Asch the Bloody (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodyashes) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lazybox2020-05-15 10:43 pm
bloodyashes) wrote in lazybox2020-05-15 10:43 pm
soup but it tastes bad
The forest is quiet, and almost trackless - who needs a trail, after all, when the only person who ever passes this way is a single flesh eater, coming and going from the tower in the distance?
(But this story does not begin with Kratos Aurion was a blade.)
It begins, instead, with two blades in a remote forest, the same way another one ended, in the distant past. A blade of justice, and a flesh eater driver, seeking audience with the Aegis who is rumored to reside in the tower. And the story starts, just as the other ended, before they ever reach the tower.
Ether flows through the air - light-aspected, with hints of water and wind - and converges on a point. The crystalline structure doesn't look so different from the trees and underbrush that surround it, save for the fact that it glows white with a brilliance that's visible even in the direct light of the sun.
(The last story began, Van Grants was a blade.)
(It was not a happy story.)
Near the 'roots' of the tree, there is another core crystal to be found. Although it seems broken, it pulses with a dull red glow, indicative of the blade inside being ready (perhaps more than ready) to manifest again. Equally clearly, it has not been disturbed in a very long time - only the glow separates it visually from the natural stones around it, moss and dirt breaking up the too-square outline.
To those who can sense ether, however, it is practically a beacon. And to those who can see the threads of fate...
(This isn't the story of the Aegis. But there's a thread tied here, nonetheless, that hasn't disappeared.)
(But this story does not begin with Kratos Aurion was a blade.)
It begins, instead, with two blades in a remote forest, the same way another one ended, in the distant past. A blade of justice, and a flesh eater driver, seeking audience with the Aegis who is rumored to reside in the tower. And the story starts, just as the other ended, before they ever reach the tower.
Ether flows through the air - light-aspected, with hints of water and wind - and converges on a point. The crystalline structure doesn't look so different from the trees and underbrush that surround it, save for the fact that it glows white with a brilliance that's visible even in the direct light of the sun.
(The last story began, Van Grants was a blade.)
(It was not a happy story.)
Near the 'roots' of the tree, there is another core crystal to be found. Although it seems broken, it pulses with a dull red glow, indicative of the blade inside being ready (perhaps more than ready) to manifest again. Equally clearly, it has not been disturbed in a very long time - only the glow separates it visually from the natural stones around it, moss and dirt breaking up the too-square outline.
To those who can sense ether, however, it is practically a beacon. And to those who can see the threads of fate...
(This isn't the story of the Aegis. But there's a thread tied here, nonetheless, that hasn't disappeared.)
no subject
She pauses for a moment, because she can guess what Jade's thinking of, and... it's not a plan she dislikes, exactly. Any Aegises they created would be as safe as possible, with all of the protectors they'd have. Maybe it's just the knowledge of what it had taken to make Asch, who had technically been a failure, weighing on her. Of course her family would never, but...
Mythra pulls herself back abruptly, realizing she'd gotten lost in thought. "Even if he just helps us figure out how to make more memory chips and get them to blades, that's still something," she says. Not enough, but preventing what happened to Jade from being possible for other blades is something.
no subject
He runs a hand through his hair and looks back the way they came. Really, he's glad he managed to not blunder into that one in front of the Aegis himself. Maybe his intuition would have kept him from asking something stupid, but he can't be sure and isn't going to count on it.
"Let's get going."
no subject
By the time they're almost to Malik's bar (which is home, after all) Jade is just hoping that Asch won't mind how loud the place can get, and that Mythra's siblings will behave themselves. Once they're on the right street, Jade realizes that they have more pressing matters at hand.
Because the door of the bar slams open, and out storms one Aegis.
He stops on the stairs up to the bar, pinching the bridge of his nose like he's got a pounding headache. Following him like a shadow, is a blade that Jade doesn't recognize. Though, from the taste of his ether, he's likely a flesh eater.
"Mithos," the blade says. But by that point, the Aegis, Mithos, has taken note of the approaching party. His head snaps up to glare at them. He groans under his breath.
"Oh great, more of this nonsense."
no subject
He's mostly managed to prepare himself, for a town with multiple flesh eaters just living their lives. He's not prepared for the taste of light ether and blood blowing up in his senses, the answer to the unsettled feeling in his intuition, just before the door slams open.
And oh, no, that's probably what the intuition was trying to warn him about. Unlike the others, Asch has seen, Asch remembers stained glass in a church, the image of a child-sized, blond blade in white -
If he were a more animalistic blade, his ears would definitely be laid back, not at the Aegis himself but at the driver, the flesh eater that he doesn't recognize. But the ether of the Aegis is pure, almost singing, and untainted by blood and so -
At least, whatever else is going on, Van's plans died with him. Asch wrenches his gaze away from the other redhead and focuses it on the Aegis instead.
(He should have asked Ion if there was an appropriate form of address, while he had the chance. Then again, the Aegises weren't actually a part of the church, so this boy wouldn't know the respect he's being given anyway.)
