2019-08-25: A Resupplying Mission
- Log: A Resupplying Mission
- Cast: Ena, Gon Guado, Lulu, Rikku, Loren Voss, Tabitha deVriese
- Where: Mi'ihen Highroad
- Date: August 25, 2019
- Summary: A group of Yevonites (and assorted attaches) makes their way from Guadosalam from Djose Temple, to better provide the temple with the supplies it desperate needs in wartime.
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
With Luca closed off and the Mi'ihen Highroad a refugee camp and a war zone, Guadosalam is the closest city to Djose Temple. While the Temple has it's own gardens, it can't provide all it's own supplies. So it is that a Chocobo wagon and a small group of Yevonites make their way to the city, in the hopes of resupplying and getting that which the temple needs. This may take some time.
Walking alongside the Chocobo wagon is the novice known as Ena. She walks with her staff in her left hand, as her right is currently in a sling. Despite this, she tries to fulfill her duties as best she can. She looks around to the others surrounding- or riding- the Chocobo wagon. "No fiends up ahead, looks like we're almost there!" She shouts. This is the novice's first trip to Guadosalam, and she is a touch excited- and a touch scared- to see the home of the Guado. It's got to be a change from the musty walls of the temple.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Gon Guado is in better health than most his age, also in the context of having recently been punked by the Otherworlder Kaguya's dark whirlwind having tossed him... well, he would like to not recount the story as to where he ended up and what transpired immediately after that, but suffice to say, he would be better served walking alongside the wagon and making more space for those worse off.
To his credit, however little an outsider might give, he at least has given the cursory heal-over through his white magic to ensure the entourage is of serviceable enough health to see them all to Guadosalam. One of his metal gauntlets has been damaged and warped to uselessness as a piece of armoring from the recent failed skirmish.
"Be at ease," the Guado turns his head to meet his gaze to the back of her head - or whatever part of said head would be in direct view, regardless. "We shall arrive safely without need of shouting."
The older Guado bows his head and closes his eyes, as if in irritation - but were he one to self-reflect more, he could be more honest about sharing the same need to exclaim one's small triumphs or other concerns for reassurance. (He is not that honest.)
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Also nearby are two more recent arrivals--having doubled back to pick a few things up from the Moonflow (that were absolutely from 'stores' not 'Rikku stealing things in the woods'), so it is that two Guardians have become part of the security for the moment.
"So you might," Lulu comments, stepping forward from where she'd finished deciding this fact with Rikku (or, well, 'in front of Rikku' as the case may be), "It's good to see that you've made the journey. The route can be treacherous at the best of times, and these aren't those."
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
Rikku was absolutely not looting treasure chests in the woods and using what she found within them to clear out fiends and teach the party how she fights.
Certainly not. Her tutorial was much earlier since she joined the party in Luca.
The treasure chests though are just mysteriously out here in the forest though... such mysteries are better left unexamined and unsolved!
"Mmm-hmm!" Rikku has her lips pressed together as she sits beside Lulu just validating what the Guado and Yevonite are saying, trying her best not to attract attention.
Which means she's not saying all that much right now.
She has however spied something out just past the road half-hidden by a tree, and nudges Lulu as she whispers, "Be right back."
And off she goes, slipping down from the wagon stealthily.
It's not even twenty seconds later that she's clambering back up over the side of the wagon with a thump of her boots.
"Thought I saw a fiend." Rikku mumbles in excuse to the party as she plops back down beside Lulu.
If she's a little bit richer now. That's another mystery - and one she loves examining.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The Maester's scribe, Krelian, had other business during this trek. And so it was that the junior scribe, Thomas, had been sent. Capturing a record of these events is of great importance, no matter how 'minor' they may be.
The young man's morose demeanor -- of which the reason for (allegedly) Lulu was privy to -- has not lifted; he has been relatively quiet for most of the journey. Which, given his usual trend towards trading barbs and sarcasm may well be a good thing.
Stirring at last from the back of the wagon, he moves towards the front, settling near enough to the black mage soon after Rikku makes her departure.
"I don't think there's anything here," he comments, at length.
Rikku soon returns, sans Fiend-slaying. Normally, this is the point where he might have made a remark--
...Might have? How strange.
He shakes that off, as he's shaken it off so much lately, and insteady just watches Rikku as she seats herself again.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha deVriese is a relatively recent entrant to the ranks of warrior monk trainees, an adventurer-warrior of some unclear extraction who has, through means that are definitely related to her apparent faith and practical talents and not in any way connected to that thing she does when she walks, found her way into guarding the clerks and subclerks of one Maester Seymour.
