2019-06-30: Troubled Times
- Log: 2019-06-30: Troubled Times
- Cast: Ivan, Talia
- Where: Luca - Port District
- Date: July 01, 2019
- Summary: Ivan and Talia talk of wars present and past.
===========================<* Luca - Port District *>=========================== Luca is the largest port and second-largest city in Spira, located the southern tip of the archipelago's largest island. Its location as the central port for Spira's surrounding islands has turned Luca into a thriving economic hub; Besaid, Kilika, and a dozen smaller islands all send their goods to Luca for sale, and even the Al Bhed are known to trade here from time to time. The port district is an immense, bustling area. The largest port in Luca brings in ships from across Spira -- from small fishing ships from Besaid to Al Bhed salvage ships to large sailing vessels from Bevelle -- and a massive market to match. A large seawall keeps the waters at bay, with piers extending out past the seawall into the water. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CIlRCYnZcg
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
It's a few days after the battle at Luca, and Ivan is mostly back to full strength, except for a lingering cold that has left him with a croaky voice and an occasional cough. He is waiting around outside the outskirts of the city to meet up with Talia. As he waits, he sits on a rock, practicing little knife flips, and contemplates how to redeem himself by not having a conversation that goes horribly and makes her sad. There are neutral things they can talk about, right? Things other than assassinations and wars and danger? Probably, yes. They always managed to find topics like that before all this stuff happened...
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia approaches at the place that Ivan indicated, wearing her usual travel gear -- and in the wake of Luca being seized by the Guard, she no longer foregoes armor and weapons outside of Ammy's house. She has her breastplate on, along with light pauldrons on her shoulders and vambraces. Both a dagger and Mirage are at her side.
She tilts her head as she approaches, though. She has the same casual gait as ever; she almost saunters in her black pants and blue, sleeveless shirt. She pauses, though, as she gets closer, and then lifts her hand into a little wave.
"Vanya!" she calls out. "You are in one piece, no? I thought you would be, but it is good to see so." Then her nose wrinkles. "You have a cold?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan puts away his knives and stands up to wave back at her.
"Talia! Oh? Yeah, maybe I have a cold? If I do, it's such a little one I didn't notice it. Have things been all right with you?"
Some of that is, indeed, punctuated by coughs. But he doesn't seem in alarmingly poor health or anything. He nods at her more armoured apparel. "Have you been fighting? You look ready for fighting."
Wait, he wasn't going to talk about fighting! Well, maybe it's okay if it's about Talia fighting and they don't have a fight about it at the end.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Ah, no, I stayed out of Luca," Talia says. "But... if a war is on, it is better to be ready for a fight, no?"
She feels a real concern about someone from Hyland's army recognizing her, after her stint helping them. She doesn't mention that; after all, it might be more worrying to Ivan than she really wants to. She looks him up and down for a moment.
"You are okay?" she asks. "Were you fighting? Since... you are here with Althena's Guard, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Yeah, that seems like a good policy," Ivan says. "I guess fights will break out more easily now that can sweep up even people who haven't signed up for one side or the other."
He's certainly seen enough of civilians getting caught up in it already to know that much.
At her question about whether he was involved in the takeover of the city, he makes a few guilty and undecisive faces.
"I... yeah, I was a part of it. I haven't been in a lot of war battles but I guess it was just a normal and average war battle...? not too much unusual stuff happened that's worth talking about, probably... ... ... Oh, I guess the Guard has giant war golems now? I just saw them from a distance."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"Mm-hm." Talia tilts her head, watching his expressions -- working through what they might mean, in her mind -- and then she sighs. "...I was in a few, too. Before... ah, you know." She left after the war between Hyland and Rolance; her last missions for Lubov involved that.
"They are not pleasant, no?" she says. "Dangerous, easy to get skewered, and... they catch a lot of people. I hope you do not need to do too much more of that."
It would be better if they could, somehow, stop the war. Talia doesn't know how to do that.
Then she makes a face. "Giant war golems? Like... Gears?" A beat. "They are these huge, building-sized machines. Shaped like a person, usually. I saw some on Filgaia, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Considering the Guard seems to want to take over all of Spira, that might mean that even people who are just standing around, existing in any random city would eventually get pulled into the conflict. And that there will be a lot more battles like this one that Ivan will be taking part in, unless Lubov suddenly decides he's gotten whatever he wanted out of having someone fighting in his name in the Guard. But that's okay, because what happened with the last one was definitely a fluke, and next time he will do a lot better.
"Right, I remember that your last missions were about helping the old man, like... meddle in the Hyland and Rolance war... it sounded like things got pretty rough for you."
She mentioned quite a lot of almost dying in catching him up in her adventures surrounding her dissappearance.
