2023-02-15: Today and Tomorrow
- Log: Today and Tomorrow
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Yvain
- Where: Biroclef Ridge
- Date: February 15, 2023
- Summary: Josie pays visit to an old friend to let him how what has been and what might yet be.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
It takes time to get there, walking on foot. Sure, there's the occasional cart going her way, but as she's so often done, Josie does the bulk of her traveling on the two feet God gave her.
Slowly, eventually, she gets there. If any of the residents in the village near to the temple recognize her from the last time she'd been this way, they don't show it.
But that's how she likes it.
"Hey, Yvvie," she says, calling upon that obnoxious nickname once again. "You in? Or've you gone walkabout on me at the last minute?"
She's changed since he saw her last. It's not just her clothing, or her hair. Or the return of her constant companion.
It's something rather deeper than that.
On her lips is an honest smile.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
The Seraph Yvain has a wide view of time. So long as what needs to be done is done within the appropriate window, he can wait for a while. And indeed, he has waited for some time; he's wondered when, or if, Josephine Lovelace might return to the shrine. And so, using that nickname...
"Hmmmm," comes a voice from all around. "Not exactly the most appropriate greeting."
In a column of flame Yvain appears, and grins faintly. "Good thing I don't care that much about that."
A beat, "No, I haven't. I'm still watching over the gateway, now that it's open. But it won't go anywhere in the next few minutes unless a lot more people come knocking."
He regards her, thoughtfully. "You found something out there, on your journey," he thinks.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"I ain't the most appropriate kind of person," she tells him. That smile of hers hardly diminishes.
"And neither're you," Josie finishes, as he makes his appearance.
She plants her left hand on her hip, looking him up and down. "Right, thought you might be occupied or the like. Still, if'n you've time enough for me, then I'll take it. Right?" Her smile widens. "Don't you worry yourself or none. I'm here on my lonesome. If anyone else comes a-knockin', well, I ain't had nothing to do with it."
He remarks that she found something, on her travels.
"You bet. Guess you could say I found 'me'." Josie shakes her head. "Sentimental crap, yeah? But..." She sighs.
"Well, I figured I'd best come and see you. Seems like I've finished one leg of my journey, and I've time before I head out on the rest. What better time to catch up with an old friend?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"True," Yvain answers. "I'm really not." He smiles back. He is in his usual robes, rather than in the official garb of the trial keeper; no dragon mask today. "Sometimes I am. I have a few things taking up my attention, these days. But not at the moment."
Here alone... "Good. I haven't seen trouble yet, and I'd rather not."
"Sometimes a little sentiment is worthwhile," Yvain says. "But good. That's one of the most important things you can do on a quest, I think."
"So you do. You have the time. Well, I'm honored. As for me, not much is happening; I'm concerned about that Ivan boy, but I think he's recovered all right. The village is as sleepy as ever. The path is open, now--those going to Pentagulia just have to finish preparing themselves."
"And what about you? Catch me up."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Seems like you lot've been busy," Josie remarks, smiling lopsidedly. "From what I've heard tell, anyhow. Done in the Lord of Calamity, seems like? Shame about the Shepherd, unless I'm misunderstanding something."
Which is to say: not Yvain himself, of course; he has his duties here. But without his support and those like him, they'd never have had the chance.
By Josie's reckoning, that is.
"Heh... that's where you and me different. But fair enough, fair enough... I've been hanging around those that think like you long enough for it to be familiar, right," she says, waving her good hand in front of her face dismissively.
"So they're heading out soon. Heh, ain't heard of 'time to rest', have they... Then again, rocks and glass houses, I'm thinking," Josie says, shrugging broadly. "Here I am, 'bout to go heading off on a crusade or the like, myself."
And why is that?
"...Long story short, I ain't who I said, but I also weren't lyin'. I figure I'm Josie enough to close the difference for my sister. Should've been her doin' all this... but she ain't here. I am. And maybe I ain't able to make what I did right -- or what she did, for that matter," Josie continues, unable to stop now that she's started, as contextless as her tale may be, "but damn, guess I'd better do anyway. Yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"He'll be back, or so I hear. One day. I intend to be here when he is. ...His stories about his adventures with the Prime Lord will be of interest to me." To say the least! But... Yvain thinks he sees that 'grouping' just fine, in any case.
"Good enough," Yvain answers as to familiar. But then he considers. "No, they aren't much for stopping off to rest at all. They have to push themselves fairly hard." A grin. "But very glass houses."
A crusade or the like...
"Then you've taken it on yourself. That's enough." It has to be enough; there is nothing else. He doesn't sound /surprised, to hear that she was someone other than she represented herself to be. The tale is without much context, but...
