2018-11-26: Flock of One
- Log: Flock of One
- Cast: Neriah Parringer, Skylr Paer
- Where: Ruins of Arctica
- Date: November 26, 2018
- Summary: Neriah encounters a wandering Skylr, and the two sit down for tea as they begin to feel around some complex feelings.
==============================<* Ruins of Arctica *>============================== Arctica Castle is a ruin. Once, the proud fortress stood as evidence of human might and perseverance in the face of destruction. The stones here withstood the Day of Collapse. Now, though, many of its hallways have collapsed, and the village that was outside the walls is nothing but snowbound ruins. The interior of the castle shows signs of a great battle. ARMs left both bullet holes and beam scars on the walls. The original assailants have left and Arctica's knights are long dead. However, dangerous wildlife have moved in. Still, some whisper that ancient treasures may yet survive in the armories and caches hidden in the lowest levels of the castle. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4F1mIwdmSs <Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
There's a lot of open snow and ice to search through in the Drifters' quest to find the home of the Metal Demons - a slog through a wintry north dotted with ruins. Notably, it's also been devoid of Metal Beasts today. If the Metal Demons are out to keep Drifters away from their home, no patrols are in evidence - certainly not around what was once a ruined castle. Arctica, a once-proud fortress which stood for a time for human might and perseverance.
The castle itself is nothing more. It's simply a snow-choked ruin, scarred and blackened and collapsing in on itself.
Outside the main palace, however, there are smaller clusters of brick and fallen masonry - either outlying towers or secondary fortifications. One of them is a simple stone watchtower, rising out of the snow, part of it crumbling away. Snow has piled up on one side of the tower, ice hanging in long teeth from cold, ARM-scarred ramparts. There's nothing alive there.
Except for a slash of vivid white and black sitting atop the tower.
One can see it from a distance. Someone is sitting up there - a pale white shape crowned with long dark hair. It's hard from a distance to tell who or what it is, but it's hard to believe that a human being could still be living out here.
Who could it be?
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
Skylr didn't like Elru too much. It's a little too cold. She lives much closer to the equator on Lunar, so she doesn't really have to deal with it all that much. So instead, here she is, in a fuzzy wool jacket, and a familiar, pom-pom having fuzzy wool hat, scarf, and mittens. Of course they're all wool. What did you expect from her?
Nearly turning, Skylr can be seen, barely, squinting up at the tower. One mittened hand goes up to the hem of the woolly hat, where she squints further, her own breath fogging her glasses.
"Stupid, interesting ruins." She mumbles to herself, starting to slog through the snow. "Why would anyone be out here now? They're idiots. I'm an idiot."
Her rambling fades into grumbles.
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
Whomever is up there, as Skylr draws closer, something else can be faintly heard.
The sound of someone singing softly.
The voice is quiet and feminine, and there are no lyrics; the song's nearly lost in the wind, but it becomes more clear when Skylr grows closer. It's a soft, pensive kind of song, almost mournful, in a way. And it's coming from that tower.
The closer the Guardswoman get, the more clear it becomes who's up there. A young woman in surprisingly light clothing for winter - an airy white linen dress that doesn't go far down her thighs, a pair of high-arched heels, and a broad white scarf with patterns of black weaving randomly through it. Her dark curls ripple a bit as the wind hits them. When finally Skylr reaches the foot of the tower, though, the woman stops singing and looks down towards her.
Neriah Parringer presses her lips gently together. She doesn't say anything for a moment.
"You can come out of the cold, you know," she invites, her voice quiet and not unkind. "I promise I won't bite."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
Someone singing draws the most delicate of frowns to Skylrs' face.
The clothing, too, draws a deeper one. A light dress, a scarf, heels - dark hair, and... when Neriah looks down as Skylr looks up, Skylr starts. Oh, boy does she know that face. Boy does she wish she doesn't. The guardswoman visibly hesitates, Skylr's face set. There's no Eryon to help her today. There's no one to see her cry, today.
(That also means she doesn't have to attempt to arrest her today, thank Althena.)
