2019-07-23: A Place to Hide
- Log: 2019-07-23: A Place to Hide
- Cast: Seraph Amaranth, Ivan
- Where: Crusader Forward Base
- Date: July 23, 2019
- Summary: Ivan asks Katherine about helping him hide a box.
==========================<* Crusader Forward Base *>=========================== To the west of the Mi'ihen Highroad is found a long, jagged mountain chain that serves as a weather break and help keep both Luca and the Highroad itself safe from vicious storms. A large plateau in this chain, overlooking a wide, sloping beach, was selected as the forward operating base for the Crusaders' Operation Mi'ihen. The site is now a testament to their folly. Abandoned equipment and scorched stone mar thesurface of the plateau, and the beach below is riddled with the remains of Crusaders, Althena's Guard, and Al Bhed alike -- and individuals still working to bury them at sea. Only scant Pyreflies remain, after Lady Yuna did a series of Sendings over an entire night. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA2mQV8iXxs
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth has had kind of a Lot Going On, and Ivan knows at least half of that but right now as he arrives back at the Festina Lente...
Well, it's less droopy than before, at least. Gone is the blanket and the droopy sadface windowsills and the house that's kinda convex at the centre like it just sags and can't house up straight.
But there's a pensive mood going on inside, done up no less by the fact that Amaranth is fretting to herself inside...
... still dressed up in what looks like a shinobi's outfit. It's purple and black and has those baggy pants with cloth wrap two-toed sandals and a cute mantle that she's kind of put up over her mouth in her sulkiness.
At least... she's not hugging Queen Anastasia this time. A plus??
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan eases open the door, looking around warily. "...aha, good, Talia's not here!"
But -- he realizes a few moments too late -- Katherine is, and she looks rather serious. Ivan freezes guiltily, because even though he has permission to come and go, being caught in the act of actually utilizing this permission still makes him feel like that was wrong and he should have knocked.
"Um, sorry, is this a bad time? I was just going to... ... hide a box here. If that's okay. It's not a bad box or a dangerous box, just an embarrassing box."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth's face droops as her cheeks redden as she sees Ivan come in and--
Looks down at herself like she were caught wearing something she didn't want anyone to see. In any other world, it'd probably be the look of someone who got caught out with a cosplay habit they didn't want to be made public. (Why not??)
In this world...
"A-aah, um-- no-- wait, a box?" Katherine mumbles as she picks at her mantle, getting up. "I can hold onto a box, certainly. Sorry for..."
She gestures at herself.
"It's been a strange day."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Were you training?" Ivan has been briefed about how that's a difficult subject, but has no idea if that means to be delicate about it or to avoid mentioning it altogether. Mentioning it and not mentioning it both seem sort of callous in their own way.
About the box, he says: "Thanks. It's potentially a problem to have around the Guard, and probably not so good for Talia to find out about it, either. It could be a matter of life or death-via-teasing."
Don't make jokes about life or death matter around people currently experiencing life or death matters, Ivan!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Katherine -- no, really, Amaranth; there's no compartmentialisation big enough in her mind to reason why Katherine would be dressed like a shinobi. This is Amaranth through and through. "... I was," she quietly admits. "Talia wanted to try to... well, we both... I wanted to try to practice a bit, in case the worst case happened."
She slumps a little as she admits, "It's terribly awkward. But muscle memory is muscle memory, I suppose..."
She looks to the box, before raising her eyebrows. "... teasing, huh?"
She slumps again with a chuckle as she snaps her fingers, and a magician's silk top hat appears. She holds her hand out for the box.
"Your secret'll be safe with me."
... ... ... in a hat???
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Sorry you've had to go back to doing that. I wish I had some progress to tell you on finding the hidden assassin," Ivan says, unaware he was supposed to have been talked out of that. "I'm not sure I'm a very good detective. I did find out a lot of the Guard members have complicated family stuff going on... but that's not very useful for helping you feel safer."
He unearths the fabled Box from a satchel at his side. It's a small wooden box, not exactly unassuming, due to a mysterious flame marking on it.
"What happens if it goes in the hat?" he asks. He doesn't necessarily want to vanish it from himself, just from prying eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"I... it's okay," Amaranth answers very quietly, shaking her head. "I would not want you to unduly risk yourself for me. Sooner or later I think the Guard is going to have to realise there is a problem in the midst of their ranks anyhow..."
She raises an eyebrow as she says, "Ah. I imagine that's the case for a lot of them, true..." on Ivan's mentioning of Guard members. "To serve Althena... well, it is the same story here, with those who serve Yevon, right?"
A frown.
