2019-06-26: Sometimes a Knife is for Guarding
- Log: 2019-06-26: Sometimes a Knife is for Guarding
- Cast: Ivan, Lydia Seren
- Where: Luca
- Date: June 26, 2019
- Summary: Lydia confesses to murdering Ivan, although that's not a thing she did. Ivan works through some insecurities after getting his life saved twice in one day.
==========================<* Luca - Port District *>==========================
Luca is the largest port and second-largest city in Spira, located the southern tip of the archipelago's largest island. Its location as the central port for Spira's surrounding islands has turned Luca into a thriving economic hub; Besaid, Kilika, and a dozen smaller islands all send their goods to Luca for sale, and even the Al Bhed are known to trade here from time to time.
The port district is an immense, bustling area. The largest port in Luca brings in ships from across Spira -- from small fishing ships from Besaid to Al Bhed salvage ships to large sailing vessels from Bevelle -- and a massive market to match. A large seawall keeps the waters at bay, with piers extending out past the seawall into the water.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CIlRCYnZcg
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
After Lydia baseball batted Ivan for his own good, it takes kind of a while for him to come to; turns out he really needed some rest and once his stubborn consciousness was out of the way, the rest of him was intent on actually getting it! Which leaves poor Lydia to her own devices for a few hours until SUDDENLY Ivan bolts up out of nowhere like mentally it was just sort of a timeskip, looking around urgently for his attacker and yelling hoarsely:
"I'LL KILL YOU!! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!? ...where the hell am I?"
He looks at Lyda. Yes, that's right, Lydia was there, wasn't she, and now she is here... and that ALMOST makes sense.
"Lydia!! Where are we, did they get you too?? Which way did they go!"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia dragged Ivan out to one of Jay's evacuation areas. She did not flat out put Ivan on a boat because Ivan has a bad track record with boats, but she figures at the very least he'd have gotten some rest beffore killing himself. It's a terrible thing to do that while tired.
She then hovered over his body like she was keeping guard but really she was worried some refugee might recognize him as a Guardsman and start with the stabby stabby. So she made sure nobody had any bright ideas about stabby stabby.
Lydia still has the murder weapon in her hands when Ivan comes to.
"Oh hey you're awake." Lydia says casually. "We're in one of Jay's evac points."
There is a pause before adding, "I guess they got me too yeah. I mean. It'd be hard for them to not get me. Because the they is me." Sadly Lydia isn't the sort of person to lie about this sort of thing. "So I guess I kidnapped myself, and you, and took the two of us here." Isn't that just kidnapping one person Lydia? Well shut up inner meta voice.
She looks at the bat, then back to Ivan. "I am the murderer. The bad guy is me." Pause. "How are you feeling?" WHAT (I said shut up inner meta voice!).
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan squints at her, trying to follow that. They is me...
He looks at the bat. He almost puts it together. There's a full five seconds of dead air where he's almost putting it together.
"Wait, who did you murder?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
There is a full five seconds of dead air following Ivan's question.
Lydia points to Ivan. "I did it. It was me. Though I mean, you're not dead I was just.... being sassy, you know? Like I usually am?"
She waggles the bat up and down. "This is the weapon. In the docks." She says it like it's a Clue Game here.
"Is your head okay?" She sounds worried about that for some reason. FOR SOME REASON.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"But why would YOU hit me in the head with a--"
Wait. Rewind rewind rewind.
Blah blah blah, don't go fight, Ivan, you'll die!
Blah blah blah, no I won't!
Blah blah blah, yes, you will!
SMACK.
All of the memories come flooding back. Of how he almost drowned! And Lydia saved him! And he got all... sad and awkward at her! And then!! As if that wasn't bad enough!!! She knocked him out and brought him here and how long has she been here while he's been lying around sleeping like an idiot?!
Ivan clutches his head, both in post-clobbering headache and shame.
"Aaaah, dammit! No, no, no!! None of that was okay!!! Listen!! I'm not some kind of weakling who needs his life saved twice a day or who needs to know why you hang out with him!! All right?? This was a fluke! Just a fluke!"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Wha--" Lydia says. "I never said you were a weakling! I don't think you are a weakling!"
Lydia smiles at that because this feels like something that's easy to disprove through FACTS and LOGIC which she understands. "I mean, you at worst nearly killed a Maester and his guards with some random lady as backup. They're super powerful, I mean, they use these people to beat Sin right? And Sin is unbeatable. So you beat up someone who, well, okay may not be fully leveled up but is still pretty high up there! Also that's not taking into account the indirect fighting stuff you can do like tie yourself up."
She offers some spare rope to Ivan. "You should show me how you did that by the way."
Wait does she actually think Ivan is going to do that.
Wait why did she have the rope in the first place?
"Maybe that's the problem though? You're strong enough that you jump into situations that nearly nobody is strong enough to actually get through unscathed?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan accepts the rope in the middle of her speech and looks down at it and starts kind of tying a knot automatically like he's going to follow her request, except there isn't really a tree here to tie oneself to and also that request doesn't make any sense to do right now. He puts the rope aside hastily and tries to pretend like that didn't happen.
