2022-06-02: Yes -- I'm Cruel! What Of It?!
- Log: Yes -- I'm Cruel! What Of It?!
- Cast: Magilou, Eleanor Klein
- Where: Kilika Island
- Date: 2022-06-02
- Summary: Eleanor forces an honest conversation out of Magilou, and Magilou isn't happy about it in the slightest.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Having tracked down Team Yuna and harassed them until they realised what she was searching for (at which point, surely, they were quite helpful!), Magilou finally has a lead on where the Shadow Shrine is. Its location...
"A singularly complete pain in my derriere," Magilou complains, having come to land in the chain of islands dangling off the Spiran archipelago. "What were they THINKING? Don't they know this is sooo inconvenient?!"
She says this to a blitzball kicking by, apparently; a child soon hurries after it. (One day, maybe he'll be a blitzball, too. Follow your dreams.) The planks of this boardwalk, at least, have now been repaired; the stroll into the town proper reveals that there's always more work to be done. "Huh," Magilou remarks, with vague surprise, as she looks around, but it's not in awe of the devastation.
Actually, she's impressed they're doing this well for themselves, after both Sin and invasion.
That might be a relative statement.
Hands laced behind her head, she strolls off into town -- to the vaunted ITEM STORE, to acquire... ice cream! (A little Blizzard in every bite.) "Eh, not bad," Magilou concludes, as she leans on the wall of one of those rebuilt shacks to nibble at it.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor Klein, on the other hand, is here for other reasons! There's a lot of reasons for her to check in on Spira as a member of ARMS, but also for personal reasons. ...One of them is just straight up going to Besaid for more of their beautiful fabrics, but it's easier to go through Kilika for that, aaand...
Here Eleanor is! She has just gotten off of a ship from the Bikanel Desert, and walks down the way, wearing bright orange attire, with bare shoulders because Spira is very hot actually, and a long light skirt. She has her satchel over her shoulder, and an ARM hidden away, and is... in a pretty good mood!
And so it is that Eleanor sees Magilou at the item shop where she was heading to restock. She considers the odds that this will be a pleasant conversation, and then goes ahead anyway, because... she has reasons to talk to,
"Magilou!"
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Long odds pay out better, anyway. Unless it all ends in horrific failure!
Magilou goes CRONCH on her ice cream, only to hear the voice of the non-blitzball youth echoing to her pointy little ears. "Hmm?" She hums, as she looks in that direction, with a loosely predatory grin. That... probably means she's glad to see her.
"Why, if it isn't Eleanor! And to what do I owe your haranguing today? I didn't wreck this town." This town, specifically. Magilou is making no comments on towns in general and her devastation thereof.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Then you just pretend it never happened!
Eleanor, for the record, is not a blitzball. But she enjoys Blitzball quite a bit.
"No haranguing yet," Eleanor reports wryly, "Though I won't say 'not today' because I can't rule it out with you." She is... very surprisingly to herself, actually happy to see Magilou. That's weird. That's really weird. And yet?
"I wasn't expecting to see you today, though I suppose that's when I'm most likely to see you, as it turns out. Any earth-shaking objectives this time, or just enjoying the village?"
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Chomp, chomp. Magilou has an ice cream cone. This cannot go poorly.
"Such is the tragedy of the valiant," Magilou sighs. "So, are all your two little shoes goodies, or do they gain those properties after you wear them? I've never quiiite figured that one out."
She wags the finger of her opposite hand, to explain with cheer: "I am, after all, a wicked witch!" The depths of her evil men dare not to tread. Apparently.
Well, that's what she tells everyone.
"An~y~way," Magilou says, those loose fingertips gesturing out with an open palm, "I'm just scouting out a lead on the Shrines. If you can call it that!" She adds, throwing up her hand. "What kind of searching method is finding all the ruins no one's visited for ages, anyway?!"
