2019-07-20: The Seedy Underbelly of Guadosalam

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<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

The Black Wolves have, by and large, laid low and stayed to their own devices while in Spira. Some helped the Crusaders; some helped the Outreach. After the war started, Lily went about helping with that, while Leon worked on forming a relationship with the Al Bhed. Which leads to now: a seedy little bar in the underbelly of Guadosalam.

The 'underbelly,' as it happens, is one of the few buildings near the surface. This bar is popular with the very small immigrant community of humans, who try to stay closer to where sunlight can be found. Most of the come and go, seasonally.

Leon has gotten a table for the Wolves in the back. He has his white button-up shirt on, sleeves rolled up, and Spiran trousers. Some leather armor is now worn over it, and he has a short sword buckled at his side. The Al Bhed machina pistol is buckled at his other side.

He has a glass, and is lifting it and inspecting the drink inside. "I am not," he confesses, "entirely trustful of this whiskey."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied has largely... taken a different path to the rest of the Wolves, instead largely remaining with her family in the Wayside Outreach. That isn't to say she isn't worried about the Black Wolves, who she views /as/ family, of course -- but knowing nothing about what they're up to, and being about a fraction as good at stealth and subterfuge as the next potato over...

... she's not /quite/ with them yet but very nearby, as in, literally outside the window of the table they're at.

Riesenlied has been struggling with a great many things. The loss of Siegfried and K.K. still has shaken her and she hasn't ever quite recovered from that. She hasn't really dealt with her fear of Sin and what that means to an empath when a thousand souls are swallowed in the wake of its Giga-Graviton wave. She hasn't really dealt with what is happening with the Guard and their anger, and the struggles the Kilikans have had.

... today's struggle, though, is a lot more mundane--

"U-uuuh...!"

Because Riesenlied is very much struggling to get up the ramp to where the tavern at the surface is and finding that Guadosalam's very rooty, bumpy surfaces are NG for a wheelchair.

The Hyadean goes up, up, up...

"N-nooo..."

... and down again she goes, panting for air.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Frankly, Lily Keil could've passed a lot more time dealing with machines, working on salvage, handling fiends. It was something like a vacation, in its way. ...But that was not meant to be. Things went a bit more pear-shaped than that.

Regardless this is what sees her in the same bar, sitting with Leon, dressed for travel well enough but not really in /armor/. She has a sword on, she has her hair down, a red overlayer. And now--

Now she tips back her own glass and downs the rest in a go.

"That's what whiskey's for," she points out after a moment, feeling the burn of the... very... suspect drink. "You don't have to trust it. You just have to let it kill anything it touches on its way down."

Luckily she asked for an extra in advance. She knows what she's about.

...And she is suddenly glad of the fact that she /has/ had that drink as she looks out the window and--

"..."

"...Maybe if we gave her treads instead of wheels. We could put some spikes on them for traction..."

Someone will beat her to helping, which she /would/ do, theoretically... but first she lifts the glass to Riesenlied outside and finishes it.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly van Houten has built her own set of connections, much as she has rebuilt her brain, her style, her way of thinking, of fighting. Her way of relating to the world around her. (Mostly being aware that water contains many beautiful and delicious animals.)

She has even made someone who she considers a friend... someone to whom she has, indirectly, offered aid, assistance, succor in the face of an invasion from another place across the sea. She has empathy for that, helped along by being butt-whooped by the sister of a guy who she had trusted and respected, and who - to Elly's view, biased though it may be - basically said 'btw all of that doesn't count if my sister wants to murder you'.

(DISS!)

Anyway: Elly has already been here, and was in the washroom briefly. She returns, revealing what she is wearing - which is a long cloth wrapped round the breasts and held in front with a polished shell pin, along with a pair of reasonably close-fitting work pants. She looks like most random laborwomen around Spira, other than being a lot fairer. But this is inside, so, no sun hat.

Elly approaches where she had been sitting - perhaps eager to try another kind of beer - when she hears a familiar clunk.

"Oh! Oh goodness. Riesenlied!" she calls through the window. "Just hold on a moment..."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

If it's a bar, then that's where one Josephine Lovelace will be. End of story. Elbows on the table, she leans forward, setting down her drink.

"Tastes fine. Don't be a baby, they're not about to poison a potential repeat customer."

Josephine, who drinks what can be /politely/ called rotgut on the regular, perhaps shouldn't be trusted in this.

"What do you think of this one?" she asks, reaching into the bag at her hip and plunking down another sphere. "This one's got a recording in it. Doesn't look like it's from anywhere familiar. Somewhere with a big ol' bridge?"

She straightens, then, glancing out the window.

"...Y'know, this ain't exactly the best place for one of those. Maybe we should just get a harness and carry her around one someone's back."

There is a moment of silence as she considers the table before her. Josie taps her fingers on the table agitatedly.

"Maybe we could hire one of those Ronso guys to carry her around..."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei is honestly surprised that there even is a seedy underbelly of Guadosalam since honestly the place kinda looks like there's too many branches up folks you know that it sort of beggers beleaf that places like this must exist. But perhaps there are seedy underbellies everywhere, really, if you just know where to look.

Fei sits himself down at the table and is examining his own mug of water. "I am not," Fei confesses. "Entirely trustful of this water."

He has a sip anyway, eyes glancing towards that machina pistol Leon is carrying. "I get this isn't exactly the upright part of town," He says. "But is it a good idea to carry that openly while the church is blaming the Al Bhed for eerything?" Of course it does seem like Yevon's on the back foot so they may have bigger concerns than a single pistol. "Especially with all these mysterious reports of Al Bhed trying to kidnap summoners for some reason."

He manages to keep his expression deadpan as he says that before he looks towards the yadean who seems to be having trouble getting up. He starts to stand but sees Elly is on it. He elects to let Elly help. It's good to keep her body at work right now to make sure all that therapy is settling in.

He laughs a bit at Josie's comment of everyone just carrying Riesenlied around on a harness then pauses.

