2019-06-04: Elements Of A Conflict

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  • Log: 2019-06-04: Elements Of A Conflict
  • Cast: Seraph Lanval, Seraph Ragnell, Seraph Nimue, Seraph Solanine, Seraph Clarine
  • Where: Luca - Port District
  • Date: June 04, 2019
  • Summary: Five of the Seraphim, elemental spirits of Althena, converge onto Luca's ports for various reasons - almost all of them involving watching the influx of displaced Yevon priests from Kilika. Friends and acquaintances alike, their natures transcend the transient surrounding them. Even once fervent causes sometimes just fade away like it's no big deal... but today, there's a set of opposing causes that stand to irrevocably fracture a relationship between them. As the rest get caught in a building maelstrom, how will they navigate the schism?

===============================================<* Luca - Port District *>===============================================

Luca is the largest port and second-largest city in Spira, located the southern tip of the archipelago's largest island. Its location as the central port for Spira's surrounding islands has turned Luca into a thriving economic hub; Besaid, Kilika, and a dozen smaller islands all send their goods to Luca for sale, and even the Al Bhed are known to trade here from time to time.

The port district is an immense, bustling area. The largest port in Luca brings in ships from across Spira -- from small fishing ships from Besaid to Al Bhed salvage ships to large sailing vessels from Bevelle -- and a massive market to match. A large seawall keeps the waters at bay, with piers extending out past the seawall into the water.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CIlRCYnZcg
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Things are getting kind of rowdy again. Luca is sort of a rowdy place in general, and it's the sort of weird situation where most of the populace is so Resonant that you may as well be a corporeal being to them until proven otherwise. Like running through walls, phasing in and out of stuff.
     Lanval imagines that Amaranth would consider this sort of place a paradise, now that everyone can see and do whatever with her - and that there do not appear to be Hellions born from the people of Spira.
     ...
     Yet.
     The recent developments have become so concerning to Lanval that he has put aside his whimsical pastime of 'how long can I lay in the market roads until someone removes me, which is a shame because the road feels sooooooo good to lay on' to instead loiter about the ports, where no shortage of Yevon clergy and assorted affiliates have been displaced into Luca. Luca is a big city and there's surely space for them. It doesn't change that it's an uneasy time, and there's still a lot of people coming and going.
     It's moving towards dusk, where the daylight and the night presently share equal sway but is edging towards the inherent darkness of the evening - as is the natural cycle of things - the sunlight positively breathtaking off of the seas of Spira.
     Lanval lounges about at one such dock out in the open, lying against some empty boxes in a reasonably upright seated position. He's been shooed about a few times already, but little stops him from ever returning to keep watch of the people coming and going.
     Keeping an eye out for any Hellions - or those afflicted by Malevolence - now that his understanding of Kilika's situation has him concerned that it might catch on a few people of Spira. Even with the environmental difficulties they face... he knows what he's sworn to do, and he knows what's within his capabilities as part of this.
     It could just be born of grasping for just anything anyone can do, at all, after Obsession repelled the collected efforts to be destroyed - but he upholds his duties responsibly.
     The amount he has drank, however, is anything but. As is normal.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Ragnell doesn't mind rowdiness, and in fact typically enjoys it, but it's kind of weird when it's a rowdiness you can be actively a part of. Even now, she still sometimes forgets that most everyone can see and thus interact with her. That includes the Yevon clergyfolk who've been displaced from Kilika. To Ragnell, this conflict between Yevon and Althena was pretty much inevitable based on what she's seen of each church and knows of humanity in general. That said, it wouldn't be a bad idea to see how things are moving. Knowledge is power and all that.
    
    And that's what brings Ragnell to Luca as a result. She strolls through the docks, listening in on the occasional conversation, spying on the occasional suspicious gathering, but generally moving on, not staying too long in any one spot. Which is why it's inevitably that Ragnell will wander into Lanval's line of sight, which is sure to be hilariously awkward when she turns around and spots him in return.
    
    "Oh hey, Lanv! How's it been?" Ragnell says cheerfully, flipping a gloved hand up in greeting.
    
    ...okay. Hilariously awkward for Lanval, maybe.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.

