2020-11-13: For the Sake of a Feeling

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  • Log: For the Sake of a Feeling
  • Cast: Eleanor Klein, Avril Vent Fleur
  • Where: The Calm Lands
  • Date: November 13, 2020
  • Summary: Avril, aboard the Fahrenheit, asks for assistance from Eleanor. She doesn't come empty-handed.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Daytime while she's on the airship often sees one Eleanor Klein walking around taking care of a few things, though there's less she actually has to do now that the situation has grown more stable and the members of ARMS and others who went to Bevelle have returned. There's always a little something, though, and so the other 'often' place for her exists. People can point it out easily; Eleanor's borrowed a little space to use as an office various matters, and Eleanor is the sort of person people notice, if only because she's friendly to them.

That place happens to be tucked away in one of the storage spaces, in a small room where she has set up a couple of crates and a metal slab to serve as a desk. At the moment it is full of... colors. Little swatches of various colors in sets of two to five each, scattered about the desk.

The doorway slides open when someone approaches, as a rule.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    That door does slide open shortly thereafter, in fact.

    "Oh...!"

    The voice that follows it is a familiar one -- framed by the doorway, Avril Vent Fleur stands there, one hand raised as if to knock on a now-absent door. "I see, I had not expected that," the young woman remarks, before stepping over the threshold.

    Only to there hesitate. "Are you at all busy, Eleanor? I would like to speak with you for a moment if you are not occupied."

    She holds something in her hands. Something silvery, playing-card-sized.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

"Hm?" Eleanor inquires, looking up to spot Avril. She smiles in greeting, a warm expression, and waits for her inquiry. "Surprising, but rather convenent when you're carrying a lot of things, I find. Maybe too convenient, I've started carrying more..."

She laughs faintly, and then shakes her head. "No, I'm not busy. I'm just filling time; this task won't matter while we're on Spira anyway."

She looks thoughtfully at the something, and back up at Avril. "Please, come in, and tell me what you wanted to talk about."

She shows some obvious interest but she's polite enough not to draw too much attention to it before Avril does. Besides, it is nice to talk to her.

Besides, it's nice to be surprised sometimes.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Yes, I can see how it would be useful." There's... something oddly familiar about that. Perhaps not her statment as much as...

    Avril lets it go this time instead of chasing after it. She still feels somewhat strange after that last dream. And more than that--

    "Yes. I had wondered if I might ask for your assistance in a particular matter," she says, taking another two steps towards Eleanor. "I appreciate all that you and the others have done for me since I escaped from Bevelle, but I still have not been able to find my friends. I was hoping to request your assistance in this matter."

    She presents to Eleanor the shining object in her hands.

    "Here. I am certain your work requires you elsewhere. In exchange for your assistance, I would like to present you with this. ...I believe it may be of use to you."

    Because it is, after all, an ancient Elw Crest Graph, the spell still set upon it after all these centuries.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

There is always something familiar for Eleanor looking at Avril. She can never place it, but on the bright side she's gotten better at coping with it, so she doesn't have to wince looking at her today. ...That only happens sometimes, anymore. But she didn't see this particular meeting coming, though...

There is smething she did. "Oh," Eleanor starts when Avril mentions her friends, but then she sees the Graph. Indeed, if Avril recognizes it, there's a look of almost familiarity in Eleanor's strangely yellow eyes. "Ah! This..."

She pauses, and looks up from the graph to Avril before she accepts it. "Very well." She recognizes, she thinks, when a deal is made for the sake of a feeling, and does not say that she'd have at least given what she knew for free.

"This is an ancient Elw Crest Graph--it will be very useful, not to mention interesting just to study. If the matter weren't urgent, I might tell you more about it..."

"But I expect you wish to find them as soon as possible. All right, I will help you. First: I have seen one of your friends recently--the night after the escape, I spoke with Rebecca at a lake in Macalania."

"The other I see with you often is... His name is Dean, isn't it?"

Eleanor looks thoughtful.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "It is a Crest Graph, is it not?"

    Perhaps Eleanor would have brokered that deal for nothing --

    But sometimes it is easier to ask for assistance as an exchange, particularly when she already feels she is in their debt. As long as she is able to reunite with them, she would be willing to swallow her pride and accept it if that is how it must be.

    But. Avril still has a chip with which to bargain, and she intends to use it, however needless it might be.

    Even without her memories, she understands the balance of give and take. It would have been a lesson she learned while still a child.

    A ruler's power extends only so far. They must be able to retain it.

