2019-08-04: Stabbing, Jealousy, and Other Disasters

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  • Log: 2019-08-04: Stabbing, Jealousy, and Other Disasters
  • Cast: Ivan, Lydia Seren
  • Where: Mi'ihen Highroad
  • Date: August 05, 2019
  • Summary: Ivan accidentally stabs Lydia. Hilarity ensues!

===============================<* Mi'ihen Highroad *>===============================

Many years ago, a man named Lord Mi'ihen, commander of a mercenary group known as the Crimson Blades, was summoned by the Grand Measter to Bevelle to answer the challenge that his group was a threat to Yevon. Though his followers suspected he would be executed and begged to follow, Mi'ihen ordered them to stay behind and walked along an old path to Bevelle, without stopping to rest. 

Moved by the display of piety, the Grand Maester formally adopted Mi'ihen and his soldiers into Yevon as a defensive force, known now as the Crusaders. In recognition of the momentous moment, the path Mi'ihen walked now bears his name.
...except not really, because the original one was wrecked by Sin a few hundred years ago. You can still see bits of it as you pass along the Highroad, on which the Djose Temple can also be found.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8tfe_H7bzw
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

After the recent attacks on Guard-held outposts on the highroad, Ivan is helping to ensure the area is fully cleared of threats. He seems to be a bit glummer than usual, as if carrying a heavier weight; possibly because he thinks himself unobserved. That's likely to quickly change, though, since he's specifically keeping an eye and an ear out for any signs of the presence of other people. The Yevonites have apparently incorporated shooting firearms from behind cover into their tactics, and that's the kind of thing you want to get on top of very quickly.

A throwing knife is readied in one hand as he patrols the area.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

SOMEONE WAS KILLED IN THE GUARD. Ivan doesn't know about it yet but Lydia THINKS he does because of course he would it's a dead guard! And she was breaking into the jail at the time! And she believes it's going too be pinned on her and ruin her ability to cuddle with Ivan! This is bad! This is real bad!!

And so as Ivan is tense and ready to throw a knife at the first sign of trouble, it's Lydia who steps out from behind a tree all of a sudden with no warning to yell, "Ivan! This is bad!!!"

This in of itself might not be so bad but Lydia even happens to be holding onto a machina rifle that the Yevonites have been using because she found one nearby and decided to tinker with it a bit. It's not aimed AT Ivan but it is sort of out there on her hand while Lydia's other hand is into the air to convey the seriousness of this situation!

She'll probably yell more really loudly in a minute too but this is how much she gets out in the immediate.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

It's the sight of sudden motion behind a tree and the machina rifle that pings ANOTHER ENEMY SNEAK ATTACK in Ivan's mind; he lets the knife fly before he HEARS LYDIA'S VOICE SHOUTING HIS NAME and then you can see his eyes widen as he sort of fumbles after the knife as if he can grab it back out of the air. But that isn't how throwing knives work and it's WELL ON ITS WAY TO AERIAL STABBINGS, sorry Lydia!

What happens next will probably determine whether Ivan ever gets to wipe the horrified look off his face or not.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

The knife goes straight for Lydia's gut and Lydia is fast but caught off guard. Why is Ivan throwing knives at her all of a sudden??? She doesn't know! She can't imagine why Ivan would throw a knife at her right now! Because she's kind of an idiot!!

She DOES have armoring though and though the blade does slam right into Lydia's gut, it only digs in about halfway before stopping.

Lydia says, "Wha--" before falling flat on her butt, largely out of surprise. She looks down at the knife, having just dug in enough to get some silver spilling out of her wound.

Then an idea occurs to her as to why Ivan threw the blade.

"I'm innocent Ivan! I swear!" She says, not even taking the knife out and just kind of sitting there. "We were set up! Framed! I only did some vandalism and jail breaking, I'm not the real killer! I'm innocent!! I swear!!!"

She says that last bit after confessing to two crimes.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

HALFWAY IS PLENTY. Ivan rushes over to her, looking stricken, and tries to inspect the damage. She'll be all right, won't she? She has special rules, doesn't she...?? Either way, it looks very painful??

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that...!"

Why is she going on like she expected this?!

"What are you talking about, who did you kill...??"

He digs in his pack for first aid gear.

"I'm going to pull it out and apply pressure, all right...?"

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"You didn't mean to do that??" Lydia says, finally just flopping over onto her back. Luckily she manages to not shove it any further in though it's clear she isn't taking the wound like it's going to be fatal because, well, this isn't even the worst Ivan's done to Lydia before though she's still distressed because someone put a knife in her but it's more like 'Ivan hit me! ;o;' than it is 'AHH YOU KILLED ME'.

