2020-10-20: Saint Guardian
- Log: Saint Guardian
- Cast: Cecilia Adlehyde, Tidus, Venetia Vuong, Lan Lilac, Marivel Armitage
- Where: Bevelle - Via Purifico
- Date: October 20, 2020
- Summary: Cecilia hears the call of Ione Paua, the Saint Guardian. A few others who've fallen into the Via Purifico with her accompany her along the way.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Following Team Two Shamans And A Gnostic's slightly disastrous run through Via Purifico, the girls followed the instructions of Dragonmaster Ghaleon Who Is APPARENTLY ALIVE and headed in the direction of a nearby exit from Via Purifico. That, in turn, led to the reunification with the group of Tidus, Venetia, Marivel, and others.
Cecilia, though, did not want to continue straight to the exit, despite being somewhat bedraggled after getting solidly dominated by Via Purifico's trials. She...
shaman...
...heard something. Sensed something. A call she hadn't heard in quite a while. So with some apologies, she pulled some of the group off to pursue down side tunnels. The way is a bit easier than the main dungeon, but there's still been a few fiends, and it's after dispatching a set of them that she rests her hand against the cold stone of the damp tunnel, eyes fluttering closed and listening.
"It's near," she murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
Tidus and his group, which had included Marivel, Mariel, and Rikku, had made it out of the Via Purifico, which was good! They didn't find Yuna or the other guardians, which was not good. Rikku had decided to double back to search for the others, and Tidus had decided to help Cecilia out. He'll be heading back too, of course; Rikku's just heading back a little earlier.
"How near?" Tidus wonders, somewhat hushed, as he follows after the Shaman Princess. He gets that she's apparently hearing the call of the Guardians or something like that, but... weren't the Guardians supposed to be on Filgaia? What's one doing here in Spira? Right under the heart of Yevon?
This doesn't mean he doubts her. Everything he thought he knew has been upended recently. He just has to wonder.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
VENETIA VUONG in GUN:
What if you had a gun?
This comes up because Venetia Vuong is still sadly deprived of a huge swath of Crest Graphs, even if she has managed to preserve her big useful tome of economic stone facts and general Junior Woodchuckery from too much water damage.
The GUN has done most of the heavy lifting, even if she has not shot it much. She still has 22 rounds for the damn thing, and holding it upright makes her feel more powerful. She doesn't point it at anyone.
She has kept quiet when they were in motion, lest she interrupt with Cecilia's listening.
But now she answers Tidus, softly. "I believe they've said the Guardian of the Moon dwells here. It would seem the Elw, at least, had traffic between your world and Filgaia, more often than we thought. It would make sense if there were more than one shrine -- this is a nice planet you have here, other than the government."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Even if it wasn't as triumphant as some could have hoped for - Lan in particular was /really/ hyped about the idea of absolutely sticking it to Yevon - they all still managed to escape with their lives. In the end, that's still winning, right?
She doesn't hear anything... not even now, without Gebler's whispers blocking her mind. But then, Lan supposes it's not that strange for someone to be chosen by the planet...!
"If you're tired, don't push yourself too hard, okay?" she cautions Cecilia, following along behind the princess.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel...!!
Is in bat form, naturally, and chooses this precise moment to land on Venetia's shoulder. Just how lazy is Marivel going to be during this escape?! Maybe she's just conserving energy for when it really counts.
"The Elw were top notch in time-space manipulation. Which only makes sense, it's how we keep transporting between Lunar and Filgaia. Of course, the first time was through a device called the Sorcery Globe but--that is not an Elw invention. I'd be surprised if it originated from this galaxy. Nevertheless..."
Venetia compliments the planet.
"Don't forget the soul poison. I wonder if Spira will be free of fiends too if Sin is destroyed or if it will still require summoners for that capacity if nothing else."
She considers for a moment before looking to Lan.
"Ah."
She considers Lan.
"Well, if a God says 'hello', it's usually good form to wake up from sleepytimes," Marivel says. "Not that I don't understand the impulse."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
"It's....probably a Medium," Cecilia murmurs. "I've been finding them across both worlds. It's much of what I've been doing since Mother fell, actually." She laughs, lightly.
She straightens up, stepping forward through the damp halls. "This way. We're close."
She leads on, hooking a turn down a branching corridor. "I'll be fine, Lan," she says, with a somewhat wan smile. "I'm very tired, but...I think it's been a long day for everyone. We'll be out of all this soon enough." Getting a bigger crew seems to have bolstered her spirits.
