NOVEL NEXT 1: Creature from the Meg Lagoon – Episode 2
Having finished their meals, the group heads out to start the tour of the nightlife district, but not before running into a few distractions on their way.
“Hey Mari! Thanks again for taking over for me the other day, I hope you and Meg have fun this week!” A local jeweller calls out as he sees them walking past.
“Thanks for watching the kids when that big order came in Mari!” A Draph man with a blacksmith’s apron says as they cross paths.
“Mari, I wanted you to try his new recipe for Meg cakes I’ve been working on.” A human woman who just ran out of a bakery says as she hands her a baked good.
“Oh, this is pretty good.” Mari says after biting into it. “A bit of lemon in the icing would really bring out the flavour, though.”
“Why didn’t I think of that? Thank you so much! It’s good to see you as well Meg, I know how much Mari’s been looking forward to having you here!” The baker replies, heading back inside before Meg even gets a chance to say hello herself.
The group can’t go more than a few minutes without a local business owner either thanking Mari for helping them out, or asking for her input on their products.
“Wow, you really help a lot of people, don’t you Mari?” Lryia asks.
“Yeah, that’s just how it is around here. I guess even on my week off I can’t escape from work completely.” She replies with a shrug. While she’s still grumpy about the way her holiday has gone so far, she’s managed to calm down somewhat after eating a proper meal with Meg by her side.
“And what exactly is your line of work, if I may ask? It would appear to me that you’re quite the important figure around here.” Vira says.
“Well, if you have to know, my official title is chairperson of the Auguste Tourism Association, but with everything the way it is right now there’s a lot more to it than that.” Mari explains. “We can’t exactly have much tourism going on in an area that’s been wrecked by a monster or whatever else that decided to show up that summer, so I end up leading most of the restoration and reconstruction efforts around the isles. Most of the association’s budget has to be put towards that, as well as the usual marketing stuff you’d expect, so then there’s all the part time jobs I’ve been working to make sure I’ve got some income for myself.”
“I must admit, I’m rather impressed.” Vira says. “To have so many businesses coming to you for advice would require expertise in a remarkable variety of fields.”
Yeah, yeah. Sweet-talking me isn’t going to get you anywhere. Mari thinks.
“Yeah, Mari’s so cool, isn’t she?” Meg asks. “She’s always talking about how hard she’s working in the letters she writes to me.”
“Oh Meg, there’s no need to flatter me.” Mari says with a giggle. Although I certainly wouldn’t complain if you kept going. “I’m not an expert in any of these areas though, I just make sure to learn the basics in case they need an extra set of hands. But yeah, between the restoration work and the part time jobs all over the place, everyone got so used to me helping out that they started coming to me for pretty much anything.”
“Speaking of which…” Vyrn says as he watches a harvin woman exit a clothing shop and run in their direction.
“Sorry Mari, I know this is an important week for you, but I wanted to get your thoughts on something while you’re here.” She says. “We’re running low on stock for some of our seasonal items, should we focus on restocking the Megwarmers or the Ursula beanies?”
Mari stops to think for a moment. “Hmm… I’m a fan of the Megwarmers, but they haven’t been quite as popular this year, and they appeal to a smaller market to begin with. You’ve probably got a while before they completely sell out, so go for the beanies.”
“Thank you Mari, the missus sends her regards, by the way.”
“No worries, I hope her leg’s feeling better!” Mari calls out as the woman returns to her shop and the group starts walking again.
“...Megwarmers?” Djeeta asks, looking up from the placemat she brought with her.
“Oh, they’re just pink legwarmers with a black stripe down the side. You know, like Meg’s hair. The name’s just a marketing thing I came up with.” Mari explains.
“To think the people even trust you when it comes to business decisions. It’s plain to see they hold you in high regard.” Vira says.
Mari shrugs. “It’s not anything that special. I mean, having shops with stuff to sell is all a part of tourism right? It’s only natural that I’d have to learn that sort of thing. I can market Auguste all I want, but it won’t matter if there’s nothing for tourists to spend their rupees on.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Mari, you're basically running half the town at this point. You’ve been great at this sort of thing ever since we were kids.” Meg says.
“As an outsider, It certainly appears that way to me. Is it also safe to assume you’re the reason the stores are selling so many items featuring Meg and her shark friend compared to my last visit?” Vira asks as she looks at a sign in a window advertising dinnerware with Meg’s face printed on it.
