Boston…why does it always have to be so foggy at this time of year? The sound of my low boots on the sidewalks, an umbrella raised above me as I walked, looking around at the city that I should be calling my home soon. I’ve only been here about a month, maybe going on two now. I only moved here because of a job. They offered me something I couldn’t refuse…money. I’m a doctor, I used to work at a fairly prestigious hospital and medical school back home in Moscow, but a bigger and magical hospital offered me a spot here, so…I took it, the wage was nearly twice what I used to make. It’s just…not feeling like home, the magical city within Boston that I’ve been living in even more so. The smallest of hidden magical cities like this are still about as big as one of the major capital cities in the U.S, but the magical city in Moscow was just different, it was always snowing, everything covered in ice and the smell of street food heavy on the cold, crisp air. The magical city here, Harbortea, while still huge in comparison to the actual city of Boston, just…it’s different. Fog rolling nearly up to your knees as it collected along everything it could, the streetlights framing the cobblestone stone roads a soft golden amber tone, the tall dark gray stone facades adorned with rich jewel toned awnings and sprawling crawling dark vines and ivy across dark metal or wood trellis across the fronts and sides of buildings, there was something just…strange old feeling about the city. Boston is an older city for the US, but I mean, everything outside the US is far older than the nation. The city was this swirling maze of rather narrow roads and streets, lined in high teaching towers of all sorts of dark stone, deep jewel tones and warm browns made cool ad deeper by the falling rain. The smell of gasoline mixed with the scent of rain and this strange passing wafts of flowers or plants that bloom across the buildings around me. It felt…strange being in an area where I was so close to so many of my cousins, there are quite a lot of warlords in North America, I was used to being the only one of us between Russia and France to the west or Russia to Japan to the east, so feeling the dull ebbing feelers of my cousins’ magic around me felt…strange, but not unpleasant.
Because I just started my job and my rather…precise line of work, I get more free time than you’d think, but it also means that at random moments I may have to be called away for an emergency and even then…I barely get days off, this was one of my only days off in the past maybe two-three weeks or something. I was using today just to explore Harbortea a bit, a mask pulled over the lower half of my face due to the fact that…I just can’t be around a lot of people easily, my profession and upbringing has made me quite adverse to large crowds or generally dirtier areas and environments. There was something comforting about how the rain and thick fog made everything so much quieter, the way that the streetlights or the lights of cars were stretched and shredded by the water covering the road in an oil slick like sheen, the hazy color of the lights past windows blurred and almost frosted by the fog collecting alone the panes. The way dew collected along the vines and along all of the buildings around me, the way that the fog almost morphed and swirled into the clouds towards the rooflines. The ground floors of a lot of the buildings were sporadic shops, cafes or various other little places along those lines, steam burst in plumes through the manholes and leached out of the storm drains off to the sides of cobbled roads. The randomly shaped, sized, and placed gardens between buildings or around street corners were washes of not greens, but oranges, reds, and yellows due to the time of year. The sound of people’s footsteps splashing the small puddles collecting along the sidewalk, the sound of footsteps being either the usual sound of human feet, the louder sharper click of hoofs, the dragging screech of clawed feet or the almost wet slap of more aquatic themed beings, Boston/Harbortea due to the fact that they are coastal and have a shoreline are rather populous in terms of more aquatic races like fish-folk, merfolk and various other water dwelling beings, so it was not strange to see merfolk with their legs shifted into humanoid form just walking along the sidewalk as their flipper like feet splashed int the puddles or their fins making splashes as tails and fins dragged behind them. The cantor of centaurs or various other animal bodied people using the road and not the sidewalk as a centaur ran past me making me lean my umbrella over as the spray of water smacked into my umbrella. It’s probably just because of the fact it’s the middle of fall that it’s so foggy, so cold and raining so much, it’s just felt like it’s not stopped raining sense I moved here.
I ducked under an awning as I shook the street-water off my umbrella, pointless I know, but my mind was telling me that if I didn’t get rid of the street-water on my umbrella that I’d get sick or something even though that is physically impossible due to what I am, warlords by default are immune to sickness and illness, but add in what Mom is, she’s also immune, so I’m just impossible to get sick. It doesn’t help the germaphobia though. I sighed a little as I rested my back against the wall, luckily the heavy waterproofed overcoat I had on was enough to keep me from freaking out as I looked up towards the heavily, heavily overcast sky, the rain falling in sheets, luckily there wasn’t much wind or my umbrella wouldn’t serve a purpose and I’d have to use the coat of my collar more-so or just use my magic to make myself a full face-shield to protect myself. Even with all of the layers I had on, it was cold, I can’t be badly affected by the cold, but I can still feel it, so I could feel my teeth chattering behind my mask and my skin had that static feeling of when you’re shivering. I breathed deeply a few times as I tucked my gloves into my coat pocket as I rubbed them together a little before pulling them back on as I thought about where I could go. I did find a nice café down the street from where I was, just staying in my general neighborhood where my apartment complex is, maybe I should stop in for a cup of coffee, maybe a nice pot of tea and a slice of cake.
I rose my umbrella back up as I stepped out so the only rain that hit me hit my back and beaded off the waterproofed leather. Luckily I wasn’t showing many of my more nonhuman elements, so people weren’t really acting like they usually do when I show my demonic self, I don’t have any scales showing, my wings and tail aren’t showing, I don’t have any horns or antlers showing and my feet were held in proper flat shoes and not the high heels I need due to the fact my feet are a lion’s back feet, it’s rare that I ever show my lion feet, I usually keep myself as fully humanoid as possible, only the aspects I physically cannot change still visible, mainly my eyes or my lion teeth or rather feline features according to my coworkers. I’m not like my cousins who show so much of themselves so casually: Kal always having a ton of his scales visible, Jewels walking around with all of her antlers visible, Zavi and all of their features among all of the other warlords…not me, I prefer to show myself as human as possible, with as little nonhuman elements visible as possible.
As I walked, I went to turn a corner, but despite the fact I was looking where I was going and all…I ran face first into someone, the splash of something hitting the ground making my eyes snap down to see a to-go coffee cup hit the ground, they softly shook the black coat they had on letting the coffee bead off. I looked up to their face as I took a step back, they were…unlike anyone I had ever seen, something…felt a bit weird, this intense scent washed over me entirely encompassing my senses with the warm earthy scent of old books, the sweet, bitter heat of mocha and the rather cold and stale scent of mildew and musk that was without a doubt…the smell of snakes…but somehow, bumping into this person felt like I had grabbed a livewire: masses of electricity seemingly to suddenly jolt through my entire body making my vision white for a split second and my brain turn to static.
“I am…so sorry” I somehow got out.
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