2018-11-07: In Garlyle

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<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Garlyle.

Years ago now, Riesenlied still clings strong to the memory of visiting Garlyle -- perhaps she speaks of it in pragmatic terms, in terms of needing to keep an eye on a country with worrying military might and seemingly unorthodox happenings within, but...

Now, she remembers it as an origin for a lot of things. Being at Garlyle on that day -- another day when the sky turned red.

There isn't much left to it. It is a blasted land, blackened and shattered even for Elru's rather rueful standards.

Riesenlied, at least, is capable of directing the group with ease there; unlike the... well, let's be fair, clumsy self she can be when she trances across Ignas, there's a deep familiarity she has with her own backyard, and it's like a member of the Fereshte that she guides -- negotiating with the rough terrain with passages and slips that aren't necessarily obvious at first.

"... this... was where the capital used to be," Riesenlied explains gently as she presses her hand against a battered half-wall. "There... isn't much left."

A pause, as she holds her hand to the Tear. It shimmers with a fearful light.

"The Demon of Elru consumed it all."


<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Blackened, blasted landscapes; valleys of glass that once were places people walked. Ruined walls... the outline of a foundation. Lily Keil does not have much trouble walking through the ruined land, such as it is. She does not have the ease of knowledge that Riesenlied has--merely the familiarity with ruin... and the unflinching willingness to step forward, always forward here.

'I should feel horror,' she reflects to herself, a thought whose feeling Riesenlied may notice, by herself or through the Tear... or may not. It is barely a feeling at all, just a clinical note, a vague self-recrimination, in the face of feeling very little at all.

She wasn't fooled in the first place by any talk of this being entirely practical. Lily could see through that kind of thing long before she began to lean on her power. But here, as she stands with the group, in dark attire--here, she looks out over what was once a capital. She looks over the half-wall, and out further. ...Not, it isn't horror that she feels.

"So, this is what the soldiers of Garlyle left, when they came to join the war in Aveh." The words are quiet, thoughtful, their unemotional nature itself almost another ruin, an insult to the devastation by omission.

"...Ruin."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

It was Fei who wanted to visit Garlyle. Naturally, he recruited Riesenlied as a guide.

It was a strange request, of course. It's not as if Fei has anything to do with Garlyle or the Demon of Elru, of course, but the request was accepted without protest.

Perhaps he simply wishes to see the destruction for himself to steel his resolve.

Fei takes note of blast marks--damage to the earth that has yet to be healed--at the edge of what can charitably called a battle but more accurately called a push towards oblivion. Fei thinks of the Garlyle soldiers that were engaged in operations for Aveh. The Black Wolves even took some on later. It could be argued Id is why they were even there to fight in the first place.

Id.

Fei has heard that name before too. Xantia sure likes to talk about him to no end, even praises him. It's frankly a kind of horrifying to Fei that even Lily has yet to really hit him with.

Fei looks out towards where there was once a capital. There isn't one there now, of course. He can't even see buildings from here. Honestly, if he had arrived here on his own without any forewarning, he wouldn't have thought there was a city here at all--let alone a capital.

"Riesenlied." Fei says, staring outward. "You were there, right? What was it like? Did you get hurt? Did you lose anybody?" He doesn't so much as look at Riesenlied when he's asking this questions. "What happened? Just one moment...and it was all gone?"

It wasn't only Ramses, Fei thinks.

Dean...

"Your balance is better here."

Fei doesn't blame Lily for not feeling horror. It's difficult even for Fei to feel much when faced with something like this. When Lahan was destroyed, it took a long time for it to set in. If it wasn't for Elly he might have just thrown himself off--


<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly was baffled briefly, but only because she had never heard of Garlyle outside of the context of a group connected to the Shakhan government. She has, in many ways, a wealth of ignorance about the surface. It has troubled her to consider that she knows the geography *of Lunar* better than she does the area outside of Ignas, with her view of the world being a map of Ignas, a vague awareness of places like Guild Galad and the Aquvy archipelago, and...

...

what?

Either way, forward they have come.

"It's strange," Elly says. "The plants don't seem to have grown... is it the weather?" she asks... Riesenlied, maybe, or perhaps god, if god is listening, but he probably isn't. She reaches up to unfold and rewrap her scarf.

It's so empty, she thinks. "... I suppose that Drifters or their local cousins, would have collected anything that was easily salvaged," Elly says, with an air of unease. Is that better or worse?

