2019-04-14: The Runner
- Log: The Runner
- Cast: Talise Gianfair, Seraph Lanval, Sephilia Lampbright, Tethelle Cirdian, Layna Manydays, Rosaline Calice
- Where: A beach in Spira
- Date: April 14, 2019
- Summary: As the Company of the Fox determine Spira's location relative to Glenwood and Meribus, another mystery confronts them....
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
With the Company on the road, Talise spent much of the last night awake, sitting out on a hill and watching the stars. She's been doing that often this week.
The current stop for the Company is a beach a ways outside of Luca, not far from a tiny fishing village that's really just a few huts and a pier. Back from the soft white sands a ways, palms sway in a luxurious breeze. A few whisps of cloud trace the clear blue sky, the Blue Star full in the heavens. It is, by all measures, a balmy and beautiful day.
Talise is spending it working.
She's spread a wooden plank out on the sand in front of her and pinned several papers to it with tacks, upon which she'd scribbled a number of equations. Beside the plank is something she bought in Luca a few days ago: A sextant. She's been fiddling with it for the better part of an hour.
"I think we're riiiight on the edge of figuring out where we are in relation to the rest of Lunar," Talise says suddenly, looking up from where she's lying on her elbows and stomach in front of her workspace. "Hey Layna!" she calls. "Think you could verify some of these for me?"
She clicks her tongue and glances up towards the sky. "Spira confused me at first because of the stars. The constellations aren't the same. But it's started to make sense once we spotted the Horse's Ass. I mean, it's backwards, upside down and nowhere near where it should be, but it's definitely the Horse's Ass."
Talise had, in fact, pointed out a constellation shaped like a horse with emphasis on the back end.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval's been taking it about as easy as he's going to, for the circumstances. Spira is visually a beautiful, breathtaking place, largely unspoiled. The Malevolence that permeates the air of Lunar and caused almost unchecked havoc on Filgaia is nowhere to be found. For the Seraphim, who are vulnerable to that sort of thing, this place should be paradise.
Lanval's first taste of this sort of spiritual pressure - over in Azado, where Sin leapt out from the seas and annihilated the place - was a distinctively negative experience and no matter how 'clear' the coast may be, he's always on edge that Sin is going to pop back up. Obsession is the name he's more likely to adopt, for that is what the Guardians call it.
But that's all on the inside. On the outside, he's just lounging around under a tree and having a nostalgic laugh every so often. He remembers, back at that place he used to preside, there would be sailors going far ashore trading bawdy jokes about what happens if one follows the Horse's Ass too closely.
Every so often he sips from his drinking gourd contemplatively.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia Alexis Lampbright loooooves this kind of thing. She's copied down all of Talise's equations and made notes in her journal about how sextants work, also drawn the night sky of Spira, also--well, it's Sephy. You know what she's like.
"Oh yeah, that is the Horse's Ass. The locals call it..." She flips back through the pages of her journal, looking for her record on that. Finding it, she blushes.
"Oh."
"The locals call it, uh, something even ruder than that," she says lamely, "even though it's properly got a real name that nobody ever remembers." She shrugs. "I guess they just liked the slang name better."
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle has dealt with Talise's sudden interest in stargazing with moderate support. Being a Filgaian native, she is adept at following the stars on that planet (she doesn't even use a sextant), but is not at all sure how it maps to Lunar, which doesn't point the same way most of the time.
Her experience on Meribia helped her figure out which way she was going most of the time there, but presented with Spira, she had not been able to make sense of it.
So she is spending the day fishing.
The way Tethelle is used to fishing - but she does not use a rod. She has a fishing net and has waded out quite some distance to make use of it. Because she's in the water, Tethelle is a little more minimally dressed than usual; she has shorts (not the denim ones) but not the half-skirt, nor the boots and knee guards, and while she wears a similar top as usual, it doesn't have sleeves, the shoulder guards, or the gloves and gauntlets.
"Empty cast," she says, irritated, as she starts to gather up the net again, calling back. "At least, of anything big enough to grill. Maybe I should find crabs instead. You finished?" She heard most of that, which is why she's wading back instead of going for another cast.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna is thankful, this time, that her crew is actually with her here on Spira. They didn't travel with her often, but it was nice to have people who could help her keep track of various goings-on while she was out and about exploring.
