Closed An Autumn Confab (Tydus)

[Scaea Paille]

Fall 64th, 514 AV

-----Scaea had awoken that morning in a good mood. Even after her morning bath, as her corset was being tightened by a family slave, she was in a good mood. As she paid homage to Zulrav, she was in a good mood. She powdered her face and applied rouge to her cheeks, leaving her lips plain. Her clothing for the day was rather plain by Kenashian standards - a floor-length, undyed silk dress, with shoulders bare and the top of her lotus tattoo showing in the back, and long, loose sleeves - but comfortable enough for the day of leisurely shopping planned. Her prized silver ring and chain were clasped around her neck, the only jewelry she was sporting for the day. Getting ready itself took nearly a bell and a half into mid-morning, leaving Scaea to arrive in Kenash in the early afternoon.

-----Even the four bell ride and the stuffy carriage to Kenash proper hadn't tarnished her good mood. The slight anticipation of a shopping trip or the chance of meeting someone new was enough to keep her spirits high, and as she stepped out into the fresh air and hot noon sun, her mood kept. She quickly applied a few drops of lavender oil to her wrists and neck and began to wander the city, her first stop being the ever-so-lovely Lantern Square. It was perhaps one of her favorite places in Kenash, and it made an excellent first stop after the long ride from Stormsgrace. She had fond memories of coming here since she was a child, sitting in the shade with her family and buying treats from the vendors milling on the outskirts.

-----Scaea made her way to a small couch in the center of the square, ignoring any slaves or freeborn on her way and sitting down. Her legs were then pulled up, feet hanging slightly off the edge of the couch and her dress spilling around herself like melted ice-cream. Her hair was pulled back into a long fishtail braid, a few strands escaping its confines. The sound of people quietly chatting filled the air, along with the smell of perfume, sweat, and various baked goods being sold on the edges of the square. She sat there, smelling of lavender and watching the people mill about, quietly thinking about possible tattoo designs until someone - or something - interesting could come around to catch her eye.

[Tydus Tempest]

Kenash eternally flourished within the indomitable heat of the summer. Though the Tempest had seen the flare of the season die away and the changing of the Riverfall Watchtower while in the city, life seemed not to have changed so drastically in the city of Kenash. Of course, looking deeper, there was a paradigm shift. People seemed more suspicious of others, guards raised. Tydus had heard whispers of deaths in the Dynasties, gossip and cautious stares at even the most unassuming of people. Though, Tydus, thankfully, seemed to avoid suspicion.

Perhaps it was his face, or a natural charisma, an understanding? He wasn't sure, but he quickly noted that the Kenash populace seemed to pass him by. He was unassuming in a way, for he had finally taken to wearing clothing to cover himself. His gnosis was, for once, covered by a collared silk shirt. He wore, with it, a brocade vest. With it, black-dyed slacks adorned his legs with leather cut shoes. The clothing of a Kenashian were stuffy and rather uncomfortable to the Svefra who preferred to wear nothing at all, but it was necessary.

Fitting in with this city is more necessary than being comfortable. Especially now. I don't know what's going on, but I'll find out.

The Tempest walked out of Zulaca Customizations earlier in the day and had changed into his new clothing with a pleased expression. Zoroaster Zulaca was not the most friendly of Dynasts, but nor was he bitter or suspicious. And his work was obviously impeccable. The Tempest's cuffs were set, as directed by the Zulaca, his vest was buttoned, and his lips were spread in a wide smile. And the suspenders were a nifty addition, too. For with yet another new set of clothes8cm for suspenders, 9gm for the vest, 2 sm for the shoes, 21gm 2sm for the pants and 2gm 6sm 5cm for the shirt= 33GM 5cm total., Tydus felt that he was able to wear the trappings of the Dynasties and engage in their game. He had done so without them, but he was ready for more. Reputation, power... both required one to look the part for them.

And the Tempest would have it.

But, for the moment, he decided to relax. The filled flask of rum, carried in his pocket, called to him. The pleasures of Kenash, all around him and plentiful, were ready for the taking. As the Tempest made hi way out of the East Bank, he found his legs taking him towards the northernmost bridge. Rather than making way directly to the West Bank, he decided to relax. And there were few places better to do so than in Lantern Square.

