2019-08-25: There's A Method To It
- Log: There's A Method To It
- Cast: Josephine Lovelace, Leon Albus, Lily Keil, Fei Fong Wong
- Where: Thunder Plains
- Date: August 25, 2019
- Summary: Josie has a chat with Lily, Leon, and Fei about what they've done, what's happened, and what their plans are next. Josie shows off her latest prize. Fei brings the others up to speed. Leon suggests the direct method. Lily does some light reading.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There are upsides and downsides to the Thunder Plains. The downsides are generally, frankly, obvious: just look out the window of the rest stop.
But the upsides also include things like 'not getting glowered at by a Guado bartender at all hours' which, while some of those present consider this a bonus, it really puts a damper on Josie's enjoyment of her drink. Like having a fly in the room.
Which, sadly, leads to the second downside:
They don't serve alcohol here.
Josie has made do with the tea. If she must, then, so be it.
Besides, after bearing the Nostos across the plains, this place is ideal for the return trip. Particularly when they met up with Lily and Leon.
Currently, they're clustered in one of the inn rooms. Josie is perched on a seat, a cup of tea in hand (her good hand, naturally). On the table rests the recovered tablet from Almaryyt. It's cozy in here with the four of them.
"Anyway. That's the gist of it," she says, relaying the events of Almaryyt to Fei and a very brief summary of the movement of the heavy ARM across the desert to both Lily and Leon. "Looks like history's even more complicated than we thought, eh?"
She indicates towards the tablet with her teacup. "I'm gonna hazard a little guess, yeah? That one's probably got the same message as the others. Secure site, restricted access, and so on and so on," she says, a slight little smile on her lips. "So unless it says something like 'treasure is here' or what, we can save the part where I transcribe it and all for when we're back in Filgaia."
She settles back in her seat. "Besides. I don't want my notes getting soggy."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"That place was a terror," Leon says with a sigh. He had missed some of the end of it; he had to go off to tend to something else. He rubs at his neck, sitting in a chair himself. He has a tan tunic and trousers on; he leans over the table.
Leon's silver eyes stare at the tablet for a moment, and then he looks back at Josephine. "I think that best," he says. "This... hm. I'll need a moment, to be sure it's not different."
Funny, he thinks, how their ability to read this language has become useful and accepted.
"I'm hoping we'll find a way back soon," he adds. "Xantia seems to be getting restless. Though... we don't lack for work, and we still have a job to do, at least."
Leon glances sideways at Lily, then motions at the tablet. He wants her take on it; he doesn't say so aloud, nor does he really need to.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily, perhaps surprisingly, is fond of the Thunder Plains. If anything she finds them invigorating, storms, lightning and all. ...But then, she doesn't exactly mind the Guado glares, either.
Despite the thoroughly non-alcoholic nature of their locale, Lily is likewise sitting more or less comfortably, with a teacup of her own. She holds it naturally, like she came from a wealthy family or something. Who knew?
"But worth it," Lily decides at the matter of 'that place'. "I'm still going through some of the records we managed to recover."
The outer armored layers of her attire are currently hanging to dry (well, in theory), leaving her in a black and gray dress looking down at the tablet with golden eyes. She finds the same, though--
It's just part of how things are, it seems.
"Right. ...Hopefully, anyway. Things are only getting worse here for the moment." She pauses, though. Work...
"True enough."
She waves off the matter of the notes. "That's part of what caught my interest, though--we've seen links before, linguistic connections, historical references... but an extant site on Lunar that uses it?"
Lily speaks as she leans close to look over the tablet thoughtfully.
"...Apas," she says. "Corresponding to Water. From the same set as on Filgaia. ....It could be a coincidence, but..."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei has a cup of coffee in his hands. He is smiling goofily. He may have almost used the tile as a coaster. Fei didn't go to the mysterious ruins this time because he's in the inactive party right now so that Lydia can finish her current arc and Marivel can be exposed to the greater world...for the first time!
"What happened? Kinda missed the adventure. It wasn't too bad was it?" It soundsl ike it was too bad Fei.
He is actually kind of reaching out to put the coffee cup on the tablet again without thinking about it unless someone calls attetion to what he's doing.
