crowspace | call me out v. 15.0

[Let's be honest- an apparently unsupervised teenager voluntarily participating in a Grail War probably already wasn't a good sign. There was basically no chance that there wasn't some kind of tragic backstory here.]

[Although if he's paying attention to his surroundings with the subject of older siblings in mind, he might notice a framed photograph on the bedside table. With blackout curtains firmly drawn to prevent anyone looking in and seeing her do magic rituals, the lighting doesn't make it very easy to see in here- but it definitely seems to be a photo of a family, two adults and three young girls.]

[All three have the same distinctive golden eyes as his young Master.]

I'm already learning something new, so that's definitely a good start! [What could be more fun than the thrill of discovery, after all? Contract firmly established, God help the rest of this War.]

[Young as she is, she does at least seem to be a pretty strong mage- judging from the amount of energy coming through the connection already, he won't be lacking for mana.]

[Stepping back, she flips on the lights and unlocks the door behind her- although she still doesn't open the blackout curtains. Neighbors don't need to know about Merlin. They're probably happier not finding out what she's doing in here at any point, really.]

[With better lighting, the room looks... surprisingly normal, honestly. There's a narrow cot covered in stuffed animals, a desk absolutely piled with books and papers, cheap posters of musicians and some intensely goth art prints on the walls...]

[If it wasn't for the bloody ritual circle in the center of the room, it could belong to any teenage girl.]

Now that that's settled, do you want some snacks? I have plenty in the kitchen! [She may not have the best social graces, but she knows it's rude not to offer anything to a guest.]

[An ordinary girl's room. It's charming in how just how average it is, magical circle aside.]

Very kind of you~ [He doesn't need snacks - at least, not that kind - but that doesn't mean he doesn't like them.] Do you have any pizza?

There should still be some leftover in the fridge, if you're okay with pineapple. [At least Merlin has a realistic understanding of what an unsupervised teenager is likely to have on hand, food-wise.]

[Shirou Emiya is a culinary outlier and should not be counted.]

[As she opens the door and leads the way out into the kitchen, it rapidly becomes clear that the rest of the apartment is... less average.]

[It's not too outlandish, by mage standards- she hasn't warped space to stuff a whole house in this little one-bedroom apartment or anything- but the living room and kitchen are absolutely full of an eclectic mixture of magical workshop tools and completely mundane lab equipment.]

[There's complex diagrams that depict various cross-sections of the human body, a massive fishtank that seems to contain mostly a single alarmingly large marimo, a tightly sealed opaque specimen jar that seems to be humming slightly from within next to a microscope covered in magic runes, a headless cat...]

[And potted plants. Everywhere.]

[Almost all of them seem to be plants with significant medicinal properties, although some of them seem to just be... personal projects?]

[Or at least the scientific purpose of the faintly glowing orchid or miniature roses with visible fangs isn't immediately apparent.]

Here we go- I had some last night, so it should still be pretty fresh! [Mercy navigates her way confidently through the makeshift lab and into the kitchen, putting the box of leftover pizza on the counter for Merlin and taking a slice for herself.]

[At least he doesn't have to worry about avoiding anyone else here- judging by how small this place is, there's barely enough room for Mercy herself and her massive amount of lab equipment, never mind an entire additional human being.]

[Merlin plops himself directly onto the counter, because he is basically a large cat and Mercy will come to know this about him, and grabs a slice of pizza.]

I like the roses.

[Roses should have fangs. They're basically just Advanced Thorns.]

[Mercy positively beams at that. This guy. This guy gets it.]

Thank you! I thought since they did super well with blood meal whenever I mixed it into the soil, the next step should be to make it so they could get blood by themselves.

[She grins happily, like a child with a fun little secret they're excited to share.] I even managed to splice in the ability to hunt by perceiving body heat, so they can successfully snare small moving targets by detecting warm blood. I think they'll be very popular in regions with a notable mosquito population! It could be a massively successful way to reduce a major disease vector in populated areas-

[She breaks off, expression falling into something more rueful.] Or they would be, I guess, if I was allowed to show anyone. The nice man from the Mages Association said that if I got caught inventing any new species again, they'd kill me about it.

Caught by the general public, I mean- they're okay with me making stuff that other paranormal people find out about. The Clock Tower never publishes the stuff I send them for peer review, though... or answers any of my letters...

[She sighs.]

Sometimes, I just don't get what those guys are thinking at all. What's the point of being able to do all these amazing things if we never do anything with it?

Edited 2021-12-15 02:43 (UTC)

The Mage's Association is more interested in preserving their own power than in making the world a better place, I'm sad to say.

[Even if Mercy has very interesting ways of going about it, her heart's in the right place.]

Unfortunately for you, the more people who know the amazing things you can do, the weaker your abilities become. Mystery's a pain that way.

[This is, many people who've met her would insist, the worst thing about Mercy Moritz: she means well. Genuinely, sincerely, from the bottom of her heart, she means well.]

