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 Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:17 pm
Mistral tamped down the last of the device's many pieces, lifted her hands away carefully and stood back. At first, nothing happened--for a very long time, nothing happened, but finally, the pieces of the device began to whirr, soft at first and then louder, ticking over as brilliant blue light gathered in the empty ray tubes--and then it slowed to a stately whirl, leaving sparkles in its wake. "Okay," she said, softly. She pushed herself to her feet, and turned to the empty coliseum space. "We're ready." The Space Cauldron Olympus looked the same, but there was something different about it. The fires on the walls seemed to burn lower, and there was a heavy, somber atmosphere clinging to the Wonder. The Code had not been unaware to the events on Mistral, and while it had not been able to participate or intervene, the Code was very aware of at least some aspects of what had happened. It had felt each light flicker out of existence. Felt the strength fade from the starseeds. Felt its protectors erased from this universe. And it was not happy. But who could be blamed? These were able bodied people, doing what they thought was best for the faction. No one could have prepared them—any of them. For all who had been involved at the horrors on Mistral, it had offered a warm, gentle tug. A welcoming invitation. A safe place, for the moment. It was as homely as the Code could manage. Shifting between shapes in the center of the room, it was silent for a long moment. It wasn't that the Code couldn’t think of words, but there was no easy way to broach the topic. These were humans to deal with. Humans, whose hearts were so easily damaged. Who fought so hard, and lost so much, and were still here. Still fighting. Still together. "Knights," it began, voice echoing in the large room. "In times past, you have faced great trials. You have proved great strength, and your teamwork was impeccable. It has been far too long since there were Knights of your caliber in this Universe, and the decline of it is proof enough how desperately you are needed. But tonight I cannot sing only praises. Tonight, we must talk of the darker things. Of what you have seen. Of those we have lost." There was a brief pause before it continued, "There are no words that will truly ease you. There are things that you will hold with you for the rest of your life. Feelings you will take with you to the grave. What has transpired on Mistral, no doubt has affected you all. And I am sorry I could not have done more for you." "There are not as many faces here as I wish there had been. Many of you lost friends. Let us not forget the sacrifice they made, but let us not dwell on the worst of this. Let us remember the lives they lived. All that they gave in their time. And let us take solace that they are not truly lost. Death is not something to fear." Death. Something easy to speak of, for an immortal entity. "Your allies have died valiantly. Their spirits will live on within you, in your hearts and your memories. Within me. But more than that, there will come a time, one day, when they will walk again. As all of you stand before me now, once I there were other Knights. Knights who shared your name. Knights who I knew, well, and Knights who faded away. But they never truly died. I look at you, and I see them. And I see the brave souls that have fought and lived and existed since the dawn of all that is just and true. I see you, and I am proud. And when you go home tonight, I ask you to think about that. Not the death. Erase those horrors from your mind. Think about life, and all that you have accomplished together. And all that you will accomplish. You must take pride in yourselves. Learn from this. Improve yourselves. But do not let darkness creep into your hearts. I would like a moment of silence, now. You may have already said your goodbyes, you may have already come to peace. But I ask now, for those Knights who lost their lives for the sake of this mission that you take a moment and remember them. Say your goodbyes. I may not do much for you, but I will see to it that your messages are heard." While the Code still swirled, it did not speak again. Still, it had not taken a shape. It did, however, begin to glow faintly as it began to glisten with an opalescent sheen. Energy, soft and rolling, pulsed from it. The light was as welcoming as it was soothing, and while the Code seemed content with its silence, the movement was its simple way of showing that it was still with there, still among all the Knights.
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:36 pm
Babylon felt the Code's tug, and who was he not to answer? If you were called to Olympus, was it not your sworn duty to go? He was among the first to arrive, and gave Mistral a quick wave before settling on the bench.
