video / action (?) | open to all

[caditquaestio]

[ It's all misery footage, Caer Glaem in paltry glory: rammed gates, scratched walls, torn stone, upturned soil, roughened up trees. The locket's coverage pauses on each 'tourist attraction' from a high vantage point, briefly stumbling on hands that are exceedingly worn, blistered and bitten. ]

What has... what's... wrought this? How many dead does the court mourn, how many supplies were lost to - to enemy unknown?

[ A pause, then less startled, slightly cold. ]

...how do they wish us to make war upon each other, if they give siege first? Not the finest general, not the most accomplished tactician can devise strategy against Anaximander's unknown. Not Caesar - Caesar, who had little gain from the Gauls without paying the blood price, but at least he knew what enemy lay in wait.

And we? Look here. Remember this next you think the time is nigh to fight well and fight fairly: we are not armed with weapon or knowledge. We are played for puppets, and when our masters go without their laughs, our strings are cut.

[ Muttered. ]

'Lawkamercyme'. Hah. We do not even know what the word means, or who gave it to us for the telling.



[ ooc: ...and lo, a much belated, for RL KO'd, APOLOGIES! wild intruder appears in the Seelie court! He's given up his war declaration in favour of sheer horror at Ariadne's mad interior decorating skillz. Those who'd like to run into a Borgia need but look for the 'worker' who's... probably... holding... the tools by the wrong end. ]

Comments

video.

[powerful]

There's a lot of power in a name. Even if it sounds like a sneeze.

video.

[caditquaestio]

[ Just... keeping the locket affixed on the wall damage, like any good asshole. ]

And who - lends - the power? To what purpose? We do not know. We do not care to ask. It does its work for now, and so we use blindly.

We are parched men of the desert taking our fill of water from the first stream, and what if it is poisoned?

video.

[powerful]

Then I guess we all die. But when you're reading a choose your own adventure book and you only have three options, and they all end in 'die', what choice are you left with, really? Parched man in the desert finds water, drinks, it's poison, and he dies... Parched man in the desert finds water, it's poison, doesn't drink it, he dies of dehydration. It's a lose-lose situation. What else can we do about it? Unless you have a suggestion to every single problem, in which case, go right ahead and share.

[caditquaestio]

[ Absent-minded - ]

...five situations: parched man does not find water, he concedes to his plight and dies. Parched man does not find stream and pushes on to journey new until friendly water pours before him.

[powerful]

See? In all versions, death is inevitable. Why not at least postpone it?

[caditquaestio]

Because the lesser harm can turn to greater evil. The word you speak - what is it? What does it do? Who gave it? Why?

Perhaps what it means is, "Be gone today, be returned tomorrow with strength twice as before, I make this compact." Have you thought on this? That you might feed these... animals?

[powerful]

Have you seen them? They feed themselves. And unless you put the thought of will into a spell like that, it won't happen. Unless you go in thinking 'come back twice as strong', while you're yelling, and putting all of your will behind that thought? It won't happen. If the thought and the will behind the name is to get rid of it forever, it'll be gone forever. That's how magic works.

action;

[pontificus]

[The destruction is great, and though she would like to think herself safe, she still wishes to check on Sansa who still slumbers. It is upon her return that Lucrezia sees her door open. It is all the more perplexing because she cannot think of a single person who would do that. Gendry would message her before hand, and she is not close enough to anyone else within the castle.

Cautiously she peers into her room, though she has not even a weapon to defend herself. But all wary is cast aside when she is greeted by the site of the boy who she has talked to for some time.]

You've come at last! [She's hardly even noticed that he's picked through her things. Lucrezia is simply pleased that he is there.]

[caditquaestio]

[ Is the cinematic ruin view trembling - yes, it is. It is, because his hands with the locket are trembling in sheer frustration. ]

There - is - no - magic. There is nothing the mind cannot grasp, only what it is not told and what it does not mind to learn.

[caditquaestio]

[ The dagger is out before his glare leaves the final verse.

...ah. The mistress, then.

He should, but doesn't make his apologies, only returns the blade to sheath and rests the book in his hand in precarious balance over her bed frame. The cover's grittier now, slightly teased with the red prints of his fingerprints; he fusses, lamely, to clean it, managing to do more by way of infection and harm. Hmmm. A tenuous task, then.

Almost as difficult as, say, catching your bearings when your much aged sister's wandered in the - her rooms and thinks you a stranger. Well. Well, well.

Belatedly, he looks her in the eye, then (fast) away. ]

You look beau - [ No, wait, that isn't for don Lorenzo's messenger to say. ] In health. I did not think... [ And what right does a courier have to think of the Pope's daughter? Curses, he should have made himself a prince. ] ...your doors are weak, your books are plain and your fortress stands ruined, but you... look in health.

[pontificus]

[She catches his misstep and even if the blade out in her own room should alarm her, she is trusting in him. Hands clasped behind her back, she walks toward him, all smiles for the compliment that might have been. It suits her well enough.]

I have not parished in this last attack upon our castle, and the shadow beasts that would prey upon me. [She does not care that he takes to insulting her books or her court.]

I take it you have fared the journey well. Only to be expected for a man in service of the Medici family. [Lucrezia bows ever gracefully before him, the picture of elegance and nobility.]

