2017-10-03: Ida and Id Have A Civil Conversation

• Log: Ida and Id Have A Civil Conversation
• Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Id
• Where: The desert outside of Wayside
• Date: October 3rd, 2017. ICly, the day after 2017-09-30: If You Give A Jerk A Cookie.
• Summary: After being 'borrowed' by Claude for an expedition, Ida returns to Dean and Avril's camp. She runs into a very strange man on the way back, and has words with him. Wayside gets a brand new landmark in the process.

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<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

It's late at night. A cool, gentle breeze blows across the desert sands, and the sky is studded with stars. Ida is returning to the camp Dean and Avril set up after being 'borrowed' by Claude, though honestly, she's taking her time getting back. It's easy for her to see why people who want to lose themselves take to the wastelands--and it's even easier to see that it's as much prison as it is refuge. There's no one else around for miles, but at the same time, all Ida has for company are her own thoughts. They've evened out into a sort of emptiness that mirrors the emptiness of the world around her. The spreading desolation feels welcoming.

Ida takes a sip from her canteen, and trudges onwards. She can see the mountain range housing Wayside up ahead. The camp is little, but it's not too far away from that. She just hopes it will still be there--she doesn't want to go back to Wayside. She can't go back to Wayside. Maybe ever.

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

Id had a talk with Lily and a talk wiht Riesenlied and Noeline. And an adventure with them too buut that hasn't been rped out yet! Nevertheless, Id is leaving Wayside, to dump this body off somewhere so that when he wakes up, it won't be too inconspicuous.

It's on the way back that he senses a presence. A familiar presence. He can feel the emotional wavelength prickling on the back of his neck. It's a familiar feeling.

Id diverts from the path he was planning to take. He's been meaning to pay a visit to this one as well--it's just she had left Wayside and Id is many things, but he isn't a compass.

"Did you enjoy it? That feeling of shouting what nobody else would say, no matter the cost, no matter the pain, but for the thrill of speaking--finally--your own mind?"

Id doesn't approach from behind. He approaches from ahead, walking across the desert towards Ida. He doesn't stop even upon entering conversation range. He just keeps going.

He doesn't seem to have a canteen.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida squints into the distance. It's dark, but he can definitely see someone approaching. From the lack of shouting and running, she's fairly sure it's not Dean or Sephilia. Maybe it's Avril?

Then she sees the flightsuit and hair and everything falls into place. Remarkably, the sinking sensation inside her only gets a little worse--it doesn't turn into a solid, twisting knot. She lowers her head, and hopes, for a moment, tha Id will not see her.

He's talking to her. Look what you've gotten yourself into, you idiot child. Is this what you wanted? Did you want him to kill you so you didn't have to do it yourself? Ida stops in her tracks. She raises her head, and stays silent a moment as Id walks closer. "I did," she says.

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

"You're different." Id says. "Even if it's not emanating it from your hand, I can feel your chi. There is an incongruence between Idas, yes--the one who told others to not do anything suicidal, who took command, the woman who shot me--" He points to where he was struck by Ida's bullets. "Here," He shifts his fingers, "Here." Again. "And here..."

He lets his hand drop. "What has changed, girl trapped by gravity, to create such a remarkable change in nature. Or perhaps--"

He holds out his finger and points towards Ida's heart. "It was always there."

He doen't attack YET at least, but he holds his hand there, pointing. "I did not take you to be the sort to alienate your comrades. Can you simply not bear to see them suffer or is it something more....personal?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida clenches that hand as Id speaks. She doesn't have an easy answer. She isn't sure if answering is wise--if this man will offer her a devil's bargain if she seems weak and vulnerable enough. But then again, he could kill her whenever he wanted to, couldn't he? She's unarmed, and in a state of mind that turns self-defense into a Herculean task.

She looks down at her heart, at the spot Id is pointing at. "I don't know," Ida says. "Everyone seems to think they can fix it, though, whatever it is. They don't realize how much of me is artifice. But you, though." Ida looks up. A lock of hair falls across her eyes. "I think you understand better than most."

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

Id's face is largely a mask. It's not a pleasant mask, it's the mask of a demon to be sure, but it makes it hard to read his face. Of course, Ida would know that, she wore that mask back at Wayside too for a little while didn't she? Nevertheless, he does chuckle when Ida explains what others have tried to make Ida 'better'. "Well-meaning words so they know they tried. Such kind people...but uneducated. I don't know you, Ida, but I know what it is to be 'broken'. There is no 'fixing' that, no cure, no magical medicine. You might as well try to cure 'being Ida'. You can fill your life with all the things that make other people happy, but it won't make you happy, it won't stop you from the little tortures you inflict upon others."

