Giosue Zino & Andromeda Aldrich
Location: Ville au Camp - the Oak <---> Gortyn, Crete 220 A.D.
Skills: The Watch Act I: Time Portals, History (General Human History), Heraldry
Giosue stood underneath the tree waiting for his current charge to show up. Even in the dim light before Dawn anyone passing by would be able to see that The Watch was not wearing his usual attire. No, the dark, formal suit was nowhere to be seen. Instead he wore a
chiton made of linen and dyed a soft orange with a bright green pattern emblazoned just above the bottom hem and belted off at the waist.
On his feet he wore simple sandals. Over his shoulder he carried a burlap sack, evidently full, but tied up tight so as to not spill any of its mysterious contents. And in his hand was a coin. What kind of coin it was couldn't be made out both from the darkness and that he idly flipped it and caught it again and again as he waited. If anyone were paying close attention, they'd notice that each toss and catch took a total of 4 seconds exactly before he began again.
Andromeda couldn't help but be excited when she saw the familiar note under the door, instructing her to meet the Watch at the Oak Tree. Finally, a proper trainer! She loved to travel and explore, but field trips with the Cards did wear old after a while. And most of the time, Andy felt they were just excuses for Nancy to go and do whatever she liked with her time. Getting dressed in a simple pair of
trousers and a non-color clashing blouse, she brushed her white hair and put it into two short braids.
"Hello," she greeted the Watch with a smile, arriving right on schedule. She couldn't help but internally geek out over the way he was dressed. She had been a history major in life and she could only imagine that whatever lesson he'd have prepared for her, it'd be right up her alley.
"Salutations Ms. Aldrich, pleased to see you've arrived right on time." He spoke affably, but neutrally. Whether he was truly pleased to see his student or merely offering a polite word wouldn't be immediately evident to most, but one who knew Gio would know that he wouldn't have offered the bit of praise were it not the case. The watch caught the coin one final time and stepped away from the tree. With his other hand he pulled the bag off from his shoulder and gave it a light underhand toss over towards Andromeda to catch.
"Well, wouldn't want to be rude - plus I was a history major when I was alive, so I am pretty certain I am going to absolutely love whatever we'll be doing," Andy explained, catching the bag he threw at her. She couldn't resist the urge to open it up and looked through it, examining its contents. There was a large piece of blue fabric, which when she felt it she determined it was likely wool, and she had to imagine it'd be big enough to cover a bed. A smaller bag contained what she discovered to be ten coins, there was then also a leather strip and a sheathed bronze knife. When she saw the pins and sandals, she couldn't help but get an idea that they might be going to the Roman Empire or something!
"Are we going back in time?" she asked eagerly.
"We're going home. My home. In a fashion. We'll be taking a trip to what you'd call Ancient Greece. More specifically we'll arrive in the city of Gortyn on March 1st, 220 anno Domini. In that bag you'll find everything you need to assemble your peplos, appropriate footwear, a knife and your allowance for the trip: 10 Drachma. That's quite a lot of money for the time but be smart with it. If you need any assistance putting the peplos on, I can instruct you. It's far simpler than you post-industrial types think." As Gio stepped closer, Andromeda could see a shortsword dangling on his hip.
"...Yeah, I think I'm going to need some assistance putting on the peplos," Andy admitted, looking at the blue dyed wool. She was imagining that you sort of wrap it around oneself like a burrito and then use the leather strap to fasten it - but she wasn't certain at all and didn't want to make a fool of herself. Plus, there was the whole fiasco of having to go back into the house, change clothes in privacy, and come back out. She didn't want to go in there without knowing what to do with the peplos.
"All you have to do is first lay it out flat on the floor, Then you fold the long side down towards the other long edge. You don't want to do it too far, this shortens up the length of the dress so it won't drag on the ground. You want this section to be about the length of your torso. Then you wrap the garment around you fold side out, just underneath your armpits, pin them together over your shoulders and then tie it up with that belt at the waist, or higher if you prefer. Some ladies liked to go as high as just underneath the breast. Hm... sounds more confusing purely in the spoken word. Ah, a quick visual aid should suffice." Gio broke off a tree limb and with the twing proceeded to draw out a rough couple of
diagrams illustrating the process in a more expedient manner.
