2018-11-14: A Bitter Promise
- Log: A Bitter Promise
- Cast: Fei Fong Wong, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Ruined Garlyle
- Date: November 14th 2018
- Summary: Josie heads down to the ruins of Garlyle to take a look with Fei. Fei makes a request. Josie gets practical.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei did end up visiting Garlyle before but though he thought he was satisfied the first time, he's wanted to take another look after coming back from a mission for Ida. Josie had offered and so, to be safe, Fei asked her if she'd be willing to go with him. If nothing else, it'll be an opportunity to talk with the woman about something else he wanted to ask of her, provided he could bring himself to say what he wanted to say.
It ain't easy.
Nevertheless, Fei leads the way. He has been here before and the ruins are certainly ruined. For a place such as Elru which already is largely barren, Garlyle seems like that but even more extreme. The ground is blackened and burnt and Fei gives those blackened portions of the ground long looks as if he expects them to come alive and shove themselves down his throat.. The closest thing to a structure is the occassional surviving wall or piece of foundation, but there's no human life. Not that he can see. Not here.
"Well," Fei says. "This is it."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
The destruction can be seen from a distance away. Whatever had once been of Garlyle, there's little left but crumbling ruins now.
Josie still lets out a low whistle once she's able to get a look at the place, up close and personal-like.
"Looks like the rumors were true, and then some. Eh, Junior?"
Good hand resting on her hip, she glances up at the remainder of what had been a wall. Probably a city wall, if she's any judge, but who's asking? Nearby, atop a low stretch of blackened stone perches Penelope.
She is, as usual, busy grooming, one wing outstretched as she tends to her feathers.
Josie slowly walks over to the wall to inspect it up close. "What do you think the odds are anything was left behind? ...Anything good, that is. Something we could use."
Against the Metal Demons, or perhaps against other targets. Who knows?
She glances back over her shoulder, eyes heavy-lidded for a moment. "But I have to say, I was a little surprised. Never took you for an amateur archaeologist, Junior."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I'm not," Fei admits, staring out at the destruction. "Well," He manages a small smile. "I gues circumstances have turned me into one. Definitely not an expert, though, unless breaking half of what you find is what passes for archaeology these days." He looks towards Penelope for a moment. The feeling of wrongness, the strange air, Penelope just sits around and don't care.
Sometimes Fei envies the bird.
Josephine has some good questions, though they're not quite what's on Fei's mind so it takes him a moment. He blinks a few times as if he didn't understand the question before realizing, "Oh! Well...It wouldn't surprise me if there's something. But it'd be well hidden if it survived something like this. Maybe deep underground. Or otherwise hidden."
He frowns faintly. "But..." He trails off. "...Josephine, can I ask you a personal question? It's a little strange, so I don't mind if you're not up to answering it but..."
He looks back over the ruins. "Well, there's some things I don't neccessarily want to make a big noise about but still feel like I should tell someone."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Heh." A short huff of a laugh, from Josephine. "Honestly, you'd be surprised. I could tell you a story about the jackass who went to excavate a fabled city site and ended up wrecking all the city ruins that had been built atop that one. Then again," she says, arms outstretched, "I'm hardly one to judge, these days." She glances over at Fei. "Necessity makes fools of us all, eh?"
Penelope, as if unaware of the attention on her -- however briefly -- continues to groom.
"Yeah. Underground might be likely. ...Reminds me of St. Centour in a way, if that's the case. Hmm, kind of makes you wonder." Though at what, she doesn't elaborate.
Squatting near the remnants of the wall, she sifts through ash and blacked stone with one gloved hand.
"Josie," she corrects, automatically.
Which is followed by: "Sure."
"Whether or not I'll answer's up to me, though. But go on, kid." She continues to dig down through the dirt with care now, as if in search of something.
"Don't we all," she comments, apparently finally finding what she's looking for and squinting down at the hole she's made. "What's eating you, Junior?"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei looks at the ash. Maybe he was wondering if it was a person. "Well," He admits. "It's probably most important to protect the future than worry about the ruins themselves. There's more problems that are buried than magic guns that will save us. I'm a little worried that story will hit close to home, but is this a true story or a legend?" He laughs a bit at that before nodding once and looking to Josephine. "Were people underground in St. Centour?" Fei asks, tilting his head curiously and then smiles. "Josie. Sorry."
He walks up, approaching Josephine slowly. What's eating him? Maybe he should answer that.
"I think..." He pauses. "It's possible..." He pauses again. "I think I've been here before." In fact, Noeline even said it was like Lahan. Fei doesn't think that's the case. Lahan wasn't quite this bad, even if its destruction was similarly total. A shantytown was built there for Guardian's sake.
"That's what's eating me." Fei says. "It's possible that I'll have to use Weltall again but the fact that it could go out of control again---I mean, if anything is going to make it go out of control, it'd be a situation like this right?--But I guess the question I wanted to ask is..."
