2020-01-22: About That Kiss

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  • Log: About That Kiss
  • Cast: Acacia Saitani, Yue Rohay
  • Where: Kattelox
  • Date: 22nd January 2020
  • Summary: Acacia drags Yue out after their journey through Mt Colshrie.


<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

With the long climb up the mountain behind her, Acacia's at a bit of a loss for what to do afterwards. She hadn't felt quite like returning to Meria Boule immediately, which is saying something about how arduous the climb was and how out of sorts Yue's behaviour left her. Instead, as the group say their goodbyes, a persistent and niggling worry over the Veruni makes her pause - and before she can slip away, Acacia's grabbed the chain between two of Yue's shackles.

"... how about a date?" she offers after a moment of embarrassed silence. The tone of voice doesn't really match her words, thanks to the concern she's wearing on her sleeve - but she musters a quiet smile.

  • * *

She doesn't have a lot of idea where she's going with this, but that doesn't stop her from rolling with the impulse anyway. Yue at least seems to need the distraction, and Acacia would rather do /anything/ than just sit still. Besides, she's never gotten a chance to see the Apple Market, and it's only after she's taken several photos for her newspaper that she speaks up.

"I heard the shops here are hard to match," she notes, looking over towards Akbar's. Getting Kamui something seems like it might be a good idea, since the reporter is well aware how hard the Reploid is going to pout when she learns where Acacia has been. "We should take a look, see if you want to grab anything for Minder. Personally, I'm starving. Buy you lunch?"

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

As is usual with Yue when it comes to that machine, she seems to have about as much self-care for it as she does herself... even though it's still kind of on fire and is in even worse shape than before. But it's not like she can completely break it, and as they sail down the mountainside and Acacia asks that question--

~ * ~

"A date... hmm," Yue murmurs to herself as she steps towards Apple Market, glancing about and remarking, "This city bears a more modern appearance than some other places. I'd heard a lot about how entrenched Digger culture is here."

Acacia notions towards Akbar's, and for a moment she pauses to say, "I feel like you ought to be able to find something suitable for your little Reploid here."

Yue shifts very gently as Acacia suggests lunch. "... sure."

Maybe someone's trying to play down that smooch from long before...

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

"From what I heard, it didn't really start until someone realized how big the caverns underneath were. I'm not much of a Digger, but..." she trails off, well aware that she's kind of on thin ice when it comes to judging Kattelox's situation. As someone who got dragged into the Odessan conflict because she tried to be greedy, maybe she shouldn't throw stones at glass Reflectors.

She plants her hands in her pockets, grinning faintly across. "She's not /my/ Reploid, and she'd be pissed if you called her little. ... I mean, yeah, I'm gonna get her a present, but you should think about it for Minder. She'd appreciate it, especially coming from you, I reckon."

The reporter hesitates at the same time that Yue does. She's kind of gotten used to Yue tugging her around all of a sudden at odd times of the night that being in this position with their roles reversed leads to a few awkward pauses, especially when she doesn't know how to begin broaching the subject of everything she just learned a while ago. Yue feels muted, so it hardly seems right to take her to task about any of it.

"Okay, well--" she eventually decides to say, then furrows her brow as she tries to tot up what she does actually know about Yue for sure. "--what do you like, anyway? I'm not sure I even really know for sure. We kinda ended up getting by on rations and then pure panic back in Spira," she adds as she puffs out her cheeks and looks at their choices.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

Yue arcs her eyebrows and remarks, with curiosity, "She calls you Master. I am pretty sure she thinks differently." She bobs her head and murmurs very quietly, "Pray do not take that relationship lightly."

A present for Minder... well, it'd been a while, and she definitely should do that.

"I..." Yue bobs her head as her hair flutters in the wind softly. "... would take any place that does not question a woman in chains? That is not much of an opinion, I suppose."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

"... I know," Acacia mutters to herself in return. "But, honestly, I'm not sure if she means me when she says that. Pretty sure that some of the time, she's looking past me at some memory she's forgotten. Anyway--" she puffs up a little, and rubs at her hair. "That's my way of not taking it lightly. I won't order her to do something stupid, I promise. We finally got the hang of that."