Id shifts one leg back, forming a martial arts style. "Prepare yourself and come at me. Or not."

This isn't Wayside anymore.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida smiles. It's not a nice smile--it's the frayed, desperate smile of someone who is trying to find reasons to keep going when everything is falling apart. "I don't know who Ida is," she says. "All I know is what Ida is supposed to be--what she should be--but that's not me." Id slips into a fighting stance. It's familiar, somehow, but Ida can't put her finger on how. There's a brief, sharp stab of fear, but it levels out into a more subdued terror. She slips into a stance of her own, hands raised, feet spread. She's not sure if she should clench her hands or keep them open.

"I accept," Ida says. She surges forward in a right straight punch, surprisingly direct. It may be similar to what Fenrir did in the moments before she lost her right arm.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Id with This Is Definitely A Bad Idea!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Id guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's This Is Definitely A Bad Idea for 48 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

"Hmph..." Id says. "You look much like her... We try to step away from those who created us, but they're within us. 'Fathers', 'Mothers'. The impurities that carve out their psyche is passed down, evolving...but the roots remain the same. But they do not run your life, they do not decide your spirit...!" He smiles when Ida accepts his challenge but doesn't comment on it.

Id lets Ida throw the first punch. It slams, resoundedly, into Id's arms. He doesn't budge. It's not Ida's fault, however, she can tell that it was a good hit. He just used something within himself to guard against the strike and diminish the effects. Despite being called a demon, Id functions as a human.

But what humans can do what he does?

Id does not cut off Ida's arm. Ida has his respect. Fenrir threw herself into a situation beyond her capacity to handle. A different kind of kindness is called for.

"Chi flows through all bodies. You can't help the limiters, but you still can manage what you can control with maximum efficiency." Id says. "It isn't just about concentrating your chi with your strikes, it's not just about concentrating your chi where you receive strikes. Don't let the pain disrupt the natural flow, don't hide from it. Channel it! That is what it takes to become a demon!"

Id's palm glows brightly as he raises it into the air before darting in after Ida and throwing a strike for her chest. He doesn't care if Ida blocks it, so he doesn't bother feinting.

GS: Id has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Testing Strike!
GS: Id has completed his action.
GS: CRITICAL! Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Id's Testing Strike for 115 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida thinks back as Id speaks. She is the child of an ARMs Meister and an Etone-turned-Drifter. The former was born into a life of luxury, but Ida's memory of him is deeply colored by his need to keep up appearances--as if the other noble families of Guild Galad would pull out knives if they saw a moment's weakness or impropriety. The latter was raised in an orphanage, and from what little she told Ida, she did not have a happy childhood. Even well-meaning nuns can only do so much to tend to the emotional and social needs of over a hundred children.

This is your history, Ida thinks. Mother and Father did their best to keep you safe. They didn't know they were ruining you by doing so.

The strike hits. Ida allows herself a moment's surprise, her eyes shooting open. It didn't do much, but she honestly wasn't expecting it to hit. She sinks back into a defensive stane as Id speaks, slotting it in with what Claude told her. Oddly, the realization that Id could kill her at any moment has dispelled much of the worry. 'This is what it takes to become a demon!'

Id's palm slams into Ida's chest. It knocks her off her feet, sends her flying--her arms and legs snap forwards, and she clears a good twenty feet of ground before she hits the sand.

Idiot girl. Ida's chest is a solid mass of pain. She can barely breathe, but she can still hear those mocking thoughts. What do you hope to accomplish here? Do you really want to die?

Ida tumbles. She rolls. She digs a hand into the sand and arrests her flight, rising into a three-point crouch. From there, she stands--her legs are wobbly, and she's struggling to breathe, but she took the hit. More to the point, she seems to have... understood. She comes at Id again, sinking down and rushing forwards to get back into range. She skids to a halt in front of Id, twists from the hip, and strikes at him again--this time, a driving open-palm strike.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Id with Open Palm!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Id guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Open Palm for 44 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

Id doesn't block this strike at all. Ida slams her palm into his chest, sending him flying. He crashes against the sands of the wasteland, laughing. He flips up even before he comes to a complete stop. "Better!" He says, grinning wildly. Id is a battle freak. He's enjoying this. Even if so far, they've only really exchanged punches. Despite throwing Id that far, he doesn't really seem all that worse for wear but that's to be expected. Ida can likely feel the difference in her own body. Hitting people tends to reverberate back into yourself.

