a pestilence and plague

[misheard]

Title: a pestilence and plague
Fandom: Fate/strange fake, Fate/Grand Order
Character(s): Pale Rider, Ritsuka
Pairing(s): None
Genre: Fluff
Word Count: 602
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Summary: Of all her summoned Servants, Ritsuka understands Pale Rider the least.
Notes:

---

So far, Ritsuka's been fortunate when it comes to summoning personifications.

Nursery Rhyme might technically be 'all fairy tales ever told', but in practice she's a specific little girl with a defined personality. Ritsuka treats her exactly the way she treats the rest of her Servants. Voyager is a space probe, but there's no question that he's a person now, with the characteristics any person has.

Pale Rider… is not like that. They don't have a specific shape - not in the way that Nursery Rhyme changed from being a book to a human between ascensions, but their body is an amorphous cloud of Something that reshapes itself to whatever is convenient. And as for a personality…

Well, they take orders in battle? Is that a personality trait? If a program follows a command given, that isn't evidence of a personality, though, and Pale Rider feels more like hardware given the program of 'Servant' to run.

They exist outside of battle, of course. But even then, all they do is float along behind Ritsuka. They follow her everywhere except her room, and even that is only because she asked them to give her privacy there. They don't do anything, they just… hang around.

At least they give her more space during meals: they're aware that contaminating her food with their… themness would be bad. She didn't have to tell them to do that, so there is some level of intelligence there, but how much?

They don't talk. Plenty of Ritsuka's Berserkers are nonverbal, but they still make some kind of sound, and she can usually guess meaning from tone. Pale Rider rattles and rustles, but nothing even close to a human sound that can be interpreted.

Of all her Servants, Ritsuka understands Pale Rider the least.

---

Unrelatedly, today is one of those days.

The days where the smile slips from her face as soon as she's away from everyone else. The days where she buries herself under her blanket while the weight of worlds presses down on her. The days where she stops being the Master of Chaldea for a few hours and returns to being a teenage girl.

She doesn't know if other people knows she has these days. She's pretty sure Mash doesn't, because she would worry and fret, and the last thing she wants to do is worry Mash. If anyone else knows, they haven't brought it up.

Ritsuka has her head underneath her pillow, so it takes her a bit to hear it: the sound of something thumping against her door from the other side. It's not loud, certainly nothing heavy, but the noise repeats itself over and over again.

She considers the merits of just waiting for it to go away, but if someone's trying to get her attention, then not answering is more suspicious. Maybe it'll be a good distraction, at least.

She opens the door to find the mass that is Pale Rider picking a teddy bear off the floor. "Um - hi?"

It tosses the teddy bear at her, which she catches on reflex, and rattles loudly.

"This is for me?" Of course it's for her, silly question. "Were you… worried about me?"

The cloud bobs up and down in the imitation of a nod.

"Thank you. I'm okay, I promise."

Pale Rider forms a tendril - an arm, and pats her head. She can barely feel it, but the message comes through clearly. They might not talk, but they can still fuss. And anything that can fuss has a mind and wants of its own, even if those wants are just 'for Master to be happy.'