2023-06-22: You Owe Me A Story
- Log: You Owe Me A Story
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Seraph Yvain
- Where: Meria City - Castle Square
- Date: June 22, 2023
- Summary: While looking for a wedding present, Josie is surprised by a familiar face. A(nother) debt is due.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
ABOUT TWO MONTHS AGO NOW DAMN
The fight against Odessa had come to a head aboard the Heimdall Gazzo, and with key members of ARMS, Josephine had been among those who had struck that final blow against the man who would have dragged the world to hell with him.
Except, a sort of miracle had been managed. He had died. They had -- against all possible odds -- lived, and after escaping the prison that memory out of time had wrought... they had head their separate ways. Eleanor to check in on her family. Ashley had a bakery to return to. Brad, no doubt, had business of his own of which to attend.
Josie had gone her own way.
IN A RESUMPTION OF THE NATURAL PASSAGE OF TIME
What does one bring to a wedding? An expensive gift, it's always seemed like. Josie's not even certain she's got the proper attire -- or the cash for it or the gift in question, really -- but when in dire straights, she's always been able to make do, somehow.
Besides, it's not as if she's dead broke.
Just, nearly that.
"Hm," she remarks to the pigeon on her shoulder. "Wonder if'n I should've been to Damzen instead? Or maybe the Thames, like... though I don't think Nora's into Gear parts." She shrugs, the motion small. Well, it ain't like the wedding's tomorrow.
(It's in two days.)
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Yvain heard about the problem of the Heimdall Gazzo. It was an issue, of course, but at the time he was concerned with other matters, having to entrust such things as the fate of civilization to those most a part of it. He later heard about a certain time warp problem...
But there's not much he could do about that. But not long ago he returned to the world of mortals, with all its foibles. Just now, he is engaging in one of the favored pastimes of the Seraphim: watching people go past without their being aware of his presence.
Until he spots a particular person, and hops down from the roof, coming around an alley to...
"I believe," comes a voice behind Josie, "That you owe me a story."
A beat, as Yvain steps forward, looking over Penelope and then over Josie. "But you seem well enough. Certainly not dead, so far as I can tell. It's good to see you."
Pause. "You do seem a bit occupied, though."
Nobody else on this street appears to see him, of course.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Someone, unseen to Josie, hops down from the roof behind her. It's telling that she doesn't yell but instead whips about, her hand on the ARM holstered and tied at her hip. It's also telling that she hasn't immediately drawn and fired.
Of course, Meria Boule isn't that sort of town. It might well have been a different tale in Damzen, or other more remote places beside.
Her eyes widen with surprise all the same as her gaze settles on the man before her. "Yvvie! Fancy seein' you here! Didn't think you could leave your shrine, even -- or, wait, is that business all done with, now?" She grins. "Good to see you well, too."
It, on reflection, probably is. Well, considers Josephine. Well, well, well.
"Just a mite busy," she says, shrugging broadly. "But I ain't busy enough to keep a story from you, now... especially if you're buyin'." She gives him the sauciest of winks.
"If'n you're asking after my health, though, I'm sure you know the long and short of it, eh? Still, I ain't the sort to kiss and not tell. What d'ya say, let's us go and find somewhere to chat? Somewhere I don't seem stranger'n I already do?" Talking to Seraphim has its downsides, sometimes.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Yvain is calm at that. He may have been entirely prepared to be shot for his chance at surprise. Sometimes you've got to commit.
...But maybe not; Meria Boule is indeed not that sort of town. But when she looks at him with surprise the moment is worth it, and he laughs. Only briefly; the matter of the Shrine is serious. "I couldn't," he says, "But I had to after all, with all that's happened. I've left an ally in charge. The path to Pentagulia is now closed at the other end in any case."
"Heh. Fair enough. Though that's almost a pity--it's fun to make a few mortals wonder now and then. You find your amusements where you can in this life." %rHe nods though, and turns his stance to ready to walk. There's a bar he knows of, and he does have money. "I know some," he says. "But not all. Mostly enough that I'm not surprised you're alive, though I wasn't sure I'd be seeing you any time this century."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"An ally, eh?" Josie plants a hand on her left hip, looking him up and down. "Well, good on you. It ain't right to spend all your time cooped up somewhere." Stiffly, she pats her right hand against her chest. "I mean, look at me -- all those years on my lonesome, trying to make an honest go of it... if it weren't for the rest of my losses, I'd almost say it were worth it." If it could have just been her house, in any case -- if it hadn't taken the use of her right right hand, hadn't taken her birds, hadn't taken...
