expiationlogs | A flame to guide the way (open log)

Entry tags:

umineko wtc: ange ushiromiya

A flame to guide the way (open log)

Who: William and anyone
Where: The Church of Many Faiths/near the forest close to Aldrip for firewood
What: William offering shelter from the cold
Warnings: None

If you need shelter, please feel free to come by the church. There are blankets and bedding in the communal area.

And to our newcomers: if you would like a place to make offerings to your god or gods, you're welcome to make a small shrine or something here. I would like this church to be somewhere we can freely share our faiths.

William spends most of the blackout in the church he has taken care of since late last year. It's a humble place, as one would expect, made cosy by the light of a few candles during this bleak blackout. In the aforementioned communal space, he has taken the trouble to create small firepits for people to gather around and huddle by or sleep near. Food is a little more difficult as he doesn't have the capital he does back home. However, he tries to at least offer some kind of soup - simple to make and easy to portion out to a large number of people. Donations are always welcome.

When not at the church, William can be found outside gathering wood for fire. He doesn't seem to care if the wood he picks up is wet or iced over.

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[ Marianne had come to the Church of Many Faiths to pray. In Fódlan the goddess had watched over all, but the natives here believed in different gods. Feeling terribly out of place, for many moons Marianne had said her prayers in private, ever devout to the goddess who she hoped could still hear her. While the idea of a church embracing all faiths felt strange to her, since learning William founded it, she had started coming by tentatively, grateful for a place to worship.

Eyes closed and head bowed, she prays for the well-being of the Chosen and the natives. She prays for peace to return to the land. She prays for the safety of her friends back home, caught in a terrible war. Marianne stands in silence and contemplation when she is finished, turning around only at the sound of William entering with firewood. ]

Ah, hello, William. I hope you've been fairing well.

[ He nods back cheerfully, not looking the least bit concerned about the large, heavy-looking pile of wood in his arms. ]

Hello, Marianne! Honestly, this is not much different to winters back home.

[ He carefully kneels and sets the wood down near one of the fire pits. Then begins arranging them in such a way that they dry from the heat of the fire without being consumed as fuel. ]

Technology is nice and all but it does mean people are helpless when it fails.

[ That's a heavy pile of firewood, sir. ]

Could I help you with anything?

[ She offers as she watches him work. It must be hard work keeping the church open in these tough times, but that's when it's needed the most. ]

My home was much the same. We relied on firewood and furs to keep warm.

Help me stack some near the other fires? We need to dry them out as soon as possible.

[ He works quickly and efficiently. There's no need to rush of course but it's best to have the wood on hand in case anything else happens. ]

What brings you here? Anything troubling you?

Yes, of course.

[ Marianne rolls up her sleeves and takes a bundle of wood into her hands. She adjusts the weight of it in her arms as she thinks of how to answer him. A tender and anxious heart, she doesn't know what it's like to not feel troubled, but she's gained faith in the future and determination to overcome the trials thrown at them. ]

I wanted to say my prayers to the goddess. Not because I think we can't weather this darkness, but to ask her to watch over us as we do.

[ He nods in understanding as he arranges his own small pile of wood. ]

Growing up, I gained an appreciation for the strength faith can give a person. I watched my mother pray daily to the Earth Mother, Mater, for bread to feed me as a child. She would pray even though Mater's flames scoured her for becoming one of Stagnate's undead.

[ He chuckles sheepishly. ]

I tried to save her from burning the first time I saw her praying. I nearly lost my hands trying to pull her away.

[ Her eyes widen in alarm at William's story and she forgets to reach for the next piece of wood. Marianne has never heard of the goddess punishing anyone for the act of praying. Sothis only cast her pillars of light onto the corrupt. Why would the Earth Mother treat a faithful so cruelly? Had she misunderstood something? ]

She sounds like a good woman. May I ask why the Earth Mother would do such a thing?

It's a bit of a long story... I don't want to keep you if you have other places to be.

[ He smiles sheepishly. He's willing to explain if she wants to listen though. ]

The short answer is that when Mary - my mother - joined the undead, it meant she would have given up Mater's protection for Stagnate's.

Not at all. I have time.

[ If she wasn't here, the rest of her day would probably be spent sorting the storehouses and delivering supplies to those in need. By helping William, it achieves much the same thing. ]

I take it she had some reason to pledge herself to- to this undead.

