Topic Title: Fanfic: “The Consequence of Action”
 Rune Grey
Cunning Antagonist |
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|  "Fanfic: “The Consequence of Action”"
, Wed 25 Apr 20:27 |
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“The Consequence of Action”
By Rune Grey - starstrike@leamonde.net
*As Always - Beware of Spoilers*
There was only darkness now... darkness, despair, and the weight of ages...
For the moment, there was quiet and peace where there was normally motion, and a chaos of light and images. In the center of Solaris, indeed what was now the center of the entire world, Emperor Cain sat in silence and contemplated the darkness of his throne room. The paintings which normally swung around him in and endless spiral, each displaying an image of an outside world that he could no longer say he was truly a part of.
Not that there was much of a world left outside of his throne room. Lacan had seen to that, in the most horrible way imaginable.
Cain leaned back against his throne and signed uncomfortably as the bulk of his life support pressed down on him. The only light left in the room was a small spotlight that shined directly down on his throne from above, a small circle of light that reflected his view of the world. As it had been in the beginning, he was alone... left to rebuild the world in the wake of another disaster. Even the Gazel Ministry was gone, killed in the final battled with Lacan and the Diabalos...
Well, good riddance.
A single note split the air inside of the throne room. Startled, the Emperor looked up from his contemplative pose with a curious expression on his face. No normal member of Solaris would have dared to disturb him in such a way, and the only ones who would use that entrance were the Gazel, who were all dead ... more or less... or...
Another light clicked on in the ceiling high above, a clever trick of design obscuring the exact source that beamed down into one of the floating floor panels. Directly behind that area a single door opened, a rectangular area of light in an indefinable patch of darkness. And as the first of his visitors stepped through the door, it seemed as if Cain gave a small sigh of resignation. He should have expected this sooner or late, but he had hoped that he would have more time to contemplate the changes that the Gazel Ministry’s, as well as his own, actions had wrought to the world.
“I didn’t expect to find you moping around in the dark, of all things...” an alto female voice commented from the doorway, a faint him of amusement in her voice. The owner of that voice stepped through the door into the area of light, her hand moving to absently brush a stray strand of purple hair from her face. Her escorts followed her into the room, a single Solaris Elite Guard with lowered visor and a ceremonial sword strapped to his side as well as a... well, there was little Cain could do to describe the man except as a bum, or vagabond. His blue hair was filthy and stuck to his face in places, horribly tangled in others. His outfit appeared to be the tattered remnants of a Nisan Guardsman, damaged almost beyond repair by several years of neglect.
“Mother... what an unexpected surprise,” Cain replied with a remarkably level voice. A single gesture and the floating platform his guests stood upon rose up to his own level. The purple haired woman smiled and curtseyed after a moment, her formal uniform making the gesture seem a little... odd. “I was surprised that you would chose to visit with such an... unusual companion.” Cain, like most other men of high rank, ignored the guard in favor of the vagabond with Miang.
“This one?” she replied with a small smile. “Oh, we’ll get to him in a few moments... you can say that he’s a gift of sorts. A little surprise to help get my children back on their feet.” Miang turned around and lightly slapped the back of her hand on the blue haired man’s stomach, obviously delighted as he jumped slightly in response to her touch. The guard seemed to have a satisfied smirk on his face, but otherwise stood at attention.
Cain looked down at the vagabond again, a little more curious now as to what he might have to offer. The Mother was obviously more interested in word games for the moment, but Cain knew that she would tell him the man’s identity soon enough. “Certainly you are aware that I am the only one of your ‘children’ that was left after this recent debacle? Or were you referring to what is left of mankind as your children at this point?”
Miang smiled again in response as she rested a hand on the shoulder of the vagabond. “Well, you know how it goes... I am going to need my children in the future, but they tried to trade me away to Shevat to be frozen in a block of ice, in exchange for what...?” She shook her head after a moment, and brushed her purple hair out of her eyes again. “You can see why I did not try to stop Lacan from... teaching them to properly respect their Mother, can’t you? The cruelest way to punish someone is to leave them to face the consequences of their actions...”
Before Cain could respond, the guard at Miang’s side suddenly doubled over in a fit of coughing. He held one hand pressed to his stomach for a moment as he fought for control, and bowed even lower as he realized the breach of protocol he had just made. Oddly enough, Miang looked more amused than insulted by the outburst, a small smile on her face as she looked over at the guard for a moment before continuing.
“So now my children are all dead, or the next thing to it... a pity, but I can’t have them thinking that they can go and exercise that level of independence from me.” She turned and paced across the lighted platform for a moment, her gaze on the stilled paintings around Cain’s throne as she continued. “But I can’t just let them stay dead, can I? After all, the Ministry does have some uses... for the time being. So I searched until I could find someone who could... revive them, after a fashion. Or at least revive them into a more controllable form.”
