By the time the movers had come, the apartment was largely empty. Several boxes of stuff — nothing with sufficient relation to each other to be categorized with more specificity — had been thrown in the garbage or left for donation. As per tradition, the large furniture that wasn't making the trip was brought downstairs and into the lobby with a sign for the afternoon, and by that evening it was gone. When the movers passed to remove their load of boxes, the apartment was well and truly void.
They'd gotten an inexpensive air mattress to sleep on until they were due to leave, but with nothing else in the place, there was nothing to do until it was time to catch flights. Kayli had already said her goodbyes and thank-yous, and while they'd exchanged contact information, she was back to her people. Jev nearly suggested visiting family, before remembering that they were still out of town and also on bad terms. It was relatively late in the day, but with nothing better to do, they decided to play tourist and visit some of the more easily accessed attractions.
They made their way down to the lake first, as this gave access to the historical Singing Docks. These dated back to hundreds of years pre-Arrival and had been the reason why Baliport grew into the city it was now. All that remained of the historical docks were a handful of boardwalks projecting into the lake, but where once there would have been large ships loading and unloading cargo, now there were lines of vendor stalls selling treats, novelty souvenirs, and overpriced tat. Despite their age, the docks were sturdy but were famous for the fact that in winter, a combination of materials freezing and contracting in the cold caused the structure to whistle when the wind blew just right. However, it was still far too early in the season and too temperate to be able to experience this.
Being in the off-season, too cool to go swimming but too early for the signature experience of the Docks, it wasn't a particularly exciting visit, but it did at least allow them to get a photo with the Balisport lighthouse in the distance, an iconic local monument that was, unfortunately, a bit difficult to reach without a car, and always extremely busy. However, from the Docks, it was also only a short walk to another famous monument of the city, the Garnacan Victory Monument.
This was a large plaza, lined by trees on all sides. A gate-like structure enclosed the monument itself, with heroic statues representing figures from Garnacan history standing in alcoves lining the walls all facing a massive marble column at the centre capped with an eternal flame. The monument celebrated Garnaca successfully defending itself after being attacked by a numerically superior Jeundite force in the 14-Years' war. On the south end of the plaza, a rather more solemn and modern addition stood, where the names of the soldiers lost in the Arrival War were inscribed in stone panels in memoriam.
One statue here, in particular, had recently gained internet notoriety, that of Col. Jothan Harwick, whose positioning was meant to evoke a grim regard over the battlefields, but it had become a meme to place objects in front of him, and have the statue staring down at them with the same vaguely disapproving glare. This, naturally, meant that Jev had to take a photo of Cyd and Sam "flashing" the statue. They were hardly the only ones, as only a few minutes after they'd taken the picture, another young man had his friend photograph him mooning the statue as well.
They stopped for dinner at Colico's, a steakhouse that Jev liked, but could rarely justify eating at. He was particularly fond of the garlic log appetizers — small garlic bread rolls served with thick garlic butter. Cyd considered trying their "challenge" meal, a one-and-a-half kilo steak which if you could eat it all and its sides of mashed potatoes and vegetables, you would get it free. However, given that they still wanted to go out in the city after dinner, Jev managed to convince her to settle for "only" the kilo steak instead. Sam opted for a grilled catfish steak, and Jev went with a Steak au Poivre.
They celebrated their final supper in Garnaca together, even splurging on an expensive bottle of wine with supper. They joked about their misadventures of the past few days while they ate and enjoyed their meal, but couldn't stay too long after finishing thanks to Cyd's impending change. They rushed back to the apartment where she took the opportunity to change both forms and clothing. With very little else to do, Sam and Jev went to wait on the empty balcony. As they looked out over the city, Sam turned to him.
"So, do you think you'll miss it?"
He rested heavily against the metal railing and looked down at the street below.
"Yes and no, I guess. There's definitely parts of it I'll miss. Not being able to hit up the Dockside or Colico's, for instance. And it doesn't really seem like you can just pick up and do something in Valsa the way you can here. But I'm ready for something new, too. And Emmarine is
definitely
that."
