2019-09-02: Thank You, Sorry, and I Told You So!
- Log: 2019-09-02: Thank You, Sorry, and I Told You So!
- Cast: Ivan, Talia, Seraph Amaranth, Lydia Seren
- Where: Crusader Forward Base
- Date: September 02, 2019
- Summary: The aftermath of the battle against Lubov!
==========================<* Crusader Forward Base *>=========================== To the west of the Mi'ihen Highroad is found a long, jagged mountain chain that serves as a weather break and help keep both Luca and the Highroad itself safe from vicious storms. A large plateau in this chain, overlooking a wide, sloping beach, was selected as the forward operating base for the Crusaders' Operation Mi'ihen. The site is now a testament to their folly. Abandoned equipment and scorched stone mar thesurface of the plateau, and the beach below is riddled with the remains of Crusaders, Althena's Guard, and Al Bhed alike -- and individuals still working to bury them at sea. Only scant Pyreflies remain, after Lady Yuna did a series of Sendings over an entire night.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
The stones from Mushroom Rock Road fell, with Lubov buried under them -- and yet, there was no body. The decision had been simple: flee.
It is some thirty or forty minutes later. Jacqueline has already departed; as has Ragnell. Part of Talia wanted to, to be absolutely certain that Amaranth was not somehow still back there. She tried to quiet that voice, though. She said she would have faith in Ammy. That means, to her, not rushing back into danger. She has put herself in enough trouble today.
They've found their way to the beach where Operation Mi'ihen was fought. Talia walks to a shattered, broken hunk of machina -- gives a passing glance at a former Crusader, now trying to salvage from some of the debris -- and then she leans against it. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and then lets it out slowly.
"I think... I think we can rest here, for a little while, no?" she says, softly. "Is everyone okay?"
She hesitates. "If--if Ammy doesn't show up soon, I am going to go look for her. And see if Ragnell has found her, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan's nerves are jumping all over after the adrenaline rush of the battle and its ambiguous ending fades into their flight, and they finally pause for a breather.
Is everyone okay? Katherine being missing is a pretty big question mark, and a dangerous one.
"She was gone before the rocks, right? Did anyone see...?" He missed her dissappearance in the battle, focused on bringing off his own attack. She couldn't have been buried as well, could she...? If that happened, if he's responsible... how could he ever go on facing Talia?
But they've been moving for a while to evade Lubov -- if Katherine is all right, maybe she just needs time to catch up to them as well.
Ivan steps over to where Talia is resting, and sits nearby, unfastening his broken bracers that are currently doing more harm than good to wear. There are red marks underneath, and bruising, but likely not as bad as they were before Jacqueline's healing sigil. He stows them in his satchel. Maybe they can be repaired later...
He looks around at the others, before looking at the ground. "...I hope she's all right."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia Seren has been pleasant if quiet on the way back, reflecting inward for the time being during their flight.
Once they finally make their way back to the the beach, she is smiling again, quietly, looking down at her feet.
She then looks up once Talia says they can rest here, "Heh, sure. I mean... I'm sure Ammy will be back soon. That was pretty rough."
She stalls for a bit and adds, "So um, I mean, it's probably okay if we all need a minute."
She pauses. "I could probably use a minute."
She sits herself down and then flops back onto her back and then she exhales out a long sigh.
And she says, "Well, I mean, we'll probably be okay. Eventually! I mean, haha, this isn't the first time we've all been traumatized and horrified at ourselves, what's another time right?"
She smiles a little wide and awkwardly here.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
It takes a long time.
It takes a long time for the Seraph -- perhaps distinguishable by her presence rather than her appearance -- to emerge. Where Talia is resting by the broken machina, and Ivan has removed some of his broken armour to nurse his wounds.
She doesn't look great.
She's covered -- her shinobi garb, normally black and purple, is stained with a deep red with a stench both once-assassins are intimately familiar with.
Her face is covered in it too.
Her kodachi is still held as she quietly paces along the beach, filmy irises a little small as she frantically looks. Looks around.
She might need some help.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I didn't, but... the rocks shouldn't stop her, as a Seraph. Unless..." Talia feels a twinge of fear, and her fingers tighten around the hem of her shirt. Her fingers smear some ash and dust on her shirt, from the fight. She shakes her head, as if to say, 'No, she'll be fine.'
