ataraxion | ♕ 6th - voice - Death and the Maiden

( looking and feeling terribly (though admittedly not a fraction as terribly as many others, elizabeth opts to communicate by voice. she sounds faint, tired and a little short of breath. )

One year, a maidservant of mine told me of a sweating sickness in the city. I bade her return home that day. She never returned. Never thought I to witness such horrors as the plague firsthand. My sister, Mary was taken by such an illness. This time, I hope it will be different and that Fortune's wheel will spin in our favour.

If there be a cure to this malady, I pray that it is to be found soon. Perhaps this mysterious blue substance is the key. Though if not, a poet by the name of John Lydgate captured a strange and dark sort of solidarity in his verse titled "The Dance of Death":

"In this mirror every person may find
the he needs to join this dance.
Who goes in front - and who goes behind
all depends on God’s arrangement,
which is why each man lowly accepts his fate.
Death spares neither poor nor royal blood.
Each man should therefore remember
that God has forged all of one matter."

No matter the outcome, we are all of us to share the same fate. Whether it be happy as I pray, or no.

( a long pause, as she smothered a sneeze in the background. ) Pardon me.

If anyone would like, I can play my music, or provide company for any who desire it. It is the least I might do as so many of you have been kind to me since my arrival.

( and as an addendum, a failed renfaire encryption lock to ilde: )

Dearest friend, I hope you are passing well. I would ask a boon, despite this being a trying time. If I may, I am in need of a place to rest my head. Can I stay with you for some time?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm gonna be honest, I've never even heard of Yule. [ but she sounds amused by it rather than anything negative. ] Is it some kind of holiday?

Ah! My apologies. I believe its modern counterpart is called Christmas.

[ with a hint of a grin in her voice: ] That one I've heard of.

( there is now a hint of curiosity in hers. ) Good! Might I inquire upon how it is celebrated?

I assume it has changed quite a great deal.

Can't help you there. I've of it, but nobody's celebrated it in-... hell, at least seventy years.

[ and sounding almost amused, like she knows it sounds odd: ] Something about lights on a tree and candy in giant socks over the fire.

In... a century, truly? What manner of occasions do your people celebrate, in such a case?

( ah.. hm. she can feel the corners of her mouth twitch upward, and the warmth lightens her tone. ) That is how it is observed in the future.

There was a yule log which we burned in the great hearth, and a fool to amuse the children. The festivities also last much longer than one day, at home. There is a Lord of Misrule, and all manner of things. I must confess, I miss such occasions now. We must hold them, every few months, should we not?

We should, yeah. [ it's not a holiday she's used to, but any excuse to boost morale, right? ]

Back on the Ark, we celebrated Unity Day. That's-... Well okay, after the nukes were launched and most of civilization burned, Unity Day was the day when the 12 space stations that were left decided to band together and survive as some kind of team.

( morale is extremely important, be it for a kingdom—or a bunch of people who've been abducted to an evil spaceship and put through the wringer. )

Nukes? What are they? ( oh no, there are no words. civilization burned? she is beyond horrified. aghast. the smile flees from her voice, leaving it soft and solemn. )

I am truly sorry that you have suffered through such events, Raven. But that would be something to celebrate, I agree.

( bittersweet as it might be. )

[ oh god, she's gotta be the one to tell the ren faire what nukes are. of course she is. who else would it be? ]

Nukes, they're... explosives, but bigger. Instant death for everyone within forty miles, third-degree burns for another seventy-five.

( well: she doesn't know what explosives are, with regards to tnt or bombs. but she is familiar with cannon, and what raven describes draws more than enough parallels to those in terms of the scope of damage and fatalities that she thinks she can get the general idea. and then expand upon it, with the horrifying detail she is given.

elizabeth pales a great deal, and is thankful that this conversation is voice-only. )

Siege weapons. ( on an infinitely larger scale, but. ) And how many souls were able to survive these attacks?

As far as we knew? Only the ones who were already in space. A few thousand at most.

[ but then they got back to earth and had a hell of a shock waiting for them. ]

Now? I have no idea. We thought it took out the whole population, but I guess somehow a few people made it. We've run into... shoot, forty-five grounders maybe? [ run into and subsequently waged war with. which leads her to grimly add: ] Most of them are dead by now, too. [ she saw to that personally. didn't have any other choice, really. ]

May God have mercy on their souls. I am truly sorry for such a great loss. That.. that is beyond terrible.

( though raven can't see it, she crosses herself, mentally noting that she should pray for them before she goes to bed tonight. no matter if they shared her faith or not, it feels like the right thing to do. they were living people. )

I cannot imagine so grievous a situation as that. ( her tone holds a quiet sombreness to it, as this is saddening. ) My own country has ever been at war. With other peoples and nations, as well as with itself.

War is a terrible thing, necessary as it often is.

[ she exhales an audible breath, a humorless sort of laugh. ] 'Necessary's a ship that sailed almost a century ago. Now we're running out of people to kill, and that's just to cover our own asses.

( raven, that is a horrifying statement. elizabeth pauses, stunned and aghast into complete silence for several long moments strung together before she can even think to reply. )

And what do you suppose your people shall do, when you inevitably do run out of enemies to slay? It almost sounds as though war has been the only way of life any of you have been able to know. But you must survive and live, also.

( she says this not to be condescending; not at all. but it is advice borne out of concern and experience, both. )

My country was at war with another for a century. In an era such as mine, it was a very long time, indeed. Only to fall into civil war less than one hundred years later for decades over the succession. War is all my people know, as well. All I have known. It may be difficult, but it can be done: living, and not simply surviving.

( because when war is no longer necessary, then war should stop. and life should resume, beginning with the picking up of all the pieces left scattered among the dead and the mud of the battlefields. )

Actually, war's kind of a brand new concept for us. [ she almost wishes it weren't. then they'd actually know what to do more than half the time. ] Wasn't such a new concept for the Grounders, though, so we caught on quick.

I would suppose it would not be, no. As long as human beings have existed, I think, there has been war. The classical tales are littered with accounts of them and the horrors left in their wake.

( and she has seen the result now plainly in her mind, with her uncle's body battered, bloodied and naked, cooling in the unforgiving summer sun. )

Raven, I am sorry that your people had to learn of such things in so horrible a manner.