2019-08-26: Cameras, War, The News, Potatoes, And Other Such Things

From Dream Chasers
Jump to navigation Jump to search
  • Log: Cameras, War, The News, Potatoes, And Other Such Things
  • Cast: Kamui, Acacia Saitani, Citan Uzuki, Fei Fong Wong
  • Where: Guadosalam
  • Date: August 26, 2019
  • Summary: Citan and Fei have a chance encounter with two individuals who just might be the whole of the journalism profession on Spira. Conversation circles around the news, Kamui's Kamui-ness, and camera nerdery.

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

    Kamui and Acacia are doing some reporting out in Guadosalam -- in part because Kamui seems to be really attracted to the city of roots, and in part because she insists that not all the Guado are like the stereotypes they've encountered. The reaction has been... somewhat mixed, but the youth of the Guado seem more amenable to talking to them -- and they've gotten some neat stories of the Farplane, and the topmost roots that serve as beautiful lookout points, and all the rest.

    But when Kamui passes the entranceway to one of the higher-terrace living spaces, she pauses...

    And then hurries towards one particular ponytailed martial artist and his companion doctor in a green tunic.

    She perks up with her hands held out airplane style. "Oh, Doctor!" Is she referring to Citan or Fei?? Her eyes waver for a moment as the gem on her chest glows.

    "Master wanted to tell you her conference is going to go over-long, so she won't be able to have lunch with you, but she'll catch up with you later. So sorry, she said!"

    A pause...

    Blink, blink, blink.

    "... mui, I don't know why I just said that," Kamui sounds really puzzled and troubled.

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

    Acacia finds herself drawn to Guadosalam for much the same reasons as she's drawn to Macalania - it's weird and interesting. It's easy to think of Luca or Kilika or Besaid as seaside villages on Aquvy's shores - not that easy, given the technological differences, but close enough she can squint. The Guado homeland is like nothing she's ever seen, so she's drawn to it through sheer natural curiosity, and can't resist taking a few photos when she's sure that no Guado is judging her for her use of machina.

    (With Kamui around, that isn't all that often, but she is nothing if not determined.)

    "... I'm not even sure how to organize all of this," the redhead wonders to herself in the end as she flips through her pad, having filled it with enough beginner religion to write a tract or two of her own. Looking up at Kamui, she allows herself a lopsided grin. "But I think we can call today a success, don't you? The lookout spots alone, I'd never have even thought of. There's so many twisty tunnels here."

    Her own pace is less hurried, even when Kamui jogs forwards. Her notebook's tucked away, so she's now officially off the clock and taking it easy, and she's used enough to the Reploid's eagerness that it's not rare for Kamui to go on ahead. But she does blink when the girl heads straight for a pair, then shoots her eyebrows up in clear surprise at the idea that one of them might have a message waiting.

    That probably means another long-lived friend of Marivel's-- but she's not really sure if she should voice that aloud, tucking it away in the back of her mind alongside an increasingly scatterbrained image of her ancestor. "Hey, Kamui. You can't just go up to people all of a sudden like that," she lectures instead, downgrading the incoming bonk to a pat on the head when she spots Kamui's confusion.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Citan is, at this very moment, pointing something out to Fei. "Have you had the opportunity to visit--"

    This is when an unfamiliar voice calls out to him. Perhaps it's only natural that he draws away from the overlook and turns in the young woman's direction.

    At least, at first glance he takes the figure for a young woman. It becomes clear very quickly that she is, perhaps, not entirely... flesh and blood. He pauses for a moment, staring at her in some mixture of disbelief and fascination. His gaze drifts down to the glowing gem on her chest, then lifts to examine her face in more detail.

    "...My apologies, were you asking after me?" he asks, looking her in the eye.

    Which is followed by somewhat muted confusion on his part. "...Ah, I... suppose you may have confused me with someone else," he says, shaking his head. He glances over at Fei, then back at the mystery messenger. "Hmm." His brow creases.

