the bright lights led me

I can't relate to  d e s p e r a t i o n

"Issssla?" Really singing out the vowel sounds of the Remedy's name as she poked her head into the clinic, Charlie edged the door open with her hip as her hands were busy with the two iced coffees she was holding. Slipping inside, the priestess used her tail to nudge her sunglasses off of her nose, shoving them back into her blonde curls made all the more bouncy thanks to Torchline's humidity.

While waiting for the next ship to head up to Stormbreak, it had occurred to Charlie that she hadn't yet met Isla, Torchline's resident ancient. Thinking that there was no better time, despite Isla being one of the only doctors in the entire region, the little blonde had fetched them each an iced coffee (both loaded with lots of caramel syrup and whipped topping) before heading over to the clinic.

.

ISLA

"Just a second!" Isla is in the consultation room with a patient, as is evident by the way her voice echoes out from the back of the clinic. Only a few moments later, a man emerges with his arm in a sling and some healing water in a small jar to take home with him, and he gives a gruff nod to the little Ancient before heading out of the door behind her.

In truth the Remedy likes to close the clinic some afternoons unless there are emergencies (and there are thorough directions to the healing fountain on her door regardless, should its services be needed), but - assuming Charlie is a patient, of course - she is happy to keep the place open for as long as it takes. "Hello," she says brightly as she steps back out to reception, drying her hands on a soft, white towel.

"What can I do for you?"

she's a runner
rebel, and a stunner

I can't relate to  d e s p e r a t i o n

Smiling brightly at the man as he leaves, Charlie calls get better soon! before turning her attention back to Isla. "Nothing!" The priestess chirps warmly before thrusting one of the coffees towards the Remedy. "I just wanted to come and say hi since we hadn't met before." The blonde explains, and gods if Isla thought it was sunny outside, it's nothing at all compared to the warmth radiating from the little blonde.

"I did see you at the Ball, though. You looked gorgeous in your dress." Charlie adds, smoothing out the spray of her bangs now that one of her hands was free. "I'm Charlie." Flashing the taller woman a fanged smile, the priestess shrugs her shoulders. "Other than that, I thought you could use a coffee." So saying, she fits her cherry red lips around her straw and takes a healthy slurp.

.

ISLA

Nothing is not something Isla is used to people wanting from her to say the least, and her expression remains pleasantly befuddled until Charlie clarifies - and introduces herself. "Oh! Well, thank you Charlie. That's really kind of you." Smiling and folding the towel to set it down on the counter, Isla accepts the iced coffee with a grateful nod, instantly raising the straw to her lips. "Running this place, I can always use a coffee," she confirms with a nod.

"I'm just about to close the clinic for the day, if you wanted to talk a walk with me? I need to collect a few things from a stall close to the healing fountain." Already she's stepping behind the counter to check everything is in order, and back into the consultation room to ensure nothing has been left out. "Are you living in Torchline, or is this just a visit?"

she's a runner
rebel, and a stunner

I can't relate to  d e s p e r a t i o n

"I can imagine." The little ancient agrees brightly. No, Charlie had absolutely no context for what running a clinic in this day and age entailed, but it was ever her opinion that nothing done well was ever done easily, and all the little blonde had ever heard of Isla was how well she ran her clinic and what a wonderful medic she was.

"Sure! Only if it's no trouble, I can always find ways to keep myself occupied." Charlie hums chipperly before wrapping her lips around her straw again. Glancing around the waiting room, the priestess's blue eyes shift from plant to picture to counter, finding it all perfectly calming, neat and tidy.

"Just a visit! I'm going to head up to Stormbreak, but the skyship doesn't leave for a few hours." Charlie calls over one shoulder. "I met someone on the beach one time and I'm going to see if I can find him. He's an artist." Grinning to herself, the priestess took another loud slurp of her drink. "I also hear that they have a really big observatory that you can see the stars with."

.

