Entry tags:
- !event,
- #innocence,
- archduke j: visionary,
- barnaby brooks jr: lover,
- estinien wyrmblood: firebrand,
- eustace: firebrand,
- father paul hill: martyr,
- kaeya alberich: lover,
- kim dokja: martyr,
- kim kitsuragi: martyr,
- liem talbott: champion,
- majorita: firebrand,
- makoto ("m"): firebrand,
- meteion: innocent,
- ryunosuke naruhodo: champion,
- tartaglia (childe): firebrand,
- yuya sakaki: lover
EVENT #5: SOVEREIGN CITIZENS (VENERA)
Sovereign Citizens
VENERA

As opposed to the ghost town it was during the plague, Venera is now reasonably active, with most attending to their usual business. Shops are open, and its people are withdrawn but superficially friendly when meeting strangers. Initially, the targets of the Kenoma hit list will have no way of knowing what's coming for them, but after the first couple attacks word will begin to spread. Those that have recently been engaging in seditious behavior will become harder to find, leaving their usual homes and workplaces to stay elsewhere, and making other attempts to escape the Regent's attention.
Once those alerts have been raised, the Kenoma will have to engage in more detective work to find their targets, questioning other Venerans and seeking out fugitives in the homes of their family and friends. In the meantime, some of those who believe they are in danger may become desperately enough to seek out the Pleroma directly, imploring them for aid. Unfortunately, seeking out one sect may just as easily draw the attention of the other. Most uninvolved Venerans will be too terrified to intervene one way or another, reluctant to aid in the persecution of their neighbors but fearful of consequences. If your Aion travels openly, it will take some effort to pin them down long enough to hold a conversation.
SEEDS OF DESPAIR
Several days into the culling of Venera, the Aions will have witnessed the city gradually withdraw into itself. The streets become vacant as more and more people decide it isn't worth the risk to be seen outside, abandoning work and play alike to hide out in their homes, refusing to answer their doors to all except the most desperate pleading. Those that can't avoid their daily obligations are quiet and morose, trying their best to remain unseen and unremarked upon.
If your character has been observed as a Kenoma, either now or in their previous visits to the city, the citizens will look upon them as if they are the messengers of death. If you are seen as a Pleroma, they will resist your gaze, as if fearing your presence alone might leave them marked. In rarer cases, you will see those with stronger spirits, with glares of hatred or determination. They are powerless now, but seeds have been sewn, and whether they are the seeds of despair or of action are yet unclear.
By the time the Kenoma's hit list has been fully addressed, several have been killed and several more have been rushed from their homes to flee the city entirely. There have been holes left in the tapestry of the community they were once part of. One way or another, their absence will be felt keenly by those they left behind.
If your character has been observed as a Kenoma, either now or in their previous visits to the city, the citizens will look upon them as if they are the messengers of death. If you are seen as a Pleroma, they will resist your gaze, as if fearing your presence alone might leave them marked. In rarer cases, you will see those with stronger spirits, with glares of hatred or determination. They are powerless now, but seeds have been sewn, and whether they are the seeds of despair or of action are yet unclear.
By the time the Kenoma's hit list has been fully addressed, several have been killed and several more have been rushed from their homes to flee the city entirely. There have been holes left in the tapestry of the community they were once part of. One way or another, their absence will be felt keenly by those they left behind.
QUESTIONS
What is the best way for Aions to travel to Venera?
Estinien has plans to get an early start for the Pleroma by teleporting to the Lover's shrine and flying somewhere closer to set up a portal from the ocean caves near the Godsblood Lodestone to a spot of farmland closer to Venera. Paul will be setting up a portal directly from Achamoth to one of the Achamite outposts in Venera.
How much force can the Kenoma use while interrogating Venerans?
While they are generally not permitted to kill Venerans who haven't tried to physically fight them, they will be permitted to apply both physical and mental pressure upon those that refuse to provide them with information regarding the whereabouts of their targets. This duress should be proportional to the resistance the Veneran is offering. The Regent is not inviting them to terrorize Venera on a level to a level they cannot reasonably blaim themselves for.
Estinien has plans to get an early start for the Pleroma by teleporting to the Lover's shrine and flying somewhere closer to set up a portal from the ocean caves near the Godsblood Lodestone to a spot of farmland closer to Venera. Paul will be setting up a portal directly from Achamoth to one of the Achamite outposts in Venera.
