As he heard himself spoke, Lloyd closed his eyes to listen to Nadi’s sayings. It’s been quite the time since he had last seen their face, or known what came of them. Although, it was nice to know that their friend had been able to see the world and make something of himself somehow.
<Is that so?> I wonder whenever you’re finished, where do you wish to go. What are you looking for? Or are you now wandering aimlessly as I am?
His eyes snapped open by the name of the farm. The man only knew one person whom own a chateau such as that.
“Margaret.”
<So you’re familiar with Miss ‘Elise’ are you not?….Wow, this world is much smaller than I’ve thought.>
At least I know where to find you… For now.
As the adrenaline slowly wore off, Nadi gradually began to feel all the pairs of eyes on them. They had caused a bit of a scene, he supposed, what with the shouting in a foreign language, and-- suddenly remembering the bags at his feet, he immediately dropped to retrieve them.
<Crap, I’m- uh, sorry...> His face grew hot with remorse and the murmurs that had finally reached his ears, alike. People tended not to be discreet about their gossiping when they assumed you couldn’t understand them.
<L-look, can we.... maybe go somewhere else for this?> He plead, formerly pallid cheeks aflush with blood as he stuffed the last stray fruit into a bag.
<Some place more... quiet?>
<So you’ve done business with her father?>
Plucking a blade of grass with these soft-skinned, foreign fingers, he twirled it idly between them, settling against the trunk of a tree under which they had found a place to sit, away from the bustle and noise of the festival. The watchful eyes.
The spring breeze felt the same on his face, no matter the body he inhabited, however. Nadi closed his own, letting the piece of grass drift away on it.
He was so tired. It went beyond physical exhaustion, at this point.
Lanche loved cloudy days. The clouds provided a shield from that pesky sun. It was so cloudy that she didn’t even need her parasol! She was a bit lonely without her bats. Why did they have to be nocturnal? Lanche had been told that she’s also nocturnal, but why would she want to sleep all day? That would be way too boring.
The small vampire found herself at a bakery. She was led to a large window by the sweet aroma of the treats displayed.
Her stomach’s groans and the drool forming in her mouth made the sight all the more agonizing. But, alas, there was one problem. Why did everything have to cost money? Lanche looked around and spotted a man nearby.
She approached the long-haired man with a big grin. “Hiya, mister! Can you buy me a treat?”
Lost in deliberation over whether he was feeling brave enough that day to deal with the humiliation of trying to buy a loaf of bread from the elderly woman at the bakery because he couldn’t look her pretty granddaughter in the eye, Nadi was taken off-guard by the little girl’s sudden appearance.
And her... particularly toothy grin.
“Where are your parents?” Were the first words to come to his mind, and therefor the first to tumble gracelessly out of his mouth.
He may have officially been attending at Elise’s insistence, but in all honesty, Nadi was just going for the food. It wasn’t as if he danced, anyway. Not like they did on these islands.
Luckily he kept the kurta and dhoti from his last round of jobs in Silk Country. Nobody had to know he wore them as pajamas...
And hey, if the party was too boring to watch, he was ready for a nap!
Between his hire and whoever used to be in charge, the grounds of Margaret Manor had been entirely let go. The place was a complete mess... On the bright side, the old axe Elise had given him was coming in use, after all.
A monster, startled from its hiding place as he was clearing deadfall, was mercifully dispatched with a solid swing-- an unfortunate, but necessary death to protect his employer’s livestock. Nadi spoke a quiet prayer over it and moved on, with intent to return its body to the forest on his own time.
A caterpillar, a harbinger of warmer weather, was a welcome sight, however.
“Take it easy, little buddy... don’t go falling out of any more trees! You know what they say about the early bird and the worm--”
“And we both know they’re too dumb to tell the difference!”
Lumber x2 [600G]
Monster
Old Lumber x4 [200G]
Caterpillar
Small Lumber x2 [200G]
Subtotal: [1,000G]
Balance: [9,100G]
"green" drinkToday at 12:34 PM
Logging (Nadi), Rusty Axet!choose Old Lumber | Small Lumber | !!! | Old Lumber | Small Lumber | Old Lumber | Small Lumber | Old Lumber | Lumber | Old Lumber | Lumber | !!!
TatsumakiBOTToday at 12:34 PM
| tomate, I pick Lumber!
"green" drinkToday at 12:34 PM
t!choose Old Lumber | Small Lumber | !!! | Old Lumber | Small Lumber | Old Lumber | Small Lumber | Old Lumber | Lumber | Old Lumber | Lumber | !!!
<I’m a coward.>
Was the first thing that popped in his mind to say to him, there were thousands of things the man never had told Nadi. Of the adventures he had come to seek, the tales he learned to know- He’s traveled around the world, never taking his eyes off the stars to find his way home.
