2021-12-20: Stop Being Nice!
- Log: Stop Being Nice!
- Cast: Xander Lovell, Lan Lilac, Ruth Pauling, Dean Stark
- Where: Port Rosalia - Seabreeze Avenue
- Date: December 20, 2021
- Summary: Recipe for absolute mortification: one dose of friendly, one does of sincere, one dose of pensive. Stir well.
====================<* Port Rosalia - Seabreeze Avenue *>===================== Seabreeze Avenue was once home to all the comforts a wealthy port town had to offer. Now all that remains are a handful of hardy stragglers. The Seabreeze Port is the most famous and resilient of these--located in a large and mostly-undamaged stone building, it offers food, drink, and accommodations to sailors, travelers. While it's known to attract rough clientele from time to time, it's one of the few places in town to get a decent meal, and its prices are eminently reasonable. Seabreeze's other businesses include general stores, salvage shops, and a handful of company stores run by the Wei Trading Consortium. Outside of this little bubble of industry, though, Seabreeze is largely abandoned. The town just doesn't have the population to support a large economy, and tension between Wei and the locals isn't helping matters. BGM: Wild Arms 4 - Port Irington
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
As it turns out, being a serial killer, especially the brand that's doing it under coercion of a curse, does not pay much. And when the Fangs of Valmar are suffering under the infestation of their dark infliction, they typically lose the opportunity to go treasure diving. If Riley's going to have any of the creature comforts he likes, they need money.
For that, Xander's -- alone, for once -- turned to a relatively new attempt at a career option thanks to Riley's infuriating encouragement: street performance. It wasn't as easy without Riley's music to accompany, but did did involve significantly less teasing.
So it is that those wandering through Port Rosalia might catch the sight of Xander -- dressed not in his usual unkempt way, buried under a mantle, but in the form fitting garments of a dancer adorned with flowing sashes -- putting on a performance that's half dance, half magician in hopes of collecting a bit of coin. It isn't until it's over that he seems to have any real awareness of his surroundings, and where he was once graceful, he's suddenly fumbling in embarrassment with the part of this he forgot would come after: trying to passing thank people as painlessly as possible while he counts up what he managed to gather.
Heaven forfend that anyone he's ever met sees him like this, and may he never, ever ever meet anyone in this crowd ever again.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
Lan Lilac is no stranger to needing to make money. And she's no stranger to dancing either, though doing it for money has yet to occur to her. Happily, however, today she's doing pretty well for cash! It helps that she's just offloaded a few yards of fine lace and three fishing nets at a nearby town. So as far as Lan's concerned, she's basically (temporarily) wealthy.
Which means she can enjoy dinner and a show!
So she bought herself a piece of deep-fried fish and some potato wedges (served wrapped in a newspaper, strangely enough) and has been people-watching (mostly Xander-watching) in between bites. Content to sit and see the whole show, she eventually finishes her dinner - but hasn't tossed a single coin yet.
It's not until the performance seems to be over that the blonde Baskar wipes her hands off on the seat of her shorts, digs some money out of her pockets, and approaches who she thinks is a Totally Normal (If Graceful) Street Performer, yup! "Hi! That was great! And you did it without even any music!"
Oh no, she wants to talk to him.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Ruth is no stranger to having to live day by day, handful of gil by handful of gil. Which is to say, she is almost exactly as successful as a typical Drifter is, lingering along often times less by what strength and will is left in her tired self and often the promise of a certain something that grabs at her senses. Senses she never thought were possible, ones she couldn't give names to. It's coming up Glove Day, and for a festive time of year, there's always an omnipresent gloom that she just situates her in the middle of like it's a big pile of comfort food.
The former elf has her hood put up as to best obscure her features, but her manner of dress is distinctive to those in the know - as is the shape of the rifle still tied up to her back. After being in the vicinity of Jay, who talked about how Port Rosalia nearly got overrun by crazed wildlife... a part of her couldn't get it out of her mind.
