2018-06-13: Strangers and Stranger Changes

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  • Log: Strangers and Stranger Changes
  • Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Talia
  • Where: Meribia - Merchant's Row
  • Date: 6/13/2018
  • Summary: Talia bumps into Ida. She quickly runs the hell away.

========================<* Meribia - Merchant's Row *>========================

Meribia was once both the largest city and port on the continent from which it draws its name; both honours have since been ceded to the Holy City of Pentagulia. It is nevertheless a major commercial centre for the entire Meribus continent, and all manner of goods are found here.

Merchant's Row is the name given to the merchant district of Meribia, which runs from the landside entrance through to the centre of the city. Everything from weapons and armour to more mundane household goods can be found here, and the atmosphere is highly competitive, with barkers screaming from both sides of the Row.

The largest shop in the city belong to the legendary Ramus family, an ancient line of merchants that has been operating since the time of the Dragonmasters. While Blue Master Lunn speaks formally for the city, Ramus is an influential figure.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3jru8_hq_s
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Castle Rabenstein was something of a windfall, and Ida is grateful she's gotten access to such an excellent base of operations. Nevertheless, spending time in the Domain has its downsides--she's gotten acclimated to the constant presence of despair, rage, envy, and their kin, but she's not used to them, and it can get debilitating under certain circumstances. Case in point, not two hours after she returned last night, Ida found herself plagued by anxiety so fierce it felt like she wanted to crawl out of her own skin. Returning to civilization has helped, insofar as anything could.

    This is why Ida is now sitting in the corner of a teahouse near Blue Dragon Way. The hood of her cloak is down, revealing her face--thin, gaunt, eyes encircled by dark rings. There are no less than four teacups and two plates on the table before her, along with one sorely-neglected book. Ida rubs at her eyes, tries to breathe, tries to focus. She needs to prepare for what's on the other end of that keystone, but instead of 'alert, ready to study', she's 'jumpy, ready to run or fight the moment something bad happens.'

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia, conversely, is as chipper and cheerful as ever. At least, as chipper and cheerful as she usually acts. She may hide much, but she hides it well. The black-haired woman is in Meribia to not spend her time around a war zone all the time. She was considering stopping by the clothing shop that she so liked... but in the end, the impulse to browse the markets for tea, instead, struck her. Which led her, in turn, to a teahouse. She steps away from the counter, with a wave of her hand.

"I will be happy to try these blends, no?" she calls to the shopkeep. She walks away, then. She might have walked straight past Ida, except that she happened to glance her way; she happened to see her sitting there, gaunt-faced and on edge. She pauses, her eyebrows wrinkling.

Then, she walks over. "Hmm," she says. "I recognize you. From when I first came to Meribia, no? You had some business with the man who passed out."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida specifically requested chamomile. Her mother used to make the stuff all the time for her before bedtime, but now it just tastes cloying instead of comforting. She takes a sip from her latest teacup, and gives one of the employees a grateful nod as she cleans up the pile of dishes. Ida tries to tell herself that said employee did not, in fact, stare at her like she's some sort of freak.

    It doesn't work.

    Someone speaks. Ida turns to face Talia, smiling politely--sort of. It's the sort of polite smile she puts on when she's too frazzled to even do a fake one. "Ah, yes," Ida says. She blinks. She doesn't remember the woman's name. "The, ah, entity in the street. You have my apologies, madam, but I don't remember you telling me your name...?"

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Talia," Talia says with an even smile.

To her, Ida reads like the people she met in the streets of Pendrago: perhaps mentally unstable, perhaps dangerous, and requiring both caution and politeness. Still, she has that subtly sly, knowing smile that she often has. Her head titls toi the side, and one eyebrow lifts.

"An entity?" she asks. "I recall that you didn't much care for him." Nevermind that Talia was, in fact, going to pick his pockets. "You are... not native to here, no?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Ida," the Hellion says. Several years ago, she would've used her family name and city of origin in that introduction, but those are both irrelevant to her current situation and reminders of just how far she's fallen. "Apologies, I haven't... gotten much sleep, lately." That much is obvious. She looks like hell. "I was... surprised that you could see him," Ida says. Why would that be the case? To her credit, Talia's assertion that she's not from around here just gets a dry, resigned little laugh. "No," Ida says. "I'm not from around here. Were you at Lastonbell, by any chance?"

