2022-07-01: What's Another Monster on the Team?
- Log: 2022-07-01: What's Another Monster On The Team?
- Cast: Marivel Armitage, Ruth Pauling, Eleanor Klein, Venetia Vuong
- Where: Valeria Chateau - Second Floor
- Date: July 01, 2022
- Summary: After receiving an invitation via an empathite radio at Quartly to ARMS, Ruth wishes to give her answer. Marivel stands ready to receive that answer at Valeria Chateau, with Eleanor and Venetia in the wings. Does a monster of past deed and current state of being have a place in the mission of ARMS? Do they even want to? It's about time for her to say what it is she deserves.
======================<* Valeria Chateau - Second Floor *>====================== The second floor above ground level in Valeria Chateau houses the primary meeting room, often used for ARMS briefings, as well as the personal quarters and offices of the Lord and Lady of the house, the Valeria siblings. Both contain a great many books, though the more personal texts are kept in locked cabinets. The briefing room itself contains a large table of fine wood, with seating all around. Irving's office and quarters see more use, as he regularly performs work or calls members into the office section for various business matters. Many books are available on the nature of peace, the questions of civics, and how best to order government, with a focus in international relations. Clearly, the Valeria household is high-minded and seeks the best for all. BGM: Wild Arms 2 - Valeria Chateau
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Marivel Armitage recently got a message from Ruth Pauling indicating that she had made a call about whether she wished to join the organization or not. Perhaps as a gesture of good faith, Marivel invited Ruth to the Valeria Chateau's second floor (and has warned the staff). Luckily for Ruth, weird monster people is something the Valeria Household is quite adept at managing. The housekeepers treat Ruth as an honored guest regardless of the form she takes or how brusque she behaves.
Linda and Momo, the local nurse staff, will pleasantly greet Ruth and escort her to the second floor music room.
She can hear the piano playing through the double doors leading inside.
"Please," Momo says. "Step inside when you are ready." The two then step away to return to their duties, not even checking to make sure Ruth actually keeps her meeting--
--as Ruth enters she'll find that Marivel is working on composing something as she has a pencil in her hands and a book of sheet music in front of her that she keeps erasing notes and adding new ones.
"Ah Ruth Pauling," Marivel says. "Just give me a moment..." She plays a few notes, seemingly a minor arrangement, before adjusting the notation in the book again.
She spins around on her stool and adds, "Do you care for music, Ruth?"
Eleanor, being one of the higher ups in ARMS has also been invited to drop in because Marivel wants a second opinion here. She is partial towards monster ladies so it's for the benefit of everyone.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
The call comes shortly after Odessa's plot to force Sylvaland to surrender got, um, struck down by the heavens. There was a bit of talking with a fussy, worried Boudicca who had her hands full with the displaced, a bit of brooding around the adequate conjured rain (as you do).
The empathite is utilized again with the words that she has made her call. Some time later...
Boudicca will not be made to fuss or worry about ambient Malevolence being released into the Chateau at present, for their visitor has kept themselves contained in the shell of their former self. She remains reserved in the face of accommodating housekeepers, but there's a smile there.
It might be forced. She's dressed in her usual heavy layers, the hood of her shawl up. The rifle that she used to carve a bloody passage into history is on her person as it always is, wrapped up on her back.
Her gaze raises before the room and its features, and one of her gloved hands squeezes at the music as Marivel plays those notes. The question that follows is, in the following moments after the gesture, a poignant one to ask.
"...Yes." The once clenched hand - her right - opens and rests up against her chest, the Granasian rosary wrapped around an otherwise exposed right forearm prominently displayed. "Though I only have one good ear to listen to it now."
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor was invited, but she still checks in with Linda and Momo as she steps out of her room again to wander out into the hallway. She notices them, and inquires with them what they've seen. What she learns is... Important.
So it is that a young elf steps into the room after Ruth with a smile. "Hello, Ruth. I'm glad you could come."
She even sounds like she means it!
"Working on a piano composition, hm...? Have I mentioned that my brother plays?" she wonders. Because she absolutely is not going to miss a chance to show off her family a little given the chance.
She is no longer bandaged; instead she steps the rest of the way into the room so as not to block the doorway, "I think music can bring us all together, myself."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Venetia had been present, as per invitation. As she did not know when Ruth would arrive, since it's a remote chateau and you can't expect someone to be super-punctual at a place described as a 'chateau' which is not a place that has 'regular, and well managed, train service,' she has been occupying herself. Mostly with a huge piece of scratch paper and several battered-looking books, which she brought with her.
