abraxaslogs | january catch-all

[ From within the hole he straightens, peering at her. Despite none of this being really real, there's dirt smudged across his brow from when he must've wiped it with his bare arm at some point. Because of said dirt he's chosen to do this shirtless, the thin scars across his toned body on display.

Underneath one of the apple trees on the other side of the stream, the yellow dog naps. ]

Not yet. [ He frowns to himself.

For what it's worth, he understood she hadn't meant literally dig. Call it a lack of imagination on his part, this time. It seemed right, anyway. He shakes his head after a moment, a small smile pulling at one side of his lips. ]

How were your holidays?

[ It really is a contrast -- Kyle dirty and bare-chested like it's a hot summer day, and Julie dressed for a nonexistent winter, with a cropped jacket in black fur over a skintight black minidress. She has black stockings under her thigh high boots. Yet both perfectly comfortable in a climate that truly matches neither.

She lets out a soft, amused huff. ] Keep goin' and maybe you'll strike oil. But seriously, I don't think you'll find anythin'. I think you'll just find what your mind thinks should be down there. That's how the Horizon works, y'know.

[ As she takes a step back, a pair of oversized wicker chairs appear next to her, and she takes a seat. He doesn't have to climb from his hole if he doesn't want to, but she wants to give him the opportunity. ]

You mean after the part where we got shanghaied to a polar hell? [ She really did not appreciate how fucking cold it was in Nocwich. ] Pretty good. Yours?

Maybe that's exactly why I will find something. [ Belief that there's something to find, besides dirt. But what, exactly?

As she creates the chairs he looks at them longingly - they look really comfy. After a second he abandons his shovel and climbs out, patting himself down in a way that shouldn't remove all the dirt on his skin, but it disappears beneath his hands. ]

The food was good. And the flying fish were beautiful. [ He starts to answer as he gracefully pulls himself onto the cushy chair. It definitely could've gone worse, all things considered. What was most important was that there wasn't another attack, like in Nocwich. Nothing in the negotiations to further the tensions.

A beat, and he grins at her. ] My roommate liked the journal I got him. And then he felt so guilty for not thinking to get me something that he gave me a whole basket of gifts! [ He circles his arms as if to make the shape of a generous basket, then lets out a laugh. ] I've never gotten so many at once!

But is that actually findin' somethin'? If it's only there 'cause you made it be there? [ This is going to get super circular in a moment, and she can tell, but her point remains the steady, she thinks. If the Horizon only puts something there because Kyle wants to unearth something, then does it actually count? That seems inorganic to her.

Watching him, she crosses one leg over the other, leans back in her chair. She agrees that the trip wasn't the worst thing that could have happened -- if she's going to be imprisoned, she'd much prefer a golden cage than a jail cell. She's tried both of them and the cage is infinitely better. But all the same, she'd rather not be imprisoned at all. ] The wine was great, I'll give 'em that much.

[ Julie beams, and she's genuinely happy for Kyle. It seems like he hasn't had a lot of joyful experience with holidays, which is something she has difficulty wrapping her mind around. Even the most somber ones she knew of back home still had a lot of love and community attached to them. ] I'm really glad you had a good first Christmas.

[ She does not know that, in a few days' time, she'll be pointing a shotgun at his roommate. ]

[ He hums and closes his eyes, fending off an oncoming headache as he parses her words, the ganal or the egg question. ]

That's a question only the mystics can answer - which is to say, I'm not drunk enough to right now. [ He sighs, leaning back as she does. ] The moment I find something besides dirt, though - I'll consider the task finished.

[ Whenever that comes.

She beams at him and he grins again. Aside from one brief incident at the bonfires, he did have a good first 'Christmas'. Her advice had been deeply appreciated. ]

Speaking of alcohol... [ He concentrates for a moment, two clay mugs appearing in his hands. He offers one to her. ] This is from my world. We call it fathi. It's supposed to be used for ceremonies and it's strong enough to loosen your tongue, but here it won't have that effect.