He looks to Josephine. "You're a practical sort, right?" ???? "If I or Weltall start threatening our friends...I can trust you to do what it takes to keep them safe from us, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Was there a person here? Hard to say. Distinguishing remains from the rest of the rubble might be a tricky thing to pull, even for an archaeologist. "See, now we're on the same page! Besides, it's hard to play it safe with some of these ruins, the way they come at you half-cocked sometimes. If it's not ancient traps, it's some timeless guardian or another," she laments, still sifting through the dirt.
"True story. Mind, this was a good eighty, hundred years ago. He got black-balled by the academies in Aquavy, so I read. Then again, he's also in the history books, so who's to judge what's right?"
She's found what she's looking for. She's found that it's a good few inches down through the ash before it begins to mix with what had been the soil. Something cooked the town here and it did it quickly.
"Underground? Doesn't seem like it, no. But there had been an ARM there -- something to protect the town. Seems like the Guardian statue there was a part of the system. Heh, makes you wonder which came first, the chicken or the egg, sometimes..."
He's been here before, he thinks? Silent for a moment or five, Josie dusts her glove off across her knee, then slowly stands. Turning to face Fei, she tilts her head to one side and regards him curiously.
"'Deja vu', huh? Reminds you of Lahan?"
Lahan. She never heard the whole story from him, but she's gleaned enough of the little details to put together the story well enough.
It goes something like this:
Kid finds a Gear, during the attack on the village -- this is also where his story had started to entangle with Elly's.
Kid uses the Gear.
Kid loses control of the Gear.
The rest is, as they say, history.
"Afraid you'll lose control again? You lose control since Lahan at all, Junior?"
A pointed question, as she digs a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket, extracts one, and slips it between her lips. The ligher emerges a moment later.
"I mean, if you were gonna, you would have already," she says through gritted teeth (a necessity, what with the cigarette) while she flicks the lighter to apparently no avail. "...Don't tell me it's empty."
It's not. The tiny flame flares at last, and Josie's expression splits in a slight self-satisfied smile at last as she lights up.
And she looks him over, all the while taking a long drag.
"So," she says, exhaling smoke. "Let me get this straight." Her expression hasn't changed a bit aside from that brief smile, fixed into a mask of aloof sobriety, her gaze probing. "You're asking me to kill you if you lose control again? ...Bit of a tall order, me against a Gear, don't you think?" She laughs, though it's a dry sound. Her expression from before still maintains. She does not smile.
She approaches him then, her pace a slow one. Drawing the cigarette from her lips to hold it stiffly in her bad hand, she reaches out--
And attempts to, well, noogie him.
"Fei, you might have some goddamn world-class Gear or somewhat, but you're really just a kid. You know that?" She's still not smiling, and if anything could be appended to her expression right now, it might be mild irritation.
"If you lose your mind or something, and even your girl can't get through to you then... no promises." She pats him roughly on the shoulder. "Still, though. I'll do my best, if them's the circumstances."
Then glances away, her gaze no less than pensive, silence reigning for a good minute or more before she finally, ultimately speaks again:
"Now quit your worrying about it, eh?" She finally cracks a smile, as bright and lopsided as always.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Well, becoming history is one way to make your mark on the field, I suppose." Fei remarks wryly. "I remember the statue being smashed. It was strange, that there seemed to be so little damage, not even corpses... Not even blood." Sure, there was no blood with Lahan either in teh end, but there was certainly a lot of evidence of what happened. Broken gears. Damage. This felt clean. Almost clinical. It's like there was little to no resistance or....or they were just very thorough, whomever did it.
"I'm not asking you to kill me," Fei says, blinking. "Oh though--I get how you got that, and it's not exactly wrong. I mean, I'm not asking you to not kill me either, if you think you can manage it, in a case like that."
Fei rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. Even though he is asking something that may or may not include killing him, he is being awfully shy about it. Like he's embarrassed to have to bring it up more than afraid.
Josephine says he's just a kid. Fei can't help but look up and murmur, "Am I...?" softly, though he doesn't seem to be asking this of Josie so much as himself.
"Well, what I want you to do is to analyze the situation and do what's practical. I think you'd be able to figure out the best course of action more than the others." He is, perhaps surprisingly, including Lily in this thought process here for a variety of reasons but he might just not want Lily blaming herself for any more soldiers dying uner her command. Hard to avoid that when they fire the shot themselves.
"Um, not that I don't really respect them or anything. I do. I'm really impressed by them, but I think in this particular case..."
He sighs. "...It wasn't just Lahan. There was that girl from Kislev too. " You know back when they were first looking into Gryndille. "And I know you've been working on that ARM from Gryndille--" He is about to go into more detail when--
NOOGIEING!!
