2018-03-12: Adrift
- Log: Adrift
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Cecilia Adlehyde
- Where: Vane
- Date: 12th March 2018
- Summary: Cecilia happens upon Riesenlied and Noeline as they recuperate in Vane.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Magic City of Vane has been described as a home for those without a home -- a somewhat run-down little town of at most several large buildings and some other itinerant settlements for those that have congregated to Miria Ausa's side over time. Riesenlied and Noeline have come here along with Maya and the kids, Mikaia and Janey, since Meribia turned out to be somewhat dangerous for them to hang around in thanks to a renewed Althenan Guard bounty for "the Deceiver", worth 600,000 silver.
Looks like Riesenlied can't go anonymous even one star away...
Currently, the Wayside family are gathered around a cute little tent and campsite not far from the Althenan Goddess Statue, with Mikaia -- a seven or eight-year old Beastgirl with black hair and little black crow wings -- stirring the pot and humming as she lets the aromas waft. Several of the homeless are gathered as well in what's now becoming an impromptu lunchtime. "Hehe... it's just like Wayside."
Riesenlied is taking it easy, seated beside her and watching her cook. She's got a rather large series of bandages around her head, and Cecilia probably knows it's courtesy of when Berserk nearly crushed her skull with his palm. If it weren't for everyone else's interference...
Nearby, Janey -- an eleven or twelve year old with musty gray hair -- is banging away at a wall and putting up some more sheets of plywood with a grin on her face. "Well, it ain't pretty, but it'll keep the draft out!"
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is an obvious figure at Janey's side; she might have changed her look, but it isn't exactly difficult to pick her out given that it might be perhaps the worst disguise of all time. The red-and-black colour scheme has been changed for a black-and-red one instead, and her habitual dress has been replaced - by an armored dress instead, shorter but paired with a light breastplate, gauntlets and sleek greaves. Most notably, her hair is damn near identical, just tied up with ribbons rather than a headpiece.
Also, the grin. Somehow, through it all, the grin is intact.
"--it's a start, certainly, but we're probably going to need to do something about the other sides as well," she considers as she steps back to admire their work. A slim spear also in black is resting against the wall nearby, as she's been making sure to keep the outer environs of the town safe from wild animals. "A couple of walls are fine when the wind's coming in that direction, but we're still losing rather a bit too much heat at nighttime. Don't think I haven't seen you two curling up," she grumbles.
Her eyes flick towards Riesenlied, as they have so often today; she lets out a quiet sigh of relief, crossing over to offer the blonde a kiss on the cheek. It could almost be a tragic picture - but then Noeline grins once more. "... I think I'm supposed to stop you from nodding off, if I remember my first aid well enough," she huffs pleasantly.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia, however, has mostly remained in Meribia; trying to take stock of the situation, trying to learn the lay of the land in this new, strange place, hoping to catch word of one of her missing companions...being just enough of a princess to not really want to move /away/ from all the buildings containing beds she is allowed to use sometimes...
Regardless: Travel is part of this whole thing too, and today finds the Princess investigating tales of weirdos in a weird place. She dully remembers Lemina carping something about something like this? Maybe? She tuned Lemina out months ago, honestly. She emerges into the light! And--
Has not changed her outfit at all, because the only thing her player hates more than misbehaving code is designing outfits.
She ambles around, rubbernecking like the tourist she absolutely is and that this place prrrrobably does not get a lot of, before hearing the familiar clatter of small children bothering about. Her head cranes around the tent, tipping a little inquisitively. "You've made yourselves at home quickly," she says, not particularly feeling like she needs to beat around the greetings.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied blinks very softly; her reaction times may look a little off, and indeed they are, when Cecilia comes and looks about for them. "Oh... Miss Cecilia..." she reaches and-- quietly misses her cup of tea, Mikaia frowning as she hands it to her mother-figure instead. "Take it easy, still..."
Janey has a rather big grin in turn as she remarks, "Ah, it'll be fine, it'll be fine! Insulation's a big job and it's not somethin' we can do overnight!" She's been learning carpentry from some of the Waysiders, it seems...
Riesenlied -- smiles very quietly at the peck, remarking, "I-- I should not be nodding off, no. Um..."
