2018-01-15: See the Invisible
- Log: See the Invisible
- Cast: Riesenlied, Xantia
- Where: Wayside Village
- Date: January 15th, 2018
- Summary: In her ongoing quest to see 'Imaginary Friends', Xantia visits Riesenlied, the one who inadvertantly helped her do so before. A bit of impromptu training triggers some measure of improvement, as well as some lingering trauma.
============================<* Wayside Village *>============================= Wayside Village sits at the midst of a road exchange leading into the neck of the Badlands. Decades ago, this village was abandoned due to increasing pressure and risk from roadside thieves and bandits, as well as aggressive wildlife, but it was resuscitated recently by the Ebony Wings. Now, Wayside Village stands as a haven "for those who have been left by the wayside" - it houses an orphanage, school and a homeless shelter and soup kitchen to aid those that have been abetted. A vulnerable, but growing community has gathered here, slightly odd in shape, size and appendages, owing to them being mostly "Tainted" -- rumored to be broken Metal Demons, or perhaps just Beastmen and other demihumans; the real story isn't quite widespread. Besides, those that have nowhere to go seem to be happy enough to coexist here. For Drifters, a large roadside saloon called the "V4L-H4LLA" acts as an inn, a watering hole and a stable all in one. Those with vehicles that require repair can also find some mechanics who can enact some basic maintenance and a top-up of common fuels. A dojo with all kinds of martial training equipment has been set up near the village centre. Wayside Village sustains itself largely by trading and selling water for other services, owing to its recently repaired water purifier unit - served to the village via a Qanat with a robust irrigation system stands at the edge of the village, where a Garden with simple hardy crops and other agricultural pursuits can be followed. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4uR39jNeGE
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Things certainly have been... heated, in Wayside.
Just yesterday, a climactic battle happened underneath the village -- Drifters of all stripes joined with the Ebony Wings to face Quarter Knight Lady Harken, a newly christened Dragonlord and Yaro -- culminating in an even more desperate battle against a 'Primarch', a creature borne of the lifeblood of the planet who vows vengeance for what's been done to it.
*deep breath*
A large hole exists in one side of the village, being cordoned off by dutiful construction workers. The village is in a state of heightened alert, in general -- people are getting ready for what may happen, and though the proceedings in the village of Tainted Hyadeans continue onward...
... well, it's unmistakable that things are going to a head.
Riesenlied is on a hair's trigger, what with Noeline being quite injured; she spends her time organising recovery efforts and seeing to those that have lost their homes, arranging for them to be stationed in the caravan. There are contingency efforts to be coordinated too, on how best to evacuate the village when the inevitable happens.
She looks exhausted.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
And what is the best known cure for exhaustion? If you guessed 'I dunno, but it's definitely not Xantia', then you are correct! Then again, maybe she would be, if whatever it is that causes her to be so full of energy all the time could be somehow extracted.
As it is, her arrival is likely to only cause more exhaustion. Prefaced by shouts of, "No, no, no, late, late, late!, she darts from person to person, asking each a question while failing to actually stick around for the answer before going off to the next one. "What happened?" "Was that the same dragon again?" "Can I still help somehow?" "Riese, where's Riese?"
It takes her a moment to realize that the one she asked that last question was, in fact, Riesenlied herself. She freezes in place where she'd already started to move on, switching to full reverse until she's back facing Riese again. She looks... well, she looks the same as always. Whether smiles and cheer are appropriate or welcome matters little, she'll always come with plenty of both
"Riese! Hi! I'm sorry I missed the fight!" She doesn't know the details at all, but she did hear about the dragon in the area, so it's obvious enough that there must have been one. "And I was just on my way, too..." Now she looks a little sheepish. "...sorry, really."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied kind of rattles in the face of Xantia's energy, taking a little seat on a fold-out chair as she holds onto her clipboard and lets a guy with stilts bobble on away. (No, he's not on stilts, the stilts themselves are his legs; it's kind of an unusual arrangement, but maybe better if less fun than the guy on accordion tubes).
"Xantia... no, it's all right. Somehow, we were able to scrape by..." Riesenlied has a very tired smile. "It's good to see that you're all right, after what happened at Wehaca."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia looks a little confused. Maybe she doesn't know what tiredness is. Actually, the pause is just because it takes her a moment to process 'what happened at Weheca'. "Huh? Oh, that! Sure sure, it's fine! I slept so long I forgot to eat, but I made up for lost time!" It's like her injuries didn't even factor into her concerns. Because they didn't, not really. Healing as fast as she tends to, it's rarely as much of a concern to her as it probably should be.
"Besides, we won, didn't we? And I got to show Id my best punch ever!" She places her hands on he sides and puffs out her chest, she couldn't be prouder. Arguably of the wrong thing, since she kind of flat out ignored the Sword Dancer after Id appeared, but...