Which is to say she's here keeping an eye on 'Thomas' to make sure he doesn't get eaten by a crocodile or trampled by a shoopuff or something.
The somewhat-above-short woman is sitting on the front of the wagon, for the moment, accompanying the driver. One of her sleeves, on the right, is cut long - long enough to disguise her hand. Or rather, from the way it is bundled off with a sturdy but nonetheless colorful strap, presumably to disguise its stump.
She starts a bit at Ena's call, but starts rolling her joints awake shortly after. "Ah, a shame. I suppose I'll have to get my practice this evening with the dummies, instead," she muses.
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
Ena looks down a bit when Gon admonishes her. "O-of course, Sir Gon. I'm sorry." Lulu's comment on the route being unsafe does get her attention, however. "Is it really that dangerous? I would have thought a road this trafficked would be safer." Though, she supposes, nowhere is really safe in Spira, is it? Especially now that there's a war going on.
If she noticed Rikku sneaking away, she sure doesn't show it. She lets out a slightly startled yelp as the other woman clambers and thumps onto the wagon, and grips her staff tighter. "Oh, right." She relaxes, when Rikku explains why the sudden movement. "I guess it was nothing?" She turns toward the back of the wagon, to Thomas. "Better safe than sorry though, right? We don't want to get ambushed by fiends."
Tabitha's disappointment speaks to something under the surface in Ena, but she tries not to show it. "Um, if you want, we could train together when we're in Guadosalam?" She offers, tentatively. "I don't know I'd give you a better fight than the dummies, though."
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
"Dame Lulu does speak true," Gon says, though he watches intently as Rikku hops off... and comes back, like it's nothing. His stare continues to follow her for a while. He looks back ahead, this momentary pause of twenty seconds as though it simply weren't, the large-handed fellow declining to say much of anything about it. "There is much disarray in these times in which to further stir up the lurking Fiends." It's very matter-of-fact. It might not even need to have been clarified. "This upheavel has done none of us any favors."
Gon rubs two fingers from his left hand against his right shoulder, as if gently massaging an ache, breathing outward quietly with an aggravated sigh. This would be a good time for words of encouragement from the eldest of the gathered. This is not a memo Gon appears to have received.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
A fiend. ...Or maybe something shiny.
"It's good of you to look out so carefully," Lulu comments smoothly to Rikku. ...She never complains about Rikku making the budget stretch farther on the trip. Obviously though nothing like that is happening.
Lulu, for her part, looks over Loren long enough to determine that his demeanor is largely unchanged. This fits the facts of which she's aware, though. "...Part of her skill set is her observational skills," Lulu allows about Rikku. She lifts an eyebrow at Tabitha, though. Ready for action, is it?
"...?" Lulu considers Ena for a moment. "Well, that makes sense, if you haven't done much travel yourself. Even the known roads run the risk of Fiends, though. Less so in a large group like the one you're in, naturally."
Training together? Hmmm. "What kind of approach do you take in combat?" she asks Tabitha, then. All business, naturally.
...Gon's scrutiny of Rikku prompts Lulu to look towards him. Just to look. For a long few moments.
"...You appear to be injured. Are you sure you shouldn't be resting?"
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Yep. It was nothing." Rikku confirms building upon Loren's earlier comment, but replying to Ena in this case. Before she smiles and leans leans Lulu's way to whisper, "Nothing but gil." A comment for her ears alone.
Though as Lulu speaks of her observational skills, one might find that her neck is tilted slightly more towards the road. Perhaps it's because she subconsciously connects the word 'observation' with eyes.
Or perhaps it's because Gon is watching her. Which leads to her scratching her neck for a while and deciding it'd be less suspicious if she weren't so quiet while Lulu intercepts him with a question.
"Maybe we could get Wakka and Tidus to join her." She notes, conversationally to Lulu, "I bet they'd take to training that way real well."
And no, Rikku isn't calling them dummies there. Honest.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Thomas' has been doing his best to keep a comfortable distance from his alleged guard (and not Guardian).
"Handy," he remarks to Lulu. "Saw a shadow?" he says to Rikku. His heart just isn't entirely in it, not yet.
"Guess so," he says, to Ena. he flips through his papers, as if making sure everything is here. "...Yeah. The road's been a mess with the war. I suppose even Fiends are feeling it."
