Sad doge RP

Jane: I don't want to fight her! She's useful! Smart! Shut up, Hank!
Hank: . . .
Jane: Don't suggest that I want to, cause I don't.
Jane: I do what I want. <*Hmph*>
Hank: That's not what I said-- Shut up
Jane: <*grumble*> Bored.
"Misunderstanding?"

The words drip with barely restrained venom - Arrny glowers down at Hendrix, and then at Arwen in return - a gloved finger is pointed at the Hirano youth, and with nothing but vitrol filling her tone, she demands quite roughly - "Shut up, demonspawn." She practically spits her response, before centering her gaze on the young marshal of Nostvale; even in the chilly air of the frozen north, her cheeks burn brightly red - her face flushes, not from the cold, but out of fury. The elder Ookami's jaw clenches, and she inhales sharply, nostrils flaring as the rage begins to build and threatens to explode like a volcano buried deep within. "There is no misunderstanding here, you wretched, disgusting, vile-blooded brat." Arryn spits, seething with barely-restrained agitation.

"You... you are the Marshal of that disgusting city - the things you've done, what you've been complacent in! The slaughtering of innocents, the spilling of blood of people who have done you no wrong - MISUNDERSTANDING?! You- you people, you- that city, you, that unholy fucking abomination Ariadne lured my thirteen year old grandson to Nostvale, and you all killed him. That mutt on the throne rammed a blade through a child's body - you, you were complacent in it, you are as guilty as he is! And Eredis! My- oh, Kraus, my baby boy - necromanced, a pathetic mockery of what he used to be - you people, you, you KILLED my family! And you have the gall, the GALL to stand there and talk to me about a... a MISUNDERSTANDING?!"

By this point, she is trembling, her eyes wild and crazed - tears bead in their corners, threatening to overflow and roll over her wisened cheeks. A hand comes up, and she clutches at her breastplate, fingers pressing into the steel while she tries to gather her strength. Distress breathing looses itself from her throat, and her prosthetic hand clenches into a fist - steam hisses from the joint in a blast of scalding air, the gears grinding audibly. "What... could you possibly... have to talk to me about, what makes you think I want... anything to do - with this... cult, with you, with soldiers that... condone the slaughter of children, the murder... of innocents - what makes you even think you are worth my mercy...?!"
(Arryn Roh'hi'tin)
Ace D. Deva: I told that old man...
These were all heavy claims, and hearing them brought to light now, wasn't the first time he considered them. For Nostvale. That was he always told himself, the Marshal still young, and experienced; crafting a City that was coveted, and regarded as a bastion was his goal still.

Even now, despite what the truth was -- standing idle when action might have been best. He had indeed become complacement in his years since those rash actions that caused the usurption of throne, and awarded it to that 'Mutt' she spoke of.

Listening. He didn't talk yet. He lt Arryn get it off her chest as he had done with so many things when frustrations boiled up. The difference between he then, and her now? She had him here to punish if such were the hope.

"Forgive me when I speak, Miss." He himself having lost something, if only one body, and not two as she could claim. Eredis; ressurected as he was- he remained unchanging, and a corpse lacking in what would have shown his vigor he no longer possessed in renaimation.

"Your son, Eredis- I cared for him as I have no other related to you, or my Uncle Erik. Where I can not speak for Aedan- no love lost as he died, and I fulfilled my duty that day- Consider that I'm here to grant you a bit of the closure that I was not able to receive myself when hearing." To shame her with his presence wasn't the goal. He didn't seek to mock her, not sneaking by as they left- unwilling to turn tail, and run like that.

"I'm not asking you to deal with a Cult, or the Viridian, or even the extended family that I possess, Miss Arryn." What he had to talk about probably wouldn't matter. Unable to grant her what she wanted short of his death he imagined, something he was unwilling to give right now in this moment- words, that was all he had.

Lowering himself, to a knee, his head bowed there in the snow; crunched underneath soles, and his neck exposed. "Even if I'm not worth your mercy- I've never sought to harm you, or my family miss. Even you- are apart of that. Forgive me."
(Hank)
Ooh dear, this didn't look good and it would seem that Arryn knew full-well what Jane actually was, despite the lack of horns, she was still demonspawn wasn't she? Or something along the lines, not that it bothered Arwen who was currently posing as Jane, a terrible amount mind -- she knew she was a horrible individual, with little to pursue nowadays.

There'd be no words from this Falco today, not at all, for her mind had silently been made up -- Arryn wasn't to make that printing press that Arwen had been thinking of; it was just too risky, too much conflict involved to get the project under way. From the looks of things, the girl could only chase after her ideas on her own two feet.

