Like Dominos

Log Info

• Title: Like Dominos
• Emitter: Slixvah
• Characters: Slixvah, Ravenstongue, Patch, Aelwyn
• Place: Temple of Gilead
• Time: August 22nd, 2022
• Summary: The temple of Gilead is busy with all the refugees finding, well, refuge in a familiar place. Slix drops on by to get reminded of home as Cor'lana is busy chasing down Pothy. Patch shows up, looking for a certain dwarvish hunter. Slix's familiar, Fiadh, is being a bit feisty before indicating something minor should be moved. Slix obliges. And that domino falls, causing a cascade of events that end up outing an undead in the midst of the crowd. Aelwyn shows up from the chaos, everyone's perplexed, Cor'lana has to chase Pothy again and Patch has to catch some classes.

Temple of Gilead, Midday.

A temple that is oft overlooked by the adventuring folk, but visited often, especially now, by the layman is busy and bustling with folks. Usually only here for the occasional blessing of a good hunting season, now most are attempting to find some iota of familiarity as their recent lives have been uprooted.

Inside the central building, a beribboned egalrin woman swoops in from above up on high, them landing in the open clearing in the ceiling, them craning their head every which way. She makes a whistle. "Daaamn Cernan, ya got some digs here, man," she comments, side stepping a group that didn't catch her dropping in.

The bird on her shoulder awakens, fully (to some folk's surprise), and they chitter to Slix. Her brows furrow, and she's chittering back with a perplexed expression on her face.

"Pothy!" comes a shout from outside the temple...

And in flies a white raven. He lands neatly on the floor by a group of worshippers, and his blue eyes sparkle as he looks up at them. "Snacks?" he asks politely. He has been a very good bird.

Unfortunately for him, he happens to be in a temple for hunters, and he is a very rare bird indeed. Fortunately for him, he seems to know this, as he then follows up with: "I am not a snack," in the voice of a young woman...

Who comes into the Temple after the raven with a huff. Cor'lana Lupecyll snatches him up from the ground and puts him on her shoulder covered barely by her short-sleeved dress. "What makes you think you can go into a place of worship and ask for snacks?" she asks him. "Just because Vaire's Muses think you're adorable doesn't mean you can just /do/ that to all of the gods' servants."

Patch was a guest at the temple today. Her work, and other duties brought her here to pay respects to Gilead. That, and some of the hunters whom follow her path were there for consultation. She had been sitting away from the central area as discussions wrapped up, but now that she hears both Pothy, and the familiar voice of Slixvah, she stands to seek faces for the noises that make her ears flick in thought.

It was busy before, but now it seemed more so with the arrival of familiar faces. Patch excuses herself from the hunters with a smile, and turning to track Cor'lana, and Slixvah. "Oh, I know I just heard a familiar feather-head." and she doesn't mean the Egalrin.

Fiadh, the tiny thrush, stops their chattering to their master to look over to the intruder. "It's the mongrel," they declare, like an enemy spotted in the distance.

Slixvah, the bird woman, chastises, "Be-have, baby doll." A hand reaching up to pat the bird on the head as she meanders over to Cor'lana. "Honestly, Lana sugar, I thinks this place might be tha worst fo' gettin' snacks. Cernan folks know how ta train a huntin' bird. Which means not reinforcing bad behavior." A wink.

Then, her head tilts to the side at hearing a familiar voice. And she perks up. "Who me~?" she sing songs.

"Who, him?" Fiadh grumbles.

Cor'lana sighs as she scratches Pothy on the head. "Hello, Slixvah. And, well," she says brightly in greeting, then goes to explain, "his big thing these days is going up to strangers to ask them to share snacks. He isn't demanding that they give him all of their snacks--only a portion to share. And that's only if he doesn't have any to share at the moment. Which he doesn't."

"Snacks," Pothy whines quietly. He appears to have no comment on Fiadh calling him a mongrel bird.

