2019-06-02: Mission: Friendship
- Log: 2019-06-02: Mission: Friendship
- Cast: Marivel Armitage, Riesenlied, Elhaym van Houten, Ivan
- Where: Kilika - Town Center
- Date: June 02, 2019
- Summary: Marivel recruits Ivan, Riesenlied, and Elly on a critical mission to resolve a conflict between children.
===============================<* 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> Marivel Armitage has posed.
It kind of starts like a Rick and Morty adventure, unfortunately.
Marivel appeared on the deck with Xantia moments earlier and then vanished (by leaving the ship rather than teleportation) after some talk with her, then she reappeared AGAIN (with teleportation) and said, "Elly! Riesenlied! I need your help...there isn't much time! Dorca needs us! It's time! Bring the primer!"
The primer that Dorca gave you in the last adventure! "Noeline! You can come too if you want. It's a Crimson Noble (in spirit) responsibility to help Dorca. We just need one more person! I'll meet you at Dorca's home! Okay see you there!"
And then she vanished again.
MOMENTS LATER...
Marivel appears before Ivan during one of his patrols. "Ivan! I need your help to save Dorca!" She has never told Ivan who Dorca is. "He needs you! There isn't much time!"
Unfortunately Ivan has even less of an option to come along because Marivel places a hand on his shoulder and promptly teleports with him in front of Dorca's home like some kind of Protoman.
*LATER*
There may or may not be an altercation with the Guards between Riesenlied and co since they aren't supposed to be here (somehow Marivel avoids this fate by acting like she belongs here so people assume she does) but regardless of how THAT goes down, everybody has been given a plate of traditional Spiran breakfast, even Ivan if he so dares (actually since he showed up first he probably got brekkie first) by Dorca's parents though they are a little uneasy about allowing people into their home right now--so it's brekkie outdoors time for everyone.
Dorca, a small Spiran boy who is wearing a wreath of flowers in his hair looks pretty uneasy by all this and keeeps looking towards Marivel with an expression that best reads 'Are you sure about this?'
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The whole incident with the Guard in Kilika has left Riesenlied in a deeply frazzled state; she was around when the first push into Kilika Temple occurred, and the terror of a full-blown promise of violence between the Guard and the Outreach was pushed into the forefront of her mind.
Fortunately, it seemed like...
"Under White Knight Leo's orders, we are here for the Temple! Now move!"
They weren't out to persecute them like they have in the past. Fortunately, Noeline was probably around to rescue her from the jostling and shoving the Guards would've had in their mad rush to occupy the temple; as such, it's--
"Um-- Marivel? I-- ah--"
Riesenlied looks deeply unaware of what's going on, but Dorca needing help sounds important. She's out of breath as she looks about and says, "I left the Al Bhed Primer, um..."
She wheels herself nearer to the captain's desk at the cabin, then...
LATER
It's with a fairly out-of-breath tone that Riesenlied arrives, looking concerned but relieved that Dorca's family is safe. The primer is on her lap, since it's the only place she can put it while pushing herself down the ramp and into town. "Hello..." She doubles over with a cough for a moment, but...
She looks to Dorca and reaches out with a pat on her head. "That wreath looks lovely on you, Dorca."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Ah!" Elly says when she's startled by Marivel's sudden apparition. "Right! Got it!" She thinks. But Riesenlied has the book. So what will Elly bring as 'the primer'?
Well... You'll find out.
The big thing for Elly was this recent political development in Kilika. She did not particularly care for it. She had been thinking, even, that it was a minor miracle that she and Fei and Emeralda weren't caught up in the excommunication (so to speak). What should she do? She doesn't know.
She does remember that the Guard may remember *her*... but would Corwynt assume she was still alive? Or would he just assume she died of an internal rupture some time after receiving a kicking? Oh, it's confusing, even in her memories.
What's less confusing is breakfast. Elly arrives, having changed out her straw hat for a floppier cloth one with a draping thin cloth veil (to keep the sun off her face... right...) but otherwise recognizably Elly. "Good morning, Dorca-- and thank you, all of you, for your hospitality."
Elly even brought a gift for the parents.
The gift is two trout that were filleted and packed in that black salty sauce people like to put on rice and everything around here, for freshness.
... Will she ever stop fishing??