"Er, you are joking right?"

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

After getting separated in the wake of the attack on Luca, it sure is nice to have so many of the Wolves together in one place again! It took Xantia a while to get here - she only managed to make it here at all due to the good fortune of running into Fei after getting herself lost in the woods. Even if the city itself isn't exactly high on her list of favorite places to be, she can't complain too much about any place as long as she's in the company of so many friends!

...Besides, the amount of places on Spira she can go to without a high risk of open hostility seems to be getting smaller all the time. She'll take what she can get in that regard.

Though still wearing the now battle-damaged armor that caused her to be mistaken for a Crusader, that charade is long over by now. Helping out the people of Spira while under something that could pass for cover was nice while it lasted, but after everything that happened... well, as she's already shared with Lily in private, Xantia really just wants to go home at this point.

Yet as is often the case, outwardly she seems as cheerful as always, humming to herself as she approaches the bar where the Black Wolves meeting is supposed to take place. "Hi Riese!" she greets as she strolls right by the struggling Hyadean. Wow, cold.

Actually, she just didn't notice Riesenlied's plight right away, and doubles back in short order when the wheelchair slides back down. "Hm? Oh, are you having trouble? Here, let me help!" With that, she takes position behind Riesenlied, and...

...wraps her arms around it, just lifting up the whole chair. Pushing would probably make more sense to most people, but this isn't really a whole lot of extra effort to Xantia, so why not just carry the whole thing into the bar? Don't need to be a Ronso for that!

"Hi everyone, we're here~" she announces, not planning on setting Riese down until reaching the Wolves' table.

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"Ah, right. The antiseptic quality of spirits," Leon says to Lily, and then glances at Josie. "I suppose so. But, perhaps, they wait until they see who builds an immunity."

Leon's upper class sensibilities may be showing. He sighs -- and glances out the window. His eyes widen for a moment. "Bloody hell, we should--" He sees Elly moving to help her, and then stands up. "Capital idea, Josie. We'll have to put out a flyer."

Then, he glances at Fei. He hesitates for a moment, then shrugs. "Well, if they complain, I could shoot them, right? If it helps, I cover it if we go to some place respectable."

He walks to the door, ready to help Elly out with getting Riesenlied inside. Leon pauses, though, as he sees Xantia carrying Riesenlied. There is only a moment, before he looks back at Josie and says:

"Cancel the flyers, we have someone better than a Ronso." He nods at Xantia. "Well done, Xantia."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"H-hello, Xantia!" Riesenlied stammers as the girl passes by, before she doubles back and offers assistance. She also hears, as she looks to the distance, Elly as she waves towards the woman before a yelp overtakes her as Xantia lifts her up like she were a Cucco.

Xantia walks her over to the table, the Hyadean looking a little frazzled and embarrassed as she waves with both hands shyly and looks back to Xantia. "T-thank you... oh, goodness, all of you..."

Really, of all things she expected today, Riesenlied wasn't /quite/ expecting to see the Wolves gathered at a table that--

Well, it certainly looks like the kind of tavern the Wolves would hang around in. She looks around, as if expecting to find Argus. She hopes he's doing all right.

She hears something about the antiseptic quality of spirits.

She blinks a few times, her face written very distinctly as: Are souls antiseptic?? Can she channel the Ley to--

"I'm glad to see all of you again... also, I suppose souls would not be prone to infection, no."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"I don't know," Lily says. "Poison might be interesting. I haven't had to treat one of those in a while." A beat, "You've got a point though. I'm not /sure/ I'm not just drinking dirty medicinal alcohol." This does not actually stop her drinking it, naturally. She nods Josie's way, as she mentions, "Don't worry. The antidotes are only marked up four hundred percent for foreigners. You'll be fine."

"Bridge, hm? Might be worth a look." But she pauses, then. Hmm. A harness. Less fun than treads, but--

"Xantia's much more compact, and is willing to be paid in food. If you've got an army's worth of food, anyway." Lily smiles Xantia's way. It's a wry sort of thing but she's not so dour despite all the Spira stuff. "And..."

"Honestly," Lily says, "I'd rather if they target someone--and they will--they target us, who can break them, instead of some travelling mechanic on her own. Consider it a service."

Then she pauses. She looks at Riesenlied. She /keeps/ looking at Riesenlied. "...I've missed you," she says. "But I'm pretty sure pyreflies don't do anything about infections."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Xantia comes in, carrying Riesenlied. Elly relaxes a little. Even if Riesenlied isn't fluttering. She says, with a smile, "Welcome," to Riesenlied, and then plops down.

Near Fei, of course.

"What??" she then says, about that. "Oh, no. I met one of them recently, she was terribly friendly... I mean, she also seemed fatigued - she reminded me a lot of you, Riesenlied, actually - and..."

Elly catches up more. "I don't know if that's the best idea," she tells Josie, "but... hm."

Elly is quiet for a second.

Then she says, "They have that teff beer, don't they? I think I'll have some of that."

AND AFTER THAT, she speculates, "Maybe we could make a palanquin..."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"Heh. Listen, if they were after our wallets, they'd just cosh us over the head and take 'em. No sense wasting liquor, right?"

There may be a few holes in that line of thinking, but arguably, Josie wouldn't care even if they were pointed out to her.

Josie just smiles and shakes her head. "Nope. It might not be a bad investment, eh? Hire a Ronso, get 'em to tote her all around-like..."

She trails off, watching in silence as Xantia lifts up the chair and Riese altogether.

"...Or, hell, just make Sparky her fulltime minder?" She nods once, a short clipped movement, as Leon makes the same observation. "Might not be a bad deal," Josie finishes, before reaching over to her mug and lifting it to her lips.

"Good to see you again, Sunshine. Been hanging in there?" she says at last.

Then, "Though I'm afraid my soul's terminally ill. Heh heh..."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei's jaw opens up a bit and his eyes bug out a bit for a single panel as Xantia outright lifts Riesenlied up. He's back to normal in the next panel.

