2019-02-11: One Thing I Want To Tell Him

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  • Log: One Thing I want to Tell Him
  • Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Riesenlied, Noeline, Lily Keil
  • Where: The Fereshte
  • Date: 11th February 2019
  • Summary: In the wake of the battle with the Hellion Amalgam, Lily, Noeline and Riesenlied convene with Josephine for Symbology advice. The result is... more than surprising.


<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

Josephine can be found doing one of the things that Josephines do, in the end: Leaning over a smaller table in one of the side-buildings and examining a map of the wastelands. Two places are circled in graphite; others have been crossed out entirely. Those in the know would realize that one of those places circled is Ash Hare. The other, with a fine annotation alongside it, is Doomed to Obscurity.

A single sphere of conjured light bobs overhead.

Josie herself taps the graphite pencil against the map and frowns distantly a moment, before sketching out a few faint lines from Ash Hare and Doomed to Obscurity both... but it's the second location that provokes her to stop and scowl.

"...and of course, it was a body without any identification..." she mutters, tapping her pencil against the map again in abject irritation.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied has arrived back from the Krosse border, probably with Noeline's help -- even off-screen, it's not like she'd have gone all on her lonesome to such a dangerous location without telling her.

Their promise is too important for that.

But she has been very quiet as she rode on Hellerune, whether in the cockpit or on its finger; back to Old Petra;

thank... y...

If the Amalgam felt that it was cold... the words are still, then, chilling to Riesenlied.

"Josie...?" she quietly asks as she wheels herself in -- fresh wheelchair, as is starting to get produced on occasions like this. She looks exhausted, but she's-- reasonably fine for having faced a Gear-sized abomination, really.

The damage is not so physical with her.

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

Noeline has yet to ask what exactly went on at the Krosse border. Some of it is self-evident - you don't just have a Gear battle on the border of what could charitably be called 'contested' territory without it being extremely obvious, and it isn't every day she's offered a lift in the Hellerune - or even a chance to pilot it.

Some of it is her being patient - Noeline still needs time to work through the barrage of sensations and feelings that she received over their link. Muted and second-hand as they were, the strength of them is enough to tell her that surely /Riesenlied/ must need that much more of it.

Ultimately, it's a matter of priorities. Getting Riesenlied safe back in Old Petra is what comes first and foremost as far as Noeline is concerned, figuring that the bustle and cheer of the place and its many warm feelings are likely to be a soothing balm for her partner's senses. Explanations can wait.

(Besides, they need a new wheelchair - and Shalune, as forward-thinking as ever, was kind enough to leave them a few prototypes as spares. "I bet Miss Riese will get into trouble at /least/ a few times!" she had chirped merrily at the time, completely innocently.)

She greets Josie with a quiet nod, not wanting to disrupt the other woman's thoughts if she's deep in the middle of them - but her curiosity makes her sneak several glances at the map thus far, and the start of the triangulation upon it.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily Keil, too, has arrived back from the Krosse border, with Riesenlied and Noeline both. She hasn't been feeling well since that battle--for reasons she can fairly easily point to, but not really /explain/. There was room enough in the cockpit for others, mostly because of Lily's Spartan interior design aesthetic.

Now, though, having had a chance to see to her Gear's storage and final checks, she has set out about the buildings, intending one particular person--

And as it happens, she gets a better deal than one-for-one. Lily steps inside, careful not to collide with Riesenlied or Noeline, and glances down to the map before she looks at Josephine in turn.

"Am I interrupting?" Lily asks first; she has a notebook in hand, and a pen, dressed casually enough--indeed, the only weapon she even carries just now is her familiar knife, sheathed.

She looks tired, of course, and if it's not as bad as it was for a while, it's still been a long couple of days.

"Because I had something to show you and discuss with you."

...Similarly, Lily assured Noeline that she would explain... later. Strangely she seems to have been in some kind of pain, though she's largely kept it to herself.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

Josie lifts her head as Riesenlied wheels herself in, if only just. The map, for now, garners the bulk of her attentions. "Hey, Sunshine. How's life treating you?"

If she'd /looked/ at the Hyadean properly, she'd have answer enough. But.

Similarly runs the little halfwave as Noeline makes her entrance. "Sugar. Looks like the gang's all here, or nearly. Hmph, well," and she straightens, her spine cracking with the motion. "I've enough of staring at a piece of paper. Don't suppose either of you has a light?"

Asks the woman perfectly capable of lighting a cigarette with a jolt of lightning from her fingertips. It's here, as she rolls her neck, that she looks over at both Hyadeans. "...Something happen?"

And Lily enters.

