2019-07-20: Seeking The Path Of A Summoner
- Log: Seeking The Path Of A Summoner
- Cast: Ena, Lunata Croze, Lulu, Gon Guado, Loren Voss, Belize
- Where: Mi'ihen Highroad
- Date: July 20, 2019
- Summary: A young woman arrives at the Djose Temple in search of assistance of a very specific sort.
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
Djose temple has seen a lot of the faithful through it's gates recently. Being the major temple closest to Luca, that's hardly a surprise given that many have been driven there after the attacks by Althena's Guard. While many still reside in the refugee camp, those who seek to pray for Yevon's guidance only really have a few places to go, and Bevelle is a much further trip.
It's for this reason that a young, green haired woman passes through the entrance to the temple. She looks somewhat bedraggled, if free of injury at least. The trek from the refugee camp to the temple is not really an easy one, and it looks like it's taken it's toll. The fact that she's made it seems heartening to the woman.
She looks around, and spying a member of the clergy makes her way toward him. She's not quiet as she speaks, and could be easily overheard. "C-can you help me?" She asks, after giving the traditional sign of the church of Yevon. "I... I need to be trained as a summoner!"
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata has been extremely busy ever since the Battle at Luca; as one of the Maester's deputies, she's been in charge of what some might look down on busywork, but she finds relocating priests, Monks and other support staff of Yevon back with their families, aiding support in a time of loss and separation, and making sure they've got somewhere to go...
Really familiar, perhaps, ever since Adlehyde.
She's got a wad of paper as she talks with several Monks when she sees the green-haired woman passing. She blinks a few times, scratching her head. She's not really sure what to do in a situation like this yet... but...
She holds a hand up to the two she's talking to then steps closer to the woman.
"Hello," Lunata speaks, bowing in the mannerism of Yevon as well. "I'm Lunata. I could probably help you speak to the high priests here, but they might have their hands full with..."
She glances back to where, well, Djose's definitely seen a lot of activity from refugees.
The girl herself looks the part of a travelling Yevon swordswoman, with the yukata and slim combat pants and tekko and sandals -- but the Yggdrasil Alliance furred jacket ontop kind of ruins the look...
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu herself is easy to spot for those who know her, standing out for appearance as well as demeanor--and, for once, for being on her own just this moment. She had been speaking with someone in the garb of a former Crusader, but as that conversation ands and she starts to turn, she sees the green-haired woman approach, lifting an eyebrow as she immediately looks her over. Lulu, more than most, has some perspective on the choice to become a Summoner.
Seeing Lunata approach, Lulu strides over, smoothly making her way into something that isn't her business, presumably, but that is of interest. She at first looks her over in silence, considering.
"..."
It is the kind of look where one can imagine someone is reading much deeper than the eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
The displaced are many. The confidence in which Djose's temple can yet be held from the advance of those damnable 'Althena' people... must be outwardly maintained. Gon, one of the enigmatic Guado people, has been making the rounds on behalf of Maester Seymour after helping deliver key intel about strange/worrisome Otherworlder behaviors.
To put it more bluntly, he's had his eye more on lapses in faith. Discussions of concepts and ideas in a situation that no one among them could have ever prepared for. The status quo may never find its proper equilibrium ever again, and with it--
Gon is in the middle of returning to give reports when Ena comes within immeasurably small distances of all but shoving him aside. The aged, spindly veteran foot soldier of his people momentarily loses grasp of the air of grace and poise his people oft have attributed to them, eyes wide for a second as he gives up half a step to not falter to a kneel.
...That one moves with purpose, he internally acknowledges, as if taken aback by the sight, but saying nothing.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The war's made a mess of things, as far as Loren's concerned. It had already been a pain getting to the sites near Kilika, but now it's impossible. At times he almost wonders if it would have been worth it to have teamed up with the Guard -- though it would have meant swallowing his pride -- but no matter how you slice it, a good half or more of Spira would have been blocked off, in one direction or another.
"Another refugee?" he murmurs in passing to Lunata, before she parts from him, approaching the lone green-haired woman.
Officially, he's 'Thomas', another person from the same place that the Maester's scribe hails from, here to assist the man in his work.
Unofficially, things are... different. Decidedly so.
Stiffling an irritated sound, Loren peels away from the monks and trails after Lunata to take in the green-haired refugee/would-be-summoner.
"...Did the Guard do that," he asks, looking her over. No, wait, a lot of those wounds look a good deal older than a few weeks. Or even a few months, now that he thinks about it.
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
"What's this I hear about training to be a summoner?"
