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! ))

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[strictdiscipline]

[Rin has a point - they don't know the whole story. But she's already sat through one near-genocide — helped carry it out, no less — and calmly accepting a second one isn't an option.

A long pause, before:]

Do you have others going with you?

[He can't possibly take on the goddesses alone.]

[respired]

Gilgamesh. Ashraf and Kida, too, understand my position.

[ He doesn't know if they plan to actually fight, though. ]

No others.

[ Better that way, in his opinion. ]

[strictdiscipline]

[Gilgamesh she doesn't care for and Ashraf she's yet to meet, but Kida....

She thinks, lets thoughts and potential futures swirl together in her mind.]

Let me come with you. [Appended quickly, lest there be any misunderstanding—] It's not my place to deliver judgement to either of them, but I can try and buy you extra time, if things go awry.

[respired]

You are free to come if you like, Riza. Though I would prefer you not place yourself in needless danger.

[ He's the tank -- he'll buy you time. ]

[strictdiscipline]

[A smile ghosts across her face, here and gone in a moment. For that same moment, her voice is soft, barely audible.]

My life is forfeit already.

[For a multitude of reasons. But none of them are relevant to the current moment in time and she moves on quickly.

All of you are. I can't do any less.

[respired]

[ Riza, what the hell. Like he's just going to let that go! ]

What do you mean?

[strictdiscipline]

[Is this really the time. Well, if they're all going to die, now might be the only time.]

I'm guilty of the same deeds as Nalanni. Whatever end they meet is no less than what I deserve.

[And what she's prepared for, to be quite honest.]

[respired]

[ That's not something he ever expected to hear from her. ]

You -- slaughtered an entire people?

[ His eyebrows furrowed. ]

You broke a civilization?

[strictdiscipline]

[The network captures only a small fraction of her bearing - the straight set of her shoulders, the clarity in her eyes as she looks straight forward into his gaze.]

I was ordered to do so. I did not disobey them.

[Even multiplied a hundredfold, her regret will never erase the crimes she's committed.]

[respired]

[ His whole paradigm has shifted -- at least, as it relates to Riza, a woman he had judged as moral and honorable. ]

Why?

[strictdiscipline]

Because I didn't want to admit my faith in the military had been misplaced.

[It's a poor excuse though, a paltry few words in the face of hundreds of lives lost, many by her own hands.]

Rightfully, I should be tried and executed for what I've done. [Her lips quirk up, humorless.] I would have been if it hadn't been the leader of my country issuing the command.

[But the Fuhrer isn't here, Koltira is.]

It's something I never want to see happen again, for those on both side, but saying so doesn't erase what I've done.

[He's free to judge her and condemn her as he likes. She expects nothing less.]

[respired]

[ He doesn't quite know what to do with this information. He, too, is guilty of terrible acts, of atrocities--but they were performed while enslaved. The Lich King dominated his will entirely, to the point that he couldn't deny his master even if he wanted to.

But Riza was free, and had always been free, to his knowledge. Still, the remorse in her voice is real, and that's something. ]

... no. It does not.

[ He doesn't feel that he has the right to judge anyone, really, not after the things he's done. ]

As I well know.

[ He is unhappy to learn this about Riza, but what's done is done. She cannot go back, not anymore than he can. Only forward. Only towards atonement. ]

[strictdiscipline]

[They're not friends by any means, uneasy allies at best, but it hurts all the same to hear his pauses on the other end.]

If you would prefer that I no longer accompany you, I understand.

[respired]

We will need all the strength we can muster.

[ But after that ... who knows. ]

[strictdiscipline]

Then I will be there.

[Afterwards is a different story, but one they can both worry about when the worst is over.]