Eyes were on her. The sensation of being watched prickled her skin like needles. The feeling almost made her homesick. Almost. The gentlest turn of her head had her eyes surveying her surroundings in effort to puzzle who was watching her. The quick search yielded no results and left her confused and irritated. Not close by then? Amara had assumed, incorrectly it would seem, that she would be approached. That was usually what happened when she got that feeling. Always an attack or a conversation. Usually never this prolonged.

The aetheryte plaza is always an active hub with people passing through. It's honestly one of the noisier segments of Ishgard with the idle chatter, the turning of cart wheels as they move to and fro, and the distant sounds of creation drifting from the refineries and smithy's. The familiar hum of it all soothed her enough to cast off her veil of subtly to turn and look around much more overtly. Eventually, she finds him, an Elezen with dark hair and vibrantly hued eyes. Had they met before? No, she would have recalled eyes like his. What did he want?

Better to find out than sit around like a waiting duck. Gloved hands clutched her fur-lined coat in effort of warming herself before making her way over.

"I feel I should be the one asking you that." The lack of reaction to her presence ruffled her feathers a little, but all the woman did about it was raise an eyebrow. Honestly, she shouldn't have bothered coming over in the first place, as she suspected it was merely going to be a waste of time and energy. Perhaps a less hostile approach would be better?

Heavily marred skin didn't flinch against the bitterness of wind. The breeze, laden with the suggestions of further snow, ruffled his old shirt collar - bare to the elements, cold and steeped in malcontent. 'T was a wonder he yet stood, a wonder he yet survived in that frigid clime lithe and sick as he was.

But Auri? He survived out of spite. Against every odd.

Auri's gaze, having more in common with a bath of acid than his own kin, settles upon his company and her lingering question. Did he need help? If he was not so cynical and distrusting he might have made a comment about fixing the damned city so that people didn't die on the streets, but frankly, he had long passed the point of caring. He would die on the streets eventually, just like countless others before him and countless ones after. That couldn't be fixed - - not without just burning the entire city down and starting again.

Or so he thought in his own vicious way.

"...'m sure someone prob'ly needs 'y help." But not he - - Auri considered himself already an immensely lost cause, given everything. His marred skin bore against the cold felt tight and he raised a hand up to briefly brush at his cheek; "...check th' Brume. Someone down there prob'ly wouldn' mind y' holdin' their hand as they die."

Murder was a regular occurrence and a part of life no matter how often Evan cared to ignore it. The action generally wasn't extremely common within the walls of Gridania, but even still they were no strangers to the concept. The miqo'te had heard certain tales about the pSerpents violence towards female Keepers in the past from her father who'd heard them from her mother. A common warning amongst her kind not to stray too far from their communities. Though times have been kinder to the Keepers in more recent times, the warning remained fresh in her mind. Limsa and Ul'Dah were frequently violent far more as she'd witnessed for herself and had been told numerous tales from Amara.

The scene that she'd stumbled upon reminded her far more of Ul'Dah than of Ishgard, but people were people everywhere regardless. The miqo'te crossed her arms over her chest and quirked a silent, contemplative eyebrow. The scene was fairly gruesome and dramatic in and of itself. Not a quick murder. Performative. This was something about sending a message. Whether to the living or to the dead, she couldn't fathom to guess.

At some point, Evan had drifted forward, likely aiming to talk to the Knights dealing with the mess, when a voice made her pause. Her ears swiveled, dangling earrings giving the slightest of jingles from metal hitting metal, and she turned to face the man. "They might let me through." Maybe. Evan also didn't feel rushed to actually head over though as the smell was going to be a thousand times worse over there than it was over here. Her nose wrinkled at the thought and the second sentence he said caught her attention.

"Mm, not sure that's what they were tryin' to do. If it was about art, wouldn't it have been more ornate?" Her head tilted a little. "Dunno. Just seems like pinin' a guy that high up seems like you're sendin' a message to someone. Maybe the guy you killed. Maybe someone else. Point is he's there where we all can see 'im. Just..." Evan trailed off quickly before she finished her thought out loud.

If a certain Ul'dahn wasn't currently curled up in front of a fire in the Fortempts Manor staving off coughing fits Evan might have been concerned.

