Spring Festival in the Summer

Today was surely going to be a treat. Mercury loved festivals. Big gatherings like these ones were enjoyable not just because she was social but also because she enjoyed people watching. It was one of her favorite pastimes. She could spend hours just observing men and women from afar as they went about their daily lives, testing herself to see what she could learn about them just by studying their habits and interactions. This was the kind of thing she lived to drag Vandrad to, and normally that’s exactly what she would have done, except that fate had other plans for her this time around.

Hosrius had suggested a meetup involving him, Grubar, Mercury, and an individual that was apparently Maker’s brother. Mercury had accepted the invitation immediately, all too intrigued by the opportunity to meet someone that was related to the man that had supposedly had her killed. There was much she was hoping to learn from the man, whom she could only assume had come to Earthland to hunt down his brother. Otherwise, why would Hosrius trust him enough to request a meeting? It would be for the best, anyway. While Mercury had been able to communicate with the Jirian and Scengar that Maker had orchestrated an attack on her and she had faked her death, she had not yet gotten the chance to update them on everything else she had done. This would be the perfect opportunity!

That being said, the aforementioned fake death also made it more difficult to safely go out in public without being spotted. Thankfully, she’d made some upgrades to her stealth suit that allowed her to go about her business without worry. Normally her suit simply allowed her to be more or less rendered invisible by redirecting the light around her. Now, she could also use the same scientific method to change the way she appeared by bending the light around her to trick the eyes of others into seeing something other than her true self. It was quite genius, really, and she was very proud of herself.

As Hosrius had assumed, Mercury had arrived at the fair some time ago, leaving Vandrad to his own devices for the day, the prince surely happy to have an excuse to miss the event. She had already roamed the fairgrounds three times both by foot and with her technology, looking for anything – or any one – out of the ordinary. Bandit kept nearby too, though he kept to the trees and sky. Not many people kept crows as pets, and all the disguises and magic in the world wouldn’t protect her if they knew they were looking for a woman with a crow as a pet.

When she felt that she had properly surveyed the area and found nothing of concern, she then returned to where she had seen the pair of aliens earlier. “You boys look like you could use some sunglasses,” she told them with a smile. Rather than Mercury, however, they would find another woman that was relatively close to Mercury’s size and stature, but with thick green hair that was pulled up into pigtails and bright brown eyes hidden behind a pair of lightly tinted sunglasses. She was dressed in an orange midriff shirt and striped gray pants with an oversized coat. Like a shady street peddler out of a movie, she pulled open one side of her coat and pulled out two other pairs of tinted spectacles, offering them to the men. Should they don the glasses, they would find that they allowed both of them to see through the illusion around Mercury, revealing the true woman they knew behind the facade.

Mercury gave them both her trademark little smirk. “So! Hosrius is going to do the maypole dance, is he? That should be a good time. Personally, I’m just here to see Grubar participate in the Leprechaun Relay.”

Every time she saw Hosrius and Grubar she was reminded of how much she liked the two of them, and not just in the sense that she found them both attractive in their own completely different ways. The unlikely duo were about as opposite as both sides of a magnet, and yet they had managed to form an excellent – and often entertaining – business relationship with one another. Mercury approached the pair, the two of them seeing her for who she really was after donning the glasses she had provided them, and right when Grubar was about to risk her cover Hosrius was already leaping in to protect it. The two men went back and forth very quickly fabricating a mostly seamless and extremely wacky tale about the last time they had seen “Merciala”.

She chuckled, earnestly amused but doing her best to steer into the skid and act like everything they had just said was completely normal and true. “It certainly has been too long. Thank you so much for thinking of me and inviting me out today. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything!” Mercury stepped up to both to give them a friendly kiss on the cheek, though Grubar would have to bend over for her to reach. “You’re looking pretty handsome yourself, Bruiser,” she informed the Scengar with a flirty grin.

Hosrius stated that he could be talked into the maypole dance with the right partner, but first he concurred with Mercury’s idea about Grubar taking part in the leprechaun race. Then, to further entice the scaled alien, he fibbed about the nature of the relay to trick Grubar into participating. As the Scengar walked away, Mercury hooked her arm in Hosrius’s. “You’re so bad.” By the smile on her face it was clear she was enjoying every moment, even as he explained that he knew hell was likely to pay for the deception later but he couldn’t help but take the opportunity before him, come what may.

As they moved to go sit in the stands, Hosrius also explained about the plans for their actual meeting that day. His contact was likely already there, no doubt scoping the place out and watching them from afar until it was time for the rendezvous. The man was greatly anticipating being introduced to Mercury and learning more about what she knew. “Oh, I’m quite sure the lot of you will be more than interested in the things I have to share. But that’s fine, I don’t mind spending a little bit of time with the two of you before getting down to business.”

Grubar’s complaints about learning what the race actually entailed had little trouble reaching their ears, particularly Mercury’s sensitive ones. She laughed alongside Hosrius and watched with great amusement as Grubar stubbornly chose to participate anyway. It was quite the sight, and truthfully it looked like he had been paired up with quite an effective team. Well, at least when it came to running. Getting changed in and out of the leprechaun suit was another matter entirely, and Grubar wound up hauling off with his teammate in his arms. The end was almost in sight, the finish line within his grasp, until the physics of two people sharing a suit finally caught up with him. Down the pair went in a tumbled heap, and before he could get back on his feet the other teams rushed past and secured every place except for the last one that would belong to Grubar’s team.

“The odds are certainly not promising,” Mercury laughed at Hosrius winced and doubled down on his self-bet that Grubar was going to take this out on him later. “But maybe he’ll call it even if he gets to watch you dance around like an idiot around the maypole. I’ll even be that ‘right partner’ you were looking for if you’d like.” She flashed him a coy smirk and gave him a little nudge with her shoulder.

Once they had met back up with Grubar, Mercury did as promised and lead the way to what was sure to be a vastly different pole dance to the ones she was used to performing. The maypole had been crafted from an extremely tall, stout tree. There were dozens of brightly colored ribbons attached to the top, each of which was passed off to every new participant that stepped up to join the event, Mercury and Hosrius included. She knew very little about how this was supposed to work, but frankly that was because there didn’t seem to be any pre-ascribed uniform way this particular tradition did work. The overall result was the same: people danced around the pole with the ribbons in hand to wrap the trunk up. But the particular dances and music weren’t always the same each time.

So in truth, she didn’t really know what to expect and that honestly made it all the more fun once the music did start playing. It was somewhat of a loose, flowy, and carefree tune with a simple beat that was easy to follow at a comfortable and leisurely pace. Honestly the whole thing was more than a little silly. Mercury didn’t have much of a concept for traditions, or at least ones with her own culture, and the idea of dancing around a pole to wrap it up with ribbons was frankly a ludicrous practice. But all the Earthlanders had bought into it and seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was, at the very least, a sight to behold for the non-natives.