2021-06-22: A Little Gesture (Peroration)
- Log: A Little Gesture (Peroration)
- Cast: Seraph Boudicca, Hilde
- Where: Mount Gagazet
- Date: 2021-06-22
- Summary: Boudicca lays flowers for the dead, and she and Hilde share the pain they feel over so many bodies.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Their spirits are Sent. Their bodies are kept.
And now...
This far from home, the warriors of Hyland and Rolance don't have many graces of their cultures, few of their death-rituals observed. But there is one sparse thing which is attended to, with each of these bodies, hands folded over themselves and eyes gently closed.
A wildflower upon each corpse, from the steep slopes of Gagazet.
It's Boudicca's work, but not Boudicca's idea, though she hasn't said just who sent her to step amongst the bodies and deliver them their flowers. And it is only when every body is adorned that she steps back, bowing her head in silent contemplation.
"... would that this brings you some peace," she says, though they've not the ear to listen.
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
They may not have the ear to listen... but there is someone here who does.
"I am certain that they would appreciate the gesture." Hilde says as she steps into view. She looks... tired, but it is perhaps to be expected after everything has happened. Still, there is a small smile on her face. She looks over the fallen for a moment before looking back to Boudicca, resting a hand over her heart.
"I must admit I did not expect to see you here, Lady Boudicca, but... you have my gratitude. It eases my heart to see another provide them such kindness." She says. "Thank you."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Of course Boudicca is here. She's a spirit amongst the dead.
A spirit who turns to face Hilde, at her entrance, face drawn in concern; she can see her weariness, and expected or not, still it worries her. She nods, with a small smile, as Hilde speaks to their appreciation and her own gratitude.
"It is well I could assist," she says, smile fading in favour of a more solemn bow of her head. "Though... truly, Hilde, I am sorry for the loss you have borne here." A hand gesturing out, she takes a step away from the ever-resting dead, as if to guide Hilde to less horrifying places. (Could there be such a place here, now? A question for philosophers.)
"Are you..." Here she pauses, unsure, before she forges on: "Are you managing, given all this?" Not all right, never all right, Boudicca heard her screaming.
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde returns that bow of her head with one of her own. She pauses for a moment, quiet, as Boudicca apologizes for the loss.
"...Thank you." She replies, eventually. When Boudicca extends a hand she does not follow right away, instead lowering her head for a moment with her eyes shut, whispering a silent prayer for the fallen. She raises her head once more, then, and follows - allowing Boudicca to lead her away.
The question, though - that brings more silence as Hilde considers her answer.
"...I am... not quite sure." She admits, after a moment. "Their loss, Rolance's betrayal... it is as if my heart has been torn from my chest."
She shakes her head.
"I knew tensions were... high. I had my misgivings about cooperating with... that man. But... I did not anticipate this. And because of that, so many had to die for the ambitions of a madman. I feel as if I have failed them." She admits. "I feel... frustrated, and helpless, at the same time."
...And yet, a part of her feels vindicated for mistrusting Heldalf. And shame, for feeling that vindication. She doesn't admit to that part.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
There is an overlook; Boudicca came here herself, when she was overwhelmed by it all. Gagazet stretches out, the holy descent, snow dusting its jagged edges.
There are, at least, no corpses down there, or at least none for the eyes to see.
The breeze stirs along that outlook as she listens; the world is breathing, too.
"This is not a thing which... could have been anticipated, I think," Boudicca says, once Hilde quiets. Her voice is quiet, too. "No good woman could have estimated the brutality which was visited upon your people today. I... I, too, thought the conflict was ended." Many times in the hours since she has asked herself WHY Heldalf would try to frame Hyland when they were finally working together; she does not ask Hilde, now.
She isn't looking to upset her, after all.
"I know we have not always... worked to the same ends," Boudicca says, delicately. "But, I have never wished to see you suffer. This -- this should not have happened." Not here, in Spira; not to these people, who trusted the peace. Boudicca does not say, as much, that she shares the feelings Hilde expresses; still they are written in her tone, the way her eyes shut tightly for a fortress of a moment. "It is... a great loss."
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde follows Boudicca up to that overlook. She looks upon it all, the mountain and its valleys. Nature at its purest and most unforgiving, and yet beautiful at the same time. She's quiet for a moment, taking it all in, then looks to Boudicca as she speaks.
"...I know." She admits. "I know, and yet, I still cannot shake that feeling..."
She shakes her head.
Boudicca says she never wished to see her suffer. Hilde nods.
"...I feel the same. I have not held any animosity for you, nor any who fought on Spira's behalf." She says... and then, after a moment, nods.
