2019-06-22: Who Needs Destiny?
- Log: 2019-06-22: Who Needs Destiny?
- Cast: Ivan, Lydia Seren
- Where: Kilika - Town Center
- Date: June 21, 2019
- Summary: Lydia is a little too earnest with Ivan and sets off his emotional proximity alert like a car alarm.
===========================<* Kilika - Town Center *>=========================== Kilika is an island off the southern coast of the Spiran mainland, consisting of a small port and village, a large jungle and a Temple of Yevon. The island is renowned for being the hometown of High Summoner Ohalland, who was a star blitzballer before retiring from the game to complete his Pilgrimage and defeat Sin. As a result of this history, the Beasts are one of the most-loved teams in the entire league, and even rival blitz players will stop to pray at the Kilika Temple before a particularly critical game. The port of Kilika was recently ravaged following an attack by Sin, and the surviving residents are slowly rebuilding. They have received unexpected support in the form of the outlanders who serve the false goddess Althena. A few dozen soldiers and craftsmen are using their strange arts - as well as old-fashioned skill - to help with restoration. The Temple of Yevon has put out the word that this assistance will be tolerated so long as the Guardsmen refrain from proselytizing their false creed; an uneasy sort of feeling hangs over the entire village as a result. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXsmMuXLtuQ
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan is patrolling alone today, which is honestly kind of a relief because interrogating his comrades is even more exhausting than trying to make normal conversation (which is already pretty exhausting). But instead, it's just him and potentially some undead nightmare beings that he gets to set on fire.
Until such an occasion as undead nightmare beings arises, it's just a quiet nature walk along the perimeter of the town. Of course, the silence does make it tempting to think about ... life. And people. And choices. And things of that kind. He doesn't want to do that. Anything but that! Stay alert! Look for movement. Danger. Look for... cool bugs. Spira does have some huge bugs. What is the cutoff between a giant bug and a fiend, anyhow? This is a safer topic of contemplation than any of that other stuff.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Stay alert! It's probably a good idea with the fiends about and by all accounts a greater likelihood of them cropping up as of late. This doesn't mean that Lydia is on guard, though, because despite Ivan mentioning the dead rising too seek payment from the living, Lydia has more or less avoided the troubles of Kililka so far even if her family decided to skip town.
After all, they aren't the only ones she cares about who are in the area. There are plenty in the Guard that Lydia still worries about and, hey! She isn't outlawed by the Guard yet so--at least she doesn't have to worry about them!
Anyway, Ivan probably hears rustling in a nearby tree well before the 'ambush' happens because he's so alert but this doesn't stop Lydia from dropping out of the tree, hanging by one of the branches via her feet, and saying, "Hey Ivan!" as she sways from the branch upsidedownly before--
*CRACK*-
The branch breaks and she tumbles the rest of the way to the floor.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan is fortunately not so jumpy as to murder Lydia before he has evaluated the situation, but he does have a sword ready as he goes to investigate the rustling tree and finds her dropping down partway from it...
"Uh, hey," he says. "I can't do any treasure hunting tod-" -- and then -- crack! There she goes, all the way down.
"...dayyy."
He looks down at where she fell.
"Did you break anything?"
Are there any bones in there or just armor? Maybe the question is more like if she bent anything.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia would probably make a really crummy assassin even if her unpredictability might come in handy for the occupation. She is up on her feet quickly, bleeding silver from her nose. . "Yeah I'm okay!" She says, picking up the branch that fell with her and swinging it over her shoulder in a smooth motion. "That's okay I haven't found any new places to bust into." Sadly 'Luca Markets' and 'Mi'ihen Highroad' probably don't count as ruins to her. You never know,of course, but she is honestly thinking that what Kaguya is looking for is probably not in any ruin they presently know about which means they have the much harder job of finding a new ruin. Or just running Gusong again. Which Lydia has kinda noticed is maybe not Ivan's cup of tea.
Honestly it isn't Lydia's either but underwater stuff like that is just rough. It doesn't cause her angst.
"I figured I could help with patrol today. Because you have mentioned you need to deal with the dead coming to life and trying to eat you." She says. "And uh. The war... kind of... being a thing. Those are both pretty rough situations."
She reaches up to her nose, covering it with her hand.
