#past wielders experience the current host
Text
[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day One Hundred Seventy-Six: Show No Fear ]
[ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ]
[ SasuHina, blood, gore ]
[ Verse: Divine Light ]
[ AO3 Link ]
Though not one of the land’s monster hunters, Sasuke’s come face to face with a beast or two in his time. While nothing’s ever been a true terror - a gryphon, or an ogre, for example - he’s whetted his blade with beastly blood more than once.
He’d considered doing so on contract before setting out with his current band of companions. A way to make some coin to help his family, perhaps find a decent herbalist or medic for his brother. He’s been skilled with a blade since young, and a bow too when the time calls for it. Add in his igni bloodline, and he’s a formidable foe for many a creature: even those with ven like his own.
But instead, he’s been traveling with a group of other ven wielders: his brother, a lux mage to heal him, and an aqua mage. All in order to get back to the abandoned capital of the lands once claimed by the disciples of Luxeria.
And their travels haven’t been all a cake walk. Not by any means. Bandits plague the roads, cities are hosts of dangers, and even beasts have taken the odd shot at them. Mostly common creatures like wolves or bears, but regardless, each is a threat in its own right. Itachi attempts to aid him, but his lingering illness stunts his stamina and strength. The light elf has mighty defenses, but...no real way to attack. Nor does she want to, given her deity’s call for nonviolence.
That leaves the water mage. He’s been slowly teaching her about their elemental energies and how to harness them, but her actual experience is still lacking. Much to her chagrin.
“What about a blade?”
“What?”
“Can you teach me to wield a blade?”
Sasuke perks a dark brow at her. “...do you really want to?”
“Well I need some way to defend myself in the meantime, until I can better call upon water!”
That earns a snort. “It will take just as long to learn swordplay. There’s no easy path, Hinata. No shortcuts.”
“Then I just need more training!”
“I’ve been teaching you as much as I can. But travel makes us all weary, and we can’t get overly tired. If a threat shows up -”
“You need to be ready, I know, I know…” She huffs a curt breath. “...I still managed to slay that ogre.”
“That was a stroke of luck.”
“No it wasn’t!”
“Yes, it was. Are you telling me you feel like you could do that again and again without fail? No mistakes? No hesitation?”
Her pause is telling enough.
“...you need more training before you can take more of a mantle in the group’s defense.”
“That’s what I’m saying!”
“I can’t give you more time than I already am, Hinata. It’s all limited. Time, energy, safety to sit and frolic with magic. I appreciate the want to help, but I can handle it.”
That earns him a cold shoulder that night, everyone too tired to spare time for training, saved instead for taking watches.
The next time they do manage to set aside some time to practice, she’s steely-faced and determined, listening with rapt attention. At first, he can’t help but be a little amused. Seeing Hinata so...serious is a far cry from her typical character. Sure, she can be stubborn...but this is a whole new level.
...she really does want to master her element.
Half an hour into their lesson, taking a break for water, Sasuke holds up a hand to beg for silence. Keen eyes of red flicker to the nearby treeline, pointed ears perking with attention.
Something is out there.
The pair hold completely still, listening. At first...nothing. But then a twig snaps, and their eyes both flicker to the sound. Two orbs glow in the shadows of the boughs, watching them.
“...don’t panic,” he murmurs, moving slowly to set aside his canteen. Instead, he grips the hilt of his blade. “Show no fear. If we hesitate...it will attack.” He still can’t yet see whatever’s lurking in the wood, but his gut tells him it’s nothing friendly.
“...what should I do?”
“Be prepared to run. I’ll distract it.”
“But- ?”
“But...nothing. Do as I say, Hinata.”
For a moment she swells in indignation, but pauses as a low hiss echoes from between the trunks. Then there’s a rustle. That’s got to be scales...a few different beasts flicker through his mind, but what emerges isn’t among them.
Twelve above...it’s a naga.
Serpentine body slithering across the grass, she gives another hiss, jaw hanging open to an unsettling degree: unhinged and waiting to sink fangs into their flesh. Claw-tipped fingers spread, reaching eagerly. It’s clear enough: she’s risking a confrontation in the hopes of a meal.
Sasuke’s grip tightens on the hilt of his blade, drawn to his front and glinting in the fading afternoon sun. “...get back to camp. Warn the others. I’ll try to stop it here.”
“I can help -!”
“Yeah, you can. By going back.”
Body winding, the naga tenses before using the tightened muscles to spring across the remaining distance. The mages leap apart, forcing her attention to split...but not for long. Loosing a volley of fire, Sasuke draws her gaze to him with a taunt.
“This way! Your business is with me, monster…!” Even now he doesn’t succumb to any fear, staring into the beast’s eyes with a glower of his own.
Giving another hiss, she makes to loom toward him, only to screech, back tensing. Behind her, wielding water like a whip, Hinata drives the element against her back. As the monster turns, Sasuke gets a view of the nasty welt along the skin of her human torso.
Does this woman never listen to him?! Ever?!
Spewing oaths under his breath, he trades his blade for his bow, setting the string and nocking an arrow. One zings through the air, skimming his enemy’s arm and earning a cry.
The next bolt, drawn quickly, whizzes past her head as she lowers to the ground, sliding along both bellies toward him with alarming speed. Sasuke throws his bow over his shoulder, drawing a dagger at his hip. He counters several slashes of her deadly claws, swiping at her face in an attempt to drive her back.
“Hey!”
Hinata’s cry goes ignored...until a tug yanks the naga backward. Water encases the lower third of her tail, guided by Hinata’s ven. Teeth grit in a snarl, she gives a mighty roar, every ounce of her strength whipping the creature back over. Hands attempt to slow her movement, but the naga is hurtled against a tree, spine concussed around the trunk and knocking the wind from her.
Taking his chance, Sasuke draws his bow once more, firing a bolt. It lands dead center in her gut, an ear-splitting shriek cutting through the air. Ignoring it, he follows up several more until she goes limp.
