2022-05-01: Swords AND Brains

• Log: Swords AND Brains
• Cast: Magilou, Rixia, Ashiya Khaimova
• Where: Buckeye
• Date: 2022-05-01
• Summary: Magilou, Rixia and Ashe talk in the health clinic after the Wels train attack.

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<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

It's only reasonable the Wels train battlers would be taken to Buckeye for treatment; they were already close enough to hear the alarms going off. Better here than a field clinic, anyway: they actually have danishes and blankets.

Probably. It is a Filgaian town, and they generally do it pretty tough, compared to Lunar. But that's neither here nor there.

And so, in one of the beds of the clinic...

Magilou, slayer of dragons, conquerer of the volcanic forge, scourge of the self-righteous, and keeper of the funniest layer cake recipe sits slouched halfway out of bed, elbow propped up on a bedside table. Her other hand drums on the wood.

Her nose and mouth is currently covered by a mask nebulising some treatment or another for chlorine gas exposure, because APPARENTLY these people don't trust elixirs.

It means that the conversation with her and the -- teddy bear? Bat? Cat? Weird little guy in a top hat -- sitting on her bed is remarkably one-sided.

"Miss Magilou, I didn't think you still had it in you!"

":|."

"But that was pretty scary... don't you think you should be more careful?"

">:|."

"Wow, you're right! I'm so glad we're on the same page, Miss Magilou!"

">:(!"

This is probably some form of justice. Probably.

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

Rixia actually got her first danish in Buckeye, courtesy of one Ida Everstead-Rey sharing her morning treat with her ("rich people food!", she exclaimed gleefully). But, uh, that's more of a nine AM thing, not a middle of the night thing as she sits on the bed next to Magilou in a thick blanket, her shoes off and her legs up into a comfy curled position and...

"Why's she got that mask with the long hose thing on...? Is this some kind of Filgaia thing?" Rixia whispers to Ashe. The only kind of mask she's ever seen in her life is a bandit-o mask, ok!

She didn't get her danish, but she did get a blanket and a bottle of mostly clean water, which means she still made it out of this entire affair positive.

She's also gawking at the... what is that...? Why's it got a top hat? "Who's the magic cat...? He looks kinda suspicious," she also adds to Ashe. A pause, as she looks her over. "You're okay, right? I can get the thing to heal you if not."

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

A very blue beastgirl with the big cat ears is sitting next to Rixia with legs folded, casually stirring a mortar and pestle. This is the prelude to the weird polygonal Star Ocean compounding, never you worry. It'll happen eventually. She is trying not to think about how hard she might have blown a muscle while making up nonsense swords-tricks on the spot.

"Why's she got that mask with the long hose thing on...? Is this some kind of Filgaia thing?" asks Rixia. "It's, uh, it's a healing thing. For people who breathed in bad stuff." summarises Ashiya. "It's a machine that helps you out."

Stir, stir, stir. Ashiya pauses only to take a few small berries, yes, magical berries (maybe) from a baggie in her jacket and drop them into the pestle. "Almost done with this if anyone's still hurting? Promise, it works wonders."

"Who's the magic cat...? He looks kinda suspicious," wonders Rixia. "Yeah, he looks kinda ... how do I put it..." Ashiya whispers back. "Seedy..."

More important than that, though, is breaking the awkward silence that has persisted for a few minutes other than these conspiratorial whispers. So, Ashiya pipes up. "Hey, I still owe you for pulling Rixia outta the fire. So... thanks! That was a pretty slick bag of tricks you had back there."

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

Bienfu leans up, to whisper to Magilou: "I think you're creeping them out."

Magilou enunciates a series of emoji perfectly. They are: cat bat demon face skull-and-crossbones middle finger. This statement is functionally untranslatable in this medium, but the narrative would like to stop and assure everyone it was extremely poetic.

Drum, drum, drum, go her fingers on the sideboard. It has exactly the same tone and cadence as a cat lashing its tail, except that Magilou is clearly an elf, check the ears.

