001. out there in the sun | beneath the sky // open post

[clayce]

Take a prompt, take some time, drop in whenever you like.

Comments

[atlas_shrugged]

I thank you equally none the less, sir. It's been easier for them... and for me with them.

[ Why yes it looks familiar. haha ]

[ As Voidsong comes to view, Brigade finds himself in as much awe as he was when he first saw Aidan Clayce's dragon form. He keeps control of his body's reactions, but is very much impressed ] Dang, that's pretty. The dossiers didn't tell me to expect this.

[clayce]

Dossiers rarely ever do justice to anything.

[Wryly, as he's following Brig's gaze. Voidsong never stops being a sight for sore eyes for him, even with his history.]

You are welcome to free run up this base whenever you like, by the way.

[atlas_shrugged]

I know that so very well, sir. [ He thinks on Hikaru and how much asking and listening he had to do elsewhere. Past the files. Past the dossiers ]

Are you a mind-reader, sir? Cause part of me was thinking just that. And kicking away any thoughts of cheating with a pair of Frog Feet boots. [ Brigade stifles a laugh ]

Was this... was this your base in the Fourth World, sir? Where you were Weaponmaster of the Adamantine Arrows?

[clayce]

Yes, it was. I took the position when I was seventeen, and retained it for most of my life.

[He's lifting a hand towards the sky. It isn't too long before two platforms float down. Now he's turning to his companion.]

There's a nice garden further up from here. Shall we?

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brigade's surprised. Father Aidan was... a child soldier? ]

It would be my pleasure to join you, sir. [ He follows suit onto the platform ]

[clayce]

[The platforms, thankfully, move slower on the way up now that they have passengers. There's a palpable energy field, though, ensuring that neither of them was going to plummet to their deaths.

Not that such a thing would be a concern in the first place since Aidan happened to be one of them, but. Well. Formalities.]

I was eventually selected to become the First of Voidsong. The Tower had a different name back then... the name it carries now is the name I gave it, as its Master.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brigade looks out into the horizon, enjoying the view as everything gets smaller and smaller. He's usually watching the ground flying up toward him, not the other way around ]

I guess it's the old American, old Fifth World, values in me, sir, but you seemed so young to have been forced to take to the field as a [ Brig tries to think of what Weaponmaster could've been the equivalent of ] General. You were a child soldier, sir?

[ He wants to ask about the name. He's not quite sure if he should. Renaming tends to be for a purpose ] I'm guessing you wanted to give the Voidsong a fresh start as well, sir? New name, new purpose?

[clayce]

I did. In many ways, it worked. As for me being a child soldier...

[Turning to Brig with another smile.]

In the Fourth World, you were a man the moment you could walk if you were one of the Awakened at birth. There was no real conception of 'child' for people like us. If you could serve, you served. Furthermore, discipline and rigorous training helped us keep our powers in check, and our heads in the game.

I am excited for where all this is going. I have no idea where it's leading. haha.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brigade understands this. He was fighting within his first year of Awakening. At 4 years, he'd already seen and done so much killing. There was a close to never a year of his life he wasn't in combat. He just nods his assent. ]

I guess, I never did think of myself as a child, sir. Though the advent of Hunter schools, and my integration in the Zangyaku culture, has always made me wonder if it's all right to have children training to kill.

kekeke.

[clayce]

[The platforms were landing at their destination now, perching right at the edge of one of the floating islands. This one featured a terraced garden where every mural had a story of the past. The plants growing there were all from the Fourth World, tended carefully by gardeners that Orin had trained personally. One of them happened to be Kaizen Tempesta.

Aidan waited for his companion to step off before continuing his walk.]

I think it is less about training children how to kill, but preparing for the inevitability that they may have to take a life in pursuit of defending their loved ones, or pursuing their cause. Furthermore, to be honest, the definition of 'child' has always been contingent on its historical context and the needs of society.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brig thinks on the history books he's read and admits this is true. There were time periods where being wed below 18 was the norm. That girls (children) were considered old maids if they weren't married before they turned 16. Or periods like the Hellenic Period where Sparta was doing exactly what Zangyaku was doing. Times change. Then they change back. ]

I guess I'm also just thinking about my goddaughter Kathleen, sir. She's training in Balamb, and knowing she's her mother's daughter, I expect she'll choose to take the path of a Hunter. Part of me just isn't quite sure how it feels about that. [ He pauses ] I can't imagine her having to go through the things I have... taking lives... questioning if it was right.

[ His head had been down as he'd stepped off the platform, lost in thought. When he raised his head, he was astonished by the beauty of it all. He catches his jaw from dropping.

So much unique fauna he'd never seen in his entire life. Strange. Different. Evidently from a very different time period.

But still beautiful. Still plant life, no matter how out-of-the-ordinary they seemed. ]

I find it funny sir that looking at the plants kind of drives point your point of historical context. You work in mysterious ways. [ He chuckles a bit.]

The murals, sir, general history? Or yours, Mr. Falner's and Orin's stories?

[clayce]

General history, really, although some murals were made in my honor.

[His voice is a little dry at that point. He's never been comfortable with that sort of thing.]

I am sure that Liandrin has already told you, but... Kathleen will not train as a Keeper of the Vigil unless she wants to.

It wasn't Liandrin diba? Just a headmistress of the school for kiddies?

[atlas_shrugged]

[ He can hear the discomfort in Father Aidan's voice, but he actually would be curious as to those about him. He opts for tact, it's a long day, and he's not really in any rush. Father Aidan is being so kind as to show him around as it is. ]

Mind telling me some of the stories depicted, sir? Those you think I should know [ A fraction of a pause, then he adds with respect in his voice ] or feel comfortable telling me about?

