eachdraidh | Memory | Open to both Courts

Entry tags:

Memory | Open to both Courts

“Those were all lies back there!” The woman yelling was blue, certainly not human but absolutely furious at the target of her anger: Javik.

“They were not,” he snapped back, keeping his tone as even as he could. “You wanted to know more about your history, asari, now you do!”

“I have a name!” The woman shimmered with blue energy, drawing her fist up in front of her. He knew well enough how powerful her biotics were, but he wasn't afraid of her. Behind her, the door sliced open and a red haired human – Shepard – walked in, looking startled for half a second at what was unfolding in front of her. “It’s Liara T’Soni, and I’d appreciate it if you –“

Shepard grabbed Laira’s arm, attempting to direct her anger away from Javik before any damage could be done. “Hey, settle down!”

“My home was just destroyed, and all he can do is gloat.” Her anger had abated, but only a little. The look she gave him was nothing short of murderous. The asari had spent her life digging around in prothean ruins, and as soon she heard the truth, she accused him of gloating. Unbelievable.

“Given what’s happened today, I think you owe Liara an apology, Javik.” Even more unbelievable, it seemed, was Shepard taking her side. The sneer that curled his lips was hardly a surprise.

“Apologize for the truth?” He sounded about as offended as he looked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“For not doing more!” Liara shouted, the aura of her biotics still shimmering around her. “You’re a prothean! You were supposed to have all the answers! How could not stop this from happening?”

“We believed you would.” And just like that, Liara’s anger faded along with her biotics, and she exchanged a confused look with Shepard. He checked a sigh, realizing that he was going to have to explain himself in a way that kept her happy. “Long ago we saw the potential in your people. Even then it was obvious: the wisdom, the patience. You were the best hope for this cycle, so you were… guided, when necessary.”

Everything he’d said in the temple was true: the goddess Athame was prothean, and the asari's success in nearly every quarter was thanks to interference from his people. For months now he'd been waiting for the dam to break in the asari, and for her to accuse of him not being what she'd wanted. He had shattered her image of his people in less than ten minutes, and failed to give them any real insight on how to defeat the Reapers. What they wanted, what they needed, was a prothean scientist or an engineer. Instead they'd gotten a broken, bitter old soldier, and they hated every word that came out of his mouth.

Liara looked at the floor. “Well it didn’t work.”

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?” Javik pressed on, brows rising. “Your world may have fallen, but as long as even one asari is left standing, the fight isn’t over.”

“I guess that goes for protheans, too.” The asari lifted her gaze to him, fingers entwined.

“Despair is the enemy’s greatest weapon,” he said, finally dropping his arms out of their defensive position. He took a few steps forward, bowing his head towards her. “Do not let them wield it… Liara T’Soni.”

She gave him a smile, fleeting as it was, and turned to leave. One little speech, and she was as good as placated.

Shepard turned to him once the door had closed behind the asari, looking at him curiously. “That was…unexpected. Thank you.”

“We still need her talents. If grief overcomes her, she will be lost to us.” He’d dealt with it before, with his own people. Grief slowed your trigger finger, depressed your reaction time. Death waited at every opportunity if you weren’t vigilant, and the asari’s power over information in the galaxy was keeping them alive.

He watched something dark pass over the commander’s face. “So did you actually mean what you said?”

“Does it matter?” He shot back, wanting this conversation to be done. They’d lost one planet, as if there weren’t others that could still be saved. These young races clung too tightly to things they didn’t need – honestly she should be worried about the prothean VI they’d just lost. Finishing the Crucible was going to be impossible without it, regardless of how many asari died for it.

“Liara’s been a good friend to me. It matters.”

“Then I will tell you what you want to hear: I meant what I said.” He turned his back on Shepard, walking to the water reservoir so he could wash his hands. The commander didn’t scold him for it, nor did she try to pry more out of him, thankfully. By now, she knew when he was done talking.

“Carry on,” she said, and he had only to wait a moment before she was gone as well.

Javik stared at his reflection in the water until he couldn’t stand the sight of it any longer.

[ooc: video here (just pretend Shepard is a redhead okay). If you're at the Station, action is cool.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's certainly war on a different scale.

