2021-12-05: Boats on the Water
- Log: Boats on the Water
- Cast: Seraph Boudicca, Avril Vent Fleur
- Where: Sylvaland City - Kalkuricco Borough
- Date: December 5, 2021
- Summary: Avril and Boudicca have a rare chance to speak to one another during a peaceful moment. Avril asks after the meaning of the Black Dragon.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Tamny, look! Look! The boats are floating!"
"Where'd the breeze come from..? It wasn't windy a second ago... whoa, they even got around those rocks!"
"Come on, come on!"
A trio of children chase boats made of folded paper down a stream, galumphing along the banks and laughing gaily. It wasn't a breezy day, up 'til now, and in most of the city it still isn't -- but a pleasant seasonal breeze blows through the connection between two suburbs, matching the glow of the sun up above.
It's a nice welcome to one of the older areas of Sylvaland, more comfortable, in many meanings of the word. There's a pleasant little cafe nearby, set out to enjoy the atmosphere, and it stands opposite a storefront which seems to trade entirely in quills and pens and ink.
The source of that breeze is presently perched on the railing of a bridge overlooking that stream, smilingly heedless to how precarious it is to let her feet dangle towards the water. Few here can see the woman in full plate, all adorned in silk, with her green-orange cloak and her horned helm; perhaps that's why she can stand out so effortlessly while she fits into the scenery.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
If there is one thing that can be said of the clothing of the Zeboim Era -- or more accurately, of the ancient Veruni civilization -- it is that it was built to last. The dress Avril has favored most often has seen 5,000-odd years come and go, to say nothing of the slings and arrows of her most outrageous fortune, and it still remains as pristine as the day it was created. It remains her most favored of clothing choices.
And this still isn't what she is wearing today. Freshly returned from travel to Lunar and a particular ruin on its surface, she has traded her usual clothing for a light cotton dress in white trimmed with pale blue. Her long silver hair has bound up into a large loose bun at the nape of her neck. At a glance, she would pass for any other woman on the streets of this district.
A light breeze sees to steal a single lock loose. Avril turns, and in so doing, catches sight of a familiar figure atop the bridge.
It's only here that she takes into account the shouts of the children and notices the paper boats on the water, and smiles.
"Boudicca," she says, once she makes her approach. "It has been some time, has it not? Have you been well?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca's hair is brown closer to black -- but it, too, is unreasonably long, in twin braids (perhaps more akin to Rebecca's style), all joined by a single overlong ribbon. In this they are of accord, even as her breeze sweeps a lock of Avril's hair off its seating.
She looks like any other woman, but Boudicca has always had trouble focusing on the plain physical features of her companions; she is a creature who lives in a world of impressions and connections, all stitched to a tapestry. With eyes so striking blue, and hair grey as clouds...
Avril Vent Fleur is a Girl from the Sky.
How could Boudicca not recognise someone like that?
"Hark, Avril!" Boudicca calls, smiling anew as she lifts a gauntlet to wave to her. "There have been travails, as ever there are -- but I am still well, regardless. How wonderful to see you," she says, and it's genuine, too. "How have you fared, of late..?"
The breeze still blows, even given her new distraction; Boudicca has always been adept at practical magic like this.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"That is wonderful to hear," Avril replies, clasping her hands before her. There have indeed been travails--
And so much more besides. It is sometimes startling for even Avril to consider that she is, now, officially with another -- for all that the two of them have decided to not make such common knowledge. There is already so much working against them, and they want to work the matter out on their own, between the two of them, without outside pressure.
One step at a time, she has reminded herself. The same way she proceeds towards her goal, and the same way she makes her way through the world. First basics and the rest shall follow.
"I have been well enough. There has been much to consider of late." Between her uncertain, perhaps over-long lifespan. Between her inescapable history. "...But, if we have met in this place, might I ask of you a question, Boudicca?"
"What is the significance of the 'black dragon'?" She speaks of the Black of Althena's blessed four, a topic about which she knows little.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca nods, with a cheerful hum of assent, as Avril asks if she can ask a question. She listens --
"Oh!" Her braids fly upwards, apropos of nothing, as her hand flies to her mouth. Shortly she flashes her palms, swaying precariously on her bridgeside perch. "I mean -- oh -- goodness, no, the question is fine, only... ah, it has been quite a while!"
A sudden updraft catches her before she can fall off onto the stream, and she floats to the wood of the bridge, setting down her greaves. Now standing, she reaches to her belt, and unclasps a brazier -- a torch, unlit, all grasped at the sides by raptorlike claws. This she holds up, to Avril, as she explains.
