2017-11-09: Farewell...

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  • Log: Farewell...
  • Cast: Riesenlied, Siegfried
  • Where: Photosphere
  • Date: 9th November 2017
  • Summary: Riesenlied returns to Mother's chamber at the Photosphere to soul-search, and speaks to Lord Siegfried as he returns.


<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

The Photosphere.

Riesenlied, Noeline, and the Wings have not been back... at all, ever since the attack on the Guardian Temple. In large part, this is due to logistics -- it was easy enough to note that it was far too dangerous and obvious to try to cross as a large force in the wake of Aveh and Kislev's highly mounted aggression. The Golem Sado, Aveh's battleships, Gebler's involvement have made relying on long-range deployments... touchy, at the very least.

And what of Riese herself?

She's submitted reports -- she wouldn't miss that for the world, but they've largely been positioned towards the Badlands; she's reported on investigating the Golem Sado and advances on halting a Dragon Fossil shipment meant to repair it, and other objects of interest. But she doesn't appear to have made progress on identifying Statues... whether that's a matter of bad luck or intent is another thing -- the Badlands don't leave one idle, though, that's for sure.

But she is here now.

She is actually up at the cocoon of Mother, likely requesting permission to pray there -- ever since the events at the Temple... no, even before that...

She knows what she heard, when Mother briefly awoke when the Teardrop was evoked.

She's... rattled. The image of a kind and all-encompassing Mother, the Mother she must be like to have been the one to save the Hyadeans from destruction... it's become... unseated, in part due to the words and the fear of the Guardians.

She can't just ignore it. It would be... wilful ignorance.

The winged Metal Demon has seen drastic changes in her appearance since the last time. She looks a lot more wan, more fragile. She is Tainted, but it is significant, even considering that. Her left arm and leg are sheathed in deformed, metallic scales not unlike that of Metal Dragons; it's crep up to her neck and cheek in parts as well. Her wings are tattered and leathery, where they were larger and more supportive before.

Riesenlied prays, silently. Prays in the hall of Mother... to find herself, to find the truth of the identity of her faith.

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

For Siegfried, the Photosphere remains home. He /hates/ the Badlands, for reasons entirely personal, and those reasons drive him to spend time there only when he is on a mission. For that, perhaps, the Tainted are lucky. His response to discovering Wayside will likely be heated.

But friendship runs deep, and that may matter.

Today, though, isn't that day. He has left the Dragon Fossil portion of their scheme to Riesenlied and the rest of the Tainted. His mission has been the Statues, and he has spent time doing that -- when he isn't here, in the Photosphere, monitoring their progress... and monitoring the concerns in Aquvy. He comes back to the Photosphere, to check on Mother. He pauses when he sees Riesenlied.

It has been months, and the wan -- less healthy, he thinks -- look is instantly noted. His lips curl into a frown, as he steps up behind her. His footsteps and the rustle of his cape may well announce him.

"Riesenlied," he rumbles. "It has been some time. And Mother... to see her wait still pains me."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied has spent many a night awake, wondering of the day when Wayside is inevitably discovered. It has made her introspect deeply. Of the reasons she does it; personal, and otherwise. How she feels she may speak volumes of her wish to see Hyadeans grow, as a species, as a race. As a culture. How she wants to show others of a life beyond what they knew in the squallid wastes of the Gutter...

Yet, there is a personal, selfish edge there too.

Her fear of Mother unsettles her. She hasn't been back for that reason... she still hears that voice. How deep her anger ran. How her timid excusing of how Mother would make it all better just were dashed away...

"... Lord Siegfried," she whispers. She rises gently, and turns halfway about, draping her capelet a little closer around herself.

"Yes, it has been too long, since the time of the Temple." She bows her head. "... Mother still yet slumbers."

A pause... and she lowers her head. "... I... I remember what you said, on that day. That I would have liked her, Lord Siegfried."

Yet why does she sound troubled?

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

"She does. Lord Volsung has provided the way forward, and yet these statues... they are damnably difficult," Siegfried says, with a frown. He shakes his head and then steps closer -- though the Quarter Knight gives her a long glance. She has seen far better days, and he knows that. It isn't hard to see that something is wrong. And, as much as that makes him worry...

He must concern himself with the war, first. She isn't the first friend to have a toll taken upon her. His eyes turn up, towards Mother, and he nods. "She was kind," he says. "Kind, yet stern--as the travel here made her. As the loss of Hyades made her. She knew what it was to love all of her children, but how hard it was to protect them. To see her in this state..."

The anger comes back, easily, as it always does. His fingers curl, hard, at his side.

He looks sideways at Riesenlied. "It isn't easy," he admits. "To do all that fate and duty ask of us. But when I see her, and what she has been through, I know that I can always do more."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"I had heard of Lord Berserk's efforts, yet the Drifters... they sealed a statue in Bledavik," Riesenlied advises gently, from what she'd heard of the scuffle down there.

"Yes... I do not-- I do not doubt that she has suffered as much as we have," Riesenlied quietly murmurs, holding that Tear at her necklet -- which shimmers with a little bit of a strange, coloured glow... the power of that empathy that has burgeoned ever since her contact with the Guardians.

"... it was not easy. To hear her -- to hear her voice, for the first time, in my life. ... her anger ran deep," she shares honestly, with Siegfried.

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

"They did. The damnable Baskar..." Siegfried shakes his head. He could take vengeance upon them -- but to what end? The deed was done, and Metal Demon resources were not infinite. Especially now that humans wielded Golems, as they did in the past. He folds his arms, once, and then he looks up.

"...It did," Siegfried said. He hesitates, before he admits: "In the past... it was not so. I fear what she has gone through. I wish to wake her not only because she is our Holy Mother, but to help her heal. To show her that we have suffered, too--and that we are stronger for it."

