Lizard Earring, Golem and Wine

Log Info

Title: Lizard Earring, Golem and Wine
Emitter: Ashes
Characters: Ashes, Toha, Tae
Place: A07: Lower Alexandria Market District
Time: Friday, November 06, 2020, 10:39 PM
Summary:

-=--=--=--=--=--=<* 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  =-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ashes        5'11"    177 Lb     Hobgoblin         Female    A somber arvec in grey clothes with a skull face
Toha         6'2"     282 Lb     War Golem         Female    A woman shaped contrivance of leather and steel, with oruch weaponry.
Tae          6'2"     135 Lb     Half-Orc          Female    Female half-oruch, lean, black hair
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

It's dark, and the Market square has become a hangout for bards and other late-night entreprenures. The shadows at the edges of the square contain furtive figures.

One of them, is an ashen Arvec, Mourner Ashlee Ciaradh. She isn't hiding on purpose, but the tea cafe' she selected seems to have closed without telling her, or collecting the pot of tea she has sitting in front of her. It's grown dark, suddenly, and while this signals a step up in the ambient danger, it's not that bad for races that can see in the dark.

Like her, and her centipede, her mouse and her new lizard. She has them spread out on the table in front of her, and with a Detect Thoughts, is keeping ahead of them.

Toha emerges from a side alley, with a smooth, reasonably light stride, mind mostly puzzling over some sort of arcane engineering, while trying to remain more or less alert to her surroundings. Like the Arvek, the night poses only so much trouble to her eye, and so it is that she notices the Mourner and her menagerie set out at one of the tables. A slight shift of angle and recognition is gleaned, and she raises a hand with a, "Hey, how ya doin?"

"Hello," Ashlee raises a hand, looking at the construct, quickly returning her attention to her small petting zoo. Chippen, her familiar, is of course the best behaved and assisting, although both he and her lizard seem inordantly interested in the mouse. Food distractions placed in front of them assist. The mouse meanwhile, keeps edging close to the mourner, seemingly wanting to dive into her clothes.

"I'm ok. Thinking about things."

Toha steps closer, looking about via her eyeslit in that way of hers, though she wonders, "I ain't positive, but... don't they eat mice?" She gives a little list of the head with her question, then, with a little shrug, "Anway, somethin' I can help with?"

"They do. I have to keep them separated." Ashlee explains, her hands closest to the lizard and Chippen. Finally she decides it's a little complex at the moment. She picks up the lizard and holds him near her ear. He clips on like a large earring, dangling and too terrified to stop biting, and too small to actually hurt.

She leans forward next, and the mouse jumps on her chest, runs up to her collar and then back down, vanishing somewhere beneath her top. As she straightens up, her centipede familiar gives her a strange, almost admonishing look. "That's enough friendship training for today. I'll let them do their own thing."

Toha makes a soft, considering sound, then shrugs again, "I never had a pet." she notes, continuing her approach, "I don't see a lotta folks using live critters as jewelry, though."

"You could get one." Ash looks at Toha, "Some creatures might like you better than a warm bodied person."

She takes a small crumble of biscuit, and tosses it towards Chippen. He catches it, works at sucking dry the raisen embedded in it. The Arvec touches the lizard on her ear, "I used to wear a lot of things. Snails. Slugs. Worms. Some bees, but they wouldn't stay. Flowers."

Toha nods and draws up close to hand, "Lotta critters don't. I can... win'm over eventually, but I don't think I've met one that wasn't an uphill climb, yanno?" She considers another chair at the Mourner's table and, "I've had slugs an snails on me, before. Sometimes they affect my finish."

"It's not good to keep them on long." Ashlee says, watching Toha as she sits down. She examines her critically, "Do you have a warm spot? Cats will climb up inside warm artifice, one of them might like that. Squirrels too, they will chew on things."

She adjusts her satchel on her lap, fiddling with the flap, "I try to convince them I have a safe dark space with food."

Toha nods, "My dynamoes, probably, but there's a lot of fast spinning, kinda grindy stuff in there. It wouldn't go well fer either of us." Hmmm, "On my outside, though? Uhhh... I'm honestly not sure. I've never thought to check."

