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I don't know, are you?

( matt's on the other side of the street but he's close enough to hear the question and it makes him laugh a bit.

he turns, recognizing the voice and sweeps his cane out in front of him to make his way over to jayden. )

Take a wrong turn?

I guess that depends on how lost you are. And how willing you are to help.

[He's joking, but all the same it's a bit of relief to hear a familiar voice, as although Jayden isn't terribly distressed--more just annoyed--by the idea of having no idea where he is, it's still reassuring.]

But uh, yeah, seems I did. I was lookin' for the library.

[Sort of. Barely.]

Ah, good timing. I spend a lot of time there.

( so, he was pretty familiar with the place while he continued to get familiar with the laws and regulations of the free cities.

he shrugs and nods jayden over. )

You're a little turned around. Get distracted?

[He wanders over closer to Matt, using the moment to decide how honest he wants to be in response to the question.]

Somethin' like that. I like to think I'm usually good at directions.

[And it's even mostly true.]

It's easy to get turned around especially if you're not used to this place. I was used to New York when I got here and this isn't the same thing.

( he starts walking again, turning back in the direction of the library. )

What's got you headed towards the library?

Yeah. City plannin's a bit different here.

[Jayden's not extremely familiar with New York, but he lives in DC and grew up in Boston, so close enough.

He follows after Matt, finding this question a lot easier to answer.]

I want a better sense of how this place works, and the library seems like the best place to start when it comes to history. Even if it's probably gonna' be biased.

It's definitely biased.

( there wasn't a lot about the other areas and when there was, they were very biased. )

I've been there learning about the history of the Free Cities, how they built this place, their laws and regulations, and they're very...pro Free Cities, of course. Not very kind to Solvunn and Thorne.

I wonder if we can get ahold of some books from the other factions somehow. It'd be interesting to see what sorta' things they differ on.

[And not just overall biases, but specific events. How those differ might be particularly telling.]

I know someone in Solvunn. I can ask if she can send me something.

( not that he could read them but he could at least get them and pass them along. )

They're very big into the Old Gods there so the literature should be interesting.

Maybe we can pass information through the Horizon.

[It seems like the easiest way, both for convenience and secrecy, provided they can accurately recreate the information from books, which seems to be the case from some domains he's seen.]

I think someone's already workin' on a putting together list of the gods there.

I know Nocwich is a possibility too since we can all get there and be around each other.

( the only downside is that it's only open to them once a month. not too convenient. )

I know Solvunn's really big into the Old Gods over there. I don't know much about them but there's been sacrifices and such there.

Good idea.

[Once a month or not, their opportunities to met in person are very limited, so they have to take what they can get. With some planning it might work well enough.

As for Solvunn--]

The more I hear about Solvunn the more glad I am that I'm not there.

[His luck has felt pretty bad in his time here so far, but perhaps that's to balance out being fortunate enough to end up in the Free Cities. As suspicious as he is of the faction, at least daily life seems better than in Thorne or Solvunn.]

It's...something, isn't it?

( he thinks the only saving grace of solvunn for him would be being around wanda more but he knows he'd probably get bored, get antsy. )

They have animals, though? Farms and stuff. Not that that's...better.

['Something' is a nice way to put it. There's also something a little inherently humorous in Matt trying to find something nice to say and landing on farm animals.]

Even more reason I'm glad I'm not there. I've never even seen a farm animal in person except for chickens.

[And he can't say he's too fond of them. He supposes he's also seen horses, but then again that was always from a distance.]

I gotta ask though...

( especially now that he's said that — )

Why chickens?

[Don't ask about his nemeses.]

Long story, but started with a school field trip and ended most recently with chasing a suspect through a market.

[At every turn: chickens. Not really, but they're so annoying.]

And then, chickens.

( it sounds like a story and, even not knowing, matt laughs. )

You keep chickens as pets or not that much of a fan?

They're terrible.

[They're loud, they smell bad, and he's pretty sure a rock is more aware of its surroundings than a chicken is.]

I have definitely not been encounterin' chickens by choice.

[But his own bad chicken experiences aside--]

How about you? Any encounters with farm life?

Yeah, not one.

( not even close. )

I can't even remember going on pony rides as a kid, you know? We were always right in the middle of the city. Not great for animals.

Yeah. Me either.

[For pretty much the same reason, though speaking of pony rides--]

I've been thinkin' I should try and learn to ride a horse, though.

[It's easy enough to get around in the city on foot, but it'd be nice to have options for longer range travel if necessary in the future.]

Yeah? You're gonna have to let me know how that goes. Walking's pretty much my only option.

( easiest thing to when he was blind. )

Ever gotten on a horse before?

I'll let you know if I survive. I've never even been close to a horse, and that's probably been for the best.

[He's heard they can sense nervousness and so he can only imagine horses will hate him, which is why despite knowing he should learn to ride, he hasn't even tried yet.]

Don't have much experience with animals in general, actually. Did you get to play with the little winged cat things though?

[The ones brought to the hospital in Cadens after the whole pit incident.]

I was kind of out of it when they were around. I think I touched one or at least heard one.

( which, you know, was something. he was in and out of consciousness during that whole ordeal. )

Heard they were pretty cute though. You got to play with them?

Yeah, just for a short time though.

[For various reasons, from Jayden spending as much time in the Horizon as possible to running around whenever he had opportunity to then crashing whenever he overdid it. But he'd played when them when having to stay a night after returning to Cadens.]

I think Istredd's got one in his Domain. I might have to put one in mine too.

[In case Matt wants more opportunity to play with them. Jayden hadn't thought much about making animals in his domain yet, aside from intending to make a few to show Hilda, but the little butterfly cats were strangely calming.]

Edited 2023-05-23 17:30 (UTC)

I've got a dog in mine. Wanda created him for me so now she lives in my Horizon and sometimes hers.

( first dog he'd ever had and while it was a magical dog only existing in one place, he still loves. )

Named Mary. After Hail Mary...

( something that matt knew very well. )

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