Monch cronch cronch. This ice cream has nuts in it. They are right next to a jungle.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"They're imbued with goodness after I wear them, naturally. Until I do they are naughty, naughty shoes. Especially the heels." Eleanor must be in a good mood because she's willing to play with it a little. But Magilou declares she is a wicked witch, and Eleanor says, "That's true. Is the hat where the wickedness is stored, or is it just a nice accessory?"
Scouting out a lead... "Hmm, I see." Pause. "I guess that's a starting approach, at least. I've only been to a few ruins here in Spira, though there are some I'm hearing intersting thoughts about now. There's apparently an ancient prison under the Thunder Plains? That might be useful. Except that I suppose we've already found the Lightning Shrine..."
Magilou did give an explanation for why she's after these Shrines herself, and while Eleanor is not sure it's the whole story, perhaps it puts her more at ease to know a reason.
"...But I am glad I ran into you. While I'll help find the Shrine if I can, I wanted to... talk."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"The hat is an essential part of the process," Magilou confirms, because her natural state is playing along.
Magilou shrugs a shoulder, as Eleanor supposes thoughts about places in Spira. "That's a problem for future Magilou," she supposes, flippantly, on the topic of the Lightning Shrine.
Cronch, cronch. And so she gets to the end of the ice cream cone, and -- "Guah! Why does this stuff always get on my fingers?!" Magilou yelps, entirely too theatrically, talking over the end of Eleanor's request. "What was that? Oh, never mind! I have to rectify this situation immediately! Goodbye forever!"
With that, Magilou prances off in a remarkable hurry.
She must really hate having sticky fingers.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"I see, yes."
Future Magilou! And what a problem it is! Eleanor has heard about that one. She has no solutions. Malevolence isn't really her field. But cronch cronch and suddenly--Magilou--does her thing about... personal conversations. That is, about sticky fingers. That's definitely what it is, and not anything else.
Magilou starts off, and Eleanor tilts her head for a moment, before deciding--
"You aren't getting away that easily." Eleanor shakes her ankle, activating the magic of the blue accessory wrapped about it to make herself more graceful and sure on her feet--and chases!!
She doesn't run. Running is terrible. But she does walk awfully quickly and surely for a nerd.
"I have a handkerchief! Let me lend it to you!"
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Was that the wind?" Magilou says, to herself. That it's loud enough to be heard by anyone casually pursuing her is surely a coincidence. "Yes, that's definitely the sound the wind makes."
Of course, Magilou is going to keep prancing right through the town, to the edge of the town limits, and off into the forboding jungle. (Magilou, who has reached maximum level several times over, does not particularly fear random encounters.) She is a remarkably quick prancer.
Especially when she veers off the beaten track onto a poorly-marked trail. It's almost like she's trying to lose someone!
But no, surely she's just going in search of a solution to her problem. This explains why she ends up crouching by a stream to wash her hands. Totally normal. This is a normal way to do this activity.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor is not the wind. It's not even an easy mistake to make! Magilou's just that talented.
Eleanor's practically skipping herself, thanks to the enchantment on her feet, whirling and weaving through people and across boardwalks. She is not especially worried about random encounters in this zone herself because she outleveled it a long time ago, even if she's not Magilou-level. She's breaking out the Dig tools for this though, and it helps!
And eventually, onto a poorly-marked trail, Eleanor catches up! She huffs a little because that was a bit of exertion. A good bit.
"Whew. Really wanted privacy, and not just to avoid me, I see."
Eleanor extends her hand with the handkerchief in it for Magilou to dry her hands with.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou pouts something terrible, as she scoops up the water in her hands...
... and turns around to splash Eleanor!! "Really!" She exclaims, as she straightens up on her heels and walks past her -- grabbing the handkerchief on the way, obviously -- to go lean on one of those massive trees. She pats down her hands, with a huff. "Can't you take a hint? Conversation o~ver!" Hmph.
