169 » close your eyes, clear your heart

[rainjade]

[It's a beautiful day in Liyue Harbor. The last several days have been overshadowed by sheets of rain; nothing so overbearing or dramatic as a thunderstorm, just steady, relentless, soaking rain. So this morning, Baizhu opened the doors and shutters of Bubu Pharmacy with a smile, letting in the soft breeze and the sunlight.

It also promises to be a warm day, so he sends Qiqi and Changsheng together into the city, to handle a list of errands. As long as the morning stays cool, Qiqi should be fine. He can't very well go himself - a line is already forming. Patients who haven't been able to make the trip in the rain, perhaps.

He's thinking about stopping for a bite to eat, and some herbal tea, when a shadow falls across his doorstep. Baizhu hums, turning carefully in his chair, pushing his spectacles a bit higher on his nose.]

Ah! Aether, what a pleasant surprise.

[While he wasn't expecting a visit from the traveler today, he would have to be in dire straits indeed to greet Aether with anything but a warm welcome.]

I sincerely hope you are here cordially, and not because you've been feeling under the weather.

Comments

[ironwind]

[ Interesting stories? Aether has plenty — of course he has plenty. The thing with interesting as a prompt, though, is that one must come up with something that is interesting specifically to the person asking for the story. So the question then becomes: what does Baizhu find interesting?

Aether thinks he has the answer. As their tea steeps, he hums and considers it for a moment, then looks back at Baizhu with a dancing mirth in his eyes. ]

In Fontaine, I ran into a young clerk with an interesting sickness. Every third day of every month, he would come down with a debilitating stomachache and be unable to perform his duties at the Palais Mermonia for at least a week. His Melusine coworkers asked me to look into this for them, as they'd never run into a human with such regular bouts of illness before.

[ Aether's lips curl into a smirk he can't quite seem to suppress as he recalls the incident. ]

What do you suppose this man suffered from?

[rainjade]

Every third day of every month, hm?

[The expression Aether wears, the pitch of his words as he speaks each one - the man's giving him a riddle of sorts, isn't he? A little diagnostic puzzle to turn over in his mind while the tea steeps.

How delightful.

Baizhu gently adjusts his spectacles so that he's looking at Aether over the top edge of glass.]

I imagine he suffered from whatever happens to him on each second day of the month - or perhaps the first, depending on the specifics. A stomachache is a fairly common symptom for many conditions, after all. It's the week of debilitation that stands out.

[How does a man get any work done with a condition that separates him from it for one week of every month, he wonders?]

A little too much self-indulgence after receiving his pay, perhaps? Or the horrible anticipation of an unavoidable visit from family he would rather forget?

[ironwind]

[ Aether can't help but laugh. Baizhu's close enough. Well, regular bouts of drinking would be quite plausible for a patient from Mondstadt, but the sickness that this young Fontanian suffered from is one that the traveler won't soon forget... ]

You're right that it was no illness. He simply suffered from the monthly performance review — he always managed to be "sick" whenever one was set to roll around, and the Palais was so busy that no one remembered to check if he'd had his or not. He'd been avoiding it for months by the time one of his human coworkers caught on and asked me to investigate, and at that point, he was in hot water.

[ It's not the usual sort of commission that the traveler takes on, but the traveler accepts lots of odd jobs from lots of odd people. He smiles at Baizhu as he reveals the "punchline" to his story, patiently closing his hands around his cup of tea to allow the heat to warm his palms through his gloves. ]

The anxiety over being potentially fired stressed him out so badly that he put himself in danger of actually being fired... People really have a knack for making themselves sick in all sorts of ways.