2017-08-29: A Friendly Face
- Log: A Friendly Face
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lan Lilac
- Where: Great Aveh Desert
- Date: August 29th 2017
- Summary: Josie is a little bit lost. Luckily, she gets a little bit of unexpected help from a good Samaritan.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Once, a long long time ago -- relative to current experiences anyway, which means it was a few months ago -- Josie had made a comment to someone along the lines that even living in hell -- in context the desert -- wasn't too bad once you got used to it.
In retrospect, she wonders if she just might have been a little too flippant about the contents of the good old desert. Funny how a few months in a temperate zone make you lose your touch.
Nestled in the shadow of a large rock, she regards the tiny, tiny pool of water that's gathered here, protected against the searing rays of the sun overhead.
It's less of a pool of water and more of a shallow puddle. Her horse stares dubiously at it, then lifts mournful eyes to her.
"What are you looking at me for? It isn't my fault it dried up in the last eight months," she sighs at the spot-coated steed. "Look, you just can't predict what the desert's going to be like, alright? I guess it's been a hot one..."
The horse, wordless, continues to stare at her. Josie leans against the rock, folding her arms behind her head. "...Well, there's no use complaining about it, okay? It's too hot to go looking for water now. You'll just have to make do until things cool off..."
The horse lowers its head to, perhaps, lick up the puddle.
There's a flurry of feathers.
Penelope lands, neatly, in the exactly one inch of water.
Time for a bath, it seems.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Even the Baskar, who have been living at the edge of the deserts for generations, occasionally get in over their heads. Lan has heard enough horror stories of what happened to Cousin Balki who foolishly went on a journey without enough water or rations or bandages or reading material (it seems to change from one retelling to the next) to always carry a little extra water (and hope that life doesn't throw her lemons and expect her to make lemonade).
The shuff of footsteps across the sand approaches from the other side of the rock under which Josie's party is resting. The steps are light and steady... and they belong to a woman in a long, white cloak, who leans around the edge of the rock to peek at the woman and her animal friends. "Oh! I thought I saw tracks. Do you mind if I share the shade with you for a bit?"
Not even waiting for Josie to answer, Lan shuffles over into the lee of the stone, pushing back the hood of her cloak.
She's a Baskar, if the tone of her skin and the pink paint on her cheeks are anything to go by. "I'm Lan. --Hey, why is there a pigeon in the water?" She makes a gentle shooing motion, flapping her fingers a bit uselessly. "Hey, get out of there, okay? You'll get the water all dirty!"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"...Hey, you," Josie sighs at the bird, who splish splash takes a bath in what little remains of a former oasis.
The spotted horse looks like its world just ended.
But it's the shff shff of footsteps -- well, while they're still on sand -- followed by the gentle tap tap of the same on rock -- that catches her attention. Josie sits up a little straighter, slides out her arms from behind her head.
"Hey--?"
She hasn't even gotten up by the time Lan peers around the rock to stare at the nearly completely dry rock basin, the sad horse, the pensive pigeon, and the lady with too many guns just sort of... hanging out in the shade.
"...Well, the more the merrier. Join the party?" Josie says, gesturing around at the menagerie.
Here, she slides up onto her feet. Well, halfway. It's just past midday and she's not fucking around with the sun or the heat more than she has to.
"Josephine Lovelace. Archaeologist, currently lost!" She flashes a grin. "Guess the desert's changed a bit since I was here last. I don't suppose you'd be native, kiddo?"
Josie, from the looks of her, boasts at least half her ancestry from one of the non-Baskar desert tribes... or something.
Sliding back down against the rock wall, she vaguely shoves at Penelope with the back of her right hand. "Y'know, she's right, you should get out of there..." Josie pauses, though, even as Penelope halfway marches up the dry rock, leaving little footprints behind. "...Well, maybe it doesn't matter. I don't think I'd drink it now." She looks up at Lan. "So, d'you have a name?"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
To be fair, you never know what was in the water before Penelope. Maybe something even dirtier!
