Life Will Change

Siegfried wanders around the streets, hands in his pockets, leisurely. He finds it harder and harder to relax these days, such is his nervousness regarding the war and everything surrounding it, but familiar faces were always nice to see, regardless.

The lad greets Ilui, hands sliding into his pockets afterward. The boy leans against the marble wall of the castle.

"Are you worried? About what's going to happen."
(Siegfried)
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[16:16] ".. Huh?"

Canting his head ever so slightly to the side, a finger rose to tap at his chin.

"Not sure what I should be worrying over."
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[16:18] Siegfried says, "..."
[16:18] He taps his foot impatiently. Because it was on Siegfried's mind so much, he couldn't believe that it wasn't on Ilui's just as often.

"The war," he says, exasperated. "The war?"
(Siegfried)
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[16:20] "Oh..!"

Arms move, folding across his chest as he shuffles back, leaning himself up against the marble statue. Softly humming to himself as he does. Completely contradicting Siegfried's demeanor,

"Not really, no. I'm prepared to do what I gotta do. So there's nothing really to worry over."
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[16:25] Usually, the main thing they had in common was their laid-back demeanor. But right now? You could actually see that Siegfried was losing sleep over this, nerves were grating over this, his stomach was churning and he probably wasn't eating normally.

A hand swept through his hair as he tried to keep his focus on the conversation right now and away from the fact that him or his friends would potentially wind up slaughtered, that Clara could die to one of his friends, that they could be left without one of the older generation to aid them - there were so damn many things that could go wrong. So very, very many.

His head turns away.

"So you're going to kill anyone from Dawn if you have a chance, right?" It was a question that he shouldn't even bother asking. He knew the answer. Knew any normal person's answer.

But he dared to hope.
(Siegfried)
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[16:29] Figuring he had nothing else to do as it is, the Shenlong decides to join in on the conversation; besides, the topic was one of the familiar ones, which is all related about the war and its consequences.

And who lives, who dies.

"I don't think anyone left in Dusk can really be saved, anyway." He pauses, glancing at Siegfried. "Weren't there like two rebellions? By now, everyone who disliked Sors and Fallen Angel already left. What remains are the people that are willingly following that wretched man and the slavery that Fallen Angel proposes."

"In other words, they had chances to leave - and those that stayed still didn't."

A mild shrug. He's more than certain that Ilui would not hesitate to kill someone from Dusk at this point.

In truth? Neither he would. Not anymore.
(Keitaro)
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[16:30] "Yes, I am."

An honest answer, one that's spoken in full confidence.

Clearly, it's the reason he wasn't worry so much about the war. While others might be stressing out about the choices they were going to have to make, or the what-ifs. None of that seemed to bother the young Dryad.

It's something he's already resolved himself to do, and will do, more than happily.

"That's the plan, isn't it? To wipe them out? To get rid of their taint?"
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[16:37] Pale green eyes look to Keitaro and Ilui both, in turn, and then close.

Why are you such a dumbass?

It's clear, even without him verbalizing anything, that Siegfried was having some sort of a moral conundrum. But it isn't merely about killing - no, he'd pledged to kill the wicked, and driven swords into the hearts of foul men. He'd sworn an oath to kill that which he perceived as 'evil' awhile ago now.

What bothered him significantly more was who he knew was going to be on the front lines, and what he perceived as a situation that wouldn't be able to be avoided.

"I've seen the rebellion. They stay in shitty conditions, no one to talk to, nothin' to really do, unable to go to Levengard, Huangzhou, or Dusk. And when I was there, in Dusk, there were kids who just lived to try to appease Sors. Like nothing else mattered to them but impressing him. They've never known nothin' else - he has all these people around him, and they want that for themselves someday, too. And then there's the undead, tied to him, like puppets on a string, and he tugs the strings, and they dance."

His hand rubs behind his head as he looks down at the ground. And then he looks up.

"Maybe they did have a choice to leave...but it never felt like they really did. Jus' like how if we kick Godfrey out of here, where's he gonna go? We'd basically just be shipping him off to Dusk - guaranteeing that he turns into something he doesn't even want to be. A stone cold killer and a psychopath. I don't know, I just..."

And then that weary head bows again. His heart was truly too soft.

"Do you ever feel like some people never actually had a choice at all?"
(Siegfried)
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[16:39] Godfrey Vishkar says, ". . ."
[16:40] Godfrey had arrived to the scene, hiding behind a lamppost immediately after hearing about a 'rebellion.'

Popping his head forward to peer at Siegfried and the conversation as a whole, Godfrey remains a spectator just listening in on a talk he'd be better off on the outside, and not the inside.
(Godfrey Vishkar)
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[16:43] But was not knowing anything outside really an excuse?

Some people actually knew what's outside, and still chose to stay by the side of Sors. If anything, this told him of the fact that the people were simply unwilling to see anything in the entire world aside of what Sors does. It's not that difficult to see what he does is excessively evil, is it?

