Closed Follow My Lead (Redire)

[Phobius]

2nd of Winter, 514 AV

Phobius had woken up with a false hope in his heart.

It was Winter, now, one of his most favorite seasons, and he'd fully expected to see thick blankets of snow covering the ever-changing streets and buildings when he sprung out of bed, this morning, having eagerly pressed his face into his window. To his disappointment, the city looked no different than it had looked the day before. And the day before that, and the day before that...there wasn't so much as a single snowflake on his window pane.

The boy couldn't help but be a little saddened. Back home, the Winter snow always came in early, sometimes amassing in mounds overnight or coming in the form of intense, freezing blizzards. And it had always been beautiful to him, enough that he'd spend as much time as he could outside of the city's caverns and tunnels, just to be able to play in all of that snow. It was unbelievably tempting, not to mention ten times more fun than the boring jobs he'd have to do. Sometimes the other Dek would scold him and tell him to stop "goofing off" when he was out, but it was more often than not that they left him alone, so the Inartan boy was free to roll around and make snow-people for as long as he wanted.

He couldn't do that here, though. Alvadas was snow-less. I guess Ionu doesn't like the cold, Phobius thought to himself, staring out the window for a few more ticks. Then he let out a sigh and slid himself off of his bed, rumpled blankets clinging to one of his legs as he went. Now that he was awake, he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Not that he needed to, to begin with, nor was he feeling sleepy. Leaning forward to pull his boots on, the boy pushed away the disappointment that the morning had brought, replacing it with eagerness for the day ahead.

Today was pretty special. He'd promised Redire that he would take him on a tour of the city, yesterday, and there'd been seldom a moment in Phobius' life when he'd went back on a promise, so today would be the day. The boy hadn't attempted to really plan it out, but with how often the streets and buildings changed, there wasn't much of a reason to. With luck, Ionu would lend him a hand in showing his new friend around.

Before all that happened, however, he'd need to actually find Redire. To the boy, it made sense to check with Ms. Georgia, first, just in case the man happened to be staying in the Cubacious Inn, too. Once Phobius was dressed, he headed to the lobby and asked the seemingly-omnipresent woman if he'd checked in, the day before. She said that he hadn't, then suggested that he go to the Sanity Center as opposed to the other inn. "I'm sure that he would have stopped by the center when he arrived," the woman had told him, a mildly amused smile on her face. "Serenity sees who comes and goes, and if she isn't pulling her hair out when you get there, it should be safe to ask if she met him. Just remember to be gentle about it."

With a vigorous nod, the boy thanked her and left. Around six chimes later, he arrived at the center. Ms. Serenity was looking reasonably calm when he approached her desk, though the look she gave him made him feel as though she didn't really want to deal with people, at the moment. Phobius hated to bother her, and it made it clear when he spoke, but she waved off his apologies before telling him that she'd seen Redire the day before. She had no idea where it was that he'd exactly gone, but her advice was to look for streets that were made of water and some slanted roofs. It didn't make any sense to the boy, but he thanked her for her help and kept the rest of his questions in his head.

Finding the things the woman had mentioned took some time, but once he felt water lapping at his ankles he figured that he'd come to the right place. Phobius walked over to the nearest door and, not really knowing what he was doing, started knocking on it. Hopefully he wasn't wrong.

"Redire? It's Phobius! Are you in there?"

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Redire Whitevine]

It was a quiet morning for Redire. He had woken up earlier when a stranger had knocked on his door and asked for directions to the nearest inn. Unfortunately, he had to the person that he had no clue since he was rather new to the city and suggested heading to the Sanity Center.

Breakfast was rather lite, as he chose to go through his rations and prepare himself a slice of bread with a bit of honey. Thinking about what he would do for the day, he looked towards the bowl of water he set on the table yesterday and took a seat, taking a moment to pray.

Oh Lady Morwen, thank you for your aid. Yesterday, I was able to meet a pair of individuals who will help me get started within this new city. Today, may your grace continue to flow through me and let this be another wonderful day.