ISLA

"It's no trouble at all! Besides, taking a stroll is the least I can do for someone who brought me such a welcome gift." Raising the coffee as if in a toast, Isla takes another long drink of the beverage before setting it on the counter so she can potter about with her final clinic checks. After making sure that nothing is on fire or leaking or liable to break spontaneously while she's gone, she collects her sunglasses and keys and gestures for Charlie to go ahead and step outside.

"Oh, Stormbreak is lovely," she says, though her opinion of the place may well be coloured by the person she goes to visit there. "I've seen the Observatory in the distance a few times, but I've never been inside. You should make sure you go shopping in the Silk Houses if you get a chance - and take a jacket, or you'll get numb fingers." With a flick of her tail, she steps out after the little Ancient, swiftly locking the place up.

she's a runner
rebel, and a stunner

I can't relate to  d e s p e r a t i o n

Holding the door open for Isla before stepping aside to let the Remedy lock up, Charlie peers up at Isla as she slides her sunglasses (large hearts with hot pink rims) back down over her eyes. "I haven't been awake for too long, and I thought it might be neat to see how much the stars have changed over the centuries, you know?" Not that the priestess could even consider herself an amateur astronomer, but she did enjoy witnessing the fruits of Dygra's entropy whenever she could.

"Silk Houses? Do they not have walls?" Charlie wonders, glancing over her shoulder at the taller ancient and wondering if the name was meant to be some sort of reference that she hadn't been alive to understand. Or maybe it was simply because they sold silk and other such garments? That...that was probably it, actually.

.

ISLA

"Oh, are you from The Climb?" Smiling, Isla tucks the keys away in her pocket and nods down the street where she'll be walking, before setting off at a stroll with the little Ancient at her side. "There have been a few Ancients waking up from there lately," she says with a smile - Charlie would likely have seen her dance with Astaroth if she'd spotted her at the ball, so the association is probably an easy one to make. "How are you finding it, being awake again after so long?"

As for the Silk Houses, Isla has to think herself for a second, before laughing and shaking her head. "I don't actually know," she admits. "But the largest brothel, Mother Molly's, is there, and all of the workers were the most decadent silks I've ever seen. Perhaps that's something to do with it?"

she's a runner
rebel, and a stunner

I can't relate to  d e s p e r a t i o n

"Originally, yep! I live in the Grounds now with everyone else." Walking briskly to keep up with Isla but seeming as though she was quite used to it, Charlie beams. "So I've heard! There couldn't be a better time for it, too." Then again, Charlie was the sort to have said that regardless of when it had happened. "Definitely some learning curves." The blonde chuckles. "A lot of things are super different to the way they were back when I was awake. I'm not even sure if I knew that Torchline existed back then." Letters were harder to send in those days, and even if the world wasn't, it certainly seemed a good deal smaller.

"Ooooooooh!" Sighing indulgently around her straw as she took another sip, Charlie swallowed will nodding. "I love a brothel. I'll have to check it out." She purred happily. "Do you like brothels?"

.

ISLA

"Ah, that's right - a lot of the Ancients have migrated there, I've heard. I'm glad to see something good coming of the place; I used to live there myself, before the war." Smiling, Isla's sentiments are honest if nothing else, and whilst she has no intention of returning to the Grounds on any permanent basis, the ball was certainly a lively success as far as she had been aware.

Taking a sip of her own coffee to listen to Charlie's answer, the two blondes walk with relative ease around Haulani's upper portions, the Flowerbirth sunlight dappling through the trees and across their steps. "Gods, I can't even imagine. I hope it hasn't been too difficult for you to settle in." Being dead isn't the same as centuries long sleep, but Isla is at least mildly aware of what it means to return to a place you once knew only to find it different.