Once Ashiya pipes up, though, Bienfu is happy to wave to her. "Don't be fooled! Miss Magilou is a bad-bad lady, buuut... even she wasn't about to let a kid get eaten by Reapers! Though, you know, it was actually reaaaally dangerous... shikigami aren't strong enough spirits to hold a lot of people, you know!"

Behind him, Magilou says: ">:E."

Bienfu puffs up his chest, and declares: "Not like me! I'm a GREATER spirit! Name's Bienfu! I'm a Normin, and those bag of tricks are aaall me!"

Distantly, footsteps begin to approach.

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

"Haa... I mean, I'm trying to figure out how to get this thing to let me fly, it does a lot of other things, flying should be easy, right?" Rixia puffs up as Bienfu reminds her that shikigami can't exactly hold up a lot of people. "... I'm not that heavy, right?" She squeezes her side for a moment.

Rixia makes a little face as Bienfu introduces himself. "Definitely sus," she agrees with Ashiya.

She looks down at her little mortar-and-pestle and says, "What're you doing? Also, how'd you do that thing from before, the woob woob woob thing, it's cool."

The foxgirl does have a measure of humbleness, though, so she does puff up again and say, "Also, yeah. Thank you for saving me." Sulk, sulk, as she curls up and starts dreaming about delicious chocolate cake and hot cocoa and other things she really wants right now instead of plain water...

Oh no! The curse of the rich people has intruded on her already!

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

Ashiya's ears are drooping very low next to her head, and she's regarding Bienfu from widely askance. The ears aren't doing that to be aerodynamic, it's a silent declaration of sus. Perhaps her finely-honed Space Senses can just pick it up.

Bienfu posits that Magilou is actually: bad. "I dunno about bad," catte squints at this theory. "I mean, she could tell I had it under control. And she gave a cool hint about swords in the brain." one blue fingertip taps one blue head. That's how you know it's a thinky-thing. Thinking means head.

Rixia asks what she's up to. And how she Woobed earlier. "Oh, I'm making some medicine out of local stuff. There's all kinds of handy roots and leaves and crap out there you can turn into a painkiller." Ashiya happily explains. "Sometimes it just needs a little transforming at the end. Bit of elbow grease."

Ashiya proudly pats Rixia on the head for thanking Magilou. She also pauses as she watches doom approach Bienfu. Can she see the seconds of his life ticking away? Maychance? Perchaps?

Yes.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

"If you don't get it already, you will soon!" Bienfu assures Ashiya, on the topic of Magilou being very bad-bad. He adjusts his hat, looking over to Rixia. "Oh, if you ask me, you're not heavy at all! But Miss Magilou keeps eating sweets, so..."

He is SO sus. Magilou is glaring a thousand daggers at him, but Bienfu has apparently decided to press his advantage while he has it. Now he's the chatty one!

The seconds ticking down might just be those approaching footsteps, which turn out to be: the night-duty nurse! He walks up to Magilou, flicks a few switches on that machine, and unstraps the hose from her.

"Ugh!" Is the first thing out of her mouth. "Your godforsaken medicine disgusts me," Magilou says, with all the flatness of a blade laid down on a table. It's just as dangerous to pick up without a handle on it.

"You don't have to be here," the nurse points out, before he remembers to add: "Though we appreciate your efforts, of course."

"Yeah, you BETTER!" Magilou snaps as he makes his quick escape to go look after all the sick people who aren't as much of a headache as Magilou has been this whole time.

And then she looks at Bienfu.

And Bienfu looks at Magilou.

And Magilou grins exactly like a shark grins, too wide and too toothy and entirely facilitated around taking a big bite out of the closest moving target.

"Yeep!" Bienfu yelps, not quite able to turn and flee before Magilou grabs him by the hat and -- shoves him inside herself? She just kind of punches him into his chest and he becomes light and disappears.

"That's quite enough of that, thank-you-very-much! Honestly! Who does that pipsqueak think he is?! You're gonna get it as soon as I get some sleep, Bienfu!" Magilou promises him, which he can apparently still hear. Tragic.

