Scene Archives

has been up here for the past little while, minding his own business and leaning against the railing as he stares out into the sea.

steps out of the Vertical Train and takes a moment to enjoy the feeling of the air, the expanse of the view, the near endless Sea, before heading over to Aurelius. “Hi,” she says, leaning backward against the railing so she can look up at him.

: “Hey.”

: “I wanted to ask if you’d like to spar.” She nods at the circles on the roof. “Apparently that actually is allowed here.”

: “Don’t see why it wouldn’t be, less chance of breaking anything when there’s nothing around.”

: “Yeah.” She tilts her head back far enough that she can look out at the sea, though upside-down. “Is that a ‘yes, Salme, I will have a Sparring-Rite with you,’ a ‘no, Salme, leave me alone,’ or a ‘I have something on my mind which is why I’m staring soulfully out into the ocean’?”

: “What, can’t a guy be nostalgic about a thing he’s not sure he’s ever actually seen before without it being weird?” He glances to the side, then down. “I’ve always got stuff on my mind, but nothing… pressing…? We can have a go at it, sure.”

: “You can say no,” she says, straightening. “You don’t have to agree to everything I ask you to do, especially …”

looks out at the sea again, properly. “Do you remember it? The sea? Even if you-Aurelius hasn’t seen it before?”

: “I am perfectly capable of tell you no when I want too, I’m not really opposed to it. Though I was remembering you said you felt your load out was maybe too defensive to make sparring enjoyable…?” He leans forward a bit, not quite enough to lift his feet off the ground. “…A little. It’s actually surprised how few stories take place on a coast… with me being given to understand that the vast majority of major settlements tend to be on one.”

: “I know one of the people he… we…(?) once lived in a place sort of like ripple’s rest though, and owned a boat. But like, a real one, not these weird glass bubbles.”

: “Hmm.” She crosses her arms on the railing and leans her chin on her arms. “What’s a real boat like?”

has to really think about that one for a minute.

: “…Huh, I wonder you have any frame of reference at all. Hmm.”

: “Oh wait I think I remembering hearing you guys had stage coaches for slower long distance traveling. So I guess you kind of… take one of those and stretch it out so it’s waaaaay longer than it is tall or wide. And then they have…. large crossed pillars, which you attach canvas to in order to catch the wind and use it to sail.” He realizes this probably isn’t a terribly apt description on its own as he goes, and begins to trace the shape of a smaller sailboat, then a larger trading goods vessel with gnosis that lingers in the air for a little while.

watches, and thinks, and thinks, and thinks. “There are stories on Almachadta. About sailing. Or rowing. We have small rafts for the rivers, but never. Hm.”

: “I never thought to wonder what it looked like.”

: “Yeah, boats would be kinda overkill for the rivers we came across at least.”

: “It is kind of interesting how many old stories Almachadta seems to have preserved though, of the world when it was whole.”

: “Oh.” She looks at him. “Oh. That is what they are.”

: “…Wait you’re only just now realizing that?”

: “…Though actually to be fair you’ve all spent so long not even knowing there was something to realize, with it going completely under the radar.”

: “Only seems obviously since I’m hearing about it for the first time after we’ve started putting things together.”

: “It’s. Wolf had pointed out a certain dissonance—a sea, or mountains, or … concepts that I can’t map to a reality I’ve ever known. Diamonds, and how they’re made. But I’ve lived a long time knowing many things that I haven’t ever actually experienced. You know. With the Mask.”

: “Yeah, that reaction was a bit unfair, sorry. I totally get it though.”

gives him a funny look. “I don’t think you totally get it, which is fine. I don’t totally get you.”

: “You don’t think I get what it’s like to have a bunch of out of context memories and ideas in my head that I’ve never personally experienced myself?”

: “I don’t think you get what it’s like to have them wholly be stories and not half-memory.”

: “Yours is more wistful, I think.”

: “Yours are literally in first person with the action happening as it happened, not being retold. I think it’s pretty similar.”

: “Oh. From the Mask? Yeah, those are similar. But … when I think about the stories that talk about the sea they’re not … memories, from the Mask. There’s one that makes me think of you, always. The words are different but the shape of the story is the same.”

: “Oh?”

: “A story about a complicated man, or one of many twists and turns, or one of many ways, blown off-course on his quest home to wander, wonder-struck and unlucky, for a decade. He’s as clever as he is foolish.”

: “…The Odyssey?”

: “The hero’s name is sometimes Odysseus, yes. Is this,” she frowns. “What the fuck?”

laughs. “Guess the story resonates…?”

