meridian locked

[warmare]

I have shaken off my sleep, but something I would have dismissed as a bad dream is apparently all too real.

Allow me to report to you now that the demon going by the name "Sebastian Michaelis", the one who viciously fought against us in the Oracle trials, who gladly schemed with that rat Silco to pollute Kowloon beneath Springstar's feet... That thing has left Zenith for Meridian.

Why, exactly? Apparently he will not be gracing us with those important details.

So for your sake... I will report something now that is no business of any of yours. If I do not, I can already imagine the brainless among you clambering to believe that demon is somehow capable of a change of heart. Do you think that smiles and a polite act are enough to overlook the consumption of souls? Or perhaps you will forgive his twisted violence under the false idea that he only employed it when an Oracle was at stake? Just because it clings to the fringes of Meridian's light in order to keep its power do not think that it is committed in any way to saving our worlds.

[Though she said she would reveal something... It will be clear that Hayame does not want to. Though she tries to contain it, the memories of that day are too strong not to bleed through (if you wanna play it that way), especially to those more sensitive to Communion or of the same Iconoclast aspect.]

Four months ago, that demon ambushed me as I walked alone in Springstar and poisoned me with a drug that stole my consciousness and strength, and when I awoke, it was under his control in Kowloon.

[Fleeting impressions of bound, can't move, can't break free desperation, the sensation of rope and friction burning on fetlocks ankles, arms strapped down, lower spine twisted to the limit.]

Under the guise of "righting the wrong" of removing my eye in a previous battle, the start of our enmity, he cut into my face with a knife and forced an organ he had found into my head with his shadows.

[Pain deep in the back of a scarred socket, because of course there had been no anesthesia, the sick feel of tentacles filling the hole, slipping the eyeball inside--]

I attempted to bite my tongue off and rob the demon of its fun, but even that was denied me in favor of further torture.

[Shame, perfectly targeted and near crippling shame, the stretch of tack meant for horses at the corners of a mouth, teeth cracking on the rubber-wrapped metal of the bit, unable to kill herself, unable to bite, unable to speak, unable to muffle her screams as-]

It forced the eye to connect with my body. An eye bewitched to spy through it.

[Blinding pain courses through the entire body from the flay and pull of the remains of a shriveled optic nerve, the forced connection--]

And once it was done, it healed all my injuries and drugged me again, depositing me back in Springstar whole again so that I would seem a madwoman if I claimed it had taken me. Call me one now if you dare, yet all of that had nothing to do with the Oracles, or acting for a faction. It was its perverse hobby. Some sick little sense of "fairness".

[There was more... But she cannot say it. This much was humiliating enough. There is a long enough silence between finishing her tale and speaking again ... Still she forges forward, harsh and covering weakness with hatred.]

Because the Oracle trials will come again, and Zenith's leaders must pay for their orders, I will tolerate that demon's continued existence and see if it is actually useful and not just pursuing some selfish whim. But just because a dog can be sicced on your enemies does not mean you do not leash and muzzle it between.

So go ahead and do what you will with that demon. Eat its food and play games with it for all I care. But my tolerance ends the moment I see or hear hint of it ready to betray yet another faction, or if I catch a single whiff of its scent on Alenroux.

And any Meridian who calls that demon a friend... is no "friend" of mine.

...

[... Hasn't Hayame said in every single gossip post that she would kill Sebastian Michaelis? Hadn't she advocated shattering him, and condemned demons for their very existence? ... Weird, she must have just changed her mind, she's always come across as easily convincible...]

Now.

The people that were scouted on my behalf before to help remove that cursed eye are dead and gone now. So if any one of you listening can take it out cleanly, speak up. I will pay you if need be.

If its not out of me within the week I am ripping it out myself.

Comments

[escardos]

Woah, don't pull your eye out! That can actually cause a lot of irreparable damage to you!

[ sure, hayame said that no friend of sebastian is a friend of hers, and sure, he did help him out a few months (give or take 114 years) ago, but what she doesn't know won't hurt him. in all honesty, not even a shred of this comes to his mind, fully focused on trying to talk reason into the woman. ]

I've never worked with eyes but I've done a couple transplants before! You need someone to remove it and dispel any lingering curse, right?

[warmare]

I know that. If that demon had not pulled my eye out in the first place then none of this would have happened.

