2019-08-06: Chasing a Dream to the End of the Universe

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<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

(BGM: That One Cute Generic FF14 BGM - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjlRvQ1IuMM)

Riesenlied is having a Walking Day today.

But it's kind of a strange walking day, because... because she's-- been staying up all night long? It's a terribly confusing time for her, chaotic and full of fears and trepidation for her heart which has somehow led to a long night burning the midnight oil which has now led to, in the hours of daylight--

"E-Elly, Miss Elly!"

On hearing that Elly was around the Fereshte today, Riesenlied is springing to action!

Springing as much as... well, someone of her current physical capability can anyway. She's in her usual Fereshte garments, EXCEPT a curious headband that she's got tied around her horns to keep them upright and not droopy. She looks rather bleary and exhausted from having little sleep having read...

Books? Lots of books?

'A Lunarian Tale', 'Filgaia Guide to the Stars', 'The Planet and You'--

Oops, they tumble on out of her arms clumsily as her knees destabilise and she nearly droops. The horns are struggling to stay upright.

"Um, I wanted to ask you something, if that is all right... Do you know about, er..." Eyes swirling. "Dwarf... planets?"

What... are you doing, Riesenlied? Are you really that upset that no one wanted to eat your fun pizza?

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

Noeline is there to grab for the books before they can hit the ground, thankfully. She has to rather twist and turn to then get an arm around Riesenlied in time, wincing a little at her awkward position, but it's with a sigh of relief that she manages to lift the both of them back up to standing, carefully tucking the saved tomes under one arm.

"... I don't confess to know what on earth is going on," she adds to Riesenlied's questions with a good-natured smile. She looks more rested than her partner, though that might be because she and all-nighters are something of a long lost friend. When you masquerade as a Crimson Noble, sometimes you have to keep up appearances. (Or, put more genuinely: when you're a neonate experiencing the outside world for the first time, sometimes in your wonder you just straight forget to sleep.)

"She was up all night reading, and now she barrels off in your direction faster than I've seen her go in weeks. I'm usually the one that has to be told to go to sleep already," she huffs, and then her eyes glint with amusement. "But I suppose I shouldn't complain at anything that helps her progress. Maybe I should make you jog around the deck as we talk?" she adds impishly.

She'd spotted the headband earlier, but a long-honed intuition meant she hasn't commented on it yet. As ripe as it is for teasing, the fact Riesenlied feels the need for it means it's serious enough she should treat it with respect.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia likes to join Riesenlied on walks. She gets stir crazy when Riesenlied is in her chair but usually manages to hide it between genuine care for her mother figure. Still. She's got her limits and the fact Riesenlied is out and about is kind of a relief for her.

Lydia is as she usually is, still considerinng how to tell Riesenlied Ragnell and thus KK are probably alive but apparently too busy not spending time with their daughter?? But on the other hand, there's probably more going on there than she knows and she honestly is really trying to think about other things. Like the cute guy and also the uh... the other thing. The... /other/ thing.

Lydia completely hasn't caught onto what Riesenlied is up to and seems a little befuddled about her sudden interest in 'Space Stuff'. She's just not getting it!

"Ah---Mom, are you okay??"

She seems sheepish as she drops her books. "Oh uh. Elly. Uhm.." Her cheeks silver. "Is everything okay with you? Everything... goodish?"

She puts her hands in her pockets, looking to Noeline. "Me neither. Mom's all into space stuff lately." She smiles happily if a bit awkwardly.

Lydia is kind of an idiot.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

ELLY VAN HOUTEN

IS HERE!! She is also NOT fishing! Maybe she caught all the fish. Literally every single fish in Spira. (Haha, nowhere close! But she did run out of bait and it takes time for that to be replenished.)

She was sitting in a chair with a cup of tea in one hand and a book on her knee (the book is in fact about fishes - it's something rather battered, mostly about Filgaian fishes, but it's definitely not entirely useless). And now, as he looks up, she says, "Riesenlied!"

"Of course," she says, but then she sets HER stuff aside to get up and reach forwards -- yielding her chair immediately to RIesenlied if she needs it!

Her eyes track upwards. "I like your headband... my goodness. Um. Dwarf planets. Um," she says, pausing and furrowing her brow to think for a moment.

