2024-05-19: Functions of Narrative
- Log: 2024-05-19: Functions of Narrative
- Cast: Redi Hayworth, Kaguya, Seraph Boudicca, Yulie Ahtreide
- Where: Slayheim Saltlands
- Date: May 19, 2024
- Summary: After recovering the Golem Cassini, Kaguya, Boudicca, Redi, and Yulie have a conversation. They talk about dangers to Filgaia, about the Veruni, and the nature of spirits.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
Yesterday, Cassini was unearthed!
And today...
There is a laundry list of things to do before moving Cassini onward, so there is a camp near a port in Slayheim. Redi went ahead of Yulie, to hurry to help the Vanguard. But, she sent her a quick message yesterday:
>> I'm in Slayheim! Ferry should get you there in a flash. Got a bit beat up but I'm okay. Meet you there!
Then, eyebrow twitching as she weighs the new normal and her nerves, she adds:
>> <3
She is sitting near one of the Memory Spheres, leaning back on a chair near where Kaguya has set Cassini up. Redi has a white T-shirt on, instead of the usual white button-up (which is shredded) and is looking down at a set of scrap metal.
"So much for my bike," she says with a sigh. Then she has a long drink from her canteen.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya has seen to Cassini about as much as is possible, for the moment--setting it up near the port sets it up near the ocean, and so the Golem is passively basking in the Ley that is a little better than 'the rest of Slayheim'. The Golem is inert, but not asleep again; it's just resting.
And Kaguya...
"Wow," Kaguya says to Redi, as she walks up behind her. "That is a wrecked-ass bike."
"Sucks, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"It has undergone a great trial," an even, alto voice echoes, behind them, the sort of mystic tones one might encounter from a fae of the forest. There is something of artifice, to the words, though more carved from old oak than sleek metal. "Its form as warped as mine was, when I burned in the crucible."
It comes from a woman who is well over six feet tall, accounting for the horns on her helm and the heels on her metal boots, all dressed in full plate decorated with green-and-orange silks. Twin black braids fall down either side of her face, all the way to her shins, both tipped in green and with a green ribbon woven between them.
"If it hath not emerged from its chassis... I mourn to tell you it is passed. No existence could survive it."
She's quite grave.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Redi had gone on ahead. Yulie knows what that's like - sometimes, things just pop up you need to help with, and lending a hand to friends is important! She would've gone, but she was afraid her presence might end up drawing unwanted attention.
Shame, then, they ran into trouble anyway.
But she receives Redi's message - and obviously a bit of panic creeps when she reads that she got a bit beat up. She knows that if Redi's capable of sending her a message, then she's probably fine - especially with the way she recovers so swiftly. She said she's okay... but still!
>> Are you hurt? I'll be right there. Is everyone else okay?
And then, she lingers on that heart for entirely too long, and working up her own courage, adds in reply...
>> <3
It should be no surprise, then, that she makes her way to Slayheim as quickly as possible, taking the ferry and then making her way to the camp at a bit of a run.
"Redi! I'm so glad you're all right..." Yulie calls out as she approaches. She slows to a stop - her first instinct is to run up for a hug... but, she sees that Redi isn't alone and she isn't quite to the level of that sort of thing around others. So instead, she smooths out her skirt before offering Kaguya and Boudicca a polite bow of greeting.
"It's good to see you again, Miss Kaguya. And, um..." Yulie stares up at Boudicca. Up, because wow, she's so tall...! "I don't believe we've met?"
Her eyes track to the wreckage laying before Redi. She hesitates for just a second, at the way everyone seems to be lamenting it. It's... completely unrecognizable.
"Um... what is that?" She asks.
'Was' is probably the more correct question, at this point.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"Yeah, I mean... getting cut in half by a cyborg would do it. But still..." Redi sighs, scratching her cheek awkwardly as she looks at the bike's mangled remains. Then, she looks back at Kaguya.
She smiles, a little lopsidedly. Then she blinks -- startling a bit when a very tall woman, with a horned helmet, appears -- and her mouth hangs open for a second.
She has to work to translate Boudicca's words in her mind. "Y-Yeah... I don't think there's any coming back for it."
