2021-10-23: Hints and Rumours
- Log: Hints and Rumours
- Cast: Seraph Ragnell, Magilou
- Where: Lastonbell
- Date: 2021-10-23
- Summary: Magilou lets Ragnell in on the details of the Trial Shrines. Well, on some of the details.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
It's been a decent while since Ragnell was last in Lastonbell. Its iconic belltower was destroyed in the last war, when Hylandian forces brought *laser guns* bought off a certain upstart offworld noblewoman to the battle and handily conquered the city. Then Hyland's forces oppressed the people so harshly it was nearly swallowed up by Malevolence--only for that Malevolence to attract a certain Fell Dragon, who swooped by to eat it, and also anything else that might've happened to be nearby. The city saw some shit during that conflict.
It seems to be doing better for itself now that the war is over. It's been rebuilt nicely. Even the belltower is back, though it's hard to tell if the bell itself is still the same or if they replaced that, too. Ragnell gazes up at it from the wall she's leaning on, elbows hooked on the edges; despite all the space she deliberately takes up, the people around her don't even notice. Many of them pass right through her. Ragnell doesn't pay them any mind in return either. She's waiting for her date to show up.
(If she ever DOES show up. Magilou is already half an hour late. Though then again, what's an hour here or there for people who are literally centuries old?)
It's not actually a big deal; Ragnell does enjoy people-watching, and it's... good to see this town again, even if it gives her mixed feelings. As merchants and their clientele chatter around her, Ragnell hums an ancient song, tapping the backbone beat out on the stone. A breeze billows forward, rustling the feather in her cowboy hat, billowing her indigo tunic and the ribbon-like decoration around her neck.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"... but hey, they committed. The forest /is/ called Volgran, these days."
"Do you remember why they dedicated it to them, Miss Magilou...?"
"Not a whit! It's just sentimentality, don't you think?"
That's Magilou, arms folded behind her head, amicably chattering with a Normin trailing beside her. She's getting a couple of odd stares for -- essentially -- talking to herself. She's getting a lot /more/ odd stares for -- essentially -- being dressed in a manner indistinguishable from a jester who lost a fight with a library. (Little do they know, these are the holy raiments of the witch.)
She is, indeed, half an hour late, sauntering in from the direction of the marketplace. Maybe she needed a snack. Maybe she's letting Ragnell twist in the breeze. Maybe she forgot exactly when they were due to meet. Choose your own adventure!
Magilou looks up to that big ol' bell, sauntering lazily down the path. Closer, and closer... until... can't she see Ragnell?! She's going to run right into her, just like all those people passing by! She starts whistling a jaunty tune, totally unaware of --
/right/ in front of Ragnell, Magilou suddenly pulls up and looks back down to earth and what grounds there, arms sweeping out from behind her head in a wide arc around her. "Hiiii!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Sentimentality directs a lot of human decisions. Or that's what Ragnell would say if she'd been part of that conversation. And if Magilou was late on purpose, well, that'd be Magilou for you. Either way, it's a bit of a game, isn't it? See who whose up first and how long they have to wait for the second. If Ragnell's the one who had to wait, that just means... she lost the game.
Right now, though, as the jester witch acts as though she's going to just pass Ragnell on by like all these other suckers, the Lightning Seraph juts a booted foot out far enough for Magilou to trip on. So naturally, Magilou *doesn't* trip, but turns just in time to avoid a pratfall and spreads her arms as if to give Ragnell a big hug.
So Ragnell beams and *actually does* give Magilou a big hug, lifting her up and spinning her around even if Magilou lets her get away with it.
"Babe! I was jus' wonderin' if you were gonna stand me up!" she chirps. She sets Magilou down, or maybe more accurately drops her. It's not far to the street. She'll live. "So you were sayin' before about some gems or whatever we gotta get from those shrines if we're gonna get past a certain barrier... Are you finally lettin' me in on the rest of the plan on that, or what?"
Previously, she'd told her enough to get Ragnell on board, then breezed off the rest saying she needed to settle some things first. That was a while ago! Now it's now. This might be a conversation better moved off the street, but the folks around them can only hear half of it anyway, so maybe it's fine.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Maybe Magilou can /see the future.../
... or maybe Ragnell has just tried that trick with her before. Hundreds of years is a long time to know someone!
She makes a sound much like this -- "squeeEEEP", all akin to a squeaky toy -- when Ragnell proceeds to call /Magilou's/ bluff just the same, and twirl her about. Did she let Ragnell get away with it, or did Ragnell get one up on Magilou...? This, she's not telling. She /does/ look delighted to see her, though, laughing in the twirl.