"Very well.", choosing not to make things worse, there'd be a withdrawal here, a few steps taken back as Arryn spat out her toxicity, those words of a hostile nature aimed like daggers towards them, daggers coated with poison, mind you. Though it seemed that the Ookami knew much more than first expected.

"We should go.", but as suggested beforehand, they needed to get past Arryn -- and if that meant talking to the woman despite the current turn of events being unfavourable -- for all Arwen knew, they were just kicking the damn hornet's nest and Hendrix? Hendrix was putting his neck out for the wolf to bite and gnaw upon.

Did the boy feel guilt? What was it? Arwen didn't understand, truly.
(Jane)
"Forgive you?"

If there was surprise when he kneels down before her, she doesn't show it. Arryn stares down at her sworn enemy, the Marshal of Nostvale, the man complacent in the spilling of so much blood, of so much death - death that had touched her family in so many ways... his 'duty', he claimed, when Aedan died. In an instant, her prosthetic's fingers entwine in his hair, yanking his head forward with no regard for his physical well-being. The grasp of metal is powerful, adamantite and gear stronger than any biological limb could ever be. "Forgive you? You never aimed to harm me? I'm your family? I want nothing to do with you. Look into my eyes, you smarmy little SHIT!" His head is yanked backwards by the hair, and he's forced to peer into the dulled, mismatched orbs that the elder Ookami had.

"Eredis was my son. I loved that boy, and you people stole his life from him. You brought him back. You indoctrinated him. You want to apologize to me, to say you never hurt me? Go look at Nostvale, you immature fucking cumsock - the bodies that line the streets, the families that you tore apart. Were you there at Byson, when your god-damn buddies in the Coalition raided it? I was. Do you know what I saw? I saw women and children eviscerated and feasted upon by Yokai. I saw innocent people slaughtered and eaten. I saw demons run amok and destroy families much like you have in glee. And when you, you - when you invaded Tilandre, the same thing happened. All this BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS. You're, what, fifteen?! Sixteen?! How many people have you gotten killed, Hendrix?! HOW MANY PEOPLE?"

"How many bodies rot today because of YOU?! MY SON! MY GRANDSON! TALK TO ME OF FORGIVENESS?!"

With surprising strength, she throws him - he's unceremoniously cast off from her by his hair, and her hands return to her sides, balling up into fists. "I don't give a damn for your snake apologies, or your crocodile tears. You harmed me when you killed my blood - you harmed me when you let them murder my baby! Eredis was an innocent soul! What did he do, Hendrix?! WHAT DID HE DO THAT NECESSITATED YOU KILL HIM!?" Her screaming reverberates around the courtyard of the castle - Nivismen are drawn to look in the direction of the commotion - and now, she begins to cry freely. Tears stream over her wisened, caramel flesh; hunching over, she trembles, burying her face into her hands. This boy was the embodiment of everything she hated in Nostvale.

"So many people dead by your hand, and for WHAT?! For you to bring about another calamity, to free that unholy demon trapped in the moon?! For sport?! You kill because you're mad, because you can?! Why, Hendrix?!"
(Arryn Roh'hi'tin)
For most of these claims. He had been a party to them, or an observer in some way; idle at the sidelines, or lending hend when Judas would strike a blow, when Ariadne would proclaim worship, or when inspired by a madness that he did infact posssess.

Most it. The coalition was something he knew of, but to say he was joined with it? A personal wedge there -- Erik's presence, no longer there, but it had been; tearing him from affiliation, the pain impressed upon him by that man, and yet the tender moments, the safety he had once cultivated at the same time -- it had left him distraught, and dragged from them.

His head is pulled upward, and he remains still. Eye trained on her, as she shouts, as she judges, and bears forth all that was welled inside of her. He the target, the dummy for this abuse -- deserving of it. He did nothing as she said; indirectly allowing for slaughter, for ruin to find Nostvale where he had once claimed to want what was best for it. . .

"Blame me then, Arryn." Standing now. Thrown to the distance, and with his body adopting a speed, and pressure he was not use to; landing in the snow -- it wasn't the most graceful fall, and considering previous battles, he wasn't in the best of shapes for this all. Still, he stands. To meet her accusations, not shying from them- blame was not all his, really: none of it was, outside of the hundreds slain in Nostvale, the family he had let go.

"I didn't know about Eredis! No ressurection, no murder- he was spared when I had last seen him!" The truth; Sugriva to have kept Eredis alive, the boy passed out then, but safe from death's cold embrace.