Dusk is one of Nimue's favorite times of day -- people tend to start clearing out, but it's still not *so* dark as to be the kind of time when the wolf is at the door, mentally. It's a great time for Nimues! Just... to be out in the world, just, enjoying life. Or something like it, anyway.

Nimue is *also* a big people watcher; when she ambles to the dock, she has designs on Lanval's exact spot -- and is surprised to see *him* in it when she gets close. "... Wow, small world." Then *Ragnell* shows up, and Nimue snaps her gaze to her old friend immediately. "Okay! *Really* small world now! Too weird!" she declares -- though there's a hint of relief in it.

She decides to pop her sting-staff off her back and lean on it a little. "So! How about those totally normal church behaviors, huh?" she says, sounding... a lot more casual about it than she feels.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.

Seraph Solanine has been keeping an especially low profile for a human, but perhaps it's more business as usual for a Seraphim. Though uncloaked by Resonance, with all the annoyances and difficulties that lack of invisibility to the mass human consciousness awards, it was a familiar pattern of simply existing among humanity without acting overtly to affect the course of their lives. Since her meeting with Jacqueline Barber, she'd mostly been keeping to forested areas, but decided on a whim to go to a more populous area... to build up her human tolerance, which is lacking even amongst her kind. On the docks she finds the Seraph Lanval, whose presence here is as an oasis in the desert of humanity, a mirthful wellspring that gladdened her heart. She did wonder what he was doing amongst so many Yevon clergy. News travels far, but not necessarily to the ears of one both sequestered to Nature, and well-practiced in avoiding being spoken to.

 "Oh hey, Lanv! How's it been?" Sola turns to a familiar voice and wave to see Ragnell here too?! Interesting! She cracks a small smile under her hood at seeing her as well, but doesn't announce herself as openly as Ragnell or another Seraphim that Sola recognizes only vaguely from her days of adventuring on Filgaia, but whose energy lives up to her recollection of the encounter.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Clarine is at the docks, too! She is not, however, here just to lounge and indulge herself in the waning daylight, as tempting as that might be. She's here for a Purpose. It's not a very major one, but it's a purpose nonetheless. She was looking for something - something that, hopefully, wouldn't be too difficult to find.

Imagine her surprise, then, when, as she wanders through the docks, she finds something completely different than what she expected.

Or, rather, someone.

"Ragnell...!" Clarine remarks with a gasp of pleasant surprise. "It is good to see you again!"

She sounds cheery enough, but soon enough she realizes that, hey, there are others here, too!

Small world, indeed.

"Lanval, Nimue, it is good to see you, as well!" She remarks.

Nimue's comment about the church, however, puts a slight damper on her mood.

"...Ah...I am...a little concerned, if I must admit..." She comments.

And nearby, there's a hooded figure! Clarine's golden eyes turn on her next, but hooded as she is she can't recognize her right away...

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    There's no mistaking it - Lanval is totally wasted, a noted pioneer in all things Seraphim and Alcohol Intake and also probably a leading mathematics professor (...unwittingly) for the sheer quantity of the stuff he'll jam into his pseudo-anatonical equivalent of a cake hole. It won't dull him from reading the residual spiritual energies in the air, of which he is acutely accustomed to by both his old and present stations.
     "Mmmm... heyyyyy, shure ish, ssssshuuuuuuuure issssshhhh," he laughs to Nimue. He's okay with her sitting nearby.
     He can sense the milling darkness under the hood - that's another one - and there's the radiant Clarine too, the guiding light who sometimes might seem like another sun herself...
     'Hey, Lanv, how's it been?' Comes a voice, and the sense of crackling lightning in the air. He waves a hand instinctively, kind of riding on the air of pleasantries and good feelings and relief. It's a dire situation, sure, but he always accepts the small joys. It's his Domain, it's his nat--
     'Ragnell!' Clarine remarks.
     ...Ragnell? Didn't she--
     ...
     Lanval's eyes open, a stupid dumbfounded look on his face akin to when he realized a Resonant mortal tripped over him for the first time in hundreds of years. That was the best surprise ever.
     This is not.
     "...heyyy, Clariiiiine...." He addresses her as he starts to slouch. He starts to suck in calming breath, as if trying to shake himself out of the stupor. "'m I bein' talked to... by a Lightning Seraph... by the name o'... Ragnell?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    "Oh, hey, Nims. Been a while," Ragnell says, looking over at her old friend with a slight smile that belies how mad the two of them were at each other the last time they spoke. "Haven't been harassin' Ammy too bad, have you?" Nimue brings up the churches, and she snorts. "Totally normal, huh? Yeah, 'spect it's normal for rival churches, sure 'nough. If those idiot humans keep this up, they'll have a war on their hands 'fore long."
    
