The Sun Will Come Out

The Sun Will Come Out
Date of Scene:	10 June 2013
Location:	Bodhum Beach
Synopsis:	Tomorrow is always a day away.
Cast of Characters:	Maira, Isaac Hanlon

---

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Bodhum used to be a resort town! Now it's kind of a gem of modern technology and eternal night. They don't get quite as much business since you can't soak up some rays on the beach, but that doesn't mean /nobody/ comes down here...

Take Isaac, for instance. He's been cooped up in Cloud Nine for weeks. Well, when he isn't going back and forth to Manhattan for some reason or another in the middle of the night -- 'work,' he'd say, and then not explain anything else. Today, though, he just up and took off. He left a message at the bar on the way out, so if someone needed to find him, they'd know how. He seemed restless.

This isn't terribly surprising, all things considered.

Isaac is alone on the beach. He's sitting cross-legged on top of a white towel in dark-colored swim trunks and basically nothing else. Against his right shoulder is a metallic cap over the spot where his arm was removed, flat and polished, and attached to a short, curving plate to continues onto his shoulder. He's got a laptop propped up in front of him, and he's tapping away at it one-handed. Keys on the opposite side of the keyboard seem to be depressing themselves.

He keeps getting weird looks from passer-bys. While he /is/ a pretty good-looking guy, it's almost certainly a combination of the other stuff that draws the odd stare. Anyone else on the beach is keeping their distance, probably from a general feeling of energy in the air incorrectly interpreted as a sign of bad things to come.

Maira has posed:
Maira has also made her way to the beach tonight, for her own reasons. This was where she had first met Leon as the Dark Knight. Leon, who was now the Dark Knight again. Because she had failed...failed to give his heart enough to live for. Oblivion had been preferable to the constant struggle. She had to find a solution. A real solution.

Then there was everything with Uist. Everything with Palamecia. With Arcadia and Angantyr, with Garland ...everything is basicalled <GOOSEHONK>ed.

Maira has been strolling the beach for hours now, making her way toward where Isaac was sitting now. Her feet are bare and covered with sand below a light blue sundress. She probably shouldn't be here alone, but really, does she need to be watched at all times? That's going to be maddening. She needed a little time to herself to think.

Spotting Isaac though, she resolves to be social again. Indeed, he's someone she'd very much like to talk to. She starts over toward him, taking a seat beside him in the sand, watching his computer with wide eyes. How did he type on the other side...? What did he do to his arm. "...whoa, that's new..." she says. "Hey, Isaac."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac doesn't react when Maira comes up and sits down next to him. He keeps staring intently at the screen, sweat beading on his brow as if in intense concentration. He's inputting data at a feverish pace, a constant stream of something like some manner of code scrolling his screen. Maira might catch a couple odd words here and there if she's familiar with Ivalicean magic at all; otherwise, it looks like so much gibberish.

It's five or ten seconds before he glances to the side and spots Maira. He looks back to the screen and finishes off a line, and then reaches up and pulls little black things out of his ears. The sound of loud guitar come from them -- well, it'd be loud if it were that close to an ear, anyway -- until he hits a button at the top of his keyboard and abruptly mutes it.

"Hey Maira." He smiles at her. It even seems genuine. "What's up?"

Maira has posed:
Maira watches him for a while, observing his intensity with a furrowed brow. She leans in a little to listen to the sound of loud guitar over his earbuds. She is intrigued. Maira likes this kind of music.

When he greets her, her smile is dimmed a great deal, weighed down by various concerns--mostly her own idiocy. "Hey....Uh....nothing at the moment. Basically <goosehonk>ing up my life. Otherwise..." shrug.

"How are you? What's with that?" she says, indicating the metal plat on his shoulder.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac reads a few things from a few things in a short span of time. His immediate instinct is to express concern and offer comfort. He wonders precisely how many people have done the same thing for her in recent days, and if it would even help. Isaac has been a little more reluctant to offer a shoulder recently for fear of someone getting mad that he might be pitying them. Maybe it's just his general shakiness, after... everything.

He shakes his head for a second. It's a quick gesture, as if to clear it. Focus.

"Sorry to hear that." There's a half-moment pause. He's frowning a little. "You want to talk about it? I'm pretty much high king of understanding when it comes to lives going directly into the crapper by your own hand." Isaac smiles slightly, lifting his right shoulder a little.

He reaches out and taps a couple keys on the keyboard. A different song queues up. BGM CHANGE: http://youtu.be/OiTKWfIC29E

"The start of a solution," Isaac replies, glancing to his right. He adds another couple lines to the thing on-screen with that weird one-and-an-invisible-hand typing method. "Nothing yet. Just a cool-looking thing."

