Hi there. Sorry if anyone finds my annoyed rants useless, but I'm afraid this time I really need you to understand the underlying themes in this stories. Oh, and I wanna thank all who reviewed Logos Naki World. That out of the way, I proceed. I was enchanted by the mystique of Tarot for the first time when I skimmed (end eventually devoured) Alejandro Jodorowsky's La Vía del Tarot. From there, I graduated to Jungian psychology and the concepts of archetypes and collective unconscious. The fact I came to like Atlus' Persona games helped, given the games' intense detail and focus on Jungian archetypes. Sallie Nichols' Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey was also magnificent, and very highly recommendable for those interested in Jungian psychology.
Thing is, many of you think, by modern media, that the Tarot is some sort of magic card deck with funny images showing you the future if you know what's the meaning on each card.
That belief, my good ladies and sirs, is idiocy.
The Tarot cards are what you make of them. To paraphrase, the arcana of the Tarot are the building blocks of reality. The pieces that make up each story. Like mortar and bricks, they hold aloft castles, divided in Major and Minor Arcana (some European countries even use Tarot decks as normal playing cards). Whether for good or for evil, in some stories it is possible to assign a card to a certain event or character; the twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana are the most ostensible manifestations of this, but the four suits of fourteen cards (one to ten, and Page, Knight, Queen and King) that make up the Minor Arcana are, in Jodorowsky's own words, "the gentle keepers of the secret". I even once tried to see if I could have a crack at FFVII with a similarly-named story, but it really did not pan out. So I decided to go for it in a fandom I had already some experience in and in which some gents already liked my work.
The format of the story goes like this: I introduce the card, explain briefly the Jungian archetype imagery of that card and a brief explanation. Then, the story per se follows.
Own nothing. Wish I profitted by this, but I don't.
By the way, I did what I could with the info I could pick up. Somebody from the UK wanna correct me on the process I describe, feel free to do so.
0 - The Fool (Le Mat) - Seras Victoria
The Fool walks on plains, his bindle slung over his shoulder. He needs, after all, very little - his youth and potential are everything he needs. He is young, inexperienced in the world, but carries a certain wisdom of common sense older cards don't quite grasp. He is the origin of the Joker card, thus expressing his potential to be anything he wants. A small dog is pushing him forward, a remnant of the past propelling him forward into the future, while at the same time acting as their tether to everyday life. As the card with the 0, he is the beginning, the Big Bang that gives origin to the story, and the card that can assume any value at a certain point. In a leap of faith or a horrific mistake, the Fool is often seen walking towards a cliff.
The Fool also can represent a need for self-analysis and ask oneself if our choices are correct. Sometimes, the inverted Fool can represent madness, true foolishness at its most insensate, predestined paths and reckless dreams, or even a certain lack of strength due to his association to the 0. Overall, this card represents a journey and a future change, the beginning of the cycle between life and death. The Fool is often the main protagonist of a story, and through the other twenty-one cards of the Major Arcana the Fool's Journey is the path trod through the Major Arcana until the inevitable coming of the next Fool.
The orphanage door slammed behind her.
It was done. With barely her own meager savings, a knapsack with her few possessions and a small government paycheck, Seras Victoria entered the world.
She honestly knew very little of it. The only actual help she knew of was a former acquaintance of her family's, who had agreed to provide her with a roof over her head until she found herself steadfastedly employed. Well, that and the bus ticket the orphanage director had acquired for her use. She only had to walk a little over a mile to reach the bus that would take her to the immensely small hamlet of Cheddar, an insignificant piece of the Avon & Somerset Constabulary jurisdiction area. Since her early childhood, she had nourished the dream of following in the footsteps of her father. Therefore, it made perfect sense to her to have herself assessed as soon as possible after leaving the orphanage and hoping her reasonably decent grades and her excellent physical condition allowed her to make the cut. Not to mention her own experiences, both in the orphanage and in the street, made her mostly turn a blind eye to casual sexism, and let her know how to respond to it in progressively higher forms.
A small part of her wondered why, exactly, she clung to both the happy memories of her early childhood as well as to those related to the traumatizing deaths of her parents. And the greater part sighed and explained to the childlike aspect that those tragic images had made her be what she was, and that by refusing to embrace them, she would be denying herself.
-Yo. So you're definitely gonna take the leap? Become a copper?
