2018-08-01: Is It Enough
- Log: Is It Enough?
- Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Riesenlied, Rebecca Streisand, Prissa, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Castle Rabenstein
- Date: August 1st 2018
- Summary: Recruited by Riesenlied -- and perhaps with their own plans in mind -- a group ventures into Castle Rabenstein in search of what the darkness conceals. Instead, they meet Ida.
DG: A party led by Riesenlied is now entering Castle Rabenstein. DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
===========================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Wake Bitey *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The front gates of Castle Rabenstein are closed and barred. On top of that, the skeletal, Malevolence-animated form of a truly massive wyvern is sprawled out in front of them. It looks like it might be asleep, as odd as that sounds. (He may or may not have a snore bubble coming out one skeletal, ice-rimmed nostril.) You might be able to climb the wall and access another entrance, but whatever you decide, you'll need to be quiet about it. If you get past the wyvern, you might be able to get inside without being noticed. Wake it up, and you'll have a problem on your hands. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Bad Luck===========================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The journey up the mountain is decidedly less arduous. That stomach-churning aura of anxiety has lessened, at least for Avril and Rebecca--between their previous journey and their trial in Uzda il-Jam, they've seemingly grown strong enough that the Domain has no interest in 'testing' them. The path they took is largely still intact, necessitating only a few detours to account for the mountain's shifting landscape. It isn't until they get to the castle gates that the first problem presents itself.
It's a big problem. Bitey, peaceful-looking though he may seem, is also an enormous, undead monster. Discretion is probably called for.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied, it seems, isn't getting a lot of rest from the voices that echo throughout the world; Mount Manfred had been a known quotient of Malevolence, and the reports of an ominous castle ensconced in it would be enough to keep her away... but...
Not today, it would seem.
The Hyadean is up at the top of the mountain climb, huddling in an extra-thick gown lined with wool coloured white, with a hood as she leans against a travelling staff that she's found need of recently.
The trials at Uzda il-Jam has... changed her, in a way that she doesn't understand. Normally, the Malevolence within would wither away at her until she feels nauseous and ill and can barely stand, but--
--this time, she feels strong enough to venture forth. She can sense it deeply, still, yet...
"Thank you for coming, Avril, Rebecca, Prissa," she looks towards the rest of the party. "I am uncertain what we'll find inside--" probably nothing pleasant, but... "--but... something... something calls."
She shakes her head. "We'd best be... cautious around that guardian." She's not exactly sneaky, but... she'll try her best.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
It's strange. One day it's blissful ignorance. Oh sure when people tell you about it - Avril sure talked about it enough - but it was like someone telling you about something you can't see. Maybe it's real - maybe it's not. And then the next - it's like the world is just different. Like a curtain got pulled back and now you're seeing things as they truly are.
BGM Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMoylXieD4w
Cue Castle Rabenstein. The wispy filter of malevolence is all around. She can feel the domain shoving against her senses and instinctively she's pushing back with defenses she only just gained. Putting a hand up over her forehead, she spies the wyvern and squints, a shiver running through her.
Is this what it was like for her? It's nice knowing a little more about how she feels. It's scary too though - like I've taken a big step into adulthood because this is not something I can come back from. Like part of that innocence of being a kid is gone for good.
Rebecca turns to Riese and Avril and murmurs. "Is it asleep? Do skeletons really sleep? Maybe it's playing possum to catch us off guard..." She looks at it warily. Before nodding thoughtfully, "Even if it's awake though maybe we can still climb up past it if we're quiet enough. I'm going to go give it a try."
Rebecca slides over to the castle wall, then starts to climb up. She doesn't use any climbing gear. Instead using the stonework for handholds and footholds. Every so often glancing down at the wyvern to gauge it's reaction...
If she gets up high enough, she'll drop a rope down.
Some things you just can't ever take back. You know?
She just hopes that coming here isn't one of those things.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa had left her drum in a locked storage closet in the Caravan Kinship's landwagon along with several of her supply cases. This has lightened her load considerably and has made her significant physical gifts shine, which mostly meant she was bouncing up and down and overcoming the difficulties of the way up. She "only" has five swords, a ditty bag, and an unclear number of knives with her. Plus a hammer and a couple of lengths of wood. Never know when you'll need wood.
"You are welcome," she tells Riesenlied. Her arms fold, still bare despite the snowfall. Looking upwards, she says, "A place of this sort... I would want to see it no matter what. I begin to have suspicions of what lays beneath here. But this kind of - machinery; it is common on the Blue Star, eh?"
As they get up closer, nearer, she squints behind her tinted glasses at Snoozer the Dragon. She thoughtfully fingers the hilt of one weapon - but Rebecca seems to be going for a climb. "(Ah! Good!)" she stage-whispers, moving forwards carefully and stretching out her arms. Is she... spotting Rebecca, in case she falls?
Yes.
DG: Prissa has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"You are welcome."
It's changed.
The mind already has ways of filtering out things that assault it every day. It's true -- she by no means dwells on every instance of Malevolence, as common as it is in the cities of Lunar. But the presence that suffuses this place, and the castle perched upon its peak, has dimmed.
Somehow, Avril does not think it's because the power here has weakened to any great degree. No, it was the experience of the ruins of Uzda Il-jam, of that moment where it felt like she was walking on a road of light.
She's certain of that.
"We have grown stronger, haven't we," she murmurs, gazing up at the castle. The domain here shouldn't harm them unless they permit it to do so.
But one lessened threat does not mean there are no threats to be had.
Indeed, there are plenty of avenues of harm available to them here.
Like, well, that.
"I am not certain," Avril says, in a whisper. "I do not think we should find out." She rustles for something, stashed away in the bag slung over her shoulder -- in pure deference for the weather, she's out of her usual garb and wearing a number of layers.
