Fifty to Thirty-Three
Log Info
- Title: Fifty to Thirty-Three
- Emitter: Jinks
- Characters: Jay, Alaryn, Merek, Nemori
- Place: A07: Lower Alexandria Market District
- Time: Friday, October 14, 2022, 8:48 PM
- Summary: Jay is in the Market District getting a coffee when Alaryn and then Merek wander by. They meet and greet and discuss Alaryn's magical crafting, and then Aehrick Oddskeeper arrives, accompanied by a Cesseli, a kobold and lawyer for Mama Bula's kids. Cesseli goes on to explain that the fifty-fifty deal between Jay and Aehrick overlooks several other intersted parties, and they should accept a new contract. Jay is flighty, feeling like he's in a trap about to be sprung, despite assurances from the others. Then Nemori arrives.
-=--=--=--=--=--=<* A07: Lower Alexandria Market District *>-=--=--=--=--=--=-
Just west of the Northern Highbridge and east of the arena, commerce blooms. Noisy and bustling, most anything may be purchased here for a price. Vendors from all cultures sell their wares from exotically colored carts, and the smells of different nations and far-off city-states mix with local ones from Alexandria and its riverbanks.
For all its commerce, visitors are advised to keep hold of their purses. Even the merchants possess a certain, cunning look. Most are positioned at carts or stalls as opposed to a formal storefront, with trade here being mobile, and visiting from all parts of the world.
Though the quality of goods suffers here compared to Upper Alexandria, the options are more diverse. Too, the oversight of the Watch is slightly less, and during times events are held at the Arena, chaos abounds. After dark, the square becomes a hangout for bards and other entrepreneurs whose business is best conducted by night; the shadows at the edges of the square often contain furtive figures engaging in their own brand of business.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jay 5'9" 145 Lb Eaglefolk Male A perky male Blue Jay with a discerning eye. Alaryn 5'4" 112 Lb Human Female Dark haired slender girl in breastplate and skirt. Merek 5'10" 215 Lb Human Male A black-haired, dusky male with golden eyes. Nemori 4'10" 110 Lb Mul'niessa Female A tall and slender, dark skinned elf. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NPCs of Note =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cesseli Kobold Male A solicitor for Mama Bula's interests. Aehrick Oddskeeper Khazadi Male Entreprenurial Artificer. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Jinks 3'4" 39 Lb Gnome Male A gnomish fellow in fancy garb and jewelry. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
It's dusk and growing darker. The sky is covered in clouds, threatening rain. Where they aren't, patches of stars shine through. The air is clear, the wind chill, and dust and small scraps of paper are blown along the streets.
A white, black and blue-jay egalrin walks against the wind, his wings folded back, a hand holding his hat, and the arm carrying the briefcase is crossed to keep his coat closed. There's rattling at his belt, a sword and some bolas.
He stops at a small stand, caws, "Coffee! A Coffee!"
A bored barista, a human, starts grinding beans for him.
>WHRrrrrRrrrRrrrr rrsh<
The barista holds the tube and cranks the handle, grinding the beans. She pours it into a caraft, following up with a kettle that she heats with a cantrip. She sets it on the counter and stares at the egalrin.
The egalrin stares back.
Merek seems to be on his normal rounds about the place, taking his time to pull on his dark attire and wearing the scarf for the fall. He takes a drink of water from the flask with him, and watches as people come by. He does notice the egalrin, and the coffee maker. The man does like his coffee, and so he will join in that line, with a nod to the egalrin, and to the barista. "I don't see a lot of coffee for sale these days around here."
The human continues to stare. It's now become a contest, who will blink first, the bird or the bird. She has hazelnut eyes, a square face, dark brown hair that is cut to a shoulder length bob. There's a streak of black, whorls around her eyes and a nose-ring.
The egalrin, a bluejay, is wearing a suit crafted from leather, mithril armour on top of that, and a storm cloak, as well as a hat.
The seer's arrival interrupts their contest, the woman blinks first. The eglarin steps to the side, getting out of her way and she speaks, "the shipments are getting rarer with all that's going on."
She fills up the grinder, starts cranking. /WhrrRrrrrrr.