It was always, like, super ******** weird to take life advice from a disembodied voice and a bit of swirling mist, but the code had some super nice things to say! Not the stuff about forgetting death. That was kind of weird and unfeeling and exactly the kind of thing he'd expect to hear from a disembodied omnipotent force of the universe masquerading at understanding human emotions. But the stuff about them being really hecka sweet high caliber knights was nice to hear. Like, hey, dude, thanks for noticing.
At the invitation for eulogizing - or whatever, talking to people beyond the grave? Delivering voicemail to the cauldron? Babylon hung back awkwardly. He hadn't really known anyone really well and he wasn't sure what to say to them.
---
Megiddo was there. Megiddo had not seen anyone die. Megiddo felt super awkward about this, and more super awkward that she was just here for the shiny prize at the bottom of the cereal box.
Like, there was going to be one of those, right?
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:40 pm
Kairatos had previously demonstrated that he felt the Code to have missed rather dramatically in it's attempts to take the pulse of the Knights in general, and when he arrived, his body language was already full of caution and reluctance, and it grew more so as the Code spoke.
They Died valiantly? They'd died in avoidable death traps. They had died when good intentions lead to lies and more death. They had died in a flash, or in a lingering moment that had felt like an eternity, in a nightmarish trap he thought a General Sovereign would have smiled on.
"If they don't know it already..." He started quietly, angrily. "Than tell them that there are those of us who remember them in almost every moment." He let his eyes scan the crowd, looking for hints of the Mercury uniforms, lingering on Mistral's uniform, whose clothing had, in some span between their last encounter, gained wide trappings of white, delicate swirls of gold that looked...
...They looked in his eyes less like the Mercury uniforms than he'd caught looks at and more like the Knights of Cosmos. Like Hvergelmer. Like Cove. Like Degrasse.
Like her wonder had destroyed them, and then lovingly crafted her a new wardrobe from their blood and bones.
"Death is inevitable, it's the cost of being mortal. But inevitable and necessary are two different things. That's my piece."
He hadn't forgiven yet, he was not yet ready to do so, even if their body count was less than others who still called themselves Order, he still hadn't.
Death might not be something to fear but the dying... and dying so...
He started to snarl something else, and then clamped his jaws shut, grinding his teeth, folding his arms, and staring stubbornly at a fixed place a little ways ahead of him.
The bull had dug his heels in and was biding his time to return home.
If, like Megido, he thought there was anything shiny at the bottom of the Cereal box, he seemed a but more of the mind that it was probably a bear trap instead of a decoder ring.
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:35 pm
Marlin had been out on the flat balcony and puttering, when he had sensed the tug from the Code and for one very long moment he had considered ignoring the gentle tug. To say that he had not been in a good space after the events that had stemmed from the last time he had answered the Code's call, would be to be putting it mildly - in fact he had been in a terrible space to the point where in the end his dad had made him take time off from the shop and told him to come back when the Halloween run up started or when he got his head space sorted out - whichever came soonest.
He had spent the time mainly puttering around Lisa's garden, finding it easy to throw himself into the familiar tasks off weeding, manuring and generally keeping the plants well tended and although he had considered going to visit his Mum, he had ultimately decided against it knowing that unlike Lisa she would try to push.
What he had not been doing during his enforced break from the shop was powering up, or maybe it was more accurate to say that he had not been doing much off it. There had been that one time with Sarras when the two of them had fulfilled Ankh's last request and then a few times later on when he had done a whole lot of exactly nothing.
One of those exactly nothing times at the end of August had involved him getting caught up in some sort of powered shenanigans in the park which to this day he had no clue as to what it had been all about. Nor had he made any attempt - real or half-hearted to try and find out.
Instead he had drifted and when the memories and nightmares had gotten too bad he had drank - at least until one day he had decided that he was drifting down a path he really didn't want to stray down into and whilst he enjoyed the odd beer, alcohol wasn't something that he wanted to depend on to get him through the day.
It was these thoughts that drifted through his head as he considered whether he wanted to accept the tug, to answer the Code's call. Unusually (at least for him) wavering to the point where it could almost be called indecision. Eventually however he finally accepted the gentle pull and let it whisk him away to Mars, to Olympus.
