2019-07-10: Cold Comfort
- Log: Cold Comfort
- Cast: Lunata Croze, Shalune Amira, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Thunder Plains
- Date: July 10, 2019
- Summary: Shalune and Lunata talk with Josie, variously, about the Nostos Cannon, Big Shal, and Lunata's condition. Josie weighs in with her two Gella.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata and Shalune were staying at the Thunder Plains' travel agency in search of the outbreak of Giants, and met Josie there. Curiously, all three people wound up not going to said scene where that issue was resolved!! Oh well. Perhaps power generators were involved.
But Lunata is handling laundry as she promised to the inhabitants, and is currently working in the drying room as she pins up bedsheets and pillowcases and all sorts of other inn staples.
It's rather a familiar old hand of work for her, isn't it, as a waitress?
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune is... ... helping to give Lunata something to do? That's the sheepish way she'd try to get away with so many repeated trips out to the lightning rods around the region. It's not like she's willing to touch the war, and she's not all that great at looking after refugees, so she sort of sees it as the best way she can help out at the moment - at least until she can contact the Al Bhed for more permanent repairs.
She may also be considering the internals with a goal of coming up with an idea for a lightning cannon, but inspiration has yet to seriously strike on that front. She's happy enough to give it time until she trips over a breakthrough accidentally.
She is at least making sure to take care of herself, though - every time she returns she's quick to change and warm back up, bundling up regularly. Thus far, she's managed to avoid catching a cold, which might just be down to her remarkably robust constitution. Currently shaped like a pile of blankets, she watches Lunata work as she provides background chatter.
"--so that's how I learned Big Shal wasn't originally Big Shal," she puffs up with a rare jealousy. "At least the other lady seemed happy to go along with her choices, though."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie had her reasons for missing the big how-you-do, which she is keeping close to her chest.
It might have involved a certain N_ST_S C_NN_N. If she'd thought doing ARMs work out on Ignas could sometimes be a pain and a half in some quarters -- or for that matter, keeping certain things clear of the natives of Meribus/Glenwood was tricky doing -- that's nothing compared to the people around here.
But Josie (sometimes) picks her fights more carefully. No sense in stirring up the hive if you don't have a pond to leap into.
She's currently splayed out in a seat in the laundry room, investigating a sphere she's holding in her one good hand more closely.
For various reasons, Penelope has been Banished from the laundry room and is not here. Every so often there is a mournful scratching from another room...
Josie looks up from her sphere. "Pretty interesting, kiddo. So, what, are you gonna call Big Shal by a new name? Or does she like Big Shal better?"
Josie: clearly here with the priorities.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
To be honest, being around the Nostos Cannon has definitely led to at least one sequence where--
THEN
"What do you mean I can't take the Rephaim's beam rifle and carry it?" Lunata asks. "Just like Josie, you know!"
Franz the Dolphin stares at her blankly, then looks to the rifle on the Gear-sized rack beside them.
"The trigger's bigger than you, Lunata."
NOW
"Wish you were around for Luca," Lunata mumbles sourly. "I was trying my hardest to call the Rephaim but I guess even Gears can't just hop over to Lunar when they're convenient."
She tilts her head as she thinks of the story Shalune told her.
"I'd... be careful? One person might be OK with it, but it's the kind of thing that leaks out and maybe another Veruni is not so OK with it," Lunata remarks.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Mmm..." she stretches her arms out as she thinks, then burrows back into her pile, picking at her still-damp hair as she glances at Josie. "I dunno. 'Prometheus' is a pretty cool name, I admit, but Miss Rohay seemed really taken with 'Big Shal' too - and honestly, she kind of insisted that she didn't want to steal Big Shal away or anything. In the end, I guess it's up to Big Shal herself," she sums up brightly, obviously full of trust for the golem.