Lily, who presents her with a question that deposits a puzzled, wary look on the archaeologist's face.

"No. Why?"

She pauses, glancing back again at Riesenlied and Noeline, as if attempting to glean the topic from their faces. Her brow knots.

"...No time like the present. Come out with it, Tiger."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Having Noeline by her side was a great boon for Riesenlied, in the aftermath of the battle -- with Lily the way she was after everything that'd happened. She's not certain she could've gotten Hellerune back herself, even if she'd descended into its systems.

She's holding Noeline's hand as her partner wheels her to Josephine's quarter, feeling those emotions transferred to her over their ring with a faint and tired smile.

She does furrow her brow with a quiet look of concern at Lily's pain, though... because she doesn't need words to sense that.

Riesenlied finds herself blinking a few times when Josephine asks for a light, though, and she concentrates on the shine of the Dragon's Tear for a moment as a soft, luminescent light appears over the table.

As a bonus, it kind of feels like the sensation of a comfortable, cozy pair of jammies. If Riesenlied found a way to monetise this...

"There was a..." She looks to Lily, since Josephine inquired her. "There was a large Reaper. Wels. Each of them the size of a house, and they merged into a single creature... and we..."

A furrowed brow, as she looks more troubled.

"It was in a lot of pain. It asked for death. So we... we..."

She notices moments after that her fingers have moved to the Medium at base of her neck in a nervous tic. She looks like she could cry again.

"Well, we did that. With Odoryuk's... help..."

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

If Noeline knows not to push Riesenlied for answers, she knows doubly not to push Lily for answers. Not that she would either way - there's enough trust there that the Hyadean wouldn't go about just trampling over it to satisfy her own curiosity. And she doesn't need a ring to be able to have a bead on the Black Wolf's emotional state, even if she can't match Riese's certainty.

"There is nothing /to/ interrupt yet, at least from our end," Noeline chuckles quietly with a tilt of her head, shuffling the wheelchair carefully across enough to make some space. When Riesenlied produces the soft and welcome glow, she pauses to bask in it for a second - and then chuckles as she makes a show of patting her dress. "I'm afraid I've never been the sort to smoke."

At the first mention of the Reaper, she's quick to return her hand to Riesenlied's as her brow furrows. Something crosses her gaze, a flash of pity and anger all at once, but she's quick to shake it away as Riese continues... and by the time the Hyadean realizes where her hand is, Noeline is ready to clasp it in hers, gently coaxing it back to her lap.

"To think you'd all find something like that..." she exhales with the muttered complaint. "I am sorry I was not with you, but-- I am glad to see you safe." The way she says it makes it sound like an understatement, which... well, it surely is. "... you did well."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

There's a cringe from Riesenlied as she whispers harshly, "I /didn't/. I didn't..." even in the midst of her squeezing of Noeline's hand. She blinks, as she finds that burst of frustration shocking--

"... sorry."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily doesn't seem concerned about her own health, but that would be true regardless; she never seems terribly concerned about her health. When Riesenlied glances at her, she just shakes her head lightly, as if to dismiss the worry. But she steps towards the table, as requested, even if she does wait before actually bringing it up for the explanation of what happened.

"...That relates to what I have to show you," Lily says, after the exchange about the great Wels. "Though..." She looks to the side. "It's all right," she tells Riesenlied. "You can't save them all. No matter how hard you wish, or try... Sometimes, it's just not possible. Feeling something about that is natural; you don't need to apologize."

She lets that hang and then finishes closing the distance, pulling out her notebook--opening it up to a given page--and extending the open text towards Josie, so that she can see it, though she doesn't let go.

"The Wels were all covered in Symbological tattoos of advanced degree. I was able to sketch some of them from memory and from Hellerune's databanks... And thought you'd be the best person to ask about them."

Lily doesn't even snicker about the light. Nor does she offer one herself, which is itself unusual. "...They don't look like the sort someone would usually use."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

Josie smiles lopsidedly, then shrugs. "Not exactly what I had in mind, Sunshine, but you get points for trying." She tugs a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket, dropping them on the table, but doesn't quite pull one out yet.

'There was a large Reaper.'

Josie cocks her head to one side, listening now. "A big one, huh... Can't say I've met the things that much. Good thing, really. They're supposed to be nasty business." But this one talked? This one asked to die?

"Huh. Don't that beat all," the archaeologist mutters, crossing her arms over her chest and staring down floorwards. "Glad you were able to do someth--" Noeline had said similarly; such assurances are not, really, what Riesenlied was hoping to hear. Josie glances away.

"...Doing what's needed isn't easy," she comments, a touch cryptically. She'd made Fei a certain promise once, months ago.