"Are you going to be, uh, fighting in it?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I can't think of any reason I wouldn't be fighting in it," Ivan says, cautiously. He doesn't know if she's going to give him a hard time about that. She seems to have mostly given up on giving him a hard time about obstinately following orders he disagrees with the same way he's given up on trying to shout her away every time she shows up. It's kind of like a truce or something. But he doesn't know anything about what logic is driving it on Lydia's end. Probably just not wanting to have the same boring argument too many times.
Speaking of his side of the truce, though...
"I don't need any help patrolling, but it's not going to hurt anything if you're here, I guess."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"I was afraid you might say that," Lydia says but because of the aforementioned truce she does not complain too much about it. In fact, in this particular case she is actually unsure she wants to stop him. Yes, she's worried about his safety as usual but he's a tough guy with a cool fire sword and they probably won't throw a river at him any time soon so he might actually handle it all okay. He fought Sin and lived to tell about it after all and though it feels depressingly real to fend off Sin and then die in some random chumpy battle later, she just has to not worry about stuff like that too much otherwise she'd be more constantly anxious than she already is.
"But I'm glad that Leo will have help. I'm not sure I think the war's a good idea or anything but he's a good guy, I think, so even if he's making a huge mistake at least he isn't making it alone?" Pause. "You know, in retrospect I'm not sure that's actually... all that calming..." She frowns wondering what you call creatures that jump off a cliff because they are following someone else who jumped off a cliff.
"But I'm sure you'll be fine. You beat no less than three cacti. That's three more than me." She pauses. "And yeah I mean, I'm really just using this as an excuse to hang out with you I will be absolutely no help in a patrol, probably."
She smiles anyway despite saying that even through the bleeding nose.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"It wasn't completely un-calming," Ivan says.
He hadn't really looked at the situation from the lens of Supporting Leo Because Leo is Generally a Good Person Even If This Particular Idea is Crazy and Dumb. Ivan is new at not hating his boss, and had kind of taken the whole war development as a sign that he had probably been wrong to ever respect Leo and maybe should hate him now. ...But perhaps people have facets, and some of those facets might be courageous and honorable, while others are zealous and extremist? Hm.
"...Are you sure it was three cacti?" Ivan asks. "I only remember two. Is inflating our successes a little like a merchant trick, like instead of 'buy these legendary rings' it's 'remember the time we fought off a million cacti?'"
Denying failures or weaknesses is a well worn tactic for Ivan, but he hasn't yet explored the full potential of exaggerating successes. Would it make actual successes less enjoyable?
Lydia mentions, outright, that she is here to hang out with him. Ivan smiles in a pained way that isn't really a smile so much as a wince.
"Nevermind, I liked the patrol one better!"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
That is how Lydia is seeing it. Yeah he's a zealous guy but he's not a BAD guy. Then again, Lydia is apparently a very bad judge of character. More than one person has said so even with the hug tax employed by the tyrannical Lydiacrocy.
"Was the exploding cactus twice or only once?" Lydia asks because apparently cacti battles have become common enough that she has lost track. "Though--yeah, actually. Inflating success is totally a merchant trick. In fact you kinda have to do it with what you're selling too. If you sell items for what they're worth, you're not going to make much money unless you're a salvager or something in which case people probably will only buy the junk for less than what it's worth. Truth is most people don't know much about value."
She shrugs both shoulders. "But you can't go to like 'a million' cacti because nobody's gonna believe that. Going for three is actually pretty good though we could probably go up to four cause it's not like someone's going to verify it but honestly past much that I figure folks will be like 'Who the heck fights five cacti? You must be making it up'." Pause. "Even if we totally did fight five cacti, you know?"
"You've got a weirdly good merchant instinct it sounds like. I mean, like, 'legendary rings' is totally the sort of thing you'd say as a merchant too." Lydia adds. "Because like to think rings are mystical and special for some reason."
She leaps up and grabs ahold of another branch, hanging off it for a bit--this time, at least, it doesn't crack and smack her in the head or anything but she lets go of it pretty quickly to drop back down to the floor.
"The Guard's never been jerks to me. Even when I've been jerks to them." Lydia says. "There's this lady, Margaret, who gave me some starting money back in Glenwood and cause of that I was able to," help foil Lubov's plans, "get a start working there, turning money into more money. She works with the Guard too though I uh am guessing she's a lot rougher than Leo is."
