2021-05-14: Birds Of A Feather
- Log: Birds Of A Feather
- Cast: Yue Rohay, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Celesti Wastelands
- Date: May 13, 2021
- Summary: Yue's had a bad week. Josie's hasn't been all that great, either, and she has a few questions for Yue in the meantime.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Bad week.
Yue's had a rough time of it; demanding Odessa and Veruni missions back to back, and then there's the incident in Halim... which rekindles old revolutionary flames and thoughts in her, things that she felt were long dead, but also flames that she can't do anything about.
So she's back here, in the Odessan safehouse in the Celesti Wastelands -- the Veruni's still in her battered black jacket with her cuffs on as usual, but she's...
... staring at one of Josie's leftover bottles of bad wine, from a time ago. Huh.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Bad week?"
She comes strolling in the room right as rain, but her smile's lacking a bit of its usual tilt. Yue might not be the only one who's had a bad week -- Josie's had her share of troubles courtesy a map that is (shocker) not all that accurate after five hundred years and change and...
Well, old ruins can also pack quite a punch. It's how it goes, sometimes.
Also the fact that she's got her flask in one hand might be a tell. The cap's off.
"Here, drink somethin' more worthwhile-like," she drawls, tossing it (yes, open!!) Yue's way. Does she have that much faith in Yue's ability to catch it (in manacles!)?
Or... are the contents already that dubious that spilling them doesn't much matter?
(...Probably.)
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue blinks a few times from where she's perched ontop of her usual crate -- she's almost like a darn cucco like that. Her reflexes are, at least, one thing that's sharp about her, so she doesn't have troubles catching it...
But she sniffs it and makes a face. "What IS this?" in the tone of someone who probably doesn't know their alcohols well.
A pause. "Yeah. Looks like you have your stories too, though."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Well, that brings a better-looking smile to her lips. Though was it the fact that Yue caught it anyway or her reaction to the, er, fumes coming out of the flask?
"Hooch," Josie answers, easily enough.
Then she blinks, as if taken aback. "Hm? Do I look that bad, now? C'mon, what's eatin' you and all?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue might be an alcohol ingenue, but she's still pretty darn sure that alcohol's not supposed to be, uh, so volatile that fumes are coming out of the flask but at the same time--
Ah screw it.
She takes an unwisely big swig!!
...
..."<Please let me die now...>" she says, in slurring Zeboim.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie watches Yue negotiate the flask and take a drink!
Josie... keeps watching for a moment more.
"...Didn't quite catch that. In fact, didn't catch most of it. Think I caught the word 'me'," she says, rolling her shoulders in a shrug. "But other'n a word or three, I don't speak Zeboim rightly."
Given that it's her civilization study of choice, she'd better be able to recognize it spoken. ...Especially given her erstwhile companions.
"So," she says, her one good hand planted on her hip, "you're a native speaker of Zeboim 'n all?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue takes a moment to let her head stop spinning, wondering what kind of toxic concoction she's just been served. She hands it back to Josie and nearly misses.
A teetotaller, this one, judging by her reaction!!
"Ah, sorry, I forgot," Yue murmurs, peeking out of one eye as she wipes her mouth. She pauses for a little longer, then says, "... yes. How did you guess?"
Other than the fact you just blurted that out, Yue...
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Reaching over, Josie reclaims it. The only good thing that can be said about its contents is that they are refreshingly chilly...
(Which is a direct outcome from Josie exposing it to the glyph at the bottom of the Water Shrine in Macalania.)
"No predrinking there, yeah?" she remarks, eyeing Yue. The curl of Josie's lip can only be called a... smirk.
"You yourself said it, right?" she says, gaze dipping away from Yue as she recaps the flash. "Said all that stuff here and now in Zeboim. Now, I don't know all that much Zeboim as such -- I'm an archaeologist, not an archaeolinguist, right -- but I've heard it spoken before. And don't tell me," she says, dark eyes lifting to regard Yue as she tucks the flask away, "that you did it accident-like."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue draws one leg up and hugs her knee, which is kind of a miraculous feat when there's shackles in the way. There's a quiet grouse as she remarks, "I don't drink, so, no, I'm not in the habit of pre-filling."
