Not-yet-summer resort: IV
His eyes strayed between the two of them with increasing frequency, within moments it all made sense to him. The peculiar looks that Solaire had been sending the way of Medusa and the question as to whether she had a sister, though while the man was right he doubted they could have really expected something like this.
Indeed, while the face of 'Chris' was one of a perfect mask without even a hint of emotion as they stared down from their perched position atop the hanging chair, the jaw of Medusa had dropped down and she looked as visibly startled as he had ever seen or imagined her, the normally unflappable Servant caught completely by surprise, to say nothing of what he felt.
He got the impression that this wasn't just a version of her that had been summoned elsewhere, the surprise was too great for Medusa.
Pressing down his own shock at the situation, he focused once more on the Servant standing above them beside the difference of attire and there was a rather marked difference. This Servant wearing black leather boots which rode high up to just past her shin, a short one piece dress with the shirt ending midway down her thighs, a puffy black jacked over the top and matching with a simple cap with rose tinted glasses covering her slitted pupils which he just noticed to be glowing.
The hand of Chris moved out, silent and graceful and with her fingers slipping around the chain of the hanging chair without so much as rattling them and pulling tight, not that she needed to cement her position there. It looked as though she could not have been more comfortable as the chair moved back and forth ever so slightly.
Ritsuka brought his eyes down towards Hanleth, the Goddess maintained her passive look - if still a little tired - and aimed it more or less in his general direction before switching to Medusa for a moment, a slow blink accompanied by a light yawn, the Goddess brought her sleeve up to rub her forehead before a rather lethargic comment sprang past her lips. "You really look alike, huh?"
Medusa's jaw clamped shut, her posture tightening like a spring but otherwise doing little else, her visor fixed solely upon the direction of Chris to the point where he suspected she would have been shooting laser beams from them if it was any more focused, his lips drew thin as he moved his gaze from the Rider and towards the others, Mash in particular had a furrowed brow as she glanced at the twins and then towards him.
"...Saber, right?" He called out, turning his focus towards Chris, noticing that the Servant didn't so much as spare him a glance as he spoke to her. "Solaire mentioned you."
"We do not have anything to say to one another."
He blinked at the sudden comment which was all but thrown back into his face, her voice neither rose nor did her tone waver. Casually dismissing him with all the same effort as one would give to a passing fly.
Turning his lips into a rather sudden frown, he kept his gaze on the Servant for a few moments longer, then closed his eyes and exhaled. It wasn't as though she was wrong either, he was just caught up in the moment and felt the need to at least address the new individual, though it seemed as though she truly wasn't all that interested in speaking with him at the moment…but he didn't quite agree with her that they had nothing to talk about.
"Maybe right now, at least." He called back to her, lowering his head and opening his eyes once more, instead the new focus of his attention being Hanleth, his arms coming up and folding over his chest as his gaze narrowed. "You, on the other hand, have quite a lot of explaining to do."
Hanleth, rather surprisingly, cringed at his words and leaned backwards. "Oh…exposition…I should have made a powerpoint for it…" she lamented rather quietly, groaning as she rubbed her hands over her face and sounded genuinely distressed by the fact she would need to explain herself.
"Caster offered." Chris called down from her perch. "You rejected it. Citing that it was extra work she could do without."
"...Why didn't you stop me?"
"That wasn't in my job description."
"...Hmmmrph." With a rather annoyed pout, the Goddess rather swiftly folded her arms and looked down, all while Chris remained utterly stone faced, having not even so much as blinked - or that he could see - as she shot down the complaints of Hanleth in rapid fire succession, he was more starting to believe she was just answering on reflex at this point than anything else.
As interesting as it was, enjoying their banter wasn't on his list of priorities at the moment. "Yeah, as annoying as you might find it, I would rather we get an answer now because from our perspective, you've gone and created a Singularity with a Holy Grail." he paused, then pointed down to the ground. "Which, by itself, would be more than enough reason for us to come here and put a stop to whatever theme park is…but then you went and kidnapped nearly every single Servant in Chaldea overnight and kept them here for what was apparently a little under a week."
"Forcibly invit-"
"You kidnapped them. They did not consent to coming here." He brought his hand up, giving her a flat expression as he did so. "But fine, you forcibly invited them against their will to come to your theme park and…while I am happy that none of them have been hurt." he offered, softening his tone as he lowered his hand. "And I am because I get the feeling this could have been much worse so, thank you for not hurting them or seemingly hurting them."
The relaxed expression that Hanleth made almost made him forget the other reason he was upset.
Almost.
"But even with all that aside." Swinging his hand out, he pointed towards the target in question with his features hardening once more and his lips pulled down into a deep frown. "What is this supposed to be? Seconds after we step through into this place you go and do that?"