She puts her hands in her pockets. "I'm guessing there was some kind of misunderstanding between the Red Priestress and the rest of the Kinship. They're not the kind of people to just beat someone up like that and it's hard for me to imagine someone related to Leo just flipping out because the Kinship wanted to seal away one of the statues. I can't see Leo doing it anyway. I mean, siblings can be pretty different but that is like really extreme."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I think I just heard you literally saying the legendary rings thing once before..." It was that time Ivan accidentally stalked her a little in Guadosalam.
"Generally I like the inflation thing," he says, "But if we make stuff up, or make real stuff sound bigger, how will we be able to brag about it when we do something incredibly amazing? I don't know about you, but I plan to do at least one incredibly amazing thing before I get eaten by Sin or something. I mean for me it might be something awful, but it will still be amazing."
She talks about her prior experiences with the Guard, and the reasons she feels some trust and support for them.
"I've met Lady Margaret. She's, uh... she's an interesting person."
She speculates about what went wrong with the Red Priestess.
"Yeah, it does sound like something... weird... just happened there, but I've got no idea what."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia says, "Yeah they totally weren't legendary rings. I just found them on a trail somewhere tucked away in a chest. Minor enchantments. But if I said 'minorly enchanted rings' then nobody would buy them now would they? I mean I guess someone desperate might but that's no way to run a business when most of the people on the continent think you're a weirdo and don't 'want to buy from you."
She frowns. "Not that they...bought the rings either. I still have them. Ugghhh." Yeah she is not really a big fan of the anti-tech philosophy in the area. It really limits her options. She'd be in trouble if it weren't for the Kinship.
"Oh yeah--the boat's fixed up now too." Lydia says. "So like.." She gestures vaguely with her hands providing no clear meaning though maybe they are past the stage of boat blackmail now.
"Yeah I think she's had a rough life." Lydia admits of Margaret. "But well she was nice to me after I yelled at her back on Filgaia about how great malevolence was."
Pause.
"My best friend at the time was a hellion."
Pause.
"It was a whole thing."
She considers the Red Priestess and admits, "Yeah part of me figures I'm better off not knowing."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Maybe you'll sell them eventually..." Ivan says, of the rings. Despite her comment about his merchant instincts (which was just based on him quoting her anyway), he really has no idea how to sell things properly and usually just ends up fighting with people when he tries. He does have a vague feeling that it shouldn't involve yelling.
My best friend at the time was a Hellion.
Ivan stares at her, looking a bit baffled.
"You really have had a lot of different experiences."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Well...she's not a hellion anymore!" Lydia stammers, cheeks silvering. "She was really nice even as a hellion.And it's not like I knew what a hellion was. Since then I've been like burned alive by hellions like twice now already, not counting the dragon that also burned me alive I'm not sure if those count, so like... my attitudes regarding that sort of thing may have shifted a bit since then."
SHE IS SO EMBARRASSED.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan is maybe not proportionally scornful of this experience to justify the embarrassment, but Lydia's fears of judgment are her own business. Really though he's more like just stunned at how extravagantly strange it is, even with the general already established background radiation of Lydia strangeness.
"You do seem to... get along with all kinds, I guess. Like some super sketchy people. Why not Hellions too?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is making herself embarrassed it's okay Ivan. Sometimes Lydia does that. It's very exciting living on in Lydia's head. It's pretty different from reality though.
For example, when a certain assassin extended an umbrella sort of in her direction and she sort of stepped under the umbrella while blushing so hard it's a wonder she didn't bust a pipe or something (she finally rubs at her nose and her nose stops 'bleeding' here), well, the point is is that she may have read very deeply into that gesture.
Hench her doofily grinning face here.
"I haven't really heard that until I heard it from you'n'Kaguya." Lydia tells Ivan. "But maybe that's just mom rubbing off on me." She doesn't seem offended at all by that possibility. "She's always really sweet to everyone. I don't really think I'd ever match it but I try to be a little more like her even though I'm not that great at it."
She wonders what Ivan's mother was like but that really seems like a big no no don't talk about this ever topic so she avoids it by not bringing it up.
