exsilium | 2 Crystals [Video]

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2 Crystals [Video]

[Private Video to Ellie//Moderate Encryption]

[Garnet is clearly trying to maintain her calm, but she has the excitement vibe that is clear of any person who really wants to talk about a new geeky thing.]

I finished Hamlet.

[/Filter]

[As for the rest, will get a video of a young woman in what appears to be her room....a room that has a fair amount of books in it now]

Hello. My name is Dagger and I was wondering if anyone could give me any recommendations of books or plays to read. Even with my duties of training and the cafe, I keep finding myself with a lot of time on my hands. So I'd really like to know new stories to read.

My favorite genre is plays and dramas, such as Lord Avon's work- or William Shakespeare, who seems to be an Earth playwright with a similar style. Though I'd be open to other genres as well.

Thanks!

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Hmm...Ophelia was a very tragic character, yet at the same time I couldn't understand why she was so dependent on Hamlet and her family as she was. It was like she had no will of her own.

Mm. I never know what to think of her, either. There was a lot of complicated stuff with women, back then, but she's pretty iconic. She's just-- she's really tragic. There's lots of art of her, and stuff. Wait until you get to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth will rock your world.

( Yes, she sure did just say that about a Shakespeare character )

Oh? What sort of complicated things were there? It might help me understand more. And I certainly could see her tragedy.

I can't wait to read MacBeth- but do you think I should read Romeo & Juliet or MacBeth first?

I think-- I think it was to do with how she was meant to be this ideal of women, all virtuous and naive and fragile, so that when Hamlet rejected her and killed her father, it broke her apart. God, I don't know. She loved Hamlet, and I think she gave into desire as well, but maybe that was part of her madness? That she wasn't really all as virtuous? And Hamlet just kept causing her more and more pain.

( Ellie just sighs, mulling it over to herself. It's been so long since she studied it, and maybe there's more she never really thought about. ) I don't know. When I've seen people lose their parents, it's hurt them more than they could give words, and them dying, that just sends them mad. At least she just hurts herself, instead of trying to drag everyone down with her.

And love, that just breaks people apart, too. So if she loved Hamlet, and then he did all that-- that might be enough to take her apart, too.

[She'll get back to the literary analysis in a bit, but the bit about the love and loss is all too familiar that she can't help but mull to herself]

Losing your loves ones can make a person mad....[Very softly] Is that truly what happened with Mother...?

( Woah, hang on there. This is venturing into personal feelings territory. Ellie bites her tongue for a few moments, trying to work out just how to broach this. When she speaks, her tone is softer. )

Hey. You okay, Dagger?

[Oh- crap. She should've kept that to herself. She looks sheepish before she shakes her head]

It's nothing, don't worry about it. Sorry to bring down the conversation.

Hey.

( If there's anything Ellie can actually whip out empathy for, it's family stuff. Losing your loved ones, too. )

We were talking about murder in plays. Don't stress. ( A bit blunt, maybe, but she's trying to be helpful. ) You sure? I don't know. Family stuff never sounds like nothing. It's important.

[There's a pause. It is blunt, but it is kind too. Dagger can see that]

Thanks, Ellie.

[how to explain]

It's just...my mother. She used to be very kind and loving. But over the last year, something changed in her. [...] She doesn't act like the mother I knew.

( A drawn out silence. Ellie isn't really sure how to respond, just because it's been about a year (longer, now? she needed to keep track of time) since she's seen either of her parents, and the last she heard they were both in situations that were, for want of a better word, pretty shit. The thought of how her parents have changed, how much she has changed, is a terrifying one.

She swallows (audibly? is that sort of stuff really audible outside cartoons?), and nods. )

Loss can do that to people. I haven't, um, seen my parents in a long time, because of the war and-- yeah. But my-- ( my ex ) this friend of mine, Lee. Both of his parents got killed. He hasn't been the same, not since then. It's like he doesn't care who dies or what risks he takes, anymore.

( Then again, she could never pretend to have understood the enigma that was Lee. ) Did... something happen?

[She listens to Ellie's words, and the knife of guilt in her stomach wrenches further. Just how many have suffered like Ellie and Lee because of her mother's actions? Because of her own actions- as she was a failure to stop her from attacking the three other kingdoms. ]

That's terrible, I'm sorry...[War is so devastating] I- Everyone has told me the death of my father must have been hard on her. But they kept saying that about me too when I would point out my mother's odd behavior, so I-

[Kinda thought there was something more. At the last question, there's a pause. She almost doesn't want to answer Ellie's question, not after knowing how much she's suffered thanks to war. What if she hates her for this? But....Garnet was never one to hide from things. Dagger was a name out of necessity, not escape. ]

...She started a war.

Oh.

( Oh. God.

