Open Feelin' Blue (Zion)

[Allassanachassanya]

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1st Autumn 517 AV
"Speech"

The day had finally arrived when Ssanya didn't wake up and feel some measure of surprise about what the city had conjured to life. Waking up to find literally everything in the city turn to every imaginable shade of blue only made her squint and sigh amusedly. The news of why became apparent after her morning's breakfast- she heard at least three different, excited conversations about the Inverted's travel plans passed from lip to lip. Apparently they were travelling to perform at Ravok, a city that she knew only vaguely from the cities-illusion of a few seasons ago. It all seemed so distant. Having never seen the Inverted perform either, the excitement that was palpable on the air was mostly lost on the Dhani.

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A little later...

Azure cobblestones ran under her feet as the small woman thought deeply to herself. That was usually a bad idea when walking in Alvadas. You were almost guaranteed to stumble upon someplace that, in one way or another, would turn out to be either completely perfect for you, or somewhere that was the closest version of Hai to you at that particular point in time. Ssanya's verdict was still out, but then it would probably always be out. Alvadas was just that kind of place, and now... now it was home. Ssanya would roll with the punches, no matter how bizarre.

The road she walked down was stained blue from wall to roof, enough that it almost hurt her eyes to look at, in a spectacular kind of way. Apart from the colour though, it was ordinary for the city. Ssanya was feeling jittery and on edge, and full of a bouncing energy that stemmed from a couple of seasons without having a job. The snake woman was only diminutive, but she needed something to do to distract herself from... from what, she didn't know. Perhaps it was the malediction part of her mind that constantly ticked away and prompted more more more! Maybe it was the energy of not quite knowing what was going to come around the next bend, either in the city or in her life. The former excited her and the latter... Well, that gave her mixed feelings, ones she couldn't and thus didn't explain to herself.

She rounded a blue, blue corner. There, slap-bang in the oddly neat row of houses stood a building she had never seen before. It's blue façade was warily intimidating, but despite it's out-of-the-ordinary appearance when compared with its neighbours, she would have simply walked by. Yet by chance, the door opened smoothly and a tall, blonde man half walked, half stumbled out of the door clutching a dented fedora. On his face was an expression of acute agony... not that of actual pain, because Ssanya could see no wound, but of some personal anguish that piqued her. That mysterious, swirling energy inside her prompted her, madly, to step up to the now closed door and knock twice.

The door opened, slowly, maybe apprehensively in case the yellow-haired stranger had returned. The bulky man that stood in the doorway seemed only vaguely perplexed to see Ssanya instead, who was now regretting what she'd done. Petch petch petch... With no way of knowing what she was getting herself into, she began to scramble to find some way to excuse herself, when the man spoke in a deep, rumbling thunder of a voice. "I am hottest when sitting still and I am useful in your hand. I put bread on the table and put sails to ships. What am I?"

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[Zion]

Zion S.
1st of Fall

The first of the newest season brought little change for Zion, who simply walked as he usually did. His eyes naturally ignored the mass of blue that had overtaken the city due to the Inverted's influence. A born Alvadan, these sorts of things that would be odd and strange to a foreigner were commonplace to the young man.

Few thoughts graced his mind as he sauntered, his head remarkably emptied. It wasn't until he heard the tell-tale sounds of light music that emanated from some unknown home or business that he thought about going to somewhere lively and upbeat. With the Inverted departing soon for the better part of the season, it seemed best to find some other form of entertainment other than the wiles of humans and other mortals alike.

Sadly, the name and the location of the place he was thinking of evaded him. He hadn't been but once, and that was some years ago, and entirely on accident (as was usual in the City of Illusions). He hadn't stayed long, but.... The atmosphere was undeniably wild and bright, like a group of incredibly artistic children had gotten into a cart of paints and threads.

Never really one to rely on the city to do as he wanted, he kept what bearings he could while the thoughts of that elusive place idled at the back of his mind. Of course, the city always had other ideas, as if it had a mind entirely of its own that had little regard for his own thoughts.

As luck would have it (and it was entirely luck, honestly), the next corner he turned almost had him run right into the man that looked to have come from a building where now stood a large man in the doorway, with a woman in front of him. His voice, louder than necessary, carried over the distance to Zion, who continued walking and was a lot closer. ".... Are you money?" He called out randomly as he stopped in his tracks, and his eyes flitted between the man and the woman.

[Allassanachassanya]

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"Speech"

The man's stormy appearance barely flickered as his lips parted to acknowledge the answer's correctness. Ssanya however, who had been struggling to collect herself and figure out what he meant, turned to offer a surprised congratulation. Riddles were not something she knew much about, which wasn't to say she didn't know any. Her family's culture didn't really revolve around word-play and book knowledge. Ssanya was well-learned in malediction, and that was good enough for her.

The stranger who had now approached was tall and handsome. Ssanya, being small and quite regularly featured, simply said, "Thankss". She was thankful too. In Alvadas you never knew what you got. This man had a friendly, open face, didn't seem to be crazy at first glance, and had at least some intelligence. The easy answer to the question was a bonus too, it suggested the man was a regular or at least understood what the place was. The bouncer stood passively, now holding the door open. Distant sounds, too jumbled and out-of-place for the snake-woman to understand filtered from the dark corridor.

"You will come with me then?" The question was thrown over her shoulder at the taller fellow. Ssanya hoped, with a strange sense of desperation, that by flippantly pretending that he was a friend of hers that the door wouldn't shut in her face. She was seeking something. The dark corridor seemed to suggest she might find it inside. "Don't be ssshy." Now she smiled deliberately, with a quirked brow. I'm your friend, she tried to suggest. You don't want to miss out on this.

Whatever had happened seemed to work. The two complete strangers filtered through the age-stained door into the hazy corridor that lead to... the unknown.

Inside...

Behind them, the door creaked shut. Ssanya's edgy feelings hiked up. She was a predator, but even predators know if they are walking into a trap. In the musty darkness, with unfamiliar sounds trickling to her ears and a further door up ahead promising what she thought she was looking for, she whispered harshly under her breath at the caramel-skinned man who had madly followed her here. "Pleasse tell me this isss not a trap? You know what isss beyond that door?"

Petch.

Their walk shortly ended in the inexorable. The second and final door opened, and Ssanya steeled herself...

A voice spoke clearly. It was scathing and female, made of crimson lips and sharp suits. "That was a pathetic gamble, Gamal." Ssanya's eyes whipped around to survey the room, noticing the tables, the cards, the click of money and the most particularly the faces, desperate and greedy and calculating all at once. But she barely had time to listen to her companion or to completely take stock of the room before the red-lipped woman gestured towards her. She sat at a small, lamp-lit table draped in rich, cobalt velvet. Her face was pinched and mean, but her hair gleamed in ebony delight. Three others sat with her, one dark-haired and quivering ever so slightly. He was Gamal. Must be. The other two sat on chairs pushed back into the shadows, and their faces were unreadable. "Yes, you there. You two. Come closer. Tell me, so as to save Gamal's pitiful hide. What race are you two?"

Ssanya approached slowly, feeling some kind of dismay at her body's own weak defences and lack of control. She was taken aback, but answered the frank question completely honestly in a soft voice that bravely attempted to hide the overall confusion at whatever was going on. "I am a Dhani. Why?"

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[Allassanachassanya]

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Date 517
"Speech"

Text here.

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