2019-08-14: Start With The Soup
- Log: Start With The Soup
- Cast: Lunata Croze, Lulu, Loren Voss
- Where: Mi'ihen Highroad
- Date: August 14, 2019
- Summary: One of the junior scribes, Thomas, has been behaving oddly. Lulu and Lunata look into it.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata has been spending a great amount of her days servicing the Shoopuf Degustation Course to funnel proceeds into Djose Temple because, well, for one it kind of lets her distract herself from her problems through cooking and it also kind of means she doesn't have to be directly on the warfront itself.
There's a ton of refugees to sort out.
As retinue to Maester Seymour, she's had to make herself pretty available often, and even today she's bustling from one end of the Temple to another trying to manage things.
Now where's Loren gone off to...?
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
The war has, to put things simply, rendered things that might otherwise be complicated extraordinarily complicated, and a certain amount of backtracking has become necessary despite best efforts. Why? Don't worry about it.
The Guardian Lulu is not a part of Seymour's retinue, but she is in this very moment speaking her final words on a subject to a warrior in monk's garb, discussing a particular danger and being updated in turn. She looks as severe as ever, frankly, not least of which because....
She's keeping an eye on a certain youth nearby. Who's been acting strangely. He won't escape without scrutiny, particularly as she nods to the monk before her, "Noted. I'll pass on your concerns."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He had been gone for a few days, without even saying why. Even for the young man who -- allegedly, at least -- is in service to Maester Seymour's scribe, he spends much of his time not being here at the temple or even in Guadosalam. Perhaps the Maester's scribe sends him on errands often? It's true that being a scribe doesn't exactly leave someone with a lot of spare time.
But he's been back since very late the other day.
And true to form, he had retreated again into what makes up his private chamber (which he shares with that weird young blonde lady. She seems like a typical islander from the south...).
His mood has been poorly; he hasn't been out since he came back.
But needs must, and among them...
Well, he hasn't eaten yet today. So that tops the list. Loren -- or rather Thomas the junior scribe -- has as his main goal now to slip into the kitchens and find something to eat.
Unfortunately for him, he hasn't gone as unnoticed as he thinks...
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
... especially because, well, when it comes to the kitchens?
Nothing gets past Lunata Croze and what goes on in the kitchen.
She's got a bowl of the usual piping-hot stew for the refugees served up with a portion of rice and pickles, as has been typical of Djose fare.
As well as a Pink Shoopuf for dessert.
She folds her arms as she stares to Loren when he enters, though. "So... do you wanna tell us a bit about what's going on?"
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Usually, the actions of a few scribes aren't Lulu's problem. ...But with a war on, and attempts to kidnap Summoners in the works... Unusual things strike her attention, particularly since this one was present as a new initiate was brought into this particular temple.
All this means that when Lunata stares at Loren, it serves as a perfect reason not to notice Lulu abrubtly standing in the doorway, one eyebrow lifted at Loren. "I think that's an excellent idea."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren stops dead in his tracks as he's confronted by none other than Lunata. "C-Croze, what are you doing..." he trails out as he realizes what a stupid, stupid question this is. He then backsteps, perhaps in an attempt to make an escape.
He backs into Lulu.
This is not, as may be assumed, a particularly good or wise action to undertake. Slowly, slowly, he peels himself away from her and moves to a position where he can better see the both of them.
...He feels like a bug under a glass...
"What... do you mean...?" he hazards.
His stomach chooses this moment to growl. His shoulders slouch.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata slumps with an exasperated look as she asks, "What do you mean 'what am I doing'? I'm feeding you," as she just goes to drag him towards a chair and sets him down. She glances to Lulu as if to indicate 'well if he can't talk if he's so hungry then might as well stuff him full of food first'.
"... you don't look well. Do you need a healer?" she cautiously asks. "Here, start with the soup."
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
There are people who say there are no stupid questions. ...Lulu isn't one of them. She hasn't been one more or less ever. This remains true.
She doesn't move as Loren backsteps into her though. Instead, her eyebrow rises just a little higher, just enough to give the suggestion of--
'What are you doing.'
Frankly the bug feeling is probably apt, considering the stern mage opposite him. When Lunata drags him towards a chair, Lulu glances to her--and then inclines her head in agreement after what seems a moment's thought.
"You look unwell," Lulu repeats as she smoothly steps to the table--she does not sit, but stands just about as imperiously as before, "And you've been acting unusually according to a number of the others. ...Ordinarily I'd consider it none of my business, but circumstances being what they are, I'm concerned."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
"Gah--"
Ungracefully, Loren finds himself hauled off towards a chair and table to the side in the room. He sits, mostly because he has the feeling he doesn't really have a choice in the matter in any way, shape, or form.
