just a city boy -emery-

It had only been a couple days since Kavi had officially moved to Dian, and he was...adjusting. His tiny shoe box of an apartment was not only right next to some train tracks, but also had, he'd discovered, walls so paper thin he could hear his neighbors' every footsteps. His new job wasn't as immediately exciting as he thought it'd be, and it turned out the apothecary was located in a sketch part of town that Kavi was kind of nervous to walk through.

Buyer's remorse? Polaris asked, lazily circling over head. Kavi had been dreaming of this for years, and now that it was finally happening he didn't seem incredibly thrilled. Typical.

No, he said firmly. Of course moving out on his own to a new city would take some getting used to. No one would just instantly adjust to it. Once he got the chance to establish himself here, everything would be great. Perfect, even.

Shouldn't we have been back by now? Polaris asked. The walk to work hadn't seemed so long.

Um, I mean... Kavi trailed off, slowing his pace as he did so until he came to a total stop on the sidewalk. He glanced around. Nothing looked familiar, but he couldn't exactly remember which buildings he'd passed on his way to work this morning. It's--this way, right?

You tell me.

...Well fuck.

Emery was off in his own world as he was walking home from another day at the print shop. After voicing aloud the idea to his sister that he could maybe take over the print shop some day, he'd started to more seriously consider it. Maybe it wasn't so far-fetched to actually invest in learning something and sticking to it long-term. He'd never really developed a sort of...dream like that. He enjoyed having something tangible to aim and hope for in his future, even if it stemmed from his gross weird boss.

He was snapped out of his thought process when he noticed someone looking totally lost. Emery likely would have been able to tell that this guy wasn't from this area even if he hadn't stopped dead in his tracks to try and figure out where he was, but he sure was making it easy. In these parts, he was practically putting a target on his back to get robbed.

Emery crossed the road in order to walk over to him, putting on as kind a smile as he could so as to not seem dangerous or ill-intentioned.

"Hey," he said. "You look just...so lost. Maybe I can help you out so you don't get mugged? And don't worry, I'm not gonna mug you." Emery chuckled, trying to come off as approachable as possible.

Someone wrote:"Hey."

Kavi gave a small start and turned towards the voice that had suddenly pulled him out of his lost and possibly slightly panicky thoughts. An attractive guy with a friendly smile--friendlier than anyone Kavi had seen since moving here--was walking up to him.

Guy wrote:"You look just...so lost. Maybe I can help you out so you don't get mugged? And don't worry, I'm not gonna mug you."

"O-oh...Yeah, I might be...slightly lost," Kavi admitted with a nervous laugh. He was both a little embarrassed at how obvious it apparently was that he was lost, and a little alarmed at the guy's mugging joke. It was a joke, right? Clio didn't actually get mugged around here. Right? "I'm looking for Westpoint Street. By the train tracks?"

Maybe don't tell the stranger joking about not mugging you where you live, Polaris suggested. For Kavi's sake she hoped this guy was as friendly as he looked. Kavi liked to think he knew everything, but he was honestly quite naive.

"I'm looking for Westpoint Street. By the train tracks?"

"Ah, okay -- well you're not too far off," he said with a nod, looking past the guy in the direction that he knew the street and train tracks to be. "Sometimes newer street names change when an older street intercepts them, I swear it's the most confusing thing. Maybe that messed you up. Anyway, it's that way." He pointed in the street's general direction for a second before realizing the poor guy could just get lost again.

"I could take you there, if you want. I mean to the street, at least to a point where you know where you are again -- I'm not gonna try and find out where you live, heh." There was a slight pause before Emery rolled his eyes at himself. "I'm totally trying as hard as I can to not be creepy, but I don't think it's working. My name's Emery by the way, and I seriously just wanna help."

He smiled warmly, though he thoroughly understood how important it was to not trust random clio who walk up to you saying they want to 'help.' Regardless, he couldn't just let him wander off without trying to help as best as he could.

Guy wrote:"Sometimes newer street names change when an older street intercepts them, I swear it's the most confusing thing. Maybe that messed you up. Anyway, it's that way."

Kavi nodded, jumping on the excuse that the guy was offering him. Oh yeah, that's it! Street names. Tooootally not because I have no idea where anything is because I didn't pay any attention to where I was going. Then the guy pointed in a vague direction that didn't help much, but luckily followed it up with an offer to show him the way.

Emery wrote:"I'm totally trying as hard as I can to not be creepy, but I don't think it's working. My name's Emery by the way, and I seriously just wanna help."

"Hah. No, I don't think you're being creepy," Kavi said, relieved to have run into someone so nice. Who knows how long he would have been stuck wandering around aimlessly without this guy. "I'm Kavi. And I one-hundred-percent appreciate the help."