But she smiles brightly, all the same. "So, what's the deal with Pentagulia? I've heard tell this and that, but I ain't gotten the dirt, if you know what I mean. Same's the story with Spira and Sin and the like? Seems like that's done and dusted, but I ain't heard the particulars, like."
Still, he knows a place? Josie arches a pale eyebrow and follows after. "Yeah? So you heard that much... well, let's just say I got myself mixed up in the assault intimately-like. Couldn't quite let their ultimatum slide... and besides, he as much called me out, yeah?" She smiles, lopsidedly, her eyes creasing at the edges. "Can't ignore somethin' like that. 'Specially not when a man's as much waged war on all them that don't have a say in the matter. I've no love for rulers... but when you wipe a city off the map, you ain't just rubbing out the nobles." Josie's not smiling now, having come to a stop to gaze up at the heavens. "Don't get me wrong. I ain't bothered if the world ends or what. There's not something someone like me can much do about that. ...But I can stop another human."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"She'll be able to watch over the Shrine in my stead. I doubt there'll be more aspirants anytime this century in any case." There just aren't that many in general! "Certainly not this decade." Assuming that there are more decades to come--Yvain is not always certain of that, given the severity of world events these days. Still, better to be prepared for tomorrow than not.
"True enough," he says. "There's something to be said for deep meditation... but there's a lot to miss in the world right now. Better to see it before it turns to history." Almost worth it. He hears that. And he notices the bright smile regardless.
"Our heroic friends confronted the Goddess herself... only to learn that she isn't. Wherever Althena is, She is not in Pentagulia. Whoever that woman is, while she appears to have the power of a god, she is not the one we know. Our friends barely escaped. The Trial Knight set a dragon upon them."
But he does; Yvain leads the way to a small bar out of the way, down some steps beside a strange shop. But before they arrive, he looks her way, considering the matter.
"You can," Yvain says. "...Sometimes all it takes to change the shape of an age is just that. I had no taste for Vinsfeld's methods or government... but felt it wasn't my place to interfere in how humans decide to rule themselves."
"...That's changed. With a false Goddess on the table, other forces must be arrayed to protect the world and its people." He opens the door, and waits for Josie to go through.
"...They're used to liquor disappearing here," he adds. "So long as I keep leaving money, they don't question it."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Hmm, fair enough," Josie remarks, apparently seeking to pursue the matter no further. Penelope, by contrast regards Yvain a little more closely, almost, as if she were actually interested -- but then, hadn't she shown some vague, probably benign (??) interest in the shrine and the Seraph when last they had met?
And he begins with the matter of Pentagulia and the Goddess.
She'd heard a little of this before: that the Goddess might not have been, that the way had been closed (okay, so she really heard that just a few moments ago when Yvain had told her) and that there had been a mass arrest involved (apparently... everyone who'd been got out?). But Yvain as much confirms that matter of Althena not being a goddess, and what's more--
"The Trial Knight? With a dragon? Well, don't that beat all," Josie remarks, shaking her head. "Didn't think they'd got a dragon, like. ...So where's that leave you lot? With the Goddess not being real, I mean."
Maybe, it occurs to her in the moments after, that's not the kindest thing to ask. She touches her fingers to the cross at her throat.
"...And does that mean the Trial Knight's in with the false Goddess?"
Sometimes killing a man is all it takes to save the world, huh? Or at least, it's possible to alter the forces that would shape 'the end'. "Hmm. I'll take your word for it, Yvvie. You've got centuries on me, after all." It's certainly, she thinks, ducking as she enters the bar, the sort of perspective someone who had 'seen it all' might have on the actions of people.
For humans, a generation is about twenty years. In her life, she's nearly seen two generations -- her own and the one under -- come on up. There are perhaps two more generations her elders, and that's just counting humans. It's not even a hundred years, and she knows how much can change about in less than a quarter of that time.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
She had shown interest in it. Yvain wonders about Penelope sometimes.
"Dragons on Lunar are not exactly common. They happened to have one who had just transformed on-hand." Yvain doesn't go into the details of Harmaus's fate to Josephine. There is no reason. "...It leaves us to make our own decisions about what we will do with Her legacy. For me, I decided that I would act where She could not."
