2019-06-28: And then Lydia Happened
- Log: 2019-06-28: And then Lydia Happened
- Cast: Ivan, Kaguya Alathfar
- Where: Luca
- Date: June 28, 2019
- Summary: Ivan gives Kaguya a recap about Lydia-related matters during the battle at Luca. Ironically, Lydia isn't actually in this log.
=========================<* 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.
Ivan makes his way back from the evacuation point, still limping slightly, and staring incredulously at the rising sun and the signs that, by all appearances, the conflict has already died out.
He was gone that long...? Honestly, he doesn't really know if he broke some kind of critically important rule of soldiering by not returning to the battle as soon as he was pulled out of the sea, although Lydia and her baseball bat seemed to feel he wasn't fit to continue fighting.
He still feels he was fit to continue fighting, which means he chose not to... and that definitely breaks some kind of rule, even if it's an Ivan rule and not a Guard one.
But it isn't desertion if you come back, right? He just needs to find the rest of the Guard, now...
DC: Kaguya Alathfar switches forms to Damsel of Distress Kaguya!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
Kaguya Alathfar, of course, had an entirely successful mission, and then needed to pilot her great Golem away from the city to an appropriate refueling and repair point. This was all fine, and good, and it's not like she was bothered at all by any stupid humans or their dumb, ridiculous, primitive, unpleasant, absurd, stupid feelings at all.
...There might be some mechanics who fled rather than try to see what was on her mind, though.
Now, though, she steps down the beach, having left the ship that brought her back in behind, scowling up at the city on fire in full battle uniform. And impressive it is; only lightly armored, she wears green, crisp attire loose enough for intricate movements and sudden strikes and holds, but bound closer to the center to avoid getting in her way. Wide sleeves, a pair of butterfly swords sharing a sheath on her hip, and... something concealed at the back of her belt, in a strange sheath. There's pouches to hide things in. There's boots interlaced with odd metal. And she's stomping her way down the beach until she looks up as, turning around a very large chunk of debris that was in her way, she sees--
Hmm.
Inanother moment she drops out of the sky beside him, sand splashing out with the force of her landing as she ends up in a crouch, turns to look at him. "You look like shit," she points out helpfully.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Aaah!" Ivan jumps in alarm as Kaguya flies in out of nowhere, and then coughs a little, because on top of everything, getting drenched tends to bring on a cold with him.
"Kaguya!"
It's unclear if he actually processes the words she said, because he goes right into trying to explain his absence:
"I know I've been missing -- I didn't mean to leave the fight, but I almost drowned, and then... And then Lydia happened." Hopefully Kaguya of all people might understand that, even if he didn't explain what he meant by it at all.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
'Aaah!'
Kaguya smiles, and reasons that at least today isn't all bad if she can at least spook a guy. It doesn't last, but it's at least a bright spot. Somehow she isn't soaked despite all that though, and instead she turns to look at him.... blankly, at first, and then tilts her head, and then--
"I didn't even know you were gone, dude. Totally different regiment. What, like you think they have me hunt out deserters?"
She shakes her head as if it's totally ridiculous. But in reality she's thinking about the last thing he said, because she totally understands what happens when Lydia hapepns even if she doesn't know the details.
"So like, I don't care about any of that bullshit except for the part where Lydia happened. What'd she do, find you and hit you with a baseball bat or something?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan deflates from his panic, at least, but also seems quietly offended that she had no idea he was gone, although he doesn't say or do anything about it except make kind of a face and probably internalize some unhealthy takeaway about how he shouldn't underestimate his insignificance within the Guard or whatever.
Except he can't actually let it pass because HOLY SHIT. HOW DOES SHE KNOW.
"You're sending really mixed messages between not knowing I was gone and then knowing exactly what happened while I was gone," he says.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
Totally a face! It's great. ...Kaguya obviously isn't just being nice when she points out, "After the wall broke I left to refuel. Until they invent a friggin' radio network that means I don't get a bunch of reports until I actually meet back up with people."
Pause. She looks at him--and laughs despite herself, even if he can tell it seems to sting her side some when she does, despite the fresh uniform. "Oh man, she really did?? That's so like her, amazing. What'd you do? Or did she just kinda feel like it? I haven't tried dating a boy since I was like twelve so maybe you're into that or something. Or did she get mad about the war thing? She might be mad about the war thing. She kinda doesn't like it very much."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan spares a glance down with a little frown when Kaguya's laugh puts a suspicious stitch in her side, but there's nothing to show any injury in her intact clothing; for all he knows, laughing is causing her pain from collapsing organs or something with the advanced state of her illness.
It's a grim thought... but meanwhile, he is being accused of weird things. "Into it!?" He brings his hand to the back of his head as if reliving it. "How can anyone be -- no!" He reddens, not helping his case, and coughs a few times again.
"She was saying she didn't think I'd survive if I went back to the fighting... and I disagreed, and I guess the bat was the tiebreaker."
An embarrassed scowl.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"Eh? I mean I didn't even consider Atida for a girlfriend until she threatened me. She was all 'tell me who you really are' all intense like. Took advantage of what she saw as a weak spot, real smart." Pause. "I mean she didn't actually hit me I guess but boys tend to be rougher so I mean, maybe?"
Kaguya shrugs. The truth is that no blood seeps through the wound so it may well be exactly what Ivan worries it is, illness rather than battle wounds,and there's no way to tell without asking. And well--is he really going to ask right now?
Pause. She leeaaans close, rising to the balls of her feet to get her eyes closer to Ivan's so she can stare a little.
"...You know I think you are kind of into it," she concludes, impressed by... something?? "But maybe she just hasn't gotten the balance right not to give you concussions yet."