She looks up, as she sees Yulie coming -- in a bit of a run. She stands up and there's a wince when she does. There is a bandage on her upper right arm and the shoulder, just visible under the shirt. It has healed, thanks to her powers, but she can only do much.
"Yulie! Yeah, I'm okay. Should be back to one hundred and ten percent in a day or two!" She does a fist pump to show that she is back in tip-top shape.
Though, with her left hand.
Then, she looks down at the wreckage. She hesitates for a second, before her shoulders slump. "...R-Remember the new bike I bought while we were in Cerulean City? I, um, had to parry a cyborg with it."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya bows her head in a moment of silence for the bike, at Boudicca's grave ronouncement. "Sometimes... the end is the end."
Pause. "And not like, a regular cyborg. Whoever made Kanon is some kind of whacko. That's a technical term, by the way."
She doesn't seem startled by Boudicca despite being more than a foot shorter than she is. It's fine.
"Metal scrap's worth something?" A pause. She smiles back at Redi--and then looks between Yulie and Redi as the latter makes her approach. Hmmm...
"'Miss' Kaguya is so weird," Kaguya protests. "'Kaguya' is fine."
"...We could make you a new bike?" Kaguya offers. "I could put rockets on it."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I am the Seraph Boudicca," she tells Yulie, still quite grave, "Oracle of Moor Gault, Lunarian protector of Filgaia, a spirit of the breeze set to feed flame. Well met."
And, grey-green eyes casting back down to the wreckage, she tells Kaguya: "There is aught else we may do for this one."
Pause.
"Yet I am unaware of the technical definition of 'whacko.' Could you explain?"
Oh no.
The ancient spirit...
... the ancient spirit might be...
... a huge dork.
She pulls a brazier from her belt, -- a grasping claw, made of dark, melted metal, currently not holding any coals to create a torch. "When I burned, I took a piece of my Vessel to make a Tool I might bring with me to all dark places." And she definitely capitalises the Proper Noun. "So too might you forge your vehicle anew, meant it such to you."
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie smiles just a bit as Redi stands up and assures her that she's alright. ...Though it doesn't escape her that she's using her left hand instead. She can tell it's taking a bit of effort.
"That's good... But don't push yourself, alright? You'll heal faster if you're not putting yourself under strain..." Yulie urges. She's well aware that her healing can do nothing for Redi - but at least she can still give her good health, advice.
And then, Boudicca. Yulie wasn't expecting such a formal greeting And with such a grave tone... It takes her a second, but then she bows again, this time a bit more deeply.
"I'm Yulie Ahtreide - Paladienne. It's nice to meet you, Seraph Boudicca. I'm a friend of Redi's." Yulie greets. She straightens up, her attention turning back to the bike.
"Oh no... and it was such a pretty bike, too..." Yulie murmurs. She clasps her hands in front of her, whispering a silent prayer for the loss of Redi's bike.
But it was Kanon's doing, apparently - the same Kanon that had attacked them before.
"She's dangerous... I'm sorry. I should've been there..." She apologizes, looking away briefly. She pauses, just briefly, at Kaguya's protest. "Oh! Okay."
She nods. She can do that!
But as for the bike... Kaguya suggests making a new one, and Boudicca advises forging the bike anew.
"That would be a nice gesture..." She considers.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"I'll make sure I take it nice and slow," Redi says. She smiles at her, and if she looks brighter than she did before -- well, that's not a huge surprise, perhaps.
She looks at Yulie, then at Boudicca. There is a slight fluster. "Y-Yeah!" she says. "We're... we're, um, really good friends! Yeah. Uh--"
She shakes her head. Then, she shakes her head. Maybe she should stop while she is ahead.
Besides, they're all mourning -- and in two cases, praying -- over her bike.
"Yeah..." Redi sighs, as she looks down at the wreckage. She just bought it, too. "I'm not sure if I have the heart to sell it for scrap, though, Kaguya."
Redi looks at Yulie again. There is a moment's hesitation, then a glance at Kaguya. "I... was wondering," she admits. "I hadn't seen cybernetics like hers. It's..."