And then -- "waugh!" -- that's the sound of Magilou being unceremoniously dropped on her derriere. (Couldn't she have caught herself..? Oh well, this way is funnier.) "I won't stand for that!" She declares, raising a finger in accusation to Ragnell's fears of being /stood up,/ and subsequently... Magilou does not stand up. She settles down on the sidewalk, as Bienfu comes up at her shoulder to wave at Ragnell.
"Alas, it seems my legs have betrayed me, and so I cannot enigmatically escape," Magilou bemoans her existence, a hand to her forehead. (The crowd is ignoring her by now. Just... just don't talk to her, she'll go away soon.) "I suppose I'll have to tell you everything..!"
Bienfu adjusts his hat, shooting her a sceptical expression. "Weren't we coming here to do that anyway, Miss Magilou...?"
"Shh!" She puts a finger to her lips, shushing him harshly. "We have an /image/ to uphold, Bienfu!"
Bienfu rolls his eyes and shrugs to Ragnell, in the universal Seraphic acknowledgement of nonsense.
"Aaan~y~way," Magilou settles back on a bent wrist, looking up to Ragnell. "There are eight gems of power, all to juice up a teleportation circle in good ol' Artorius's Throne. A while back, the guardian Seraphim of the Trial Shrines took each of those gems -- one for each element, you understand -- and hid them away in those Trials. If we could gather them all together... well," her voice lowers conspiratorially, just the way her eyelids lower over that lazy mischief in her eyes, "we'd have a way into Pentagulia, wouldn't we? Delivered right to dear Althena's doorstep..."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Damn legs, always walkin' out on ya," Ragnell agrees, a twinkle in her red eyes, as she plops down and folds her legs to face Little Miss Witch. She goes on and on with her dramatics; Bienfu gives Ragnell a hapless shrug, which she returns with a chuckle and a shake of her head. An image to uphold, indeed. An image of being completely ridiculous. But that's one of the fun parts about Magilou.
For now, though, she listens. And then she smiles. "Hmmm... so *that's* how we were gonna get at Her Holiness," she murmurs. "Good t' know, good t' know. Certainly haven't seen any other solutions t' gettin' inside. Eight gems, hmm... That's exactly the kind o' thing the Drifter community would snap right to attention to gather up, aren't they?"
She leans her cheek on one hand. "So how're we playin' this? We droppin' 'hints' an' 'rumors' to get 'em to do that? I only know where a few o' th' shrines are, but I assume you know the rest..."
A very generous assumption, all told.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"A veritable sidequest of considerable time and energy! Surely only the best equipment is hidden behind such a large investment!" Magilou agrees, cheerfully, to Ragnell's assessment of the Drifters. "So long as the message is delivered right, there's no way they wouldn't go for it, don't you think?"
And MAGILOU is the one to deliver that message..?
She laughs, waving a hand. "Oh, I know /some/ places," Magilou agrees, airily. "But the world's changed over so many years... it's all too easy to misplace a geographical feature or two. It's a good thing we know people, huh?" Magilou winks, and doesn't, precisely, elaborate on who those people are.
"Well," Magilou smiles, tapping a finger to her forehead, "it juuust so happens that Lucia's little entourage has a whole /list/ of reasons to want to get at Althena. All I had to do was give them a path forward, and... poof! They're invested! I know, I know," she holds up a hand, as if to interrupt Ragnell, "it's disappointing not to have to play footsies with the kids, but it turns out these suckers will believe /anything./"
She puts her hand to her chin, and adds, low: "Though, they're terribly curious..."
Will their investigations cause trouble for Magilou? Oh, well!
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"True. True," Ragnell replies, nodding wisely. "Can't pass that shit up. If you can find better equipment in a chest, that's more money you get to keep for yourself." Her expression does turn dubious at the implication that Magilou is the best way to convey the message... but then, she *is* a tricky little gal. It's not impossible! Especially if you're talking to some of the more gullible members of the Drifter community! Like, for example, Hiro, the face of the Vile Fiends!
"Yep, that's Hiro for ya," she says, shaking her head in amusement. "The rest o' th' Vile Fiends ain't much better." She should know; she's one of them! Even after she betrayed them! But that's its own other whole story and not relevant to the current conversation. "So, which people do we know, exactly, who can tell us where all the shrines are?" she says, raising an eyebrow. It's certainly true that the world has undergone quite a few changes, just in the last thousand years, even. She leans in closer. "Curious, huh? About what, now?"