Just as Gon, too, has surmised. Loren shakes his head and sighs, heavily. "Lucky us," he remarks, a comment more like (more like?) himself, before continuing to review his notes. The papers hold more attraction than other people...
Eventually, doesn't this heavy feeling have to lift? It feels like it's been dragging on him forever. He's got to--
And in the end Loren lifts his gaze only to weigh in: "I'll pass," on the subject of training later. Perhaps he's not feeling it, without his brother's sword back in hand.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha brightens at Ena's offer, leaning forward on her elbows with a smile. "Why that sounds grand! I love to practice with new faces."
She catches Lulu's attention and favors her with a look and a wiggle of her extant hand's fingers. She answers, easily enough: "Unarmed combat, more acrobatic style." As opposed to bar brawling, presumably.
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
With Gon having little more to say, Ena listens intently to Lulu, and nods. "I mean, I knew it was dangerous, but I didn't think it was that bad. But I had never left Kilika before this. Though I guess without the Crusaders..." She lets that thought hang, realising she may have hit a potential sore spot all too late. It's a bit of a faux pas to admit that people who were excommunicated had been useful. "I mean, the warrior monks have to focus on the Temples instead of the paths, I guess."
She looks down again, even as Rikku reassures her that there's no fiends. "That's good, then." Thomas's reluctance to talk seems a touch of a dampener to the woman's earlier enthusiasm. "Are you sure? The more the merrier, so they say." That may be a plaintive request, a sudden moment of being put off by Tabitha's... enthusiasm. That smile is a touch intimidating, to say the least.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
"...I am humbled by your concern, Dame Lulu," replies Gon as he straightens out, opens his eyes, and takes his fingers off his shoulder a bit hastily. "It is a trifle."
NOT MANY DAYS AGO
Gon, windswept from the field of battle by someone bearing shiny green armoring, finds himself sprawled out a ways away. For how prone to injury the Guado can be, once his hearing and control of his breathing returns to him, he can stand up under his own power.
A wild chocobo, agitated, runs up to him - separated from its flock due to recent skirmishes.
"Shoo. On your way. Shoo." He tries to tell it.
It stares at him, comes closer...
...then sinks its beak into him, shoulder-first, and drags him half-way across the road like it were eager to show him to the others.
It is an exceedingly humiliating display he sincerely hopes no one saw.
NOW
"I will persevere," the older Guado says. Fortunately, he doesn't seem to yet further press the point of Rikku's presence. That particular piece of the record might have been set straight by proxy some time back. As straight as it'll get, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu nods, in reply. If Gon says he's fine, he's fine--regardless, he isn't pressing the matter of Rikku any further, and that's what matters to her.
.......Hilarious unknown Chocobo stories aside.
"Hmm," Lulu answers Tabitha, looking her over thoughtfully. "Interesting." She actually sounds sincere, it's... probably not underhanded or backhanded. Instead, though--
Lulu, having already given Rikku an amused quiet reply to her statement before--gives a different one about the aside. "Do you think so? It seems a little overly disciplined for one of them..."
She spots Loren continuing to be miserable, though. And decides...
"I think it's a good idea, personally. There are times when some fresh air and exercise can do a great deal more than any amount of rest."
But she nods, then--to Ena. "...Yes, that's true. The Crusaders were occupied in much of the efforts to keep the paths safe, and keep Fiends and Sin away from towns and cities." Lulu's not a priestess; she can say this. "With the monks taking over such duties, they're stretched thin. ...Maybe, in time, things will even out. Maybe."
<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.
"Yeah. The trees around her cast pretty deep shadows. Even when there aren't fiends it's enough to give you the creeps from time to time." Rikku replies to Loren. "Like someone's watching you."
Well. There is in fact someone watching her right now.
"I bet I can guess which one." Rikku has this lightly teasing tone when Lulu says it's too disciplined for 'one' of them. "Mister Star." She says, without adding 'Zanarkand Abes' as she know it'd get awkward real quick.As Tabitha describes her fighting style though Rikku nods, "So sorta... you know... Blitzy?" She asks Tabitha, as if to ask if her style was like a Blitzball Player. Granted, most Blitzball players she know fight armed, but acrobatic and unarmed sure sounds like Blitzball like to her.
