sixth arrow → VIDEO → Seelie

[notyetlegend]

Oh for...of all th' irresponsible...

[There's some angry Scottish muttering as Merida sets her locket down, standing in front of what looks like a shrine to the White Hart in armor. Or it had been before it was desecrated in such a manner. Her knees sink into the dirt and tugging her quiver and bow off and setting them to the side, she starts to fix it up, huffing. Her locket is angled so that she can look at it while she works, pulling a face when she pulls things out of the broken shrine before tossing them over her shoulder.]

As if we didn't have other things to worry about with th' Void comin' closer. Honestly, whatever happened to respectin' th' gods? I thought th' Black Shuck an' th' White Hart held sway over these lands.

[It's the second one she's come across in the last day or so, though she bets there are more like this. Even her ears had caught noise of the riots that had started happening in the Drabwurld, and not shardbearer related this time. Merida shook her head as she set the shrine artifacts upright, making a mental note to replace them as she sighs. She can't claim to know the affairs of gods, even with what Ben said about the vision he had. After a minute or two and the shrine starting to look better, Merida pulls her hands back to rest them against her legs, pausing before picking her locket up again.]

Does anyone consider just...stayin' here? Settle down after th' war ends? I don't know if I could go back home to who I used to be, if I could just forget everythin' that's happened here an' all the people I've met, th' friends I've made. [She reaches to brush the hawk feather behind her right ear back, braided into her hair like it is.] Just curious if anyone else feels th' same way I guess.

Comments

{Audio}

[rangerandking]

{She brings up a lot of good points - things he has thought about time and time again. Can he return to Middle Earth after everything he has endured? Will he be the same Man? One thing he knows for certain is, if he does return, he wishes to forget the time he spent in the Drabwurld.

He must become the Man he was before - the one filled with hope.}

It is difficult to make that decision when your friends leave you behind.

{Audio}

[notyetlegend]

I suppose you have a point.

[She could definitely understand that, but then again Merida had never had friends before she arrived in the Drabwurld, just Angus. Would she be able to stay here if they were all from the same world and waiting for her? Of course not. But the truth or the matter was this was something she'd been thinking about for a long time,]

Do you have many friends, m'lord?

{Audio}

[rangerandking]

Less than I started with and none I would depend on for my life. {Mainly because he wouldn't put them in that position.} I suppose that makes my lot easier.

What of you?

[video]

[commandertoolbelt]

Well, there's still a goddess back home whose butt needs kicking, so... no. I guess I never really thought about staying here.

[ It's a good question, though; there are people he's met here that he wouldn't want to leave behind, either. But getting back and taking down Gaea has been his priority since his very first quest back home. It's personal. ]

[video]

[notyetlegend]

You're battlin' a goddess back where you come from?

[If she sounds a little incredulous it's because she is. Sorry, Leo. Merida raises an eyebrow, though she doesn't dismiss it entirely. There are of course stories that have come from the east about people who battle gods, so really, she can't help but ask.]

Are you one of those Greeks?

[video]

[commandertoolbelt]

[ "One of those Greeks", she says. Nice to know their reputations precede them. ]

One of, sure enough. What's so weird about fighting a goddess, though? We work for fairies.

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[angelolatry]

[The thought, the news of anyone doing such a thing to a shrine or temple is almost enough to make Colette feel ill even prior to Merida's actual question about the idea of settling down here. She's a religious person in her own faith, at least. Just because someone didn't believe, that didn't mean she would do such a thing to the shrine of a god they worshiped.]

I'm not sure. I mean, back home I was.... [Well. Ready and willing to die.] My friends are there. My grandmother and father. I miss them. But I know I don't want to forget the friends I've made while here either. I know I'd miss them too. I guess I hadn't really thought about it.

[Hadn't thought about any sort of life after her Journey, really. Like most everyone back home, she never even anticipated that she would reach her seventeenth birthday. And yet. She had.]

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[notyetlegend]

I never had any friends back home. I guess that's why th' thought is easier for me.

