2023-06-07: To Things To Look Forward To
- Log: 2023-06-07: To Things To Look Forward To
- Cast: Sayla Mass, Faye Valentine
- Where: Villa Mass, AEU Spain
- OOC - IC Date: 6 June 0097
- Summary: With closing herself having cost her so much, Sayla tries to practice being open. Part of that is a dinner-date at home with her girlfriend, Faye. She finally opens herself to questions, and finds someof her own to ask.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
One might think that right now, with the Villa feeling emptier, that tonight was a bad night for a Date Night.
But that was specifically the reason why Sayla was doing it. Closing herself off, failing to reach out... that's what had cost her so much. Leina had been right to be upset with her, when she told her she hadn't seen old friends in years.
Leina had been right to be upset with her for so much.
So tonight, she'd reach out, even if it was an easy reach.
Right at the second, she was still in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on tonight's meal. She poured the bright orange sauce over the fileted salt cod, before adding boiled potatos and thick slices of crusty baguette- from her favourite bakery in Paris this morning. Two pots of Creme Catalan waited in the fridge for dessert. For once, Sayla hadn't grossly overdone it.
How much of this Faye gets to watch depends on how early she is, of course.
Finally, Sayla takes the plates out to a table on the verandah, where a bottle of fine red had been opened and just finished breathing. "Bacalao a la Vizcaina. I don't get to pull this one out much, but I hope you like it."
<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.
"Oh, that smells incredible."
There's so much Faye wants to ask, given everything, but...
Let it breathe.
Let her breathe. Let her take in something familiar, watch her work, appreciate talented hands putting love into a craft, tired eyes and cute blonde hair.
And settle in to enjoy the Spanish air and, frankly -
She chuckles a bit when Sayla says she hopes Faye likes it. "Sayla, girl. Bounty hunting is gig work. I don't spend a lot of time in the kind of restaurants they put in guide books unless I get on a real hot streak at the track. Besides," she says, lifting a bit of cod to her mouth and pausing to savor that sauce, giving Sayla an affectionate look over the table, "it had your hands all over it, and you know how much I love that. I'm sure it'll be the best thing I've ever tasted, until our next date where I have to get even more creative to gush about you."
There's a bit of a low sigh, as Faye takes a few small bites, fighting the urge to inelegantly demolish her plate - this isn't the Bebop, she doesn't have to assume someone will walk off with it as soon as she looks away. She looks up a lil pensively, studying Sayla's face, the little creases where stress accumulates... "I'm glad you called me."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"Aren't you a flatterer?" Sayla says, but Faye's comments seemed to hit their mark judging by the flash of a flirty smile on her face. After she sits, she pours them both a glass of wine, and takes a sip.
More than a sip, really.
She cuts some of the fish, and puts it onto a slice of baguette with the sauce, letting it soak in before taking a bite.
Letting everything soak in, for a moment.
"Me too." She says, it sounding a little more raw than she expected. She turns the piece of bread back and forth in her hand a little, a bit of nervousness. Another bite.
"...I guess you... probably have a lot of questions, right?" Sayla seems a little quiet, bringing this up. But... reaching out wasn't the only reason for tonight. "I'd like you to ask them, if you're ready to."
Part of the reason she had spent that time with Faye was meeting someone with no preconceptions. But now... this was more than just a fling, wasn't it? It wasn't fair to keep her in the dark.
And she was overdue to practice what it was to be open.
<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.
It's good. She follows Sayla's lead, breaking off some of the bread, tucking in. There's something really charming about it. Sayla, digging in a place for herself out here. But it's easy to hear that tone in her voice, and the Villa is not normally a place that is quiet, even when they make quiet corners for themselves.
"I mean... It's a lot for me to get my head around, you know?" She shrugs, a bit, big green eyes on her date. "Your brother's a messed up guy, and... I can guess a little bit of it, I looked up that speech at Dakar. I remember Axis, even if I wasn't local for it. I dunno, it seems pretty obvious you're very different people. You put this place together, your charity stuff..."
She tucks a little bit more bread into her mouth and sucks on a fingertip, softly, taking a pensive moment to enjoy the pleasantness here before her next big breath.
"Took on a kid. I figured she was yours but she's a little old for that, isn't she? Or you'd be a lil young. But I guess she might as well be, now. And... she's got some stuff going on, too, huh? What got you all tied up in that... and what are they using a kid like that for, anyway? Fucked up, you ask me."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"He wasn't always like that," Sayla says, a little sadly. "But maybe those are just the lingering feelings of a little sister." She dips some of the potato in the sauce, taking another mouthful. "The wars never quite reached the belt, though they had their own problems. Not to mention whatever those Jovian Lizards were." She shakes her head.
"The first time I heard that speech... I felt like I might have to kill him. I don't know if I could have followed through, though. Not knowing where I am now."
'I figured she was yours, but she's a little old for that, isn't she?' That sad smile she's so prone to returns. "Yeah. I was in Dakar at the right time to save her after she'd been shot. I expected her to leave for Jupiter with her brother but... she stayed with me instead." She dodges Faye's eyes, for the moment. "She'd never say it, but Leina really is the closest thing I have to a daughter.."
She looks back up at Faye, and even among the sadness in her blue eyes, there's determination. "That's why I won't accept any outcome that doesn't end with her able to come back home safe."
She pauses, and nods. "You're going to find yourself wrapped up in these things if you stay with me. I hope you're okay with that." She goes for her wine again, another long drink. Her glass is already almost empty.
