2018-07-03: Never Stop Hoping
- Log: Never Stop Hoping
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline
- Where: Taben's Peak
- Date: 3rd July 2018
- Summary: After returning to Taben's Peak, Riesenlied and Noeline recuperate from the harsh revelations borne to them...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It's been a few days since the visit to the Earthenspire Mountains and Lombardia's roost; since then, Riesenlied has tried to gather her thoughts and rejuvenate her spirits by spending time with the children at Taben's Peak, as well as the Fereshte...
There's a riot of laughter from several children mounting up ontop of Muni as she and Odjn bounce around outside, with Riesenlied holding onto a book that she's reading, smiling quietly at the antics going on about her.
Something heavy is hanging over her head...
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline has found herself slipping back into a peaceful routine with surprising ease. It's not something she would particularly have expected of herself - but it's impossible to miss the fondness in her expression as she grumbles at the sight of the children roughhousing on top of Muni.
It's been a welcome reprieve from their rather dangerous trip - not least because her nerves still feel like they're sparking at every movement, her bones aching at the amount of sorcery thrumming through her. The battered armchair that Nall dragged out for her when she complained about losing her 'office' in Vane has never felt better.
Lombardia's words and anger are a concern, not to mention how they might have affected Riese - but Noeline is well aware that they both need time to process the events in the Dragon's nest, and that the best thing for her partner right now would be to immerse herself in looking after her extended family.
Still...
... something in Riesenlied's quiet smile is enough to send Noeline up to her feet, letting a hand stroke gently up the other demon's back as she draws alongside her; it ends up on her shoulder, offering a quiet squeeze regardless of the scaling there. She doesn't say anything, at first, though there is a soft huff of air.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied watches for a little while longer, before looking to Noeline as she leans against her life partner. "How... how does it feel? Does anything hurt?" she asks, ever eagerly concerned about the other Hyadean now that the seal of Duras Drum has been awakened within the Medium in her.
She swallows, then murmurs, "... I'm-- I'm doing okay, I promise. Mikaia spent some time beaming happy rays into me," as if she's quoting. "Lydie's going to give us a lift to Vane."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
It takes very little time for Noeline's arm to slip up further, laying across the other demon's shoulders in a hug as she steps closer and lets Riesenlied lean against her. Not replying immediately, she first rubs her partner's arm, letting out a quietly amused sigh.
"... everything aches," she admits after a moment, but with a grin. "And I think I'll be jumping at shadows for a while yet. On the whole, however, it is certainly not as bad as last time. Less explosions involved," she adds with a mock frown, purposefully glum.
She brightens again immediately, leaning over to place a kiss atop Riesenlied's hair. "We're all here with you," is all she says at first, knowing that sometimes it needs saying. "Whatever happens - whatever has happened - I and everyone here trust in your path. You gave them that hope."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lets out a trembling little noise, and-- feels comforted with the closeness Noeline's affording her as she places her fingers onto her hand. "Mm..." she softly sighs, against her rubbing.
A pause, for a moment as she expresses, "... I understand. We'll support you as long as you need... okay?" She smiles just for a moment longer.
"It's not just my path... it's ours," Riesenlied expresses as she looks towards the children outside. "I..."
She flinches just for a moment, and swallows. "I thought about... Lord Siegfried again..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Gently, Noeline tilts her head. "Of course," she sighs in return, her smile gentle. "And I promise, if I start to feel anything wrong, you will be the first to know. We are forging into rather unknown territory," she admits, allowing a brief look of trepidation to appear on her face before she replaces it with a grin. "... but at least we get a look at how it feels prior to entreating Odoryuk, hm?"
It's a bit of a poor joke, and Noeline knows it - but there's an element of truth in her words, too.
She looks up to watch the children tug on Muni's cheeks, stretching the poor blob of a dragon out. "... there's no need to feel worried or ashamed of that. None of us would fault you for it, given how close the two of you were. I am--" she hesitates, and frowns as she tries to figure out how to put it. "--I am slowly realizing my own impression of him was woefully incomplete."
A beat during which she rubs the other demon's arm again, as if for warmth. "Did you wish to talk about it?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied dithers for a moment and-- lets out a weak, scared and timid little laugh. "You're much stronger than I, and it hurts that much already..." A pause. "I remember when I materialised his visage up in that tower... and sacred flame poured throughout my entire body and burnt me."