Satisfied with her understanding of male/female courtship rituals, Kaguya thus rather smoothly says instead, "You're /lucky/ if you have someone who cares enough about your survival to go that far, you know. And like, what, you're going to be embarrassed being knocked out by Lydia when you've /seen/ the things she can do? C'mon. She's big, and strong, and adorable, she could take /most/ guys, even skilled guys."
"I mean she was probably being overprotective, yeah. But still! Think of it as a good thing."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"It-- I mean..." he sputters, a look of distress settling on his face. "It's not being hit with a bat specifically, that's a weird thing to-- but it does seem like she -- like you said, she's... I mean... it was actually really..." He folds his arms in front of himself and slouches like he's trying to shrink smaller, or perhaps contain something inside himself, unable or unwilling to put any of the keywords into the statements he's trying to make about Lydia and the Incident.
"Definitely at least one of those times she was actually saving my life so I guess I'd... like to repay her when I have a chance if you happen to know anything about... stuff she likes or anything like that."
Ivan is basically grimacing at his own words at this point, because what came out is both more and less than what he actually wanted to say.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"Right, it would be really weird for it to have to be a bat specifically," Kaguya agrees about as unhelpfully as unhelpful has ever been in its entire history as a word, but she does actually stop to listen when he gets smaller, when he seems to search or try to say something...
Because trolling is fun but if she scares him off too much she won't get to know what he's thinking.
"...Hmm," Kaguya says thoughtfully, with the air of one who has entered into a sacred conspiracy already. "Okay," she says simply. "That's cool, I can do that. I know of a few things I can show you later--textures i've seen her go for in clothes, patterns and colors and stuff. But that's all specific. What she really likes...?"
"The stars. And the things that'll take her there. If you find something related to old engines, to making vehicles--or if you aren't going practical, maybe even models of ships and stuff--that's the kind of thing she might appreciate."
Pause.
"I mean, I can think of a lot of other ways to repay her but you'd probably just, straight up die on the spot if I said them, so y'know. C'mon, this way." She starts forward without waiting for an answer.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Oh, right, machina ... that makes sense... but unfortunately, Ivan hasn't taken to that new brand of knowledge very well, and has only the dimmest sense of what it all is and how it works. He wonders if he would be able to find a suitable gift or would just end up presenting her with something useless or irrelevant...
But then Kaguya is leading him onward. And insinuating things. He starts following after her.
"I probably would, yes. ...But what ways? Uh, where are we going?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
A gentle, kind, empathic person might stop, and reassure Ivan--that the thought means a lot, that they could help him since it's their area of expertise, that Lydia would hardly expect him to be an expert, or even that learning a little might itself be good! There are lots of wonderful, helpful things that could be done in this very moment.
Unfortunately Kaguya Alathfar is a goblin who hasn't gotten nearly enough sleep and also is kind of a jerk, so none of that happens. Instead she just says, "So y'know, keep your eyes open dude. You might find some stuff! ...I mean, failing that, most girls like pretty rocks. I got Atida this great necklace I stole from somebody when I was robbing a train, and she loves it!"
Because that's Kaguya.
"It's fine. She might too." Beat, "We're going up here towards where they probably set up a command center, though it'll take a while, to see if they've set up an officers' tent with refreshments or something yet, and also so that I can get far enough from the sailors back there whining about 'this is their only boat' and 'you can't just rip off an exhaust pipe and hit someone with it' or some other stupid crap."
Pause. "Also to make sure you don't have a concussion. Save the fun times for outside the battle, soldier."
She isn't even pretending not to be making fun of him at that point.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Did I know you've done things like rob trains...?"
Admittedly, since revealing she was an alien with a death plague, Kaguya has reached a critical mass of 'I'd believe anything she told me about her backstory' at this point for Ivan.
Kaguya does not elaborate on the suggestion for things he could give Lydia that would make him die on the spot just to hear about. Th...that's fine, he didn't need to know. It's probably just the obvious innuendo anyway, but is any innuendo really obvious when it comes to someone who appears to be made mostly of metal...?
"What were you hitting people with exhaust pipes about...?"
Ivan feels constantly a step behind.
He slouches again at the dig about concussions.
"It wasn't fun times!"
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya Alathfar has posed.
"What, am I your brain holder? I dunno what you knew, man. But I happen to be an experienced woman in many fields." A beat, "It's more exciting than selling flowers was, anyway. Do you have any idea how many little old ladies have told me the same joke that the last one said not an hour ago? Uuuugh."
She stops, though. Just pauses, mid-step, and turns to wait for Ivan to catch up, lifting an eyebrow at him. She totally doesn't elaborate on what she would've said yet. Better to leave that lying in wait, for the worst moment. Definitely not to do because she has realized she needs to ask how Lydia feels about a few things with the whole metal thing or something. However...
"Look," Kaguya says. "Ivan. Buddy. You're a good warrior, and you're entertaining, and I think what we've got going here is great, but--"
"When a girl tells you that she hit someone with an exhaust pipe..."
Her expression is almost Lydia-like in that next instant, her eyes very large, "You don't ask why she was hitting them with an exhaust pipe!"
Then she smiles, and turns back around. "It's cool, practice makes perfect, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I don't think I knew about the selling flowers, either..."
Why would a noble need to sell flowers? Kaguya still has many mysteries. Somehow.
Ivan... was not aware of any ironclad rule of etiquette regarding girls and exhaust pipes. He accepts it, but not uncritically.
"For all I know, it's because you thought they liked it," he grumbles. Maybe that IS the reason he's not supposed to ask...