ꙮ The Marketplace, at Rifton. It’s quieter and more subdued by far than the Great Bazaar in Queenstown, but then again, everything is. It’s even quieter and more subdued than the marketplaces at Almachadta, which is perhaps a little surprising. But there’s still people hawking their wares - mostly pieces of worked metal, or blades, or sheets, but there’s a small handful of places to grab a bite to eat - pop-up shacks chasing the latest Iron Chef trends to more-established stalls that have clearly been a fixture of the marketplace for who knows how long.
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- The Dragon
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#hunter
#saranzaya
: probably could have camped out on the wall all night if he’d really wanted to - the amount of foodstuff he’s stashed away Just In Case is not small - but figure that while he was here and up and about anyway, he might as well get something fresh to eat, and eventually made his way down to the foodstalls.
ꙮ Among the stalls, you can see a flash of red - well, let’s be honest, it’s the Beast, there’s a lot of red, it’s a popular color here, and easy to dye things, most things are some shade of red, ochre, or umber, but it’s a particularly vibrant flash of red, and then the particularly vibrant flash of red sees Aurelius, and: […}
immediately cuts over through an alleyway between two rows of stalls, towards him. She’s holding a slightly oiled-looking heavy paper bag in one hand that has the ineffable vibes of Having Some Variety of Food in it. She waves Aurelius down, and then once in earshot, “-hey, Aurelius. Hungry?”
: “Oh, uh, sure. Yes.”
tosses him – one of the bags, she had two, one of them smaller than the other, and she tossed him the bigger bag. From inside the bag wafts an immediate delicious smell of Something That Has Been Fried, which probably explains the general condition of the bags they were in.
: “Thanks.” He catches the bag an opens it with a lot less awkwardness than he’s utilizing his words, before pulling out some kind of fried bread thing and chewing on it experimentally.
opens up her own bag now that she’s got hands free to do it, pulls out a scallion pancake, and chomps on it with a lifetime of certainty. “Whatcha think?”
: “…Not bad? Maybe needs something to go with it, but they’re pretty good.”
nods. “Yeah, they’re usually like… served alongside something else or as an appetizer. It was–“ –she falters, extremely briefly. “I wanted to find something to get you on account of having bounced like that as fast as I did, and they were one of Annarr’s favourite snacks and I was banking on you liking them too in absence of any other information about what you liked. I’m glad my plan worked out.” She busies herself taking another chomp.
winces slightly, before taking a bit bite himself and chewing very slowly. “Ah. Yeah it’s… appreciated.”
pauses a moment, thoughtfully, after finishing that bite. “Can I ask how -you’re- holding up? I don’t know anything about what this is like, for you. If it’s… familiar, or if it’s overwhelming. In whatever way it’s your first visit here, I’d– like you to feel welcomed here. Also, I have a question, but it can wait a moment.”
: “It’s. Hm. Well. I think I’m okay. It’s… familiarish. Vague memories, but the more I’m around it, the more it seems to come back, if that makes sense.”
nods, a bit. “Yeah, I think so. And I’m glad you’re okay. Seems like you’re in good hands, too.” A slight, pleased grin. “But if you ever need anything, or want to ask a question about– things, here, to jog your memory? I’ll always have time for that. Goes for your friends, too, obviously, but.” Another pause, another chomp of the scallion pancake, and she looks– a little bit relaxed, at least. “As for the question… especially when we get to Queenstown, do you… want to handle people recognising you and saying hi, or do you want me to tell the little foxes and make sure the right people know, and if so -what- do you want me to make sure people know. And it’s alright if you don’t have an answer for me, we’ve got all night and a train ride.”
: “…You think that might happen enough to need a protocol for it?”
: “Honestly it’s probably fine and I’m overthinking it? I’ve been overthinking it for days and/or my entire life depending on how you’re counting, so it’s not like I’m going to stop.” She laughs. “But I wanted to ask.”