[She has her family but she's learned since coming here that it's not exactly the same thing. Merida's hand comes up to brush away at something on the shrine, busying herself while talking. It's easier to believe that there's a way out of this that includes all of them coming out alive, even if the Seelie just sit back and watch the world collapse in on itself, that there's a way out of the Void closing in on them.]

I'd miss th' person I've become too. I'm different now to when I first came to the Drabwurld. If it didn't make me forget, I don't think I'd be happy just goin' back to who I used to be.

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[angelolatry]

No friends at all? I only met Lloyd and Genis later when I started at school, but....that must be lonely. I could see why that would make a difference.

[In terms of Merida wanting to remain here at least. Here, she has probably made plenty of friends that she would miss and want to stay with. But the last has her considering for a moment, even as she watches Merida working at cleaning the shrine.]

Hm. I suppose. A lot of us probably have...changed even at least a little, from being here and meeting everyone.

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[babbylon]

[No comment on the shrine desecration; Gilgamesh has no taste for gods and even less for the Shuck, who's sentenced him to an agonizing death on Samhain, but on the matter of staying or going...]

I would return only to madness.

[Which, needless to say, doesn't make him all too eager to leave. He notes the feather with a small smile, however, and gently teases:]

You wear it well, little atmu. It pleases me you carry my token with you.

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[notyetlegend]

I can't have that happen to my king.

[The words are said without thinking, although technically it's true. He's been her king since Treun, or maybe a bit before that, she hasn't figured it out yet but it was definitely around that time. The comment on the feather makes her turn pink and duck her head, inclining it with a small shrug.]

What did you expect me to do with it? Surely not just leave it lay in' around.

audio

[fairyfoes]

You are gravely mistaken, lass. There is no, 'after the war'.

The war is the scope of eternity. We sit here at its end. Should Unseelie win, all of us are dead. Each and every one. When together they have enough shards, they need only to flex their will, and the shards of all of us shall be ripped from our bodies, attracted to the mass of all other shards, made to re-form the Gem of old.

Should Seelie victory be ours, we shall also perish. But as willing sacrifices, giving up ourselves that the cycles of life may yet continue; as guardians to all which might come after us, guardians of the future. We shall be reduced to our barest elements, and be used to give life to our worlds anew at the breaking of the new First Dawn.

You should reflect on this, and on the great responsibility you bear your world.

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[notyetlegend]

[Well there's no need to be a party pooper, mister. Merida almost opens her mouth to say that she used to be Unseelie before she clamps it shut, though there's a thoughtful humming.]

You truly don't believe there's another way, m'lord? That we all come out of this alive? My people believe that there's another world after death, the Otherworld, a land of th' fae much like this one. If we're used to give new life to our worlds, doesn't that mean that we can come back after th' fact? If our worlds are renewed, aren't we also?

[It makes sense to her. If he was trying to scare her, it doesn't work. It just makes her conviction stronger.]

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[detoxifying]

With the Void on the horizon, some might feel as though their Gods have abandoned them.

[ It was something he understand well enough, from the histories he's read on the First Blight in his own world, to what had been happening before he arrived here.

As to her other question...

If the seelie would have their way, we would all face certain death, never to return, and all for the cycle to continue.

But, he doesn't say that, instead sighing. ]

Void or no, my world remains in danger, held at the hands of a madman who would proclaim himself a God, and tear apart the fabric of reality. I'd never be able to forget, certainly, but I would not abandon my duties, or my family and friends.

[ And the chance at a future. ]

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[notyetlegend]

My people believe th' gods help those who help themselves, but perhaps at a time like this, th' gods wish to be prayed to. If they get stronger through prayer, then they'd be able to face whatever is causin' them to quarrel.

[It made her sound like a hopeless fool, surely, but at the same time it had been her train of thought while she'd talked to Ben. Why else would the Shuck ask her to say a prayer for him? Merida doesn't say that, though, not when the Monarchs are likely monitoring the lockets once again. Instead, she bites her bottom lip when she hears that, glancing off to the side.]