    To think that... here...

    His attention parts from Kamui as Acacia comes racing after her friend. "Oh, hello! Is she your friend? I believe this is a case of a mixed-up identity..."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei is about to preemptively answer Citan when there's an unfamiliar voice calling out to--uh--well to Citan apparently. Fei naturally assumes she's talking to Citan. "Friend of yours?" He asks of Citan before turning back to Kamui. He frowns because she looks familiar. He's had such feelings before. Sometimes they turned out to be false alarms, similar enough to ring the alarm bells but not actually anything to do with him.

On the other hand, Kamui... honestly, it's hard to imagine anybody quite like the young woman right in front of him.

"Are you alright?" He asks of her. "What happened to your eye? Maybe Doc can help fix it... He's a really good doctor."

Is Fei assuming that this is a medical issue of some kind that Citan can fix with medicine or surgery? Yeah that's probably what Fei is thinking.

Still he does understand one thing: Saying stuff and not knowing why you said the stuff. "It's okay," He assures her. "It happens to me all the time. We can have lunch another day."

He then glances towards Acacia, and shrugs a bit, then frowns a bit, then he says, "Hey hold on..." He stands himself up and studies Acacia. "Yeah I think I know you, though. You're the journalist behind Meria Bouletin right? Nice job standing up for the truth and all that." He grins. "'Fraid there isn't munch of a story here."

There's a faint bead of sweat trickling down his neck that suggests there may be a story here.

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

    Kamui also doesn't really seem to have any idea how to organise the loose snippets of stories and accounts and tracts, but she also seems to ... have her own ideas of how to write her journalistic entries. Charitably, they can be said to be 'instinctual'.

    She gets a headpat from Acacia, as Citan speaks up and starts studying her and asks if she was asking after him.

    "Hmmmmm..." Kamui doesn't sound certain, looking ever more worried.

    I... suppose you may have confused me with someone else.

    "I suppose so... mui," Kamui replies with a kind of voice that's about eighty percent certain yet twenty percent not. Her own brow also creases.

    Fei asks what happened to her eye, and Kamui blinks (or is that winking, when you only have one eye left?) as she reaches up to her face. "Oh... Kamui's face got broken a long, long time ago. Can Doc really... do that?"

    Though when Fei answers her with an assurance... she settles down for a moment, as if something extremely ancient -- even as innocuous as a memo that someone can't make lunch -- just got resolved. "Mmm!"

    A pause.

    "A munch of a story... Master! I'm hungry too now, mui! Ah wait, but we were gonna have lunch another day..."

    Another pause, as Kamui finally starts untangling herself enough to go back to the beginning and bow.

    "I'm Kamui, I'm another reporter from the Meria Bouletin! And this is Master!" A pause. "Master Master." That's her full name?!?!

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

    Acacia is very visibly an otherworlder; a young woman with vividly red hair, mostly shoulder length but with a chunk of it pulled into a ponytail at one side. It's the little things that give her away, like the fact that Spira probably hasn't learned about thick puffy vests or the sort of utilitarian work boots that can last a decade if you look after them a bit. Or her camera and notebook, peeking out of one pocket.

    The simple country doctor's response to her makes her pause for just a second. She'd thought she was on the mark with her guess, but the man's gentle confusion leaves her uncertain, and she lifts a hand to scratch at her head of hair for a moment. "She's my friend, yeah. Ah, sorry about that. She means well, I promise," she adds with a lopsided grin - still, there's a little in the way of protectiveness about the way she covers Kamui, and a definite moment of relief as Citan seems ready to accept Kamui's presence.

    Fei's comment is met with faint surprise; her eyebrows lift a little as she nearly leans on Kamui to scratch at her cheek. "Ah, that's me alright. Thanks - though I wouldn't say I've been doing a whole lot of that lately," she grins back with an easy sort of nature. "Or at least, we're going for a happy edition next time. Kinda feels like that's what people could use more right this moment. That and I've got a rule that I only sneak into a war zone once a month."