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

Noeline's ability to navigate through Elru is not nearly as complete as Riesenlied's - she doesn't have the mastery of the winds, nor the knowledge of little valleys and passes that allow them to move so quickly across the continent. What she does have, at least, is practical experience of getting around Elru. Despite her Crimson Noble trappings she's well-protected against the cold in a big fluffy jacket, and her movement through the snow is far more nimble than it has any right to be.

She had never gazed upon Garlyle herself until now - had left the continent well before any of the events there, and had kept her focus squarely on Arctica when she returned. Still, she feels a pang as she looks over the ranging devastation, her brow furrowing as she silently shakes her head. It isn't the same as Arctica or Adlehyde - everything about it is different, in fact, the clinical large-scale annihilation a contrast to the wreckage left by a rampaging horde - but it's yet another piece of Filgaia and its history, lost.

"... it reminds me of Lahan, more than anything," she muses quietly to herself as they descend into the ruins of the city. "And Old Petra, for that matter. It isn't hard to imagine 'what' happened, given all of that. ... I suppose the real question would be the 'why'," she adds solemnly.

There's no joking inflection to her voice; she's on edge, watching for any unwelcome surprises at the same time as she tries to stay respectful.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied hasn't... exactly been her best self ever since they came to Elru.

Reticient and withered, she's more moving along with a trepidation that's cast over her; she needs to be at her strongest, for the rest of the Tainted still back in the Gutter, but she's finding it difficult to summon that strength right now. It's why she's relying so much on Noeline right now. She feels Lily's lack of horror; it... doesn't surprise her.

There's a strange tranquility to the blastedness of the place. It's not unlike Lost July, in a way. Noeline's not wrong.

"I was astonished when I saw their operations in Sult. I didn't think they survived..." Riesenlied whispers. A pause.

Fei asks her a few questions. "I was..." She closes her eyes.

The Hyadean lets out a faint gasp, short of breath as she hurries up to the top of the parapet and nearly throws herself over the battlements in sight of what has happened. The Gears--

The light--

"I was... far enough that I survived. I remember hearing the noise of the Gears in flight. I ran up to the top of the battlements, then a force-- I was thrown clear of the castle wall, and I..." A pause, as she hesitates. "I woke up hours later in horrid pain. The destruction that washed over the city was...."

She shrivels a little further up.

A pause, as Fei compliments her balance. She doesn't respond immediately. Nor to Elly's query -- the way her sentence trailed off suggests that the destruction was so complete the land was stripped of all vigour.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

They say that Filgaia is dying. ...But even in Ignas, even travelling the wasteland, one rarely sees where that leads, the necrosis that is this ruined land.

Lily, unlike Riesenlied, seems to be sharper here, more sure. ...Though admittedly, she is spoiling for a fight; there is a sense she has that something is coming, that the other shoe will have to drop.

She does not bring up the Demon, though she wonders, too--why here? Why this place, why these people, why this time? It is not with shock that she questions. ...She certainly doesn't expect Id to have done other than is his nature.

But Fei has the questions covered. ...And Lily blames /herself/ some, for not feeling that horror.

"I noticed that," Lily answers Elly. "...I don't think it's the weather. You can feel it, can't you? ...Death. It's seeped into the air, into the ground... It's in the stones." Lily kneels down, picking up a handful of dirt, letting it slide through her gloved fingers, slowly. "Was there much to salvage to begin with?" she wonders.

Lahan... Old Petra. "It's like those places, but... worse, I think. I don't mean to imply that they aren't awful, just... something about this."

She stands, then, looks to Riesenlied. "I see. ...You were lucky then, rushing into danger, and living through it." She pauses. "...But that confirms it for me. Local Drifters... would be better off avoiding the place, frankly. Something here... Is still broken."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei doesn't react to Noeline's comment about it reminding her of Lahan. Lahan was an accident, he doubts this was. Just like Old Petra wasn't an accident. Or Wayside for that matter. "You'd almost think he was following--" Fei says, hesitates, and then finishes his thought. "--following you."

If Fei is experiencing memories of his own, it is not being advertised. Not on empathic lines, or psychic lines. It's just Fei.

But he's clearly affected by what he sees all the same. There's a strange intensity in his gaze that lingers within his eyes.

"Why would he do this?" Fei asks. "Even Siegfried has a purpose, even Grahf and K.K as obtuse as they are. This is just..." Fei lowers his head. "...It's just destruction for the sake of destruction."

