2018-08-09: Frost & Focus
- Log: Focus & Frost
- Cast: Jack van Burace (as Garrett Stampede), Riesenlied, Rudy Roughnight, Lily Keil, Gwen Whitlock
- Where: Castle Rabenstien
- Date: 8/9/2018
- Summary: Four Drifters approach the increasingly unstable Castle Rabenstien. One comes because of a promise, one comes out of concern, one comes because she was called, and one comes for the sake of a friend. The frozen knight meets them, and it immediately becomes clear that he's seen better days.
<Pose Tracker> Garrett Stampede has posed.
The Castle of the Furies.
Once called Castle Rabenstien the ediface had been twisted and turned by its new masters. Some had already faced the strangeness there. Some had come face to face with ghosts of the past and their deepest fears. Some had nightmares smashed upon them by the power of an ancient artifact there...
...an artifact that has gone entirely out of control.
Malevolence whirls though the air, thick enough to see. Evil purple glowing mists curling around the ancient and ice-covered stonework. The great gates of the castle hang slightly open as if blasted from the inside out and not quite able to close. Its walls are bare of defenders for the moment, the Maniquins pulled elsewhere and the icy wind screeches over the surrounding crags.
The bubble of wrongness seems to be growing, straining against whatever is keeping it contained. Waiting to flow down and out into the world like a tidal wave. To corrupt the surrounding lands in one horrifying moment of twisting magic.
Unless of course it can be stopped.
Which is why the Drifters come. Drawn to danger like moths to a flame. Some come from worry, some come from duty, some come to save people or to save themselves. For whatever reason they come...
...and one of them is searching for a very specific Fury. Who...at the moment...is not to be found.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied had come here, once, to Castle Rabenstein...
... largely because, much like every relationship she has with the Ruins of the world -- something is calling to her. ("Oh," said Fei Fong Wong once upon a time, "So you're a Drifter." Laugh track.)
That voice still has not disappeared, even after she met Ida and saw the crater in the courtyard of the castle -- as well as the strange being from the visions that she saw coming from within it.
She's back here... because she is deeply concerned. About Ida, about Rosaline, but... about Garrett as well.
She's huddling against the cold, in her Fereshte garment and leaning weakly against a travelling staff and puffing breaths out into her woolen gloves. "Garrett..." she whispers.
She remembers seeing the wraith-like apparitions of Arctica -- the fourth Royal Company, she remembered. All too well. Everyone that she failed... the memory continues to haunt her.
The Hyadean shuffles forward weakly, but with resolve in her eyes as she ignores the pain echoing from her body.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The first attempt at Castle Rabenstien ended in failure. Having heard through sources in the conventional Drifter Way (you know, the old "Thanks for helping me get clear those giant rats from my cellar, by the way, did you hear that-"), a young soul makes his way toward the Castle.
Of course, being responsible, he let some people know that he was going to have a heart to heart talk with Jack and planned to be back to his friends and allies without issue. Of course, upon hearing that Rudy is planning on going to a dangerous location on his own might just set some people toward his way. Others might see this lonely soul moving toward the Castle and figure it might be another chance to get treasure or push their own agenda.
If people offer to come along, the young Outcast shows initial surprise or hesitation, but he doesn't dissuade. After all, if he claims Jack shouldn't isolate himself, no sense in being a hypocrite himself. That said, he's not the greatest of company, merely keeping to himself and his thoughts. After all, his last time here gave him quite a bit to consider and the upcoming meeting does not seem to sit well with him. But regardless if there is side conversation or pensive silence, Roughnight soon makes his way toward the front of the castle.
There is a brief pause as Rudy seems to take in a deep breath. Finally, he yells out, clearly not planning to break in unless his call goes unheeded.