"Some people choose to live in ignorance, Siegfried."

"The same people you're referring to might've chosen to never look outside Dusk and never acknowledge anything else in this world. By extension, they live wilfully in that ignorance, and they do not wish to learn anything else."

"Isn't wilful ignorance no better than actually following that? You're ignoring either spectrum, in both scenarios."

A pause. It may not make sense to everyone, but it made sense to Keitaro. He had little faith at this point that people could actually still remain there and not question anything at all. There's just no way.

"What I'm saying is..."

"There's always a choice. Some choices are harder, true, but it's there."

"After all, there are very small amount of things that actually don't depend on us."
(Keitaro)
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[16:45] ".. They've always had a choice."

A pause, his nose crinkling slightly,

"If that's the only thing they've known, that's all they'll ever know. And I'm not going to try to accept them into my home, just waiting for them to turn around and betray us because they want to continue plucking corpses from the lands. That's the problem, people always go into it with that mentality."

"They leave some of their enemies alive, and over time, they crop back up under a new name.

It's something that has happened before, time and time again. After all, Huangzhou was the third iteration of that culture's settlements on Agartha.

"I want to see them wiped out, I want to see them gone from Agartha. For good."
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[16:46] Thera thumbs up.
(Thera Elisheva)
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[17:04] They leave some of their enemies alive, and over time, they crop back under a new name.

That was the tale of Agartha though, wasn't it?

The states that'd been built had risen and fallen and risen and fallen again and again, the same ideals reintroduced in the same ways by new people over countless years.

"I don't think it's the fact that they leave some of their enemies alive."

That bothered him, ultimately. He wasn't that far gone that he believed it wrong to kill and capture one's adversaries - that was just war. Anyone who willingly stepped onto that battlefield was one who went ready to die. In a way, he acknowledged that.

"I think it's the fact that you can't kill the ideas that make these men. The cults, the religions, the forbidden magic, all that crap - you kill everyone in Dusk, and some people are going to survive with that knowledge, and build something like Dusk again, unless Levengard always exists, to kill them every time. And history isn't on our side for that."

Thinking what was built here was invincible and could never collapse sounded a lot like the line of thinking that Calael had spoke to him about, about other juggernauts in Agarthan history.

"I'm fighting against Dusk in the war. We'll both be out there, together, under Levengard's banner. But I don't want every single person in that city wiped out. Murdered. Because there's no way that the thing that cultivate a place like that will ever go away - even if you killed every last person."

He looks to Godfrey, briefly, behind his lamppost, and then back to Ilui.

"Feeling like an outcast, like there's no one for you in the entire world..."

He thinks of Ashalle.

"Feeling like you were wronged, and like using forbidden secrets is the only way you'll ever even things out."

He thinks of Zeno Morvan.

"Feeling like there's no place for forgiveness, nowhere you can go when you made a mistake."

Siegfried sounds more resolute, now. More insistent in something, even if it felt like everyone around him may think he was wrong, there was something he wasn't budging on, unmoving as iron. The ideals of the lighthouse, as Calael had told him.

"Maybe the thirst for power and willful ignorance is what creates these occultists and necromancers...but so do those things. That's why, even though I'll kill someone from Dusk, even though I think that it is an evil place, and the world is better off without it, killing every single person? Hoping you can destroy the things that perverted Dusk over time with murder? It's like trying to quell fire with fire."

He shakes with the empathy that he feels in waves, for all people.

"Dusk has to burn, but I hope that that serves as the wake up call for some of it's people - and I hope that there are still chances in the world, for every man to repent for what he's done, unless they go too far. Fair process, rehabilitation, all of that. That's all. Dusk has to go, but Agartha won't be changed with blood, when already the rivers run red and the soil tainted."

Time and time again had shown that.

"Agartha will be changed by a new idea. Not murder. Because 'kill 'em all' hasn't gotten anyone anywhere besides a never-ending cycle of revenge."
(Siegfried)
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[17:10] Ah. If he were to say it that way...

Still, Shenlong only shakes his head. To 'eradicate' that sort of thing would be an effort of entirely different degree altogether. It would take more than just might and strength to erase such ideology from Agartha, and it would not end after a single war. In fact, he's more than certain that there's more to it, even after this battle.

"I don't think we'll see the end of that culture as a whole, no."

"It's actually working to make sure that people understand such things are wrong and ensuring that it does not rise again. To simply kill everyone will not be effective - for a simple reason that it's almost impossible to kill literally every single one."

"Someone is bound to survive, and someone is bound to uncover that culture again."

A pause. He fully realized that this would take more than war, but first, they would need to actually bring Dusk to its knees. Otherwise, there's just no way they could make a change in Agartha.

"But that city still has to burn."