She looks back at Yulie, and her heart sinks a little to see her look away. "No, no, it's okay," she says. She steps a little closer to the Paladienne. "I went ahead, you know? And... the Veruni came, to get this new Golem tat Kaguya dug up. And Kanon was with them, too."
But, there is the question of making a new bike out of the old.
She looks at Boudicca, then she blinks once at her. She looks surprised for a moment. And a little confused, because she has to translate Boudicca in her head. "O-oh, um. I'd like that..."
She looks down at the bike. "It did get, er, wrecked for me and protected me. Though..."
She laughs a little. "Maybe not rockets. I don't think I'm a good enough cyclist to keep that under control."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya pauses, when Boudicca calls her bluff and asks the meaning of whacko. "That's, uh..."
"'Whacko' is the kind of person who shoves a sword and a rocket punch into what used to be a human arm," Kaguya settles on. "The cybernetics she has... there's no way she should be alive, let alone functional. They're beyond anything modern Filgaia should be capable of."
Pause.
Yulie does seeem to care about Redi. Quite a bit. Kaguya doesn't push it just yet. Instead, ,she says, "Well, that's fair. I wouldn't want to either."
"The Golem's safe," Kaguya explains, gesturing to Cassini in low-power mode. "And nobody died getting it that way. So I count this as a success."
Well, exceting the bike...
"Heheheh. No rockets, then." A pause. "But yeah, I can make you one, with some more parts. Consider it a 'thank you' for helping."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"It is good to meet you, Yulie," Boudicca inclines her head. "And it is so nice when girls are friends. Or, colloquially, 'pals'." D--does she know, or is she just --
No, she's just like this.
"Do you know this whackistic 'cyborg'?" She goes on to ask Yulie, when she seems to recognise Kanon. And of course she uses the proper form of whacko, because, as Kaguya has explained, it's a technical word.
She pauses, and at length, looks to Redi again. "... but in battling this Kanon, you revealed some unnerving capabilities, Redi. I regret it is my obligation to ask, for you do not seem a harmful creature. Can you explain?"
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
"Okay, good." Yulie replies with a nod and a smile, as Redi assures her that she'll take it slow. "I'll hold you to it!"
Redi tells Boudicca they're really good friends, and Boudicca... is it that obvious?? Wait, no - actually, she isn't sure...
Well, it's fine. Either way, she's taking it well... Yulie exhales.
And Redi assures her it's okay - she went ahead, after all. Yulie nods.
"Yes... you're right." She's still going to feel a bit bad about not being there. But that's just Yulie. "I'm glad you all made it out of that awful situation... And that you were able to retrieve the Golem, too."
As for the 'whackistic cyborg', Yulie looks to Boudicca. She frowns for a moment, consideringly.
"I wouldn't say I know her... we've never really spoken. But she has attacked us alongside the Veruni once before." Yulie explains. "We were lucky, that day. If Kaguya, Dean, and everyone hadn't shown up to help..."
She looks Kaguya's way briefly at that - and then, back to Redi, as Boudicca asks about what the abilities she displayed.
...So, things got so bad that she had to use her powers... Yulie can't answer the question for her, but she does close the distance between the two of them, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze for support.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"Mm-hm!" Redi says, cheerfully. Then she smiles -- and really, while she doesn't like it when Yulie feels upset or apologetic about that sort of thing...
It is a way that she shows she cares. She smiles at her for a second. Then, her expression turns more thoughtful, as Kaguya explains.'She shouldn't be alive.'
Redi looks down at that, when Kaguya says that. Her eyebrows knit for a second. "Something went wrong, at the end of the fight. It's like they were... hurting her," she says. "And she had to run. More than we actually beat her, I think."
She looks at Yulie, then she nods. "Yeah," she says. "They're not done. I knew that, but..."
It's different to be reminded.
She brightens, though, when Kaguya confirms she will make a new bike for her. She grins, then she nods. "That would be great! It does seem really handy. Especially for..."
Kaguya may understand the leap of faith she makes here. Yulie almost certainly will; Boudicca may not. "...Making deliveries fast!"
Boudicca, though, has a more serious question. Redi hesitates for a moment. But Yulie takes her hand, and Redi squeezes back. Maybe it was the push she needed to explain.
