middaeg | OPEN

Who: Yuya + you!
When: First half of October
Where: around Aefenglom
What: Picking up parttime jobs, drinking regrettable potions, and going a little magic-mad
Warnings: Local teen boy slowly losing his marbles, lingering Dorchacht suffering

[Turnt-Up Turnips]

[The Coven is absolutely generous, but they can't provide absolutely everything. Yuya's going to need some way to actually make some money. Not a lot, he figures, so when he finds the hiring sign for the turnip shop for a little stint, he goes right away to offer help. There are probably worse jobs than carving faced in turnips.

He sits by the window on the days he's needed, so he can watch the people passing by outside while he digs faces into the turnips. Every one that he finishes, he props in the window sill for display.

But they might be a little alarming. Maybe you'd like to buy a few to terrorize anyone else with.]

[Homesick]

[Most of the excitement of bargain deals and spring cleaning is lost on Yuya, who as neither enough coin nor looking for enough possessions to take full advantage beyond trying to get a few more sets of clothes before he tears through what he has. Except the market's special potions, next to the seance ones, that the shopkeeper promises will let Yuya connect with his friends and family back home.

He falls for it hook, line, and sinker.

It isn't even ten minutes before he's sitting on a bench in a park with one, turning the vial in his fingers. He didn't get a lot of instructions beyond to "think about who he wants to see". Will it let him talk to them, maybe...? So he can let them know he's okay.]

Well, no harm in trying... [So he pops the cork off the vial and tips his head back to drink it down at once, his thoughts on his parents and his closest friends in hopes that it'll prioritize. It's unexpectedly cold, but not bad, and then there's a rush of heat that might be the magic working.

But probably not. The fever crashed onto him immediately, and regret, and then he lets out a groan and tips forward, gripping his head. He flops over on the bench, curling up and gripping the vial with misery plain on his face.]

What? It didn't even work...

[Past Curfew]

[As the nights progress, Yuya finds himself more and more unable to sleep. Sometimes it's the too-vivid memories of what he'd seen in Dorchacht, flashing behind his eyelids. That one's worse in the beginning, but he still finds rest difficult to come as it instead gives way to an agitation. Something tingling other his skin, tense and persistent and ever present in the silence of the night. He just can't take it.

So he throws on his clothes and rushes out the door in tbe middle of the night. He shivers from the cold, for a moment, hopping from foot to foot before he trots with a hurry down the road--snesking through alleyways and climbing over fences and up the sides of short buildings to get around. Occasionally he looks over his shoulder, quickly, before he continues away into the night.

He stops at some point, sitting down and waving his fingers by his knees to play around with making small illusions. Stars and glitter, changing patterns on the ground, then the shapes of his pets, building up to more elaborate scenes that fit within a couple feet.]

[Wildcard]

((For all other shenanigans over the month, feel free to hit me up at discord or

monochromic

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wh--of course I am! [He's a little thrown by the question.] They were...

[He pauses, expression becoming tight. And then he shakes his head to push his thoughts back into focus, looking a little distant.] It was--the way they were being kept in the basements, I've never seen anything as bad as that.

[It's still harrowing even as a memory. Yuya covers his mouth.] Some of them are so far gone. They need help. The homes are just a start.

Hm, then you come from a very gentle world, indeed. [Certainly, what she'd seen of the auction, of the breeding grounds, of what was going on with them was horrifying to an average person, but while it wasn't the same, her patients in the research hall were dealing with their own... horrifying circumstances.

Really, though, he sounds like he's changing topics a bit, so she'll go along with it.]

You're not going to be able to save them all. You may not even be equipped to help many of the ones here. And those that are here are just the tip of the iceberg, are they not? There are still many back in Dorchacht. Those "farms" - the orphanages that were raided, those were not all, and the number brought back was very few compared to the vast expanses within that auction. I don't know if you saw within the actual building they were holding their sales at.

[She knows, because she did go in there; walked willingly through the door to see the extent of it. She learned of the breeders and sellers and helped pass that information along, even if, ultimately, she didn't end up doing much there, and none of it she'll admit to, but burying her nose in books.]

It's not really that... [But forced breeding is harrowing, locked in cages and their bodies talked into having children to be sold against their will...

He wants it to be more gentle, probably would have believed that easily until a month before he arrived. Before he knew his hand in damaging it.

He sits down slowly.] I saw where they were--were forcing them to have children. [He doesn't even want to call it breeding.] I know I can't help them all... but I helped some of them escape. We helped them change things, even a little, the resistance. We can keep doing that here. Not being able to do it all doesn't mean I can't do anything. It still makes a difference.

[Other people are stepping up, too, so he knows he's not alone. And many of them together can make a bigger difference. People more equipped for the most injured will help them, but that doesn't mean he can't offer a hand the same.]

Mm, yes. [It was a farm, in all of the ways and implications of that word. Breeding stock to be used or sold to meet the demands of a populace. The auctions were livestock auctions. She knows, she saw it all firsthand. Talked to the "breeders", acted coy about potentially doing business with them in order to learn where their farms were located. She knows, she saw, she did it anyway. It was terrible, of course, but her stomach is made of tougher things than most people here, she's found.

Toby helped remind her of that.]

Then, go forth and help them. I assume there's nothing stopping you. Aside from perhaps wishing to finish these turnips you are carving. Gifts for the children, maybe?

I am! So are others--we're fixing up some houses by the harbor for all of them, so they'll have proper homes.

[And then his gaze drifts to the turnip basket and he deflates a little.] But I need money for food. And clothes.

[The coven doesn't provide everything, and helping the refugees, while feelgood, doesn't provide any stipend.

He's been swapping between the same two outfits since he got here.] I don't actually know what the store's owner is going to do with all of these.

And so you are here. Would you not prefer, perhaps, a stall out in the markets? I'm sure a vendor might give you space there, or if there is an abandoned one. Perhaps if you included a sign, indicating it is for charity. The turnips may be a bit... lost, just sitting in the windows of this place.

[Look, that's her helpful suggestion. She's just here to carve heads to stick on pikes around her walls.]

... Uh. [Yuya blinks slowly, looking down as his turnips, then back at Maria. Just... confused.]

No, he's paying me to carve turnips for him. It's by the hour. [To sit here and carve turnips, not sell them. Wait--] Why are you here carving turnips?

[He just. Assumed she was also hired to do the legwork for whatever the turnip guy wants to do with these scary carvings to promote his business and tradition.]

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