Cor'lana turns her attention to Patch and smiles widely. "Good day, sister," she says. It's an experimental usage of the term, but it's said with a tinge of optimism.

Patch nods once to Cor'lana, a smile broadening as she hears that term of endearment and familial closeness. "Good day, Sis." she chimes in return, glance flicking between Cor'lana and Slixvah as she approaches. Cor'lana gets a raised brow, something she said regarding Pothy seems to have piqued the elven woman's interest. "Oh, he's not that insufferable if he's not giving them a total shakedown." she muses of the small companion, winking to the bird. "Though... I didn't bring any snacks with me today."

"Heya, Slix. How are you doing, hon?" Patch crossing to the Egalrin, and stopping short a few steps to regard Fidah and their manners. "Not a fan of snacks, or being sociable?" she asks the animal companion, smirking to Slixvah with a wink. "I thought I heard some familiar voices this way. I was just visiting with some trackers, though they mostly told me to find Master Dirk."

Slixvah rolls her eyes and chuckles, reaching into her pocket and offers- Sunflower seeds! "Yes, I like these, no, it's not because I'm a bird," she giggles. "I see. At least he shares now, that's right nice of him."

She tilts her head to the side. "Sister? Did... your mom..." she drawls out to Lana, two index fingers drawing a circle in the air.

It's a half teasing thing, but still a question about the use of language without asking. Still, it doesn't stymie her closing the distance and wrapping an arm around the elf. "I'm doin' right grand, Pattie, thank ya fo' askin'. How are ya ya'self?" she hums warmly.

Fiadh grumps, and looks off to some holly and thistle bound together in the distance. "Neither. I do not need to eat. And sociable constructs are amiable. I am, at present, sensing something else that supersedes these minor trivialities.

The master squints. "... ok, rude. You're gonna get a pocket if you keep that up."

"Do not."

Cor'lana snorts at Slixvah's question. "No," she says, "and Patch here is not a member of the Lupecyll bloodline, either. But we've come to discover we have... similar experiences, and I offered her a place in the eclectic collection of people I've come to call family and friends. Hence, sister."

"Sister," Pothy echoes, mimicking Cor'lana's voice. then he preens his creamy-white feathers, which are, of course, his best and most handsome asset... And then he goes to collect the sunflower seeds that are offered to him. Some of them, that is. "Snacks," he says in thanks before he returns to Cor'lana's side.

"Must be awfully nice, having a familiar that doesn't need to eat," Cor'lana says with a snicker. "If it weren't for the fact that Grandfather tends to bring snacks with him when he comes to visit, our market visits would be even more expensive.--Why were you visiting with trackers?" Cor'lana asks of Patch on the last question.

"Getting some things ready for when Master Dolan wants to go after our rather wolfish, and nasty friend." Patch says in a semi-dry tone, mostly in thought. "It's taken a bit to get going, but it seems to be slowly coming together." she notes, looking at the stark difference between animal companions after, and laughing for it.

"Trivialities you say? Well, maybe so." Patch finds herself musing in play at Fidah. "Fidah's full of spunk today. It's nice, they normally look tired and sleepy when I see them." she admits to Slixvah, offering a smile. "Don't be too hard on them. It's not like it isn't true to some extent." she asks of Slixvah, winking.

"And.. I'm well. Doing okay." Patch says, answering the Egalrin's question. "Better lately now that I can move my shoulder." and giving it a flex and rotation as if to accentuate her words.

Slixvah surrenders some of the sunflower seeds to the white-raven bandit, her gifting a headpat to him before he pulls away. "Ah, I see. I totes get that." A look to Patch and a crinkle eyed smile. "See? I told ya might find different fam here."

"It's good, Lana. It's like havin' a cutie lil' friend tha' don't gotta keep up wit' sometimes on stuff. Fiadh is nice," Slix hums.

"I am eternal."

