2019-06-06: This Ship is Sponsored by Kaguya Alathfar
- Log: 2019-06-06: This Ship is Sponsored by Kaguya Alathfar
- Cast: Lydia Seren, Ivan, Kaguya Alathfar
- Where: Kilika - Jungles
- Date: June 06, 2019
- Summary: Ivan, Lydia, and Kaguya find out they all know one another! Kaguya does some teasing and makes a business proposition.
=============================<* Kilika - Jungles *>============================= The island of Kilika is filled with a massive jungle, which is no stranger to Fiends. The recent attack by Sin has made the jungle a dangerous place indeed; powerful Fiends patrol, and a few Sinspawn are rumored to be sighted. Much of Althena's Guard, having arrived, is devoted to making headway into the jungle and protecting the route to the Temple, which is nestled up in the mountains beyond the jungle. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHw2V0C-D-o
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
The dark secret is that Lydia isn't super fond of Yevon (they oppress the Al Bhed and tecchnology) but while she has problems with the Guard, she likes them way more because a beastman seems to have a pretty great position in there, a beastman who has personally lent Lydia aid and looked after her in the past. She thinks their prohibition of music and dancing is frankly bizarre but other than that they seem to be alright. So naturally when tensions are rising and insult wars are on the loose, she has elected to hang out in Kilika which she feels is less likely to arrest her.
Also Riesenlied and friends have basically been living here and it's a nice town.
And Ivan--
--yeah, speaking of Ivan, Lydia can't exactly sneak up on the guy. She's not some kind of ninja after all. But she can spot him on patrol from some distance away, hop up to her feet, and point in his direction.
"Ivan!" She shouts.
She then promptly runs all the way across towards him, rapidly picking up speed, leaving thick imprints in the dirt with every step. She honestly has been training to play blitzball pretty frequently so she's really got stamina going for her here and she's always been a fast runner so it's going to be difficult for him to escape.
As she gets closer she skids to a stop and grins at him with many sharp teeth.
"I had a great time before. We should go on an adventure again!"
It probably helped they made a fair chunk of change here.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Though what Lydia does is technically just about the opposite of sneaking up on Ivan, it is still startling in its own way. Ivan does not flee (come on, he's on Guard duty, that could come back to haunt him!) but holds his ground, watching her approach with growing concern. Is she going to bowl him over? She's not going in for a hug, is she?! He silently prepares to attempt some kind of throw or flip dodge.
But she stops!! He gives a small sigh of relief.
"Um -- that's -- good, I think?" He had to take a second and consult his internal rulebook on whether he was allowed to be glad she had a good time, but that would be pretty dumb to go with her to get treasure to cheer her up and then get mad that she got cheered up.
Still, it seems like the kind of thing he has to keep a careful eye on so it doesn't get out of hand.
He folds his arms and tries to look very aloof to counterbalance not shooting down her good mood for once. "I think there was a lot of room for improvement personally, but that was probably the absolute worst place in Spira to have an adventure so maybe now there's nowhere to go but up."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"Now I'm sure that's not true.
Kaguya's voice is audible before she actually shows up. Ordinarily she might have more trouble sneaking up on some kind of ninja but conveniently Lydia is a whole lot louder than she is, and in short order a... short Duchess steps out from behind a tree, leaaaaning on the trunk casually in noble Hyland-style attire. There's gold in it. ...Well, except that she isn't wearing the armored bits, if someone looks, and her sleeves are rolled up, and her hands are a little dirty with some kind of machine residue.
"Besiiides," Kaguya says, "Adventure isn't about where you go, it's about who you're with." She smiles. Awww. Then grins, "I mean, i'm just fuckin' with you, did you get any cool loot? Where'd you go, one of the warrior monks' changing rooms or something?"
She steps over towards the two of them, then pauses, and her expression is downright... catlike.
"Oh, unless..."
Abrubtly she's a little closer, leaaaning, "Am I interrupting something? I can totally go back to my work you know. Totally."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia swings both arms behind her, fingers interlaced together, head tilted to the side a bit. "Heh! It was pretty awful, but we won! And I had a fun time so--I was thinking we could try the Thunder Plains? No large bodies of water there and--"
But before she can really finish that thought...!
'Now I'm sure that's not true.'
The color drains from Lydia's face, drained right down to greyscale in the manga with those distress lines going down the side of her face (in reality she is just kind of frozen). The Duchess is like a whole foot shorter than Lydia but Kaguya can benchpress an Ethius so there's that.
