Eisenstern 1.4
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I’ve gotten so good at fishing, I’m consistently catching decent fish. Salmon has a much better flavour to it than a guppy. Also, it’s bigger. Fishing wasn’t something I set out to master, but between being a decent source of food, and a decent source of income if I can find buyers at market, it just kind of happened.
If nothing else, there are potions that require fish as ingredients. Eating or selling them sounds like a lot kinder of a fate than boiling them alive, so maybe I won’t ever use them for potions (have I mentioned potions aren’t exactly the greatest things ever?).
Between fishing, painting, and the little garden to the side of my lot (which has been growing!), I’ve been able to make enough money to expand my outhouse into a proper, but small, house.
It’s not the best house in the world, certainly I’ve seen some better ones, but it’s a proper house with a roof over it. I can’t complain too loudly. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to have a house now.
Unfortunately, my university enrollment has to wait a little. I didn’t get into the distinguished degree programme I wanted into, and I’m not sure why. Maybe because my robotics knowledge is… lacking, to say the least of it. I figure I’ll head out to Foxbury Institute later and see if I can learn some things about robotics, and maybe the board will reconsider my application.
For now, my paintings have been selling. Not exactly like hot-cakes, but well enough. I managed to grill some hot dogs instead of living on fish on a stick.
Strangely, I soon had another visitor. He was related to Lilith, I could tell that by the way his presence felt, but he was even less threatening of a presence than she’d been. (Why do vampires like me?) He, too, just seemed to want someone to talk to.
His name’s Caleb. Lilith and Caleb. Interesting choices of names, but hey, I’m not really one to judge. I randomly threw out a German surname instead of my proper Japanese last name.
He was friendly enough. Definitely someone I could see myself making solid friends with. Fortunately, unlike Lilith, he doesn’t have to wait for the sun to go down. This is fortunate because the sun is constantly up in Mt. Komorebi.
“You look good in that,” a voice said behind me.
I smiled slightly (okay, maybe more than slightly), turning to find Sergio behind me. “Thanks,” I said.
Sergio and I get along much better than I expected us to. He’s weirdly sweet, in his way. Not someone I could see myself building a life with, but sweet enough.
Siobhan was still unfortunately absent when we held a club gathering. I still hadn’t asked.
“So I’m having a party tomorrow,” Sergio said. “I was kinda wondering if you wanted to come. It’ll be dry, I promise.”
I wasn’t even worried about that. But instead of saying that, I smiled a little brighter. “Sure,” I said. “I’m not doing anything anyway. Out there on the island?”
“Discotheque Pan Europa,” Sergio said. “It’s right next door.”
So it was. I went. I saw. I had a few drinks (all sodas), spent an inordinate amount of time talking to Sergio, and then one thing led to another… I shouldn’t have done that. And maybe later, I can pretend I didn’t.
In the meantime, visiting Morgyn sounded like a good idea. Before Morgyn tried to visit me, or something. I have a house now, of course, but I just think keeping Morgyn from coming by for as long as I can is a good idea.
“I’ll have you know, I haven’t been turned into a frog recently,” Morgyn said.
“That’s good,” I answered. L had a habit of turning Morgyn into a frog when the idiot got annoying. I can’t say I blamed her. I was often tempted myself. “I wasn’t going to ask about that, though.”
“Sure,” Morgyn said. “It always comes up eventually.”
“Because you bring it up!” I argued. I sighed. Well, Morgyn would be Morgyn, and no visit to magic realm would be complete without us arguing about something or another.
“You’re doing okay out there, right?” Morgyn asked, if quietly.
“Of course I am,” I said. “I’m the more self-sufficient of us, remember? Besides, do I look dead to you?”
“I’m just worried,” Morgyn said.
I sighed. That was probably a little more defensive than it needed to be, but Morgyn got insufferable sometimes.
I shook my head. “I know how you mean it,” I said. “But when you ask that repeatedly, it feels like you don’t believe in me.”
“Of course I do,” Morgyn said. “It’s just everyone else I don’t believe in!”
Wasn’t the result the same? I decided not to argue with the dork. There was no point.
I went home some time later, and found a stray vampire wandering around outside. (Seriously, why is it always the vampires? Do I have vampire sympathiser tattooed on my arm? … honestly, probably.)
“I hate to be rude,” I said, approaching him, “but who are you exactly?”
“Oh, I’m Drake,” he answered. “Sorry, I’m military. Looking for something.”
Right. I hadn’t known the military to be so tolerant of fluffy, frizzy hairstyles like his. It looked good, though.
“I see,” I said. I didn’t see at all. “Well, I live here, so if you could march a little quieter, that’d be nice.”
“Right, humans sleep this late,” he said. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Ezio,” I said. Who knew you’d have to introduce yourself so many times in a lifetime?
“I’ll come back some other time,” Drake said. “It was nice meeting you.”
I went to argue, but he’d already bowed slightly, and marched off down the street. In hindsight, I wasn’t very fair. The guy was just doing his job.
Well, I had other problems. I’d been feeling nauseous all day, figured I’d eaten something bad. My aunt always told me, eating too much processed food wasn’t good for you, but I didn’t listen to her then. And didn’t listen to her now, either.
Come to think of it, I’m a terrible nephew. Ha. Anyway, I decided to just turn in for the night, and figured I’d feel a bit better in the morning.
“What are you doing here?” Morgyn was at my doorstep first thing bright and early.
“Checking on you,” Morgyn said. “I told you I worry. That doesn’t magically go away, you know.”
Yeah, I knew. “You didn’t have to come all the way out here,” I said. “Surely you’ve got important sage-y things to do, right?” Morgyn always put those things before me in the past, I didn’t see why the idiot wouldn’t now.
“I’ve got a Duplicato worrying about that stuff,” Morgyn said. “You know, since you left, it’s been weird. I know I’m not really alone, it just feels weird without you.”
Oh.
Well, this was bound to happen eventually, I supposed. I probably looked at the idiot like… like the idiot was an idiot. I tried to soften the glare. We’re good at glaring and looking pissed off even when we aren’t.
“That’s called missing someone,” I said. “You miss me.”
“Yeah,” Morgyn said, like it was some kind of a revelation. “I miss you, a lot. I find myself turning around to tell you something stupid that came to mind but you’re not there anymore.”
I sighed. “Well, for what it’s worth, you’re always welcome here, Morgyn.”
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