The mortal pair pant, Hinata making to cautiously approach.
“Don’t.”
Looking back, she watches him draw his sword.
“...kill a snake, and it can still bite.” Aiming his blade, he decapitates the creature with one swift strike.
The jaw gives several searching bites, uttering a last hiss before going still.
Hinata stares in horror.
Clearing the gore from his weapon, Sasuke then retrieves his arrows and does the same with their heads before tucking everything back into place. “...what part of ‘run’ do you not understand?”
“I saved you. Again. When are you going to stop doubting me?” Hinata counters, exasperated. “I might be a novice, but it’s clear I’m doing s-something right!”
Sheathing his sword, Sasuke scowls. “...you still lack experience. Which means you lack the knowledge to predict a fight well enough to last in one for long. One wrong move, and you could be dead.”
“And how else can I garner experience than by fighting?”
“A naga is not a beginner’s foe!”
“Well we handled it, didn’t we?”
He breathes a curt sigh through his nose, ears pinning. “...you don’t need to throw yourself into every lick of danger. There’s a difference between showing no fear, and disregarding it completely. Fear isn’t something to ignore - it’s something to temper. Being wary will keep you alive. Acting as though you have nothing to lose? Nothing to fear? Is a surefire way to end up dead.”
“...but I wasn’t afraid.”
“And why not?”
She stares at him. “...because you were with me.”
That...leaves him without a retort.
Seeing as much, Hinata moves to collect her gear. “...we better head back. We’ll need rest after...all of that. And we need to make sure the others are okay. There might be something else skulking around wanting to k-kill us.”
Watching her incredulously, Sasuke just shakes his head...and follows.
.oOo.
Looong day, so I'll be brief.
More of my original fantasy verse! A random, middle-of-the-story one. That verse hasn't really been in any particular order like some of the others...whoops. Just some random training between mages, no big deal. It's just a naga. No biggie. Nobody got hurt, so...win-win, right?
C'mon, Sasuke: stop being such a stick in the mud lol
Anywho...that's all I've got, aha~ Thanks for reading!
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
FEATURE: The Kids Are All Right, On Growing Up The Hard Way in Charlotte
In a world where so many anime are broadcast and streamed every season and anime fans only have so much free time to spend on their hobbies, sometimes even exceptional shows can slip through the cracks. “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog” is here to help. By focusing on titles from years gone past, we hope to direct fans toward the sorts of shows that stoke their passions, even if they may have missed out on these anime when they were brand new.
This week, we explore a world where an elite few adolescents secretly and spontaneously develop superhuman abilities such as teleportation and telekinesis as we look back at Charlotte.
What's Charlotte?
Created by Jun Maeda, Charlotte is an original 2015 TV anime with direction by Yoshiyuki Asai and animation production by P.A. Works. Crunchyroll describes the story of the series as follows:
Very few adolescent boys and girls have an onset of special abilities. Yu Otosaka is one such man who uses his ability unbeknownst to others in order to lead a satisfying school life. Then one day, a girl named Nao Tomori suddenly appears before him. Their encounter reveals the destiny for wielders of special abilities.
More specifically, Yu Otosaka has the ability to possess other people for five seconds at a time, during which his own body falls into a temporarily unconscious state. Yu uses his superpowers to cheat on standardized tests and creep on young ladies, until his encounter with Nao smacks him into line.
Chunibyo is Real.
The central premise in Sharotto is that some as-yet-unrevealed phenomenon (no spoilers!) is causing a small percentage of adolescents to manifest superhuman abilities, but there's a catch: every ability comes with a corresponding limitation or drawback, and the abilities only manifest for a limited duration. When the gifted teenagers complete the transition into adulthood, their uncanny abilities disappear.
Charlotte is a high school drama with a science-fiction edge and a lot of slapstick comedy mixed in to lighten the mood. Yu Otosaka and his newfound companions form the student council of a special high school created to protect and isolate power-users, so the first half of the story involves high school hijinks as Yu and crew track down gifted teens and convince them not to abuse their abilities.
Off the Deep End.
In terms of its narrative structure, Charlotte isn't all fun and games. The series leans heavily on foreshadowing to create an atmosphere of quiet foreboding, implying that tremendous tragedy is just around the corner. At the mid-way point of the series, Charlotte hits the audience with a truly traumatic swerve and additional twists come hard and fast thereafter — so audience members who are deeply affected by media should be aware that Sharotto goes to some pretty dark places.
Redemption.
Perhaps the biggest barrier to entry in Charlotte is the nature of its protagonist: at the beginning of the series, Yu Otosaka is a selfish, self-absorbed, self-loathing heel, and his behavior only gets way, way worse after life hits him with an avalanche of increasingly dire and ruinous challenges.
Yu's trials and tribulations push him to the breaking point many times, and they put the audience's emotions through the wringer in the process, but if you stick with the series through the increasingly dramatic developments, you'll find that Charlotte is ultimately a rewarding story about redemption as Yu learns to open his heart to others and to grow into a kinder and more resilient human being.
Ad Astra, Per Aspera.
Crunchyroll currently streams Charlotte in 60 territories worldwide. The series is available in the original Japanese with subtitles in English, Latin American Spanish, and Portuguese. Charlotte was also released on Blu-ray in the United States by Aniplex of America, but at the time of this writing, the first volume of this release is now out-of-print.
Though focused on young adults, Charlotte isn't light entertainment. It's a thematically dense and emotionally draining experience, but if that sort of story appeals to you, and if the series is available in your area, then please consider giving Charlotte a try.
Special thanks go out to Chris Adamson (@invalidname) for suggesting this week's submission for “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog.” Be sure to tune in next time, when we explore the nature of nominative determinism (and bananas) with a little light comedy about a particularly foolish young lady.
Is there a series in Crunchyroll's catalog that you think needs some more love and attention? Please send in your suggestions via e-mail to [email protected] or post a Tweet to @gooberzilla. Your pick could inspire the next installment of “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog!"
Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.
Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!
0 notes
Text
#The100 Season 3 Recap & a Defense of Bellamy Blake
The 100 starts its fourth season tomorrow night (9 PM Eastern/Pacific, after Arrow!), and I for one am stoked. This has been my #1 show since about episode 104, and it continues to be a sweeping, gorgeous, thoughtful sci-fi spectacle, exploring a future in which race, gender, sexuality, and even personality conflicts all feel secondary, because the true measure of a person's worth is simply, "Are you contributing to our survival or endangering it?"
Let’s look back over an intense Season 3:
Clarke's decisive victory at Mount Weather earned her notoriety among the Grounders. She became known as Wanheda, Commander of Death. But not all the clans revered Wanheda, at least one just wanted to kill her and gain her power (the Grounder mythology about reincarnation has led to some unfortunate offshoot beliefs!).
Lexa first captured Clarke (for her own protection from Azgeda, aka Ice Nation), but then earned Clarke's trust and affection once again. Lexa allowed Clarke to influence her decisions and leadership style, which kept skaikru alive but increasingly weakened the alliance and Lexa's own hold over the clans. Lexa wound up fighting to defend her reign upon a challenge from Queen Nia of Azgeda, and we got to see one of the most badass fight scenes in the series.
The erosion of support for Lexa led to her Flamekeeper, Titus, making a horrible decision. He sought to eliminate Clarke, whom he saw as a distraction and a corrupting influence on Lexa, but he wanted to frame Clarke's own people for her death (specifically Murphy), so he used a skaikru weapon. Lexa wandered into the room where Titus was wildly shooting a weapon he had no experience using, and Lexa wound up his unintended victim. This was not the best scene, obviously, but way more than enough has been said about that plot point, so I am not going to talk about it anymore. Suffice to say, Alycia Debnam-Carey took a role on Fear the Walking Dead, and as a result, we got an in-depth story exploring the Grounder mythology of reincarnating Commanders.
In the wake of Lexa's death, Clarke took responsibility for the Flame, knowing that it literally contained Lexa's spirit. She couldn't bear to see it handed to a mass-murdering psychopath like Ontari, and Titus had explained that the Flame doesn't overwrite its new host, it just becomes part of them, so Ontari's violent nature would not be dampened by gaining the Commander's Spirit. Both to save skaikru from a cruel new Commander and to honor Lexa's spirit with a worthy host, Clarke struck out on a quest to find Luna, who had known Lexa and Lincoln, and who was the only remaining Nightblood (i.e., viable host for the Flame).
Clarke's desperation to complete this mission brought out the worst in her; when Luna refused the Flame, Clarke tried to force it on her. Luna's a pacifist, but I don't see her inviting Clarke to holiday supper this year.
With no Nightblood hosts to take the Flame, but a pressing need to gain access to the Flame in order to defeat ALIE, Clarke took the Flame herself (aided by a Mount Weather-style transfusion from Ontari). She was briefly, beautifully reunited with Lexa, and she did defeat ALIE...but in doing so, she learned that an even more implacable threat faces humanity: Earth's nuclear power plants, long unattended, are in critical meltdown. The world is going to be irradiated and unlivable within a few months.
Murphy spent some time in Polis, playing at being the Flamekeeper to make himself useful to Ontari, as she pretended to be a legitimate Commander. She also forced herself on him sexually. Murphy's been difficult to truly like most of the time, but he's truly suffered, too. At season's end, he was reunited with his girlfriend, Emori, and Ontari was dead. So maybe Murphy will be on a better track than in the past. Also, Emori's history as a well-connected thief and smuggler may be useful as our heroes seek a solution for their nuclear dilemma.
Raven's another one whose suffering was extreme but whose portrayal featured some of the greatest acting of the year. (Seriously, someone get Lindsey Morgan a pile of awards for the work she did!) She was the first major player to volunteer for the chip, seeking relief from her chronic, debilitating pain. She was also the only one to fight back after taking the chip, because she realized she'd lost more than she could stand, such as her memories of Finn.
She saved the day by hacking into ALIE and showing Clarke how to access the back door and shut ALIE down.
In addition to her physical suffering, she lost her mentor/surrogate father, Sinclair, when he was murdered by Emerson. (Of the many deaths last year, that one was toughest for me.)
King Roan of Azgeda wasn't always on our team's side, but he also wasn't an intractable, straight-up baddie. He had plans and needs and loyalties, just like anyone. He and Clarke have made alliances here and there where it suited them, and he's smart enough to be a valuable frenemy, at the very least.
Octavia suffered the loss of her love, as well as the loss of her family connection, because of the part Bellamy played in the events that led to Lincoln's death. She took her revenge on Pike, but she just walked away from her brother (and skaikru as a whole, it seemed).
Abby & Kane grew closer, finally acting on the chemistry we've all been seeing between them for a while. It was lovely, but the timing was as unfortunate (as usual on this show!). They had their first kiss as he fled to avoid execution, and when next they saw each other, she'd been chipped; their next kiss was false (the moment of his realization that she's not really herself is one of the most powerfully acted scenes in the series--Henry Ian Cusick is phenomenal), and he wound up surrendering to ALIE to save Abby's life.
Kane has had probably the most profound character arc on the show, and one of the best I've seen on any show. He used to be a leader of his people, but on the Ark, that meant something very different than it does on the ground. Adjusting to life on the ground means learning to be a new kind of leader, and we've watched him do the hard work of finding his path, learning his limitations, accepting the counsel of others based on their experience and wisdom rather than shutting them down to preserve a hierarchy. He's become the man who humbly insists on having a free election rather than simply accepting the power offered to him by its current wielder. Granted, that went horribly wrong, but the intent was noble enough.