Fei goes from serious face to >_< face in short order, arms flailing in pure SD form in the anime (Bart Says: Feel Free to Pirate) but here he's just kind of flailing in general.
But he looks up at Josephine who isn't smiling. His cheeks burst into flames (metaphorically) and okay so maybe he is just a kid.
"Ah--um." He stammers, completely taken off the whole self-pity and self-hate train by Josie's actions. He is so flabbergasted he has trouble forming a coherent word let alone a response.
Eventually he says, "Ahh--sorry. Sorry. I'll try." He sounds just like he knocked over the cookie jar and smashed it along the ground too. Fei isn't so ignorant to not realize this too, so his embarrassment compounds on itself to untold heights...!!
Of course after spending so much time worrying about it it's hard to stop worrying about it! That's frustrating!! So eventually he just says, "Do you need a new lighter? When we get back uh--If you need a new one, I'll get you one."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
One pale eyebrow arches. "So you're not? Hmm, interesting way to put it," Josie comments, cocking her head to the right.
In the background, Penelope, apparently finished grooming, flutters down from her perch and begins to strut across the pockmarked grounds of the ruined city. Like some of her kin might have, back before Garlyle was destroyed.
"...Either way," she picks up with, barely losing a beat, "It's the same thing in the end -- you want me to stop you, including death if it comes to that. Yeah?"
He confirms it, in so many words.
She sighs. "Sure you are. You've crossed more ground than many your age, Junior, but you're still young. You feel guilty about what happened, right? Gnaws at you at night?" She shakes her head. "I won't say 'it'll get easier' because there's a limit to the lies even I'll tell, but maybe I'll tell you this instead:"
She gazes a moment at the lit end of her cigarette. "You'll get used to it."
That girl from Kislev. Josie had almost forgotten.
But it still stays her not a moment from approaching him and using the Big Sister Method upon him for good measure.
This Josie, this serious Josie, flicks a dark-eyed gaze down at him. "You'd better. Don't make me do something else I'll regret, eh?"
In her eyes at least is the promise he's asked for. If it comes to it, she'll try.
Before her brighter aspect returns.
"I might. Maybe one of the sailors'll be willing to trade something. But don't worry about it. In a pinch, I've got my own tricks. Anyway. You said you were here before with some of the others?"
A beat, wherein she takes a drag. "Show me around. There might be something or another to learn from this place. And who knows? Maybe we'll find something from the last time you might have been out this way."
In the background Penelope continues to peck-strut-peck, making her way forward along the blasted earth. Is she, at least, finding anything good?
One might hope. Even here, eventually the ground must give way to life...
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Big Sister Josie. Sure, maybe Big Sister Josie was Big Sister Josie all along, but it's this moment--this moment is the first time he really feels it. He nods numbly to Josie's summation. He even nods numbly to her quite frankly ready understanding of his feelings. It makes him worry that she too has had a similar experience. Or maybe she's known enough people and is well traveled enough to get how he feels.
It's a nice feeling, honestly, being understood. But much like many who seemed to understand, Josie says he'll get used to it. He'll get over it.
It's been a year already, Fei thinks, almost two. When will I be used to it?
Do I ... want to be used to it?
That question sits with Fei a little longer than the former. He feels like he's being unfair already by making this request. It'd be monstrously unfair to ask for even more from her. And maybe cruel to not say, "I won't." as his own kind of promise. It may be a promise he breaks one day, but it's not like he wants to. And besides-- maybe that will make it a little harder to regret.
"Yeah, Riesenlied, Elly, Noeline." Fei says. "Lily too. Riese was telling me about what happened. I guess I heard so much about the ... the 'demon' that I wanted to know what he could do. What he did. Or maybe it was something spookier, like being 'called' here." And more, wondering what Xantia can see in such a destructive, dangerous, and frankly evil individual.
"Elly said maybe one day it'll grow again." He didn't read Josie's mind, it's just one more thing that stuck to Fei about that conversation that isn't about Xantia. His trust is multidimensional rather than a straight line. Some things he trusts with some people, and other things he trusts with others.
"Well I'll do my best, but I don't think there's much to show." He smiles. "But who knows? Maybe we'll find something cheerful." He starts heading along the blasted landscape.
"Like a super weapon to shoot Mother with."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"See that you do." The smile that's returned to her now may take some of the bite out of the comment, though.
"She's right," Josie comments, when Fei brings up Elly's statement on the ruins. "All ruins eventually grow over. It's what makes findin' the things so blasted tough, right?" She grins, lopsidedly.
A smile that doesn't quite meet her eyes.
Eventually. If you let the wilderness take it back.
Some things are too precious for that.
"A super weapon, eh? Now that's what I'd call 'cheerful'!"
With her cigarette-laden hand, the archaeologist gestures for Fei to 'lead on'.
Would that they be so lucky.