When Ruth arrives, she pauses. "Good afternoon," she says to Ruth, whether or not it's accurate, and carefully parks a stylus she had been using to etch something onto the black space before her, having slowly revealed some kind of diagram -- or more accurately, made one.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Piano is a good foundational instrument. Considering that music is mathematical in nature, if you learn one instrument well you actually make progress in other instruments. You can only learn so much that way but all music is connected." Marivel says, cracking a smile. "Glad to hear your brother's a budding musician as well. I'll have to check him out should he ever perform for others."
I think music can bring us all together
"Mm. I'm inclined to agree." She crosses one leg over the other as she focuses on Ruth, however, eyes slanting on Ruth's chosen instrument.
"Well don't let it trouble you too much. Musicians often have trouble maintaining their hearing. Nevertheless, even a deaf woman can maintain a connection to the art if they endeavour to."
"A love for music is one of the great gifts I've found in my life." She smiles at enetia but doesn't say anything to her just yet.
"I've heard you made a decision. How can we help?"
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Eleanor's genuine glad-ness for Ruth's presence doesn't elicit much of a reaction looking from the outside in. Not even a tinge of fear or anger in there to catch the scent of, something to be taken at face value.
Venetia's greeting is met with the same silent acknowledgement. It's been the same almost everywhere this visit. Cordial, accepting. A kindness more than patience for her approach, given... everything, the last year and some change.
Her eyes do close at mention about music bringing everyone together, only opening faintly at the turn of her head to peek at the diagram just for the interesting shapes rather than a greater intellectual clarity of what it is.
'I've heard you made a decision. How can we help?'
"I have." In Ruth's other hand, her left... there's the glow of empathite. She's brought it with her. Her right hand goes up to where her left shoulder rests underneath all the layers of cloth, as of the weight of the question were physical enough to flare up the chronic pain.
"What's another monster... you said." Ruth speaks in a measured voice. The smile hasn't changed much, so that may be evidence that it is something more like a stuck zipper on her very soul. (It's fine! Really.) K.K.'s words to her echo as they continue to, making crystal clear her inadequacy in her declarations. Just as they did about the nature of time against perceptions... and natures.
"Every waking moment, I am surrounded by fear, anguish, and pain. Where I am not... there's nothing. They call to me." There's a detachment in her voice, as if the detachment were a dam against something that shouldn't be let out. "These last years, I have chased them without end. Found myself with the strength of the monster I once was, with all they had that had any value to the world around them."
What she did in the Celesti Civil War is well-known. Anyone would have the right to call her a monster long before she became exposed to - and transformed by - the Malevolence that was introduced to Filgaia years ago. She approaches the table nearest to Marivel as she holds the earpiece taut.
"More fear. More anguish. More pain... all she was ever capable of inflicting." The smile starts looking a bit more like a grin, head bowed down a bit more. "And yet... someone saw something more in someone like that, and I..."
"...feel that weight in my chest." Her gaze starts to level, somewhat, to Marivel. "I treasure it. It feels." Ruth takes in that breath. "It keeps me going. Even the days with more fear, more anguish, more pain than I first started... it keeps me living, through the nightmares, into the next day."
"If you are asking for a monster to fight your war," she takes a few bolder steps forward, reaching out with her left hand to the table...
And there's the 'clink' sound of the empathite radio, gloved hand smothering it. "You will not have a heartless monster."
...
She does not lift her hand from it. The person who first asked what she is intending to answer is not here.
She is not done answering.
"You will have someone who deserves that fear. That anguish. That pain." She laughs that bitter laugh. "Why anything else," her left hand clenches a little tighter over the radio, "after plunging Zoara into chaos..."
She exhales, and the fingers unclench and spread, though they do not leave hold of the radio.
"Twice. As Death's Door," she holds up her right hand. Motes of misty, clammy Malevolence leave her gloved hand in a measured, controlled amount before clenching to pull back in all but harmless trace amounts of it, "and as who I am now."
"It's... like I told Boudicca, in Sylvaland some days ago." The smile softens some, sobering up. "The only way I can redeem a monster is the same way the monster damned themselves. To not be..."
She trails off with a notable pause. "Would be to allow Brionac to forget that fear. That anguish. That pain. That... we all lived through. That we all caused." A lump is swallowed. There's a shakiness in her posture. What little flesh is exposed seems a bit paler, in the moment... but it holds.
Embrace being a monster, or be otherwise with all your conviction. Neither will damn you, K.K. has said.
"You will have me. Should the heavens weep for it, my shoulder waits for them to cry."