"We can't undo what we've done. But those of us who remain can carry on. And that choice is one I'll deny no one."
"So 'yeah', I think you're making the right choice. ...But part of what I like about you is that you'd do it regardless. It's refreshing."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"We weren't close or none," Josie says, of the Shepherd. "Wouldn't know him from the King of Krosse, right. But... there's them that'll miss him, I figure. Remember 'em for him, when the time comes." There's nothing more for her to say on the matter -- nothing more she can truly say. This isn't a part of her story.
Yet, it is a terrible thing to consider: a future where they're all forgotten.
The only thing worse she can figure is that there very well could be no future yet to come at all. That is, unless those of the present day don't do what they can to ensure that the present can transform into the past, and the future can become the present.
It has to be a crusade, or something of that nature. She's doing what she'd never think she'd do: going barreling alone against the face of a foe she knows she can't defeat--
Well, nearly alone.
There will be others on the same quest as she. And, maybe...
"There'll be a bill at the end, I figure." Josie's smile has taken on a mirthless quality. "But that suits me fine. I ain't about to tell someone they shouldn't, or they can't. They've as much right as me, yeah? But I also ain't just planning on lying down and taking it, neither. The same goes for all them that wants me dead. If'n the choice's run or fight, guess I'm gonna fight. Yeah?"
...So that's what he likes about her, is it? Josie shakes her head, as if she were abashed on some level. "Hey, now... weren't all that long ago that I'd say 'it ain't none of my business' or the like. Not right sure when that changed on me... not like I'm tryin' to make up for what I done," she continues, looking directly at him almost as if to challenge him. "But I'll be damned if I go to ground while there's little girls getting taken from their sisters."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"I will," Yvain answers. It isn't her story--it's barely his. But he will remember the stories he can, for those that won't be there. It is part of his duty. And it is one he takes quite seriously.
"Could be," Yvain says. "You've never shied away from trouble." He nods, at that. "Good. They all have good reasons, I'm sure... But I'd prefer to hear you tell me about this latest adventure down the line, too."
To fight, instead of run, for better or worse. Is it the choice he would make? Maybe, maybe not. But he thinks it's the right one for her.
"True," Yvain answers about 'none of her business'. "You're not. You can't. ...But that reason," Yain says, "Is good enough. That reason is going to make all the difference to some of those little girls and sisters. And they'll never say you should've laid down and died at the charge of an old enemy, if you can do for them what you say you will."
"...But if it helps," he says more lightly, "I don't just mean that you'd do the 'right thing'. I also mean that you'd do what you thought was best whether I liked it or not. That's part of the fun."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Some'd say that's 'cause I make trouble," Josie quips, a lopsided smile on her lips. "But, fair enough. If there's enough of me left to darken your doorstep in the future, I'll come on 'round when the dust's settled. Yeah?"
She doesn't stop there, her gaze hooded as she looks his way. "Though turnabout's fair play. I'll be wanting a trade for my tale when the day comes."
At first her thought had been to run. Indeed, that's what she'd done: kept low and to the fringes and waited for one or the other shoe to drop.
But the fact of the matter is that she'd gone and set out after Odessa's own Ganondorf on nothing more than a chance encounter in the streets of Damzen City.
The first shoe had only come to a clatter on the floor after. And the second...
Well, if she heard that message right, it's damn well fallen. It's just that it won't be her alone feeling it.
"And," she says at last, once he's echoed her own sentiment, "is my peace." Not absolution, because she can't rightly ask anyone for that. Not atonement, either.
All she can do is continue, and not repeat the mistake again.
"Really, now. Heh, you've a sight better view on me and mine than most do," Josie remarks, laughing goodnaturedly.
With a sudden ruffle of feathers, Penelope catapults herself forward from Josie's shoulder to land on the floor. The pigeon struts towards Yvain, cocking her head at him curiously.
...A bird can, in time, also gain resonance.
"Oh right. This is Penelope. Practically my kid! If... I were the mother to a bird," Josie adds, shrugging her shoulders. "We were parted for a time, but as it happens..."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"Heh. True enough." Josie does make trouble well enough. Didn't they meet during a robbery? Or something close enough to. Regardless...
"Fair's fair. I'll have to have something ready."
"That's what matters," Yvain says. Her 'peace'. Absolution and atonement are far different paths. And not ehr own.
"I'm an old man," Yvain says with a wave of his hand. "I'm entitled to have strange opinions. The way I see it, what matters most is what you do today and tomorrow, more than what you did yesterday. The past holds still for no one."
Then--A ruffle of feathers! Yvain blinks--and then stares, intently. He looks very thoughtfully at this bird.