Well...

[ He settles on the floor cross-legged. Best to be comfortable while he tells the story. ]

Two hundred years before I was born, there was a war between humans and someone called the High King. The High King was the supreme leader of demonkind and led them in a war against the people of Southmark. Mary, one of Mater's beloved priestesses, along with the warrior Blood and the wandering sage, Gus, were the ones who devised a strategy that they hoped would defeat the High King and his armies.

They couldn't defeat him but they succeeded in sealing the High King at great cost: the army which had followed them perished in the fight against the demonic horde, leaving Mary, Blood, and Gus to face the remainder alone. It was then that Stagnate appeared before them and offered them a deal: he would turn the three and all the surrounding demons into undead creatures. That would put an end to the war and allow them to watch over the High King's seal until they found a way to defeat him permanently. In return, once they lost their attachment to their duty, Stagnate would take their souls and make them generals of his own army.

[ His smile is melancholic. ] They agreed to Stagnate's proposal. They didn't have a choice. Mary became a mummy; Blood became a skeleton; and Gus became a ghost. For two hundred years, they watched over the seal of the High King, unable to travel beyond the city where they made their final stand.

[ Marianne smoothes her dress and also settles down, legs to one side and hands folded in front of her. Her expression grows somber as she listens to his story, a faraway tale of selfless heroes, dark and strange magic, and the horrific choice to become undying. She can't imagine how difficult it must have been. ]

How brave of them. Your mother sacrificed so much to protect the people.

[ He nods - he's no bard like Bee is. He hopes his story-telling is adequate in her absence. ]

About seventeen years ago, they found an infant. Some demons had come to try and offer it as a sacrifice to undo the High King's seal. Mary, Blood, and Gus managed to easily defeat them but they were unsure what to do with the child they'd found. After some argument, they decided to raise him.

That was when Mary began to pray to the Earth Mother again, every day, for bread to feed their new child. Every day, she invited Mater's flames to admonish her and she endured them without complaint for the child's sake. For my sake.

[ He tugs off one of the gloves he usually wears, showing his bare hand to Marianne. There are terrible burn scars there. Old and naturally healed. ]

Gus could have healed them properly but I chose to keep these scars as a reminder of the sacrifice Mary made for me, as the mother who raised me.

And...as it turned out, Mater never had abandoned Mary. When Stagnate tried to come for her soul and Blood's, she intervened at the last possible moment and gave me the opening I needed to banish their Echo. That let Gracefeel take them with her to their next lives.

[ A gross simplification of the battle which took place, really, but this isn't about him. ]

Edited 2024-03-29 09:53 (UTC)

That infant was you.

[ Marianne says in a hushed whisper, letting the story sink in. The sight of William's hands marred with scars would have saddened her, but knowing that he chose to bear them willingly, knowing that the marks are proof of his mother's love for him, makes her think differently of the old wounds. ]

I'm glad your goddess was merciful. May your mother and her friends rest easy.

[ Her own hands come together as she says a quick prayer for their departed souls. She hopes they are at peace. They deserve it after all they'd endured. Marianne raises her head to look at William. ]

You must have faced much as a child.

I definitely wasn't expecting to face off against an Echo of a god on my fifteenth birthday.

[ He smiles wryly. All those hopes and dreams he had as a boy about to become a man. Mary and Blood will never see any family he does eventually have. Gus still has a few years left before the High King's seal needs attending to again. Yet, William would not have it any other way. ]

My family prepared me well. I'm strong, I'm self-sufficient, and I have a purpose. I have no regrets.

You're incredible, William. Hehe, it must run in the family.

[ She has seen the things he's done for Aldrip. Bringing people together to defend against the monster, establishing a church that accepted all faiths, he is a leader and protector as brave as the heroes in his story. She has no doubt he's done much for his people back home as well. ]

[ He looks embarrassed by her praise. It's nothing he really wants to boast about - Bee celebrates his heroics plenty enough already. Get too overconfident and he'll quickly become a dead paladin. ]

Thanks, but I'm just making sure I live a life that I can look back at and be proud of, that's all.

Ange has to think about whether to do this or not a few times - talking herself out of it, and then right back into it, and then back out of it all over again.

