It had been nice talking more with Z'tar though, putting herself out there more, despite the exhaustion. Apollo was always saying she needed to widen her circle of friends and integrate more. Maybe he was right. She had been feeling lonely lately. The two friends she did have were often busy due to work. Narita wasn't exactly sure what they did, she just knew it was important, and the thing about important jobs is that they rarely seemed to end for the day. Whenever she contacted her friend Zy'll there always seemed to be a late emergency meeting, or something that suddenly needed to be prepared to deal with first thing in the morning. Narita knew she wasn't being given excuses, she could see how stressed and tired her friend was. 

Xarxis on the other hand tried too hard to do everything. If she got busy, Xarxis would always ask if they could meet at her work and go from there. They never actually went anywhere from there, instead just hanging out in the canteen whilst she worked. Or they'd meet somewhere and she'd have brought some work with her. Occasionally they'd run into other people Xarxis worked with and she'd be treated to listening to them organise times for meetings. Times like these always left Narita feeling guilty, like she was forcing her friend out when she obviously did not have the time. But more than this, Narita felt a little bit jealous. The two of them worked in the same building, she was sure that they ran into each at least occasionally at work. They would be able to have lunch together. 

This was the problem with such a small social circle, it was easy to get lonely. Obviously she also had Apollo, they did things together often. But recently, it felt more like he just talked at her, not to her. He'd also been pushing her to talk to Artemis more, he was convinced they'd be friends if she just tried a bit harder, however Narita was beginning to be convinced Artemis was made of stone. Her expressions never seemed to change. She just stared, and when forced to interact, said as little as possible. So Narita was not convinced that they would ever be friends.

She walked through beautiful tree lined streets, past brilliant white houses. In the distance she could just about see the pantheon that was built on the very top of the mountain in the centre of the realm. That was where the most important of the gods lived, and just below the expanse of government buildings stretched out where the most important gods worked...well, some of them worked. The greatest of them ruled. Zeus sat atop his throne at the very highest point and governed these lands. Around the pantheon were countless other buildings filled with those who worked to keep everything running as Zeus and his family demanded. Separated into departments headed by one of the royal bloodline. Narita's job was technically managed from a government department. Although there wasn't a lot of oversight on them. Poseidon was known to regularly brag that only those who were self motivating were blessed by the water, and as such he rarely needed to do anything.

Around her the streets were busy with people rushing about. Those who lived here seemed to always be busy. Not necessarily with work, the realm regularly held festivals and celebrations for any excuse they could find, which involved much preparation. Frankly Narita thought it would make more sense to just use generic decorations to save everyone a lot of work. But no, every festival had to be unique and different, and they happened so often. So the realm was always busy, everything had to always be perfect and clean. Tourism was constant due to this fact, as no matter when you visited you were nearly always guaranteed to come when something was happening. 

It was amazing that the people here didn't get burnt out from all the festivities, but then maybe that was why they liked to holiday in places like Chriyo where nothing happened. She could see people putting up bunting and lights already for the next celebration. Narita didn't know what it was for, and honestly had lost interest in the constant noise. She turned into a small side street and could see a man ahead, standing on a crate yelling something, she tried to ignore it as she wandered past.

"...the IDEA of re-creation is often cited as proof that one is a follower of Dinistr, the harbinger of Destruction. That you are an enemy of life, an enemy of all that is good! But this is just not true, the idea of recreation is one that all true followers of Creation should follow! Life may have been created perfectly, but the issue is we then create imperfect things ourselves...!" The man preached.

Narita looked down to avoid eye contact and increased her pace. Recreationism had been around longer than Narita had been alive, it was a small movement, but somehow remained. The followers were regularly arrested for heresy. They preached of correcting the world from the impurities of people. They never spoke of their plan for how this would work, yet the few things that were known of their plans had marked them as dangerous in most realms. Even interacting with them could be a death sentence, no one even knew how they got around so easily. The correct thing to do would be to call the guards, but he'd be long gone before they could get here. So Narita kept her head down and hurried on. 

"You there!" The man jumped down and quickly stepped in front of her. "You look like someone who has looked at this world and seen it lacking! Who understands that just because someone says everything is perfect doesn't mean it is!" Narita tried to side step him, ignoring his words. There was a level of truth in them that was uncomfortable. She was happy... mostly. "You seem like someone who is dissatisfied with their lot in life. I bet you hide it deep inside, pushing it down, as far as possible. Pretending that everything is exactly what you want." He was walking in step with her now, a smile on his face. Narita should tell him to bugger off, for her own good if nothing else.