On Kathleen, sir, the headmistress for the children told me that it would be only if she wanted to. And really, I'm worried I already know she will.

Oh, right! Welp, it's natural for Aidan to assume that it was Lia too, come to think of it...

[clayce]

Is that so? [Blinks.] I had thought that Lia would have approached you. Then again, we have all been busy.

[And walking over to one particular mural, where there is a woman with her arms spread out, wearing a dress full of stars and the broken fragments of another world.]

This would be the death of one world, and the start of the next. That woman -- [Pointing at the serene features, the dark outline of wings] -- would be Nyx.

S'alright! I halp The Universe!

[atlas_shrugged]

We were told, sir, by Hikaru that things had been picking up, some time after our [ Brigade can't help but laugh inside his head ] mission in Sta. Cruz. Things only seem to have picked up after Train Day. It's all right, sir, you picked really good people to work Netsach. Kathleen's been having so much fun that sometimes J has to have me pick her up and carry her home.

[ Brig scrutinizes the photo. This is yet another topic that the dossiers offered so little about. ] You beat her, didn't you, sir? You, Inquisitor Falner, Inquisitor Kyriff, and Setsuna Shinta. I read it on the file. But its power reformed as part of the Watcher in the Dark, am I right?

[ Brigade pauses. The magnitude of such a being hadn't passed without his notice, no matter how busy he was at around that time. He'd seen it on the tv. Even hated himself for not being a part of what seemed to him then (and now he knows really was) a battle to save the world ] What was she, sir? The depiction doesn't make her seem evil. More like some abstract, neutral being.

[clayce]

More like the energies from defeating her were absorbed by the Watcher in the Dark. It's a bit difficult to explain.

[His gaze has turned inward, even as he's looking at the mural.]

Nyx is a force of nature, Brig. A natural part of the machine of the universe. All things atrophy, all things eventually end. She is the one who brings that end, and carves out the means for the door to the next world to open.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brig feels the weight in the words. They probably hurt Father Aidan even more since he probably thinks the breaking of the Fourth World was unnatural and too early. ]

Sir, [ He wants to come to the Voidseeker's defense, but thinks better of it. It'd probably just be a discourtesy. Hopefully Aidan could feel his thoughts though. ] If that's the case, sir, why did you all fight her? [ He would though. Fight her. Force of nature, part of nature, or not. The poem used in his creation comes to mind. It's ingrained in him as it was part of what made him. Invictus. He continues what he was about to say anyway. ] If she was meant to do it.

[clayce]

It was too soon. There is a way to tell, really.

[Studying the mural, folding his hands behind his back.]

Every reincarnation of the world is meant to be better than its predecessor. It's almost impossible for its denizens to tell the difference, but... well. Someone like myself can see the cracks. There were only too many before 2012.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ He tries to take in everything Father Aidan says. But there's a disjoint nonetheless in Brig's mind. He brushes it aside first. ]

What caused the cracks, sir? Do we know?

[ No, cracks or no, time or no, Never go gently into that good night. Force of nature, maybe, but if it could be stopped, then couldn't it be said that it wasn't yet time? Brig can't accept the thought of just lying down and having the world end. ]

[clayce]

It's always the result of an inbalance. The Worlds of Light and Darkness are meant to be two sides of the same coin, after all.

[Pauses a moment, and laughs a little.]

It's all very Star Wars, really. George Lucas got that small part right, at least.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ He's not surprised Aidan Clayce watched Star Wars. Everybody has seen that old classic. Would he expect any less of the Voidseeker?

Images of Aidan Clayce in brown Jedi Master robes and a green lightsaber in his hand come to mind. He cracks a joke. ] Well, sir, you can always get an energy sword from Inquisitor Vice and show the world how it should really have been done. [ Images of Father Aidan and Hikaru re-enacting the Battle at Mustafar flash in his head. ]

[ But returns to the conversation after ] Will she come back, sir? I'm guessing she can't be killed, only abated. [ Force of Nature ]

And is there a way to convince her that it isn't time for the Fifth World to go yet? Like restoring the balance and keeping it there. [ His thoughts veer toward keeping the balance. Which would mean, could the Keepers of the Vigil go too far and tip it too far in favor of a certain side? And who defined what the state of balance is ]

[clayce]

[Chuckling at that one, with a rueful shake of his head. The Force jokes were always coming his way these days.

Anyway.]

You fight her in order to convince her. You fix what you can in the world to show her that she is wrong. We did what we could to do both back in 2012, and - thankfully - we succeeded.

[atlas_shrugged]

[ Brigade takes that as a yes. She will come back someday. But he's also relieved at Father Aidan's last statements. You don't just roll over when something says the world should end. You fight. ]

When she comes back, sir, I would like to be there at the forefront. [ How ants can't even comprehend the bigger things occurring around them. And how elephants fail to note that the ants are even there. ] I already missed "World War I". I'm not going to miss "World War II".

[clayce]

I welcome your enthusiasm, Brigade, but we are trying to make sure that she will only come when all of you are already long gone.

[Smiles.]

There are other battles to fight at the moment, as it is.

[atlas_shrugged]

Sometimes, sir, I think my maker was of a Promethean line like the Zeky. He just couldn't die. Maybe I'll be a cockroach like him and last long enough to help you all at the end. [ He's joking about it, but he means it. He doesn't plan to die of anything but his Azoth burning out. He's going to help do heavy lifting as long as he can. ]

Yes, sir. Some I'm sure I'm not privy to yet. But I'll do what I can in the operations I've been assigned to. [ He thinks of TFV and the dossier Chief Eli gave him. He read through it on the same day it was given to him. ]