middaeg | [Open] Catch All for January (Some closed prompts)

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[Open] Catch All for January (Some closed prompts)

Who: Edelgard von Hresvelg and You!
When: Pre-Snatched Plot, some Post potentially
Where: Dorchacht and Aefenglom
What: A Catchall
Warnings: Possibly discussions of torture, war, and 3 Houses Spoiler Warnings.

Tarnished Reality

[Unsure of what to expect when she stepped through the teleporter, Edelgard had gone fully prepared for the worst, insisting on wearing her scarlet battle armor, with her axe strapped in a leather thong across her back. When she found the city nothing like what she had been told, she'd initially been puzzled, but as it became more apparent that she was not going to be troubled she found herself relaxing fractionally.

Her changes were making it more difficult to function during the day, so she'd come at dusk, well rested and ready to explore the city. Moving among the people, her outlander dress marking her as a Mirrorbound as surely as the unusual battleaxe she carried, the Emperor was quiet through most of her wanderings. The sounds of a scuffle up ahead of her current path drew her up short, though and she stopped and looked around a corner.]

It seems all is not well. [Mumbled, but audible enough for any nearby to hear.] Do you think we should aid the guard?

Bond Lessons

[It's strange seeing other Mirrorbound being pulled up onto the stage, but so far she has avoided being ensnared herself. Watching the goings on is interesting enough, though, but she's still a little uncomfortable with it. So, she slides through the fringes of the crowd towards another unmolested Mirrorbound.]

Eager, are they not?

Home

[Edelgard has made it a point to attempt to win over support from the aristocracy early on, including personally investigating the Mist that had settled in there. The few supporters she'd managed to charm haven't quite turned on her, but when she makes her way out of the district she can feel something building. Tensions are rising, a thing she is extremely familiar with, and that's going to potentially be a problem.

It's not until she leaves the district and makes her way towards the Haven, the cool and crisp night air making her more alert than she might otherwise be, that she senses something amiss.

Eyes narrowed, she pokes her head around the mouth of an alley to see two graffiti artists hard at work. With an exasparated sigh she turns to wave a passing Mirrorbound over.]

Look at this nonsense...

Wildcard

[If you want to plot something out, in Dorch, out of it, a quest, anything else? HMU at

intercession and let's figure it out!]

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"Mm..." Corrin didn't have a real set plan, exactly, she was just too much in motion to stop moving. So she had to think about it, her head turning back and forth to consider what was in front of her before an errant thought clicked into place.

"Oh!" She grinned. "I wanted to see the wall here. I know someone said they're doing something to it because of...everything that happened here, but I figured they won't mind if we look at it right? Maybe we can go up on top and see outside the city?"

If they didn't want her to, she'd probably still find a way to do it, but it was better to ask!

"I'd like that."

It's remarkably easy to go along with basically anything that Corrin wants. She's a sweet person, and her enthusiasm is catching fast, even in someone as reserved as Edelgard. The Lady of Hresvelg smiles back.

"I do enjoy seeing the forest from the wall, and I admit curiosity about the landscape here. So, that seems a good place to start. Let's go!"

Is that excitement? IT MIGHT BE!.

Corrin's smile got a little wider as Edelgard seemingly grew to meet her own excitement. The other woman was always a bit more serious than Corrin knew how to deal with. Intense, really. It was nice to know that she could relax and have fun when she wanted to. ...Or when Corrin was broadcasting her own excitement. Eh, whatever it took.

"I imagine it's not much like back in the city but..." Corrin shrugged as they walked. "It has to be something to see, right?"

Everything was something to see the first time you saw it, after all.

"Do you know much about what it was like here before? I've only been picking up bits and pieces. It definitely sounds..." She hesitated. "Well. Awful."

"It does."

Edelgard's playful smile wavered a touch at the question, because yes...she did know. She'd heard quite a lot about it from people after her arrival. She's a touch hesitant to bring down the mood, but it's a question she can't ignore.