"Wow. Wow!" The bluejay caws, "Those are interesting goggles. Are they artifice? Do you know artifice?"
Merek nods to the coffee maker, then he turns his attention to the egalrin, "Yes, I practice a lot of Artifice, though I'm not an Artificer in the same way as others these days," the man admits. He smiles, "Merek, by the way. Seer," he offers as an introduction, then he places a few coins on the stand with a nod, "Ah, I would like a basic coffee if you would, cream and sugar," he adds, "Thank you!"
The barista continues, pouring the hot water into a second caraft. She stares at Merek, "it has to steep." She looks at the bluejay, "Yours is nearly done. What do you want?"
"Ah. Milk is too weird. No Milk. Sugar. Sugar!" The birdman says, nodding his beak towards Merek, "Integrity C Truefeather, esquire. The 'C' is for consulting. I'm a consulting lawyer. Courier too."
"Well, I was looking people with experience with Artifice, and angels."
Speaking of artifice, a sound comes in the distance. A sound that is basically a clash of many metal items clattering against each other and the cobbled stone of the streets.
Then a bit after it is heard, it is seen. The tank-tread propelled cart turns a corner in sleightly jerky motions. Half of the 48 treads moving and the other half holding still to make it turn. And then the other half start up and the cart pulls into the market district, the young woman atop it grinning like a loon with goggles covering her eyes.
Jay turns and waves at the approaching artifice vehicle. "Hi. HI!"
Behind him, the barista finishes pouring his coffee.
Merek looks to the tank and its driver, he doesn't look to be that surprised, "Nice, I really need to get my hoverbike made," he says, then he looks to the egalrin, "Ah, do you have an easier name? Anyway, pleasure. I could use a lawyer. They really like to put me in court these days, I will admit." He smiles, waiting for them to get their coffee, so that he will get his.
"Oh. Oh, Well you don't have to use all of it. Some friends call me 'Tegri', my sisters called me 'Gritty'." He beak-grins and tips his fedora low, pulling his storm cloak close, "because I'm a man of the streets."
"My good friend calls me 'Blue, and everyone at the courthouse has a nasty nickname I won't repeat." The egalrin finishes, picking up his coffee and drinking at it with an open beak. "Also I'm a bluejay. A Jay! A certain human society finds that very important to know. My legal rates are great. I work cheap. Cheap!"
"That's Alaryn. I met her yesterday."
It's not that it is a tank. It's just a merchant cart that is propelled by 48 individually supported and suspended one foot long tank treads. Other than that, it's just like any other merchant cart.
The cart slows to a stop, the noises it makes slowly winding down as she peers over towards Jay and smiles brightly. She reaches a hand up and lifts her goggles onto her forehead. "Well hi there!" she calls out before she clambers down off of her driver's seat to put her boots on the ground.
The barista pours milk and sugar into Merek's coffee, then pushes it his way.
Integrity is carefully out of the way of the tank-cart, and waves back at Alaryn, "Hi! I heard this coffee stand was a good place to meet artificers and I was hoping to encounter Aehrick here."
"How you doing? You ok. Ok?"
Merek looks about the place, and nods a little bit to the person that comes by which Blue would explain to him, "Good to meet ya, I'm Merek," then he looks to the egalrin, "Anyway, nice to get to meet new people, Blue," he says, while he takes up that little drink and takes a sip from it, "Thank you," he says to the barista.
"Well, most artificers have told me that they don't consider what I do to be artifice, despite all evidence I present.." says Alaryn with a quick gesture towards her cart. "But I specialize in channeling mana through crystals to accomplish what wizards do with their study and magical talent. So you need an artificer?" she asks, eyes bright as she flicks them back person to person. "I'd like an extra strong coffee. Double it up please." she says in her rapid fire speech pattern. That girl does not need caffeine. Nope nope. But she -is- ordering it.
"Actually. Ah. She's a really good friend, the one that calls me 'Blue'." Jay says, looking at Merek with meaningful eyes, "really good. You should call me that unless you want to be a really good friend too."
He lightly brushes the man's shoulder, leaning back in a dramatic pose, one that shows off all his feathers. "'Tegri' works otherwise."