Ash looked around, then paused when they found his finger pointed squarely at their face. "Me? Oh, yes." they nodded, whirling back onto the Goddess. "I would demand that you return me to my original size, I cannot serve effectively in this capacity…you have damaged me in a way that I do not believe I can recover from with my own means. Thus I ask that you undo the harm."
That wasn't quite what he was alluding to but the point remained the same, he kept his expression stern as he stared into the eyes of the Goddess slouched in the chair before him. Only to falter ever so slightly as he saw a new emotion cross over her face, it took him a couple of seconds to place it and understand why it had bothered him a little but then he understood the look she was now giving him.
She was confused.
"Do…oh, you mean turning him young?" Hanleth queried, he nodded once but her puzzled expression remained, her golden eyes moved between himself and Ash several times, then her head tilted to the side and her brows furrowed. "Why are you mad about that?"
Ritsuka opened his mouth to reply, then snapped it shut.
A deep breath was taken in, then exhaled through his nose. The arm pointed towards Ash lowered itself back down towards his side, the frown lessened only a little. "You do know who he is, don't you? I mean…You have to know. You called him Gawyn so you do know who he actually is, right?"
"Yes…" A slow reply, the Goddess bobbed her head up and down, though he was only marginally disgruntled by the fact she was looking at him as though he was the idiot here. All of this seemed rather simple to him. Either she knew who he was and didn't care or she didn't know who he was and made a mistake. "He's Gawyn…didn't you know? Shouldn't you have known? Aren't you contracted to one another-"
"I know-" Clipping his tone short, he fought back the urge to snap at her as he felt his emotions start to get the better of him. Another exhale of breath and he placed his hands on his hips, hanging his head low and closing his eyes. "Just…why did you turn him into a child?"
"...Because his older self would never have appreciated all this work." The simple explanation had him raise his head, he probably wasn't the only one to feel confused at it, indeed he watched Ash jolt ever so slightly before leaning forwards and listening more intently. Hanleth frowned as she glanced between the two of them, unfolding her arms as she did so. "I mean, you've seen who he grows up into, right? He's like…my complete opposite. All work and no play…I couldn't really let something like that happen so it was just easier to make him really young to work again from scratch so that he didn't want to break everything. This took quite a while, you know? And he's got this really glum feeling about him…He just came down here and I couldn't see anything that would make him relax so…"
She waved her fingers in Ash's direction. "There. Make Gawyn young and problem solved, he's still a little bit uptight but it's better than it was…at least this way he can actually learn to appreciate everything that I put into here…or asked to be put into?" she paused for a moment, a thoughtful look flashing across her face. "...Yeah, I told them what to do so it technically also counts as my work as well."
"Wait…no…hang on…" He felt as though he had a pounding headache, bringing his hands up to nurse at his temples as the full weight of her explanation bounced around inside his head, peeling away his left hand to point towards her. "You turned Ash into a kid because you knew that if he was all grown up he would really not like this theme park?"
"You have met him, right?" Hanleth looked bemused at his words, like he was speaking another language. "His old self just didn't work so I just…made a few changes here and there so he appreciated it…also…"
"...Also?"
"...He was taller than me."
It was like he'd been slapped in the face, taking a step backwards and widening his eyes at her. His jaw hung low as an incredulous sound rippled out from the back of his throat. "H-he was what?"
"Yeah, it was embarrassing!" She actually whined at him. "I'm the older sister! Me! How come he gets to be taller than me all of a sudden? That just isn't fair! A little brother is supposed to be little! That's why they're called little brothers and my older brother is a big weirdo and I don't want to have another brother like that! One is bad enough but two of them? No way!"
Nevermind being slapped, it felt as though he was being hit with a three up, three down combo to the face without getting any breaks.
Her reasoning before sounded barely passable as was.
Sure, Ash wouldn't have liked a theme park and he could grant her that, he could see the initial suggestion of the Avenger to just tear it down so they could all go home or something.
Fine, from a pragmatic standpoint it made sense.
That didn't mean he liked it, but it made sense.
This reason on the other hand?
"You…you turned him into a child…" Ritsuka repeated slowly, just to make sure he was actually understanding what she was saying to him, that was if her incensed look wasn't evidence enough or the fact she was in the middle of some laboured breathing following her rant. "Because he was taller than you an-wait…little brother? You're his older sister…?"
Suddenly it all made a lot of sense to him and the messy familiar coloured hair was a lot more striking to him than it had been earlier, his eyes closed as he lowered his head into his hands and groaned into them.
Not another one.
Surely this could not be happening to him with another member of that family causing him problems. It surely was not happening again with him being dragged into this sort of weird unhinged drama.