"Ye-es... a little bit... at least I've heard the term."

Her eyes flick to Lydia. "Hello!" she says. Then, with a little bit of a laugh, she asks - mostly-but-not-entirely playfully - "Are you going to build a space ship to take us all back to Filgaia...?"

(She asks over Riesenlied's head in a quiet but serious tone, "How long has this been going on?" This to Noeline, to whom she gives a seriously worried look. What will be the next fascination for Riesenlied -- poultry? Ceramics? Heavy armor skills??)

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

As someone who Riesenlied shares a bed with, Noeline knows when Elly whisper-asks how long this has been going on that it's been going on for, y'know, weeks. Not as bad as it's been the last couple of days ever since they returned from the Moonflow from the near-kidnapping, but...

She certainly has been in a pique of just -- throwing herself into this new topic of 'Space Stuff' and also 'Engineering', which probably doesn't take two and two to know who in her immediate intimate circle of family is about.

"O-o-oh, Lydia--" she nearly tumbles as she looks worriedly, but flomphs down onto Elly's offered chair apologetically. She doesn't want to steal someone's seat just like that, but she knows she's about at her limit right now.

"A space ship... well- well, I would not fancy myself an engineer, but I wanted to learn a bit... about space ships, and the stars, and..."

Oh no, the part of the horns above the headband-tie are flopping. They kind of look like a pincer beetle right now...?

"I'm sorry. I recall you went to a prestigious college, and I thought you might know... admittedly, this is all very confusing to me." She glances to Lydia. "B-but I'm trying!"

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Oh um. Actually. I uh. Er. Well. Honestly with the fact this place is super anti-tech. Um. I haven't really been working on much of any big projects." Lydia sounds a bit dissapointed by that. "Nobody's been bothering you right? Up here? In Spira? Or being weird?"

She seems antsy but that fades somewhat as she gradually gets what Riesenlied is getting at.

"Haha what? Wanting to eng' it up, mom? Wanna do a mother-daughter rocket shuttle sometime?" Lydia grins sharply with many teeth. "Sounds like a plan to me! Don't worry, mom! You don't need to know any of that fancy stuff to build a spaceship! You just gotta keep building attempts until one works!"

She throws a big thumbsup to the universe. Just like Naruto.

"Right now I'm mostly just worried about a cute dude. You probably don't know him though, Elly." She frowns. "Unless you do...???"

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

Noeline's immediate response to the both of them is an amused and quietly indulgent smile, though she does huff out an amused laugh afterwards. She knows full well that poultry will never be knocked off the list of fascinating subjects as far as Riesenlied is concerned, and let's be fair, ceramics is probably way up there too.

Besides, she certainly can't see any harm in Riesenlied trying to connect further with her daughter - and the topic is a chance for Riesenlied to focus on lighter things, and maintain a little space from the events of the day. She's often tried to follow along, but has to admit the topic doesn't really gel all that well with her; usually her interests lie with people and the way they interact and change, not planetary bodies.

(That said, she will absolutely listen to Riesenlied discuss her latest understandings - any time, any day. It's endearing.)

Still, she does have to wonder why the other Hyadean doesn't just come out and say it, and she grins lightly to herself for a moment before deciding to butt in. "I'm sure you could ask the same of Lydia, couldn't you? Space is kind of her thing, after all," she suggests innocently as she glances back to Elly and raises her eyebrows towards Lydia's sudden enthusiasm, as if that gives the whole game away at a stroke.

"Ah-- that would be Ivan, I suppose? ... we've been busy enough that I suppose we haven't really had a chance to follow up with Talia as to what's going on with him," she admits with a frown.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

It wasn't much of a college, ELly thinks, but she picks up her tea cup and takes a long sip of it. "Ah," Elly says to Lydia, her cheeks pinkening. "You don't have to explain... I know exactly what you mean. But, um, I'm not sure. I don't know who you're thinking of off hand..."

Elly tries to think of who Lydia hangs out with.

Wow, Elly thinks, I mostly remember that time she wanted to kill me over what Solaris did to her.

Hm.

Wow, Elly thinks further. That really is kind of looming large.

The Carakin? Are there any men under the age of Fart in the Carakin?