[There wasn't an immediate response - at least not until Javik realized his locket did to him what it had done to others. In all honesty, it was kind of disappointing the memory wasn't all that traumatic. Seeing the commander and the asari again was strangely refreshing, even if they were on display for everyone else.]

The war here is a poor joke compared to what I have seen back home.

[There's a delay before this reply, but it comes.]

I'm sorry.

I do not require sympathy or pity.

[And he didn't hand it out himself very often, considering the memory.]

Sometimes the lie is kinder than the truth. [ That is Maglor, quiet and tired ]

And yet I think there was truth in your words, all the same.

Her line of work dealt with hard truths, but she did not like to hear ones that were personal. Nothing I said was a lie.

[He was deliberately missing the point. If people started thinking he was actually a nice guy, it would ruin his day.]

[ Uh huh. Maglor knows better ]

No - but not the whole truth either. Still, it was what she needed to hear - no one likes to hear the hard truths, and yet they must be said.

She fought well, until the end. [He realized how that sounded, and had to correct himself.] That I saw, at least. I was taken before the conflict ended, and she was not part of the final squad. If it was my words that saw her through, then I accomplished what I intended.

[ A nod ] One life saved against the dark - perhaps one day she will look back and thank you.

[Javik gave a short, dark chuckle.] She will be a Matriarch of a thousand years before she thanks me for anything. [The locket shifted in his hand, and he looked over his shoulder for a moment.] Are you nearby? I would prefer not to have this conversation so publicly.

[ a small wry smile ] Stranger things have happened.

[ he nods ] I am by the fairy ring. [ thinking about running, about escape, about finding a way to do stop my brother's advance ]

True enough. [He considered for a moment, then decided it would be worth it to ride out. The day was still young, or however than inane saying went.] Don't go anywhere.

[He shut the locket, and set about getting ready to ride again. Honestly, with how personal these memories were making things, he thought it best to put some distance between himself and everyone else. Maglor wouldn't be waiting long before Javik came trotting into view on his bay. The horse seemed happier to see Maglor than Javik himself.]

[ Maglor sits at the edge of the ring, watching it contemplatively - he is in full battle dress. Not the heavy armor of the Unseelie knights that Celegorm wears, but what he was brought in with - chain mail, greaves and braces, and with both Feanor's longsword and his hunting knife. A small pack lies beside him, his cloak folded neatly on top. He does not look up, but he calls softly when Javik is within range, and his grey comes trotting up to say hello to Javik's bay ]

Well met my friend. What news?

[On the small screen of the locket, he hadn't been able to see how Maglor was dressed. He'd spent enough time around the elf these past few months to know when something was off, heart or not. Dismounting, he dropped the reins and let the horse join Maglor's.]

What news? This morning I found the faces of my teammates on display for all the world to see, and now I find you dressed for war. Do you plan on marching with the rest of them?

[He'd seen enough of the network to know that some people were playing at war, and consequently ignored it.]

[ Maglor shakes his head as he rises, offering his hand to the bay before pushing him towards his grey. ]

Not if I can help it. [ He says simply ] I must regain father's jewel - the Oath demands it - but... there are other ways than open war. Will and I... we mean to try tonight.

But if we fail, then I suppose it is to war I ride, in the end. [ quiet and resigned ]

[Javik's horse mouthed his hand, before deciding no apples were around, so it turned to join the grey.]

'Father's jewel?' All of this is over a rock?

[He didn't bother hiding his disgust, and he hadn't even gotten started on going with Will. Was every conflict in this world going to be because of some shiny stone?]

[ a soft sigh and Maglor turns the locket so Javik can see the relevant post, the screen frozen on an image of a star fallen to earth, a light that is more than sun or moon, that is both and neither and alive, in the hands of a girl who mocks them ]

Aye. Father's Silmaril, his greatest creation and most loved treasure. He would have... almost did - burn down the whole world to retrieve them. And we are sworn to the same, my brothers and I. To retrieve them, whatsoever the cost to ourselves, or to others. We have asked. I have begged. And she will not yield. The Oath we took Javik... it is binding to the end of the world, and perhaps beyond. To life, to death, to blood. I cannot fight it for much longer.