"Yes," she affirms at Marivel, stopping briefly again with her hand to her head. Flinching, almost. Having a Guardian project its presence into your brain gives a bit of a headache. "Even before inter-world travel became a regular problem, they were a reliable transit method for traversing huge portions of the planet...Amazing, really, to think about it."
She steps forward, leading the group further still until they find themselves at another juncture, which Cecilia guides them off to the right, which swiftly leads to a dead-end room. There's a few long-pillaged chests here, as well as....
....as well as a body. It's been skeletonized already - nibbled by fiends, surely - but the state of the clothes suggest it hasn't been tremendously long.
It's the outfit of a Baskar shaman, the hide jacket and colorful chaps favored by their more adventurous types. Cecilia bites her lip.
"....I suppose a Guardian-worshipper would be blasphemous, here, huh," she says, sadly.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
The Guardian of the Moon lives on the moon. Makes sense. Tidus gives Venetia a thoughtful look as she explains that much. He opens his mouth when Venetia calls Spira 'his world,' then shuts it. "Uh, th-thanks," he says, scratching the back of his head. She's probably technically right, anyway.
Lan he doesn't know well, but she seems like a nice person. When she encourages Cecilia not to push herself too hard, he nods in agreement. "If there's any fiends down here, we gotta make sure we've got enough strength to face them."
Bat-Marivel does some exposition. Tidus nods at her, then blinks. "Wait. From this *galaxy*?" As far as fiends go, though, he can only shake his head and shrug. "No idea. I hear summoners were around before Sin, so... maybe fiends, too?"
He focuses back to Cecilia. A Medium, huh. "All right, let's go."
Cecilia leads, and Tidus follows, past a juncture and into a dead-end room. He pauses when he sees the skeleton, but, well, it's not scarier than some fiends he's fought. He doesn't get the implications until Cecilia spells them out, though.
"*Oh*," he utters, and then gets sad about it. "Yeah... geez... That's awful."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia Vuong IS the Batmobile.
"Oh, certainly, another galaxy, that makes perfect sense. Tell me, are they actual congeries of stars and such or are they more like enormous nebulas? You probably know this one, if it's not going to awaken Galaktion or something equally stupid..."
Even when we live in the ground, our eyes will admire the stars.
When Fiends come up Venetia pulls back the hammer on her gun.
But she don't point it at nobody.
"... huh," Venetia says. "Those decorations... it looks like -"
A beat passes. "Perhaps one of the Drifters from the first wave I have heard of? I have heard that everyone moved in great numbers, but surely there wouldn't have been one hundred percent overlap."
(Venetia adds to Tidus, "You're welcome, I'm enjoying it. Most of it. Alright, the parts without war.")
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"I'm not saying sleep through it or anything," Lan shrugs at Bativel as they go. "Just... don't run yourself ragged. You can't do the will of the Guardians if you're half dead, right?" (Well, maybe Cecilia could-- she might be the stubborn type underneath her good manners.)
She pats absent-mindedly at the glass jug half-full of water that's been tied at her hip. "Well, I've got fresh water if anybody's tired and thirsty. Just ask." It's a bit strange to her tht some people collect more than one Medium. Even Moor Gault, safe underneath her top with Rigdobrite, sometimes feels like an outsider to her. She wonders if it's normal to be so exclusive. Or maybe Lan and fire just aren't a good combination, even if she does her best to honor her obligation to the Fire Guardian as well as the Star.
It's a tough thing to think about too hard. Much easier to smile and give Tidus what she thinks is a reassuring thumbs-up. "Yeah! It's no good to push ourselves till we break, right?" Especially since Cecilia seems the one closest to breaking down. It must be exhausting, to bear the heavy weight of a planet's hopes...
Especially when, occasionally, you're reminded of what failure means. Lan crouches down next to the body, the tail end of her braid resting by her feet. "I wonder who you were... Pass on in peace," she murmurs, closing her eyes briefly. "I wish I knew who's waiting for you back home."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Well even one world is full of mysteries, I could be wrong." Marivel admits to Tidus. "But the readings I managed to get on the device were..." She gestures with one hand. "Let's just say that even with all my experience and expertise, it didn't make sense. There were elements in its design that gave me the impression that it didn't obey the sort of physical laws that we are accustomed to. And considering it 'descended' upon our world..." She shrugs both shoulders and wraps her wings around her, then rolls off of Venetia and POUFS back into Marivel's form. she studies the Baskar.