"Cats like warm laps and stomachs, are those areas above ambient temperatures?" Ash asks in monotone. She blinks once, imagining internal gears, grindy stuff, the resulting difficulties both might have. It's an easy envisioning for her.

She faces directly at Toha, her dark eyes staring out of her skull-mask. Completely deadpan she says, "You could get a hamster wheel, and put a hamster in it."

It would make one unique headpiece or chestplate fixture.

Toha honestly isn't sure, and looks down at herself as she answers dubiously, "I think so... maybe? Can you feel a difference?" This, a conversation for the ages, no doubt, "What's a hamster?"

"I'll try." Ash moves her chair closer so she can reach Toha, and places her hand in her lap. She stares unblinking ahead, waiting almost a minute. After that, she moves her hand to the machine's stomach, leaves it there with fingers splayed. The tattoo of stylized bones is very visible, and in the evening darkness she resembles a skeleton a lot more. After that she moves her hand up to Toha's chest and leaves it splayed as she lectures in monotone, "A hamster is a rodent, like a mouse. It's fatter, larger, and with a short tail. They are kept in cages with wood shavings, and a cage wheel to run in."

"I don't like that." Toha says softly, giving a little shake of her head so she doesn't accidentally slap Ashes with her braids, "Critters should be free ta run around, some." Due to her reasonably unique construction, she isn't as cold as may would be, though by far the steel plates are cooler than the more leathery bits between them.

"I don't think you have a warm spot an animal would find attractive." Ashlee says, seeing if there's a space on Toha's back she can touch. "I've only ever seen hamsters in cages. I know there are wild ones, but they get eaten or stepped on. Some owners build them habitats of tubes, it might be free enough for them."

She sets her hands in her lap for the moment, "Am I being unfair keeping my pets?"

Toha shakes her head, "I dunno, they don't seem ta be tryin ta run away. An it looks like you play with them, at least." she says gently, a subtle uncertainty in her tone. Her back is much like the front, though still largely contoured in facsimile to a flesh woman's arrangement of muscles, at least in broad stroaks. The chain anchored weaponry hanging from there are easy enough to nudge aside for the examination, though.

Ashlee performs an examination, working her hand underneath the chain anchored weapony to feel the contoured facsimile. After some contact she says, "Your heat shedding is uniform. I don't think they'd find you warm."

She sits back and adjusts her top, some of the clothing underneath around her chest. She nods, "The mouse took some convincing. The lizard is unhappy."

The lizard is still glomped onto her ear, dangling and dragging it down.

Toha shrugs and nods, "It was worth a second opinion, thanks fer checking." she returns lightly. The ammendments to Ashes's companions cants her head again, "Whyfor? Ya seem ok with'em."

"Oh, in general. His master died, so Carbuncle is unhappy." Ashlee states in monotone, giving the lizard a small pet. "I don't think he's unhappy with me."

Toha nods, making a thoughtful note, then, "Oh... I'm sorry ta hear that. Was'e a good friend, then?" the construct wonders. They're settled in at one of the outdoor cafe tables of a place that's closed for the night.

"No." Ash says, blinking once, "He was using an illusion to date the daughter of a woman he turned into a vampire. We brought him to the Temples. He made his decisions, I'm responsible for his fate."

The mourner doesn't sound guilty, or resigned, only that it's something that is.

Toha's head adjusts its camber once again and she replies, "I don't understand. He was dating... a courtship thing, right?" Hmmm, "With an illusion... but he turned her mother into a vampire?"

The ashen Arvec nods, her be-lizarded ear bounces, the other one doesn't. "A Baetriov vampire. They can go about in the daytime, and only need to bath in blood every couple months. Veriford had disguised himself as a much younger, more handsome man, and was courting the daughter. Perhaps to make her, or himself, a Baetriov as well."

"Carbuncle was caught up in it all. It was sad, he seemed genuinely concerned and compassionate for his lizard. He didn't feel that for people though."

It's late, and Tae is out on the town. Well, out in the town, anyway. She's got a bottle in her right hand and a small basket in the other. The smell of food spills from it in mouth-watering waves. The druid looks about for a decent place to sit, preferably where she won't be bothered, won't stick out too much, and is, especially, unlikely to be told to 'leave right now'. Which is how her attention first settles on the place where Ashes and Toha are seated.