Despite his assertion, there must have been a note of sadness in his voice that prompted Sam to sidle up to him and wrap her arm around his shoulders. Neither of them heard Cyd slide the door open.
"C'mon! Time's a-wastin'! We've got a city to explore!"
She wore the same wine-red dress as the other day, though she seemed to have foregone the shoes. In response, Sam created a white dress in a similar style for herself to wear, though hers had accompanying shoes. Jev looked down at himself in his black jeans and red hoodie.
"Man, now I'm underdressed. I'm gonna have to change."
Cyd grabbed him, lifting him from the ground with a minimum of effort as she carried him into the apartment and to the front door.
"No time now. Shoulda thought of that ahead of time."
Her grapple had the side effect of pushing his face into her furry cleavage where it rose above the collar of her dress. Jev was reasonably certain this was not a coincidence, especially when he started to protest and she pushed his face in deeper with one hand. In among the softness of her fur, he breathed in her smell, the faint citrus of her favourite body wash mixed with the floral notes of her perfume, and through it all, just a hint of a deep earthy muskiness covered in smoke. He buried his face into her chest, playfully, before she let him down outside the main door of the apartment. Sam gracefully slipped out of the apartment, closing and locking the door as she passed through the threshold.
"So, where to now?"
Jev gave some thought to the question.
"Lakeside Park? The city parks council hosts a series of free concerts there during the summer as a way of featuring local talent. They should still be going on until Harvestlight, so we could give that a shot?"
Both agreed, so Jev rushed quickly back into the apartment, grabbing a thick blanket to use for their seating and stuffing it into a bag for ease of carrying. He rejoined the two women in the hall, once again closing and locking the door.
Lakeside Park was a bit of a trip from Jev's apartment by the metro, but the station was conveniently just inside the park's front gate. The park sat between the lake and the office towers of the business district, limiting how much the nightly concerts would disturb people in their homes, while convenient access by transit meant that it remained accessible to most who wanted to attend.
Jev, Cyd, and Sam could all hear the pulsing of the bass right as they exited the train, even underground. Emerging onto the surface, a brilliant halo of light emerged from among the trees. The paths were well-lit, and the park was still relatively busy with people walking their dogs, jogging, and just generally taking advantage of the nicer weather before winter blew in. Sam had opted not to disguise herself beyond the dress, and so Jev and his entourage got a few curious glances as they made their way towards the amphitheatre, as well as a few jealous ones.
The Cornell Amphitheatre was an old, pre-Arrival structure, gifted to the city by some business magnate who'd decided that donating a big public works structure was better than having his fortune taxed away. It was a large clam-shell-shaped bandstand that faced a mostly natural horseshoe feature in the terrain. Within the local music community, getting a chance to play the "Cornell Clamshell" was a rite of passage, a sign you'd moved up from being just a garage band to being a "serious musician". While it had been in fairly significant disrepair a few decades before, the refurbishment had prompted the "Rhythms on the Edge" program to justify its use and now it stood in the grassy field in front of the lake, a shining beacon of the city's nightlife, the lighthouse flashing away in the distance.
The field in front of the Clamshell rose at a gentle angle, so they picked a spot halfway up the mid-left side of the amphitheatre and set down their blanket. The sandwich board at the entry had two bands on the docket for the night. The one playing now had a very unique, distorted sound with chaotic guitar riffs and strange rhythms where the lead singer seemed to be creating a rhythm as much as he was singing. It was unusual but catchy, and there were more blankets out on the field than Jev would have expected, suggesting they were at least relatively well known.
The population here were almost exclusively unEnchanted, at least as far as Jev could tell. A young man on the far side of the field with cat-like features lay on a blanket with a woman with no apparent Enchantments, and a slightly older pair of dwarf men cuddled on a blanket together as a young dwarf child climbed over them, restless and tired of the music.
The rest were apparently boring ol' Garnacans like him, ranging in age from a few children playing in the grass to a few older couples who were probably into their sixties. Jev was getting ready to settle in and lie down, when seemingly from out of nowhere, Cyd was attacked. A tiny, cherubic figure with a broad, gap-toothed smile and wispy brown hair clamped onto her side in a full-body hug and beamed up at her.
"Puppy!"