She looks across at the convict, studying the woman for a long moment as a dramatic breeze ruffles her hair. "... that's not what I asked, in any case. Look, I don't-- we each know a bunch of big things about the other, but not so much the little things. Day-to-day things. Whatever else /might/ happen in the future," she adds, making sure to stress the word, "I'd still like to learn about you."

Her cheeks and the tips of her ears are a little pink as she plants a hand in her hair to rub at it after that admission, not meeting Yue's gaze. "Besides, takeout exists. I know it must be a very newfangled invention," she grumbles.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

Yue quietly digests that as Acacia admits something about Kamui, and she can't help but have a silent, enigmatic smile. There is a broach in the silence as she says, "We keep looking at ghosts in people, all of us. Even if she isn't seeing the real 'you', it might damage something in her if you do not hold that tenderly, like fragile glass."

Come to think of it, that Avril woman caused quite the stir with just her presence, didn't she?

Yue tilts her head and then lets out a thoughtful hum, leaning against a nearby lamppost.

"... eclairs," she admits. "I love eclairs." Didn't Marivel literally goad her one battle with eclairs?

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

"... yeah," this time when Acacia tugs at her hair it's quieter and more thoughtful, rubbing a tuft of it between her fingers as she mulls that advice over. "I already had the feeling that telling her outright probably wouldn't be all that good for her. ... that's kind of why I wanted to start learning from Marivel how to fix her up a bit, even if I don't really get it."

She looks at the Veruni again, thinking things over while replaying the conversations from the mountain in her head. Yue's attempted regicide, and someone with amnesia calling herself the Ice Queen. A Medium that shone when it shouldn't.

"... sorry if I'm being too pushy or anything," she realizes after a moment that it's something she should probably say. "This might not be the best time for it, I know, but... I just kind of figured you could use a break. I've been in situations where I've been spinning my wheels before, too. If anyone takes issue with it, just say a mean and nasty reporter kidnapped you as karma or something."

"Oh," she blinks as Yue admits to eclairs. "That's right-- didn't you get upset when that party in Spira didn't have any? Though I'd be willing to bet they hadn't even heard of cream," she grouses, planting a hand on her hip.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

"'Tis a fishing community. Not much in the way of dairy, I believe. Perhaps soy," Yue comments thoughtfully on the topic of cream in Spira. She didn't think it was that bountiful in dairy farming either, though that can be a blessing in a different way.

"Hm. Repairing Reploids. Perhaps you have the knack. Perhaps I can find something somewhere, buried someplace, to help," Yue chuckles and...

She raises her eyebrows and remarks, "Best I do not. I would not want to ever introduce my mother to you."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

"I'm just saying, I might not have it that often, but you'll take dairy away from me by prying it out of my cold, dead hands," puffs Acacia. "It's basically the foundation of comfort food." When she glances towards Yue, it's a little apologetic; she's aware that she's kind of playing things up to fill in the silence, maneuvering around the questions she'd like to ask but feels would be too tactless.

"... you've done a lot for me already. You don't need to do that - I mean, I'd appreciate it, sure, but you're gonna make me feel guilty if you keep showering me in ancient secrets and high-tech things," she puffs across. "Doesn't feel like I've got that much to give back to you, I guess. What the heck drew you in my direction to begin with, anyways?" she wonders before she can stop herself.

She stops still for a brief moment at Yue's final answer, her eyebrows raising. She may not know all that much about Yue's mother, but between her dealings with Minder and Kaguya, she can certainly piece certain things together, and she feels a bit of a protective streak flare. "... it /could/ go well. I'd dress nicely, be polite, park my Gear right on top of her, that sort of thing."

She motions in the direction of the bakery - then hesitates, and just decides to put an arm around Yue's and tug her that way instead.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

"Perhaps you shouldn't be thanking me," Yue remarks. "To be inundated in ancient secrets and technology that is best left forgotten is much more a curse than it is a blessing, oftentimes." She purses her lips and maintains that strange little smile on her face.

"Hm... what drew me, you ask?"

She pauses for a moment longer, and then decides to answer plainly: "Perhaps I just like red hair."

The reply gets terribly undercut when she gets tugged forward towards a bakery. Jet Bakery, hmm...?

