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 Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 9:55 am
She had learned, at least, a few things. One of the most crucial had been: if you feel a very large friendly presence, possibly saunter towards it, as quickly as one can do it without the saunter becoming a sprint. This friendly presence felt considerable, and with a cheering sense that she might at least be running underneath a friendly wing that would block the largest of any potential bullets that might go flying, she set about sauntering towards it with vigor. She was still getting used to the idea that she was not wholly helpless; that the whip in her hand, in addition to being a weapon in its own right, had brought with it certain advantages. But her encounter with a corrupt eternal, while it had brought her this power, had also brought her a sobering awareness of how powerful those arrayed against her - or at least against the civilians of Destiny City, she mentally amended - could be. She had been lectured once, by a knight who had told her that it was foolish to go around announcing her presence. But she considered that advice now, as she did then, a little superfluous in a world where anyone could feel her coming anyway. So she sang out into the dark, when she thought that she might perhaps be close enough to be heard, despite not yet knowing who or what, exactly, she was going towards: "Not running from anything deadly, I don't think." And then: "Although maybe that wouldn't bother you, if I was."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 10:13 am
Camelot was glad to be away from his empty house, though the feeling of emptiness had not left him. Things were just louder, out here, and there was more to focus on. The quiet, the stillness, there was somehow worse than anything dark and dangerous a twisted night in Destiny City could produce.
It seemed, however, he was in the wrong frame of mind. This encounter felt entirely friendly, the warmth of a Squire's aura approaching him. He reached back through the rolodex of his mind, trying to recall any auras that might match this rank. It had been some time since he spoke to a Squire, he realized, and for that he felt a little ashamed.
He was supposed to be helping knights. All knights. Especially those still learning and growing. Instead, he was wallowing in his own personal problems. He took a deep breath, and reminded himself silently of why he powered up tonight in the first place. Draw out information, answers, of any kind. Catch up on whatever the hell he was missing, since leaving for what he had thought was only a short time.
Not long enough and yet, somehow, way too long all at once.
"No, I think I could probably help you, if you were running from something," Camelot laughed hollowly, looking a little perplexed. He was able to make out the telltale markings of an Earth Squire, but not one he was familiar with. That only added to his disappointment in himself. "Good evening. Well. It's an evening, at any rate. I'm Camelot, Royal Knight of Earth."
He offered her a polite, regal bow, as was his way. In his mind, regardless of what rank he was, or they were, he was always at the service of anyone he met. Anyone that might need his help. That was his duty, after all, and sort of the only thing he had left to cling to.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 10:34 am
She stepped a little closer, into the circle of a street light to be more clearly seen, and to look at him more clearly, the cheeriness that had been in her voice moments before somewhat draining out of her. She had a strange look on her face - almost wry, like there was a bitter smile that was trying to keep from surfacing. And she was looking at him with an attitude of flagrant, unashamed observation, surveying him with a tilt of her chin that was, despite her clearly inferior rank and her petite stature, a queenly sort of attitude, as if she was sizing him up in some way. The smile came, finally. It was only a tilt at the corner of her mouth, and then lips thinly compressed and her dimples deepening, as if she had been amused by something that she knew she shouldn't find very funny. And she held out her hand to him, with an air of testing an expectation. "I am the Joyeuse Garde," she said, lapsing with instinct into putting "the" in front of it, as Gouvernail always did. And then, with another queenly little inclination of her head and a tone that was almost gently mocking: "Am I supposed to take a knee?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 10:43 am
"I'd prefer you didn't," Camelot laughed. "Sorry, it's an old habit. I've always taken the Knight thing a bit too seriously."
Carlisle, one of his dearest companions, would tend to agree. He often told Camelot to loosen up, especially when fully powered up. He came off as intimidating or just weird, and though the latter were true enough, it was hardly necessary to advertise it right off the bat when meeting someone. The former? Camelot was ultimately a marshmallow, and always had been. Even know, in his more dour timeline, he kept his kind heart and innate desire to help others.