"Um. Though I guess this kind of distracted from uh--what I'm trying to say which is... Please don't die or anything during the war, okay? I know you're a super cool assassin but you know how wars get. Probably."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Well, Talia was probably pretty sketchy when you met her... and Kaguya is sketchy, and I am... that's enough to establish a pattern, for me," Ivan says.
Lydia explains that she's taking inspiration in kindness from her mom.
He runs through recent memories of things learned about Lydia. "Chicken mom?" he asks. Don't call her chicken mom, Ivan! That doesn't sound complimentary. He hastily corrects, "Riesenlied?"
And then... she aims some... concern at him, and he reddens, breaking eye contact and looking uncomfortable, but also trying to sound completely chill about it, even though he's looking at a nearby tree and making a face.
"Yeah, no, I'm not going to die. I'm stubborn like you wouldn't believe. The world's been trying to kill me off for ages. Even if like the whole Guard got wiped out, I'd be like the last one down."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Kaguya kinda only became sketchy after I met her though does it still count?" Lydia asks even though yeah Kaguya was actually sketchy all along it just was a lot harder to tell because she was dying the whole time. "And Talia was... charmingly sketchy." That's still sketchy Lydia. She isn't sure Ivan is sketchy but that seems like truce territory so she's not sure how to comment. This isn't to say that he isn't an assassin just that for Lydia, 'sketchy' implies a certain amount of dishonesty and Ivan has been very open about his occupation, even if it's sort of maybe too honest.
"Chicken mom," Lydia agrees because she knows what Riesenlied is okay.
Lydia isn't sure that 'well if i die it'll be because everybody died and i'd be the last one' is the most comforting of ways to reassure her but he doesn't quite put it like that at least. "Okay..." She says. "Okay cool! I'm holding you to that!"
He dislikes debts after all so if she makes it sound like dying would be kind of owing a debt to someone maybe he won't do it.
It's a strange way to comfort herself but it makes her feel better.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Yeah, it still counts! Both of it still counts."
If they can agree on nothing else about Lydia, they should agree that she is weirdly accepting of sketchy people.
He nods at the confirmation that she was talking about Riesenlied.
"When I met her, she did seem kind..."
She sort of accepts his not-entirely-reassuring comment about he'd be the last dead person if something (probably Sin) wiped out all the Guard.
"Uh, all right, yeah. I can be held to it. I'm going to hold myself to it, too. But you don't need to like -- think about that kind of thing with me, you know? Like worrying or any kind of thing. You can save that for real people."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Okay but what about K.K and Kalve?
Hello?
Where are you going?
"I want to though." Lydia says wthout diectly looking at Ivan. "Though I guess it's not like I could help it anyway."
And then there's the umbrella. The secret umbrella! She can't just pretend like that didn't happen even though she's trying her very best here. If she doesn't mention it--
--maybe he'll secret umbrella again!!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I've been trying to tell you we're not really friends..." Ivan says. "It just feels like I'm fooling you or taking something I can't give back. Even if it's just your time or your energy or whatever. Maybe there's someone else you could be treasure hunting with and you didn't know then when we first met but you were going to meet them later except I kept taking up your time." He shrugs, still kind of looking off. They both are, at this point, refusing to totally look at one another.
"Spending too much time on me could like totally wreck your destiny."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Yeah I know," Lydia tells Ivan.
She used to think she had a great destiny. She was going to have a great adventure and save her people and all sorts of really cool things. Maybe some day return to lead the village if Shane doesn't do it. Or god forbid, Gallows.
She certainly didn't expect her magical gem destiny would be to get captured by Solaris and have her bodily autonomy shattered and for her to become this thing. Or whatever. But she even had a dream. 'Go out and do this and all your dreams will come true'. Maybe she didn't actually know what the dream was trying to tell her.
Maybe it was just a dream she wished up.
"Destiny had its chance I guess." Lydia says. "Right now I'm happy. I want to enjoy it."
And she does look at Ivan at this point though it isn't really easy for her. "I don't really care whether it's stupid or not or if it's going to wreck whatever is written in the stars for me. I'm an expert on stars, you know." She says with that bright smile she manages sometimes--
--and then she skips on ahead because that's enough looking directly at someone and being earnest with them for one day.