2022-02-04: The Direct Approach
- Log: The Direct Approach
- Cast: Pearl, Citan Uzuki, Lily Keil
- Where: Guadosalam
- Date: February 04, 2022
- Summary: Citan, after the fight with Seymour, has been given reason to see about pressing Pearl further as to potential connections with a particular secretive group. To that end, he calls upon Lily for aid.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The Guado have opened up in the wake of... Everything that happened last week. Not super, but they'll take drifter money. They need it right now- especially if they are goig to get things they need from a hostile Spira.
Pearl has been spending a little time in Guadosalam, the first since she was pretending to be Ena. Most of that has been talking with Timu and Pani, naturally. They deserved to know what happened. She also developed a taste for a certain local food: A fruit tart with a sugar glaze and edible ground Macalanian Butterfly wings which are mostly decorative but they give it a pretty shimmer. As this is Leo Jr's first time, he is trying a simple candied plant.
Pearl emerges from the item shop with a bag, and her fair gotten delicacy, and seeks out a bench to sit- it's close by. Her little guardian bounces up next to her. And then she watches.
This is new to her, watching people interact to see how they interact. To learn how they do it. To see ordinary interactions. It was Jean's suggestion: She can't learn how people work if she doesn't try, and shes still very bad at it. She has to force herself not to look for weaknesses, vulnerabilities, exploits. Just people.
Even in these trying, sad times, it's worth doing.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
With the situation more or less resolved, the Wolves were about to do what they did best: with relationships strained still between the Guado and many others of Spira, there was need for a trustworthy sword (or gun, or fist, or spell) for hire. And so rather than move on, they had stayed.
Normally, that would have been the extent of it.
But it had come up between him and Lily in the aftermath of the confrontation with Seymour -- and the foiling of his plans. That woman who had contradicted that statement of his near to the end of it...
She had been a Summoner, yet, something about her did not quite suit the role, at least when compared to the others with which he crossed paths. There was the look of her as she'd stood in that moment, as if she were a fish who had not merely found herself out of water, to some extent, but well up the tree. No -- it was nothing about her 'appearance' as it was her very demeanor. This was someone who had the path of their life completely rerouted, he was certain of it.
Then there were her scars -- numerous, old, poorly healed. It spoke to a particular sort of life.
And then there were her words. 'Not always choice...'
Could it be?
Lily has particular talents which he does not. That is one reason why he had come to her with his suspicions. Lily also has the advantage of sharing the benefits of a particular sort of upbringing -- in the abstract, one officer's school is not terribly different from another. Those were not the wounds of someone who had fought a 'regular' sort of war. Instead...?
Pearl will find herself descended upon, so to speak, with relative rapidity. "Ah, hello again! Well, this is quite fortuitous. I had hoped we might have the chance to speak to each other again, Miss...?" Citan smiles pleasantly enough, approaching the bench.
It is a simple, amiable-enough tactic -- the forward advance of the sphere of social 'combat', and perhaps just as difficult to defend against for the unprepared.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil is willing to spend some money in Guadosalam. She has her issues with the Guado leadership--some of which are very strong--but a mercenary is a mercenary, and she needs supplies. And this is something that they do best.
It could be. Lily has come with Citan to this particular outing, and she is a pretty good backup for something like this. Besides; she'd recognize Pearl's movements, her instincts, the way she carries herself--most anywhere.
Lily nods to Pearl as she walks up alongside Citan. She doesn't crowd her with extra words for the moment, but it's easy to see that Lily is also a warrior; she has that quiet grace to her steps... and a very big knife in her boot.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
It's difficult for the Wolves to surprise Pearl here. Years of training, a limited approach, there are too of them. But she has no need to run, beyond social awkwardness. She's never met these people, apart from the man in green.
She is nonetheles assessing themm both as threats. She saw Citan fight, and he was dangerous. And Lily, well.
She fought with Lily against Juno. She was on par with an Aeon with just her own magical input. If this gets nasty, she'd have to run. It would be... rought.
Fortunately, none of them seem likely to open up in a civilian center.
