[ SEMI-OPEN ] I stand amid the roar

[tryhard]

Who: Waver Velvet & CR
When: throughout Aereuer
Where: Aefenglom
What: Catch-all for the month including full moon shenanigans, event stuff, and whatever else comes up
Warnings: n/a for now; might be nsfw later


Open and closed prompts below!

If you want a starter or want to plot a thread for anything throughout the month, including the event, please PM me or hmu at gunsandchocolate!

Comments

[tryhard]

[ Waver's lips twitch up in a faint, nostalgic smile.

He's there too. Dwarfed by the enormous expanse of the Reality Marble and its army, and obscured by Bucephalus's mane and Iskandar's much larger form, there is a small, human, Command Spell-less Waver, finding the thrill of battle at his King's side.

It doesn't last long. This is Waver's dream, and Waver's fear and anxiety that permeates the very fibers of it beneath their feet, though they stand apart on seeming nothingness now in the midst of the fight as the world begins to tear itself apart beneath the force of Gilgamesh's blade. Seeing it even now fills him with dread, but still he doesn't look away.

It's almost over. The bridge returns. Waver's fists are trembling at his sides. ]

[arturiarex]

[ The army stirs something of nostalgia in her. It reminds her when she led an array of glittering knights to fight against the invaders that threatened her home. Not quite the army of conquest that Iskandar carries with him, but... soldiers, all loyal to the man who leads them to victory. It stirs the soul.

But it all falls away, bit by bit, as Gilgamesh dismantles it. Then they are left on the bridge and Saber watches without flinching, without looking away. She will witness Iskandar's end and honor it. It is the least she can do after intruding on it.

The outcome was never in doubt, was it? ]

[tryhard]

[ There's nothing to be said. They watch in silence, and though they stand apart from the figures in Waver's memories, something about the dream makes it effortless to hear what's going on.

It occurs to Waver that Saber can probably hear it too, the voices that seem to slide around them on the air that isn't really here, carrying easily and yet sounding slightly far, as if removed to another place. Another time.

Waver can't tell her to leave and look away now. So Saber will see it all: she'll see their final goodbye, the moment that Waver chose the path and price for the rest of his life.

It lingers, drawn out dreamily. The flash of Iskandar's smile is brilliant in the dark.

Waver watches his back, then and now, wiping his tears on his sleeve but never lowering his eyes.

When it's over, it's just the small, human Waver and Gilgamesh left on the bridge. Even from a distance, it's easy to see his shoulders shaking. ]

[arturiarex]

[ Saber does watch it all, from beginning to end, unmoving and unflinching. She has seen battles, she has seen war, and although this whole scene is tragic, it is also noble in its own right. To look away would be an insult to Waver and Rider both, so she watches and waits, expression set. ]

What happens next?

[ She still watches Waver and Gilgamesh, unsure of what route the war takes from here. ]

[tryhard]

...I don't really know, for sure.

[ Waver admits quietly. He knows a bit of what happened. The fire. The lack of a real winner. But the truth is, he abandoned vying for the Grail well before then, and he doesn't know the details of how the War really ended. Only that it was bad, and it wasn't worth the pain and the loss of so many people's lives.

Waver shakes his head. ]

I went home after that. Back to the house of the family I'd been staying with near Fuyuki.

I heard about the devastation on the news.

I don't know what happened to Gilgamesh.

[ Gilgamesh, who on the bridge walks toward Waver, stops before him and-- spares his life. Waver, clearly terrified, meets his eyes and refuses to fight just as much as he refuses to beg for mercy, but the King of Heroes leaves him be, Servantless and helpless though he is.

The dream world fades as Gilgamesh does, leading only the faint, rippling after image of the human Waver falling, weeping, to his knees. ]

I admit I... don't know what happened to you, either.

[ he realizes quietly, looking away. ]

[arturiarex]

[ Interesting. Saber listens and watches and seems slightly surprised that Gilgamesh simply let him live. It's not what she would have expected from him. But of course, her experience with Gilgamesh during the Grail War was terrible. ]

I... fought. I lost the one i was meant to protect. Gilgamesh and I fought and he had the better of me - but the Grail was there. Within both of our grasps.

[ She frowns and closes her eyes, remembering the moment that her Master had told her to destroy the Grail. The way the magic had coursed through her veins and forced her to do something she had no desire to do. ]

...my Master ordered me to use my Noble Phantasm to destroy the Grail. Bound by magic as I was, I had no choice but to follow his instructions and then - then everything ended and I was returned to Camlann - and then here.