Falias got there in time to hear the tail end of the conversation from the blond Knight that he'd spotted a few times by now, the one who for some reason seemed to look familiar and who he had told himself he was going to ask why one off these days. It probably wasn't going to be today though, not when he could see Mistral, Mistral whose aura was now at the same level as his own, as Sarras' one had been when they carried out Ankh's request.
And of course it had to be Mistral there, because the universe seemd to hate him and obviously didn't think that the nightmares - most of which featured tortured screams of metal, courtesy of her Deathtrap Wonder - was enough.
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:45 pm
Like the caller ID of his cell phone flashing a name of an ex-girlfriend or scorned lover, the Code’s call initiated the same reaction in the Cosmos squire, and despite his better judgement, Sarras answered its call. He told himself that the odds of it revolving around a certain Mercury page and her blotched fetch quest were as slim as lightning striking in the same place twice, and that the reason for this sudden summons might have had something to do with these wave of nightmares that seemed to be affecting the entire city. Yes, he told himself this, as he answered the call and found himself within Olympus once more, even when he caught sight of familiar faces, including hers. He only gave her a look and it lasted no more than a second, but if she had caught his crimson gaze, she would have felt his ire, as brief as it may have been, before he cast it back towards the Code.
How much did the Code know of the events on Mistral, he wondered to himself. Was it aware of the knights that were led to the slaughter? Was it aware of the anger and pain that the survivors felt? Obviously so, as that seemed to be the topic of conversation. Like before, the room was filled with its presence and its words carried a weight that made Sarras want to breathe heavily to avoid letting it crush him, and its sorrow wasn’t lost on the Cosmos squire. Yes, the loss of lives that they had suffered on Mistral still danced in Sarras’ memory, and to this day, he cared more for those that fell to the traps, one after the other, than he ever did for any of the knights living in this room right now.
Sans Falias, of course. He looked to the Earth squire, the one that had survived the ordeal in the sixth level of Mistral with him, the one that had witnessed the deaths, and helped carry him through when they returned Ankh’s belongings to his wife. Falias he respected, and that was why he moved to stand next to him, giving him a nod of the head, to let him know that he acknowledged, even welcomed, his presence. Especially after those nightmares-
The Code confirmed their reason for being here, and immediately, Sarras’ face soured. It was in regards to Mistral! Now he stood next to Falias, arms crossed and face just as crossed, and he tried his very, absolute best not to seethe at the Code’s words. Thankfully, it was Kairatos’ outbursts that kept him in check, simply because he had essentially said everything he wanted to say. Of course, there was a lot more that Sarras wanted to add, but that would have hurt feelings, which would have lead to arguing, which would have simply lead to more of his time being wasted. That was the only reason he held his tongue…
To look at Mistral and see her granted the same rank as himself and to have the Code sugarcoating the deaths he and others had endured was already enough of a waste of time for him. For now, he just wanted to get this meeting over with… to see if their sacrifices were, indeed, worth the effort.
‘Unless you’re going to give us a device that instantly kills the Chaos that resides in our enemies, then I doubt their deaths were worth it...’
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 1:31 am
Andronicus was still not fully all together. Though she slept better, and through the nights now, wrapping her brain around the memories was impossible. She'd seen things that couldn't have happened, but had to have happened, but yet didn't. She was very muddled and confused and frankly wanted to ignore the call of the Code.
But she could feel the call and it cemented what reality she was in. This one. The one where she was a page and not a General. Memories of the catacombs of Mistral filtered through the haze in her mind and Andronicus finally settled her mind on something. She had not seen people die, but she knew they had. She'd seen it in Mistral's eyes that day.
The Page of Uranus kept her mind focused on the present and bowed her head to the fallen. "May they find peace," she said softly. She glanced around, looking at the familiar knights, continuing to affirm the reality she existed in. No one had died. No one had been taken over. All was well.