"I'm getting restless," Fei tells Leon. "Especially since Loren tried to kill us."
Well kill Elly.
But even so.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"I've seen worse places, for sure," Josie says, with a lopsided weary smile. "But I've seen a lot better, for sure. I think we had a wee bit of luck on our side too, eh? --Oh, yeah, Junior, let me give you the gist..."
Which Josie does.
She glances at those now assembled about them, and leans back in her seat, sighing. "I'm not exactly in a hurry to head back there, but I get the feeling there might be some secrets there yet. I wonder if this tile was the only thing from Filgaia about."
For sure, that had been confirmed the last time they'd been on Lunar. But, until now, there hadn't been as much sign of it in Spira...
"Go ahead," she says, gesturing again at the tile. "Anyway, I figure with the cannon moved, that's one less thing to worry about. Between the local weather and attitude, heh, it really was a problem waiting to happen. Though I hope I won't need to move it again!"
She nods at Leon's assessment, regarding Xantia. "Yeah. Sparky there seemed like she'd been cooped up too long when we were in and about Almaryyt. I'm feeling it, too -- these islands are too small, and we're penned in by a Guardians-damned warfront."
Which, speaking of--
"Any leads on our little birdie?" There's a pause. "...The summoner," she says, as if to clarify.
Lily, after a moment, provides a reading from the tile. "Apas? A name this time? Hm." She wrinkles her brow, as if thinking this over. "Interesting. But otherwise, same old? 'Property of Zeboim and so on and so on'?"
She takes a sip from her cup, not willing to just use it as a means to gesticulate.
Fei mentioned he's restless, because...
Josie leans over and sets her cup on the table. "Got a secret admirer, too, eh? Well, c'mon. Let's hear who else is wanting our heads."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I wondered about that. However... we should be careful about drawing conclusions," Leon says. "I think it likely there have been previous transits. It's possible this came to Lunar some centuries ago. We can't rule it out, yet."
She shakes his head, and then glances at Fei. "It was dangerous. We could handle it, though, but... it did pose some difficulties. And we found this there."
Then, he frowns. "He did? Bloody hell. It seems Gebler is here, too. We'll need to be ready for them, too. Are you and Elly both all right?"
He glances back at Josie; then, Leon nods his head. "She should be in Guadosalam. I paid a contact to confirm it. The Thunder Plains are tricky, if we want to catch her--so we'll wait until she departs for Macalania."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"That's true--this could have been moved previously, or the others could have been moved. We don't have enough data. But the fact that the question is raised at all is... interesting."
Lily almost sounds like an archaeologist herself, the way she shows interest in these.
But for how bad? "It's fine," Lily says. "Nobody died. No slimes. I'd call it a good ruin."
Beat, "The cannon should be fine." Lily made sure the tile didn't get coffee'd though it probably would've been fine. As it stands, "Otherwise, the same."
But rather than focusing on Yuna, Lily finds herself frowning sharply at Fei. "Did he?" Lily asks. "I don't recall hearing about this. What happened?"
She's obviously restless herself, ready to just have some trouble and have something to do, which... may or may not have to do with her sharp reaction.
"We were better off before Solaris definitely knew we were operating here."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I don't think we can capture that birdie," Fei says. "Unless we go all out. And I don't know if we've got that in us. But we're running out of uh--pilgrimage to block, I think."
He frowns, concerned that Solaris might have more to do with this war than first appeared but of course they do. They always show up at the end and fuck everybody's day up. The only difference between knowing it now and being surprised by it is getting to see it play out in slow time.
Still, Loren seemed surprised to see Elly alive, so it's probably not about anything to do with involving THEM. Unless he survived somehow and is feeding reports to the Emperor somehow.
"I think we're handling it about as well as you could expect." Fei smiles faintly.
"That might be our last honest chance." Fei tells Leon. "I really don't want to try this on Mt. Gagazet."
Lily asks him what happened. "Oh uh. Loren found out Elly was alive. And uh. Found out she wasn't going back to Solaris. So he was like 'Traitor!' and tried to, uh, stab her. A lot. And crush us to death. With rocks."