Essentially, she tells him he is too awesome for his own good, and he kind of sits there wide-eyed and basks in that for just a moment and then he realizes that by inviting flattery he has just led himself into a deeper trap.
"Wait, no, that was still ...I don't feel bad about it! I don't need you to make me feel better! Why is this just getting worse!"
...but he does feel a little better.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia looks at the rope in Ivan's hands as he starts tying a knot with a quietly dumbfounded expression on her face like she made it happen but she can't quite believe it. She also decides to pretend like that didn't happen. The world is better for it.
"I didn't say you felt bad about it either." She points out even though, okay, yes that is the impression she was getting. "You were saying you weren't a weakling and I was agreeing that, yeah, I don't think you are a weakling."
It does help that she doesn't consider Ivan a weakling at least so she doesn't have to get shiftyeyed or anything while saying that she agrees that Ivan isn't a weakling.
"I guess I was trying to make you feel better, though." Lydia admits. "But on the other hand, the rest of it was me just being upset at having things I don't believe put in my mouth."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan is quiet a moment, contrite. Since their conversation earlier, he does feel a little more conscious now about projecting his ideas onto people in general and Lydia in particular. But on the other hand he got beaten up and fished out of the ocean and she had to save him TWICE. IN ONE DAY. Also she defeated him in one strike with a baseball bat. If he had a reputation, it would be over. Ruined.
"...But are you sure that you don't-- no! I'm stopping! I'm stopping myself from doing this! I didn't finish the sentence and you don't have to answer it."
He breathes carefully. Coughs a little. That's also a whole thing to worry about being a weakling about, but mostly Lydia doesn't know about it yet.
"Thank you for your words of, um, truth, and sorry I put different ones in your mouth," he says awkwardly.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Hey it's cool." Lydia says. "Honestly I probably do it too so uh, feel free to call me out too, I guess." She does not answer Ivan's half-asked question because well he said he was stopping it. That gets her smiling again even though she's worried that by smiling he is going to freak out about her smiling which makes her want tostop smiling sometimes but she just can't help it. She smiles when she feels like smiling and she feels like smiling now. Honestly part of it is she's glad she didn't accidentally give Ivan brain damage or something. Or kill him. It's hard to REALLY be precise with that sort of thing even with mechanical precision.
"Do you feel any better? Still achey?"
She is so cruel to this imaginary reputation.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I feel perfect now," he says, because what else is he going to say? It's the only response that's allowed, particularly in the aftermath of realizing how lame he came off (even if Lydia claims to feel otherwise).
In reality, he is achey but in a less dire way, chilled, head throbbing, and his lungs won't totally clear in a way he suspects is less about literal seawater being trapped in them still and more about some pesky illness opportunistically brewing while he's run down like this. He should probably take a dose, soon, since the big one tends to chase the little ones, like some sort of metaphor with fish.
"Uh, how long have you... was I... you know, do you need to rest?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
It occurs to Lydia she jumped into water, carried a dude after clobbering a dude and then sat alert and on guard for hours.
It's not the most fun way to spend your day and, killer mysterious cyborg warrior or whatever that she is, Lydia still does get tired after a fashion. She still, sometimes, just wants to lie around and close her eyes and just turn herself off in a way that she hopes is metaphorical.
"Yeah," Lydia says, after checking in with herself. "Yeah I'm pretty out of it honestly but it's kind of a weird time to lie around unless..."
She trails off for a moment. "..."
"..."
"Oh hey do you want to take watch while I zonk out?" Is this plausible deniability or something to reject at all costs?? Let's find out.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan's first instinct is to see it as a chance to redeem himself and obtain a more favorable ratio of points in the protecor versus protectee column. He nods.
"Yeah, you should have a turn to sleep, too."
Then, the questions can be seen setting in behind his eyes.
"That's not -- I mean, that's just fair, right? Am I fair?" Is an evil assassin who is solely a weapon fair? Is this too familiar? Should she be trusting him while she sleeps not to stab her or abandon her or whatever, and should he be admitting that this is a reasonable thing to do?
"Nevermind. Screw it!" he says, mostly to his own thoughts. "You should sleep."
He pushes to his feet, looking very serious and ready for guard duty.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is surprised, honestly, that Ivan didn't tell her 'would you ask a knife to guard you while you sleep?' or something like that though that might be because having a knife guard you while you sleep actually works out pretty well so saying it like that would totally backfire. Maybe it is for the best that such questions were avoided.
"Well okay I guess I can..." Lydia fudges with the ropes a bit making an impromptu ... pillow? ... and lays her head down on them and closes her eyes.
Is she going to even crack an eye open to make sure Ivan doesn't just run off here or something? Nope. She's trusting him!?!?!
Plus, she really is very tired.
And with Ivan watching over her, maybe she will sleep well and not have one of her nightmares again. "Thanks Ivan." She says simply.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"It's, um," Ivan clears his throat a little, once, and then twice.
"It's the least I can do to compensate for my sins," he says, sounding somewhere between gruff and formal about it.
He then reddens just a touch, and turns away quickly to concentrate his full attention on being vigilant for all dangers.