ellipsanet | un: 76 || text

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un: 76 || text

Take this as more a confirmation being made if need be, but—

What does it mean when a Command Seal, or whatever you might call it, vanishes completely without a Spell being used?

[Sure, there'd only been one left out of three, but he was damn sure he hadn't used it. The other two only used when asked- well, the second only used when asked since the first had been to save the guy's life.]

If it makes it any easier to answer, I'm the guy Napoleon calls Grandpere.

[... Still felt as if he already knew the answer, but rather not leave it to just a feeling.]

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Colors and taints so much when looking back, to the point it feels like agony with the few it might not paint with that pain.

I wasn't allowed to be a person, instead had to assume the identity the world forced upon me and just came expected. A sign of hope, until some world leaders were afraid of losing their power for their own crimes; my head the world wanted on a silver platter then.

More so when I have to hunt them down personally, and more names keep coming up when I find those I was after were already taken care of at times. Some of them hid better than others, right under my nose- but I'll get their names eventually, too. Just... not here.

Bent to the whims of a greater power, and it sounds hollow to say how unfair the hand you were dealt was, even when meaning it. That' a lot.

[Different circumstances and worlds, but there was still something there that could be understood. An unfairness that came with the want of just... being happy? Living? Despite all other circumstances, that even memory couldn't be a safe place to at times dwell in.

Strange how he had managed to relax in this world, despite the frustration that lingered with having to put his mission on hold because it wasn't possible to accomplish here.]

My name lives beyond me in museums and history back home, some still use that image as a light of hope.

Sounds like a lot at stake for that, and sounds like a lot of weight in giving it.

Glad to hear there's that much given to you at least. Feel I'm fortunate that no one has been able to learn my name out of my control; yet anyway.

I was part of the first wave to arrive here, good handful of months. 76 was the number I was assigned by the government in an experimental program that enhanced soldiers through various experiments. Not many survived, was part of the lucky number that did despite how close it came to killing me as well. Those that know my number aren't many, and even fewer could link it to my name.

yes it does of course it does but all the same i still wannt to go back eeven if its impossible i want to take some of that happiness bac whatever it takse whaever magic i have to call upon to doit it hurts

[As the messages got longer, her replies do take a decent amount of time to come through- as was painfully evident from how she typed, technology was certainly not her forte. But for all the painfully-jabbing-one-index-finger-at-the-screen typing she was doing- and even as her emotions got the better of her and little slips in her typing creeped in- she wanted to carry on.]

the world has a way of that doesnt it of pulling our fate one way or another of declaring what we should become or who we should be for their own selfish ends until they can tear it down but youre right there is only so much we can really do in this world frustrating though that is that it leaves us stranded yes it it was unfair fate was cruel to the both of us

[It was strangely comforting, for someone else to empathise with her fate. To tell her that it wasn't fair, what had happened to her. In the end...they both were people who had been twisted to the whims of higher powers, and then thrown to the mercy of those who sought a sacrifice.

...Even if Medea did not think she deserved to be happy, or have the chance to just live a peaceful, quiet life, somewhere she could call home with people who cared for her- by the Gods she wanted it so desperately. This world was just...one more step she had to take. One more battle she had to fight. And hope that by the end of it, her goal would be just that little bit closer.]

a light of hope hm that must be strange for you to see now i sometimes wonder if my homeland remembers me with any fondness or hopefully no one will find it out outside of your control it is frustrating at best and invasive at worst youve been here a while then i only arrived a month ago i see that would explain why there are those who would treat it as a warning should they know the truth of what it entailed

[He was fortunate to be raised in the time where texting was as valid as talking, but had the balance of being raised on a farm and having other things to do as he got older to not be raised by a screen. Still, he had a world of patience for this.

For her as he read and digested what was being shared; as he shared in turn.

Someone that could 'listen' and understand really felt like it held a lot of weight- the importance carried with that sort of understanding.]

Some you have to fight to keep- or remember they don't have to be attached to the whole.

Simpler times.

[Not all memories were bad, detached from so much—]

Yeah, the world has that way and such large groups of people having that sway to further that control. Taking fate out of your hands.

