2019-06-10: A Wallflower
- Log: 2019-06-10: A Wallflower
- Cast: Ethius Hesiod, Jacqueline Barber
- Where: Guadosalam
- Date: June 10, 2019
- Summary: Ethius has no shortage of strange and erratic behaviors to vague and unclear reasons. Jay bears witness to the most recent one to put on the list: an infatuation with one aspect of the ancestral home of the Guado people to the point that he seems uncharacteristically relaxed. Why? Even Ethius doesn't seem sure about that.
====================================================<* Guadosalam *>==================================================== Guadosalam is an underground that sits on the path from the north bank of the Moonflow and the southern trail of the Thunder Plains. The city is found inside an underground cavern, where the walls and walkways are composed of the twisted roots of the trees of the Moonflow's north bank, giving the entire area the faint resemblance of an underground swamp. Guadosalam is the ancient home of the Guado, a race of Beastman-appearing humans who, until recently, lived outside the grace of Yevon. This changed with the coming of Lord Jyscal Guado, who brought his people into Bevelle's fold; following Jyscal's death, his son Seymour - also a Maester of Yevon - now rules the Guado people both temporally and spiritually. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcCd1eCJq4
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
The enigmatic Guado dwell about the aptly named Guadosalam, just north of the Moonflow. This is likely just another caravan run, as the Kinship does. Business does seem to be growing a lot more strained as of late... less orders, less buyers, as though they've become a bit less willing to trade. Some coin is still exchanged, but there's that great tension in the air following what happened between the Guard and the Church of Yevon at Kilika.
There is something of an understated phenomena that might have been picked up, but never commented on - or even have much cause to notice, until now. Why 'until now?'
Because Ethius hasn't come back to the wagon at the appointed time, which tends to mean one of exactly one thing: he's probably up to some enigmatic nonsense again. One doesn't have to look too far for him, here in the underground city where society and nature have intertwined into the ideal settlement of the Guado people. He's not far off from a small garden set about the spiraling roots. It is normal for Ethius to be standing around and staring, projecting the appearance of a vaguely menacing but yet understated presence.
He's sitting down at a root designated for such activity, his body language relaxed as he leans forward and seems to be sizing them up. Is something wrong with them? If so, he wouldn't be at... ease?
He attracts a number of stares of those Guado passing by. (Why wouldn't he? He's not one of them - and he sure looks like one of those Al Bhed, at a casual glance.)
Nothing is on fire.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
The Guado had never been the Caravan Kinship's best customers. Except for some of the younger generation, they were generally more reserved, more wary and exacting of the wares they purchased. But with the increasing tension that was growing of late came a marked reduction in sales.
It seemed as if the suspicion she had faced from one of their elder number the other day was not specific only to him, and with the situation as it was...
From where she's packed up her supplies, Jacqueline lets out a sigh.
"...I hope this doesn't get as bad as I think it might. There's a worry in the back of my mind that I can't shake..." She murmurs, briefly offering her chocobo a gentle pat. "Alright, let's just-"
Jacqueline pauses, as she realises that she's missing someone.
"...Ethius." She says, with another sigh. "Sorry, I should go find him. Hang tight, okay?"
She gives the chocobo a brief hug and sets off to locate him. Fortunately, it doesn't take long - she finds him shortly, seated on a root not far from a garden.
Mercifully, it doesn't seem like any damage has been done to the surroundings.
"Oh, there you are. Is everything alright?" Jacqueline asks. She ignores the stares she's no doubt receiving at the moment.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
When Jay finds that strange man sitting there at... leisure?... that evaporates almost immediately as Jay's voice comes into the picture, as thought caught off-guard and unaware. It is entirely unlike him. He shifts his body weight so that his back is up against another vertical-facing root, like he might be on the verge of being beset upon by assassins, or--
--whatever runs through this man's mind (when it is not a blunt object).
"...Miss Jay." He says, that tone of voice of his the same as ever. This is usually the part where he might partially elucidate on what's going on but blatantly withhold vital contexts, isn't it.
"Has your business already concluded, then?" Ethius asks. "While I have born witness to the lower volume of goods, I had been under the assumption it would have nonetheless come to roughly the same amount of time for the transaction to be made."
That roundabout way of speaking, but there's a more succinct way to sum it up - he sure looks like he was expecting to have more time here. Here to sit and look at weird plant and fungal growths on the root-gardens? They aren't an out-of-place or advanced ARM.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
It is definitely a surprise. She's never really seen him in a situation like this before. It's almost a relief to know that he can actually relax, at least in some capacity.
"It has. I decided to wrap up early...I figured if business had stopped by that point, it was pretty unlikely that anyone else would come by." She replies with a shrug. She pauses, though.
"...But, has yours? We don't need to leave right away, if you're in the middle of something." She asks. Even if that something was simply 'staring at the plants'.
She turns her eyes upon root garden he appears to be focused on, briefly curious as to what he was looking for.
Maybe he was just able to appreciate the plantlife?
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
Either he's relaxed, or he might've been poisoned by some of the ambient plantlife spores here. (Since he has no bubbles coming out of his head, nor any interesting tint of his skin color... that's not the case.)
"...I see," he says, a bit more succinctly at her reasoning, as the masked man sizes up Jay for a few moments. Doubting? ...
"...I am merely present here." 'Merely present,' relaxing and enjoying the garden? Its arrangement is novel and unique to these parts, here in this underground swamp of a city. Humid, warm. The Guado may or may not be able to hold their body heat that well, going by how they often dress to cover most of their bodies throughout the tropical climate of Spira. This mystical place does not radiate that sort of comfortable warmth.
...So if he's just sitting here, being merely present, and it's time to go... he should just get up, all business like, and wordlessly follow Jay back to the wagon and then back to the road... but he's still sitting there.