Andromeda stared at the diagrams, muttering to herself as she memorized them. The visual aids did help. She always found that a visual aid, accompanying a verbal explanation, was key to teaching her. Some learned through hands on methods, some through reading, something through watching, some through listening - Andy was best suited to a combination, an audio-visual experience so to speak.
"Okay, I think I get it - I'll be back in five minutes," she said, grabbing her bag and hurrying back to the house. A little less than five minutes later she returned, wearing the peplos and the shoes. In her opinion, it wasn't too bad a try for her first time wearing one - and she couldn't help but wonder if people used them to double as blankets, the peplos.
"I tried to get something on the darker side for you," Gio said off-hand when Andromeda returned,
"Anything more would require something like Indigo, which shows off more wealth than we'd need for this mission. Ah, while we're on this mission please refer to me as Thucydides. 'Giosue' is rather out of place for the time and place." Gio produced The Watch and opened up a time portal in front of the two of them that shimmered and shifted in the light of the encroaching dawn.
"Ladies first." Gio motioned for the Paradox to go ahead through the time jump.
Andromeda nodded - she did tend to gravitate towards darker colors. In her experience, light and colorful ones somehow made her look entirely too washed out. Her skin was corpse-like enough as it was.
"Thank you," she said, committing the name Thucydides to memory. She guessed that her own name wouldn't be that strange for the time period - if anything, it tended to raise eyebrows in her own modern period. It was likely right at home in an ancient one. She took a breath, as if expecting to get the wind knocked out of her from the portal, and she stepped on through.
On the other side, the sudden increase in light blinded her briefly. She had traveled from the dim light before dawn to the Mediterranean noon of Crete. The sun hung directly overhead, shining brilliantly across the entire city, amplifying all the colors, making them appear even brighter than they would have otherwise. And it was
hot. Had she been wearing what she'd been dressed in just a few minutes earlier, she'd been baking immediately. The air was crisp, carrying the faint scent of the sea. There was nobody out on the streets where she was, other than Gio who stepped out after her.
Andromeda held a hand in front of her face, shielding her eyes from the blinding sunlight. Instantly, her mind flickered to the fact that she didn't have anything even close to resembling sunblock with her. Of course, once that slight problem had been registered, she then focused on the breath taking beauty that surrounded her.
"It's beautiful," Andromeda told the Emendator with a smile.
"If we have the time, I'd like to show you the view at the height of the city. It's quite the view. But right now we must focus on your mission. I'd like for you to head over to the market and fetch me a gallon of olive oil. It should cost you about 5 drachma, give or take a few obols. Anything left over you can use to get something for yourself if you find anything you'd like." Gio slipped her a couple of sheets of paper, one was a map of the area with relevant locations marked out. Another one was a flashcard of Ancient Greek phrases she might need: Where's the Market/Bathroom, I'd like to buy some olive oil, Thank you, Sorry, Don't hurt me. Things like that.
Andromeda looked over the cards - she spoke Latin, not Ancient Greek, so they'd be incredibly helpful. However, just having the phrases written down didn't mean that she'd be able to communicate effectively. She was almost entirely positive that she'd butcher the phrases entirely, somehow mispronouncing them so much that she'd be stoned to death or something of the sorts.
"...Alright, I'll give it my best shot," Andy said, looking at Giouse for a moment. She figured she'd be able to get by with pointing at the olive oil if she needed to - and hopefully handing them the appropriate amount of money, as there was no way she'd understanding what they said. Andy then gave Giouse a nod, before she examined the map and moved off by herself in the direction of the market, using the relevant landmarks to orient herself.
