2018-09-13: An Evening Chat Between Old Friends

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  • Log: An Evening Chat Between Old Friends
  • Cast: Gwen Whitlock, Janus Cascade
  • Where: Adlehyde Ranchlands
  • Date: 9/13/2018
  • Summary: Making camp in the quiet fields outside of Adlehyde City, Gwen gets a surprise visit from an old friend, who has something of interest to ask her. As Janus weaves his tale of possible riches and powers, Gwen finally makes the decision to ask a question she's been holding back on for over a year: what happened to Big Sis Keziah?

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Another day, another planet. At least this one is home, and oddly, it's not that much different from how Gwen left it. Mother may be waking up, but that happened just as they came. Frea may still be ill, but she was that way before.

    But that's something to worry about for another day. For now, it's just another day of deliveries, and assuring people that she wasn't dead. Lots of deliveries to be made, including a significant amount of medicine to the Badlands.

    Now, as the sun sets, bringing the brilliant blanket of the night sky with its many colors, Gwen tends to her fire, casting her eyes up at the moon above. "Hard t'believe we were just there, Gulliver." Gwen's partner in crime merely snorts in reply, swishing his tail as he munches on some dry grass. "... Y'think anyone we know's still caught on there? I hope they're okay."

    Sitting back on her log as her efforts are rewarded with a glowing flame, Gwen shoves her boots off, them her socks, then her gloves, exposing them to the cool air. She studies the flame for a few moments, then yawns. "Better get dinner started. I think I still got 'nough produce left over t'start some kinda stew. N' I got your feed too."

    Supplies from the wagon are lifted out and assembled, a metal tripod placed over the fire with a hook, for the pot Gwen begins to fill with water from her canteen. "Be better with some meat, but those refunds cost me. It was either meat or your feed, Gulliver, so you better be appreciative!"

    Gulliver, being a horse, just moseys over to the courier, his nose searching for any trace of sugar or a free hand to rub at his long nose.

    All in all, it's pretty much the same life that Gwen had before. Peaceful, flavored with tense negotiations and the occasional bandit.

    Maybe, she can just close her eyes and pretend, for a moment, that everything's the way it should be. On a quiet, slow night like this, with a warm fire, an open sky, and the moon peeking above, it wouldn't be too hard at all. Just a lone courier and her horse.

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Just as it should be.

"Heck of a view, isn't it?"

Yeah. Just as it--

Janus Cascade has sat himself across from Gwen, his ARM propped up on a stone as the man in red and white stares up at the sky, head craned up to regard the barren Old Moon, the New Moon a stranger, glimmering shape beyond.

The other two aren't in evidence. Janus lets himself grin as the moment lingers, before he tips shis head toward Gwen, a teasing, mischievous smile splashed across his face. "For all the trees up there, somehow the sky down here just feels more...free, ya know?" he says, and completely fails to explain himself in any way.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "Yeah, it really i-" Gwen's eyes squint at the burlap bag of potatoes she's sorting over in her hands, as if they decided to speak up. There's a telltale click of a ARM made ready and waiting, halfhearted as Gwen realizes, a second later, who the voice belongs to.

    Well, since it's Janus and she's alone, she still keeps it ready, but at least the thing isn't pointed at the young Drifter like he was some random bandit coming in to help himself to her belongings. "Janus! Y'made it!" Gwen can't keep from laughing, high on the sudden knowledge that someone she was genuinely concerned about was alive.

    And then she stops, because that person is Janus. Alive, apparently inspired enough to come over and visit, apparently. "Are Dario and Romero with ya? Or are did'ja just come all by your lonesome?"

    She doesn't see the other two, but, it never hurts to at least ask.

    "I was there when Lastonbell was attacked. Tried a few times to find some info on you guys' whereabouts, but you hid that place a little *too* well, I guess. I take it y'got here by the teleporter in the Azado Ruins? After that, uh, whatever... thing... attacked?" She makes a face, then settles back in, taking out a dull knife to begin the process of cutting the potatoes into small chunks. "But yeah. I get what'ca mean. Seein' Filgaia in the sky was pretty, but it felt... intense. Here, I feel like I can breathe."

     He's not going to explain a thing, is he.

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

"Sent 'em hunting."

Off in the distance: THUD. 'Dangit!'

"They suck at it but it keeps 'em busy," Janus says casually, just before Dario's pistol goes off several times, in a different direction. Janus doesn't have his hand on his ARM, which is about as close to safe as the man gets.

But when she brings up Lastonbell, his gaze grows dark. Just a moment, before he shakes his head and clears the fog. "Well, you know Little Twister men," he says, with that chuckle of his that guards the heart. "We know when to cut and run, and how to lay low. Wasn't about to go crawlin' back after the Cascade got blasted that way."

