2018-02-01: Like a Runaway Traincar
- Log: Like a Runaway Traincar
- Cast: Fei Fong Wong, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: November City - Hotel Renais
- Date: February 1st 2018
- Summary: In the days after the failed attempt at sealing the Light Statue, Josie pays a visit to Fei. Fei decides not to tempt a Tiger's claws. Josie discusses cultural differences.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
LAST TIME ON SIEGFRIED KICKED YOUR ASS, FEI FONG WONG!
Siegfried hit Fei Fong Wong with his negative rainbow attack!
Siegfried hit Fei Fong Wong with his negative rainbow attack!
Siegfried hit Fei Fong Wong with his negative rainbow attack!
NOW
Fei Fong Wong is resting in his room. He has been plunked there after the Yggdrasil doctors took a look at him so that he could recover properly without waking up poor Franz with his screaming. He has not slept well. Fei tends to have nightmares and when he's hurt they're worse than normal...and they're usually pretty bad.
But for now, he's managed to wake up. He's still bandaged up and having trouble moving, but with his usual recovery time he should be up and about soon. Eiether way, this is where he is--and Josie could easily drop by to check on him.
Or to otherwise harass him! Maybe they can get word to Jude Uzuki? No probably not.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
As far as battles went, that one...
Hadn't gone as well as Josie would have liked, let's just get that one straight. While she'd managed to walk off with a number of significant injuries, she was probably lucky she'd managed to walk it off at all, considering.
Bastard wasn't messing around.
She'd had her own business as usual -- healing from wounds among them -- to attend, and had been more than willing to leave Fei be while he set about the whole recovery business. Possibly with Lily's help, assuming she hadn't managed to get abducted or fall down an ancient ruin again, or whatever fresh hell it was this time.
So run Josie's thoughts as she heads down the hallway, whistling to herself.
"Hey, kid. You up and decent?"
She raps a hand on the door, waits a few moments for a response, and assuming it's in the affirmative -- on both counts -- lets herself in.
Penelope is nowhere to be seen.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei says, "One--uh--one moment..." There's some shuffling in the room. "Alright--come on in."
Fei has shifted into a seated position on the side of the bed. He's actually surprised to see Josie around here since between the various members of the Black Wolves, she's actually one of the ones he (feels) he knows least well but--of course--this is kind of an opportunity. Somehow, being called kid by this woman puts him more at ease rather than agitates him anyway.
"Hey." He says, looking exhausted. "Sorry for the hold up. How are you feeling?"
There is a small moment where he looks to the side and admits, "I feel like shit."
He blinks a few times. "...Yeah. Yeah, that's accurate. That's how I feel." He looks to Josie. "Is Penelope with you?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie, dutifully, waits a few moments before letting herself in.
"How're you doing, kid? --Nah, don't worry about it. I wasn't going to come in if you were still sleeping." She indicates towards herself. "Me? Can't complain. Hanging in there. The usual, you know?"
One snowy eyebrow arches, briefly. Well, that was interesting.
"Yeah, you look like you'd feel that way. Guy hits like a runaway traincar... and trust me, I know a thing or two about those. Tiger come by and see you yet, or have you been mending on your own?"
Tiger meaning, apparently, Lily.
"Penelope? I left her outside. I think she had a breadcrust to--"
There's a tapping at the window. Suddenly, it's Penelope!
Josie sighs, touching her good hand to her brow as she shakes her head. "...Don't suppose the window opens?"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Partly," Fei says. "It goes up about halfway. They don't want people sneakin' into rooms." He looks over to the pigeon, smiling at her, but isn't exactly going to get out of bed to open it for her. Luckily the trick to opening up the latch is only a Wits 1 challenge and primarily involves moving both latches inward at the same time. It doesn't even get a stupify!
"Tiger?" He asks, thinking back before realizing. "Oh! Lily!" Wait Fei how did you figure Lily from that?? Anyway, he doesn't say how he figured it out from Tiger but maybe it's because Lily is pretty ferocious sometimes. Like a Tiger.
But he does laugh and say, "Well I hope you haven't been hit by a runway traincar before." He thinks for a moment before adding, "I'm not sure. Maybe while I was out of it. Honestly the last few days were pretty hazy. I think she's been having some trouble since someone bit her but--"
He trails off, looking down for a moment before glancing back up. "Oh--hey Josie. Did everyone else make it out ok? Is Elly alright? Leon?" Of course.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Heh. Figures." She smiles lopsidedly, as if at some distant memory.
Of Jude, climbing in through a window to access the hotel while skipping the front desk -- and the irate owner -- altogether.
Figures that they'd be wise to that scheme out this way.
She walks over to the window, fidgeting with the latch. ...Huh, it's not opening.
There are two latches, Josie realizes. Positioned in such a way that it's impossible to move both at the same time with the same hand. Some more fiddling with the latches ensues, ending with Josie snatching her right hand away and shaking it out in the air as if she's been stung. "Shhhit," she mutters, grimacing.
Penelope more urgently pecks at the window.
