Everyone Needs a Hobby
Log Info
- Title: Everyone Needs a Hobby
- GM: Aftershock
- Place: Lower Alexandria Market District
Lower Alexandria Market District
The day is bright and cheerful. The people are smiling and talkative. There is a bustling amount of activity as people buy and sell and generally go about their daily lives. There's even a song in the air. A humming that catches in the mind and on the lips of those that hear it. A song unfamiliar but catchy.
A boy passing boy hums it as he stealthily slips from stall to stall on a mission only he knows, his tattered clothes showing him a commoner's child.
A little girl on the other side of the street hums it as she innocently kicks a ball. Another urchin, with a smile on her lips.
Bright and cheerful days at the market are the best. Definitely better than rainy and dreary ones. Especially when one has fur to get soggy.
One example would be the wolf of unusual size that pads his way into the market. He is careful and mindful of all his fellow pedestrians no matter how many legs they walk on. He's also mindful of his passengers, because there are several. One halfling whose never-cut hair and furs blend into a single, spectacular outfit, and three even smaller halflings: one in shirt and short breeches and two in simple dresses.
"Hi hi hi hi!" There is much grinning, greeting and waving from all four. Until the stalls and wares come into clear view, and then the synchronization collapses. "Candies! Toys! Shinies!" calls are made and smaller hands shift from waving to pointing.
Corey, as he prefers to be called, is quite busy. Mostly in that he's currently acting as the workhorse for his mother, who seems quite intent on buying several pieces of furniture today, as well as some colorful and quaint autumn decorations made by several vendors in the marketplace. Which means he's carrying everything, sighing a little as his mother is inspecting a bauble at a stall that happens to be shaped like a raven. "Mother," he says, "we have a million and one raven figurines at home."
That earns him a softly-glowing silver eye. Faphinae Cari'thana, retired adventurer, nonetheless looks like an active one. Maybe it's the finely-sewn dress of feathers and black silk. Maybe it's the stylish boots with a high heel she's wearing today. Maybe it's the rapier that hangs from a fine chain belt on her hip. Maybe it's the fact her white hair, pulled up today into a high ponytail, frames her pale face and gives attention to her eyes that glow lightly and gently with the tell-tale sign of magic power. Maybe it's all of these--
But that does not change the fact she is a mother, and she teases Corey. "I have never said no to a precious child, nor will I start now," she says, taking the bauble and putting a golden piece into the hand of the artisan, who is wide-eyed (presumably at the gross overpayment), but before they can object, Faphinae waves a long-nailed hand to inform them quietly to keep the change. "Oh, lovely babes," Faphinae exclaims. "Do you want to say hi?"
"You might scare them," Corey says quietly, under his breath.
Walking along behind Corey (slightly less burdened by furniture) is Karasu. He keeps a stern eye on the young children as they are passed by as if he doesn't trust them, and even moreso when more are unloaded from the large wolf. "Busy here today." He murmurs to Corey, a small smile on his lips - amusement at the cost of his fiancée's discomfort with his mother surely.
The one-time assassin notices the humming from various places in the market and his smile slips his lips. "Have either of you noticed the strange humming? Was there a release of a new song in the theater district?" As if humming is somehow suspect.
"Make way, make way!" A merchant is hauling something toward the stalls. Something large enough to cause some severe congestion in the streets. It's hard to get a good look at what it is, but he doesn't bring it far before backing the wagon up into an 'empty' slot. Which is not really empty so much as that it's just not wholly taken up by the two places on either side of it. The merchants on either side of the commotion look less than happy with this.
GAME: Karasu rolls Perception: (2)+18: 20 GAME: Rhar rolls perception: (4)+23: 27 GAME: Rhar rolls companionperception: (11)+6: 17 GAME: Corey rolls Perception: (8)+21: 29 GAME: Corey rolls 1d20+26: (6)+26: 32
"OK. Everybody gets a shiny! Just one!" Rhar starts to hand out a coin to each of the three, but pauses when another wagon comes rolling through. Gurr sidesteps away, too, as much fto keep the pups clear as to make way for the cart. Once the cart stops, she finishes up the shiny dispensing. "That's all. Be nice! No biting!" She warns, adding, "Unless they bite first!"
Leaping, climbing, and scampering follows as the half-halfings dismount to dart off to their desires. Rhar gives Gurr's head a pat and then a good scritch between the ears before she hops down herself. "I get the foods!" Gurr then yawns and makes a point to lie down, though his nose pans to the new cart and he inhales deeply. Then he makesa short, low rumble. "Ok! I get fish, too!" Rhar assures him before stepping off for a stall. It's just another day in the market so far to her.
"Humming? I thought I heard something," Corey says thoughtfully. "Kinda catchy, actually... Maybe it's from that one show about cats that they have here? Where they get up in cat costumes and--"
"Shark." Faphinae's voice is terribly intrigued. "Corey, I think that merchant's got a shark. It smells like one."