    Somewhat unfair. Not *everyone* in the respective churches are human. But Ragnell's using it as a catchall term anyway. (Guado and beastkin would probably protest. Ragnell, at least in the context of this conversation, doesn't care. She also doesn't care that all these Yevon clergyfolk can TOTALLY hear her, though in fairness she also kind of already forgot they all can.)
    
    Then Solanine and Clarine appear in short order, and Ragnell's smile breaks into a wide grin. "Hey! What, were we havin' a party in Luca an' I jus' happened to crash it? Lucky me!" She touses Clarine's hair affectionately, if the Light Seraph lets her. "Hey, Clary. Good seein' you too. You takin' care o' yourself?" To Solanine in her hood, she flips a friendly, two-fingered salute in greeting, letting her join in--or not, as the case may be--the conversation at her leisure.
    
    Lanval, meanwhile, is *super* drunk. This is normal. So when Lanval asks Clarine if he's talking to Ragnell, she just gives him a goodnaturedly wry shake of the head and gestures from Clarine to Lanval, to invite her to tell him what's what.
    
    Granted, it was a pretty big shock for Clarine and Solanine *too* when they met Ragnell again after the Incident.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.

Nimue gives Clarine a wave, and Solanine at least a glance; the Seraph is vaguely familiar to her but her memory for names and faces is terrible anyway, even when their owners *arent'* wearing hoods. She'll stick to people she knows -- or, well, knows-ish, in some cases.

Nimue cracks her knuckles, striding along casually; she ends up taking up a leaning position just a little away from Lanval, with an easy grin. "You sure are being talked to by a lightning Seraph by the name of Ragnell!" she says -- before turning to Ragnell herself.

"Nah, Ammy's fine. I was bringing her food pretty regularly for a bit, even. I'm a pretty great roommate!" If you don't ask where the food came from, or why Nimue smells like street steam and oil."

Looping back to the topic of Current Local Gossip, Nimue nods brightly to Ragnell, save that her smile doesn't match her eyes. "Right? Isn't it funny how humans just do the same things over and over again, with asshole churches and big looming threats, and we're just kind of subject to that, until we die?" There's a big smile on her face as she adds, "Or worse than dying! Sometimes instead we just hurt constantly and forever."

Biiiiigger smile.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.

Seraph Solanine chuckles and returns Ragnell's salute, and also sends one to Clarine and waves to Lanval, while nodding empathetically with his surprise to confirm that it is indeed the Seraph Ragnell who spoke to him, in the.... pseudo-flesh? It caught her off guard too, and there were way more people around, though again, not so many priests? She's picking up from spoken context clues that the two churches now on Spiran soil are in renewed conflict after their previous alliance. Ragnell speaks to the possibility of war between the two, and in light of that it feels somewhat cosmically ironic to her that spiritual beings of the faith that brought them here are assembling peacefully among them. Of course, thanks to the conversation with Ragnell that they had after the shock of seeing the Lightning Seraph alive again, wore off, she has much more of an idea why. She already wonders if that conversation hadn't happened, how her outlook on it might have been... She can't... say that she objects completely even now. She hasn't communed with the Nature of Spira to find a new love of Yevon. Perhaps the opposite in fact, its natural beauty of Althena's make marred by the presence of their restless dead...

Still, she knows the pain of being cast out from one's home, and feels sympathy for the devil. Something she wonders that she might be doing a little too often lately...

She almost adds to Clarine's burden of being the most sober, friendly and outgoing of the spirits here, by asking the question directly, but then the green haired Seraph connects the dots for her enough... with a helping of reminding her of that usual state of affairs for Seraphim... to hurt constantly and forever? That sounds right...

Solanine mirrors her smile back her, both in nonverbal agreement of the sentiment, and also in greeting, as the time to wave has perhaps passed, she pays her respects with this, and visibly listening intently to her words and paying active attention.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.

