[Kenoma] Discussion

[lachtara]

( 🟣 - Emet, 🔵 - Ciel )

Good Evening.

There are some within our ranks who we have not had the pleasure of meeting. I am Emet-Selch. Ciel and I serve as tacticians and teachers to the Kenoma.

I function as acting counsel for devising strategies. Additionally, some of you may find yourself in possession of new magical abilities that you did not have before. I am available to assist you with honing your newfound magical skills. To those of you who find yourself injured, I can provide my magic to heal your wounds so that you may be hale and whole once more.

[ He sighs. My, is this a mouthful. ]

My name is Ciel. I am versed in martial arts and am proficient with most types of weaponry. There are various means of developing melee combat prowess across Achamoth, but if you would like personalized instructions at any level, please contact me and we’ll arrange for a schedule. I can also perform magical healing along with Father Paul.

Unfortunately, We do not have much time for pleasantries. The Pleroma will soon be at our doorstep. Their goal is to retrieve their allies who remain captive inside our walls, and our goal is to lure them deep within the Citadel where we may enact our own plans. You will be provided assignments once it is closer to the promised hour. Prepare in your own way meanwhile; The Citadel is host to all manners of weaponry and the army's training grounds.

[ It’s kept a little vague and unspecific. Though they do intend to give adequate information, there is also no question that they have had traitors in their midst as of late. Everything will be doled out with due caution. Although, there will be a silent message sent to each person asking them to respond with some information of their abilities. ]

We are at war, bloodshed is inevitable. We will be attacked soon, and we must defend our keep. Consider this communion address a formal hub for discussion and organization of the battle to come. We will begin with information sharing of the Pleroma: knowing their names, appearances, and capabilities will better prepare us in dealing with them in combat. Aions may develop new abilities at any time, however; intel from the mission in Venera and Godsblood may very well be outdated by now, so do not assume anything we go over in this address as the extent of what they can do. Anything you may have witnessed at the shrines can be helpful, including other newcomers you may have met that did not return to Achamoth..

To the third wave of newly awoken Aions, it is regrettable that we cannot welcome you better, you’ve unfortunately arrived at a tumultuous time on Horos. If this is all too much for any reason, that’s fine. Contact me privately, and we can at least arrange for you to be somewhere safe during this. To those used to wielding great power, please get some practice in and verify your new limits. Becoming an Aion may have weakened you, do not let that catch you off-guard on the battlefield.

To those who are new, introduce yourselves and ask any questions you have. We will answer your questions as best we can, and I encourage our fellow Kenoma to chime in where they may. Do try to keep your questions interesting enough to be worth reading.

Comments

[settingup]

[ Combat experience... supernatural abilities?

Holy shiiiiiit. ]

Can't I just go to one now? There's no tellin' when they're showin' up exactly, is there?

[expiera]

[Guh. Unmitigated panic was a possibility, but still something they'd want to avoid if possible. But with a broadcast this public, maybe having someone lose their shit like this was simply inevitable?]

We'll be able to see them well in advance. Besides, using a portal will take no time at all. [A (reluctant) beat.] Or are you dissatisfied with your living arrangements so far?

[The lavish af room, bed big enough to roll several times over, having a servant at your beck and call, the jacuzzi moat, etc... Fancier than five star international hotels, tbh?]

[settingup]

I'm dissatisfied with everything about this whole mess!

[ Look, it's a really nice room and a really nice bed. He's used to sleeping in a bunk bed, or hotel rooms with like 5 other guys packed into them. He doesn't live in this kind of luxury ever.

So the whole thing makes him kind of... itchy. It's unfamiliar and weird. ]

[expiera]

This is your new reality, regardless of how you feel about it. Adjusting will come in due time, but the process is understandably different for everyone. ...Is there anything we can do to help you with that, then?

[She braces herself for ??? requests, why do the forces (Regent? Citation needed, or maybe just shitty gacha rolls) that be insist on bringing in people who should have no business being caught in some comically glaring war of good vs evil?]

[settingup]

[ Because where's the fun in a cosmic war of good vs evil if you don't really break some normal eggs in the process?