"The Four Dragons are divine protectors, tied to Althena -- White, Black, Blue, and Red, I do believe." Her voice takes on an apologetic tone, as she admits: "In truth, I know little of their details -- but a village near the mountains held the Black Dragon in particular esteem. They understood the Black Dragon as a distant guardian, untouched by the evils of the world, standing in constant vigilance."
She gestures, with her free hand, to the brazier. "One smith crafted a statue of the Black Dragon to express his devotion... this vessel I took, in desperation." Here, there is a beat of silence, a little shake of her head. "For all my fear, it shielded me from the Malevolence of men for hundreds of years... even now it has been destroyed, its remnants still light my path. So this I can tell you, Avril -- the people of Lunar believe in the Black Dragon, and the others. Or... at least," she adds, in caution, "some believe."
... a few hundred years isn't a terribly long time, but it's long to humans. Beliefs held centuries ago may not be as weighty, in the present day. This she thinks, but does not say.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
Almost out of reflex, Avril reaches for Boudicca as she almost seems to sway for a moment where she's perched. But, ah, there again the Seraph reminds Avril of her nature once again. Avril then turns to face her.
"Yes. Some of those I was with had reminded me of such. Now I am given to recall... are the four heroes not also aligned thus?" She knows of Mauri -- terribly so -- and also Leo. Red and White. There were two more.
But Boudicca, due to her circumstances, can tell her only little. Except, for one thing.
"Oh... I see. So you yourself owe the Black Dragon a debt of gratitude. It had protected you for so long..." She glances away, a strange smile on her lips. "I suppose I ought to explain. I found myself drawn to Lunar but only days ago, urged to explore a particular ruin. But I do not think it was memory that brought me there. I know not whether Lunar itself possesses anything akin to the 'Ley', but I can think of nothing else."
She pauses. "Or perhaps, I should say, 'I could not think of anything else'. Perhaps it was the Black Dragon who beckoned me, for within we found a great black stone statue of a dragon. I had been hoping to better understand what had brought me there, and perhaps, now I have."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"This is so," Boudicca confirms, when Avril asks of the Four Heroes. "Blue Master Lunn, Black Wizard Borgan, Red Priestess Mauri... and White Knight Leo." She frowns, glancing aside. "I... heartell Lunn is no longer amongst us. I know not what portents this may hold."
She sounds sad, to speak of his death, which is perhaps the best clue of all she knows little of him.
Still, when Avril comes to recognise her gratitude, Boudicca smiles. She tilts her head, as she considers what Avril speaks of, in the wake of it; a great stone statue..? "It is possible," Boudicca supposes, finally. "Those divine dragons still walk this earth -- though the last I met was a touch diminutive." Is calling Ruby a tiny dragon better or worse than calling her a weird cat..? It's fine, no one has to tell Ruby.
She pauses, for a moment, to place her brazier back in its holster; her hand clasps, to her chest. "In my homeland, we speak of the Earthpulse, the magical undercurrent of the planet from which Seraphim are come. This is much akin to your Ley, though... I know not if my kin have ever risen from it. Perhaps, were it not forgotten..."
Boudicca trails off, distance in those grey-green eyes, before she shakes her head and smiles. "Ah, it is a silly little thought... forgive me. I confess I am quite delighted to hear you finding commonality with the Black Dragon, Avril, for indeed, I am grateful. Though it not be memory, perhaps it can be, in years to come -- a memory now made." Do memories have to be of so long ago...? People can make new memories, too.
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"Lunn... and Borgan," Avril echoes, only to frown, as if in thought. "But is Lunn not--"
Yes. He is not.
"...I see," Avril breathes out. "And there is none to take his place." But three remain, and it is anyone's guess as to whether their current path may again bring them into conflict with Althena's faithful.
"So you think so. Perhaps they were calling, to any which might answer." Not a call to Avril, specifically, but one that might have been heard by any with the ears to hear. And her, with her peculiar spiritual sensitivity, had heard and had attended, as requested. "...Diminutive?" She tilts her head to one side as she considers this, thoughtfully. "...But even a dragon must be young at some point," is the conclusion she comes to. Perhaps even a divine dragon might be young--
Particularly if, like their chosen heroes, they might be slain. It is an unsettling thought, one she does not choose to voice to Boudicca, perhaps out of fear that it might even be a touch blasphemous to give it breath and air.
"'Earthpulse', then, if it was not the dragon calling to me. ...Do you think that they may have wished that statue to return to the people? Perhaps that was the reason for which we were called. Otherwise, it would have remained there still, I would think."
It is a strange -- if interesting -- thought to imagine Seraphim arising on Filgaia. What would they be like? Is it possible they would be shaped like...
