king "#1 shitposter" gilgamesh (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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epidemiology2016-03-03 09:58 pm
babbylon) wrote in epidemiology2016-03-03 09:58 pm
Entry tags:
[closed] smartass little girl, always on the run.
CHARACTERS: Gilgamesh and Rin
DATE: March 5th
WARNINGS: Mild description of gore; nothing else anticipated.
SUMMARY: Gilgamesh checks in on Rin, now that she's had ample time for recovery.
[He really shouldn't be bothering with this.
He really shouldn't have bothered in the first place, but with that imagery stuck in his head—of a pretty girl, torn and tattered and pushed to the end of her life—he just couldn't stay away. It reminded him of Saber herself, bloody and broken on that wretched hill. Something beautiful caught in the midst of something tragic, which would always serve as a lure to the King of Heroes. Even if he'd promised to stay away. Even if this, more likely than not, was a bad idea.
Shishi precedes him, romping ahead in the hall and nosing his way into Rin's room without so much as an invitation. He snuffles and grunts, wags his tail excitedly, and perhaps it's for the best that Rin might see the mount before the master. He makes for a stunning image, too, padding on over to say hello.
It's as if he knows Gilgamesh may just need an extra bit of leverage before entering. They were technically still on sour terms, after all.]
DATE: March 5th
WARNINGS: Mild description of gore; nothing else anticipated.
SUMMARY: Gilgamesh checks in on Rin, now that she's had ample time for recovery.
[He really shouldn't be bothering with this.
He really shouldn't have bothered in the first place, but with that imagery stuck in his head—of a pretty girl, torn and tattered and pushed to the end of her life—he just couldn't stay away. It reminded him of Saber herself, bloody and broken on that wretched hill. Something beautiful caught in the midst of something tragic, which would always serve as a lure to the King of Heroes. Even if he'd promised to stay away. Even if this, more likely than not, was a bad idea.
Shishi precedes him, romping ahead in the hall and nosing his way into Rin's room without so much as an invitation. He snuffles and grunts, wags his tail excitedly, and perhaps it's for the best that Rin might see the mount before the master. He makes for a stunning image, too, padding on over to say hello.
It's as if he knows Gilgamesh may just need an extra bit of leverage before entering. They were technically still on sour terms, after all.]
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[That's it. That's all he can argue in his own defense, and he wouldn't bother with much more, anyway. In the face of her building anger, Gilgamesh appears numb. At the time, it had been quite an amusing farce, one he sneered to think of, but now...
Now, everything seems like one big waste, knowing what he could've had for a Master—but never would, not back home. Just a doddering magus overinvested in himself and his own affairs and a snake he helped foster, one that would someday become so poisonous that in another world and another time neither of them would ever get to see he'd lust after madness itself. A madness beyond wiping everything clean which even he could not espouse.
Gilgamesh just stares at her, eyes blank. It seems this is the extent of explanation she will receive on the matter.]
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rin glances away, gazing straight into her bed with such determination shishi might wonder why she isn't exactly staring at him. but her hands at her sides clench into fists, and the news is difficult to receive... although her face is unusually blank. now, it's hard to read. the anger has not dissipated—he would be a fool to believe that—but it's as if she's defeated, another tohsaka laid to waist or dead on her feet.
perhaps she would cry, if doing so in front of gilgamesh wasn't the equivalent of a death sentence in her eyes.
and still she speaks.]
Why would my father want to kill you? I thought our Servant was the only way we were able to access something spiritual like the Grail.
[she knows so little. could it be? she's so naive, even now.]
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Why would any Master desire to rid themselves of a Servant?
[There could be any number of reasons. For Tokiomi, it was because Gilgamesh was too rebellious, too independently minded—ironic given Rin's own inclinations towards acting by herself. In the end, Gilgamesh would've been a better fit for the daughter than the father. Rin had a sharp tongue, but her heart was kind. Gilgamesh had already seen through to the truth. Gilgamesh had learned, here, that it could've been better. It just wasn't.
His tongue turns sharp, too, thinking back on it.]
I am King; my law is absolute. But the reality is inescapable, even for one such as myself. We are bound in this realm, we act as your slaves because some corrupt artifact deems it appropriate. You magi, and your tendency to meddle... if anyone warps the world, it is your kind, not mine.
[So it was he that saw to drown everything in despair. But who was it that sustained him? None other than a man, one meddling fool who reached beyond himself.]
*waste, jeez
[rin mutters a reply while she's not facing him, but it could be no clearer. he did demand she listen to him, but she will defend herself and her kind when it delves into opinions rather than explicit facts.
after all, the way she sees it, she isn't denying magi are capable of wrongdoing. far from it, in fact. but there are some magi, those from lineages like the tohsaka's, who uphold the rules—avoid harm being dealt to regular humanity, use the holy grail's power for "noble" goals which were not, at least, composed of destroying or mass-warping the world.
above everything else, rin knows her father always had his reasons.
or else, this is what the image of her father she keeps with her in her heart tells her.]