"I guess that's a fair point," Fei admits to Leon and Lily. "Just be careful. Even if we're stronger than most--there's limits to any kind of power."

He does seem to have eased up on his worrywart status a bit for the time being. At this rate he might actually solve his psychological issues before too long!

That probably means something terrible is going to happen but don't worry! Probably not today!

"Oh, you have? That's nice." Fei says, smiling. "I'm glad you're making friends out here. You know, there's actually a Summoner who also reminded me of--"

He pauses a moment.

"...Um..." He looks to Leon, then back to Elly, "You wouldn't happen to be talking about Yuna would you?"

He looks back to Leon. "Because... we were sort of...maybe... kind of hired to kidnap her?"

Pause. "By the Al Bhed."

He looks back towards Elly. "And we sort of, maybe, kind of tried to kidnap her?"

He rubs at his neck awkwardly.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly says, "Oh, yes - the -"

D
D??

D:

D8

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Leon got exploded by an Al Bhed girl." Fei adds because his mouth is kind of on autopilot right now. "We had a giant mecha shoopuf and everything."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"..."

"Do you still have it?" Elly asks, in a tone of someone trying to salvage something from this situation.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

Josie just archs a pale eyebrow.

AND THEN! "So, was the pay any good? I'm almost empty."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia of course fails to see how any of this could possibly be embarassing to anyone. She at least puts the chair down carefully, she's not /entirely/ without sense of appropriate behavior. She beams at the thanks and praise she receives in return. "No problem! It's like I always say, right? Leave the heavy lifting to me!"

Relax, Riese, this is Xantia, she wouldn't mean that as a crack about your weight.

Lily mentions payment in food, which gets the predictable immediate reaction: "Oooh, is there food?" Looking around the table without immediately spotting any, there's a significantly smaller amount of enthusiasm in her voice when she says, "I guess a drink is okay too." She wrinkles her nose. "If they have anything without alcohol in it."

Not in too much much of a hurry to procure one, she leaves it to someone else to order her something if they want to, settling on stealing a chair from another table to add to the growing amount surrounding the Wolves's table. She of course also chooses to place hers near Fei's, on the opposite side from the one where Elly is seated.

"So, what's next," she starts as she takes her seat, "Anybody have any leads on a way home?"

She pauses as Fei speaks of something entirely different. "...Or a kidnapping, I guess?" Didn't see that one coming. But she's not exceptionally shocked.

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"You're not making me feel better about drinking the stuff, Lily," Leon says as he takes a sip of his whiskey. He looks down at it with increasing mistrust. Then, he looks at Riesenlied. He smiles at her. "Good to see you, too, Riesenlied. I hope Noeline's been well. And Janey, Mikaia, and the rest of the Outreach."

He takes a seat at the table, again. He glances at Elly -- and raises an eyebrow -- and then he nods at Fei. "The giant mechanical shoopuf was that Al Bhed fellow's work," he says. He looks to Xantia, then, and shakes his head. "No. I'm hopeful there is an Elw ruin, but the Al Bhed do not have a way. But..."

He sighs. "Yes. We've accepted a contract with the Al Bhed," he says. "They want us to kidnap the summoner. Unharmed, and not killing or severely injuring her Guardians. Additionally..."

He puts the glass down. "...The Al Bhed's leader has indicated concern that, were Lady Yuna to agree to meet with him, it could cause a destabilization in Yevon that -- given the current war -- could pose a problem. So, he needs us."

Leon smiles, ruefully. "People who specialize in pissing off others, and taking the blame for it so others don't have to. I'm fine with that being my lot in life. It works well with my nature, which is to be all around irritating."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"I... I've missed you too," Riesenlied's smile is ever-familiar and comfortable as she takes in each of the Wolves. Lily, Leon, Xantia, Fei, Josie... Elly she's been around more often in Spira than the others, but she's also glad to see her too. A pause. "Noeline's been doing just fine, and I can scarce keep the children from Blitzball. And oh... I suppose-- I suppose Pyreflies wouldn't, no."

Fortunately, Riese doesn't take Xantia's comment as a crack about her weight. She mentions a way home. It's a good question... they could check Azado again, but does the Fereshte have enough power to cross the oceans on its own? (No.)

Josephine gets her attention too, and she sucks in a breath as she expresses, "It's ... okay. I have a friendly chocobo for when it's really needed, but I am doing it for exercise too. I have not forgotten about Lily's regime for me."

Riesenlied's eyes widen a little as Fei comments about the Al Bhed kidnapping summoners.

"I suppose I should caution Miss Yuna and her entourage, if I happen upon them again..." as she smiles and nods to Elly, tilting her head in idle curiosity at her comment that someone reminded her of her.

She doesn't know whether a certain comic scene will happen in the near future, after all.

"They are all trying really hard. I only wish I could help them more--"

Then Fei says it /out loud/. And Leon corroborates it.

Riesenlied's expression kind of

short circuits

horn... horn reach

horn reach up

horn nooo

horn flop

D8

oh no... give her a moment, cucco

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

"Oh, was I being helpful today?" Lily quips back to Leon, silently echoing his questions for Riesenlied, naturally. Buuut--

Lily suspects who Elly's talking about, too. Before it all gets funny, there. "But that involves expecting to tie /either/ of them down," she mentions to Josie, and then--

Well. Lily nods along at being careful but doesn't seem terribly concerned about the idea of just an ordinary fight at this point. ...Which is sort of double likely if they're unlucky given /this/ topic, naturally.

"I didn't go," Lily points out. "I'm not exactly good at 'not killing or severely injuring' if it comes to a fight." A beat, "And I'm glad you're keeping up your exercises." To Riese. naturally. But--

"We're going to attract ire regardless," Lily follows up from Leon. "We might as well make something useful of it. We won't get any of the questions we're worried about answered," a glance between Fei and Xantia, "If we worry too much about being /liked/."

