... Isn't it? But I put it on over the gauze starting from this week... it feels like I can reclaim a little bit of lost control.
[ She's trying. ]
Ah, but dire situations like that occurred in L Corp all the time. Having a duel with the chance to save someone was very generous, all things considered.
I think that's a wonderful thing, Yuri. [ to regain that control. temenos is about to say something else, make a joke about her being a gallant knight in shining armor, but the memory void suddenly reopens, and he makes a short, surprised noise, but it's too late. ]
[ however, he doesn't even get time to enjoy it - because one second later, a rift opens up right in front of them, and turns the world to blackness.
... and then, once more, it's cold.
yuri. you find yourself standing in a frigid cold mountain town. you know, instinctively, that you are in stormhail, the bastion of the sacred guard in the winterlands. in front of you is said bastion, a massive cathedral-like structure. however, before you can even really consider much of that, you might notice that there's a large crowd of people standing just outside the front stairs. it's quite the hubbub - people are murmuring and whispering to each other. you can't see anything on eye level through the throng of nervous townspeople.
though, you can hear someone say, "That's one of them from the Sacred Guard, isn't it? How'd this happen?" and another person gasp, then say a soft prayer. the murmurs are confused. scared. sorrowful, and you feel this odd sense of trepidation.
[ Yuri was about to call for his name, but it's too late. She frowns when she sees the crowd of nervous townspeople. She's heard of that term before and that doesn't sound good from seeing their reactions. There's quite the crowd, but Yuri does her best to swerve through the people to try and get into the bastion. If the door is locked, she will try to find another way inside. ]
[ she can try! the door itself appears to be locked.
but, as yuri ascends the stairs, she might notice that the people seem to be... upset? or at least sad. the memory that she finds herself in fuzzes a little, like something's weird here.
the voices continue. "It must've been a monster.... the poor thing."
"Yeah. But, think of it this way - we'd be even more in trouble without them protecting us. He was doing his duty."
[ For Yuri, honor and pride means nothing when you are dead. That's why the frown stays on her face as she continues to ascend the stairs to try and find out what's going on and to find the subject that the people are talking about.
She's aware that this may be Temenos's memory, but she feels like she's not allowed to call out for him. ]
[ from the top down view, she can see what the people below are talking about, and as yuri ascends the stairs, she'll feel this great sense of... trepidation. this feeling that something is wrong. horribly wrong.
when she stops partway up the stairs, she can see from the top, down that there's a person, slumped up against the fence. from this angle, it's a little harder to see, but the urge to look is almost violently overwhelming, and somewhere in there, the memory clicks into place, and suddenly, yuri - yuri? - will realize she (temenos) knows this person.
the body against the stone fence is crick wellsley. he's a member of the sacred guard, yes, but more than that, he is your erstwhile companion. crick, your little lamb. you met him what feels like years ago, now, back in flamechurch - he fought by your side when you confronted the felvarg that killed the pontiff. you met with him by chance in canalbrine, and he threw his whole heart into protecting you, no matter how much you reminded him you didn't need it. he reacted when you teased him so easily, bullied and frowning, but stalwart and true.
crick, your little lamb. crick wellsley, led to the slaughter.
his body is mangled; blood seeps through his white cloak and down into the white snow, down his white, lifeless face. by some miracle of aelfric, at least his eyes are closed.
your stomach does a sudden horrible, unpleasant twist - it's like being slapped in the face. these aren't your emotions, are they, yuri? they're someone else's, and they're visceral. horror, despair, recognition. no, no, no - you have to go to him. you have to go. maybe you can save him, your magic is strong enough, can't you revive him? ]
[ Truly, it's been a long time since she's ever felt this way. Even when Aya died, she wasn't allowed to mourn and had to continue despite everything. These sort of emotions take her by the storm and they flood her mind. It leads her to go fast. Fast. Faster. She can revive him. The idea isn't blasphemous. It's possible. She can do it.
