During the Higuri Regalia’s 4th Annual Largesse, the representatives were graced by the presence of one of the Ivalice Theater Company’s finest: the popular actor known as Roscoe Rackham (@boneswain), who, with his stage name of Marvelous Cid (or T.G. Cid), also serves with his fellow colleagues in their Blitzball team: the Ivalice High Seraphs.
Considering the Lucavi Assembly’s theme coinciding with the introduction of the Prima Vista and their retelling of the Zodiac Brave Story, the Mythrite Sultan made it one of his primary directives during the event to ensure that the High Seraphs were flagged down and notified of this beautiful clothing line.
On the third day of the Largesse, Head Secretary Yuanji Yuji, who expressed how much of a favorite Roscoe was to the Angels, was able to provide the actor with a copy of the PiB Catalogue for him and his friend Dzherard Vant to peruse. Given how the Regalia smiles upon the fine arts, she would further extend the hand of generosity by allowing him the option to choose one ensemble to be made for free.
It did not take long for Roscoe to immediately resonate with the Gigas’ Charge, and, with much enthusiasm, selected that as his desired item, much to Yuanji’s delight. Soon he may be going by the moniker of “Marvelous Belias” alongside his High Seraph colleague!
(Credit and thanks to Poydesses Prue - aka Marvelous Mustadio - for this adorable masterpiece!)
Claire went to the Black Abyss Blitzball Rally, expecting party games and drinks...only to have the damn thing be attacked by Serpent Reavers and their pet Kraken.
The event was pretty fun. I’ve likely had more fun with the surprise combat than I would have at any sort of casual social event. I haven’t had a chance to fight with Claire since updating her and coming up with everything she’s been at for the past year, so I got to feel that out some.
The elk is the Kraken, generally, for reference.
@for-gold-and-glory @roscoerackham @aegir-ffxiv and a bunch of others.
She'd retreated to the workshop, going over the inventory, the schematics for various projects, doing everything she can to distract herself from what had happened in the dining hall...or at least try to. With a mind that could process so many different tracks, even the copious amount of busywork does little to keep her mind from wandering back to what happened.
For all the various members of the company and the different part-time and contract hires they had, there generally weren't people in the dining room. So she hadn't expected to find the new hire lounging on the couch that faced the fireplace, working on his magitek medium. The woman generally moved with a keen measure of silence, out of necessity. But with his presence, she had even more so focused on her footsteps. Unfortunately, placing the bag of magitek parts and crystals on the bar hadn't gone quite as well, and the faint sounds of metal and crystal colliding had caught his attention. They had caused him to give her a measure of shit, even without looking to see who she was.
Even after learning it was his new boss, the engineer hadn't given a damn and continued being something of an asshole to her. Most of it was nothing that she hadn't heard before out of Hyrist before he left, some of it was even a bit more acceptable, simply because of how the engineer presented it.
But then she missed that he was using sarcasm about everything, and he turned on her in a manner that Hyrist could have only ever hoped to because he lacked the proper origin.
In calling her out on missing the sarcasm, he mentioned he'd never take her to a show. Her attempt to evade criticism lead to stating that she simply didn't bother with such frivolity, but that didn't deter the engineer at all. Instead, he made perhaps the most biting remark that had ever been made to her since she'd left her homeland.
"Should try it sometime. Might help you pry that stick from your arse and learn to enjoy life a bit. And that's coming from an Ishgardian."
Three sentences and it left her without much of a retort for several seconds. When she did finally reply, she fell back onto the fact she was his employer, feeling her affinity to the fire crystal and the ice crystal's aether activating, leaving her quite curious about the man behind her.
As she waited for his reply, the 'pirate' Highlander Roscoe had arrived but realised from the shimmering aura of heat around his employer, and the small patch of frost forming beneath her, that it was a terrible time to arrive.
The engineer had the manners to at least acknowledge Roscoe's arrival. However, that was as far as his manners went, as he proceeded to tell her that he had warned her that he was abrasive to everyone. She retorted that she thought he'd have enough sense to avoid going too far with his employer, but noted the lengths of his carelessness.
