New Year, New Journal (Izmailovsky Market)

[Seren]

Casey’s interest was genuine and endearing. Most of what Seren spoke about amounted to folklore and legend, stories she’d accumulated over extensive travels and pieced together herself. Beyond a consistency of accounts she’d never found anything to prove these people really existed, not the way Seren existed at least – and she’d been looking for years. Even the Ascendancy’s announcement hadn’t opened new doors, though she’d hoped at the time it would. It was why she was still in Moscow though; because even if the city lacked true answers, the questions were not laughed out of the room here at least. Or not so often.

She smiled a little at the earnestness of the response. There was a sweetness in Casey she liked, but also a naivety that made her feel wistful for a simpler life: one where being good was enough on its own, and intention mattered more than consequence. Seren lived her life bound not by morality, but by responsibility. Good and bad held no real meaning, for desire was either or sometimes both, and cared not for the calibre of the heart to which it belonged. She did not mean to hurt Theo, and yet their relationship had nearly destroyed the pair of them.

Of course, that was too complex a discussion to have over tea with a stranger. Nor did she really want to think about the ways she was different, or how everything eventually burned whether she was careful or not. It made her feel weary, and today she wanted only to enjoy the moment for what it was – not to consider the inevitable moment she would leave, for Casey’s sake.

“Perhaps,” she said, thoughtfully. “The stories always focus on the consequences, not the person behind them. So I suppose we’ll never know whether they were good or bad people. I would like to agree with you, though.” She smiled, then shrugged. It wasn’t a dismissive gesture so much as one that professed to having no answers. “What a time to be alive, huh?”

“I’ve never seen it,” she admitted with a soft laugh, after Casey settled on a favourite film.

[Casey]

Casey felt herself drawn in because it really was fascinating. The stories would focus more on the consequences, but it meant the people themselves were obscurities. There were so many ways to go about it. Casey would have no idea where to start researching it. She wondered about that though. Did Seren have any specific names.

”It would be really neat to see some of these stories from the pint of view of the one who was responsible. It sounds like that has been hard to come by though,” she placed her hand on her journal and gave an amused smile. ”Too bad they weren’t into journaling.”

Casey smiled at her response to the movie. ”Im not surprised. It is rather old. Some family traditions still watch it around Christmas time, mostly in the States, I’m guessing as it is an American film. But things tend to become more obscure and niche the older they get. It’s worth a watch if you get the chance.” Casey could always invite her to watch it. She had a copy.

Casey brought her cup to her lips only to realize it was empty. She had been interested enough that she just hadn’t been paying attention to it. ”How did you get into your particular field of research - what drew you to it, if you don’t mind me asking? Do the stories mention names of the people who were responsible or has time obscured them as well?”