2022-01-13 - Ship Happens

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===============================<* The Moonflow *>===============================

The Moonflow is a large river that bisects Spira's largest island into southern and northern halves. Strange flowers called Moonlilies grow on the Moonflow's banks, attracting pyreflies that gather on its surface at night, making the water sparkle. Although a beautiful area, the weather tends to be overcast more often than not, the souls of the dead providing the most reliable source of illumination.

The primary method of crossing the Moonflow is aboard a shoopuf - an elephantine creature that can swim across the expansive river. The crossing service is funded by the Temple of Yevon and is free of charge.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAc-yvlNWXc&ab_channel=Ultimatefighter343

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

LONG AGO

"These are moonlilies!" Yuna gushes at Tidus, from water's edge. "They say that clouds of pyreflies gather here when night falls."

"The entire river glows, like a sea of stars," Lulu confirms serenely.

Tidus is equal parts awed and enthusiastic. "Really? Hey, I got an idea!"

Auron is equal parts grim and implacable. "We're not waiting until nightfall."

Tidus monumentally converts all of his energy back to only one side: irrepressible. "Then, once we beat Sin, we're coming back!"

---

NOW

It is as advertised: there are almost more pyreflies amongst the moonlilies than there are stars in the sky. And there are many of both; it is a gorgeous night, too bright and fresh and deep and soft to sleep through -- at least, not yet, not yet. In a world like this it really does feel like Sin does not exist.

But that promise has not been kept. Back then, it couldn't be. Now... it feels like cheating.

Yuna sits at water's edge, trying not to let that weight constrict too tightly in her stomach. She's enjoying the flowers, truly, and the privilege to be here. If they were on schedule she would be months into the grave by now. Maybe, in fact, she would be here anyway. The pyreflies seem especially drawn to her (or maybe to the half-dozen spirits who ride with her), and bob friendly will-o-wisps in somehow both random and profoundly fractal, self-similar trajectories with her at the center of their labyrinth. White and blue and green and violet ghostlights, all of them reflected by the nearly still surface of the ponderously wide, shallow river, and by the gloriously pale surfaces of the moonlilies, who are, at long last, fully in bloom beneath the safe cover of night. And in Yuna's eyes.

She watches the world quietly.

And the world, so quiet here, watches back.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
The quiet is always destined to fade.
 
"What was that you said in your Oh-so-serious face? 'Getting a date with a woman isn't as easy as sniping Cactuar.'?"
 
Because Rikku is anything but quiet. At tunes she's side by side with Paine, at times leaning over to get into her space. At times pacing forward a few steps ahead and turning around to face her with all that bubbly energy to try to get ahead of Paine. The two are coming towards the water's edge. Or perhaps it's less 'walking together' and more like Rikku is tagging along, whether Paine wants her to or not. It's hard to know at a glance!
 
"Well! Let me help! I want you to score a Bullseye - I'm-" Switching from a fingergun at Bullseye, she then points Paine's way, "-on your side!"
 
This isn't too unusual for Rikku, after all she'd been the one who tried to nudge Tidus to sweep Yuna off her feet time and time again. Even going so far as to suggest running off with her. Then, it had been mostly to try and save Yuna's life. With Paine there's not that added layer, she's simply a well-meaning meddler.
 
"And look - romantic setting! Romantic night! Who could ask for a better time and place for it? It's your big chance..."
 
This time she actually nudges Paine with her elbow... before her spiral eyes light upon spying...
 
"Yunie! Yunie!" Getting up on her toes she waves her way in a 'look this way' kind of way, "Come on over here! Or you know what - nevermind! We'll come over to you! Paine needs you to spill all you know about Lulu's preferences!"
 

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

Paine's monochrome-and-red presence is not the typical flower for a brightly colored bee to flit around, but flit she does. Paine is currently using her longer legs to try and outpace Rikku, but all this means is that she ends up with the Al Bhed girl in her peripheral vision instead, forcing her to glance back to one side or the other.

"Sniping cact--" she begins incredulously. "I didn't say it was difficult, I said it's not a group activity."

Rikku gets a cool glare down the sights of her fingergun. But it does temporarily interrupt her verbal resistance to be told Rikku is on her side, or at least leaves her with less opportunity for it. Looking down at the pyreflies, she glares at them instead as Rikku praises the ambience. "Seems kind of grim," she says, but when she hears herself she realizes she was weighing it aloud, and that seems to annoy her enough to toss an accusatory glare at Rikku, as though Rikku forced her to say it.