She blows out her lips, and pushes herself up, sitting all cris-cross-legged on the bed. "Aaaanyway," Magilou says to Rixia, adjusting her majestic witch's hat (don't call it a jester's hat, they're totally different!) after that horrible medicine adventure. "Don't mention it. Like, seriously, if you go around telling people I rescued you or whatever I'm never going to hear the end of it. Really, I just felt sorry for you!"

Oh, so she's the ambiguous hero who probably used to be a villain or something and is still attached to being cool and detached. Right. That's probably what's going on here.

"As for you, I just know a swords-for-brains brute when I see one," Magilou adds, grinning to Ashiya and lacing her hands behind her head. "So I mean, if you can't cut down a ravenous monstrosity, what good are you?" She says this with such devil-may-care cheer that it might almost seem like something she enjoys, though.

She looks over the both of them, elbows wagging, for a moment.

"Soooo," Magilou says. "When'd you two come to Filgaia, anyway?" IS THE JIG UP?!

(As it happens, mortar-and-pestle medicine is pretty common in parts of Lunar, too.)

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

"Haah, look at you looking down on someone eating sweets! If I had my way and all the money in the world, I'd ditch the stale bread and eat all the sweets I want!" Rixia boasts to Bienfu of... her nonexistent financial status?

The foxgirl looks appreciative of the nurse when he arrives, but also maybe is hoping he brought them treats (he doesn't), but all of that's forgotten when Magilou just straight up punches Bienfu into himself. "Wow, did he just die??"

Rixia puffs up in response to Magilou, though, twiddling her thumbs to say, "I mean, sure, I'm still figuring it out, but I'm gonna be a great Drifter someday soon. I'm not going to just be a damsel in distress or anything!"

She also adds, "Also, Ashe's really smart, I think she's got more than just swords in her brain. Look, she's making medicine! She--" A pause, "You can kill pain??" --she regains her train of thought and adds as a sideswipe: "My deadbeat dad, now he's the kind."

Then Magilou asks them when they came to Filgaia. "Like, the night before last!" Rixia proudly says. Wait, is she supposed to keep that secret?

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

YEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet... . . . . . .

There goes Bienfu, top hat and cartoony form dissolving into light as he gets pummeled back into the ether. Or the sea of the soul. Or God knows where else. Ashiya's eyebrows briefly soar for the heavens, but then fall back to normal because arching them for too long is a pain.

"That's cool." is the observation at a talking creature being switched off like a hologram where the off button is punching yourself in the boob. "Is he like a familiar or something?" Ashiya asks whilst fiddling with her bangs, lest they look anything other than impractically, perfectly windswept. "I've never seen a familiar but you see that kinda thing in comic books and LN's all the time."

A moment's silence as the nurse comes in and out... no treats. Just a dinosaur band-aid for the Fellpool girl.

Ashiya also cocks a ooh-I'm-so-confident grin with the half-lidded stare to boot. It's hard for her to look like a total shit because she has a heart of gold, but she can manage a good munchkin look at least. "Hey, I'm not just some dumb muscle! I did my doctorate in Applied Symbology. That makes me offically really smart, or ... stubborn. At least."

But it's clearly a jab she enjoys taking. "All the dumb muscle is from my Dad's side. Comes in handy, baybee!"

Also she's still a little more giggly than normal from, essentially, brewing homemade Lean to help with the pain.

To Rixia, this cat now speaks. "Uh, painkiller's a term for a certain kinda medicine. Like, you take it when you're really sore from a headache or gettin' beat up or something, and the pain goes numb while you get better. So you can get to sleep and start healing. Makes sense, right?"

Finally, the jig is now up. But it's not a jig the two of them were ever very dedicated to dancing, so Ashiya just holds her hand up after Rixia speaks, like a student seeking permission to call out in class. "Yeah, we got here like a day ago. It sucked. But the sweets here are worth gettin' teleporty-sick."

