2017-09-15: Calling
- Log: Calling
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Maya Schrodinger
- Where: Wayside
- Date: 15th September 2017
- Summary: Riesenlied requests Maya's assistance with the Ebony Wings, formally.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The village of Wayside has seen much activity in the last couple of weeks, and finally it's starting to resemble something more of a village than just a ring of caravans -- though it still dominates the centre where the campfire keeps going. Riesenlied has made several trips back and forth to November City and Krosse, and there's a particularly large building that she's kind of moved into, because...
"Taaag! You're it!"
Riesenlied gasps and goes, "Ah, you caught me...!" One of the children she's adopted runs off, along with the puppy she's adopted, next to the cucco she's adopted...
...
Yeah, Riese has something of a hoarding habit...
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
The look on Noeline's face as she watches, arms folded and leant against the wall of the new orphanage-slash-farm-slash-homestead, is-- pretty much one of 'is this really okay...?', her mouth in something of a wiggly line as she watches the group play. As the second of the Ebony Wings, not to mention Riesenlied's partner, of course she's taken the building as her own home as well - but she's not nearly as good at collecting extras as the winged woman is.
Puppies and cuccos, sure, but the warning from Ragnell - that at some point the kids might have to be rehomed - still rings quietly in her mind... even if there's functionally nothing she can really do to find family members. No-one's much good at family trees and national identity databases out in the wastes.
Still, there's a quiet pride to the huff of air she makes as she studies Wayside as a whole. There's still a large amount to be done, of course, but it does at least look somewhat sturdier - not to mention filled with bits and pieces of odd defences and bits of technology and aid provided by the various Drifters that have visited along the way.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
To be frank, Maya has not been keeping up the pace since her rough 'n' tumble trip through the Guardian Temple and the escape to Wayside that followed. Maybe it's her taking all that time to think about the Guardians, in the wider scheme of things, and reflect on her place in a broader world. You know--the kinds of things she'd never be caught dead doing in public.
It could also be that Wayside and Boot Hill are just too comfortable and, being closer to home, a little more what she's used to compared to the green hills of Adlehyde. The blonde reflects on this as she responds to the winged woman's summons, arriving at Hoarder Central in a prim, business-y white blouse and long skirt combo. She could pass for a Bernadelli Insurance office worker at a glance.
A kid, a puppy, and a rotund chicken-like creature scarper past her feet as she peers through the door to where Riesenlied and Noeline are being curiously domestic, for a pair of literal demons. Maya swerves leisurely out of the way.
"I heard the boss wanted a word with lil' ol' me." she quips, an easy smile on her face.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
To be fair, it isn't as if Riesenlied hasn't been thinking about it either, but... Filgaia is not exactly known to be particularly kind to families -- people are separated on an unfortunately almost daily basis, whether to the harsh environment, or to monsters, or to banditry and crime. Their search to find leads hasn't turned up much, and it was time to start thinking about what to tell 'em.
"Ah, Miss Maya," she smiles warmly as she lets the child run off, though they pout at her as she fails to run after them. She laces her hands together and says, "Yes, if you had a moment...?"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline tilts her head in recognition of Maya's approach, her mouth set in an amused smile. "Well-- that is what Riesenlied does, I suppose," she quips back in a rather bright tone, her eyebrows raised as she turns a little towards Riesenlied. "You look better than you did, certainly - though I imagine the same could be said for everyone, from what I've heard."
For the sake of the heat, she's dropped her enormous dresses, instead in a light vest and short skirt; their colours range from red at the collar to a light rose at the hem, her hair now a vibrant red, but the grin underneath is unmistakably her.
"Honestly," she adds, a little louder as the children start to whine. "She'll be along to play with you some more in a while! There are things we need to get done, you know," she grumbles. Someone is getting known as Riesenlied's keeper...
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
"Oh, I'm back to my usual self. Better than ever, if you like having a Guardian peering into your head." Maya has a self-assured grin, the shit-eating qualities of which would be hard to fake. She's wearing a lovely blue ribbon in her hair which is also fairly Reimu-like in its puffiness. The Drifter stops hovering at the doorway and saunters on in at Noeline and Riese's invitation.
"I've a whole slew of moments. What's on your mind, Ms. Riese?" Maya asks of Wayside's caretaker, taking up position next to Riesenlied's Minder as Noeline runs the kids along. "Wouldn't have thought I'd be slumming it with you two a few months ago, but hey. Things are wild. Peanut?"
