March - April Test Drive

[indigo_league]

➞ Post with a character you wish to test drive in this game's setting.
➞ Tag other people's starters and thread out shenanigans!
➞ Invite your friends! Try out new characters! Come play with us!
➞ Have fun!

NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR TEST-DRIVE JOURNEY?
CHECK OUT ALL THE LOCATIONS WE HAVE AVAILABLE IN:

JOHTO | KANTO | SEVII ISLANDS

Feel free to make various prompts in multiple locations!

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OTHER USEFUL LINKS:
NAVIGATION | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS

Comments

[ourstosee]

[Up until this point, Aymeric had been operating under the assumption that he was communicating with a stranger. A familiar sounding one, mayhap, but a stranger nonetheless. With the firmness in which the woman calls Estinien to mind not by name, but by a title that he hasn't heard his friend throw around in public since his arrival, he's a touch taken aback. He's silent as he sifts through the memories, trying to trace back where and why he knows this voice.

He feels a touch foolish when he finally alights upon the answer. It doesn't change the sentiment of the conversation, though.]

Ah, Lady Dangoulain. [Even if she isn't looking directly at the camera, the sheepish note his voice carries will say all it needs to.] You mistake my offer of kindness as one of selfishness. I need not the assistance for myself, but rather that I would be happy to offer all I could to another if I thought it might help.

[stillthehatred]

[Lady Dangoulain. She can't determine if she likes that more or less than 'Lady Iceheart.' Both are undoubtedly her. Both come with implications of history and the present. Both lead her precisely to where she is now. Her knowledge on Aymeric is sparse. It's not as though they've ever been terribly close.

She can't say she knows what he thinks of her, especially based on anything he's learned. What... is an Aymeric of the future she was robbed like? She can't even begin to speculate. She finds herself in the same position she's in with Estinien—at a grave disadvantage. Things are distinctly different and she can't understand why or how.

Eventually, she sets her attention back onto him, ignoring the way her lapras attempts to make its way into her lap. It just wants to be a part of things, too. Or maybe it wants to comfort her. Hard to say.]

Would you. [It's not really a question. Ysayle studies him for several long moments, thinking perhaps if he were at the head of Ishgard when she needed their home most, she might not have endured all she had. All she can do is speculate and do her best not to feel overly bitter.] Yes. I suppose you would. Yet you have only just arrived. I would not wish to burden you.

[Or anyone else, for that matter.]

[ourstosee]

[Truthfully, Aymeric hardly knows what to make of his own thoughts on Ysayle. Doubtless, her actions -- intentional or otherwise -- had led to the deaths of not just his men, but no small amount of innocent souls both within Ishgard's walls and Coerthas abroad. Yet even by that same logic, he knows that the same could be said of him. Regardless of intention, he had not only been ignorant to the truth, but had taken precious few steps to change that.

Things had been drastically different, just a few months ago. The truth had come to light, and change had been thrust upon them all. Yet even that was a luxury, built upon yet another pile of blood and bones -- only this time Ysayle's had been among them. Even forward progress was a privilege.]

'Tis no burden at all. [He answers without thinking, but finds he doesn't regret the words even as they hang in the air.] Nay, I would daresay it would be an honor to travel in your company. If nothing else, we have much and more to discuss, and this is hardly the best avenue through which to do so.

[The corner of his mouth quirks upward into a faint smile. Had Estinien only just said something similar to him, no less than a fortnight ago? The only difference is the tension that might have existed between the two of them. One that he quickly seeks to put to rest.]

You deserve to know of the peace your legacy has brokered between ourselves and the Dravanians.

[stillthehatred]

[An honour? It's a strange thing to hear someone say that. Someone like him especially. Aymeric has few reasons, in her opinion, to treat her with such reverence. Although her intentions good, Ysayle regrets the steps taken to get to where she desired. Her final acts were as a form of absolution. Atonement. Now that she is here, she can't claim to have done either of those things.

Or perhaps she has not the arrogance to do so.

Regardless, Aymeric sounds serious. Estinien has offered not once, but twice at least for her to join with them. That they might all travel together. The interests there may align. She can, at the very least, agree that the video devices, though a foreign convenience, are impersonal at best. And she is not an open woman, by any means. Likely happenstance is that any words she and Aymeric exchange beyond expected niceties are not the sorts she would wish random others to pay witness to.]