How much force can the Kenoma use while interrogating Venerans?
While they are generally not permitted to kill Venerans who haven't tried to physically fight them, they will be permitted to apply both physical and mental pressure upon those that refuse to provide them with information regarding the whereabouts of their targets. This duress should be proportional to the resistance the Veneran is offering. The Regent is not inviting them to terrorize Venera on a level to a level they cannot reasonably blaim themselves for.
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Luo Binghe's sword gleams as he straightens up, looking between Hayame, Liem and the civilians with narrowed eyes. His blade tastes fear in the air, and it hums inaudibly with its thoughtless yearning to justify that fear. Binghe shivers. ]
I hope you're not going to run this time, too.
[ He lunges forward, sword at the ready for a fierce diagonal slash aimed at Hayame's front—or her legs, depending on how fast she gets back up. ]
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It dulls her senses. It narrows her vision.
It means that she's shocked when Luo Binghe suddenly appears before them. Her movement is hampered by the tense lock of her joints, her hearts freeze in her chests with shock, with condemnation for not having heard it coming, with shame for being seen letting a woman mount her for riding like a common horse-
But all of it vanishes when the sword swings.
Hayame doesn't think of the woman and her baby who are half on her back. She doesn't think of Liem, who will have to catch them or avoid her lurch of movement. All she thinks in that moment is that if she doesn't move, Luo Binghe's sword will slice her foreleg clean off.
So she rears, high and sudden and accompanied by a curse, her hooves lashing out in powerful kicks that serve as a desperate, chaotic attempt to keep the swordsman at bay.]
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I’ll help you up, [he assures her as the centaur stoops down to make her climb easier. Even if she has no familiarity with riding, they’ll still make much better time with her on Hayame’s back than they have been. He forms a makeshift step with his hands, nodding encouragingly to coax her into motion, and she begins to heave herself awkwardly up.
That’s when Luo Binghe flutters down from a nearby rooftop with that awful, malevolent sword. Liem can’t move without dumping his charges straight onto the street, so for a split second he can do nothing except continue to support the woman’s weight as she attempts to climb to the relative safety of Hayame’s back.
But the sword swings. Hayame scrambles into a rear, legs flailing, and the woman yelps as she’s thrown back, clutching instinctively at her baby even as she tumbles backwards toward the cobbled stone. Liem springs back to catch her before she cracks her skull on the pavement, circling her in his arms and letting out a small oof as her back impacts his chest. Although neither of them go down onto the road, they do stagger back a couple steps from the momentum. And the baby’s thin wail rises to fill the empty street.]
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His eyes, shining crimson in the low light, flicker to Liem and the civilians, but only for a second. Makoto can take care of him, whenever he arrives. His opponent is the centaur. ]
Our last bout ended inconclusively, I think. [ He sneers. ] And, if I recall, you called me a coward as you fled. Shall we find out if that's really true?
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he still has a long way to go at navigating the chaos of combat. everything all seems to happen at once, forcing one to rely on impulse and instinct, two things which he neither comes by naturally nor has had the amount of time many others have had to develop. so he relies instead on what he had discussed with the other Kenoma Aion just a few moments before: he would lock down hayame so makoto could engage with liem. and as for the woman, well... he didn't really care what happened to her. if they could recapture her, it would be all the better, but he still thinks she might be a useful chip to convince the horse-woman to think better of her magnanimity for her fellow Aion and leave him behind to his fellows.
it's quite noble of liem to step quickly into a place where he can catch the woman as she falls; neither she nor her babe suffer the consequences of sliding off of hayame's equine back in her sudden rear from binghe's swing. unfortunately for him, however, with his arms preoccupied with his rescue and his back turned toward makoto's approach, he leaves the demon an opening that he would be foolish to ignore.
once within range, a Doorway carries him into the space right behind liem hopefully before the man has time to react to the sound of approaching footsteps; with the rasp of metal, sharpened steel glints in makoto's hand, and he attempts to find space in his back between two ribs to plunge it. not in a place that would prove immediately lethal, mind, but certainly with the intent to severely hamper his attempts at fighting back and escaping. )
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To cover it… She goes what she always goes for. Anger.]
The man who comes crawling out on the orders of a pathetic shot pheasant who wants to kidnap a widow is a brave hero?