"Pearl," she responds a little flatly. Not out of antagonism, simply out of not really used to how tone works in conversation. "And this is Leo Jr." She indicates her companion, who is muching on a fruit that he swallows before piping up with a Pukyu and a little bow, before sitting down on his red cape. Benches are hard, okay?
"Thank you for keeping Seymour occupied so that we could end the ritual." Again, flat. Not ungrateful, just flat. "And Lady Sorceress. I was glad to have you fighting alongside me at Zanarkand." A pause. "May I have your names? It would be... uncomfortable to have to refer to you both by title." Well. Rude on Pearl's part, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
They are met with resistance. But so it may have gone even if they had attempted something a little less... abrupt. As it is, it should be unlikely that she would opt to depart in a hurry before they could even get a word in edgewise. After all, this is a civilian center.
No one may be especially paying them heed, but neither are they not under surveillance. The Guado are cautious, as they should be. Change may be coming, but it is never so neatly done.
"Miss Pearl, then!" Citan's pleasant smile doesn't so much as falter for a step. He glances downwards at the plantlike creature in that moment, recalling his presence from the encounter with Seymour -- yes, he had seen him then as well. "And Leo Jr." His smile takes a turn for the embarrassed. "Oh... yes, well, of course! Though I suppose we should be the ones thanking you for your role in disrupting the ritual? After all, had you not succeeded, we would have been a, ah... difficult position!" He glances once, Lily's way.
"Of course. I am Citan Uzuki. As you have have surmised, we both hail from Filgaia. And yourself?"
It is perhaps not an unreasonable question, these days.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily wouldn't expect Pearl to be surprised any more than Lily would expect to be surprised. Not with those eyes of hers. ...But she remembers fighting with her, at Zanarkand, and that won her some respect beyond just that for someone who clearly knows what she's doing. ...But Lily has no intention of making this a threat. Not if she can help it, which she can't always.
She is not the sociable girl she once was.
"Hmm." She looks down at Leo Jr. for a moment. Pukyu... He's cute. Lily, for her part, has a Dog that steps out from behind her, and approaches to sniff the small Guardian. "...Dog," Lily says, in caution.
"I'm Lily," she then introduces herself. "This is Dog."
"...I don't worry much about titles myself." But she doesn't use just Pearl's name yet; she knows she's a Summoner, and that's a particular kind of title.
"Likewise, though, your Aeon was a good ally. ...And 'difficult position' is putting it somewhat lightly, Doctor."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
"It was a necessary matter for Spira's survival, if not more. I simply did what was necessary." That's genuine: She doesn't believe what she needs requires praise. Girl can't take a compliment.
"Citan, Lily and Dog. Well met." She gives small seated bow. And Citan answers the question. "Yes. I have come to be able to note the differences." Great conversationalist too. She pauses, though, at the question. It takes her a moment to respond. "I am from Lunar." She pauses. "But not Spira." There's enough to her to hint that she's not local, even if she could pass for one. It saves her being deduced.
That said, despite the firmness of her response... There's caution there. Concern. Wonder. Mild fear. A sense of longing, and lacking. Even curiousity, but it's tempered by her fear.
Could she not know?
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Perhaps so!" Citan remarks, shaking his head to chuckle at Lily's statement that this would have been an 'understatement'. "Nevertheless, thanks to you and the others, we were not so tested," he concludes, watching for Pearl's reaction as he completes his statement on the matter.
It is as he had thought.
But that is also another reason why he had sought Lily's aid in this, and not Leon's, for all that the two of them have the experience to make the appropriate assessment of a soldier... and the temperment for this sort of information-seeking that, for all her many strengths, Elly lacks.
"Ah, I see..." he says to that, lapsing into silence as if to suggest that she go on. She is not the only one who has learned to 'tell', so to speak -- and he had thought on reflection that she was neither of Spira nor of Filgaia. Which meant...
A soldier does not typically wear the marks of countless battles with others like that -- not so poorly healed. It suggests a private war. A warrior seeking battle with Fiends -- or Hellions -- would not bear the wounds of so many mortal weapons.