"Sometimes. Anyways," Slix's attention shifts to Patch, her brow furrowing as she gently squeezes her in a side hug. "That sounds right spooky, but I knows ya'll got it." The note of Fiadh's energy makes Slixvah look down to the bird on her shoulder. "They's... got they feathers in a bunch fo' some reason..."

Fiadh flies off to the holly and thistle bunch, landing on it.

Snickering, she shakes her head and gently bumps her head against the top of Patch's, uncaring of the public display of affection. "I'm really glad ta hear that, honey," she softly coos.

Patch eagerly returns that side-squeeze from Slixvah, nodding her head. "It is scary, but I'll let you know if we need some extra hands." she notes, smirking. "Thanks for pushing though. I decided it best to just keep doing what I was." she admits, the open display doing nothing to bother the elven woman. "So what brings you here, Slix? Fidah is all puffy.... everything going okay on your end?" offering the woman a squeeze of her own before letting go to look at her proper.

To Cor'lana, Patch flashes a smile, looking between her and Pothy. "Yeah, Slix. You were right, lots of people wanting to be friends and family. It's a good feeling. One I think I won't grow tired of enjoying." speaking to the Egalrin next to her.

Slixvah bobs her head once, humming warmly. "I'm glad ta be a good influence. And I'm glad ya findin' things ta grow on." She walks the question back. "But uh, I dunno! I thought I saw a Cernan temple here on a fly by once, and wanted ta check it out! Reminds me of home. But once I landed, Fiadh was really-

"Move this," Fiadh chirps loudly from afar, them resting atop a bundle of thistle and holly. "Now."

Slix blinks, but sighs heavily and shakes her head, walking over. "Al... right." She simply reaches down, and scoops the bundle of nature up.

Then a lot of things happen rapidly, one after another, from a seemingly innocuous action.

Blood from a fresh kill being hauled splashes against the surface Slix picked the bundle up from. This makes a hunter turn, hands full of a crate of arrows that get thrown up into the air as they slip on the slick surface.

Arrows hail down from above, but they all manage to miss everyone in the crowded room somehow. Except one lodges into the side of a cloaked figure. They stumble, smashing into a bag full of water. Glass breaks. They start sizzling. It's holy water.

Hunters quickly start to appraise what's going on and jump into action to apprehend the figure, but another soul yanks an arrow out of the ground which makes a rock shift, which makes a pillar crack, which makes a vine unravel off of it and fall into the blood. The game's life ichor completes a circle, along with the holy water, accidently triggering a purging ritual in a burst of verdant energy that stuns the hidden undead the hunters are pouncing on.

Things seem to be calming down.

A chandelier crashes.

Okay. Now it's calm.

Slixvah stares at Fiadh. "With all due respect and love I can muster, fuck you."

Fiadh preens.

Amidst the chaos summoned from... the chance of life, a pile of hard round pieces of bread rolls out into the open from a dropped sack. After them, follows a red-be-ribboned-red glaive. "Tch, even here?" A low rumbling sound hisses as the ruddy scaled sith-makar walks into view. With fingers carefully run through his mane of quills, Aelwyn was beginning to start and pick up the lost pieces of food, before he notices the others.

"Ribbon, Bard, Raven." The ruddy-scaled sith greets with a gracious bow of his head, while his fingers carefully pick up at the broken pieces of glass. He had a remarkably calm appearance despite there being an actual undead thing being wrestled into the ground. "Are they," A piece of shard is flicked out, "Hurt?"

Patch stands in a mixture of horror and fascination at what transpires because of Fidah's antics. It's boggling, amusing, but also concerning. "How.. how much did Fidah already know?" she manages to asks after Slixvah's curse towards the companion, shifting closer to raise a hand to pat and comfort on the Egalrin woman. "I... is /that/ what you meant about the luck? I... that was lucky." eyes then finding Fidha and their smug demeanor. "But, was it really luck?" she has to ask, not sure as something about all this has her thoughts.

