2021-12-12: Teatime For Trouble
- Log: Teatime For Trouble
- Cast: Magilou, Leah Sadalbari
- Where: Spira - The Thunder Plains
- Date: 2021-12-12
- Summary: Magilou hosts a tea party delightful enough to distract Leah from Macalania, and offers her some old advice, while Leah offers Magilou some perspective on a city she knows only from hearsay. The two of them find they have a surprising amount in common.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Gondor called for aid; the kids are off in Macalania, something about kicking the birds back into the sky. Magilou...
Magilou said, "oh, I just couldn't, I'll be late for the tea party!"
... and never quite explained what the tea party was.
Anyway, here's the Thunder Plains, not so far from the woods, and there's a table all set up under one of those massive lightning rods. It has a merry little tablecloth, all checkered white and red; there's a flower-vase in the middle, all decorated with irises, milkweed, and beautiful mountain laurel blooms. The teapot is high-necked and elaborate, black ceramic painted with doves. The teacups are similarly more black than white. There's a merry little cake, pre-sliced, and little plates and spoons to go with it; there are a row of biscuits, good both for dipping in tea and just eating plain. There's a little bowl of milk, and a little bowl of sugar. There are several chairs; only one is occupied. There's a crash of lightning, ferocious in the sky, arcing right down into the lightningrod above them.
Magilou sips her tea without flinching, looking down at the liquid with a mysterious smile.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
There is another figure on the Thunder Plains, on the far end from Macalania Woods. Our heroes are not the only ones who have been doing some poking around, and Leah Sadalbari traverses the Plains on foot, reliant primarily on a bit of wind Ether and, mostly, the Towers to keep the lightning at bay. Nevertheless, she has taken a few strikes, and is faintly smoking, because of her slow gait. It's uneven, one foot clearly heavier than the other. She is dressed in ordinary adventuring attire, a short indigo tunic-dress over long gloves and boots, an eyepatch over her left eye socket, and a spear at her back.
Only the significant shielding of her electrical components makes her radios anything more than completely useless here, and even then it's faint. Perhaps that will be important. Maybe it won't.
But as she notices the structure under the shelter...
Leah tilts her head, thoughtfully, looking over Magilou and her tea party. Then she smiles, and approaches.
Once under the shelter, "May I join you?"
She doesn't ask why Magilou is having a tea party on the Thunder Plains. Nobody crazy enough to do that is likely to give a straight answer anyawy.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Come, stop by the tea party!
Come and stop in the Plains.
"A place has been made for you," Magilou answers, not one beat missed, as welcoming as her tableau. She gestures, grandly, to the seating, all nestled under the protection of the lightning-rod; a place to be dry and safe from the elements, or, at least, from one specific element.
She's alone; there are no Normin visible here, dining with her. Alone she dips a biscuit into her teacup, and, cronch, she chomps it up. "By the way," she gestures to the lopsided stranger, surprise lighting up her face, "who were you again?"
Maybe it wasn't a place just for her, after all...
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"How lovely." Leah is still wet from the rain, of course, her blue hair slightly plastered to her face. Her single blue eye is clear, focusing on Magilou, then on the table again. And then she takes a seat, carefully, and there are the little signs of something unusual about her limbs, the way she takes specific and exquisite care not to break the chair. How did it all get set up out here? Not a particularly important question.
"My name's Leah Sadalbari," Leah answers, and that could be the answer to the question even if it really isn't. "And you?"
If she notices a Normin or the lack thereof, she hasn't said so.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou has two eyes, and enough colour for two more, and each of them is devastatingly casual, the purple above almost hidden by her half-lowered eyelids. Green is still a good colour.
She doesn't comment on the care Leah takes, but that doesn't mean she doesn't notice. Likewise, she doesn't comment on how she set up her little operation here. There are some things left better to implication.