"Yep. That's Lily. Like a tigerlily, I guess... or lions and tigers? Heh heh. Say, I don't suppose you'd want to be 'Bear'?" She rounds towards him, still holding her right hand out in midair. "Then again, you're not really bear-like, are you, kid. --Hit by one? Nah, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be enough of me left to tell the tale. They leave a pre-tty bad mark, you know."
Which is followed by the flattest of stares. "Someone bit her." She closes her eyes. "Tiger, you... just need to be put on a leash for your own good or something," she says, finishing with a sound that can't be articulated properly by letters alone.
"Everyone else? Yeah, your girl's doin' fine. I don't know where she went off to -- I'm not keeping tabs. ...Haven't seen Leon in a while but I assume he's still alive." She eyes him, a little more criticially than before. "Don't tell me you're just waking up now, kid. Well, I guess better down and out than awake for the worst of it, when you've taken that kind of beating."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
He'd probably find some other way to sneak in but at least the proprieters of the hotel have run into that particular problem before.
Fei tilts his head curiously. "I don't know if I'm a big enough guy to be a bear. 'Sides, we're all wolves, right?" He smirks a bit at that. He never really expected to end up being a mercenary. Even if it's, well, Leon's mercenary which isn't exactly the same as a normal mercenary. He has discretion over the missions they take after all!
(Yes Fei, other mercenaries can do this too)
"Do you need help with that?" Fei asks, worrying about the growing agitation of Penelope. He pushes his hands against the side of the bed and grimaces, but he thinks he might be able to make it? Maybe?
"So I hear. I never suplexed a train. Or got hit by one for that matter." Fei says. He looks over to the window, watching the bird be a bird.
"I don't think we, uh...." He trails off. "He's probably ok." It's not like he was fighting Siegfried. Right, Fei thinks, he wasn't there. Ugh everything hurts. "I need to keep at it." He adds. "We're going after--"
He trails off. "Oh shit. I didn't miss Gryndille did I?" For a guy who hates fighting, he sure seems like...he's kind of looking forward to fighting that thing.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Lions, tigers, bears, and wolves? Hmmm. Well, I guess I could consider that one, too," she comments, tilting her head briefly to one side.
Josie takes a long, hard look at Fei. "Maybe. This hand doesn't work so good some days, you know." She stiffly wiggles the fingers of that hand as if to demonstrate. "But... you can leave her be. It'd probably do her some good if she sat and thought about what she's done for a change."
What... did Penelope do? Is there some quiet horror story lurking in the streets below that this bird's responsible for?
Which might be one reason why she parks herself by the window, as if unmoved by Penelope's increased tempo of pecks against the glass.
Her gaze lingers on Fei, though.
"Hm? ...You really are out of it, ain't you kid? Maybe you should settle back down. And don't worry. We haven't fought it yet." She folds her arms across her chest. "You got a doctor you like seeing? Maybe it's time to give 'em a call."
Penelope, resolute, continues to try to peck her way through the window. Alas, but she is merely a bird in the end.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Yeah," Fei admits. "To be honest, I don't think I remember a time I got... more beat up than that. And I've been pretty beat up. Maybe when I've fought Fargo though I don't think it was as...severe?" He pauses. "Oh--right, haha, I guess that means that is not as beat up as with Siegfried." He manages a self depreciating smile which is sometimes the only smiles Fei has.
He takes in a deep, but ragged breath, and exhales slowly. "Right..." He looks over to Josephine. "Well I've got Doc." He doesn't seem to realize this doesn't answer anything before adding, "I mean I've got Doc Uzuki. Citan. He's a really good doctor, though uh--I guess he wasn't around this time. He tends to come and go a lot. He's a busy guy. Other patients. That sort of thing."
Grunting, with effort, Fei eventualy just forces himself to get to the window and work it to let Penelope in. "I don't think I could just leave her out there." Fei says. "Met a good friend through her."
He takes his time and doesn't return to the bed immediately. Instead he looks back over to Josie. "Did something happen to it? Sorry, didn't know. If I did I wouldn't have pushed it." Did...did Penelope do it???
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Son of a bitch hit hard, didn't he," Josie remarks, her gaze nowhere in particular. "Wonder what got up his ass... well, other than the obvious. ...Sunshine better watch herself. I don't think he's going to take her betrayal lying down."
There's a lot of kids in that village, she considers darkly.
"Doc Uzuki -- oh, right. The man in green with the glasses, back in Adlehyde. I think he was showing Tiger a thing or two. Me, if it's not first aid, I'm not interested. I don't need more than the basics anyway." She glances his way, briefly. "Seems like a busy guy..."
Which reminds her, she should pick up some supplies while she's in town, before they go too far afield.
"Well, it's your funeral, kid," she opines, as he gets up to open the window anyway. She shifts to get out of the way. "--A friend?"
Penelope wastes no time. She hops in through the window and bounces onto the floor, feathers fluffing before she imperiously begins to preen. A little tightlipped, Josie smiles but shrugs nonetheless. Whatcha gonna do?
