2019-10-08: For What Purpose
- Log: For What Purpose
- Cast: Ambrosius, Amaterasu
- Where: Lake Macalania
- Date: October 08, 2019
- Summary: Amaterasu and Ambrosius, recovering from holding Sin's wave at bay as long as they could, seek a moment's respite and have a heart-to-heart.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Leave it to the Veruni to challenge nature itself.
A massive tidal wave was rushing toward them, threatening to consume them if they were unable to escape it. It was a difficult decision, but in the end Ambrosius elected to do what he could to stall it. He exerted his will over the water. He could not hope to stall it completely, or even to assuage its wrath.
Amaterasu, too, joined him, exhibiting her own powers.
Together, the two of them bought the others time to make their way toward the temple. But, bought time lasts for only so long.
Eventually, the water's wrath cannot be halted any longer. And so, the wave descends upon them.
It is hard to tell how long it has been since then. Minutes, hours, days... Realistically, it likely has not been that long - there is still the sound of battle being waged in the distance by forces currently unknown.
Ambrosius awakens, finding that he has been washed away, and caught by one of the many crevasses torn into the land by the battle between Sin and Lombardia. It may have been a fortunate catch - not too far away is the edge, below which the chilling depths of Lake Macalania can be viewed. There is a faint blue glow at the bottom.
Ambrosius disregards that for now, however.
He opens his mouth to speak - and sputters, before removing his waterlogged helmet and taking a deep breath.
"...Commander. Commander Amaterasu, are you there?" He calls out, sitting up and taking a brief look around. Minerva is, presently, nowhere to be seen. He hopes she managed to escape it alright - perhaps she left with Kaguya and Sentinel Elvis.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
'Mat, I love you,' her sister had said.
And the life-long soldier had been so stunned she hadn't been able to say a word before her sister ran off.
There are times in one's life when one has the sense of a threshold being crossed. What has been done can no longer be undone.
So it is. So it goes.
Her duty -- regardless of where her heart lies -- is here, holding back the onslaught.
Until it can be held back no longer. Even Amaterasu cannot hold her ground against the sea, driven up by a furious god. She is washed away all the same, cast off towards the edge of the crevasse that leads deeper into the depths of Lake Macalania. This is where she awakens, when sensibility returns to her once more.
"Ngh..." the commando utters, evidence of the battering she's taken clear on her armor. But it can be fixed. She'll likely only have bruises afterwards in the days to come, if even that.
Slowly she pulls herself upright, propping an arm up on a nearby stone.
She stands afterwards, her long blonde hair caked against her body. Glancing up at the sky, her faceplate folds away, as neatly as it never had been at all.
"--Ambrosius." She's moving, if with a slight limp, in his direction. "What is your status, Ambrosius?"
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
When Ambrosius's call gets a response back, he feels some relief. He sighs and leans back for a moment, taking a moment to assess his status.
He's not uninjured - he'll be fine, once he's had some time to recover. But for now, his body is sore all over.
"...Adequate." He decides. Carefully and cautiously he hauls himself to his feet. He flexes his fingers experimentally for a moment. There's a brief twinge of pain, but nothing that'll stop him.
"This is quite the situation we have gotten ourselves in." He notes dryly, looking about. "I hope Kaguya and the Sentinel are faring better than we are."
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
The limp is nothing serious -- something she intends to see to shortly enough, should the opportunity present itself. But for now her focus is singular: find and see to the status of Ambrosius.
He -- and his wellbeing -- are among the reasons she stayed behind in the first place.
"Ha. Adequate must do, for now." She lapses into silence once the question of her sister rises up into the conversation. Amaterasu gazes at him for a long moment and then, with finality, sits down on a nearby ice-crusted rock, as if the cold were another mere technicality for her. She is a soldier, after all.
And the armor has warming components in its environmental suite. It was designed to take into account several different atmospheric and biome conditions.
"If the Sentinel is with her... she will be in good hands," Amaterasu says at length.
"As for ourselves... we must take stock of the situation before we rush ahead. It seems..."
She trails out, her gaze over the lake. Her thoughts are without question elsewhere. It may not take a mindreader to guess where.
"Ambrosius. If I may ask, for what purpose do you fight?"
An oddly philosophical tack, for someone so usually fixed in the present.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
He takes note of the limp, but doesn't comment on it - Amaterasu can take care of herself, after all, and undoubtedly will once she can.
She sits down and Ambrosius does the same. He doesn't seem to be too bothered by the cold, either, though that may have more to do with his usage of ice and water.
He nods, when she speaks. Indeed, with the two of them together he had little doubt they could handle whatever trouble came their way. He notes, then, the way her voice trails off as she continues, and then pauses when she poses that question to him.
"...That is...a difficult question." He replies, hesitating for a moment.
For what purpose does he fight? He has to think for a moment.
"...Truthfully, it depends." He says. "Would it be too typical to say I fight for our peoples' survival?"
He goes quiet for a moment.
"There...was a time before, where I fought because I sought the honor and reputation that my family has long since been denied. But...that was a long while ago. I am at peace with that now." He comments.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
'That is...a difficult question.'
Amaterasu's gaze maintains on the lake.
"Indeed."
She listens by and by -- her gaze might not turn his way but without question from the way she holds herself, she is listening.