The barista woman nods at Alaryn, filling up the grinder with coffee beans and starting to crank it. "Just a moment."
Jay peers at Alaryn, "How is what you do not artifice? Using crystals sounds exactly like artifice." He looks at Merek, "Right?"
Snorting, Alaryn shakes her head, "They think that because I don't have comically oversized gears or giant metal fists on my armor, that it's just wrong. Personally, I prefer to streamline my designs. I mean why do I need eight cubic feet of bronze for giant fists to punch with when I can just do this..." she says, pressing a stud with one finger... and causing a translucent blue-ish energy field to cover both of her fists. "And punch just as hard as if they were giant metal fists." That said, she shakes her head and shrugs, "So, whatcha need done? I can fabricate many of what the wizards make. Like Fasty Jumpy boots, or augmenting armor and weapons."
Merek looks to the egalrin when he brushes along his shoulder, and he offers a smile, while he pats them at their shoulder, "We'll see. Though Tegri it is until we get to know each other better maybe," he says. Then he takes a look along to Alaryn and answers the two, "Crystals are used a lot in artifice, although it depends upon the context of what one is using them for," he will add, while he adjusts the scarf of his.
"Well there was that wood elf, with the walking tree. Lau. Lauriel! She had tree-trunk fists." Jay reminisces, then gawks, his beak wide, wings spread.
"Hey!" The Barista says, protecting her stand.
"Sorry! That's cool, really cool. That's neat" The egalrin continues, "Bob, my friend Bob, he's electrified his fists. Oh what do I need? Hmm."
"You do the glowing things. Right? Right? Let me think."
He de-fluffs, nodding to Merek, "Okay!"
"Right, I invented mana infused light up dyes. Dye that glows when designed on steel, leather, or whatever. You want to make your breastplate have a glowing rune on it for fun? I can do that! You want it to actually -be- enchanted? I can do that too!"
She steps over to the coffee bar and places a few coins on the counter. "Thanks!" she calls out to the barista.
The barista nods, taking a seat in the back of the stall and fiddling with her piercings.
"I might like that on a dagger, or a pen. Oh, my court room pen!" Jay whips one out of his briefcase, the case itself opening and closing faster than a leg-iron trap. He holds a mithril writing nib, attached to a long feather - clearly one of his.
"It wouldn't work so well on my armour, but I do want that better. Oh, Maybe the inside, so I know when I'm putting it on."
He looks at Merek, "Do you want anything glowy?"
"I like light up things, so I'd probably put it on clothes, things like that. My mansion has a few things that it would work well on as well," Merek admits, nodding a little bit to Jay, then looking to Alaryn, "Anyway. It looks like you practice artifice, and you're interested in it?" he asks then to the egalrin.
"Well, a friend of mine is a war golem and it seems like Its soul got sucked into a holding device that was part of a mobile life forge. So I've been trying to figure it out enough to reverse the process. Also replace the evil parts with..." Jay glances at Alaryn, "... less evil parts."
The bird just casually refers to a bunch of shocking suggestions.
"Yes, and yes. I do artifice, and I do enjoy it." Alaryn smiles and picks up her coffee to take a sip of it. "But yeah, I'd be happy to sell you as much dye as you like. We just need to pick the right blend of powdered quartz colors to get the hue you want."
"A bag, maybe this big, no this big." Jay demonstrates a couple sizes. His eyes glitter, "Oh! I could get a suit made just for court! They'll hate me when they see how I glitter!"
He takes another sip of coffee, which is putting his beak over the cup and lapping at it. "Those treads are a neat design. Why so many little ones? Why one big or two big sets?"
Merek nods a little bit, "I know a few people who might be able to assist you. In any case, I definitely would like to get to know you more. Always nice to meet new people," he says, then a look to Alaryn, "Anyway, what brought you all to the district today, only coffee?" he asks to the two.
With a shrug, Alaryn sips her coffee once more, and then she smiles. "That, and this is my regular spot for the market. I wanted to get parked and ready to open first thing in the morning."
"I sell all kinds of things actually. Everything from enchanted items, to artifice self ehating skillets and such."