: “You know it? How?”

scratches at the back of his head. “I mean it’s… a popular thing to re-imagine and retell in different settings and different contexts…? It’s honestly weirder that’s it’s on Almachadta, than it is me knowing about it.”

: “Oh, of course. It’s weirder that way.” She frowns out at the sea. “Though, I suppose that means a lot of the stories I know, the ones that aren’t memories, might have their own forms on the Beast, or on Samudra. Weird that Jory also has the same story, though.”

suddenly starts laughing. “Heheh, nobody.”

: “Yes that is the kind of thing you’d do,” she sighs.

: “That one wasn’t even me, but.”

: “Anyway. Yeah. Who knows, maybe the original world, back when it was whole, was also aware of the worlds beyond, and that’s why it’s possible that we’ve both heard the same story that would… probably be impossible for either of us to be familiar with, normally?” He rolls a shrug.

: “I’m sure we’ll find out, eventually.” She kicks one of her feet against the railing, idly.

: “But. It does make me wonder. When you think of home, what do you think of? And is it different from what Jorule thinks of?”

doesn’t even have to think about that one, surprisingly. “Definitely not the same, it’s Oberon for him. Me…?”

: “Well, it’s clearly being by your side…?” He pauses for a moment, then shakes his head. “…But seriously, I’m not sure. It feels like it should be Beast, but even that’s got so many unknowns…?” Another pause, though this one less deliberate. “Bet Ember would let me build a home near the ziggurat if I asked.”

’s breath hitches slightly at the first, but she nods thoughtfully at the rest. “I’m not sure either. I’ve been thinking about it. What a home is, what it might be like. How to build one for the three of us.”

: “Anyone else, certainly, but. The three of us at least.”

: “Hmm. Well, it’ll probably be a much easier question if we can somehow fuse everything back into one world, huh?”

hums thoughtfully. “Maybe.”

: “I imagine we’ll have a fair bit of time to think about it, either way.”

: “Yes. Though. Hm.”

seems like she might say something, but shakes her head, trying to clear the thought.

: “The Rite?”

: “Okay, but feel free to continue that thought as we go.”

pushes away from the railing, though his eyes stay fixed on the horizon until he eventually spins around and makes for the center of the roof.

: “Since you and Awa both seem so intent on flying off among the stars, I want a grounded place that you both want to come back to sooner rather than later,” she says as follows him.

: “Fair enough. I suspect that may be… trickier for one of us than the other, and imagine you also suspect the same.”

: “Whatever are you talking about?” she says, shucking off her jacket, folding it, and setting it neatly on a bench. She unsheathes her sword, and her parrying dagger, rolling her shoulders. “So. Stakes.”

: “Sparring with Stakes.” Aurelius shakes his head, almost-but-not-quite looking offended. “You’re quite certain you’re from Almachadta and weren’t simply dropped through a portal from the Beast?”

: “Nope,” she says joyfully. “Not sure about that all. Stakes? At least I want something from you if I win.”

shrugs his robes… up, while slipping his arm through the sleeve that tends to go unused. He does kick his sandals to the side, though, while pulling out a long knife and a small revolver from who-knows-where.

: “What do you want from me that would demand capital S stakes, Salme?”

: “If I win you must ask me for something that you want that I can give to you,” she says firmly.

: “That’s funny, because I was just about to say how unfair this is as there’s nothing I’d want if I won.”

laughs. “Maybe that’s your stake. You get to dodge the question.”

looks at the knife and revolver, frowning. “Oh, you’re going to be impossible, aren’t you?”

: “No, it’s really quite possible.”

moves one foot back, then spins around in a circle on the other, before firing a shot out into the water. “See, works fine and everything.”

: “But sure, I’ll humor you.”

: “I, Aurelius, Second of my Name, Hereby do Accept These Honestly Quite Horseshit Terms And Stakes.”

places the hand holding the revolve over his heart, then perform a low bow.

: “And I, Salme, the Only Bearer of My Name, Do Accept Your Acceptance Even If It’s Partly Bullshit.” And then she throws a swift dart of flourishing gnosis through him. “Would you like to go first, my love?”

: “I am clearly the assailed right now so it is absolutely my right.”

lets out a breath, shifting the weight from one foot to another as he gets a feel for this stance.

grins at him, a little wild, and laughs, licks of burning gnosis sparking along her arms and hair.

rolls his head on his shoulders, then suddenly dashes forward with agility you’re not used to seeing from Aurelius. He trains the revolve on Salme before throwing the long knife instead - which lands on the ground a step or two behind her, the tip having been caught between the small gap in the glowing tiles. And by the time you’ve processed that, he’s right next to her, with the free hand extended and reaching into her aura. His fingers glow blue as he ripped a chunk of gnosis out, before he spins past her, grabs the knife, then back flips past her once again in the direction he’d started from.