"Jack? You there?" A half beat is given before he inhales to give a powerful cry of "JAAAAACCCCK!"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Castle Rabenstein. ...Lily Keil has been before. Once, when she was brought there, awoke within its halls. She left, then, and left quickly, but the return wasn't so simple. She still does not remember the way that artifact touched her dreams, did not need to bring nightmares upon her. She already has them, after all. ...But she does recall the visions she saw within the castle, within ghosts of others' pasts that reminded her too much of her own.
She was ill, when she left last, and has not fully recovered. But will Lily really let Riesenlied return to that castle alone? ...Can she really ignore the flood of power from it, the Malevolence surging out? Maybe she could. She could walk away, leave, render it someone else's problem.
...But she doesn't. She walks with her mirror, without a staff this time. Her military attire is closed, bound, but she should still be much colder in this weather. ...The heat she conjures with her magic keeps her warm enough.
Dog she made stay behind.
"...Riesenlied," Lily says, looking to her for a moment. "You're not going to do anything reckless, are you?"
She could say that herself, but she's paler even than usual. She remembers the apparitions, the doomed warriors of Arctica too. ...But does she remember more, because of the Hyadean's feelings?
Lily looks ahead to the gate. "...It's worse than before," she murmurs. Then she pauses, seeing Rudy approach the castle gate. "Guess we've got bait."
Lily that is rude.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
And with that bait is Gwen. Which, by default, might make her bait as well, for all the good she does the situation Rudy might quickly find himself in.
The castle was interesting prospect, just in terms of exploration, and the notable people who may or may not be there. There's just the pesky problem of memories, and resurfacing traumas, all things Gwen didn't care to latch onto her and broadcast some secret deep within.
This is different. This is Rudy, going to the castle on his own to have a heart to heart with Jack, a person Gwen herself wouldn't mind doing the same with.
"That was loud enough to wake the dead," comments Hanpan, peeking out from underneath Gwen's thick poncho. "You two certain on this? As much as I'd been wanting give him a blunt heart-to-heart myself, I don't know if he'd be in the mood to hold himself back."
Gwen grins. "If we can grab ahold of one of them, maybe we can at least get an idea of what the situation is, at least. Maybe it's just somethin' that came with the property that they're tryin' t'troubleshoot. I mean, Jack's still Jack, so I don't think he'd try to hurt Rudy."
.... Right?
<Pose Tracker> Garrett Stampede has posed.
Silence.
The massive edifice before them seems to swallow up Jack's shout. The icy winds carry it away. Nothing responds...
Until the sound of ice grinding across ice echos from the courtyard and the massive wing-claw of a beast of bone and Malevolence hooks onto the outside wall. The skeletal wyvern pulls itself up, perching there on the wall. Watching them like a dead bird of prey, magic twisting in empty eyesockets....
Then and only then can they see a figure next to the beast. Tall. Armored. Hair pure white and armor encased in ice.
"You shouldn't have come, Rudy!" Jack's voice is a grinding of a glacier now. Deep and echoing. HIs posture is taunt and wound, his eyes wide and sunken. He looks worse than he has been.
This place is taking its toll on what was once a man.
"But you did. And you brought friends." A longer pause. "What do you want?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied is 110 percent called out by Lily, as she hitches for a moment and places her hand to her chest where the Dragon's Tear hangs. "Ah..." A pause. "There is something still calling me from within. I cannot tell if it is Garrett or..."
She furrows her brow as she admits, "But, to answer your question, yes..." A pause, as a young familiar man shouts out for Jack. "Rudy? Gwen?"
She moves a little closer to the young drifter and the courier, looking concerned. She bites her lip, and expresses, "You are looking for him too...?" A pause. She doesn't exactly have the right to, but...
"Shall we -- go together? It will be safer, if the castle should try to beset upon us again before we even meet Garrett. ... if you would have me ..."
But--
Before they can even get anywhere, the sound of ice grinding upon ice echoes from within the courtyard. A beast of bone and Malevolence... the wyvern that she had to sneak through the first time. Bitey?