And then with a deadpan face he adds, "I guess he has to learn some self control."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"'No slimes'. Heh heh, now that's what I call the silver lining," Josie says, flashing a grin. "Anyway, I hid the cannon in a good place. It'll be safe until we need it."
As for the summoner:
"Got it. Well, Guadosalam's a good one. After that it'd be the forest or somethin', yeah? That could get tricky. Let's start moving back south and make some plans, then. I'm going to need some more cash--"
She pauses a moment, thinking. "Oh, right. I could sell those spheres you left me, Junior."
There is a pause.
"But I still won't say 'no' to some more cash."
Fei, then, relates about their unexpected ambush. "Huh," Josie says at last, tilting her head slightly to the right. "So, what, did you off him? ...Guess they ain't happy about Red's little turnabout," she surmises, then shakes her head.
To Leon and Lily's assessment of the tile's origin, she nods. "Yeah. The way I figure, it's either coincidence and it's part of the set, or it ended up out here the same way other stuff from Filgaia did. Latter's probably more likely, though that just leaves the question of 'how' open, huh..." She shakes her head; unlike Lily, this part of it doesn't seem to concern her as much. "Let me get the others unpacked, and we can compare them side to side-like," she says, finally rising from her seat.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I should think so. I know I'd like to have the cannon available, if things go sideways." Even if Leon's personal reservations remain; there is something about seeing Gryndille's old armament, even knowing that the automaton is shattered and broken.
"For one thing, Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus might decide to show his face again," he adds.
He looks back at Fei, and then nods; he frowns as he considers an ambush on Mount Gagazet. "I think it's the best time," he says. "I'll work with the Al Bhed, to coordinate. We'll try to make it go better than last time."
Then he frowns a little more sharply at the description of what Loren did. "Remind me to shoot him, next time I see him. It's overdue."
He glances at Josie, then nod. "Let's have a look," he says. "I'm glad you didn't lose them, in all this mess."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Definitely," Lily agrees about the cannon. "...Though..." She consideers, again. "I think I'd like to go have another look at it, soon. If that's not an issue." And... other things. Besides, she's trying not to use too much firepower herself.
She has a very dark expression at the matter of Vinsfeld, but says nothing. Instead--
"Glad you're both all right, at least," Lily says. But... "Mm. Gagazet could be problematic. But there are opportunities upcoming. We probably have more experience than most of her Guardians in cold-climate encounters--the war aside, we all put in time in Arctica. Though..." Going 'all out.'
"Well, taking someone alive is harder than the alternative. We'll just have to deal with it."
Still--no slimes, right?
"So," Lily answers. "That's what it is. ...Traitor, huh." She looks into the distance. For some reason, after all--that very issue is personal for her. "...Nations are really doing us a lot of good, huh," she murmurs darkly, shaking her head.
"...It would be for the best if you did," Lily says of offing Loren. "He's too strong a random factor to have in play out here, on many levels." And yet, she seems not to be entirely on board the blood train, for once.
"...Still, yeah. Might as well compare them."
Lily sips her tea, and then sets it down. "I'm hoping some of those spheres can enlighten us about the transit."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Uh...yes? No? Honestly I was a little unclear on that. He may have killed himself. We weren't really, uh, trying to kill him. At least Elly wasn't. I probably would've. Because I'm, uh, not as nice as she is." Even now, even after knowing that there's an Id inside of him, Fei would prefer to have blood on his hands rather than see the blood of his loved ones on another's hands. Even if he can hardly expect to carry that sort of burden on his own--well...that's why he's got the Wolves, right?
He looks to Leon. "Do you think that cannon would work on him?" He thinks it over. "I mean, I suppose why wouldn't it? But it feels a little..." Anticlimatic? Sure. But how did Siegfried die again Fei? Oh right. All of a sudden and out of nowhere. Who'se to say Vinsfelds can't die the same way?
"Oh..true. I didn't think about that." Fei admits on how Leon and Lily might find Mt. Gagazet MORE comforting rather than last to say nothing of Fei's own experiences in Arctica.
