2019-05-21: Let Him Get Cake
- Log: 2019-05-21: Let Him Get Cake
- Cast: Ethius Hesiod, Lydia Seren, Catenna
- Where: Mi'ihen Highroad
- Date: May 21, 2019
- Summary: How can I tell if my feelings are real, asks a young woman to a strange detached man and a woman who is trying to cope with the probable loss of her beloved. The answer, as tends to be for any of these issues: cake.
=================================================<* Mi'ihen Highroad *>================================================= Many years ago, a man named Lord Mi'ihen, commander of a mercenary group known as the Crimson Blades, was summoned by the Grand Measter to Bevelle to answer the challenge that his group was a threat to Yevon. Though his followers suspected he would be executed and begged to follow, Mi'ihen ordered them to stay behind and walked along an old path to Bevelle, without stopping to rest. Moved by the display of piety, the Grand Maester formally adopted Mi'ihen and his soldiers into Yevon as a defensive force, known now as the Crusaders. In recognition of the momentous moment, the path Mi'ihen walked now bears his name. ...except not really, because the original one was wrecked by Sin a few hundred years ago. You can still see bits of it as you pass along the Highroad, on which the Djose Temple can also be found. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8tfe_H7bzw
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It wasn't long ago that Ethius barely made it back to the CaraKin. He was notably lacking a shirt. Kaguya's ambush had him sacrifice both of his Powder Grenades - basically lifelines for repositioning purposes when beset upon by foes. One was dropped, the other utilized in one tricky-as-hell gambit, leaving him to weather a few waves of Fiends on the way back to safety.
Because Ethius is Ethius, he chose a less safe, less reasonable way back to the CaraKin because he doesn't have a shirt on. It's something of a miracle he's well - but it is unsettlingly common for him to return to his daily routines after such experiences, after getting his hands on more culturally appropriated Al Bhed clothes for his purposes. After making the report about Kaguya and her ambitions...
He hasn't left the CaraKin. He's been lying low, helping tend to the Travel Agency's chocobo stables even with his difficulty in coping with their infamous musk. (Also not helped much because one of them likes to headbutt him in the chest.)
He's just about done with his shift in the early evening, taking a roundabout way back to the CaraKin that minimizes his exposure to any passing travelers and/or prospective customers. Or away from anywhere that headbutting chocobo grazes.
He's just about to step inside of the spacious horse(bird)less wagon, as the sun begins setting.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is not really sure what to make of that report. Luckily, Lydia is not interested in asking Ethius about Kaguya advice. AstieJail is nice and all but it clearly doesn't solve problems any.
"ETHIUS!" Lydia kicks the door open of the Caravan door that Ethius was about to step into, possibly knocking him over. She points a finger towards Ethius's nose.
"I was just looking for you! You're the man I need! I need to ask you about something important!"
She doesn't stop to pause and think because if she paused and thought then she probably wouldn't be in this situation and neither would Ethius. Instead she says, "I need your advice."
Her eyes narrow. "Relationship Advice."
She pauses. "Not that we're in a relationship or anything but there is a relationship between the two of us.... Just not a relationship, okay?"
She takes in a deep breath, exhales it, and then says, "So like, there's this guy. Who might actually like me? But I can't be sure because he is really weird, okay. And MAYBE I like him even after attempts at banishing away the feelings by sitting underwater for a while because he did something nice, okay? Okay."
"So this guy is generally kind of surly, but he's usually trying to be helpful I guess, and maybe he keeps trying to murder Jay but lets pretend that's not a thing right now, okay? I'm pretty sure he hasn't tried to murder anybody else and he probably doesn't really want to murder Jay but it's complicated, okay? I need you to understand that I am not pro murdering Jay. Do you understand that? Do you understand that I don't want any murders? I don't want Jay murdered? Or the guy I maybe like murdered? No murders, okay? Okay. Good. Got it."
She nods once. "So okay. There's this guy. But how do I figure out if he likes me or not or if it's just like him generally being a nice guy who murders people, okay, but like he's a nice guy otherwise. Like how do I tell the difference?"
She gestures with a hand towards Ethius expectantly.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Cyre is gone and Kaguya seems to be on the warpath. Normally Catenna could be more sympathetic. But right now she hasn't been able to muster much of a feeling.