It means she isn't there on the first day after William's offer, but she does show up the second day in. She glances into the church to see if he's there, and the moment she spots William, she moves over to him, seemingly ignoring any people who might have been taking shelter there already.

"Hey." Apparently that's all the greeting he gets, because Ange already moves into the next part before she gives him a chance to say anything in return.. As business-like as ever.. "Do you need more light sources in here for the people taking shelter? I imagine the candles won't last forever, especially if this blackout is going to last a while."

He doesn't even get to greet her. He's about to - his mouth starts to open to say hello - because despite their disagreement over demons, he does not think her a bad person.

The offer still surprises him though.

"I wouldn't say no to more. I should have prepared some items with Words inscribed on them but I didn't have time between the monster attack and rebuilding afterwards."

"My magic works a little bit quicker than that. I just can't promise it'll stick around forever-- I feel like they'll probably disappear when I sleep, since I can't consciously cast my magic at the same time," she explains.

.. though the girl pauses as she takes a few steps more into the building, glancing around her.

"Unless magic is prohibited here, I guess." It is a religious building, after all, and William seems to be a little bit more uptight about these sorts of things than most people Ange has come across in the past. She has no idea what he feels about this.

"No, it's not prohibited. As long as no-one else is harmed, it's fine," he assures her.

Which is more a standard of decency rather than a particular bias for or against any particular magic. He will gesture towards one of the fires, inviting her to sit.

"If it only works while you're awake though, won't that mean you have to be nearby all the time?" he asks, concerned. "I don't want to force you to stay here if that's the case."

Well, that caveat is easy enough to deal with. Ange knows that her butterflies are absolutely the most harmless piece of magic possible, so there's no way anyone could get hurt. Not even if someone would be dumb enough to try and mess with the butterflies.

"No, a lack of proximity should be fine," Ange says, speaking up as she's moving to sit down.

Her tone is a little thoughtful, like she's thinking all of this through even as she's speaking about it.

"The sleeping problem has more to do with my mind shutting down. You know, the way it does when you sleep. As long as I'm awake and out there, my magic should persist."

"So during the day then. That will help save some of the candles."

Although the fires are doing that well enough too. William has to make sure the room remains ventilated however.

"That's probably for the best actually. As much as I wish we had some kind of central heating, there are still ways to keep warm at night. I'd be grateful for your help."

He'll just have to hang curtains around the doorways, ones that hang well down and drape across the floor.

"W-Well, I--"

The moment he says the h-e-l-p word at the end there, Ange immediately looks a little more awkward. The bridge of her nose starts to wrinkle a little bit, like she's scrunching it into a pout. Even though she's not pouting. C-Clearly not, it's not a pout, it's a very dignified look, thank you very much--

"Don't.. Don't misunderstand, you know?" She folds her arms across her chest, somewhere between aggressive and defensive. "It's not like I'm going out of my way to help or anything!"

Imagine being perceived as nice or helpful. She's allergic to it.

"It's just that I have to stay on good terms with you since you offered to help out with the entire demons problem and all!"

He's briefly taken aback by her response. But the next moment, he starts laughing. Even in a strange land, far removed from Japan, people like her exist.

"Of course, of course. Consider it a trade then if that makes you feel better."

Very much cheered up by this, he reaches for one of the few candelabras nearby and starts tracing foreign script with a fingertip. When he's done, the metal glows with a gentle, blueish glow.

"So you can do magic besides summoning demons? How does it work?"

Darnit, William, she just starts feeling even more flustered when you laugh about it like that! At least she can tell it's not a laugh born out of malice, since Ange has heard the latter often enough to be able to tell the difference, but it doesn't help her embarrassment all the same.

Maybe it's why she looks away, unable to look at him in this moment. Which, in turn, means that she completely misses what he's doing with that candelabra in favour of studying a seemingly very interesting spot on the wall.

(There's nothing there.)

"It's.. complicated," she says. Despite the pout still audible in her voice, she's being serious, rather than not wanting to explain out of some sort of petulance. "Where I come from, magic is really different depending on the person using it. I'm still trying to learn anything more than summoning demons, but since the butterflies are more just a side-effect of my magic, I can make those appear without any trouble. They always show up when I use my magic, regardless of what I'm doing."