"And-- yeah, I get your point. Still, something felt really odd," she adds as she quite literally rolls a little in Lunata's direction, upside-down when she continues. "I mean, she was a prisoner with a minder, and she really didn't seem to care all that much about what the other Veruni were doing."
Shalune did try to help design a harness for the beam rifle, but there's only so much you can do when the weapon's height is more than twice that of Lunata's, and eventually she had to give up on the idea. Miniaturization did cross her mind - a fancier version of her shotstaff - but... ... well, Shalune didn't have the heart to point out that Lunata would still need to be able to aim to use it properly.
"If it could, we'd have had a whole lot less problems when we were stuck near Meridia," she points out to the other girl, scratching at her cheek as she studies the ex-waitress. "... how are you feeling? You didn't get too hurt or anything, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"What, do you mean the cannon? I've been keeping it stashed out around here. It's a pretty good hiding spot. Keeping it covered around these people is just asking for all sorts of grief." She raises the sphere up into the light. "And I'm not interested in burning bridges if I can't get off, if you know what I mean."
The sphere presents no further insight, in the meantime.
"'Prometheus,' huh? Not bad. I think Big Shal rolls off the tongue better, though," says the woman who named her cannon Nostos. "Heh. It's sort of a trip, listening to you. Both of you, really. I can't say I've ever had an ARM with a mind of its own..."
The discussion of the Veruni woman -- who Josie hasn't met (has she ever even met a Veruni actually) -- she allows to roll and rest by the wayside, apparently taking the moment to continue her investigation of her sphere. "Mm... tricky bastard, ain't you..." she mutters at the item, continuing to fidget with it.
Her gaze only lifts when Shalune asks after Lunata's wellbeing, her gaze heavy-lidded as she removes her immediate attention from her prize.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... Prometheus, huh," Lunata basically has the same response as Josephine. She frowns for a bit. "Did she say anything about what Big Shal used to do? Or was she tight-lipped about that? It's-- you know--"
A pause as she tilts her head. "It's not like I distrust Big Shal, but it'd be nice to know what she was meant for. Make sure you know what you're in for..."
Lunata's face falls just for a bit as she says, "Hard to imagine the Nostos doesn't have a mind of its own, given where it came from."
Completely missing Shalune's thoughts about how terrible her aim is, she scratches her head and says, "... Jay's reverse potion worked for now. Leave it to her to basically dabble in necromancy via alchemy? It's probably better I don't think about it too hard..."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune peeks out of her bundle to grimace at Josie's comment. "Ehhh... tell me you've got it securely covered, at least. I don't wanna know what water damage down the barrel would do to something like that. I mean, I get why you're hiding it, but an incredibly damp cave seems kinda rough on the poor thing. You could wheel it into the forest, at least."
It seems like Memory Sphere are one of the things that Shalune won't take apart, because even she has to draw a line somewhere and stepping on people's memories is apparently her line. "Well, a 'golem' isn't really an ARM. You don't attune with them per se - rather, you program them with behaviours and rules and inputs and then let them go," she notes brightly, which doesn't do anything at all to explain why Big Shal is so very... Big Shal.
"I, uh, I didn't exactly get much of a chance to ask yet. Mostly just 'being carried around', so far. Maybe I'll try to find her and ask - but I'll be careful, I promise."
Speaking of being careful, she chews at her lip as she continues to size Lunata's health up, then slowly nods. "Okay. That's good. I mean-- I think. Jay'd be the cuddliest necromancer ever, right?..." she trails off, but it's not hard to read her face. Rather than your average health problems, Shalune has rather more unorthodox worries when it comes to Lunata, like imagining her stuck underwater without legs or something.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"What do you think I am, a monster?" Josie says to Shalune, vaguely affronted. "If I can get it through the Thunder Plains without getting shocked to death I'll consider moving it north. But otherwise... not happening."
Not yet, anyway.
Perhaps it might be some relief, by contrast, that Josie hasn't worked out how to take apart a memory sphere -- or spheres in general -- yet.
