Amnesic

“Oh sure, go ahead. Do not bother to curtsy or trade names, go and give whatever it is you hunt a nice jab with that spear of yours. I would join thee, but I fear I would do you little help,” the Duke replied in a jesting manner, nodding towards her spear. “Oh, and do laugh more, you masked wonder. It becomes you much better.” He lifted a hand from one of his pockets and tipped his hat to the woman with a grin, dropping a little snow from the top of his hat. Following this action, he drew his other hand from the pocket it was in made a light wave to Tsetseng as well, “Have a good time, little hunter.” He said no more after this, and returned both of his hands to his pockets, merely smiling at the huntswoman and her companion. Facial expressions were so much easier to read and the mask hindered his ability to do so, but that did not bother him any. Tail motions and vocal inflections were easy enough to read when combined together, though he still could not tell if she merely hated his Eorzean speech or simply just him. He had felt like making more of a statement questioning how she expected to kill anything with the bone spear, but it would have been a terribly low-intelligence remark considering that he already knew how dangerous the Xaela Au Ra were in combat. It was best to just leave it at playful prods and not implicate a death wish.

Rhett tipped his head to side slightly as well. There was definitely a bit of contempt in her voice and he could feel it quite actively; he had observed similar dislikes of languages and races in plenty of other cases to recognize it from her comments. ‘No better song’ and ‘no open to mind’ stood out particularly to him, but he was not going to harp on the matter much. Drawing the answers he wanted out of people slowly was more of his style anyways. “It is not from a lack of ability to sing that I cannot speak your dear language, for I am capable, but as you so precisely put it, I do indeed lack the ‘the heart’ for it and I accordingly cannot enunciate it properly. Though, that is a woe of being a foreign speaker,” he replied in a manner that was both gentle and almost a little patronizing, giving his signature slight smile the whole time. As he finished he took a moment to redeposit his notebook into some pocket under his cloak. “Eorzean is quite the haggard language, is it not?” it was put quite simply and innocently, without the patronizing air. This was all part of the same little plan, though the end result would likely prove useless to him; nevertheless, he pursued it all the same. Yet, he also had to wonder if the wolf understood what he was saying, as it obviously recognized the native tongue of its master.

Duke Rhett gave a light chuckle in response. “Hah, I have not made a slip like that in quite a long time.” He leaned over to look past the masked woman, waved at Tsetseng, and gave a light bow, speaking to the woman’s companion directly. “I do apologize, fair she-wolf, ‘twas fault upon my part. Do forgive me!” he stated playfully and had another light laugh. He lifted his hat up respectfully, giving a light and gentle smile in spite of the cold winds as he turned back to the masked woman. “There are reasons to speak Doman, but I only know it because it fit into my interests. I will say it is much easier than beast languages, both on the vocal chords and the mind. As for the native Au Ra tongue, I have simply just never been able to get a hold of a proper accenting to speak it cleanly like you do.” He eventually drew out the notebook again and began writing something within it, though he had no intention of sharing it this time. To him, the woman had some very curious things about her, but then again, most of the people he had met from the East seemed peculiar. Regardless, he was going to hold his silence after making his last statement and wait patiently to see how she responded, closely analyzing her movements out of personal curiosity. In ways, life was sort of like a little game to the Duke Rhett.

So she did not understand Doman, and knew nothing of reading her own language. Oh well, it was not exactly uncommon for that to happen- written Au Ra tongue was something relatively new and most felt it unnecessary. This now apparent language barrier was quite entertaining to Duke Rhett and it only increased his interest in the conversation. He was still a little internally disappointed he could not converse with the masked woman in her native tongue; that was usually the more enjoyable thing in linguistics. “Ah, well, both actually. Business matters and some simple complications allowed me to stay on a scholarly trip to the East much longer than I had intended. Tis also a lucky matter that I had not gotten much closer to your companion there, I fear he would have been much too quick for my reflexes.” was his reply, given in an demeanor almost unsettlingly calm. As he spoke, he gracefully deposited the quill into the small notebook and the both of them into a pocket under his cloak. “Why do you ask about the languages, pray?” He gave a faint smile, though exactly what was behind the emotion was difficult to tell. Was it because of the endearment of the wolf and its master, simple contempt, or just plain friendliness? As it was, he simply stood unmoving under the Xaela and her companion’s gaze with an almost self-assured air while his hands accordingly found their way back into his side pockets.