Lily sips her drink. "Don't worry, Riesenlied. It's fine."

...How is it fine?? "Trust me."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Well I am pretty good at pissing off others. And being blamed for things. So I guess that works--" Fei are you sure you're supposed to be trying to just kind of accepting your fate here? Regardless, Fei reaches forward and gives Riesenlied a small encouraging pat on the arm in an attempt to, you know, reassure her that sure they may be trying to kidnap Yuna but--

--hmm. Is there a 'but' here? Oh right they aren't trying to hurt her which makes the kidnapping okay right?

Spira is one of the few places Fei could easily live AND be liked, he figures, though he might have to get eaten by a giant whale in the process but he elects to not mention that. instead he says, "To be honest, though, I've gotta admit I'm not sure kidnapping without harming the Guardians is possible now that we've tried. I mean--" He shrugs both shoulders. "At least not with that kind of method. They're as dedicated to one another as we are to each other. Maybe instead of kidnapping her, we could just... ask her to come along in private then fake a kidnapping? And maybe not tell Brother in advance so he doesn't funnovate the fake kidnapping??"

He loooks to Lily and nods. "Oh yeah, I mean, it's probably fine. Brother reminds me of Bart, that's how I know we can trust them."

He nods a few times with an awkward smile on his face.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

They didn't even keep the shoopuf.

Elly seems thunderstruck, gently poached, and all together surprised by this turn of event, although most of the shock fades when Leon reveals that this is a case of being commissioned to abduct the summoners without harm, and it turns into a sort of weary fatigue then. When he brings up the question of some sort of political confusion, Elly's brow knits for a moment, in even further bafflement.

"... So there's something political going on. I suppose this leader... is he afraid it might, um, discourage the people from being able to resist the Althenans?" Elly asks.

To Riesenlied, she offers, "I'm getting more to drink in a minute... do you want anything?"

Back to the key topic. When Fei makes that comparison Elly's lips purse.

"... I would hate to lie to her... the client specifically is trying to arrange a meeting, you said?"

("I can get you one too, Josie, if you're short this week," Elly asides.)

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"Hmm. True enough," is her response to Lily.

Josie just grins brightly across the table at Riesenlied. "One of those big old birds, yeah? I think I saw Penelope attempting to harrass one. But if they're like a horse, should be good for you." Shaking her head, she settles back in her seat. "Take it easy, Sunshine. You'll get your strength back eventually."

At Leon's discussion of the job the Al Bhed have for them, Josie claps a hand on the table. "If they're paying, I'm in," Josie affirms, at Leon's explanation. "I ain't one for kidnapping normally," shocker, Josie has some morals, "but given that we're meant to treat her as our guest of honor and all, I've no complaints. Hey, Junior," she says, addressing Fei. She plucks the sphere from the table and tosses it his way. "Take a look at this one later and tell me if anything looks familiar. You've been more places than me, maybe you can recognize something in this one."

Then she adds, to Fei. "I think the Al Bhed leader would've tried that first, if it was on the table, right? He could start a war or something if his plot goes south. I don't think Yevon would take to one of theirs getting spirited away."

Josie just watches Riesenlied walk her way metaphorically through the stages of shock and horror at what they're doing.

"I did tell you about my soul, Sunshine," she remarks, after a moment passes, again lifting her mug to her lips.

("Get one what?" she remarks to Elly. "A kidnapping?")

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

("... a beer. Or whatever you like.")

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

("...Oh. Sure, whatever floats your boat.")

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia sighs, head drooping a bit when it becomes clear nobody's any closer to finding a way home yet. That was always her main concern last time they were on Lunar too, the only unusual thing about that is that she hasn't really brought it up in the group until now. She tried her best to get into the vacation spirit this time around, but then a war happened, sooo yeah, that's pretty much over.

As for the kidnapping... one might expect Xantia to strongly object to something like that, as gung ho as she's been about Justice and Heroism as of late. She does need to consider that one for a moment. But then, she shrugs. "So it's more like giving people an excuse to talk that won't get them into trouble than a real kidnapping."

...What? She can follow what's going on sometimes, and rationalize it in a way that doesn't go against her principles. It's not /that/ surprising! (maybe it sort of is a little bit)

Plus, there's another reason why this doesn't phase her as much as one might have thought, which she voices in a softer tone: "It's not like many of the people here seem to like me much anymore, anyway." She said it casually enough, but she can't say that sort of thing without her expression making it obvious how much it bothers her. At least there's one thing that she can say about it with some modicum of cheer. "Well, if you need someone punched out of the way, I can do that!"

She also raises her hand when Elly mentions getting drinks. "I'll take one!" She doesn't care to specify what. Choose wisely, Elhaym.

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"It will be fine," Leon says, to Riesenlied, even if he looks -- well, not quite guilty, but a little regretful at making her horns droop like that. "As Lily says. I'm not concerned about being liked. We have things we want to do--questions we want answered. We're not likely to stay friendly with a group like Yevon."

He looks to Fei -- and Leon nods once. "I've noticed that. We'll consider our options. We can injure them, if we need to, but nothing that puts an end to their career." Then, he glances at Elly. "Well... I'd like to be careful with that. She might agree to come with them. I think... look at it like this."

Leon takes a sip of his whiskey, before continuing.

"Lady Yuna is the daughter of a hero. She's popular with the masses, for that. She also, remarkably, seems to have escaped growing up a hero's daughter with her common decency and kindness intact," he explains. "Now... let's say, in the midst of a war, that the lady Summoner decides to treat with Yevon's traditional enemy, the Al Bhed."

He looks around the table. "Maybe they call her a traitor. Maybe, they claim the Al Bhed bewitched her. Maybe it's blamed on the Guard. Whatever happens... it pushes Yevon into more of a corner than some poorly trusted offworlders capturing her, and spiriting her away, and possibly briefly at that. If they lash out at us, we go to ground and hide from them. The Al Bhed don't have that luxury."

