2019-07-15: From Ample Purpose To A Lack Of It
- Log: From Ample Purpose To A Lack Of It
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Leon Albus
- Where: Crusader Forward Base
- Date: July 15, 2019
- Summary: Josie drops in on Leon, who she hasn't seen in months. They both get up to speed -- him about goals, her about what she's been doing.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hey."
Wherever it is that Leon's gotten himself to at the forward base -- a different place now than it had been, just months ago -- he finds himself graced with the presence of someone who has been a bit of a rare presence of late.
She says it's because she's trying to find a way back. Because she's doing what she does best, and rattling around Spira's ruins. Spheres have been a bit of a lead on that end -- at least when it comes to locating ruins -- but none of her finds have born fruit.
She tosses something his way, with only the briefest of warnings.
"Catch."
It's a sphere. Theoretically, it should play back a video.
This one seems to be busted -- she hasn't been able to get it to work.
"Been a while, huh?"
Doing a rollup with one hand only semi-functional is difficult, but she manages. You learn how to manage, in time. With an arc of lightning she lights the end. "I can spot you tobacco but you're rolling your own."
She leans forward as if to inspect him a little more closely.
"How's it going?"
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon, for his part, has been working with the Al Bhed. He has no way back -- and unlike the first time they came here, the pressure he feels to find his way back is... loose. There is a directionlessness in his mind, and the best way to handle it is to ignore it and focus on something else.
Working with the remains of the Forward Base -- at this point, a salvage operation -- is one way to do that. He had stopped to take a break, sitting on a piece of rusted machina and looking at the ocean.
When he hears Josie's voice, he startles -- as much as he ever does -- and turns to her. The sphere is caught out of the air, and then looks down at it. "Josie," he says. "It has. I'd looked some... but I hadn't much luck."
She was either alive and busy, or dead and out of reach, he was forced to conclude. It didn't mean he liked it.
"I'll take it. The local tobacco isn't what I'm used to," he says. He can use his pipe. He looks her over, too; his outfit is the remains of his white shirt, trousers, and the rest, with some Spiran jacket thrown over it. A mishmash, if there was one.
"How have you been? Alive, I'm glad to see."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
She's made some contact with a few of the Wolves -- Elly, Fei, and Xantia specifically. But even then her contact had only been the intersection of 'eventually' and 'sparse'.
The difference between her and Leon -- one of the differences, there are many -- is that in this moment, despite her demeanor...
Her direction forward still shines as fixedly as the north star. But it's about as distant, and only growing ever more so the longer she remains on Lunar. Maybe that's one reason behind her restless wandering of late.
Fortunately for Leon, he's able to catch it.
"Maybe you can make heads or tails of that one," she says, settling down on the next best perch to where he sits. "I can't seem to get it to work. I was thinking about taking it apart, but I figure, whatever's in it is probably gonna play if it plays at all if it's in one piece." She slouches forward, draping her bad arm across her knees. "Damn shame. That thing cost me a pretty gella. Or gil, rather." She glances sidelong at him, and then, as if to complain to a friendly ear, "I was all set to close on a promising lot of spheres in Luca when the place got invaded, you know..."
She fumbles in a pocket before pulling out a small bag and tossing it over. "Not much left. Be a dear and try not to spill it? There's a lad."
Josie grins at him, lopsidedly. "Still alive, even if other people might wish otherwise. So, this how you're spending yourself these days? I did a turn with the Crusaders, you know."
Silence.
"...Before sticking it out became a little bit of a hazard. The pay any good for salvage? I'm running out of pocket money."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Hm--I'm not sure. Spheres don't seem to be... strictly mechanical, do they?" Leon turns it over in his hand. He gives it a shake, once; it works more often than he would care to admit. It doesn't, today.
"It sounds like you're finding a lot of useful things. Luca was bloody business." He looks across the beach. "So was this. I'm surprised you helped the Crusaders, but... I can't blame you."
He stayed out of it. One glimpse of Sin was enough to think it was a waste of lives. He knows better than to voice that, though, and here.