There's a drawn out silence. Ellie's still there, the video feed keeps running, but she feels like she should be going pale. At least, in stories for drama, characters always go pale, and she's sure that's what's happening now. She's seen it enough in real life, too.

A bit out of shock: ) Sorry about your dad.

( She still can't imagine what that would be like. And maybe, it could just be that it's incredulity that's holding her together a bit, because it was countries that waged war, wasn't it? Councils and politicians. It couldn't just be one person. Right? ) What, is your mum a general or something?

( "My father," "my mother," sounds so reminiscent of Fi. She never said "my mum," either. )

[She'll shake her head] Thank you, but it was years ago.

[Meaning the whole excuse that her dad is the cause of this is thin even by her standards. She still missed her father, it still hurts to think about- but the time for grieving is long past.]

[As for her question, she swallows a little. It's now or never]

No...She's the Queen.

My real name is Garnet Til Alexandros XVII, crowned princess of Alexandria.

[Or was...being sentence to death is a large indication her mother no longer sees her as her daughter. But that is another matter. She had no intention of giving up on her home, after all.]

Holy shit.

( Very quiet, almost under her breath, and she's simply staring at the device for a few moments. She had to have miss-heard that. But, no, Dagger definitely just said she was a princess. Garnet, rather.

And she just swore in front of a princess.

It occurs to her that this in and of itself seems like something that might be in a Shakespeare play, a princess revealing her true identity, her mother a warmonger, a father dead. She keeps her mouth shut, just rubbing her head as she tries to fathom it. )

Right. ( She actually has no frame of reference for how to deal with this. If it were anyone else, if the conversation hadn't been so serious as it had been, she'd be certain they were joking, having her on. )

Should-- I call you "you majesty"?

( help )

[Even if the conversation was so serious? Ellie's reaction, almost in a nervous way, makes her make an amused noise despite herself. She covers her mouth politely and shakes her head at the question]

No- just Dagger's fine, really.

( It's taking her a little while to digest this. )

Why do you call yourself Dagger?

( Hang on, she's rubbing her forehead, trying to fathom this. ) What, um. What as the war over?

( Christ. What. )

[She'll lower her hands, trying to figure out how to address it. The first question first]

I'm not sure, gaining more power is the only reason I can see- but for what purpose I don't know. There's a weapons dealer influencing and corrupting her, but that doesn't explain all of her actions or excuse any of it.

As for my name...before the war started I noticed how suspicious my mother was acting and I feared she was planning to do something terrible. No one in the castle would listen to me, so I left the castle to try to stop it myself. Dagger is the name I use when I'm traveling, it'd be too risky to have people know who I really am.

Edited 2013-04-29 14:01 (UTC)

( That's almost worse than if Dagger - Garnet? - had known, because it was just a void, a lack of knowledge, and any kind of terrible theories or ideas could get sucked in. Ellie just nods, tries to wrap her head around it, and quite how she's talking to the child of a warmonger is beyond her.

They'd been discussing theatre, for Christ's sake. She's speechless, can't quite address it, and so stumbles painfully on. Some of this is more familiar, something she can identify with: Dagger is one of them.

It's a relief to hit that realisation. ) People have a hard time listening to kids. They reckon we don't know what we're talking about.

( And she nods, before letting a long silence fall between them. She has no idea what to say, for quite some time, until: ) Hey. It takes guts to stand up to someone you care about, especially if they're someone who you're used to being right.

[It really did escalate quickly. Dagger feels bad she couldn't keep shut about her emotions. Yet at the same time...it was a relief to tell someone. To have someone not reject her for it either. Ellie was someone she had grown to care about]

[So much that she'll bite back the argument that she's not a kid. It looks like a swallow on the screen, since man that's such a sore point, but she knows Ellie means well]

...Thanks. But I wasn't successful in convincing her otherwise in the end. Right now, my friends and I are traveling to find the weapons dealer. By stopping him...well, at least my mother won't be able to get anymore power.

Parents are stubborn as hell. At least, mine are.

( Because they are Ellie's parents, of course. )

Even when we're all grown up, in our thirties and bossing around kids of our own, or something, they'll still think we're kids. Even if we know better than that.

( Anyway. She nods, listening, mulling it over. ) Smart move. Even if you can't persuade her, you can change what's happening.

( But, she sighs, rubbing her hands through her hair. ) God. Being here right now instead of back home must be driving you up the wall.

[It's strange, hearing her problems being compared to something so normal to parent and child disagreements. In a way its...comforting. Maybe it means there is some way her mother and her could move past this...even if things are much more extreme]

Perhaps they are too used to being the authority. Being the one who has to know what to do.

[She nods at Ellie's assessment of the situation. She doesn't know if it'll change mother. But no more weapons means no more people will die. No more Black Mages will be used for murder. That's what is important. ]

[Though okay, still learning slang so]

Driving me up the wall...?

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2 Crystals [Video]

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