2020-02-23: My Own Story
- Log: My Own Story
- Cast: Acacia Saitani, Yue Rohay
- Where: Valeria Chateau
- Date: 23rd February 2020
- Summary: Acacia visits Yue after the events of the battle at the Chateau.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Acacia leaves it a little bit before she drops in on Yue, recognizing that she and Marivel had some things to work out at least between the two of them, and perhaps with Avril besides. But she's made sure to stay in the Chateau, walking Minder around the manor. It's not a tour - she doesn't actually know that much about the place herself, so it's a useful opportunity to poke around.
When she returns towards the room in which Yue is staying, she's made sure to collect a couple of hot drinks, a teabag still floating in hers and a coffee for the Veruni woman. "--too big a place for me," she decides with a puff of air towards Minder. "If you're gonna go this big you should just go all out and get a fancy castle, I guess. Or at least try to make some bits of it a bit more home-y."
She's pretty much just filling the air until she can nudge the door with her foot, her hands too full to knock. "... Yue?" she leans across to peek through the crack she's made. "You up? Got a visitor for you," she adds, as if she weren't one.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue had some visitors earlier, but sooner or later, the one she really has to talk to hasn't come yet -- Acacia, who she probably owes... a lot of explanations. It's a little later in the day, with Yue still seated up at her bed wrapped in bandages (including around her face and eye, as is the custom) as she reads from a book, still in her shackles even after all that.
"Mmm? Yes... I am up," Yue looks about, gesturing closer where the Minder is still dozing at the foot of her bed.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"... figured you could use a drink," she offers, glancing towards Minder as she softens her voice so she doesn't risk waking the girl up. "I made them pretty mild. Didn't know how rough your throat was gonna be feeling. ... didn't really know whether you'd prefer tea or coffee, actually," she grins faintly as she hooks an ankle around a chair leg, dragging it as quietly as she can over to the bed.
... and then doesn't say a whole lot, because she's not really sure where to start. The fact that Yue is up is a start, at least, and she puffs out a quiet breath. "I should probably smack you, but in deference to Minder, I won't," she starts off by grumbling, but she's smart enough to realize that isn't really going to be the right way to go about this.
So instead she pauses, and lets out a sigh. "... I'm glad we got you out of there."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"... I like both," Yue answers after a moment, setting the book down. It looks like a random book stocked from the shelves of the Chateau, some dry treatise on the application of herbs to preserve foodstuffs in blah blah blah. "Give me whichever you dislike. You strike me as a coffee person."
She raises her eyebrows for a moment as they sit in silence. "Hmm. I definitely have earned it," she chuckles faintly, but... pauses. "But... at the same time, I do not believe you have."
She strokes the Minder's back as she dozes, and says, "There will come other times when I must climb aboard it once more."
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"Hey, I'll drink tea as well. Sometimes," Acacia grumbles a little, but does shift the cups around so that the tea - something chamomile, or around there - is pointed towards the Veruni. "I kinda figured you could use a bit more bedside manner. Not that I think the Chateau's bad, but-- well, it's probably not the best. Are you really reading that?" she adds with a rather flat expression.
She's silent for a long moment as she watches Yue fuss over the Minder, her brain slowly ticking over. Yue's comment doesn't exactly surprise her, but at the same time it's kind of difficult to imagine it right now. "So... what, it's just gonna get repaired, but not repaired enough? You're gonna walk off after all this? Isn't that just repeating what Minder yelled at you for?" she wonders quietly. There's no anger in her voice, more the sound of her brain ticking over.
Until eventually, she furrows her brow. "... what does she have on you? On Minder?" she adds, because it's not hard for her thoughts to go in that direction given the way the other woman acts when she thinks the girl is asleep or won't remember. "I mean, we could probably give you some sorta asylum, right? I bet--"
The words 'I bet the Queen would vouch for you' screech to a halt in her brain as one part reminds the other that there's probably /some real shit/ going on there.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"Hmm? Yes," Yue answers. "I am an insufferable bookworm, if you recall the contents of my cell. After four thousand years, you become terribly curious of what has been written of the various flora and fauna and culture of the world..."