When he had come back though? Hornless, and pale -- a body patched, and his eyes having lost that light. There came the roar of his own voice, booming now- Nivis surround, yet none act against him, nor the Silver-Blessed pitted there in the snow, finding tears.

"Why are you bearing all responsibility for me to hold, Arryn?! I AM NOT JUDAS!" He found it unfair. Not her anger from the death of Aedan, or Eredis -- needing someone to tell him it was his fault. That he was weak, and his efforts were miniscule at best in the face of Belial when family was in danger.

Blamed for the slaughter though, for the joint decisions; a  child set to bear a weight never intended for him alone. "I don't know how many bodies rot, I don't know who I've ruined, and I don't know how many more I might bring suffering to in the pursuit of what it is that I want, Arryn, but do not blame me solely for the actions of madmen who caused this!" He was a child still. It showed now, even if he was older, taller, stronger, or whatever; breaking down as he had done once as a child -- anger found him, and frustration with it.

"WHERE DO YOU GET OFF BLAMING A CHILD FOR THE FAULTS OF THE PREVIOUS GENERATION?!"
(Hank)
"You cannot have it both ways."

Arryn straightens, daubing at her cheeks with the back of her hand - she regards Hendrix' breakdown as it was - immature. "You are a child, are you, Hendrix Este? Then who are you to decide who lives and dies? Who are you to play a game meant for adults, fighting and killing for your insane king? Who are you to do the things you have done, inflicted the pain you have - are you a child, or are you a man? You make the choices of a man, and you suffer the consequences of a man. Sixteen you may be, but more blood stains your hands than mine own, and I have lived for thrice as long as you. Do not pretend you are blameless. You know what lurks in Nostvale. You know what your 'sister' seeks - to kill us all. And you stand there... you stand there..."

"...and you make like you have no knowledge."

Her breathing is ragged, chest heaving with her fading anger - she had bellowed the rage out of herself, and she simply deflated into being a sad old woman who had seen too much loss; her eyes glint in the setting sun, cascading strands of orange and blue across the night sky. "You are not Judas, but you do nothing to stop him. I would have shot myself before I became an accomplice to all that he has done. You do nothing to stop him. You do nothing to stop the slaughter. You don't even find anything wrong with it - you are a child, Hendrix Este, and you have made choices that no child ever should. But now people are dead. My Eredis is dead. My Aedan. Giselle was my daughter. I promised her I'd protect him, and you... stole his life."

Another few angry gusts of steam from her joints tear through the air - she glowers down at the youth. "Evil propagates because good people do nothing. And you stand there at the side of evil and let it harm and kill whosoever it wishes; you associate yourself with Judas Hirano, you listen to his orders, you obey his commands, you let him slaughter the people of your hometown - how many of your neighbors are gone, Hendrix? How many faces you knew from your youth are dead? The baker you perhaps liked to go to? The priest? The salesman? They're gone, and you do nothing to stop it. You might as well be Judas Hirano, because you help him do as he wishes."

"If you cannot live with the weight of his actions..."

"...then perhaps you need to re-evaluate why you do what you do - or are you so insensate to the suffering of the innocent that you care not for the lives lost, anymore?"
(Arryn Roh'hi'tin)
"You don't know though, Arryn. This wasn't what was ever intended!"

While he couldn't deny his inexperience, the lack of knowledge, or really at this point- the conscious omit of it. It wasn't like this before. When Judas had taken control, he who had helped him -- for family, for their safety, and the safety of Nostvale; giving himself to a lofty goal while subjecting himself to an existence that boasted mediocrity.

"I wanted what was best for Nostvale. He offered that at some point. He was to be that I imagined." Speaking of what was, when what is had already been instated. It didn't matter; Ariadne slaughtering by the droves -- bodies piled as she said, faces disappeared. Did he every really know them though? It was easy to side with it in truth, never invested. Never committing to feelings, and only existing in a state of grief until it had threatened to consume him. Only then had he acted to ruin all that his Uncle strived for out of selfishness.

As a child would do, as he continued to do even now. This wasn't a conversation to appease Arryn, but to rectify himself, and his guilts. Abolition the goal, yet instead finding potentially crippling doubt that might set in if too much was given to it in terms of thought.

"I've never claimed to not find anything wrong it. I've never said this okay -- I'm making efforts to avoid slaughter in a senseless fashion! Where my sister will blindly slay thousands, I would rather hundreds- if someone has to go- perish; this doesn't make it right, but I rather majority rule out in favor of minority, Arryn! I can not save everyone."

