Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 113

Chapter 113 - Actors

“See, isn’t this better?” Eventus asked Xiaoyi as he glanced over the scattering of people now having hushed conversations in the tea house.

“Better?” Xiaoyi repeated,

“Nothing against the consideration.” Eventus began apologetically. “But the natural energy inherent to people just going about their lives has a uniqueness to it that's hard to match.”

With the war going on it had been decades since he could just blend in on some random world and people watch. And sure this wasn't exactly the same, but it was a sure sight better than watching his teammates play their five thousandth game of latrunculorum.

Xiaoyi shot him an odd look. “Dare I ask if you mean that literally?”

Eventus immediately opened his mouth to say no, only to close it as he gave the question a bit more thought.

“I suppose it is literally true, but I don't have the gift of thought, so I was only speaking figuratively.”

Movement caught the corner of his eye and he turned to see the actor from earlier approaching their table.

“I just wanted to say, sorry for my behavior earlier.” The man said, giving an apologetic dip of his head. “We had just finished an early morning shoot, and hadn’t been informed there was an investor meeting going on here.”

A brief look of surprise flashed across Eventus's face at the choice of cover story, but he supposed it would be easy enough to run with given the circumstances so he offered the man an amused smile.

“I understand, little annoyances can seem much larger than they actually are when you're tired and hungry.”

The young actor put a hand on his hip and gave a laugh. “Like you wouldn't believe, twenty-two takes in a stunt harness getting thrown across the room.” He sighed, letting his arm drop before giving a rueful shake of his head. “Didn't even get to the kiss with Yun.”

“And you never will, Junyan!” One of the women who had come in with him yelled over before breaking out in giggles.

Eventus held back a laugh at the glare the guqin player shot the loud woman. Which turned into an actual chuckle when the young actress just made a face at the older woman.

“Yun, I take it?” Xiaoyi asked dryly.

“Good guess.” Junyan returned before offering the older woman a charming grin. “And you would be?”

Xiaoyi looked distinctly unimpressed. “Shen Xiaoyi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Junyan visibly cringed, and his head slowly turned to Eventus who gave an amused grin.

“Evan Devera, billionaire philanthropist from a small island nation you've probably never heard of.”

He was pretty sure handing out advanced technology to a less advanced civilization in need counted as philanthropy, though if not it probably should.

“I… I see…” Junyan muttered, looking distinctly like he had just swallowed something sour. “If you will excuse me, I should probably get back to my friends.”

With those words he beat a hasty retreat, leaving Eventus to shake his head in bemusement before turning back to Xiaoyi who was giving him a somewhat judging stare.

“Philanthropist?” 

Eventus scratched his chin in faux consideration. “I mean, I am providing your scientific expedition with free room and board on some very high value beach front property. But I suppose we could work out a lease agreement if that’s too much?”

Xiaoyi sighed before leaning back in her chair. “I know you’re just joking, but we spent an entire day arguing over that very question.”

“It’s fine.” Eventus waved off, dismissing the idea since it really wasn’t a concern to him for a number of different reasons. “You’re people are providing direly needed upkeep work around the city, so there’s nothing to really worry about on that front.”

“Which just means I can expect a few months of various people arguing over whether we should be charging you.” Xiaoyi drawled in an exasperated tone that suggested she considered it a very real possibility.

Given what Eventus knew about Earth politics, he could see that happening easily enough. Though the real question would be if any of them actually meant it, or just wanted to use the idea of it for some future plot.

“That Junyan seemed nice.” He offered, changing the subject away from the universal annoyance that was politics. “Though at the end there I think he was afraid you were going to have him killed.”

Something that was always a real possibility when accidentally embarrassing authoritarian governments.

“That’s more of a Russian thing.” Xiaoyi rejected with an amused shake of her head. “He was probably just worried he cost the studio a multi-million dollar investment and is going to get blacklisted for it.”

“Ah.” Eventus drawled in understanding, not entirely sure he believed it, but willing to at least give her the benefit of the doubt. 

His lips twitched slightly as a thought occurred to him. “It would be a shame to lose an actor with such good taste though.”

“Good taste?” Xiaoyi repeated questioningly.

“He thought you were attractive.” Eventus put forward innocently.

Xiaoyi narrowed her eyes. “Really?”

“Too much?” Eventus asked, worried he'd gone too far with things.

“Given I've seen the type of women actors like him are regularly surrounded by, a little bit.” Xaioyi nodded.

There was likely some irony there given in another universe she herself had been a rather prolific actress. 

“I don't know.” Eventus mused consideringly as he looked Xiaoyi over with a critical eye. “Put you in some of those overly elaborate robes and give you a costume wig and I'm pretty sure you'd match up well to the various female leads around here.”

“Maybe their evil aunts.” Xiaoyi muttered unhappily under her breath before adding some more tea to her cup.

“I’m going to have to assume that’s some sort of cultural reference I just don’t get.” Eventus confessed.

Xiaoyi grimaced, glazing over at the guqin player to watch the woman pluck at the instrument's strings for a moment before turning back to him and letting out a soft sigh. 

“Something like that.”

It was clear from her clipped tone that she didn't really want to discuss the subject further, so Eventus let it drop.

“I was thinking over what to do after this, and do you think there might be some good souvenir shops around?"

“Is there anything you're looking for in particular?” Xiaoyi asked, setting the tea she was about to drink down to give him her full attention.

“Something made of handcarved stone would be nice.” Eventus said as he thought about what sorts of things Rayla might like. “I promised to get Rayla a souvenir, and I was kind of hoping to find something that could last.”

He'd had more than one thank you for saving my village gift fall apart over the centuries, and it was always a shame to lose a good conversation piece like that.

“I'm sure something can be arranged on that front.” Xiaoyi nodded. “Do you know what she might like?”

Eventus furrowed his brow as he considered the various conversations he'd with the elf over the past couple weeks. “Well, she's been trying to convince me to get her a pet dragon. But that would be a large amount of work nobody has time for.”

Sure it was technically possible to bio-engineer a large lizard that could fly, breathe fire, and had a love of collecting shiny objects. However his limited skill in that particular field meant it would probably take months if not years to produce the first viable creature. And then Rayla would probably want to show it off, which risked knowledge getting back to the Wraith and giving them ideas.

For a moment Xiaoyi stared at Eventus with an unreadable look in her eyes before her expression slowly morphed into one of more general amusement. “So one of the most popular creatures of myth, there shouldn’t be much trouble finding something that fits.

A suspicion formed in his gut, and Eventus narrowed his eyes slightly at Xiaoyi. “You thought I was looking for something weird, didn’t you?”

Xiaoyi gave an innocent seeming shrug. “From what I’ve seen Rayla has a very… unique, view of things. So I was half expecting something over the top and complicated like Sun Wukong surfing on the back of a dragonturtle.”

Eventus chuckled. “Maybe in the future, but right now her entire experience with Asian culture is Anime, Jackie Chan, and the Disney movie Mulan.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Notes: Why yes, Junyan did get taken aside by men in black suits wearing sunglasses and handed a threatening note that suggested he apologize for the disrespect he showed the rich investor by acting like a boar. Which got a lot more real when he realized just how big a whale Eventus was.