Crocus is loud.
The buildings are still too small and too high, the streets are still swarming with humans, and the pulse of magic is as strong as ever, but the second he exits the Honey Bone Inn, the weeds growing between the cobblestones anchor him in place. How much of that is his own subconscious screeching for him to get back in is up for debate.
"It's a little disconcerting at first, isn't it?" Mira asks, closing the entrance to Honey Bone behind her. "I remember the culture shock after Tenrou. I imagine it's a bit worse for you, though."
"Much of Crocus is the same, and yet…" He gestures towards the bustling city square, hoping she gets it because he isn't sure any dialect he speaks can do justice to the sense of...heavy weightlessness he feels staring out at the world.
"I know. But I'm sure once the Games get a start you'll feel right at home," she says cheerfully, smiling so broadly her dimples show. "Hey, you've been here before, right? Anything still the same?"
Mard takes a second to wrestle his heart back into normal sinus rhythm - that is still a concept he's yet to grasp, that his heart is capable of pumping erratically, that it's pumping at all. The way the sun makes her eyes lighter and her hair glow certainly isn't helping things, so he averts his gaze and nods.
"Yes. Some bakeries and weapons shops I recall from...before."
Mira loops her arm around his, pulling him forward with surprising force behind her thin arms. "Would you want to show me around? I've been meaning to try and explore a bit!"
"...I would like that," Mard says, falling in step next to her with ease.