"...Yeah," she says, quietly. "She said she would be the one to exorcise me."
She looks away at that, not quite making eye contact with anyone.
"She... isn't wrong about me being a spirit," Redi says. "I-I'm... a specter that absorbed someone. Created by a Veruni experiment. And I--um--"
She shakes her head, then she looks down. "I don't know what I am, really. Or... why I feel 'wrong,' or why she thinks the world's better off if I'm not in it."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Pals...
Kaguya is faced with a challenge.
VIT check vs. laughing like a pirate DC 60
Roll: 50 + 34
Success!
Kaguya does not laugh like a pirate.
Kaguya remembers that battle, too. She's glad about the Golem--she smiles at Yulie--but...
"Hey, I would help even if I didn't like Redi," Kaguya says. "But I do."
Kaguya winces, and feels like an asshole when Redi looks down. Shouoldn't be alive...
"That wouldn't surprise me," Kaguya says. "Those things have to have a cost."
But a bike!! Kaguya... does understand. "...Yeah," she says. "Fast delivery is important."
But that serious question?
Kaguya insists, "It's not your fault. It's their fault." She sounds deadly serious about this. "Whatever you are, you're a person too. You deserve a chance to live."
"...Besides. What right does she have to talk about hunting monsters when she's working for the Veruni?" Kaguya asks, bitterly.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"She does seem the type to attack out of nowhere..." Boudicca frowns, considering what Yulie says. "This Kanon, she is quite unsettling. I am an undying spirit, yet even I find myself nervous facing her determination to kill ghosts. Still... if this was 'done to' her... it is deeply sad."
Boudicca, having heard Gwen vouching for Redi, of course presumes: "Of course, for you are a courier, are you not?" Why wouldn't she want to make deliveries fast?
(She's thinking of parcels, not letters, but close enough.)
She frowns, though, as Redi explains what she is. "A Veruni experiment... I see. This explains your ill-fit with the serenity of Filgaia. The Veruni are --" pause, glance to Kaguya, "-- how do I say -- unpopular, at the world's spine. Though Moor Gault is much more permissive of you, lately," she adds, again to Kaguya.
... that still doesn't mean the great firebird likes her, but, well, it's something.
"I am not merely a bridge to bring Moor Gault's will to the people, of course," she adds. "My own discretion is also valuable in safeguarding this world. Though my fiery patron may have doubts, I see with mine own eyes that you are no mindless wraith set to the people's destruction. I will warn you that the Guardian spirits are wary -- but I do not condemn you."
Boudicca pauses. "But does your condition truly bar you from any healing Arte?" She asks, and that's a Lunarian word, right there. "I am still concerned for your condition..."
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Yulie nods quietly, looking down with her free hand resting over her heart. Kanon's determination...
"Yes. Her fervor... it won't bring any peace to the spirits she banishes." She replies, shaking her head - and then hesitates, a moment. Kanon's altered form... "...Still... I sympathise with her, a little."
She doesn't know her circumstances... but she know what it's like to be made into something other than human.
She looks back up to Redi, then, and looks a little surprised at what happened.
"Really? That's awful..." She murmurs.
Still, Redi's bike... Yulie can't help but chuckle fondly at Redi's leap of faith. Of course that would be her first instinct. She wouldn't have it any other way.
But, Redi answers the question.
"...I don't know about the rest... but I know that much isn't true." Yulie says with a decisive nod, when Redi mentions how Kanon believes the world's better off without her.
...And she can't help but smile when Boudicca seems to accept Redi, despite how off she feels. It's a relief.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"I'm... not sure if she wants those spirits to rest," Redi admits. She looks at Yulie, hesitating for a moment. "She might be an exorcist, but--but I don't think she's like you, Yulie."
She squezes her hand, once, and then she looks at Kaguya, when she says it isn't her fault. There is a moment's hesitation -- and part of her wants to argue. After all, before she absorbed the previous Redi's memories, she--
No. Too painful to think about.
"...Yeah," she says. "I know I deserve that. I just... it's complicated." She sighs, then. She looks at Boudicca.
She heistates for a second. "I-I'm glad you think so. I don't want to hurt Filgaia," Redi says, with a shake of her head. Though, she does blink -- and look at Kgauya.