[Though Hayame's intent in making this post had genuinely been to warn her allies (and also hate on her enemy), speaking about that encounter has made her... emotional. Accidentally, Flat may receive a blistering swell of hateshameangerfearrage when she responds.

And then blocks Sebastian out if he's listening to say-]

I need it removed, and something else put in its place.

[escardos]

Well yeah, but damage over damage...

[ ugh, whatever. that is a lot of emotions that aren't his. and while flat is not entirely unused to this negativity and is able to ride through it with no problem, it's still not entirely pleasant.

in comparison he keeps his own communion almost perfectly neutral. ]

What do you need to replace it with?

[warmare]

My own eye. The one the demon took for me in the first place.

[She says it like a snap, but… she does realize a moment later that it doesn’t make sense without context.]

- Do not ask me how or why, but Cetina retrieved it from the Timestream before our “repose”. And Liem Talbott has been assuring it remains… alive enough.

I would rather be half blind again than keep this polluted thing in my face a moment longer, but if I can return to how I am supposed to be…

[hauntedking]

...he's here? Who shelters him?

[ Dimitri's anger is cold. ]

Do not harm yourself, Hayame. There must be another way to remove it... At the very least let me utilize healing magic in the aftermath.

[warmare]

I do not know. But he has been slinking around in the shadows of Meridian since some time before the Advocate Oracle trial.

[Hayame's anger used to be cold. But now... now it is hot, like a burning sun.]

I will harm myself if I please. I would have done it the night that demon returned me to Springstar if Claude had not-

[Deep breaths-- She can't embarrass him like that.]

If I had not been asked not to. But I refuse to let this eye sit in my head a week longer, risking betraying something to Zenith every time my eyepatch slips.

[hauntedking]

Even if you do... please at least have someone there to help you with it. If not me, then someone.

[ He knows she'll do it. But... he hates to see her inflict harm to herself. No matter how. ]

[warmare]

… I am trying to.

[The hate she’ll keep public, but this is private:]

I asked D to assist me, before. It needed to be someone who was not connected openly with me— in case that demon was still watching.

[He had stalked her long enough to know her routine and found her to ambush her in the first place, despite how incredibly vigilant she was even on a normal day… there had been no way to guess if he had been still or not.]

[dreamflowers]

[That's... a lot. But once more Jade focuses on the easily digestible bits she knows she can do something about:]

Well, as someone who's had their eye popped out before... I can't say it's something I'm particularly squeamish about. If you need help in getting it removed, I might be able to help, provided you don't have anyone else do it for you.

Can't do much for the pain, though -- medicine and healing magic was never my thing.

[Jade usually just chooses to Suffer.]

[warmare]

[… Not the camaraderie Hayame would ever have hoped to have with someone, but.]

You are some sort of “surgeon”?

[dreamflowers]

What? No. I've lived in conditions where one kinda had to wing it. Probably not the most sanitary way of going about things, but that's how it was for me.

[Her lifestyle wasn't exactly what one could consider sanitary in the first place.]

Either way, I'm skilled in magic -- so if nothing else, I might be able to help see if there're any lingering traces of whatever curse is left in there.

[She pauses.]

For what it's worth, I don't fault you for wanting to just rip the damn thing out. I know the feeling too well.

[Especially when she's suffered hallucinations, she's fought the urge on more than one occasion.]

[warmare]

[... Okay, "winging it" doesn't sound great. But. ... The thought. Is. Appreciated.]

The magic I may need. I come from a world with none of it at all- I am no expert. I would hesitate to call myself an amateur, even after all this time.

The eye has been in my head for four months. I want to be sure the curse or spell or whatever it is does not linger in the socket even if the orb is gone.

[wolfish]

[ There is no masking the sympathy, try as Yuri might. He's heard a version of this story before, but this time, the phantoms of her traumatic memories accompany. It's impossible for him to not feel for her.

And she may not like that part, but the low-simmering anger, the avenging intent behind it, may meet with her approval. Yuri would help her eliminate that threat, given the chance. ]

Surprised he could make the cut at all.

Hoping you don't need to resort to hurting yourself here. I'm no surgeon, as you well know, but someone among us must have skills that'd help with this.

[warmare]

[If she had her way... No one would see or feel or hear any of it. She hadn't meant to cry out for help when it had been happening to her, and she didn't mean to let anything bleed out now. That's why she didn't talk about it. It's why when Yuri had visited, she had "let" Claude tell the story for her.

Because she can't pretend to be fine when she does.]