Not one to ignore the lovely slaves of the Square, the Tempest flashed the first a smile, engaging in conversation with an easy smile. Within moments, a gold miza and a glass of rum where exchanged, and the Tempest raised the pretty young slave's hand to his lips before flashing her a smile,

"Thank you so much, dear. Have a wonderful day"

Of course, the Tempest would see her later on. He had no desire to sip from his personal store of rum when it was so easily accessed in the Square. Besides, the coin he had given was enough for one more cup.

And with that comment, perhaps the slave will bring two.

The Tempest smirked before catching the eye of a rather intriguing looking young woman. She wore the expression of one both thinking and enjoying the amenities of the square, and Tydus decided that he would allow her the additional pleasure that was known as his company. Smiling, he stepped towards her and asked,

"May I sit?"

Fratava | Hypnotic Fratava | Common | Hypnotic Common | Vani

[Scaea Paille]

-----Scaea's midday reverie had been full of birds - coming up with new ways to depict swallows and cranes and various other feathery creatures onto the skin. Perhaps her next tattoo would be a pair of swallows, each one on the opposite shoulder, right next to the outer end of the clavicle. The aesthetic of matching, symmetrical tattoos always appealed to her. Her mind woke her out of this day-dream when a man approached. He was unfamiliar, however, and this piqued her interest.

-----He certainly wasn't one without attractiveness - quite the opposite, really. He appeared Svefra, from the incredibly blue eyes and blonde hair. A Draer, perhaps. He certainly appeared too well dressed to be an average freeborn, and either way, she doubted a that one would freely walk up to her and ask to sit. She also vaguely remembered, from her state of paying more attention to what was going on inside her head than what was happening around her, how he acted around the slave selling rum. No Dynast in their right mind would kiss the hand of a slave, even if the slave were as pretty as that one. From this, Scaea drew the conclusion that he was a freeborn - maybe one that had spent time in a place intolerant of slavery, which would explain his actions.

-----"If you'd like." Scaea wasn't one to let someone this cute, even if they were a freeborn, slip out of her grasp. She shifted her position to let her feet fall to the ground rather than take up most of the small couch with her legs and pulled the hem of her dress closer to her to make room for the man. As she did this, the sleeve of her dress slipped down a tad, revealing a slight bit more of her shoulder and tattoo than had previously been visible. Her hand automatically moved and pulled up the dress, and she turned to the presumed Svefra.

-----"Beautiful day out, no?"

[Tydus Tempest]

"It certainly is,"

The smile that crept upon the Tempest's lips was a genuine one as he properly took in the Dynast's features. Young, very pretty, it seemed that all Dynasts had the habit of being extremely obvious in their presentation. It was only natural, for in the city of Kenash, the Dynasties owned the world. There was no need to hide power when it was so blatantly hoarded by those who had it. It was an amusing thing, but the Svefra decided not to further reflect on it.

When the Tempest sat down next to the Dynast, he immediately turned to face her, the easy smile that placed itself upon his lips quickly parting,

"Very beautiful. However, all the more so when there is such a lovely lady to share it with."

A cast chuckle escaped his lips after he spoke before the Tempest extended his hand to the Dynast and with it, offered his name,

"My name is Tydus Tempest. May I have the pleasure of learning yours, milady?"

The Tempest had the familiar whirl of thoughts, his eyes cast to meet the woman's face, moving to her hands next. It was almost routine at this point. To see the face and hands of a person was one way of discerning what their profession was. And she certainly had a profession. Power granted to the Dynasts was, as the Tempest had noted before, contingent upon productivity. Kenash was a paradise that hailed productivity and work as its god, it seemed.

And though it was the slaves did the brunt of the work, the free and the powerful did their share of more important work. It was up to Tydus to find out what it was. Small wear on the woman's fingers suggested something that the Tempest could not quite put his finger on, he decided not to ask immediately. Better to learn given time rather than force the course of a conversation without reason.
Fratava | Hypnotic Fratava | Common | Hypnotic Common | Vani

[Scaea Paille]

A small smirk played on her lips from the Svefra's compliments. He was certainly cute, even for a Freeborn. She took his hand, shaking it in a way somewhere between firm and gentle, and widened her smile a bit, almost in an unnaturally hesitant way.

"Scaea. Scaea Paille." Her voice was clear and was hinting on the quieter side of her usual volume. It was as if she didn't want people to notice her clearly associating with a Freeborn, no matter how well dressed, and almost acting as if he were nearly her equal, as she often tended to do by accident. She thought a bit, realizing that he seemed much more well dressed than any Svefra she had known, other than the Draer. For all of her earlier musing, he could simply be a human.