Seraph Solanine chuckles and returns Ragnell's salute, and also sends one to Clarine and waves to Lanval, while nodding empathetically with his surprise to confirm that it is indeed the Seraph Ragnell who spoke to him, in the.... pseudo-flesh? It caught her off guard too, and there were way more people around, though again, not so many priests?

She's picking up from spoken context clues that the two churches now on Spiran soil are in renewed conflict after their previous alliance. Ragnell speaks to the possibility of war between the two, and in light of that it feels somewhat cosmically ironic to her that spiritual beings of the faith that brought them here are assembling peacefully among them. Of course, thanks to the conversation with Ragnell that they had after the shock of seeing the Lightning Seraph alive again, wore off, she has much more of an idea why.

She already wonders if that conversation hadn't happened, how her outlook on it might have been...

She can't... say that she objects completely even now. She hasn't communed with the Nature of Spira to find a new love of Yevon. Perhaps the opposite in fact, its natural beauty of Althena's make marred by the presence of their restless dead...

Still, she knows the pain of being cast out from one's home, and feels sympathy for the devil. Something she wonders that she might be doing a little too often lately...

She almost adds to Clarine's burden of being the most sober, friendly and outgoing of the spirits here, by asking the question directly, but then the green haired Seraph connects the dots for her enough... with a helping of reminding her of that usual state of affairs for Seraphim... to hurt constantly and forever? That sounds right...

Solanine mirrors her smile back her, both in nonverbal agreement of the sentiment, and also in greeting, as the time to wave has perhaps passed, she pays her respects with this, and visibly listening intently to her words and paying active attention.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Ragnell moves to tousle Clarine's hair and she allows it, a bright smile crossing her face.

"Yes, I have! Please, do not worry..." She replies. Partially taking care of herself, and partially being looked after by others. She's fine with that, though.

Lanval addresses her then and Clarine turns, registering his question.

"...Oh! Yes, actually...but, please, do not be alarmed." She replies, not yet realising how awkward this might make things. "I know this might be a...bit of a shock, after what happened..."

...For anyone else this would be an obvious pun, but Clarine says it without any sign that she recognized she just made one.

At Nimue's words Clarine clasps her hands in front of her, her gaze dropping to the ground. She...doesn't really have a response to that. It's not like she can refute it.

She looks back up to the hooded figure, and at that smile, something clicks inside her head.

"Ah...Solanine?" She ventures. "It is good to see you again, as well...I was unsure whether or not you find your way here, too..."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Lanval receives clarity from multiples of his own kind. As Nimue cheerfully (...in her own way, which probably is the opposite of this) says this, Lanval staggers up to a stand. (It's Nimue's spot now if she wants it! No take-backsies!! It's one of the best peek-at-mortals views there is!)
     "...Mortalsh are gonna do what they're gonna," as always has been Lanval's way of saying things. The sort of thought that seemed to keep him intact enough across a few hundred years of... well, those gathered here probably know aaaaaall about the part of Meribus he used to watch over.
     Most of them.
     It's not much of a defense in favor of their folly, so much as an acceptance.
     He can make out Solanine's little smile under the hood. He blinks his eyes, though they don't quite open all the way. They seem to leer out to Clarine at her insistence about the alarm.
     "...Clarine... that'sh Ragnell, ain't it... shame one that... mmm." He staggers forward (now Nimue has EVEN MORE real estate to herself among these boxes, hers forever until she gets bored of it). "...After what happened..."
     He exhales. Both his hands hold the drinking gourd, heavy with the very water of Filgaia itself in all of its forms - its glories, its injuries, its best, its worst. Needless to say, in Filgaia's current state... well. Enough on that. There's murmurs that are too slurred to be coherent.
     He gets out this sentence as he opens up one eye half-way, as if to put Ragnell in better focus as he steadies his stand.
     "What're ya gonna do now?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    "True enough," Ragnell says to Lanval's acceptance of mortal behavior. Then she snorts at Nimue, because Lanval is unsurpassed at not raising red flags until it's too late. "Yeah? I wonder what Amms would say about that," she says with dry humor to Nimue's claim that she's a great roommate. The two of them are in a lot of ways the odd couple... but they *do* go back a long ways, so perhaps that makes up for some of it. Maybe.
    
