Cyran’s pet project had been in the works for a while now, one he'd only just managed to put the finishing touches on. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea for someone like him to run an orphanage, given the nature of his profession and the precarious instability of his situation. But the idea had come after his first meeting with Iryla, and he hadn’t been able to get it out of his head since. A place to take care of kids that needed it- there was no shortage of those in need in Darkveil, and from what he could tell, not enough places for them to stay. Besides, it felt nice to create something that would help people for a change. Call it foolish sentimentality, but it gave him something to work towards, and people to care for.

He’d had to scrape by with money for a while, and take a few extra side jobs while he tucked away funds, but he managed to get together enough to set up this place. Of course, he’d yet to actually take in any children, but the home was still so new that he wouldn’t let that fact discourage him.

It was sometime in the afternoon as Cyran decided to take a break and prepare himself some tea, setting water to boil on the kettle. Oriole was out in the city running some errands, mostly just collecting a few extra supplies to stock in the hideaway, leaving Cyran alone in the building. He leaned back in the chair, resigning himself to a quiet day inside- or at least, he was fully expecting the day to himself, until a knock on the door caught his attention. 

What could that be? He wasn’t expecting anyone, and if it had been someone he knew, they would have just let themselves inside. Curious but not quite on guard yet, Cyran stood, making his way to the door.

“Good evening, how can I…” He trailed off as he saw the gaggle of children standing at the door, all huddled around a vaguely familiar blonde girl- Astrid, if he remembered her correctly from the Marrowvine’s ball- and a tall, unfamiliar adult with wolfish features and bright blue hair. All of them were looking up at him expectantly, with Astrid wearing a bright smile on her face. “How can I help you all? Please, come in.”

He widened the door to let them all inside, out of the elements.

Needless to say, the journey to Darkveil was certainly much easier said than done. When Astrid offered to take the children to a soon-to-be-open orphanage, she severely underestimated the distance from the Marshflats to the Ashlands. Their first destination was Stargazer Village, where Astrid hoped to commission a cart or caravan to carry the commune of children cross-Charon. The companies essentially laughed her and Blue Raspberry out of their business, and eventually, (and with Melodia's guidance) they turned towards chartering a ship. This was significantly more expensive but overall safer. She spent the majority of the trip pacing the ship and looking for opportunities to help the children and keeping her eyes out on the ocean for any signs of sea creatures. After their experience being eaten by the Charybdis, she decidedly does not want to repeat the experience and traumatize the kids. 

They got to know them on their journey, regaling them with stories and listening to their own. Being basically an orphan herself for a few years, Astrid shared the laments and sorrows of loneliness with the kids, but she did her best to help them keep their heads up. Luckily, Blue Raspberry consumed their favorite toys, and Melodia was, of course, more than happy to continue to watch out for them and keep them entertained with memorized bedtime stories. Throughout the trip, the oldest of the group, Tarquin, was the most anxious and often kept his hands busy. He took to helping out around the ship and trying to be helpful to distract from the situation they were in: a cross-country ocean journey to a place none of them knew anything about, all under the trust and guidance of two people who were also essentially children. He'd feel a lot less comfortable if Melodia wasn't with them. 

Arriving in a land full of ash for snow entertained many children, so by the time they all arrived at the door to the orphanage Cyran's barely even opened to the public, the entire gang is covered in soot and ash. Most of them seem to have had a good time. Astrid leads the gaggle and knocks on the door confidently, and when Cyran opens the door, he sees Astrid, Blue Raspberry, and seven elven or half-elven children with various layers of caked ash. Most of them have a full set of clothes on and shoes, something Astrid and Blue Raspberry managed to provide them before the main leg of the journey. 

"Hiya, Cyran!" Astrid says in a chipper voice. "Good t'see ya again. Hope ya don't mind, I heard ya were openin' up an orphanage, and I conveniently have a gaggle of orphans."

