2017-11-02: Army-Style Negotiations
- Log: Army-Style Negotiations
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lily Keil
- Where: November City - Bunker's Lounge
- Date: November 2nd 2017
- Summary: Lily recruits Josie.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"...And then the damn dragon decided she was just gonna... plow right into me and the building," Josie concludes, sweeping a cigarette-burdened hand widely as smoke trails out in an arc.
Dark eyes hood.
Not far at hand, a pigeon investigates a bowl of peanuts carefully. Somehow, she's been let back into the bar with Penelope. The bartender may be watching this table out of the corner of his eye.
Josie huffs out her breath. "After that, it blew up. Some asshole set a fire Symbol."
Before her gaze slides over to the young woman seated opposite her at the side table off at the outskirts of the bar area. "So, what about you? You got caught up in all that stuff in Bledavik, right? I heard a few rumors. Is it true part of the palace exploded?" Josie settles back in her seat. "You almost had me worried about you, kiddo. I figured you'd gone chasing after that machine again."
Josie almost had to arrange an emergency wedding. Or maybe that's not off the table yet----
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil is here in black, of course, one eye visible. A long dress, a shawl over it likewise, and liquor in her hand--not her first glass. ...Not her second glass, for that matter. But this one is going slower, nursed more than the others.
She doesn't seem especially drunk though; she's been quiet, more withdrawn even than is usual for her... Though a little less given it's Josie, and Josie well...
"Sounds like a dragon," she comments, glances down at the table. A Fire symbol...
"Almost, huh," Lily replies, and shakes her head. "...You could say I did." She waves a finger, "That's exaggerated. There were explosions, but it's more that I set part of the palace on fire." She swirls her drink--with her ice, of course--sets it down, and picks up a cigar she'd set out.
"...I was undercover guarding someone for something important. It didn't go as smoothly as I'd have liked, but we all got out and the mission's accomplished. ...We ust underestimated the opposition."
She considers, sets the cigar to her lips, and lights it with a thought, without even using her finger this time.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
She's been drinking quite a lot. Just about as much as Lily herself has, as the two women have their long-belated meeting.
Leon had said that Lily was on a job. Slightly, at that thought, the corner of Josie's mouth curls upwards.
She takes a good long drag as she considers the thought.
More than the opposition bargained for, huh.
"So not quite the truth as usual, huh? You should tell me this stuff next time, kiddo, or I'll just have to assume you blew up the capital and wooed all the lads and lasses as you escaped next time."
Never mind that she knows Lily only has eyes for one person.
"Or maybe you should make that your plan next time, eh?" She gestures again, smoke rising towards the ceiling. "Might as well have fun while you're on the job?"
Her gaze flits over Lily, her injuries.
"So, are you going to tell me what the job was about? Or have you decided you don't trust me again?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Long-belated is right.
Lily drags at her cigar, taking a deep pull before she trails the smoke slowly out of her mouth, looking distant further still for a few moments, looking past Josie. Josie's assumption...
"Will you?" she asks, and shakes her head, without even a particular rise. She... consders, hears about the plan. "I might as well," she admits. "I'd have been better off levelling the place. But I needed at least part of it intact." A beat, "I killed a lot of guards though."
Lily is still, when Josie asks, and there's a look in her eye that's not quite a flinch before she deflates a little and sighs. "...It's not..."
"I just..." She shakes her head, looks down at her cigar, and looks back to Josie. "...The injuries are mostly unrelated. They come from something else. I'll tell you about that."
"But the mission was to infiltrate Bledavik, the palace, to get to a statue special to the Guardians with Adlehyde's princess. Get in, get close enough, and perform a ritual on it to safeguard it."
"...Basically, for the good of the world. I posed as her maid because I wasn't letting her go in alone in those circumstances. ...Unfortunately, they knew more than I counted on, and I was captured."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Penelope after a moment's thought pecks at a peanut.
A theft ensues shortly thereafter, the pigeon running with her salty prize across the table to the furthest reaches. Josie's gaze flicks sidelong, then she shrugs at Lily as if to silently say, 'birds, huh?'
"Well, it's no skin off my teeth, whatever you did. Though I guess I should technically be on Aveh's side considering my mother, huh...?" Her shoulders rise and dip in a languid shrug. "Still, I bet you gave them a night to remember." A pause. "Or a day, however it went. I bet you're a legend already." Her lips tilt, lopsidedly. "Or a cautionary tale."
Nevertheless, she eases off, right hand raised and palms forward in an almost concilliatory gesture. "Okay, okay. I got it. Don't worry about it."
Press someone like Lily too far, and they'll break, she considers privately.