"Yuna," she greets with a note of relief, making for her Summoner. She arrives briefly before Rikku, sitting down heavily, entrenching herself in the aura of Yuna's seemingly more serious mood.

"Are you doing all right? Rikku and I were just finishing talking about something," she says grumpily. 

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

It means something that, surrounded by all this deathly splendor, Yuna couldn't quite bring herself to smile. She doesn't make herself smile anymore, she doesn't put on a smile like her skirt in the morning. Maybe she will again someday, but for once in her life it seems impolite to smile at the public, as the extinguisher of Spira's false hope, so at least right now she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to.

She couldn't, but...

'...sniping Cactuar...'

       '...group activity...'

She couldn't, but by the time Paine and Rikku are addressing her, she'll be the last one to notice that she's smiling, just a bit. Because it's easy enough for the others to see.

And for all the spectacular illumination of the souls around them, they seem to fade a little in comparison, now.

"Paine, Rikku," she greets back in good cheer, dooming the former's gambit simply because her presence has made her simply, plainly happy. The aura is weakening quick. "I'm fine..."

THAT was bullshit, but even if she no longer grins on cue, it's hard to expect her to change overnight around sharing her burdens. Besides, everyone knows what they are already and then some. Everyone's already sacrificed for them.

Enough of that. "Finishing talking about what?" Yuna asks, ostensibly innocently.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
"I beg to differ! The best snipers always need a spotter right?"
 
The scenery being called kind of grim causes Rikku to look momentarily nonplussed, because she could see how people might think that. "You really think so?" It's just that she's a glass half full kind of girl herself, so she just tries to take the beauty for what it is... but would Lulu? That thought makes her reconsider the ambience.
 
The genuine smile Yuna is bearing though doesn't make Rikku question it, even for a moment. Despite the subtle shift when she answers 'I'm fine...'
 
Trotting on up to Yuna, she squats down alongside her seated position, in that half-way between standing and sitting kind of way, "We're not finished at all - because Paine is in need some expert consultation! You see, I just happened to note that Paine still hadn't asked Lulu out. Or at least I was pretty sure she hadn't-"
 
On account of Paine being so tight lipped that it's hard to force even the smallest detail out of her, "-and now I'm sure she hasn't! So help her out - you know Lulu better than anyone right? So you've gotta have some tips on sweeping her off her feet!"
 
Rikku is taking this perhaps way too seriously - after all, interest in someone isn't necessarily true love! Though perhaps that attitude too for her is a symptom of living in Spira. Seize the day...
 
...because tomorrow may never come for you.
 

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

Paine settles in by taking an ankle in her hand and pulling it behind her other heel, leaning back. It's a sort of campfire-posture, though here the flames are tiny and wafting and ethereal. As they shift around slowly, the ghostly glow on Paine's face changes in turn, casting a shadow on one side of her nose, then the other, or changing an underlight to an overlight on her eyes. The effect is the same for her companions, subtly altering their features in a constant, gentle flux.

Paine sighs. "Talking about--"

Rikku answers for her.

"Yuna has too much on her mind to be worrying about things like this," Paine says stolidly when Rikku finishes. "Just ignore her," she advises Yuna. "I was just making sure it was all right, when I asked... I'll figure something out on my own."

She stabs a thumb back at Rikku. "I think this one wants me to carry her in a backpack so she can 'help'." 

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

For her part, Yuna is seated with her legs out straight, and one palm, the other, or both pressed into the bank behind her, helping her recline at any given moment that she feels like doing so. Her skirts are kilted up, just a bit, to avoid the occasional lap of the river; and her feet are bare. Her sensible, dark boots, those boots that have seen two worlds and countless places in between, are in arm's reach, barely, but the most onshore of any of her.

Her toes wiggle at water's edge. You can take the girl out of the Shoopuf, but you can't take the Shoopuf out of the girl.

That, and... if either Rikku or Paine bother to look at all closely, they'll notice that their friend's feet interact with the surface of the water a little bit... strangely. One second, they're floating too high on it, impossibly high, as though the water were a solid. Then, a while later, they're drifting, floating more freely. Back and forth. Whether or not she's doing it on purpose is impossible to say. If she is, it's so effortless that she gives it no real notice anyway.

She lapses into her usual earnest interest as she hears out Rikku, then Paine. Rikku notices that her merriment was cheering Yuna up; Paine notices that her notion that Yuna is too preoccupied to think about her friends starts bringing her down.

For her part, Yuna meditates upon the words of the others, and lets the pyreflies float by for a minute.