Blue Raspberry had enjoyed the trip from the Marsh Flats to Darkveil. It went significantly less chaotically than they were used to though, most likely thanks to the presence of an actually responsible adult figure for once. Melodia had definitely helped them figure out some logistical issues with their journey early on.

"Hi, I'm Blue Raspberry! Do you have a private room where I can, uh, drop some stuff off?" they asked quickly, a hand on their stomach. They had all of the children's luggage to drop off and were eager to let them have their possessions back. Melodia had promised to let the ooze try to eat one of her legs if the children and all their possessions were delivered safely and they were excited to keep their end of the bargain.

"You mean a bathroom?"

"Yeah, sure, that!"

“How did you even hear about…” Cyran trailed off, still utterly confused as he tried to process this situation. He’d barely even had this place open for a couple of days, how had she even known? He had so many questions, but before he could voice any of them, the fellow with the blue hair came up and introduced themselves as Blue Raspberry- why was he named after a color and a fruit?- and asked if Cyran had any private rooms.

They were clutching their stomach as they did, looking rather impatient, so Cyran could only take a wild stab at what room they needed.

“You mean, a bathroom…?”

“Yeah, sure, that!” They exclaimed with a smile on their face, and Cyran was suddenly… less certain that they were looking for the restroom, but at this point he figured he might as well just roll with the punches. Still utterly bewildered, Cyran stepped aside, gesturing behind him.

“It’s down the hall, the door to your left.”

Blue Raspberry barreled past him down the hall, until Cyran heard the sound of a door opening and shutting.

“Okay…” Cyran trailed off, turning back to Astrid and her convenient gaggle of orphans. He still had so many questions. Where had Astrid found these kids was a good place to start, immediately followed by why she was out here in Darkveil without her guardian. Hadn’t she been adopted by… that Cantio fellow from the ball? Admittedly, his recounting of events during the truth or dare game were a bit fuzzy given he had still been utterly mortified about his own actions.

“Well, why don’t the rest of you come on in?” He asked. “My name is Cyran. You must all be hungry, right? Come on in and I’ll make you all dinner.”

He ushered them all in, out of the ash before they got any more soot-stained. To Astrid, he said, “It’s good to see you again, Astrid. Why don’t you come on in too, and we can catch up? I’m sure there’s a story behind… all this.”

He led them all into the dining hall, where the water in the kettle for tea had just begun to boil. He wasn’t sure what kind of food he had at hand, but he could pull together a stew or something simple. He hoped.

"Aye, sure is a story behind it!" Astrid says with a grin, piling in with the group of children moving like a sea of smelly bodies. Tarquin hesitates, watching Cyran with careful suspicion before Astrid grabs his arm and drags him inside with the others. "Let's go! It's ashy outside! Oh, we're probably draggin' ash all around inside, ain't we?" The half-dwarf looks at the trail of ash following the footsteps of the children who immediately scatter to explore the building and seek out the ooze knight, shouting about a game of hide and seek. "OI! Don't ya know it's rude to go wanderin' about uninvited??" Astrid shouts to no avail. The children have finally reached their destination, and they are nothing if not eager to explore. For a moment, Astrid looks like she's aged twenty years, but that quickly fades as she looks up at Cyran. 

"Sorry 'bout the sudden appearance," she says. "Been a bit of a whirlwind, these last few weeks." Tarquin the half-elf lets out a "hmph" behind her, and she looks back at him with as much annoyance as a twelve-year-old can muster at a gross, pain-in-the-ass boy. "Don't mind him, he's grumpy. Always has been."

"You should let the adults talk," Tarquin grumbles. 

"What, ya think I can't tell me friend about all the things we've been through?" Astrid huffs. There's a loud clattering from the washroom which she pays no mind whatsoever. It's probably fine. 

"Miss Melodia will be able to explain things better than you," he replies. "You talk in circles." 

"Do not!"

An ethereal voice rings out between the two pre-teens. "Alright, children, I think that's enough." Between them, a ghostly woman in a torn dress manifests. Her long hair hangs in the air like tendrils affected by a nonexistent wind. Her face is kind but her eyes betray how sharp she can be when necessary. She gives Cyran a sympathetic look. "I apologize for intruding upon you in this manner. I am Melodia, previously the caretaker for these children."

