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OUTSIDE THE BARRACKS - LATE MORNING
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Louma slithers out of the guard barracks, stretching a bit this way and that to wring the stiffness out of her body. She looks about for a few seconds, enjoying the sun over her as she considers whether she should surprise May with lunch at the generator or just go without and do a short patrol. Either way, she starts to spread her wings, stretching them in preparation to take off.
Nesseth happens to be walking by the barracks as part of his usual patrol route, and waves as he spots Louma coming out onto the lane. "Morning, Louma! Done with your morning pile of paperwork already?"
Louma flaps her wings down just as Nesseth speaks up, lifting into the air by a couple feet before pausing and plopping back down onto the street. "Ah! Good day, lieutenant." She nods to him slightly. "I am, we've been having a rather boring couple weeks, it seems."
Nesseth chuckles as he approaches. "Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt your flight. But... hey, at least little news is good news, for us, right? What with the Saurs getting settled in nicely thanks to the construction workers building so many houses, and everything else as of late quieting down, it's kind of nice to be back to the old routines for once."
Louma shrugs, tucking her wings partway back to turn and properly face Nesseth. "Maybe, old routines are certainly boring, but at least there are new things going on in our personal lives to keep us occupied, hmm? Ah, I did mean to ask if you would care to attend the wedding? We've finally set a rough goal of last weekend of July."
Nesseth tilts his head a bit. "New things? Well... not much new going on in my side of things, really." He nods with a smile, however, "As for the wedding... last weekend of July? Sure, that's plenty far out enough that I can plan for it. What's the style of dress, and is there anything else I should bring along aside from... well... guests?"
Louma raises her finger, pausing with her bill open for a moment. "Ahm... I will... Get back to you on the dress. Probably formal. Hm. As for bringing anything, yes. We do not want anyone to stress over finding gifts, the best gift we can think of is if everyone could pitch in some food to help us keep the cost down a little bit. That would also give us a lot of variety, which would be nice."
Nesseth grins. "A potluck, huh? I can definitely help with that. Any particular favorites that you'd like me to whip up for the occasion, or should I surprise you both?" He nods after a moment, "I figure I need to make a fair bit, just to feed a good portion of whoever shows up, of course, but that's easy enough."
Louma shrugs again. "Surprise us, though a surpise of something Orelan would be well welcome."
Nesseth nods. "Sure, I'll start figuring something good out for it. Any idea how many folks you're planning to invite?"
Louma thinks for a moment, sighing quietly. "Probably more than we hoped, but I do not want to leave anyone out."
Nesseth smiles at Louma. "Well, hopefully you can figure that out without giving yourself anymore stress about the entire occasion, on top of the job stuff."
Louma shakes her head a bit. "Nesseth, my dear friend. Nothing gives me no stress. If I didn't have all this stress, I'd unwind and fall apart at the seams."
Nesseth tilts his head curiously. "Huh... you thrive off of stress? Even after all these years, I didn't know you liked being stressed out." He pauses, then smirks, "Well... I guess I could tell you something that you'd find interesting, and probably a bit stressful, in that case..."
Louma frowns a bit. "I was joking, but I suppose I should know whatever it is you've got that would cause me troubles. I will end up finding out about it either way, I would rather know now before whatever it is becomes a serious issue."
Nesseth hums. "Then it's probably good you mentioned "Orelan surprises", since this particular bit of happenings is from Orela." He shakes his head after a moment, "And before you ask, no, it's not another family member of yours or anything like that come to visit."
Louma stiffens up until he clarifies that it's not about any more of her family. "It had better not be. I hope it goes without saying that if any more of my family crop up in town that I should be let know immediately, preferably before they are given the same lead about me." She contemplates for a second. "Or Leana. I guess."
Nesseth chuckles quietly. "I'm guessing you two have been kind of patching things up as of late?" He sighs and shakes his head after a moment, "But, anyway... Do you happen to know of an island called Aleria, in Orela?"
Louma blinks, thinking for a bit. "It sounds vaguely familiar, but I do not know the name of every island in the archipelago. Why?"
Nesseth hums thoughtfully. "The 'surprise' is from there, apparently. She's a recent arrival in town from Orela, and... well, I'm not really sure what to make of her."
Louma tilts her head a little, settling her tail in a loose coil as she listens. "What do you mean by that? Is she too pretty? Do you feel compelled to add her to your ever growing collection of ladies?"
Nesseth gives Louma a flat look. "Ha ha, Louma, funny. I mean that she looks unusual, and she says she's half-Snake, half-Lizard... and looks the part, too."
Louma gasps a little, looking a little taken aback. "Abominations? Grandfather said they were exiled or wiped out before the war really started up properly... I thought he was lying about them though. Or just trying to scare us into hating lizards more."