K-kiddo? n_n;; Surely Josephine isn't that much older than Lan, right?!
"Josephine. That's a pretty name!" The other(?) blonde slips around in the shadow and tucks her cloak underneath herself to sit down. Seems like beneath it, she's wearing way less than most desert travelers - nothing scandalous, just short pants and a small shirt. Lan lets her long legs splay out as she leans back against any coolness she can scavenge from the rock face. "Fuaaaaaaaa~ It changes all the time, especially lately it seems. I haven't been by here in more than a year, I think... I remembered the puddle being larger then." Understatement!
"Oh - Lan's my name. Lan Lilac. I'm a shaman. Want me to lead you back to town when the sun's a little lower? It's not far, the route's just a little confusing. Those two landmark cactuses look so much alike..."
She watches Penelope waddle up from her nice bath, eyes sparkling a wee bit at the itty bitty birb footprints. C-cute...! "Aww, it's probably not that dirty," she simpers a bit, but digs in the satchel at her hip. "Here, have some of mine. It's not super fresh, but it's clean." The waterskin she offers over is a little over-decorated perhaps, but more importantly it's heavy and full.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Au contraire: Josie looks a little youthful (the perks of a sin-free (?????) life) but she is in fact in her 30s.
"Heh, thanks. But, since it looks like we might be on friendly terms for a bit, how about calling me Josie?" The archaeologist by contrast is wearing quite a bit (and packing a bit of heat to boot) which while it has its obvious drawbacks...
At least she's not likely to get too much sand in unpleasant places.
That means in her gloves. Her gloves.
There isn't much cool to be had -- the rock's been baking -- but at least the shade is some cool, which is better than nothing. And it means no one's getting cooked, which is always a bonus. "Oh good, then I'm not losing my touch too much. I was getting a little worried for a moment!" In spite of her situation, she cracks a grin and leans back. "...Same here. I figured this would be a good spot to refill and get my bearings, but..." She shrugs, limply. "Well, I'm not dead yet, so that's good enough. Lucky thing I ran into you..."
Especially since Lan seems to know what's what around here.
"I'd appreciate it, kiddo. Lan, huh? Not a bad name. Simpler than mine!"
Finding a reasonably cool spot down near the pool but not in it -- legal-minded pigeon? -- Penelope settles down and closes her eyes. "Trust me, if she sat in it, it's dirty now," Josie comments, gesturing idly with her left hand. "...Well, you're sure friendly," she says after a moment's surprised pause, sitting up a little straighter. "Tell you what, how about you give it to Spotty over there? I think he's just sad because I promised him a drink."
The horse stares at Lan. Stares.
Staaaaaares.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
In the desert, cool is relative. Ten degrees makes an immediate, appreciable difference!
"Josie then," Lan beams, relaxing against the rock. "Don't worry, you're not losing anything except an hour or two of your time. I prefer traveling in the evening or at night, even if it's kinda chilly by then. We can go just as soon as the sky starts getting red, that ought to get you to Dazil before it's all the way dark." Archaeologist, bird, horse, and all!
It still surprises Lan sometimes, the way outsiders react. If you don't work together, you die. Lan has just... sort of taken that philosophy and stretched it as far as she can. "I have water, and you're thirsty. Why wouldn't I share when I'm going to be able to top off as soon as we reach town?" She pauses, as if realizing something. "Well, I suppose you could take the water and kill me or something, but by that point the waterskin's kind of a moot point, isn't it?" She says it without losing an ounce of cheer, too...
"Ah, all right. If you're sure!" Lan doesn't own a horse, which is a shame, because they're so pretty and they make getting around so much easier. She actually has to open her small pack this time, but the tin plate she's looking for is close to the top. Pouring it full of water, she carefully carries it to Spotty and sets it down for him without spilling a drop. "Here you go, buddy. You're pretty big so I guess you drink a lot of water, don't you?"
She reaches out with a gentle hand to pat Spotty's neck before leaving him to the business of drinking, and goes back to her spot in the shade. "What brought you out here, if I can ask? Usually I find folks that are out digging, but sometimes travelers just lose their way.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Oh, wonderful!"