    "... when are you not hungry?" the reporter teases the girl she's resting her arm atop, puffing out a breath. "Still, we have been running around a lot, I guess." The introduction makes her visibly pause, and then let out a quiet, amused sigh as she accepts the extra Master. "That's... me. Acacia Saitani."

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Initial surprise aside, the doctor appears to take it in stride, in all honesty. It's as if he's already been exposed to a good many strange events already in his life...

    Current company, quite possibly, included.

    Fei starts in with an explanation that Citan's a doctor and could certainly do something for Kamui's eye. Which prompts Citan to glance sidelong at the younger man. "Ah, Fei, I do not think..."

    A moment of silence passes as Kamui explains what happened to her face. "...Indeed," Citan says at length, pushing his glasses a fraction of an inch up his nose. "That said, machinery is a hobby of mine. If it were not for the fact that we are lacking the parts..." He trails off, his expression distantly thoughtful, then shakes his head. "...But it is impossible, here."

    He folds his arms as Fei gives his reassurances, watching on as the two of them speak.

    Then, when Fei mentions Acacia's profession--

    "Oh! Then you are that journalist. I must say, your paper has been quite useful in keeping up to date on events." He smiles, a touch ruefully. "Without a coordinated system of couriers, getting one's information becomes quite difficult, particularly in a time of war." At her apologies, he shakes his head. "No, it would not do if you were injured or killed. I believe your readers would rather you remain hale and whole!"

    This is when Fei makes a slight misstatement, perhaps.

    "Do you have lunch on your mind as well, Fei?" he says goodnaturedly, while giving the impression he is attempting to maintain a straight face -- especially when Kamui goes and runs with it. His gaze shifts her way, and almost, it seems like he's about to ask a question...

    But instead nods when Kamui and Acacia introduce themselves. "Citan Uzuki, formerly of the village of Lahan. And this is Fei Fong Wong. It is good to meet you, Miss Saitani. Kamui."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei's cheek reddens when two people point out how he mispoke. "Er...well... Nah, I'm--" His stomach grumbles. "--haha, well, I've been outed. You know my secret, Doc. I'm always hungry." And hanging around bothering people for lunch apparently, but he does laugh a little awkwardly at his own misfortune(?) because all in all, he's generally a humble guy even if he acts like the weight of the world is on his shoulders sometimes. He's trying to be better about that.

To his credit he manages not to make a hilarious face when Citan mentions Lahan. "Nice to meetcha, both of you." He says. He honestly sounds like someone who might have been raised in a village in the middle of nowhere.

"Master Master huh?" Fei says, grinning briefly at Acacia. "Is she um." He glances back to Kamui, then to Acacia. "Is she your family?" Kamui is kind of reminding her of Emeralda so he is making some presumptions. "Once a month is more than what I manage, so--fair enough!"

Doc admits it's impossiblel to fix Kamui here and he nods slowly. "Oh--yeah, I guess it'd be hard to do on Spira." Though they're not FROM Spira so maybe one day they'll be in a place where it is possible.

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

    Of hunger, it seems Fei and Kamui share something, as both Citan and Acacia point out. Some things will never change. Fei's assessment of her being Acacia's family might not be all that off, however; she does act like a little sister, or sometimes, even a daughter. It's a bit unclear, with how wildly her behaviour seems to shift.

    "Oh... that means you're both... from Filgaia?" Kamui sounds like she has to register and correct herself on that front, like it's hard to remember where Lahan is.

    "But, if Fei is hungry, and Kamui is hungry, let's go have lunch!"

    Citan talks a little about how difficult it is to maintain information, especially in a time of war. "I'm going to protect Master when she does her journalism... and, Rin from the Travel Agency's also been helping us spread our issues through the Travel Sphere. He's really savvy!"

