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

[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.

[dreamflowers]

Hm. I'm surprised you've kept it in for that long. Was there anything preventing you from taking it out sooner?

[Mostly curiosity than accusatory. Curses can be strange like that; make things more complicated than they should be.]

I understand... I come from a world with which magic's woven into the fabric it's made of, so you could say I'm particularly sensitive to it, even if I wasn't always. [But that just makes it more obvious to her now when things are different.] I can't make any promises, but if there's anything I can do to help, I'll do it.

[warmare]

[She hesitates, because she has always hesitated to share anything about herself, but she has no other... what other answer is there, that does not make her seem like a fool or a coward?]

- My lover asked me to stay my hand.

["Weak to a partner's pleas" seems slightly better than those.]

But I can tolerate it no longer. I will not.

[dreamflowers]

[Jade knows plenty about what it's like to be both a coward and a fool. What Hayame says also doesn't strike her as weak, either. So there's no judgement in Jade's tone when she simply says:]

I see.

[From where she's standing, having someone who cares enough not to want to see you hurt isn't a weakness. And it's not like she has never been in such a position on more than one occasion, herself.]

Well, if there's no compulsion or anything of the like forcing you to keep it in, I don't see how having the eye removed would be any worse than keeping a cursed one. And if you've got replacement options, even better.

[warmare]

At this point, I would prefer to be half-blind again than not have it removed.

I have been half-blind in practice even after that demon put it in my head.

As if I would risk compromising this faction with what I might see?

[But for the occasional mistake, bathing, and occasionally changing the eyepatch... it has stayed on for months now. She's going to get a bald spot where the strap moves into her hairline at this rate.]

[dreamflowers]

Yeah... I used to wear a patch for some years, too. For different reasons, of course.

[Mostly because the left side of her face was "unsightly" for many, the noblewoman who had bought her in particular. Also partly because Jade just didn't want to be reminded of how she lost her sight there.]

I hated that thing. Might not be as troublesome as being cursed and having it be a risk to others, but I can sympathize a bit.

[warmare]

[No.

There was no joy, nor honor, in the reminder.]

I do not need your sympathy.

[She should be kinder, it could be argued, to those few who are expressing support for her... Yet she cannot help the instinct to say that. Still, she at least manages a vague follow, of,]

... Though I acknowledge your understanding.

[dreamflowers]

Mn.

[That's about as best as Jade can hope for. No one really "needs" sympathy, but understanding is another story.

[Fact is, she can empathize enough not to push the subject further.]

At any rate, there may or may not be more qualified people to do the job, but if you need help with anything -- with the process or magic or whatever -- I'm willing, if you're open to sharing what you know already... since you said the people who were looking into it are gone. [Her efforts might not be able to replace that, but dammit if she doesn't try.]

[warmare]

[Hayame had told herself that sort of line all of her life, so it is easy to repeat now. To almost believe, still.

She appreciates the understanding. That is all.]

I will note you as willing- whether I ask it of you this time or not.

... What is it you would require me to share.

[dreamflowers]

Well, what did those who looked into the matter for you find out? Like, d'you know if there's any kinda compulsion or something on the eye that could harm you or the person doing the deed that could complicate removing it?

[Jade isn't an expert on the subject, but she's heard of thought-planting being used via Psionics that could have a violent effect on a person's mind in a similar sense. Forcing their will onto others. She hopes that's not the case here.]

[warmare]

The mages and magic users I spoke to only mentioned that they could sense the spell was cast by foul hands, and that it was to do with scrying. That is why they suspected it could be used to see through.

There was no mention of anything else. To their knowledge.

[dreamflowers]

How delightfully vague -- but that's good, I guess. As long as we know it won't do anything like... I dunno, explode the second an extraction is attempted, then I don't think it matters whether the hands that put it there were foul or made of roses.

[As someone whose head almost could've blown up via her own magic at one point, that could be bad.]

[warmare]

... Good.

Yes.

That is good.

[Never mind that she almost wished it had exploded more than once.]

The source of those hands is merely another humiliation I was meant to endure. I am done enduring it.