2019-07-18: Friend and Food...and Fleeing
- Log: 2019-07-18: Friend and Food...and Fleeing
- Cast: Ivan, Lydia Seren, Prissa
- Where: Mi'ihen Highroad
- Date: July 20, 2019
- Summary: Meeting Prissa proves to be a bit too much for Ivan.
=============================<* Mi'ihen Highroad *>============================= Many years ago, a man named Lord Mi'ihen, commander of a mercenary group known as the Crimson Blades, was summoned by the Grand Measter to Bevelle to answer the challenge that his group was a threat to Yevon. Though his followers suspected he would be executed and begged to follow, Mi'ihen ordered them to stay behind and walked along an old path to Bevelle, without stopping to rest. Moved by the display of piety, the Grand Maester formally adopted Mi'ihen and his soldiers into Yevon as a defensive force, known now as the Crusaders. In recognition of the momentous moment, the path Mi'ihen walked now bears his name. ...except not really, because the original one was wrecked by Sin a few hundred years ago. You can still see bits of it as you pass along the Highroad, on which the Djose Temple can also be found. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8tfe_H7bzw
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
THE MI'IHEN HIGHROAD
RIN'S TRAVEL AGENCY
A PLACE OF INTENSE HERESY AGAINST THE TEACHINGS OF YEVON
How heretical?
Some dude with a gas mask and wearing no shirt has gotten out a rotisserie. Well, they probably call it something else, but the concept is simple - put some meat on a piece of metal set up to spin and evenly roast it over a low fire made using charcoal. The smell is heavenly... BUT SINFUL!
For this rotisserie is not being turned by the honest labor of a faithful Yevonite, nor by the similarly honest labor of a chicobo being trained to run an eternal treadmill so it can go to chocobo college and become a ship driver. No: it is being turned... by the dark hand... OF MACHINA!!
Anyway, the long story short here is that there's grilled meat. There is a stone oven where fluffy flatbreads are being baked off, and a metal trench filled with magicked-up chunks of ice which contains what might be known in some quarters as...
Toppings.
Prissa is sitting on a nearby stump waiting for a high sign that there's a fresh batch of breads. She is very visible.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Anyway," Lydia is saying as she heads down the Highroad. "You'll love Prissa. She's amazing. Loyal. Smart. And a big believer in sharp objects. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if she got along better with you than with me!" She pauses. "Because you seem like someone who would really dig personalized swords of your dreams. She made a sword once with my blood inside of it." Or well blood equivalent. "But to be honest I shouldn't give you the sales pitch until you hear hers... Have you met many Al Bhed? Rin is the guy who got me the chain for the bangle? Ooh I should show it to Prissa!"
She sniffs faintly and her eyes widen. "Oh shit theyp're makin' food! Man I haven't even realized that I was starving but now I'm starving!"
She starts jogging over towards Prissa and her stump, waving a hand excitedly in her direction. "Heeey! Heeey!!" She shouts, a new necklace with a star bangle at the end of it that's been glitzed up a bit dangling from around her neck. "Prissa! How's it been?? Are you free yet?"
She sniffs a few times. Mmmm.
"Oh!" She adds. "Someone I want you to meet! This is Ivan!"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
It wasn't too hard to talk Ivan into wanting to meet Prissa because honestly he kind of wanted to meet Prissa the very first time Lydia started telling him about her weapons. This latest rundown only increases the hype.
"...you used to have a sword with your blood inside it?" Ivan asks. "What happened to it??" What is the point of having a sword with your blood in it?? Well, nevermind that, it just sounds metal.
"I've met... some. Oh, right, that mysterious bangle you got... ... Oh, whoa, hey!"
Lydia gets excited and hurries toward Friend and Food. Ivan trails after, trying to look very cool about things.
When he arrives a bit after Lydia, he remembers it is kind of stressful to be introduced to people. He can't decide what to do with his face and settles on deadpan.
"Uhhh, hi. Yes. We hunt for treasure together. Occasionally."
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
Prissa slowly turns her head. And she reveals the dark secret of her HORRID GREEN SPIRALLING EY-
Actually that's pretty small popotoes compared to a lot of folks.
