video; un: deathweaver; locked to the islanders

[respired]

[ Koltira's standing in what seems to be some kind of schoolhouse theater. There's a projector beside him, largely untouched by the ravages of water or time, and a clear enough screen just ahead. The room itself is still in shambles; the floor is thick with debris and student paraphernalia--books, pens, ripped sheets of paper. Koltira taps his fingers on the projector, agitated.

Ashraf and Kida are nearby, looking on, though the frame does not show either of them fully. ]

I have something to show you.

[ His deep voice is low, still, dangerous. Tight with barely constrained rage. He presses a button on the projector, and turns his jewelry so that the screen fills the frame.

The following scene plays: ]



[ The view fades in as seen from the roof of this very building. Thick stormclouds gather off the coast of the island to the east, further darkening a dusk sky. They mount with an unnatural swiftness, and within minutes they've formed a solid wall across the sky as they advance. There are flashes of lightning throughout the clouds, but more eerie than that are the pinpricks of bright glowing fiery oranges and reds, like live magma cracking through its hardened shell. The storm begins to pound on the island, and view drops lower as whoever is recording drops into a crouch against driving wind and rains. Almost directly overhead those flaring, fiery colors form into the shape of a body, clear despite the swirl of clouds. Two fiery eyes peer down from among the chaos, and the feeling in them is clear: unspeakable fury.

The view jumps; it's now off of the roof and on the ground level, and furred arms reach to usher desperate, frantic people out of the doors of the building. These people look nothing like the Nalawi; they are much taller, their faces with a feline slant, all furred and striped. All of them are terrified, casting fast glances up at the sky. Screams begin as something large and dark with those same cracks of glowing orange slams down hard not far away. Things fly through the confused air, some of them alive and shrieking. The ground underfoot begins to shake and rumble; more of the panicking people are thrown from their feet, some buried under collapsing buildings.

Again, another cut. This time it seems to be at the shipyard toward the edge of the island. The viewer stands among a crowd, packed tight on the deck of a ship that's pulling away from the harbor. An enormous figure stands over the city, one leg planted in the middle of it, the other buried in the sea off of the land. The water is rising over the island, sweeping away bodies and homes alike. The figure is focused on raining down blows, until something suddenly snags its attention. Those two fiery eyes snap toward the viewer, then all at once its mass is turning, rushing for the escaping ship. Those destructive fists raise above its head, and the viewer turns to dive off of the edge of the ship. The recording goes black before it hits the water. ]

[ Watching this play out for a second time renews Koltira's already simmering fury. He grabs the projector's reel, and ice slowly spreads to cover the thing as he speaks. His lichfire eyes blaze; cold sparks hissing and dissipating into the crackling around him. When he opens his mouth, he bares fangs, and his voice is a horror: all echoes and gravel scraping against gravel, all deep, clawing, primal rage.

He knows destruction such as this. He lived it. He died during it. And, then as now, his people were utterly crushed. His kingdom lost. His life worse than taken--inverted, corrupted, perverted.

So he might be a little invested. ]

The gods of this world are a stain. They are an infection. Ryba is some tentacled glutton, and Nalanni is no more than a butcher.

[ By this point, the projector's reel is entirely coated in a thick, darkly shimmering layer of ice. Koltira seethes. He crushes the reel, metal and ice and film and all, in his fist; the thing snaps off, mangled beyond recognition, in his hand. ]

The way forward is clear. We will repair that ship. We will return to the main islands. We will find Nalanni, and she will answer for this slaughter.

[ He pauses, sneering. ]

Or I will, alone, if I must.

[ He turns to Kida and Ashraf, his eyes still ablaze, his muscles tense with fury. He draws Byfrost from his back. What little power he has left comes to the fore in full force. The runes on his sword glow dimly with unholy energy as he drives Byfrost into the ground, as the earth around it cracks and turns black.

The feed ends. ]

Comments

video; un: Tohsaka Rin

[defenceless]

[rin responds with blue eyes staring coolly into her jewel; there is much to say, but they only seem to state, control yourself, koltira. you can do it. you must.]

I suspected it was a possibility. Nalanni is a malevolent goddess—or she at least has her attitude.