When Ethius returns, he'll find the Moon Shaman standing outside, in one of her long dresses. She has a cup of steaming mint tea curled between her finger, as if the drink could chase away some of the bleaker feelings she's been grappling with over the past couple of days.
The return of the mysterious man draws her eyes upwards. She nods to Ethius slowly, but she doesn't say anything.
Then Lydia kicks the door open. Catenna jumps ten feet in the air.
When she comes down, she blinks a couple of times, wrapping her arms around herself as Lydia begins to gush over relationships. Or rather, 'relationships.' The Moon Shaman purses her lips before opening her mouth a bit, then closing it, reconsidering.
Then she opens it again. "...Ivan did actually try to murder me," she notes.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius hears his name called beyond the door. The yelling. He seizes up uncharacteristically, because anyone anticipating him* is a cause for concern.
Then he doesn't anticipate the door being thrown open, said door bashing his face and throwing him onto his seat like he were a rag doll. It is hardly dignified nor befitting of his fell reputation.
(this is not to say he doesn't deserve said indignities)
A hand goes to his forehead - it was a light tap, in the big scheme of things - as Lydia pours onto him about the need for relationship advice. He has a mask on his face, so his expression cannot be read. It might have been enough for him to have one under there.
"Miss--" This happens about four times within this rapid-fire query about a guy she likes that has been trying to kill Jay but maybe doesn't want to but is and-- basically every repetition of the word 'miss' might sound a lot like 'yes' as an invitation to keep going.
He turns his head in Catenna's direction gradually throughout all this, as if to gauge her reactions. Maybe he wants to ask for help, but is only just close enough to passing for a human being that this is one of the important pieces of humanity that has slipped through the cracks to be left on the cutting room floor of wherever he came from.
...
...
...
"Please let me stand up." He says to that hand gesture as he has to rest a hand against a wall or whatever equivalent structure as he rises up. He considers the local environs, how the gossip can travel...
...and the way Catenna seems to shrink at the thought of her recent loss, and her addendum about this 'Ivan.' It's a difficult subject.
A subject with no escape, because Lydia totally ninja-door-whacked him and he suspects there is no door he can run to at present which would prevent another such ambush. This is a matter that will need to be handled discreetly, surgically, and...
"Where does your infatuation with this... Ivan... come from?" Ethius doesn't quite recall in the heat of the moment that he has actually encountered and met this Ivan at Mushroom Rock Road, but there is something about his tone of voice that slips from the usual scripted monotone, like he's struggling to even think about how to phrase this question.
Or if he even should. (For Catenna's sake, or...?)
* = it seems he is fine with pretending that he hasn't been around these people for two years plus change, how they have adapted to - and even subverted him on - more than a few of his habits. They could probably write a book on How To Train Your Ethius now.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Why is everybody trying to murder you all of a sudden?" Lydia blurts out because as you know she has no control over her mouth. "You're not even his target! I get going after Jay, but this is just ridiculous. He should stop trying to murder you immediately it doesn't even make sense. Also how the heck is Lubov telling him who to kill is he on Spira or something?? Is he just in his head??? Like some kind of weird alterego????"
She huffs faintly, "I'm glad you're okay, though."
She starts tapping her foot rapidly in agitation, a faint silver flush on her features because she almost certainly didn't intend for Catenna to find out about any of this until AFTER the Rescue Ivan From His Own Frustrating Self Plan (RIFHOFSP). It's a work in progress.
She does blab over several Miss's don't you worry but she doesn't stop Ethius from standing up.
"What?" She asks at Ethius's question. "Well..." Ugh the last thing she wants to hear is commentary on her transfering feelings on Talia to a twin like some kind of weirdo which she almost certainly definitely maybe isn't. Luckily she actually knows when she started considering the possibility.
"Well," Lydia says. "It was after he tried to kill Jay the first time and I turned into some sort of weird thing for some reason though my memory is kind of hazy on that." Wait wasn't she going to mention that she ran into the guy who did all this to her too? Later. "Anyway I was sitting around feeling bad and he showed up to check on me even though he says he wasn't and yadda yadda he totally was."
