2022-06-14: Belief

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  • Log: Belief
  • Cast: Ida Everstead-Rey, Leah Sadalbari
  • Where: Void 5, Guild Galad
  • Date: June 14, 2022
  • Summary: Ida Everstead-Rey sits down at one of her favorite restaurants near the University. Leah Sadalbari comes to join her, and they have a conversation.


<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Void 5's claim to fame is, of course, the venerable Eastbridge University--but it's hardly alone. It has the usual assortment of shops, push-cart vendors, and roaming salespeople common to Guild Galad, as well as campus-town standbys. Ida regularly came to one little hole in the wall restaurant while she was a student, and she was pleased to see it was still there after years abroad.

    It's early evening. A glowing 'OPEN' sign hangs in the window, beneath a more eye-catching sign that reads Five's Best Noodles and Dumplings. The restaurant is on the second floor of a multi-use commercial block, accessible using either a lift or stairs. Inside, it's a simple affair: claim one of the padded metal seats at the bar, or a table, and wait for the server to come take your order. Ida has just taken a seat, and sits, hands folded. She doesn't have a dining companion today--she just wanted some good food.

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah Sadalbari has a number of contacts at Eastbridge University. Perhaps she even visited some of them today! Because, after all, she is now in Guild Galad, in the early evening, and she has taken the stairs up. She often does. Her approach is not exactly subtle; someone who knows her well enough to expect her may recall the familiar noise of her gait against the floor: step-STEP, step-STEP, her artificial leg heavier than the natural.

She comes to a stop next to Ida, and sits down at the bar beside her. She also awaits the server.

"Hello, Miss Everstead-Rey. I see what we had similar ideas as to food."

She is wearing her uusual indigo tunic and heavy gloves, and has sat on the side such that her good eye is facing Ida.

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida was doing much the same thing, earlier. She's dressed in her favorite outfit: blue overcoat, gold vest, cream-colored trousers, hiking boots. A book satchel sits on the counter next to her, weighted down with some recent acquisitions. The dinner rush is just beginning, and footsteps blend in easily with the ambient noise of the streetscape--even odd ones, like Leah's. Ida glances at the door as the bell chimes, eyes bright and curious.

    "Miss Sadalbari?" Ida says, and a warm smile dawns on her face. "Have a seat! It's been too long." She pats the seat next to her, and scoots it out so Leah can seat herself. "How've you been?"

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

The bell!! That gives it away, certainly enough. Leah seems reasonably comfortable in Guild Galad, in decent health, though she always looks a bit older than she is--the mileage, rather than the years. As she sits down she nods to Ida. "It has," she agrees, and does not mention that part of why she is in Guild Galad in the first place is to check in on a certain scholar.

"I have been well," she says. "But very busy. I've been studying a bit of Spira's religious history lately. It's fascinating, isn't it? Sure, it's turned out that Yevon has done terrible things... but that doesn't change the way people have steadfastly believed, and even now look for something to hope for."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Spiran religious history," Ida says, brow arched. "You work further afield than I imagined." As Leah gets herself situated, the server appears, emerging from the woven curtain separating the dining area from the kitchen. She's of Beastfolk stock, vaguely reptilian, with cat's-eye pupils and skin tinted a deep green.

    "Miss Everstead-Rey," she says, with a big, welcoming smile. "What will you be having today?" Ida glances at the menu, though it's largely perfunctory.

    "The number ten, with lime, chilis, and five-spice sauce, please--tea to drink." She hands the menu back with a gracious nod. Once the server has taken orders, she departs; the curtain does not quite hide the sound of her voice announcing the order, or the hissing of hot oil in woks.

    "That was Mrs. Chiba," Ida says. "She's run this place since before I first started school. But yes, where were--"

    Spiran religious studies. Ida's face falls, ever-so-slightly, as she remembers a cold metal cage suspended over a void. The stone cell that was only a little better than that. Falling prone and bleeding as Seymour demanded a kiss from her dear friend.

    Lombardia.

    "Yunalesca is gone," Ida says, her voice suddenly tight. "The Summonings cannot continue--not as they did."

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"The frontiers of the field are in far-off places. If I don't keep up with the worlds, I'll fall behind."

As the server comes out, Leah nods to her in greeting. "Hello. I'll have the six, as it comes. Likewise with tea, please."

