2019-06-12: A Light Upon Fighting Lightning
- Log: 2019-06-12: A Light Upon Fighting Lightning
- Cast: Seraph Clarine, Seraph Lanval
- Where: Luca - Residential District
- Date: June 12, 2019
- Summary: By chance, Seraph Lanval happens upon Seraph Clarine while she's out doing some shopping in a world that can clearly perceive her presence. The lingering discomfort of a recent altercation casts a heavy cloud, of which Seraph Lanval tries to clear the air of.
===========================================<* Luca - Residential District *>============================================ The people of Luca live in the center of the city, where massive seawalls and dykes have kept the weather at bay. There are markets here, but they are smaller and less bustling affairs; these are places for locals to shop at, with predictable goods. Many of the stores trade in the official merchandise of Blitzball teams. There are also cafes, restaurants, and other amenities those from beyond Spira might be used to. The environment is cosmopolitan. It is, however, dim -- not in cheer, but in lighting. Both stone structure and huge canopies cover the tops of the city, save for the Blitzball Stadium. This helps keep frequent rains from putting a damper on the city, and life here is as frantic as it can be elsewhere in Luca. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CIlRCYnZcg
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
With the growing tension of late, Luca's markets tended to cycle between periods of bustling activity - with people hurriedly shopping either to amass supplies, just in case, or just to take their mind off things - and relative stillness.
Today the markets are in one of the latter moments, with only a few people out and about. One of these people is the Seraph of Light, Clarine. She was not fond of dealing with large crowds of people who could perceive her, even now after she had time to get a little more used to it. So, these times are perfect for her to get out and about.
Not that she needed much from the markets - there was little in the way of material goods that she actually needed. She just appreciated a change of scenery every now and then, and it might also help her get a little more used to being around people.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It's not good times here as of late, what with what's gone on in Kilika. When people are worried, they tend not to be willing to idly go about indulging in frivolous materialistic pursuits. The worst thing about it is that, emotionally speaking, it makes the air of melancholy and resignation that permeates Spira all the more pronounced.
Buuuuuuuuuut at least Lanval might be on the verge of a decisive victory, where he can claim this patch of market road himself to lay o---
"Move along," chides a local guard, nudging at the portly water elemental with a foot.
"...Why, though?" Lanval comes just shy of whining. "There ain't sho many people goin' down thish wa--"
"I said move along," the local guard's voice grows sharper. Lanval looks at them with one eye open half-lidded. From some perspectives, the mortal is being belligerent to one of the most benevolent spirits of the two worlds in a fashion that could be seen as deserving righteous retribution. Very little could stop Lanval if he were ill-tempered and decided to just chase off everyone this road for his own selfish purposes.
"...Mmmmph." He rolls back and forth to get up. The guard 'helps' him up, roughly, to his feet, and shoves him away to send the drunken water spirit on their way. He stumbles along down an alley as if effectively shrugging about it all, twirling and stumbling the way he usually does when he walks, coming out the other side of that...
...not far from Clarine, as he finds himself sprawling out on a different patch of market road as his balance is forfeit. He's water, if he can help it he'd rather lay down wherever he can.
"...mmm." He doesn't like this road as much. To the mortal eye, there's no difference between the roads, but they're not water. He has a fine appreciation for the way the ground's contours and creases come together, as all water with opinions should! More importantly, though...
"...That you, Clarine?" He asks as he sits up, unsteadily. He'd know that visual profile of the Light Seraph just about anywhere. Even after being roughhoused like he was, he still has a stupid smile on his face.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
There's the sound of movement from nearby. Clarine freezes in her tracks, slowly turning her head in the direction of the sound as if that will prevent the source from seeing her until she's good and ready.
She relaxes a little, though, when out of the alleyway comes stumbling Lanval, who sprawls on the ground nearby. She pauses and stares at him for a moment. He notices her soon enough and sits up.