And Garrett has emerged. Her heart clenches, and her head lowers. Ida had mentioned that they were not doing well. 'Surviving,' as she put it. But that isn't the same as... as living.
Riesenlied's hand clasps harder around that walking staff, leaning to one side. What can she say here? Much like Ida, she risks just doing more harm with just her presence alone, yet...
She can't leave things alone. "Garrett..." she whispers with surprise.
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
Rudy waits.
As Roughnight waits for the 'knock' to be replied to, he looks toward Riesenlied. Again, there is the calm look that seems troubled, but for now, as it always seems to be, there is something else more pressing; the luxury of unsettled business is something that Rudy never seems to be able to afford.
The concept of bait is given a simple glance toward Lily, merely taking her in as she states that. Again, there is that odd peace that is often in Rudy. While there is a melancholy edge to it, it always seems to find the strength to go on and is rarely broken.
Hanpan's words to Gwen are given a slight brow arch, but still silence. The idea of Jack hurting Rudy is not welcome, but it's telling there isn't surprise in his eyes when the thought is vocalized.
Then, in the wake of the discomforting concern, the man in question speaks.
"I'm here, Jack. I told you I'd let you do what you were doing until you hurt someone. And you have." Only then do Rudy's eyes lift as he adds, "Yourself."
The gravity of the statement is allowed full wait before the tone softens. "Let this go. Let's go. We don't need this place. We don't need...." He motions the dragon and the armor: everything that wasn't his friend. "We need Jack. Our home needs Jack."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily watches Rudy and Gwen at the gates carefully; despite her cold words, she's watching for danger to them as well as to Riesenlied, ready to act. ...And she does expect a problem. "...I see," Lily answers Riesenlied. "I can feel it too."
Maybe a strange admission, unexpected, but nevertheless. ...Regardless, Riesenlied gets friendly, loses their stealth, and Lily can't be surprised enough to be bothered. "Guess we can all be reckless together," she murmurs, and steps forward, moving for the others. She makes sure to keep between Riesenlied and the entrance as best she's able. However...
Well, Rudy has a peace about him that Lily can appreciate. But danger is here all right. The wyvern arrives, and Lily's hand slips to the side, zipping down her jacket just enough to prepare to reach in. ...The man next to the wyvern looks back, very bad.
Armor... Is it so different from the armor she saw in the vision? No, it isn't. Arctica... Which means--
Lily herself is recognizeable from the dream, as well--and the insignia on her attire clearly marks her one of Kislev's Black Wolves, special forces.
"...We're not friends," Lily admits to Garrett. "I'm here because of the power leaking from that castle. ...Because of Ida, and because I don't intend to let that taint spread if I can help it."
"It doesn't have to be a fight."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Riese? Lily?" Gwen's expression brightens, then immediately grows heavy with gloom, already sensing the weight of something, some*one*, watching them. "I think it'd be a real good idea for all of us. Things might get-"
The sound of grating glaciers emitting something akin to words makes Gwen's words stop cold. Blue grey eyes focus on the beast that watches them all, then, slowly, to the figure next to it. She takes in a sharp breath, like she was wounded.
She tries her best to smile. "What am I, chopped liver? Y'talk like he dragged me here." Her words are uncertain, nervous, pressed through chattering teeth. "I stayed my distance, yeah. Didn't like the idea of this castle sinkin' its claws in me. But I couldn't let my friends come alone."
She hears Lily, her eyes widening at the news. "Wait, what? I thought it was just goin' nuts here. That means..."
She lets herself trail off, listening to Rudy's words.
Gwen breathes softly. "Rudy's right. I wanted to see if you'd find your decision on yer own, but it's clear that you're gettin' to a point that your reserves are too depleted for you to even make that decision. It's gonna be made for you, unless we step in.."
Even Hanpan is fazed by the sight of his old friend, sinking down against his haunches, his ears lowering in a motion that could be interpreted as either despair, or a prey animal sensing the gaze of a predator. He lets out a tiny, mouse-sized sigh, and straightens up. "It's time, old friend. Your state is dragging you down to depths that you may never recover from."