"... how are you not cold?" There we go! That's a somewhat safe topic of conversation. We hope. She does not move towards the tower, though.
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
Neriah flips one hand in the air as if to brush the question off as irrelevant. "I'm cheating," she admits. The clever might notice that the snow on the battlements stops about a foot to either side of her, and any snow that's falling doesn't seem to enter the space immediately around her. It's as if there's a roughly spherical area that's taking the snow and the cold somewhere else.
Reaching down, Neriah pulls one leg up, adjusting one of the straps of her shoes. When she looks up again, it's with a small, sad smile. "You don't have to be afraid of me, you know. I'm not going to do anything to hurt you."
Her smile fades a bit as she looks off towards the horizon. "...Maybe I've already done that too much," she admits, voice a little smaller. "And if it means anything, I wish I could make it up to you somehow."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
"Cheating...?" Skylr gets it after a second, realizing the snow isn't reaching Neriah in any way or form. "Oh... I can't do that. I just tend to blow more wind in my face, then - and my nose is already cold enough." Indeed, Skylr is the epitome of a cold shepherd: rosy cheeks, and a just as rosy nose to go with it.
Neriah is sad, and Skylr is sad for her, and hates herself for it.
"I --" A pause. "I'm afraid of a lot of things. Not just you." Skylr finally says. "Tall people, especially muscular ones that have been drinking worry me. I could get squished. Upsetting Leo worries me - Miss Mauri is important to me too, I don't want them mad at me. Um... Boys are confusing." A little gesture from the eighteen year old.
"... make it up to me..."
Then, barely loud enough to be heard by Neriah: "... um, you could just..." Even quieter: "Turn yourself... in?"
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
When Skylr talks about making herself colder, Neriah bites down to her bottom lip, a look of profound pity etched across her face. For just a moment, she's seized by an overpowering urge to bundle Skylr up and hug her and kiss her rosy cheeks until she's warmed up again.
She blushes a little, sighing quietly as she flicks a curl back from her cheek. "I'm sorry," she says, and the way she says it makes it sound completely genuine. "But I've got work to do. The Metal Demons did something I can never forgive. If nothing else, I need to deal with it."
Neriah's hands fall to her thighs, adjusting the hem of her dress ever so slightly. Then, sliding her legs over the ramparts, she drops down the side of the tower.
Touching down in the snow in a neat three-point landing, she rises with a little huff - and she's close enough to Skylr that the invisible globe of gentle warmth around her can be felt. The current of magic behind it is subtle, not overtly sinister, but it's clearly not the same as Her Blessing. "White Knight Leo is a good man. One who doesn't understand some things, but a good man. You don't have to tell him you ran into me. But, you know... you shouldn't have to trudge around in the winter by yourself with your nose freezing off. At least come inside and let me make tea."
Neriah smiles crookedly. "I promise there's nothing bad in there."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
"It's okay." Skylr says, simply. "Leo knows I'm not really... an arrest-y type person... not like Miss Pearl. Miss Pearl is brave, not like me. She's not afraid of whoever is up on the bounty board..."
Skylr really is a sheep. She touches the magic, carefully with her hand. She frowns. It's not really her jam, to walk into that... but it's warm- and, well... Skylr likes being warm. It's better than being everyone's favorite snowmaiden, all rosy-cheeked and cute and happy. Oh wait she's not at least two of those things.
"... okay." She says reluctantly. "But I don't need tea, really..."
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
The challenge is getting Skylr to 'happy.'
"You know, you're allowed to have things you want, not just things you need," Neriah suggests with a little smile as she steps back into the arched entrance of the tower. Once Skylr's followed her in, she eases an old wooden door closed behind her.
It's warmer in here, and a little lighter, a lantern and a small fire pit warding off the winter. Unraveling her scarf, Neriah hangs it on a hook on the wall and moves to set a teapot over the fire pit. "I don't know Pearl," she admits. "But the truth is, you don't have to be ashamed of being afraid of things, even scary things. I think sometimes people are too quick to try and force each other to be brave. But it's okay to have negative feelings."