: “Rude!” she laughs, but she’s still grinning, still glowing with burning gnosis, and there’s appreciation and admiration in her eyes. And then she darts forward, swift and merciless, diving low to deliver a spinning kick directly to his kneecaps, all of her momentum behind it.

buckles a bit under the hit, but knicks her with the knife before she can pull back. (Yup!)

tosses the knife into the air while quickly pulling out a small paint ball and loading it into the one empty revolver silo. He then takes aim and fires it at Salme, producing a bright red splotch of gnosis ink on her.

yelps a bit when he nicks her, and she brings her arm to her mouth to suck at the wound. Her eyes are burning. And then.

then catches the knife before it hits the ground, of course.

of course

holds both arms out to the side and drops both of her weapons, gathering a dark orb of tenebrous gnosis at either fingertip. She grabs both her sword and her parrying dagger before they hit the ground, driving them both up and through the orbs of tenebrous gnosis and straight towards Aurelius at center mass.

: “Oof!” He tries to dodge, but the orb’s a bit bigger than it looks, and he’s not as light on his feet as the memories he’d channeling tell him he should be, and so he’s blow back a bit, but not before reflecting a hint of the tenebrous back.

… doesn’t seem to mind the distance put between them, though.

: “Okay so. The thing about guns…” Rolls his head on his shoulders again, before throwing his arms out - which doesn’t do much because he’s not actually wearing a cool pirate captain’s cloak right now. “Is that I have one. And you? Do not.” He then pulls the trigger three times in rapid sequence, and three bullets wrapped in black and red gnosis scream as they Salme into Salme at full force.

then flicks the revolver to the side, opening the chamber and letting three cartridges hit the ground.

(…Well, okay, actually it was only two shots… for 18…. but…)

takes the first hit with gritted teeth but is fast enough to flick out another little dagger of tenebrous gnosis to slice him across the cheek before the second slams into her, driving her all the way to her knees.

tosses the revolver into the air as he does a little spin in place on one foot, humming a strange upbeat diddy for a few seconds, stopping as he catches the revolver again, then disappears both it and the knife.

stays on her hands and knees, catching her breath for a long moment, before she looks up at him, grinning. “You were magnificent,” she says, leaning back on her heels. “Truly.”

: “Yeah, I’m amazing.”

glances to the left, then the right, “Though if we’re being honest, the memories I was drawing from? She was explicitly higher level than the rest of the group, so might’ve not been entirely fair.” He winks.

rolls her eyes, standing all the way up. “Take a compliment, Aury?” she says, flicking distractedly at the splotch of gnosis-ink on her blouse.

: “I did acknowledge that I’m amazing.” Both ears flick towards her while his tail swishes animatedly.

: “Yes, well, you say ‘I’m amazing (positive, laudatory)’ in the same tone as ‘I’m amazing (negative, denigrating)’ so sometimes it’s hard to know.” She’s watching him with a grin.

: “I would NEVER say I’m amazing sarcastically.”

: “Mmm.”

isn’t going to comment on that actually.

: “Really, every time I’ve said it I’ve been dead serious.” Tail wag.

stares at her for a second, then almost as an afterthought, points a finger at her and summons a gust of wind than blows all the residual gnosis away.

blinks. She’d gotten distracted by the … “I’ve never seen your tail move that much before.”

: “Me either.”

frowns at him. “I really, really, really do not understand …” she reaches out and grabs for the tail.

freezes.

turns his head to look down at her hands, ears flat against his head.

lets it go immediately.

flicks it back and away.

: “I’m sorry. That was inappropriate,” she says, straightening.

: “It’s true there’s lot of situations where that could have gotten you a pretty good slap, but this isn’t one of them. Did you figure out whatever you didn’t understand?”

: “Well, mostly I was trying to figure out how much control you had over it. I didn’t actually expect you to let me catch it?”

: “More broadly, I’m trying to figure out when you’re happy and when you aren’t. Reading your body language is nearly impossible.”

: “Ah, well, joke’s on you those were just some residual memories. We’re back to being inscrutable now. Soon?”

: “I mean, I figured. Or. Hoped. That kicking my ass in a Rite wasn’t the only time you’d been happy enough to actually wag your tail,” she says dryly.

: “Why are you so inscrutable? Just so much going on up in there nothing can thoughtlessly come to the surface?” gesturing at his head.

blinks, then laughs. “Yes, I was only a LITTLE joyed to kick your ass after you were so smug and certain you had the win. I noticed you using a different loadout, too!”

: “But also, no idea, just comes naturally.”