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

"Oh, please, it's not that easy to get rid of him," Magilou dismisses Rixia's comments about Bienfu dying. "Normin are a type of Seraph -- elemental spirits -- so killing him is way too much of a dilemma in the derriere." Not to say that it's impossible, of course, but Magilou doesn't belabour that part for some mysterious reason. "He just turned back into light, don't worry about it. You could call him my familiar -- after all, I'm a witch! I make pacts with spirits to better express my vast magical power!"

The fact that she switches so effortlessly from insults to instruction is probably some kind of comment or another.

"But you know that, I'm sure," she asides, sly, to Ashiya, who had questions for her. "Of course, if you have business with the magnificent Magilou, you'll need to get to the end of the line! I'm very popular!" Is she, really?

And so, she looks from Rixia to Ashiya... and bursts out laughing. "What is this, a charity case? You're telling me you're this overqualified, and you've buddied up with a cute little squire? 'Someday soon'! Hahaha... Gods, you're rich!"

Oh, no! Magilou can sense the curse of richness on you, Rixia! It's too late!

"Astounding," she adds, dryly, after Ashe helpfully explains what a painkiller is. "You really won the brain lottery, huh, kid?"

... she doesn't have any mean comments at all about their various dads, though. She fails to make any comment on that idea at all.

"Well, being so new explains why you'd jump on a Wels train first thing. What, you get on the ghost train instead of the regular one, too?" Magilou sighs, with a broad shrug of her shoulders, palms to the sky. "Tragically, that's just a fact of public transit on this dustbowl of a planet! Get out while you can, if you ask me!"

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

"What's... a comic book?" Rixia asks. A pause. "Who's Ellen? Is she a comic?" The foxgirl further ventures of the mysterious acronym 'LN', who she's managed to misinterpret as a person. "Also, no, silly, he's not familiar, we just met him just now!"

Ashe also explains what a painkiller is. "Uh... huh... to be honest, back in Sagahli if you're hurt the only thing around was to go outside and pack it in snow and hope it freezes before you bleed out. Like we maybe got a bundle of herbs once in a while but that's it."

It's extremely clear between the two who's a dirt farmer girl from hellscape backwater Meribia with no education and who isn't.

"Haa... a witch, huh? That's cool... granny Rui talked a bit about people who made pacts like that, but it was kinda hard to understand. I think she said shepherds did it too, which makes no sense, unless sheep are a lot more magical than I've been thinking all this time."

Of course, Rixia doesn't know what a doctorate is, so she doesn't know how overqualified Ashiya is. "Hey! I'm not just some sidekick who needs saving! I contributed in that fight, right?? Also, I didn't know it'd be haunted! It was just regular-spooky when I snuck aboard!"

Rixia swells up again with confidence and says, "I'm going to Spira, that's where I want to go. Gonna find my jerkbag dad who left me, that's what I'm going to do. Ashe's from Spira, and from the same place my dad's apparently from, Mt. Gagazet! It's a pretty neat coincidence."

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

Like water off a duck's back, the mean girl energies wash over Ashiya as she returns to preparing the basis for Purple Drink Gel. Her voice and mannerisms are mildly surfer-y, for the benefit of those viewing at home, but how much of it is real and how much is put on?

"Comic books are like stories told through pictures and words, usually far-fetched and fantastic." is Lesson #2 from the apparent Magical PhD. Sly golden eyes fall back on Magilou, who is definitely the most animated person Ashiya has probably encountered in her journeys thus far. "Lottery? Nah, I had to work my butt off for everything I've got!. And good science communication's all about talking in terms the other party understands, right?" she waggles ... wait, is the mortar the long bit, or is that the pestle? I'm absolutely hoised on my own pestle here. "Doesn't do Rixia any good if I start rattling off all my OrgChem notes when she's never heard of any of this stuff!" either way, waggle. Waggle.

A moment's struggle to sit up so her back is against a backboard of the cot, rather than just sitting up unsupported. Too sore. "Um. But here's a question for the queue," starts Ashiya, after Magilou suggests they flee the planet. In fact, at the word 'planet', her eyes focus a little harder. She clearly wants to believe--but what?