[And this has stopped her from creating, on average, two abominations against nature per day absolutely not at all. If anything, it generally encourages her to do it more.]

Except when it doesn't! [She grins, pointing at Merlin, back to excitement.] Look at yourself, you're unliving proof- Heroic Spirits become more powerful based on the strength of their legend.

On being known.

People knowing about you and your powers makes you weaker, except when it makes you strong. Why? No one knows! Or anyone who does isn't telling- but I want to find out.

How do Heroic Spirits work? How does the Grail work? The Throne?

That's why I wanted to be in the Grail War. I'm here to learn.

Well, you're certainly not wrong.

[All her questions are good ones, and ones that even he can't answer offhandedly. Human curiosity is one of the things he so loves about humans - that's a perfectly reasonable justification for joining a Grail War, in his view.]

So I'm here to collect data for you, hm? It's not the worst job I've been given.

Yes, please! [Well, she's up front about her intentions, at least.] If you're okay with that, anyway- you don't have to stay if you don't want to.

[It doesn't seem to occur to her that the easiest way for him to leave would be for her to die. She's not really someone who worries about her own safety very often.]

[You don't have to, much, when nothing can hurt you that you don't allow.]

Oh, but it wouldn't just be about what I want, of course- I'll do my best to help get your wish, too! It's important to adequately compensate anyone who participates in an experiment, after all.

What do you want from the Grail, da-ge? [A dangerous question, asked in complete innocence. There's probably something symbolic in that.]

Hmm, good question...

[What does he want more than anything else? To have his precious people with him always, untouched by death or war. He just has to find the right way of wording that so the Grail gives him exactly what he intends.]

I'm still thinking it over, but I'd like a good story along the way~

[It's honestly a pretty fair and reasonable wish. It's unfortunate that he's just so... himself, about it.]

[Mercy, at least, accepts this without concern about any ulterior motives.]

That seems fair! Whatever else happens, Grail Wars seem like they turn out to be pretty interesting.

[If your definition of "interesting" includes "terrifying and lethal".]

I don't know what kind of story we'd be, but I hope it has a happy ending- [She breaks off midsentence, as. Uh.]

[Okay, so remember how there was a headless cat somewhere in that mess of a lab? Yeah, apparently that is. Not a piece of taxidermy. Because it's hopped onto the counter next to Merlin and is trying to affectionately shoulder-check Mercy in the face.]

Aww, Pathos- dinner time for you too, huh? [This is apparently normal, because she just starts patting it fondly and looking around for a can opener.] Where's Logos? You can't have both bowls to yourself, if I'm feeding you then I'm feeding both of you.

[There's a mlrrp noise from somewhere under the table. A moment later, three fuzzy little heads poke out.]

[All three of them are attached to the same cat.] Oh, there you are!

[Logos meows in chorus with itself as Mercy busies herself filling the cat bowls with kibble.]

[What cute cats, thought apparently someone besides Mercy. At least two people in the world. Merlin reaches over and gives Pathos a scritch.]

It certainly hasn't been boring so far.

[Pathos makes a low, happy rumbling sound. Apparently purring sounds kind of bass-boosted when it's all in the chest.]

[Two of Logos' heads busy themselves with wolfing down the kibble, while the remaining one looks curiously at Merlin. What are you, sir? You are large, and smell confusing.]

[Mercy smiles and gives it some reassuring ear scritches.]

It's okay, he's a friend! [Logos seems dubious about this, but will allow it. For now.]

I guess we should probably try to figure out strategies, right? Tomorrow's the weekend, so we have all day to look around the city if you want.

[Because of course she wouldn't summon an ancient and powerful spirit on a school night. That would be irresponsible.]

[Education is important, says world's most irresponsible teacher.]

I'd love the tour. Where is the War going on this time around?

We're in Verdette City! [Mercy helpfully brings up a map on her old, battered tablet to show him. Are those scorch marks on the casing? ...Whatever, it's probably fine.] I've lived here my whole life, it's pretty nice.

[According to the map, Verdette appears to be a moderately large and reasonably prosperous city located in scenic western-Europe-somewhere-don't-worry-about-it. Decent leylines and, according to Mercy, a reasonable local mage population for its size... but nothing to really indicate why a Grail War might have shifted here in particular.]

[Still, Mercy helpfully answers any questions he might have to the best of her ability, apparently just as happy about sharing knowledge as she is about accumulating it. The strategy session continues late into the evening, until even Mercy's boundless energy begins to flag a little, and she reluctantly admits that it's time for bed.]

[Of course, depending on what comes through their connection in the course of their dreams, it might not be entirely restful...]

Edited 2022-01-08 16:45 (UTC)

[It is a difficult thing to communicate to someone who doesn't have Clairvoyance what knowing the future is like, even in the comparatively free world of dreams. But perhaps it would be something like:

You look at your king, smile and say, "Good morning." She nods at you. Overlapping her you see the silhouette of a bloody hill of corpses, of her crying out in anguish.