As it pertains to the present, she's managed to score a larger bowl of warm stew than she thought she'd get. It took a lot to talk herself into having it. Some movements catch the corner of her eye - the graceful movements of a male dancer. Of course she'd sneak a look. Of course a thought would wander.
The (heavy) sleeves of her right arm are rolled up as they normally are. To Xander's glance should it come her way, that rosary might look familiar... or even identical, worn in the same place as a certain someone (something?) else at Lindow.
She hasn't looked to his face yet.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
If Heaven has anything to do with this, Xander's certainly not going to get away from this performance in his *ideal* situation. That would be way too merciful!
For Dean's part, he has of course not forgotten his friends, the Fangs of Valmar. He'd finally gotten a chance to talk to Ida about what they could do to help them--if their version of purification would do anything at all--only for Ida to tell him that the last she'd heard, Lily had killed them. He's been worried about them ever since.
But Dean isn't the kind of person to get bogged down in negative emotions. He's still worried, but in a low-key way. There's still lots of people to help and things to help with, and he has no idea where he'd start looking to find them anyway after all this time. All he can really do is hope they survived.
So when Dean happens to walk through a crowd, and notice that there's some kind of street performance going on, and walks over to check it out and flip the performer some coins, and sees that it's Xander, his. Jaw. Drops. He at least manages to keep himself from interrupting the performance, but once it's done, Dean claps his cheeks in open joy, eyes shining.
"Xander! You're okay!!" he effuses, running over, initially not even noticing Lan also walking up to greet the danger. He certainly doesn't notice Ruth, who's still off in the crowd eating her stew, watching what's going on. He wobbles to a stop at the last second, having remembered just in time that Xander is not a huggy person and also that he has probably killed more people since they last spoke, but even so, the sheer relief he exudes is nigh palpable.
Then he grins and gives him a double thumbs-up. "I like your belly shirt!" he says with excruciating sincerity.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Small talk. Xander's greatest nemesis, and now also Lan, by extension. Why did he think he could do this without Riley? Riley always handles the talking! And now he can't even curtly cut people off without risking financial hardship. Fffnnnnrrgggg.
"I -- I usually have some," he manages, barely, unable to maintain any eye contact at all. "Music, that is. It's... memorized." He clears his throat, rolling one of the coins he's won over his knuckles in a nervous fidget.
As his eye wanders, Xander catches the glint of something familiar. Instinct holds it before his rational thoughts do. A rosary. Two monsters, one in visage and one at heart. Four shots. The coin in his hand stills, briefly, before resuming. His unguarded staring gives a good look at his face before Xander can begin to think that's a mistake. he may not be wearing his eyepatch today, trading it in favor of several beaded bandanas instead, but that pale complexion and wild head of hair aren't any different from before.
But if anyone finds Xander's manner awkward, they may find it's just getting started when Xander hears Dean's voice through applause and outright sputters. Xander snaps his attention to him in bright red mortification. Of all the Drifters--!
More horrifyingly, it looks like Dean's about to -- what, hug him? Why would he ever?! Xander can only stare at Dean have exactly all of the wrong emotions he should be having, and Xander has no idea how to react to a single one of them. At least until Dean goes for the critical hit of a compliment.
"Sh... Shut up!" Xander blurts out on reflex, voice breaking in panic. He pulls down his bandanas the rest of the way to cover his face entirely. "I mean -- thank... you...?" He says it like getting the words out causes him physical pain.
"Why. Why are you here."
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"Oh! That's got to be really useful, being able to memorize stuff like that. Do you sing along in your head while you dance?" A coin dances across his knuckles and Lan is reminded to offer the gella she's holding. "Oops - here you go!"
He's weirdly shy for someone dressed like this. But then, Lan supposes there are stranger things for a person to be.
