2017-12-07: Double Headpats
- Log: Double Headpats
- Cast: Riesenlied, Zed
- Where: Wayside
- Date: 7th December 2017
- Summary: Riesenlied admits the truth of her oath with Equites to Zed. She receives... a headpat in turn.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Things have been a bit more... tense in Wayside since the discovery of the statue -- in no small part because of what it means not only for the village, but also in how it will draw Drifters and other Demons. A struggle is inevitable, it seems, and time was rapidly ticking to a close...
In the midst of this, Riesenlied tries to find Zed, since he had shown his uncertainties earlier when faced with the presence underneath the statue.
The Hyadean's seen better days, really; her form has diminished since the Guardian Temple and her exposure to Equites, and he knows she has to cope with physical therapy just to try to maintain her form from atrophying further. The growth of scales on her arm, leg and cheeks just seems to further that.
"Zed?" A pause. "Zed, it's Riesenlied," she calls out gently. "Do you have a moment...? I need to speak with you."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed has been uncharacteristically concerned with a lot of things lately. There's that weird super giant out in the middle of the desert, the statue and the beast underneath Wayside, the fact that he has recently acquired an official PRECIOUS IMOTOU and that said PRECIOUS IMOTOU is apparently dying of some kind of horrible creeping dragon-plague. He has always wanted his life to turn into an anime, but not like this.
This is not the right kind of anime.
The shadow his scarf casts across the ground is as clear of an indicator as any that the second-generation Hyadean is somewhere nearby. It flutters and twists in the late afternoon breeze, painting a shock of dancing darkness across the terracotta earth. He is... Apparently on a high place, as usual. He's standing on top of a great big rock, eyes turned, determined, towards the horizon. He thinks best like this, staring meaningfully off into the sunset like some kind of deep, thoughtful hero. Even when there are fewer things to think about, he does this.
But then...
Someone...
Calls his name!!
Zed perks up and /leaps/ boldly off his perch. He somersaults through the air, landing on the ground with a great *poof* of dust! "Riese!" Zed the Ever-Cheerful grins, his vision still pockmarked with sunspots. "Hi! What's going on?"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Riesenlied is decidedly less chipper, but that's kind of the norm for the relation between the two. They did investigate the Progenitor a while back, but it'd be a while before Cetiri returns information on that front...
"... I needed to apologise to you," she expresses. She's got her very calm, yet deliberate serious tone on.
"There is something related to what has been happening to me, that I have not told you, ever since the Temple..."
She sighs very gently, and then looks towards the waterway for a brief moment. "And since it has come to this, so quickly, I believe I owe you a full explanation, so that you can make your own decisions."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Riesenlied was never really the chipper type. Blissful, sure, especially when surrounded by either Noelline or a small army of fluffy white hens, but never really /chipper./ Zed is unsurprised by her relatively morose expression, though. There have been... many changes, as of late. The paradise Riese hoped to foster was not as easily claimed as she would have liked.
And so Zed will just have to smile for the both of them.
"Something... about the Guardians?" Zed cants his head, crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the hard stone pillar. "Hmmn. Okay. Let me hear it, then."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... okay," Riesenlied nods, gently.
"Noeline and I fell, along with the Trial Knight, to the bottom of the Guardian Temple. That was... why you couldn't find us, during your trip -- I'd been unconscious for what seemed like hours... and-- when we woke up, we encountered a Guardian in the flesh. Equites, the Guardian of the Sword."
She sucks in a breath as she places her hand to her chest. "Equites was sent there to kill us, yet... I pleaded for our case. I wished him to know that there were Hyadeans those out there who were more than just-- murderers. I showed him our troupe, before we had come to create Wayside..."
She pauses further, lulling her head.
"And in that space, I... we were spared. I do not know why a Guardian deigned to spare us, but... they did. And they asked us to hold our word... to show that we are capable of it. And the Trial Knight to foresee this oath of ours."
There's a gentle sigh.