He could barely save a handful, despite his claims. The truth behind some of those scenarios; moving to prevent murder, or death always prevented. Another power, something higher, more fine-tuned to intrude.

"If not me to decide who dies, and lives- would you rather the thousands be slain, Arryn? Would you rather there be no mediator, no potential for salvaging?! What do you want me to say? I can't pretend to feel bad for Aedan -- I do not, I never will! But Eredis? Do not give me that; I have letters sent from him, promises of meeting up, and talking! Never did I want for him what he has received, and if not for my inability to see him gone- I would see him laid properly."

Selfish. It was sickening how much so too- unwilling to share the cake, or even wait to leave the store ith it! He wanted it then, and there, and however he saw fit- no matter who suffered from it, it seemed.

"I'm not the only one in need of a re-evaluation. Again- I'm not Judas, nor am I my sister; I am blamed for the relationship Aedan himself sought. I am blamed for the blood that Eredis harbored that brought upon him Judas' ire, despite protection I thought absolute, trust that I placed in Judas to not do to me as I feared Erik would have done to my family before."


(Hendrix Este)
"Do good for Nostvale? Yes, Hendrix. Your king will rule over a city of corpses, with only his faithful. Valmasia will be swept up in darkness, and the good, wholesome people who built your city will be long since dead. You'll have your precious city, a ghost town, a shell of its former glory - is this what you envisioned, Hendrix? Perhaps you are a child, after all."

Her exhale crystalizes in the air, warm breath overtaken with frost in the North's harsh climate. If he was seeking absolution from her, to hear her say she forgave him - to think she would ever forgive him so long as he made excuses, he'd be sorely wrong. Folding her arms, her hand rests on the butt of her holster handgun, carried under her arm - she squeezes it in her fingers. "The trust you placed in Judas was wronged. Poor Hendrix. The hope and faith you put in your sister and your king turned out to be a fallacy. What is it you want from me? To empathise with you? To say I understand, to forgive you? You won't get it, because you're not really sorry. Listen to yourself. You make excuses."

In a sudden flash, she withdraws her handgun from her holster - the barrel is pointed squarely at Hendrix; the crystal glows with power, and she stares at him. Surprisingly, however, she instead turns the gun on herself, putting it to the side of her head in a show of seriousness. "Sidriel begged me to retire, to go to Nostvale and pledge to Judas to live our lives in peace; Danarium wants me dead for doing what I did, and it will not be long before your armies come to slaughter us, too. I could have done what you did. I could have ran and made a deal with the devil. But I refuse. I'd rather blow my own brains out than compromise. You think you can stop them, in the end? Kill a few, save a thousand? No, Hendrix."

"...There's a vampire, and a horde of Yokai. They need human flesh. Belial will see to it that another plague comes, undoubtedly, and more people will die. In the end, those thousand you save will die anyway, because you go about it the wrong way." Her weapon is slotted under her shoulder again, and she turns partially away from the soldier. "Why you champion their cause, I know not. Why you fight for them, I know not. Misguided family loyalty? I will turn my own gun on Eredis, and on Mattias, because they are agents of darkness. I will fight with my last breath and until I die for what I know is right - to save not just a handful, but as many as possible."

"Can you say the same? When you go back to Nostvale, Hendrix, what will you do? Save a few hundred who will be slaughtered next week? Do you think Judas, or the Vampire, or Feithan, will even care when their power swells all the more? Do you think they'll pay you any attention?"

"You're just deluding yourself. You can't play both sides of the fence. You're either with me, or against me. And no family of mine would ever... champion genocide. If you want to make it right, you know what you have to do. Abandon the cause. Join the rightheous fight."

"Otherwise, learn to live with your guilt, for you will never be absolved of your sins."
(Arryn Roh'hi'tin)
He wouldn't dare say understanding. For he feared that Arryn did understand -- what drove him, and what didn't. His fears, the limitations that he inhibited actively upon himself, and those out of his control as well. Something would have him believe that this particular a-dult knew his plight even better than he did.

It was with this knowledge that he found himself crumbling. A way to snuff out some 'beef' to invigorate, and bolster himself afterwards; opposites come, there uncertainty, there regret, and reluctancy. Imagining a world such as this one was never possible for him, and it was probably for that reason, that he had come to help see it through.

The fruition of plans, the path that had once started as a teetering slope now was angled sharply down, and was set to set everything into disarray. His hands would be soaked- were soaked already. "I... Don't know, Arryn."