"Yes, it is... Um, are you alright...?" She asks. She wasn't sure how much of what just happened was Lanval being Lanval, or if there was more to it that she missed.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Mmmph." Is that an 'I am,' or an 'I am not'? He leans up against a nearby wall as he rises. "Ahhh... 'm all right." All right for being RUDELY ROUGHHOUSED by the local mortal law. Spira is the first time mortal law has applied itself effectively against the Seraphim, as evidenced by this one's difficulty in understanding that maybe he really should give up on lying down on that patch of road. (For how long Seraphim live, they can stand to be forgiven for being glacially slow learners on some fronts!)
...Still, the last time they were together, things came a hair's breadth away from turning explosive. It might be weird to see someone who was just shy of unleashing a tremendous watery fury being all pleasant, clumsy, and even permissive of a physical slight from a creature of transient existence.
"How ya holdin' up...?" Even to the point of asking about their well-being, after all that happened not long before!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
"I see... That is good." Clarine replies quietly, offering a slight nod.
She still hasn't forgotten what happened the last time they met - the way things had nearly turned into a fight between him and Ragnell. She had intervened, though she was unsure whether she would have been able to accomplish anything if both of them had truly wished to fight at that time.
It was an alarming and somewhat worrying experience.
And then, he asks her how she's holding up. She pauses for a moment, taking some time to consider her answer.
"I am...um, I am doing well. For the most part..." She replies. She couldn't help but still feel a little shaken. It had brought some worries of hers to the forefront. Things she hoped she would be able to look away from, at least temporarily.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The hesitation in which she speaks is sensed, one hand up against his chin. One of his eyes open half-lidded, that little shine of color underneath that may now be attributed to a sign of building power waiting to be unleashed. A window to something being caged, at the most poetically pessimistic and fearful.
He makes no aggressive gestures in Clarine's direction. His feelings about Ragnell were - and still are - strong indeed, as are Clarine's feelings for her dear friend of so many centuries.
"...Take it eashy," he remarks as he ambles over and sits down on a nearby bench. "...I think I know what'sh got ya outta shortsh... I ain't mad with you."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
He tells her to take it easy, and asserts that he isn't made with her. She relaxes, just a touch, though she doesn't yet move to join him on that bench.
"I am...glad to hear that. I...suppose I am easy to read, so to speak..." She murmurs. Her eyes find the ground for a moment, clasping her hands in front of herself nervously.
"I...I understand. I...am not angry with you, either. I, too...will have to confront her once more at some point. But...even knowing that, I was...happy. To see her again..." She admits. Even knowing that the sides Ragnell had chosen opposed her own.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It becomes readily apparent within the span of ten seconds that there soon won't be space to join Lanval at the bench, because - as is his wont - he just sprawls himself on it. Kind of like a cat. This bench feels nowhere near as good as that patch of ground. He can admire how level it is from the ground - perfectly even. You could spill water on it and, unless in sufficiently large volume, it would just pool here.
"...Ragnell showed me shome real kindnessh, back then, when few elshe did among our kind." Lanval starts. He stops, only because he thinks maybe he should sit up, maybe he should look the light in the eyes on this one. It's a difficult subject for everyone involved - Ragnell, on the whole, has been very kind to her own kin in spite of everything.
"She wash yer reashon for comin' down that far that day, huh," he says, remembering that harrowing journey down the corrupted Love's Cradle. That was no small amount of Malevolence. Any ordinary Seraph would have since started down the path of Dragonification just by setting foot in there.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine listens as Lanval recounts how Ragnell had showed him friendship when few else did.
"...Then...it must not be easy for you either, then..." She comments quietly, then pauses as he asks her a question.
...Well, it is not much of a question - it is more of a pointed statement.
"...Yes." She admits. Her clasped hands tighten, and for a moment her eyes drift toward the ground before focusing on Lanval again.
"I wanted...I hoped, to try and stop her from making what I saw to be a mistake." She explains. It had been on another's behalf as well as her own, but she doesn't mention that now.