"Are you Svefra?" The question was blurted out, forced from her lips before she had even considered asking it. She immediately wished she could have taken it back, but it was already out there. Scaea remembered being reprimanded as a child for not holding her tongue more often than she'd have liked, and yet it still happened. Her smile, however, sticked, and she pretended that she had meant the question all along, going with the flow. She briefly lowered her eyes to her hands before looking him in the face again, pretending even more that she didn't think he was any sort of attractive.

[Tydus Tempest]

"Aye, I am."

Though the Tempest had abandoned the style of 'dress' known to his kind, and any love for the pod that he still claimed as his namesake, he was still Svefra. Laviku placed his mark upon the Tempest's arm from birth, claimed a foothold in the Svefra's soul and it was a relationship that the Svefra could not, nor would he ever want to part with. Intrinsic was the worship of Laviku for this particular Svefra. The sea took from him a pod but it kept him alive and it fostered his medium for business. So long as Tydus continued to sail the seas and claim his meals from it, his love for the Sea God and his heritage with it, was secured.

And it always will be. Tydus Tempest is a Svefra, even if his pod is gone.

Of course, with that declaration came the knowledge that one day, Tydus would too need to re-incorporate into a pod. Or, at the very least, find a Svefra that he was willing to follow and hail as his Lia. But until that day came, Tydus was free. And freedom brought with it an opportunity to expand his repertoire. The future of the Tempest pod could wait until then. The Tempest unbuttoned the cuff of his right arm. With it came an immediate flare of colour with the exposure of his pod tattoo. With each button, a different part of it could be seen, and soon enough, the Tempest rolled up the sleeve to his arm up to near the elbow, so that the entirety of the elaborate octopus tentacle and the clock that went with it could be seen.

"There's the proof of it, too. This is me pod's tattoo. The Tempests wore the octopus as a sign of reverence to Tatianna's pardisa."

But with that admission, the Tempest was past sharing of himself, and rather, moved forward to ask the Paille a question,

"Scaea Paille is a very pretty name. What's your trade, if I may ask?"

Fratava | Hypnotic Fratava | Common | Hypnotic Common | Vani

[Scaea Paille]

Scaea's eyes widened as he revealed his tattoo. It was beautiful - the tentacle grabbing a clock, jelly-fish and sea things swirling around his right forearm. It was huge, almost twice the size of the black lotus that was sitting on her upper back. She reached out and touched it, mesmerized by the art. If Scaea appreciated anything, it was tattoos, ink on skin. She was brought back to her father - the man had been covered in tattoos, and he looked like more of a Radacke than a Paille - and she loved him for it.

"Thank you...I'm a tattoo artist. And you have a very nice tattoo." She looked up from the tattoo at the Svefra - now confirmed, a smile on her face. He was bound to have more ink. She didn't know who Tatianna was, or what a pardisa happened to be, but she didn't really care at the moment. Seeing if this Svefra had more tattoos was more interesting.

"Have anymore ink?" Scaea was being forward, and she didn't much care. To her, a tattoo was like art and a museum, only living. While there were many forms of art that she enjoyed - plays, paintings, good stories - it was tattooing that really took the cake in her mind. There was nothing like seeing your own handiwork move and live as a permanent decoration on someone else. It was beautiful.

[Tydus Tempest]

.
And again the Tempest felt the pang of regret that came with the loneliness of solitude. The Svefra, meant to exist in the pod, were not meant to be alone. And he longed for the chance, deep within his being. However, he rejected the notion of it at the surface. His mind did not associate the freedom of his current life with that of his past, yet... when he delved into it, this was not true happiness. The life he lived was a stasis of solitude, deprived of camaraderie. Tydus could source, if he chose to, his decisions to the fact that he had been abandoned by pods in both death and life, but he decided to look the other way.

Push it all away. But could he? Most likely not.

He was glad that Scaea had not asked for the significance of the tattoo, as some in the past have. In said past, he'd have answered gladly, but the tattoo was now a dangerous topic. Painful. And so, when she asked about his other ink, he merely smiled and shook his head.

"Unfortunately, that's it. My skin holds the tapestry of my association with my pod, and the blessing of Laviku."

The gnosis was one that Tydus took great pride in, but it was, currently, a mark that was underneath skin that was better not left to exposure in the city of Kenash. Berated in the Summer for wearing close to nothing, Tydus had changed his wardrobe in order to better fit the city. And he had no intention of outing himself as a harlot or a philanderer in the public eye in this particular place. Kenash was a city of business and the Tempest scion comported himself accordingly.