"You're very strong," she says, eventually, after a pause. "Of all the girls here, you could definitely do it."

Somehow, in trying to keep a straight face, her smile is stronger than ever. But her eyes are caring, as they settle on Paine, their polychroma erased by the unusual lighting into a shadowy compromise hue.

"Rikku's right," she adds. "Lulu and I have been together... a long time."

She seems willing to say more, but not without either Paine's asking, or Rikku's, like, bodily puppeting Paine to ask. Either way.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Rikku may think she saw Yuna's feet floating, but then second guesses herself when they sink... instead turning to focus on Paine's comments.
 
"That's what you think! I think that Yunie could use a healthy dose of this from time to time!" Rikku counters right back, before pausing at the thought of 'helping' Paine in a backpack. "Well - you may not have realized this about me, but I am pretty flexible!"
 
She realizes it was a joke of course - but the sparkle in her eye indicates that she's probably actually up for it.
 
Yuna though grabs her attention right back, as she nods quickly in agreement, "Right?" In full agreement. Paine just has the right vibe for someone as mature and sophisticated as Lulu. Honestly Rikku looks to her as a role model? But also an unattainable life goal.
 
The gulf between them is just too far, and it's not one she's sure she'd want to cross!
 
Yuna says she's been together with Lulu a long time, and immediately she notes, "See? What'd I say? Why go it alone when Yunie is right here - a wellspring of Lulu information!"
 
If Rikku were anyone but Rikku, she let Paine ask for it. But being Rikku she's definitely not going to wait for the heat death of the universe, and so she turns to Yuna and asks, "So... Yunie - let's say you were someone as cool and collected as Paine and you were going to ask Lulu out... how would you set it up?"
 

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

Flashback to Paine in fierce hand-to-hand combat with Rikku, amidst the tall grass.

"I realized," she assures Rikku.

Paine's red eyes flick down at Yuna's toes curiously, as she watches them float in a way that defies all of Paine's (considerable Spiran) experience of water. And yet, she cannot dream of calling the effect unnatural; it feels too right. Looking back to Yuna, she senses the sadness she caused, and struggles to understand it. Wanting to be left alone... that's natural too, right?

"Strong?" Paine echoes, curious.

Both Yuna and Rikku have a way of making this whole ask-out-Lulu thing feel like a much bigger deal than it is. But where with Rikku it's because of her inherent sense of drama (and her sheer excitement level), with Yuna it feels like there is something else there. Some reason asking out Lulu can't just be asking out Lulu. It's a little worrisome. Paine is ready for Yuna to rely on her in any way she needs... but emotionally? It's not something she's any good at.

Paine lets Rikku ask for her. She wouldn't have been able to do it herself. But looking at Yuna, she suspects that she will at least need Paine to sign off on it.

So what will it be? Is her little black mage crush worth the risk of... learning why it takes a strong person to ask out Lulu? Paine suspects it's not swordsmanship Yuna is talking about, after all.

After a moment, Paine looks away. "I'm curious what you meant by that," she says, in a tone of reluctant agreement with Rikku. "She... seems to keep a lot to herself."

Paine, for her part, seemed to avoid saying Lulu's name. A small shyness? Or a wise countermeasure to prevent Rikku from parodying how she said it? 

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Rikku asks Yuna for the impossible, and -- because it's Rikku -- she lets herself laugh a little. "I can't even imagine ever being as cool as Paine," she giggles with absolute honesty. Familiarity breeds contempt maybe, because she certainly doesn't view LULU as this untouchable pinnacle of coolness. Or maybe she, more than anyone, knows better.

Maybe she shouldn't put Paine on such a pedastal either. Her expression sweetens as she looks over this prospective suitor, sweetens to match something she senses within her. (DEEP within, usually, way beneath all the leather and spikes, but not always...) But there's some of Paine's hoped-for seriousness flowering inside Yuna as well. It's fair to say that, at any future wedding, she would be called upon to give Lulu away, if anyone did...

(No one would be so called; Lulu is nothing but not capable of giving herself away.)

...she doesn't take the question of Lulu's happiness lightly. Not ever. She loves all of Spira, but she LOVES her Guardians. She loves her family. She could never quantify her feelings, but if you really pressed her, and she admitted that she loved Lulu the most, the most fiercely, the most protectively, the longest -- would it be a lie?

Messing with her sleeves a bit, she buys time for her heart to pound. Its steady beat reminds her that hers is not a greedy love. It wasn't with Chappu. Or with Zuke, though that comparison fails to fit the description in exactly the right way. Because, of course, it wasn't Zuke that Lulu was really protecting, when she left her behind that day.