“Well, yeah.” Mari says matter of factly. “What are we gonna do,
not capitalise on the hero who’s saved Auguste a bunch of times already? That’s a lot of money that we can use to fund things like the new district. And if it just so happens that I’m that hero’s number one fan, I don’t see what the problem is.”
“Sounds like a conflict of interest if you ask me. We’ve saved Auguste plenty of times as well y’know…” Vyrn says under his breath.
“For the record, I’m okay with it as well.” Meg adds. “If anything, it’s kinda neat to know that a normal girl like me can do something that has that much of an impact on people.”
“Don’t worry Meg, we all love what you do for us!” Mari reassures her.
“L-Lo…” Whatever response Meg had lined up gets caught in her throat.
“At the end of the day I’m just doing what I can for Auguste.” Mari declares. “Anyone would do the same thing if they were in my situation.”
“I would say you’re doing far more than that.” Vira says. “You don’t often hear of chairpeople with the expertise required to run a jewellery store, even if just for a day.”
“Yeah, or give cooking advice to bakeries.” Lyria adds.
“Well they clearly aren’t as dedicated as I am.” Mari says. “I’ll learn whatever business skills I need to help keep this place going.”
“I dunno if babysitting kids falls under business skills, though.” Vyrn points out.
“I guess you’ve got a point there. But still, knowing how to take care of kids could be important in the future.” Mari says matter of factly.
“...Is that so?” Vira asks with a hint of surprise in her voice.
“I mean who knows, right? Now come on, we’re almost there.” Mari and the others pick up the pace, not noticing Vira starting to trail behind, deep in thought.
Could it be that I was wrong about the two of them? No, there are too many signs… Could she be referring to adoption?
The next few minutes pass quietly without any other business owners asking for help, and the crew manage to reach their destination.
“Okay, here we are! Feast your eyes on our new nightlife district!” Mari announces.
The crew marvel at the newly rebuilt section of town, Djeeta even bothers to pocket the placemat for the time being. A spacious boulevard lined with freshly planted saplings lies before them, running along the length of the beach before veering inland via a gentle incline as it approaches the cliffside at the other end. The side of the path opposite the ocean is lined with shops and other businesses, many of which don’t open until the evening, sporting all manner of colourful signs.
“Wooooooow!” Lyria exclaims with stars in her eyes. “This looks amazing!”
“Yeah, everyone’s really outdone themselves here Mari! I can hardly recognise this part of town.” Meg says.
“If you think it looks cool now, just wait until you see it at night! The sun sets right over there in the ocean, and we’ve got illuminations set up all over the place that turn on when it starts getting dark, Auguste’s never seen anything like it!” Mari says proudly.
“It’s quite the impressive sight already, I can’t even begin to wonder what that must look like.” Vira looks over the area, silently scrutinising various details of the district. “Yes, I do believe Katalina would enjoy this view quite a bit, and the streets are clean enough that I would allow her to set foot in such an area. This tour is already off to a promising start.”
“Well I guess it’s a good thing you all arrived on such a sunny day, it’s not always quite so bright at this time of year.” Mari looks up, taking note of some large clouds off in the distance. “Don’t be surprised if you wake up to a couple of foggy mornings while you’re here.”
“I’m sure this place looks great no matter the weather.” Meg says confidently. “You’ve really done such a great job here, Mari.”
“Awwww, thanks Meg!” Mari grins widely. “We can only do stuff like this because you do such a good job of protecting Auguste though.”
“C-Come on, a regular girl like me can’t do anything nearly as impressive as you.”
“But it’s true Meg! Everyone feels sooooo much safer when you’re around. Making sure Auguste is somewhere you can also relax is the least we can do.”
Mari continues her back and forth with the increasingly bashful Meg, which while awkward for the onlookers, does much to reaffirm Vira’s initial impression of the two.
“Soooo… are we doing this tour or what?” Vyrn finally asks.
“Right, we should probably get started! That group of buildings up the hill on the other side is the main square, so that’s where we’ll be headed!” Mari leads the group once more, with a little extra kick in her step thanks to the exchange with Meg.