    The camera eye under her hair gleams red for a moment as its lens narrows.

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

    "... I'm keeping it in mind, at least," Acacia cuts in, and it maybe takes a moment to realize she's joined in the conversation about the state of Kamui's face; she scratches at her cheek, obviously a little uncertain about a topic that so openly treats the Reploid as a machine rather than, well, Kamui. "I don't know where we'd get the parts, but once we're back, I'm going to be making some enquiries."

    She's much quicker to light up, though in a rather quiet and muted way, when the doctor compliments her work. "Tell me about it," she grins faintly. "To be honest, I don't really want to get the Bouletin involved in the politics of the war and that side of things, but if I'm proud of anything it's introducing Spira to the idea of the classified section. With Rin's help, we've managed to get a lot of families back together. I'll take that over 'and then the Highroad got lit up again'."

    There's a clear pride in her voice that gels with the unorthodox style of her paper - often piecemeal or sporadic, regularly focusing on the little things rather than the big, and surprisingly content with where and what it covers.

    Fei's question doesn't exactly bring her up short, but she does have to pause and think about it, fixing Kamui with a glance. "... yeah... something like family, at least," she admits, almost bashful as she says it. "Or close enough that it counts. At the very least, I keep having to mom her a lot," she adds, teasing with a relish that covers her feelings, and then proving it by glancing at the Reploid's confusion and the way she haltingly asks about Filgaia.

    "That's right," she replies, with a cautious look at the pair. It feels wrong to mention Lahan by name, out of respect if nothing else. "It'd be west of Adlehyde, between Kislev and Aveh. To be honest, I've never really been over that way," she adds, looking up at the pair more fully. "Guild Galad kid, honestly."

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    Citan's reaction to the protest courtesy of Fei's stomach is to simply shake his head. "Well, you are a young man. When I think back..." He apparently thinks the better of this anecdote, whatever it was going to be, and clears his throat. "...In any case, perhaps lunch may be in order."

    He glances sidelong at Fei when Kamui asks whether that's in Filgaia. "Yes, that is correct," Citan says, on the subject of Lahan. He merely nods at Acacia's approximate placement of the village, and says nothing more regarding it. Perhaps, since if anyone has anything more to say about Lahan, it ought to be Fei, if he so chooses.
    But it is strange. The doctor, by contrast, doesn't sound like he was raised in a country town.

    As for Kamui--

    "Yes. In a sense, she is both similar and dissimilar to your Hyadean friends," he says, rubbing his chin as he regards the Reploid woman. "And Emeralda, too, if I'm not mistaken. ...However, I must confess, the necessary parts would be difficult to find even on Filgaia. The most likely place to look might be Guild Galad, and even that would not be certain. My apologies, Kamui. I may have spoken too soon."

    His gaze lingers on Kamui a moment more when she says she's hungry, but this is again a factor that he seemingly takes in stride.

    His compliments appear to have hit their mark; he nods when she explains the aim of the paper. "Indeed, becoming entangled in this war may... be difficult for a lone journalist. I suspect that neither of the powers that be would take kindly to it. Nevertheless, I have been able to understand a great deal from reading it."

    Spira, after all, is a foreign land to a simple country doctor such as he.

    Which is the point where Citan's gaze shifts to the camera on Acacia's person. "Actually, if I may ask... what model of camera is that? I have some interest in photography, myself, you see."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei says, "Mmhmm. Filgaia." It might be tough to remember where Lahan is because it's a village that was in the middle of nowhere and also no longer exists and it's certainly not a place a few millenia old or anything like that. At least, hopefully not??

Fei flinches a little at the 'red' because, uh, it's Fei. Glowing red usually means something else for him. But it doesn't seem to alter his behavior beyond that instinctive wince.

"Oh?? Did that work? That's a relief. I haven't been involved in the war much myself. I'm uh. I needed a break? From that? And, hey, Spira is still technically in one piece?"

