Scene #9784: BINDING BLADE Ch62: An End to Winter

Owner	Pose
Marigold	SOUTHEASTERN BERN Where the glowing sky has led you. It hasn't stopped getting brighter. King Zephiel died a while ago- some days; not so many days that he's yet been buried. He died content, or as close as a man in his state could ever be, seeing a Milky Way of stars blooming across the night sky. There are constellations hanging over Bern, now, that had been burnt out since the Ending Winter. Even as the night turns into the orange-red of dawn, it only slowly wipes away the stars that are scattered as thickly as the wildflowers that carpet the meadows below. Iðunn is the name of a goddess of spring, after all. The war-dragons haven't begun a continent-spanning rampage yet, but it's hard to shake the feeling that this is a thaw humanity will not survive. The terrain here looks mostly like it did in Bern's lowlands, but your ears are likely to pop on arrival; this is merely a plateau among Bern's southern mountains. The ground around the Warpgate is heavily trampled in several directions, with the recent passage of hundreds of boots. Fortunately you don't have to go far or make many guesses to find the Lycian army's camp. These Warpgates are newly-charted; this area of Bern is distant and rural enough that Flamel's psychically pilfered Warpgate maps- indeed, the active cooperation of a sizeable fraction of the Bernish army- isn't much help anymore, so they've run themselves nearly ragged getting here as fast as they can on foot. Though the trees are overall denser in this remote fringe of Bern, the white tents are hastily pitched in a clearing for once; there are no more wyvern-knights hunting you from the skies. Speaking of which, here's Galle. The traitorous wyvern-general, recently behanded, sits on a log of firewood at the fringe of ongoing discussions, as stony and hard-to-read as ever; he acknowledges your approach with a terse little nod, and nothing more. At one of his shoulders is the ex-pegasus-rider lieutenant who rode Love in the attack on Castle Bern, wyvern closely atending her, and at his other shoulder is Melady, who looks seethingly ready to rip him apart if he sneezes wrong. Her hand white-knuckles the saber at her hip. "Hey, Galle. Look. It's the people who saved your life. Say hi." ". . ." "Say hi Galle." "You're welcome." "You can't be ffffucking--!!" Princess Guinivere- dressed up no more than usual, so she can't have been coronated yet- nearby looks apologetically embarrassed at both of the exes, which assuages neither of them.
Marigold	The real centerpiece of activity however is Zephiel's former Divine Weapon Eckesachs, or the mangled shards that used to make it up gathered like a jigsaw puzzle, laid out on a white cloth. Somehow, that sword's status must be creating the hitch in the Lycian army's urgency. While everyone else welcomes it as an excuse to catch their breath after the brisk march, several of the mages (Raigh, Sophia, Lugh) are crowded around it on hands and knees. "No, no, that piece goes there, I'm telling--" "Don't grab it out of my hand! It's the other edge, ow...!" "Be... careful, please...!" "I am careful! Pass me more of the, uh, sauter. Darn it..." Sophia of course is wearing thick gardening gloves so as not to touch a dragon-slaying weapon's pieces with her skin. Where Roy pitches in, though, he doesn't bother. He's keeping the Binding Blade at a white-hot simmer, carefully melting splinters from shattered Maltet in the hollow of the Blade's groove. When the Eckesachs-team needs 'glue', Lugh psychokinetically levitates a single molten droplet out; one Divine Weapon used to carefully piece another together. "Oh!! You made it. I'm, ah... I can't get up right now, but it's a pleasure to see you all again," says Roy, doing his careful slag-balancing with the Blade held well away from his body. There's bags under his eyes. "Oh, it's you. Petra, back me up here. I'm sure it only looks like this edge piece goes on the left because we're missing this splinter, but Lugh's insisting..." "Lilian! Is it true you really used Apocalypse! You've gotta tell Sophia how!" "Um... if she doesn't want to, that's...!" Lucius, Marcus, and Merlinus sit on the edge of a wagon on the opposite side of the blade-reassembly from Galle, reviewing crumpled papers; Chad stands out of place but enthusiastically participating in their tight discussion, with a new scar on the back of his hand. Oddly, the location of the camp and the semicircle of its three humble wagons has been chosen to make the near-horizon river- or is it a lake?- a second centerpiece. The island, or the far bank, is just barely visible; as is a dark feature on it that only those with good eyesight might make out is a red-clad army. Bern's loyalist remnants, maybe, if Roy is keeping his distance?
Angela	Love has transformed back into girl form and is practically hanging off of her and beaming bigly at her because they have fought The Dark Kingdom together and that's just wonderful. And look, they defeated the bad guy so the stars came back. Yay! Of course, it is important to be sad when you defeat a bad guy because what if they could've been good guy and then you could have been friends, it is necessary for a proper magical girl to remember to be appropriately sad at defeating the bad guy even if it's also important to be happy that the bad days that the bad guy was making are coming to an end and it's doubly especially important to be ignorant of the fact, sometimes, that the bad days AREN'T coming to an end and maybe you are just in the calm before the storm because when the REAL BAD DAYS come, you need to be caught off guard so that the bad guys feel appropriately scary before you have you grand big final battle with them otherwise WHAT IS THE POINT. If you don't let the bad guys be super scary then are you really being a magical girl or are you merely policing? Love was taught by Justice to DISLIKE THE POLICE so she can't accept that and, so, no matter the situation she has to believe that Idunn will still destroy the world if nothing is done while also simultaneously believing that it won't happen because they beat the final boss and so she has to conveniently forget that Idunn is out there so she can be properly spooked by Idunn later. This is so important! "You lived o/~" She singsongs to the ex-pegasus rider lieutenant. "What's your name?" She must be trying to get the character naming screen to appear above the lieutenant in order to provide her with survivability and also responsibilities that will put her in more danger. Win win! "It was very brave of you to betray the Dark Kingdom." She tells Galle because usually the dark lieutenant with pretty hair is SO SCREWED if they betray the dark queen. Love has to be gentle to Galle now in case he's, like, disintegrated on the next mission. She'll feel bad if that happens as karmic comeuppance for his disloyalty slash period of evilness. Roland is here too, along with Gebura. Roland looks like he's ready to fuck off to home forever but he seems to be using his report-providing to be a way for him to stave off his utter despair. ''You've gotta tell Sophia how!'' "Don't know about that." Roland murmurs. "Hopefully we don't gotta use anything like that again."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Having spent so much of her recent time in Elibe sharing in the Lycian League's furtive movements across Zephiel's Bern, Madeleine feels a little strange seeing the tents out in the open as she hikes up the last slope onto the plateau. Is that allowed? Arriving in camp, Madeleine nods at the work-in-progress fusion of the Divine Weapons. "Glad Maltet's still some use," she remarks to Roy. "I'd... hoped it could've survived for us to confront Iðunn with it, but what's done is done." She looks around more, and spies the figures on the far shore. "What's up with that lot?" "Lucius!" Maddie exclaims, on spying the last generation's heroes having their discussion. She hustles over without really stopping to help with Eckesachs's reassembly - leave that to those more familiar with swords, both in their making and usage. "I'm glad you're alright. When we couldn't find you during the battle, I was worried that-- I was worried." Then, looking to Marcus and Merlinus: "What're these papers about?" She peers over a shoulder if they'll let her.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel is so tense, every time he looks at the brilliantly-lit sky. Which is often, and functionally constant. But you can see his posture change, based on the proportion of the sky currently in his view, and the amount of light in it. The Milky Way is not unlike a mushroom cloud, to him, at this moment. Or at least something rather like it. And if you know him, you know what he's like, about that. The reward-function that shapes his mind is sending negative impulses every hour, every minute, every second. He doesn't feel good. He doesn't like the end of the world. He regards the situation with Galle, a man who had frustrated him so terribly that the only thing he could do that was even more frustrating was to stop just short of total devotion to that frustration, so the bright, friendly smile that Flamel has is a bit... Annoyed. He says, "Thhhhhank you, Galle." To Galle. And then he says, "Let me know if you want in there, later!" To Melady, with the cheeriest little grin. --- The Director stands in the control room of the Psychogate Project chamber. Both hands grip his cane. His eyes narrow and his brows furrow, and he monitors the door in the center of the chamber with the rest of his team. A technician looks back to him. "Sir. It's ready." "Send the team through." The men in hazardous material suits file into the chamber, they all check their gear, they all get ready. A smaller containment unit is wheeled in. The front is opened, and the being inside slowly uncurls. Four-legged but possessing terribly human hands, built like a five-times-sized housecat or some type of spindly lion, its head is covered like a mane of wild growths with magnifying glasses and its face is made of microscopes. It slowly paces through the door, as the hazmat-suited men guide it through... --- Flamel approaches the center of activity here. "Oh! ...It's almost like social jigsaw puzzles..." He smiles, softly. "I might be able to help out, actually. Maybe psychometry can get you some help." He tilts his head at Roy, still keeping the smile. "Good to see the Binding Blade is still responding to you too. Good work in there. Even if it wasn't work anyone wanted to do. We'll need it again, I think. And, of course, Lugh. "I think she used it the way it was supposed to be used. I... phew, I don't know, a weapon that uses your personhood for ammunition, well, as someone with only so much to start with I have to say it's something you should preciously keep as long as you have it." His wince in the smile adds an extra dimension to him saying, "Think the world already demanded too much of that from Lilian already." "Anyway. Let me try to help a bit..." He takes a deep breath, puts his fingers on his temples...