"A self heating skillet? Do you have to pour oil into it?" Jay asks, "That could be useful."
"I am still working out the kinks. I am thinking that it will sadly be a charged item. But it draws upon the magical spell named Heat Metal to do the work. Fueled by the mana of a charged red quartz crystal." says Alaryn as her eyes look up into the distance, calculations going a bit overboard in her head.
Few things warrant a second for those that've been in the city long enough but a slender kobold in an elaborate wrap of bright-yellow and glittering grey might one of them. He's like a scaled peach; mostly a red-orange in color with a softer yellow-tinted underbelly. He holds onto the cross-shoulder strap of a book bag and talks with his partner-in-ambulation.
The second half of the pair is a dark-haired Khazadi man in pearlescent mithril titan's armor. The dwarf carries a heavy-looking crate under one arm as he answers the kobold with something lost under the general din of the crowd.
Aehrick Oddskeeper looks a bit tired-- and his hair could use a good combing-- but he smiles easily as he walks. The kobold is in high spirits, too, and gestures around the city with a hand that ends in round, blunted claws.
"Aehrick! Aehrick!" Jay hops up and down, wavin at the pair in the distance, "Hey, come get a coffee. Who is your friend? This is Alaryn and Merek. They're artificers."
They're here to help. Maybe.
"Is that a small sith'makar?"
Glancing over at the new arrivals, Alaryn opens her mouth to suggest a new tool she was working on. And then she remembers how badly her self-experiment went, and she shuts her mouth, shaking her head. "So. Anyone need anything enchanted or whatnot?" she asks. Her voice going just a bit too fast.
Aehrick scans the crowd a moment before finding Jay to one side of the throng at the corner bistro. Surprise and relief take turns returning some of this youthful vigor (or what passes for such a thing amongst the Khazad) before he sighs, smiles, and waves. The squat artificer shrugs and hoists his heavy crate, altering his course and gesturing for the still-shorter reptilian demihuman to follow.
The kobold smiles, too, his eyes squinting subtly beneath bumpy ridges. He has a shorter, wide snout that tapers off quickly to a blunted point and his bulbous tail straights out behind him just a bit longer than his torso.
"Ah, well, as you please. As you please, please-- but not me, no. Sorry." The kobold greets as he and Aehrick come to a stop, answering Jay first and Alaryn second. Both hands hold the strap of his satchel now as he looks up at the egalrin and two humans. "Dawn warm you, Integrity; I'm clerk Cesseli. I occasionally do some work for our mutual friend, MB, and I-- and Aehrick-- were hoping to find you."
The kobold considers Alaryn's vehicle for a moment, perhaps wondering if she'd like to save 20% (or more) on coverage. "Hello to you two, too. Dawn warm you."
"Hello Cesseli! Glad to know we've got mutual friends, so we can be friends! I was hoping to find you too. Here, the coffee's great." The bluejay turns, ordering two more mugs. Turning back, he looks over the satchel, then to Aehrick, "I briefed them a little. Alaryn heard the crystals playing. They're aware we've got a deal, fifty-fifty."
What is coverage? It seems nobody in Alexandria has figured out the pyramid scheme scam that is insurance. But either way, Alaryn lifts a hand and says, "Hiya!" as she sips her super strong cup of coffee. "I heard what? deal? Fifty what?" she asks.
"Ah, just a deal, splitting our findings." Jay explains without explaining.
"I could always use more friends, Integrity." Cesseli agrees with an ever-widening grin. He stays a pending comment from Aehrick with a pat and inhales deeply through flared nostrils to enjoy the scent of brewing coffees. "Friendship is the glue of society, I like to say. MB agrees with me there.
"Which is why she asked me to clear a few things up, friend Integrity," the kobold continues. He flips open his satchel and selects a few half-flattened and wax-stamped scrolls that he offers to the egalrin. "Mainly, it's a three-thirds split, not fifty-fifty. In your excitement, you and Aehrick forgot about young Heady and lady Kerry-Anne."
The little man in a criss-crossed wrap continues to smile warmly up at the egalrin and gestures for him to accept the scroll.