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Why wouldn't I be able to? He looked like some old drunk to me, no?" Talia asks, with a shrug of her shoulders. She may be Resonant, but she doesn't understand the full details -- merely knows that she can see things some can't. She stares down at Ida, her head tilted for a moment. The question about Lastonbell is a surprise; her poker face is good, and she betrays none of that surprise.

She does, however, smile a little less. War isn't something to smile about. "I saw some of it," she says. "It is a terrible thing, no? Did you?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "He certainly looked like an old drunk, didn't he?" Ida says. Her lips part in a smile. "And I suppose he is both of those things. He made a nuisance of himself some time before that, so when I came upon him in the middle of the street, I was unpleasantly surprised." If her stomach weren't tying itself in knots for unrelated reasons, she'd wonder if Talia was going to think of her as a lunatic--but too late for that, Ida supposes.

    'It is a terrible thing, no?' Even though she asked the question, Ida swallows, and looks away. The anxiety makes the memories worse. As far as she knew, Lastonbell was the only place on Lunar that had seen mass deployment of ARMs so far, but--what if that wasn't the only one? What if it was just dumb luck that Talia figured that out? "I saw too much," Ida says. When she turns back to Talia, she looks haunted. "If that was your only battle, be grateful you haven't seen any more."

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Ah, one of those," Talia says, with some feigned understanding. She can imagine how a town drunk could be obnoxious. She shrugs her shoulders once, and then she loos down at Ida. Her eyebrows lift, however, at the final remark. Her smile stays, but it changes slightly. "It was not my only battle," she says. "I've been involved in my fair share. And while it was horrible... it is what the nobles of Hyland and Rolance have done for centuries, no? Even dozen years, they go have a fight."

She shrugs her shoulders. "And the common people like us, they either find themselves a way to survive it, or they get rolled under by it. The difference, this time, is the toys that they have brought to the sandbox."

She frowns. "Scary damn things, I'll grant you that."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Territorial claims?" Ida says. It seems the likeliest, though the world could surprise her. "Or is there some manner of grudge at work?" It rankles. Aveh and Kislev at least have the excuse of fighting over arable land, clean water, and stockpiles of ancient technology. Lunar does not lack for the first two, and no Lunarian nation seems to seek out the third in great quantity.

    Ida lifts her teacup to her lips, and drinks. "Would you like something to eat?" she says, after a moment. "Perhaps you could tell me more about what you saw. I may be able to identify the items in question." Ida didn't see them employed, after all--just the aftermath.

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Territorial claims. They get along well enough, otherwise--really, about every ten years, they make a show of a little war. This one got out of hand," Talia says, with a shrug of shoulders. "The nobles think of it as a sport, as far as I'm concerned."

One might guess she doesn't have a particularly nuanced view of this conflict.

"I have an idea of what they are," she says. "I saw the wall come down and got the hell out. I heard they have... ARMs? Weapons like crossbows, but faster. Stronger." She smiles that smile again. "I've never seen one. But... that means you're from the Blue Star, doesn't it?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Cute," Ida says. She does not look at all surprised. "Do they draw up levies from their subjects, or do they keep standing armies?" She pauses, mostly for dramatic effect, and adds: "Yes, I am. I am not here by choice, mind you, there were extenuating circumstances--but I suppose it's better off in some ways than home." She takes another sip of tea. "Gunsmoke ARMs, then, likely. Something like one of your crossbows except with a long, reinforced tube instead of the bow. They get their name from the particular powder they use to launch projectiles. Metal armor can do little to stop them."