"How about I try that again?" He held out his hand in greeting, a slight smile fighting its way across his care laden face. He had always been prone to smiling, though it felt a lot harder than it ever had before. Still, he was immediately charmed by her attitude, never one to miss signs, even subtle, of true potential in others.
"Been a Squire long, Miss The Joyeuse?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 10:51 am
She hesitated, stepping forward as she first put her hand into his and then, after a moment, shook it. Her handshake was surprising - firm, businesslike - and her smile relaxed somewhat into something a little more sincere, less strained. "Just Joy is fine," she said, and then, as she released his hand, nodding towards it with a rueful expression. "Forgive me. It's a long story, but I sort of expected you to kiss my hand. You still could, if you wanted," she added mildly, although she clearly meant this rhetorically, seeing as she'd already withdrawn it. This was, perhaps, just a general observation on her future willingness, in case the information would be useful. This was, unfortunately, probably the extent of the intelligence she would be able to convey to him. It would have been nice to sit and flirt. She hadn't ever done it in uniform yet, unless getting the eternal to call her "miss" with that submissive posture had counted, and she'd been too busy trying to save someone's life to feel much pleasure at it. But she had larger things to deal with, and she added almost immediately in answer to his question: "I've only had this, "she said, hefting the whip as she spoke, "for a week or so. I've still got a lot of questions, to be honest." It was not quite a request for him to answer them. Maybe she bridled at making an open petition - it would be in keeping with her air of vague, good-natured condescension.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 11:01 am
Camelot's eyebrows lifted at that, and he forgot to withdraw his hand from where it was hanging uselessly in the air between them. His brain seemed to be slowly turning her words over, trying to register their meaning. She got huffy about his bowing to her, so she certainly did not really want him to-
He blinked, shaking off his confusion and wiggling his fingers before pulling his hand back to himself as if he were expecting it to be bitten off by a shark.
His eyes shifted to the weapon she produced, and he wondered if his eyebrows had fallen off his forehead from their continued travels up. He forced himself to frown, eyebrows furrowing for their own safety, as he regarded the whip and distantly found himself thinking that it was probably a very appropriate choice for her, given what little he knew about her.
Not something a gentleman would say out loud, however.
"Well, I've been at this a lot longer than that, so I can probably answer a couple of them for you. Though if they are specifically oriented toward whip use, then maybe not." His expression softened, and his shoulders dropped a bit. Relaxing. This was a far more comfortable zone for him, than any he had been existing in lately. Just offering to help someone was enough to remind him that being powered, on patrol, was what he was made to do. Maybe all he was really capable of doing.
"I'm willing to try, anyway."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 11:26 am
"I'm very fair. All I ask for is effort," she said, with a sort of purring complacency. "And I promise you, the whip and I already get along just fine." She had not yet been able, really, to put her concerns and ideas into the concrete form of words. She found that it was an unexpected struggle to do it. She opted for the most essential question - the biggest one. She was aware that it was also the heaviest, but there was nothing for it but to ask it, and he seemed like someone who might know. "I think this whole thing is a stalemate on purpose. I don't think anyone is meant to win." She paused, and the air of fox-eyed playfulness dropped away. "I didn't ask for this. But if we're losing again-" again, she said, alluding to a thousand years of history "-what happens to me? To people like you and me?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 11:38 am
Camelot watched her for a long, silent moment, his eyes shadowed by more than just the gloom of the ill-lit evening. He took a slow breath, nodding his head slowly and glancing away. Composing himself, maybe, or arguing internally about what to say. Maybe he did not know how to respond.
"We die," Camelot said, his voice soft. "Or we're consumed by the darkness we're tasked to fight back. We lose our world, and our way of life. Our free will. There are thousand answers, each worse than the last. But we fight, eternally, to keep that nightmare at bay. It's not a stalemate on purpose. We awaken because we are called, we are needed. One by one, we join the fight, while Chaos spreads at its own volition. Exponentially."