She's halfway to excusing herself, because Lan is fairly kind and she can see that Xander is unhappy to have to talk to someone when Dean arrives. And the strangest thing happens.
She watches Dean be sincerely enthusiastic at him, and Xander bristle in response, and...
Is this how it looks when she and Loren banter?
Apropos of nothing, and with no apparent provocation, Lan bursts into helpless laughter. (She's at least polite enough to try and stifle it behind her hands.) But it's a long few moments before she can wheeze out, "H-hi Dee-heeheeheee-an..." between chuckles.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
The former elf can see it in the span of time before Dean's and Lan's approaches both obscure Xander's face from her current vantage point... but her eyes, those haven't failed her. Gloved fingers curl and tense as a memory flares up, an experience and reflex she represses.
Xander's sharp blurting, laced with emotion, rings ever more to her as she now wrestles with her thoughts about the rest of what she saw then (both just now and some time in the past).
It's something far more compelling than the warm, lovingly made stew she has been partaking in, rising up from her seat and striding forth in boots so worn out it can't be doing her ankles any favors. She holds her composure thus as she approaches from Dean's left, heedless of Lan's cheerful laughter.
"You're in distress." The voice may be familiar, a near-match for the beast that tried to bear down upon Xander. (Oddly enough, her voice as her older self is just a bit more gruff.)
"Your loved one." She says those words softly, in contrast to Dean's and Lan's cheer. She keeps both her hands clasped together, held in front. "Where is he?"
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
It's fine, Xander! Dean doesn't mind that you look mortified to see him. He gets it. He just doesn't think it's a big deal--or at least, it doesn't need to be.
So when Xander tells him to shut up, only to grind out an acceptance of his compliment after all, Dean beams at him. "I was just passing through," he explains, "when I saw people crowding around. I came to check it out and--here you are!" His eyes shine a little brighter. "I really am so glad to see you--I'd heard you might be dead!" His cheer lasts for a second longer before fading into urgent concern. "Wait; where's Riley? Is *he* okay?"
If Xander had survived, only for Riley to die... That would be so heartbreaking. And Dean doesn't even care for romance! Romance is great for *other* people who actually want it, after all.
It's then that Lan bursts into giggles. Dean blinks over her way, then brightens anew when he recognizes her. "Oh hey, Lan! I didn't see you there! How've *you* been?"
But Ruth approaches then. He looks up at her, half-turning when she comes in from his other side. She observes the obvious and then asks the same that he did. Dean sobers--he truly lives in every single moment, not unlike a waggy little dog--and he looks back at Xander for his response, this time falling silent as he waits for him.
There's no eye-batting at the term 'loved one.' Even Dean figured that out ages ago.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
"I - It's more like... familiarity," Xander tells Lan, swallowing. "I. Do... sing along. A little." A lot, more like. He barely remembers he's supposed to be paid, but when he accepts payment, he at least manages to turn fumbling into a disappearing act, as if it's been absconded into some Socially Awkward Dancer space. "...Thanks."
He is weirdly shy considering how risque his outfit is. And he didn't seem to mind people watching him earlier, but there's a difference, okay? From having to actually look at people and know they see you...!
The Baskar girl is laughing now, and trying to say Dean's name, and this has all gone from bad to worse in a hurry. Xander pushes his bandanas up from his good eye, only to cover his face with this hand. "Please don't tell me you're friends." This increases the odds of exposure. Exposure is horrible.
Dean is undeterred by all of Xander's sharp edges, and somehow that makes everything worse. Xander sighs out some of his tension. Dean could kill someone with his kindness, honestly... (That's not what that idiom refers to, Xander.) "Dead?" Aaand the tension's back. That woman in the... ruins, Riley said it was? Do they know each other?
"Riley's fine. I'm just -- I thought I could -- Ugh..."