"Yes, yes. I'm well aware of the semantics, Lunie," she says, still fiddling with the sphere she has in her left hand. "That's not the point. What I mean is, they're both ancient machines -- the Rephaim and Big Shal. And they both have a 'will' of their own."
Her gaze does part from the sphere, though, when Lunata mentions the source of the cannon.
"Could be."
Dark eyes gaze at the sphere in her hand.
"Heh heh. Wouldn't that be interesting if it did? ...Though I don't think Tiger or Lion'd like it all that much. Tell you what, if it does live on through that arm somehow, we'll just keep it our little secret."
She allows the chatter -- of Lunata's injuries, of the potion Jay brewed, and of what that means for Jay's... inclinations -- to drift about her.
Look at her closely, though -- or look into the reflection of her face on the sphere.
Josie's expression is a dark one.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... ... well I don't!" Lunata answers as the token ARM-deficient compared to Josie, archaeologist who built a cannon out of an ancient murder machine and Shalune, who is Shalune. "I thought I was starting to know what an ARM was and now you tell me Big Shal isn't one," she grumps.
She rubs for a moment and-- quietly lowers her head for a moment longer. "... sorry about earlier, by the way. I kind of lost my head."
She shuffles for a moment and gets back to laundry for a moment, opposite Josie staring at the sphere.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune counters Josie's grump with a grump of her own. "All I'm saying is that you're a little more-- rough and ready with machines than I am!" she defends, burrowing back into her bundle a little as if to emphasize the point. "It's my job as a mechanic to just pinpoint this sorta stuff, even if you've already made allowances for it!"
She peeks back out to grin sheepishly in Lunata's direction. "A-aw, well-- okay, so, take my pot and Big Shal. I can make my pot start up by thinking, because I've attuned to it - that's an ARM. But I can't make Big Shal do stuff just by thinking hard. She acts how she thinks is best. So she's a golem. ... mostly. Probably, there's a lot of stuff that breaks those rules," she adds as she rubs at her hair. "Cuz ancient tech sucks like that."
She falls silent for a long moment, chewing at her lip some more as the pause grows more pregnant. "... the Guardians dumped Lunie into a crappy position," she mutters, a tentative opener to the subject.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"If it breaks, I'll fix it then," Josie says, nonchalant about the subject as ever. "But, listen, it's held up fine being part of a giant killing machine for thousands of years." Never mind that she and Shalune seriously stripped and rebuilt it from such a state. Or that Gryndille got maintenance on the regular. "Even if it does get a little bit wet, I think it'll survive."
A small chuckle slips her lips as she listens in on Shalune explain the difference to Lunata, but she otherwise doesn't interject.
Doesn't say much at all for a bit, in fact.
Until Shalune mutters aloud about the elephant in the room.
"So, is that Gear powered by the Guardians?" Josie asks. "Seems like I've been out of the loop on that one. I've got to say, I've been a worshipper for ages and no one ever told me anything like that was kicking around."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... most ARMs don't just do things by you thinking hard! That's just your pot being weird!" Lunata complains. "I'm pretty sure most Drifters' swords and guns still require, you know, swinging and shooting." Her face flops for a moment. "ARMs are dumb."She puts her hands into her pockets as Shalune comments on the Guardians, then Josie asks a question.
"... it's kinda weird that we've known Josie this long and it's never realy come up. But yeah -- in a manner of speaking," Lunata answers. She concentrates, and that very familiar katana, the Orochi-Agito, appears in her hand.
"See that, on its hilt? That's a Medium of Ge Ramtos'... I think. It's one of those weird... artificial ones. This girl called Avril knows a lot about them. But-- that's the key to the Rephaim, like its..."
A pause.
"Like its ignition key? It sounds a lot lamer when I put it that way..."