And in this moment, Avril has her second potentially blasphemous thought of the day. A turtle, a bird, a tiger, a great lizard.
A strange expression again crosses her face and ever so slightly, Avril shakes her head as if to dislodge the idea. "Do you think so?" she says, instead, when Boudicca expresses such pleasure at the idea of her sharing something with the Black Dragon. "A new memory... Yes, I have thought as much, myself. If I were to never recall anything from my past, I would accept that, so long as I shed not a single one of the memories I have created. These have become my truest treasure." She pauses, then adds, smiling slightly, "And our bonds, as well. I am... happy to have met so many wonderful people."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"This is true," Boudicca concedes, to the idea of youthful dragons. "Those divine dragons are unlike the terminal forms of Seraphim beplagued by Malevolence. They live, grow, and love this world. And even the youthful amongst them is still true-hearted." Doesn't she mean 'are'? Well, be fair: Boudicca has only met one small dragon.
(Actually, she's the only divine dragon Boudicca has met, personally...)
Boudicca waits for her to finish her thought, with a threat of concern as that strange expression flashes over her face. Finally she nods, a hand curling at her chin. "I think it possible it sought your aid," she says, steady as stone. "Devotional items cry out for the devoted. Symbols may hold great meaning or none, all weighed by the viewer... and there are scarce few visitors to ruins, devoted or no. Who could such a statue inspire, left alone in such a place..?" Thoughtfully, she considers: "Or, perhaps, it called to you in recognition of someone worth protecting... I am not alone amongst Lunar's guardians in looking beyond our star to the wellbeing of others."
Does Avril need protecting? She is frightfully powerful -- Boudicca has even seen some of it. But...
Maybe everyone needs protecting, sometimes, even when they're strong.
Boudicca can't know the thoughts inside Avril's mind, of course -- the meaning of choosing that particular description. Instead, she smiles, and continues on. "You are wise," she nods, hands clasping together in front of her. "Memories are precious things... for they remind us why we have come together. With our bonds to each other, together they weave, creating a reason for our existence. I did not properly appreciate it, ere I left the mountain, but even then..."
She laughs, a shade embarrassed, cocking her hands to one side. "Ah... I mean to say I am glad we are in accord, Avril!" Still a little shy of those internal connections, she looks, now, to the southern bank, and that pleasant little cafe. "I wonder -- should you like to consume a luncheon before you set out anew? It is important to remember to eat. And I have been working on recognising the individual currencies of this world! I have the correct emblems for this city!" 'Emblems'...? Maybe she needs to work a little harder...
<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.
"I have heard that before," Avril remarks, frowning faintly. "Is that true? That afflicted Seraphim become dragons." She had not had the chance to see Yvain in the 'flesh', so to speak, in his afflicted state.
"Do you mean, the statue itself?" Avril asks, back on the topic of the piece they had found. "I had not thought of it in that way... In truth, it felt as if the mirror -- my mirror -- had similarly asked for me." Back in the mines of Mirapulse, as well as in the tableau that had followed, she had felt an overwhelming kinship with the mirror, as if it were some missing part of herself come back home. And once she had learned who she had been, it had been the mirror that she had even gone so far as to pay others to retrieve (steal) for her. It had been strange. It had been, again, like reclaiming a small part of herself.
Did it, too, feel like it had needed to protect her?
"...I had left it to the others," she confesses, then, a slight strange smile on her face. "Afterwards. I hope that was not a betrayal of the statue." Too large to carry around always. Too tied to Lunar to feel like she ought to bring it to Filgaia. "Perhaps... it may suit those it has found a home with best," she settles for, clasping her hands before herself once again.
"Thank you. It feels... important to me. Perhaps it is because I remember so little past a particular dividing line, but I often feel as if I ought collect as many memories as I am able. As if I were a photographer, taking snapshots and tucking them away in my books to review later. This world is..."
Terrible.
Ugly.
Wonderful.
Beautiful.
"I do not wish to forget anything, ever again."
And there is so much for her yet to learn, even should she never recall a single day from her past. About how her people live, dream, think -- about how to become the queen they deserve.
About how to once again become the Ice Queen and instead steer the Veruni people towards a brighter future. For now, it's an unattainable dream, but perhaps, someday...
Someday, and all the terrible wonder that will come with it.
She turns her head again towards Boudicca. "A luncheon? Yes, of course!" Avril answers, nodding. "As a matter of fact, I know of just the place." She pauses, regarding Boudicca, and even she has to struggle for a moment to keep a straight face. "Then I shall order for two, and let them wonder the reason why. Would that be acceptable?" And they wouldn't even complain if a few extra 'emblems' were left behind, she's certain.
And she points, then, right towards that same cafe.