And, indeed, it had not been an easy trip to make - she descended into the depths alone, and the journey was all the more difficult for it.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval is quiet as Clarine seems to be searching her guilt and doubt about the whole situation. Looking from the outside in, it might be a weird sight to see. They might not look it, with how their manifestations appear... but he is at least a few centuries her junior. Among the Seraphim that make the usual Drifter rounds in these social circles, he's younger than most of them, even.
"It'sh... not eashy." His thought about sitting up is put into action, doing so to face up to the Light Seraph. "When yer one of ush, ya know... we'll be around. Kinda eashy ta think, or hope... that nothin' good will ever change. Jusht keep on bein' good, bein' there... there 'n good.. mmm."
He exhales, meditatively. "I don't doubt yer friendship in her. 'm shure.... she doeshn't doubt your own with her." He can't blame her for it, from what he knows.
"...Even if yer reashon wash jusht sheein' ta her shafety, bein' in sho much of that Malevolence... ya did right by Filgaia." He tries to reassure with that same smile. "Did right fer it, 'n everyone who livesh there."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine nods quietly. That was true. The Seraphim did not often take well to times of abrupt change. But, at the same time...
"The opposite...is also true." She comments. It was easy for them to get wrapped up in the feeling that nothing would ever improve. She often found herself on the tipping point between those two feelings. Things had been better of late, but sometimes...
"...I can only hope so." She murmurs, as he comments on her friendship with Ragnell.
But then he tries to reassure her, with a smile. Her gaze falls to the ground again.
"...I did not have much time to get to know it. The Blue Star...I spent most of my time dormant within my vessel." She admits....then considers something. "But...I did find important friends, in that short time..."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval does recall Clarine's curiosity as to whether she could still live up to her namesake - the Guiding Star - with this new bunch of mortals she's traveling with. Maybe he ought to meet with them sometime, he recognizes, but that's another subject, another time.
He watches her gaze go groundward with all of this, as though the light itself were not wanting to shine in that direction.
"...'m glad ya found shomethin' important," he says, genuinely. The Water Seraph sits up a bit straighter, at risk of just slouching backwards and falling off the bench were it not just so perfectly balanced. It's unreal, to him, but it makes it easier for him to at least put up the appearance of sitting straighter.
"When ya talk with 'em... do ya ushually face down like that?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine looks up at Lanval again as he shifts his position, sitting up straighter. She nods as he says he's glad she found them, then pauses as he asks her another question.
"...No," She eventually says. She shuts her eyes for a brief moment, resting one hand over her heart(or, rather, where a heart would be, were she human). "When I'm with them, I...I can feel a little bit more...confident, in myself. I feel...happier."
That was when she truly shined - literally and figuratively.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"That'sh good... happy ish good," Lanval remarks as he takes a sip from his gourd. A gourd that contains the water of Filgaia - all of its good, and its bad, all at once. "No matter how shmall, fleetin'... happy'sh nice."
He can tell she's still nervous, still conflicted... he doesn't get up to draw any nearer to her. Close contact tends to be more of a mortal thing.
"...I know, ya weren't expectin'... what happened down at that port." He says as he lowers the gourd from his face, gently lowering it back down onto his lap. "Shure washn't on my end either..."
It's still daylight, so there's not the clearest image of the huge Gaia above them all that this satellite revolves around.
"...Filgaia ain't healthy. There'sh no playin' any of that down." That's something any Seraph could say. That world is spiritually almost dead, even if the lack of ambient Malevolence would make it safe to run around without a vessel for the most part. There's none of that pressure, none of that discomfort.
"I took an oath ta help with the burden Schturdark hash ta deal with - 'n by extenshion, all of Filgaia with it." He remarks, facing upward. "It'sh kinda eashy ta jusht drift along 'n let thingsh passh ash they will, a lot... but thish ain't one of 'em. Thish ain't shomethin' I can do in half-meashuresh..."
He has to say the next thing with a straight face. Even before one of her closest friends from a time that's before himself.
