2018-12-12: Promise You'll Come Back
- Log: Promise You'll Come Back
- Cast: Riesenlied, Noeline, Lydia Seren
- Where: Photosphere
- Date: 12th December 2018
- Summary: Noeline and Lydia bring Riesenlied back to the Fereshte. But things aren't yet concluded...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
LAST TIME:
Riesenlied is rescued. Mother lifts the Photosphere from its resting place. The Tzadkiel starts blasting wantonly from the skies. Siegfried runs off. Everything is chaos!
NOW:
Riesenlied, only extremely freshly released from her mechanical prison, shivers into Noeline's hold as her partner spirits her away through what hallways and safe passages they can find. the Gutter finds itself as a particularly dangerous part of the Photosphere to be in now that it's off-ground, what with a not insignificant *part* of the Gutter being... well, ground.
There's lots of open gantries and falls, with the Fereshte swooping in close as a certain robo-shaped metal mom perched on the railing of the airship. "NOELINE! LYDIA! OVER HERE!" she roars as far as her amp will allow her without her speakers just going 'zinggggg'.
Riesenlied herself is-- wet, with some kind of quicksilver-like fluid that's coated her entire body, likely some kind of transmission fluid between her and the machine; her scales are even moreso all over the place on her body, fused with errant flash and overflow from where the machine once connected to her.
"...i--" Riesenlied whispers, eyes small as she stares towards the elevator where Siegfried vanished off to. "i need to... father... please..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline has Riesenlied clutched against her in a princess carry, her grip fiercely tight; she is holding on quite literally for love and life, all too aware of the possibility that Riesenlied might slip out of her arms in a much more real fashion than the times she has up until now. "I've got you," she mutters under her breath, and it's really not sure in the moment if she's saying it to Riese or trying to reassure herself. The world still feels too bright after her dive into the Heart, and her fatigue isn't helping.
She swears under her breath as her footing suddenly gives way, leaving her heels skidding and clattering along corrugated metal as the walkway underneath her starts to pitch and dip. Thankfully, she finds a moment with which to gain purchase - and instinctively heaves herself forward, putting all the strength she's got into the leap. A dizzying instant of open air, and then everything comes back in a rush as she lands awkwardly and too-heavily on the deck of the Fereshte, not rolling so much as skidding as she tries to keep Riesenlied safe.
"--get Lydia as well!" she calls through a desperate attempt to catch her breath, and only then manages to take a moment to recognize the panic that Riesenlied is in. "Riese-- Riese," she calls urgently, and for a moment there's a distinct fear that the other Hyadean is going to immediately flee back into the Photosphere. Her heart rests high on her throat for a moment, before she swallows and throws Cetiri an urgent glance. "Siegfried went deeper into the Photosphere," she explains, figuring only that much is needed. "Is everyone on board?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Cuccos and chickens living together, total hysteria!
Lydia isn't all that much more injured than she was when she came into this 'fight', but she still isn't fully recovered from Yarobeleedt drilling a hole through her either. More to the point she's pretty much emotionally spent. There's only so many tearful rejoinders you can supply before you just kind of want to flop over.
"Geeze, we're going up to space and I can't even enjoy it," Lydia sighs. " Why couldn't I have a Photosphere? This is very unfair." She stays close to MOMS, frankly relieved they're both ok. She isn't sure how the OTHER BATTLE is going but at this point it's up to them, sorry buddies.
Lydia looks down uncertainly at Riesenlied's request before saying, "I dunno, mom. I don't think any of us are in a position to help him with...whatever he wants doing." Lydia isn't sure she WANTS to either, but he did help free Riesenlied so she does admit, "Even if we're square, I guess, now."
Lydia has been thrown off of heights like this before and survived but she doesn't want to risk her FP running out and plummeting the rest of the way. Besides, she wants to stay with family.
"Man I'm surprised Fereshte goes up this high without blowing a generator." Lydia adds before she starts skating forward, leaping out after Noeline. Luckily, Lydia's got good speed on those things so she shouldn't miss the boat. Not unless she chooses to for dramatic neccessity but she's too tired for that. She just makes the jump before flopping right on the deck.