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Mostly recruits," Talia admits. "Standing armies are a point of pride, unless things get very bad. They do like their knights in shining armor." She rolls her eyes, then she shrugs her shoulders. "I thought you might be. Good to know about their weapons. I've met a few of you, though. It seems like a lot of you ended up here."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida would smile at Talia's cynicism if she weren't so out of sorts. She thinks of it more and more as an essential life skill. "A lot of you ended up showing up back home, first," Ida says. "I'm reasonably sure what caused it, though I'm not sure how much of it is coincidence, and how much is cause and effect. The process seems to have reversed itself, and brought us along." Ida rolls her shoulders, and looks at the book on the table next to her. "We are not typical inhabitants of your Blue Star, most of us. Most of us are troublemakers of various sorts, and fortune-seekers. I am completely unsurprised that some of our number decided to escalate that war."

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"I'm not surprised. People take the opportunities available to them. I'm not really different from them. I am a mercenary, after all," Talia says. She shrugs. "It's sad, but what can you do? I just plan to keep from having pretty face end up with one of these bullets in it." She winks at Ida. "I didn't know some of us went there first, though. Sounds like everything has gotten exciting, no?"

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "A little too exciting, for my taste," Ida says. She pauses a moment, thinking, going back to that Seraph lying in the street. Talia saw him, and most of the people on this rock cannot--is it spiritual practice, dumb luck, or is she...

    Is she like Ida? Like Garrett and Rosaline, and the handful of Hellions she's recruited that have kept their minds? The thought would be a tiny bit uplifting if Ida's stomach weren't doing flips. "A mercenary," Ida says, at last. "Are you at all skilled with magic, or do your talents lie elsewhere?"

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia blinks once at Ida, and then tilts her head to the side. An eyebrow lifts, and then she nods once. "Well, yes. I can use some ice magic," she says. "It isn't that uncommon among people who work as mercenaries, no? Especially with the Blessing of Althena." That there may be more to it -- for, certainly, not every burgeoning magic user on Lunar can see Malevolence -- is something that she does not explain.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "I wouldn't know," Ida says. "But I'm starting to wonder. You saw that man, didn't you? Did you wonder why no one else was paying him much mind? It wasn't merely because he was a drunken vagrant."

    Ida smiles. This time, it's too wide and too sharp, for lack of a better term, to sit comfortably on a normal human face. Pale violet light ignites in her chest, shining through her flesh and clothing as she undoes the seals keeping her Malevolence in check. The transformation is visceral, organic, and probably unlike anything Talia has ever seen. The frail-looking woman grows, muscles twisting and reinforcing themselves as her bones lengthen beneath them with cracking and popping sounds. Her right forearm, bare from the elbow down, splits open in a bloodless rent spewing more of that violet energy. Her hair fades to a pale silvery-white, and her eyes likewise change to a faint shade of lavender. The woman that looks at Talia now is recognizably Ida, but... much, much more intimidating.

    "One moment," Ida says. She picks up her empty teacup and carries it back to the service counter, depositing it with the rest of the dirty glassware.

    No one else in the teahouse seems to notice anything strange.

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

"Of course I did. But, what was--"

Talia starts to ask, but Ida provides a different answer. When she shifts like that, terrible violet energies surrounding and infusing her, Talia finds herself staring. She takes a step backward, as Ida's body grows and distends. Her smile is gone; her expression is one that is a mixture of horror and careful anger, protecting herself from that as she looks up at Ida. "...What in the name of Althena are you?"

She whispers it, quietly. She steps back again -- and her eyes dare to the servers, who do not even notice the change in Ida.

Talia backs up quickly towards the exit, refusing to take her eyes off Ida.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Not anything blessed by Althena," is Ida's reply. Her voice is calm--far too calm--but oddly subdued, much like how it was when she was talking about Lastonbell. The anxiety is still chewing a hole in the pit of her stomach, but oddly, throwing Talia on the defensive has helped, just a bit.

    Monster.

    "Take care," Ida says. "Things will get worse before they get better, if they ever do."

<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.

Talia's eyes narrow. The memories come back: a shattered window, a cold breeze, and blood pooling around her boots on the floor. Her breath, hot and fast. Her fingers curl, involuntarily, as she lifts her eyes to meet the Hellion's. She does noes not flinch.

Her voice becomes the same ice that she said her spells have. "You," Talia says with a glare, "have no idea."

She backs up the rest of the way, out of the teahouse, before she turns and walks away quickly. It takes a couple of blocks and a few deep breaths before she feels more in control. She still has no answers.