At that, she allowed the Highlander to somewhat pause the situation by making his delivery of food. He had mentioned at the medical symposium earlier in the week that he might bring them something, perhaps even Isghardian food to make the engineer feel welcome. Part of her wasn't entirely keen on making him feel anything but the flat of her fist to his face, or perhaps a lash of the elemental magic that was burning out her magitek regulators - which whined rather fiercely at the work they had to do.
Roscoe had followed through on his idea, bringing a full Ishgardian meal for both, along with some strong Ishgardian coffee. The offering led to her giving up on the drink she was going for. She ended up taking the whole thing to a table to sit down and eat.
Ace's abuse, however, didn't stop despite there being food to stuff his face with. Upon asking Roscoe what he did, and the Highlander commenting that he often made sure that she ate - despite her protests that she did eat - the engineer decided to cite the man as her sitter, and how much she needed one with her 'condition'. The young Red Mage had enough sense to protest before she stated that she needed no sitter and that her condition didn't hinder her at all. Ace retorted that it was actually ruining the furniture and possibly other things that were outside her sphere each time she lost control and flared.
Roscoe tried to make the argument that she was the paragon of control, which in many ways, he would have been correct. However, since Eric's little parting gift, she had moments where she lacked authority, as emotions were beyond her ken anymore, aside from the brief moments of anger the White Witch had allowed her. She did give the engineer that very little by noting to him that she hadn't had emotions since she was a child, and then explained what had been occurring to the 'pirate'. Roscoe tried to be encouraging, telling her that she was the best boss he'd ever had - which made her wonder exactly how many times the man had been employed. He then reminded the woman that she could just kick Ace's ass as she had all the other headstrong men who'd come through the company. She idly mentioned that she might tussle with the engineer, primarily because she did sort of want to put a bullet into him right then, and also because she suspected that they might end up doing so eventually anyway.
Of course, Ace had been quietly listening and pointed out that such wasn't going to shut him up...which didn't surprise her in the slightest. She watched him take a flask out, and start drinking several draughts from the vessel; it reminded her of Hyrist, yet at the same time, it didn't - something about the way he drank was very different from the Garlean. It unsettled her, vaguely reminding her of Turk. The darker part of her wondered if that might be something she could use against him.
The young Highlander broke the uncomfortable silence by asking the engineer about his work. However, the engineer was evasive about it, glossing over the details of his skills as he spoke to Roscoe, whereas he had been more than willing to share them with her, even before he was trying to get himself hired. When she pointed out he was underselling himself, that same bitter snarkiness surfaced, and he cited that boasting was for noble pricks or someone who needed to compensate for something. She pointed out how he'd been more than willing to share with her, yet was holding back now, and he simply stated that she'd asked - to which Roscoe pointed out that he'd just asked as well, leaving both of them confused about the Ishgardian's behaviour.
It was only then that Ace relented, and revealed more about his engineering work to the budding tech, who was instead enraptured with the whole list of things the man spoke of. Roscoe talked about his learning with mammets, which the Ishgardian agreed was an excellent place to start. The discussion of tek was a calming thing, allowing her to relax a little, leading to the end of the elemental reactions, and she was able to speak about Animadverte, the magitek reaper they had, as the engineer had mentioned working on magitek armours.
The engineer ended up drawing attention to the Tonberry-shaped lights that had been scattered throughout the Hall, as he'd thought they might be mammets at first. She had no idea where they'd come from and mentioned she thought it might be one last prank from Hyrist. This lead to Ace asking if stray critters wandering into the workshops would be a problem, to which she quickly assured him such had long ago been dealt with. She pointed out that there were a couple of headstrong carbuncles as the only remaining things, but they had been put in their place. Roscoe tried to make a case for cute critters, but both the magitek engineers were unmoved, particularly his boss, as she had some pretty immediate responses about 'cute' creatures. Such a quick response made him realise there was something to that, and she ended up having to tell Roscoe and the engineer about the 'slime incident'.
After warning the new hire off of the particular Xaela that had started the incident in question she had attempted to give Ace the supplies for his project that she'd acquired so far, but he waved them off. Roscoe was curious about the project, and the other engineer gave permission to explain it to him, so she did get that out of the way before storing the supplies in the small workshop.
