2019-07-22: Catching Up Over Cookies
- Log: 2019-07-22: Catching Up Over Cookies
- Cast: Ivan, Talia
- Where: The Moonflow
- Date: July 22, 2019
- Summary: Talia confides in Ivan with some worries.
===============================<* The Moonflow *>=============================== The Moonflow is a large river that bisects Spira's largest island into southern and northern halves. Strange flowers called Moonlilies grow on the Moonflow's banks, attracting pyreflies that gather on its surface at night, making the water sparkle. Although a beautiful area, the weather tends to be overcast more often than not, the souls of the dead providing the most reliable source of illumination. The primary method of crossing the Moonflow is aboard a shoopuf - an elephantine creature that can swim across the expansive river. The crossing service is funded by the Temple of Yevon and is free of charge. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wcVnJQ-FN4
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia knows that Ivan, sometimes, has been stopping by the Festina Lente.
She knows that this is a tenuous thing; that Ivan is prickly, and his pride might be hurt if he were to have this pointed out. Really, Talia knows she should leave well enough alone. That would be the smart thing.
But would it be the fun thing?
No. No, it would not.
Thus, today, when Ivan approaches the door of the Festina Lente, Talia appears behind him -- upside down, lowering herself on a rope affixed to the roof, and with an upside down cheshire cat grin. She taps him on the shoulder before she knocks the door.
"Van-ya!" she says. "Did you bring me and Ammy presents? You should bring us presents. If you do, we will reward you!"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Dropping by the Festina Lente doesn't mean anything at all! It's just an easy place to find Talia without being surrounded by strangers or standing around somewhere fiends might show up.
But when he goes to enter the doorway, there is... a surprise upside-down Talia!
Talia, you are supposed to be inside the house! Not dangling from it and popping out to scare him!
Ivan jumps a little. "Gah!" he says. "Presents? ...presents, huh..."
He rifles through his pockets in search of an offering.
"Do you want... um... some string? A crumpled pamphlet? How about... a single playing card I have for some reason?"
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I have some string, do not need your crumpled literature, and it depends if the card is a Queen of Spades. That one went missing from the deck I had," Talia says with a tap of her finger against her chin. When she does, her hair -- which hangs down awkwardly, being upside down -- shakes a little.
She wiggles her feet; then, Talia drops down, doing a midair somersault, and lands upright and standing. She leans over, to inspect him, like he might have something on his face.
"Hmm," she says. "You didn't bring your treasure hunting partner. You are not making her angry, are you?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Sorry, looks like it's an ace," Ivan says, shrugging. "I think the person who stole your queen of spades may have accidentally bent it trying to rescue a collapsing card tower a couple of years ago and disposed of the evidence."
He shrugs.
"Anyway, you've got to give me some warning if you want presents! But now that I know... ... I think I've got an idea for a good one."
Talia asks him why he didn't bring Lydia.
"What--! I don't bring her around everywhere! Treasure hunting partners hang out mostly just on treasure hunts, it's in the name. That one time we all ran into one another must have been like she got mixed up and forgot which one of us she invited because we look alike or something." Because it's... so easy to confuse Talia with her scowly mcgrumpface of a brother.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Wh-what," Talia says. "Was that person you! Did you lose my Queen of Spades? Vanyaaaaa, I needed that!"
Nevermind that she hasn't had that card -- and gotten by fine -- for a couple of years, now. She folds her arms -- and then tilts her head. She blinks, not quite expecting Ivan to have a good idea for a present just like that. It makes her smile.
"You do? This, I am looking forward to!" She clasps her hands in front of her. "Is it a surprise?"
Then, she quirks a smile, and she shakes her head. "No, I think she was trying to get us in the same place! And see both of us. But... you spend a lot of time with her, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"No, it wasn't me! I just happened to hear a really detailed rumor about it. I'm not sure why people are interested enough in your cards to gossip about them. but at least the mystery is solved."
Talia asks about her present. Ivan nods. "Yes, it's a surprise! A present without a surprise is just... a plan." Apparently plans are boring.
Ivan is accused of spending lots of time with Lydia lately."Huh? I barely see her at all! When I do it's like, 'remember when we used to treasure hunt together? oh yeah, it's been so long I almost forgot that was a thing!'" No that is a total lie and Ivan has just reached his 'compulsively, unconvincingly lying about stuff' stage of overload on being called out about things. Talia has surely seen this happen a number of times when he reaches critical teasing capacity.
In truth, Ivan has seen Lydia kind of an absurd number of times recently due to a mixture of coincidences and schemes.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia squints, and remains silent, on the topic of rumors about her cards. She will remember this conversation, Ivan.
She nods, though. "Mm-hm! Surprises are what make presents wonderful, no?"
She winks at him, and then her smile gets a little crooked as he tals about Lydia. She gives him a look like, 'really?' Then, she sighs in a good-natured way, and steps to the side. She opens the door.
"All right, then," she says. "Do you want to come in? Ammy is upstairs, working on a thing. We could have something to drink! Or maybe eat. There are cookies, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Um, sure, okay," says Ivan, because it turns out only a fraction of his crazy life rules apply to Talia at all.
He does look a bit apprehensive as he crosses the threshhold of The House, wary perhaps that it will judge him for accepting its... house-pitality.
"Have things been okay with you two? Any more incidents? I don't think I've found any leads, yet..."
Not that anyone other than himself really wanted him to look. But it's still dissappointing that he hasn't been able to catch the (other) secret assassin in the Guard.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Ah... they are okay--um. Things with us," Talia says. "They are great! We're, um, close, and--" She coughs and turns a little red in the face. She can be flustered; it's harder than it is with Ivan. But, emotional intimacy isn't really that easy for Talia. She steps into the house, and leads the way inside.