As Andromeda walked through the city, there was a noted lack of people wandering the street despite the weather and the time of day. Off in the distance she could hear some disturbance, but it was unclear what exactly it could be. Still, she had yet to run into any real resistance to her path through the city.
"Is it volcano day or something?" Andromeda muttered under her breath. However, no exploding volcanos or life shattering disasters reared their head as she followed the map, paying close attention to the landmarks and every bit of detail. She didn't want to get lost, by herself, in a strange country, in a time she'd never been to - it just
sounded like a recipe for disaster. And this was coming from a Paradox who had been killed in what could only be described as an epic disaster.
As she walked through the market, she had to stop herself from going to a stall that looked like it sold curios. In her life, those had been her go to purchase. They interested her and increased the amount of items to keep in the small museum she ran in her Massachusetts hometown.
"Tha íthela na agoráso lígo elaiólado," Andromeda said slowly, looking at the merchant. He was a middle aged man: tanned, dark haired, very hairy, thick beard. And as Andromeda spoke, he raised an eyebrow, looking at her as if she had just mashed a bunch of random words together.
Vaguely, Andromeda remembered Alicia's warnings about Nancy and Giouse pranking people....Hopefully this wasn't one of those times.
"Tha íthela na agoráso lígo elaiólado," Andy repeated. Somehow, her pronunciation was actually slightly worse.
"Θέλετε να αγοράσετε ένα μικρό ψωμί?" the merchant asked her. "Δεν πωλίζω κανένα από αυτά, χάσετε. Θα θελήσετε να πάτε δύο πάγκους με αυτόν τον τρόπο."
Andromeda had no idea whatsoever what he had said. She looked down at her cards - somehow,
please don't hurt me didn't seem appropriate for the situation, but she had that one on hand just in case she needed it. She was also contemplating just showing the notecard to the merchant, but she figured that with her luck, he wouldn't be able to read. She didn't know what the literacy rate was in this time period, though she doubted it was good.
"Tha íthela na agoráso lígo elaiólado," Andy said again, a bit slower this time in an effort to get the pronunciations better.
"Θέλετε το ελαιόλαδο? Δεν είναι λίγο φραντζόλα?" the merchant asked with a laugh, grabbing a small thing of olive oil. Andy pointed at it and nodded. "Πέντε δραχμές," he then said, holding out his hand. Andy nodded, figuring that he wanted money and she put one drachma in his hand at a time, having no idea how much he wanted, until five were in his hand and he moved his hand back, letting her take the olive oil. She frantically shuffled through the cards.
"Efcharistó," Andromeda said, only to get a funny look. Figuring it was better to quit while she was ahead, Andromeda left the olive oil stand.
On her way back to Giouse, Andromeda couldn't help but look at the stand with the curios again. She went up to it and pointed at the one thing that interested it - of course, it all interested her - and paid a few drachma for a few small little bead type things, which looked like they were meant to be children's toys. She was able to mess with them in her hand as she walked and she smiled slightly, realizing that she had essentially just bought something to fidget with in Ancient Greece. At least she had the olive oil Giouse wanted - and no one tried to burn her at the stake or something.
The shopkeep looked at Andromeda a bit wide-eyed at her purchase, but took the cash without fuss. At the stand Andy noticed the noise in the distance grew louder and more defined. They were definitely the sounds of people, mostly men yelling. The words couldn't be made out, but the tone was unmistakable. It was a mix of aggressive demands and desperate cries of anguish. Footsteps. Metal against metal. Metal against stone. And it was coming her way faster than comfortable.
"...Okay, this is way worse than volcano day," Andromeda muttered, clutching her flashcards, children's entertainment, and olive oil as she took off at a run in the direction she had come from. She didn't know what exactly was going on, but her guest was either a riot, rogue soldiers, or some other scenario in which a huge mob came to murder people.
"Shit shit shit," she cursed, as one of her - in her mind now instantly labeled as a glorified flip flop - flew off and she had to run after it, quickly putting it back on before resuming her run.
