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)
towerofanimus2013-03-26 10:58 pm
no_longer_a_king) wrote in towerofanimus2013-03-26 10:58 pm
ITP: Crystal caverns
Characters: [AU5] Arturia and open!
Setting: Floors 99, 80, 50, and 13 after the seasons event.
Format: Prose
Summary: Arturia starts looking for people from the elevator dive to help make a map, works for the day, is made a human sacrifice, and other various and sundry things.
Warnings: Prompt D involves ritual sacrifice and character death. Please pick it only if you're okay with that sort of content.
[A: Various; possibly going into Floor 77; Sauna]
Ever since the idea came to her, Arturia had been planning. She'd intended to do so much sooner, but then the plan had to be put on hold when the weather became strange. The time when the weather kept flipping through extremes had been a time to keep the map she and Diarmuid had made from falling apart. They'd still had to repair some parts of it, but at least they'd managed to save it.
But now? Now was a time to set her previous plan into motion. She knew the Administrators were watching and they would likely figure out the pattern to the people she was speaking with, but that would not stop her. Arturia had to try something, lest they wind up completely blind when Zelda and the others inevitably went back down below to obtain Dax's information.
So she asked around, searched. She recognized most of the faces of the others who had been in the elevator, but there had been so many people it was hard to remember them all. A few stuck out in her mind--especially Feferi--but the rest she had to search for. She knew she would make mistakes, but that was easy to rectify. It was hard for Arturia to become embarrassed when she had a specific reason to ask these people to a place like the sauna one on on.
"Excuse me," she said, leaning close to the person she'd just found and attempting to keep her voice low, "Would you accompany me to the sauna? There's an issue I'd like to discuss about last month."
[OOC: Since she's trying to find out through the grapevine, your character doesn't necessarily have to have been someone who went into the elevator for this prompt. It's fairly easy to make mistakes or be told the wrong information, after all.]
[B: Floor 99; Crystal Cave]
And then she preferred her moments of quiet. The cavern reminded her of some of the things Merlin showed her during her childhood and she sometimes found herself spending time here when she wanted to be alone. It was a quiet place and rather beautiful, even if looking too hard gave her a mild headache. Sometimes she even splashed the puddles just to hear the echo in the caverns.
And then there were times she just ran into people who got lost in the caverns, as the person she just ran into might have.
"Oh, hello. Are you having trouble finding your way?"
[C: Floor 80; Circus]
Whoever thought walking a tightrope suited her was out of their mind. She could do it, but with how often the ringleader would comment about her being 'beauteous' and 'graceful' and other such things, Arturia had half a mind to drive Caliburn through him. The only reason she even came was because she gave her word and she had half a mind to see if the Administrators would listen when she requested her job assignment to be changed.
Once again came the call for her to walk the tightrope, the spotlight one Arturia in her white dress holding the ridiculous lacy parasol they made her carry for no practical purpose she could think of. Certainly not for balance. The walk across the rope was only a hundred feet and while she did have to mind her balance Arturia was not human. This sort of thing was easy for one such as her to do.
And so it was with a bored expression she crossed the rope despite the ring leader's attempt to make it sound more dangerous than it was. Her expression was bored and if there was anyone at all in the audience they might comment upon how boring the tightrope walker was.
Once her part of the show was done she climbed down from the platform she'd been on and headed for the exit. Hopefully no one would require her assistance before she reached the door and she could, once again, forget she had even been assigned a job here.
[D: Floor 50; Ritual Sacrifice]
Normally when she passed through this floor nothing came of it. It was another floor, oddly decorated and not dangerous at all. It was one of the floors Arturia would use for training. There was nothing here but marble and windows. Nothing more.
Except something was different today. Very different. The marble had not changed, no, and as Arturia wandered toward the center to go through the motions of training with Caliburn she swore she heard chanting of some kind. A look over her shoulder told her there was no one there even if her instincts were screaming of the danger here.
