Fantasy Crazy9 [w/Rustic]

[Aukanai]

01: Day of the flower​

Come the first peak of the sunrise, and the entire kingdom of Svel seemed to burst into a celebratory boom.

It was finally here, and townspeople could hardly seem to contain their excitement. For it was just the beginning of the long awaited Dranair Week. From the young to the old, it was all a chance to have fun, regardless of the many different meanings thought. To some, it was very important week to pay respects to Svel’s first king. While, to some it could just be a week of devoting time to the gods. And for the rest, it was just time to get drunk, cause some mischief, or to make some money.

During this week long festival, there always seemed to be a large group of travellers from the neighbouring kingdoms. If all only to check out what the fuss of Draniar Week was all about. Or to see old friends and join the celebration that they perhaps had been apart of once before.

But, it was the capitol of Svel where the festivities were bigger and better, where all newcomers to Svel seemed to be heading. Why come to Svel and not go to where all the action was happening? It would seem pointless otherwise. The ghettos still seemed to celebrate the week, however, though with little resources and funds, it was not the ideal place to be.

Should one just recently arrive in the capitol, it seemed stalls were just about completely set up, and families were watching the sun creep over the horizon. A few of the early birds were wandering around and making small talk before the crowds would grow, knights were out and about and the florists were skilfully arranging their flowers to sell.

Let the first day begin, with all the vibrant flowers around. The day of Jul.

 

[Aukanai]

Despite the chaos and stress Jacek had been in last night, he was sure to be enjoying the morning this time. Even when he had to drag around all of their bags, he was very thankful to have the lovely Verona Clio as a travelling partner. For, if it wasn't for Verona’s sweetness and charm, the cranky innkeeper wouldn’t have given them the best room, and breakfast on the house!

And, here they were now, in the capital. They’d been travelling around Svel together for a long time now, but they were here to celebrate Dranair Week with everyone. Verona was certainly very excited for it, regardless of Jacek’s very evident fear of her spending all of their money throughout the week. With the amount of stalls selling merchandise, Jacek was going to be on his toes all week. Maybe, every now and then, he’d let down his guard and just have a good time with Verona. That would be nice. But, really, he was never that bad.

Maybe this time would be better, maybe Jacek would finally learn.

And he already was. Standing there in front of Verona, holding out his hand to her. She giggled a little and gave a sheepish smile, nevertheless she placed the coin pouch in his palm.

“Sorry, Jace,” she bowed her head a little before she gave him a soft pat on the shoulder.

Breakfast had been quiet, but their morning afterwards had been full of Verona rushing around their room getting ready for the first day of the festival. The day of the Flower; Jul’s day. Jacek knew as much that if he didn’t take a stand to begin with, they’d come back without a cent to their name but a room of vases full of flowers.

For a moment, as Jacek hid the coin pouch in his pocket, Verona took a chance to smooth down her dress and tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, she gave him a warm smile.

“Well then,” now that everything seemed sorted, she was ready to go, “shall we?” She gestured towards the door. At Jacek’s nod she giggled again and pushed open the door.

The street already had a large crowd heading by. It was already late morning, because of Verona’s usual sleep in. But, the weather was perfect for such a wonderful day, with the sky a bright blue and sun shining overhead.

--------------​

Up before the sun peeked over the horizon, Anna was always excited for Dranair week. But as she sat on the top of a grassy hill and watched the night sky getting brighter as day got closer, she hugged her legs close to her. She couldn’t help but frown, this was going to be the first year she wasn’t spending it with her brother. She hasn’t seen him for awhile, and despite getting a letter from him a month ago, she missed him alot and was worried about him. Knowing he was in Mear had really made the whole family worried for him, knowing enough about the kingdom of Mear, it wasn’t a very safe place.

Anna let out a sigh as her mind continued to wander. She knew she shouldn’t spend all day thinking about it, she wasn’t able to do anything about the situation, so she’d just have to let herself enjoy the festival. After travelling from home to the capital, she knew she couldn’t waste her chance. For now, however, she laid back and watched the sky.

.

A few more hours of watching the sun rise, she would finally get to her feet and head back to the inn. A few merchants were starting to set up their stalls when she got back, and a few people were already wandering around. She would have slipped back inside the inn, and laid down on her bed. And, maybe after another hour or two, she found herself waking up, from a nap she hadn’t intended to have. The first day was well underway by now. And regardless of the long list of things she had made that she wanted to do, she grabbed her satchel, slinging in over her shoulder and shoving her notebook into. She was going to get some food first then draw!

With a determined step, she trailed towards the nearest food stall. And, as hungry as she had been, looking up from the coins she had counted in her hands and placed them on the counter, she would have looked up. If, only just for a split second, her gaze wandered past the person’s face and toward someone else in the crowd passing by.