Toha hmmmm's again and shakes her head, "I guess from the sound, ya solved the vampire, then?" she wonders. She takes a small curved plate from one of her hanging pouches, and a couple of small, almost tiny, chisels from another and lays them on the table, "I know some folk that only care about their own, passionate about it beyond anything, but -just- their own." A shrug. The approaching half-oruch may get the sensation of being watched along her path before a warm, yrch-speak /Hello, sister!/ sounds from the war machine, her hand raised in greeting.

Ashlee raises her hand towards Tae as well. She has a table, and a pot of cold tea. Not as inviting as a half-orc and pie, but still as welcoming as she can be. "We solved the vampires. I got punched in the face a lot."

She looks down at the chisels, "What are those for?"

The kind greeting is a surprise. So much so that Tae nearly drops something. She stops in her route and turns to Toha. For a moment, she studies the woman. She replies in her language, "Good evening! My apologies..I am not used to.." She has to consider her words. Not used to being greeted without hostility doesn't sound that good to her. "I'm not used to hearing my own tongue. It's very kind of you to greet me that way." She looks to Ashes and nods politely. "Vampires?" she whispers, faily to suppress a slight shiver.

Toha is reasonably pleased by the happy return, though the stern nature of her faceplate precludes displaying such. "I'm sorry ya get treated that way. I'm Toha!" The Orc word for 'Forge', "An this is my friend, Ashes!" The Mourner's inquiry brings her attention back to the tools and she says, "Oh, sorry, sometimes I like to keep my hands busy. I was going to try to engrave this plate so I can work some gold into it."

"Yes. Not any more. We defeated them. I got a lizard earring." Ashlee explains, and she does indeed have a lizard hanging off one of her ears. She nods as she is introduced, and looks at Tae. She doesn't smile, that's sort of normal for her, "Have a seat."

Well, Tae did want a place to sit, so that works perfectly. She settles down with the unusually friendly pair and smiles, "Thank you. I appreciate not sitting alone tonight. Oh, I'm Tae." She sets down the bottle and draws back the cloth napkin covering the basket. "If you're hungry or thirsty, please fel free to share." Inside the basket are golden pieces of fried fish and a mix of steaming vegetables and rice. She looks to Ashes, her lips seemingly tugged into a fleeting smirk, "Will there be any dancing tonight?"

Toha bows her head, "Thank you, but I can't." But, since she wasn't given any particular objections, she braces the little plate against her leg and picks up on of the little chisels, holding between her fingers while her thumb tap-taps the end, slowly cutting a little channel into the steel, "I'm glad ya got rid of the vampires, then. What happened ta the daughter?"

"No, no dancing tonight." Ash says, shrinking back in her seat. She looks at the fish, "I might want a piece of those."

Looking to Toha, "I don't know. We left her with her friends, who were travelling bards. She seemed ok."

To emphasize her point, Tae pushes the basket closer to Ashes. "Please, help yourself. There are some forks in there, too." She doesn't expect anyone to eat with their hands, after all. She herself is already doing so, though it does demand she pauses to open the wine. She has two glasses, as well. Fancy looking ones. "I don't know what the rules of wine are, but I only drink dry reds, so.. that is what I got."

"Isn't wine that... grape juice?" Toha wonders with some befuddlement, "Do ya need water ta mix it up as a liquid again?" Meanwhile taptaptaptap.... a slow, inward spiral is coming into being on the contoured plate, "I'm glad ya could save her, Ashes."

"It is, juice that has fermented." Ashlee says, taking a fork and then a piece of fish. She takes the second glass, and sets it where Tae can pour. She'll be a little more watchful of it tonight, the spooky season has passed and no one would appreciate skeletons running in the street. "Dry Red if fine."

She nods to Toha, "It worked out."

Tae carefully fills Ashes glass with a smile, "I tend to avoid things that are too sweet. They leave a bad after taste, I find." One might get the feeling she's speaking generally, and not just about wine. "It's a delicious drink, but one must be careful. It can make you more than a bit foolish at times. Which can be fun, but.. not always."