For all of Xander's embarrassed stumbling, he goes cold with Ruth's approach. Distress indeed. His eye turns sharply toward her, posture suddenly guarded. She may not look the same, and there's a wary moment where he wonders who she is despite his instincts digging up the horrible night of Lindow. (It was horrible because Xander made it horrible.) But he hears it unmistakably in her voice, gruff yet oddly gentle.
"I'd die before telling you," he snaps, like Ruth's words were meant as a challenge for an inevitable fight. With as soft as Ruth's being, and with the complete lack of hostility in her manner, there is certainly no reason for Xander to be cranking the intensity up one hundred and twenty percent.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
She's not laughing at Xander! ...Although it probably looks exactly like she is. She's mostly laughing at herself, and the way things seem to echo across all kinds of people. It's one of the things Lan likes - no, loves.
She manages to get herself under control in due time, wiping a stray tear from her face with a huff of breath. "Aheh! Sorry, sorry~ I was just reminded of somebody is all."
Might be dead? "He looks pretty good for a dead guy," Lan tries to reassure Dean, who probably doesn't need a lot of reassuring at the moment. "Hi Dean! I've been okay! I've been hanging out with Gwen a lot. How about you?"
But the approach of someone weirdly restrained takes some of the sincerity out of Lan's easy smile. Loved one...? Maybe that 'Riley' Dean mentioned. But wow, did the dancing guy tense up when she approached or what?
Must be bad blood between them, Lan decides, and is proven right when Xander snaps back. "Ssssssssssssooooooooooooo. Isn't that kind of a wierd thing to ask somebody? Where their loved one is, without even a name. What's yours?" she asks Ruth, one hip cocked easy-breezy to the side.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
A part of her tastes that mounting tension from Xander's discomfort. Knowing what they do about one another, it doesn't seem the sort of situation that really can ever be fully defused. There is a Granas devout in the presence of someone living with a piece of Valmar inside of them - and all the consequences that come from it. Light and Darkness. Good and evil.
Ruth's gentle growing smile is decidedly discordant unto itself, lowering her gaze away as Xander promises he'd die before saying. Her hands raise up higher to her chest. A far cry from the large demonic creature that dashed themselves against the thorns out of dogma despite being about as far from the standards of 'the Light' as anyone can be.
Lan's question sees her head turn back, where Dean can spot a downcast eye (where the mismatched smile still hasn't faded).
"...It's Ruth." She doesn't give a surname. That's better a track record than a certain other individual who will remain unnamed, under penalty of eels. (unless one finds them tasty)
"...He's fine, is he?" It's unreadable as to whether this is disappointment, or a relief. "My eyes were wandering at your dance," a concession, and again - Granasian rosary, their tenets are awful restrictive about observers' behavior, her right hand suddenly squeezing at the fingers over her left as if to admonish herself or some other nebulous tell.
Her lips press together, as if there were other words she might be fighting back before settling with ones still spoken at that same somewhat gruff, but not unkind, tone of voice.
"You should share it with him."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Honestly, if Dean could manage to befriend the likes of the Demon of Elru (Id, in the distance, probably: "WE'RE NOT FRIENDS"), Xander has little hope of fending him off with mere prickliness. As the coins pass Xander's palm, he remembers that he came here to see a performance, and he did technically catch a good bit of it, so he digs into his pocket and gives Xander some money.
"Okay, I won't tell you," Dean says seriously. You can just kind of tell by the fact that they know each other's names, anyway. Dean and Lan are both too friendly to *not* be friends, even if they don't know each other well. Would that really stop either of them?
The news that Riley's fine brings a relieved smile back to Dean's face. "I'm so glad," he breathes out, clutching his chest. "I heard from a friend that you guys fought Lily, and she said she was sure she'd killed you guys... Lily's magic is really strong, so I was worried she was right." He shifts to concerned curiosity. "How'd you guys get away? You don't look like you were hurt too badly..." He looks Xander up and down just in case.