She laughs and turns to look towards Kaguya, smiling broadly towards the Duchess. "Well hey Kaguya! How's it--Why would we be going into one of the warrior monks' changing rooms."
She does not say this with a question mark because while it is technically a question it is definitely not a turn of phrase she wants to be taken as a question so much as an exclamation.
"Are you a mechanic too? Really branching out from botany."
Heh heh heh. Branching out from botany.
"Ummmmmmmmmm." She adds to that last question, if she is interrupting something. It'd be a pretty short scenario for poor Kaguya if she said yes now would it! But she rallies and comes up with a plan.
"Oh! Well, since you're here I should introduce you! Ivan this is Kaguya who is my fam, Kaguya this is Ivan who is an--"
She trails off since she realizes at this point that maybe the Guard doesn't know he's a killer assassin so maybe she shouldn't mention it?
"An...adventuring...friend!" Her smile broadens.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Haven't we already been there?" She can't have forgotten that, can she? It was memorable. She was immolated and dropkicked a cake.
"Are there secret places? Caverns or something?"
And then... Kaguya appears! Ivan's initial thought is concern at whether he was doing something un-Guard-like, not that Kaguya has struck him as much of a tattler, but juggling identities is always kind of top of mind. But then he realizes that Lydia and Kaguya know one another... wait, that pings a memory, doesn't it. Did he know that already? But when could Lydia have mentioned...
Oh! Oh!! The unsolicited semi-exhaustive list of people she had crushes on!
Ivan looks back and forth between them with this new realization. Maybe HE is interrupting something!
But then...Lydia calls her family. Maybe he remembered wrong? Or she's like so super over it that it's a sibling relationship now? He doesn't know! And Kaguya is kind of teasing them which makes him panic a little about deflecting in a way that isn't Super Mean, but Lydia is trying to handle it! He'll leave it to her before he says anything weird.
...he is admittedly a little worried about how she is going to introduce him. When she settles on a relationship and an adjective, he finds that his feelings are mixed.
"An adventuring associate," he suggests. ...Was that mean? It's hard to be polite when so many of the avenues of niceness are forbidden.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
There are totally secret caverns and places and stuff! Super! And--
And it's for the best that Kaguya doesn't read minds, probably. Instead, she watches Lydia's face and grins wickedly, teeth sharp and eyes glinting. But in a friendly kind of way.
"Hey I dunno you mentioned 'worst places in Spira' so I'm getting creative,"she answers, smugly. She isn't sorry at all! Not even slightly!! "But I mean there's tons of reasons." A beat, "Haaa, nice," she answers about the pun. "And what can I say? Sometimes you just gotta leaf your comfort zone."
Not that that's actually what she's done, since she's been a tinkerer for a while, but hey, a pun's a pun.
"...Wow," she says though, looking between the two, Lydia's broad smile and Ivan's.... suggestion. "I guess you do get along okay with her," Kaguya muses, "You didn't say you'd never met her or throw something at her or anything." Pause. "I mean, assuming things haven't changed in how you've been mourning Ghaleon or something."
Ha ha ha.
"Nah it's cool though," Kaguya says as she makes it over, "I know him already. He works with us!" Pause. "Hey whose command are you under now, anyway? Have you been reassigned or anything?"
"But yeah Guardsman she's my younger big sister," Kaguya indicates. "And since you're not arresting her for being a dirty Carakinner I'm going to assume you got at least a little treasure out of the deal. I'll keep it chill if you do, it's too much of a headache to deal with. She wasn't even there for the thing everybody's mad about."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
'Dear Krelian', Lydia thinks as Kaguya talks to Ivan. 'If you can hear this can you just kill me now?' Unfortunately Krelian is an asshole apparently and elects to not let Lydia die beffore Kaguya embarrasses her to death first. He's a champ like that. You know, assuming he can hear it.
"We didn't explore it though. I mean plains of constant thunder isn't exactly natural right? It's probably there to protect some really sweet treasure or somethin'."
"It's one of those found family things." Lydia explains quickly. "But like, uh, shit did you meet Riesenlied?"
She pauses. "Anyway, uh, we actually decided that pretty recently. Re: Fam. Okay? Okay. Ha ha ha ha ha. Wow that's totally not embarrassing and is completely reasonable."
She pauses as Ivan corrects her with 'an adventuring associate'. She blinks a few times before her cheeks silver faintly. Oh no is she upset??
"You mean... like in business? We're already...in business together?" Lydia says, bashfully.
