UN: ScielCandide | Video

[cache_coeur]

[The camera is fixed on a table, upon which sits a neat stack of cards –– black with gold foil in the shape of a sun and moon bisecting each other. The user’s hands pass over the deck and spreads it wide into an arc. Her hands are tanned, with two rings on her ring finger and one on her index finger, and she has so many colourful braided bracelets that some wind around her palm.

Her voice is pleasant, playful, French, a little theatrical:]

Bonsoir, mes amies!

Tonight and tonight only, I will tell your fortune with a single card. Tell me your name, and if you would like to hear about love, money, health or the soul.

If it moves you, you must repay me with an amusing anecdote about yourself.

Ready to play?

Comments

[quibblingfunctionary]

[Sleipnir considers this, considers how there are things he cannot even rightly put thought to without feeling wrong.]

And have you ever gone against what the cards have told you?

[cache_coeur]

If they suggest I am heading into some sort of danger or at risk of causing myself some discomfort, then of course, I will avoid it best I can. But if the advice is sound and I am simply unwilling to take it, then I only have myself to blame.

[quibblingfunctionary]

[He huffs out a sigh.]

I see you are trying to make a point. Is your card saying I should give myself love and care? I indulge enough as is.

[cache_coeur]

[Lighthearted, relaxed:]

I’m being sincere, actually.

The card only invites you to consider what you need, and care does come in many forms. Maybe that’s indulging in vices, but it could be finding clarity, or facing your true feelings. You can take whatever point you like from that, Sleipnir.

[quibblingfunctionary]

[His voice starts out a shade lighter than haughty, but by the end of the second sentence it's turned more somber.]

Traditional vices are of no interest to me, my lady. Desire is what I indulge in; like any man I am burdened by this need as it levels me into feeling incomplete...

[A sigh.]

Someone I care for... He has freed himself from such base needs and is thusly... unaffected by many things. I miss...

But it is not my place to wish to change him. He serves a higher purpose and is doing what he must and I cannot interfere with such things.

[cache_coeur]

[She pauses for a beat. As far as problems go, desperately wanting to make love to your celibate master is a new one to Sciel, but there’s no sense in being cruel about it.

She invited people to risk a little public vulnerability, after all.]

Mm. And higher purpose aside, it is his right to choose what he does with his life. But it would hurt, just the same.

Do you serve him in other ways?

[quibblingfunctionary]

[While Sleipnir is against the idea that he can be hurt... well. How much he avoids thinking about it should be an indication. Wanting more also feels like a betrayal and so he buries it. Or will again after this call.

He should have known better than to doubt one that reads the cards, especially here where universes collide. Surely the chosen would be the very best and most capable sort.]

I do. In all the ways he calls me to and then still more. It gives me the most pleasure to serve him in the ways he cannot ask for, but yearns for all the same.

[cache_coeur]

[It’s so strange to think about serving an individual like that; she’s spent her entire life ensconced in a community that will continue on without her regardless of what any individual does. What must it be like, to hang your entire being on one person? She can understand the appeal, but…]

Commitment to one person is special. Irreplaceable. But we all need to have an existence that is whole, hmm?

[quibblingfunctionary]

[Her phrasing is strange to Sleipnir. She praises the connection and recognizes how important it can be, but then slides in a dagger of… doubt? Dismissal? Judgement, certainly.

His tone is careful, after all Sleipnir realizes he could be wrong.]

…And you are insinuating my existence is not whole?

[Egi. Inhuman. Soulless. Magic-user. Lesser. Slave. While some of these words may not have been hurled at Sleipnir directly, he holds no doubts on how the larger part of Valisthea would see him.]

[cache_coeur]

[His reaction confuses her. While her tone remains light, there’s a shred of concern there.]

No, of course not. I’m saying that all of us need to live for more than just one person. There are parts of us that are for us alone, and that others don’t need from us.

We don’t butcher a cow and throw away anything that isn’t edible –– we use everything.

[quibblingfunctionary]

[While Sleipnir may not know what a cow is, he thinks he grasps the metaphor. His tone loses the edge it held.]