    Nimue's follow-up on humans gets her a humorless laugh. "Yeah, *hilarious*," she drawls with an It's-funny-because-it's-true-except-it's-not-really-funny bite. And even that would have its own pitch-black humor, except...
    
    'Sometimes instead we just hurt constantly and forever.'
    
    Ragnell gives Nimue and her wide, wide, incredibly empty smile an odd, even troubled look. "...Yeah," she says, noncommittally. Solanine's smiling agreement and Clarine's discomfited lack of refutation don't go unnoticed, either.
    
    But on some level it's also Typical Nimue, so Ragnell puts a bookmark on that and looks over at Clarine. She grins and chuckles at the unintended pun, then shrugs broadly at Lanval. "If you wanna make like this's a bad booze dream, I won't get offended!" she jokes.
    
    But then he asks her what she's going to do now 'after what happened.' Despite the vagueness of it, she--no doubt everyone here except possibly Nimue, who wasn't there at the time--understands exactly what he means. Her smile fades. She tilts her head up in thought. "Mmmmm..." She looks him square in the eye. "Whatever it is I firmly believe needs doin'?"
    
    Because, come on, she's not going to give details.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm a *great* roommate," Nimue shoots back to Ragnell before she addresses anything else, while simultaneously taking the opportunity Lanval's presented to pretty much sprawl out like a cat. (Then again, Nimue's mannerisms have always been kind of cat-adjacent.)

Nimue can tell, at least, that *Solanine* is on the same page; her smile looks more genuine for a second or two. Clarine's stumbling lack of refutation makes her feel a little guilty, though... she likes Clarine enough not to want her to hurt, at least.

"Aaaanyway," she says, sprawling out. "Yeah, don't even bother asking Ragnell what she's gonna do, honestly. She's not gonna tell you and whatever happens, when it happens, is gonna' be big."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.

Seraph Solanine has almost known from the start of her friendship with Ragnell that details of her future actions not... her thing... so the Lightning Seraph's reply to Lanval is exactly what she expected. There's a comfort in knowing even now, there are aspects of Ragnell could be called predictable, even if they only serve to keep her unpredictable everywhere else.

She empathizes with Lanval's position and sends him a playful shrug after a look towards Ragnell while she speaks it aloud. "Hi Clarine!" she brightens at the Light Seraph's friendly greeting.

"It's good to see you again too. Glad to see you've kept well... given how Spira can be..." she realizes she didn't tell Clarine of the Sin Adventure, and as much she'd like to retell it, it doesn't seem the time.

The assembled Yevonites may squirm and that might be fun... (but again that sympathy... so maybe not...).

They also might start chanting and praying to Yevon and maybe even preaching to them personally, and she wants no part of that.

She smirks at Nimue's catlike antics, and also her friendly rapport with Ragnell. She nods in agreement with Nimue's assertion of The Way of the Ragnell.

Solanine isn't always up on her social cues, so there's a bit of personal satisfaction on having picked up on that mannerism, and having it confirmed by someone who clearly knows Ragnell longer than she has.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

"Yes...it has not been easy, but some good friends of mine have helped me adjust..." Clarine replies to Solanine. "I hope you have also been well..."

Clarine pauses, though, looking toward Lanval as he reiterates that it's Ragnell he's speaking to.

"Lanval...? Is everything alright...?" Clarine questions equally out of confusion and concern, her head tilted to the side. She's not sure why this is sticking with him so much, but then, she doesn't know Lanval's full situation - if she did, she'd have a better idea why. She looks at him, then looks at Ragnell as she responds in a very Ragnell way.

Nimue pretty much hits the nail on the head, there.

Clarine fidgets for a moment, a bit uneasily. Was that underlying tension she was feeling real, or was she just imagining it?