Leon Albus has partially disconnected.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Getting the answers that need answering... no matter the cost, whether people scorn them or not. Taking the blame for it so others don't have to. There's a hesitant chew of her lip at that.

It reminds her of the somewhat self-destructive ways in which she'd draw the blame back in the Metal Demon days, so others wouldn't have to...

Lily says to not worry. Leon too.

"... ... I ... I won't," Riesenlied sounds terribly uncertain. "And... I know you would not accept a truly black-hearted contract, so I know there is a reason behind it. Just..."

Riesenlied's expression gets a bit more downcast at Xantia's admission, biting her lip. "Xantia..."

Elly's grappling the situation a bit better than she is. "... me too," she admits, of hating the idea of lying to Yuna. Elly offers her a drink, though, and she nods. "Oh, please... I haven't drunk anything in a while."

She might not deal so well with beer, though.

She smiles at Josephine as she talks about horsebirds. "Her name's Moccy. She's not a cucco like Loccy--"

A STABLE

{Out of the kwehstion! No one tell her the truth! No one! I've got wark to do!} Loccy sweats profusely as Moccy gives him the stinkiest glare this side of a Sylkis Green.

HERE

"... but... I'm afraid I won't be able to help. Er-- I mean, not just because of the Outreach, but also..." Riesenlied gestures at herself. "Unless the kidnapping takes the form of a nice tea party with cookies..."

She mercifully gets distracted, though, blinking at Josie. "Your soul?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

For her part, Lily may not be /interested/ in being liked overall, maybe especially not here. But that would be mean! ...Right?

"No," Lily agrees, "A direct conflict will make it hard to avoid injuries on either side. Clearly isolation on its /own/ isn't enough--and the water wasn't much disadvantage to them."

"But, humor aside--we don't all have to be involved in this. Moving as too large a group in this matter would arouse suspicion, or attract armed trouble to a greater extent--and there's no need to do something you're uncomfortable with. ...The same goes for you, Fei, if you'd prefer not to go further there." She stops, though, and then nods at Leon's explanation. "It could only end poorly--and having met the woman... I think she's about as good at lying as Xantia is." She pauses, and looks sympathetic. "But being honest, I've found the same about getting along here. Having seen how they react to machinery and to things outside this faith... I'm not /interested/ in getting along with most of them. It's their home and their right to be as they wish, but they can leave me out of it."

"Fei and Elly will keep us honest about black-hearted contracts, I think. And you're helping already with what you're doing. Your efforts to help are the primary counterpoint that exists right now to the idea that all of us Otherworlders are here to make trouble for them."

She lifts her drink again, and adds to the matter of souls, "Well. Let's just say that it's not /Josie/ I'm counting on to keep us on the straight and narrow." Tip back drink.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"I mean." Fei says. "Are you saying they wouldn't start a war if we kidnap their most popular summoner and give her to the Al Bhed while piloting a large mechanical shoopuf and also while Brother is shouting in Al Bhed and, possibly, injuring their Guardians? But I'm not saying that we tell anyone the kidnapping is fake. Telling people the kidnapping is fake ruins the whole point of it being a fake kidnapping. I mean, there's gotta be places where Yevon isn't watching."

He considers. "Like... the Thunder Plains, maybe? I get the reasoning, but I don't really want us to get Yevon retaliating against them because we kidnapped someone who didn't really need to be kidnapped."

He rubs at the back of his neck. "No, no. I mean, when I signed up I agreed to follow Leon's orders. So I'm going to follow 'em."

He seems a little flustered, possibly because he feels the plan he was mentioning has somehow transmogrified into an entirely different idea when translated to the others.

"Really?" Fei asks a moment later of Lily. "Oh, I was sort of relying on Josie."

He sounds sheepish. Was it really that crazy of an idea?? Then again this might explain a lot. Then again Josie did stop 'Fei' from murdering everyone in Adlehyde so there's that.

"Either way if we try again I don't think we should have the Al Bhed with us. Even if we do the 'real kidnapping' because uh--if she gets seen 'captured' by the Al Bhed, that's bad too. Better it's all on us rather than on us and the Al Bhed, if you get what I mean?"

He doesn't like the idea of injuring Guardians.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly goes to get drinks.

What she returns with are all in wooden cups and as such they are hard to tell apart, with one exception.

ELLY gets teff beer for herself. It is about 4.2% alcohol by volume so you are not likely to get kedaddled on it. Which is good because she got a smaller cup for XANTIA.

RIESENLIED gets a cup containing chips of ice with about a cupful of lime juice, a jigger or two of syrup, and the remainder water. Refresh...

JOSIE has triggered a reflex in Elly heretofore only found in Loren Voss and as such she receives a very tall, very thin cup with a strip of polished horn in the side that reveals six different layers of colored liquor inside. The head is also carved to look vaguely like a blitzball. Text is around the base: VICTORY CUP

"I suppose from what you are saying... that it's impossible for the client to reach out through normal means," Elly says. "Is he afraid that one of Lady Yuna's guardians might betray them out of faith?" or fayth, Elly could say, but doesn't, because that would be someone else's job and is also a poor audio pun. "It seems as if we could speak to them and then perhaps stage something..."

Elly then pauses.

She looks at Leon. Then to Fei. Then Lily, as if Lily might disapprove of this. Finally to the people she brought drinks.

She sits down before saying, quietly and with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, "Are the Al Bhed trying to end the whole war? They'd know the Guard, they fought together at that battle..."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

SPEAKING OF Josie, Fei nearly gets clobbered in the head by the sphere because he hasn't actually heard himself called 'Junior' in a while so he nearly misses that Josie is talking to him. He catches the sphere moments before it collides into his face.

"A sphere? Okay."

He considers if Cid had tried it but honestly he doesn't know Cid too well. He knows Brother and he is pretty sure Brother hasn't tried that yet. In part because he only speaks Al Bhed, how could he?

Unless..he was pretending???

