Eriadu is where we catch Rimma

[Ereza]

"A palm reading," she repeated, "a free one! Little known fact: the Darke line has within it several Psychics and Seers throughout the ages. These qualities pass down through the odd generations. I also just read a lot of books in my spare time."

Amore smiled, "Chiromancy is the art of evaluating one's character, health, and fortunes by reading the lines of their palms. Have you never had a Palm Reading?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

The man was stumped. "Err, uh, no. No I haven't."

 

[Ereza]

"Well then, there is a first time for everything, isn't there?" The Princess smiled, head canted to one side with all the wondering thoughts of hers traipsing from one side of her expression to the other. The woman turned his hand in her own, exposing his palm and splaying his fingers flat. She stared down at it, smile fading into something of concentration. This was going to be more difficult than she thought - the man's hand had a good deal of scarring on it, from what she could only guess, but at the very least she could still make out a good deal.

"For men, the left hand," Amore began, turning his hand slightly for better light, "is the hand you're born with. The right hand," indicating the hand which she currently held by placing her pointer finger at the center of his palm, "is the hand you make with your life. The left hand tells you your potential and of what can be, the right tells your past and present. This is your life line," the pointer finger traced the wrinkle of skin that curved around the thumb from the webbing to the heel of his palm at the wrist.

"You have multiple life lines, as it seems, which accounts for extra vitality but the main line breaks, indicating a sudden change in lifestyle. How it changes suggests where at one point your life was manipulated by others you now tread lightly - you became cautious where relationships are concerned. This minor lifeline hosts a circle, indicating that you experienced a major trauma many years ago that likely had something to do with the change in your lifestyle."

"How am I doing so far? I'm a bit rusty - it's so impossible to read the palm of Noghris."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"How do you even come up with this...?"

Who had decided to sit down and look at hands, deciding what each line of a weathered palm was to be? How bored must they have been? Puzzlement was written in the lines of his forehead, but he listened anyway. In essence, she was right, everything she'd said had been true. But on the other hand, it was all vague generalities that anyone could happen upon.

Still, it made him smirk a little as his gaze shifted back to hers. "You're doing fine.", he says quietly, grinning as though he were indulging her - not out of pity, but out of genuine interest to not only see what this was about, but to also see her do what she clearly enjoyed. One didn't learn to read palms because it was a job.

 

[Ereza]

A single brow lofting in return humor, Amore gave a soft laugh, "How does one come up with anything, really? Alcohol and lots of free time is what I suspect. Philosophy, for instance," she shifted her weight a bit to make herself more comfortable, "never would have happened without wine. Aha."

Her smirk pulled to the side as she continued to examine his hand.

"This," Amore drew her pointer finger along the line that ran across the width of his hand from just above where his life line began, "is your head line. It's set high over the top of your lifeline, telling of enthusiasm for adventure and for life. The line is highly defined, which speaks of clear, focused, realistic thinking. You're not an optimist," a moment passed as she considered something, trying to tell if the shortness of the aforementioned line was natural or due to the scarring on his hand, "and the length of the line suggests that you value decisions made in the present, for the present, rather than for the long term. Which makes plenty of sense considering what we spoke of before. Now here there are multiple crosses through the line, suggesting momentus decisions and here another circle, that shows a mental trauma as a result of these decisions. My goodness, you've been busy haven't you?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"Four centuries of work.", he says bluntly.

 

[Ereza]

"Oh?" a wide-eyed grin followed a look of amazement, "you don't look a day over 27."

Because when one came from a family like her own, four centuries wasn't much of a stretch. This did give her pause, but she didn't bother to ask how cold stasis really was.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"I appreciate the two years you gave me.", he replies - and with that, she was the first person to know how old he actually was. And like that, his face fell as he realized how much of himself he kept from those around him. Finally, he simply shook his head. "Quite generous of you."

 

[Ereza]

"Twenty-nine?" Amore leaned towards him with an inquisitive look, "you're the youngest 400 year old man I've ever met." Chuckling, she returned to palm reading.

"Now your heart line is very interesting," she indicated now the line that ran directly beneath the base of his pinky to middle fingers, starting at the outer edge of his hand, "you have scarring here that makes it a little difficult to read but what I can see, these waves indicate that you have had many lovers, but this short branch here tells me that at one time you had a serious relationship that ended abruptly. Here I can see heartbreak and depression, and an absence of another serious relationship since then. This suggests that you don't have a good handle on your own internal emotions. Coupled with your life and head line, this tells me that you are a man ready to devote to a cause or a purpose, without which you become lost. Your fate line, here, is almost completely erased by the scar, but it looks as though it has been broken several times - coinciding with the many changes of your life, it is likely that your fate has been easily altered or manipulated by others, and where it meets late with your life line tells me that you surrendered your interests for the sake of others. You are willing to give for others but unwilling, and perhaps afraid of the opposite."

"You likely have many associates, a very few people you would consider true friends. You may feel alone despite the fact that you are surrounded by those who would consider you friend. Those who attempt to get closer, emotionally, are faced with the great and probably insurmountable challenge of gaining your trust," the Princess gave a small sigh and patted his hand.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Slowly, the man tugged his hand away from her, eyes casting themselves downward. A frown creased not just his lips, but seemingly his entire face as he settled his hands together and wrung them pensively. "I think you've figured enough out, Amore." Sighing, he scratched absently at the back of his head.

"I've tried for relationships, several times, but always... always something gets in the way. I don't know, it's been a complicated life."