Flamel Parsons	UPE-043: Curiosity Classification: ANA-2 Containment Protocol: Standard cognitive containment. Provide steady diet of sensory data, social information, and appropriately-prepared UPE-004 and UPE-003. Description: The impulse of curiosity and study of the mind. Instances of UPE-043 provide high-density information about abstract topics, items, and individuals. Appropriately-deployed, this mental construct consumes normal mental information, as well as negative outcomes, and produces a byproduct stream of data contextually useful in the long-term. The durable body of most UPE-043 instances can be a means of testing new resources and tools without harm to agents or more important mental constructs. --- A tent's entrance flap opens. Four men(?) whose body types seem more like semi-distorted cartoon characters and who all have opaque-visored bright yellow hazmat suits, come through, guiding a four-legged beast towards the thing. Manifesting all of Flamel's curiosity-powered clairvoyance, the beast begins to fix its many studying lenses on each piece, and contribute to the sorting and reassembling, and the hazmat men work to handle it and keep it on-task. The eye icon on their suits might be familiar to some, and rests just above text declaring: "PARSONS INSTITUTE".
Nobunaga	It's been long enough that Nagayoshi Mori has recovered. He had dissipated into his spirit form after getting utterly rinsed by Zephiel, and Nobunaga scooped up Chacha during the retreat from the High Castle's collapse. Shortly upon arrival they split ways. Nagayoshi joins the soldiers once again, his element, and to assure them he did not actually die. Chacha trots over to the work being done on Eckesachs to see where she may be useful. With how tired Roy looks and how precious Maltet's shards are, she's already setting a stone atop a log, "You must be exhausted. Here. Chacha will help, use this to help support it." > "Say hi Galle." > "You're welcome." Oda Nobunaga, upon entering the camp, makes straight for Galle and Melady. As she approaches him, she reaches out as if to offer a handshake-- though within a pace, that hand has become a fist, and he puts her weight into a shot right at his face with enough power behind it to floor anyone this side of Echidna. "You disastrous, catastrophic, weapons-grade moron," Nobunaga follows the hit up by-- reaching down to offer him a hand up, "If only through your mind-boggling luck and maddening persistence, you finally made a gamble that paid off. King Zephiel is dead and Bern is free of his madness in part due to you." She grins that one-fanged grin of hers, as if she didn't just belt a dude, "How does it feel, Wyvern Knight?" "Do not say 'Like I was punched in the face'," Chacha pipes up from near Eckesachs, "That joke is lame."
Desire Stars	You're welcome. Ace's eyes meet Galle's. "You don't have to say anything. I understand." He places a folded piece of paper in the space between Galle's hauberk and his skin. It's an autograph. 'To my most ambitious fan.' Even with his skin a concerning shade paler than normal, bruises visible in places where his DGP activewear doesn't conceal his skin, and a spot of dried blood beneath his nose, Ace can still keep up his irritating manner, as if in competition with Galle to see who can be more grating. All the same, he does favor one of his legs as he moves from Galle towards Eckesachs. Like Roy, there are bags under his eyes. I can't get up right now, but it's a pleasure to see you all again. "I could say the same thing to you," says Neon. She's still got her share of bruises and burn marks from the fight--despite being the less experienced of the two, it seems like she came out the better. "How is everyone holding up?" "I meant what I said," Ace offers to Roy. "I'm sorry I thrust the Blade on you. I should have done what would have kept you safe, instead of what I thought would settle Zephiel's trial. That was selfish of me. I'm glad you made it."
Riku Asakura	Riku has a bad feeling about the Milky Way forming in Bern's backyard. Something about it puts him off, besides it being a field of stars so close to Earth. He wants to rush over there and try to stop it before it becomes worse, but that's the overeager side of him. They had just beaten Zephiel and had only barely managed that. What were they going to do if Iðunn was going to fight them, or had a horde of evil dragons ready to eat them? They needed rest and time to recover. However, looking up at that pattern of stars... Riku wondered just how much time they really had left. Was Zephiel going to have the last laugh? Riku himself is still battered-looking. Some bandages on his face and such, with bruising visible. Many of his other injuries are hidden beneath clothing. Unlike Lilian, he didn't get an arm broken, thankfully. He's still going to need time to recover, time they likely don't have. Riku comes up to Galle first. He didn't meet Galle the first time he encountered him; he only knew of the man by reputation... which wasn't a very good one. There were also the words he said on the day he lost his hand, which really concerned Riku. At the same time... why the change of heart? 'You're welcome.' "It's not going to hurt you to greet people properly, you know?" Riku says, shaking his head and giving Melady an understanding glance. He looks back toward Galle and tries to understand the man, but failing that, since Riku isn't psychic, he tries another way. Just in time to avoid Nobunaga punching him in the face. He looks at Nobunaga and tilts his head. "Was that really necessary? Come on now, we're not trying to start a fight..." Back to Galle, he starts again. "So why the change of heart? I don't think a man would say what he said at our last encounter if he didn't believe it... so why did you betray Zephiel right before we moved to face him?"
Petra Soroka	Petra's mood had improved a lot, actually, since Zephiel died. She was very unhappy at the time, awkwardly unable to be around his killer, glumly sulking in the catastrophic ideological failure of her complacency in society's vengeance on its own martyr, all as she would be expected to be, but this is not the Petra of years past whose main daily emotion is misery. In the intervening time, she talked with Lilian, spent recreational evenings around the Blooms, got invested in academic pursuits scientifically and linguistically, did quests, performed care, and all the things anyone would need to do in order to pull themselves out of a slump. To the point that, with only a short time having passed since his death, Petra feels certain that there's been a whole day that's passed where she didn't think about Zephiel at all. So when she returns to Bern, she's intentionally revisited her unhappiness with a doubled focus on it, meditating as if with her hand pressed to the stove in order to make up for happiness earlier. The parts of her outfit that were damaged when wounded by Eckesachs were half-healed by magic, then patched up manually, rather than simply switching out clothes or buying new ones. She's recovered well enough since that there'd be no physical sign of the fight on her body, at least not ones easily distinguished from the collection of small bits of damage she always accumulates, and thinking about that makes her unhappy enough to insist on wearing the uniform battered by the two year long war. "Hey, Galle. Look. It's the people who saved your life. Say hi." Isn't it weird that Galle managed to cross the army three times, for increasingly little justification, gathering increasingly more antagonism, to try to kill Roy and Marcus and very nearly succeed, to ignore all of their pleas for him to do anything reasonable for just long enough that he could dramatically betray Bern on his own terms with no coordination with the League, and then after all of that, sit by the campfire anyways? The campfire metaphor that Lilian always uses is especially literal here. Galle is a type of person who, despite all of the airs about his tragic exclusion from the sky and grim loyalty to whoever allows him to fly in it, has been accepted unconditionally everywhere he's went. Zephiel, who gave him his wyvern, is dead, and the wyvern's still around. Petra gives him a baleful look, and glances down at his absence of hand to make sure he didn't get that back too. Salvaging her mood just a little bit, she meets Melady's eyes and smiles a bit at the unspoken joke, that there at least isn't a cybernetic Galle to contend with.
