The Rich And The Poor

It was a sunny day in Hargeon, and it had been a long while since Ophelia had strolled throughout the streets of the harbor town. The salty air was reminiscent and calming as she inhaled deeply and took in the scent she had longed to bask in again. Oh how it was all too good... Now if only Ren was here, and her guild would understand her long term disappearance.

As a self-celebration of her return, Ophelia wore a long flowing gown that honed a pale lavender color and a low neckline which revealed her ample bosom. Her red hair had been gathered up and hidden underneath a large white sunhat decorated with lavender lace and floral decorum. It was only fitting for someone as wealthy as her to wear something with such high tastes, after all she did consider herself as someone who deserved such.

"Goodness my, it has been such a long time hm... I wonder if I should give my little Ren a visit?" The young woman rubbed her chin and pondered the thought, yet quickly shrugged it off as she sat down on a bench to fix her wedges. As she adjusted her articles of clothing, she set down her small purse so she could use both hands while attempting to make herself more fitting to the public. Her purse had completely slipped her mind, and when the time came, she left the luxury item sitting on the bench.

Her figure didn't necessarily blend in with the crowd, so if one were to return it to her, they could easily spot her in the distance. There was only one problem that stood in the way; Her actually accepting it. Ophelia wasn't the type to approach those who she considered... Lesser... And in fact, they might as well take the item and sell it for money, after all, she probably had many more at home... Right? Since she was rich and beautiful, she must have had two of everything! Wrong! Since Ophelia has done very little with work, she barely has enough cloth to make her own nightgowns. And not to mention that every time she did show her face, all of the things she wore or had on her would get trashed.

Not one but two people stood out in the crowd in Hargeon Town, it would seem, and for similar reasons, though they were polar opposites when it came to what it was that made them stand out. One, a sophisticated beauty in a red dress, the other, a small girl in an old cloak. A rich noble, and a penniless wanderer. Almyra wandered about the market quietly, enjoying the sights, sounds, and scents. She received a few odd looks, and a variety of treatments by others. Some pushing her out of the way as if she were nothing, others stopping to ask if she needed any help or money, to which she politely declined. She had caught a glimpse of an interesting looking person and was going to try to speak with them.

She wandered a bit more before finding her again, getting up and leaving from a bench, leaving her purse behind. "Hey!" She called out to Ophelia, though her voice was lost in the crowd. She picked up the purse. It was very pretty, like the lady that had left it. She started to walk to the woman through the crowd, though it had gotten thicker, and it was difficult for Almyra to keep track of Ophelia due to her relatively short stature.

Ophelia paused as she heard a hey, and turned her head to glance at the faces in the crowd. She had wondered whom called out, even if it wasn't her that the person was calling out to. After awhile, the woman's eyes caught sight of a small girl in a cloak, and as she focused more on the figure, she could see her purse... In the hands of someone else!? And someone who was homeless as well! Maybe they wanted more!? Maybe they wanted to mug her and take everything she had!?

She gripped the skirt of her lavender dress and quickly spun around on her heels. She kept her head down and began to speed up her walking pace so that she was able to distance herself from the lesser being.

"I knew something would be off today... Oh Ophelia, what have you done! What if that little person has a gang of other poor littler persons?" She bit her bottom lip in frustration and shoved her way through the crowd of simple people. Soon, the woman was able to slip away from the mass and end up at a small damp alleyway... Oh goody.

"I can't ruin my clothes! Not today, Satan!"

"Hey!" Almyra shouted to the woman as she started to walk away from her faster. "You forgot this!" She pushed through the crowd more to try to get to Ophelia. She wasn't too hard to keep track of, since she was dressed much nicer than the other people around here. Almyra picked up the pace and caught up to Ophelia at the entrance to an alleyway. "Pretty lady! You forgot your purse!" Almy said, holding it up as she approached her, trotting at a medium pace over to Ophelia. Should Ophelia look at Almyra, she would notice that the girl was much cleaner than the typical homeless person. In fact, her cloak was spotless, her hair, though messy in the sense that she did nothing to style it, was very clean. Should she reach Ophelia, she would hold out the purse with two hands and a cute smile. Hopefully the noblewoman would accept it and not keep trying to avoid her like it seemed she was doing.

Ophelia turned her head around and gasped as she came face to face with the clean homeless person. "Oh no..." She whispered, her eyes glancing frantically at her garments and face. "She's radiant!" The young woman gasped and placed her hands over her face, turning away as if she was blinded by something. How could someone so poor be so pure? Again, she looked back, this time clearing her throat and standing up straight to act as though nothing has ever happened.

"Er uh... Well um... You didn't have to return it to me. In fact you could have taken it and ran..." Ophelia muttered. She gently took back the purse and wheezed as she stared directly into the colorful eyes of the presumably younger girl. "Eh... Why did you even bother returning said item to me?" She asked, raising an eyebrow as she tucked the purse underneath her bag. She didn't know whether or not she should be grateful or rude to this person. They just looked like a doll, and Ophelia wouldn't mind designing her dresses if she so desired. "Eheheh..."