Once he finished, he tapped his gnosis mark and watched as the water slowly turned to ice, manipulating it slightly at the center so that a simple snowflake could be seen as an offering to the goddess. Content, he was about to grab his knife to practice carving the ice till he heard a knock at his door along with someone's voice.

"Redire? It's Phobius! Are you in there?"

Smiling, he recalled the promise made to him and got up to go answer the door, after throwing on his boots to make himself ready. Coming out, he greeted Phobius with a wave of his hand, "Morning! Sorry for the wait, are we heading out?" He was excited, to be honest, his eyes reflecting this by a swift change to purple. The opening to his home was still open, and Phobius could see within and notice the small ice sculpture if he chose to peek.

[Phobius]

Phobius was ready to apologize by the time that Redire answered the door, partially convinced that he'd found the wrong house and had bothered a stranger. He relaxed upon seeing the man's familiar face, and the eagerness he'd been feeling all morning returned, nearly setting the amber hues of his eyes aglow. "Yup! The earlier we go, the more time we have and the more stuff we get to see!" the boy replied, smiling broadly. Then he seemed to consider something, his expression growing more thoughtful. "I hope I didn't wake you up or anything. I get up early a lot, so I kinda thought that you'd be awake by now..."

All of a sudden, he caught sight of something interesting out of the corner of his eye. His attention redirecting itself, Phobius' gaze slid passed Redire to settle on a thing that was inside of the house; it was small and sat on a table, and when he stared a bit harder he realized that it was made out of ice.

"Hey, what's that...?" the boy asked, still staring at the thing. "The ice thingy in there...is it yours?"

With those inquiries came more, resting on his tongue as he brought his focus back over to the man's face. And then he noticed something odd.

His eyes...they were purple, now, but Phobius could have sworn that they'd been a different color when he'd opened the door.

"Your eyes changed colors!" he exclaimed, sounding as shocked as if he'd just told someone that their shirt was on fire. He'd never seen a person whose eyes changed colors, before...truthfully, Phobius didn't think that such a thing was possible. A teacher had told him, once, that all babies are born with the same eye color until they're a little bit older, which is when they get their permanent color. But that was about it.

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.

[Redire Whitevine]

Redire was excited, the emotion down by his purple eyes and that he was now rocking on his heels. A sudden feeling of nervousness came to mind, but he dismissed it with a quick nod, making it so that he agreed with Phobius's statement. "I agree, and I would like to thank you again for taking the time to show me around, I am happy to see what the day brings!"

Willing himself to stay in place, he noticed how Phobius seemed to stare at past him. At first, Redire thought he left something out of place and had to look back to see if this was true. Scanning quickly, he relaxed when nothing looked out of place, so he followed the man's gaze till he realized that he was starting at his offering bowl. Hearing the question, a chuckle escaped him as he looked back at the snowflake he sculpted, "Yes, I made it with help from Morwen's blessing...the sculpture is an offering to her. I owe much to her, and activities like this keep me stay connected to my culture."

Home...that was something that came to mind often, but staring at the ice reminded him of the long hours he spent helping his father shoveling snow or the occasional story from his mother. This made his eyes turn black for a second, but he shook the thought away quickly before he started brooding. Turning to a more enjoyable topic, he pointed out the gnosis mark on his right hand, revealing the familiar markings that resembled a snowflake. "This is the blessing I got from her...every now and then I touch it for good luck...a new habit ever since I came to Alvadas."

Looking up at Phobius, he realized the surprised expression on his face, and just when he was about to ask what was wrong, he pointed out his changing eye color. This made the Vantha laugh, shifting the colors to purple then yellow as he wondered if this was the first time the man had seen this. Composing himself, he smiled, "Haha, they do that depending on my mood. All Vantha share this trait, along with shimmering hair...mine has red...see?" He lowered his head, providing an easier view of his head and sure enough, the highlights began to vary in the shades of red, almost as if they had come to life.

Waiting till Phobius was content, Redire straightened himself before running a hand through his hair. Taking a brief look at the sky, he smiled, remembering what they were supposed to do, "Well, we should start the tour, yes? We can talk more as we go, and I can answer any questions you might have for me too."