<Yet I am not afraid of death.>
Was the next he spoke of, taking another step closer- watching the husk of his body. A man whom looked worn and used- tired by the many years he had lived on- the lifetime’s prang of guilt that weighed heavy on him. Did I truly look like this?
<I tend to do many things, to keep my mind off of them. I own several businesses, I make jewelry, and I travel to seek for tales to tell in the future. Should I still continue to have one.>
He continued to speak, not bothering stopping to breathe.
<A future, that is. Now if you have any further doubts,– draw back the sleeves of my right arm, there should be a jagged scar on top of my inked skin.>
The more and more Lloyd had looked at his body, he pondered- if this is what it felt to look from outside the frame. When this time, the picture before him is himself. Admittedly, he rather be looking at his old friend. Lloyd walked closer to observe the bags, pulling out a crystal rock- thankfully unharmed- and stares at Nadi’s reflection.
<Ah. So you’ve grown.>
<I always wondered what your life was like after I’ve left, I came back to find you a few times but you were never there.>
Almost immediately after it had been suggested, Nadi did so, baring the man’s arm with a tug of his sleeve. It wasn’t his knowledge of the scar that convinced him, however, but the tattoos beneath it, although the sight made him wince. The ink it marred he had seen many times, either while bathing or in the privacy of their own little hovel-- but this was new, and ‘jagged’ was the wrong word for it.
Shallow, intricate, a symbol or sigil he had never seen anything like in all of his travels... On the other hand, he did know a cauterized wound when he saw one.
Who the hell had done this to him?
He was startled by the other’s-- his own-- voice coming from so close, and jerked the sleeve down, feeling strangely guilty for staring so intently. He pulled his gaze instead beyond the crystal, to what Lloyd saw reflected back at him: a healthy young man in the prime of his life, albeit in need of some sleep, and then to what his own held for him. Dark eyes, hollow cheeks. A man only a year or so older, but appearing as though he had lived lifetimes more. He reached, without thought, to touch the face in the reflection, but withdrew his hand abruptly before his fingers grazed his cheek.
What the hell had happened to him?
<I... learned a trade. And traveled, too.> Nadi answered, somewhat dazedly, running them distractedly through his dark hair, instead. The words went unspoken, but as many things always had between the two, they also went without saying: I’m sorry I missed you.
<I uh, do landscaping now. Working on a farm in Arcadia, 'til I feel like heading somewhere else.>
Possession by a malevolent spirit was almost more believable than running into someone he hadn’t seen in over ten years on the other side of the world-- much less, switching bodies with them, somehow-- but was he really in such shock he could do nothing but make small talk...?
Elise had done rather well for herself. Not only had she secured more than one worker, but the man now in charge of her orchard was the best in the business. As much as she got on with the De Saint Coquille’s.. It was most certainly a one up against them. Proof that she was a woman of worth. A business woman too, now her farm was coming together. The first days of spring had turned the miserable tracks of mud into grassy fields, capable of sustaining life.
“Oh Nadi!” Elise grinned as she approached her gardener, quite content with the haul of saplings she had dragged along with her. Granted they might not have been of the most perfect quality.. But one had to start somewhere. And she had no idea what she was buying but that was besides the point.
“I’ve brought you a few things!” She quite quickly pulled out a rusty axe, not intending to be nearly so aggressive as she appeared. Granted it had originally been hers, but there was no need for it now was there?
“I thought you might be in need of something like this~. Especially now we actually have some saplings!”
Once his pulse calmed enough after the near heart attack she had given him, Nadi accepted the axe by the handle, resting it head-down on the ground against the wheelbarrow he was bent over. “Uh, thanks.” From the look of the blade, his shears would likely do a better job of... whatever he might need it for (not the twiggy saplings, surely), but he could take it in to a blacksmith to be cleaned and sharpened, and maybe it would prove itself useful, one day.
Turning his attention to the juvenile trees his employer had purchased, Nadi straightened, wondering if she hadn’t needed the wheelbarrow more than he did... but no, she seemed to have managed just fine. Bit traumatic for the roots, to be dragged along the ground in nothing but burlap sacks, but he wasn’t terribly worried about them-- more awed by the unusual strength of such a small woman. Especially one that gave such a delicate impression.
Upon inspection, they all looked healthy at a glance. No visible afflictions to the bark or leaves, and he would check each thoroughly for root rot, later. She had chosen pretty well.
“I can give these little guys the best start I’m able,” he began, without preamble, “but you’re not going to see much of anything out of them for a couple of years. Can’t force nature, after all. Are you okay with that?” By which he meant to ask whether she was prepared for the responsibility. He wasn’t going to stay in Arcadia forever, and Elise was going to either have to learn to take care of them herself, or hire another groundskeeper. A tree’s care wasn’t all said and done once it started dropping fruit for you. To commit to a domesticated plant was like raising an animal-- it depended on you to see that its needs were met, and was kept healthy to live a long and happy life.