Colin Matheson. Oh, she remembered him all right. After all, it was hard to forget the boy you nearly maimed with a rock at the tender age of seven. Eventually adopted by a local barren couple and raised as a somewhat decent member of society, though his impish and somewhat insensitive nature sporadically got the best of him. The two occasionally met in town, mostly at school. It was no surprise that he knew, though. Her teachers had been somewhat surprised when she had declared her intentions for her future, and truth be told, not many had supported her; some thought she was better suited as a teacher, with her nice grades; others thought she would do better as an executive, with her foresight and common sense. The orphanage's headmaster had agreed with her dream, though. And she was immensely grateful for his belief in her.
-Uh-huh. Walk a while with me?
-Why not? Folks are out and there's nothing good on the telly.
Both followed the grassy, winding road.
-So, have you ever given thought about any other thing you might actually do?
Seras shot him a look.
-No, no, no, lady. Don't look at me like that. I just think you're being more than a tad pig-headed about becoming a cop. Look, just to use an example. Remember the day I took the doll from you? Thing is, back then I was used to think that girls were just there for nothing and didn't count. Pretty much why I took the thing, I mean? I thought you were just going to stand there and take the whole situation like I had all the right. But no. You fought back and taught me girls don't have to back down and take all the crap from men. Even when the Headmaster took you away and grilled you for throwing that rock at me, well... I came to ask myself how could you have hit me so hard. And then you were there at school.
-Oh, shut up. You know I never made it to the honor roll.
-But you were up there, lady! You fought the fight.
Seras stopped for a second, looked into his eyes. She sighed and went on.
-You don't understand. I know I'm good. I know I can be anything I want. And I still want to go on this. I mean, what's the point of living your life if you will ultimately have no consequence upon the world? I want to fight what I know is wrong. Call it revenge if you must. But I honestly see it as taking head-on the darkness that killed my parents. It's like... dreaming up a dragon that will always pops up in your nightmares, and that always throws more and more monsters at you, and you always keep on thinking that if you can just get close enough to the dragon to nick its neck, it's all gonna be worth it in the end.
-Whoa. Sorta... ultimate purpose? Romantic stuff, I reckon. Stuff like you say you hate. For a moment there, it felt like you were trying to relate yourself to the old fairytales Matron would tell us about when we were little. Like Sir Percival and the Fisher King. The little knight, finally ending the task no amount of older, more powerful knights could not bring to an end. The Fool that delivered to the Fisher King the source of his salvation.
He shook his head.
-Y'know, you sounded... like, crazy, just now. Is that how it feels to be inside your head?
Seras dryly laughed.
-It's my head. Wouldn't know how it feels to be inside another's.
She stood silent for a moment.
-Funny, isn't it? Having the full scope of choices all ahead of me, and I go and straight fall into the same job that made me an orphan. I sometimes get the feeling that I am just walking into the same pit where my parents fell, always feeling that I will find my way out of it and reach the other side unscathed.
She leaned on one of the roadsigns nearby.
-I had a dream once. A voice kept telling me over and over the same thing: Be absolute. Be yourself. This is about that. I need to be myself, following through this to the end. I honestly thought up about all the options I had, pulling them into my mind and running each scenario. All of them had the same thing: you can't forget that which has made you. Ever. And in many of those scenarios I ended up following clean, decent lives. But I had to live with the remorse of standing there, letting the world slowly fade into the darkness... and I knew there would be no better way to honor their lives, as they would have liked to be remembered, than to do as he would have wanted to had he had the time. Make the world a better place.
They continued walking for a long strip, wordlessly.
-They would have already be very proud of you. Following that in what you believe. Becoming like them.
-Thank you.
They reached the bus stop. Many passengers were already huddling around the entrance. Still, the driver was nowhere in sight.
-Once you get t'Cheddar, whatcha gonna do?
-Assessment drive's starting on Monday. First I go get my name on the applicant list, then I wait two weeks for assessment. I get assessed and hopefully make it to the remaining physical and medical exams. Last is background check.
-Hm. Luck to you.
Knock 'em dead.
The driver finally popped up. Seras wasted no time and loaded her knapsack into the bus. She gave Colin a quick peck in the cheek.
-Jus' remember, girl... the journey of a thousand miles starts but with one step.
Months later, Seras Victoria stared out of one of Hellsing Manor's imposing panelled windows.
Her Master materialized behind her. As soon as she sensed his presence, she squeaked and turned to face him.
-Do you regret your decision, Police Girl?
She hurried up to shake her head.
-No! Not in a thousand years, Master.