Wherever it came from, Maya offers the bag Noeline's way. Beer nuts is a better description, given they're still skinned, but hey.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied places her hand to her cheek as she waves cutely at the child grumping, who goes "Okaaay~" to Noeline and runs off, so cute! She looks back towards Maya as she sits down at a nice little seating room with a couch, and expresses, "I was... wondering if you'd consider joining us."
A pause. "The Ebony Wings, that is. We've worked on quite a number of Digs together now, and we work quite well... I do not know what you might feel of our other operations, but--"
She looks towards the world's only Schrodinger. "You can be assured that you will not be working to the intentions of our Demon brethren. We enter a precarious time above all, with various Kislevi automatons and Golems threatening the entire continent. I would love to have someone with your skills onboard..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline watches the child run off with another of those put-upon sighs, turning back towards Maya just in time to-- get a small bag of nuts thrust under her nose. For just a moment, her face scrunches up in a mild sort of grumpy confusion, and then her eyes focus on the contents of the bag with a curious air.
"--I haven't seen these before," she notes, and just like that her opinion of them appears to have immediately reversed; she snags a handful, popping them into her mouth with a casual toss to chew on them for a long moment. "... ... hmm... they're alright, I suppose," she decides after a while longer, as if the sight of a demon chewing on junk food was completely normal.
"... it is probably worth clarifying that this is not simply a matter of picking your own missions selectively," she adds quietly in the silence after Riese's offer, her voice low. "While the others here are not yet entirely aware, we-- are going to steer them away from the statues."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya has been standing there with soaring eyebrows as she hears out Riesenlied's plea, soon drawing the bag back after Noeline has had a try so she can fold her arms. She soon moves to grab a seat opposite Riesenlied, one leg over the other. "That's sudden," the Drifter admits. "I'm not all that up to speed on what you're really after. Now, I /do/ believe you about being distant from your pals--you've walked the walk on that."
The blonde whips out a pair of slim reading glasses which look nothing like the huge see-the-moon spectacles she really wears. She waits until Riesenlied and Noeline have said their respective bits. "I haven't thought much about a greater cause before, but don't get me wrong--it's not that I don't care, it's that I've never /had/ to. I like the idea. When your less discerning compatriots turned Adlehyde to rubble, you know, some part of me knew it was probably time to start thinking about using this weird power to make a difference."
"As long as I'm here, consider me onboard for throwing a wrench into someone's plans." Maya answers Noeline as simply as she can, pleasant and grinning. "But you know I've got my own mysteries to plunge, too. The Guardians showed me some /scary/ stuff--hell, I don't even know who I am anymore. So I'll be gone occasionally, y'know, chasing that mystery. Trying to give Virginia a better life, 'cause she threw hers into the trash over me."
A finger is raised, those caveats given. "But if you can put up with that, then the Schrodinger family is on your side. Hell, my old man would be proud. It's the only thing I can think of bigger than one of his finds: saving the darn world."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has a gentle smile towards Maya as she makes her resolution. "The Treaty of Iscariot," she expresses, "Was an agreement made by your distant ancestors, nearly five hundred years ago. After the catastrophe caused by the gear Diabolos," apparently not to be mistaken for the Golem Diablo, "They all agreed that weapons of mass destruction should no longer be used in conventional warfare scenarios -- a blanket ban."
There's a faint sigh as her horns perk up a little. "Now, we are faced with the reality of no less than four Golems in different hands. I helped my brethren steal Lolithia, Gebler owns Barbatos from where we failed... Bart's crew currently takes hold of Diablo, and unfortunately, Kislev has revealed that they've had a lead on us all."
She laces her hands together. "Our recent reports show that Sado was recently damaged heavily-- possibly by Gebler," she gestures thanks to Noeline. "Kislev has been purchasing more Dragon Fossils than usual, en route from Jolly Roger to the coast. I'd like to put a stop to this, and prevent them from repairing it."
There's a more deliberate sigh in turn, as she expresses, "I'd-- I feel it's proper to say you'll have access to our resources, of course... but, above all that, I'd be happy to help continue your exploration of your past, your abilities... and if we can help Miss Virginia as well, all the better."
Not that she'll ever meet her. Eels!
