2019-08-14: Beginning a New Chapter
- Log: 2019-08-14: Beginning a New Chapter
- Cast: Ivan, Lydia Seren
- Where: The Moonflow
- Date: August 14, 2019
- Summary: Ivan discovers the wonders of fiction, and Lydia joins him in some reading after they unpack The Cheek Kiss.
===============================<* The Moonflow *>=============================== The Moonflow is a large river that bisects Spira's largest island into southern and northern halves. Strange flowers called Moonlilies grow on the Moonflow's banks, attracting pyreflies that gather on its surface at night, making the water sparkle. Although a beautiful area, the weather tends to be overcast more often than not, the souls of the dead providing the most reliable source of illumination. The primary method of crossing the Moonflow is aboard a shoopuf - an elephantine creature that can swim across the expansive river. The crossing service is funded by the Temple of Yevon and is free of charge. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wcVnJQ-FN4
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia asked Katherine if she could hide out at the Festina Lente from time to time and totally got permission! And after recent events, well, that's the perfect time to hide out there. She approaches the house with a, "Hello House! Hope you're doing okay!" She pauses a moment as if expecting the house to answer. When it just sort of sits there, Lydia shrugs and heads on in.
And proceeds to head towards the study because it's her favorite place to hide out because it's got BOOKS and Lydia LIKES TO READ. She has read like one book there so far because she only spent one day at the Festina so far.
"Hey Kathy! I'm here!" She shouts as she steps into the study and--%r---!!!!
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan had a decent head start on Lydia, so all of the Ragnell stuff already happened and he is currently camped out with... a book...(!) in the very study that Lydia has just set foot into.
Something Ivan did not previously know about himself until today:
HE LIKES BOOKS. BOOKS ARE AMAZING. Specifically, fiction books, which are quite different from the stuffy textbooks which were the only real reading matter he ever had occasion to try growing up.
So when Lydia steps in as he is IN THE MIDST OF EMPATHIZING HEAVILY WITH FAKE PEOPLE IN THE MIDST OF EXCITING, HIGH-STAKES FAKE TROUBLES, he initially just goes "oh, hey Lydia," because only a small portion of his brain bothered to check in with the real world to see what was going on in it.
... ... ... but then a general alarm gets raised, and he pops up from how he had been sort of reclining in a chair.
"LYDIA??? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?"
There was a whole conversation about her and a lot of other very embarassing things Ivan-doesn't-remember-how-long-ago, and if she was just in the other room the whole time listening to it he has a long trek to get there but he will absolutely jump into the ocean.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia gets a kinda ._. expression on her face when she sees ivan is already present hiding out which she supposes she should have expected, but she says, "Hey Ivan," in a similar tone as Ivan's 'oh hey Lydia' and just kind of stands ther until Ivan catches up to Ivan and jolts back up in his seat which gets Lydia to smile.
"Just for a little bit," She reassures Ivan though to be honest she did get very tempted to tell Ivan 'I was here all along!' even though she wasn't just to see what he'd say. "I mean I shouted 'Hey Kathy! I'm here!' and everything!"
FLASHBACK
"Hey Kathy! I'm here!" Lydia shouts as she steps into the study and--
NOW
"But I guess you were too into your book to notice..? Whatcha reading? What's it about?"
She starts making her way over, popping a mint into her mouth deftly. "Oh though while I've got you I wanted to say 'sorry' for the beastman breath or whatever last time. I don't really smell it myself so I was extra careful with flossing and everything."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"It's... about this guy with amnesia and there's all this magic music stuff and a war..." Ivan enthuses. "I didn't realize novels were like this! All full of crazy stuff and talking about what's going on in people's heads..."
He backtracks a little because he has not gotten so exuberant around non-Talia individuals... possibly ever and he faintly feels it must be Wrong.
"I mean, it's okay. It's a book. It's fine. But what are you talking about... your breath...? Oh! Ohhhhh. No, that wasn't it! I just... didn't want the sugar house to melt!"
...Why is he lying, they both know he ran away because the kiss spooked him just from being a kiss. Or... he thought they both knew that. Now he's not so sure.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh that sounds pretty epic," Lydia says. "I used to read stories like that all the time back when I was stuck in my home village." She stretches her arms back a bit before sitting down nearby. "Reading is pretty much the best and anybody who says otherwise is full of lies." She blinks a few times when Ivan reveals that he didn't want the sugar house to melt. "Oh--I guess...sugar houses probably do melt quickly in tropical heat during the summer."
She has a feeling that it's a lie but the story checks out if you ignore the fact that he hadn't said anything and it was totally the kiss and they both know it.