"I mean. It's not really inaccurate I guess. But she still worries about her people, you know. And I doubt Loren's behind any of the worst of it in Solaris." Yeah it's not like he's hanging around Krelian!!
Not that Fei would either know awbout that or know why that might be alarming.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Yeah, noted. Though I'd rather not lug it back through the plains again if I can help it -- if you want to shoot Vinsfeld Rhadamathus with it, try seein' if you can lure him up north, instead?" Josie remarks with a shake of her head. "For now, I'm not toting that thing again for anything less than 'inbound death and destruction', yeah?" Her gaze hoods, dangerously. "Unless you'd like to carry it instead, Lion~"
Gagazet. Josie appears to weigh this for a moment. Then: "Not a problem here. Cold's no fellow traveler with me or anything, but I've still all my old gear, and the cannon'd work." She pauses. "...As intimidation. Listen, I know what you are all thinking, but I'm not shooting the summoner with a cannon!" She the decency to look a little offended that anyone would even dream of thinking such about her.
Solaris' presence meanwhile is a separate matter. "What a pain in the ass," is Josie's summation of things, coupled with a shake of her head. "I'm with you on this one Lion -- we need more trouble like we need a hole in our heads. Tell you what, we run into anyone from Gebler and I'll do likewise, assuming we're not in the middle of damned Guadosalam or something. Judgemental asses..."
She may be assuming she will get immediately arrested or similarly 'put into hot water'.
A little rustling and tossing of objects follows from the back of the room as she digs through her things. Retrieving both of the tiles, she sets them down alongside the one from Almaryyt.
"...Looks like a match. Wonder why these two didn't have a name..." Her fingertip runs over some heavily worn sections. "...Hm."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
There is no small part of Leon that would like to take another swing at Vinsfeld. A smarter part, though, cautions him against that: he hasn't grown stronger in any measurable way since the battle of Elluria.
He glances sideways at Lily, and nods. He may not want to fight them at Gagazet, but he could. It would be like the time at Arctica. He rubs his chin, and then scowls.
"I've grown rather tired of nations, politicians, and religions telling us what to do," he says. He looks sideways at Fei, then he shrugs once. "I suppose it would. I wouldn't bet on it, though--as handy as it would be... the bastard seems prepared. And Josie's right -- he'd need to be in the right place for it."
Leon sighs, and then glances down at the floor. "Well, I could shoot him in the leg, I suppose. Something he could walk off." He pauses. "Roll off, maybe."
He looks down at the tiles, seeing the three of them set down together. His brow furrows, as he leans down. "Josie," he says. "That worn section. Something that happened later, or maybe it's a clue to what these things were used for?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
On the other hand, that same cluster of impulses in Lily tell her to keep Leon as absolutely far from Vinsfeld Rhadamanthus as possible. ...The smarter part considers handing him a rifle, and otherwise keeping things the same. But she endeavors not to think too much on Vinsfeld here.
"No, it's fine. We don't need to move it. It's just... I want to study the design, some. Maybe there's something I missed in there."
Lily, of course, grew up in the mountains and uses ice magic; snow isn't an issue for her. Loren, though...
"Almost no one is as kind as Elly," Lily points out to Fei. "I suspect we'll find out in time, anyway. It's not exactly closure, but we don't often get that luxury in warfare."
"...Heh," Lily answers Josie. She in no way implies she wasn't thinking it though.
Instead, "You all know how I feel about Gebler already. But even if I didn't--that's the way of conflicts like this. We don't have to hate the enemy to be obligated to oppose them. That's how life is for a soldier."
"...But it was simpler when I could just hate all of them," Lily admits. "I must be going soft," she sighs. "...But part of me actually hopes he isn't dead. I don't know why."
"Anyway, I'm in agreement. As far as I'm concerned, all these leaders can keep their orders. I for one don't need them."
Lily, too, looks over the tiles. "...They do seem like a match," she says, thinking. "Honestly considering the state of that ruin--i think we're lucky that they're as intact as they are already." She stares a little longer.