Petra Soroka	She has to speak to Guinivere though, about nothing in specific, but it would just be kind of horrible to not say anything to her. "Hey, Lady Guinivere. Are you, uh, doing alright? What's gonna happen with like, Bern, and the castle, and all; you know, assuming Iðunn doesn't kill us all." Aw man. She's fucking it up. Fumbling, Petra shifts her weight awkwardly between her feet, incapable of ending the social interaction until she says, "And I'm, um-- sorry." "I'm, ah... I can't get up right now, but it's a pleasure to see you all again," "Oh, wow. The whole gang's back together." Petra's blithe amusement at the circle around Eckesachs comes from the sheer mundane desperation of it all. Using the Binding Blade to turn the ruins of one Divine Weapon into the solder for repairing another, for the sake of the final battle any of them could be useful for, feels like trying to blow hard enough on a car to roll it to the gas station. She sits down hard, inviting herself right into the closest circle, adjusting forwards onto her knees to not squish the mechanical Silver dog tail she's gained since last time. "Hold on, I'm really good at these kinds of puzzles. Let's see, wait." Petra scoops a palmful of Silver off of her tail, then levitates it above the half-reformed Eckesachs. It squiggles into shape to mimic the whole sword, then abruptly hardens and shatters, intuiting fault lines from the impact Zephiel made with it on the floor of his throne room. It's soothing to do a little jigsaw puzzle, despite the context. When Apocalypse comes up, Petra says without looking at anyone beside the sword she's helping reassemble, "Might've been better to leave that one with Brammimond."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	UPE-043: Curiosity Madeleine watches the team of hazard-suited personnel emerge from a tent, and perks up substantially when she realizes they've brought a Creature. Momentarily distracted from Lucius and company, she takes a few steps closer and shields her eyes from the morning sun. "Oh my goodness what is this, Flamel? I didn't know you had- had mystery lions! Tell me positively everything about how you got your mitts on this little guy." She leans down to gently stroke the creature's mane of lenses. "Who's a good boy?"
Odette Raskins	Seeing Bern in the context of no longer having to worry about Bern's armies bearing down on everyone should be cause for celebration, but Odette's not in a particularly celebratory mood just yet. She's still reeling terribly from the aftermath of the battle against Zephiel, having barely been able to get back onto her feet until just a day ago and only woken up from the only proper sleep she's had a few hours ago. She's even using a staff as a walking aid to keep herself steady, and she's sporting a strange white doohickey covering the left side of her head where her ear should be. She winces slightly at the popping feeling over her 'ear' as she approaches, then freezes up when she sees Galle at the camp. The memories having to face him and Maltet even as a bystander compared to everyone else has the EMT fixed in place momentarily until her brain can finally convince her body that she isn't going to die right now. Breathing out a shaky exhale, she raises a hand in a light greeting to both the general and Melady. "Ah... Hello, Miss Melady. Hello, Mister Galle. You're-" Wait, he just said you're welcome. That means she should say "Thank.. You?" She sounds confused at first, then gets in just a nod of affirmation before snickering at Melady's outburst. "N-no, really! Er. Thanks for the backup. It really meant a lot for-" She gestures around at the sky, pausing to really get a better look at eerily beautiful sight of the new sky, then turns back to the two. "Y... You know! Um. If you need a replacement for that, I know a guy?" She offers with a hopeful lilt in her voice, and only slightly worried about the possibility of a cybernetic Galle wandering around. She doesn't stick around for long, though, as her attention quickly shifts to those working on the remains of Eckesachs. There's still something she needs to confirm, and seeing that Raigh and Lugh aren't utterly depressed puts some hope in Odette's heart. She does pause to peek at what they, Sophia, and Roy are working on, though, and she freezes up again when her mind goes racing back to many near-death encounters from the battle. Thankfully, the weapon is only being pieced together and not being swung, so she's able to settle down soon enough to set aside a few pairs of thin latex gloves for the reassembly crew. "Here, this might help a bit if you just need to have something in-between." She offers, pausing again to peer at Roy's face. She frowns slightly at the sight of those bags, then sets aside a can of Company-approved soda (now in Green Flavor(tm)!). Circling around the reassembly zone further, Odette's soon within sprinting-distance of Lucius, and she actually starts to do just that! "Fa... Father Lucius!" She stops short of throwing herself at him in relief to see him alive, though, between her staff-walking slowing her down more than enough to give her time to see that he's actually working on something. She settles for hurrying over as fast as her limping will take her, still tiring enough that she needs to lean on the staff by the time she stops, but not so much that she's falling over herself. "You're alive, you're alive... I-I was afraid you had-" She wants to latch onto him, to make sure he's real, and her hands keep circling around the staff she's using for support like she's stopping herself from making a fool of herself. She sucks in a big snotty breath, then wipes her face with her sleeve and recoils slightly when her sleeve brushes against the white thing on her head. "I-I didn't see you during the battle, and I kept hearing that y.. You weren't responding, you were missing, and I thought you..." She's shaking a lot, finally relieved to see Lucius alive, and starting to become an even snottier mess after that.
Flamel Parsons	The question from Madeleine of who a good boy is provokes some scanning from UPE-043, which tears away from its task and immediately looks around a lot. Ace? That's a man, not a boy. Roland? Boyish, but not good! Odette? A girl who is good, but girl and boy are still distinct. Nobunaga? No, that's a sort of ahistorical evil woman. It eventually locks on to Riku; the big cat-anomaly surges towards him, about tall enough to reach his waist, and sniffs at his hands, before trying to nudge against him like a cat would and shed a single lit lightbulb that sticks on his body. That's the answer to Madeleine's question. --- The Director presses a button on his headset, grimly delivering some orders to his men. "Keep the UPE on-task." --- Outside, the hoods of the hazmat-men emit dense, obfuscated radio sounds, and in response, they move quickly and sternly to wrangle the cryptid back into its appropriate task. They say something to Madeleine, but their hoods and vocoding make it impossible to understand. "I dug it out of some anomalous mental landscape-strata. My mind's been on some unusual tasks lately, and I picked up a decent mindfeel for digging anomalies out of the unconscious." Flamel explains, watching the work.
Lilian Rook	Bern really is unfairly beautiful. The fact that it looks so much just like Lycia can only make Lilian remember the campfire around which all of this truly began, and in doing so, make a mockery of those hopeful promises that she made in the heat of the moment, when recalled in the aftermath of how she carried them out. That the land is so untouched by war, blooming with wildflowers under a night full of stars, feels as if it is saying 'Look at what you've protected!', and that makes her mood even worse. Enough to make her glad that her arm hasn't fully healed just yet. Camping out in the open, completely free of the desperate tension that had characterized the League's steady approach through Bern, would feel miserably twee if she weren't in at least a little pain. Though the situation right now is truthfully more severe than ever before, she can't feel like it is, while watching the dawn like this. The splint and brace holding her arm straight against her chest feel like the only reminder that anything ever happened instead. So much that Lilian fidgets with the sling as if it might disappear when she isn't looking. Like something would be wiped clean that shouldn't. So what is there to say to Galle? She had imagined this moment would be something she would arrive at triumphantly, even unbearably smug. Now she just wants to avoid looking at him, because he is sitting beside Melady like she always wanted the two of them to be, and Galle knew what it would cost before she did. 'Oh!! You made it. I'm, ah... I can't get up right now, but it's a pleasure to see you all again' "It's a relief to see you too." says Lilian, using a different word on purpose. She wishes she could look as tired as him, as if it would somehow help something. She sounds it, though. "Whose idea was it to alloy Maltet and Ekesachs? Is that something we can believe will work? Or is it merely that the two of them are useless in pieces anyways?" 'Lilian! Is it true you really used Apocalypse! You've gotta tell Sophia how!' 'Um... if she doesn't want to, that's...!' 'Think the world already demanded too much of that from Lilian already.' Lilian swallows hard and dry. It'd seemed insane at the time that no one else even mentioned it afterwards, but now that she's returned to Elibe, hearing the obvious question makes her blood run cold, and all she can think about is that she had days and days to think of an answer. "It wasn't hard." she lies. "It's a very flexible spell." Pale-faced, Lilian looks for any other topic, and finds one by thewagon. "I'm glad to see you as well, Lucius. You gave me a scare earlier." Back at Castle Bern. It isn't an ungenuine thought, either; even she can't wallow in the same unprocessed feelings for all this time without organizing them enough to work again. 'Might've been better to leave that one with Brammimond.' Little else but 'work' can distract her from it anyways. "How far are we?" she asks, either Marcus or Merlinus, implicitly. It's an excuse to keep her eyes that way, and pretend to only hear certain things.