"Hello, Aelwyn." Patch finally get out, seeing the dragoon approach. She's still stunned and watching as things wrap up, just nodding to the Sith-Makar's words. "I.. I don't know the answer to your questions." which is true, it only just /now/ got weird.

Slix's shoulders lax as Patch gives her a pat on the shoulder, and a sigh leaves her. "Yep. That's what I meant," the witch nods to Patch, her looking over her shoulder at the elf. "Well, yes and no, ya see, like I said, luck is just-"

"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity," Fiadh chirps out. "I knew nothing save for the strands of Fate was missing a stitch. Behooves one to fix a missing stitch with many strands laying about." Their golden gaze drifts to the crowd.

Said undead being wrangled is promptly smote to smithereens.

The egalrin pauses for a beat as they see Aelwyn, her face fluffing up a touch before she smooths it back. "Heya Flutter. I'm fine," she says neutrally about the situation at hand. "Things are just calming down. Why you up here? Delivering uh..." she looks about to the bread rolls, a feather animating and picking one up. "... baked goods?"

Cor'lana blinks at... well, the /everything/ that's going on. "Your Fiadh is... a very interesting... Creature sounds demeaning. Entity?"

She peers at the little thrush. "What a little bird. I guess, just like Pothy, you're full of secrets, too, huh."

"Secrets? Snacks," Pothy says. He insists he has no secrets to share. Only snacks.

Aelwyn gives his head and neck a long low roll of his shoulders, trying to carefully dislodge the last few spits of glass. Finally, he brushes his hands over with a low rumble. "Hmmh, Chirp," The Dragoon greets towards Fiadh with a bow of his head as well. The discussion of luck makes him tilt his head curiously, before he regards Slixvah, "How did she break her?" He asks, with a nudge of his head towards Patch.

At the question, he nods his head. "Yes, baked goods. _Selflessly_ braving the temple grounds to make the delivery." He rumbles in amusement as he rolls his gaze across the where the undead once stood - though the words were said with a sharp whip that forked tongue.

Meanwhile, the Dragoon kicks up one of the pieces of bread from the ground and crumbles it up in his hand, before offering a piece of bread to Pothy. "Don't take the hand," He rumbles.

Patch nods slowly at Fidah's words, smirking to Slixvah as they both speak. "Yeah, secrets." she says in agreement with Cor'lana about it all. "Though I have to say, mildly impressed with the stitching and threads. I didn't see any of what lurked." the scene dying down as her smile begins to fade with it.

"And delivering food now?" Patch asks of Aelwyn, changing topics and focusing more on the dragoon now that his multitude of jobs has been pointed out. "SO, do you just deliver random goods places, or do you work for different people? You haul a lot of different goods." she says, making a casual observation. "How does one find time to dance?"

Pothy and Cor'lana get a smile, and a nod for their words. "Secrets, lots of them I imagine."

Fiadh levels their gaze on Cor'lana after fluttering up to Slix's shoulder once more. "I am Fiadh. Entity of wisdom. Heed my decrees for it gives thee the needs to succeed."

Slix blinks at them. "... are you stealing my rhyming biz."

"Yes."

The eglarin snickers, broken out of their slight annoyance at the circumstances that just happened as she pats the bird. No pocket today. She smooths back her crown feathers, stealing a glance towards Patch at Aelwyn's question. "All that was Fiadh's doing," she gestures vaguely behind her where the HOLY SMITING took place. "Nothin' mo'. But uh, yeah, lil' birb's got stuff they knows. Or... vaguely knows of. It's hard ta get a straight answer out of them sometimes."

"I am inevitable."

"Case and point."

"Many things, at least, if not secrets," Cor'lana says. Pothy, in the meantime, takes Aelwyn's offered bread, although he leaves him with some of it.

And then Pothy seems to realize something. Something important. Direly important. "Snacks. SALE," Pothy croaks loudly. He takes flight and soars out of the Temple of Gilead.