ATTEMPT BACKFIRED
Kaguya may be being friendly but this is not affecting the Terror Field in the slightest. She knows Kaguya very well, after all, and 'friendly' for Kaguya encompasses a wide range of options of such diversity that it's frankly impressive.
"Oh geeze, how is Leo? Is he okay? He's probably really depressed right now."
Wait...younger big sister? Lydia tries to work that through her brain. Is she using big literal here?
"W...why would he be arresting me? I'm not the one who clobbered The Red Priestess! I wasn't there! I'm innocent! Can't be guilty by association!" Kaguya said these things but this does not stop Lydia's outburst. She's kind of running high here.
She pauses for a moment before adding, "Leo doens't hate me does he? Gahhh he's the coolest beastman I know he can't hate me okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Actually I did meet Riesenlied just the other day, that's so weird that you would ask that. Why?"
If Ivan also has a memory regarding the significance of Riesenlied, it got overwritten by trying to remember her as one of various (at one time) strangers he was supposed to maybe be capturing.
"I mean... yeah, we are pretty much in business together, a little bit?" He looks to Kaguya. "But that's off the record."
It seems like Kaguya will be cool about that, since she appears far more interested in getting some good teasing in than in getting him disciplined for disregarding orders. Probably not a big surprise that if Lydia is recently her sister, she probably is not thrilled at the prospect of arresting her, either. He got the impression Naelle might have somewhat mixed feelings on the subject of Carakin capture, as well, though her own reasons remain a mystery...
"I was pretty much transferred to Lord Leo's command when the Dragonmaster went off to do... whatever he was doing. Now it's just... more official, I guess..."
He doesn't have a lot of sorrow for Ghaleon, the person, although there's a certain dread at the world having lost Ghaleon, the myth.
"I don't think Leo hates you? He seemed sad and confused about the incident because all of you seemed like nice people to him. And if you weren't even there, it would be weird if he hated you especially."
But apparently the association is still enough to get her potentially arrested. Maybe for questioning about the others who were involved? He doesn't know. It was daunting enough to ask for clarification about whether it was bad to murder them.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
Alert, alert!
"The Thunder Plains?" Kaguya asks. "They're pretty cool. Lot of interesting stuff. You gotta try not to die though, obviously. Big Fiends. Whole thing."
That is a pretty quick explanation. "Oh wow yeah," Kaguya says, "I guess it'd have been awkward before," she admits. "And Riesenlied's great, though I've recommended she not stick around too much right now since, you know, the whole war thing."
"Anyway what could possibly be embarrassing about that? I mean, you know, other than the implication that you totally have mushy soft feelings and someone knows about them."
If it's possible to physically make a :D face, Kaguya just did it.
"See, that's the way to get ahead," Kaguya answers Ivan about business, clearly impressed. She doesn't let down her terror field or anything though because obviously she doesn't. "I see how it is. 'Working together'. Cool, cool."
Wwwink. No really. She winks.
"I mean big organizations do a lot of guilt by association stuff, it's just sort of habit. I mean, I'd argue for you, and succeed, but it'd be a whole thing, and it'd beawkward, and it'd be annoying. But that's kinda true I don't think he hates you either like, he'd probably have said something? Though I guess I haven't mentioned you specifically..."
"Hm, though, OK. Well, if you ever wanna get transferred to the command that's awesome, you know, just let me know, maybe I can pull some strings. Just saying."
"He does sad and confused pretty well though. Which is kind of a pity 'cause I wanna see what happens when he really cuts loose, and I'm not just saying that 'cause Yevon's gotten on my nerves."
Beat, "But now that we're all talking secret business and keeping things to ourselves like real conspirators..."
She motions both to come closer. "C'mere. It's great. Trust me."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh uh, cause she's our parent. I'm not really sure what Kaguya's circumstances how that came about but... yeah kind of a coincidence mostly. I guess Riesenlied is just the kind of person who likes to look after people who need fam." She keeps using fam as shorthand today it seems.
Her eyes widen faintly as Ivan says they ARE in business together. Really??
Her cheek goes pure silver at that point, though maybe Ivan meant Kaguya there and also a different kind of business than whwatever Lydia is thinking about.
She seems relieved to hear that Leo does't hate her. "Oh...oh good. I wouldn't want him to though, uh... I'm not sure about this...whole...religion war thing. It sounds like it could get...really out of hand? But I trust him, you know? If he thinks this is the right thing it probably is."
She says it but she seems uncertain even as she says it. Maybe Riesenlied IS rubbing off on her.