Marigold	"Urk-- it's, it's Lera," Galle's lieutenant puffs out while being half-constricted by Love. Galle glances up at Lera, but she doesn't seem to be in true distress, so his eyes drift back down. "Well... ahh, thanks, but... I don't think I can take too much credit for the 'betraying a dark kingdom' thing," she fumbles, slightly mortified still to be around people she was fighting a few weeks ago. "Half of us were thinking about deserting after all the dragons, y'know? And Galle got most of the half who weren't thinking about it killed off. You helped with some of that." "I guess he can have a new arm if he's good. But I'm expecting a nice long while of proper behavior out of him before that," Melady says to Odette. Galle takes the hand extortion in stride. Or maybe he just doesn't hear. "Oh, Odette! Oh, no, what's happened to you?" Father Lucius says, setting down the crumpled papers and reaching for his staff uncertainly as if her wounds might need tending. They look old, though, so he just offers her a careful side-hug with an apologetic look, and pets the top of her head. "No, no... I've been quite alright, I promise. Oh, your ear...?" "Sorry," Chad says guiltily, glancing down at his own new hand-scar. "I saw a chance to get some stuff from Zephiel's study. Went off alone. Father came after me. Guess it was good he did." "Well, it did lead to some good," Lucius says, with a tilt of his head towards those papers. "Still, I'm sorry to worry you. The both of you," glancing to Lilian apologetically too. Roy looks at Chacha in evident confusion- "Oh, um, thank you," he says very graciously, about being apparently offered a stone. He doesn't know there's more steps than that! "I appreciate it." That's his pet rock now. "You don't have to say anything. I understand." Galle raises his eyebrows slightly, but doesn't object. Ace has a way of saying that that makes him believe it. When he takes out the piece of paper and reads it (unfolding it is a little hard), he makes an almost-snort noise through his nose. "What's it say?" "A lie," he says, but he's already putting it back in his pocket fondly. "What's it say--" Thwack. "Hey, hey!! What are you doing?!" Lera yells after Nobunaga's punch, while Galle sprawls out on the ground. Melady actually draws her saber from her hip, grabbing the warlord's arm. "Hey-- don't-- that was my punch! What gives you the right, you... you... harlot?!" 5R "Melady!! Let go of her!" Guinivere says, having jolted to her feet. "But I... Princess..." "... Nobunaga. I think everyone has the right to hit him. Melady and Roy most of all. But if everyone takes the swing they're entitled to, there won't be much left of him. Or left of Bern. Please don't be selfish. Am I understood?" "... Ugh." Melady does, eventually, let go of Nobunaga's arm of her own volition, still simmering. Galle remains silent throughout, rubbing his scuffed cheek while half-lying in the grass. After a long moment, he answers Riku and Nobunaga: "... I switched sides because you were going to lose. If you didn't want me as your ally, you should've won on your own." Nobody likes that much, but the tension simmers back down.
Marigold	"Huh? Leave it with Bramimond? Don't be stupid. It's the strongest dark magic there is," Raigh says to Petra, while Flamel's creation snuffles at the sword. "I think... she means... didn't need it...?" "What? It killed Zephiel just fine, I heard." "Raigh... it probably took a lot out of Lilian." "I guess..." How far are we? "That's it," Merlinus tells Lilian, pointing across the river/lake- to the nearly empty island/shore- with a mischievous little twinkle in his eye. "That's the Dragon Temple, right there." "That's where it will be," Chad corrects, seventeenly. "Oh, let an old man have a little fun..." "The papers I got from the castle say that the Heroes hid the Dragon Temple away on that island," Chad goes on, rolling his eyes. "Almost like its own Otherworld. The Demon Dragon probably has a way in and out. But the papers say Hartmut's weapon can reveal the Temple, and we can't figure it out with the Binding Blade, so we're gonna try Eckesachs." "Yeah. I'd be surprised if you could hit something with this hunk of junk and not have it fall apart," Raigh scoffs. Lugh flinches a little. "... So that's what we're working on," says Roy, while Lugh places a piece with the UPE-beast's guidance (Raigh, who was wrong about it, scowls)]. "That, and we're waiting for General Cecilia. With Galle's forces to hold a Warpgate for her, she can just bring her army through. Brunnya's forces holding the Temple shouldn't be much of an obstacle for her." "How is everyone holding up?" "That was selfish of me. I'm glad you made it." "No, I..." Roy carefully balances the Blade's hilt on his knee, to keep holding the Maltet-sauter in the fuller. That lets him relax a bit. "... I'm glad you trusted me, Ace. I'm sorry I couldn't live up to that trust, yet. But it would've felt worse to not be trusted at all. Does that... make any sense?" He smiles, giving Neon her fuller answer: "I feel scared. I thought I'd be relieved." "I think we all are. If there's any time to be scared, Lord Roy, it's with the sky changing and the Demon Dragon having nothing to lose." "Thank you, Merlinus. But still..."
Nobunaga	> "I appreciate it." Chacha puffs her cheeks out when the intent of her aid isn't as clear as she'd like, "No, no," she says through the pout, "You can rest the sword on this and keep it balanced, see? Stone won't melt like metal does. Trust Chacha. Chacha knows." She's not about to start pushing him around, though. The dribble of Maltet held in the Binding Blade's fuller is far too precious to jostle, so she intends to let Roy maneuver it on his own. Though if he's resting it on his knees now, maybe the sword just won't burn him at all? When he moves like that, the young Lady Yodo taps her lips with a fingertip with a little 'hmm' of thought. > "Was that really necessary?" "Absolutely," Nobunaga answers Riku without skipping a beat, "This is a language spoken between warriors." > "You... harlot?!" With one arm held by Melady, Nobunaga closes her eyes and lifts the other in an accepting shrug, "I got my piece in. It is a Demon King's right and privilege to be selfish, after all." > "I switched sides because you were going to lose." "Is that so?" Her head tilts slightly, eyes closed, "What may have once been; What happened has since happened. It cannot be helped." Haiku delivered, the warlord tugs her forearm out of Melady's grasp, then gestures, "He's all yours." She opens one eye Melady's way, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth and raising her voice a pitch or two, "If you space it out, he'll last longer~."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"I dug it out of some anomalous mental landscape-strata." "Oh, let me know when you do that next! I'd love to come along and see something like this in the wild." She smiles a little as the creature indicates Riku with a lightbulb. "I guess he's a good boy, huh." "Brunnya's forces holding the Temple shouldn't be much of an obstacle for her." "Brunnya?" Madeleine sounds surprised. "What, is this a 'Zephiel's last wishes' thing, or was she closer to Iðunn than we suspected?" "So that temple's where Iðunn... is? Will be, when it shows up? Might have gone to?" A pause. "And where she's doing... all that," she says, gesturing vaguely at the sky. "It's funny, when I talked to Zephiel I figured I knew Iðunn's deal, generally speaking, and could guess how her stuff aside from the dragons worked. But now that it's actually happening..." She holds out a hand palm upward as if testing for rain. "I don't think I've got the knack anymore. Elibe's changing, a lot."