"Little lizard found me at the work site." Aehrick grunts from a step or two back. "Asked I come along for this conversation..." "Well. Kerry-Anne has a very strong fist and I wouldn't argue with that." Jay admits, "but Git hasn't contributed. Really he's impeded. Oh, wait, Heady, right."
"Does he have a claim, or does his estate? Since he discovered it and then ceased to function. I reviewed Alexandrian law for dead-then-alive cases, but golems are an entirely separate category I didn't investigate." The l-eagal egalrin states, "did he leave post-functionality instructions and the power to negotiate revival with you?"
He's staring at the scroll the entire time, "Is that a summons? Are you serving me? I can fly you know, it doesn't count if you can't hand it to me!"
Merek is doing what he always does, which is get to watch whatever it is that a Seer often sees. Eventually, he nods a bit to the one known as Jay, while he pats them at the shoulder, "Well, I will listen to you all for a little while but I'm distracted. I would like to hang out a little at some point." He smiles then to everyone else.
"You wouldn't flee the sunrise, Integrity." The clerk continues to hold out the paper. "This is just something to formalize matters and remove any... messy friction; it's as much to protect you, my friend, as my other friend, ser Oddskeeper, or my other-other friend, MB.
"I swear that I work with Serriel looking over one shoulder. My client-friends the other." A pudgy thumb curls against his palm and he flares out his three fingers of his free hand. A gesture meant to accompany an oath, apparently. "... and to prove that I'm not showing you skin ready to be shed..."
There's a nod and Aehrick steps forward, setting his load down on a table and flipping open a latch before lifting the lid. Four fat coinpurses bulge within. "Made a deal with the hall for some sketches. Also allowing them access for measurements," explains Aehrick. "For you and yours."
"You, friend Integrity, and lady Jozi, lady Nemori, and lady Slixvah, to be precise," chimes in Cesseli.
Integrity watches the odd gesture, curious and fascinated, and then he stares further at the scroll. "You don't know what I've run away from."
He looks at Aehrick, back at Cesseli, "I promised you half."
At the scroll. "That sounds like an entirely more comprehensive deal. I should have written that. The 'C' is for comprehensive, but I've been a terrible lawyer and a terrible adventurer in this."
He's hopping in place, "I got bitten. I got poisoned. Nemori nearly died. I don't know why I'm doing this. I've learned horrible things, I've seen horrible things."
"This discovery is greater than I ever expected." Aehrick tells Jay, a hungry look creeping into his eyes. "A third of this is ten-times what I expected a half to be when you came into the Hall in shambles," explains the Khazadi man. "It's a going concern and we'll all be rich for it-- maybe discover things that will change how our world works."
The Oddskeeper artificer is definitely enthused about the prospects.
Cesseli stands back a moment while the two talk, his dark-eyes a really brilliant shade of blue when they catch the light just right. His smile remains a curved border between the red scales and yellow.
"MB has approved supervised revision if you would like to weigh in, friend Integrity... ser Oddskeeper has approved the agreement but I'm sure he'd be happy to see this moving along regardless.
"... and the lady Kerry-Anne made the killing blow on the spider-creature, I'm told. The young Heady gave his life (temporarily) to locate the lost ship, and master Git offered valuable consultation, I'm sure, in spite of any martial failings...
"Oh, yes... of course. How silly of me. As you might've surmised, young Heady is returned to us. He rests comfortably at the moment."
"Heady is restored? So we're finished? We don't have to go back in. Slix was right?" The bluejay is acting oddly flightly, might be the coffee, he keeps flexing his wings and looking up at the sky. His head twitching as he faces: a greedy smile; a smug smile. A satisfied cat-with-the-canary smile, which evokes an instinctive and primal fear in the bird-man.
"Sounds like it's all wrapped up nicely to spring on me. Just sign it and it's all taken care of, right? Right?"
"I'm setting up a camp." Aehrick dashes Jay's longing for resolution with five matter-of-fact words. "We can't keep the Distant Horizon overhead but I'm putting more work into the torsoplugometer. Opa has been generous up to this point but he wants to take back to the skies... and there's too much knowledge to just walk away from it."