And some things --
"Oh, I'm so glad you asked!" Magilou bubbles, raising her cup in a suddenly-energised salute. "I am the keeper of the ascension, the advent of a thousand lucky stars! A peerless evil witch whose wrath peals through unknown ages! Where the claws of vengeance and will grasp, there I am! Mazhigigika Miludin do Din Nolurun Dou...!" Her free hand throws out in a grand gesture, before it comes to curl around her teacup, and Magilou siiips, suddenly calm again.
"Magilou," she adds, over her teacup, "for short."
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Leah is not casual. Leah is, perhaps, never actually 'casual'. But she is calm, and maybe friendly, and she listens to Magilou's bubbly introduction. She listens through it patiently, watching her without a change in her expression from that mild, pleasant look as Magilou gives th grand title, gestures...!
"Is that so?" Leah replies, and begins to pour a cup of tea for herself, using a little sugar and a little milk, slowly. She speaks as she does, "We could do with some ascension. But instead, I think we more often get vengeance."
Setting down the spoon she uses to stir her tea she says, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Magilou. You've outdone me on the introduction by far. I suppose I should tell you something of myself, too."
She considers. "I find the works of Yevon here very interesting. Religion is a hobby of mine."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Ah," Magilou interjects, tapping a finger to the rim of her teacup, "but the two are very often tied together!" Ascension and vengeance..? What do those two have in common?
(That is a secret!)
She looks entirely too pleased that someone appreciated her introduction for once, and puts her teacup down so she can listen to the subsequent delivery of a fact about Leah, carried with great ceremony. The method says as much as the content.
Magilou grins.
"It's an interesting thing to come across, isn't it?" The works of Yevon, here, leaves an implication of a there unsaid. She reaches over to take a slice of cake, sliding it onto a plate -- "Want some?" Magilou interrupts herself, now, and will dole out some strawberry-cream wonder to Leah if she assents, too.
Settling back into her seat, Magilou wonders: "Of all the Gods in all the worlds, it's fascinating just how many come down to disallowment and punishment. But then -- is that better or worse than faiths which ask nothing and do nothing in return?" She shrugs, broadly, and takes up a spoon, to partition some cake into her mouth. "Really makes you think!"
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Of a sort," Leah says, agreeing and disagreeing at the same time. That is certainly a path to ascension, after all. She would not deny that.
But Leah remains mild as Magilou looks pleased. The method does say as much as the content.
"Certainly." Leah will accept both cake and cream. She does not take off her thick gloves for her tea or her cake, though, despite the fact that one imagines it might make things somewhat easier. Oh well.
"It's very interesting," she says. "...But that's also true. It's because, I think, people often look to their religion to control their behavior--either as leaders hoping to guide or rule subjects, or people looking for answers. Often both."
"Personally," Leah says, "I prefer faiths that challenge the individual. Yevon does this to a degree, of course. The Pilgrimage was a great challenge indeed."
"A pity that it is unconcerned with 'truth'."
She cuts off a bite of cake, and brings it to her mouth.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou snickers, hand curled to her mouth, when Leah talks about the merits of control. Her grin might be a shade savage, but she lets Leah speak, regardless.
Another spoonful of cake, and once it's cleaned off, that flash of silver gestures towards Leah. "Aww, come on!" Magilou wheedles, still clearly amused. "What's the big deal with the truth, anyway? The truth doesn't help anyone control anyone, and who wants to hear answers like that? Bo-ring. I'll tell you what happens to the truth: it gets stuck in a book somewhere, and no one wants anything to do with it!" Like the books on her skirt, perhaps...?
"The Pilgrimage was great fun," is a particular way for the two of them to say it, "a whole pageant of distraction. At some point, it became impossible to construct a world map, on account of the death whale and all. Isn't it convenient the outpost had their own existential threats to stop them from ever looking out? And right next door..."
Magilou hums a merry tune, as she reaches over to the sugar-bowl and dumps another ungodly amount of little white regrets into her teacup. Who knows how many times she's done that prior.