"You aren't from around here either, huh? Are you from... further away?" she asks diplomatically, dancing around the term 'from space', but helpfully pointing up towards the roof. Beyond the roof.

Maybe she should have confirmed this before slipping all kinds of Look How Modern I Am talk out there. Oops. Whoopsies. Whoopsie-doodles!!

Ashiya gestures sidelong at Rixia with her thumb. "For the record, we're travelin' pals. I'm new to Filgaia, and she's new to the big wide world. It's fun! I mean, we're both also looking for someone really important, but it's still cool."

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

"I wasn't talking to you," Magilou tells Ashiya, on the matter of brain lotteries. She doesn't have too much of a retort, though. She's busy listening to Rixia misunderstand comic books, basic medicine, Shepherds, and ghosts. She takes in all of this, with an expression growing ever-more flabbergasted as time goes on.

"Okay," she concludes, turning to Ashiya, who in this weird topsy-turvy pair is actually the brains of the operation. "You know she's going to die, right? I give this girl three weeks, tops, before you lose track of her and she wanders into a Hellion's gaping maw."

Beat: "Hellions are creatures and humans affected by Malevolence," she asides, to Rixia. "Their negative emotions go wowy-meowy-blammo, and most of them can't cope with it, so there's a pretty high ratio of Hellions who'd rather pick you out of their teeth! Buuut," she adds, wagging a finger, "it's not like that's a forgone conclusion, or anything. If you go around assuming every Hellion's out for your blood, you might just end up shooting a sad puppy with that fancy gun of yours."

How IS Ruth doing after that Fire Shrine business, anyway? Oh, wait. Like she cares!

"I just happen to be the most powerful Sorceress on Lunar," Magilou says -- and she's boasting, but she's not boasting much. Being fair, a thousand years of active practice will make anyone top of the class, even before the once-in-a-generation born-under-a-lucky-star nonsense going on with Magilou's talent. She's had to Metroid her stats several times over the centuries just to keep things interesting. "The legendary Mazhigigika Miludin do Din Nolurun Dou! Magilou for short."

Magilou sweeps back her hair, but, tragically, her bangs fall right back into her face. This, too, is cosmic justice. "And you're a weird-looking Ronso, anyone ever tell you that?" She adds, jabbing a finger at Ashiya. "Oh, well. Not like I stuck around there long enough to tell, anyway. I hate the cold!"

Note here that Magilou also hates the hot. All temperatures are bad, actually.

She sighs, leaning back on her hands. "Say," she adds, a shade more sotto voce, as she looks back to Rixia again. "What's the point of finding your old man, anyway? It sure doesn't sound like you miss him."

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

"Huuhn... like a bard in book form or something?" Rixia is trying so hard to get her neurons to fire to grapple at the nearest-available concept to someone who's very likely not even literate. "Never got books," she admits. "No one bothered to teach me how to read fancy letters and all."

Rixia, fortunately, doesn't dwell on what 'OrgChem' even means because she's distracted by Magilou predicting her life expectancy. "Hey! I've got the blessing of--" A pause, "I've got power on my side, okay? I can fight a lousy monster or two off, even on my own."

Magilou explains Hellions to her, especially the sad ones. She pauses for a moment, then folds her arms and turns her head aside. "Okay, but like... it's not my fault they got affected. If a sad puppy tries to bite my face off, of course I'm going to swing back! That's just common sense, right?"

Magilou also introduces herself as the most powerful Sorceress on Lunar, and that has Rixia raising an eyebrow. "Wow, with that many surnames, you've got to be real famous... uh, I'm Rixia." No surname there, since she's a nobody from Lunar.

Why is Rixia looking for her dad, anyway? Doesn't sound like she misses him. "... ..."