She'd come back from a round of Sphere messages with Dahlia, who was helping her keep track of the situation in Luca following the Fiend attack.
At the moment, though, she's laying back, her arms folded behind her head and her hat tipped over her eyes. She's napping at the moment...or she was, until she hears a voice calling out to her. Layna opens an eye for a brief moment and sits up, adjusting her hat.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Lately, Rosaline has been in... an unusually good mood? What is this madness?!
She has been making no secret of why, and some of them have learned firsthand. Having reconnected with a long-lost 'sister' is worth celebrating, even if they're stranded on a dangerous lost continent.
"It's probably okay to just call it the Horse's... Ass," Rosaline tells Sephilia, only hesitating a little bit before saying the forbidden word. Everyone else is doing it!
"Either way, good job, Talise! That's a good first step to finding our way back home." The way home is longer for some of them than others, but the first step should be the same for all of them.
She was leaning in to look at Talise's note with curiosity, but steps aside to make room for Layna. She glances back to Tethelle, distracted, then hurriedly looks back to Talise and the others. "Crab would be nice. Most of this place's seafood has been delicious, so I'm not too picky..." Not that she has ever been known to turn her nose up at any food.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise has been taking it easy when she could. She even got some swimming in. She's got a few Spira outfits; this one is a two-piece swimsuit which features a bandeau top. It's white with green and gold edging.
"I think we're pretty close," Talise calls to Tethelle, sitting up a bit straighter, before flashing Sephilia a crooked smile. "The weird thing is, I don't think the people here have even heard of Althena. I'd expect that nothing here is gonna be the same."
When Layna migrates over, Talise scoots over to make room for her. Her pencil darts over the paper a few times, and she checks the sextant, squinting slightly. "...Okay. Okay, that makes sense," she murmurs as Layna verifies the numbers. There's a moment of silence as Talise crunches the calculations the pirate captain makes.
She sits up all of a sudden and snaps her fingers. "Right!" she declares. "I know where we are.
"So according to the constellations, we're in the southern hemisphere - that's why the Horse's Ass is ass-backwards and upside down. I think Layna will back me up on the math here, but we're sort of... easty from Glenwood, I'd say?"
Talise holds her hands out as if to indicate Glenwood with one hand and something else with the other. "Basically we're about a Glenwood's length of distance away from actual Glenwood. And judging from the weather, I'd guess we're a little bit more towards the equator."
A couple of fishing boats bob out in the surf - Spirans looking for their catch just as Tethelle is, no doubt. They're also using a net. Another group of men are down the beach a little ways, patching a net.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"That means...we're on the whole other side of the world, doesn't it?" Sephy asks, wide-eyed and wondering.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Yeah... been thinkin' 'bout that, shome," Lanval says as he slouches a little more, as he is perpetually in a state of wanting to slouch. Since he technically does not have a brain, the idea that he could do any sort of thinking ever may technically be a lie!! "I mean... She brought everyone here, far ash we know..."
And yet, he knows they are far, far, far out of the Boundary. The pyreflies that flit about in the air and especially the water aren't the work of his kind.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle gives Rosaline a smile that is not feigned as she wades back toward the group.
"I see the fish," Tethelle says, as she finishes wading back out of the water, net bundled up for another use later. "But I have to stand in the water to get far enough out, since I don't have a small boat, and that keeps them away from the net. It's frustrating. I will try for seafood later," she promises Rosaline.
The Spirans, she assumes, are having better luck. *They* have boats.
Once she's out of the water, Tethelle balances on one leg to remove the worst of the water off the other by delivering a series of fast kicks to thin air, then repeats the process balancing on the other leg. At least this means she's not actively dripping (much) when she comes over toward Talise and her paperwork, though she stays a reasonable distance away from her and from Sephilia's book.