Since then, the comment had been bothering her, even while straightening up the entire second workshop and getting it arranged so that she and Ace could work on the new regulator. And through straightening up her own office, which was something that had not been done in several moons. And even now, as she labours to inventory and straightens up the large, main workshop, her mind continues to drift back to the comment.
"Should try it sometime. Might help you pry that stick from your arse and learn to enjoy life a bit. And that's coming from an Ishgardian."
"Fuck Ace," she said to the nearest mammet, who turned to look at her with a confused expression.
The expatriate Garlean Medicus speaks in a quiet and soft voice, yet her words are startling nonetheless.
"Alright. We'll get you some pain relief and then... you know...if you want alone time with Para, I can sleep upstairs."
Despite the fact she had rushed back to the Solace after the confrontation in the canyon, despite how upset she had been over the fact he had been attacked, she hadn't had time to consider how those around her were taking it all. Before she had returned to the hidden alcove where her brother had been stabbed, her guard had given her some rather strange looks, along with some words about how while he wasn't happy that the attacks had hit so close to home. He was happy that she was willing to take more direct action after they had - and even that had not caused her to consider how everything looked to everyone else.
"You two seem close, is all," the Medicus mentions after watching her eyes go wide. "Roll up the sleeve of your right arm, please."
The Medicus finishes giving her an injection, a strong painkiller from Garlemald, smiling at her as she gave a short series of instructions, followed by an apology for how unpleasant she had been earlier. Her arm stung from the pressure of the medication pooled into her muscle, but it wasn't unfamiliar to her, and she was grateful that the pain across her throat, around her wrists, and on her cheek would subside soon.
"I'll get all this disposed of and rest upstairs. Come get me if you or Para need anything," the Medicus adds, before packing up her doctor's bag and heading out of the room, leaving the two redheads alone. She waits until she hears the door shut entirely, before standing up from the bed the Medicus had moved her to for inspection and treatment, moving around the half-wall that separates it from the bed Paradyme is sleeping in.
It has been perhaps the roughest twenty-four bells she's had since arriving in Eorzea, if not the roughest twenty-four bells of her life since the day she thought her twin brother died. It had started with her and the Captain having a fight in his yard, which led to her heading to the Solace in the first place. Within a bell or so, the Yellowjackets had arrived with Paradyme, explaining that they had found him unable to move on the road between the Mists and Limsa Lominsa, a stab wound in his back. It wasn't all that long after that the Medicus had arrived, requiring her to become a surgical assistant as the doctor worked on healing the partial severing of his spinal cord.
When the Yellowjackets brought him back to the shelter, a faint roar had begun to fill her chest, amid the panic and guilt. While the young lioness had been trying to find a solution to the Shikari's attacks, she had kept a level head, clear of emotions, thinking of both their current situation and of the future for their entire movement.
Upon finding out the Shikari had attacked him, the lioness stirred from her serenity, growling rage beginning to form. As the surgery to repair the damage to his spine wore on, the growling grew louder, filling her chest with a pressure she couldn't place. Upon the arrival of the Captain and his personal physician, the growling had turned into a roar, one that initially was released at the knight as the Solace's proprietor began to regain his ability to move and speak.
She became a lioness rampant, all her caution was forgotten. Citing the need to retrieve something from the library upstairs, she had excused herself from the commons room while the proprietor saw through her ruse, he was in little position to rat her out immediately, which gave her enough time to cast the forbidden spell that whisked her away to the canyon.
Everything didn’t go well after arriving there and announcing herself. She was nearly knocked off the cliff-side into the water, which gave the Shikari the opportunity to capture her. Before he could escape with her, the Captain and their Raen friend had arrived, along with the flashy Highlander pirate. Somehow, the Captain managed to talk the Shikari into fighting him one on one, with their fists, but before disarming himself, the Shikari had sliced her throat with his coated blade, leaving her paralysed and silent.
