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;

[hellshaped]

It's not that unusual. Osiris. Lazarus. Resurrection isn't inherently evil.

audio;

[defenceless]

Pomarr was not alive in the typical sense. It's... It felt unnatural. She's all alone. She's the only one.

audio;

[hellshaped]

[He doesn't comment on that. Hellboy himself has died and come back in what he knows was an unnatural way. He is alone in that, too.]

I'm only saying resurrection isn't the warning sign here. I'd say requiring sacrifice... [Wait. Back up.]

We found a lot of sacrifices to Ryba. Dead deer. Their eyes in a pool of water. That's sinister.

audio;

[defenceless]

Did you really? Oh, no.

[the tone of her voice betrays it—that isn't good news.]

That's exactly it. She requires serious payment and her calling card is sacrifice. The price for revival should be steep, but it almost seems as though the laws of this world are being played with.

[healplz]

Couldn't Nalanni be considered that sacrifice? She's a price I'd be more than happy to pay, if so.

[defenceless]

... I'm certain Nalanni is intended to be a sacrifice, or at least her power laid out as an offering. Why are you so quick to condemn her when we basically only have Pomarr's perspective to go on?

[healplz]

One perspective of the slaughter of an entire city is all I need. Maybe things are different in your world, but in mine that's very condemning.

[defenceless]

Oh, sure. Thing is, I don't care what world's rules we're playing by, because acting sensibly will always be the better option. You cannot prove killing off Nalanni is a flawless decision at this point. You flat out can't.

If we decide as a team that's something we ultimately want to go for, fair enough, but I'm telling people to stand down and think carefully. I won't lose any of us if I can help it. You should know I'm sincere about that.

[healplz]

It's the only decision in the face of devastation like that. But I'm not exactly in any state to rush and do it myself [ which is killing him ] nor do we even know how to go about it, so I doubt if there's any immediate action to take. While we learn more, I'm sure we can learn more about the impact it will have. There will be a way to destroy her without harming more than necessary.

[ because Demons Get Killed, so why wouldn't there be a beneficial way to do it!! ]

[defenceless]

[she doesn't know all about your demons and stuff, ashraf...]

It's not the only decision... and there you go just proving it for me. Anyway, it appears we don't disagree.

[hellshaped]

[Hellboy grumbles a bit at that.] We're not killing someone as a sacrifice. Especially not to raise people from the dead.

[healplz]

You're right, we wouldn't be killing someone, we'd be killing a demon.

[hellshaped]

Demons are completely different things, Ashraf, but that doesn't matter -- I wouldn't sacrifice a demon, either. Blood for power isn't an option.

[healplz]

This is a hypothetical conversation, we don't know the details of Ryba's offer to bring back the Dakal's people. But if it did come to that, you and I would stand in stark opposition. Demons exist only to be destroyed, and it would be a happy coincidence if that destruction could benefit someone else.

[hellshaped]

[This is a tangent now -- Nalanni isn't a demon; doing bad things doesn't automatically make a supernatural being a demon. But Ashraf's accepting attitude toward essentially black magic raises Hellboy's hackles like nothing else.] Do you know where that benefit would come from? From a demon. If you kill a demon or exorcise it or whatever, that should be the end of it.