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    'Whatever it is I firmily believe needs doin'?' Comes Ragnell's pointed response, staring at him straight in the half-open eye.
     Into two half-open eyes. The usual stupid smile on Lanval's face, cat-like as it often is, isn't there. It's a thin, sober, horizontal line. Nimue playfully dismisses the idea of ever asking her for clarity, as Solanine enjoys shooting the breeze with her own kind, as Clarine asks the obvious as to whether everything's all right.
     Lanval raises that heavy, heavy gourd up to his lips, and takes a sip of Filgaia's water. He can't hear Schturdark all the way up here in Spira, but he knows full well who he is acting on behalf of. Remembering what some here risked in coming down to stop the Adversary of Man and Ragnell, hearing them talk all casually like it all matters little.
     The Yevon priests and other gathered wonder what all these strangely-colored, strangely-dressed young women (to the mortal eyes!) and that fat guy with the long, kind of waterfall-like beard are all doing there.
     Lanval takes that sip of the injured water, which tastes so sad and unsavory that a younger him would never think of accepting it. A taste of what struggles, what is almost lost, but still lurches - and what he's sworn to protect.
     He's far from Filgaia's water.
     "Mmmmph." There's a growing power in the air, of water in all of its forms. Different, from the usual Domain that Lanval projects. It will have to do, in the moment, as a substitution for emotional fury.
     "Doth the bidding of the Adversary of Man extend to this land, then?" His eyes open all the way, that shine of aquamarine percing the dusk air - as if pushing against the innate sadness and trepidation that fills the air.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.

Ageless and among friends equally ageless on a human continent on your home world that might be even more alien than the actual alien world you left, Solanine is surely guilty of seeming to forget the elephant in the room, or more the giant turtle, Schturdark the giant turtle to whom Lanval is Oracle.

She hasn't forgotten the sacrifices she made to see Filgaia saved, but it is over. Filgaia was saved and they are no longer there. There's nothing they can do from here to aid it, save the destruction of Sin. Are Ragnell and the Adversary capable of threatening Filgaia or its Guardians from here? Do they even still want to?

She doesn't know the answer to these questions and Ragnell is not the source of answers.

 Having experienced Sin firsthand, it;s a foregone conclusion that there are plenty of entities out there wanting to consume this part of the world without their involvement... and it doesn't seem to need or be able to respond their aid even if they offered it. Perhaps the lack of their involvement in the near future is a merely lack of imagination on her part, but she also is not bound to a Duty that requires her to know the answer to that question. Solanine, who would have been a knight,respects and envies Lanval for this and not forgetting his oath and call to action even in his inebriation, something not spoken aloud, but visible in her face and bearing at her reverent silence for Lanval's bearing and actions.

 So she stops socializing and watches.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Nimue tells Lanval not even to bother trying to ask. Ragnell spreads her arms wide in a what're-you-gonna-do? kind of gesture. "It's how I roll!" she agrees, 'helpfully.' Solanine gets it, and gets herself a flash of a grin for conveying it.
    
    Clarine meanwhile starts to project tension and unease. Ragnell picks up on that sooner than she picks up on the incoming storm from Lanval, and so she's on guard when the Water Seraph suddenly becomes Water Serious. She knows that he made a pact with Schturdark, and she knows he's capable of far more than his drunken exterior would indicate, but... again, Lanval is a master at making others underestimate him. Were it not for Clarine's cues, he would've taken her quite by surprise.
    
    As it stands, she stands her ground, humor likewise draining away when he gets up in her face and takes on the aquamarine voice. It's not that it doesn't matter--to Ragnell, there is a separation between business and personal matters. She still considers Lanval a friend, which is why she can be friendly with him even though he opposed her. The same goes for Nimue, Clarine, and Solanine. But it looks like Lanval is of a different mind. And if the Yevon priests have a problem with that, well, they can go on having a problem.
    
    She glances to one side at the growing, stirring water. They *are* surrounded by Lanval's element--but water fuels storms as well, and Ragnell has been traveling and fighting for longer than Lanval, pact or no pact. She could shut him down hard if she were of a mind, but...
    
    But she does still think of him as a friend. So the least she can do is make a clean break, as a friend.
    
    "I work for the Adversary of Man. Man is in this land. You do the math, Lanv," Ragnell thus replies, meeting his eyes. "If you're talkin' like that, does that mean you want to throw down about it?"
    
    A certain crackling tension enters the sodden air.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Nimue has posed.

To be fair: Nimue has no idea what Ragnell actually did, other than vague Drifter scuttlebutt! Then again, even knowing probably wouldn't change the situation for *her* overly much. She's already had that fight.