Duke Rhett drew his hand back and pulled down his muffler to reveal his daintily sharp facial structure and desert blonde hair. He hoped that she would remove the mask, but he could not blame her if she did not as this wind was quite frigid. “Ah, no, I am in need of nothing at all currently. Though, ‘tis quite a shame that I cannot verbally reply in your native tongue, it would be rather nice and less complicated,” Duke Rhett replied, gracefully shaking his head. He began to speak in the full Doman tongue, near perfect on accent, as he began to search around within his pockets. " Eventually he retrieved a small book and a quill and began to write something inside, without actually lowering his eyes to see his writing. “But, do forgive me; I have digressed from the topic in my conversational mood. I was simply admiring the unique aspects of your wolf there.” Communicating in multiple languages was one of the most prized skills of the Duke, and even though it was not much more than a carefully performed parlor trick, it came in handy on rare situations. He eventually turned the notebook around and held it to the masked woman. Upon its pages was a clearly written sentence in the Au Ra native tongue. :I am woefully incapable of speaking your beautiful language, though I hope my written word suffices well enough.:

It would be mere coincidence that the Duke Rhett had been in Coerthas that same day for business reasons and had planned on staying around for another night to experience the cold a little longer. He did not particularly like it, but it was a refreshing difference than from the scalding heat of Thanalan upon his fair Hyuran skin. He currently wore among other things a heavy fur cloak, a wide brimmed and plumed hat slightly tipped down over his face, and a long scarf seemingly integrated into his over-shirt that covered all but his eyes; he had indeed come prepared to handle the freezing winds on this trip. It was in this manner that only his iridescent violet, glamoured eyes were visible as he trod about the town. He found that it was quite nice to be in a place where people had only rarely heard rumors of him, and he found some enjoyment conversing with whoever may pass by as result. Having no more work to conclude here and just looking to spend some time in something interesting, he had been wandering towards the gates when he took notice of the massive, cerulean eyed wolf outside. He presumed it to belong to someone as a manner of pet, and was intrigued to see who would call the beast an ally. Where nobody else seemed to have the courage to approach it, he simply strode up to this creature and stopped but a few feet away. “My, you are a curious thing are you not? I have never observed such a magnificent creature of your kind, at least within the streets of Ul’dah,” he spoke eloquently and almost to himself. “Would it be a bother should I try to feel your fur?” As he said this, he would cautiously reach out his hand towards the animal, fully poised to jump backwards should it try to lunge at his gloved hand. He had no concept of the speed that it may have, and as such, could only hope it would give a growl instead should there be any consequence to his actions.

“I know that I have enough in here to survive pretty much anything. It’s going to get a little lonely, sure, but I’ll live,” she replied, giving a light laugh and a smile. It was true after all; this little refuge of hers contained everything she needed to live out of society as she normally did and much more. “I’ve got enough water and mushrooms to probably last me a good, long time in this cave alone. There’s a reason I don’t live in the city!” Across a wall in the farther left of the small cave, old logs covered in edible mushrooms had been lined up as a sort of indoor garden while the other side contained haphazardly placed and awkwardly shaped tools, leather straps, other sacks, and a few animal horns. In the back, a small light shaft radiated in from a crevice in the roof and lit up a massive water spring and its clear water. This was Fay’s little refuge, and wondrous as it may have been, she spent very little time in here and kept it closed up quite often. As she led Kallera past her survival gear and up to the water source, she looked back to the Elezen. “Now, uh, what was it we were talking about a few minutes ago? Ala Domans?” she asked with a genuine confusion. She had already managed to lose track of it.

This is actually pretty interesting to me, but I've currently been too overwhelmed with work to actually get back in game and I also don't have a character on Balmung, so there's nothing I can really do to help right now. But, if you'd want to talk about it and nobody else steps up to take up the request, just message me and I will see what I can do. I wish you luck regardless!