Letting the tea begin to heat, Neriah turns back to Skylr, folding her arms loosely beneath her chest. The shoes she's wearing lend her gait a subtle swishiness, and the dress only contributes.
"What's your name?" she asks, quietly. "I never did get to ask you that. I'm sorry for not doing it earlier."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
"Um- it's Skylr. Skylr Paer. Not- pear, like the fruit, p-a-e-r."
"But I like pears, so it's okay?"
Skylr finds herself in a nice little warm room. Warm enough that the shamed hat of 'throwing at bad people' finds itself in a pocket, along with her gloves. The scarf she keeps in her hands, however, tugging slightly at it. The wool frays, but it's in ways that should be normal for wool.
She does find a seat, though, her booted feet together as she enacts the princess sit. Tug, tug on the scarf. "It's okay to not be brave. I know that. I'm ... I've got white magic, through and through. The most I do is shoot people and frown at them... and a lot of things just shrug off an arrow." Skylr sounds rueful. "Just ask the Metal Demons." Another pause. "And even more can ignore a frown."
Tug, tug.
"Um... but that's okay... I don't like fighting."
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
"It's not pronounced the same, is it? The A's a little longer in Paer," Neriah muses, touching a delicate hand to her cheek.
When the bespectacled Guardswoman takes a seat, Neriah circles to collect a little box of something. She shakes a few chocolate cookies out onto a little white sheet, pulling a crate over to within arm's reach and setting the cookies down on it within Skylr's reach. Then she seats herself; there are a couple of wooden chairs that somehow survived. She crosses one leg over the other and fusses with the hem of her dress.
"I understand," she says quietly, her smile small and sad. "Was it your magic that led you to join the Guard? Or did you have much of a choice in the matter"
The Priestess of Valmar looks down at her hand. Turning it over, she splays her fingers, her eyes lingering on her palm. "...I never thought I'd be a fighter either," she admits. "The magic I was born with wasn't something I wanted... in some ways, I wish I hadn't been. It took me a long time to understand why."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
"Right, it's ... I used to say 'pear' when I was little, so..." Skylr shrugs.
There's cookies. There's cookies from Neriah.
Help.
Skylr looks at her own hands as Neriah looks at hers. Callused - a little chubby. Then she goes back to slowly unravelling her own scarfas she picks at it carefully. She's waiting for the tea, or she still isn't sure how much she does and or doesn't trust Neriah. Finally, her head tilts to the side.
"My momma wanted me trained - um, I'm ... only eighteen but I've got full talent over both wind and light magic, so to say. It's from my mama's side - and it wasn't the guards, um... living in Azado, it was easy for my momma to get the local priests and stuff to teach me, and eventually I moved to Pentagulia, where I became a full priestess of Althena. So I wasn't really a guard, just... one of Hers, assigned to the Destiny to help the guards."
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
Neriah's hands are surprisingly callused despite being slender and fairly elegant.
She takes a cookie for herself, nibbling at it as she listens to Skylr explain. Her eyebrows come up a little. "So it was your mother who wanted you to follow this path," she says quietly. "I understand. I think I got my powers from my mom, too... though she didn't know it."
Trustworthy or not, Neriah doesn't seem to be openly trying to turn Skylr towards the darkness, and indeed, her body language is not as relaxed as she conveys - there's a hint of anxiety behind her eyes as she glances away for a moment, then towards the teapot, then to Skylr again. "I'm sorry that happened to you. It must feel like life's out of control. Spirited away to a whole new world, and swept along in all these things...."
The teapot begins to whistle. Sliding out of her chair with a little sigh, Neriah collects a pair of cups, beginning to pour out the tea. "...I know it seems odd of me to say it, given that I'm a complete monster. But I think I understand that feeling. For a long time I felt like I was a slave to events that I couldn't control, too. Do you take milk or sugar?"
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
Skylr shakes her head. "Momma wasn't a priestess herself. She could have been, but she wasn't. She was a craftswoman - it's part of the reason she and papa had such a good farm. She's the one that taught me how to knit the wool, dye it, all those little things that make having a sheep farm all the more profitable."