As for her question, he's quiet (for once) for a moment as he stews in his own agitation.

When he finally speaks it's not to make a request though. ]

What's your deal anyway? Everyone else here is kinda an asshole, so what's up with the nice girl act?

[ She's been weirdly insistent on trying to be nice, and is even going out of her way to try and ferry guys like him out of the immediate danger while others are laughing at him taking issue with this.

He's agitated and grouchy, but being rude to the one person being nice is probably a dumb move. ]

[expiera]

[Called out so early....... And that DOES stun her into a brief silence. She wasn't even thinking of it as playing a "nice girl" act, but now that he mentions it, and especially with context of what she's been responsible for before this...]

I apologize, I don't mean to mislead you. I may be among the most ruthless on our side, but I still don't think it would do any good to force you into accepting such a drastic change in your situation right away. You haven't just moved to a different country, you've been dropped into a different world and are expected to fight in a cosmic war. It sounds really unreasonable when you say it out loud, doesn't it? So you should be given time and space if you need it, as long as you do keep in mind that all this isn't a bad dream and won't go away.

[There's only so much she can sugarcoat. She wouldn't be bothering with keeping up her vestiges of 'humanity' at all, if it wasn't for people like this boy and Misa. Those on the same side benefit far more from having a sympathetic and kind ally, though she's lost all right to such pretenses when it comes to the Pleroma now.]

[settingup]

[ Wh-what... he hadn't actually been expecting to call her out this hard. He'd mostly just been pointing out she was kind of an odd duck, but he didn't expect all of that.

He's quiet for a blissful moment for all as he turns this all over in his head, and finally asks a real question about his predicament, rather than just panicking. ]

What's the deal with the people attackin' us anyway? And why can't we just speed up the whole redo thing before they come at us?

[ As if destroying and restarting literally all existence is an easy and quick thing to do. ]

[expiera]

As Emet-Selch has stated, we have in captivity key allies of the Pleroma. They will come, among them one figure possessed by the Innocence entity that once attempted to submerge every person on Horos into an eternal daydream. People were still physically alive, however, and many got into accidents that way, essentially led to sleepwalk around with no awareness to the hazards around them. That is the target we seek to action upon.

[It's the truth without the more unpleasant details.]

...It's part of a process. [...] Rome wasn't built in a day.

[She does pick the analogy willingly after some consideration, wondering if he'll understand it. Normal teenager, so maybe...?]

[settingup]

[ If he does, he doesn't seem to acknowledge it. Part of it is because there's a lot of information that has been dumped on him the past week or so, and this is more being added to this already very complicated problem. ]

You're drawin' a monster possessing a guy here to kill it?

[ What is up with these people? This really is like some kind of absolutely bananas fantasy movie that he's found himself trapped in. ]

[expiera]

Sealing it would be acceptable too, it will depend on what we can do to it. But... yes, that's essentially it.

[Welcome to Horos Isekai?? She really can't make it sound less weird no matter how she turns it in her head. There's a vague sense of helplessness from the other end of the line. Sigh...]

[settingup]

[ He's quiet for a few seconds as he processes all of this, and he can only draw one conclusion here. ]

You're all outta your goddamn minds.

[expiera]

That's the situation at hand. [He's honestly not wrong, so she doesn't refute it. This can and SHOULD sound crazy to any normie, but such is what it means to be a Kenomie on Horos during these times.]

How should I address you, by the way?

[Is she gonna be able to use -kun normally for a change...]

[settingup]

[ At least she's not arguing it, but that weirdly doesn't make him feel better. ]

Atsumu or Miya, whichever you want. Doesn't matter to me.

[ Because he's used to people calling him by his given name anyways, considering he's got a twin and calling them both Miya would get confusing fast. ]

[expiera]

[Huh, another shounen.]

That sounds Japanese. Is Miya-kun okay?

[Alas, knowing basic etiquette means she's very much going for the family name, Misa is the exception tbh and she already refers to Gen as 'Minegishi' to himself and when talking about him in front of others. +1 JP teen...]