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor looks at Venetia's diagram. Then back to Marivel. "I'll nudge him to," she suggests amiably to Marivel.
But she does believe what she says. And then, well... she looks at Ruth. How can they help? It is a question Eleanor echoes wordlessly. Her genuineness is plain; she really is happy to see Ruth, and happy to see her here. She does not think her as heartless as she could sometimes be described. But Ruth... hmm. Her smile.
Fear, anguish, and pain. Admittedly, Eleanor has not entirely grappled with Ruth's nature--but, it would seem... that Ruth has. She listens, and listens, Ruth mentions that weight, and Eleanor smiles faintl as she does. Ruth says that they will nothave a heartless monster.
"In the same way that the monster damned their own self..." Eleanor repeats this weightily.
"...It's important to remember," Eleanor says. "Not to forget that pain. It's true. You have caused hardship, and chaos. ...But..."
"It wasn't a heartless monster who moved to protect Xiu, that day. And it's not a heartless monster who stands here, before us."
"...I think that says enough. Don't you, Marivel?"
She smiles at Ruth. But she isn't the one who will say what needs to be said yet.
"The heavens will have wept a great deal, before all is said and done, I think. ...We'll all be there, for that reason."
<Pose Tracker> Venetia Vuong has posed.
Eleanor would have likely heard, during the wait, what Venetia is doing - she is making a schematic (obviously to much larger scale) of a Crest Graph along the lines of her school. This close it is easier to see the marks of Fray, Geo, Wing and Muse; they seem to be the building blocks of all these fancy shapes.
Venetia sets her stylus aside and adjusts her mask slightly, placing a ribbon in the book she had been reviewing as Marivel greets Ruth more fully. She thus has the capacity to place her full attention upon Ruth as she speaks -- and raises her hand to her chest.
Venetia listens, and perhaps she wonders.
Had I walked different roads, would I be much different? The details perhaps, but the turns of things?
Would I have met someone like Eleanor, like Marivel?
Who decides such things? Why do such tragedies as civil wars and the thousand other chaotic horrors of the planet come about? Are they the lot of humanity? The work of the wicked?
Why not all of them?
Venetia tilts her head forwards. "The past is another country," she says. "If Armitage trusts you, then too do I. I hope you'll see a better world with us, however we may get there."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
It's important, Marivel thinks, to recognize that just because something is an aesthetic for you it isn't neccessarily the same for others. Marivel and K.K have a few things here and there in common too but she doesn't have any reason to reflect on that right now.
Marivel doesn't give two licks about the crimes of children, of a soldier. Soldiers are forged into what they are, they aren't born that way. A few errant pieces this way and that and Ruth might very well have been seen as a Hero. She notices the grin. She is offering to be a monster.
"Of course," She says. "Monstrousness comes from the heart. And everything has a heart. Even a rock has a soul if you know how to look for it and squeeze."
"My people used to be monsters," Marivel says. "Even during my childhood, humans were all too eager to 'other' us and blame us for their ills though if I'm being honest I've found humans to be much more adept at being monstrous than any of my people. Still, the truth is we are 'other' than human. We do not even orginate from these dimensional coordinates. So it is not that their monster-seeking eyes saw imperfectly, simply they needed to accept that 'Other' didn't mean 'Other'."
She leans against the piano. "Personality, the core, strangeness--it all is ultimately extrapolations of a very common core of desire."
Her eyes slant towards the empathite radio. "If you have a heart we can accept you regardless of the aesthetics. I don't care if you are 'Malevolent' so long as it doesn't disrupt team cohesion. Including from the Seraphim on staff. Malevolence isn't simply aesthetic for them, after all, it's dangerous. It can burn out everything they are. If that happens to either Boudicca, Clarine, or Nimue I will devour you, Ruth. I'll be sad about it, but my stomach will appreciate the meal."
It's not a threat. It's a promise. Marivel's bond with the Seraphim isn't something she's willing to risk.
"If you feel yourself losing grasp on the Malevolence, contact me and I will put you into an extradimensional space until we can deal with the matter. If I am not available, I am counting on you to do what is neccessary to put yourself somewhere safe. These 'rules' such as they are go for me and Ashley as much as they go for you, so please--do not consider it a special condition so much as part of the regulations required to keep such a disparate force safe from one another. If you wish to be 'purified', well, at least this will be a good location for that but I will not mandate it."
She looks to Eleanor as she provides her own two cents. She smiles faintly because Eleanor is just that way. Marivel has to be the hardass. That's fine.