Corey has had many questions in his life at the things that his mother has said. (One time, while play-fighting with his siblings, he gasped as he pretended to be stabbed in the back, and his mother said, "That is not how a man sounds when his lungs have been punctured by a dagger through the back.") He has since learned not to ask them. The stories behind them are often too cruel to comprehend. "You want to go look at the shark now, don't you," he says softly.
"Yes, I do," Faphinae replies, her silver eyes glittering with mirth as she already makes her way in the direction of the foul-smelling thing.
"Mother," Cor'ethil complains, looking at Karasu for some kind of help as he waddles after her, arms filled with the things she has purchased.
"We are here to indulge in her shopping." At least that's what Karasu has been told, and he has in fact taken the idea at face value. The dark-eyed man trails along behind his fiancée's mother with a warm twinkle in his eyes that's not at all usual. "So we may as well go along with it... Perhaps it was the show with the cats. I seem to remember that it had good music even if the costumes were somewhat strange."
The merchant proudly pulls the tarp off what is indeed a very large shark. He waves at the monstrous beast and proclaims loudly for all to hear, "I'm going to auction off this shark! That's right! A real shark!"
The audience ooohs but some of them are already shaking their heads at the expense of such a large thing.
"I'll be auctioning it off in parts, so everyone can have a chance to have some of the whole!" This garners more attention, particularly since part of a shark is far more likely to be reasonably priced.
The sound of song intensifies quietly, but noticeably. No lyrics, just humming. A song of action.
GAME: Karasu rolls Sense Motive: (13)+18: 31 GAME: Corey rolls Sense Motive: (17)+2: 19 GAME: Rhar rolls sense motive: (4)+2: 6 GAME: Corey rolls 1d20+24: (2)+24: 26
"Shark is a delicacy," Faphinae says softly, noting the number of people who are interested. She seems bothered by something else, but what it is, she doesn't divulge.
Corey catches up to her, and while he looks at Karasu, seeming to notice Karasu's unusually good mood, he does notice something else. "The children seem... upset. The ones we saw just a moment ago, not the ones that came sliding off the wolf." Which was an unusual sight, as wolves distributing children tends to be, but Corey's filled hands means that he couldn't go interrogate the wolf for his bounty. "I wonder why?"
One halfling-ling already got her candies. The canymaker was RIGHT THERE. She's already stuffed a couple into her mouth, when she hears "Shark?!" A moment later, she appears at Rhar's side, tugging at her furst. "Ma! Ma! Shark!" She points, in case Rhar isn't aware of it. "Pet! Take home?!"
Rhar is already aware of it, having heard it, too. "No. No shark for Yip. Bowl not big enough." This prompts some whining, but her siblings are too occupied browsing for their toys and things.
Gurr is peering at the shark, now, and stands back up. He snorts in agreement with Rhar; too big for a pet. Too big for dinner, too. Even for him. He doesn't want to be the one dragging that back home... though small pieces might be alright. "Where find?" Rhar calls out to the shark-seller. "How much?" She hasn't really noticed the humming yet, though the browsing kids night have.
"They do seem a bit... intense." Karasu agrees, looking at the children with some suspicion once more. "Perhaps they have some disagreement with the man over work?" Though the children look to be a bit young to work as fishmongers. Most of them. Karasu's eyes trail a bit higher than kid-height and he frowns now. "I think we might be about to see some labor dispute in action."
"An excellent question and the answer is-!" The merchant starts to pause for effect when a loud feminine voice calls out over him.
"NOW!" The humming stops dead in it's tracks right in cue and suddenly kids are streaming out of the woodwork to attack the shark.
Cut-cut! Slice-slice!
Bits of the shark are quickly being cut off by the oldest and passed to the youngest. Big bits. Little bits!
"Stop! Thieves!" The merchant cries out, trying to grab a young man by the arm and a golden dragon appears on the arm in question, growling and trickling flame from her tiny maw. The merchant jerks his hand away before he loses it but decries his fate. "Help!"
"Oh no!" Corey frowns as he watches the fishmonger's livelihood being dismantled piece by piece. "Doesn't look like a labor dispute at all to me!" He steps forward to try and intervene when Faphinae raises her hand.
"Now now," she says. "Let Mother handle it." There's a gleam of delight in her eyes--a gleam that Corey knows well. He has a look of bemusement on his face as Faphinae rolls forward.
Her heel clicks sharply on the market cobblestone as she stops by the shark. "Merchant, I shall buy this shark so that the children and the most noble golden dragon may have it."
Corey blinks. Yes. That's a little golden dragon. He immediately feels even more concern, and he finally just puts the things he'd been carrying down onto the ground, racing forward to catch up to his mother. "Mother, please, a dragon..."
