PLEROMA - a few days after the raid

[leicesters]

[Despite Claude's best efforts to shut his emotions out of this communion, it's impossible to fully avoid muted feelings of anger and bitterness leaking across the connection. Still, he addresses his thoughts in a calm, measured way, even if he's noticeably more downbeat than usual.]

Hiya. This is Claude, one of the new guys. I know most of us are still licking our wounds after what happened in Achamoth, but I wanted to discuss a few things.

What was the point of invading Achamoth, really? We attacked an enemy's stronghold, took back two of our own like we planned, sure-- but we lost two more in the process, and at least one smaller dragon lost its life trying to save us. And what else did we get out of it? A single prisoner? Some superficial damage to the city, which mostly would've just hurt civilians?

I don't want to act like war is just a game of numbers, when so many of you cared about the prisoners to go to these lengths for them, but strategically, the whole idea was insane. Personally, I was reassured a plan was being worked on, and that I just had to trust it was in hand. Sure, the big dragon that helped us was great, but it had to give its life for us. Both lives, even. And our escape route only came in the nick of time! If the forest dragons hadn't sympathised with our cause, we would have all been screwed.

If we mount any coordinated attacks in future, can we actually think about it at length? You know, plot it out from start to finish, try and account for as many variables as we can, not just talk about what enemies we might face and how they fight. And if we're going to walk into obvious traps, can we actually think about what the trap might be and how to mitigate it?

[He pauses. He's angry, if only because for a sect so supposedly dedicated to defending life, so many of them are too reckless about throwing lives away just to save a handful of others. Some casualties are inevitable in war, but these losses didn't have to be. That's what bothers him about all this more than anything.]

Anyway... I don't want to just gripe, so I also wanted to consider our long-term goals. I spoke to the dragon -- Estinien and the other thing? -- before the fighting started, and they made it sound like a direct assault on the Regent is nigh impossible. The Regent's corruption in that part of Horos is too powerful, the Citadel especially.

So, I think if we want to make them vulnerable at all, we have to figure out a way to purify the land. I don't know how yet, and the dragon wasn't sure either, but I want to believe it's possible. If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Comments

[locumstudentesquire]

[Through the emotional link shared through Communion, Ryunosuke gives off what feels like a mental shudder of discomfort, recalling what they'd all gone through.]

...Physically, in addition to mentally. The specifics of the symptoms aren't terribly important.

[Read: he really doesn't have it in him to get into relaying any horror stories right now. He could just show them, but that would require recalling the imagery himself and he'd... Really rather not.]

What you mostly need to know is that people started... Hardening. Turning into statues, more or less. And the transformations came with hallucinations that brought on an unnatural sense of peace. Even stranger was the fact that experiencing pain seemed to cause the disease to regress, almost like the disease couldn't bear to exist in the same body as the suffering it was trying to stamp out.

...For a few days, we went on in spite of that; fighting the infection within ourselves and trying to investigate to find the source, I mean. But it didn't reveal itself, until one of the Kenoma committed the ultimate violence.

A self-described demon named 'M'... [Ryunosuke shares a brief image of his face.] He was the one who did it. I... Saw it happen, with my own eyes. [He's been hesitant to admit that before, but there's no sense in hiding it here.] Estinien was his victim, and the moment he was quelled, that's when the Innocence made itself known for the very first time.

It appeared in the skies above us, screaming... I suppose it must have been drawn out by its distress at having allowed such an atrocity to be committed upon someone who, at the time, was very close to succumbing to complete petrification. And it was immediately obvious that this was the thing that was the source of the plague; there was no doubting that.

[pyojeol]

[Sooyoung listens along, her own emotions muted in comparison. If anything, her curiosity is most evident through their link.]

So that's when she attached herself to Estinien?

[She's hesitant to call it 'saving', because well if one is petrified, then it'd be hard to beat a demon, no matter how much of a twink he looks like? Imagine if he wasn't petrified in the first place!!!]

[locumstudentesquire]

[He hums thoughtfully, dissenting vaguely.]

...I don't think it's entirely accurate to say that she ever truly attached herself to him. Not literally, and certainly not in her entirety... For example, I can say for certain that she appeared to other Aions throughout the city at around the same time, particularly to those who are of the Innocent's legacy. But... In a broader sense, yes. This is where it started.

[He pauses a moment, thinking of how to explain that further.]

...I forgot to mention this, but, several Aions from both sects actually showed up at the scene of the crime, right before the entity appeared... From our side, Miss Himeka and Father Abel were chief among them. Father Abel was the one to retrieve Estinien's shard, so that the Kenoma couldn't make off with it. When the Innocence appeared in its distraught state, it tried to take the shard from him. Gods know why, and what she intended to do with it... But we were determined not to let it happen.

It... Became quickly apparent that she didn't respond well to gestures of aggression. [Do NOT ask him how he learned that.] We had to rely on words to calm her down, and convince her to relinquish him. She was practically senseless with guilt over what had happened to him, so... We had to reassure her that we meant him no harm, that we would ensure he stayed safe. She took those promises very literally; four of us wound up marked, though we had no way of knowing for sure what that actually meant at the time... After that, she vanished. And close to two entire months passed before we saw any sign of her again.

[leicesters]

She sounds like she was completely unreasonable. Didn't she realise if she didn't meddle in peoples' affairs in the first place, none of that would have happened?

[He's irritated. She seemed to act like she thinks of herself as a god, with all the entitlement that brought. Perhaps he should speak better of the recently deceased, but it rankles him too much to bite back his tongue.]

All right, so she reappeared after two months. What happened there?

[locumstudentesquire]

...It might have happened anyway, eventually. M killing Estinien, I mean. I don't know... [It feels like wherever he is, he must be furrowing his brow, frowning darkly, recalling a different memory.] I did have an opportunity to speak to M eventually, about his motivations... He had it out for Estinien. Felt he was owed some kind of revenge, I suppose. The Innocence's contagion may have just made it easier for him to pull that off, but. I think they would have clashed eventually, one way or another.

[...But he's getting off topic here.]

You're not wrong about her seeming unreasonable... She seemed to operate with the logic of a very young child, at times. Whether that excuses the harm she caused or not...

[He trails off. Ymmv, apparently.]

Before I explain her next appearance, you should know that we did look into the matter of the creature further, after we returned to the Greentruth. Answers weren't immediately forthcoming, but we did at least learn from Miss Tehri that the mark it had placed on several of us indicated a... A contract, or a promise of some sort, placed by Aion. It seemed like the Innocence had literally tasked us with proving to her that... That 'peace' could be reached voluntarily, rather than by force, which was her method of choice with her contagion.