She looks towards the Princess again, still somewhat reticient and no doubt a large amount of guilty conscience hanging by her. "I'm glad to see you're up... after what happened at the Tower with Odoryuk... and Berserk..."
She clutches at her cup of tea a little more unsteadily, and a bit of liquid spills. "That was... a rather frantic escape we had to do in Meribia. I still can't remember much of what happened."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline perhaps senses the Princess before she actually arrives; the tickle of Duras Drum at the back of her mind is a touch stronger here, likely because of their new promixity to the Guardian's seal. Eyebrows raised, she chuckles for a moment as she straightens up, but pauses to watch with uncertainty at the way in which Riesenlied's hand wavers - and her own hand goes back to the other demon's shoulder in quiet support.
"As Riese says - without the Fereshte, and with all of our wounds, we did have to rather take what we could get. The owner of this city nearly tried to demand we sleep inside and take their beds away from them, but-- well, you could say we came warned, and prepared to counter their hospitality," she notes with a streak of amusement on her face.
She pauses, and raises her eyebrows towards Janey, and then to Mikaia. "... I must admit, I don't actually remember if you've met these two," she adds as she turns back to the princess, nodding her head. "Janey, Mikaia, this is-- Cecilia," she decides against the title, perhaps expecting it to not be the greatest of ideas right about now.
Her smile is rather lopsided, if only because she can't wait for the Princess to face off against the Tiniest Lord of Calamity, but she continues: "She's a shaman from Adlehyde, and helped us a great deal. ... I suppose we have to stick together, given where we are now."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
...wow and Cecilia thought Berserk messed /her/ up.
The murmuring about whether Riese should remain conscious is...concerning, in association with those bandages on her head. Cecilia herself looks reasonably healthier, thanks to a steady diet of rest, potion berries, local herbs, and the fact she managed to remember to bring a Heal graph, in her minimal commitment to providing combat assistance to people other than herself.
She tips her head a bit at the local landperson's generosity. "Goodness," she says. "With so much generosity I think I'd be looking for the catch..." She grimaces a little. Cynical? Somewhat, perhaps. It's not like anyone ever offers her such--
She finds herself half-consciously rubbing her face and stops the thought, forcing her hands to her sides. "I don't believe I have!" she adds, and because she is a good person, squats down a bit to end up at Janey and Mikaia's eye level. "Hello, there," she says, with the kindly smile and fabulous teeth of the royal line.
Though her eyes do end up tracking back mostly to Noeline. "From what it sounds like, I barely moved the needle compared to some of your other boosters. I don't know that I deserve such praise."
Still, she does find herself tracking back over to Riesenlied, a look of mild concern on her face. "I thought he gave /me/ a wallop, but you're still not looking so well," she says, quietly. "I'm recovered, mostly. Give me a few plates of chow mein and I'll bounce back from anything!" She beams. The legend of the Glutton Princess begins a new...
She blinks at the escape, though. "It was hectic, that's for sure...I don't really know how it happened, even. I was unconscious when the teleport hit. But it must've been one..."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Adlehyde probably was fairly low on the beastperson variety, wasn't it? Mikaia's little wings wobble up and down as she smiles and-- does a little curtsy, saying, "M-mommaline told me about you! You're prettier than she described... hehe..."
Janey grins and waves as well from where she's banging plywood together, with a thumbs up. "Aaah, you should meet Miss Miria, she really is as generous as Riesemama is!"
Looks like both Hyadeans have a mom-nickname...
"... I-- don't tend to heal well," Riesenlied has to explain with some effort. "Unlike other Hyadeans, the impurity in my metal means slow healing and-- and--" she stutters, biting her lip.
Mikaia frowns and says, "Don't exert yourself too much, mama... the Goddess Statue is helping, though. They say wounds heal really quick around it... I wonder how it works?" She does perk up at the mention of chow mein though. "W-well, it's not noodles, but... you're welcome to our food!"
Oh no, Mikaia.
Riesenlied nods slowly, and explains, "We... encountered a lion-being calling himself the Lord of Calamity... I assisted Lucia in getting an Elw device up and running to whisk him away and--"
She makes a face. "I guess it... teleported us instead..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... and here we are," finishes Noeline with an amused sigh, her hand back on Riesenlied's shoulder. "To be honest, I've been trying to figure out whether that whole affair was a wash or not. A sealed statue, broken, and yet another threat to Filgaia's livelihood. And here we are, so far away from it all of a sudden," she sighs, her contemplative mood marked by a glance upwards at the planet hanging in the sky above them.