"...It does. We learned the Trial Knight's identity, as well. In battle, their helmet was destroyed. They are indeed one of the false Goddess's most notable servants."
But she'll take his word for it. That's fair enough. "People, taking one step at a time, can do more than they realize."
Yvain has seen many generations, and failed to see many others, as he remained in seclusion.
He moves to a table and sets down a few coins, before making a 'pause' gesture and stepping around behind the bar. There are a few people here at this hour, but not many; the bartender eyes the bottle and two glasses rising from the back and spots the money on the table, and shrugs along with it.
It's fine.
"This should do."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Many people wonder about Penelope, sometimes.
"Transformed?" Josie asks, canting her head slightly to the left. She regards Yvain for but a moment. "...Oh." There's really nothing more to say on the subject, is there. "So," she says, pivoting the subject back towards something less awkward than that, in comparison, "you don't think Althena's still... around?"
But even if she is, it's not a half-bad resolution. Or whole-bad, for the matter.
There is a moment's pause, as Yvain explains further -- more than a moment's pause. Josie has stopped in her tracks.
"Wait, wait. When you say, 'notable servant', you mean... you ain't sayin' that the Trial Knight was White Knight Leo's alter ego or the like, are you...?" She knows the names, faces, and legacies of a few of the Four Heroes (well, the old occupant of the seat of Blue, that is), and K.K. is a fair bit removed from the approach any of them favor. But Althena's servants don't end with the Heroes. There's also the Dragonmaster, and then--
Josie may need that drink, presently.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Yep. Just like that. There isn't more. "...I don't," Yvain says. "At least, not right now. She returns now and then, but if She were here, she would obviously be doing something. So, She must be absent, one way or another. We can't assume She will return and sort it out for us; that's why the Shepherd came about in the first place, after all."
A casual reference to Lunarian history!
But as he explains further...
"Not Leo, no." Josie may need that drink and Yvain pours it, her glass and then his own, before he continues, rich golden-brown liquid swirling in each glass, a spice in the air. "No, the Trial Knight's identity beneath that helmet is... that of the Seraph Liath." Prime Lord. And many other things, to many of them.
"Many still don't believe it, or think there must be some mistake, or something else." There is a 'but', but he doesn't say it yet.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie considers this.
"Fair enough. Ain't like I'm thinkin' God'll intervene, personal-like, in my problems. Things in the world are things you gotta sort for yourself, anyhow. If we're just running back to God every time we get in a scrape, well, that ain't good for us or for them, you know?" She shrugs, shaking her head. "And I'm sure God's got plenty worth worryin' about as it stands." With the way Filgaia -- and Lunar -- are going...
"...Sounds like your Althena must've come to a similar conclusion." She touches a pair of fingers to the air near to her head as if to touch the brim of an invisible hat. "Well, cheers to her 'n all."
And that's well enough.
She might well know the face of the one inside the armor. It was too easy to think of them as some figure ripped out of time to haunt the worlds anew -- though of course there had to be more to it, to them than that. Following Yvain in she considers this possibility with no small amount of trepidation. Who else numbered among Althena's dearest servants?
She sits herself down at the table, taking the drink that's offered to her. "Yeah?" she says, halfway lifting it to her lips.
Yvain tells her.
Josie goes rigid where she sits for a good five, ten seconds. She then slams the glass down on the table, sending some of the liquid sloshing over the rim.
"That bitch!" she exclaims, eyes wide, her face a rictus of fury. Her fingers twitch about the glass and then, just as suddenly as she had slammed it to the table, she lifts it to her lips and darn near drains half its contents in a single go.
Liath! They had been Liath! That's how they knew! They knew all along didn't they?! After all, Liath had seen--
--seen--
the shape of Josephine's heart.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"...It used to be that She would," Yvain admits. "In our history, we've seen it a time or two. But no more. Perhaps it's as you say; She wants us to sort it out for ourselves. I prefer that, to the idea that She is trapped somewhere, for all that I would like to meet Her properly." What state is Althena in? How are they to know? Yvain's long experience does not prepare him with the answer to that question. Even so.
"....Cheers to Her, indeed, I suppose."
But--there is another matter. One less philosophical and less likely to end in a cheer. Who else could it be? Yvain knows. And as Josie goes rigid, Yvain knows there is a reason
He considers for a moment--before refilling the glass. "At least I don't have to warn you not to take her lightly," Yvain reflects. "I worry for the others. Their idealism may well get them and many others killed. Much as it seems this is a painful revelation," he says, "You do not appear to have that problem."