"The Veruni... aren't, um, well-liked by Filgaia itself?" she asks.
Her eyes turn to Yulie. Redi smiles, her head tilted to the side -- and then she nods. "I know. But... it's nice to hear it and be reminded," she says, smiling at Yulie.
There is, too, the question of the healing arts. Redi doesn't have the experience with Lunar necessary to catch the Lunarian inflection to the word, as it happens. But, she gets the meaning, all the same.
After all, she knows a certain Paladienne who can't heal her, if she gets in trouble.
"It does," Redi says. "I... I don't know exactly why. But--I, um, whatever I am, it started when whatever I used to be... took the body of someone who died. And I took her memories, too." Redi looks down after that. Her hand squeezes Yulie's tighter.
She hates talking about this. Even if it is necessary.
"Maybe that has something to do with it," Redi says. "Whatever happened, when... when I became me."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Whatever she wants, she's a jackass," Kaguya opines on Kanon. 'Done to her'. "Was it?" Kaguya wonders. "I wonder if she didn't choose it for hrself. You heard her talk about her mission."
Kaguya has less sympathy, it would seem. But even less when Boudicca elaborates. Kaguya scowls at the way she puts it. "'Unpopular', huh? The planet is trying to kill the Veruni before the Veruni kill it. The ruling faction of the Veruni are bastard-covered bastards and don't care about anything but their own conquest. Anybody who tells you otherwise is a fool."
She looks to Redi. "...But yeah. The Veruni have a disease," she explains. "It's called VR Factor. The Veruni Rejection factor. I used to have it. ...It's slowly killinng all of them, combatants and civilians. I used to be real mad about that."
She clenches a fist at her side. "...But we started it. Not the Guardians."
She sighs, and tries to calm down, with visible effort.
"...Anyway," she says, "...Yulie's right. This world doesn't nee rid of you." Kaguya looks at Redi seriously. "...I don't know if you're the same person as 'that Redi'. I find it hard to believe--I don't want to believe--that the Veruni have understood a way to revive the dead."
"...But I like you for who you are. And I think you're right, that whatever the Veruni did to you--and I suspect they didn't 'make' your spectre but did something to it--is why you can't get healed."
"...It just... pisses me off," Kaguya says. "Trampling over everyone for their own pride. I hate people like that."
...Wait, what?" Kaguya blinks at Boudicca. 'Less mad' just registered for her.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I wish not to be banished," Boudicca says, of Kanon. "I would find it unpleasant. We Seraphim may come from the Earthpulse, what you call the Ley, but it is not my preferred demesne." Which is apparently also an important note to remind Yulie of, because apparently Yulie is /also/ an exorcist. Surely /she/ wouldn't/ exorcise Boudicca unwillingly, though. She seems so nice!
Redi says she doesn't want to hurt Filgaia, and that's good enough for Boudicca, as she nods and smiles warmly. But -- "I... was trying to be delicate," the spirit says, a touch haplessly, to Kaguya, as she answers Redi's confusion. "Please excuse me." She's much more polite than Kaguya is, right now, but one may be able to tell she's also much more awkward.
"So, when you copied that person... you were unable to be repaired any longer," Boudicca frowns, curling a hand at her chin. "'Tis perhaps a function of your narrative -- that when you came to be a dead woman, the world saw you then as a dead woman henceforth. The stories we tell of ourselves, as spirits, are powerful things. Unmoored by mortal flesh, we are anchored instead by how we are expected to act -- and if indeed you have taken the role of the death, 'twould be difficult to repair you. No restorative I know is able to heal flesh dead and gone... this is why men lose fingers, in the cold." Which is why Boudicca always insists her mortal friends stay warm. Frostbite is no joke!
But then -- "What -- what?" Boudicca asks, blinking, when Kaguya is surprised at her. "D-did I say something strange? Have I said another offensive thing? I -- I did not mean to --" Oh, yeah, she's SUPER awkward.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
Boudicca speaks of what Seraphim are... and it is, indeed, a good clarification for Yulie. Not a spirit of the earthbound dead, shackled to this world against their will, then...