Her expression firms up, however, and she lightly bows to the Princess all of a sudden, the gesture oddly respectful for her. "... thank you for your assistance with Berserk. ... if it would only bring people back," she mutters sourly.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia looks /genuinely poleaxed/ as a small child randomly says she is pretty. It's just not the sort of thing she had on the mind much, lately. "Ah, why--thank you," she stutters, because you should encourage both children and people who say nice things about you.
And then, straightening back up - she catches the mama nicknames and decides she's much too deep in this to object, even if something in her still chaffs at the notion. "Impurities..." she murmurs. "I see. I was wondering what Berserk was talking about." ... She grimaces, shaking her head. "Not that we should give that brute's words any due." Her gaze tips up to the statue. "Goddess Althena..." she sighs, with more curiosity and exhaustion than the minor reverence she's always spoken of the Guardians with. "What a strange world she built."
She looks to Miakai's offer and smiles, but is not secretly some mythical creature that can be invited in unwittingly. "That's kind of you, but I think you'll need all of it for yourselves. I can make my own way." For now, anyway. Where DID Rudy end up...
Riesenlied explains what happened. Cecilia purses her lips together. "Elw teleporters...we know of them, of course. Sylvaland's built on their backs. But it's strange to imagine they could send someone to the moon!" ... She grimaces, up to the sky, at the unfamiliar Filgaia below. "If that's where we are," she mutters. She hasn't ruled out something much weirder yet. From what Claude told her...would it be possible? Wouldn't it make /more/ sense for the reason the Old Moon and Filgaia don't look right in each others' skies to be that they're /not in/ each others' skies...?
But she could swear, every so often, behind the whistling melody that seems to pulse through this entire world, she hears Filgaia's Guardians calling out. She doesn't look over to Noeline until the demoness is bowing. "Oh," she mutters, attentive again. "....no."
A flat rejection. Then, suddenly more animated: "Thank /you./ That.../beast/ deserved everything he got and more." So not quite all aboard the mercy train, then. She looks to the side, the heat of those words only slowly cooling.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There is a rather delighted look on Mikaia as she nods in turn, clapping a few times as she continues stirring at the pot, nodding as she says, "Okay! We've been cooking for the people here too, so there's a lot to go around..."
Riesenlied genuinely looks interested in that, up there. "I didn't know that... my knowledge-- of Filgaia is rather restricted to Elru." She frowns quietly. "Even aside from my brethren, it has suffered greatly recently... Noeline is the one who's travelled far abroad, of us two."
She closes her eyes for a moment, and murmurs, "... I do have deep concerns for what our absence will mean for the statues... I can only hope it was not simple for Alhazred to create more..." and a sigh. She... doesn't exactly offer any words of mercy, because... well. Even if there is pity there, there isn't exactly... sympathy.
She looks towards Cecilia to say, "... I-- I was not in a hale state of mind then, as you can imagine, but I remembered... I remembered hearing Odoryuk's voice. Speaking to him. Drawing forth the power that lingered when his statue was destroyed..."
She bites her lip. "Noeline said I materialised him. ... the memory is vague, in all honesty."
Given Berserk's head trauma, that... probably isn't surprising in the least.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's lips are pressed tight in a line at the Princess' response; she obviously can't claim to be wholly happy with the situation, what with the way in which it surely counted as a total and complete end to a large phase of her life. On the other hand, her expression isn't exactly /sorrowful/, either, and there's a grim note of determination and pride in her eyes.
--but-- she lets it go, just like that, and is all smiles again in a moment as she continues to rub gently at the other demon's shoulder. "I suppose the real question is how we're going to get back," she huffs softly to herself. "I imagine that our existence here on Lunar does at least imply that the Elw were spread across both planets, so if we are lucky we will be able to find some remnants of their technology here. Or perhaps we'll just slip back in the same fashion that the rest of them came to Filgaia in the first place."
She pauses to let Riesenlied catch the princess up with her version of events, then lets out a sigh. "Still... it is helpful, being here on Lunar. I would not have thought I'd have the opportunity to follow Duras Drum's advice /quite/ so soon."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
In a way, despite all she occasionally feels uncertain about how she got the gig, it's comforting to have people quietly soliciting her about the Guardians again. It soothes the fact that she can't hear them right now. Though the song of this world is beautiful itself...
