2021-04-04: They Seem Decent Fellows
- Log: They Seem Decent Fellows
- Cast: Riley Arwell, Xander Lovell
- Where: Besaid
- Date: April 04, 2021
- Summary: In which Riley and Xander try to distract from their dark fate by talking about the people they've met.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Lunar may not have provided an escape from the curse of Valmar, but it at least has more to offer than the stark desert wasteland it presented as its first impression. Riley and Xander managed to catch a ride to Besaid Island, which greeted them with an environment more typical of what they were told to expect from Spira -- a bountiful tropical forest full of countless plants neither of them had ever seen before.
They've settled at camp after a highly successful day of foraging, albeit with a mysterious haul; Xander tends to specialize in seeking out medicinal plants, while Riley looks for edible ones. He has collected a promising collection of fruits, hopefully all of which are edible for humans. He surveys them with guilty eagerness. He and Xander still haven't killed anyone yet, which means Xander is still suffering... but despite Riley's sense of urgency, the truth is they're probably going to need a better feel for this place before they can do something as risky as commit a murder here.
So they have to wait and learn. And in the meantime... he can try to take Xander's mind off of the thorns in his chest.
"I really liked those three in the gem cavern, didn't you?" he asks brightly, as he cuts into an oblong fruit around the size of a fist.
Riley, isn't pestering Xander about sensitive topics just going to replace one kind of pain with another?
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Typically, the curse of the Fangs would not inflict Xander with something so severe as brambles sprouting from the inside until they had failed to offer blood sacrifice for quite some time, and by then, it would be a flowering infestation over near god damn everything. In that sense, Xander could nearly trick himself into thinking it wasn't that bad. In practice, any time managed to endure and forget, another bloody cough would remind him that he needed to hunt, and not for new plant life and potential alchemy ingredients on an alien planet.
It made what might have been a fascinating task into a frustrating one. Not that Valmar hadn't already ground the fragments of Xander's hope and joy into dust when they'd first arrived. An instinct, Neriah had called it, rather than an intelligent, calculating will. Could have fooled Xander with half the bullshit they have to put up with. Then again, maybe all it takes is instinct to know when and where to best apply pressure and twist the knife.
He keeps a bloody handkerchief nearby to cough into while aggressively grinding some of their discoveries with a mortar and pestle. Others had been dissected for seeds or cracked open for whatever fluids and nectar they might spill, tested against other ingredients and mixtures. It's a miniature lab Xander has taking up the corner of the camp with his various vials and bottles mixing and boiling under tiny candles.
A couple of syringes are also on hand and readily available -- general antidotes in case Riley eats something poisonous.
Xander grunts at the question. "I hope we never see them again," he says.
Because he liked them, too.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley makes a dissappointed 'tch' sound at Xander's response. "Well, all right, it could be bad if we met them again at the wrong time. But I think they really liked you. Rebecca seemed to connect with you right away, and it was really sweet when you read your poem for Avril..."
He cuts free a section of the fruit; it's pale orange in color, the flesh of it a bit stringy. A brief, curious visual inspection and a little sniff are all it gets before Riley takes a big bite to experience it for himself. Xander will save him if it's toxic.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
"They definitely didn't like me," Xander says, deciding this immediately to be true. "It's just that Rebecca and I understand a unique flavor of suffering." He smashes the pestle in, grinding it in with a narrowed eye. "And I told you, I don't write poetry. I threw some words together. I can't even recall what they were."
Xander frowns in thought. It sounded like Avril was missing some of her memories. It's not unheard of, but it's rarely a problem with an easy cure.
"You seemed to be having fun, what with your shovel twin Dean somehow having a second fucking evil shovel." Xander's hair bristles at the memory that reality actually did that. A unique suffering, indeed.
With Riley eating the fruit, Xander decides to focus a little less on alchemy and a little more on if Riley's going to break into hives or keel over.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"No, no, they loved you, I could feel it," Riley insists. "And what do you mean that poem was just words thrown together, if that's what comes out of you when you throw a few words together, you should be writing songs with me!"
...your shovel twin Dean somehow having a second fucking evil shovel.
"I told you Drifters have seen everything," Riley says breezily. "But that took even me by surprise..."
And then... the moment of taste-testing truth. Riley's eyes widen with shock, and he turns to Xander, tears brimming as his heart is moved by this new flavor. "Xander, it's so good...!"