She shrugs and huffs in an evidently more stressed manner, though she believes she's hiding it well, saying, "It's not like waiting to freeze and die back home does me any good. No one's there for me, so I might as well find him and give him a piece of my mind and--" She starts to sound a little bit heavy, like her emotions are penduluming but she's trying to keep a real stiff upper lip now that she's made the mistake of starting to talk about it. "I'll bet I'm the better kid than the one he talks about too. Probably a big loser. Really! What kind of Yevonite sails off with the Guard to join their war just to go home?? Ugh... I hate him. He's so irresponsible."

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

"I wasn't talking to you," quoth the immortal sorceress, and the very blue catsurfer glances up at the roof in silent realisation, though it's plain enough on her face. (Oh,) goes the internal monologue. (So eager to talk your way out of it you stepped right into the wrong accusation! Dummy!)

"Hey, I could teach you to read." Ashiya cheerfully sliiides on in conversationally when Rixia admits she can't beat The Alphabet (Savage) just yet. "It could be fun. You're quick on the uptake, why not give it a try?"

Now, one moment please! Ashiya squints as she slips a little beaker of some kind of congealing agent from her breast pocket. This, for those paying attention, is what puts the gelatinous in Gel. It's some kind of plant extract which you can somehow combine in the crafting pot to turn bitter medicine into delicious, candied hitpoints andor status cures.

"Hey, this is almost done. Anyone still hurting?"

Mid-crafting in the perfect time to chat. Gotta wait for that macro to finish firing, after all. "Hmm--I get why you're concerned about her gettin' hurt, Miss... er... Magilou." Ashiya has been listening, and weighing her own concerns against the very blunt way the Elf from Theatre Hell puts it. "Without getting too far into the details, Rixia's got a secret power. Real secret, real powerful."

The mixture's taking form. It's no longer a miserable paste, it's... turning into dome of jello. Perfection. "It scales up to whatever it's facin', and I pity whatever Hellbeast thinks it can make an easy snack out of this girl. I mean," she looks up from her work, languidly smiling. "It blew that train's ass clean off from a few near misses, you don't wanna know how wild it'll buck if something actually scratches her. Best left a mystery."

Ashiya grins a little at Rixia, sidelong. "Of course, I'd stick it out with you even if you didn't have any wild powers. You're good company. That's worth more than any secret power, right?" Daww! It's sincere!

A pause. Right before Rixia talks about her father, and her parents, and her misery, because she wouldn't interrupt that. But first.

"You know--never met the strongest sorceress in the world before today. But if I turn into the biggest ass-kicker in the Galaxy, I hope I keep as much of my chill as you have." is that a complement? A complement for Magilou, not even barbed? It totally is! Sick.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

Oh Gods, she doesn't even know how to read.

Strangely, Magilou doesn't correct Ashiya on whether she's worried about Rixia. Surely she just forgot, because she's clearly heartless.

"Sure," she agrees, too, too lightly, on the topic of Rixia's blessings. She thinks of a girl, resonant and resplendent, left to fend for herself with her performer's magics at the bottom of a ravine. "You have a real nice ARM. Can you use it?"

Or is she bound to be used, instead?

Oh, well.

Her lips part, in a loose, toothy grin. "Of course, if anyone destroys you, you should destroy them right back," which might even be entirely possible, if Ashiya's explanation is on the mark. "But what if a dangerous person doesn't hurt you? I wonder where you'll draw the line." Magilou's one to talk about lines, with how many she crosses habitually.

Or maybe that makes her the best person to talk about them. Who knows?

It is pretty weird how Magilou has a surname or three, given she's from Lunar. This remains weird, even screening out the lies, damned lies, and statistics. But as it happens, Ashiya and Rixia aren't the only ones keeping secrets.

She listens to Rixia huff and grumble, and leans back, on her hands, head canting to the side as she looks sidelong to Rixia. (She makes no comment on giving her space through her body language.) "Do you think he'll say something to make it up to you?" She presses, quietly, eyelids and lips lowering. She doesn't press on how her father made it to mainland Lunar from Gagazet, even though that's the biggest logic puzzle here. "What do you want to get out of this, Rixia? When your old man values something more than you, to the point he'll leave you to die..." She rolls her neck back, looking up to the ceiling. "... ahh, it doesn't matter. You're not about to listen to some old witch, anyway." Somehow, saying that, all that vivacious viciousness in her voice drains away to -- not much at all, really.