"You were there, too, Tiger?"

She pauses, staring at Lily as if attempting to work out if this is a joke. It isn't.

"Symbological tattoos? Who tattoos a Reaper? That just seems..." Josie asks, one pale eyebrow arched. "Well, let me take a look. Maybe there's something..." She is allegedly with talent herself, as the daughter of a magus of some note. It's possible that she might be able to shed some light on the matter.

There is a very good reason why Lily thought to ask Josie. And that's because they're a match for the style of tattoos written across Josie's back.

Symbology, as with most traditions, evolves its own permutations over time. For the most part, the differences are merely stylistic: a marker of who taught who, preferred styles, approaches, and so on.

It's no different with Lovelace and his daughter.

Josie stares at the page. She reaches out to try and take it from Lily, but her hand stops halfway. Her expression -- save the look in her eyes -- is utterly blank.

In her gaze, there is the promise of hell's fury itself.

Which, as she veers suddenly away from Lily, she vents on the table, upturning it onto the floor with a single piercing scream.

"WHAT THE /FUCK/ IS HE DOING?!" she shouts, with here-to-now uncharacteristic rancor for the typically easy-going archaeologist. It's entirely possible that no one in this room has ever seen her like this before. "What is /WRONG/ with that old man?!"

She exhales once, twice, deep, long breaths. Then kicks out a booted foot at the table for good measure, her wrath not yet entirely spent. It screeches a short distance across the floor, away from her and any further damage she might do.

Silence lingers in Josie's corner of the room.

"You want to know who tattoos a Reaper?" she asks, her voice strangely quiet.

"My father. That's who."

She takes a breath, and without looking at any of the others, asks simply: "Tell me what happened. Everything."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

There's something franatic and uncontrolled about the outburst, that she's reeling and recovering from; she doesn't let go of Noeline's hand, because that's not what it's about. Lily's reassurance is heard, but it's cold comfort in the moment, even if she says it's natural to feel that way...

She bites her lip, as Josephine says what's needed isn't easy.

What's needed...

She does reel rather powerfully as Josephine roars, however; she grapples against her wheelchair for a moment, as if her proclamation actually had force behind it. "Josie--"

Her eyes widen for a moment longer. Old man? Father? It wasn't--

".... I don't... know much else, save--"

She furrows her brow, lowering her head. She suddenly looks incredibly spent.

"Before Elru. Before we went to finish the war with Mother..." She's holding onto the Dragon's Tear again, as it rests on her gown. It glimmers with a soft, anxious light.

"The Trial Knight came to me once more... and they said... they were attempting a thing they do not know the outcome of."

Her eyes are tearing up at this point. It's not easy for her to think about this. Everything about this is making her fear the same way Siegfried left her.

"Something they must do... something they won't shy from. And if we were to see each other again, that it may not be on peaceable terms..."

She slumps further, shoulders sagged.

"I honestly thought... the creature was their work. But to hear you say this was your father's... I wonder if it is related..."

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

Noeline swallows at Riesenlied's outburst, sucking in an uncertain breath. Her eyes cloud for a moment-- but she holds firm, keeping her partner's hand in hers and their fingers intertwined. She can't let go of her quiet pride for Riese's sake quite so easily; from where she's standing, the fact that Riesenlied is still standing after facing a giant Reaper is 'doing well' enough, let alone having to make so difficult a choice between mercy and hope.

One hand slips to her partner's back for support as she lapses into a respectful silence, watching as Lily passes over the symbological markings. Her attention skims towards them for a second, but passes quickly, focusing more on the words being spoken than the diagrams being drawn; she's not a symbologist, and though she's studied such things it's only ever been to the level of 'vague curiosity' rather than anything serious.

"... are they man-made, then? Or just man-reinforced?" she huffs under her breath, her brow drawn low; her voice has a dangerous edge to it. "Although I would be prepared to say at that point it makes little difference. It is terrifying enough either wa--"

It's rare for Noeline to be speechless, but she manages it as Josie suddenly flies into a rage. The Hyadean takes one step forwards, placing herself between Riesenlied and the explosion of emotion out of sheer reflex; she doesn't truly believe that the engineer would ever do anything to hurt her partner, but she remains tensed up in place until the last scrape of wood against wood subsides.