"Aegis Mithos the White," he says, tone sharply formal and the words in a cadence that pings as more than a bit archaic. (Very sharply, given the ether in the air, the ether around him. If it was visible, it would surely be drawn up into sharp points around his head, or at least as sharp a point as you can get with ether of dark or fire.) "You're early, and somehow I get the idea that you didn't beat my companions back here. Would you care to explain exactly what nonsense has so offended you?"
(frozen comment) mithos this wasnt even the problem we wanted you hear to solve
"I--" Mithos starts, apparently caught sufficiently off-guard. It doesn’t last, though, because before long he's scoffing in anger. "Oh, don't act like you don't know! I'm sure you're in on it too!"
"In on what, exactly?" Jade interjects, though he has a feeling he knows what, exactly even before the Aegis opens his mouth.
"Your little human friends thought it'd be funny to create a pair of artificial Aegises like it was nothing." Mithos swipes his hands through the air, furious. Jade sighs very carefully, and wonders whose bright idea was to leave Myyah unsupervised. He doesn't even bother questioning why she did it. Of course she did. She'd been showing much too much interest in those theoreticals of hers. "I don't care how many blades are involved, I refuse to believe humans have anything good planned for any Aegises they create! If their driver had been human, I would have killed him on the spot."
...which means Malik is driving them. Wonderful.
"How can you even trust them?!" Mithos asks, with all the frustration of a blade who's asked this question three times today and hasn't gotten an answer he's satisfied by yet.
(frozen comment) whoops!!!
Coming face-to-face with the Aegis without warning is an explanation for that much, at least.
The... angry, exasperated Aegis, and his driver. Mythra doesn't like that at all. She doesn't move in front of Asch protectively the way she might like to, in response to the emotional bleed and the way his ether goes sharp, but she shifts her position, mock-casually, so that she could be between them if needed. But she lets the others do the talking for the moment (that was always the plan, after all, even if none of them were expecting for it to happen here), until-
"Wait, they what," Mythra says, because - what? It's been months, sure, but their Aegis plans were all theoretical last she'd heard about it. This is incredibly not the time for her to deal with the fact that she has two new siblings (cousins?), though, so she sets that aside with a shake of her head. Aegis or no, she's not about to let anyone badmouth her family.
"They're not like that," she says instead, bristling. "They're - we're trying to fix things for blades. No one here would hurt them!"
(frozen comment) no subject
But he meets Mithos' eyes, still with the expression of a panther who has had his fur rubbed up the wrong way and is pissed off about it. "I've been awake for two weeks out of the last nine hundred years," he says bluntly. "I trust Jade because he helped me when I was in a situation that no blade should have to be in - a situation that you, Aegis, are incapable of experiencing."
He closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. "If they're worthy of Jade's trust, then I'm willing to at least give them a chance." Trust, no, his trust doesn't come easily. Of all the people in this town, perhaps all the people in the world, Jade is the only one still living who has earned even a scrap of it.
"Besides," he adds, cracking a smile that is so, so bitter. "How do you think a newborn Aegis would react to you, when your first interaction with them is killing their driver? That sounds like a good way to get yourself shattered in the long run. Blades who don't forget have terribly long memories, and we hold our grudges deep."
(frozen comment) no subject
“That’s--” the Aegis splutters, glaring Asch down. His expression goes dark, and hands clenching into tight fists. “They would have understood,” he says, cold and distant. “I would have been doing them a favor. If humans had them-- they would have-- If they knew about--”
He can’t quite seem to pin the word down, and he’s clearly distressed. Behind him, his driver whistles a soft, clear note -- perhaps a system they have to keep Mithos grounded -- and Jade makes a guess.
“If it’s the cannons you’re worried about, don’t be. Trust me when I say everyone in that room would die sooner than let an Aegis near one.”
Mithos definitely flinches, but his anger is all bared teeth and disbelief. “Humans always talk big, but they never follow through; why would these be any different!”
“Because I have spent,” (longer than he can remember) “long enough with humans who would sooner step on me to get a job done to tell them apart from the ones who actually care, and these ones care.” Jade smiles, polite as can be. “What about you, Aegis? I’m sure keeping yourself locked in a tower for centuries taught you all you could possibly need to know about the world you live in.”
Mithos bristles. It appears he doesn’t have a comeback; honestly, he looks about ready to just storm away from the conversation entirely.
(frozen comment) no subject
He doesn't like the idea that for the Aegis, this is apparently a high bar. Doesn't like that the Aegis is more of a child than Mythra, nevermind himself or Jade. How exactly anyone found this worthy of worship... Well, they must never have met him.
He folds his arms, instead, posture switching from the low-order anger to something slightly more relaxed (which is probably as relaxed as he ever gets). "I won't sit back and allow any blade to get used by those who don't see them as people first. That applies equally to human, regular blade, flesh eater, or Aegis."
(frozen comment) no subject
The remaining blade on the steps -- isn’t his name Kratos Aurion? Anna would know -- heaves a sigh, watching the Aegis go. Slowly, he makes his way down the steps as well.
“The ideas that your...” he seems to get stuck on the word, “...friends had. About the blade system. They were good. I’ll..." His gaze follows after Mithos. “Maybe I can talk him around.”
He makes to follow, though he moves around the group of them rather than through them, more on Asch’s side than the rest -- though he's still giving the lot of them a considerable berth, more than the polite distance walking past someone.