"Regardless of our history with her--and I have some, as well--She will not relent. We must prepare for the worst."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Different," Josie remarks, "but then, perhaps she'd decided a more hands-off approach suited her better. After all, it's like kids, right? Gotta leave the nest, walk on your own feet eventually."
She glances up at the sky above before stepping into the bar.
"Can't be sheltered forever."
The matter of the Trial Knight, though, is a far less theological/philosophical debate. Josie makes her feelings on the matter quite plain before having a long drink, one that Yvain aids and abets in. Of her own reaction just now she says nothing, instead directing a look her friend's way that promises knives should he speak wrong.
But he doesn't comment on her outburst. Not... directly.
"Of course not," Josie says, taking another swig. "She damn near took my head off, last time we met. She's playin' for keeps, however she seeks goin' about it, and forget any niceties or what not." She glances away, looking irritated. "Tch. Method actor if I ever saw one," she says, closing her eyes. "Won't go down nicely, neither."
Her gaze is hooded when it turns back Yvain's way. "You can say that again. ...Anyway, I weren't half done the tale," she continues, leaning back in her seat. "Ended up takin' on Rhadamanthus himself, and damned if he weren't glad to see me. Heh... probably would have made his day if I had kicked it, but I ain't about giving his type the pleasure."
His type isn't so far removed from her sort, after all.
"He died, in the end," she says, after another long drink of her glass, her gaze distant as if recalling the scene. She'd darned near gone down with him and the war platform, but there'd been a twist in her tale, in a way. "But not before taking near half the world with him. If he'd had his way, Klein'd be gone. That kid, Ashley... everyone, really..." She shakes her head.
"But I'm guessin' you know what came next. Instead of going down with the ship, we slipped through a crack and landed, well, sometime else. After that, it was just a matter of working our way back to 'now', or nearly enough-- though it helped that we met some folks halfway along."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
"That's true enough."
Eventually, they have to stand on their own. Perhaps that's just now.
It's much less a debate, and well--Yvain can stand some knives, now and then, but why? It's not his business exactly why she reacted that way unless she makes it so. So he moves on from it, and onto the topic at hand, instead.
"Indeed. I haven't faced her across the battlefield yet... but sooner or later, I will. It's necessary. I'll fight for what I've chosen, too." But a method actor? He considers that for a moment, the idea moving over his expression before he nods. "Definitely not, no. Another reason I can't leave things to sort themselves out without me."
But she wasn't done, so she elaborates. Yvain nods, again. Josie is indeed not that.
...Whatever else she is.
"...The Chasm," he says. "The one between Meria Boule and Klein, now. National borders have been drawn for less. So it was originally aimed at the city itself..." That's confirmation, all right.
"I know some," he says of what came next. "Confirmation that that man died before the explosion is good. The matter of time... I'd heard that things were 'as they were meant to be', one way or another, but that's not always the thing someone wants to hear."
"I've never been in a time warp, though. It must have been quite the experience. Any highlights?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
But of course, withstanding knives would come naturally to a Seraph born of flame.
He doesn't press and thus, Josie herself does not need to take matters any further than they have already gone. Her shame can remain her own for now, at least. Whether it will do so forever remains to be seen.
"She's dangerous," Josie says, shifting away from the more aggressive approach to drinking she'd had prior and opting for something more... reasonable for her liver. "Whatever the hell it is she's fighting for, she means it. If you go in half-assed, I really believe she'll kill you stone dead. Or, whatever passes for that with Seraphim. Though, kind of makes me wonder, now that I know for certain, like... she uses Malevolence."
She uses a lot of Malevolence. And isn't that bad for Seraphim?
Knowing the Trial Knight's identity raises more questions than answers.
"Yeah," she says, nodding when he speaks of the Chasm. "That thing. Could've been Klein." But it wasn't. "Power like that... I'm the last that oughtta be saying it, but..."
But no one should have that. Josie's been guilty of many sins. But even the worst of her offenses pale against that.
"Yeah," she says again, of the man who had planned to burn the world around him -- who couldn't see a Filgaia without him. "He's dead. I saw him die. And his body would've been incinerated when the Heimdall Gazzo went." She, in mock salute, raises a glass. "No one walks back from that."