"I just…" Hanleth coughed into her fist, sleeve and took in a deep breath. "I just said that…I mean I'm his much older half-sister but it still counts…I only managed to get a couple of centimetres height on him though but it still seemed worth it at the time…" she pouted once again, folding her arms indignantly. "But he keeps wearing the helmet…I just wanna see my cute little brother when I can pamper him and beat him at-I mean teach him how to play games."
She really just let her true intentions slip there, didn't she?
"You know…just help him slack off." Another yawn bubbled out from her as she fell back into her chair, bringing up a hand and pointing a drooping sleeve towards the direction of Ash, slightly narrowed eyes. "I just don't approve of what he grows into so I am using my right as a big sister to make some serious changes to his lifestyle."
His hands sought out his head once again, feeling a new exhaustion fall right on top of his shoulders once again. A faint groan escaped his lips, eventually pulling his hands back down and staring at the Goddess with his fingers tented over the front of his nose. "Listen, alright…Whether or not you think that his life is bad you can't just turn him into a child without his consent-"
"Of course I can." Hanleth cut him off rather sternly, the image of lethargy replaced with something close to annoyance as she stared right back towards him, bringing up her arm and gesturing towards him. "Did you not hear me? I'm his big sister, it's supposed to be my job to make sure he's actually being sensible when things go wrong. He was never going to accept it so I just did it anyway."
He frowned. "Like the guests you forcibly invited?"
"Yes." Another nod of the head, completely devoid of shame or guilt. Then a sigh as she shook her head from side to side, closing her eyes and falling back into her chair. "I like people but sometimes you all work too hard and don't take breaks…that's what this place is all about, you know? A big theme park where you can all relax and take some well needed rest and relaxation. None of you would have accepted it because you're all so work focused so I took it upon myself to get you all here."
That prompted a frown from him, hands returning to his hips as he took a step backwards, looking the Goddess up and down as he considered her words. The things she was talking about and the way she was speaking, it all seemed as though it was much too simple. The motivation for making this was just…he wasn't disappointed by it but he felt as though there was something more to it.
Then again…this was the Goddess of Bliss, or so she claimed to be, so from the sounds of it she was just doing what she was supposed to do. If there was one other thing he learned it was that Gods were really headstrong as well, nor could he disagree with her assessment of Ash, but that didn't suddenly make it acceptable even if he did.
"Is that…really it?" Mash's question was asked rather tentatively, looking to him for a brief moment which he capitalised with a nod of support, she continued onwards. "Did you really make this Singularity just to generate a theme park?"
"Why would I lie about that?" Hanleth queried, looking rather puzzled by the question. Opening her eyes once more and narrowing them slightly at the Shielder. "Well…the resort wasn't the first idea I came up with, admittedly…I thought about a spa but then decided it was too much effort and it wouldn't appeal to everyone, then there was the ocean cruise but trying to find a Servant with a boat for a mount was too much hassle…Then I thought about a big movie theatre…but it seemed like a lot of effort."
"So you settled on a park?" The summary was met with confirmation, which seemed to be rather weird to him. "Okay but…doesn't that seem like more effort than literally all the other things that you just listed beforehand?"
A chortle from Hanleth, waving her hand slightly. "Yeah but I just outsourced all the work for that so I skipped out on the effort."
Somehow he wasn't surprised in the least.
Though there was something else that he was rather puzzled by, furrowing his brows he brought his head up. "Wait so…I'm going to assume you used the Holy Grail to bring all the other Servants here, right? So…how come you didn't take everyone else here as well?" his eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he watched the Goddess freeze on the spot, glancing awkwardly to the side. "...And does it have anything to do with the clear signs of damage on the outer walls?"
"W-whaaaa…No…" She could not have looked more obvious if she tried, even combined with an almost comical drop of sweat trickling down the side of her face, pupils shaking and an exaggerated wave of the hand. "Nothing happened, it was just that I needed a break, that's all, and didn't want to get everyone down here in one go…s-spread everything out and all of that to ease all the Servants in!"
Gradually, he brought a single brow up.
"...Okay so…maybe there might have been a tiny problem." She pinched her fingers together, or he assumed at least. He couldn't see on account of the fact her hands were still hidden up her large sleeves. "Which might have caused me to focus less on the rest of you…for a while so I had to wait for you all to show up instead…"
Silently, he folded his arms over his chest and shifted his weight onto one leg. "Uh-huh."
A small glance upwards, he met the eyes of Chris with the stone faced Servant shifting her own weight once again as though to match his posture. Though she didn't say anything to discredit the Goddess this time around, he couldn't help but figure that her silence was the most telling about it. Like she was just content to let this all play out.