: “Ah. Well. …” He rubs at the back of his neck, before shoving another pancake into his mouth. Chew. Chew. Think. Chew. “…Honestly it might be helpful, given how awkward… this… is… but calling attention to it might also be worse…”
: “Could let ‘em know that you’re going by a different name, at least, stars know that’s a normal-enough thing that happens. And that you’re back from a Long Journey and have Seen Some Shit, all of which has the benefit of being strictly accurate, is the impression I get. And then go from there?”
: “I… yeah, that… that’s probably.”
nods, a bit. And then gives Aurelius a Look that says ‘are you Absolutely Sure that you’re okay’ that does not make it remotely to where her mouth is at. There is an abandoned sentence, left along the side of the road in her mind, somewhere, and then another, and another, a whole pile of abandoned sentences, while she thoughtfully chews on a scallion pancake. Finally: “I’m sorry about the– the awkwardness. This is about the one thing being her second didn’t prepare me for.” A slight smile.
lets out a sigh. “I mean, it’s really more my fault than yours. Not that it’s my fault. I’ve been repeatedly assured on this point. But. It’s… it’s definitely not your fault. As weird as this is for me, I can only imagine it’s worse for you.”
chuckles, just a little, ‘cause Aurelius got to what she was going to say immediately before she even could, but it’s a soft, wry chuckle. “Yeah, more the ‘oh no it sucks that that’s happening and i feel you’ kind of ‘I’m sorry’ than the ‘it’s my fault please forgive me’ kind, don’t worry.” A pause. “I don’t think… worse, or better… are words that make a lot of sense to describe this, though. It’s a lot? But.” She frowns. “The truth is that I’d reconciled myself to the thought that some huge awful fiend had somehow gotten the better of him. I should have known better, of course.” A more sincere laugh. “Because that’s -not- what happened, even if I don’t yet properly understand what did.”
: “Big depressed guy calling himself a God, not a fiend, yeah.”
: “Where are we at on how he responds to a spear through the squishy bits after he’s been painted into a corner and applied a second coat to? Asking for a mutual friend and also for myself.”
: “Duno, last time we heard from him he was using annihilate fifteen times in a row against some other guy tho is probably on the same level after he helped us escape. I think there was counter bolts being thrown? They could take a comical amount of Stress without losing a Rite though.”
: “Truly appalling.” She’s on her last scallion pancake. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.”
: “Yeah, probably. You’re not the only person to have that immediate reaction, and anything’s possible with enough angry and motivated people.”
: “Pretty sure the Queen could call her banners and get one hell of an army if it ever came to it.” A slight, vindictive smile, but she lets it pass after a moment or two. “Mmm. Feel free to say ‘no’ to this, and I won’t pester. But is there anything you want to… ask me, or need to hear from me, to… I don’t know. I don’t know how to read you yet, and I keep thinking I do, and it’s throwing me off, and I’m working out how to be normal about that at one second per second. Train’s pulling into the station any minute now.” Another slight smile.
shoves the last chunk of pancake into his mouth, while crumpling up the paper bag they’d been in. “That’s a good question. I thought I had a pretty good idea of - it’s funny, you were actually one of the only people from here I had a clear mental image of. Could mostly remember the way you moved, talked, random conversation’s we’d had. When Lucja’s dog fought us and had us move towards that staircase, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that was your doing, despite knowing that your role is… usually… to be in Queenstown and keep everything running. And then I saw you and it was like. A whole new layer to all that, that just vague memories hadn’t really… conveyed. And I just… I don’t know.” A long pauses as he finds a trash can to dispose of the bag, rather than tossing it between his hands any longer. “Were you close?”
lets out a puff of breath, and… goes and throws her bag in a rubbish bin, too, to give herself a moment. Good tactics, that. “Mmm. Yes? He was– ‘friend’ feels like a weird word for it. We were at each others’ throats half the time, and in each others’ confidence the other half. I think he was the person I trusted the most? He was a person you could trust, who wasn’t off in the hills of his own mind half the time like the Queen, who I could say anything to and know that he’d take it seriously. This last month or so made me realise I did have other people I could rely on, but it also made me realise just how much I’d been relying on him.”
nods slowly as she talks.