Cain gestured for her to continue after a moment, intrigued now by the possibilities that Miang was suggesting. “The Ministry has always been... ambitious. Certainly they found that their reach had exceeded their grasp for their most recent actions... I assume that this... man... can perform a resurrection that will allow them to be managed?”
“Of course... Cain, allow me to present to you Melchoir’s finest disciple... the former Commander of the Nisan Guard, Krelian.” Miang walked around behind the blue haired young man and rested her hands tightly on his shoulders for a moment. Krelian seemed to flinch down under her grasp, the startled expression on his face the first real emotion that Cain had seen since he entered the room. Miang smiled again as she leaned down next to him looked up towards the Emperor from the level of Krelian’s shoulder. “He’s still a little shy around me, but I’m sure I’ll be able to fix that soon enough. And he has such wonderful goals... Lacan told me all about what he said right after ‘she’ died...”
The guard nodded again after a moment, taking a step back to allow Miang to walk around the guardsman turned scientist. Her fingers gently traced the line of his shoulders as she spoke, her smile giving light to her obvious enjoyment of Krelian‘s discomfort. “He was so distraught by Sophia’s death that we lost all of his faith in the ‘God’ he believed in.” The smile on the purple haired woman’s face was almost hungry as she spoke, her eyes shifting back to Krelian’s face as she continued to speak. “Of course... he does not know what is really going on. He is as ignorant to destiny as Lacan was, before he made contact with Zohar and started his little crusade...”
Cain nodded after a moment and considered the possibilities that such a talented young man could offer to Solaris. Melchoir had been recognized across the entire world as a master of nanotechnology, and rumors had told of a young disciple of the Shevite sage who would surpass even his master in that area... “So, you believe that he can be of use even beyond reviving the Ministry?”
Miang smiled after a moment, and nodded once to Cain. “Of course... but he needs to be told the entire truth. I expect that he will not take it very well... although without the... destructive possibilities that Lacan possessed.” The guard nearby raised a hand to his visor, as if stifling a chuckle, but Miang ignored him for the moment. “You are the most appropriate person to explain to this poor, lost young man the true history of this world... if you would not mind, my son. I have matters to attend to elsewhere...”
With that, Miang turned on her heel and began to walk from the room. As she passed the guard, she touched him lightly on the arm and indicated that he should follow. It seemed as if he would refuse, but after a moment the guard nodded, and followed the Mother from the room...
And left Krelian to face the Emperor, and the truth.
If he so desperately wished to create God with his own hands, he should know the price, and the consequences, of his actions, Miang decided with a satisfied smile.
...
“Well now, you seemed to find that entire exchange rather amusing...” Miang commented after a moment as the door to the Emperor’s throne room closed behind her. “You nearly gave yourself away back there, and I don’t know how either Krelian or Cain would have reacted to knowing you were standing in the room... Lacan, dear...” she added with a hint of a smile on her lips.
The guard reached up with one hand and unhooked the clasp that held his helm and visor on his head. “I couldn’t help myself... I wasn’t aware that I was doing you a favor when I killed off the entire Ministry, ‘dear’...” Lacan replied with a half smile on his face. A moment later he pulled the helm off of his head and tucked it under one arm. His golden eyes regarded Miang for a moment, the minor differences in his features and stance just enough to remind her that this was not the same body Lacan had used to burn half of the world into ash. “I might have settled for only mauling them, if only to irritate you...”
He nearly looked the same, Miang decided after a moment. Perhaps sheer ego had caused him to select a body that was close to his original one... she would not put it past him, after all that he had done. But those eyes, and his mass of flame red hair although pulled back into a restrained tail, were still the same as before. “I somehow doubt that, after all of the trouble that I went through to point them out to you... and besides, they did kill your Sophia, as well as trying to turn me over to be turned into an ice cube. I think that what Krelian is capable of doing to them is... poetic justice, perhaps...”
“Of course...” Lacan replied with the ghost of a smile on his lips. “Now why did we have to leave... I would have liked to see the expression on Krelian’s face as he realized that he will never truly had a chance to win Sophia... no matter how much dedication he shows to ‘our’ cause. When he realizes that there is a god... just not the kind, merciful one that he had hoped to find, or create.”
“I think that you misunderstand his devotion Lacan... or maybe you can’t quite comprehend it anymore. I wonder how much you did lose when you moved on from your original body,” Miang mused after a moment, a single finger pressed thoughtfully to her lips. Crystal blue eyes looked Lacan over for a moment before she continued, her voice a little pensive. “Krelian will serve his purpose, regardless of his opinion in the matter. I will see to that.”