"Be careful," she cautions, before invoking the power of the Medium she produces.
This should help steady Rebecca's climb... and permit some truly gravity-defying leaps.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Sea Medium toward her party's challenge, Don't Wake Bitey.
===========================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================ ======================<* CHALLENGE - Don't Wake Bitey *>====================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The front gates of Castle Rabenstein are closed and barred. On top of that, the skeletal, Malevolence-animated form of a truly massive wyvern is sprawled out in front of them. It looks like it might be asleep, as odd as that sounds. (He may or may not have a snore bubble coming out one skeletal, ice-rimmed nostril.) You might be able to climb the wall and access another entrance, but whatever you decide, you'll need to be quiet about it. If you get past the wyvern, you might be able to get inside without being noticed. Wake it up, and you'll have a problem on your hands. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Bad Luck===========================================
======================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 1 *>======================= ========================< Results - Don't Wake Bitey >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Sea Medium 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 0 --(15)--> 15 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Prissa has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Spectral Footsoldiers *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The twisting corridors of the castle deposit you on a narrow parapet overlooking the frozen plains. Ahead, you hear footsteps--and as you watch, the spectral forms of a half-dozen armored soldiers condense out of mist and Malevolence. All of them carry swords, and the insignia on their tabards is the royal crest of fallen Arctica. Their leader shouts something in a strange, distorted voice that sounds like a corrupted recording. At their command, the rest of the soldiers draw their blades and attack. They might be mere shadows of Arctica's finest, but they fight with all the grim determination of the real thing. The real thing, which no longer exists. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
For about five agonizing minutes, everything rests on Rebecca's shoulders. The stonework of the castle seems to shift, subtly, as she climbs, meaning that cracks and footholds can vanish without warning. Some of the stones feel inexplicably slick, while others are rough, or abnormally hot to the touch. Nevertheless, she makes the climb quickly, efficiently, and quietly, putting all her grace and training to work. (And even if she does misplace a foot once or twice, Prissa is there to catch her, and Lucadia's blessing grants her supernal speed.)
Once she's at the top, it's a simple matter to drop the rope, and for the others to climb up. Bitey continues snoozing away, stretching one massive, ossified claw as if clutching for prey in his sleep. Talons the size of daggers gleam in the torchlight.
The top of the parapet overlooks a courtyard of some sort, but a thick, violet haze of Malevolence hangs over it, making it impossible to tell what's down there. The easiest way forwards is further down the parapet, to an oaken door...
A door that swings open as the group approaches. A squad of six spectral figures emerge from within, immediately sighting the intruders and drawing their blades. "----!" shouts their leader, her voice more like the crackle of static than anything else. Their tabards bear the sigil of fallen Arctica--and the same emblem appears on the keystone of the doorway they just opened.
The soldiers charge.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied isn't exactly the best climber, what with how awkward and unbalanced her body is, but the rope from Rebecca comes as a boon. She's grateful as she moves along at the end of the group, pulling herself up with a quiet sigh as she lifts up with a deep wince. She's clutching her staff to the point where her knuckles whiten.
"I suppose not, but... Malevolence does make for unusual behaviours," Riesenlied admits to Rebecca. If it makes a skeleton act as if it were living... it wouldn't be the oddest thing it's done.
She tilts her head as she remarks to Prissa, "It is... more common in the Blue Star, but not uniformly so, no."
Avril's comment prompts a thought of her own. Had she grown stronger, herself? She isn't certain. Her head feels clearer, even with a voice tugging her indistinctly in the distance--
--until they get to the door, and her face falls just for a moment. "This crest..." she murmurs at the doorway, and then there is a yell as the charging soldiers of Arctica beset upon them.
"... ah...!"
Riesenlied's pressed backwards immediately as she finds herself faltering -- she barely holds her staff up as the soldiers carve into her, shredding it into two, then three; she steps back with a thin cut along her side as she murmurs, "You are..."
She bites her lip. "The elite fourth Royal company... Garrett--"
Riesenlied paces down the halls and cups her hands to her chest. "Please, Lord Siegfried. Please reconsider. There must be another way...!"
A blade's stuck mere inches to the parapet wall beside her, and she's on the ground before she can even realise what's going on. "I couldn't..."
She might need some help.
DG: Riesenlied has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Spectral Footsoldiers.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Heh. I'm not used to it yet enough to know how it behaves." She says idly to Riese - trying to mask any anxiety in that statement.
It might rest on her. And yet it doesn't feel like that given Prissa's support spotting her and Avril's medium making her movements just feel... lighter. Making the jumps that felt impossible not so long ago feel real possible.
Once they're both over the top, she claps a hand on Prissa's shoulder lightly in a gesture of comraderie before whispering, "Thanks!"
Before then helping Avril up and over. "I do feel a little stronger." Rebecca observes with a smile, following up on her earlier remark. "Maybe it's just we're getting better working together as a team though."
Moving across the battlements to an oaken door...
It swings open and - "Company!"
Her revolver is drawn in a second, the gun spinning in her hand and - there's a spectral figure on her in a moment. Instead of shooting point blank, instead she finds herself grabbing them by the Artica Tabard and swinging up a knee. It's not much good against the Spectre but it's the only play she feels she can make.
She's punished for it by a spectral blade nearly taking off her hair, prompting a quick backstep that slides her across the battlements before squeezing the trigger a few times.
"Hope these aren't anyone you know!" Rebecca calls as Riese identifies them. She would barely even know Artica by name...
Which is why she doesn't feel bad at all invoking her medium, "Solais Emsu!"
A few of the castles stones shift as earth elemental magic blasts them upwards into their ranks.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has used her Tool Sky Medium toward her party's challenge, Spectral Footsoldiers.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Even if Rebecca is sure of foot, and even if she has Lucadia's blessing upon her, and even if Prissa is there and waiting in the event of a tumble, Avril still finds herself -- at least for a handful of moments -- holding her breath.