 

[Ereza]

"I'm sorry," the Princess watched his hands recede, "I didn't mean to upset you. I just ... talk to much." A sigh passed her lips and she slumped back, wishing she still had her tea to sip on during such awkward silences.

"You know, there's a lot of good qualities I saw there, and in the grand arch of your life relationships are really quite fleeting. If you have truly lived for 400 years, it's to be expected that the people you meet and know will come and go. How many people that you knew 400 years ago are still alive today? My mother-" Amorella stopped herself, realizing that there were things she simply couldn't talk about. Secrets that had to be kept. "...my mother once made friends with a shi'do who had lived for nearly five hundred years. I remember her talking at dinner about the curse of longevity. How one must live on while their friends and loved ones pass away from old age. Yet she was also blessed with the opportunity to continually meet people who touched upon her life in ways that she'd never expected."

"She was married four times, too. Lived out each marriage to the natural death of her husbands. She said she never believed she could continue to fall in love like she had, but it happened. I'm rather envious of that. How many times have you been in love?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

That pause was the only confirmation he needed. "She's long lived - I won't tell anyone." And he was as good as his word. Still, he managed to crack a smile. "I've been in love too often.", he admits rather sheepishly. "I'm a passionate man; that includes anger, love, the whole nine yards." Now there was a phrase she'd not understand, but would be able to make some sense of.

"I often find myself attracted to and in love with women, although most are just my friends. Some I realize I'd never have a solid relationship with, others I'd prefer stay my friends. But I'll always love them. However, unlike your mothers 'friend', my love life hasn't been so lucky. I've never had a long term relationship; the closest I got was some time ago, and she wound up just... disappearing one day."

He sighed, clearly losing himself in the miasma of the past. "Ever since, I've tried finding other relationships. Again, recently, I got close... but I tried teaching her self defense, and she got aggravated... so she clawed my face." Sure enough, just barely visible were the lines of nail marks. "She's terrified of me now, for what I did."

Wetting his lips, he shook his head. "It's not even losing friends and loved ones that gets to me; it's never having them to begin with."

 

[Ereza]

There was a look of pensive concern for the man on Amore's face and she watched him with a canted gaze.

"I bet you have more friends than you think you do. You may think of me as a friend if you like," her smile returned.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

"I consider a good number of people friend, but they don't feel as such." A frown creased his face at that.

 

[Ereza]

"I think ..." she thought many things. Like how people often forgot what it meant to be a good friend, or even how to show it. That appearances often took precedence to duty or respect in the case of friendship. That distance was often a plague on communication.

How many people that might consider themselves his friend actually reached out to him on a regular basis? Even if for nothing more than to say a quick 'Hey, haven't seen you in a while, just wondering you've been?' It was so easy to be wrapped up in oneself all the time, it took effort to think on others. Amore didn't have too long to ponder these things, as she felt the firm hold of Kefka wrap over her right shoulder. She jumped slightly, having forgotten the Noghri was there, and perked as he leaned down to tell her in a hushed tone that the ship was ready and it was time to go. Nodding, Amore sighed and turned to look back at Sarge, gazing thoughtfully at him for several long moments.

"I think...that I would like to help restore a little bit of your faith in friendship," the Princess began digging through her rucksack on the box beside her, "you're truly an interesting man with the potential for such remarkable conversation. Alas, we are busy people, and the galaxy does not stop for tea as I've come to learn. I'd like to keep in touch. Is that agreeable?"

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

The man simply gave a shallow dip of his head and scrawled a number on a sheet of paper he'd procured from a pocket. It was just the comm number for his ship, which would be forwarded to him if he weren't aboard. "Agreeable.", he says with a slight smile.

"Safe travels. May the Force be with you."

Standing, he wrapped himself up in his cloak and disappeared from sight.

 

[Ereza]

The Princess gave the man a warm smile, took the paper with care and quickly read the numbers.

"Thank you," she said, but by the time she looked back up he was gone. Amore blinked in surprise, glancing around her and then up at Kefka curiously. The Noghri, having watched the man melt from view, gave a shrug of his shoulders and beckoned her back through the doorway. The pair collected their unit of Royal Kuatian Guards and made their way back through the crowds to her ship that sat patiently waiting for them, engines already warm.

Amore found her seat again as the ship lifted from the ground, taking them up into the skies over the Eriadu spaceport. She sighed, watching the buildings below shrink from her vision, "Kefka, how do you suppose he does it? How do you do it?"

"Do what?" the Noghri replied, looking far more relaxed as he helped himself to a drink now that they were safely in the air.

"Remember all the things of your life. Four hundred years worth?"

"You have no trouble remembering things, Sagira."

"Details, names, colors, numbers, words... I mean the emotional parts. The intangible parts. How do you remember your own internal dialogue of feelings and thoughts of different events?"

"The strong ones you always remember," he said, adding true spices to his Honoghran drink, "the rest I keep in a journal."

"A journal? You have a journal?" This came as something of a surprise to the woman. She never guessed at the Noghri being the type to do such a thing.

"This was by the advice of your mother. Stasis ...it addles the mind. Affects the memory. I have found keeping a log to be most helpful."

Amore considered this advice carefully, recalling the idea of a diary or journal from her childhood days. It had never occured to her then that it was a good idea because her memory had never let her down. But now as her experiences grew to encompass not just her homeworld, but many others of the galaxy it seemed all the more pertinent. She smiled and nodded, watching Eriadu and what would soon become her first entry be whisked away by blackness and stars. It was time to start the book of her life.