: “I wasn’t certain I’d win,” she says, a little sharply. “I actually didn’t think I would. I just really, really, really wanted to.”

: “Didn’t we recently have a conversation about how I didn’t need any gifts from you and was happy simply to have your company, or did I simply imagine that…?”

: “Yes! No! Argh!”

dramatically throws her hands up in the air, and then takes a breath. “Yes, we did have that conversation. No, you didn’t imagine it. Argh, it’s still complicated.”

: “…Is it? Does not being able to give me a gift really bug you that much? I promise I won’t run off simply because you didn’t give me something shiney. I’m not the crow.”

laughs a little at the crow comment, even if it doesn’t seem precisely fair. “It’s not—I don’t think you’d do that. I just—“ she looks out, not at the sea, but the clouds overhead hanging content but heavy, like it might rain at any moment. “You give me so much. Everything—your words, your knowledge, your warmth, your company. I’ve discovered the existence of new realities through you. And I want to give something back to you. Not—to bind you to me, or to tie you to me, or anything like that. I just. Want to.”

considers for a moment, then slides up behind Salme and wraps his arms around her waist. “I see. Well. I suppose I could put a bit of effort into thinking up something.”

leans back into him for a moment, before trying to pull away. “No. You don’t have to—if it’s just thinking up something for my sake that’s. I don’t know that that’s any better, really?”

: “…That makes sense.”

: “I’m probably getting too in my head about it anyway. Overthinking it. That sort of thing.”

: “We do have that in common, huh?”

: “I thought we established that. Well. For a few glorious days I was operating on pure giddy instinct but that didn’t last.”

: “You commented on how I don’t stop, but I feel like I do have to work really hard. To keep up with you, and with Awa, and … everyone else really. And I love it, I do. It’s fun and it’s exciting, but I’m often reminded of the fact that … I do have to work really hard.”

: “Honestly?”

: “To my eyes, it seems as though everything you do comes naturally.”

stares at him for a long, long moment, and then says, voice completely devoid of emotion, “what?”

: “Really. All the running around constantly, doing a million little things, keeping tabs on everyone… doesn’t look like something you’re struggling with…?”

: “Now if we’re talking EMOTIONALLY, that’s obviously a different story. But. You’re probably still doing laps around both me and Awa there regardless.”

: “Oh. I mean. I think being nosy or clingy or emotional, those things do come … naturally. And I’m reasonably good at channeling them into action. But … hm.”

: “You know, in the story of the Odyssey, his wife? Penelope, the weaver? And while he travels the world and falls in love a million times and sees things strange and wondrous and comes back a changed man, she sits at home and weaves and unweaves the same funeral shroud for ten years? And it’s very clever of her. She’s very loyal and good. I hated that part of the story.”

: “Mmm.”

: “I want to make a home for us. I want to keep you safe. I want to care for you. But I also want to travel the stars, and unwind all the strange, bizarre secrets of our worlds. Maybe, in some ways, I want to inspire the same kind of wonder in you that you do in me.”

shrugs. “It’s not something that needs solved, maybe it can’t be solved.” And she grins at him. “And beating me in the Rite did make you happy, so there’s that.”

: “Hmm. I mean, yeah. Yeah. That seems like the sort of thing that’ll just… work itself out, the more time we spend together.”

: “You are continuously surprising me in how much more interesting you are than I had initially given you credit for, for what it’s worth though. Which is. Maybe not quite what you want, but maybe not as far away as you’d thought either.”

stares at him for a long moment, and then laughs, and then seems to realize a new layer in what he’s said, and laughs harder. “Aureliues, Second of His Name, what,” she says, trying to catch her breath but giggling instead, “the fuck? Kind of.” Nope, she’s lost it and is laughing again.

: “Really thought I slipped that one past you, not gunna lie.”

lets her laughter run out, and takes a few, shaky, stabilizing breaths, and says, “You did? Give me some fucking credit, asshole.” She’s grinning. “Salme, you’re not as boring and stupid as I initially thought you were. Oh Light. You’re hopeless.”

: “Okay, but you’re laughing and in a better mood now so I think it worked???”

: “Also you waited until NOW to say anything!”

: “Waited until now to say anything in what way?” she says, frowning at him.

: “Comment on the whole preamble thing.”

: “The preamble?”

: “‘Aurelius, Second of His Name’ etc.”

: “Oh. Well. I do have a pretty sharp memory? Sometimes I’m even patient and can bide my time about it.”

: “Sneaky.”

: “Part of me wants to ask you in what ways I’ve proven myself more interesting than you previously thought, though I’m not sure if my ego could take it, and part of me wants to ask what you meant by that, though I’m sure you’d enjoy cleverly explaining it a little too much.”