"...I do know some, yes. It was called the Black City, and a shroud of dark fog lay over the whole of it at all times. Conjured by sorcery, no doubt, and the work of a woman named Morgana Drummond. The same woman who put spells into the stones of the city to aid in enslaving Monsters."

"Huh." Corrin was quiet as she processed this. It was close to what she had picked up, but it was different hearing someone she knew say it, somehow. Her mood didn't really dampen, but she did mellow a bit for a moment.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised," she finally said. "Though I just don't understand why people want to be like that."

Ah the joys of being a sheltered optimistic princess...

"I do not either, Corrin."

She has never understood why people do terrible things to other people, and a hollow feeling builds in her chest as she's taken back to her childhood. Yes, she has grown up, she has become an adult woman...but she has never once truly come to understand the motivations behind why people are so terrible.

It's not like her normally, but she finds herself leaning into Corrin, holding tighter to her arm. A tremor of disquiet floods the bond, but is quickly tamped out.

"It's strange, making the conscious decision to do something so morally repugnant. Choosing to be evil is something I find difficult to fathom."

"Mm..." Corrin felt that momentary pang through the bond, and the warmth and pressure of Edelgard tightening her grip. It made her purse her lips into a line, if only for a second. No sense focusing on things like this, was there...? Not when they were at least trying to have a nice afternoon.

"Well." She said with a little grin. "I guess if people are going to be like that, we'll just have to be around to stop them, huh?"

"Yes. That...is exactly why I have done all I have done. To stop such things from happening in Fodlan."

Images of the war flickered into her thoughts, shared through the bond. Corrin knew, of course, and she trusted her new partner deeply. That was perhaps the one thing keeping her from spoiling the mood. Having nice afternoons was hard...

"And why we need to be here for the people of this world too. I'm glad you understand that, Corrin. It means a great deal to me."

"Mm. I get it. I don't think I could ever be as...preemptive as you are, though." Corrin's whole journey saving the world had been almost entirely reactionary. She had taken charge, sure, but even that had just been a reaction to circumstances.

Frankly she wasn't sure she really had the attention span to do anything remotely as organized as Edelgard could.

"Anyway," another grin. "We're almost there, come on." Eagerly tugging her along as the wall came into view in the distance.

"Right."

That pulled Edelgard out of her funk, and she picked up the pace easily enough, following Corrin's lead towards the stairs.

"I do wonder if the landscape is as...bleak...as the rest of this world seems. Or if the plague is concentrated around Aefenglom..."

"No idea. If it were...you'd think more people would want to move here, right? Although I guess not with..." She trailed off and shook away the thought.

Ahead of them, the section of wall they were approaching seemed relatively empty. Most of the runes had been cleaned off, though there was a fenced off section that was clearly still being worked on.

"Uhm..." Corrin slid to a stop, scanning, before she pointed off in the other direction. "Oh, I see some stairs!"

Drag drag drag.

And, up. Up. Up.

Edelgard is not going to protest, and nobody seems to notice a pair of women going up the stairs, anyway. It's not like the wall is some well guarded thing.

When they reach the top, Edelgard looks out at the landscape, a landscape not all that different from Aefenglom, though with perhaps higher snow drifts and more nearby trees. She's not terribly impressed.

"...I thought it might be different, but all I see are clues that it's unlikely this city has Wilders like Aefenglom..."

Corrin strode to the edge of the wall, setting her hands on the edge of it as she peered out into the distance. She wasn't quite as disappointed as Edelgard, but she definitely was a bit let down. She wasn't really sure what she had been expecting, really, but not quite this.

"I suppose that makes sense," she agreed in a quiet voice, her eyes scanning the distant trees and snow. "Since they were so intent on controlling everyone, they probably couldn't afford to have anyone around that wasn't involved one way or another, right?"