"I believe you may be right..." Yulie admits, as Redi suggests that Kanon isn't like her. She smiles, just a bit at that squeeze of her hand. Kaguya, meanwhile, points out that Kanon might've chosen it for herself.
That... it's hard for Yulie to imagine given her background, but Kanon's isn't hers. It's not impossible that it was her own choice.
"...Maybe..." She murmurs.
She listens intently to the talk of the Veruni, and their position. She's not very well-informed about them... but Kaguya does put their situation into stark perspective. Yulie nods in understanding.
"I see..." She murmurs - and smiles, when Kaguya agrees with her about Redi, and when Redi says it's nice to hear.
Redi offers a further explanation of what she is... and Yulie returns her gesture, solidifying her support.
But as her inability to be healed... Yulie's head tilts to the side curiously as Boudicca offers her perspective.
"I hadn't considered it that way..." Yulie murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"Mm... maybe she did choose it," Redi admits. "The way she talked... I think she is doing what she believes in."
She looks at Yulie. It's not hard for her to guess: Yulie might have trouble accepting someone could do that. "She said... she's a descendant of the Sword Magess," Redi says. "So I think... she sees it as her duty, no matter what it does to her."
The explanation of the VR Factor gives Redi pause. She had, until recently, mostly known of Veruni as a sort of boogeyman; it's ready been a lot to understand them as real people, with all that entails.
Including the crimes of their leadership.
"That's awful," she says. "That... that people are suffering. But... that the Veruni leaders are hell-bent on conquest, even..."
Even if it might only further the disease destroying the Veruni.
"I don't think I'm the same person as the first Redi. The one that I..." The person she killed, before she was ever herself. Redi looks at Kaguya for a second, before she looks down.
"There's too many things I don't quite remember right," she says. "But... thanks. I'm glad you like me."
Kaguya has one theory for why she can't be healed; Boudicca has another. They both make a certain kind of sense to her -- a woman who, admittedly, has no training in the arcane sciences or the metaphysics of the world -- and may not be mutually exclusive. Yulie wonders about it, too.
"I... I see what you mean," she says to them both. She looks at Kaguya. "Something they... did to the specter?" Redi asks. She hesitates. "I... I wish I knew what it could be."
Then she looks at Boudicca. "I think I get what you mean. But I don't... I don't want that to be my story. I'm not--I still eat, sleep, hurt, all of those things. But I--"
She looks back down. Her voice catches. "It's not just my story. The way it touches everyone around me, the way it's their story too. I don't... I don't want to scare people, before I can even get to know them."
She closes her eyes. "I don't want my best friend to get burnt, just because he hugs me when I really need it. And..."
She shakes her head.
"...and when I get hurt, I hate wondering how my girlfriend must feel, when she can heal everyone but me. I don't want any of that to be my story."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Yeah, banishment sucks," Kaguya agrees. But Boudicca was trying to be delicate, and Kaguya frowns. "...Sorry," she says. "I just... get really mad about it. You're cool, Boudicca."
Shehe nods to Yulie, then. She seems to support Redi a lot; that's good.
But Redi...
"Right. The 'Sword Magess'. I can't keep track of human religions," she admits. "So I'm not sure what that is."
But it's awful. "Yeah, it is," Kaguya says. "But half-measures won't work. If I can't find a way to stop our leaders' plans..."
"Then this world really is better off without the Veruni."
Redi... also doesn't think it. Kaguya looks sympathetic. "I know it's hard," she says. "...But I do."
"I don't know what it could be either," Kaguya admits. "But..."
She considers. The 'story'...
"Frostbite sucks," she agrees. "That makes sense, Boudicca, but I'm a scientist, not a storyteller. I'll get some data, and we'll see if we can't find a way to... reverse her polarity, or whatever it is. It'll take me time--but if I can get into th research notes of the people who did this to you, I might be able to make it better."
She smiles, after a moment. "...You two are really sweet," Kaguya says of Yulie and Redi. "...I'm with you on this one. I promised, anyway."