"Lydia!" Prissa says, then with somewhat more reserve in her voice, "Ivan. You are just in time. If you wish to eat I think there is plenty, but if you can put a few gil in the can, it would be polite." She gestures at the rusty metal can at the side of the -Toppings Bar-. She ten rises upwards for a moment, and she looks at Ivan.
She approaches Ivan.
Prissa leans to Ivan's left, leans to his right, leans in close as if she's about to put her forehead against his. At this range Ivan can tell what Prissa had for lunch and what she was doing all afternoon (in the latter case, ironworking).
"I am not free," she says, leaning out of Ivan's Zone a moment later, "for I always am sure to charge a market rate. Tell me about your treasure hunting, while they finish off making the breads."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"I think it exploded after killing a giant malevolent dog or something." Lydia explains to Ivan.
She smilles and places some gil in the can. By the sound of it, she is being generous but not to the point off being insulting or anything like that. Lydia believes in merchant etiquette though she is also trying to look out for her friend so she doesn't live forever in a debt that Lydia doesn't think she entirely deserves what with being in that much debt largely because of a giant death whale stranding her in friggin' Glenwood.
"Oh we checked out this underwater temple where we fought a cactus." Lydia begins but if Ivan wants to really pep up the story he'd probably be better off sharing it himself since Lydia tries to make everything sound casual.
rShe nods, slowly to Ivan. "That mysterious bangle." She agrees before looking to Prissa. "Check out my mysterious bangle."
She shows Prissa the mysterious bangle.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
As Prissa leans in toward him from various directions, Ivan leans out in a corresponding way, though since he doesn't actually move his feet, she should still be able to make whatever Keen Observations she's trying to make.
I am not free.
...Is... is she accusing him of wanting handouts?? What did he say to make her think he was going to ask for handouts?! He opens up his mouth, kind of teakettling as he wants to say SOMETHING but he's sure it will be VERY RUDE and then Lydia will be SAD because he YELLED AT HER FRIEND LIKE IMMEDIATELY and so caught between these two truths, he kind of locks up and doesn't actually do anything besides make a ridiculous face as the conversation goes on without him.
There is an offer of quasi-free food which is VERY confusing after the last bit.
"I don't really need to eat," Ivan says, not with the air of someone who is revealing a shocking new metaphysical truth about himself for the first time, but more like someone who is making an excuse to avoid a situation he doesn't want to be in (eating socially) and can't be bothered to lie convincingly. There's still some residual indignance in it, too. Just put a price on it!! Don't guilt people and make them come up on their own with what to pay!!!
Yes, they've barely gotten started and Ivan is already doing... this.
He tunes back in with Lydia talking about cacti and bangles.
"We... sure did fight a cacti. Two. Three? But at different times, I think? Yeah, okay, look at her mysterious bangle. You really are showing that to like everybody..."
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"Oh, are you talking about Galatine?" Prissa says. "Galatine is very impressive. I made a blade to slay chocobos - or horses, I suppose - which I had hoped to sell. I was carrying it with me when we confronted this great bastard of a hellion hound, and it broke while I was striking. I collected the flinders and reforged."
Then she looks at the bangle. "Nice," she says. "Eight points. Eight is lucky, you know!" Is it??
Then to Ivan. "No?" she says. "That's impressive. Does it mean you don't poop?"
After this question, Prissa continues, "Was it just a regular cactus or did it -"
Prissa leans to the side and contorts her arms just so.
You know the pose. You know it and you may FEAR it.
"Funny if it was in a flooded temple, though..."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Ivan needs to eat," Lydia immediately countermands Ivan on that point but she can't help but wonder--was having him meet Prissa a bridge too far too soon?? He handled Puddle--He handled Emeralda really well so she thought Prissa would be easier but Emeralda never offered Ivan food! How could seh have made such a miscalculation???
"It is?" Lydia asks, blinking a few times. She just thought it looked pretty and also was a star and all stars are awesomme in Lydia's book!