Of all the women who worked at Fantastic Flowers, he found Popuri the easiest to talk to. She always had a sunny, sincere smile on her face, and didn’t seem to mind the way he said things, or how little he spoke-- as if she was more than happy to carry the conversation herself, which Nadi appreciated more than she would likely ever know.
In time it helped him open up to her a little, to the point where he would hang back until she could assist him personally, just to awkwardly attempt it with her.
Ever since the young woman managed to wheedle a tale of his travels out of him, however, she had had been insistent on hearing more... and was really pushing it, today. Setting the bag of mulch he was buying on the counter with a bit more force than was necessary, Nadi removed his gloves, shoved them into a pocket, and ran the back of a hand across his forehead-- leaving a smudge of dirt in its wake, even then. Clearly he was in the middle of something.
“Ugh, fine! If I tell you a story, will you ring me up and let me get back to work?”
“نادي…”
There was only one person in his life he knew by that name, somebody from his past life in the desert sands. A friendly street urchin who helped another lost soul who saw their parents fall before their eyes. He was grateful to this person, exceedingly so– that he couldn’t help but smile.
Who would had thought, that he would ever get a chance to cross paths with him again? Surely, he wasn’t expecting them to switch vessels but since when did anything conventional ever happened with Lloyd anyway.
Softly, he spoke his name in turn.
“ لويد السمندل ”
And wondered if that would help calm him down.
Talk about impossible. There was no way in hell.
For the first time, Nadi looked down. At the robes this body wore, at the long, thin fingers of the hands he now controlled. Their pallid skin. They were older, covered in jewelry and scarred in places he didn’t remember, but... could he have once held them? At the market, so they didn’t get separated-- in comfort his clumsy words couldn’t provide, white-knuckled, as they trembled from a nightmare?
<H-how do I know you're not lying? Just... reading my memories...?>
<Tell me something only he would know. Something he never told me.>
If he was who he claimed, then Nadi had in fact known him like a brother, long ago-- he would trust in his memory of The Boy from the Desert, his one true friend, and judge their legitimacy by it.
His eyes watched the bags fall, unable to do anything about it. Usually if it were himself, Lloyd possessed the ability to make things float and not hit the floor. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to will it out of himself to do anything…just watched several fruits scattered on the ground. One, which was an stray apple…rolls towards his foot and he picks it up of the ground.
Clearly, whomever body he was in, it was not of his own. Tanned skin, white hair. Hm.
He wondered if they had the same matching pair of eyes to go along.
Lloyd was perplexed to see himself speak, was that...Arabic? It’s been a while, that’s for sure. Felt awfully strange to hear himself speak in tongues. Thankfully, he knew how to speak in turn.
“ لا أعني أي أذى ان شاء الله ”
< Brother, I mean no harm.>
“ من فضلك دعنا نفكر في ذلك ”
<So please…Let’s just think this through.>
He knew whomever this person was, clearly they were distressed. The merchant did his best to speak as calm as possible. Tucking the apple into his pocket, Lloyd opens his hands and raises them up by his head. Whoever they are, they need to know he isn’t out to get them.
“ قل لي اسمك وسوف أشاركك ”
<Tell me your name and I’ll share mine. >
Yeah, that was what he’d thought. There was no surprise he... it, had understood him. Had to be al-jinn. No other explanation. Nadi had been around the world a half-dozen times, and knew all too well how impossibly rare it was to find somebody he could speak with plainly. It was why he knew as many languages as he did-- that, and a genuine interest in them.
Now he was paranoid. They said not to give your name to spirits, right? Or was that faeries? Witches...? Whatever it was, they couldn’t actually do anything if it wasn’t your true name, if he remembered correctly. Without those from his adoptive father, it wasn’t really him-- not anymore-- so his given one was safe to... er, give, wasn’t it? If it got him somewhere, maybe it was worth the risk.
He did so reluctantly, in a barely audible grumble.
“...Nadi.”
He... it... whatever, had better not go back on their word.
<Alright, your turn... and I’m not your brother. Don’t call me that.>
Lloyd was lost in his own thoughts, holding bags upon bags of wares he had bought from many booths. One thing he had noticed was the influx of stalls people had offered, and it made the business man ponder what kind of things he ought to do for the next event. Admittedly, he himself was selling high ticketed items, but they looked pretty neat so…
And well, one thing he noticed about the islands was the economy. Coming in here with 5000g on his name , to have spent 300k + in a few months was an amazing feat if he could say so himself. Lloyd lacked any debts and…
Suddenly, he realized he was going the wrong way.
“…..?”
