2018-08-03: Don't Say A Word

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  • Log: Don't Say A Word
  • Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lily Keil
  • Where: Vane - Residential District
  • Date: August 3rd 2018
  • Summary: Josie seeks out some medical attention from Lily, after the events of the Battle of the Three Hills. In the process, she ends up saying something that wounds Lily.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Hey, Tiger."

    There's just a knock on the door after Josie calls out; she barely waits a second before opening the door to Lily's room and inviting herself in.

    Her right arm, cradled against her abdomen, might hint at the problem the older woman is coping with, as does the expression on her face, hovering somewhere between suffering and sheepishness.

    "Guess I'll need a 'hand' again, huh?"

    So without further ado, she plants herself at the table and gingerly lays out her right arm, dealing with the glove first.

    "Changed them while I was traveling, but it still hurts like a hiveful o' hornets," she 'explains', gritting her teeth as she undoes the bandages slowly. "...Shit. Shit, shit, shit..."
    She'll continue like that. The swearing makes her feel better, at least.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

It's a good thing Lily is reasonably decent--the room she shares with Leon only has her in it for the moment, and when Josie opens the door, she sees Lily seated at a small table, working on some kind of notebook--dressed in long pants and a black tanktop, revealing the breadth of her markings from fingertip to throat. She turns her head when the door opens, and Josie can see the shift of her circuitry turning deep violet as her hand moves down to her side, manifesting a shard of darkness roughly dagger-shaped in her hand--

And it disappears as she spots that it's Josie.

"Josie," she answers, and stands up immediately, turning around to look at her with concern. The glove is easy to take off; the bandages Lily can wait for as she fetches her medical bag from beside the bed, coming back immediately. "Sit down," she orders, looking at the hand as Josie undoes the bandages. "Tell me what happened."

No 'are you okay', no how do you dos. Lily has a certain businesslike approach... Even if her voice is soft enough to show some care.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Interesting," is Josie's comment shortly after her unannounced entry, her gaze for a moment resting on the space where the black dagger had been.
    But as it is, she has more immediate concerns than that, at least for the moment.

    There are some bloodstains on the bandages, even for having been allegedly changed prior to arrival.

    "I was collecting information." She pauses, then in spite of things, flashes Lily a grin through the pain. "You know. The kind you get while playing mercenary? Haven't fought on a battlefield like that officially before, but there's always a first time~" Then she winces, screws up her face, and peels off the last of the bandaging.

    The unhealing wound has been agitated.

    "Anyway, I tailed what's-his-face." She pauses a moment, thinking. "Ethius, that weird Symbologist who likes to hang around ruins. Looks like he got hired by Rolance. Heh... he's got some trick up his sleeve when it comes to bullets."

    She flexs the fingers of that hand, then winces as a torn section starts to bead up blood.

    "Next time, I'll make him regret it."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

'Interesting'. Lily doesn't reply. Of course she's ready at a moment's notice to defend herself, of course even here she doesn't feel safe enough to simply let a door open without concern. Then again, given that she's greeted with blood, maybe it's not exactly paranoia.

Josie's bravado is at least a good sign for the ex-soldier--'gathering information' gets an eyebrow raise until Josie explains. "...I hope you didn't find it that much fun," Lily answers about the battlefield, not entirely approving. "Leon had you on different sides," she recalls, thinking about it.

Now that she sees the wound, though, Lily focuses, looking down at it and filling a bowl of water from the basin as she listens. "Hesiod," Lily answers. "Yes, I'm familiar. ...He's got more tricks than that up his sleeve."

She brings it back, and her markings heat red-orange as she flash-heats the water to kill any germs, grabs cloth from her medical bag. "...You fought him?" she asks, looking throughtfully. "...I'm surprised you didn't get worse. I've seen his magic."

Lily takes the hand without asking and, applying some rubbing alcohol, starts to clean the wound. "This will hurt," she warns before she starts, "So try to relax."

"...Think there'll be a next time?"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Yeah. I didn't see Red, but that's probably for the best. Hate to have to keep up appearances, right?" That grin she flashes probably just means she's kidding. "Haven't heard in, but I figure she's probably fine. She was some soldier-or-another, too, yeah?"