"So we could sail there, if we had a ship?" Tethelle asks. "Or we could, if they didn't say that Obsession - Sin - was out to sea. But Glenwood isn't that big." Well, not compared to Ignas at least; measuring against Aquvy is a fool's errand because of all the islands.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
It was good to see Rosaline in a good mood. Layna offers her a nod as she moves in near to Talise, but soon enough she gets right to work.
Layna does the calculations in her head. She does them multiple times - checking and double-checking them to make sure she's got everything right. Everytime, though, she comes up with the same answers - the same ones Talise got.
"Aye, Talise's got the right of it." Layna confirms with a nod. "If this place ain't more backward than we already know - but somehow, I doubt that."
That said, she grins and claps Talise on the shoulder in approval.
"That was some fine work, lass - fine work indeed." She says. She hadn't thought about doing the calculations herself.
She listens to Tethelle and nods, with a frown.
"Aye, therein lies the rub - there's no tellin' where that great blaggard'll show up next, s'far as I hear it." She agrees with a nod.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"Hmmm... I wonder," Rosaline says, in answer to Lanval's mention of Althena. She wasn't personally present with the others when they were transported here, so divine (well, 'divine') intervention doesn't sound out of the question.
"Thank you!" she answers Tethelle with a genuine smile of her own. "We appreciate your efforts. Maybe we could make a raft...?" She has no idea how feasible this plan would be, however. She grew up in the middle of a desert, so raft-making opportunities rarely came up.
"Sin..." Rosaline repeats, apparently preferring that name. "It would pose a great risk to run into it at sea..." She remembers Azado, somberly, but banishes the thought. "But I'd say we should take this question one thing at a time. For now, just knowing where we are already puts us in a better position than we were yesterday."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Yeah, it means exactly that," Talise explains with a nod for Sephilia. "It also means there's a lot of distance between us and the known continents. Crossing between Meribus and Glenwood is actually pretty short. But the distance shouldn't be insurmountable."
When Layna pats her on the shoulder, the swordswoman smiles roughly, bringing her hand up to roughly pat the back of Layna's. "Hey, I grew up on a ship. Might as well use all that stuff I learned, huh?"
When Tethelle floats the idea of just sailing out of here, Talise scratches at one cheek. "I thought the same thing. I mean, we know where we are now. We ought to be able to just get on a ship, sail to Glenwood, double back to Azado and get you home the same way we did the last time. But I haven't seen anything like an oceangoing port. Luca seems to be the only city, and all the ships they serve there are coast-huggers and small craft."
Knitting her brows, Talise eases to her feet. She plants her hands at her hips and squints out over the water. "...Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine they probably run into Sin out there," she murmurs.
Then she blinks, looking between Tethelle and Rosaline. "Then again, didn't the Guard make it here somehow? Leo I could get, but how'd the rest of them make it here if Sin just eats any ship that comes near?"
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"Sin kind of terrifies me," Sephilia admits. "I don't know if I'd want to just sail on out of here, anyway. The people here are pretty nice and there's definitely stuff going on that our kind of people can help out with and I'd feel bad for not helping. You know?
[OOC] Sephilia Lampbright says, "i hit enter instead of end quote. But then i was going to hit enter? so I don't know if bluray" [OOC] Sephilia Lampbright says, "bluray: add an end quote."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Mmmm... I dunnooo... maybe... there were shoooo many shent they couldn't have gotten 'em all," Lanval says as he tries to fight his natural urge to slouch, but fails, and lets himself lie on his back under the shade of this palm tree. This palm tree's positioning and shade pleases him. It deserves a little extra moisture for its tireless services of being an enabler for slouching in the shade, and thus It Is So.
Lanval scratches at his chin from where he rests. "Mmmmm... but... there'sh a blind devout of Althena I wash runnin' 'round Beshaid with, she didn't mention anything 'bout anything bad happenin' out on the water..." He's not sure if she was actually part of the sea expedition here, or if she got swept up by the same strange light that took a whole lot of people here.
"...Shtill don't get why it shtruck Azado... ain't never heard of anything like it in my time."
Obsession's appearance in Azado is the first he's ever heard of in all five-and-a-half centuries he's been in existence, which puts something of a bullet point on how serious the situation has to be.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Tethelle thinks about that for a moment. "A raft may work. I don't know that I could make one that would stay together forever, but I don't have to, and it's not like I can't swim back if I stay within sight of shore, in case it sinks." The plan seems sound enough to her.