[ To Javik's natural abilities the air around Maglor feels unwell - he is not lying when he says the Oath compels him. Madness claws at his mind, a driving need for the Silmaril that almost drowns out everything else. ]

I would not even take Will. [ He admits ] But... I cannot refuse him, either.

[Javik studied what was displayed before him, knowing he'd seen her face, but ignored it like he ignored most things that passed across the locket. Apparently he should be paying more attention. As for Will, well... if it was his choice, then that was that. He saw no real reason to argue against it.]

Your people are strange to me, elf - what power does this stone have over you and your family?

[He could sense the illness in the elf, and it wasn't like before, when he'd lost his heart. It reminded him of the stench of somehow who'd been indoctrinated by the Reapers, and it made him uneasy. If you were compelled to action by some outside force against your will, how could trust yourself? He knew it wasn't indoctrination, but he felt a strong urge to get away from the elf. He resisted it.]

The gem itself? Nothing, beyond that it and its two sisters are now the only remaining memory of the light that was before moon and sun. But the Oath now... that is something else again. The Oath we took we swore by the Highest Authority, calling upon ourselves the darkest of fates - it cannot be broken, not by any power save perhaps that selfsame Authority.

[ Maglor shrugs minutely, but madness flickers deep in his eyes ] It torments us, my brother and I, so long as it remains unfulfilled.

[That made it sound like a lot more than just a pretty rock, he had to admit.]

I... believe I understand. Among my people, we had avatars, and each of them represented an exemplary trait, wholly devoted to that and nothing else. To be denied what you are sworn to is trying.

[Maglor's case was a lot more intense, though, he could feel that just sitting next to him.]

It sounds similar, aye. [ Maglor nods ] The Oath is all I can think of now - it haunts my waking and sleeping both, and... the injury the jewel inflicted on me when I last held it has re-opened.

[ almost absently he turns his right hand over - the burn injuries so carefully tended and pronounced 'as good as they're going to get with these facilities' by House are rewrapped, and freshly so, but already there is a slight darkening of them ]

[He remembered the bandaged hands the first time they'd met, and the pain he'd read from him when learning his language. It had never concerned him enough to ask how or why that injury persisted. Even if it weren't being offered to him, Javik gingerly took Maglor's hand, inspecting the wound for himself. How it wasn't festering, he didn't know.]

It does not heal, but grows worse under your oath? How do you fulfill it?

[ Maglor lets him, long used to the oddities of his travel companions, and trusting them to do him no harm, and shrugs as best he can with one hand captured.

There is something strange about the burn that was not obvious at their previous meeting (for then the Oath slept, but now it is roused again) - almost, it burns as if fire licks at it still, a bright, terrible, holy flame - this is not a wound physical, although it certainly manifests that way, and will continue to do so, but one written far deeper than that. ]

It seems that way. And the words of the Oath are quite specific - my family must lay our hands on the jewels - we may not rest until we do. So, either Celegorm, or I, or Father, if he were still here, must hold them in our hands and in our keeping.

[That was the worst resolution to an oath he'd ever heard, and he'd seen a lot of people die for awful reasons. He picked up on the odd burning sensation, and was again reminded of Reaper indoctrination. That was something that crawled under the skin - a disease of the mind that could not be excised. He let Maglor's hand go.]

Leaving the oath complete, until it is lost or stolen again. [He was no stranger to being wholly devoted to something, but this still confused him. Seeking vengeance for a dead people seemed more sensical than holding onto a pretty stone, but he was biased.] What is Will's part in this?

Yes. [ A small grim smile, but madness lurks ever in his eyes, now ]

Will is... [ how do describe genie ] beholden to me. [ Close enough? ] And I mean to use his abilities to ensure that once we have it back, none will touch it again.

[At least he didn't answer 'magic', like Will always did. Any other answer was preferable, even if it didn't make it any clearer.]

Then with him, perhaps you will have an end to this. The way you described it makes it sound as though destroying the thing is out the question.