She bobs her head and hums very quietly. "Well... that may very well be the case. I do not say I am a disappointing adult for nothing, Acacia."
The Minder stirs a little, groaning, "Mom..." in her sleep.
Acacia asks what she has on her. Whether she can get asylum. "Unfortunately, this is not the kind of relationship that can be solved through borders, I am afraid," she chuckles softly.
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"I mean, I'm not saying it's a bad thing to be a bookworm. I might not have as many books as I used to, but I'd like to think I'm still up there," Acacia frowns again at the spine, though, and her eyebrows jog upwards a little in a silent 'but herbs??' before a thought occurs to her. "So, how've they changed over time?"
Her brow flickers again - and this time she reaches forwards, selects a likely-looking bandaged spot on Yue's arm, and flicks it with a finger. "Don't call yourself that, or you're gonna make it true. I'm not so petty that I'll blame someone for something they're being coerced into doing. I mean, you've made that much clear enough. That was some pretty embarrassing stuff you came out with in that fight."
She settles back, and watches the pair together for a moment longer. "... is it medicine for her? Is there some kinda remote system for her suit that's stuck over on the other side of the world? I--" she cuts herself off, then grimaces. "--sorry. Force of habit, y'know? Still, she's... she talked to me about it a bit. She's not really sure what to do herself." (New BB Message (7/2) posted to 'Daily Spotlight' by Gwen Whitlock: water humorous joke)
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"The vocabulary," Yue first speaks, "has changed entirely. See here... you call this herb with a strong, cool and wintry taste 'mint'. 'Tis like I have come to an entirely foreign country. The kingdoms have changed, the borders have been redrawn... and even basic things one takes for granted also have become something entirely new."
If she continues calling herself a disappointing adult, it'll come true. Marivel said as much, that she has to become the parent Minder needs. No matter how bad she is at it.
"... oh? Embarrassing, is it?" Yue sounds piqued. "... Acacia. There is nothing so trite as that. I know you grasp at straws in search for something that can be solved through some gesture or trial or task, yet... this is not that."
A pause. "And it is as much the Minder's struggle as it is mine."
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
That part is guaranteed to pique Acacia's curiosity, at least; she blinks once, then peers over at the book, her eyebrows raised. "Huh. I was figuring you were gonna say that some of them had died out - I mean, that would be pretty obvious, given the circumstances, but still. I never thought some of them would have changed name entirely."
She levels a faint glare towards Yue, puffing out her cheeks for a moment before tugging the scrunchie out of her hair to leave it hanging around her face. "I /want/ you to stop me," she intones, and then grumbles as she yanks some of her hair to one side to put it back into its sidetail. "I mean, I get that you're doing it out of duty and habit and who knows what else besides, but even then. Just like Minder doesn't want to lose you, I don't want to take you away from her."
Having said that much, she falls silent for a while, her brow furrowed a little. "... I know. I mean, I can tell that much. I wouldn't exactly call it /grasping at straws/," she retorts. "Sometimes I manage something pretty useful. But it's more like it's a matter of habit to think like that. And I'm not conceited enough to call it a 'human' aspect. It's just me."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
There is a moment where Yue pauses, letting the conversation about mint drop even though she'd like to pursue it further as a distraction. She wonders if Acacia discerned her real meaning, but... perhaps, perhaps it's better that she doesn't.
She sips her tea.
"Marivel said that I should become the parent Minder needs. ... some part of me does truly know that, yet..."
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
Maybe Acacia will just jolt awake at 3am with the revelation of what Yue meant, the same as most of her good ideas when they hit here. Or maybe she won't. But she does at least pause, letting out a quiet breath to herself. "... you know, ever since I met up with Kamui and learned about Marivel, I kind of get stuck on how long it must have been for some of you. It's hard to even imagine. ... I'd like to think that we can all live in the present day, but maybe that's a bit conceited of me, too."
