to: the free cities

[godshattering]

𝘞𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘔𝘢𝘨’𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩? 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘵-𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶.

𝘚𝘺𝘭𝘷𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘦, 𝘚𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘹𝘢𝘯 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.-- 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵?

I’m not sure they have a name for the aftermath of a dragon having a bbq, Hilda. But that’s probably close enough. I know the Inn renovations have been keeping a lot of us busy, but the devastation from the aftermath of the monster attacks left a lot of places either completely destroyed or close to it.

The Red Path was important for a lot of reasons to the natives here and if they want to get some vegetation and seedlings replanted there so it’s not a wasteland come spring. That means we’re a little limited on time to get things transferred and planted before winter officially hits. At least what the desert calls winter, anyway...

Anyway indeed and before we get too far into Sylvain’s thoughts on the weather - we’ve come up with an idea on what to do. It involved a little fundraising and some talking here and there, but we’ve found those willing to donate funds to purchase some supplies to make this happen or the supplies themselves from merchants around Cadens. Some of the soil we brought back from the Nether will also be going to good use here in hopes of making sure everything planted does as well as it can, and hopefully it’ll be good as new soon. Or, well, as close to it as we can get, considering.

While we’ll be out there working on this regardless, we wanted to extend the invitation to anyone else who might be willing to join in. It shouldn’t take up too much of your time, and any help would be greatly appreciated to help the Red Path recover a little quicker. Promise there’s also a round of drinks back at the Sarstina for anyone who stops by.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘣𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦!

( ooc: Similar to the repair efforts of Libertas, feel free to use the above as a backdrop for whatever your characters might get up to the rest of the month! )

Comments

[assembles]

Not everyone would bother to do it, though, so don't sell yourself short.

[ But then Sylvain's next statement is... an interesting one. Steve would like to say it takes him by surprise, but he's started to get used to this. ]

And just who do you mean when you say "them"?

[philancer]

Whoever Hilda recruits for her ogling party, probably.

[ Hell, if Jesper has his say, Sylvain might be among them.

Fair warning, Steve. ]

[assembles]

I should have guessed she'd be the one spearheading this.

[philancer]

It's a convenient excuse for her to avoid getting dirty. Or sweaty.

[assembles]

Right. By the way, do you have any tips for how to get her to do something she doesn't really want to do? I had her on a good schedule before the dragon attack, but now...

[ Well, it's harder to guilt her back into their training schedule after she got injured. ]

[philancer]

Ha. If you figure out a working method, please feel free to share. Hilda's hard to budge when she doesn't want to do something. Bribery works sometimes, though. But it's gotta be a really good bribe.

[assembles]

Bribery, huh. And what would she consider a really good bribe, do you think?

Switching to Private

[philancer]

Something she'd have a hard time saying no to. Something shiny. Or shopping. Or an idea of something to make pretty. She's far easier to entice into creativity than anything physical.

[ Which has him thinking for a moment, and then sending his next message to Steve alone. Mostly so Hilda won't get mad at him for it. ]

She has a big stubborn streak when it comes to how people view her. And what is and isn't acceptable for someone who intends to appear like a 'delicate flower' to everyone. [ Something he's heard from her lips more times than even he can count. ] She's more than that, of course, but we're still working on trying to get her to see that that's not a bad thing.

[assembles]

[ And it's not like there's anything wrong with preferring to be creative. But Steve knows for a fact that you can do both, and that Hilda has the capacity for that. ]

Yeah, it's almost like she's somehow embarrassed that she's so skilled with swinging an axe around. I guess she prefers to be underestimated, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but some extra training is also never a bad thing. It might prevent her from suffering an injury next time, you know?

[philancer]

Expectations can be a bit of a curse, back where we come from. At least for people like Hilda and I. Sometimes they shaped us so deeply we never figure out who we are outside of them. I'm still struggling with the same thing, even though the expectations on me shaped me in a far different way.

Being underestimated... it was safe. Safer, anyway.

[assembles]

[ Steve's now relieved that Sylvain switched this conversation to a private one, though chances are that if he hadn't already, he would have with this reply. It seems to Steve that there's a whole lot of context he doesn't have here. He's learned a decent amount about Claude's history and background back home, but less so with Hilda and Sylvain. ]

And I'm guessing that if people didn't expect as much from you, there would be less pressure too. And less forcing you into situations you didn't want to be in.

When you say "people like Hilda and I," what do you mean? If you don't mind me asking. We don't have to go that deep into it if you'd rather not.

[philancer]

Well, that was the THEORY of it, anyway. In reality... it didn't always work out that way.

[ As for answering that second bit... boy, is that a loaded question. ]

Before I even try and answer that, what do you know about our world? Has Claude or Hilda mentioned Crests to you? [ Because he's pretty sure that's not a conversation he's had with Steve before. ]

[assembles]

[ Crests? Steve had assumed that Hilda and Sylvain were in some sort of difficult position as nobles based on what he's heard from Claude, and the fact that all of them were sent to the same school, but... maybe there's more to this.

And maybe there's a reason it hasn't come up before now. ]

I don't think so, no. Claude has told me about what his position was with the Alliance, I think it was, and I know some of the politics behind the war you all fought in, but nothing about crests.