"He might not poop though I dunno!!" Lydia admits, silver faced though she does add, "It was in a flooded temple, yeah! And sure it was tough...and sure Ivan did most of the work...but we won! And made money! Some of which I put towards the Prissa fund."
She bobs her head a few times before her eyes widen. "Yeah--! It made that pose! And uh. Actually we fought one on the Thunder Plains too. Except it shot exploding spines. And to be totally honest that was way worse."
She picks up the bangle and looks at it again as if considering whether she buys 8 = good luck and all that. She supposes 8 on its side is infinity? IS THAT GOOD LUCK?
"Sure do!" She tells Ivan. "I mean of course I do." She smiles brightly. "It makes me...ah..." She gets embarrassede right about here. "W..well. If something makes you happy it's only natural right??"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Apparently claiming not to eat has opened the door to EXTREMELY OPEN SPECULATION about other bodily functions. "I am not having this conversation," Ivan responds, looking like he is trying very hard to hang onto his dignity but may flee his body altogether if he fails. Lydia, don't charge ahead and have the conversation on his behalf!!
Ivan sort of bluescreens in the background for a while although he does throw in a grouchy "We didn't just fight a regular cactus!" because his subconscious must be screening the conversation or something.
Eventually he has to resume engagement with the situation because Lydia is flustering and telling him she likes the bangle.
"...I mean it's just a bangle. Even if it is a mysterious bangle. It's not like anybody hand-made it for you or anything like that..." Although in Ivanspeak that might sometimes mean he's denying a thing that did happen, in this case Ivan doesn't know any jewelry-making craft so he's just awkwardly admitting a true thing because he's a little self conscious that SHE BUILT AN ENTIRE MUSIC BOX for him and he just bought her something shiny and she's showing it off to everyone she meets. He does feel proud of sneaking it to her, though. Tempered somewhat by the fact that he accidentally made her smack herself in the face with a blitzball.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"If he needs to eat, he can eat when the bread is ready. Just put in a few gil for the parts we have to buy," Prissa reiterates. She then says, "Yeah! It is a very... this is hard to put concise in your tongue. It's a complete number. Like four is kind of an incomplete, but eight is complete. Nine is the best, though; they have checked."
Then she looks to Ivan, back to Lydia, and back to Ivan. Though to Lydia, she says with a sort of distracted hesitance, "Well, you know, that is kind of you, but you earned that money for yourself... you don't have to do things like that, you know..."
She squeezes the back of her neck and then looks towards Ivan - and her eyebrows lift for a moment, at which point it's Ivan to Lydia to Ivan that she looks. "You might not know from cactus," Prissa tells Ivan. "On Filgaia everyone deals with the desert by looking at it and saying, how sad, Filgaia is dying. On our lands we lived in the friendly desert!"
"Which is why this is strange, the cactaur nation usually does not hang out in the water. You are sure it wasn't like, I don't now, a cactaur shaped machina?"
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia isn't going to pretend Ivan doesn't eat food. As for other bodily functions, well, Lydia didn't start it! She just decided not to be too flustered and end it. "Prissa," Lydia says. "We're in business together. Your debts are my debts. And you're my best friend! If it's really bothering you I'll stop, but if you get stuck here we'll have a tough time adventuring together too!"
She pauses. "Oh uh. Ivan's not from Filgaia." Lydia also was basically raised in a desert area and yeah it's pretty much a s Prissa decribes so she shrugs faintly with her shoulders, unable to argue.
"I uh. I honestly figured it was more like a fiend. I also didn't know they had a nation." Also she didn't make the dig so she honestly has no idea why it was there. "I mean it probably wasn't always underwater. The ruins I mean."
Ivan continues to trouble her over the bangle. Lydia isn't sure what to make of Ivan's complaints exactly. She squints a bit as she tries to translate Ivanspeak into Lydiaspeak. They've been hanging out a fair bit..how hard could it be?
"Um, well, hand made is nice and all, but I like it because whomever gave it to me was being thoughtful!"
She tilts her head curiously. "Ivan..." She asks him seriously. "Are you jealous of whomever gave me this bangle?"