Id doesn't seem to be using the same style as he used last time, though, not exactly. Well for starters he isn't using really a defensive style in the first place. He is just taking the hits through manipulating his own chi to protect his body. Now his chi, that is strange, it feels limitless.

But it's rapidly becoming clear that Id isn't here to kill Ida. He could have done that already. He has felt affinity with Ida. He wants to see how far Ida can go.

Id throws out a palm strike himself. The hand itself doesn't collide against Ida's body and it's not supposed to, but a sudden push of wind seems to follow through the strike past his hand and slam itself against Ida.

"There is a path before you. You know it is there. Why do you hesitate? You are conflicted about the metal demons. If you do not know what you'll do with the power reaching out for you, how will you find the will to seize it?"

GS: Id has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Demon Fist!
GS: Id has completed his action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Id's Demon Fist for 87 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida has ended up keeping a running roll of moments when she's managed to pull off a momentary victory against someone who technically outclasses her. She broke Siegfried's (admittedly already-damaged) helmet off, bloodied his lip. She went an entire fight with Harken('s chi clone) without receiving a solid hit. She fought Emil Blegovich with a bad leg and a broken ARM. She even made Berserk budge a whole half-inch. Id goes flying. Ida knows better than to assume that was decisive, but it makes the list.

Id recovers. He's fast, terrifyingly so--even if he's not focused on defending himself, it's clear Ida hasn't so much as bruised him. She sinks back into a low, wide-legged stance, her hands held up in front of her. The wall of wind slams into her. She lets it carry her as she pivots on a heel, flowing with the attack rather than letting it disrupt her. Id can sense the way her body responds to it, the way the energy flows in a single, graceful pattern rather than simply rushing to one place or another. She is not an expert by any means, but she's learning.

"I don't know," Ida says. She's breathing heavily. Her ribs ache. She's going to have more bruises to supplement the ones Claude gave her. Her shoulder hurts from where the wind slammed into it. "Everything was so much easier before I found out what they were like--before I met her--!"

Ida flows from defense to offense. She launches a punch at Id's chin, then one at his sternum, then one at his gut, trading off hands. It's unpolished, but there's potential there, like so much about what she's doing.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Id with Unladylike Fisticuffs!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Id guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Unladylike Fisticuffs for 110 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

"You have attracted the curiousity of powerful people, but in attracting their gaze, you see the gap between you and them. You consider the path behind you, the path of the easy." Id crosses his arms. God, he thinks, I'm like my dad now. The feeling makes him sick to his stomach, but he has a goal here and if he has to Dad it up he will Dad it up. "Do you think anyone strong followed a path not filled with mistakes and regret? You can't hope for perfect choices--they don't exist. There is no race of punching bags that will always be a joy to tear apart." That's definitely a strange thing for Id to say, who tore apart a village just like that. It was a cruel violent act that he relished in.

...but to put it another way, he tore apart a Metal Demon base that was being used to deploy metal demons and they had just tried to destroy a town, murdered a king. Baseless cruelty, or time bought for humanity that they needed?

Id is struck across the chin, his sternum, his gut. He just takes it. He slides across the dune sands. A punch manages to get through his defenses. A cut forms below Id's lower lip. He licks the blood threatening to drip drip out. An aura ripples along his body. A red one. It spills into his hand as energy coalesces around it. He leaps into the air and starts chucking red chi blasts down at Ida, forcing her to keep moving, to keep dancing along the dunes.

"There's a you that's willing to hurt that which she cares about to say--or do--what needs to be said or done." Id says. He doesn't say what needs to be said or done, that's up for Ida to decide, not him. "There's a you that wishes to live a life free of regrets, essentially, in the truest form of the phrase. What will you be, Ida?"

GS: Id has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Crimson Shot!
GS: Id has completed his action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Id's Crimson Shot for 150 hit points!
GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida blinks. If Riesenlied is to be believed, this man is the reason why part of Elru is largely devoid of intelligent life. She doesn't know the why, or the how, just that Id is powerful enough to do that. And yet, once again, he seems to know what the problem is--and she's not sure if she's listening to him because she feels she has to, or because of that understanding. Maybe she's been in the pit so long she's willing to listen to anyone who feels like they've been there and escaped, regardless of what they've done.