A pause, as she tilts her head and mumbles, "An archaeologist. I must be like an interesting living specimen to someone like you, then."
It doesn't look like she's going to deny it, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Aha..." There is a dangerous glint in Josie's eyes. Surely she would not be so irresponsible as to...!
(Come on. This is Josie.)
"Sure am. And here I was, wonderin' why you knew so much about the Zeboim and all. So, what's your story, kiddo?" She pats her jacket pocket. "And if you say 'I don't know' or summat, I'm gonna take a--"
She pauses.
"You're gonna have another drink," she says, smiling slowly. "I've done had enough of mysterious amnesiacs and what not."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
There's a rather sour scowl from Yue for a moment longer, and sighs faintly to say, "Don't feel like telling the whole story," pressing her gloved (she always has gloves) fingers to the front and center of her forehead. "What's in it for me anyway?"
Well, perhaps she feels like being a bit cheeky. "And what's your interest in it?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Right, that's a fair cop," Josie sighs, throwing up her hands nonetheless, as if put upon. "Still, least you could do is cut me some slack, eh?" She glances about, as if in search of the nearest flat surface and plants herself upon it -- it being a crate -- folding her hands across her lap, her knees splayed wide.
"What's in it for you? Don't rightly know. But I do know what's in it for me."
She flashes a grin, her gaze not leaving Yue for a second as she gazes at her from her makeshift seat. "I told you before, my specialty's Zeboim tilework. And I've hit a right roadblock in my research."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"Oh, those tiles..." Yue scratches her head with another sigh. "I mean, just because I'm from the Zeboim era doesn't mean I was necessarily a bathroom tile-layer, right? I don't know everything." There's a quiet pause, however.
"But if it's that important for you, it's probably more important than just aesthetics."
There's a quiet purse of her lips, and a hum. "What has you stumped?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
To that, Josie responds with a bark of a laugh. "I'll give you that, kiddo," she drawls, shaking her head as she gestures about herself vaguely. "But maybe you could give me a pointer or three, yeah? Like, maybe you remember a particular tile from a fancy bathroom, maybe," she says, her lips parting in a grin.
"Tell you what, tell you what," she says, waving her good hand through the air dismissively. "Here's my deal. I won't ask you any funny questions 'bout your story or none, and keep it business-like. Right?"
The fact that her smile doesn't falter might mean that she thinks she's made a good offer, given Yue's response.
"Here, here..."
And she pulls out a folded piece of paper. Standing from her box crate seat, she kicks it over towards Yue, then kneels alongside it to unfold the paper atop it. ...It's a map of Southern Aquvy. Several locations are marked on it. Most notably, someone copied it by hand.
"Original's maybe... 500 years old. Somethin' like that. So not all these sites are Zeboim. But that's fine," Josie says.
"So, anything 'round here that looks familiar, geography-wise?"
...The geography has undergone a fairly noticable transformation in the last 5,000 years.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue does ponder for a moment about being called 'kiddo', and how old people even think she looks; in her twenties? Veruni physiology -- OG or not -- is kind of weird in how they seem to just resist the wear and tear of aging that humans do. It feels like it'd get annoying if she brought it up, though, so she doesn't.
"I mean, it isn't like I'm actively against the idea of helping you out," Yue sighs faintly.
A longer pause, as she looks at the piece of paper. "No," Yue answers even without hesitating. "The world today doesn't look like the world I knew back then. It took me a long time to grapple with that reality, to be honest."
She glances to one side to admit, "I might've gone a few years denying I was even on Filgaia."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
In all fairness, Josie has long since clued in that Yue is probably her senior, however it works for Veruni (and Yue is the least Veruni-looking Veruni Josie's seen this side of Kaguya), but this is also her little act of rebellion for aging not working the way it ought to with Veruni.
Or something like that.
Josie just waves a hand in the air, dismissively. "Don't you worry 'bout it none. You got things you don't wanna talk about... well, I know that song and dance. Don't mind it," she says, giving Yue a hooded glance.
But then there comes the kicker anyway--
There isn't even any hesitation on Yue's part.
"Really," Josie drawls, looking put out for the moment. Then, she sighs. "Guess that ol' war did a number on Filgaia. Well, fair enough, fair enough..." Rocking back on her haunches, she then drops onto the floor outright, long legs sprawling out before her. "Here I was thinkin' I could get a leg up. But I guess I gotta fight this one fair and square..."