She glances sideways at Lydia -- and then she bobs her head once, though she doesn't look convinced. She needs a moment to process, and she won't take that moment until Amaranth is--
She spots her on the street. Talia's eyes widen and then she is up, without a word. She rushes down the beach, outright running until she comes up to Ammy -- in front of her. She speaks, because she can only guess how well Amaranth can see.
"Ammy," she says. "It's me. Talia. Thank--thank the Goddess, I was worried."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Lydia does not seem super okay. Ivan bites back some poorly timed sniping about how they didn't have to come and get traumatized. Maybe not until they know the scope of the disaster... or... ever? He does not know the rules for what you say when people jump into a terrible situation to save you and then get traumatized or maybe smashed by rocks.
Katherine appears! ... ... she looks really bad but she isn't a pile of mush, which lets Ivan's heart unclench a bit.
Talia rushes over to her, and Ivan slumps forward a little with relief. "...We all lived!" he says. "I guess...?!"
It's still possible Lubov could catch up to them, but if Ivan thinks about that now, won't he have to just keep thinking it every moment until it actually happens? That's not a good way to continue the rest of his life. Which... will keep going for at least a little while! Because they lived. Yes.
Yes! Oh, goddess, what even happens now...?! Well, they should probably help Katherine, in the immediate now.
"Do you need healing? I wonder if I have..." he rummages through his satchel for a potion or a gel, or something. Nothing's turning up.
"I was just at a potions place, but I think I only got stuff for... uh..." He trails off, guiltily. Stuff for poisoning Talia and faking her death. "... How did everyone even find out what was going on...?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Talia's cry gets to her fist -- and she turns to face her, approximately. She doesn't quite... move, stiff and anxious as her lips tremble a little. "You're all right. And--"
She looks in the distance, where Lydia and Ivan are too. Whatever focus she's using to detect their presence is coming into shape.
"Lydia. And..."
She looks to Ivan. "Ivan. No, I'm... I'm..."
A pause.
"This isn't my own blood..."
Ivan asks how everyone found out. She doesn't quite have the werewithal to explain right now.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia sits herself up, flops back down, and then sits herself back up. It honestly went...about as well as Lydia expected, as she thinks about it, but that doesn't mean it's easy for her to just shrug off or anything. It's all pretty rough. She mulls on that for a bit to herself, rubbing at her face and then manages to get that smile back up.
She manages to even get standing this time and adds, "Yeah you know, it could've gone worse. We're all alive, everybody's free. Both of these things are all we ever wanted, right?"
Granted yes, Lubov could show up in an hour or in a year but as Ivan surmised, that isn't really a way to live and on that wavelength, at least, he and Lydia are on the same page.
"You wanna hug it out, fam?" Lydia asks of Amaranth. It's not really her best COMF line but it's the one she's got. She spreads her arms kind of vaguely.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia turns her head to Ivan, and gives him a flat look. She knows exactly why he went to buy a potion. She looks back at her girlfriend first, though, because she has priorities.
'This isn't my own blood...'
There is a little hitch in her throat at that. She knows how much that must hurt her. Talia's expression falls, then she steps forward, and she wraps her arms tightly around Ammy. Her head bows over her shoulder. "Oh, Ammy..."
She swallows. Then, she looks up -- and peers back at her brother. She gets a little smile.
"...I pretended the paralyzing agent set in quicker than it did, no?" she says. "And then I managed to get my hand on the message sphere."
She glances sideways at Lydia. There is a little smile, and then she nods her head to her. "We're alive... and--and he won't be coming for us soon, no? If... if he even lived. We're all safe. I will take it, no?"
She looks back at Amaranth -- and there is a moment's hesitation, before she looks at Lydia's arms. She looks back at Ammy. "Want a group hug?" she asks her.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
We're all alive, everybody's free.
"...Yeah. ...Wow," says Ivan. That does not feel real yet. In part because it was like they were all holding their breath after it happened. And maybe still are, a bit.
Amaranth reveals the blood is not her own, and with all the darkness implied in that statement, Ivan doesn't quite want to admit to being more glad to hear it than horrified. Talia then reveals how the whole rescue even came together...
