AN: It's been a while and I am very rusty, but I promised I'd return when Octopath 2 inevitably came out. I'm only a little late!
I do want to preface this by saying that though this is a story involving a scholar and a dancer, this is unfortunately not the start to another Travel On style anthology. While I loved Travel On, I just don't have the time or ideas to commit myself to something of that scale again. I honestly don't know if I will be back with more OT2 fanfic in the future but I adore the game deeply and loved its stories.
Regardless, please enjoy this platonic little piece!
Contains location spoilers for Osvald and Agnea's chapters.
Osvald researches the effects of Agnea's dances across western Solistia, conclusions eluding him as they travel.
Confounding Conclusions
Osvald had observed this phenomenon over half a dozen times now. Yet, while the results never changed, he had yet to draw a conclusion from them that did not raise yet another question.
Why was it, every time that Agnea danced, he felt a wave of peace wash over him?
Not only peace, but joy. A pleasant soothing joy that washed down his spine and left him feeling reinvigorated.
Not only peace, not only joy, but most confoundingly, hope.
A man like Osvald had nothing in this life left to hope for but swift revenge and a quick and painless death presumably not long after. There was nothing left in this world that could bring him hope, even his old research left a bitter taste in his mouth.
So what was it about Agnea's dances that made him long to see the day after his revenge quest's end?
When Osvald had first met Agnea, performing in a cheap tavern in New Delsta, he'd thought the coffee the tavern served was the source of his improved mood. While he didn't doubt that the coffee increased the emotions he'd felt in that moment, the beverages he'd drunk since left him with heightened nerves and a boost of energy, but never the same sense of satisfaction that he'd felt that first night of freedom in the city.
That he'd started travelling with Agnea afterwards was nothing short of an accidental encounter. One, that in his desperation to rationalise, Osvald was starting to irrationally suspect was more than just a coincidence.
He'd spotted her at the New Delsta anchorage a couple of nights later, performing a small show for the waiting crowd, evidentially hoping to receive enough coin to buy her passage back to the west. Her performance had earned her some coin and a few bundles of fruits, but not enough to afford the ferry.
So Osvald, once again made inexplicably merry by the young dancer, offered to cover the rest of her fare. Agnea graciously thanked him before bombarding him with questions about why he'd helped her, who he was, where he was heading, why he was dressed in rags and chains, where did he get the money for the fare. Since that first encounter, Osvald had eventually answered all of her questions. Except for the one about the ferry fare, he didn't think the young girl needed to know he'd beaten the lights out of a New Delsta soldier and stolen his savings to secure passage back home.
Nor did he even tell her he was heading back home at the time, only that he was also travelling to Canalbrine. Back then, he'd thought they'd go their separate ways there.
Instead, Agnea insisted she'd head to the tavern to earn enough money for the inn rather than take any more of his. Osvald, already subconsciously running hypothesises for his mood boosts, decided that he might as well get a drink before turning in himself.
So, for the third time, Osvald watched Agnea dance.
And this time, he made notes on his emotional state before, during and immediately after her dance.
Much to his surprise, those first notes matched near perfectly to every set he's made since.
Canalbrine, Conning Creek, Tropu'haha, Sai… All his notes matched. And so, even as he watched her stumble along the cobbled road up to Wellgrove, Osvald already knew his notes would match there as well.
And, strangely, he was looking forward to attaining yet more evidence he could not concisely explain.
He'd considered the taverns the source before a sharp reminder in Sai that he hated the smell of cheap liquor and its affects on the people who consumed it. Taverns also wouldn't have explained why his mood was boosted in Tropu'haha and in Sai's slums.
He'd ruled out the locales themselves after returning to Conning Creek. In a town home to so many pleasant memories, marred by one all-consuming terrible one, Osvald had thought his mood changes a result of his renewed desire for revenge. But, joy, peace, hope… He associated none of those emotions with his quest.
In fact, as he reflected, he realised he'd not felt any of them until Agnea had dragged him to the tavern for a meal before they moved on. And he was quite sure his good mood was not a result of his home's bizarre obsession with octopus based cuisine.
With each town they stopped in, Osvald ruled out more and more possibilities until they at last arrived in Wellgrove and Agnea saw the townsfolk of her homelands.
Last Osvald had heard, Wellgrove was a bustling economic hub. Apparently, plenty had changed in five years, as the town now housed many disenfranchised merchants and tired townsfolk.
So, Agnea being the winds of change that she was, rounded up a small crowd with her winks and… talents… before putting on a show. So, Osvald once more pulled out his notebook.
She'd been putting together lyrics for her 'Song of Hope', a title Osvald had once thought trite and saccharine. But, well.
Agnea Bristarni had proved herself to be many things on her short journey with Osvald. A master chef, a fierce fighter, a smiling confidant, an endless source of positivity. A beacon of hope for all who had the honour and pleasure of watching her dance.
That evening in Wellgrove, as the crowd grew bigger and the skies more full of stars, Osvald finally put his notebook away and watched the star he had the privilege of calling his travelling partner.
After accepting her tips and compliments, Agnea returned to Osvald with her arms full and her face alight with a smile. Upon seeing his arms crossed, her smile creased into a confused frown.
"Are you feeling well, Professor?" She asked as they started towards the inn.
"… I feel no different than normal." Osvald acknowledge after a pause, his words considered as he held the inn door open for the young dancer. "Why?"
"Well, normally when I dance, I see you scribbling away in your notebook." She dropped her bundles of coins and fruits graciously into the basket the inn keeper offered her, obviously having watched her struggle as Osvald paid for their beds. "But tonight you watched with your arms crossed. And I can't see your face behind your beard and glaring glasses, so I thought… Perhaps you'd had enough of me."
"Nonsense." He scoffed.
"… Then why do you look so grumpy?"
Scratching his beard in consideration, Osvald spoke as calmly and concisely as always, "I have been analysing your dances since we met."
"What?!" Agnea exclaimed, her accent slipping as it often did when surprised.
"You bring a smile to all who watch you dance. Your passion and drive to make people happy is, understandably, demonstrated through your dances. Yet, by some as yet unknown magic, those same dances pass those emotions on to fill their audiences with joy. And hope." Nodding to himself, Osvald finally spoke his conclusions. "Those are the conclusions I drew tonight. Therefore, making further notes on the subject would be redundant."
Blushing, Agnea fanned her face. "So… You aren't grumpy?"
"… Quite the opposite." Osvald shook his head. "I am as I always am after watching your dances, content."
"Well." Agnea laughed before burying her head in her palms and shaking it. When she finally raised her face to look at Osvald, she was beaming. "Ya sure know how to give a girl the strangest compliments, Professor!"
"I speak only the logical conclusions of my observations."
"I'm sure you do!" Agnea laughed again, settling back into her city accent with a clearing of her throat. "So, you're not tired of me?"
"… I have no desire to stop travelling with you at this time."
"You really consider your answers carefully, huh." Agnea shook her head before beaming once more. "Well, I'll keep travellin' with you for now too! Travelling the world with an intimidating gentleman is much safer than travelling it alone, after all!"
"What do you mean?" Osvald frowned slightly in confusion.
"Hehe. Perhaps you should research that next, Professor." With that, Agnea gathered up her belongings and wished him goodnight before disappearing into her assigned room upstairs.
The effects of her mood boosting dance lingered long into the night as Osvald lay awake, considering her new research proposal…