Leah nods to the introduction, but then she considers the way Ida's face falls. Yes... It would make sense that she would have such a reacton. She has had terrible interactions with Yevon. And Yevon has been fairly well terrible.

"They cannot," Leah agrees. "Spira must find a new way forward. Will they reform their old ways to move into the future, or will they seek a new path entirely...?"

"It's hard to say, and it's ultimately up to them. The history is interesting,but it would be rather ghoulish to take much pleasure in it being written as it is now."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "I don't blame the Summoners," Ida says, because that look in Leah's eye is telling. "One of them is a dear friend, and she tried to do the right thing. She suffered greatly for it. Now, she's forced her home to make a choice. Find a way to put Sin down for good, without the Final Aeon, or turn from it, and live in a doomed world. I can't imagine what she thought back then, in Zanarkand. I don't know what I would do, if I had that weight on my shoulders."

    "Seymour, though..." Ida folds her hands so she doesn't clench her fists. "I'd say 'Valmar drag him down, screaming', but that... that could happen. And nothing good would come of it."

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"That's good," Leah says of not blaming the Summoners. "All of them were willing to die to preserve their homeland. All were willing to put their own lives on the line for what they believed in. It's an admirable quality." This friend, of course, is clearly Yuna. What must she have thought then? What would she do...?

"We none of us know what we would do, until it is time to do it. That is what I think. We may have ideas, or hopes... but the moment of truth is the moment in which we learn."

Seymour... Yes. "Yes, he is a problem, isn't he? Not just for your friend, either. ...No, I tink we'd be best off without him collaborating with Valmar, if such a thing is possible."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    The tea arrives, promptly. Mrs. Chiba sets a pair of small teapots, one before Leah and one before Ida. Both have little bowls of sugar. Ida gives the server a thankful nod, and stirs a spoonful of sugar into her teacup.

    "If they sought to save their fellow Spirans, then they deserve respect," Ida says. "Yet... I can't turn a blind eye to the people who used them--the people who lionized the dead, and encouraged others to go die so they didn't have to lift a finger." Her lips twist as she remembers Kinoc again, and the way his burning pitch covered her skin. The flesh on the back of her right hand stirs, incongruous with the actual stirring motion. It's like a pond someone just disturbed.

    "Speaking of," Ida says, turning to acknowledge Leah, and the elephant in the room. "What do you make of the state of the Church, these days?" In these parts, 'Church' just means 'the Church of Granas'.

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah also thanks Mrs. Chiba with a nod, but she doesn't put sugar in her tea. She takes a moment, however, to inhale the aroma, while it's still too hot to drink.

"An important consideration," Leah agrees. "How long did that system go on, enriching the few at the cost of the noble? We know; a thousand years. That's a long time for such to endure..." She shakes her head, and does not comment on Ida's flash shifting, though she certainly notices it.

"...Mm. The same thing, isn't it?" Leah says, with a shake of her head. "A tragic waste. The Church could still do much good in the world, but with its faith shaken, it may not have that chance, even though it's needed all the more now. Valmar's minions walk; whether you believe in God or not, that much is manifest."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "They had the Calm," Ida says. Steam curls off the surface of the tea in lazy, wispy spirals. "What did it feel like, seeing Sin return that first time? The despair at knowing the monster was back, despite all the sacrifice?" She flexes the fingers of her right hand, and thinks back to Lombardia's escape, in hopes the ghost in her blood can feel it.

    Leah speaks her thoughts, and Ida nods, her eyes growing dark. "My mother and aunt were orphans," she says. "They took the vows because the Church raised them and accepted them. They left, eventually, but they never... left it behind." There's so much she can't say. "Mother wasn't even there to speak with her master before he died. They just cut him down. And for what? Valmar stalks the earth, Granas is gone, and God is not speaking. Was it--" Her breath hitches. "That they can just--"

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"...If Yunalesca was the first to defeat Sin... she was killed in the attempt, like all the others. Did she ever believe that Sin would be permanently gone? People might have had their own beliefs, but it seems that the rot goes back that far." Steam curls, and Leah raises the tea to her mouth, takes a sip. It's still very hot, of course.

But Ida... hmm. Her mother and aunt, she speaks of. "For what?" Leah repeats.