It suggests private battles. A secret war.
Citan Uzuki, after all, is a doctor.
He glances, minutely, in Lily's direction. Otherwise, he does not move.
"I see! So you come from Glenwood? Or, would it be Meribia...?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Just what's necessary; that's fair enough. Lily nods in acknowledgement, and doesn't immediately take 'can't take a compliment' as a good or bad quality, just a quality that makes up her estimation of the woman 'Pearl'. ...The fact that she is polite to Dog is another factor.
She wasn't there for that battle; she was helping to fight off Fiends and other loyalists elsewhere at the time.
She considers the caution. And fear, for that matter... but curiousity, too. So, Lily decides... a particular approach, when Citan asks. She doesn't look openly back at him, but instead decides to talk herself.
"I'm a mercenary," she explains, "For my part. I was special forces--stealth, sabotage, and so on--for an army back on Filgaia, before I left it and went into business for myself with my partner. We're the Black Wolves; you may have heard of us."
Dog, meanwhile, sniffs Leo Jr a little more. She tilts her head at him. She is very curious.
"...Citan here is a doctor," she explains, since he sure doesn't look much like a mercenary, does he?
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
"Then I suppose it is for the best." Pearl says. Again, no real reaction, it just is. She did a thing, they did a thing, thanks has happened, that's all it is. And when Citan tries to leave space for her to elaborate, she doesn't. Instead she waits for him to finish his thought, whatever it is. She makes no attempt to fill the silence with noise.
So when Citan asks her outright, she pauses again. "I have spent much of my life in Meribia, yes." There's uncertainty. So much uncertainty it practically screams. What she's saying isn't false, but... It's not necessarily where she comes from. It's not a lie, but she doesn't know the truth.
When Lily talks, she looks to her, focusing her attention with those cold eyes. "I have, briefly. " She pauses. "I am sorry, I am in no position to take up with a mercenary army. Should I survive the battle with Sin, I have other debts to repay." The talk of special forces elicits faint familiarity, and a sense of threat. She's a little warier of Lily now, not that her body shows it.
Another pause. "A doctor? Have you been treating those injured? I do not need your attentions, if they are needed elsewhere." That seems true, from her point of view. But it's also possible to get a sense that she'd say it if she was lying.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
If she is even remotely what he has suspected she may be, then her reticence is unsurprising. However, it also does not mean that he is right. Just because he has reasoned out her various 'oddities' -- her scars, her potential place of origin, her abilities, her demeanor -- doesn't mean that he is right. He has already contemplated that he could indeed be 'barking up the wrong tree'.
It's yet another reason why he cannot outright state what he is suspecting -- why he can't come at her more directly on this matter.
But if he is right, on the other hand...
As he had expressed to Lily in private already, this would be beneficial towards their own goals on Lunar.
Lily doesn't look back. Instead, she begins to talk directly, speaking to their various roles. "It is not typical, is it? You might consider me something of a 'camp follower'... in a sense," he says. "Various circumstances saw me fall in with the Black Wolves, and I am afraid I cannot simply turn away now, with the state of things being as they." He nods, continuing, "...Indeed, I have been seeing to some of the injured while the Wolves remain here. But at this particular moment, I am hardly in search of further work! No, instead, let us consider this a meeting of fellow warriors, given that we have fought towards the same end and on the same field?"
There is a pause, however.
"...Miss Pearl, you are uninjured, correct?"
'Other debts to repay', was it? He does not look towards Lily, not this time.
"But I admit I do have another motive in speaking to you," Citan says then, readjusting his spectacles. "I do not think that there has ever been another from outside Spira who has managed to walk the path of the Summoner, if I am understanding my Spiran history correctly. Tell me... I am curious, as a student of the histories. What brought you to this role?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily sure does notice that uncertainty. It's easy to see--it isn't a lie... but she doesn't know, somehow. Well, Lily doesn't know where she comes from, either; it's not so outlandish.
"We're not here to recruit you, either," Lily says, nodding to confirm with Citan what he says. Indeed, she notices a little more wariness... Hmm.