"They're using Leina for leverage over her partners. Banagher holds the key to something they want gone forever, something that gives Vist their powerful. And Mineva... Mineva is the heir to Zabi family, that used my father's name to try and conquer the Earth Sphere." She twists the stem of her wine glass in her hand, much like she did with the bread. "It's so bizarre. I try to keep her away from the legacy of my family, and she ends up dating the grandaughter of my father's killer. A girl raised by my own brother. The universe has a sick sense of humour."
She finishes her glass, with no effort. She's not taking in the taste. "...Banagher and Mineva escaped, a week ago. So did Akane, Rikka and Alouette. So now we just have to rescue Leina... and give her a chance to get the dreams taken from her back. So that's what I'm planning to do."
She really doesn't notice how cheesy she is, does she?
<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.
"Saved a kid's life... yeah, that sounds like you. Wait, that mousy tired-lookin' guy in the hoodie is... and he's dating -- And Leina, too?"
Faye blinks a few times at this, as if 1. romantic gossip was the most crucial thing happening within the Mass household and 2. a polyromantic relationship is somehow more scandalous than anything she's gotten up to in the past few years. She gets over it.
"Damn... usually the girls who can't get enough of me just have a guy they can't get rid of who doesn't pay enough attention. ...I'm sorry, that's crude. I'm talking around it --" She sighs. "I'm a woman with history too, Sayla. Ah - I think, anyway. Well... that cute secretary of yours might have more work to do, if word gets out... my creditors will go into a frenzy..." She shakes her head.
"Screw all that, though. If that's your kid, that's your kid. And of course I wouldn't be happy either if she was in trouble. 'M glad Akane and her girl got away, though - bumped into them at Dakar and didn't know what the hell was going on. When you were stuck in that mess with your brother at Palau, they were the ones that grabbed me to come help out..." She takes a long sip herself, allowing herself to acknowledge the flavor but not giving it much time to rest.
"It's what I ought to do, with how good you've been to me. But more than that it's what I wanna do. It'd be nice if one of these days you get enough of a break I can see how you look in a swimsuit these days, instead of just cute press photographs."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla blinks a few times, then... She can't help but laugh. It feels like the first time in a while, but... god she needed it.
"That's the part you get hung up on? I'll get them to tell you the whole story one day. You might not believe it, though."
Still, for once it's time for Sayla's eyes widen as they focus on Faye. "...You think?" There's concern on her face, at mention of the creditors. She reaches a hand across the table, to offer to Faye. "I won't push you to talk about it, if you're not ready." She's certainly in no position to throw stones there. "But if you are, I want to hear more about it."
Sayla shakes her head. "It's not that simple... Judau and Leina's parents..." She sighs. "...there's baggage there." She settles on, finally. It's not her story to tell in full.
"Akane did?" Sayla's a little surprised- and a little impressed that Akane could find Faye's details at all. That intelligence training must be paying off.
The smile comes back again. "Once have Leina back... I'm going to be taking a long hiatus from work." Does she just mean the foundation... or the 'Shuffle Alliance' too? "Sometime in there, maybe we can take some time for just us. Once things have settled." She sighs a little. It's getting easier to keep her hope alive, but there are times when she wonders if she's hoping for too much.
She refocuses. Back to the 'fun' side of things. "...If you're hoping for that green number, you're out of luck. That went up with the White Base. I trend a little more conservative now."
<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.
When Sayla reaches out a hand, Faye takes it. That part's easy. The other part...
"If I got into the whole thing, it'd be our whole night. Maybe some other time. It's, uh... A long story and I literally can't tell most of it. But I've got some big bills from an accident I was in... A spaceflight accident. The craft I was on collided with... the South Ataria Meteor. That's what the records I stole say, anyway."
Which, in and of itself, is revealing terminology. Nobody's called it that in a very long time.
She also just admitted to robbing a hospital, but if pressed - well, that hospital robbed her, too. Fair's fair.
She nods in response to Sayla's little query, grinning. "She laid out a whole big spread. It was very, like, high schooler with the run of the house. Pretty sure I met Leina's brother, yeah. Wild guy."
Her smile warms considerably as Sayla finally openly considers a vacation, and even moreso when she makes that crack about the green swimsuit from that photo.
"Ah, well. I bet you fill it out great. At least I know I'll blow your mind, I've got a few really cute ones I could bust out."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Faye really is a woman with history. "The Macross?" Sayla asks, surprise in her voice. Her brain is already doing the maths. But if she's relying on records...
Sayla can take an educated guess. "...If you decide you want to look deeper, I can ask someone in the foundation to look into it." Her blue eyes look into Faye's green, deadly serious. "You don't have to search alone, if you don't want to."
She's going to have to look into a background check, that she'd been putting off but... well. Maybe she can use it for good here.
Either way, she's prepared to take a risk. If Faye's scamming her... she wouldn't have to do it like this. She certainly wouldn't have had to fight the Shamblo, or be there at Dakar. There were much, much easier marks.
"He's very much the person you see, for the better I think." Wild is definitely a good adjective here. She reaches for the wine again, refilling her glass. Faye's comment on swimsuits gets a small smirk out of Sayla.
"Well then... To things to look forward to?" She asks, raising it to offer a toast.
<Pose Tracker> Faye Valentine has posed.
There's a momentary freeze. After all, her past's been nothing but trouble... and taking it on means getting serious in other ways. She does nod a little numbly when Sayla recognizes the implications.
But... Well, what had going it alone accomplished so far? If anyone's got the resources, it'd be Sayla. She nods a little more seriously, though she doesn't totally slacken until the offer is made... and it's not a demand to get started right here, right now. Something she can choose. Someone she can reach out to.
Whenever she decides to take the first step.
She settles in to her wine again, smiling over it at Sayla... And cheerily tapping their glasses together. "That's the way, babe. Things to look forward to."