Ah, welcome! Nice to meet another Siren! I've found that RP for me is almost quite non-existent there, and I have yet to actually find any of the rumored roleplayers upon that server. I had been briefly taking a look into Mateus until, but I have been quite drawn away recently as result of my own writing work. Most of what I have been doing is just a bit of casual forum RP, but I'd be up for trying to meet up sometime! Fe'lanah, in the shortest essence of a description, is akin to a lone survivalist hippie, so that should hopefully say where she stands on most things. I have another character I am still fleshing out correctly, but he resides on Mateus currently as sort of my scouting character.

Fay shook her head and shrugged. “I can’t tell you, I mean, I still don’t really know who you are talking about…I think I might know those other ones you mentioned, but I can’t really be sure.” The Elezen seemed like she was trying to drive this conversation in some direction, but Fay honestly did not know as to where. By this point, they would have traveled quite a distance outside of the gates into Central Thanalan up towards a tall rocky outcropping seemingly in the middle of nowhere. As soon as they reached it, Fe’lanah slung her bag over her shoulder and began an agile ascent up its edge in a trained pattern, directly showing she had climbed it before had it not been assumable from her previous statement. It was hard to tell she was putting a lot of stress on her frail body as she performed the climb until she began to speak out loud in the midst of her scramble up the ledge; her words were audibly shaky and lined with grunts, but it mostly came out clearly. “Stay…down there…I have…a… rope!” she managed to spit out in between moments of lifting herself up the outcropping. Fe’lanah was not actually planning on trying to pull up Kallera, she actually had a makeshift climbing rope set up on top of the cliff so that it would make the ascent easier. Or it would have, had she actually lowered it before climbing down much earlier in the day. She tried to hide this spot from others mostly because it was where she stashed most of her things, but also because there was a very useful freshwater reservoir inside a cave at the top. The rope itself made of a dried vine and was tied twice around a large rock, currently bundled up alongside it to prevent anyone from getting to her menagerie of ragtag traveling gear or even knowing of its location. She figured the Elezen was not likely to come back here anytime soon, so it would be safe enough to let her up here. She grabbed the coiled vine rope and hurled it out from the cliff side, letting it hit the ground below with a small cloud of dusty sand. “Come on up!” she called down while gesturing with her hands.

As Fe’lanah passed through the streets with Kallera, she could feel the annoyed and searching glare of the watch-guards upon her. She was not sure if the Elezen could feel it as well, but she had become somewhat of an unintentional pest to them because of her philosophies. Had Kallera not been here, she guessed that they would likely have chased her away or questioned her as due a reputation she had managed to form with the city’s local guard. It was easy to say that in her few days of consciousness; she had discovered that she and Ul’dah were not compatible. Fe’lanah began to feel the urge to start preaching her philosophy to the Elezen, but seeing as she would still be helpful in getting out of the city peacefully, she managed to restrain as much of it as she could. Moving on to the question would likely be easier for the time being. “Charity is just rare in there because most of them are too greedy to care about another’s welfare,” she answered simply, as if it was unbiased fact. She was able to reply in the tone she had before Esther had set her nerves into some form anxiety frenzy and the queasy feeling began to leave her. Creating distance seemed to remedy the problem quite well, but that was not exactly a permanent solution. A faint feeling that this conversation was about to become awkward formed in the back of her mind, but she ignored and decided to ask her next question in response anyways. “What’s a Doman?” she asked in utter innocence. She honestly did not know.

Fay looked at the Kallera questioningly- why did she want to join in? Oh well, it would be easier getting out of the gates with two people… “Yeah, I already put the other one back in my sack… You can come, but are you sure you’d be able to keep up under the heat?” She had actually seen the failed chase, or at least the result of it, and this did give her a bit of doubt. Fay was still going to do the deed regardless to ease her conscience about Esther, but she felt like a part of her was simply getting this water so she could distance herself from the poor Au Ra. She only now realized that the anxiety she had been facing was almost making her nauseous; making it even harder for her to understand the response. She had absolutely no problems talking to any other race, but with Esther’s kind, she seemed to struggle. She had only ever seen a few others, and the reaction had been identical even though she never got that close to them. It was really odd. She had to wonder if she had that response before she had lost her memory.