He rests a hand on Acacia's shoulder. "I get it. You don't always know when someone's going to join your family. Sometimes they get dropped out of the sky in a gear. Life's a funny thing sometimes, huh?"

He is eager to lunch.

"Oh... even on Filgaia, huh?" He adds to Citan. "Well--sorry for getting folks' hopes up. But at least it's not impossible, right?"

He is okay with not talking about Lahan right now.

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

    Kamui puffs up in the exact way a child does when Citan mentions 'lone journalist', hopping up and down in ... really, the way Emeralda might as she procures the Picto Obscura out of her satchel and holds it up, since Citan said he was interested in photography. It bears a semblance to the Picto Boxes from Aquvy, to be certain, but...

    "Master isn't on her own! Despite how I look, I'm a journalist too...! I help write articles! Like... like the one on shoopuff pastries," Kamui grumps, ever the image of a child wanting to be validated.

    She does stop when Citan mentions Hyadeans, though... there's this quiet, almost distant look of recognition, just for a moment. Then it passes.

    When he apologises, though... and the topic of how difficult it would be to repair herself does come up...

    Kamui doesn't seem too concerned about it -- perhaps because her state just feels like a natural state of being, a natural decay she can't fight. "... it's okay. It's been like this for a long, long time now. Maybe back at the lab, if Master really wants," she answers. "We have to go back for Gami and Mettie, anyway."

    She looks to Fei a bit curiously when he mentions someone being dropped out of the sky like a gear, but...

    "There's a very nice spiral potato stand just down the ramp."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

    Acacia's ears perk up for a lot of reasons. These two have friends amongst the Hyadeans, and they know someone similar to Kamui; they're at least aware of Guild Galad, though that's not exactly major news. And the way in which Fei offers her commiserations with a distinctly unique and specific example... well, she can hardly be blamed for the spike of reporter's curiosity that comes her way.

    "I know they wouldn't, actually," Acacia corrects the doctor, doing her best to keep an easy smile on her face despite the tension inherent in the story. "One of the Four Heroes was pretty explicit on how much she'd love to harm me. The rest of them were nuts enough that I wouldn't want to chance it," she complains as she folds her arms. Snuck in anyway then got threatened by someone else."

    Kamui is pouting - and Acacia is quick to chuckle. "But like she says, Kamui's got my back. If it weren't for her, I'm pretty sure I'd have been in a lot more trouble a lot sooner. ... I think she might have more fans than me, too," she adds as she folds her arms. "So I guess she's my Star Reporter." Maybe she's just looking for an excuse to compliment the Reploid.

    There's a quieter smile on her face when she looks to Fei, and a lopsided shrug. "But, yeah. There's that, at least. I didn't even really have to do much of anything. Just said 'let me know if you're missing anyone' then wrote them all down and spread them out like a big jigsaw, fitting things together where I could."

    "Ah, this one's just a Guild Galad model. I paid a seriously pretty penny for it, but it's really handy how small they made it," she adds as she takes it out and offers it over. It really is a remarkably recent model by Filgaian standards - just not as unique as Kamui's more interesting specimen, nor a pile of nonsense like Shalune's knockoff HyaiPad.

    "They know you by name at this point," she grumbles, but turns in the direction Kamui indicates anyway.

<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.

    "Yes. The parts for someone like Kamui would, unless I am mistaken, be quite difficult to locate," he says. "After all, you have not met one precisely like her before, have you, Fei? Even to compare Emeralda or the Hyadeans to her is imperfect; her existence is clearly a unique one."

    Which may only be confirmed when she speaks of a 'lab'; he watches her as she speaks of it but says nothing.

    "I... see," Citan says, as neutral as one can when hearing an admission like that from Acacia, on the topic of what happened when she came into conflict with the Four Heroes. "Yes. That would complicate matters. ...It would be best to keep one's distance from the Althena's Guard, given such remarks..." He glances down, as if thinking this event over, adding it to what he has learned of the scenario so far.