Instincts that proved correct the moment she looked forward again. There were ghosts of two hooded figures before her and before she could even move they had clamped their hands onto her arms into a icy vice-like grip and began to drag her toward the center of the room.
"Get your hands off of me!" she roared, wrenching her arm free from one and turning to punch the other. Except her hand went right through the hooded figure. Before she could even blink it had grabbed her arm again, twisting it painfully behind her even though she continued to struggle. Whatever these things had in store for her, she knew it would not be good. Especially if it was ghosts. If there was one thing Arturia loathed more in this tower beyond the Administrators it was definitely the ghosts.
[E: Floor 13; Cathedral]
Arturia did not like churches very much.
Not that there was anything wrong with a church in and of itself, just that churches brought up too many memories for her. It'd been in a church where she'd found Shirou, then confronted by Kotomine who had been the man his father had feared the most. Then had come the offer he had made as the Overseer for the Holy Grail War. An offer she had been unable to refuse thanks to one single errant thought keeping her from staying her hand.
Arturia balled her hands into fists as she stood at the end of the aisle, trying to will the memory away. She justified coming here and only standing in the back every few days as trying to make the memory less painful. If she relived it enough then maybe, just maybe, the pain in her heart would numb just a bit, especially now that Shirou was here. Alive and well and she found herself unable to tell him of what she'd done.
If she was to protect him, she needed to be strong. She needed to be able to look at him without seeing his corpse in his place. To do that she needed to make sure those memories didn't get in the way. That boy was most certainly not the boy she had betrayed and she refused to do the same thing again. Now if only, despite everything, it would stay in the past.
Setting: Floors 99, 80, 50, and 13 after the seasons event.
Format: Prose
Summary: Arturia starts looking for people from the elevator dive to help make a map, works for the day, is made a human sacrifice, and other various and sundry things.
Warnings: Prompt D involves ritual sacrifice and character death. Please pick it only if you're okay with that sort of content.
[A: Various; possibly going into Floor 77; Sauna]
Ever since the idea came to her, Arturia had been planning. She'd intended to do so much sooner, but then the plan had to be put on hold when the weather became strange. The time when the weather kept flipping through extremes had been a time to keep the map she and Diarmuid had made from falling apart. They'd still had to repair some parts of it, but at least they'd managed to save it.
But now? Now was a time to set her previous plan into motion. She knew the Administrators were watching and they would likely figure out the pattern to the people she was speaking with, but that would not stop her. Arturia had to try something, lest they wind up completely blind when Zelda and the others inevitably went back down below to obtain Dax's information.
So she asked around, searched. She recognized most of the faces of the others who had been in the elevator, but there had been so many people it was hard to remember them all. A few stuck out in her mind--especially Feferi--but the rest she had to search for. She knew she would make mistakes, but that was easy to rectify. It was hard for Arturia to become embarrassed when she had a specific reason to ask these people to a place like the sauna one on on.
"Excuse me," she said, leaning close to the person she'd just found and attempting to keep her voice low, "Would you accompany me to the sauna? There's an issue I'd like to discuss about last month."
[OOC: Since she's trying to find out through the grapevine, your character doesn't necessarily have to have been someone who went into the elevator for this prompt. It's fairly easy to make mistakes or be told the wrong information, after all.]
[B: Floor 99; Crystal Cave]
And then she preferred her moments of quiet. The cavern reminded her of some of the things Merlin showed her during her childhood and she sometimes found herself spending time here when she wanted to be alone. It was a quiet place and rather beautiful, even if looking too hard gave her a mild headache. Sometimes she even splashed the puddles just to hear the echo in the caverns.
And then there were times she just ran into people who got lost in the caverns, as the person she just ran into might have.
"Oh, hello. Are you having trouble finding your way?"
[C: Floor 80; Circus]
Whoever thought walking a tightrope suited her was out of their mind. She could do it, but with how often the ringleader would comment about her being 'beauteous' and 'graceful' and other such things, Arturia had half a mind to drive Caliburn through him. The only reason she even came was because she gave her word and she had half a mind to see if the Administrators would listen when she requested her job assignment to be changed.
