just this once, everybody lives!

[sageprincess]

Characters: Everyone.
Setting: Anywhere.
Format: Party style.
Summary: Post-Ex Machina catch-all mingle.
Warnings: See individual threads.

[After a long, drawn out battle, the infiltration team returns to the residential portion of the Tower, weary, battered... but victorious. Some catching up is in order.]

Comments

[no_longer_a_king]

No, not a French persuasion.

A Colonial one.

Arturia kept her voice low so others would not eavesdrop without being obvious about it.

"That boy I often see you with? Before I was sent back to my world in March, he called you 'England'. Is that a nickname or is there more to it?"

[keepscalm]

'That boy'. She must mean America, especially given that America is one of the few people in the Tower who consistently refers to him as 'England'.

So she has her suspicions about his identity, then.

There's no point in lying, and besides, England generally finds it in poor taste to lie to his people. So, after a contemplative shift of his shoulders, he answers, the volume of his statement no higher than Arturia's. "It's not a nickname, though it was once shorthand for 'the Kingdom of England'."

He opts to move into a more comfortable sitting position, folding his legs underneath himself. Talking about the nation thing usually means he's in for a lengthy explanation. "I'm not exactly human. Though it sounds like you might have figured that much already."

[no_longer_a_king]

"That's like saying water is wet in this Tower," Arturia said, spreading the blanket out over her legs more for something to do with her hands than anything else. "Even moreso those who wear collars such as ours."

Violet. Those who wore violet tended to be spirits of some kind, she'd noted, or had some kind of spiritual persuasion to them. So with a mere glance she knew Arthur was more than he seemed to be.

"When I knew that Kingdom, it was called Albion." If he was going to be honest with her, then she had no reason to try to evade anything about herself even if she was mentally bracing herself for it. Arturia finished arranging the blanket and leaned back against the wall, well and truly settled for a long explanation, but keeping her eyes on the others in case it looked like someone might overhear them.

[keepscalm]

England searched her face for any tell of insincerity about her claim, but he didn't find any. If what she said was true, then he had to wonder why he didn't have any recollection of her from his childhood. While he couldn't possibly know every citizen of his personally, he knew more when he and his population were smaller.

"...I was very young when I was called Albion," he confirmed after a moment of contemplation. "You've come from further back than I anticipated."

[no_longer_a_king]

"I'm not surprised. Fifteen hundred years is quite a long time, is it not? And until I came here, time had lost all sorts of meaning for me."

Before her little 'break' with erasing her own memory, she had barely remembered her own time there. Most of her life had been spent fighting and fighting and fighting against her will. If England could remember that far back, she doubted it

"I doubt you would have known me. We are from two different worlds after all. I do not if I myself existed or some other did in my place." Zelda had told her he knew of King Arthur and his legends so Arturia supposed some version of herself had existed there.

"Tell me, are you born of the land itself there? The Will of Albion itself given flesh somehow?"

[keepscalm]

"For some, it is. I was only a child then, so it's a rather long time for me." Maybe it would not have felt so to China, ancient bastard that he was, but England couldn't exactly ask.

Though he obviously didn't know her, and it was very possible that she came from a world without nations like him, he hoped that he was able to serve some iteration of her in his world.

"I think the will is a good way to put it." Despite himself, England found his hand venturing to his chest, searching out the spot underneath which his composite soul rested. "I represent the nation of people that call themselves English. As long as those people exist, so do I."

[no_longer_a_king]

"That's comforting to hear. Where I come from.... well.... most people don't realize it, but humanity has a will intent on keeping itself alive. It's an abstract thing, very hard to describe. The one time I tapped into it, I had lain dying and it appeared more as a form of light instead of a person such as yourself."

She paused for a moment to search out her next words to him. How did she even begin to explain who she had once been? What she had done? What she had allowed to happen?

Well. From the beginning, obviously.

"When I lived in Albion, I was called Arthur, Arthur Pendragon, the only living child of Uther Pendragon. The name I was given at birth, however, was Arturia."

[keepscalm]

The beginning that Arturia chose definitely caught England's attention. His poker face was dreadful on a good day, but hearing something like that meant there was no hope whatsoever for hiding his surprise.

Arthur Pendragon. A name mired in legend, and definitively morphed by it. But England remembers the man as he was — admired him enough to take his name, in fact. Obviously, as the one in front of him was a woman, her story would be quite different. But to know that she was somehow his once and future king in her life filled him with a silent awe, and certain respect.

He didn't want to get ahead of himself on that assumption, though. So, for clarification, he prompted, "The very same Arthur Pendragon that would become King of the Britons?"

[no_longer_a_king]

"Was King of the Britons. Was. I have not been a King for a very long time, Mr. Kirkland, nor do I think I am worthy of the title of King anymore," she said quietly, looking away from him and to the crowd once more. It was easier to explain this if she were not looking at him.

"In fact, I fear I may have brought my Kingdom to ruin in my foolish quest to find a way to save it, thanks to the deal I made with the Will of the World."

She paused a moment, contemplating how to explain it next and decided to ask him a question instead to give herself time.

"That boy you are always with. Is he like you? What country is he?"

[keepscalm]

England had half of a mind to fight her on that matter, because he does not dethrone his precious rulers so easily, metaphorically speaking. The only reason he held his tongue is because he didn't know how her situation differed from that of the Arthur he knew. She already said she had a different name; who knew what course her reign took, especially given her enigmatic reference to some kind of deal?

He assumed she would tell him when she was ready, so for now, he focused on her question instead of her tale. "He is, yes. He didn't come into being until long after your time."

England shifted a bit, casting a brief glance over at the stock of nutrition bars and water. "As you know him, he's a colony by the name of Virginia, or New England. But eventually he becomes the independent nation of the United States of America."

[no_longer_a_king]

That made her stare at him in surprise. From what she had learned from the Grail during her time as a Servant, America would be one of the most powerful nations in the world. Rich, large, powerful, involved in the politics of every nation across the globe. To think such a tiny child would grow up to be such a nation was almost as humbling as knowing her own in a way was sitting right next to her.

"He is.... he is going to be quite powerful one day should we manage to return to our worlds. I can only imagine what sort of person he will grow to be with this place's influence upon him at such a young age or what effect that might have upon his people."