2018-11-18: ...Now, I Am To Be

• Cutscene: ...Now, I Am To Be
• Cast: Riesenlied
• Where: Photosphere and the Mind
• Date: 18th November 2018
• Summary: Riesenlied awakens after the events of Dispossession. But all is not right...

''Don't Forget... is a companion scene to this cutscene.

---

Riesenlied's eyes shot open.

An acrid stench roused her from fatigued slumber. A horrible hiss of pistons and grinding gears echo in the faint background. The humming drone of something large and terrible processing in the distance. The faint, pained scream of some beast undergoing a procedure.

She was here again -- the Photosphere.

But she scarce knew where she was. But she could guess it was deep within the bowels of some...

...laboratory...

A sharp pain stings her head. What happened to her? What had already happened to her?

The fresh memory of iron plates smashing against her, encasing her in an iron cocoon. The sensation of air forced out of her lungs as she screamed and stared as Noeline fought her hardest to reach for her-- as Lydia leapt after her, despite her mottled, skeletal state.

...

She is alone now.

A sharp spike on her chest rouses her further. Something was horrid, twisted. How long had it been? Her head was burning... her throat was dry and parched. Her eyes felt emptied of tears.

She tried moving, but found herself restrained. Her head was uncomfortably arched on some metal brace, and her extremities encased in tubes.

What was going to happen to her?

The door swoops open.

The silhouette of a fluttering cape ending in a golden mask...

...

The room of narration was shaking. It should be an impossibility. This room was hers and hers alone. A headspace for her selves to conflict.

But -someone- was forcibly trying to enter.

The space which should have no boundaries was starting to crack. The broken ankh of the Fereshte continued to sink into the nothingness that is the ground. The little Dragon Unit of no face whimpered as she huddled into her chair.

"I have to... I have to wear a mask... Which-- which..."

The little Hyadean Unit had met so many inspiring people in her journey, which was now like a waking dream-- greatly fleeting, no matter how much she wanted to grasp it with her own two hands.

But when she spoke to each of them, it seemed as if things only became more contradictory. And it made the task of deciding who she was even more insurmountable.

...

The determined man who had always so spurned her and cast her into a shadow of her self-doubt...

            I believe it urgent to the success of the operation we see her and her charges safely to Ignas. We cannot afford the same mistakes...

...

A shaman of the moon, so shunned by her people, but with a faith that inspired hers and made her know her own...

            You have a devotion that is unique, Riesenlied. Any Baskar would recognize the authenticity within your spirit...

...

An alchemist whose life changed hers when she found a spirit of sacrifice she scarce knew existed within her...

            This world needs more people looking to offer a helping hand." Jacqueline replies with a bright smile. "You've come a long way...I'm proud of /you/, too.

...

An unknowable spirit within white-clad armour, a villain to many, yet unfailingly a guide as much as they are an adjucator...

            "You whittle away at yourself for the sake of others, Riesenlied." The observation comes after a handful of silence%, accompanied with the slight pivot of the knight's heel. "Your pound of flesh has become more a lion's share."

...

The ex-Kislevi soldier whose darkness had come to become a mirror for her own. Someone who is so unalike, and yet...

            You provide... something to address what happens when the fighting /stops/. A plan for how people will live when this war is ended. That's something I can't offer, for all the power I have.

...

The mysterious woman whose royality had just become a potential revelation and consequence for them all...

            However. Riesenlied and Noeline... I owe them my very life. If they must go, then I shall depart with them.

...

A spirited chosen of Rigdobrite who wouldn't let anyone scorn her for her heritage or her visage whom she came to call daughter...

            But I'll go with you. You went back home with me, s'only fair right? I'll even hold y'r hand."

And...

The wonderful woman who she gave all her love to...

            How can you possibly think you do nothing? How can you possibly not realise how much you mean to the Outreach?

The woman who always swore to be by her side...

            ... until then - and forever after - I will cherish this. I will love you.

The woman she made a promise to...

            We made a promise - together!

...

The little Hyadean yelps as the masks rattle and fall out of her hands. They scatter along the frosted ground around her, and she throws herself out of her chair and tries to grasp at them. But they shy away from her, as if taken by some invisible force.

The ceiling tore open to reveal a great and unknowable menace sheathed in white. Bearing a golden mask. The Quarter Knight Alhazred.

            I have a most wonderful role for you to play.

A mask floats down, designed in his likeness. The little Hyadean shies away from it.

            I have a most wonderful mask for you.

"No, no-- I don't /want/ to wear this mask! I don't!" she shrieks, but the mask keeps floating in her direction.


            What has your tired and poisoned Body ever offered you?
                        Nothing but suffering.
            What has your fragile and unsettled Mind ever offered you?
                        Nothing but suffering.
            What has your fragmented Soul, so split, ever offered you?
                        Nothing but suffering.

"I don't want to... I don't..."

Until now, your Heart has always been your greatest asset.

The mask slides onto the little Unit's face. There is a shriek, as she seizes onto the frame of the mask. She tries to pull it off, to no avail. Once, twice...

Then...

        Much like that red-haired Arctican Knight before you.
                     You are to be...

Her hands slump slowly. There was no more resistance.

            "Now ... I Am To Be..."