Lan jokes, and Dean laughs. "It's true!" he replies. "Heyy, I was just hanging out with Gwen the other day! She mentioned you were with her and Avril checking out a ruin, I think?" He might just be assuming it was a ruin because that's where *Golem parts* are. "I'm doing pretty good, myself!"
Lan points out that it's weird to ask about someone's 'loved one' without even mentioning their name, and Dean has to admit that *is* a bit odd--especially when Xander reacts EXTREMELY harshly towards her. His eyes widen, and he looks back and forth between him and Ruth like that. Ruth doesn't seem to have any hostility in return, but... she wouldn't, would she? One thing she says does puzzle him, though, and he responds accordingly, "Share what with him?"
(True, she was clearly talking to Xander. But still.)
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
In Xander's mind everyone is laughing at him all of the time. And half the time, he recognizes he deserves it. Xander weathers Lan's apology miserably, which is actually a good sign -- at least he's not getting snippy about it. "Lucky them."
Lan says he looks decidedly not dead and Xander scoffs. "If people want to think we're dead, all the better."
Xander accepts Dean's coin without eye contact, but he's not so proud as to not accept it. (It is for Riley in the end, after all.) "... Thank you," he mutters. Dean once again tries to show him a great kindness of not telling Xander the dire truth he already knows. (It's not dire.)
Lily. Is that her name? "Honestly, I don't know. I was blind at the time." There's no reason to lie to Dean at this point. It's easier to answer him. "Her magic was all consuming enough we must have slipped through the cracks. ...But it's true Riley almost didn't make it through the night." His jaw sets and he shakes his head. It's pointless worrying about what didn't happen. "Whatever. We lived. ...It'd be nice if you told her we didn't, but I don't take you for someone good at lying."
The more Lan and Dean talk among themselves, the better off Xander is. But it won't save him.
To see Ruth in this form is almost surreal. She seems... human now. What was with her transformation then? Was it in his head? It wouldn't be the first time Xander failed to see the world for what it was under the influence of Valmar. But something tells him it goes deeper than that, even without making the connections to Magilou's talks of Malevolence and Hellions yet. Someone so pious, so focused (so irritatingly focused) on pain and hurt, acting like he wasn't a killer... If that's what the world considers a monster, what's he?
But as luck would have it, embarrassing Xander is the number one best way to shatter his own hostility.
"You don't have to confess that!" Xander stammers out. He jerks his gaze away from her, and he becomes defensive in an entirely new way. "I do! I -- I have...! ... Once." Now he's starting to look guilty, which only leads to more flustering. "...What business is it of yours?!"
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
"It's nice to meet you, Ruth," Lan continues stubbornly, even though she's kind of fighting against the tide of Xander's hostility telling her that no, it really isn't. But that's not fair at all, because in any case she's just met both of them. "I'm Lan."
Oh. If they fought Lily, anyone could be forgiven for thinking they might have died. "That totally makes sense. Lily is kind of unbelievably strong in a fight." Lan definitely wouldn't relish the idea of going up against her! "Well anyway, I'm glad you're not dead!"
She nods to Dean. "Sort of! We were checking out rumors of a place that sounded too good to be true, and then it kind of was but also wasn't? There was a weird... not really a tree, and it had a face, but the Ley around it was very warped and weird." Describing Demetrioi, a thing so advanced that Lan just doesn't have words for a lot of its qualities, is harder than she'd thought. "But it was a place that had plenty of clean water and food and the land was really fertile. It was like a ... a beautiful dream." Except that it was real, and Lan still isn't sure if that's good or not.
But she hopes.
Her head swivels back to Xander and Ruth as the dancer blurts something out about confessions. "...?" Lan comes to the wrong conclusion (probably) and takes a single step towards putting herself between Ruth and Xander. "...Hey, is everything okay?"
lan no, the last time you were sympathetic to an awkward tsundere you got brainwashed and kidnapped by solaris
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
To casually hear about their scrapes with death, and for Dean and Lan both to express joy that neither Xander or his loved one is dead is... a mood, by reckoning of the elf(?) as she unwisely closes her eyes and has her psyche stir up all sorts of vivid images to consciously project to the darkness of her inner eyelids.
