2020-05-31: Conviction, Lies, and...
- Log: Conviction, Lies, and...
- Cast: Seraph Ragnell, Seraph Harmaus
- Where: Faraway Lands
- Date: May 31, 2020
- Summary: Ragnell confront Harmaus about what he did to Amaranth. Harmaus admits to it freely, and more besides.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Not too long ago, Ragnell heard from her sister Amaranth that a certain Light Seraph named Harmaus has been stalking her--even tried to attack her and her girlfriend while they were out on a date. Ragnell's not super familiar with Harmaus, having met him a few times a couple years ago and a few times recently, but given his recent behavior, she can believe that he's been creepering about--and really, she's going to believe her sister over someone she barely knows anyway.
The question, of course, is *why*. While 'why' may not always matter, and may well not matter in this case either, it's possible that he's being controlled or manipulated by someone else based on what Amaranth told her. The only way to know for sure is to ask.
So, thanks to the miracle that is the Memory Cube, Ragnell sent Harmaus a message asking him to meet her at the Faraway Lands at midday. The day itself isn't specified, since there's no way of knowing when he might check his messages, so Ragnell simply comes back to the meeting spot a few days in a row, waits around a while around noon and an hour thereafter, and then leaves.
Today, too, she's waiting. She's a Seraph; she can be quite patient when need be.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Her fellow Seraph's response had been terse but committal. He would meet her there at the specified time.
Which has since rolled around and then a bit.
He's late. Whether or not it's on purpose has yet to be confirmed.
After a while longer, boots echo across the metal flooring of of the place called 'Faraway Lands', and suddenly come to a stop.
"It wants explore this place, yes?" rumbles the voice of Harmaus himself. As usual these days, he wears still the body he has chosen for himself, so different from his natural Althena-given shape.
"Suits us. We wants explore it also. Uncertain place. Lost, veiled. Riddled with secrets," the embodied Seraph practically purrs, taking in the corroded walls and ceiling with a measure of satisfaction.
"Busy, lately. Many secrets in the Blue Star."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell looks over at Harmaus as he arrives in his human shell. She finds that dubious, too, but frankly she also considers it none of her business. Either that human will grow strong enough to kick Harmaus out, or his ego will erode, and either way Ragnell has no part in it.
She *does* pause at Harmaus's assumption that she wants to explore this place with him. "Hm. I don't *not* want that," she says thoughtfully, looking up at the ruins. He says he also wants to explore it though, suggests he's been exploring all kinds of secrets. Ragnell nods. She likes poking her nose into various secrets too. But...
"That's not why I called you out here, though," she says. "I'll warn you beforehand: dependin' on how you answer my questions, we might have a problem. An' if we have a problem, I don't think explorin' any ruins will be in our immediate future."
She delivers this plain and simple, a mere statement of fact. It would be a lie to claim that there's a total absence of threat, though. It's implied right there in what she says.
"So, I'll get straight to th' point. There's a Dark Seraph by the name of Amaranth 'round these parts. You know her?" Ragnell waits for him to confirm what she already knows, then puts out another confirmatory question: "Why have you been followin' her around these past couple centuries? What do you get out of it?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Ah?" says the Seraph-in-flesh, as Ragnell says that 'they might have a problem'. "What is its problem with us?" He shifts his weight from one leg to the other, regarding her all the while.
He shows no sign of apprehension. No sign that anything might be amiss, or that there's anything happening that he might be concerned about. He approaches her statement head on, as it were.
"Amaranth. Amaranth, Amaranth," he murmurs, his gaze hooded as Ragnell cuts to the heart of the matter.
"Jaeja. It speaks to Amaranth, yes? What does it say? That we follows it, that we attacks it? Yes, yes, all was done. We does these things, and we continues to does these things," says Harmaus, stretching both arms to either side, palms outstretched, almost as if it were a sort of entreaty.
"But. Does it say that it refuses to tell us what we seeks? We wishes to know," Harmaus says, dropping his arms to his sides.
"We wishes to know of 'Hexennacht'."
Silence follows.
"And it lies to us. It lies and runs!" Harmaus hisses suddenly, something near loathing and hatred swamping his tone. "It runs and so we follows! And we follows still, until it tells us our knowledge."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Harmaus answers Ragnell's questions, and she does appreciate that he is just as direct and honest back. However, his implication that Amaranth somehow deserved to be attacked because she didn't give him what he wanted keeps her stony-faced.
"Harmaus, maybe this has occurred to you and maybe it hasn't, but no one owes you shit just because you want it," Ragnell says flatly. "That includes information. Even information you really want! An' her not givin' you the information you want does not justify you attackin' her."
Huh, though. He seems to really take offense at the fact that she lied to him? "Again, she doesn't owe you anythin' just because you want it," she reminds him. "But hearin' all that, all right. I understand a little better what your angle is. Does this mean, then, if you learn what you wanna learn about Hexennacht, you'll leave her alone?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Talia had said similarly, hadn't she? But then as now...