"Think what you want," she grouses, tossing the cloth back towards Eleanor. "Evidently there's no stopping you. But I have nothing to say, and no opinion!"
This, of course, is a lie. Magilou has so many opinions, they had to invent a new category for them, because she has opinions on things no reasonable person ever would.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Pout pout. Eleanor knows pouting very well. As a young noblewoman, she was very good at it! ...She still is a young noblewoman, and she still is good at it, but that's beside the point.
"Sure can't! It's my academic curiousity," she replies, proudly. She did catch her, after all. But then think what she wants... Eleanor has to laugh when Magilou says she has no opinion. "You're a much better liar than that, I think." A beat. "...But all right. In that case, I'll go first, since I did chase you down."
"...I wanted to say that I misjudged you. I thought you were pointlessly cruel, when you talked to me that way about Xiumei, but I understand now that you tend to have reasons for things, and... you have some experiences of your own on that front."
As she takes the handkerchief though, she might notice the new engagement ring on Eleanor's hand. It is different from the old one.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"A good liar is always sure to throw in a bad lie here and there," Magilou advises Eleanor. "Men are so distracted by what they can see, they miss entirely the things they can't!" Oh, that's not sinister at all. "But oh, very well, I can't stop you."
She folds her arms, with a puff of a sigh, as Eleanor insists on going first. (She's just decided this is a conversation, huh?! Rude!) Magilou has, indeed, noticed the ring, because few things escape Magilou; equally, she hasn't commented on it.
"Misjudged me? Hardly. Cruelty is the best method of motivation! Why, I've always said that anyone who neglects to salt a wound is guilty of being too nice." She lifts a hand in a vague gesture, before it drops back down to the crook of her elbow.
Whether she has reasons to be the way she is, she's suspiciously silent on, just the same.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"Hmm." That's actually very sensible. Eleanor tilts her head as she considers it, and finds that it holds up actually. She has no particular answer to that one!!
...Except that it applies in magical studies, too.
Eleanor did indeed just decide it'd be a conversation; now that she has a little more of Magilou's measure, she's willing to be her socially pushy self, rather accustomed to being the bolder or more sociable of pairs she's in.
"See, it's things like that that made me think so. But I suppose that adds up with 'what you do see distracting you'. I generally believe that it's a good motivator to be kind; people like to feel important, to feel listened to."
"...But your way seems to be effective, too. I don't think I'll switch, all the same."
"...Anyway," she says, "While I'm very curious what those reasons are, I'm not asking you to tell me your whole life's story straight-out. I don't think you would. But I wanted to tell you that much."
"...And also to ask you about the stone you gave me. Where does it come from?" Among other things, but, this is a good start.
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"Utterly pointless," Magilou remarks, a shade dour, as Eleanor supposes people like to feel important and listened to.
She's cheerful again a moment later. "Oh, my life story? I was the princess of a lost magical kingdom, and I tragically fell to wickedness in my quest to topple the villain who claimed my throne." Magilou tosses this out with such blitheness that it sounds entirely true, casually confident in the lie. "It's not so complicated when you spell it out like that!"
She lifts a hand at the elbow to flash a peace sign at Eleanor as she tells the entirety of her very true and real life story.
"... as for the stone, I told you already," burying the lede, Magilou looks up, through the canopy of the jungle, dappling the sunlight all in shades of green. Her hand drops down, to her side, leaves her clutching her opposite elbow. It's a cross over her body, another barrier. "The Eleanor Jewel was housed in a village shrine, once. It shone brilliantly, even in total darkness, and blessed the village. In turn, the villagers had safeguarded it for generations."
Magilou shrugs, a heft upward which falls. "But then some Hellions attacked that village. A girl and her mother fled with the jewel to try and protect it, but in the end, the girl's mother used that same jewel to protect her daughter, instead."
She is silent, for long ticks of the clock.
"... of course, Eleanor only told us all this when we stumbled over that Hellion again. And by the time she'd exacted her revenge, the jewel was shattered. Pity, really. It would have been worth a mint."