"Well guilt by association shouldn't be done even if it is done, y'know?" She aside to Kaguya.
She pauses for a moment as Kaguya gestures to come forward.
She senses a trap...but not walking into it may be worse than doing so.
"Transferred to command?" She asks, blinking blankly before, "Ughhh yeah... Yevon. Ugh."
She shakes her head and inches forward. "Okay..."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"We can handle not dying," Ivan says. "We survived a lot of really bad stuff." They got flushed down an ancient toilet! And fought a small but fierce cactus! Neither of those things sound really brag-worthy, though.
Kaguya gets back into the teasing. Ivan isn't sure which of them she is teasing. Maybe both? The wink seemed to be for both of them, at any rate. So just to be safe, he says: "I for one have never had mushy soft feelings in my life."
That should clear things up without being Super Mean and having to cheer Lydia up all over again (this may be an endless cycle he's signed himself up for).
"I'll, uh, keep that in mind," he says to the notion of transferring to a more 'awesome' command.
"Do you mean you?"
Vanya makes a noncomittal grumbling noise at Kaguya's enthusiasm for Leo going on a mad justice tear, and Lydia's reserved support for one. Ivan is not exactly thrilled about the holy war thing. He thought he was getting a break from morally questionable orders and that Leo was the one responsible for helping him get that break. Then the whole thing flipped!
Somewhere in there, he finds out that Riesenlied is their adoptive mom, and he sputters in surprise for a while before the conversation moves on because it's not really news to anyone but him. So many connections between people! If he had known...!! Well, he doesn't know what he might've done differently. Asked some questions about Lydia?
Kaguya... beckons them closer. Ivan hesitates. He's thinking he's not going to do it, but then Lydia does, and curiosity takes over, so he kind of inches forward in slow motion.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"I mean," Kaguya says, "It's sort of a long story but it basically just kind of happened. I'll tell you about it sometime." A beat, "I mean, I have the other kind of family, too, but they're far away, naturally. Except my sister, she's around. You can meet her soon! She's the one who taught me how to fight, you know." She grins. But, "I mean, not dying can be harder than you think, though I agree, good goal."
Then a beat, "I /bet you haven't," Kaguya says cheerfully to Ivan in a tone that suggests that no she absolutely doesn't believe it, in the least. "Not even slightly! And not any warmer ho--" She starts to say that but gets distracted by the matter of the religious war, and shakes her head. "It was pretty much inevitable," Kaguya says. "Like, I just don't think there was any avoiding it. But if anybody'll be easy on the whole 'destroying innocent bystanders' thing it's the White Knight."
As for guilt with association, "Sure, but it makes sense--you're part of the same group, they'd naturally be suspicious. It's not like you just happened to be near one--you're friends, you work together. And I mean, they actually think the Carakin is some kind of evil gureilla group," Kaguya says with a laugh. "Can you imagine? Jay leading soldiers, blowing things up?"
"And oh yeah obviously I mean me. I mean, a lot of people would probably have fun under Margaret, but you're not the type. Me, though, much more your speed."
There are a ton of connections. But as they both come forward...
Kaguya hops up enough that her arms snaaake out and drag both of them down so she can have arms around both. It's more akin to Kaguya grinning at both in conspiracy than a real group hug, but even so--
"To my command," she explains, "'Cause I lead things. I'm a leader. Just like I help. And I'm gonna help you two."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Ah--that's right! We survived the toilet!" Lydia chirps. "And we beat a cactus! Well, Ivan beat the cactus. I mostly wasn't that helpful with the cactus." She pauses. "Or the toilet." She looks down for a moment in distress. "... I helped with the air bubble!"
Ivan also confirms(!?!?!?!) that he doesn't do mushy stuff. Lydia's eyes widen, missing the fact that Ivan says stuff like this all the time and she hasn't believed those and she doesn't need to believe this, but well--after a moment of shock at him saying that she pauses, tilts her head, and says, "'mushy soft'?" Pause. "Hee." She smiles. "Maybe you'll make up for lost time."
She bites at her lip faintly for a moment though because that is concerning if it's true, her little quip aside! Gahh... that'd just be what she needs. 'Nope not interested because I'm basically only into golems like Dean'.
Though, she reflects, Dean has plenty of mushy soft feelings so it's probably not that?? She frowns thoughtfully at all this.
Lydia says, "I just know that they're being real jerks to Prissa's people here. So I guess it's not really my place to say," She admits.
Her eyes widen again.
"Oh shit, yeah. Amaterasu. She's like. SUPER extra. She lifted me up with one arm. Crazy."
