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

[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.

[warmare]

[She meant to say "I will require you", that is what she was going to say-

But her focus hones in like a flare upon the surface of the sun instead.]

You know what?

[damnpire]

You should have it removed as soon as possible.

[He doesn't think it was a bad choice to wait until after the Oracle necessarily, and none of them knew they would be asleep for so many years. Worked out in their favor maybe, considering.]

Silco has access.

[warmare]

[Some might expect Hayame’s reaction to that sort of knowledge to be immediate and incendiary.

Instead… it is a silence, grown ice cold and long, before,]

How do you know that?

[damnpire]

The demon told me.

[Could be a lie for all they know. He hasn't spoken enough to Sebastian to understand Sebastian can't really lie about things.]

Silco was an accomplice, but he has access.

[warmare]

[The heat of Meridian may be shining brighter in her now, bright enough to blot out the part of her that not so long ago would have rather killed that demon or died trying than accept its presence...

But it doesn't shine bright enough to erase the hatred. Not the fear. ... Nor the humiliation.

In Communion, she cannot hide the instant burn, the way she readies herself so quickly to be betrayed before believing anything mundane where Sebastian Michaelis was concerned, for the words that the demon had murmured to her in the Scorching Isles to come true time after time after time. They know what I am, and what I can do. He had been smiling when he said it, she remembers. She had sworn she would drag the demon's nature in to the light, that she would show people what he was, and yet though she has now, first to individuals she had longed to find refuge in and now to the entire damned faction, though she's ripped open her wounds raw trying to prove it--

They still love me for it. That's what he had said.

It feels like a long time to her, before she says anything, but it is not so long at all before she tersely forces out the words.]

... You are such good friends now that it discusses its schemes with you?

[damnpire]

Matt was the liaison who sprang the surprise encounter on both of us. I probably would not have accepted his offer had I known Sebastian would be there.

[He's wondering if he should now leave Matt alone altogether. That's fair maybe, considering the faction divide.]

I believe there maybe be some animosity now, so he felt no desire to hide their partnership in what happened. He did correct me, however, and admits it had been his idea.

He made it a point to say the two of you were even.

[The feeling in his mind is that he does not think for a second Hayame cares about this last bit really.]

[warmare]

[Who the fuck is... No, it does not matter. She does not know them, and so they must be a Zenite, just another example of even more of her allies refusing to commit to fighting or even shunning the people literally fighting for their worlds to be destroyed and for every soul they have ever known to die. But before she can say anything as to his choice of "liaisons"--]

We are not even! We have never been even!

[Hearing that demon's false claim repeated back to her makes her want to scream. To kill it even if it could be a powerful force for Meridian because of who fucking knew why, because-]

That thing claims that I killed him beneath the Great Tree, that this made us so, but it did nothing of the sort! The dryad was merely playing with our minds, making us see and feel things that never truly happened-- if it had, we would have been, but he did not even die properly! He claims I took his eye in the Iconoclast Oracle, that this was some escalation? I could not take a single godsdamned thing! The moment our powers returned, his eye healed as if it had never been gone in the first place, all while my scars remained empty and dry in the back of my head for all to see!

I will not tolerate that thing slandering me by acting as if I am the aggressor, like I am the rabid dog refusing to release some innocent man when it is the one who appeared from the shadows, poisoned me to weakness, and then forced this all upon me!

[All of it. (Hadn't it?) Not just the pain of it, the threats made to her and those she cared about, but everything that had come after... and how it had ruined the illusions she might have had about her ability to be respected.

She apparently cares about the last bit a lot, really. Well, cares that it's being said at all. Cares that people believe her. That they...]

[damnpire]

[He did not think she cared for hearing that the demon thought they were even, and he sees that is true enough.]

He is a demon.

[The same here, the same on the Frontier. Sebastian acts a little more like the Noble vampires, if he's honest. Calculating, cunning.]

The manipulation is for him to pretend to be polite, to do the terrible things in secrecy, so when you react against him, you're the one who looks ridiculous to others. I understand that.

And I believe you.

[He has seen this plenty of times in his profession. People like Hayame, people like Matt, too. People like Gen, like Link, like Silco.]

Things are contractual to him. He is trading one barb for another. I'm only warning you of his intentions moving forward. He will retaliate for as many times as you do. I know that doesn't bother you, that you'll take it, and I'm not asking you to stop.

You should just be careful.

[warmare]

[There are some combinations of three short words that contain power despite their simplicity. "I love you" is the most commonly praised, of course... but "I believe you" can be just as, if not occasionally sometimes even more, moving a thing to hear.

Because Hayame knew, she knew the moment that demon had commanded his lackey to heal her, that it was no kindness like that thing had pretended it was. No. It was to smear her in yet another way, to make it harder for her to tell others what had been done to her, to make her seem mad with rage or bitterness or jealousy. And it's worked, hasn't it? She meant to warn the newer members of Meridian with this, to convince those older members who believed the demon's act that they were wrong to do so... And has she succeeded at either? What has shaming herself by revealing that information even accomplished... ?

... Though she did hear D, when he said "I believe you". And it still mattered to her, even if she knows how pathetic of her it is for such a bare minimum to mean so much.

But he does not have to warn her. After all,]

... It would not bother me if it were me.

[The sensation even in Communion betrays fingers digging in to palms, the grit of a jaw, the shameful turn of gaze.]

But that demon...

[It had said it would never kill her. Because just killing her would be a mercy, would it not, and be far too kind. Instead, there had been smiles, and slick little insinuations that it knew whose homes she frequented, which surely meant not just the threat of her own crippling or humiliation, but also-]

It knows... who would hurt me more to lose.

[... So when any attempt to fight back might bring pain down on someone else entirely... What is she supposed to do?]

[damnpire]

Yes, most of them do.

[In this way, D understands, and it is why he spent many thousands of years on the Frontier fleeing from close relationships. Wandering, tied only to his profession. When love and infatuate brushed up against him, he would turn away.

Because he knew it never mattered what happened to him, but they would be subjected to all kinds of harm.

And yet, removing himself from the equation, he wants that for Hayame. Like he had for the humans. He wants Hayame to love and be loved, to experience the kinder, more meaningful facets of life.]

I don't think it's wrong to worry about that. I also don't think you would have chosen someone who could not take care of themselves, or who doesn't understand the ramifications you're up against.

[warmare]

[... Most of them. Hayame does not want to imagine more of them, more soul-eating, writhing masses of eyes and shadows pretending to be smiling gentleman that whisper sick things into the ears of those she hates and those she loves both.

She had not planned to love anyone. She was supposed to know better. Love was a weakness, and now, just as she has always feared, despite others claiming it would be her strength...

In this, it feels as if...

Hayame is quiet for a long time. She does not discuss her feelings easily. She does not know if D even wants to hear such a thing, or understands such things, she just... Who is she going to say it to? D is here. Listening.]

... I allowed him the foolishness of choosing me.

How can I allow him to potentially choose death for it, too?