IC Contact (Folkmore)

[nativized]

[ This is an IC contact Post for Lex, that I'm going to make look nicer eventually ]

Comments

Voice; un: SPARKING

[nativized]

Oh no, has it finally happened...?

audio | un: recorder

[goldenturtle]

What the hell are you talking about?

[nativized]

First some sort of familiar-other people dating app and now this?! The fabled time of the booty call has come for me in this realm?!

[ He is absolutely, absolutely not being serious right now. Lex has seen that in his inbox, clicked it, and then decided that, if that guy was going to give him a weird voice recording in his inbox, he'd respond with some strange. At least at first. For a joke. ]

[goldenturtle]

Excuse me?

[ What the hell, Lex. ]

Did you hit your head?

[nativized]

Nope! But I also didn't leave a message in someone's Personal Messages box asking where they are with no context.

[goldenturtle]

Who needs context? It was a simple question.

[nativized]

Is it? Seems to me a little bit eerie, as questions go.

[ Doot, doot... but then Lex exhales a little (even allowing it to be recorded) and, ]

South end of Epiphany.

[goldenturtle]

It's a normal question to ask when someone's been on a mission.

[ He scoffs. ]

Meet me at the canteen.

[nativized]

I assume you mean the one in the center of Epiphany. There's actually one in each region as near as I can tell.

[goldenturtle]

Tsk. [ He clicks his tongue. ] I'm not such a bastard that I would make you go all the way to another region for a meal.

[nativized]

Good to check; you didn't say where you were.

[ A meal, huh. ]

[goldenturtle]

Going to another region would require effort.

[ The 'and I hate things that require effort' is implied, though whether or not that is believable is up for debate.

...Especially since he did visit Cruel Summer the other day and is still pretty tired from it. ]

I will be there whenever you decide to show up.

[nativized]

Hey, hey, for all I know, you had made some special home out in Tides.

[ But okay... the canteen, huh? From where he's at, shouldn't be too much more than about na hour. Maybe a little less. ]

Aight, then.

[goldenturtle]

[ He scoffs at that. ]

Alright, I'm going to take a nap. Bye.

[ And Cale will indeed pass the time by taking a nap in the canteen with all the purring Catfé cats. ]

[nativized]

[ Lex rolls his eyes.

He rolls his eyes and tries - fails - to not think of Naram. He doesn't want to conflate Cale with Naram. For the most part, he doesn't, but there are some similarities which are hard to ignore and bother the mercenary just a little bit. Bothers him, but he realizes that might well be why he was quick to joke with the guy, despite the Duke's son thing. Despite the magic, the rudeness...

He hates that feeling even as he loves it.

His eyes have turned green, though he doesn't know it. They will, at least, be back to hazel by the time he arrives at the canteen. He's been here several times by now, so he just asks the spirits who are doing the lion's share of organization where the redhead was. And once so directed, he shifts off his pack, puts it to a storage space, and he comes to see the guy armed only with his new wand and his sword on his belt.

... Let's go find our man. ]

[goldenturtle]

[ Were there more comfortable places in the hospitality centre to nap than the canteen? Yes. But did those places have cats? No.

Cale would say that wasn't the reason he found an out-of-the-way corner of the canteen, pulled some blankets from his spatial bag, and curled up for a nap on the makeshift bed. He had spent time cooking a large meal made of a variety of dishes and was waiting for Lex to arrive so they could eat. Staying in the canteen required less effort.

But the way Cale has curled himself protectively around the cats napping with him against his chest, the way he seems perfectly at home with even more cats curled up against — and sometimes on — the rest of his body, and the way his sleeping expression is peaceful and content for the first time anyone would have seen...

Well, it says a lot about the deeper reason behind Cale's choice.

Unfortunately, with his eyes closed and body relaxed, the man no longer just appears thin, pale, and weak but more like someone who is frail and sickly. Cale never had a chance to properly recover from the recent war, leaving him far too skinny and far too pale — something usually masked by the sharpness of his gaze, strength of his presence, and steady voice. ]

[nativized]

[ Exposed like this, it really is noticeable. This guy hasn't had enough to eat or enough sleep or both for an extended period. Probably other complications besides. Lex puts a hand over his left flank briefly, but then shakes his head as he steps over the other.

... Huh.

Hazel eyes turning a shade of orange, the man crouches down next ot the cat collection, half expecting them to mouth off at him as he nears, the man just sort of watches the guy sleep for a moment here. Before he reaches out to poke his face, unless some cat's stepping off on him. ]

[goldenturtle]

[ However deeply asleep he may have been, Cale wakes up almost instantly at the touch. Even before his mind has processed the situation his arms have tightened protectively around the cats by his chest, and he's maneuvered his body to shield any other cats near him.

He blinks once. Twice. Then the tenseness in his shoulders eases and he sighs. How embarrassing. Cale assumed the cats would have woken him up, or at least tried warning him of the man's approach.

Traitors, he thinks.

Cale brushes his face with his hands, mind now awake but body still feeling a bit lethargic. ]

Hi.

[nativized]

Do you need some more nappy time?

[ His tone is airy, as usual, and perhaps a little mocking by implication. But he's also being sincere - the guy's body can't possibly feel good, the way it looks, especially just coming do like this. the mercenary wonders if the guy had set up something a little elaborate to call him like this. Was it some new mission? Or was it a follow up on the semi-joke of a meal or drinks?

Both? ]

[goldenturtle]

[ Cale can't tell if this guy is mocking him or asking an honest question. Either way it's annoying, so he dismisses the question with a grumbling expression and a wave of his hand. ]

Meals are best when they're still warm.

[ He begins freeing himself from the cats, taking the time to carefully pick each of them up and move them away himself rather than just shooing them off. It takes longer than Cale would like but he gets to his feet sooner rather than later. ]

[nativized]

[ ... They're cats, cats can survive a little fall and will be fine to be shooed. Lex doesn't knock the guy's movements or anything, but he does offer a (gloved, with fingerless gloves) hand for the guy as he's getting up.

... A meal, huh? Interesting. ]

Suppose that makes sense.

[goldenturtle]

[ When two of your children are kittens you tend to be overly careful with cats — especially sleepy ones. Especially purring ones.

Cale isn't so prideful that he would refuse a helping hand, so he accepts Lex's offer without an ounce of shame. ]

Obviously. The weather is getting cold, so you need a warm meal.

[nativized]

I hope that's 'you,' generic plural. After all, you look in rougher shape than me, my man.

[ Ooop, let's get the guy up. Lex is, for all his many faults, actually a relatively physically strong guy. It's not superhuman or anything (though the Legend buff helped with that) but he's well able to do an oop up. ]

[goldenturtle]

I'm not the one roaming around helping with restorations. [ A scoff. ] I look handsome, even like this.

[ He actually isn't joking about that at all — if there is one thing Cale is confident about it's his face. Even without any muscles, the body of Cale Henituse can make any clothes look good. ]

I don't know what you like, so I made a bunch of things.

[nativized]

Oh, we're not denying that.

[ He's thin. Malnourished? The face is handsome and the eyes are piercing, but there's signs of chronic ... tiredness? Overwork? Both? It's possible he's reading more into several things, because the overall appearance of the man isn't gaunt or anything, but it doesn't look like a noble "ought to" in Lex's opinion. Nor really what anyone ought to in a realm where food and leisure time are as abundant as they are in folkmore.

... He's one to talk, though. He's clearly not slept in a "proper" bed in a day or two, on top of how none of them had over the time in Amrita. ]

You cook?

[ Honestly, that if anything surprises him, as he motions for the other to lead on to whatever set up he probably had prepared. ]