028.2 "I's a strong cat-woman an I don't need no man!"

[Yuthirin]

<Kotono> Home again. Ithea returns from her second trip to Marambor. After settling in and finding another missive from the currently elusive 27, she settles down into her room. Naturally, that's precisely when there is a knock on her door.
<Ithea> "One sec!" Ithea says as she moves to the door, opening it. "Yes?"
<Kotono> Tannin is there. His eyes flash crimson and into a deep green shade, "I wanted to ask, since none of the other command staff are available right now - is there another task prepared for me or an investigation to mount?"
* Ithea pauses, thinking about that. There had been something she wanted to ask, she's sure, but right now, she just can't recall what it was. She says as much. "Sorry, Tannin. There was -something- I wanted to ask after our trip to Marambor, but right now it escapes me," she answers. "You might be better off just taking a break and waiting for Afina or Jaela to come back. Or hopefully it'll come back to me by tomorrow and I'll come ask you."
<Kotono> "Right," Tannin tips his head to Ithea, "A free one for you. I stopped by to see Morniel a few minutes ago. He's working on some plans. Ordered things like you'd expect from an archon. A proposed chain of command and other things, I think."
<Ithea> "Oh? I'll have to check what he's come up with, I don't know that he's been here long enough to really know everyone and their abilities, though maybe someone else was helping him draw up plans. Thanks, Tannin," Ithea says, though her mind flashes to the little warning 27 had left on her bed last time.
<Kotono> Nodding to Ithea, "Sure," he says, glancing to the side. He nods to something unseen, "I'll be going now. Looks like you have another visitor coming."
* Ithea stretches her head out the door, looking besides Tannin to check who's coming.
<Kotono> You can see a moving stack of books. No, check that. A moving, blonde stack of books. Sylvie approaches, a double armful of books obscuring her face and wobbling above her head.
<Ithea> "...well someone checked out quite a few books at the library," Ithea comments at the sight with a raised eyebrow. "Need a hand carrying all that?"
<Kotono> As Tannin steps back and out of her way, "I have it. Besides, I didn't borrow these. I bought these from the bookseller Vel," she answers, "I was just thinking, well...want to read with me?"
* Ithea laughs. "Well, I'd have to see if there's anything there that interests me, though I wouldn't be surprised to find something. You look like you bought out his entire stock!" Ithea exclaims as she moves back inside the room, so Sylvie can come in. "Later, Tannin."
<Kotono> "Sort of," Sylvie heads on in as Tannin nods and departs away. Once inside she puts the books down and wipes her brow, "There's nothing as worthwhile as a good book."
<Ithea> "If you say so," Ithea says with a small laugh again, though she starts looking through the books, not having really checked out Vel's store before. "Huh, well this is an interesting mix of topics."
<Kotono> "Yes," Sylvie nods along, tapping one book, "This one's about a lost holy sword, and this one over here is about lemure biological functions," A pause for Sylvie to shudder, "Disgusting. This one here's about the Styx and had a code hidden in it." Going to sit, "I used to spend my days reading in every spare moment I had. The days before everything went wrong."
<Ithea> "Did you have a big collection of books back in your old home? You didn't really bring many books with you, outside of that tactics book, if I recall correctly," Ithea asks. "Speaking of which, I did want to actually borrow that one, I don't suppose you brought it with you?" she adds as she looks over the pile again to see if the Red Knight's book was amongst the others.
<Kotono> No such luck. Meanwhile, "Yeah," Sylvie smiles as she leans back, "My room at home...my first home...was filled with books. Mom always complained that she could barely get in there. Later on we moved and I had an entire library that we were going to fill up."
<Ithea> "A nice goal, especially if you actually read them all as you filled it up," Ithea says, a bit disappointed by the lack of the tactics book, resolving to borrow it at a later date, and grabbing the blade of Elysium instead before plopping onto the edge of her bed with it. "Not as much space here to set up your own library admittedly, though you do have a nice library with books that could well be insanely out of print around too."
<Kotono> "Yeah." Sylvie just smiles a few moments as she takes another book and starts to read. "You tell me about your book and I'll tell you about mine in..say an hour?"
* Ithea nods as she opens up her chosen book and begins to read.
<Kotono> Thus an hour passes in companionable reading. Sylvie closes her book and stretches back and up, "Aaaaah. How's yours?"
<Ithea> "It's about a paladin's blade called the First Sunrise. Lovely name that," Ithea says with a smile. "There's a lot of stories behind it, and the book goes over the various stories it's been involved in. It mentions passingly a twin shield as well, and that the blade was hidden away in Elysium waiting to be claimed. Sort of reminds me of Aurora, would be kind of funny if we were the ones to find it too after ages without it being found."
<Kotono> "First Sunrise. It sounds primordial. The dawn of the first day. The first time Lathander travels 'cross the sky, blazing the way for Selune to follow." Tapping her fingers on the back cover of her book, "It sounds like it would be useful against Hell, if there's any truth to the legend."
