2019-09-15: Distant Ties
- Log: Distant Ties
- Cast: Catenna, Jacqueline Barber, Ethius Hesiod
- Where: The CaraKin
- Date: September 15, 2019
- Summary: Catenna reflects on some of what she's learned about Ganondorf Dragmire, and what it might mean for her own past.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The recent talk about the history of Ganondorf Dragmire and the Demon King has left Catenna with more than a few questions. They're ones she'd rather not confront.
Lunch today was simple - sandwiches with some native Spiran meats and vegetables atop rustic bread - but Catenna hasn't spent much time outside her room at that. But she's left her door open, and to peek inside is to find her sitting on the edge of her bed, a small trunk sitting beside her, open.
A spill of something shaggy and red cascades across her lap. The Moon Shaman traces her fingers over the smooth face of a mask. it's white, painted with slashing patterns of black and red.
Catenna closes her eyes and exhales. Memories teases at her. i'll never be like riima.
"I wonder," she murmurs, opening her eyes again and looking into the face of the old mask, one she hasn't worn in a long time - not nearly long enough. Even the one she donned outside the temple of Raftina was a different one, painted to try and evoke Celesdue.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
It might have been simple, but Jacqueline always appreciated the lunches made by her friends. The effort and care that went into it made everything better. But today...it feels like something's missing.
That something happens to be Catenna herself. Jacqueline had noticed she hadn't spent much time outside of her room today. She leaves her to it for a time, just in case she simply felt like she needed some time to herself, but now she carefully approaches the door.
It might be open, but Jacqueline doesn't step inside just yet. Instead, she gently knocks on the door to announce her presence before poking her head inside.
"Am, I, um, am I interrupting something? I can come back later if I am..." She says, taking note of the way Catenna stares into that mask.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius' footsteps about the narrow hallways of the CaraKin are eerily quiet. He's had months to perfect this feat that he doesn't have to stride much slower than an average walk to achieve, not that this serves any legitimate purpose discernible beyond being kind of scary when he is - and has been - in the company of friends for a few years.
Maybe if the CaraKin itself falls into enemy hands and the opportunity comes to infiltrate and reclaim it, but that is such an edge case that it borders upon implausible! Let's just stick with 'it's kind of creepy' and go from there.
Jay can catch him arriving from her left, and then Catenna can hear him by proxy when he falls to one knee from a passing Schrodinger, who has decided today to collapse their waveform by going underfoot. Because that's just what unstable quantum existences in the shape of cats basically do, so that's how one knows everything is okay.
Ethius' knee the only thing being in flux. Quantum flux. (No, he got back up, he's all right. One less existential uncertainty!)
Ethius follows along behind incidentally, but only because he'd have to pass through Jay if he intends to go anywhere else. He doesn't vocally announce his presence.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The sound of a knock causes Catenna to sit up straight with a surprised intake of breath, as if caught in the midst of something illicit. Colour flushes to her cheeks as she looks towards the door with an expression verging on guilt.
When she realizes it's Jay, though, she closes her eyes for a second, then sags forward again, a faint smile sheepishly drawing to life. "Not at all, Jay... please come in, if you wish. I was just...."
Looking down again, Catenna runs long fingers over the mask. "...The discussion we had about the Demon King made me think of a few things," she admits, her voice quiet. Aware of Ethius slipping in, she glances up towards the CaraKin's resident cryptic mystery man before holding the mask up for Jay to look at. The red mane appears to be attached to it, spilling out around the face like the shag of a lion.
"This is the mask I was given when I was younger," she says. "All Dark Summoners wear these."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Sorry..." Jacqueline says, sending Catenna a reassuring smile. She didn't mean to make her feel guilty. When Catenna invites her to come in, she nods and moves into the room - though not before sending a glance back at Ethius, as she notes him approaching.
His purpose was always hard to divine. She wonders if he's here for much the same reason she is.
"I wasn't present for that one, though I heard about it." Jacqueline says as Catenna mentions the discussion about the Demon King, and takes a seat nearby.
She takes a moment to study the mask that Catenna holds in her hands.
"...It's a little scary-looking." Jacqueline admits. "But from what you've told me, that seems to be by design."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Just being by proxy, Ethius ends up eavesdropping about the Demon King being a thing of concern and worry. That's something that has been spoken of more and more as of late among Drifter circles, but he wasn't present for the greater discussion on that front.
"My apologies for the intrusion," Ethius remarks from just outside of the door. The way he speaks, it is difficult to discern if words of reconciliation are genuine or just so practiced that he can just say that with the 'comfort' he does anything else.
"The red coloration is, indeed, striking," Ethius weighs in (where no one asked him to). He looks poised to say more on that subject, until he perhaps realizes the next layer of faux pas that he has achieved through virtue of Being Ethius.
"...Ah. Is it all right if I come in?" A hand comes to his forehead about that mask. He remembers the time Catenna startled him when she was going about the CaraKin in an outfit that obscured her person.
It was like she was someone else entirely.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"It's alright. I'm the one who left the door open." There's an obscure sadness to Catenna's smile, but she scoots over to make room for Jay and Ethius.