"I'm also not here to hurt you," she confirms. "I'm here because I'm the doctor's friend, and I'm curious too. Personally, I didn't spend much time among Yevon; i spent most of my time here on Spira among the Al Bhed."
She considers a little further. Pearl is on her guard, now...
"You haven't been a priest very long," she says bluntly. "You have the marks of the same kind of work as me. I think you know something about a problem we're looking into, and I think you can help us."
"I'm gambling that you aren't our enemy by playing my hand here. But I think you know something about the Shadow Dragon, and we need to know more so we can stop them if they're still active."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
A meeting of fellow warriors, hm? "Very well." She doesn't seem to have any real objection to the idea it's just... there's a feeling of unfamiliarity now. Like the concept is alien to her. Then he asks a more pointed question. "Nothing for which the cure isn't 'give it time to heal'." She seems to be. Hm. She is not drastically injured- and occasional guest of a white mage- but she seems reluctant to let Citan near here. She's starting to get more ill at ease, more concerned. A hand moves over to ruffle the fronds of her companion. It seems to calm her a little.
"...You are correct. I am the first, or at least that's what the Summoner who ran the shrine told me." Warmness. Trust, and surprise. Completeness. "But what set me on this path was being in the right place at the right time." True, but. Desperation. Shock and brief fear, before determination.
Lily confirms, and she nods. But- the not here to hurt you, Pearl's seating position shifts, slightly but noticably.
And for Lily, her mind screams distrust at those words.
"I am not a priest. I have never been part of the Yevon Faith. I am simply a summoner. The clothes were... a gift." Truth, then guilt. And shame. Lots of a guilt and shame, mixed with the tiniest hint of delight that she may not realize.
"A problem?" She asks, more to keep the conversation moving toward an end, only for Lily to drop the bomb.
"...I do not know of them. My apologies." Her face is almost unreadable. But her feelings?
FEAR. HATE. FEAR. DESPAIR. TRIUMPH. FEAR. LIES. TRAPPED. FREEDOM. SATISFACTION. PANIC. CONFUSION. DESPAIR? Aimlessness. Uncertainty. hope? fear. hope. fear. hope. fear.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Hmm, I see... Well, if you find yourself in need, do not hesitate to ask. Though, I am certain there is hardly a shortage of healers presently!" He doesn't press the matter: perhaps this is an avenue that was meant as casually as it had seemed. Perhaps he's picked up on her wariness and has opted not to press further.
"Recruitment would be far from my remit besides," Citan remarks when Lily speaks up regarding -- this is true, only Leon or Lily would truly have the final say over who would join their number. The others -- as he himself had done regarding Billy -- would only be able to make a case.
"The same can be said of me -- well, to an extent, I suppose," Citan says, smiling in a slightly sheepish manner. "I had of course learned some of the manner of the Yevon church, though hardly enough to prepare us for what had come. ...The people of Spira, for good or ill, do not speak of the intimate matters of their faith with outsiders." But he shakes his head, his glance only fleetingly turning towards Lily as she speaks more bluntly; it's the only suggestion that this particular remark may have been slightly unexpected. His expression otherwise doesn't so much as shift. "Still..." he says, when Pearl has made her own position with regards to Yevon quite clear, "I am to understand you are not among the faithful? And yet, you possess the capacity to use the art of a summoner. How fascinating!"
Lily follows one blunt question with a blunter one still, and all that he does is turn his head her way -- surprise, perhaps, but of a muted, mild nature. The stream has taken an unexpected course but remains in motion towards its destination.
"I... see," he says, when she makes her denial. "Yes, we had encountered... well, what you might call a 'loose end' regarding." He shrugs, shaking his head. "If the stories were true, they were in truth an arm of... ah, well. If you do not know even their name, then we will need to seek our answers elsewhere."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
So it is foreign. Well, not everybody has a Warrior Culture, as it were. Lily looks over Pearl as she mentions that she simply needs some rest, and she can confirm that that's all it looks like. She also listens to the matter of the time she became a Summoner... and the little she confirms about it. Distrust...
