middaeg | Semi-Closed; Housewarming!

Who: Yona and Tsutha, as well as maybe a few of their Bonded and close CR
When: Early in Deceuer
Where: Yona's Cottage
What: Yona's acquiring a new roommate
Warnings: n/a

[ It's been a while since Yona's had someone else living in her little cottage with her. Although her previous roommates' stays had been brief, it had been fun to have someone else sharing the space with her, sometimes learning along with her the joys - and complications - of having a place of their own. And when one of her friends confesses a need for a place to settle, she's quick to offer one of the empty rooms in her own cottage.

It's snowing outside, which is possibly going to make Tsutha's trip here less than ideal, depending on how many belongings she has to carry, but it looks pretty coating the yard and the roof and making the warm glow coming from the cottage windows cozy and inviting. And inside, Yona might be pacing in excited anticipation, a pot of tea already brewed and waiting for her newest rooomate to arrive. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, kids'll make fun of your name where I come from, too. I don't think that part is limited to just humans.

[ The number of times she'd been called "Tootha"... She'd rather not think about that. ]

That's weird though. Where I come from, the whole tribe basically comes together to name new children.

Yeah... I'm sure you're right.

[Kids being brutal no matter what culture they're from would not be a surprise.]

It's a community thing, huh? [He's sure that's not a new concept for Earth, even if he doesn't know where it might be done.] How big is your tribe?

Yeah. Pretty much everything in the tribe is a "community thing."

[ Her tone is fond, and somewhat nostalgic. If Ferran had met her a year or two earlier, she wouldn't have the same emotions surrounding her tribe. ]

Um, there's a few dozen of us, I think? We're not that big. Especially when you compare us to the nearest orcish city, Tarl.

That is small.

[That's like, not even village size... Wild, literally. Everyone probably knows everything about everyone in that kind of situation.]

I can't imagine living somewhere there's not at least thousands of people around. How big is Tarl?

Thousands of people? Multiple thousands? With an s?! That doesn't seem possible!

[ Tsutha has no concept of what a thousand people would even look like. Her mind just can't conceive of a place that big. ]

Tarl had... a bunch of hundreds of people. Meadowwilde maybe had a thousand...? I think? But I don't know of any place in Shartis bigger than Meadowwilde.

[He can't help but laugh a little at her response. It's funny, the little things people are used to without ever thinking about them...]

I guess Alta could get kind of crowded... but the city went pretty far out, too. People would come to the inner city to work, but they might live half an hour or more away.

[He wonders how Tsutha thinks in terms of numbers of people, though... someone who's used to knowing literally everyone who lives nearby would probably have no reason to be familiar with what "thousands of people" looks like.]

How long have you been traveling?

[ Tsutha's still kind of stunned by the shocking differences between the way her and Ferran's worlds work. ]

I don't think anyone in Shartis travels like that for work. Going in and out of the city every day? It would take forever! Either you live and work in the city, or you live and work outside of the city. Or, you're like me and my friends, and you live and work pretty much wherever, because you're always traveling.

[ Which leads to Ferran's next question. ]

I left my tribe a few years ago, and I've been traveling ever since. Made my way over to the Eastern continent, which is where I met Walter and Mazon. Then, Marzia joined up with us after we went back over to Tarl. She's from the Warmlands.

You must have seen a lot of interesting things... [Although it sounds like the travel situation where she's from is probably closer to this place than his own home... even with things like magic, he imagines it's not exactly be used for commuting purposes. He might not know what the Warmlands or Shartis are, but he gets the gist.]

I love to travel, but I could never do it for that long. I need a place to come home to, you know?

[He's a creature of habit.]

Yeah, I have seen a lot of crazy stuff.

[ Tsutha laughs a little uneasily. If it was anyone but Ferran she was talking to, they probably wouldn't be able to pick up on the sour note of it, but given the bond between them, Ferran might be able to pick up that the laugh is not as jovial as Tsutha's usual laughter. ]

Yeah, I guess I can see how someone would feel that way. But sometimes home is just what you make of it.

[ Her actual "home" stopped feeling like a place she belonged a long time ago. ]

[Even without the bond, Ferran would like to think they've spoken enough for him to catch onto the different tone of her laugh. Either way, his reply is sympathetic; he's seen some "crazy stuff" himself, much of which has been unpleasant.]

It takes all sorts of things to make up the world, right?

[He won't press her for details. He does let out a quiet sigh at the thought of home, though—and how much he's been missing it.]

Of course; not everywhere you live is automatically home. Sometimes home is a place, sometimes it's people... I'm still trying to figure it out, myself.

[He hasn't really felt like he's been "home" in close to a year. Maybe he'll find it again someday, but... well, he'll see.]

Mmhm. [ Tsutha definitely believes that her home has always been more about the people than the place. Those people have changed over time, sometimes gradually and naturally and sometimes in a pinch due to extenuating circumstances. She's working on making her home in the people here, out of necessity. Ferran is one of those on the top of the list to make her feel at home.

Because of her closeness to him, she smiles her most hopeful smile to him, pushing her anxieties aside for the moment. ]

That's alright, Ferran. We can figure all that out together.

[Despite his internal thoughts, Ferran returns the smile. His own search feels much less important in the face of helping his bonded, but they've already made a vow together, and he's not about to neglect their partnership just because of his pessimism.]

I'll look forward to it. [What he wouldn't do to have that solid feeling of comfort—but in a mirror to her thoughts, he feels that Tsutha and a few others, including Yona, may have helped build decent foundation for it. It's a big step towards feeling like he truly belongs.] We might have already made a pretty good start here.

Haha, yeah, we have!

[ Tsutha latches on to the optimistic feeling and holds out her hand for a high five. ]

Go team Ferran and Tsutha!

...Fertha? Tsuthran? ...I dunno, we'll figure something out.

[Even if he hasn't had the enthusiasm for it much in the past several months, it's not the first time he's given a high five, and he's not about to bring Tsutha down by not following through! Although his expression might be a little awkward behind the smile.

The team thing would probably go easier if he went by his middle name, but anyway...]

The feeling is there, and that's the important part.

Semi-Closed; Housewarming!

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