"Listen-- just, just let me do it. I'm twenty," he protests, mostly out of frustration, as if to underline the fact that he's (allegedly) a grown man. Her other question, though, sends him back into a sort of silence. He looks away.
Shouldn't... I be used to it? This guilt.
"I'm fine," he insists at last, meeting neither woman's eye. "I'm... I'm not sick."
Maybe heartsick, when he thinks about it. He needs to hurry up and--
He slouches his shoulders. The others have noticed?
"Ugh..." is his pronouncement to that, before burying his head in his hands.
"It's nothing," he insists again. "I just didn't..."
When it comes to him, he seizes upon it.
"...I lost my brother's sword."
Which is, really, not a lie.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"This isn't the time to go missing for a couple of days. Have you seen how the Highroad is? Between the Guard and the Monks, I started wondering if you got shelled," Lunata grumbles.
A pause.
"Also, I'm cursed to be near-seventeen forever and I have more sense than you, so I'm not hearing it," Lunata adds.
Another pause, when he admits it, raising her eyebrows.
"... your brother's sword." She remembers him carrying a sword a while ago... but...
"So what did you do, run off to go search for it? Where?"
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Right up until Loren makes his admission, Lulu remains as severe and uncompromising as ever; she doesn't appreciate the earlier bump, doesn't have reason much to trust...
Lunata has a point about the dangers, but--...Cursed to be near-seventeen forever is not something Lulu typically hears. It could be a reference to being eternally baby-faced, but somehow, she doubts it.
"Hm," she comments. But then, she nods, and seems--well, not warm, but at least not actively staring Loren down. The black mage seems to consider for a few more moments.
"...I can understand being upset. But this area is dangerous, at the best of times."
He's not entirely off the hook, but she'll settle for letting Lunata do the talking for the moment. She seems to have it fairly. In turn, she instead moves to the other side of the table, and takes a seat.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are a lot things he can't talk about, frankly. Even setting aside the work he's actually doing for the Maester's scribe. Or his murder attempt.
How do you explain something the people in this world probably can't even fathom? An accident you commited in a machine beyond anything they can conceive of, that got other people killed...
That's why he can't stand her -- Van Houten. Her hands are dirty, too, and they'll forgive her. Just not him.
"It wasn't a couple--" Loren starts to protest before he pauses and does some of the math in his head. "...fine, it was a few days." Though there is a bit of his old self (??) come back around when he bristles at her pronouncement that she has more sense than him. "You do not! How in the world do you have more sense than me?"
She's just a...
The thought does not complete automatically this time.
He looks away. "Macalania. Near the lake." He hesitates before continuing, "I was helping with... surveying, a little while back."
Hopefully whoever he was with knew how to fight...
"And... yeah. So I went to look for it." And apparently, turned up empty-handed. "...I'm not stupid. I'm not going near the battlefield."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Well, Lunata would understand what a Gear is. In fact, it remains to this day they didn't know they fought each other in Gears, even! Isn't that going to be particularly fun when they discover that.
"... Good," Lunata remarks amusedly at Loren's complaint back at her. It sounds more like the Thomas she knew. "There's some of the fight back in you."
She looks to Lulu again, frowning. Macalania... near the Lake. And by extension, somewhat near the Temple, too. She doesn't know it as much as the Guardian, so she looks to her for any insight she might have.
"... I didn't know you had a brother, by the way. Who is he?"
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu has seen them... now.
The 'kids' arguing doesn't trouble her. She seems not even to hear it at first, particularly not as Lunata actually approves. Instead, she focuses on the matter of Macalania, for now. Surveying...
"Of course. A twenty-year-old is well-known to be the wisest of scribes."
Okay maybe she was listening.
She gives Loren a look, at the question of his brother--it's not pity. It might be almost sympathetic. It's definitely knowing. She doesn't have to ask--she assumes. In Spira, after all, there are many lost brothers.
"...Battlefields aside, there are very powerful Fiends in Macalania. Next time, bring a friend, or you might lose your future searching for your past."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
This is true -- Lunata might understand the story, though the context with it would be ruinous for certain plots now afoot.
To say nothing of the fact that they have both very much engaged one another on the battlefield in the past in said Gears...
"I guess?" he hazards, when Lunata says the fight's back in him now. He has by now lifted his head from his hands, let them sink to the top of the table. And at least, he looks more disgruntled rather than like his soul has managed to exit his body in some way.
"Engil," he says without thinking, alarm flickering in his gaze soon after.
"And that's 'was'," he says after. Lulu, perhaps by first-hand experience, understands what he hasn't said. Understands the only thing that would take a scribe searching for a brother's blade in a dangerous land, and why it might hit him so hard.
It isn't the truth, but it's a sort of truth, and sometimes that's enough.
His brother... when he thinks about his brother...
He was frustrated about his brother but he can't remember why. The reason just slips away.