She waits for Paine to look at her again, and realizes, slowly, like a coin drifting downwards through water, flipping, flipping, that she's been misunderstood. Or... maybe not. Maybe Paine was just the first to hear the deeper truth in her own banter. Maybe Yuna won't be disappointed that her joke flew right over their heads. (She doesn't make many. Maybe she's not suited to it.)

Why do you have to be strong to ask out Lulu?

"She's lost almost everyone she's ever loved," Yuna explains very gently. "And... she loves people even when she knows she has to lose them." This is said without false modesty, without any levity at all. Lulu's love sustains Yuna, but once upon a time -- a very short time ago, even -- it was a heavy burden, too, to know what she was about to do to her. To know what Lulu was willing to do anyway.

Lulu and Yuna, Paine may be getting the sense, are kind of a lot, actually.

Yuna's still looking Paine over, thoughtful, quiet. "So, you have to promise to be strong, so that she doesn't have to lose you. She's lost enough already."

Strong enough to survive. Strong enough to live.

Yuna herself still isn't quite sure that she's strong enough for that.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Rikku grins at Paine so hard that her dimples show at saying 'I realized'. Before her focus shifts to Yunie... perhaps as part of her ploy. After all, if she honed in on Paine, she might as well be honing in on a brick wall of pride. Which... she gets the sense that Yuna might have an easier time getting through the mortar.
 
Though she can't help but glance when Paine adds something, smiling infectiously at that - with no small amount of triumph.
 
Yuna laughs though, and Rikku insists, "I think you're plenty cool!" Though... that's not what Yuna meant, and Rikku knows it - because she too wouldn't think she's half as cool as someone like Paine or Lulu, so she doesn't follow up on that.
 
Still though, seeing Yuna take her time causes the gravity of the situation to seeping in. This situation is serious to Yuna - in comparison to Rikku's playful, teasing attitude, and she can't help but be affected by it.
 
And when it comes, it's a bit like a bucket of ice water. Rikku inhales through her nostrils... and hangs onto Yuna's every word.
 
For a time after Yuna finishes, even Rikku is quiet, still. When it starts again it's a motion between her two hands, one gloved and one not, patting them together.
 
"That's a tough promise Yunie." She eventually says quietly, as she glances back to Paine, "But... Paine's one of the toughest we know. So if anyone could make it..."
 
She doesn't finish the statement, it's not really her place to. Perhaps it was just... after hearing something like that... she just felt the need to talk Paine up. It's not that Paine would doubt herself after that.
 
Rikku just knows, if it were her in Paine's position she would. It's one thing to put on a confident face to the world. It's another thing to actually be able to enforce that confidence on the world - and make it bend to you.
 

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

Paine can't help but blink when Rikku and Yuna both praise her coolness. She's used to being regarded that way. She is not used to such casual fondness, particularly bantered back and forth between two friends.

"I just have good hair," she demurs.

Drawing up an arm, Paine rests her elbow across her knee, her threadbare cloak draping down from it, covering that leg. A white sheaf of that good hair glows as if with its own radiance in the pyrelight. Paine gives Yuna all the time she needs to speak. She has always been a listener.

And when Yuna is finished, Paine takes a breath through her nose, and lets it out her mouth. The rifle on her back clutters softly as she shifts, the sound muted to a whisper by its wrappings.

"The only thing I know for sure about Lulu is that you mean everything to her, whereas even if she says yes to me, I might get dumped in a week because we like different Blitzball teams. So... I can't make almost any promises to you."

Paine turns to gaze into the pyreflies, and it cannot be only their gentle light that burns in her otherwise blank gaze.

"But I will live, Yuna. If I have one dirty trick or a single ounce of strength left, I will use it to keep on living. There may be one situation where you'll catch me doing something as embarrassing as dying, but you know what?" Her lip quirks. "I'm not taking complaints from Lulu about it. If it comes to that, she'll be doing the exact same thing."

She looks back to Yuna's mismatched eyes, as if to allow her to examine Paine's face for fear or sadness. There is none. 

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Yuna gives Rikku the slightest of side-eye, regretful, perhaps, to have now infected her with her solemnity -- maybe Paine is the wisest of the three after all, to have turned to her to pour soothing oil upon the waters of that bubbling brook of glee. She nods in silent agreement with Rikku's assessment of both the promise and of the woman herself, and then waits for her answer.