"I don't think he'd have done that if he didn't have some kind of plan." Lydia admits. "He's not the 'give up' type."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Noeline's sentiment seems well responded to and reacted by Riesenlied in no small part; her grip is no less tight and fearful, like she could be spirited away once more at any moment. Memories of darkened laboratories, flashing lights and cameras, echoing voices played back from recording devices...
The three of them land on the deck of the Fereshte even as it starts pulling up, as if the ship itself were buoyed dramatically by the spirits of every single Wayside resident and Outreach member. It's a character of its own at this point, you know.
Riesenlied flicks her fearful eyes back to Noeline, as she explains to Cetiri, as Lydia says there's probably nothing they can do for him.
Nothing...
"As much as we can account for," Cetiri responds. "Our last few rounds haven't turned out any new refugees."
Lydia says that he's not the give up type, that he has a plan...
Riesenlied makes a choking little noise. "I..."
The Medium that's still plainly grafted onto her neck, with mottled and misshapen skin and scaled around it, shimmers softly.
"I know I probably can't... I know he'll probably be okay, but... I can't... I can't stop fearing for him... just now-- just now--"
She pips again. She looks beggingly to the both of them.
"Please. I beg you. I need... I need to chase after him. After father..."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Believe me, this is the /last/ thing anyone would want to fly anywhere!" shoots Noeline back, just before her leap to the airship. "Unless you find thousand-year-old structures that have been scavenged to death and back an interesting sort of challenge!"
One jump later, and she's in a bit of a pile on the floor, sitting rather awkwardly as she clutches Riesenlied to her. Once she sees Lydia land safely, that's enough of an impetus to pause for a well-earned breath, sagging her head down until it rests on her partner's scaled shoulder. It takes her a longer moment before she trusts herself to talk, and when she does it's with a grim nod towards their daughter's statement. "... the light is back in his eyes. Perhaps more than I've ever seen it," she adds, and breaks into a satisfied sort of grin. "Honestly, I wonder if anything would stand a chance of stopping him right now."
But...
But Riesenlied obviously doesn't feel the same way, and Noeline has to pause, wondering when she's last heard her partner sound so stricken and caught. She doesn't miss the shimmer of light at Riesenlied's neck, and for a long moment her eyes meet those of her partner as she chews on her own lip. For longer than that, Noeline stays silent.
Then all of a sudden she's let out a heaving breath, and her entire torso sags. "I swear you will be the death of me. Or at least, you're going to turn my hair grey. Cetiri-- is Muni available? If we can get her ready, we'll use her to swing around somewhere closer and safer to re-board the Photosphere."
"And /while/ she's getting ready, you're going to take a moment to breathe and get a towel," she adds back towards Riesenlied with a huff of air.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren says, "Well there's always going to be a few stragglers. I'll try and see if we can eke out more time with the engines so we can make a few more passes, but there's only so high we can go on these things and we don't want to suffer engine failures at this height." She pauses as Riesenlied makes a choking noise. She turns and looks back to her. She blinks a few times in her direction.
"...How...?" Lydia begins.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XPockJGnOs
"...How can you say that?" Lydia asks. "Don't you know what it was like with you gone? Mikaia and Janey are waiting for you. I'm waiting for you! Mom went through so much to get you back. I did too!"
She pauses as Noeline says her own piece with wide eyes. "You're going to let her..." Lydia begins before looking down, tears forming in her eyes.
"I know he's your dad...but he threw you away. Maybe he had a change of heart but we..." She looks up. "We're your family!" Her voice is hoarse from all that emphatic shouting earlier, but she manages to find volume now. "Janey was crying so much. Mikaia was trying so hard...It was hard for me too, you know?"
She rubs futilely at her eyes.
"I don't know if...I don't know if we can wait for you. And if we're going to wait at all I need to stay on the ship, you know that right? Even Muni...who knows if she can fly down from this height. And...and you still haven't recovered!"
She lowers her head. "I can't.... We can't...We can't lose you again. I can't."
Quieter. "I can't...lose my family again. I'm not cool enough... I'll never be cool enough to be able to take that again. I know...I'm being selfish...but...I'm a selfish person. I can't help it. It's who I am."
She steps away and looks out towards the island for a long time.
"..."
She then exhales out a long sigh. "..."
