2019-04-28: That's How You Impress the Boss?!
- Log: 2019-04-28: That's How You Impress the Boss?!
- Cast: Ivan, Naelle Sylkirk
- Where: Kilika - Town Center
- Date: April 28, 2019
- Summary: Naelle lets Ivan in on her Secret Plan to impress Lord Leo, unintentionally shocking him with the realization that Lubov may be aspiring to impress Leo as well... with murder!
===========================<* Kilika - Town Center *>=========================== Kilika is an island off the southern coast of the Spiran mainland, consisting of a small port and village, a large jungle and a Temple of Yevon. The island is renowned for being the hometown of High Summoner Ohalland, who was a star blitzballer before retiring from the game to complete his Pilgrimage and defeat Sin. As a result of this history, the Beasts are one of the most-loved teams in the entire league, and even rival blitz players will stop to pray at the Kilika Temple before a particularly critical game. The port of Kilika was recently ravaged following an attack by Sin, and the surviving residents are slowly rebuilding. They have received unexpected support in the form of the outlanders who serve the false goddess Althena. A few dozen soldiers and craftsmen are using their strange arts - as well as old-fashioned skill - to help with restoration. The Temple of Yevon has put out the word that this assistance will be tolerated so long as the Guardsmen refrain from proselytizing their false creed; an uneasy sort of feeling hangs over the entire village as a result. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXsmMuXLtuQ
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Given that Ivan is currently receiving increasingly unpleasant and threatening messages from his father whenever he checks in on his mission status and has to admit to still not having executed his target, there is something akin to whiplash when he receives a patrol assignment and is encouraged to "set a good example" for his fellow Guard member Naelle.
He has, perhaps, never been in the position of Good Example before, and spends the first five minutes or so of the patrol in contemplative silence, wondering if he misunderstood the statement and giving possibly unnerving sidelong glances at the young beastwoman as they walk through the streets.
Eventually, he breaks the silence, querying, "...Does Lord Leo do sarcasm?"
<Pose Tracker> Naelle Sylkirk has posed.
"Nyaaaah. Not the Boss!" Naelle answers. "He's the kinda guy who says what he means, you know?" She smiles, her tail swishing back and forth. "Which is why I'm tryin' so hard to impress him," the beastgirl adds. "He's one of Althena's very own Chosen, after all, so that means that he must be honored and supported. Right?"
She waits a moment, then adds, "Which is why I've been working on a secret plan, in secret! Nya ha ha ha ha!" She speaks in a tone that makes it clear that's supposed to be some kind of secret between them, but at a volume that makes it everyone's business.
She's good at secrets and sneaking.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Hm. That's what Ivan thought. So it was real, then? It seems unlikely he's in particularly good standing, himself, which must mean that Naelle is in unusually bad standing.
He frowns. "Then what'd you do to make him..."
Oh, nope, this is going in a much different direction than he thought it was. He nods cautiously as she makes him a confidante in whatever scheme she's leading into, looking moderately uneasy about when she punctuates her intentions with a peal of laughter.
"A...secret plan?"
<Pose Tracker> Naelle Sylkirk has posed.
"It's not like he's mad at me about anything, so much as that he's disappointed in me about, um, everything," she answers the half-spoken question first. "He has to remind me a lot about like, discipline and propriety." She scratches her head, ears twitching, then returns to her previous secretive enthusiasm. Nodding eagerly, she explains: "Yes! I've managed to find a way to spy on the Caravan Kinship and gather information about them, so that when I've got enough I can give it to the Boss and he can catch 'em and all, cause he really wants them! They attacked the Red Priestess and a whole bunch of other stuff, and they're even harbouring a Guard who deserted us! But I've got 'em fooled!" She laughs again. "Nya ha ha ha ha!"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Everything..." Ivan echoes wonderingly, his curiosity about Naelle's transgressions still plaguing him.
"Wait! Did you say the Caravan Kinship? They're our enemies? Aren't they just a bunch of merchants?"
Ivan can feel his brain kind of doing flips inside his skull. Did he misunderstand his assignment? Is killing Jacqueline Barber a Guard thing, not just a secret un-sanctioned sketchy murder his father wants for personal reasons? Would Leo also rejoice to hear someone put a dagger in that unnervingly kind woman's heart?
That's... that's so dissillusioning! Ivan didn't think he had any illusions left to be disillusioned from!
"What does he want to do to them if he gets them?!"
<Pose Tracker> Naelle Sylkirk has posed.