<Pose Tracker> Garrett Stampede has posed.
"...it never has to be a fight...but what is the fun if it isn't..." Garrett's voice holds a cold humor to it. One hand gripping the hilt of the sword that he holds point down before him. It twists on that hilt, the black and twisted blade of the Sword Dancer. Grown strong, even more twisted. Feeding off the knight and off the corrupting magics of his home.
...surviving. That seems to be the right word for it.
Those piercing blue eyes fix on Rudy at first. "Why?" The question slowly teased out. The man's posture taunt as a pulled bow. There are parts of him that wants to leap down there. Rend his former friends out of anger. Out of nameless rage. There is part of him that knows it is wrong, and that part fights with his baser instincts. Keeping him in check.
And the Malevolence greedily feeds off of that conflict.
The sword seems to grow darker even as he looks at them.
"Why do you need, Jack. I was never Jack. I was a ghost. This is who I am."
Is he trying to convince them, or himself is the question.
Then his gaze crosses to Riese and Lily. His eyes narrow at Riese though he doesn't muster the burning hate for her kind that they have seen before. He said once that she is the only one that he can't bring himself to hate. Seems that much is still true.
"We aren't friends," This towards Lily and Riese. "But...I know you from the Mirror. I know we are not so different."
A pause.
"Maybe it is better this way. I've gained power...if I change into a monster, is that a good trade for what I can do with it?" A pause. "For what I intend to do with it..." A shake of his head and the ice and snow of the blizzard seems to wane. Die down. The frost abates somewhat.
Its still cold, but it isn't deadly cold. It seems he is at least willing to listen.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
As Rudy stares at her, Riesenlied's eyes are, in reflection... those of someone with a great depth of pain in them. Guilt. But never crossing into despair, with a resolve that wants to make things better.
We don't need this place. ... We need Jack. Our home needs Jack.
"... Ida told me. You are hurting... you three are," Riesenlied expresses with no small amount of pain in her voice. "This castle-- something else is within, is it not? I saw the flashes, from the courtyard."
Riesenlied bites her lip, as she straightens herself, even if it's laborious to do so. She looks at Lily as she contributes that-- yes, the power leaking from within the castle...
She hesitates, looking towards Gwen and Hanpan, clutching until she can feel her knuckles whitening underneath her gloves.
"I know we are not friends, but... I care." She wilts a moment, withering under the presence of the Sword Dancer's blade. "There are people here that care deeply for you -- and others absent too. Cecilia does."
She draws in a deeper breath.
"What can we do, Garrett? What can we do to help you -- the three of you? You know best what is happening within these Castle walls."
She offers that hand out, trying to stop it from trembling. It's her human hand, the gloved one -- not the gnarled, twisted draconic one currently gripping her staff. The frost abating is helping her be able to stand, sensitive as she is to the cold.
"I promised you that I do not want to fail you again... so here I am."
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
"Because you're my friend and I don't leave my friends behind. Not when we have stuff to do. Not when they are messing with things that aren't worth their time."
The statements are simple, but Rudy is a simple man. He doesn't say more than that, but he does look toward the others. Many voices speak their concern, which is fine for Rudy because he doesn't like to speak unless he must. Right now, they seem to be getting the point across.
It's odd that that Rudy doesn't address the topic of power, but there might be a reason... Or maybe he just doesn't have an answer.
There is an edge to all of this, a wariness within the insightful soul of Rudy. As expected, it isn't voiced but shown as he moves to be in front of Gwen and Hanpan. He doesn't want this to go badly, but it's clear he's ready for anything.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen's eyes widen with alarm. staring up at that sword.
If she could shoot it, would it have an effect? But with this cold, the normally responsive ARM feels more like the dead weight that it really is supposed to be, chafing in areas that normally would register as seamless and whole, as far as her nerves were concerned.