Nevertheless, Fei looks down at the sphere, eyes squinting.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"'Moccy', huh? I should see one of these chocobos for myself sometime. They've got Penelope all up in arms, so I'll hazard they've got something going for 'em."

On the topic of her soul Josie just smiles lopsidedly and waves a hand -- her good hand -- in the air, as if to say 'forget it'. The moment, as they say, has passed.

"Listen, Sunshine. Red, Junior. It's like the Captain says," she says, jerking her head over at Leon. "I can't say I've really been /bothering/ with the politics around here, but people don't ask to grab someone with the least harm to them and theirs for no reason, and certainly not if there's better options on the table."

Her gaze loops Lily's way. "Plus. There's nothing saying you've gotta get in on this business. You can do what you do best, and leave the dirty work for us, yeah? Though the kid's got a point, we should tell the Al Bhed to leave the business to us and keep their noses out."

She even starts to chuckle at Lily's comment.

Only to stop up short when Fei says that he /was/, uh, sort of counting on her to keep them on the straight and narrow. "Junior, have you been drinking?" she asks, her face creased in abject confusion.

As if disturbed by this direction of conversation, she shakes her head, and then adds, "Actually, nevermind. Just... tell me later if you see anything in the recording that looks familiar."

She, meanwhile, has been gifted with the rarity perhaps known as a...

fancy drink.

"Hm. Wonder what they put in this one," she remarks, then, lifting it with care--

"Cheers."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

"Daughter of a hero..."

Of course that part of the equation would get Xantia's attention. She looks puzzled at what follows, though. Wouldn't it only make sense that a hero's daughter would be decent and kind? Suddenly it feels like she's missing something again.

And then Xantia is called out on her lack of lying ability! Which she fails to react to, other than more of that slight confusion. She may not have managed to figure out from Lily's statement that it was meant to imply she /isn't/ good at lying. She was doing so well at reading between the lines up until now, too... figures she would fail at something very obvious.

At least she's still as good as ever at looking on the bright side of things. She smiles at Riesenlied when she notices that concerned look, this being part of the reason she parrots Leon, "It'll be fine! Everything'll work out in the end, it always does! Even two bad things can combine into a good thing!"

That last one may only make any sense if you've worked out that Xantia didn't realize that she was reading about math when a book claimed that two negatives make a positive.

Listening more to the plan, and everyone's input on it, she scratches her head and admits, "I'm probably not the best for that job then, if you'd prefer to do it without punching." Which she's not actually sorry about - she may not have a huge problem with this kidnapping, but looking the other way is easier than actively participating in it. Other than that, she only questions something Elly said aloud: "Do you really think something like this could end the war? That'd be nice..."

Lost in thought, and thirsty besides, she takes a big swig of the drink Elly brought her. Only to quickly cover her mouth and make a disgusted sound. "Blegh! What's /in/ this?"

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"It's quite all right, Riesenlied. I suppose I can't completely rule out that tea and cookies could become involved, though," Leon says, with a slight smile. Then, he glances at Lily, and nods. "I'm not one to take a contract that will cause me to lose sleep. I like having a good night's sleep."

Nevermind that he, sometimes, doesn't get that. He wouldn't admit to it.

He looks at Fei. "Yes, I had similar thoughts. I'm not going to leave our operational planning to Brother--and I'd like to arrange it so we get her to where they can meet with her in a place Yevon isn't watching," he says. "Maybe on one of their ships. But... first, we need to find a way to separate them."

Then, Leon shakes his head once at Elly. "I'm not sure, but it wouldn't shock me to discover. Josie's right about their motives, I think. Honestly, I'd like to meet their leader face-to-face. We've talked through intermediaries."

He takes a sip of whiskey. "Separating them is a good idea. We could do that on the Thunder Plains -- or Macalania, for that matter. We'll give it some thought," Leon says. "I don't see a reason to try when they reach Guadosalam, though."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"... that... is fair, to be dismayed such," Riesenlied admits of Lily. "Already there are people who mistake me for some kind of Fiend, and I can't blame them. It rather reminds me of when Bystanders bear suspicion of those bearing ARMs, I have to say..."

Elly comes back though, with a nice drink that she hasn't had before. It's lemony and sweet and tastes really pleasant. "Thank you."

Fei's logic makes a modicum of sense to her, even if she's looking impressed at how much thought he's given it. She's happy to see him have faith in Leon, as well. "... I'll have to work hard on keeping that positive outlook up," she nods to Lily.

Elly muses on what the Al Bhed are really up to. Ending the war?

Xantia rallies, prompting a bit more of a smile from Riesenlied -- though when she drinks, she yelps to go, "Oh, try some of mine, Xantia? It's sweet..."

She looks to Leon once more. "... I believe in you, Leon. And... well, I would like to know more too. The Al Bhed that helped us when we first crashlanded in the ocean are wonderful and kind. Seeing this divide hurts me."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily doesn't talk much about her dreams, either. Though...

"The less Brother is involved the better," Lily reflects. "I've heard enough stories about him from his sister to know /that/ much." She pauses, though, long enough to turn to Fei, "What I mean about her ability to lie is... What the Summoner doesn't know, she can't reveal. She seems honest to a fault; it's difficult to imagine her keeping secrets for such a long time."

Nobody's ever said that Lily Keil knows Yuna particularly well, at all. The irony of her statement is /entirely/ lost on her.

"I think you're right though--we should take charge more directly." She pauses again. has he been drinking? "...Do as Josie /does/, not as Josie /says/," Lily suggests, because she can absolutely give back a little grief.

"I'm not opposed to a diplomatic solution in /theory/," she allows, glancing at the sphere, "But in practice..."

Ending the war. Lily considers Elly's thought there, and--shrugs. She really doesn't know. Besides--

"You've already got your work anyway," Lily tells Xantia. "Like we talked about. I think you can do more good there, than on this mission. It suits you more. And... Well. I'm in the same boat, about punching..."

Riesenlied speaks up, and Lily inclines her head again. "There's a certain amount of fear of the unknown that you can expect--and I suppose I'd be jumpy if I had to deal with Sin all the time, too. Still."

