Mama Knows Best

[sansseraph]

Who: Lailah and YOU
Broadcast: Video; Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva's Hospitality Deck
When: 9/7, after that bull ship went down

[When Lailah wakes up to strange and extremely unfamiliar surroundings, she feels disoriented and confused about everything. However, those feelings take an immediate backseat as she bolts upright with a gasp, hand clutching at her heart. She looks sick and in pain. Her eyes dart around the room frantically as she scrambles to stand up from the cot.

She knows this feeling. She’s sensed it so many times in the people around her, and on a handful of occasions from her own former Shepherds. Paradoxically, this is a sensation that’s entirely new, too. Someone she never in her wildest nightmares thinks she’d ever feel it from....]

Sorey…?

[Her words are a horrified whisper. Lailah feels that she has a pact with Sorey again, a Shepherd and dear friend she hasn’t seen in a long, long time, now. She’s not sure how, but the fire seraph isn’t going to question it for the time being. What’s more important is that she’s sensing it from both Sorey and...Mikleo, but she can’t be certain. Lailah’s sure that one of her Sub Lords has been corrupted, though, and if it’s Mikleo, then...she wonders which one fell first.

Ultimately, it’s not important.

The fire seraph runs out of the room. She sprints down the hall, looking in every door to see if she can find Sorey. He needs her, right now. Lailah’s heels are a constant click-click against the floor as she barely slows down in her search. She goes over every room she can access twice, trying to make sure she hasn’t missed him. Eventually, Lailah returns to her room, scared and worried but not for herself. Her attention is totally on Sorey and what she can only assume is Mikleo. If one falls, then the other will surely follow or die trying in the attempt to help the other.

Then, Lailah notices that there’s some kind of strange device in the room. It might be nothing, but...there’s a chance, however small, that it might be something used to communicate with other people. Even if it’s not, even if nobody will be able to see or hear her, Lailah has to try. She needs to do everything she can for two people who are precious and irreplaceable to her.]

Please, does anyone know where Sorey is?! He has brown hair, green eyes, and wears feather earrings! He’s in trouble and I need to get to him as soon as possible!

[And now she waits. Silent. Praying. Praying to Maotelus and the other Four Lords to please please please keep him safe, keep him able to be purified. Lailah doesn’t want to lose Sorey to malevolence, too. He doesn’t deserve that fate. He doesn’t deserve to die in some unfamiliar world. Neither does Mikleo, though the fire searph fears that it’s too late for the younger seraph. She prays that the other Sub Lords are also safe and well, not wanting to lose them, either.

Please, please, they deserve a kinder fate than this.]

{OOC: please note that she probably won't be seen/heard by normal humans. any questions about it, though, pls PM me!}

Comments

voice, ;~;

[sansseraph]

[Lailah's tilting her head, though Nightingale won't see it.]

I think it's a possibility. After all, it's possible to combine mana, so I don't see how that could be incompatible.

[experiencepoints]

[She is on painkillers and you have now engaged her Nerd Mode. Good job, Lailah.]

Combining mana... Like splitting the cost of a spell? Or, if you're aspecting it, combining two half-formed spells into a new one? Like a doubletech... Well, it wouldn't be as flashy as Sorey and Mikleo's love fusion or whatever it is they do that turns him blonde, but the theory is sound... I've been working on new ways of channeling mana lately, so maybe if separate paths of mana are channeled into a shared object, then...

[She has to think for a moment.]

Okay, whether or not I have to go fight Sorey again, I need to borrow you later, I think I just had a breakthrough. It would just be a half-assed imitation of that waterfall thing those two do, but I think it would be more spammable, since it the burden on mana cost would be halved, and...

[She suddenly stops, mid-ramble.]

... Wait, this isn't helpful to what's going on right now, is it? Um. Wait, I had real plans for this.

[sansseraph]

[Lailah's covering her mouth, trying not to giggle. Nightingale's rambling about magic is cute and refreshing. She can just imagine that there's a certain spark in the young woman's eyes that'll remind her of a certain archaeology pair.]

I'd be happy to help you with experimenting. What I meant was that I can combine one of the three other elements with fire to create a combination of the two. For example, with water, I can utilize steam. Two or more seraphim of the same element would also have a stronger seraphic arte or general control of it.

[Besides, she can't help being curious about the possibilities.]

Oh, Sorey can combine with any seraph who's in a pact with me. We call it armatization.

[experiencepoints]

Right, right, when they go blonde. I thought they were copying my style for a bit there... And don't those shoes of his hurt when they're like that?

[SERIOUSLY WHAT ARE THOSE HEELS]

The pact, though... I remember that. It was my idea to help him before things got this bad, actually- He said he can take a... 'squire'? Uh, another person who can do that, too? Something like that. The idea I had to stop this from happening was, they armatize, shoot me with the purifying thing to make sure I'm not 'malevolent'- which is still a stupid word for this, by the way- and then I make the Squire pact, armatize, and shoot him with it, then break the pact. A loop of purification, basically. That should work in theory, right? Though it's a little late, now...

[sansseraph]

I've never asked him. Although, those might be my fault, since I do wear heels.

