2021-02-19: Sometimes You Just Gotta Drink
- Log: Sometimes You Just Gotta Drink
- Cast: Yue Rohay, Josephine Lovelace
- Where: Celesti Wastelands
- Date: February 19, 2021
- Summary: On her return from somewhere further north, Josie slips into an Odessa safehouse, the same that Yue returns to with the retrieved Aura. They have themselves a little party.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue's been having a heck of a time.
Ever since her identity was (semi-accidentally) exposed to ARMS, things have been different; Acacia has been dragging her around in an attempt of normalcy, but she herself knows things can't quite shift back to the way they were. ... even if ARMS can be bullish and teasing and it might be more effective than she'd like.
The Odessan safehouse is seeing some activity today; the battered, broken remains of the Aura is pulling in from a Gear-sized trapdoor hidden well underneath the sand. There's at best a skeleton staff here, so she has to do a lot of it herself.
There's a tired groan from Yue as she has the cockpit door disengage and open, and slumps her head back, not coming out yet. "Ugh...."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
So it wasn't a weapon.
Josie, in her own way, is also having a heck of a time.
The safehouse near the Celesti ruins is the easiest one for her to reach on her route back from Akasha site to the north as it happened. The staff is on the light side here -- there's barely anyone even present, and certainly not any she's all that interested in having a chat with for long -- and so Josie had commandeered one of the supply rooms, some cheap booze, and has been having herself a little party in what passes for the currently empty hangar.
('Party' is probably a bad name for it. It's more of a 'drink too much and eat snacks, alone' but party at least makes it sound fancy...)
She's barely even a half hour into it when what would you know, but there's a Gear wheeling in from...
"They win again?" she asks of the occupant of the decidedly battered Gear.
"...C'mon out. I got a spare bottle of the hard stuff, yeah?"
Pause.
"...There's snacks."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue blinks a few times as she hears a familiar voice from the outside, and climbs out. She's in a black bodysuit, but grabs her usual scruffy black overcoat and slips into it.
"Josie," Yue remarks, perhaps not expecting her to be here. "... thanks for that one time in Sylvara. I didn't get to mention it. And, ah... no, I had to steal this out of Sylvaland's barracks. They fished it out of the lake before me."
She doesn't drink -- except the few times Acacia's urged her to have some -- but doesn't bring that up yet. "I could use a bit of sugar."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie waves a hand through the air, dismissively. "Don't mention it none, kidd-- eh, well," she finishes, grimacing goodnaturedly. "Ah, was wonderin' what happened with all that. So you did a little rescue op, huh?"
Stooping a moment, she reaches for the bottles she's piled together (how much was she planning to actually drink here? doesn't she have a liver?) and, after her hand hovers over them for a second, she grabs the one.
"Wine! Bad wine, to be sure. But wine's just grapes, and grapes have sugar."
She seems to be convinced of this.
She tosses the bottle for Yue, underhand. How sure is she of Yue's reflexes?!
To be fair, though, it's pretty crap wine.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue admitted to Ragnell once that she has a pretty shaky hand; guns and ARMS aren't much use to her, given how bad her aim is. But she is a martial artist, and even cuffed--
She manages to pick up the bottle of wine, between her arms. That's some skill.
"I... have never had much wine, honestly," Yue remarks. "And I suppose it is a rescue op... for machinery, at least."
Though that Gear seems to have a mind of its own, sometimes...
"... I never asked. You don't seem the loyalist type to Vinsfeld or the cause. Just like me, I suppose. What's your story, Lovelace?"
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Throwing a bottle for someone who has their arms shackled is not, perhaps, the kindest of moves--
But Josie is not the kindest of people.
That, and she's seen what Yue's capable of prior. Perhaps she was expecting some sort of wild footwork.
As it stands, she arches a pale eyebrow. "Not bad," she remarks, left hand on her hip.
And then kicks at what seems to be some kind of... shallow bowl of popped corn? "From Guild Galad, or diverted from there or somesuch," she remarks. "Gotta say, never even thought about eating this at other than festivals," Josie adds, before taking a seat on a barrel. She leans against the wall.
"Mm?"
She is silent for a moment. She's silent for a long moment.
"I dunno about 'not a loyalist', Yue. ...But there ain't much to say. I knew these lot way on back before this. Palled around with 'em, did some research. Had my place set on fire and nearly died. Got sidetracked. And now I'm back."
She waves a hand dismissively during, as if it's all no matter.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"Hmm."
It certainly could be that her intuition's wrong, but she knows loyalty when she sees it; even in the most quiet of people, there's a subtle fervour that tends to colour how they behave.