I pretended the paralyzing agent set in quicker than it did, no?
"Dammit," Ivan announces. And then, in more of a contrite mumble, though the words can still be made out... "...did I say thank you, yet, or did I just yell at everybody? I can't remember."
Ivan stays out of the hugging business, remaining a few paces away where he has been sitting on the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth doesn't look like she even has the werewithal to get upset at the plan that Talia and Ivan had, regarding... regarding... she doesn't even know the full story. That Talia willingly poisoned herself with a paralytic agent? That Ivan went off to try to fight a suicidal battle on his own?
Her sense feel real dull right now.
But when Talia and Lydia asks if she wants a hug right now-- "Nnn... not right now," she answers quietly.
She looks towards Ivan, biting her lip. "... you're welcome, whether... or not you said it. I couldn't..."
Her lips purse further.
She feels Talia wrapping her arms tightly around her.
"Y-you're going to get the blood on you too..." she whispers, but pauses and looks to the both of them again.
"I couldn't just leave you both alone. You know that..."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia mimics Talia's flat look there.
"Alright, no big." Lydia says, pulling her arms back and kind of awkwardly putting them in her pocket. She is at a bit of a loss because she had never had a hug offer refused before by this crew. It's a very huggy bunch, actually! It usually solves everything! As goofy as it sounds. But she supposes there is some scientific basis towards the beneficial elements of hugs.
"Yeah I mean, if you think about it we didn't really have a choice."
She pauses as Ivan considers whether he even said thank you and she says, "Um, well... you can say it again if you did! With feeling...!"
She looks over to Ivan. "Sorry uh, for getting yelly and embarrassing anyway. I'm kind of tired, so uh--if I put my foot in my mouth, just...forgive me this once arright?"
She looks back towards where they came from and adds, "I figure, um, without men he'd have a hard time bothering us now anyway."
She winces.
"Sorry Ammy."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"You yelled at everyone. But... you are welcome, no?" Talia says, with a glance at Ivan, and her face breaks into a bigger smile than before. "I wasn't going to leave you behind. None of us were, no?"
She frowns. "But what about sorry? You paralyzed me, so you could fake my death! It was very rude, and--" And it could have gone much worse. She frowns. "Please don't do that again. I think you can see we will help you, whatever happens, Vanya. So don't do something like that ever again, no?"
The paralyzing, it seems, was only Ivan's plan.
Her eyes looks down at Ammy, again, and then she shakes her head."Then I get blood on me," she says, lowering her voice to speak more softly. "I can live with a little blood. Whatever happens, whatever comes, we do it together, no?"
She reaches a hand up, and gently brushes some blood off Amaranth's cheek. Then, she gives Lydia an apologetic look. Maybe hugs can come later.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Although Amaranth seems to accept the suggestion of thank you as a thank you in itself, Lydia suggests he actually say it properly. "...Thank you," he says. There is a feeling, but the feeling might not have been what Lydia had in mind. It comes out soft and uncertain. His expression only becomes moreso as Talia points out the missing 'sorry.'
"I'm sorry, too. I needed to do it, but... it is... possible I might not have been able to beat him on my own" - he says of the fight it took the whole group of them fighting at full strength just to survive and run from - "so it will be good to... see tomorrow, and all of that." He hesitates, chewing a thought. "But you know also, it seems like all of the bad things I predicted would happen if you helped are probably going to happen, now, so really it's more like -- thank you, sorry, and I told you so!!"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Yeah," Lydia says, beaming. "But that's okay. We'll face it... together!!"
There's a long pause with a big smile and a hopeful look to the future.
"By the way, why did you call Katherine Ammy?"
Still beaming and with a hopeful look to the future.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth is really wishing she could be Katherine right now.
Katherine, as in, more than just the name Katherine. The Katherine who is the source of who can tell the Shadow Dragon Leader what's up, and make him mad with frivolity and Happy Boosts.
Katherine would accept Lydia's hug, and seeing her at a bit of a loss hurts her, because she wants to be better than that.
"... I did that because-- well, we needed to, to escape," Amaranth answers quietly. "The binding he had over his men's lives..."