    Though she's perhaps a little less jolly when the topic turns to Ethius. "Yeah. That's the one. Like an owl. Hard to see them coming, dangerous to mice -- hey, watch it with the flames, okay?" It's an unecessary comment -- Lily's just heating water. "Hate to burn this place down." Still, perhaps given the type of wound she has... maybe it's on her mind.

    "Sure seems that way. Got a lot of reach with that staff, too," she says, expression pulling in a grimace. "I got the feeling he wasn't trying to kill me, but... It's not as if I can forgive trickery."
    Now that's the hypocrite award winner statement, there.
    "It's no good if I can't even shoot him right." She grins again; this one's a little more manic, her eyes just a little wider.

    "Hm? Trust me, I'll make sure there's a next time."

    She pauses, exhaling a breath. "Well, fine, fine. I've got more important things to do than that. Still--"

    Lily dabs at the injuries with the rubbing alcohol then.
    Josie sucks in a sound that's half shriek half gasp. "--that hurt!"

    Still, at worst, she twitches her arm; she doesn't jerk it away.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Agreed," Lily says about Elly, and she isn't kidding. ...She does recall that, though. "She at least has the training; I don't know if she saw combat in the war, though." She seems to take that rather seriously. However--

"...Sure," Lily answers about the fire, without argument, without pointing out that she was only heating water. She's seen Josie's burns, after all. Instead, she offers,"I remember, from when I fought him last. I was planning to kill him for wrecking the only Golem we had operational."

She glances to Josie's face again. "Probably not. He's got some of the most vicious spells I've seen in a man. Honestly, it's impressive." She pauses. "...No objection to getting him back, but I think he's more useful to us alive, at this point."

Cold, Lily.

Similarly, Lily doesn't so much as bat an eye at Josie's shriek. She just pauses until Josie is no longer moving, glances at her face. "I told you it was going to hurt," the medic says, unperturbed. "Hold still. You've been travelling with this; healing isn't going to matter if it gets infected."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Heh. She seems a little too young to have gone to war yet," Josie comments, rolling her shoulders in a lazy shrug. "Then again, that's how it usually goes, right? Drag off all the kids to fight a battle. Maybe I lucked out..."

    Krosse, after all, hasn't had the need to fight a battle in some time.
    This may be changing.

    "...Really." She arches a pale eyebrow. "Now, that's a surprise. Then again, I can't say I know him well. Still, least he could do is let us take it apart, first, right? There's no sense wasting the parts of such a valuable find."

    Josie might be singing a slightly different tune had she a better idea of what was under the hood, so to speak, of most Golems. But we digress.

    It's Lily's clinical opinion that Ethius is worth more to them -- for now -- alive than dead. As if put upon, Josie sighs, sagging in her seat. "Cold as ice," she comments, as if she weren't the one discussing her intent to cause bodily harm.

    And then even that falls by the wayside as Lily sets about cleaning the wounds.

    "I know, I know," she groans, eyes shut tight. "But can't you... numb it or something? Just my luck it's in the sensitive patches, too..."

    Though even this becomes by inches more bearable, even if she has to grip the edge of the table with her good hand and breathe deeply, her gaze up at the ceiling.

    Just her luck, huh.

    "...You didn't tell anyone, did you?" she asks out of the blue, minutes later.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily's been resting--her fatigue from the island is easily ignored while she's focused on attending to others. To Josie, in particular. ...The older woman's comments...

"Yes," Lily agrees, a distant note of darkness in her voice. "That is how it goes. They send us off young." Lily, after all, isn't that much older than Elly herself, for all that she tends to act as if she's older. Experience will do that.

...Josie's one of the few who can see past that, really.

"Surprising, I know," she answers. Is it sarcasm? "But I've been watching him. He's got the same goals we do... if maybe a few extras on top of it. And his magic is useful." A beat, "Back then I was inclined to agree with you about the Golem. Having fought one now... I'm not so sure he made the wrong call."

Even if they did drive Sado off.

Cold as ice, Josie says, and Lily just accepts it. "That's right," she answers. But it all falls away, and Josie--

That groan, that question, gives Lily pause. She stops, and looks at Josie's face for the moment. "...You know..." She considers, for a moment, setting her jaw.

"I think I can. Hold on."

