last_free_city | ITP: Wandering

[Action: Throughout Midgard]

[This was not what she'd expected when she had agreed to come here. If she's honest with herself she isn't sure just what she'd been expecting. The last Saber remembers clearly was being on Camlann Hill, her body in excruciating pain, and then.... it's a haze what the Valkyries had said to her even though she remembers the idea behind it and Hephaestus had been kind enough to answer her questions once she was able to. Saber supposes it might have been the blood loss making her delirious at the time, but she remembers agreeing. She had resolved to live without regrets, right?

So she wanders the city, her damaged armor had been repaired and sent ahead to her apartment while she'd been healing. Excalibur, on the other hand, was returned to her and she used invisible air to fashion a sheath at her waist so that she could carry it with her unseen now that she could no longer summon it out of the ether like before. It was always best to be prepared though she felt naked walking like this without her armor on. Light as it was, getting into it would be a hassle now. And she'd enjoyed being able to skip the chore of tying her armor on and removing it at the end of a battle, but that was a fair price to pay for being human again.

That was another she she knew she'd have to get used to, being human again. Saber had expected to die on that hill not get another chance, a proper chance, at living out her life. Everything about life before felt so distant now. Could she even call herself Saber anymore?

While these thoughts go through her mind she looks through the city to get the best feel for the terrain. If she's truly meant to fight for this place she fully intends to get to know it well. It could very well be her home for years before they managed to make even a dent in their enemies' forces.]

(ooc: Putting this up while I have a moment. Will tag replies to both this and Goku's post once I get home from work later on.)

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[Gawain closed his eyes and lowered his head.]

I had hoped you would be spared such hardships. After all, being beholden to the Throne of Heroes -- or the Earth -- is more a curse than anything.

I know so. [Diarmuid.... Irisviel.... Archer....]

Unlike others I had the option to step down from it. [Just how much has Gawain been through?]

Would you like to discuss this someplace more private? [RE: Not outside in the street.]

...Yes. I think that would be most prudent. Is there a venue you have in mind?

I was on my way to the Palace District. Hephaestus had my armor repaired and sent ahead to an apartment there while I was healing in one of his chambers. Would you care to accompany me?

As you wish, Your Majesty. Lead the way.

[And so they wander through the city sharing small talk along the way. How is Gawain getting along? He looks well. Etc.

Then they get to the Palace District and HOPEY SHITAKE MUSHROOMS IN TARTAR SAUCE, BATMAN! THIS PLACE IN LUXURIOUS. Arturia thinks it's too much, but keeps the comment to herself as they head into the Villa to the apartment she'd been assigned and.... wow. It's like staying with Irisviel at the beginning of the Fourth Grail War all over again. She finds the fridge has some food in it already and finds some juice she offers to Gawain.]

Please, sit. I have a feeling we will be taking a while to catch up with one another.

[Wow. And Gawain had thought that the villa in the Grand Library district was nice. At any rate, once in Saber's apartment, Gawain takes a seat and accepts the juice offered to him.]

Yes. Much has happened during my time as a Heroic Spirit, and I daresay that you can say the same.

Indeed, it has. [She takes a seat across from him. It vaguely reminds her of times they'd chat in private in hers and Guinevere's chambers, as she and her wife had tended to do with the knights on occasion.]

Which Grail War did you participate in, if I may ask?

...Which one?

[Gawain looks momentarily bewildered.]

I cannot answer that question, because I do not know myself. I know there were many before, but no specific number.

I.... see.... [So Rin and Shirou didn't succeed in dismantling it?]

I myself was a member of both the Fourth and Fifth Grail Wars.

Fourth and fifth...so then you must have been part of the wars that occurred on the physical plane. If I may ask, were there only seven teams of Master and Servant?

[That surprises her.]

Yes, both times. Were they not so for you during yours?

It was indeed not so. From the point in time I was summoned, the world had endured a calamity that drained it of all its mana decades prior. The only reason a Holy Grail War existed was because of a crystal acting as a powerful computer deep beneath the lunar surface. Spirit hackers -- the magi of the new world -- would use avatars to insert themselves into an artificial world and summon Servants there. The Holy Grail War there was a tournament permitting the participation of no more than 128 Masters, each partnered with the Servant they had summoned.

[Gawking. That's right. Outright gawking. He's probably only seen her gawk like that once or twice. 128 people for--] For a corrupted Grail that would destroy everything if unleashed?

For -- I beg your pardon?

[You lost him.]

[she quickly composes herself.]

Forgive me, it's--I did not know in the Fourth War, but in the Fifth I discovered the Grail I sought was filled with a mud that would destroy all it touched and would twist the wish of whoever won it so that it would kill all life on the planet. The thought of it continuing on to the point there would be a hundred and twenty-eight people seeking it at once is a horrifying thought.

[Is this the reason the mana disappeared by the time Gawain had been summoned?]

...Then the disappearance of the world's mana at leas offered one positive effect. But this is not the same Holy Grail. The one we did combat for was a part of the Moon Cell. I know not the specifics myself, but the wishes it granted were supposed to take on a different form from the original.

But I had no idea that the Holy Grail was...evil. In fact, it seems utterly nonsensical.

ITP: Wandering

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