She laughs off the idea of Jay being the leader of a guerilla group, sweating faintly as she had been trying to get something going back in Kislev with no luck so far.
"Well I do like blowing things up." Lydia admits. "Provided dragons don't pop out."
She pauses. "Help us?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Lydia regales Kaguya with tales of toilets and cacti. "Wait, don't tell her that stuff! It sounds a lot better without details..." Ivan looks a bit nauseous, both at the memories and the notion of them getting around.
Lydia also shares some hopes for his future explorations into mushiness. It's really hard to tell what his truth is with these things because his denials are so exaggerated and reflexive. This time is no exception. "I'm not going to make up for lost time!"
Kaguya offers him a change in leadership.
And oh yeah obviously I mean me.
"In that case, sorry. I don't think I can work for you after you hurt my sister. You're going to have to go back into the past and undo that if you want me to work for you."
Although, at this point Ivan has also hurt Talia in combat. But he's always been pretty hypocritical.
Kaguya proposes... to 'help them.'
"Help us with what?" he asks. He... thinks he has a pretty good idea, unfortunately, but it always seems safer to assume he's just misunderstanding a situation when he has this particular suspicion of what it's about.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"The toilet," Kaguya repeats. The cactus isn't so weird to her, in fact, "Must've been a really cool cactus if it actually fought you." This is fine. This is fine because she's a botanist. "And an... air bubble." She pauses. "He's got a point,"the Duchess admits. "Definitely more impressive without the details. Though I mean, totally tell me where the cactus was I can go get a sample."
"Hmmm," Kaguya answers about feelings, and grins back. But--
Obviously he answers that and she siiiiighs dramatically, a real kind of recently-teenager sort of sigh despite her actual age being... well, who knows? "Pbbbbt," she answers, making a vague noise and rolling her eyes. "Whatever. Lydia here teleported me into the ocean once, and you don't see me holding it against her. It's fine! You just gotta learn to relax and go with things. You find a lot more opportunities that way."
"Yeah though," she asides to Lydia, "They're jackasses to probably the best people they have around here. The engineers in that fight were braver each then fifty of their jackass monks, if you ask me. And now you see these Crusaders abandoning them because it didn't work out. It's the kinda thing that makes a girl question why she's not breaking more heads, you know?"
Kaguya of course did break out of a Kislevi prison back when she was with the Carakin but whatever, it's fine. Super fine. Not a problem. "Oh yeah like, she's a soldier," Kaguya says of her sister. "Being on her bad side is a bad idea."
"As for help," she says cheerfully, "I mean, a lot of things. But you were talking adventures and I can totally hook you two up with the means to find more and more interesting ones. I could even fund some expeditions off-books. After all, in business..."
"...It never hurts to have a good investor."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh yeah good point," Lydia says about Kaguya nearly murdering Ivan's sister. Maybe she can't keep track of all this stuff. Her player certainly seems to be forgetting a lot. "It hadn't been brought up in so long--" WAIT REALLY? Maybe she's just used to Kaguya trying to murder her friends.
"To be fair," She says, making Nautilus page 444 eyes. "You were beating up my friends. I guess."
Wider. "I just."
WIDER. "Like dunkin' people who hurt my pals."
Though it is true, Kaguya doesn't seem to hold that against her. And Lydia doesn't seem to hold much against Kaguya. They did say they were siblings after all. "She's not gonna anymore, though." She says of the whole attacking Talia thing because, well, didn't Kaguya say something about that?
Kaguya agrees the Al Bhed are cool and Lydia isn't going to dispute that. SHE HAS A BIAS HERE. "She isn't that bad though. I mean. Maybe I'm a bad judge of character."
She blinks a few times as Kaguya mentions finding them MORE adventures. This sounds completely legit and totally not suspicious at all!
"It would be nice to not be going to Gusong every time I want to treasure hunt," Lydia admits with a frown.
Though last time she helped Kaguya, a dragon ate a city too so...there's that. "What exactly are you looking for in the ruins anyway?" She asks.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"It's pretty dangerous in there, though, you might die--" he... remembers his fight with Kaguya. "Okay, maybe you might not die. I can draw you a map sometime."
Kaguya dismisses the notion of Ivan refusing close associations with people because of past violent acts. He frowns. "If you had attacked me that would be different, but..." But that's not what happened! Wouldn't it be dismissive of Talia for him to transfer on purpose to work under someone who nearly killed and badly frightened her?
