Closed Sleeping With Spiders (Pho)

[Dexius]

44th of Summer, 516 AV

The last couple of days would have been just like any of the others before it up until now. Except now people in the city of illusions were dying. One man was shot and then poisoned. The streets just weren't as safe as they were when Dex arrived in the city a little over thirty days ago. So he decided today would be a day to go out onto the streets to see things going on for himself. The city willing, he would hopefully end up somewhere useful today, but that was not usually the case with Alvadas.

This afternoon the winding and ever changing streets of the city were determined to plop Dex right in front of the entrance to the temple of Ionu. How appropriate. The entire time he'd been in the city not once had he yet come to the temple to pay his respects to the patron deity of the city. Partly because he knew very little of the mysterious Ionu, partly because it was packed full of refugees.

Moving forward he ascended the few stairs towards the temple entrance, the doors wide open due to the influx of refugees and the local citizenship. Figuring he should probably attempt to show some sort of respect to the deity he pulled his signature scarf down from his face. Looking around as he entered, Dex noticed a large variety of different people who called their temple their temporary home. Humans of various skin and hair colors littered the floor in a haphazard fashion, not exactly an ideal place for a fragile Symenestra to be.

He took note of a few races he had never seen before: strange people with multiple arms, small beings of..clay?, and what appeared to be a large monkey of some sort. A strange sight, but not one so strange for the city of Alvadas and surely not in the temple of Ionu Dex surmised. No fellow Symenestra though and that might not be a bad thing either. He wasn't exactly fond of dealing with his own kind, for the most part they seemed...closed minded. He preferred his more carefree view of the world to that of a closed in cave.

Carefully skirting around the largest group of refugees Dex finally managed to make it to the small raised platform in the center of the temple, a main place of worship he figured. Sitting down on one of the wooden benches he wondered what to do now. "How do you..express thanks to a god you know nothing about..?" He merely sat for a few moments in silence before getting antsy at all the people surrounding him. This seemed like a silly idea, he didn't really like crowds too much.

[Phobius]

When Phobius had first arrived at the Temple, he'd been a bit worried. Aside from an old backpack he'd stuffed with some supplies and Nini—who had perched herself on his shoulder and nibbled at his ear while he'd looked for the place that Miss Georgia had told him about—he hadn't brought anything with him, and that had probably been for the best. The Temple was crowded, filled with all kinds of people that he had never seen, before; blue-skinned people and white-haired people and people with drawings all over their bodies, even people that looked small enough to fit in his hand. There didn't seem to be much space for him among them, let alone for his things, but he managed to find himself a comfortable little niche and get settled in after a while.

That turned out to be the hardest part. Sleeping around a bunch of other people was kind of strange, at first, but after a few nights he got used to it. The people themselves were nice; a lot of them didn't seem to like talking to strangers, but the ones who did quickly became his friends, like Oria, a pretty white-haired woman who shared some of her food with him, and Thrush, a big hairy animal-man who let him borrow one of his sleeping blankets. Neither of them had ever been to Alvadas, before, and when he'd asked them how they were liking it they both frowned.

"I...well, it's an interesting city," Oria had said, sounding as though she were struggling to find the right words. "But I haven't felt very...safe, as of late. People have been getting hurt, and with what happened to that poor man that was found..."

She'd trailed off, then, not seeming to want to go on. Curious, Phobius had asked her who the "poor man" was, but Thrush was the one who ended up telling him the whole story. The "poor man" had been killed; shot in the heart with something poison. No one knew who had done it, or why...and there were other problems, too. Like those undead monsters having come back.

The events of last winter were still fresh in the boy's mind; the knife, the horse, Miss Maya, that dreadful door... But it didn't make much sense to him. How were those monsters able to come back? As far as he knew, no one had said anything about another door popping up in the middle of Alvadas, and wasn't that where they had come from the first time? The "other Alvadas"?

He wasn't sure. Then again he didn't want to be sure; not even now, as he sat at one of the Temple's benches and stared at the ground, letting his mind drift.

