A New World, a mission ft. Anniken

His ear twitched just before her face sunk in right next to it. A flash of awareness stormed his facial features. His stare appeared nigh sightless, eyes pulled side in anticipation for something he could not yet comprehend. And then he heard his full name. This prompted a quick head turn, an easily foreseeable reaction, and right when he found himself wanting to utter something along the lines of, 'stupid bitch,' he caught a glimpse into an aura akin to the gravity of a collapsing star.

Oop; but then there was a flash of familiarity. Topaz saw this individual before somewhere.

"Uh - yes?" he managed to squeeze out after hearing his name. The reply was nearly automated, slipped from his face without his notice. 'An honour?' This he questioned to himself in his head. He was unable to fathom why one would say such a thing. To Topaz, he was nothing out of the ordinary or special in any regard.

"We did? Hum. I think I saw you before now that you mention it..." He glanced back to the vendor. "Yeah, I got free time. That guy's probably not going anywhere anyway for a while, so i can look over whatever he' trying to sell later."

“Heh, it’s no problem,” he assured while turning completely around and in doing so, pulling his attention from the merchant and fastening it onto her. He waved a hand to pantomime dismissing the matter and the gratitude he felt was still unearned.

“What, they do?” Topaz stole a fleeting glance reward back towards the merchant. Of course, the salesman was not aware of the eyes Topaz set on him, but they narrowed in a flux of disapproval and choler. “Figures…” He spat in a mutter.

The woman walked away from the crowd. One member brushed away what they thought may have been a fly that had gotten too close to the back of their head. Topaz followed after.

“Your family knew mine?” Topaz summarized. His eyes acquired a greater spark of interest than they possessed when tatters were the literal talk of the town. “Myo… Nyctores. I heard that before. I think he’s who my brother's the spitting image of.” Topaz shrugged, closed his eyes and smirked. “That’s all I really know of him. That two-tailed cat. Probably where all that troublesome magic in me came from.”

“Sounds pretty awesome, actually,” Topaz began. He cast his gaze downwards and towards the upturned palms of his flux of hand and paw. “But why am I like… blue?” The question was a low mutter, likely not meant to be answered or even heard, really - and found partial interruption anyway as the woman introduced herself.

“Oh, wow. That’s a lot to take in,” Topaz admitted. He closed his eyes and cleared his throat. “Well, nice t’ meet you, Justice… and Anniken. Um - Ja… no, that sounds stupid. A.J.” Topaz nodded as he decided on that particular nickname. “It’s a familiar situation; sort of the state I was in until recently.

“Now we’re one.” Did he just say that? Topaz found it somewhat creepy to say that out loud.

He blushed.

Somehow.

“A-angelic?” Now he just felt stupid. He was surprised he was witnessed by anybody who would be able to recall and recognize him. He was asked a deep question not too far into the conversation, but that caught him so off guard that he could hardly think of anything else.

“W-Well, I can’t change a world like this. That was more of a thing the drunken version of me thought. He was high on stories from an old woman who lived in pre-calamity days. Cities looked huge and not broken apart and crumbling, guilds did menial tasks for those without magical abilities ‘cause why not.” He shrugged. “I can’t imagine that place. I’m not even sure those stories were true stories!

But you asked what I'd do to change the world? Find who or what's behind these beast attacks.” Topaz knew how strange that sounded. Everyone knew the drop in populace gave beasts an opportunity to grow their own population and seize more land as their territory - but was that all? "They're so relentless in their attacks. Almost... too relentless."

“Oh, wow…” Topaz appeared to be completely taken aback; though, the words that followed proved the felid was easily able to starkly transition from one mood to another with ease. “So there are people out there that do more than sit around and eat watermelon all day…”

Exactly what he was referencing was anybody’s guess, but he hardly dwell on the verbalized thought. Topaz threw his arms into the air, but it was hardly in gleeful celebration. It was more elegant and lowered them to perform something akin to a bow. A smile could not help but manifest.

“I’ll do whatever I can to help if you need it,” he said as he brought his head back up and reopened his eyes. “As you know, though, I’ve recently gotten some snazzy wings. This makes things like deliveries and running errands pretty easy for me. Scouting is also something pretty easy with magic like this.

Oh! I should probably mention I know a bunch about herbalism."

“Uuh -” Luckily, Lucius did not have to come up with a response to the comment about cake and candles. It was dismissed so fleetly that he found interruption with the response to follow.

“Well, I dunno about that,” he said quietly. His eyes strayed sheepishly away as he was compared to messengers of the gods. He found interest in mention of somebody else that was privy to herbs.

“An associate?” After that explanation, he only echoed that part. The term suggested she was part of a group - was it a guild? He’d forgotten if mention of that happened or not. Regardless, what did not change was the desire to meet with them. “That sounds fine to me. Thanks, it’d be a big help! I’d love to talk about lots-a stuff with her. I’ve had all sorts of ideas to maybe pull in some funds for me and I suppose my guild, but I’d need to know more - probably way more - before I can pull that off.”

Lucius nodded with a smile, content with all that was said. The Godfather was correct in assuming he'd heard of the guild.

“Oh, yes! I have heard of it. It's the most powerful guild to date. That was kind of unexpected...” He listened and noted mentions of their doings, their location and the name of the tower. It all sounded very impressive. In stark contrast, Lucius was in a guild that was essentially a hand-me-down cottage where everyone either lazes about playing party games or fishing.

There was literally nothing Lucius wanted to mention about his guild out of fear of death via embarrassment. Though, he felt like he should mention something – something that not even Odin's Spear has.

“The tallest tower? It reminds me of a really tall tree we have. It oversees the whole village. If... only someone used it to actually watch over it.” The final part of the sentence was said with a lot less volume than what preceded it.