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Since being kidnapped, Ivan has been going "What?!" at people in various tones of voice/levels of urgency in the vain hope of having the situation explained to him. He's supposed to help with something urgent (why him!?!) involving a person or being or location called Dorca. But if something is so urgent, why is he being told to eat breakfast?!
All right, what does he know about the situation... First off, he knows that Marivel, last seen harvesting blood hypothetically for the sake of wounded soldiers, is a vampire, but he doesn't know whether that's potentially relevant to this circumstance. She is also collecting other people for this. One of them is a quite distinctive woman with draconic features who rather resembles the description of someone he may or may not be supposed to be apprehending. As seems to be a frequent pattern with people wanted by those he's employed by, she looks like she couldn't hurt a fly. Through this woman's aid (i.e., overhearing her) he is able to establish that the kid is Dorca. Okay. That doesn't answer anything, though.
There's also another woman who brought fish, as if this were all a perfectly normal social call. Is he the only one who doesn't find it perfectly normal? Was he mistaken for someone else and brought here by accident to some kind of planned gathering?
Ivan finds a few more words within his vocabulary bank and upgrades "What?!" to "Do you know what's going on!"
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Dorca hasn't indicated any gender preference but seems to present male, though with those flowers he might end up identifying as bishounen in the future. He is young, he has his whole future ahead of him and all manner of life decisions to make and all manners of personal revelations to make about himself. That is, if his life isn't ruined by the coming conflict and he and all his friends die. Fun!
Brekkie seems to be pancake flavored. The pancakes have syrup on them that forms blitzball stripes and spots. Dorca's parents are flattered by Elly's gift and thank her repeatedly and, honestly, tell her to be careful more than once as if they are harried enough to forget they mentioned it the first time.
"Ivan," Marivel says. "I explained everything already. Dorca needs our help so we are going to help him. But more importantly, we are going to help the community. Let us allow Dorca to explain the situation."
Dorca meanwhile has smiled up to Riesenlied and handed her a new picture. "I made something for you!" He says, giggling a bit at the headpat. He offers Riesenlied a new piece of art on parchment that he's sure she'll like!
Close inspection of the picture shows that it's Riesenlied in her dragon form chomping on a stick figure with a large horn jutting out of its head. The stick figure has x-ed out eyes. This...may be connected to the problem here. Then he steps back a bit to give the quest proper to this team of totally not assembled randomly individuals.
"Um, there's this girl... named Ranna who is being mean to my friends and I. It's been getting worse, especially since Mi'ihen and the occupation. I was hoping you could, um, get her to stop? She lives in the outskirts of town."
"Because she's Al Bhed." Marivel sees fit to explain. "Do you understand now, Ivan?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Overnight, Janey, Mikaia and probably also Lydia finished the piece du resistance on her new wheelchair, because this is clearly the one that isn't going to get crushed underfoot at a giant Amalgam's foot or thrown into the sands at Mi'ihen or...
Well, they have a lot of cucco legplates ready.
And such! As such! A giant cucco is mounted on the footrest of the wheelchair! To protect her legs from undue harm.
"Oh..." Riesenlied whimpers a little as she breathes aloud and looks to Elly, who's brought fish -- then Ivan. She smiles to the young man to say, "Hello... my name's Riesenlied." Not even disguising herself or anything... She looks to Elly again. "Did you fish those up yourself, Elly? Wow..."
But Dorca speaks up. She cups her open mouth as she gazes in and says, "Goodness, Dorca...! This is so lovely of... you...?"
E-eeh...??
"U-um... I'm not a cruel Fiend, just so we're on the same page... right?" Ivan can literally see Riesenlied's horns... deflate... then flop onto the sides of her head, much like they were dog-ears.
.... horns don't work like that!!
She pauses, though. That girl is vaguely familiar from last time. "I see... we can do that, but Dorca, tell me something." She looks to him with an unjudgemental smile as she places a hand on his shoulder. "Do you think there's a reason she's being mean? Has anyone else bullied her, because she's Al Bhed?"
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I'll be careful," Elly tells one parent.
(You'll be dead!)
Elly then looks at Ivan and says, "Yes," with a decisive nod. "We're helping with something involving Dorca having a difficult time with other children." Dorca then brings up the crux of the matter, which Elly considers even as she eats the pancakes.
"... Ah..."