"Matters us not," Harmaus repeats. "We must learn what we must. All else, distractions. Substanceless. Nothings."
Whatever the argument, it doesn't seem to make much impact upon him.
But, as she says, will learning what he seeks make him go away and leave her alone?
"Depends, perhaps," he muses, considering the suggestion. "More questions we has, possibly? More and more, depending on what it says. Need to know," he reiterates, gazing directly at Ragnell.
"Need to know what it was like."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell makes a face. Of course. She figured he wouldn't care. If he did, he wouldn't have stalked and attacked Amaranth in the first place.
The next angle seems to have somewhat more of an effect on him. But then he says he needs to know what it was *like*. Her eyes narrow. Amaranth had said she'd gotten the impression he wanted to know what it was like to fall prey to Malevolence. What he says just now sure sounds like that to Ragnell, too. But:
"What it was like to be there on Hexennacht? Or what it was like to be a Hellion?" she asks. It's important to clarify these things. After all: "Because you know that Seraphim lose their sense of self while Hellionized, right? If purified afterwards, we don't remember what happened during that time. In light of that, if what you want is to know what it's like to be a Hellion, there's no way Amaranth could answer your questions."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
Actual kind and understanding people tend not to be stalkers, as a rule.
"Yes," is his answer to her two questions, neither of which was a question inviting a binary answer. "We wishes knowledge of Hexennacht. We wishes knowledge of 'Hellion'. We wishes know the truth," he says, his cadence settling into something calmer yet still rapid -- an andante of a rhythm, perhaps.
'You know that Seraphim lose their sense of self while Hellionized, right?'
"Does they?" replies Harmaus, tilting his head to one side. "Hmm. Hmm, hmm. Many years I searches and learns, but never hears of 'loss of self'. Or, a loss of me? Never matter, it speaks wrongly. Amaranth knows something."
His eyes narrow.
"It knows something and it lies. Yes! Even to Ragnell it lies!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell presses a pair of fingers to her temple. "The truth about what, exactly? You're going to need to be more specific," she says. When Harmaus insists that he's never heard of Seraphim losing their sense of self upon Hellionization, she frowns and folds her arms. "Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it's not a thing," she says, tone chill. "You say Amaranth knows something, but how do you know *that*? How do you know you aren't projecting an assumption onto her?"
This will be very embarrassing for Ragnell later. But she does genuinely believe what she's saying.
"Regardless," she says brusquely. "If you want to know about Hexennacht, *I* can tell you about it. I was there. And if you want to find out for yourself what it's like to be a Hellion, well." She snorts and smiles unpleasantly. "There's been an increase of Malevolence in the area lately, an' I know a good number o' people who're capable of usin' purification powers. Why don't you eat some for yourself, Hellion out to see what it's like, an' then get purified o' th' taint?"
Ragnell is more than mean enough to suggest he just get himself Hellionized and be done with it, but she really doesn't want another Fell Dragon in the world. If Harmaus got himself Hellionized, even if it wasn't too bad at first, she's certain he'd eventually evolve into a Fell Dragon if he weren't cleansed of Malevolence.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Tcha," Harmaus sighs, shaking his head as if put upon.
"Hellions. Malevolence. The world."
He lifts his gaze from her, directing it up towards the ceiling.
"Everything that has hidden from us." He pauses, then corrects himself. "Is hidden. Is hides now."
Tense changes into the common tongue were never his strong point.
She points out -- correctly, in the context of what is known and unknown to them all -- that there's no way to know what the actual process of events or experience after the fact might be -- that everything he thinks may be an assumption.
"Yes, we has considers this," he remarks, returning his gaze to Ragnell again. "So we finds it out. But as long as it lies," and here his tone shifts halfway into a snarl, "we knows truth not! It talks, and it talks us what it knows!"
But here, Ragnell speaks of Hexennacht.
"Ah? It was present? Then, it tells us this. Yes, we has part of the truth."
And the rest of it?
He looks, for the first time, intrigued.
"There is? Where? Difficult, difficult finding Malevolence on the Blue Star. We searches for it and finds it not. It wonders us, this puzzle. If we finds it..."
He appears to have reached some sort of conclusion.
"Yes. We finds it out. We sees it ourselves. Only question is 'where'."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Oh, okay. How didn't I get that right away," Ragnell says dryly, barely holding back an eyeroll. But then, perhaps his interest really is just that broad. More importantly, even though he acknowledges he may be just assuming things, he still insists that Amaranth is lying.
"Okay, but how can you know she's lying? How do you know she isn't telling the truth, and you're just assuming it's a lie because it's not what you want to hear?" Ragnell points out. "And if you keep harassing her and stalking her, how do you know she won't start telling you what you want to hear, even if it's a lie, just to make you leave her alone?"