Lily pauses, in cleaning, looking over the wound for a moment. Then, she closes her eyes, sets a hand above Josie's burns--and her markings start to gleam violet. A shadow passes from Lily's hand, wrapping about Josie's wound and fading in short order... taking sensation with it. She draws in a breath.

"...Shouldn't have too many side-effects," she answers. "Now let me get to work--" She pauses. ...She gets back to cleaning, then, and shakes her head. She goes right back to what she was doing.

"I haven't told anyone a thing."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Ain't that always how it is. Kids leave home with their minds full of dreams... then learn a thing or two. Well, there's still good things about being an adult, right?" With her left hand she mimes taking a shot, then winks at Lily.
    Surely there's more to life than THAT!

    "I suppose," Josie allows, at the topic of Sado. She shrugs, a shallow gesture here. "Still, even that one might have had an interesting bit of wiring or two. What d'you think drives those things? It's not like a Gear and a pilot, you know."

    Lily's dad had seemed to be giving it orders, too.

    More questions, few answers. "But, Golems really aren't my specialty. Maybe someone like Emma Hetfield would know -- Golems are practically her field after those discoveries."

    Josie adds, after a few seconds pause, "Of course, it's a moot point up here on the moon anyway~"

    But almost conspiratorially, she leans forward -- or as much as she can without moving her right arm and hand. "You know, speaking of my specialty, the one dealing ARMs to Hyland's operating out of Ladylake. Maybe I should drop in? I'd love to know their scaling -- it's tough making ARMs on your lonesome, you know..."
    Though that just means she could ask double or triple the going price on Filgaia, if she were inclined to spend a couple weeks working.

    "Hm?"

    That meets Lily's contemplative state. "Hey, what's on your mind? --Wait," she interjects, sitting up in her seat.

    The process doesn't hurt at all. Eyes widened, Josie stares down at a benumbed arm and hand, even reaching over to brush a fingertip across a section of scarred flesh. "...It doesn't even feel like my arm. A little creepy, but I'll take it. I bet I could take a hammer to it and not feel a thing." Lopsidedly, she grins.

    A grin that never entirely fades when Lily gives her response, though it does come close.

    "Good. Listen, Tiger, I like you. I'd really rather not. But if you tell anyone, well..."

    She lifts her left hand to her throat, dragging her forefinger across it.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"A few," Lily allows, and she almost displays a little humor when Josie winks at her. Is that the ghsot of a smile back? It's gone quickly enough that it could've been nothing at all. ...Certainly gone by the time of the Golems re-entering the conversation.

"Might've," Lily allows, and then shakes her head. "...I have no idea," she admits. "I've seen the inside of Diablo and I still don't know. I definitely don't know how the Colonel was directing it. If we had answers..." She shakes her head. "Right. Hetfield. ...Well, we can't deal with them up here, you're right."

She's not thrilled about that.

"Ladylake..." Lily considers. "I still say disseminating ARMs up here is a bad idea--you never know what'll happen, especially if someone up here gets ideas about new territory." That hangs, before a light shrug, "But we could use the data. Good idea.. If you can avoid getting hurt this time."

As Josie sits up, Lily doesn't stop; instead, she just inclines her head after a moment. "I deadened the feeling entirely. It should wear off in a few hours. ...If I did it right, you could take a hammer to it without feeling it. Which means you'll have to be extra careful--you don't have pain feedback in it."

Close. ...Close. Lily doesn't even miss a beat when Josie outright threatens her. She just keeps working, finishing up cleaning the wound quickly and putting the now-bloody cloth back in the basin.

"All right," she just says simply. She doesn't voice hurt, though Josie might know her well enough to notice how specifically she doesn't react. "Doesn't matter. You're holding up your end of the bargain."

"...I'm going to apply some healing."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "I remember some of Shalune's notes -- weird stuff. I'm used to A fits into B type machinery, you know? This part goes there. Seems like the older stuff gets, the more esoteric it seems. Light, crystals... you name it."

    Even that cube of Lunata's is an odd duck. As much as Josie would dearly wish to disassemble it, she knows at the same time she's unlikely to make heads or tails of what she finds.