She raises her teacup to her lips, and sips, again. Over the edge, her lips are half-concealed by the dark ceramic, and her eyes are half-concealed by those white wisps she calls her bangs. "What does the truth matter to you, balanced against a system like that?"
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Hmmm," Leah remarks about Magilou's take on the truth. And books.
"Awfully cynical," the blue-haired woman points out. "...Not that you're wrong. Yevon appears to be a very effective means of social control. But how many of their best and brightest, most inclined to question, took up the mission to save their world, and died before reaching Zanarkand? ...A way to avoid disruptions to the status quo, certainly. And who knows? Perhaps it was for the best, to control society, to help it avoid despair in the face of a monster like Sin."
She shakes her head. "But ah, truth." Leah reaches for her cup, lifts it to her lips, and sips tea. She does not focus on Magilou's regret-tea. She can do what she likes with it. It's fine.
"...Truth wouldn't seem to matter much in the face of such a vital institution, would it? And yet... It has, to some."
"There will be no more Pilgrimages, it seems, because of that 'truth'. And Yevon is silent."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou both can and does do what she likes, without much regard for anything in her way. But why would she choose the framing she has? It's rather a deliberate perspective she's taken, and when Leah notes its cynicism, Magilou giggles cheerfully.
"Sure won't!" She agrees, chipper, and does not speak on who made the decision to stop them. It's a deliberate omission, as much as she seems to be such a careless woman. "Sure is!" She says, on Yevon, instead. "It's real convenient how unattributed Yevon's edicts are. I mean, have you ever seen him speak? I haven't."
She takes another spoonful of cake, as lightning crashes down into the rod above. The ground shudders; Magilou does not.
"But if it's for the best, is the lack of truth really a pity?" She wonders, airily, in the wake of the atmospheric change. "Sounds like it's better to let people get on with their miserable lives instead of introducing the nemesis of revelation." A nemesis long-forgotten sips tea made much too sweet, shrugging a shoulder, still entirely casual. "Unless you know something I don't~?"
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
It's fine. Leah wasn't very far away when it happened.
"No, the real divinities of Yevon, in my view, are twofold. The Fayth themselves... and Sin. Yevon himself is less obvious. I've had a chance to study a few of the sacred texts, at least."
Leah continues with cake and tea, slowly. Lightning crashes. Leah doesn't flinch, either. She could pretend she is the sort to do so, but why? She doesn't.
"The nemesis of revelation," Leah repeats. "...I do," she settles on saying. "But I don't discuss that very often. Perhaps it's appropriate to talk about such things with a witch."
"'Truth' is the path towards the healing of the world. It is not comfortable, but it is necessary."
"Much as your keeping me occupied here, I expect."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Oh?" The tone of the word drops like a stone into a deep pool of intrigue, as Magilou's eyelids lower and her smile rises.
"Much obliged," she sips her tea, still entirely self-assured. "I hadn't yet ascertained just where on the axis you fell... wide nets catch many butterflies, as they say." Tense does an awful lot of work in a conversation like this, doesn't it? "You're quite the mysterious woman. Leah, was it?"
Probably not. It doesn't really matter to Magilou, but she's polite enough to point it out, anyway. Game has to recognise game in a play like this.
"You're right, of course," she puts her teacup down, gesturing to Leah with a loose wrist. "No one likes to see the truth reflected back onto them, but if they can't look at themselves, they'll never see the world as it is. You might say I'm in the business of revealing people's genuine selves," and with a loose grin, she taps a finger to her temple, "... or you could call me a sadist! Either way, it doesn't much matter to me!"
Her hand lowers to her chin, grin quieting to a smile. "But if I'm not mistaken," she says, "it matters quite a lot to you."
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"I am in the business of knowing things. I suspect you likewise know much that I don't, Magilou."
Tense does do a lot of work. "That's correct. My name is Leah. It is not what they call me at the base, of course." Leah is likewise still entirely calm, quite mild. "But it is my name."
"No, I don't think you particularly find enjoyment in it," Leah says of Magilou's sadism. "I don't imagine that you find much enjoyment in very much."