Admittedly, once Kaguya starts talking about bankrolling and pointedly looking the other way from treasure hunting ventures, he can admit to some potential advantages to working under her, though.
"That... doesn't sound terrible," he says of the idea.
"You are a pretty bad judge of character," Ivan then affirms to Lydia, unsolicited." He feels he has an expert perspective to offer on that matter, as one of the prime examples. But Lydia also raises a good point about what Kaguya might be getting out of supporting such ventures, and he nods along with that question.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
It would be pretty weird but Lydia does need to ... make money to help Prissa's debt and she's getting pretty desperate since she's pretty sure Sin is going to murder everything when the war starts. What if Rin dies?? Then she'll be in debt FOREVER! TO NOBODY. She does have siblings now so she can think about how she'd feel if Janey or Mikaia got murderfied.
But honestly she can'timagine what it'd be like to have someone try to kill someone she GREW UP with. She doesn't have anybody like that. Her parents? Sure. But she doesn't like them. They can die in a fire for all she cares.
(no wait don't, cancel that) Lydia thinks a moment later, feeling guilty.
As she's thinking about this, Ivan tells her she's a pretty bad judge of c haracter.
Lydia stares at him for a long moment because that's not the sort of thing you're supposed to agree with.
And then she makes an attempt to hug him.
Like the monster she is.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
'Maybe you might not die.' "I mean, not there anyway," Kaguya replies cheerfully. No, not quite cheerfully--it's close, but thee's a little edge to it. A little more mania than joy. But it passes into--well, in her normal demeanor, that isn't a lot better really.
"Pff," Kaguya dismisses again, waving her hand. "It's fine. She's fine." Lydia says it's a good point!! How terrible. But, about her own story--
"Hmmm," Kaguya says, watching Lydia's increasingly wide-eyed face for a few moemnts because you don't just not watch someone doing that, what they're saying is important. But. "Fair!" She answers. "I mean, it was a whole thing. Probably prevented any worse injuries."
"But that's true," Kaguya says, "That ninja who showed up can have her, though, it's cool."
"Oh no," Kaguya tells Lydia. "I'm pretty terrible by a lot of standards. That's super true. But, you know, I've got good ideas, and I'm strong enough to make them happen, so people can just get used to that!"
Beat. "And even the old ones I can get expenses for you when you go back." What's she getting out of this? Welll, "A few things. Naturally I'm interested in Spiran history, because supposedly they had a lot of cool tech here back in the day, all these stories about a thousand year old machina war and so on. But the big thing is, if there's a way to get everybody to Filgaia, I wanna find it and get it in my safe hands. Can you imagine sailing all the way back west and trying to repair the one you used in Azado? I mean, awful, right? So that's the main thing. But you know, even shit to sell is useful. Gotta keep supply lines up."
But Ivan's statement... Well. "Man. You're already close enough to insult each other," Kaguya says. "You are good partners. I mean unless you'd just say that to somebody outright in which case yikes man."
Kaguya juuust happens to release the two as Lydia starts moving forward. Just, coincidentally, takes a step backward out of the way for the moment. Is she... smug??
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Getting everyone a way home does seem like a good idea," Ivan says. Filgaia sounds so awful he forgets that people might want to go back to it, sometimes! But a lot of them probably left people behind and don't want the declining world to end without them and stuff.
"Getting some of the treasure seems reasonable, if you're paying for -- uh, what would you be paying for? Like supplies?" Ivan realizes he doesn't know what bankrolling a treasure hunt even means. It just sounded good! Like a way to get money and not have to feel bad about it.
Kaguya expresses concerns about Ivan's judge of character comment. "No, that's a thing I would only say to someone I know pretty well..." he says. Since only the people who want to hang around with him for whatever reason are going to qualify...
Lydia has a rather different reaction to the comment, and unleashes A Hug at him!!
Hugs are absolutely illegal according to every Ivan code on the books! But although Ivan's hug defense systems were primed 20 minutes ago, it did not remain active for the duration of the conversation. He is, at least for a moment, captured by the hug!
Then he starts going "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" and tries to duck out from under it, though he is already encircled.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia hugs Ivan!!!!
But she does let him abscond eventually because she's not a super creep. She says, "That's your 'talked down yourself' tax from now on." to Ivan before turning to Kaguya and saying, "When I was feeling really down about stuff Ivan cheered me up he's actually secretly really cool so you can be all 'neh heh heh' about that but only in private okay?"