She leaves that hanging in the air, then frowns as she rounds on Yue. "For a kid, it can suck to not have any parents. I mean, there's that initial burst of 'oh yeah, now I can do /anything/!' but it doesn't stay that way for long. Eventually there's something you need to get off your chest, or there's something you want to do, or you're just feeling crappy and want a hug, and no-one's there. They're off working, or focused on other things, or you're eating whatever you can scrape together again."
"I mean, you've been protecting her in your own way up til now, anyway. I get that, and I'm not gonna say that's wrong or anything. But you should try it out sometime," she adds, grinning faintly. "I bet she'll yell and call you dumb, but that usually means you're doing it right, I think."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"You must understand," Yue doubles back and tries to take stock further of the situation, "The Minder has only ever had her mother in her life. She was so proud to become a minder for me. And the only excursions she had outside of Laila Belle was when I was sent on expeditions outside the Control Zone."
She lifts her head up towards the ceiling for a moment. "Compared to that, Spira and Young ARMS and every child she has met and befriended has thrown her world into colour and splendour."
She chuckles ever so faintly as she answers, "But I cannot be the one to force her to make a decision. ... my own story ended a long time ago. This much, I fully believe in."
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
For a long moment, the redhead stares at the Veruni across from her - and then lets out a soft and tiny chuckle. "Uh. Huh. You know, to be honest, I thought maybe you were her real mother? And she'd been taken away from you when you got thrown in prison or something? Y'know, something political like that?"
She's trying to keep her voice lilting with every sentence, but it's hard when she's also kind of withering with every sentence as well, and finally ends up looking bashfully to one side as she rakes her hair and grumbles to herself. "Too many thriller novels, I guess."
She draws in a breath as she looks back. "Okay, look. For Minder's sake, I am not gonna blame you for what you just said, or call you disappointing, or anything. But," she adds as she briefly considers flicking the wound again. "You are the one that's been at her side as she found out each of those things. You're the one who stuck with her in Spira when everything went to shit. You're the one she clambered up a mansion in the middle of a Gear fight to yell at."
"/She/ doesn't think your story's over," she presses lightly. "And even if it is, she wants to take you into account. I don't mean forcing her, just... letting her know you're there to give her advice. It's too big for her to decide on her own."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue has to silently, silently wonder about teasing Acacia about getting attracted to a single mother with a child in an environmental suit before realising she'd be throwing the biggest rock out of the most fragile greenhouse ever.
"Do... I look like the motherly type?" Yue asks instead, genuinely curious. "Novels... mm. It is good to know what the curious mind writes. Fiction reflects the anxieties of each era."
She glances aside and remarks, "I will... try. For her sake, at the very least," because she's not ready to make it be about her own sake. "Yes... it is a journey no child should have to make on her own."
<Pose Tracker> Acacia Saitani has posed.
"Well-- I mean, that might have been part of it!" Acacia tries to rally, but doesn't exactly get very far as she scratches at her hair once more and tries to get the light blush under control. "I mean, you do kinda get on with her pretty well. There's a bit of distance there, but it's more like you're just still both feeling around it. I mean, I've seen worse parent-child combos."
She lets out a breath, her smile a very lopsided one. Yue doesn't exactly respond to her points when it comes to her own importance, but-- well, what she does get is a start, at least, and one that the two of them can maybe build upon. "Well, whatever happens, just bear that all in mind. And if you get into that machine again, I'll just stop you again. Or it."
"... I'm glad you're safe," she repeats again as she lifts her cup to her lips. "And, jeez. I should at least bring you a copy of the paper."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
There is a long sense of quietness from Yue, but she does, at the very least, relent as much as she says: "... I want her to live her fullest life, no matter how short it may be. That much... I will do all in my power to ensure."
There is a tired breath as she takes more of her tea, which has probably gone cold by now.
"... I would love to read your Bouletin. You know I have snuck some of the older copies to read as well."
She tilts her head. "... you did well in the Nephele."