Or at least... Lydia thought she knew it was that but then thought 'Remember when I was like 5 years old and the other kids said I had beastbreath? What if I have beastman breath and don't even know it and he freaked out and ran away because <needless self deprecation that does not need to be repeated!>??
But if it IS a lie it's definitely better than the beastman breath so Lydia says, "So it's okay if I, say, kissed you again because the sugar house isn't going to melt? And I don't have bad breath either?"
"Because you'd tell me if I had bad breath right?" Lydia adds as she quietly starts setting down stolen silverware on the couch that she took largely because she could and because Ivan seemed to be expecting it/trying to help.
'I am really terrible at being good,' Lydia thinks to herself.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Wait.... ... ... again?" Ivan is suddenly kind of perching on the side of the chair like he plans to escape up the wall. Kissing is a thing that might just happen at any time now?? The kissing door has been thrown open, come what may?
"I think-- whether you have bad breath and whether I can agree to random kissing are two very different questions! R-remember we are just business associates and I am a knife, and all of that other stuff? All of that stuff is true no matter what your breath is like! And your breath is fine!" It's turning into one of those things that sounds like a lie when he says it more emphatically, even though it isn't!
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia is actually wondering a bit if she was too forceful about it but Ivan doesn't seem like traumatized or upset or put off exactly, at least not until he leaps onto the side of the chair--like a bird or something? Then Lydia wonders if maybe she was too forceful? Except wait, she just kissed him on the cheeks! She knows friends who do that all the time and it dooesn't really mean anything. Even her parents, a long time ago, kissed her on the cheek!
"Oh it's okay. I'm not going to kiss you randomly. I'd only kiss you for explicit reasons. And I guess kisses don't really have to mean much--"
She thinks about it further. "Not that I would really want to if you weren't into it so, um, sorry if I violated your personal...sanctity of.... stuff."
She kind of trails off lamely. "But it's just cause of the sugar house right? So--"
Ivan reassures her AGAIN that her breath is fine.
Lydia frowns this time.
"Wait... IS something wrong with my breath?" Lydia asks, with growing concern. "You aren't just saying it's fine to spare my feelings are you? It's okay! I can take mints. It's a solvable problem with the power of science if I have bad breath though I guess you're not supposed to say that I do either way but ahhh whatever you know?"
This doesn't stop her from breathing into her hand and sniffing it again. "Okay it definitely smells minty now."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I just don't know how to say no in a way that really sounds like no..." says Ivan, sounding a bit dismayed now that his failure to master human communication has started to hurt her feelings. That... might have been the case a while before this specific incident. The fact that he's ready to leap off of his chair and run for the hills probably doesn't help.
He tries to re-chair himself in slow motion so maybe Lydia won't notice he's doing it (she probably will though.)
"There wasn't any... ... ... sanctity violated, I just... ..." There is a long enough pause while he chooses his words that it must be quite baffling when he settles on:
"I don't like me very much, I don't want that jerk getting kissed by you."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh--" Lydia says. "Oh okay. I get it. You just don't want to be kissed. That's fine. I mean, if you don't want to be kissed, you don't want to be kissed. It doesn't really matter the reason, I guess. As far as kissing goes, any reason you don't want to be kissed is a good one, probably? I guess I should've not bothered to begin with? Like, I mean, I really wanted to so I did but I should've considered your feelings more. So--um--sorry about that."
It's not unusual to hear about Ivan's self loathing either but the way he puts it, well, it's really sad this time. Lydia looks down for a bit. "Though I guess it's pretty clear my ultimate desire isn't really going to change, heh...But I can't make you like that Ivan guy I would've made it happen already! You already know why I like you and that wasn't enough!" She stands up and adds, "So if it's okay, we can forget about that but is it okay if I sit nearby and follow along with that book you're reading? I promise! No sneaky (((intentional))) displays of affection. Lydie's honor."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I'm... trying to become less terrible maybe? But I don't know if there's any way to get there without doing things that I probably won't do." Like defying his father. Which would probably just get him killed. And then she couldn't kiss him anyway, so...
"Ragnell seems to think it's possible to be interesting and still be kind of an asshole. But I don't know, I think you still need to be making your own decisions for that to work."
He pauses. "You want to read the book with me? Should I start over?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh! Ragnell helped me out when I was new to the idea of having self confidence too! You picked a good mentor! She is pretty much the most self confident person I know and honestly it might be kind of a problem but that makes her a perfect self confidence mentor." Lydia chirps merrily, scootching over to sit next to Ivan. "Hey sometimes you don't get to choose through no fault of your own. But working towards making your own decisions is a pretty admirable step towards being likeable both by yourself and others! As is doing things you enjoy that are cool to do. Like reading books."