"How do you..express thanks to a god you know nothing about..?"

Phobius raised his head and looked around, unsure if he was being spoken to or not. It didn't take long for him to find the owner of the voice that had pulled him out of his sea of thoughts; it was a man who was sitting on a bench not too far from his own, with long, black hair and a red scarf that was wrapped around his shoulders. The boy stared at him for a moment, silent as he mulled over his question, then smiled.

"You can probably just say 'thank you'," he said, and Nini, who had dozed off on his shoulder, fluffed up a bit. His voice was soft, but it had still woken her up. "I know people like when you thank them, and gods are kind of people, right? So they should like it too."

[Dexius]

"You can probably just say 'thank you'" The unexpected response suddenly caused Dex to look for a few moments to discover the owner of the disembodied voice. There just a few benches away from where he was resting was another man, he figured that must be the owner of the voice. Crimson red hair adorned the head of the pale skinned man who'd given Dex his unexpected answer. He also appeared to have some sort of bird resting on his shoulder. Strange. The avian companion rustled slightly and puffed up for a moment, it must have just woken up.

Dex never really expects to get answers to questions he asks out loud to himself, although it has been a tad more common since arriving in the city of illusions. But before he could even get a peep out the man continued on with his speech. "I know people like when you thank them, and gods are kind of people, right? So they should like it too." The mans words were quiet and sounded a bit carefree.

Dex stared the man down with little more than a half smile on his face while he processed his thoughts. The gods, they were not just people. They were gods of course and most of them he figured required a certain way to profess thanks towards them. You couldn't just walk over to a shrine say thanks and be done, that appeared to defeat the point of faith in the first place.

"What do you know of the god of this city then? Does he..or she..or it respond kindly to a simple thank you? Ionu is a strange deity to me..i'm not exactly sure how to handle it."

Truthfully he didn't really know how to handle or deal with any god. Even Viritas, god of essence the main god of worship for the Symenestra was beyond his reach. He had read and followed the teachings of the Viratassa like all other Symenestra did. But even still blood was shed on his watch with no sign of assistance from his primary deity, so he took his own blood instead.

So he could spill or protect blood in various ways to proclaim his faith towards Viritas. But still it escaped the swordsman on how to honor a god of illusions even here in it's temple.

Dex looked his conversation partner over once more. The man seemed rather peaceful, like the look of somebody who would do no harm. Or had yet to do so. But he didn't exactly stick out here in the temple packed to the brim with pilgrims, there were many different races residing currently within. In fact Dex was probably the one that stuck out the most, likely the only Symenestra in the temple as far as he saw.

But Dex was a fairly curious fellow even if it could get him into trouble every now and again. "So what city do you travel here from, pilgrim? Or am I mistaken and you're simply one of Ionu's devout followers come to praise the god of illusions."

Feeling a tad bit uncomfortable at the moment. The wooden benches weren't exactly soft cloth after all. Dex decided to remove his scabbard from his waist and lay it across his legs in a horizontal fashion. Elbows came to rest on the sheathed blade with his chin resting on open palms.

Dex was now intrigued about what the red haired man had to say. After all he was the only one in the entire temple that decided to respond to him, maybe he had something important to say. Or not.

[Phobius]

When the man turned his head and looked at him, Phobius flinched, feeling as though Nini had been nibbling at his hair and plucked a strand from his scalp without realizing it. He'd seen those eyes, before; brilliant purple ones that had glittered like gems in a dream of his, before it had become a nightmare and he'd woken up with both of his hands wrapped around his own throat. Then he looked a bit harder and relaxed a little, seeing the flecks of blue that were in them.

He wasn't Pryzavard. Pryzavard had been gone for a while, now. But there was something about him that made him think of the Symenstra, in spite of that...something familiar.

Phobius furrowed his brows a bit and stared at the man, wanting to find the source of that familiar feeling, but then he spoke, asking him what he knew about Ionu, and he tilted his head at him. Most people didn't ask him about religion stuff; to be honest, he still wasn't sure what to think about all of it.