If he was going to order you to commit suicide at the end, it would have been for a reason. [a reason outside of considerations like personality—as a proper magus, her father would have been immune to such things, she thinks.
desiring to kill gilgamesh was the same as implying, in her father's mind, that gilgamesh had to die for some important reason.
but, even as she stands there, and she realizes she doesn't know for sure if she could command her own servant to commit suicide for the holy grail, it finally dawns on her—she spills out the words mildly surprised by them herself:]
He left me your summoning catalyst as part of my inheritance...
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The Root.
[The words leave him as if sacred, though he could care less for them in truth. But for magi, it was the true Holy Grail. A power above and beyond all others, from which everything in the known world originated. A literal stairway to heaven, a door that extended outward, endlessly, to every path and every reality possible. Surely Rin had heard of it, at least. All magi lusted for it at their core.
Gilgamesh stares at the wall as he speaks, his expression turned away and otherwise unreadable beside.]
That is the prize your father sought. He dedicated every shred of his will to its discovery and exploitation. He loved it, the idea of it, even more than he loved you—you put him on pedestals, girl, but he was as selfish as any other magus. Unlike you, I could venture within his mind, and unlike you...
[His eyes flicker over his shoulder, cold, callous, cutting.]
I knew him in a fashion not even a daughter dream of. That is how I know these intentions to be truth.
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Wh-What? The Root...?
[it's not a concept beyond her knowing, certainly, but she also wasn't as fully educated on her father's true motives as gilgamesh might expect from the heir to his former master. her neck whips around and her blue eyes land on him like she doesn't notice; it was and is an unconscious gesture, she's so confused.
and yet he'll note she does not mourn her father's replacement of love for her with some other, perhaps less warm and familial goal. they were a family of magi. they weren't warm or human from the beginning. to the contrary, gilgamesh's answer lines everything up perfectly. gilgamesh must have needed to die to access the root—or that would be the case, if anyone wasn't aware the grail waiting for them was entirely corrupted.]
I don't know... anything about that... [suddenly on her guard—but not necessarily against him—rin stiffens, dropping her eyebrows in sadness and biting her bottom lip. barely, her head is shaking, her long hair shifting over her shoulders and across her chest.]
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Gilgamesh considers walking out on her. He should, by all rights, as it's become clear there are certain things she won't and can't understand. And he doesn't care to lay out every last card before her, not that it matters anymore. It doesn't matter, it stopped mattering the moment they left that world and entered another beyond the binding force of the Grail, where magi need not be makers of war and Servants need not be their instruments for it...
It doesn't matter, so in respect that, he turns on his heel again. He makes the trek back to her beside. He kneels. He looks at her and speaks low, free of his usual affect, free of anything, calling first to Shishi:]
Shishi, come.
[Shishi rouses himself from his dozing and nudges at Rin's side, affectionately.]
Rin. We both have made our own decisions, in faith that they are just and proper; those decisions lie behind us now. The decisions that lie ahead, however, have yet to be determined. I am not about to go hunting for your head, nor anyone else's. If you show me the olive branch...
[His hand reaches upward and outward, though it touches nothing. It is against the rules.]
If you show me peace, then I accept it. I have found my own now. My Master— [now, and only now, there is a crack in composure] —she cares for me.
[As Tokiomi could not and would not. All just part of a grander scheme, and yet he fell to another. Fitting, Gilgamesh thinks with everlasting bitterness.]
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her meek, almost surprised face remains. she's entranced by his ruby eyes, there's no escaping that, but she has not been trapped by them—she doubts them.]
What was "just and proper" about most of what you've done to me and Archer?
[rather than putting him on the spot, critiquing him for every single move, she's truly curious. if he's asking for peace, he would have to expect actions such as bugging her servant incessantly or pushing her into the side of a building for a bruising kiss wouldn't fly by unacknowledged.
the break of emotion for his master, too, is noteworthy. her expression tenses with some image of determination, although he would feel the impression it's only to communicate how serious she is.]
If you hurt Pearl, I won't stand for it. I need to ask you another question: Why is peace between us so important to you, especially now?
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[No, that's not entirely true. He knew it once, beside his brother, his lover, his friend, but that was so long ago that it feels like some days it may not even have existed at all. At the very least he doesn't speak of it to anyone else, beyond Pearl herself. She asks of him this and he must think.
He looks down at his own hand and murmurs, mostly to himself:]
To drown the world in a thousand curses... to reset what has been broken, to correct a collective mistake... to wage war, to scheme, to murder... I knew those things, or else I would know them, in this future that the lot of you would swear has claimed me. I do not deny it. I do not apologize for it.
