Counter Guardian Arturia @ Tower of Animus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
no_longer_a_king) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2013-02-28 07:18 pm
no_longer_a_king) wrote in towerofanimus2013-02-28 07:18 pm
ITP: Concerning the nature of souls and finding purpose
Characters: Arturia [AU5] and OPEN
Setting: Various, with prompts for floors 82, 12, and 60. After the elevator event, but the timeline is otherwise completely flexible
Format: Prose, please!
Summary: Arturia goes around making sure the people she knows are still alive after seeing what's down stairs, and other sundry things.
Warnings: none as of yet.
[A: Various, possibly combined with other prompts if you like.]
It was still like a blow to the guts.
Their actual status here wasn't what had shaken her so badly. They were souls in an artificial body, made by some form of magic. That didn't phase her because that was essentially what her existence had been from the moment she made that contract on Camlann Hill. It was the true of all Heroic Spirits and familiars like them. It was true of Counter Guardians like herself and Archer.
No, what had shaken her so badly had been seeing the bodies. Arturia had thought she had seen battle so much a mass grave couldn't phase her, but when the bodies are people she knew--multiples of people she knew--she'd wanted to retch. If she hadn't had so much experience, she supposed, she would have thrown up right there. So many people, even if they were just acquaintances, as corpses. She had to make sure that what they saw happen in the great machine was real--that they were truly all right.
That was why she was rushing through the Tower now, trying to find as many familiar faces as she could. Visions of slashing through the Grail-tainted Camelot were playing in the back of her mind, the horror of it, the suffering. She had to be sure those graves were not the reality of now. Had to.
[B: Floor 82; Masquerade of Truth]
Arturia had never gone on this floor before and had mostly observed from the stairs. The party that seemed to go on here at all times never interested her and since she rarely saw someone she recognized, she usually passed it on. Now? After how much she had gone through the last few days? She really did want to be around people. Everyone had moments like those, even people who tried to avoid them as Arturia did.
So she stepped off the stairs, walking to the masked gentleman who acted as a 'bouncer' of sorts to the party. He looked her over for a moment and then wordlessly handed her a mask. He reached out to put it on her, but she waved her hand and took it herself before placing it on.
Then he stepped aside and no sooner had Arturia crossed the threshold than another masked gentleman took her by the hand and began to whisk her across the dance floor. Arturia was graceful and skilled on the battlefield and there had been many a time at court or during some kind of festival or banquet when she had had to dance with Guinevere. It was easy to figure out the steps her partner followed and, while she was certainly no dancer by trade, she did not embarrass herself. it was easy to briefly lose herself and simply forget and by the time her partner released her on the other side of the room after their dance was when Arturia realized something:
She could not recognize anyone here. She had a vague feeling she should, but the thought of who it could be was gone the moment it entered her mind upon looking at the person.
Odd. Must be a trick of the floor.
[C: Floor 60; Industrial Kitchen]
In her more private moments, Arturia tended to find herself lingering in kitchens and thinking. Reminiscing, really. About the Fifth War and Shirou. About how the kitchen had been his domain and, painful as the memories were, it was comforting to think of him at times, of the way he'd insist on how she was a person and not a tool, of how he treated her like a guest in his home. True, his teasing had gotten on her nerves, but it had been a very long time since she'd been Arturia and not King Arthur.
But that was the past. Anything that might have happened with Shirou she could not undo and there was only one part she would ever hope to. Perhaps, if she had made more effort, been less weak, then maybe--maybe--things would be different. Maybe she would not have become the World's Sword. Maybe she would have peacefully gone to her rest if she had stayed her hand that fateful day.
This would probably be her only chance to reminisce for a very long time. Things in the Tower had changed and Arturia had no doubt things were about to get busy. No matter how she failed in the past, there were people here who needed help, who needed saving and she....
Arturia was not sure if she was a knight anymore, but she did know one thing: she could not stand by when people needed help. When people she considered comrades and allies needed help.
And so she went through the kitchen silently saying good-bye to her indulgence of the past and mentally prepared herself for the future.
[D: Floor 12; World Death Projection]
Arturia stood in front of the latest of the projections running, this time the object of focus was a red planet bloated with skyscrapers and vehicles that crossed through the atmosphere like bees in a hive. It stayed like this for a few minutes, the occasional bright flash in the sky as two of the vehicles ran into each other and then, it began to glow.