Almyra blinked. She didn't have to return the purse? Well of course she didn't have to. She could have taken it, but that wouldn't have been nice. "I gave it back because it's yours. Stealing things from people isn't nice." She answered with a smile. "Besides, it looks more pretty with you, I think." She said. This woman was quite pretty. She seemed to be worried or confused about something though. She obviously didn't expect anyone to return the purse to her, which made Almyra a bit sad that someone didn't believe there were good people that would do such a thing. She tilted her head to the side at Ophelia's laughter. "Is something funny?" She didn't think there was anything funny. Perhaps Ophelia was just happy. She continued smiling up at the woman.

Ophelia shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. She removed her sunhat and allowed her red hair to rest on her shoulder in curls. "You know how to ease up to people, hm?" She made eye contact with the smaller girl, which almost made her twitch at how... Innocent she appeared. "Er... I wasn't laughing at anything, little one! Don't insinuate such things! Eh... UH!" She pulled a handkerchief randomly from her breasts and wiped some sweat off the top of her brow as she realized she was stalling. "HNG, UH. Oh Good heavens, so adorable! I can't contain myself! You should let me dress you up some time!" Ophelia didn't want to sound or look too creepy... She was honestly trying, really. "Wait a minute... What is your name even?"

Almyra nodded at Ophelia's probably rhetorical question regarding easing up to people. She liked people, so she found ways to get people to be happy and want to spend time with her. She tilted her head at Ophelia. She was a curious woman. She laughed then said she wasn't laughing. She had never really met anyone who did that before. She blushed a bit when Ophelia called her cute and suggested she let Ophelia dress her up. "Thanks. And that sounds like it could be fun! I'm Almyra. What's your name?"

How many years had it been? How much time had passed before her? The amount of times the sun had risen and set before her eyes and the amount of times the flowers had wilted to produce a new youth, a shell of its prior self. It had been her fault, she supposed, being gone for so long she had neglected to realize that what once was, will never be again. It was a shame, perhaps if she were there... Maybe she could have experienced it along side her fellow guild members? Perhaps if she were there... No, it was no use for her to dwell on such thoughts.


Rubble underneath the metal of her shoes crushed, the debris kicking up from underneath her and falling into the piles of puddles and building remains. This is what she had come back to; A mess, a catastrophe, a place she was so familiar with reduced to nothing more than a desolate landscape. It was a sight to take in, the young woman lifted a hand to her chest, the metal fingers of her glove curling and gripping at the breast of her shirt. She took in a slow, shaky breath, her scarlet gaze drifting about the scenery, as if searching for remnants of something she could remember... But it was hard to decipher what had been.

Ophelia took in the dead silence. Every fiber of her being struggled to calm her senses as she was suddenly flooded with distant, fond memories. Slumping forward, she slowly sagged to her knees, the damp moisture of the ground muddying her clothes. The feathers concealed within the golden locks of her hair flew wildly in the wind, a sleek luminescent quill slipping past the strands of thick gold and finding itself trailing away from the keeling figure.

So much ruin, death, and water. Hargeon had been hit far worse by the Rising Tides than it or Magnolia had been hit by the Priory of the Wyrm. Much of the city was in ruin. Many had died or gone missing. The scenery of the city was not without hope, though. People were rebuilding and recovering. So long as there were survivors, people would always bounce back after disaster, even if they were changed after it.

Almyra had not been in the city to witness the horrors that took place here, and had not gotten the chance to make a visit to the city to help with the recovery until today. She had spent time doing her part, but was now taking a short break and wandering about the city when she spotted a familiar face. It was the woman whose purse she had returned several months ago. She seemed rather strange then, laughing oddly and wanting to dress Almy up. She was nice though. She seemed upset now, as she knelt amid the ruble. What was her name again? Ophelia! Yes, that was it. She walked up to the woman now, holding her doll in her hand as she did so.

"Ophelia?" She asked as she drew close. "Are you okay?"

Ophelia. Ophelia. Ophelia.

The sound of someone calling her name echoed throughout her mind, reverberating and forcing her to slip back into the grips of reality. The young woman let out a light gasp, her parted lips exhaling a short stream of fog the quickly dissipated in the cold, damp air. "..." Her scarlet orbs searched frantically for the voice, her sights soon settling upon a familiar figure that drew near. Yes... Yes... She recalled her now, the one whom she idolized for the innocent appeal she held, how she reminded her of a porcelain doll... How she wanted to dress her up and marvel at the work she had done. But why, why had she come here? Had she always been missing a limb? As Ophelia simply gazed at her wearily, she had slowly drifted into her memories, sifting through all of them to remember her name.

"Almyra..." The young woman finally uttered upon kneeling in silence. "M'... M' jus'..." Her newly acquired thick accent rolled off of her tongue as she struggled to gather her words, the concept of speaking to someone again foreign to her. "M' fine... M' fine... But r' ye okay? What're ye doin' 'ere? 'is place s' a mess."

Ophelia plucked her fallen quill off of the ground and inserted it back into her golden hair, her fingers pinching and rolling the strands to secure it in place. Gradually, she rose to her feet with her armor clanking and rubbing against the surface of one another.

