2018-11-22: A Mind to Wander
- Log: A Mind to Wander
- Cast: Riesenlied, Ambrosius
- Where: Photosphere
- Date: 22nd November 2018
- Summary: Ambrosius approaches the Photosphere for a project, but the emissary sent is none other than...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The relations between the Veruni and the Metal Demon have certainly come to something of a head-- with Mother positively becoming more and more awakened, the question of exactly how the relationship will endure...
... is certainly on a lot of people's head.
Still, the alliance is something that is currently lasting -- so Ambrosius hasn't exactly had his pass revoked or anything like that. If anything else, the buzz alight from all of the preparations for the eventual siege from the Drifters have got the soldiers up in arms.
Then there are rumours that he's heard of a certain someone being taken from the Outreach, on one of their trips to rescue the refugees on the way to New Arctica.
The most eventful of outcomes tend to be sparked by the most trivial of decisions. Oh, there's a visitor here--
Send /her/ out.
And as such... the emissary that comes to visit Ambrosius in one of the Photosphere's hallways is...
Is...
Someone who carries with her the distinctness of Riesenlied. She softly floats, a mere inch off the ground as if walking is difficult; she is dressed in an ironic black version of her usual Fereshte garments, perhaps designed such as a mockery.
Her eyes are covered from his, by way of a small mask that reminds Ambrosius of the Quarter Knight Alhazred's... and...
The Original Artificial Medium of Life, which is so plainly embedded onto the base of her neck and fused to her skin where her necklet usually rests.
"I..." she speaks, with the softness evidently familiar of Riesenlied's voice. "Hope you have not been waiting long, noble Veruni."
But the affectation in which she speaks... the lack of memory for someone she has always considered a good friend -- ever soft and almost doll-like... it does not carry the right note of how she empathically speaks at all.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
'The alliance with the Metal Demons is a matter of convenience.' Those were the words Volsung had said, on the day Ambrosius returned to Locus Solus to deliver a report along with the two sentinels. It was difficult to tell when it would no longer be such...but for now they were allies, and as such Ambrosius has come to visit the Photosphere.
The purpose for this visit was rather simple - thanks to being able to acquire proper Veruni tools and resources, he had completed work on a longstanding project and just needed to acquire registration information so that it would not view the Metal Demons as enemies, should he need to deploy it on the battlefield.
And, at the same time, he had heard that rumor...it couldn't be true, could it? A part of him was uncertain.
He arrives and he waits, until such time as someone is sent out to him. The one who is sent...is the last person he expected - or perhaps wanted - to see.
"...Miss Riesenlied..." He says, the words coming unbidden. ...But, was it? She looks like her. She /sounds/ like her - but only in that the voice is the same. There's something...missing. A something missing that fills Ambrosius with dread and an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He is quiet, for a moment.
"...N-no. I have not." He eventually replies, just a little shaken. "What...is your name?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The person which so bears the visage of Riesenlied... ...
No... there is, unequivocably, something genuine about her. A doppelganger or clone would not possess such familiar subtleness, despite the everything that so screams at the senses and the mind that tells one -- 'this is wrong'.
She reacts just a little, as if the unbidden words prompt a little response. A response that is not visible on her eyeless face, and yet underneath... just what is happening there?
"... do you... know me?" A pause. "Yes... my name is Riesenlied, noble Veruni."
She has an extremely courteous bow, of stunningly precise animation -- her motions which so seem pre-recorded, as if from some unknowable library. Her voice is full of respect, and yet there is an offness to it. As if there was a veil of forcedness to it. A decorum imposed.
"I have been told I have been in a long torpor due to injury. If there is something I can assist you with today, pray do ask, noble Veruni..."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Perhaps Ambrosius only hoped that it couldn't possibly be her. But...no. It is certainly her, and she confirms it with her own words, and a bow that is all too perfect.
"...I...yes, we-" He starts, then stops himself when she claims that she has been in a long torpor. His expression darkens, just a touch. It's as if she's forgotten - or never knew in the first place. ...Is this what the Metal Demons do...? He feels anger, at least for a brief moment.
"...No. Perhaps I was mistaken..." He says, unconvincingly. "...Please. Call me Ambrosius."
He straightens himself up, by the dread and uneasiness still remains deep in his core.
"...There is. I require data. Specifically, any IFF frequencies your people utilize." Ambrosius states. That was why he was here, after all. He still had a job to accomplish...even though he now felt uncertain.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has a long, awkward pause for a moment.
She whispers that name back. "Ambro... sius..." There is an almost painful hitch that seems to erupt ever so subtly from her lips, as if some kind of hidden struggle made itself evident for a moment. Then, as if nothing had ever happened:
"I shall do so, noble Ambrosius," back to that imposed, polite inclination. "Data... there are engineers that would be able to assist. I will relay the request to them, and forward the information to you."
She bows her head again. There is a moment, as some kind of small flying drone sweeps in and looms about her. She places her hand to it, gently... and it seems to recognise what is being asked, and flies off.