The political situation portrayed in S3 was heavily influenced by, even patterned on, the events unfolding in the United States’ presidential election. Watching it again, after the fact, the similarity is stark. Kane and Abby represent the incumbent leadership, cocky about holding on to their power. They are secretive, because they’ve been in charge for so long, they’ve got these bad old habits from the Ark council. On the Ark, secrets were their way of life, and if you told the populace too much, it was bad for everyone. Spilling a secret would get you floated. Sharing the inner workings of any council decision with the people affected by it was unheard of. The one time we know it happened, the culling of Section 17, was traumatic for everyone involved. The other time we know it almost happened, Abby had to consent to her own husband’s death. Abby and Kane have not yet learned how to be open and honest leaders. It doesn’t mean they aren’t good leaders in other ways, but it led to growing distrust and dissent from the people. They never imagined they could lose power. Pike’s populist uprising took them entirely by surprise.
So yes, that brings us to Pike. He’s angry, aggressive, vengeful, unwilling to see the Grounders as humans on some level. Like Bellamy, he can’t help but be affected by Lincoln’s bravery and honor, but he also can’t extend that good will to the Grounders as a people. He challenges Abby and Kane for their whole “need to know” attitude, as well as their edict that skaikru must make peace and submit to Grounder authority by becoming the 13th clan. He doesn’t want to make peace, and it turns out that at least a slim majority of skaikru feels the same. He wins the election, and his first action is a war crime. He slaughters the entire Grounder army that was stationed there to protect Arkadia from Azgeda. He immediately plans his next war crime: He wants to murder a nearby village and claim their land. Perhaps most telling, though, is how he treats his own people. He railed against the behavior of the Ark leadership, but his own leadership style is also based in secrecy, distrust, and punishment. He starts a spy network, uses friends and family against each other, throws his political enemies in jail and orders their executions. Ultimately, he has to be deposed in order to avoid all-out war.
And you have to imagine that by the end, a number of those who voted Pike into power found themselves thinking, I guess Abby and Kane’s know-it-all attitude wasn’t really that bad.
Jasper was a wreck all season. He couldn't move on from the horror of Mount Weather, of watching Maya literally melt in his arms. His rage at Clarke and Monty for their parts in the mass murder served to isolate him emotionally, which fed his misery further. He desperately wanted to take the chip and lose his pain, but in the end, it was unclear whether he willingly accepted a chip or was forced...he'd joined the fight against ALIE, but he remained deeply conflicted and weighed down by emotional pain. In the end, he was back out of the City of Light, but he was plainly struggling with a suicidal urge when we last saw him.
Monty was hurting all season because of Jasper's anger, but things only got worse when he was suddenly reunited with his mother. Hannah Green turned out to be a mom from hell, and Monty's loyalties were torn for a little while; he wanted to be with his mom and honor her wishes, but it meant betraying most of his friends and doing things he truly didn't believe were right or honorable. Ultimately, he chose to do the right thing, and they shared a tearful goodbye as Hannah told him she couldn't defend his treasonous acts, so he should run before he gets arrested. He later saw her again, but she was chipped and homicidal, so he had to kill her.
A small ray of sunshine entered Monty's life toward the end of the season, when Harper made a move on him, and he accepted. So yeah, let's take a moment to talk about the good things in our heroes' lives. There aren't that many, but there's still Miller and Bryan's relationship.
These two were together on the Ark, then separated by Miller's incarceration and dropshipment to the ground. Miraculously, though, they found each other again, after Bryan survived Azgeda's sieges on Farm Station's crash site. Bryan's loyalty to Pike was a problem, but Miller was understanding in a way people aim for in their purest heart but rarely achieve. Ultimately, Bryan realized that his loyalty to a man who'd saved his life couldn't outweigh his loyalty to the man he wants to spend his life with.
Jaha was a real piece of work, as usual. You can argue that he was chipped, but the truth is that he wasn’t a good guy to start with. He has a religious fanatic vibe–he feels that he knows what is best, and he will stop at nothing to make it happen to you, for your own good, like it or not. That’s who he’s always been. He was ALIE's acolyte, helping her to enslave people, though he called it "saving" them. (Technically, that's true--they got their brains backed up to the City of Light, so he saved them as you save files to a disk...but not without serious loss of data.) When Raven rebelled, ALIE said she was unable to override free will, so Jaha came up with the evil idea of torturing Raven until she agreed to permanent submission. That's all kinds of messed up, and make no mistake, that was Jaha's idea, not ALIE's..
Can Jaha be redeemed? Is he capable of admitting he needs to seek redemption?
And now I'd like to talk about Bellamy. One of the common complaints from fans last year was that he changed too much, or too quickly, or without sufficient explanation. But I have a different viewpoint on it. He never changed at all; we just learned something we had never known about him, and it was different from what we had assumed, so it felt like a change.
Think of it this way:
Have you ever had a friend with whom you never actually discussed a major topic, yet your depth of friendship led you to assume you both felt similarly on it, so when the conversation finally took place, you felt betrayed, like you never could have imagined you disagreed on something so huge, and you must never really have known them?
That’s Bellamy Blake in Season 3 of The 100. He never really liked or trusted the Grounders, but he loved and trusted his sister and his friends, so he deferred to their judgment. He went along with the whole scenario of allying with the Grounders, not based on his own feelings toward them, but because his people made that choice, and he had faith in Clarke and Octavia, and he is loyal. His people (and the audience) made the easy mistake of assuming he felt the same way they did.
We know of one Grounder Bellamy truly did trust: Lincoln. And we know that Lincoln had a kill order hanging over him, because the Grounder leadership considered Lincoln a traitor for allying with skaikru. Do that math: Lincoln stood by us when the other Grounders betrayed us, and that is a death penalty offense in Grounder justice; therefore, Lincoln is nothing like the rest of his people, and my high regard for him should in no way extend to his people.
So while Bellamy wasn’t outspoken about his anti-Grounder sentiment, it really wasn’t a change to his character when that sentiment was finally revealed. We felt oddly betrayed, because we have seen things mostly from Octavia and Clarke’s perspective, so it had never occurred to us or them that Bellamy felt that way…but there was really no reason he couldn’t have felt that way all along–we just didn’t notice until it became more important to him to express his own feelings than to go along with others’ feelings.