Cor'lana rolls her eyes. "Pothy, we are /not/ doing this goofy chase around the city nonsense!" she calls after him. But it's too late. He's gone.

Violet eyes flash in irritation, and she looks at the group apologetically. "So sorry," she murmurs. "I have to go make sure he can actually pay for the snacks that he wants to share with the world."

The sorceress departs hastily, calling after Pothy in the process.

Aelwyn was definitely surprised by the sudden explosion of sorceress getaway. "Peace... on the nests...?" He offers, with atilt of his head.

"Hmmh. This one finds serenity in accepting that the wind is in just, a wind." The Dragoon rumbles as he looks after departing Cor'lana and Pothy, but he does glance a suspicious look towards Fiadh all the same. Maybe the little bird was the reincarnation of fate and luck? "It is good to see Ribbon so swell, for she did rhyme so well on the TarRaCe chair." He rumbles with a bit of his sharp teeth showing.

Attention drifting back towards Patch, his expression softening. "This one is still finding his dance, Bard. A little few fledgling steps," He gestures with his hands, "Barely a living makes." He takes in a deep breath, then folds his hands over his glaive, that he leans against his shoulder. "When this has enough coins, he'll pay her and perhaps the little chaotic Chirp for a show for him." His teeth become visible again in a slow grin and he steps closer etowards Patch, tail tapping at her calves. "Until then, this one is happy to practise the steps with her and carry few odd goods for coin." And horribly misplace them, mistreat them and probably not get paid for, either.

"A Makari greeting, Aelwyn." Patch muses, shaking her head at the antics, and discussions. As Cor'lana heads her way, Patch sighs and turns to hugs Slixvah quickly. "I have to get going myself. I have a lecture to attend, and... well they don't like stragglers." she muses, giving a squeeze and rounding to face Aelwyn.

"Chaotic? No, Fidah's more..." Patch says, looking then to Fidah. "I don't know, maybe Aelwyn is right." offering the bird a teasing wink. "Anyways...." turning to Slixvah. 'Don't go getting into too much trouble. If you can, meet me outside the lecture halls tonight. We'll talk more and have dinner if you'd like." she says to the Egalrin woman, and waving to Aelwyn on her way out. "That goes for you too, Dragoon."

Slixvah chuckles and gives Cor'lana a wave as the duo bounce out for the call of a snack sale. Fiadh, however, affixes Aelwyn with a flat, golden stare. "The wind is more than just it. It foretells what has come and has yet to-"

"O-KAY Fiadh," the eglarin huffs. "Not everything has deep philosophy to it." Fiadh preens, obviously knowing otherwise.

The witch shakes her head and finally registers Aelwyn's words. Her face floofs up. "I- uh, yeah. I'm doin' pretty good."

She easily returns the embrace, a wing folding around the elf in the brief moment. Bending down to listen, she bobs her head along as her expression softens. "Aight hon, that sounds like a plan. Catch ya then."

Now it was just the two of them. Slix smooths down her feathers and fixes her robes. "... so-" she starts somewhat awkwardly.

Before she's cut off by the familiar. "I am not chaos." Fiadh pouts. /Somehow./

Aelwyn bows his head towards Patch when she leaves. "Of course, Bard, this one would enjoy eating with her again. May the skies grace her studies." The Dragoon watches the elven women depart for a while, but he then slowly steps over Slixvah. "Chaos is what makes a dance worth dancing, wouldn't Chirp agree?" He asks as he takes a piece of his leftover bread and holds it out to Fiadh.

"Or life worth living." The last words were no longer spoken to the thrush - instead, his orange slit pupils were levelled directly at Slixvah's, as the ruddy-scaled sith-makar stares at her in that unsettling cold-blooded fashion.

Fiadh tweets back readily, "Chaos is what causes entropy, the end of all. A dance should have a start."