Once again came the call for her to walk the tightrope, the spotlight one Arturia in her white dress holding the ridiculous lacy parasol they made her carry for no practical purpose she could think of. Certainly not for balance. The walk across the rope was only a hundred feet and while she did have to mind her balance Arturia was not human. This sort of thing was easy for one such as her to do.
And so it was with a bored expression she crossed the rope despite the ring leader's attempt to make it sound more dangerous than it was. Her expression was bored and if there was anyone at all in the audience they might comment upon how boring the tightrope walker was.
Once her part of the show was done she climbed down from the platform she'd been on and headed for the exit. Hopefully no one would require her assistance before she reached the door and she could, once again, forget she had even been assigned a job here.
[D: Floor 50; Ritual Sacrifice]
Normally when she passed through this floor nothing came of it. It was another floor, oddly decorated and not dangerous at all. It was one of the floors Arturia would use for training. There was nothing here but marble and windows. Nothing more.
Except something was different today. Very different. The marble had not changed, no, and as Arturia wandered toward the center to go through the motions of training with Caliburn she swore she heard chanting of some kind. A look over her shoulder told her there was no one there even if her instincts were screaming of the danger here.
Instincts that proved correct the moment she looked forward again. There were ghosts of two hooded figures before her and before she could even move they had clamped their hands onto her arms into a icy vice-like grip and began to drag her toward the center of the room.
"Get your hands off of me!" she roared, wrenching her arm free from one and turning to punch the other. Except her hand went right through the hooded figure. Before she could even blink it had grabbed her arm again, twisting it painfully behind her even though she continued to struggle. Whatever these things had in store for her, she knew it would not be good. Especially if it was ghosts. If there was one thing Arturia loathed more in this tower beyond the Administrators it was definitely the ghosts.
[E: Floor 13; Cathedral]
Arturia did not like churches very much.
Not that there was anything wrong with a church in and of itself, just that churches brought up too many memories for her. It'd been in a church where she'd found Shirou, then confronted by Kotomine who had been the man his father had feared the most. Then had come the offer he had made as the Overseer for the Holy Grail War. An offer she had been unable to refuse thanks to one single errant thought keeping her from staying her hand.
Arturia balled her hands into fists as she stood at the end of the aisle, trying to will the memory away. She justified coming here and only standing in the back every few days as trying to make the memory less painful. If she relived it enough then maybe, just maybe, the pain in her heart would numb just a bit, especially now that Shirou was here. Alive and well and she found herself unable to tell him of what she'd done.
If she was to protect him, she needed to be strong. She needed to be able to look at him without seeing his corpse in his place. To do that she needed to make sure those memories didn't get in the way. That boy was most certainly not the boy she had betrayed and she refused to do the same thing again. Now if only, despite everything, it would stay in the past.
Hope you don't mind a return to this!
So, you will leave me thus once more.
I am not at Peace, Arthur. There is no Peace for me.
Truly, I have hoped the same for you with all my heart and cursed your name-- and yet wished you better with the same breath.
So do not think to spare me, in this place or any other.
Say the truth then! That my Honor-less presence offends you, that you fear and pity my Madness. Say what you will of me in my Betrayal, in my Madness, in my useless Death-- but do not shame my Trust, the Trust and Love of all who knew you! How could your Lie be of any consequence to what you had built? To any of us?
[Lancelot is unused to these tides of emotion. His Madness insulates him. Here he is naked, stripped to his own impulsive and passionate nature. It is not a Merciful thing. He seems exhausted by it.]
But you will not heed my Words, and the Deed is long done, and you will leave me in this Place--
even if I do not wish you to go.
no subject
You can't handle the truth.How can he think she wants to be away from him simply because of Madness? Madness she had caused in how much she had wronged him in life?]The truth is.... I do not deserve to be in your presence, Lancelot. Not anymore. I am no more a king, much less a knight, after the things I have done.