Everyone you run into, it seems, has a bloody fate in store for them. You pass Gareth and Lancelot chatting amicably and see him running her through with no resistance. You see Mordred falling to his father's own hand at the same moment that you spot him practicing his sword drills.

You cannot even look at the humans you care about without the reminder that they will die, and painfully.

Your hands itch.

Merlin wakes with a rotten feeling in the pit of his stomach. He puts on a smile, just the same as yesterday, the same as tomorrow, and waits for his Master to awaken.]

[Mercy has always seen the world as beautiful. How can it not be, when everything is so rich and vivid? From bud to bloom, roses to rot, she loves it all- glorious and ugly as it is, it is lovely to her, simply because it lived or is living. She hurts for the world that cannot see itself as she sees it, inherently worthy of love.]

[When she sees Merlin in the morning, she remembers that feeling of pain and horror at the sight of a problem that simply couldn't be fixed. Not something that they wouldn't let you fix, or you weren't sure how to fix, but that the universe simply would not accept it being anything other than broken. Quietly, something in her doctor's soul rebels.]

[After a second's thought, she hugs him, quickly and casually as though this is a totally normal way to react to seeing your new immortal friend's horrifying death visions.]

[She smiles and says:] Good morning! Do you like breakfast bars? I have twelve boxes of them, they're mostly granola.

Edited 2022-01-08 17:23 (UTC)

[Merlin is prepared to wish Mercy a good morning when she hugs him, and he falls short, blinking a few times before settling on patting her on the head.

He doesn't know what vision of his she saw, but if it's anything like what he saw of hers... He can imagine it wasn't a very good one, at least to an outside eye.]

I can safely say I've never had one.

[The funny(?) thing is that if he'd asked Mercy, she'd consider it a treasured childhood memory. She got to spend the whole day with both of her amazing older sisters- why wouldn't she be happy about that?]

[Sure it's a shame that da-jie and er-jie had that argument... but it's normal for siblings to fight, isn't it? Everybody says so.]

[That's just what sisters do.]

You should try all the different flavors then! [She opens the cabinet with a brisk nod, revealing her frankly excessive stockpile of portable breakfast snack foods.] That way you can see what you like best. Experimentation is the key to discovery!

[There's all the typical flavors- raspberry, chocolate, apple cinnamon- but also several boxes that suggest Mercy's scientific curiosity has led her to buy various obscure seasonal varieties or one-off promotional gimmick flavors more than once.]

[No one knows who thought it was acceptable to produce Cool Ranch flavored granola, but hopefully they have since been found and stopped.]

[That's probably the reason he won't ask Mercy. Other than 'talking about serious topics sucks'.

Inadvisably, Merlin does try all of the different kinds, even the Cool Ranch (though he makes a face at that one). Her enthusiasm is infectious.]

As I thought, there's really no dethroning chocolate as the best.

[Mercy nods in solemn agreement, despite having mostly taken raspberry-flavored ones as a token attempt to pretend she's eating healthy. They've got fruit in it, fruit is good for you.]

[Pathos is being held firmly in her lap in an attempt to keep him from trying to eat the Cool Ranch granola. It's bad enough for people, it can't possibly be good for cats.]

Um, da-ge... There's something I want to ask, but I'm worried it's rude. [Mercy suddenly seems uncharacteristically shy, looking down at Pathos instead of meeting Merlin's eyes as she talks to him.] It's about what I saw last night...

One of my memories. [He'll acknowledge it out loud, at least.] I'm very hard to offend, so don't worry about that.

[The worst he'll do is refuse to answer.]

Okay. I mean, I completely understand if it's not my business, or if there was different social context back then, but- [She makes awkward motions with her hands as she talks, as though trying to catch her flustered thoughts.]

Was King Arthur trans?

[...No, she's serious. That is genuinely her question.]

[Her anatomist's eye combined with Merlin's clear perspective means that she's pretty sure that the person he was looking at when he spoke to the king was a teenage girl, but she's well aware that sex and gender aren't the same thing.]

[The understanding that it's rude to pry into someone's personal business has been warring furiously with her historical curiosity all morning.]

[...oh, honey.]

She did have some complicated feelings about it, but I wouldn't call her that. At the time women couldn't be rulers, so she hid her gender in order to take the throne. In a different place she might have lived openly as a woman.

Edited 2022-01-08 18:51 (UTC)

Ohhhhh. [Mercy nods, instantly accepting this answer.] Okay, that's fine too!

[Look, she just didn't want to misgender King Arthur, okay. Doesn't matter how long someone's been dead for, that's just not cool.]

[With a slight blush:] She was really pretty...

[Great, she's not even in this War and someone still manages to get a crush on Artoria.]

[...At least, hopefully she's not. Because there's a very awkward reunion coming up, if she is.]

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