A belltower swayed slightly in a monotonous motion, the same motion that everything in the small titan city seemed to sway with, of course they'd engineered a design to allow the bell in the tower to remain relatively still despite the consistent rumble and sway that occurred from each footfall. Rumble... Shudder... Rumble... It would repeat like this forever, well, until the titan this city rested on finally decided to lie down and become one with Eohs, but that hadn't happened any time recently for other cities, so they should be fine, they had at least a few cycles, hopefully.
The belltower in question was a favourite spot for Inari, it was high up, disconnected. It was high enough to change the way the breeze felt on his skin, but not high enough that he had to worry for a scavenger thinking him carrion and trying to peck him for closing his eyes, that had only happened on the peak of the mountain in the centre of the back of Thëlos. Thëlos was the wonderful titan that the sapient races had magnanimously decided was a good place to set down a small city, in which Inari currently lived. Well, 'lived' is probably a bit of an exaggeration, he sort of... existed there, he had no home currently, not since his foster parents had gone missing on an expedition, not that he particularly missed them, they were only acquainted for a few months after all.
That didn’t stop Inari from caring per se, but it did make it hard to know them long enough to actually grieve, none the less they had somehow not written a will despite being Wanderers, and as such, everything they had owned was now his. Inari looked out at Thëlos and sighed, ‘maybe if I keep asking in different spots one of the agencies will allow it?’ He considered the irony of having this influx of wealth and yet being unable to use it on what he wanted to, it wasn’t lost on him how tragically humorous that was. Inari had been looking into somewhere he could live, in the upper city, ideally somewhere he could sink his money that would be a permanent residence he could come back to after going on expeditions, ‘Not that I can even go on them yet. But soon, soon enough’.
As the day passed slowly and Inari lounged there on the edge of a lethal drop, idling away a few hours being bitter at his inability to buy his own home, he grew hungry, a pretty common occurrence for him as he often seemed to forget to eat these days. Inari looked over the edge of the tower and considered trying something stupid, but saner thoughts prevailed and he eventually turned and took the winding staircase back down to the ground. Of course, he wouldn’t be there for long, the caverns were his real residence right now. As soon as he opened the door of the town hall and stepped outside, a torrent of water smacked into the cobblestones all at once, as if a celestial bucket had just been turned and dumped above the town, this was immediately followed by a torrential downpour that Inari didn’t even bother trying to escape, sighing yet again and just heading to the cavern’s entrance.
Inari was thoroughly soaked by the time he reached the entrance to the caverns and as soon as his head was covered by the granite rocks above him, the rain stopped. “What the actual fuck, did I smoke something from the caverns or what” was all that Inari could mutter as he turned and looked out at the soaked cobblestone that had been pelted with rain for the last 10 minutes he had spent walking to the entrance he now stood in. Inari stood there for a moment, considering stepping back outside to test whether this was some cosmic prank being played by the celestials or something of the sort, but something told him that the answer wouldn’t be one he wanted currently, Inari shivered and turned to scurry into the dimly lit caverns below.
“Oi Inari, my dear, do you have that thing I asked for?’ was the first thing that greeted him when he walked down the slope and into the cavern, and it was whispered to him by a plump thing in a greasy shirt and ill-fitting shorts, this creature’s name was Orwell. “No, Orwell, I don’t. And last time you tried to get me to do a job for you, you skimped on payment because it ‘took me too long to get it’, when you set no deadline, so go fuck yourself, thank you” Inari shot back with a disgusted sneer plastered on his face. When Orwell tried to grab his arm while grumbling something under his breath, Inari proceeded to wrap a hand around the arm of the creature and then kick out his legs with a sweep, “Don’t touch me”. Inari kept walking toward the only place he liked down here, the food court.
The food court was heaven on Eohs, well not that Inari knew what the fuck ‘heaven’ was, but it had been referenced in the scripts before, so he liked using the phrase nowadays. The smells that assaulted his keen senses made his mouth water and he wandered through the street in a daze until he found the stall he was looking for, swallowing comically. “Two… no, three of the pastries, if you would'' Inari ordered quickly while staring at the stall with visible hunger. This stall in particular had been recommended by Yera a few days ago and he had been waiting to try it for a while, he never seemed to be able to find it till today. The shopkeeper, the only one working right now, looked down at Inari with an amused expression and replied in a sweet tone, “dear, for someone as cute as you, i’ll do four for the price of three”, and Inari’s expression must have shown the shock because the shopkeeper proceeded to laugh behind her hand and make the four orders without teasing him. Inari wasn’t used to this and replied a little too hastily, “You really don’t need to, but I appreciate it nonetheless, people usually have pretty polar opinions about my appearance these days'', this just caused the shopkeeper to smile sweetly and hand him the four pastries in a bag, he payed quickly and wandered off with a small smile refusing to leave his face.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Being a half-blood fae, Inari had a very androgynous appearance for a guy, it didn’t bother him exactly, in fact he liked it. The reason people had largely differing opinions on his appearance was not because of the androgynous nature of his facial features and physique, no, it was because fae were largely hated here. Fae were accepted into the cities about 20 cycles ago, on the condition that their bloodline abilities are publicly recorded and accessible to any who want to know about them, so that people could be aware of which fae had which ability, and whether or not to be wary of mental manipulation or trickery. This was all because unlike any other sapient race on Eohs, fae bloodline abilities could not be predicted… They were random. This meant that they could be either the most useless ability one could think of, or the opposite entirely, such as the ability to harness the very concept of something, and use it for their purposes. This made fae both terrifying to behold, and also awe inspiring, depending on who they were or what ability they wielded.