"Well, I will cause it to disappear in a wondrous extradimensional space...!" Amaranth expresses. "... and I can make it reappear if you wish me to."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan hopes that if the Guard starts rooting out assassins they... stop before they get to him, but he doesn't see any call to voice that sentiment. "Yeah, it would be good if they found them all," he says, instead. "They've got to do something suspicious eventually if there's some big mission that brought them to Spira..." He doesn't really know if that's true, he's just hoping it sounds plausible and reassuring.
Katherine offers to vanish his box within the hat.
"So... to see it again... ... I would have to... ask?" he asks, in a cautious voice.
He can so easily imagine himself never, ever doing that. ...He isn't sure what he imagined would be the best way to hide it. Putting it under a sheet that says 'Talia don't look!' probably wouldn't work.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth glances towards Ivan, before sensing that hesitation and adding, "The Cult, I mean." ... though she doesn't really have faith in the Guard that they'd stop beforehand and honestly the question is a really wide one and it's probably best if she didn't dwell on it for too long.
"U-uhmm... I suppose so... but... I could make... something that you could unveil instead?" Amaranth sounds a little shortcircuited.
She wanted to do the disappearing hat trick so badly...
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Sorry!" says Ivan. "I'm pretty... bad at asking for things."
He looks awkward and guilty. "Maybe I shouldn't impose on you to hide it... I could just bury it somewhere and make a treasure map to find it again like a self-sufficient adult." Is... that a thing adults do?
But she seemed dissappointed! Did she want to hide it with a magic trick and then he ruined it and by backtracking he's also ruining her backup magic trick?
"I think possibly I'm just making it worse," he admits.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth can't hold it in anymore!
A small magic cue stick appears in her hand as she puts a ball in the hat. "One, two, three!" With a bright white poof-cloud, a rabbit appears in the hat's place and the ball is nowhere to be seen.
The rabbit hops onto her head, then out the window.
"... sorry. Old magician habit," Amaranth stammers. "Let's see. How about..."
She gestures and a tiny, teensy door appears just above the kitchen countertop, along with a cartoonish golden key. It opens to reveal a little compartment inside.
"I'll just use a variant of my Anywhere Door trick so you can hold the key. How's that sound?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Oh wait! He didn't ruin it all the way! She's doing it!
Ivan does what seems to be the obvious thing and adjusts the box in his arms a bit so he can clap after Katherine executes A Magic Trick. He looks a bit too serious and bewildered to have the desired effect of a delighted audience, but he's trying!
She then reveals the Anywhere Door, which Ivan appears convincingly more enchanted by. "I think that's perfect...!" he says.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth looks excited to have hit something Ivan's excited about!
She hands him the key. It's kind of a ridiculous oversize key that's bright golden and is probably going to draw more notice than not but that seems to be the price of entry to Amaranth's Wonderful World of Magic:
Everything is cartoony.
"Then, I'm happy to pronounce you owner of the Anywhere Door just above my kitchen countertop...!" Amaranth sounds every bit the part of a stage magician. "Use it well, sir."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Thank you very much," Ivan says, with gravity. He takes the key, and readies the box for deposit within the mysterious pocket dimension type space of the door, but first, he pauses and considers something. She hasn't asked, but by not asking she has gained a certain amount of extra Ivan Trust.
He holds the box up for Katherine, popping up the lid to reveal its Secret.
The secret is that it contains a little cactuar figurine that spins like a ballerina, and it plays a little music box tune.
"It sings," he tells her. That isn't the embarassing part about it, but as long as she's giving the box a home, she deserves to know at least one of its secrets.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth pauses, and gawks a little at the little box as he pops the lid and reveals... the Secret.
GS: Amaranth takes 1,000 cute elemental damage from Cactuarina Figurine Music Box! There's a warmer smile with a nod as she says, "That's lovely, Ivan. Are you..." A pause. "Well, I'll let you decide when and where it should find a place to sing its song. You'd know better than I do, after all."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I was also kind of wondering... if I might hide out here sometimes? I mean, not inside the pocket door, there might not be air in there. Just in general."
Somewhere along the line -- especially after finding Ragnell there moping that one time -- Ivan has gotten the idea that the Festina Lente is a good place for people to hide when they have had Enough of whatever is going on outside and need to shut down for a while.
And... Ivan has had a lot of days like that recently.
But, a tension has also gathered. Upon hearing the music box, Amaranth drew some kind of conclusion about him... and then didn't tell him what it was! In the end, Ivan can't let the trailed sentence go.