A questioning glance is sent towards Lily over the mention of a mirror, but she then shakes her head, as if remembering something. Something half-remembered, that never happened. Like from a dream. Betrayal, corruption. A comforting, still landscape of sand. A moon, and a sharp sword, cutting out-- -
Ida was wanting something. Garret was there. She should have been afraid, but she wasn't.
But it was just a dream. And there was nothing about a mirror in it.
As Gwen is lost in her thoughts, Hanpan speaks up. "You don't look like you could stand to fight against the Quarter Knights, if that's what you're asking. The one you want won't try to hurt you with force. He'd try to manipulate you instead. Find where your strings are, then pluck them to get the reactions he wants. That's what he's done the last few times you met, and he'll have a lot more material to work with now."
The fear she felt with Hiro comes to the forefront again like a hot knife. This was- no, *is* her friend. This could be the last time she sees or hears him, and her memories would be of this faded scar, one last gasp of pride before that final descent down to whatever fate could befall a Hellion.
"It's not better. Y'look like a wounded coyote gnawin' at a spent bone. And I ain't givin' you the satisfaction of fightin' you, either. I'm too damn cold and too damn sad." Seeing Riese extend her hand, Gwen steps forward to do the same, but stops, when Rudy steps protectively in front of her and Hanpan.
"Let him," Hanpan murmurs quietly, in response to Gwen's tensing up. "You're at an disadvantage the longer you stay out here."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"'Fun', is it?" Lily echoes, her voice distant. "...I guess so," she admits. 'Fun.' Maybe so. Lily reflects how much simpler in a way it might be as a combat... But can't really find appeal in it beyond an instinct now. Not with the three others here, Riesenlied in danger. She watches longer. Her eyes linger on the sword, but back to the knight's face.
But what he says is something strange, and familiar; the look to Riesenlied is one thing, but talk of the Mirror, of knowing her. She--
"What?" Lily asks, confused but not angry, almost on the edge of remembering something. 'The Mirror', he said, and it brings to mind an image, but not an answer.
"...Maybe we aren't," she admits. "I saw the visions. I know we share a kind of loss."
Lily glances over Rudy there. He doesn't answer poewr, no. ...But he talks about his friend. Just like Gwen, and... Hanpan?
Lily steps forward, and lowers her hand, without pulling out whatever she was going to. She makes it to the front line of the group, with Rudy.
"I was on the precipice of this kind of power," Lily says. "...The Pyre Witch still wants it. To be honest? I think power is worth considering--worth thinking about. Power to protect those you need to, to do what you must..."
"...But can you use that power, if it overcomes your will? If it destroys you? Will it allow you to do what you intend?"
She pauses, tilts her head slightly in Gwen's direction. "...I have reason to fight the Quarter Knights, myself. That's the question. Do you think you're ready, as you are? That this is the way you need to be? It's not my place to tell you how to live your life. ...But if you want vengeance, like I do... Then those are the questions to ask."
<Pose Tracker> Garrett Stampede has posed.
Jack glances back at the castle a moment and there is a pause, thoughtful and slow as a glaciers movement. Then he sweeps a hand forwards and the gate creeks open for them, revealing the courtyard with the scars of battle left there by the Trial Knight. The echos of the Furies thoughts whisper on the edges of the minds of the Drifters there.
Garrett's realization that his power he controlled. Even as powerful as it is. Was not enough to even dent the knights armor.
It is a tacit invitation.
"If I turn you all away you'll just come back and knock the walls down. You've been here before. You know what this place can do. It is worse now..."
He looks down at his gauntleted hand. The points of the fingers nearly grown into talons of ice.
"Of course we are hurting. We are always hurting. That was part of the point, Riesenlied." He says as he begins to pace the rampart he stands on.
"I should have died with my city." The statement abrupt and vicious. "I shouldn't have had friends. A second life. But it was given to me. And now I should be able to do with it as I choose...."