Maira has posed:
Maira shrugs some, smiling at Isaac's self-depricating comment. "I guess I could tell you about it and you can add your voice to the chorus. I just have been...I haven't been in a good place lately, I guess. Everything seems to be going wrong. You know that thing we talked about before? Yeah...Palamecia. I was born there, not Midgar, though that's where my mother was from. I also learned the ghost who has been my companion since I was six is actually my father--yes yes apparently I need to see some movie called Ghost Dad--this would be a happy thing to learn except that now that he remembers, he can't be around me because he draws too much energy from me, trying to make himself solid again. I don't know what to do--how to sever the connection we have. I know in my heart that is what we'll have to do...but it terrifies me. He was my only friends for so long..." she sighs, wrapping her arms around herself as she looks out at the ocean.

"In Palamecia, I argued with a woman named Rena, Uist lost his temper and smacked her, and she challenged me to a duel to the death. I apparently missed that she was...being...I don't know. Jesting, at least some? She'd kill me if we fought, that I knew. Said I could name a champion...but I didn't want to see any of my friends get hurt for me," she continues. "So, an absolute mess, I thought, haha, I could name Garland. He wouldn't show up. He wants to kill me too. Maybe they'd just...take care of each other. ...Really stupid, right?"

"Obviously I didn't do that. Perci insisted on being 'my champion'. Turns out....they played /checkers/."

Maira lowers her head, tucking her chin to her chest. "I feel like /such/ and idiot. Everyone thinks I'm an idiot, and their probably right. Angantyr is probably pissed at me, probably ruined our relationship right at the beginning."

"So....yeah. There's that," she finishes, taking a deep breath.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac listens. He keeps typing, but he listens. His face is kept carefully neutral -- well, neutral save for a slight frown at the entire sequence of events, anyway. He puts a few pieces together, and makes a few mental notes, but he doesn't do anything at all to interrupt her explaination. He wants the entire story before he does anything, offers any advice, or, indeed, says a damn word.

Isaac lets her breathe for a moment. He nods, just once, very slowly, and reaches out to tap a button. The music fades away. He shifts a little on his towel, turning to Maira. He feels a keen sense of deja vu. Did he sound like this a few weeks ago?

"I don't think you're an idiot," he finally says. "But... I don't plan to 'add to the chorus,' either. I'm not going to say something if you don't want to listen," he continues, his voice gentle. "I'll understand if you don't. I know I didn't, any of the times things've gone bad on my end." Isaac is usually seen as the Man with the Plan. Sometimes he has to assure people that, yes, he is in fact human, and he has definitely had failings in the past. The assumption that he's never made bad decisions has made things more difficult before.

Not that Maira can honestly say she hasn't seem him make a /terrible decision/ before.

"If all you want is someone to vent to who knows what you're going through, well, here I am. I've even still got one good hugging arm," he says, a touch of humor in his voice. "But I'm not arrogant enough to think that one more voice is going to make a difference if you don't want it to."

Maira has posed:
Maira turns toward him as well, her expression open, as it generally is. She wears her heart on her sleeve and can't seem to hide a single feeling she experiences.

"No, I'm not going to just complain to you....I want to know how you think I can make things better. I know I messed up because I couldn't think straight. I don't want things to be like this. I want to do the right thing. I at least like to think I listen to my friends, and you're a smart guy Isaac," she replies, resting her hands on her knees.

Isaac's terrible decision was at least a brave one. Perhaps, if she hadn't been such a mess over Angan...what, she could have stopped Garland from ripping him arm off like a careless child with a rag doll?

"So...so tell me."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac nods. He taps enter on the keyboard. The word 'COMPILING...' appears on the screen, with several progress bars beneath it. Then, he turns back to Maira, putting his hand on his lap as if he was intending to fold his hands on one another. He suppresses a wince. Muscle memory.

"Okay. Well, first of all -- I'm sorry. I know what it's like to lose family, and I would never want to suggest you go through it again now that you've got even a little bit of one back. It --" He takes a breath. "It isn't fun. /But/, if I can help sever this connection you've got and maybe keep him around..." He shrugs, frowning. "I'll try to think of something."

"Second, as far as awful plans go, that's probably not the worst -- I get the feeling Garland would be amused by the prospect of fighting someone to the death for you, but he'd want to take his pound of flesh in payment for it." Isaac has played people against one another before. Not the first time, not the last time. "Sounds like this Rena has a sick sense of humor, so don't worry about that. Percival's kind of got a shining armor complex going on like his namesake; don't blame yourself for him jumping in the middle of things. I know, if you'd realized it was a joke, he wouldn't have to get in the middle, but it wounds like you didn't know that Rena was messing around, which is on /her/, not you."