"Anyway, anyway." Already moving on, it seems. "Actually I came here because I wanted to ask you something!" She pauses, and looks around, then back at Riese's tired face, only now really starting to take in the full situation. She puts a hand on the back of her head. "Unless... this is a bad time? Sorry... I just, I found out something really important and you're the only one who can help! And, and then I'll help you too! Do you need some heavy lifting? I can do that!"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's a light smile at Riesenlied's face as she says, "Your energy is incredible, Miss Xantia... I can only scarce try to emulate the verve that you move with each and every day." She doesn't heal very fast, even compared to a human, and less so her brethren with regenerative powers, after all. She nods very slowly and-- chuckles very sedately. Id had appeared again, certainly... but... something about that had unsettled her.
Why was it that Id continues to interact with her as well...? Something buried so deep within her... what was he getting at?
"No, no. Please, go ahead. It is our duty to help with anything that we can, after all," Riesenlied speaks.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia looks momentarily uncomfortable, because she has absolutely no idea what 'verve' means. Time to employ standard operating procedure at these times: just smile and nod, pretend she knows exactly what people are talking about, then look up the strange word later. When will she finally know as many words as others seem to? There can't be THAT many, can there?
Glossing over the Id matter, she gets straight to the point. "Well, alright, if you're sure! It's about that thing you did, what did you say it was? 'Focus on my vision'? That thing! Can you teach me how to do that?"
That sounds simple, right? She obviously thinks it's simple. At least she has a good reason for it. "I didn't realize it back then, but I think I saw Gwen's Imaginary Friend for a second!" There, now everything makes sense.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
To be fair, Riesenlied is old, and her speech probably borders on old-timey at times, something Noeline has likely teased her about. There is a kind of quaintness in how she speaks, the way her accent lilts at times, after all. "What I did...?" She places her hand to her cheek. "Focus upon my vision... um..."
She doesn't look like she really cottons on to what Xantia's talking about. "Oh-- 'imaginary friend'... do you mean the Seraphs? Do you speak of resonance, or the empathic power that I possess...?"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
The contrasts here are painfully obvious. At least Riesenlied knows how old she is... although as some have remarked, even if Xantia was 10000 years old, as it is she'd still never actually be The Adult of any group she's in.
There are certainly ways to halt her seemingly endless energy, however. Such as this moment, where Riesenlied's terms cause her to look not just a little uncomfortable, but very uncomfortable in short order, waving her hands as if in surrender. "Wait, s-slow down, I..." Ugh, she hates it when she has to admit this. Her head sags a little accordingly. "I... don't understand anything you're talking about." She'd clarify further, but... "I think I heard about resonance before, somewhere...?" That's about as far as she gets before she's forced to shrug helplessly.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied thinks on it for a moment, to couch it in terms Xantia might be able to understand... but there are no Seraphs around right now. Instead, she lowers her hand -- her human hand that hasn't been overgrown by scales and distorted metal -- to the Dragon's Tear at her necklet. It's a small gem with a silver frame, shaped like a stylised dragon.
"... Resonance is about... seeing things that aren't physical. Like-- seeing ghosts, as it were. But they aren't ghosts. They're beings like you and me. They just live on a slightly different level of the building that is the world, than we do."
To demonstrate this, she trails with her fingertips a soft little emanation of those photons that escape her body, to create a sensation of calm as she often does. A spiritual power, that's easy to focus in on.
"You can sense that now, can't you, Miss Xantia?"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia follows's Riesenland's hand with her eyes, expecting... she's not really sure what she's expecting, but she figures something magical is probably going to happen. Even if she can't sense such things, a jewel like that just screams 'magic' to her.
As Riesenlied begins to explain the concept of Resonance, Xantia searches her own memories... and it hits her, causing her to slam her right fist into the opposite palm. "That's it! That's where I heard it! Resonance is that thing that lets you see what Hellions really look like, isn't it?" She had a bit of a crash course on that once, but the details got buried under the mountain of frustration at the realization that she wasn't seeing everything she was apparently supposed to. "So I can't see ghosts, either..." No Xantia, pay attention, she just said they're not actual ghosts.
This feeling, however... that she doesn't miss. She just can't really describe it, as she freely admits: "I can... I don't know what it is, but I can. It's a lot like back then." It caused her to stop panicing almost instantly, and now perhaps keeps the natural enthusiasm from slipping into her voice.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied keeps the little fairy-like mote of photons around, and sends it twirling around Xantia in a lazy little flight-path. It's not actually sentient... though it is a part of herself, so perhaps? Technically.
"Yes," Riesenlied nods. "When a Hellion manifests their power, they have a shape and appearance that you need Resonance to see. There... are other branches of what Resonance can do, of course--"
A pause, as she thinks of where exactly her empathic senses began...
"But I wouldn't be concerned if you don't know, Xantia." She reaches out and pats her on the shoulder. "We all have things happening with us that we don't know. We just have to keep learning and working at it, until we do know, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has what's probably her expected instinctual reaction when something sparkly starts flying around her. She spins around with it, keeping her eyes on it with fascination, and then tries in vain to grab it. Stupid Magic, so pretty and yet rarely tangible.
Xantia starts a bit when Riesenlied pats her shoulder, evidently having sunk into a moment of thought for a second there. "I... guess so," she starts to sort-of agree with the sentiment, before shaking her head. "I really want to know, though. I'm tired of not knowing things. I don't even know how much of all this I already used to know." She scuffs her foot, kicking up a bit of dirt, then sighs.