"...It's possible, though. Wear would accumulate especially around where they were held, if they were used for long periods, or based on how they were stored. The site at Alamaryyt was more pristine than most ruins--so it may have suffered less damage. But that doesn't tell us what they're for. If the imprints were more prominent I could wonder if they were in some kind of mechanism, like a press, but..."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei says, "True." on the matter of Elly being kind though privately he wonders sometimes if someone can be too selfless, too kindhearted. But none off that is new from Fei's inner psyche so he is able to set it aside readily.
"Kind of like a really old jigsaw puzzle," is what Fei thinks of all the tiles. "After all this time, it does feel like it's leading to something but I couldn't tell you what. Pretty exciting though once you find it though, yeah?"
He grimaces briefly though because, no, Fei wasn't thinking about shooting Yuna with the cannon. Through Josie or otherwise.
Lily points out they don't have to hate the soldier to hate the organization and Fei nods slowly though one gets the feeling that sometimes, at least, he does kind of hate the soldier.
Maybe it's because he's used to being treated with disdain by them. Obviously there are Solarians who don't suck but they seem to have by and large left Solaris. Still, if it was completely awful, Elly would've found a way to leave earlier right?
He mulls on this quietly.
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
There's a small part of Josephine, meanwhile, that can read the writing on the wall re: Leon's feelings about Vinsfeld and make a good assessment of how that's likely to go down.
"Only if we can drop a whole mountain on him first, yeah?" She smiles, if lopsidedly. "Otherwise, let someone else handle it. This ain't our fight, Captain. Let's focus on what we want to do." Her gaze shifts towards Lily. "I've had my fill of having to save the world for a while..."
She hasn't. Forgotten.
Shaking her head, Josie pats herself down for a cigarette, then considers the close confines and reconsiders this. "Red's too damn nice. Hard to believe she was a soldier, but I guess that's why she came over to our side, yeah?"
The rest of the matter, she seems willing to leave at 'shoot them if they try anything'. The tiles, as usual, are her primary interest.
Which, speaking of: "The other weird thing's this: when I started collecting them, I figured they'd make a picture, yeah?" She shuffles them around on the table, as if to see if there's a configuration that works out, bearing in mind the protrusion on the wind tile. "But they don't line up or anything. The patterning's different but similar, and it's not part of the same sequence in any way." Her hand, resting on the table, drums absently.
She lifts her head. "The worn spot? Probably later, but..." She picks up the oldest of the tiles, the worn 'wind' tile that she had said she'd found, so long ago. "...Now that I look at it..."
She points at the projection on this tile, the one that Lily had ejected from with years ago, that protrusion that had refused to go back in. "...See? It's on the same side as this. Maybe it fit into something instead."
Which is the point where her gaze settles on Lily, again.
"Ring any bells, Tiger?" A pause. "Rose-of-Sharon?" Her lips press thin, as if something's on her mind.
"It was... really like you were its 'mother'."
Gryndille, she means.
"Is that... why it didn't kill you? Not just because of your dad. But because it thought you were someone else."
Or maybe--
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I've my doubts that we'll be afforded the choice," Leon tells Josie. "I think we're likely to end up on the wrong side of them. Or something else. But... you're right. Focus on what we need to pay closer attention to."
He looks at Lily, then. "Mm. I doubt we're going soft. The world just has a way of getting more complicated than we thought," Leon says, looking up at the ceiling and sighing. Then, he looks back at Lily, and tilts his head for a moment.
He nods along with her explanation. "You're right about that. Almaryyt ws eerily preserved. I don't know that the tile had anything to do with that, but..."
Leon nods at the tiles -- and then looks pleased, as he leans in to look at the worn places. His brow furrows -- and then he looks up. He is quiet, at first.
"I've wondered about that," he says. "I don't know. The fact is... Gryndille's behavior changed a lot, after we fought it outside the Kaiser's palace."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily has wondered before if someone can be those things--but in the end, she's concluded for now that it's for the best. Even if it's unwise, even if it's inevitably doomed... She'd rather see an Elly who could hold onto those ideals. ...Even if, too, Lily is sure she herself couldn't.
...And frankly Lily of all people has her own reasons to hate Loren--Gebler in general. But she remembers the sheer rage she's felt dealing with him. "Yeah. We're getting somewhere, anyway. I feel like we're close to some answers."