As with the last projection the glow seemed to fade, the vehicles in the sky making looping zig-zags before crashing to the planets. Buildings fell from the impacts. The nearby sun began to dim and slowly, spreading out from this one world, everything began to go dark until the only source of light in the room was the planet at the center of the show.
"Is this what's happening to the worlds?" she asked allowed as the projection began again--a space station proudly bearing the moniker "UFP: NEW HOPE" the center of it this time. She'd never paid attention to this room before, but after being downstairs and finding out what had happened above, she was getting interested in what, exactly, had destroyed these worlds.
Setting: Various, with prompts for floors 82, 12, and 60. After the elevator event, but the timeline is otherwise completely flexible
Format: Prose, please!
Summary: Arturia goes around making sure the people she knows are still alive after seeing what's down stairs, and other sundry things.
Warnings: none as of yet.
[A: Various, possibly combined with other prompts if you like.]
It was still like a blow to the guts.
Their actual status here wasn't what had shaken her so badly. They were souls in an artificial body, made by some form of magic. That didn't phase her because that was essentially what her existence had been from the moment she made that contract on Camlann Hill. It was the true of all Heroic Spirits and familiars like them. It was true of Counter Guardians like herself and Archer.
No, what had shaken her so badly had been seeing the bodies. Arturia had thought she had seen battle so much a mass grave couldn't phase her, but when the bodies are people she knew--multiples of people she knew--she'd wanted to retch. If she hadn't had so much experience, she supposed, she would have thrown up right there. So many people, even if they were just acquaintances, as corpses. She had to make sure that what they saw happen in the great machine was real--that they were truly all right.
That was why she was rushing through the Tower now, trying to find as many familiar faces as she could. Visions of slashing through the Grail-tainted Camelot were playing in the back of her mind, the horror of it, the suffering. She had to be sure those graves were not the reality of now. Had to.
[B: Floor 82; Masquerade of Truth]
Arturia had never gone on this floor before and had mostly observed from the stairs. The party that seemed to go on here at all times never interested her and since she rarely saw someone she recognized, she usually passed it on. Now? After how much she had gone through the last few days? She really did want to be around people. Everyone had moments like those, even people who tried to avoid them as Arturia did.
So she stepped off the stairs, walking to the masked gentleman who acted as a 'bouncer' of sorts to the party. He looked her over for a moment and then wordlessly handed her a mask. He reached out to put it on her, but she waved her hand and took it herself before placing it on.
Then he stepped aside and no sooner had Arturia crossed the threshold than another masked gentleman took her by the hand and began to whisk her across the dance floor. Arturia was graceful and skilled on the battlefield and there had been many a time at court or during some kind of festival or banquet when she had had to dance with Guinevere. It was easy to figure out the steps her partner followed and, while she was certainly no dancer by trade, she did not embarrass herself. it was easy to briefly lose herself and simply forget and by the time her partner released her on the other side of the room after their dance was when Arturia realized something:
She could not recognize anyone here. She had a vague feeling she should, but the thought of who it could be was gone the moment it entered her mind upon looking at the person.
Odd. Must be a trick of the floor.
[C: Floor 60; Industrial Kitchen]
In her more private moments, Arturia tended to find herself lingering in kitchens and thinking. Reminiscing, really. About the Fifth War and Shirou. About how the kitchen had been his domain and, painful as the memories were, it was comforting to think of him at times, of the way he'd insist on how she was a person and not a tool, of how he treated her like a guest in his home. True, his teasing had gotten on her nerves, but it had been a very long time since she'd been Arturia and not King Arthur.
But that was the past. Anything that might have happened with Shirou she could not undo and there was only one part she would ever hope to. Perhaps, if she had made more effort, been less weak, then maybe--maybe--things would be different. Maybe she would not have become the World's Sword. Maybe she would have peacefully gone to her rest if she had stayed her hand that fateful day.
This would probably be her only chance to reminisce for a very long time. Things in the Tower had changed and Arturia had no doubt things were about to get busy. No matter how she failed in the past, there were people here who needed help, who needed saving and she....
Arturia was not sure if she was a knight anymore, but she did know one thing: she could not stand by when people needed help. When people she considered comrades and allies needed help.
And so she went through the kitchen silently saying good-bye to her indulgence of the past and mentally prepared herself for the future.