I wonder if she's the one who's swept us off to here, and is keeping us "imprisoned".

[respired]

[ He's fine, Rin! You don't know him. He stops, hand on Byfrost's hilt, and looks at her directly. ]

No. There is a storm raging around us, lashing out where it wills. She is a goddess of fire.

[ He's still dead set on killing her, but. ]

[defenceless]

[no, you're not fine, bro.]

But there were storm clouds brewing in the film...

video; un: apocalypseArisen

[timebender]

I knew there was something... I thought it might have been the Nalawi themselves, but they may just have been blind followers.

[ She seems... disappointed, and there's gears turning behind those eyes, but she otherwise seems more contemplative than upset. ]

Before we go rushing head first into battle, do we know anything about what's required to... make a god answer to anything?

[respired]

A sharp sword is usually enough.

[ He can't say what part the Nalawi themselves had in it. He doesn't care a stitch for them now, either way. ]

[timebender]

In your world, maybe! Not in mine.

[ And who was to say that it would work the same here as in either of theirs? ]

You are angry but getting yourself killed won't do anyone any good. It might also be worthwhile seeing what the Nalawi think of this as well.

[ He might not care, and as much as she wants to convince herself they were unwilling participants, she can't shake the feeling that they're still hiding something of this. ]

video; un: coolskeleton95

[boneafide]

... That's...

[He doesn't exactly have words for this. All that destruction- for what reason? And they seemed like such nice deer-people...]

[respired]

Yes?

[ He scowls, grinding his teeth. ]

Go on.

[boneafide]

...

[He doesn't want to say anymore, actually. 'That's horrible' or 'how awful' will only feed into Koltira's righteous anger more. For someone who thinks so lowly of himself because of his own tendency for destruction, he has quite the moral compass.

Instead, Papyrus takes the... Papyrus-route, his expression the very picture of one trying to assuage the other.]

That's... amazing you still have some magic left! I went exploring as well! And I, ah... found some wine! A lot of it. If you... would like to have some?

[Well... He Tried.]

action for ash + kolt

[adlantisag]

[ After watching it a second time, she manages to quell the worst of the heat that pricks at her face, her eyes, the sobs make her hiccup. She can't possibly tell him to be calm, to not destroy this place, not when her blood feels like it will curdle in her body if she doesn't let loose this quaking rage. This damnable place with its damnable gods! She feels like she might choke on her own bile so badly she's trying to hold herself down.

Byfrost is too cold for her to approach; she suspects that Koltira is using the very last dregs of his power on this display, or perhaps it's just his anger manifesting. She wants to join him. She wants to scream, wants to beat her fists until they're bloody and bruised. In her mind, she sees the Dakal, she sees chaos, she sees a great magical barrier, she sees Nalanni, she sees her people screaming and dying-- ]

You are not alone.

[ The black ice burns her feet. She ignores it. Her eyes are dark pinpricks, blown wide and red-rimmed, haunted. She itches to reach for him, to touch something, to throw something. She turns, her gaze landing on Ashraf like a physical weight, a sledgehammer. ]

Ashraf! We must. We must.

[healplz]

[ Watching it through the second time had helped him not at all. His mind is still reeling, thrown by the snatches and glimpses of so much wanton death, still murmuring in a panicked voice he doesn't believe is his own, that isn't a god, no god would behave like that, it's impossible —

It's Kida's voice more than Koltira's destruction that finally wrests his attention away from the freeze of an internal struggle. He meets her gaze for only a few seconds before he's remembered himself, remembered the others. He pushes toward Kida, an arm out to caution her from treading too near Koltira. ]

Careful. [ It's a useless command, he knows already she isn't stupid. His gaze finds Koltira next, and sternness covers the hollowed panic very well. ] Koltira — I know. But this isn't where you want to waste your anger.

VIDEO. UN: LOKI

[selfimage]

[ somehow this is all very unsurprising, not that he can't understand the bitter need for vengeance; he can, and all too well. a part of him tugs, but for the larger picture.

his voice is flat. ]

Don't end up someone's pawn.

[ right now he seems like quite the picture of a dark elf: ready for blood. ]

[respired]

[ Lbr: Koltira is always ready for blood.