Yuri doesn't even bother going down the stairs properly. In fact, she just leaps off the handrail and she lands wrong, feeling the pressure run through her leg. It's fine. Who cares. She continues going down like this until she reaches Crick and brings out the staff (does she have the staff?) to start casting resurrection magic (how? just do it). ]
[ MY SWEET GIRL first of all the people of stormhail would be shook to see a twink go leaping over a bannister let alone a little redhead.
she lands in front of the body. crick doesn't move - of course he doesn't - and she reaches for her magic. your prayer for plenty was granted to you by aelfric. he chose you himself, spoke to you upon his altar in a way that he has done for no other, granted you his prayer for plenty. you are the most powerful healer in solistia. you have the staff in your hand, but you realize when you get close that its'...
... it's too late.
methodically, almost mechanically, you realize it. crick's cold - his skin is blue, and the rigor mortis is setting in. he has been out here for hours, and your resurrection can only work if it's quick, if you're there when it happens, and you... you weren't there.
(good night, crick. we will continue our investigation on the morrow. last night, you had a heart to heart, and he poured out all of his worries to you. he was so eager to get back to investigating the sacred guard, back to seeking out the truth, no matter how scary it was to question his faith. with you as his guide, he sought righteousness. he told you so.
i want to cleave the wickedness from this world, and be the sword that protects the people. wide eyed, naive. good. so, so good, so good that it almost ached to look at him. )
crick wellsley is dead. the magic does not take, no matter how hard you reach for it. but in your worry, in your rush, you notice he has something clutched tightly in his hand. ]
[ She was too late and feels the surge of emotions. Yuri stays there, crying--would Temenos let her cry? Let himself cry? She's become so attached to some people on the ship and if they died, she knows she would feel similarly to this. She already has. Something makes her reach out to Crick's tight hand. Rigor mortis will make this hard, but she does her best to take whatever is in Crick's hand. ]
[ she's correct - temenos would not allow himself to. can he even? does he even still remember how?
but the memory allows for it. it's cold, the wind frigid on her cheeks, and there's this just awful feeling of loneliness, this heaviness that temenos carries around all the time. the grief, the loss, heavy and untenable, but underneath it flickers the warmth of the sacred flame. like a reminder, calling to you.
you gently uncurl his calloused hand. clutched tightly in crick's fingers is a sheet of paper - it's bloodstained and torn. the writing on the paper simply says
"Surrender yourself not unto silent dusk. For the light shall fade."
you, yuri, have no idea what that means - at least at first. but the instinct takes over a moment later, the sledgehammer realization of temenos coming to an understanding. it's a line from a book. a foul, evil book, one with missing pages. the pages were torn out on purpose - you know this because the pontiff hid one for you to find like a clue seconds before he died, too. you realize that this means that the book was hidden here. that the sacred guard were where the corruption and heresy of the church has been, all along, and crick found it. brilliant, stupid crick, he found it, and it cost him his life.
you're stunned. crick's wrist falls limp in your hand, and your head starts to rush with thoughts, jumbled and panicked and overlaying over loss. where's the rest of the book? how do i find it? and you hear, finally, a voice.
the snap of a soldier - another member of the sacred guard comes storming down the stairs, calling for everyone to move, that this is a murder investigation, and she stops at the foot of the stairs and sneers at you. ]
What are you doing here?
[ your heart begins to pound. if the sacred guard finds this paper - this truth that crick died to uncover, it's over. ]
Does she have a pocket, because she's putting that little paper inside there now, trying to be discreet about it with the pocket turned away from the soldiers. Ohh, Yuri has a strong urge to just blast these soldiers away with a spell. The one Temenos used on the Snow Queen first would have been perfect. No, she doesn't value these soldiers' lives. Sorry, Temenos. She also doesn't like that sneer on his face, but she's endured this kind of thing for so long.
