Michel Bollinger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
userunfriendly) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
altimit2023-11-05 07:39 am
userunfriendly) wrote in altimit2023-11-05 07:39 am
11/05 — ΣHeartless Snaring Cathedral...?
Who: █████ & visitors
What: scheming
Where: Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground (Hulle Granz Cathedral)
When: Sunday, 11/05
Warnings: to be added
[ Despite the ominous aura, the haunted tower has seen no shortage of visitors recently. But for those who gate in today the air itself is different. The skies are black, and the mist that had blanketed only the top of the tower now pours out across the plains, shrouding the ruined city from sight.
Anyone who goes looking for the master of the tower will find that the room he occupied before now holds only a single door, standing unsupported in the middle of the room. It beckons, tugging with a terrible compulsion — you know whatever sight awaits you is one you'll later wish you could forget, and yet... you look. But the door opens only onto the bridge leading to Hulle Granz Cathedral, where the first quiet strains of choral music through the open doors guides you on. ]
((Note: Characters are welcome to receive the location from any other player and gate directly to Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. Allowing those who found his tower inaccessible to come join, too, is cruelty.))
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... Your life before Fragment. Your life in reality. Where Demian was.
( This feels a little like deja vu, except, before, it was Sinclair trying to remind him of his life outside. )
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[He covers his face. No. No tears. Not here. He's here to defeat Gorre and then--]
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( This is where not having a touch language with Sinclair besides holding hands gets a little tricky when he also doesn't really have the vocabulary to treat it. He can see the emotion affecting him, but... )
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[He hadn't been consciously thinking of it, but now he was thinking of it, none of it made sense. He was born here. But he had a family that had died, in a place that didn't exist here. That school didn't exist here, those memories were of a world that was his and yet not. He wraps his arms around himself and
oh
That boy is wearing a necklace that looks like the marking on his armor...]
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You weren't.
( He reaches and... tugs Sinclair down by the collar (not too harshly). Forward-scruffing it is. )
Cubia removed access to your memories of reality. It's an optical illusion. ( It doesn't hold if you look at it from the right angle. ) You can tell something's strange, can't you?
( He can see in Sinclair's expression that hesitation; he's likely spotted some discrepancy he can't reconcile, Mithrun expects. )
Hold onto that. Keep questioning. Your family, your friends, and Demian were worth that much to you.
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[ Sinclair is scruffed and he stares into Mithrun's eye, trying to grasp onto a sense of reality]
... nothing makes sense. The conversations I had here, the books in the library... these memories. None of it matches what I thought I knew.
[ A soft pause]
... what happened with Kromer was real, wasn't it? Not just something I saw in a dungeon that went wrong.
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... It was real.
( Reality is not kind. It is even, as Gorre prefers to put it, cruel. But it is what it is, and Mithrun's not one to soften it. )
She killed your family, and she's pursuing you. You blamed yourself for it, at one point. You wanted to kill her, at another. But...
( Describing Sinclair's own feelings to him is where he hesitates, because he doesn't quite know how to parse them, nor how to summarize them. He supposes, in brief... )
... I think you found things more important than your anger and your grief.
( Without knowing loss, Sinclair can't know his own triumph, either. Lonely as it'd left Mithrun at some earlier point. )
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...I did. I'm sure of it.
[Mithrun. Oria. His friends in the phantom operatives. Hani, Tylor.
... Michel.
All of them were far too important to lose to vengeance. He gives a tiny laugh]
... it's strange. I feel like we've had this conversation before. You're not angry with me this time.
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Hadn't he liked Sinclair in this simple way, once? Before he'd let revenge consume his thoughts, nearly burn this bridge. It was a faint fondness, but it was - there. He'd just forgotten it, all on his own.
His grip loosens very slightly, but not fully gone; as if to be certain Sinclair is steady and sure on his feet first before he lets him go. )
... You're happier this way.
( As much as killing Kromer was sure to be some relief... Happiness wasn't the point, really. Revenge doesn't exist to bring joy, just release. Mithrun hadn't... considered Sinclair's happiness, and he'd resisted it, when Sinclair first broke the news.
And then, slightly sullen, like he'd lost a bet or something he was so intent on being stubborn about: )
... And... I've started to wonder... if you had some point.
( Just a little bit. He hasn't committed to giving up his own revenge entirely, but - he's wondering; he's wavering. Maybe Sinclair had some point. )
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[Sinclair is not so blindly optimistic as to believe happiness can last forever. But facing his pain head on, helping others carry their pain if they needed it...they could snatch happiness back when they could. But it was knowing this pain that helped bring the little world he managed to create for himself into sharper clarity. He loves his friends, family, Oria and he wouldn't trade it for anything.
He tilts his head studying Mithrun with curiousity. There had been pain there, briefly. Sinclair surrendering himself to someone who understood and then wavering because maybe that's not what either of them needed.
After all, Mithrun had kept his book]
You're happier too, aren't you?
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He never thinks of his feelings in words, or recognizes when they're happening at all. But, here... )
... I think so. I remember... you all visiting in my home - even if you don't remember, anymore. ( Ah, the irony, their positions reversed. ) ... I liked that, I think. I'd like it if you could visit again.
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[It is a reversal, isn't it? He distinctly remembers arguing with Mithrun--or Macha--about it. And now, none of his memories are aligning quite right. Jigsaw pieces out of place, a thread jutting out that wont smooth down]
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... Visit me again, when this is all over.
( He'd say he'd pay for the flight, but he's pretty sure Oria's got it, so.
With Sinclair seeming steadier... well. Might as well get Gorre handled, first, however that looks like, in the end. )
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[Brightening. It is a reversal; but it seems more optimistic this time]