Slixvah raises a brow to Aelwyn. "Yeah. I know. There has ta be downsides, randomness. Bad times," she sighs, rubbing her neck. "This-" she gestures to the one hundred arrow pickup happening around "- was what I was gonna tell ya about ova dinner, but. Well."

The hazy memories make her face fluff up. "There were distractions."

Aelwyn's tail slowly begins to sway behind him - and then it moves to touch around Slixvah's ankle. The draconian takes an unhurried step closer. "Hmmh, this one feels he had the better demonstration." Fingers breaking apart that piece of bread, he slides some of it into his mouth. "Less undead, but plenty of yelling and things crashing." He rumbles and then gives Slixvah's side a prod with his elbow. "Rough times." He rumbles with his lips spreading into a grin. "

Meanwhile, Fiadh is offered the bread again. "Is Chaos-orb sure this one is not in market for bread?"

Slixvah's wing responds to the ankle touch by a feather animating and grabbing the tail. She snorts. "Uhuh, sure, I thought I had a pretty good show," she fires back, jumping a little bit at the poke and giggling. "Right up until I passed out."

Fiadh just stares at the bread. "I do not eat. I am not the mongrel raven," they says in their signature, tinny deadpan.

"Fifi is a lil' feisty right now," Slixvah hums, very lightly leaning against the dragoon. "But uh... yeah. Uh, what I was gonna tell ya was that luck gets weird wit' me around."

"Hmhhm. Tasty bread, though. Shame it all is going to waste." The Dragoon says with another bread disappearing into his mouth, giving Fiadh a sideways stare. "What a shame."

The scaled tail attempts to lazily wriggle free, twisting in the feather hold. "One of those shows that get better after the introduction," Aelwyn rumbles, "One they knew how to pick up, but never how to put down." Taking in a slow breath, and rolling his shoulders. "This one could have had a better performance, too."

Looking at her at the mention of luck, he gives a curios tilt of his head, then slips in another piece of bread into his mouth. "... hmm, luck? A cute bard and a charming dragoon all inviting her for dinner?" He rumbles with a teasing grin on his face. "How weird is that?"

Fiadh preens themselves. They don't care, it seems.

Slixvah reaches forth and plucks a crumb. "I'll take their portion," she hums, popping it into her beak. The feather hold is strong, but it relents after a beat and releases it from the wriggling. "Eh, it's fine," she waves a dismissive hand. "Still was fun. Maybe it'll happen again. An attempt at least. Who knows?" Cheeky.

The egalrin looks down at Aelwyn. Part of her chuckles, but it's lived shortly as she quietly sighs. "Quite lucky indeed. But that's kinda on me, ya dig? I uh... like people." She coughs into a fist.

"But what I mean is, Aelwyn. The things that I do? The stuff I know? Things around me, places and people, slowly get luckier. It's... not always a good thing. Unluck mends in my presence. I'm workin' on it," she elaborates.

"Hmmh. Cannot say this one understands exactly." Aelwyn rolls his shoulders. "Though it sounds as if she were the one who has to pay for the balance, in the end."

That wriggling tail slowly slides away - but then it quickly attempts to thwap sharply at Slixvah's backside. "Next time it will happen, little Ribbon, a fire wrought is hard to quell." He rumbles with a low, challenging growl up at the taller egalrin. "... unless her words of stone-nosed masons drown into the cup again."

The Dragoon slides away with a grin and bow of his head. "The bread need to be fetched and coin be paid. Nest in peace, Ribbon."

Slixvah laughs. "Yeah, paid for that balance in full in the end. Oh well. At least-"

Smack. She jolts upright in surprise. It's followed by a smack on the arm. "Oi, keep your tail in check," she half teases, half serious. "But hey, I'm good at quellin', I'll have ya know. And my stone-nosed mason songs bring all the best statues to the yard."

She gives a little wave. "Catch ya on the flip flop, Flutter. Good ta see ya."

-End Scene-