Somewhere, somewhen, sometimeline, the Ice Queen is ranting about how one of her beloved Originals got turned into CAR KEYS--
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"That's what I'm saying! A little maintenance now prevents a lot of maintenance later!" blurts Shalune, but even she can realize when she's fighting a losing battle as she starts to pout. "I suppose you're right, but even so. I hate not knowing if a given bit of ancient machinery is waterproof or not," she grumbles.
She sulks even more at Lunata's comment that ARMs are dumb, sticking out her bottom lip in an exaggerated fashion - but grins lightly a moment later, scratching at her cheek. "I mean, you're right. On pretty much all counts. But some of them do fancier stuff sometimes, at least," she shrugs, which because of her position just becomes kind of a wriggle.
"... honestly, um, it's kind of hard to know where to start with it all," she agrees with the ex-waitress, scratching at her cheek. "We've gotten kind of scarily used to it, I think..."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Depends on the ARM, honestly," Josie pipes up from her corner of the room. "Generally speaking, the older they are, the weirder they get, and the less I can tell you about why they're doing what they're doing. We got lucky with Gryndille -- it was one of the more straightforward ones I've seen lately. Between things that can send you to the moon, or guns that let you step from space to space..." Josie shrugs, an impressive feat in her chair.
But she slides upright in her seat, and ultimately leaves it behind when she gets up to take a closer look at the mark on the hilt of the katana.
"Huh."
More visible at this angle and in her current attire is the single wooden bead that hangs on a cord around her neck. It has a few faint carvings on it. It would normally be with a whole group of them: Guardist prayer beads.
Then: "Can't say I'm familiar. With Mediums or Ge Ramtos, that is. ...The Death Guardian's never been the most popular one around, you know what I mean? Still, I always figured it was interested in keeping the dead dead, not..."
She gestures. Grimaces, yes, but gestures vaguely in Lunata's direction.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... ... you had some experience with Lydia's pistols, huh," Lunata sounds nonplussed, like maybe she's been the victim of a prank or somesuch. She tilts her head for just a moment as she closes her eyes and remarks, "Well, to start..."
She closes her eyes.
"As far as I know, a long long time ago, a bunch of people did something horrible that made Ge Ramtos really mad. And the Rephaim ended up being..."
A quiet frown.
"A trap, basically. A trap that deals in people's wishes to avoid death and then punishes them for it. And back when we were fighting Berserk, Josie... well. You know that story."
She furrows her brow further.
"... I worshipped Zeldukes all my life, but... it is not as if I thought the Guardians were 'good' or 'evil' -- they are forces of nature. Their morality's... rather different, don't you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune glances towards Josie's explanation; the age of ARMs makes a lot of difference in how they function. The mechanic, still technically the one in control of Diablo, knows that very very well. "The Elw sucked at maintaining their stuff," she declares, solemn and utterly certain of herself.
The pink-haired girl doesn't need a look at the Orochi-Agito; she's seen it often enough, and though she doesn't exactly harbour ill will towards it it is at least a reminder of the situation that Lunata's in - and the way in which she's going to have to deal with it from her point of view soon enough.
"Yeah, but-- that's kind of cold comfort right about now," she mutters back to Lunata, frowning to herself as she sinks her head back down to the pillow she's been resting on. "I mean. I get it, but at the same time, all of what's happened to you is a pretty harsh lesson to give to someone who just wanted her mom to stay alive."
She chews at her lip a little longer, then shivers a little before she continues. "So now, Lunie's-- stuck. And not a good sort of stuck," she adds, glancing at the aforementioned as she tries to figure out how much she should say.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie does know the rest of the story, yes. It's somewhere after that point that she stepped in.
"Don't I know it. You might as well ask the wind why it's knocked down your laundry," she comments, shaking her head. "Still. It's one thing to ask 'why did they have to die', and it's another to act like..." She grimaces.
"Kind of like the Granas tradition, yeah? They weren't a big fixture in Krosse, growing up. But I ran into them once I left home, now and then. 'God will punish you for this and that', and so on."