"When I asked, they said nobody goes out to sea very far, because of Sin," Tethelle says, "so I imagine that's why they don't have any seagoing ships. Nothing like the big ones from Guild Galad." She's sure those ships could make it across - they can certainly go that far. It might take a while, but it can be done.
But Sin...
"Perhaps they were watching for it, after Azado," Tethelle says, "and got lucky. Even something like Sin cannot be everywhere. Otherwise everything would be worse than it already is." She's thinking of Kilika. And Azado. She privately agrees with Sephilia: running is not a good plan right now, and so she gives her a slight nod of agreement.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephilia perks up. "A blind devotee of Althena? Was she...an elf?" The girl seems almost hopeful, but then glances at Talise and clams up.
"I'm not sure what they could do if they knew it was coming, though, like...that's a lot of open sea, and it's not like they could get to higher ground if they saw it out there on the passage, right?" she asks Tethelle, glad of the opportunity to change the subject away from the possible Amelia Rose sighting.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Yup! Had a dog too," Lanval confirms as he stares up towards the palm tree with eyes closed, which is totally one hundred percent distinct from the concept of dozing off for a nap, honest.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"It is true, the people here don't seem interested in leaving..." Rosaline muses. There are likely several reasons for this, Sin chief among them.
"Althena's protection?" Rosaline answers to the question of how the Guard came here. Her tail sways, then she lets out a small, embarassed laugh. "I'm sorry, I was being sarcastic." Catty, one might even say. "More seriously..." Tethelle says Sin can't be everywhere at once, and Rosaline nods. "Maybe they just got lucky."
Sephilia is hesitant to leave Spira. Rosaline wrings her hands. "It's true... But I'm not sure what precisely we can do... I don't know if we can defeat Sin, if it can even be defeated. And besides, Mother may be gone, but Odessa did declare war on the nations of Filgaia. I have responsibilities to fulfill there." She seems regretful. It's never pleasant having to establish priorities when people in need are concerned.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"Aye, aye." Layna agrees with a nod and a chuckle. "And use it you did!"
She considers, though, as they discuss the possibility of...just going back to Azado and teleporting back to Filgaia that way.
"...Aye. An' that's assumin' the ruins are still intact. We don't know what happened after we left. For all we know, Sin could've leveled it all after we left, and then we'd be stuck there." Layna comments. "...An' the Ruby Empress didn't come along with us, so we'd be trustin' our lives to some other ship."
Of course, the question is raised - how did the Guard get here? Layna doesn't have a solid answer to that. She frowns consideringly, folding her arms in front of her.
"...Couldn't tell you. They'd be the only ones who could." She admits with a shrug, then glances toward Lanval.
Why Azado...? There had been no history of Sin attacking Meribus up to that point. So why then? ...Layna doesn't have an answer to that. She shakes her head again.
"...I think Rosaline's got the right of it. We've got a lot of 'maybe's runnin' through our heads, but the fact is, we're a little further along now than we were yesterday, an' that's somethin' to celebrate, aye?" She says with a grin.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
Talise crinkles her nose slightly. "I think Sin terrifies most people. I didn't even see it clearly when we were in Azado and it's still not something I want to mess with."
When Lanval makes a suggestion, Talise frowns, scratching at one of her cheekstripes. Tethelle tosses another out. "...Yeah, that means there's probably a way to slip by Sin, even if it's just beating the odds. Maybe it's just a random chance...."
The swordswoman bunches her shoulders slightly, then lets them settle. "...Either way, you're right, Sephilia. We can't just bail on Spira now. If there's something we can do, we've got to do it."
She cracks a little smile Rosaline's way before letting out a soft sigh. Her eyes dip to the sand. For a moment, Talise is quiet, sinking into thought.
"I wonder if Althena could stop Sin," she murmurs. "And if so, why she let it destroy Azado in the first place."
When she looks up again, it's with a clearing of her throat. "Right! We're at least closer to knowing where we are, which gives us options! But for now it seems like we can probably take taking a ship out into the ocean off the table. At least, if the people here aren't going to try, it's probably a bad idea for us, too."
