Your character has just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As they look around, their gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. They duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? She begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”
((How do you respond?))
Nene wrinkled her nose at overwhelming fragrance of the suspended candles mixing with the scent of rotting wood. She clutched her skirt in one hand as she stepped inside, mud stuck to her shoes. Under her breath she groaned as she wiped her feet on the mud stained mat near the door, once satisfied she looked up, eyes flicking around the tent with guarded curiosity.
"What brings me...," Nene started to echo as the old woman's words processed, a glint of surprise in her eyes though her expression softened as she met the woman's gaze. "You've been expecting me?" Nene repeated after blinking. She stepped forward to inspect the older woman, perhaps she was someone she knew, but pulled back upon being unable to recognize her.
Backstory
Nene was born as a twin into a long, long lineage of pure Mali'aheral. Naturally, her family was very traditional in its values and conservative in their views. And to them, Nene was a trouble child. She was too reactional, she took perceived rejection too personally and when given instructions she always took them much too literally. She was too worried about pleasing people, the criticism she gave always spoken carefully in an attempt to spare their feelings. She wasted too many words on pointless conversation. In other words, Nene thought with her heart and not her brain. Her parents embarrassment of Nene was thinly veiled, they seldom mentioned her in conversation and clearly favored her twin brother and without the getting the attention she needed growing up, Nene became restless. Her parents' solution to this was to keep her on a strict regime of studying magic and sleep. There wasn't a week that passed that her nose wasn't buried in a dusty book older she.
Routine seemed to sooth Nene, but without change Nene inevitably grew sick of doing the same thing day after day, year after year. She often found herself looking out the window, her chin in her palm as she watched life pass by her from her desk. She witnessed everything from the start of a relationship to the end of one just from her bedroom window, and slowly the loneliness that had festered over the years began to bubble up. She yearned for connection, for friendship, for anything that wasn't the sound of her parents' voice or her brother's bickering. So after a whole lot of negotiating and twice as much begging, Nene was able to pick up a job at a nearby flower shop with her parents permission. The shop quickly became Nene's escape from home, she stayed from opening to closing whether she was needed or not without care for the pay. She remembered the names of the regulars and what flowers they usually bundled together, but there was only one we really cared about.
Lychae, but she had told Nene to 'just call her Chae.'
The salty brine of the sea clung to her like a second skin, her dark hair was always a tousled mess. She had caught Nene's eye upon first entrance, and more than once had Nene caught herself staring at the way the sun hit Chae's warm brown skin as she browsed. By her appearance alone, Chae was clearly not of high elf descent, and her personality only proved as such. She was so unafraid to feel, and she took up space like it was her God-given right - Which in a way, Nene supposed it was.
Chae was a diamond in a ruff, a touch of color in a bland world.
Nene and Chae became quick friends, often stopping by each other's work place and sneaking out before anyone else got up just to see each other.
Nene had never seen herself as the type to fall in love as growing up she had been taught a relationship's end goal was procreation, and procreation to continue the lineage was especially stressed within Nene's family. But Chae taught her what love really meant, what it felt like, and god did Nene love every unconventional bit of it.
They shared their first kiss on the docks, their legs dipped in the cool water and their thighs touching. Chae's boat bobbed in the water behind them, waves licking at its sides. The sunset painted the sky with such vivid pinks and oranges that mixed together like watercolor. Chae was a vision, her cheeks and nose burnt from sun, Nene couldn't help herself and when their lips met, everything felt right and this was exactly where she was meant to be. When they parted, they gave each other the kind of smile only starstruck lovers gave each other. Nene's flicked back to Chae's lips and she leaned in once more to press a chaste kiss into Chae's lips before resting her head on her shoulder. Chae had taken Nene's hand into her own, their fingers laced together and resting in Chae's lap. Neither of them let go until it was time to go in for the night, the two separating reluctantly.
The next day, Nene woke up with a stupid smile on her face. She rushed to work, shoes clicking against the pavement. She hardly noticed the damp smell of rain in her eagerness. The day progressed as usual, Nene set up shop and stood behind the counter ringing up customer after customer, but not without Chae on her mind.
It was around noon when it started to drizzle, the light spray leaving speckles on the glass, but it picked up quick. The streets cleared, those caught up in the storm hurrying to take cover someplace dry. Anxiety swirled in Nene's gut, was Chae safe? Nene pushed it down, Chae knew better than to go out the day a nasty storm was forecasted. For the remainder of the day, Nene couldn't focus. She bounced her leg and bit her lip until she tasted blood. She paced the shop, occasionally stopping to peak out the windows in hopes of... Anything.
The intensity of the rain ebbed and flowed through the day, but it never completely stopped. By the time Nene's shift was over, it had calmed to a light drizzle. Still anxiety fueled, Nene went straight home with a cold sweat on her skin and her heart thumping in her chest. She couldn't bring herself to check the docks for Chae's boat, because if it wasn't there... Nene didn't even want to think about it. Chae would find her later, find her and show her she was okay.
Nene is still waiting for Chae to do so.
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