Camelot
Restraining a grimace, Camelot dismissed Burning Heart’s anger as unfortunately important for the time being, as Moonlight Tsubasa made use of the opportunity to draw herself away from the Knight. Exhaling again to continue the steady reconstruction of her lost composure, Chinami listened with half an ear as Tsubasa pretty much confirmed what she had deduced, that the passivity of the Pageless was something that could be
learned.
In that case, Camelot knew she would be willing to burn some bridges. Ultimately, in the face of something like that, was she really expected to care about a team that had been foisted on her so abruptly? A team with a girl who was blind and deaf to anything she didn’t like, a girl who allowed herself to be strung around by the nose by the former, and a girl who would never truly listen to Camelot and who would -and had proven herself to- be an outrageous disruption and socially caustic on a scale she genuinely hadn’t expected, a poison to team cohesion.
Was she really expected to value that sort of team over what might be the solution to everything?
Tsubasa was quite understandably riled up by this point, so the threats of bodily harm upon Dynasty Queen were hardly anything Camelot could begrudge her. But unfortunately, as much as she might dislike the bitch, as much as she resented her for being part and parcel to getting the Knight to genuinely lose her temper, she also couldn’t condone an outright threat against her life. She addressed Tsubasa.
“Your wrath is not misplaced, but I have a duty to protect my charges, and -at least for the time being- she is one of them, like it or not. I’d much prefer peace, for us to leave this place without violence, but if you must have retribution… then I won't interfere as long as it isn’t lethal or maiming. She’s brought this on herself, and I can heal anything less.” Deserved karmic retribution or not, no-one was going to die today if she could help it.
There was suddenly a sound of scrabbling from behind and a hand on her shoulder, and Camelot couldn’t help the flinch, such was her current state. Head swiveling, Camelot brow furrowed at the sight of the Pageless fleeing again with even greater urgency… and at the witch-looking magical girl currently stepping back from her.
“Ozma,” she greeted with some wariness, crossing her arms to stop them from so much as twitching towards her weapon. In this state, with her battle instincts on high alert, she really couldn’t help being incredibly wary of anyone she didn’t have a true clue about the abilities of. It was remarkable that between the equally mysterious two, she almost felt like she’d learned more about Midnight Tsubasa in these tense few minutes than she had about Ozma in years. In that respect, her instincts were tweaked far worse by the unknown than the known.
Still, if there was anyone that could deescalate things, it was someone with that kind of unknown power.
Camelot snorted humorlessly at Ozma’s open wondering about the decision-making process that went into putting her and Dynasty Queen in close quarters for longer than ten minutes.
“I assure you, that’s not the only issue with this team, merely the one that exacerbates the others,” she replied bluntly. Quite frankly, she had few if any fucks to give remaining. She just felt
exhausted mentally by all this, by fucking
Tesni. Diplomacy… politeness… clearly, neither were effective here. She’d tried. She’d tried so
hard to use her words, to be reasonable. But to the stubborn and willfully blind and deaf, words were useless. Such people… clearly, they only understood
force.
Something
ugly burned inside the Knight, red-hot and almost tangible. It curdled and bubbled wrathfully, practically
baying for violence. Squeezing her eyes shut, Camelot exhaled calmingly again -as she had been doing for a while now, only to start when her long exhale against the chilly, rainy London air almost seemed to
hiss out in a small cloud of actual steam.
Blinking furiously, Camelot’s brows furrowed, but… No, it was probably her imagination. Whatever the case, the red-hot poker of anger in her heart had subsided with that breath, almost as if literally expelling the temper from her. To be sure, a kernel of resentment still rattled with the desire to pop, but her prior bout of wrath had been doused and didn’t seem like it would truly be reignited unless things continued to devolve here. For the time being, however, her overt rage washed away with the chill of the rain pitter-pattering against her armor.
Still, she barely restrained a scoff at Ozma’s next statement, a plea really. ‘Keep their wits about them?’ She had all her wits right now, dammit! It was everyone else that was losing it! And the rest of that… was all she going to do is state the obvious? Camelot knew those things well, adhered to them better than most even, she thought, given she seemed to be one of the only Magical Girls that paid significant attention to actually avoiding property damage where possible. But she wasn’t a machine, not some perfect hero, despite any show she might put on. She had her weaknesses, her pressure points, so surely, she was allowed to get truly angry once in a while? Was she expected to just… not?