She can't express to words how sickening it was to see.
But Talia chews Ivan out, and she's internally relieved at least Talia didn't go along with the plan willingly, though she can't muster up the annoyance at Ivan for paralysing his sister!
Especially when he's being as sincere as he can when apologising.
"Y-you're right. It's..." Amaranth stammers. She forces herself to say it. "It's just blood."
It's clear there's a more symbolic meaning that's plaguing her right now.
It's just blood.
Then, Lydia asks about 'Ammy'.
"My Seraph name is Amaranth. Seraph Amaranth. But Katherine Weaver is as valid and important a name to me."
She sucks in a breath, trying to put a weak smile on.
"Sorry for hiding things from you, but... either name is fine."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I--I, um, called her Ammy, because--" Talia stammers out, her cheeks flushed red with awkwardness. She feels caught, and she was careless in her concern -- and, maybe, in feeling so overwhelmed.
She relaxes, a little, as Amaranth explains it. She glances sideways at her, then she smiles, and she glances down for a moment. "...yeah. She is my Ammy, and my Katherine. Both are great, no?"
She smiles a little more. Then, she looks sideways at Ammy -- and she can see how much things bother her. She hugs her again, then she steps back. "I know," she says, softly. "You did what... you got us out of there. And I know it was hard, but... I know you'll--we'll be okay." She leans, in closer, then smiles.
She pats Amaranth on the shoulder; then she steps away, to face her brother, and walk closer. Talia sighs, and puts her hands on his shoulders. "Vanya. It isn't that things won't be dangerous. They might be. It isn't that they won't be hard. They will be. There is a cost, no, to fighting and keeping alive--but..."
She tilts her head. "...The cost is easier, because all of us can bear it. And if we're standing together, we can get through the danger. If you have to do something, it doesn't mean you should stop. It means we have to do something."
Then, she stands up on her toes -- mutters something not quite audible about how he went and got taller than her -- and leans forward, and kisses him on the forehead. "I love you, brother. I'm--we're--all your family. We'll stand by you. So please, let us, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh cool! I have a mysterious secret name too." Lydia says. "But it's dead now. Because I killed it. So I'm afraid I can't ever share it. I hope that's okay. If you don't have any preference I'll stick to Kathy, but if you ever do I'll use that!"
She seems to pretty much understand the secret name thing easy enough. "It's only fair you get to decide who knows your secret names."
She pauses a bit as she remembers her talk with Ragnell--Ragnell totally tricked her! That sneak! Well, she supposes that's fine anyway.
"Talia, what will your secret name be? It seem everybody else has one so it's only fair. I was thinking..."
She nods firmly. "Scarlet... Maybe even... Scarlett..tttttt..."
She considers Talia for a long moment. Maybe she's thinking back in that moment where Talia's reaction to hearing about her mother was far different from Ivan's. But it's not the time. She thinks she has an idea of what happened anyway and it's probably pretty horrible.
She looks down at her hands and curls her fingers inward. She kind of gestures out her hand to the side while not looking at it.
"Yeah it's like the story of the noble and brave Luke fon Fabre. Alone, he kept messing up and was given a hard time a lot, but in the end, with the help of his friends, he was able to save the day...!"
What.
"Also if we're going to actually make a circus, I know someone who is super into being in a circus."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Lydia will face the future head on, together...! Ivan makes a wordless, discontented noise about that, even though it's probably the best thing that she could be doing under the circumstances and he's the one who has been picking very sub-optimal solutions to things, lately.
Amaranth(???) clarifies about her names, a little.
Either name is fine.
Ivan starts a little, rising to his feet and coming to the others, now, like this is Urgent News. "Is it really?! I thought Katherine was your favorite and it was really confusing because Talia's been calling you Ammy all this time, which meant Ammy was probably your favorite, but maybe only if Talia was saying it... ... I had all of these hypothetical rules worked out and like maybe a situational ranking system...!"
Talia interrupts this with a serious talk about relying on others -- calling all of them family -- and giving him a kiss on the forehead.
He gives a nervous and skeptical squint at that last point -- who is family? Everyone? Have they discussed that? Does Lydia want her own category? You can't just make someone who likes you that way into your family without skipping all kinds of steps! And speaking of skipping steps, can he be Katherine--Amaranth---Katheranth-- no!! can he be Katherine's family before being her friend? Aaah!