And of course, the event that pushed him over the edge was the destruction of Mount Weather, when his decision to trust a Grounder, Echo, led to the slaughter of dozens of skaikru, including his girlfriend, Gina.
Throughout S3, Bellamy acts in a way that is difficult to forgive…for us, for his friends, and most of all for Octavia. But think of the moment by the signal fire, before they’re taken to meet Luna, when he asks Octavia, “How long?” How long will it take her to forgive him, to look at him as her big brother again. To us, and probably to everyone in the scene, it sounds callous and selfish, because we are aligned with Octavia. But if you try to see it from his perspective, you can’t deny that he’s been twisting himself around to accommodate the emotional directives of everyone else, overriding his own suspicions and misgivings to accept the decisions Clarke and Octavia have asked him to help enact, setting aside his own feelings at every turn. Now, he’s finally acted on his own feelings, and he’s waiting for the others to respond with the acceptance and forgiveness he’s shown. Yes, Lincoln died…but Gina died, too, and no one seems to treat that with the same reverence or regret. It’s hard for us to feel that strongly about Gina, because we didn’t get to know her much, but we can’t assume that Bellamy’s feelings are less intense or important than Octavia’s or Jasper’s or Clarke’s, just because the relationship didn’t get as much screen time.
Plus, Bellamy didn’t only trust a Grounder, he went off to save Clarke (again), only to be rejected by Clarke and sent home empty handed (again!). So the decisions that weigh on him for causing Gina’s death are twofold: He vouched for Echo, and he chose to go rescue Clarke rather than stay to protect Gina. Never mind that he didn’t know the attack was coming, because the emotional weight is the same, and the emotional answer is that he should have known better than to trust a Grounder; he should have foreseen the danger.
So that more or less brings us up to speed. I’d love to hear your reactions, thoughts, predictions, etc., about absolutely anything in the world other than Lexa’s unfortunate demise, because I am sick of that topic for all time. Let’s just remember the good times, as Jasper would want to do.
1 note
·
View note
Text
19. “How to Dismantle a Grail”
Session 19, May 14, 2017
Word count: 4,466
In-Game Dates: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 and Thursday, June 17, 2021
In which the group catches up on some personal time, learns more about the Grail Ritual, and finally gets some good news.
I. Thoughts on the Grail
Around 9 o’clock Wednesday morning, Lancer sticks her head into the kitchen where Assassin is brewing tea.
“Want to chat?”
“Certainly,” Assassin agrees with a smile. “Roof?”
They do end up on the roof again, each cradling a piping hot mug of tea. They sit in companionable silence for a few moments before Assassin finally says, “You are a master of the lance; I wanted to know if you have any insight into this Rhongomyniad.”
Lancer chuckles. “Truly, I would not count myself as a ‘master of the lance,’ as you say. The only one I’ve ever used is Gae Bolg, and half of that is the technique. More properly, I would be summoned as a Caster. It just seems that there was a more appropriate fit for that Class in this War.”
“Fair enough,” Assassin chuckles, “But still, perhaps you had encountered something like it before. After all, many such weapons come from an earlier mythical basis, and you are from before our time.”
Lancer frowns, thinking back. “That’s a good question to ask, but I’m afraid that I have no additional information to offer you. I know of mythic bases for other things of immense power – a blade called Durandal was the conceptual ancestor of Excalibur, for example, and we both have experience with magic cauldrons – but this is the first that I’ve encountered a world-breaker spear such as this.”
“Ah, well,” Assassin sighs, “it was worth a shot.”
Lancer nods, expression apologetic. “Indeed it was.”
They sit for a while more, sipping their tea. Eventually, Assassin speaks up again. “I’m concerned about Saber.” Lancer hums in question, and Assassin goes on, “I’m worried that if this thing is Arthur, then Saber will get himself killed by his inability to act.”
“He may,” Lancer acknowledges, “but he also seems resigned to the idea that whoever it is will not be his true King. That seems to suggest that his loyalty ends where the corruption begins.”
“I suppose we should be grateful for that.”
“And remember, although he may sacrifice himself to the conflict, he does not strike me as the sort to sacrifice anyone to it.”
Assassin laughs. “That is true. Of the group of us, I am probably the most likely to do such a thing.” Lancer laughs as well; they both know that it is true.
Assassin sets her empty mug aside. “I’m also worried about the Cauldron. I do mean it, that I would like to save the artifact if we can. It would be a shame to see it destroyed, either in its explosion or to prevent such a thing. I’m just not sure how.”
Lancer nods. “I also would like to preserve it. Even used as an atrocity, it is an important part of the world as we knew it.” She examines her empty mug. “Without seeing it, though, it’s hard to say how we could save it. Chances are that it is tied into the local leylines, not to mention being backed by the additional energy from the death seals. Perhaps if we drain it first… But I don’t know to where.”
Assassin nods. “Perhaps back into the leylines, or out into the air where it will dissipate. I suppose we’ll have to find a way to get in there and see.”
Lancer hums in agreement. “Have you thought of what you’ll do afterwards?”
“You mean if we survive all this?”
“Yes.”
Assassin stares off into the distant sky. After a long moment, she smiles wistfully. “I suppose I would like to find Avalon again. If I have to return to… wherever we came from – the Throne of Heroes, or the Reverse Side – then perhaps I can retain enough of myself to search for it there. But there was a time when it intersected with this world, and it is a distant but powerful dream of mine to bring it back. If I can stay in this material realm, then perhaps I could find some of the remnants of my practice, the people who have mind and faith like mine. If I could bring back the old ways…”
“Then perhaps Avalon would follow,” Lancer finishes.
Assassin nods.
“You just want to start a pagan revolution,” the other sorceress teases.
“Perhaps you are right,” Assassin chuckles, “but you must see it as well: the current way of things is unsustainable. The world is unstable; the new way is not working. I wonder what it could be if we could bring things back to how they were.”