A certain familiar person who she couldn’t mistake, and someone she was beyond excited to see. Without a moment’s hesitation, she thanked the server, thoughtless shoving her food into her satchel and chasing after the person she had spotted.

“Hey!” She tried to weaved in and out of the crowd to catch up, with great obstacle, but she was getting close enough to shout again, “hey! It that you, Khal?!” At that, she saw the woman turn around, and it sure was Khal.

Anna smiled wide and just ran faster, only to collide directly into her, but Anna just laughed loudly and grabbed the woman into a hug. It’d been quite some time, but she was so glad to finally get to see Khal.

“I didn’t think you would ever come here,” Anna looked up at Khal’s face, not yet letting Khal escape from her mighty hug, “it’s so good to finally see you!”

Rustic​

 

[Rustic]

Brennan Callaghan

04: The Scholar

The sunlight seemed glaringly harsh today.

As he looked up from the pages of his book, Brennan realized that was the only sensory information he’d taken in today. He’d been far too invested in the book he’d been reading to take notice much of anything else. Hours had passed, and the honey-orange sky he’d sat down to had long since turned a cool blue in complement to the fair weather. The quiet streets had taken on a dull hum, a background noise of excited politely voices passing through. Business had opened and picked up in this district, and in the chairs around him, more people had gathered.

All of it unbeknownst to him. A lamentable indicator that he had fallen into his old habits again. He shamefully forced the book from his hands and sighed as he dipped his head down to rest on the cold stone table.

It wasn’t like Brennan had no reason for being in Svel. He wasn't the type of person who rollicked around the kingdoms just because he could. Quite the opposite. He rarely left his area of Tassara in which he resided. For him, day trips ended up being too much of a hassle. All the preparation to consider… he liked being outside and attempting to appreciate nature, but since his head usually ended up buried in books and tomes and paperwork, it never ended up being worth the effort to have arranged. Certainly not the type of work he wanted to commit his assistant to, never mind the utter impossibility it would be to see to himself…

In this instance, however, it had been his assistant who had insisted upon it.

“You need to get out of your quarters, anyway." The young man had informed him. He had a stern demeanor about him, but it only belied a more doting nature. The assertion had still been met with Brennan’s own pushback....

“It’s already been taken care of. Here is your bag.”

However, the issue had already been decided by the time Brennan had heard about it. As most things usually were.

He was grateful for it. The more that was left up to Brennan, the more he would uselessly dither. He could fret for days about the flimsy justification he’d had to make to his colleagues for the purpose of the trip, but the undeniable truth was that he already felt better for being here.

His worries for the state of his homeland had flared up again as of late. He’d heard of a child going missing recently near his residence. He had no reason to suspect anything untoward, but ever since he’d left the monarchy’s service, relatively minor events had started to flare up a sense of dread in him ever so often.

Not that he was sure he knew anything he shouldn’t know. He’d only heard whispers in the time of his appointment, after all. Rumors of superhuman prisoners with no clear crimes to their names... orders for reconnaissance for areas of no obvious strategic value… too many things had started to point to a rather inconvenient truth about the King, his aspirations for the future, and what lengths he could go to achieve them.

As things stood, Brennan could not be sure that anything had (or would) come of what he knew to be the King’s ambitious nature. Yet, Brennan was a man normally too indecisive to plan a trip on his own; that his intuition alone had been enough to make him abandon the most prestigious work he could receive felt evidence enough that something darker loomed on the horizon.

As it usually did, he knew the depth of this feeling would pass. This time, however, it seemed to have lasted long enough to grab the attention of his assistant. Brennan felt somewhat guilty about that. The dutiful young man had said nothing about it, of course, but Brennan assumed it must’ve been affecting the quality of his work, if he would go to all the work of planning such a sudden trip. Maybe that was why Brennan had been so unable to divorce himself from his research since he’d been here?

He didn’t know, but he found himself disappointed, regardless. He’d always been chastised by his peers for not making the most of the opportunities presented to him, and yet, here he was, still having done nothing substantial with his morning. His outlook might have improved somewhat just from being away from Tassara, but he wasn’t going to get any further with his mood if he didn’t really use this chance to enjoy Svel while he had his chance.

He quietly put the book back away into his bag on his side and rose to his feet. He hadn’t a destination in mind, but all the same, he took to a stroll and let his mind wander.

He certainly appreciated the architecture of Svel versus that in Tassara; both kingdoms born out of Mear’s shadow, it seemed impressive to him how differently they’d taken shape. It made him realize how little he knew of Svel’s history, even regarding the festival he was sure was happening this week. Dranair, wasn’t it? He supposed it was all worth looking into, if only to know why everyone was celebrating...

This was… normally something he’d ask his assistant about...

Ah... he'd lost track of his assistant at some point.

Not exactly the end of the world, but certainly something he should remedy soon.