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

"Perhaps I'll thank you anyways," huffs Acacia back, more or less taking the bait. "You love to say you're a disappointment, but I keep telling you you haven't disappointed me. Not seriously. I mean, I complain a lot, but that's just me being me," she adds, self-aware enough to say that. "Especially if it's 2am and the air outside my window is cold."

The look she levels at Yue afterwards is one of glum-but-amused suspicion. "Uh-huh," she notes. 'We keep looking at ghosts of people', was it? Part of her has to wonder if maybe Yue knew Dr. Lumen as well, though she's not quite sure she's on the mark there. "Once upon a time I tried to dye it," she says instead, enjoying the memory. "Turned out streaked to hell and back. Took a month to wash out."

She brightens as they near the bakery, because she can recognize when she's hungry enough to start forgetting she's hungry. "If they complain, I'll vouch for you. Or we'll just grab some to go," she declares - and pauses. Is it a crime if the other person doesn't remember? Probably-- but Acacia's never had the sense that Yue's wearing her shackles for anyone else but herself. "... or you could take them off for a bit," she finds herself suggesting.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

"I can tell it's natural," Yue decides to instead follow on that conversation rather than continuing on about being or not being disappointing, because she knows that the real disappointment is yet to come. "Spent enough time around other redheads to know what dyed red looks like."

She tousles a bit of her hair and stops and looks to it. "Aah... pray do not ask that of me, I implore you," she chuckles. "I will not make an exception even for you."

She gestures to the bakery patron and remarks, "Three eclairs, and a rainbow doughnut, please."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

Acacia knows enough to let it drop there for the time being, though there's a look in her eyes that suggests she's not anywhere near done saying it in general. "Oh, I don't mean /to/ red, I meant away from it. My mom was worried it'd make me stand out too much at school," she notes with a rather wry snort of laughter. "Kinda got sick of it one day, gave it a try, and ended up being the centre of attention thanks to screwing it up so badly. I guess that counts as turning out alright."

A pause, and she smirks across, gaze half-lidded. "Other redheads, huh."

She straightens up again, and her smile turns apologetic. "... sorry," she says genuinely. "That was taking it too lightly. I mean, I'm not sure who you're really wearing those /for/, exactly - but I guess it's not really fair of me to suggest something like that."

Watching Yue order is something more normal, more pleasant, and her smile tugs wider. "For Minder?" she wonders of the last bit. "It feels like it'd be her sort of thing."

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

Yue snorts as she shakes her head to remark, "I think it would be fine if you picked your colours... but it is fine as is as well." Perhaps someone's very protective of red hair. ... it's not just the hair, right? Given Yue is such a hair connoiseur...

She does pause and raise at that remark of other redheads. "... what?"

She snorts for a moment and says, "Yes, for Minder. She discovered rainbow sprinkles in Spira and has not stopped jumping up and down about it."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

"Should I be jealous?" Acacia isn't very good at putting on coquettish - her grin's just a little too big and too teasing to really pull it off, and she herself doesn't really carry the right sort of feel to her. "Maybe you're just fond of me because of my hair. Oh no, what if I lose it in a freak Gear accident--"

She also really isn't the sort of person to be able to manage a swoon ever, but she can at least try to put on a bad show of it before she straightens and hums. "... honestly, while we're on the subject, I was going to ask sometime - did you ever know a Dr. Lumen? I thought it was just Marivel, but from the way the two of you were talking..."

She trails off as Yue confirms her suspicions, and this time the smile is nothing but genuine. "... good for her. I'm glad," she adds - though whether it's for Minder's discovery, Yue's present, or both, she's not telling.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

"Oh, no, you should not be jealous," Yue shakes her head with a straight-laced face. "She is about five thousand years dead, after all," she manages with a little self-effacing laugh. She doesn't mention anything about Gear accidents, but the way her eyes avert for a moment is telling.

"Dr. Lumen...?" Yue muses, letting out a little hum of surprise. "Why her?"

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

Acacia's pace slows just for a moment. It's not often that she thinks about the actual difference between her age and Yue's, preferring to gloss over the differences in their race most of the time in order to act more natural - but there's no glossing over something said as plainly as that, and her eyes flash with sympathy. It's something she can barely imagine at her age. How many times over would that be?