"... Cyre?" Elly guesses. But she says, "Ah!" at Noeline's statement. "I don't think we've met, no."

As she sips her tea, Elly tells Riesenlied, "Reaching space - in a way that lets you stay in space - is difficult... though I suppose this isn't new information to you, after everything. I remember, um, the... first time we came to Lunar, and I was... with... some people, they thought that it was possible we might be sent some repair parts by a rocket. I'll explain what I know about those later, but..."

Sip

"Dwarf planets... let's see. I think I can illustrate the idea of the different kind of planets best with... hm... nuts, or... fruits, or... hm..."

Elly frowns.

"Tell me what you know about regular planets already," Elly finally asks.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

It might not be directly at the heart of what Riesenlied's real worry is, but--

But hearing Lydia perk up and laugh and ask her if she wants to do a mother-daughter rocket shuttle...

"Y-yes...!" Riesenlied's cheeks are flush and she could nearly tear up. A pause. "Um, not that I know how to-- yes, I suppose we just have to keep trying at it until something works, just like the Fereshte."

Space might be a hair more deadly... but then again, the Fereshte turned out fiiiiine, didn't it?

She looks apologetically to Noeline as she sighs, but on the topic of Ivan, nods quietly as she remarks, "Ah, Ivan, yes! Lydia and Ivan have been spending a lot of time. They seem to be very compatible together," she inadvertently grazes very close.

She briefly remembers when Lydia talked about setting each other on fire, or about toilets, and--

looks back to Elly.

Riesenlied's eyes light up as she pumps her hands to psyche herself up.

"Well, I tried using analogies to understand. So a planet is a mother-cucco, and a moon -- or many moons! -- is like a cucco chick revolving around her. O-oh, and there's the Sun, or rather a Sun, which is like... the Great Cucco of a given flock."

...

...

"B-but then dwarf planets came up, and brown dwarfs, and also gas giants and..."

Gas Cucco...??

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"Maybe! I don't know! Who's Ivan??" Lydia says even though this doesn't make any sense but her mouth is already outrunning her brain and it's the beginning of the scene. To be honest, Lydia barely has the guts to kill anyone intentionally let alone Elly but in an emotional moment like that you can never really be sure what someone's going to do right? Turns out genuine kindness DOES have an effect on people sometimes. At least, it does on Lydia.

The Fereshte probably works better than ever with Lydia's constant gradual improvements and understanding of aeronautics! Of course, Lydia does actually read all those space books but she doesn't really want Riese to feel she needs to destroy herself by trying to understand all that. That's Lydia's job! And Cetiri's job probably. There's plenty of stuff Riesenlied can help with in such a task that doesn't require such book learning.

"Huh? What?" She asks about Cyre before shaking her head. Lydia isn't really interested in being lectured about space from Elly so she doesn't actually answer the question. It's not strictly for FAIR reasons but all the same...

She kind of looks away, a bit exhaling faintly from her mouth.

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

"I have not met Ivan myself, either," nods Noeline towards the redhead. Of course, where Riesenlied stops just short of the line, Noeline is content to shoot right past it. "Honestly, this long and he hasn't even been brought to meet the parents," she grouses as she plants a hand on her hip, but grins right afterwards to show that she's joking.

She... is joking, right? Even if she is showing teeth-- or fangs, in her case.

Turning back to the topic of space, she does chuckle at Elly's first comment. "I think the tradeoff is that any way in which you manage to reach space without a way to stay there, you probably have an incredible story out of the bargain. Assuming, of course, you make it back down safely afterwards."

She doesn't say any more than that because Riesenlied has begun to discuss the nature of planetary cuccos. This might explain why she enjoys listening to her partner discuss what she's learnt that day; there's an unmistakable smile and quiet joy written across Noeline's face, her expression a lot less teasing than you'd expect as she pats Riese's hand in support.

"Still, I don't think you need to worry that much about the specifics. A broad understanding is probably fine," she does at least suggest, well aware it's kind of a specialist field. "In the end, any discussion of it would probably relate to Filgaia and Lunar."


<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly feels a momentary queasiness upon realizing that she may know more about this than a woman from another star entirely. Add 'poor education' to the sins of Mother, perhaps...