"There's always whoever's on the Runner," puts in someone who is not normally the conversation. It's one of the Spiran fishermen, an older fellow with silvering hair and weather-worn features, who seems to be passing by with a younger man who looks a lot like him.
Talise blinks once. "Excuse me?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
So many questions... and for Lanval, who now has someone he could ask, he cannot because he hasn't been able to hear them since that big flash of light. As Rosaline mentions responsibilities, Lanval takes his gourd in both hands and tilts gently into his mouth. Since he's lying down, it is a delicate balancing act to stop whatever's inside from spilling everywhere.
He sits back up, patting the shade as though it were an entity (elsewhere on Lunar, there's a non-zero chance it is) as if to say 'thanks' and goes to ambulate over to Rosaline's side in solidarity about the feeling of being so far away from where you need to be. He gives her a little smile.
A local speaks up about an alternative, and Lanval turns his head, one eye open half-lidded as if to scrutinize them.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
"They could have gotten lucky; they could have cast a spell that repelled Sin even if they could not defeat it; they could simply have found a route it does not block. Another ruin, maybe. I don't know, but if there was something under Azado, what if there was something under - " Quick, what's a big city in Meribus, Tethelle thinks. "Meribia? And they found it there."
Tethelle speaks after Rosaline, "I do not know if we can fight Sin, either. But the Guardians - they fear it. And so I have to at least learn what I can. If they want it dead..." Well, it's her obligation to make the attempt, as a shaman of the Sword. Perhaps not in open conflict: "...they have people here who fight, too. I have heard of them - the summoners. I would make contact with them."
Tethelle flips the net over her shoulder, resting it. She might have said something else, but she looks at the fisherman instead, surprised to be interrupted. "How long were you listening?" she asks, somewhat sharply, but then adds, less aggressively: "The Runner?"
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"I had a better look at Sin than you did," Rosaline tells Talise, "and I would consider you lucky. It was... a vision of Apocalypse. I don't think we would have stood a chance even with Gears."
"Maybe she could," Rosaline admits with a little sigh, regarding Althena stopping Sin. "But if she didn't, it wouldn't be the first time I don't understand her and her Guard's behavior." She has to put her thoughts on Althena delicately, what with most of them being her worshipers and, in some cases, children.
Speaking of which, Lanval comes closer, and Rosaline returns his smile. Tethelle then speaks of the Guardians and summoners, and Rosaline nods slowly.
"This is true... It couldn't hurt to learn more about it, at the very least."
But someone joins the conversation. Rosaline's ears turn to hear the man, and she tenses up. How long has he been listening? Did he hear them talk about Filgaia and the Guardians and such? "H-Hello!"
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
"I saw it. And aye, that's a good mindset to have." Layna comments with a gim nod toward Talise. She'd say she fought it, but it was hard to call that a 'fight'. It barely seemed affected by anything they did. Rosaline offers her own view of the battle, too. "Aye. Hell, there were folks with Gears there, if I ain't mistaken. Sure didn't seem to do them any good."
Maybe they could slip by Sin. Or maybe they couldn't. But as Talise says, they couldn't abandon Spira.
"Aye." Layna says, nodding.
...Could Althena stop Sin? Layna thinks about it for a moment.
"...Maybe the Althena of old could've. But these days, she seems to have 'er hands full." Layna comments, then looks toward Tethelle.
"I hear there's another group gearin' up to fight Sin, too - the Crusaders, they call 'em. So if we want to help out, we've got a few folks to ask." She comments.
Talise lays everything on the table, then, up until a fisherman passing by comments on them. Layna offers them a nod of greeting, but she's no less curious about what they have to say.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"About thirty seconds," admits the fisherman with a shrug at Tethelle, scratching the back of his head. "Sorry about that."
Talise presses her lips together, glancing between Tethelle and Rosaline, then over to the fisherman. "It's alright," she says, moving her hand to her hip again. "Anyway, what was that you said?"