It seemed like people were interested in the shark, but wow. Sure, not something you see everyday, but... Rhar is surprised when all the people, no -pups- run up to start chopping pieces off. "Bad parent. Not feed kid right!" That's her first thought: they must be starving. Seems she's not the only mother thinking that, after hearing Faphina. Rhar gives the woman a look and nod. But then there's the-
"DWAGON!" Yip squeals. Shark, what shark? This is WAY better! "Yip want dwagon!" And she scampers that way fueled by glee (and a fair amount of sugar). 'It's too big' might've worked for the shark, but not this time.
"Yip. Wait!" Rhar starts running after, and is followed rather promptly by Gurr.
Karasu shakes his head as Faphinae and Corey decide to get involved with the growing chaos. He decides to stay with the things that have been purchased. Just in case anyone gets the bright idea to make off with anything that Corey's mother had picked up along the way. All he has to do is stand there and look vaguely menacing and everyone keeps their distance. (Something that comes quite naturally to him.)
The gold dragon hovers in front of the fish merchant as his shark continues to be diminished. "W-well... if you want to buy it..." He starts, stumbling over his words, but the little dragon is having none of that.
"I buy! With from MY horde!" She puffs up (which makes her all of an inch bigger). "Give gold but no fish come! Bad peoples!"
The merchant turns pink. "I've never seen you before!"
This causes the gold dragon to balefully leak more flames. "Left note!"
"I couldn't- I mean! What note?" The merchant is looking quite nervous now.
GAME: Corey rolls 1d20+31: (12)+31: 43
"Really." The word drops like an anvil from Faphinae's mouth as her silver eyes center on the merchant. She smiles. That smile is so far from being a comforting one that it's a smile in name only. The lips pull far too highly at the corners for it to be comforting. There's a zeal in her silver eyes that's almost crazed. Her long-nailed hand rests on the hilt of her rapier as she steps forward, getting into the merchant's personal space.
"Cheating a dragon is a very quick way to end up dead atop her hoard. Cheating children of their food is a very quick way to end up dead on my blade." Faphinae's voice is an acidic purr. Her silver eyes glow a little brighter.
"Mother!" Corey says, panicked as he goes to put a hand on her arm. "Please, do not threaten this man." He laughs nervously at the man as he tries to pull her away, but she's not budging. "Please, my mother just has a sick sense of humor. Just... give the children the shark?"
"I'm not kidding, Cor'ethil," Faphinae simply says, smiling still--zeal in her eyes still. "Fulfill your end of the deal, fishmonger."
Rhar catches up to Yip and manages to grab her before she attaches herself to any dragons, sharks, merchants, nor anyone else. "Be nice," Rhar reminds her. "Rhar think dragon busy. Maybe talk Yip after? We nice." She then looks to the fishmonger, peering pointedly (though probably not as utterly terrifying as Faphinae). "Even when some are NOT."
Karasu blinks at Faphinae, mentally taking notes at her impressive ability to threaten the man into submission. He folds his arms over his chest comfortably and stands next to her belongings. It seems he made the right choice both in protecting her purchases as well as staying out of this problem. After all, his solution would look much like Faphinae's, and Corey doesn't need to be bailing them both out of jail should things go awry.
The merchant pales considerably. "H-how was I supposed to know that the letter was from a dragon?" He whines, but his shark is dilapidated and his shoulders sink. "Fine. The shark can go with the dragon. I should have known that Telamon's little monster had something to do with that gold."
The gold dragon cheers and lands neatly on Faphinae's shoulder for good measure. "Good peoples." She murmurs in approval to the woman. "Nice peoples. Nicepeoplesmakesurefishisdeliveredtoclearing?" Her words are rushed together and hopeful.
A few of the hungry-looking children are eyeing the golden dragon now that they've won the shark for some cue as to what to do next.
Yip watches the little gold dwagon with eyes wider that her face should be able to hold, while Rhar keeps hold of her, though gently. Behind (and above) her, Gurr watches warily.. though he seems to relax when the merchant relents and the flying fire-breather isn't setting anyone aflame. Above Gurr's gaze, two more pairs of eyes appear. Yip's siblings finally came up to see what all the hullabaloo was about; Snarl and Chuffle join their sister in staring in wonder at the golden wonder.
"Rhar help take! Take shark to clearing!" Gurr lets out a long breath, not quite a snort, as they are volunteered. He knows very well who will be doing most of the heavy lifting, dragging, and whatnot.
Faphinae's smile gains back some warmth as the dragon lands on her shoulder. "Oh, sweet one," she says, offering Tanith little scritches on the head with those long-taloned fingers of hers. They're painted black to resemble raven talons. "Beautiful and most noble dragon. It has been some time since I have last seen one of your kind."