Looking back at Hanleth, the Goddess kept her hands up for a few short moments, then dropped them back down with a light thud and exhaled. "Alright, fine…I made a big invite across the throne for my resort and some people showed up who aren't all that interested in relaxing, I mean…I don't see what the problem was? I just sent them a little ad and then they showed up and started fights with everyone for some reason!"
And she was back to whining again, literal whining at that, completely with the flapping of her arms.
Not that he could really criticise her for it, "Yeah…so I'm going to assume that they took up all the attention so you needed to focus on defending the park, right? Would explain why you have Solaire acting as a guard around here and all those big golems…And the Berserker?"
"Yeah…" Hanleth calmed down, sniffling for a moment. "So I had to wait for you to show up…so I could ask for help." she pointed upwards. "Chris is very good but I'm working her too hard and I want her to have a break."
He waited for more.
He didn't get anything else.
"I have told you before." Chris remarked stoically from her perch. "I am most comfortable-"
"No way!" Hanleth sounded aghast at her words, whipping her head up and then pointing an arm towards her. "I'm not having you walking around my resort with your only positive memory being cutting things up! That's way too savage, you should be taking the time to kick up your feet or something…or just think of it as hibernating?" she sounded rather strained at that, like she was just searching for the word.
A faint sigh from the direction of Chris, their head turned to the side ever so slightly but otherwise they said nothing else.
"Right, nevermind all of that." Shaking his head, he brought his attention once more to the Goddess. "So all this was just you making up a resort for people to relax in and then some troublemakers showed up and started to spoil the fun for everyone else, so you now need us to sort them out so people can get back to relaxing again, right?"
The Goddess raised an arm and opened her mouth, then paused and blinked twice, lowering her arm and nodding her head up and down. "That is…actually it, yes. Wow…I should get you to speak for me, it doesn't sound nearly as long and saves lots of time." a pause, the woman shifted and moved slightly closer, leaning forwards almost as though there were stars in her eyes. "Say…would you-"
"I'm not becoming your spokesman." He answered in the flattest voice he could manage, all but ignoring the pout he got from her.
"I've acknowledged this place but right now…" Pausing, he brought his hand up to rub his temples, something he was finding himself doing with increasing frequency at this point in time. "Listen…I get the idea behind it but you can't just go around kidnapping people and then turning others into children on the spot. That's just…no one is going to be relaxed if that happens to them."
A tilt of the head. "The others got over it very quickly though. Even the rude tree spirit is quieter now that he's gotten all those documentaries to watch."
What?
"What?" He blinked once, then twice. "Sulyvahn?"
She couldn't mean-
"Yeah, him."
She actually did!?
"Wha…how…?"
"I mean, he was really mean at first." Hanleth frowned. "Not a lot of polite comments and talking about…things that I won't repeat but he calmed down when I gave him a little movie theatre with loads of documentaries on it…I mean, if that's what he likes but I found it a little boring but that's better than nothing, right?"
He traded glances with Boudica at that, the Rider looked just as bewildered as he currently felt with the two of them looking back at the Goddess.
"...Alright then…they can leave any time they want?"
Hanleth frowned at his words. "I mean…yes? But are you really going to come down and take them all away now? They've been working really hard and some of them have a lot of stress…doesn't that seem a little cruel to you?" she accused him with narrowed eyes. "They get a moment of respite and then you come down to steal it away from them without a word of warning?"
"H-hang on-"
"Do not try to turn this around onto us." Boudica was quick to respond to that, folding her arms with a stern frown. "We were not summoned to play party games and there is no denying that this Singularity cannot be allowed to exist permanently. This was always going to happen and you've already shown a certain lack of good faith when it comes to stealing things away without a word of warning."
The rebuttal was quick.
"I'm a Goddess. I know when people are stressed out and there is a lot of that going around in Chaldea right now. You all seem to be making a big deal out of nothing." A frown, she brought her arms up and waved them around. "There's a lot of nasty things I could have done with a Holy Grail but I choose to make up a nice resort for you all to relax in and all you do is complain about it? Where is the honest harm in making it so that people aren't overworked? You know you can die from that."
This was seriously getting out of hand-
"She might be right about that." Gareth muttered, he shot her a bemused glance as the Lancer cupped her chin. "Agravain looked worse and worse every time I saw him, he would always send me these really weird looks when I told him to take a break though…I guess he was just really worried about what everyone would do without him."
The comment by Gareth wasn't as quiet as she might have thought, or maybe they just had good hearing but either way, Hanleth took that as a vindication as she swung her arm up and pointed towards the direction of the Lancer. "See? That just means that this is good work that I'm doing, so really I don't see what the problem is-"
Bringing his hands up, he waved them down and silenced the room. "Right, this isn't about whether or not taking a break is a problem. You literally just kidnapped people just so they could enjoy a holiday…I would be less upset if you had just…I don't know, made the Singularity and then waited for us to find it in the first place?" he shrugged his shoulders as he offered the suggestion, then gestured towards Ash. "And trusted him not to go ballistic the second he laid eyes on it because he's really been trying."