Despite her heart pounding, she tries to think while her other thoughts are racing a million miles an hour. What should she say. What should she say-- ]
... Mourning for this poor fallen soldier. Is that not what priests do?
[ She says in a very "was it not obvious you moron" sort of tone. ]
[ fuck the sacred guard, all my homies hate the sacred guard
yuri is able to safely tuck the page away. the sneering sanctum guard knight doesn't even blink - she just looks down at yuri and rolls her eyes. ]
Yeah? This is an investigation, not a funeral. Don't you have a master to heel to, hound? [ a beat. the sneer gets a little meaner, into a smile. ] Oh wait.
[ you feel this twist somewhere in your gut - annoyance, but it doesn't last. you've never really cared what the sacred guard thought of you, though the blatant disrespect of the pontiff after his death is a subject that deserves your scathing wit, but there's no time, and you're still focused on crick, on the mystery at hand.
there's no time to mourn, you feel. no time to grieve. not yet. not ever. ]
[ Nothing has really changed in the memories that Yuri has experienced so far. There's something about that response that triggers her. Yuri could usually withstand derogatory remarks and whatever else, but only as long as they were aimed at her. To know that all this was said to Temenos, she...
She grips the staff and immediately casts Heavenly Shine because fuck you. You dare disrespect Temenos and the person he looked up to? Bitch. Die.
the sanctum knight absolutely deserves this. yuri's heavenly light is so holy and bright that it erupts through the courtyard, and it consumes everything. the snowy cold, the sanctum knight (who sucks), the townspeople - the very memory itself.
for a moment, she is just standing there, in a bright, lit expanse of nothingness. she watches, as something bright blue flickers in front of her - she can feel it in her chest, too. the truth lies in the flame, doesn't it?
crick - his ghost, this reconstruction, whatever it is - smiles at her. grateful. maybe a little chagrined, but affectionately so.
and then just like that, the memory fades away, the light changing from brilliant white to blue to fading back into the void, and yuri will find herself as herself again, her fingers tingling from the magic, heart warm from the sacred flame. and... maybe just as interesting, she'll find temenos, who is - he's laughing.
of all the times he's had to relive this memory this week, this is the first time he's ever laughed. it's a genuine, happy sound - not at her, either, but rather, it comes with praise. ]
Oh, very good, Yuri, bravo. I wish I had done the same. [ temenos lifts a hand, and wipes an imaginary tear from one eye. hooo. ] All those crows ever do is squawk about.
[ Oh, Crick... Having Temenos's memories at the moment makes her feel extremely fond at seeing him smile with some chagrin, even if it's full of affection. Yuri finds herself back in the void, feeling a warmth in her heart. Then she sees Temenos... laughing. Just as this is the first time he's laughed from reliving the memory, Yuri finds it a surprise that this is the first time that she's seen someone laugh at the aftermath. (Blade doesn't count because he does the insane laughs)
But Yuri is a little happy that Temenos is laughing. ]
[ or, at least, he's very good at hiding it. though yuri has now experienced the depths of his emotions, so, maybe he's not as good at hiding it as he thinks he is? but he does smile, though, and it is warm, so there's that. ]
[ She huffs. Being annoyed at the sacred guards again. What Temenos probably experienced back then was brief and possibly suppressed, but Yuri's like no. We're exploding today. ]
I couldn't stand the guard being like that. That was so unbelievably rude! You didn't deserve to be talked that way!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ She's trying. ]
Ah, but dire situations like that occurred in L Corp all the time. Having a duel with the chance to save someone was very generous, all things considered.
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I think that's a wonderful thing, Yuri. [ to regain that control. temenos is about to say something else, make a joke about her being a gallant knight in shining armor, but the memory void suddenly reopens, and he makes a short, surprised noise, but it's too late. ]
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but, as yuri ascends the stairs, she might notice that the people seem to be... upset? or at least sad. the memory that she finds herself in fuzzes a little, like something's weird here.
the voices continue. "It must've been a monster.... the poor thing."