The responce to Rudy's words is disjointed, almost talking outloud. His voice harsh and movements sharp.
But it is obvious something they said is getting to him. It is just hard to say what.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied does not know that it is the Trial Knight -- but suspects, for where the sword of the Sword Dancer goes, it is not hard to know that K.K. is somewhere close. And that wounds her a lot, because the Trial Knight is a figure she has an awkward relationship with, someone whose presence she can't neatly reconcile into just a 'bad' basket and stop thinking about it.
I should have died with my city.
Those words wound Riesenlied directly. A faint breath. How many people...? How many people...
Gwen talks about a certain Quarter Knight, someone whose very mention sends shivers up her spine.
"You do have friends, and a second life. And, you do have the ability to do with it as you choose..."
It isn't her place to dictate anything to him. No more than she, through circumstance, already has.
"But I would want you to make that choice in a right frame of mind. I robbed that choice from you, so cruelly, once. I want to help you to be able to make the choices you want, under no other influence. And no matter what that choice will be..."
Even if he decides he can't forgive her...
"I will support that choice."
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
Hanpan and Lily speak of power, of how in dealing with the Quarter Knights will not be done with the dark power Jack seeks.
Rudy nods.
Risenlied speaks of people who care.
Rudy nods.
But just because Rudy is silent doesn't mean he doesn't care. Instead, he just stands there with soft eyes but hard clenched fists. He carries the gentleness he had back in the city before it burned, but that iron resolve.
While he says nothing, it's clear as Jack surmises that he will not stop until he's sure his friend is safe or Rudy is dead. After all, it isn't just Metal Demons that can be tunnel vision-ed after all.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
They know what this place can do. Everyone except Gwen, who looks at the open gate and tenses, hearing echoes of the Furies' thoughts. Would going through there show her resolve to Jack?
Gwen frowns, then takes a step towards the opened gate. She then stops, feeling Hanpan's small claws begin to dig at the soft skin of her neck. She turns, seeing from her angle Rudy's gentle gaze as he looks up at Jack. ... He's still trying to protect her and Hanpan. Still trying to convince his friend to come with him at the very same time. A friend who could snap at any second.
'I should have died with my city.'
Like Riesenlied, the words seem to hurt Gwen, if for different reasons.
"It wasn't given to you."
Gwen's words delivered as quick and sharp as the flash of a knife.
"You found it yourself, just like I did. Like Rudy did. N' Riese n' Lily, too." It's a bit of an assumption in Lily's case, Gwen knows, but those tattoos she saw had to have come from somewhere. And she couldn't have lived with those powers of hers with little or no consequence from the world. "I didn't seek you out just because you had a nice sword, or because some voice told me t'do it. You were charming. You're funny. Y'have a great singin' voice. You know a lot. You always seemed t'know what to say to knock some common sense into anybody willin' to listen. And you took your roles seriously. Even when the roles are... this."
She looks up. "And I should've died many times over by now. My weight ain't as heavy as yours, but each time I had as much of a legit reason to let that be the end. But each time, I realized the world wasn't this cruel thing. There's wonderful, kind people in it, and I wanted to be meet them. And eventually, be strong enough to be one of them. You had that strength. More real than the knights I'd sometimes read about in one gella novels."
Hanpan stays quiet for now, looking up at his old friend. His whiskers twitch. "You say that, but your life isn't yours alone. It never was. We're all tied together, whether we like it or not. You want to be selfish? That's your choice, but don't expect people to agree just because you have a new sword and new outfit."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
They are hurting. That much is clear to Lily; the echoes of the Furies' thoughts flicker at the edges of Lily's mind, unwelcome, unwanted. She hears them, perhaps more than most who would visit this place. ...But the gate is open, and Lily takes the invitation for what it is. Even if...
