Jul 10 11:01:58 105 PA

From Chronicles

The current game time is: Fri Jul 10 11:01:58 105 PA.

The Merchant's Plaza is always teeming with people and is in many respects one of Kingsdale's centers of activity. Several city blocks in size, it is a sprawling collection of structures both ramshackle and sturdy. One might find a elven mystic (offering psycic counselling services at that) sitting in a lean-to made of logs and brush right next to a chemically treated concrete structure that houses an automobile service station. Sometimes these structures are single-establishment buildings but there are several 'strip mall' style buildings that hold several different stores.

There are always people of all shapes, sizes, races and colors coming and going which makes both pedestrian and vehicle traffic heavy. The only exception to this is the Merchant's Plaza Park where those weary of mercantile pursuits can stop and take a rest.

It is said that anything can be found here, but that is largely a falsification. One can find -almost- anything here, except offensive (Read: MDC) weaponry. For that, one must go to The Gunnery in the south of the city. But anything else can absolutely be found here and not just items either. Of note is that the Merchant's Plaza is heavily patrolled by the KDPD who step in whenever problems occur but many believe the area still rife with criminals and pickpockets and wouldn't be caught dead in a dark alleyway here.

Hurtling out of the park, pink cheeked, her shoulders hunched, Caliopa is dressed in old combats and a baggy t-shirt that was once white. The early evening sunlight is soft and warm and the light breeze brushes across the plaza. She pauses outside the gates of the park, chewing her lower lip, her expression showing uncertainty.

Janus is about as near to the park as one can be without actually being in the park this evening, filled with an air of unhurried contentment while he lounges and loiters around on a simple bench only a few meters from the park gates. From here he can keep an eye on much of the plaza, but his attention is fixed mainly on the pages of the small book held open in one hand.

During her hesitation, Caliopa's gaze finds Janus and her smile, nearly normal, shows itself, like sun coming from behind a cloud. She shoves her hands into her pockets and makes her way over, the pinkness fading a little from her cheeks. "Erik!" She calls, giving him a wave as she moves towards him.

Janus strains to finish a paragraph while he slowly raises his head towards the sound of his name, a curious feat of muscle control and concentration that somehow manages to work for him. Using his finger to mark his place he folds the book closed and looks upon Caliopa with a smile steady rising into place on his face. "Caliopa," he drawls the name, making it sound like warm honey, and slides himself over a bit to make a space for her on the bench. He'd been sitting squarely in the center, simple body language discouraging anyone from presuming to join him.

She plonks herself down on the bench, giving him a small smile that doesn't make her eyes warm. "You ever wish you could get the ground to open you up, eat you so noone heard what you said?" She asks, putting her hands on the bench, resting her weight through them, her shoulders hunching. "Or jus' take back stuff you said?"

Janus thinks about it for roughly a nanosecond. "Naw, can't say I have." He tilts his head to the side, giving Caliopa a curious and searching look and then, sensing something's troubling her, shifts himself on the bench to turn his whole body towards her. "But I only tend ta say somethin' when I mean it. What did you do?"

She twists on the bench too, drawing up a knee to cuddle, resting her chin on it. She gives him a rueful look from brown eyes, her mouth twisting at the memory. "Told the doc that his exgirlfriend got engaged to the guy she left him for, in front of the guy and the doc's new girlfriend." She shrugs, "I jus' think stuff and it pops out my mouth, ain't nothing in between some days."

Janus gives this one a great deal more thought, but then simply raises his brows and lets out a throaty laugh. "Aw, Cali. You just went and told the truth, didn't you." For some reason, he seems to find this absolutely adorable. "Reckon there's no harm there. Bloke already knows she's gone, it can't get worse from there."

She wrinkles her nose, her arms wrapped around the leg, "'m told there is such a thing as tact, where you don't tell folks stuff that it ain't polite to mention in that moment." She sighs, her shoulders relaxing a little. "Reckon if I tell him and Des that I weren't meanin' nothing, they'll forgive me." Her smile returns at that thought, a little lower watts but there.

"Not knowin' the blokes in question, I can't say as to the delicacy of things," Janus remarks, giving Caliopa another thoughtful and attentive look. He rests his elbow on the back of the bench, his hand and book dangling down into the space between he and the redheaded woman. "No sense in protecting people from the truth, though. He'd hear about it one way or the other."

She returns the look with a warm one, her mouth curving into a broad grin, then she covers her mouth with her fingertips, eyes widening. "It ain't funny but I mebbe oughtn't to run away." Her glance down takes in her shoes, her unlaced trainers. "Left fast enough I didn't do up my shoes." She attends to it, her head bent over them, so her words are muffled. "What're you doin'?"