Id bleeds. He bleeds red. Ida's heart lurches in her chest, as if astonished by what just happened. She looks up, sees the energy gathering, and springs out of the way--she tucks and rolls across the sand as a chi blast hits where she stood seconds ago, leaving a smoking, half-molten crater behind. Id chases her. A second chi blast grazes her, its passage close enough to raise bruises along her skin. A third slams into her as she's reeling from the second. She hits the ground, skids. This time, she's slower in getting up, and she coughs.

"I don't know," Ida says. "I'm not the woman Riesenlied is. That endless gentleness, it just--I can't." Tears cloud her eyes. Id is now a red blur. "Violence is the only thing I'm better at." That's not true, but it's hard for her to see it. The chi flow within her wavers, like a bonfire someone threw water on. "So I guess--"

Ida takes a breath, and blinks away the tears. She curls up a fist, feeling the flow of energy within it. It does not glow, but she knows what's there nevertheless--she looks up at Id, gauging the distance.

Moments later she springs up after him, surging into the air in a jump that would probably earn a 'nice job!' from Claude. She leads with her fist, with all her anger, despair, and emptiness aligned behind it. It is a single, mighty strike.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Id with Steel-Breaking Fist!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: Id critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Steel-Breaking Fist for 25 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

That's according to Id too. He doesn't seem to dislike the term 'Demon of Elru'--he hasn't even gone to the trouble of pinning it on Vash the Stampede like a proper villain. He could take out Ida if he wanted to. She has no backup but perhaps he is a little like dear old daddy Grahf who also seems like he could have taken out that whole arena. Their goals are a lot harder to accomplish than 'survival'. Maybe Id is just curious about a kindred spirit. Grahf cares about power but Id could care less. He has one goal. One! To break the karmic chains that ensnare this world... and around he himself. And that's pretty damn hard when you don't really know or understand the cause of it. But you know how to break things don't you Id? Yes, that's what he knows.

Id isn't just letting Ida punch him anymore. 'Are you strong'? He asked that of Bart. Now Id knows that Ida is strong. Now she has to be better than strong.

Ida leaps up after Id. It's an incredible bound, Claude would likely approve, she puts what she has into that strike and Id--

--he holds out his hand and catches it. Ida's hand doesn't hurt from being caught, but she could imagine what it would be like if her form was of any lesser quality. Her hand could've shattered right there against his hand. She can break steel, but this ain't steel.

"Then you have your next task, Ida." Id tells her. "Find out who you are. A broken mirror is not easily repaired, but with enough shards you can make the world bleed. Gather the million shards of light that make up who you are."

He then throws a single kick for Ida's solar plexus, snapping his foot upwards afterwards to slam it against her chin.

GS: Id has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Perfected Rage!
GS: Id has completed his action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Id's Perfected Rage for 94 hit points!
GS: Entangle and Shieldbreak! Statuses applied to Ida Everstead-Rey!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Hitting Id is not like hitting a wall. Walls don't move. Walls don't catch things that you throw at them, using muscle power and chi to turn a jarring impact into a slow, steady halt. Ida looks at Id, her lips twisted in something that's not a look of determination, precisely. Part of her wants to tell him she's not capable of doing that--that whatever he's seen in her is a falsehood, just like the rest of her.

Of course, Id kicking her puts a stop to those thoughts right quick. Ida goes flying again, first backwards, then up--it's like she badly miscalculated and is now being juggled while EVO commentators do their thing in the background. She hits the sand again after what seems like an eternity. It would be so easy to just let it in there. Ida is tired. She is bone-deep tired, and would be even if she weren't struggling to function on a daily basis.

Are you happy now? Stay down, idiot girl. Or get up. It doesn't matter, he's got you either way. You know you can't trust this lunatic.

Ida gets back up. As Id lands, she is there to greet him, slamming an open palm at the center of his chest. Her other palm goes for his hip, like she's trying to throw him off-balance.

GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Id with Open Palm!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
GS: CRITICAL! Id guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Open Palm for 59 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

What does Id see? Whatever Ida is saying to herself right now, she is moving past that because she's trying to hit Id again. "Not knowing when to give up is a trait we have in common, Ida. It causes problems but what's the alternative? Giving up?" What had Id seen?

Tell me why everyone seems to hate me now when I'm...finally starting to hit back.

Id starts blocking the strikes. He takes them into his guard as if he is toying with her, but the focus in his eyes is clear. He is not here to toy around. He didn't come here for a challenge. What is Id looking for?