She is tempted not to, for a moment, does not wish to return to this place where she remembers too much, feels too much that is hers and not hers. ...But what she wants is not the most important part of her decision-making; she is a soldier.
Could it be a trap? Of course it could. All the more reason for Lily to ensure the others don't go in without her.
...Gwen including her in the group, Lily glances at her, shakes her head for a moment, unwilling to be part of this kind group for the moment, to have this lovely idea attached. Not just now.
"...Gwen is kinder than I am," Lily says, after a few moments. She looks over Risenlied, who's mentioned her belief, the matter of choice without influence...
"...I should have died with my squad," Lily says, not quiet--loud enough to be heard--but in a serious, subdued tone. She looks for Garrett's eyes, as she speaks. "I should have died with them, not been the reason they were murdered. But I didn't. ...You were a knight, looking at you."
"Was your life yours to begin with?" she asks, something sharper in her tone. "Your city is dead. Are your responsibilities? ...Mine aren't. I can't afford to stop, to die, or to run away, until the Wolves' souls can be at rest."
"What will you do, with your power? Your life? ...Your honor?"
<Pose Tracker> Garrett Stampede has posed.
Gwen and Riesenlied take one track. Rudy another. Lily still a third. Surrounded by words and that doggedly loyal look that speaks more than a novel could say. The frozen knight stands there, shoulders now hunched slightly under the weight of the four people there. He is silent for a time, only the whistling of the dying wind breaking the stillness.
For those perceptive enough to see it the sword in his hand seems to shiver a moment.
"Your wit was what I missed most about you, furrball."
He finally breaks the silence. "I am selfish. I always have been. Gifted. Indolent. Selfish. So perhaps I can't change my ways now."
The man looks down on the four there, even as they approach the courtyard. Bitey glaring down from beside them as if deciding which he would like to start to eat.
"My honor is long gone. My power? My life? I know what I will do with those. I will return to our world, I will kill the Quarter knights. Then I will rest."
The way he says 'rest' defiantly means 'die'.
He doesn't plan on outliving them.
"Perhaps that will make up for me having a second life."
Ida and Rosa's emotions are all fire and wrath. Garrett's are ice and focus. Perhaps because his personality before the change was warmer. Perhaps it had been like that since his city fell. Maybe some part of Garrett Stampede didn't make it out of that castle alive.
And now that part. That hole. It is full of Malevolence. Twisted by what he's done and what he's knows.
But it is something that Gwen says that resonates in the back of his head. Something that strangely enough the Trial Knight hammered home in this very courtyard.
There is a strange look for a moment that crosses his face. "...I had strength before...but...I didn't have power..?"
For a moment some of the ice melts. For a moment his face changes...
...but then there is a pulse of Malevolence. From the sword. From the castle. It is hard to tell witch when it is so pervasive but Garrett's expression freezes once again. "...I need power."
Again a shake of his head as he glances over the four of them. Well. Four and a wind mouse.
"I won't stop you from finding the center of this...I..." A frown again. "...I...don't think. It's..." He shakes his head again, the fog of Malevolence growing around him.
"I..." His gauntlet slams against the stone work. Fingers dig into the ice.
"...go..." A pause. Then stronger. "GO!"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
For the child who was granted nothing, it is perhaps not so strange how divergent their paths have come... and yet, how much Riesenlied wishes for their paths to converge. She had nothing... was given nothing -- not even a name.
And then Siegfried came. Into her life he came, granting her a name -- 'Riesenlied'. And yet now she stands opposed...
Knowing that people cannot forgive the man she would desperately like to call father.
"I--" she rattles a little as she senses that upsurge of Malevolence, gasping. She tumbles to one side and falters, grasping at her staff again as she calls, "Garrett!"
The concern grows as she finally moves to stand by him-- but is pushed back and dropped to her knees by how thick the fog has grown. Even with the empowering experience at Uzda il-Jam, it's all too personal, too...
...