    "Yes, I thought as much. I found it within an Elw ruin. It appears to be the markings of a powerful spell," she says, uncertain how she knows that. "However... my own magic is very different from your own. I am happy to trade this to you in order to locate my friends. I--"

    She nods, if stiffly. "Yes. That is correct. You--" Avril takes one step towards her. "You have seen...?" That formal expression of hers melts; Avril cannot help it seems but to be overcome with her own relief, clasping her now-empty hands over her chest. "Oh... thank goodness. And Dean--"

    She nods, her own outburst just then answer enough.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

There is a power in give and take, in an exchange, rather than a gift. There's a pride in it, too. Now, it is not a favor, or an incidental; it is a task paid for.

And Eleanor, second of ARMS, is a different matter than Eleanor, the individual.

"Yes," she answers. Eleanor holds her curousity as to how Avril knows it. Their exchange is quick and halting, and Eleanor loses herself a little in thinking for a moment--only a moment, before Avril's expression changes. She smiles, at that, though it's for an additional reason than the obvious, one she doesn't say. Rebecca, after all, might appreciate that reaction. "I also saw Dean safe recently, on this very ship--maybe fate's playing a trick on you. Regardless, at this point--"

"I can do more than just tell you where they've been. I can--Wait, actually--"

Eleanor pauses, and pulls one of her notebooks, opening it up and flipping through the pages. "There was..."

"Aha! You..."

Pause. Eleanor hesitates, for a moment. "You..."

She straightens her shoulders. "You'll find her in Macalania Forest. I can direct you to a more specific location; I recognized it from when I walked through..."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Especially since Avril is well aware that this is a task that may require ARMS, should the situation prove to be that dire.

    And they only know each other distantly -- they may have reached out to each other for assistance and crossed paths prior, but they do not have the same connections that she has with, for instance, the Caravan Kinship and its fellows.

    When Eleanor goes on to say that she's even seen Dean, on this very ship, Avril lifts a hand to cover her mouth as if in shock.

    Though it's hardly shock of dismay. Rather, the opposite.

    "Oh... to think that we were so near and yet so far..."

    She smiles, all the same. Life is strange these days.

    Has been strange since that dream.

    "--Oh?" She peers at Eleanor, as if she were attempting to make heads or tails of what she was doing. And then, all of a sudden, the pronouncement is made.

    "I will... find her there?" Confusion parts ways for a sort of understanding. Just as her own sense of the Ley (or so she believes) leads her to those places she needs to go... well, she's hardly the only one with such power.

    Or so she believes, that is.

    "Would you? I would very much appreciate it, Eleanor. It has been some time since I visited the forest, and I would not expect it to have remained as it was."

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

If things are bad enough...

Well, they could be. Eleanor doesn't know Avril all that well, and what she does know includes some strangeness. Nevertheless, she does not want to leave her alone in this. And...

She has to trust a bit, sometimes. Hopefully this time won't be one of regret.

Eleanor appreciates that smile--it's a bit of a relief itself, just to not see Avril so dismayed. But Avril's understanding surprises her. Eleanor blinks for a moment... And then remembers what she was saying. "Ah, yes. Of course. I remember the lake it will happen at..."

"It's near the south of the forest, if I remember right. And I'm not sure exactly when it is--it's daytime, but the trees blocked out the exact position of the sun. But it's beside a mirror-bright lake, which itself is in a clearing a ways off the path from a spot in the Thunder Plains... Ah--I'll write..." Pause.

"No, I suppose it must be true that I show you. But if you wait there, you'll meet her. She'll be very relieved to see you."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Daytime, near a mirror-bright lake..." Avril murmurs, as if she were somehow privy to that same vision. "I cannot remember if I saw such a place." It feels naggingly familiar, however she might consider it, like she can just about sketch it in her mind's eye.

    "Would you? I would very much appreciate it. Perhaps after that, we might cross paths with Dean..."

    Inclining head and shoulders in a shallow bow, she then says, "Thank you. This means everything to me, Eleanor."

    She pauses, as if hesitating on some unseen threshold. "Your gift is... impressive. My own sense of such things seems shallow by comparison."

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Maybe Avril has seen such a place in her time in the forest before. Macalania is not short on beautiful locales. After all, there's no way they'd both just 'know' it, right?

"I will," Eleanor confirms with a little nod, and she can't guarantee Dean, but--well, with that bow, and that thanks...

"I understand," she says. "I'm glad I can help. I'd be beside myself if it were Xiumei." She smiles faintly--and that doesn't go away when Avril speaks her mind. It does go a little distant for a moment though, as Eleanor puts her thoughts together. The young elf had a feeling...