"I see. That's pretty cool," he says, sounding genuinely interested. "So, even though you can't summon demons here, those butterflies still appear? In a way that's a good sign then because it means your magic still works on a fundamental level."

Got to think of the positives here!

"What magic do other people use in your world?"

Look at him being so positive about it. Even though there is a fundamental part of her magic that he disagrees with, he's still bothering to be this.. weirdly nice about it. Ange really doesn't know what to do with it. Thank god that he's asking her a question that she can focus on instead, so she doesn't have to say anything about the rest of what he's saying.

"It's really varied. I know one witch who can make anything happen, as long as there's even the tiniest chance of it being possible. Like making a miracle happen, I mean. And then there's another witch who can endlessly kill and revive people, only to kill them all over again."

... It's not all that great, William. Sorry.

There are two extreme examples being laid out before him and William is caught between amazement and...horror, really. Ange's world sounds so odd.

"I... I see." He wants to ask more about the miracle witch but morbid curiosity prompts him to ask: "Why, um, why does that witch want to revive and kill people endlessly...?"

He's going to regret asking this, isn't he.

"Because she thinks it's fun."

Sorry, William. This is likely the more regrettable answer here, but he did ask, and it's not like Ange is going to lie about this one.. Especially when she has zero reason to even try and defend Beatrice's honour. That's the hussy that stole her big brother from her after having murdered the rest of her entire family on top of it, after all. Screw her.

She'll take any opportunity to talk badly about that witch she can get.

"That's all. She doesn't care about life, nor does she care about people. She just does whatever she thinks is fun, no matter who else gets hurt or worse along the way. That's what most of these witches are like." Granted, it.. might set a bad impression of what Ange is like, given that she's also claiming to be one..

But that's a different case to her.

"...That's horrible."

He did ask and so he can't complain when she gives him a brutally honest answer. It's not as though he hasn't seen his own share of horrors perpetrated by demons against humans. If he were to encounter another human being committing such acts though, he doesn't know if he'd be able to keep a level head.

Someone like the High King, he thinks suddenly. He's incredibly grateful to have not lived through that war.

"You said you're a witch though, didn't you?" he asks carefully.

It might just be the singular time their opinions on this sort of thing overlap. Because Ange isn't offended by his answer at all - she also thinks it's horrible. The witch she's talking about sucks, and Ange would be more than fine with it if someone gave her a taste of her own medicine.

Hence why doesn't comment on that. She just silently agrees. But then William moves on to a question that is obvious, yet one that Ange hadn't quite seen coming all the same, despite what she just said. It makes her pause with surprise for a moment, but then she nods.

"That's right. I guess I'm just different from them since I only became a witch very recently. I feel more like a human than I feel like a witch, honestly."

Not that some humans don't think killing other people is hilarious and fun as well, but.. Ange likes to think she's at least not like that. Not even with the emotionless front she tries to put on a lot of the time.

The way she says that seems odd.

"Do you mean that most witches become witches really young? Or that they somehow...lose their empathy?"

He wonders if this is why she seems to deadpan all the time. Does becoming a witch change a person?

"The latter, I think."

Not that she knows whether the other witches really were human before.. But some of them seem to speak as if they were, once upon a time. Definitely very, very long ago.

"I have no idea how it happens though. Maybe it's just what happens when you grow way older than any person is meant to be. It could be that everything else starts to look insignificant at that age." Judging by her tone though, it sounds more like speculation than like anything Ange knows for sure.

She pauses for a second, and then adds a touch more slowly: "Not that I'm planning on becoming like that."

So apparently the girl doesn't seem the deadpan and relative emotionlessness as anything special or related to it, since she isn't bothering to bring it up.. Or maybe she doesn't notice it herself?

The look he gives her then is deeply empathetic. Even if there's no clear explanation for why witches in her world become the way they do, he thinks it's at least clear that it's beginning to affect her. Maybe she won't ever become someone who enjoys harming others (he hopes not), but will that only last until her apathy wins out? It's easy to justify morally questionable acts when you don't care about the outcome.

"I hope you can remember that," he says gently. "You still have a long life ahead of you. Make sure you surround yourself with people who care about you and can remind you about who you are."

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A flame to guide the way (open log)

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dreamwidthhhhh

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