She shrugs with both shoulders. "And he said he was glad I was hard to kill. AND he is bugging Talia to get me a cake. Or maybe Talia is getting me a cake anyway? At some point I am getting cake, I guess." Her eyes become Steven Universe stars. "Maybe two cakes."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna's reaction is actually fairly stoic through the whole thing. She takes a breath to steady herself, trying not to look like Lydia has again thrown her off-balance.
The Moon Shaman folds her hands a little more tightly around her teacup, raising it for a small sip. For a moment her eyes catch Lydia's, then dip to her teacup.
"I seem to be eminently killable," she murmurs, a tinge of bitterness in her tone.
Then she looks up again, letting Lydia continue to ramble. It's almost like the girl's found someone she finds appealing--
Just as I've lost mine, she recalls as a pang hits her in the chest yet again. Her gaze falls, and she lets out a slow breath through her nose, watching the surface of her tea ripple subtly.
"He has a kinder heart in him than he wants to let on," she says quietly. "But is very much ashamed of it. I am not sure he ever learned how to use it...."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"I should remind that Miss Catenna - like yourself - is a prominent figure of the Guardian faith." There is also matters as concerning back at Meribia, where (by necessity) they ran afoul of the Guard over the protection of one of the Guardian Statues. No matter how severe Ethius attempted to declare that they lay low after the fact.
From behind the emotionally inarticulate mask he wears, he watches the silver flush of Lydia's cheeks as he finally gains some sort of ground on having a slow(er) walked-through explanation of where Lydia's feelings for them even comes from. A hand goes to his forehead as she mentions 'I turned into some sort of weird thing, can't remember.' She gushes onward about the concept of having cake - or two cakes.
Catenna voices her opinion that he might be holding back a feeling of being a kinder person than he allows himself - or can possibly allow himself - to be. To be emotionally compromised on a mission... wouldn't they have sent someone else to do the deed, then, he inwardly wonders.
"...I have a concern I must voice, Miss Lydia." He folds his arm behind his back, standing a bit more upright. It takes him a moment for him to find that voice of his. The one they're more used to, where his previous query seemed to be pieced together at a loss - as though he had never anticipating needing to have asked at all.
"There is something to be said of finding novel value from exposure to something strange and unexplainable, but if they are in the business of being a contract killer on payroll... I am to assume they have told their employer of this experience."
She thinks very highly of this Ivan. He does not suspect she'll think well of what he has to say next, but if his suspicions are correct...
"Is it possible, then, that his relief in you still being alive is not his own opinion, but that of his employer?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"More like the Unkillable Survives Like Fifty Assassinations Catenna," Lydia quips back before adding, "Well he isn't trying to kill me. At least not yet." It probably totally is because of that situation with Mauri but Lydia's mind just isn't going directly there because why would Lubov care about that? Heck, not even Leo seems to have been giving the Caravan (too much) grief.
Ethius informs Lydia of a possibility that she hadn't even considered. That Lubov... WANTS HER ALIVE APPARENTLY? Her eyes widen and then she frowns. And then she says, "Why would he want me alive? I don't like him. I hate him. I'm pretty sure he doesn't care if his own kids are alive if even half the way they talk about him is true."
She frowns, considering that he might want her alive because she is weird and he wants her weirdness. That makes more logical sense, she supposes, but she's still doubtful. Not entirely denying the possibility, but...
"I don't--he doesn't like his employer. He said so. I don't...know if he even gets paid?"
It honestly doesn't make any sense, really. It might make emotional sense but to Lydia it still feels like a stretch.
What if...it feels like a stretch... because Ivan is not telling the truth??? It happens! Sometimes people lie! She's seen it!!!
But when Lydia checks in with her gut which she generally uses as a backup option to thinking with her brain, it still doesn't feel right to say that much. This is someone Talia cares about. Talia is neither dumb nor cruel.
UNLESS THAT IS PART OF LUBOV'S SCHEME AND BUT HE IS STILL IN ON IT?!
Wait, she thinks, she is maybe taking too much of Ethius's advice here.
"Okay." She says after a moment. Maybe his paranoia can actually come in handy here. And to be fair, this is probably something reasonable to be paranoid about to a certain extent. "But how do I know if he likes me, is generally just being a nice guy, or is a secret murderspy who wants to turn me in to his dad." She pauses. "Wait he's not a secret murderspy. But you know what I mean. Someone who is playing me. How do I tell the difference here, huh? You just made me even more uncertain than I was before! That's the opposite of what I'm trying to do here!"