: “That was… mostly the impression I had, yeah.”
thinks, for a minute. And then decides to Say A Thing that’s been gnawing at her very lightly for a few hours. “And– I don’t know how much you remember. We weren’t– close in a way that would make things weird for me, to see you and Salme and the cute boy with no name. Although sometimes I– wondered if he was jealous of me or– the Queen or both of us, or–“ -she shakes her head. “Never actually figured that one out.”
: “…Do you want to know?”
blinks. Half-turns towards Aurelius. Thinks about it, rather visibly, for– quite a while. And then, finally: “Not unless– you’re certain he’d want me to, or -you- ever need to talk about it. I’d trust your judgement on it. But I feel like– if he wanted me to know, he would have said something, and maybe he would have eventually, but he didn’t, and I want to respect his privacy. And I don’t… think it would have changed anything between us. I hope not, anyway.”
: “Fair enough.”
: “Though, honestly, I’m not sure how good I’d be at knowing what he’d want, so there’s that. But. Yeah, maybe not knowing is better.”
: “I mean, if anyone would know, I think it’d be you, unless he left any messages scrawled onto the underside of a rock or something that you know where he hid.” She laughs. “And if you -don’t-, know, that’s– fine with me, honestly.”
blinks a few times.
: “…I realize that was a joke, but from what I gather there might actually be a chance of that being true. If I remember right, he knew Lucja went missing, and I think he found out where so… maybe he did… Hmm…”
: “I mean it was the sort of a joke that’s funny because of the likelihood that it’s actually true. I figured there were at least some odds of my saying that making you go ‘oh, shit, fuck, actually’ and decided to roll the dice.” She laughs, a little. “Have a think on it. I -would- be curious, if he left anything like that behind.”
: “Well… I’ll try, certainly.” Another pause. “I don’t know how much SQ told you but…”
mouths ‘sweet fuck-all’ under her breath but does not interrupt.
: “When we got abducted, we… all lost our memories. Woke up without knowing anything. … Well, for the most part, Salme and I were different to a degree but I guess that’s getting off track - but even without the … possession thing, if you wanna call it that - everyone forgot. Everything. About who they were, and where they came from, and a lot of things important to them. It’s been coming back slowly, bit by bit as we go, but there’s still a… LOT… we don’t really know about ourselves, before everything happened.”
blinks. “Ohh, shiiit.” Frowns. “Shit, I should talk to Luce, I had no -idea-.” Frowns harder. “Stars, that must have been hell on rails, for all of you.”
: “It’s been a Weird time in general, yeah.”
: “I fuckin’ believe it.” She looks like she’s taking a minute to just– to process that, and she’s silent, for a little while, and then finally: “Okay, can I ask you a really weird question?”
: “Fire away.”
: “Do ‘you’, for some value of… ‘you’, and some value of ‘know’… Do you know the Queen, somehow, already? The way she talked about it, when I got what little I managed to pry out of her, made it sound like somehow she -knew- you, and I can’t even begin to think of why, but. She’s always been strange. I think, maybe, there’s nothing I could learn about her any more that could surprise me. And I want to know, even if it feels like a dangerous question to ask.”
: “Yeah, I have memories of interacting with Crimson before they became the SQ.”
: “…I know you know some kind of fucked up secret and I was kind of assuming it was about SQ but now that I’ve said it I really hope that didn’t fry your mind.”
: “Crimson.” She sounds like she’s -tasting- the name. Her tongue flicks over her lip. “Huh.” She glances up at Aurelius, head canted to one side. “That’s fucking -fascinating-. I definitely had suspicions. I’m, like, ninety percent fucked up secrets by volume but that wasn’t. One of them.”
: “That’s a lot of secrets.”
: “Don’t I know it.”
: “That’s gunna make it really hard to figure out which is the relevant one we need, hmm.”
: “Needle in the proverbial haystack. Although most of them are like, Rohirek from Clan Twitherym is fuckin’ Tsihan from Clan Too Many Boots and they both think nobody knows and their clans are at loggerheads and it makes for incredible drama because I find out goddamn everything, but luckily I am incredibly sure none of those are secrets that you care about.”