Can just make the most of it while we're here. Might be called for a reason, but maybe we can dare to hope for something we want. Even if we gotta fight for it here and there; not a second chance, but a forked path.

Cruel and unfair fate... for the benefit of others.

[Still felt funny to have that weird spark of hope here, how suddenly it was and... strange to notice it. Even now he was more acutely aware of it than usual. Huh.]

Very strange, some place dedicated to the memory of what they wanted me to be. Plastered over walls, in some museum and larger than life statues. Things I never wanted, things they built and shaped to try and make that hope they wanted physical and possessable in other forms.

They made the man they wanted dead a martyr, probably to ease whatever guilt for wanting me dead in the first place.

Wonder that myself at times. I haven't been back to where I was born and raised.

[Too many good memories- why see if that had somehow changed?]

Hope anyone else learning yours is by your own choice. Deserve that much at the very least.

It's given me time to get a feel for things at the most basic. Places to go and listen, watch. Still a lot unknown to deal with.

All the warning they deserve, too. Know exactly what I can do, and how much I can survive having thrown at me to get it done.

Edited 2023-08-11 01:29 (UTC)

[Caster had spoken of bits and pieces of her history before, but very rarely had it gone like this- where the person she spoke to didn't simply sympathise with what she'd been through, but truly seemed to understand the pain that gripped her heart. Someone who had experienced such a thing themselves.

As such...although the topic was heavy, there was a strange lightness in opening up like this.]

it feels like a battle just to hold onto any little piece of happiness we find doesnt it past or present looking back to those simpler times sometimes just makes the ache grow stronger the gods the heroes the kings the masters who command servants or just the masses who can control so much through their numbers alone all of them can twist our fates as they like and then at the end we are left to pick up what pieces are left of us for the benefit of others you for the masses and myself for a hero favoured by the gods

[It wasn't that Medea was thrown to the whims of the populace from the start, no. They were not the ones who had betrayed her. Instead...the hero who had taken her away from all she'd ever known was the one who had, and let the heartless masses condemn her as a witch after he abandoned her to their whims. In a far off country with no one to help her, what else could she have become, after she sought her revenge on him?

...Perhaps the fragments of her story made sense as she let the pain and trauma flow out, perhaps not.]

so strange and hypocritical that they would see to idolise your image in such a way after how they treated you i left myhome a long time ago to folllow that hero on his ridiculous quest i betrayed my homeland for the sake of that wretched man adn i even so ii it wasnt that i didnt wantto go back

[It was that she couldn't.

Questions swirled around in the back of her mind, from time to time...Would Colchis remember their lost Princess with anything other than contempt? Was there any chance that her Homeland would think of her with fondness, or wonder what became of her?

A longer gap for her to compose herself, before she carried on.]

thank you i hope so too if you have any information that might be useful i would appreciate it for my part i have been delving back into potion brewing hopefully that warning would make them leave you be

It does, and some days can feel like it's further away than usual. Others it can sneak up on you, and it's a hell of a thing to get hit by.

Makes it easier to not want to look back with that deep ache, but sometimes it's better to remember despite it. Reasons to keep pushing onward, if nothing else.

[A reason he kept some old pictures still—]

Some don't even realize just how much power they hold to twist fates, and others don't care because they've found their gain in doing it. Others are the pawns of those who know the power and use it for their own, to grow and throw that weight around.

We still pick up and carry those pieces, we are both still someone of whatever is left. Who we are now.

[And he knew that those who once knew him... would more than likely be disappointed, angry, and a mix of the two with so much else. Wouldn't care how he got there, because he wasn't living up to the expectations that carried with them because of what he'd meant to even them.

Better most of them think he was dead, because it wasn't completely wrong in some sense.]

Apparently they still needed what I was made to represent, even after all of that. Hope, and a belief that there are still heroes out there to believe in.

Felt like you couldn't- or shouldn't.

