#minare

Vaitus sneaks out of the palace for the first time on a festival evening, after making his Single Required Moment Of Public Appearance for the nobles that are celebrating in the palace. He's been planning this for years. He's figured out the guard rotation, mapped all the routes into and out of the palace (including some secret passageways he's found), and planned to specifically sneak out on a festival night, so that he can blend in with the crowds of visitors in the city. He puts on his Commoner Cosplay (which he doesn't know won't hold up under close scrutiny; the fabric is too fine, the weave too uniform, to be anything other than expensive), and then makes his grand escape.

For a while, it's incredible. The adrenaline of Doing Something Against The Rules has him wired. No one gives him a second glance, and he weaves through the streets, taking in the sights and sounds. But he didn't account for just how much everything would be. When he finds himself in an especially busy part of the city, he suddenly realizes Oh no, this is a LOT of sounds and smells and people and I don't know where I am and I don't know what I'm doing and it's very crowded and people are touching me get away get away get away—

And he is wayyyy overstimulated. He crams himself into a dark corner, and basically checks out. full shutdown. being a person is Too Much Right Now, Please Come Back Later.

Meanwhile, Minare has just finished passing along a message to a supplier for her group, and is out enjoying the festival. As she's checking out a food stall, she notices a weirdly person-shaped lump in a dark corner.

Minare, who regularly does random sidequests for people in the city, sees this clearly-overwhelmed-stranger and immediately enters Fix It Mode. She tries getting his attention, waving her hands in front of his face and, when that fails, gently taking his arm and manually leading him away from the crowds.

From Vaitus's pov, by the time Minare has approaches to help, he doesn't really have the presence of mind to be suspicious, or even cautious at all. His brain feels like it's been wrapped in wool and then smacked around with a big stick, so he just sort of goes along with her when she starts leading him away. By the time his mind has cleared enough for him to realize what's going on around him, he's sitting on the edge of a fountain in a different part of town, with a stranger sitting beside him and a festival snack in his hand.

She's speaking softly to him. The words are less important than the tone she's speaking in; it's small talk, about the festival, the food, how nice it is to be somewhere quieter, but the tone she speaks in says, 'Everything's okay. There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm relaxed, so it's okay for you to relax, too'. She looks at him without an ounce judgment or derision, and Vaitus can't remember the last time someone looked at him like that after one of his... episodes.

Once she notices that Vaitus's eyes have lost that faraway look, she starts asking questions. Simple things: is he feeling any better, is he visiting town, did he get to try any of the food yet?

Despite coming down from the worst of it, Vaitus still can't get himself to respond to anything the stranger says to him. He wants to, but he can't get his jaw to unclench enough to where he can speak. It's happened to him before, suddenly not being able to form words, but this might be one of the most inconvenient times it's happened in recent memory. He can't answer a single question, can barely get himself to nod or shake his head in response.

Minare realizes that her new acquaintance can't talk, and just rolls with it. She figures he must be a visitor to the city (or, perhaps, is a noble that's never visited the lower levels before; a cloak like that? Even with a simple cut, it practically screams money. The stranger certainly isn't from her part of town), and she offers to walk him through the festival, show him the quieter parts of town, and where to find the best food stalls. She's not doing anything else for the rest of the evening, after all. And, being honest with herself? She's a little afraid that the stranger is going to get mugged. He's clearly out of his depth. At this point, she wouldn't be able to sleep at night if she left him to fend for himself.

The stranger nods, a little apprehensively, agreeing to let her show him around. Despite his apprehension, he looks relieved to have guidance. She introduces herself, giving him her name, and following up with "but everyone calls me Mina!" She watches the stranger's jaw muscles twitch a bit, before he manages to open his mouth and say what she's pretty sure is "Vai".

Vai sticks to her like glue for the rest of the evening, and Minare gets to do one of her favorite things in the world; talk about her city. Maybe it's a bit mean to treat him like a captive audience when she's ostensibly helping him enjoy the festival, but in her defense, he listens just a raptly when she talks about the cistern on the lower levels of the city as he does when she talks about the food vendors on a given street. Another mental tally toward her 'hopelessly lost noble' theory; a lot of what she explains to him is common knowledge to a Warrens resident, but from his expression, it seems like a majority of it is completely new information to him.

By the end of the evening, she sees him off, ensuring he knows where he is and only feeling reassured when he makes it clear that he knows how to get home. She ends the night feeling pleasantly refreshed, if a bit tired. Vai had been good company, and the festival had been fun.

Meanwhile, Vaitus is quietly undergoing a Paradigm Shift. He was fully prepared for this commoner girl, Minare, to leave him to fend for himself as soon as she noticed him acting strange. He was NOT prepared for her to treat his behavior as if it were totally unremarkable. He was even LESS prepared for her to offer to show him around. Are all commoners this nice??

He tries to give her space when they walk, but when the crowds start pressing in, he finds himself following Mina closely as she cuts between people, weaving along in her wake. She talks to him, too, in a way no one's talked to him since... ever, maybe? Casual, like he's an actual person. Everyone at the palace treats him like his title, like something not human. At one point, when they encounter an especially crowded area, Mina offers him her hand. He panics a bit, but she's patient and lets him decide what he wants. After a few moments of her holding her hand out, he tugs on his gloves to make sure they're on firmly, and tentatively holds her hand. Minare gives him a smile and gives his hand a reassuring squeeze, and when the world doesn't end, Vaitus squeezes back. He spends the rest of the night looking at their locked hands in wonder.

By the end of the evening, after Mina has said goodbye and he's snuck back into the palace, he crawls into bed. He's exhausted, but he can't sleep. He spends the entire night wide awake, holding his own hand and staring at the ceiling, with the taste of festival food lingering in his mouth. He thinks of nothing else aside from the girl he met.

ANYWAY. yeah that's what I've got for their first meeting, so far :D After this Vaitus goes back out into the city with the vague hope that he'll see Minare again, and wouldn't you know it, they run into each other again! It becomes a more regular thing, and they become friends.

As for how their story will be told, I'm not sure where MaVst is gonna end up going! I'd love to make some videos with the characters in the same way I've done with Mudpaw and co, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get their full story across that way. Mostly, they exist because my brain loves coming up with little characters and storylines when im not thinking of anything else, and Minare and Vaitus gave me enough brainworms to make me want to make them a reality :P Their story is still in its early development stages, so I'm mostly just having fun worldbuilding and brainstorming about characters for now!