Lions Do Not Sleep :: 02
I’ve been spending time in Ul’dah as my sister, Oxomoco Canek, was tending to some business with the Arrzaneth Ossuary. Long business, she’s been trapped in there for days or off on offical — but private — missions for them leaving me with little to do besides idle in the Quicksand. I’ve been doing the occasional small, odd-job for Momodi, that diminutive tyrant can be quite a taskmaster when she puts her mind to it. She has a never-ending flow of menial tasks all across the entire city-state of Thanalan.
During one of my breaks from the endless mole-bashing and wasp-eradicating and cactuar-dodging I happened to meet a curious Raen merchant by name of Kosuke Kiritsugi, who claimed to be an antiquities dealer. The gunblade on his back told a different story, but it’s not one I’ve pressed him for just yet. There are quite a few loose ends to his story, but the long and short of it was that he was a refugee from the East during the Garlean occupation that wound up in Ul’dah. He carved a name out for himself and built himself a tidy little mercantile empire. There are, of course, intrigues to that no doubt, but that’s the gist of his story that I’ve learned so far.
In the course of our conversations, he asked me if I would train him in martial combat, starting with Boxing at first so that I might assess his strength, agility, and endurance. Having nothing better to do, I agreed, so one night we went out to the beach in the Mist not far from his Free Company Estate and had us around of fisticuffs. I won, of course, but Kosuke lived up to everything he claimed. He was fast, even faster than me if I couldn’t read his tells like a book, he would have gotten more than a lucky shot to my nose and a glancing blow to my jaw. Against anyone not as well-trained or experienced as me, I have no doubt he could have won. Still, Kosuke didn’t walk away from that fight unscathed, no matter how fast he was. I knocked the wind out of him more than once and gave him a bell-ringing to his horn that he won’t soon forget. Bloodied my knuckles hitting all that scale, but it was a fair tactic. The gain was worth the loss.
I’ll just have to tell Oxomoco that my hurts were gained from hunting cactuar and moles. She’ll ravage the countryside incinerating them for a day or two, but hey, that makes for less work for all the Little Adventurers. Maybe Momodi will let them cut their teeth on something a bit more substantial!
Somewhere along the way I also met a fellow xbr’aal named Wuk Jola. She seems a sweet-hearted albeit innocently naive soul whose friend circle insist on infantilizing her rather than teaching her to be self-reliant. They baby her, pat her head, call her “precious” — like she was nothing more than a child. It was disgusting to watch, seeing a grown woman being so diminished. Wuk Jola isn’t simple, nor is she stupid. She’s a bit lacking in worldliness, but aren’t we all who are here from Tural? Still, I’m not close enough to Wuk Jola to voice my opinions. Perhaps she likes how her friends treat her. Prefers it, even. She seems happy enough with them. I think she might even be romantically involved with one or more of them. Not my business.
I was later approached by a friend of Wuk Jola, some brown-furred Bozjan whose name I don’t deign to recall. (Zlata Aakilina) who had overheard my opinions of Wuk Jola’s predicament as I related them to Kosuke. The woman chose to confront me in a brusque and curt fashion, demanding answers from me without even so much as introducing herself, but making it clear that she’d eavesdropped on my conversation with Kosuke, unabashedly. She then proceeded to insult me, make broad-stroke assumptions about me, insinuate I was a coward for not sharing my opinions with her when I didn’t know who she was or what her interest in Wuk Jola’s friendships even was. She tried to lord it over me like she was some how better because she apologized, even as she continued to insult and berate me for being offended by her horrid approach. I am patient with many things, but unwarranted rudeness isn’t one of them. I owed her nothing and I gave her nothing, save a tongue-lashing for her ill-mannered ways. She eventually took herself off, which was more than fine by me. I have no time nor space in my life for people that can’t treat me with at least basic, common courtesy. Oxomoco would’ve done something foul to her, no doubt, so perhaps it was best that Xomo’s been busy with the Ossuary.
One morning before I took to my rest, I met an airship captain, one Cevoh’a Khodma, who seemed a jolly and adventuresome type to hear him talk. I spoke briefly with an elezen woman who claimed to know him little, but the two of them bandied back and forth almost flirtatiously in their praise of one another. When I pointed out their shared interest in one another, they both protested and laughed it off, claiming neither time nor wherewithal. Hm, we shall see.
Still, the good Captain and Kosuke were the highlights of my encounters thusfar. I think Oxomoco would be infuriated by Kosuke, but I think she’d enjoy the Captain’s company. I’ll have to introduce her to them sometime.
For now, it’s time for me to do more busy-work with Momodi. I hope Oxomoco finishes her business soon, I miss her already. There’s still much and more of Eorzea and the world beyond Tural to see.