"...Is this related to whatever you did with the Guardians in the temple? I think you mentioned a little bit, but I didn't get the whole story. What's this about now? ...Saving the world?" She sighs, exhaling a bit of smoke as she finally snuffs out her cigarette.
"You know kiddo, that's how they get you. First they talk about saving the world, then you're sitting in a jail cell wondering what just even happened." She grins, in spite of her sour language.
...Just what sort of life has Josie been leading?
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Birds. Lily is a little listless about that topic, watching Penelope without a lot of real reaction except to shake her head lightly. ...But Josie's approach...
"Oh, I'm sure they'll remember me," she agrees, certain of that much outright. "Let me know if you're overcome with Aveh pride." That could almost be a joke, if not for how smoothly it's delivered.
"...All right," she agrees when told not to worry about it, but she's going to worry about it. The black-haired woman is troubled, and there is more to say, but... It's not always so easy. The question at least brings this on track. Te matter of..
"Some things are worth sitting in jail for," Lily points out. "...They held me in custody for a week, with equipment hooked to me so I couldn't use my magic. Chained to a chair, all day and night, except when I was being moved. I got sick with... something, during, I still don't know what, whether it was a bad reaction to their machines or..." Lily shakes her head.
"...But I'd do it again," she admits. "I'd prefer not to have been caught... But it matters. And I know what happened."
She glances at the burning tip of the cigar before she continues, "...Yes, to do with the Guardians. I believe they meant what they said. If someone doesn't act, the Metal Demons' mother, god, whatever wakes up. And that's that."
Lily returns her golden eye to Josie. "...Which is why you're going to help me." She follows up, "I'll tell you the rest of what happened, sure. But you're going to help me next time. I've underestimated the opposition enough already."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Let's get real for a second though: does anyone still want any of those peanuts now that a bird's been in them, even for a moment?
Perhaps underscoring this thought, Josie gently... pushes the bowl to one side.
Unclean.
There are places to push people past their breaking point. There are people you want to push past their breaking point. Josie has a fair sense of where those points lie, most of the time...
...And has little desire at the moment to press either with her current drinking companion. There's little gain for it.
Besides, she still has her ultimate piece yet to play should she decide to seriously harass Lily.
"Hmm. I can think of a few things, I guess," the archaeologist supposes, waving the fingers of her right hand stiffly in the air, "But they're first of all, very much illegal and very few in number." Josie lowers her voice after glancing off sidelong. "...Don't you already have a price on your head? Especially when it comes to the opposite side of the battlefield."
But she straightens up, even lifts an eyebrow when Lily explains what she endured. "Stopped your spells, huh? And you don't even need the usual keys for a spell. Pretty rough shit right there..." She grimaces vaguely, fingers of her left hand briefly curling and uncurling in a fist.
Girl, however long do you think you can MANAGE with such feeble spells?
She exhales sharply.
Only to brighten a little too abruptly as Lily comes around to the moral of this story. "Well, here's to the next times, huh?" She lifts her glass towards Lily and winks, saucily. "But maybe ask for a little advance next time, too."
Lily explains, essentially, that this was pro bono work.
"Huh. So that's what they were up to in there. Holding out for some heroes? Bad luck for you, I guess." She lifts her glass to her lips...
...And just about spits that mouthful across the table. Well, that's gotten her full attention now!
"--Kiddo, you'd better say something like 'and the pay and benefits are really great!'. Otherwise, no. I like you, but not that much -- I'm sure you've got enough people willing to risk their necks for the sake of the world or whatever." Her mouth presses into that familiar lopsided smile, this one tightlipped.
"I've got things I need to do."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Well, Lily definitely doesn't. But she wasn't eyeing the peanuts regardless. She has her own breaking points at the moment, and she is keeping them at bay, quiet and thoughtful and stoc... But also calculating, in the way that she can be here.
"I don't especially care about illegal," Lily admits. "Illegal just means someone is strong enough to do something about not liking what you ge up to." It is, perhaps, a cynical attitude for a woman on the run; Lily takes another drink at that, not particularly seeming to care.
THe eyebrow though... Well. "...Yeah." Rough shit. "It was. It was..." She shakes her head, rather than describing it, but she's stiff enough to make it clear that she doesn't remember it fondly. ...That i haunts her in a way too."
Next times. Lily waits though--she expected some of this, as she looks back at Josie. 'Kiddo.' She says fairly blank at that, not reacting save to slowly shrug.
"You do," Lily agrees, "And this is one of them." She sets down the drink, lifts her cigar almost to her lips. "...And you do because of the things I know."
