Dreams of the Tempest

[Nayt]

"I see," Gestahl replied under his breath.

While it was better than being outright unemployed, that was not the most satisfactory answer Eld could have given Gestahl. Granted, he was not lying, and that was admirable, but . . .

"And you have not considered a second, less temporary job?" Gestahl continued.

Akizetsumei finally caught on to her father. She put her hands upon her hips and frowned. Honestly, this was both unnecessary and kind of rude!

". . . daddy, what are you doing?" Akizetsumei interjected before Eld could have the chance to answer.

Gestahl looked down at his daughter as if to silently say asking vital questions, but she was having none of that right now. If he really wanted to drill Eld, he could do it later!

"C-- c'mon, Eldridge," Akizetsumei held out her hand to Eld, hoping that he'd take her hand and she could lead him away from her father. "Dad apparently wants to be a huge jerkface today."

This statement, of course, prompted her to stick her tongue out at her father, who had to fight to avoid grinning. He shrugged his shoulders and a slight grin was visible, but not nearly enough to suggest that Gestahl had a sense of humor. Which was how it was supposed to be for now, regardless of how untrue it may be.

[Zach Kaiser]

"N-No, it's fine. It's a fair question." While would have been more than happy to take Akizetsumei's hand and go wherever she deigned to take him, he wasn't going to run from Gestahl. Besides, this was something he got teased about by the Vaerbond sisters anyway.

"I've thought about it, but this way I have plenty of time to study. I want to get into medical school in Greoul, and since the school here only goes until ten years old I have a lot to learn on my own." He held back the other reason: he honestly didn't need the money a part time job would give him. Helping out at the clinic got him enough spending cash.

It was good thing there were days when he spent almost the entire day studying, since there days like today where he'd be lucky to get any done. Not that he was sorry to be here, but he definitely didn't have a regular schedule.

[Nayt]

At first, Gestahl thought Eld was just going to go along with Akizetsumei. Which, he supposed, would have been fine; he would've just got around to talking to Eld later on. However, Eld wound up deciding to stay and actually answer his question. That was . . . admirable, actually. It would have been easy to skirt the question, after all. Instead, Eld provided him a rather curious answer, one that made a good bit of sense. In taking a seasonal kind of job, he could focus on a career that'd keep his finances and comfort steady for the rest of his life.

That was already better than any of Gestahl's children. Not that he really faulted them for it, but . . . well, that was a different topic entirely.

Akizetsumei, on the other hand, was a bit confused by Eld's unwillingness to get away from her father. She wrinkled her brow and hesitantly brought her hand back down to her side. Well . . . if he wanted to hang around and deal with her father's slew of questions, then she really couldn't stop him.

"Medical school . . ." Gestahl trailed off, "You intend to follow in your parents' footsteps, then?"

[Zach Kaiser]

"I..." Eld trailed off, his face suddenly going blank. He thought back to his argument with his parents, particularly the end. Do you really think I don't? It was never overtly forced on him, but there was always a silent expectation that someday he would, ever since he'd shown the slightest interest in medicine.

"Y-Yeah. I guess I do," he replied at last, as much to himself as to Gestahl. Even if he could feel the weight of that expectation, it didn't change that it was what he wanted to do. Sure, he may have dreamed of seeing the world, and perhaps he'd even get to at some point. But ultimately he knew he wanted to settle back down in Hillcrest and serve the community he grew up in.

Suddenly realizing he was supposed to be talking to someone, he flushed. "S-Sumimasen. And, u-umm, thank you Gestahl-sama," he said with a low bow. "I think I just realized something important thanks to you."

[Nayt]

Gestahl nodded his head. That was admirable. One's parentage could be greatly influential in one's development as a human being, even to the point of inspiring a child to follow the same career path as his parents. When the matter was not forced, then it was an overwhelmingly good sign.

A bit of what Eld said caught Akizetsumei's attention, though. She cocked her head to the side and genuinely felt the need to ask Eld what he just realized. But . . . she could probably ask that in private, right? There was no need to spill his whole life out for her father.

"May I inquire?" Gestahl asked, much to his daughter's dismay.

Personally, he was just curious. He wouldn't feel put off if Eld was unwilling to go into detail. It wasn't like this was imperative to his line of questioning, after all. Actually, Gestahl was temporarily out of questions-- but mostly because Eld impressed him with his answers.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Just...I think I need to apologize to my parents for an argument we had. A-And...maybe explain something to my mother." Indeed, he wasn't quite willing to go into detail with Gestahl; it was kind of private matter, really. He would most likely tell Akizetsumei in private if she asked, however.