She looks, obscurely, sad. "It's difficult when children are cruel to one another, isn't it?" Elly says to Ivan. "It just keeps going onwards and outwards, like a s.. No, that's a bad analogy. Like a cycle of suffering..."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Oh, of course it is!" Ivan says to Riesenlied, sounding fed up with... literally just the knowledge of her name. Well. It knows what it did! Complicated the situation even more, that's what it did.
But he doesn't remember if Riesenlied is one of the people he's like SUPER supposed to capture or only maybe kind of supposed to capture, and doesn't intend on worrying about it really unless there's a chance he'll get caught having blatantly neglected the opportunity. He's got a certain degree of Unwanted Orders fatigue and right now he really still doesn't feel like he knows what's going on. His eyes keep drifting to the chicken-like face on her leg plate, which seems to be mocking him with its innocence.
Then, the situation is... explained? Sort of?
Huh? What? Children are being mean to one another? Ivan looks at Marivel, and responding with various angry cheek-puffed expressions at her claim that this situation is easy to understand. "Why did you bring me here? Do you want me to fight children? Scare them away? Do I look like the kind of person who would scare children?"
Damn it! He does, doesn't he? He's looked blatantly like a villain this whole time, and he never knew! (Ivan, what did you think you were communicating with a palette that's like 'darkness and blood'?)
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
"Hm? You're not a bad fiend, Riesenlied!" Dorca says still cheerfully. "You're a good fiend that protects us from the bad guys!" Which is, apparently, the Guard here. He gives Riesenlied a hug to reassure her that she is not a dark fiend of evil.
But then Riesenlied uses the power of FIENDISH WISDOM to realize there is more going on here than is apparent.
"I. Um." Dorca says. "Yeah, there's some kids that do that." Dorca doesn't seem like he's personally the sort of person who could, well, bully a fly. "But that's normal. There's always kids bullying the Al Bhed. 'Cause they're heretics." He doesn't sound entirely comfortable with 'normal' here but what's he going to do? He's a kid! He can't change 'normal'. "But she isn't just going after the bullies, though. I mean... I don't bully people. I kind of stay to myself usually already..."
Marivel gives Ivan a quizzical look. "Hm? Do you wish for an honest answer? Well, I believe you will be of assistance but not if I tell you what to do, that defeats the whole purpose of the adventure. I am the mysterious vampire lady who says ominous and secrety things that don't make much sense until later on in the adventure. We're just going to have to accept that about the premise. After all, being totally honest has been rejected by the forces that be."
She smiles, fangly. "In any event, that is the situation. We shall move out and confront the bully together, Dorca, with the help of responsible adults and one Ivan."
Dorca gulps. "We? Together?"
"That's correct. We will face her together...!"
Ohno.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Yes, it's very sad..." Riesenlied agrees with Elly, closing her eyes for a moment. A soft shine from the Dragon's Tear shimmers gently, as she opens her eyes after she's made her decision -- and that hug from Dorca's seems to redouble her resolve.
"Do you think that should be normal, Dorca? I know you, you're the kind child who would try to find flowers to cheer Marivel up."
She pats him on the head again.
"If there's something bad that people think is normal... don't ever think that it 'should', okay? Even if it might be scary to say otherwise."
She bobs her head at Marivel and smiles a bit weaker, coughing gently. "I'd like to talk to Ranna. Things are tense around here with what happened at the Temple, but..." She bobs her head as she looks to Ivan.
"Ah, I'm sorry, but..." A hesitant pause. "Might you be... Talia's brother? She works with us at the Outreach, and something was familiar... perhaps something she mentioned..."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I think," Elly answers Dorca gently, "that people do things like this... when they feel powerless. If you can make someone else hurt... then that means you're able to affect the world. It makes it feel a little better, for a moment... but the price is very high."
Then she looks towards Ivan.
"...I mean," she begins to say, but then Riesenlied broaches a topic.
Elly looks at Riesenlied.
Then at Ivan.
Back to Riesenlied.
Back to Ivan.
Her brow knits as she leans forwards as if searching for a resemblance. "...?"
Elly is obscurely mortified. Is it obvious?? She couldn't tell. Do... do all surface-dwellers look alike to her??
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
You're not supposed to say out loud when you're being mysterious and inscrutible! This is so frustrating! Ivan's specialty is NOT making decisions! Why do half of the people he knows keep asking him to make decisions and the other half, who get to make decisions on his behalf, keep making such awful ones?