---
Bifrost was peaceful. Unlike some, the memories gifted to her of the future showed her her wonder and the glowing tattoos she had then. She'd achieved something akin to what Babylon had - now that she saw him - in some rite of passage she couldn't quite remember. She was happy, she was filled with hope.
In the months since she was taken to Mistral, Bifrost had come to turns with the deaths. Angry as she was that the page - now squire - had let it happen, the souls that had been lost would return. Death was not the end, so much as a pause between lifetimes. After all, there was no death, there was only the Force. (Bifrost may have read a good number of the Star Wars books since that day.)
Today was a recognition of their sacrifice, and she held herself in proper hippogryph mourning: wings folded and held loose, tail left to hang. She bowed low at the waist, letting her blonde hair fall over her shoulders.
"May they find peace within the Cauldron, and be reborn anew in time. Their memories live on in us, and we do not take their sacrifice lightly. May the Light guide them home," she said, speaking with a solemn air. Perhaps a little too formal, but it felt right to say. So she did.
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 4:08 pm
Hvergelmir didn't want to be here. She didn't think any of them did -- but Mistral had been so very long ago, now, and she'd been trying so hard to bury the pain of what had happened there down in the depths of her heart where it couldn't haunt her dreams anymore. She thought she'd very nearly succeeded... but then she'd stood in the bloodbath that Castor and Pollux had proudly put on display for them, and it had all come rushing horribly back. She still saw the faces of the people she couldn't save. Degrasse, Cove -- the man Avalon killed -- the one Sailor Ate had smothered -- all those poor, mangled lieutenants... She saw Mimisbrunnr, too, on the head of Painite's spear. The Mercury knight wasn't here. Hvergelmir imagined she was still recovering from her injury. Normally, the Cosmos squire would've gone to stand with Babylon -- her brother, her mentor -- but all she could see, standing in Olympus's great hall, bathed in its soft light and heavy shadows, were the silhouettes of the dead and the distant sands of Mars, inexorably red. Haunted by the thought of nameless lieutenants whose names -- whose true names, as knights -- would never be memorialized in these halls as those who'd died at Mistral were being, she moved to stand by Kairatos instead, wishing she could bring herself to loop her fingers around his arm. It was a childish desire, to hold onto someone; but death made her feel helpless, no better than a child herself -- and in its shadow she wanted simple comforts. Degrasse was young and sweet and very brave, she whispered in the silence of her heart. Cove was warm and kind, and he made me smile. Please give them better than we gave them in this life. Tell them -- tell them if I'm lucky, I'll make them proud someday. Tell them I'll try.Quote: Not very likely to come up, but as of this RP Hver has not had any meta memories yet -- if your character has, please don't mention them to her. <3
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:21 pm
Mistral had spent a great part of the last two months thinking. Well, creating the interface blueprints for the rings, and thinking. The thing about invention was, only a heartbeat of it was the great eureka! of discovery everyone memorialized. The rest of it was a great deal slower, less interesting, and... it left a lot of time for contemplation. Time for circling thoughts and time for self-blame and time for--well, everything, really, provided it didn't require her to leave her workbench. She pulled a small steel box from the hammerspace that would have held her weapon, had she any need to put it away. It would be familiar to every knight there, for each and every component piece had come from a box much like the one Mistral slid open before them. "It's not worth what we paid," she said. "Not worth what you paid or what they paid. Ankh and Menae and Bastion, Burj Khalifa, and Hogwarts, Piggy and Degrasse--" her voice broke there, and she paused for a moment to collect herself "--and Cove... and Isengard..." She didn't expect anyone there to know or care how many times she'd tormented herself with their names, or how many nights she'd spent putting what she could find of each of them to rest. "It's not worth what they paid," she said. "But for what it is worth, I finished them." That was why they were there, why the Code had agreed to call them all one more time. "These... you slide them over your signet. It should fit perfectly. And when it interfaces with the network, the crystal chip should light up." She held up her own hand, with the bright blue light beneath her black signet. Mistral tried to think of something else to say, but all she came up with was "I'm sorry." It wouldn't be enough for any of them--not Babylon, or Sarras, or Bifrost, whose hateful letter she remembered as clear as day--it wouldn't be enough for Kairatos, either, or Andronicus, or Falias. She held no illusions that it would be. But for what it was worth, she held out the box and all it contained for them to take.