"Of course," she assures Ethius, gesturing towards the chair sitting near her bed. There's only one, though.
Lowering the mask back to her lap, Catenna nods and dips her eyes to it once more. "Yes. It is part of a ritual. When we lost our homeland, we came to live among beasts. The Dark Summoners believe the dogma that they have given up their humanity and become one with the monsters. The most dogmatic believe they are dark weapons to reclaim our homeland."
Catenna looks up towards Jay, a flicker of worry behind her eyes. "In Zortroan, the name for the red mane on the mask is garuzoa.
"When I was at Ida's discussion, they spoke of Ganondorf as King of the Gerudos, and described the Demon King as red-maned. It made me... wonder."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline listens as Catenna explains the ritual behind the mask. To give up their humanity and become one with the monsters...
"...I feel...sorry for them. To think that you have to give up your humanity..." She murmurs. She couldn't imagine being in a position where that felt like the only option. She pauses, though, as Catenna tells her the name for the red mane.
Garuzoa...and Gerudo. Jacqueline frowns slightly.
"That's...hm." She murmurs. She could see why the idea would make Catenna wonder. "...Do you think there may be a connection...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius will allow Jay to take the seat if she pleases. He seems to enjoy standing up more. It might be something of a power thing for his culture, then, holding a higher vantage point... wherever he's from. (Somewhere in the Badlands, maybe? His hair color and skin pigmentation are both similar to Cyre's.)
"...I could see the likeness," Ethius remarks. "If they liken themselves to weapons and wish to intimidate their enemies, there is a common track of logic in fashioning their war dress around the concept of what the Zortroa people themselves consider intimidating... if they liken the appearance to that of 'demons,' especially one considered highest among their order, then--"
Ethius halts the pontification, abruptly. A realization? "...I did not mean to speak over either of you."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"I do too." Catenna looks up towards the ceiling for a moment, letting out a slow breath. "There was a time when I wished that I could achieve what my sisters had. I was never a skilled beastmaster. I was closer to my mother, who gave me her Medium instead. Perhaps the Baskar inheritance in me was simply stronger than the Zortroan part of my blood, somehow."
Raking long fingers slowly through the mane draped over her lap, Catenna goes quiet for a moment. "...I'm not sure," she finally concedes.
When Ethius puts his observations in, Catenna nods gravely. "It's alright, Ethius. I had wondered that too. The Zortroa knew of the Malice... I wonder if it is possible that the colour is some unconscious memory of the Demon King."
The Moon Shaman looks up, eyes moving between Jay and Ethius. "...We have forgotten much about what we were like before our home was taken from us. What faith we followed. What our lives were like. I am told that there are ruined cities, but anyone who would remember them has long since died. Not even Piedras Blancas remembers."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Well...I'm glad for that, in any case. If it hadn't, I might've never met you." Jacqueline says, sending Catenna a small smile.
Catenna admits to not being sure...and then, Ethius speaks on his suppositions. Jacqueline is a little surprised by this - he wasn't usually the type to to share things like that. He usually kept them to himself.
"...Maybe..." Jacqueline considers with a murmur, as Catenna continues. It sounds, though, like the truth was lost to time. Anyone who could provide a solid answer was long since gone.
...Well.
Not necessarily.
"...There is...one person who would probably know for sure, I guess, but..." Jacqueline massages the back of her neck. "He's not exactly the sort of person you would be able to walk up and talk to..."
From what she had heard of the Demon King so far, he didn't seem like the most conversational sort.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It is true, he is usually not that talkative about his thoughts and suppositions unless he feels it imperative - this was him musing aloud virtually unprompted. He goes quiet with Catenna's acceptance of his speaking out of turn, as she connects more of the dots of what her people knew versus the apparent realities in play.
If he has commentary about Catenna voicing the inherent melancholy of losing so much of one's people's way of life - their history, their home, so much about them outside of what survives as a means of retaliation - he does seem to do a much better job of keeping it to himself.
He is sideglancing in the wrong way - towards the wall - if it's a reaction to the vague implication that Jay makes about a source.
"He?" Ethius asks, as if he were thinking of someone on the other end of the gender spectrum.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"I'm glad for it too." With a quiet smile, Catenna reaches for one of Jay's hands, taking it and giving it a small squeeze. It's genuine - Jay's closer to her than any of her siblings by blood.
Her hand falls back to her lap, moving over the surface of the mask. She drums her nails against it with a light tapping sound. "I have a feeling the Demon King would not be in a hurry to answer my questions. But it is something I suppose may come up. I just... wish that I could predict, or know if I was just being paranoid. And confronting him seems... perilous. The power that Ida and the others described...."
Again Catenna quiets. She looks down into the eyes of the mask.
"...There are places, I am told." Her voice is more pensive. "Places that were once part of our history. If we ever return to Elru, I would like to go looking for them."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline returns Catenna's gesture with a smile, closing her hand around hers for a brief moment before releasing it.