"Well...I know he's real," he said. That the god could be a woman had never crossed his mind. "He makes all the illusions. I think he makes the city change, too, and moves the buildings around. And people here like him a lot. You can't see him, though, because he hides. I think that's because he likes playing games."

The boy's eyes had drifted over to the podium as he'd spoken. Now they returned to the man's own, bright and full of interest.

"He might like a thank you. And maybe a present, too? I think gods like getting presents. Like flowers."

Flowers seemed like the best kind of present, in his mind. Food could be good, too, but he wasn't sure whether or not gods could eat. Maybe they didn't need to...? Or maybe they had some kind of special god food that could only be made by other gods.

"So what city do you travel here from, pilgrim?" the man asked. "Or am I mistaken and you're simply one of Ionu's devout followers come to praise the god of illusions."

Phobius couldn't help but laugh at his words. "I came here from Wind Reach a long time ago, but now I live here. Alvadas is my home," he replied, grinning a bit. Then he eyed the man's bench, seeming to mull over something before he got up from his own and went to join him, plopping down right next to him. Nini let out a surprised little squawk and tottered on his shoulder until she found her balance, again, and the boy kept grinning, feeling as though he'd made the right choice. Talking to someone else was much, much easier when you were sitting closer to them.

"Where're you from? And what's your name? Mine's Phobius," he said, not seeming to mind that the distance between them was almost nonexistent, now. Hopefully his new, potential friend would want to introduce himself.

[Dexius]

The crimson haired man had flinched when the two finally locked eyes for the first time during their so far brief conversation. Strange, but not too strange. The Symenestra were not exactly the most loved people in Kalea, they had a certain..reputation that was upheld by foreigners. This could perhaps be the man's first time seeing one of his people, probably scared the shyke out of him too, oh well.

Regardless, the man seemed very keen on staring Dex down, not exactly something he was very fond of. Staring eventually brought more eyes and more eyes equals attention, something he tried to keep away from. Dex liked being low key, just sort of existing in the background of whatever was happening around him. But now he was the sole focus of the man in front of him; as much as he would rather not be, but Dex was not a rude person so he would indulge him for now.

Dex yawned slightly as the man explained his reasoning behind the existence of a particular god of illusions. "Perhaps you are right then, it doesn't seem likely the city changes of mortal means. And you say he hides but then who is the seeker exactly in this game of his?" The gods were most likely fickle beings and were probably already using many mortals in their 'games,' whatever they were.

The eyes of the man became very..excited looking after he peered about the temple for a moment. Great, perfect. He then suggested that Dex give the god a present, perhaps a flower. The local flora was not exactly Dex's strongest suit that was for sure, not that a simple flower would impress a god anyhow. "I think I would rather play a game than go pick flowers, i'm not sure about you."

This man seemed to perceive the world around him in a fairly light heartened fashion. Picking flowers to give to a god as a gift seemed rather...childish but perhaps his culture was quite a bit different than his own. If that was the case then where could this strange man be from? The man responded to him with words of his home city. Wind Reach? That would explain a lot then. Dex was not exactly familiar with the going ons of the people from that particular part of Kalea. Not that he knew a lot about the other parts of Kalea, it was fairly secluded after all.

Suddenly the man rose from his position on his bench only to take a seat directly next to Dex. Clearly the man had no concept of person space, he was only a few inches away. Did he want a hug or something? He had a disturbingly large grin on his face as he introduced himself and inquired about Dex's past.

Dex straightened back up from resting his chin on his open palm before nudging away from the man, Phobius, slightly. "I'm from Kalinor but now I live here in Alvadas same as you. Name's Dexius but I prefer people call me Dex, if you don't mind."

Strange though. This man Phobius had said that he would give thanks to the gods with a gift but he had no such gift to give now. Had he already given it? Dex was a tad curious, if only very slightly. "So what are you doing here in the temple Phobius? I don't see a flower, as you suggested, to use as a gift to Ionu."

