2017-03-07: Wrong Instincts
- Log: Wrong Instincts
- Cast: Leon Albus, Lily Keil
- Where: Outskirts of Port Timney
- Date: March 7, 2017, shortly after the fight with Jude.
- Summary: Leon and Lily stop to tend their wounds after the fight with Jude.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon and Lily hurried until it was safe.
They didn't simply bolt for the city, but instead did a serpentine pattern that took them to the north side of the outskirts, and found one of the trees that could grow in the rougher lands here. It is still a dry, half-dead thing. But it's a place to stop, and Leon does, leaning against it.
He hisses when he does. He looks down at his leg -- the pants are cut open -- and he sees where dried blood has caked, before he rolls his shoulders. His ribs respond with a fiery pain in protest.
Then, he looks at Lily.
"Jude Moshe," he says. "Not a name I'm likely to forget anytime soon." And then, his eyes close, and he waits. He doesn't doubt that Lily has some words for him. And, he thinks, he probably earned them.
He put her in danger. Again.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily doen't lean. Oh, she steps beside Leon and puts her arm out towards the tree, but she jerks it back a moment later as if burned, well before she answers anything he has to say.
Looking at her that much is clear; wearing red disguises some of it, but she's taken many gunshots even aside from the burns, the worst of which are in her shoulders and her side. And her outfit has tears, too. "I won't..." A breath, "Forget either." She turns to look up at him, wincing. Her eyes are still jet black all over.
"Let me look at your injuries," she says first, not the words he might expect. "And..."
"You're too kind for your own good."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon looks up at Lily -- and it's hard to look her in the eyes. Not because he recoils, because Leon is far too in control and thinks far too much of her to recoil away when he sees those solid black eyes. But, without pupils to focus on, without irises to provide definition, Lily's eyes are almost impossible to meet. He can't tell where she is looking exactly.
He nods, though, and then sits down. He kicks his leg onto a stone -- and hisses in pain -- which gives Lily a few of the slash that could have hamstrung him. "That one hurt the worst," he says. "What about you? He got a few shots in."
Many had grazed him -- and her healing had removed the bullets that struck, or Leon's own emergency first aid. He grimaces, and then grimaces more when she speaks. He looks down, then. "...I was. I should have been more suspicious."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily happens to be looking in a number of different places; she tries to keep her attention only on Leon, but it's difficult. Apparently it's covered over, though the blinks come a little faster than uual.
Leon sits down, and Lily sinks down knees-first carefully, shifting down to her legs and favoring her injured one, using her arms as possible as possible for weight-bearing.
And she looks at the slash there, nodding, a grave look in her expression, the way she holds her lips.
"I see," she answers, and then nods a moment later. "The worst is... my shoulders. And my leg, after that." Lily reaches out with her hands towards Leon's leg, and doesn't look up at him for now. Instead she fans out her fingers. "...It's something I love about you, but it's dangerous. I won't lose you to a man like that."
Her hands begin to glow, and with red light she begins to heal him further.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm. Yeah," Leon says. "He had some surprising techniques. An ARM that could shoot sorcery--I think I saw symbols on it." He didn't really have time for a good loock, but he doesn't doubt that it worked differently than Lily's spells. He loosk down and waits -- and then blinks, as he feels the warmth that comes from her healing magic. Warm enough that Leon feels faintly uncomfortable, except that it heals his wound, too.
Captain Albus nods, once, at what she says. "I don't intend to die to a man like that. But... you won't tell me to stop?" he asks, looking back up at her. It's easier, this time, for his silver eyes to meet her solid midnight ones. Except that he can't be /sure/ he looks at her.
I can imagine what my father would say," he concludes, quietly. Leon's brow furrows, as he does, and hears Harkon's voice in his mind.
"This Drifter business... it goes against all of my instincts."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"That ARM was surprising, all right." Lily shakes her head after delivering that dry assessment. It isn't as funny as it might be; there's a hint of tiredness in her voice as she says it. "Here..." Lily uses her fiery healing magic and lifts her hands once she's satisfied that the worst of his wounds has healed.
"I'd hope not," Lily says, and looks back at him. She can look at his silver eyes just fine. It helps her to get that focus. She waits, as Leon mentions his father, as he mentions this Drifter business...