[ If she accepts it, she'll find a warm, deeply golden colored liquid. If she tries some, it tastes like honeyed wine, sweet but not too sweet, and flavored with floral spices. ]

Edited 2023-01-12 09:52 (UTC)

[ She chuckles. Sounds like he's setting himself up for failure. And also like he doesn't know what should be in the ground besides pure dirt.

When she takes the mug from him, she immediately takes a sip to get the taste. It's good, and her eyebrows lift appreciatively. Whether or not it's strong is sort of besides the point -- Julie hasn't been fully sober since sometime around Thanksgiving. If she doesn't drink to dim the noise in her head, it quickly begins to overwhelm her. While she looks fine in the Horizon, the noise has begun to visibly affect her in the real world. She's lost weight, become pale. She can never quite hide the dark circles under her eyes. ]

It's good. What kind of ceremonies do you use it for? Most religions I know of only get wine for theirs.

[ He smile again when she seems to enjoy the drink. It should probably be sacrilegious to share it with someone outside of the religion, only there's no one left but to chastise him. ]

Ah - it depends. Certain ordainings and things like that. [ He scoffs. ] Mostly, though, some of the elder priests would drink it when the rest of us were supposed to be sleeping. [ Another grin, and he takes a drink. ]

The mystics often drank it too. They were like... mages, I guess. [ He waves his hand. ] You're not getting it here, but some people like the way it makes them feel. Like a deep, deep tranquility. No earthly matters could touch you.

[ He cocks his head slightly at the hole and shrugs. ] I never liked drinking it around others.

[ Here, he doesn't have to worry about the side effects. ]

[ If Julie has learned anything, it's that the rules of religion don't seem to matter all that much -- gods just do whatever they please in the end. Not that she would have called herself a good Christian, but nothing in the Bible ever lined up with what she'd gone through or seen at the end.

Kyle's further explanation makes her nod, like she understands. ] My religion didn't do it, but there were others where people would take stuff to try and like, separate their mind from their body. Said it got 'em closer to their gods, made it easier to hear and understand.

[ But what he describes isn't exactly the same as those ceremonies, at least not how he's telling it. Those were about tripping balls, basically, hallucinations, and he describes something that sounds much more enjoyable. ]

Why? "Deep tranquility" sounds like a good way to feel around other folks.

[ She asks him why, and he glances thoughtfully into the cup of fathi as though the answer might be found there. ]

Maybe. [ He admits, though he sounds less than convinced. There's another pause and he frowns to himself. ] The fathi... it makes everyone feel like their you're friend, even if they're not. You might tell them things you wouldn't share with another soul. And - I had no one I trusted that much, to tell them my secrets.

[ He grimaces, and takes another drink. There was another use for fathi that the priests employed. Interrogations.

He'd make enough mistakes drinking too much taye blossom wine. ]

But what you described sounds like something worth trying, sometime. [ He raises his eyebrows and grins a little wickedly. ] At least once. They must have substances like that here.

[ There was the woman, Nadine, and her cannabis experiments. But Julie is talking about something stronger, he thinks. ]

[ She looks back into her cup with an incredulous blink. If that's a reliable effect of this stuff, it's insanely dangerous in the wrong hands. And Kyle's religion honestly sounds kind of cult-y to her, so "wrong hands" probably comprises most of them.

For a moment, she considers what he says. No, she doesn't think she had anyone back home she would have trusted enough. But she knows she does now. ] I hope you find someone to trust that much, some day. A few of 'em.

[ And then she takes another drink. She wouldn't in the real world, not with him. But she will here, where there's no danger. ]

Oh, they certainly do have substances like that here. [ Julie says it with a knowing smirk. ] I'm not a fan of their drugs. Nasty hangovers. Good for insomnia and pain, though.

[ This time he smiles at her warmly, and tips his cup in her direction. ]

I hope you have found the same.

[ They aren't close, but he has a growing fondness for Julie. He would like her to find happiness and peace in this world, at least some version of it in the midst of upheaval and uncertainty.

At nasty hangover he wrinkles his nose. No, that doesn't sound enticing. Insomnia and pain though - his eyebrows raise. ]

Do you mean like what that woman was offering the other day? Nadine? [ He frowns. ] Maybe I shouldn't get that oil after all...