"I--" she hitches at her breath, looking to Lily. She knows when she's at her limits, and she knows Lily has trouble with this castle too... "I will get help. I will only fall if I follow you now..."
<Pose Tracker> Rudy Roughnight has posed.
The talks continues. Gwen speaks of the many virtues of the man who regrets his life. Lily speaks of how life is a responsibility as much as a gift. The blue haired lad merely nods his support, clearly listening to all sides and clearly agreeing with his friends. The words that Rudy has chosen are few, but considering they are all his has said, it's clearly all he needs right now. He thinks it's enough.
As the Ice Knight rages, Roughnight learns that clearly it is not. A small frown appears on his face.
It's clear he's trouble by all of this, but perhaps once pulled or convinced by his peers, Rudy will state this the following before finally turning to go:
"I won't give up on you. Because you're worth it, whether you understand that or not."
With that, the outcast moves on, whether it be with his friends inward toward the 'source' within the castle or back from where they came to regroup. But Jack likely knows from those he deals with, that this is not over yet. Not by a long shot.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily's approach is cold reason, simpler to her than the heat of emotion, than opening her heart outright to someone who could as easily be her enemy in mere moments. She has lost much already. ...But here, in this moment--Lily still watches the knight, unconcerned by silence, unperturbed by cold.
She sees the sword shiver.
Selfish, he calls himself. The Wyvern looks down upon them, and Lily watches. He mentions that his honor is gone, and Lily listens. ...She nods, after a few moments. This guilt, this penance, it makes sense to her, it follows the logic she knows well.
This sorceress is familiar with ice. She feels it--and she feels the difference. Strength, but not power... For a moment it's different, but--
The pulse of Malevolence causes a twitch in Lily's jaw, makes her take a deeper breath to ensure she keeps her strength. Power.
Fei told her that power is the root of all this. ...Still, she cannot believe it.
When Riesenlied falters, falls to her knees, Lily immediately moves towards her, kneeling down beside her. "Riesenlied," she says, worry and urgency clear in her voice for all that she has tried to stay cold. She can see those limits--and truthfully, she knows she is not at her best, either.
"No," Lily answers, shaking her head. "...I'll go with you. We need to regroup, before we can do this. We don't have much time..."
"...But we can help no one if we're unprepared." She gives Riesenlied her arm, moves to help her up. "Just stay with me," she asks more quietly.
<Pose Tracker> Garrett Stampede has posed.
He watches them go, fingers dug deep into the stonework of the castle. Muscles taunt and angry eyes staring. He doesn't follow though, he doesn't send the blizzards of winter chasing them down the mountain.
He is in control. Not the Malevolence.
...but the Malevolence is not helping.
Finally the fit seems to pass and he releases his grip on the stone raising one gauntleted hand to pet the side of Bitey's massive jaw.
"...come on." He murmurs. "We must..."
Think?
Rest?
"...prepare."
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The windmouse sits up and plants his front paws on his haunches. "You mean it *is*. Or is that dour companion next to you hiding a wit behind those hungry eyes of theirs?"
But Gwen isn't focusing on that particular comment. She's focusing on what he says afterwards.
Then he will rest.
"You mean..." Her breath hitches. "You goddamn idiot..." Her anger rouses something white hot inside her, tempting her to say more, but it seems what she's already said was sufficient enough.
She dares to find some joy in how he hesitates, in his face changing. If they could get one of them to change their minds, then the others...?
A tiny ray of hope.
And instantly, it's gone.
Out of the corner of her eye, Gwen spots Riesenlied faltering, how she grasps at her staff at that blast of Malevolence. "Riese!" Thankfully, Lily is right there, tending to her, before Gwen even has a chance to react. She mouths a thank you to Lily, allowing herself to, for now, stay with Rudy. "I don't know this place," she admits to the young man, quietly. "I'm gonna follow your lead, Rudy, until we figure out what to do from here."
Hanpan opens his mouth to say something, then lets out a squeak. "We were so close."