Ultimately, the round of fisticuffs went to the knight, and the end result saw the Shikari being pinned to the ground primarily by the sheer weight of the man's axe. The Raen had given her a small antidote that began to purge the poison from her system, healed her as best as he could in the field, and bound up the slash across her throat. After a bit of ice cream to help with the pain, she'd rushed back to the Solace.
Shaking her head to chase away the memories, she slipped up onto the bedside that the proprietor was facing, climbing the short way up the bed before settling beside him. He was covered with fresh sheets, the bloody ones from the surgery having been changed while she was away, and he was deep asleep now. The guard for the Solace had taken out his morin khuur while the Medicus had worked on her throat, wrists, and cheek, the soothing sounds of the stringed instrument allowing the proprietor to rest at last.
Fingertips trace along the contours of the sheet as she watches him breathe, though she avoids letting them stray down his back too far, not wanting to cause him any more pain than she already has. Although it hurts to do so, she speaks as her fingers trail along his shoulder, arm, and side, tears beginning to line her lower lids, her voice soft and filled with warmth.
"...sorry, for all of this..." she rasps, voice hoarse from the wound and lack of speaking for two or three bells. "...warned you...you didn't listen..."
Her voice trails off as her emotions get the best of her again; the lioness is still rampant, not assuaged by what they had learned in the canyon. Someone had intentionally misguided the Shikari, and that someone was still out there, still able to hurt those she cared for, and the thought of the man beneath her fingers being harmed again was overwhelming.
She reaches up to brush his hair from his face, fingertips sliding through his now short locks, her touch faint upon his scalp so as not to wake him. He stirs lightly in his sleep, causing him to wince as his spine reminds him it's healing, and she withdraws her fingers from his hair, letting them drift back down his shoulder and arm.
It's not long before the painkiller begins to make its effects felt, causing her eyes to flutter shut. This chases the rest of the tears from her eyes as she dozes, her fingers again returning to his hair for a brief moment. Half asleep, she shifts her weight, stretching her legs out towards the foot of the bed as she lowers herself to her side, curling up along his front side as she too slips into sleep.
Not long after she curls up against him, his arm drapes across her, holding her well into the morning.
While she had intended to head to the Ala Mhigan Market, finding it a more dignified way of giving the city coin, she hadn't really expected to find anything useful there. Or anyone useful there.
The texts that had been purchased from a slightly eccentric man at some Phoenix trader of sorts were meant to be helpful, as was the historical tome about the Order of Rhalgr. It was always a pleasure to work with Miss Theia in finding any books the company didn't already have. The two would have likely lead her to the points of interest that the Order uses to awaken the chakras of new monks, should she take the time to put the two together - time she generally never seems to have.
The scrolls had been written by one Berrod Armstrong, of the Order of Rhalgr. He actually happened to be at the market, working security, of all things. Her particular perch of choice was near him, so after overhearing several people address him, and realising who he was, she decided to just cut to the chase and possibly cut down her workload.
While the pretence was not entirely inaccurate - overall, at least - it was still a lie right in the moment. However, it wasn't like Rai hadn't lied before. The lack of tone and inflexion often allowed her to pass anything off as a truth, but she liked to think that someday the information would be used for the purpose she was presenting.
Really, having the information for something besides her current work was worthwhile, as was proved later in the day.
She had some minor dealings in Ul' dah and then attempted to contact Roscoe, for whom she had in part been trying to track down this information. However, the 'pirate' refused to answer his linkpearl, which he really should have known better about. It took next to nothing for her to use it to find him, given what it actually was, and she simply slipped to Costa del Sol after him.
He was brooding on the pier, making an attempt to drink the owner out of his stock, which didn't really make her very pleased. She'd already dealt with Turk's drinking issues after his fractured mind was made whole, she vaguely felt there was some sort of drinking - or otherwise - problem with someone else. Roscoe suddenly sinking whatever his issues were into alcohol was mildly irritating. Particularly when it leads to unanswered linkpearls.
Although he was a bit confused as to which project she was referencing at first - which was fair, given how many the company had, she had, and likely Darren had - he was quite elated to find out what she had meant, until they noticed there was a man washed up on one of the islands.