The fisherman gestures towards the water with a tilt of his head. "Just something you said about the deep water. We don't go out there. But for the past six or eight years there've been folks who say they've seen some kind of big boat racing around out there. One of the big sorts with the sails. Never comes close to the land or anywhere the fishing types go, mind. Just kind of runs by with its sails all out and vanishes back over the horizon again. Folks call it the Runner, 'cause it's there one minute and then it runs off."
"I saw it once," the other fishermen says. "It went by really fast."
Talise knits her brows slightly. "Huh. And you don't know who it is?"
"All folks ever see is a big ol' sailboat," the older fisherman notes. "Never heard of people on it."
"It don't look like any boat they sail even in Luca," the younger fisherman adds. "'s kind of... lower. Gets high in the back. Lotta big sails."
Talise bites lightly down to the inside of her cheek. "Sounds like you're describing a galleon or something like that."
The fishermen just blink at her.
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy lights up and pulls out one of her old journals. She has a sketch she did of a galleon in there! "Did it look like this?" she asks the one who says he saw it, excitedly.
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
Even Tethelle, the priestess of hitting people with a sword (well, not precisely, honestly, but sometimes it seems that way) is not in favour of a frontal assault on Sin. There are limits to what bravery can do.
She is glad that the fisherman wasn't listening in *that* long; he probably didn't hear anything incriminating, but she makes a mental note to watch her mouth. "A large ship," Tethelle says, thoughtfully. She looks at Talise, then Sephilia, then the fisherman. "It's... a big design. The design is... something the maesters are considering building."
Tethelle is lying, of course. But it's easier than explaining that they only saw them on other continents before.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna looks on in interest as the fisherman speaks, explaining about the ship they've seen out in the deep waters. Six or eight years... Layna folds her arms in front of her, thinking it over.
Talise says it sounds like a galleon and Layna nods.
"Aye, that's what I thought too..." She says, consideringly, then looks around to the others. "Might be worth checkin' out. What do you lot think? Mystery ship like that...I'd be lyin' if I said it didn't catch my interest, aye?"
She was a woman of the sea, after all. That kind of thing was where all of the good stories came from.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval's back to scratching at his chin as the fisherman discusses the story about a weird boat about the last 'six or eight years.' They see it, then it just... runs off?
"Never makesh it ta port anywhere...?" Lanval asks aloud, and that's weird. "What kinda boat jusht floatsh on the water forever 'n ever, 'n doeshn't... mmm."
He just had a thought. Thought-equivalent. They were just talking about matching up constellations and figuring out where they were on Lunar, after all...
"Hm, shaaaaaay, ya don't think... it might be from shome other land nearby?" Lanval asks aloud.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
Rosaline relaxes when she assesses that the fisherman doesn't seem to be regarding them with suspicion. She crosses her arms.
"Well, that's interesting..." She nods along with Tethelle's story.
"Though I wonder if it's not a ghost ship again," she adds in a lower voice, not intended for the fishermen to hear. She hopes it's not a ghost ship. Her memories of the last one she visited are bad enough. Who even likes ghost ships? They're almost as bad as sewer dungeons. "...But even if it is, we definitely should look into it," she agrees with Layna, with a slow nod.
Lanval brings up the possibility of some other land. "...Hmmm. That would come with its own set of problems, I suppose... But Sephilia does want to be a great explorer, after all..."
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
The young fisherman leans in and squints at Sephilia's notepad. "...Pretty much," he recalls. "Was a couple years back I done saw it."
Talise picks up on it pretty quickly when Tethelle covers the art with a lie. "Yeah, it's still a design that's on the drawing board. Maybe someone's been trying it out and we just didn't know about it?" She shrugs, then angles her shoulders back with a rough smile. "Either way! Thanks for telling us."
"No charge." The old fisherman nods, beckoning the younger one back down the beach. Tethelle can at least feel better about the fact that they don't have anything in their net, either.
Talise waits for the two to exit earshot before she glances around again. No one else is listening in.
The big half-Beastwoman frowns, looking out over the water. "Sounds like someone from Meribus or Glenwood found Spira. Wonder why they haven't made landfall." She knits her brows. "Unless they're all dead and the ship's just been going in circles for years, in which case I'm surprised it hasn't sunk yet."
