mayfield_mods: (the end)
Mayfield Mods ([personal profile] mayfield_mods) wrote in [community profile] mayfield_rpg2012-12-02 11:36 pm
Entry tags:

THE END

You've walked for what feels like ages down the highway as a group- all those who chose uncertain freedom over certain death. Within an hour, Mayfield became a distant speck on the horizon before ultimately fading into the hills and trees. The only sign of the place you've escaped is the sky, which remains an eerie brown even after night falls and you've put Mayfield hours behind you.

Try as you might, it's impossible not to imagine that you've been led into a trap. What if this is all part of some new sick game of Johnson's- or even Zemekis'? It certainly wouldn't be the first time. What if the events of the past few months- saving Annie, Gray's "ghost", Zemekis' apparent death -what if it's all been nothing but the latest in a long tradition of Mayfield's-

These thoughts fade when you see the first sunbeam.

This road isn't like the ones before: the roads that looped endlessly into themselves, inevitably leading back to where they began. This road has an end.

Keep walking forward and you'll find yourself in a new town, both similar to Mayfield and utterly unlike it. The buildings here are crude and unfinished- the streets little better than paved paths of dirt. There are no drones here, no hazmats, no one in sight other than you and your companions. But all of these things are nothing more than trivial details, when compared to what you feel the moment you enter its boundaries.

There's power here- you can feel it in your fingertips. Each and every one of you can, from the most godlike seraph to the most ordinary human: power, faint but unmistakable. The power to build a world, and to destroy it. The same power that's been lorded over you for four years... but now, it's yours to command.

You can create a new life here. It isn't the home you remember- the home you remember, after all, was never yours to begin with. For some of you, that's a blessing. For others, it's a hard truth you'll have to live with. But even though you can't go home, with the power you've been given, it might just be possible to bring home to you. Bits and pieces of it- locations you remember, small creatures from your world- no people, though. That's one power Annie decided not to give you.

The place you've found isn't perfect- there will be work, hard work, and pain. The place you've found is your own: there are no overseers here, no Zemekis, no Johnson. The place you've found may not be paradise- but it's the nearest thing you're going to get.

You've found, at last, a better place to live.
captainofthe10th: (Luna Wolf)

Re: ????

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-12-03 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ Instead of charging in with bolter and chainsword, the exhausted copy of the last loyal son of Horus simply stands outside, letting the children in to explore, and hoping against the darkness that there isn't one last cruel revelation for them all. His face is drawn and tired, and he looks unwilling to fight anymore. He has lost everything of who he is, who he was. He's gained a little family, and held true to his oaths and honor. But what now? Perhaps, for him, it is time to process all that has happened into wisdom. And rest at last. His own version of the Emperor's peace. ]

a_clockwork_melody: (For All The World To Know)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-12-03 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
[Someone else has no intention yet of finding out what all the commotion is about. She's more trying to mentally catch her breath. Somehow, they've all escaped and found their way here, to the makings of a new town for them. A wariness in her heart makes her doubt as well whether this is truly the end, but that isn't fully all on her mind right now, as she spots Garviel.

She slowly approaches the man, the same melancholy look on her face as when she first met him.]


... Hello.
captainofthe10th: (Default)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-12-03 06:01 am (UTC)(link)
Aurica. [ His voice is not cold, but it is not warm. It is simply quiet. ]
a_clockwork_melody: (I'm Not That Great Really)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-12-03 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
...I...

[Her breath escapes her, making her utter just a silent simple word. Hearing him utter her name almost makes her shrink away again, the last time they talked being at Mayfield's Church of Salvation. She thought somehow that he wouldn't say her name again, or even address her, after she chewed him out verbally and let everyone else attack him without defense. It'd have been easier that way, she thought, if he didn't react. She could have just said what she wanted to say and then leave him be.

For all that happened though, he still fought for the sake of everyone in the town, and he reached out to her still. Once more, with the loathing of her own self-loathing overriding her negativity, she strives on.]


I wanted to say, thank you. And that I'm sorry.
captainofthe10th: (Knight of Shadows)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-12-03 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
It means little, now. Live your life how you wish it, and I shall consider what to do as I live mine.
a_clockwork_melody: (For All The World To Know)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-12-03 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
. . .

[And when she tries one more time, he says something like that. It's so easy to take what he says badly: That he considers her offerings worthless to him, that he doesn't want anything to do with her, and that he wants her to be leave him alone after all.

She about-faces in a twirl, but stays put, her back to the space marine. If she does feel that way, it doesn't show in her words, a matter-of-fact if rather pointed question.]


So, I can do whatever I want then?
Edited (Third time's the charm!) 2012-12-03 09:07 (UTC)
captainofthe10th: (Luna Wolf)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-12-03 01:16 pm (UTC)(link)
So it would appear.


[ He just stands there, exhausted, still unable to fully parse everything that has happened. ]
a_clockwork_melody: (The Wind Carries My Song)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-12-03 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Aurica's never been good at following social standards, so she doesn't pay heed to her own exhaustion to think that Garviel might need his own space as well. Or well, she does notice, but she's always been selfish in some degree. Was it really selfish, though, to act like someone who reached past everyone's walls to help them, like Lyner?

She raises her head to the sky, her hands tying themselves behind her back, which it itself arches to let her see a better view.]


