The Sylvan Fay

Joya had always been towards the top of her list for countries to visit, even more so after spending so much time in Hosenka. As beautiful as the town was, it was only a fraction of what she knew to be present in Joya itself, and Izakaya was a prime example of that. Cabaret Crescent-- as fun as it was-- paled in comparison. The culture was so lively. She had to wonder if it was often like this, or was it simply because of the Convocation? In any case, it was worthwhile to experience the event in its fullest, though the elf found it somewhat difficult to do so when she hardly knew the country. The language barrier in particular was... troublesome, to say the least. There were far more moments than she cared to admit when she couldn't read a sign and ended up stumbling upon a building or room she most definitely did not mean to stumble upon.

Many of the locals at least were kind enough to struggle through the language with her. They were quite patient when she tried to use her broken Joyan, though ultimately her attempts rarely yielded anything of substance. She eventually found it best to try and follow the flow of the crowd. It involved a lot of people-watching, seeing who looked to be a natural at these sorts of things and who was more of a tourist such as her. It resulted in finding a few hidden gems, like a delicious taiyaki stand typical of Joya and another that served Sinese tánghúlu of a quality that impressed even Yuan.

Cuisine aside, as entertaining as the festival seemed to be-- with all the lights and crowds-- Atani had her limits. For just a moment, she needed to step aside. She found a quiet spot against a wall. Quiet relative to the rest of the venue that is. Just up ahead she could see bits and pieces of a fire dance between the gaps of a dense crowd. A stick of half-eaten tánghúlu in one hand, she held open a Joyan guidebook in another.

"Alright, shouldn't be too hard..." she muttered to herself as she tried to match the Fiorian phrases from within to the Joyan script she saw everywhere else. Rhaich, she really should have studied some more beforehand. She didn't know why she thought her knowledge of Sinese would help-- er, Yuan's knowledge rather, but still.

She decided to walk along the edges of the crowds, mostly only looking at her book and occasionally glancing back up to see if she had any better understanding of the writing system. This proved perhaps to be rather unwise, for at one moment Atani found herself nearly running into someone else. She had caught herself before she could actually run into them, but she still had the gut reaction to apologize.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said with a slight bow.

The Sylvan Fay

Atani's ears twitched and perked up slightly as she heard the person she had nearly bumped into respond in the same language-- finally! Someone she could understand. Standing from her bow, she looked up expectantly and found herself face-to-face with a... kitsune? Though perhaps at second glance another sort of demi-human? Ah, it didn't matter. It was just she looked rather similar to another she knew, only with much darker hair and golden eyes-- a rare set of traits to be sure.

Their brief interaction came and went with the presumed demi-human brushing past, going on about her way. Atani supposed it would make sense for her to do the same, but ahh nope! She turned on her heels to face her again.

"Excuse me?" she called out, hurrying up to the young woman. "Sorry again to bother you but I... don't really know where I'm going here, and I haven't had much luck with the language barrier-- that is until now."

She sighed in defeat, truly hoping she wasn't troubling this person too much, but in all the commotion of the festival, she was getting desperate.

"I've been trying to find someplace a little more... quiet? If there even is anything like that here."