"And papa taught me about the sheep."
Duh.
Skylr continues ripping at the scarf. "Um, if it's sugar cubes, just two, please. If it's the kind that you have to spoon out, three spoonsful... I like adding my own milk to taste." Sky says, unashamed of what little things she does for herself. She rubs the back of her head with one hand.
"It's - it's okay. It's been an adventure. I just wish some things had gone differently, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
"It's cubes," Neriah explains with a little blush as she drops a pair into one of the teacups. They're white, with delicate patterning in black and red in a band just below the rim.
Carrying the steaming cups and a small decanter of milk back towards the little crate, Neriah settles into her seat again, the tray set down for Skylr to take a cup. The second cup is for Neriah herself, and she leaves it black. Cradling it delicately, she nods, eyes watching the bespectacled priestess past the cup's rim.
"I understand," she says with a tight, pained smile. "In a lot of ways, I wish the same. I tried as hard as I could to use my powers for good reasons - to protect Riese and the Wayside orphans, even - and all it got me was the Demon of Elru breaking my skull and leaving me for dead in the middle of Wayside Village. And he ws just kind of the latest. For everyone who tried to understand me, there were a hundred people who saw me struggling with horrible powers that hurt me, and they just treated me like a pariah."
Delicately, the Child of Valmar sips her tea. When she lowers it, it's with a small, sad smile. "I would've liked to just be an excavator. That's what I was before I learned where my powers came from. I still have the uniform, even."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
Skylr stirs her cup carefully, then adds enough milk to nearly make it overflow, and turn it into milk with tea taste, rather than tea with milk taste. Than she, perhaps rudely, dips a cookie into her milk tea and then bites into the cookie.
Rude, but delicious.
Finally, she looks at Neriah, her glasses sliding low on her tea. "Um... who is Riese? Where was Wayside? I've never heard of it - did that mean Wayside" School- "Fell down due to the Metal Demons?"
"I, um... I love Althena. I do... it makes me happy, to bring joy to those that worship her with my prayers and my lessons... and they know they can turn to me at any point, for healing... I'm not a ... protector."
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
"Riesenlied... Riesenlied is a Metal Demon who turned to the side of good. She took me in when nobody else would," Neriah says with a small, wistful smile, lowering her eyes to her teacup. "Wayside was a village she started. She was taking care of orphans there...." Her voice hardens a bit. "Until the other Metal Demons destroyed it. I tried as hard as I could to control my powers. I knew how out of control I was. And I thought I had it."
Her jaw tightens a little. "But the Metal Demons brought the Demon of Elru - the monster who wreaked havoc on this continent. And I had to hold back so much that he just defeated me like I was nothing. That's when I realized that if I was ever going to be strong, I had to--"
Neriah cuts herself off. She bites firmly down to her bottom lip and looks away for a moment, then clears her throat with a bit of discomfort. "...Maybe things could've been different," she murmurs, her tone heavy with bitterness and regret.
But soon she's looking back towards Skylr. Behind the light orchid-purple of her eyes, a little spark of life dances - almost admiring, in some ways. "When I was on Lunar, I met so many people who were disillusioned with Althena... some of them even followed me. I don't think any of them had faith as strong as yours. I just... I hope you're happy."
Pursing her lips, she struggles a moment to find words. Then she blushes and looks down into her lap.
"It's easier for me to serve Valmar when I'm fighting people who are corrupt or sinful, or when I'm giving people the strength to fight back against a world that's been cruel to them. But I can tell how much I hurt you. I hate that I made you feel like that."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
"Riesenlied... that's a pretty name." Skylr says, simply. "Um... I met a couple of Metal Demons more personally... A guy by the name of 'Zed', and then another one, 'Kalve'... Um... they were pretty okay, I guess... Kalve was kind of a butt- he seemed kind of uptight and was really snarky when it came to puzzling things out. Zed, uh..." A pause. "I never wanna meet Zed again, okay? Every time I have, I nearly die."