"Ahh okay okay okay. Put pressure on it!" Is this actually even going to help you Lydia?? Is this even neccessary? Well it's not as if Lydia knows how her body works. Ivan freaking out is kinda making her freak out too so.

"And I didn't kill anybody! That's what I've been trying to tell you!"

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan probably knows on SOME level that he has already personally hurt Lydia worse than this and seen her hurt worse than this by things other than him, but right now his head is mostly at 'Lydia showed up in front of a knife that was meant to kill somebody' so she's going to have to put up with being treated like a normal person with a potentially life-threatening injury until she visibly starts to recover.

Ivan carries through on his promise to remove the knife, ripping it free in a swift motion and then pressing down with a bandage that begins to gather silver rather than red fluid.

"Sorry," he says again, more quietly, looking guilty and downcast. When a few beats have passed and he calms a little, he looks at her with a furrowed brow.

"Okay, who didn't you kill...?"

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia...

...kind of enjoys being treated like someone with a potentially life threatening injury or, well, the reality of being tended to by Ivan. Ivan tends to be reticient to show outward displays of affection so it's kind of nice to experience something akin to that even if it's something like this!

Lydia winces when the blade is pulled out and looks away from the wound, not by turning her head away but by focusing on Ivan's face (or head, depending on angle) and watching him work. She kind of avoids looking down at the wound itself.

Ivan wraps it up in a bandage at which point she actually turns her head down to look and immediately jerks her head back to look at Ivan again instead.

"Um. Okay, so the Guard arrested Mariel who is like one of my best friends, okay? And she's one of the folks with the Caravan Kinship. So we broke in to rescue her and had to fight a Guard. We didn't kill her though! We didn't! But uh. Honestly I didn't see it happen, since I was trying to free Mariel but apparently this guy in a mask appeared out of nowhere and killed her. I think it might've been the Shadow Dragon Cult!"

Lydia has no idea that Ivan is actually already tied up in that so she continues, "They're a uh bunch of jerks that kidnap children and make them be assassins. Once I was looking after some kids and one got behind me and BAM right through the chest so they're bad news. I have no idea why they're here or why they'd do that but I know they do the thing with the asks and murders and ahh am I still bleeding?"

Hard to tell with the bandage but it doesn't seem to be.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Lydia has certainly secured a high level of attention and fuss from Ivan right now, though she may not be in the best condition to enjoy it, what with the pain of getting a knife ripped out of her and all. He is doing little to hide it as he frets over the injury, though. Perhaps when she's feeling better, she can bask in the afterglow of concern a little?

Lydia lays out the tale of the prison break and their grim assassin assist.

"How do you know it wasn't me?" Ivan cuts in, momentarily derailing all of this for no reason with inexplicable jealousy that SOME OTHER ASSASSIN showed up and helped Lydia out of a tricky situation with a convenient murder. ...Even though he's not feeling very great about his lethal skillset for various reasons right now.

But this derail is itself derailed when Lydia describes BAM through the chest and Ivan is reminded that Lydia does, indeed, have some very different rules when it comes to taking injuries. Under the circumstances he just winces at her, though, like he's saddened at the imagery.

"I've heard a little about them, but I don't know what they want, either," he admits.

Aah am I still bleeding?

"It's too soon to remove the pressure to look," Ivan says solemnly. "Tell me if it stops hurting and we'll check, then."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

How DOES Lydia know it wasn't Ivan?? Well honestly she doesn't 100 percent know it wasn't Ivan though it is pretty much 99.99 percent. "Well nobody said it was you. And I didn't know you wore masks...?"

She has no idea that Ivan is feeling JEALOUSY over it because why would she think someone got jealous over that?? But then again she seems more nervous and worried about that particular murder than 'ooh someone saved me~<3!' so if she thought it was Ivan it might not be as appreciated on her part as Ivan expects. After all, she seems to think she's gonna get pinned for the crime! Probably somewhat irrationally!

"Okay." She says more quietly upon it being too soon to remove. She continues to not look down. It does hurt right? Lydia wonders.

"I don't know. Probably just assholes." Lydia manages. "Where'd you hear about them from?" Her expression becomes particularly concerned as she rubs her hands as she bites her lip nervously. "Please be careful. There's a lot of them."

She's warning the assassin...about the assassins...?!