"I wonder if this one became a fiend too," she mulls aloud, glancing to Lan. "Half dead? Well, sure you could--if you're only half dead."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
"...I can only hope the Guardian could guide his spirit, at the end," Cecilia says, quietly, at Marivel's observation, though she tips her head down and closes her eyes as Lan says her own brief prayer. She hums a quiet affirmation.
"Likely," she says to Venetia, then, casting her eyes about and then squatting down near the corpse. "I'd be surprised if there weren't a few people who ended up stranded, on one side or the other of all these transports. I suppose we'll have to try and clean that up, sometime. Once we're out of here."
Shaman...
She flinches, taking in a quick, short breath and pinching her nose as a mild pain blooms through her head. "It's near," she says. "It's calling, so that it can fulfill its purpose..."
She murmurs an apology as she reaches for the corpse's bag, and immediately feels the heavy weight she's looking for. "Here," she says, and pops the latch.
What she pulls forth is a smooth stone tablet, about the size of a plate - a Medium. Branded across its face is an icon of a glimmering cruciform - more of a sparkle than a cross, but surrounded by a halo of its own.
"...the Saint Guardian," Cecilia says, quietly, and shuts her eyes. The Medium flickers with faint light, and then pulses, and then again, and then...
Shaman.
A voice, carried on the medium of the soul to all.
Warriors and protectors.
A figure appears, a faint apparition of a tremendously tall man, muscular, with the hindquarters of a lion. The head on his hair is long and unruly, thick like a lion's mane; his tail is equally wild, braided up in white strips. On his chest he wears only white bands and a necklace of colorful beads; below, only fur and an ornate loincloth.
I am Ione Paua. The Saint Guardian.
The tremendous figure peers down at them. It sees them, though perhaps only distantly. The form is faint, and how 'present' a Guardian ever is is difficult to judge.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"I'm with you there," Tidus asides back to Venetia about the war. About the galaxy stuff, though, he just laughs awkwardly. That's a little beyond him, too...
It's okay though, Lan, that thumbs-up is plenty reassuring! He gives her a firm nod and a smile back. "I'm good for now, but when I need a drink, I'll let you know." Probably he should get a mouthful before he breaks off from the group to look for Yuna and the others--but that presumably won't be for a bit yet.
He looks over at Marivel. "Not even to you, huh? That must've been something." He looks down again at the poor Baskar skeleton. "Come to think, there aren't any fiends on Filgaia, right? I wonder if someone from Filgaia *can* become a fiend... For their sake, I hope not." He nods at Cecilia at her comment on the matter. "Yeah. Definitely."
But then Cecilia flinches, saying that she senses something, and then reaches for the corpse's bag. "Is that--?"
Tidus doesn't need to finish the question. A moment later, the Saint Guardian appears to *all* of them. Tidus widens his eyes, leaning back a step--for a Guardian of Filgaia, this guy sure has a Spiran vibe to him. Maybe that's why he's here in the first place?
The Guardian introduces himself. "Uhhhhhhh... howdy!" Tidus replies, flipping a hand up in nonplussed greeting. "I'm Tidus!"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"We've got ghosts and ghost monsters too," Marivel says. "But it's not exactly a glut like there is on Spira. You usually have to go to the far corners and deep reaches to see things like that. I blame the proximity to the Farplane from what I've observed." She shrugs both shoulders. "But that's all I can guess at."
She looks to Cecilia, then back down to the medium as she brings it out.
She looks down at the Medium. She quirks her head thoughtfully and then-- up at t he figure.
She looks at the Saint Guardian. She looks at Ione Paua. Truly, this is a momentous occassion.
Marivel waves a hand up and says, "Yo."
She keeps her hand raised for a moment before finally letting it drop.
She pauses and adds, "Well y'all know me by now." She doesn't seem too troubled, or too sussed.
She looks down at the fallen Baskar. "..." This won't be their fate, she's certain.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
A Guardian appears.
Venetia's thought was that they should search the body for identifying information. That's how she rolls. It's not the first time she's monkeyed with a skeleton.
"We have monsters and maniacs, of course, but no fiends in the way that you do," she answers Tidus. The question of becoming a fiend arises, but it lets her lapse into silence with concern.
"... don't be so /casual/ it's a bloody Guardian," Venetia then tells Marivel on entirely reflexive response.