"...Yeah," Lily agrees with Josie about the mountain, though. She glances to the other woman--and oh, she spots it. She hasn't forgotten in the least. "In the end, which leader claims to be in charge of everything isn't actually our concern." Pause. "...But yeah. It is complicated, in ways it wasn't always, isn't it? Maybe that's all it is," she finishes to Leon.
But the weird thing...
It was preserved. She hadn't considered that the tile might be a reason for that--but who knows? The worn places, the way they fit, and--
...And the question. Lily looks distant, in the moment, like she's far, far off, away from the conversation.
"..."
Lily looks down to the tiles, and nods. "I think... that's it. It's like how keys hae different teeth, patterns." Pause. "But..."
"I remember. It recognized me, somehow. I've wondered, too. It's part of why I want to study these spheres, to see if I can find some clue, some answer."
"...Becaus that's true. Prior to the palace... it was malfunctioning. Remember? It detected 'foreign subversion', it said. Whatever allowed the Colonel to control it. ...To allow Father to..."
She shakes her head. "Was it a malfunction? Was it something real? Honestly... I don't think it was... a mistake. But I don't know much about these. It's... frustrating. I'm on the precipice, I can see it, but--but it still doesn't make sense."
"I don't know how, or why." She looks to Leon, then--doesn't explain why, not even to him, and watches for a long few moments before--
"It's possible that that's a factor in why we lived, but I don't think so. It is though, a factor in..." She bites her lip. "...My magic changed, after facing Gryndille. More than once. Each time. At the time, I had thought it was simply overexertion, but that doesn't explain it all."
"But that's why i want to go over the cannon, again. Maybe, if I can study it, understand it, that or whatever mechanical structures we can find... Maybe I'll remember something."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei is briefly blindsided by Josie going from the tiles to Lily's uh past uhhhh THAT LADY. In the wheelchair. That person. Despite being rather educated on THAT element of the situation, he seems to be having trouble figuring out how Josie's tiles fit into it. Or with Gryndille for that matter.
"It showed up trying to deal with the malevolence." Fei says. "Maybe its original purpose was to uh, clean up corrupting elements. Like Malice, or maybe even Malevolence if it was a thing on Filgaia once upon a time. It might've been at some point. And uh. I guess sometimes you deal with malevolence and malice with murders so if you just reconfigure the target to 'people', then...It's essentially a killing machine then."
He shrugs both shoulders. "At the very least, I don't think it was supposed to be a weapon just for use against people anyway."
He glances over to Lily, then back down to the ground.
"Sharon... she had something to do with Kim too. I think they were friends."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Probably," Josie says, briefly shaking her head. "Something like that. But for right now, ain't this ARMS' problem? I say, let 'em have it. We've got our own fish to fry. Between the business with Lily's dad and all, Junior's business, my business, Xantia's business... we've all got enough without trying to go and save the world again. After last time, I say we're due our own," she finishes, after quoting what Leon had said to her a few weeks ago, back when they had reunited at long last.
Her gaze lingers on Lily. She doesn't forget or forgive easily.
But for Lily, perhaps, she'll let it slide. This time.
"The ruin itself, huh... Who knows? But come to think of it, Ash Hare was weirdly preserved, too. ...Can't say the same for the 'wind' one -- it wasn't originally from the place I found it." She furrows her brow, as if thinking heavily on that fact.
But on the subject of Sharon.
Lily.
Gryndille.
"Yeah. It did. It was getting fixed up at places, wasn't it? Maybe something happened..." She taps her foot on the floor, as if thinking. "I ain't an expert with that kind of machine. But, like. Think about a wind-up music box. You can change out the parts, make it play a different tune. Seems to reason you can go and do that with any machine, right?" She looks between the lot of them, as if to seek confirmation of her theorizing. "So maybe, it got fixed after we busted it up. Or, maybe, something in it got replaced? If we could figure out more about those places where it was getting fixed, we might learn something."
Maybe. Or maybe not.
But it's Lily's comment on her magic, though, that earns her a raised eyebrow.