Lancer concedes with a nod.
“What of you?”
“The Land of Shadows and my fortress,” Lancer replies, “I don’t know what became of them. As I mentioned before, I was unaware of my own death; to the best of my knowledge, I should have been unqualified to be summoned. And yet, here I am. So, I suppose my goal is alike to yours: if it is in my power to remain here and whole, I should like to find my home.”
Morgana reaches to the space between them, and Scathach meets her hand with a grasp and a smile. They sit like that on the roof for a time, no longer speaking, but simply keeping company of like minds.
II. Checking In With Magnuson
When Val finally wakes up, his first thoughts go to Magnuson. The last he heard from his friend was before Vasilyevich’s demise; he wonders if the bad luck curse has worn off now that the mastermind behind it is gone.
The phone rings twice before Magnuson picks it up. Val hears the twang of a guitar string breaking, a loud curse, and then Magnuson’s voice.
“Hi, hello, howzit!”
Val struggles to hold back laughter. “Hey bro, how’s it going?”
“Bro!” Magnuson exclaims. “Dude, I am so glad to hear from you! Reines said you were alright, but man, I was worried!”
“Yeah, I’m doing okay. It was rough for a little bit, but I’m alright. How’s it with you? Your luck getting any better?”
Magnuson chuckles sheepishly. “Yeah, for the most part. I think that curse or whatever has mostly worn off, but I got used to being a klutz, so it’ll take some time to get my groove back. At least my phone’s charging again!”
“That’s good,” Val agrees.
“What about you? How are things going with your spy stuff?”
“Oh, you know… Spy stuff. Can’t talk about it much. But I’m making an album!”
“Dude!”
“Right? You wanna come to the concert?”
“Dude, totally!” Magnuson agrees. “Oh, hey, I meant to tell you: Reines has that Belfaban guy here, you know?” When Val confirms that he knows, Magnuson goes on, “He’s pretty kooky, man. Like, look up ‘absent-minded professor’ in the dictionary and you’ll see the dude’s picture.”
“So… he doesn’t seem like he’s under a control spell or anything?”
“Nah, man,” Magnuson tells him, “I think the dude’s just a weirdo.”
“Well, keep an eye on him for me, will ya?”
“You got it, bro. I’ll keep an ear out, see if Reines’ll let me talk to him. I think she’s got Lord El Melloi Two on the case, though, so I don’t wanna get in his way too much.”
Val agrees that getting in the way of that man would be a bad idea, but Magnuson ends the call with a promise to do his best anyway. Val hangs up, glad to have a friend to keep his employer honest.
III. Landmark Investigation
Caster makes use of his newly acquired computer skills to do some digital reconnaissance; he recalls all of the locations that his fractal vision suggested as possible future deployments of Rhongomyniad, and wants to equip himself with as much knowledge as he can muster.
The first location that he saw was Ponte PASA, the site of their battle with Berserker. Quick research suggests that neither the bridge itself nor its location hold strong enough cultural ties to raise red flags. In light of the group’s previous experience fighting on the bridge, Caster opts to move on to the next location.
The second thing he had seen was the burned-out warehouse. Having also fought there and previously done some research on it, he dismisses that location as well.
The third stop is the Colosseum. Caster spends a little more time here, researching the place’s history and structure. It has long been the site of battle for the sake of entertainment, and recent modifications to the structure might make it an interesting place to hold a grand melee, but still nothing stands out to him.
Finally, he turns his eye to the Vatican. A single area on a comprehensive digital map draws his attention immediately: a plaza with an odd structure in the center. The electric waves inform him that the place is called Piazza San Pietro: Saint Peter’s Square. Shaped like a keyhole, with one side of the trapezoid running up against the temple dedicated to the same saint, the plaza provides a wide open space and plenty of obstructed room to move. The only obstacle is the mystery structure in the center of the circle.
Zooming in closer, Caster sees that it resembles an obelisk.
He opens a second window and types in “Piazza San Pietro”. The electric waves inform him that the thing is the middle is indeed an obelisk, transported from Alexandria and boasting the greatest height of its kind in the world. It functions now as a sundial, and Caster can see the odd patterning of stonework on the ground around it that lends the entire area to a host of mystical conspiracy theories.
Studying the venue, Caster knows two things for certain:
First, that this is definitely where their final confrontation with Rhongomyniad’s wielder will take place.
And second, that the entire plaza is solidly within Vatican territory.
He stands with a lengthy stretch and a grumpy sigh. Then, relinquishing his physical form for a spiritual one, he makes his way out the door. The time for remote research is over: now is the time to scout.
IV. Date with Siobhan
Around noon, Jim finds Siobhan sitting in the living room with a book.
“Hey,” he greets her.
“Hey, yourself,” she replies with a smile.
He perches on the arm of one of the chairs. “So, I was thinking… about that date?”
Siobhan closes her book. “What did you have in mind? Want to check out that restaurant again, without Val’s interruption?”
“Hell no!” Jim laughs. “I’ve had my fill of fancy restaurants in the past week or so. Wanna go to a park?”
The bard grins. “Sure!”
And that is how, while everyone else is doing research and having War-related conversations, the two street kids escape for a day. They pack a bag with lunches, send pings to their Servants, and dart out the door before anyone has the chance to stop them.
Buses and trams take them far away from the bustle of the city. The further they get from the center, the more they notice a strange pulling and itching sensation in their Command Seals – like it is hard to get away from the War completely. Still, they both resolve to ignore it and spend some quality time together.
There is a version of this story in which things go terribly wrong, in which this simple act of fun is demonized as horrible carelessness and punished as a moral.
This is not that version.
Jim and Siobhan have a lovely walk and picnic in a park, able for just one day to forget the world around them and enjoy each other’s company.
V. How to Defuse the Grail
It is again around dinnertime when the decrypters finish their work for the day. Caster and Assassin persuade Val to pause in his work on his musical project – a concept album, he insists, centering on the themes of the War – and Jim and Siobhan reluctantly return from their outing.