...instead of trying to get away, she stares him down. Chi boils into her hand, and lines up against everything behing it--it's like what she does when she fires a revolver with a ferocious recoil one-handed. This time, though, the force isn't coming from a gun she's wielding.

"Of course," Id says. "Without power, that's just an artistic way to die." He raises his hand into the air but this time there aren't clear indicators around his hand where the chi is forming from, but Ida can tell something is coming. She has plenty of time to prepare for it, to do something she has done before, to expand the scale of it. Id is getting excited. What is Id looking for?

Ida slams an open palm into the center of the beam, and it glows white-hot like the sun. The Proton Beam hits Ida's hand and boils outwards around it, parting neatly--smaller beams refract off, one catching Ida in the bad shoulder. Others trace their way through the Metal Beasts, thinning their numbers with sizzling, boiling plumes.

There's a twinkle in the sky. No, it is nothing that will blow up the moon and planet, but it's moving quickly despite its obvious distance. Id is reaching out to something. It's heading towards Ida's direction. She doesn't have to look for it, she can feel it in her blood. That easily spillable blood. What is the connection?

I am not your TOY, Ida screams to the universe in general.

There it is.

A blinding beam of light comes down for, well, Ida's general direction. It probably actually won't hit her directly. It cuts through space, the atmosphere, the clouds, the sky, and it will cut through the sands just as easily, glassing the sand as it hits and it pushes outwards.

"Are you going to be the toy of your feelings?" Id asks. "The toy of those stronger than you? Are you a toy, Ida, or are you a true human? SHOW ME!!"

GS: Id has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Big Bang!
GS: Id has completed his action.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a solid hit from Id's Big Bang for 239 hit points!
GS: Id takes Cover! He gains 50 temporary hit points!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey enters CONDITION GREEN!!

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida steps back, staggering. She's endured this much, but she's clearly approaching her limit--if she were in a better state of mind, she might appreciate that as a sign of competence, or strength. All she can wonder, now, is how much Id is holding back. The fact that he's holding back is obvious. She's seen what Id is capable of when he really wants to kill, and this is not it. But the sudden surge of power is unmistakable, even to a novice like Ida. Her eyes widen as the sky answers Id's gesture. No, she thinks. No, he--

There's no time to think. She has no idea what is approaching, or where it's going to hit, but she's certain it will kill her if it does. Here it is. This is how you die. Ida's hands clench. She looks at Id, terror and despair and anger and emptiness warring inside her. Are you begging for mercy? The surge of approaching power is like an onrushing train. It's like--!

"I am no one's toy," Ida says. The fog clears for a few moments. She raises her right hand, and it glows like a tiny sun. The beam slams into the ground a split-second later.

When the dust clears, a good thirty or so square feet of desert is molten glass. The air reeks of ozone and char. There's a small carbon stain on the perimeter of the crater--five seconds ago, it was a cactus. Ida lies on the ground at the very edge of the pit of glass, in a little divot of sand. She's covered in bruises, and her right arm is a solid mass of pain, but she's alive. Dazed, but alive.

<Pose Tracker> Id has posed.

Id is exhausted after that. He got too worked up. Too excited. He crouches to one knee, taking in deep breaths. There's a faint flickering of his form--like something is being dispelled--but Id bites into his lip and focuses and it stabilizes. Not now. It's bad enough the Black Wolf is starting to figure it out.

He looks at his hand before him. "...Still not properly awakened," He murmurs to himself. "...Well it's not like I expected that." He stands himself up, dusts the ludicrous amount of sand that was blasted off into his flight suit, and then finally looks over to Ida.

"Oh hey. You made it." He pauses and then kind of gives her an awkward thumbs up with his other hand. "We probably should get out of here before he shows up."

He starts walking through the desert, just one foot at the time.

But he does pause to look back long enough to add, "You do you. No matter what I or the universe says."

But then he's moving on again. He doesn't want to be seen when the inevitable happens.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

Ida's mouth moves, but no words come out. She looks up, and waits until the three red blobs resolve into one red blob, and then into the blurry form of Id. She can feel the lingering heat from the crater as it dissipates in the cool night air. She realizes, distantly, that Wayside might have seen that, and might be interested in investigating. Right now, though, she's more focused on the man in front of her. Id could easily finish her off if he wanted.

Instead, he gives her a thumbs-up and a bit of advice. Ida manages something that's about half actual smile, but does not move to join him. The sand is cool, and there's a brilliant field of stars overhead.

This is probably how Dean and Avril find her some time later.