The slightly surprised expression on Lacan’s face may just have been genuine... or perhaps not. She had long since stopped trying to guess. But his comment was not completely unexpected. “I wasn’t aware that you were interested in Krelian’s type, Miang... a change in preference, perhaps...?” he asked with a half smirk on his face.
“Prudence, and nothing more...” Miang replied quietly after a moment as she turned to look down the corridor. Another lock of hair fell into her eyes, which she absently brushed away from her face before she continued. “We are not going to have many more chances to bring about our dreams... not if we expect to be able to find any peace. You, Krelian and I... even we will one day have to face the consequences of our own actions...”
Authors Note:
As requested, here we have the first story for Myaru’s new board... I hope that you like it, dear. If Lacan and Miang seem to be a little off... well, Myaru has corrupted my view of Miang rather badly... hopefully I’ve managed to depict her version of Miang rather closely. Any comments are welcome, as this version is still a little rough around the edges.
Rune Grey
~Perpetual Thorn of Logic and Reason
"May I have another fork...?" ~ Legato Bluesummers . Trigun
Posts: 105
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| Registered: Wed 26 Jul 2000 9:8 |  |
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| |  "Re(1):Fanfic: “The Consequence of Action”"
, Sun 29 Apr 13:37 | Message #140
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Some questions though...
You stated that Lacan had red hair and gold eyes, just like ID. I thought that when Lacan came in contact with Zohar, his features stayed the same, he just wore a goofy mask. Or is this a transmigrated body...
Also, what time period is this. How long after the Diabolos War is it? It doesn't seem to far after...
Just watch XenoSaga suck...
Posts: 229
| Location: The fine line between heaven and hell....
| Registered: Wed 13 Dec 2000 18:49 | |
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| | | "Re(2):Fanfic: “The Consequence of Action”" , Mon 30 Apr 00:38 | Message #155
Replied to #140 |
It's a quirky little theory. ^.^ He /did/ become something like Id when he contacted Zohar and went nuts... and who is to say that he couldn't do the same in another body? If the new vessel resembles his original body (as was stated in the story), surely he could also simulate the appearance of Id. But that's just my opinion. ^.^
Ja mata.
Amber Michelle
"On the heights all paths are paved with daggers." - Wheel of Time
"Sore demo wa... itsuka."
- Lezard because he's cool. ^.^
Posts: 416
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| Registered: Tue 25 Jul 2000 2:55 | |
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| | | "Re(3):Fanfic: “The Consequence of Action”" , Mon 30 Apr 10:02 | Message #159
Replied to #155 |
He did change in the game. For a brief moment you can see Lacan looking exactly like Id.
"let's make this site uncool to the MAX!"-CjayC to his moderators at GameFAQs
TFK's proud member 4th entrant character Fei
Posts: 63
| Location: SA Chile Santiago
| Registered: Fri 20 Apr 2001 19:29 | |
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| |  "Constructive criticism from Mihoshi."
, Wed 25 Apr 21:17 | Message #118
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...or at least, Mihoshi's evil twin.
1. I know it's only a rough, but I'm sure you would appreciate me pointing out that it's spelled "hymn". I'll just give you a cuddle to make you feel better.
2. I have often wondered... who was the woman that Miang took over, after Karen?
Karen died, and the Miang persona (assumedly)moved on to the body we know... 
Miang is in there, but who was the woman she erased? What was her name? Did she have family? lover? Children? Did they have to be slaughtered by her to keep suspicion to a minimum?
...er, I guess my question is: what is Miang like in this time period, in this fanfiction?
We read how she had blue eyes and blue hair getting in her face, but could you go into some more detail? What did she look like? How tall was she? Was she wearing the uniform, or the clothes of the person she...assumed? Did she have long hair? Short? Curls? Bangs? Scars? Did she have blue hair originally, or was that the Miang factor? Could you still see faint roots of her original colour?
(y'know, I always wondered why Elly's hair went blue, yet Karens' did not. Is that up to the Miang factor? The blue hair would've given Karen away, so maybe Miang chose not to go blue... and that means she could do that in any host. If Miang took Maria, she could keep the grey, ne?)
Oh well, make that one comment and one question...
You still get a cuddle, though.
Good job Runey-chan!
Kisses XXOOXX
Jen
P.S. I'm also curious of the title. Technically, the consequence was good (albeit ominous), because it was Sophia's death that lead Karelian to Miang & Cain, which started Chapter 5, which ended in a happy ending for all... ne?