However Ena then mentions the Crusaders and Rikku momentarily looks a little down. It's just a momentary thing, but it's there. Before she cheers up and adds, "Well that just means it's up to the rest of us to pull our weight while we're out here." She says with this grin and pumping an arm in the air, "And start jumping at those shadows. Better that we Guardians take care of whatever's in them than let some poor refugees get jumped right?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
'Like something's watching you,' Rikku says. 'Thomas' hunches his shoulders, as if an ugly thought were occuring to him. He briefly closes his eyes, moves his hand as if to readjust his glasses--
...Which of course aren't there. Even now, the habit remains.
"Ugh. I don't want to think about it," he remarks at length, making a face. The cloud, briefly, is shaken, but...
"I'm sure," he 's started to say in response to Ena.
Perhaps it's Lulu who might be able to understand the younger man's despair better, given their previous chat.
And perhaps it's Lulu who understands what definitely won't work for him to fix it (it's definitely not to keep doing what he's been doing).
"What...?" he utters, lifting his head. His attention shifts between the menacing presence of the black mage, then over to the summoner-in-training, then back to Lulu. "..."
His shoulders sag under the weight of the black mage's gaze.
"...Fine. I guess I will," he relents.
<Pose Tracker> Tabitha deVriese has posed.
Tabitha's smile isn't dangerous, just....interested. Excited, maybe. .... ok a little dangerous. She looks like she'd have her chin propped on her hands if she had a plural of those, so she settles for just the one. But she's able to keep up with the conversation easily despite looking at Ena like she's wondering what sauce she goes best with. "A bit," she adds toward Rikku, with a grin that way as well. "I suppose it would look like that, except for fiend heads instead of blitzballs. You have to learn to work with your feet in my condition."
She does find herself looking back at 'Thomas' at 'like someone's watching you', something silent and far from teasing in her gaze. His grimace seems to make her decide to leave it be. Instead, she chirps, "Ah, wonderful! A merry old game of smashing." ... "Or a smashing game of--" She stops, tilts her head. "Hm. No."
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
Ena casts a look at Gon, but doesn't say anything. She's smart enough to notice when someone is too prideful to want further comment. So there is no comment on the injurious potential of Chocobo beaks. There is, however, a cheerful 'Kweh!' from the Chocobo pulling the wagon. Perhaps it knows the dark secret.
Ena nods thoughtfully at Lulu's comment on the Crusaders. "I guess there's no use dwelling on it now." Rikku, however, seems to hearten her up again. "You're right. If we don't have enough monks, we'll have to protect Spira ourselves!" This is, perhaps, too optimistic, and in her enthusiasm she bumps her slung arm into the wagon, but doesn't seem to notice.
Thomas relenting gives Ena some extra cheer, and she gives a short bow as she turns around to him. "I look forward to training with you!" She says, that weird enthusiasm growing. Even Tabitha's interest doesn't put her off. The comment about having to work with your feet draws attention to Tabitha's bound arm, and Ena nods. "Wow, that sounds impressive. I guess I'll get to see you in action." Sure, those feet may be kicking her repeatedly in the face that evening, but hey.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
All the talk of the logistics about manpower and the ability to hold the lines with what manpower they have has the Guado among them quiet down more noticeably while small talk of a somewhat more enthusiastic bent (on average) passes among the lot of them.
He won't vocally suggest agreeing with Rikku out loud, what with how numerous and opportunistic parasites the Otherworlders sure have been!
Then there is a little 'kweh,' and the sound of someone bumping an arm up against the wagon. He sits up with a startle - a startle uncharacteristic of his people, who oft present as so stoic and immovable to sudden shows of vivid emotion.
"...I would keep some of that energy to spare," he grumpily says, slackening his posture only a little as he looks ahead to the way forward. "Nonetheless... as was said minutes before, we draw near to Guadosalam. I will take care of further arrangements at our arrival..."
Further arrangements of not wanting that chocobo to look his way, or to think about how, exactly, they intend to stop the Guard from taking away everything he's worked towards.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
"Hmm," Lulu answers Rikku about the guess. Even when Wakka's not here, F O E...
Watching? Accurate. Lulu, of course--continues to stare at Loren, until he agrees, and then nods in some satisfaction. She does understand.... to a degree, quite well. But, "Remember though that we can't always be around for that. When it comes to the pilgrimage or keeping the roads clear, we can only do so much."
She looks over Tabitha, and nods. She has little to say; she is a bit curious about the fighting style that results, but why ask? She can just watch later.
"...Heh," Lulu answers at Gon's statement. "It's true. That energy can be put to use. Maybe the training tonight will do you some good."
She likes Ena well enough. That sort of earnestness can be a relief, in times like these.