2022-04-10: Just a Small Town Girl
- Log: Just A Small Town Girl
- Cast: Rixia, Ashiya Khaimova, Seraph Lanval
- Where: Meribia
- Date: 10th April 2022
- Summary: A new Drifter arrives in Meribia! ... in less than ideal conditions.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
The beautiful city of Meribia! Oh, how darling it is, with its wide open streets, its bustling commerce, its melting pot of cultures -- something which has only expanded in the last five years with the introduction of Filgaian goods and curios and curiosities all, and even more recently, the introduction of Spira to its purview as well...
...
And even in this time where the world grows smaller and smaller, and the pathways between them ever enhanced... there's always someone who has noooooooooo idea of all this.
A young Beastfolk girl wobbles through the main gates of Meribia, supported by a gnarled walking stick. She has white-pinkish hair tied in twintails, by which sit sizeable fluffy fox ears, and wears a battered cloak that has seen a lot of frosting-over and subsequent defrosting. Someone's travelled from the north.
"Haa... haa, I'm heeere... I'm heeere, Meribia..." she whines quietly, dropping to her knees. "Uugh, my shoes are wrecked." She keels over and rolls onto her back. "I'm so beat..."
<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.
Meribia is a great, big, cool city! It has a great many people, from all walks of life, and is more bustling than ever before. As our previous narrator's voice just confirmed. This is great, this is good, this is... this is really confusing if you're an out-of-towner.
Especially if out-of-town means a big handful of light-years of distance.
How do you arrive here, as an offworlder without a damn clue? Well...
>> "'scuse me, where's the biggest city?" >> "Pardon me, can you point me to the biggest city nearby?" >> "Hey there! Looking for the big city life, help a girl out?"
Review the montage of this poor, hapless Fellpool girl basically asking everyone at every crossroads, inn, and watering hole where to go. That's how she arrived here, with nary a clue about what's next.
So that's how the blue-skinned, blue-haired cat-person arrived here. She's been looking cluelessly at a bulletin board for about ten minutes, and now appears to have given up. She saunters away with both hands folded behind her head, pausing only to look askance at the cloaked girl staggering through the gates looking like death.
Same.
Ashiya pulls a waterskin from the pouch at her side and waves it in front of Rixia's face. "Hey there, you look like I feel. Have a drink!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
It felt like... not like a lifetime ago. 'A lifetime' for Seraphim is a much wider span of time than it would be for a mortal. But the last handful of years have been eventful ever since a Resonant half-Beastfolk tripped over him in the middle of Meribia, and for whatever quirk of fate, he's back here.
Among them is a portly, bare-foot man in admittedly kind of swanky robes, with long flowing silvery hair that terminates in aquamarine-hued tips. The beard flows like one might a waterfall. He carries about a drinking gourd gingerly as he strides about the city in the open. Which is a risk, because of... social complications, for his kind.
Sometimes, though, you cannot pass up the feel of the way the roads are paved underneath, its many cracks and contours inviting for one to just lay down and soak in and about. Why, he bets there's a nearby patch of road here they haven't fixed that'd be a good place to flop over and--
--there is a Beastfolk lady lying down on her back on what is ostensibly 'his' spot.
...
"Mmmph." He supposes he can share that spot. He ambles along closer just as another Beastfolk approaches and offers the exhausted one something from their waterskin. A little smile on his face forms. Little acts of kindness and sharing are always good, in his book. Coming a little closer, he sits down on the ground nearby to the both of 'em.
"How bad are ya achin'?" He tries to ask of Rixia. "Might be able ta take shome of the edge off of it."
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia takes a moment to catch her breath, ignoring where the two hapless town guard in the distance are wondering if they should help. Fortunately, someone else has arrived to take the issue off! Town guards must stay where they are and helpfully tell people where they are, after all.
"Uuh...? Oh, that's-- water!" the young beastfolk exclaims, reaching up and uncorking the waterskin and taking a big, long chug out of it. Gulp, gulp, gulp. "... huaaah ...!" She sprawls out contentedly after.
Sadly, not only is Rixia taking over his spot -- does she not know of the etiquette of 'dibs'?! What kind of backwater girl is this?! -- she also... doesn't respond, nor recognise or realise that there's a bare-foot man with along, flowing silver hair in swanky robes.
Ah, alas... one of the unresonant. It still happens, even now.
Still, it's clear she's been walking a while -- her shoes are busted, and the soles haplessly dangle from where the seams have torn off. They also have that same soaked-frozen-unfrozen treatment. It's no footwear for such an arduous journey.
Rixia clears her throat, then puffs up slightly as she sits up. "Um-- hmm! Thank you, kind lady. My name's Rixia. Who might you be?"
<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.
This colourful offworlder has precious little idea about the social norms among the regular folk here, let alone how the Seraphs might act. No matter! She'll fake it until she makes it.
