Crossing Paths

Solo or RP Format
Counts as 5 RP growth Points
Solo word minimum is 750, RP post minimum is 7

Tendaji may not be bustling like the cities of ages past, but that doesn't mean someone can live their life without encountering someone else who is a bit...different. What is the story of you meeting a person who is going in the opposite direction. Maybe they are traveling and you meet in a cross roads, or maybe they are settling down to start a family while you're getting ready to leave. Or possibly it's someone with such a different personality it's like oil and water. This is your chance to tell us that story and what happens when you cross paths.

[ This prompt is all about crossing paths - briefly and of characters who wouldn't normally find themselves interacting with each other. Explore what happens when two people who are going in opposite directions (figuratively or literally) find themselves briefly encountering one another. We would like to see strangers meet on this one, so take some time to bring your characters out of their comfort zones. ]


After hours of riding in the back of a carriage Sylvirah was beyond grateful for the chance to get out and stretch her legs. The trip to Matori had lasted far longer than she ever could have imagined and the reason why was currently asleep in her father’s arms. She’d left her partner behind with his family to get some solo time and since there were a few other caravans stopping the need for security wasn’t nearly as high. It was a popular roadway with plentiful trading posts, inns, and little stalls where vendors sold ready to eat meals. For the moment they were stopped next to the a little river in Tale so she’d volunteered to fill a few waterskins.

What she hadn’t expected was to see someone so strange by the water’s edge. They were tall, as tall as any Aishan she’d come across along the way, but rail thin. Even as close as she was Sylvirah couldn’t decipher if they were male or female, despite the skin they so proudly showed. Long green hair shifted into tones of blue and the markings along their skin looked like scales.

Making sure to keep a wide berth, Sylvirah bent down next to the water and started to fill up the skins. At first she tried to ignore them, but when the stranger raised a hand to wave toward her, seemingly to catch Sylvirah’s attention, she sat a little straighter.

“Hello there! My name’s Ki’o, what’s yours?”

“…Why?”

“That’s a weird one; maybe it means something different where you’re from.” They smiled and whatever anonymity they had melted away. Sylvirah might have thought the stranger mysterious, maybe even aloof at first, but now she knew they were just waiting for the right target. She scooted a little way away only to have them scoot after her. It felt incredibly intimidating, considering they were pushing seven foot tall easily.

“No, I was asking why you wanted to know.” She edged the water skin into the water, praying to whatever spirit was listening to make the water flow faster. The last thing she wanted was to be caught in a conversation.

“Oh, well, I’m traveling and doing some research. I’ve heard there aren’t many of my kind in Tale so I thought I’d be the first! Do you live here? If you do I’d love to ask you a few questions.”

Thank the spirits. Grasping onto what she thought was an easy out, Sylvirah readily responded, “I don’t live here; I’m just passing through with my family. We live in Zena.” And that would be that, right?

Wrong.

The light in their eyes grew brighter. She didn’t know when the creature had come so close but Sylvirah nearly stood up when they reached out. “Oh, sorry, you had a bug on your shoulder and I was just….” Sitting back, they bit their lower lip. “Are you okay? You seem nervous.”

“What are you?” Sylvirah blurted. They had all the grey tint of a Shifter, but it was wrong. Their ears were weird, too, and those markings… “I’ve never seen anyone like you before so I couldn’t say if there were more of you here or not.”

“I’m a Kaha’iko. I used to live in A’asti, but in the last few years or so I’ve been doing a lot more traveling. Have you never met a Kahikian before?”

“I saw a few in Matori, but they didn’t look like you. They were brighter…and shorter.”

The stranger gave a little chuckle. “Oh, those were probably Hapuna. You probably won’t see many of them coming as far North as you’re going.” Now that they were as close as Sylvirah would allow, the Kaha’iko stretched their legs out to get more comfortable on the river’s edge. Now that she got a look around Sylvirah noticed they didn’t have a water skin out. If anything it looked like they had been ready to go into the river itself when she came by. “Does it bother you? Being this far from home?”

“…It does.” She answered truthfully. Sylvirah brushed her hair away from her ear and dipped the last waterskin into the river. “I enjoyed the trip, but it was…uncomfortable? I think. I didn’t know the land, the air was different, and even the language wasn’t the same. I do not think I would enjoy traveling as much as my partner does.”

“I’m the opposite. I think if I’d had to stay in A’asti for the rest of my life I’d wither away.”

It was a little odd, for others to come looking for her, but Sylvirah couldn’t really pull herself away from the Kaha’iko after that. The conversation was an odd one, but not unpleasant and she found herself learning a little more about the world from it.

[801]