[Turning her back on honor, wiping her own country off the map for some foolhardy wish, being forced to kill and kill and kill so many people who she never even knew the names of. Men, women, children, her body not her own and screaming in her mind for it to stopstopstop. There had been moments when she would have longed for Lancelot's madness if only for a break from the constant horror she had been forced to unleash upon people.]
no subject
Do not speak to me of deserving.
[Despairing anger seems to run out of Lancelot like water spilled from a glass. A kind of opinionated urgency replaces it. Without knowing it, Lancelot is more himself as he was in life than he has been in an age-- exhorting Arthur, advising as her as he had when they lived at Camelot together.]
If you are not King, if you will not be King, then leave the name behind you.
Ever have I known you as a Knight-- and whatever dark deeds you have done, so you remain. Whether you will or no. Even should you think your name unfit for the word. I tell you, you cannot be other than what you are. Even though the it pain you.
no subject
Even though I killed my Master to attain the Grail? [Her voice is quiet, flat, her heart pounding on her chest though she struggles to keep her face neutral. As she says it, she releases Caliburn, the sword disappearing in a spray of light as she looks Lancelot in the face and tries (badly) to keep her anguish and regret over the deed out of her face.]
Even though I had taken the same Master as a lover? [Even if she's still not sure--and likely would never be sure--if she loved Shirou or not.]
no subject
Mad as I was, and forgetting not only myself but All I knew. I Wandered while other hands hid Her Away and kept her Safe-- and for all I had destroyed with my Silence, I could not go to Her.
[Emotions move across Lancelot's face like shadows on water. All of the Anguish and Regret Arthur does not show is visible there. He seems almost to be speaking a part well-learned. Making his way through a difficult scene.]
And I was there. On that Wicked Day, Arthur.
I would have done better to have run Gawain through, to have come to your Aid. But I let his word stay me, and so you Fell.
What are your Sins to me? What is your Master? Indeed what is the Grail?
I can only think that you must have driven yourself or been driven by fate to such dire choices. I cannot Judge you.
no subject
[It's a bit of a blow to hear that he and Gwen had not at least tried to eke out some happiness together after everything came to a halt. Arturia had never looked too hard into her own legend during the Grail War: she'd been too afraid of what she'd find out.
And then he'd been at Camlann, seen her on the hill as she made that disastrous plea to the world. She hadn't even known he was there, so intent she and Mordred had both been on ending their war then and there to keep Britain from being ravaged any further she had lost track of who had strayed to and from it. All she had been intent on was stopping the boy who had her face.
She looks at Lancelot, really sees him for what feels like the first time since they met: the pain, the anguish, so much a mirror to what had eaten at her.]
I do not know. All I can think is that, if I had loved him more, loved him enough to stay my hand when presented with my choice.... then I would not have made my wish. If I had not made my wish then.... then that curse would not have been unleashed upon Camelot and I....
[And she would not have been bound to the world as she had asked in the first place.]
Do not blame yourself for my fall, Lancelot. I promise you this: there is nothing that could have stayed mine or Mordred's hands that day. We were too much alike to do so.
[A small part of her mind jokes that all who descended from Igraine were gifted with her stubbornness.]
no subject
[Lancelot finds emotion draining-- blood flowing freely from a mortal wound. Exhaustion shows in the set of his shoulders, the laxness of his gestures.]
She lived out her days in seclusion. By the time I had come to myself-- neither of us thought it meet for me to disturb her peace. Both must be Willing, and so we were-- but sometimes Love and Willingness are not enough.
Some things that are Lost cannot be regained. The Golden Hour cannot come again.
It could be that your Camelot is lost to you, Arthur. But in the waking world as I know it, this is not so.
Our names are yet known, for good or ill. I have met many here from Worlds that are one, yet different-seeming-- like a tale altered in the retelling. It may be that Camelot lives yet, in some other Form, in a place where you took a different turning.
Who knows but that there might be a Form where we lived and died all together. Let this comfort you, if it may.