He reaches into his pocket, and produces the same pocket watch he always-----

Wait. No he doesn't.

This time he pulls out a ring, silvery but badly tarnished, with a big blue gem fitted to it. It's not the one from long ago, that used to live on the chain around his neck. This is new, different. He considers it for a long few moments, then his eyes glide up toward Gwen. "The Azado teleporter? Yeah," he says, grimacing. "That was a hell of a fight," he mutters.

..........well that was....nonspecific...

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Ah. Gwen nods, her eyes wide as they hear the distant call of one of the gang.

    It keeps them busy, but it means two men with ARMs are wandering out in the dark, dark fields.

    Shots ring out.

    "... they know not to aim their ARMs in this direction, right?" More errant shots are fired, and Gwen adds, with an uneasy chuckle, "Or at Gulliver. Unless they feel keen on pullin' my wagon in his stead." Another shot, and Gwen motions to the slightly agitated horse, drawing him closer to the fire. "I need to get him his feed anyway. I'll, uh, make extra portions, too. Of the soup, not the feed. Unless one of ya's hankerin' for oats."

    Gwen spots that dark change in his expression through the flickering fire, the way he shakes his head.

    Must have been harder on him than he's letting on, to lose that business.

    "... Yeah, I was kinda hopin' that was the case. That dragon was no joke." The knife in Gwen's hands slices through the washed potatoes with practiced ease, plunking into the pot of water.

    There was something she had been meaning to ask him. It wouldn't be a good time to ask, but when is it ever? It can't be someplace where people would overhear. Just someplace where he can tell her, if he knows, what happened to-

    Wait. Where did he...? "What'ca got there?" Gwen asks. "Seems a little flashy for ya."

    A hell of a fight. "Ah, so you were there too? Fightin' that damn whale thing?"

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

"Dario's a fine shot," Janus says, which is like four lies, but he seems totally at ease about it anyway. "Don't you worry none."

He turns the ring over in his fingers a few times, then tucks it back away. Man needs to keep his hands busy, it seems. He makes no offer to help whatsoever because he is a dingus. "Dario'll eat damn near anything, but he'll complain if I try to give him oats, I figure," he chuckles, instead of addressing it. If he senses what Gwen is considering, he doesn't bring it up; he focuses on the stars. Did he...have a reason, for coming here...? "Heh. Just another monster the world's tryna kill us with. Nothin' new."

But then Gwen asks about the ring. That grin slips across his face, some veiled excitement there. "Not really my style, is it?" he asks, and plucks the ring back out, turning it over in his hands. "Got it from a fella I met on the road. Told me a story that I find I'm right interested in now..."

His eyes slip up, finding Gwen's across the firelight. The shadows cast long across his face.

"Y'ever hear of the Eternal Sparkle, Gwen?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    There's a long, long pause at Janus's assessment of Dario's aiming abilities. Gwen, at least, has enough manners to not look skeptical, but not enough to freely accept such a statement without pausing to peer at it.

    "Yeah. And just one of em'. Y'heard about Mother, right?" Gwen sets the pot over the fire to heat up, and returns to her log, pulling out some carrots. "The matriarch the Metal Demons are tryin' to resurrect? The ones that still follow Siegfried, anyway. Well, 'parently she's awake now. People are assessin' on what to do next, but I reckon whatever it is, it ain't gonna be a cakewalk." She makes a face. "But enough 'bout that. Too pleasant an evening for me t'spoil it up with talk of monsters."

    No, no, it's time to talk about pretty things. "Well, the stone, anyway. Guess we just ain't used t'seein' anything sparkle unless it was salt or sand. You got it from a guy y'met on the road?"

    Even Gwen has to hesitate at that. ".... Y'didn't... have to sign away your soul or anythin' wacky t'get it, did'ja?" Her laugh is a nervous thing, trying to dispel the very real possibility.

    Monsters can sail in the sky and awaken from slumbers they were never meant to break free from. Why not there be one who haunts the roads, searching for some soul willing to give up something precious for a taste of something more? Something eternal.

    An Eternal Sparkle. Gwen gives the question some honest thought, pausing in her vegetable slicing. "... 'fraid I don't. Heard of a lotta things that sparkle, but nothing eternal. If ya like I can listen for any leads."

    A part of Gwen is understandably cautious of whatever significance that look on Janus's face might have.

    Another is just glad he's found something to occupy his time other than 'being a criminal'. "So, what 'bout this story? And where does the ring factor into it?"

    If there has been one thing that has never, ever changed for Gwen, it's been that she has always been a sucker for a story. And Janus, whether it's intentional or not, has snagged on that particular little trait of hers. "I can ask Auntie if she knows anythin', but she doesn't like to give answers unless she knows I've worked at it."
    