[Phobius]

Morwen...?

Phobius let the name float around in his head for a bit, wondering if it'd jog some distant memory, but he didn't think he'd ever heard about a person named "Morwen," before. It kind of sounded as though she was a friend of Redire's, but talk of offerings and blessings were quick to make him doubt that assumption; offerings were like gifts, and it was normal for friends to be giving gifts to one another...but a blessing?

The man suddenly lifted one of his hands, and the boy's eyes lit up in awe when he noticed the markings that sat on his skin; it looked as though someone had drawn a pretty snowflake on him. According to Redire, his Morwen had given it to him. A small offering of her own. Phobius marveled at it for a moment, then nearly cried out in surprise when a memory came to him, entirely unannounced but relevant. He knew what this mark was called...he'd seen a few pictures of ones like it in books, before, though they weren't all snowflakes, and had always found them to be incredibly interesting. Gnosis marks...little signs of the gods' favor in a person. As far as he understood, the people who had them were a lot like the people who were able to become Endals in Wind Reach; they had something really special in them, and even if they couldn't see it, themselves, someone or something else could. Still staring at the mark, Phobius briefly wondered just why it was that Morwen—who he was thinking was some kind of deity, now—had decided to give the man one. Had he gone and done something that she liked, or was he simply a kind, generous person whom she felt needed a reward, of some sort?

He could have asked him. But then Redire laughed, the light, mirthful noise alone seeming to change his eyes from purple to yellow, and Phobius' eyes widened.

So he was a Vantha...? They lived further North, didn't they? The boy didn't know much about them, aside from that supposed city of ice that he'd about from time to time. When the man dipped his head to show his hair, Phobius smiled and moved around a little, toying with the sunlight so that he'd be able to see all of the rippling shades. There was so much red...it reminded Phobius of his own hair, for a moment.

"Well, we should start the tour, yes?"

Right, right, of course! Alvadas wasn't going to show itself off. But...where would they go to, first? The city was full of so many great things to see and taste and smell, and there was nothing that Phobius wanted more than to bring Redire to each and every interesting spot that he'd come to know over the last few seasons. But something like that could take up the whole day.

Then again...maybe he could just bring him to all of the places that he liked. Alvadas was a great city, but that didn't make it exempt from possessing some dark, unsettling areas...places like the Underground with all of its violent thugs, and that creepy mirror-house... Redire didn't need to see those places. And Phobius had some faith in his own judgement.

"Yeah, let's go!" the boy exclaimed, sounding excited enough to start jogging as the "official tour" began. "And I know just the place to start at, too. Follow me!"

Not really waiting for a response from the man, Phobius started back the way he had come, the water again lapping at his ankles beneath his bryda and trying its hardest to worm its way into his boots. It was nice that Redire had offered to answer any questions he wanted to ask, but for the first few chimes of walking the boy couldn't come up with any. Then one came to him, and it made him so curious that he spoke it right away. "Did you used to live in that ice city...? The one where it's Winter all the time. I don't remember it's name, but what's it like? Is it really pretty? Does everyone there make ice sculptures like you do?"

It was a city that he'd always wanted to visit. Well, one that he planned on visiting, at some point in his life. A city where the snow that covered the ground never melted...to be honest, it sounded too good to be truly true. The boy eagerly awaited Redire's answer, hoping that he'd at least passed through the place if it wasn't where he was actually from. A moment later, however, and he darted forward to grab the man by the wrist without warning, a joyful gleam in his amber eyes. "We're here! The Bizarre! It's the kinda boring-looking building right there," Phobius said, smiling as he pointed at the building, its chipping paint and lack of windows as unassuming and unimpressive as it'd been when he'd first come upon it.

"Just wait'll you see the inside!" he added, already tugging Redire along as he went jogging toward the front entrance, weaving around some people in the process. Once they were inside, Phobius released him and held his arms up in a big "ta-da!" gesture. "It's just so huuuge! You can buy anything you want from here, too. Really. They sell a whole bunch of food and tools and...just about whatever you can think of!"

"This is speech in Nari."

This is thought.