"It embodies everything wrong with Agartha at this point, and while the war would be a purge, we have to stay vigilant even after that and ensure that nothing else akin to that would arise."

"Otherwise, it'll be prompted futile."
(Keitaro)
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[17:15] Going silent as the other spoke, the Dryad stood there; shifting back and forth on his heels. A few nods of his head were given, and a few hums as well - just showing that he was indeed listening to the man's words. It's a hopeful speech, one filled to the brim with determination; expecting people to change, and not fall back into the vices that once held them.

And yet, once it's said and done, he only had one thing to say,

"I get that you see things like that, I do. And I hope you're right-- But."

A slight pause, his nose crinkling slightly,

"I don't see it."

"I don't think allowing the ones who followed under Sors a second chance will do anything useful. One of them will try to follow in his footsteps. One of them will try to carry on his legacy. And even if they don't, Necromancy is apart of their culture, something that's been ingrained in them to be something 'good'."

".. So I think getting rid of them, and anything related to their culture is the best. That's what I want, and that's what I'll be trying to do."
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[17:27] And in that second, as Ilui spoke, you could see what looked like a solid hole being blown through Siegfried's sails, if only for a second. He appears totally crestfallen, face sagging, posture lowering...but then he perks back up. A solid ass grin appears on his face, and he even looks back over to Keitaro, and smiles at him too.

"We're all on the same page as far as fighting Dawn goes," he says, sounding rather chipper. "And that's all that really matters, right now. The rest? We'll just let the chips fall, yeah?"

But still, something has shifted in Siegfried, something visible, if one were paying enough attention.

"...But I'll do my best then too, Ilui. To find atleast one person who I can help, and change them for the better. And I'll always bare my steel against cruel men, like Sors, or the Fallen, and in doing that, we'll all make hope for them. You'll be someone's hero, you know, and maybe you won't even know it. Someone who was scared to stand up to Sors, and then they see you tearing down one of his paladins, and this thing they thought couldn't be touched...goes tumbling down."

His expression is serene as a child's.

"Maybe you don't see it yourself, but someone who's brave, and fights for others...that by itself has the power to inspire others to change. So keep doing that...and I'll hope you become gentler over the years. Because I admire you too."

And then he turns to Keitaro, and nods.

"I'm looking forward to us all winning this thing, yeah?"

With a wave to both boys, he wanders off. On his exit, he purposely stops by Godfrey, whispers something, and then keeps moving.

What of the dollar you murdered for?
Is that the one fighting for your soul?
Or your brother's the one that you're running from?
But if you got money, fuck it, ‘cause I want some.
(Siegfried)
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[17:27] {Item} You picked up Paper (Blank). Dropped by Tryendt Young. .
[17:27] Alesia Elisheva says, "Hi Adrian. Hi Alueta."
[17:28] Siegfried whispers: Never stop trying. There are people who are afraid of you - but they're just trying their best, even if they're wrong. Nothing's perfect. The world isn't perfect. But it's there for us, trying, everyday. And that's what makes life worth living.
[17:29] Adrian Rowan exclaims, "HELLO!"
[17:29] Adrian Rowan says, "Oh."
[17:29] Godfrey Vishkar says, ". . ."
[17:29] Godfrey Vishkar whispers: Stay safe, Siegfried.
[17:29] Godfrey Vishkar whispers: I mean it.
[17:33] All he could really do is hope that someone would see the change.

But as far as things go? He doubted that. With the events happening in Dawn- now known as Dusk- people had myriad chances to go, or to see what's on the other side of Agartha, but they still didn't take it. If anything, some of the people that Keitaro had met from that place impressed him as no less psychotic.

Almost like they enjoyed their position.

What exactly one has to do with such people? There's only one solution - to put them down, so that nobody else would get hurt. At least, that's the only solution he could really see.

"...Mm. I don't want anything bad to happen to any of us, so we'll make it through. In fact-"

"I know that we will. Our training and preparations won't go to waste when the time comes."

"Best of luck out there."

That's the most the Shenlong could offer right now, his best wishes and the inspiration for better days.
(Keitaro)
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[17:34] "Mn.."

You'll be someone's hero, you know, and maybe you won't even know it.

As if, in all honesty - just the thought alone was enough to elicit a chuckle from the Dryad. To think that somewhere out there, someone was going to consider him anything close to a 'hero' was funny. It's impossible, to him. Since in all honesty, it's something he didn't want to be seen as.

.. All he cares about his getting rid of the place he hated most; Dawn. Simply because of their practices, and the corpses they try to steal from the lands.

And that's it.

There's nothing else to it, there's no noble intentions. It's just him, doing what he felt was best.
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[17:52] Siegfried sits in his tidy little office, working arduously on his studies.

He thinks he is close to a breakthrough. Very near to what it is that he's been trying to work out, and right before the war..
(Siegfried)
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