A pause, as she looks to Boudicca. "The part where Moor Gault is less grumpy seems weird to me," she explains. "I'm not like--offended. Just surprised. I guess that's... good. I'm going to try to talk to the Guardians, one day. When I find a better solution. ...So maybe thy'll listen."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Different kind of spirit, Yulie! Only poetically a ghost!! (Well, except, technically -- uhhh -- never mind that.)
Boudicca would be more comfortable thinking of Kanon as having chosen this for herself, certainly. If it doesn't sit entirely well with her, well -- she doesn't voice those concerns.
"The Sword Magess... do you remember, when we faced Innominat?" Boudicca was quite occupied with keeping everyone alive in that battle, so she wasn't terribly vocal, but of course she was there. "The woman who bound him called herself Anastasia Valeria -- the hero we know as the Sword Magess. She..." ... was a complicated woman, Boudicca knows, from all she's heard of her. But all she has heard of her is from wistful sources, and so she shakes her head. "Well, you saw her willingness to sacrifice herself so another woman might live." THE LORD OF CALAMITY, but that's ANOTHER STORY, and she DOES NOT HAVE TIME TO GET INTO IT. "It is not so difficult to imagine Kanon feeling the same drive pushing her forward."
(If Hicalu knew that Redi was fretting about burning him, he'd just reassure her that as a baker, he is quite used to burns. Tragically, Hicalu is occupied walking his dog. Hicalu has been walking his dog all day and his dog is still not tired, even though Hicalu is exhausted. Please send help...)
Boudicca tilts her head, though, as she considers the science. "If you do not wish this to be your story," she says, "perhaps your story may still be changed. If you are truly a spirit, you are not bound to one method of expression. It may be possible to change yourself... particularly through adapting the stories of those around you. Human connection is a powerful spell."
She still doesn't get that Yulie is Redi's girlfriend, but she's sympathetic, anyway.
"Oh!" She exclaims, her braids flying into the air (they can float?! -- no, it's just an updraft) as Kaguya clarifies. "Oh, I see! Yes, I note a definite shift in Moor Gault's disapproval. There is not so much alarm I sense from him. Ah..." She pauses, and adds, "though that is not to say there is none," she adds, delicately. "But it was far worse, prior to this."
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
A descendant of the Sword Magess... a duty bound to one's very blood. Yulie can't understand what that's like, admittedly. How could she?
And the difficulty faced by the Veruni... that's difficult for Yulie to wrestle with, too. If their leader's plan can't be stopped...
Yulie's quiet for a moment, but she smiles when Redi says she's glad they like her for herself. ...But she listens quietly as she continues. What she doesn't want her story to be...
"Oh, Redi..." Yulie murmurs. It weighs on her so much. She never deserved this - what it puts her through.
Kaguya, meanwhile, says that they're really sweet - and Yulie giggles, a bit sheepishly, but a bit happy to hear it from someone else, too, before clasping Redi's hand with both of hers. Kaguya and Boudicca both have suggestions, and Yulie...
"...You really have a lot of support... We'll figure it out together." Yulie says. "Whatever happens... I'll be there."
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"Y-Yeah," Redi says to Boudicca. She had also been in Marduk; in her case, fighting side-by-side with Yulie, against what they now know to be Paradox Pokemon. Still, she had a glimpse of Anastasia.
"Still hard to believe I saw her," she admits.
Then she looks at Kaguya, as she explains about the Veruni. Redi looks down for a moment. The idea of the world being better off without an entire people is a disqueting one, to say the least. "We... we gotta find a way to stop them, then," she says, quietly.
"Change it?" she asks Boudicca. Redi looks uncertain -- not disbelieving, but not quite sure how it might work. "I... I can try. I'm not sure what to do, but... it has to startwhere."
She nods, when Kaguya promises again to help her. A way to reverse whatever happened to her, to at least change what she became. It is a wonderful thought -- even if it feels like a hope that might be dangerous.
"Maybe we can find them," she tells Kaguya. Then--
Then her cheeks redden. "A-ah--"
Fortunately, before Redi can descend into incoherent verbal stumbling, Yulie takes her hand between both of hers. She blinks, looking from her hand to Yulie's face. She smiles.