And with that, the slight downer has passed, and she smiles again. "Right now, I'd settle for just being able to talk to Ragnell! I tried staring really hard at the spot I knew she had to be, and I tried setting myself on lightning, but that didn't work." And that still isn't a proper phrase, but never mind that. With another slight shrug, she adds, "I really feel like it's something I can learn, but... I just have no idea where to start."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
A 'twang' is heard as a sproig of hair erupts out of Riesenlied's head of hair, when Xantia mentions setting herself on lightning.
"... hmm..." Riesenlied tilts her head. "I share your frustration. Months ago, I desired to be able to see more than what my brethren were thought capable of. ... of course, I had a very strange path to being able to do so..."
She smiles sympathetically as she says, "I don't think you should be frustrated about what you 'used' to know. It will come with time, and if you don't know it now, then you don't know it."
She tilts her head and says, "Do you think this helps?" as she controls the fae of light a little more tightly, with a huff of exertion. She... unweaves it, such that it gets harder and harder to see physically... but the presence would still be there, in the hopes of coaxing Xantia to start relying on her other senses.
"I can try to coach you in some of the techniques I used to meditate on the spiritual side. I cannot use true magic, but... perhaps this is the next best thing."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia only offers a non-committal "Mhm" at Riesenlied's attempt to make her feel better. She doesn't look convinced. To her, it just feels like Riesenlied, and indeed most others, are already miles ahead of where she is, simply by knowing their past. There's no way she could properly describe this sense of... incompleteness, and the overpowering need to know who and what used to be important to her. So she doesn't even begin to try.
She responds much better to test with the 'sparkly little light thingy', as she might describe it, as that feels like trying to do something about the situation. She grasps the idea quickly, keeping her eyes on the light, squinting as it becomes harder to see... until she blinks, finally, noting with poorly hidden frustration, "I know it's there... I know it's still there, but I can't... see it anymore. That's exactly how it feels all the time!" So she does feel something, by the sounds of it.
Her face sours a bit when Riese mentions "Meditate? That's where you sit still and do nothing, right?" Let's be realistic, Xantia is more likely to spontaneously learn to see the Tears of Time than she is to learn how to sit still for five minutes straight. But, where it comes to magic, she shakes her head. "That's alright, it's not like I can use true magic. I mean, that's all throwing lightning bolts and stuff, right? I can't do that, I can just set myself on lightning and punch people with it." A vast difference, indeed.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has a delicate and bashful smile to say, "Aah... well, meditation is a lot more about doing nothing, but you are right that a different approach might be more fruitful for you. Everyone has their own learning styles, after all."
She does nod enthusiastically, saying, "If you were able to feel it, then... perhaps I can shape my power such that we can step up what you're able to perceive little by little?"
She closes her eyes again... and juuust a little out of reach for when Xantia said she couldn't see it anymore, she manifests little-- images of... cuccos? Floating around her...
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Doing nothing, indeed... Xantia laughs openly at the thought. "We sure do!" At least she's perfectly self-aware in that regard, and completely fine with not trying to fix what she doesn't perceive to be broken.
The promise of a more advanced exercise visibly excites her. "Oh? You think that'll work? Sure, let's try that!" Not really understanding everything beyond 'this could help me get better at something' never stopped her from trying anything before.
And whenever Xantia does decide to seriously try something, she gives it her all. For all her balking at the thought of meditation, she manages to at least look perfectly focused, keeping her eyes on Riesenlied. She can tell almost immediately that something else is there. Soon, she breaks into a sweat, not just from the concentration, but also because... something about all this makes her feel extremely nervous. Distressed, even. Something... something's not right. She feels as if... as if she's in mortal peril...!
With a sudden shriek, Xantia jerks back, losing her balance and landing on her behind, proceeding to point wildly at Riesenlied. "C-c-cuccos...!" She isn't easily frightened, but that... is quickly replaced by an accusatory, "Don't scare me like that!!"
Clear signs of a traumatic Cucco experience. What did you expect? It's Xantia. Of course she once tried to eat one...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied finds herself jolted out of her concentration as well, the invisible spirit cuccos scattering with a squawk as they fly away and disappear into nothingness. "H-haaa?! U-umm, but cuccos are... cuccos are so nice and noble...!" Riesenlied whines, for once actually extremely defensive about something.
It probably doesn't help that a cucco bobbles into sight at this point, stopping by Riese's feet and looking up at her. "Cucc...?"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
"Maybe to you," Xantia rebuts while picking herself up, without actually knowing how true that is. "But to me..." She looks positively haunted for a moment, recalling past events. Even for her, to whom memories mean so much, it's a struggle not to wish that particularly memory gone.
She shakes her head. But if that was her trying to get a hold of herself, that attempt failed. She may be a little calmer, but she still sounds pretty paranoid when she speaks again. "They remember. They haven't forgiven me. I can tell."
Just then, a Cucco appears. All round and cute and non-threatening. And just like that, where Xantia used to be standing, only an empty outline remains. Fled in blind panic, in the blink of an eye. Mastering Resonance is one thing, but will she ever overcome this trauma...?