Riku Asakura	"Zero is a warrior, and he hasn't punched me. I think it's a really lame excuse. You should choose your words better, instead of punching people you don't like." Riku says, despite everything, he doesn't hold his tongue for the warlord he's heard stories of all his life. Riku is also approached by a beast! He pauses as UPE-043 approaches him; it is a large cat. The cryptid isn't aggressive and approaches him curiously, so he holds a hand out for 043 to sniff, and when he has gained its trust, he gently pats it on the head. Though eventually men in hazmat suits come to take 043 away! "Aww, it was a nice cat..." 'If you didn't want me as your ally, you should've won on your own.' Riku just stares at Galle; he was expecting an answer, a real fucking response. What he got instead was apparently Galle. He looks at Melady, as if looking for some translation, gives up, and then turns his head back to Galle. "Really? That's it? That's all you got to say after everything you said in that battle? I just..." Riku just shakes his head and looks away from Galle, who he just thinks is impossible. Instead, he speaks to Guinivere. "How are you holding up? I can't imagine what you're feeling after all of this and the future of Burn and all..." he looks at the ground for a moment. It's easier for him sometimes; he doesn't have to think about leading people. It's easier being an Ultraman in that one regard. "Also, the castle is a little..." he looks a little lost for words. "Not much of one anymore... so any plans on where you'd be staying after this is all resolved?" This is where he also overhears the information about the dragon temple. Well, that explains why he just can't fly off half-cocked and stupidly into danger. So they have nothing but time until it shows up. That's probably good for someone.
Angela	Fortunately Love is not in her snake form so she's not literally crushing-mode just metaphorically crushing-mode. Love is hopelessly drawn to the recently 'redeemed' heroine. It's important to Love to be especially affectionate to the recently no-longer-evil. It's all part of the <s>brainwashing</s> positive reinforcement! "Ssh ssh... it's okay. You did good. Let me be grateful o/~" She says grateful in the most singsongy way possible without actually singing. "You know, you can ride me next time if you want, to the big big final battle. It's fun being the mount for a noble knight, Justice never rides me." ''Nobunaga punches Galle'' Roland is too exhausted to get riled up about this and frankly kind of gets it, but it still is another thing to be sour about. Gebura, however, stiffens up and places her hand on Mimicry as she stares at Nobunaga, coming to a decision as to whether she needs to start vertically cleaving or horizontally cleaving Nobunaga. But Melady seems to have it handled so she pretty much immediately ceases paying it any mind. "Brunnya is still fighting even after the King's fall? Or perhaps she has not heard of the news just yet?"No that seems implausible. Gebura frowns. ''This is a language spoken between warriors.'' Gebura thinks of the period where she was a berserk maniac who was tearing apart her own people in an attempt to slaughter Abnormalities again and again and again. She sighs and runs her fingers down Mimicry's shaft. ''If you didn't want me as an ally, you should've won on your own.'' Gebura turns and approaches Galle. She looks into his eyes for a long moment, thinking about their last encounter during the hunt for Murdoch. "It has been some time." She says. "We have wanted you as an ally from the beginning. Don't be surprised that there are those sore it took so long. In a way it is an insult, to have one's hand slapped away for so long. A little longer, and we might have both lost." She is quiet for a moment and then adds, "Can you still fly?" She does not mean literally. "Even after turning against the one who gifted you the sky? Do you still have the strength for it with the source of that right buried?" Love thinks a dramatic punch between rivals is good actually and doesn't interfere. But she does squeeze Lera a little harder. Roland looks at Roy, then he sighs and holds his head in his hands, and then he looks to Gebura. "Hey. I know there's still Idunn and Brunnya but ... do you all got it from here?" "I'm not about to clear you from the battlefield on my own." Gebura says to him. "Besides, it is not my call. I know you've fought in wars before and this brings back bad memories, but sometimes that brings insight." "I was just sent here to kill." Roland smiles. "All Angela cares about is the survival of Elibe and the people here." "But she never once ordered you to ignore your heart, Roland." "My heart tells me to survive for I've work to do. It'll be a hassle for others if I don't do my part." Roland shakes his head. "I didn't build a better world back then despite all their promises, I can't blame them--I knew they were lying. It was your people I was fighting for. And your allies denied my one selfish request, even as I was on my hands and knees. That's the City, and that's war. When this is over, I'll still have nothing. Vets are the first people whose promises are broken." Gebura can't access that accusation, exhaling out a long sigh, looking towards Guinivere and Roy, perhaps hoping they might do something, anything, for the broken man.
Desire Stars	But it would've felt worse to not be trusted at all. Does that... make any sense? Ace moves to sit down near Roy, crossing his legs and resting his hands in his lap. "It does make sense. And I want you to know that you're never going to have to worry about that." "You were a good kid when I met you. In the time since, I've watched you start down the road towards being a good man. For what it's worth, I wanted it in the hands of someone with a path to victory worth believing in. The list is pretty short." He pauses, then adds teasingly, "And Lilian's hands were full." He frowns, as if tasting something unsavory, and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. A red smear follows it, which he attempts to hide from Roy and Neon, planting it back on the ground. I feel scared. I thought I'd be relieved. "Well... we're getting close to the part of the story that no one talks about, aren't we? Everyone likes a happy ending. Enough that we have 'happily ever after.' So that you don't have to think about what happens." She smiles a little sadly. "We've come all this way, fought tooth and nail, beat almost every impossible odd except the last one, and assuming we even pull through there, the question on everybody's mind is going to be, 'what next?' Everyone else is scared, too. Across Elibe. Being happy means that something can just... take it away, and people have already lost so much that they don't know if they can risk being happy." "So I think it's normal to be scared. And I think... I think I'd rather have someone who's scared for that reason holding that sword than someone who just doesn't care."
Odette Raskins	Odette is, indeed, a girl who is... Good? She'd like to think she is, but is she truly? Or is she a rotten girl wearing a good one's skin? The world may never know. "But I'm expecting a nice long while of proper behavior out of him before that," "Before... Oh! Yes, there's definitely going to be time for that to happen. There's measurements they'll need to take, physical therapy to get used to it again, super invasive surg... eries... Uh." Realizing how bad that last part sounds as she's in the middle of saying it to Melady and Galle, Odette scrunches her face up slightly while considering other options. "W... Well! There's also something like what I've got now that would be a lot cheaper and faster, but maybe the reward for good behavior can come faster if... He promises to behave?" She suggests with another hopeful lift in her tone, glancing from Melady to Guinivere and finally to Galle like she's hoping to get confirmations from all of them. Even after all that's happened, she's still a sucker for trying to get things to work out on that front. "Oh, no, what's happened to you?" More relieved than embarrassed about losing her composure right in front of everyone, Odette takes one more moment to blow her nose before letting out a long, relieved sigh. "Haaah... Ah? O-oh, this was... Er. When Zephiel was doing-" She gestures at the sky generally. "-all of that, he.. Um. Clipped me with it. J-just a little!" She explains, hastily trying to downplay it as though he didn't burn that entire side of her head enough that an ear substitute was put there in its place. " There's a moment in that explanation when she starts trying to sound mad about Zephiel, too, but it's hard to do that with Lucius' side-hug partially jellifying her while she returns the hug about as well as she can with just one arm free. "I'm just glad you're okay. I don't know what I would've done if I didn't see you here, too..." "I saw a chance to get some stuff from Zephiel's study." "Stuff? Oh, those!" She looks questioningly over at Chad first, then at Lucius, then at the papers indicated. It takes just a moment for Odette to let out another relieved noise, then smiles gratefully at Chad. "It was! It kept him far and away from Zephiel and Eckesachs, so... Thank you. But..." She doesn't seem keen on stepping away from Lucius' physical attention, so she doesn't. Instead, she just tries to beckon Chad over with her staff hand. "Let's see that hand... Any loss of motion or feeling in any of your fingers? We've got some time before we get over to that island, right?" "the Heroes hid the Dragon Temple away on that island" "But the papers say Hartmut's weapon can reveal the Temple" "So that's why they're putting that back together..." Odette murmurs in response to Chad, looking impressed at the information that's apparently been found by those same papers. "Not bad! I just hope we don't actually have to.. Like. HIT hit the temple with it. Even if we got the heavy duty glue to hold that together-" She looks over at Roy and company, then at the Eckesachs project. "I can't imagine it being good for any more than a few swings. And if it happens to do what Zephiel was doing when he was swinging it at us, it might end up being too easy to see the temple after." Odette adds with a slightly troubled noise. B-but speaking of holding it together... Do you need another hand? I'm still steady even after all that!" She pumps her fists for emphasis, then hastily grabs onto Lucius with one arm and her staff with the other so she doesn't fall right over.