Magilou shrugs, straightening up. "Point of order," she adds, to Ashiya, with a grin and an incisive tone much more suited to her, "you met two. That woman who bit it and responded with infinite meteor works is Lily Keil -- she's one of the strongest sorceresses on Filgaia. She's fine, by the way," the witch asides, as if she couldn't care less. "But you're entirely right to think I'm much more chill! Why, I'm positively pleasant!"

Bienfu would like to lean into the narrative here to point out that no, she is not.

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

Rixia takes a moment to pull herself together -- and you can almost spot the moment in which Rixia's desire to not be sad is answered by the device through some subtle mixture of sedatives or however the nanomachines work.

"Probably not," Rixia bluntly answers Magilou. "He'll probably just be surprised and flabbergasted, and apologetic in that sad way of his..." Being sedated she's a bit more sober, too, in the end. "I don't know. I wanted to get out of that crappy village and didn't have a goal. I wanted to see what the big deal was. I bet it's not even..." She kinda knows she's lying through her teeth, here, though, since Rixia's not so ignorant she doesn't realise her father still means a lot to her and being abandoned like that fucked her up real bad.

Rixia looks surprised -- and pleased -- when Ashiya offers to teach her how to read, and hops on that distraction train like what. You can see the bushy white-pink tail waggle back and forth lazily behind her. "Wow, really? Awesome! Yeah, I'll give that a try."

She shakes her head, though, pulling her hospital gown up and revealing the wound's healed. "No, it's fine. The secret power seems real keen on fixing me up, so most anything heals in minutes or hours after a scuffle. Honestly, since I've gotten it, I've been a lot more awake, less hungry and painful, and my skin's gotten better and everything..."

Which isn't a surprise to Ashiya, given one of the things the nanomachines does is passive maintenance of effectively every facet of its user -- blood sugar, nutrition, the works. ... probably did overtime to just lift her straight out of malnutrition, given the state of the village she's in. Also, mood control, as just shown.

Ashiya boasts about the device, though, and Rixia is clearly weak to flattery, rubbing the back of her head. Magilou asks if she can use it, though, and Rixia says, "It's fine! It's real easy to use, I just have to think of what I want it to do and it basically takes care of it for me."

As if to make a fine point on this, she actually summons it -- the silver gunblade with the Ronso design, which emerges in a wash of data cubes. That sure ain't Meribian in origin, or Ronso-made. It also magically stinks like Symbology, and awfully artificial too.

"... If you're suddenly given a chance to matter after being told you don't all your life, wouldn't you hop on that chance? I mean, you're sitting right at the top of the hill now, Miss Strongest Sorceress, but you had to start somewhere too, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.

Glance to the left. Feline eyes scan Magilou as she speaks so candidly of Rixia's father, and how he's probably moved on. Doesn't value her. It's raw, but moving. She's taking mental notes.

"Oh," Ashiya's mind is given pause to recall the humanoid eldritch horror who plucked her out of the train to safety, not long ago. "That lady was cool, too. She sounded military, right? But not stuffy like the Fed... uh... the... military I can't remember much more of because of Sin's Toxin." BOY that was such halfassed fib that it's actually just an on-purpose signpost of [i cant say a thing in detail but im alluding to a thing haha j/k (but what if?)]

"Also, c'mon, I'm no Ronso. I don't have horns! I don't have a snout! I swear their men must be born jacked! Ripped!"

Glance to the right. Watching Rixia for her reaction to what Magilou was saying. A little tension in the air? If Ashiya sucks at one thing, it's been having frank talks instead of dancing around Rixia's issues.

