[ OPEN ]

[telestics]

Who: The Medicine Seller and whoever.
What: The creeper's first appearance in the city.
Where: Gardens > City
When: Day
Warnings: He's a creep. Also if you're some supernatural being he probably knows it, and if you don't want him to just tell me. He skirts around subjects a lot anyway. Also you can switch to action brackets if so inclined.

Comments

[itaidakimasu]

Yako wasn't scared of going out, per se, she just hadn't felt up to going out for continuing her ongoing exploration of Promenade until she was able to put her captivity and being attacked by some doppleganger of her father out of mind. It had taken some time to come to terms with it, but she had. To an extent. Enough that she could venture out of Aphrodite's palace and wander the streets without flinching every time somebody called or beckoned to her.

She gained more and more confidence with each step, until she was peering around as curiously as ever. It helped, she supposed, that there wasn't any major damage from the Vengeance Children debacle left anymore.

[telestics]

The Medicine Seller, while not entirely unaware of the odd auras and such from some of the residence in the city, was doing a damn good job ignoring it until something caught his eye. There were indeed no mononoke here, but there had been something before his arrival. Perhaps that was why he was here? One could only fathom a guess.

He passed by the blonde girl with mute interest, the jingling of the box on his back likely to catch her attention and the slight flutter of his robes when he strolled on past. He only cast her a brief glance, but it was entirely up to her if she was so inclined to investigate.

[itaidakimasu]

Yako blinked, head automatically tilting to look for the source of the chiming. Her eyes widened slightly when she caught sight of the Medicine Seller, only to be replaced by a polite smile and quick bow in greeting. "Hello."

There was something...unsettling about the man(?), but Yako was well inoculated against the strange and unnatural by this point. Whatever her time with Neuro hadn't forced her to grow accustomed to, Promenade had.

[telestics]

With one last click of his geta against the ground, the Medicine Seller stopped dead in his tracks when greeted. First his eyes shifted toward the girl again, followed by the slow turn of his head and another jingle of jewelry,

"Good afternoon," he greeted quietly, accenting every syllable more than he rightfully should have, taking his time even saying something so simple. He nodded his head to bow properly in return, "Are you ... ...a resident or a visitor?"

[itaidakimasu]

...Okay, that enunciation was unsettling too. Still, no reason not to be polite. "Well, I think I'm a visitor." she told him. "However, other people will tell you that everybody here is a resident and always has been." She shrugged. "A matter of perspective, I guess."

She brushed her bangs out of her eyes, more of a cross between a nervous twitch and the need to do something than her vision being obscured. "I take it you just..." She paused for a moment, before finding an appropriate word. "Woke up?"

[telestics]

"Oh?" He hummed thoughtfully at that, "I have ...heard." the funny thing was he knew for a fact he had not always been here. For a man that could literally be anywhere, being stuck like this was strange, though not entirely unheard of. He had been stuck plenty of places before; ships, trains, hotels, and it was all because of a Mononoke; silently pulling the strings while everyone remained unawares until it was far too late.

Woke up. What a hilarious choice of words, "Perhaps."

[itaidakimasu]

Yako let out a small, sheepish laugh, the shrug of her shoulders indicating that she realized how ironic her words turned out to be. "Have you read any of the guides yet? Or looked at the Network?" 'Heard' could be taken quite a few ways, after all.

She wondered if he was always this painstakingly vague and quiet, or if he was still digesting whatever twist of fate had brought him to Promenade.

[telestics]

He was always this painstakingly vague and quiet. Usually while he was digesting said twist of fate that brought him to this particular place, and even afterward he was not one to speak extensively unless it was entirely called for; like explaining to people the error of their ways and why they created monsters from their own selfish actions.

"I have..." there was a ten second lapse this time, "Read it all..."

[itaidakimasu]

Yako would not let long, awkward silences defeat her. She wouldn't. "Oh," she said, perking up. "Are you just out exploring, then?" Maybe, she considered, she could show him what she had found so far, if he was. He was unsettling, but common ground might help sooth her.

After all, there was nothing really threatening about the man. He was just...different, on some level she couldn't quite describe. Not like a god, not like a demon, not like a murderer...different.

[telestics]

"Exploring-- No. Searching." searching for what? That was still up for debate, honestly. But he knew something was here.

"What of you? Exploring? or perhaps... lost?"

[itaidakimasu]

"Just exploring." Yako said, before she reconsidered. "Well, I suppose I'm searching for some way back, too, so maybe a bit of all three." She rubbed her arm. "I've seen quite a bit but then--" everything went to Hell for a little while "--I...stopped for a while. I was getting my bearings back today, mostly."

[telestics]

His interest was piqued then. His assumptions on this girl were already proving to be correct. She was indeed interesting and if not that she was useful in him finding out what he needed. He did not enjoy going into the field with no information, you see.

"A way back home. Can you not dream of it?" he thought back to the mirror in his room momentarily, "Or perhaps...you can only see it...and cannot quite reach."

"Oh~...?"

[itaidakimasu]

"You'd think it would be so simple, wouldn't you?" Yako sighed, shaking her head. "Some people have 'gone back' and lived through what the mirrors showed, but their bodies stayed here and...changed. Aged. And then some..." Her voice went quiet. "Some just vanished. Mirrors gone, rooms empty...poof." She folded her arms to ward off a shudder.

She didn't like thinking about what it might mean if those people hadn't wound up back home.

[telestics]

"No," nothing was that simple. If it was, his job would have been a lot easier, "How ...interesting." that's really all he had to say on the matter, the information was more than what he needed to dub this place worthy of his time.

"Have you?" returned, that is.

[itaidakimasu]

"No." Yako shook her head, unable to fully hide the wistful tone that snuck into the syllable. "I've been here for about four months, uninterrupted. A lot of my housemates have vanished, though, and the one who never has ended up 'going back' at least once." Her eyes flickered with worry. She hadn't heard from Ladon at all lately, but before she left their House she had seen that his mirror, cat, and hat collection were still in place, so she could only hope he'd resurface soon.

[telestics]

"How strange," says the man with crazy tattoos all over his face, "Has anything...else happened here...?" he tipped his head to the side curiously, "Anything... odd?" or dangerous, maybe?