"We found 'em all in an abandoned orphanage in the Marshflats!" Astrid says proudly as if there is nothing wrong with this statement whatsoever. Melodia looks exhausted for a dead woman.

Blue Raspberry rushed down the hall and into the bathroom, closing the door behind them. Now that they were somewhere private, they didn't need to worry about being seen in their big, oozey form. Their skin turned blue as they grew, their clothing swallowed up, and soon a vaguely human shaped blue ooze was standing in the middle of the room.

They looked around for a moment to take in their surroundings. There was a weird chair with a big hole in it, whatever that was, and a washbasin. Weird.

The ooze began to remove all of the children's luggage that they'd brought stored inside them. There wasn't that much actual luggage, but they also brought out a large treasure chest full of coins and jewelry, a rolled up fancy rug, and a bunch of random garbage that they'd had the children bring for them. It all fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Suddenly, Blue Raspberry also remembered the talking shield that had been in the orphanage as well and pulled that out.

"Oh, thank you Ginma! Please, save me from this wretched thing! It's disgusting! Where is this, a washroom!? Why am I in here!? You, bring me somewhere classier, how dare you-mmmph!" they began to prattle on annoyingly, so the ooze just swallowed the shield again. The children probably didn't want something so annoying anyways. If they asked for it, they'd give it back, though.

With all of the luggage delivered, Blue Raspberry changed back into their humanoid form and opened the door to the washroom and walked out into the hallway.

"All done! Your luggage is all in here!" they called out to the children with a big, toothy grin.

There was simply no time for Cyran to be confused at the sequence of events unfolding as Astrid helped usher the other children in, chiding them about the ash as if she was their own mini-guardian, or self-appointed leader. Cyran waved away her concerns with a kind, if not a touch fatigued, smile. “I don’t care about trailing dirt or ash in. I’ll clean it up in a bit.” Not that the other children heard any of that, as they had already taken to wandering around and exploring their new surroundings with wild abandon. The sight brought a wistful smile to Cyran’s face, in contrast to the dwarven girl standing next to him looking more like an exasperated parent than a child herself.

“No worries.” He noted that she still had not explained how she knew about the fact that he had opened this place up, but he was beginning to suspect that Astrid’s adventures would be much too energetic for him to comprehend. Astrid and the half-elf began bickering with one another, talking about letting Melodia explain the situation, But Cyran hadn’t seen any other adult with them besides Blue Raspberry, who was still… doing something in the bathroom, though he wasn’t sure what. He did not have to stay confused for long, because a ghostly woman manifested in the middle of his sitting room, beautiful despite her tattered attire and the flowing hair identifying her as a specter.

Cyran was so shocked he nearly lost his composure, flinching backwards at her sudden appearance. “What the…” He bit his tongue to avoid swearing in front of the remaining children that were still within earshot. “Um. Okay. It’s lovely to meet you, Melodia.” He extended his arm as if going for a handshake before remembering that wasn’t exactly possible, and awkwardly tucked his hand back in his pocket. He decided not to think too hard about how a ghost had become a caretaker for a bunch of children- the circumstances, he guessed, were not the happiest. That story could wait until later.

“I hope you don’t mind me looking after the kids.” He hesitated, debating whether he should share this bit of information- he did not like to bring it up often for the bad memories that accompanied it- but he wanted to assure Melodia that they were in good hands. “I’m a father myself- I’d like to think I’m good with kids.” That was when Astrid interjected with her assertion that they’d found the children abandoned in the marsh flats, much to Melodia’s utter exhaustion.

“Well. That explains both everything and nothing at all.” Cyran said, pinching the bridge of his nose before softly exhaling. “Astrid, why don’t you and your friend-” He gestured towards the young half-elven man that he did not know- “Explain to me what happened, and Miss Melodia can help fill in the gaps?”

