2020-04-03: Mortality Is Complicated
- Log: Mortality Is Complicated
- Cast: Seraph Boudicca, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Apple Market
- Date: April 03, 2020
- Summary: Out in Kattelox, Josie crosses paths with her 'ghost girl' once again. Proper introductions are had. Trumpets may or may not feature in the aftermath.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Let's pan the camera over to JETLAG BAKERY.
It's typically busy, this time of morning - everyone bustling through on their way to their business, which may or may not involve delving into terrible dangerous horrors. At a time like this, it's not so difficult for one of the loaves of bread to go missing, but it's a little more strange for money to mysteriously show up on the countertop.
The worker who notices it looks up and around, with a shade of confusion. "Eh? Sorry, who was paying for - what are you paying for..?"
"'Sprolly a tip," his senior advises him, as she wipes down an empty tray. "Don't worry about it."
"Don't you think it's a bit weird how money just sometimes, like, appears, though?"
"Nah."
The woman pauses, and points to the coins he's collected in his hand.
"Button's kinda weird, though."
"Yeah, now you mention it..."
Their philosophy on magical money and buttons, of course, has a simple explanation.
This explanation is the Seraph Boudicca, wrapping the hard loaf up in some cloth and tucking it into her Pack Of Things Humans Need To Live. It's not the largest backpack, but somehow she manages to fit everything she thinks humans could possibly need inside. There's a blanket, because humans get cold, and some water-skeins, because humans are mostly water. There is also food! This, Boudicca has been gravely informed, needs to be replaced every so often, or else it will go from being a thing humans need to live to a thing which makes humans stop living.
Mortality is complicated. She's doing her best.
"Hup!" She shrugs the pack back onto an armoured shoulder, and looks down the street. Not terribly many people look back at her. This is the tragedy of the spirits. Oh, well, she thinks, and starts trundling away from the bakery. She has acquired the bread. She is victorious! She will be more victorious if she can avoid stopping at every single market stall on the way back.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Ah, the Apple Market, Josie's home away from...
...Actually, when you compare it to the array of things of interest to her at the Thames, and obtainable if you know the right folks over in Damzen City...
Maybe it's more accurate to say it's her home away from home away from...
Well, there's a potential home in every port, or something like that!!
In any case, the wayward archaeologist is merely browsing the parts on offer at a small stall run by a traveling fellow ARMs Meister (call it a bit of personal interest and a little bit of professional courtesy) when she happens to glance up.
One pale eyebrow arches. Well then.
"Let's talk shop later, Courtney. I've got a wee bit of somethin' you might be interested... and maybe you can show me a thing or two?"
Pause.
"I dare say even my sis wouldn't've made heads or tails of this one." She winks. "Call it even pay for bein' this rude-like, yeah?"
And with that and a shared 'farewell' and wave, she parts from the woman she was talking to... an approaches what to most of the passersby might appear to be empty air.
"Hey there... ghost girl," she murmurs, a cat-like smile on her lips.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Boudicca bravely manages to make it past the market-stalls without pausing (too long) or taking anything (this time). The vendors are spared the travails of ghost money.
For now.
But as she ventures off she hears someone speaking - and at first assumes they couldn't possibly be talking to her, because that is just the way of things, on Filgaia. But, 'ghost girl' --
That's when Boudicca turns, blinking, as she points a finger to herself as if to ask 'me???'. But there are no other ghosts here. She is the sole occupying ghost of Apple Market, as far as she knows.
A beat of pause... and...
"Ah... hello!" Boudicca is not murmuring, but it still may as well be a private conversation. "I fear I did not have time to introduce myself, on the grounds of that, er - would the word be hangar..? Rather than a ghost, I am the Seraph Boudicca!" She speaks cheerfully, with a chipper smile.
With a short interlude into one grave aside: "Ghosts were living, once, and I fear my condition is quite the opposite, you see."
Boudicca is an expert in ghosts because mortals write about ghosts in stories a lot and Boudicca finds herself reading a lot more of those these days. That is how it works.