"A-Anyway, sorry for spacing out there." Then he thought of something. "Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you on the subject, if you don't mind. What is it you do for a living, sir?" Kyo was tight lipped about it and Akizetsumei seemed only vaguely aware, mostly focusing on the fact that it meant her parents were gone much of the time.

[Nayt]

Eld was pretty vague in his response. It was fine by Gestahl, but had Akizetsumei a bit worried. Especially since she wasn't aware of any fight Eld had with his parents to begin with.

"Miner," Gestahl replied without hesitation, "There is an underground mineshaft on the eastern side of Galaens. I work for the company that runs it. We mine many different resources, though coal is the most prevalent."

It was a taxing job, and it definitely had him away from his family longer than he might like. Especially since it was in Galaens. In fact, it probably wouldn't make much sense to someone that didn't know why Gestahl worked so far away-- why they didn't just live in Galaens, that is.

Then, as if to assuage further curiosity, he continued: "Katalyna works in the steel mill in south Galaens. She manages and maintains the fires. She is also solely in charge of all heat related safety concerns."

It'd be easy to imagine, then, why Katalyna too was hard pressed to be home with any regularity. Steel mills were dangerous places; maintaining the heat and fire pits, keeping them at near molten temperatures, keeping oneself safe, and being on active duty to ensure the safety of others would be a horribly taxing job.

[Zach Kaiser]

"I see. You must be especially good at your job, Gestahl-sama," Eld replied with a smile. Gestahl being a miner was...actually, rather fitting. He looked like he could tear through rock with his bare hands, so Eld could only imagine what he could do with a pickaxe.

It was little harder to imagine Katalyna working in a steel mill, though part of that may have been because he was a lot more fuzzy about what her job actually entailed. It sounded like she had a fairly important role, though he found himself wondering how physically intensive it was. She didn't look all that strong.

At the very least, it explained why they weren't around much, though he wondered why they'd moved to Hillcrest if they were working near Galaens.

[Nayt]

Gestahl didn't know how to take Eld's praise, but it didn't really matter either way. Yes, he could do the job of two or three men, but with the way they paid him, they could just as well afford to pay three men to replace him. That was life in the mines, though. It didn't matter who you were. You were just a body and you were replaceable. Dealing with that, however, helped give his children a comfortable life . . .

"I'm going to check on Katalyna," Gestahl remarked as he turned his head to the kitchen, "We'll talk more later."

Which was to say, he needed to make sure Toushikyo wasn't ready to physically remove his mother from the kitchen. It was part of his responsibility here to be the mediator. Children could get rough with each other sometimes, for instance, but they were less likely to do so when their father was there to physically separate them. In the case of Toushikyo and Katalyna, one individual was not a child, but she could still act the part when she felt especially put off. Then again, that applied to just about everyone in the world, regardless of age.

Feeling as if now was a great time to escape, Akizetsumei edged over to Eld until she could wrap her arms around one of his and slightly tug him towards the staircase.

"Leave your door open, Akizetsumei," Gestahl preempted . . . without even looking at them, either. He was well on his way to the kitchen, in fact.

This prompted Akizets to sigh. "Yes, daddy."

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld looked at Gestahl's back nervously for a moment; even though he knew he wasn't going to do anything to offend the father's sensibilities it still made him uneasy knowing that he had his eye on them. Fortunately, Akizetsumei's distracted him from this adequately.

He allowed himself to be led upstairs, presumably to her room. He was actually kind of curious as to what it would be like; the only girl's rooms he'd ever gotten a good look at were the Vaerbond sisters' and they weren't exactly typical girls (if there was such a thing).

[Nayt]

Akizetsumei's room was not exactly characteristic of what a boy might stereotype a girl's room to be, either . . . but then again, that's just how stereotypes worked. You were almost always hard pressed actually find them. Nonetheless, her room was still a wee bit girlish, moreso than Sarah or Emily's. The walls were painted a sky blue color and her carpet, which was unnervingly soft, was a forest green color--two very distinct "natural" tones, but with less focus upon the earthy--the floor--and more upon the sky--the walls and the ceiling. There was a bit of "graffiti" here and there, all where Akizetsumei attempted to draw or paint clouds over the course of her life. Provided time to study it, one could probably find a distinct age progression in Akizetsumei using only her attempt at drawing clouds, which ranged from the youngest, where ink scribbles in the wall were haphazardly colored in with white chalk to fluffy clouds drawn in pencil and colored in (reasonably well) with white paint.