"But it seems that you have revealed some of my genuine self, at least. ...Indeed. It rather does matter to me. In these fallen worlds, 'truth' is one of the few things that stands a chance of changing it."
She tilts her head slightly, as if listening to something, because she is. She does not bother to hide it. Then she considers.
"I think I'll have more of your cake, if you don't mind."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Of course I do," Magilou confirms how much she knows, cheerfully, "because I am me." It was true a thousand years ago, and it's true today.
"Good," is her likewise-oblique response to Leah's name being what it is. She doesn't remark on the similarities between them, even though it can be said just as surely that Magilou is her name.
But then, she destroyed her base long ago.
Surprise crosses her eyes, a hand to her mouth in silent 'goodness!', when Leah accuses her of Pagliaccio's discontent; that hand goes to her cheek, head canting into it with a loose grin as she speaks on herself, instead. "Golly," Magilou says, chipper, "how long have you been in the psychoanalysist business, anyway?"
Certainly she's performed joy at every point here, but she is dressed for performance, after all.
"But you'll find that a great many things can change the world," Magilou says, voice even again, taking a spoonful of cake. "Hatred... self-discovery... rejection... determination... all these wretched little things we sanitise to heroism, on a long enough timeline. And the truth of it is forgotten."
Magilou, who has mothered a long line, smiles a shade ruefully. "One might say that remembering is the cruelest task of all. Well," her grin grows loose again, in cheer, "good luck! And hey, there's plenty of cake!"
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
Magilou is Magilou. That's fine. Leah recognizes a Knower when she sees one, after all. ...Though how much does that have to do with her secret perceptions? Hmmm.
"Oh, only a few years," Leah replies pleasantly to the matter of psychoanalysis. Magilou is indeed dressed for performance. And she is performing very well.
"Hmmmm. True. I was imprecise." Leah nods. "Many things can 'change', and indeed have."
She actually grins faintly at the matter of remembering. "Is it?"
Leah accepts more cake, and digs in, taking a few moments just to eat, without particularly hurrying up. Maybe Magilou has successfully kept her from hearing the distress calls properly. Maybe Magilou has just caught her interest, which is more effective.
"We have no shortage of heroes. I look forward to seeing their efforts bear fruit. But are they prepared for what will happen when they do? That remains to be seen."
A beat, "Have you spoken with many Solarians, then? I don't discuss my birthplace often."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Only a few years, is it..? "You're quite good," Magilou says, in turn.
Many things can change, with just that emphasis, but it's not until Leah asks a question that Magilou confirms: "Isn't it?" Wait, that isn't a confirmation! That's just another question!
She's happy to eat cake for a moment, at least. It's good cake. She forgot how to make it, so it's the best cake she's ever made again. That's how Magilou's cooking works. She can make amazing concoctions, but only once. Of course, on a long enough timeline, you end up cooking everything...
... so she just waits until she doesn't remember what she's doing to try again.
Is that cheating? It's no more cheating than providing an interesting distraction at a point where backup is bound to pass through.
"Either they'll nail the landing, or they'll fall to their deaths!" Magilou agrees with Leah's first point before her second, but perhaps they're not so unrelated, after all. Because that city in the sky is -- "Frankly, most Solarians I find myself chatting with on the opposite end of a gun," she shrugs, palms to the sky. "Would it kill your people to be a little more friendly? It's condemnation by association, I tell you!"
(Association with whom, she doesn't bother to mention.)
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"It's the job."
"Remembering. Living. They all have their difficulties."
It's very good cake; Leah would get the recipe, but it would seem that that won't be possible. She will have to just use her old, perfectly good recipe for cake, instead. It's definitely cheating, though.
"Now, now," the Solarian responds. "It could be both." They are not so unrelated. And what Magilou says of the guns, well. That's fair. The question, though...