But Lydia keeps her attention first. She smiles then and says, leaning slightly forwards, "It's alright. I've felt the same way. Just don't be afraid of feeling whatever you feel, okay? And if he feels the same way, then............."

Elly blinks once, before looking to Noeline. "That's broadly correct," she says. "It's not just a matter of going 'up'. The best way to think about it is that we're all standing on a particular object that's moving in a particular way, but very reliably, so we don't notice it. But if you try to get into space, you have to think about that, and take it into account."

"But as for planets..."

S C I E N C E T I M E

"That's not a bad analogy... because it's really a matter of size. Planets are held in their orbits by gravity, which of course you're familiar with from magic, but which is also produced naturally by large masses. The planets orbit around the Sun, and moons orbit around the planets..."

"A 'dwarf planet' refers to an object that's large enough to be round," Elly explains, "but is significantly smaller than other planets. It's often made partially of ice. Ah... I know there are names for the planets but we didn't learn them, so, I'll say that there are some in the middle of the solar system, and all the way on the outside."

"A 'gas giant' is a planet that is large enough to have attracted a very thick atmosphere... so thick that most of the planet, in fact, is made of that gas. You know how the air grows thinner when you're on top of a mountain, or high in the air? It's a similar effect because the gravitation of the world is what keeps the air in place. A 'brown dwarf' is a planet so large that it begins to produce heat, from constantly squeezing itself... but which isn't powerful enough to begin -nuclear fusion- in the core."

Elly pauses.

"I don't know how to say -nuclear fusion- normally," she concludes apologetically. "When atoms are pressed together with enough force, they combine and release energy. That's what makes the stars shine."


<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

To be fair, Riesenlied is purely Filgaian, since she was never born in Hyades or ever saw it! But... certainly poor education has always been an issue... she was a nomad and then impoverished, after all.

Riesenlied has a gentle concerned look towards Lydia, enough that it's rather evident where the roots of her concern lie... but it's to Noeline that she glances in turn bashfully. "I don't have any complaints myself... but we should meet as a family, sometime."

She holds her hands together quietly to say, "We have travelled through space to Lunar... but I do wonder what it is like up there." She nods at Noeline's reassurance, biting her lip...

But then--

S C I E N C E T I M E

"I--I see... yes, I remember gravity from magic. 'Demi', some scholars in Spira call it," Riesenlied has an INCREDIBLY strange point of reference. "Ohh, I see... so they revolve because of that pull? Like--"

A pause.

"The attraction a chick has to their mother!"

... Gravity is Love?

Then on dwarf planets and brown dwarfs... "O-okay, so... a smaller mother-- sister-cucco, we can say." An ice elemental sister-cucco? Hum... "Oh, yes! There are some mountainous peaks in Elru high enough some of the Fereshte nomads have to be careful to not faint," she responds.

A brown dwarf starts to produce heat...

"S-so like when a cucco turns red because it is angry... and a cucco flock comes to protect them! I see."

Riesenlied has learnt Nuclear Fusion through Cuccology...??

She lowers her head gently. "Thank you... that makes a bit more sense. ... I'm sorry to have-- gone around in a fluster like this... I suppose it's because I was scared..."

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

Lydia Seren takes it seriously. "Well I mean, it's not likee we're officially doing anything or anything." It's pretty much like 95 percent subtext 5 percent text and Lydia is okay with things being at about that place. She'd prefer if itw as like 10 percent text but she is worried about chasing Ivan away by being too forward.

Like literally make him run away. It's happened before! But honestly part of it is just Lydia's own issues rearing their ugly head. She doesn't talk about that.

She may be embarrassed that Elly (lets face it) probably knows more about this subject than she does too. Lydia is largely self taught and had to do a lot of the actual 'reading' far later in life.

"Nuclear fusion?" Lydia asks. "What's that?"

She reaches over a bit sneakily to try and take Riesenlied's hand and squeeze it a little. She can tell she's worrying a mom. Worrying a mom is what she hates doing most. If nothing else, her devotion is real.

"If everyone really wants to try it... I don't mind building a rocket but it's impossible for me to be totally safe because... I haven't done it before. Even if I do a hundred test runs, there's decent odds there could be a problem."