"The pay is all right. Especially from the Al Bhed," he says. "That's where I've focused my efforts. I've no reason to think Yevon's good graces will be particularly good, much less graceful. I hope, if we work with the Al Bhed, we can find a way home."
It is that and, certainly, not that he wants to help the ones that seem worst off in Spira.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Who knows. I heard they make the things out of some kind of special water, but..." Josie shrugs. "I guess you could pop it out of the frame, or whatever that is. I saw with some others you can look inside and it'll show you a scene. But this one doesn't seem to play anything back."
She shrugs, as if it were no big deal. "I ended up in Spira away from everyone else. You could say... I found myself a job?" Something about the timing and the broad broad grin suggest she may have taken... unusual steps towards her brief employment as a productive member of society.
But that smile fades. "Yeah. I saw what they did to the Crusaders. Threw 'em right under the runaway cart," she says, gesturing appropriately with her cigarette-laden hand. "It's not my problem who fights Sin or whatever, or the politics here, or anything, but..." She shrugs, then lifts her cigarette to her lips to take a thoughtful drag.
"Kiddo's with Yevon," she says at last. "Lunata," she adds by way of clarification.
Silence reigns afterwards. Josie continues a pensive smoke.
"So," she says at last, shattering her silence. "How are you doing?" she asks, again. "I mean, how are you really doing. You took Gryndille down."
In other words 'how do you feel now that it's done?'.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Hmm. That's a bother. I wonder how it works. If it's magic, or something special about the water or whatever compresses it..." Leon trails off, musing on it. Then, he glances back at her.There is a measured look. He can guess how she got a job; probably some trickery, of some sort.
Then, he nods his head once -- and then his brow furrows. "...You're quite right. It isn't our problem, beyond the way it can interfere with us. But... it pulls people in. Like Lunata."
He sighs. "I wondered about that. We should try to find her," he adds.
There is a pause, then. His brow furrows at her question, and he sighs.
"You aren't going to accept my answer, are you?" he asks. "Well... I don't rightly know. It feels like a victory, but... I'm not sure what comes next. It feels... odd. To go from ample purpose to a lack of it."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Who knows?" Josie pauses. "Probably the scholars, actually, but I don't care for those Guado. I tell you, I spent almost half my life in the Badlands and people were still more polite holding a gun to your head than those lot." She scowls, if briefly. "Well, either that one works or it doesn't. Keep it; it'd be a shame if all that gil went to nothing. Maybe you can hollow it out for something."
As for the source of the 'job', well...
The armor was a little tight, but the price was right.
Josie never kisses and tells.
(well, hardly ever...)
Josie just... sighs when he mentions Lunata. "Try Guadosalam. She's working for the Maester. Some bigwig, Seymour?" She waves a hand. "...But just so you know what you're dealing with..."
She glances away from him, out, off at the horizon.
"...It's gotta be rough for the kiddo. Stuck like that."
"That's probably why she wants to die." A bitter laugh, there. "Except, seems like life chewed her up and spit her out. She's not going out easy, looks like, no matter what she wants."
Josie leans forward, focused again on the horizon, smoking like the proverbial chimney. Her expression is hard to read from this angle.
Particularly when she asks her question and gets her answer.
"Hmm. Yeah." She leans back at last, her eyes hooded. "Figures it'd be something like that. When you're chasing something down so hard for so long, and then it's gone... then what, right?" She smiles, mirthlessly. "You almost want it back again, even if it was in your way. Yeah. I think I can get what that might be like." She glances over at him. "In my experience, either the universe'll drop something on your lap, or you'll figure it out. That, or you'll just drift aimless forever." She grins lopsidedly. "Hey, it can't all be a picker-upper."
Her gaze hoods, then. "How's your sword?"
She may have heard something about it.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"They remind me of some of the worst of the Aquvian merchants," Leon says. "The ones who were sure to remind us that they thought we were a backwater before selling us something at a ridiculous price." He sighs a little.
Then, he looks down -- and he nods. "It must be. It's not a thing I understand, to tell the truth. I'm as normal and sorcery-less as they come. And she... well, she is in a bad way, to say the least."
He frowns, a little.