Flamel Parsons	"Oh, I'm having to do it internally for now! There's still lots of meetings about inviting everyone else. But hopefully, soon!" Flamel beams at Madeleine. "I wonder," Flamel rambles a bit to his fellows in reassembly. "If we'll be able to find any soul echoes in there. Honestly, I'd be surprised if Hartmut had much energy left in him after seeing Zephiel like this so long. I'd assume he'd show the way, you know? ...Probably the one that had the most, but we'll see the least. It must be awful, though, to put so much of yourself into something and have it turn out like this." He thinks a lot about Zephiel, in the same capacity. His head, slightly shinier in the streak where it was smashed open by Zephiel, sparks briefly when he hears Madeleine's words. Specifically, 'Zephiel's last wishes'. "She wouldn't, if-- If she knew." He shakes his head. "But I won't be able to do anything with that. Man. Trying to slug it out with her before still has me pretty scared, I'll admit! She can match me blow for blow and then some, and probably kill me if I go too long. But still, I'd better back up Cecilia. I know how she fights, and she's the only Wyvern General who my skillset's suited for to begin with." He stretches his shoulder, sore from exertion. Riku remarks on the cat. "Oh, yeah! UPE-043 seems like a sweetheart. Causes a lot of byproduct UPE-003-B if you leave it too uncontained, though, it needs firm wrangling. At least, that's how the Institute's studied it, anyway." He hears Roland's self-centered, or sensibly safe, feeling, depending on who you ask. He signals to him. "Hey." He says. "I mean-- speaking as someone who's also not from around here and also has some less likely survival in the stand-up fights," He crosses his arms. "I know some of what happens in the world you're from. Angela might only be invested in Elibe as much as it, I guess, suits the tastes of the Elites who come here. But I know apocalypses like this, though." He jabs a thumb up to the night sky. "Look at that. That light. It's a fundamental change to laws of nature and physics and metaphysics, you know. That's 'light works differently'. Even Angela, on some level, knows, if one world is allowed to shift the needle on the laws that govern the function of light, it's going to shift more than just that world's needle. You really don't want someone saying, 'times ten to all light', 'times one hundred to all light', 'times one thousand to all light', worldwide. It'll get multi-world-wide, and you can't tell if it'll graze the City." He does a wide-handed gesture. "And what it'd do to the only place gathering huge amounts of Light." "Be selfish. You should, you know? If that comes naturally. But you should do it while... considering everything, you know. And if you're wanting to leave, you should do it because it's really the right thing to go forward with."
Lilian Rook	'And Galle got most of the half who weren't thinking about it killed off. You helped with some of that.' §Crafty piece of shit.§ Lilian sighs and glances away. §God I can't stand him.§ 'I guess he can have a new arm if he's good.' Lilian opens her mouth. §Don't manifest meta-Galle.§ She closes her mouth again. She doesn't feel like being funny at the moment. So she tries to pick a place to settle in. After four circuitous laps around the edge of the firelight, she hasn't found a satisfactory place to sit down. 'Still, I'm sorry to worry you. The both of you,' "You needn't apologize. All's well that ends well." Lilian says, forcing a lifeless smile that she shouldn't. "Perhaps it was fate taking you aside." 'What gives you the right, you... you...' Lilian mouths the word 'whore'. 'What? It killed Zephiel just fine, I heard.' She isn't anywhere near the fight. 'That's it' Merlinus makes her flinch, for some completely opaque reason. She wrenches her eyes off the ground, then breathes out again once she follows his finger. "But how far in that direction?" she says, before Chad butts in, and makes her nervously laugh a few seconds late. "So sneaking off was for the best, and fixing up Ekesachs is just sort of inevitable." she says, moving to sit down, hesitating, then resuming her pacing. 'Yeah. I'd be surprised if you could hit something with this hunk of junk and not have it fall apart' "You never know. We could put the pieces in a giant bear trap." For some reason, despite her hazy-boggling stare at Flamel's UPE just walking around like that, that's the part she seems to find absurd. 'But it would've felt worse to not be trusted at all. Does that... make any sense?' "Yeah." Lilian says, to a question not asked of her. "I wish I'd given you a reason to trust yourself. I regret being so fixated on . . . I regret thinking that the Blade would just make things work themselves out, somehow. I should have let you know how much I trusted you to want the right thing at the right time. I knew we were going to be right at the heart of everything telling you it was wrong." 'I think we all are. If there's any time to be scared, Lord Roy, it's with the sky changing and the Demon Dragon having nothing to lose.' Lilian glances down at her arm. Dully, she flexes her right fingers back and forth. "I'll be back in fighting shape in a day or two." she says. That's her best reassurance. No. She has one better. "I'll cast it again if I have to."
Petra Soroka	What gives you the right, you... you... harlot?!" This sucks!!!! Nobunaga is a real creep! Melady should've been the final arbitrator on Galle's fate, as the most important person with the most relevant tie to him-- the bonds and arcs in war are decided by the person with the most notable face to Petra specifically, and Nobunaga is featureless compared to Melady. The grand arc of star-crossed lovers, betrayal, and the world's war embodied in the small struggle of a couple permanently split over the heat that tested their different ideals, is sabotaged by some complete rando marching up and punching him. The narrative construct becomes flesh, the man falls to the ground without his wyvern, and a small dark sphere pierces soundlessly through his chest in an instant. It's already done, so there's nothing for Petra to say. Galle's words turn to static in her ears, and she looks back down at Eckesachs. "Don't be stupid. It's the strongest dark magic there is," "Sure, that's true." Petra spins a piece of Eckesachs around in her finger, accidentally drawing blood from pinching the sharp edge. "Yeah." She's silent for a minute, picking at the ruins of Eckesachs one piece of shrapnel at a time, until she suddenly speaks up again. "I just think that, the ultimate dark magic spell, that annihilates some of your humanity to even conceive of-- using it robs the target of their humanity too. If this whole fucking war was fought with, like, guns, and drones, and missiles, and everything was just insane mindless slaughter on both sides, Apocalypse wouldn't even be notable, but that's not what we've been doing, is it? It's not even possible to do that here." "Like, even the war dragons have a face. Even-- like, even Bern was made up of people, and it made sense to imagine them as people, and every person killed on both sides was a human being. Like, to have any kind of hope at all about, you know, a future where anything gets better because of this, you have to envision it as this whole big story, where the world's on trial, and despite everything that happens, we persevere and know better to be kinder on the other side of it." Though her tone's still muted, Petra gets more frantic, picking up the pace of her rambling as she recognizes just how long she's been talking one-sidedly about something that'll make no one happy. "You know? We're barely even talking about Zephiel today. Apocalypse was an execution. It's practically a firing squad. The perfect efficiency of a weapon meant to reduce its target to meat, and now we're all just skipping along and moving on, because it's exactly the same as before, and now we're just fucking cleaning up the dregs of what escaped the firing wall. I kind of hate being here, but I still want you all to live, so let's go wipe all the rest of the stars out of the sky this time and finish up the job. You know?" "I feel like Apocalypse breaks the world worse than the Binding Blade does. It's like discovering, all of a sudden, that every human being has a button on the back of their head, and if you press it, they just turn off, like nothing they ever said or did mattered. I don't like it. --Obviously it's just killing, and obviously Zephiel was going to die, but like?! Doesn't it pretty obviously matter how? I mean, fuck, it's like we spent two years getting to a vending machine and emptied it out and left!" "I'll cast it again if I have to." "I want Eckesachs when it's fixed."