Strangely, the wistful tone in her voice doesn't really match a desire for cold, hard cash.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
It's probably true... from a certain point of view. Eleanor can't really discount any of Magilou's stories at this point as completely true or false, because she is aware of how much she doesn't know here. But the peace sign kinda clinches it. She knows many things about Magilou, though; she remembers that conversation in Klein...
Eleanor's strange yellow eyes remain on Magilou as she explains. "I'm sure it's that simple," she starts, and then... well. The village. The stone.
"You called it the Eleanor jewel..." She considers. She bites her lip, for a moment, thinking about it. A girl and her mother. Eleanor only told them this. The jewel...
"...This 'Eleanor' was human, wasn't she?" Eleanor says softly. She proably shouldn't press, but she can't help it in this case. "Well, I said I would take care of the jewel, and I will. Maybe I can find a way to restore it."
"...You talk a lot about expectations. About how things go, or you expect them to go, or what's expected."
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Yes. That explains a lot, Eleanor thinks, the last Eleanor being human.
"Sometimes that's true," Eleanor says. "So I can't promise I'll find a way. But I'm going to try. It wouldn't be the first impossible thing I've done." She is not going to pretend she knows even a starter, but... there is power in this jewel, and it was important once. Eleanor doesn't believe it won't be again. Or that it isn't now.
"I was reminded of the things you said to me about what was expected of you, back in Klein, by the story you just gave me. What you 'couldn't be' as much as what you could be. And obviously I think about expectations--responsibilities--a lot."
"...And then there's the fact that you seem to assume the worst of a lot of things. I'm sure you have your reasons. And I'm starting to get a sense of what some of those reasons are. Regardless..."
"I don't think a broken heart is worthless at all."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Did Magilou ever try to restore it?
Maybe it's something Eleanor chided her about, once upon a time.
Maybe that's why it's in a hair clip, now.
Who knows? Magilou's not telling.
But, assuming the worst, and the worst she couldn't assume... it's a dour subject, and Magilou looks back up to the treeline, rather than acknowledge Eleanor.
"How nice you can feel that way," she says, finally, a shred of bitterness to such a casual dismissal.
The Shepherd Artorius -- Ancient inscriptions mention him, in the puzzles of Hoel. Magilou's connection with him, the way the Exorcist Octavio not only recognised but heeded her...
... how much does Magilou carry, without disclosing the weight of any of it?
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"I know I'm young," Eleanor says. "Naive, even, compared to you. But I know Marivel's heart has to have broken more than once in her time, but there she is, believing in us. Trusting us. And I don't think she's the only one whose heart has broken and continued on. ...Whether we can repair a broken heart or not, I don't know, but they keep on anyway."
Eleanor isn't sure if Magilou's tried, of course, on the jewel. But that won't stop her. And neither does the bitterness.
"The one you wanted to see... the things you couldn't be. You're carrying a lot. And I've seen some of it, now."
"...It's true that I'm unlikely to live as long as you have. Elves don't, necessarily. And I have a dangerous job, on top of that." She is unaware of reasons there might be for that to be different. "...But I see things that we 'ought' to get angry at. And I see them in you. The things you've said, the things you know--"
"...And the things you don't know. You don't know for sure, that I can't help, that I can't do it without the same sacrifices that have always been made."
"There are things that you say that matter, and I..."
"...It seems awfully lonely. ...I don't know why I'm saying all of this. You probably aren't inclined to share, or justify, or answer."
"...But I want to help."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"You sound awfully sure," Magilou remarks, lightly, when Eleanor says Marivel believes in them, trusts them. Apparently, she always keeps a spare knife in her pocket.
She rolls her eyes, with a downright disgusted grimace, as Eleanor says she's carrying a lot. "Ugh!" Is her only comment to that.
