2022-10-26: One Last Thing
- Log: One Last Thing
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Lily Keil
- Where: Deku Isles
- Date: October 26, 2022
- Summary: Before she goes, Josie has one last favor to ask of Lily.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hey, Tiger, got a moment?"
This follows the rat-a-tat-tat on Lily's cabin door; the identity of her caller could hardly be mistaken for anyone else aboard the Karlsefni.
"Looks like we're almost into port, or wherever it is Leon's gonna leave me," Josie says, rolling her shoulders in a shrug once the door is opened. "Was thinking I could borrow you a titch, or suchlike."
Josie pauses, with a smile that could perhaps even be called 'apologetic'.
"One last little favor, right, before I make myself scarce for a bit."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily happens to be in, and Leon happens to be not. She opens the door after the knock, and looks over Josie, who--well, no, she wasn't going to mistake her for someone else very easily. Lily is good at telling who's who even when you don't take into account josie's... uniqueness.
"Sure," Lily says, not as gruffly as she could. She notices the apologetic tone, after all. "That's fine. What did you need?"
She reaches back to grab her satchel and starts out of the cabin, looking to Josie for where they're going.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Shouldn't take long. But doing it on my lonesome'd probably be a right mess."
What does she need, precisely?
"Up on top deck's best, right, least as near as I'm thinking," Josie continues, waving a hand as if to indicate that Lily should follow her. "Besides, be a good idea to see where I'm landing, yeah?"
She's a few steps ahead when she pauses in her tracks.
"You still got that knife of yours, right, Tiger?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
What does Josie need? It's a little of a mystery. "All right." But up on the top deck is fine, Lily can go there, following along. When Josie mentions the knife, Lily kneels down and pulls it from her boot, tossing it up and catching it once she's standing again.
"Of course."
Pause. "Did you need something cut?" A beat, "Seeing where you're landing is always a good idea, either way."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Sure is," Josie says, smiling lopsidedly as she glances back over her shoulder at Lily. "Ain't like I asked, right, with all the business on, and the way I figure... just about anywhere'll do dandy."
The important part is that she parts ways, and the sooner she can do that, the better. There's more than a few things that need doing, and the sooner they can get done, well. The sooner they're done.
It'll be a right shame if she ends up breaking her promise to these kids. No more lies, Xantia had told her, and sure, she's bared her soul on that front. But there's one last reckoning left to her, and she knows better than try to postpone it.
Before any of that, though--
"Yeah. Sure do," Josie says, emerging into the sunlight. "My hair."
Her hair, which she has not bound up into a braid-and-bun since she awoke aboard the ship and even now tumbles about her shoulders.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I guess so, though if we dropped you off in the middle of the Deku Isles or something it might be a little less than convenient," she points out. She knows Josie's planning to go; she's said what she feels about that, and sees no reason to relitigate it for the moment. She has some things that need doing...
"Oh yeah?" Lily says, and extends the knife to Josie handle-first. "Well then."
That's Josie's business. "You sure you want to just go it with the knife?" she asks. Lily could, for instance, do it a lot more evenly with her magic...
But it's Josie's hair, and her reasons for cutting it. Lily doesn't ask, even if she is admittedly curious.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie's response to that is to laugh, and heartily. "Sure would! I'd have to learn to swim in the sea quick-like, or build a raft? Though, living on my lonesome on my own private island ain't half-bad, neither."
Except she has no intention of doing any of those things. Her debtor might well find her if she skips out, but if her intention is to make good... well.
She won't find it on a deserted island, or whatever it is that passes around this part of Aquvy.
She takes that knife and walks out towards the edge of the deck. A breeze catches her pale locks, tosses them about.
"Seems fitting, right," she says, glancing the once Lily's way. "Scissors, sure, they'd be choice for a straight cut... but it seems right doing it this-a-way." She smiles, wistfully. "...Don't suppose you'd be willing to hold or cut, now?" She wiggles her right hand somewhat stiffly, as if as a reminder.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Sounds like a retirement plan," Lily says, and her tone is clear that she doesn't think that's what Josie is going for at the moment. She can... tell, that that's not how it is. But they walk out on the deck, the sea air ruffling Lily's hair as she goes, too.