It's easy to be blinded when you think and believe the world of someone, willing to follow wherever they may go. No matter what they do, believing it's for the better. Want so badly to believe it's for the better. That things will turn out okay and you won't be left with a mess you cannot clean up alone

with nothing

[Why he was hunting that man down—]

A lot of it may sound like common things, but-
Try to keep up the touch energy- they forget to tell you tat you've got a chance of turning to stone otherwise. The guild quests are overall something good to keep an eye on, little things have chances to turn into bigger problems, and you never want to go out alone. Hard to find someone you know you can trust, but it's good to remember those when you do, along with being capable in a fight. If you haven't gone to the Amberfall Library yet? Highly recommend, it holds what information is left that wasn't destroyed about this world, and some of the information the guilds have do as well.

Potion brewing may come in more handy here than no, thinking about it.

Hopefully, otherwise I've got enough trouble back where I'm from- but it also sends some I'm looking for right to me.

yes that is an awful lonely heavy feeling its hard to see beyond it but i cant not remember in my case pushing forward is the only chance i have of reclaiming that happiness however much i have to fight and whatever magics i have to call upon that is all i can do keep going as long as i can hold my manifestation together

[She...hated fighting. The Holy Grail War, the Holy Grail itself and the Master-Servant system that allowed others to trample over her will, and hated jumping into worlds such as this one, so far from home- but it was all she had. It was the only way she could ever hope to reclaim her happiness.]

perhaps people only care so far as their voices are heard and so long as they have someone they can point their fingers at i have always said that the naive little girl i once was died the moment the gods twisted her heart but i wonder if part of her is still here somewhere she would be horrified if she could see that she became a witch mired in darkness like myself

[In the last world she'd been in, she saw an illusionary version of her childhood self- an illusion who had said as much. Was...part of that young Princess still sleeping inside her, all this time? Medea had long thought she had disappeared.]

they sought to cling to the symbol of a hero whilst in my world they condemned me as a symbol of the evils they suffered i couldnt go back he promised me everything i was ii was foolish to ever believe a word he said alone and with nothing despite everything after all of it was taken

[She still remembered those painful days at the end of her lifetime, where she wondered the world alone as a true witch-

Medea took a moment to write down the intel he provided into her notebook- that was definitely useful!]

i see thank you finding people to trust with such a thing is difficult isnt it have you been able to find reliable allies i have no intention of making a pact with anyone yet but if you need the support of a servant whilst yours is out of action then you have my number you are welcome to call on my power

[Not a formal pact- he already had a Servant, after all, and Medea was too paranoid to forge one with anyone immediately- but she could at least look out for him in Napoleon's place.]

Even broken memories can be important, no matter how the twisted points may hurt to pull through. Can be stronger, even with the hurt, and carry it through for why you keep going.

Some might call me an old fool if they knew what I was doing, chasing ghosts. Hasn't stopped me, and I can't let anything stop me

Back home I can't, at least. Makes me antsy here, restless.

[But here? He had somehow stumbled and fell into something that felt too good to be true, a few people he felt he could trust. Someone he cared for and cared for him in turn. Reason he wasn't solid ice at the moment, even. Peace he had given up to be what the world needed and wanted him to be.

Even now he didn't know what he did to wind up with it. Despite the restless anxiety... he'd fight to keep it, even with that bit of inner conflict of being here and the need to finish what he set out to do in his world.]

I hate to say it, simply because it means the same might hold true for me, that she may still be there. No matter how much we want to bury it- as if it's better to never face who we once were with who we are now.

I grew up on my family's farm, had a normal life, until a Crisis started that nearly wiped out all of humanity. Met a man in a program that enhanced me that I would have followed to hell and back.

Trusted him with my entire being, and overlooked too much because I believed him when he made a choice to do what he felt was needed. Defended him, acted as a shield

until I couldn't.

He was the last thing I saw before everything literally exploded around us, and I had to drag myself out of the rubble of everything we built together.

[Fear and realization, both had hit him when that bomb went off. Felt the heat and impact of it all.]

Very difficult, especially when there isn't anyone you know and do trust from your world around.

I've found a few; I live with one, and Napoleon is another. He has told me I could probably work with others like him because of my enhancements- be able to keep up and hold my own well enough to not slow them down. I also keep an eye on those who take up quests from the board, watch how they carry themselves and so on.