He always seemed to have a lecture in his back pocket, despite the fact that his armor did not, in any obvious sense, have pockets.
"We are only at a stalemate because we are strong when we're called. We're worthy when we're awakened: we might not feel like it, but we are ready. Thrown into a war that's been waging around us for longer than anyone can fathom, and it does feel hopeless. But without each one of us, each light that causes those shadows to crawl back, even by inches, we would have already lost. What we need is to become stronger, as a force. Sometimes destiny is cruel, and it most certainly doesn't ask our permission. Some of us will fail to answer the call, some of us will choose easier, or darker, paths. But that's how we ultimately fail. To force ourselves out of the so called stalemate, we have to push back. Take a purposeful step forward, instead of just fighting darkness as it comes to us."
He sighed, running a hand through his ever further greying hair.
"So, I suppose, the answer to your question is to ask a different one. How do we not lose? We are at a turning point, now, as ever. Awakening, purification, growing in ranks: it's all a part of it. Treading water in a sinking ship. We fight, to find a way to plug that hole for good. Stop the leaks. Otherwise, we drown. There's no nice answer to that, I'm afraid."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 11:48 am
There was a long pause. "I don't believe you," she said at last, very simply, with a little smile. And then, elaborating: "It doesn't make sense. They already have control of half the board. We're losing numbers to corruption every day. They've got the money behind them, and the infrastructure. The logistics, which is what an army runs on. But what moves do they make? Why is it still all here-" she encompassed the city with a wave of her hand "-and not spreading?" She shook her head, and repeated again: "I don't believe you. Someone got too mad last time, and flipped the board. They're trying to avoid a repeat. We're just pawns." This had been her Grand Unified Theory of Bullshit for quite some time, and she voiced it with somewhat more confidence than she felt. "Can we walk and talk?" she asked abruptly. "It's easier than standing here." But she was already falling into step, apparently simply expecting him, superior or not, to follow her. She had, perhaps, been spoiled a bit by greying brown-haired knights with a sad demeanor simply doing what she asked without complaint, even if they did seem to have a habit of accompanying it with a lecture.
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 12:17 pm
"Of course," Camelot said, nodding his head. He was not ruffled by her response, considering it was a very fair one. He followed her placidly, matching her pace and letting her lead the way. He watched her curiously, but kept whatever his thoughts on what he was seeing were to himself.
He took a slow breath, thinking back.
"It's not as easy as they make it look. Everything they do requires energy, the living force of other beings. Chaos is a parasite, and it feeds on innocent beings. Without a fair stock, they would lose a lot of their control. Their goals, as I understand, is to reclaim their world. All worlds, as it turns out. But we're not stagnant, either. I've seen people do incredible things. Bring life to dead worlds. Rescue beings from planets far beyond anything a human has ever dreamed of. I've seen the impossible, good and bad."
"Yes, they put up an intimidating front. Their organization and resources can be scary, but this is a galactic war. This planet, though an integral piece, a load bearing piece, is still just a piece of the much larger threat. But if a front like that is enough to shake the resolve of someone like you, or me, then why have we not considered building one ourselves? Or rather, why have we stopped at only considering it. Chaos comes in a lot of forms, and sometimes I think we provide some of it just by being so at odds within ourselves. Knights, Senshi. All the various forms and species they've become: we're scattered, even when we're in one place."
He smiled a little wistfully, eyes turned to the strange skies above them.