"In many cases, it might," she answers. "They need to think and feel that they're better than the surfacers, or the Lunarians for that matter. That you're all just savages in need of our guidance. It's very important, motivationally."
"The Elect. The Shepherds. The First Class, the Gazels..."
She lifts her free hand and drops it again, still carefully.
Magilou may notice that her fingers 'clink' a little against the cup, though.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Like that one boy?" Magilou asks, with a dry grin. Someone who nailed the landing, and died on the way down...
She'd thought 'Shevat', but maybe not. Say, how many cities in the sky ARE there in Filgaia, anyway?!
Clink go her fingers, as Leah explains their motivations. That would explain a lopsided gait, wouldn't it? Filgaians do so love replacing bits of themselves, Magilou has noticed. "A chain of command is such a convenient thing to throttle people with, isn't it?" She asks, with that selfsame cheer. "Putting everyone in a room, having them drink the same foul drink, and telling them there's nothing they can do to uplift their potential... but each of them in their place upholds the whole."
Is she really talking about Solaris? The sharp edge to her smile seems a shade too personal.
"It's nice to think you're all that stands between humanity and annihilation, isn't it? But in the end... it's all self-righteousness." Her teeth are a steel trap, in a grin entirely too predatory. "And even if you land at the top, you'll be thrown aside the moment you show an inch of inconvenience."
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"One of many."
There's at least three cities in the sky on Filgaia. At least three!
Maybe she isn't only talking about Solaris. What Leah has heard of Magilou thus far is mostly about her considerable magical power. And of course... her lack of ties, among a few other things. Not eough information, really.
"As it goes." Each in their place. It is how it is. "Military structures endure because they are useful."
"My. How very cynical indeed."
"...I don't have that particular delusion," Leah says. "Humanity will limp along for some time yet, regardless. Self-righteousness, though--that can also be useful. But few can grow past it."
A beat, "'Pruning', 'Throwing away'. It amounts to the same thing from the perspective of the one discarded. I of course make no particular claim towards righteousness. That is neither my purpose nor my role."
"...Once, it was, of course. Just as I am sure that even you were once part of a greater whole."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Is it?" Magilou asks, again, on the topic of self-righteousness. Perhaps it's no wonder; she called herself a mirror, after all.
Her grin tugs up, heavy stage curtains to reveal the players of her pearly whites. "Heh," she chuckles, and somewhere along the line that constant movement she even commits to sitting down just stopped. "You understand your role very well, do you..?" A role which has changed, over time. With the limp, perhaps.
Her grin fades to a smirk, inscrutable and thin. "I wouldn't call it greater," she says, voice even. "I threw all those holy men into the heart of a volcano, and threw the whole sick system into disarray. So did chaos triumph over order, and free the world to make all their own ridiculous decisions, each more ill-advised and aggravating than the last."
Then Magilou laughs, as if to carve through the tension with a knife all made of gaiety. "You can't control it, so I suggest you just have fun with it!"
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Oh, very. Zeal, properly directed, can accomplish quite a lot."
The movement stopped. Leah continues shifting between tea and cake, quietly and slowly. She doesn't do a lot of blinking, though.
"I see. You wouldn't be much of a witch if you had the backing of holy men, I suppose. The witch must be the enemy of the Good, in order to illuminate the righteousness of our holy orders. It's an old, old story."
A grin back. Leah... is starting to have some fun with this. "I know my role," she picks up the old thread in the conversation. "I know it well."
"It is not to control each of those decisions. Quite the opposite; I do enjoy watching to see what decisions people will make, given their chance."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"I wouldn't be much of a scourge otherwise," Magilou agrees, mildly, on the role of a witch. She's been quite plain with her villainry, really, except for the way that she stopped Leah on the path.
But she likes seeing what they'll do, does she? "Oh, good!" Magilou remarks, brightly, with a broad smile. "And here I was wondering if I'd have to destroy you. There's nothing I loathe more than a fool who wants to suppress all the sin out of his subjects." What a strange pronoun, when they're both women.
