last despair calls first hope

[ringwizard]

Date & Time: July 2nd & 3rd
Location: Initiative Library, Room 701, around the apartments
Characters: Haruto Souma (ringwizard), Kousuke Nitoh (ringbeast), Oriko Mikuni (precludes)
Summary: Haruto witches out gets the d(espair) hits his breaking point, becomes despair monster.
Warnings: Upupupupu. Depression, despair, a dickbag monster, at least one fight, Chimaera being a tool, references to mass murders, references to not so mass murders, possibly suicidal ideation, character death. Oriko's sense of priorities.


Haruto leaves the Initiative's Hold early in the morning with a certain spring to his step. He's gotten a little tan--his time in 2050 had done him some good, a lingering scrape on the back of his right hand aside, and it's obvious. Being back in the city again leaves a lingering malaise to his mood, but he forces it away. With things to be done all around, he's got to keep moving forward, right? There's a lot of hustle and bustle outside the Hold with the still-lingering confusion of new arrivals, as far as he can tell, and he steps around people talking as he opens his tablet and messages Nitoh.

Are you still asleep?

Comments

[precludes]

Nitoh's claims remind Oriko of her own scramble for language to ground Haruto, like trying to slap a bandage over a leaking dam. Even though it will do little good for his suspicion, she avoids directly addressing his question. Magicians become magicians when they overcome despair, Haruto had told her - and Nitoh knows as well as she does what the alternative is.

"Seeing himself fail to overcome this despair would be the ultimate cruelty for Mr. Souma. I only know that in the event it couldn't be subdued -" it can't - "that he would not want that."

[ringbeast]

He stares at her in silence for a moment. "Are you... Are you saying what I think you're saying, Oriko?" His face is somber, serious, it's an expression he rarely wears. How much does she know? What is she??

"You mean... You mean you'd rather see him--" he can't say it. "That's not what you were trying to do, was it...?"

[precludes]

"This isn't a matter of preference." Her till features briefly turn down into a frown.

How easy it is to blur the lines between necessity and want. If she took pleasure in her decision, that would be different. "This would weigh heavy on us all." And Haruto, especially, if he could see what Dragon would leave in its - his - wake.

It's no claim to Haruto's weakness, simply to inevitability, when there are some weights too heavy to overcome.

[ringbeast]

His expression is brittle and pained. "What would you know...? How do you even know all this...?"

He breathes out, his lungs sounding raw, "Speak plain, Oriko, I don't have time for you to talk around me anymore."

[precludes]

It's selfish, she wants to tell him, that he is caring more for his own pain now than for preventing disaster and pain on a larger scale. Her frustration with this, with all of it - reaching far beyond Haruto and out into this city and the death and destruction - sends a tired, familiar jolt up her spine. She has been speaking truthfully already, but Oriko says it again. The truth.

"I have seen it in this city's future. Neither of you will be able to hold that creature at bay." She's tried. She's tried this whole day, ever since Sayaka texted her, to find something else. "At least a few people should be saved from his destruction! If you care about him -"

[woops im the worst]

[ringbeast]

"STOP, don't say it!" he interrupts her, raising his hand. It shakes.

"You can't kill a man cos you're afraid of a monster. You can't kill Haruto! I don't care what you see! I don't care what you say! I'll stop Dragon, but even if I can't, you can't just-" he looks at her, mouth drawn up in defiance and anger and pity.

"Why bother seein' the future if it can't change?!" He shouts. "I'm gonna change it!"

no you're good!

[precludes]

"Do not insult me!" Oriko's voice raises, rare as it is, brimming with so much offense that he would assume she wouldn't try to change things, that she hasn't tried, that people have not died for it before.

She had hoped to appeal to his caring, that he cares more for the man Haruto was, that it could save things, but those hopes quickly come unwound. It has always, will always, Oriko thinks, be a responsibility wholly to herself to change the future.

"It doesn't seem that you'll change you mind," Oriko says. She lowers her arms, places them around her waist.

Nitoh's fear has taken a flint to her frustrations. The desperation and anguish he has already had to deal with -- there is no convincing.

"...I will not stop you." But he will have to let him go.

[ringbeast]

"I'm not insulting you! I'm not-- I just don't get you! I thought you cared about Haruto!" He grits his teeth so hard that they crackle, and he pulls on his hair, turning away, breathing heavy.

"Y-you're not gonna change my mind, no." His eyes prick, but he definitely doesn't want to cry in front of her. He's so mad. "Oriko, you're just. You're wrong."

He turns back to her, and lays his hand on her shoulder. "I dunno what about... what happened to make you think that's right." His eyes are dark with anger and frustration and sadness. "But I'm gonna fix this. You'll see." He lets go, not sure if he can hold onto her without injuring her any longer. He's so tense... He's so miserable.

"I'm gonna go. Okay? I'll- We'll be back."