"There's strength in that, of course. Our power is wild, unique. No one fights the same way, or even for the same thing, and it's dangerous. But in the end, we all just want to be able to live as freely as we choose. Our obligation comes from being dragged into a war most of us even know about before we're given the power to fight in it. Chaos steals their soldiers, but in the end it's almost the same. No one can be free, can really live, as long as Chaos is a spreading, creeping threat. As long as Order awakens out of necessity to fight it. Maybe a table flip is what we need. One that puts the pieces back on our side of the board. Who really knows?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 12:35 pm
She had walked in silence as he talked, letting him get his thoughts out, unprotesting and apparently turning them over in her own head. But she shook her head, at last, with a disgusted noise. "Chaos steals its soldiers? So does Order. Call it awakening, if you want. What are we but conscripts? It seems to me Chaos is better at recruiting the willing than we are. And conscripts make shitty armies," she said. She shook her head. "You'll have to forgive me, if I'm still not buying it. My ideas are more optimistic than yours, but they're more nihilistic too, I suppose. Don't think I'm going to - to defect. I can't stomach their methods. Ever. I've seen them," she added, with a grimness. "And I won't do what they do to feed themselves. And don't think I'm going to go Missing in Action, either, at least not yet. But I've been thinking, lately, about what to do about being a conscript. And I think I'm going to do what knights have done in every story I've ever read about them, and let me tell you," she said, with a grim little laugh. "I've read a lot. They get called up, they bend the knee, they wear the king's colors for a while. And then they ******** off into the forest of adventure, and they do whatever is put in front of them, just how they feel like it, and if you're lucky that's helping people, instead of getting into petty fights that don't help anyone." She paused, glancing at him sideways without breaking her pace. "I haven't had beautiful women throwing themselves at me for help yet, but I'm holding out more hope for that than I am for any sort of progress in this stupid game that Gods have decided to play with me. Maybe I'll just be wrong until it's too late, and there really is a win condition. But I think the Players have already shaken hands and agreed to play nice this time just to keep the game going." And then, bluntly, she got to the point: "Have you seen any direct evidence to the contrary? Or do I get to hold onto this and hope it's all a big noisy nothing, and I just have to keep people from dying as much as I can?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 12:58 pm
"I hope you never see someone you truly care for get torn away from you by Chaos," Camelot said, shaking his head. And he meant it. If Chaos only took willing soldiers, it would take away some of the loss, some of the worst moments young and innocent senshi and knights had to face.
"I don't blame you. I don't buy it, sometimes, either. A forest of adventure sounds like a lot more fun." He sighed, turning to catch her sideways glance and smirking at her words. "I haven't, either," he teased gently, "as far as beautiful women go."
He stopped at her last question. He looked tired, but somehow the sadness that had been clinging to him was suddenly missing. In its place, there was a fiery resolve, something burning just under his skin. He watched her, quiet, expression almost impossible to read.
"I have seen a lot of things. Whether the war is moving in any one direction or not, I've seen enough to know that fighting, protecting those that need it, those that don't even know they're being protected, has a value without a number. Torture. Murder. Twisted, mutated creatures that were once human. Even scarier things with human faces, but no heart. No soul. I have seen the worst of what can happen to someone who has no defense, or whose defense is just not enough. As long as it is in my capacity to do so, I will be the protection that prevents horrible things from happening to any individual life. That includes agents of Chaos. Any one with a life deserves a chance to live it. Winning this war might not be in my destiny. Being around to see it end might be an impossibility. But for me, fighting for small wins. For lives to continue, For light to pierce the dark, no matter how small the pinprick. That's all I need to do. If the chance to do more appears, I'll take it. I'll fight for it, too. If just keeping people from dying sounds like a fair trade to you, then I can't argue with that. Sometimes, that's all someone can do."
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at his feet.