<Ithea> "It was a fun read, and it had a lot of research behind it, even stories the author doesn't think the paladin and the blade were involved in, but put in simply because the stories had been told," Ithea adds. "I'm surprised it didn't mention the shield more though, after calling it the blade's twin. And yes, it probably would. That's kind of what put me on the train of thought of comparing it to Aurora."
<Kotono> "Lost artifacts are always a hard find...though between the two of us, you might think otherwise," A hint of a smile is again on Sylvie's face, "This one is about Nephilim, children of the fallen. Nephilim are the offspring of powerful fallen angels and mortals. Creatures of the dark that know a tiny fragment of the light, they are beautiful as angels and as accursed as the worst fiend. As
<Kotono> beautiful as they are, the blood in their veins burns like the fires of the Hells, and their gaze charms victims into listening to the seductive evils they speak. They are the often great tempters, dragging countless souls to misery eternal. The only point of hope is one from their parental legacy. Just as their parents fell from grace, the promise of grace restored is with the nephilim.
<Kotono> They are not as tightly bound to evil as fallen or fiends, possessing the free will to absolve themselves of evil. Some have managed exactly that, recapturing the grace that their parent lost long ago."
<Ithea> "Ah, redemption, what a thing that is," Ithea says with a shake of her head. "Wonder why it always seems to come up at the risk of great temptation."
<Kotono> Here Sylvie's silent for a time, gaze down. "I think it's a matter of having to choose to pull yourself up. You can't redeem someone else, no matter how hard you try. The temptation is symbolic of that and overcoming your own darkness?" After that she shrugs, "Just a guess."
* Ithea shrugs as well. "Who knows, really? I'd rather not dwell on it too much though, I'll leave those thoughts to Jaela, she puts more than enough thought into it already for the rest of us." Opening the book up a bit again, Ithea continues reading to see if anything new appears besides more old stories about the blade, or if anything new about the shield or it's hidden shrine appear. Otherwise, she'll move onto the travel logs.
<Kotono> With that, another hour of reading passes. It's companionable enough, and by the end when it's over, "So, what about this time?" Sylvie asks.
<Ithea> "Mostly stuff I already knew about the astral plane since this elf spent most of his book's journey traveling through it, though there was an interesting thing about a githyanki tribe. Apparently they could sleep and dream in the astral, and even get others to do so as well. Gwinnan claims to have dreamed something about a dragon and a city."
<Kotono> "Different," Sylvie allows, "I'd hate to fight a dragon on the Astral. They have all the advantages plus they can invoke their sorceries at the same time as they fight."
<Ithea> "They wouldn't be the only ones with that advantage, though, and at least we're not going to be taking damage from the plane itself," Ithea points out. "Though it was just a dream anyway, and Gwinnan didn't even fight it, he just said the dragon came across a volcano in the void with a city around the volcano. What that'd be symbolic for, I don't know though."
<Kotono> "Same." After a beat, "This one's about alchemy. Near as I can tell, the writer went mad trying to find a way to turn lead or iron into gold. He made one breakthrough, but the rest descended into meaningless ranting. The breakthrough's useful, though."
<Ithea> "Really? What was it?" Ithea asks.
<Kotono> "It's about how to use supplies more efficiently without any loss of function. Offhand, I'd say it would cut down alchemical costs by about two percent," Sylvie replies, "Nothing world ending, but good for an alchemist working with a bottom line."
<Ithea> "Hrm...wonder if that'd be of any help to Afina's crafting. She's not an alchemist herself, but she does make use of the laboratory's resources," Ithea muses.
<Kotono> "It's alchemy specific," Sylvie replies, "I've done a little bit of crafting myself, and it doesn't translate."
* Ithea shrugs. "Oh well, was worth a thought," Ithea admits as she stands, and stretches briefly, given she's spent most of the last two hours focusing on reading. "Feel like taking a break and go get something to eat? I feel like eating a tuna sandwich, and I can enjoy it without Adrian popping in and making a cat joke while he's still in Mechanus."
<Kotono> "Yeah," Sylvie springs up, stretching her back and bending backwards as she does. "So," A bat of her eyelashes as she coyly looks to Ithea, "Do you like Adrian?"
* Ithea blinks and looks at Sylvie with a frown. "...Nevermind that he behaves worse than an obnoxious little brother even though he's older than me; You do know he's with Misalea, right?" Ithea asks. "Also, his mom lives in his necklace or something. That's a little too weird for me on top of everything else."
<Kotono> "I didn't know that - either of that. I've met him, but that's as far as it goes," Sylvie says, eyes widening, "Oghma, his mom lives in his NECKLACE? What the hell?"
<Ithea> "I don't really know the whole story behind his mom, all I know is she's a hag, and she can keep him from being summoned to dream worlds," Ithea answers, before laughing, as she reaches for her room's door and opening it. "I usually don't even think about it, probably just came back into my mind because of Gwinnan's story about dreaming in Astral."
<Ithea> "It's been ages since it last came up, really."
<Kotono> "Okay, so not boyfriend material," Sylvie concludes, "Got anyone you like here, then?"