    "I think it's far too late to unring that bell, Tiger -- that stuff they're using isn't hard to make, once you know how. It's gonna spread, maybe take on a whole new twist with all the bloody wizards up here. I'm just aiming to make a killing before it's too late." She laughs then, a low throaty sound. "Heh... you almost sound a little worried~ I'm just going to have a little look around, a little discussion maybe. It's not like I'll be walking in ARMs blazing."

    One would hope.

    "Sure seems that way. A few hours?" She breathes out, closing her eyes as if terribly overburdened. "Well, goodness me. I suppose I'll have to take a nap~"

    Just a touch, Josie tilts her head to one side, gazing at Lily. Her eyes hood; something to her expression almost imperceptively flattens out.
    Didn't even miss a beat. But...

    Even for Lily, water doesn't easily roll off a duck.
    Josie exhales a breath, then shakes her head.

    "Just so long as I'm useful, huh? And once that's all done..."

    Her dark eyes linger on Lily for a moment more, then glide ceilingwards again, watching the way light plays on the painted surface.

    "Well, I was thinking about hanging around anyway. I figure if I follow you two around, I'll find what I'm after. It's worked for me once, right?"

    She pauses again. "Come to think of it, I should have you take a look at the second one sometime. You and Lion. Maybe it's time to test something out."

    Gingerly, she tries to flex the fingers of her right hand. Nothing. It's like it's dead weight. "...So what's left, more magic and binding it again?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Same," Lily admits. "Hand me a car and I can get it working. Old ARMs..." She shakes her head. Not that she knows ARMs that well anyway--better than average, knowing how to field strip a gunsmoke, but...

Well, nobody's disassembling Lunata's cube. The matter of the bell, though--Lily sighs, at that. She can see the logic, all right. "Yeah, it probably--" Worried, is it? Lily stops, abrubtly, glances to the side. "...It's not like I have any reason to worry," she answers, in that way that announces that yes, as a matter of fact, she was worried. "...As you say, it's just a look around."

"...A nap isn't a bad idea regardless. Rest will help you heal."

The truth is no; it doesn't roll off. Lily can ignore a lot of things, ignore a lot of people, but Josie's past that point for her, whether she likes it or not. So when she keeps going about useful, Lily can't help but feel a touch of anger to go with the sting, scowl straight at her. She doesn't even know what to say with it, just stares for an instant before she looks away, and it's clear even if it wasn't that that was a hit.

"...Yeah, well. You should. There's nobody else who can read your damn tiles." She puts hands over Josie's hand; Lily's hands are strangely deft, without the gloves. Elegant, even, with the strange circuitry.

"Sure, we can test it. ...But that's right. More magic, more binding. I don't know if I even can fix something like this, it having been there this long."

Her markings turn red; Josie can't feel the healing energy any more than she can anything else in the hand, but it starts to mend things to where... They were.

Lily just happens to still look tense.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "I promise I won't touch off a civil war in Hyland~" Josie says in sing-song. "So, I suppose that's settled. Once I've had a few days to rest, that is. Kislev wasn't built in a day, you know..."
    She trails out, then actually laughs. "Guess you would know."

    And she could really use a drink or two, besides. Nothing like hanging out around a lot of soldiers who aren't even allowed to drink to take off the edge.
    That could become a problem -- drowning your sorrows is practically a rite of passage for most soldiers she's known in her life. How's a dry planet going to handle a war?
    ...Well, besides turning to a suddenly flush-with-cash black market for booze, that is. It's going to be interesting times.

    Dark eyes meet Lily's gold moments later, then linger there. She doesn't look away.
    Going to be interesting times, all right, Josie muses to herself, only glancing down once Lily starts working her magic on the arm proper.

    Then ultimately just sighs, her lips pressing in a thin lopsided smile. "...Tell you what, I'll buy you a drink later."
    ...They're free here, Josie.

    But on the plus side, it means you're still alive inside... right?

    "Don't I know it..." she speaks, grimacing on the subject of the arm. "Well, things are what they are, right? We just have to make do sometimes in life."

    Her lips split in a grin. "Or kick them bastards responsible if you can find 'em."

    Flesh heals -- or in this case, as much as it can heal. Not that Josie will know the difference until later. But it's still a sight better than letting the damaged flesh get any worse.

    "...Thanks," she says at last, perhaps aware of the undercurrent in the room.
    And winks at Lily. No hard feelings. ...She'll just kill her if she says anything.