Glamour Failure

[animusmods]

Characters: any
Setting: all around the Tower
Format: any/party-style
Summary: A general mingle log for the reaction to the beginning of the Idealism event.
Warnings: PG-13; please include any more detailed warnings in your threads if necessary

Comments

[wormless]

Lancelot...?

[There's no bond between them, but they've spent so much time together in the past months that he's very familiar with the man. He knows the way he moves. He knows that voice. Familiar to him, too--though from another time--are the signs of madness, and the first thing he feels is fear, remembering that black, fierce Servant who used to burn through him like a hot iron, so unlike the man he's come to know here.

But Lancelot isn't a Servant now, and Kariya doesn't think he has anything to fear from him. They trust each other now, don't they? They understand each other.

For the first time since he's known Lancelot, Kariya feels something he never thought he'd feel: protective of him. He moves toward him.]

It's me, Kariya.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[His senses fail him. Or is it the other way round.
Kariya. No, the shape moving towards him is familiar in some ways, but its movement is alien to him.

How can it be his Master? But he has no Master. For he is not a Servant any longer.

He slumps against the wall, watching the figure approach through the nest of wires fallen about his face.
A Blue-white light comes from it. As the sun is seen from underwater.

He does not answer to his own name, but repeats the name the figure speaks.]

Kariya...

[wormless]

[No, he isn't Berserker. He can't be Berserker, like this, but it's hard not to think of him that way--at least until he slumps over, and then Kariya thinks he just looks sad, and lost.

He comes to stand beside him.]

That's right.

It's me. Your-- [Not his Master. There's nothing binding them now, but at the same time, there's nothing separating them into different roles. Whatever they are--these things that are their true forms--they're the same.] Your friend.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[The voice is familiar, yet strange. Stronger than Lancelot has ever known it, if it is be believed that this construct is his Master.

It is anger that he feels, but there is no magnifier, no instrument, no outlet for his rage-- and so there is only a low hiss of breath, only what he has thought of as his hands clawing at the wall as he slides to his knees.]

Lies.

I am-- no man calls me friend.
If not a Servant-- I am Nothing.

Nothing.

[So few people truly understand Service. To Serve is to be Needed, to be Wanted-- to be Loved.]

[wormless]

[He reaches out to put a hand on Lancelot's shoulder.]

I'm not lying. I just called you a friend.

[All right, maybe it's not the best logic, but it's true.]

Of course we're friends. We sit and talk together, remember? You tell me about what you're thinking. You helped me when I was worried and gave me advice. You made me go to that party. When I was sick and couldn't walk, you carried me. We know each other. Those things are all still true.

Even if you didn't serve me--I would still like you.

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[Such a strange man, his-- not his Master any longer. The man has no hand to bear a seal upon. The Contract is broken as well as the Bond.

Though the touch is real enough, even if the Words are a foolish, foolish song.]

You do not know me. You do not know the Thing I am.

[But oh, he Wants to believe. He sags under the hand on his shoulder.]

I can feel nothing. I cannot feel You.

[wormless]

You're not a thing.

[Kariya might once have felt that way, seen Lancelot as a tool, as a means to an end, but he doesn't now.]

You're a person. Maybe I don't know you as well as I could, but--I do know you.

[On an impulse, he puts an arm around Lancelot. He's probably still stronger than Kariya, even as they are now, but he's not afraid of him. Lancelot's done so much for him. He doesn't think Lancelot would hurt him, even if he's distraught.]

I can't feel you either, not in the same way. The contract's gone. But I know we're both here together now, and there's not even a War here. There's no Grail. So does it really matter?

[chevalier_mal_fet]

[Though he lacks the intimate knowledge of his Master that he has only lately gained, even with only something like his old, more human senses-- he can feel the health and strength in the man's embrace.

Lancelot himself feels ancient and tired beyond telling.
Still, he hears the Words Kariya speaks-- heeds them more than he would were they from any other.]

There is no War here, and no Grail-- but whatever I am, I was meant to fight and to prevail.
I feel-- [As he is, Lancelot cannot help but feel. He nearly misses the Enhancement. Madness can be a kind of escape, he has found.] --it ought to matter to me. Even if it does not matter so much to you.
Kariya.
[He lays a long fingered hand over his Master's where it grips him 'round the shoulder.]

But if you would wish me to stand with you, then I will not say you nay.