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander grits his fanged teeth at Riley's insistence. He makes an almost inhuman growl in warning, even if he knows Riley's going to ignore that. Then he sighs. "I've heard enough of your singing that some grasp of the concept rubbed off on me. That's all."
Evil shovels, though. Why is life like this?! "I can't believe this." Xander groans. "I thought only you could get away with an evil shovel not making anyone blink, but now there's an epidemic."
There's two. That's two too many!
Xander eyes Riley carefully, passing it off as an idle glare. But even his expression cracks, unguarded, when there's shock and... tears?! He flinches alert in concern, then stares when they prove to be tears of... joy...? "Uh. Is... it?"
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley makes a wincing smile as Xander responds to him with a feral growl.
I thought only you could get away with an evil shovel not making anyone blink, but now there's an epidemic.
"Do you think we'll ever encounter a third?" Riley asks, with an air of wonder.
Uh. Is... it?
Riley nods. "It's so sweet and juicy and there's something else, too, that's sharper, almost like an evergreen? I love it, it's changing my life..." He cuts off a piece to offer to Xander, his expression full of hope that perhaps it can bring him the same joy.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander's eye takes on a hollow stare at the idea of a third shovel. His voice becomes a terrified whisper: "Don't even joke about that."
He eyes the offering of fruit, skeptical. "An evergreen... fruit." But Riley hasn't shown any adverse effects yet, so if there are any, Xander should be aware enough to treat them by the time the roll around.
With a sigh, he bites into the piece to accept it. He blinks once, startled by how good it actually is -- Xander's not without his own sweet truth, and his body's probably desperate for the hydration and blood sugar as it is. "It's -- It's not bad," he says, averting his eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
After a year of careful Xander study, Riley is pretty sure that the averted gaze and vague avoidance of condemnation is Xander's way of saying 'I really like this,' and he brightens with the victory of having successfully offered Xander some small bit of fruit-based comfort.
"I found a lot of them, so you can have as many as you want. I'll have to find out later what they're called..." He gives the fruit -- a mango, he will later learn -- a smitten gaze, and starts cutting out more portions for them to eat.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
"Just to keep you from gorging yourself," Xander says as he hesitantly looks back at the fruit to take another bite. He is hungry. And thirsty. And tired. It's a pick-me-up whether he wants to admit it or not.
"Save the seeds. I might be able to use them for synthesis." It isn't cherries, but maybe changing-Riley's-life as a flavor can add some variety to his medications. "Maybe the fruit has properties itself..." He squints at it, interrupted briefly by a cough into his kerchief. But having a bite of fruit to chase away the taste of blood makes it easier to endure.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"Ah, right," says Riley, carving out the pit-like seed to set aside as he prepares the portions of mango for them both.
"I'm sure it has many wonderful propertie-..." he trails off, distracted by the cough, though he doesn't mean to keep making a thing of it He glances aside so Xander can feel like he's allowed to cough without getting a worried stare every time. Still, they need to do something about it very soon.
The nearby village seems small and isolated, which would normally make it easier to avoid witnesses or complications. But it's also quite literally cut off from other places, as an island. If someone suddenly dissappears and two outsiders are trying to get on the first boat out, it could be too obvious...
Ah, he hates this. If they have to do these horrible things, why can't it at least be logistically easy?
But he can't just go off into his thoughts like this and get... broody.
"Did-- uh, did you find anything interesting?" He nods at Xander's setup and the new plants he had been busily processing.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
It's true that Xander seems to prefer not making a thing of it, and though Riley trying to respect that isn't as seamless as it could be, Xander accepts it without any further commentary.
Rather, he tries to turn it around. "How's your neck?" he asks, sitting up a little straighter to look.
"A few promising things," Xander says. "We shouldn't be hurting for the basics, if it comes to a fight." Xander wants a fight, but he's not sure if it's really 'him' who wants it. The practical thing is to be careful. But the Fangs demand blood. They demand the hunt. How long can Xander keep resisting, when he's barely been able to before...? His focus escapes hauntingly for a flicker of a moment before he tries to shake it off, fighting off his own thoughts with the conversation.
"I -- there's new scents here, too. I mostly know curatives, but maybe we could use more utility..." He may have been inspired by Jacqueline's concoctions.