Ivan is busy panicking at his absolute lack of any idea what to do and his lack of any Life Advice to dispense to this child when Riesenlied turns out to know Talia and hence possibly know about all of his secrets. At least he's already been freaking out so that's not the cause of an obvious shift in his demeanor. "...er... yeah, I'm Talia's brother," he mumbles.
Ivan frowns at Elly as she has some sort of mysterious internal crisis at the notion that he looks like Talia; he doesn't know what the puzzled looks are for and is left to wonder if she, too, has heard some shit about him already. Sigh.
He folds his arms and looks down at the kid; isn't having Ivan here even weirder since he's one of the invading soldiers causing stress for these children? If they're going up the bully chain to get to the source, isn't he like, part of the source?
"What's she been doing to you, anyway? The kid who's bullying you."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
You'd think that Ivan but...honestly that's a great point. Mariel is weird but let's be honest. She will probably agree that whatever happened was by design if she can get away with it.
"Oh um... No. I don't think it's okay. But if I say something they'll tease me. What do I do?" Dorca unfortunately, being a protagonist in a young adult novel, sometimes has complicated emotions that interfere with him doing good things. Also he doesn't like to get beat up. Because he's a child. Who began this journey with like two friends.
"Oh um," He tells Ivan. "She threw that book at me. And it hit me. In the face." He points towards the primer Riesenlied brought for some reason. "And uh, she says things in Al Bhed then spits at me. And um. It's a lot of throwing objects honestly." He might not have realized Ivan is part of the Guard. It's not like anybody SAID he was. And he isn't talking about Althena at all even so, you know, there's that.
Marivel smiles back to Elly. She doesn't say anything to her, and winks at Riesenlied. She doesn't say anyhting else except, "Well these were lovely pancakes, but we should investigate. We are on a time crunch here."
What is the time crunch exactly? She doesn't mention that either.
Dorca leads the group through the town. It's a tense atmosphere but people are making do because the Guard, aside from booting out the priests, hasn't exactly started torching civilians or anythiing.
Not yet at least.
Ranna's home is on the outskirts of town, nearly in the jungle actually! It seems to be the al Bhed equivalent of a mobile home--might make some think of the Caravan for that matter. It looks like it's had better days. Nearby plantlife has not been tended to at all and the windows are grimy. The decay seems recent and not exactly widespread but ---why isn't it being kept in better shape?
Marivel steps forward and says, "Ranna! Are you in there? We're here to talk!"
A window opens and a strange looking pistol with a wide barrage pokes out and opens fire! An acorn is launched into her forehead dramatically with a sudden PWING of force and Marivel says, "I've been hit!" and falls over even though she doesn't seem injured in the slightest.
Dorca immediately hides behind Riesenlied.
"Ky ezea!" A girl's voice shouts from within--likely Ranna. "Go away!" She seems to know some Spiran. Or at least knows enough to say 'Go away!'. She probably had to hear that a lot in her life!
"It's up... to you...my friends... blaghhh..."
Marivel perishes, forever.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
At the very least, Riesenlied doesn't seem like she minds or anything, even if she knows Ivan's truth... though in truth, she doesn't. She just knows Talia has a brother, and the similarity is definitely there! She smiles warmly to say, "It's nice to meet you. What do you do... are you an adventurer too?"
... yep. Completely guileless, this one. She looks at Elly, tilting her head at her concern. She looks back at Dorca. "I know... it's scary. Finding that bravery isn't easy--"
There's a yelp, though! "Eek!" Riesenlied covers Dorca and ducks her head as an acorn pistol is shot. She already got wounded by seed cannons! This is trauma! Another Ragora--
Oh, it's Ranna.
She hesitates, and then stammers out, "Please, um-- Fa tuh'd... sayh ryns!"
Riesenlied has been practicing her Al Bhed, ever since landing in the Carnot. It's not perfect, and she sounds shaky and her pronounciation sucks, but she hopes it'll help get through to her.
Riesenlied wheels herself forward and yelps as her wheel slides onto some of the mud. It's not the best way to get around Kilika.
"We're not here to bully you, um..." Think... think...
FLASHBACK
Choco Billy and Shale look perplexedly towards Riesenlied, where she's seated surrounded by eight chocobos in the pattern of the tangram. A mischevious grin crops up on Shale's face.
"If you remember one phrase of our people, Cucco Queen, remember..."
NOW
"Um... Rammu!" Riesenlied employs her favourite phrase. Choco Shale hasn't told her what it actually means, but it fills her with -power-.