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Maybe Ivan just wants to be the only assassin in Lydia's life, even if other assassins are causing her trouble!! Maybe especially if other assassins are causing her trouble.

She speculates that he doesn't seem the type to wear a mask, and he shrugs in agreement. "Usually I'm more about disguises..." he says. "It's easier to get into places if you look like someone who belongs. But sometimes I'll wear a mask so I don't have to kill everybody who sees... ..." he grows more withdrawn as he gets further into that sentence. "...this is too much information, probably."

Where'd you hear about them from?

"I'm not sure I can say," he tells her. Lydia does seem to already know everyone, and he trusts her, but he would pretty much have to consider Katherine's trust forfeit if he decided to start telling people about her past without her knowledge.

"But I heard they might be hidden in the Guard and was trying to find them, myself. I didn't really make a lot of progress."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Oh okay." Lydia say, eyes widening when Ivan says they might have infiltrated the Guard itself (which certainly would explain some things) but she doesn't comment immediately because she's not sure if she ought to do anything with this information in the first place. But eventually she does say, "I know a former member..." Oh she knows Katherine's secret. "Her name is Jean." Oh. "Uhh but I don't even know if she's on Lunar right now--" She pauses. "Er. Why are you trying to find them?" Her eyes widen even more.

DID IVAN FIND AN ASSASSIN HE LIKES IN THE SHADOW DRAGON CULT??

"They're probably not cute or anything." She adds uneasily.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

I know a former member...

Ivan blinks. "You do-... oh." Ivan has never heard of Jean. Sorry, Jean. Now some random person knows your secret. Maybe he'll forget it. Or meet some other person named Jean later and spend their entire aquaintance assuming she is an ex assassin but never bringing it up.

They're probably not cute or anything

...and now they're both jealous of the assassin. Between that and the stabbing, this conversation is kind of a disaster.

Ivan absolutely does not know what the right response to that could possibly be, so he nods gravely and agrees with it, evebrows knitted.

"Yes... probably not. That was... in the rumor. That the Guard has secret shadow cultists and they aren't... cute. Or anything." Oh, right, there was a question in there. Answering it might have been a more sensible way of diffusing the cuteness concern. "I'm trying to kill them so they don't kill anyone I know," he elaborates.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

See? Lydia doesn't know everyone! Well she knows Katherine. And she knows fucked up stuff has happened to Katherine. But she has no idea that she's secretly SERAPH AMARANTH or for that matter a former assassin of any kind. Also she sells cute outfits so she doesn't worry too much about Kathy and her general weird stuff. Though she does hope she's doing okay. She hasn't checked in in a while. Maybe she ought to! Maybe she can go hide there for a while. Some day. SOME DAY SOON.

"Oh! I'm glad the rumor clarified that up! You can trust rumors about how non-cute certain Shadow Dragon cultists are. Though Jean is pretty hot but that's different because she's an ex shadow dragon cultist so--"WAIT WHY IS SHE BRINGING THIS UP? NOW SHE HAS TO WORRY ABOUT IVAN FALLING FOR JEAN??

Actually she thinks Jean isn't really into a formal relationship so that's probably not so big of a deal. Lydia calms down considerably and quickly.

"Trying to kill them?" Lydia asks. "Oh uh... That doesn't seem like the sort of thing... you should be trying to do on your own." They punched a hole through her chest and they kidnap children to train them to murder people. She wouldn't ask anybody to kill them or anything but she's not exactly looking out to protect people like that. "I uh. Not because you aren't really good or anything, but there's one you and there's a loooot of them. And uh. Like what if they send ten ninjas after you."

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan feigns neutrality as Lydia reveals the 'hotness' of Jean. His thoughts naturally flow in an opposite direction, to the fact that Lydia has other romantic prospects and that he should be encouraging them because he is a dead end for her because he is never going to muster the courage to actually live his life.

"Do you like Jean?" he asks, with the same forced neutrality. There is probably no universe in which bluntly asking someone who likes you whether they like someone else is a good idea.

That doesn't seem like the sort of thing... you should be trying to do on your own.

"People keep telling me that," Ivan sighs. "But what else can I do? If they just get left alone then maybe they kill the person they're trying to kill, and then Talia will be very sad." He shrugs his shoulders, keeping his hands where they are because he's still applying pressure to Lydia's wound. Or just her stomach, if the wound closed itself up by now. "It's not like I've had much luck finding them, anyway."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Yeah she saved me once from the people who did this junk to me so--yeah of course I do." Lydia says, though she's less oblivious as to what Ivan means in this case because asking someone who likes you if they like someone else is pretty unsubtle. She adds, "But everyone likes Jean. I like her as a friend and I haven't seen her in months."