She cants her head back towards Lanval and Layna, smiling thoughtfully. "Yeah, though it sounds like catching it would be hard? If we spot it, it'd definitely be worth trying to check it out."
The possibility Rosaline and Lanval bring up is met with a blink. "...Oh, that'd be interesting, wouldn't it? Maybe there's another hidden land somewhere we still don't know about."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
"I bet we could come up with some plan to catch it though. We know Seekrit Things now, remember?" Sephy grins. "It's nice to have a good exploration and learn things other folks haven't found out yet!"
She seems happier than she has been about being an explorer over the past months lately, at least?
<Pose Tracker> Tethelle Cirdian has posed.
It's not the first lie Tethelle has come up with. Probably she should be worried about how easily it comes, even if she's not always the best at *delivering* them.
Probably. But she isn't.
Tethelle is still going to assume that the fishermen were successful, just not where she can see. But that's all right. Competition is good. She can set up a raft just as soon as they're done. "I don't believe a ship would stay intact enough that he wouldn't have mentioned it looking run down. If nothing else, a storm would have taken the sails down... or Sin would have attacked it, if it had been uncontrolled for years."
She agrees, "There could be more islands. Or a route to Glenwood that we don't know about. I'm interested in finding it out, ghost ship or not. We can handle ghosts."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Wonder what they're lookin' foooor," Lanval's voice trails off as he opens an eye, half-lidded, and looks about the sleepy little fishing village. There's not much here that jumps out at him as being the sort of thing you'd cross a treacherous body of water with a marauding Obsession for.
"I mean, ta hear it from that one," Lanval says, "it'sh been comin' and goin' for shome time, sho there'sh gotta be shomethin' they're tryin' ta find, but... aren't."
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Tethelle tells a lie and Talise covers for it. Layna doesn't say anything - it's probably best if they cover their tracks a bit. Who knows what kind of opinion these people might have on strangers from another land.
They leave and she turns her attention back to Talise.
"Aye, that's a good question. Maybe it is a ghost ship." She considers. Unlike Rosaline, she sounds a little more excited about the prospect.
Talise says it might be hard, and Layna grins, offering Sephilia a nod.
"Aye, it's as the lass says. Between the lot of us, I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out."
From some other land, though... Layna hadn't considered that possibility. She thinks it over with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Wouldn't that be a dream...learnin' 'bout a whole new land we didn't know about." She considers, intrigued.
Lanval raises another questioon - what were they looking for? Layna thinks it over.
"...Guess that's somethin' to ask when we board it." She comments. She says it as if it's inevitable.
<Pose Tracker> Rosaline Calice has posed.
"Hmmm. I suppose speculating won't do us much good either way." And as Layna says, they can always personally ask all about where that ship is from, why it hasn't made landfall on Spira and whether its crew members are alive or ghostly. But first, they'll need to catch it.
"We do?" she asks Sephilia, "I'm not sure the Horse's Ass would be much help in catching it, unless that's not what you're talking about..."
"We can handle ghosts," she begrudgingly admits. It is technically one of her specialties.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Secret things are pretty good things," Talise says with a smile as she reaches out to give Sephilia a light pat on the shoulder. "And we do know a few of them."
The swordswoman rolls her shoulders a little as if on instinct before nodding as Tethelle makes a point. "Yeah, I'd agree. A good storm should've put it under by now, or at least the current would've carried it to land. The fact that it's still circling suggests something's conscious over there. Alive, maybe not. But conscious."
A ghost ship isn't outside Talise's universe of possibilities. They'd been aboard one before, after all.
Then Lanval suggests something. Talise blinks, then frowns, tapping a finger against her lower lip. "...Usually the dead only linger if they have unfinished business. Or at least that's what I've heard, anyway. Maybe they were searching for something in Spira and Sin got to them before they could make it here...."
For a moment, Talise goes silent, looking off towards the horizon. She bites a corner of her lower lip and draws a breath.
"Right. Questions for when we get there."
<Pose Tracker> Sephilia Lampbright has posed.
Sephy beams. "This is gonna be cooooool! We're going to get to tell stories about it when we find it!"