"Really. Huh. Maybe..." She pauses, then shakes her head. "...I got nothing, Tiger. Sometime soon -- yeah. You and me, we'll take a look at the cannon. Though I've got to warn you. Lunie and I stripped out a lot of it to rebuild it. Otherwise," and here she smiles self-effacingly, "it would've been too heavy to lift."
It's Fei's comment that stirs something in her mind. "Or, like Riesenlied. Don't you remember? 'World-Eater Taint'?"
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm. I think his declaration was on the whole world," Leon says. "It concerns us, whether we want it to or not. These things have a way of pulling us in, because Odessa doesn't leave people like us alone. It isn't my first focus... but I think we ignore this at our peril."
The conversation moves to Gryndille, and Leon looks at Lily nearly immediately.
"You have some connection to it," Leon says to Lily. He looks sideways at her. "Or... to that place, Heoh Rott. The place that Gryndille is supposed to be from."
A legendary ruin, said to be lost -- though they had found Ash Hare, a smaller ruin like it. Leon frowns for a moment. It was a connection that he did not share. Gryndille scarcely seemed to pay him the slightest mind. He looks at Fei, then nods at his conclusion.
"That might make sense," he says. "If we can find more ruins like that, back on Filgaia... we might get more answers. Besides, Colonel Keil is doubtlessly doing the same."
However, he pauses at the mention that Sharon and Kim were contemporaries. He shakes his head. "I don't know... but, we should find out more when we're back on Filgaia. For now, though..."
Leon sighs, then stands. "...I'd better go speak with a few contacts. The Travel Agency's operators are hoping to get a report from Guadosalam about Lady Yuna. I'll report back if they've said anything further."
He starts for the door, after that.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily hasn't been talking much about Gryndille, Sharon Wyatt, any of it--but she's been thinking. She doesn't have answers about all of this yet, either, but...
"Mm, yeah. --Well, in the absence of a Shepherd or the Guardians' power, what other way is there to deal with Malevolence? ...Apparently whatever it was it was effective, though, since we didn't encounter it on Filgaia until the connection with Lunar opened."
A killing machine. ...Hm.
"Yeah. ...If it were entirely antipersonnel, you'd expect a different form factor; it wouldn't need to be so large." She pauses, then. "...Yeah," she says. "I know... the other you, at least, seemed to know something, but..."
Ash Hare was also preserved. Hmm. But Odessa--
"...We'll worry about it later," Lily agrees. "Sooner or later we'll have to. But one step at a time."
Lily looks back to Leon. "Some connection," she agrees. "...And I think you're right, Josie. Investigating the other stops it's made may be key. And Father will definitely be doing the same, I'm certain of it. He knows more than he's told us, I'm sure."
"...You're right though--Riesenlied, too. 'World Eater taint'. ...Honestly it doesn't seem out of step with the other targets we saw it going for."
"...But I'd appreciate that, Josie. Even if much of it is replaced." A pause, as she looks to Leon--and nods. "All right. I'll see you later, then. I'll probably head back to the room early."
She looks out, then--over nothing, for a few moments.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Mm." Fei says. "And we might want to try to find the ruin where they found Emeralda. Solaris I mean. I have no idea where they looked in the first place, but if Kim knew Sharon, and Kim made Emeralda, then it stands to reason there might be clues there as well." Josie's ideas it seems to investigate Gryndille even after its demise to learn more about the mystery surrounding it--is solid enough. It ill sits with him that something that has caused so much pain still has so much mystery behind it. And a mystery that may even eventually connect back to Elly and himself. Or at least Kim. Fei's Kim.
"Mm.... was it made to fight Mother then?" Fei murmurs. "But if it's a Zeboim era mech--Mother didn't exist back then, did she? I don't think so. At least not on our world. But maybe...uh... maybe Mother isn't the first World Eater."
Fei is something of a Soul Nomad, sure, but he isn't quite sure what else such a term could refer to in this moment.
"See you around, Leon." Fei smiles. "Always good to see you again."
And some small part of Fei thinks this: If Gryndille was supposed to protect this world, is there anything more monstrous than using it to conquer and kill instead?