[She doesn’t actually care about the woman or the baby (she doesn’t think), even though a part of her at least registered— good, her traitor had caught them, and made up for her blunder. She surely doesn’t care. She’s certain M doesn’t either, he was after Liem more than the woman, but-]
If you don’t call your booted thugs this time maybe we’ll actually see who is the stronger!
[There’s movement, suddenly, to her right, behind Liem and the woman and child he has shielded, and though her instinct is to leap into action… this man’s sword can fly. She can’t take her eye off it, or immediately try to put distance between them and leave Liem in a potential 2 on 1, she can only shout-]
Behind you- !
[To Liem in the hopes that he’ll heed it, react in time…
Before she leaps forward with a snarl, her own shorter blade drawn to attempt and parry the inevitable stab or slash she will risk…
In her split second decision to try and rush him, try to tackle the two-legged man to the ground or against whatever nearest surface she could manage.]
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But there is a scuff of noise on the street behind him; Hayame shouts a warning. Liem starts to move, still gripping the Veneran woman, and feels steel bite between his ribs. He twists away to face his assailant, putting the woman at his back as white hot pain wracks his side. His next inhale makes it worse, causing him to stagger back another step as his breathing falters. He knows from unhappy experience that his lung has been punctured.
He draws the long dagger from his hip as a pained grimace turns into a shallow cough, flecking his lips with black blood—and the woman behind him first cowers back from the reappeared demon, then begins to flee from the chaos of the melee.]
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He springs forward to meet her, but her weight is far greater than his, and he's slammed up against the fence that surrounds the building behind him with Xin Mo raised against her knife. He bares his teeth at her. He can feel the railing bruising his back. ]
No, I am no hero. But call me a coward again and I'll have your head.
[ He makes a seal with the hand that's not clutching his sword, channelling demonic qi into Xin Mo until it's engulfed by a shadowy miasma that burns and stings. The demon mark on his forehead glows a bright red, and the sword gives out a multidirectional pulse of dark energy that shakes the railing behind him out of its foundations. ]
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he lets the blade tear through flesh as liem twists away from him, forcing the Veneran woman behind him; as the two stare at one another in these few breaths of tense hesitation, they are twisted mirrors of one another, both breathing hard from exertion and pain, blood staining sizable portions of their clothing black from respective wounds. the demon's pale eyes watch liem draw the dagger — there's a quick jump to his heart, an excitement and a sickening thrill of danger. this is something he's at least trained in. his left arm might ache with radiating pain, threatening sometimes to lock up altogether, but he draws his main-gauche regardless, not even sparing the woman a glance as she retreats from the renewed fighting. with the conflict between binghe and hayame erupting in a pulse of tenebrous energy, for the time being makoto only has eyes for liem.
he doesn't waste time or breath on words; he lunges forward with a stab from his main hand dagger like a striking snake, serious enough in its effort even though he intended it as a feint. he tries to bait out liem's counter-attack so he can try to do as he did earlier, following up with a sweep from the parrying dagger to try to lock up the man's weapon in its cross-guard, leaving him open and vulnerable.
but, still, he has enervation and pain to contend with now. his movements are slightly sloppier than they've been up until this point; he's not ignorant of this, and he knows he will likely receive just as many wounds as he might inflict.
he's willing to sacrifice that. if there's one thing he can be grateful to this body for, it's its tenacity set to match makoto's own dogged brand. so long as he is the last one that stands, he's willing to bear the pain — and with his current wounds feeding his anger and enmity, it means his strikes will only stand to get stronger. )
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There is something about him, some hidden biology or magic, that makes him stronger than a man should be. Her muscles strain to keep his sword locked with her shorter blade, even though they shouldn't-
Her teeth gnash, sharp enough to rend and tear if she could sink them into his flesh, but she won't, because she isn't a beast, but the very idea of him taking her head? As if she'll allow herself to be taken as a trophy back to the Regent she wanted so badly to kill herself?]
I'll be the one taking my fourth trophy tonight!
[Her lips twist into a snarl, fighting past the instinctive fear she feels when something dark and fell suddenly roils off his blade, his forehead glowing an eerie color- magic then? Fine-]
Yours will be a handsome addition to my collection!
[If she can avoid cutting his hair in the process, anyway. But she has far more important things to care about, like getting away from that blade and its ominous aura that sparks some strange, bestial fear deep in her guts and her hearts...
