Possibly the rainiest place on Evelon, Baian stretches for miles along the southern coasts. Thanks to the moist soil rich in minerals, wildlife here have developed unique adaptations. To travel through this thick, muddy area, most either take specially designed boats. (+2 Offense)

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The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 03/31/2012 7:40 PM

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The landscape was a dreary one, the muddy landscape dotted with small patches of grass and low scrubby trees that grew twisting horizontally rather than up. The ground was largely even, betraying its semi-liquid state, and in places slow sluggish bubbles could be seen oozing to the surface and releasing their noxious contents. The reek that filled the air was vaguely reminiscent of rotten eggs, or possibly corpses. The whole mess was made soggier by the pouring rain, pattering down in torrents that obscured the surroundings in a manner thick as fog. At least there were no puddles, the water managing to mingle in uneven pools of varying consistency throughout the ground.

All in all, the perfect get-away for someone in his kind of mood, or at least Qual thought so. The dark jacket he wore didn't offer much protection from the rain, but at least he had enough forethought not to bring his long-coat on his trek through the swamps, or else it would surely have been ruined. As for his boots, they were done for, but they were an old pair anyways and not one of his favorites. Unfortunately, that also meant that his feet were wet, the swamp mud having contrived to soak through not only his boots but three layers of socks also.

He didn't know why he was here, really, except maybe to sulk. He certainly wasn't going to find any clues as to... to the whereabouts of anyone he was looking for, not in a place like this. She'd been a city-goer, he remembered, and even if she hadn't been, the only places he might collect any information would be civilized ones. She might have survived without help, but her children...

... And yet, he couldn't bring himself to leave. Not yet.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 03/31/2012 7:49 PM

There was nothing to do but to walk through more of the dirt, if his speed could be deemed even that. More than once, Qual tried to rationalize his presence here, rather than somewhere more useful or even more comfortable, but he could never come up with anything. His world had narrowed, for the most part, to his next step, to the feel of one foot being pushed at an agonizing pace through the slog, setting it down on something resembling solidity and then reaching with the other foot. His breath came in short huffs, his chest constricting slightly at the damp air. It wasn't hot enough to be humid, but the sheer saturation of the rain made for much the same effect. The wet had long since soaked through his hair, and on occasion he was forced to shake the droplets from his fringe and face.

Suddenly, however, he was aware of a light in the distance. Qual stopped and raised his head, scanning the horizon, seeing nothing... No, he'd somehow felt the glow, or the notion of one. One would think his kind would not be affected by witch-lights. With a dismayed smile, he shook his head (this time having nothing to do with raindrops) and sighed. But when he attempted to start his walking again, the light came, brighter this time so that he could actually make it out this time with his eyes. It was too large and undefined to be a witch-light, a tint of gold in it that not even the insistent rain was able to quite suppress. After a moment's deliberation, Qual decided to head in that direction. There was nothing better to do.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 9:00 PM

The light revealed itself almost immediately to be of some strange property. At first it had seemed far away, but when Qual had taken a few steps and looked again, it seemed much closer--- too much closer, rather. He knew how much distance he should have advanced (as well he should, having walked here for the better part of his day) and it was not nearly enough to have made so much progress. With this in mind, he waited, thinking perhaps that it was coming towards him. It was not. The light did not move of its own volition, even when he had turned away, thinking it would only approach when it was not under direct scrutiny. The watched pot never boils, or something to that effect. Well, that mortal phrase wasn't being brought to bear on the light, whatever it was.

A more curious creature, or perhaps one of a more scientific nature, might have conducted further experiments, but Qual was what he was and knew his small, humble share of things about the nature of magic. It had revealed to him what he was to do, and was unlikely to allow him much choice but to do it. With the rain seeming to fall even harder than it had before, if that was even possible, he trudged his way towards the light again, head down for good measure, and waited for something to happen upon him. It was a curiously humble thing, considering what he'd been only a century ago, what his ambitions had been back then. Following docilely the instructions of a mere magic light would have seemed heinous to him then, but his only worry now was being trapped by a sinking bog before he quite reached his destination...
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 10:39 PM