I do not have anything which I would not share with him. He embraces the whole of me and I do not need to hold back.

[But the tiny part of him, the which wishes to be selfish, to see the man smile again to hear his laugh-

No. He cannot think like this. Besides, this is something else and not what the woman is referring to.

There is a hum of contemplation.]

What of your self do you keep? What is yours alone?

[While it may sound terribly prying he is just looking for an example. Sleipnir genuinely cannot fathom not sharing all that he is with him.]

[cache_coeur]

[Her heart twists. This poor man.

What is hers alone must remain hers alone, but that’s not particularly helpful. So she says, instead:]

Well… a lot of things. And I share them with many people, it just can’t be one singular person or cause. For example… I love my students. They’ve been under my care for so much of their lives, and I would gladly live and die to see them grow up. But if I were to devote myself to their education singularly, the rest of me would die, and I do think I am a better teacher to them because I have dreams and interests and desires outside of the classroom.

[quibblingfunctionary]

[He frowns at the very idea, but holds his argument. Sleipnir would hear the soothsayer out and so listens dutifully.

But still he does not understand.]

I can see how experience would benefit the education of children, by my liege is no child. The only things I have kept from his Majesty are trifles he needs not bother with.

[And by trifles Sleipnir means his own pain, especially when it is raw. His liege need not see that.]

[cache_coeur]

Friend, arranging your whole life around one person and what pleases them will only leave you hurting. You must have other relationships and experiences outside of him, so that you can stand on your own with as much strength as you stand by him.

It would even be good for him –– would he not value your insight if you had experience with something he had never known or seen for himself?

[quibblingfunctionary]

[I promise he is not willfully misunderstanding you.]

A battle is not something concerning to me; I can fight well enough on my own, just as he can. Both our strengths are great; I would say they are the best in all of Valisthea, save perhaps one.

And my aches, should I have them, are minor and ones I will bear willingly.

[cache_coeur]

[Good thing she has infinite patience.]

And if neither of you could ever battle again? Where would that leave you?

[quibblingfunctionary]

Dead and gone—our purposes served. We shall become one with the Almighty and shepherd humanity to paradise. Everything we do is in service to this goal, even in this gaol.

[cache_coeur]

And if you’re unable to battle any longer, but Death still hasn’t claimed you?

[quibblingfunctionary]

[his voice is quiet, thoughtful.]

...It has happened once, with Bahamut...

[Wouldn't that still mean he dead if Odin is taken? His Majesty might live on, but the chances of Sleipnir doing so are not high in the slightest.

At his usual volume:]

I do not think it possible. Our mission hinges on what will result in my death.

[cache_coeur]

[Oh?]

And what is your mission?

[quibblingfunctionary]

[He is quiet a moment, weighing how specific to be. Sleipnir already mentioned shepherding humanity, but that is over-arching.]

We are meant to prepare the vessel, to make him presentable, for the coming of God. The vessel will need the power of Odin for this and I am intrinsically linking to Odin.

[cache_coeur]

And your master’s death, too?

[quibblingfunctionary]

[He is quiet a moment, hesitating.]

...It will likely be the case; few Dominants have survived. Even if he does live—I will not be so lucky.

...So you see? There will not come a time when I am not fighting for my mission until I am dead.

[cache_coeur]

[The silence is delicate, and though Sciel has no earthly idea what it all means, it’s obvious that it’s very stressful to this fellow. Her voice softens a little, too.]

I’d like to understand a little better what these things are, if you ever have the time, but in the meantime –– this sounds like a very big thing to occupy so much of your mind and energies. What do you do when you have to wait, or there’s nothing you can do for your mission in the immediate moment?

[quibblingfunctionary]

If we find time in the future I would not mind speaking with you again—although I cannot guarantee I will be able to answer everything.

Back in Valisthea? I am Lord Commander of His Majesty's armies— there are many things to busy myself with in such a position. Here in Etraya...? Hm. Between missions I have never had this much free time granted to me in my entire life. I hardly know what to do with myself outside of sparring.