Ivan initially looks puzzled when Talia mentions Gears, but then she elaborates, and he nods."They seemed like that, yeah. Big machina, or maybe enchanted constructs, shaped like giant people, shooting out a lot of big, powerful stuff."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"I wonder how they built one..." Talia says. "More than one? It is incredible. The idea must have come from the Blue Star--ah, they are buried in the ground and fixed up, somehow, no? I do not understand the details. These things, these ARMs and machina or whatever they want to call them, they are beyond me."
She shrugs her shoulders once. Then, she looks him over for a moment, like she wants to be sure that he is really fine. "...It was rough. Ah, it is how I met Lydia. She tagged along with me... and ended up helping me, Kaguya, and a jackass named Janus Cascade. He is now dead. It is very sad."
She does not sound very sad.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I don't know, I guess they were hiding it from the non-ranking people. Maybe so word wouldn't get out like how I told you about it just now?" He shrugs and sighs. "It's really beyond me, too. I can barely remember what all the different kinds of machina stuff is called, let alone imagine making one."
He pauses as she gives him another detail about her story that he didn't know.
"Lydia helped you meddle in a war?" he asks, incredulously. What hasn't Lydia done?? He frowns. "But then later you and Kaguya ended up on opposite sides? Was that because you changed your mind about following Lubov's orders...?" But Lydia must have sided with Talia in that, if she was involved at all? And... unconfirmed about the role of Janus Cascade, who apparently died and it wasn't very sad.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"It is true, no? It would be a security leak," Talia says, with a little smile and a wag of her finger. "It is best to leave this to the experts. I think the Caravan Kinship has experts, no? But I am not so sure of this."
She shrugs her shoulders.
She pauses a moment, and then she tilts her head. "Ah... no. You see--Kaguya and Janus were mercenaries, hired by Hyland. I was working for Hyland--" Not their native Rolance. "--because Lubov was playing both sides. And then... he had me betray them, and I was going to, ah, massacre a lot of wounded soldiers with one of his... monsters. Kaguya was one of the people there."
Talia swallows, then she glances to the side. It's still shameful for her to talk about. "Lydia, Ammy, and some others stopped me. But, ah, Kaguya held a grudge. It is hard to not blame her, but she really took it pretty far. Also, she said that nothing really means anything, and is maybe nihilistic and doesn't care what happens to the world."
She pauses. "It was a lot."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan is quiet for a few moments. "...It sounds like a lot," he agrees.
"I'm sorry that all of it happened. I mean, I guess it led to some good things. But there might've been a less painful way to get to the good parts. If the old man wasn't a psychopath and all."
Lubov seems to have a knack for coming up with the cruelest things possible he needs somebody to do for him.
It doesn't surprise Ivan too much to hear that Kaguya is nihilistic, considering she has a death curse, and not a lot of reason to invest in the long-term future. He wonders if Talia knows about that.
Probably he shouldn't say anything, though. He wouldn't want his own health issues being randomly shared around. But Talia isn't random; people ought to just assume that telling one twin something means you've effectively also told the other, right...?
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"It... well, if he wasn't, then... I doubt I would be the person I am, no?" Talia says it like it's a good thing. She doesn't think of it like a good thing. She could have been the person she should have been, instead of this broken person that she is.
But she doesn't say that. It feels like it would hurt the people who, inexplicably at times, love her anyways. She swallows, and then tilts her head to the side.
"It, ah, I am here now, no? And you are, and Lydia and Ammy and, the rest." She glances down for a moment. "...And you are fine, no? I was worried about you but I couldn't get into the city before the fighting all broke out."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan manages to detect (or perhaps just project) a flicker of the sadness and regret behind Talia saying that all of the terrible things made her who she is, and he doesn't like it, but he doesn't want to prod at it and make her more unhappy, either. His shoulders slump a little, but he nods.
She asks him again if he's all right, and he waves his hands a bit, reassuringly.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine, see?"
He makes another weird face. "...Unrelated side question. How much updates does Lydia usually give you about random stuff that she does that may or may not involve me...?"
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"All right," Talia says, with a little smile -- even if she can see that he is deflecting some.
She pauses a moment, though. Her red eyes narrow as she looks at him -- and in that way that's not entirely fair, because she has known Vanya for their entire lives and has a way of realizing something more is there. She taps a finger against her chin.
"Some?" she says. She pauses, then adds: "So what happened? Or should I ask her?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"There's nothing to--" he sighs, giving up before he begins. "...maybe I should get my version of the story out there first..." he murmurs, essentially broadcasting that he intends to lie at least a little.
It would be a lot better if the story didn't get out at all but it does seem dangerously plausible that Lydia might find the event newsworthy enough to share on her own. Or she totally wouldn't and he just gave it up for no reason! Bah.