Posts: 631
| Location: Melbourne Australia
| Registered: Thu 22 Mar 2001 3:32 | |
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| | Rune Grey
Cunning Antagonist |
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| "Re(1):Constructive criticism from Mihoshi." , Wed 25 Apr 21:32 | Message #119
Replied to #118 |
Ah, its a good question Jen... its been a while since I had to drudge that perticular bit of info up, and it *may* have been surplanted by something that Myaru or Intangir translated from Perfect Works in the meantime... but the Miang from the Nisan War - Diabalos Period looked almost exactly identical to the Miang that we see in the current story. I BELIEVE (and this is where I could be wrong) that the Miang we see through most of the story was designed to be a copy of the Miang from the Diabalos Era, a kind of holdover body for her to use until she was ready to move on to Elly. So she did have some life beyond being Miang, I believe she was just entering Jugend when Miang transfered into her. Again, Myaru is the Miang expert here. ^^ I specialize in Grahf. ^_~
To be honest, I tend to write Miang as an archtype when I don't write with Myaru... I don't have as good of a grasp of her character. ^_^; I do see what you mean... a bit of description to Miang's outfit would help. But as I said, I tend to see Miang as 'Miang'. ^^;
As for the title... heh, thats the impression I was trying to get across. ^_~ Or it could apply to the individual actions of each character as well...
But thank you for the commentary, Jen. ^^
Rune Grey
~Perpetual Thorn of Logic and Reason
"May I have another fork...?" ~ Legato Bluesummers . Trigun
Posts: 108
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| Registered: Wed 26 Jul 2000 9:8 | |
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| | | "Re(2):Constructive criticism from Mihoshi." , Thu 26 Apr 19:16 | Message #122
Replied to #119 |
Hmm... I always figured that when we see Miang talk to Lacan 500 years ago, she doesn't really look like that, but they just made her like that so we would know it was Miang. If it was just some woman with blue hair, we might not realize it, so they did it like that. Its just like the flashback when we see Cain 10000 years ago. He's still wearing his mask and other garb although at that point of his life he most likely didn't need it.
Its too bad we don't find out more about the woman who Miang became. We do know from PW that she has been in that body ever since Karen died 14 years ago, so if I remember correctly, that would have made her 12 when she got taken over. Aside from that, who knows... Its a good fanfic subject ;)
"Here is where those who died of illness or those who abandoned their humanity for machine bodies rest eternally."
Posts: 228
| Location: Boston MA
| Registered: Sat 29 Jul 2000 17:51 | |
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| | | "Re(3):Constructive criticism from Mihoshi." , Fri 27 Apr 16:51 | Message #130
Replied to #122 |
You know, I wondered the same thing, and I was even more confused when I saw a picture of Miang in the Zeboim era
With this pic you are told its Miang, so you don't need her to look the same, but again she has exactly the same body...
Does she change the appearance of the host body to suit her purposes? It would explain a great many of questions, would it not?
But I agree, a lot of it has to do with letting the player know who the character is meant to represent...
So many games....so little time....
(A good quote to remember.....
"The Truth is realized in an instant; the Act is practiced step by step"
And another one...
"Knowing others is Wisdom knowing yourself is Enlightenment."
And another one...
"Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising every time we fail")
Posts: 96
| Location: UK the worst place to be if you want to play Xenogears....
| Registered: Fri 6 Apr 2001 13:38 | |
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| | | "Re(2):Constructive criticism from Mihoshi." , Thu 26 Apr 02:25 | Message #120
Replied to #119 |
I think that Miang's current body was a Jugend student - however, I'm drawing that interpretation from the Comic Anthology, not the PW. I thinkt hat the comic I got that from IS within the canon of the story though... But who knows? I'm sure Intangir has translated that part already.
In our little fanfic universe (Shinigami, Last Kiss Before Morning) I've commonly given Miang longer hair, and a form that is a bit more slender than what she has in the game. In the case of Karen... I've always assumed that her hair didn't change because Karen's hair was already darker to begin with - purple doesn't override black, at least not technically. *shrug*
Just like I've always assumed that Krelian dyed his hair for political reasons; if his face isn't aging, his hair isn't going to go gray. That wouldn't make any sense.
I liked the story, Grahf dear. ^.~ My only real suggestion is that you perhaps give Krelian a bit more spine... just a bit. He's a very prideful man, at least in my opinion. (Generally, people don't continue with a failing plan if they aren't full of pride and hope that it might work.) ^.^ You don't claw your way up to "Holy General" status without a little pride and confidence.
Ja mata.
Amber Michelle
"On the heights all paths are paved with daggers." - Wheel of Time
"Sore demo wa... itsuka."
- Lezard because he's cool. ^.^
Posts: 411
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