Leaving that hanging there, Skylr's jaw drops slightly as she learns about Wayside.
"That's... why did everyone come to *Elru* if there's something like THAT lurking around? We're all crazy! I knew it!" Her head drops into her hands, and she mutters to herself - nothing really sensible.
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
Neriah sighs, brushing back a dark curl from one pale cheek. "Zed is pretty annoying. Highest possible recommendation to avoid him."
Then Skylr collapses in on herself. Widening her eyes a little, Neriah sets her tea down and immediately does something she doesn't really think about.
She reaches out and rests a hand on Skylr's shoulder, squeezing gently. Leaning down and forward, she tilts her head to try and get a look into the frightened girl's face. "Hey... hey now," she says with a smile. "It's not crazy. Here in Elru... here is where the Metal Demons live. They have a goddess, called Mother... I'm sure Leo is here to try and defeat Mother and save Filgaia."
Again, Neriah gives Skylr a little squeeze, her other hand coming up as if to try and rest over one of the priestess's. "...You don't really want to be along with the Destiny, do you," she asks, her voice softer and a little more sad. "How long have things been like this? You must've felt pretty alone...."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
"It's kind of crazy." Skylr says to Neriah. "Like, that Sin thing is crazy. A thing that can wreck a whole town is crazy. Althena is being weird and that's driving ME crazy. So yeah, I don't agree: stuff is crazy, I hate it, I miss when things made sense, I miss when I could not have to worry about hearing someone singing and instead could just join them!"
Skylr inhales slightly, exhales. "He's also still trying to arrest you, I hope you know."
That being said, she crosses her arms. "I like... learning about things. But... not everyone gets along. For the most part, no one really like the Metal Demons... some ruins could get people killed... I nearly drowned trying to escape Sin ... the world is dangerous and scary and sometimes I really am a sheep."
A clearing of her throat. "It's not that I don't want to be there... I just don't fit in." Skylr says.
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
"Okay, maybe stuff is crazy," Neriah has to concede, crinkling her nose.
She once again closes her hand a little more, squeezing Skylr's shoulder. "I know he is," she says with a small, lopsided smile. "And to be honest, I probably deserve it." No, she definitely deserves it. "But I'm hard to arrest."
When Skylr folds her arms like that, Neriah draws her hand back, bringing it down to rest on her thigh. She looks up into the bespectacled young woman's face, her lips drawn together in a little purse. Written behind her eyes is a deep, quiet pity that seems utterly incongruent with the fact that she's also a murderous cult leader with the blood of thousands of innocents on her hands.
"Do you have any real friends in the Guard?" she asks.
"...Skylr, how long has it been since you've had a hug?"
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
Neriah asks two very important questions. This close together, Neriah can also see the variety of facial expressions that flit across Skylrs' face, even though Sky tries really, really hard to not let her see how distressed two simple things can make her. The first one is confusion: scrunched up nose, head tilted to the right slightly. Then, concentration: eyebrows knit together as she opens and closes her mouth. Then, confusion again: then, a bit of a anxiety coupled with a lot of sadness.
Her head drops and she starts picking at her scarf again with a much more intense motion than she had before. It is actively starting to unravel now.
"Um... In the Guard...? None... really." Skylr says, her voice extremely quiet. "Kourin doesn't... trust me, anymore, since she, um... left, and Eryon's not technically Guard, not that... I think he's really a friend yet, although he's the closest to being one ever... as far as hugs... um... Eryon gave me one after our last meeting... and if- if I can attempt to be funny..."
"When I met him I, um, tried to arrest him but, um, we kinda got tied together in a compromising position instead...?"
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
The cycle of Skylr's facial expressions tell Neriah all she needs to know. The distess is clear enough behind her eyes, seeming all the more clear thanks to those big round glasses.
Windows to a lonely girl's sadness. As the scarf begins to unravel from around Skylr's neck, Neriah purses her lips and listens to her answer. The only friend she had turned away from her, and the only hug she's had was from a goofy young man who didn't seem to have his evil-overlord act down pat yet. But then, do I have mine down? Neriah reflects with a moment of sudden clarity.