She shakes her head. "Maybe it's different with the Death Guardian. Maybe it's into that kind of thing. I don't know. I've heard sailors say that you can make the Sea Guardian upset by taking a leak into the drink, but I don't think that amounts to her sinking your ship, y'know?"
She turns away, walking back to her seat.
"Maybe a Shaman'd have a better idea of it. I dunno."
She picks up her sphere to look at it, to again stare into its depths as if it could give her an answer. "Just seems off, to me. Even Granas practices forgiveness for a sin instead of eternal punishment..."
She shakes her head.
"But I'm guessing you've already tried, yeah? Which is why you're planning on another way out," she says, without glancing back over her shoulder. "Wish I had a better answer for you. It's a bum rap."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... ... to be quite honest, if I'd just died that day? I would have been fine with that," Lunata full admits as she quietly reaches for Shalune and holds her hand for a moment. Maybe for herself, maybe for the other Lunie, who she knows has to deal with a lot of this.
"I mean -- the chance to give your own life for another's not something everyone gets. I wanted my mother to live. I don't regret that."
She turns her head away again and...
"... I heard I was taken by mom from a Baskar village in Aquvy when I was a baby," she also shares, since she -- hasn't actually shared this all that much. She's not even sure if Shalune knows. "... mom's terribly quiet about it. If we ever get back to Filgaia, that'd be one thing to ask about."
It very well could be a Baskar village of Ge Ramtos, fate knowing.
"But... yeah. That's why I joined Yevon. Because I figured they might know something... but we haven't found anything since. Still... it's better than stewing as I was. You saw how angry I got, Josie."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Reaching for Lunata's hand, Shalune grasps onto it, her usual enthusiasm understandably muted; she picks at her hair with her free hand, but only gives herself a single quiet sigh before she firms up her expression and faces forwards. ... just in time to cross her eyes at some of Josie's stories of Guardian worship.
Leaving that aside she hums a little, and then frowns. "Granas was all about how you lived your life, I guess. Lots of little rules to follow, except you could ask for forgiveness afterwards and it'd kinda all be okay. I never quite got that part," she admits softly, never exactly sure of herself when it comes to the more rhetorical questions.
"When we heard about the 'Unsent', it was kind of a natural match to Lunie's situation. Besides, Maester Seymour helped us out a town when we first got here - we kinda landed in the middle of a town, and we'd have been in real trouble if he didn't take us aside and listen to our story. So I guess... it just seemed right to go from there," Shalune admits.
She hesitates a little to let Lunata speak, chewing again at her lip. She'd heard as much from Mrs. Croze - and to be honest, had already considered heading in that direction once she had a chance. Whether Lunata was with her then or not.
"As for me and Jay-- we all managed to clear the air around us a little, recently. Finally spoke our feelings a bit, and I promised I'd have Lunie's back. Whatever happened. I won't say it's not tough at times, but-- I don't want her trapped either."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Your mom found you, huh." Josie seems to chew on this for a moment or two. "Could be. Things sometimes turn out that way, you know? I think we make our own paths in live, but damned if sometimes there ain't a rut in the road already."
She gazes in silence for a moment towards the ceiling, as if lost in some private moment of her own.
"Yeah," Josie agrees at length, ducking her head in a nod when Shalune chimes in. "Things like that. Even Nisan Orthodoxy's less complicated."
She lets the topic slide to the wayside.
"Yeah. I figured it might be something like that. Once I heard about the Unsent -- and what she tried -- it clicked into place, you know? I can't say it's an answer I like," she says, looking back at the both of them over her shoulder. "But it's your answer, and that's what's important. In the end... you gotta make your own way, and if that way leads to an end, then that's that."
She takes a seat, resting the sphere in her lap.
"Just make sure, whatever you do, that it's without any regrets, OK?"
And Josie manages a somewhat bittersweet, lopsided smile.