2021-04-30: An Unanticipated Rival

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  • Log: An Unanticipated Rival
  • Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Yvain
  • Where: Saint Heim Papal State - Grand Cathedral of Granas
  • Date: April 30th, 2021
  • Summary: Josie infiltrates the Granasian archives. Unfortunately for her, she's not the only one doing so. But you give a little, you get a little, or so the saying goes.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    The fact of the matter is that, technically speaking, no one asked her to do this.

    But they didn't explicitly forbid her, either, and that's the heart of the thing now, isn't it?

    It's like this: this cathedral is lousy with various relics and artifacts. The church is not precisely on Odessa's side -- she checked.

    With everything that's been going on, it's now or never to insert herself into the archives; security's already abysmal with the election of a new pope and it's not likely to get much better the longer she waits. A shame, really -- if she'd done it right, she would have been in and out the night of the attack....

    The halls here are not precisely silent, particularly this close to the archives, the place where the good stuff is kept. Pressing up against a wall, she counts the seconds as she listens to the footfalls fading further and further away into the distance.
    There's something she's been wondering about, and if the rumors were right, it's gonna be tucked away in here. ...And besides, she needs to make up for the fact that she's out more gella than she planned after that bet failing to pay off. Any number of the things in here will fetch a fine ransom.

    Getting in the first night had been tricky. Staying hidden and figuring out the habits of the guards, less so. Then the real hard part -- staying put -- had come around. But Josephine Lovelace can be patient, when it suits her.

    She's got five minutes to get this door open. Technically, it's more like ten, but she'd rather have enough time to breathe. It's not like the current pope would be particularly forgiving, if her read of the 'room' had been right, and while the wayward archaeologist is the fire and forget type...

    Sometimes it's better not to play with fire.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

Fire is very dangerous. ...But it's a lot of other things, too.

For instance, fire is inside the room that Josie is working on opening just now. Not a small fire like a candle, not an active blaze burning away at the relics. No, inside the room in question is fire personified, instead. A figure in fine (if Lunarian) attire happens to be reading through a book taken off a shelf, very carefully--but then, it's not like his fingers have oils in them to harm the pages.

So when Josie does get the door open she will see not guards, but the Seraph, who turns towards the opening door with a calm expression, not expecting to be spotted.

He is very much not dressed like a Granasian priest. But his clothes do look expensive.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie is no master thief. But two things work in her favor:

    First of all, she's fairly adept at lock-picking (even onehanded; minor magic has its benefits), for reasons of her own.

    And secondly, the Granasian faith apparently never thought anyone would get this far to try it and no one's replaced the locks in, she'd guess, about fifty years. They also apparently chose these for looks more than anything else -- they do have a very elaborate keyhole.

    In other words, they're about as easy to pick as the lock to her father's wine cellar. The old man never had known he'd gone for style over substance and couldn't understand how his good wines were vanishing.

    Even the thought of it brings a smile to her lips.

    Once the door's opened, she closes it behind her.

    The self-satisfied smile on her face evaporates.

    "...Ain't this a pretty mess," she drawls to the figure, paging through the book in his hand. Her own hand goes for the ARM at her hip, but stops cold.

    "But you ain't a Granasian priest or none, are ya?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

Security is rather more focused on attacks than thefts, most likely. After all, what happened at the Ethos was not motivated by the Church's wealth. But the archival room is filled with valuable goods that are touched only to maintain them for the most part, old relics and important texts better kept away from the prying eyes of the average scholar.

Yvain turns as the door opens, and notices Josie close it, as well as noticing--Well, her. He spots the smile as it fades, spots the motion of her hand to her ARM. He has seen a few of those by now.

"No," he answers simply, lifting an eyebrow. "And you're not the custodian here to dust the treasure, I'm sure."

He closes the book. He doesn't seem to be holding a weapon, but... Well, that doesn't always matter. Josie has reason to know that better than most, given the company she used to keep.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Most scholars don't resort to the criminal, or at least, don't have the particular set of skills that Josie possesses.

    Of course, most scholars don't also go on to pack heat.