[Apologizing meant acknowledging he'd done something beyond his own control, which he refuses to accept. Though he is not vengeful now. These are her answers, for better or for worse. This is the truth, whether she'd embrace it or spit upon it. For a man who seemed to favor falsehoods, he scorns them now.]
But here, there no longer lies a need for it. Hurt her? You forget already, the marks upon her hand, the same words she could speak—"kill yourself."
[Not that she'd ever. His hand becomes a fist, and he meets her determined glance with one of his own.]
I am Gilgamesh. I do as I please, with whomever I please, however I please. And at this time, it pleases me to follow a Master that preaches harmony.
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it's extraordinary, but it also makes sense to her in a way it only can for a heroic spirit like gilgamesh. this matches his antiquity and his morals. perhaps she could be more scathing against him, but rin has no urge to oppose what men such as him simply are—it's not her business, it's fruitless, it will go nowhere, and it doesn't interest her.
he might view it in the tremble that ripples through her features, her posture.
"peace" for the sake of enjoying peace one had never experienced before, or not experienced in some time, is effectively a convincing argument for rin. her wiser inner voice may deny gilgamesh's claims, suggest he's lying or his confessions are flimsy.
but she wants peace for archer. she wants peace for him, so even before she could resist, gilgamesh has won the battle of wooing her to his side.
at least, tentatively.
she bows her head, gazing at him uncertainly and questioningly.]
You're counting on me to take you at your word. That you say you want peace so you'll no longer cause us trouble. ... I would have to put my faith in you. I would just have to trust you turning over this new leaf somehow surpasses your misgivings towards my family and the Gilgamesh I know.
[he has already won her trust, to some small measure. she's so weak, really, thin and not well-defended in emotional matters.]
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I want what she wants.
[It's a simple sentiment, isn't it? It isn't because he's suddenly become so noble, or that he'd even try to convince he deserves forgiveness for his misdeeds. It's neither merited nor desired. Rather, it's because a much stronger force has entered his life now, a force he would be lost without. He remembers those days, during the winter, that he spent alone and miserable. As the enemies were closing in again. As the war seemed to start anew.
He could've handled it. He could've rid himself of them. But a different way had been presented to him. Maybe it was better and maybe it wasn't, maybe he'd come to regret approaching her and Archer and maybe he wouldn't. But for now, this is what his heart tells him to do. To accept the blow to his pride, to kneel at her bedside, and to give her what simply wasn't possible back home.
He bows his head, too, and does not meet her eyes. Briefly, yet undeniably a show of submission.]
I want... freedom. Would you not provide?
[If it is purposeful, this turn of phrase, then it is absolutely precise. He seems to know instinctively how to strike at the core of her.]
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she knows that, and she doesn't trust that pearl is responsible for all of this—this change of heart or halfway change or whatever it is—but she listens to him nonetheless. and some logical considerations surpass her emotions... some matters are inconsequential or she's daring enough to stay confident she can kill gilgamesh if he ever turns on her—
three servants are more powerful than a single one
some appeals to emotions surpass her logic, as always.
"I want... freedom. Would you not provide?"
he doesn't just stab, he stabs at the core of her, and she bleeds.
silently, rin places her hand over his upraised, curled fist—the hand that pleaded to accept hers in a gesture of peace, earlier—following it with the distant, ethereal but profoundly freeing shattering of magical glass in gilgamesh's mind: she has broken her own geas.]
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But the attack he expects never comes. Instead, a veil feels as though it's been lifted from his mind. Tentative trust extended. He looks up questioningly with wide eyes, as if to ask but why, though the answer arrives moments later. She takes his hand at last; his fingers unfurl around hers, easy and comfortable in the hold. Warm and welcoming. She grants him freedom, grants him peace, and not even the great tyrant and resist or act out in defiance.
Gilgamesh tilts his head down, and gently—briefly—presses his lips to her hand, as earnest as any knight.]
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sensation isn't blocked off for her, either, naturally. she feels his hand so giving and careful beneath hers, as if she was a precious jewel herself, and the soft contact of his lips to her skin is familiar; this time, there is markedly less aggression behind it.
that overwhelms her a little, but it would make her look weak to voice it, so rin tohsaka stands tall. she peers at him and her face is unbelievably red, blushing darker by the second. the show of his affection is too much, it's not needed, she thinks—but she's not so improper that she'd knock him off, and here she stands, awkwardly suffering while not really "suffering" at all—it betrays her age and how genuine she is.
gilgamesh will have to speak up next, as she doesn't offer a peep. he's quieted her. (but she's cute, isn't she?)]
