text 💎 un: Tohsaka Rin

[defenceless]

[shortly after the storm clears on may 11th and the network connection between both sides of the group is reestablished, the following post appears:]

We're fine, as far as I know. I don't think anyone's dead, at least.

The storm that separated us was brought about by a Dakal named Pomarr. Some of you may remember her as our feline friend who sold her soul to Ryba—or whatever it is she did—to continue to live on after death.

She swept us to an island that looked like it was raised from the seafloor. It wasn't a vacation, but there were definitely remnants of what those big cats must have called home.

Her plan is to revive her entire race, in the same way Ryba "revived" her. As if life-or-death deals with shady goddesses aren't concerning enough, she wants to grant Ryba the power to carry out this mass revival by having her suck Nalanni dry. Pomarr understandably doesn't care much for Nalanni after she drowned everyone she loved; in fact, she showed us this in morbid detail. She's taken Nalanni. Hence, all the Nalawi losing their Gifts and all of this inconvenience we have to deal with.

Pomarr knows where Nalanni is, but she's asking us not to interfere, and she wouldn't give us the opportunity to speak with Nalanni when I requested it. For some reason, she didn't expect that we would be suffering like the Nalawi are. She's promised to try to fix that.

What do we do now, ALASTAIR? I can share anything else you want to know about our meeting with Pomarr, or Yukimura Sanada-san or Mr. Keats can, but this is most of it. We have a situation where the balance of this whole world might be upended if we sit and twiddle our thumbs.

I don't think I need to remind anyone of the potential consequences of messing with either goddess. Or a litter of zombie cats roaming free.

(( ooc: infodump for rin, yukimura, and keats' conversation with a dakal npc, for one of the plot slots! feel free to handwave your character (in either the marooned group or the left behind group) learned this info by reading the post or talking with rin/yukimura/keats/another recruit. yukimura and keats may also be replying to tags! ))

Comments

AUDIO.

[defenceless]

[well, now that they're aware of the likely fate of the other gods...]

It appears almost certain that if we don't interfere, Pomarr's plan will go off without a hitch.

[selfimage]

I doubt she'll be sated after devouring everything.

[ you know, which is even scarier. because. him. ]

Fan-fucking-tastic ...

[defenceless]

[god fruit roll-up.]

Yet it was so important to her to ask us not to interfere that she set the storm in motion, and she summoned us to that island so we would see the truth about what Nalanni did.

We're still missing so much... It's tragic, what has happened to the Dakal, but I can't condone sacrificing everything for the sake of just them.

[selfimage]

This Pomarr certainly done a good job investing a portion of us in her cause. [ there's a little mm as he pauses. ]

Did she say what caused such a catastrophe? What was the cause of Nalanni's rage?

[defenceless]

I wouldn't say it was explicitly her intent, but she managed wooing some of us over into god-murdering territory, anyway.

[how did they get to this point?]

Funny thing, that. I told her straight to her face that I doubted a god would act without a reason, whether or not that reason made sense to us. She became exasperated and simply said the Nalawi were at war with the Dakal, like that explained it all. It doesn't, of course.

And this is why I think we at least need to keep seeking out Nalanni—the opposite of what Pomarr wants, but I never promised we were her pawns. Our dealings with Pomarr can stop right here with sharing the details of our meeting.

[selfimage]

Wars—godswars—bring out the worst in everyone.

[ gods weren't immune to that, either. his father had his fair share (see: "too many to count") of bloody battles. ]

So, we find Nalanni, preferably before Koltira finds her. Hopefully stop a zombie apocalypse in the making. The timer's against us, Miss Rin.

[ but there's a grin in his voice. ]

I tried once, but came up with static. We may have to get creative, but if you have details on this Pomarr, I may be able to make it work.

[defenceless]

You should call me Miss Rin more often. It'd make me think more highly of you.

[there's a small smile hidden in her tone, too. does she think badly of him? well, not necessarily, but it's always good to hear a "miss" before her name.]

Let's see... Pomarr is definitely not alive in the traditional sense. To start with, whether she's a version of this world's "undead" or not still isn't exactly clear, but she arrives and disappears like a ghost, and everything about her is haunting as if she's speaking from underwater.

[selfimage]

[ there's just a little hm in reply to the Miss Rin comment; well, now he knows how to butter her up. ]

Ah—that reminds me of the Dead Walk.

[ he watched someone get hypnotized there, actually, and there could be a connection. ]

Do we know where the dead go?

[defenceless]

[yes, loki, good. this is how she gets what she wants.]

We don't.

[not their spirits, in any case. the nalawi must have something tenuous like an afterlife, but it's hard to tell.]

[selfimage]

Only that they can linger ...

[ he says to himself, thoughtfully. ]

[defenceless]

Where are you going with this...? I don't understand.

[that wherever pomarr goes, clues about her will stick around for a long time?]

[selfimage]

If the dead come back they have to do so from somewhere. If Pomarr's a shade, disappearing and reappearing, she has to be doing so from somewhere.

Where better to hold Nalanni than that sort of place?

[defenceless]

[ah...]

I don't think that's quite the case. True enough, Pomarr's real body might be buried at the bottom of the sea, but I received the impression from her that she moved very much in the mortal world, the world of the living. Do you recall the cell inside Nalalona?

I bet Pomarr had Nalanni imprisoned there. So our prisons are in plain sight.