[IC] Appointments

[faterecanted]

This post can be used for catch-all threads or continuations from elsewhere at any time, in person or through the journals.

Please remember to label and date threads accordingly (IE, [Action, Nov 2nd]) for the sake of clarity, and to link to the first half of any continuations.

Comments

[Action, october 8th]

[falenandawn]

[So after making an appointment with Van and settling on the time and date for teaching him about the battledome, Frey made sure to arrive early on the decided day.

He's dressed casually but neatly, his weapon in the holster at his back as he leans against one of the walls of the building.]

[Action, october 8th]

[faterecanted]

[Being a military man, Van will show up promptly and in his uniform, looking positively immaculate. (If somewhat avant-garde, because his tabard really is something.) He has his sword with him today, something he didn't have on him at their first meeting... and it is more than half his considerable height. Good grief.

He greets Frey with a polite nod, and just the slightest bend at the waist.]

I'm sorry if I've kept you waiting. [After spending so many years as a teacher, he knows exactly what he'd want to hear. Even if Frey is only fake-teaching him.]

[Action, october 8th]

[falenandawn]

There is no need to apologize. You're right on time, actually. [Sadly, Frey hasn't really got anything like a 'uniform', as he's not really a soldier. But his mannerisms might hint of something similar, or at least military experience, as he stands and inclines his head in response to the other.] I just came early.

[Because Frey is nothing if not polite and prompt, sometimes overly so.]

[Action, october 8th]

[faterecanted]

[Very polite and prompt. Van Likes that in a person.]

Perhaps we should start with something quite basic? [Subtly taking control? Nooo, not him.] I'd like to make sure I understand the controls perfectly. [Says the man who taught himself how to use super-advanced forgotten technology.]

Re: [Action, october 8th]

[falenandawn]

Certainly. Do you have any preferences as to a setting? [Hey he's teaching Van how to work it for himself, so Frey has no problems with that. It's better if someone takes initiative, especially here, in his opinion. Walking over the the console, he'll motion for the man to follow.]

Recently the Battledome was changed so it's now capable of simpler settings devoid of monsters and opponents, but essentially any world someone is from can be simulated here.

[Frey is from a low technology world, he just stubbornly decided to learn because training on your own got boring and finding a sparring partner wasn't always possible.]

[Action, october 8th]

[faterecanted]

Any world? [Hmm. That... has potential. He'll probably be toying around with that, later.]

Do you have a usual setting? [He could certainly learn something about the controls that way. He could also learn something about Frey.]

[seleniahymn]

[Continued from here...

Whether she approves of it will ultimately come down to presentation, and how he follows through with it even though she could still very likely change her mind about it. Everything about their relationship... it walked on such a precarious balance that the slightest disturbance could send it falling back into the silent war they have waged for too long.]

Before I agree to anything of the sort, I want to know how you intend to uphold this truce. You've given me your terms, which I cannot promise you because I do not control the actions of the others nor their intentions. Isn't that turning it all against your favour?

[faterecanted]

If you think the arrangement favors you, why resist agreeing to it? [Because she doesn't trust him any longer, clearly; and it's almost enough to make him regret some of his choices. Not quite, and not the ones she wants him to regret, but almost.]

Agree or don't, I still have no intention of attacking first. If your friends want to see me dead so badly, they only need to wait. You should know that better than anyone.

[seleniahymn]

[There are many implications behind his words, bringing to the forefront one important question that Tear needed to ask of him before she even began to consider anything he tried to negotiate. Honestly, she should have asked him from the very start, perhaps it was this opportunity to speak with her brother without any weapons drawn that allowed her to push it aside long enough.

Now was the best time to ask.] Before I agree to anything, tell me – what was the last thing you remember prior to being brought to the village?

[faterecanted]

[If it was anyone else asking, he wouldn't answer. He'd laugh them off. But for Mystearica...]

I'd just left Ortion cavern. We had a rather fruitless discussion there. [About motives, about ideals, about miasma.]

[seleniahymn]

[Ortion Cavern – in other words a time when they were both suffering for the sake of fulfilling their goals... and prior to when she was forced to assist in killing him the first time. No doubt he would not want to hear of the future she has already experienced; she may as well be an equivalent to the score with that action, and in the process antagonize the relationship with her brother more than it already is.]

A fruitless discussion indeed, one which would serve little to be repeated here, don't you agree?

[faterecanted]

[Oh, does it ever serve any purpose when they speak? Van has his doubts, personally. It hasn't gone the way he intended since she was, what, six? It's so frustrating... and he's so much easier to rile up than his sister is. He clenches his teeth and glances away.]

Do we ever have discussions that bear repeating?

[Action, December 15th] /finally gets this up

[magiconcehad]

[from here]

Oh. Oh yeah!

[Yeah, that made sense... ... Lindsay's never exactly been the greatest at making small talk with those much (or at least who appear much) older than her but... talking had helped earlier. Maybe it'd help now too. Or something. Besides, they were kind of neighbors...]

I'm Lindsay.

[Action, December 15th] /finally replies

[faterecanted]

Van. A pleasure to meet you. [He isn't the type to offer a woman an unsolicited handshake, but he does bow his head and offer her a warm smile.]

Are you alright? You seem nervous. [The army at his command is apparently mostly teenagers. He knows how to spot adolescent nerves before a battle.]

[Action, January 15th]

[dissonates]

[Stupid injuries. Stupid, stupid injuries. It's bad enough to have been bedridden for longer than he'd like. Now he's been somewhat housebound just because walking hurts too damn much. The idea of a wheelchair is unacceptable, but wandering around in the state he's been in makes him feel pathetic. At least his apartment is on the first floor, so it hasn't been that troublesome an experience to just rest and stay inside most of the time. He's got a live-in errand boy after all.