For a moment it's as if Noeline doesn't even dare cough, let alone be stupid enough to make an acerbic comment. Instead, she listens solemnly as she slowly settles down, drawing backwards enough to place herself once more at Riesenlied's side. "... I owe the Trial Knight. I'd like to think they wouldn't--... well," she mutters, not finding the words.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily was there, all right. She has one of the same questions--who would? And it seems that she has an answer. ...because it's true. Lily recognized them, naturally; there's something to be said for not playing all of her hand at once, but... It seems that this is a little bit beyond secrecy. The sorceress watches Josie rage, keeps hold of her notebook... and sees it in her eyes, that fury. She /feels/ it, she hears it. It is not usual at all. Nevertheless, she doesn't blink; she doesn't flinch, she doesn't move out of the way of Josie's anger. The book closes, however, for the moment. And Lily frowns, thoughtful.

"...Mm." A connection isn't out of the question, of course. And yet...

"I will," Lily answers. Then she glances to Riesenlied, as she mentions the Trial Knight, and then Noeline, with what she had said and asked. Reinforced--whether or not...

"The Trial Knight, when I fought them, didn't use Symbology. You can tell the difference, if you're around the right kinds of magic enough. And Symbology requires someone to inscribe it--it doesn't just appear on its own. But... These Wels also seemed to be Hellionized, so there may well be a connection. But then, they were at the border to Krosse--"

"...So I'll start at the beginning as far as I'm aware of it."

"There were reports of trouble, before we sighted the Reapers lumbering towards the border of Krosse and Aveh. The symbols were visible, then. Our line of Gears took up a line, and I started firing. Unfortunately, the Reapers merged into one much larger entity... And while that jumbled some of the Symbols, it was still capable of extraordinary magic. It..."

Lily proceeds to give a very detailed account of what she could tell of their capabilities, what happened, how they were eventually destroyed.

"...Then we came back here. I can't help but wonder about what's been going on in Krosse."

"..." Lily pauses, shakes her head. "What motive do you think your father might have had?"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"Naturally occuring, if the stories are any judge," is the last thing she says to Noeline, in the subject of Reapers, before Lily shows her something that prompts her to lose any control she still possessed.

She's still breathing hard when all is said and done. Map, pencil, assorted debris -- it's all flung across the floor in that sudden outburst.

"...So you're a friend of that Trial Knight, too." Something sharp, bitter, hateful tinges the end of those words. "You really are something, Sunshine." Her good hand plunges into a jacket pocket; she's still listening, even if she doesn't look over at Riesenlied. Or at any of them, really.

"The Trial Knight... tch. Was this your game? Did you know?" It's but a whisper when she says next: "...bastard." She wants to hit something, or kick something, or break something, but everything has already been flung far out of reach.

"She's right. /They/ don't use Symbology. And that's the style my father uses." She pauses but a moment, the expression she makes fortunately unseen by the other three women. "...I doubt he was 'under duress'."

"Tell me what happened. Everything."

Lily obliges.

In the end, when all has been said -- all of it -- Josie walks over to retrieve her now scattered-across-the-floor cigarettes. Plucking one from where it's come to rest against the far wall, she snaps her fingers: with the scent of ozone, it's lit.

She takes a drag.

"Marze is a part of Krosse. It's where I'm from," she says, not looking at any of the other three. "Might have been how he got involved. Who knows." Her words are clipped.

And his motives? What of those?

Josie shakes her head.

"He's never cared for anything except sorcery. ...So it's probably something like that."

She's silent again, quite possibly taking a good long drag.

She exhales smoke like a chimney. "He's a bastard. Have to ask him ourselves, probably, about whatever the hell he thinks he's doing. He's never been fond of answering the mail. Or much else, for that matter." She pauses, glowering at the far wall. "But before we kill him, there's just one thing I want to tell him."

She does not elaborate on what it is.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

In truth, it's not like Riesenlied is rejecting Noeline's pride in her either. It feels good to be valued, no matter what the situation was... and as Lily said. As Josephine said. What was needed there... that there was no choice...

But that's a dangerous, slippery slope that she's been on before.

Riesenlied doesn't know a thing about Symbology either -- as much as she's a living conduit of the Ley at this point in time, her magic has always been emotional and empathic, never intellectual, rational, reasoned.

And much like Siegfried...

Her lips do flatten as she looks to Josephine, the way bitterness laces to her words. She's never seen Josie like this before. She wants to cry a bit more now.

But...

"The Trial Knight is responsible for what is happening in Krosse. We saw it at the basement of the Castle last year... where people were trapped in the prisons, Malevolence imbued onto them."

It's with great pain that she has to point out that someone who's been so pivotal, guiding and caring for her...

"They... are doing atrocities. They must be stopped."

No matter how much it hurts her. Again and again. Because fate deigns to have the figures in her life that she looks up to as parents be this way.

She lowers her head fatiguedly at Josephine's talk about killing her father. She feels like she might drown in that emotion.

"I'll... leave you to plan... please let me know if you need anything."