"Yeah. But, think of it this way - we'd be even more in trouble without them protecting us. He was doing his duty."
"Certainly honorable." ]
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She's aware that this may be Temenos's memory, but she feels like she's not allowed to call out for him. ]
octopath ii spoilers ahoy \o/
when she stops partway up the stairs, she can see from the top, down that there's a person, slumped up against the fence. from this angle, it's a little harder to see, but the urge to look is almost violently overwhelming, and somewhere in there, the memory clicks into place, and suddenly, yuri - yuri? - will realize she (temenos) knows this person.
the body against the stone fence is crick wellsley. he's a member of the sacred guard, yes, but more than that, he is your erstwhile companion. crick, your little lamb. you met him what feels like years ago, now, back in flamechurch - he fought by your side when you confronted the felvarg that killed the pontiff. you met with him by chance in canalbrine, and he threw his whole heart into protecting you, no matter how much you reminded him you didn't need it. he reacted when you teased him so easily, bullied and frowning, but stalwart and true.
crick, your little lamb. crick wellsley, led to the slaughter.
his body is mangled; blood seeps through his white cloak and down into the white snow, down his white, lifeless face. by some miracle of aelfric, at least his eyes are closed.
your stomach does a sudden horrible, unpleasant twist - it's like being slapped in the face. these aren't your emotions, are they, yuri? they're someone else's, and they're visceral. horror, despair, recognition. no, no, no - you have to go to him. you have to go. maybe you can save him, your magic is strong enough, can't you revive him? ]
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Yuri doesn't even bother going down the stairs properly. In fact, she just leaps off the handrail and she lands wrong, feeling the pressure run through her leg. It's fine. Who cares. She continues going down like this until she reaches Crick and brings out the staff (does she have the staff?) to start casting resurrection magic (how? just do it). ]
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she lands in front of the body. crick doesn't move - of course he doesn't - and she reaches for her magic. your prayer for plenty was granted to you by aelfric. he chose you himself, spoke to you upon his altar in a way that he has done for no other, granted you his prayer for plenty. you are the most powerful healer in solistia. you have the staff in your hand, but you realize when you get close that its'...
... it's too late.
methodically, almost mechanically, you realize it. crick's cold - his skin is blue, and the rigor mortis is setting in. he has been out here for hours, and your resurrection can only work if it's quick, if you're there when it happens, and you... you weren't there.
(good night, crick. we will continue our investigation on the morrow. last night, you had a heart to heart, and he poured out all of his worries to you. he was so eager to get back to investigating the sacred guard, back to seeking out the truth, no matter how scary it was to question his faith. with you as his guide, he sought righteousness. he told you so.
i want to cleave the wickedness from this world, and be the sword that protects the people. wide eyed, naive. good. so, so good, so good that it almost ached to look at him. )
crick wellsley is dead. the magic does not take, no matter how hard you reach for it. but in your worry, in your rush, you notice he has something clutched tightly in his hand. ]
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but the memory allows for it. it's cold, the wind frigid on her cheeks, and there's this just awful feeling of loneliness, this heaviness that temenos carries around all the time. the grief, the loss, heavy and untenable, but underneath it flickers the warmth of the sacred flame. like a reminder, calling to you.
you gently uncurl his calloused hand. clutched tightly in crick's fingers is a sheet of paper - it's bloodstained and torn. the writing on the paper simply says
"Surrender yourself not unto silent dusk. For the light shall fade."
you, yuri, have no idea what that means - at least at first. but the instinct takes over a moment later, the sledgehammer realization of temenos coming to an understanding. it's a line from a book. a foul, evil book, one with missing pages. the pages were torn out on purpose - you know this because the pontiff hid one for you to find like a clue seconds before he died, too. you realize that this means that the book was hidden here. that the sacred guard were where the corruption and heresy of the church has been, all along, and crick found it. brilliant, stupid crick, he found it, and it cost him his life.
you're stunned. crick's wrist falls limp in your hand, and your head starts to rush with thoughts, jumbled and panicked and overlaying over loss. where's the rest of the book? how do i find it? and you hear, finally, a voice.
the snap of a soldier - another member of the sacred guard comes storming down the stairs, calling for everyone to move, that this is a murder investigation, and she stops at the foot of the stairs and sneers at you. ]
What are you doing here?