Polaris still wasn't so sure, but Kavi ignored her. How else was he supposed to get home? And in spite of Emery's worries, he really wasn't giving off any creepy vibes at all.

"Thank gods," he said, rolling his eyes at himself and his worry about freaking this guy -- Kavi -- out. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Kavi. And lucky too! There are some weirdos around here."

Oh my gods, Orion said, can you please try to be less ominous?

Orion was right, and Emery quickly changed the subject as he started in the direction Kavi needed to go.

"So are you visiting?" he asked, looking Kavi up and down casually. He looked a bit younger than Emery, but was pretty cute. A bit nervous and lost, but that was kind of cute too.

Emery wrote:"There are some weirdos around here."

Oh my gods, Polaris said. Could this guy sound any more ominous?

Kavi ignored her. Emery seemed perfectly nice and normal to him, and he thought he was a pretty good judge of character. He followed after him.

"No, I live here," Kavi said. Despite the rocky start, it still felt so good to say those words out loud. "But I only moved here a couple days ago. I'm, uh, still getting used to it. Clearly, heh."

Emery nodded along with his new acquaintance. It was obvious that he hadn't lived here long, but interesting that he had moved here. Maybe he could take this guy out sometime, show him the ropes.

You just want to do that because you think he's cute, Orion suggested. Emery didn't deny this.

"Ah, new to town. Well I've lived in Dian my whole life -- and I know my way around Dahlin and a couple other areas around here. So if you ever need or want a tour guide, I'm your man." He smiled and winked at Kavi. "Maybe we could get together next week if you want. I could show you how to walk home, ha."

A bit straight-forward, Orion said, but Emery didn't care. If Kavi really did just move here, he probably had few friends and connections -- and honestly, Emery didn't have many connections outside of his family and illegal networks anyway. It was about time he made some friends.

Kavi laughed, his face feeling a little warm when Emery winked at him. It almost sounded like he was asking Kavi out. Was he...serious? Or was he just joking about hanging out? They had just met, but still. This wasn't school anymore. How else did you meet clio out in the real world besides striking up conversations with strangers?

"Maybe you could show me a nice place to get coffee?" he offered, deciding to just assume Emery was serious and go for it.

"Maybe you could show me a nice place to get coffee?"

"I would love that," Emery responded with a smile. "I know a few good places for sure. I used to live pretty far from here, but I moved into my own little place a few months ago, so I've done some brief exploring. I can tell you some good places and some places to avoid, heh."

He stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around. "So where did you move from? Somewhere else in Dian?" He was genuinely interested about learning more. Kavi had been so open to him, much more open than most Dian clio were -- he maybe even actually trusted Emery, which was rare. He doubted Kavi was from Dian at all, but he'd only been so far from his family's home...maybe clio on the other side of Dian were nicer than they were here by Dahlin.

Kavi hesitated. Oh, here we go. Now he had to debate whether to tell Emery exactly who he was and who is family was. It wasn't that he wanted to lie or anything. It was just...he didn't wanna like, freak this guy he had just met out.

"Well...I went to school at Redfern," he said slowly. "And before that I lived in Adhbhar."

He took a middle option, telling the truth but not the fact that he was from an overloridian family. He could save that for when they knew each other better.

Gettin' ahead of yourself, aren't ya? Polaris asked.

"Uh, but what about you? Where'd you move from?" he asked. If this guy had only lived here for a couple months and managed to figure things out, then there was still hope for Kavi.

Emery didn't suspect anything unusual from Kavi's statement. "I've never been to Redfern, but I've heard about it -- my older brother considered going there for a while. I don't know much about Adhbhar, admittedly. But I just lived further out in Dian, closer to Dahlin, so...I guess it's far but not nearly as far as Redfern, huh?"

He laughed lightly as they came to the corner that he would drop Kavi off at, where he stopped and looked at Kavi. "But maybe we can get more into our histories on this date, maybe?" He was sort of testing Kavi to see if he was interested in something more than just hanging out, something maybe actually date-like. He had been fooling around, testing the waters -- but it'd been received fairly well by his new acquaintance. Maybe this could turn out to be something.

Kavi couldn't help the genuine smile that formed on his face when Emery openly called their hanging-out plans a date. Had he really just met a handsome stranger on the street by chance and gotten a date? This was the kind of thing he'd fantasized about when he thought of moving here, but he hadn't thought it would actually happen.

"Yeah--of course!" he said, trying to sound excited but not too excited. The two set up a time and place to meet again before Emery left Kavi near his apartment, still in happy disbelief that that had actually just happened.