Great Mage Festival [O]

[Seion]

The night was bursting with activity and the usually peaceful A Piacere District was practically bleeding music. This yearly summer festival seemed to bring out even the most elusive of hermits as every inch of the Maestoso Way was packed with excited festival goers. Vendors lined the streets calling out their treasures to anyone willing to listen. In a half an hour the fireworks would begin in the nearby fields, but until then they Way was the most popular location.

[Laguna Loire]

Everyone in the city really seemed to know what was going on, but Laguna was pretty clueless. When he first stumbled into the A Piacere district a while back, after it was first opened, seemed like holy ground to the man. No one was allowed to live there and it was kept in such nice condition all the time. That wasn't even mentioning the rather stunning shrine and statues. What brought the man there this night though made him question everything he knew about the place.

"Is this some kind of party? Whatever it is everyone sure is enjoying themselves," The man said as he passed by happy chattering tones. Tones right? Laguna checked his city vocabulary often to try and make this place feel more like home. It was a little like how he felt when he first moved to Esthar against his will to govern. Sometimes it was like everyone in that city knew things he couldn't no matter how long he tried.

Not this time! Laguna nodded to himself and strengthened his resolve to figure this peculiar place out. It didn't really matter that he had been there a while or that he had moved up a rank in the school, he was pretty much still lost a lot of the time. "Excuse me, but can you tell me what's going on here tonight?" Laguna leaned over and asked a nearby tone.

The woman looked slightly perplexed for a moment at the question, but after looking over the man once she quickly realized he wasn't a city native. "It's the Great Mage Festival of course. Everyone celebrates the first Four Mages who created the city. Try to loosen up a little," She smiled and winked flirtatiously before disappearing in the crowd.

Laguna watched her leave, but waited until after she was gone to sag a little and mutter, "Leg cramp..."

[Tomonari Cahal]

He definately didn't want to come to what seemed to be a festival, but that was due to his own, timid self. It seemed rather interesting, but Tomonari was still worried about walking around the city alone. He hadn't been in Symphony for long, and would have much rather preferred to be here with his father. However, it became apparent that Tomonari's father didn't want the boy rotting in the apartment alone, and the boy really didn't have the guts to simply say no. So, here he was, in a foreign area of the city, without his mask or robe on. Granted, Tomonari didn't wear either except on rare occasions anyways, so that wasn't so big an issue. For now, he slowly wandered around, looking at the vendors and the like all lined up.

This was his first time at a festival such as this, so the boy was rather confused about everything. Tomonari made sure to stay out of the way of other people that seemed busy with other things. However, there was one thing that sort of calmed him down, and that was the music that came from nearly every direction he could think of. Strangely enough, he began to feel rather comfortable here, but that was because he, for once, wasn't thinking about the fact that he was alone in a strange place. There was another problem that came to his mind though: what exactly was this festival for? His answer was soon found, as Tomonari looked up, and saw a sign, "G-Great... Mage Festival?" His curiousity rose a bit more, although he didn't bug anyone about it.

Strolling further down Maestoso Way, the joy filled festival seemed to never end. The vendors all seemed to be busy selling their wares, and as interesting as some of them seemed, Tomonari didn't really have any money to spend, nor would he even buy something to begin with. Sighing, the boy continued his walk, until he came across something strange. Then again, everything so far was strange, but that wasn't a worry right now. A man seemed to have been talking with a woman, and then sag a bit after she left. Now, Tomonari definately knew nothing about flirting and the like, or at least, not when someone was flirting with him. This wasn't the time though that he could tell that someone else was flirting anyways.

Hesitant about it, the boy took a few steps forward, and then stopped. Perhaps if he asked if the man was alright, he would get mad at Tomonari. It was something the boy wanted to avoid, which was a reason why he didn't really talk with strangers. Eventually, he took another couple steps forward, and asked the leg cramping man, "U-U-Um... m-mister? A-Are you, o-okay?" Tomonari didn't know what he was getting himself into, but more often than not, he was overly paranoid, which was something he couldn't get through his head, no matter how many times he was told.

[Laguna Loire]

Now that the lovely little distraction was off, Laguna had a little more time to think about the situation he stumbled upon. The Great Mage Festival was what the woman called it. Laguna had heard a few things about the first four mages since coming to Symphony. Everyone seemed to revere them as saviors, and rightly so because Laguna heard they gave their lives for the safety of the city. The man kind of wanted to learn more about it now so he made a mental note to search for books on the matter next time he was in the library.

He was only distracted from his thoughts when he heard a soft voice asking if he was alright. That was when Laguna realized he was still kneeling while clutching his leg from the little episode with the rather pretty lady. "O-Oh yes!" Laguna quickly retorted as he bolted up straight. The cramped leg protested with a jolt, but Laguna didn't want the kid who came up to him to think he was actually having issues or anything. It was kind of embarrassing really.

