002 ☆ voice;

[precludes]

[They will argue about moral choices until the city burns away. The choices here are ugly, and knowing the outcome regardless of their actions makes them uglier.

She never does this. Oriko has always believed that action is better than telling. People don't listen to soothsayers; truths must be learned on their own time. Never once has she simply come forward with information like this - everything was a speech, a story, a revelation, pulling threads and nudging.

She sounds, frankly, cold. Detached, but hoarse.]

What I have to say is brief, if you will hear it.

Here is what is going to happen:

There is no conceivable escape for Exiles at the shoreline. The fate they will meet there is no different. Guns wait for them, and death.

Don't send them down there indiscriminately, rashly, unless you send them knowing that.

Comments

voice........

[fortissimos]

[ She recognizes that voice. Normally she'd question how Oriko knows, how she can possibly sound so sure — but it doesn't matter. True or not, her plans don't change at all because of this. ]

Leave those guys out of it, then. Something like that won't stop me. [ Except if a stray bullet hits her soul gem, but you know. Best not to think about that. ]

voice; hi

[invocation]

Are you crazy? Stay out of it.

hi

[fortissimos]

No.

I can get there in time. I can do something.

[invocation]

No you can't!

[This is spat out, angry and vicious.] They're dead when the bombs hit this place, or dead when they get to the border, you heard her! Either way, they've got nowhere to go. You can't stop a damn bomb, idiot.

[precludes]

You should think of what luxury you have that they do not.

[Stray bullets or not, a gunned down Exile is dead. Forever.]

[fortissimos]

That's why I'm doing this. It doesn't matter what happens to me.

[precludes]

And if you're the one who falls? What happens to them?

voice; to oriko now

[invocation]

How'd you figure this out?

[precludes]

We understand most things by seeing them. This isn't any different.

[invocation]

[Aloof vague blonde girls, her least favorite thing.] What the hell kinda answer is that? Are you some kinda psychic?

[precludes]

[Surely she doesn't have enough of those in her life?]

Is that what you're choosing to concern yourself with now?

There are some who live here who I imagine would not try to intervene this way if they were aware of the possible consequences.

[ringbeast]

[He's definitely shaken.]

Oriko... You know that, huh...

Well, if you can get it across to Haruto, I mean-

[He shakes his head.]

No, that's my job, I gotta. I gotta get him back to bein' okay, even a little bit. I mean, I hope you can help, but... Okay, I better go. See you later.

action;

[ringwizard]

[Haruto's room has been carefully, conspicuously closed since the initial announcements went up. It opens, now, silently, and he goes to find her. He looks like hell, his hair unbrushed and his eyes tired. He moves gingerly, the mostly-faded bruising along his side from helping distract UE soldiers during the rescue mission keeping him from moving too quickly. He'd shrugged off Nitoh's magic because it hadn't been that bad--and really, it wasn't.

His voice is creaky with disuse. He's done as little speaking as possible, in the past day.]

You saw it?

[There's no doubt in his voice. He crosses his arms low over his chest, as a shield.]

[precludes]

[This, just after Nitoh's message. Oriko turns off her tablet and glances up at him.

She doesn't look much better, darkness pinching in beneath her eyes. These visions have become a fixture of a time here; emotion doesn't much factor into her recounting them any longer.]

You know what my answer will be.

[ringwizard]

I do.

[He reaches up to ruffle his hair, thinking.]

Have you seen anything--- [Helpful, he wants to say. But he won't.] Have you seen anything else?

[Small, after a pause--] Survivors?

[precludes]

[She places her hands in her lap, covering the tablet with her fists. Survivors of what? she wants to ask. Which part? Would he ask her outright, if she's seen the bombing, the aftermath?]

Reasonably, any patrol will have small exposures.

Mr. Souma, I fear even they would be caught in time, those who made it across.

voice;

[eyecaptivating]

...You're really sure about that? Really, really sure?

voice;

[precludes]

So long as they flee there without guidance, alone. You'd try, if you were so afraid, wouldn't you?

The line of fire there is deep. I do not expect any of them should know how to circumnavigate it.

voice;

[eyecaptivating]

Ah, I guess I can't really say I wouldn't...

But... But does that really mean no one could help them?

voice, private

[postpones]

[the message was originally intended as a "where are you," but somewhere along the line while setting up the encryption, she figured she might as well skip that part and go straight to the track-by-magic bit]

I'm going over. Wait for me.

voice, private

[precludes]

I'll wait.

Kirika...

[She thinks better of continuing the thought and hangs up prematurely.]

voice, privately screaming on a dead line

[postpones]

...!

[WHY THIS, it just makes her all the more unnerved]

Oriko! Hey, talk to me!

voice; private

[turns]

[ what is oriko mikuni planning?

that's the first thing that crosses homura's mind - the desperate thought that maybe, just maybe, she's lying. but the girl's words are as ironclad as her voice, and even as she tries to think of some way out homura is left with the unsettling knowledge that oriko has no reason to lie and every reason to not say something like this.

this time through, just like all the others, ends in a mass grave. ]

Thank you for the information.

[ her voice is dulled by years of experience, flat and emotionless, the same tone she'd use for dealing with sayaka miki or any of the countless girls who refused to believe her. anyone listening could easily mistake it for bitterness, or even sarcasm.

but for once, homura won't be the only one to know what awaits them. ]

voice; private

[precludes]

What do you intend to do with it?

[Homura Akemi's method has never been hers: They are too different. She sees Homura in the prospect ahead of them, their proposed solution, and Oriko struggles with it. It roils uneasily within her.]

This is not the first time you have been in this position.

voice; private

[turns]

I'm sure you know well enough already.

[ what oriko has seen of her future is irrelevant. even without her powers, she is more than capable of putting two and two together. ]

And the same holds true for you. Tell me, Oriko Mikuni, how would you save them?

[ she can't bring herself to force spite or anger into her words - they fall out of her, whatever challenge they might have held dead upon delivery.

fighting here is pointless. all that's left for any of them is the wait. ]