... Maybe that's why Lanval's abrupt shift in demeanor puts her off so much. Unlike Solanine, who is *very* interested in this situation, Nimue... well... at her heart, Nimue's kind of a coward. And flighty... and conflict-avoidant...

... So what happens is that Nimue does like she always does when the situation gets tense and it sounds like one or more of her friends or serious acquaintances might get seriously hurt in the matter. She kips straight back up from her catlike lounge, and declares, "Nope! Not doing this one! Later. See you if this doesn't turn into a fight that gets one of you killed, and if I don't randomly see a kitty except the kitty turns out to be full of deadly poison, like most cute and fun things other than Ammy and Clarine!"

SHe books it.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Clarine watches Lanval as his expression changes. From that usual smile, to a serious look that almost caused her to jump back. She looks between him and Ragnell carefully...and she feels that growing power in the air, the sensation of water.

Aquamarine pierces the air as Lanval speaks again and his eyes open. Clarine flinches back. Ragnell gives her response, and she can feel the sensation of power emanating from her as well and breathes in sharply(not that she needs to breathe, but it's an acquired reaction).

That tension she felt before...it feels very fragile, like it'll break at any moment and unleash something terrible. Nimue books it - this is probably the wisest gesture.

Clarine, meanwhile - looks between the both of them, worry on her face...and then, she takes a deep breath - a centering gesture.

Uneasily, with no small amount of effort, she takes a step forward, to put herself right in between the two of them. It's an uncomfortable position to be in.

"...Don't fight, you two. At least...not here. Not now... Please." Clarine urges, looking from Ragnell to Lanval. She...can't really make a better case than 'please don't fight', but it'll have to do - if they want to fight regardless, she doesn't have the power to stop them.

But she knows that she can't prevent them from fighting forever - and indeed, she, too, will have to fight as well.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.

Seraph Solanine blanks at Clarine's sudden intervention. She doesn't want to see the two come to blows, but that part of her that still yearns to defend, and her high regard for Clarine despite being her elemental opposite moves her to immediate action. Darkness consumes her from where she was standing and she reappears next to Clarine, prepared to protect in her armored left behind from the shadows fade, hand not on her sword in aggression, but speaking clearly for the first time to make herself clear.

"Please don't fight here, not here, not now."

 "I understand you both have loyalties and goals, but...it can wait for at least a moment... can't it? What is a day to us, what is a week?"

"We can find another way until we can't and that doesn't have to be now." Sola looking to Nimue for support but there being only a Nimue-shaped scamper-cloud.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.

    Opposing powers build.
     In the majority of elemental cosmologies (and as luck would have it, pretty much any respectable physical equivalent), water and lightning do not mix. Fireworks (...lightningworks?) could go off at any moment between the two. Primal forces of water and lightning could, in an instant, sweep this part of the pier and leave further devastation in their wake.
     Even some of the ambient pyreflies, loose-flying spiritual energies foreign to all of them and usually completely intangible to the Seraphim themselves, begin to flit as though at risk of being displaced.
     Even the ancient wind spirit has fled, powerful as she is.
     Lanval might even wonder why Solanine and Clarine do not see the issue he does, as Ragnell stands her ground admirably. Lanval, by appearance, may have more 'mass.' He may appear visually stronger. Even with the pact between him and another world's very water embodiment...
     He knows Ragnell's power. If he forgot, she reminded him a few months ago when he barely stayed whole following the mythical Indignation - or what came next from absolute conviction forged in darkness and light alike. All three of which he somehow withstood, despite water's notorious reputation for being fragile to corrupting forces by its very nature. Everything needs it, everything gets in it.
     ...
     Of course they don't see the urgency he does, as the spirits of light and darkness attempt to intervene with their words. They didn't make the pact he did. Filgaia's not their world. By mortal terms, it's akin to... say... someone who lives in Vane being a vehement advocate for Lastonbell and its masons that once lived in the ruined city of artisans.
     They don't have as reason to care. Tinges of the same amounts of doubts and ridicule he was subject to by his own kind as to why he held out as long as he did from what was once the monastery of Rylia. What became... something foul that only mortal hands could ever achieve to the depths of. (Not sink - going that low was a real achievement.)
     ...
     He doesn't know Ragnell's game. He doesn't know what the Adversary - they who nearly killed the Love of Filgaia through terminal corruption - has to do with here, other than that Ragnell still works for them.
     ...
     The staring contest between two components of a ruinous storm ends in favor of the lightning, as the water turns away, facing his back to them. The stirring waters calm. The pyreflies start to settle back in, without comprehension or agenda as to the recent happenings.
     "...Guessh there ain't much of a fight fer now, huh," the regal voice has faded, but Lanval remains uncharacteristically upright, as if in concession to Clarine's point.
     Every day, there is a greater threat that Obsession might break further free of its hunting grounds of Spira to pose a threat not just to Lunar - but to Filgaia. A threat that the Guardians already believe to be such, existing as it will.
     He has no words for Ragnell, other than that he walks away - upright, one foot in front of the other - rather than the weird string of pratfalls and feats of flexibility that his locomotion normally shows, as the Oracle of Schturdark leaves the other three to do what they will.
     Night continues to claim more real estate of the skies above.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.