She was familiar with the idea, at least. Garon had made sure everyone in the family was involved in his plans so that they were 'invested' in them whether they wanted to be or not.

"That would seem in line with the motivations of tyrants, yes. Incorporate the entire population as that helps prevent uprisings."

It's tyrannical leadership 101, really.

Corrin frowned faintly at the word 'tyrant.' It was strange to think of Garon that way, even after everything that he had done. He had still been her father for most of her life, even if it had all been a lie.

Yet if the iron fist fit...

"Well. At least they're free of it now." Corrin said, half-turning to look at Edelgard. "Maybe people will be able to live outside the walls now if they want to."

"Hopefully. Though, we'll see where things go, with the infection and all of that."

Shoot, she hhad no idea how this society worked, but she could tell Corrin's got something on her mind. That took center stage for her, more than anything in this city, anyway.

"I didn't say something to offend you, did I?"

Corrin had turned to look back at the view again, and a few seconds passed before she half-turned back to Edelgard and shook her head with a faint smile.

"No, you're fine. I was just thinking about my," she caught herself. "The man I thought was my father. He was...very much like that. Manipulative." She paused and sighed faintly. "A tyrant."

"I see."

It's not as though she could not empathize. Though, her first thought wasn't of her own father, who was a broken shell of a man. It was of Ferdinand, a brief flicker of the Aegir heir's face sticking in her thoughts.

"You would not be the first to overcome a troubled parentage. But you, clearly, are no tyrant."

She leaves out, of course, that a few would call her a tyrant as well.

That statement had Corrin laugh out loud, a startled, genuine sound, as if it hadn't even occurred to her.

"Oh I wasn't worried about that," she said, her chuckles fading into her words as she spoke. "I actually...well, it's a long story really, but I'd like to think I've done a lot to escape him. And help people."

Corrin might not have always thought the greatest of her accomplishments, but trying to save people from Garon? Trying to stop the war between Nohr and Hoshido and turn everyone away from his awful path? Yeah. She was proud of that.

"And that's what matters most. That you helped people."

Edelgard, a touch conflicted, decided to just spit out what she was saying. Maybe it would be helpful to Corrin, or at least provide some more context for the somewhat dark emotions inside her.

"You know by now that...some would call me a tyrant," Edelgard says slowly. "This isn't news...but in the end I believe that raising up those around you far outweighs the value of one's own pride and what others may think of you. The end result is the goal. Not the words they use to try and cut you. That includes the opinions of people who you think of, or thought of, as family."

Corrin couldn't really understand that people saw Edelgard that way, but she did know the woman was very driven, and wanted to change the world. And there were always people that would struggle against something like that.

"I'm not...completely sure I agree with you," she admitted. "Sometimes the ends are as important as the means. But I do think it's important to pick who we truly believe in. And cut out the people who would try to lower us."

She honestly wasn't sure that made sense even as she was saying it...

"I'm...not sure that I said that. Not entirely. There are lines that cannot, should not, be crossed. But sometimes, action is necessary. For the sake of real, lasting change and not something temporary words aren't always enough. I think you know that."

She understood what Corrin was trying to say, and she leaned against her Bonded, the touch enhancing the ever so pleasant feeling of their mental contact.

"My father once told me that we only live once, and so we should leave the world a better place than we find it, and that's all I've ever aimed to do."

Corrin found herself smiling faintly as Edelgard's weight shifted against her. She did understand what the other meant, really. It all just seemed so...complicated.

"It's good advice," she agreed quietly. "I think more people need to hear it."

"Well. It's hopefully a message we can spread."

Not I. Not Me. We.

"Thank you, by the way. For spending this time with me. I have precious few sunlit days left to me, and I am happy to spend them with you."

Corrin let out a soft sigh at that and shook her head.

"I don't mind. I love spending time with you." She hesitated. almost looking a bit embarrassed at that admission. "But we'll figure something out. There's no way a world with this much magic can't come up with a good umbrella for you."

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