She sighs and directs her attention back at the food, spearing a carrot and then waving it around as she says, "Nothing against sweetness, of course, but I'd say my life's flavor is more bitter than anything else." She laughs, then takes the carrot in her mouth.

The golem nods a little bit, and she continues her carving, though her attention briefly turns toward the centipede, "Sometimes it seems like fun, when you eat an drink an all. Sometimes the feel of aplace is so warm, and big and exciting.... then other times there's stupid arguments."

"Better than it tasting like ashes." Ashlee says. Her centipede briefly turns his attention towards Toha. It's clear he's looking at her, although it's hard to determine eyes, a face. Very unexpressive, like his mistress, and perhaps Toha could relate also. Ash takes a bite of fish, chews it slowly, counting her chews. "Stupid arguments don't help."

"Arguments are common," murmurs Tae. "Stupidity? That's omnipresent. If there's a God out there who is truly everywhere, it must be the God of Stupidity." She gazes off into space a moment, yet somehow is still eating quite neatly. Practiced inattentiveness, clearly. "Or maybe the God of Love is the same thing as the God of Stupidity?"

"Generally no." Toha replies, then pauses in her work to fingerwave with her bracing hand, "Hey, little guy!" she says in a gentle tone, then turns her face to Ashes, "He's a boy, right?"

She looks to Tae then, on her remarks and her chin dips, "Isn't love supposed ta be a good thing?"

"Chippen is a boy, yes." Ashlee confirms. Chippen waves feelers, legs, he's a little eerie. She seems pensive. "I don't think there is a god of love. I think there are three goddesses that cover the stages of being a woman, and they each handle the related love."

Despite her clearly off mood, Tae turns around quickly. "I'm just complaining. And being difficult. My apologies. I was hoping to find.. something, and didn't." The way she forms that sentence makes it a bit strange, as if she meant to say something slightly different than 'something'. "I am rather tired of disappointment, and I keep feeling like something has to change, and change now. It just hasn't yet." Toha cants her head a smidge and reaches slowly out to the familiar, one finger outstretched, "Can I pet 'im?" She looks to Tae, then, even as she awaits Ashes' (Chippen's?) ok, then, "Sorry, Tae. Whatcha lookin for, mebbe I can whip something up?"

"Things are going to change. Very soon. Not in ways you might like." Ashlee says ominously. Perhaps it's a hunch, perhaps the ghosts are telling her to stay in a nice safe coffin, or happy she'll be with them soon. Portents abound, and her cards have been coming up, upside down more often than not lately. Their sarcasim seems to have given way to gloom, and sometimes anger.

The ashen Arvec reflects that she should say something supportive, that's what her pamphlet recommends. The half-oruch doesn't seem upset enough for the big guns, so, something that's still encouraging and hopeful, "It's okay to be complaining, and difficult, and disappointed. It stops when you die."

Chippen meanwhile, seems to aquiesce to be touched, moving towards Toha's hand.

"I'm looking for.." The half-oruch pauses, finishes her glass of wine, refills it, and takes another considerable drink. It's a long time to wait for an answer. When it comes, it's a foggy as the future, "A dance." She rises suddenly, "I.. need to rest, I think. I'm staying over there.." She points vaguely towards an inn. "Please drop off the basket and things there when you are done? Thanks!" She takes her glass. After refilling it again. She moves smoothly, clearly far from intoxicated.

Toha nods with a little sighish note, "Yeah... things are turning an I don't like'm." she says thoughtfully. She carefully closes the distance to chippen and gently strokes at his head with her fingertip with slow, deliberate movements. She considers Ashes on her words and, maybe taking someone else's actions to heart, sets her chisel on the table and reaches accross for the Mourner's hand, "You seem kinda down... I could sing? Mebbe cheer you up some....?"

Oh boy...

Chippen seems to appreciate the gentle pets, enough to climb up on Toha and lurk on a safe section of her external plating.

Ash looks at the golem, staring silent and expressionless. Her face is a skull, her hand imitation bones, there's an eerie chill surrounding her which isn't cold but something else. Her voice is always monotone and it's difficult to tell what she's feeling, if she's feeling anything at all.

A golem might though. The ashen Arvec nods slowly, leaving her hand were Toha can take it.

"Ok."