12270/Everything is *just* fine!

Everything is *just* fine!
Date of Scene:	03 August 2022
Location:	Lydia's Apartment
Synopsis:	Cael comes in to check on Lydia, and Lydia is fine. Just fine.
Cast of Characters:	Lydia Dietrich, Cael Becker

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Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia has become somewhat scarce as of recently. Her visits to the Velvet Room have decreased dramatically to where she's only been there a couple of days out of the week. She hasn't gone completely dark, though. She answers calls, and talks to people, but neither does she reach out for conversations.

    Currently she's home, sitting at her desk. The laptop is put away and several anatomy books are open and she's sketching in a sketchbook.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael has, apparently arrived by car - because Bear pads loyally at her side, with his colorful vest on marking him as a service dog. Cael is mch as she's always been - with flame tattoos, and a broken wrench, and her new - rather dramatic hair cut which is buzzed down on one side, with a feather pattern shaved into it, and paintedd in blue, teal, and gold. The rest of her hair goes from short, to just below chin length, in a diaganol cut.
    A new tattoo rests on the inside of her left wrist - a simple butterly, also in blue, gold, and teal.
    She raps at Lydia's door, and then waits. Three knocks - it's become a habit, because of Jon. %

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia quickly shuts the sketchpad and secrets it into a drawer before getting out of her chair to open the door. "Hi, Cael!" she says brightly. "C'mon in!" She takes a step back to let her friend in and shuts the door once Cael and Bear are both inside. "How are you doing? Can I make you any coffee? Love what you've done with the hair."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Yeah, well, set it on fire fighting a beast from outside our reality - had to do something with it," Cael remarks dryly as she steps inside. She made the best of the situation, and was happy with the result.
    Jon still hasn't seen it - she tries not to think on that too much, though.
    "Coffee would be great - if it isn't a bother. How, uh- how've you been?" she asks. The woman's eyes are still so... strange. But then, so were Jon's, weren't they?

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "I'm doing just fine," answers Lydia as she bustles into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. "I'm sorry, but my choices for coffee aren't like my tea collection, and are limited to the Ethiopian roast my father likes." She looks over her shoulders, "I hope you don't mind."

    She's silent for a moment as she gets out the drip-o-matic and sets it up. "A beast from outside our reality," Lydia says, tone turning serious. "Was it one of the ones that's been invading our dreams? Do you know which one it was, and /please/ tell me you all took care of it and we won't have to worry about it resurfacing."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "It's fine, I'm not that particular. As long as you don't mind me dosing it with a little of my whiskey," Cael remarks in a wry tone. She'd like to get smashed - she's been doing a lot of that lately, but she still has to drive home after this.
    She makes her way over to the couch, dropping down and calling over to Lydia, "No, I- well. I don't know. I don't understand these things very well," she admits. "But we sealed it outside of reality. ...or at least, Jon sealed it away. It shouldn't be a problem, whatever it was. It was a threat to Agnes, so- you can imagine how Jon took that."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Of course," Lydia says going over to her liquor cabinet. She hunts around for a second before pulling out a whiskey that would pair well with coffee. "Cream and sugar too, or just the whiskey?"

    She pauses in her preparations and just glowers at the counter for a moment. "Jon took care of it," she says eventually and nods. "Good. If anything had happened to Agnes I would have made it suffer." She blinks, seeming surprised by her own vitriol. Shaking her head to clear it she turns around while she waits for the coffee to percolate. "I take it this is why we haven't heard from Jon in a bit?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Just whiskey," Cael confirms. She presses her lips together, her fingers rubbing at Bear's head before she adds, "All of us would. No one gets to lay a finger on Agnes."
    She's silent for a moment before adding, "Jon had to go onto the otherside of the tear to seal it. They- They promised they're coming back." But it's been over a week, and it clearly weighs heavily on Cael.
    "Oh, and in the meantime, we chased off the thing that was pretending to be Rien, and found her. I take it your memories of the real Rien returned?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia lets out a small sigh. "Of course they did," she says, turning back to the coffee maker now that it's done. "They're always flinging themselves at danger thinking that they're the only one who can solve any particular problem and damn the consequences." She gets a big ole mug for the coffee and pours a generous amount of whiskey into it. "Must suck always being left alone like that."

    "It's frightening how something like that can mess with your mind," she says, bringing the coffee around and setting the mug before Cael. "Can mess with reality enough to let us believe something like /that/ was the real Rien." She sits down aside from her friend and turns her chair to face her. "I should have seen it. She was /far/ too friendly to me to have been the real Rien."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "At least I'm not the only one who sees it," Cael mutters. "...but they're coming back." Jon promised. "Just don't know when," she admits. "Or where they are, or what they're going through..." Yeah. It fucking sucks.
    She picks up the cup, taking a sip before she offers anymore comments. "No one could see it - except me. And near as we can tell - it let me remember on purpose, so it could enjoy my discomfort, and attempt to drive a wedge between us. But - led to its downfall, didn't it? If it had made me forget to - we might never have realized."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "They'll be back," Lydia reassures. "They always come back. If death itself couldn't stop them then... well... I guess being outside the universe wouldn't either."