    "I think," he says to Fei, his gaze fleetingly hooded, "that it is for the best if we do not involve ourselves in this war. Rather, it may be more useful to continue to seek a route back to Filgaia," he concludes. "Though, it may be difficult to remain neutral if the conflict continues to move north..." he cannot help but muse.

    This is when his remark on Acacia -- and consequent exclusion of Kamui -- is met with Kamui's indignance. "Are you? Oh, I see, is that not a Picto Box?" A pause follows. "So you are the one who wrote that article?" ...Has he been reading every issue?

    "A reporter's reporter, then," he says, perhaps similarly trying not to smile too much.

    And then, his question about her camera is answered...

    "Oh, I see... wonderful! So they did improve upon the model," he says, readjusting his glasses while inspecting the camera Acacia produces, before carefully handing it back over. "My own is a good deal older and nowhere near as compact. It was difficult obtaining anything of the sort out in Lahan," he explains, producing a camera possibly best described as 'very vintage'. It has to be at least ten years old. "You may be familiar with the Strauss model. It is rather delicate and finnicky, though I have to admit some fondness for it. There is something that I find enchanting about older devices and machines," he explains, though he does grimace at the next admission: "even if they are quite difficult to repair sometimes!"

    Flashback cut-in: Fei arriving at Citan's house the evening before everything went wrong. There is an explosion, followed by the doctor yelling about inferior parts...

    A spiral potato stand? He nods. "Hmm, lead on then," he says, moving along as Kamui leads the way.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Mm potatoes..." Fei murmurs to himself. "Yeah I could go for some potato." He literally says it like that. Like potato. And honestly, these shoopuf pastries are also of interest to him but he's going to keep quiet on that for now. Instead he marvels at how childlike Kamui is, though maybe not as much as he would've if he didn't have Emeralda in his life.

"She's a growing kid," Fei tells Acacia. "She's gotta have a big appe--oh right now that I've said that I see what's wrong there."

Citan says Kamui is unique and Fei has to nod his head in agreement. "I suppose that's true. It's a shame though--" It makes him wonder what would happen to Emeralda--but then again, Emeralda has been around for litterally thousands of years, not like Kamui over there probably. And she doesn't seem to be anywhere near slowing down. Or even so much as have a scratch on her. But if she did get sick or wounded somehow...

Citan doesn't get any argument from Fei on not involving himself (too much) in the war. "Yeah no kidding, last thing they need is me screwing things up even more. Luckily, You Know Who's been pretty chill." Aside from the occassional gripe or push--but nothing that felt like how he did during the Battle of the Photosphere.

Fei can see that flashback in his mind's eye and he quietly looks away, reddening in the face even more.

<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.

    Kamui's attention is particularly capricious, and the discussion of camera seems to have well dominated it, with the exception of looking proud when Acacia says she's her Star Reporter.

    She rummages and takes out a well-loved sticker album and shows them the ACE REPORTING! sticker, by Marivel. "Mari gave this to me! Next time, I'll do you proud enough you'll give me one, Master!"

    She looks towards Acacia's camera as Citan lavishes praise on it. "Hmm... did it used to be bigger? More like this one?" Kamui's is much more boxy than a more modern camera, like those articles...

    Citan asks if she's the one writing those articles. "I write a lot about travel and high places and food... but sometimes, about mean things too. Like... that Operation."

    A pause, as she answers, "And yes, this is the Picto Obscura. I found it in a spooky manor. It has the ability to banish ghosts!"

    Kamui has never, ever elaborated on this mysterious encounter. Not even the once.

    She holds onto Fei's hand and tugs him along, since he's expressing interest in potatoes. "Master, Doctor Citan, this way!"

    And potatoes will be had... as well as, perhaps, the little marivel of how Kamui can slurp a spiral potato in one go like it were air. Hyuu--