2019-08-08: You're Wonderful Too
- Log: You're Wonderful Too
- Cast: Seraph Amaranth, Lydia Seren
- Where: Moonflow
- Date: 8th August 2019
- Summary: Lydia pops in on Amaranth, who has to admit the truth to her now...
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
It's been an incredibly rough time for Amaranth, who got ambushed by an assassin and everything! As such, the Festina Lente isn't doing well either because it's a mood-house...
It's got a house-sized blanket over it and its chimney droops, and the windowsills look like it has tears as it goes 'baww'...
And because time works in mysterious ways, Amaranth is still fussing about in the shinobi-style gear she was training with Talia in, which, to say the least, is a really weird thing for her to be wearing. Ugh!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren jogs up to the front door of the Festina and raises her foot, fully intent on kicking the door in so she can bother Katherine Weaver (still the only name she knows Ammy by). She sees that the house has a giant blanket over it. And seems to be sad. So she lowers her foot.
"T...the house has feelings? Why didn't anybody tell me?! I probably said all sorts of insensitive things! Uhh..." She pops open the door and gives it a hug. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I hope you feel better!!"
She then slowly looks into the house and sees Amaranth in shinobi-style gear.
She has never seen her in shinobi gear before.
"............................." Lydia says. "Whaaahhhh.......whaaaat's going on, Kathy?"
Blink, blink. She's still hugging the door and patting the door comfortingly.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
uh oh.
Why, Katherine thinks, why do so many people have to walk in on me while I'm still dressed like this, like my writer is doing this on purpose to push a character beat forward?! WHY AM I THE ONE IN THE CROSSHAIR FOR IT, laments the character.
But that's a bit too meta.
"H-huh? I mean-- er-- kinda--" Katherine stammers of the Festina Lente, scratching her cheek. "I don't think it minds too much... as long as you didn't say its patio makes it look wide or anything..."
A pause.
As she stares towards the door. ... ...
She wants to hug the door too...
At least it's sort of cute shinobi gear. Purple, with a mantle over her shoulders. "E-er... I was practicing with Talia-- I mean--"
She sighs frustratedly.
"I was... attacked, Lydia. It might not be safe here anymore..."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Sometimes you gotta hug door. Lydia pulls away before the door feels weird about being hugged for too long.
"Really?" Lydia asks. "Shiiit. I wanted to see if I could hide out here for a while. Or sometimes. In general. When maybe I did something embarrassing and just needed to comf for a while. But I guess that's out. You wouldn't believe it. Mariel got arrested and then a masked assassin dude killed one of the guards and skedaddled and I'm kinda worried that the blame will fall on me! And the Carakin! But mostly me because I actually worked hard to try and not piss off the Guard. but also the Kinship because fuuuuck!"
She lets her arms drop. "So how can I help? I got a ship. You want to hide out on ship?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
It's OK. The door, as a door, is by its very nature a connector, between one place and another. And when you hold the handle of a door... is that by its very nature not a hug of a sort?
"N-no, I just-- you're still welcome here-- I'm sorry it's not safe anymore--"
Words are kind of failing her right now.
"... masked... assassin?" she perks up about that, and then hurries to her side. "Tell me more. Tell me everything."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh sure. I think it was the Shadow Dragon but to be honest I didn't see the dude myself." Lydia shrugs both shoulders. "We were trying to rescue Mariel you see and I was trying to get the door open cause she's one of my close friends but this guard we were fighting suddenly got ambushed by this masked dude who killed her for some reason after she started losing the fight and then left."
She frowns faintly. "I think it might be the Shadow Dragon cult. Cause they're the dudes I remember being willing to just casual murder dudes with martial arts and masks and shit."
She nods slowly. "Ivan's looking into it on someone's behalf." Lydia hasn't realized the someone is Amaranth here. "But I'm kinda freaking out because I think they're gonna murder him so I want to hide out."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth -- Katherine -- Amaranth's face has gone rather pale here, even moreso than her usual, if a Seraph can possibly even go paler they'd probably just go invisible of not being a spectrum of light registerable to the Resonant.