    "Don't suppose I could convince you this here's my feather duster?" she says, tapping a finger against the holstered ARM. "Heh heh... so, guess that makes it the two of us. Thick as thieves, eh?" She briefly flashes him a grin. "But I gotta say... I didn't catch neither hide nor hair of you before, now. And don't mind me saying but you ain't..."

    She slowly gestures towards him.

    "...Got the look of a master burglar, neither, right? What's your story?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

That would be a very interesting academy, though.

"If you use it you might hit something important," he says, and says it with the tone of someone who is not actually worried about this so much as just noting an unfortunate possibility. "It looks like an interesting enough device itself, of course."

Yvain actually laughs back when she makes her opinion known on the matter.

"In my experience thieves thin out rather quickly given the chance." A beat, "But you have to be someone interesting, because most of them don't notice me at all."

He sets the book back on the shelf, turning around to fully face the thief after that. "I'm not here to steal--only to learn. I know little of the gods of your star, and a church's heart seems the ideal place to remedy that."

He bows, a hand at his chest all formally. "I am the Seraph Yvain, of fire. And, I think, about to be troublesome for your plans."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    She shrugs, expansively. "True enough, I suppose. It ain't that precise. Though to hear the graybeards back home tell it, you ain't supposed to touch old books like these with your bare hands, let alone with a feather duster..."

    She's looking at Yvain as she says this, but rather than regarding him with a judgemental eye, she seems almost... pensive.

    There's an odd sort of 'pressure' to this room. However Josie might wish otherwise at times, she is still an archmage's daughter, and things like this...

    Her lips crack in a grin. "Sure enough, sure enough. Stickin' together's a right good way to get nicked," she remarks, shaking her head. "So... if I had to guess..."

    Josie trails off into a sort of silence, though, watching him as he replaces that book, as he explains that he's--

    "Bingo. I thought you were a..."

    She lapses again into silence.

    "...Yvaine?"

    A beat.

    "Troublesome, eh? You gonna snitch on me, Yvaine?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

"That's true," Yvain answers. "It pays to use the utmost care with old texts." He continues to have been using his bare hands. He does not seem particularly troubled by this, in fact. He notices instead the pensive look--the things she's figuring out, maybe. Yvain's aura is significant; there is a sense of warmth in his presence, despite the drafty old halls. Josie continues, and Yvain--inclines his head.

"So you're familiar with my kind," he answers, taking that new piece of data as well. "Have you been to Lunar?" he wonders.

"Ah, yes." Pause. "You do seem familiar..."

A shake of his head. "No. Few of them would notice if I tried to speak to them. However, I will not be letting you leave with any of their holy relics. It may not be my faith, but it is theirs, and they have suffered enough of late."

There's just a slight... formal cast to the way he speaks. Old-fashioned, maybe.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Some of 'em'll crumble if you look at 'em crossways," she says, nodding sagely. She's had experience enough with that one.

    Well, okay, she hadn't just looked at it.

    "Once or twice, sure enough," she says, rolling her shoulders in a lazy shrug. "Your lot ain't all that common 'round here, but I'm sure you've cottoned to that." He seems a little unfamiliar with the ways of this land -- not uncommon for the Seraphim, but even so...

    "Familiar?"

    They'd called the dragon Yvaine. Just a coincidence, or is there something everyone's neglected to say to her about dragons and Seraphim?

    "None of their holy records, eh? And I suppose you'll... cause me some right trouble if I do anyway."

    She begins to start forward, as if to make her way past him regardless.

    "Well, it's your lucky day, Yvaine! What I'm after ain't holy."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

Book abuse is not always a crime but is very terrible.

"I have," he answers lightly, freely even. "Do most scholars on your world carry ARMs? That seems relatively uncommon, too."

A beat, "Yes. Familiar. But I don't know where I would've seen you. I've been away for a long time. ...You don't have ancestors from the Silver Star, do you?"

He nods at that, though. "Yes. I can cause quite a bit of trouble, given the motivation. I might be a little rusty, of course. I wouldn't mind especially finding out."

Yvain steps to the side, into Josie's path. "And what exactly are you looking for, then?"