"Having an idea of a bigger picture, a grander goal, is not easy. Deciding on a fate is beyond any of our call. Ultimately, your optimistc, nihilistic ideals might just be the right ones. Your powers were granted to you not because you've been signed up to add to a body count: you earned them. You have something inside you that is worthy of this calling. Deciding how to respond is just a part of that journey now ahead of you. Saving people isn't a small thing, you know. It's not a cowardly choice. Dusting a youma or two is still a difference. Any knight would protect someone in danger, even if they don't believe in the ideals of the King they're pledged to. That's what being a knight is. And usually how the best adventures start."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 1:32 pm
"I don't want a grander goal. Don't get the wrong idea - I'm not coming to you hoping you'll talk me out of it, or reassure me. I don't need reassurance." She certainly did not sound like she was in any distress, damsel or not. "I just wanted to know if you'd seen any proof that there were holes in my theory. And it doesn't sound like you have. You just have a different one." She smiled, then, without looking at him. "We'll see who's right, I guess." She paused. "Do you know Erec and Enide?" She continued, clarifying what she meant whether he did or didn't. "From Chretien. Erec has some adventures, ******** off to Arthur's court, gets married. Everyone starts making fun of him for neglecting his knighthood because he's busy seeing to his life as a husband and a future king. And he listens to them. Lets them get under his skin. And he goes and he makes his life and his wife's miserable, so he can aspire to some fake ideal, and all he manages to do is save a castle from a couple of giants and nearly die for the trouble. And the moral we're supposed to take from all that, as near as I can tell, is that knighthood is more important than the little daily duties we have to making the lives of those around us suck a little less - whether it's a wife, or an entire kingdom, or whatever." She smiled again, this time turning it towards him. "I always hated Erec. If he'd had any sense he'd have laid around getting about a dozen heirs together with his smoking hot wife and getting himself properly fat and happy before he took the crown. But I always got stuck on the fact that he did, you know, save some people when he went on that stupid adventure. There's probably some way to have both. I'm going to figure it out. But I'm not going to pay attention to whether the board is mostly black or mostly white until I have to." She smiled again, more fully, and reached out to pat his arm consolingly. "You do whatever you want to, but I'm not going to be too much like Erec. No one's gonna get under my skin. As for beautiful women throwing themselves at you for help, I guess you've gotten at least one." And then: "Don't let it get to your head."
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 1:57 pm
Camelot smiled, nodding his head along with the story.
"I had a wife. And a daughter. A wonderful little dog. Happiness like that is fleeting, but it's possible. You can have both. You can have anything. It just takes some effort, and a hell of a lot of luck. A stupid amount of luck, actually. For what it's worth, I hope you do figure it out. And then you can let me know some tips you pick up."
He chuckled, his mood perking up a bit. He enjoyed a challenging conversation, as it often revealed more than just words and thoughts. He watched her with a curious look. In his civilian life, he spent his days at his library, where he kept a personal collection of Arthurian legends, though it had of late branched out toward more Earth legends. Still, the core collection he kept in a special room, not open to the public.
With a grin, he offered her a bow, placing his hand on his chest and dipping his head gallantly, no longer just falling victim to a bad habit. Maybe he was just a sucker, but at least he was not wallowing for the moment. A very welcome relief, despite the topic and intensity. He knew, at the end of the day, he would always be the guy nearly dying while doing something heroic.
"True enough. I'll do my best not to let it go to my head, my lady. Now. Are you patrolling, or would you like an escort home? We can continue our chat a bit longer, if you've got some soft ball questions to toss at me now that you've already presented the big guns. "
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Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2025 2:05 pm
She laughed, although it was not entirely clear which part, exactly, she was laughing at. Probably best that he didn't know, really. It was at least better than the expression she'd had before, which had been a troubled and reluctant sympathy at the use of the word "had" in describing his personal life. She grabbed at the change of subject like she'd been thrown a lifeline. She wasn't trying to get wrapped up in other people's tragedies. "No offense - really - but I don't want anyone on this side of the whole magical fence to know where I live. I'm trying to keep those two worlds pretty goddamned separate, for as long as I can." She wrinkled her nose, ruefully expressive. "But thank you for hearing me out. It's been a little difficult to find someone I could bounce my theories off of who'd know. Sorry for accidentally luring you into a pep talk I didn't need." She turned, extending her hand again with a beaming smile. "But I am, actually, going to go home, by myself and all. I have work tomorrow. So thank you again."
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