so i've finally got around to reading the Immolant lore. In part 2, is Spider saying that the skeleton of Oryx's Worm is hidden in the rings of Saturn?
It's referring to Akka, the worm god Oryx killed to make the Dreadnaught! Spider basically told Osiris that going to the Dreadnaught would be able to tell him more, which was true. After that, in Immolant, Osiris visits the Dreadnaught and learns more about Savathun being exiled from the Hive and Xivu hunting her. It's also why he ends up going to the Moon.
A bit later, Osiris also adds:
The Dreadnaught's systems present as living memory —chronicles and hymns recounting histories. It is a rat king of fading ideas, wracked with failing connections and dying interpretations as Akka suffers a slow, final death, damaged beyond repair.
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IN THE QUIET, 3RD HOUR || CHAPTER 1 EXECUTION
“Now let’s see what your story of your life beholds.”
cw: decapitation
To everyone else:
A scroll emerges from the same inky depths, open to three simple characters.
清悪果.
Sei Ak-ka. 清 Sei, meaning pure or clean. 悪果 Ak-ka, meaning disastrous result. The aftermath of a tumultuous, 12-hour labor, with a newborn grip that could snap tarsals. What a beautiful, contradictory name: to be pure but to bring calamity where one goes. To have evil in your name, and to be complicit to it because there is no other option. What kind of a life does someone with that name lead?
On an endless rolling scroll of paper, you see exactly that play out.
To Ak-ka:
She opens her eyes to a beige, flat expanse, almost pulp-like in texture. (If there was a mirror to peer into, Ak-ka would realize that she was ink on a page, a pawn in her own story. But alas: victims in a scheme do not realize that they are being played. Such is the case here.) Truthfully, she expected an execution to be more… terrifying. Borne, hot flames and righteous gavel, the snap of a neck, the jolt of a shock so strong that it would obliterate her veins to cinders. No, there was no such thing here. No, it was, really, much worse than she could ever imagine.
Ink splashes onto the space, outlines the scene. It's two children, each in their respective homes adjacent to each other. They don't know each other yet, but will soon. Ak-ka remembers them. She remembers them all too well.
Even at 6 years old, K▓▓▓–
Or, no. She remembered now, didn’t she? Remembered her name.
Kiyo.
To everyone else:
梅山清.
Umeyama Kiyo. 梅山 Umeyama, meaning plum mountain. 清 Kiyo, meaning pure or clean. Ak-ka has always loved that they shared the same kanji between them; the only good thing about her surname, really. (She has always loved everything they shared.) And unlike Ak-ka– Kiyo suited her name well. Through the years, she bloomed like fresh spring water from the ground. Ak-ka was the rage of a river; Kiyo was the silence of a pool, ever-reflecting.
Perfect sides of the same coin.
Back to Ak-ka:
The years, truly, pass in blissful insignificance. They manage to enjoy many years together despite Kiyo’s weak constitution, despite the sudden bouts of illness. When she was bedridden, unable to weave or dye or tend fields– Ak-ka was there, immovable and sure. And there, by her side, was where Ak-ka wanted to stay for the rest of her life. In their snow-capped, isolated village, untouched by time. But reality is, of course, not so kind.
A splotch against the background, Ak-ka watches the next scene unfold. Watches as Kiyo collapses to the ground, sweating from fever and unresponsive. Another Ak-ka– it’s almost uncanny how she can see the expressions on her own face unfold in real-time. Pensive worry, exploding into something more the longer Kiyo doesn’t respond.
In stolen, sleepless moments, they decide together: it was time to descend the mountain.
Ak-ka has never known life without Kiyo. Doesn’t care to. She would do anything to shoulder the weight that drags Kiyo to her knees, that drags the breath from her lungs, sinks the life in her eyes. She would even leave behind the comfort of her hometown, the reach of her family and younger sisters, the life they had always imagined far, far away from civilization. She would even move to Tokyo if that meant Kiyo could be saved.
And, well. You know the rest, don’t you?
Bed-bound to hospital-bound. Farmer to bouncer. Ak-ka makes ends meet through sheer perseverance. When her sisters follow quickly after, reunited, she thinks that things might just be alright. It wasn’t ideal but… Ak-ka could survive this. This was nothing.
Until of course, nothing becomes something.
A descent into Shibuya. A descent into an unfamiliar world, where Ak-ka is powerless to control her circumstances. A descent into slow madness as the core of her is removed, Kiyo, Kiyo K▓yo K▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓.
What (or who) was the reason that she even agreed to play this game for? What was the question that she wanted answered? Why doesn’t she remember?
(The place beside her bed is warm, but there is no body to fill the space. She is 6 years old and approaching the house next door, but nobody is home. Ak-ka feels the wrongness of it in her teeth. The absence wrenches her gut like poison.)
Ak-ka has always been bound. Bound to familial responsibility; bound to her name. Murder is the least she could do, to fulfill her purpose. Ak-ka was always born to be a pawn in someone else’s game.
Ruri seems to think so. So when she brandishes the kitchen knife from her gaudy sleeve, Ak-ka already understands: she has already lost. It is one thing to be a murderer– it is another thing to be a good murderer. Ak-ka, in this world, only knows what she can see right in front of her. Slave to that empty space, yawning through the years. K▓▓▓ is the only thing that matters.
Ruri thought they were on equal ground? Ruri’s paltry career failings, equal to her dying wife? Don’t be absurd. You, deserving that wish? You couldn’t possibly believe… you, over her? You? YOU…?
To everyone else:
The scenes of this life story are coming to an end, and the scroll runs blank for a minute before lines re-appear. The image is… familiar. Very familiar.
Ak-ka for the last time:
The beige walls surrounding Ak-ka seem to close in, compressing her sides from every angle until she feels herself flat against a wall. Her limbs are heavy and can’t move, almost suctioned in place like fish at a market. In front… there is everyone else, still on that train. They’re watching, their gazes surely in several states of disarray, or perhaps disinterest. Ak-ka doesn’t find it in herself to blame them for what’s about to happen. Love, right?
Sweat is beading on her upper lip. The blood is draining from her face, she can tell. Ak-ka doesn’t think she can face the music… so she doesn’t.
To everyone else:
Ak-ka closes her eyes. And that’s when Enma appears.
It happens fast, and without much warning: with a flick of her wrist, she brandishes a blade– perhaps it’s the same one that was plucked out of the fruit kitchen, maybe not– and pierces the scroll right at the edge. Teasing. Ak-ka, unable to move or escape, instead waits for the final piece to fall, and the game to end (at least, for her). The dark pigment that lines her features is starting to feather and bleed.
And indeed bleed it does– when the blade slices its way right through the fabric, blood– real blood, red and melting– falls into the inkstone below. The portrait of what used to be Ak-ka Sei chokes on it; tries not to. Enma holds the scroll like she might hold a head, and then– drops it into the waiting pool of ink below. The waves take it, eagerly.
Her shrill laugh is the last thing Ak-ka hears before everything fades away into inky black.
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