She makes her way towards the kitchen, and glances over her shoulder to peer back at Ivan. "But... it is hard for Ammy. Knowing they are out there, coming for her. She is trying to practice, so she can defend herself, but... that is traumatic for her, no?"
Talia stops in the kitchen, putting her hands on the counter, and sighs. Her shoulders slump in a sort of melodramatic, exhausted way.
"...I am trying to help, but I wish I could just take care of this myself," she admits. "It is not fair, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan follows Talia into the kitchen, nodding as she explains. "Fighting at all is tied to too many bad memories?" he asks. "That's a really tough situation to be in with a murderous cult hunting you."
But it seems like Katherine has been through a lot. Actually dying... and that's just for starters. Things like that are sure to leave a mark.
I wish I could just take care of this myself
"Yeah," he says. "It seems like a lot of worry to live with. It would be good to just... make it go away." It's what he wanted to help with, too. But the feeling is surely more acute for Talia.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I think all of her fighting, it uses her abilities, no? And those... ah," Talia hesitates. "Did you see her eyes? It... I think it can make her have to stop seeing the world the way she wants."
She shakes her head, then opens a cabinet. She pulls out a little wooden box, and pulls out some cookies. They have been iced, and are cut into dove and bomb flower shapes. She starts piling some on a plate.
Maybe too many. Talia has a sweet tooth.
"It is," she says. She looks up at him, and smiles. "But, ah, we talk about things more, now. I guess... it has been good, for that, no? For, um--knowing... more about each other, I suppose."
She frowns. "This sounds awkward, doesn't it."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Yeah... I did see them." That was quite a shock. He isn't sure he fully understands how she does see the world, but it would make sense if the old way and the new way were incompatible.
Talia reveals some rather adorable themed cookies, and starts preparing a plate. Ivan makes some pretense of deliberation before nabbing a bomb cookie. Of course.
It seems like he probably shouldn't say anything about how the ex assassins prepared an assortment of cookies that seem to inadvertently be themed like war and peace.
"Is it awkward? Were you getting at something awkward? Was that like an innuendo or something?"
Well, now it's awkward. Good job, Ivan. He turns his attention to his bomb cookie, chewing with regret and consternation. He's not nearly as embarassed about potentially embarassing Talia as he is when he's the one in the hot seat, though.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia isn't sure, too, if she understands how Amaranth sees the world. She has a faint idea of how she doesn't see color or anything else, without the use of magic and illusions to make up for it.
She taps a finger against her cheek, and then glances sideways at Ivan. She makes a face at him.
"No! It was not innuendo. Ew," Talia says, with a frown. "It is--it is different opening up to someone! It is strange. It is nice, too, no? But... sometimes, I am not used to this thing."
She sighs, and then she takes one of the dove cookies. She chomps into it.
"It is awkward because talking about romance stuff with my brother," she adds.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Oh! That makes sense, too. Probably more sense."
Ivan frowns. "Opening up to people is not a thing I know anything about at all, but I can still listen if you want. I don't know if it's weird, or awkward to talk about with me. If you don't want to, you don't have to, either."
He sifts for another bomb cookie. It isn't that he wants to know the nitty gritty of such things, but even so, it seems like a sort of double loss for Talia to go off into the romance phase of her life where she spends most of her time with someone else, AND for that now very large part of her life to be awkward to discuss with him. Who ever invented growing up?
Of course, it would probably be less isolating if he hadn't specifically refused to join her life as a runaway. But it's not like he would really fit anymore.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia gives Ivan another of those looks. She almost says something, except that if she says something, they will argue about that instead of talk about anything else. She tilts her head, her eyes briefly on him.
"Well..."
Talia sighs, softly.
"Ah, I don't know. I like it, it is nice to be able to tell someone things and feel like it will be okay, no? Like they won't hate me, when they realize who I used to be," Talia says. "But it's so new, I worry I am messing it up, and don't even know how."
She stuffs a cookie in her mouth so she will stop talking for a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan genuinely doesn't know what the look is for, and blinks back at her, munching on the cookie. But she lets him off the hook, whatever it was, and continues explaining her concerns. He thinks about her words for a bit.
"Did you do anything that felt it might have messed it up, or is it just a general sense of potential messing-upness?"
It makes sense to him that this newfound happiness would feel precarious for Talia, and not guaranteed to last. He hasn't been very sensitive about aknowledging that because he's been thinking of it like an idealized binary against his own situation, but he can see it when he stops to try.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I am pretty sure I have never messed it up," Talia says. A beat. "Usually. Maybe a couple of times, I have been a little weird, but she seems to think it is cute. But..."
She glances sideways at him, then she smiles and shrugs her shoulders. "It is the potential, as you say, brother. And worrying too much. I do that, no? As much as I try to pretend I don't."
She has worried too much about things in the past -- usually little things, like she could control those, while pretending the big things could just roll off her.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Yeah," Ivan says, thoughtfully. When Ivan is worried he... kind of shuts the relevant parts of himself down and looks for an opportunity to focus on slicing up fiends or something. That doesn't seem like a good suggestion for Talia. She's probably already got that in her toolkit and is trying to expunge it at this stage. But maybe some gentler variant on distraction?
"What if you tried inventing a decoy worry you could distract yourself with when you're starting to worry about messing it up? Like... 'what if Queen Anastasia runs off to become a star carnival performer and never writes?'"
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"A decoy worry... that is a good idea! Not that one, though. It would never happen, no?" Talia says. Perhaps, she knows that Queen Anastasia is an unthinking plant that only produces explosives and--
"She is too loyal for that," Talia explains.
Nevermind.
She looks over, then smiles at him. "Let's go in the other room!" This may be an effort to change the subject. "We can eat those cookies. And I learned how to make funny-looking animals with icy mist, with magic, and I can show you?"