"Filgaia doesh have enemiesh... It... takesh a lot ta become that. I shwore ta do my part in helpin' it thrive again, one day... 'n that doesh mean I gotta shtand firm againsht anyone who truly meansh it harm. 'n I don't mean... a mortal givin' another a bloody noshe kinda harm. I don't mean... a mortal cashtin' shome kinda great curshe that lashtsh fer generationsh kinda harm." That latter bit may be more figurative than anything.
"Ragnell crosshed that line when she choshe ta help with the Adversary of Man. That she'sh goin' 'round, doin' whatever in the wake of all of ush failin' ta do away with Obsession... I got no reashon ta asshume anything other than that she got deshignsh of doin' even more harm."
In other words, another confrontation could - and maybe by inevitability, shall - happen anew. One that cannot be stopped. One that, as Nimue reasoned, could leave one or both of them wounded or worse. A battle in which the most destructive forces each of their elements can muster are brought to bear.
That Lanval would resolve to stand against Ragnell, even knowing that such a great gulf of power still exists between them in her favor...
"...I'm not gonna shay ya shouldn't have much ta do with Ragnell. I undershtand... ya didn't take that vow I did, 'n neither did Solanine... or Nimue." Lanval eases some, eyes still closed. One hand goes to that flowing beard of his. "...Long ash ya don't go tryin' ta do bad by Filgaia... yer shtill my friend."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Clarine opens her eyes once more as Lanval speaks, and shakes her head.
"I...had not expected to run into everyone." She agrees with a nod, then goes quiet as she listens to Lanval speak.
He explains how he took an oath to ease Schturdark's, and Filgaia's, burdens. How he must stand firm against the enemies of Filgaia - Ragnell included.
Once more, Clarine's eyes drift toward the ground. She goes silent for a moment...and then, after some thought, nods.
"...I...I understand." She says reluctantly, her voice as quiet as ever.
"...I do not...I do not wish to hurt Filgaia. My friends consider it home, and I don't want to see them hurt..." She murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
The words need to be said, the line drawn as clearly as it can. It's an emotionally difficult thing to bear. Recently, Lanval had to speak with Boudicca about the need to be prepared to take steps to ascertain which mortals are worthy to become Seers once everyone's time togethe comes to an end, and he could sense the difficulty she has in reconciling this truth about the length of existence they have compared to those around them.
Now, he has to tell someone that their close friend is a sworn enemy to him. There is no way to gently say that, no way to easily digest. He doesn't coax her gaze back up from the ground. It's not the sort of thing anyone can smile through - it's the groundwork of a bloody confrontation between strong wills that will not falter nor back down.
She reaffirms that she doesn't want to bring harm to Filgaia, nor by proxy see her own hurt... and the Oracle of Schturdark takes his hand off of his chin and rests it back on the drinking gourd.
"...Take real good care of 'em," Lanval says. "...I had that guy shpeakin' into my everything... that Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus." There is no mistaking, nor forgetting, that name or what he had to say. His speech is deeply imprinted onto Filgaian history. The enemy of ARMS, who would rebel against Filgaia's governments and their impotent deities.
"...All I've sheen 'n know... I can tell where shomeone'd loshe faith. I don't think it'sh gonna be eashy fer anyone, goin' forward." They overcame the World Eater, decisively... only to run into new challenges, new roadblocks, with catastrophic consequences or worse should they not be somehow overcome themselves. Filgaia might not even ever know proper peace, if there yet remains other threats waiting in the shadows to emerge.
"...'m shure ya will help shine a good way forward."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.
Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus.
She did not know what he did before his current position, being unfamiliar with Filgaian history, but she knew what he was now - a dangerous man, and one with the charisma to unite people of all kinds and the strength to make good on his words if unopposed.
She had seen many humans in her time who attempted to become what he was, but very few could claim to match him.
"I do not think so, either. Not on the Blue Star...nor on this world, either." Clarine agrees. Long gone was the times when the two worlds could be considered separate - now, the problems that one faced would have an effect on the other, at least in some manner.
"...I hope so, too." She says.