I appreciate the offer a lot, and in turn once I'm back to my usual I can offer my strength if you might need it.

Even if it's going into some places to help find something hard to get around here, or if you just need a hand to hold for a bit. My company sometimes comes with food since I can cook.

[And he meant it, better to reach out and know there may be a hand waiting. The weight behind her own offer understood.]

we cant afford to stop neither of us can if we dont keep going to achieve our wishes then there will be nothing left that does not make us foolish at least here i feel there are things i can do but it is overwhelming knowing where i should start

[In a way, it felt to her that if she ever stopped trying to fight her way home, the grief would shred her very Spirit Origin to pieces. She was still new to this world, and it would take time for her to build a base and find allies once again. Jack was ahead of her, in that regard.

As for his story...that made her wince, gripping her phone just a little closer as a swell of anger for his experiences rose up in her chest.]

and then you realised what sort of person he truly was im sorry nothing i can say will ease a wound like that when someone you trusted hurts you that deeply i was born the princess of the kingdom of colchis georgia as it is known now i trained in magic under the goddess hecate as her priestess and supported my family as best i was able and i was content with that but one day a greek hero favoured by the goddess aphrodite came to colchis on a quest for personal glory seeking the kingdoms most precious treasure my father refused his demands of course and presented him with impossible challenges to earn it but the goddess would have no such thing for her favoured hero she twisted my heart so that i would fall blindly in love with him so that i would betray my family and my homeland and aid this hero id never met in his wretched quest in turn he swore that should i help him then he would make me his wife when we returned to greece that i would have a home security and happiness at his side i gave up everything for him killed for him murdered my brother for him called on all of my dark magics and curses for him and once he had everything he wanted he tossed me aside insisting he could never make a murderous witch his wife one who wasnt eveen greek no less how could a foreign woman whod committed all that bloodshed possibly find a place in that land if not at his sside but icouldnt return after evertying i hadd done i shouldnever have trusted a wretched cowrd of a man to keep his word to me i burned everything he had and everyone he careed about to the ground and it still wasnt enough

[It was only after Medea had said all of that, that she began to wonder if she should have cut it back a little- or shouldn't have said any of it at all. Jack was someone who seemed to be fighting for the greater good- or, at least, was made to- whilst she...she was just a wretched woman, one who'd viciously betrayed her own family and killed numerous people for the sake of a man she had a deep, supernatural devotion to.

She was known as the Witch of Betrayal, after all.

And it stung to think of how he might react. But perhaps she should be used to it, by now, with the distain and suspicion that was normally afforded to her.

...She was overthinking, she knew it- giving herself cold feet from a lifetime of being treated as some awful witch.]

i only ask if you intend to condemn me efor that you atleast keepp whati have said to yourself

[Medea...probably should take a moment, get her typing back under control and respond to the rest. Even if he were to rescind his offer to support her after all.]

most of the people here from home are my enemies so i suppose for both of us it is a case of finding who we can trust and work well with here i would i would appreciate that

[Should the offer still be open.]

No matter what gets in the way, or sometimes who if they won't help.

Maybe stubborn, though.

Finding something you're good at, close to something you know, and then branching out from there can help a bit at least. Reason I started with quests, know I'm a good combatant and can track things down well enough.

[This... was the other side of a story he had read once, the name being familiar clicking into place as he read along. There were always two sides, and only one ever tended to be what was written down and remembered; history and myth alike.

The situation- even if it took a moment for him to continue his reply—]

I did, and that there were so many more willing to tear it all down and had rotted from the inside. gotten deeper than I thought.

You had choice taken from you, and were manipulated in more ways than one from the very start. The heart can make you do so many things when you are made to think and feel certain ways, capable of causing tragedies around that may not have happened otherwise.

Anger can do just as much, and turn into something dark and ugly- more so when hurt and all of that manipulation is suddenly there and the cause of it all

Because victors are who get to write the story, those will only see that.

I'll keep it locked up, and not going to close off anything on my end. I can understand, the lengths willing to go and the anger with it.

[There was a much bigger picture, and while with his own he narrowed it down, for others... no. Couldn't do that.]