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Again Catenna takes a sip of her tea, her shoulders rising a little, then falling. As Ethius calls out her position in the faith, she dips her eyes once more.
But Lydia's got a cute nickname for her, and it makes it all alright again. She looks up with a hint of a blush and a tight smile. "...He probably wants to kill me because of that time I tried to turn the White Knight's sister into a one-by-one-by-one cube," she murmurs. "But it was necessary to preserve Celesdue's Statue, so I will take the attempted murder as a noble consequence."
She brushes back a lock of hair, then looks towards Lydia with a slow shrug. "He himself may not even know how to comprehend his feelings," she points out. Her tone is still subdued, but at least she's a little chattier now. "From what I understand of Ivan, being an assassin is all he has ever truly known, and he does not know what manner of life he would lead otherwise. Perhaps his overtures to you are the first tentative efforts...."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It is a dire, paranoid thought that strips away all innocent romanticism from the equation. Where the man semeed to struggle to think of a starting point in which to discuss her romantic feelings, it seems he has a much easier time thinking, speaking, and maybe even acting in those terms. He doesn't interrupt Lydia's various trains of thought as she struggles with it, but behind the mask he wears, his eyes follow Lydia's as they waver about her feelings and reasons.
Catenna mentions that he might not even know how to deal with those feelings himself, but his gaze doesn't leave how Lydia's eyes move as he takes in Catenna's understanding of Ivan's psychology.
"There does appear to be some consistency to the stated reticence of his intentions to carry out his line of employment, yes." Ethius brings a hand to his forehead - as though he might just be a mannequin who has only so many ranges of motion available to him.
"Are the both of you certain that he has never been accompanied in his attempts to... contact either of you?" That doesn't answer Lydia's question about how she can figure out if he's for real, though!! That's way more important than that!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia stares at Ethius in increasing levels of disbelief.
She tries to answer a question. The question... of why she thought asking Ethius about this would be a good idea.
Catenna seems to have more helpful advice. And more helpful commentary. "Oh." She says. "That would make sense... Maybe." She frowns. "I mean he is working with the Guard technically speaking. Though I don't think uh Leo's the type to hire an assassin so why would Lubov send an assassin after you two?" The idea that he is doing this because he figures Leo is just being shy about wanting the murders to happen or something is so ridiculous to her that she can't even think of such an excuse. "...Uh, I mean, I guess.... I don't know, it still feels weird to me but you had to do what you had to do."
But that idea of Ivan maybe not knowing his own feelings?? That does feel... unfortunately...very possible. She sticks out her tongue grouchily. before adding, "I don't know." She admits.
She then looks towards Ethius. "Uh." Pause. "I mean, sometimes we weren't alone but I'm pretty sure some of the times we were?"
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"As far as I know, Ivan did not have an accomplice. I did not see anyone else there, at any rate," Catenna explains with a cant of her head towards Ethius.
Taking a last sip of her tea, Catenna sets the cup down somewhere to her side. She curls her arms loosely around herself. The Moon Shaman is still holding her head a bit low, her eyes downcast, but she soon brings them back up towards Lydia.
"I am not sure the White Knight knows that he is doing this," she admits.
A small, sad smile tugs at her lips as she shakes her head. "In a way, Ivan reminds me of more than a few young Zortroa I knew... even of my sisters. They grow up never knowing anything but the life of a dehumanized weapon. They are expected to shed their humanity and become more attuned to the beasts than to the civilized world. I am not sure Ivan's childhood was as extreme... but I think he feels like he has nothing else going on inside him beyond the life he leads as a killer."
Again, Catenna lowers her head and closes her eyes, her smile small and sad. "...I pity him. But if he is beginning to explore his feelings, then I would want to help him, too."
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Ethius, by any and all appearances and actions, is not a man who seems well-equipped to handle matters of the heart for individuals for how many times he has UNREPETANTLY SHATTERED IT. (Maybe doing the exact opposite of everything he suggests would make him secretly the best at this ever!!)
Unmoving, the man's suppressed body language makes him seem that much less like a person who gives, or even is possible of receiving, emotional support. Maybe him having a face is a lie and he wears a mask because it's closer to his true face of not being a man who smiles, laughs, or cries.
It may well have been a mistake, indeed, to think he could ever field these concerns.