"It's not something I advertise," she admits, "But it seemed only right, this time. Unfortunately it's not something I can control, so I try to pay attention when I see something that might be important." She puts her finger between the pages and closes the notebook briefly, holding it up before she sets it down open. "I keep notes, so I don't forget, you see. I wrote this one earlier today..."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Xiumei?" She blinks, the once. "--Your friend," she says suddenly, her gaze almost intent as she regards Eleanor. "...Yes, they are both dear to me."

    Just, as it happens, both in increasingly disparate ways. One is a friend, and someone she feels is somehow desperately important to her, while the other...

    Avril lowers her gaze but a few millimeters, until she is almost staring more at the floor than Eleanor.

    ...It isn't that Rebecca is somehow 'of greater value' when she regards the both of them in her heart. She can't measure the both of them and come to a conclusion that she must preserve one at all costs even at the price of the other. They're both dear to her. They're both her fiercest-kept treasures.

    It's just that the precise value of one is different from the other.

    And there's a part of her that would let the world burn -- or more accurately, freeze over -- before permitting anything to happen to either of them.

    She lifts her gaze, then, at length, to regard Eleanor again.

    "I understand," she says, quite matter-of-factly. "I know not from where my own talents spring, precisely," other than the vague sense that it has something to do with who she is, "save that at times I may have a feeling which I know I must heed. It may be about a place, or a person, or..." She shakes her head. "No visions like you appear to experience, I'm afraid. In that, you have certainly bested me." Avril smiles, nonetheless.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

"Yes--my dearest friend, in fact." She spots that intent--but then, she's used to Avril being... intense, when they speak. They may not know one another well, but some things stand out quickly. ...Like the way Avril seems to go into thought for a while after she mentions it.

Eleanor has the manners not to pry, though she is curious--how does she feel about each of them? How does that match with how they feel? There are many questions she could sit down and ask... but Avril doesn't really seem the 'gossip' type to Eleanor.

Very much not.

"I can tell," the young elf says instead, and smiles faintly. She listens to Avril identify her talents, and wonders if this isn't the source of some of that strangeness. "Interesting," Eleanor answers. "Hmm, have I? Well, I supposed I'll take what victories I can find at the moment, though I hadn't been aware that one was in contest." She says it lightly; she may be making a joke.

"They're visions, as you say--I see a bit of--usually the future, though sometimes it may be the present but far away. I can never be entirely sure; they don't come with any instructions or explanations." She loks down to the text again, and inclines her head, as if deciding on something. "I think having a 'feeling' like that would be easier in some ways, and harder in others. As for mine, I confess I used to view it as something of a curse. But ARMS has helped me to avert many awful futures, if only one piece at a time."

"Or, occasionally, it helps me with something like this. ...Rebecca is a good friend of mine, as well. She's very... easy to talk to."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Dearest friend.

    Without question, that is something that Avril can understand.

    (Indeed, their situations are not as distinct in certain regards as may be expected...)

    Avril, of all things, laughs lightly when Eleanor confesses she didn't know it was some sort of contest. "I am afraid my power is largely useless in this regard. Next to you and Riesenlied... Perhaps with more practice I may be able to more clearly hear the call of the Ley?"

    She is assuming, at least, that the root is the same for the three of them -- that they all are in someway touched by the Ley.
    In at least one of these instances she is more wrong than she could possibly imagine.

    "...Yes, that does make sense. At times, I wonder why, if the world is intending to communicate, it cannot speak more clearly?" She smiles, though, and shakes her head. "...No, that is unkind. I am certain Filgaia is doing as best as it can. The Guardians..." One hand tightens into a fist over her chest; she looks for the moment as if her thoughts were towards long-off unhappy things.

    "...But I am glad. No one should have to suffer an unhappy future, if it can be avoided."

    Has she at all been able to avert unpleasant things? It is hard to tell if she's made any changes at all.

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Not that Eleanor realizes it herself.

A laugh from Avril suprises Eleanor a little, but in a good way. She also finds herself curious about the matter of practice--is she suggesting that is what Eleanor draws on?

...Yes, it certainly seems to be. Eleanor does not immediately correct the idea, in part because she's not sure there isn't truth in it. But also for other reasons. She certainly doesn't know the truth of all three of them.