And then she frowns faintly. "I don't think you're terrible." Lydia tells Kaguya quietly. "You've just gotten a rough shake and were raised by in a supremacist society. Out of all the Veruni I met only one seems to care about what happens to us more than you." She is talking of Avril of course who she honestly sometimes forgets is not just Veruni but like the supreme doggo of the Veruni empire. The sudden sentimentality may be seen as strangely abrupt especially when she was making a 8D face about teleporting Kaguya into an ocean moments before.
"I would like to go back to Filgaia." Lydia admits. "As much fun as blitzball is, there's like two things I like about this territory I am super ready to move on."
BUT YOU GOT A BLITZBALL AGENT LYDIA WHAT ABOUT THAT?
She'll worry about that later.
She looks to Ivan for a moment before considering the various things you use to bankroll a treasure hunt. It's not new territory for Lydia at all.
"I mean," She says. "We do have a boat. That's more than most people got here. She can pay to outfit it so we can look for treasure properly, the crew's expenses that sort of thing. Our own expenses I guess. Food. Lodging. That sorta thing. I mean treasure hunts are always risky things to bankroll but I did a lot of that back in Glenwood back when I was overthrowing the mercenary system and building a guild system in its place."
She looks super smug this time like 'wow aren't i cool for managing to do that?' "Neh heh... I'm actually pretty capable sometimes!"
Okay maybe only a little smug.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"Oh yeah," Kaguya agrees. "The longer the Filgaians are here, the worse things are going to get. They're an unknown factor in all this. A simple war is one thing, but a wildcard like all these Drifters? It's risky." Pause. "...Besides, I have reasons to get back there myself when I finish with Sin." Pause. "I do like Blitzball. It'd be nice if I had time to actually try it. The perils of command..."
And, "As she says--food, lodging, maintenance of necessary tools and supplies on your transports. Similarly if you're injured in the process I'll either ensure you get treatment or cover your funeral expenses, depending on whether you're alive, standard negotiation procedure." It's almost like Kaguya was a mercenary captain before she was a Duchess! ...Almost.
Kaguya grins at Lydia. "You did good there. Minimized my competition in the process, too. Atida's plan was going to be to reform from within, but I think between the two of you... We might see lasting change in the region. Provided that it stays profitable and 'normal' not to be a giant jerk."
But--Hm. Kaguya actually smiles slightly at Lydia for a moment, something a little gentler. "...I think," she says, "Ivan's right. You're not the best judge of character." She pauses, "But it's sweet of you to say. And it's true that I do care what happens to you. I hope you'll remember that."
She hmmms a little. "I think that is something you'd say to someone you know well, isn't it?" Kaguya asks. She's back to normal by now, anyway.
"Awww, how sweet," she says. "The beauty of friendship. I think I'm gonna cry, even." No. No she is not.
"But basically that's the deal. Win-win, I think. But you can think about it, it's fine. ...There's just things that you two can do that my soldiers can't, or shouldn't have done on paper. I've seen you both fight, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
A hug tax? For being negative about himself? But he has to be negative whenever anyone is positive about him! "What? I'm not willing to pay that every time!"
Lydia attempts to assure Kaguya that Ivan actually was kind to her, still calling back to that one incident when he happened to be... nearby... when she was sad. He wasn't even trying to be noticed being nearby, he was trying to hide! "I really didn't do anything though," he says. Lydia helps explain how bankrolling adventure works, and reveals a little prior experience in setting up that sort of thing. Ivan actually is a bit impressed. "You've done a lot of stuff already..." he says to Lydia. Ivan hasn't really done a lot of things. Mostly he has just done one thing, a lot of times.
Kaguya shares an exchange with Lydia that goes over his head a bit, and seems to deal with their history together. He stays out of that. But then she elaborates on her business proposition and offers to give them time to think about it.
"Yeah, okay, maybe that would be interesting to do... I didn't realize how far out you had to go for it." It makes sense, though, if treasure were easy to find it would be gone already... but the idea of departing on long trips of his own volition, well, that sounds a little too much like freedom, and makes him uneasy..."I've got some other stuff I need to be doing besides the Guard stuff, though, so I don't know if I have time for any really big adventures..."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Ughghhhhh." Lydia says instantly when Kaguya joins in the whole judge of character bit. "ghhhhhh..."
She approaches Kaguya and hugs HER. "Guhhhhhhhhhhhhh." She says. "You've turned me into a tax collector how could youuuuuuu....."
"nooooooooooooo..."