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:02 pm
Mimisbrunnr felt the Code's gentle tug, and she frowned slightly. It was difficult to be excited about another mission from the Code, another summons to a faraway place, when she had much to do for her own Wonder and, well, her last few summons hadn't gone well. It wasn't a pleasant thought to imagine having to go there again and get another mission she would have to run across the universe on and maybe, just maybe, there would be more death and pain and suffering.
More dead kids, the same age as the ones she spent her day teaching.
But in the end, she knew that she had to go. It was her duty as a Knight, to respond to the summons, whether it was for something pleasant or not.
So she let out a slow breath, and let herself be carried from Earth, and all the way to Mars.
They were all already there, and she arrived in time for the Code's words, and in time to move over to Hvergelmir and Kairatos, who she knew from Level Seven. She folded her hands in her lap and stared at the ground, for a long moment, thinking of those two shining stars of Cosmos that had been snuffed out in front of her eyes.
And there had been others - on Level Six, the floors had run red, and she didn't know those names. But she wanted to. She wanted to remember all of the people who had sacrificed their lives to make this a possibility.
As Mistral listed them, she committed them to memory.
Ankh, Menae, Bastion, Burj Khalifa, Hogwarts, Piggy, Degrasse, Cove, Isengard.
Too many dead, for whatever this device did. She knew that much. Even if it did make it easier to speak to each other, the cost was too high. All of that death...
It all seemed so pointless. But there was an offer of the device, the one that they had sacrificed all of this for, and she exhaled, looking around and waiting for someone else to be the first one to take it. Fonally, she took a breath, and scurried down, as quickly as she could, to lift one of the devices out of the box and slide it onto her ring, so recently acquired on her Wonder trip with Hvergelmir..
"I still don't blame you, Mistral," she said, her voice soft.
If there was one thing she wanted her fellow Mercurian to know, it was that.
She darted back up, and slid back into her position next to Hvergelmir and Kairatos, fiddling with her hands again. This was not the sort of people-filled environment that she would ever be comfortable with, but that was okay. She had her friends, right?
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 2:49 pm
Mistral might not thing it was enough to atone for the losses. Perhaps it would make a better mark on the gathered if it was a giant mana cannon built to target Chaos and destroy it. Hopefully without mirrors to bend the beam but you never know. It was simple augmentation to the rings that allowed greater communication. Had she known about the security measures, perhaps the deaths could have been avoided. Yet, she'd been a page, much like Andronicus still was, when she'd started on this mission. Andronicus hardly knew anything about her wonder; Mistral couldn't have known everything either.
Deaths of knights flashed before her eyes for a moment as Mistral recited the names of the dead and the world spun. She gripped the seat and forced air through her nose. No, that was a future that hadn't happened. This was the present. She was in Olympus, on Mars, with the Code. With living knights. She was full of Order, not Chaos. She was whole. She was alive. She was here. Here. Now.
Her heart calmed and she felt the tension drip from her limbs. The Page slowly stood, eyes trained on Mistral and the Code. It helped to center herself. Andronicus made her way down to Mistral and gave her a small smile, taking one of the chips and sliding it over the ring. It flared to life. "They're at peace. It's not your fault, you couldn't have known, no one did." The Page of Uranus gave her a small hug. She returned to her seat afterwards. Surely the Code would want to speak a final word before they were able to go home.
--
The past was past. The future was the future. It was better to focus on the now, than what had happened or would happen. The memories flickering in her mind, a mix of a world that hadn't come to pass and the present, taught her as much. Bifrost Squire was nothing if not hopeful. It took quite a lot to make her angry. Seeing the deaths up close had angered her, drove her rage towards Mistral. The then page hadn't planned, hadn't researched, hadn't done enough.
