2019-08-07: A Message for Leo
- Log: 2019-08-07: A Message for Leo
- Cast: White Knight Leo, Ivan
- Where: Luca
- Date: August 08, 2019
- Summary: Ivan delivers a message from Lydia to Lord Leo.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan has been so distracted with uhhhh other Lydia-related matters that HE COMPLETELY FORGOT that she entrusted him with a mission. And that mission is a message! Fortunately, he wrote it down so he doesn't have to go back to her and ask for it again.
So, upon remembering this mission, he goes looking for Lord Leo. He spots him in the barracks, and fishes out his notebook, looking for the right page.
"Lord Leo! Are you busy? I have a message from you! From Lydia Seren!"
...Time to find out if he's not supposed to be talking to Caravan Kinship-affiliated folks like Lydia Seren...
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
As it so happens, Leo is on an inspection patrol in the mess hall. He stands next to a table, tracing a white-gloved finger across its wooden surface--looking for spills and crumbs left behind. He hasn't found any. Thank Althena for small miracles.
Ivan addresses him. Leo looks up, and his brow furrows at the mention of the name. "...Lydia Seren," the White Knight says. He doesn't sound displeased, just thoughtful. He folds his arms across his chest, and fixes his full attention on Ivan. "Go ahead."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Well, he wasn't reprimanded, but Ivan wonders about that look.
"All right, well, she said..." He reads off the page, a bit self-consciously, "She... appreciates what you did for her, and she still trusts you to do what's right by your people." He double checks that there wasn't more, but the next bit was crossed out.
"That's the message."
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo listens as Ivan delivers the message. He says nothing, afterwards--and the silence stretches on so long that it might be cause for worry. Finally, Leo clears his throat, and speaks. "Even if she has chosen to stand with the Kinship," he says, "I'm... glad she's well." Something approaching worry lights up Leo's eyes. "She is well, isn't she?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
That's okay, Ivan's absolutely not going to freak out during the silent pause, that's not a thing he would ever do, ha ha ha. He is so chill, so patient. Please say something, Lord Leo. Should Ivan say something?? Should he.. leave?
WAIT HE SPOKE. Thank Althena.
She is well, isn't she?
"...That's a complicated question," says Ivan, since with everything he knows about Lydia, there's a lot of things that happened to her, and a lot she has going on that she'd probably rather not have to deal with.
"I guess she's okay..."
S-someone may have accidentally stabbed her recently but she recovered!
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo looks at Ivan for a long moment, but seems satisfied with his answer--maybe. It's difficult to tell. "She's a strong young woman," he says. "Strange in some ways, but brave. She came of age on the Blue Star, in a place where Beastmen are shunned and hated--yet, she's kind of heart and determined to do justice. Which makes her alleigance all the more--"
Leo looks away for a moment, clenches a fist. When he looks back at Ivan, the frustration is plain in his eyes. "She trusts me, just as Mauri did--does." There's a little tic there, almost a flinch, as Leo corrects himself. "Do you have a sister, Ivan?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan listens with cautious curiosity to this description of Lydia Through Lord Leo's Eyes. He is not entirely sure he would describe Lydia as someone 'determined to do justice' but he supposes he gets what Leo means. She cares about it and kind of takes it on herself when things are wrong. Maybe that's what wanting to do justice is...? Maybe Ivan was just thrown off by the dramatic phrasing that makes him imagine a vigilante Lydia fighting crime?
Ivan blinks at the small slip regarding whether Mauri 'did' or 'does' trust Leo. Lady Mauri is not... quite what Ivan expected, to say the least. But whatever is going on with her and Leo is really none of Ivan's business, is it...? So he tries not to react to having heard anything odd. But then:
Do you have a sister, Ivan?
"I-... yes, I do have a sister!"
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo nods. "Elder, or younger?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Twin!" Ivan announces. "So basically whether I'm 'big brother' or 'little brother' depends on Talia's mood."
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo laughs. It's a good-natured sort of laugh, at least, and it helps lighten his otherwise-stormy mood. "I suppose it might be different for you, yes. Mauri is four summers younger, and, well--is is not my duty as a brother to look after her, and keep her safe? That's what any elder brother would do. And yet, there was a time when I came so perilously close to failing her, and the thought of that happening once more is more than I can bear." Leo looks away, and through the window at the far end of the mess hall. "In some ways, Lydia reminds me of her."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I've had that feeling too, I think," says Ivan, thinking of the months when he thought Talia had died on some mission, all alone. And he really feels like he's failing her even now--by refusing to join her new life, while stewing in jealousy of it. Maybe that means he can bear it? It's not a good thing to be capable of bearing. He tries to put the thought from his mind.
"Lydia does seem to look up to you," he says. He does not add that Lydia has found the whole war business rather dissappointing in that regard.
But Ivan finds a strange sense of dread welling up in the back of his mind. Leo is... famous. Well-connected. He's someone his father hasn't quite made any kind of meaningful contact with, but seems eager to eventually make an impression on. Could Ivan have just set up something terrible by seeding some kind of fateful small talk that could make its way back to Lubov?
"Ah, oh, this is a weird request because I don't know why it would ever come up, but... could you... not repeat to anyone that I told you I have a sister?"
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Leo nods. Ivan might have come to the Guard under shady circumstances, but the more he learns of him, the more Leo seems to see some sort of kindred spirit in him. As the young man tells him not to mention his sister, though, Leo frowns, his expression turning grave. "I swear it," he says. He's worked with sellswords in the past. Some of them had family, and who would want family to come to harm because of what they'd done?
"Do you have any other business, Guardsman?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
...That was a weird thing to say to Leo and Ivan probably sounds really sketchy now. He is really sketchy!! But his sketchiness is meant to be a secret and now Leo is probably suspicious and that's why he's being dismissed so suddenly, isn't it, ah, he screwed up just because he wanted to bond with Lord Leo about having sisters!!!
"Ah... no, not unless you wanted to send a message back to Lydia..." Ivan tries to sound normal and not like alarm bells are going off in his head.
<Pose Tracker> White Knight Leo has posed.
Oh no, Leo thinks. He can't do that, not unless he wants to come off as friendly with the Kinship. But on the other hand, it's obvious to him that Lydia still needs his guidance, but there's so much at stake now, and--
"I... appreciate the thought," Leo says, "but no thank you." There, phew. That sounded confident, right?
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"...Ah, well, all right." There's no law against telling her how he reacted regardless, is there? Or, rather, it's not very likely he'd get caught, so why not?
"Thank you for your time."
... ... ... Please don't get suspicious enough of the secret sister thing to figure out Ivan is a criminal!