"...I see. For glory, then. There is no shame in seeking glory. Indeed, glory has molded many of our finest."
She turns to look at him at last. "Even if it is not what drives you any longer. So what is it now, if I may ask?"
She rests her hands on her leg, the ghostly shape of her magic forming as phantom plate armor about her leg.
Before it sinks in, leaving only purple-green wisps of 'gas' behind that curl and vanish. She stretches her leg experimentally and nods in satisfaction.
"...It is only proper that I explain my own, even if it may be obvious."
Her gaze again drifts to the lake.
"She is dying. Even here. We might not have enough time..."
She looks back at him, staring him in the eye. "That is why I fight. Whoever it is, wherever they may be. I will destroy everything for her sake."
There is a pause.
"And our people."
She will do anything.
Even kill her own people to save them.
To save her sister.
...Perhaps the argument with her sister has drawn her to dwell on it, again, after all these years of being at peace with her course.
A small leaf has disturbed a still pond.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
What drives him now...? He has to think on that for a moment. There was a time when he pursued his goal with a single-minded purpose - when he could fight without concern, but...
He had become soft, of late. He's not sure when it happened - no, perhaps, he knows. His work with Riesenlied had put him in contact with humans. He had gotten to know them - care about them, even. It brought to mind his mentor, who had vouched for peace.
He hesitates for a moment longer. Saying that out loud would probably be bad idea.
"...I suppose...that I am still searching for it." He admits. It wasn't a lie, either - he had his overarching goal, yes, but as for the reason why...
He is about to ask her for her own reason, but she gets there before he does. He goes quiet as she speaks, and when she looks him in the eye, he does not look away.
"...I see." He replies. To destroy everything for her sake... "I can respect that determination."
He thinks on Kaguya - and then on the Minder, and the common thread linking them both.
"...It is a cruel world, that sees our bright young minds cut down before they can reach their full potential." He murmurs quietly. "An unjust 'punishment', for an event they had no part in."
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
By contrast, Amaterasu is as single-minded as she ever was.
But there are some things that have always rankled at her, deep in her soul. Some things that she has only done because it was necessary.
Some doubts that she voices to no one, because to do otherwise is to consider the possibility that she has committed a grave and terrible sin against her own people.
It is thus best that Ambrosius keeps his own counsel. To hear it from another, in her disturbed state...
"I see," she replies after a moment. "That, I understand, is the other side of glory. It is a flame that burns bright but burns brief. For many, the time it burns is enough. For those who endure..."
She looks away from him, and dips her head into a shallow nod. "I hope that you find your purpose, Ambrosius. Those who lose theirs find themselves untethered. They begin to consider, shall we say, dangerous things."
Things that she keeps concealed in her own heart for exactly that reason. They are dangerous, too dangerous, to consider.
If someone wants to keep their job.
If someone wants to keep their life.
"Yes. I will not rest until Filgaia is ours," Amaterasu says, and at last stands, her gaze off and into the distance.
"Until we have reshaped this cruel and unjust world into a better one."
She is after that silent, only at great length drawing in a shocked breath.
It may come as a shock then that she draws her weapon, Valkyrja hissing into life in a burst of blue-white light.
"Ambrosius," she says, turning back to him then. "Go to the temple. If they are still in the area, you may meet them there."
She takes off at a run quite suddenly, and the reason soon becomes clear:
Sinspawn. The monster may be gone but its 'children' remain.
Converging on the temple.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
A flame that burns bright, but brief, huh... Ambrosius considers that for a moment, and then nods in response.
"...Thank you. Until I find it, I will continue to do as I have always done." He says. He remains calm at the outside, but he can't help but feel a little concerned.
Dangerous things... did she know, in some way, the thoughts running through his head? He had know way of knowing for sure, but it felt alarmingly...pointed.
He is quiet through her declaration, and only rises when she draws her weapon. He looks about - and then, he soon spies what it is she sees.
...Sinspawn.
He hesitates. He is concerned, for a moment, about leaving her to deal with them herself, but...for now, he would have to trust her.
"...Very well." He says. He turns to leave, but pauses and looks back.
"We will meet again, Commander. Be careful." He says. And, with a gesture of his left hand, a geyser of water rising up from the ground. He steps into it, and is gone - sent upward by its push.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
What Amaterasu knows, what she doesn't know...
The Commander's role for those of the Moderate wing is that of judge, jury, and most of all executioner. She is well acquainted with the concept of 'dangerous' things.
Things that must be removed from their society, to ensure that their movement to their future -- the only future that exists, that can exist, there is no other option -- is unhindered.
And she knows well what dangerous things rest in her own heart. Perhaps it is that knowledge that grants her insight into that heresy which may rest far more lightly inside others.
But if she does suspect anything of him, she voices it not--
And neither is Valkyrja now for him.
"Worry not. I will eliminate these things," she says, her faceplate sliding into place, ready again for the fight despite all else that has been today.
"And I will return once it is finished."
She has, as she sets off -- without a backwards glance, she cannot permit herself further weakness, not a second time -- for the second time today that strange sense.
There was a term for it, back on the Locus Solus.
'Flying through your own ashes'.
But even so, she will not turn back.
Her mind is set.