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NESSETH'S HOUSE - MIDDAY
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Nesseth lounges on one of the chairs on his roof, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts as he catches some nice sun off of most of the mirrors Mia set up not that long ago. He seems quite relaxed indeed at the moment as he just basks in the heat, a mostly-full pitcher of ice water sitting beside him being relatively untouched for the moment.
Leana lands on the other side of the roof, having gone for a long flight to get her bearings and try and air her thoughts. Perhaps with not all that much success with either, but at least she manages to land relatively quietly. She's not taking note of which particular roof she is on, just landing somewhere because of her tired wings.
Nesseth stirs a little, waking up from a sort of dozing-not-actually-sleeping state upon hearing a rustle of... is that leaves or scales...? He spends another few seconds listening, then mentally shrugs and settles back without even opening his eyes, figuring it must have just been the tree in his backyard rustling in a breeze.
Leana lets out a deep sigh, not seeing Nesseth just yet as she watches over the town. This is her new home, now...? It makes no sense. Nothing about all this makes sense, yet here she is. The lesser coatl shifts and looks around... and lets out a quiet gasp upon seeing the near-naked lizard. "O-oh."
Nesseth now actually hears something he can't just brush off, and blinks his eyes open while sitting up. He looks around, slightly blearily, but he spots Leana pretty fast. "Loum...? Oh, hi, Leana." He yawns and stretches a bit, "What's up? How come you're up here?"
Leana blinks a couple of times, clearly caught off guard: "Oh uh... wow. Hey, um... Nesseth. I was just flying around, try and clear my head and... landed here. This is your roof, then?"
Nesseth nods as he shifts about and goes to stand up for another good stretch just to help himself shake off the sleepiness. "Yeah, I usually kind of lounge about during my off-duty hours, when the others are still busy."
Leana looks Nesseth up and down, then gathers herself despite the not-bad-at-all-looking lizard. "I... I can see that. I apologize for disturbing you. I can leave now." She makes no actual move to leave, though.
Nesseth shrugs a bit and presses a button on the table, which turns off the mirror system and stows them away. "Nah, don't worry about it, Leana." He shifts a bit and takes a seat on his chair again, then gestures to a nearby chair, inviting her to get comfy if she wants, "Had a lot on your mind lately, huh?"
Leana slithers closer, smiling weakly: "You could say that. I am still unsure why I am even here, and my feathers, and now my Sister and..." She gestures vaguely with her hand: "Everything."
Nesseth hums, nodding sympathetically. "I bet it's a lot to take in all at once, what with the feather changes and such on top of that. Louma being Louma probably isn't helping matters, either." He taps the pitcher, "If you're thirsty, by the by, feel free to have a drink. It should still be cold."
Leana nods slowly: "I am fine, but thank you for the offer." She then takes a glass for herself and pours a drink. "It is just... well, I suppose I do not know your story, how much it was upturned coming into Respite."
Nesseth tilts his head thoughtfully. "Me? Not very much, really. I arrived here some years ago as part of an Explorers Guild expedition deeper into Aephix. I simply decided to stay behind while they continued onward." He smiles a bit, "Been here ever since."
Leana hums, glancing towards the town: "Quite a while, then. Understandable." She shakes her head: "So you are a hunter of sorts, besides being a guard?"
Nesseth nods at that. "Yeah, in my free time, I'm a hunter and supply meats and skins to the folks around town that need the materials."
Leana shrugs her wings: "Admirable enough... you would not have any idea what an artist like me could even do, down here? I sort of left without even planning for that..."
Nesseth thinks for a moment before answering. "You specialize in portraiture, right? I could probably point you towards some of the more well-off folks who might be able to give you a really good price for that sort of work. If pricing isn't a problem, I imagine you could get good work with a lot of folks around town."
Leana nods: "It is something..." She lets out a sigh: "Starting to build a customer base from nothing again. Never fun."
Nesseth nods again. "Yeah, I can imagine. Still, once you're set up and able to do your work again, I'll point you at a few folks you can inquire with. Might make it a little easier, at least."
Leana smiles warmly: "I do appreciate that." She goes quiet for a second, looking aside before turning back to Nesseth: "Why do I feel like I already know you, somehow? We just met."
Nesseth goes a little quiet, but looks up at Leana after a second. "Well, I think it's linked to your wings."
Leana glances at her wings, spreading one out: "My wings? Do you mean, it's linked to these new colors somehow?"
Nesseth also looks at the wing Leana spreads open. "I think so. Or... actually, no, I'm pretty sure of it." He pauses, shifting his eyes back to Leana proper, "It might sound a little crazy, though."
Leana lowers her wing and raises an eyebrow: "Try me. I am unsure if my life can be upended much more, right now."
Nesseth hums and sits up a little straighter. "Alright, well... I'll just give what I think is going on. Might not be completely accurate, but it's what I'm suspecting."
Leana shifts back a bit, smiling weakly: "I honestly appreciate any insight on all this. It is weirding me out."
Nesseth chuckles a bit. "Yeah, I can see that. Well... it started off with a bit of an incident that happened a few months ago, where a good friend of ours vanished and a younger version of her arrived in town."
Leana blinks: "...I am going to presume you are not talking about a family gathering of any kind."
Nesseth shakes his head. "You'd be right. We're talking... actually the person that went missing, but 45 years younger." He fixes Leana with an 'I'm actually being serious though it sounds ridiculous' sort of look, "It's... a bit of a long story, and involves a lot of magic that I'm totally unfamiliar with."
Leana lifts her hand, opens her mouth... then lowers her hand and closes her mouth and just hums. "...huh."