Perhaps with that, he'll finally turn his attention away from Amaranth--especially now that Ragnell has presented herself as a viable alternate target for his dubious attentions... and piqued his interest with the possibility of doing just as she suggests.
He really is crazy, she reflects. And so Ragnell makes her own assumptions.
"Hexennacht... Let's see." Ragnell folds her arms again to tap a finger on her forearm. There's a very broad, wider context to it, but the short version? "A young woman who'd been gifted the power of purification and had fought for her country was betrayed by those who feared her power and sold her out to her enemies. The enemy country put her on trial, but it was a mockery of justice, only a pretext for her execution. Several of her Seraph companions were there, including myself--and Amaranth. Amaranth was so upset at the humans' betrayal that she succumbed to Malevolence and became a Hellion. That human purified her, turning her back into a Seraph, but it didn't save her from injustice. She was put to death, and Amaranth, traumatized by what had happened, ran away." She shrugs. "Which is why she won't talk to you about it, I'm sure. It was a horrible experience. She doesn't need someone insensitive like you trying to dig up bad memories just to satisfy his own curiosity."
Not that they aren't bad memories for Ragnell, too. But she's better able to compartmentalize what happened, and she can put up with some emotional discomfort if it means protecting her sister.
As for Malevolence: "Most of it is over on another continent, so I'm not surprised you haven't found any," she replies. "But some has sprouted up recently near a place called the Baskar Village, as a place known as the Sacrificial Grounds." She pauses. "Seriously, though, bring someone who can purify you afterwards. If you get Hellionized and get stuck, I won't be held responsible." She raises a finger. "Try talking to the Seraphim Lanval and Boudicca. They'll be able to help you out." She half-smiles. "Don't tell them I sent you, though, or they won't. We're kind of enemies, after all." A beat, and she adds, "Oh, an' you probably don't wanna tell them what you're planning, or they'll try t' stop you."
Suggesting Harmaus lie and deceive: sure to go over swimmingly well.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"We knows it is lying," Harmaus reiterates; perhaps he just won't see reason or logic on this matter, having already made the decision in his heart of hearts. ...Which must be buried somewhere deep within the form of the human he has claimed as his own, now.
"We will reveal the truth. It will see, truly, how Amaranth lies. Darkness," he states firmly, "gives before light. Always and always."
It may well be that this might turn his attention away from Amaranth.
For now.
For now, she seems to have well invited his interest into the matter; he regards her keenly as she explains what Hexennacht was.
"Jaeja," he remarks, at length, his face twisted in a mask of consternation. "The death of a purifier and friend. Strong emotions, yes?" he says, as if ignoring the rest of Ragnell's point out of hand. "Strong feelings break through lies. Is has said, time and again. Tcha..."
He sighs, as if almost dejected.
"My desire... not enough, yet," he remarks, slipping for the moment into the singular. "Even if I burns with it." For the moment, that light in him seems to dim.
Only to be rekindled when Ragnell speaks of Malevolence.
"Ah... Baskar Villager. We hears rumors about it. So, this is Malevolence on the Blue Star. Quiet, well-hidden. Waiting."
She suggests he bring along someone to purify him if needed.
"Needs not. No. That is the path of falsehood. Has this," and he thumps his chest -- or rather, his body's chest -- for emphasis, "if needs protection. We sees what we finds!"
And with that, he bows to Ragnell, low. It's uncertain whether it's genuine or mocking.
"Our thanks. Where others lies, it speaks."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell gives Harmaus a flat stare as he insists that Amaranth is lying and he'll get the truth out of her. She waits for him to acknowledge the rest of what she's said. Based on what he says, it does indeed seem like he takes offense to lies. Maybe that'll help Amaranth. At least, it's a step forward. For now, she nods once, curtly, at his bow of thanks. Whether it's sincere or sarcastic doesn't really matter, though if he's really that offended by lies, it's probably honestly meant.
"You're welcome... is what I'd like to say, but it seems like there's one more truth I need to make absolutely clear to you," she replies. "Amaranth is someone important to me. If you keep harassing her, I will knock you out." Her red eyes narrow. "So if you're *really* grateful for the hints I gave you, you'll leave her alone from now on and seek your truths elsewhere. Understand, Harmaus?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
He straightens, regarding her as she delivers her ultimatum.
"Ah," says Harmaus.
His mouth twists into a smile.
"We thought it might say such."
To which he shrugs, hugely. "If we finds what we seeks in Baskar Village, perhaps we troubles her no more, yes?"
The unspoken 'but' weighs heavily in the air, however.
"If not... we seeks her yet. She speaks us what we needs if we finds it not."
He turns, then.
"Even if we then fight... Ragnell."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell doesn't nod, doesn't smile back. It looks like Harmaus understands; he just doesn't care.
Well, she kind of figured it'd turn out like this. Here's to hoping whatever he found in the Baskar Village and the Sacrificial Grounds would be enough--but she suspected it wouldn't be.
"So be it," she replies. Then she turns in like to walk away.