It would be so much more convenient if Eleanor would just trust what's in front of her eyes, Magilou remarks, to herself.
She blows air out of her cheeks, and shakes her head, hands dropping to her sides before she turns her gaze back on Eleanor -- with one of those wicked grins. "Bingo!" She says, finally. "I don't care about sharing or answering questions, and I don't have any need to justify myself!" But if she's that apathetic, why hasn't she gotten on her shikigami and flown off by now? Eleanor's already seen her do it once.
"And as far as such a ridiculous concept as helping goes -- you're right! You're naive," she adds, immediately, so as to disabuse the notion that she's accepting that hand. "You see all these terrible things in me, but you're unwilling to consider the possibility that I'm telling the truth when I say I'm an evil sorceress? A thousand years is a long time to bury evil deeds -- and a long time to commit them. Why, I could be a worse tyrant than any of the horrors plaguing your existence. Worse! I could serve darkness the world has long forgotten! If I'm this bad, after all, what does that say about the sort of power which could command my respect?"
Her smile is so, so sharp. "... you're too sure that ancient things are out to help you, just because you see something or another which seems sympathetic."
Uncommented, with no attention drawn to it, her hand has curled to a tight fist beside her.
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"I am sure," Eleanor says unflinchingly--of Marivel, at least. That knife finds no purchase for this particular wound. But the rest of what she says, on the other hand...
Sure, Eleanor could point out that Magilou hasn't left yet. She could've done it! She could've left anytime she wanted, and easily outpaced Eleanor, who can prance pretty well but cannot in fact fly. But even so...
"...Hm."
Eleanor watches Magilou thoughtfully, and perhaps worst of all, actually seems to consider what she's said. "Well."
"...Maybe that's true," she admits. "I am too trusting," Eleanor admits. "I trusted Mister Hesiod, and while maybe that was the right thing, maybe it wasn't. But I want to see the good in people, in things. I want to believe that this world... is worth preserving. That the things we do matter."
"It's not just that I've seen sympathy out of you. Your actions also seem to add up to helping, even if you pick the worst way you can find to do it a lot of the time. You talk a lot about being evil, but I don't see it. You're mean, to be sure. Harsh. Very critical. Cruel, sometimes. ...But I've seen evil. And I don't see it in you."
"So maybe you're right," Eleanor admits. "It's definitely foolish. ...But all the same, I want to help. If cynicism is wisdom, then I... suppose I don't especially want to be wise."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
OST: Takes of Berseria - Broken Heart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1L_AyHM5WI
Good! She's supposed to consider it, and get out of Magilou's face!
Tragically, Eleanor is in the business of subverting expectations.
Really? Does it hurt you so much that someone can't trust you?
It's not like I care whether you stick with him, anyway. If someone like that is left to his own devices, it's his own fault, wouldn't you agree?
Looking out for people who don't understand you... it's pretty tiresome, Eleanor. ... so maybe you have more in common with Hesiod than you think!
When Magilou spoke about Ethius, she suggested that he may well have had depths which weren't so easily seen. It was easy -- too easy, perhaps -- for her to argue his side of things, inscrutable a person as he is.
There's none of that advocacy in her voice, as a frown flashes over Magilou's face, sudden as a storm out of nowhere. "Would you stop?!" She cries, straightening up from her slouch to swipe a hand through the air. "OBVIOUSLY it matters! All the stupid incoherence and conflict and torment of the world matters! Every messy, savage, inconvenient LIFE matters!"
She gestures, angrily, pointing to Eleanor. "And you know what?! It's the world that doesn't care! We're always remembered as the villains of the story! That's what helping gets you, Eleanor! So yes -- I'm cruel! What of it?!"
Her shoulders drop -- and shortly the rest of her does, too, slumping to her knees like a doll with strings cut. Her head sags forward; her hands hit the jungle floor just the same, palms-up.