After all his squeamishness with the engine, Aehrick seems oddly resolved to continue now. He closes the lid on Jay's payment and re-does the latch. "People in my line of work dream for this chance, mister Truefeather; I can't pass it up."
The kobold sighs and takes a few steps forward, taking the scroll between two pointer-fingers and holding it up parallel to the ground before setting it down on the payment trunk.
"Looking at it wouldn't bind you to anything, friend Integrity. I promise you that I have no predilection for traps." The pudgy finger taps near the scroll one last time before he steps back and resumes holding onto the strap of his satchel.
"MB has me looking into establishing a garrison to protect your mutual investment. She'd also like further information regarding young Heady's relationship with the craft. The wargolem's soul was trapped in the gem on the lid but the box contained ashes... remains.
"There yet remains some mystery, friend Integrity."
Jay looks at the payment chest, at the scroll. Not approaching them, not taking them yet. "Yes. A garrison's a good idea. I've not discussed the location but there's an awareness it's out there and several have expressed a desire to destroy it."
"It probably should be. I don't know." Integrity hops about, "too many adventuring associates have been very keen to get the guard or some temple punishment arm involved."
There is the question of the box. The bluejay's beak clicks shut. Opens again, shuts, "Pretty sure I can explain that. Three of the crystals explain that. Explain his relationship, allegedly."
The egalrin shakes off water that isn't there, "Heady would have to confirm it. Either way it's terrible."
"The guard is no issue; the site is outside the walls of Alexandria. The temples will play nice, too, as I'm an acolyte of Serriel's church and a friend to many." Cesseli pauses to think and bobs his head. "I think it's safe to say MB has even more friends than I do...
"We pose the city no threat. The Oddskeepers are a well-known family that have longsince cleared their troubled past with the city. MB is a pillar of the western communities. Your name is a recognized one in the courts, friend Integrity, and your allies are scrappy-but-determined-- the kind the common people love."
Aehrick just grunts, finger combing through his messy beard. "... gobbers do worse inside the walls," he mutters to himself. Speaking up, he looks at Integrity. "We can't stop now... whatever bad came from that place we can twist around and help people... get rich doing it, too. Just... think about it; there's no reason to be scared."
His piece said, the dwarf nods a forceful nod and stomps off making for the north and east.
"Wait, Aehrick, you need to know what was on the crystals." Integrity caws after the khazadi, chasing him a few steps before hopping back to where he was standing. He gazes at Cesseli in the meantime.
"One was propaganda, about how great it will be that Merkhabah rises from the ashes of the Kulthian empire and will triumph over the impedance of the gods."
"Another regarded the Torment Engine, what he did to the angel, how his ship will fly. Then there was the bragging about the dimensional portal to a demi-plane, given as recognition of his genius."
Integrity pulls in his wings, "The last three were about his efforts to exceed the Life Forges, create something superior, how he found a boy, transformed and captured his spirit in some way, then put it in a war golem."
He caws, "although it wasn't perfect, the boy cried after."
"The ashes in the box, if those aren't Heady's original form, they're of someone who suffered a similar fate, allegedly." His talons scrape the cobbles, "The summaries are bad, hearing them are worse."
Nemori just happens to be coming from the north and east, a small ceramic bowl in held in one hand while deft fingers pluck something small and oblong out. She examines the small morsel, before popping it in her mouth. While she slowly chews, she notices the artificer dwarf headed her way... and then, thanks to his cawl, Integrity just beyond. Her pale gaze switches back and forth between the two until... she steps to impede the dwarf's path while she selects another of the items from her bowl and puts it in her mouth.
"I want to see everything," Aehrick responds, stopped by Nemori to half-turn and look back at Jay. "Anything you took... bring it back for me. Please. I won't be in town much but you'll know where to find me." There's a determined set to the Khazad's jaw and that familiar greed in his eyes.
"We can make it good," promises the artificer before he turns, reaches out to move the mul'niessa to one side, and stomps back towards the northern gates.
"Single-minded, that breed," Cesseli observes. His smile has faded since Jay's retelling and he ventures a few steps closer. The lizard-like head tilts and turns to regard the egalrin with a more direct view from one eye.