Scissors would be the normal approach. But it does seem fitting. Lily won't complain at being included in this--though she thinks, for a half-moment, and says, "I'll hold. That way you're sure to cut where you want to."
She steps up behind Josie, then, and starts gathering up her hair. "Sometimes... it's time."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Scissors would be the ideal approach. As cleanly as she'll manage, she'll still end up with a ragged edge.
But sometimes, that is the point.
"There's a dear," Josie tells Lily, wink and all. "Way I was thinking, I could use a haircut, anyhow. Long with braids was always her style -- it's a right pain when you're workin' on ARMs, I'll say. But needs must, and all that--"
She doesn't hesitate when she slices off one lock at right about ear height.
"...But spot for me a little, would you? Hate to do somethin' embarrassing in the back!"
Pale locks fall one after the other like leaves from a tree to stand out against the deck.
"Would've been a mess down below," Josie remarks, clumsily brushing hair from one shoulder. "This way, the wind'll do what I don't."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily kind of figures that's the point. "I see," Lily says, since Josi explains. "Yeah, that would get in the way. It does for me all the time." Lily, after all, also has long hair, and works on ARMs. She'd know! But Josie goes for it. No hesittaion.
"Got it," Lily answers of spotting for her, and Josie may not even notice when she waves her fingers past an errant lock that would've been obviously uneven, cutting it with the barest touch of shadow.
"Heh. Yeah..."
And there's something about sending it off with the wind... But Lily imagines that would be too sentimental for her to actualy say.
"There you go."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It's easy enough to just pull it back, sure enough. But with one half-bum hand, even using magic to pull the difference is a sometimes-frustrating experience. Better she be done with it all, at least in the meantime.
And...
There's something to be said about the symbolism of it all, too. Make a clean break of it.
Let go.
And there she goes.
"Well! That's a load off," she remarks, handing the knife back to Lily. Her fingers quest for the edges, searching for any extra-long strays, and fails to find any. Fluffing out the edges, Josie grins at Lily.
"Ain't bad, if I do say so myself. Heh..."
She looks Lily over the once.
"But don't you think 'bout following in my footsteps or none, now. Long hair suits you."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily takes back the knife when it's handed over, taking a moment to replace it in her boot while Josie gets to know her new hairstyle. She nods back, perhaps a little more seriously, but then--she's always a little more serious than most.
"It's good," Lily says, and then--is a little surprised, but goes 'hm'. "...Thanks. I'd rather stick with it, I think."
But she appreciates being part of the moment, all the same. Even if she has no need for such a moment for herself.
She almost even smiles about it. It's close.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Lily almost smiles. That's okay.
Josie smiles for her.
It's not possible to unring a bell. There's no going back -- there's only going forward, whatever that might entail.
Almost, Josie can allow herself to think there just might be a 'forward'.
"...So whereabouts d'you think we're at? Can never keep these islands straight or none," she adds, tilting her head and coupling it with a shrug.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Forward is the only option. ...And if Josie can think that option exists at all, then Lily will take that for progress. Maybe there will be. Maybe it means she'll come back, when she finishes...
Whatever it is she has to do.
"I think we actually are around the Deku Isles," Lily says, despite her earlier joke. "But we're in Sylvaland territory, and that's probably where we're headed. There's enough ports from there to get you wherever."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"That, I figured," Josie tells her, shrugging her shoulders. "But then's the hard part, yeah? Still, good to know. I figure I'll manage my way somewhere, like."
She pauses, focusing on a tiny island in the far distance.
"...Don't you worry or none, Rose-of-Sharon. I gotta come back someday or other, as long as you've got my baby. Yeah?"
The smile's a confident one. It isn't matched by the look in her eyes.
The tale told there doesn't speak of a failure to return, though.
Merely of its uncertainty.
If it should be possible, though...
"Home's where the heart is, after all."