"Ah...I meant the Demon King himself, but...as Catenna says, there's no guarantee that would actually...work." She replies, glancing toward Ethius before looking back toward Catenna herself. She nods quietly. She couldn't help but sympathise with her - the uncertainty in a situation like this must be painful.
When Catenna speaks of Elru Jacqueline looks her straight in the eyes and nods resolutely.
"I'll be right there with you. We'll go there just for that, if we have to." She assures.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The overly cautious man (this is a mild understatement) seems like he ought to be fast to suggest against the concept, the idea, if the whispers going around about the man calling himself the Demon King hold water.
He doesn't voice an immediate disapproval, as he stands vigil as a distant figure who seems peripheral at best in the presence of those who may well be close as blood sisters. It might be easy to imagine he's a misplaced decoration that ended up near the doorway.
When Jay looks Ethius' way, he's... looking back in the same direction, not quite meeting Jay's gaze but just looking ahead. There is a nod that follows not long after Jay gives her reassurance of her presence.
"You will have my cooperation as necessary." He says, in that way of speaking unique to him.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Thank you, Jay." Catenna smiles a small, genuine smile, setting the mask to one side as she meets the other woman's eyes.
"It will not be easy. I am sure that my people view me as a traitor... and that they may seek to bring me back, or kill me. As for the burghers of Elesius, they view Zortroa as little more than animals." She pauses, then sighs. "Do you remember the time when we were seeking the Owlet's mother, when we met those bandits who called me a savage? That is... fairly mild compared to what I expect if we ever reach Elesius."
Ethius's statement draws a smile from the Moon Shaman, small and reserved. "Thank you, Ethius. I have... known that you understand me, when I speak Zortroa. It may be that your knowledge of that will be most valuable."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline nods in response to Catenna's thanks. She's glad to see that smile on Catenna's face - small but genuine. She nods once more when Catenna mentions that it may not be easy.
Both the Zortroa and those of Elesius may cause them trouble...
"...Well, we'll deal with them as necessary, when the time comes. I won't let them get away with any of that." Jacqueline replies. "I'll give them such a talking to, they'll feel ashamed of themselves for weeks."
She looks toward Ethius as he assures his cooperation, offering him a smile...and then, a look of surprise.
"He does? My...I didn't know." She remarks, looking between Catenna and Ethius. "I'm impressed!"
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"...Ah." Ethius seems a bit taken off-guard, the way he straightens out as Catenna calls that to attention. There is no mistaking - for Catenna - what happened the day he handed her something, specifically, she referred to within her native tongue.
Though the common tongue Catenna shares with the rest here is a second language, Ethius' way of speaking does not match hers in any way, nor do they struggle with the same linguistic hurdles. (This assumption in writing, admittedly, would apply more if it turns out Zortroan is also his native language... and yet...)
"Yes, in that endeavor," Ethius puts a hand to his forehead - as if embarrassed that were out in the open? "I would be able to assist if there proves a need." That seems the sort of thing he should advertise - but it's not the first time he's displayed a strange aptitude for languages with no common root with one another, is it? (This could be a legitimate trade he could ply, and yet, he still doesn't!!)
He eases his hand back behind his back. "Nonetheless..."
Nonetheless... he doesn't follow up that word, as if he were in danger of going off-script and have to consider combining overly verbose sentence fragments in a novel way. His weakness!
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"I think there are more than a few things about our dear Mr. Hesiod that he does not let on," Catenna murmurs as she turns her eyes from Jay to Ethius.
Jay, for her part, draws an amused smile from her, her cheeks colouring a shade. "It may work. I would certainly accept a lecture from you with my head hung in shame."
Ethius, at least, seems to be caught flat-footed. Tilting her head slightly, Catenna looks up at the mystery man curiously, then clears her throat a little. "...There's a lot about yourself that you still do not understand, isn't there?" she asks, her smile light and sympathetic. "Perhaps we will find answers to your questions someday... and I will help, if I can."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Yes, I agree." Jacqueline replies to Catenna with a nod, looking toward Ethius as she does. He was a very secretive sort, though a part of her wondered how many of these secrets even he was aware of.
Her attention returns back toward Catenna, though, with a nod.
"I've had quite a bit of practice! I'd like to think I'm fairly good at it." She says with a smile before once more looking back at Ethius.
"I hope we can help you someday, as well. I did promise to help you in that, after all." She says. "Way back when, when you first joined us..."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"...That is... correct," Ethius remarks, his gaze once more starting to avert in favor of the nearby wall. For all of the man's faults (and unambiguous crimes), the three of them - as well as a number of the Kinship - have all stuck together through thick and thin. This should be a moment for him to let down his guard and feel comfort in the unwavering support (and patience) he has been given in which to conduct his... conduct.
The answers are for me, and me alone. He inwardly reminds himself. I know I am present to destroy. He takes in the ambience of the CaraKin. Its presence carries an ambience he finds especially distinct. Faint electrical noises, the way certain parts shake when on the move. Things and concepts he has been especially jumpy and sensitive around.
"Should the... time arise, it will be appreciated." He says, straightforwardly aside from the awkward pauses. Almost like he's forgotten what having friends this close is like. (If he's ever had them...?)