<Ithea> "Not particularly. Adrian's the only guy here I know fairly well, Morniel and Tannin aren't exactly attached to our crusade, and most of warriors, well, I don't even know their names. Maybe someone amongst the catfolk from Marambor will grab my attention, but I haven't exactly been looking for boyfriends either," Ithea replies with a shrug as she starts heading towards the cafeteria, closing the door behind them after Sylvie steps out.
<Kotono> As you walk out, "It might be for the best. I'm not sure if it's better to have loved and lost, as the saying goes." Here she draws into herself a bit, "Dammit, 21," she mutters, loud enough to overhear.
<Ithea> "Well, there is that other saying, that ignorance is bliss...but all things considered? The good memories ARE worth it, that's why we treasure and mourn them. It's what's pushing us to be strong enough to make sure next time we love something, we won't lose it," Ithea comments, patting Sylvie in the back. "Right?"
<Kotono> "Jury's still out for me," Sylvie's reply comes with a sad shrug of her shoulders, "But enough of that. I'm trying not to wallow in it so much now."
<Ithea> "You'd rather wallow in my non-existent love life, eh?" Ithea jokes.
<Kotono> "Bingo!" Sylvie grins, "So Jaela and Annalise are together and Adrian and Misalea are together. Any other couples?"
<Ithea> "Plenty between the various people here in Aurora, but amongst the officers? That I know of, just those two couples," Ithea answers. There was that pseudo-couple thing going between Dana and Willim, but given Willim's recent parting, and what she knows of Sylvie, she figures it best to not even mention them.
<Kotono> "Aaah," Nodding as you head into the cafeteria, full of people making noise and eating, "It's natural for it to happen. The same focus, spending time around people, natural instincts..."
* Ithea shrugs again. "Maybe," Ithea says. "Then again, sometimes some couples just want to be friends...which reminds me that I still have that stupid task to deal with. Goddammit."
<Kotono> "Huh?" Sylvie looks long-ways over to Ithea, out of the corner of her eyes, "What task?"
<Ithea> "Willim and the others had this thing where they were looking for apples of Idun, and Willim of all people found a lead on them involving Sharess. Dana and I were helping out, and of all things we were given the task of playing matchmakers and making two people fall in love," Ithea says with an annoyed sigh, pouting as she gets to the next part. "The two we matched up decided they see each other more as brother and sister!"
<Kotono> "Ahahahahahahahhahahaha," Sylvie stops at an empty table and falls into her chair, laughing away. She lounges back, "Ahahahaha, of course. Mutually, no less? I've never been so unlucky, but I've heard plenty of stories about that sort of situation. The 'I like you, but as a friend' speech."
<Ithea> "Mutually," Ithea says with a sigh as she nods. "Sharess, obviously, wasn't happy, as what she wants are passion and epic romance." Ithea makes a face and gagging noise. "We were being lectured by a cat on all this, just for reference."
<Ithea> "Worst part, the best I could come up with was some plot right out of some sappy romance novel where we get some of the pixies in on a 'prank' to kidnap Jessica and have the guy trying to rescue her. And damned if I even remember the name of the guy for that matter," Ithea exclaims as she sits, and gets her desired tuna sandwich. "As far as I can expect, this is doomed to epic failure, not epic passion."
<Kotono> A scad of giggles come out of Sylvie ,who covers her mouth as she does. "It sounds like the entire thing is an insolvable mess. So if that's so botched up, is there another approach to get to the prize?"
<Ithea> "Well, I'm sure we could try to set up a -different- couple up together, but I don't think I could take it if it led to another pair deciding they were best friends forever," Ithea says with a sigh. "What would that say of my own future prospects?"
<Kotono> "That you'll turn into an old spinster with a brood of cats to take care of?" Sylvie replies gamely, before giggling again, "...sorry. Well, if that doesn't work and your goal are these apples, is there any other way to get them? Another source? I mean, if your first attack fails, try a different one."
<Ithea> "There probably is, and I imagine Jaela and Afina are probably looking into that sort of thing, or maybe even Tannin is, but I haven't heard of it if they are. That said, when you start a task for a deity, it's usually not the best idea to leave it half-done. That's one reason I still want to try, honestly," Ithea admits, before pausing. "Even if it -is- the stupidest quest a mortal has ever been given by a god."
<Kotono> "It doesn't sound that bad. Hell. If you're supposed to find true love, why not find yourself a boyfriend and use that to qualify?" Sylvie hums after a moment, "Was there any condition that you couldn't be part of the couple?"
* Ithea rolls her eyes. "There wasn't, and I -suppose- I could try to find a boyfriend for myself, but I wasn't about to start looking for one simply to get those apples. That's about as  unromantic as it gets, don't you think?"
<Kotono> "I don't know," Brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear, "Looking for true love, both for yourself and the sake of others is sort of romantic. Maybe?" Adding that with an easy smile, "I'm just saying that if you remove one variable from it, there's less ways for things to go wrong."
* Ithea shrugs. "I... guess. I still suspect the pixie plan is less likely to go awry somehow..." Ithea mutters.
<Kotono> "Well, think about it." Sylvie says, "So, did you hear about..."