I never knew th' concept of duty or friends before I came here. I didn't understand it, what my mother was preparin' me for, an' I hated that I didn't have any say. That I would become queen without say, that I would marry against my will. [She shakes her head.] I admire your loyalty, Cullen, to your friends an' family an' your cause. Perhaps some part of me is still that selfish girl I was.

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[judicatus]

[ After the war. That such a thing could remain a possibility seems only more and more unlikely to Gabranth as time wears on. But he's not about to speak on that, much less his own plans should he ever return home. ]

The gods rarely made themselves known to mankind in my own world, if ever at all. That they do so with some frequency here... [ He sighs. ] It's hardly a surprise that their respect should fall by the wayside.

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[notyetlegend]

[It's refreshing to get different perspectives on things and how other people think of this, it's true. Merida gives her own sigh, more of a huff really.]

I've never seen them in my world either, an' I hardly claim to know th' will of th' gods or be someone of th' faiths here, but what if they show themselves because they need that belief? If some need that more than others, wouldn't they show people that they're here? [She shakes her head, and the sound of the feather rustling in her hair comes over the feed.] Regardless, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there are some losin' faith with th' Void closin' in.

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[writeswrongs]

I understand what you mean. This place has actually grown on me. I think under certain conditions I'd like to stay here too.

[Those conditions being the war ending and his family joining him.]

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[notyetlegend]

Aye, I think certain circumstances could make livin' here easier for some people.

[Though she'd never wish her family here during the time of war, if they arrived after? She'd be over the moon.]

It's a bit inevitable isn't it? That this place grows on you?

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[red_branch]

What a thing to dwell on, Princess.

[He was dressed in his battle raiment for once, walking down along one of the western roads. Behind him, one of the great big wolfhounds padded near silently, bumping his shoulder on occasion.]

Though, 'fraid you already know my answer. The only span of time I'll ever care about is 'this moment'.

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[notyetlegend]

Aye, I already got my answer from you last Samhain.

[When she asked if he ever thought about the future. One of the wolfhounds she'd taken with her peeks over her shoulder, resting his head on it and tail thumping loudly against the ground behind him. She reached up to pet him, hand stroking his neck as she raised an eyebrow.]

An' where are you off to?

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[bondedgryphon]

[The gryphon looks contemplative for several beats after Merida posts, considering what she really feels.]

If what we're told about the destruction of all is false... then I think I would prefer to stay here. What I left behind me... I cannot return to that after all I've known here. To know that my kin that proceeded me here returned without knowledge... that I would be alone in what I know and what I've experienced.

[Her ear tufts flick back, beak grinding lightly as she shifts in the lockets' view.]

I would have to surrender my new abilities, which have granted me freedom I've never known... I would leave this war for the one I left behind me... [She shakes her head, rumbling low in her throat.]

Giving up those I've met here... surrendering relationships I'd have never had. [She shakes her beak lightly in negation.] If I could not stay here, I'd rather return to the lands of some of the others I've met... see new worlds and new people.

Vdeo;

[notyetlegend]

[Zhaneel gets what she's trying to say, though perhaps she has an easier grasp on her words than Merida does on her own. She finds herself nodding in agreement with what she says, cupping a hand around one of the earrings she wears before it drifts back to the hawk feather again.]

Aye. Even knowin' some about their world, I think...I would rather follow some back to their worlds than be on my own in mine again. I wouldn't be able to give up those I've come to call friend or lover here, just to go back an' marry someone I don't think I'll ever love an' oversee a kingdom until it's time to give up my throne. [She tilts her head and licks her lips.] If I had that option, I don't think I'd mind leavin' th' Drabwurld.

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[sangilak]

This isn't my home, and it never will be. I have a job to do in Republic City, in the Four Nations. I can't stay here.

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[notyetlegend]

I wonder if there's a way for us to follow others home. Those we don't want to leave behind.