IVAN is the one who gave you that bangle, Lydia! And Lydia IS aware of this but she also considers it exceedingly possible that Ivan has somehow become jealous of Ivan.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
The mystery of the cactuars is not one Ivan has given a lot of thought to except immediately upon encountering a new cactuar in an unexpected place. "There was also one on the Thunder Plains, I think. I had settled on it not making sense why they showed up where they do... Uh, but they have a nation?" Ivan does not want to think about cactuars being super sentient, he has enough on his conscience as it is to be adding the murder of cactuars to it, especially not now that he has a music box commemorating those events.
"I haven't been to a desert or to any desert-based worlds but I have a basic idea of what they look like, with cactuses and all," he says.
Lydia asks if he is jealous of the person who gave her the bangle. He looks extremely confused as he tries to parse that for a double meaning. "I... what? No!" but whenever he denies stuff like that it just makes him sound more true. What is he accusing himself of? What does it even mean to be jealous of himself?!
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"Even so, oh, I, jee," Prissa says, mumbling in Al Bhed to herself for a moment and folding her arms more tightly. Her tan face flushes too. Then she has a new topic to talk about rather than taking money from Lydia -- Ivan!
She looks at Ivan. "Huh," she answers. "And hm. Well, it might be like an unsent Cactaur, or something? I don't really know. I told you about Hypello and Ronso, I did not bring up the Cactaur since they are mostly over where we live... we don't talk much, it is just like, you know, why pick a fight? What are we going to do, run out of sand?"
"Did it become pyreflies when you beat it? If so, it was a fiend. People only let out their pyreflies later, most times," Prissa tells Ivan, matter of factly. "Filgaia is alright, but I do not know if you can get there from here. There was the weird ass ruins under Azado but..."
Prissa lets out a sigh.
"... what?" she then says, about the jealousy. "I thought you -" This to Ivan.
Then the guy baking the bread pulls out the bread paddle (technical term). "Get it while it's hot.."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
An unsent Cactuar? "What's an Unsent?" Lydia asks.
She does know about Hypello and Ronso at least so she doesn't feel the need to form any inquiries on them. She's pretty sure White Knight Leo is a Ronso for that matter. And she also firmly believes that Ronso is just a kind of beastman and they're just being super proud of being all big furry cat dudes but that's neither here nor there.
"Honestly don't remember." Lydia admits. "But I think so. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't a person." Pause. "Because it was a cactus." Pause. "A cactus with a face but still, l ike, a cactus."
She looks to Ivan and adds, "Okay, okay. Just..." What WAS she doing by asking that? It just sort of flew out of her mouth before she could stop herself honestly. "Why does it bother you I like the bangle, then?"
She looks back to Prissa and adds, "Oh uh--" Pause. "Oh! The bread's ready!" She rushes over to bread paddle guy. "I want hot bread!" She tells him.
Because she came to this hungry and now she's ready for the power of the flour.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
...Maybe Ivan IS a little jealous of himself. Like he accidentally built up this whole hypothetical person who Lydia thinks he is, and who's now getting talked about around him for giving out mystery bangles, but who he can't actually be...Augh! He doesn't want to think about that!!
"I think I was throwing a lot of fire around, so I don't remember about pyreflies or not," Ivan says. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't a machina, though. Too squishy on the inside."
Lydia asks why he's bothered that she got a bangle.
"I'm not bothered! I was just making some neutral observations and it doesn't matter to me one way or the other. You can have a bangle and enjoy it, no big deal."
The bread is ready! Ivan decides this has nothing to do with him and stands around being awkward (and hungry, because he actually is mortal and all, but he assumes this isn't visible. Probably).
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"It's this thing with the Yevon people... if you die and you don't get Sent by a Summoner -- it is like this dance they do that discharges the pyreflies and stuff -- maybe you come back as a Fiend? Like... a ghost, you know, like that Armengard kept talking about," Prissa says, heedless of having thrown open the gates and made Armengard canon.
The Al Bhed man looks at Lydia for a moment, recognizes her, and gives her a hot pita bread. "You can get your friend Prissa to carve with her knives.." (Prissa, hearing this, reaches at her hip for a suitable knife.)