"I did have to do it, though-- it's hard to put into words -- or wait, maybe I did, when I was abandoning you on the cliff -- but... ... I needed to face my fear of him, and it couldn't be with anyone to save me or do it for me, if it was going to... to change anything in my head. But then I got saved anyway -- and I think maybe that's okay because I did face him on my own, for a minute at least... I was alone and I wasn't going to do it, and then I did." He repeats it, a little more fiercely. "I did do it! But--" he manages a weak smile. "I don't feel like I need to do it again...? Now that the... pattern is broken, and all."
Lydia has some things to say about secret names, and dead names, and a new name for Talia, who, it's true, is the only one here not to have a fake name yet, since Ivan is also counting the fake name he gave Lydia earlier as a fake name. She urges him to find inspiration in the story of Luke fon Fabre, who saved the day with the help of his friends, but judging by Ivan's expression and some of the things he just said, maybe he is not quite ready for the lesson about finding strength through relying on your friends rather than in spite of it, even after everything.
"What's this about a circus...?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"I didn't completely mean it to be secret. But it's complicated... because my moms and I came from a time where we had to be secretive of being Seraphs, period," Amaranth explains.
She sucks in a breath, but after that last hug, things become a bit easier. She wants to kiss her but maybe that's not quite the time now.
"You helped me with the Shadow Dragons. And I'll help you with Lubov. Because I feel like that Shadow Dragon Leader and Lubov both are similar kinds of despicable men who try to make people around them feel worthless and yet codependent..."
A pause.
"And that's an easier thing to get through together, as Talia says..."
She hesitates a little at Ivan. "Ah, um-- well... it'd be easy for me to say 'Katherine is my favorite because that's the identity I used to heal and get better', but in a way that's self-deprecating too? ... it's not clear."
She smiles at Lydia. "Kathy's great."
Then Ivan gets into a little tangle about how he had to face him alone, just the one time, and... well, she doesn't feel the need to interrupt. She's been through similar.
Breaking open the seal on those weapons, admitting what she was, is a form of facing yourself like that.
But...
"Luke fon Fabre? That sounds like a tale..." Amaranth looks at the camera for a moment. "From some kind of Abyss." There's an unhearable laugh track.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia's hands stay on Ivan's shoulders, and she smiles up at him. She nods her head, slowly. "You did do it. But... don't decide for me, no? If you have to do something alone, you can tell me, and I will--" Her nose wrinkles, and she corrects that. "...I will try to not stick my nose into things. But if I want to take a risk, or I want to stay or go some place, then... that is my decision, no?"
She squeezes his shoulders, then lets him go. "But you did break away. And... you're with us now, no?"
She glances to the side -- then tilts her head. How many people have read this book about Luke fon Fabre? Maybe she will need to borrow it, too.
"My secret name?" Talia answers Lydia, then she looks up. "I suppose it would be Natalia. Most people don't know that Talia is a nickname, no? But no one calls me Natalia."
Lubov calls her that.
She walks back to Amaranth, and -- maybe she's feeling clingy, still, because her arm is around her in short order. She smiles, head tilted to the side. "I call her Katherine, too, no? It sort of depends on the situation, or my mood, or which seems cuter."
Then she looks at the Seraph, winks, and makes a little ice heart float over to her.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Oh I guess that's a pretty good secret name, if it's awful." Lydia admits. "But I sort of just figured 'yeah long for Talia' because, well, it fits."
She nods several times in quick succession as Talia assures Ivan he did leave!...eventually! "Yeah! It's all good."
She finger guns at Kathy (luckily this isn't actual finger guns), "Kathy it is, babe!"
She lets her hands drop after and brings her hands behind her back.
"Yeah," She agrees with Ivan. "It can be pretty complicated. Which is why I just asked. Right now."
This isn't Filgaia but somehow a tumbleweed rolls right on by anyway.
The matter of everyone being family now? Well, honestly Lydia figures that's up to Ivan and gives him absolutely no help on this front beyond a pat on the shoulder.
Pat pat.