"I am pleased to see you well, miss..?" Boudicca trails off, gesturing to the other woman.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hey, short time no see," she continues on. If any of the people managing stalls around here are at all weirded out or notice that Josie's talking to thin air, they give no immediate indication that this is strange or unexpected.
"C'mon over this-a-ways, yeah?" she says, gesturing towards a small side-section within the market.
Seen or not, the archaeologist seems to have some understanding of how this would look to an outsider.
"...Thought so. I ain't all that familiar-like with Seraphs, but I thought to myself, 'that girl sure seemed like a Seraph'." She smiles lopsidedly, then plants her one good hand on her hip. "So, Boudicca, Boudicca... Don't suppose people'd call you Boudi, ghost girl? Seems like a right good enough nickname."
That smile of hers broadens into a grin as she just belts out a laugh at the difference between a Seraph and a ghost.
"Good one! Though, perhaps it's all semantic in the end, aye?"
She gestures to herself with her left hand. "Josephine Lovelace. But don't let me catch you callin' me anything but Josie, you hear? I still ain't old enough to be 'Josephine' or 'Miss Lovelace'."
She looks like she's in her mid 30s already, as humans go.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
Josephine gestures her over, and Boudicca heads on that-a-ways! She is trying to be more sensitive about how mortals feel when they are perceived to be talking to air.
You know. When she recalls that's how it looks.
"Oh! Yes, on occasion, that is what I am called." Boudicca doesn't sound like she would know what a nickname was if one hit her in the face, but maybe Seraphim just... talk like that.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: seraphim do not just talk like that.)
"I am still unacquainted with the nuance of mortal aging," Boudicca supposes, "so I fear I would not be able to tell, were you growing older! Certainly there is a point, where it becomes evident, and yet --" this is the exact moment Boudicca realises she's rambling, judging by the way her cheeks light up, "-- er, Josie it is!"
Despite her formality, Boudicca actually can handle nicknames! One would hope so, with the way she was carrying on for two hundred years.
"I must thank you for your prior assistance," Boudicca goes on, gauntlet-clad hands clasping together. Clack! "I know little of machinery, so it was quite strange to comport myself in a mechanism. Though - I must say, it was not as hard as I thought it would be, with a little help. I suppose a plethora of moving parts are all the same, from a broad enough viewpoint!" wait does she mean humans are intricate flesh puppets or what
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Fortunately, this is not Josie's first rodeo, so to speak. She's long since cottoned to how most people perceive Seraphs, which is to say, 'not at all'. For some reason -- perhaps just luck, perhaps due to her parentage (having an archmage as a father might tip the odds in one's favor) -- she's been able to see them since they first arrived on Filgaia, which made for a few interesting encounters before she realized that to some people, Seraphs were invisible.
But while she's not all that worried about people thinking she has a screw loose (it's not her problem), it makes life a little easier, perhaps, and she's all about living easy.
"Boudi, huh? Hmm, Boudi, Bodhi, tree, tree-girl, mm, no," Josie half-mutters to herself, tilting her head to one side as if assessing some inner scribblings of some extraction. "How do you feel about 'ghost girl'? I think it's got a good ring to it."
Everyone is perhaps permitted their eccentricities...?
Josie manages to keep a straight face on for the length of Boudicca's explanation of human ages and the point at which aging becomes noticable. But only for that long.
Then she cracks up, doubling over in laughter.
"Oh no, you really... oh, Guardians," she wheezes, and after a fashion, straightens up and shakes her head, a few small locks choosing that moment to slip free of her braids. She frowns at them and tucks them back behind an ear. "Anyway, don't worry about it, kiddo... ghost girl," she settles on, because while it's one thing to press her luck with calling people like Riesenlied kiddo, it feels a little stranger to do it with a Seraph...
She shakes her head. "Hey, anytime. Machinery's my thing," she adds, then flashes another grin. "Especially the part when it comes to taking 'em to pieces, yeah?" And she pauses for a long moment then, regarding Boudicca.
"...You were the other one at the Cradle," she says, after a moment more. "You and Lanval."