"...I agree. This should not have happened. They did not deserve this. The Ronso did not deserve this. Such tragedy... should not be borne by any." She replies. She has not forgotten that the Ronso had also suffered, in addition to her own people - from both Seymour and Heldalf.
She goes quiet for a moment, staring down into the valleys of the mountain, before turning to look toward Boudicca herself.
"...And how fare you, Lady Boudicca?" She asks.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca dips her head, as Hilde expresses her lingering feelings, and doesn't encourage the shaking. Some things, perhaps, shouldn't be simply shaken off.
She listens, too, as Hilde expresses her similar feelings on their battles... and this battle. "The Ronso called for our aid," Boudicca says, still quiet. "As a people, I have always found they call for little." It's a statement which feels like it ought to have something supporting it, but she falls to silence, instead.
But... how is she faring?
Boudicca takes a breath; the breeze stirs. "When one requests aid, it ought be rewarded. Asking for help is a noble task, not always so easily undertaken. I --" her voice breaks, just a little, just a hint of the quake underneath. "I truly wish -- we had seized a more favourable result."
And what of the Summoner, Yuna, who climbed this mountain? Boudicca has to wonder; has to worry.
"I do not understand," Boudicca says, smaller than the eternal spirit she is, "what drives humanity to war with itself, again and again." By her sides, her hands clench into themselves. "This senseless suffering..."
Boudicca, it seems, isn't faring well at all.
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde waits, letting Boudicca get out her feelings on the matter - taking in the way she expresses them. The way her voice breaks, just a little.
"...Yes. I... I wish the same." Hilde agrees with a nod, and goes quiet once more, as Boudicca wonders about war. The way she speaks, the way her hands clench... Hilde feels a pang of sorrow in her heart for Boudicca.
"...I... I am sorry. I wish I had an answer for you - some manner of enlightenment, some way I could reassure you." Hilde replies, resting a hand over her heart. She stares downward, her eyes trained on some point in the valley below. "...But, even we do not always know. There are as many reasons as there are people. Some noble, some less so... But whatever the reason, there will always be hurting. It is... an ugly thing. I am sorry you have to be witness to it, to suffer it."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
People, it seems, are like stars in the sky, and just as varied.
"I... I am sorry, as well," Boudicca says, hand lifting to curl at her chestplate. "I cannot imagine how difficult it is to live this with the one life you are given. To have that hope dashed... must be a terrible thing." Not more or less terrible than seeing it over and over, perhaps, insomuch as it is a different shade of pain. Eye-level.
Her head bows; her breath ragged, but still taken.
"But..." A moment's pause, as Boudicca steadies her voice, again, looking to Hilde with grey-green eyes washed out by their sorrows. "I pray the actions of one awful man shall not tarnish the hopes of so many others. That the Ronso asked for help, that Hyland marched with Rolance -- these are all men who thought the best of the world, who saw a better future joined together. Even as you, and Leo, and the other Guardsmen refused to honour such a dishonourable thing..."
Boudicca gestures, out towards the expanse of Gagazet. "'Tis not only ugliness to this world, Hilde, though it may seem so." Humanity can't simply be measured by its sins; this remains her belief, in that stolid encouragement.
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Hilde nods quietly.
"...It is. I chose this path for myself, knowing what may lie on it... but even so." She murmurs... and then pauses, as Boudicca speaks that 'but'. She looks up from that point in the valley, meeting Boudicca's eyes. She doesn't interrupt her, she just listens... and in the end, she smiles.
"...You are... right, of course." She agrees with a nod. "Yes. What you say is true. Georg Heldalf's actions do not - can not - change that fact."
She looks out over Gagazet once more, then as Boudicca gestures toward it.
'Tis not only ugliness to this world...
"I would... like to think that, as well." She says.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca dips her head in a nod, as Hilde speaks of the path she's chosen. There is a difference, she supposes, between the knowing and the knowing.
How could Boudicca know a man such as Heldalf? His cruelty staggers her, even looking back. No wonder Harmaus greeted him as a friend.
But there's a particular shade to Hilde's words which Boudicca picks up on in the end, stoic expression softening. "It is... all right, if it difficult to think, right now," she offers, gently. "Perhaps tomorrow, such things will fit better." Grief is not so easily put aside, she thinks.
With caution, her hand reaches out, to clap to Hilde's own armoured shoulder. "Yes," Boudicca repeats, looking out at the mountain slopes. "Perhaps tomorrow."
<Pose Tracker> Hilde has posed.
Boudicca reaches out to her, a hand resting on her shoulder. Hilde notices and accepts it, letting it remain there as she follows Boudicca's gaze out onto the mountain slopes.
"...Indeed." Hilde agrees quietly after a moment with a nod. Perhaps tomorrow. A little bit, one step at a time.