Blue Raspberry chose that moment to emerge from the bathroom, a bright, almost triumphant smile on their face as they proclaimed that they had deposited the children’s belongings, and that was the moment Cyran nearly lost his composure.

“You left what in my bathroom?”

Melodia offers Cyran a sympathetic smile, finding some amusement in his habitual offering of a handshake. "It's lovely to meet you as well. Of course, I don't mind. Miss Astrid and Blue Raspberry have proven themselves capable, and I trust... most of their judgment." There's a hint of a chuckle in her voice. "In fact, I quite appreciate that you would be so willing to take in the children in on short notice like this." She looks towards Astrid, pain on her face at the mention of the swamp. The child lacks tact, but this is something she can teach in time. A proper explanation is in order, though.

"We're not friends," Tarquin asserts under his breath, annoyed. Astrid's much too loud for his tastes. His arms cross, and he pretends not to notice Melodia giving him a warning look. Instead, he opts to watch things unfold before him. It's certainly a comedy of errors. 

"Aye, I can tell ya all about what happened!" Astrid says chipperly. She makes a move to take a seat at Cyran's behest only to hear Blue Raspberry emerge from the washroom. "Oh! Blue! Didja really drop alla that off in there??" Of course the ooze did exactly that. The girl can't help laughing at the situation, and Cyran's overall exasperation. "It's alright! They, um... Blue's got a magical means of carryin' stuff, so they were carryin' all the kids' stuff. They just... decided ta drop it off in the bathroom...?" So many questions in her tone.

Melodia gives some sort of iffy side-to-side nod in agreement. If there is one thing Astrid does possess tact for, it is covering for the ooze. 

Hearing their things are deposited, the children throughout the house rush the bathroom to collect their things. This is soon followed up by screams of delight and surprise. Something about a treasure chest..? Astrid, Melodia, and Tarquin all look confused by that.

"The ooze man brought treasure!" one of the children screamed as she ran through the halls with her belongings.

"Look at all the gold!" a boy shouted from the bathroom.

A couple of the children walked by carrying either end of a rolled up rug and giggling.

One boy walked by with a mocking snooty expression, their nose pointed into the air, as they wore a golden crown and a luxurious red cape that dragged along the floor behind him.

A young girl ran out of the bathroom and up to Melodia, looking up at her with pleading, puppy dog eyes. "Can I have this? Please, it's so pretty!" she asked, holding up a silver necklace with a sapphire gemstone.

Blue Raspberry looked completely unphased by any of the chaos they'd caused. They walked up to the group with an innocent, cheerful smile while the children went wild. They looked at Melodia with a similar expression to the little girl's, a face like a puppy waiting for a treat after doing a trick.

At least Melodia seemed like a responsible adult… though he was still confused as to where the spirit had come from. He didn’t doubt that she was a responsible woman, but how in the hell was a ghost expected to be the caretaker of a handful of children and… whatever he was supposed to classify Blue Raspberry as? They looked like a knight, but according to Astrid, they’d just deposited a handful of treasure in Cyran’s bathroom as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

“I’m happy to take care of them.” Cyran said. “I opened this place because I want to provide a safe place for children… especially around here.” Meeting Iryla and seeing what condition the streets of Darkveil were in had proven that there was no shortage of kids that had been kicked out of overcrowded foster homes or those that had been abandoned by parents, all forced to learn how to adapt and live on their own. None of them should have to live that way. “Everything in here is… functionally ready to take in children- I just hadn’t expected an influx of so many all at once.”

He could feed them for a while, but he’d need to start bringing in a lot more money if he wanted to support them in the long term. Zarius had helped a great deal in this orphanage’s construction- mostly in its logistics and planning- but Cyran did not want to ask him for help when he could handle this on his own. He would just have to take more jobs to feed them all and ensure that they were safe and well cared for here. There was a twisted sort of irony to taking more lives in the act of protecting others, but the assassin elected not to dwell on that for now.