He turns that terrible stare on Loki, growling low in this throat, bestial with rage. ]

This is my own choice. My own conclusion.

video | un; sieglindesullivan

[grunehexe]

[It's horrifying. Watching it is horrifying, because this wasn't text on a page detailing the sinking of Atlantis or the destruction of Pompeii- it was a video, it was real living things screaming and dying as their entire world burned.

She doesn't know what to do- she just covers her mouth and watches to the end. But even with that over it seems like there's more, because then Koltira is... what the hell was he doing, why draw his sword just to slam it into the ground, why are men so foolish, Goddess-]

D-

Do not be so hasty! Obviously that- that was a tragedy, but the gods do not operate under the same moral codes as we mortals... we do not even know half of the story of what truly happened here! We cannot take sides in this conflict so easily-

[respired]

[ Under other circumstances, he might feel some remorse over her reaction; she's clearly upset, and his own anger is not exactly soothing. But it overwhelms him. The footage is stark in his mind, and every time he hears the screams of the island's natives, the screams of his own people come also to the fore. ]

You're correct. They do operate outside mortal understanding. That is precisely the problem.

video | un: beloved

[dailydouble]

[ He looks tired, more than anything else. The loss of his powers and everything he's seen has combined to leave him weary and doubtful that any progress will be made here. ]

Before we become god-slayers, we should determine if killing them will destabilize or destroy this place.

[respired]

[ He doesn't care! Fuck this place! The Dakal are dead, and the Nalawi are disingenuous little deer rats. ]

Perhaps. But I will find her, and I will have justice.

[ Actually, it's more like 'revenge', but who's counting. ]

video | un: lavellan

[strikingtwice]

[This hits closer to home than he likes, and perhaps that's why Meallan hesitates, uncertainty in his expression.]

But shouldn't the people here have the right to know about what happened? We can't just go and kill their god, if we could even find them in the first place. What if that makes everything worse?

[And you did kind of destroy what might make for a convincing argument to the people, Koltira...]

[respired]

The people here? The Nalawi?

[ He scowls. ]

Are you a fool? Likely as not they were the ones who spurred her to action.

video; [KINGOFHEROES]

[babbylon]

[Gilgamesh's reaction remains neutral throughout. This sort of genocide doesn't rattle him in the slightest; he's seen it all before, perpetuated as much himself in a future he has yet to witness. That's not what bothers him. Gods were chaotic beasts, and woe be to those who did not understand it or reviled it, acting as a god himself.

What bothers him are the milquetoast reactions. Fear, even, of the gods, which Gilgamesh could never abide. Man was meant to overthrow the gods, that was the lesson of his tale, that was the meaning of his struggle. Apparently he would need to re-educate quite a few on just what that meant, on why they were the superior species.

Gilgamesh answers Koltira simply and succinctly, with neither anger nor annoyance.]

I am with you.

[respired]

[ Given the amount of resistance he's faced, he's surprised to hear someone--anyone--readily agree. ]

Are you?

[ His ferocity does not lessen. He narrows his eyes; furrows his long eyebrows. ]

Why?

video | username: cheap steaks

[trenchdoting]

[Well, that's a lot to take in. Gumshoe wishes he had Mr. TV here to analyze that video, but alas, he instead has to lean forward and squint at the images produced from his jewelry to make out the horrifying scene.]

Whoa! Now that's a dark video, pal. You should have one of those, um... parental warning things. For the kids!

[He scratches at his head uncertainly.]

So that's Nalanni, right? We're sure of that? And what's Ryba- oh right! There was that other announcement about that guy! Well, I'm a detective, so if anyone's guilty, I'll be there to arrest them, pal! You can count on that!

[respired]

[ What is this guy on about? Koltira's just going to focus on the pertinent bit, as he perceives it. ]

Arrest them? And bring them where?

audio; un: 82736775

[ricksybusiness]

Ughhhhh. Can't we just nuke the whole fucking place? This planet is dumb and I'm getting bored.

[If Rick is affected by the horror of the video, he doesn't sound like it.]

[respired]

What do you mean--'nuke'?

[ There are weapons with similar effects in Azeroth, and Koltira knows of them ... but not this term, in specific. ]