PRISON CATCH-ALL

[adlantisag]

YOU DONE FUCKED UP NOW.

This is a catch-all for characters who are awaiting execution in Odette's prison and anyone who'd like to visit them. They're all stuck together in Ye Olde Gaol Celle; hopefully you aren't squeamish about sharing a latrine! ...or anything else for that matter. Ew.

It's going to be a long two weeks.

Reminders:
➜ Magic and powers are blocked.
➜ Some Order members are tossed in, too, but (so far) they can't be interacted with.
➜ Visitors are allowed, but interaction will be heavily monitored.
➜ Characters will be fugitives after their escape.

Comments

[adlantisag]

[ What he describes sounds almost like a marriage. Not just 'almost', in fact. Perhaps an unsentimental one, but a marriage all the same: a sacred union between two souls, difficult to bend or break.

She wonders if he misses his Master, and is missed in return, or if she's simply reading too deeply into his melancholy. Perhaps in all the centuries of his servitude, he has made some true connections. Perhaps he has hated every waking moment of it. ]

I am sure you will find someone who will desire the power you wield. [ Because wasn't that the way of the world? ] Have your masters always chosen you, rather than the opposite?

[babbylon]

[The truth may be somewhere in between. Gilgamesh falls quiet for a minute or so, eyes drifting again along with his attention. So much was complicated about the matter, so much beyond her ability to understand, that it felt almost a waste to explain.

Then again, he's not going anywhere anytime soon, so for now she will get honesty from him that he will regret much later on.]

Servants are slaves. Even a King among them is not immune to this fate. We are forced into this world, every time, and fight to our deaths, every time, until the cycle begins anew. But...

[But. A small smile comes to his face, thinking of someone. Of promises made. Of wickedness shared.]

There was a man I met, back in my world. He fascinated me, so I offered him my hand. We had great fun together.

[Quietly:]

It might be nice to see him again.

[adlantisag]

[ Time will allow her to understand--and what else do they have but time, the two of them? ]

Fun?

[ Given who's speaking, and his tone, she's reluctant to accept such a vague word. She drums her fingers on the tops of her knees, considering. ]

What of your master? Did you abandon them for this man?

[ He only just told her the bond was difficult to break. Had he been contracted at the time? It's all quite complex, she thinks. This magical device must be impressive, to have such a system designed around its possession. ]

[babbylon]

I did.

[Once more there's no point to deceiving her. She had already seen the worst of him and thus was already inclined to make her own judgments. He will give her the truth as it stood and let her decide from there. He recounts it all, almost robotic in doing so, as if it were yesterday—because it had been.]

He was too weak for that war. Not... kindly, but naive in many ways. There was no winning with him. And for a Servant, to win is to survive. The choice was clear. However, in the end, as it turned out, it was a waste for everyone.

[His eyes flick up, towards the heaven. Towards the great hole in the sky where the Grail would reside in a doomed future.]

I gazed upon the Grail and saw the truth. We have been contracted to an endless ruse. An exercise in pointlessness.

[His last memory had been of Saber and the Grail. The victory almost in his grasp. It makes him shudder with want, for what he very nearly had.]

Anyway, there's no such thing as a wish, Kida. Only a delusion. Fantasies of man. I don't live for those things; I live for myself, and naught else.

[adlantisag]

[ She's in agreement with him on that, at least: hope is nothing if it isn't backed by action. She thinks of their comrades on the outside. Do they plot their escape? ]

Perhaps that is ALASTAIR's gift to you, Gilgamesh. To break free.

[ She turns to look at him. Sitting close at they are now, she can see the way his slit pupils contract. He's like a reptile. He betrayed his master to pursue his heart's call. Can she fault him for it? ]

Would you be free of the Grail, if one of ALASTAIR held your chain?

[babbylon]

[Gilgamesh fumbles. For all his wisdom he could be rather childlike in areas he was lacking, and he didn't have an immediate answer to that. Could a member of ALASTAIR free him? Was that within their power, in this world beyond his own? Part of him wants to argue he's always been free even if it is a lie.

Gilgamesh looks rather frayed after several seconds of thought. It's clear he's come up empty.]

I don't know. I suppose...

[He thinks back. He thinks of Pearl. He thinks of freedom, and of what must be done.]

It would be worth trying to find out.

[adlantisag]

[ He's spent the better part of the last hour telling her in no uncertain form he's a slave, and for all that he'd argue his freedom, she knows enough to pierce the lie.

He isn't free as long as he's on a tether; neither is she, and the weight of it sits around her neck. Some chains are born because they are chosen and welcome; that can be Gilgamesh's freedom. She would know, because it certainly is hers. ]

You sound like you have made a choice.

[ There's something like a smile in her voice, though her face is impassive. She watches him. She wonders if she should be wishing him luck, or whoever he's chosen for his contract. ]

You and I may clash on many things, Gilgamesh, but slavery is something I would wish upon no-one. I hope you do find your freedom, one day.

[babbylon]

You did not have to speak with me.

[Her face may be stony, but his own fills with a strange determination—strange because he's been so drained of everything else that to summon up such passion was a miracle in itself. And he looks at her and he dares to brush his fingers with hers, fleetingly, before they pull back in what could be called shyness in anyone else.

But here, it is a deliberate show of respect.]

You did not have to listen, or to say those things, or to wish me well. I do not know what will come to pass, Kida, what you see and what you will learn. I have made a choice, but you made one, too, in the space of this cell. I will not soon forget it.

[And Gilgamesh does look genuinely grateful. He's not so forgone that he no longer has the capacity. He smiles, but only faintly, because he knows this moment may not come again. Maybe they will be enemies weeks, months, or even days from now. But now, they are understood. Now, it doesn't feel so lonely anymore.]

Peace onto you, Majesty. If nothing else, we will make it out together.