Janus gives his little book a lazy wave from where it hangs, indicating it with the motion. "Readin', waiting for a friend." Reminded of it, he takes a look up at the darkening sky and breathes out a small sigh. "She's late, of course. We were going to see about setting me right with proper clothes."

The look he gets is one of pure perplexion. "Your clothes ain't improper... I mean, they cover the necessary bits 'n' all." She shrugs lightly, her laces tied, resting her cheek against her knee for a moment. "Someone special for you? I mean, it is a friend, or your girl friend, or ain't you got one?"

Janus answers with an enigmatic smile, all teasing and mysterious and full of knowing secrets. "You can meet her and see for yourself," he says, his accent somehow magnifying the playful nature of his words. Of course, Caliopa might draw all kinds of wrong conclusions too. It's a risk he's willing to take. "Had a girl once, back at home." His smile fades by degrees while he remembers, his eyes turning distant and wandering off into the marketplace. "Reckon they told her I'm dead."

Caliopa's smile fades a little, her eyes taking on a worried look. "Ain't but I open my mouth and my foot goes in it. I'm dead sorry, Erik. Didn't mean to make you think of stuff that ain't..." She reaches out, hesitantly, to touch his shoulder sympathetically. "I oughta just give up speakin'."

Janus makes a noise of stoic acceptance and puts his attention back onto Caliopa. He puts his hand on top of hers, giving her a wan little smile, and shakes his head. "A few months more and it'll be near three years that I've been gone. I've had a long time to accept things as they are." He pats her hand and draws his own hand back to his lap. "Just need to make the best of it and hope she's done the same."

She shifts, bringing up her other leg and sitting cross legged on the bench, facing him, balanced. "How'd you leave for that long? Ain't you writ back, tellin' them you ain't hurt? Got family and all?" She questions, peppering the questions at him quickly, with a thoughtful face. "I ain't got family, not now, not least alive. 'Cept Atti."

Janus takes in a deep breath and regards Cali's face in silence for a time, thoughts dancing behind his eyes while he tries to find the best way to explain things. "Near as we could figure, it was magic that done it. Sent us halfway 'round the world in a blink of an eye. Me and Tiler, my partner. He cacked it a while back." He hesitates, thinking a little more, then shakes his head. "Don't think there's a ship built that could get me home, and there ain't a radio strong enough."

Her expressive face and eyes flood with sympathy. "I reckon it is worse to have folks and not be able to get to them than knowin' all your folks are dead." She replies softly, her hands resting in her lap, her eyes giving him a thoughtful look, studying his face. "But I reckon you'll meet someone you like here. Ain't like there ain't girls all over the place..." She hesitates, giving him a slightly anxious look, "Tis girls you like? I mean, it ain't bad if you don't and you like boys, but I jus' wasn't meanin' to..."

Janus's shoulders quake with a suppressed laugh and he turns his head down, hiding his eyes and his face until it passes. "I like girls," he confirms, looking up again and meeting Caliopa's eyes with a crooked grin. "S'truth, there's girls all over, but the interesting ones all got themselves a bloke already." There's no secret about, he's most certainly including Cali herself in the statement. "Right protective blokes too."

Caliopa utterly misses the implication, the expression on her face relief at not being taken wrongly. She returns his look with warm brown eyes that hold no understanding of his meaning. "I jus' wondered, because you know, there are blokes that like blokes, and stuff and if I'm talkin' to you 'bout findin' a girl, but...protective blokes? Sure, if they ain't sure their girl ain't with them instead of someone else, they oughta ..." She gets tangled in her own thought, perplexion returning, and she stops talking abruptly.

Janus listens to Caliopa ramble on, getting more and more perplexed himself as she does. "Don't need to get myself shot over a pretty face, is all I'm saying." He sends another look out into the marketplace, searching for signs of the mysterious person he's waiting on, but brings his attention back to Cali soon enough.

Caliopa nods, silenced by her own words, her teeth catching on her lower lip, pressing until the red pales. "Pretty ain't that important, neither." She comments softly, wrinkling her nose. "Ain't the most important thing, not if the person ain't nice, or does their stuff badly or..." She trails off, lost for examples. "I oughta get back. Atti cooks stuff evenin' time."

"Naw, it ain't the most important thing by far." Janus nods in agreement, gives Caliopa a lingering look and then simply nods again at her departure. "Makes learnin' about the rest a whole lot easier, though!" He laughs, straightening himself on the bench, and offers her a little wave on her way.Tags:caliopa, janus