[CLOSED] Put on my Mask, I'll go where they ask.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Characters: Garnet and Beatrix
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: The queen and general have their first private audience since Everything went haywire.
Location: Palace Alexandria
Date: Late May, 1803
Warnings: None


If Garnet had been thrilled to have Steiner back, she was ecstatic to have her general return. One more of her most trusted once again at her side, and one less friend on the list of those who'd mysteriously gone missing. Garnet had been quick to welcome Beatrix home (quick, at least, once she'd allowed Steiner his time; certainly he missed her more than anyone else), and after the usual formal exchanges, and business taken care of, the young queen dismissed the captain to his duties; then, she bid the general follow her.

Once they had reached the queen quarters, the doors shut behind them, her facade dropped. Her shoulders sagged, and her posture softened, and she turned to Beatrix with a genuine smile.

Comments

Btw, ILU for the lyrics!

[knightedmayrose.livejournal.com]

With the realization that she had missing, and thus, Garnet had been left alone for months increased Beatrix's admiration and affection for Garnet. While the general was herself only just adjusting to the idea of having been missing, since it did not feel that way to her, it did not diminish those feelings. She'd been especially fond of the little princess, who had been a small child when she had been brought into service to the crown. Now a poised young woman stood before her.

A young woman who hid herself under the burden of her crown. Watching Garnet's posture relax softened the general's edges as well. Without prying eyes watching, they could both let the masks of duty fall away.

"You've done well without me. I'm not certain I'm needed anymore." Beatrix was never good at delivering a joke, but the humor was well-intentioned regardless.

<3

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Although used to Beatrix's form of jest, Garnet was out of practice; for a moment, she took the general's statement seriously.

"Of course you are needed!" she couldn't help exclaiming.

[knightedmayrose.livejournal.com]

Beatrix shook her head lightly, bestowing her typical reserved smile on Garnet. "I am relieved to see you're well, even if it seems impossible to have been gone so long." After a moment's pause, she asked quieter, "How have you really been?" Three years ago, the General wouldn't have dreamed of being so intrusive or personal with her ruler, but they had fallen into a far more comfortable relationship in private.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

This elicited a pause from the queen; likely more telling than anything she could have said, her eyes drifted away, and her hands came together, fingers lacing between each-other. It had been nearly a year since Zidane had left the palace for good, and over the months, Garnet seemed to be moving past it. Now, it was as though she'd relapsed completely.

Of course, there was more to worry about now. More than just a certain blond-haired, bright-eyed thief.

"I'm really worried about all of these disappearances," she said, finally, breaking the silence. "There's been no word of Freya, Amarant, Quina... Eiko went missing recently, and turned up on the outer continent. Zidane went with the rescue party, but Eiko says she never saw him, and no one has heard from him since."

[knightedmayrose.livejournal.com]

So it was more widespread than the boy going out to stretch his wings again. That thought gave Beatrix pause, even while she watched Garnet so clearly struggle with her troubles. And she had been among the missing. She took a single step closer, head bowing in silent contemplation of the meaning of all this chaos.

"And I had compounded your troubles," the general observed softly, feeling she had been remiss in her duties, through no fault of her own. And while she was convinced that surely these people could not all be gone from the world, a matter of time might reveal their whereabouts, there was the larger problem of what might have caused these issues in the first place. "If it would ease your mind, I can send a troop to go looking." Looking for Zidane, looking for answers.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Garnet silently shook her head.

"I do not wish to expend unnecessary resources on something that cannot be helped." She was slipping back into her business speak, the formal words, the forced calm tone. "We have already lost ships and sailors at sea in the Mist, and I would not see more families lose their loved ones if it can be avoided."

And of Zidane? The rest of the missing? Garnet turned away from Beatrix, her gazed fixed out the window. "I do wish to know what is causing all of this to happen... but I am beginning to get the feeling that some people simply... cannot be found. If any of them are still on this world, I have confidence they would have made contact somehow."

It was an idea she'd been playing with for some time. If people were appearing in this world, disappearing from their own, could not the same be happening to their own people? The thought did nothing to ease her mind.

[knightedmayrose.livejournal.com]

Without hearing the name spoken, Beatrix grasped what it was that Garnet was trying to say. She worried Zidane had been sent out of the world as others had been brought in. She extended her hand, resting her fingertips lightly on the young woman's shoulder. "He will come back. He always has, and he will again. So too will the others. They will find a way."

Although coming from the general who had no idea she'd been missing, it wasn't as comforting as it could be.

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

Although it did nothing to ease her mind, Garnet made her best efforts to look as though it had. She smiled for Beatrix, but said nothing more. Despite the weight of skirts, corset and the pendant around her neck, Garnet seemed to glide across the floor, to her sitting table. There, she reached up and removed her silver and emerald crown, setting it on the polish oak surface. Neck came her rings, and then she idly reached for the delicate emerald hanging from her earlobes. She paused, unfastening the clip, setting them one by one down on the table.

"So... you really have no idea where you've been all these months?" Garnet asked, her voice soft, and curious.

[knightedmayrose.livejournal.com]

Watching the young queen remove all visible signs of her station, piece by piece, sobered Beatrix. While Garnet could remove the crown, she could never fully remove its weight. In a way, it was symbolic, the removal of responsibility in private, but still, not fully true. It was something the general understood herself. Even in the rare, sweet moments she spend with Steiner, just as herself and not as a soldier, her duty to the crown and country ever stayed.

"I'm afraid not. To my recollection, I had left breakfast with Steiner not an hour before I found myself having moogle gifts shoved at me."

[crowned-jewel.livejournal.com]

"I lost two weeks, myself," said Garnet, as she removed the last of her jewelry, the silver bands around her upper arms. But not the pendant around her neck; she only took that off when she slept. "I just woke up in Dali one day, and Zidane told me I'd been missing. Most of us were."

With a sigh, she lowered herself into the red velvet-cushioned chair, her skirts fanning out around her feet. "I just don't understand how it happened."

Garnet reached across the table then, retrieving her own moogle-gifted device. She'd barely had the time to look at it, and none of her dresses had pockets, so she couldn't very well carry it with her. Still, she merely glanced at it, sighed at the number of messages she would need to sift through, and then set it aside again.

[knightedmayrose.livejournal.com]

To know she was not alone in this predicament afforded Beatrix no comfort whatsover. She crossed the room to where Garnet had taken her seat, and dropped to one knee beside her. Ever the knight, even in private, her posture remained upright, hands rested peaceably upon one knee.

"You as well. It is quite troubling." It was unfortunately stating the obvious, but then the situation was quite abnormal. Beatrix found it distressing to see Garnet so heavy hearted. Certainly some of this was to be expected with the young queen's love gone and now missing, but she knew that much of it had to be out of a deep concern for her people.

"You do not have to shoulder this burden alone. What can I do?"