After dinner, France and Dimitri share their findings.
“We weren’t confident that we would find anything,” France explains, “but we were looking for ways to defuse the Grail. It’s definitely like I thought: unlike most of the other topics, the mastermind didn’t have a dedicated document or folder for this. After all, he wasn’t exactly looking to destroy the thing.”
“That makes sense,” Val allows with a disappointed frown, “But were you able to hunt down any information about it?”
“Almost,” France hedges. “I found some of the stuff – the equations and the spells – that Vasilyevich used to make the Cauldron the Grail, and I don’t know how you would do it, but it’s like with the Death Seals. If you could kind of… invert all of this, I guess, you might be able to… to kind of… to decouple the object from the Grail War. To physically remove it, I mean.” He holds up his hands against the group’s brightening expressions. “Don’t get excited yet! You’d still have to conceptually decouple it from the War – I mean, you’d have to make the ritual forget that there was a Grail – and that’s not even getting into the amount of energy that would still be stored inside the thing…”
“So,” Lancer interrupts, casting a look at Assassin, “We would have to drain it.”
France nods. “Yeah, and I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I can tell you that you’ll have to be really careful with it. That’s not just any energy in there: it’s the stuff that came from the Death Seals, so who knows what kind of trouble it would cause if you just… I dunno, stuck it back into the leylines or something.”
Lancer frowns in disappointment.
The technomancer goes on, “Then again, you said you have a team of priests working on that aspect, so maybe you can get their help. They’ve got to be good for something.” His tone betrays his suspicion, but the advice is nevertheless sound.
“Could you make us some copies of that information?” Caster asks. “We want everything that you think could be related to defusing the Grail.” He looks to Assassin and Lancer, and adds, “In triplicate, if you please.”
France and Dimitri get to work on it, and soon all three spellcasting Servants have in their hands something like a ritual to disenchant the Grail. They are not yet sure what to do with it or how exactly to make it work, but they resolve among themselves to give all their attention over the next day or so to figuring it out, and to only involve the Executors if absolutely necessary.
VI. Magical Research
Thursday morning begins with a plan of action:
The decrypters are to search for any information that Vasilyevich knew about Emil Sophia-Ri.
The Servants are to study the ritual and figure out how to break it down into actionable parts.
The rest of the group is to stay far out of the way.
Both major tasks take most of the day to complete, so each party gets right to work after breakfast.
Caster, Lancer, and Assassin colonize the living room, spreading their copies of the ritual and several dozen sheets of notebook paper across the coffee table and the surrounding floor. They spend the better part of the afternoon throwing ideas – and crumpled up wads of paper – back and forth as they try to hash out the details of dismantling the Grail.
The challenge is threefold: the Cauldron of Rebirth needs to be physically removed from the area, conceptually dissociated from the state of being the Grail, and drained off all excess energy – which then needs to go somewhere.
Upon defining these points, they decide that the actual order should be changed a bit. The physical removal must come first, lest the death energy be drained into the leylines. That must be followed by draining off the excess energy, so that it can then be safely dissociated from the War without accidentally exploding. They hope.
Assassin tackles the question of how to physically remove the Cauldron from the leylines. As a Priestess of the Old Gods, she has plenty of experience working with leylines and ritual items. To that end, she accepts Siobhan’s keen eye as assistance. After some time batting the idea back and forth, they agree that just yanking the Cauldron from its place carries too much risk of magical backlash. Instead, Asssasin proposes using a dummy, a prop. If they can get a false artifact to use as a replacement, she reasons, then the leyline balance will not be upset by the sudden absence of a focal point.
The problem is that the replacement needs to be convincing: they could not just use a plastic prop from a toy store. They would need to get their hands on a real artifact. Siobhan points out that there is a host of museums in the city; Val expresses delight at the idea of getting to break in somewhere for a grand heist.
Meanwhile, Caster is working out the process of draining the Grail of its excess mana. Using the information that they recovered regarding the Death Seals, as well as his own knowledge of energy manipulation from being the king’s main magus, he finally declares that he has some ideas of how to make it work. However, he refuses to share with the rest of the group, only giving them a mysterious smile laced with triumph.
For her part, Lancer has been tasked with figuring out how to conceptually remove the Cauldron from the Grail War. This monumental task should mostly be handled by a circle, she decides. Using the theories employed by the Death Seal deconstruction spell, she begins to piece together an appropriate countermeasure. It takes knowledge of all of the Masters’ Command Seals as well as several more mystical symbols both common and obscure, and in the end, she still has the sense that something about it looks slightly off.
After a dozen times going over the circle looking for her flaw, Lancer stands abruptly and marches to the kitchen in a huff. Curious, Jim wanders over. When Lancer gets back, he points at one of the Command Seals – the one shared by Jordan and Petri.
“I think you have that upside down.”
Lancer squints, erases the symbol, and sketches it back inverted from its original position. To her surprise, everything suddenly looks right. She blinks at it, then blinks at Jim. “Have you even been to school for this stuff?” she demands.
He shrugs. “No.”
She huffs and shakes her head, but he sees the hint of a smile as she turns away to make clean copies of her work. When she is finished, they have a draft of the circle that they can hopefully use to decouple the Cauldron from the War. The only trick, Lancer says, is that they cannot be sure that it will work until they can get on site to lay it out around the Grail.
VII. Family Grudge
Evening rolls around and the decrypters fill the party in on what they found about Emil. The prevailing instinct was correct: Vasilyevich did know about him, and hated him without reservation. The man is mentioned several times, all of it derogatory at best and filled with vitriolic hatred most often.
It is obvious from the writings that Vasilyevich held the Sophia-Ri family responsible for the demise of his aunt Anastasia Cartwright. From what the notes say, early on in the process of learning the ritual, he decided that as soon as he learned the identity of the newest heir of Sophia-Ri, he would make that person’s life hell.
