Listen, I'm Innocent, Okay? [Free-Form | Yuvon & Song]

Page 10, no. 226

Ah, Cedar. What a marvelous port town that often got overshadowed by Hargeon Town. Yuvon did appreciate the architectural genius that made up the structure of Cedar; how 95% of the entire town was raised from the surface of the ocean via, perhaps, the oldest bridge in Fiore, and how boats and ships intertwined with the tower-tall pillars and worked the town up like a well-oiled machine. This was a pretty place, too; the buildings fashioned after typical, Fiorian custom were pleasing to the eye with all the spikes, tops and spears that touched the sky above, and the worn-out, concrete colors that donned the houses.

Oh well, he was here for a duty. Since Cedar was so close to the sea, they had been rather unfortunate enough to summon the curiosity of a sea monster from old times. This sea monster was classified as a ‘kraken’, and Cedar’s population weren’t unfamiliar with the presence of such a specimen of the ocean. You see, they used to have frequent kraken attacks in the far past, but most of those assaults were solved via gifting the kraken a random item. The people pretended to value this item high enough to fool the monster to think of it sufficient enough to substitute for all the destruction that it wanted to settle upon Cedar.

It turned out that the kraken was smarter than that, found out and vowed revenge. And thus, the skies around Cedar were greyish, filling with water that evaporated from the sea due to its anger.

But hey, the water was still cool enough to not harm anything. That was why they were sailing through here, Yuvon and Song, accompanied by one of the knights who guard the town. They had agreed to come up with a solution for this time’s kraken attack, and boy, Yuvon didn’t feel comfortable wearing his mask anymore. The knight kept glaring at him… with hostility.

Yuvon was rather busy drawing sketches of the knight’s armor to come up with a statement to trigger a conversation. He was, however, eager to show Song his drawing with pride.

WC: 352
Total Thread WC: 352/7000

Song didn't know the history of the place they were going to. Though the girl loved to learn, she found herself more interested in what a place currently was above it's past. Reading histories could be interesting in it's own right. The issue was it became a little depressing to find things out, only find out they never really moved far past that point. It reminded her a bit of her home, a place that could have been better if they moved past a point. It was easy for some to blame the sand storms, as they made communication devices near useless there. But sand storms don't make all modern technologies useless, nor does it make communication impossible. It was a place stuck willingly in a time that should have long gone by at this point, but refuses to move from place. She just didn't see the upside in such things, because staying in that past position meant you were more likely to repeat the same mistakes.
How could you say there was any learning from it when you only look back? What does staying blindfolded to the present of future really benefit? She was pretty sure that explained the situation this place was in right now. There was an issue never fully resolved, but they ignored it until it could not anymore. Whatever she and Yuvon did couldn't be a repeat of what happened before. She was pretty sure even attempting something like that would only upset he beast more. She didn't see the grey in the sky, but even from the boat she could feel a mist of rage ebbing from the water and misting above it. It wasn't a sight the arachnid was sure they felt comfortable with, but that didn't make it go away. She didn't notice any looks anyone was giving, but that was more than likely a given at this point.

The paper getting held towards the girl was a nice distraction from the uncomfortable feeling the area gave though, fingers running over the material. Through the contact she was able to see it was a drawing. Her blind pale yellow eyes blind a bit in surprise before she looked over towards the guard. "Is that of him? He looks so grumpy here. How long has he been making this face?" The young Talea was certainly eternally blunt and honest. It was a strange contrast to the type of magic she had been born with, something primarily designed for planned out stealth attacks. Though her people called the fully trained with her magic 'sand ghosts' and 'ghost like soldiers', calling them a type of military assassins might have been the most accurate.

Words: 448

Song held her head in quite a position. She was in deep thinking, and Yuvon could relate to that. Sometimes, you just love to think things through, especially when you got time to. It indicated great levels of patience from her, and tolerance as well. Both great traits to have as an honorable wizard who strived for their dreams. Not that he specifically knew any ambitions from the sand-web wizard, but he could always ask… he could always ask, yes, that was what he planned to do. Foolproof plan; ask her about her desires, what she yearned to achieve. Then write it down somewhere for the future. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant of the wise mage! His little plan was going to be set in motion, but as he held up the painting, Song spoke out her thoughts… as blunt and cute it sounded coming from her who had no ill intents in her heart, Yuvon found himself in trouble as the sailor glared at him…

“U-Uhm, w-w-wait, n-no, I-“
“The hell?! Are you making fun of me?!”
“N-NO! OF COURSE, NOT! I WAS JUST PRACTICING MY ARTISTIC HANDS AT PORTRAYING PEOPLE, B-BUT FORGIVE US!”
“!!!”
“A-As you see, my companion is young! She cannot be held accountable for small talk!”
“… Fine, I forgive you. But I charge double pay from you, the adult.”
“… *sniff* I-If you insist.”

As that little, awkward conversation met its end, the sailor kept on bringing them closer to the docks of Cedar, emphasizing on the height and length of the bridge-like infrastructure that the town had. The wizard full of wisdom began painting the view on another page on his notebook, fast as thunder - as in the speed of sound of thunder, not the bolt of lightning itself - and decided to hold it up to Song once more. Just so she could get a feel of what the place looked like from a sensible perspective. It was definitely a beautiful town, and he wouldn’t want her to miss out taking in its wonder. Landscapes and towns were art too, and all art had wisdom in it. Maybe, if she remembered its appearance, she could find her way around- then again, Song had little to no trouble with that thanks to her highly trained senses, and he shouldn’t worry for her at all, but Yuvon had a lot of adores aimed at her and he wanted to hug her all the time, but he had to calm himself down and stay… you know, professional. This was a mission, after all.

“Thankfully, we’re here now… oh, and uh, h-here you go,” Yuvon spoke up as he pulled up 500 jewels instead of 250 to the sailor who smiled graciously. The dock was to their right, and he stepped up on the concrete blocks that reached all the way down to the bottom of the waters. Ah, Cedar… certainly not the last time that Yuvon would set foot here. “At last, we have arrived,” Yuvon spoke as he picked up the paper with the request from their client… but it appeared that he must’ve given it to Song earlier.

“The client’s name was Alfred. He did say that the kraken would show up soon, and that the clouds’ appearances indicate that… but if the clouds turn greyer as he explained - from what I remember, and obviously, I am far too delicate to forget things - then that would also mean that the moisture in the air would change as well. Grow thicker. Make sure to put a mental note on that, my lady,” he explained things with what he had gathered from the piece of paper. It also had a symbol on it - a kind of seal - that symbolized a whale. How that was going to help him and Song find their location was yet to be figured out… maybe the client lived in a whale-hunting hangar? Yet, there appeared to be no hangars present in Cedar from his perspective. Most of the houses and buildings did have symbols on them…

But the roads lacked people. This was clear, since warnings of a kraken was deemed far too dangerous to witness outside.

WC: 700
TWC: 352 + 700 = 1052/7000

(OOC: perhaps a little dry on context to write for, but lowkey planning for Song to help out the most and let Yuvon be the comic relief <3 for the most part, that is)