Hayame disengages with a sudden shove she hopes will keep him off guard long enough for her to turn, to whirl and slam her forelegs into the pavement even though it makes a lance of pain shoot up from her split hoof. The move exposed her flank and rump to his weapon, but-
It also allows her to kick, a powerful buck with both back legs with enough strength behind it to crush a normal man's bones.
(And in the distant, in the direction the Veneran woman had fled with her baby- there are shouts, sounds of a scuffle, a scream.)]
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Fortunately, Liem has a wealth of practice fighting with just a single blade, against a wide variety of different opponents including not just armed men, but also beasts and monsters. Unfortunately, the bloodloss and punctured lung are conspiring to wear rapidly at his stamina. He can feel his own exhaustion and shortness of breath mounting against the hastily erected wall his adrenaline has made, even as he shifts to lead with his dagger arm, placing his wounded side behind him.
But Makoto has been losing blood, too. Liem parries his thrust as shouts break out further down the street, then darts back, away from the following-sweep of off-hand. Instead of stabbing at his body, Liem aims a slash at his arm. A scream pierces the night.]
Hayame!
[He hazards a glance down the street, where a pair of dark, Achamite silhouettes are in the midst of cornering the fleeing Veneran. There’s no way he can disengage from Makoto to go help her; even if he were to hop through dimensions, he feels certain the other man would just follow him to take advantage of his distraction. Even just this split-second glance away from his opponent is more than he should be affording him.]
The woman!
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If he were mortal the blow would have killed him. As is, he staggers back and spits up a mouthful of blood, baring red-stained fangs at his opponent. He's certain some of his ribs are broken, but he's fought through far worse, and he won't let this stop him.
His eyes flicker in Liem's direction when he shouts for Hayame's attention. That's her name, then... Binghe pushes the back of his free hand over his mouth and sneers. ]
Going to run again?
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a quick flicker of his gaze informs him of what liem had already noticed: achamite soldiers bearing in on the veneran woman and her child. even if the man didn't plan on making a break for it, makoto is sure not to give him the option; he bears down on him with both blades in tandem, taking the cut across his arm as a welcome trade for locking him down, keeping him in place as time wove a trap about his feet. if hayame retreats with the veneran, fine. from the sound of it, both she and binghe were injured, so this would be a bit of a bloody draw regardless.
but as long as they can lock liem in their grasp and bring him back to achamoth to face the consequences for his treason, there would at least be one thing to be proud of. )
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But that damn woman-
She manages to catch a glimpse in the right direction as she whirls back around to face her opponent, keen eyes in the dark picking out booted guards reaching, the woman making a dash for freedom-- but none of them needed heightened senses to catch the wail of the infant that rings out in the night. She had promised to see her to safety, but she had promised Liem, not the woman herself, and she- She had just been a means to an end, a way to get custody of the Kenoma she'd been convinced wasn't like this, who she just wanted-
She doesn't want to run. That's clear in the anger in her eyes when she's facing the swordsman again. She wants to stay and she wants to fight, she wants to trample him into the goddamn dirt- But she also wants to take Liem back, she knew she should have insisted he give her his shard, how foolish, how stupid--
Her blood splashes across the cobblestones in a whip of an arc, the same one as her long, black tail. There's not enough time to think, her pupils are dilated to pinpricks, sweat has lathered white and frothy on flanks that heave with exertion and pain. If she could just switch their positions, get Liem situated closer to the woman and able to break away to help her...]
She needs you- !
[Not her. She hadn't even been able to convince her to come with them, Liem had needed to do that. Luo Binghe wasn't the only one who wasn't a hero here. She had never been able to save anyone, not a single goddamn person, so if any of them were supposed to help her-
Hayame lets out an inhuman snarl, leaping forward at the swordsman regardless of blade or blood or bone, all seven and a half feet and over half a ton of muscle and strength brought to bear as she reaches out to try and grasp in her bare hands. If she can just get a hold of him, just throw him bodily at "M" and tangle them up just long enough-
If.]
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She needs you to take her somewhere safe.
[The longer they delay here, the more injuries they sustain, the more difficult it will be for either of them to get their target anywhere at all. They need to finish things here, or else one of them needs to break away—but if they do, they need to do it soon.