Nesseth nods again. "And, well, there was a lot of stuff going on with her, but ultimately, we - that is, myself, one of my partners, and Louma - helped conduct a ritual that brought the older version of her back... but also sent her younger self... well, we thought she'd gone back to her own time originally. We gave her some things to take back with her."
Leana glances at her crest feathers and wing feathers. "I am unsure if I like the direction this story is going..."
Nesseth hums. "I don't know why, but maybe it's because Louma was helping the ritual or something... I don't know. But... we gave her a few pictures and a couple of other things, like a little sculpture and such. It was to help keep her spirits up once she went back to her time, because it'd be a long time before she could make her way back to Aephix, like her older self."
Leana feels her heart skip a beat as she digs up the pictures from her shoulder bag, the ones depicting Erika, Nesseth and Louma: "...you mean these, then." She stares at the pictures, then at Nesseth. "S-so... that's why I have had... these desires that do not quite feel my own."
Nesseth nods as he looks at the familiar pictures in Leana's hands. "Yeah. Again, I don't know why, but - and this is nothing more than a guess on my part - I think Xochi's younger self tied herself to you instead of going back to her own time. One of the things we told Xochicoatl was to come to Respite once she was free again, and we'd make sure she got settled in comfortably."
Leana shivers visibly: "S-so... my desire to come here... wasn't even mine." She closes her eyes and balls up her fists in frustration. In a hoarse, angry voice she continues: "WHY."
Nesseth sighs and shakes his head again at Leana's outburst. "I don't know. You got caught in some kind of crossfire, and no one knew it would have happened." He gives Leana a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry, Leana, but we're still trying to figure this whole development out, too."
Leana lets out a frustrated yell of not-even-words at the sky, then just deflates and stares at the floor: "...why." She sighs: "I s-suppose... I c-could not stay in Sarn r-regardless..." She sniffs, the anger gone just as quickly as it had arrived.
Nesseth gestures a little, still watching Leana with a bit of a sad look on his face. "If it's any consolation, judging by what Louma's said of your shared family... Respite Falls is a pretty good place to go to be far away from that kind of stuff. "A place of second chances", we like to say, and also a good place to disappear into."
Leana gives a dark chuckle: "E-even with sudden case of rainbow feathers?"
Nesseth gives Leana a little, wry smirk. "Even with rainbow feathers. Xochi's technically the crown princess of the Snakes... and she's living here because it's peaceful and quiet."
Leana blinks: "Xochi... you mentioned her. She's like... related to all this, yes?"
Nesseth nods. "She is, and I know she wants to talk with you soon, since she feels kind of responsible for what's happened, even though she was effectively missing in action for the entire time her younger self was around."
Leana pauses, staring at nothing: "Her younger self... and because of magic, said younger self is..." She gestures at herself. "...s-something like that."
Nesseth nods again. "Something like that. Louma says you're still acting as you always do, so you're still you, aside from the urge to come to Respite, even if it lined up well with your departure from Sarn for other reasons."
Leana raises a wing and looks at it: "Well... mostly me, at least. I never felt like flying before... I am going to guess this other person, she did like that."
Nesseth shrugs a little. "Probably? It was something she was actually originally denied before she came here. Louma taught her how to fly not that long before she left."
Leana sighs: "Another small mystery on top of all of this." She glances towards where she recalls the barracks being: "My Sister being here is another one. So not entirely a coincidence but sure feels like one."
Nesseth chuckles. "I can say, if you're worried about Louma pulling anything, she'd have to argue with me first. As long as you're not here to try and pull her back to Orela, I've got your back if she tries to kick you out, since she's definitely not going to be taking you back to Orela herself."
Leana sighs in at least partial relief: "If she's not... and not going to kick me out of town either, she's not giving the best impression of that yet."
Nesseth shakes his head a bit. "For all the posturing she does, she's not the only guard captain. She can work with the other captains to try and press a case for you to be kicked out, but I doubt she can push it entirely by herself."
Leana glances at Nesseth: "That is a relief to hear. I am... unsure, what she wants. Maybe it is nothing."
Nesseth hums. "Mmh, normally, she puts forward a really serious attitude, but she's a bit more open with me. I think she might be just stressed out about her upcoming wedding, and you arriving as unexpectedly as you did likely didn't help."
Leana shrugs: "She's always been this tense, far as I know."
Nesseth laughs a bit. "Heh... really? Maybe her being in Respite for several years helped her loosen up a little, then. Did she ever crack jokes when you two were in Orela?"
Leana hums: "...maybe. Or at least, at times." She shrugs again: "Mostly I remember a lot of arguing. Not a happy family, ours."
Nesseth sighs a bit and nods. "She hinted as much whenever the topic came up over the years. Never really talked much in-depth about it all before you came by. Still, if she was the serious sort before, I think she's mellowed out a bit since she moved here. Sort of."
Leana chuckles: "Sort of. Maybe I will find out this mystical softer side of hers eventually, if I stay around."
Nesseth smiles. "Maybe, given time. I can't guess how long it'd take, but I wouldn't say it's impossible."
Leana shrugs, her wings shuffling with the movement: "At this point, I am willing to even believe my Sister can be talked to be sensible."
Nesseth chuckles. "Then... fingers crossed that she mellows out about you after the wedding, hm? I imagine you'll like how the town is, since it's been pretty peaceful as of late."
Leana looks aside: "I have no idea. But reckon I will find out..."
Nesseth hums and smiles. "So... all that aside, I hope you've been finding the town nice since you arrived? You've at least recovered from the crash-landing, I can see."
Leana nods slowly as she over the town: "I have, yes..." The two continue conversing for quite a while, Nesseth filling Leana in on details about the town while Leana attempts to understand why she knows him as well as she does already.