Running A Muck

Dear Book,

It’s been a busy week. I received word from the local authorities in Limsa Lominsa that mother’s house was going to be put up for auction and the property sold if something wasn’t done with it. It’s been so long since I’d been there, I’d almost forgotten… Part of me thought it might be best to let them raze it to the ground, taking with it all the foul memories that existed along with it. Yet, there was a part of me that couldn’t, a part of me that recalled all of the good memories that lived there, too. Memories of a time when Mother was beautiful and healthy, when we’d tend the garden outside together and she’d sing and tell me stories… Gods, times I’d almost forgotten, too.

I went to see how bad off the property was, but I knew I couldn’t face it alone. I invited T’Shira Rihll along with me, figuring her expertise in maintaining her own property in Gridania might be of help to me. As much as I’d have had Valeria Camena with us, too, she doesn’t exactly strike me as the kind of girl who’d be happy with grubbing around in the dirt and doing a bunch of hard labor. There would be other opportunities for her to help with the property, if she really wanted to.

The property itself was… bad. Unrecognizable, really. Everything was overgrown, obscured by thick weeds and brambles. Mother’s vegetable garden was little more than a compost pile, everything in the tool shed was ruined by weather and age. Someone had broken the windows of the house and no doubt had gotten in to steal whatever might have been left after the fire. It was a ruin, a husk of what it had once been. A skeleton left to bleach away in the La Noscean sun. I’ve never been filled with so much remorse and guilt.

We worked for a while, but after a run-in with a hive of angry wasps we decided that it was time to call it quits. We went to go sit on the beach and enjoy the Moonfire Faire fireworks while I washed the mud and muck off myself from leaping into the stagnant pond to hide from the wasps.

While we sat, I told Shira some about my past and… my father. The terrible things mother and I were forced to endure. I haven’t told her the Whole Truth of it; I haven’t really told anyone except Tora’a Honi, but… I don’t know that I’m ready yet. I don’t know if… if I can really trust anyone with that information yet. I told Shira instead that my last memory of the Moonfire Festival was an awful one, so she suggested making new, happy memories to replace them. She wants to go to the festival with Valeria so we can celebrate it properly. I agreed. It was time to make new memories. I don’t want to keep living with the ones I have.

Later on, I went on another mission for The Vanguard Company out in the Azim Steppe. I can see why Tora has such a deeply abiding love for his homeland, it’s a beautiful place, what little I saw of it as we traveled to Othard. The Steppe itself was broad and seemingly endless. A pity I didn’t have time to enjoy it. We made our way quickly to the pestilential little village and were permitted entry on the warning that we wouldn’t be able to leave until they were sure the disease afflicting it wouldn’t spread.

I stuck with Valeria, since I didn’t know anything about the customs or the language here; healing and disease aren’t really my element anyway. I did make note of how strange people were acting; almost like ash-kin, shambling around speaking nonsense. I kept watching them as they moved toward the mound of corpses the town had piled up from those who had died from this malady. A stupid practice, if you ask me, you’re just asking for the disease to spread by making a big pile of it. The curious thing was that we were told that these bodies explode upon expiration, so how did they even have any bodies to pile if they all blew themselves to chunks? Something wasn’t right here.

We came to find out that there was a Water Elemental at the heart of it all. I tried to talk to it, make sense of why it was here and why it was attacking these people, but it was too maddened to speak coherently. Between Valeria, What’s-His-Name (Roroux Primrose), That Other Guy (Sasai Sai), and Rhaya Selewa we were able to subdue the Water Elemental and put it back into a pendant that Rhaya and the others had found on some lalafellin merchant. To what end that merchant had it and why he brought it here might forever remain a mystery.

It took a few days for us to clear up the disease with Valeria’s guidance, but in the end we were permitted to return home. Gods, just in time, I’m not sure I could stomach the smell of reeking corpses for much longer without murdering somebody.

Not long after that, I went on yet another mission for the Vanguard. I continue to admire Vincere Northfield for her calming, stalwart presence with a smattering of cheeky character thrown in. I didn’t get a chance to thank her for putting herself in harm’s way when the rats tried to jump me, but I’ll make sure to do that soon.

What’s-His-Face was on-deck with us again tonight and let me tell you, I’m not leastwise impressed with that viera. He’s all show and no substance. I haven’t yet learned his name and I don’t care to at this rate. He’s just one of those overconfident blow-hards that’s more talk than action and his snarky attitude just cements that I likely won’t ever trust him to have my back. It’s fine, I prefer Vincere anyway, when it comes to viera. Hell, even Garra Rhali is preferable and she’s one of those cheerful types.

Working on these Vanguard missions with Valeria, though, has taught me that we work pretty well together. I really need to familiarize myself with her fighting style so we can continue to merge and meld our combat abilities to be as effective as possible when working for the Vanguard. I’ll have to ask her what she thinks about that. She’s been something of a lone wolf, I know, so maybe she doesn’t want some snot-nosed greenhorn clinging to her apron strings.

All-in-all, it’s been a pretty eventful couple of sennights, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. I’m going to see what I can do about finding someone who can muck out the pond and get it refilled with fresh water so the yard will stop smelling like wet goobbue ass.

Later, Book.