He lowers his head. "How can Xantia like him so much? She acts like they're friends. If you were a little slower, or his reach was a little closer you would've been..."

Fei's shaking. Maybe he should have worn warmer clothing.

"Old Petra has New Petra," Fei says, finally commenting on this. "Lahan became some kind of outlaw town. Don't feel great about that, still, but this..."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

In her heart for a moment Elly wishes, hopes, that she will never have to see anything like what Riesenlied has.

Immediately she feels guilt about that. Why? She doesn't know; she just does. Maybe she could have done something, even though at the time she was busily getting her hair yanked and her ears flicked by her primary-school peers. But...

But.

"It isn't like the malevolence here, or on Lunar," Elly tells Lily. "It feels like... like what's left over. Like that stuff is different, but it's a form of energy. This is just..."

Bones.

She sees Fei shiver. Elly unloops her scarf as she says, "I don't think... a place like this is beyond hope. I don't know what was done, beyond what you described... and right now, we have other concerns, like Mother, and..." ... everything else. "But I don't think it would be right to give up, either..."

Then the scarf is deployed... around Fei's neck, looped gently and perhaps easing the chill. To him, now, Elly speaks. "You should get a jacket, at least, when we're back at the Kraken. You're not going to deprive anybody. I can tell you're shivering..."

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

Noeline takes a great deal of care to offer Riesenlied her support, and has throughout the trip over. She's aware that walking may be more painful on the Tainted than it once was, given her new feet, and she makes sure to offer a constant shoulder and arm, assisting in navigating over the worst parts of the rubble in their way. Her support comes in more intangible ways, as well - throughout their journey there's been the spark of a Guardian's power around them, as Noeline does her best to shadow their presence within the veil of Duras Drum's sorcery.

A hand goes to Riesenlied's back as she curls into herself, and Noeline glances across first in Lily's direction, and then in Fei's. "That would not be any kind of surprise. He's more or less said something to that effect himself, in fact."

She sighs; she's not as good at this as Riese, but she can still make reasonably educated guesses. "My impression is that he feels we are simply fooling ourselves as to our purpose, or not being true to ourselves. In that, he feels at least a little similar to the Trial Knight. Opposite sides of the same coin, perhaps?" she muses for a moment, then shakes her head. "There is petulance and anger there, as well, and perhaps-- well, to be honest, it feels more and more as if we are watching a web of age-old grudges mingle and clash together. None of it can be confirmed, I suppose, but if Riese were a target then, I doubt she would be standing here today."

At least Elly gets a quiet smile, and then Noeline's broken out into a chuckle. "I can at least say that from my point of view, humans are-- remarkably hardy. Somehow, they bounce back, time and time and time again.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Why here? Why this place? There's much Riesenlied doesn't know. She knows of General Baal's overall disposition for expansion and the things he's done in Sult, but otherwise... there's so much context about Garlyle that she doesn't understand. Why it was targeted -- why those mysterious Gears were there in the first place. Why the Demon of Elru appeared.

Lily says she's lucky, rushing into danger like that.

"It was... the first real time I can remember feeling a sharp, empathic pang -- like the trances that draw me to places. The echoes... told me that something terrible would happen, here," Riesenlied explains.

She lowers her head. "But yes, I'm still lucky. I could've easily..." She doesn't finish that thought either, lapsing as she is as she leans against Noeline. She clings onto her hand for support.

She looks to Elly as she consoles Fei, suggests that he obtains a coat. She pauses for a moment longer. She wonders if Garlyle can recover. It's not that she's pessimistic, but it feels like the only ones who survived have well and truly abandoned their land for Aveh and their military adventures...

Following her?

She hesitates, thinking back to Old Petra. Showing her the deaths of a lifetime. Something he wanted to share. Ever since that day.

"Maybe..." she meekly pipes up, but doesn't elucidate on what, exactly.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"..."

Following. ...Lily looks to Riesenlied there, looks to Fei, and does not answer. She can see how affected Fei is, though. Why wouldn't he be? ...No, there are reasons even he doesn't know. Reasons Lily can't share with him. ...SO she leaves that matter for a moment, instead beginning--

"Maybe it's because the wastes are more used to bouncing back; because there, things are already ruined." She says this like an allowance, like it could be possible, but she doesn't believe it. "...But yes, you feel it too," Lily answers Elly. "It's not that some power lingers--it's just the aftermath. Ashes, the energy there was already spent, left to nothing."