"... that is the basis of our arrangement, but... it is not all. Because after-- after Arctica, and after Adlehyde..." there's a rueful look on her face. "When I heard how truly wrathful Mother's voice was, when she awoke just for a moment on that day... I... do not think Filgaia could sustain her anger."
She turns around to face the village proper. To gaze upon Wayside as it bustles just slightly beneath them.
"I truly wonder if Lord Siegfried has the right idea to make us, as a species, flourish. ... I feel that he is still wounded by the past, and has not allowed himself to heal from it... and in doing so, he has made us adhere to the legends that have made Demons out of us."
There's a really sad smile now as she faces Zed.
"But that is my opinion. ... I know I've asked you for your aid before, but... this is nothing short of insubordination."
She closes her eyes.
"What I want more than anything, Zed, is to choose your own path. What feels right in your heart, because I know you can do that."
She holds her hand out.
"And if that takes you back to the Photosphere... if that takes you to Mother's side... then... I won't have any regrets. I won't blame you for it."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
This question was bound to have been asked at some point. It was inevitable, in a way. Zed was a soul at a crossroads. Two paths laid out before him.
The first was the road paved with wrath and pride, the path paved by the anger of an entire species. A warcry thundering defiance into the night. A dark, bloody spear held to the throat of a hostile world.
The second was the path of forgiveness and acceptance. The way that closes the door on a chapter of history, the path that might lead to the final curtain-call of he and his people. An attempt at coexistence, at becoming something... else.
Zed stares long at Riese's expression as she continues. He is unblinking; his eyes don't necessarily need moisture- they, and the rest of him, are made of living metal. If he thinks too deeply, little things like 'blinking' can go forgotten.
Dimly, he realizes that she is reaching out a hand to him. Why? Because she wants him to make his own decision? To turn his back on one for the sake of another. It's the time, she says, to choose. To save this place, or to damn it. Zed's unblinking eyes focus on her outstretched hand for the briefest of moments. They turn back up to read her face.
Zed...
Reaches out.
And...
...
...?
Pats... Pats her head!?!?
"Eheh--" Zed grins, snickering, patting Riese's head right in that perfect patting-shaped spot between her horns "Nyeheheheh--" Oh no, he's... He's going into a fit. Has his brain overloaded!? "Nyahahahahahaaaaaa~h"
Zed inhales.
Zed exhales.
"OKAY!" Zed... tosses a thumbs up?? "I'll pick my own path!" He says, taking a single bold leap right off that weird mental crossroads and into the thick underbrush of THE UNKNOWN. "And! That means! That sometimes, I might be an ally! And sometimes, I might be an enemy! But this place is important to you, and there is one thing that I know I have to be, before I have to do ANYTHING for Uncle Zeik. And that thing is..."
Zed clenches his non-patting hand into a non-patting fist and turns his face boldly towards the setting sun! "To bring my little sister's smile back!"
"Besides," he says with a soft harrumph. "You. You and Zeik. You're the same. You both take the burden of our entire people right up onto your shoulders. Only difference is that you're trying to carry it in different directions. But me, I've got legs! I can walk without you or him hauling me around! So I'm gonna just keep on doing my thing, you don't have to worry about me. Ally! Enemy! I'll be them both, as the ultimate Dark Hero, I fight in the dark so you don't have to! But no matter which I am at the time, I'll always be your friend, okay?"
Zed has not stopped patting Riese's head.
This entire time.
He's still going.
"Besides," Zed's grin only seems to go wider, "I am WAY happier when I'm not worrying about the fate of literally everyone I know. So I'm going to try not doing that for a while!"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Riesenlied blinks just a few times and--
--gets her head patted.
There's a snickering from Zed, and it eventually starts to break out into that familiar fit and giggle, that nya-ha-ha that she's so familiar with.
Riesenlied doesn't even realise that she's shedding a tear, at the headpat. It brings her memories of when she'd like Siegfried to do just that...