Like he wants to?
"I find the arrangement comfortable." Says a man who has never been relaxed, or content to be anything other than a looming shadow with an unrelenting stare, to a truly alien and exotic environment unlike anything on Filgaia... or the other parts of Lunar.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"'Merely present'?" Jacqueline repeats, with a slight, good-natured chuckle. That was a bit surprising to her - he always seemed like the sort that was doing something. It was unexpected, but not in a bad way.
"Well...do you mind if I join you?" She asks. If he doesn't - or doesn't answer - then she'll take a seat nearby.
"I do, too." She agrees with a nod. "This place...it has a good, natural feel to it, even if it's unlike anything I've really seen before."
From a scientific standpoint, it was quite fascinating. She had to wonder if it had been helped along, coaxed into these shapes, or if this was purely natural.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"..."
That defaults to yes, and so, the seat is there for the taking. (He doesn't coax her away, so that's also yes. Yes + Yes = Yesra. If this were a triple-layered condition it could have aspired to the heights of Yesga... if that's how it works here.)
"I could see how this would hold your interest, yes." Her interest. What's his? He hasn't shown any sort of aesthetic preference for much of anything. He's never weighed in on any of the marketing slogans or promotional signs in any group brainstorming sessions - ever.
The flowering plants along the roots might be a food staple here, going by what cuisine Jay and the others may have witnessed or partaken in for the time they've shown up in these parts. Slightly pungent. Some Jay might recognize as having some medicinal properties - at least two varieties of Hi-Potion use some of this. This may be its native environs, as it hasn't been seen anywhere else that one might recognize.
Ethius returns to intensely staring at these motionless, harmless plants, as is his norm. For what passes for norm, with this strange man... until he gets a hand to his forehead, one of the few bits of body language he generally lets out subconsciously.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline takes the silence as a yes, so indeed, she takes a seat, taking a moment to smoothe out her skirt.
"Yes...I suppose it's a little obvious." She admits. She glances over to him for a moment, then back toward the plants themselves.
Indeed, she can recognise some of them for herself. She might have even adapted some into her own mixtures.
"What about you? What do you think?" She asks.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
What does this man think? He has since looked away from her to fixate on those flowers. Given this man's track record, there are any number of explanations and almost all of them seem to lead towards the idea that it will be set on fire in time.
...
"I would," there is an odd pause here. The man's words have always sounded scripted and practiced, as though he knows what he wants to say in most situations, and almost never deviates from the repetitive phrases and patterns he might use between similar situations.
Here... this seems to break down some.
"...like for nothing to happen to them."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline doesn't hurry him. She waits, letting him gather his thoughts on his own time.
He would like for nothing to happen to them, he says. Jacqueline smiles, and nods in agreement.
"Yes, I agree...I'd like that, too. They should have the opportunity to continue to be tended to and grow, just like this." She says. "...They shouldn't have to suffer because of people's disagreements."
'Disagreements' was a bit of an understatement, considering the atmosphere.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
It's familiar. The winding roots. The arrangements of the plants...
With rising hostilities, how much stands to be lost when - not if - it happens? He does catch Jay's little smile from the corner of his eye - well, the corner of his peripheral vision, for the mask removes the actual corners of his eyes from that visual range. It might be the only time she's ever shown such warm approval of his oft contentious statements and assertions. Pragmatic, almost soulless sometimes. Determination that certain people have to be 'erased.' That some items and things 'do not belong.'
A Guado woman passes by, giving the eye to the both of them before continuing on her way.
...familiar, but not the same as... what? Should I recognize this? ...If so, should I be recognized?
She doesn't say 'hello.' Just that glance, and nothing more. That faint whiff of suspicion and disapproval, but nothing so much as to suggest they're ready to evict the both of them over it.
No, that is illogical. I look nothing like them. Yet, the sentiment persists. Was it that way when...
"...Miss Jay," Ethius speaks abruptly, lowering the hand from his head, "am I keeping the others waiting like this? I would endeavor to not infringe overly on the need to be punctual," which he already is. Even then, something about this must mean a lot to him to be sitting here and quietly enjoying(?) the exotic plants...
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline's eyes track briefly toward the Guado that passes them by. She doesn't acknowledge them, so Jacqueline doesn't say anything, either.
She was used to that suspicion by now. She'd just have to do her best to try and show them that it was unwarranted.
She looks back at him, though, when he asks if they're keeping the others waiting.
"Ah...no, not particularly. We can head back whenever you're ready, though." She replies.
She wasn't going to make him leave yet if he was enjoying himself here - at least, that's what she thinks is happening. He's a difficult one to read.
<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.
"I see," he says, and by extension, sees, as his body language tightens up guardedly once more into his usual stoic silence. His eyes are not on the people coming and going, as they almost always would be. How many times has it been, on the road, that Ethius has straight-up accosted people who would only do so much as just carry oddly-shaped objects a way different from most others?
...
I cannot stay here. That much is certain. No, it feels as though I... never could? Can do so no more? Even if I appear to be doing such now...
"Your cooperation is appreciated," there's that boilerplate quote from Ethius. That's how Jay can know that it's Ethius and not someone in disguise as him trying to cover for this erratic, out-of-character behavior to keep their cover!!
...This isn't...
Ethius rises slowly from his seat. Usually when he gets up and down from a seat, the motion is smooth and with no wasted motion or hesitation. This is for the times he does sit, which is rare - he almost always prefers to stand, in a corner, seeing every possible vantage point in and out of a space.
"My apologies. I cannot keep them further." Ethius remarks as he faces Jay, hands behind his back. A sense that he has to force himself to look away from the flowers, as if staring at them any longer would invite more complicated, troublesome circumstances.
They must might.
I have much to do.
"We have much to do."