    Ragnell's eyes slide to the wide, where Nimue is--was--at Nimue's fleeing back. Her expression is dark, nearly thunderous, but she doesn't remark on it. After all, it's typical Nimue, isn't it? Typical Nimue, always running away at the first sign of trouble. Typical Nimue, always cheerfully lamenting how life is endless pain. Typical Nimue, who cares for nothing and no one but herself. No, not *even* herself. Ragnell's thought it before, but she's almost too pitiful to live.
    
    ...
    
    Her sharp gaze moves back forward, to Lanval, to Solanine--to Clarine, who steps immediately in between them and begs them not to fight. Solanine chimes in on it, moving to defend Clarine as necessary. Ragnell lets out a long sigh, shoulders sinking, and runs a gloved hand through her spiky hair; then she looks up at the older-looking, actually-younger Seraph with steady eyes.
    
    "Lanval, if you wanna fight about it, you can seek me out and we can throw down anytime," Ragnell replies, cool and unyielding. "But I'll pass on right this second." Lanval appears to agree, with that slurred comment, and his turning and walking away in perfectly sober fashion despite his habit of making pratfalls and so on. She watches him go unsmiling.
    
    Yeah. This friendship is probably over, she thinks.
    
    Well, it is what it is. She didn't start working for K.K. because she thought it'd be good for her social life.
    
    "Kind of a downer, that, wasn't it?" she drawls, shrugging her shoulders at Clarine and Solanine. "Given as the problem's obviously with me, Imma do my thing somewhere else. Y'all feel free to hang with Lanval an' Nimue more if you want." (Assuming Nimue comes back, which is a pretty big assumption.) She flips a hand up in careless-seeming farewell and begins to stroll to the other side of the docks. "Later, friends."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

When Clarine steps up to intervene, Solanine soon joins her. She briefly glances toward her, and offers her a slight smile. That Solanine was standing with her here too helped her feel just a little bit more confident about intervening like this.

She weathers the difficult atmosphere between the two of them. Though she's a little uneasy, knowing that she isn't going through it alone helps.

...But, eventually, Lanval decides there isn't much of a fight and Ragnell agrees, and the two go their separate ways.

"T-take care, both of you..." Clarine whispers to both of their retreating backs...and then, with a sigh, collapses into a sitting position with her back against a back, hugging her knees up close to her chest.

She's quiet for a moment, staring at the floor, but soon those golden eyes find Solanine again, and she offers her a slight smile.

"Th-thank you for, um...standing with me... My legs probably would have given out if I had to stand there alone..." She says gratefully.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Solanine has posed.

Seraph Solanine nods to Clarine softly. "I couldn't stand by and have you face their wrath alone... or be harmed by it. It was... the right thing to do I felt." she trails off, and watches Ragnell and Lanval go their seperate ways, not fighting here, but both volatile and ready to fight when next they meet.

It's a shame to fight one's kin and she wonders if and when she'll have to do it again... but this result will have to do for now. Each of them "condemned" the light and darkness seraphs to the company of the other, as if one side truly prevailed, but both were gone, as well as the Wind, who fled, perhaps unnaturally, at the first sign of friction.

 Solanine and Clarine are the only two that remain, star and darkness, spirits of a night after a thunderstorm has cleared.