Ash turned ever so slightly, the corner of their eye slit fell onto him while the Saber remained oddly silent.
"This is-"
"A pointless discussion based on what-ifs." Chris's voice shifted, turning slightly more intense. "We are trapped in a loop. You do not approve, the Director will not change her stance. You have different opinions, accept it and move on."
Move on?
This wasn't just-
…Great.
A short breath, then he dropped his arms to his side and lowered his voice. "Just…change him back to the way he was, please."
"No."
Ritsuka gave a slow blink as he stared at the Goddess, she didn't even so much as hesitate when she shot down his suggestion. Rather, she was now looking somewhat offended that he had even asked in the first place, folding her arms over her chest and giving him a determined gaze.
"No." Parroting back to her, he pursed his lips and slowly raised a brow. "What do you mean, no?"
"I mean I'm not changing him back while you're here." She simply explained, then sighed. "Trying to change isn't the same as changing and I know how stubborn my siblings can be so I'm not going to take the chance and besides, this is him being the most accepting of this resort in the first place. Not only would his older self spoil the fun for himself but it would also extend to everyone else."
She made it sound as though she was doing him some sort of favour.
"So you're just going to keep him like that?" He gestured to the little Saber, taking a step forward only to pause at the intense wave which passed over him, his body locked up and his eyes snapped up a second later.
She hadn't moved from her spot, but suddenly he became all too aware of Chris in that one moment, especially as her eyes were now aimed solely upon him and not towards Medusa, he could see the glow behind her rose tinted glasses, the slitted orbs which issued the silent warning of what would happen if he took another step. Neither one of them blinked as they stared at the other, for what felt like eternity there was nothing. Then he slipped back and just like that, the feeling vanished.
Hanleth raised an eyebrow at him, clearly oblivious to what had transpired but soon dismissing it. "Yes, I am. I'm going to leave him like that because sooner or later he is going to understand that this is a good thing while his older self is way too biased about everything related to the family…" she paused, then frowned lightly as she stared him in the eye. "Or are you going to tell me that he would welcome me with open arms when he found out about our relationship?"
"You don't know that."
"Of course I do." She rolled her eyes. "Even if I wasn't his sister, I am the Goddess of relaxation…when was the last time he did anything relaxing that wasn't somehow related to being useful somewhere else?" her eyes snapped down and narrowed on him. "...Just go and think it over, then come back and let me know…the very least you can do is just take him around and explore the park before you come barging in here and demanding I undo it…being a kid is supposed to be when you're most free." she brought her hand up, then pointed towards Ash. "What freedoms did he have as a kid?"
…She really did go from looking lazy and bored to hitting every single nail in his heart, huh?
Now he felt rather conflicted, glancing to the back of the Saber's head and then towards the Goddess once more.
"...I need to relay this anyway." He muttered to the Goddess, taking another step away from the chair and turning ever so slightly, looking her up and down for a few short moments before he closed his eyes. "Look…I can tell that you at least mean well and the idea behind it is…I get it, alright? Just…"
Unsure of what else he was supposed to say, he turned his head away from her and started to walk back the way he came, stepping over the pillows and through the trash. The headache he had felt grew even heavier as he moved, his mind cycling through her words and the fact she had something of a minor point.
Minor.
None of which justified the kidnapping.
He paused only for a moment as he realised something, turning and looking over his shoulder towards the Goddess with furrowed brows. "By the way…who is actually attacking the resort?"
The expression of Hanleth shifted into a grimace. "...Chaos Demons."
She slumped into her chair when she finally felt them return to the elevator and begin their return down towards the main resort, her expression kept thin before she lowered her eyes and stared down towards her legs, pulling them up closer and wrapping her arms about them. Hugging them tight.
A crinkle of chains, the weight atop the chair vanished and she caught a blur of movement in the corner of her eye as the Saber jumped down from their perch and returned to ground level. Their back facing her for a few short moments, they turned around slowly to face her, keeping their expression devoid of judgement.
"...Not great first impressions, right?" She huffed quietly, diverting her eyes from Chris and towards her knees. The Saber remained silent, prompting her to continue on. "...Just figured that most of them would have said no if I asked them, I don't like seeing them like that…all worked up and stressed. I hate it. I hate seeing them like that."
More silence.