She puts her palms together and bows her head to Ione Paua. Her eyes cut towards Lan for a moment as if hoping for further cues.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
That... hadn't actually occurred to her, the idea of Filgaians becoming Fiends. "Well... if it's caused by Spira, maybe? Ugh, talk about an even better reason to stay alive...!" Lan definitely doesn't want to become a fiend just because she died on the moon!
Cecilia reaches for the bag. For a split second Lan has no idea what she's doing, and by the time it occurs to her that maybe she ought to say something, the Medium - and the cattish deity - are out of the bag. Ione Paua materializes before them, and Lan freezes in place for a brief moment before straightening her back like she wants to impress a particularly important Figure of Authority.
"Hi," she greets it, and while her words are certainly casual, the light in her eyes is near rapturous. "I'm Lan - oh, but you probably knew that, huh?" Sorry Venetia, it's a bloody Guardian but Lan isn't dignified enough to be of much help.
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
The Guardian does not individually respond. It might not be able to. Cecilia dips her head quietly, hands folded.
This is a place of sorrow. This is a place of pain. But it is the role of the Saint to stand tall against sorrow. To bring comfort into places of pain.
The Saint Guardian's eyes sweep the room. He briefly lingers on Marivel. His face does not change.
To shine upon those trapped in the shadow of despair.
His eyes close, briefly, tipping his head in acknowledgement of an ancient sacrifice. Then, he turns those eyes on Cecilia.
I will give you what light I can spare. Do not fear to step into dark places, Shaman.
The apparition begins to fade, motes of light breaking off and beginning to form into a renewed Medium tablet.
It is your hope that the darkness fears most.
The apparition bursts apart, scattering into leylight, as the renewed Medium falls into Cecilia's hands. She looks at it with thoughtful eyes before reaching to open the large case on her waist that she keeps her Mediums in.
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"What, is there a rule against that?" Tidus, who had been equally casual as Marivel, murmurs to Venetia. Lan isn't exactly much better either, but she's at least a shaman like Cecilia.
As for the fiends, it might make sense if the Farplane being here rather than... literally anywhere else, might affect the presence of pyreflies and fiends and other death-y stuff. "I don't know if it's caused by SPIRA, it just happens here," Tidus points out to Lan. "Anyway, I'm not in a hurry to test that theory either way."
Ione Paua speaks. Tidus focuses back on him, then follows his stare when he speaks of despair. When he sees Marivel at the other end of it, he says, "..."
But that seems to be it. Once his piece is said, he turns back into a Medium and falls into Cecilia's hands. Tidus pauses a moment. Then he utters, "Wait, is that it? Huh! That was way easier than I thought it was gonna be."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia breathes out.
It felt like something sacred, but also, something fading. The medium tablet is resolved, drawn into the hands of Cecilia, and Venetia pushes back a stray lock of black hair as she says, "Fortunate, eh? I always wondered just how much of their... whatever you want to call it, was invested into those tablets. I suppose that this answers that question, to a certain extent."
"What did he mean about hope, do you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"..." Marivel glances to Venetia. "Ehh... I mean after a while, you just get kind of used to them, don't you? I mean, sure, they're gods, but they're also kind of--and I mean this with respect---" She fans her arms from side to side.
"/Almighty idiots/."
She lets her arms drop. "There are some things they just don't /get/. And that's fine, but I don't think it's right to venerate beings divorced from people that much." She shakes her head. "Though I suppose... I don't believe in venerating anyone or anything all that much."
She shakes her head to Tidus and adds, "The Guardians probably don't care. Disrespect? Sure, they might care about that, but they don't care about being worshipped. Pretty sure on that. I suspect they know how easily--" She trails off.
"Ah, nothing." She looks to Cecilia. "Darkness fears most, huh? Well I don't fear you, exactlty..."
She cracks a small smile. "You're not someone to fear, are you, Cecilia?"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
If a shaman greets a Guardian in this manner, surely it can't be wrong. Right?
(Nobody seems to know if Lan is good or bad at her job, possibly not even Lan.)
"If you look at a Medium like a key, but instead of to a house it's to... well..." Lan makes a sweeping, vague gesture. "A Guardian. Or a relationship with them. But it's probably different for someone who isn't a shaman, I guess." She also, for better or for worse, doesn't do much more than glance unhappily at Marivel. but then, she heard Marivel screaming at Kattelox. Maybe someone that unhappy just doesn't understand...?
Maybe it's just something too far removed.