"I'm glad you did it, man." Lydia says, smiling. "Sure maybe it was a little crazy, but that's okay. It worked out. You needed to, I guess, I get it. Sometimes we gotta do stupid things. And I will admit--! He was scarier and crazier than I thought even after you told me he was scary'n'crazy!"
She shrugs both shoulders. "But it's done now. We've got the rest of our lives ahead of us. I honestly can't wait."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Katherine tries to explain her names more clearly to Ivan. The explanation only makes him more confused and he feels like the name situation is more perilous than ever. Oh no. Despair...! Maybe he can make up a third name for her... a nickname? Does he nickname people? Maybe!!! There are no rules for his new life yet!
Talia asks him to tell her things before he decides them for her, which in Ivan's opinion was what the whole 'Leave Spira!!' conversation was about, and it didn't work. It is possible Ivan only had room for one lesson today, and that's that it's possible to say no to Lubov and live.
All the other lessons will probably have to wait, but in the meantime he nods like he absolutely understands every nuance of why what he did was wrong and will never do it again. Talia also asks if he broke away, officially. He nods more sincerely, then, feeling a sense of sort of excitement-terror to aknowledge it.
"Yes, I'm -- I'm an ex-assassin now, too, like you guys. I am not afraid of anything anymore and I am never, ever doing any shitty thing someone tells me to because I'm afraid of them or don't want to think for myself. I'm totally and completely different, now. You won't even recognize me!" He looks around between them, like maybe he's nervous they won't believe him. Which... likely they won't, but probably in a kinder way than he's thinking.
Lydia accepts his need to do stupid things, which makes him feel a little better with all of the life lessoning that he's otherwise just letting wash over him. And also, she notes that Lubov was awful and crazy.
"I was really, really hoping he could be left to the imagination..." Ivan says, with a cringe of... shame, for that demented and horrible family dynamic to have been witnessed. He feels a bizarre responsibility for it all, even the damned regen zombies, like there were unexpected guests over and he forgot to clean up his creepy family shit.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth looks at Lydia trying to bookend the scene again and reaches and tries to go for a circular wipe. T-t-t-that's all folks--
NO Ivan has more to say!
She quietly pats Lydia on the back.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"... it's like Talia said. She uses what she wants, depending on mood--" Amaranth answers, though she doesn't know Talia judges on which one's cuter at the time! It's an internal battle between Ammy and Kathy! Oh no, Ivan's arbitrary ranking scheme has become true!!
She smiles warmly at Lydia for a moment, then more seriously towards Ivan. With a sense of pride, even, as he properly renounces his role.
"... I believe it. Like-- you believed in me, and didn't renounce me when I--" she gestures towards the kodachi at her hip now. "Did what I had to."
She pushes the talk of regen zombies aside for now.
"We've got the rest of our lives, like Lydia said. And I for one... am really eager to look forward it."
She's trying, ok, Lydia?
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia smiles, nodding her head at Lydia -- though she glances down. She doesn't remark on Lubov; really, she doesn't want to think about how frightening he is or how powerful he is. She wants to think about literally anything else.
They all saw her scream at him. They heard about the things she screamed about. Her arm tightens a little around Amaranth.
"You are," she says, looking up at Ivan. She smiles at him -- and maybe if she thinks it will be hard for Ivan, she doesn't let it show. "And we'll be here if you need help, no?" She winks at him. Then, she looks sideways at Amaranth. She bobs her head, once.
"Let's go home," she says. "I think it's a good start!"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia looks a little nervous. "H..hopefully not too unrecognizable!" Truth is, Lydia liked the old Ivan! She liked the old Ivan a lot!
But she eases back into a smile. Ivan is still Ivan. He's just in scary new territory.
"Yeah--!" Lydia begins but the scene ends before she can throw another ending line out.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Friendship endings all around. And yet, still Ivan isn't quite on the wavelenth.
Let's go home, says Talia.
Cut to Ivan, looking about, uncomfortably. There's not actually... He can't go back to the Guard now -- does she realize -- ... does she mean...
"Um, am I invited? Is it all right if I stay for a night?" he finally asks, quietly.
...Yeah, this is gonna take a while.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Of course you can!" Talia says, with a wink at her brother. "We have a room for you, no?"