"I know you'd just tell me that I should have just approached them or gotten Pharros to do it for me, but what was I supposed to say?" A mirthless scoff, she buried her face into her knees and let out a long sigh into them. "Please just put aside a couple of weeks from your important mission to enjoy some rest and relaxation because I'm worried that you're all overworked? Also please ignore the Holy Grail that I've got."
"You should have known they would disapprove."
The quiet comment from Saber gave her pause, she flinched at the words but otherwise kept silent, instead she hugged her knees closer to herself.
"...Oh. I see." That was all the confirmation she needed for them to realise they did know. "Are you getting upset over something you knew was going to happen?"
"...He's my little brother." Her voice was muffled, drawing her head up and looking towards Chris with a tilt of the head and a small sniffle. "Is that so bad of me to try and make sure he and his friends actually have a good time somewhere? I can't just not act when I see humans like that…it's just not in my nature to let something like that slide without making an attempt. Even if they don't understand it - especially if they don't understand it - I can't let that happen."
Chris kept silent, their eyes locked onto her own, then their head turned away from her and towards the door. "...What if they return?"
"...I think they'll give it a try at least, just for the sake of it."
A shrug of the shoulders, she wasn't certain of that but she knew what human nature was like. They wouldn't be able to resist something like this, eventually they would give in and actually open up their minds and see what it was she was trying to achieve for them here. She wasn't expecting it immediately but she hoped that they could move past this less than stellar first meeting.
"When they see that Gawyn is starting to open up, then I'm sure they'll stick around. They care about him enough to want him to have some fun, to relax."
Chris lowered her head only an inch. "They will return eventually, it is not a permanent situation either way."
Hanleth sniffled once again, then dropped her shoulders. "Yeah, I know Chris…but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't do it. I like people, I really like them all…even those Demons that cause a ruckus." a frown came upon her face as she glanced at the Saber with furrowed brows. "I can't let that slide, just because they are different doesn't mean they should be excluded. I just…I just want everyone to get some time to relax."
"...If that is what you want." Chris' simple comment nearly brought a smile to her, but that was neither here nor there. Her attention remained on the Saber. "I will just do as you ask."
"What about you?"
The Saber paused only for a moment, a slight tensing of their shoulders. "...I am fine."
Hanleth didn't believe that for even a second, or maybe it was just a way for her to say that she was physically fine. She'd call that a truth if nothing else, claiming she did answer the question. That was something funny with Chris, avoiding the question with another truth. Still, this was what they wanted so it would play out.
Physically fine.
She was physically fine.
There was no damage suffered during the meeting, there was no need for violence, they had not pushed to the point where she had needed to act. It might have come close, but it never surpassed that point.
As for how that made her feel…relieved.
It wasn't that she didn't want to kill them, she cared nothing for whether the human and his Servants lived or died but it was…she did not wish for a fight to be what decorated their first encounter with one another. One that would lead to one or possibly both of them being killed.
That would be…
Something she did not want.
Her feet carried her forwards, the world turned to a blur of shapes and colour and a hum of the air as she pulled herself from the lair of the director and into the outside world, she had not lied. She was physically fine, though with how she felt in her heart, she did not know the answer to that. There was no way she could have known the answer to that.
A faint crack, she halted atop the battlements and stared down onto the park, keeping her eyes fixed on the distant figures of the human and the others leaving the base and starting their march further into the park. She kept her eyes on them, the incredible distance meant nothing between her and her target.
Easy to spot, almost too easy, but maybe that was the point of it.
So simple now where it was impossible before.
"Snake watching, are we?"
Her gaze snapped from the figure towards the new arrival, leaning over the battlements in a rather casual pose with his head leaning from side to side as though trying to get a better look at what was down there, a false gesture. His sight was just as good as hers, his words proved he knew of what she was doing.
With that said.
"...Don't call it that."
A pause, Lancer gradually turned his head towards her and raised a lone brow, then shrugged his shoulders in a clear sign of disinterest. "If you say so, at least one of us is getting something interesting out of this…could hear the raised voices from out here."
A sharp smile came to his lips, a whistle and his focus was back on the human and their Servants. "Quite a pair of lungs on the little ant. Very nice…see if he folds or not, would be interesting if he doesn't but at the same time, I hope he does." he stepped up from the battlements, pressing his palms flat against the stone. "Give me a little more time to get to know them. Probably something you hope for as well, right?"
She did not answer it, but she did not need to.
Not when the answer was so obvious.
"Heh, right." A nod of the head from Lancer, followed by another hum. A faint grunt and he pushed himself up and soon stood beside her, hands on his hips and posture rather loose and one - an ignorant one - would almost say vulnerable. "...So what was it like meeting her for the first time, anyway?"
…She didn't know how to answer that.