Angela	When Flamel arrives to tell Roland about the interconnectedness of the universe, Roland looks at Lilian instead. The lifeless smile is colder than space. The words 'I'll cast it again if I have to' is heartbreaking. He failed her. In some small way he failed to protect something about Lilian that Angelica thought was precious, surely. And so he wonders why he was even here. He is not needed to protect Fey or even Igrene. Especially not now. "How is it," He asks Flamel. "That you can see the shape of society's mind and structure and chart its course like you were a Great King the way I breathe air. How is it that you can recognize the key psychological trauma afflicting a king and come up with a plan of action in seconds... And still, totally, not understand me at all?" Behind Roland's eyes are a great infinite and eternal silence. that he has melded deep with his heart, an element of his soul that existed even before he met his wife, a painful solitude and emptiness forged over and over by a life of being constantly betrayed by the society, constantly knocked down into the dirt simply because something was wrong with him. Because he still grimaced when he saw men butchered in the streets and still struggled to keep down his lunch when the many monsters and anomalies of The City preyed upon its Feathers in the dark or, oftentimes, in the light of day where others simply politely looked away. Is he selfish? Why shouldn't he be? If he understands Angela at all he understands this--she does not care about the society of The City because The City was never her home. The multiverse is Angela's home. She would kill most of The City in order to make it that much easier for Lilian to slide on her boots. The reason she doesn't is because Lilian still has some care for the people of The City under her care. Everyone else, she is all too happy to tear out the souls of in order to fuel her project. He just finds it difficult to blame her. In her shoes, he'd do the same. In his own shoes, if things were just slightly different, he'd be enthusiastically helping her. Roland has never been able to hide his feelings from his face. But he has been able to hide his mind, day by day, by submerging himself in the basic ennui of The City. This is this, that is that. I've my problems, they've theirs. I need to eat lunch today. I need to be able to afford groceries tomorrow. The basic soul of survival eclipses his dreams and furies that he has been trained to smother down into an empty whimper so that he can be The Professional, that he can be The Reliable Worker. And only one person have ever asked anything more of him than that. "I'll do the job I've been given. I'm a professional." Roland tells Flamel. "Don't worry about that. It doesn't matter. I can do it. Trained my whole life for it. Even a Grade Nine can manage it." He shakes his head. "But, really, if it burned The City--what's that got to do with me?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel's whirling around to Petra is almost instant. His face stays totally fixed on her, unchanging, for the entire duration of the monologue, or maybe soliloquy might be more appropriate, and just... keeps silent. He waits until it's done. It's very patient and attentive. Then he says, "Does that mean you'll learn enough Psychonautry to offer the Sigmund Procedure to anyone else Apocalypse gets cast on?" The question is stark in its sort of steel-like razor edge, and totally incongruous with the smile he has. "I mean, if you want to not 'move on' from the 'execution', so to speak, without caring. You'll be doing something to head it off?"
Lilian Rook	And Lilian's hands were full.' "Funny how that is." Lilian sighs aside to Ace, retreating back to the fire for another loop. "They wound up empty in the end." 'You know? We're barely even talking about Zephiel today. Apocalypse was an execution.' "Petra please." Lilian somehow raises and lowers her voice at the same time; shouting in a hoarse whisper, or flinching away from speak up loud enough to be heard. It sounds like 'we've talked about this', because they have; doubtlessly talked about it more than anyone not from Elibe. "Nobody wants to be here" 'So don't spread it around' is the quiet part. "Not doing this. Nobody is happy." 'So nobody wants a reminder'. "Who is this helping?" 'Is it even helping you, somehow?' "They didn't even see it." 'Much less cast it'. 'so let's go wipe all the rest of the stars out of the sky this time and finish up the job. You know?' "They're doing the best they can. this is their home." 'Not in front of them. It's not their fault'. The urgency is readable in the way Lilian finally breaks her orbit, and starts to approach. 'It's like discovering, all of a sudden, that every human being has a button on the back of their head, and if you press it, they just turn off, like nothing they ever said or did mattered' And then she stops, again, because for a moment, she can only think about death. Not Zephiel's, this time. Not Schneider's or Angelica's or Matthew's or Ishirou's or any of the other ones. The concept, tangibly. The death that is already there in every single person, lodged in some point of the temporal axis of their existence, pretended away in every moment of every day until it gets easy enough to be bearable. She thinks about death, and she thinks about what Petra thinks of death, and then the disconnect is so utterly overwhelming that she wonders how she ever missed it in the first place. So much that she can't even blame Apocalypse. "Discovering?" Lilian says, stunned in place, balanced precariously between footsteps, as if a mine were beneath one of them and merely shifting her weight the wrong way would set it off. "Petra what are you talking about?"
Marigold	"This is a language spoken between warriors." "I've never heard of that," says Marcus the old knight skeptically. Melady just wrinkles her nose and then turns away at Nobunaga's last remark, helping up Galle maybe just to spite her. Once Galle's risen, he shrugs at Riku with seeming indifference. "If you were strong you'd kill me and then Zephiel. If you were weak I'd take the blade and kill Zephiel. That's what I thought. I didn't count on this. What do you want me to say?" "Oh!! Oh, thank you," Roy says hastily to Chacha. His cheeks turn a little pink as he rests the Blade on the provided rock, carefully. It gets a little lava-goopy over time, but not too bad. Yay! That lets him adjust his sitting to make room for Ace. It helps his right arm get less tired, too. His left hand is still in a brace from Zephiel breaking his fingers. "I'm... I can still feel them. I'll be alright, Odette. But thank you." 'Start down the road to being a good man'... he smiles gamely. It's the most he can believe anyway; Roy still feels in his heart more like a 'boy' than a 'man'; and yet... "Thank you. I... it's a relief to know even someone wise like you can believe in that. Being your fan keeps paying off." If Roy notices Ace wiping away that blood, he doesn't say a word. He'd be a hypocrite to. "Well!" says Merlinus to Neon after slapping his own knee, "If we win I'll be happy, or I'll drink myself to death trying, hah!" "Merlinus?!" "Just a joke, Lord Roy. But take this to heart. When you've gotten old enough, loved enough, lost enough... you'll learn that nothing means an end to happy days. As long as you're still breathing, you can always find another patch of sunshine somewhere ahead." "... so, it'll all work out? You were just saying you were scared too." "Oh, I'm petrified the Demon Dragon will rip me in half and have me for a barbecue! But supposing we make it through that, I'm not fretting for Elibe's future." "It's... it is mostly the barbecuing I'm worried about, yes." "Ah. Well. Hm. Can't help you there, then." Lucius laughs, softly, fretfully, when Odette almost falls over despite his shoulder-hug. "Easy, now... I can't say I'll never leave you, but you needn't worry about my life as much as it looks like, alright?" "I still can't believe you survived getting impaled like that in Lycia, you old larch," Merlinus laughs. "And he's hardly aged a day, too," Marcus adds fondly of his old companion. "Odette and Lilian are to thank for half of it. And I'm sure the Saint still has some purpose for me. But meditation does wonders, too. You should try it." "I might. Merlinus never will." "Oh, I meditate every night! Just don't mind the snoring." "Sophia, boys, would you like Odette's help with Eckesachs?" "Huh? Why would we--" "Sure! Sit down right here." "No! I've got it!" "Yes... please..." "... Fiiine." "Then it's settled~."