"No, I won't tell you to stop. It's frustrating, at times, but one of us should remember what it is to care." Patting the healed wound, Lily picks up her left hand and starts to pass it over her better shoulder, aglow again as she starts healing one of the worst of her own wounds.
"Ah..." A slight hiss, before, "...It's a difficult adjustment. We're soldiers, not Drifters. Some of it I respond to better, I think..."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon bends his knee a few times, then shifts side to side after, before he nods his thanks to her. He looks up at her, then, as she starts to work on herself next. "It was," he agrees. "So was a lot about him. Moshe... maybe he was an ordinary bounty hunter, but something in his eyes. How he lied so easily--and even then, didn't want to take things seriously."
His silver eyes narrow, and Leon frowns to think on it. "...There's something more there. Something more to him. I don't doubt we'll meet him again."
Then, he leans back against the tree, and he sighs.
"You do. You've always been the more curious one," he says. "I'm too used to... discipline. Orders. When things break, they break along fault lines I can see. I don't know where the fault lines are, here. But--"
He frowns, then, and looks up at her. "...You haven't forgotten what it is to care, Lily."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"There was nothing ordinary about Jude Moshe," Lily agrees. "I'll remember that name, that face. ...And that ARM. I think I learned something from him. ...In terms of magic. I'm sure we'll meet him again, and others like him." Lily glances away, up towards the sky.
Lily places a hand over her left shoulder, and begins to heal there, too, letting her left arm fall to her side. She drags the magic down from her shoulder to her upper arm, with long breathes as she does. Her eyes close as she listens.
But then she's looking at Leon again. "...It's true, I've been disobeying some basic orders for some time. What you say makes sense. It's all new, not in our training."
A pause, and Lily closes her eyes again. "Haven't I?" she asks. "I care about you, but what else? Everything we've lost..."
Lily stops, shakes her head. "No, I shouldn't do this. Not while we're trying to run."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm. Definitely not," Leon says. "He might come for us again, too. Next time... we'll be better prepared."
They won't be taken unawares -- certainly not the same way. Leon leans back, his eyes closing, too, and he listens to her breathing rather than watch her heal herself. "You did," he agrees. "Not that I minded in the least." After all, he helped her train in magic, back then. He broke orders, too, in doing so.
His eyes open sharply when she asks that -- and he looks up to her, but with her eyes closed, still. "Lily," he says, quietly. "We've..."
He starts to say what they have -- but, really, it's each other. There isn't anything else left. A life in the military, making their parents proud, was snatched away from them. The Black Wolves all lay dead, and they didn't have time to bury them. There will never be a return to Kislev. They lost much -- and he can't say what they have to gain.
He wishes he did. His silver eyes fall away from her, to look back at Filgaia's dying ground, and then he nods. It is regretful and resigned. "...We'll keep moving. We'll find Gryndille. And we'll destroy it."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"We'll know," Lily says. "We know already, to expect someone like him... Just not in that way."
It's possible that they will be taken awares another way; Lily can't pretend now that it's not true. But they can prepare as much as possible for that eventuality.
"No, I recall you helped," Lily says, and a little moment of remembrance is nice. "And you were very good at helping."
But it's just a brief reprieve for her; she hasn't stopped worrying about what she is for long. Lily still doesn't open her eyes at first; she doesn't have to, to guess at Leon's expression, to ear it in his voice, to imagine what he might be thinking... Though her thoughts are jumbled, and she isn't as clear as she'd like to be in judging that.
Lily opens her eyes, and nods again, turning Leon's way again. "...Yes, Leon. There's too much we have to do to do anything but keep moving forward." But it sounds difficult for her, a quiet strain in her voice, as she slides forward and leans against his propped-up leg. "...Even if I feel cold, at least you never minded my trying to warm myself." A pause, "Sentimental, isn't it?" A sigh.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon can tell that it bothers her. He can see the strain -- hear it, too, in her voice. Can they really do this forever? Do they have any choice but to do this? He frowns, before he looks down at the ground. He has to bear more of this burden. He brought it on them, after all. His failure forced her to reveal what she is -- and saw every Black Wolf but them dead. His eyes stay on the ground, as she speaks.