At length, he... Qual bumped into a wall. Which was kind of strange, and caused him to startle a bit at first. He'd been so inured to the sensation of mud and rain, but he'd forgotten what a wall to his forehead felt like. It'd been ages since he'd bumped into a wall... When he looked up, or at least when it occurred to him to do so, what he found was a well-lit wooden building. The stench of the bog had changed subtly too to include an aromatically bitter scent. It took him a moment to recognize it, but when he did, Qual's eyes went wide. "Coffee," he said softly, mumbling to himself.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 10:53 PM

He made his way to the door, which conveniently enough had steps right at the level where his feet had sunk into the mud, leading up to a sheltered entrance. The interior could be seen through the extensive use of glass on the outer walls, and he winced slightly as he saw the place where he'd bumped into. It was smeared with mud, and while he couldn't recall for the life of him when he'd gotten the stuff caked onto his head, he wasn't about to stop and think about it. No, what he was more concerned with was a question rivaling some of life's greatest: did he dare go in...? There was no doubt as to who would be waiting for him there, but the whole point of his otherwise pointless venture had been to get away...
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 10:58 PM

But then, Alain had been so painstaking about it, even going so far as to make steps under the mud... No, Qual was not under any illusions of his being let off quietly this time. If the barrister was going to be his insistent, then Qual would have to enter the coffee shop sooner or later. At least now, he might have some chance of benefiting from it, drying himself off and possibly even getting a ride home. He didn't want to admit it, but the damp was beginning to bother him, and he couldn't quite shake the image of the bog water soaking into his bones. He could hardly imagine 'dry' at the moment, even with the downpour no longer precisely raging over his head. The damp clothes and mud felt heavy, and his limbs felt heavier still, a mix of physical weariness and the tiredness of years of directionless life dragging him down. He supposed that was what Alain would want to talk about...

With a sigh, he stepped in, and braced himself to face the inevitable.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:03 PM

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The cafe was just as he remembered it, with the waft of sweet smells with a faint undercurrent of a spice he could never put a name to and warm wood mixed with glass and walls painted beige. The lighting was somewhat dimmer, but then so were their surroundings, and there weren't any other guests here. Of course not. How did anyone find the place when it was here, in the middle of nowhere? "I don't suppose you care that this is bad for business," Qual said on the matter, "to be carting the shop to places like this?"

The young blonde man behind the counter flashed Qual one of his smiles, which also looked the same as it ever did, and Qual had to repress the sudden irrational urge to run away again. "See, this is why I enjoy talking to you so much. Almost anyone else would have asked me how I managed to do it," Alain replied with a soft chuckle, continuing to casually polish his glass. As Qual remembered it, Alain was always polishing a glass... possibly even the same one.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:10 PM

Alain was apparently in no mood to get to the point, so Qual took the opportunity to sit down at one of the tables. The small ones, with the small uncomfortable chairs with metal backs. He couldn't entertain the thought of sullying the nice leather couches by the fireplace, no matter how disagreeable he was inclined to be in light of their unscheduled 'session'. The point, Qual was sure, was for him to get anxious and unsettled; then Alain might probe at him with questions from any angle and Qual would be too much off his guard to avoid answering them in a neat and composed manner. It also occurred to him that he sounded like a sulky young mortal, but there had to be some form of justification... He was sure not even sulky young mortals ever had to suffer this.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:14 PM

"How are you enjoying the weather?" Alain asked, still smiling gently and with his eyes closed, face turned towards the cup he was busy polishing. Qual ground his teeth. Yes, it looked sadly as if it was going to be one of those days, and the worst part is that he could feel it working. The warm ambiance of the cafe had also rendered him increasingly, almost acutely aware of his own physical discomfort, everything from the places where the damp clothes bunched to the mud caked into his hair. And Qual was usually inclined to be cleanly in his habits, so it sat all the worse on him.