"Eat," Prissa tells Ivan. "You're already sour. If you don't put food in you the sourness distills until your blood becomes acid. Then you die, poop or not." With this she goes to carve off some long pieces of the shawarma-style sundry Meat Product. "Try that white sauce, it has yoghurt in it," she suggests to Lydia.
"So were you a treasure hunter back in Glenwood?" Prissa calls to Ivan. "That is one thing Filgaia has on Lunar. Lots more treasure to hunt. Even Gears."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
Lydia doesn't actually know Al Bhed but spending a lot of time around them allows her to get the gist of what is being told to her. "Thank you." She says, dipping her head. She assumes that's a phrase used commonly enough though part of her wonders if Spira is so ungrateful to them they don't even get to hear that much.
"Oh. I think I get it." She maybe like half gets it.
Collecting her bread she makes her way back to Ivan and Prissa, wondering if there is actually something embarrassing about eating that she hadn't thought of before like maybe because your mouth has to open it reveals the dark secret...that you have a mouth and sometimes you have to put things into that mouth to not die?
eah she's not sure she gets this one but she does say, "Well okay. Cool." She smiles again. "Then I'll enjoy the mystery bangle." Pause. "Don't worry, alright?"
She nods slowly to Prissa and adds to Ivan, "You might as well eat the foods."
She dabs her bread with some white sauce.
"Gears are giant robots like Kaguya had running about--I forgot if I mentioned that already or not." She pauses. "Though uh, they aren't usually that ridiculous."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Not exactly, I was a mercenary before..." A mercenary with just one employer, whose job tasks exclusively revolved around sneak-murders.
Being told by everyone to eat just makes Ivan even more self conscious and instead of complying he freezes into a statue, aware that he's being ridiculous but too committed to stop.
It would be difficult to explain what he finds so embarrassing about it, but for one thing there are too many steps, all right? He has to choose what to pay for the food, approach the food, overcome a language barrier to ask for the food... but more or less it boils down to being witnessed enjoying something. Plus also, seperately but no less crucially, there is the issue of how familiar it is to share a meal with people. The whole thing just breaks way too many rules.
In short, Ivan has... some major hangups. And on this particular occasion, the hangups win.
"You know, I remembered something I was supposed to do on the other side of the continent, so I should go. I have some rations anyway. I'll see you later, maybe." And just like that, Ivan runs away.
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"He seems nice," Prissa tells Lydia. "Does he have some kind of like... a thing, where he does not want to see being eaten?"
Prissa starts the sentence over: "That he does not want to be seen eating."
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Aw geeze," Lydia says. "Well... see you later, Ivan." She lowers her headd, looking kind of down about his departure but then shakes her head quickly and seems to get over it. Ivan has his own comfort zones and they may be weird but she should at least try to respect them. In her mind, he's changed a lot as is.
"He..." Lydia begins. "He is nice. He just, you know, like a lot of nice people--doesn't actually really believe it about himself."
She shrugs both shoulders. "But I am at least glad he hung out with you a bit. It probably wasn't easy for him. Also it probably wouldn't be easy for him to hear how it wasn't easy for him so."
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"You are welcome," says the baker. He then, more casually, says, "You know a boy like that who can run from food will probably grow up to f--"
<Pose Tracker> Prissa has posed.
"You are welcome," says the baker. He then, more casually, says, "You know a boy like that who can run from food will probably grow up to f--"
Prissa crunches a vegetable, covering up the gibberish talk. "I just hope he is safe. They say the bandits are getting driven out, at least. And what is this, did they really bring Gears? Do the Guardsmen have a magic jar that gushes forth Gears?"
"If I had a Gear I'd make some sons of chocobos pay -- I tell you what." opines the baker.
<Pose Tracker> Lydia Seren has posed.
"Maybe." Lydia admits, getting again like maybe a third or forth of what is being said here from the baker so is probably responding to Prissa here. "Honestly I just want to enjoy my cute basic problems for a while and let the Chosen Ones save this world and all that. Then we can figure out how to fix things proper."
Of course she can't possibly know the truth of the Summoners or she wouldn't say something like that right??