Perhaps even she is not always so calm as she may seem.
But those tense moments pass, and then, it's up and over the wall courtesy of the rope ladder.
"Hmm, that may also be possible," she comments, her gaze turning towards the door at the end of this stretch of battlements. "They do say, 'two heads are better than one'. Perhaps if the number were increased, then...?"
Sometimes it's hard to tell when Avril is being serious or not.
The door creaks open. Avril turns, her gaze intent.
Absolute Zero in her hand.
"Arctica? Then they're-- Riesenlied!"
Light flares from the ARM's hilt; Avril rushes in where the spectral soldiers press for the Hyadean.
"Begone!"
Light scythes through the air with a sizzling hiss.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has used her Tool Beam Whip Mode toward her party's challenge, Spectral Footsoldiers.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa's shoulder is hard, but in a good way. "No sweat," she tells Rebecca, giving her a thumbs-up.
There is a certain advantage to Prissa here, right now.
Prissa, you see, does not know anything about what is going on here. She came along because she was at loose ends and could make contact with people. She is probably an expert on some aspects of what could be here... and to her, these figures are not memories of a dark shame. To her, they are -
"Fiends!" Prissa says, with a sort of grim pleasure.
She reaches into her waistband, rummaging in her loose trews (she did put on new pants since her experrience in Uzda il-jam) and saying, "They speak so harshly, don't they? Do you ever hear the like of such sounds?" before bringing out
A FISTFUL OF KNIVES
A FEW KNIVES MORE
THE KNIFE, THE KNIFE, AND THE KNIFE
And hurling them all forwards. Left hand overhand, right hand underhand! "They may not be human in corpus despite their shape," she explains. "Lied! Use sharp strikes!"
DG: Prissa has used her Tool A Disturbingly Large Quantity of Knives toward her party's challenge, Spectral Footsoldiers.
===========================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================ ===================<* CHALLENGE - Spectral Footsoldiers *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The twisting corridors of the castle deposit you on a narrow parapet overlooking the frozen plains. Ahead, you hear footsteps--and as you watch, the spectral forms of a half-dozen armored soldiers condense out of mist and Malevolence. All of them carry swords, and the insignia on their tabards is the royal crest of fallen Arctica. Their leader shouts something in a strange, distorted voice that sounds like a corrupted recording. At their command, the rest of the soldiers draw their blades and attack. They might be mere shadows of Arctica's finest, but they fight with all the grim determination of the real thing. The real thing, which no longer exists. =Dungeon Conditions: Exhaust==================================================
======================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 2 *>======================= =====================< Results - Spectral Footsoldiers >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Beam Whip Mode 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass Sky Medium 3 Combat Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 5 --(5)--> 10 Pass A Disturbingly Large Quantity of Kn 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 15 --(15)--> 30 Pass Conditions: Bad Luck(1)|Exhaust(1)|Slow(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 15 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Riesenlied has drawn a new Challenge.
===========================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================ =====================<* CHALLENGE - Mannikin Servitors *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Mannikins are not an uncommon sight in Castle Rabenstein. These human-sized Hellion automatons look something like articulated metal dolls, and perform basic tasks tirelessly and without complaint. You've just stumbled across a group of them, but it seems they've taken issue with your intrusion. The Mannikins charge you, attacking with their fists and whatever tools they have handy. In contrast with their normal, calm behavior, their body language is manic. They will fight until destroyed. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Riesenlied crumples against the battlement. The guard above her raises his blade, a hatred from beyond the grave lingering in his eyes--
Rebecca's bullets shread through the specter's Malevolent corpus, shredding it into wisps of violet mist. Its face flashes through shock, horror, and pain as its 'body' comes apart. Pillars of earth tear into the others, knocking another spectral swordswoman off her feet and right into the path of Absolute Zero. Avril's blade bisects the spectre, and continues on its ruthless course, chopping the arm off another Malevolence-phantom as it whirls to try and finish the terrified Hyadean off. Prissa's volleys of knives pierce spectral breastplates, throats. The fight is ugly, but it's over with quickly.
White lotus blooms open petals on either side of Riesenlied, breathing in the grief and anguish and survivor guilt.
The door is open. It's easy enough to take the stairwell within, though the moment everyone steps inside, space seems to twist. The stairwell is longer than it should be, logically, so much so that it feels like the door at the other end--the only other door--should lead to the basement. It doesn't. The moment it's pushed open, it reveals an oddly civilized scene: a well-appointed parlor, with fine wooden furniture and mostly-empty bookshelves and plush seats. A group of strange metal figures are hard at work, dusting and polishing the furniture, and sweeping the floor. They dont even seem to notice the intrusion, at least at first. Wouldn't it be nice to take a seat, after what you've just been through?
The moment someone does, the Mannikins react with shocking violence. The ones with feather-dusters drop their tools and rush the group, trying to bludgeon and strangle with cold, metal hands. The one with a broom snaps off the straw end, and uses it like a spear.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It's bad form to have your battle plan be 'sit there and be terrified', but trauma has a way of creeping up on you in ways that you don't expect. Especially trauma that you haven't really gotten over that has just manifested in spectral form...
The Metal Demon commander stands at the top of an all-too-familiar parapet. A battle rages underneath her. Several citizens are hurrying, a family with an infant clutched at his mother's breast. She gestures to express, "The exits are unblocked. Humans -- escape now if you value your lives," even as the look of regret lives on, hauntingly, in her eyes.
Just because she's spared the noncombatants doesn't mean Berserk isn't a block away, after all. She knows how hollow her mercy is.
She closes her eyes and covers her head as she sees that blade--
Solais Emsu!
