TO: EVERYONE [mid-event #20]

[aquaveiled]

[ This message is sent for all Summoned to see about a week after the dreams and Heralds made their presence known. ]

Hello everyone. I know we're all dealing with a lot right now, but I thought this was worth the surprise eyeball-script.

The Heralds of War likely need no introduction at this point, but some of us still remember when they first arrived a few years ago after a poorly performed ritual in Solvunn. During that time, I'd managed to make contact with Koth and have tried to maintain some communication.

[ Not necessarily advised--Himeka did this of her own accord and curiosity. Those who are aware of her tree-form may have noticed that some of the limbs have been wilting and rotting the more time she's spent reaching out to Koth. But that's neither here nor there. ]

She's not always easy to understand, but when we spoke when they first appeared, one word came through:

"Mission"

For years my friends and I have been wondering what this meant. Now that she's back, I sought clarity. Or...I guess confirmation.

I understand her more easily these days so I reached out to her earlier today and she did confirm that this is that mission. What's happening right now in all of our communities. I'm not sure if war itself is inevitable...but she seems to believe that what she's doing will help there to be peace afterwards.

I know many here have seen war in their own lives and on their own stars before this place. If you'd like to share your stories, I would welcome them. I don't think peace is ever as simple as we want it to be, but as for if this is the only path forward...

I'm rambling a bit. This may not be a grand revelation, but I thought it important to share that what is happening now may have been building for the last few years and mayhaps some time before that as well. Only now, we may have a part to play.

Please take care,

水


[ ooc; This is Himeka's interpretation! So it may not be 100% accurate. Based on the mod response here. ]

Comments

[aquaveiled]

That predate life itself...that's amazing. I would like to see that someday.

[ As always, she seems to think such things are possible. If only a matter of time.

Which is a fanciful thought that is stopped at it's onset as soon as Nebula describes her father's plan. Much too like the Endsinger. ]

He thought that there were too many living things...?

[furibund]

You don't. The last one we saw wanted to consume the universe.

[ And also was a shit dad to Family so he's dead and he'll die again if they ever saw him again (probably). Needless to say, from her too frank response, Nebula doesn't really take too kindly to them - but then.

This is simply who Nebula is. It's why she doesn't miss a beat to continue, even when the statement is apalling: ]

Yes.

If you were to hear him tell it, he's a savior. His civilization failed to listen to his great plan to rescue it from extinction, so he decided the rest of the universe would have to listen.

At first, he built an army and grew in power. He took that army to different worlds facing their own troubles and picked people at random. Old, young, sick, healthy, poor, or rich - no one was above it and it was always half. He'd leave children parentless and take the strong ones to make as soldiers in his crusade.

[ There's a pause then, as if she considers what to say. As if there's more to say. But either Himeka will get it, or she won't, and she continues: ]

He worked tirelessly, planet after planet. Until he accumulated the power he needed and was able to do it all at once. Half of everything, wiped out with a snap of a finger.

Through to the end he believed what he was doing was right and just. That the universe would be thankful for the salvation, when they saw he was right.

[aquaveiled]

That would make it more difficult.

[ Himeka isn't too fond of being eaten...and it would also undo everything that she and her friends did to stop the universe from dying out. Which is what doubly makes it very concerning what Nebula's father was trying.

Half of all life...it's like a Calamity but so, so much worse. So personal, taking apart worlds one by one. Families. Children. They always make the perfect little molds, don't they? She's seen it.

Himeka has an inkling, but she doesn't ask. Not yet. ]

And you had to watch this happen?

We had a series of Calamities on my star, when there would be a joining of worlds and ours would lose so many. That, too, was ultimately the work of people trying to save their world, but to be able to do that to the universe is...

I'm not sure I can really put my mind around it.

Was anyone thankful?

[furibund]

Naturally.

[ You can almost hear the humor - the biting agreement. Being eaten would make things more inconvenient. ]

I didn't just watch. I tried to stop it -We tried to stop it.

We failed.

[ And she lost her sister, but this much she does not say. Even if she still feels it in her heart. She presses on because a Gamora still exists and all Gamora are her sister- this one just didn't remember all the things they went through. ]

And no. They weren't. Lives were upended. Governments in disarray. It caused more issues than he would have ever liked to admit.

There are still issues we're trying to fix.

[aquaveiled]

[ The weight of that is not lost on Himeka. To see something to life-shattering, to do whatever you could and watch the worst happen regardless...it would be hard not to blame yourself, even if the task itself might have been nigh impossible. Does Nebula? ]

That must have been difficult, to say the least.

For so much to be lost...no matter how had you tried.

I'm sorry.

[furibund]

[ She does blame herself, but not in that way. If Thanos hadn't managed to capture her he wouldn't know that Gamora (and thus she) knew where the Soul Stone was. He wouldn't have killed her sister. Even if that sister lives now, but in a different way, their relationship wouldn't be changed. ]


It happened.

And it took years, but we restored it.

Don't apologize. Just forgive me if I don't trust any being who claims that destruction is balance and goes for the throats of those too weak to stop them.

[aquaveiled]

Even if you hadn't explained, I would have believed you. I had a feeling you've been through a lot, but I had no idea it would be that.

You're a very strong person, Nebula.

The Endsinger thought something similar, although she wanted to end all life as we know it to save us from the pain of existence.

[furibund]

[ "You're a very strong person, Nebula," Himeka says and she wants to laugh. Some part of her, that deliberate and angry side of her says of course I'm strong. It's the side that knows better, that blames herself for every thing that happened - for every wrong doing she committed - that disagrees. If she was strong then she'd have been able to withstand it (and what? die? that, she knew, would have always been the result of defying their father). And he would have succeeded without her. ]

[ She ignores it, because if she doesn't ignore it she'll say something wrong. Though neither does she feel she earns Himeka's belief. ]

The pain of existence.

[ She repeats it, half-scoffing in realtime. ]

It's always something like that.
Like they know best in their greatness.

[aquaveiled]

Or misplaced empathy?

I can understand it to a degree. For those who life itself becomes much too hard to bare, the alternative must seem better. Kinder.

That's why we need people who want to make the universe a place for everyone. So people needn't want that alternative.

[furibund]

[ Nebula doesn't want to agree with the first part - she really and truly doesn't. But she knows her father. For everything he did, he truly thought he was doing the right thing for all.

That's what made it all even worse. In his warped sense of right and wrong, what he did he truly thought to help everyone. There was no malice.

It makes her stomach churn. She almost doesn't respond. Finally, she does respond, with
one single word that probably has too many meanings to declare and hopefully Himeka can gleam them all: ]

Yes.

[aquaveiled]

[ Nebula is frank as always, but even then, Himeka doesn't believe that these memories are easy to relieve no matter how she portrays them. To have a father like that leads some enlightenment to why she is as she is--more closed off, more serious. ]

Thank you for sharing.

[ The least she can do is acknowledge it. ]