She doesn't blink. "...Remember when I helped you after you met the blue-eyed man?" A pause. "I'm collecting. I take this seriously. I can't afford to hold back here."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie shrugs and lifts an eyebrow before she fidgets with her glass. "Well, suit yourself. Personally, I'd save the 'sit in jail' stint for something more..." She gestures vaguely -- stiffly -- with her right hand. "...worthwhile. Maybe robbing a bank?"
Only to wave that hand through the air after. "Kidding, kidding!"
...Right?
The archaeologist's gaze rests on Lily in the wake of that admission of her experience in Gebler's clutches, her gaze soon shifting as if to focus on something far far away.
She's almost serious. Right up until the moment she gives Lily that sardonic lift of the glass and almost chokes on her drink.
"Sorry, but I disagree. Lily, what the hell?" Josie says, setting down her glass with a thunk on the table. She narrows her eyes -- Lily has her full attention now. "...What things?"
Josie tilts her head slightly to the right, as if in mild confusion. "I remember, all right," she agrees, "And sure, you probably saved my life there." She shakes her head. "But I don't see what that has to do with this. I figure we're even on that after I came to help you hunt your giant machine."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Depending on the jail it might be more relaxing than my stay," Lily suggests. "...But are you really the bank robbing type?" she asks. "I don't see it." Kidding, kidding... Maybe.
But what is worthwhile?
Almost serious--almost. Lily puffs at her cigar after she recounts her experience with Gebler, and still has this look of being even more withdrawn than usual about her, something held back, something different.
She, unlike Josie, doesn't seem surprised or perturbed about any of what she's saying. ...Or any of what Josie's sayin.
"We are," Lily agrees. "I don't consider this a debt you have to pay. It's just practicality, instead. ...I know you can help, and it benefits you... And if I bring less than everything I can to this matter, well."
"Not happening." She takes another puff, exhaling fragrant smoke. She spot the narrowed eyes, of course. "...I've seen your tattoos," she points out. "For starters."
Her voice is low, avoiding speaking up enough to be overheard. "...Some people can inspire others. I have to use different methods."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Aren't I? I think I might do well if I charmed my way into the vault," she suggests, a wry smile on her lips. "I've been told my face is quite cute. I bet they'd never even see it coming~"
Penelope, in her corner of the table, finishes eating the peanut. Her head lifts, eyes glittering as she stares towards the bowl.
"I'm all about practicality," Josie agrees, shrugging again. "But it's one thing when it suits me and another when it doesn't. This sounds like way too much work. Do you even know where to look, to start?"
This isn't her problem.
And then Lily makes it her problem.
"My... tattoos?" Josie murmurs, voice low.
A look flits its way across Josie's expression, despite a considerable attempt to keep it in check. There, for an instant:
Shocked realization.
It settles out soon after. A pale eyebrow lifts and Josie shakes her head, breathing out a sigh.
"...Fengalon's breath..."
Her attention doesn't shift from Lily's face in the slightest.
"So that's how it is. Blackmail, Lily?" Her lips quirk briefly downwards in a frown. "I'm not sure if I should be incredibly angry or incredibly impressed." She settles back in her seat, folding her arms. "But I suppose this one was on me."
She lifts her glass, downs nearly half of it in one go.
"...I'm not nearly drunk enough for this."
She sets the glass down, a little too hard.
"...Fine. I'll cut you a deal. You don't tell anyone anything and I'll lend you a hand if you can figure out what you're doing with this save-the-world business. I'm not running out into the wastelands half-cocked, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"You probably could talk your way back, but that's hardly a classical robbery." Never see it coming, hm? Lily glances to Penelope for a moment, "Maybe not. But it's hard for me to think of you as seeming especially... Mild."
Too much work. Maybe. Does she know where to look? Well... Lily seems unmoved by the question, by the consideration. Instead she is busy with something else, and she spots that realization spots the shock, spots the sigh.
The curse is when she knows she has it.
Lily shrugs lightly, still looking back. "I'd rather you be impressed," she admits. "It's more convenient for me." On Josie? ...No, not really. She couldn't help what happened. It's no kind of Lily to do it this way.
"There's a solution to that," the sorceress points out, but listens to the deal. SHe watches thoughtfully, gaugingosie's expression, before easily--too easily--inclining her head. "Deal. I'l keep what I know to myself, and let you know when I have another target lined up."
Lily glances down at her cigar, and shakes her head, setting it to rest in the slot on the ashtray. "...I'll handle things."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Convenience is all this is about now, huh?" Josie asks, gesturing towards Lily, palms facing upwards. "What about friendship?" The hand drops, back to the table. Josie sighs. "...Well, you got me. I'm not happy about it, but you definitely got me good. I'm in a real bind..."
Her lips press thin and she closes her eyes briefly, as if in reflection. "It's a good thing I like you anyway, huh."