Then, he glances sideways at her. He shifts his posture -- then frowns. "I've thought it. There are, of course, things to do... but revenge on that thing was so bloody easy. Finding where Lily's father ran to, chasing down the dangers of the world, finding out what is happening with Fei..."
He shakes his head. "...It is complicated, I suppose, in a way that Gryndille never was. Except... even that was, in the end." He sighs. "The way the thing responded to Lily, like she was its mother..."
Leon pauses for a moment more.
Then, he frowns. "Shattered. By Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus," he says. "There is that, too -- that bastard, and his Odessa. That is also... complicated."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie seems to mull this one over for a moment. "Yeah. Seems about the same style, eh? Almost makes you wonder if they and them have an ancestor in common."
Which would be silly, on several fronts. But, who knows...
"Yeah. She said it was some Guardian-born curse. ...I ain't the most devout person around, and Ge Ramda's not your usual friendly old Guardian, but something about it seems fishy." She shrugs, sighing. "Still. If that's what the kiddo's set out to do, then that's that. I'm not going to tell her how to live her life."
She grimaces, shortly after saying that.
"...Still doesn't mean I like it, mind."
There's something of a smile at least when he says that he's found a way in life. "See? There you go. I'll add my chips into the pile: I'd like to find out more about these tiles, and why you kids can read them."
Her hand holding the cigarette drapes across her lap. "But it's like this, kid. I hit a point in my life where I thought I had what I wanted... but I wasn't happy. I was just... existing."
She shakes her head. "Then my sister died." Her gaze darkens, dips downwards to the ground. "Don't get me wrong. Every Guardians-damned day I wish she were alive again. But..." She lifts her head, glances over at him. "It's like that." She gestures with her right hand as if to stiffly toss ash into the wind. "One day, your entire world falls apart and you pick up what's left and start over. Doesn't matter what it is that you pick up, as long as you pick it up and get up. And me, I want to figure out what I got that got her killed..."
Shattered, he says. She nods, as if it were an expected answer. "Yeah... Damn shame. They don't just make 'em like that anymore." She stiffly taps the forefinger of her right hand against the side of her knee. "Tell you what. If you've got the parts, I can take a shot at fixing up the ARM. Even if all you've got is a pile of scrap." She pauses. "Well, once we're back in Filgaia, that is. I could go scavenging in the Thunder Plains but I otherwise don't have two gears to rub together."
Only to shake her head. "Can't do anything with a blade, though. I ain't a blacksmith."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Could be. I've never seen a Beastman like the Guado, though," Leon says. And, granted, they might be offended at calling them Beastmen. He sighs, then.
"It's the truth. We've no business telling her what to do. I hope that her being with yevon won't turn sour, though," he says. "But... I don't think it's wise for me -- for us -- to get mixed up with a Maester."
Not, he thinks, when he has aligned with the Al Bhed.
He falls quiet, though, when she explains. The difference in their age is something Leon forgets, at times -- the self-importance of being young but older than his years might imply. He looks down, though, at the mention of Josie's sister. Her father's words come back to him.
"Well... I think it's best we keep looking for those tiles. And the rest," he says. "There are mysteries -- like that we can read them. Things we should find answers for."
He glances back at her -- then he shakes his head. "I dropped it, after Rhadamanthus laid me low. The pieces didn't come with us. Argent Divider's probably scattered to the winds, by now."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Yeah. I'm leaving well enough alone. My aim's to get back home, not get mixed up in all this," she gestures vaguely, "more than I need to. Still. If the Al Bhed are paying, I'm listening. I was thinking about taking up Fiend hunting or something, but it'd be a better deal to stick close to civilized territory. Too long afield and you lose track of what's going on out there." She sighs. "Maybe I wouldn't have gotten flatfooted by the Guard or nothing if I'd been paying attention. What a pain in the neck..."
Her father hadn't even seemed to care he was down one daughter.
"Yeah. I figure we've got a bette chance of that together, right? You two, Junior, Red, Sparky... and don't forget Sunshine and her lot. Heh. We're really a rag-tag band, ain't we? An archaeologist, a couple ex-soldiers, a defector from Solaris, a mystery kid with a mystery Gear, the strongest little lady I ever did see, a couple of metal demons, an amorphous little girl, and, let's not forget, our wayward undead waitress and her best friend engineer." She pauses. "Did I forget anyone?"