Honestly, curiosity is a must for being a Drifter. You don't decide to go rooting around dangerous old ruins if you aren't at least a *little* bit the curious type, whether it's for treasure or for the past.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"It's an interesting repeat of circumstances," Magilou muses, on the Vile Fiends. "A little too tragically heroic for my tastes... but it's interesting to watch, don't you think?" That might be Magilou's way of saying that she, too, has associated herself with the Vile Fiends.
But who, exactly... Magilou rubs the back of her head, hat all a-tilting forward, and grins. "We could ask Grim, but I know what she'd say... 'oh.............', and then she'd look aside, like this," Magilou demonstrates, helpfully, "and stare out into eternity until we interrupted her... gosh, can you /imagine/ how much of a headache that would be?"
Magilou streeetches her arms over her head, and flops forward, cheerfully. "But there's all sorts of old classics hanging around. I'm sure asking about will lead to something good. Why, perhaps even the dead and gone have left something worth hunting up... like pirate treasure!" All right, Magilou is DEFINITELY having too much fun now.
Forward as she is, she's well-positioned to reach up... and /boop/ Ragnell on the nose as she leans in. "Dear little Mariel and Hiro are /terribly/ interested in the history of our great land, sooo... I might have led them on the snipe hunt of their lives!" She grins, sharkish. "Hey, they might even learn something."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Interestin' like an earthquake, yeah," Ragnell says dryly. Still, she's not disagreeing, per se. "Well, I imagine Lucia's all for it. She's been hot to complete her mission for... damn, years now. If we can actually get her inside Pentagulia and have her *finally* confront Althena or whoever the hell's wearin' her face over there, then hopefully all this bustin' her ass trekkin' around will have been worth it for her."
Magilou's Grim impression gets a laugh out of the Lightning Seraph. "Yeah, I can imagine pretty well, actually! I'm sure she knows, too. Hmm, what other old fogeys could we ask?" She thinks about this genuinely for a few seconds; then she suggests, "Well, there's always Old Man Zenrus over in Elysium. Can't imagine he wouldn't know *somethin'*. I'll try askin' him, Lightning Seraph to Lightning Seraph. Oh, but not much point without some Drifters along, hmm? Hm. I'll have to see who I can rustle up. I'm sure Gwen an' Hiro won't be a problem... Guess it'll be a matter o' who feels like taggin' along with li'l ol' me."
Pirate treasure, huh. That *would* be fun to uncover, though it seems like a pretty hefty aside from the shrine gems. She smiles when Magilou boops her nose--then snaps at that saucy little finger. She'll miss, of course, but Magilou might feel that *bite* as her jaws snap shut. "They are, huh? Yeah, that tracks. Well, as long as they have fun, it's all good, eh?"
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Hmm... dear old Althena did seem to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, didn't she?" Magilou wonders, airily.
Here, she glances to Bienfu, and a cant of her head says a thousand words. Of course, she doesn't bother /saying/ any of them.
"Well," she looks back to Ragnell, with a mysterious smile, "let's make sure the horrific scourge of Lunar has a straight shot at the saviour of this land. After all... one day, we may be the only ones who remember how it really went."
There's a story there, obviously. Maybe it's the one about Eizen. ... maybe.
She grins, though, when Ragnell thinks of Zenrus. "What harm could come of introducing /him/ to some of the new kids?" Magilou wonders, but it may well be a hypothetical question. "Perhaps you ought to get some of the old kids in on it, too. Don't you think an old guy like that might have some useful advice for you whippersnappers?"
SPEAKING OF SNAPPERS,
Magilou snaps her finger back, curled into her fist, and for a moment clutches her hand in utter dismay as if she has /lost/ her /most important fingergun arming device./ A moment later, she lifts her pointer finger again, and breathes a sigh of relief. "Sure is!" She agrees, brightly.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
"Damn. She sure did," Ragnell replies, dry as a desert.
It's a wonder why neither of them just come out and say it. But then, that's part of the game, especially when it comes to Magilou. She chuckles at the talk of remembering how it really went, but there's a bit of a wistful air to it. "Very true. Maybe you'll even still be the world's greatest grandma then! Lots of other ol' bags competin' for the title, y'know."f
What harm? "Who knows? He's the one who kicked Sorey an' Mikleo out into the world," she replies, again dryly. "But that's why I thought o' him, really. He's not just ancient an' knowledgeable; he actually likes humans. More or less. I guess." She's not actually sure if he likes humans in *general* or if Sorey just happens to be an exception. He probably won't kick them all off his mountain, though. Probably. "But yeah, I figure it can't hurt t' pick his brain some."