She opens her eyes. Her gaze, hooded, stares out across the table. "...You changed, kiddo. I can't say if that's a good thing or not. Not yet. Then again, this wasteland ain't so good to soft people..."
She squares her shoulders, then reaches a hand across the table.
"Got anymore of those? I think you owe me one or two, since it looks like I've gotta go and put my life on the line now."
Though there's a faint vaguely amused light in her eyes. "Once you figure out how you're going to go save the world, anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...I'd call losing a friend pretty inconvenient," Lily counters, her voice low as usual, too smooth, but with something held a little back. SHe watches the gesture though and then inclines her head. "Thought I might."
Likes her anyway, hm? Lily finishes off her drink at that, mulls it over. But the talk about whether she changed, well...
"Have I?" she wonders. "...I might've. I'd gotten too soft anyway. Too trusting. The things there are out here..."
Josie asks, and Lily watches her before she pulls a small box, hands a cigar across the table. "Sure," she says. She pauses at that, and if given the chance, will light it herself with a thought once Josie sets it to her lips.
"But I already know how. It's just a matter of where." She picks back up her cigar, and takes another draw from it this time.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"'Thought you might'?" Josie echoes, before shaking her head and sighing in a truely irritated way. "Hard to say, kiddo. But you can't unring a bell, so let's just see where we go from here, right?"
In spite of the situation, she even smiles, if grimly.
Every cloud has its silver lining. And the large one for Josie here...
Is that she knows what Lily saw. Knows how to fix it. Knows that Lily saw and understood what it meant.
A certain course of action presents itself.
And then Josie reaches across the table to accept the cigar. She inspects it briefly.
Lifts it to her lips.
Obligingly, Lily lights it.
"...Good girl," the archaeologist murmurs, gaze hooded.
"Think of it this way, huh? You'll survive."
Before taking a thoughtful smoke.
"Just need to know 'where'? Hm, that makes it easier already than most of my plans. But these things don't go unguarded, do they..."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...Thought I might get you, too," Lily points out. Can't unring a bell. The sorceress doesn't seem to react much to that. She hasn't reacted that much anyway, of course, still subdued, still pale.
It's a natural thought, that couse of action. ...For a certain sort of person, anyway. Lily is the type to consider it herself. But for now, she merely lights a cigar, watches her friend, this older woman she's had this strange relationship with. ...Who likes her.
"I will," Lily answers. "...I guess." A sigh, as she doesn't bother trying to get her drink refilled for the moment. She's had a lot already, frankly.
"Mm-hm. Guarded by whoever has ownership of it, if anyone, and then there's the enemy looking for them at the same time I am. The others shouldn't be as difficult as Bledavik..."
A shrug, "But I'm not going to count on that."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
No reaction. Josie lifts an eyebrow.
Then again, that's about normal for the ex-soldier, to her experience. The type to lock down rather than wear her heart on her sleeve.
Well, there's advantages to that approach, she considers, lifting her glass to nurse the next drink she takes. But there's also advantages to swapping out the signs you express for something else altogether.
But in other regards, they're not so different at all.
For a long long moment, she gazes across the table at the younger woman.
Finding the statues, fighting off the enemies also after them, and so on.
She sighs.
Just as big a mess as she'd feared.
"You know, you've really brought a lot of trouble into my life," she comments at last, gesturing loosely with her cigar. "Then again, I suppose I'm used to it by now."
As if on cue Penelope is suddenly aloft, before landing on the edge of the peanut bowl.
The bowl flips over. Peanuts rain down across the table. Penelope flails within the chaos.
Josie reaches out and grabs the bird with her bad hand, wincing.
"...Case in point," she says, lopsided smile and all.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Different approaches, certainly. Lily has doubled down on her own. ...But she's come to understand Josie a bit better over time, and she's not so terrible with reading people as she could be, given her preferences, given her difficulties.
They're not different in all ways, no. But the black-haired young woman is more than willing to deal with this mess.
"I'm good at trouble," she answers, and means it more ways than one. Josie says she's used to it, and Penelope moves, flailing, before--Ah, the bad hand.
"...I think you like trouble," she muses, shaking her head. "You should let me care for that hand again sometime. Even if I can't do much." Though... Can she? She still has one eye visible for now, golden and focusing on nothing in particular.
Her smoke coils upward. She's already grown tired of the cigar, really. She doesn't care about the peanuts.
...The ones that have come to close to her turn to dust, without her seeming to move much. "...And yet you keep smiling."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"And yet, I do," Josie agrees, snuffing out her cigar regretfully before moving to better restrain the pigeon.
"But, hell."
Her lips part in a grin. "With everything that happens in life, you might as well smile anyway."