"E fecr E fyc y pek, nuiht pent!"
...
...
...
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly is surprised!! She never even thought about that. Who else is siblings out there, Elly wonders.
EARLIER
Elly sits at a table with both Sigurd and Bart looking at her. She glances from Bart, to Sigurd. To Bart. Back to Sigurd.
She then says... "Go fish."
NOW,
they are at the constructed place. An acorn is shot at Marivel who instantly dies. "Oh no!" Elly says -- though, perhaps having been tricked in the past, she takes a second glance to see if Marivel is actually shedding off pyreflies. But no, not unless she's leaking glitter.
Riesenlied then confesses her gugunu fecr.
Elly doesn't get it.
Not quite. She does raise her hands. "Ranna," she says - "Wait! We're not here to yell at you..."
Oh no, will Ranna understand her?
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Uhhh, something like that..." Ivan says, not wanting to play up his Guard status at the moment.
Then...they arrive. The girl doesn't seem to be living under great conditions, and greets them like she's guarding her turf from hostile incursions--which may be a common occurence for her. Ivan is initially a bit alarmed at the thing that looks like an ARM, but Marivel's death isn't very convincing, so concern gives way quickly to frustration.
"What is your deal!" Ivan demands of Marivel, after her dramatic collapse. Apparently she's gathered them all here to solve this dispute between children like it's some kind of test that she doesn't intend to help with. Unfathomable. Ivan has no comparable life experiences to connect this to, except insofar as life has been weirder in general lately.
"Hey, we're not here to hurt you, just to possibly scold you or something. Why do you keep throwing stuff at this kid who hasn't done anything to you?"
He looks at the others. "Is she going to know what we're saying?" He glances at Riesenlied, who seems to have been speaking Al Bhed. "Can you translate? ...Was it worth translating?" Maybe he should just let the 'responsible adults' handle it.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Riesenlied >Covers Dorca! She takes 3 points of acorn damage. This is the power that slew Marivel!
But not really as Elly can tell because she's not leaking pyreflies. Or attracting them? Anyway, Marivel adopts the Slayer defeat pose from Guilty Gear (lying on the side, looking kind of bored) and looks Ivan squarely.
"Mortal affairs should be handled by mortals." She says which sounds more like an excuse to be lazy than anything, but the second bit might have a bit more meat to it as she adds, "Besides, I am not one who is in a position to comment in t his case."
Ivan tries reasoning with the child! His attempt does not seem to work! He gets acorns launched at him but it's probably okay. He's a ninja right?
Elly shouts that sthey aren't there to yell at her. This gets the slightly more diplomatic option of an acorn being fired at her feet. Wait, CAN Ranna understand them?!
Regardless, Riesenlied tries AL BHED. This gets EXTRA acorns launched at her because she's massacring her beloved people's language and she interprets this as Riesenlied being insulting.
At least...
At least until Riesenlied says Choco Billy's magical phrase.
"Zned?" The girl says.
The door opens up and Ranna steps outside.
She starts to say something in Al Bhed, thinks better of it, and tries to communicate.
"This...Is... My Home!" She says.
"W--we're not here to take your home." Dorca peeks his head out and ducks down as a casual acorn is launched in his direction (It doesn't get anywhere near him).
"You people..." Ranna seethes. "You take my parents. Promised end of Sin. Guard will make Yevon pay."
Marivel stands herself up at that, looking in Ivan's direction.
She isn't smiling anymore. Or saying anything. She just looks at the young assassin. Obviously he can't be expected to answer for the failing of that battle so what does Marivel want him to do?
Maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe that never mattered.
"I couldn't protect her family, Riese." Marivel says. "Even checking the cannons, t'was not enough."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied isn't also the one to be directly giving voice to this; she knows that they can only help push this situation along, and that it's the children of Kilika and the adults around them that need to ultimately overcome this injustice from where it's risen.
Riesenlied whines as she covers her arms and gets pelted by acorns, which she seems weak to. Perhaps it's all those repeated days of Elly tossing corn at her in the OOC lounge...
"P-please, stop..." she whimpers, but-- pauses as the Magic Phrase seems to... work? Somehow.
She looks at Elly and nods gently, and at Ivan as she admits, "I-- I don't know. I'm hardly an expert. I'm just starting to learn... and it seems she's upset too..."
