nativized | IC Contact (Folkmore)

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

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.

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

[ A meal, huh. ]

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.

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.

[ 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. ]

[ 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. ]

Edited 2024-10-26 07:40 (UTC)

[ 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. ]

[ 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. ]

[ 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.

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? ]

[ 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. ]

[ ... 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.

[ 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.

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. ]

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.

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. ]

[ Cale isn't blind to Lex's current condition despite making no comment about it. Instead he focuses on leading the man to a large table he had preemptively claimed by setting it with cutlery and dishware. ]

It's not like my personal chef is here to do it for me.

[ A memory of when he was nineteen and working hard at a restaurant flashes in Cale's mind as he begins carefully pulling out the various sealed cookware he safely stored away in his spatial bag.

First is a generous amount of marinated, stir-fried sirloin strips (bulgolgi) set in a dish alongside the lettuce and other sides needed for proper Korean BBQ (samgyeopsal).

Then is the tteokbokki — spicy, stir-fried rice cakes. Then comes the savoury pancakes (jeon), a large number of seaweed-wrapped rice rolls (kimbap), and sticky fried chicken (yangnyeom tongdak).

He also pulls out a teapot of boiled water, two teacups, and a few boxes of teas Lex can choose from, along with packets of sugar and little disposable cups of creamer.

And a six pack of beer. ]

[ Another bunch of things he doesn't recognize , with spices and scents to them which are unfamiliar to him. Of course, all food's only as alien as what you try. But it did bring to mind when Makie showed a whole alien platter of food for him. These look different, of course, but...

Huh.

He takes up a seat, reaching out to take one of the cans of beer and looking at the rest of it with some curiosity, taking it all in. ]

I still don't think I'd trust most scions to know their way around cooking.

[ He prepares a sweet tea for himself and eats a couple of kimbap while he waits for it to steep.

Cale shrugs at the comment. ]

Most scions don't know what it takes to survive.

Isn't it more like their survival is a whole different set of skills?

[ ... Well, he'll copy the other to take some of those. Sure. And then he'll just slowly take samples from each of these so he can poke at an examination of the flavor one by one. ]

Most of them lack those skills, too.

[ He doesn't think very highly of a majority of the nobility he's had the misfortune of dealing with. Luckily he found some noble and royalty he doesn't mind working with, and who keep most of the annoying things away from him.

Reminded of Alver, a small frown crosses his face. He decides to ignore the unwanted feelings by stuffing a tteokbokki elegantly into his mouth.

It's not like his sworn brother could just show up here even if he did notice Cale was missing. ]

People who don't have skills can't survive but for luck or the skills of other people. And usually the unskilled one don't gravitate talent around them. Or... so's the theory, anyway.

[ He doesn't even know if he's arguing for any real reason, more just feeling out the other's opinions by doing it. As he tries all of these things in turn to see how he likes or dislikes the flavors here. ]

They will attach themselves to those they perceive have power or strength in order to survive, and seek every opportunity to gain more political power at the expense of innocent people if necessary.

[ Sure, Cale had expected it during the battles in the northeast, but it doesn't make him any less disgusted with those pathetic nobles during the very rare moments he gives them any thought. ]

The world of nobility is mostly bullshit. The good ones are almost always suppressed before they have a chance to make real change.

[ Fortunately Cale solved that issue in the Rowoon Kingdom. And in the Mogoru Empire (by throwing the entire empire over and picking people to put in power). And in the Whipper Kingdom. And in the Molden Kingdom... And the Endable Kingdom...

...

He decides not to think about it anymore and just stuffs some more kimbap in his mouth. ]

Oh, it definitely operates by its own logic, and its not my place to say if it's bullshit or not. But I don't think anything you've said necessarily shows them incapable of survival. If anything, manipulation, exploitation, and appealing to those who can defend them precisely are their survival means, yeah? At least a lot of the time.

Rare is the thinking being that doesn't seek its own survival.

[ Lex says all this while mostly scooting some of the more interesting dishes closer to himself. Or at least a little bit of them. Let's go for the sticky chicken next, actually. And maybe the... Barbecue? He doesn't quite get what's up with the lettuce yet so he waits to see how the other is handling it. ]

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