Coming Home [Open Thread]

It had been a year since Sorano Granon had stepped foot in Magnolia last, and it was strange to be back. Walking down the familiar streets, her eyes passed over the storefronts, noting the familiar ones, as well as the ones that had disappeared, leaving blank windows or brand new businesses to pop up in their stead. It felt like she was rewiring her own memory, carefully editing what she had remembered to incorporate the new and different elements that were now a part of the town. That was fine, though. She had changed as well.

Turning a corner at a street that, thankfully, had retained its former name, Sorano felt herself tense slightly, hoping the place she looked for was still there - and then she relaxed as the brightly lit sign came into view. The cafe had been one of her favorite places to relax back when she had lived in Magnolia, and had been the first place she thought to visit upon returning to Fiore. Opening the door, she adjusted her hood slightly when the barista looked up at the jingle of the bell. She wasn't actively trying to hide her identity, but there was something uncomfortable about having to face the reactions of people whose lives she had essentially disappeared from with no prior notice.

"Hello. One matcha latte, please."

Giving her order to the barista (probably new, she hadn't seen him before) at the counter, the mage made her way over to a comfortable window seat, sitting down and gazing out at the people passing by. Was she really ready to come back?

After getting her order and settling back down in her seat to enjoy the fragrant matcha drink, Sorano glanced up in slight alarm as the tinkle of the bells signaled someone else coming into the cafe. From her angle, she couldn't see much of the person, only being able to recognize that it was a man in a suit - although, that parrot was eerily familiar. Squinting suspiciously, Sorano found herself turning her head back around quickly as the man glanced her way. Hoping to get a better look at his face later, the mage instead continued to sip at her drink, keeping an ear open for any interesting conversation.

To her surprise, though, what she would hear instead was the distinctive sound of the two people getting closer to where she was sitting. For goodness sake - the cafe wasn't exactly full, why choose this exact seat to sit on? Turning her face even further into her drink, Sorano stilled as the man settled into his seat, before the parrot spoke a sentence that caused her to freeze.

"Oi Julius mate, you okay?"

Julius - now that was a name she remembered. She'd bumped into the man several times over her career, though the last time they'd actually met she couldn't recall. Last she remembered though, wasn't he a member of the West Fiore Trading Company? Then again, she'd been gone for a while. Things were likely to have changed in that time, of course - who knew where all her friends were at by now. So lost in thought was she that she nearly missed the next sentence, one that caused her to slowly turn her head towards the pair. They had found her shield outside the Tetsukazu portal?

It was certainly true that she'd lost her buckler shield at some point along the journey, a loss she had dearly regretted. To think that there could be such a coincidence though, that it was Julius and Squable who had managed to find it somewhere along their way?

Sorano coughed slightly, shaking the hood from her head before glancing at the pair. "Um, sorry to disturb, but did you say that you found my shield somewhere?" It was probably an awkward way to start off a conversation, but she felt she deserved a break - it had been years since she'd had a proper conversation, after all, and she needed time to build up her social skills again.