She thinks Riesenlied can manage that positivity. She also... doesn't help, at all, about the drink. Instead she finishes her own. "Guadosalam is the home of one of their Maesters--and I don't know how much I /don't/ know about this place, and its... Farplane, nearby. It's safer not to make trouble here if we can help it anyway."

Setting down the glass, Lily shakes her head, looks forward. "...Let me know if you /do/ need the support, of course, but..."

She's said it to Leon, but not as directly to the otehrs--except Xantia, some. "I'm... trying to avoid, too much trouble here. Overdoing it could cause more problems than it would solve."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly, for her part, stays fairly quiet. She does tell Xantia, "It's like a little grain they use; it makes nice flatbreads too. Or do you not like it in general?" She has already put enough of a dent in her cup that she tilts it towards Xantia as if to say: If you don't want it.

One day she will meet her compeer in these matters. That compeer is Margie.

Her attention, though, shifts back to the Sphere that Fei is inspecting...

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei nods a few times to Leon. "I believe in him, of course, but I mean it's for his own good this time." He might have slightly different reasons for saying this than before a nd he nods a few timmes to Josie. "Nah, just water." What's in the water?? He doesn't seem to get the in-joke.

He pauses for a moment. "Oh. By kid you meant me. Haha. Okay."

His cheeks redden severely as he takes another look at the sphere before him. He doesn't comment on it immediately since he seems to be racking his mind.

"Guadosalam... well... guess we might as well though I'm wondering where we're gonna stsay."

He doesn't want to live life in a tent anymore now that he has felt the power of beds.

He nods to ELly. "We could maybe talk to Cid a bit more too before we do this but I have a feeling the less they know about what we're planning, the less likely we'll get interrupted."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"Hey, I resemble that remark," she says to Lily, though the statement /is/ chained to a bright enough grin to suggest she's found some mirth in it.

"Speaking of ARMS, watch any you've got around these parts. The locals tend to think it's anathema." She pauses, and then in a hiss of a whisper, "Nostos is hidden up near the Thunder Plains." One of these days she should try to move it past there, to make sure it's further afield (and also not where the damp /could/ eventually get to it, no matter her assurances professed to Shalune).

"I get the feeling," Josie comments, as Leon explains further, "that they ain't precisely in the position to take meetings at the moment. I dunno their relationship with the Guard, but they're already on the outs with yours truly," she says, gesturing towards the door to the bar, as if to indicate the city and its faithful beyond. "Still, you can't really get the measure of someone by talking to their underlings, yeah? If we're going to be pawns, I'd like to know who's playing the game."

Which may be the point where she sets down her drink and peers over at Xantia. "Slow down there, kiddo. You're not an experienced drinker, don't gulp it or you'll hurt yourself, yeah?"

Speaking of 'do what Josie does not what she says', perhaps now is the best time to regard /that/ since she goes on to take a good mouthful of her own.

"Huh. Stronger than I thought," she remarks, eyeing the horn more critically. "Hmm. So it's one of /those/. Well, then, let's see who wins," she says... to the drinking horn.

"But in the end, leave the dirty work to us," she says, picking up the horn. "We'll be careful enough, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia shakes her head, as if that would help to get the taste of that drink she had out of her mouth. "Grain? It doesn't taste like bread at all, it's horrible!" She pushes the cup away from her general direction. Not having any more of that, though she's drained most of it in one gulp already. That was a mistake, she'll readily agree with Josie on that one. "I thought it was... I dunno, not this. Ugh."

She keeps a grimace on her face as she listens to the ongoing conversation, not adding anything until Lily addresses her. "...Yeah, you're right. Gotta do what you're best at." Then she falls quiet, bringing a hand to her forehead.

Until she suddenly speaks up again, unprompted: "Why's everything got to be so complicated, we should just... be able to punch a few things 'n go home, so we can punch more things over there. And why's everybody keep talking about their Brother anyway, how many brothers do people have?"

Is... is she okay?

Riesenlied offers some of her drink to Xantia, which is answered by a wide smile. "Thaaaanks, Riese! That's real nice. You're always real nice. Always... giving people stuff, that they don't have." She then tries to grab the offered cup and... misses. She looks at her empty hand, squinting in confusion.

Nope, she is definitely not okay. As unlikely as it is for anyone to be affected by such low alcohol percentages, let alone this quickly... well, Xantia does have a way of making the unlikely happen anyway, doesn't she?

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

"As Lily says. We don't have to all help with this one. I don't fault you in the slightest, Xantia," Leon says. His fingers lift to his chin -- and then he nods, once, in Lily's direction. "I agree, though. This isn't the place. And I'd like to get a little more information, if I can. If we're bringing Lady Yuna to the Al Bhed homeland, and we're too obvious about it, we'll just cause the reprisal we want to avoid."

He glances at Riesenlied, and nods. "I'm glad you do."

Then, he frowns at what Fei says. "I hate to say it, but you may be right. If they know where we are... then so does Brother. And if Brother knows where we are, the best laid plans of mice and men are nothing. Still..." He nods at Josie. "I'll see if I can arrange a meeting, and a distraction for Brother."

Just in case this Cid isn't, actually, the person Leon thinks he is.

Then, he looks up at Xantia-- and he blinks at her once. He frowns, for a moment, and then shakes his head. "Well... it isn't that simple, but--are you all right, Xantia? You seem out of sorts. Maybe you need to lie down?"

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei offers the sphere back to Josie. "This reminds me of the shoopuf." Pause. "I mean reminds me of the Moonflow. The city wasn't there obviously when I visited but uh...if I were to guess, I'd guess around the Moonflow." He tilts his head. "Where'd you find this sphere, Josie?"

Elly when she was looking at the sphere probably recognized the Moonflow area too considering. He doesn't really go further into detail on the matter though because, well, it's the Moonflow. Hardly a city there now. Now it's ruled by the shoopufs and honestly that's fine with Fei.