She looks to the distance. "...I don't share your optimism," Lily admits. "But so long as it isn't spreading, why not try to heal it one day? Someone may be the one who can make the effort. ...But that's not me."

"...Humans are pretty resilient though. That's true."

"Of all the reasons to feel someone's suffering, though--this is it, isn't it? It makes sense, to me." She shakes her head. "...But I don't think the Demon is following Riesenlied. I think it's more... That their natures are opposed. That inevitably, so long as they both exist, destruction and healing... That they're going to meet. Their goals are too opposed otherwise."

She lets that hang, and finally looks to Fei, as she starts to remove her gloves, pulling from one finger first, methodically. The cold makes her pale, but she doesn't shiver.

"...He does this because it's who he is," Lily says simply. "Because it's his nature. Not for some greater plan, some grand design... But because destruction is what he does." She pauses, briefly, kneels down again, and this time touches the ruined earth with her bare hands. "...Xantia can like him because that's who she is. Morals aren't her main concern. ...He /knows/ something, and she's drawn to that. And maybe there's something in her nature that seeks him out. It's hard to say."

"Is it so strange? Destruction finds destruction. ...And that's not all bad. We /need/ destruction, to face Mother. ...If we can't destroy the things holding Filgaia back, then there'll be no hope for people like Riesenlied, no chance to grow something new to begin healing."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Not the deaths of 'a' lifetime.

Fei listens to Noeline's summation. A little similar to the Trial Knight? He can't argue, of course, he hasn't met this Id character but he supposes there might be something to it. Maybe the Zeboim Empire had to be destroyed, Fei thinks, if it left behind all these people who are like this. K.K seems to be from around that timeline, considering how he can communicate with Lily in her secret tongue. Their secret tongue, he supposes.

Noeline had said it was a bit like Lahan. Gears showed up at Lahan all of a sudden and it was destroyed too. For no reason, really. Maybe there is no reason here either. Maybe it just happened. No reason at all. Does everything need a reason? Does this need a reason?

"Sorry," He tells Riesenlied, knowing that since she didn't exactly argue she's probably not in the best situation here.

Lily seems to approach it from a completely different route. Fei looks frankly baffled. Lily speaks up in favor of what can best be described as progressive destruction, but Fei certainly doesn't think /this/ qualifies.

More terrifyingly, her reasoning is almost the opposite of Noeline's. He is just doing this because it's who he is. He destroys because he's a destroyer.

Fei blinks at that thought. Because he's a destroyer. He shakes his head quickly, clearing his thoughts. Don't think about it like that, Fei thinks.

But he can't argue against Lily's reasoning about Xantia either. She isn't heartless enough to do anything like this, but she is certainly has a kind of elemental nature about her.

Maybe, in the end, Fei just wanted to understand Xantia. Why someone who seems so kind to others can have faith in someone like Id.

It's still hard to understand.

"Opposing goals..." Fei murmurs. It might be telling that he's getting three different answers.

Elly offers Fei something else.

First, she offers a scarf. Fei looks up suddenly at that, eyes wide. He turns towards Elly, and then he blushes severely at her chastisement. "Y...yeah you're right. I didn't think about it. Sorry for being a space cadet today." He manages a small smile at her, definitely--YES--sheepish in nature. It makes sense though, after all he's definitely on the lamb.

But she says even this kind of place is not beyond hope. That's another strange thing offered as Fei looks out over the desolation.

"Really?" It's such a quiet voice. "Even here...?"

Destruction and rejuvenation, Fei remembers Xantia had said. Two sides of the same coin.

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

"... easy..." mutters Noeline as she places herself in a position to catch and take Riesenlied's weight; her expression is rather drawn, and she's clearly trying her best not to worry that Elru might be too much for her partner to handle. Like it or not, they have to be here - there is simply too much at stake not to be - but she makes a quiet little note in the back of her mind to try to get Riesenlied to rest later, surrounded by her children and reminders of why she's here.

She's silent throughout Lily's comments, but is obviously listening along given the way her brow furrows. It's only once the other woman is done that she chooses to speak up. "I-- would rather prefer not to think that way, on the whole. From an outsider's perspective, considering yourself as at is the same thinking that keeps Metal Demons thinking they are nothing but Mother's soldiers. It is that line of thought that we had to overcome. Perhaps it is what the Demon thinks of /himself/ - I feel as if he's called himself a monster on more than one occasion - but I feel the distinction is important."

