the shops in the center of sundial rarely lacked in traffic, and the surge of people ebbed and flowed from street to business like a sea. any breaks in the current could only be seen by the watchful gaze of the summer sun, bearing down from its noontime spot in the sky. to a couple everyday passerby on the ground the throng would seem eternally unbroken, and frankly a bit of a pain to wade through.

a couple feet inside the entryway of an herbalist, two demoralized partners took in the fully stocked shelves of natural ingredients like breaths of air, grateful to have finally broken free from the current. whatever internal clock the city impressed on its residents or whichever living organism's hive mind the people were apart of didn't impart on brody or his familiar. both were dripping with sweat and exhausted.

the man didn't know how that was really possible for pim, but after being snappily reminded that 'he was a pretty lousy and unlearned witch', he couldn't really argue. at times like this he wondered if the dolphin wasn't appearing overheated just to be dramatic, but brody wasn't about to vocalize such concerns right now. even as someone that swam all the time, pim wasn't having better luck than brody today. (mr. sun was probably focusing extra hard on a haphazard path of disgruntled, bumped-into people leading from the knights' hall to the store they were in.)

in the middle of the midday rush, the interior was just as confusing to brody as the first time he'd been. he suffered through it though, because going any further out to a less-busy area was definitely out of the question. instead his eyes searched for another warm body, ignoring a display of toxic oils and fauna.

"excuse me," he started, walking up to a completely random stranger on the good chance they were an alchemist—especially one better than himself. naturally pim was trying to interrupt, nosing underneath brody's arm and hovering around his head, offering the same slew of unhelpful advice as last time.

"sorry, excuse me," he repeated after shooing pim with jerky movements and a pinched face. "do you know what i wanna use as a base for a hair removal potion? i tried something from there—" he gestures to the aforementioned shelves— "after my familiar and i agreed, but i probably projectile vomited for days and definitely for hours and all i came out of it with more hair than i had to begin with, so..." he trails off. for a second brody looks at pim (who immediately turns away, favoring the silent treatment) but just ends up leaving the statement with a pretty lost and desperate look on his face.

Vera Lindt (sorry i'm so late juno x-x)