She swallows something, and Lan might be more than right to ask what she does in the very near future following, as Dean inquires what it is they're sharing (Xander more or less answers for her).
"Lan." Ruth hangs onto the name as she opens her eyes, and Dean can spot a momentarily vacant look. Among her kind, oftentimes the first tell is in their eyes. To anyone's great relief, nothing escapes beyond the look in her eyes, her right hand going up to her left shoulder as a twinge of pain courses through it. "It's nice to meet you," she echoes.
While it was in a place and time saturated with Malevolence, most of it pitch dark and then the rest of it clammy and foggy with only somewhat improved visibility, there was a Hellion dressed much like the woman before them now - though the colors of her clothing are more like an overcast day rather than a rainy afternoon. (It may simply be a difference of how soaked it is at the time.)
If they're one in the same, she isn't showing displeasure nor discomfort in Lan's presence specifically, at least.
"A beautiful dream," she murmurs the words. That's words she tells someone else. Nonetheless... it goes to Xander.
"..."
She looks away, preventing Dean from getting a good read on her face unless he rounds about to look to her. What is her business? Why would she care about that?
She looks to her one free hand, raising her left and looking it over as her thumb runs up and down the space between the middle and ring fingers as a part of her soaks in Xander's flustering behavior and emotional vulnerability, out in the open. It is, as they say, a mood.
"..."
She doesn't have it in her to answer why.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
At the very least, Dean isn't laughing *at* Xander. When he mutters his thanks, Dean just beams and says, "You're welcome."
As for Lily, though... "Blind? ...oh. *Oh*," he utters, and then goes quiet. He leans in a little to peer worriedly at Xander's face. He's only got the one eye covered now, but back then... it must've been painful. "I'm glad you guys *did* make it," he says quietly, and his sincerity is tempered with the understanding of what their surviving means for everyone around them.
It really is unfair, what they have to suffer through.
Telling Lily that they're alive hadn't even crossed Dean's mind. His eyes widen and his demeanor shifts rapidly into awkward and uncomfortable. Xander at least concedes that he understands Dean's not going to lie. "Hopefully it just doesn't come up," he says, rubbing the back of his neck. "And for what it's worth, I didn't hear it from Lily directly, so I don't think she'd ask me about it."
Lan agrees that Lily is *crazy* strong. Dean nods to her vigorously. "Right?? I'm amazed you guys *did* get away! In a good way," he adds, smiling. He looks back at Lan when she gives her own take on that particular adventure, nodding her on. "It sounds amazing!" But then the actual description registers, and he tilts his head. "Wait a sec--is that the place with the little robot guy? I haven't been yet, but I've heard about it! Ida was saying she wanted me to see!" Granted, she said that because Boudicca absolutely flipped her shit over Demetrioi, but still.
Meanwhile, Xander goes ULTRA-defensive about this sharing business. Dean looks back and forth again between him and Ruth, this time with question marks growing in his eyes. Lan takes a step closer to try to intervene as needed, but Dean doesn't pick up on that vibe and stays where he is. It is true that Ruth is a Hellion, but... well, Xander's far from helpless himself, and as long as no one's actively trying to pick a fight, he doesn't see a reason to go on edge.
...It doesn't dawn on him that he might be the only one who feels that way. As it stands, he hears Ruth's reticence (or doesn't hear it, technically) and just feels more confused than ever.
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Dean, painfully, understands the implications right away. Xander gives him a sorrowful look before looking away again. Dean's still glad, despite everything. Or not glad, but derives some relief in it all the same -- the same horrible dilemma the Fangs themselves are forced to grapple with. "...You shouldn't have been dragged into this."