Josie claps her hands together. Josie winces vaguely. "I was hoping I was on the right track! It's good to know I wasn't too far off~ Well, that's a load off. Until then, I can just take it easy. I'm not in that much of a hurry anyway."
At least not, 'wait until the sky turns red' level of hurry, anyway. There is an element of urgency to her current quest, but...
Haste makes waste. Sometimes. And sometimes waste makes haste, too.
For her part, Josie shrugs. "It's just surprising. You'd be astonished what desperate people can do sometimes... or just people, if you're unfortunate enough. Well, at least I met the one good person in the Aveh Desert this time around~" she cheers, all glitter and rainbows.
The slight edge there betrays the times she met the non-good people, though. It might explain all the ARMs in easy reach.
"Anyway," she says, breaking off to mock-pout at Lan, "I don't look like the type to kill someone over a waterskin, right? ...Fengalon's breath." But it's all in jest; she grins at the Baskar girl all the same, and reaches down to pat her own waterskin. "I still have some on me. So I'll let you know if I need a top-up."
Spotty is not a horse accustomed to the desert. Just the usual dry dry dry of Ignas. So, not the desert, but only theoretically. He laps it up greedily. "Not too fast now," Josie cautions the horse, who doesn't seem to be listening.
"Me?" Josie gestures towards herself. "I'm heading to Dazil. I was going to meet some companions there, do some info-gathering, see the sights."
She pauses.
"Maybe make the academic break of my life. So what about you? Baskar girl, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
There are always bad people out in the desert. There are bad people everywhere... but Lan likes to believe that good people outnumber them. "I know I'm not the only one!" she laughs, getting comfortable in the shade.
Lan, on the other hand, doesn't carry an ARM. She doesn't even carry any normal weapons - at least, none that anyone can see. Is she roaming the desert unarmed?! Maybe she thinks the Guardians are all the protection she needs...
"You don't look like the type to kill anybody over something like that, no," Lan decides after taking another look at Josephine. Sometimes you miss details the first time around! "Just let me know if you're running low. If nothing bad happens we should still have plenty to get us to town." You can't jinx yourself by speaking in absolutes in the desert. It's unlucky!!
"Lan opens her lavender eyes to look down at herself. "Yup~ Going around trying to help folks for a while before I go home and settle back down." It's only a teensy little lie~
"But what do you expect to find there? Academically, I mean?" She can read, though Lan can't say that she's ever held a textbook. "Something to do with a dig?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Let's hope not! Or I've got a rough, long and lonely road ahead of me~" Again, there's a teasing note -- she's joking.
But only half joking.
The fact that Lan's unarmed though hasn't escaped Josie's notice. Either she's got some sort of ace up her sleeve, or the Guardians really do love fools.
But isn't everyone a little bit foolish in the long run? It's not a judgement statement.
Unless she's talking about Leon and/or Lily, that is.
"Sure thing, sure thing. I'm not planning on dying out here, you know..." She sighs, glancing up at the sky. "You've got to treat the desert with some respect, after all. She'd just as much eat you alive as look at you. Heheh, it's the kind of lady I can respect," Josie comments, a wry smile on her face. "Auntie was always adamant about not going into the desert alone." She glances down, and lightly paps the sleeping (?) bird on the head. "Lucky for me, I'm not alone." Penelope squints as if irritated.
"Helping people, huh? Not a bad idea if you've got the heart for it. Me, I think I'm just old and selfish... Oof, sitting around on a day like this isn't bad, even if it's midday. Helps to know that I'm not up the sandbank just yet, though."
A bird soars, distant. Not a buzzard or vulture. Hawk, probably, Josie thinks.
Must be hunting.
"...Hmm, not sure. I have my ideas of course, but," and she sits up to reach over to attempt to boop Lan playfully on the nose. "Helpful fellow traveler or not, I can't let myself get scooped just yet. It's publish or perish in the academic world..." She sighs, as if in lament.
"But I'm sure it'll involve digging, one way or another."