"The Shadow Dragon. I-- the Shadow Dragon. The Shadow... Dragon Cult," she sounds deeply rattled. Even moreso when Lydia mentions Ivan is looking into them on her behalf still.
She kind of has to collapse onto a nearby chair and put a hand to her head.
"... I was attacked by a senior assassin of the Cult, who tracked me down from something I had to do to survive the Fiend attack on Luca."
There's a terrible shiver and an exhale. "And Ivan-- Ivan-- he asked me if there was anything he could help with. I suspected the Guard had been infiltrated by the Cult, but... I told him to not take any overt action..."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Fuuuuck Kathy," Lydia says. "What'd you do to piss off the cult??" Oh no has she figured out Ammy's dark past?! "Hug a scared child or something?" Oh nope she's still clueless. "Well I hate to tell you this but I'd be surprised if they didn't have at least some agents in the Guard. Sneaking into places and subverting 'em is what ninjas do yeah?"
Her cheeks silver faintly. "Ivan... went out and asked you if he could help? Just out of the blue like that?"
She smiles faintly at her hands, with silver blush stickers and everything. "He's a pretty sweet guy when he isn't in his own head isn't he? I hope he doesn't get in over his head. He's not as ruthless as the Shadow Dragon. Not that I blame 'em. Sounds like a pretty shitty crew to hang around in so you probably gotta be ruthless there just to survive."
She frowns. "I think Ivan just told me about it cause I told him about what happened to me. Shiiit we gotta tell Hiro and Jean about this noise."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"... ... ... Lydia ..."
Amaranth pauses for a moment longer, shoulders slumping. Well, no real playing around it anymore, not with everything else that's been happening.
"I used to be part of the Shadow Dragon Cult. Or rather, a progenitor, a long, long time ago."
She furrows her brow deeper as she wicks away the glamour over her violet eyes, leaving them filmy and gray, with heavy cataracts over them.
It might not look like much to Lydia, but it's an important gesture for Katherine -- for Amaranth herself.
"... I didn't want any of you to get involved in this, but... it's a bit late now..." Amaranth quietly whispers. A pause. "What happened to you? Were you involved with the Cult too? Jean? Wait, that dancer?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is suddenly quiet when Amaranth makes that admission. Lydia knew SOME SHIT was up but she didn't really think it involved the cult because, uh, well, she's a Seraph right? That doesn't make much sense probably? Then again, Ragnell seems to hate humans sometimes. Maybe they get dragged to cults more than she figured.
She sighs faintly, approaches Amaranth, and gives her a big ol' hug too. JUST LIKE THE DOOR. It was Foyershadowing.
"Thank you." She says. "For looking out for me...but I'm already involved. They punched a hole through my chest'n'kidnapped my family. And like... kids."
Pause. "Sweetest kids ever kids." Maybe Ivan was right to say that maybe Lydia doesn't necessarily pursue justice like some sort of vigilante crime fighter, she still cares very much about what is just.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth looks really... really surprised, actually, when Lydia goes quiet.
It's maybe because Lydia goes at a speed that's a bit faster than what she can deal with, often, and maybe some part of her was expecting retribution or cancellation or--
But a hug comes instead.
"... ... ah ..."
Those grey eyes are tearing up. They can still tear up.
"... I'm always scared to admit it. But it's part of why I was so passionate about trying to get Talia out of that life. To get Ivan out of that life too. Because I know what it's like..."
The Seraph slumps gently.
"... now that life is trying to catch up to me again." There's a frown on her face. "Your family... that's terrible... I--" A pause. "Did you get them back in the end? The children that the Cult kidnapped-- they turn them into... assassins."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia should probably be a bit more embarrassed at making an ancient ghost being cry and all that but Lydia isn't only sympathetic to the child assassins she has crushes on. Something about her sympathizes greatly with these people. Maybe she just knows what it's like to be in this sort of shitty system, n ot strictly that of a child assassin but--well--whatever was done to her. Being broken down. Tortured. Experimented on. /Used/.