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a breath, Noeline chuckles. "In terms of what we're really after - I suppose you could say that the two of us are still figuring that out ourselves. You aren't the only one that had a Guardian run through your head, you realize, except in our situation it was not exactly something we were ever expecting to happen," she grumbles as she folds her arms. "In the end, our immediate goal is to prove to the Guardians we are not simply creatures of war. And-- also, grow some flowers," she grumbles, a little perplexingly.
"That said, I doubt Riese is the sort to demand you stay with us indefinitely. A hallmark of the Ebony Wings - even when we were in the Photosphere - was that its members are free to do as they will, and have their own goals and hopes around the group."
"Of the golems we know, Lolithia is a fair way from being operational. From what the pink blob has told us, Diablo is even further damaged after Mr. Hesiod's intervention - not to mention that it sounds as if the Yggdrasil and its crew are willing to entertain the idea of not bringing it to bear," she adds as she counts off on her fingers, glancing towards Riese after a moment. "To be quite honest, now that we have positioned ourselves as an outside force, it would probably be wise to strengthen our ties with them."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Not that they were probably /Maya's/ ancestors that signed the treaty, but near enough for Government work.
"You know, Golems and all those things were like fairy-tales to me--what, a year ago? Boogeyman things of legend, but I guess a lot of legends are turning out to be history lately." Maya notes as she leans back into her seat. "I don't really know what they can do, but I'm going to side with you on this one, I'm not in much of a hurry to find out. Anything /that/ many people are warring over is bound to be bad news."
A pause, as Maya reflects on Noeline's revelations. "Oh, yeah, I'm not surprised. It seemed like a lot of people got suckered to the Guardians' doorstep for /some/ reason, and while I'm one of a kind," she adds with a wink, "I know I'm no Chosen One."
"Anyway. I'm down to raise a ruckus in the name of a better world." Maya confirms that much for the two, pleasantly. "As an added bonus, you might be interested to know none of my ARMs are real. I know about the whole--issue about 'em, and your people, but nothing I'm ever swinging around is the real deal. If you can believe it. Heh heh."
Maya's eyes flash with The Matrix Green, and a brief *swoosh* of air accompanies a sudden change. She now sits before Noeline and Riesenlied in her orange dress, a handgun having materialized into her lap. "Feels weird to own up to someone outside the family, but I guess you can take it as proof of my stake in the team."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... I have to cope with the reality that my ancestors' bones are being used to power modern life..." Riesenlied expresses. She thinks of Ida, and Guild Galad, for a moment. "But... even then, where there are rampant abuses of them in the hands of those that only seek to stoke the flames of war... I won't let them."
She sighs very quietly, and nods very gently. "I-- mm," she quietly nods with a rather surprised look on her face. "I've never seen a power like yours before... and if I can answer some questions for you -- even if we must discover them together, of course I'd be happy to."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
The demon spy does at least-- raise her eyebrows in a genteel and polite sort of surprise. At the same time, she doesn't exactly seem as shocked as she otherwise could be, and there's a bemused sort of frown on her face as she lightly folds her arms. "I did rather wonder. In case you don't remember, you did pull that power out rather abruptly in the midst of the Colisea. Right before you and Riese both decided that the most obvious way to go about things was to pretend to roll around injured," she adds, her voice a little tended in mild confusion.
"At the moment, we are mostly-- spreading the word. Wayside itself is in a somewhat precarious position until it can find more in the way of allies - not to mention friends in general."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya waves a hand casually, swat-swatting away the issue of weird powers. "We'll have a look around about it all together! I don't know too much more about it than you two, but I was already trusting you with my big draw-card at that point back in the Colisea." she adds with another sly wink. "And I'll have you know, the rules stipulate that injuries granted the opposing team a /huge/ advantage! We set you up for the final blow."
That aside, Maya returns her hands to her lap. The pistol boils away into glowing grains of sand, which soon vanish. "Well, if it don't sound too grim to you, you've got all my guns and spells at your disposal to keep this place safe. If you wanna help expand that little repertoire, keep an eye out for any books and stories with big, cool heroes."
How very casual.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks cutely bashful in turn as she protests to Noeline, "T-that was the spirit and connection I received!" A pout. "It might have been wrong, but... that was what the echoes were spelling to me."
She looks towards Maya as she thinks for a moment... then smiles, "Um-- I will definitely be on the lookout such. You might not want to use the tale that most inspires me... unless being an invincible, magical cucco would be a boon?" She sounds so genuine about it, though...