[Fear the woman (or man) who can run around a battlefield (sometimes with a bastard sword) in high heels and not trip.]

It's true he can take a Squire. However, creating the pact is beyond him or anyone else who isn't the Prime Lord. Technically, to purify him, you wouldn't need to go so far as armatization, if that's even possible for you. Just being in a pact with me will grant the power of purification.

[experiencepoints]

If I can dungeon run in heels, he can deal with it too, I guess? He seems fine, anyway.

[She shakes her head. Heels are irrelevant, god damn it.]

I see... Okay, it sounds like I should ask you about all the mechanics of this stuff, then. I'm willing to give the pact thing or armatization a shot, anyway? If it'll help them. Is that an option?

[The real flaw in this plan, of course, is that Nightingale's a mage. She can't equip Lailah's sword.]

[sansseraph]

[Lailah pretty much wields it for everyone so it's fine. Probably.]

Right now, I'm afraid that becoming a Squire won't be wise. Sorey's malevolence is bleeding through the pact. Soon, I'll need to sever it in order to prevent myself and Zaveid from having the same fate as Mikleo.

[One dragon's bad enough. Two of them? Especially with one of them about to be shuffled onto a ship? Let's...not have that happen.]

[experiencepoints]

[She nods, temporarily forgetting that Lailah can't actually see her.]

... I don't suppose that would solve some of our problems? No more pact, Sorey's malevolence doesn't make Mikleo a dragon anymore?

[sansseraph]

[It saves Nightingale from seeing the pained look on Lailah's face. She's doing her best to keep it together when all she can do is wait helplessly.]

...Once a seraph becomes a dragon, it's impossible to reverse it. The...the only way to save them at that point is to kill them.

[Mikleo. She's saying this about Mikleo. Never in a million years did the fire seraph think she'd ever have to say that about him. Lailah isn't a stranger to heartbreak, but it doesn't make it any easier to bear.]

[experiencepoints]

[There's a long pause. Nightingale's had her own share of heartbreak, and her own share of awful things, and she's died more times than she likes to think about. She can't let any of that get to her right now- The last thing she needs is to start generating malevolence herself. Maybe even from this distance, it could affect those two...

Focus on the facts, and focus on what she can do. That's what she has to do right now. And those facts point to one very worrying conclusion.]

That, um. That might be a problem, here.

Death doesn't exactly... stick, in these places.

[sansseraph]

[Lailah's frowning on the other line.]

What do you mean?

[experiencepoints]

I mean... Um, okay, there's this thing in my world no one else has ever heard of, but it's called a 'save point'.

[You can probably tell where this is going already.]

And, if you use one, next time you're killed, you just reappear back at the save point, as you were then, but a little weaker. Permanent death isn't really a thing when you get killed. And, I mean, my best friend had a spell to bring people back to life.

And then, in my last interdimensional shithole, we got killed all the time, and people came back- The beings in charge there could resurrect us, it was part of the deal that let them be in charge, I think? I'm still fuzzy on the details, but... I mean, between the two, I have died a lot more than I want to think about, but I'm still here.

[She's babbling again, the recent honesty effect making her slip out a few more details than she otherwise would.]

So, basically... If he dies, the Atroma will bring him back. I think? But whether it's as himself or as a dragon is... Kind of a problem, because I don't think the dragon can fit inside any of these ships. It would be, uh. Cramped. Explosively so.

[sansseraph]

[Ohhhh wow. Lailah's not sure she wants to be part of that world. She can't imagine there being much of a save zone.

It's all guesswork, though, on whether the Atroma will bring Mikleo back, if death is as impermanent as she says. She's not sure how to feel about it, but the seraph supposes that they'll find out soon enough.]

If they do bring him back, one would assume that it would be as a seraph. A dragon is far too dangerous for anyone to handle, perhaps even for them.

[Lailah doesn't want to put too much hope into it, but, at the same time, she doesn't want to say goodbye forever to Mikleo. Certainly not like this.]

Do you recall how long it took for your resurrection?

[experiencepoints]

[Look, she never wants to go anywhere without save points. It's y'all without those that are scary!]

Um, let's see... At home, it was at the conclusion of battle- When the entire party was killed, or when the fight ends, but with enough time for your party to revive you... At the castle, it was whenever the game ended. It could take a bit, but usually it was just healing that took forever. There was two exceptions, but those shouldn't be brought up right now.

[sansseraph]

[Save points are for the weak! You gotta do a no-save run in order to be the BEST.]

Then there's no telling how long it could take if the Atroma truly don't care for death being permanent.

[Lailah has to consider the options available to her. They can either pose the theory to Sorey or keep their silence. Which is the right answer? Or, failing that, which is kinder to him after all is said and done?]

Perhaps it would be best if we keep this from Sorey, after he's purified. Telling him may cause more harm, especially if it turns out to be false.

[experiencepoints]

[SAFETY SAVES ARE A TIME-HONORED TRADITION EVEN IN SPEEDRUNS]

I'm pretty sure he won't believe anything I say for a while, anyway... I stalled as long as I could by lying through my teeth.

If it helps, he's still ridiculously gullible, even like this?