For if I am beautiful, then you are handsome. [Her tone is teasing, unrelentless but as a sister mocks her brother. She chooses to flirt instead of being unkind.]

[caditquaestio]

[ He blinks away the juxtaposition - a child-sister, now woman, and both with the same foolish habits of showing their necks too trustingly - the littlest bit caught aback. Something else's changed. Oh. The way of bowing.

Yes, they do it... differently in Lucrezia's time, the gesture is more refined. Or maybe it's Lucrezia's own habit, and he blames it on the fashions. Unfortunate, how he can't tell. ]

If it pleases you to say so.

[ A nod towards the door. ]

I'm afraid I must offend your modesty and ask you leave your locks turned behind you. I am not... a guest here, Madam.

[pontificus]

[Oh. He thinks himself the only man to be alone in her rooms. The thought makes her grin though she does not bare her secret. Instead she moves to shut the door though the hall seems to be empty.]

I have not had the pleasure of an Unseelie visitor. Does my court know you as such? [How worried should she be?]

[caditquaestio]

[ Well, does it? He takes the moment to consider, calculate - how many people has he spoken to, what is their allegiance, whom do they follow in truth, and how easily could they be persuaded to different...?

And then he laughs, because - ]

I don't often show face. It is -

[ Disastrous, if ever one thing is. ]

Uncalled for, in a man of my station. My work must be seen, not my person.

[ A hand comes up to stall objection. ]

But enough of me. How do you find your... kingdom?

voice. private.

[orcsurfing]

'tis a wild world out there, charming stranger. Creatures dark and dangerous lurk in every little corner, capable of even greater destruction that the castle has known before.

[ Though he sounds plenty calm, he worries about the people there nonetheless. He's seen the damage at the Station as well, he's heard whisperings of the creature that caused them, though he wasn't present anywhere near for any of it.

He's faced his own mythical enemy, though, defeated it at a certain cost that still haunts him now and again. ]

Creatures that do not swear allegiance to any, but themselves.

[caditquaestio]

The darkest and most dangerous of creatures is thought, and the worst of its children is of the union between thought and man.

We can face all enemies. Reduce them to sand and wind and nothingness. But we must know where they lie, we must know what they are, we must know they exist. This? This is children playing at marksmanship come nightfall.

I do not make war to entertain spectators. I shall not waste life and resource on this and in this way.

action!

[rube]

[ben has been too busy dealing with the pure destruction of the place to really bother with the network. too many things happened at once for him to cope with both the urgency of the people of caer glaem and the outbursts on the network. he had seen the shadow creature (and he ran like hell, yes he did).

he's on a break from the work grabbing some water when he decides to fiddle with the locket absentmindedly. he recognizes the voice immediately, and the surroundings. he turns off the locket immediately and begins to to search for him, the man named valentino.

had he been lying about his court allegiance? had he snuck into caer glaem unnoticed during the chaos? he must have, otherwise someone would have noticed by now. at least ben would hope someone would. it's easy to spot cesare when ben finally stumbles upon him. the guy couldn't even hold a simple tool correctly, and that's what gives it away. cesare seemed to come from a nice family, too nice to ever touch a tool.]

Hey, man. You're holdin' that wrong.

[he wants to be completley sure he's right about who this guy is. he could never forget a voice like his.]

[pontificus]

When we are not being attacked, [Perhaps a nod to the damage already done or the fact that he has snuck in.] it is lovely.

And how is Caer Scima?

[caditquaestio]

[ God be praised and good and all-forgiving - of course Cesare's holding the (quite literally) bloody thing wrong. There was no man to give the telling for how to man any of the court's tool, even for those rare ten minutes of pretend-work.

The skin of his hand's peeling off, scourged by new injury - he mutters, when he tries to grasp the 'large brick scalpel'? - the trowel and it almost slips free of his hand. ]

Is that so, friend? You'll have to forgive me. I'm a hired hand for the day, but I bring no skill.

[ Or much by way of zeal; he only needs to while away a few moments here, just enough to wait the guard change, so he can move farther into the castle.

And what's this man's care for the workers, anyway? Small wonder Caer Glaem's so unseemly, if all their occupants busy themselves with is the labour of servants. ]

[caditquaestio]

[ Scima. Yes. Their court has a name. No one speaks it past curse, so it - surprises him to hear it. ]

No where as blessed or kind.

[ He moves on to torture another book, scrutinizing the cover, the weight of paper, the skill of calligraphy. ]

You've not visited?

[pontificus]

[She moves to sit upon one of her couches as he fiddles with her books again.]

I have had no reason. I have not even left the confines of this castle. Yet. [She needs to talk to him about that.]

[caditquaestio]

[ And that is unsurprisingly enough to see the book discarded.

Testily, now: ]

...yet?

[pontificus]

[She smiles sweetly back at him.]

Are you still mine though I have asked nothing of you?

[caditquaestio]

[ Never trust a blazing sun or a priest's benevolence or a woman's candour. These are easy lessons.

He frowns at first, then eases into his own smile. ]

'Yes.' Because you've just asked it of me - silently.

[pontificus]

Then I will ask nothing of you, save for one thing.

[A woman of her stature in the time she is from is not equipped with much. In a war she has found that out quickly, but she has her smiles and her charms.]

To travel to Troichean Beinn. When the time comes.