Laughing at the mention of brothels, Isla can only shrug her shoulders in response. "I can't say I use them all that much, but I did happen to be co-owner of one once. The House of Midnight, in King's End? You should definitely pay that one a visit."

she's a runner
rebel, and a stunner

I can't relate to  d e s p e r a t i o n

"Really? Why'd you move?" Charlie wants to know. Of course she'd give Isla the courtesy of hearing her out, but even with Torchline's warmth, there wasn't even a shrine to Dygra anywhere nearby, not to mention having so little of their family in the area. But then, that's one of the biggest things the ancient had noticed since coming out of her stasis: staying together didn't seem to be nearly as important for them as it had been during her lifetime.

Finding Torchline a good deal more crowded than the Grounds, Charlie had to work to stay at Isla's side lest she be caught up in the current of Torchers or distracted by the carts and market stalls that they were passing. "Okay, so maybe I can see why you'd like to live here. It's so full of life!"

Giving her coffee a little shake to try and blend the caramel in from where it was cooling on the bottom, the priestess nearly trips over her own feet. "A co-owner and you didn't use them?" Letting her jaw drop open, Charlie looks up at the Remedy as if she were some mythical creature rather than just a well-adjusted woman whose vices didn't happen to be the sort to be satisfied within the walls of a brothel.

.

ISLA

"War stuff, mostly," Isla says with a casual wave of her hand - it doesn't sting quite so much any more these days, but it's still not the sort of thing she feels is appropriate conversation for someone she only met a few minutes ago. "I knew staying in the Grounds would make me unhappy, so I left. That Midwinter ball that was hosted was actually the first time I'd been back in years," she admits; and okay, it hadn't been all that bad. (Then again, Isla hadn't known about the leadership meeting or The Family's interference).

Grinning as she almost loses Charlie beside her, Isla slows her steps and quickly hops across the cobblestones to the path that isn't quite so close to the stalls and shops. It's not much less crowded, but they're less likely to bump into people, and the open ocean sprawls out in a view to the side of them. "There's always plenty to do, it's true," she agrees. "And being a port city, people come from all over." Charlie is living proof of that.

Laughing at the smaller woman's quip about the brothel she'd run, Isla can only shrug her shoulders. "I was the doctor there," she says. "It kind of puts you off, when you've examined everyone's genitals beforehand."

she's a runner
rebel, and a stunner

I can't relate to  d e s p e r a t i o n

"Ahhhh." Sounding suddenly a good deal older than her youthful face would otherwise suggest, some of the levity leaves Charlie's lips as she nods. "That's the best reason to do anything." She agrees softly. In the balance of things in the blonde's mind, avoiding pain was just only a step behind seeking out pleasure.

Darting, Charlie appears at Isla's side rather than trying to navigate moving across the traffic. Short as she is she's more likely to be stumbled over than to make it across Frogger-Style.

"I bet they all wanted you to play nurse with them, huh?" Certainly Charlie had engaged in a bit of roleplay that saw her in some bastardized role as a priestess, but she'd never really minded. The difference, though, was that for Charlie it was still all worship, whereas for Isla it probably could easily become work in the wrong way.

"We're building a Shrine to Dygra in the Temple." The priestess says brightly. "When it's done, do you want to come and see it?"

.

ISLA

"I've started to think so too, lately," Isla agrees, her smile softening as she glances across at Charlie - and then does a doubletake (not you, Flora) to find the other woman rather promptly at her side. "That... did you do that?" she says, before catching herself in a laugh, because of course she had - Isla has just seen it herself. "I didn't know Ancients had that ability."

Leading them down the main pathway, luckily it isn't long before they're able to take a small side street away from most of the heavy traffic. It would still be busy towards the healing fountain, but being a Torcher now, Isla at least knows some quieter routes towards it. "Gods, and then some," she says with a scrunch of her nose. "Though to be fair, that was mostly the patrons. A lot of the workers are very sweet, I've found." Better than the people who tend to frequent their rooms, anyway.

She tilts her head at the news of a new shrine, Isla considering it for a few moments before nodding. "I think I would quite like that," she says. "Sure. Send a letter to the clinic when it's finished? I'll find some time to visit."

she's a runner
rebel, and a stunner