He would focus on figuring out… more about this story regarding an orphanage in the Marshflats. “My goodness, did you come all the way from there?” He asked, trying to do the mental geography in his head. The Marshflats were to the east of Moonglade, which meant that Astrid, Blue Raspberry, and Melodia had to have brought them through all that land, including Zeinav Desert…

His head was beginning to hurt just thinking about the logistics of it.

He turned his attention to Astrid and the sullen half-elf child, who seemed to have some sort of animosity towards the precocious girl. “I’d be more than happy to listen to both of you. I’m sure that you both have different sides of the story, and I’d love to hear.” He flashed the boy what he hoped was a comforting smile. “I don’t believe I’ve heard your name yet.”

That was when Blue Raspberry came out of the bathroom and declared they’d deposited everyone’s things. The children all ran off in that direction, save for Astrid and the half-elf child, as well as Melodia. Astrid stammered out some excuse about magic that she definitely thought was a passable lie, and Melodia definitely didn’t, based on the expression she currently wore.

“Sure, of course… magic.” Cyran sounded skeptical, though he was willing to play along for now, given that both Astrid and Melodia trusted Blue Raspberry. “As long as the kids have their things, I don’t mind. But I do have a perfectly serviceable living room to store things-”

“The ooze man brought treasure!”

Cyran’s head immediately whipped in the direction of the scream.

“What did they bring?” Cyran asked, standing from his seat and making his way into the living room and to the hallway where the kids were all playing with random pieces of gold, ornate treasure, and even fine pieces of clothing. One child even ran past Cyran all the way to Melodia clutching a diamond necklace that was probably worth more than anything Cyran had ever owned in his life post-exile.

“What the hell?” Cyran shouted in elvish before turning back to Blue Raspberry, who was wearing a bright smile on their face like a cat that had just dragged in a nasty-looking hairball to their owner and was searching for praise, switching back to the common tongue. “Where did all of this come from? Are-” He swallowed as a horrible thought occurred to him. “Are these the kids’ belongings?”

As he waited for an answer, a couple of the children rolled by, tangled up in an ornate gilded rug, and Cyran wondered if he was finally losing his grip on his sanity after all these years.

"Aye," Astrid says proudly, her hands on her hips. "Though we took a ship up the coast! None of the caravans would take us through the desert." Her next word comes in an extended note. "Thaaaaat was probably the better idea..." She has no idea how much of a burden dumping this gaggle of children on Cyran will be for him as he's only just gotten the orphanage started, but that's information she doesn't quite know. Feeding the kids has been incredibly expensive...

The disaffected half-elf gives Cyran a glance up and down. If this man will be taking care of him and his friends, or rather pseudo siblings, he supposes he's grateful and will play nice. "It's Tarquin," he says. Though there's a hint of friendliness, he still seems irritated. Typical pre-teen behavior. At the mention of treasure, he is also confused. 

In fact, the whole gang, except for Blue Raspberry it seems, are all confused. Melodia wears a befuddled expression as children rush up with jewels and question whether or not they can keep these trinkets. Where did they come from? Astrid looks confused, so she must not know. Melodia stammers over her words, giving half-answers to the children before her eyes land on Blue Raspberry. "Where did you acquire all of this?" 

Astrid is, of course, equally confused. She didn't see a treasure chest anywhere in the orphanage, and it certainly wasn't with the children's things. So one, why did they spit it up? And two, where the heck did it come from? The ooze looks so proud of themself. Did they have this all along?? It could have helped pay for the voyage to get here! Nope, she's just going to ask. "Didja have that the whole time?? Ya didn't think ta mention eatin' a treasure chest??" Whoops, a slip in her shock. What an expensive snack.

SPOILER: Click to show

Blue Raspberry is confused at what the problem could be. Why was everyone acting so strange, like they'd done something wrong? Even Astrid was angry at them. They flinched, their demeaner like a dog being scolded with their tail between their legs.

"It was in the orphanage! Down in that room underground. It's the children's stuff, right?" they tried to explain themself, but fumbled with their words. "I didn't- Are you mad? I was just bringing their stuff like you asked..."