Then she finally turns her gaze back to Riesenlied. "...Promise you'll come back."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline knows better than to interrupt Lydia's speech while it's in motion. She knows this is something that needs to be said and aired out loud, knows that it's a perfectly valid argument to make. It's one she'd make herself were she even the tiniest bit different - a series of lines she's whispered to herself in the confines of her head, as she rehearsed what she'd say once she got Riesenlied back in her arms. Where it lays against her partner's back, one of her hands slowly curls into a tight, determined fist.
For the second time, she closes her eyes and lays still, letting the words flow over her and into her. This is not a situation she ever had the faintest idea she'd be in. Her muscles still ache from overuse; her mind still jolts every so often with the start of a pulsing headache, the sure sign of overuse and overreliance on the power of a Guardian. Most of her instincts are screaming at her that their daughter is right, but...
... but somehow, when she looks back up, she finds that her voice is stronger than she'd ever have expected, and the first thing that comes to her lips is a wry smile, fond and rueful in equal measure. "... I am going to let her go," she confirms quietly. "But I am going to go with her, and I am going to make sure - absolutely sure - that we make it back. I promise."
She glances off to one side; the Photosphere is still rising in a way it absolutely shouldn't. "Whatever happens here... it will be the end of the Metal Demon race as it is now. The end of the Tainted as they are now. Something a millenia in the making - and no matter what comes next, I do not want any of us to have any regrets going into it."
She sucks in a breath, and then lets it out as she grins across at Lydia. "We'll be relying on you to make the best decision. Relying on you to look after this ship and the people on it. If you need to get them clear, get them clear. If you can hang on even a moment longer, then do so. We can only do this because we trust you all."
She pauses.
"After this, you can ground us for months. Confined to our room, even."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... too soon," Riesenlied quietly whipers to Noeline's obvious-joke, though that on its own could perhaps be taken as a good sign that she's not just quietly curling further up into herself or shriekingly sobbing or anything like that.
Cetiri lets out a grouse for a moment, rather clearly more along the same wavelength of 'i can't believe my daughters' like Noeline is. "She's ready. You know she's always ready for you," comes the huff.
There's a pause for a moment, Riesenlied's eyes widening as the rattling sound of the Fereshte's engines, the roar of the Photosphere's drive system, the sound of lasers echoing through them seem to just fade into the background.
"l-lydia..." Riesenlied whispers, biting her lip. She looks more and more confused, since she's raising extremely good points. Noeline, Mikaia, Janey, Lydia... they all went through so much because of her...
She looks conflictedly towards Noeline, towards Cetiri. The dog-shaped robo-mom grouses for a moment longer.
"i'm sorry... i'm being selfish too... i just realised it," Riesenlied ruefully murmurs, her eyes squeezing shut as tears flow through them. Siegfried threw her away... she can't really deny that. There was a lot of pain that went on between them that got the to this moment.
She hesitates...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"You won't have to, Lydia!!" shouts a familiar voice from the back of the Fereshte's cabin. She and Cetiri whip their heads around--
--and there's Janey, and Mikaia beside her; they're wobbling for a moment as she marches just a little bit closer. She cups her hand around Lydia's shoulde rof ra moment and gives her a heck of a hug.
"I want to... I want to tell you to come downstairs and give everyone who's missed you a hug..." Mikaia murmurs, but... then she pauses.
She takes out a folded piece of paper and hands it over.
It's the picture they brought with them throughout the entirety of the Gutter. The one with... the blue armored knight on it, reading:
'granpa'
"A family's..." Janey hiccups for a moment. She's tearing up again. She cried so much, like Lydia says. She's got more. "A family's what you make of it. And we were hurtin' for a real long time, but I realised-- /we/ realised--"
"--that it hurts so much cause it was so precious," Mikaia finishes. A pause. "And you have family out there waiting for you too, mom..."
Janey nods, snorting and sniffling. "So like /we/ chased after /you/, riskin' life and limb, shoutin' our hearts out 'til we got nothin' left in our throats..."
"... if this is something you know you have to do... something you have to do for /family/..." Mikaia murmurs, nodding to Noeline and agreeing with her sentiment.
"Then I want mom to do it without regrets in her heart."
Riesenlied quietly takes the paper to her hand... and she draws every one of them into the tightest and most firm hug she ever has given them. It's a bit awkward given that her legs still aren't responding to her, but she manages it. The tears haven't stopped from her eyes.
She listens to Noeline's voice. Stronger than ever before, that confidence and determination has always been something that she's relied and crutched on, finding it both infatuating and infectious at the same time...