She lowers her head. She pats Dorca gently as he takes he bravery to answer. Her throat seizes up as Ranna speaks of Operation Mi'ihen. Tears form at the corners of her eyes.
"Oh, Ranna...." she whispers. A pause, as she knows she can't discuss the deeper ramifications of what the Guard is doing and their current aggressive war with Yevon.
"I did not know. But it makes sense. But..."
She urges Dorca, nodding and-- giving him the primer.
"Please, listen to Dorca. Because one day, we all likely will have to move on to other lands, to other duties. But he'll stay here in Kilika, with you... and..."
She closes her eyes tighter.
"I recently lost both my parents too. Both my father... and the one who was there for me when my father went astray. So I... I won't say I know your pain, but I can empathise."
In the visual novel scene two armored figures show up in flashback because it's Siegfried and K.K.. What is it with Riesenlied's parent(al figures) and armor?
Those tears only get stronger as she works through the memories.
"I can't blame your anger. The anger at the people that bullied you. But I know it hurts most when I'm alone... and I know Dorca wants to do his best for you too."
She nods to Dorca as she leans in and opens the primer, gesturing to the simplest phrases.
"I believe in you, Dorca. Would you give reaching out to her a try... for me?" Riesenlied sweetly asks.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"She has to know a little," Elly answers Ivan, quietly. "I mean, I hope so. If she's able to introduce herself to Dorca she has to be able to speak their language a little."
The acorns strike at Elly, but they hit her cool sandals. Which work out, for now.
She presses her lips to a thin line as Ranna protests. Her words come out. They are heartfelt. Simple. Clear. Not clean, no. But clear.
Elly's eyes brim over for a moment. It's too sad. Too sad. She just can't one second...
isn't this where we came in?
Elly blinks herself several times, and then she takes a deep breath. Riesenlied is speaking to Dorca.
To Ranna, Elly speaks. Her hands clasp before her. "Ranna," she says.
"..." What can I say? Elly thinks.
She ends up stepping nearer to the Al Bhed girl, away from Ivan (who hopefully does not take an attack of opportunity). She sinks down to one knee, looking at her. "I know what it is like," she says, "to not fit in. But I think that they care for you, here. I am not from Spira. It is hard. But, what matters, is that you still are here. So is Dorca. The town. All of you."
"You've lived here a long time, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Everyone currently assembled gets to watch Ivan take dodging acorns WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. Acrobatic stunts are involved. And when he lands from an unnecessary flip, one last acorn plonks him in the forehead. Sigh.
But the girl emerges! She seems to be giving communication a chance! Not that he knows how much of their efforts she was able to understand. He assumes Riesenlied must have said something INCREDIBLY WISE.
But then, Ranna explains her story and... ...oh... shit. Her parents were killed in Operation Mi'ihen?
He meets Marivel's suddenly serious gaze, and blanches. What does she expect him to do or say? He looks to Riesenlied, who pours out her heart and a bit of her own past, and he hopes her words are the right ones. Is there some futher history he's missing between Dorca and Ranna, or is it only Riesenlied imagining a future for them and a role Dorca could play in her healing? Ivan feels... so out of his depth.
Elly also seems to feel that the two children in conflict were, or perhaps should be, friends. Was that obvious to everyone? Is that an underlying truth of the matter that went over his head? Maybe scaring mean children would have been easier...
Both of them are sharing their commonalities and life experiences with the girl, and...
"...I don't know what it's like at all!" he says. "But I was at that battle. It wasn't a lie, it was just... a mistake. I'm sorry. We were all trying to make the world safer but we didn't understand well enough what we were up against and how big a risk we were asking everyone who helped us to take. I think... it's okay to be angry about that. It isn't fair for people doing the right thing to be punished. And you didn't even get a vote in it at all, and you had to suffer."
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
Dorca quails a bit when he's pointed out as being a friend to this angry child who seems to be about a year older than her (she does, in fact, wear her hair in pigtails Riesenlied). It's not quite that, actually. Dorca is not one of Ranna's friends. Ranna doesn't have friends. She always seemed okay with it. Then she lost her parents and then she had nothing except that home of hers.
"Even a well-meaning war has its casualties." Marivel whispers, seemingly to Ivan. "What will one fueled by hate and rage leave behind?"
She does not speak to Ranna directly, though. She just looks towards Ranna, the regrets of someone well-meaning. Once war broke out, would an opportunity like this have been possible? No. She had to hurry. Luckily, Riesenlied and Elly are not people prone to hesitation when they know people are in pain.