Yet. Bifrost herself could not say that she had her wonder figured out. She had a special refuge, she could move between the outposts, but she new very little about her wonder other than that. She could concievably drop someone off the bridge - and herself - if it disappeared mid travel. Bifrost had never timed how long the bridge existed for, so... It was wrong to punish someone for not knowing something that could have taken years to figure out.
The Squire padded down the steps and took one of the chips. She was quiet for a time, letting it attach to her ring and getting it situatated among the bands of metal on her hands. She turned to Mistral then.
"I am sorry about what I said. I was angry at their deaths, and irrationally angry at you, when I don't even know what my wonder is hiding. I was wrong. They died, yes, but they will come back. This I'm certain of." Bifrost smiled at her and gently hugged her. "Thank you for the com network, Mistral." She stood there for a moment more before making her way back up the steps and settling down to wait until the end. She'd said her peace, and atoned for her own mistakes. She was satisfied.
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 4:40 pm
Kairatos leaned slightly to bump his shoulder against Hvergelmer in a silent acknowledgement of her presence, and maybe to reasure them both with the brief physical contact, though his lips pursed sharply again as Bifrost spoke, and the small sound that died in his throat indicated he was still trying very hard not to keep saying what he was thinking on the matter. He glanced over at Mimistrobell also, more out of uncertainty than judgement. She'd been as surprised as everyone else as far as he knew, which so far made her the odd man out in the strangely dark knights that Mercury seemed to produce. He sort of imagined perky little Degrasse would have gotten a big kick out of the rings... but he wished she'd been able to see them, and he wasn't sure if he should take one or not. He barely used his ring as it was, and he glanced at Hvergelmer again, as if she might be more certain.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 5:14 am
Falias had returned Sarras' nod with a nod of his own. Of all the people here that the Code had yanked to Olympus, Sarras had been the one that had been there - had been the one to bear witness to the horror, to the deaths that had happened on the sixth floor of Mistral's deathrinth. And Sarras was the one that had helped him to carry out Ankh's final request.
Not that their floor had been the only floor that had seen death. There had been two others that had died, two other Knights - Cove and Degrasse.
He had never met them, but he had heard their names mentioned when Babylon had toasted the names of those who had died, remembered that it had happened before he had drunk himself into a stupour - the first of many such occurrences in the period of time that had passed, before he forced himself - hard as it was - to stop using alcohol as the crutch that got him through the day.
And there was one other that had witnessed the deaths - had witnessed all the deaths. Those of the sixth floor and those on the seventh.
In fact if Falias could think rationally about it, he could even acknowledge that Mistral had also suffered too. But he couldn't - not when he could still see Ankh disappearing into the machine and little Menae facing off against the killing machine that Mistral had called a doll and certainly not when he could still hear the tortured screams of metal, the sounds of which still continued to haunt his nightmare.
And although others seemed able to, Falias couldn't forgive. Although it was hard to know who the emotion was most directed at Mistral or himself, a horribly tangled mixture of both that he was unable to move past, even as Mistral freely admitted to the finished device not being worth the lives of the nine who had died.
It was Menae's last words that had him hold his tongue, her plea that he make sure that he got the device got out that finally cross the distance that separated him and the other Squire and finally reach out to pick up one of the devices.
"Thank you for the device" he said at last, his voice quiet, the words just for him and Mistral. "But I still can't forgive you." Well okay it looked like Menae's last words were only able to mainly hold his tongue. "I'm not sure I can ever forgive you," not when his memories of her deathtrap wonder still burned raw in his memories and not when screams still haunted his nightmares.
He turned and walked back to his previous position, sliding the device onto his signet as he did so and wondering if this was it or if the Code had some other request for them, whilst hoping that it did not.