"Ah... Yes." She smiles back. "It's kind of you to rethink your question for the world's sake. There are many theories that Filgaia herself is a living organism..." But that would get into nerdery quickly, and Eleanor decides against opening the subject too far. She wonders, though, about Avril's experience with the Guardians; she has none, herself.

"I can't change everything," she admits, with a hint of somberness, "But I am glad of what I can do, at least. ...Going too into depth dwells on unhappy memories instead of the good mood that is appropriate for finding your friends safe. So I'll save that." Eleanor starts to shift, and stand back up then.

"Instead, think shortly we can ask the ship to make a stop, and perhaps I'll tell you about this Crest while we wait. It may be a lot of sitting around, but I suggest we approach in the morning, to have the greatest window possible."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Are there?"

    This is the -- quite earnest really -- response to Eleanor's remark on the planet as a living being. "That is, I have heard that the Guardians are an expression of Filgaia's will. However, the way that you say it, it sounds almost as if it extends beyond that," Avril clarifies. "I would be interested in knowing more."

    Avril Vent Fleur, secret nerd!

    There's something about that remark that makes Avril feel almost... as if...

    And the feeling is gone again as soon as it had arisen; she can't so much as feel its passing.
    Can barely feel its absence.

    Like a dream. Like--

    It's dark and it's cold and she takes his hand and
    his eyes are so blue and
    pieces of it scatter across the ice and

    She blinks slowly, swaying for but the moment.

    "...Yes," she replies, at considerable remove. "Yes, it's important that we do what we are able. Perhaps that is enough."

    She glances down, though, at her hands. They fall by her sides again.

    "Yes, I agree. Would you tell me more about it? While my magic is quite different, I would like to learn about your own. Crest Sorcery... has a particular connection to the planet, does it not? Of course, the same is true of Shamanism, but the relationship is a different one, I would say."

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

To say that Eleanor is delighted to be encouraged on these matters is something of an understatement; it's practically a shine in her eyes as Avril speaks her interest. "Oh, yes! There's a lovely set of books I got to read that--" She pauses, as she sees Avril sway. "Ah," she bgins, "Are you quite all right?" When she seems to be, Eleanor nods, and smiles. "I hope so. And I would love to tell you more about it! But first you asked about the Filgaia Theory, so I'll give you some background in it and then how it relates to my magic."

"It goes that, much like you or I, the planet itself is a living being, but on a grander scale--that Filgaia is not simply the ground on which we stand or the oceans we sail, but is a living being itself with its own life force. Under this theory, the Ley lines are something akin to the planet's circulatory system, as blood vessels make up yours or mine. Now, what would this mean? There are more ideas there, but the one I favor suggests that this is a reason take better care of the planet for its own sake. Some versions of the theory indeed suggest that we are not simply living on Filgaia but a part of it. But more practically... Well. With the growing wastes, if the planet is 'sick', then a living being can be cured. One imagines. I haven't seen anyone find a way to prove it or put it into action, however. But with the flow of the Ley... it certainly makes sense."

"I only know stories about the Guardians; I understand that many reports have been made of actually meeting them, which seems extraordinary. I confess I was under the impression they might be metaphorical, until I learned otherwise."

"...When we return to our world, I can recommend a number of tomes to you that elaborate in much greater detail. If there are similar theories on whether this moon is also a living being, or perhaps an organ of Filgaia... Well, now that we know there's life up here, I'm sure someone will study it."

"As for Crest Sorcery, it indeed does have a connection to the planet--we work with the flows of the Ley, bringing out the magic that exists in the world around us. Shamanism channels the power of a Guardian, I understand, which I suppose is also the planet's energy, in a manner of speaking, but we tap into that 'circulatory system.' Moreover, we don't use it up; we simply... coax it into expression. There are four known divisions of Ley energy, called 'elements', which you may know; Geo, Fray, Wing, and Muse. We learn how to invoke each element, and combine them to greater effect as rune words. It's not quite the same as earth, fire, wind, and water, but that's a good place to start understanding it."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Avril holds out a hand as Eleanor expresses her concern. "No, I... am quite alright. I felt lightheaded for a moment, but it has passed."

    It's been that way, now and again, since she escaped her confinement in Bevelle. Perhaps it's stress.
    Most certainly it's stress.

    "Please, go on."

    Hands entwining before herself, she stands there and listens as Eleanor explains, silent as the elf woman begins.

    "I see... so the Ley Lines are then, if this theory is correct, the lifeblood of the planet. Does that mean that if they were disrupted or damaged, that the planet would then...?"

    It's a dark question, but one that Avril feels she must voice, the flip side of the potential beneficial outcome for Filgaia that Eleanor voices.

