2020-02-20: A Need to Stand
- Log: A Need to Stand
- Cast: Yue Rohay, Marivel Armitage, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Valeria Chateau
- Date: 20th February 2020
- Summary: After the battle at the Chateau, Avril and Marivel pay the Veruni prisoner a visit...
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue is spending some time in in the Chateau following the battle. Normally prisoners would be thrown down in the gaol, but given the... slightly unusual circumstances...
Marivel has found her a room instead -- and she's been out for the last twelve hours following injuries sustained during the battle, in the Aura.
The Aura has remained dormant following the Ice Queen's command, essentially a skeleton of a Gear as it hangs in one of the Chateau's hangar slots. (Or maybe it's lying in a heap outside)
Still, Yue quietly rises when she awakens, looking about the room still with her shackles attached...
...
The Minder is curled next to her, leaning against the bed and having dozed off at some point.
"Mm," she murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"How dare she," Marivel murmurs to herself as she returns from having given Minder and Yue a chance to rest, getting the last vestiges of burning rage out of her system. "How dare she do this to Yue and Minder all for a /taunt/!"
She comes to a stop to Yue's door and rests her head against it for a moment, allowing herself a moment of vulnerability while she believes herself unseen.
The one bright side of all of this is she maybe reached Ambrosius a little. Victory would be easy, she reminded herself, just throw violence at each other and see who remains standing--but those that would face the brunt of such bloody work...
She sighs once and looks up, draws down her goggles,and swings the doors open.
"Well hell---oooo...." She lowers her voice upon seeing Minder asleep. "Our dire prisoner seems to have awakened,having wisely surrendered herself to the powerful and fashionable ARMS..."
She tilts her head to the side a bit, studying Yue and adds, "I did not call for Avril's presence, just so you know. Mind if I sit down?"
She sits herself down on a couch even as she's asking this.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Marivel didn't call for Avril's presence, no.
There comes softly the sound of footsteps.
With the Skadi suffering such damage, Avril had opted to stay here for a time -- once she had received permission to do so. She had of course let her friends know what had happened and that she was safe, but...
Until the Gear can be repaired or moved back to the Thames, she isn't leaving here either--
Unless she hitches a ride with someone else.
"I apologize. I am intruding," Avril says, as she nears the door to the makeshift prison.
Yet she still darkens Yue's door. She's always been blunt and polite in the same breath that way.
"...What happened was not by your will, was it, Yue?"
She is silent a moment, and lingering still on the threshold, asks:
"What was their purpose in sending you here? What quarrel do they have with this organization?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue is visibly catching up at a slower rate than she would normally; the bandage around her head from a head wound tells that, as do the other wraps of gauze that are covered around the rest of her body.
The Minder remains asleep, as Yue musses over her -- hat -- gently, then looks up towards Marivel.
"I do not..." Yue answers, though she visibly tenses when Avril appears.
She's good at keeping her tension hidden.
But Marivel and Avril aren't ignorant either, the way her expression stiffens considerably and her breath visibly -- slows, because she's trying her hardest to control her body.
Avril asks her questions.
This is not the Ice Queen.
"... it does not matter, I believe, if it is my will or not," Yue answers, stiffly. She looks towards the Minder again.
She's kind of distracted, not answering. She's still thinking of the Ice Queen.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"I didn't ask her to come this time either," Marivel tells Yue. "But I do find her presence rather convenient today because I think we really need to figure out how we are going to proceed from here."
She looks up at the ceiling for a long moment before adding, "You know, there's always stories about the reluctant leaders who only rise up to the occassion because they must. They would be just as happy living peaceful, quiet, and humble lives. Tis a fantasy, of course, for such people are rather rare even within the community of Drifters popularized by dime novels and other manuscripts. I understand the appeal, do not get me wrong, but I have always felt there is a dangerous fantasy behind such stories. Tis tempting to believe we can just continue on living ignorantly of the world around us until disaster strikes at which point we can fix it with just a splattering of good will and bravery, but the fact of the matter is, this method is very dramatic and exciting, but saving the world is not dramatic and exciting." She looks over to Avril for a moment and then back to Yue. "Saving the world is work. Tis as boring as brushing your teeth. I do not wish to do battle with a great Veruni empire. I do not, however I might threaten, wish to harm anyone within the Veruni. But the fact of the matter is they are going to terraform Filgaia in a manner that is poisonous to humanity and the rest off the life that lives here. They had other places they could live. They still do, but even on Lunar they elected to support a cause of conquest and bloodshed...however reluctantly, that will be their Spiran legacy should our exciting stories continue as they are."
"I cannot allow that to happen." Marivel continues. "Even if it means dooming the entire Veruni race. T'would not be the first splattering of innocent blood on my hands though perhaps t'would be the last."