And then... and then comes the day he wants to make some stew. Just a nice, slow-cooking, delightful pot of stew to eat and freeze and then enjoy without having to cook for several days. It was the logical solution to his state of being (and the state of the replica's kitchen skills)! It had worked until now! All the ingredients were in the kitchen, ready, waiting, delicious, and...!

...And the stew pot is, inexplicably, missing from the first floor kitchen. And the replica is already out for the day.

....

....

God. Damn. It.

So that's why Asch is by the second-floor stairwell of Community Building 2 today, breathing hard and trying not to cough up a lung while he thieves a pot from the first kitchen he can reach. Fucking stairs.]

[Action, January 15th]

[faterecanted]

[Asch's day is about to get worse, because who else should be going up the stairwell at that moment but Van? Or rather, going up the stairwell just enough behind him that Van had no idea he was there, until he got to the top, saw him, and turned right back around. Pity his escape was ruined by a bout of lightheadedness that left him slumping against the wall. Or thumping against the wall. Rather audibly. That go-round with experimentation didn't do much of anything good for his little miasma problem. But at least he's not visibly injured anymore: aren't healing artes fantastic?

Apart, of course, from the fact that he has dark circles under his eyes and appears to have lost 10 pounds quite rapidly.

And that he just collapsed against the wall loudly enough that the fourth floor probably heard it, let alone this one. That too.]

[Action, January 15th]

[dissonates]

[The noise definitely catches Asch's attention, and he spins on his heel- and immediately regrets it, because his ribs can't really handle that sort of quick motion. He lifts a hand to his chest, breathing hard, cursing quietly, and wondering just what the hell to do about this situation. Or, alternatively, if he should do anything. It's obvious that Van's in about the same state that he himself is in, which at least means that a confrontation is unlikely unless Van is faking it (which is also unlikely because why would he bother). So he's got that on his side. Three cheers for mutual wound-licking.

But that still begs the question-]

What are you doing here?

[Belatedly, though, the answer dawns in his mind mere seconds after the words leave his mouth. Why else would Van be wandering the building in such a state?

Has he been living here...?]

[Action, January 15th]

[faterecanted]

Leaving [...Except no, what he's really doing is sliding down the wall to sit on the floor before he does something embarrassing like faint. He's going to need to just... close his eyes and breathe for little bit. Organs, he knows the last month has been an exercise in misery, but please don't fail him just yet he still needs you.]

... Leaving soon.

[Action, January 15th]

[dissonates]

[Wow, he sounds terrible. Like, really terrible, which is a surprise considering he'd assumed that Van had been well-cared for by his sister, or one of the dozens of healers living in Luceti by now. Had it really been that bad?

And Asch suddenly finds himself in the uncomfortable position of not feeling sure whether or not to be amused or sympathetic at the man's plight. He doesn't like it, not one bit.]

That's not an answer.

[Action, January 15th]

[faterecanted]

[Even as superhumanly resilient as he apparently is, Van has a few problems that just aren't going to be solved by a healer, or by current conventional medical science, for that matter.

Of course, he probably could have shrugged it off again, if he had been eating, or sleeping; but every time he looks at food, his stomach turns, and every time he lays down to rest... it's better to not consider what he sees instead of sleeping.

When he looks at Asch, his eyes aren't dull with sickness, but glassy and more pupil than blue; and he bares his teeth in an expression that's more snarl than smile. He's hurting, and he's stressed, and truce be damned, if he's pushed a little farther he'll snap.]

I don't owe you an answer. I'll be out of your sight soon enough. [...As soon as he's done being lightheaded on the dirty floor of a public stairway.]

[voice - January 23rd]

[falenandawn]

[So after going a while now without seeing even a glimpse of Van out and about in the village... Frey's finally decided to contact him. He wasn't too worried. He knew Tear was a competent healer with powerful magic.... at least she had been when she had his back during the draft in the jungle.

Still, there was some concern. He sets up a directional filter, sending a quick message and hoping the other hears it.]

Van?

[voice - January 23rd]

[faterecanted]

Hmm? [Even from that wordless reply, it should be clear that Van's voice, at least, is in a much better state than it was the last time they spoke. He doesn't sound very attentive, though; and for a simple reason: Frey's managed to catch him dozing. He left the journal open next to him because the background chatter keeps his sleep light and, consequently, untroubled.]

Is it the ligers again? [He's not dazed and confused anymore, honest. Just dreaming of home.]

[voice - January 23rd]

[falenandawn]

.....Ligers....? [He did sound better. But..... What in the world are 'ligers'....?

He notices the dazed tone, wondering if the other man was ill. But no, it sounded more like he had been sleeping. Though that still didn't rule out 'sick', he decided to assume 'just sleeping' until proven otherwise.]

I just wanted to check on you.

[voice - January 23rd]

[faterecanted]

[Once his attention is grabbed, instead of just gently tugged at, Van goes from half-asleep to completely alert almost instantly. He also sits up and into the view of the journal's camera. This is a mistake his dignity may never forgive him for making.]

Freyjadour? Yes, I'm- [...

...

...

'...going to fix my hair now.']

[voice - January 23rd]

[falenandawn]

[He luckily manages to keep from laughing, though he is amused to see the normally composed older man with such.... unruly hair. There's a tiny, well controlled smile on his face that could be merely polite if not for the glint of amusement in his eyes.

He knew a thing or two about uncooperative hair, so he couldn't really fault Van for it. Freyjadour's would probably be just as bad once he grew it out again.]

Awake?