As Esther moved away and Kallera returned, Fay let out an internal sigh of relief. It felt like she could breathe now with Esther not standing right beside her even though the Au Ra was barely a few yalms away. She caught the glance from Esther to the Elezen; it hurt, but at least she knew she could hold off doing anything more damaging for the moment. “I don’t…nothing’s happened. Nothing at all,” she answered, with slightly more regularity. She had to force another smile, but she was hopefully getting better at it by this point. As the suggestion for more water was brought up, she looked directly at Kallera to see what she was going to do. Fay really did not owe these people anything, but she felt like she needed to do something at least to patch up the damages caused by her latent issues with Au Ra. “I mean, I could go get some. Though, I only have two of these and it’ll take me an hour or two,” she said as she held up the water-skin in her hand, looking at the Elezen specifically.

Alright, I have a more concise setup of information up there now. I'm still a bit too unsure on what would be considered old-fashioned, aside from Ul'dah's desert robes, but I think I can take a look around in-game and see if I find something. I have actually never heard of Duke Brett V. before; it is quite hilarious how much of a coincidence this is. I mean, I only chose the name Rhett because it is a seemingly rare name. I may have to go pay this hermit in La Noscea a visit sometime soon!

Thanks for the reply; I have already realized in hindsight that this format is not going to work terribly well on its own. I have been working on a better and more clear summary for this, and it's almost done, but I currently don't have access to it. On the terms the style, that's one of the things I needed to get a check on. I'm not exactly too well versed in all of the lore, general aristocracy of the world being one of my weaker places. I mostly went off of what I can remember seeing in Ul'dah, so I'll definitely have to fix that part.

EDIT:I did a more clearer summary of this information, but I have left the older post still up here. I put it all in nested spoilers now, so it should be much easier to read than in one giant essay.

Attempting to look at Esther was very difficult and much more discomforting than Fe’lanah imagined it would be. When they were distanced far away from each other, the sight of her was slightly uncomfortable, but now that she was standing almost right beside her it had started to become more intense and she almost had to close her eyes in some odd instinct. It was an irrational combination of nervousness and what she thought might have been a smidge of fear mixed in. She never had this response to any other race, why only this one? It made no sense to her. She had to steal another glance at Esther to perhaps figure out what it was that caused the reaction. To her slight advantage, her unkempt hair allowed her to take a small glance from the edge of her sight at the young woman beside her while at least having the internal reassurance that she might not be able to return the gaze. What Fe’lanah saw surprised her and added a layer of guilt to the emotions she was currently feeling. The body language was easy to read, and she could tell that Esther was affected by her unintentional reservation. She struggled against herself and tried to turn her head at least slightly towards Esther while forcing a small smile, the best she could manage. “…You’re doing a good thing here; don’t worry about me, doc, I’ll be fine. I think that little Roegadyn might need some help over there or something…” she said somewhat normally while pointing at Liara. Looking at the situation the Au Ra was in, Fe’lanah thought it would be best if she tried to cause as little pain as she could to her. She had a feeling this effort to assist Pearl Lane was not going to end well, simply knowing from experience how the people in this city acted.

Fe’lanah tried her hardest to try and look at Esther normally, but it was quite the struggle to fight back the internal response that made her want to avert her gaze. She ended up not being capable of looking up at her, but she managed to force a smile and maintain at least viewing out of the corner of her eyes. The unease she was feeling was causing her to shiver a little bit and she still could not figure out what it was about Au Ra that caused the nervousness she was feeling. It spiked when Esther bowed to her, causing her to grimace slightly and damage her speaking ability. “Mine’s…uh, Fay or Fee, just whichever you find is easier to say…The water was nothing, really. I just felt like being generous,” she tried to reply as normally as she could. She tried to study what details she could of Esther from the edge of her sight, but she was not able to continue it for too long until she did have to swap her gaze back to the fallen sign. It was uncouth, but Fe’lanah was not one for courtesies and it at least let her talk correctly. “…It’s nice to hear someone is trying to make a change, but you need to watch yourself with these people. Money is corruptive, and it seems to show itself more in the people without it.” She put her other water-skin back in her makeshift rucksack and took another drink out of the one she had been holding. The carrots were quite dried out from the heat and parched her mouth in turn, but at least they tasted good while giving her an excuse to not look at Esther. She knew she was a bad person for this, but she could not find something inside of herself to change her reaction.