About a hundred steps down the muddy path through the cavern main district Inari stumbled and caught himself quickly ‘Fuck that was close, almost lost the pastries, would’ve been a wa-’, that was all that he was thinking before he heard the rapid approach of footsteps and a fist slammed into his stomach making him fold over, losing his grip on the pastries he hadn’t even managed to taste yet. A vulpine face stared down at Inari with a rage filled expression and his sharp teeth bared in a snarl, “You think you could dodge me forever you little rat? What you thought we wouldn’t collect from the son just because the parents died?” the fox creature said with a feral tone. Inari was struggling to breathe as his brain racked through the possible meanings of what he just heard, ‘They had fucking debt!? They had debt and they took in a foster kid, well, not really a kid, since I was going to turn 19 anytime soon and hopefully awaken my bloodline, but still. Dammit’ with that thought Inari tried to speak up and explain but a leg came hurtling towards his midriff and he only felt agony as two of his ribs broke, he didn’t know how he knew it was two of them, but it fucking felt like it.
Inari wheezed, slumped against the wall of an abandoned tavern, blood trickled from his lips and his chest rattled and stung with each breath he took. The fox creature had left by now but not before making sure Inari knew what needed to be done, “You’re gonna get the fuckin’ money together in the next 2 days or i’mma breaking your fuckin’ legs, ye hear me?” The fox man had practically growled that at Inari a few minutes ago. Inari had tried to acknowledge him to appease him somewhat but he’d blacked out immediately after hearing the words, waking up a minute later from what he could tell, a small splash of blood had soaked into his favourite shirt as he lay there, barely managing to breathe, ‘I really liked this shirt’.
An hour had crawled by as many people had walked passed and not even bothered to glance at him, nothing new there, this undercity was fucking disgusting, all of the people down here only cared about number one, and if that wasn’t themselves, then they were probably hypnotised by some fucking mage. Inari was bitter and cold, but the bitterness gave way to an inkling of rage, and that rage warmed him up a bit as he forced himself up against the wall and pushed with his legs, pulling himself into a standing position with a grunt. ‘Rabid foxes, literally never had a good experience with those mongrels, just when I was thinking things were turning up for me, what a joke’, Inari thought with a chuckle, before immediately regretting it and doubling over in pain due to the broken ribs. ‘I need to get this fixed, no clue where though, if I go to a clinic around this part of the caverns I’m more likely to get a new experimental drug tested on me than a bloody fix for my ribs’, Inari thought for a moment before deciding to wander towards his alcove that he’d managed to find out of the way from the rest of the city, above and under.
As he shuffled his feet towards his little dugout, he thought about the altercation and realised that if he had been ready for it, he probably could have won that fight, but the fox had waited just for when he was unprepared, ‘That’s irritating’. Inari kept thinking about how he’d prepare for next time this might occur while waddling down the path, that was until he saw Yera walking down the path towards him with what could be described as a ‘pissed off’ expression on her face.
Yera was a human, mostly. She had some harpy blood from what Inari had surmised and he wasn’t going to bother asking, he just assumed that was the case, she was also probably the most attractive individual Inari had come across throughout his entire life, not that he’d been very far outside of the single city he lived in. Yera had relatively short auburn that was, from what Inari could see, intentionally messy, freckles in a band across her nose and cheeks, and burnt orange eyes that were vertically split by her harpy pupil, similar to what you’d see on a serpent or feline. She also had a slender physique which began thinner and delicate in her upper body, before becoming more visibly curvy toward the lower half of her figure, this was all toned by her profession, being a Wanderer.
As Inari briefly forgot his pain and smiled at her she stormed towards him and looked up at him as he stood there awkwardly holding his side with one hand and leaning uncomfortably on one leg. “Do I even want to know what happened to you?” she asked in a clipped tone that made Inari wince slightly before wincing again because of the movement that had caused. “Broke my ribs falling off the belltower?” Inari hedged with a guilty look, ‘I really don’t wanna look like a moron for getting into debt with the foxes, at least not to her of all people’ he thought.
“Right” she said with a stare that told him she knew exactly what had happened and was only asking to see if he’d lie, exactly like a mother might. “Okay, but if you knew already, why even ask?” Inari groaned before sucking a sharp breath through his teeth and looking down at his chest again. “To see if you’d lie, you dimwit, and you did, didn’t you?” Yera quietly seethed while looking at Inari standing there like a statue, trying not to move. “Can we skip this and get to the part where you help me get this fixed? You’ve done it before, I know you have healing in your bloodline, help… please?” Inari whined.
Having your ribs healed was not a pleasant experience, especially feeling them move themselves back into position to heal properly, it made Inari feel physically ill and he made sure that Yera was aware of that. “This feels fucking horrible” Inari complained. “No shit, you broke your ribs, you idiot” was the only response he got before Yera turned her attention back to healing his ribs through his blood-stained shirt.
“You’re paying for this by the way, no more free shit, I’m done babying your stupid little fights” Yera spoke with a serious tone while staring at Inari. He responded with a small smile and a nod before continuing “Fine, my bad. Are we still on for the expedition tonight?”