But he looks up, when Lily leans against his leg. That prompts a smile from the captain, and he reaches out. His hand slides to her shoulder and then squeezes once.
"Maybe," he admits. "But I never minded if you try to warm yourself up. It's how we first really came together." So long ago, and he can still remember the girl holding a little fire in her hands, like it was nothing. Leon's eyes fall on her. "...And even if you feel cold, I don't think you are."
Except when he makes her feel colder. But he keeps that thought to himself, before it could possibly poison the moment.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It bothers her enough to show it even in small ways, though Leon knows Lily well, knows the cues and signs. ...But whether he knows her or not, she shows it in her voice, in the lines of her face, even through her strange black eyes.
Truthfully, those are tiring, too.
Lily faintly smiles for a moment at the squeeze on her shoulder, the dried blood now only dried. "Yes," she agrees at what he says, "It was." He mentions what he thinks, and Lily looks back to him, her expression hard to read but softened, like she might reach out his way at any moment. ...In a way, she has.
"...That's... You know how difficult it is for me to express myself that way. It means..." She hugs his knees. "It's good that you think so."
A laugh, at her own stiffness, as Lily goes on without hearing that thought Leon keeps to himself, before she lifts a hand up to her eyes and rubs at them. "Ugh."
She smiles behind her arm again, "...Don't think you've changed my mind or anything. I'm just glad you don't agree with me."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Do they hurt?" he asks. Leon doesn't address the changes in her eyes often. He has seen how the physical changes bother her, especially when they linger. He remembers, after all, how Lily started wearing gloves to hide the lines her magic could leave -- if only briefly.
But, then he nods. "I do. It's not easy for you." He can guess why; a life of keeping secrets probably would make one secretive by nature. And then he tilts his head, smiling slightly.
"We'll have to agree to disagree on that, I think," he says. He certainly couldn't see her that way. "I don't think my opinion will change on this matter, Lieutenant."
He says it more playfully than he would, if others were here.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I wouldn't say they hurt," Lily answers, lowering her hand and shaking her head, "It's like a faint crackling. It isn't /as/ bothersome when it's brief. Usually I don't even feel it. ...Though there's not really a usually, is there? I haven't used magic so frequently like this before." The black-haired woman doesn't exactly bring up the changes very often--still hides some--but this is too obvious and too /present/ to ignore.
Leon gets it, though. Lily again shows a little relief, but not much; it's not a new knowledge, that Leon undertands this sort of thing. She smiles a little anyway, and then nods right back at him, up and down with precision. "Yes, Captain. Noted."
It's certainly more playful on her part.
Lily starts to turn around however, scooting back along the dusty ground to his side, where she leans against his arm and side. "So are you feeling all right? Good enough to get somewhere more private, at least, and out of the open. Our clothes could use some mending."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm. The definition of usually's changed. You can use it openly, now," Leon says. Or, more accurately, she can pretend at being a Symbologist -- and made easier by how much of her she keeps covered. He looks at her, peering over her, and then he nods once.
His smile widens a little more when she smiles back at him, at the little joke between them.
"I am," he confirms. He slides his arm around her -- but not for long. One hug from the side, and then he stands up, and extends a hand down towards her, to help herself up with. "Well enough to start walking. We should try to catch that train."
He looks at Port Timney's rows of houses -- and past them, the masts of sailing ships -- before he looks back down at Lily. "I think the sooner we're in Adlehyde, the better."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Yes, it just means a lot of new territory. It's been long enough to establish patterns to look out for." Lily is used to lying about her magic; being able to exercise it alone is more than helpful.
...But she lingers not on lies but on their joke.
One hug, and he's up; Lily sighs faintly at how brief it is, but then she gets her soles onto the ground and takes Leon's hand, pulling to bring herself to her feet with his help. She dusts herself off, and looks herself over briefly before deeming herself good enough.
Her clothes are torn in places, but not enough to show much; not enough to show anything obviously unusual, or anything indecent.
"Starting walking it is. Let's make sure to get a compartment of our own this time if we can. I want a little privacy... And I have some notes to record."
She turns in that direction. "Because I think you're right."