As Hayame lunges for Binghe, Liem hurls himself back away from Makoto and into thin air—and appears further down the street with a sharp ringing of metal as his dagger drops to the paving stones. Pain almost blinds him as he forces his injured side to move, to load his crossbow and level it again—but this time not at Makoto, and not at the Achamite soldiers as they chase the rebel mother towards an alley. Instead, while he's occupied with the jinba, he looses his bolt at Binghe.]
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The smirk falls off his mouth when Liem's crossbow bolt glances off the side of his head. He glances in the direction the shot came from at a slight delay, swaying in place and visibly bleeding. ]
You...
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liem tries to barter with hayame for the veneran's life — it's of no consequence to him. their confusion would only play out well for the Kenoma. the man vanishes without a trace in the middle of their exchange, and makoto has to fling his gaze around him to find where he'd gotten away to. he catches sight of him once again, and he starts off after him again, forcing what little he can still muster from his body.
he doesn't have time to interfere, not to stop the crossbow bolt from flying. instead he drops his offhand to the ground in a second echoing clatter, drawing one last Doorway to appear by liem's shoulder. his right arm lashes out with the intent of laying the sheer edge of the blade against the man's throat, though the level of ennervation that last teleportation pushes him into makes him very nearly slump against him. still, it doesn't stop him from gasping out, ) Drop it, ( between labored breaths, slick with sweat and blood, ) It's over, Liem.
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What Hayame meant... was that she needed Liem.
Maybe that's not even true. She had seen glimpses of his life in that space of dreams and stars, she had confronted him and forced words from his mouth in Venera twice, but what did she really know about this man, this follower of a god called Abadar he claimed was dead, this man who who had patiently waited for her to follow him into the light? Maybe what she needs is just anyone, anyone at all who believed she could be good, that she could change, that she was worthy of that light when so many others looked upon her as an outsider, saw her thinking and ways as wrong...
And by chance or destiny, he had become that person, whether he intended to or not. If she could just bring him to the Pleroma, if she cold just cleanse him of the black sludge...
The crossbow bolt glances of Luo Binghe's head, drawing his ire and gaze to Liem. She doesn't want to run from that fight, her honor burns to know she will be called a coward for abandoning it. Liem has teleported away, in the wrong goddamned direction. The woman's voice is too clear in the night and her inhuman hearing, pleading that please, at least the baby, that wailing, pitiful, armed baby-
Hayame's back hoof slips in the blood hot and fairly steaming down her leg from the wound the swordsman has inflicted. She throws herself forward-
Towards Liem, still trying to choose him. For her honor, for what she had sworn to him before she'd sworn to help him protect the Veneran, for the glory of bringing back a traitor to woods of the Pleroma, for- For her, and her lonely, aching hearts she hasn't been able to share to anyone but a person she hadn't meant to share them with. Even if Makoto's blade sliced, as long as she could get his shard--]
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Except, when Makoto steps through the air behind him to lay his blade against Liem's throat, she turns toward him. He is nothing but a distraction now, swaying where he stands, leaning back against the man behind him as much out of weakness as out of a desire to move from the cutting edge of his dagger. Reclaiming him will not help Hayame save the woman and her child, nor anyone else in this city—especially if all she succeeds in is getting herself killed along with him.
His forced grin turns to a snarl as his free hand grasps desperately at Makoto's arm, struggling to keep it at bay as the blade's edge draws a trickle of blood from his neck.]
The responsibility is yours! Take it!
[She accepted it along with his holy book, when she agreed to help him save the woman. He'd trusted her to keep to that agreement, as she said she would—not to bring him to Greentruth, which was a promise she swore to herself, but to give him the aid that he paid for with his compliance.
And now she wants to throw it away for the sake of a debt he never demanded from her?
His ability to travel through space is not like Makoto's, requiring the use of a hand, sapping at his strength with each subsequent use. It is simply like a quiver full of arrows: useful until it's empty. So although sweat and blood soak his clothes, although he still can't catch his breath and he can barely stand to move his left side, he might be able to slip away for another moment. He doubts that Makoto could follow in his condition. All he has to do is call upon the doorway between dimensions one last time, to ask it to swallow him up and spit him out in an alley where he can lose himself in the maze of night-cloaked city sprawl, at least until he's caught for good.
He just has to do it before Makoto carries out his dagger's threat.]