"…can't we ever have a normal night?" she had asked, and really wished she could have a typical day once and a while.
It was far less than usual, even by their standards.
The man on the shores of the islands was dead, but not. Thalik's Cat.
Everything that her modified aetherometer - and her own examinations - could find showed there was still aether flowing through the man. It's much like the aether that used to flow through Veluren Moonstriker before he put down his malice for his samurai sword, though perhaps even stronger than what the other Au Ra's had been. It was almost as if everything but the malice existed in this particular Auri knight that was laying rather dead before them.
And yet, as with others she had seen before, his aetheric channels and aetherpool spoke of the Curse, even though it seemed distinctly altered by the fact he was dead.
Even with the two of them there, speaking over him, the man wasn't waking. And she had a thought, after her experiences a few suns before. It was insane, she had known it was since she knew the aetheric theory behind it, but it wasn't the first time she'd used her own magical abilities to mimic others.
It had required disconnecting the magitek device, as she still hadn't sorted with Darren anything about the full nature of the Damnation it was helping to regulate. Still, she hadn't wanted to chance accidentally ruining the very thing she had hired him to create.
Once it was deactivated, she had focused on the subjective aspect of lightning within her, something that far, far more natural with the latticework that covered her skin. Upon feeling that within her fully realise, she used that to cast her healing magic, producing something that was a cross between Verthunder and Vercure - not at all what had been done to her, but something she hoped would revive the oddly dead-but-not-dead man.
Mentally, she found herself thanking the man who had rescued her, something she hadn't expect, as she hated being rescued. But his unique way his magic manifested gave her the only thing she found viable for this strange situation.
Thankfully, despite the combination shocking the being while simultaneously healing him whereas the storm knight's power had numbed her, it did revive him. Rai made a note - vocally, so the man was aware of her intent - that the spell needed to be worked on, and quickly moved on, as Roscoe was in a panic over the state of the individual. He had far less information than she did, as he knew less about magic and the various kinds of creatures there were in the world than she did.
She had to explain that he wasn't a dead body possessed by Voidsent, nor was he a Shadowless - which could have been noted if one simply looked for his shadow - or a variation on that theme with being dead, nor was he Ashkin or a zombie of some sort per se. At least not the kind from the Sil' dah or even possibly other known means.
It was then that she noted that she had heard that some reports of the dark side of the knights of the darker persuasion sometimes managed to separate itself from those who lost their way from such a path, becoming its own force of nature, wandering away. While she'd not heard of such possessing a Spoken, she wondered if somehow, since the man revealed he was forced to watch his wife and daughter be killed before he was dead, this dark side force within him managed to sunder upon his death - remaining behind to try and exact vengeance.
Mostly, he was alive because he was too damn angry to die.
And from there, the mage ended up explaining some of the finer details of being a knight of the darker persuasion to this dead-but-not-dead man, who was concerned that if he stopped hating, he would cease to be, when really it was more about purpose than solely hate.
Rai admitted she had no way to confirm any of this without more of her magitek, as while she had been working to increase the capabilities of her portable aetherometers, none were as capable as the Allagan tek she had back at the Hall. Given that the man had minimal idea of what was causing him to be in the state he was in, or what that state even was, he both asked for help and agreed to meet A.L.I.C.E. - the main piece of Allagan technology that she had.
That was really all the permission she required, and she gave minimal warning before just teleporting the three of them back to Alice's room in the Hall. Her curiosity was peaked, the man clearly had very little knowledge about aetheric matters, and no one was close enough to realise what she was doing, so she gave little care about it.
The machine gave her quite a bit of sass about the fact that she had, yet again, failed to introduce herself before reminding her that she never bothered to give her name to their last new face. It's something it seemed Alice may have done on her own behind Rai's back - leading the Allagan AI to lecture her on her deteriorating skills in etiquette. Alice did confirm most of the theories she had about the dead-but-not-dead Auri man.
Unfortunately, the snarky diagnostics table agreed that they would need data on one of these 'wandering dark side essences' to confirm whether that is what was driving the dead man or not. Roscoe had the sense to suggest building an aetheric trap. However, the man himself seemed unsure of how that was even possible.