Yet, Brennan wasn’t the type to bring much attention to himself, so as usual, he found himself selective in deciding who to ask. Nobody who looked busy, or anyone in a group, or anyone who might otherwise stand to be bothered by a tall stranger suddenly approaching them…

He might’ve stood there forever, if it weren’t for someone brushing past him knocking him back to his senses.

Brennan didn’t want to be in the way, so, in the end, he settled on the person who would’ve been his first choice anyway; a refined, vigilant-seeming young man with pale hair. He looked like he knew what was going on; if unable to help, Brennan suspected he would at least know someone who could. So, he made his approach.

“Excuse me," he said.

Brennan spoke in a low voice; while it was strong enough to be heard over the people walking behind them, it was also restrained and polite. He’d been told before by his students that his speaking was, for those reasons, something pleasant to listen to. He hoped those sentiments translated well into him being someone unintimidating; it had been quite awhile since he’d had to introduce himself to anyone. He tipped his hat humbly.

“My partner… normally I would ask him about matters such as this. However…”

Brennan took a deep breath, pausing for what was possibly an unnatural amount of time. His minor level of concern was written on his facial features - especially in the furrowing of his brow - but he decided in those moments not to ask about his assistant. It was possible the young man had come through, but the question could wait until later in their interaction. It wasn’t especially pressing. Instead, Brennan decided to ask about the other thing on his mind.

“If you could spare me some time to talk about this festival…I wouldn’t want to be disrespectful in my observation,” he explained.

character sheet: here / Aukanai

Jacek Wolanski

06: The Scout

Jacek certainly didn’t mean to shove past some tall guy, but it wasn’t like he could help it!! Verona was like a rocket when she saw things she liked - gone in an instant! It seemed impossible to keep up with her. It wasn’t even like she went that fast, either; she was just preternaturally graceful, moving past people with an ease that seemed more like luck than a conscious effort. In contrast, Jacek felt like he only narrowly avoided getting squished every time he successfully dodged past opposing foot traffic. He felt grateful to the gods when he finally reached her hand on the booth of someone’s stall.

“Nooooo,” he muttered frantically, gently taking Verona’s hand and leading her off to the side.

It seemed like Verona had some words for him on the tip of her tongue, but he just hysterically smiled.

“You don’t want to spend it all today,” he reminded her.

Of course, he had their coin pouch still snugly tucked away in his clothing, but he really didn’t want to leave room for the vendors to make their sales pitches to her. Svel merchants had silver tongues, especially during Dranair Week; a minute with Verona would have her repeating their lines back to him, and before he knew it, he’d look like more of a sucker than a fish with a hook in its mouth.

“There’s other stuff we’re going to do, yeah?” he asked more calmly.

Verona seemed to take a moment to think about it seriously, in which Jacek gratefully took a deep breath.

“Of course,” she said, a radiant (if somewhat sheepish) smile gracing her lips.

His smile back to her went a little softer, happier that they’d come to an understanding. He could understand her excitement, too; a lot of the stalls in the area around them seemed to be selling high-quality stuff. Yet, they both knew it was something that could wait. Almost every shop would be here during the remainder of the week.

Verona’s focus seemed to shift from shopping, however, as her fingers moved to something at Jacek’s side.

“What’s this?” she asked.

For a split second, Jacek found himself panicking that somehow, someway, maybe his coin pouch had started to slip out of his clothes, but of course, when Verona moved her hands away, she had picked up something Jacek had forgotten he’d taken with him. He blinked.

“Oh, uh, it’s that paper I got handed at the last stall,” Jacek said unsurely. Verona’s eyes lit up ever so slightly.

“Something personal?” she asked. Jacek's cheeks flushed a light red.

“N-No," he assured. "I don't think I made that good of an impression…” Jacek rubbed the back of his hair with his hand, suddenly a little more self-conscious.

“...I’m pretty sure it’s for a show.”

That in mind, his thoughts didn’t stay on himself for long. His lips pursed somewhat wistful as he read the little advertisement, his suspicions confirmed. Although it was mostly a musical performance, from the looks of things, Jacek still couldn’t help but be reminded of home. He gave a small sigh.

“Makes me wonder how the troupe is doing...”

He had a feeling his mother wasn’t going to let him come back yet - nor was he entirely sure if he wanted to be there - but this time of year especially made him nostalgic. This was usually when he was at his most excited; his troupe performed during Dranair week, of course, and this was when his hard work and planning for the event would normally be paying off…

The heart-pounding memories were enough to make him homesick.

He’d gotten so caught up in his thoughts, however, that he almost didn’t notice Verona’s reply; that was, if she had noticed him or had gotten caught up in the idea of a show. If it were the former, it certainly couldn’t blame her. With a very recognizable name attached to it, it did look good...

character sheet: here / Aukanai