"... ah-- eh--"
She dabs at her cheek for a moment. She shakes her head, breathes in. It looks like the tears of someone who suddenly realises she's had a burden lifted.
"... that's--" she can't help but smile, "That's such a Zed answer. I would... expect no less..."
She lowers her head with a nod. "... it's true. I suppose I did learn that from Lord Siegfried. Even when I committed myself to this route, I... find it hard to not remind myself of everything he's taught me, over all of these years."
She still remembers herself crying to herself then, too.
"That's true. You'll always be my friend too, Zed. Devet will always be happy to see you and watch films on your datacrystals... Cetiri will want to keep patting you on the head in turn too..."
She smiles.
"And I'd like to tell you, 'welcome home', once in a while too. You'll always have a place to come back to here."
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Oh--
Oh no!
Riese is... Riese is leaking!?
Oh no!!
But... Wait. No. She's smiling too!? A happy leakage!?!? Well, that's not so bad, then.
"Y-yeah, he's a really great guy, too. And he always looks so happy when he talks about Mother, but..." Zed shakes his head. "I don't know if that's the right way, just like I'm not sure trying to be human all the way down is the right way. So that's why I think it's better for me to just... Do what I'm going to do. Less thinking that way! And that's always good."
Because thinking leads to drinking. Drinking leads to THE DARK SIDE.
Or something like that.
"I know this is probably a lot harder for you than it is for me. I mean, I've only been awake for a little while comparatively. It's weird to be a younger older brother, but besides that, you've known Sieg and everyone else for all that time, so you've got... all that. Me, I've got a few years. It's a bad thing and a good thing, I think. It means I can be the most 'me' that there'll ever be."
A pause. Zed laughs again, and pulls his hand from Riese's head.
Because he's using it to pull her into a big old bear hug.
"So! Whenever it gets super bad and you don't want to make Noelline worry, just put up the Zed Signal and I'll come running as long as I can see it! I'll come home fast as my legs can carry me, okay?"
"And then me and Cetiri can pat your head... together!"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... it's not about being human ... it's about being Hyadean, and properly exploring what we wish to be -- what we were back then. Free of the restraints of the war that has defined us for so long," Riesenlied expresses.
She tilts her head. "That's where my faith lies. In us, as a whole."
She still remembers the last time Zed drank. She'd like to not repeat that.
"... well, as you said, I'm also very bad at not trying to bear a burden too large for myself," Riesenlied can't help but chuckle. "... uh--"
A pause as she sinks into that warm, family-like hug.
"..."
"What's the Zed Signal?"
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Oh, well that makes more sense I guess. But you know, we do like to fight! A lot. Even you do. Don't think I've forgotten that time at the guild hall...!" Yes. The time when Riese defeated Zed in single combat... and simultaneously defeated HER OWN DIGNITY.
RIP Riese's dignity.
"Anyway, if you've /got/ to carry that load, at least... put it on a cart, or something. Or have people around to help out. You're not the only one trying to figure out what there is to do in this great big world! And look, if we can't make do down here on Filgaia, we can always move to the moon, right?"
Right!
There is absolutely NOTHING that can go wrong with that plan.
Beat.
"...The Zed Signal..." Zed squints meaningfully into the faraway distance. "..."
"........."
"I dunno," Zed admits, "Just start projecting Yburn Sphere X into the sky or something. I'll know what's up."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Riesenlied's cheeks puff up as Zed points out that one time--
--aaah--
--there go her horns, which start to rapidly waggle up and down in embarrassment. But then... "Yes... everyone here, in their own way, believes in that kind of future, after all. A future where they aren't trodden for what they are..."
She chuckles. "Lunar... mm, perhaps it is possible. I look forward to seeing it one day."
A pause.
"Aah, um-- I'll-- have... Devet... have that ready," Riesenlied excuses herself. ... in no part because Riese doesn't know how to operate a video player. Don't ask her to record a show for you, she'll just overwrite your precious anime DVDs and then write the wrong channel anyway.