"Who even said you could help someone like me..?" All the volume has dropped from her voice, just the same; lightless, her purple-green gaze settles on one fallen leaf out of hundreds. "... what pointless arrogance. You can't fix what's broken."
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
How easy it was to get Eleanor to turn around on someone she was so angry at; how simple it was to point out that there might be good there after all, and have her see the possibility. It's not the first time it's happened, and it's unlikely to be the last. But Eleanor does get a feeling out of Magilou. Not the one she'd hoped for maybe, but--
It matters, Magilou says, and she points angrily at Eleanor. The world...
Eleanor looks down when Magilou falls, and sees her hit the jungle floor. That volume gone, that life gone, and Eleanor is struck by what seems to her to be such clear, agonizing pain. She feels some of it just by nature, not through any special power but just through her own imagination of what Magilou could be feeling.
"..."
She resists the urge to say she's sorry. She isn't. But she wants to say something like it for Magilou's sake. ...Lying to her about something like that, though, would be worse.
"..."
Eleanor crouches down, closer to Magilou's level, instead of talking down at her. "...I wish I could just fix it," she admits. "That would be easy, and it would feel good. I could be the sort of person who solves even great problems of ancient people."
"It seems like... almost everyone who lives long enough comes to find that kind of despair. Even those that don't are villified eventually, for trying to help." She thinks of Marivel, who has such pain; she thinks of Lanval, painted as a villain himself. She thinks of Ragnell... She isn't sure what she thinks of Ragnell. "Maybe part of me is scared that I'll find it, too, if I live long enough."
"...But until that day comes," Eleanor says, "I still want to help, even if I can't just fix it. ...Maybe, one day, I can be your friend. But even if it's stupid, I see you trying to help, and I think that's worth something."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Is it agonising?
Really, is it?
Magilou smells lies like blood in the water; perhaps that's why she's so good at making the truth into precisely what will carve sharpest, selecting what parts of it are necessary to make someone realise where their thoughts lead.
Why she's so good at making herself look so bad.
It's a skill, you know.
Eleanor crouches by Magilou; Magilou looks away.
"Worth something..? Forget it... I've never been worth anything. Really, it's more comfortable that way." She cracks a grin, through that lifeless gaze, carved painfully from cheek to cheek. Velvet's approach wasn't entirely unkind, for all this new Eleanor would surely balk at it. "When you're given nothing, you struggle and fight... and tear it from the throat of the world."
Which might explain a lot about Magilou's style of encouragement, really, if she views struggling as such a productive action.
She takes a long breath, looking down at her fingers. Twitch, twitch. Somehow, they move... so she's still alive, after all. Fancy that.
"Tch," her tongue clicks against her teeth, and when she actually looks at Eleanor, it's with that sharkish grin again, as if the emptiness never crossed her face at all. "You want to be my friend? You're more stupid than you look! You'll be lucky if you end up dead, you know! But you really ought to stop this sentimental babbling, kid. You're as bad as Bienfu, I swear. Any further, and it will be 'Miss Magilou' to you!"
(Which is its own interesting implication, about how much Bienfu acknowledges Magilou's pain, compared to how much Magilou's willing to do it. ... he's smart enough to stay out of this conversation, though.)
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
It must be. Magilou might be used to it, but Eleanor can't imagine that it isn't real pain. ...Her instinct was right about the lies, it would appear, though. She's pretty good at them herself, but not as much at spotting them. It's different.
"..." When you're given nothing... Eleanor can't relate; she's always been given so much. How can she comment on what it is to be given nothing? But if it's struggle that's so valuable, it does explain a lot. And she is not unfamiliar with that. ..She can't even say Magilou's approach is wrong, since it's worked for Eleanor too, to see the flaws in her thinking, like with Ethius.
She's still not thrilled about that, but she's come to accept it.
That shark grin. Magilou's back to herself, in anything. But the way she answers... Well. Eleanor might be a little stupid, she thinks, because she thinks she got through to her, if only a little.