Naelle cocks her head to one side. "Nya? You mean you didn't know they were wanted for crimes against Red Priestess Mauri? And that deserter, Kourin, travels with them too! I thought if anyone would understand the goodness and justness of Althena's wisdom and truth, it would be an orphan like her, but apparently not!"
"Also, there's Cyre, and he's a cat-man and thinks he's better than me so he's gotta go down. And, um, some of the others are kind of nice, I mean I guess Jay's like, actually kind of friendly and stuff and there's the girl with the really neat arm."
Naelle's ears twitch and she scratches her head again, while considering the answer to Leo's probable actions on having captured the Carakin. Because she really wanted to change the subject before anyone noticed her ears twitching and tail swishing just then.
Naelle has an actual negative rank in deception skill.
"A-anyway the Boss would probably have to punish them first, but then I think he'd try to get them to see the truth an' stuff. Bring them back to Althena's arms. Probably." She hesitates. "But I do think he's really not a fan of them."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"No, I didn't! Why did merchants attack the Red Priestess?"
Ivan hasn't met everyone Naelle named, but he assumes that any group in which that woman has thrived is probably basically decent and doing its best and probably had some extenuating reasons rather than committing violence uprovoked. And now they are all collectively wanted by an organization he assumed was literally as respectable as an organization gets? What is wrong with the world!
"So he... he definitely wouldn't want any of them randomly killed in cold blood or anything before he could bring them to justice and offer them redemption through Althena or whatever, though, right?" Right??
<Pose Tracker> Naelle Sylkirk has posed.
Naelle shakes her head firmly. "Not at all! They're to be brought in alive! Plus they're kinda tough. I'd be surprised if anyone could just walk up and murder one of the Caravan Kinship. Nya ha ha ha, that's what's so genius about my plan though."
She leans in closer and again fails to lower her voice in any appreciable fashion. "I've kind of infiltrated them a bit! I've been following them around and pretending to be friendly with them and they might even trust me someday soon! And then I'll have them! Nya ha ha ha ha!"
So the reason this is a secret plan is because if Naelle had told it to anyone, they'd have pointed out the number of ways this plan is already a failure.
It's the tail, really, that gives her away. Every time. Like you can tell when she's thinking about the girl with the really neat arm, cause her tail swishes just like it's doing right n--Nya! Why are you narrating that kind of embarrassing thing?! STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"...They are? Good, yes, of course they are, that makes sense." At least Ivan can slightly dim the unpleasant new light this put on Leo. But he himself is definitely supposed to be killing one of them, though, that part of his orders was unambiguous. Did Lubov misunderstand the Guard's desires, or does he have his own grudge, unrelated or supplemental? This is too confusing... is the possibility of a misunderstanding a topic he could broach without injuring the old man's pride and causing him to double down?
Ivan is almost too troubled by his own thoughts to notice Naelle's excessive tail swishing and general weirdness. If she's been hanging around them, has she caught sight of him doing the same thing? It certainly... doesn't sound like it. It sounds like she's preoccupied with something else.
"Have you, uh, learned anything interesting in your efforts so far?"
<Pose Tracker> Naelle Sylkirk has posed.
"Anything interesting? Nyuh-uh," Naelle lies. "They wouldn't let me look at the bird-submersible-craft and they definitely haven't been sharing any cool stuff with me." She has in fact been studying a secret chi-focusing technique from a scroll Carakin found while Naelle tagged along uninvited, because she thinks being able to do a new super-attack will impress the Boss. But that part *is* a secret.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"You sound like you're just saying what did happen, backwards," Ivan complains. His own failed lies tend to come out like that, too, so it takes one to know one in this case.
"Why did you tell me about it if you didn't want to tell me about it?"
She did tell him something valuable, though. He wonders if this new twist on his understanding of the situation will change anything with his mission. And if it changed anything, would it change anything? He'd still be coming after her, trying to subdue her. It's not like she'd be any less resistant to capture than to killing. And for all he knows, the Guard would still kill her in the end. Does it really matter that much if he's personally responsible for it?
Anyway, it's just been a series of flukes of awful luck that he hasn't succeeded yet, so next time he'll probably kill her or capture her for certain, whichever it's supposed to be.
<Pose Tracker> Naelle Sylkirk has posed.
Naelle looks confused now. "But I told you about the part I wanted to tell you about," she says, tapping her lips with one finger. "I just didn't want to tell you about the part I didn't tell you, so I didn't tell you that. I gotta keep some of it secret or someone else might steal credit for the idea and the Boss will be impressed with them instead of me."
Her tail droops at the thought of letting the Boss down.
Even though that's like, not even. Naelle preferred working with machines for a long time because at least they make sense. People? She's still learning.