Rhyme chuckled. Just seeing a familiar face was reassuring; what's more, this seemed particularly up Raimell's alley, so he probably just needed more manpower. "I'll do my best!" he optimistically responded. "Although I don't know a lot of stuff, so you'll have to tell me what to do, haha." he sheepishly added. He caught the empty bag easily, and moved to follow the herbalist out of the city.

"Hey, hey, you found me passed out, I didn't pass out on you." he easily jabbed back. "I seem fine enough." He wondered if he should tell him about how he'd found his mutations work since the last time they'd seen each other, but they seemed to be working well enough and didn't seem detrimental to his health... although didn't Raimell think his body was strange from the start when they found him in the ruin? "I'm not really sure what's out of the ordinary for me, though." He laughed nervously.

Soon enough they were past the gates and into the forest proper, the walls of the megalopolis retreating behind their backs. "It was somewhere around this forest that you found me, right?" he thought aloud.

"So, what are we looking for, exactly?"

---

Raimell Windsor

Rhyme really hadn't been sure what to pack, beyond food and water, and besides, he didn't really have many belongings, and most certainly not specialized equipment for... picking herbs. He didn't know much about the topic (to be honest, he didn't know a lot of things on a variety of topics), but the request said that it was okay for someone who didn't know much about it to apply, all they needed was another set of hands.

Speaking of herbs, there was a person he knew in passing who... oh. He's here? "Raimell?" he said, seeing his acquaintance... would it be presumptuous to call him friend? He waved, just in case his voice was not enough to catch his attention.

He had been one of the people who had found him in the ruin, but he was... slightly harder to find than Iocus at times, so they hadn't always been able to converse and know each other well. Then again, Iocus was generally easier to find than most people on account of his preference to be immobile... ah, he was getting off-track.

He looked to one side and the other. "Are you here for the quest too? Where's the person who issued it... oh." While Rhyme could be very insightful at times, sometimes he could also be... very slow. "You're the one who issued it? Wouldn't that be expensive? I mean, I'm getting paid, but, erm..."

"...so, uh... please take care of me?"

---

Raimell Windsor

Well, I suppose I'd make it official and maybe have Rai be Rhyme and Iocus's friend? Join the barely-ends-meet-freelancing crew? XD Rhyme would be particularly appreciative of Rai's ability to do first aid and he'd probably want to learn how to do it too, or at least the parts that he could do, since the surgery and the potion-making are made possible by Rai's mutations. He'd think they're pretty good skills to have for people like him who don't really have access to healing magic, and as a mutant, learning healing magic can be pretty hard (find a healing familiar or learn artificing?). Rhyme's temperament also means that he's extra understanding of Rai's bluntness, and they're both easygoing people too.

Would Rai and Rhyme know each other by the time the event thread rolls around, or would the event be their first meeting? Rai could always be one of the people who found Rhyme when he woke up without memories in the ruin, if they're already prior acquaintances. As for thread ideas, maybe a thread where Rai teaches Rhyme some basic first aid, or as always, some random quest they could do together?

Oh, and I guess I'll tag Bunny in this for her opinion. Iocus Devir

Welp.

Hope you get better soon, Mirror. We miss your sass. =w=

Excitement showed upon her face, upon the voice that came from her lips, but not from her heart; it was, yet again, a show, it seemed, that she continued to employ for some reason. Was there something that she had to hide from, that she had to act like this? Or was there something she desired to gain from people, that she could only gain by wielding this facade?

In any case, whether under false pretenses or not, he would help her. That was his way.

"Mutants are cool?" he asked, with a note of surprise. From what he had heard, mutants... had a bit of a bad time until quite a while ago, and sometimes they still had, because of how markedly different they were, on how much more innate their magic was and how it often did not have an off switch. From what he could discern of the lass's inner rumblings, it seemed her opinion was actually the opposite of what she was expressing. Perhaps the pretense was... she was a mutant herself?

"That seems like sound advice. Some strangers might want to do bad things to unsuspecting people." he remarked. Of course, there was the question of just who was the stranger and who was the unsuspecting person in this dynamic, but he wouldn't expound on that.

He took her hand to shake it.

"Nice to meet you, then, Cassie." he said. "My name is Rhyme. I... don't think I have a last name, but I might have just misplaced it." he indicated vaguely. "I'm a freelancer, I do jobs here and there, depending on what people need. Kind of like a super part-timer or something."

"Anyway, so we're looking for Blue..." He closed his eyes and concentrated. Childlike, and likes to sleep and eat... there were children in the park, but they would most likely be in the more easily accessible parts of the Repose, and if not, they'd probably be more panicking than thinking childlike thoughts. So his best bet would probably be something in the woods that thinks like that, although he might catch a false positive with a hungry beast...

"I've got... three leads." he told her, as he opened his eyes. "The good news is that they're all generally in that direction over there... although we'll probably have to get deeper into the woods for it."

"So, let's go?" he said, waiting for her confirmation. Once she agreed, he would start leading the way, into the undergrowth.

---

Cassiopeia

Not everyone has the best of intentions.

Certainly that was something that Rhyme knew, perhaps intimately, even; or at least, that was something he had felt through his uniquely magical perspective, of the people he had encountered around Eos. Still, it did not quite answer his question, about what she meant, and yet he felt he could divine the answer--- that the lady Behemoth seemed to think that Eos was far harsher than what he had seen. Perhaps she was right; he had yet to see much of the large city-state, after all.

Then they turned to his other question, the question that he wanted answered for this encounter, actually. The workings of the government of Eos... Behemoth was a Knight, and as he had expected, was something of a peacekeeper, and they followed the Arbiters, who decided how Eos was run; so that was the hierarchy. Nice and simple. He nodded as he processed the information.

"Trouble?" he echoed, with unfeigned surprise. "I would ask you what is the Trench, but I suppose it is a place where you keep your criminals, from what you've said. But yes, I have no intention of causing trouble..." ...although maybe I would try to intervene when trouble happens. That's... not troublemaking, is it?

...ah, they've come to this point. So that explained the strange distance and hostility, the suspicion hidden beneath her stoic facade. He grinned sheepishly, even as he strained from the uncomfortable situation Behemoth put her in. "I've never thought of it that way before, but I suppose it is suspicious. Nonetheless, I'm here, aren't I?" he pointed out. "Why would a criminal go out of his way to talk more to a knight when he could just slip away?"

"Hrm... but I guess, beyond that, I don't really have anything to give you to trust me, since I don't really remember anything about myself, as hard it is to confirm. Maybe I am a criminal." he posited. He made a gesture with his pointer finger. "How about this? I'm trying to find out who I am. Maybe you could help me, and if I'm a criminal you could arrest me. Doesn't that sound fair?"

"...ah, and also, if you could put me down, this is kind of a difficult position. I know it is supposed to be difficult, but still..."

---

Behemoth

Cassiopeia

Oh, that's a really good angle.

What I had in mind for Rhyme's past was not experimentation, per se, but he was definitely used for his unique abilities, so perhaps the difference is negligible. The main problem is that Rhyme's time period was... a hundred years ago, when Eos was still a monarchy, so the timeline might be a bit of a stretch, unless... they were a group of nobles that survived the upheaval of Eos turning into a more democratic sort of government, and they'd continued on their heinous machinations behind the political curtain, ending up maltreating other people and creating Cassie's situation. Could even make for a competing big bad for the Grimm Troupe, haha, and might even be a good reason for unlikely team-ups.

To be fair, Rhyme is looking for his history because it's kinda missing from his brain, but well, indeed, Rhyme would be the sort of person to seek the truth even if it would be painful, and that is probably the divergence between him and Cassie.