2019-08-08: Things Leave Traces
- Log: Things Leave Traces
- Cast: Lily Keil, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Guadosalam
- Date: August 08, 2019
- Summary: Josie meets up with Lily, and picks her brain over an interesting discovery she's found. A lead in an unlikely place, perhaps, is uncovered.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Guadosalam is, in its own way, an island of peace in the storm that is Spira just this moment. This close to the Farplane, watched over by the relentless traditionalism of the Guado, it is easy in places to forget the chaos at hand, the war outside. .....This is partly because a lot of the locals resent these weird foreigners and stop talking when they pass by, but... Win some, lose some.
There are spaces that are more comfortable--either beacuse they're more suited to non-Guado physiology, or just because they're run by the more welcoming people of the city. Regardless, some of those are also dangerous in an entirely different sense, and some are kind of run down, and...
All this means that an out-of-the-way cavern holds a few rooms and a bar and there's at least the pretense that nobody is spying. In a side-room, away from the main bar, sits one Lily Keil, Dog curled up at her feet and a drink in her hand. It's made of some kind of fermented sap, apparently.
It's also iced-over. But she did that.
Sssip. She sits at her table in thought.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hey, Rose-of-Sharon!"
Josie, as she does, is only capable of entering subtlely when she darn well feels like it.
Without further ado, the archaeologist slides back a chair and settles down at the table, leaning both elbows atop it. As if in a (sort of) mimicry of her owner, Penelope hop-flutters down off her shoulder and alights on the table, strutting over to investigate... Lily's drink.
"Fancy meeting you here," she says, and she is outright grinning. "I was hoping I'd run into one of you kids -- you or Lion, that is. I wanted to show you something."
She places both hands palms down on the table.
"First, though... how're you doin'?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
If Lily didn't recognize Josie's voice or approach, she'd sure recognize her propensity for nicknames. It's the first time that name's come up from people in a while.
But Lily does turn her eyes over like she's responding to it. "Hey," she answers, and though she doesn't grin back the sort of deadpan greeting look is more common for her anyway, before she adds, "Well, I'm so rarely in bars."
A beat, and she laughs faintly, briefly. Dog, on the other hand, wags her tail a little, peeeering up Penelope's way. Lily sets the drink down where it is, not bothering to stop Penelope from looking into it. It is the way it is.
"Nice coincidence, hm? But all right. I'm fine, as it goes. Thinking. And that's thinking, not brooding," she pre-empts wryly.
She gestures to the open chair, and continues, "So what's on your mind?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie just waves a hand in the air, as if she were dismissing the thought of it. "I don't care for drinking around this lot. You know how it is. Atmosphere counts for everything, and when you're sitting there with the bartender giving a look that says he'd rather you left..."
She shrugs, grandly.
Penelope soon finds Lily's drink. The pigeon investigates it more closely...
Josie glances over the one side of the table. "Oh, hey there, Dog. Didn't see her there."
Before Lily makes a correction that prompts Josie to half-smile, slyly.
"Believe it when I see it, Tiger. Anyway."
She leans back in her seat a moment before reaching her left hand into a pocket and... bringing out a sphere.
"Give this one a look-see. Tell me what you think."
She waits, with all the pride of a parent who has just seen their child finish the semester with top marks.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"That's half the fun. He doesn't like me, I don't care, I wait to see if he actually does anything about it. Nice diversion."
Lily glances at Penelope. But they have something of an understanding. Besides, whatever's in this drink isn't going to be harmed by pigeon investigations. Lily could probably use it as motor oil.
Dog barks cheerfully once at Josie, and then settles her head back onto her paws. She's just hanging out. It's fine. ...There might be dirty looks from afar. Lily didn't bother asking after animal policies.
Lily shakes her head about Josie believing it, a little shrug running through her shoulders. But her eyes focus, gold and sharp as ever, on the sphere, as she reaches out and takes it. She looks skeptically at Josie at first, but duly examines the sphere, lets herself access its memories in the strange, intuitive way of these things. "All right."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Kiddo, sometimes I worry about your choice in hobbies," Josie sighs, leaning on the table. Then she languidly shrugs. "Well, as long as I get to watch if he blows up first."
Penelope picks this moment to peck at the mug. Is this... tasty to pigeons?
She pecks at it twice. It's hard to tell if she's meddling, if she likes it, or if she honestly can't make head or tails of the weird liquid that humans choose to drink.
There will definitely be dirty looks now that Josie's brought a bird in here and let it get on the table. But unless the bartender tries to kick them out... not her problem.
Then she slides the sphere over.
Bubbles discolor the view. The whole scene is a dusty greenish blue, as if filmed under a glass of water. Still, colors and shapes and figures are easily discerned. There are no mysteries here.
It's an exhibit of some form. At a glance, it's not dissimilar from the cultural heritage/ruins festival in Adlehyde, years ago. Artifacts are laid out on displays here and there -- devices that would make even a professional scholar of Zeboim technology gasp. Intricate sculptures. Carvings, older than the ones commonly seen in Spira now.
The person who is filming says something. "Amm shek ek twir Almaryyt?" Someone off-'camera' gives an assent. Then the sphere focus on one final thing.
No questioning it. At a glance, it's a match for the others they've found, even through the lens of the sphere.
It's one of the tiles.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Oh, sure. By all means." Lily sounds entirely too comfortable with this particular risk. She is not, in point of fact, wearing any obvious and open weaponry--save of course for the knife at her boot. Nevertheless, there's been some reluctance on the part of... most anyone around, to actually go bother her.
...Lily might have been at peace too long.
