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

[hauntedking]

If he steps out of line...? Do you not wish to deal with him now? Before he can create further trouble?

[ Hmmm. ]

[warmare]

[Doesn't she? They had spoken of doing just that, before, and yet......]

Even mad dogs have their uses.

If he wants to be Meridian so badly, let him prove it and see if he will bring us the heads of his former allies.

Surely that sort of behavior is no problem for a demon?

[hauntedking]

I... hadn't expected you to want to walk that road, Hayame.

[ This feels off somehow. ]

[warmare]

[...]

We are all walking roads we did not wish to have to.

If that thing can contribute to Meridian's victory...

[hauntedking]

...do you really think he's capable of such a thing? Even if he could, I wouldn't trust him and I certainly wouldn't want to be fighting alongside him!

[warmare]

No. He cannot be trusted to fight alongside.

But if it were just like siccing a dog on an enemy...

[hauntedking]

He isn't a dog, though. He'll prioritize his own survival - who's to say he won't betray us?

[warmare]

The second we have sign or proof of it, I say we put him down.

But he is...

[It comes out as if rippedq from her throat, reluctant and bitter and full of hate, and yet-]

He is powerful.

We need more power.

[hauntedking]

...we don't need power from people who would treat you like that, Hayame.

[ Of that he is certain. ]

Cruelty, torture, power for power's sake... I have never wanted those things. Or accepted them, when in my right mind. There was a time when all I cared about was vengeance and blood, no matter how I got them, but... not anymore.

[warmare]

If I must be abused to fulfill the promise I made in my world, if I must be humiliated or swallow my dishonor to return…

Then I will suffer.

We do not speak today from a position of advantage. Zenith won the Advocate Oracle.

We must win the next one… or render Zenith weak enough that they cannot compete for it.

[hauntedking]

You shouldn't have to, though! Having to tolerate him is monstrous!

[ Dimitri's hackles are up a bit. ]

What possible advantage does he offer us? Even if he offered one, I would not wish his assistance. Not after all I've learned. There are limits, Hayame. At a point, one sacrifices everything that one is and it is not worth the price.

[warmare]

Of course I should not have to!

[Hayame's bark is sudden and harsh, too emotional-- but that is the danger of Communion. And the heat of Meridian burning in the back of hers eyes.

Even if one of them did not belong to her.]

But that thing is powerful! I did not smell nor see nor hear a single hint of it before it took me! It heals as if you have not wounded it, within seconds! It is faster than a human, stronger than a human-

[... Than a jinba.]

So if it just fights for Meridian then- !

[hauntedking]

[ The emotion is there, burning and bright, and so is his own. He believes strongly in his own ideals by now. Even with Meridian burning in him, he is not at the point where he will break for it. Bend a little? Maybe.

But underneath it is also a deep sense of concern for Hayame. ]

Then we can forget what it's done? That is not what you want. That is not justice.

1/2

[warmare]

Jinba don't get justice!

cw: suicidal ideation

[warmare]

[So she-

She just-

She had torn herself open and exposed what had happened to her for what? She tried to make people who didn't already know understand, and for what? Everything burns (hurts) and she just-]

So I am the fool to have expected anything else.

I will never forget. Not a single day for the rest of my life.

But if Zenith wins, there will be nothing to remember.

[... Because she will be dead. Either trying to prevent it...

Or refusing to live with it.]

[hauntedking]

[ The shout rocks him back on his heels in the mental space they share, but it doesn't stop him. It just... hurts. The pain she feels, his own empathy, the way he tries to think of what he can say.

He's not sure there are any words that will help.

But he still thinks he should try. ]

...if I have to give up my sense of right and wrong, then what's the point of winning? If I no longer recognize myself at the end of it...

[ He trails off. That doesn't help anything, does it? ]

You're not a fool, Hayame. To hope for something better, to think that change might be possible, to want more - there's nothing foolish in it. The world, the universe, might be imperfect but we only make it better through the work of our own hands. You... deserve more than this.

You always will.

[warmare]

[It just hurts. Maybe more than it had hurt to have the demon reach into her eye socket and rip the nerves from their scarring in the first place.

Physical pain she knows what to do with. She knows how to grit her teeth and swallow it down, how to (try to) pretend it never happened.

But this isn’t physical.]

Whether I deserve it or not does not matter.

I will swallow the humiliation like I always have.

At least this time doing it means Zenith is down a powerful ally.

[hauntedking]

You shouldn't.

[ He sounds... what? Not bitter. Not angry. Probably not even frustrated.

Maybe resentful of the world. Maybe that's a good way to put it. ]

Sometimes accepting what's done is done is necessary. Even the best option. I don't believe this is one of those times.

[warmare]

I have been tasked by the Tribune with a mission that deserves my attention far more than that soul-eating traitor.

Unless he turns traitor again...

[She doesn't sound resigned. She sounds bitter... and strange.]

Let them delight in his sick little smiles.

[hauntedking]

...if that's what you want.

[ He doesn't sound all that sure of it. ]