"Did something happen to what? My hand?" She lifts her right hand into the air, staring at her gloved fingers. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. But it happened a long time ago, now." Lopsidedly, she smiles, casting him a glance. "Some wounds just don't heal well. But don't worry about it. I've been doing fine this long with one and a half hands, right?"
She... probably doesn't mean that literally?
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"What 'betrayal'?" Fei mutters. "Far as I can tell, Riese is doing this entirely to help her own people not get destroyed by Mother, the Guardians, Filgaia, and humans...or all of the above." He closes the window after Penelope gets inside, allowing her to preen and the like.
He leans back against the wall. "Yeah." He says. "You. A friend, though I can take it back if you prefer. I know that just 'cause I see someone one way doesn't mean they see me the same way, you know? Even if I'm a 'kid'."
Something about it makes him feel both amused and touched by the turn of phrase. Even if it's not exactly an uncommon turn of phrase from Josie.
He checks out Josie's hand for a moment and slowly nods. He knows how that is. Not all wounds are easily healed, and not all wounds are physical either. "I won't worry about it then." He assures Josie. He doubts she wants his pity.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
To that, Josie shrugs. "It doesn't matter what she's trying to do. To someone like that, she's nothing but a traitor -- siding with the enemy, fighting against her own allies, and so on. I know the type."
"He'll see it real simply: he trusted her, she turned that trust against him. He's hurting, so he'll make her hurt. Heh heh... it doesn't matter if we're human or Metal Demon, or whatever, does it? We all lash out the same way."
Her eyes hooded, she watches Penelope for a moment or two, her own expression perhaps cryptic at best.
Until Fei says a certain word.
"...Me? You... sure about that, kid? I ain't exactly the kind of person most people call a 'friend'." Her nonplussed state reigns for a few moments before she ultimately shrugs, sighs, then shakes her head. "Hey, I'm not going to get in your way if that's how you feel, alright? You've got that right in this world, at least. Heh..."
Her dark eyes lift towards the ceiling. "Sometimes, I wonder if I'm getting a little too old for this, watching kids like you running around. Oh well."
As for her hand, it's hard to make out much about it, gloved as it is. Still, a good eye for detail -- which he, as an artist, may have -- will note that the right glove is slightly more bulky than the other. Padding? "Good kid. There's nothing you can do about it, so don't worry none. It's a nuisance, and there's some stuff I can't quite do, but I'm not letting it slow me down."
She peels away from the wall then. "You, on the other hand... those are wounds that should heal, so you'd better slow yourself down a little, eh? At least a little while longer. Consider it a friendly suggestion from your big sister, or whatever." Her lips part, as if she were amused by this thought.
"Don't worry. Gryndille's not licked yet, and I doubt anyone's going to leave you behind."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"That's true." Fei says in agreement with Josie about Siegfried and especially about Metal Demons and Humans basically being NOT SO DIFFERENT and in fact, really, Fei would expand that to 'Mostly Similar'. The Metal Demons may be made of metal, but last night proved it as much as anything. "They can be just as xenophobic, greedy, cruel, violent, and blinded by gods as the rest of us." Fei doesn't have a high opinion of religion for mysterious reasons.
He tilts his head, "You were one of my first commissions." Fei points out to her. "That kept me fed for a bit. If that ain't friendship, what is?" He smiles faintly. "And we're on the same team now too, right?"
A prostheteic, he assumes, about the hand. "I didn't even notice until today," Fei says. "So I think you're right."
And granted, he only noticed because Josephine SAID so though he later realized that might be why she was having trouble with the window.
"Yeah... I'll probably head back to bed now." He starts hobbling over that way. "Good." He adds. "I want my pound of vengeance for my friends too, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Perhaps, as it is sometimes said, people are people, no matter where you go.
Here, her eyes light up with, perhaps, mirth. "Pragmatic! I like it," she says, shrugging her shoulders nonetheless as if to shake such things off. "Well, whatever you want to tell yourself -- I'm not going to argue it." She once again smiles that crooked smile. "Heh heh. Sure looks that way... There's strength in numbers. Even I can't deny that."
It's been a long time.
"Well, good," she says, dropping her arm to let it hang at her side. "The last thing I want's pity over it. What's done is done."
She let go of that bit of misery ages ago. And as for the rest of it...
"Good. As far as I'm concerned, it's your business what you do, even if you hurt yourself but..." she says, as if to wave off any concern she might have showed a moment ago. "Let's just say a certain Tiger's not going to like it much if you wear yourself out. Trust me, I know."
With that, she stoops to scoop up Penelope (who loses a feather in the process, but it was probably ready to drop anyway) and, bird tucked in the crook of her right arm, heads for the door.
"Take it easy, kid. Things are gonna get real exciting soon."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei grimaces at that last sentence there, but it also seems kind of like a smile. It's weird how Fei manages that sometimes.
"I've seen 'er claws. Don't worry. I'll behave." Fei smiles. "But--I think I'll be alright in a day or two. Thanks for coming."
And he smiles. "Hopefully not too exciting right?"
Yeah good luck with that Fei.