Shouldn't have, but was. Because of Xander and Riley -- but mostly Xander, if he's being honest with himself.
"I won't blame you either way," Xander says of Lily finding out. Everyone's fighting for their own survival in this as much as he is. It's only fair.
Xander balks at Lan. "You don't know me well enough to be glad I'm alive!" What he means to say is, given enough time, Lan is most certainly going to eat those words. He finally has enough awareness to look between her and Ruth, realizing that his prickliness toward Ruth is bleeding out to Lan and Dean. And now is Lan making herself a shield?
"Don't defend people you don't know," Xander says with a sigh. "Everything's -- It's fine."
It just might be, if Ruth isn't looking for a fight. As much as Xander acts like he is, he'd prefer not to.
He looks back at Ruth, guarded and yet everything about him on display because, despite himself, he's never been good at keeping his emotions from boiling over and spilling out. Having nothing to say back at his biting and barking is, ironically, also a perfect way to pierce him through, and he huffs out a breath with irritated force in place of the urge to throw something. "I get it, okay? We don't have a lot of time left. And he deserves more dancing than fighting or growling -- but -- I --" And then he growls, demonstratively, in frustration at himself.
She's really got him defensive.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
The little robot guy? So it sounds like Dean did hear the whole story after all! "Yeah! You should totally go, everybody was really nice." Because they didn't have to worry about generosity coming back to bite them. Because they could afford to give and give. Lan hopes they'll always be able to.
That's what a star is, after all, isn't it? Hope.
Or maybe Lan's just hopeless, bcause she's... not backing down. "I can be glad if I want to! And I just don't want it to turn into a fight, okay? That's all. Because you got really anxious about something she said to you, and it made me worry." Lan can't help worrying, as much as she advises against doing it. Do what she says, not what she does!!
"...Are you okay?" And even though she's apparently decided that she'll try to protect Xander from Ruth, Lan has no problem reaching out a hand to the woman. "Does your shoulder hurt? Want me to see if I can heal it a bit? I've been studying medicine a little bit." There's already a faint kind of silvery light gathering in her palm as she offers.
She has not removed herself from between them. Lan's just... like that.
<Pose Tracker> Ruth Pauling has posed.
Dean, charged as he is with the duty of helping cleanse the Malevolence, won't pick up any emanations from the one known Hellion standing right there though there are flexes of emotion begging to be unrestrained, each worried statement something that teases more and more. The beads of the rosary rustle against the cloth, and it gnaws. Does it ever gnaw. On the outside, compared to what faced against Xander and Riley before, she seems like a completely different person.
"..."
She takes in a breath that doesn't leave.
"But you're loved, and you love." She says, flatly. "Despite... everything." As though the words were difficult for her to say. She hasn't exhaled. Maybe it is only a matter of time, as Lan further reaches out to her. The fingers of her right hand dig further into her shoulder - there's a lot of layers of cloth there - which seems to only achieve little else than remind her that yes, her left shoulder is in a bad way.
"It was beyond healing years ago," she answers. That might be a thing of interest. When she's being what she actually is now, she wields that rifle like her shoulder isn't a problem - and having that heavy thing on her back can't be helping things. Dean may be able to make out another little sad smile, the likes of which she has in abundance.
Met with a prolonged hiss that escapes her. Not an inhuman hiss, but a typical, physically pained hiss.
"...I won't say no." Lan will be able to take some of the edge off for a while, at least, as she at last turns to look at Dean proper.
"I wonder," when a Hellion's mind wonders and wanders, inevitably it goes towards dark thoughts lik-- "what it would take to be beyond your forgiveness."
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"It's okay. You're my friends, and I want to help you if I can. That's what friends are for!" Dean tells Xander firmly. Not that he would *need* to be someone's friend to help them, but that's entirely besides the point. "Besides," he adds, "I can't just ignore what you're being forced to do. It's awful." In all senses of the word.