And yet, even with this hurdle, Andromeda was able to make it back to Giosue without too much trouble, aside from being out of breath from running and perhaps developing a sunburn from the intense summer sun above.
"Afternoon Andromeda. I see you've completed your objective," he spoke calmly, despite the oncoming noise out of eyesight. He extended his hands to take the jug from the Paradox.
"Did you pick up anything for yourself?" "Yes, the beginning of a bad sunburn," Andy couldn't help but reply, handing the jug of olive oil over to him. She knew that probably wasn't the proper thing to say to him, but she was at least mildly convinced she had nearly gotten in the way of an angry death mob. And given that this was from where Giouse was from, it meant that he knew it was going to happen. Of course.
"And these," she added, holding up the marble/bead like things.
"Very nice. Do you have any spare change left?" Giosue asked, taking the olive oil off of her hands. In doing so, the impending noise finally arrived, with a soldier brandishing a shortsword stepping into view, shortly followed by several more. He pointed at the two of them and shouted a command to the others there. The Emendator simply saluted to them before speaking.
"Είμαι φίλος του Γνώσου. Αυτή είναι η εγγονή μου, Ανδρομέδα. Είναι από την Ιταλία και δεν μιλάει ελληνικά. Πιστεύω ότι είδα κάποιους Λυσιτανούς με αυτόν τον τρόπο." He pointed further down the street. And as simply as that, the men exchanged a few words among themselves and ran ahead in the way he had directed them.
"It's a good thing you got here when you did. I believe we won't have the time to go to that lookout I had promised. Let us continue our discussion back at Camp." Gio quickly reopened the portal behind him and stepped back into the future.
Andromeda couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed - she had imagined that the Watch would have to have known that the lookout wouldn't happen. Time flowed the same way every time - right? Of course, there were those Destruere things that had been mentioned, but she doubted she would have been brought to an area where one was active in order to train.
"What was that?" Andy asked, once they were through to the other side.
"Was it the outbreak of a civil war or something?" Her Ancient Greece class hadn't been the best but after becoming a Paradox, all of those old memories were fuzzy anyways, so she couldn't even begin to attempt to place what was happening.
"Long story short," Gio began on the other side of the portal,
"the city's divided over who to support, Gnossus or the Lyttians. That army was the elders and Gnossus driving out or killing all the supporters of the Lyttians. Appearing as old as I am, they believed me when I told them I was on their side and when I pointed out that I saw the enemy yonder that way. But I didn't want to take the chance of even more showing up and not believing me. I'm not from Crete after all, so I'd be more suspect." Gio set the jug of clay down.
"How'd it end for them?" Andromeda asked, a bit curious. From what Giouse said, it sounded like the older population backed Gnossus - and perhaps the younger generation went with the Lyttians? It was the only thing she could think of, based off of the simple fact that he indicated his age was inherent to his credibility with the army.
"The Lyttian supporters get driven out. They hide out in Phaistos for awhile and then launch a counterattack that results in a siege but never really goes anywhere. But none of that's really important. As far as your mission was concerned, the invading forces were more important as an impending time limit for your task. If you had dallied too long, gotten distracted, or let your mind drift and got lost, it'd have been very easy for you to run into the army without my immediate aid." While Giouse seemed to be more focused on discussing the mechanics of the task, Andromeda wanted to know more about the siege itself. What type of strategy had been used - and when it really went nowhere, what sort of impact did it have on the place? She couldn't help but imagine there'd be at least a preserved cultural memory of it in some way.
"That makes sense," Andy replied. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen to the oil salesman in particular.
"So we didn't have time to go to the lookout during that particular stint, but the advantage of traveling with The Watch, is that I can just open up a portal to a slightly different time. So we could go to a different day. Or perhaps... How would you like to go see a show at the Roman Colisseum?" Andromeda's eyes were positively sparkling.
"That'd be amazing! I'd love to!"
RPM
Achronum
kittyluna45
Scrawl Banditta
Not a Sayan
KazAlkemi
Neziul
Kirah
Blizz