He adds: "...am I what, though?" What did she guess? Or what did she... ... imagine and guess and not say, which she might then go on thinking forever??? Embarassing truths or embarrassing fictions -- he doesn't know which is worse!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"Oh... um, do you need a bigger key--" Amaranth shortcircuits herself again as Ivan corrects that he's not going to hide in a pocket door. Well, one of the bedrooms would do just fine -- and she's offered the fact that her doors are open to him after all.
"Ah, that'd be just fine, honestly. If anything, you might be less of a whirlwind act than how Ragnell and Nimue can behave coming in here..."
Amaranth slumps.
"I still remember the time she brought a whole horse with her."
She shakes her head, and stammers, "Oh! I just meant... I was wondering if you were thinking of gifting it to someone. But that's presumptuous of me, because... well, you might just enjoy the music!"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"A bedroom!" That seems extreme. But it would be less likely to have other people hanging out and/or hiding in it, than, say, the living room or the kitchen. And it is a magic house. Maybe she can just make extra bedrooms when she wants? It is unnerving though to be quite /that/ welcomed.
Katherine distracts him from that line of worry with a story about... Ragnell, maybe? "A horse?"
I was wondering if you were thinking of gifting it to someone.
"Oh... the other way around, I guess. It was a gift to me. I don't... want it to get around too much that I appreciated it." Ivan rules can be a strange and difficult system to live by.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"W-well, I did offer my place. A bedroom is the least I could do, wouldn't it?" Amaranth sounds a little uncertain now, like it never registered to her that you could offer a place and just point to the couch.
Also, a droop of her face. "Yes. Nimue brought a whole horse's worth of jerky a long time ago. It fouled up the place something bad!"
Her complaints are tempered a little as she smiles at Ivan and says, "Ah... ... can we listen to it sometime, when it's just the two of us, maybe?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"The least is probably like... a corner. Or the porch. Or not offering at all." None of which appear to be the case.
Ivan looks suitably daunted by the mental image of an entire horse's worth of (potentially spoiling) jerky.
"I'm not sure I know who Nimue is... but that sounds like a ... weird day."
Katherine suggests they listen to the music box sometime again. He has trusted her with a bit of being outside of his usual demeanor and pretenses, but setting aside a future music box enjoyment time is another thing entirely.
"Well... maybe, if you want to." As discussed before, she would probably have to be the one to ask.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"Nimue's a long time friend. She's eccentric, but I know she means well inside... and I care for her very much," Amaranth explains rather tersely, but rather truthfully too. She thinks that even if Nimue were to pursue the end of the world she'd probably still give her a place because some relationships just can't change for her.
And maybe, maybe, Ivan's rationale that he can't let people know he cares too much is just...
... really familiar to her, ironically. Of her own self, so many centuries ago. Not that he can know about that.
"... sure," Amaranth smiles. "By the way, how about we make it that bedroom?" she gestures to a door along the side. "Feel free to drop off anything less private you want to keep here too... I'll keep it safe. If anything, I've become the chief homemaker of us all."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan looks toward the bedroom she indicates, with some curiosity, but greater trepidation. It's... real! A real place she is offering to let him use!
"Are you sure, though?" Maybe there is something better to do with it. Like if someone else wants to use it, or if another of her friends brings a tremendous amount of jerky to her house and they need to put it somewhere.
"You do seem really generous with your home. Can I repay you somehow?" The cultist investigation obviously isn't panning out.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"Yes, I'm sure," Amaranth tilts her head as she puts her hands behind her back. Can he repay her somehow?
Well... she has a feeling 'make Talia happy and do what she wants!!' isn't exactly going to fly and is going to be insensitive af. Ammy's not really that dumb about it. She scratches her cheek gently...
"... ... I don't really have anything concrete to ask for right now. But... I guess, maybe, from my perspective... it's been a while since I've had the courage to expand what I consider my inner circle... you know?"
She scratches her cheek and pulls that shinobi mantle of hers, which somehow isn't menacing but rather cute, up her mouth to cover herself.
"So giving is a form of healing for me, too. But of course... even if we can't root the Cult out of the Guard, let's say ... I'd be happy if you checked in once in a while for protection. Maybe more activity will deter them from coming to attack this place?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
He should probably say no!! But... he also literally just asked for this, himself, even if she offered something a little more than he bargained for. It would be weird and upsetting to suddenly make it a big thing and refuse it. Especially after hearing that being generous makes her feel better after the things she's been through.
Doesn't matter! He should say no anyway!!
"...All right, then." ... apparently some more sensible or at least passive side of him wins out.
The idea of making it a kind of low-key protection detail by dropping by to check in a lot sounds promising, too. He doesn't think it's just Katherine spinning a tale to lure him into accepting her generosity, but if she were, that would be exactly the right one to lure him with.
"I think I can do that. ... ... um. Thanks."