[Get rid of it and be done with it, he thought]

That is my hope. [ Maglor nods ]

I do not know? To this day none know how Father made them, nor yet what substance he used - but he called it 'silima' - hence, 'Silmarils'. In my own world, at least, nothing existed that could break or marr them. Not even the Dark Lord himself could break them, and Morgoth was the greatest and most powerful being save only the One Himself.

[There were a few words in there that went right over his head, but he didn't feel like asking after them just now.]

This world is not your own. It is possible there is something here that could break it, if it would free you from all this.

[Unless destroying it made matters worse - he had no idea. It was one thing to be bound to an ideal, like him, and another to suffer for a damn rock.]

[ooc: i'm waiting on answer from the mods about our other thread before replying. i haven't forgotten!]

[ A small shake of his head and he quotes, a perfect mimicry of his father so true that it is almost as if Feanor stands before them, the memory drawn fresh, stirred up from its slumber by the Oath, by the memory... by Feanor's recent presence ]

"if I must break them, I shall break my heart, and I shall be slain!"

Perhaps there is, but even so, I could not do that to my father. And I do not think I would be free Javik - did I not think so once already, when I came fresh to this world? We had succeeded, my brother Maedhros and I... and now it wakes, and all it took was one foolish child refusing us.

(ooc: lol I figured yes! no rush!)

Edited 2014-08-02 15:19 (UTC)

The death of the parent ensures the survival of the offspring in many species. All organics suffer this fate. I should think your father did not willingly inflict this upon his children.

[He'd seen worse things done in the name of war, and at one point the Reapers turned their own children against them... Priorities changed, he supposed, when you no longer had a future for yourself or your progeny.]

Death is a strange thing for the Eldar, Javik - we may be slain yes, but time does not wear on us the way it does the Secondborn or Durin's kin. We did not know what death was, until grandfather was slain, although I am sure his generation remembers the Long March and the lives lost there. And father... was... not very sane, I think. None of us were - terrified, grief-stricken... and father's emotions have always run hot. Willingly? Perhaps or perhaps not - but when he died Javik, with his last thought he cursed our enemy and made us all swear the Oath again.

[He was starting to know how Liara felt every time he 'answered' her questions about his people. The more he learned, the less sense they made. At least he didn't have any lofty preconceived notions, but a basic understanding always seemed out of his reach.]

His enemy was not the only one cursed, I think. I do not... I have no words of condolence or encouragement, Maglor. This conflict is beyond the scope of my experience.

[Which was saying something - he'd seen some crazy shit before.]

No. [ Maglor nods, sad and resigned ] So thoroughly has he entangled us that I think only death will free us, my brothers and I, and perhaps not even then.

Thank you for trying, Javik. That you would stand beside me in any case is more a comfort than you know.

[Death was one of the things that worried him about this place. He had been looking forward to his end, back home, and had been prepared to speed things along if they came out victorious. Here, so many things were different he feared death wasn't just a simple end. For the elf's sake, he hoped it was simple.]

Are you waiting on Will before departing? I am afraid I would not be much help on your mission.

[ a small shrug ]

I am, yes. I thought to go through myself first however and scout the land. Will knows where to find me.

[ A quiet, sad sort of smile ] I fear you might be too obvious, my friend. But I thank you for the offer.

['Too obvious' was putting it mildly. He was a soldier, though, and his job was to go in shooting. At least this trip and conversation had successfully taken his mind off of Liara.]

Then I will leave you to prepare.

[ Maglor cannot quite muster up a smile, but he bows to Javik, graceful and formal, and there is appreciation in his eyes ]

Thank you.

[He didn't expect a smile, and honestly, he'd never seen so many of them until Shepard had brought him aboard the Normandy. There hadn't been much to smile about in his life. He gave him a short nod in response, and left to find his horse, thinking maybe he'd swing by the lake if there was enough daylight left. Some part of him wanted to help the elf, but the rest of him was more realistic - this still wasn't his war, and he wasn't about to get involved in the fringes.

Cold logic wasn't quite as comforting as it used to be, though.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Memory | Open to both Courts

text;

video

text;

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video -> action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

action

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject