2020-07-06: Problems On Purpose

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  • Log: Problems On Purpose
  • Cast: Seraph Harmaus, Kaguya
  • Where: Desecrated Shrine
  • Date: July 10, 2020
  • Summary: Kaguya and Harmaus relate recent events and things they have learned to each other while also lamenting their limitations. Then they decide to go cause problems so they can learn and grow stronger.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.

    "...And that's all we learns about it," says the Seraph, perched high on the crumbling stone of the Desecrated Shrine's exterior.

    "It born, then dies. Slain, murdered by them all. Short life, for a 'Clysmian'! It wonders us, its connection to Malevolence. We hears Sin has connection, maybe?"

    The expedition into the Sacrificial Grounds had been a disappointment on multiple axes.

    And with the Clysmian dead, Harmaus is back to square one.

    "But, ah," he says, tilting his head to look at Kaguya.

    "It says it learns something?"

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Hmmmm," Kaguya says. "So that's what it was." Kaguya has been--not looking for, but wondering about that, the Clysmian and its nature. Born, dies...

"Hmmm," she says. "Some kind of anti-Guardian..." Then she looks back to Harmaus, where she's leaning against a stone wall, lower at the moment than Harmaus. Her arms are crossed, her feet together; it's a comfortable position.

"No Malevolence, like with Sin... but no real time to study it either." She considers. "I wonder what Lord Volsung would've done with it. ...Maybe best that we don't see."

She shakes her head after a moment and then uncrosses her arms, clapping once. "That's right! Not a lot, but a little. Apparently... Althena's very different from how she used to be. I mean, I've heard rumors about it before, but confirmed by someone who 'knew' her back ages ago. She loved music... but was willing to go pretty far if she thought it was necessary."

"My source mentioned it might have to do with Malevolence--but all I can really say for sure is there's a difference between now, and a thousand years ago."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.

    "Yes," says the Seraph, nodding emphatically. "It wondered us, so we learns it. Many quiet, quiet about it! But we learns anyway!" Baring his teeth, the Seraph grins before standing up straight atop his perch, rising from the crouch he'd been in. The stone scrapes underfoot but remains steady.

    "Filgaia births Guardians. But also births Clysmians. Ah, but, not quite right," he interjects, wagging a finger. "Sin is Clysmian also. We hears Malevolence exists not in Spira. It wonders us. Malevolence used to birth this one, yes?"

    Is it, or is that merely what the Seraph wants to think happened?

    "And once birthed, Malevolence is all..."

    In other words, it's gone now.

    "Heh..."

    But then Kaguya speaks.

    And mentions a particular name.

    Harmaus, at once, paces over to the ledge, then without any apparent regard for his own safety, drops down to the place where Kaguya is leaning, below.

    "We hears it rightly? It says it learns of 'Althena'?"

    He looks like a man on the verge of making a breakthrough. If Kaguya for any reason had put her hand over his chest, she would find a pounding heart.

    "Yes! Just as we thinks! She hides the truth from us!"

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Nice work," Kaguya answers her... ally. Yes that's the word. He stands straight up, and gives his explanation...

"Hmmm. So you think maybe Sin has some roots in Malevolence, too? I wonder about that. It'd help if we could test these ideas..." She shakes her head. "Clysmians... I wonder."

But she will keep wondering for the moment--instead Harmaus drops right down and shows clear interest, so the small Veruni grins at him. "Yep!" she says, and inclines her head. She... does not put her hand even near him. Definitely doesn't do that.

"Now, it's not unreasonble to think somebody changes in a thousand years... for a person. Is it for a goddess? That, I don't know. But there's definitely something up there. I'll fill you in if I learn more. ...They used to be friends, see. I didn't get all the details, at the time I had... other secrets I was thinking about, too, and she didn't volunteer everything. But confirmtion at lest, not just rumor, that there's a change."

"Does she want to seem infallible, and unchanging? I don't know. The only guess I have about the restrictions on music and booze are as a way to try to contain Malevolence. But why would she need a new measure for that, when it hasn't been in the past? Is there really a new 'Lord of Calamity' that's worse than before?"

"Dunno," Kaguya says. "...Hey. You have any run-ins with ARMS yet?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.

    "Maybe, maybe. Seems it might," is the Seraph's response. "So much lost over the ages. So much locked away. Have to piece the truth together slowly. Two hundred years and yet..."

    And yet, that's as far as he's been able to go. A Seraph may live a long time, but there are constraints forced upon them.

    As Kaguya has seen, even his body wasn't enough to entirely keep out the corrupting force of Malevolence...

    And then he drops down to join her below at the first mention of Althena.

    "Yes. We changes," and he gestures vaguely towards himself. "Somewhat. Depends on the Seraph. Depends on the experiences!" He bares his teeth in a grin again, at least for the moment. "But, goddesses..."

    He gestures outwards, as if to encircle all of Filgaia thus. "Guardians change not. Against their nature, yes? So a goddess... what is the nature of a goddess? To change? Or?"

    His arm drops. He shrugs, as if nonchalant.

    "Always, always, Althena the same. In art, it minds us -- we meets her not," and from his mouth the pronoun sounds like an invective. "But always same, same, same -- until she appears before all Lunar. Appears again after a thousand years gone! But it knows the story, yes? Dragonmaster, Heroes, yes, yes. Jaeja," the Seraph sighs, rolling his shoulders in a lazy shrug.

    He leans against the wall for a moment.

    Only to pop an eye open.

    "We meets," says Harmaus, "The Lord of Calamity."

    A long pause.

    "Long ago."

    Silence follows.

    "ARMs?" He pats the weapon on his hip meaningfully. "Yes, yes, we meets many ARMs. Filgaia has many ARMs."
    He has the wrong acronym, sadly...

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"I feel that. I slept through over a hundred." Kaguya just throws that out there without following up, "But a piece at a time. A step's a step."

Kaguya has seen that of Harmaus. It was... interesting, certainly. But immortality--Seraphs.

"Yeah, exactly. The Guardians are supposedly just the Guardians, but if Althena shows up and interacts with people..." So it's different. But all the same...

"Yeah, I haven't met her close up either. I might one of thse days, though. Depending on how the war in Spira goes, I guess. I want to make it happen anyway." A beat, "Yeah, I got filled in on the details."

Eye pops open. Kaguya's head tilts. "...Did you now?" she asks. "Did they do anything interesting? All I hear is 'ruin over all the land, destruction of the countryside, blah blah blah'."

Kaguya laughs then. "Guess that's a no. I don't mean the weapons, ARMs, I mean the organiztion--the Agile Remote Mission Squad. Started in the nation of Meria, supposedly an international peacekeeping unit. Primarily against Odessa, but have some potential otherwise. They represent something new among the humans, it seems. Something together..."

Kaguya trails off, "Anyway my point is they're a player on the scene and I'm thinking of seeing for myself just how strong they are. If you're interested, you can come along. I hear they've got a Seraph or two on their team."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.

    "It wonders us, though. The nature of the Guardians. Different from Lunar, very different. Things such as them exist not. Only Althena. Only us," he says, jabbing a thumb at his chest.

    He looks at her for a long moment.

    "If it goes to sees the Goddess, we comes along. Yes. We needs must have words with Her."

    There is a promise -- something darker, something long-brewing -- in those eyes.

    She asks about the Lord of Calamity.

    Again, Harmaus' lips split in a grin.

    "Yes. Something very interesting."

    He pauses a moment before continuing. "Anitia told me the truth."

    Anitia.
    Who is no more.

    Kaguya explains the meaning of ARMS then--

    "Tcha," huffs the Seraph, glancing away as if irritated. "Too much the same this name," he grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest.
    But he's still listening.

    "So it seeks 'testing'? Jaeja, it is a troublesome girl!" says the Seraph, cocking his head to one side. "But no matter. We are interested, yet. In their powers, too, yes."

    His eyes hood.

    "In their Seraphs."

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"I've been learning more and more about them," Kaguya says. "Do you know--their power isn't any less on Lunar than it is here on the Blue Star? Not that they aren't weaker than they used to be, people say. But maybe they always were like that." Kaguya considers. Seraphs, Althena... "I've got theories. They've relied on humans for a long time. More than Althena seems to, though even she has the Four Heroes, the Dragonmaster."

Yes... There is something dark in that. Kaguya wonders about it. "I do want to see that," she admits.

"...The 'truth' is it?" she wonders, especially because of the way he's grinning, the way he pauses, builds it up.

"Haha yeah, and there's no way the guy who founded the organization doesn't realize it. But does he not care because he's an arrogant noble, or does he not care because it's funny?"

Troublesome girl. Kaguya smiles at that. "Yep. If they can't face me, what hope are they going to have later? And I could use the workout. I need to get more 'power' to accomplish what I need to accomplish." Pause. "Good, then. It'll be fun to see more of what you can do, too. I only got to see so much down there in the depths. Heh heh."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.

    "Is that so?" Harmaus replies, clearly intrigued. "A Guardian's power reaches from the Blue Star to Lunar... interesting," he muses, rubbing at his chin. "We would hears its theories? Is still learning. Much to learn, yet. Much lost and buried!"

    But is the fact that the Guardians have relied on humans for such a long time the reason for their powers or their weakness?

    "Could have gone," Harmaus admits, shrugging his shoulders. "As Seraph, could have always gone. But if I asks after a secret, what thinks it would happen to me?"

    A pause, and he dips his head. "Same as Anitia. Gone. Defeated. Forgotten."

    Or at least nearly so, in her case...

    He lifts an eyebrow, then, on that particular corner of the conversation. "Yes. The truth I tells you before. ...Jaeja, no, rather, the path that led to the truth. But never finds the path otherwise."

    If there's more to it, he seems to be reticent about revealing it.

    As the topic veers towards ARMS, though--

    "Heh heh. Maybe it does for both!" he declares, shaking his head. "Both is good, yes?"

    He nods, thoughtfully, at her reason for it. "Yes. Is same for us. We needs get more powerful, far more powerful yet. Even this body not enough to stands against Malevolence. We tries what we can against them. Good, what is word, work out?" Harmaus hazards, tilting his head to the right. "Limited in this form, but protected. We shows what we can do."

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"That's what I gathered from asking Guardanist shamans their experiences, anyway--and seeing some of the summonings in action. Obviously I'm not in a position to test it out for myself." Kaguya is pleased to have some interest in her theories though. "So thinking of the Guardians like gods I think may not quite be right. It's not so much that they run things as that they are things--that's what I think, anyway. And it bears out--the planet's dying, and they're weaker. I still don't like them all that much but I used to think of them as at the top of the planet's hierarchy... when it doesn't seem to work like that."

Kaguya considers. "Good point. There's already a couple of Seraphs out there she's basically disowned, anyway."

"Ahhh, yeah," Kaguya answers, "That. Still, that's pretty interesting--to put you on the path. I guess it must've been a really unique experience."

"Haha, yeah, both is good." But Harmaus seems to get it--Kaguya uncrosses her arms and pushes off the wall a little, looking out into the distance as she considers. "So, more power will let you stand up more to Malevolence. ...That makes sense. I need it because my enemies are more 'powerful' than I am." She turns to look back at Harmaus again. "But in that case, I'm looking forward to it."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.

    "Yes, yes, starborne children not able to gains the blessing of Guardians, we hears it," Harmaus muses, watching her as she explains what she thinks the relationship of the Guardians is to the planet.

    "Ah," Harmaus utters, a throaty sound.

    "Is like 'us', then? We needs learns it more."

    Guardians are a little bit like Seraphs...?

    Althena's 'children'. Sometimes disowned by her, herself.

    "Yes," Harmaus murmurs, eyes for the moment hooded. "We knows it."

    She'd seen it herself -- while it's probable that his body protected him, better than it would have been if he'd gone in without it -- the Malevolence had still affected him. "Yes," he agrees, then folds his arms across his chest again, gazing downwards. "It must."

    To think otherwise is to admit defeat before he can even step down the path. It must let him withstand it. It must.

    "Must withstands it to grasp deeper truths," he explains.

    It must.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Mostly not, anyway. Kaguya decides against mentioning the exception she's seen for now. Instead, she nods at the conclusion drawn. "There's similarities at least. Maybe there's a relation. Maybe not."

But it makes her wonder more about Seraphs.

Blonde hair ruffles in the breeze, the planet still affecting Kaguya whether it sees fit to welcome her or not. Kaguya finishes turning back Harmaus's way, and watches him thoughtfully for a few more moments as he gazes downwards. It must, he says.

What deeper truths are there to it, really? ...Kaguya wonders that.

"Yeah," she answers then. "We've both got to do some withstanding."