She has forgotten to mention that the wound has stopped hurting so Ivan is stuck here for the time being! "Who are they trying to kill?" Lydia asks, not really recognizing this might not lead back to Ivan's mysterious source. "Talia could help right? I wish I could say I could but they already owned me pretty hard so I'm probably a bad person for ninja security."

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

The Jean gambit gets easily deflected -- not a huge surprise considering the blundering execution. Ivan is both relieved and dissappointed. He won't give up, though. Lydia has by her own strange disclosure when they met had crushes on like at least five people in the recent past. A better option is bound to turn up, if it hasn't already.

"Talia could help," he says, "But if they're as bad as people keep telling me, maybe I don't want Talia to have to deal with them either." If it's absolute stupidity to face them, at least he could absorb the stupidity just onto himself. At this rate it feels like empty words, though. He hasn't found them and they haven't taken notice of his search.

As for their target... I'd really have to go and ask if I can tell you more.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

AND YET Lydia is still stuck on Ivan!

"So it's okay for you to try to deal with them alone but you don't want any help because you're afraid they might get hurt. But it's okay if YOU get hurt. Because you're you. Is that it?" Lydia asks as if READING IVAN'S MIND.

She rests a hand on Ivan's, the one that's holding onto her wound. "I don't want you to get hurt either, Ivan. And this isn't the sort of thing anybody should do alone. You aren't disposable."

She sounds and looks dissapointed when she pulls her hand away and says, "It doesn't hurt anymore. But--alright. Can you ask them?" If they're sending Ivan off to do murders maybe she needs to have a chat with them.

Unless Ivan hasn't told them his plans here which is pretty plausible.

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

Ivan doesn't see a flaw in the logic about a damage control strategy where he takes all the damage, so he nods. "Basically, yes...?"

B-but then, Lydia reveals she has led him into a trap (not really). And she puts a hand over his and tells him he isn't disposable.

Lydia's suspicions that Ivan is being used for murder are off base in this case--both Talia and Katherine urged him not to do the thing. But regardless of this precedent, having Lydia express her concern in this manner just sort of quietly emotionally KOs him, and he's so focused on keeping his face from like crumpling that he's 10 seconds late in even responding to Lydia's update that her wound doesn't hurt anymore.

He blinks a few times and pulls back the gauze to confirm whether she regen'd.

"I'll... ask if I can tell you things, okay yes."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Its a little silvery on around the impact sight but it does seem to be back to normal as it's already shifting back towards a more purple (and thus normal) color scheme. She looks at the hand she just had on Ivan's for a moment before quickly putting it to her side. "Okay."

She is quiet for a bit. "Anyway um. I just wanted you to know that I didn't klll that lady in case they were saying I killed that lady. I don't know if they're even saying anything. Maybe they know who did it. I don't know."

Though uh. She thinks about this for a moment. "Does uh. Does Leo know about your deal?"

Because the Shadow Dragon Cult isn't the only group of assassins that are secretly in the Althena Guard. It's just she doesn't want this particular one to get in trouble! "Or uh. About the Cult within the Guard? And...stuff?"

<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.

"It looks like you're doing better," Ivan says. It's still pretty astonishing that she can heal so quickly. "Sorry again that I knifed you."

Lydia reiterates that she isn't the killer! Ivan nods. "I haven't heard anything yet, but I can let you know what people say about it..."

Lydia asks if Lord Leo knows about Ivan's 'deal' which could be a lot of things.

"I don't tell Lord Leo much," Ivan admits. "I'm not sure what would happen if I told him about the cult..." It could be that Lord Leo fixes everything by being awesome. Or Lord Leo starts paying more attention to people's backgrounds and activities and catches ALL the assassins in the Guard, including Ivan. Or Lord Leo... gets killed fighting cultists. It's all a lot of dangerous unknowns.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia says, "It's okay! I surprised you. It's fine." So reasonable about being knifed! But really is that so unusual now?

She considers the matter of telling Leo. "Yeah." She admits. "Probably for the best he doesn't know."

She doesn't sound happy about it but maybe it's understandable that her faith in Leo is shaken, in spite of saying she still believed in him, after everything that's hapened and seems to be happening.

She doesn't sound too happy about it either and all those bad ends that Ivan is thinking about are definitely on Lydia's mind.

No mind reading neccessary.