He lets it. It makes him feel uncomfortable to chase, and he has enough uncomfortable thoughts.
"...I know," he says, his shoulders slouching. "I know. Next time..."
He's not going to find it. He'd looked, until his body just about couldn't take it, and then he'd retreated. He's going to have to admit to Leah...
He's back to looking like he wants to die again.
"...I'm going to find it," he says, with more heat than he actually feels. "But next time I won't go alone."
That's right, he can't just... stop.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata pauses and brushes her hair down with her hand when Loren says 'was'. There's a quiet scowl and a grimace for a moment... Lulu's silence seems to indicate to her it's not terribly unknown to her either.
Nor is it to her.
What with Adlehyde...
How can it be. Here in Spira, the land where death comes easy...
"... I'll go with you," Lunata mumbles with a sigh. "Least I can do is make sure you don't fall to some Fiend, like Miss Lulu said. But I doubt your brother'd want you to waste your life like that."
A pause.
"C'mon, go eat first. Your stomach's growling. You must be famished..."
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Some people just do better with a little rough handling. That's all there is.
It is truth enough for the moment, a truth that isn't the problems Lulu was considering might be the case, and it will do. He knows--and he doesn't argue, really, which is well. He insists that he will...
Lulu looks to Lunata, and nods, after a moment. "Good," she answers. "It would be hypocritical, for me to suggest not bothering. I don't have time to accompany you, myself. However..."
"...I'll be going to Macalania soon enough. If you describe the weapon to me, I can at least pick it up if I happen to find it--if a snow melt reveals it, or some such."
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It really is... rough, having people assume he's helpless. --He knows, it's useful. It keeps people from guessing directly what he's trying to do, who he's connected with. Anything that could jeopardize things as they must be.
But the other half of it is-- he is helpless. Compared to his peers, that is. To his brother. To Van Houten. In the end, he can't measure up, and he'll just keep on...
His left hand curls into a tight fist at these thoughts, hard enough here to leave crescents indented into the palm of his hand.
Sometimes he feels like he wants to scream.
"Yeah," he says instead, when Lulu asks if he'll describe the weapon to her. "Like a cavalry saber. I wrapped the hilt in rags after the last time," the last time what? "but there's a lapis lazuli ornament on the hilt." He hesitates a moment and looks away. "....thanks."
Only to blink when Lunata says she'll go with him. "Wha... don't you have things to do here?" he says, a little more taken aback hearing it from her. But, all the same...
'I doubt your brother'd want you to waste your life like that', is it.
He rubs at the side of his neck unhappily. "Yeah... I guess." Then, to her as well: "...guess I'll owe you for this one..."
The subject of a meal, at least, is far more welcome by far.
And he has a good appetite, even at the best of times.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... yeah, I do have things to do here. And I'll still have to make time to go to Macalania anyway," Lunata chuckles not a little bit tiredly. She shakes her head.
It's not like Loren's quiet anger and look of despair go unnoticed. It's not like she doesn't have days where she looks like she wants to die either, but--
"... do you want anything yourself, Miss Lulu? To go, maybe?" Lunata distracts herself a little from it.
A pause, and she looks to Loren again. "You're welcome."
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
It's possible to fall into despair, and never get up again. ...But there's nothing to be done, when that happens. You can move forward... or not. Lulu is used to seeing that look on faces.
So she approves, when there is less of it in the moment. She listens to the description, and her distant look for a few moments suggests that she is committing it to memory. "Lapis lazuli... Noted. I can't promise anything, but if I see it, I'll pick it up, and at worst bring it to one of the temples, where they can send word to you."
She considers the other two--and looks, if anything, faintly amused for a moment. "There's never enough time. We make it anyway." She seems to approve of that much.
"...I appreciate the offer," she says after a moment, "But now that I've allayed this concern, I have one more lead to follow before I'm finished for the moment. Good luck, you two."
"...The ability to live, to pay your debt--it's a gift of its own. Keep it in mind." She nods to both--and starts away.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There's never enough time.
"Yeah," he says, looking away. "There really isn't."
He's still rough around the edges. Whatever's eating at him -- the matter of the lost sword -- hasn't gone yet. But, as they say, time mends all wounds.
And having some food in one's stomach does wonders for one's mental state.
He watches, at least, as Lulu goes.
"She's lost someone too, huh..." Loren murmurs, before meeting Lunata's eyes.
Then he shakes his head. "Never mind. ...Guess I should eat something, huh..."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
"... ... we all have," Lunata reminds him. Jay's lost friends at Adlehyde. Shalune lost her parents. And Lunata herself...? Well... in some cases, one can lose themselves too...
She sucks in a breath as she says, "I'm gonna go serve the camps outside. Feel free to grab seconds if you need it."
She reaches out and-- pauses, but pats him on the back. Then goes.