: “Got you between a rock and a hard place.”

: “Hm. No. I want an answer to the first. Tell me?”

: “Hmm. Well.”

: “…Honestly it’s about what you probably suspect. You playing your role was… hmm… stiff? And…”

: “…It’s been so long really. I distinctly remember thinking we weren’t going to get along very well, at least.”

: “And now I won’t leave you alone.” She goes over and retrieves her jacket. “The Sword-Saint role isn’t meant to be approachable. She’s … meant to keep people at a distance. To keep me from thinking someone’s admiration for the Sword-Saint of Almachadta meant admiration for me.”

refastens her jacket across her shoulders and then sits on the bench. “I’m glad, I guess, that we do get along?”

: “I am too.”

: “So, Aurelius, Second of His Name, what’s the story there?”

: “I’m the second guy I know of to use this name.”

: “That’s it?”

: “Jorule chose it very deliberately, as a joke.”

: “It's very meta you wouldn't understand.“

: “Hmm.” She reaches back behind her, gripping the edge of the bench and stretches her legs out in front of her. “And you chose to acknowledge it, formally, in the Rite? Second of His Name?”

: “Sometimes I just let the pomp and circumstance take over, like a man possessed.” He shrugs, helplessly.

: “I mean you literally are possessed, so that kind of checks out?”

: “Hah.”

: “Does it bother you? The name being chosen as a joke? You said names are important to you. Or Jorule said that? Or Annarr?” Briefly massages her temple. “Light, trying to unpack whatever was happening before—Light, I don’t know when—is exhausting.”

: “Hmm…” He pats her on the head. “…There might be a world in which it does but… honestly, I don’t think it does? It may have been picked as a stupid joke… but it did mean no one was calling me Annarr, and so… well, it became me instead?”

laughs. “Yeah. The whole thing is … the series of accidents and weird choices that led to this pretty miraculous, you know? Can’t even be angry at the Scorpion Queen for shattering Annarr into a thousand pieces because the end result is, well,” she looks up at him, “you.”

: “Wait is that why you wanted to fight her?”

laughs.

: “I wanted to kill her, not fight her, but yes,” she says, straightening up and enunciating her words primly.

: “I thought she hurt you.”

considers for a moment, tilting his head to one side and he continue to pat her head. “…She spoke a secret, hidden truth that no one else in the world knew until that moment. Kind of like your Mask, I guess.”

: “My song isn’t about how much it fucked me up,” she retorts, still prim.

: “And I chose this.”

: “I mean, fair.”

: “Fair.”

: “But honestly she’s really not that bad.”

: “I know,” she says, frustrated. “Unua said the same thing. Jorule said the same thing, which I’m trying not to think about. And again, it’d be ridiculous for me to go out for revenge when she’s partially responsible for—“ cuts herself off.

: “Actually,” she says, “would that make her your mother? If her breaking Annarr was. And then Jorule’s your—oh Light, that’s.”

laughs. “Family dynamics are so stupid, but imagining them as your parents is pretty funny.”

: “Dude, Gross. Not even when she was Alice.“

: “…Huh.”

: “I didn’t know,” she says, giggling, “when I made such a bad first impression on Jorule,” still giggling, “I was disappointing my future father-in-law.”

shoves the side of her hand in her mouth to stem the giggles, which are actually pretty unbecoming of her.

: “Liked that one so much he’s not even gunna respond to it.” Aurelius laughs with Salme, though.

: “Something has to shut him up,” she says, removing her hand. As if she has any room to talk.

: “I’m not complaining.”

stands up and stretches. “I did want to ask … and. You can tell me to sink the thought, but. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand how you feel and relate to Jorule but.” Looks at him, “am I too callous when I talk about Annarr? Or. Hm. It’s his body and his history. And as much as the future matters more than the past, and as much as he’s a part of you, you’re not him. And.” She frowns. “I guess I want to make sure I’m getting it right.”

turns his head to glance out at the ocean, hand still gently petting at Salme’s head, but slower now. “I think that’s going to be a very difficult question to answer until we get to the Beast, and have to reckon with the people that knew him before.”

: “…Not looking forward to it, honestly.”

reaches up to take his hand and brings his knuckles to her lips, kissing each one. “I had wondered,” she says, softly. She looks up at him. “I’ll help you tell that story in whatever way you need.”

turns back with a nod. “I’ll be glad for it.”

looks out at the sea, and gently tugs him back toward the railing. “Can I stay with you while you look thoughtfully out to sea?”

: “Of course.”

leans into him and watches the waves crash, and is even quiet most of the time.