Nesseth blinks, then frowns at Louma. "Abominations? What kind of stories have you heard about them before?"
Louma shakes her head a little. "Oh don't give me that look, I do not think such a breeding would be abominous, though I did think it was... Well impossible. The tale generally went that your people would cross breed with ours... Forcefully, and using magic to try and create false coatls for the purpose of usurping the throne. The result of a lizard and snake was said to be ugly, poorly develpoed, with traits of both lizards and snakes, and birds through magic."
Nesseth gets more and more confused as he listens to Louma's explanation. By the end, he's looking like he's having a really hard time buying any of it. "That's a pretty... fanciful tale, for sure. Even I figured it wasn't possible, magic or otherwise." He pauses, then gives Louma another weird look, "So... wait, is that the story for why you're a Snake with a bird's upper body?"
Louma blinks, glancing at herself. "What? No. Did you just call me an abomination? Gods Nesseth, how rude!" She grins, chuckling for a moment. "Why my family is like this is lost to time, nobody seemed to have a clear answer for me growing up, and I gave up on asking after a while. I do think I lack any lizardy features though, don't you?"
Nesseth smirks again. "I'm not one to criticize looks, Louma, even if I'm poking fun at you." He sighs and shakes his head. "But honestly, after meeting that person from Orela, I'm not even sure anymore if you do or don't have Lizard features. She looked mostly like a Lizard, like me, but had a very, very Snake-like tail." He wiggles his own tail for emphasis, "...And she also had a feathery crest and feathers on her tail, like a Coatl."
Louma hums, considering these facts for a moment. "Well... I do not think you are trying to pull anything over on me. I suppose I will have to meet this mystery Orelan of mixed heritage myself. What did she say she was in town for?"
Nesseth shrugs. "Traveling, exploration, pretty much the same reasons others tend to come here if they're not running from anything." He scratches at one of his frills for a second, "And well, main reason I asked about Aleria is because, apparently, the whole settlement is one that was hidden from view for a long while, enough for a couple of generations of those half and half folks to be born."
Louma shakes her head a little, sighing. "Well. If you had been more bold and I allowed myself to date another guard, we could have had beautiful half snake, half lizard, half swan babies together. Shame shame."
Nesseth laughs a bit. "If only, huh? Ah well... Could have, would have, should have, but didn't." He chuckles, "But, really, you should probably meet her if you get the chance while she's in town. She's pretty chatty and friendly... and pretty, too. Her feathers look good on her."
Louma looks at Nesseth, resting her elbows on the desk and cradling her chin on woven fingers. Her eyelids flutter at him, voice sultry. "Ohh, would have, huh~? My my, Nesseth, I didn't know you wanted me that way~" She grins, laughing. "But anyhow, I am sure I will run into this interesting lady sooner or later."
Nesseth meets the look with a saucy expression he can barely hold for more than a second before he laughs in turn. "Probably likely, yeah. Not sure how long she'll be in town, but she's not hard to spot." He sighs a little and waves a hand, "All that aside, and the potluck idea in the planning... did you and May need any help with anything extra for preparations for the big event?"
Louma hums, sitting upright again and shrugging. "We plan on setting up in the pear orchard, things have already been arranged with Desmond. We missed the blossom season by quite a bit, but it's still a breezy but shaded locale. Bringing furniture out there is the primary challenge."
Nesseth blinks, then grins. "Oh, I can help with that if you need it. I have a bunch of those low-gravity disc things Mia sold me a long while back. They should be perfect to help move furniture!"
Louma smiles, nodding. "That's good, then we can have a long table for the food. I was planning on approaching the local bars to rent their smaller tables and as many chairs as possible, depending on how many people respond that they are coming. So many invitations sent out simply for social etiquette." She sighs dramatically.
Nesseth smirks at Louma. "It's what happens when you're popular and meet so many people as a guard captain." He nods, his smirk sliding back into an easy smile, "But, yeah, we can plan for the big table at least. Better too much space than not enough."
Louma grunts, shaking her head. "Despite all my best efforts to be unapproachable and gruff. Suppose I am just a terrible actor. Perhaps I should have extorted business owners for 'protection' or something." She looks aside a bit wistfully, humming to herself. "Perhaps it is not too late..."
Nesseth laughs a bit. "Would be a shame for bandits to start raiding the road to Bairnell again, wouldn't it?" He grins again, "As for 'unapproachable and gruff', I think that only works with the other guards."
Louma sighs, pouting a bit. "Oh, I know. If only I could hire an entire guard rank of people more beautiful than I." The two continue bantering lightly and wasting time, not that either has anything particularly important to get to in any case. At least, they do this until they decide they need to get to the important things they have to do.