She mentioned the existence of white auracite, though Roscoe was concerned about how they would get any. Alice was amused, though she remained silent, preferring schadenfreude to snark as Rai had to admit that earlier incidents had lead to the acquisition of the substance and that in the end, they never had used it. The 'pirate' was against using it, given other matters, but she assured him that they had more than one single piece - not much more than that, but at least enough that they could spare a bit to capture one of these essences.
The Auri knight was grateful if a bit overwhelmed by the situation. Roscoe, on the other hand, made the mistake of asking her why she was so calm about everything.
He regretted it when she asked him if he really wanted to know.
Now, reflecting on the day, she recalls something that was said to her over a decade ago, by a boy she hasn't seen since a boy she isn't entirely sure is still alive.
"Remember, Claire - don't believe what they're going to tell you. You're supposed to show people what they can be, and help them become it - it's why you were able to save Cianna!"
Astromancy essentially was a national past time; however, Arik had been gifted amongst even those with talent. He could spontaneously speak of things he shouldn't be capable of knowing, or even understanding. She didn't understand what he had meant, in those last moments before he led the dazed Cianna away. Escaping before anyone arrived on the scene of carnage. Finding her in the grip of Hydaelyn's Damnation, raising the dead and healing the injured - but Arik had been foretelling much.
Finally, after ruining the White Witch's plans and fleeing for Eorzea, after the traumatising night of the Calamity, even through her spiralling death wish; she was genuinely doing such on the scale he had meant, though at first, she had no idea that was what she was doing.
Absently, she glances at the red stoned ring on her finger, frowning faintly. It wasn't right, and she knew it - she has ever since she'd been convinced to take it off. It had been under the pretence that she couldn't let go of Arik, that the ring was a reminder, and that had been correct, but for all the wrong reasons.
So she slips out of bed, and over to the drawer where she'd hidden the ring ages ago, taking it from the little box where she'd hidden it away from the person who had convinced her that she needed to forget about Arik entirely. The one she was given to replace it takes its place, as the almost glowing red stone finds its way back onto her finger.
Both had run away from their homeland at different times. He without anything but what he had upon him the day Ollphéist had crossed into darkness while she had fled with stolen treasures, but both of them had one of these rings. She'd initially refused to take it from him, moons before the incident had occurred, but he'd told her that something would happen, and she'd regret it if he didn't, and by then she'd already learned his gift for Astromancy was too uncanny.
Her eyes widened as the ring settled into place, and life flooded into her sense.
She hated pageants of any stripe, and yet here she was, standing beneath a copse of bamboo trees, watching a bunch of women parade about in swimwear. A few she recognised - particularly Aedwen ( @garleanscum ), the poor woman she’d watched get arrested by the overzealous Ishgardian Templars a moon or so ago.
There was some level of irony that one of the contestants was a victim of the Ishgardians, and that she herself was only here to witness the woman’s new torture because of an Isghardian.
Largely she tuned out the swimwear part of the competition - it had always been her least liked part of such events, and many types of pageants insisted on having them; the few that didn’t were for very young children, otherwise it was something of a staple.
The talent portion was much more interesting.
Aedwen read a well-written poem, however it struck a bit close to home, so she ended up having to work hard not to burst into a swirl of stormy ice - it had reminded her of Lin and Eric, and left her fresh wounds bleeding all over again, which also meant that Aedwen had done a good job as an author and orator.
There was a woman named Defiant Bride who had a mammet that took on the appearance of Raubahn, the little mechanical being capable of at least stage combat as he recreated the General’s signature move well enough. That also caught her attention, as any sort of magitek would.
Another thing that caught her attention was the magical performance of a Raen who was supposedly a Princess ( @foxlike-ffxiv ). The Au Ra shifted her costume several times mid-performance while also managing to create illusory scenes and magical lights. For all its frivolity, the combination and execution drew her curiosity.
Finally, the last contestant was something of a sharpshooter who had recalibrated their custom aetherometers to instead shoot blanks that popped confetti bombs that were tossed up by a friend. While the particulars of the stunt weren’t all that interesting, the gunnery itself was; disappointingly, the most trick-shot was missed.