[settingup]

Sure. Plenty of people call me that.

[ The ones that don't meet him as a packaged deal at least. ]

[expiera]

[No fussing over honorifics... So far so good (?)!]

Okay. It's nice to meet you despite the circumstances, Miya-kun. I'm Ciel. I'm sorry the adjustment period is difficult, but you'll feel like yourself again and be allowed to look around wherever you want once you get used to this. [The Kenogoop...] Taking everything in will be a lot too, so I'm just trying to do what I can to make the process a little easier for you. Everyone goes through this when they first come here, how hard it is and how long it takes just varies from Aion to Aion.

[She explains, or at least tries to. Did that make sense to him at all...?]

[settingup]

[ It makes logical sense, but it doesn't make him any happier. Ciel's still doing a better job of not getting him AS agitated as most of the others though, so points there? Are those points anyone actually wants...? ]

Yeah, yeah. I get it already! I'm stuck here so I just gotta get used to it, and get used to almost dyin' all the time, and get used to my world being gone, and get used to bein' stuck in some bullshit fantasy world. I get it.

[ He kind of gets it, but he doesn't fully. He wouldn't be able to say that with such flippant annoyance if he really did. ]

1/2

[expiera]

You do not and should not get used to dying.

[That comes out firm, almost harsh, and is followed by a short silence.

...]

2/2

[expiera]

I apologize for that. Please try acclimating to Achamoth the best you can, that's enough for now. You're conscious and your own self, that's... what all of us start with. [Another uneasy pause, but this one doesn't feel as strained as the previous one.]

You said you played volleyball. Maybe you could teach the Citadel's orphans? They're quite active and always eager to interact with Aions, so...

[It must still be mediocre consolation in the face of true war, but that's the best that she can come up with on the spot. If only this conflict WAS but a simple war comprised of soldiers who understand the stakes, then she wouldn't even need to pretend being human ever again. But it's not, it keeps dragging in civilians like Bruno and Atsumu, to whom human understanding is the most supportive thing she could possibly offer them. Upkeeping this duality...]

[settingup]

[ What the fuck... That wasn't expected, especially on someone from team "end all existence".

He's quiet for a second, not sure how to take all of this, though he sounds slightly chastised even as he turns to sulking after. ]

I'm just a player. I ain't a coach.

[ He likes the game, but that doesn't mean he wants to teach others how to play it.

That attitude might change though when he gets desperate and realizes that if he wants to have any volleyball action at all, he has to teach others to play it, even if it's a group of sad orphans. ]

[expiera]

[Don't judge a book by its cover? Not all cats are black? You can be here without wanting to end the world? Just look at all the traitors and the depression gang! ...Wait, that is,]

A coach doesn't come out of nowhere, though. Aren't they often veteran of the sport too? They need to be intimately familiar with how the game is played and its rules to teach someone else, it'd be a good experience to deepen your own understanding of it too. Why don't you give it a try and think of it as practice, just done through a different angle? I'm sure the children here would be happy to learn. I confess I've never played volleyball myself, but I'll be happy to help you however I can. With setting things up for starters, maybe? There are many courtyards in the Citadel, I'm sure we can repurpose one close to the children's wing into a volleyball court.

[The longer she goes on, the easier it becomes. Geez... It's almost like high school again. But those are valid points, aren't they? And if she can convince him to start doing what he loves again here, which is honestly not difficult to achieve, then it'll be worth it. Taking a pointless tiny, comforting step back, to the blissfully ignorant normalcy he used to know.]

[settingup]

[ The hesitancy is obvious over communion like this, but he’s at least listening to her without immediately rejecting the idea. There’s an obvious spike in interest at the mention of the courtyards too. Atsumu really doesn’t have the temperament needed to be a coach, and would rather play with people his own skill level that will challenge him, rather than teach a bunch of brats how to play the game.

But eventually beggars will not be able to be choosers, and sometimes you have to take what you can get. He’s not making any promises right now, but… ]

People ain’t gonna get all bent out of joint if one of those courtyards gets used for volleyball then?

[ This isn’t a yes yet!!! ]