[Phobius]

"Dex...?" Phobius echoed, tilting his head a bit at the Symenstra. It was an odd-sounding name, not to mention a lot shorter than the ones that he was used to, but that made it easier to remember, and the more he thought about it the more he liked it. "Dex. Okay."

Had Pryzavard lived in Kalinor before he'd come to Alvadas, too? Phobius seemed to remember him having mentioned the place, before, but wasn't too sure. Maybe it was where a lot of Symenstra lived.

Done with his introduction, Dex went on to ask him what he was doing in the temple. "I don't see a flower, as you suggested, to use as a gift to Ionu," he said, and the boy stared at him in silence for a few ticks, a puzzled expression upon his pale-skinned face. Then he understood what he'd meant and smiled. "Oh, I'm not here to give Ionu a present; this is where I stay. I used to be at the Inn—the one with the big, spinny cubes—but it got crowded because of all of the new people, so Miss Georgia told me that I could come here," he replied. "I think that was three days ago. Or four. Maybe five...?"

Feeling uncertain, he looked down at his hand to check the math on his fingers.

"No, three. This one is four," he said, wiggling his pinky in the air before he raised his head and met the Symenstra's eyes, again. "Anyway, I really like it here. The people are nice and tell lots of good stories, and there's this lady named Oria that gave Nini some bread...but Nini doesn't like bread, so she gave it to me instead. Thrush said that's because she's a can-ni-fore and they only eat meat. He's really big and really nice and knows a lot of stuff, and sometimes I don't get a little of it, but I like his voice. I think he said people like him are called Jumores...?"

Phobius thought about it for a moment. He'd asked the man what he was and if there were more people out there who were just like him, but he couldn't remember what he'd told him, other than yes. Were they called Jumores, or something else? Jumimies? Jamories? Jameroes?

"I have to ask him when I see him, again," he told himself, seeming to forget for a few ticks that he wasn't alone. Then he blinked at Dex, who had already earned the title of "new friend" in his mind, and the smile returned to his face. "Staying here doesn't cost any mizas, so that's good, too. I need to save those until I start going and delivering stuff, again."

Which will be soon, he could have added but didn't. Courier-ing had become hard for him after last spring, so he'd been more or less avoiding it. Now he realized that that had to stop, if he was going to keep being able to feed himself and sleep in an actual bed.

"So do you like Alvadas, Dex? And what's Kalinor like? Why did you leave, if it's okay for me to ask...?" Phobius questioned, sounding a bit hesitant but nonetheless curious.

[Dexius]

Dex looked at the man with a puzzled look for a moment when he told him he no longer had a proper place to live. Strange. He figured that most if not all of the people staying inside the temple were part of the wave of refugees but Phobius said he had been here quite a while already. Well, at least it explained why he was here other than to praise the god of illusions.

Phobius went on to tell Dex how long he had been in the temple so far before wiggling one of his fingers after apparently counting on his hand. Strange, again. The red haired man seemed to know what he was talking about but the simplicity of counting three or even four was even within the grasp of a small child. Still, he was curious about why Phobius was at the temple instead of continuing to stay at the inn, surely he could stay in his room so long as coin permitted him to do so. A sudden influx of visitors wouldn't just expel him from a space he was already paying for.

"What made you leave the comfort of the inn, if I might ask? I would easily take the privacy of a room to myself over a crowded area such as this and if you had the coin to stay no other customers should have been able to push you out of your lodging."

Well, at least he said he likes it here. Dex knew he would go mad if he had to stay surrounded by all of these people all night. Plus he would likely break a few somethings being cramped up in here, it was strenuous enough sliding through the crowd just to get to the bench he was sitting on. Dex continued to listen attentively as Phobius continued on about the other temple dwellers and chuckled slightly at his small pronunciation error. "I believe the word you're looking for there is carnivore, friend." He tried to say it in a helpful manner, Dex wasn't very fond of angering random strangers, especially in a group of other strangers.