"Heh."
She looks to Citan for a moment. She considers his approach. His approach probably would've gotten them farther, and a lot more easily, but Lily isn't so sure. And she has her own idea.
Lily regards Pearl for another few moments. Her face is unreadable, but...
"Hope," she says, looking at Pearl still, but talking to Citan. "She's feeling hope. And fear. I think she's lying to us."
She crosses her arms, aware it makes her more closed off, but that's fine.
"But it's fine. We can't force her to help us. If she isn't interested in working with us about the fact that the Shadow Dragon Cult was an arm of the Church, then there's nothing we can do about that. We'll just have to investigate it on our own."
"...But personally, I think she has an interest in seeing the Cult brought down. If we have to go at it our own separate ways, though..."
Lily shrugs expansively.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
"Thank you," is her simple reply to Citan, because politeness costs her nothing. She looks to one side as he talks about faith. "Being a summoner isn't about faith, you simply need the potential, and the Fayth to choose you. But most outside the church don't get the opportunity. I was lucky." For a definition of lucky.
The problem with Citan's approach is it doesn't work on people who are already wary and have reason not to tell you. Swinging in with a conversational sledgehammer, however...
Pearl doesn't... blanche, per se. She's not really capable of showing that much free emotion. But the fact that Lily can tell what she's feeling alarms her enough to show it on her face. She takes a deep, long pause, before her emotional support onion gently nudges her a few times.
"...Very well. There are things I can tell you. You are correct I have a vested interest but..." She pauses. "...the information you have brought up is not new to me. Or rather... I think it is more complicated than that." She gives a deep sigh. She's going to have to have this conversation a few more times, she thinks. Until the whole matter is out in the open. "I assume you have others you would want to raise this with. Would you rather they hear it from me directly?" Another pause. "Also I do not think 'the middle of a plaza' is a good place to have this discussion, do you?"
There is a third, and more... embarrassed pause. "Also I would like to eat this tart before I engage in any talk regarding... that group."
Fear Hate Fear Hate Self-Hate Self-Fear
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Ah, I see. So it is a role that any could attain, should they have the proper potential. ...This may also explain Braska and his... oh, but I digress," Citan says, shaking his head. He smiles. "Thank you. That is quite useful to know."
There are more than a few reasons why he had brought Lily here. It's true that sometimes the blunter approach is a far more usful tack to take with certain sorts of people, and given the wariness that Pearl demonstrates towards him (and possibly also Lily) and the sort of person she is--
Besides, it would have been more difficult for him later, most likely, if he had to be the one to do it.
And Lily has a particular ace up her sleeve.
"Lying... hmm, I see," Citan remarks, nodding as if he were digesting that fact for the first time himself. "Well then... Miss Pearl?"
He gives her space to talk. And -- more importantly -- gives Lily the space to talk. She is quite the blunt instrument, isn't she?
But sometimes, the hammer is the better tool than the scalpel.
"...Well," he says, as if he were somewhat surprised to hear it so plainly, glancing over at Lily the once. "I say, that is far more than I had expected! But it is greatly appreciated. What Lily has told you is true. ...And you are right. This is neither the time nor the place for it." He pauses, turning towards Lily.
"And I would say that Leon would wish to hear this from her directly, as well. So, what do you say, Lily? Shall we 'arrange a meeting'?" Citan says, spreading his hands.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Politeness costs nothing! And yet, Lily Keil.
She notes that lucky. And she notes the way that Pearl is alarmed, there. She keeps talking, but mostly waits. She doesn't make any especially sudden moves, not wanting to turn this into a fight. But Leo Jr. helps...
And she nods to Citan, after a moment, and then looks to Pearl. "Yes, I agree," Lily says of the matter of the time and the place. Citan already said as much, but better to all be on the same page.
"Yes," she agrees. "Let's arrange a meeting. I can handle that."
A beat, "...And by all means, eat your tart. Better not to waste good food."
She doesn't smile. Not with what she's reading of Pearl. But the tart is at least a brief moment of something lighter.