#absntfear

first meeting starters // accepting!

One perfectly straight eyebrow leapt toward her hairline. "Do you find me straightforward? How..."

natm starters // accepting!

"Only a little?"

Once upon a time, or maybe not so long ago at all, this place was a pillar of magical society— a tight spiral of shopfronts wrapped around a bustling open-air market of every kind of witchcraft one could imagine. It had been built into a hill where three ley lines intersected, and the architecture reflected a reverence for them, too; intricate stone archways marked the paths of the ley lines through the markets, and the stalls closest to them had always been the most esteemed.

But even in its heyday, sorcerers had always warned each other against staying too long after sunset. That was when the goblin market set up their shops, and everyone knew how steep their prices could be.

Ivelisse leans delicately against the side of the archway closest to the entrance. It's a moonless night outside, but somehow her eyes as they scan over him are much, much darker than that.

"It's good to see you." A more than pleasant surprise. Charlie has to pop up on his toes to give Oliver the kind of real, solid hug he wants to— he's definitely not the spunky little beansprout he remembers first bringing onto the quadball team back at Aveamith.

He really needs to get back to the U.K. more often, he supposes... This is the first birthday he's spent at home in ages, and if it weren't for a conveniently-local mission for Litavis, he wouldn't even be here now.