Turning to the boy, Laguna put on his best smile, a slight twitch of pain forming at the corner of his grin. Beside that twitch it was only obvious that his leg was bugging him from the fact that he was favoring the other one. "I'm alright I just tripped a little that's all," He chuckled nervously, feeling awkward about lying to such an innocent looking boy. But innocence wasn't exactly the only thing that was on his face, Laguna noticed thoughtfully. Was he afraid of something?

If he was afraid for some reason then Laguna wanted to help, but he wasn't entirely sure what to say when it came right down to it. Maybe just being painfully nice would help. "So what's a kid like you doin' running around on your own?" Laguna started. "Aw you hungry or anything? I bet you don't even have any money on your for snacks or souvenirs." He hoped that he didn't sound creepy or anything, he just wanted to make sure a kid was alright.

[Tomonari Cahal]

He jumped in surprise at the man bolting up, and Tomonari became slightly defensive at first. That 'defensive' being more ready to run for the hills than anything. Well, if there were any hills to run to if being said literally. The boy remained quiet for some time, letting this man speak. Granted, he would've let anyone speak, since Tomonari wasn't one to speak up, thus interrupting another. Upon observing the man as best as he could, the teenager noticed the rather 'in pain' grin, but said nothing of it. This only worried the boy some more, although Tomonari wasn't quite sure what to say about it. He definately wasn't one to really notice if someone was lying either, and it wasn't as though he had anything that could help the leg anyhow.

What really surprised him though, were the questions automatically being thrown at him. "Did... I do something wrong?!", Tomonari thought to himself worriedly. Sure, the man probably had good intentions, but the boy wasn't used to city life yet. This transition was going to take much more time, although Tomonari wasn't really thinking about that at the moment. When it came down to it, the boy was only asked rather simple questions, ones that he could at least answer. Or at least, try to answer. It took the boy quite a bit of brain power to focus, and quite a lot of his will in order to even remain where he was. The latter being rather odd for him.

Luckily, he finally came down to his answer. Hesitating at first, Tomonari spoke up, "W-Well, I-I was told a-about the f-festival, and w-was pretty much told t-to come. I-I don't n-need a-any money at all, a-and w-wasn't really planning o-on buying anything." Hopefully, the man could weave through the stuttering and discover the actual meaning behind the response, but it wasn't a smart idea to question the intelligence of this man. Not that Tomonari ever would, of course. What was obvious though, was that the teenager was definately not what a normal teenager would act like, with or without the timid stuttering and the like.

Some more thought was quickly put into continuing the response. Tomonari could just go home right now, but that would probably worry his father. It was sort of an order as well, so the boy didn't want to disobey either. Sighing, Tomonari eventually continued, "I-I-I'm s-sorry. Y-You s-see, I'm still r-rather new i-in this city, s-so, I'm n-not sure o-of everything y-yet." That was him being 'captain obvious' here, as his clothing more or less screamed that. Of course, if one knew the Recital Clan, it was even moreso apparent. No matter when he left home, Tomonari was always told to be extremely careful for now. However, this kid tended to take things a little too literal, something that man may soon find out.

[Laguna Loire]

Laguna was a little surprised at how the kid seemed to be acting. After all, the man thought he was the best at being completely awkward in normal situations, but the kid was like... a younger even more awkward version of him. Though Laguna was pretty sure he was only this awkward when he was around pretty ladies. That cramp was totally not his fault.

The elder man couldn't help but wonder about the stuttering though. He knew that some people stuttered when they were nervous, but also that some just stuttered all the time despite their best efforts. For now, until proven otherwise, Laguna was going to assume this boy was just pretty nervous and that was why he was struggling so bad with what he was trying to say. It was a little hard to understand what the kid was saying, but the man was sure he was catching most of it.

The boy said that he was told to come? Sounded a little peculiar to Laguna, but maybe it was like his parents thought he should get out or something. If he was raising pretty young kids Laguna wouldn't want his kids to sit inside all the time. Thinking that made the man feel horrible though because he did have a child and he didn't get to raise the boy at all. All for a nation he didn't really belong in? It felt awful. The only saving grace was that Squall didn't know that Laguna was his father and he seemed strong enough to handle things on his own.

Still stung when he couldn't really be close to the boy. But for now Laguna could always try to be nice to the kid before him and hopefully forget his worries. New to the city, the kid mentioned. Laguna could relate to that, probably more than the kid could know. "I was knew to the city myself a while back. It's still pretty weird to get used to, but it's pretty nice right? I didn't see this district before now, but according to what I learned a while back it was originally destroyed by monsters."

"Pretty nice that they got it looking this good for this festival thing this year. Makes me wonder if there are other districts that are in repair. I have to admit I haven't explored much in my time here." Laguna didn't really realize that what he was saying made it a dead giveaway that he was one of the Sanctuary students. Sometimes that was a dangerous thing to reveal, but Laguna hadn't really learned that lesson just yet. Big grin plastered across his face, Laguna looked to the kid waiting for an answer.