    Guardians...
    She had woken up and, after meeting with Tony back in town, had come into possession of those Mediums. By her will, they had somehow activated. "I had scarce known of the Guardians long before I met one," Avril says then. "My friends met with them at the same time. It was..." She shivers, involuntarily. "...Perhaps a story for another time."

    She has some sense better now of why they might not have been pleased to see her, even without the finer details. She knows to an extent what sort of heart beat in her chest, once.

    Still, when Eleanor prescribes books, Avril smiles. "I would like that, Eleanor. There is much that I have forgotten. I strive to fill in the gaps however I may."

    Shamanism she's familiar with -- Mediums in particular she's familiar with. But while Avril has known practitioners of Crest Sorcery...

    "Of course. If it were used up, then there would scarce be any left," Avril points out. "In the same way... I do not think a Shaman does harm to a Guardian when they summon one forth. It is an expression of power, nothing more."

    In that sense, Crest Sorcery is not that unlike her own abilities: it brings forth what she already has within her.

    "Yes, it seems that it is more about the feeling and structure of the element than any sort of literal expression of nature?"

<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.

Avril, of course, knows herself best. Eleanor isn't inclined to argue over something as small as a moment's unsteadiness--or else she'd be constantly worrying over herself, for one. Instead, she goes on, quite happily. And if there is a dark question...

"Yes," Eleanor answers Avril seriously. "I believe that is true, and it's certainly consistent with the theory. Luckily for us, few are capable of that sort of wide-scale damage." She pauses, and grimaces a bit. "But still some."

Scarce known... Amnesia. Eleanor nods. "I..." She notices that shiver. Anything that can make this woman shiver, well... It's something to be careful of. "Another time," she agrees, interested but...

She already avoided one shiverworthy topic for herself. No sense chasing another yet.

"Then I'll find them for you once we arrive. Some of these are in the Klein castle library, so I'm certain I could arrange to borrow a copy or two."

"Precsely!" Eleanor says, pleased that Avril is so quick about it. "I would assume you're correct. Though you would know better than I would on Mediums. What you all do with them is quite extraordinary."

"But yes, that's exactly correct. Muse is not simply water; it is flow. Fray is not simply fire; it is consumption. There are sometimes some disagreements as to the details, but, well. Get a bunch of sorcerers together and that's what you'll find."

"Though the literal expression of nature is part of it; part of why we know what elements associate with which rune is that when you compose a twinned Fray Crest, you get fire, and so on. Indeed many of the differences in magic between us are not that we find a new rune word--there are only so many combinations possible--but that the preparation of the crest can help to express it in different ways. For instance, I use a few ancient Crest Graphs for some of my spells that alter their effects to deal partly with 'time.'" She pauses. "It might have been better if I hadn't uncovered them, but... Perhaps that, too, is a tale for another day."

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    For now it is not something that Avril wants to probe further, besides.

    Instead--

    "Yes... I agree. Fortunatly, if this hypothesis is correct, then it means there is hope," Avril says, coupling it with a slight smile. "I, too, like the idea of 'hope'."

    On the topic of her amnesia, however:

    "Yes. Another time. Besides which, perhaps it would be best to speak of the Guardians along with my friends. After all, Dean is..."

    She trails off, though, perhaps unwilling to speak of Dean's role quite so directly without him here. Another time there can be clarifications all around.

    "Indeed," she smiles, at the subject of the reading material. "I shall look forward to it."

    It's on the subject of Mediums that she's a little more hesitant. "Well... to be quite honest, the Medium I make use of the most is more unusual than those the Baskar bear," she says, frowning. "Artificial Mediums are... I do not truly understand them, to be quite frank. Nevertheless, for those who bear them... we are able to call upon the powers of the Guardians." Nearly to the extent of the Baskar -- and for those who have an Original...

    "Fray and Fray is fire... and I assume the same for Muse and the rest? How fascinating. Then, ice would be 'Wing' and 'Muse', perhaps?" Avril ponders aloud, as if attempting to work out some of the grammar inherent in the system. "...Oh, I see, and so it is not merely the crest, but the composition of the chart. That opens the door considerably, I would think -- with so many options, oh, what was that saying?"

    Avril pauses for a moment, brow creased in throught. "Ah, it was 'the sky is the limit', I believe. Yes, and it most certainly would be!" Unable to help herself, Avril giggles a little.

    Perhaps this may well be how they spend the rest of their time on this trip, discussing the minutia of Crest Sorcery theory...