“The ritual itself seems to have nothing to do with Emil,” Dimitri explains, “but Vasilyevich was dead set on making him the starting target of the Death Seals. This is a personal-once-removed grudge match.”
“How did Cartwright die?” Jim wonders out loud.
France and Dimitri exchange a sidelong glance, then admit, “Us, actually.”
At the group’s collective surprise, the two of them explain: Cartwright escaped the First American Grail War by the skin of her teeth, leaving her Servant to defend her exit route while she cut her losses and ran. She popped up five years later in a city to the north where she started the Second American Grail War – the one they were part of. After removing most of the other threats from the board, they cornered Cartwright in a chapel where she was attempting to summon a secondary Grail using the backup physical vessel and energy that she had siphoned from the leylines. She surrounded herself in a powerful barrier, but they managed to break through it. She would not surrender, and between the group of their allies, they finally managed to kill her.
“She really didn’t leave us much of a choice,” France explains, not quite apologetically. “She just kept slinging spells at us until we took her down.”
“Sometimes you have to do what you have to do,” Val murmurs, and the rest of the group agrees.
“Did Vasilyevich know that Emil was involved in the War?” Assassin asks.
Dimitri skims through several more pages. “Hmm… It doesn’t look like he did. He expresses annoyance about not getting Black Knight… He calls Saber a ‘goody two-shoes’… But that’s all. Oh, wait… No, he didn’t even know that anyone had summoned Black Knight. He just thought that particular modification to the ritual didn’t work. It looks like he never figured out that someone else had hacked into his documents, or if he did, then he didn’t put that together with the possibility that someone else had drawn his trump card.”
All told, they do nail down some aspects of Emil’s personality from Vasilyevich’s research: the mastermind knew that Emil was the Privileged Heir to House Sophia-Ri, and that Voidcalling is His Specialty. These are the same things that they had learned from Reines, but it was good to know that Vasilyevich had learned them as well.
Jim makes a mental note to research the sorts of things that Voidcallers can summon, as well as ways to counter them.
VIII. Update from Orsino
Val’s phone rings around dinnertime.
“Heya, padre!” he greets Orsino.
Orsino ignores the epithet. “Valentin. I haven’t heard of any new disasters, so I assume all is well with you.”
“Yeah, we’ve been inside all day!”
“That’s good to hear,” Orsino chuckles. “I have good news, and I have great news. For once, I don’t actually have bad news. Which would you like to hear first?”
“Let’s start with the good news,” Val replies as he puts the phone on speaker.
“The good news is that the piece of ritual you gave us for deactivating the remaining Death Seals seems to have worked. It’s difficult to know for sure, of course, but we are fairly certain. We sent teams out searching after we energized the circle, and many of them reported finding husks of Seals that we had not yet disarmed, drained of their destructive energy. We’ll continue to canvass the city just in case, but I think it’s safe to say that this particular threat is a threat no longer.”
The group breaks into whooping cheers and applause. When the noise has died down, Val asks, “And what’s the better news?”
“Stella and Lilly are both clear of the Vatican.”
Jim and Siobhan both clap Archer on the shoulder as the Servant sinks back into the couch in relief.
“Lilly wanted to stay,” Orsino goes on, “but her former Servant and I were able to convince her that leaving was for the best. The Red Flower Society has a secondary headquarters outside of London; I talked her into Stella there. This means that the rest of us are stuck in this thing until the end, of course, but something tells me that we would all prefer it that way.”
The group murmurs in collective agreement. Then Jim remembers: “Orsino, about that… We need your help. Is there any way to get our Servants into the Vatican?”
When Orsino expresses alarm, Val explains, “The Servants have ideas about how to make things not go boom, but in order for the plan to work, they need a way inside. They need access to the Grail. And since the Vatican can’t be moved, and we don’t know if the Grail can be moved…”
“Yes,” Orsino muses, “I see your dilemma. Is it safe to assume that this countermeasure involves some fairly complex spellwork?”
A chorus of affirmation greets his statement.
“Hrm,” he grunts. “In that case, I doubt that Rider is up to the task. Unfortunately, I lack the authority to drop the boundary field. Even inquiring about it is above my admittedly non-existent pay grade.”
“Could Rider try moving the Grail?” Val asks.
“We could try,” Orsino hedges, “but I’m told that the vessel is under guard and that I was not to have access to it under any circumstances. And I would like to avoid getting on everyone’s bad side more actively, apparently, and immediately than I already am.”
Val sighs in exasperation. “I know they might not like it, but tampering with the vessel is bound to be better than letting the magical equivalent of Chernobyl happen right there in the middle of everything! They have to see that!”
“I don’t even know exactly where it is,” Orsino admits, “but with our luck it will be right at the intersection of all the leylines and locked into place.” He heaves a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do, though. I’ll look into allowing the Servants entry or allowing the Grail to be moved, and I hope for all our sakes that at least one of these is possible. It will take some time, though.”
“These things always do,” Val allows. “Thanks, Orsino. We’ll owe you.”
“At the end of all this, I think we’ll all just be happy to be alive.”
The phone call ends and Val stands to leave, but Caster’s pained expression gives him pause. “What is it?”
Caster grabs the laptop he was using yesterday, and the notes he had taken during his scouting. “I did some searching, and… See these? And these?”
“They’re the leylines,” Assassin realizes.
“Yes,” Caster nods. “And wouldn’t you know it, they intersect here.” He points at the obelisk in the center of Saint Peter’s Square.
“The Vatican Obelisk… Do you think that’s where they’re holding the Grail?” Val asks, wide-eyed.
“It would surprise me not at all.”
The group sits back and weighs this new information, the latest wrench thrown into their plans, as night falls outside and the day comes to a close.
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
androforcex102-blog
AndroForce X10
benjamin-marshall-blog
WE ARE MARSHALL
softlyspokenbutterfly
🦋 life blog 🦋
morro-owo
morrowo
mcsleereemno-blog
工作狂12號