The Witch World was cast in its usual burnt golden hue, despite the sun being high in the sky. Lobco had been here on a number of occasions and with the exception of when she, with her former master, had visited during night time, this world was always cast in that golden glow. She wondered why that was. Was it merely coincidence? It was hard to tell time when one was world hopping and typically their visits were quick and filled with busywork that distracted her from such trivial thoughts. At the end of the day, it probably was mere coincidence, and if not what difference did it really make?
Yet these days her mind wandered so often. Her contract with Chlomaki was over. She had managed to slip out from Hijoushiki’s hold. Here she was in the Witch World still too afraid to return home. Perhaps one day when she could be certain that he wasn’t searching for her.
For now she would just try to make her way on her own. Chlomaki had shown her own kindness in offering to teleport her back to the sea, but Lobco had instead chosen to come here. It was a place that would be very difficult for anyone not a witch, nor a familiar to one to come. It was much safer here than any other she could think to go to, but she also felt rather out of place. She was no longer a familiar, and what little magic she had was certainly not enough to categorize her as a witch.
Which meant she could help but shake this feeling like she was intruding. Logically she knew that no one cared and that she was far from the only one who was neither witch nor familiar here but still.
It was hard not to feel that way…nor to shake the feelings of loneliness off.
With a sigh she pushed herself off the bridge she’d been looking out over and finished making her way towards the guild. It was a rather convenient place she hadn’t known of until recently–meant specifically for hired hands. Not quite mercenaries but something akin to that–perhaps apprentices or familiars in training? People would turn in applications with their skill sets, and witches would take them on for single jobs. From what she had heard often contracts were made via this system. The shrimp had no intention of starting something so serious after having just voided one with Chlomaki, but she needed to make money some way. The cushion she had built up for herself over the years wasn’t going to last forever, and she needed some way of staying here permanently until she found some other solution.
Figured out what she wanted to do with her life.
She had gotten notification that someone had wanted to meet with her, thus she finished on her trek over.
Once she checked in at the registry she made her way to the room where her client was waiting.
“Hello.” She closed the door behind her and gave a deep bow. “My name is Lobco.”
Tokinome was rather quite decidedly not a witch who kept familiars. It was, for her, an ocupational hazard - being the time witch, she had a tendency to experience it in a less than linear style, which tended to present a bit of a memory problem, if the familiars were left behind. And, unfortunately, she hadn’t quite worked out how to prevent the ravages of time safely on others, which meant that if she did bring familiars with her, then they tended to suffer the tragedy of aging. So, she didn’t keep familiars.
For the most part, this didn’t trouble her - she was happy to spend her time bouncing around, visiting various other witches and people, or simply to spend it alone, performing her research. However, she had recently struck an issue that she didn’t seem to be able to solve herself. This was honestly something which she found rather quite annoying, this persistent annoyance she’d been unable to solve with neither magic nor time.
This wasn’t to say that she didn’t have people she considered friends, indeed she spent time with other witches, interacting with them and talking to them, befriending them and doing her best to remind herself of what their lives involved. She had journals upon journals for each witch she talked to, detailing where they had last left off, dated chonologically so she could refresh herself and act like she still remembered them. But, despite this, she was lonely. She missed true companionship, even if such a thing was more a distant shadow of a memory by this point, any true recollection of those moments of her youth lost to the ravages of time. She missed being able to laugh with someone over a hot drink without having to pause time to check back for references, missed confiding her secrets in someone. She missed being able to meet someone and not have to struggle to remember their name.
She didn’t miss it enough to stop messing with time, of course. She was in far to deep to do that - she’d already paid so much, to stop now would be foolish. No, she wasn’t going back on her choice, but she was planning on pausing her temporal machinations for a little while, to experience life as it was like for others.
Lobco’s contract had caught her eye - she sounded like an interesting person, and failing that, she could always use a hand translating some of the older scrolls she’d ‘borrowed’ from distant times.
As the door opened, she looked up with a smile, a light chuckle causing the clocks suspended from her hat to bounce as the former familiar bowed. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance! I’m Tokinome, Witch of... Well, I trust my outfit gives that away, at the very least. Now, do you prefer to do more in depth introductions, or shall we discuss the terms of this arangement?~”
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