She shivers for a moment, wincing. "But... but I owe it to myself, to Nasrin... to everyone in that village..."
She blinks a few more times as she asks, "Ah?" She stares as the children literally tug Muni into a thin trampoline that the Feresthe kids jump on. 'Yaaay!'
Muni can truly endure a lot of punishment...
"Should I...? I feel uncertain, but..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline pauses for a moment - and then moves around to seat herself next to Riesenlied, turning towards the other demon to bring her into a more full hug and let her nestle against the 'Crimson Noble's shoulder. A hand rests in blonde hair, stroking there slowly.
"I-- have faith that it will be lighter for you," she admits privately, choosing the word carefully. "You have Odoryuk's blessing, and a complete Medium that your Guardian will hopefully see fit not to lodge into your body in a hundred different pieces. ... more than that... I have never been a terribly empathic soul," she adds with a lopsided smile. "You have communed with Guardians far more than I, are more-- suited to their power. ... it will be alright," she adds, lending Riese that note of conviction.
Perhaps the hug was also so that Riese doesn't have to see Muni's remunification, even if the dragon seems terribly happy to oblige.
"I cannot say for sure if you should share without knowing what you might say," Noeline points out with a brief laugh, but shakes it away to offer another smile and a smatter of light kisses. "But whatever you choose - I certainly don't think there's anything wrong with thinking about the past. Simply bear that in mind." ====
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied blushes very gently as Noeline shuffles in and draws her into a fuller embrace, and shifts herself and brushes her gown down so she can nestle into Noeline.
"... I--I hope so," Riesenlied nods. "Eventually, such boundaries can be overcome... I have faith in Odoryuk's own beliefs."
She laces her hand to Noeline's as she relaxes, slacking her body against hers as several children peek in to go 'oooh mommy's being comffffy!' and running off with a giggle.
"Still, that-- that's... underselling you a lot, isn't it? You have centuries of experience on me. I want to learn from you, what I should prepare for..."
But the kisses start! "Back then... after the Day of Collapse... when I first found Odjn when I ventured into that mineshaft... Lord Siegfried was the one who saw us. He could've dismissed us, but he took the time to listen to us... and took us in..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Riesenlied's reward for relaxing her shoulders is a quiet hum, and another brush of a hand in her hair - not to mention the brief but possessive grump as the children giggle at them, and the way it makes Noeline just cling a little closer in response with her pout.
Her laugh, when it comes, is light and almost airy. "I-- do not know," she admits point-blank with another amused noise. "I only have myself to compare against - will the means of accessing a Guardian's power change between the two of us? You have Materialized Odoryuk - can I do the same for Duras Drum? What about now that he's unsealed? There are a great many questions that I simply don't know the answer to."
She pauses, and tucks the other demon in against her. "But even if it turns out you cannot learn from me directly, then we will at least learn together. I promise you that."
She quiets when Riesenlied begins to speak of Siegfried, her brow frowning as she tries to picture it. It's difficult; she's only ever known Riesenlied as the leader of the Tainted, and only ever known Siegfried as the stoic - and quietly angry - leader. "I see... but-- take you in where?" she wonders, not fully understanding how little a role Riesenlied had at the time.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's cheeks are ever warm as she shuffles just a little in the comfortable little space Noeline has created for her. "You could always try. I am uncertain how safe it might be, but... it is always worth a try..."
A pause, as she places her hands on her chest. "I know that I can learn from you. I already have, and will continue to do so..."
She shifts her head as she expresses, "... the Photosphere. He gave me and Odjn quarters, let us grow and learn and train... he taught me-- the basics. Swordsmanship, leadership, tactics... most everything I know about battle, I learned directly from him."
A pause. "But more than that, it was the first time... it was the first time I felt acknowledged as a person. I could see it in his eyes, that he wanted to do more for the Tainted, but... he was only able to do so much, with two other Quarter Knights in opposition."
