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Post by Linyü on Sept 4, 2020 23:34:03 GMT -6
"O-Oh, yeah, I'd be happy to help! I don't really know much about stars, but I can set up equipment! ... How much did you say the pay was? On Tuesday? Yeah, absolutely! I'll be there!" Another day, another job for Linyü. Or for San, anyway, since Seveth couldn't really be convinced to work in the traditional sense of the word. And after Seveth's last scheme to make a quick buck, San had decided it would be the lesser of two evils to simply shoulder the burden himself for good, rather than leaving it in the hands of a man who apparently saw nothing wrong with entering Rei in an obedience show for animals.... But then, considering what the animals were like here, maybe there really was less of a distinction than there would have been elsewhere. Speaking of Rei. The Harachiu fluttered up out of the satchel as soon as San exited the building. 1
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Post by Linyü on Sept 4, 2020 23:43:54 GMT -6
This trip had started out as a visit to the Quest Board, where Rei had pointed out a star-patterned request almost immediately. San, who didn't refuse her anything if he could help it, unpinned it from the board and read it aloud, murmuring quietly under his breath. Rei, who had sharper hearing than he did, would be able to hear even from her perch in his satchel.
"An Astronomer's Association..." San considered the notice.
"Can I come?" said Rei.
"You want to?" San was only a little surprised. Since they had come here, she had gone out with him more and more often, sometimes even eschewing the disguise of being carried around in his satchel. Harachiu were, if not common here, then at least not so much a novelty that people were liable to pay them undue attention. And so, despite his own unease, San had let her do it.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 4, 2020 23:48:11 GMT -6
But he carried the satchel on him anyway when they went out together, and kept it empty, so that she would have someplace to hide if she wanted to. It was true that she had grown up here, and that once upon a time she must have lived out of hiding, but in her time away... A lot had happened. He doubted she was quite the same person that she had been when she had last set foot in this city.
Rei didn't have to think about her answer to his question; she nodded at once, and he gave a slight one-shouldered shrug, careful not to disturb the satchel where it slung over his other shoulder. "Let's head there now, then."
The Association was apparently looking for any kind of help they could get, and San knew that in his case it would probably be in the form of manual labor.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 4, 2020 23:53:02 GMT -6
After all, San had no formal training in astronomy himself, and whatever he did know would have been based on the placement of the stars back home. He didn't know exactly how far he was from Xinzhou now, but the distance was great enough that he could no longer tell his directions by the stars the way he had learned; and meanwhile the offer of manual labor was perfectly innocuous. For San, who was still holding onto some hope of keeping a low profile despite Seveth's best efforts to undo his work, that held its own appeal.
The visit to the Association was a brief one. They were inundated with offers of assistance, and the staff members on hand seemed rather overwhelmed with the task of sifting through it all. San did his best to make their life easier, since they really could use the money, and it seemed like a simple gig.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 4, 2020 23:55:59 GMT -6
With the Quest Board, that wasn't a guarantee by any means, and sometimes the requests turned out to be more trouble than they were worth. Here, San still didn't have a good grasp of the... scale, the extent, to which creatures were a part of life; nor, as he was beginning to find, had he been prepared for the saturation of magic. Technology was also more advanced here than it was at home, but in a way that felt distinctly uneven, some aspects much more highly developed than others. It made it hard for him to estimate the difficulty of the jobs, in a way that sometimes made him long for the relative simplicity of how things had been before.
If his sixteen-year-old self could have met him now, San suspected he would be punched. But then, at that point he couldn't possibly have fathomed the direction that his life would take.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 0:03:25 GMT -6
No more, he supposed, than could his seven-year-old self have anticipated the direction his life would take. But to that seven-year-old, maybe his current situation would have sounded like an adventure, rather than the end result of a series of poor choices and hard decisions.
Days came and went. Time passed quickly when you only had every other day. The Tuesday the Association had specified was, mercifully, a day when San was awake; he wouldn't have taken the job otherwise, whatever the pay and the convenience of it, since Seveth would have found a way to shirk or botch it somehow.
It was only setting up, he told himself; that could, and would, be done during the day. Around noon, he finished up his lunch, then threw on a light jacket, and slung his satchel over his shoulder. Rei was already at the door, waiting for him to leave, and slipping out behind him.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 13:04:42 GMT -6
It was a pleasant enough day in early September, sunny and warm with the last dregs of summer. San enjoyed the walk out to the Astronomers Association. He hadn't been here long enough to know what the city looked like in all four seasons, but it seemed at least a little similar to how it had been in Ningjing. The gradual shift from summer to autumn had always been a little bittersweet, but San had grown used to not thinking about it.
He wondered what it would be like this year, to watch the leaves turn on these unfamiliar trees.
Rei had opted to fly today, probably to enjoy the air before it turned too cold for comfort. As San turned his gaze away from the trees, he found her staring at him. Reflexively he smiled - he had been doing a lot of that lately, and sometimes it bled through even when it was just the two of them.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 14:23:01 GMT -6
But he could never fool Rei, of course. She knew too well. A crease appeared between her brows. He knew the look well, had seen it before; the smile he used to reassure only ever served to make her more worried.