Earth elemental blasts erupt through the ghosts, pushing some of them away and in time for Avril to call her name and also scythe through them with her beam-whip. Prissa encourages her, and she follows suit as she uses the remnant of her staff to upstrike one of them in the breastplate and pushes away.
She stares towards the lotus as it opens around her, whispering, "What...?"
She clutches that nick on the side to admit to Rebecca, "... it was people I knew." She leaves it at that, though, because they both don't have time to dwell on it -and- it's not healthy for her, she knows that much.
At the very least, they're indoors again...
It's a lovely parlour, with wooden furniture with quality timber that Riesenlied can appreciate. Metal figures are present, however, and--
She jolts just a moment as they rush towards them. "I won't falter this time..."
The Hyadean retreats from the front, her wings drawing her up to a floating position as she begins to play a melody from her guqin, her zither-like stringed instrument. "May this serenade put you to rest..."
With each string she plucks, with each bar of notes that she plays, the reverb of light echoing from out of her intensifies -- ensconcing perhaps not the Mannikins themselves, which are just metal, but the Hellic (Hellionic?) influence that controls them in the first place.
DG: Riesenlied has used her Tool Bella Aeterna toward her party's challenge, Mannikin Servitors.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Light is there and gone, winking out in the seconds after the mysterious ARM's secondary mode burns through the stored charge. Like a warrior old, Avril maintains that post-stroke pose for an eyeblink, empty hilt held out to one side as the rest of the phantoms falter and fall.
Then she straightens.
"Are you all right?" she asks of the Hyadean, reaching out her unburdened hand.
...Noeline had mentioned something of this. Relating to her own situation in the aftermath of Arctica, to be sure, but if Noeline felt remorse...
Then it was a fair statement that Riesenlied surely did.
"...When you are ready, we should continue. I would not like to remain here." Out on the wall, in the dark.
Even Avril can be made to shiver.
What they find within is not friendly.
"Ah--" Avril gasps, startled apparently for that instant, before moving away from the servitor with a practiced series of backwards steps.
When she reverses her course, she does so swiftly, bringing down Absolute Zero's bare hilt as she does so.
The blade leaps to life; its edge is sharp.
DG: Avril Vent Fleur has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mannikin Servitors.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca double takes as Avril says that. Is she serious? She's not sure. She tries to imagine Avril with several heads though and can't quite manage. "I think you do fine with just one." Rebecca notes with a smile.
"How many knives do you carry!?" Rebecca gawks at Prissa some.
Rebecca tries not to notice the white lotus petals that open alongside Riese. Tries - but fails utterly. What does it mean?
When Riese admits they were people she knew - Rebecca holsters her ARM. And puts up two fingers to pinch her nose - before glancing upwards.
"Right." Letting go of her nose she looks down, "If it becomes too much for you. Let us know. There's no sense forcing it."
It's not long after she gives Avril this look. Like she wants to ask her what she knows - given what she said.
Yet she doesn't right now.
Inside they go - and Rebecca notices space start to twist in a dizzying way. As they finally make it to the parlor though. Rebecca double takes at the Mannikins - "Creep-" Then she notices they're moving, "-eep."
That's the most coherent noise out of her before she draws and starts shooting. She's not even certain what Mannikin anatomy is like so mostly she's trying to shoot away their weapons - and limbs.
One of them she shoots off a leg - and it keeps crawling at her.
She empties the rest of the clip into it a few moments later.
DG: Rebecca Streisand has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mannikin Servitors.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"A bunch," Prissa tells Rebecca, casually. She stretches afterwards, revealing that she also uses some of them to shave, apparently. She exhales as the battle ends, or at least, reaches a lull. "Okay," she begins, before flowers bloom on either side of Riesenlied.
Prissa looks at Rebecca, pointing at the flowers but struggling for a moment on what to say.
After this they move forwards, inside. Prissa exclaims in relief at the relative warmth. When doors are reached and one is opened, Prissa's eyes widen in shock behind her glasses, especially when the creatures lunge to attack.
Prissa leans backwards at a preposterous and anatomically-stressful poise as one of the broom-dust mannikins tries to skewer her with sharp wood. Her hand comes down to grip the hilt of one of her blades and a glittering shamshir with damascus pattern-welding on it comes out in a sideways swipe at the maidotron's center mass.
"Hips and shoulders!" she calls out, repeating it several times even as she struggles. What?
Well, Prissa reasons, that's probably where the motivational engineering is.
DG: Prissa has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Mannikin Servitors.
===========================<* Castle Rabenstein *>============================ =====================<* CHALLENGE - Mannikin Servitors *>===================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 1 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- Mannikins are not an uncommon sight in Castle Rabenstein. These human-sized Hellion automatons look something like articulated metal dolls, and perform basic tasks tirelessly and without complaint. You've just stumbled across a group of them, but it seems they've taken issue with your intrusion. The Mannikins charge you, attacking with their fists and whatever tools they have handy. In contrast with their normal, calm behavior, their body language is manic. They will fight until destroyed. =Dungeon Conditions: Fright===================================================
======================<* Castle Rabenstein - Round 3 *>======================= =======================< Results - Mannikin Servitors >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Riesenlied 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Bella Aeterna 4 Combat Effects: Fanfare and Efficient ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Avril Vent Fleur 10 --(10)--> 20 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebecca Streisand 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prissa 10 --(5)--> 15 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Riesenlied 30 --(20)--> 50 Pass Conditions: Fright(2) Effects: ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Riesenlied has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Riesenlied's music dulls the Mannikins' sudden, murderous impulses. One of them starts to slow mid-swing at Rebecca's head, only to take a bullet in the torso. Avril hacks off another Mannikin's arm, the limb clattering to the floor. Prissa's blade meets with a layer of metal, and then nothing--no pneumatics, no internal support systems, no electronics, no nothing. Avril provides a nice demonstration of how these things are put together by virtue of slashing one through the torso--the limbs are articulated with a sort of ball-and-socket joint, and the neck is on a very similar mount. It's not even particularly combat-worthy, as Prissa's own blade cuts through them easily enough, and Rebecca's bullets punch clean through--
Of course, the group may well be so busy defending themselves that they fail to notice the presence rapidly approaching them. There's a sudden surge, like a change in air pressure, and the door at the far end of the room slams open.