"Brother has a sister?" Fei asks of Lily. "Is her name Sister?"

He considers the possibility of Yuna being really bad at lying.

He doesn't know Yuna particularly well but he looks at Riesenlied whom Yuna reminds everybody of.

He looks towards her horns.

He imagines Yuna (with horns) flapping up and down in a panic as she has to lie about something.

"Yeah fair point," He tells Lily.

He smiles faintly to Leon and nods. Wait maybe they call him Brother because...

'Oh Brother...!'

"Good grief." He murmurs to himself, looking to Xantia with concern. "You okay?"

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Honest to a fault... she did get that impression from Yuna, from the quiet moment that Riesenlied was able to meet her. But at the same time, she did sense a drive and a resolve within her that she would also be quite inspired to see.

"... ..."

The Hyadean is a little silent for a while, but she sips from her drink. "I think it'll be all right. They're curious, but the talk of Otherworlders seem to be enough that I am not harrangued too much." She nods, though. Having Lily's support gives her a lot of confidence, after all.

Riese jolts just a bit at Xantia, suddenly feeling a little bit of familiarity. "O-oh no. It's just like when I have an alcoholic drink." She ushers the cup to Xantia's hand and pats her on the shoulder.

She nods again at Leon.

"... the Azadians have been extremely energetic in their work to help Kilika, and now the refugees. They both feel a kinship with how they lost their town to Sin and... I think, a measure of guilt at how everything turned out with the Guard. I want to help them rally that motivation towards something positive."

She hasn't met Brother nor does she know his name is Brother. Hopefully he doesn't start rambling about freeing the soul (which is antiseptic).

She mercifully misses Fei's thoughts about how terrible she is at lying. Whew.

"... I've got a room in an inn nearby we can rest her at, if you don't have anything else."

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

No Fei, Xantia is not okay. Or have you forgotten what happened last time she had a single shotglass of... whatever that even was?

It's Leon who gets her attention with his remarks however, Xantia's head turning sharply in his direction. "Wha? What'd you mean? Maybe... maybe /you're/ out of sorts and need to lie down! You had like /three/ Brothers just now, that's crazy!" She points an accusing finger in what she thinks is Leon's direction. It's slightly off to the left.

Riesenlied quickly intervenes to mollify her with some help getting her something to wash the awful taste out of her mouth. Xantia takes quick advantage, managing to take a decent gulp, miraculously without spilling anything. "...That's better. I feel better." There's a beat before she corrects herself, "No I don't."

Then she abruptly flops forward onto the table. "Owww, my head hurts..." Well, obviously, she just smacked it into a table, but perhaps it already did before that. Looks like she needed to lie down after all. Doesn't matter where. +vote: Xantia has voted for you.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"This man's name... it seems like the set-up to a joke," Elly muses, before she looks at Xantia and begins, gradually, to realize what she has done.

OH! THE SHAME! THE AGONY!

She reaches forwards and says, "Xantia--!! I'm sorry, just try to hold on..."

For a moment Elly thinks to herself: am I the only person in this outfit who can take or leave -liquor-

"Ahh-- Anyway, I'll help however I can," she says to Leon, "but... if there's any other way, I'd rather not lie to Lady Yuna. If there isn't another way, I will... but..."

Well, that's her sentiment. Fei certainly, and perhaps others, might guess that she's felt like she's told enough lies.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

"All we have to do is find Brother something /else/ to do. A little white lie -- what they don't know won't hurt them."

She pauses.

"Just make sure they don't find out -- or that we get the summoner -- or our contract is toast, eh?" She lifts her drink to her lips and /this/ time takes a small sip.

"The Moonflow, huh? I didn't see a bridge, but maybe it ain't there anymore. OK. Thanks, kid," she says, taking the sphere back from him. "That one? Picked it up from a merchant selling some excavated goods. Saw it was a recording sphere, so I figured I'd take a look and see what it had. Maybe there's still something good kicking around that way." She pauses, then adds with a smile that approaches a smirk, "I /am/ an archaeologist, you know."

This is the point where Josie's attention leaves the conversation at hand behind and begins to approach a certain young lady.

Josie watches Xantia for a moment.

Josie watches Xantia fail to pick up her cup.

Josie begins to slowly frown.

"...Yep, thought so. Kiddo, you /should/ go lie down."

Which is the point where Xantia does exactly that. On the table.

"..."

With a sigh, Josie levers herself up from the table. "C'mon, kid," by which she means Fei, this time. "Let's get little miss would-be-drinker to bed."

<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.

Leon stands up, just as Xantia points not at him but nearby. His frown is small, but notable. Too much to drink? Or something else? He glances sideways at Riesenlied -- and then jumps when she falls nto the table.

"Well! We should get her to your room, Riesenlied," he says. "I think Xantia is done for the evening."

He steps up, next to Fei, and then looks at Elly. He nods. "I'd prefer we not tell her too much, but we don't need to resort to trickery," he sas. Then, he looks at Xantia.

"Come along, now."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei totally did forget Xantia. He had much bigger concerns at the time than comically small amounts of liquor causing comical amounts of drunkenness in Xantia. Like, you know, her feelings about the horrible situation she's in.

At least until Xantia says 'You had three Brothers just now'.

"Oh right." Fei says. "Xantia's drunk. She uh. She gets drunk easily."

He grimaces as Xantia seems to pass out drunk. "Gotta remember that."

He won't.

"That might be nice, Riesenlied." Fei says before his cheeks redden before he adds, "Anything we can't tell her, we can just say we can't tell her. I mean, she'll probably peg anything too dishonest anyway. They seem like a clever bunch and, uh, certainly know the territory better." The last thing he wants is more Lulu disapproval. Something about goth black mage prodigies makes him feel like they are authority figures.

He stands himself up at Josie's suggestion. "Alright, lets get her some rest. I'm sure she'll be fine. In a day. Or two. You know, I think next time she might be ready for two shots."

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