Alucard chuckled, smirking with his softest smile:
-Careful with those expressions, Police Girl. In a few centuries you could be craving combat as much as I do. But you understand, all of the strange, strange world you have witnessed, is but the beginning of your new existence. Few humans can fathom how we live our lives, and you are but in the first steps of the transition. The change is still fresh upon your soul and body. You could live to see empires rise and fall. You could live to see decades of war or long years of peace. Your soul could be moulded into dozens of different personas across the time you are allowed to spend in this Earth.
The ancient vampire settlied into one of the room's expansive couches.
-I am the only true No-Life King in this dark world of ours, Police Girl. But once I was Voivode of Wallachia, Servant of God. Across the centuries, I have been a freedom fighter, the Devil incarnate, an artist, a lowly slave, and countless other roles. And when I stare at you, at the potential your soul carries, I ask myself: what is this novice, this child of the game, capable of being? Will she be a slave, or a ruler? Will she triumph over her enemies or will she be crushed? Will she remember her past or shall she forget?
-Master! I-I mean, I will be whatever I am needed to be!
Grinning more widely, her master cleared his throat and proclaimed:
-In the Sea withouten lesse,
Standeth the Bird of Hermes:
Eating his Wings variable,
And thereby maketh himself more stable;
When all his Fethers be agon,
He standeth still there as a stone;
Here is now both White and Red,
And also the Stone to quicken the dead,
All and sume withouten fable,
Both hard, and nesh and malliable
Understand now well aright,
And thanke God of this sight.
Both stood in silence for a second.
-The Philosopher's Stone, as you will remember, is reputed to hold all virtues. To transmute the odious lead into precious gold, to grant neverending life, to warp the transient into the eternal. Like it, you now hold an infinity of potential, and I wish to impart some of my own wisdom into you. You just told me you would whatever you needed to be. That is what you believe now. Come on, I wish to show you something.
Together, they walked to the Manor's immense library. They caught Walter exiting, and the butler bowed respectfully.
-Alucard. Miss Victoria. The books you requested are on the central table.
-Thank you, old friend. I'll meet you later at the debriefing with Integra.
Walter turned to leave. Before he closed the library door, however, he addressed Alucard:
-Oh, and, if may I ask, Alucard, what exactly are you intending to do with those books, vampire?
Alucard shrugged.
-I intend to give my fledging a lesson in will, Angel of Death. Leave us now, please... it's time she learnt about the existence of a vampire.
Walter smirked, and Alucard closed the door. He then selected one of the volumes Walter had separated and spread it open on his lap. It was a detailed compendium of the No-Life King's own activities post-execution. Leaning in as Alucard flipped through the pages, Seras saw the heavily decorated illustrations depicting an invincible warriot massacring a Turk detachment, the same man offering the blood to an altar of some sort, and in many other expressions of emotion. One of them showed him with the three "brides" Stoker had been extremely fond of describing. Others showed his enslavement and his struggles for freedom.
-All of these... it was you, Master? Across time, have you changed that much?
-Change, Police Girl, is something a vampire must always embrace. With our incapability to die, we cannot allow ourselves to remain stagnant lest Time forget us. Change is what must define a vampire, moreso in the case of a young one like you.
He showed her more of the books' content. All of them showing the transmutations Vlad III of Wallachia had gone through the centuries, culminating in the grand plan that would end up with the Hellsing triumph. In the final book, a sheet of paper slipped out as Seras passed the pages.
-Ah. I was searching for this.
Unfolding it, Alucard revealed what it was: a timeline of sorts, with him as a small child, as the Sultan of the Turks had seen him, as the brave ruler of the Wallachians, as the insane Dracula before his own defeat, as his own "slave" form, bound into the leather restraints of Restriction Level One, as a strange, petite shape like that of a child, as a professionally dressed gentleman, and as his own common shape.
-Time is a harsh master when we are bound to it. But being cut from it is hardly better. Never fear change, Police Girl. Yours has but started, and the road yet to tread is long.
Adjusting his hat, he left.
Seras was left alone, staring at the different forms and minds her Master had wielded, and for a moment saw herself, with a foot in the bus, Colin smiling behind her. Her knapsack on her back and a silly grin plastered in her face - the true Beginning of the Journey.
And, like pages from a stray book gently dashing through the air, the future briefly unfolded before her. And she saw compassion, hope and love. And with that, she saw fear, greed and wrath. She saw a gentle bodhisattva freely giving her gifts. An insane warrior, fearless and honored. A normal life, as far away from glory as it was from mediocrity. A wicked existence dedicated to sin and pleasure. A respected healer, saving lives as her vocation and her calling.
And all, all of them, were her. A true Philosopher's Stone, indeed.
She hardly could wait to see how it all unfolded in the end. But that was still too far away, and she had ample time to think.