What was it he wanted

Forgiveness was beyond him now -- asking wasn't possible, there no way to bring it up, to let those words slip as they had at the beginning. It was too harsh a blow to deal to his pride if he kept to that desire. Not everyone could be satisfied, he knew that -- turned against him though now. To be remain unsatisfied with this want; actions never meriting forgiveness as he was now.

As her weapon, the barrel of her gun is pointed his way -- acceptance. Eyes are closed, and a sharp inhale as he prepares for the worst, and when it doesn't come- the weapon instead directed at her? "Those are things out of my power, Arryn. There is little I can do, even as Marshal, even as a Priest, or a vessel, or whatever I am now to my sister -- It doesn't matter, and so what's wrong with saving the hundreds as I can? Wars are not won through big victories alone, i know that, and I'm sure you do as well."

Yet a losing war had no point if drawn out for too long. The suffering lands that he would work towards as well. The words that Ashura had spoken are very seriously considered for once --a different voice as Arryn was now; Belial's way was one that lead to permanent ruin, and with, calamity.

"What I champion isn't their cause, but my family. My friends, those whom I love, and wish to see protected- you are no exempt, even if you curse me, if you blame me this all that is fine then. Eredis loved you, he cared for you, and if I could not protect him? I would see you protected -- Sidriel, and you; the children you spring forth, I will do this for you, Arryn, and more."

Lofty promises with no real weight perhaps. In the face of Judas, his sister, Belial, and the cult as a whole? What could he do? Friends making up the ranks -- sworn brothers, and sisters; partners, lovers, they were all there, and more.

There was the life he established, and the way out that Arryn gave him, the train of thought awakened there in him now. "I want you all. I don't want to sit on the fence, I rather tear it down; destroy it, and have you all. Why is that wrong to you, Arryn?"
(Hendrix Este)
"Because you cannot have your cake, and eat it too, Hendrix."

The aging woman goes tired - she is emotionally exhausted, and she regards the youth with less venom then she did previously. Perhaps she did understand what drove him, but he was still young. Still a child. He couldn't be expected to really come to terms with the truth until he was older, and at that point, maybe it would be too late. Her eyes are empty - dulled, devoid of life, much akin to what Eredis might have looked like on his revival. Arryn has seen and suffered through much, and it is evident in the way her face creases. "You cannot have everyone. If you choose Ariadne and those in Nostvale, then the rest of us die. I will never lay down my weapons for the forces of darkness. I blame you solely because... you won't break the cycle."

"Ask yourself - you love your family, your friends... but are you willing to sacrifice everyone else for them? I have family and friends too, Hendrix. Gabriel was my apprentice. My best friend. And I killed his wife. I scorned him. I broke my ties with him. Why? I don't hate him. He is still my apprentice, and my friend. But I killed Rynoa, because she was a murderer - I killed her, to save the rest. You have to choose, and I chose the innocent. We are gifted with magic. It is a wonderful gift. Peasants do not know what it is like. They live in fear, in terror- I, too, wanted to protect my city. My people. What your sister wants is nothing short of a calamity."

Her boots crunch against the snow, and there is a thick weight to her words - her experiences were undeniable; she'd survived many wars, many foes, defeated Dravus twice in combat - she'd seen so many things over the years, and she spoke with the authority someone of her age should command. "You tear down the fence, but I do not worship Belial. To Judas and Ariadne, I am worrthless. They will kill me, and my baby, and my husband will go mad without me. You are no longer a mere child - you are becoming an adult, Hendrix, and as an adult, you have to choose. The fence can never be torn down. Those on the other side are zealots. They want not of peace. I wanted peace - this bloodshed..."

"...Did you ever wonder why all of this death has not been at our hands, but at your allies'? The East? A calamity. Genocide. Mass murder. There will be no one left - and then what happens when those close to you become disillusioned, or question? Eredis did. He was murdered. What if - Arwen does, if that non-magi thief does - someone you love steps out of line? What then? Would you really sacrifice the good of the realm for a few people? At that point, is it worth it? If the fence is gone, it implies we can coexist. But it can never be - for to release Belial needs sacrifices and the death of the non-believers."

"And if he is released, Valmasia becomes a barren wasteland. You will have your 'friends', but only the faithful. The rest of us will be dead. And you know, in your heart of hearts, that that is true. Either Judas will lead the world to ruin, or he will invite the West's ire on Nostvale, and it will be razed and destroyed like Alteros."

"Unless we do something to stop them."
(Arryn Roh'hi'tin)