Still, Lily watches the sphere; as always, she seems relaxed in doing so; since she first tried to work with spheres, she's never had a hard time dealing with them. So she looks through--arficats on display, the sort of designs and carvings and words she can recognize. So when her eyes focus again--
"Almaryyt," Lily murmurs, and looks back to Josie with a lifted eyebrow. This isn't skepticism, though--this is interest. ...Impressed, maybe.
"'All this from Alamaryyt', more or less. I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing. You found this here?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Heh. So you can understand it. I was hopin' it might be the same." She grins, like the cat that ate the cream. "Great. So Almaryyt, huh? I'm guessing that's a place -- well, hopin', in the end -- and not a person." She settles back in her seat.
"I have to say: I wasn't expecting to see one of them here. --Yeah. I've been looking around for those recording spheres, hoping to find something interesting. And, I did." She pauses, drumming her fingers on the table. "Kind of raises a hell of a lot of questions. But, that's my job," she affirms, straightening in her seat and jabbing a thumb at her chest. "To figure out the answers."
She twists in her seat next, gesturing for the bartender. "Make it a stiff one!"
Then turns back to Lily. "I'm just glad I ain't seeing things. It's another one of them. All this digging around through junk sphere's finally paid off..."
Now comes the hard part. Finding the place, if it exists.
And if it doesn't... time to go crawling into every damn ruin around here until she finds that thing.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"It's a little different," Lily admits. "Like it's accented, or something. Or I guess the other way around. But it's understandable." Pause. "Yeah. I could see either way, admittedly, but you'd expect a person to have a wider range of artifacts if that's the guy who dug them out. One way or another, though, it's a name."
"I know they speak an 'Ancient Tongue' here in places, that there's some kind of link. But what?" A nod. "Sure is. I hope you're not planning to find this place without me, though."
The bartender gives Josie a dirty look--or rather, Penelope--and sighs. Lily takes the opportunity to reclaim her drink, lift it towards the bar, and down a bit more of it.
Then to Josie, "It makes me wonder what else is buried under a thousand years of Sin here. Almost enough to be interested in sticking around for a while."
"Unfortunately I don't recommend the location at all. But if you figure out where it came from..."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Yeah. Don't know how recent this thing is," she reaches over to tap the sphere, "but it's probably not as old as the tiles. And don't forget, it's on the moon."
They know there was once a transit between Filgaia and Lunar. But when, to what extent...
Well, now they do know, if just a little bit more.
"If it's place, that's easy. Someone's gotta remember a place. Maybe it's still standing, or maybe it got wrecked. ...They said there used to be a great city over the Moonflow, but it got destroyed by Sin. I went and looked myself, you know -- you can still see the ruins at the bottom of the river. ...Guess that's what that little video I asked Junior about was on. But if I'm right, someone's got to remember something if they remembered that city..."
And if it's a person, then, there's nothing for it but a survey of every single ruin she so much as trips over. Or maybe just ask some people about a funny tile, maybe, she'll work it out.
Penelope's hopes are dashed when the drink is taken away...
But no one needs a drunk Penelope so it all works out fine regardless.
"Yep. If I work something out, I'll let you all know." She grins. "It's a promise, and I ain't the promising type."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Yeah. Somewhere on the moon, sometime somewhat more recent..." Lily trails off, thinking about it. When, what extent? There's a lot they don't know, but a lot they stand to learn, for that matter.
"Yeah. Things leave traces. The ability to completely destroy something is... rare. And to get rid of the memory of something is..." This she could brood about. After all, she can do the former. But, she lets it go for the moment, instead.
"I'll keep an eye out regardless. We could check there. I have a feeling a lot of th details of some of these ruins are kept quiet--only the Al Bhed seem interested in exploring them--but worst case, a few locks and doors aren't much obstacle."
Poor, poor Penelope. There is less there when Lily puts it back down. ...Not enough for pigeons.
"That is surprising," Lily admits about the promise. "Well, I'm there when you do. I'm a little bored anyway."
Pause. "And maybe..." Lily looks down into her glass, "Maybe there's something to do with Sharon there, too."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Exactly, kiddo. Even the end of the damned world at least three times over didn't wreck the other tiles. I don't think even Sin itself could wipe one of these off the face of the moon. Eventually something's gonna turn up." Hope, as they say, springs eternal. "And who knows, maybe we'll find a way back to Filgaia while we're at it, kill two..."
She trails off, looking at Penelope. Then she just sighs. "Well, solve two problems in one, how about that?"
A nod, there. "Yeah. You have to ask careful-like, or the locals will get upset. Just keep it nice and casual, mention it came up in a conversation somewhere and that you're learning about history... throw in a few Hail Yevons for good measure, and Bob's your uncle, yeah?"
Penelope pecks sadly at what is left. Not enough even for pigeons...
"Sharon, huh?" Josie considers this, thoughtfully. "Stranger things have happened. Well, I'll sniff around and see what pops up, and if I find something likely, I'll call you all in on the expedition. Deal?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Heh." Lily can appreciate that particular kind of gallows humor--she looks at Penelope with some amusement, and then turns her attention to Josie. "...Yeah," Lily says. "Bright side of something small, anyway. Hard to find... Harder to break."
A beat, "Why, Josie. Are you suggesting that I'm not adept at talking to people?" It's completely deadpan, in fact. But she does add, "But I'll leave the ARMs out of sight, how about that?"
A shake of her head. "But yeah, it's a long shot, but there might be something related. It's just a raw guess, and... I've been thinking about it, that's all." She nos then, though, as if deciding something. "Deal."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Are you suggesting that I'm not adept at talking to people?
And Josie's only response is to give Lily the widest, fakest smile she can manage.
At least on the topic of Sharon she's a little more sober. "Yeah, I hear you there. Sometime, maybe, we should..." She trails off, glancing away.
Talk, probably.
Though even she's not sure what there is to say.