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Janus does not seem bothered much about Mother, chuckling as he turns the ring over in his hands. "Demon after demon," is his only comment, his eyes cast down.

His laugh about his soul is a louder thing. "Not sure I got one o' those anymore anyway!" he laughs. "Well. Reckon it was an old man just lookin' for an ear...you know how that goes. Y'get old, y'got nobody...some day you just grab a man on the street to try and cast your light forward." He twists the ring, the blue stone shimmering in the firelight. "What little ya got," he murmurs.

He looks up. "'s supposed to be the treasure of a demon king. A thief who stole the powers of the gods, and used them to take over everything." His eyes gleam with interest. "A treasure so big, so powerful, they buried him as far away from it as they could so not even his ghost could find it."

He seems...unusually interested in this fanciful of an idea, but he leans in. "C'mon, Gwen. We seen Guardians blastin' off rooftops and demons flattening towns. Romero's the gullible one. There's somethin' in this. I can taste it."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Oh, that Janus! Joking about how he has no soul! Gwen laughs along with him, trying not to wince as she coughs. "Oh, you never know!" she starts, clearing her throat. "Might stumble across it one day when you least suspect."

    There are many stories that start out this way: an old man imparts his wisdom or some part of his fortune onto a young traveler on the road, and sends them off on an epic adventure of an appropriate length to fill out a one gell novel. Or several, if it's good enough. But in those, the hero is usually someone with the personality the same weight as damp cardboard, if only to better allow the reader to live the story through them. What if the protagonist was Janus? Or Gwen, even?

     Gwen finishes off the carrots, setting them into the boiling water. "I did say I'd pass on any leads I find, didn't I? Doesn't matter what lies at the end, whether it's powers or treasure or somethin' else. If you've already managed to get a nice ring out of it, I don't see why not."

    ... It would make better sense *not* to enable Janus in this venture, but there's something Gwen can appreciate in seeing that spark in a childhood friend's eyes.

    There is another part, of equal size, that has Gwen just as scared of that spark, and what sorts of acts a man like Janus could do if he was truly motivated. "Though, if the thief stole the powers of the gods, it didn't seem to help him none when they buried him. Though I 'spose havin' the powers of a god doesn't mean you have the omniscience of one. But say you got those powers. What would'ja do with 'em?"

    She regrets asking it before he even has a chance to answer.

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

  "Destroy everything."

Janus' reply is immediate. He stares Gwen directly in the eyes for a good solid five seconds, expression unmoving and entirely sincere.

Then he laughs, a deep belly laugh as he flops back against the stone he's propped against, chuckling long and loud. "Hah! Gotcha there!" he laughs, that grin splashing across his face to hide his heart. "Idunno! I'm expecting it'll be some dumb sword or somethin'. Maybe a decent ARM. I think it's real, but no point goin' in expectin' to walk away with the power to raise mountains or nothin'. We can't all be a Princess-Medium, ya know."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Destroy everything.

    "...."

    She'll need to stop him, won't she. Would she be willing to?

    Well, it's Janus. But it's Janus. And oh Guardians, it's _Janus_.

    And then he flops back laughing, as if it was all a joke. And Gwen, not wanting to consider the cold silence that existed there and the implications of it all, laughs uneasily with him, casting various spices into the boiling water.

    When the laughter dies, she's silent for a lot longer than that. "Hey."

    Might as well ask. Maybe this visit was just to share that story, for Janus to poke and laugh and make a fellow Little Twister native wonder about his state of mind, then take it all back.

    Maybe this is her last chance.

    "Had some weird things happen t'me on Lunar that made me face quite a few things from my past. Made me realize there were a lot of unanswered questions, some of which you might be able to help me answer." She doesn't look up at Janus yet, her blue-grey eyes focused on stirring the stew. "You got every right to refuse answerin' these. I just remember that you..." She shakes her head. "I guess it don't matter. But yeah. Janus, do you know... what happened to Keziah?"

    Her eyes are on him then, her movements rigid as she tries to continue cooking.

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Janus watches her cook. Dario and Romero are off...somewhere? Maybe they're trimming their kills or something. Janus and Gwen are alone in the firelight, anyway, the warm color splashing strange shadows across Janus' skin.

And he freezes, when Gwen asks that question. His jaw sets hard, his eyes turned down, riveted on some point far below. He doesn't snap, or break, or scream. He just...stares.

Until finally he mutters, "She's dead, Gwen. Ain't that obvious? Like I'd be this man if Keziah was still around to slap me around..." he scoffs, and his gaze flicks away, off into the wilderness.

"Wels got her. We were tryin' to save some town or other and, well..." ...Shakes his head, eyes sliding shut.

"Died in my arms. She got the fuckers, at least." Janus doesn't usually curse quite that fiercely, and something in him tenses, the word coming out harsher than the rest of the sentence, when he does.