My concerns remain. None of the explanations I have surmised are ones I find acceptable.
...
Time and time again, they hold to their values, their beliefs. Their hopes. Time and time again, every circumstance appears ready to tear such asunder.
...
It does not change what I have told her at her darkest hour. She is to live her life as she sees fit. It is clear she sees it fit to fixate on this. That she would ask me directly for explicit clarification...
...
...I suppose so long as it follows what she is feeling, then it is fine.
"Miss Lydia." Oh, he's talking again. He hardly moves, but that's normal. "You seemed excited at the prospect of receiving cake. If Miss Catenna believes he is attempting, in earnest, to express feelings he finds challenging..."
The pause may suggest that he finds the idea of doing this challenging, which further backs up the evidence and confidence in the previous narrative declarations of this man's character, as he brings a hand up to his forehead again for all of three seconds. Does he want to say it, or no?
"If it is your inclination to believe them genuine, then they see... cake... as a form of endearment." He's either in disbelief or simply does not know how to structure the sentence. He always sounds like he's reading off a script. The repetition of some of his phrases suggests a lot of the way he speaks is practiced.
This must be completely new territory for him, somehow.
"Perhaps, then, you should give him cake instead."
Beat.
"...Without you consuming it first."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Okay." Lydia tells Catenna. "Cool. I mean you're right he does all sorts of stuff to talk himself down. But I think, like, um, I am totally going to help him. I helped Talia so, like, it's totally going to happen. I promised her to get him out from under that jerk's thumb." A lot harder when he's insisting on being there for...no readily apparent reason. It frankly reminds her of when she was trying to talk it out with Talia only to find out that LUBOV WAS HER DAD among other things. And then, of course, yeah she heard about Ivan but she had no idea what his situation was at the time. Was he a willing ninja? Was it gonna be one of those DARK TWIN things?? She didn't know. But the point is, is that if the worst comes for Ivan then Talia would be crushed and she wouldn't be able to stand that. "And I don't know if mentioning it to him like that, about the 'beginning to explore his feelings'--well, I'm sure he's explored his feelings all along and he might explode if it's put like that so... Yeah."
Wait, Lydia thinks.
Can she just...
...Tell Leo that Lubov is sending out a dude to murder her friends? He might be like 'Hey stop that'. Or he might be like 'oh yeaah go murder them sweet' but that last option doesn't really feel like Leo. She could just...
--->Tattle<---
But she'll have to reflect on that option since it could get Ivan into more trouble rather than less.
She has absolutely no idea what's going on in Ethius's internal monologue but rest assured, if she did she would probably be even more confused about him than before since Ethius's internal monologues are sometimes more obtuse than Ethius himself.
But when he speaks again, Ethius says something that's easy to understand. In fact, it might even be...helpful advice? Actually helpful advice??
DID SHE SOMEHOW PICK THE RIGHT PERSON TO ASK ABOUT THIS???
Lydia is reeling. Sure, Ethius has given helpful advice in the past but usually she'd find out that the reasoning behind that advice was the reasoning of an alien computer beep booping a string of concepts together. This time it makes sense. It all makes sense.
Her eyes are wide, her mouth is hanging open.
It all makes sense! Heck! She was even thinking about turning the cake tables upon him!! If she and Ethius actually agree on something... it must be a great idea?? Or the worst idea???
"Okay." She says, staring at Ethius. "Then I'm gonna get him cake."
Thunder crashes in the nearby thunderplains.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna lowers her eyes for a moment and exhales, considering when Lydia starts to explain herself again. For a moment she doesn't answer.
"I actually do not even know Talia," she confesses, her voice quieter. It bothers her a little bit; Lydia's caught up in this girl's affairs, and yet Catenna has allowed an entire part of everyone else's lives to somehow slip by her.
Do I simply not matter...? Or was I always alone....
When she lifts her eyes again, it's with a quiet nod for the Star Shaman. "Please be safe. Do what you feel you need to do... but be safe."
Then someone else begins to deliver some sage advice. Catenna actually stares at Ethius for a couple seconds. She had no idea he was even capable of giving dad-style guidance. Somehow he's ended up a better dad than Catenna's.