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Depends on the scholar," Josie remarks, flashing him a grin. "Me, well... let's say I've got my reasons."

    At his question, she shakes her head. "Nope. Leastwise, I don't think so. Far as I know, my kin've been from here and here alone." She pauses, though. "Though, now that you mention it and all... I once did find a box on Lunar with an old warding mark, right? Like the kinds used by the Aveh tribesfolk and all. How's that for ancestry, one way or another?"

    But as she brushes off his threat regarding causing her a little trouble and pushes past him all the same, she glances back his way.

    "Old map. Or something like, if what I'm remembering's right," she tells him.

    "...It ain't just relics round here, though truth be told I was thinkin' 'bout pinching one or two. They'd be a good ransom. But the thing I'm looking for... she-- the... book said it was an old map."

    A pause, as she eyes the shelves.

    "Five hundred years old or summat."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

"Hmmm."

"The people of Lunar did originally come from the Blue Star," Yvain offers. "So that's interesting, but certainly possible." He doesn't resort to force yet; perhaps he's reluctant because fire, or maybe he's just not that rude in the moment. But as she looks back...

"Old map, hm?"

He is not aware of her affiliations, or particularly familiar with Odessa in the first place. But a map...

"That does sound interesting," Yvain allows. "Tell me about that map." He walks over to the shelves, looking to where he'd been examining some. "Those would be..."

A pause. "You can't keep the map, but if you find it you're welcome to copy it."

He's pretty curious himself.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "That's what I figured."

    It had been more or less said, in fact. In a manner of speaking, she could have relatives among the Lunarians... in the sense that they might have been descended from siblings or cousins or what-have-you thousands of years ago.
    So in other words, not any more closely related than anyone else she happens to run into.

    "Yep. I'm lookin' for a particular map. Some damn old thing, focusin' on the region 'round these parts."

    She pauses.

    "That's 'Southern Aquvy'.

    Probably one of these large flat drawers here, she'd wager. She tugs one out.

    "Copy? Hah. With what? My eyes? ...Listen, mister, that thing's coming with me."

    She slides that drawer open and checks in another. Elru?
    And another, which proves to have a close-up drawing of the Kislev region. "...Assuming it's here and all. Wouldn't that be the kicker..."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

"Hmmm, a map. Now that is interesting." Yvain likes maps. They tend to lead to things, or at least indicate where things are, and that's generally a good thing in his view. Especially old maps that lead to lost things. So the region...

"Ahh, yes." Southern Aquvy. "I see."

He starts to walk over to the drawers to have a look for himself, though he glances over his shoulder. "I do have pen and paper," he points out. "Alternately we can fight about it. I'm pretty curious about that ARM of yours in the first place."

Assuming that it's here... "What makes you think it's in these archives, then? There must be some lead."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie pauses a moment, midway through rolling out another drawer. "You brought a paper and pen? What were you gonna do with things like that?" she wonders, rubbing at her cheek a moment with her left hand. "Heh. Sure wouldn't mind a fight or none, but I thought you were worried 'bout damaging the books in here and all..." she drawls, lips splitting in a widened grin. "I ain't all that good at avoiding collateral damage, right? And the aim on this little bastard's none too great." She taps it with her hand, as if to underscore the statement.

    "'Sides. It'd be a right pain in the ass if those lot came rushin' in here. It's not like I could lock the door again, after I was done with it..."

    This one's not it, either. She slides it closed.

    "Hm? Well, let's just say I got my sources, right? 'Sides. The one I heard it from's dead. So it ain't like I can go back and ask... them."

    She grimaces and crouches before another set of drawers.

    "So it'd be back to square one or I give up, maybe."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

"Write down particularly interesting passages. Granasian theology is entirely new to me." He says it as if this itself is sufficient justification to think there might be interesting things in it. But hmm....

"It's not the ideal solution," he admits. "But I don't particularly have to worry about being caught in here by most of them, unlike a human would." He does at least sound amused, if idly while he likewise looks around through drawers.

"If you tell me what's so interesting about it, I might be able to let you off with a promise to give it back later, though."