As they were sorting through who would be the finalists, Roscoe turned up. He asked about who was winning, and she explained where they were at in the contest. The ‘pirate’ mentioned that he was considering entering the Mister Eorzea contest, and she gave him an odd look, which started to shake his confidence; she then stated she’d turn up if he entered, which only served to confuse him, and he told her she didn’t have to go if she didn’t want to.
It was then she revealed why she was even there, despite the fact she disliked pageants, harkening back to the comment the night before, without exactly citing it directly; it was enough for Roscoe to figure out that it was Ace’s comment that had gotten to her.
Something about her commentary over the end of the pageant, and his own entry into the next made the ‘pirate’ realise that she was far too familiar with these things, and he asked her about it.
It really wasn’t something she wanted to talk about, so she gave him her best non-answer, and stalked out of the estate courtyard, heading to the nearest aetheryte so she could make it look like she was using it - only to teleport directly to her wing of the company Hall.
Shortly after that, Roscoe wanders into the Company Hall looking... really confused. "...Th' hells was that about...?"
Mister Attwater looks up from the ledgers he's attending to, noting the confusion on the other Highlander's face. The Ala Mhigan man sets aside the tome in his hand, leaving it open like the rest on the company desk, and carefully takes off his bifocals, folding the arms down and setting them on that ledger as he looks back to the other Gyr Abanian. "What troubles ye, lad?" he asks calmly, his baritone voice filling the front area of the hall without effort.
"...I jus' got back from catchin' th' end o' th' Miss Eorzea pageant, but somethin's got boss all flustered. I mean... aside from the new guy. I dunno what's up..." Roscoe confides.
There was a long pause as Mister Attwater took in this information, glancing at the woman beside him - his wife and the other quartermaster for the company. He raised his hands to either side of himself, surrendering the floor to her in a fashion that seemed to indicate that he would rather not attempt to talk about the subject - as if he'd rather not get shot. Mrs Attwater nods at his surrender, turning from the piece of materia she's handling, setting the orb down onto a cushion gently as she fixes her gaze on Roscoe.
"Firstly, never point out ta her that someone flusters her," the woman states, waving her forefinger at Roscoe. "Unless ye want ta get shot at."
The materia mistress then raises a second finger to join the first as she begins to answer his question, "Secondly, there was a point in time when she and her sister were forced to participate in different sorts of pageants, back when they were younger and didn't have much say in the matter. Despite her insistence on bein' a bit of a tomboy, the young miss once was the daughter o' a high-class couple and had ta wear all sorts of pretty dresses and the like. And fancy jewellery, and heels, if ye can imagine."
"...I don' want to get shot at..." Roscoe frowns. "...An' I guess I didn' realize. I can't even picture her in one o' those..."
Both of the Attwaters nod a bit, though it is Mrs Attwater who speaks again.
"Ye weren't 'round for it, but there was a Miqo'te who used to call her something along the lines of the Princess in the Ivory Tower," she states, reaching for the materia again, starting to polish it as they talk. "The reason it angered her so much was because, at one point, it was a fairly accurate depiction of her life, though he had no idea about that, which was part of why he even started usin' the term - whenever she would evade telling him about her past, he'd call her that instead of Bullet Witch. Hit too close to home."
Mister Attwater nods, finally speaking on the subject himself, "Edur tells us that when he met her sister, her hair was nearly down to her knees, but she cut it all off when she fled her homeland. Was when she started refusin' to wear dresses, and all that. We were surprised when she let it grow out - she refused to let it past her shoulders for cycles and cycles."
Roscoe frowns, leaning heavily on the counter. "...Well, now I feel terrible for even bringin' it up..."
Mister Attwater smiles and laughs warmly. Picking up his glasses, he notes to the 'pirate', "If she didn't shoot ye, it means ye got a freebie, lad. Just don't mention it again."
"...I won't." ...honestly, Roscoe is amazed he hasn't been shot yet.
With a nod of acknowledgement, the two Attwaters go back to their tasks - the husband working on his ledgers while the wife continues working on the materia she was handling.