"...Cake seems like an ideal solution," she manages, a bit dumbfounded.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
He seems to be standing by this assertion that cake is the answer, for he's not reeling at this statistical improbability of him actually giving something resembling day-to-day life advice. This is the same man who has been batting exactly .000 on helping the CaraKin promote itself, or helping come up with slogans, or doing much of anything other than being a pair of hands that do exactly what they're told.
(...if not batting 1.000 on 'don't killmeltzapclogsteal this, for that last bit.)
A hand goes to his forehead as he considers some of the other names being bandied around. All of these remarkable friends and connections they have been making, even among the most unlikely people and places - compared to himself, who often seems to be nearly invisible and overlooked by his apparent like of dressing up as local cultural undesirables.
In the end, I recognize, I do not play much part in what comes after.
If this bothers him, it doesn't show. Not underneath the mask, not in his body language, this thought processing as easily as an acknowledgement of the day's weather. When he lowers the hand from his face, it's a quiet nod for the Star Shaman. "If they insist that you taste their cake first... it is imperative you exercise discretion."
That might sort of count as fatherly advice? TWO-DADVICE COMBO??
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Well...
...It was nice while it lasted.
Wait...would poison cake even work on her? Lydia has a moment where she has this kind of vague haunted look in her eyes as she is forced to consider this prospect. Then she quickly shakes her head. Ivan can barely assassinate Jay. She is, as has been explicitely noted, 'difficult to kill'. The closest she came is when someone shot her point blank in the face with an ARM.
Of course he'd probably not be an assassin at all if he was actually bad at it. It might just be Jay's ridiculously bizarre menagerie of pals that saved her. That knife did get awful close.
"Okay," Lydia says "It's okay. If he insists on eating his cake first I know what to do."
(Make him eat his own cake obviously)
((WHAT IF HE HAS BUILT POISON CAKE RESISTANCE LYDIA??))
(Guardians, Lydia, just eat the poison cake you'll probably be okay.)
"Yep. I know what to do. Thanks Ethius!"
She considers Catenna and then adds, "Well I guess I can introduce you if you want. But she's been bodyguarding Jay so--you probably can just...hang around Jay and you'd run into her!"
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"I am fairly sure giving people poison cake is not how Ivan would work, considering he can pull weapons out of thin air and has magic," Catenna points out with a blink at Ethius.
Lydia makes an offer of introduction, and Catenna's eyes fall again. Jacqueline's like a sister to her and she still has somehow managed to never run into Talia.
So it's true. I'm an outcast even among the Kinship. Except for Cyre.
...Cyre...
She doesn't say anything, just nodding at Lydia as if to agree with her offer. But she looks away, off into the distance, a moment later, sinking back into herself again.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The strange man slash now official dating advice dispenser takes the thanks in that usual stoic stride of his - either in shame of this new facet of himself or other concerns he knows he cannot quite alleviate. It could be a combination of both. He looks to Lydia's eyes again as she shows acceptance of this plan and eagerness in there being a CAKE DATE. ...And how she wants to acquaint Talia with Catenna, too.
He turns to Catenna as she looks away. The man has offered her no words of condolences about Cyre, nor elect to give her any hope that he could still be out there. That the Caravan Kinship reunited when the Aveh-Kislev war tore the lot of them asunder was already beyond statistically improbable. That they all reunited after first being teleported to Lunar was again, statistically improbable. The odds will eventually turn up a losing number.
As Catenna turns away, Ethius inwardly thinks one thing to himself.
I cannot allow their like to continue to do as they please.
To look upon both of them anew is a reminder of this truth.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia's eyes narrow. She can neither read minds nor feel hearts and nobody has actually told her that Cyre is missing but even so she can tell something is wrong.
"Hey Ethius, do you have any mysteriously wise advice for Catenna while you're at it?"
And then she rapidly flees the situation.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna's mouth opens a little, then cranks closed as Lydia darts off. She clears her throat and manages to blush awkwardly.
<Clever girl,> Saarda-Shanta observes from where she was fake-dozing on the back of a wheelbarrow.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Lydia runs away, leaving Ethius alone with a dejected, lonely young woman who may well have lost something truly dear to her that can never again be found. Is there anything he can say to alleviate what she feels now? He stands there with his arms behind his back, still upright even as Catenna catches her feelings.
"..."
He doesn't seem to have any, unless both of them are fluent in ellipses.