Ida Everstead-Rey steps into the room, barefoot, wearing some sort of houserobe with a tasteful floral print on it. Her long, silver hair is in total disarray, there are dark circles around her pale, violet eyes, and the Malevolent star in her chest glows and flickers.
The Mannikin Avril just gutted topples over, pointing a finger at her, accusingly.
Ida stares at the group for a long moment, the expression on her face somewhere between 'enraged', 'terrified', and 'completely poleaxed'. The conflict is so intense her Domain flickers into being around her, lining her in an aura of darkness. Finally, though, something seems to win out. "Good evening," Ida says. "I was not expecting visitors."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lets out a relieved breath as her toes touch back down upon ground from her musical position, clutching the guqin to her chest as the mannikins fall apart. She's still a bit unstable, but nods quietly to Avril when she asks if she's all right...
"I will-- manage. There is someone I do not want to fail, so..."
She nods again at Rebecca, finding her concern to be reassuring. She was right -- she, Avril and Dean have been working better as a team, and she can only hope she can contribute to it too...
She notices that Prissa seems to have more mechanical knowledge than someone from Lunar, but doesn't really comment on it. It'd be rude! She bows her head to say, "Thank you for your help too, Prissa--"
The door opens.
Riesenlied's eyes widen. "Ida...?" She hesitates, as she presses her hand to her chest. The Dragon's Tear begins to convulse with an anxious purple light. The Domain erupts out, making her wince and flinch a little like it did at Uzda Il-Jam, but...
"... I did not know this was your-- domain. Something... a voice beckoned me here," Riesenlied admits. She furrows her brow. Well, it's hardly the first time ambigious summons have led Riesenlied somewhere.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca freezes the moment she hears Ida's voice.
Then slowly her eyes trail over to her. And then lifting up a hand, a single finger as if she's trying to decide on something. "Uh. Well - you look real surprised but I'm... kinda not."
Taking that hand she scratches behind her head - righ at the nape of her neck between the two twintails, looking awkward. "We have a habit of running into you lately."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"All right. If it proves necessary, we shall withdraw. But if it is possible, I would care to see this through to the end."
But is she prepared for what 'the end' might mean? In spite of Dean's attempts, something, some sense, twines around her heart like a cruel vine. That she might need to do what is required, as opposed to what she would wish.
But there is little sense dwelling on an event that has yet to come to pass.
Particularly when they have a bit of a problem here, in the heart of the castle.
Piece by piece, the doll comes apart.
They aren't built to fight, Avril realizes as the arm clatters to the floor, providing her a momentary glimpse of part of what makes these things tick. Should they withdraw?
There's no room to breathe, let alone consider another option -- she might have damaged the toy, but it is not stopped.
Another swordstroke sees to that.
And it's than and only then that Avril suddenly straightens, her gaze right for the doorway on the opposite end of the room.
As she stands above the felled Mannikin, sword in hand.
"...Ida." Absolute Zero's blade vanishes.
"Yes. We have come here uninivited," she states, as blunt as ever. "Riesenlied asked for my assistance, and so I came." She pauses, glancing sidelong at Riesenlied. "I apologize, Riesenlied."
"...I was aware of the nature of this place. It is not her Domain alone."
Her gaze lingers then on of all things that dark nova at Ida's chest. Is that the core of this force, however it might orchestrate itself...?
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa, slightly dirtied, bare-armed, wielding a sword, stares at Ida as she looks upon them in some kind of robe.
"Hallo," she says. She puts the sword away while following in, taking the rear as others speak so that she can better figure out what the devil is going on here. They speak of her domain. A beckoning. Rebecca says there's fate of sorts bringing them together. Avril says they have come uninvited. At this point Prissa's arms fold in a slightly loose manner, and she looks around. As she does, she says something kind of in sing-song, which sounds like, "Teoo-ohooee eehatean kudeae ha te?"
After this she looks dead-ass on at Ida, and asks in a forthright manner, "Why have you made this a place of industry?"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"And you dragged the rest of them--" Ida begins. She doesn't finish. She takes a breath, lets it out slowly. Prissa asks a question in a language Ida does not understand, and then repeats in a language she can. "It's homey," Ida says. It's like she's trying to steady herself, to ground herself when caught flat-footed. "You must be tired. Come this way. I insist."
A LITTLE WHILE LATER
A second group of noncombat Mannikins finishes cleaning up the debris of their comrades, dispassionately. Where possible, they've popped out usable components--limbs and pieces that are still undamaged, or that can be fixed with a little work. The rest has gone into a wheelbarrow. Several other Mannikins are in full tending-to-guests mode. They've brought tea, water, and what look like freshly-baked cookies. The parlor is returning to some semblance of order. The couches and chairs are very comfortable. Ida sits in one of them, one leg draped over the other. When she finally speaks, she sounds a bit steadier. She's realized how lonely she's been. "This is... where we've been living. You shouldn't have come here. I've hardened the place against opportunists, and people who might wish to do us harm." Avril and Rebecca saw one of those systems in action. Would a band of brigands have it in them to break one of their own out of the Lotus? Ida turns to Riesenlied. "What were the voices telling you this time?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
What was that language Prissa was speaking about? She isn't certain. Rebecca does have a point though -- they've been meeting Ida a lot recently... each time, perhaps, Riesenlied feels more and more concerned, yet unsure what it is that she can do to help. But that that, in and out of itself, is already a thought that makes her feel guilty.