The tale of tangled acquaintances is met with a little smile and a blush. "That must've been funny," she murmurs, before quieting and giving the bespectacled priestess a long look.
And then, with a soft rustle of her dress, she reaches forward. Her hands brush over Skylr's shoulders before her arms loosely circle her and she pulls her in for a loose, soft hug.
"I know I'm a horrible person," Neriah murmurs, her voice aching with a subtle scar of emotion. "And I'll probably keep being one. And maybe trying to make you feel better won't make me any less of a sinner. But I hate to see you alone.
"Like I was."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
Neriah gives her a hug. It's not the hug Skylr would like best right now (unfortunately Lunar is still off-limits for visitation at the moment), but it's a hug. It's a hug, and it's from someone that means well. Of course, Pearl might frown at her (and she might get disowened) if Leo ever finds out, but hey: Comfort is comfort, even if it is coming from the wrong place for all the very right reasons.
There's a bit of sniffling from Skylr, before it turns into shoulder-shaking, silent crying for a few minutes - at least until she has caught onto more of her self-control.
Cheeks now rosy-red out of shame and embarrassment, she pulls what remains of her scarf up to cover them and her still red nose. "I..."
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
Neriah is no substitute for a mom-and-dad hug. Hopefully she didn't kill mom and dad.
For a devil-worshipping murderer, though, the hug seems quite genuine and heartfelt - and as Skylr breaks down in her arms, Neriah closes her eyes and swallows a lump in her throat, without much effect. "It'll be okay," she whispers as she brings her hand up to gently stroke Skylr's hair. "It'll be okay."
She lets Skylr cry. She couldn't possibly do anything else. The tearful girl likely can't see the way Neriah's expression changes from quiet pity to a deep, self-loathing horror to a deep-seated sadness, her lower lip quivering, before finally setting on a quiet resignation and a small, sad little smile.
When the priestess finally tries to cover her nose, Neriah brings a delicate hand up. Her thumb brushes over Skylr's cheek, wicking away a tear. Her eyes find Skylr's. "...It's okay," she assures. "It's okay to admit you're sad. And that you deserve to be happy."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
Hopefully she didn't.
"Is it going to be okay in our timeline?" Skylr asks, gently. Her voice is careful as she attempts to get a grip on her own lip-quivering self-embarrassment, and also her latent, quiet anger and more visible sadness. "Because sometimes, I wonder... with everything we're looking at having to fight - and in the end, aren't we all fighting the same stuff- are we going to see the rainbow at the end of the storm?"
Leaving that question there, Skylr reaches out, to hold Neriah's hand. "I want to be happy, but the way I saw my life going is so, so, sooooo far from where I am now - and now I am on a rock in the middle of a lake, wondering if I want to wait for the boat, or take a swim." A careful hand-squeeze. "Thank you." She whispers, finally.
"I won't tell Leo."
<Pose Tracker> Neriah Parringer has posed.
"I hope everything will be alright, Sky... for both of us," Neriah says, and it isn't the murderous demon-worshipper talking. It's as if her more malevolent attributes have been parted and someone has peeked out from behind it - someone who needs to hug someone almost as much as Skylr needed to be hugged.
When Skylr takes her hand, Neriah slides her fingers into the spaces between the bespectacled girl's, clasping gently. The squeeze is returned, light and warm, joined by a small, sad little smile. "Thank you," she murmurs.
"Whatever path you choose to take... please make sure it's what you want. That it makes you happy."
<Pose Tracker> Skylr Paer has posed.
<poem>
"I hope so too. Um... I think Eryon might have gotten eaten by a snowdrift at this point, so I think I may need to save him. Thank you, again." Skylr says. "... and good luck. Taking the last of her cookie, she takes a strong swallow from her milk tea.
She smiles at Neriah, fantly, before disappearing back into the cold. Cooooooold.
Logging stopped at 27112018 - 01:56:40