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But that simple demand, one key phrase... it echoes deep in the core of her shards where those shameful memories hide even as she bears towards Liem and Makoto with a fierce, bloody anger the likes of which might even rival The Red-Haired Tiger of the Mountains. It reverberates back in her own voice, in her own head. What can foreigners who care nothing for me do to make me worthy? You would have me pledge my service to strangers and hope they make an honorable warrior of me- ? She had felt so sure, so justified in her rejection of that word, responsibility, but-
It had sounded like something Matsukaze might have said... if Matsukaze was even still alive. If Matsukaze wouldn't die the moment he embraced her on the morrow, even if she returned to where she belonged. What is a wrong in the world that you wish to see righted? How can you use your hands, your legs, your back, to work against it? If you are lost on your way, the words and actions of others can guide you— but the responsibility of your own actions, and your own honour, lies with you.
She wants to fight. The hateful fire in her hearts burns and flares and demands that she selfishly take back from this the person she wanted, the one who might believe in her, who might help her believe that she was worthy of that life she'd once been offered and been unable to truly imagine. A world where it was alright to feel happy about being alive.
But the woman cries out in fear and pain behind her. Her baby wails in her arms as she clutches it desperately, turning her body to try and protect it over herself as black-armored Achamite guards grab and tear and manhandle her towards arrest. Her hearts falter, recalling the cries that sometimes came from the breeding stables at night, as Armless broodmares still able to care like her own mother never had wept into the hay after the foals they couldn't hold were taken from them by human hands. Her legs weaken, recalling the weeping, sniffling faces of the orphans in that mountain village who had been robbed of parents by the jinba hunts and had only other children to attempt to be adults and comfort them.
Hayame meets Liem's eyes across the courtyard, the conflict, anger, and desperation clear in her gaze. But despite it... her hooves scramble on the cobblestones to arrest her charge, words bubble up unbidden and strangled in her throat, but she manages--]
Do not dare forget what I have been entrusted with, Liem, follower of Abadar!
[The sacred book tucked carefully into the saddlebag hanging off her withers, that she had promised would be returned to him only when he joined her purified in the forests of Greentruth, that he had sworn he would rather lose both eyes than part with. More than the book... the words then both it and I am in your care. And if he bids her abandon one, even though he said that Your honour cannot be restored to you by those you leave behind---
There is failure in either direction. Shame in both. Blood on her lip where she bites so hard that her fangs pierce skin as she forces herself to turn tail, dodging around the swordsman she longs to fight and leaving behind the man she wished to save in the hands of a demon she wants to kill. Aions were powerful in a variety of ways, but the Achamite soldiers... they are nothing to the physical prowess of a half ton jinba. She falls among them like a wolf amongst sheep, kicking, bucking, bodily picking up men and throwing them across the alley into the stone walls of Venera, ripping them from their target in a whirlwind of violence until she can take the woman and her child in her arms and hold them tight to her body, throwing it forward into a hard, miserable gallop away from the Kenoma for as long as adrenaline will mask the pain of her injuries and until it is possible to make her way to the Veneran rebel safehouse.
She wants to.
But she cannot risk turning back around for one last look.]
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His lip curls back from his fangs as he watches Hayame make up her mind to get the civilians to safety. It's easy to see what a struggle this is for her, to do what he knows he would consider the right thing, were he a better person. He is fully aware that this choice is far more valorous and noble than staying and fighting would have been.
Still, he shouts after her: ]
Flee again, you coward!
[ Then, gritting his teeth, he forces himself to be steady and stalks towards Liem and Makoto... presuming Liem isn't about to disappear, anyway. ]
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the jinba's strident words hang in the air like a banner, billowing and snapping in the wind, and she turns to do as he said, to gather the innocent young woman and her child and escape with them to safety. and in the very same moment, before he can vibrate out of existence, makoto draws the keen edge of the blade in a sharp slash through the man's throat, spilling blood — blood, but dark, thick, and slow — over his hand and down his front.
he isn't necessarily sure if that's even enough. he tangles his hand into a fistful of liem's clothing at his back, as if that would stop him from vanishing should he get his spell off. he isn't sure what the requirements for it were, but now even if he tried to slip away, makoto would be able to say he had done all that he could do. now, even if he tried to slip away, he would do so with his life's blood (un-life's blood?) streaming from his throat. )