She sucks in a light breath, shaking her head in staccato. "... it's the only name I know," she admits with a lopsided smile and a shrug of one shoulder. It's quick enough for her to catch the change in Yue's expression, the way she looks away.

It takes her a while to continue, rubbing at her hair. "Maybe-- maybe it's not my place to say this," she puffs. "But if you want to talk, or reminisce, or just rant, I'm all ears. Reporter's confidentiality, and all that," she proclaims, despite that not actually being anything other than made up on the spot.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

Yue's mouth is incapable of talking or reminiscing or ranting at the moment, because an eclair has taken its place. Guardians, have you ever seen anyone devour something so thoroughly!

She wipes her mouth quietly and lets out a little laugh. "Hm. Yes, I know Siobhan Lumen quite well, unfortunately. If you knew her, you would never again have to ponder, 'do I know a bigger fool in my life'. Foolishness, nearly all of her!"

She cocks her head one way. "But the remaining one percent of her was absolute genius."

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

Acacia's pace slows just for a moment. It's not often that she thinks about the actual difference between her age and Yue's, preferring to gloss over the differences in their race most of the time in order to act more natural - but there's no glossing over something said as plainly as that, and her eyes flash with sympathy. It's something she can barely imagine at her age. How many times over would that be?

She sucks in a light breath, shaking her head in staccato. "... it's the only name I know," she admits with a lopsided smile and a shrug of one shoulder. It's quick enough for her to catch the change in Yue's expression, the way she looks away.

It takes her a while to continue, rubbing at her hair. "Maybe-- maybe it's not my place to say this," she puffs. "But if you want to talk, or reminisce, or just rant, I'm all ears. Reporter's confidentiality, and all that," she proclaims, despite that not actually being anything other than made up on the spot.

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

Acacia blinks once, pausing in the process of trying to steal an eclair for herself. Her eyebrows raise - and then they instantly lower - and then she just looks conflicted. "... yeah, I kind of got that impression already," she huffs as she folds her arms, perhaps with a baked good in tow. "At least, the picture Marivel and Kamui kinda paint seems to add up to that."

"I wasn't really expecting you to say 'yes'," she adds with a frown as she looks down at the ground. "Now I kind of have to decide between learning about her, or leaving the past where it is so I'm not fixated on it all the time."

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

"Take my advice to heart on this one," Yue laughs rather mirthfully. "Learning about ancient knowledge is like having bank stocks; the more you know, the more agitated you are to jump at every single trivial fact that has not mattered for five thousand years to the situation you know now."

She defensively takes the eclairs away from Acacia. ... was she not going to share?

"There are plenty of things in the present trying to kill us now. Leave antiquity 'til it becomes relevant."

The starts on her second one.

"Specifically, you must understand context more than fact. I could list fifty things annoying and intriguing about Siobhan, but until you know a specific why you need to know about her... it would only occupy precious brain space for nothing."

She's kind of like Marivel, isn't she, stuffing her face full of what she thinks is wisdom while gorging out on snacks. Maybe it was inevitable they became fast friends.

<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.

"Sure, but I live for agitating myself. I'm a reporter who sets her own deadlines," Acacia shoots back, a little too fast for it to not to be something she's had to say before. "It's not about things that are trying to kill us. I guess it's just a matter of trying to understand, you know? To-- try to revive or make a couple of new connections. It's not like I feel out of depth so much as it can just feel like a different world sometimes."

Still, she obviously takes Yue's point given the way she sharply nods, her expression drawn into a solemn line as she studies the Veruni convict. "I mean, I'd love to understand your family situation, or what's gonna happen with Minder, or stuff like that. I'm just that sort of curious, and maybe it'd help you in turn. "... and you're right, I'd just really like a lot less things trying to kill us in general."

She draws in a breath. "Anyways. About that /kiss/--" she stresses, pushing through the flush that follows. She leans forward, glancing across to try to check Yue's expression - and to see if she's shaken the Veruni, as she expects. And to check where exactly the tray of eclairs is, so she can grab at it while Yue is distracted before the third and final one can be devoured.

<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.

About that /kiss/--

Yue chokes on her eclair so hard that custard flies out the other end. Lewd!!

And she's sufficiently distracted that Acacia successfully steals the third one.

life...

is cruel.........................