"M' surprised... Ye remember me..." She was surprised she was even remembered at all, as her disappearance proved to be so sudden, yet so subtle all the while. It was an odd feeling for her.

Almyra continued walking up to Ophelia as the other woman just looked at her. She seemed tired, confused, and disoriented. Almyra was a bit worried about her at this point. Perhaps something bad had happened to her, beyond the attack on Hargeon, that or she has lost someone she cared about in the attack. Still, that just gave Almy more reason to talk to her, to try to help her if she could. The Chaos Theorist reached her Ophelia just as she spoke. She seemed to have picked up a thick accent somewhere, though Almy couldn't place where it was from, not entirely surprising, since she had only ever really been in Fiore and Desierto, with one trip to Iceberg to help out a village in collecting food.

Ophelia claimed she was fine, but the fact that she was on her knees seemed to indicate the contrary. The woman asked Almyra if she was alright, to which she smiled and nodded. "I'm okay. I came here to help clean up and help the people recover." She watched Ophelia pick up a feather and put it in her hair. She noticed the woman now carried a variety of feathers in her hair from a multitude of different birds. It was quite pretty, actually, and brought a smile to Almy's face. She offered to help Ophelia up as the armored woman began to rise to her feet. Ophelia said how surprised she was that Almy remembered her, though wasn't that unusual for Almyra. "I don't forget much, especially not people." She said before wrapping her arms around Ophelia in a hug, since the woman seemed like she could use one.

Ophelia could only stare in silence as she was aided to her feet, her body was still, a hand still gripping tightly to the feather she inserted back into her hair. The warmth, she felt the warmth of the embrace that allowed her to settle down slightly, it was... Oddly calming to her. To be quite honest, she felt like a child at this point, being hugged and coaxed into calming down, it made her feel weak in a strange sense.

She took in a deep, ragged breath as her arms cautiously moved to wrap Almyra in her own, awkward hug. The young woman didn't realize this, but her body began to tremble like that of a child when they are on the verge of tears... To which, she was. Her ruby orbs were wide, her brows knitted in confusion as she could feel warm streams of liquid run down her cheeks and hit the ground in rapid succession. For a moment, she had assumed it was raining, but upon releasing Almyra from her grip and lifting her hands up to wipe at her face, she had realized that she was in fact, crying.

"A-Ah..." The young woman let out hoarse murmur as she furiously wiped at her face, attempting to dismiss the current scenario. "M' sorry..." She managed to whisper, "M' sorry..." Ophelia continued to repeat herself, her voice growing quieter with each phrase.

Almy felt Ophelia trembling as she hugged her, with her friend rather awkwardly returning the embrace. Just before releasing the woman, she would give her one more gentle sqeeze. As she released Ophelia, she smiled up at woman, noticing the tears on her face. Ophelia tried to wipe her face, apologizing quietly the whole time.

Almyra wanted to hug her again, but she wasn't sure if that was the best course of action, instead she took hold of one of Ophelia's hands with her own and reached up with her left arm to gently pat away the tears with the sleeve she had covering the stub of her forearm, still giving her friend a reassuring smile. "There's nothing to be sorry about." She said quietly, reaching out and taking one of Ophelia's hands in her own, holding it tightly.

She could feel something wipe her tears away. Not a hand, no, but rather the remains of what used to be one. She could feel the cloth, drying her skin and removing the water that had seeped from her vermillion gaze. Ophelia's shoulders slumped slightly at the feeling, her trembling slowly dissolving away into nothing. A hand gripped Almyra's her gaze fixated onto her as she lost herself once more in a deep, dark thought; She had no friends now, perhaps just Almyra. The one she had... The one who had mattered the most to her, her best friend... Where was he?

"Ren..." She whispered, "Have ye seen 'im...?" Her eyes widened a tad at the realization. "He's blonde... Short 'n blonde, 'n with blue eyes, 'lways wear hats 'n 'e... 'E wasn't the best mage but 'e was 'ta me!" Her chest lifted with each shallow breath she took, her gaze frantic as she looked about. "I used 'ta be so awful 'ta 'im, but 'e was my only friend - 'e was my only... Friend..."

Ophelia whispered a name to Almyra, one she had heard a few times, though referring to different people: Ren. Ophelia described him as short and blond with blue eyes. Unfortunately, Almyra had never met anyone by that name with that appearance. "I'm sorry, Ophelia. I don't know anyone like that." She continued squeezing the other woman's hand as she spoke, the same gentle smile remaining on her face. "I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere though. Never give up hope for that sort of thing. He's your friend, so I'm sure he'll be looking to find you, too."

She wondered why Ophelia said she had no friends. Almyra considered her to be a friend, and thought Ophelia was rather nice, if a bit different from most. Why would someone not want to be a friend of hers? "If you like, I'll help you look for him." She said. Unfortunately, she didn't know exactly how likely the two were to find this Ren, Almy having never met him and Ophelia having been gone for a long time. It could be entirely possible that he died in the attack or elsewhere, or simply left Lamia Scale and traveled to a different place. Fiore was big, Ishval even bigger, and there were many places in it that Ren may have gone with relative ease.