But she's right about something, which makes Lan wonder a bit. "She's right. Would you worship the sun, or the sea? They just 'are'."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
"The Guardians aren't really like Aeons," Cecilia says. "Now that I've seen a Fayth I know that for certain. The Guardians are...Larger? Smaller? Different, anyway. They govern huge forces, but because of that, they have so much less to give anyone who would call upon them, and the connection is so much less personal."
She turns to Tidus with a little smile. "You should have seen the first one, though. 'You aren't strong enough, but you're all we have,' they said! Hmph." She pouts, finding a slot in her now quite heavy-looking case and latching it up. "Still poked Mother a good one, thank you very much."
She straightens up. She still looks tired, but perhaps a bit refreshed from securing another Medium. "It's not much," she says to Venetia. "Especially these Stone ones. It allows enough connection for a brief manifestation, and a short message. I suppose it sounds like platitudes, but...for the Guardians to think on a scale to even give such encouragement is an effort for them."
Marivel outburst...actually receives a giggle, of all things. "I think that's quite succinct, yes. I honor them, but, well. I've worked for them, too. This isn't even close to the dankest place I've ended up following a whisper..."
She seems pleased, and nods. "Not for you, Marivel. You, this Medium and I will be happy to protect."
<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.
"Different, definitely," Tidus agrees with Cecilia, now that he's also seen both a fayth and a Guardian. He snorts and laughs at her anecdote, though. "Seriously? That's so rude! I sure hope you've showed them since then." Then Marivel calls the Guardians almighty idiots, and Tidus has to laugh again. "Hey, I'm sure she won't have any reason to scare you with her hope!"
Venetia meanwhile wonders what the Saint Guardian meant by that. "He was probably just being metaphorical or whatever," he says. He pauses, then looks back ati Cecilia. "So... now what? Do we just get out of here now?" Well, 'we'--he fully intends on heading back in for Yuna and his fellow guardians. Still.
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia, thinking about hope, gazes upon the dead man, even in the aftermath. "We ought to do something about them," she muses. "Armitage, do you..."
She gestures vaguely, which may be an inappropriate inadvertent invitation. She does look to Cecilia, and asks her, "Do you have any plans to buck them up? On the greater level, I mean to say. Or is there nothing to be done for it other than restoring Filgaia?"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
'You aren't strong enough, but you're all we have, they said.'
Lan looks away. She still remembers the bitter taste of being told she wasn't strong enough to save the world. Of not being worthy. She's changed a lot since then.
There's nothing else she can do for the dead man. His bag is certainly lighter now that the Medium has been removed from it. Lan sets about disentangling it from his bones, and picks up the few pieces of jewelry she can find as well, tucking them away safely inside of it. "I'll take it back to Baskar Colony when we get back to Filgaia. If his family's there..." She tucks it into her own mostly-empty backpack for safekeeping.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel cracks a small smile back at Cecilia. "Heh, well... Likewise, Cecilia. That is indeed the least I can do." What was the most? Well, she doesn't want to get into that.
She glances towards Lan Lilac. She gives her a strange quirk of her head. Maybe someone 'that unhappy' indeed doesn't understand because she seems flummoxed by the look. Particularly when she ends up agreeing with her.
"I suppose I am a bit of a jaded person, though," she offers as way of concession.
She gives Venetia a similarly strange look. And then she says, "Oh--well, Filgaia has been in a rough state for hundreds of years. It is likely a work that will last far beyond a single generation. Barring some kind of miracle solutioo. If we can heal it just enough, though, then Filgaia can do most of the work."
She nods once to Lan and adds, "It's important to respect the fallen. If only for the living."
<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.
Cecilia knows she has proven herself, by now. That, at least, is a thorn she has pulled from her side. "Yes, I think he was simply being encouraging. The Guardians - particularly through these Stone Mediums, which hold little of their essence - tend to be...focused on their nature. And hope is an important concept to the Guardians. Hope, Love, and Courage are their leaders, after all."
Her little lecture done, she pats down her traveling vest while Lan works on honoring the dead. "Yes, we can go," she says to Tidus. She waits for Lan though, nodding quietly at her work. "It's all we can really do," she says.
She sets off, back the way they came. "Restoring Filgaia is really the only thing that could bring them back to their old power," she says to Venetia. "But it's not like there's a little button off somewhere that does that."
SOMEWHERE:
Leehalt Alcaste stands in a dark room, staring at the inactive button that does that.
HERE AGAIN: "As Marivel says...if we can get Filgaia to the point it can heal itself, and stop all these people who insist on trying to kill the planet for some damnable reason, I'll have pretty much done my part."