That's Belize's sharp, crisp, but not entirely unfriendly voice cracking through the air, just a moment before they exit the Djose Temple and behold the tableau that is Ena, Lunata, Loren, and Gon. Their arms are folded over their chest, and they wear kimono-like robes. Gon they know already, and they give him a brief, concerned look at his momentary swaying; when he maintains his balance, they nod slightly and focus over on the others. Lunata is known to them; Loren is not, but he speaks again and the voice was not his; therefore it is the unfamiliar young girl. Wounded. Looks like she's come quite a ways.
"That would be you, then?" they say, meeting Ena's eyes. There's an air of authority to them, perhaps in the briskness of their voice or the straightness of their posture--as is only natural, since they are in fact a Yevon priest and summoner. For Macalania Temple, sure, but still. Not that they bother to introduce themself, but still: "You look to have come a long way. Where are you from, what is your name, and why have you come here?"
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
"What's this I hear about training to be a summoner?"
That's Belize's sharp, crisp, but not entirely unfriendly voice cracking through the air, just a moment before they exit the Djose Temple and behold the tableau that is Ena, Lunata, Loren, and Gon. Their arms are folded over their chest, and they wear kimono-like robes. Gon they know already, and they give him a brief, concerned look at his momentary swaying; when he maintains his balance, they nod slightly and focus over on the others. Lunata is known to them, as is Lulu; Belize gives both a nod of greeting. Loren is not, but he speaks again and the voice was not his; therefore it must be the unfamiliar young girl. Wounded. Looks like she's come quite a ways.
"That would be you, then?" they say, meeting Ena's eyes. There's an air of authority to them, perhaps in the briskness of their voice or the straightness of their posture--as is only natural, since they are in fact a Yevon priest and summoner. For Macalania Temple, sure, but still. Not that they bother to introduce themself, but still: "You look to have come a long way. Where are you from, what is your name, and why have you come here?"
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
Ena should not be surprised she has drawn attention. After all, that was to some degree the purpose of asking the question so loudly. If she noticed she bumped into Gon, she doesn't show it. Single minded, this one. She also takes notes of the eyes upon her. There's a risk in having so many eyes upon her. Maybe it would have served her to be more subtle. Never mind, what's done is done.
Once Lunata makes herself known, Ena turns to her, leaving the clergyman behind and she again gives the bow and the sign of Yevon. "You would do that? Thank you, I'm-" She stops, cut off as Belize makes themselves known. She looks a bit shaken by their introduction, and even looks slightly awed. But she has been asked a question, and she will respond. Her bow is deeper this time.
"My name is Ena." She says, before taking a few moments to breathe before her next statement. "I came from Kilika." She lets that sink in a bit before continuing. "I know I should have gone to Bevelle, but I wasn't sure I would make it. I barely got out of Kilika alive..." There's a sadness in her voice as she speaks, and she looks down. "I thought if I made it here I could at least have someone tell me if I was suitable." She admits. While she seems entirely earnest, and entirely serious, she may be lacking in confidence. But she looks up to lock her grey eyes with Belize's. "This is the only way I can think of to help save my home. Please."
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata blinks once as Lulu and Belize both step forward with their own questions and comments -- and she defers to them. She doesn't exactly feel like anything remotely approaching a senior in the organisation, after all; all she can do is really gofer for her and ask someone a bit more knowledgeable.
But the woman's scars do catch her eye too... though she doesn't want to stare. She moves to Gon to check on him, since it was a near-miss that nearly had him crashed into! "Are you okay, sir?"
She looks to Loren as well with a quiet wave and a shrug, at least not before Ena explains and introduces herself. Kilika, huh...
"... you ever seen anyone start on the path to summonerhood?" Lunata quietasks to Loren, curious of he's seen something she hasn't.
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lunata, and Loren. Both are noted by Lulu along her way. Belize is greeted in the same way she greets Lulu. But her attention for the moment rests on Ena first. "...The closest temple north of Kilika," Lulu reflects, looking thoughtfully to Belize--who, make no mistake, is the senior in this situation in terms of decorum, as a Summoner herself. Lulu is severe--but she is not unkind in the moment. "...There are other means," Lulu says, her voice slightly softer. But who would ask to become a Summoner without thinking it through?
"But you don't look like you're doing this impulsively, either."
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
Physically speaking, Gon is as fine as can be once he wrests back control of his ability to stand. "Yes. I am sound," he says as she approaches. tMentally speaking, he reels at the latest small indignity, yet another in a long road of stumbling blocks with anything and everything that has gone strange or wrong. He has had no cause until recently to ever practice the very concept of a 'poker face.'
He's gotten a lot of it in a short amount of time! His eyes narrow as he steadies, watching in that way the Guado do. Their taller stature than most make it inevitable that they physically have to look down their very noses on most the rest of Spira as his gaze passes by the walking corpse and this latest new assistant from abroad. He is quietly grateful that belize and Lulu help take charge in asking the important questions.