Good hair, obviously, is not going to cut it with Lulu, who has the most complex hairstyle Yuna knows. But Paine has listened, and then she speaks. And she promises.

And Yuna does look, look deeply.

"Okay," she replies, upon finding whatever it was she was looking for.

She's blushing a little, which started around the time Paine, rightly, pointed out that nothing serious will necessarily come of a relationship with Lulu. She may be feeling like she overreacted a little bit.

All the same, she got Paine to say all that. So maybe it was worth being a little bit... much.

Deep within her, Ifrit and Ixion's fayths suggest threatening Paine with harm should she break Lulu's heart. (More or less. Yuna feels feelings much more than she hears the thoughts of the souls united with hers, but that mutual roar of protectiveness was unmistakable. Of course, those two, and Shiva, and Leviathan, are especially fond of the Black Mage...) In any case she ignores such masculine impulses. Lulu can do the threatening herself anyway.

"Then..." Oh, man, this is so lame. Yuna feels lame just saying it, because it's just, the most basic obvious truth. "Well, if it were me, I might... make her a stuffed animal. She respects people who are good with their hands." The summoner gestures at her raiment, and if either of them had ever wondered who made her clothes, well, now they know. Lulu's were always more obviously couture, but... yes, Yuna's suit her so perfectly for the very same reason.

Yuna DEFINITELY has no idea what she just said. 100%. Her shoulders are slumping a bit but not because of the double entendre. No, what she hastens to clarify:

"Because it takes thoughtfulness, and skill, and patience! And taste, to make something she'd like...?"

But mostly, Yuna's blush says, Lulu really likes stuffed animals. And that's why that would be the token of affection Yuna'd choose.

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
'I just have good hair' elicits a small nasally noise from Rikku - almost cracking up, though she manages to keep her serious face on a while longer.
 
Still though, her attention shifts to Paine as she gives her answer. And... Rikku seems to grow more chipper, seeming unfussed by the fact that Paine didn't make any promises, "Well that about settles that." Rikku pipes in, perhaps saying at least that she approves of the answer, even if it's not her approval that Paine needs.
 
Rikku - although she was hoping it was more serious, doesn't seem particularly fussed about Paine not saying it's going to be some true love forever romance if Lulu accepts. Maybe it's some quality of her upbringing that allows a more casual approach to relationships to exist - even if she'd prefer otherwise.
 
Listening to Yuna's advice though, she finds herself a little surprised at... "Oh-Ohhhh!" ... the fact Lulu made Yuna's attire. It should be obvious, but she hadn't realized it. The 'good with her hands' part slips past Rikku without the slightest embarrassment - also perhaps too innocent in the realm of love to consider that double entendre.
 
"Huh!" Rikku says, still considering in wonder the idea of crafting a whole stuffed animal that Lulu would like from scratch, "Her standards are just as high as you'd expect...!"
 
It makes sense to her, Lulu should have high standards.
 
"Well... that does remind me of that fair we went to in Gaia too... it's where she got her Rescue Cucco!"
 
As she gives Yuna an enthusiastic smile, "So - if you ever get tired of bandaging your fingers Paine..."
 
Rikku assumes, perhaps incorrectly, that Paine doesn't know how to sew.
 
"...you could always pick out something her style and... win it for her at a carnival while she watches-! Maybe that'd impress her... allmmooossttt as much?"
 
Well, perhaps that's an understatement, given all the qualities making a stuffed animal would demonstrate but... it's an option!
 

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

Paine shifts a little. She's looking pretty interested, for someone who so recently didn't want help. It is notable that it's taken her this long and she still hasn't asked Lulu out.

The double entendre eludes the cunning of the party's thief, but its most well-advertised les... less-naive person notices. Paine isn't entirely above ribbing Yuna, but she's already so embarrassed, and Paine is gentler with Yuna than Rikku. Letting it go does require a moment where she has to fold her lips in to maintain her usual calm expression, however, and she nods to further obfuscate any little ah-hem she might make.

"They ought to be," she agrees with Rikku, about Lulu's high standards.

A stuffed animal... Paine grimaces, but it is a serious expression. "I can sew a little, but it's more like..." Paine lifts her cloak like the wing of a bat. There are visible holes despite various patches on it. "I'll try," she says. "You know," she adds gently to Yuna. She sensed Yuna's embarrassment, just now, and knows it wasn't all due to her suggestion of a gift. "The fact that she might dump me in a week doesn't mean I can blow it off. It's the opposite. I wouldn't even think about asking out a girl like that if I didn't mean it. So."