"Well, we can't have that," Eleanor says of 'Miss Magilou'. "...But thank you." She can't quite help the little bit of sass herself, in the moment.
"So where is this next Shrine, anyway? If you have a lead I can point some people towards it." She thinks that might be about as far as she's going to get for now, though. And she doesn't have to admit that she's feeling a little teary herself if she can change the subject before she starts crying herself.
"Oh, and... I need you to tell me what version of your last name you're using these days. For my records."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou doesn't tend to cry, unless they're the sort of crocodile tears which, on further inspection, are entirely fake. But really, who can say what's the fake Magilou and what one is real? On the one hand, she's a cackling taskmaster; on the other, an emotionless shell. Eeny, teeny, spiny, crow...
At least she seems to be having more fun, wearing a face like this.
"Who knows!" Magilou exclaims. "But those scrappy kids trying to kill Sin mentioned some submerged ruins between here and Bikanel -- so I'm off to check it out." Shrines have a particular signature about them; she's quite capable of sensing the presence of powerful Seraphim. It helps that Bienfu is still, as stated, right there.
And it might seem, for a moment, like she's entirely content to just pretend she didn't hear that last request at all. Then, Magilou lays a palm to the ground, and rises, acrobatic as anything.
"These days? I don't." She says, casual as an aside, dusting off her hands.
"I gave that name to my children. They're completely rewriting what it means, to be a Mayvin... I'd be a fool to get in their way."
... ... ... wait, Magilou is really a mother?!
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
Eleanor does! Happy, sad, sometimes other reasons, she is more than capable. ...But she's not Magilou.
"Hmm. That would make a third here in Spira, wouldn't it? Water, Light, and this one." That's interesting. Maybe only for academic reasons, but interesting all the same. Perhaps there's a matter of balance in the world itself...? Could be.
Eleaor waits on the other one though. Until Magilou rises, and Eleanor looks up. Then she tilts her head again, and pushes herself back to her feet, too. "That's..."
Pause. "Well, that's fair, actually. I like that thought." One day, will she get out of the way of people trying to define what the name 'Klein' means? She hopes so. ...But there are ways of getting one's wish...
Apparently Eleanor is willing to believe it, though. She's not sure if it's an adoption thing or a metaphor thing or a literal thing, though. It could go any way.
"'Magilou' it is! I suppose that's a small savings in ink..."
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
"A third in Spira -- but let's not forget that Spira is just Lunar's forgotten continent. Is it so unbelievable that the Shrines would be found out here?" Magilou wags a finger, entirely too smug. "Besides, all light casts a shadow -- just because they don't directly foil each other hardly means they're not interlinked!"
... well, Magilou did once suggest that she should go in for being Zhang Eleanor.
But when Eleanor supposes she'll save on ink, Magilou puts her hands on her hips, leaning forward as she squints in doubt. "Eeeh? Just what are you planning, brat?! I'll have you know I write the accounts, here!"
<Pose Tracker> Eleanor Klein has posed.
"That's true. There's no reason that there wouldn't be Shrines out here from before contact was lost, and no reason they'd have no ties to one another." Magilou is a little smug. But she's also right in this case. "All light casts a shadow... that makes me wonder if there's any geographical significance to the locations of Light and Darkness..." Eleanor is prepared to nerd out about this. But she doesn't. Yet.
That would certainly be one way, though.
Eleanor grins at Magilou, and starts to turn away. "Well, if you haven't figured it out, then perhaps it's my turn to be mysterious~!"
<Pose Tracker> Magilou has posed.
Magilou spins on a heel, crossing her arms. "You're a thousand years too early to out-mystery me!" She insists, with a huff.
... she lets Eleanor walk away all mysterious-like, even so.
Is she a teeny-tiny eentsy-beentsy bit proud of her? Okay, fine. Tragically, it can't outshine her incredible grumpiness over being written about.
(... she really expects nothing, huh?)