“Some of you are probably wondering why we decided to build a nightlife district, right?” Mari asks, entering tour guide mode. “Well, we’ve wanted to have more to offer outside of the summer months for a while now, so after Winterguste never really took off due to a lack of numbers, we figured that instead of focusing all our efforts into a single holiday we’d do something you can experience any time you’d like. And since those club events were rising in popularity right before the whole zombie thing happened, it only seemed natural to lean into that sort of entertainment and have a dedicated space for it. As you can see we’ve got plenty of space for outdoor club parties, but we’ve also got a bunch of buildings where you can dance indoors any day of the year. We’re calling them nightclubs since they only open when the sun starts going down.”
“Quite impressive.” Vira says. “You didn’t let your previous failures get to you, and instead found a new course of action. That sort of perseverance is admirable.”
“Hey.” Mari says sharply. “I never said Winterguste was a failure. It just wasn’t the right time for it.” Ah, I swear I’ll get my cosy Winterguste night with Meg one of these days… “Besides, the illuminations here were directly inspired by the ones we had going for that event, so this district wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t give it a shot.”
“O-Of course, I apologise for my poor choice of words.” Vira says with a bow.
“Well, I don’t know what the illuminations will be like, but I think everything looks great already!” Lyria says.
“Yeah. I gotta say, you picked a real nice part of the island for all this.” Vyrn says in agreement.
“It’s super pretty, isn’t it?” Mari asks. “It’s early days of course, but the reception has been pretty good so far!”
All you need to do is look around to see what she means, while the boulevard isn’t exactly busy, there are a number of different groups here to check it out, which is quite promising considering how recently the district opened.
“It turns out the area’s got a pretty interesting history as well.” She continued “This spot’s almost always been used for tourism purposes thanks to the beach here, and the view from up on the cliffs over there, but way back, like right after the War ended, this was apparently where all the fishermen worked. I haven’t been able to find too many records from back then, but at some point they all moved to other parts of the island instead.”
“Do you know why they moved?” Djeeta asks inquisitively.
“I can’t really find any details, but I think there was some sort of accident?” Mari answers. “I did find an old record that mentions the cliffs being dangerous, but it doesn’t go into the specifics. If you ask me it’s probably because the rocks at the bottom are like super jagged, it can’t have been safe for all those fishermen to be sailing so close to them every day.”
“Wow Mari, you’re finding time to research the history of Auguste as well?” Meg asks. “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“Hehe, well there’s at least one thing...” Mari says as she grabs onto Meg’s arm with both hands, pressing her body against it. “I’ll never be as cool and strong as you, Meg!”
“M-Mari!” Meg exclaims as she starts to blush.
“Besides, knowing the stories behind these places is all part of the job.” Mari says, continuing to walk without letting go. “As for what we’ve got going on these days, the clubs and bars and all that don’t open until night, but we’ve also got a bunch of shops and places to eat out here, not to mention some new hotels. That means you can spend an entire trip just in this part of Auguste if you wanted, spending the night partying, and the day shopping for souvenirs or anything else you need.”
“Souvenirs… Wait, that's it! Souvenirs!” Lyria suddenly yells.
“H-Huh?” Mari says.
“The treasure map!” Lyria explains, still yelling.
“Oh, right!” Vyrn turns to Djeeta. “Hey buddy, read out that third riddle again!”
She pulls out the placemat once more. “Yarr, what rhymes with ‘buck in ear’?”
“The answer’s gotta be souvenir! Why didn’t we think of it earlier?” Vyrn says excitedly.
“Where’s the nearest souvenir shop?” The captain asks Mari with a very determined look on her face.
“There’s one a couple blocks down from here, why?” Mari points in the direction they were already walking.
“We’ll be back soon.” Djeeta says before the three of them suddenly run off, leaving Meg, Mari, and Vira alone.
“But… the tour…” Mari sulks. Come oooooooon! I wanted to get this over with asap so I could get to my private time with Meg…
“Perhaps this is for the best.” Vira says before looking at the other two. “Meg, I don’t suppose I could ask you to keep an eye on those three for a short while?”
“Why? Are you trying to keep her away from me?” Mari asks defensively, tightening her grip around Meg’s bicep.
“No, quite the opposite in fact, but there’s something I wish to discuss with you in private, Mari. I had planned to pull you aside after the tour, but this seems as good an opportunity as any.” Vira explains.
Mari blinks a few times, it takes a few moments to process what the knight is asking her. “Wait… with me?”