"Oh, hey there." the very blue-looking girl with the half-jacket casts the most casual greeting she can muster towards the approaching Seraph. Come to think of it, she looks like a shoujo manga artist's idea of what a Ronso might look like. Anyway, Lanval definitely catches her eye.
"She looks pretty tuckered out, right? Maybe heatstroke." Ashiya squints as she peers at Rixia, who continues to chug from the waterskin before flopping over in a manner most relaxed. "Or just thirsty. No problem, no problem."
Her tone is relaxed. Unhurried. No telling what that accent is though.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval's eyes open half-way as Rixia addresses Ashiya in specific... and then there's a quiet, 'oh.' After hundreds of years he's been so spoiled for having mortals to converse with that a simple truth of his existence sometimes lapses. As it does here! He parts a hand to wave to Ashiya, not lingering over-much on how humorous her accent makes 'heatstroke' sound.
"Mmm. Yeah, she needed water, ya did good there." Lanval says with a nod, before taking that free hand to stroke at his chin. Should Ashiya pay greater attention to his presence... it's like speaking to a raw, elemental force of water in all forms great and not.
"She mushta come from real far... lucky she made it here, lemme tell ya. Mmm." A gentle smile on his face. "All right. 'm gonna give her a bit of healin' ta play it shafe," he's speaking like Rixia's not there? Even though he's all but standing over her, at this point, as he puts forth the incantations. A Seraphic Arte glyph appears underneath him, as curative energies are directed to try and relieve Rixia of some of her pains and aches.
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Indeed, Rixia bears all the looks of someone who's come from a great distance, and... well, less charitably, someone who might not have necessarily been ready for it. This was indeed her first time out in the wide world... alone, without someone more experienced like her father to lead her through dangerous terrain and long journeys.
"I-- don't have heatstroke!" Rixia insists with all the vigour of someone trying to bluster. "On the contrary, I came from somewhere really cold," with all the ignorance of someone who doesn't realise that can still, indeed, happen.
A pause, and she may not see the Seraph or the glyph, the curative energies suddenly flow through her--
"H-huh? Whoa, what just happened? I feel so much better now... weird..." Rixia blinks a few times, looking down at herself.
<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.
The taller of the two girls leans over and fetches her waterskin back. Ashiya tucks it back in her pouch and fastens it shut, big brass buckle jangling pleasantly. She dusts her hands and puts one foot up on a nearby lamp-post pedestal, craning her head to get a better glimpse of what Lanval is dishing out here.
There's something odd and indistinct about the fellow with the luxurious beard. She can't put her finger on it, or maybe... can't put her finger in it? A bad glass-of-water analogy? The robed man's very attitude and mannerisms seem somehow fluid. His words and voice rustle with the pleasant timbre of a nearby brook.
But she doesn't know a Seraph from a Stir-fry, so she just assumes he's an ancient kung-fu master. That doesn't explain his magic, though.
"What's that?" Ashiya asks as she takes a bite out of an apple, pointing at the fading Arte glyph. "Never seen a sym...spell... thing like that where I'm from!"
She also leans over and takes Rixia's temperature by way of putting a finger on her forehead. "Maybe you were dying for a drink! Or maybe this guy cooled your head a little." and she then jerks a thumb Lanval's way. (Or at the empty space where Rixia can't quite see...)
"Either way. All's well now! You made it!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval steps back - without a physical or metaphysical need to, really - as Rixia comes to grips with his act of altruism. Ashiya shows confusion, and then he's turning his head. "Mmm... ya haven't? But if ya can tell I'm here... oh! Maybe yer from further out." He doesn't specify, though 'Spira, maybe' is on his mind. He doesn't think anyone from Spira talks like that, but he doesn't get the chance to muse aloud in the moment as Ashiya sees to Rixia's well-being post-spellcasting.
"I don't think she can tell 'm here... but it'sh all right. Not a whole lotta people can!" He does nod along at the mention Rixia's made it. She's here, all the way from he assumes Zulan.
"Mmmm. Musht've been real important fer her ta make the journey on sho li'l..."
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia blinks a few more times at Ashiya, and asks, "What's what? Wait, did you cast a spell on me?" She perks up, redoubled in stamina and haleness from the invisible Seraph's spell. Her fox ears wiggle a little as she does so. "I--"
Then Ashiya puts a finger on her forehead, and she harrumphs ever so slightly, folding her arms. "Well, of course I was! I ran out of water half a day ago..." A pause, as the blue cat from space thumbs at empty air.
"Ummm... is this some kind of prank? I don't see anything there." She pauses, and then rises up to her feet, wincing. "Ow, ow, I need new boots, that's for sure..."
<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.
Stuck in the middle, Ashiya is looking between Rixia and Lanvel as each of the speak. Her ears flatten against her head briefly in muted confusion as the Seraph explains that, really, not many people can see him. And that she must be from a ways away.