"But other than that you can stay in the Chateau if you'd like, we are willing to help you with your personal endeavours so long they are reasonable, yadda yadda..." She gestures around with her hand.
But Ruth still has answers. Marivel thinks of Catenna who no doubt would be rather grouchy about this but humans have surprised her before. She might as well keep planning on humanity surprising her. She reaches out when Ruth shows her control of Malevolence and then pulls it back to show it. "The battles may be hard," Marivel lowers her hand. "It might be hard emotionally. But we are here for one another, Ruth. I expect you to take advantage of that. It seems you've already spoken to Boudicca, Ida, others. Excellent."
She turns to face the piano and pries free a key, revealing a hidden key taped under the digit only to replace the latter and offer the key to Ruth.
"Here you go." She says. "Oh one more thing, if Kanon tries to kill you I'd take it as a personal favor if you don't harm her permanently. It takes a lot of work upkeeping her gear and she's at that troublesome age."
She rubs at her neck awkwardly when Venetia says she trusts her faith. "Now hold on, don't pin it all on me. Y'all can think for yourselves."
She can't quite hide the blush from Ruth. This too is a kind of monstrous nature.
She clears her throat. "Anyway I'd rather not bring it up again, I don't like talking like this to wounded people. It makes me feel like a heel, so let that count for it all and let us proceed as friends. I take it very seriously, I'm sure you know that by now, so there's no need to belabor the point." She offers her hand--
--but her fingers are spread so it's really more akin to a claw. "Welcome to ARMS."
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ragnell, a time ago, pointed out in her mocking tone how having a heart was part of having the capacity to be a monster at all - a point Marivel echoes, in her own way, as she speaks of her own people being monsters. Talk about being 'othered.'
Ruth's right hand betrays her as she finds herself pulling her hood down. She is (was) an elf, with the distinctive pointed ears. Someone whom Filgaia culturally believed to be a blessing to have born into one's family. Eye contact is fleeting at best even on the best of days, as Marivel's slant towards the empathite radio is an unspoken invitation for her to look the other way.
She saw what it nearly did to Yvain, when she first appeared to the greater Drifter community after having a three year head start in making a right mess of things in Zoara (again).
Eleanor impresses how important it is to not forget that pain, and there's a brief moment where eyes nearly meet as Eleanor echoes how it wasn't a heartless monster that moved to protect Xiumei - nor one who stands before them.
A momentary distraction from the emphasis about how much of a threat her very being is to multiple people by existing. The method in which Marivel promises to respond to what would happen should the Seraphim be utterly consumed by the impurity that makes up who she is.
There is no pleading, no bargaining, in this sliding scale of grief. There is a nod. She sloshed her heart around in a cracked, leaky glass rather than pour it out. (Pouring it out would be counterproductive, in the moment, and then it'd be hell to get it out of the carpet.)
A key is offered. Ruth transposes the empathite to her right hand as she reaches out with her left to take the key. There is a care taken - one that seems wholly unnecessary on her part! - to try and not meet the hands by touch as she claims it. (Actual harm by having them touch seems impossible by all logical measures.)
"Hm." She thinks aloud about a 'Kanon.' "I see." There's that smile again. Don't harm her permanently. Would she be brought low by fear of presence? This thought alone is proof Ruth has not met her.
The way Ruth's eyes travel through this, she can take better look at the mark of Muse (of which she is most familiar with) that draws her eyes. The past is another country, with the hope to see a better world with them - however they may get there. She can't help but think of the Rose Queen in that moment, and the greater world she envisioned as fingers tense again... but her colors imperceptibly shift back to the 'correct' hues for her former self between her hair, skin tone, and eyes, as she holds the key close.
'Let us proceed as friends.' Her mind tries to whisper and gnaw in other, darker places in the complete absence of those feelings in the world around her. It is when Marivel extends the hand that something yanks her back to the external world to hold the buzzing in her mind at bay.
Her hand.
Ruth's hands are both gloved, and yet to look at them invites revulsion. She has loudly considered them the most monstrous things about her, in spite of their completely normal appearance even as her true self (barring coloration and minor adjustments for proportion).
'Welcome to ARMS.'
Two seconds later, Ruth closes her eyes and extends the appropriate hand. These are hands that have only ever harmed and drawn blood. It is a fear, anguish, and pain she lives with by choice in circumstances where countless others like her don't have the choice to escape from even if they might have the desire and willingness to be free of it.
She takes that hand. Her grip is not crushing.
"You will have my shoulder, too," the same she has offered the heavens countless times.