And with that, the last credible pretense of resistance is gone, as Paine folds her legs crosslegged, to equalize her posture and open both her Yuna ear and her Rikku ear for business. "What does she like to do for fun?" 

<Pose Tracker> Yuna has posed.

Yuna smiles a little at Rikku's amazement, and nods very slightly. That's pretty much how she herself first reacted to seeing the finished product. She chuckles, too, at the memory of the fair, back when they were first trapped on that other world.

"I think she'd like that," Yuna agrees with her cousin, as to taking her to a fair and winning her something.

Paine reassures her -- kindly, with more kindness than she had to give -- and the last of the flush drains from her cheeks, leaving an agreeable warmth behind.

(She'll never know what greater embarrassment she just avoided, though.)

"Learning new things," she says right away, as pertains fun. This is actually a slightly more subtle nuance about what brings Lulu joy than, say, 'blowing things up' or 'throwing shade' which might fall into that A-list, 'likes stuffed animals' category. "Which, you know... if she figured out that you studied and practiced more sewing than you knew before, in order to make her something, I think she'd like that too."

Then an impish pout passes her lips, and she presses them together for an instant, damming the flow. Once she's regained a more controlled momentum of dishing, she points out:

"She might not like me telling you everything about her though. It's no good taking shortcuts with Lulu, it will mean more to her if you figure her out yourself. So... what do you think Lulu likes to do for fun?"

<Pose Tracker> Rikku has posed.

 
Rikku looks at the patched holes, and... sympathizes. Despite having dextrous hands she had no patience for sewing besides patching up old clothes. "Well-! With an attitude like that - I'd almost think you didn't need any help after all."
 
The 'almost' part is key though, because after all - it's Lulu.
 
Which Rikku is now using as tacit permission to keep advising on the matter, sorry Paine! Her smile grows more infectious as Yuna agrees that Lulu would like this
 
However, Paine does ask what she likes to do for fun next, and Rikku puts a finger to her chin, tapping it again and again. "Hmmm - hmm -!"
 
Her head tilts one way, then the other as she weighs the issue. It takes her much longer than Yuna. She hasn't known her for as long, and she doesn't know her a fraction as well.
 
There's no admission of shame when it comes to Lulu's closeness to Yuna. Rikku is just glad that someone like Lulu was there for her. She doesn't regret how her life has gone, but she wishes she had been there for her all along too.
 
Yuna though confides a few things, but then mentions that Lulu might not like her telling her everything about her, offering...
 
"A challenge!" Rikku declares aloud as she clasps her hands together, looking back Paine's way, "Wellll... if it's a challenge like that, it wouldn't be right of me to help you too much on this one - sorry Paine! I have to side with my cousin on this one... I know you were looking forward to the official Rikku report... butttt..."
 
Rikku gives Paine this coy look, "...one thing I can tell you about Lulu without specifics is... she likes being included. Even in things you wouldn't think she's up for... I think thinking of her as unapproachable for... just about anything is one of the biggest errors you can make. So - maybe that helps a little!"
 

<Pose Tracker> Paine has posed.

"Hopefully she'll actually notice if I improve," Paine muses. She wouldn't admit it, but she's heartened by Rikku's confidence in her. "Your robe is the most beautiful clothing I've ever seen.

Paine is not given to exaggeration. It came out so casually, too. Paine thinks what Yuna is wearing right now is the most beautiful garment in the world.

Glancing curiously at Yuna as she briefly endeavours to stem her advice, Paine listens, then nods, game for the challenge. Like she said, you shouldn't even ask a girl like Lulu out if you're not ready to bring it. But even though Rikku is basically parroting her cousin, that parroting makes her pale brow twitch.

"Are you serious?" she snaps at the blonde. "You've been trying to stuff the Official Rikku Report in my ear ever since I first told you about this! What happened to getting in my backpack?"

Forcing her temper back down into a version of Yuna's self-silencing pout that does not really succeed at being less adorable despite being more menacing, Paine resumes considering the challenge. "I think..." Her face smoothes after a moment of contemplation.

"I think Lulu has fun doing things she isn't supposed to do. That's how most people are, who have a lot of responsibilities, and are serious about them. I don't know I'm right, but if I ask her out and she says yes... it's probably true." She pushes her white bangs back with a hand. They fall back into place, not quite as far forward as they had been. Her eyelashes are just as pale, and they throb faintly with the light of the pyreflies.

"After all, someone like her is supposed to date some strong, outgoing man, right?"

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