"...A dangerous companion indeed," Yvain reflects. "Powerful."
He looks up to Josie again. "I'm glad you've been reunited, then. ...I have some concerns what she might get up to without an anchor."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
They had technically met a while before that, and back then, Josie had shot at him.
Granted, he had been a little bit draconic at the time, but the point still stands.
"Doesn't have to be fancy, like," she says, on the matter of whatever it is that she's owed. "I ain't a fancy person."
She just has a fancy pigeon. It's completely different.
He's an old man, and he has certain entitlements for that precise reason. Josie grins back at him. "Fair enough, grampa," she teases. "But right you are. What's done is done, and there ain't no reason tryin' to bring it back, like." Once she'd nearly held a fixation to do nearly that -- as if what she was after would in some way undo what had been done. But she'd known in a way it was futile from the start.
But... she had also thought it was better than doing nothing, even if it destroyed her. She would have been destroyed anyhow, any way she turned.
Against the odds, she's arrived, more or less whole, in the future she'd never thought she'd have to reckon with. What else can be done except carry on?
Penelope, though, has kept her own counsel long enough and demands an introduction.
"And this is Yvain. He's a Seraph. Guess you can see them now?"
A dangerous companion...?
"She's a sweetheart," Josie claims, as Penelope trots on over to try to take apart Yvain's footwear. Josie squints. "...Honest. Penelope, leave his shoes alone. ...Heh, you think? Last I saw her, she'd gotten some kind of pigeon gang together."
A nascent pigeon kingdom, in the shelves of an abandoned library in Spira. Even with their monarch again wandering the world, will the kingdom someday want to expand its borders...?
Well, it's possible.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
That's true! That was also an important meeting.
But the pigeon is fancy. Yvain nods at the matter of what he's going to prepare, and leaves it for the moment. Instead, he takes that teasing for the moment with a grin back. "Good," he says. "...Indeed. Many have nearly ruined the world for hope of doing the same. And many more have ruined smaller worlds than 'the whole' in pursuit of same."
Penelope demands an introduction. Yvain's boots are sturdy enough to hold up to Peneleope's investigations... for now.
"Oh, she can see me, all right." Then, "Ha. A leader, then. Yes, I believe that."
A nascent pigeon kingdom... Sure. It's possible, all right.
"But she probably wouldn't like it further in the temple. Let me gather some supplies for you, too, while you're here. It won't take long."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"It ain't possible to raise what's dead and buried," is Josie's grim statement on the matter. "Whether it's a person, a moment in time, or whatever. We've got our memories and we've got us. And... we've a long way before we find the end of the road." She folds her arms over her chest. "At least, that's how I see it."
Penelope, at least, is a lighter subject -- for Josie, that is. "Time was, she couldn't," she explains, gesturing stiffly with her right hand. "But I guess she's had trials of her own, or the like."
Whatever that might be, for a pigeon.
(Forging a pigeon kingdom over the span of years certainly counts.)
Josie laughs in response to that, shaking her head. "Dare say she wouldn't! Never was much for the heat, my Penelope," Josie says, spreading her arms wide. Penelope has not yet been deterred from her terrible mission of disassembling Yvain's boots.
"But never you mind her -- I ain't planning on sticking around more than a day and a night." As if this is hardly enough time for Penelope to get into a spot of mischief...
(or worse)
"Yeah? Well, I ain't gonna say 'no'. It's hard business out there on the road, right, and if I can borrow a bit of your kindness for a smidge..."
Better to have supplies and not need them, than to need them and not have them. And Josie has had more than her share of 'not having them'.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"Indeed."
There are other things Yvain would say that people have; but Josie did not come here for a lecture. And it is good enough an answer for her. But Penelope... Hmmm. "So it would seem," Yvain reflects. "Interesting."
But he does take some amusement in the matter of the heat. Then he peers down. "...I think she might actually manage it if I left her alone to for a while."
"Day and a night. That's sufficient time. I'll come out into the village, then. Most of them won't see me regardless. And consider it an investment in getting to hear that story later."
He smiles. It's a ltitle wry. "Besides, I have a lot of things lying around here these days that i'm not using."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Really."
Even Josie seems a bit surprised to hear this from Yvain. After all, aren't a Seraph's clothes not exactly...?
"Right you are, then," she says, flashing a grin. "And if'n we're out and about, maybe we could even see about a drink. Don't think they'd half notice if I ordered for two, right," she adds.
"Ain't proper stayin' cooped up here forever and always, anyhow. Time was you got yourself a vacation. And besides, I've much and more to tell you about..."
And she will.