2017-03-14: Play Me Out, Heretic Scum
- Log: Play Me Out, Heretic Scum
- Cast: Amelia Rose, Talise Gianfair
- Where: Adlehyde
- Date: March 14, 2017
- Summary: Amelia crosses paths with a sinner.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise didn't get a lot of sleep last night. She took a morning nap instead.
For now she can be found sitting out in front of a storefront; she's done her daily exercises and gone shopping for supplies, loading up her pack with a new load of dried meat, a fresh bottle of water, a corresponding bottle of wine, some herbs and bandages, and of course some oil to take care of her armour - which she's not wearing today. She's favouring the thigh-length tunic and knee-high boots she's picked up lately, though she's eschewed the cowboy hat that came with them.
Propped up on a crate with one leg crossed over the other, she seems to have lapsed into that old standy of the bored adventurer - strumming lazily on her lute. The instrument rests with its neck across her shoulder. Her fingers dance slowly but skilfully across it, picking out a lazy tune - if one listens long enough and knows enough old Lunar lore, it may be recognizable as a slowed-down Wind's Nocturne without the vocal component.
She pauses now and then to take a sip of the drink she's got with her.
It is a tall glass of pomegranate juice. She crinkles her nose as she sips it.
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
Amelia Rose is as much doctor as she is Priestess, and thus today she's been resting from her pursuit of the Destroyer and adventuring by tending to the poorer of Adlehyde's citizens. So after several examinations, healing, setting bones, and curing one amorous bar-goer of his bordello woes, she's leaning heavily against her cane as she makes her way back to the inn. Silver is at her side amidst the hustle and bustle of the city and the fairgrounds that attract so many.
Thanks to that, she very nearly misses that music. A few steps past Talise, Amelia pauses, and scowls.
Turning on her heel, she steps right up to Talise. "You! How...how dare you play music in the /STREETS/!? Do you have any shame at all? Althena knows the guilt in your soul, Child! She has long banned such...such distracting merriment!" Comes the Chosen, voice low, but there's plenty of people around.
Already, people are starting to stare.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise's fingers dance over the strings of her lute, up the neck of it note by note. She's switched songs at this point, though she again pauses to sip her Pom~Wonderful.* A small, quietly satisfied smile tugs at her lips, her eyelids lowered. Even the taste of the juice isn't enough to ruin her way.
The lecture may be. She doesn't look up right away as Amelia starts shouting at her, though she does let out a slow sigh, her fingers slowing against the neck of the lute.
Only when Amelia finishes her sentence does Talise respond - in the form of playing a simple scale. Do re mi fa so la ti do.
"First off," she says with a tilt of her head as she fixes Amelia with a steady look. "Althena's people have sang since the dawn of time. If music was good enough for Dragonmasters Natto and Alex - saying nothing of the others - then it's good enough for me.
"Second: If Althena didn't want us to be merry, she wouldn't have created us in the first place. I know /a lot/ of Althena stories and she's /never/ wanted people to be unhappy or suffering."
"Third:"
She sets her lute to one side, then, turning and narrowing her eyes.
"I don't take orders from the /fucking Guard./"
- It's not actually Pom!Wonderful.
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
If anything, Amelia only seems to get more incensed. Arms cross, one foot taps, and she 'looks' down with the kind of indignation only a lifelong holy woman can give. It's mainly: 'I know better than you!'.
"And fourth, Althena herself stated that these things are not to be done. Are you truly going to go against the word of the Goddess herself? Those of Lunar have become sinful and morally weak. /That/ is why I believe she banned music and dancing. We have turned our gaze away from the Goddess, and so, we no longer deserve that merriment until we repent for our crimes."
Reeeach, point! There's a finger dangling not far from Talise's nose.
"Now toss aside that filthy instrument! Devote yourself to true worship of Althena, and your sins will be forgiven! I can offer you absolution in the Goddess' name." This is where the money pitch would usually come. But, it doesn't. The elf's ears just wiggle a little in anticipation.
Twitch. "We are the Chosen of Althena, her protector! You would do well to listen to us!"
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise's lute leans against the crate she was sitting on. She's set it aside for now.