Dead... Hmm. "It would make asking again inconvenient, for certain."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    Josie just slowly tilts her head as she regards Yvaine, as if trying to get the measure of him. "Well, ain't you a scholar," says the actual archaeologist in the room.

    Her grin shifts halfway into a grimace. "See what I mean? Sounds like it's a lose/lose for me, while you get to walk away scott free. Bloody Seraphim..." she mutters, settling back on her haunches a moment.

    "Heh. Now, ain't this a howdy-do," she remarks to her companion for this little adventure of hers. "Thing is, I don't rightly know. All I know is, it's detailin' something that's probably of interest to me. Maybe something older than just a few centuries or what, if you catch my meanin'," she says to him. Rising to her feet, she shifts over to a different set of map drawers. "It's gonna be old, it's gonna focus on this region or hereabouts, and... I'll know it when I see it. That's what I got, Yvvie."

    She doesn't so much as respond to his second comment as much as she lets out a bitter, bitter chuckle over it. "Must be nice," she says, rolling open another drawer.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

"I may have studied these things for a century or two," Yvain says pleasantly. To the archaeologist. But the grimace... Heh heh. He inclines his head. "Yes," he answers about lose/lose. "It rather does, doesn't it?"

But this particular adventure... Detailing something of interest, something very old. "Hmmm." He doesn't even seem to object to the nickname for the moment, being far more focused on thinking about the map. "So it could be quite ancient. That does sound very interesting..."

As long as he gets to look at it too, of course.

But the bitter chuckle--"It has its advantages," he admits freely. "...And its disadvantages. It makes it difficult to find good conversation, for one."

"Among other issues." He starts with more drawers, looking for signs specifically of age now not just topic.

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    It's lose-lose for the both of them, really, but far more for her most likely -- if there's none among the guards who can see him, he'll at least get to walk away, if with some potentially damaged records he'll never get to see in the bargain. "Ain't you a fine pain in the ass," Josie remarks to Yvaine at his response, though there's no real animus in the statement. "Then I suppose I gotta do it your way, eh?"

    What other real option does she have, other than to salt the proverbial earth? And even Josie isn't quite so petty as to try that.

    "The stuff in it could be real ancient. If I'm right... it might detail some sites from way on back. Zeboim-era, even." She pauses. "Over five thousand years old or so."

    In other words, about as old as there's been meaningful existence on Lunar.

    "That so? That'd be a real kick in the head," Josie muses, sliding another drawer closed. "Mind, there's some folks I'd not worry 'bout speaking to again or any, but..."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

Of course, he actually cares about the people who'd be affected by this, if only in a general, nonspecific sense. He doesn't really know them beyond 'they're mortals who lost their religious leader recently.' ...But it's definitely more lose for her. All the same he doesn't force things to a fight himself. Instead he grins. "Yes, I've heard that," he answers. His way, then.

"Fascinating," Yvain answers when Josie mentions just how old it might be. "Zeboim... I have heard that word, I think." He knows the language, though he doesn't know it's the same language. But he knows how old that is in Lunar terms.

"Oh, sure. I do evade some of the more tiresome types. Though not all of those." He doesn't count her among them, despite their... disagreement. But as he goes through another drawer, he spots the signs of ancient age--well cared-for, but still to be gently treated. He 'hmms' slightly, and then moves to spread it out on a table, examining it thoughtfully.

"I believe this may be the map you wished to find. Be careful with it; I do expect its return." ...But he's interested enough in where it leads that he could use her knowledge of this world in order to interpret it. "...I see similar landmasses," though notably the landscape is not as 'the exact same' as one would expect of a mere five thousand years, now is it?

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Old civilization. Long gone, but they built to last -- sometimes you can find their ruins and all lyin' around, if you're lucky. If you're real lucky, you're the first one in, and if you're the luckiest of the lucky, well, then you don't die doin' it, neither!" she says, sliding yet another unprofitable drawer closed. "The thing about Zeboim ruins is that they ain't safe, generally speakin'. Guess that's how they survived so long..."

    Otherwise, someone else would have found them, or other emergent factors on Filgaia -- further apocalypses, alien invasions, and so on -- would have already had their say in the story of the past.

