i'm just young enough to still believe, but young enough not to know what to believe in

[throwabookatit]

[ What do you do after all that?

Well, you mourn. After...an hour or so, a note goes out, under everyone's doors- everyone's. ]

If you also don't want to be alone after the day we've had, come to the second floor of the dormitories. Food and drink will be provided. Alcohol will be confiscated immediately.

[ You'll find Rebecca's set up the common area with food, that she seems to keep supplying, every so often. It's kind of strange, though, she seems like the sort of person to harp on eating well? She definitely has, for some of you. Yet, the food seems a strange split. On one side, there's all kinds of fruits and vegetables and breads. Legumes, made maybe not the best, but it's still an effort. Vegetable soups, no meat in sight. Simple seafood. If you're familiar with Greek culture? Yeah. It looks a lot like something they'd describe in...a history book.

On the other side? God, it's all burgers and pizzas and...pineapples? Pineapple juice? What the heck, Rebecca? In any case, there's enough food to keep everyone fed, and it seems...Tess, oddly enough, keeps bringing batches of burgers from the kitchen?! What a team-up.

The Starbucks is open too, where it's a bit...quieter? Some tea and coffee set up, there.

For those who just want to cry, in peace. ]

Comments

common room;

[buriedearth]

[ Terra eventually deposits some candles by the shrine, but when he returns, he hears the other male's muttering.

Despite how everything went, by now enough time's passed that while he doesn't feel calm, he's resolved not to let it get to him as much as he could. But the others...they'll need the support. ]

Are you thinking about what Alex said back then?

Re: common room;

[swordsinternally]

Yeah, a little. It got to me a bit since I'm a Servant, too.

[ That's his true nature, after allー he was never the Master he pretended to be in the slightest bit. ]

[buriedearth]

Do you want to know what I think about it?

[ ... ]

That he was full of it, when he said that.

[ That may sound harsh, and Terra would've said that to his face, but with all of that was happening...he was kind of having an internal struggle of sorts. There was only so much he could really focus on. ]

[swordsinternally]

In some ways... he wasn't wrong. Without a Master, a Servant shouldn't be able to stay long in this world. At least, normally. This place's kinda weird like that, though-- since somehow we're able to sustain our forms without having to drain someone's magical energy. Might have to do with how none of us have our abilities, though.

[buriedearth]

[ He just sort of makes a face at that. He's...not entirely convinced of that. ]

Even if that's true--that a Servant normally wouldn't a form without a 'Master'--it doesn't mean that you have no place without one. You're still your own person, Master or no. And every person deserves to have a place in the world, regardless of what other people might think.

[ ... ]

I also realize I don't really know much about any of this...so can you explain it to me a little? How this whole 'Master and Servant' thing came about.

[swordsinternally]

Yeah, I can explain it to you.

[ His voice dips from being a little too carefree there to something a little more serious. ]

Basically... back home, there's this thing called the Holy Grail War. The Holy Grail back at home-- in Fuyuki-- was supposedly meant to "grant a person's wish". In order to do that, they would have to summon Heroic Spirits, which are spirits of heroes that have done legendary deeds, such as Alexander the Great, or King Arthur.

Anyway, these spirits would be attached to a Master with their command seals [ which Tsukasa can actually reveal on his hand ] that allow them to partner together. Of course, these command seals can also - as you've probably guessed - can command a Servant for up to three times. But once they're gone, so is the connection between the Master and Servant. But that also means that the Servant can't last long either, as no magic is being supplied to them. They'll just end up getting sucked back into the Grail.

The War was basically created by the Three Families of Fuyuki -- I'll spare you the nitty gritty details -- in order to recreate the Third Magic, the Heaven's Feel, which would essentially materialize the soul and basically give a person eternal life. Of course, this ritual was kept a secret from people outside the three families, so everyone else thought that getting in on the War meant that they'd have their wishes granted, when that wasn't the case. Basically, everyone was being tricked.

That's basically it. Well, I could give more details on the Servants and their classes and stuff, but that's the basics. Although I can probably answer most questions, if you have 'em.

[buriedearth]

So, you're technically both a Heroic Spirit and a Master?

[ That's incredible...

Terra is probably making an erroneous assumption regarding that portion. But, command seals and he said he was a Servant, so he must be both technically, right? ]

...Most of that sounds like it could cause a huge problem, though. This Grail War likely hurt a lot of people, didn't it?

[swordsinternally]

Technically, I'm only a Master because of the body that I'm borrowing.

[ Since this isn't even his own body. ] Although I'm an exception. I'm a Servant-- but not a Heroic Spirit. I have no place in the Throne of Heroes. But yeah, it did. It hurt a ton of people.

Not to mention... in a way, I hurt a lot of people.

[buriedearth]

[ Right, he did mention he does remember that big reveal back in Week 4--not essentially about his body being not his, but the whole "fake Shirou" business. ]

What do you mean by that? I can't see you as the kind of person who'd hurt a lot of people, even indirectly.

[swordsinternally]

When I was summoned during the third War, it was as Avenger-- as Angra Mainyu. I was known as "all the evils in the world". But I was a weak Servant. I was defeated right away.

When I was taken into the Grail, it was because of my identity and how the sins of all of mankind were carved onto my body that I tainted the Grail. And subsequently, it was that corruption that caused many people to die in the War after that.

[buriedearth]

What?

[ Terra's too dumb for this so give him a second. . . ]

...Is what you're saying that because you 'tainted' the Grail so that when people won the war -- and the Holy Grail -- they died from it?

[ He feels like he's not understanding something here. ]

[swordsinternally]

The Grail was a farce to begin with. When I was taken in and tainted it, the swirl of magic that was the Grail... during the fourth War, what was poured out were the curses that came from me.

Because the Grail granted the wish to make me into a demon. A demon who truly was all the evil in the world. And those curses poured out and killed a lot of innocent people. Including Emiya Shirou's original family.

[buriedearth]

[ ... Dear lord. But, even as Shirou--or rather, Tsukasa--tells him this, he doesn't have a judging expression on his face at all. ]

Remembering that you were part of that somehow...must've been an incredible burden.

[swordsinternally]

Yeah. I... didn't really have a consciousness when that happened, though.

[buriedearth]

I guess it's good you couldn't really properly experience all of that, then.

[ ...In the sense of he wasn't really cognizant of things when something so terrible happened. Not that he's...saying it's good at all, mind you. ]

Looks like you set up the shrine once we got it finished. Did you put food there or was that someone else?

[swordsinternally]

Maybe.

[ He still thinks that it's honestly pretty terrible, though. ]

Yeah, I did. And I was the one who put the food there.

[buriedearth]

[ It is... ]

...It was good of you to do that. I put the candles over there too since I figured now that we have a shrine there's a proper place to actually place them somewhere.