The tall woman shifts in her seat to better face Amelia, her brows dipping into a scowl as she listens to the woman rant at her. A growing stormcloud builds behind her expression, but she doesn't say anything just yet, just letting Amelia get what she wants to say out. Then the woman jabs that finger into her face and starts shouting.
Talise's right hand comes up and curls around Amelia's hand. She doesn't move to throw her. She doesn't even move to break it. She just closes the woman's hand within her own.
Slowly, wordless, the half-Beastwoman rises from her crate, eyes not leaving Amelia's. She looms almost a full foot above the elfin priestess. One of her biceps is about as thick around as one of Amelia's thighs. Heavily-built shoulders rise dangerously, then fall again as she lets her sheer size and menace loom there.
Then, slowly, she lets go of Amelia's hand. Her grip begins a slow descent to her belt, and comes there to rest.
"I don't believe that's what Althena said," she states, her tone low and short. "Nor do I believe that anything you do is really about the Goddess. I was willing to believe it when the Goddess made a dead man Dragonmaster. But if you want me to stop singing, priestess, you'll have to kill me."
She rolls her head to one side and cracks her neck. "I don't kill easily," she says, voice taking on a low, flat rasp.
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
All throughout, there's this little smirk on Amelia's lips. A smug taunt, /daring/ the much larger well-built woman to do something. To break that finger. To kick her, to give into violence. To show that she's a sinner. Instead, rather than give into rage, she just laughs bitterly.
"Oh dear. You /ARE/ full of sin, aren't you young Child? You insult the Chosen. And you attempt to insight a priestess to violence in a city where innocents could be harmed. Believe it or not, Althena loves you. And in turn, /I/ love you. I only say these things for your own good, you know? But, you are young, and foolish. Thus, it's for your elders to point you on the right path. I will not kill over this. Your life is precious to the Goddess, even now."
Up goes her cane. And then /DOWN/. Hard. There's the sound of wood shattering. Poor, poor Lute.
"Oops. My apologies, sinful objects are so hard to watch for. You understand, I'm sure."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise opens her mouth to say something when there's a sudden crash of wood. Her head snaps to one side. A couple chunks of lute fall to the ground.
There's a long pause as Talise seems to process this event. Her teeth click together and she sucks in a breath, brows dipping into a V. Behind her eyes there's another story, though - an incredibly profound anguish. She's actually starting to tear up a little, after a couple of seconds. Her breathing seems to stop entirely as she holds in her emotions.
Then, turning slowly, she sinks to a knee for a moment, reaching down to pick up what's left of the lute. She wordlessly collects the pieces of it, gathering them in the crook of her left arm. Her eyelids lower; a couple of tears bead down her cheeks but she doesn't say anything, and her expression is simply stony, the scowl passing to a look of something cold but serene.
Only once she has the last piece in her arm does she come to her feet again.
"You're a piece of work," she says, her tone quiet as she shakes her head. "You act like you know everything about Althena but your heart has nothing but evil in it. You speak her name in praise but you have no idea what it means. You talk about sin even while you revel in other people's misery and suffering. You don't even understand why what you just did was something the Goddess would never do." She shakes her head slowly.
"I pity you."
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
"Me? Evil?" Asks Amelia in a tone that's honestly a bit surprised and taken aback, as if she truly can't see why that was the action of an absolute jerk. No, the inward gears of self-delusion tell her that she's doing this deluded woman a favor.
"Hmph! I do no such thing. Sometimes you must be taught a harsh lesson to realize the error of your ways. The Goddess too would have stopped you from playing such music, and rightly so. You may hate me for trying to save you. I can live with that. But you will be saved, whether you like it or not." Comes Amelia once more, again sounding almost like a mother scolding a disrespectful child, and not a much taller adult woman.
"We are Chosen in order to guide Althena's children, especially those like yourself that act against her wishes. That is our duty and right."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Spare me," Talise says, her voice still quiet, though a scowl is beginning to return to her face. She turns to fully face Amelia, cradling the wreckage of her lute in one arm. The other one comes to rest at her waist. She pointedly doesn't draw it down to her sword. "Althena has never needed Chosen before. None of the Heroes who fought in her name were cruel maniacs like you. All of them fought to spread happiness and love to the world. And trust me when I say that you're no Natto the Singing Swordsman. You're no Dragonmaster Alex."