"I'm sorry our first meeting was under these circumstances, friend Integrity, but I respect you too much to feign a purely casual friendship knowing there's business that needs doing."
The kobold reaches out and up to try and rub the egalrin's arm in a reassuring manner. "... and I'm sorry you had to experience that unpleasantness. You're a very brave man talented in a great many ways."
"He's been... like that, after I suggested using one of the corpses when his cables weren't enough." Jay says, watching Aehrick's vanishing back, before looking at Nemori, at her bowl, down at Cesseli, over to the trunk and scroll before returning to the touch on his arm. His gaze lingers there as the kobold rubs. His feathers twitch.
"Thanks, but... as you said, you don't know me very well." His head flicks from side to side as he looks around, back to the chest, Cesseli, Nemori, Cesseli, "Business was suitably professional, there is nothing to complain about."
He picks up the scroll and holds it out to Nemori. "This is a comprehensive agreement regarding profit sharing for the find, thirds essentially. Our group, EmmBee's and Aehrick's, including sub-contractor clauses."
"Heady is better but there's still more to do..."
"I would like you to review it, friend Integrity." The soft-faced and brightly-colored kobold tells Jay as the scroll is handed over. He takes his hand back and adjusts his satchel for a moment. "I did my very best to make it fair, truly.
"I hope you'll agree once you've had a chance to think on it... objectively. It all sounds like terrible business and you've been quite stuck in the middle, I hear." When the little clerk blinks slowly one can observe the inside, thinner eyelid collapse across before the thicker, outside ones close down. He does that quite a bit and his eyes glisten wetly for it. "I like quiet, warm rooms, books, and friends, myself.
"... and I think we can all be very good friends. 'The sun will rise tomorrow.'"
Jay takes the scroll back from Nemori, who hasn't actually taken it, nor replied. She's only graced him with one of her long, accusatory stares. Not that she's accusing him of anything, beyond dragging her into this.
His wings flutter, he steps back, unrolls the scroll and stares at it; a reasonable excuse to avoid looking at the Mul'niessa. "Well I'm not a judge but I'll... be the..."
He reads with the sinking feeling of being bested. "Those are... nice things. I'll have to read this and explain it to the others. It seems... thorough."
"This wasn't a competition, friend Integrity," comments the kobold as he watches Jay's features intently. "You can't be all of the things all of the time. MB is a very powerful woman because she keeps people like me in her employ to specialize and focus...
"And Git explained you were busy with puzzle-breaking, swashbuckling, and being lionhearted and insightful," reassures Cesseli. "I promise if we stood in each other's shoes, your paperwork would be just as complete and I would be very dead in what sounds like a very unwelcoming place."
"Yes. Yes. I was doing all those things. Allegedly." Jay replies, looking up from the scroll to focus on Cesseli and sounding oddly serious. "You'd... be okay. Nemori wouldn't let you."
She might just pursue after death, the egalrin isn't sure about that.
"MB sounds like all those things, and... yes. I'll have to read this again and think about it but it seems very complete. Concentrated." The bluejay remains hunched over the scroll, his beak following the lines. "You have excellent writing."
Nemori may not completely understand what this particular exchange is all about.. and no, she did not take the scroll. Staring is so much easier, and again... it's likely not something she would have entirely grasped. Instead, she plucks another morsel.. looks like meat.. and puts it between her teeth and begins to chew. "I would be careful to presume what I may or may not 'let' happen," she advises.
Cesseli issues a little, squeaking chirp as he draws his head back and tucks his chin in, clearly taken aback. "Aaah... thank you, friend Integrity. I'm from Blar, originally, and my masters were sticklers for penmanship. Former military men and women."
"Few take the time to notice." He raises one hand a bit awkwardly to rub at the bumpy ridge between his eye and ear-hole. His bulbous tail bobs behind him, obviously quite pleased for the compliment.
Then he's blinking again and looking at the mul'niessa as she offers comment. It takes a few blinks to come back down to earth.