"And thirdly," Isaac says, turning away from her to reach for his laptop, "you should smile more." He taps a couple of keys, checking on the status of whatever it is he's doing.

Maira has posed:
Maira listens, not saying anything while Isaac lays it out for her. The feelings flash across her mien, her expression changing to show that she is listening, and giving his words the proper gravitas.

When he comes to the end, she laughs lightly, and does indeed smile. "You say that like it would be a magic cure for everything. Like I could just smile and everything will be alright," she replies. She does lean over to hug him though, with both arms, not shying away from the missing arm. "Thank you though. You're a good friend."

Maira sits back then, sighing. "I feel like it would be selfish of me to keep Uist around, just because I need him. He's a ghost. Spirits are suppose to move on...he stayed to take care of me. He saved me somehow, when I was going to die. I was six. I feel like...he should be at peace," she replies quietly.

Thinking of Perci, she nods, smiling warmly. "Yes...but its who he is, and I appreciate it...I just...don't want him to get hurt. He's one of my best friends," she says, looking down. "I think I've hurt him enough."

"I will try to make nice with Rena. I think she cares about Leon, so...maybe she will help me get him back. I'm not giving up. I just...have to show him there is still something worth living for."

"Yes, HE probably would be amused, and I know he would have a price. I said it, stupidly, when I felt I had pretty much lost control of my life entirely. Like things couldn't get any worse. But they can /always/ get worse, can't they? Anyway, if you can think of something to help Uist and I...I would really appreciate it. I heard there are people who can do some kind of...ritual, to send spirits to the beyond. I don't know if it would work as we are...but its all I can think of."

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Hugs! Isaac kind of misses hugs. People are so cautious about them when you're the armless guy. "It isn't a magical cure-all, but it helps, sometimes. Honestly though, it's completely selfish; you've got a pretty smile, and I'd like to see more of it." He glances at her, grinning impishly. The mood totally needed to be lightened.

"Well... you should look around for Yevonites," Isaac finally says. "Word is that their summoners have some way to do just that. Put spirits to rest, I mean. I don't know the specifics, but it might be a good lead. I'm... not so good at the incorporeal, at least in the subtle kind of way. My method to deal with ghosts has never had to be pleasant." He looks apologetic.

"I think that your big problem is that you've got this... this idea that everything thats happening is either your fault, or totally out of your control, and out of control because of something that you did," Isaac says. He taps a couple of keys and lifts his hand. "Which is, well -- I was doing the same thing for months. Years, even. It isn't healthy. Or right. It's hard to see that sometimes." He clears his throat.

Isaac speaks an incantation, working his hand through very precise motions. He watches the screen, fresh, completely different text scrolling. He calls out something in a language thats somewhere between latin and complete gibberish, gesturing from horizon to the sky.

It is abruptly sunny.

Isaac grins like an idiot. The sun beats down on their section of the beach. The water sparkles in the light. There's even the feeling of warmth you'd expect from it. He stretches out, tapping a button with his toe and laying on the towel. He turns his head to Maira, squinting against the glare as music picks up again.

BGM CHANGE: http://youtu.be/5PzL8aL6jtI

"Things can always get worse," Isaac says, "but they can also always get better. You've just gotta stay focused, you know? Bad stuff will come and go, but the really great things will stick with you. Just keep hold of that."

Maira has posed:
Maira's eyes widen as she watches Isaac perform his particularly strange form of magic, turning in astonishment there is suddenly a sun beaming down on them in the ever-dark of Traverse Town. The water sparkles, it feels warm and bright.

The music comes on, and she listens, grinning broadly, laughing. "That's amazing Isaac!" she exclaims, standing up and doing a twirl. She runs down to the water to kick it around a little, jumping over a few waves as she sings along to the music in a bright, clear voice. "COME WHAT MAY!" she sings it like a challenge to the sky, then flops over into the waves, giggling.

Isaac Hanlon has posed:
Isaac raises a hand in a thumbs-up. "I'm basically amazing," he replies. He props himself up on an elbow when Maira hops up and takes off, watching with a grin as she kicks, hops, jumps and twirls all about the beach for all two-and-a-half solid minutes. He's endlessly entertained by the sight. It's nice to feel like you're actually helping people work things out.

Besides; she's cute, he's not dead. C'mon.

"I find subtlety in musical tastes to be wholly overrated on days like this," Isaac calls, laughter bubbling in his tone.