He doesn't make the cut. I will still kill him the moment he falls back on his true nature.

[So it's not-

... Not what?]

🔒 for Hayame only

[wolfish]

I mean, how can he even harmonize with Meridian? I tried harmonizing with Zenith to get some intel on their forces when I first got here and I failed.

[ He believed too strongly in home. In it being there. He needed it to be there and still does. ]

So how's some demon who's been working for that side swing it...

[ Perplexing. His busy mind is busier still as he thinks about it. ]

Well, in any case...call backup when that time comes, yeah? You've got people in your corner.

[warmare]

I don't know!

[The response is more explosive than she had intended, her emotions raging and off-kilter from the raw, uncomfortable feeling of exposure she has intentionally forced herself into for the sake of these ungrateful, ignorant little--]

As if I will believe that thing has somehow found it in its heart to care whether it returns to its world or not? It obviously did not give a damn for it before- !

[Her understanding of it all, it just didn't make--

No. It must make sense. Just because she didn't understand...]

[cyfaredd]

[ Well — it looks like Hayame has already found assistance with her eye situation, so there's probably no point in Howl offering any help. But it's the message itself, and the sensations and emotions leaking through the cracks in how it's told, that makes the wizard offer a wincing, unnerved response. ]

You again. You're so loud. First with your manifesto from a while ago, and now this. Did you mean to share the lurid details, or was that a special gift for our ilk only?

[ sigh. ]

Your malice towards this demon is counter-productive. From my experience with them, it's more likely to relish your hatred than to feel threatened by it.

[warmare]

[Dunno, Howl... that assistance also publicly declared he would be Aetos' assistant... what's your stance on ethical scientific experimentation...

But the you again... Hayame's attention refocuses sharply- the sensation of both eyes on "him", even if one of them is a sickly green implant still reeking of curse and demon shadows.]

Carve that aspect tattoo off your body if you despise it so.

[Because no, she didn't want anyone to hear it, feel it, see it-- Who fucking would?]

I am not trying to threaten it.

[cyfaredd]

Carve it off? [ he asks, his interest piqued. ] Do you think that'd work? Wait — has it worked? Has someone tried it?

[ Just like that, he seems to be considering it. Fun! ]

It sounded much like a threat to me. I assume the demon can hear this message the same as anyone else. Or, perhaps you are simply the type to always sound threatening, madam?

[damnpire]

[The feeling of him sort of pools in like a wet drop of water off the leaf of a plant. He does not say anything, but his presence is there in a watchful sort of way. A listening one.

His mind is keeping an ear out for what everyone is saying in response to her, who is offering to help. The :man_standing: in the back of the Meridian-wide communion.]

[warmare]

[Hayame turns his attention to the bizarre human. (Flat.)

As if asking, wordlessly... if he thinks they could be trusted. A month ago, she would never have entertained the idea, she would have cut him from consideration the minute he volunteered to work with Aetos.

But these days... in such desperate a circumstance...]

private

[damnpire]

[He pulls their minds together in privacy, but doesn't impose any sort of unusual closeness on her.]

If you want or need me to be there, I will. [...] I know who is able to utilize the eye.

Private

[fishfearme]

...

[There's an oddly long pause where Byleth simply 'hovers' within Communion, utterly silent and his side of the connection as still and smooth as the frozen surface of a pond. Finally:]

I'm a deft hand and can use healing magic, so if you're unable to find a doctor to remove the eye for you, I can do it. It wouldn't be the first amputation I've done, in a manner of speaking.

[Spoken so... clincally. But it was true: during his days in Jeralt's mercenary band, his skill with his magic and his steady hand had him assisting the group's doctor from time to time.]

But if there's some sort of 'curse' placed on it that will trigger upon removal, I won't be much help.

[warmare]

[...]

Thank you, Byleth.

[That first. She can manage that, she should, she has to, even in her current condition, the rage and shame and fear and bitter taste swirling beneath the surface.]

I have people swearing to me that they can perform the removal, and perhaps the putting in of another, too.

But their judgement may be in question.

[And she doesn't have a mercenary yet...]

[fishfearme]

Do you want me to act as... reassurance?

[Perhaps that wasn't the right word, but it was the only one that came to mind. Whether he pulled the eye out himself, or supervised to make sure the approved surgeon did their job properly and without ulterior motives, he was willing to act in whatever capacity Hayame wanted.]