Perhaps being able to hear her say that she has a homey place is... it will have to be enough for now.
She's careful to sit without hurting herself, wincing softly as she watches the other Mannikins move. Perhaps it's owing to Ida's Guild Galadian heritage that there is so much mechanism in the castle...?
She shakes her head softly at Avril. "It's okay. I should take responsibility anyway," nodding to Ida as she points it out.
"... it isn't clear, honestly. It never is... and oftentimes, it never becomes clear," Riesenlied admits. "When you say 'we'... and by the way those soldiers outside..."
She heistates. "I wonder if it may have been Garrett's lament that I heard..." she sighs. She knows Ida is hurting, though, so she tries... to at least make the conversation a little more pleasant.
"How have you all been, then? You've supported each other well, last I saw..."
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
SOON
Prissa inspects a cookie and breaks it apart to examine any bits or filling. If they do not seem to be poison she nibbles.
Her eyes flick to Riesenlied, but then she asks, curiously, "So you grew up in a manufactory?"
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Doesn't seem like a real healthy way to live." Rebecca notes.
Before looking sidelong at Avril. After all she explained about it...
Her eyes drift back to Ida. "You know it's strange seeing you like this. I saw part of your transformation back in town but - it wasn't really distinct... like I couldn't quite... see you."
Then looking her up and down as if sizing her up, "Now I guess I do. Gotta say... it's not a bad look but I kinda prefer the way I saw you back on the island."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The cookie is a snickerdoodle. It doesn't smell strange, nor does it seem to contain cyanide capsules meant to poison unsuspecting guests. The tea seems to be tea.
"We've been..." Images boil up in Ida's mind: Garrett drinking again, Rosaline curled up and sobbing after the fight in Uzda il-Jam. "...surviving." It's all she feels she can say. She shakes her head, her tangled silver hair rustling behind her. "I did, yes," Ida says, to Prissa. "More advanced than anything on this rock, as far as I'm aware. Back on Filgaia, what I have here would just be the rudiments of a proper workshop..." Her lips thin into a line as Rebecca comments. "I suppose a sickly woman is more woman than th--" The words slip out before Ida realizes Rebecca probably didn't mean that. The big, intimidating Hellion looks down at the floor, her whole face tightening.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
'"Come this way. I insist."'
And what can Avril do but comply? "Yes."
THEN SOON
Avril cradles the tea between bare fingers, once again inspecting its depths as if she could see the future therein. "Surviving..." she murmurs; her cookie has gone untouched.
She lifts her gaze. "Is it enough to merely survive?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied withers a little more, as she places a hand to her forehead. It passes, for a moment longer, as she shakes her head. It's very difficult to resist the call, but she can do it... especially now, after whatever happened to her in Uzda il-Jam. She takes a cup of tea to sip from it.
"Is there something I can do for you -- any of you?"
It's a lot more direct than she usually is, but this isn't exactly the kind of conversation she was expecting to have anyway, and... well, the way Ida says that tugs at that part of her that wants to help.
At least, until Prissa asks a very unusual question!! "E-eeh?" her eyes widen such that they turn into circles with thick black outlines for a moment. Her horns wiggle up into peaks. "W-what do you mean?"
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa smiles in a weird, half-paralyzed way. Then she munches on cookie.
Riesenlied and Avril speak helpfully. She settles back for a moment, and she takes a swig of the tea, which she holds strangely. Her own legs cross with a creak of her boots as she contemplates infinity or potentially the cookie.
At least for this moment.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
'Is it enough to merely survive?'
Ida looks away from Avril, as though she can't meet the woman's eyes. "...no," Ida says, "and yes. It means we're already more well-off than many, and yet, living seems strange. It feels like something none of us can truly manage. We can see glimpses of it, but in this pit..." Riesenlied asks if she can help. Ida turns to her. "Isn't that always it? 'You need help. I must help you.' And I still cannot help myself."
Prissa doesn't elaborate. Ida looks at the woman a moment, as if expecting her to, but nothing happens.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied sinks a little, wincing as that feeling of guilt comes back again. But she insists, glancing towards Avril and Rebecca for a moment, "That isn't it. That isn't what I'm asking." She isn't certain, but it's certainly a habit that she's recognised with Matilda too.
"If it were 'no,' that's fine too. I know I've done enough damage on my own. ... that's why I wanted to leave the question with you."
She sounds a little troubled, wanting to be respectful, but... uncertain, perhaps. Knowing of her own overbearing, mom-like nature.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca for one does not take the cookies or tea. Not trusting them to necessarily be at face value. Instead she's looking at Avril a little anxiously - hoping she doesn't drink it too but...
On Ida's response, Rebecca let's out this loud puff of air as if dismissive, "As if. It's not about being more human or less human. It was just that on that day I saw a girl."
She says as she eyes Ida. "A girl that looked shy and insecure despite the fact that she's pretty and real smart."
There's this light shrug of her shoulders. "It was just... nice seeing that girl. Alright?"
She doesn't comment on Ida's evaluation of surviving, whether she needs help or not. Any of that.
She just remarks on what she saw.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa elaborates when Riesenlied is done speaking. "What do you hope to build here in this manufactory? Without produce it is only decoration. You must be burning - something, to make such a fume."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Avril's blue eyes linger on Ida for a moment overlong, as if seeking something beyond the gaze alone.
"...As if something that should be there is now missing," she says at last, her grip momentarily tightening on the cup in her hands. "Whatever it is that is needed to live." Her focus shifts, as if settling into the midpoint between her and Ida.
"..."
What gives meaning to life?