[ She doesn't say anything, but she has. She has found that, and she didn't really ever believe she would, at home. Hell, she hadn't even thought that trusting people that much was possible. She just takes another sip.

But when he brings up Nadine, she can't help a laugh, and she presses her fingertips to her mouth. ]

No no, Nadine's from my world. We've been together here since the second Summonin', when I got here. Her oil is fine, it's made from cannabis. Totally safe, you can't even OD on it. You should definitely try her stuff.

[ Okay, yes, Julie has a financial incentive to get people to give Nadine's products a shot, but also, she just really like weed. Everyone does. She shakes her head a little. ] The native stuff is what's a killer. It's not like pot, it's way stronger and more... mm, like psychedelic. Also a sedative. Someone who lived with us, who's gone now, he had some. We once used it to help a friend who got shot in the stomach. So she could sleep.

[ He seems a little relieved when she explains. And he'd agreed with Nadine to try to the mildest dose anyway, just to be safe because of his very specific allergy. But then Julie just casually drops that last part and his eyebrows shoot right back up. ]

Shot in the stomach?

Yeah. [ She sighs heavily and rolls her eyes. She sounds much more like she considers this to be a stupid event than a traumatic one. Which, to someone from a different world, probably would be traumatic, but Julie's world was far more dire than a gunshot wound. ] There were these other girls we brought along to Nott, they got into a fight and one of 'em wound up shooting the other. It was so fuckin' dumb, I swear.

[ Pausing, she takes a long sip, then raises her eyebrows. ] She was fine, though. Nadine and I saved her. You could see right through to her guts 'fore she healed, it was gnarly. The mayor or whatever of Nott threw the other girl outta the city. He's good people.

[ He feels a phantom twinge in his own abdomen as she describes what happened. He grimaces. ]

The healing magic here is much more powerful than I've ever seen. [ Some priests were proficient in rituals to assist healing, but nothing like what he's seen the mages do here. He shakes his head slowly. ] But it seems to take a lot out of the mages who do it. My friend wore himself out pretty badly after the fires.

[ Trying to take care of all the patients coming in. He'd been worried about Rhy overextending himself. The younger man's since recovered physically, but mentally... ]

The mayor - Lyle Vela? It sounds like he cares about his people. [ At least someone in Thorne does. But Kahlil has inherent misgivings about politicians and nobles - or lords, as they're styled in Nott. ]

Oh sure, but we didn't use magic. [ A shrug. ] Neither of us knew any, and we didn't have any money to pay for a mage or a healer. We just took out the bullet and patched her up.

[ It was more or less the only option. It was probably also what set Nadine's path in motion, among other things. And there's nothing that can bring two people closer than saving a life together. ]

Yeah, him. I only ever met him around town a few times, but he told us when we got there that he'd only turn us back over to the castle if we caused trouble.

[ The surprise at her correction is fairly evident on his features. Not only because they were able to take care of a wound like that on their own, but - ]

I didn't realize anyone had guns here.

[ Thancred's odd weapon aside, he hadn't seen any in Thorne's borders. Maybe Jack could create one, but that sounds like an awful idea. For some reason he heard shoot and assumed a crossbow. ]

That's fair enough. [ Vela's possible support of Summoned wanting to escape the castle had come up in recent discussions. And he already knows a little about her time in Nott from previous conversations. ] He has to look out for his city, first.

[ They are, after all, outsiders.]

There are guns in the Cities. Not like, modern ones. More like flintlocks and stuff, and they ain't cheap. But yeah, we never found out where Susan got the one she had. [ She takes a small sip and looks to the side. ] She disappeared 'bout a year ago. I sold her horse and the gun not long after.

[ They'd been what pushed her savings high enough to afford the portal to Cadens. But Julie would have waited months longer if she'd got to keep Susan around in exchange. ]

Like I said, he's good folks, at least as far's I know about it. I think he's just tired of how the rest of Thorne treats Nott. Like they're black sheep, even though they were in charge first.