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

"That is true," Noeline reassures Riesenlied in regards to her idea of meeting Ivan - and then offers Lydia an amused chuckle, preferring not to lean /too/ hard on their poor suffering daughter. "Put it this way - if we meet as a family, Riesenlied can bring her full mothering force to bear. Talia was worried that he needed to reconnect with people to be 'saved' - I would say the Outreach is fairly suited for a task like that."

There's an unmistakable pride in her voice for the sake of their organization - their family - that she's not going to hide.

"Well, I know a little, at least," Noeline tilts her head with a hum. Admittedly, not all that much; many records were lost when the Photosphere fell, and even more when it became obvious it would not be flying any time soon. "The idea of slingshotting around something, certainly. I meant more that you'd have to be in quite the state to get that high up and then have whatever you were using fall away from you, I suppose," she adds, just a little flippantly.

She can still be a good student when she wants to be - she's not exactly the sort to sit there rapt in attention, but she is clearly listening to Elly's miniature lecture, especially near the end where Filgaian terms begin to break down and Solaris terms have to be relied upon. The idea of 'nuclear fusion' makes her frown for just a moment before she seems to accept it, but there's every chance from Elly's description that she's imagining some sort of super-friction.

She sounds out a quiet hum afterwards, and helps support Riesenlied in a manner that allows Lydia some closeness. "Again, I'm not sure the two of you need to jump all the way to a rocket, at least not while stuck on Spira," she grins lightly. "For the time being, I'm sure it would be more than pleasant to study together, or for you to mentor Riese. I dare say what matters is time together, hm?"


<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

%rElly sips her tea to the last drop as she considers Riesenlied's cuccocentric view of the heavenccos. (A Cuccosmos...?)

"Oh... it's alright. It's not something that matters for your day to day life... for most people, the other planets are just stars that are a little brighter in the night sky. You could use them to mark the calendar, I suppose..."

She then regards Lydia again. "I think," she says, "that you'd want to be very careful... and you wouldn't want to launch a rocket with a person in it. I'm very confident in your design skills, but a rocket doesn't have the advantage of Gear fuel to power the thrusters. You know it can't really last long outside of the conditions of a Gear generator. And even Gears don't have the acceleration you'd need..."

Well. There's one Gear. But Elly has no idea.

As she looks towards Noeline, she says with a laugh, "It's nice, to see how much you love them." After a pause, she adds, "I hope that's not too forward of me. I just..."

Elly spreads her arms. "... well..."

"I suppose I don't need to justify it. It's just nice to see..."

is she saying lydia loves ivan (spoiler; probably) "

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied doesn't know if Lydia is doing anything or not! She has a terrible frame of reference from her own experience, having pined for Noeline to return for over 200 years while also curling up until she was perfectly round over her grief.

She does feel Lydia's hand when she offers it though... she's a bit teary-eyed by this point.

"Making something together, whether a rocket or otherwise... sounds fun," Riesenlied admits, nodding to Noeline. "Time together..."

She looks at Noeline and smiles very quietly. "I don't want to overburden him, of course... but I did say that he was welcome here anytime he wanted. You know that too, Lydia."

She looks a bit embarrassed as she takes that headband off, finally, so her horns can relax and flop at long last. ('I'm beat!' says the horn, in squeaky Yurucamp voice.)

"... ever since I fell into the Leyline at the Sanctuary, ever since Spira... ever since losing Ragnell and K.K. both..."

Riesenlied lowers her head. "I guess I've been scared about... people drifting away..." She wraps her arms. "Like what Leon and the others, Elly--" she pauses as she realises she shouldn't say specifics. "--what you've been doing, and... not being able to help soothe your worries, Lydia..."

There's a note of worry that she'll make Elly feel guilty, but... it's probably important to be honest.

She scratches her cheek really bashfully, sniffling a little. "It's a silly worry... but I guess I've been trying to compensate too much for it? I know it's silly to try to-- fix it by just reading about the stars, but--"

She squeezes Lydia's hand further.

<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.

"If I wasn't gonna be careful," Lydia says. "I would've flown a rocket into space by now and exploded!"