Maybe…
But she already put enough pressure on herself as is. She certainly didn’t need others telling her what she already knew and practiced, because she wasn’t perfect. Enough pressure… enough stress… and she’d lose her temper just as much as anyone else… as she had today. And that? That was dangerous. There was a sharp difference between her losing her temper and someone, like say, Lilac Shimmer. The contrast in brute force power made it all the more important she keep it together at all times, that she always used her words, that she never resorted to violence except as a last possible option. Frankly, she liked to think that she
had actually used it last in this situation… but had she? Maybe she could have used her fists instead of her sword to stop Lilac. Maybe she could have just… refused to engage in debate with Tesni. But instead, she’d focused more on what she “knew” would work. She didn’t want to leave herself open to Tesni when stopping Lilac, so she’d gone for the only option she had that could take care of both problems -or at least, waylay one- at once.
But was that the right move? She really didn’t know. It had felt right at the time, but… she had been so
angry. So…
No. Camelot shook her head in self-recrimination. This was not the place or time for such thoughts. She couldn’t allow herself to hesitate on the battlefield, not when it came to saving lives. Not ever. Midnight Tsubasa’s life had been in danger. She acted. Simple as that.
Regardless of her internal conflict, Camelot was paying attention to the goings-on around her. Honestly, as wired as she was, it was difficult for her to do otherwise. Ozma was saying some… pretty interesting things about Tsubasa, things that she knew she’d be hunting the redhead down to inquire about later… even if she knew she’d probably receive the white-washed Ministry version of events. It was still a place to start, nonetheless. That aside, she also… generally agreed with the enigmatic Magical Girl’s closing statements.
This entire patrol was a bust. She wanted nothing less than to continue it, and she wanted nothing more than to go back to the Ministry and let the Grand Minister know in excruciating detail how badly put together this team was. But as things were, selfishness could wait. Ultimately, she recalled Tesni saying something right before things devolved, and even if she was right about nothing else, she was right about that.
“Dynasty Queen…” Camelot spoke up abruptly, turning to face the martial artist once more, before pausing.
“Tesni, you were right about one thing at least: this is a patrol. Whether we’re doing it for justice or merely fun, we’re here to save lives, and I think we can agree on that -if nothing else. We are not friends -or even friendly, but I would hesitate to call us enemies. I don’t think this team will hold together, not as we are, but I think even now, we can work together one last time. I don’t care how or why you fight right now. I just want you to kill every Pageless that looks at you funny as quickly and wholly as possible. Stay with the group, or go alone. I won’t stop you… unless it’s Tsubasa, but I think you know that.”Exhaling another small puff of steam that she hadn’t noticed herself working up, Camelot addressed her purple-clad charge.
“Lilac Shimmer, if I have injured you, speak now honestly, and I will heal your ailment, no matter how meager it may be. It was not my intent to do harm, but I drew arms against you and took the risk anyway. However, you seem to have a problem. I regret to admit my ignorance of it till now, despite the warning signs and even after two years living together in the same damn room. It is a shameful failure on my part, and had I noticed sooner… perhaps I could have done something before now. For the time being, know only that we shall address it later.”She turned to the fox-girl.
“Burning Heart… I must apologize for the shameful display as your senior, during a time where you should be receiving nothing less than the best from me. I have wronged you twice over, as I have also harmed someone you seem to call a, dare I say it,… friend? That said, I see your countenance… is entirely different than it was before. Now that I’ve gotten the chance to observe you up close, transformed and not, I feel I understand what your issue is, but only time will tell if it is one that can be mitigated.”Turning to the statuesque eastern Magical Girl, Camelot smiled apologetically.
“Midnight Tsubasa… I regret that we have met under such circumstances. Though our meeting hasn’t been entirely amiable, I bear you no true ill will and would be perfectly happy to meet with you again. And while I would like to continue our exchange now, I have work to do. If you would fight beside us, then I would be honored by -if not your forgiveness- then your tolerance for those that wronged you.” She sighed.
“If you would be on your way instead, I quite doubt any here would truly begrudge you, all things considered. And at the end of it all, I would be more than willing to continue this somewhere quieter.”"Ozma..." Camelot's jaw worked itself silently for a moment, a prideful little part of her sorely wishing she could ignore that the Crimson Comet had needed to show up at all.
"I am not arrogant enough to avoid admitting when I am out of my depth. Well, I was before and probably still am, so thank you for intervening. This... could have gotten much much worse."Sighing deeply once more, Camelot stared up at the dark perspiring sky.
“Make no mistake, this conversation… these issues we have… our exploration and handling of them isn’t over, not by a long shot, but right now, we have bigger fish to fry by far. I won’t ask or expect you to like it. The only thing I must ask -because it is my duty to the people- is if we can set all this aside long enough to save lives. If you can give me that much, then we can return to infighting back at Marrywell… and figure out where we go from here -or if there is to even be a ‘we’ to begin with.”
Noctis,
Danyel,
thedarkness,
Reisling,
Guardian Angel Haruki,
Izurich,
4wheathRmany,
Aisede,
Aku the Samurai,
Otreas