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
At the very least, Noeline does continue to watch the roll and wisp of the way in which Maya moves between her forms; whatever she might say about it, she's undeniably curious, watching the technique as if hoping to find anything out about it (and, of course, abjectly failing to pick anything specific out.)
"... based on books... is it? Well, I can certainly keep an eye out. Libraries are a little rare on this end of the world, unfortunately. If I'd known, I would have raided Curan Abbey well ahead of time. There are no ends of myths and tales in that place," she huffs as she folds her arms, but-- immediately tilts her head towards Riese with an ever so slightly disbelieving frown.
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya taps a now-gloved finger on her cheek, "I'm on the lookout for, uh... tales of knights and swords and magic, because I've been in real trouble the last couple times someone or something wanted to rush in and try to bite or stab me." she glances between Riesenlied and Noeline both. "Can't get close to the Althena's Guard, I was hoping I could snag some of their holy texts--Lemina was telling me there are all kinds of legendary heroes in their history, and if I could project one of /those/..."
There's a pause, and a more sly grin. "If I was looking to retire, being a magical bird shuffling around out here might not be such a bad deal, but as it is..."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied nods warmly as she expresses, "I'll be on the lookout for you. I could try to tutor you in swordplay as well, of course, but... I have the feeling you draw your inspiration from tales rather than from training," with a warm smile on her face. "No doubt there should be quite a few out there."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... what a capricious sort of power," Noeline eventually decides, and it's possibly a little rich for her to be the one calling anyone else capricious. "What about weaknesses, or foibles? Do you get the whole package, as it were?" she wonders aloud as she tilts her head, and eventually lets out a sigh as she rubs at her forehead.
"It seems quite a lot of effort trying to accomodate all of that, you realize. Still-- I suppose I can try to see what can be done. Not /all/ of us are known associates of the Fiends, after all, emphasis on the 'known'. Even now, I suspect I might be able to get away with strolling in and asking for some literature on their religion."
<Pose Tracker> Maya Schrodinger has posed.
Maya leans forward with eyebrows waggled, "Heh heh, you took to the idea pretty quick, didn't you? You're not one to question how something works--I like it." and then promptly sits back again, leisurely, arms folded.
Noeline has a more rounded approach to it. "Depends on the story in question. I'm not too good at filtering out the bad--it's all just, uh, data to me. Like this, I couldn't make so much as a spark from my fingertips, right?" Maya answers her straight, despite her devil-may-care grin (I typoed that as Devil May Cry fyi). "But if I hop on over to the other template, I'd probably shoot my own fingers off trying to work a gun."
"I don't think training and practice are bad ideas! Just--not before I've got something to work from. ... I also don't /think/ I'm on the wanted posters up there with Hiro and everyone else, but even if I was, I could probably just bite my tongue and shed my disguise and nobody'd even recognize me other than you guys."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... well, even if I would, I do not know how it works... and neither do you at present," Riesenlied expresses. "Much like the empathy that has now been afforded to me... and the link Noeline possesses. We each have powers that we must further, and it is together that we will be able to understand each other, and our own strengths. That much, I fundamentally believe."
She bobs her head with a smile as she says, "The disguises would also afford you a greater leverage, so easily can you manifest new forms... I'd be keen to see what comes of it."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
After a moment's more deliberation, Noeline simply lets out a long sigh. "Well-- at least you know reasonably fully what you're working with, I suppose. I imagine I'll keep an eye out for anything useful, of course, but I can't imagine what I'll actually run into. At least, from what I've seen from the Althenan group, they are quite likely to furnish you with tracts if you just ask. Assuming that religion will not skew things significantly," she adds thoughtfully.
"In any case-- as a spy, I am reasonably jealous. Though, I suppose it's been a long time since I've significantly hid myself," she adds with a shrug of one shoulder. "In the end, I tend to prefer hiding in plain sight wherever absolutely possible, hm?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied -- doesn't point out that she virtually has the same ability if she were just willing to exercise their hardlight disguises thusly, and Noeline wasn't so stubbornly proud of her appearance and identity. She's no better, after all. "Well, there's one that's been spending time here, that Amelia lady... I've been hearing some of her sermons, maybe she can help you give a lead."
"Rieseeee, come out here and play with us!" shouts the children, which prompts another wiggling of the horns from the Demon. "Ah, please enjoy the rest of your day..." as she's hurrying outside with a smile. "Coming, coming..."
Well... maybe someone really did find their calling here?