"... i promise, lydia... janey, mikaia... cetiri."
She lifts her head up towards where the Photosphere is quietly starting to want to pull away -- or perhaps it's the Fereshte being incapable of keeping up.
"we still have so many adventures ahead of us. so much wonder and happiness that awaits us... you told me that once, lydia, and i heard it... even surrounded by the cloud as i was..."
A pause.
"because that does sound... really, really fun to me. so i'll be back for it... because i wouldn't miss it for the world."
She sniffles further.
"i promise we'll come back."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
A family is what you make of it. Lydia may have called Siegfried 'gramps' but it's pretty tough to tell if she ever actually saw him as a 'granpa' herself. Lydia is a shaman after all, and as far as granpas go you can do better than someone who smashes your religious icons and calls you a fool.
Still, Noeline provides a kind of context that Lydia frankly didn't even think about. Historical context. The context of time. Lydia, despite being older than Mikaia and Janey, hardly has that kind of context. She may never have the kind that Noeline has.
Noeline saying she'll go with her helps, in a way, but also hurts, in a way. What if Neither of them make it back. What if they both die on that deathtrap?
"I..." She begins hesitantly. She doesn't have an argument against Noeline's because this isn't an argument. Noeline practically agrees with her even! But logic is one thing, being able to live without regrets goes beyond debate.
But before Lydia has to make a decision /she/ will regret, a decision she'd regret regardless of whether or not Riesenlied made it back in a sense, Janey and Mikaia finally reveal themselves.
And it's just as well. What, was she going to let Riesenlied leave without at least seeing them?
Lydia leans into the hug. Not too hard, because she weighs a bunch, just enough to let Janey feel some of that weight.
She looks at the picture. 'Granpa'. She hadn't thought of it before, but do Mikaia and Janey see him as family too?
Lydia can't form words which is pretty rare as it is. Riesenlied pulls her into the latest hug and Lydia thinks about how much she missed it. And how much she would miss it.
But...
But...
Can she let Riesenlied come back home while carrying such a powerful regret within her heart?
Maybe she can't, Lydia thinks.
"Okay." Lydia says after a moment, taking in a deep breath and scrunching up her face so she stops the whole tears thing. She's partly successful and the face is frankly ridiculous.
"Okay you promised!" Lydia shouts. "We're going to have that wonderful time and you'll come back! This...this is in the contract. It's not on paper or nothing but it's still valid. So--if you don't come back.... then you'll have to pay us a huge fine! You'll never pay it off so...so you better come back. I'll keep everyyone else safe so you keep yourselves safe."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is silent for another of those long moments, swallowing back another lump in her throat and not trusting herself to speak as Janey and Mikaia take up the slack and make their pleas. She has her own sense of pride and identity that she'd like to remain true to - and part of that is providing Riesenlied with that support and confidence, especially at times like these. Still, her affection shines through in the way she reaches up to join in with Riesenlied's hug, her own hold just as strong as she lets out a tiny little huff of air, gathering her children to her for dear life.
"... I am sorry... for all that you were grown up well before we met you, it still feels as if we've forced you to face down far too much," she mutters quietly to Janey and Mikaia in the midst of the hold, even if she already knows what their answer will be - that all of them have chosen to reach this point together. "... after this... we will take our time a little more. We'll rest, and we'll rebuild a few things that have been lost as of late. I promise," she adds as she slowly nods her head, then redoubles her hug for just a moment to clutch onto them tightly.
It's another slow and unsteady breath she makes - but one that's getting steadier, and her eyes are alight with certainty as she lifts her head to give Lydia a solemn nod. "... we promise. I have faced down Alhazred, Mother, and even Riesenlied herself to get to this moment. A rusting scrap-pile isn't even going to slow me down. ... besides," she huffs out afterwards, her chuckle quiet and soft as she clings onto Riesenlied. "I have to give old Granny Halle the biggest told-you-so in the world. A pair of Hyadean shamans. Now /that/ would truly be once in a lifetime."
She swallows a painful noise as she shifts, preparing to lift herself up from the pile they're in - but hesitates, as a thought strikes her. With a slow reverence her hands go to her neck, lifting the Dragon's Tear from where it's been nestled all this time - and she presents it across to Riese. "... here. I believe this is yours."