All the better take in the sight of the insistence and desperation of the young woman stated from Kilika. He has scarce seen such fire in their movements, having been in the company of so much mewling, misery, and musing among the refugees.
It should be reassuring that there is still someone present with such zeal to present themselves - it is. It is such a whiplash from what he has witnessed that it takes him a moment for the rest of his mental balance to lock back into place. Well, then.
"Such devotion..." Those words of an incomplete thought slip out before the aged Guado catches himself.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
The one person (Belize, though he doesn't know their name) is probably a summoner. The other one, the woman in the low-cut dress (he's young, he notices things), he can't tell what her role is off the top of his head, though she doesn't seem to dress like any summoner he's seen.
They have the more direct questions; he falls silent, trying to take mental note of what's going on here.
Bevelle, as he's heard previously, is sort of the center of the faith. But it sounds like it's not usual for a summoner to start learning to be a summoner just anywhere. Interesting. That makes it closer to the Granas faith than he would have thought otherwise when he compares (...what he knows of either at least; comparative religious study was not even at the bottom of his curriculars in Jugend) the two.
"I have not," he murmurs back to Lunata, punctuating it with a shake of his head. "There were a few summoners in Kilika before I," he pauses a moment here, "left, but I only went to the temple once. Maybe Lan would know more..."
Lan, after all, had hung about the Kilika temple.
He then indicates Gon. He's seen a few of the Guado -- weird-looking people, he thinks -- and asks Lunata equally as quietly as she had spoken to him before, "Who is he?"
<Pose Tracker> Belize has posed.
Ena, from Kilika. Indeed, the implications are not lost on Belize. Their sea green eyes widen briefly, and their lips purse as they rest a hand on their chin and listen to what this girl has to say. Their harsh demeanour does soften a bit when she talks about her hardships in leaving Kilika; it feeds into their prejudices about the Guard, after all.
Lulu says the obvious. Both that there's other ways, but also that Ena seems serious. Belize shares a glance and understanding with her. They look back at Ena. "If you're here to see if you have the ability, you must not have visited Kilika Temple first," they assume. "Not that you would have been able to after the Guard invaded, of course. Which is to say, I understand why you would want to become a Summoner for your hometown's sake, but don't be disappointed if it turns out you can't."
They look to one side at Lunata and Gon. "You two. Please see the girl in. She'll need food and rest after her journey. I'll speak with the head priest." Then they head inside to do precisely that. They may have seniority in this group, but it's not their temple and they aren't in charge.
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
It's only once Lunata points it out that Ena turns to Gon, and looks a touch embarrassed, giving an apologetic look to Gon. "S-sorry." It's a trifle undercutting her heartfelt words, but it's rude not to apologise when someone points out you've misstepped. Still, Lunata asking the yet to be introduced 'Thomas' about Summoner training makes her wonder. Is it such a surprise that they've not seen a summoner request training? Ena almost wonders if she's made a misstep this early in her request.
Lulu's statements seem to hit hard, and Ena looks down. "Maybe there are, but..." She trails off, before regaining herself. "This is the road that I've chosen. I know it's a hard one but, if I can, then this is the best way to help Spira and Kilika both."
Belize's statement elicits a nod from Ena. "I was... injured, when Sin attacked." That might put some frame of reference to the scars. "By the time I had recovered, the priests had been forced off the island by those... heretics." The talk of not being able to become a summoner causes her to look down again, but she accepts the words regardless. If she's not able to do that, then she'll have to think of something else.
But she perks up at Belize saying they'll speak to the head priest. "You will? Thank you so much!" There's another deferential bow from Ena, before she looks to Lunata and Gon. They seemed like the people given immediate authority over what she does next.
<Pose Tracker> Lunata Croze has posed.
Lunata catches Loren staring a little overlong and gives him a nudge, like rude. She whispers, "That is Lulu, one of Lady Yuna's Guardians. She's a very experienced black mage as well. She's very decorated, amongst Yevon's guardians."
Fast realising her dire Penelo-like position in this moment of someone's awakening to their own path, she scratches her head just a little as she listens to Loren's admittance that he hasn't either. "Lan, huh..."
She didn't know 'Thomas' hung around her.
He indicates Gon. "Ah, that's Mister Gon. He's from Guadosalam, and is similarly quite seasoned too. We met not long when I ran into you near the Farplane that one time. ... how've you been since?"
She listens to Belize's recommendation and nods, rubbing her head again. "Oh, sure. Come on in -- I've got soup cooking in the mess hall."