She hadn't really said anything to her, in that way it was much the same as just hearing of her in stories. Just with a face attached to the name now, not like hers, the original face. They said nothing to her and she said nothing to them, but merely being in the same room as them was…
"...Odd. I thought she would be…" What was she searching for? What word would encapsulate what she was feeling? "...Bigger?"
"...You don't mean plain old height, do you?"
He spoke mockingly but he knew the answer to the question, all the same she glowered at him for the remark. She could feel the smile on his lips even if she could not see it, he kept his head turned from her and his sight aimed down, not once having moved away from his own target of interest.
"But yes, I can empathise with that." A shallow sigh. "It seems as though we were both a little spoiled by the tall tales and now when we stand before the sight before us, all we can say is…oh. The mystery is more tantalising than the answer, years searching for something that when it stands before you, the possibilities all come to a single end. The imagination, the thoughts and hypotheticals are done. You're left with a single truth."
Lancer turned, red eyes met hers. "...Do you want to pursue this truth?"
After so long of not knowing, after so many years of ignorance…
"I do."
It was the easiest question she had ever answered.
"Then what's done is done and it will not just before the sake of Hanny that this Singularity is extended." He jerked a head towards the direction of the tower before cracking another grin, then turned down and reached towards something, she raised a lone eyebrow as he pulled forth the crossbow harpoon and took aim with it. "Now then…I'll get a headstart when it comes to our little family member hunt, though I look forward to seeing your progress. Remember, hold nothing back."
Her eyes crinkled at his words, but he shot off - rather literally - before she could offer a rebuttal for him. Keeping his back in her sight as he descended back to the world via a zipline and dropped down into the crowds before rushing off.
Hold nothing back?
Her eyes fell to her hand, staring at it for a moment before she clenched it into a fist.
…Emotionally, yes. She would hold nothing back.
Physically…that was another matter.
He came out of that meeting, or encounter being a better word for it, with a little bit more on his mind than he probably expected. He wasn't sure what he should have prepared for but it definitely wasn't that.
Placing his hands on his hips, drawing his lips thin and turning his head up to stare for the clouds. "Well…that was a thing."
"Not exactly the best first impressions, no." Gareth agreed with him rather quickly, drawing a raised eyebrow from him. The Lancer quickly brought her hands up and waved them from side to side. "Oh no, that's nothing against you, Master. Just that the first impressions weren't very good all the same. Sure, this place sounds nice but they did steal a bunch of Servants…then again…they are a divine spirit so…?"
Yeah, and if they were one of Gwynevere's kids then they were probably not used to people telling them that something was bad. They probably would just go ahead and do it all the same, he'd come to expect the same thing from pretty much all of the divine spirits at this point. Going ahead and doing what they want and then letting others pick up the pieces, not that it was behaviour limited to divine spirits.
He'd met plenty of people like that in the past.
"I was more bothered about just turning A…Gawyn into a kid, to be honest." He remarked, gesturing towards the direction of the Saber and grimacing, briefly noting that they didn't react to being called out. "That seemed to be…well, she seemed to know a lot about him and then just jerks him back to this point in his life on the spot without consulting him which seemed a little…yeah, I'm not a big fan of that-"
"Why?"
He blinked, then turned to the Saber and tilted his head. "Hm?"
Ash slowly turned to face him, the helmet covering his expression as they spoke again. "Why did she say she didn't approve of me? She talked about my life, my existence…and then said she didn't like it? Why did…why did she say that to me? That…" a pause, they lowered their head and stared down. "If she is also…She called herself my sister but I don't understand what that means. She said it was her right to change me but that doesn't make sense. I don't understand."
Ritsuka felt his lips pull into a slow grimace. "Yeah…listen, it's not…people sometimes do things that others don't approve of-"
"No…she is mothers daughter." Ash continued onwards, strength entering his voice as well as something else. "She is Mother's daughter. Why does she not agree with who I am? Why does she not agree with mother? And why…" a pause, then suddenly took a step away from him and looked right at him, through the eyeports it felt as though their gaze widened. "...You didn't say anything."
"What?"
"When she said she didn't approve of my life, you didn't discredit her."
Ritsuka froze but said nothing, instead he pulled his expression tight.
"...She said she wanted to turn me away from mothers path and you said nothing against that." Ash continued onwards, their posture loosened the longer they went on. Then their voice cracked as something else entered it. "She said she changed me and wouldn't change me back and you…let the matter slide? Why did you do that?"
"I didn't let it slide." The reply was slow, bringing up his hand a little."I just…took a step back so we could approach the conversation at a later date-"
"What conversation? Where I'm…where I'm pulled away from my duty? Why don't you want me to do that?"