[ your heart begins to pound. if the sacred guard finds this paper - this truth that crick died to uncover, it's over. ]
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Does she have a pocket, because she's putting that little paper inside there now, trying to be discreet about it with the pocket turned away from the soldiers. Ohh, Yuri has a strong urge to just blast these soldiers away with a spell. The one Temenos used on the Snow Queen first would have been perfect. No, she doesn't value these soldiers' lives. Sorry, Temenos. She also doesn't like that sneer on his face, but she's endured this kind of thing for so long.
Despite her heart pounding, she tries to think while her other thoughts are racing a million miles an hour. What should she say. What should she say-- ]
... Mourning for this poor fallen soldier. Is that not what priests do?
[ She says in a very "was it not obvious you moron" sort of tone. ]
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yuri is able to safely tuck the page away. the sneering sanctum guard knight doesn't even blink - she just looks down at yuri and rolls her eyes. ]
Yeah? This is an investigation, not a funeral. Don't you have a master to heel to, hound? [ a beat. the sneer gets a little meaner, into a smile. ] Oh wait.
[ you feel this twist somewhere in your gut - annoyance, but it doesn't last. you've never really cared what the sacred guard thought of you, though the blatant disrespect of the pontiff after his death is a subject that deserves your scathing wit, but there's no time, and you're still focused on crick, on the mystery at hand.
there's no time to mourn, you feel. no time to grieve. not yet. not ever. ]
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She grips the staff and immediately casts Heavenly Shine because fuck you. You dare disrespect Temenos and the person he looked up to? Bitch. Die.
This is not a gag tag. It's for real. ]
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WELL
the sanctum knight absolutely deserves this. yuri's heavenly light is so holy and bright that it erupts through the courtyard, and it consumes everything. the snowy cold, the sanctum knight (who sucks), the townspeople - the very memory itself.
for a moment, she is just standing there, in a bright, lit expanse of nothingness. she watches, as something bright blue flickers in front of her - she can feel it in her chest, too. the truth lies in the flame, doesn't it?
the blue flame flickers, and after a moment, it takes the shape of a person.
crick - his ghost, this reconstruction, whatever it is - smiles at her. grateful. maybe a little chagrined, but affectionately so.
and then just like that, the memory fades away, the light changing from brilliant white to blue to fading back into the void, and yuri will find herself as herself again, her fingers tingling from the magic, heart warm from the sacred flame. and... maybe just as interesting, she'll find temenos, who is - he's laughing.
of all the times he's had to relive this memory this week, this is the first time he's ever laughed. it's a genuine, happy sound - not at her, either, but rather, it comes with praise. ]
Oh, very good, Yuri, bravo. I wish I had done the same. [ temenos lifts a hand, and wipes an imaginary tear from one eye. hooo. ] All those crows ever do is squawk about.
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But Yuri is a little happy that Temenos is laughing. ]
I hope... that seeing it made you feel better.
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[ or, at least, he's very good at hiding it. though yuri has now experienced the depths of his emotions, so, maybe he's not as good at hiding it as he thinks he is? but he does smile, though, and it is warm, so there's that. ]
And, I'm glad you are too.
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I am. I just...
[ She huffs. Being annoyed at the sacred guards again. What Temenos probably experienced back then was brief and possibly suppressed, but Yuri's like no. We're exploding today. ]
I couldn't stand the guard being like that. That was so unbelievably rude! You didn't deserve to be talked that way!