    "Yeah? Guess there's limits to it..." Josie muses. "Interestin' map of Elru. Guess this was Elluria? But it ain't what I'm after. How many old maps they keeping in here, anyway--"

    Yvaine, meanwhile, has found something. It's quite old, and laying it out on a nearby table takes some doing. But is it the one she was looking for?

    Josie rises to her feet quickly enough when he beckons her over.

    It's old. She can tell that. But is it 500 years old? Gloved fingers brush against the material gently, as if to determine what it might be made of. "Right area, I think... Let's see. That's about where we are now, right... and this over here's likely... hmm... Guild Galad? But it ain't..."

    She regards the map in silence for a time, hand on her chin.

    "There's a mark here, too," she says, pointing a finger towards one of the islands veering towards the south. "Why there? Ain't a settlement here. Or here, or even here... wait."

    These aren't cities the map's marking.

    It's excavation sites. After all, what is Guild Galad but a giant... excavation?

    "Damn," Josie says, glancing up towards the ceiling. "I'm gonna have to check all of these things, ain't I?"

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

"I see," Yvain says. "...Yes, that would sound like the most ancient of ruins. And there is much of this 'ARM' technology in them?" It's half a rhetorical question; he can gather that much, after all. But limits...

"Apparently quite a lot," Yvain answers as to old maps, but mostly he's focused on this one now. His own fingers lack oils and other residue that would harm the material; he can touch them as if a gentle candlelight. And it does seem to be the right area. He pulls some of his paper, and begins to make a sketch of the basic shape, eyeing the map as he does.

"...Excavation sites. Of course. Mortals are ever searching the past for their hopes of the future." A little formal, maybe, but hey he's been a dragon for a couple of centuries. It's fine.

"Looks like it," he comments. "Though I may beat you to a couple of them. I don't know what it is that would be found there, but even if I choose the 'wrong' ruin it would be most interesting to see what's in it, I think."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Depends on the ruin. But usually, yeah," Josie says, taking the moment arch her back in a sort of stretch. "Sometimes you can hit the jackpot, even. But you wanna keep quiet-like if you do that, elsewise you could get the wrong kinds of attention." She pauses, regarding Yvaine. "...Then again, you've got an advantage, there."

    The map's an interesting thing. Some of the sites might be underwater, when she tries to compare that mentally with the best maps she's seen of the region in her head. Others might already be called for and over and done with (she can put a big old checkmark next to Guild Galad, for instance; some confirmation might not be a bad idea, but more than likely, the kind of stuff she wanted to look for would be...

    "That's one way to put it," Josie says. "So, you gonna get out that pen and paper of yours? Or are we gonna do a little heist here and now after all?"

    Then Yvaine says something that prompts Josie to blink in surprise.

    Beat her to a few--

    Then she grins. "So I got a rival now, eh? Been a while."

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.

"Yes, I can see where that would be a problem. And that kind of attention could spell trouble even for Seraphim. ...Though by the same contrast, I suppose, the material gains mean less to us." Well, some of them. Some of them are greedier. It happens.

But the map is very interesting; he doesn't understand as much of the significance of individual spaces on it, but that's part of why he's listening to Josie here in the first place.

"Here," he says, and copies down the respective locations--along with their longitude and latitude, as well as what is frankly a great sketch for the brief time he has to do it. "I'll copy this for you, too. The map is old enough that carrying it might be difficult regardless."

He grins back, then. "You do. For me, a while too. I think this will be fun."

<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.

    "Fair enough. I'd been thinking I'd take it," she says, shaking her head and shrugging expansively, "but now that I see it, it looks like it's a couple days from going to pieces. That'd be a real pain. Besides," she says, a sly grin spreading across her face, "I'd love to see their faces when they realize the lock's dead... and there ain't a thing in here outta place."

    To be the fly on the wall during that investigation.

    "So, sure. You got yourself a deal, Yvvie. I'll play nice-like and we can have ourselves a little game after."

    Though she does pause.

    "...Might need a hand gettin' out of here again, though. Didn't plan for that."

    One gets the feeling she usually doesn't plan much...