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa then looks momentarily worried in Riesenlied's direction. The ??? over her head is almost visible.
Oh no! (Or should it be: Oh yes?)
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Mannikins," Ida says, to Prissa. "Those servitors. The fume is gaseous byproducts from the crucible, and Malevolence." She's a little terse in answering, but she's also trying to think of ways to answer the others.
"None of us are okay," Ida says, to Riesenlied. "I don't know if there is a damned thing you could do, even if we wanted." She still hasn't answered Riesenlied's question. "But it's--" Avril has said what she's trying to articulate. "It's as though the three of us are at the bottom of a well, and the only way we can climb out is..." Her breath hitches. She looks over at Rebecca, swallows. "You saw those scars. H--how is that--" She trails off, trying to breathe. A Malevolent presence rises in the back of the room, beyond the drawn curtains. Ida seems to realize--to her horror--that the castle's internal geometry has warped again. "Let me show you something," Ida says. She does not rise. Instead, a Mannikin draws the curtains back, revealing the courtyard.
To an eye lacking resonance, it is the scene of a massive impact. A crater is gouged into the stonework, and the far wall has toppled over in places. To the resonant, Malevolence seeps up from it, thick with anger and self-doubt and the sense that something is judging you.
Something that you've failed.
"No one listened to that shy girl," Ida says. "Because she wasn't worth listening to. She was so desperate to prove her worth to someone--anyone--that she wounded everyone around her, and became this."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
One of the walls has collapsed in several places--allowing you to leave the castle unharmed, if you follow the path there--but the most distinctive feature is the great, blackened crater torn into the flagstones. It still seethes with residual heat, and the Malevolence boiling up from it forms phantasmal images.
A tall, burly, white-haired woman is thrown back by some massive blow, crashing into the partly-collapsed wall.
"They tested me. I think they even believed in me. I failed. I always fail."
A catwoman with flaming hair, her foot pinned to the ground by a sword, protects herself from surging light by conjuring a shield of flames. It is engulfed with barely any ceremony.
"We're all falling apart and anything I could say would make it worse. Why am I that sort of person?"
A tall man with white hair holds a great, jagged sword crosswise before him as the frost that rimes his armor melts in the heat of an attack so powerful it scars the very essence of the courtyard. His eyes widen in sudden shock.
"...he was holding back. He was holding back all along...are we truly so weak...?"
There is a flash of purest white, like light glinting off pure, perfect metal. The vision ends.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The easiest thing to do in the world for someone like Riesenlied is to just keep giving yourself until you're husked out, no matter how much it hurts. But when that approach starts doing more harm than it does good...
... well, it's at that point that Riesenlied is maturing, at least a little.
She catches Prissa's look and looks bashful, waving it away for a moment. But Ida beckons them to gaze upon the presence that makes itself known, at the back of the room--
--The crater, gouged into the stonework, the far wall toppled over... the Malevolence that starts prickling away again at the corner of her mind.
Riesenlied very freshly knows about things that she's failed... even if she vows to keep trying.
The images...
She holds her forehead again, sighing and shivering. "... that was you-- and Rosaline and Garrett..." she whispers. "I..."
She slumps just a little, spent. "Was that the presence that beckoned? What were you three fighting...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Someone who told the three of us that we were better than this," Ida says, to Riesenlied. Her eyes are dark. Her jaw trembles, just a little.
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca finds herself looking at Ida as she stammers. Then as she says that she wants to show her something. Feeling like she's going to indulge her, she looks towards the window as the curtains are drawn back.
And the wound - seeps up from thick anger.
It feels like it's judging her for something - she didn't do.
And then she sees the images of all of the three getting crushed, sending shivers through her. She doesn't want to get involved in whoever could do that so simply.
Grimacing, she looks over to Ida. And stares at her. Like she's trying to find the words, "You know I write down a lot of thoughts in a diary. Feelings that I don't want anyone else to see. Private - secret thoughts. A lot of girls do it I think."
Rebecca offers this idle shrug, "I think I do it because I worry that my feelings wouldn't be listened to or accepted. But I write them down because I feel like... those feelings. They're worth something."
Her eyes locked on Ida she keeps going, "Even if noone but a sheet of paper is listening to them - I still want to get them out and record them. Because they aren't worthless. They belong to you and should mean the world to you - even the bad feelings - or the ones that you think noone would understand."
Exhaling kind of sharply, in this sigh - she says lightly, "I guess what I'm saying is. On days you feel like you can't prove your worth to anyone around you - or don't have the courage to keep trying... I just try to prove the worth of how I feel to a piece of paper. Maybe that sounds silly - or weak - or I don't know..."
Her voice drops low and her gaze drops like she's second guessing herself it's like she's a little self-conscious. "I just think it helps when I'm feeling a little like that."
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"Ah," Prissa says. Well, she thinks, that's one question.
Ida explains herself at some length. Prissa rocks on her seat and then rises upwards, even as a curtain is drawn and they are able to see inwards. Prissa gets out of her seat, stepping forwards to get a better look and finishing off the cookie as she does.
Ida has spoken.
Riesenlied looks out. She mentions two other names.
Prissa considers and then she takes off her glasses, which takes her a moment.
"I want to tell you an annoying cultural story, Ida. Will you let me, since we have fought together?" (She adds, more parenthetically, "The chains were great. I was moved deeply.")
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied listens intently on Rebecca's own thoughts about her own diary-writing... and there is a quiet, genuine smile as she says, "I think that's really sweet, Rebecca. And-- really helpful, too."
Some part of her wonders-- if she would have had that advice if she were human. If she came from an environment where the answer to days where you can't prove your worth to anyone around you was to -- probably unload several high-explosive rounds on target dummies, if you're the noble kind, or the Tainted, if you're the Berserk kind.