He wasn't sure he could handle any more 'requests' right now, not with the memories riding so close to the surface.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:47 am
Flanked by friends on either side, Hvergelmir felt comforted. The warm brush of Kairatos's shoulder against hers, skin-to-skin, was a welcome relief. In times of distress, she most often wanted to be close to people, to reassure herself that she wasn't alone -- but not everyone was the same. Sarras, she knew now from her past experience at Mistral, tended to pull away, protecting his pain lest someone relieve him of some of it. And Aquarius, too -- she'd retreated step by step, over the long years, until finally she'd gone away as far as a person could go. Her absence was a horrible, gaping hole, and Hvergelmir mostly tried not to step too close to it -- afraid she might fall in if she did, and never climb back out. It was nice, then, to know that Kairatos and Mimisbrunnr would let her be close to them. Nice to be able to have quick reminders that other people were there. And wasn't that what this was, after all? Wasn't that why they'd all gone through this? "Nine people died for these," she said quietly, mostly to Mistral, coming forward to collect hers. "But people have died before because we didn't have them. They'll save lives, too. Please don't forget that." What else could she say? Should she condemn Mistral for accidentally putting the lot of them into a booby-trapped laboratory? How, when Hvergelmir had done worse, so much worse? How could a person who'd looked at a dying man at Avalon's feet and left him there to be killed turn around and judge someone else for merely causing an accident? Some of them still looked at Mistral like she was the monster in the room. They were looking in the wrong place, if that was all it took to be a monster -- they just didn't know it. Thinking of Megrez and her horrible, accusing stare, Hvergelmir shrank back into her place between Mimisbrunnr and Kairatos.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 8:24 am
Megiddo's whole involvement in the Mistral debacle still felt like a zero-sum game. She went, she got caught in a few traps, and then they got their s**t and got out. She sort of wished she'd been on a different level, so she could know what it was that had everyone so horribly traumatized. She bet that she would have handled it better, had she been in their shoes. "Well," she said, pulling a device from the box and slotting it around her signet. "It's a lot fancier than anything I've ever gotten out of a cereal box. Thanks." The squire retreated all the way to the first row of benches and stood there awkwardly. Everyone else seemed so somber and s**t. ----------- Babylon hung back for a while, not wanting to intrude on the closure that everyone else so desperately needed after the labyrinth. He'd already spoken to Mistral and made his peace with the dead - they had been lead into danger, but at least on level seven, her thinking had prevented anything like the bloodbath that reportedly took place on Six. "You finished it," he said softly, stepping up to take a device for himself. It fit neatly over the ring he'd worn for so long, glittering gently against the blue metal. Mistral had done her past incarnation well, he thought - but he wasn't sure she'd be glad to hear it. She'd done his ancestor proud, too, he thought. (Her ancestor? Not in the knightly sense where it counted, but their lines had crossed so many times...) Babylon leaned forward. "I think that space uncle Mendel would be proud of you, too," he said, using Mistral's personal preferred name for the man he'd taken to the cauldron. Then, not wanting to cause a scene, he stepped quickly back, finding a place beside Mimisbrunnr, near Hvergelmir and Kairatos. His friends, he thought, and his group from the labyrinth. It was good to see them.
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Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 11:04 am
What Mistral had said meant nothing to Sarras, whether it be words of apology or words where she condemned them for holding a grudge. He was certain that Falias had, and his assumption was right. He tried to tell himself that Mistral had suffered, that she didn't want any of this and he knew it to be true. She watched their deaths from her 'haven' in her wonder, but it wasn't the same, Sarras told himself.
Witnessing death on a monitor could not equate to witnessing their deaths in person, and it was this, Falias' words, and her admittance that the device she made wasn't worth it, that caused his expression to sour even more. If that were even possible.
Once again, someone else had said what he wanted to say, and though he had no signet ring as of yet, he strode forward in silence to accept his device. A device that he likely was never going to use, and failed to see the wisdom in Hvergelmir's statement. They died fetching a device that would do... what? Allow them to talk to one another? That obviously had not saved the knights in the future, Sarras told himself, but he had come to far not to accept the device.
He took his own, and then asked, venom laced in his words despite his best efforts to keep himself stoic and professional when looking down at someone he couldn't stand looking at. "Anything else, or are we free to leave?"
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