This is the moment when Penelope, from nowhere, alights atop her head.
"Aha. Guess so," Josie remarks, taking another long drag.
"Tch, it'll be long gone," Josie hisses. "More's the pity. Tell you what..."
The cigarette rests a moment in her mouth, held precariously between her teeth. She fumbles a moment at her waist, finally freeing the short sword that had been slung there. This she tosses his way, the third object she's thrown at him this evening. "Consider it the will of the Crusaders, or something. I ain't got business waving that around, but maybe you might. It's not as long as you're used to, but it should do."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm. I think it's hard to not get mixed up in it -- especially with the only real city in the hands of a force we should probably consider hostile," Leon sighs. He has little desire to try his luck with the Guard. He shakes his head, and then looks up. There is a slight smile.
"We're a strange band," he agrees. "But it's ours. I intend to see us back to Filgaia. And until then... well, the Al Bhed are paying. I am trying to set a meeting up with their leader--we can't risk going to their headquarters, but we can meet them at sea."
Then, he blinks. He catches the sword tosses; Leon takes it, then he buckles the sheathed blade onto his waist. "Well, if you're offering, far be it from me to turn you down. It's better than nothing."
It matches, he supposes, his new weapon: an Al Bhed shotgun, which he did a few modifications to (and named Diplomacy, because Leon is like that). It sits sheathed on his left, opposite his new sword.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"I'm getting that feeling, Lion," Josie laments to the world at large, gesturing off at the horizon with cigarette. "Seems like it's war and war, no matter where the hell we go. At times like this..." She glances sidelong at Leon, thinks perhaps the better of what she had been about to say, and shakes her head.
"Never mind."
But she does grin, when the topic tilts on back towards their group and their goal. "See? That's the kid I know," she says, slinging her long legs out before where she's perched. "By hook or by crook, then. First things first, I'm getting a little more coin in my pocket, and then I'm going hunting. I think these spheres are going to be the key, but if I'm gonna get my hands on the ones that matter, I'm going to need more money. And if that means working for the Al Bhed, then, their wish is my command. Count me in on that meeting if they want something face-to-face."
She shrugs. "Way I figure, you probably have a backup sword or something, but there's nothing wrong with going for broke. And it's a pretty good edge even if it's a shortie." She leans back and taps her hip pointedly where the skirt mostly covers with her right hand. "Me, I'm sticking with what I know best, and then some."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon tilts his head to the side -- curious about what she seems ready to say, but he respects her decision to not say so. He certainly has things he would rather not be pressed on. "True enough," he says. "It seems to be the way of things."
Then, he considers for a moment, and nods. "Well, I'll leave you to it. I can keep the negotiations with the Al Bhed going, then send a message when we have more jobs -- or talk to you when you check in. That work might pay better than salvage or hunting spheres."
Then, he nods, with a slight smile. "I do. But none I'm that attached to, yet. I'll give this one a shot. ARMs, for you, then?" he asks. "Have a look at the Al Bhed ones, when you have a chance. They're fascinating."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It may be something that for current company is better not said.
"Heh. Sounds like a plan," she agrees, tipping her cigarette his way as if it were a hat. "Yeah. Sphere-hunting's great if you can find a good one. But it's feast or famine, and I'm way past my prime for famine again," she quips. "This place is too nice to be living on a belly full of dust in. At least out in Aveh, I could blame the desert."
She sighs, settling back where she's seated.
"Of course," she says, winking at him. "And a spell or two, if I must. It's been a real strain watching what I'm doing around these parts. That was one of the perks of playing Crusader, I tell you... I hear these Al Bhed are just fine with ARMs, which puts them in my good book already."
That has her attention.
"Oh really? I think I will. So far I've just been picking scrap from the Thunder Plains -- it'll be good to get my hands on some real parts again."
Though her smile takes on a bittersweet cast.
"But I suppose they won't trade for free. I'll have to get my pay before I can go shopping, won't I? Well, so be it. Back to work I go~"
She is, at least, in good spirits, it seems.