... perhaps it is as much surveillance of her, as it is for practical functions.
"... my apologies, if it is to have turnaround time. With Mother's new level of awakening, everyone here has ever been more emboldened by what is to come..."
A new level of awakening?
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius pauses for a moment, at that pause and that hitch in Riesenlied's voice. Was she remembering something? He takes a brief step in her direction, but pauses when she returns to her previous state.
"That would be appreciated." He replies, watching as a drone swoops down. He eyes the machine carefully - and, perhaps, a little suspiciously.
"...That is acceptable." He replies with a nod. Truthfully, he did not object to having to delay his project's deployment. He did not particularly relish the idea of using it for the Metal Demon's war.
That information about Mother, however...
"I take it her awakening has progressed?" He asks. He didn't know any particular details - only what he'd gathered...and what he'd been told, so long ago.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied places her hands to her lap gently, tilting her head -- a gesture which seems so similar to what Riesenlied would ordinarily motion. But... when he asks of Mother--
"Yes," she speaks with some lilting joy in her voice. Yet the inflection bears something uncanny in it. Something that doesn't feel particularly genuine. "I was given this opportunity to bring power to her through the Leyline... and now, she can move of her own volition."
Concerning. Mother was in a cocoon and barely awoke as of the last development. The Leyline was the very lifeblood of the planet... and through the Statues, something of a block to how much energy Mother could devour from the planet.
"... they said I would have the opportunity to grant Mother the power she needs to bring us salvation," she speaks a little more genteely. "To bring us to a new world that..."
A pause. Riesenlied pauses, as if the words are just lost... the words which so form a familiar catchphrase of hers, yet interrupted. Another memory lost.
"... my apologies. I did not mean to espouse such joy unprovoked, noble Ambrosius."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius listens as Riesenlied explains her role in Mother's awakening. It is...a little disturbing, to hear Riesenlied speak of it with that uncanny joy. It was she who had originally warned him of Mother's nature...and to hear her now, talk about how she was aiding in her awakening...
He felt as if he had somehow found himself in a different Filgaia than the one he had become accustomed to.
He hesitates at that pause, at those words which were so familiar to him said now in a context like this.
"...No. It is alright, Miss Riesenlied." Ambrosius replied, with a shake of her head. "I can understand your...situation."
He can't manage too much sincerity.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
A different Filgaia, as if a mirror of a world that was so familiar and yet with subtle differences that scream at the mind...
Perhaps that is what the Riesenlied in front of him is experiencing too.
There is a delicate smile for a moment as Ambrosius excuses her, and she nods again. Her misshapen, Draconic feet set onto the ground as she stops floating.
"It is strange. Even for a little while, after so much time in sleep..." Riesenlied pauses as she glances towards one of the port windows.
"If I can be of aid to those that I care... then... I can be content."
'To those that she cares'. But not Mother, whom she has so directly expressed just a few statements before.
Painful, then, that in this state of hers... this 'situation'... that she likely cannot espouse that it is Noeline and her children.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius finds his gaze drifting to the windows as well as she speaks. Strange...yes, there was certainly something strange, though she likely did not yet understand the full breadth of it.
He is quiet, for a moment. Does some part of her still remember those closest to her...? Or is he looking too far into it?
"I am certain...they must long to see you again." He states. But when they did...would it be the Riesenlied they remembered? He shakes his head, then.
"...My apologies, I allowed my mind to wander. Regardless...there are those whose influence will remain with us, no matter how much time will pass." He states.
He had not yet forgotten his mentor's teachings. But looking at him now...would she still approve?
He didn't know.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied trembles for a moment further, lowering her head as she gazes towards the window out far. Towards the Ellurian blizzard, which must so cover many secrets still. She lets out a soft, affected sigh.
"... I do... hope so," Riesenlied finds herself speaking, as if she's struggling to push something difficult out. A pause.
She bristles ever so softly. There are those whose influence will remain with her...
Of everything they've ever spoken of, will his influence linger in Riesenlied? The way they've struggled through thick and thin... the way she's always viewed him as -- a fond friend, or even family; the way he has so engaged with Wayside at large, and Janey, more personally.
Yet all that... teeters on the brink of destruction, thanks to the works of someone who has twisted the mind.
"You... speak wisely, Mister Ambrosius." 'Mister Ambrosius'... the way the title has shifted to something a little more akin to what Riesenlied, unfailingly polite, has ever called him.
"I am to return to my other duties before long... but. It is good to see you..." Again...? No, that's not... right, is it? Her lips wrinkle a little in hesitation.
"It is good to see you," she winds up leaving that a bit ambivalent.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
There's quiet...but it's a quiet he views as significant. He doesn't break it, instead letting whatever thoughts are there underneath work themselves out of her.
He manages a faint chuckle and a smile, as she comments on the wiseness of his words...and uses a familiar title.
"I have my moments." He states. He listens as she continues and...hesitates? Interesting.
"I shall not keep you, Miss Riesenlied. It is good to see you, as well." He says with a polite bow of his head. "...Do take care."