Marigold	"Listen, I know I rode you when it was an emergency, but isn't riding you a little... inappropriate?" says Lera to Love, putting up her hands defensively. "I mean, I don't know you as well as this Justice guy!" She glances at Roland for his reaction; they're together, right? Guinivere, off to the other side of Galle, smiles self-consciously at Riku. "Oh, I never liked that castle much anyway. And... it's not as though I've been coronated, or anything. But if I am pressed to govern, there are country-mansions I could do so from. You know, the type of places you put up a bastard princess to keep her away from court," she laughs. "And I don't... I don't feel as much as I thought I'd feel," she adds slowly, weighing her emotions carefully. "I was braced for losing a brother to rip me up inside. But it turns out... hah. It turns out, it isn't much different from how I was already feeling, the past two years." "... I couldn't tell you when I 'lost' him. Not really. Maybe it was when I ran away with the Fire Emblem. Maybe it was years before that." She gathers herself up with a little breath, to shake her head at Madeleine. "Brunnya hastened from Sacae to Castle Bern not long ago, it sounds like, and from there to right here. It seems certain Iðunn was entrusted to her oversight. As for her motives, I can't..." "She hated that woman," Galle says, to Guinivere's slight surprise. "Pardon?" "The 'dark priestess', everyone used to say. Zephiel didn't explain her. Brunnya hated her. Tried to get them apart." "... But you don't think we'll be able to talk her down." "No." For Roland, he adds: "... Queen Guinivere hasn't yet relieved me of my duties. I'll fly until then." "Depending on how grim the sky looks by the time we're ready, we might just be asking you and Cecilia to hold off Brunnya long enough for us to rush inside. Supposing she brings a thousand of her own men, do you think you could manage that?" "Yes." "And live?" "What's that matter to you?" Roy looks at Lilian with a reassured-uneasy smile, scoots a little to one side to offer her room to sit between him and Ace, and then looks worriedly baffled by Lilian and Petra's conversation. 'Meat', 'firing squad'... "But that's always been what it is?" he says, cutting in on Lilian's thoughts from a different angle. "We don't talk about Murdoch much anymore, either. I don't think Zephiel saw any romance in fighting. And I think he was right not to." "It takes a little longer, but... swords are for turning people into meat, too. That's what a sword is, Petra. Maybe every sword but this one," he says, looking half-forlornly at the Blade which had failed to kill. Lucius chimes in, softly, almost nervously: "... I like to think, sometimes, that God made humans so fragile to teach us to be gentle to each other. I like to think that, because I can't think of any other reason why they would." "Well. I don't think Apocalypse will be taking any more lives, either way. Or Eckesachs, in Petra's hands. I... I at least want to know 'why'. What Hartmut was thinking when he spared Iðunn, and why she turned out like this anyway. The Heroes got to take a break from killing at the very end. It'd be nice if we did, too." "I know there's still Idunn and Brunnya but ... do you all got it from here?" "No," Roy answers, unhappy but unhesitating. "In a few days we might all be dead. But that's exactly why I wouldn't blame you if you left."
Petra Soroka	"Does that mean you'll learn enough Psychonautry to offer the Sigmund Procedure to anyone else Apocalypse gets cast on?" Petra lifts her chin to look up at Flamel with a dully hostile glare. "I don't really see the point. Doesn't change anything for anyone else, does it?" "I don't think Zephiel saw any romance in fighting. And I think he was right not to." "I don't see any romance in it. I'm not stupid." Petra's immediate, scathing retort isn't a tone she can commit to, after a pause. Her metaphorical hackles lower, out of drained disappointment rather than feeling soothed, and her Silver tail thrashes against the ground. She averts her eyes from Roy again, drawing one knee up to her chest. "... Sorry. And also sorry, Lilian. It's not like I'm, I don't know, not familiar enough with death, or whatever. It's not really like I think there's even much of a higher point to fighting. I can't even treat it like an art like Lilian does, much less think of literally anything mattering with 'communication' like other people do." Petra sighs, her tone drooping even lower. The rambling tinnitus haze of her monologue has worn off, and with it, the energy that propelled her through it. Even though she's hardly spoken to anyone around the campfire, it feels like she's already running on the dregs of an overheated engine, and if she doesn't finish her thoughts now, then she'll just go silent. "It would've been better to strangle him to death." "I guess I don't even really believe that it changed anything important, to use Apocalypse. I just hate that it made it simple and that it's over and done with and that we can sit here not talking about it." Petra drops her eyelids, looking at the ground out of the corner of them, losing steam and vaguely ashamed. "So I guess I just wanted to say it and make it hurt more. There's not really a point to it, so you can ignore me." "Petra what are you talking about?" "I know. I'm sorry. I'm just driving myself crazy."
Lilian Rook	'I've never heard of that' "That's because you've the brains to live this long." says Lilian, in the short windup she has. 'That's what I thought. I didn't count on this. What do you want me to say?' "I'd be satisfied with 'I'm sorry for stabbing Roy'. Even if you lie through your teeth, that'd be fine." There is a lot more she would like, but those words are amongst them. 'Thank you. I... it's a relief to know even someone wise like you can believe in that.' Lilian glances at Ace, glances away again, and says nothing further. 'As long as you're still breathing, you can always find another patch of sunshine somewhere ahead.' 'Oh, I'm petrified the Demon Dragon will rip me in half and have me for a barbecue' 'Ah. Well. Hm. Can't help you there, then.' Even then, she can't help but smile at Merlinus. Even if it looks a thousand times more exhausted than she can really make herself feel. "It's reassuring to hear a man of your years say it." she says, distant-staring at the water. "Believing that anything will ever get better is something that still comes and goes at my age. Thinking that the future doesn't really care what you feel anyways and will have its ups and downs all the same makes sense." 'Odette and Lilian are to thank for half of it. And I'm sure the Saint still has some purpose for me.' Contemplating the only life that Lilian feels as though she has truly 'saved' since this all began manages to lighten her heart by a fraction of an ounce, which painfully shifts the balance of everything else. Thinking about age, now, is paralyzing. 'Oh, I meditate every night! Just don't mind the snoring.' Up until then. The dissociation passes with a gentle laugh through her nose. "She's been giving you everyone else's purposes while she's at it, it seems." she says, implicitly to Lucius. "If you 'might', you should start before the Temple." she then says to Marcus. "Don't wait until after. Plan to live right now." 'You know, the type of places you put up a bastard princess to keep her away from court' She doesn't, but she does. Guinivere might be the first person in a long time who understands the sheer banality of it. "I know the sort. I was stuck in one until I was practically Roy's age. Though not for reasons of lineage, mind you. Making them trudge out there sounds like a good idea to me." 'Brunnya hated her. Tried to get them apart.' That's where her gas runs out. It may as well anyways. She'd been listening to Petra monologue shortly before that point. She doesn't even know why she looked at Galle or Melady at all, right then. They must already know it. '... But you don't think we'll be able to talk her down.' "Humanity doesn't let you go that easily." Lilian says, borrowing the worlds in desolate lieu of her own. "Even he couldn't escape the fate of leaving behind someone that loves him." 'What's that matter to you?' She can't tell if it does matter to her at all. "I won't get to see you punch Nobunaga back." 'But that's always been what it is?' That part feels like catching a stray bullet through the back. Abrupt. Painful. Devoid of personal intent. Conveniently obscured from the camera for a breathless moment of narrative suspense. Roy of all people. Roy.
Lilian Rook	'I think he was right not to.' "I thought about him. Back then." Lilian says, frog-marching her own words to an unclear destination that must surely end at a bloody ditch. "I put him into the spell. A lot of people." Trying to explain what she means by that is impossible. She's too rattled just saying "I remember that." '... I like to think, sometimes, that God made humans so fragile to teach us to be gentle to each other.' For a second, Lilian is pretty sure that she is going to cry. So she tilts her head back, stares up into the air, and holds her breath for a little while. Finding the spot at Roy's side, next to Ace, is the excuse that gives her an excuse. "I'm going to believe that from now on." she says, after a while. "I mean it. Nothing else makes sense anyways." She thinks that's all she has left to say now. She is surprised when she is wrong. 'It would've been better to strangle him to death.' "It'd have been worse." Lilian says, to something she would have agreed to less than one minute ago in her life, without knowing exactly when it changed or why. "No individual human being is worthy of killing him. No one should be allowed to claim that they did it. It should have been old age; the way that the world eventually kills you off anyways." Lilian presses the heel of her palm to her eye, struggling to make our her own meaning while the words still have momentum. "The worst of all possible worlds is the one with a statue named 'Kingslayer'. Humanity didn't earn that. If using Apocalypse was a shameful excoriation of our failings then it's better we did. The only way we deserved to win was the way that quietly says he was right."