The ooze looked heartbroken.

Astrid looked proud of herself as she explained how they’d gotten so far up north from the Marshflats, and Cyran found himself impressed by the feat as well. Given that, and he meant no offense by the thought, Melodia seemed like the only responsible adult in the group, it must have been quite the eventful trip indeed, and probably lucky that they’d all made it here in one piece.

“Tarquin? It’s lovely to meet you. I’m looking forward to getting to know you and your siblings.” He didn’t seem at all bothered by the pre-teen’s standoffish behavior.

Of course, he didn’t get to stick around long and ask Tarquin or Astrid much more about their adventures before he had to go dashing off to find the kids playing with treasure of unknown origin. He was still gaping, desperately trying to recover his composure, while Melodia and Astrid interrogated them about the origin of the treasure with different levels of incredulity.

“I… eating it? Hmm.” He opened his mouth and closed it again, trying to formulate the right words but finding none for this particular situation. His grip on what was happening here had flown out the window a while ago, though he suspected he would probably have to get used to this level of insanity if he was going to keep this place up and running.

Blue Raspberry looked so crestfallen, though, that any further scolding he might have added fizzled away. Cyran awkwardly reached out and patted them on the shoulder, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “It’s fine, I’ll deal with it, I just…” He sighed. “What am I supposed to do with this? Do you want it back?”

… Would getting it back involve eating it?

And how were they even eating treasure? Maybe Cyran had misheard what Astrid had shouted, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t.

Astrid rubs her face, trying to get an understanding of the situation as things have quickly devolved into chaos. It's not often that she's angry, and in fact, she doesn't feel angry, just... exhausted? Suddenly? She's not sure how to describe it, so she takes a breath and shakes her head. Then she sees Blue looking super sad, and her heart just breaks too. "No, no, I ain't mad! Just surprised! And, um, what's the word? Exasperated!" she quickly tries to explain. "Like um, if ya had that the whole time, it would've been a lot easier makin' the journey up here and findin' folks ta take us all on a boat." That's the best way she can explain it. 

As far as what to do with it? She... doesn't know. "Uh... Well... I s'pose we don't need it." She looks at Blue Raspberry. "If ya thought it belonged ta the kids, we could just leave it here, help pay fer stuff since we kinda dumped this all on ya all at once." With that, she looks at Cyran. 

Melodia, who had briefly disappeared from existence due to mechanical spell reasons, reappears and does some ghostly equivalent of smoothing her tattered dress. "Yes, I think that would be the most agreeable for Cyran here. It's the least we could do to make up for this sudden inconvenience."

Tarquin seems especially shocked by this revelation of the treasure chest. He's never seen this before in his life. "You...you found this in the orphanage??" he asks. They could've avoided swindling people out of food this whole time?? Where was it??

---

Call Ghost 

Blue Raspberry was a bit at a loss for what to do next. They just realized that Astrid had it let slip about them eating the treasure, and Cyran had definitely picked it up. The kids running around, shouting about the ooze man also wasn't helping them keep their identity a secret. They just looked at Cyran with a nervous smile and tried to play it all off casually.

"Uh, yeah! Um. Eating it.... uh... that's just a joke! I can store things magically. Astrid just likes to say I ate it, right? And the kids call me ooze man because... uhhhhhhhhhh... It's a nickname?" they lied horribly, shrugging and looking to Astrid for some help.

At least Astrid wasn't mad at them, which was a relief. But, they still felt like they messed up a bit as Astrid explained how the treasure would have made the trip here easier. They didn't know what exasperated meant, but it didn't sound like a good thing. Hopefully they could make up for it and make Astrid feel asperated again.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't think about that. I just thought it was more of their luggage since I found it at the orphanage."

Blue Raspberry looked at Tarquin as they were also now questioning the ooze about the treasure chest. They didn't get why everyone was asking basically the same question over and over. Did everyone just not believe them?

"Yeah, it was at the orphanage. In that room underground with all the glowey plants in it."