"Yulie..." She pulls her into a hug. "I know you will. And... and I know I do. Th-thanks, everyone." She sniffs, wiping at her eye. "I'm lucky I met all of you."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya was at Marduk, too. She remembrs, when Boudicca mentions her. "Oh, yeah. She was..." Her expression is pained. "She was really good." And there wasn't anything Kaguya could do for her. But... "Mm. I guess. But just because you have conviction doesn't mean that what you want is good. Just because you believe... doesn't mean it's right."
She looks at Yulia, and at Redi. She nods. "...Yeah," Kaguya says. "I'm working on it." A way to stop them. "But I can't do it alone, anymore. So..."
So she's counting on herr friends and allies.
She then considers Boudicca. "I guess I'm... on the right track?" she wonders. "He should still be mad at me, I've got.. Well, it's a long story. But if it's not as much, maybe it's not so hopless after all."
"'Stories', though..."
Redi is adorable. And Kaguya does laugh, this time, but not like a pirate.
"I'm gonna get a toothache," she complains. "...But nah. It's nice."
"...So you're welcome."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"'Tis hard to believe I saw her, as well," Boudicca says, to Redi. "I... did not ever expect to make her direct acquaintance." She's heard plenty, but...
"The Veruni shall not take Filgaia," Boudicca says. "And while I hope we are able to defeat those foolish aims without forsaking Veruni's civilians... I must think first of the Planet." She pauses, looking to Kaguya. "So you see, we work to the same ends, Kaguya. We both are bound to this place, are we not?" How does she know that? (Seraphim have plenty of senses which humans don't have. Especially Seraphim empowered by the Guardians. Don't worry about it.) "... and, I do not think it is hopeless. I saw long ago your noble intentions, and you have never proved them false."
Pause.
"Despite your occasional protests."
Did Boudicca just sass her.
Rather than confirming or denying that sass, she nods, to Redi. "Opening the possibility in your heart is the first step," she says. "When you understand your spirit-nature, you will be able to grasp it. Whether it is through the way I have posited, or another... I am sure you will find your way."
But Kaguya's going to get a toothache, listening to Yulie's support, and at this point, Boudicca pauses.
Boudicca looks at Yulie.
Boudicca looks at Redi.
Boudicca looks at Yulie holding Redi's hand.
Boudicca looks at Kaguya.
Boudicca looks back at Redi and Yulie.
"When you say you are friends with this girl," she ventures, "do you perhaps, in fact, mean she is your girlfriend?"
CONGRATULATIONS, BOUDICCA. YOU'RE A GENIUS.
<Pose Tracker> Yulie Ahtreide has posed.
It's still a surprise to Yulie, too. To be able to see someone like the Sword Magess... It's hardly the sort of thing one expects to do.
Still, a way to stop the Veruni... Yulie nods. For Redi's sake, but everyone's too. The threat they pose to the world can't be understated.
But for Redi, change has to start somewhere. Yulie nods in agreement, and it looks like Kaguya and Boudicca agree, too. And then...
Redi pulls her into a hug! Yulie returns the gesture gladly.
"So am I. I count myself lucky every day..." She agrees. She laughs, just a little, at Kaguya's complaint - and then she pauses, staring at Boudicca. She watches as her eyes travel about, and then - she reaches her conclusion.
Yulie blinks - but then, she smiles, and nods.
"Yes, I am." She confirms proudly - and it does feel good to say it out loud...
<Pose Tracker> Redi Hayworth has posed.
"Yeah... it doesn't," Redi agrees. "What Kanon wants... it's not right. For people to die, just because of what they are..."
She looks at Kaguya -- then she nods. "I...I understand. I mean what I told you, Dean, Rebecca, and Avril. I'll help, as much as I can."
She is quiet, for a moment, though, at what Boudicca tells her. Opening her heart is the first step; understanding her spirit-nature. "I'll... I'll do my best."
When Yulie hugs her, Redi sighs happily -- and she looks comfortable. Calmer than she did a moment earlier. She smiles, when Yulie says she is lucky.
And then she turns red again when Kaguya says she will get a toothache. Then Boudicca asks Yulie if she is her girlfriend, and that makes Redi turn an even brighter shade of red.
"It's pretty much the best thing to happen," Redi says, with a sage nod of her head.