He looks sideways at Riesenlied. "I know not what prison the Guardians have trapped her in, but I do not doubt that it has tormented her."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied hesitates, ever so faintly.

"... to help her heal..." she whispers. She clutches ever so gently at that Tear, as she looks up towards the cocoon. Indeed, she had no reason to believe that Mother would've been unwounded... and to that end, she is highly empathetic to her struggle. A prison is no pleasant thing, no matter who you are, and to have been trapped for a thousand years...

"... I fell," she finds herself admitting. "When I took refuge into the depths of the Temple, I'd fallen a long way, succumbing to my wounds."

She casts her eyes aside. "I woke in the presence of a Guardian, in the very flesh."

She isn't certain why she's telling Lord Siegfried this, but... it felt important, in its own way.

"Equites... the Guardian of the Sword -- had very well the capability to kill me, then and there, yet he spared me. It was by no means a peaceful discussion, yet--"

She breathes in deeply, sounding uncertain. "... I find myself wondering why he did. Whether we could convince them to let Mother go, Lord Siegfried."

She steps forward, on that unsteady, misshapen foot. "What... what would you say to that, of that possibility?"


<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

Siegfried's breath catches. In the presence of a Guardian -- a situation that, to his experience, happened rarely and inevitably ended in the death of the Demon who was caught there. His head turns, his eyes widen for a moment. Why would a Guardian spare her? What did they gain from that?

"You... are lucky to be alive," Siegfried concludes, softly. "And yet--he spared you for a reason. For some gain. They will never release Mother voluntarily. They have made their choice... they chose the humans and the damnable Elw."

He turns and gives her a stern look -- but one filled with anger at something different than her. It isn't an anger at Riesenlied, but an anger at fate itself.

"The Guardians let Filgaia suffer, so the Elw and humans could strike us down--and let humans and the Elw cause Filgaia no small amount of harm," he says. "Even if they said they would free her... I would never trust their lies, Riesenlied. It is all they can speak."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied's breath hitches, in the wake of Siegfried's sternness -- at an anger to the Guardians, to the anger at... at fate itself.

She had to try. She knew she couldn't forgive herself if she never even asked.

"The Elw are gone, long gone. They gave up on the humans," Riesenlied whispers. "And the Guardians... they have no vision of what happens in the world. They are trapped in the past... their perspectives are those of a thousand years ago."

She can't help but draw comparisons... between the Guardians, and the Quarter Knight that stands before her. They both live long lives, bearing wounds that are as fresh as when they were first inflicted...

"To that end, yes, I know to be careful of what their perspective is... ... and I cannot deny that they have lent their assistance to the Drifters -- armed them with Mediums, given them more power. That is dangerous to us."

She bites her lip.

"Strange, that for those that purport to sustain the world... that they would be so powerless on their own," Riesenlied finds herself musing.

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

There is something deeper there. Something personal -- the sort of hatred that Siegfried cannot let go of easily.

"It is," he says. "They have made their allegiances known, time and time again. And they..." They are, of course, powerless on their own. Something he has wondered at and worried over. He looks down for a moment, then. His brow furrows, before he shakes his head.

"That, I do not know," he says. "Perhaps their strength failed as Filgaia has failed. Perhaps it was when the Elw left. Whatever the cause..."

He scowls. "...It was their own doing. I will show them no sympathy."

==== Ambrosius says, "Also, Discount Dungeon it is! Feel free to join me, anyone who would be interested in that!"

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied sighs ever so gently, then nods. ... in a way, Siegfried's unfailing drive is one of the foremost qualities she had always admired and looked up to him for, as a role model. Yet... it was painful to see that it would grip him so.

"... there may come a time, as I wear further and further down, when I cannot contribute to the Hyadean cause anymore..." Riesenlied admits, closing her eyes.

She knowingly chooses to say 'the Hyadean cause'. Because it is them, as a species, as a race, that she loves so much...

And she's beginning to be aware that it may not necessarily align with Mother's, or by extension, the Quarter Knights'.

"But until then... I will do all that I can, Lord Siegfried," she smiles wanly. "Thank you for everything, up until now. Everything you have taught me, everything you have shown me and let me do."

Why does it feel... so much like a goodbye?

<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.

When Riesenlied says those words, Siegfried doesn't hear them as she means them. In a way, it has always been a flaw of his: he hears what he wants to hear. He hears that she may die; that she may give her life for that cause, or be beaten down until she cannot, physically, fight any longer. He looks sideways at her.

He nods his head once, and the rarest of things spreads across his face: a smile.

"May that day not come, before Mother is restored and our people have the peace they deserve," he says. He looks back up at Mother. "I am proud of you, Riesenlied. You've fought well and led well, for all of these long years. Our race has suffered--our people have, at times, wandered astray. But... your presence has helped to anchor them."

He crosses his arms over his chest, looking up at Mother. "Be well. And give Noeline my regards, when you next see her."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

In many ways, Riesenlied means it -- she would fight and give her life, be beaten down until she cannot fight any longer... but it is not necessarily a physicalbattleground that she wishes to fight on. The cultural fight, the fight for recognition, the fight for a place on Filgaia... these are the fields she looks towards... and they are all dangerous ones.

She catches that smile, looking down gently to the ground. A bit bashful. But happy.

"... it has been my pleasure, to guide our young, to provide guidance at times of struggle..." Riesenlied speaks. "That we may all be able to flourish... that is what I seek, after all."

She looks towards Mother again.

"I shall relay the message onward to Noeline."

She bows gently... and then departs slowly, a hand planted over her chest as she does so. The smile is sorrowful, as she finds... a finality, perhaps.

A finality that is at the same time painful, yet releasing...

"Farewell, Lord Siegfried..."

There's a tear in her eye as she leaves.