[D: Floor 12; World Death Projection]
Arturia stood in front of the latest of the projections running, this time the object of focus was a red planet bloated with skyscrapers and vehicles that crossed through the atmosphere like bees in a hive. It stayed like this for a few minutes, the occasional bright flash in the sky as two of the vehicles ran into each other and then, it began to glow.
As with the last projection the glow seemed to fade, the vehicles in the sky making looping zig-zags before crashing to the planets. Buildings fell from the impacts. The nearby sun began to dim and slowly, spreading out from this one world, everything began to go dark until the only source of light in the room was the planet at the center of the show.
"Is this what's happening to the worlds?" she asked allowed as the projection began again--a space station proudly bearing the moniker "UFP: NEW HOPE" the center of it this time. She'd never paid attention to this room before, but after being downstairs and finding out what had happened above, she was getting interested in what, exactly, had destroyed these worlds.
no subject
Archer shook his head. "You'll never again meet the Shirou Emiya whose head you separated from his shoulders. He died, and then so did the rest of your world. And I can't tell you what he'd say...I never got anything like that close to saving you."
Regret. Simple and powerful regret. That was the only emotion that lingered in those last words. Nor did he explain just what he meant when he said saving.
"So I'd tell you to set aside that wish, but it wouldn't do any good. You hold onto wishes too well when you want to." He was almost smiling, but the expression was sad. "I still say you can save the worlds, though."
no subject
Her hand finally released the railing as she turned to face him fully, shoulders squared despite the emotion in her eyes. Regret. So much regret and 'I should have, would have, could have' running through her mind. Enough regret to mirror his own, the same sort of almost-smile on her face.
If she hadn't hesitated to hear Kotomine out, she would not have swung her sword. If she had realized Shirou was in danger sooner, he would not have even gone down into the basement. If she had not agreed to lay with him one last time the night before, then maybe she would have caught him on the way out the door instead of languishing in bed and convinced him to let her accompany him. Perhaps if she'd had the courage to ask for another kiss that morning, he would not have gone at all.
He thought she could save the worlds? Arturia felt like anything but a savior. Yet all she had left was that need to save everyone around her, no matter how tired it left her, no matter how dark the road became. Even after the end of the world she couldn't see herself doing anything but continuing to walk down that path. It was as ingrained into her as the color of her eyes, the feel of a sword in her hand, or that insufferable lock of hair that never laid flat no matter what she tried.
"We need to save the people here first. After that, then we can see to the worlds. As a few people I know would say: what is there to lose?"
no subject
He met her regret-filled gaze with one of his own. As always, it was like looking into a mirror.
"There's always something more to lose, Saber. What will you do if you have to sacrifice the people here to save the worlds? I know you used to make choices like that. Can you still do it?"
no subject
Her initial instinct was to say 'yes. Of course I would.' as she often had in the past but a tugging on her heart stopped her.
In her mind's eye she saw Rin, proud and hurting and with the potential to rival Merlin himself in talent. She saw John with his Pokemon that wide-toothed grin of his. Yu giving up on her stubbornness and simply picking her up. Zelda's tears at the death of Dax.
The part that hurt the most about the thought is that, unlike those villages she had been forced to sacrifice when there was no other choice, most of the people here would understand. Not all of them, no. But most of them. Not just understand but likely be willing to bare their necks for her sword should just such a situation occur.
How could she sacrifice such noble people? Yet how could she not when the stakes were that high? How could she when their deaths meant the worlds would be destroyed otherwise? How could she make that choice when all her choices in the past only led to ruin and despair and no one saved at all?
Her voice was very small and very troubled when, after a few long moments, she finally said: "I don't know."
For the first time in her life, she truly and utterly hated herself in that moment. Had Shirou's death and the consequences of the Grail affected her so? What had happened to any surety she had before?
no subject
"You're making things even harder on yourself, then," he finally said, his expression now perfectly composed. "Now you have to find a way to save everybody, even those who don't want to be saved." He gestured casually at himself as he said that. "I told you I would hate you if you chose to save me over the worlds, so you've only got that choice left. Save everybody. Of course, I know it isn't possible."
He paused. "But, you know, if anyone can prove me wrong, it's probably you."
no subject
She took a step back toward the stairs, but her eyes were determined now. He believed she had to save everyone? She did not even stop to think of another way the last time. Now?
Arturia would save both the worlds and the tower, for the sake of all worlds.
"I shall do my best not to let you down then, Archer."
That said, she turned and slowly made her way up the stairs. She had things she needed to plan.