[open; dated 4/20] // dream fades before dawn

[fionnuisce]

Characters: Waver and open!
Setting: Floor 25
Format: Action, but I will try to match.
Summary: Someone doesn't cope well with screwing up.
Warnings: None yet.

[Since his revival, Waver hadn't slept. He certainly hadn't eaten, considering the miserable state of the cafeteria's choices. Not that he thought it mattered; there were more important things to do.]

[Twice, twice now he'd failed and gotten himself killed. This time it wasn't the death itself that bothered him (though painful, it had at least been quick) so much as it was the circumstances surrounding it. If he hadn't hesitated, if he hadn't faltered, if he hadn't been terrible with one of the most basic forms of magecraft...a thousand 'if' possibilities had run through his head countless times over by now.]

[Waver could be found sitting in the meadow on the twenty-fifth floor, and in time he'd surrounded himself with scattered and discarded notebook pages--upon which were drawn sigils both magical and alchemical in nature. It was clear he'd spent hours there (if not a day or two) doing...what was he doing? There was a small knife in his left hand, which Waver seemed to be using to cut various parts off flowers; sometimes focusing on only one, and occasionally several at a time.]

[However many he'd damaged, the green-suited magus would then hold out his hand and appear to be in deep concentration. If he was lucky, a pale green light would flicker and crackle around his hand, and the flowers would appear to slowly repair themselves.]

[...But he usually wasn't lucky. Waver estimated that even after endless hours' practice, his healing magecraft would only work approximately five times out of ten, and would only heal effectively three out of those five. No matter; he had absolutely no intention of leaving this floor until he got it right. What had begun as a harsh realization of the need for practice had rapidly spiraled downward into an obsessive task of repeated motions and stubborn fixation.]

[For him, healing was a difficult thing, one which all his thoughts had to be focused on. Unfortunately, he was thinking of far too many more troubling things; his obsessive practice had turned to an exercise in futility.]

Comments

[chevalier_mal_fet]

So I understand.
[Lancelot's tone is rather dry.
He pauses a moment, smoothing one hand over a crease in his slacks. He has set the net of grass aside.
His Master's condition is a private thing-- a thing the man doesn't like spoken of, truly. But Waver Velvet is a Magus, and knows their ways-- even if he is a Waver Velvet from another Time and Place.

There is no War here-- and this Magus is not of their War at all. Lancelot cannot see the harm (and sees possible benefit) in disclosing information about his Master to this man.]

My Master had little training and few "circuits" when he wished to enter the War. Though it cannot be strictly said that he did freely wish, since he had no love for his family or gifts and only agreed to fight on behalf of one he wished to spare a dire fate. But he did agree, and so he sealed his fate.
The family Crest is a Worm, and my Master is filled with them-- they do his bidding and open his circuits, bestowing power, but they eat away at his flesh all the while. They have scarred and crippled him-- and will kill him.

This is the same fate he wishes to spare another.

He may appear quite infirm to your eyes, but he is in better health in this place than I have ever known him to be. I have no need to drain his prana here-- though we do share a bond, of course.

[fionnuisce]

I'd heard a little about the kind of magic that family used, but...Christ, that's insane. It's really a method so self-destructive?

[chevalier_mal_fet]

I believe it is particularly destructive to my Master, but yes.

In his youth, he refused to train as a Magus. Now these-- familiars, though he is more their Host than Master-- augment his Power by force.

As I said, it is not something he wished to do, but for a child he wished to spare the same fate.

I cannot say I approve. I favor that we put the head of the Family to Death upon returning. Thus would all be set to rights.

[fionnuisce]

Killing the head of one of the three great families...I don't mean to discourage you, but that may be much easier said than done.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

My Master has said as much.
There is no doubt the Old Man is both Clever and Powerful, as well as Evil-- but I myself have few peers among the Servants in sheer Strength and Cunning.

I believe I could triumph.

I do not believe the Old Man will honor his promises to my Master. This was is the only other.

[fionnuisce]

Of the three, I know the least about the Matou family, so I couldn't tell you much with certainty. But magi in general tend to be backstabbing cowards, so that much would come as no surprise to me.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

I take it you do not include yourself in this generous assessment.
[This is said in a dry tone of voice that indicates a jest. Lancelot's sense of humor tends towards the eccentric.]

I have no reason to trust the man, as he had my Master summon me chained. Which-- is not always to our benefit in the War.

I do wish to know, somehow, if I could triumph without the aid of Madness.

[fionnuisce]

Not out of any sense of arrogance, but yes. [Waver shrugged, a smirk crossing his face in response.]

I wouldn't know. Although summoning a skilled and clever knight as a Berserker does strike me as a limiter of sorts.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

Yes, I can see that much.
Both you and my Master are unusual among Magi.

[Having retrieved the net of grass he fashioned earlier, Lancelot proceeds to shred it.]
It is-- limiting, yes. I have my own mind more than another Berserker, but my faculties are stunted all the same.
Could I aid my Master more in his strategy, I could make quicker work of this War.

Tell me, as you are a Magus, does there exist a way to remove the spell of Madness from me, when we return to our World, to our War?

[fionnuisce]

Something to remove Mad Enhancement, you mean...?

[Waver trailed off, thinking very carefully before he answered. Was it possible to counter a Servant's inherent class abilities? Sometimes. Mystic Eyes could be halted with Mystic Eye Killers, and Magic Enhancement broken through by skilled enough magecraft. But this, a Berserker's defining skill and trait?]

I'm not sure. But I also can't ignore the existing possibility, however slight it could be. If there is such a way, I can't with any certainty say what it is.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

I thank you for an honest answer, Waver Velvet-- though I expected nothing less.
You are, as you say, different from your fellows, after all.

I have thought to ask the other Magus of my acquaintance here, as she has already once aided me in a separate matter--
but I do not fully trust in her. Nor do I think that she wishes me to do so.

[Rin Matou has her charms, however. Lancelot does enjoy the company of Powerful Women-- though he doubts very much if his Master's beloved "niece" is all that the man thinks her to be.]

[fionnuisce]

Other magus...You're not talking about Rin, are you? The girl with white hair?

[chevalier_mal_fet]

Rin Matou, yes. My Master refers to her as his "niece".
[The quotes around the word are audible.]

[fionnuisce]

Yeah--listen, I'd be a little cautious around her. I've spoken to a version of her from back home, but this one's...different. I feel like I should be wary around her, but at the same time? I'm honestly kind of concerned about her.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

I cannot disagree with your concern, Waver Velvet.
I know that my Master is concerned for her and seeks her out when he may. I will keep a closer watch upon him.

She performed a small Magic to restore a personal belonging of mine that had been damaged.
But though I do not know her truly, I can say that to me the young woman seems at once Powerful and Afraid.
I do not mean of what dwells in this place, though there is that to fear.

What is it that you fear for her?

[fionnuisce]

It's difficult to articulate. The version of Rin I know is--honestly I don't know her well or anything, but she seems like a good person. A little rough around the edges, but so was I when I was about her age.

[You still are, you jackass.]

What I'm trying to get at is there's something off about this Rin. I feel like there's some real layer of complication to her that Rin Tohsaka doesn't have, and what worries me is whatever could have caused it.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

Ah, I see. You feel she is not quite herself.

I would ask my Master for counsel, but he is blinded by his sentiment towards her.
He knows her as the child of one he loves dearly but who is wed to another.