That, she doesn't deny. "Oh, uh... yeah, I'm from real far out!" she absolutely does not lie, and in fact, has a cheery smile as she delivers this fact. Cheery, for she has memorized a location on this weird new world. "I journeyed here from Mount Gagazet, like. But... why are you an invisible man?" a pause, and then a finger snap. "Oh. Magic, right?"
Ashiya offers her apple, too, to the beleaguered Fox-eared girl on the ground, now that she's ascertained that her temperature isn't wildly out of place. "Have something to eat, too. Anyway, this guy over there says you can't see him, but I think he used some Magic to take the heat off of you."
You can practically hear the capital letter M in that sentence. "Maybe it's a Meribia thing? Invisible martial arts masters greeting new folk at the entrance? This place is really cool!"
With that, she looks back to the bearded Seraph one more time. "Is it a Meribia thing?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval takes Ashiya's cover story at face value when she says it unprompted, with an 'ah' look on eyes that just don't quite open all the way. One of his very closest confidants is a half-Beastfolk, maybe Ashiya's a half-Ronso! Aside from the matters of accent and general presentation. "Ha ha ha! It'sh... it'sh all right!" He doesn't talk over Ashiya giving reassurance to the poor, tired, confused fox girl.
He's back to stroking his chin as Ashiya asks if it's a Meribia thing. "Here 'n down shouth, in Glenwood... 'm a Seraph! Ya gotta have somethin' called Resonance ta know we're there. Mosht don't have it... 'n, well." His tone gets a bit more somber for a second. "Mosht of my kind don't hang 'round mortals all that much. I wash jusht in the area, that'sh all."
"Shooo, 'd better be on my way then... it'sh rough time fer a lotta people, sho, hold onta whatever shmall joy ya can get," he dispenses that as he rights himself up, turns about face... and proceeds to make a mockery of the concept of locomotion, staggering along down the roads, "maybe we'll shee one another again later! Ha ha ha!"
One thing Ashiya will notice the next time she peruses a bulletin board's wanted posters... there is a bounty for the 'FALLEN SERAPH,' whose sketches are a very good match for his face and beard. Foreboding! Scary! Weird! Maybe?
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
"Gagazet... where's Gagazet? I've never heard of a Mount Gagazet," Rixia sounds rather perplexed, but blinks further and recoils lightly as she exclaims, "A-an invisible man?! Wh-what?"
Fortunately, apples are enough to mollify her in extremely swift time. Rixia might be paying for it a little later as she settles down and adrenaline wears off, temperature-wise, but she shouldn't be too bad off. "Um... huh," she says, somewhat distractedly, eating apples. "Well, you gave me water and an apple, so I'll believe you, I guess."
A Meribia thing... "I dunno... I mean, Blue Master Lunn's a master martial art and he's well known, but I dunno about invisible ones."
<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.
"Hey, I'm not sure. I can see that guy, and he..." Ashiya turns her head, only to find that perhaps Lanval has made like the mists and snuck away. "... he was there a second ago. Weird..." she scrunches her nose in mild, but not disgusted confusion.
The smile returns to her face as her attention focuses back on this flustered girl lost in the big city. "Hey, you're gonna need a lot more than an apple if you've been hiking here for days. Something important for you here?" she asks. "I'm just gettin' to grips with the place, but that means we're in the same boat..."
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia tilts her head, looking towards Ashiya. Well, she seems friendly enough... and she could use a really friendly face right about now, after everything. "Oh, yeah. I was thinking of signing up with the local Guard... I'm looking for my father, you see. He left to go sign up with the Guard years ago, and went to this faraway land called Spira."
She perks up again for a moment, and says, "If you're in the same situation, I think we should help each other out. What do you say?"
<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.
"Thinking the same thing." Ashiya seems chummy with that suggestion, pulling back up to full height again. "I'm trying to find someone too! Not much to go on, but that's how it goes..." and she offers a hand down to her new pal to help her up, should she want it.
"It's gotta be safer if we're stumbling around lost together, right?" she asks with a confident little grin. "And lots more fun."
<Pose Tracker> Rixia has posed.
Rixia puts her hands behind her back and sizes Ashiya up for a moment, smiling quietly. "Oh, you are? Maybe I can help on that front too." She takes Ashiya by the hand and helps herself up fully, back on her feet. Hmm, she can't help but think that her grin's rather charming, too...
"I'll agree to that. You know a little more than I do, but let's find somewhere to rest, first... also, I need new shoes, still. These weren't even all that cute..."
<Pose Tracker> Ashiya Khaimova has posed.
Yank! The bigger, bluer cat pulls Rixia to her feet and dusts her shoulders off for good measure. "There you go, looking healthy enough now." and a thought strikes her. She glances down at the poor girl's rather worn-out boots.
"Say, what's your name? Mom always said to ask a girl her name before you take her shopping, you know..."