I hope you can find some, trust is.. heavy and fragile after so much. If I can manage a few, you got a chance.

Just a call away, and I mean it about food, too. I'm best with meat dishes, but I know recipes from all over with how I traveled as a younger man and there was time to pick them up.

[That was-

Medea had been bracing herself for judgement. To be shut off out immediately, once he'd had time to read the truth- but that never came. Instead, all that came out once she'd waited long enough for his reply, was the same sincere understanding that Jack had given her this entire time. Understanding of her situation, the renewed offer for support, and the promise to secrecy-

And for the moment, it was all a little overwhelming. The first message coming through just a short one: ]

thank you

[A little time to compose herself later, and she finally took the time to respond to his message properly.]

i think focusing on learning the magic of this and keeping to my potion brewing is perhaps the best approach i can take for the time being after that perhaps look into those quests

[Although her Magecraft was powerful, she was in no hurry to rush into combat quests the way he had.

And once again, as she re-read what he had to say on her legend- she felt that little tremble in her hands. There was an understanding of the fate that had befallen her- one that she cursed, even now.]

And that is why you kept finding more names ? my name was written in legend when i finally took my vengeance on him when i became the witch of betrayal in the truest sense but yes it seems all my life people have exploited me for my magic tossed me aside when they have what they wish i know we cannot fight the whims of the gods should they chose to destroy our lives then there is little we can do you understand if it werent for that i doubt i would ever have become drenched in such dark magics as that

[She rarely took the time to defend herself- as she'd said at the start, there was little point to it when people had already made up their minds about her- but here...just a little slipped out.]

it is difficult but if you have succeeded so far and found trustworthy people here then perhaps i will be able to do the same allies who wont stab me in the back thank you again to tell you the truth my cooking is terrible so that would be most appreciated and do not hesitate to call on me if you need my magecraft or my power as a servant in the meantime

[Perhaps she was being overly cautious in thinking he would be at risk without his Servant- a little hint of the mindset from back home creeping back in- but well, Medea wanted to do what she could for him, all the same.]

[With everything he had seen, even done in all of these years in his own life as it was? They were things he could understand, the lengths gone to when believing wholeheartedly they were done for the right reasons... and how ugly reactions could be when it all finally crumbled.

Even knowing they weren't right, the weight it all seemed to carry for her now. What was turned to- well. He would take the thanks for what it meant, and keep it there.]

Better to get familiar with the magic here is a good thing to focus on. I tend to be more hands on and at this point I'm pretty alright with breathing fire and a few other things- I'm a Summer aligned.

The guild for the Season you're aligned with will have a lot more information on what you can do, and grounds you can practice on to help there. If you join that guild, they will give you access to a room there only you can enter- and only those you give access to it as well. They're pretty convenient.

[He used his for some of the longer quests, and for keeping some gear he didn't mind not being in immediate access that was better to keep in the Summer Guild room of his.]

It is. From other agents to handlers, and too many others. Someone got to a few of them first.

I was either a source of political gain, or political threat depending on the person and the day. Use me, or try to destroy me without coming off a making the attempt. I just wanted to help people, to recover from life as we knew it nearly being destroyed and give the best chance to prosper.

The you others can build up in their heads can be a dangerous thing all on it's own, no matter if they see you as good or bad when they've got a personal agenda.

Doesn't stop us from trying- even if it's just building back up from what's left of that.

There wasn't much, if anything else, for you to do. Similar circumstances, given what I've turned to back home- could have done the same as you.

[Took him a year to get his feet back under him, but the moment that he had Jack had broken into whatever facility he needed to; get the gear he needed, and did what he felt he had to do.]

Might take time, and get frustrating, but I hope someone surprised you- and you find others that will stand by you.

Knew someone who had the same trouble with cooking. Good meal can sometimes do wonders, and I cook in large servings out of habit- so you'll get leftovers to keep here and there. My offer will stand even once he returns, so you know.

I'll keep that well in mind, grateful for it.

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un: 76 || text

They do deserve this indeed ᓚᘏᗢ

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tw fratricide/arson

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