She tilts her head to see where Ivan's at and adds, "Well, maybe at the start of the chapter--though a quick summary of what happened so far would be cool! If you think there's anything I couldn't just pick up after a while." She pauses. "If that's um--okay. I don't want to uh--mess up your reading rhythm or anything. Though I guess I kinda already did. It'll be fine! Probably."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
The chair that Ivan chose to read in is really more of a one-person chair, but when Lydia decides to sit down with him, he mysteriously fails to point that out. It's just a little bit snug. Whatever.
"I guess anybody who's willing to try to destroy the world has to be pretty confident," Ivan says. It seems true to him. You need a lot of confidence in your convictions to do something that big.
Anyway, now Lydia is Very Much In His Space, and on some level Ivan is fighting with himself about whether that's something he's allowed to permit to happen, and whether he needs to run away or... faint or something, and on another level he's trying to find the start of the chapter and thinking of how to recap the story to her.
He manages to distract himself sufficiently with COMMUNICATING THE NARRATIVE, detailing the earliest adventures of Luke fon Fabre as best he is able.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Yeah," Lydia agrees, by all appearances not noticing their close proximity to one another (THIS IS A LIE: LYDIA IS DEFINITELY NOTICING). But she does have to admit, "It's okay to not be self confident enough that you're willing to destroy the world."
"He got kidnapped and lost his memory?" Lydia asks with wide eyes. "Geeze... That poor guy. No wonder he acts out."
She scootches back a bit and looks over Ivan's shoulder.
"And being stuck in just one complex his whole life since?" She shakes her head a little. "He doesn't die in the end does he?"
She cranes her head as if trying to read the last page despite not being open to it. "Wait don't tell me if he dies."
He probably doesn't die in this chapter if he dies, Lydia!
"Honestly with a beginning like that, I hope he gets a happy ending."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Yeah, but like... nobody will cut him a damn break? They're all so hard on him!" says Ivan. The plight of Luke fon Fabre is one that can be a bit of a rorschach test apparently. Lydia asks him not to tell if Luke dies... but it hadn't even occurred to him that Luke could die! How could the story end without Luke?
"...Does the main character die sometimes?!" Ivan is not yet familiar with the conventions and norms of novels. "I only got this far..." He shows her with his fingers how far he is in the book -- he's only been reading for an hour or two, so it isn't that far.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Well, not that often." Lydia admits. "Though if you read a lot you'll be able to tell if they're going in that direction, usually, since the writers are usually tripping over their own feet to try and show you it's gonna happen. I'm pretty sure Luke doesn't die in the end. I can't think of a time where the main character died in the middle though so you're probably safe for a while and I'm gonna guess that Kathy isn't carrying depressing books like that in her study. Just a guess though."
Ivan explains that Luke gets given a lot of shit and Lydia says, "Ahhhh--To really get that part you probably have to read it."
She studies Ivan's expression thoughtfully. He isn't wrinkling his nose or anything so maybe it really isn't her breath. Or the mint worked! Either way, it's smooth sailing. Mints are like prosthetics for your popularity, Lydia reasons.
"Hmm... I bet they're giving him a hard time now so later when he's saving the day and stuff, it'll really feel like he's earned the appreciation of those around him. That sort of story is popular too you know! The dude nobody expects anything from suddenly becoming a really important hero."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Do you know the story already?" Lydia seems to know it yet not know it. Ivan is not yet familiar with the magic of... tropes!
"I guess there are a lot of stories like this, huh? I always thought stories would be like history books. This thing happened... then that other thing... then another thing... be sure to remember all the dates." He recides this in a grave and implacable voice that suggests his opinion about history lessons.
Ivan has never really though of himself as a bookish type, for this among other reasons.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Nope! Never heard of this one before!" Lydia leans back. "It's not like there's some way books are supposed to be written either. But I think, like, authors--sometimes they just want their creations to have a happily ever after too, you know? And their creators have the same insecurities we do so it ends up in their characters and they'd like things to go okay. Though uh, not every writer obviously. Some get their cathartic kicks out by being jerks to their creators."
She looks at the camera pointedly for a moment before looking back to Ivan. "But yeah, history books are just one kind of thing. And don't get me wrong! They're important. Just you gotta be into it to really get into it, you know? Like, I wouldn't expect a lot of folks to like engineering manuals but I love that stuff."
She points to the book Ivan's reading. "And stories like that."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I guess trying to guess what will happen next is part of the fun...?" Ivan speculates. Maybe that's why Lydia has already contemplated several different endings for the story.
He also cannot really relate to loving engineering manuals, but he believes her, even though he kind of makes a face when she professes her love for them.
"I guess we'll have to find out..!" he says.