And honestly, she has to admit to herself, as much as Ivan complained he still lent his aid such as it was. He did not need to (though maybe she should have told that to Ivan rather than just kidnapped him first).
Riesenlied gives Dorca the primer. He looks at it in confusion. Sure, he might be able to bastardize a conversation with the primer eventually but that's no way to have a conversation. And by the looks of it, he'll get plenty of acorns in his skull if he tries.
But he does open it up and look to see if there's some clue Riesenlied hoped for him to find there. He studies it uncomprehendingly for a moment before his eyes widen in shock...!
Ranna lowers the Acorn Relic Machine at Riesenlied's sympathy and empathy. She seems confused for a moment, no doubt not catching every word. But she gets enough to understand the gist. She certainly understands t ears.
She lets the acorn gun hang at her side. She doesn't want to hurt someone who is feeling what she's feeling. "'Dorca'?" Ranna says, fixing her gaze onto the boy for a moment.
Elly speaks. Ranna nods to Elly once. She has lived here a long time. "They. Are. Cruel." She says haltingly. "Yevon. Blames. Us." She ggoes a bit crosseyed like she's really struggling here to get the words.
Ivan says he was at that battle. This gets Ranna's full attention. She has not heard much of what actually had happenedd.
"What..." she struggles. "What happened?" She asks of him, biting her lip to push back her own tears. "Don't... they don't...try understand. Just judgement." Ranna manages. She's actually pretty brilliant to make that acorn gun at her young age--
--but, Dorca realizes in this moment, she's still learning the language. He looks down at the Primer.
And he sees that alongside the words of the Al Bhed are the words in the Spiran tongue.
"Ranna..." He says, presses his lips together in determination and advances forward, pulling away from Riesenlied.
He's shaking a little and he says, "Um. Is that... Is that why you threw the book at me?"
Ranna's eyes widen in recognition.
"You wanted me to try and understand, right...?" Dorca says. "And you had this book because...you were trying to learn our language, right?"
Ranna's cheeks pinken faintly and she snatches the book away from Dorca.
RETURNED SPIRAN PRIMER
She starts to march back into her home only for Dorca to say, "W--wait please..."
Marivel murmurs. "She wanted to be friends... that's why she was learning the language."
"I... I want to be friends too!" Dorca shouts. "I'll try! I'm sorry it took so long. I was scared. Can we still try?"
Ranna spins back around with wide eyes like she's not quite believing what Dorca is saying.
Then, hesitantly, she looks towards Ivan.
"...Dnerg ayo." She says to him, and rubs at her eyes roughly before nodding several times at Dorca in rapid succession.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It's Elly's and Ivan's words that Riesenlied catches most strongly. Elly knows what it's like to not fit in. In many ways, they all do... being Drifters, being rootless -- always being on the go. Only ever glimpsing the cultures that they do in the flash of an eye, but for Elly... going from the sky to the land must be so hard.
"Elly..." she whispers. A pause, as she looks to Ivan. Her expression softens. "I'm glad you are still with us," she at least reassures to the young man. She still bears immense survivor's guilt when it comes to Sin. She hasn't worked through all that yet.
"It's true. It isn't fair. And at a time like this, when your place is suffering so much..."
There is a sad expression on her face.
But that's why Riesenlied puts her faith in Dorca. Because she knows he'll do the right thing... and he identifies what she thinks she sensed in Ranna too. Trying to learn their language. Trying to understand.
She smiles towards the both of them, as Ranna admits it, and Dorca expresses he wants to be friends.
"Always talk to each other when you're hurting... okay? Of all the lessons I've learnt... that's definitely the most important one. You can't understand each other if you don't."
She looks to Marivel to smile and say, "You knew all along as well... didn't you? You're a kind soul, Marivel."
There's a brief wheezing cough from Riesenlied again, as she shakes her head and lets out a breath of relief. She's been acorned enough for one day.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly looks, and she listens, and she nods, and she makes herself be as present as she possibly can. It's something she herself would have trouble articulating, but she puts herself present there. And then she looks down -
The book comes up.
The two of them speak. Dorca is desperate. Urgent. They reach out.
They reach out to each other.
Elly feels something in her head, like the mirror image of a cramp. Her eyes shut. Riesenlied speaks up, with fluid ease. Elly opens her eyes and tells the two children --
"You have to help each other fly."