She lets that sink for a moment before she adds, "But the Veruni are not doomed. They have plenty of opportunities to change the path before them yet. So I speak to Kaguya, so I speak to Ambrosius. T'would be just to slit Kaguya's throat, but I am not fighting for justice. I am fighting for life. And right now trying not to kill Kaguya is in service to that end. Not harming Ambrosius is in service to that end. Trying to save you...is in service to that end, yes, but I don't deny I have a personal and selfish desire to see you smiling broadly, to see Minder living a happy life with friends for however long she has whether it be twenty years or five hundred."
She sighs once and looks to Avril, smiling briefly at her. "Tis why I speak to Avril too, you know? I may be friends with Dean but I've not known her longer than I have known you. Life rarely presents us with such fantasies in which a former enemy can become a friend. A former /threat/ becoming salvation." She looks back to Yue and adds, "She should have the same opportunity that Kaguya has, that you have, that Ambrosius has. Even if it's difficult for us. And I know you know this already, so pardon my pontification, but tis fast approaching the time where you need to believe it too."
She looks to Minder again, smiling at her too.
"Your mother," Marivel says. "Was she always as cruel as she is now? Perhaps not, but what they made you do. What they abused in their capacity as parents to makee you do. That is not who you are, Yue, and I know you know that as well...but tis fast approaching the time where you need to believe in it too. Not for my sake, not for your sake," She nods to Minder. "But for her sake. I cannot be her parent, and your mother certainly definitely cannot. Tis up to you. And you definitely know that..."
"But," She adds. "You have to believe you can be what she needs. We could kill your mother, we could even save your people if we are lucky, but only Yue Rohay can defeat the specter that haunts her. And I wouldn't bet against her."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
She lingers there in the doorframe, one hand on the very edge. The tip of one shoe slowly brushes against the edge of the floor in the room beyond.
"Terraforming..." Avril murmurs, her brow creasing as she quite visibly mulls the matter over. "Do you mean, the Control Zones? In truth, the only one I have been within is the one near to Honeysday. But, according to Rebecca..." She shivers, perhaps at an echo of her earlier summoned frost, perhaps at the memory of what her friend had said to her. "...Most people who go to such places, it is said, do not return. Is that... what you mean, Marivel?"
She's reminded again of what Lydia had said. What had happened to her people. The Veruni -- her own people -- have blood on their hands.
Of that, she does not doubt.
"...I know. Filgaia's very nature renders them ill. But do you mean that if they traveled instead to Lunar, they might be saved?"
It's the first breath of hope she has had on the matter in some time, since learning that the Veruni were in fact being rejected by the planet. All of them, that is, except her.
(And one other.)
Her hands come to hang at her sides when Marivel speaks of dooming the Veruni race if that becomes necessary.
She is a child of Filgaia. And yet, to permit them to continue...
And yet, they are her responsibility. Avril glances away, off towards the floor.
"..."
At some length. "Yes," she says, without meeting Marivel's gaze. "Yes, I certainly do hope you are correct."
Slowly, she looks back up at her -- and Yue.
"...I understand. This, too, is something that I would wish, should it become possible." She touches a hand to her chest. "My only goal now is to recover my memories. This is the only means by which I might steer my people from disaster. I can see no other way."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue is not, exactly, the most vocal person in the world -- she is prone to falling into fits of taciturn quietness, and today is one of those moments... especially when she feels pushed into a corner, feels trapped and boxed in.
But it doesn't mean she isn't listening.
But her concerns perhaps is more in the 'now' than they are the bigger picture, as Marivel speaks.
She does pause, and quietly slips something out from underneath her jacket.
... it's a half-smooshed eclair, one of the ones that Marivel aported in. It's wrapped in foil and looks horrible, but it's still edible.
"I realised, when I was in the Aura but mere moments ago. Why it is that I cannot readily agree to stand by you again. And it was because I did not merely wish for Acacia and Eleanor and Avril to stop me. No, what I wished for, deep down..."
...
There's something so aggrieved and wounded inside of her even as she smiles, stroking at Minder's sleeping form. "How selfish of me."
"'Tis as you say. There exists no other to be a parent to her, yet I do not know I have the fortitude -- whether mental or emotional -- for it."
She doesn't touch upon the topic of terraforming, for some reason.
Maybe she knows a truth that's too horrible to behold.
"Was my mother always so cruel? Perhaps, perhaps not. She was always calculating and stern. And yet perhaps it was my betrayal that consumed her and turned her to the person she is."
She lets out a stiff breath as she looks to Avril.
"Much like how these shackles are a reminder to me of what happened with the Ice Queen. We all must reap what we sow..."
A pause, as she glances aside.
"... and some cold, icy part of me wishes you had listened to her, Avril."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"I believe so. To be clear," Marivel looks to Avril. "'Terraforming' in of itself is not inherently cruel. Worlds are inherently changed by the people living upon them simply by them existing, terraforming is--typically--a calculated method to which one approaches it so that one can live in a place normally inhospitable to them. Normally I'd say if they wished to do such a thing to the /moon/ then far be it for I to complain, but recently to my surprise I learned people were living up there as well."