<Pose Tracker> Lulu has posed.
Lulu reflects on Gon's view; devotion. It is... the way a priest might talk, really. Loren gets another look--a lifted eyebrow, apparently, at his questioning look to her--but there is something at hand in the moment. Belize's words sink in, and Lulu watches her leave before she turns again to the others. "There's no need to apologize," Lulu says to Ena.
"...If it's the road you've chosen, then I wish you luck walking it. Even before the Pilgrimage--the training is arduous, as you know. But I've seen more than one Summoner begin their journey, now."
And the monks wouldn't appreciate her trying to talk one out of it, certainly.
"Mm. Unfortunate, that we didn't realize you were there, when..." Lulu trails off, shakes her head. "Still. Invaders or not; Sin won't wait for us to finish a war."
She glances back to Lunata again, but if she hears the specific whispers she doesn't say anything. Overall Lulu looks... severe. She isn't shouting at anyone but her body language is quite controlled; she doesn't seem to say anything she isn't fairly sure of.
"...A piece of advice," Lulu says, pausing before Ena can follow along with Lunata. "Don't push yourself too quickly. Don't dally, but understand that the process takes time. Take each step as it comes."
<Pose Tracker> Gon Guado has posed.
There is a sharp turn of Gon's gaze as 'Thomas' asks at a level that should be too discrete for him to pick up, who Lunata promptly introduces.
He doesn't ask who 'Thomas' there is in turn. It's the sort of look 'Thomas' might be all too familiar with. That sort of scoff. Even for being a weird huge-handed pointy-eared... Beastman, by their true cultural reckoning...? That kind of look appears universal between the two worlds.
"I cannot say in the factual that, our land as it is, that one could claim in earnest that they are well." In words, a conveyance of humility and empathy. There's that faint drip of condescension.
He doesn't even introduce himself to 'Thomas,' before Belize indicates to the Guado to help see Ena in. The Maester shows such courtesy to others, they assert what status they do...
"She will be seen to," says the Guado as he steps forth to Ena's side. Gon is, unusually for his people, highly skilled in the healing 'prayers' that some possess. He has not made any overt motion to offer these skills to the driven woman whom seeks to join the ranks of the Summoners.
As he moves to Ena's side to help see her further inside, he doesn't have the prodigial sorceress in his sight as Lulu gives sound, sagely advice about pushing oneself. His eyes turn to her direction without moving his head.
Such devotion, he re-thinks the thing he spoke out loud, before these circumstances... is too useful to let come to a restful pace, as his gaze faces back forward towards where Ena will be taken.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Don't tell him that guy has extra sensitive hearing or something. Loren at least has the sense to stand up a little straighter, his gaze meeting Gon's own.
The Guado seem to be like that, he's noticed. Aloof, holier-than-thou, acting as if they were in complete control...
The irony of this line of thinking does not occur to him now, and may not occur to him (assuming he survives) for several years hence.
She was injured when Sin attacked, huh?
Those wounds don't look all that recent, he thinks, tilting his head to one side. Oh, right, 'white magic'. Though he'd thought that usually didn't leave a mark...? Maybe it's a flaw from whatever powers it.
In the end, though, Ena's condition or claims aren't his problem. He's just here to play the part and -- when he can -- continue to search for a way back.
"Yeah. She's helping us out," he explains. "And I gathered that much. What is he -- right, got it. So he's an important person..."
She then asks him about what he's been doing.
"I've been alright." He pauses. "...I guess."
It's hardly the sort of thing he'd talk about in private let alone in hearing distance of so many people, though.
And then the lady in the dark dress gives him and Lunata a look that takes him way on back to his basic education days. Loren squints a little, his lips pressing thin.
"...Come to think of it," he whispers to Lunata, apparently undeterred, "Who's she?"
<Pose Tracker> Ena has posed.
"Soup sounds nice," Ena says, the thought of food being a welcome one- the road here is not exactly rife with places to eat. Lulu's words, as before, carry a powerful weight. It would not behoove Ena to ignore them. "Thank you. I will try," Ena responds, "but as you say Sin won't wait for us." The ever present fear looming over Spira is as real as it ever was. Perhaps moreso, with heretical Machina being deployed in this war.
As Gon moves to her side, Ena accepts being guided by the Guado. She's been offered rest and food, it would be bad form not to take it. "Thank you. May I ask your name?" She realises, having not gotten anyone's but Lunata's. Given he's helping her out, she's going to ask. She'd ask Lulu's too, but she's kind of being... sheparded away from the veteran guardian.
Still, it's good Loren's scrutiny goes unvoiced, that could be a problem. He gets a glance from Ena, but little more. He seems to have a lot going on already.