"I think that makes a lot of sense, and... I think I've heard of it advised elsewhere. Writing a letter to someone what never needs be sent? Something like that."
She hushes up for Prissa's cultural story, though. She's all ears, even if it's not her that she's going to tell it to.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida listens. She remembers her governess teaching her how to write in a proper, ladylike way by watching her and reaching down, into her personal space, to adjust her hand whenever her penmanship started to slip. The odd sentiment is right and proper, she'd said, but no one has time to read sentiments and nothing else. One has better things to do with one's time than tell others about one's silly worries. Somehow she doubts Rebecca has someone hovering over her, telling her what was and was not okay to put down on paper. She doubts that Rebecca had someone tell her that anything she put down on paper could be read by anyone.
"I don't have the energy," Ida whispers. Excuses. She's only trying to help. The big, imposing Hellion looks down at the floor. "But thank you. I--I'll consider it." Prissa speaks up. "The chains...?" Recognition. "Oh. The were an, ah, trophy from a demon warlord. They're not a proper ARM. But--yes, go ahead."
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa, having gotten permission, says: "Give me a moment to gather it."
She is silent for nearly four seconds, then says, "An old ARM is found that produces colorful lights with hand controls. An old bitter man is delighted at its use and makes brilliant shows, yet he dies even so, a few years later. It is sad because he was brilliant with it, but there was no it to be brilliant with."
She takes a deep breath and lets it out. "... I summarized since you are tired," she says. "I do not know what to tell you and I can tell that there is guilt here. What I would suggest for you is to find a thing that you love and you will be full of energy instead. Your body may betray you because bodies are weak, but your heart, it will live on. I ran from home and I regret it not a moment, even if sometimes I miss a few things."
Prissa looks back out the window. "Of course I suppose it may feel a little as if you are committed, eh!"
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
"Ah. I'm glad you think so." Rebecca says quietly at Riese, managing this faint smile.
But then Ida answers and Rebecca doesn't quite get not having the energy. I mean she's a Hellion creating castles and adventuring and fighting folks right?
How does she lack for it?
The disconnect between emotional and physical isn't something she quite gets. So instead she just tries to smile and-
"Hey no sweat. I'm not always able to find time to write given how much I'm travelling with Dean and Avril. You're ah - welcome."
Prissa then starts saying she wants to tell an 'annoying' story though and Rebecca raises an eyebrow, "Did you say annoying?" She then looks at Avril and Riese as if to confirm the choice of adjective there. Before looking back at Prissa in wonder as she tells it.
"Huh. That's a good message. Didn't feel annoying to me. Felt more... heartfelt."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida listens. Prissa summarized, but in doing so, she made it sound more like a koan, like something she's supposed to glean meaning from. Rebecca seems to think it's insightful. Ida feels like she should, too, but especially after what Prissa followed up with...
"I don't know if I can," Ida says. The way she says it makes it sound like a personal failing. "I've tried. Believe me, I've tried."
Idiot girl. They're trying to help, and all you're giving them is excuses.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied listens to Prissa's story. An ARM that makes brilliant colours... an old man. She wonders what kind of life Prissa ran away from, but she would have to agree that she seems more happy now than she did back then. It takes all kinds of people, of all stripes and shapes, and some are happier away...
... much like she strayed from her father, too.
"Is Kalve still visiting you?" Riesenlied changes tack. "I'd hope that he still is..."
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa laughs at Rebecca's words. It's a little high pitched, an 'ehehehe'. It is the first time she has gone more than 'ha!' in effort on the way up.
"The original is longer, very long," she tells Rebecca.
Her hands fold behind her back and she looks at Ida.
"Do you know ball games?" she asks her.
Upon seeing understanding, she brightens. One hand unfolds. She raises an index finger.
"Then you will understand this! Not every shot is a good one to take... But you miss every shot you do not take."
<Pose Tracker> Rebecca Streisand has posed.
Rebecca wonders at Ida's reaction. But she's not Dean - she's not someone who's going to tell her to keep trying or try to inspire her. She just sorta nods thoughtfully, listening as Riese asks if Kalve is still visiting her.
Until Prissa looks her way - and...
"Oh yeah? Maybe tell me the whole thing some day when we're not in a spooky castle."
And then Prissa speaks to Ida and... Rebecca mouths 'ball games'? Before looking at her continuing.
Then Rebecca looks at her ARM in puzzlement, like maybe wondering if she's thinking the metaphor would work better with an ARM. Mostly because she's not sure what ball games are in this context beyond tossing a ball back and forth.
Capo Bronco was a really boring place to grow up.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"He is," Ida says, to Riesenlied. "In some ways, he's been a godsend, but in others... he reminds me of how far apart we were, and still are." Prissa's statement triggers a strained smile, and a flare of the sun in her heart. What can she say to that?
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied does look somewhat perplexed at Prissa's question, but glad that Kalve is at least still visiting. They may have a very strange relationship, but she knows Kalve is a good person... even if he may not particularly understand all the quirks they still have to iron out.
She looks to Prissa and Rebecca. "... the Malevolence is... starting to get to me, I must admit," she expresses. She doesn't want to rush anyone, but she knows her own limits.
"... I'm-- glad to be able to talk to you again," she expresses of Ida. ... maybe that's the most inoffensive thing she can say right now.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"Au-oh-h, this sounds very tragic," Prissa says. "But also very romantic! Still, you cannot eat fortresses of industry, and you cannot embrace your lover with ARMs."
Prissa resists the urge to make an 'eh, eh?' face, when Riesenlied speaks. "Is it? ... I suppose it would be good to leave, then. I cannot tell it much."
"Take care of yourself," she tells Ida. "Remember to drink plenty of water," she adds, because -
. o O ( What the hell else am I supposed to say?? )