She's silent for a long moment.
"Thanks," she says at last. "...Don't get it twisted or none. I'm not really a 'save the world' kind of woman, but that time around... I guess I'll let it slide, right? I can save the world once or twice without it bein' a habit. But if it weren't for your help..." Josie shrugs loosely.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"Certainly there is no harm in it, should aught enjoyment come from such a name," Boudicca supposes, because someone like her can't just say 'any', no, it has to be weird and archaic, why are Seraphim like this.
Boudicca is also a comedian, which is news to her, because she didn't mean to be funny. At least Josie is laughing, and not offended..? Still, she fixes her with a baffled expression, until Josie lets it slide. "Very good, but, ah, I ought point out... I am a little older than I look!"
(P.S.: This is something of an understatement. Boudicca looks somewhere in her twenties, safely younger than Josephine. ... Boudicca is slightly older than her twenties.)
(P.P.S.: It's not that much of an understatement, though.)
(P.P.P.S.: Boudicca isn't very old in the manner of her people!)
"I have not considered taking them apart," she says, "but surely I will come to you should I have need of disassembly." Boudicca has no reason to distrust Josephine's skill with machines! Surely she is a master.
Everyone is a master when you believe in them hard enough, Boudicca.
Speaking of believing in people: the Cradle. "Ah..?" Boudicca blinks, as Josie pauses, and has that revelation. A moment to puzzle the change, and she realises: "Ah."
She leaves Josie to her silence, for that moment. She's not entirely sure how to handle long silences, so she ends up twiddling with one of her impractically long braids in the meantime. She's certain Josephine is feeling feelings and even with all her experience, Boudicca is still not very good at people feeling feelings.
But she waits for her to sort out her thoughts, in any case, and ends up smiling. "I will not mention it to anyone, should you prefer it that way," she says, "but I am glad you were there, in any case. What happened was a strange conflux of circumstances - I do not think such a thing has ever had occasion to happen before! - but in the end I was there, and I saw one in need of aid, and I was given aid in turn. I am glad I was able to help," a brief pause, "and that I am able to help."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Listen, ghost girl," Josie replies, bearing a wide smile of the shit-eating variety, "Believe me when I say this: I kind of figured that might've been the case."
She might not be An Expert on the matter of Seraphs, but she has still gotten the very strong (read: Seraphs talking about things that happened centuries ago) that they don't exactly obey the rules (as she thinks of it) as they apply to humans and the like.
"Sure 'n sure as can be, heh heh," is Josie's response on the matter of machinery. "Of course, putting 'em back together again's another matter. Unless you're talking ARMs, after all," she adds, planting her good hand on her hip again. "But close enough, aye?"
But the topic soon shifts to a matter perhaps a year ago or more--
Josie, for a long moment, just regards Boudicca silently, as if bemused. At length, she shakes her head, smiles lopsidedly, and shrugs.
"You're cute, ghost girl. Don't you change. ...But don't you worry none. I'm afraid other people already saw my good deed!" She pulls a face, as if this were so very much a mark against her brand, so to speak. "Alas, I have been slandered, I say! Next I must rescue kittens from trees and return lost children to their parents. Ah, now such is my lot in life..."
At which point she winks, hugely, and flashes Boudicca another grin. "Listen to you. First Lanval, now you. I swear, you lot're better than we are." She pauses, then allows, "Well, most of the time. Anyway, let me just keep it short and sweet: thanks for it, and I won't make it a habit or none." She stretches out her left hand, as if to offer her a handshake.
"Yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"You do seem terribly clever!" Boudicca notes, on what Josie has figured out about Seraphic age, and it might sound sarcastic or backhanded but look. Look. This is Boudicca. She manages to make it sound completely genuine.
Let's not say Boudicca could never understand sarcasm, because Boudicca is making amazing strides in understanding mortal humour, but it's hardly her first port of call, so to speak.