Dex went on listening to Phobius as he seemed to zone off talking to well, perhaps himself? Dex was guilty of doing this so he wasn't exactly one to judge the man on this fault. He merely smiled at Phobius as he blinked a few times before returning to his train of thought.

Perhaps it was because of the mizas then, if he was out of work for long enough. Though it sounded like Phobius had a job as a courier, well, at least he did. Dex wasn't sure he would want to try to deliver anything in a city like Alvadas he could barely deliver himself to begin with. "So you did courier work before then? What prompted you to stop your work for so long to have to leave your room at the inn?"

Dex scratched the back of his head nervously as Phobius asked him about his leaving of Kalinor. He really hated this question as he wasn't exactly sure why he left either. Sure he hoped his people could some day find a place back on the surface but it wasn't going to be because of one another long Symenestra roaming the world. "Alvadas is..very..interesting. To say the least." Overwhelming would likely be a better word to use. Dex missed the simplicity of being able to walk exactly where he wanted to go.

"Kalinor is..well. I would say it is a city like no other but I think Alvadas has that covered as well. My home is a dark place that can be treacherous for non Symenestra to navigate. In a way both it and Alvadas can be hard to get through, just in different ways. As for why I left...we'll leave that one up in the air for now yes?"

Hopefully forever.

"So tell me about Wind Reach Phobius, I would like to know what your home is like and what brought you to Alvadas." Truthfully, Dex wasn't overall that interested in the man's home city. It wasn't where he was at the moment but Dex preferred to deflect the questions asked of him elsewhere for the time being.

"How much longer do you think you will be staying here in the temple?"

[Phobius]

Hearing Dex ask what it was that had stopped him from doing his job, Phobius frowned a little. "Umm...well, the person who gave it to me was a good friend," he said, a sullen expression coming onto his face. "I liked it a lot, and he paid me mizas and said that I did a good job, but then one day he...went away. Forever. I missed him so much, I stopped going around delivering things, and now...now it's hard to do it. It makes me miss him even more."

As if she was able to sense the sudden change in his mood, Nini stirred on his shoulder and started to nibble at an errant strand of hair. He couldn't help but smile because of it, appreciating the fact that she was trying to cheer him up, and reached up to pat her on the head with a few of his fingers. Talking about the alchemist nowadays didn't hurt as much as it used to, but it still made him feel sad, so he tried to avoid it if he could. Dex hadn't known, and that was alright.

His feathered friend ended up abandoning one strand for another as the Symenstra went on to speak about Kalinor. He compared it to Alvadas, but that was about it, and Phobius was left to wonder what he'd meant when he'd said that it was "a city like no other". Was it special, like Alvadas? If it was, how? He wanted to ask, but it didn't seem like his new friend was going to say anything else about it, and he wouldn't push him to talk about things that he didn't want to talk about. That wouldn't be nice.

When he asked about Wind Reach, Phobius' frown returned. He didn't answer him at first, not really wanting to; then he turned away from him, looking at nothing in particular when he said, "I didn't like it there, so I left. Alvadas is a lot better."

Feeling as though he'd said enough, the boy left it at that, his gaze drifting over to a man with a long, braided beard who was hunched over a bowl or something. Soup, if he had to take a wild guess. A lot of the people here seemed to like eating soup.

"How much longer do you think you will be staying here in the temple?" Dex asked a short moment later, and Phobius turned back to him, a bit surprised. "Huh. I never thought about that," he admitted, then tilted his head back so that he could look up at the ceiling. "When I start working again, I'll make more mizas...but the Inn could still be full, so I might have to be here for a while. There's nowhere else to go."

He paused, thinking that that didn't sound right, then pursed his lips a bit and went on.

"Hmm...well, no. I could go outside. I have a tent, and I use it sometimes. Alvadas is really pretty at night when you're in the woods, staring up at the stars...dark, too, but not scary-dark. Nice-and-quiet-dark. But I think I might just keep staying here. I like the people!"