"It is very... enlightening," Qual replied, for he had to reply or else Alain would ask why, and he knew that Alain was perfectly capable of waiting for an answer for hours. He'd never had the courage to see if that could be stretched to days, and presently he was too tired for such a siege. His words brought another chuckle from the other man, and nothing else.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:18 PM

Normally Qual was actually quite adept at waiting things out himself. In one of his more lucid moments, he had concluded that that had been what allowed him to hold out as long as he did against Alain that one day, where they'd spent three hours the both of them saying nothing and staying in place. Idly he wondered, presently, whether it was the environment. The ambiance was relaxing if one chose to think so; certainly Qual had thought so at first, himself. But now the smell of coffee and sweets was oppressive simply by association, and the scene also, though wryly he had to admit that the unusual view lessened that somewhat. The swamp, however strangely, contrived to lend him its assistance, dulling down the quaint coffee-shop feel. A coffee shop, however strangely competent its sole employee and owner, had no place here.

"You didn't come here for pleasantries," Qual tried, and he knew from the tired note of his voice that it was as much as conceding.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:23 PM

Alain's smile sharpened at that, which only confirmed Qual's fears. The two had known each other some time, enough now that they could tell about such things, more's the pity. Qual had the consolation that he was, to be sure, a difficult case, but it had only been a few years at best. Qual was a man of centuries, of watching the bones of the mortals around him crumble to ash if it came to that. Alain was much the same, if his patience was any indication. Qual realized with some alarm that the other man had not seemed to age in all the time they'd known each other, and even Qual aged. Even the godling, residing at the head of the property on which they lived, could be observed to age (and the girl did not, but that was simply because mortals could not be made immortal, only their aging stopped).

"No, I didn't," Alain replied smoothly. But now it was Qual's turn to wait, which was, if anything, a relief. Perhaps he would at least be told why he found himself here today.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:26 PM

At last, Alain left off polishing his glass, and his smile disappeared with the motion also, though the cloth remained in his hand. He turned to fix Qual with his eyes, shining pale gold in the dim orange lighting of the place. "Have you found anything?" he said, and the dark-haired man froze, then looked away, his own silver eyes dark and unhappy. "Ah," Alain said simply. Qual was waiting for something, a condescending comment or a self-satisfied one. Alain had never approved of his search, had always questioned the causes, but to Qual the matter had been simple. He had nothing else. It would give him closure. What other reasons did he need? It wasn't as if he had anything else to go back to...
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:32 PM

But no such comment came, and with the waiting was the dread that sank in further, leaving him more raw than he had been before. When Alain spoke, it was only to say, "I'm sorry to hear that. I could recommend some people to you, if you would like..." When Qual shook his head, Alain left off at that, having enough tact to know when to lay off. Qual would not have given him so much credit, but it had been some time since Qual saw anything clearly.

"I was out here," the dark-haired man said, rising, "to seek solace from those who would disturb me, such as yourself. If you insist on my involvement, then the least you could do was offer to alleviate some of my discomfort... Have you any spare clothes in this shop of yours?" If Alain was not going to do anything, he figured he may as well take the opportunity to advance his own immediate interests. It would not make the coming interrogation any more bearable to be having it in soaked-through garments; not even Qual could bring himself to think so.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/01/2012 11:39 PM

At that, Alain laughed out loud, tipping his head back and squinting his eyes. He seemed as if he was surprised to have done so, which was the only amusement Qual got out of it. There was a strange, bell-like quality to the sound, but rather than finding it appealing, it unsettled the dark-haired man to the point of unease. However, he was not allowed to dwell on this fact, as Alain ushered him into a back room, though there was hardly any need for propriety now. Despite all the glass, they were amid a swamp in what would be a storm but for the lack of wind, and who would observe them? Qual didn't see from where Alain produced the garments, but they must have been real and not magic for when he put them on they were a bit large, even for him.
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Re: The Most Unlikely Places [Self]

Postby crow » 04/02/2012 9:51 PM

Still, there was the matter of his hair. "We have a shower facility here," Alain said with a dubious expression, "but I doubt you'd want to use it..." He was, however inconvenient, good at reading people; Qual had only to shake his head in affirmation. Unfortunately, that left him the only-slightly-more-savory solution of having to dunk his head in a filled bathroom sink. The place was clean as could be, but that wasn't the problem. Qual was a tall man, and the sink forced him to bend down at an awkward, uncomfortable angle to be able to rinse off his hair. His neck and back was aching by the time he was finished, toweling off the now-tousled mess of his hair with a disgruntled expression. When he walked out, at last relatively dry and in clean if slightly baggy clothes, Alain was still there polishing his glass.
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