"It's not…I…" He grimaced and turned his head to the side, gritting his teeth. "That's not what it's about. Just that-"
"I-it's because I'm small now, right?" He was left rather surprised by the waver in Ash's voice as they clenched their hand into a fist, their sword arm dropped down with the blade still in their grasp, clattering against the stone floor and chipping the path with the tip of the weapon. "Y-you don't think I can do it anymore, right? That's why you…that's why you're fine with leaving me like this, isn't it?"
"No, Ash, listen-"
"And why do you keep calling me that?" They cut him off, taking a step forwards and slamming a fist into their chest. An echoing crack as the gauntlet bounced off the breastplate with all the force of a gunshot. "You keep calling me Ash but my name is Gawyn. It has always been Gawyn…they talk about my older self and then they say they don't like him but…but what's wrong with him? I just want to fulfil my duty but you don't…do you not want me to? I-is it because you don't believe I can? Because I'm…because I'm not like I was before? Because I can't remember?"
"No!" He stepped forwards, raising his voice. "Look, it's not about whether I think you can or can't but-"
"You said that I didn't need to ask you to be patient…was that because you found someone else?" Their voice wavered, suddenly sounding very small and very frightened, like the child they were at this very moment. Their head snapped around, looking to each of the different Servants assembled before it whipped back to him, they took another step away, having come to some conclusion. "Is that why they're here? So that you don't need me anymore? So that I-because I'm not as good?"
"What?" Ritsuka was now horrified, gaping at the Saber. "No! They're here to help!"
"Because you don't think I can do it anymore, right!? You don't think I can-" They paused, then clenched their hand and swung it down, clasping the handle of their sword and bringing it up. "I can still do it! I can still fulfil my duty even when I'm like this! You don't need to replace me with them, you don't need to get rid of me be-because I'll…" their voice hitched.
Swinging the blade around, they pointed it towards everyone present, though the rattle of the shaking arms was soon drowned by their quivering words. "You can't take it from me because…I-I'll get it back! You'll see that I can still do it! I can still do my duty so you don't need to replace me! I promise I can still do it so-"
The sword, whether it was by Ash's real feelings or not, ignited with bright orange flames.
The second that happened, the Saber stopped moving entirely, the only sound above the crackle of fire along the edge of the greatsword was a single sharp breath, almost like a squeak as the attention of the child became utterly focused on the sword.
In that instant, several things happened.
The first was that the sword was suddenly jerked from his hand, flung away by the wielder himself.
The next was that Mash stepped around and parried the burning weapon into the ground with enough force to bury it to the hilt.
The last was that Ash made a noise of genuine horror, falling back onto the ground and then scrambling away from the buried weapon, crawling along the ground while giving laboured breaths as he moved as fast as he could to put as much distance between the sword and himself as possible.
Silence.
Ritsuka stared with wide eyes and parted lips at the panting Saber as they finally stopped their retreat, a crack in their breathing as they sat up, still panting and looking at their trembling hands before their helm turned in the direction of the now buried sword.
"N-no…wait…that wasn't…that didn't…I…" The words of Ash were cracked and confused, their voice shifting every couple of seconds as they couldn't decide on where they were supposed to look. "I-I just wasn't expecting the sword to-that's not-I can still-I promise it wasn't the fire so…I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"
It devolved into a series of whimpered apologies as the Saber remained on seated on the floor, splayed out with their hands dropping to their side and their head hanging low, the mutters of the child made him feel hideous in that one moment. He took a single step forwards, soon followed by another and then another, finding himself standing before the Saber after a few moments.
He dropped down to one knee, right in front of the Servant, their next apology was cut short as they realised where he was.
"Gawyn." He began, their head slowly rose up to meet him. "...You are an irreplaceable Servant to me. No matter what form you take, young or old…I would never replace you. I trust you with my life." he reached out with his hands, placing them gently on the shoulders of the Servant. "You understand? I am never replacing you."
A faint gulp, the next words were barely above a whisper. "...You mean that…?"
"Absolutely."
"...Sorry."
"Not your fault, Gawyn." Shaking his head from side to side, he slowly pushed himself back up to his feet, the helm tracked his movements as he did so. "Rough day for all of us…best we get back on track, yeah? Get your missing height back. Right?"
He extended a hand towards the child, they stared at the outstretched limb for a few seconds in silence, then brought up their own to clasp it. "R-right…" with their hand firmly in his grasp, he gave a brief tug and pulled them back onto their feet. "...Sorry for the unsightly display…"
"Again. Not your fault." He dismissed the apology quickly, he was never going to accept an apology for something like that in the first place. Moving his other hand around and resting it atop the helmet and giving it an echoing pat, then turning around and pausing as he once again found himself staring into the eyes of Boudica, this time the eyes being those that demanded answers.
Yeah…he figured he wasn't getting away with leaving it there.