She's quiet a moment.
"That's one way of putting it," Josie tells him. "We saw... things. Other people's pasts, like. Memories. What I saw ain't my place to tell. But we all saw bits of what was, and then... something that was meant to happen, happened. We met Anastasia in that place. Time, whatever. You know the Sword Magess any? Always heard tell she died, fighting a demon lord. But it looks like she got stuck in a warp in time instead. Poor kid."
She ducks her head in a nod, no joy on her face. "She's still in there. Way it looks, she's gotta be in there for now, or whatever that means, given time and all. But..."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Some fires are greedy, always reaching out to whatever they can consume, but the flame of the hearth is given more with time. It can afford to be patient.
Yvain has been drinking a little too--but not so aggressively. He drinks some more, as Josie explains. "Then we agree," he says. "She..." He pauses, at the matter of what she wonders. Then he shakes his head.
"I do not know," he admits. "Maybe, as a Prime Lord, she has some greater capacity to manipulate it as well as purify it. Maybe it's something else. We don't know enough to say."
Power like that...
"But it's still worth saying, even so."
He's dead. Very, dead. Yvain raises a glass, too. "To the death of tyrants," he says, and makes it a proper toast even. But...
"I see..." Not hers to tell. That much is fair. "I've heard of her," Yvain says. "The local religious legends surrounding her are very interesting. ...But you say she is alive?"
Alive, and trapped...
"So she's still fighting, to this day. ...I respect that. I hope not forever. It is a burden too hard on a mortal, to be stretched across time like a Seraph."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There's something to be said for patience, in the end -- what doesn't consume all before it burns all the longer.
Of course, Josie's had an on-again off-again fling with the concept of patience, as many of those around her can well attest.
And in this moment, she glances over at Yvain over the rim of her glass. "You'd know better than me," she tells him, rolling her shoulders in a loose shrug. Indeed: who is she to say anything of what might or might not be possible by the Seraphim? And it seems that there is much and more possible than even one of Liath's kin might know of.
But the conversation turns away from one world to another.
"To death," Josie echoes, her lips curling in a lopsided smile. She takes a drink, setting the glass down after.
"Aye," she answers Yvain. "As lively as any other fine lass! But she's trapped in a time without time, and ain't leaving there for here anytime soon. Seems like her departure'd mean ill for the world at large. Like as not, it'd mean the return of Lord Blazer," beyond whatever binds him in Ashley's flesh, "and undo all she sacrificed for. So, I'm gettin' the feeling she's good where she is, now," she finishes, shrugging. Now. For now.
"...But don't think 'now' means 'forever'."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Yvain has posed.
Even Yvain doesn't know this one, and if not him, then who? There are some, but not many, who know more than he does about the Seraphim. But on the matter of Filgaia...
To death is good enough. Yvain has seen many pass who he would rather not have, and many who should have that didn't for far longer. But for those like Vinsfeld, it is a necessary thing, sooner or later. Yvain takes a drink.
"I see... This 'Lord Blazer', a problem even for the ancients."
He's not that ancient.
"...Good," he says. "Then 'for now' it is. I'll add that to what I'm looking into. As far as I know, this Lord Blazer was a problem back at the same time Althena brought humanity to Lunar..."
Which means it's of his interest, anyway.
"Still, thank you for the story. I was very curious how it would go, but it seems to me that you've found a new path for yourself after all."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
To death, the great leveler.
It's true that there are them that won't die for a good long while, and them that won't die unless someone kills them. There are them like Yvain, who will continue into apparent eternity so long as they remain uncorrupted, and others yet still who manage to shake hands with the reaper. But an end seems to be unavoidable for most, in time.
In one way or another.
In time, Josie's bones will too rest somewhere in this world. She's long since made her own peace with that reality. To death, then.
"Enough that all they could do was pass on their woes to us lot," she says, flashing Yvain a grin. "But I reckon we'll manage, one way or another. Always have."
Even if all it might do is push back the end for a time, sometimes a time is enough. A single day is enough, she's found. An hour, a minute, a second. Sometimes it's all one can ask for -- hope for.
She ducks her head in a nod. "Seems like. I don't right know where I'm headed towards, but hell if I'm hanging around, standing still," she tells Yvain, downing the last of her glass. "Still, that's the fun of traveling, yeah? Sometimes you don't half know what you're gonna find."