"Meestress Nemori..." He gets stuck somewhere between 'miss' and 'priestess' but forges ahead, regardless. "So good to meet you; I'm clerk Cesseli. Doing some work for MB."
"Meestress. Oh that's good. Should we all call you that instead of Lady Nemori?" Jay chirps brightly, happy to have something else to latch onto it seems. His tail flicks from side to side. "She was a priestess. Still is a priestess. Changed ah... direction, but she hasn't been struck by a bolt of lightning so I suppose the gods are happy with it."
His head bobs. "Cesseli has the new arrangements regarding the find, and news that Heady has been restored. And it seems, there's still something to investigate."
"So... ah... we're still doing that. Also we got paid." The egalrin puts his foot on a small chest in front, curling in his talons to grip it.
Nemori's eyes narrow a little bit as the word 'meestress' is coined... and then narrow further when Jay seems to offer his approval of it. "No," she says simply. Yet emphatically. The gaze, however, softens at the report of Heady's revival. For a moment. Before it is replaced with something that might be a cousin to a sneer. "Perhaps he will take more care in the future with this lesson, then," she comments, before fixing her gaze fully upon Cesseli. "I was not aware that we were being paid for that venture."
"Ah! Well, I forgot to tell you it was being split fifty-fifty with Aehrick for his help." Integrity says quickly, "except it's more like thirty-thirty-thirty and some threes thrown around. Which, Cesseli... corrected. Once EmmBee brought it to his attention."
"Priestess..." Cesseli explains with an unshakable smile as he cranes his blunt snout up to smile at Nemori. "I meant priestess Nemori," he expands with a nod and a little, casual bow.
"In your haste to do what's right certain specifics were left unspecified." The kobold slides further back from his being-flustered into the professional skin he's clearly comfortable wearing. "Three even shares and this is your first dividend. Friend Aehrick made a deal on his own. Going forward, we'll administer by a committee; proposals, majority vote and consensus, and so on...
There's a quiet, echoing sound from the middle of the small creature and he places a hand to the wraps about his stomach. "I have a business dinner I need to see to; MB wanted an update tonight." He smiles again, looking between Jay and Nemori. "Discuss things amongst yourselves. We could meet and finalize any adjustments or notations this Eliday? Over supper? My treat, of course; a business expense..?
"Oh, priestess Nemori. MB wanted me to ask for you to be kinder to master Git." The kobold takes a deep breath and squares his narrow lizard shoulders. "He's lost much and tries now to find the right path. She would consider it a personal favor were you to... blunt your criticisms."
The bluejay watches the lizard, distantly related in ways but more close in professional matters. He has technique, a good manner, certain aspects worth emulating. Some, which do not fit the egalrin's loud, barnyard style, but the kobold's bearing is noteworthy. Jay takes notes.
"Supper sounds good. I'm not sure I'll have whatever Nemori is eating. I'm sure we can come to some agreement on that. The kind of meal. I will discuss ahead of time."
He doesn't comment on the cautionary request. He's still wary of her pointed criticisms, he remembers the knife. She owes him a knife, still. He's reluctant to ask for that.
"Does Heady have a proper helmet for his armour? There was an artificer, Alaryn, trying to sell enchantments and her skills for the last two days. She might be able to fashion something. For a price, of course. Artificers."
"I wish to be clear. We saved the crippled woman from dying to her own foolishness. We prevented the failed goblin from coming to harm. We discovered the the derelict artifice machine... and I personally uncovered the device in which Heady's spirit or essence or whatever was trapped... and in exchange, our.. ah.. share is being reduced, poached by Bula and her minions?" Nemori pauses for a moment, watching for reactions from the kobold and the egalrin before continuing. "Well. It is about what I would expect from those types. As for the goblin whelp.. much of what he has lost has been his own doing. Perhaps when he stops blaming others for his loss and misfortune, I will consider it."
"Ah... it's not their fault, Nemori, it's mine. That's been made clear to me." Integrity says, maneuvering between the Mul'niessa and the Kobold, blocking with his wings.
"C'mon, lets go get some more food." He glances at the small bowl she's carrying, blaming whatever she's eating. "I need to go through this contract and then tell the others and collate any... disputes. For later."