Then...

[With what she knows now, it's just as well that she can choose to live against how she's been as much as follow it. It really doesn't matter, anymore. This is no longer Mayfield, so they've both left behind their past. She doesn't have to hold herself to that. The question is, what does he have left to hold onto, after everything?

This concern makes the last daughter of Ar Tonelico turn her head to the last son of Horus. She closes her eyes.]


♫ BGM: Voices of Life AE (Lyrics)

Then I'll do my best to honor you. It's the least you deserve. Maybe, in time, I'll get to know you better, to understand you.

[Unconsciously channeling her feelings, her form changes in a flash of light. When it clears, her body is clad in armor and angel wings, her red hairband replaced with a circlet donning its own small wings, her braid enclosed in a white tube with a bell on its end. It's the form she gained when she overcame herself, dared to be more positive, desired to be like that boy in her heart, in purity rather than in lust. Not realizing her change, she continues.]

And maybe, with no more fighting, you'll finally find peace. I'll live my life to help you do that. To help everyone do that.

[She grips tighter onto the fingers of her gauntlets, forcing her to acknowledge her newfound power with reopened eyes. It makes her afraid, but calms her at the same time. She didn't need to check herself to know what happened. Did she deserve this power? Did everyone in the town, if they gained the same thing?

Well, so long as they learned from Zemekis' mistakes, that might not be a problem. That's something else she'll have to keep working at for everyone, too.]


I did the same thing you did, once. I killed someone that had it coming, who was already misshapen and twisted by the power he sought, someone who betrayed me and everyone I knew. That's why I can't be mad at you about it. But, I'll always remember the man you killed, because he was so much like I could have been if I was in control of Mayfield instead. I'll always hold onto his memory, and Lucille, even if no one else will.

[She turns toward the Astartes, her face full of determination and resolve, her own version of hardiness. Her armor shifts with a sound of its own, the bell on her "tail" chiming a sweet sound.]

Maybe we'll never see eye to eye on everything. I'll live with that, but only if I try first. I can't live my life the way I want to if I can't even do that.

[She extends a small hand towards him and thinly smiles, as if asking for a handshake.]

There is no more war, so you may finally rest. Let's try to live in our peace together, Garvi.
greyerrant: (helmet)

[personal profile] greyerrant 2012-12-03 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Memory is all we have sometimes. Thats why the remembrancers were created, and that is why the greatest tragedy of all was their dissolution. As for peace, well...

[ He shrugs his massively armored shoulders. ]

If a library comes, I may lose myself in it for a while. I have a lot to learn, yet.
a_clockwork_melody: (For All The World To Know)

[personal profile] a_clockwork_melody 2012-12-03 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[... Maybe a handshake isn't the sort of thing he does. Fair enough; she retracts it, trying not to feel hurt at him ignoring her hand.]

That might be nice. [She smirks. Reading is certainly something to do to escape from things, from war and to help deal with things. It's something she can see him better as, wielding a book like the depth of talks they once had rather than having to wield his weapons. It brings a relief to her that he is more human than whatever else he represents, a warrior of war or a machine of death.]

Maybe I'll help build or take care of one, or even, [Her eyes glimmer as she goes on,] write a story about what happened here or from what I remember of Ar Ciel. I'm better at making music boxes, though. Songs and music create feelings that words alone can't express.

[Of course, her curiosity gets the best of her, so she interrupts herself.] What is a remembrancer?
Edited 2012-12-03 20:30 (UTC)
captainofthe10th: (Default)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-12-04 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ Loken considers it for a moment, and his voice softens. ]

That is what remembrancers do. They create the stories of the times they witnessed through art.
photonicfighter: (Human Dakki upgrade - Sideeye smile)

1/2

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-12-03 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
[Garviel seems to have the right idea. Let the ones with the most energy see what there is to see in there. Let the techies and the visionaries break the door down. She'll wait and see. There's something else that she needs to concentrate on, besides. Because she can feel something, just a few inches out of her reach...]

Hey...

[Coming up alongside Garviel, Dakki calls to him, smiling softly. She holds her hands up, pink and human, then looks at them.]

I think....

[Then she closes those hands, and closes her eyes. Blue light engulfs her for several long moments, and when it fades....]
Edited 2012-12-03 07:17 (UTC)
photonicfighter: (Default)

2/2

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-12-03 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
[...she's the purple-skinned and white-armored CAST that she ought to be. Sure, it's pockmarked and scarred, showing the signs of all that Mayfield had put her through, but that's just fine with her.

She opens her golden eyes and beams at Garviel.]


...I think we've got something good, here.
captainofthe10th: (It's on!)

[personal profile] captainofthe10th 2012-12-03 01:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps you all do.

[ There's something like a question in his voice, and a tone of sadness. His own creed forces him forever to stand outside of these people, to turn his back. And perhaps to destroy them all again, should the time come. ]

photonicfighter: (Dakki upgrade - headtilt)

[personal profile] photonicfighter 2012-12-07 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
[The brilliance of Dakki's smile dims, and her expression becomes a bit curious. She had never fully understood Garviel. He was admirable and strong and she wished only the best things for him... surely she couldn't be misunderstanding him so profoundly?]

You're part of us too, you know. You lived in Mayfield and went through all of the same things. There has to be a place for you, too, here....