[Dexius]

Listening to what Phobius had to say about his former friend and employer caused Dex to wince for a moment before his lips formed a small frown. He knew exactly what it was like to lose a friend forever so it was easy to empathize with the man. Losing somebody you care about is not exactly something you can compare to losing a simple belonging. Dex found himself zoned out for a few moments thinking about his past before returning to the conversation with Phobius calmly petting the small bird of his shoulder.

"Perhaps you should take the memories of your friend in a positive light. I am sure he would not want you to take his exit in a negative fashion. It is okay to miss people too, I miss somebody very dearly but I try to take strength from the memories I had with her and push on. You should try to do the same, if you like delivering things like you say than go do it."

When Phobius turned away at the mention of his home Dex got to wondering what had really happened to this man. He seemed so happy and cheerful at first glance but now he seemed to be almost the opposite. But again, Dexius could relate to his red haired friend. Home was not exactly a place either of them seemed to want to go back to. "I agree, Alvadas is a lot better in some ways. It sure is full of surprises if nothing else." The Symenestra forced a smile on his face. He did not get home sick very often but all of a sudden he missed his family even if his father was a little hard on him at times. Scratch that, all the time.

Dex began to nod his head when Phobius turned back and explained his short term plan for mizas and home. "The inn will always be a fair place to stay, easily better than being crammed into the temple like this."

Phobius went on about camping in a tent which caused a small chuckle to escape from Dex. He had always enjoyed the sky, day or night. The stars always seemed like something special. "Being outside and enjoying what is around is something I did a lot as a child. Against the better judgement of my father of course. Luckily for me though there is not exactly a scary-dark to be had. My people have strong eyes so we can easily enjoy the quiet-dark that you mentioned."

At the mention of all the people Dex looked around again. Definitely too many people here for him, crowds could get strenuous for Symenestra. A few wrong bumps could send him flailing to the local healers. "People are okay sometimes. This happens to be a tab bit much for me though. Luckily I have my own place here in the city to escape from the hustle and bustle. Don't you plan on getting a house some day?"

[Phobius]

The Symenstra looked around the temple, neither smiling nor frowning at the strangers that he saw, and Phobius watched him, wondering if being surrounded by so many people was starting to make him feel uncomfortable. Personally, he had never minded large crowds, but could understand not liking them when you weren't used to them, especially with how easy it was to get lost in one. That had almost happened to him more than once at the beginning of the season, when Alvadas' streets had been flooded with people from every known and unknown corner of the world.

After mentioning that he had a house to return to, Dex asked him if he planned on getting his own at some point in the future, and he smiled. "I do! I mean, I want to. And I will, I just don't know when," the boy replied, seeming confident about it. "Houses are a lot of mizas, so I'll have to work real hard and save mine until I have enough."

Then he paused, seeming to consider something for a moment, and his smile softened.

"I like thinking about it, though; what it'll look like and all that. I don't want it to be too big, but I don't want it to be too small, either... and I want a nice, soft bed that's next to a window, so I can watch the sun come up in the mornings, and look at the moon and stars when it's late and I can't sleep. And Nini can have a cage next to it, but it has to be a big one. She grows fast."

The bird—having found something small and interesting to stare at from afar—didn't react to hearing her name, but when he reached up to pet her she turned to look at him, tilting her head a bit. Sometimes he forgot that she'd been no bigger than his hand when he had found her months ago, but she was much older, now, and ate more meat than he did on a regular basis. All in all, he hadn't expected her to stay small forever, despite how much he'd loved being able to carry her around in her little box.

"I could invite all my friends over, too! And we could buy food and cook it together!" Phobius gasped, looking and sounding as though he had just had some sort of life-changing epiphany. Never mind that he didn't know a single thing about cooking; it would be fun!

Pausing for a moment, he tried to think of what other things he would want in his dream home, but nothing else came to mind. "I think that's it," he said. "What's your house like, Dex?"