Her right hand, empty, closes into a tight, angry fist, her arm trembling as if she's holding herself back from just punching this imperious woman as hard as she can. She squeezes her eyes closed and turns her head to one side, teeth clenched together.
"Dragonmaster Chloe would never have treated people like you do," she snarls. Her eyes open again and fix on Amelia, flat and bitter.
"The stories of Althena were sang to me since I was a child on the very lute you just destroyed. I know what it means to love her. And even if she has changed and she wants to punish all the people who grew up loving her, I'm going to continue to love her the only way I know how - and that's the way Lady Chloe did.
"With joy."
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
"No, not cruel. Necessary. But you are correct on one thing. I am, indeed, not fit to be a Dragonmaster. I have no illusions, I am not a kind woman. Althena needs those soft of heart like the Dragonmasters of old. Those pure warriors indeed spread love and joy, worked for the best of society in Althena's name. But so too does Althena need those who are willing to fight, and die, against the evils of society. Bandits. Disease. Sinners who spread sedition and mock the laws of Althena...It's proper to love Althena with joy.
Amelia shakes her head sadly. "But you should love her more with action and your support of the Chosen instead. Until you do, you'll only bring sadness to the Goddess. That, Miss, is why I will oppose you. Why I've trained and fought and /protected/ the Goddess!" Her voice, so quiet before, rises just a bit.
"I've bled for her. What have you done, other than sing songs?" Truly, AMelia is showing her 'jerk' side.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"You're not even fit to pick up after the Chiro Mongrels," Talise scoffs with a jerk of her head.
Opening her pack, Tal empties the remains of her lute into it piece by piece, the neck of it sticking out conspicuously. For a moment her fingers rest on it fondly.
She closes up the pack and straightens up, shoulders angling back slightly. "I've lived the way she would want her people to live," she says levelly, her voice like a cold stone. "I'm not a perfect person, Priestess. I drink too much and I fight too much and I fuck too much and I swear too much. Sometimes I even sit down by the docks and sing to liven people's lives. But there are a lot of things I've never done. I've never stolen joy from the innocent. I've never killed innocent people, or broken people's precious things callously. And I've never told people they can't live happy lives because some /cult/ said so." She practically spits out the word.
Slowly, the tall woman takes a step forward and to the side, then another, coming around to Amelia's right as if to walk past her - but she stops and partially turns to face her. Her jaw clenches a moment.
"If we ever get back to Lunar," she says flatly, "know this: I intend to go to Pentagulia and ask Althena to her face /why/ she's gone mad. Even if Ghaleon and your entire cult try to stop me."
<Pose Tracker> Amelia Rose has posed.
"I should wash out that disrespectful, foul tongue with soap!" Counters Talise sharply. Amelia's nose wiggles with every insult, scowl deep and etching into her face. Her body is shivering just a bit.
"And so you list off your sins! Good. You shouldn't start hurting the innocent. But we are no CULT! We are her Chosen, sent to this world to save it and stop the Destroyer!" Rants the priestess, already quite fed up with Talise! She barely avoids stomping her feet in anger.
Her mouth is a thin line. "By all means, speak to her, if you can prove yourself holy enough to enter. I wish you luck. When you decide to submit yourself to Althena's will, Amelia Rose will be there for you, Child. Go with Althena." She blesses. That, at least, sounds sincere enough.
When she's gone? Amelia kicks a nearby barrel. "Blasted...sinners!"
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Part of Talise wants to enjoy the way Amelia squirms and writhes with growing rage every time she speaks. Her eyelids lower ever so slightly. "I've had my mouth washed out with fists before. Get in line."
With a huff, she slings her pack over her shoulder, adjusting the weight of it. She opens her mouth to say something, but thinks better of it as she reads the elfin woman's tone. A shadow passes behind her eyes for a moment.
"...Think about this," she says, her tone still low, but taking on a hint of a storyteller's cadence. "Just a few centuries ago, the Fell Dragon came and cast a shadow over Lunar. Only the power of the Shepherd stopped it. But that dragon did not fall out of the sky. The one who summoned it was the Lord of Calamity. Her name was Anitia, and she was not just anyone. She was a Priestess of Althena, just like you."
She tilts her head to one side and looks away, beginning to move off, but leaving a last sentence behind her.
"Don't think that your position shields you from corruption."