She closes her eyes for a moment and adds, "But that does bring an interesting point under consideration. The moon does not seem nearly as dangerous for the Veruni to live on, that means it should be, at least, theoretically possible to have a world in which both humans and Veruni can live safely. But we do not even know what really is /harming/ the Veruni on Filgaia in the first place. Before one commits to surgery, one searches for the cause of the ailment."
She crosses her arms. "...If this were still the Zeboim era, the world would be scrambling to find a cure, but as it stands... She closes her eyes. "Well, we cannot be picky about our era, I suppose."
That Marivel speaks of such things freely in front of the QUEEN of the Veruni, suggests that either Marivel trusts Avril to not take offense or simply doesn't care, but she does seem to have gathered some trust for the former ruler.
Perhaps that is the power of people like Dean and Rebecca. When they believe in someone, you want to believe with them. Even when you are someone like Marivel.
"You are quite the responsible one," Marivel smiles before focusing on Yue.
"You don't need to stand by my side, Yue...You just need to stand." Marivel protests that her intercession is some kind of recruitment, even if--sure--yeah that'd probably be her greatest desire...but she's seen the writing on THAT wall for a while.
"And maybe you aren't prepared for it." Marivel says. "Maybe you are even bad at it. But you are the one she's got. And she could do far worse. I can't even imagine you harming her with intent."
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"I understand. ...It was because of my people that Spira was subjected to such terrors." If Kaguya had not been, would Luca have...?
It would be difficult for her to take offense. She has no memories -- no emotional attachments. She has no recollection of living among her people. The one thing she does have is the strong feeling of responsibility. As long as she is their ruler, what actions they take are her responsibility.
And...
Just as all humans are not simply good or evil, she cannot paint all Veruni with the same brush.
But in the end, she is aware that there may -- may, if another way is not found, if the wall stands strong, if things continue as they have -- have to be a difficult decision in her future. If this is a world in which only humans can live...
So she stands and she listens, because that time of decision has not yet been reached.
There's still the chance of finding another way.
Her gaze shifts, then, settling on Yue and the Minder.
"Listened to...?"
To Yue's mother?
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"I am no such responsible person," Yue lets out an almost nostalgic huff to Marivel, as if she were being the young Crimson Noble grumbling towards a young Veruni this time. "Not as responsible as you like to think..."
But it's not like Marivel's words do not land either.
She is the one Minder has. Maybe she isn't prepared for it. Maybe she even is bad at it.
But she does have to believe, one way or another.
"... but I am far from negligent too."
She looks towards Avril, as she expresses confusion over who it is she should have listened to.
Her lips purse...
...
...
... then she says nothing. That would be so unfair of her. To just simply say the words, 'the Ice Queen'. Because she knows Avril is struggling with a great battle internally as well. Because she knows that struggle.
Just like she's now struggling to understand who it is that she must stand as.
She quietly procures that Ice Medium again from inside her person, looking at it with a quiet and melancholic sigh.
It glows with a soft, icy thrum.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Well who is?" Marivel says. "Have I ever really seemed like someone who would run a paramilitary organization?" She smirks--only briefly. "Tis very unlike me, no? But I have learned things and in learning those things, I was saddled with the responsibility of one who knows." She sighs. "Knowledge is a bit of a double edged sword, especially when for every important detail you learn you find two more mysteries. But tis the drifter life."
She doesn't find the Veruni to be all evil. She doesn't even find any particular person to be 'all evil' which is why she has difficulty believing in entities like 'Zophar'. But she also doesn't believe that just because people aren't completely evil, just because everyone can become great and good and kind and wonderful--that you are thus obligated to accept the cruelties inflicted in the now.
But then...That is why Marivel calls herself a monster. Well, one of the reasons why.
She reaches forward and rests a hand on Yue's shoulder. "We've lived a long time. We are always our own worst judges. I'm grateful...that you haven't let that stop you from forging connections. Just...don't give up, okay? I want a world in which you and Ana could live happily. I want the joy of our adventuring lives to become a new normal. For us, yes, but also if I can help it...Filgaia."
She is quiet for a long time after that, closing her eyes for a long moment.
"But if I cannot help it." Marivel admits. "Then I will settle for a joy just for us."
She smiles thene and adds, "But I do think we can do better than that. Despite all evidence to the contrary."
She pulls back then and looks to Avril. Her gaze is sympathetic, but--well--even Marivel must concede that despite their best efforts...the world is the world and its people are many and varied. Even with their best efforts, the world may burn.
And Marivel can't live with her long lost and scattered loved ones burning with it. That will always be her first selfish priority.
And she won't apologize for that.