Common

She’s not expecting to find much in the Commons - not really. Honestly, she’d used up all her luck happening upon Vadim still breathing and she knows that. The likelihood that Arsinoe stumbles upon anyone else she’s even remotely interested in talking to is slim.

But Salem is…stifling. The politics, the pressure, the constant need to be on. She needed a break, and she needed to see if she could hear what was going on outside of her own island. Idly, she’d considered one of the less-aggressive gathering places. But if she wanted any semblance of an idea regarding who was leading, who was lurking in the Lagoon and what the Peak was up to these days, she’d need to be able to watch who exactly took those desperate souls lingering here home.

So the Common it was; she arrives mid-afternoon, the cool breeze and abundant grass a welcome reprieve from the Badlands. The contaminated water from that massive, ridiculous elk dying in the canyon made a hard Spring even harder (until she could pull the massive, rotting corpse from the stream) and the unrest has only continued to escalate things. Arsinoe slips from the ocean and heads inland, deciding she should get to the highest ground she can and do her best to look generally unapproachable.

No one can claim her, of course, but that doesn’t mean some ill-advised Lagoon pest won’t try. When she reaches the top of the nearest rise, she glances around and her gaze settles on a familiar form.

Asmodeus - former king of the Desert, and one of the many desperate connections Arsinoe had made when the Badlands were initially lost. Father of her darling Aesara, too, although he has only met her that one time. She approaches quietly, drawing up alongside him before stopping.

“I preferred it when you held the Desert,” she informs him mildly after a few long moments of silence. “No grand rekindled plans to unite Salem under your rule?” Arsinoe offers him a sly glance and considers needling him further, but she truly hadn’t known him all that well before she’d left with Aesara, and the last thing she needs is another enemy where she may be able to find an ally.