another soul gets destroyed. What will rush to fill the void Quetzalcoatl left in existence?

Anyway, it's not fair to shoot down an idea without offering one in return, so I say we should be looking at why the margin of victory is so narrow in the first place or where we could do better, like how the door was basically held open for them in Kowloon. We can be angry about what's been done and taken from us, but we can't be angry about the fact that they took advantage of the opportunities handed to them. If we don't learn from these mistakes, we'll just keep on paving the way for our own demise.

Let's fix the problems in our own house before we worry about anyone else.

[warmare]

[Maybe another time, after a different assassination(?) she would listen to the words he's saying, but. Right now, all Hayame hears is weak, weak, traitor bleeding heart bullshit. So the only thing she says about that is,]

Then you had better hope you reach whichever Zenites you care about before I do, because I will be aiming to actually kill them until you throw actual evidence at my hooves.

[We can't be angry???? Hah.]

Why the door was held open for them? It was held open for them because of that rat and his pet demon, what more do you want to know?

I have been trying to fix the problems in our own house for months before you waltzed in here, Nobody.