You've seen so many people come and go. [ He studies her profile when she looks to the side, less interested in guns now - ]

I read about some of that history. [ As much as he was able to, with how the library in Thorne is 'curated'. ] Some of the buildings are old and - well, you've seen them.

[ He's not telling her anything she wouldn't already know, having lived there for a time.

It was the people who allegedly executed the previous royal family. And with the recent rumors... ]

There's been talk about people going missing. I don't know that it's specific to Nott but - if there were people from Nott leaving the city of their own free will, for their own safety, do you have any idea where they might go?

[ He throws it out there just in case, not really expecting that she might. It's been a while since she lived there, anyway. ]

Yeah. [ That single word carries a heaviness. When Julie first came to Abraxas, she relished meeting new people. After living in a world where the very idea of "new people" had become absurd, it was exciting. Until she realized that she was doomed to lose them over and over again. Now, she often avoids the newly summoned until they've been around for a bit.

Her brow furrows at his question. "Going missing" can mean a lot of different things. ] I don't know. Maybe just further away from the city? Either that, or else... they could be escapin' Thorne altogether.

[ There are people he would miss greatly if they were to vanish, now. Something he never had before. In Nurjima there was only Alidas, and a nagging voice in his head had told him that the captain didn't think him worth keeping around. It doesn't matter much now whether that was true or not, things had gotten to a point where he couldn't have stayed with the Bousim even if he had actually wanted to.

Maybe just further away from the city? That's what he had initially wondered, though the untamed countryside seemed dangerous for the average city native. Both eyebrows raise. ]

To another faction, like you and your friend? [ That came up with someone else, too - but it was the disappearance of Solvunn natives they'd been discussing. ]

[ It's both a blessing and a curse, to have people here that mean so much. She's not sure she would survive otherwise, but every day, she wakes with an edge that she can't shake until she's sure everyone is still where they're meant to be. ]

It's possible, I guess. But it ain't easy. I doubt they all suddenly have the gold for that kinda travel. It's expensive, way more than most folks could make without months and months to save.

[ Julie doesn't think she would have been able to save the money in six months without a bunch of luck -- she had sort of just kept inheriting military-trained horses to sell. The first had been the one Nadine and Lloyd rode. The second was the one Geralt escaped from the castle on, after she spent her first nest egg to get him back to Cadens after he'd been kidnapped. The third was Susan's horse, left when Susan vanished. The fourth is her own, a big black stallion named Baron, still with her.

But the vast majority of people wouldn't have that kind of small fortune repeatedly dumped on them. She'd also worked her ass off in the tavern, trading on her looks and exoticness to boost up her tips. A normal, regular person would have to work twice as long and hard, if not more, than she had. ]

Or they've found someone who isn't asking for gold in payment.

[ Like those that helped the Summoned in Thorne escape, during the execution Geralt told him about. But that's a large leap. He'd grown up during something vaguely similar in Basawar, though. The common folk slowly abandoning their cities, escaping to the hills and joining up with the Fai'daum.

Sometimes he remembers being very young, all of his family still alive and living with others. Together, with a blond dog... ]

Either way, living in hiding like that is difficult. Especially now with the food shortages, and during the winter months... I hope that if they are leaving on their own, they have found somewhere safe.

The mages in Nott who are willin' to risk portals would only take gold. I mean, far as I know, anyway. I can't think of anythin' else they would want more than money.

[ And she doubts that anyone is just traipsing through Thorne, offering the kind of escape the Summoned got. Those people had exerted a massive amount of magic, and no one has heard from them since. And, at the heart of it, the Summoned are special. Saving a group of people from other worlds, all with a connection to the Singularity, is different than saving random fucking townsfolk. ]

Sure. But I think it's probably more like a serial killer or somethin' pickin' 'em off.

[ She might be right. What could the common folk have to offer? That would take more organization, and there's no proof that any of that is happening. It sticks in the back of his mind, though.

He pulls another face when she mentions serial killers. ]

I hope not. Though that would be an easier problem to solve.

[ Relatively speaking, anyway. ]

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