Speaking of ports of call: Boudicca is getting the distinct impression that Josephine is uncomfortable sheltering in Heroism Bay. Also, she's cute, a comment which makes her fumble with her braid and drop it between her fingers, because that's a comment which reminds her of someone in particular --
which, well, not all Seraphim are better in moral fibre than humanity.
Rather than open up that entire can of worms, wriggling and writhing and presided over by a big flaming bird who has CONSIDERABLE CONCERNS ABOUT THAT PARTICULAR FIGURE IF BOUDICCA WOULD STOP AND THINK FOR FIVE SECONDS WARNING CAUTION WARNING, Boudicca tucks it back away and focuses on Josie's aversion to heroism.
"Quite so! Though I think," Boudicca says, as she looks at Josie's hand for a moment before she realises what the gesture means and then reaches out to shake it, and there's an awkward little pause there as if she's still thinking about what she thinks, "you will find you are better than you think you are, in the moment." It's not a terribly firm handshake - it wasn't so long ago, cosmologically speaking, that Boudicca's hands were claws and a grip would pierce rend tear, and she is still careful around human bones and human skin. She also lets go carefully! "But do not worry," she adds, cheerfully: "I will not go about trumpeting your true capabilities!"
Beat: "Not of yours specifically, in any case," she clarifies. "I reserve the right to trumpet humanity's capabilities."
Another beat: "Of course, I do not have a trumpet..."
A third beat, as she looks behind her, back towards the market stalls: "... I am quite certain I could acquire a trumpet..."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
'You do seem terribly clever!' Boudicca observes. Josie just shrugs, lopsidedly smiles, and says to her, "I try."
She had a sister. She knows the difference between sarcasm and genuine admiration pretty well. And Boudicca...
If Josie had one key observation of the Seraph it would be that Boudicca is clearly terribly naive of the world, and is fortunate enough to go about without being seen in it (generally).
But this is also why she is, as Josie observes, so cute.
It reminds her of Sunshine, aka Riesenlied, just a little bit.
And oddly, also of Shalune... who is about as opposite on the age spectrum to Riesenlied as one might get. ...Perhaps some people are just eternally Like That.
In the same way someone can be a mother of eight and still come off like a maiden of sixteen in their understanding of the world. It's just in the bones or the blood or the soul, as it were.
But they shake on it, and Josie is left to reflect on the downside of people like this--
It's that they really do think the best of other people.
"Come off, now. I reckon I'd find you some who'd be certain to counter it," she quips, then shakes her head. "But enough of that. I'm sure as sure that I ain't gonna be convincing you otherwise anytime soon, eh?" She gives Boudicca's hand one last squeeze and lets go.
"Just, let's keep my little heroism moment between us, yeah?"
She's left to regard the Seraph a moment as Boudicca goes on.
And on. Josie plants a hand on her hip, trying to keep a straight face.
And on. Josie loses that battle and cracks a smile again.
"...Tell you what," she says, once she's regained some semblence of composure, "you can go 'round trumpeting other people's capabilities. All you want! With a trumpet, if you like. Deal?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Boudicca has posed.
"I will concede there is the potential for iniquity in mortal hearts," says Boudicca, who has seen it quite thoroughly, "but that is why it is so remarkable to see virtue shine through."
Helping someone out of Malevolence might have given her a more considered position on the virtues of humanity, but evidently Boudicca isn't much for budging from her central premise that Humans Are Good, Actually.
With a smile, she concludes: "Indeed, you will not convince me otherwise!" In point of fact, Nimue has been trying to convince Boudicca that maybe humans aren't all worth saving for some time. She has not, as yet, succeeded, unless the measure of success is 'frustrating Nimue', which Boudicca at least does not count as a win.
(Why would Nimue do such a thing..? Surely it is Nimue; Boudicca is flighty but Nimue is air apparent.)
"The deal is struck!" She declares, with a broad gesture. "I shall be quiet on your personal qualities, but the others -- oh, what a marvellous idea! Josie, come, let us investigate trumpets..!"
She strides most of the way to the markets before she realises:
"I do not quite recall what a trumpet really looks like."
THIS IS WHY SERAPHIM NEED HELPERS.