She smiles very delicately as she says, "If it weren't for his own compassion, no matter how buried in his heart it is, I don't think I would have become as compassionate a person either."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"... we will. But, in good time," she adds with a nod. "There is no rush - we have time yet, and there probably isn't a good deal I could say before we've found the Medium itself. Besides, I could still use a few night's sleep before I try anything too reckless," she laughs to herself, relaxing in turn as she more or less drapes herself around Riesenlied's shoulders and nestles in a little herself.
She does pause when the story continues; it's much too important a thing to punctuate with flippant comments, and her attention is entirely on other demon as she relates the tale - of a Tainted being accepted into the Photosphere. It doesn't take much to guess that Riesenlied was probably the first to experience that honour. "... I see... ... honestly, I am feeling more and more that he's trapped by circumstance," she mutters eventually. "He and Lombardia both, I dare say."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks just a little bit lost as she expresses, "... it won't be easy to locate the village once more, but..." She tries to give Noeline an encouraging smile. "For once, I will be the local expert. I don't think you spent much time in the plains and steppes of Elru, did you...?"
She tilts her head as she expresses, "... that they are. But... it's still important to not be swayed too much one way... because what he has done is still-- abhorrent." A drastically hesitant pause.
"But I... I find it hard..." she shivers. "Like at Wayside. The word did not exist then, but I absolutely feel like he is a... father to me..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a quiet laugh, Noeline nods her head once more. "At the time, I barely even knew the concept of nomads," she admits with a sigh. "I found the idea of farmsteads completely ridiculous - not defensible at all, and terribly smelly to boot - and instead made my way straight to Arctica whereupon I immediately became a city girl. ... really, to think how far we've both come," she muses quietly to herself, letting her expression drift somewhere far-off.
She watches Riesenlied struggle for a moment, her brow furrowing - and then hushes her with a kiss. "... he still can be," she declares quietly, but with certainty. "Nothing says that you have to approve of every action your family takes. Nothing says that you must follow your parents exactly. If that is what he means to you, even after everything, then take pride in that. And let's see if we can't change his mind, if even a little."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied shuffles and draws her legs up. "Well, I... went completely the wrong way from you. I was just a child then, and we were no match for the blizzard that roared before us, Hyadean or not. I remember being picked up by riders on horses..."
She tilts her head with a quiet hum, looking far-off for a moment. ".... I wonder if he would still... he was terribly angry at me, but I think it is because he saw something of himself, five hundred years ago, in hindsight." She swallows, biting her lip. "... I'm ready for the worst outcome, but... I do hope..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Closing her eyes, Noeline lets out a chuckle as she allows herself to bury lightly into Riesenlied's hair. "Then, I will look forward to seeing Elru as you did," she declares grandiosely, and only slightly spoils it when she impishly adds, with a wink: "I promise not to complain about wanting a fireplace and a bath /too/ often."
She pauses immediately afterwards, though, concern flickering across her face at the way Riesenlied wavers. "... never give up hope," she says after a moment, her voice steady and serious. "That, more than anything, is your legacy and your pride - the fact that you have always hoped. Even if we cannot reach him, the most important thing is to try, is it not?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"W-well, a fireplace we can manage. And the village is not /that/ ill-equipped..." Riesenlied furrows her brow. "In the sunniest days, water would be drawn from the streams, and boiled for the washing for the young... there were petals and fruits that were used to scent the waters...."
She nods very quietly-- even as Mikaia and Janey suddenly pop up to go: "Don't give up hope!" and Mikaia beams to go, "If you never give up, you can do anything! That's what Dean taught you, right, Riesemama?"
"You two..." she smiles very quietly, beckoning for them so they can have a big family hug.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
With a laugh, Noeline shakes her head. "I trust you, and I'm looking forward to it. I say it not because I won't like the surrounds, but because I'm so used to having some things nearby--" she starts to say, but her brain gets immediately sidetracked at the idea of Riesenlied bathing amidst flowers and petals, and has to hinge her jaw shut as she quietly saves that idea to memory.
So sidetracked is she that she reflexively bonks Janey lightly on the head as the pair suddenly appears, if only because she's so used to trouble following immediately in the girl's wake. At her mistake, Noeline blinks, and immediately huffs - and makes up for it by helping to maneuver both of the children around to be better sat in Riesenlied's lap, patting the more boisterous of the two girls on the head. "It's been a long week," she explains for the two of them. "So it's fine if she needs a bit of a reminder, hm?"