("noooooooooo")
Wait Ivan is actually being impressed??? Lydia is suddenly worried she lied since Ivan and Kaguya aren't the only ones who think about how terrible they are today it seems but Lydia at least has the good grace to keep that to herself. This does not stop her from going 'nooooooooooooo' either, that's the power of being a tax collector. She doesn't comment on Ivan's unwillingness to pay that every time and to be fair that would be Sheriff of Nottingham level hug taxes we're talking about here. It's completely unreasonable to expect Ivan to be able to afford such a luxuries.
But that is the fate... of being a government employee who collects hugs from the community. "I'm just as imprisoned by this unjust hug collection system as you are." She tells Ivan.
Then she lets go of Kaguya this time and says, "Saying 'I hope I'll remember that' makes me think you're about to do something really crazy that you know will make me a Sad-Lyd but you're gonna do it anyway," in a deadpan. "Well don't forget that we care about what happens to you too."
She pauses before looking to Ivan. She is probably thinking somewhere along the lines of 'Ivan being trusted to go on a boat without supervision besides Lydia who is the worst supervision is probably way too much for him' when he starts giving excuses as to why he can't do it so she looks back. "Perhaps someone to make sure we keep to schedule so Ivan doesn't screw up his busy schedule and of course return promptly to let you know what we've found would be appropriate to come along." She says.
It's still kind of deadpan because she's kind of only making this suggestion for Ivan's 'comfort zone' sake. "That way Ivan can still go without being too busy." Still deadpan.
She goes back to wondering if she somehow lied to Ivan here without realizing it.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"Ahahahah," Kaguya answers, hugging Lydia back pretty casually because apparently she can do that while also being generally terrifying, like she's emotionally secure with where she is or something. But that'd be weird. "Ah, but can you prevent her hugging you? I dunno. Like I'm pretty sure she could lift you."
She hmms, though. Didn't do anything... But, "Oh, yeah, Lydia here has done a lot. I mean, she's the one who introduced me to the wide world of property damage, too."
that went super well!
She thinks, though. "Yeah, shit can go pretty far. But, hmm..." She debates, looking between the two. "It's true, we could arrange for some 'help', and if we want it to seem more up and up, I can arrange something with Lydia here as an excuse. But if you've got a lot on your plate..."
"Tell you what. I'll skip the ones that range too far from where your orders take you, and instead: when you have the opportunity, investigate local ruins. I'll reimburse you for onerous costs. That way you can take care of all of it at once."
"Besides, it's good intel gathering if you just happen to end up bringing some Drifters along to share the danger and you know, might just, incidentally learn some things. As you do."
"But think about it. In your standard position? Frankly I don't think Leo knows how to use your talents properly. It's not a slam against him, he's just... You know. Like that."
Kaguya grins to both again. "I'll let you two think it over, though. Besides, you seem to be getting along pretty well already!"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"You invented the unjust system two minutes ago!!" Ivan protests to Lydia.
Kaguya suggests that there is no escape from the hugs. "She probably could lift me. I'm fast, though. I'll have to outmaneuver her."
"Really? She introduced you to property damage? How long have you known eachother??" To Ivan, property damage is something one could expect to have learned by quite a young age (even normal kids are pretty destructive, though, so maybe he's not that far off.)
Kaguya revises her plan to be more in line with Ivan's reservations, and... ..."Ah... sure. Yeah. I think I'd be good with that?" He looks to Lydia for her own confirmation.
He wonders, not for the first time, if Kaguya knows more about his 'talents' than average, given her past with Talia. But maybe she just means about their 'training match' earlier...
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh yeah! I got shot in the head! With a gun!" Lydia says. "But don't sell yourself short, Kaguya. I could never have done as much property damage as you have."
Lydia does like Ivan but she has to admit that she thinks it's pretty unlikely that he knows how to use 'assassins'. And Lydia is sure Kaguya DOES know how to use assassins. But you generally don't use assassins as 'drifters'. That is not the normal use of them. "Well he did kill a cactus so he can probably handle a lot of dig situations."
ARE they getting along together or is Kaguya just teasing? Gaahhh she doesn't really want to think about what impression she's giving Ivan FOR REAL. What if all that stuff he's saying is actually true????
But she does say, "Uhh....two years, maybe?" Lydia guesses, giving her own thumbsup to Ivan saying she is cool with it.
Sure it'll probably go horribly but she is really
Really desperate to go home. And also pay off Prissa's debt. This helps with both! It's win - win! Unless Kaguya is up to something really bad, but she said she has good ideas! Not bad ideas!
It'll probably be okay. How much worse can a land with a giant death whale that explodes cities get?