Then she looks to Ivan, even as she rises back up. She's swaying a little, but only a little. "... I'm sorry," she tells him. "It must have been atrocious. Fei and I arrived, but only afterwards... when it was all over. Whatever may come... Thank you, for trying," and then Elly just sort of stops abruptly, as if she preferred to finish the sentence by suddenly chopping it off.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ranna asks Ivan what happened. Ivan freezes again for a moment, trying to figure out what version would give some measure of closure and not just new horrors to ruminate on.
"Everyone worked together to weaken Sin and defend against its attacks so that the cannoneers and the most powerful mages could gather power to fight it. They... did a lot of damage, but in the end, we found out it could heal itself of any damage it took. When it struck back, it was... it was just overwhelming. Many people died. For a lot of them, it was very fast, almost instant."
But others were grievously wounded, and later died of their injuries, so he doesn't know if he can even offer the thin comfort of 'they didn't suffer.'
Whether his words offered something concrete to hold onto or a haunting imagined vision Ranna will wish she never knew, Ivan will have to wonder.
Elly offers her sympathies to him for having experienced the battle, and he makes some twitchy faces as he tries to fight off the impulse to downplay it in front of the child whose parents died there. "It was... you know. I was one of the lucky ones," he manages.
It seems the others were right in their intuition that the two children are or should be friends.
Who knew that the first thrown object had been meant as a peace offering! Ivan wonders about the other thrown objects. Were they thrown in anger, because the first one wasn't understood? Or were they a series of secret messages that will later be decoded as having each been overtures in and of themselves? Ivan supposes it really isn't any of his business.
<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.
It's pretty rough all told but. Still, though they may not have been able to stop Sin, they can at least lessen the damage Sin's slaughter has caused, to help with rebuilding--with homes, yes, but more importantly the bonds between people that have been torn asunder before they could even truly form.
Riesenlied acccuses Marivel of being a kind soul. Marivel smiles back at Riesenlied and says, "Thank you, but I don't think I am quite as kind as you say, Riesenlied." Perhaps she has her own guilt. Or perhaps that is a phrase that she learned long ago. It sounds like she was paraphrasing someone there.
Dorca nods dutifully and firmly to Riesenlied. "Thank you!" He says before asiding to Ranna. "She is a good fiend." Um. Well at least Riesenlied's reputation isn't suffering? Ranna is too emotional right now to really give the Hyadean much comment but she does nod a few times to what she's saying. Probably.
Ivan tells Ranna the story and...it does seem to take some of the pain away. "They hurt Sin bad!" Pause. "Ly. Badly." It's a good thing to share. She can be proud of how they died at least. How many Al Bhed have harmed Sin before?? Not many! Of course, she can only cheer up SO MUCH from such information but a fair amount of the pain was not knowing. And knowing the Guard stationed here is not belittling their sacrifice, well, that is something the Al Bhed can appreciate.
"We should let them have some space for themselves." Marivel suggests. "I hope the war does not reach them but if it does, they can rely on each other at least."
She gets a movin' to let the kids figure out their kid situation. Was the thrown book a peace offering or an enraged gesture of giving up on a dream Ranna once had? Thanks to your efforts, that question doesn't have to have an answer. Whatever it was, it is now a book shared between two people who will learn one way to share words.
Like one winged angels that must help one another fly as Elly so astutely points out.
Dorca will remember that.
But someone else remembers it. Her eyes widen faintly as she turns towards Elly. Her gaze shines with new recognition as she looks at the Solarian who has chosen to live on the surface.
"Sophia?" She asks, eyes wide.
It was the tenant that did it. Marivel is looking like she's seen a ghost.
Or maybe a litany of ghosts.
But in the end she shakes her head and adds, "Let us not tempt the Guard any further. Ivan, thank you for your help."
She dips her head once before moving along.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Things resolve.
They improve. It is hopeful for Elly to see. Some part of her thinks that there is very little of that, that there will not be much to see; something in her wants to drink in that moment of hope, that tentative reaching out.
She moves, then, to depart. She even moves to a position where she can help Riesenlied over bumps with a bit of a push, like a red chariot-rider helping when -
Marivel calls her by a name.
Elly looks at Marivel.
but... that isn't my name.
She blinks several times. "Huh? Oh - no, no; are you alright?"
She does not sound, quite, certain when she asks that question.