"And do you?"

However, the Tempest was curious. Tattoos held great significance. A person who made their living by placing them upon the bodies of other people was one that he wished to know better. For Tydus both wished to place another tattoo upon his body, and profound associations outside of the context of a business agreement were also useful to him. Even if money was not on the table, and at times especially in those situations, the people of Kenash could be useful.

Kenash most likely holds much that is yet to be seen. Connections can help for an exploratory purpose just as well as a commercial one.

Fratava | Hypnotic Fratava | Common | Hypnotic Common

[Scaea Paille]

Scaea was disappointed. She was curious about his gnosis of Laviku...the god of the sea, if she remembered correctly, but it seemed as if he were going to leave it hidden. Nevertheless, she liked the pod tattoo on his forearm. She briefly wondered about the significance of his pod tattoo, but it seemed fairly obvious to the Paille - it was a pod tattoo. From what she knew of the Svefra, it probably signified his pod.

She turned her back towards him and moved her braid, the top half of her tattoo visible from the low cut back of the dress. This was her first, and only, tattoo, and while the space between the plain back lines and patterns was constellated with freckles, she liked showing it off. Her father had given her the tattoo when she was fairly young, maybe 15, to commemorate their recent trip to Ahnatep. She was fond of it, and she was fond of her father. She wished he would get better.

"It's my only tattoo. My father, like I am, is a tattoo artist, and gave it to me to remember a particularly exciting trip to Ahnatep." The tattoo itself was simple, and not as exciting as the trip had been, especially compared to the intricacy of Tydus's. She found herself to be smiling, remembering the trip, but her more recent memories of the man who couldn't leave bed forced them out and her face returned to passivity.

[Tydus Tempest]

.
The name Ahnatep was not familiar, though the strange pronunciation of the word bore a strange, unfamiliar yet reminiscent quality. Tydus had never set foot in the sands of Eyktol, though the bitter heat and golden sands were certainly present in the passing tales of the Svefra. While Tydus had no way of knowing that the city Scaea mentioned was far and away from where he had even heard from in those tales, the spinning visage of the coastal sands of Eyktol rose in his mind. Never visited and an experience that Tydus scarcely desired to have at all, he could not empathize with Scaea's reminiscence, but he immediately noted when the expression faded into obscurity, dying away like the last light of Syna seeping over the horizon.

The expression that Scaea wore bore the signs of an unsatisfied sort of sadness. It was easy enough to see. Cold and neutral, the instantaneous nature of the shift did not alert Tydus to any sort of attempt to hide anything, but rather, a genuine and solemn moment. The very sort that Tydus despised. He would not allow it to continue, for to consume oneself in the solemness in life was to infatuate oneself with such things as death, ruination and the inevitable damnation of the soul. The Svefra had enough of such feeling in his privacy to need encounter it outside of such isolation. Rather than allow the moment to continue, the Tempest reached forward and took the woman's hand,

"I'm going to show you the gnosis. Have you ever seen it?"

The gnosis of Laviku was known to shift and sway, and though there were a number of Svefra in the city of Kenash, a Dynasty of them known as the Draer, he knew that not all of them were as they seemed. The blessing of Laviku was only present upon the flesh and ingrained into the soul of some of the so-called Svefra Dynasty. Nyxie Nadira Draer had worn it as her own, though there were others under her mantle who could not say the same. And worse still, there were others that did not bear the ocean's blue countenance of the Svefra.

Liars and deceivers. Their souls have been swallowed by their greed.

If Scaea accepted his hand, he would quickly pull her forward and away from prying eyes of Lantern Square. They would not leave the square, but the Tempest deigned it best to take the Paille beneath the white staircase, the shadow that hung over both of them guaranteeing that the wall hid both of their bodies from view. It was then that Tydus, without another word, pulled at the buttons of his shirt and vest, removing both and placing the garments on the staircase in order for the Paille to have a view of the gnosis mark.

The waves of the gnosis were not still. They crashed and rippled. Frothy white burst from the stained blue of the waves. Crashing and flowing, the tide rippled against his bicep and curled over the joint of his elbow. The crest of the wave that cascaded upon his shoulder seeped over his shoulder and hung about it, as if his pectoral were a shoal. The gnosis burst with a life in colour identical to the hues of the Svefra's eyes.

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