"Which is not to say you're not a terror," she wags a finger, movement returning just as abruptly as it left. "If I had to guess, Solaris has its own ideas about what's a right and wrong decision! If you're playing your part, you've made plenty of girls cry, I'm sure!"
Should Magilou be more concerned about that than she is..? She looks pretty unbothered by the whole idea.
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
She has! It's very considerate of her.
"Oh, don't rule it out," Leah suggests. "But I see little point in berating man for his fallen state."
A smile, as Magilou says she is a terror. "It does," Leah agrees helpfully, "And I different ideas still than most of Solaris. I have made many, many girls cry. Boys, too."
"...People will live up to their potential, or they won't. It is in the end their decision. Most won't. Not even our grand Elect."
"...But you, I think. You will result in more fulfilling theirs."
"Chaos, too, has its place. Particularly in these fallen worlds. Humanity will never be whole if it cannot face the challenges to come."
A pause. "In general, Solaris's ideal is that the Gazels must rule over and guide the -lambs-," she says, while looking right at some of that very pretty milkroot. "That the impure in blood cannot control themselves or their cultures, and must be herded, for their own good."
"A life of service to the true masters of the world is a privilege that some few surfacers have the chance to experience. And with generations, their offspring and their offspring may become elevated enough to coexist with the Gazels." She looks back to Magilou, and sips her tea mildly. "Or put another way, they're 'less than'. They don't matter in the first place. Not like the 'real', important people."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"I never rule anything out!" Is Magilou's chipper reply.
Her grin grows sly, when Leah thinks of her, as a grindstone to a knife. "... and you'd like that, would you? My! We're so alike." Are they?
It's a particular floral arrangement, isn't it? Magilou was trying to attract a particular type of butterfly to this function, so she picked the flowers to suit, each one beautiful, each one utterly devastating to Aries' children.
"Yeaaaa-aaaa-ah," she agrees, streeetching her arms up over her head, with a yawn that breaks up her syllables by degrees. She sags back against her chair, hands laced behind her head. "I've heard that one before. Wipe the minds of things you don't have to view as people, and slave their wills to you. After all, humans can't fight back the daemons of this world without a little extra power..." Daemon is a term of propaganda long-forgotten, of course; that's not what they're called. But, back then --
Her elbows wag, in a broad shrug. "You're gonna have fun when that house of cards falls down. And maybe in a thousand years, Filgaia's Shepherds will be seen as saviours, too."
<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.
"Yes, I rather would. You remind me of Granas's tales of Valmar, in your obvious wickedness." She smiles.
It is a very particular floral arrangement, and Leah might not have come if the floewrs had not been so perfectly picked. But as Magilou stretches back...
There are things even Leah does not know, and that includes the ancient history of Lunar. But she recognizes propaganda when she hears it. She is intimately familiar with propaganda.
"Quite. And indeed, a part of me would have 'fun' with that, with seeing the pampered, indolent elites cast down into a world which they were forced to confront as reality." She admits it; it is true.
"...But my personal satisfaction is not my goal." She finds Magilou's suggestion of what the Shepherds of Lunar really are to be fascinating; she will have to research them.
She smiles again. "And it doesn't have to last much longer." Pause. "Unlike this distraction, which could stand to stretch out a bit longer, I think. Do you happen to have a recipe for the cake? I'd like to replicate it."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"I get that a lot," Magilou says, on Valmar. She doesn't bother confirming or denying it; she's worked hard to cultivate her ambiguity.
"Hmm? Maybe it should be," she says on the topic of Leah's satisfaction. She doesn't tell her she'll live longer. That's assumed knowledge at this level of education.
But it doesn't have to last, does it..?
"Now, I don't have a recipe, per se," Magilou says, instead, "but what I can do is walk you through it, and it'll be all up to you! So, listen, the first thing you do is --"
The next few hours are thus occupied with Magilou teaching Leah how to make a cream cake. The steps are exactly as outrageous as you think.
It's not at all a metaphor.