"...Are you familiar with the man who led them? Bishop Stone? I knew him. I have old connections within Granas."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Ida shakes her head. "I don't know," she says. "Maybe she knew she was only buying them time. But the moment the Final Summoning was enshrined into dogma, it pushed aside any hope of alternatives--and when Mi'ihen happened, the Yevonites doubled down. Maybe they even sabotaged it to make themselves look better." Ida's lips twist into a scowl.

    Then Leah drops a bombshell, and Ida is caught wide-eyed, as though Asgard had just strolled in and challenged her to a fight. "You knew him?" Her voice drops to a whisper. "He was a traitor. He was..." Ida sucks in a breath, remembering the fight in the ruins. "I didn't know him, but I know someone who did. He was shattered."

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

"I remember... Yevon made a point of getting involved, according to all reports. Two Maesters were there. I'm not sure they needed to sabotage it, just refuse full-throated help. Either way... Yevon ensured the continuity of its power. And had it succeeded, well... Yevon would have revealed its blessing all along. It was a well-planned scheme."

She shakes her head.

Then, she nods. "I did," Leah says. "Obviously, his colleagues had no idea what sort of man he really was. ...But it was his avarice and cruelty that took the Ethos to the end they suffered. He hid it well, for a long time. But in the end, it would seem he viewed his flock as the wolf, rather than the shepherd."

"...I had no idea he would act the way he did, but I confess I never much liked him."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    Leah is probably right. But it's that 'probably' that speaks to how much Ida's trust in authority has eroded over the years. Ida sighs, and stares down into her tea, as if she could read the leaves and foretell the future of the Church. "And not two months later, the Pope, dead. I... I don't think I believe, anymore." And saying that feels like a weight is gone from Ida's shoulders. "At least, not in the way they want me to."

    "But it's so hard, not feeling like the Day of Darkness is unfolding around us, sometimes."

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah doesn't push the matter. Instead she sips more at her tea, listens to talk of belief, and death. And perhaps, the death of belief. "...It's difficult to believe, in such circumstances. On the other hand, considering the truth... perhaps 'their' way of believing isn't the best after all."

"It would be hard to feel that way... but I believe, myself, that it is. The change is upon us, whether we like it or not. I do believe--in a higher order. And it is now that we must prepare to do all we can against the darkness."

"...Valmar's power is real. Only those strong enough to stand against it can hope to guide this world to a brighter day."

She nods, after a moment, setting downher tea. "So keep heart. The way you believe... it is your own. That much, at least, belongs to you."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "I can't go back," Ida says. "What I know about Valmar changes everything." He was mortal, once. Maybe Granas was, too. Valmar was part of some 'Artificial Guardian Project'. The pieces are there. Ida only has to figure out the interstitial steps. Maybe then they can find a way to do what Yuna did for Spira. Maybe then she can force everyone to make a choice: cling to their antiquated notions of sin and darkness, or rise to challenge Valmar with their own fallible, mortal wills.

    They've gone in a circle. Funny.

    "Thank you, Leah," Ida says, and she manages a smile. "I'll remember that. It's easy to forget that I'm not alone, sometimes--but words like that help."

    The curtain parts once more. Mrs. Chiba emerges once again, bearing a tray with two piping-hot noodle bowls. "The number six," she says, and she sets one before Leah, "and the number ten, with lime, chilis, and five-spice sauce." Clunk, goes the second bowl, onto the table in front of Ida. "Enjoy."

    "I missed this place," Ida says, as if she and Leah weren't having a deep and sometimes cryptic conversation mere moments ago. "Is this your first time here, Leah? You're in for a treat, either way."

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

Leah watches ida for a moment. "Do you think you'll write about that, too?" she wonders. She does not speak of sin and darkness, or of fallible mortal will. She instead watches Ida smile, and inclines her head. "The world is interconnected. So are people."

but as the curtain parts, the noodle bowls arrive with Mrs. Chiba, and Leah replies, "Thank you. I'm sure we will."

Then she looks to Ida, and is content with the subject change it seems. "Yes," she says. "The stairs are a bit inconvenient for me. But it seems it was worth the effort."

<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.

    "Once I find all the pieces," Ida says, "maybe." What's a little excommunication between Drifter friends? "If I do, you'll be one of the first to know." And then she tucks into her meal. Deep questions of faith can wait a while. Ida is hungry, and dinner is ready.