He wondered exactly when she had realized it about him, but he had never managed to bring himself to ask. When they had met, when he had been teaching her, he had been so preoccupied with her unusual state that he had never thought to suspect that she might have begun observing him in the meantime, learning his tells.
"I'm alright," he said. She nodded, though he didn't think she really believed him.
But as far as his ability to continue on, at least, it was true. He took a step, and then another, and by the time they arrived at the Astronomers Association, that brief moment of melancholy was as good as forgotten.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 16:38:24 GMT -6
San thought that they would be setting up somewhere nearby, but the staff members immediately ushered him out to the back, where a series of Thundergug carts were being loaded with crates of equipment. Apparently the best spot to conduct the viewing was a hill some ways out, near the edge of the City. Well, the nearest manageable location, anyway; too far outside the city limits and the local wildlife was going to be more trouble than it was worth, light pollution be damned. And a little further was still better than trying to see anything from the heart of the city, where the effect would be worst.
"And that's why we need so many volunteers, even uneducated people like you," a busy-looking woman with spiral horns informed him, dropping a crate into his waiting arms. "Look smart, and carry that out over to Binky's cart, would you?" she said.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 16:44:36 GMT -6
He blinked, then staggered slightly under the weight of the crate. The woman watched him uneasily until he steadied himself, and then San made his way out to the back where the Thundergugs were waiting, hitched to their respective carts. It was easy now, falling into the facade of being Linyü; and it had stopped feeling quite so strange to do it in front of Roku or Rei, now that he had been at it for a few months. The astronomers had noted her presence and dismissed it at once, save for the occasional individual who had greeted her as if she were a child accompanying a family member on an excursion. Rei shied away from these, who laughingly commented on her 'bashfulness', after which she was left alone.
Fortunately it wasn't hard to find 'Binky', because all the carts had names writ on them in large on the back.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 16:52:44 GMT -6
It wouldn't have been such a challenge to figure out even without this; San might not have been the type to ask for directions, so to speak, but Linyü certainly was. In fact, it would have been more out of line with the persona he was cultivating if he hadn't. But this saved him a little hassle, and he loaded the crate onto the cart with care. The staff had warned him about the delicacy of the equipment, and he didn't know one box from another based on their contents, so it was better to be safe than sorry.
As soon as one crate was loaded, they gave him another, until nearly an hour had passed. Some of the crates were heavier than others, though many of them looked the same, which was the only thing that kept the work from being monotonous even in spite of the need to be careful, after a while.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 16:57:27 GMT -6
Once the carts were loaded, he was ushered along onto one of the Thundergugs themselves. San saw several of the researchers and hands climbing up the harnesses to find seats on the various beasts of burden, chatting among themselves as though this were the most ordinary thing in the world. And maybe for them, it was.
"Can they really carry us and pull so much at once?" he asked. The man who had ushered him on took a seat further up, but now he turned back, grinning broadly. He was a broad-looking, fur-covered race that San had never seen before, a little like the varied Mammalians but larger, and not immediately evocative of any animal that San had ever seen. There was no way for San to tell his age, but the fur on his nose was greying, and he had spoken as if to a man very much his junior.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:02:30 GMT -6
"That they are," said the furred man. "Remarkable beasts, ain't they?" He slapped the hide beneath him, but with such obvious affection - and the beasts were very large - that there could be no doubt about his intent.
"Are you... the one who works with them?" San ventured.
"Me 'n Tim-Tam over there, yep, we're the ones in charge of this outfit. That's him driving Betsy over there. Me, I don't care much for the driving, so I leave my husband and my son to it." He motioned at one of the other Thundergugs, whose driver was a portly raccoon Mammalian, and then to a boy at the head of the 'Gug, who twitched an ear back.
One of the researchers was hollering the all clear, and the first of the Thundergugs began to move off. Rei chose that moment to settle onto San's shoulder, and the furred man's brows arched up.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:05:48 GMT -6
"Well, and who's the little lady!" he said, immediately marking himself as one of those who went out of their way to be kind. San could feel Rei tense, and already an apologetic smile was unfolding itself over his features. "Is this your daughter?"
At that, they both froze. San didn't know what kind of expression he was making, but it must have betrayed him; the man laughed, and retracted his statement at once. "My mistake," he said. "Most folks I know living with these little ones... Ah, but what does an old man know, eh?"
"I-It's really not like that," San said, hurriedly putting up his hands in a flustered gesture. "This is..." He glanced at Rei, to see if she wanted to introduce herself, but when she stayed silent, he continued. "This is Echo." He used the name she had used for herself when they had met two other Harachiu at a park.
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Post by Linyü on Sept 5, 2020 17:18:36 GMT -6
"Pleasure to meet you, little miss." The furred man tipped his hat at her, and after a pause, Rei responded with a slight nod. "Shy, is she?" said the furred man.
San laughed awkwardly. Even her cover story wasn't really something he wanted to share so easily, colored as it was with the uncomfortable truth of what she had gone through. Better, and easier, to let people think of her quirks as merely a matter of personality, now that they were mild enough that they might be mistaken for such at a glance.
But then, maybe she was shy. Maybe she had always been shy. It wasn't like San knew for sure.
The rest of the ride passed uneventfully, with San making small talk with the furred man, whose name, as it turned out, was Mauth. Once they were there, there was another flurry of activity as everyone worked to get the carts unloaded.
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