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Gilgamesh, for once, does not overstep. He does not push his luck. He lets go. He gets back to his feet, schooling his features determined again. Shishi perks up, as he recognizes this face as the face that preceded an order of some kind, some command. But like that imaginary attack, this does not come, either.
He addresses her thus, and for the first time it is of clear respect:]
I do not know what will become of us. If I might serve as your enemy, or as your ally. If I might grow to hate the world so much that despair would eclipse my heart, or embrace it, as she has done without exception. I have wishes, I have desires, but whether or not they come to pass...
[Gilgamesh shakes his head, showcasing a rare uncertainty.]
Well, you magi make preparations for everything, don't you? For every scenario. For now I can only say [a faint smile] "we'll see".
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because it might not have sunken in, yet, but this is what gilgamesh is to her, now. boldly,]
I'm not done talking to you.
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Then speak.
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yeah, just—he should be grateful he can't read a teenage girl's overactive mind at the moment. (though her expressiveness makes everything about 100% obvious, anyway.)]
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This... This doesn't mean you're off the hook, you realize! I only broke it because now we're even. And you have even more work set ahead of you, to prove I can really trust you and you want peace— No, it's not going to be easier for you at all!
[but he will be "free".
she folds her arms underneath her chest, as if that will give her some leverage (or, more aptly, some stability). wow, she probably isn't going to use the correct words for this at all.]
You still are the Servant my father intended as mine, so for taking him away from me, I've... I've decided that you're "mine"! Just deal with it, because it isn't changing!
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However, his expression does twist into something sly when she speaks the words I've decided you're mine. He folds his arms, he taps his foot, and for a moment the air is uncertain. Had she offended him? Would this be the end of her, of the Tohsaka lineage itself?]
Yours, hm? That's bold of you to claim, but have you the means to prove it? Surely you can boast of more than just inheritance.
[...it would appear not. Instead, he's challenging her. As far as Archers go, this one may just be the most stubborn of all.]
I could abide it, perhaps, if you show yourself to be worthy of such a treasure. If, and only if, you might impress this King.
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[if he's challenging her, he can consider rin up to the challenge. but in the wake of her declaration that she's swiftly, swiftly regretting, she's more flustered and vaguely frustrated than anything else. she holds her ground, even elevates her head, and meets gilgamesh's ruby red eyes that are suddenly too scandalous to look into straight—and yet she meets them without wavering, with a certain calm, ever-burning fire behind her own eyes even now. in a more muted tone, she complains,]
... If I say you're mine, you're already mine. I don't have to prove anything. You can't possibly change it. What makes you mine goes beyond my inheritance to the irrefutable fact that I'm a Tohsaka magus.
[oh, is she a bit more embarrassed, again? rin's voice softens as she continues, her eyes shifting before landing back on gilgamesh.]
Because I'm Rin Tohsaka, I'm already worthy of you.
[hasn't she shown him plenty of signs as such?
well...]
What, do you want a token that you're mine, or something?
[maybe she can do that. gilgamesh is materialistic and haughty enough to want such a thing, and it isn't in her to deny servants stuff like this.]
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And because it is so silly, Gilgamesh doesn't take it seriously, or as a threat. They both know there's no leashing the King of Heroes, who will only ever do as he pleases... but if an attractive woman wants to claim him for her own, he can't find much heart to disagree. Do as you like, his amused expression seems to say. Already he's learning not to argue with her, and that may be for the best.
The offer of an affectionate token does surprise him, look shifting from smarmy to handsomely boyish. He leans in, if innocently; it's the behavior of a curious child.]
What will you give me?
[She's made a mistake. Now he's viewing it as a gift, and Gilgamesh loves gifts.]
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perhaps it really is her womanhood that's responsible.
speaking of, when he leans in, rin pipes up with only one response, and she's for some reason quite serious:]
Not that!
[rin, you forgot to mention what "that" is.]
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[He teases her, and while he could be lascivious, he's light-hearted instead. With good nature, and in good fun, with a softer edge to his eyes that she has so rarely seen. They may be bloody, they may be reminiscent of a serpent, but sometimes they are warm, like a guiding light. And in those times, it could be believed that Gilgamesh truly was beloved by his people as much as he was feared.
Gilgamesh reaches for one of the ribbons in her hair, undoing it ever so slightly.]
Then what about this? May I have it? It is very pretty, and it reminds me of you.
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plus, he's already begun unraveling the ribbon and messing up her hair, so she considers it a lost cause at this point. she doesn't help him, but rin refuses to slap his hands away.]
Whatever helps you sleep at night. It's nothing impressive to a Servant—magically possessing properties to bind mana to a magus through constricting her hair, but that's about it.
[essentially, it's concentrated with rin-mana. have fun with that.
removing her hair ribbon would reveal more of rin's wavy, long dark hair.]
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