"You know, I used to feel exactly like that myself." He continued. "The idea that I could be truly happy seemed impossible. That there could be a way to fix things. That I could be the one to fix things. Even suggesting such a thing seemed wrong. But then I listened, truly listened and I understood. We are the blight on this world, not because the world isn't perfect, but because we aren't! Everyone acts like admitting this is such a bad thing, but it isn't! We can become perfect! We just have to recreate ourselves!" Narita could feel herself slowing, he wasn't wrong exactly, she was dissatisfied... "Can you imagine finding the life you want to live, something that will make you feel fulfilled! Or maybe..."

She looked him in the eye.

"You already know what you want to do? You just can't do it here. But that doesn't have to be true, it is possible to have a world where you can be whatever you want." He grinned. "All you have to do is listen." He held out his hand, palm up.

"I..." Narita started foolishly.

"There you are!" Another voice suddenly interrupted her. Narita snapped her head around to look at the new arrival. A tall woman with long plaited blond hair was running up to them. She was wearing baggy trousers that were clearly too big and what appeared to be some sort of scarf wrapped around her as a top. She was definitely not someone she had ever met before. "I was so worried when you were late! Where have you been?!" The other woman had grabbed her arm, pulling her slightly backwards, Narita looked into the shockingly bright eyes of the other and could insistently tell that this woman believed she was doing her a favour. "Who's this?" The new arrival turned her eyes on the Recreationist.

"Oh, I am just a nobody, just trying to impart a bit of information." The man frowned, clearly deciding his next course of action. "I wonder if you would also be interested in learning a bit more about the nature of people?"

"The nature of people? Like, those with natural inclinations to different types of magic?" The woman's grip was incredibly strong as she moved them both slightly backwards whilst she spoke.

"No, not exactly... more..." The man who previously had no issue yelling his beliefs from atop of a box suddenly seemed incredibly uncertain. "...the natural imperfections of...."

"Oh my! Don't tell me you're one of those awful cultists!" Another arm was suddenly thrown around Narita and she was tugged firmly backwards this time. The exclamation had sounded... fake, almost rehearsed...

"What? No we aren't cultists, we just want to hel..." He started.

"How terrifying! Where are the guards?" Narita was struggling to stay up right with how quickly she was being pulled backwards now. "Guards! GUARDS!" The blond yelled. The sound of footsteps quickly entered the side street. Fear gripped Narita with the realisation that they must have been just around the corner this whole time. If she'd answered the man, if they'd entered the street and seen them talking they would have assumed her to be one of them. Nothing she could say or do would ever have convinced them otherwise...if it wasn't for this woman suddenly turning up, interrupting them.

"What's going on here!" One of the guards yelled as they got close.

"Oh thank the great Zeus! This man is one of those awful cultists! He's been chasing after my friend here, can't you see how terrified she is?!" This was true, she was terrified, just not for the reason that was being given. She had witnessed executions of those deemed too dangerous to be allowed to live. She'd seen many screaming their innocence right to the end, claiming they had nothing to do with the Recreationists. She'd never before considered that those proclamations of innocence were anything more than the last attempts to save themselves. Now, she wondered if maybe there had been any truth to it, and if there was, how close had she been to such a fate?

"STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!" The guards yelled, the man had already begun to run, the guards were quickly after him.

The two stood there in silence, Narita still basically being held in an embrace as the guards chased the man out of the street. Once they were gone from view, Narita pushed the other woman off of her. 

"Why?" Narita asked quietly.

"What?" The look of bafflement was clear across the blonde's face.

"Why did you jump in and pretend to be my friend?" The shorter woman asked.

"Oh that, you looked like you needed help, so I helped." The taller woman shrugged.

"That's it?!" 

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise I needed more of a reason to help someone?" Of course this was technically true, no one needed a reason to help anyone. However this didn't change the fact most people simply didn't help others without one. Even if the reason was just something small like 'because they're my friend of course I'll help', no one would help a complete stranger who wasn't even asking for help.

"You could have gotten yourself in trouble too, I should have done what you did. Instead I..." Narita stopped suddenly, realising that she knew nothing about the person in front of her. It was likely better not to admit to certain things.

"People don't always react perfectly when stressed. It shouldn't be illegal just to talk to someone once. What matters is your actions. What is it that you want?" A blond eyebrow raised in question. Now that was a complicated question, what did she want? To feel fulfilled, to feel like she was actually living her life, she wanted to... no it didn't matter. She just wanted to go and see her friends and forget about all of this.

"To forget all about this." Narita eventually answered.

"Then I wish you luck with that." With a smile, the other woman turned on her heel and walked off. Narita hurried off, determined to put this whole matter behind her.

***