She's silent all through Rixia's response, too! Observing her with sharper acumen than her goofy, laid-back personality suggests. She puts a friendly arm around the girl's shoulders and squeezes, when all's said and done about the realities of her father.

"Careful with it." is all Ashiya adds, after the bizarre space-age intelligent hellweapon is summoned for a breath of fresh air and a walk. But it's not a nagging reminder, it's from a place of care. Big sis energy. Honestly, the scene is kinda Rixia's right now. Feel that spotlight? Mmm.

<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.

Of course, Rixia has all sorts of feelings about her father. Magilou won't comment on them; she asks her questions, and leaves the fox-girl to decide whether the answers mean anything.

She does notice the way Rixia's mood numbs out so quickly, though. Hm. Her secret power, huh.

Do excuse Magilou for being a little sceptical about that.

"Precisely," she wags her finger, at Ashiya. "You're the funniest-looking Ronso I've ever seen. Hornless!" Mean. Mean to Ashe. And yet, despite being so mean, she doesn't point out just how ridiculous blaming that stumble on Sin's toxin is.

She watches the gunblade summoning with interest, a hand curling at her chin. "How long has it been..." Magilou starts, quietly, and trails off.

... that gun was different to this one, but it has the same stench of destiny about it. "You should really listen to her," the witch warns Rixia, a shadow over her eyes. "Guns like those in the wrong hands have created the most impressive atrocities of our land."

Her hand cups her cheek, and she slumps forward, catching herself on an elbow against her bedsheets. "Oh, I've always been this good," she assures Rixia, with a smug smile, as if she hadn't just gotten deadly serious for a moment. "From the day I leapt out of my peach!"

This is a lie. Multiple lies, even. She says them easily, smoothly, as if they were the absolute truth.

"Buuut," she says, closing her eyes, briefly. "I've heard plenty of stories of people who desired power. There was this one girl... the world couldn't wait to abandon. She had a strange power, too... but in the end, she was only used and exploited. Then, one day, someone rescued her and gave her a place." Her eyes open; there's no shred of light to them. "But the man who took her in only wanted to use her for something much, much worse than sideshow performances. Because she wanted to matter, she was destroyed... by her very own 'father'."

Magilou huffs out a grin, forcing her face back on, teeth a shred too vicious as she looks back to Rixia. "Pretty sad, huh? Lunar's full of pitiful wretches like you. But hey, misery loves company, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.

Rixia doesn't seem to mind Ashe's slips of the tongue, as if she just kinda accepts her newest friend for being a little suspicious sometimes or has already decided that how nice she's treating her is well worth the amount of suspicious activity going on around her.

"Yeah, dad was pretty big too..." Rixia does admit on the topic of Ronsos. Ashe tells her to be careful, though, and you can just tell the moment her cheeks flush a little and her tail wags harder. Someone's a little attracted, maybe. "I know, I know! It's fine, right? Strongest sorceress in Lunar and all."

She really kinda just accepted that claim at face value, huh?

Rixia makes the gunblade wink away a moment later, as easy as apple pie. She does note Magilou cryptically mentioning 'how long' it has been, but... that's not a lead she has any idea about.

"Well ex-cuuuse me if some of us have to climb the ladder then," Rixia grins in turn. But she pauses dead, because Magilou's telling her story and....

...

To be honest, Rixia's first instinct, even as young as eighteen... she's a bartender who's heard all kinds of stories masked in the "asking for a friend" style. She assumes that it's Magilou herself she's talking about. Maybe not.

She doesn't point it out, because it's the bartender's credo to not point that out. Because when someone wants to tell you something raw, but can't quite admit the whole truth about it, you let them. That's how she's taught, anyway.

"... yeah. It's pretty sad. People do sure like to use others, it's true." There's a dangerous glint in her eyes for a moment. "Maybe I'm playing a game I can't win, with rules I don't even know, but I know if I don't play it at all, I've definitely lost."

She lightens with a grin back to Magilou's own, though, since it turns out if there's one thing they share in common, it's forcing a grin on their faces. "All the company. You're pretty cool, Miss Magilou."