That she understands perfectly.
"Heh. I was trying to get Ivan out too." Lydia admits. "But that's gotta be his choice. He says himself there isn't an argument that can convince him. He knows it's wrong. Something's keeping him in. Until something's done about /that/."
She shrugs haplessly.
R"But the good news--yeah, we were able to rescue 'em fine. All of them. But boy was that scary!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"... that's right. It has to be his choice. Talia made that choice... so once she did, I-- we did everything in our power to make it so that she had somewhere to be," Amaranth whispers. Like it's not something new to her.
She sucks in a deep breath and-- nods. "Good. I knew they were active in Meribia, but I still could not find their lair..."
A quiet frown.
"... I feel a bit better. That I've admitted that. Thank you."
She looks down at herself.
"Talia suggested I try to at least practice, not killing but... defending myself. I'm not sure how it's turning out."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"You should ask Ivan to spar you. He's a great fighter. Not as ruthless as the Shadow Dragon but he does know ninja tricks and all." Lydia suggests. "Plus he'd probably be happy to do it because he'll get to show off."
She pats Amaranth on the back a few times before pulling back. "Anyway if you hear anything about the Cult and need help? You should call on me. I suck at fighting but I'm real hard to kill so maybe I'll distract some folks while you do the real work, y'dig me?"
She looks around as if expecting Talia (or Ivan even) to appear out of nowhere. When it doesn't happen, she frowns faintly.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"I'm... I'm not a fighter, though. Not for centuries. And..." Amaranth hesitates as she holds her hand up. "Trying to fight... my body just freezes up. It brings so many horrible memories. That there is still some muscle memory left in me makes it worse."
A pause.
"But it might not come down to whether I 'want' to fight. I might have to..." she sighs harder.
"I was no match for the assassin they sent, admittedly. I'd rather want to run away... but..."
She glances aside.
"That's all I've been doing for a long time."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Hm... But you don't gotta fight them right? You have a traveling house. You could just drop the house on them. Or dazzle them with your magic." Lydia claps her hands together and says, "Yeah! Why not instead of like 'fighting them' with how you used to fight, fight them as the true you! There's a lot of cool tricks you can do with all your illusion stuff! Like you cuold scare them with illusions of giant cuccos! Or throw Anastasia bombs at them! Or... secretly plant bomb plants in their hideout so bombs are flying everywhere and they're all freaking out...!"
She laughs maniacally for a bit.
"Er," She adds. "If you want, I mean."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth actually does give that a lot of thought.
"... that's true. I'm not entirely helpless, even though I'm not certain how effective my illusions may be... but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try."
There's a quiet noise from Amaranth and says, "You have a way of really cheering me up, Lydia. ... I'm sorry for-- even being scared of being rejected when I said it..."
She gives her another hug.
"I forgot that the illusions were what brought colour back to my eyes. I should believe in them more."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Hey, don't be sorry! I'm not the one who's sufferin' now!" Lydia stammers, returning the hug. She should visit Kathy more, she thinks. Seraph Katherine still feels like a weird Seraph name but maybe she's just used to them having weird names. "I'd be scared too. And it's okay to be scared and all that."
Hey SOME things her parents say do tend to stick with her after all!
"Yeah besides--they probably are expecting you to be all super ninja martial artsy anyway--I bet they don't see anything like your home, let alone anything you can come up specifically to 'fight' them, like--ever."
Her cheeks silver faintly. "But uh--glad I could cheer you up. Sorry for uh--being a weird person sometimes, but don't forget you're a great gal. And you're not alone either!" Not even in the dark!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"... e-eheh... yes, thank you. I'm-- it's strange, I keep having to tell myself that even though some of you are already camping out here hiding," Amaranth points out to Lydia with a rather vigorous smile.
She gestures over her eyes and restores that violet hue to them.
It feels a lot more comfortable.
"You're wonderful, too, Lydia. Thank you for being such a good friend to me, over this last year."