She glances up at Yue after a moment more, though.
"Yeah? What'd you do, hide out on Lunar and all for a bit?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue lets out a somewhat faint chuckle as she remarks, "I do remember. Having to hang around people you were planning on moving on from... I've had to do a fair share of that myself. Maybe more than one should."
A pause, as she actually hiccups, blinking a few times as the alcohol comes back 'round.
"If you ask me, it's *too* strange that there's no semblance," Yue grouses. "Also, mm--"
She holds her hand up, and quietly peels her glove off. Her hand is... 'third-degree burns' doesn't even quite begin to describe it, with how mottled and disfigured her fingers' flesh actually is.
"Got burnt by the fire to end all fires, and then I slept the cold sleep until just about recently."
There's a rather rueful laugh. "As far as I'm concerned, it's like the world left me behind..."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Heh... always a pleasure," Josie remarks, shaking her head. "Never fails to delight!" And if that's not a smile suiting such sarcastic commentary...
"Heard the world near 'bout ended," Josie says. "Seems to me it redoing Filgaia's face in the process is only fitting."
And then Yue, slowly, takes off one of her gloves.
There's not shock in Josie's eyes as she regards Yue's hand as such as much as there's... a grim sort of commiseration.
"...You'n me both," she says, and she smiles, but it is bitter.
"It ain't the same way. Ain't the same kind of fire. But the world's gone 'n left both of us behind."
She remains sitting like that on the floor for a moment or so still before she quietly gets to her feet and plucks the map off the crate, folding it up neatly and tucking it away.
Then she reaches for that bottle of wine.
"Seems to me," she says, holding that bottle up to the light, "that I ain't drunk enough to be this maudlin or none. What'd'ya say, Yue? Care for somethin' bitter to wash down these feelings?"
It's bad wine. But perhaps it's best to deal with bad feelings with bad wine, rather than good. It makes some twisted sort of sense, from where Josie's standing.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue raises her eyebrow for a moment, before chuckling herself. "It did end, in more definitions than one. The way I hear it, it's a mercy I slept through it all."
There's a quiet sigh, again; she catches that look in Josie's eye. It's... someone who knows. She didn't quite expect it -- she's not sure what to expect, honestly. It's possible she's drunk enough that she's unguarded enough to do this.
"... speaking from experience, huh," Yue mumbles quietly. "It sucks."
A longer pause, then she nods quietly, and reaches for the bottle as she puts her glove back on and--
--whiffs grabbing it and just falls flat on the floor.
"... what IS in that darned flask...?" the Veruni grouses. "I feel like I've drunk out of an oni's sake gourd." Have fun with that, localisers!!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Heh. And it went on to end again and again while you were out, even. Three times over, seems like," she says to Yue, her mouth tilted in a lopsided smile. "Wonder how much the old girl's got left in her? ...Heh. S'pose that's where us lot come on."
That smile doesn't meet her eyes. In the end, is Vinsfeld's goal really 'saving Filgaia from itself'? Or...
Maybe Josie already knows that it's not.
Her only answer to Yue is to raise her right hand -- she's always favored her left -- and wave it somewhat stiffly in the air.
"Should be glad I still got a hand," she says. "Should be, but I ain't."
And that's all she says.
Before tilting the conversation away from such things and offering that... bottle of wine.
"Hmm, I wonder how old this is, even," Josie says, fiddling with the bottle of wine after Yue wiffs grabbing it. "Hm? What's the flask?"
There's a long, long pause.
"Just this'n that. Something that'll put a curl in your hair!"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue draws in a breath as she regards Josephine, and then chuckles rather sadly. "... well, all the best with that. I'm one revolutionary group too old to really have my heart in it. But at least you get to use me while the going's good."
She blinks a few times, at Josie's declaration that she should be glad she's still got a hand. "... mm."
She makes another face at the answer, though. "Oh, fine." She grabs the wine instead, uncorks it, and takes a powerful and brave swig.
...
...
It starts dribbling from the corners of her mouth. "Isssh offff..."
Oh no, it's not just bad wine, it's bad expired wine.