“Every day is a lucky one here!”
The Bard chimed in, offering a bright smile that was all pleasantries. It was something that was obviously not true, yet remained effective when spoken to tourists in a good mood. As someone who’s ‘occupation’ viewed such things as currency, he had about a hundred different slogans to such an end
The derivative nature which the Traveler was spoken about was, once again, noted, but not made a concern of. For every five people who’d ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ all day over the heroes of a ballad, there would always be one on the sidelines scoffing. Jealousy was usually the root cause, either of their skill, their fame or their lauded moral character, there would always be the nay-sayers who simply found genuinely good people, heroes, boring.
Venti thus listened with a polite, if amused, expression, offering a wry little smile at the commentary as if he-too were in on the joke despite knowing all-too-well that such cynicism simply didn’t fit into the scenario when he knew first hand that, yeah, it had actually been very nice for that exact thing to occur. Very convenient.
He eventually agreed with a soft little laugh of his own.
“Though I get the picture that such subjects are not quite to your own taste? I will admit, it feels a bit strange for one so astute as yourself to requisition ballads about a subject material they find uninteresting. Hoping for a different angle to the story perhaps?”
The impromptu introduction caught the bard slightly off-guard, if only because he wasn’t used to having one offered in such an official manner considering that ‘Wandering Bard’ was hardly an official occupation. It felt a bit out of place, particularly considering its position midway through their conversation, but again, Venti merely chalked it up to the other, this Saudade Avarice, being a bit of a scattered fellow. Harmless.
That said, the glove did catch his interest, the missing index finger reminding him of the gloves that some people chose to wear while shooting, offering them protection for their palms while not losing out on dexterity while nocking. It wasn’t exactly the same, but he couldn’t help wondering in the back of his head if it didn’t serve a similar purpose. It was highly possible, after all, the man didn’t appear like your typical tourist, neither did he have the appearance of a merchant and Adventurers came in all shapes and sizes from every corner of the globe. Venti didn’t see a weapon on him at first glance, but that certainly didn’t mean he wasn’t carrying one, nor was that much need of concern if he did. Simply intriguing.
His inspection and consecutive train of thought lead to the bard staring openly at the hand for what could be considered a fair amount of time to be called awkward, the greeting not unknown to him though foreign enough that his immediate instincts didn’t lead him to reach for it automatically.
It was with a quick blink that his more serious look was wiped away for his regular smile to return, placing his own hand into the other’s much like a fair lady might have, beaming once more.
“A pleasure to put a name to the face! What brings you to Mondstadt Saudade? Besides our illustrious heroes of course.”
At the way that Venti responded to the offered handshake, they actually let out a light laugh, before bowing and kissing the back of the offered hand - as would be the proper conclusion to the gesture, before they released the bard’s hand and came back to a full stand. And with that, they certainly had a much warmer smile on their face - or rather, a smile that the warmth of seemed more genuine.
“Mh, you see I’ve actually been around before. Visited for some old business for something I never much cared for. I suppose it’s easiest to say that I wanted to visit to see what it was like as... Just another person.”
After all, when they lived life as an Agent, their visits here were always on business. Collect a debt here, investigate someone there, map out the lower level of the cathedral without being caught - that sort of thing. They hated all of it, and hated how easily they’d decided to just roll over and do it.
It was good to be here for them self, even if they weren’t quite sure who that was exactly. They’d lost quite a bit of their life to their mistakes after all.
“And I suppose I also want to meet this Traveler. I’d heard they were given the title of Honorary Knight for their actions, so I was hoping to run into them here.”
Not exactly a lie, per-say. The Traveler fascinated them in a way they hated - that seemingly unconditional kindness made them wary. Souls of that kind were few and far between, and as much as good flocked to them, so to would they find themselves at the eye of a great many storms. Such was the unfortunate burden of kindness, and those who saw it as something exploitable.
“Ah, and... Hm, how best to word this...”
A hand was once again brought to their chin in thought, as they’d never really properly considered it before. Stories always focused on the heroes, the actions taken by the one to benefit the many, the sacrifices made and the actions taken to protect or serve. But they always found that eventually those stories would glorify the hero beyond reality, or exclude the actions of others along the way to make the hero seem even better.
This was an age of gods and monsters, and this Traveler was a hero straight out of a fairytale - an unusual visitor with unusual abilities, arriving in the nick of time to bring an end to the grandiose problems that had struck the people. First the incident with Dvalin - or Stormterror as was the title for now - and then they were seen throughout Liyue Harbor, and were supposedly instrumental in quelling Osial.
And all they wanted in exchange was missing person posters put up?
“It’s... Been a long time since I’ve even heard of someone that unconditionally kind. Aha, and the last person I thought to be that kind, well...”
They found their hands clasped together without realizing it, rubbing at the palm of their left hand with some sense of discomfort.
“Let’s just say... I hope that in this land of wind and freedom, the place I found my own path, I will find my fears foolish. I figured you’d be a good place to start, since you did have a better position to learn about them than most others.”
areudirty
vaporwave
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