Auriaullen's acidic eyes trained intently upon his newfound company for a moment, taking in features and silently scrutinising words. He didn't know anything about art, couldn't claim to knew what made it so - or even good or bad - but there was something about the way that the poor fella had been nailed to that wall that spoke far more than just death.

"...doin' somethin' like tha' would take a lo' of effort-" He muses aloud, knowing he couldn't personally do something like that - he hadn't the strength; which meant the murderer was likely someone built enough to lift a fully grown man, hold him and nail him into a wall by themselves. Unless they had an accomplice, but he didn't seem to think so. "Seems like they wanted t' humiliate 'im - - pu' 'im on display in tha' fuckin' miserable state. Wonder why---." What had he done to get such an end? Auri would have to find out, simply for curiosity sake.

"...y' could try n' ask around. Bu' people down here don' like t' fuck about in th' affairs n' issues o' others in case it comes back on them. Don' matter if much needed coin is on th' table." His gaze briefly takes in the sight of the corpse as the temple knights finally get the poor sod free, letting him fall to the floor with a father familiar thud before making moves to get him bagged and dragged away.

"Temple knights'll jus' drag 'im off t' th' mortuary n' be done wi' it. They ain' go' th' time t' be findin' whoever did it." Auri pauses, humming in thought; the entire thing really had piqued his interest. Did he have competition? "Best bet would be t' try n' identify 'im, 'n see if he had any long standin' grudges or issues - - migh' lead y' t' someone."

It didn't take long for Melody to notice how reluctant Auri had been to come to bed. She had noticed how on-edge he had been for a while now, but chose to keep quiet for now. She knew full well how much he liked his independence, and how much he didn't want her to worry about him. And yet, she'd worry anyway. She'd figure that there would never be a moment that she didn't worry about him in some way.

Her hand had rubbed over his shoulder to silently announce her presence. He answered her unasked question almost immediately, and Melody glanced out at the surroundings as well. Kugane was beautiful at night, and she could tell that he enjoyed it here. Far, far away from the source of much of his pain.

Wordlessly, Melody shifted, pulling her robe around herself to drive off the evening chill. Then, she moved to sit beside him, her head leaned carefully to the side to rest against his shoulder.

"...Would that I could chase those night terrors away for you..." She murmured after a moment, amber eyes peering up at him through her lashes. Melody was also tired, but she was loathe to go to sleep without him by her side now. She slept better at night, knowing he was safe and sound and warm, curled up next to her.

Silently, her hand moved to slide down his arm, until their palms met, and their fingers locked between each other. It pained her, to see him suffer so, especially in knowing that there was naught she could do for it besides be there, to comfort him as best she could. Even though she knew that his wounds ran so deep, that even her magic couldn't begin to mend.

It's automatic now, the way Auri angles his person towards Melody, the way he instinctively wraps an arm around her to keep her close. He may have been only slight in build, but he could stave off some of that breeze that grew colder by the hour, as the night drew onward.

He holds her hand, finds great comfort in her company and connection - - despite all that ran through his mind, Auri couldn't deny that fact. Melody was the sun in his sky, the very beat of his heart, the blood that kept him alive, the air in his lungs - and he would do anything for her. Seeing the worry 'pon her face when he glanced toward her, it felt like a twist in his stomach.

He didn't want her to worry, didn't want her to fret.

"...I jus' keep rememberin' th' fire." It's a conclusive enough sentence to know what he was referring to; the fire at the orphanage when he was a child was catastrophic, most died... and it had been what left Auri so marred. Weeks of treatment, months of pain... even now, the scars that remained posed as uncomfortable problems at best. "I don' know why; 's been years. Why now-?"

Why did every nightmare make him feel like he was back there, huddled in that room with his friends and orphaned siblings? Why could he smell the smoke and feel the heat every time he closed his eyes? Why could he feel the sear of vicious flames against his skin as soon as he lulled to rest?

He swallowed thickly, glad that both of his hands were busy holding Melody close lest he find himself scratching at his own marred skin.

"...It shouldn' matter... didn' bother me until lately..." Or, perhaps, it always had bothered him, he'd just repressed the trauma of it all of these years and now that he was more relaxed and content in life... it had a chance to surface.

STARTER CALL-!

Would you 𝙻𝙸𝙺𝙴 a 𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙴𝚁 -? Then please feel free to like this post for a completely random one! Length and subject will vary but please be advised that there can be some violent themes on this blog and can be mentioned at any time.