She's kind of pouting a little. She finds it pretty distressing in general that there's so many people who know more about her dream than she does. Even the particulars of how to go about achieving it. It's the sort of thing that makes it really feel like a far off improbability, or even an impossibility.

"Oh um." Lydia smiles over to Noeline. "I know. I'm not really trying to rush one out or anything. It'd be nice if I could make it happen but someone else will probably do it before me anyway so."

She gives Elly a bit of a confused look, apparently not realizing what she's saying but she does add, "I mean we could maybe do a prototype together. Or a model... That could be easy to do even on Spira."

"...Oh." She eblinks a few times. "Oh right. I forgot. I meant to tell you mom..."

She looks over to her mother. "Ragnell is totally alive and I think K.K is too though I didn't see them. I mean, I talked to Ragnell at least." She scratches at her cheek. "We talked about stuff. And things."

<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.

Tilting her head towards Elly, Noeline chuckles. She has become a lot more open from when she first showed up in Filgaia smirking and dancing through the world, and she's well aware of that fact. "It's quite alright. Some days, it's still a surprise to me as well," she adds rather wryly, a lopsided but rather infectious smile on her face.

Gently, she maneuvers Riesenlied against her shoulder, cradling her there. The sigh is light and well-meant as she sneaks a brush of the other Hyadean's hair while deciding what to say. "Part of that is simply talking to them, I suppose. If we're worried with how Leon's getting on, the obvious thing is to simply ask him. Given what happened, I think clearing the air is perfectly justified.

She does at least pause to blink at Lydia for a moment, her eyebrows raised. "--and so what if they do?" she asks after a moment, then lets out a quiet chuckle. "If you ask me, a dream isn't about trying to beat anyone to something. That seems like a way to rush yourself too much, if you ask me. It's more about doing it by your own hands, and making sure to enjoy the journey."

The first part might be a little odd coming from her - she's not exactly one of the builders around the Fereshte, no matter how much she's started to pitch in with the heavier work. But the latter comes out as naturally as anything, fitting for someone who spent a couple of centuries simply ranging her way across Filgaia to take in the sights. "If I'm going to ride in any rocket, it will be yours," she sums up rather primly. "Solaris can keep theirs, thank you very much."

News of Ragnell and K.K. make her stop dead, and tighten her grip on Riesenlied for a moment. Rather uncharitably, she has to wonder for a moment when the world might stop and give the Hyadean a break-- then she draws out a long breath. "... I see. I suppose part of me expected it," she offers cautiously.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"No... it's understandable, Riesenlied," Elly says softly. She toys with her teacup as she looks at the seated woman, her eyes softening as she does. "Learning about things can be all-engaging. It can take your mind away from pain... and sometimes, we have to do that... so that we can heal, or grow stronger. Pain won't go away for good, so easily, but if you pick at your wounds, they won't heal..."

That felt right.

"I promise you," Elly says, "that wherever I go and whatever I do, I will always keep in touch with you. Alright?"

Then to Lydia. To whom she nods, and seems to be about to say something -- some kind of reply, perhaps acceptance of the idea, perhaps encouragement - when things derail a little.

Elly's jaw closes with a little click.

"Um," she says. Pursing her lips she says, "Oh, yes... uh, I met Ragnell too... she seemed... fine, as far as these things go... ha ha... It's kind of why I'm taking a break from fishing."

PREVIOUSLY, ON ELLY LAW:

A catfish almost as long as Elly is tall gums violently on Ragnell's boot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THAT'S A BIG CATFISH!!!

Except... ... ...

catfish don't have much in the way of teeth, so...

The catfish, then, began to suspect it had made a poor life decision.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied's expression kind of melts when Lydia stammers out that Ragnell is alive. She squeezes her hand a little bit gither, still finding herself with tears on her face.

She doesn't quite respond right away.

She's cradled by Noeline, and that's important right now as she's trembling quite a lot, as she works through a fresh gamut of feelings that've just come right out of her.

But it's Elly's fond reassurance that relaxes her, prompts her to sob and nod as she says, "... I promise too... thank you, Elly... Lydia... Noeline..."

She clings to Lydia's hand further... then she gestures in need of a hug.

She doesn't know about catfish. Maybe it's for the best, lest she become a namazu-hungry buuz-eating gal...

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