    She shakes her head, "It must not have known us very well if it thought something like that could divide us. Hubris will be the downfall of them all."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I hope so. I'm already pretty tired of these assholes," Cael says in a dry voice. She takes another sip of her coffee, lifting her gaze to look towards Lydia again, studying her in silence.
    "You're sure //you're// alright, though? Your eyes are still so... strange, and I know you weren't feeling entirely yourself, even before that. How can I help?"
    Anything to distract her from Jon.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "I'm /fine/," Lydia reiterates. "Good, even. I've only had the one dream, and as terrible as it was, I was able to get through it okay." She shakes her head, leaning back into her chair and folding her hands on her lap. "If anything I'd be more worried about Jon. They /tethered/ themself to one of those things. They say they've got it under control but..." she shakes her head. "He'd grown a /third eye/ for God's sake."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Oh, believe me. I have lots of reasons to worry about Jon. I spend a //lot// of time doing just that." The way she rubs at Bear's head backs up just how acute her concern really is. "But are you sure you're not deflecting? If we're not honest with one another - if we don't share what's going on... We can't help each other."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Those strange off pink eyes can't help but glance over to her desk. "I must admit," Lydia says with a nervous chuckle that she quickly tries to hide. "I've had something of an obsession with anatomy since then. Human, animal, even fantastical creatures. I find it... fascinating."

    She shakes her head and tries to pass it off with a wave of a hand. "It's nothing, I'm sure. A weird side effect from a dream of meat. Whatever it is, we'll be able to take care of this problem with the Old Ones before it becomes an issue."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Why would- being buried in meat make you more interested in anatomy?" Cael asks - clearly not seeing a connection. She frowns at Lydia in puzzlement, then takes another drink from her coffee.
    "I've been trying not to feel so... disconnectd, but with Jon missing, and Agnes staying with Chas... It's been a challenge." She gives Lydia a small, tight smile. "Somehow we manage, though. What's the alternative?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "We fall into madness," Lydia says seriously enough, even though she doesn't bother making the connection between her dream and anatomy clear. "That's what they want, I suspect."

    She closes her eyes and casts her memory back into the nightmare. "Viscera told me that all it wanted was to see me at my full potential." Her eyes pop open to fix her gaze on Cael. "I believe that that's true, but I also don't believe that that was its /only/ motivation." She breaks eye contact to look off into the middle distance thoughtfully. "I don't know what Stop You're Too Close wanted, though. Maybe it was only there to drive me into Viscera's arms." She gives Cael a wry smile. "It almost worked."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I was tempted by Lonely's offer," Cael admits. "I've- my whole life, I've felt alone to some degree. I finally start putting together a family, and friends, and- it feels like it's slipping through my fingers again. Anything to make that feeling go away. You know?" she confides.
    "But I gave my word to myself, to Jon..." She's not going to just turn her back on them like that. Even if that is still very much instinct to her.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "So you were visited to?" Lydia asks, leaning forward. "I'm curious. What was your nightmare? What was its offer? Maybe we can find a common thread."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "It wasn't exactly a nightmare? I mean - I wasn't exactly asleep. We were in the Astral, on our way to rescue Rien." Cael scratches behind Bear's ears as she talks. "We were on a ship. A fog rolled in... and everyone disappeared. I ended up wandering the bowels of the ship, alone in this fog, calling for everyone. They never came. I found... Alis. At least, what seemed to be Alis, but her eyes were clouded with the fog, and it was hard to remind her of who I was, and who she was, and- she would get frightened, when she started to remember, and she would run away and forget all over again. It happened again, and again, and again... and I started to forget who she was, and why I was there, and who I was looking for - and who Jon was. And who I was. Until I was just... wandering the mist. Alone, empty."
    Bear licks at her hands, and Cael smiles wrily at the pup, keeping her gaze down on him. "It wasn't... pleasant. But it wasn't that unpleasant, either. You know? It just was. And in a way- it was safe. How can you be hurt, you know?"
    She frowns and then adds, "And then- two of //me// appeared in front of me. One said it was Lonely, the other Spiral, and- it wasn't much of a deal. They offered me a way out, a way back to reality. The one said accepting my position would give me purpose. The other said... I could make my own truth, but without knowing anything, how could I choose? The let me remember myself a little...
    "And I told them both to fuck off."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia bursts out in laughter, "Of course you did. If you hadn't then you would have /truly/ been lost." She folds her arms together letting one hand stroke her chin thoughtfully. "I wonder what position they meant? What purpose they wanted you to have?" Then a darker thought occurs to her. "What if you /did/ make your own truth? Would we even know? If the unRien was able to alter reality enough to make her /the/ Rien, what would have stopped them from bending reality to your truth?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I don't know," Cael answers, giving a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't know what would have happened if I'd agreed, and- lost as I was? I was going to. I just- didn't understand how to choose." She lets out a frustrated sound. "They promised it wasn't the last I would see of them - that'd I'd regret turning down the offer, basically. We'll see, I suppose."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia makes a show of rolling her eyes. "I doubt we'll see the last of /any/ of them, to be frank. Even if you /did/ accept their offer." She shakes her head, "They want something... something /specific/. Jon thinks they just want to so chaos into the world and, I mean, yes, I think they /do/. But I also think that's more of a byproduct of their desires than the desire itself."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Well - I don't pretend to understand this stuff. I just know... if we don't stand together, we have no chance. And these things aren't just coming for us - they're coming for our world, so we can't let them through," Cael remarks staunchily. After another scritch at Bear's head, she takes a much deeper gulp of her slowly cooling coffee.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia gives Cael a grin that's perhaps a little uneasy. "They're coming for the world /through/ us. They've got one heck of a fight in store for them, though." This isn't the first time she's questioned her decision to accept Viscera's gift. But the good that she's doing....

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Yeah, well - I vowed to leave the world a //better// place because I was here. So they've picked the wrong pereson to try to come through," Cael says in a dry tone. "Fuck them. I mean - seriously. Fuck them. And as soon as I can get Jon to ditch the power of that damned eye..."