The girl's bed was immediately visible upon opening the door, just three paces away, in fact, with a nightstand next to it, where sat an oil lamp. On the left side of the room, there was an old Armour surrounded by two half-sized dressers. There was evidence already of clothes having been stuffed in willy-nilly, with a couple of shirt sleeves hanging out and all. She did not have a bookcase, but could have probably used one. There were about a dozen books piled on top of each other that lined the inner wall, most of which were fairly old, and they all seemed to be less about text and more about pretty pictures. But these weren't the kind of picture books that an average child might have. Rather, these were all fairly expensive photo-books that discussed, with photographic assistance, various locations in the world.

Notably, Akizetsumei did, in fact, possess stuffed animals. About four of them, in fact. Oddly, they were vaguely human shaped, albeit misformed and . . . well, stylized to be cuddly. There was a lanky monkey-looking fellow, a blue kappa, a pinkish pig-man, and a bald human man. They were all dressed like monks of some sort. They were all collected on her bed.

There was also a hand-made calender upon the wall nearest her bed written in a language that Eld would neither know nor recognize. Like Cizokian, it comprised a series of symbols, but the symbols all had different styles and shapes than any known Cizokian symbol. Upon this month seemed to be an intricate drawing of a mountain, with many dates below scratched out--all up until one particular day near the middle of the calender, which was circled in red ink. Within that date there was a sentence also written in red ink, though in the same language as the rest of the calender. There was one other circled date on the very last day of this month, also with something written within it. Notably, there was also a thick book set upon her bed, immediately below the calender.

[Zach Kaiser]

While he hadn't known exactly what to expect, Eld wasn't terribly surprised by how Akizetsumei's room looked. As much as she loved the outdoors it was only fitting that her room had it as a theme. She'd even drawn clouds in various places on the sky blue walls.

What drew his attention most, even more than the somewhat odd looking stuffed animals, was the calendar, specifically the language the writing on it was. He walked over to it to look closer; it was similar in some ways to Cizokian, but the style was different. Here and there there was a familiar looking symbol, but for the most part it was unintelligible to him.

"What language is this?" he asked curiously; it wasn't that he was interested in languages that much, but it was fairly clear that Akizetsumei was fluent in at least writing and reading whatever it was.

[Nayt]

Akizets leaned over her bed, too-- standing right next to Eld and everything. She almost didn't know what he was talking about, and had to give her wall a serious look to remember.

"Oh! Ummmm, it's called Minnari," Akizets replied, "It's my mom and dad's language. They say it's spoken where we come from, I guess."

Needless to say, it was something she felt obligated to know, even if only for comprehension. Sometimes her parents spoke it, and when she was really little, she didn't understand a word they said. Now, she could definitely understand most of what they said, which made life around them a lot easier. Learning it was still a bit tough, though. Akizetsumei was raised in a place that almost completely spoke the Common tongue. The second most spoken language was Cizokian-- and that was it. There were no other spoken languages here in Hillcrest.

"I've been learning it since I was little," she said, then motioned to the book on her bed, "Buuuut I kinda forget a lot of words sometimes."

The book itself was a dictionary--and a comprehensive one, at that. Eld was free to look into it if he liked; Akizetsumei wasn't going to get mad at him for touching her stuff. He probably wouldn't understand any of it, though. It was just a bunch of Common words and how they translated into Minnari, after all.

[Zach Kaiser]

That must be her parents native language, then? Akizetsumei must have been raised in Hillcrest most of if not all of her life, but her parents had moved here at some point. He tried to remember if Kyo had been here all his life too.

"I understand completely; I slip in my Cizokian occasionally too." It was a little easier to practice, because some of the village picked it up as well, but he still stumbled over words once in a while, usually when trying to hold deeper conversations in it.

"Mind saying something in it?" he asked. "I'm curious; what does it sound like?"

[Nayt]

Say something? She certainly wasn't against that. Akizets leaned away from her bed and thought about it for a moment. She didn't know what all to say at first.

"Ummm, sure~" Akizets said, "It sounds kinda like . . . um, I dunno. I haven't heard anything like it before, I guess! But my parents say it's a northern language, so I guess it sounds like stuff that's spoken up there?" Which ruled out any similarity with Cizokian.

She really didn't get the opportunity to speak in Minnari all that often. It was only when her parents were around, really. Toushikyo didn't use it all that often. It was kind of neat that she had the chance right now, actually! Especially since she thought of the perfect thing to say.

Akizetsumei paused to clear her throat, straightened out her pine, folded her hands behind her back, shut her eyes, and said cheerily, "Baina. Oei veych Akizetsumei ar Tarar, va oei kisich ta ech olon."

The girl opened her eyes once she was done, only to suppress the urge to giggle.