"I think what..." Cecilia begins, slowly, and then cuts herself off, stumbling with words for a moment. She looks up, finally, seconds later. "The Guardians are doing everything in their power. This isn't what they're supposed to have to do. They're the power that sustains the world, not the power that smites evil. But still, they're doing everything. Every cheat, every trick, every...strange little thing they can possibly do to help us, all of us, to live. So I can't say I'm very surprised that Odoryuk spoke to you, despite what you are. Despite all the fear they have for the Metal Demons. It would just be another impossible thing they've dared to try in their efforts to save us." She smiles, warmly. "A desperate, wonderful miracle."
And then Noeline says her part and Cecilia sighs, helplessly. "I believe I've said it already, but I can't hear the Guardians here. The song of this world is very different from what I hear on Filgaia...so I'm somewhat without the direction I've been getting for the last few months." ...
Sigh. "I'm adrift. I guess is what I mean. At least Emma's here..."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... the last thing I desire ... is destructive power," Riesenlied huddles into herself a little closer. "A power to reach out and speak to others... a power to understand. Perhaps that was what set us on this path, so long ago at the Temple... and now..."
She-- can't help but smile, a bit less warmly... it's a smile that still wears plainly the guilt that she bears for Adlehyde and Arctica. "... I won't forget it, or waste their gift. Lydie has made me this garment, of the Baskar's..."
She gestures to the gown she's wearing, a white and blue dress with flaring detached sleeves shaped like the feathers of a great, blue bird. "I want to live up to her hopes too."
She nods slowly as Cecilia expresses that she can't hear them here, but... "Duras Drum... mentioned something particularly interesting when we met him..." She looks to Noeline to have her explain. It's her gig, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline's huff is quiet, but she seems genuinely pleased with herself - and with Riesenlied, too, obviously prideful at the fact that the other Hyadean has truly managed to forge a connection with the Guardian closest to her. Her hand squeezes Riese's shoulder carefully, and then she's looked up to nod at the priestess.
"We spoke with Duras Drum, back at his statue within those gardens. Honestly, he tried to fob me off saying that he was tired, but I gave his statue a good kick and he just laughed," she snickers to herself, but looks back to the princess as she turns more solemn. "He explained to us - that the reason that he was sealed was because he was here on Lunar. Maintaining the veil of illusion that makes each planet think the other is empty. To what end, he preferred that we figure that out ourselves. Personally, I can think of a great many candidates," she grumbles.
The Crimson Noble turned Dark Knight (good /lord/ Noeline) steps away from Riesenlied for just a moment, and sighs as she runs a hand back through her hair. "Personally-- I think the Guardians need all the help that they can get, at the moment. And that veil has long since been pierced, and not even Duras Drum is quite sure how. ... so I am going to go and unseal him." A pause. "Hopefully, Lunar will not panic. Hopefully, Gebler absolutely will. It may be a bit bizarre for a while."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia smiles warmly for Riesenlied. "It's a fine wish," she says. Some part of her wonders if she should be sad that so much of her Guardian power is destructive.
Well. She's not /entirely/ unlike Jack, in some regards. Dialogue would be nice, but...she's not prepared to commit to it the way Riesenlied is.
Cecilia missed the Duras Drum statue, so she looks over as Noeline explains. She chuckles at the description of the Guardian of Illusion's personality...but it fades to a thoughtful look as Noeline explains his nature and status. "What does anybody gain...?" she murmurs. "Another riddle. Who /is/ this Althena?" Her eyes turn up. "What did she do that the other Guardians are so angry about? Why go to the trouble of binding a Guardian to sustaining a planetary-scale illusion?"
She tips her head as Noeline explains her plan, and...shrugs. "Well, I don't see a problem, I guess. As you say. The Guardians could use everything we can get them. Though I wonder what the truth will do to us all..." Hm. ... "Well I suppose I'll get some angry letters from Sielje Observatory, at least..."
She chuckles, then, taking a step back. "I should see myself around," she says. "Be careful. This world..."
Her eyes trail off, a small bead of ambient Malevolence floating past her vision. "...it has its own perils," she murmurs, and turns to go.