: “Oh, yeah, it’s probably ones more load-baring to the continued existence of the Beast. Like why we’re losing moons. Or that the world’s dying and you knew why. Or what SQ’s deal is. Or… Well, Lucja’s probably the one with Deep Forge answers, but, you know. Maybe it was just that you knew about the other planes…?”
: “Fuck, if I figure out why we’re losing moons I’ll– I was hoping YOU’D know. I’ve been working that problem since it started to happen. And it just feels like the Queen doesn’t give a shit. And I– I’ve worried that the world’s dying, and it sounds from that that I was right to be. So add that to the list, I guess.”
: “Yeah, probably moon related if I had to guess, but definitely couldn’t tell you how right now.”
: “By the way, I lied, I have another weird question.”
: “I have weird answers.”
: “Yeah, that hasn’t changed, at least. Uh.” She scrunches up her face. “In your… travels, have you met anyone who has incredibly vivid dreams, of things that they’ve definitely never seen with their eyes, but that feel real as all fuck.”
: “Oh, that’s why you’re the Dreamer.”
: “Yeah, the Iros on Samudra, and that’s also Wolf’s thing.”
laser eyes Aurelius and Notes That For The Record, that’s an expression you are Aware You Have Experienced Before. “Fascinating. Alright. I was wondering about that when I looked at my own entry on that weird pamphlet. Good fucking picture of me, though, so I can’t complain.”
: “Yeah, though, I don’t think the picture really did you justice since you seemed to have made a lot of new fans upon welcoming us.”
grins and laughs. And blushes, slightly. “Well. Even a good picture can’t possibly compare to the real thing.”
is pretty sure something about her in particular saying that is funny, and laughs as well.
lets out a breath, and shakes her head, and smiles a smile that looks more real or bright than the ones she’s smiled before.
: “Oh, though, on that note. The pamphlet. We’re not entirely sure where that came from, or who updates it. But the tomestone can access a library, in addition to the BBS. And that is filled with a bunch of information we’ve found/compiled ourselves and might… also be worth a look, when you have time, or want to realize the world is way weirder than you thought.”
: “Alright, if you hear me saying ‘what the fucking hell of ass’ a whole bunch of times on the train to Queenstown, you’ll know why.”
: “Duly noted.”
lets out another breath. “Okay, I think that’s– I feel a lot better about things now, at any rate. AND I managed to make sure you didn’t go hungry. I think Plan Momos is gonna be tomorrow before the train takes off, but the Inn should have dinner sorted. Hn.” She glances towards him, smiles. “Thank you for all of this, I think I needed it more than I thought I did.”
: “Yeah, no problem. If you… need anything else, or have more questions, or…” He shrugs. “You know where to find us, and even have a way to talk if not.”
: “Yeah. Gonna sort out a couple other things at Rifton, add more hay to the Secrets Haystack, you know how it is. Some weird fiends bubbling up lately that I’m trying to get eyewitness reports of while I’m this far afield. But.” She smiles. “I know where to find ya.”
: “Oh right. Uh.”
: “…My weird girlfriend is probably going to track you down at some point and very bluntly ask you a half dozen very pointed questions, but she means well…? So, I guess, try and humor her whenever that happens.”
: “Your weird girlfriend sounds fun, I like her already. But, noted. Maybe I’ll blow her mind and track her down first next time I can’t handle another hour of someone’s rambling description of what turns out to be just a very slightly different kind of morbol than usual.”
: “That could be pretty funny, honestly.”
grins. “We’ll see how things shake out.”
: “Yeah. Well. … I guess I should let you get back to it then, I’ve wandered around enough I can find my way back the inn.”
nods. “Rifton ain’t big. If you get lost, knock on someone’s door and ask, right?” Another smile. “Thank you, again, though. It was good to– this was good. I’ll see you soon?” And then before -she- can make things more awkward all over again, she gives him a little wave, and- pauses, and then does a formal bow that is now oddly familiar for several reasons, before taking off down a side-street.
bows in return, and as soon as she’s turned around he stands back up with a hand covering his mouth. He blinks several times before letting the hand drop, then retrieves his welding glasses from the pocket dimension and puts them back on, while staring down the street for several more minutes.