She pauses, and sighs a little as she draws a hand back through her hair, forcing herself to exhale some of her tension. "... my apologies. Not to denigrate your point, since I think it is a sound one. But I cannot help but feel 'our nature' can be a very tricky thing."

She hesitates, closes her eyes, and forces a topic change. It's rather blatant, but she can't bring herself to worry about being subtle right at the moment. "I've seen tribes eke out an existence for years then find a place to settle and thrive. We've seen Adlehyde rise from the ashes once before, and I have every hope it will do so again. Lahan may be an outlaw camp right now, but-- well, a new city has to start somewhere. So long as it has people, that means it has life," she chuckles quietly.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

In many ways, Elru is a place of beginnings for Riesenlied. The Photosphere, of course, was where she was born. The lost village of Fereshte is a place of true beginning, a place where she first found a semblance of acceptance. And here? Here in Garlyle, when she started to really tweak to her infantile powers of empathy, that led her here...

But she doesn't try to talk about healing the land. She wants to, of course; she wants to see Elru returned to a kind of splendour that she knows is possible.

"I don't know," Riesenlied says, surprisingly resigned. "But... trying to understand the Demon was what led to a lot of the events of the past year. And in a way... I don't... want to steer my course away. I don't want to look away, and stop trying to understand..."

She gets that out. She doesn't touch on the topic of destruction. She slumps wearily against Noeline as she admits, "It's-- a bit much to be here right now. Moreso than I realised. But... do you think you learnt something, coming here, Fei?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Fei's bafflement... Well, Lily wasn't sure, of course. But she sees it, and it gives her an answer of one sort, one thing not to press. Reasons? They can be dangerous. But...

"He's lucky you're around to look after him," Lily says to Elly, a little more gently than before. ...Noeline prefers not to think about it the way Lily said, though.

Lily turns to look at the Crimson Noble then, quiet, and then inclines her head. "...Don't worry about it," Lily answers her from her spot, looking down again ato the ground. "I won't press the matter."

Neither does she say she's going to believe otherwise herself, though.

"It's like you, to try to understand, Riesenlied. I don't think you could stop if you tried, at this point. It's too vital to you."

"But if this is difficult, we can worry about a new city later. We don't have to stay. I think it's clear we're unlikely to find much by way of resources here."

"...When Fei's ready, we can go."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"It's alright," Elly tells Fei. "I just don't want you to get sick..."

She takes a deep breath and lets it out.

"... Lily," Elly says.

She looks at her then, and she says, "We have to focus on Mother. But, even if it's nothing more than planting some trees that will handle the weather, let's do something before we leave Elru. Alright? At least, if we have the choice."

Where are they going to get trees, anyway?

ELSEWHERE

Hammer hastily closes the door to his 'trees' in the cargo hold of the Kraken.

HERE AGAIN

"It's interesting how places seem to have a life of their own, isn't it? Even if Lahan's in bad shape now, it's in a good location... someone will build new there, eventually, or at least nearby. I know that in Nisan they find old strange pieces of metal in the corn fields all the time... Since it's such a sheltered valley, people must have lived there, even oh so long ago."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei pushes his face into the scarf. It feels so warm, he thinks.

"Will you be okay? Without one?" He asks, though it's kinda muffled by the scarf. He is still keeping the lower half of his face underneath that scarf. It's positively adorable.

He gives one last look over to the desolate wasteland. It astounds him that Elly can speak of such hope in the face of something like this, but hidden by that scarf he is smiling all the same.

Hope. It's kind of a contradiction in of itself, sometimes it feels nice, othertimes frustrating, but when it's Elly he can believe in it. Hope, living and breathing before him.

"Yeah. Once we're done with Mother lets try to help this place out a little."

He nods to Lily. "I think I'm ready. No point in depressing myself any more, right?" Even Noeline seems to be thinking along similar lines as Elly. That's a thing.

But as he's starting to walk away, he gives one more surprised look Riesenlied's way, eyes wide again. He doesn't say anything. Trying to understand the demon is how they met? Trying to understand the demon is ...still her goal?

His face lowers back into the scarf. It's nice, he supposes, that she wishes to do that but by the same token Fei tried today to understand that demon and he thinks, now more than ever...

...that he doesn't want to understand him at all. Instead, he lets himself bask in the warmth of the scarf that feels more like home than anything else right now.

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