"So... there was a part of the battle where I ended up in the ocean and Lydia helped me get to shore," he says.
There, that doesn't sound so bad.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia frowns a little at him.
She folds her arms, a little slowly, and then her eyes narrow; her nose wrinkles at the 'so...' And then her eyes widen, and she leans forward until her face is right up in his.
And she declares, much more than she asks: "How did you end up in the ocean, Vanya!"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan throws his hands up in a shrug. "Someone threw me in! I guess in a war people try to throw you in the ocean sometimes! It's not a big deal! It's not like I've never been thrown into the ocean before!"
Ivan has been thrown into the ocean entirely too many times for his liking, in fact.
"But after that happened, Lydia got a little overprotective I guess, and um--" he can leave out the baseball bat, can't he? Adding the baseball bat sounds a little accusatory. He can... leave it to Lydia to add the baseball bat into the story if she ever feels the need to for some reason.
"...didn't want me to go back into the fighting and...kind of dragged me to one of the evacuation points to recover. It was... you know, it was sweet of her, even if it was super not needed at all."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"It is true. I have thrown you into the ocean at least once," Talia muses. She doesn't quite apologize for it. She thinks he deserved it then (though, she is also glad she helped get him out of the water).
Her head tilts -- she raises an eyebrow, and merely has reaffirmed that Lydia really likes her brother. That feels a little strange to her, but not unwelcome.
"She is sweet, no?" Talia asks. "Looking after you like that. So--" And then she clasps her hands together, grins like some kind of devil out of the stories, and leans in close.
"Do you like her~?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
No-- Talia-- bad! Don't be like that!
Ivan leans away from her, making a sour face.
"No! I'm done with having crushes. That was just a very limited phase in my life where I was young and stupid." And when he assumed he'd eventually muster the courage to attempt a normal life. Now that he knows he doesn't have it in him, it's a little pointless to speculate on real-person type future life activities.
He folds his arms. "We are just treasure hunting partners," Ivan says, with as much dignity as he can muster. Then he frowns.
"Associates. Treasure hunting associates."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia doesn't lean closer, but she keeps smiling like the Cheshire Cat. She watches him move away -- and the look she gives his explanation of crushes is most incredulous. Somehow, her big grin does not fade. She uprights herself, her hands still clasped together.
"Treasure hunting associates," she repeats. She still smiles at him like she knows something else. "Well, Vanya..." She reaches a hand up, brushing some hair back and closes her eyes for a second.
If Ivan finds someone to be happy with -- after he stops with this, and maybe it will be a reason to -- all the better. There is a flicker of jealousy that she wouldn't be the reason. And, really, who better than Lydia?
She opens her eyes, then she winks. She makes a little pale blue heart, made of magically created icy mist, flutter away from her eyelid. "You are very cute treasure hunting associates, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan swishes his hand through the heart to try to get rid of it.
"No, it's not cute, it's very serious boring business stuff about getting lots of money. And... fighting a weird amount of cactuses, for some reason."
He frowns, and there's a beat of pause.
"Oh, but we found some kind of magical water weapons in the Thunder Plains one time, and I saved one for you if you were interested in it... would you want something like that?"
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
The heart, frustratingly, splits apart into two hearts.
Talia giggles at that, covering her hand with her mouth. Then, she gets that knowing smile -- like she is saying, 'Yes, I definitely believe that.'
But, she doesn't push further or harder on the matter. Maybe she knows better; maybe she just realizes that if she keeps doing that, Ivan will eventually run off. And, maybe, the notion of receiving some sort of magical weapon to play with is exciting.
"Really?" she asks. "I think I would! My dagger, it is nothing special, no? What do you have?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan makes an incoherent sound of protest as the heart multiplies in the face of his attack, and coughs a few times afterward.
Talia has gained power while she's been away...!
When she asks about the weapon, he unhooks a dagger he had sheathed on his belt, and offers it to her -- it's pretty, if nothing else! When she examines it, she'll find it has a dark blue blade with seashell patterns inscribed into it.
"It definitely didn't suit me," he says, making a face at the notion of wielding a water blade. "But I thought you might want to replace the dagger with something more interesting, yeah."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia takes the dagger; she pulls the sheathe away, glancing down at the deep blue blade with seashells engraved into it, and her eyes widen with delight. Then she nods, eagerly. "Aah, look at it! It is cute, no? And so pretty~"
She looks up and beams, before she slides it to her belt -- hooking the sheathe onto it with a single, dextrous motion of her fingers.
Ad then she hugs him, for good measure. "Thank you, Vanya!"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Yeah, I guess it's cute...?"
Ivan had not previously evaluated the cuteness of the blade. He smiles to see Talia openly beaming about it and enjoying it. As she pulls him into a hug, he returns it and pats her on the back a little.
"I'm glad you like it!"