That could be the end of it, of course. He doesn't owe her more than that. But he's spoken, now, and the next words just tumble out.

"Died tellin' me to be a good man. Not to lose what I got." His gloved hand drifts up, bare fingers touching the cold silver of the ring on his necklace.

"The hell am I supposed to do that," he murmurs. "Ain't no good men out here, Gwen. Just...corpses ain't doin' their jobs right."

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    She wondered if the next few moments would be Janus entertaining the thought of showing Gwen just why it wasn't smart to ask him such questions.

    To say that Janus instead confirming the cold dread in her stomach is a pleasant surprise would be a damn lie. Keziah was dead.

    Killed by Wels, lying dead in Janus's own arms.

    "I see." She doesn't say 'I figured as much'. To come to your real home town after several years away, and see no signs or rumors, or anyone who really knew what had happened. Others would have been missable, especially if they had moved away, but Keziah was different.

    Just rumors of a certain gang out there, being run by Janus himself.

    Gwen lets the quiet flow back in, like a weak balm to an old, old wound picked open by careless words, "... So she wasn't alone." She lets out a soft sigh. "I'm thankful for that, at least. Thank you." For what act, she doesn't make clear.

    If Janus had a soul, maybe, that was the day he lost it. Dario and Romero may be playing some part in keeping him together, but how do the planets go on when there's no sun to look to?

    There were kind men, yes. But kindness gets people killed.

    She could deny it to herself, but not to Janus.

    She then says the most honest thing she could have thought out, pushing away all the temptations of inspiring words and speeches.

    But this is Janus. Sympathy would be a dangerous bullet to lean into. Seeking empathy, even more so.

    Because the latter made Gwen's answer far too clear.

    "... Wish I knew myself."

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

'Thank you,' Gwen says.

"Lucio, too," Janus says, rather than respond. May as well say it all now. "Monsters went wild the night the Sorcery Globe fell. Ripped him in half right in front of all of us."

He settles forward, elbows on his knees, hands loosely folded. "That one got to all of us. Dario's been drinkin' more. Man can barely keep his pants buttoned anymore. Romero..." He shakes his head. "That boy was always skittish. Now he jumps at his own shadow most days." His eyes stay down, watching his own hands as he turns over that silver ring.

"Thought we could...get away from it. Do somethin' else that wasn't shakin' down travelers or diggin' in the dust. Met some good men there. Started to think, maybe I'm not just savin' my own boys. Then a God damn myth ripped the sky apart."

...he huffs a sigh, and it's the most sincere sound he's ever made. "There's nothin' to save, Gwen. Not here, not there. It's all just...dust."

He lets that thought linger, then his eyes turn up, and there's no grin on his face as he seeks Gwen's. "Somethin' goin' on out at the Serpent Coils. I think it's got somethin' to do with the Eternal Sparkle. You interested?"

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Lucio.

    It hits Gwen as sure as any bullet, in an area well-primed by news of Keziah's fate.

    She bites back a sob.

    "Did'ja know I used to have a crush on him as a kid? Not like... serious, but. I guess a lotta people did, really. He was always a looker."

    Ripped in half.

    Gwen steadies her breath.

    She was right- the bar was an attempt at something new. Sure, it was alcohol, and they'd eventually get found out, but she's certain Janus would've found some way to get around that. They were from Little Twister, after all.

    Still.

    What Janus might see in Gwen's own face, while pained, paints a better picture of her own thoughts. Quite simply, she disagrees.

    She just has the sense to not voice it, nor her own thoughts on the matter of humanity as a whole, on kindness, or how her own survival was its own element of proof, even if it's selfish in nature.

    It isn't important here. After all, Janus has a question.

    Gwen closes her eyes, and considers, with a small sigh.

    Finally, she nods. "Yeah. Just, no tricks, or anythin', okay? I reserve the right to call things off if I feel like I'm gonna jump into something I'll regret. I realize I ain't that high in terms of scale of importance, but."

    It could all just be a ruse to get her to emphasize enough to go into a death trap. But for what? Why would he need her?

    Besides, she can't deny the possibility that maybe they'll find something in that sparkle that will convince them of what she still feels.

    And if it's something that could destroy that hope, she'll just have to intervene, for all their sakes.

<Pose Tracker> Janus Cascade has posed.

Janus offers no comfort whatsoever on the news of Lucio's death. That was years ago now, but he still can't even make himself look up.

Telling her was the most comfort he has left in him.

"Hah," he says, and attempts a chuckle. "Tricks? 'tween us?" he says, attempting to sound like the mere concept were laughable.

Of course, they both know just how funny it really is.

Janus finally slips that ring back into his pocket, the grin coming back to his face, and looking a little less fake for it. "Lookin' forward to it, then."