My legacy...? [The knit of her brow is transparent. She would not call it that.] You refer to my— [Flaws. Imperfections. Errors. Shaken and shattered beliefs.] If such things paved the way for providence, then it was all I had ever wanted. In that have I ever remained resolute. I am... grateful to hear of it.

[ourstosee]

[The halting way she speaks says more than her words ever could. Once more, he thinks of the bodies -- Dravanian and Ishgardian alike. The hesitation only makes his respect grow. There were far too many souls upon their star that would gladly stand upon a mountain of bodies simply to gloat.

He clears his throat.]

I refer to your stalwart faith in what you knew to be true. [And what was faith, if not a double-edged sword. On opposite ends of the battlefield, they had learned the exact damage of what faith could do in the wrong hands. Yet without it, people were just as helpless.

Just as prone to despair.

But that was a subject for another time. Aymeric knows that they could spend hours debating the specifics, of that he is sure. But that seems more a conversation to be held in person, rather than something as distant as this. It seems more appropriate, then, to shift the conversation.]

It should only take a matter of bells to alter our course and begin the journey to meet you, and then a few days more for travel. Do we have your blessing to begin the process?

[stillthehatred]

[Stalwart faith. A heavy thought, though not an inaccurate assessment of her person. Many who have perceived her actions would not label them thus. That Aymeric is capable of seeing what she was trying to do, all that she intended and aimed for, even forced to horrid means...

He hardly knows her and yet simultaneously, it's as if he knows her far better than so many of their fellow kin. She can only eye him, doubtlessly tired, uncertain, wary, sceptical, and drawn into a momentary bout of speechlessness.

She does not accept praise well. Or recognition. Her desires had nothing to do with legacy. She never wanted to be a hero. She never wanted to be an example. She only ever wanted to do what she believed was the right course of action. She only ever wanted to protect the less fortunate.

So instead of words, she simply dips her chin in a subtle acknowledgement. An acceptance of his... kindness, if that's what she wishes to consider it. His words proceed, offer appropriate distraction and that too, she doesn't respond to with haste.]

He has made a similar offer. [He. Estinien, she means.] I have been apprehensive to accept. [For her own personal reasons, which are things she doesn't wish to put on Aymeric, Estinien, or any of the rest of their esteemed company.] I would travel with you all, provided that it will not be an imposition. To change your route to recover me seems burdensome.

[ourstosee]

It does not surprise me, that we are of the same mind. [It comes with the territory of knowing Estinien so well. His read might not always be perfect, but with matters like these, more often than not he seems to have the right of it. The assurance that he has had the right inclination is appreciated, though he certainly does not feel the need to vocalize as much.]

'Twould not be any sort of burden. [Still, he won't press the matter any further. She's accepted their company, he can compromise by not insisting on ferrying her everywhere.] The journey is yours to make as you see fit. We can maintain our current position and wait for you to join us in due time.

[He hesitates for a moment, fingers knitting together below the frame of the camera.]

And should you find that the company is too much to bear, you need only say the word. Or, failing that, I have learned that there is a ship that departs from the city you would have arrived in. It will take you across a channel and into an entirely different land. It is space enough for you to avoid us, should you simply be sparing us our feelings.

[stillthehatred]

Whether you simply remain and await me or should come to meet with me, both of these things appear to interfere with whatever your original plans may have been.

[In this situation, Ysayle feels she has no winning predicament. Both options leave her feeling quite the same, though both he and Estinien have reassured her, something she should not have needed to begin with. She suspects it is less imposition and burden that tackles her, but rather she does not know how to accept kindness.

That is its own share of complication.

He gives her time to further stew on how she wishes to approach this scenario when he continues, to which she is intent and attentive. As such, if she feels so cowardly that she must depart, she has ways and means of doing so. She would like to think she will do no such thing, and yet...]

I do not believe myself to be so kind as to spare such things. [But it's not as though he would know that particularly well, she thinks. Not the way Estinien would, anyway.] Perhaps in compromise we find one another. If you find favour with it, then meet with me in half the distance.