She might be wrong.
"Popcorn... so it survived," Yue muses. "They used to ladle caramel or butter on this and sell it to movie-goers," she idly says, forgetting the lack of context she might be saying that to.
She sits down next to her, on a short crate. The chains jangle as she goes.
"Odessa's a big group. You mean the Cocytus, or...?" A pause. "Sorry about that incident, though..."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Is a creature like Josephine Lovelace capable of something as noble as loyalty?
"Yup. Still do that, too." Though there is a pause that comes at a decided delay as what Yue's said catches up to her. "What's a movie?"
Maybe somewhere like Guild Galad -- and perhaps a handful of other places -- might have those about still, but Josie grew up in Ignas!
"It's pretty standard at faires and the like. Sometimes they fry butter at faires, too, right." They'll fry just about anything at a faire that can't run, crawl, or fly away.
"Those guys."
Is what she says when Yue sits down. "Weren't Cocytus then. Maybe I'd be with 'em still if my place hadn't burned." She sighs out a breath, closing her eyes.
"At least I got out alive."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"Hmm... you go further back than I thought," Yue does sound impressed. "Guess you should be keeping an eye on me," she chuckles. "It is an open secret that I am here because of the Veruni's orders. My mother and Vinsfeld have an agreement."
A pause.
"I think they're trying to use each other," and at that, Yue tries some of the wine and... and...
Wow, that's a face she's making.
"Oh. A movie's... a story captured on film. Like a moving picture." She gestures towards a nearby screen. "Showed on one of those, but much bigger. Used to be... real popular."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Should I, now? I don't much feel like keepin' an eye on nobody," Josie remarks, still leaning against the wall. She cracks an eye, though. "...So your mom's why, eh? What've the Veruni got, helping Odessa out like this? Would've thought Vinny'd've wanted the old 'tear down the masters off their thrones' at those lot, too."
It's the sort of familiarity one might use with their closest friends.
...Right?
"Ah, the age-old. I wonder which of 'em'll give first. And lemme guess... you're," and she straightens, looking Yue up and down, "not exactly willing, eh?"
The wine is really bad. It hasn't outright turned but it might be more useful if it had.
"Ah, so like..." Josie pauses a moment.
"Like a big ole flipbook. ...That a Veruni thing?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"The Veruni do not have much of an interest in human rulers either. An arrangement of convenience... or at least, that's how I might believe it to be. There might be other designs at work too," Yue shrugs. "I can be as loose-lipped as I want about it, because it might inconvenience her plans."
Someone, on the other hand, is not so loyal.
Josie pins it down regardless; which one of them will give? And indeed, she isn't so willing.
"Let... let us say it is," Yue muses rather carefully on the topic of movies. It's not exactly a lie, the Veruni did have a big movie culture. Back then.
"Did you ever find anything from those tiles of yours? I remember you asking a while back."
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Convenience's behind most odd marriages, seems like," Josie quips, twisting her lips in a crooked smile. "Heh, don't I know it. If I knew what my old man was up to, I'd spill the beans immediately." As it stands--
Where is Timotheus Lovelace?
Perhaps if Josie is particularly fortunate, he's already dead and no one bothered to update her. But she's never been that lucky.
"Eh? Not bad. You still got those around? Might be worth a spell, sometime."
For now, though, Josie might have to content herself with flipbooks, and hopefully not the kind from Guara Bobelo.
"The tiles? ...Sure did. I think you'll be learning more on 'em soon. Let's just say... I always was working for ole Vinny."
She gestures vaguely in the air. "Anyways. I ain't feeling up to a long talk or none about old business like that." She sits up, leans over and swings an arm for one of the bottles. "Not yet, anyway. But try me again in another hour or two! Maybe I'll be more maudlin-like then. ...You any good at drinking games, Yue?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue pauses, as she asks, "What's a drinking game?"
Yue Rohay is in the most perilous danger of her life!!!
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
Josie hasn't even cracked the bottle yet when Yue makes that remark.
"Oh really," she says, a sly smile creeping onto her face.
Yue Rohay is in grave peril!
"Well, let's keep it simple-like. I'm gonna tell you a riddle, and if you guess wrong, you have to take a drink! Same for you to me. We'll take turns. Let me think -- ah, let's do it simple, first."
She works off the cap from her own drink as she begins. "What's gotta be broken before you use it?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"P... promises?" Yue stammers.
Oh dear.....
<Pose Tracker> Josephine Lovelace has posed.
"Eggs!" Josie says, shaking her head. "Take a drink!"
Yue is doomed.