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley blinks as his attempt not to over-fixate on Xander's symptoms ends up with Xander redirecting to his own. He feels idly for the side of his neck, which is covered with a bandage now beneath the mantle. "It hasn't grown back yet," he says, when a light touch produces a dull pain rather than the sharp sensation of disturbing something lodged beneath the skin. That said, he's uprooted a couple of them previously since the first one grew in. In these early stages there's a decent grace period between regrowths.
Maybe we could use more utility...
"Are you going to make something new?" Riley asks. Potions may not be as inherently delightful as fruit, but there's still something exciting in the idea. And it would surely be useful, whatever it is.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander tries to mask a wince as Riley prods at his own rounds. If only Xander had ever found alchemy that did something for the pain. But the wounds Valmar's curse leaves upon them don't seem to take to any form of healing or mitigation.
"If there was ever a time to try it..." Xander shrugs. "It's with a bunch of new ingredients." But he sounds tired rather than excited, like it's another chore and not the part of being raised to be a doctor he liked best.
Still, he brings his hand to his chin. "...The flowers here have far different scents, especially... I wonder if I could try a new perfume. Something--" He coughs, stubbornly ignoring it. "Calming? The one we have tries to keep the mind alert. I don't know." His brow furrows. "I guess I've always been a need-to-have basis kind of brewer..."
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"Calming could be good... we do lead stressful lives." That's quite the understatement.
Riley tries to think of something else they might need a potion to help with that isn't a direct result of Valmar's curse and might actually respond to medicine.
A potion to banish bad memories? He shouldn't suggest that out loud. Even if it were possible to erase just that day, Xander would never want it... and anyway, wouldn't he have to get rid of the whole year spent reflecting back on it? But maybe it would still be worth it, even if it cost the whole year? Stop planning dark futures that revolve around imaginary potions, Riley.
"Maybe a boost of strength or energy or something."
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander huffs a sound. "I wonder if it could calm this. Nothing else works." The stress is probably not directly linked to Valmar, but one can never be sure. He shakes his head. "Like sleeping aids..." That hasn't been successful at all, either.
He's so tired.
Suggesting that particular idea out loud would almost certainly start a fight. Luckily, Xander remains oblivious to the idea.
"Like hers did..." Xander furrows his brow. "I should have asked how she did it." He shakes his head rapidly. "No -- no I shouldn't have." This whole friendship thing is a horrible idea. He sighs at Riley. "I'll run some experiments. A quick adrenaline boost through smell should have less of a crash than something in an injection, in any case."
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
"It's all right if a calming potion wouldn't work," Riley says, waving the idea away. "It's my job to sing you to sleep, anyway, so if you made a really good potion for that, I might be jealous of it..."
I should have asked how she did it.
"Oh, you mean the other alchemist we met?" Riley remains attached to the idea of Xander making friends with strangers, regardless of the fact that the encounters mostly seem to leave Xander in distress.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander's face lights up red. He coughs, and maybe it's forced this time as an excuse to turn his head and look away. "...Well, I really doubt I could make something like that."
Doubt it, or doesn't want to anymore?
He sighs again. "Mm. Hers was a different style than mine, so it's not like I could reverse engineer it easily..." But if he met her now to ask, all he'd think about is what her blood would look like outside of her body. The elf with her, too, and the quiet man. Shovel twin and poetry girlfriends... "...Ugh, I'm too tired for this. I'll have to see what comes up."
<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.
Riley smiles with a mixture of satisfaction and guilt as his comments fluster Xander (but make him cough). "Well, on the off chance we do see her again, you can always ask. And maybe I should try making one of those balloon things..."
This is really not a productive use of time, Riley has no means to produce hot air.
...Ugh, I'm too tired for this.
"If you want to get some sleep, then as long as I'm not being replaced, I could sing you a song... have some more of this fruit first, though, we did a lot of walking."
He starts piling mango pieces in front of Xander.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
He doesn't want to see her again. He doesn't want to see any of them again. But Xander agreed to let Riley try, so he resists his urge to fuss, only tightening his jaw and shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe."
The balloon... Xander better have medicine on hand when Riley tries that stunt.
But the promise of the song takes some of the sourness out of Xander's features. "I guess if you feel like singing."
He scowls at the fruit pile, like a child told to eat dinner before dessert. It's worse because Riley's right. Genuinely getting too tired to argue, he blows out the candles heating his potions and settles to finish eating.