Alright, perhaps that was a slip of his mind- clearly the man was heading back towards his booth and…
Turning around, the man was surprised to see…himself.
“….I wonder what person I’ve been cursed with this time.” Lloyd, had said to the other Lloyd. Perhaps this was revenge from months back- taking a form similar as the original Weiss and…
He supposed, Karma was a burden after all.
Shocked by the sound of his own voice, Nadi abruptly dropped the bags he had been burdened with, the unmistakable, gut-wrenching crunch of delicate things breaking sounding loudly as they hit the pavement.
There were legends of this in his homeland-- al-jinn, who had the power to possess your body and either drive you mad, or keep it for themselves, as they saw fit. They’d never been anything more to him than a cautionary tale mothers told their children to keep them from wandering into the unforgiving desert alone... Not once in his life had Nadi entertained actual belief in them, but in this moment, everything he'd ever learned came rushing back to him.
<Don’t give me that crap!> He spat in his native tongue, too distressed to notice the unusual ease with which this foreign mouth formed around it.
<Drop the act, demon-- you’re not fooling anyone! Give back my body, and free this man you’ve trapped me in, before I drag your sorry ass to an exorcist!>
Lunch in hand, Nadi set off to explore the rest of the islands’ Founding Festival before the siren call of his bed back on the farm got too strong for him to resist. He’d been given the day off, so he might as well make use of it, no matter how tempting the idea of snoozing the whole thing away was.
The sights and sounds surrounding the booths kept him pretty alert, at least.
Not much on offer seemed to interest him, though-- you’d seen a marketplace in each of the Four Corners of the world, you really had seen them all. Even the scantily clad woman shamelessly giving lap dances in public didn’t faze him in the way it should have, though he did avert his eyes as quickly as he saw it. World traveler or not, there were some things that Nadi would never get used to... seeing so much of the female body all at once was definitely at the top.
Desperately needing a distraction in his fluster, he pulled back the wrapping on the riceball he’d just bought and shoved the entire thing into his mouth, barely chewing before he wolfed it down in one swift gulp.
Wait a second-- hadn’t he been going the other way? Must be more tired than he thought. With a shrug, Nadi turned back around, and came face-to-face with...
Wasn’t that Elise’s butler? Clorica... right? They hadn’t talked much, aside from him gruffly returning her polite greetings on occasion-- but he recognized her, even in such a fancy outfit. It was funny, Nadi hadn’t really taken her for the type. He guessed it just went to show how you couldn’t judge people by appearances.
Books and covers. He knew all about that.
“What the heck are you wearing?”
That didn’t come out at all how he had meant it. “I mean... it’s different. From what you usually do.” Nadi needed to just... shut up, buy something to drink, and leave, but he kept digging the hole deeper, trying to fix it. “N-not like, bad different-- it looks nice and all.” Really nice, actually. He liked the color. Black was a favorite. “But isn’t it hard to work in?”
[🐎] — The last few times she’s set up a booth for events, Georgia put a lot of focus into the pet side of her business. While advertisement for Barley’s and more awareness towards pet adoptions were great, she wanted to show people the greatness of her horse ranch as well.
And even show them a bit of the passions she pursued in her personal life. Thanks to her tendency for highly emotional responses and gross overreaction, she was seen as a bit… intimidating, by some. Which, wasn’t untrue, but she was a lot nicer than that, too!
All Georgia ever wanted was to be better understood by others, and she thought this would be the perfect way to get that.
“Howdy! Just step right on up and take yourself a gander!” Georgia says with a grin, gesturing proudly to her booth. “If you’ve got any questions, you know where to find me~”
While it had been the horses that caught his attention-- especially the black beauty hanging out toward the back that he wanted a closer look at-- it was the last, lonely riceball at the booth that Nadi ended up buying.
He liked them well enough, having made and eaten his fair share in the country they were native to due to them being so hard to mess up. Plus, a grumbling stomach and the smell of horse pucky... did not go well together.
“The oni-... er, ‘riceball’, please.” He asked, sliding his payment across the counter before she could put out her hand to take it.
He thought about complimenting her horses, too... but decided he’d better not bother. Knowing himself, he would manage to stick his foot in his mouth, somehow.
“H-Hello…!” Violet greeted with a smile, “U-Um…l-let me know i-if you want t-to buy anything…!”
In front of her sat a very simple booth composing of several different flowers she grew in her apartment. They weren’t as good as the ones you could find at the flower store…but Violet was proud of them nonetheless. She enjoyed growing flowers, she didn’t mind that at all!
The flowers looked... happy. Like they had been grown with love. Even if he couldn’t meet the eyes of the girl selling them, he wanted to support her.
Plucking a single cornflower from a jar and tucking it behind his ear, Nadi gently tossed his money onto the countertop, walking off before she could do or say anything to make it weird.
