Day without a Night | The Midsummer Ball

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Characters: Everyone
Date: August 21st
Location: Courtyard of Public Opinion
Situation: The Midsummer Ball and a Solar Eclipse
Warnings/Rating: None


"Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear."
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Comments

[simulsimul]

"I know." Both as the target, and as the perpetrator. He'd been an inferior being among the angels for a significant period of time; and between Anna's death and his discovering Lloyd, he had been no better than lifeless himself. "My lifelessness isn't anything to do with a lack of soul."

He shakes his head a little, as if to derail from that topic. "Yes, usually after death. People can live on for a time, in a crystal; but inevitably the imprint fades and they're slowly lost. It can seem as though they're real, as though they're -- the person they were. I don't know where the difference is, in truth."

He'd tried not to think about it much.

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"I'm not sure what you mean by 'lifeless'," Valdis commented, but since he'd answered her question about the crystals as well as he could, it seemed that no one really knew how they worked.

Valdis glanced around the ballroom, noting several of her officers moving to cover as they were supposed to. At least the majority of them were good at their jobs.

"From what you describe, it's possible that the crystal acts more like...a prison and less like a parasite," she replied, "That is, if it has no personality or action of its own without a host. This prison might hold the soul for a time after death and that is what you would call the imprint. It could actually be the essence of the person and not just an image of them...if that makes sense."

She wasn't sure it did, but the theory was interesting.

[simulsimul]

"It makes sense." But it's thoughtful, the way he says it. "I've ... wondered. When angels were made lifeless, they became like puppets. Empty. No emotion, no empathy, no hatred ... obedient. It had often seemed to me that their emotions had been locked away."

But he'd never thought on it. He'd never dared; the angels had been made lifeless after he left Cruxis, and by the time he went back he'd been in no condition to think for himself. Even if that hadn't been because of the crystal.

"But people can become lifeless without a crystal." If it's the same way it had happened to him: complete emotional shutdown. "I don't think ... it's something they do on purpose."

He's not sure why he thinks that; but it's always been people who pushed the stones on others, on themselves. If there's anything the crystals are doing, it's not because they're malicious. The mere existence of them seems to bring out the worst in people, but that's no more than an unguarded sword might cause an injury.

... Isn't it?

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Kratos seemed to understand what she was saying, which was a relief since she wasn't sure she fully understood what it was they were discussing.

"Obedient?" She asked, "I suppose that would make sense, without any self, there wouldn't be any will."

Valdis looked around again, this conversation was a bit heavy for the current atmosphere.

"I'd like to continue this conversation," she said, "But I'm not sure this is the proper venue. Perhaps there will be another time and place to continue it?"

[simulsimul]

It's a little abrupt, but Kratos can recognise a dismissal; and surely she has better things to do, for such an event as this. He inclines his head instead.

"Very well. I shall ... keep an eye on things." It's not his job, and certainly enough of her people aren't taking advantage -- but he wouldn't have been able to not even if he tried.