She grins broadly and toothily when Magilou pantomimes shock, distress, and then relief at the apparent but not actual loss of her finger. "So what's *your* next move gonna be, then? Gonna rely on some o' those source of your to get you t' where you need the Vile Fiends t' go?"
Since while this is something pretty much all Drifters can get in on, it's really about Lucia and her band in the end. It's her mission, after all. Other Drifters just exist to make it easier and quicker to get it all done.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Who, little old me?" Magilou wonders -- having not, notably, disavowed Ragnell of the notion that she's the world's Greatest Grandma. "Why, I'm going to lead these cute little kids into the arms of their greatest enemies, obviously. That's where they need to be!" She flashes a V-sign for victory, with those fingers which are miraculously unbitten.
"First up," she leans back on her hands, looking up to the sky, "I've got a date with a sentinel Seraph myself... we could always just sneak in, but it would be convenient if we could get the keys, don't you think?" Here she looks back to Ragnell, with a rakish wink, a huff of laughter as one edge of her smile tugs a hair too wide. "Ahh, and I should really see if that one fellow is still the wind-warder... through no fault of my own, I'm afraid he's possessed of an axe to grind against me."
Bienfu steps over, and stands on his tippy-toes to whisper: "Miss Magilou really offended him, a few hundred years ago. He swore he'd never work with her again!"
Magilou rolls her eyes, and rolls her shoulder back, too, in a broad and agonised shrug. "Uuuugh. Who cares! If I have to make myself scarce, I'll just get Hiro to go be a cutie-patootie in my place. Who can say no to that face?" It's Magilou. Magilou would say no to that face.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Ragnell has posed.
Ragnell snickers, rather unkindly, at the idea of delivering these poor, poor children to the big bad Guard and their hallowed Goddess. Who is she snickering at? ...Why, isn't it obvious?
"A date? With another Seraph?? Gasp! Magilou, are you... *cheatin'* on me??" Ragnell declares, pressing a hand to her chest in mock shock. "An' now you're even after the keys to their place! What's next? Matchin' outfits??" She shakes her head. "For *shame*."
Knowing she's talking about Yvain would only make that bit even funnier. For now, she snickers at the idea that Magilou might just have offended the sentinel of the Wind Shrine so much that he'd kick her out on sight. "Charmin' as always, huh? You maneater. Sendin' Hiro instead's a good idea, though. He's wind-aligned, he's got a good heart, an' he'll step up jus' fine to the trial in question, I think."
Ragnell tucks her feet under her legs, then leans up and stands. "Well, if you've got the plan lined up, I'll do my part, too. Let's get things rollin' an' compare notes real soon, all right?" Once Magilou gives the affirmative, she taps a pair of fingers to the brim of her hat in farewell. "Later, then. I'll tell old man Zenrus you said hi..." She lets that linger for a beat, then looks over at Bienfu with a mischievous wink. "...Bienfu."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"My dear, sweet Ragnell, I would never! Unless, of course, you'd cheated on /me,/ first... perhaps with the first sleek suit of armour who walked into your field of view..?" OH NO, SHE'S MET LIATH, IT'S COME FULL CIRCLE
(Luckily, Magilou seems like she's in a merciful mood, so she doesn't drag her old friend about it /too/ much.)
Her grin is all teeth, when Ragnell accuses her of being a maneater. "All of my ideas are good ideas," she assures Ragnell, "especially the ones which are bad ideas."
For all the hullabaloo Magilou made about falling to her doom, she's able to hop up /astoundingly/ quickly when she actually wants to. It ought to have a sound effect. That sound effect ought to be 'sproiiiing!' "Okie-dokie!" She chirps, a finger to her temple as she cocks her head in cheerful assent.
TRAGICALLY: RAGNELL PROCEEDS TO DESTROY HER. A hand to her chest, Magilou gasps. "I am /shocked/ at your rudeness! Shocked! In the depths of my offence, and for no other reason, I march now to the western gate!" She turns, all in a huff, and begins storming off that way.
"Yeah!" Bienfu agrees, with pipsqueak cheer. "I hope he's doing good up there!"
He proceeds to double-take, as Magilou keeps marching, committed entirely to the bit. "W--wait, Miss Magilou! Don't leave me behiiind!!" Scramble, scramble, he hurries to catch up. Luckily, the unaware patrons of the city don't bother him that much, even though he's in perfect kicking range.
They're... probably off to take care of the plan, too..?