Eventually, Fe’lanah sat down and retrieved a meal from her rucksack; this ended up being a few dirty carrots and another water-skin, as roughly made as the last. She began to loudly munch on a carrot as she continued to watch the people pass by. She was going to have to head back out into the desert for her other possessions before the sun fell, but for the moment she was content enough with just eating her meal and waiting to see if Kallera was going to give the other water-skin back. As she had her repast, she looked to the sign that had fallen onto the dusty road that was Pearl Lane. She recognized one of the symbols on it as familiar, but she had entirely lost her ability to read when her memory vanished only a few days ago. It gave a slight forlorn feeling to have this fact brought back to her mind, but then again, she was sure the sign did not say anything very important. She quickly finished off her first carrot and quickly started on the next one after taking a heavy draught of her water.

This is just a simple idea that came to mind last night while I was running from Ul'dah to Gridania... What is your or your character's favorite places to go? Feel free to include time of day and/or specific weather conditions if you want! Fe'lanah's: North Shroud: Around 12 AM with clear skies. Northern Thanalan: Sunset or sunrise with clear skies. La Noscea: Cedarwood at Sunset with clear skies or windy. Reasons: Finds them to be exceptionally beautiful, but she's a real naturally oriented person so it generally has a strong effect on her. Personal Favorites: North Shroud: Midnight with Tension effect. Northern Thanalan: Midnight with fog. La Noscea: Costa Del Sol at sunrise or sunset.

Hey! I've been around on Siren for a while now and I was definitely unsure if any active RP linkshells were around, so thanks for letting me know! I was getting ready to perhaps make my own, but it's great to see there is one still active! I'll see if I can contact you in-game sometime real soon!

Fe'lanah shook her head again and gave a warm smile and spoke out loud. “No, you can keep your spot, I was just curious about what this tent was here for…” She was genuinely curious of whatever the Kallera kept turning her head for, but she decided to leave the topic alone and remained silent for a moment. She began to somewhat stare at the Elezen unintentionally, but she noticed herself doing it after a while and stopped, lowering her ears a little bit. She started to scan the tent again and she shivered almost imperceptibly when her eyes crossed over Esther. Something about her seemed creepy to Fe’lanah, maybe it was the scales? She had no idea what it was, so she went back to rummaging around in her rucksack to avoid staring at her or anyone else in the tent. The searching was mostly to avert her gaze, but part of it was because she was hungry and she was trying to find what she felt like she wanted to eat.

Fe'lanah was a tad surprised at how fast the response was, but she could not resist giggling a bit at the Elezen’s display in regards to the water, and she continued to keep a grin on her face afterwards. She did not take the water-skin back just yet, but stood resting her hands on her hips with the rucksack still in hand. “I just go by Fee or Fay, whichever is easier for you to say,” she simply replied, but then noticed Kallera reaching for the purse. Her face quickly turned to a pout and she shook her head. “Oh, please don’t do that- I don’t take money from people…” She unintentionally stepped back a small amount, making some more room under the tent, but not very much considering how little she was. She took a brief sidelong glance at Esther but turned her head back quickly towards the two Elezen yet again.

Fe’lanah had been getting close to putting the smaller pouch to her lips until she felt the Elezen staring at her. She began to progressively lower the container as she turned to make a response with a light smile. “... Some people call it a water-skin, I think,” she replied bluntly. It took her a moment to understand the situation, but once she did, she perked her ears up and gave the tall woman a pitying glance. “Oh! Do you want some? I mean, it may have some of my spit in it, but it should be okay.” It was a serious offer, she had plenty of water and she was currently showing no signs of overheating herself, it would not hurt to be generous.