Lan chimes in that she's glad he's alive too, and Xander (unsurprisingly) yells about it. Dean grimaces a bit--does Lan *know*? Though it doesn't make a huge difference if she doesn't. It's natural to want to defend someone who's upset, in his opinion. It's just... it really does change the tone.
So he leans in to whisper to her, "Hey--d'you know Xander? Like... know what he and Riley need to do to survive?" He's trying his best to be discreet; if Lan doesn't know, then Xander should be the one to tell her since he's right *there*, but if she *does* know... It's not really Dean's style, though, so it's not very slick.
But Lan can speak for herself, and Dean grins and leans back. "She's right, you know," he tells Xander. "We can be worried about you if we want!" As she offers to heal Ruth's shoulder, he looks over at the Hellion. Love and loved... "*Oh*! You mean with him and Riley?" he utters, finally clueing in on that half of the conversation. He looks back at Xander. "I thought you already told him you love him!" ...case in point, with regards to earlier remarks on Dean and being discreet.
Ruth does comment on Dean's capacity for forgiveness. He frowns slowly, considering this. "It's not like I think it's okay," he says quietly. "But it's not like he's doing it for the fun of it. I'll stop him when and where I can, but it's not his fault he's in that position in the first place. So I don't really think of it as 'forgiving.' I just... understand he's got no good choices, and I accept that."
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander stares at Lan, mouth half open as she persists in being Lan. His shoulders slump and he shakes his head, face in hand. Maybe she'll never have to find out.
"Fine, fine, be glad, then. ...I won't get into any fights if no one starts them." He reddens as Lan insists he was anxious, because he was, and was it that obvious? (Xander, you could not have made it more obvious.) "I said it's fine!" It's a relief, only slightly, that Lan is extending the same kindness to Ruth now.
... Wait, that's not a relief at all! What is wrong with this girl?! Scratch that, what is wrong with Dean?!. "Friends." Xander says it like Dean has lost his mind. He sighs. "Get better friends." At least he's got Rebecca and Avril.
If he can hear what Dean's asking Lan, he pretends not to for the moment.
But you're loved, and you love.
Xander looks at Ruth like she slapped him. "Despite everything," he repeats, hollow. If this conversation was any manner of battle, Ruth's won it, and Xander's left drained and defeated.
... Until Dean chimes in, and the flustered bristles all come back. "Of course he knows I love him!"
He crosses his arms and turns away from everyone, petulant. "You and me both," Xander mutters under his breath at the thought of Dean's forgiveness threshold. But Dean elaborates, and all Xander can do is fall sullen and silent.
<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.
But you're loved, and you love. Even though the words weren't directed at her, they threaten to stir up that old doubt. But Lan doesn't have to think about them, so she doesn't; instead she reaches out and molds her cupped hand over Ruth's shoulder. Even though the wound is too old to cure, she can still ease the ache.
That's the thing Lan loves best. Easing pain, making others happier.
With that done, though, she seems to ease up a bit as nobody remains intent on stirring the trouble pot. It'd really be a shame if she had to beat up on some lady right after healing her shoulder! Or... maybe haul Xander off and put him in time out. She steps back a bit, resuming her comfortable spot next to Dean. Dean makes sense. And Dean knows the lay of the land, as it were, around at least one of these new mysterious folks.
And Dean leans in close, and asks Lan a very important question.
Lan does not, in fact, know what Dean is referring to. She looks again at Xander - particularly at his abbreviated shirt - and does some mental math.
"Dean!" she whispers back. "Don't say it like that, like it's something shameful! It's just a business transaction. People have been doing it since there were people. People do the kind of work they're good at, you know? It's probably really nice that they've got each other to lean on and everything!"
<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.
Xander cannot help but overhear Dean and Lan's conversation, spinning back around. "I -- We -- That's not -- Not that there's anything wrong with that -- But --"
Red in the face, Xander gathers up his earnings for the day and storms off. "I'm leaving."