Corey sighs in relief the moment that the merchant gives in. "I appreciate you not giving us any trouble," he says to the merchant, although he side-eyes his own mother as though he was far more worried about her causing trouble. Then he blinks. "Err... Telamon's monster? Clearing?"
"How rude," Faphinae says, still scritching at Tanith's scales. She particularly aims for under the chin. "For one thing, this beautiful creature is not a monster. Secondly, I hardly doubt the Archmage owns this creature. She should be free."
However, those silver eyes slide back to the merchant, and Faphinae offers another glare. "I would advise you to keep his name out of your mouth if you are going to speak it with such a wretched tongue. Lest it be cut out."
"Mother, please," Corey says in exasperation. "I'd be happy to help... And to get the children some food along the way, too? They look starving." Corey shares one thing in common with his mother, at least--he can't abide starving children. He gives a smile at Rhar, her children, and Gurr. "I'd appreciate your help, too."
Realizing that the show is over, Karasu steps to the side and offers a coin to a merchant to rent a small hand-drawn cart to put Faphinae's belongings into which he helpfully wheels over to the others. He nods respectfully to the woman herself and then to the dragon which... Is oddly sized for one of her kind now that he thinks about it. He's never seen or heard of one so small. "Perhaps the merchant would be willing to lend us his cart for the insult." He says with a small smile to the man.
GAME: Karasu rolls Intimidate: (12)+18: 30
The merchant manages to pale a bit more and nods to Karasu's suggestion. "Yes. Borrow the cart. Borrow my horses. Please bring the horses back." He wrings his hands.
Thankfully for him, the small golden dragon purrs happily and contentedly at the attention she receives. Tilting her head to give perfect access to her most itchy of places. (Under her chin and near her horns are particular favorites.)
"Home!" She calls out, and the children cheer. Corey's offer is taken up by many of the children remaining (though thankfully there aren't many of them), and they all ask for unsurprising things. Cinnamon buns. Toffy apples. One girl asks for chocolates to take back to her sister who couldn't come with because she wasn't feeling well.
Eventually you make it to the clearing (poor Gurr doesn't have to do most of the pulling thanks to the horses), and you find a small enclave of children on the outskirts of the city. Living in the woods in makeshift houses.
They seem thrilled to see the shark, though there's a bunch of complaining that it's fish (again), and in particular the dragon whom they call 'Tanith'.
The revelation of children living in an enclave outside of the city has Corey and Faphinae both exchanging looks with each other, mother and son clearly on a quiet wavelength. Corey is happy to play with the children, and he tries to recruit Karasu into playing with them too. Key word: tries.
Meanwhile, Faphinae keeps close to the dragon. "Did you gather these children, Tanith?" she asks gently. "Were they orphans before? Are you caring for them all on your own?" Her voice is soft in a way that her words against the merchant were not. This is a side of the fearsome Cari'thana matriarch that is gentler and compassionate.
Karasu earnestly doesn't seem to know what to do with the children. One might think that he's never played with a child before. Or that he himself never played as a child. Still, the older children seem to get along with him better, so he teaches them how to make rabbit traps. (He figures they were complaining about having more fish, so if they know how to catch rabbits...) He's better at that than he is at the playing at least.
Gurr is delighted that he doesn't have to pull the cart (but he would help if it didn't spook the horses). Rhar is delighted to spare some shinies for the other kids for sweets (but not TOO many sweets!), just as she was for her own children; whose utter fascination with the dragon identified as Tanith is broken only by the fact that the other kids knows her! This provokes many questions from child to child. Especially from Yip, who is even willing to share some of her candies as payment.
Tanith turns her attention on the woman who's shoulder she's riding. After saying hello to the children and making sure that everyone gets some fish to cook on their little fire. (She has to help them start it up, but she's very good at that.) "Theygatheredaroundme." She explains quickly. "Littlepeopleslikeme."
This seems to be very true given that the children seem quite enamored of her and the reaction of the children that she hadn't even collected. "Theyhavenoparents. Nofamily." This seems to sadden her a little and she looks at the woman with wide gold eyes. "I know I'm not a good people-parent. Peoplearehardtotakecareof!" She grins toothily. "But... Good peoples taught me that you should help where you can. So I am helping."
Faphinae nods quietly for a moment, surveying the land of children and watching Corey, Karasu, and Rhar help them. "It is the heart that matters most," she says. "You could be anyone or anything... But so long as you have a heart that is earnest in trying to help, you are better than some." There is a terrible sorrow in her words then, a look in her eyes that suggests she knows far too much about what it is like to live life as a child without a loving parent or guardian.
"I would like to help you, Tanith." Faphinae is gentle-voiced. "I would like to help you regardless of my proposal. You may say yes, you may say no. But... There is a particular ambition that I have, and I could use someone with a heart as kind as yours and scales as beautiful and bright as yours. I will tell you a secret."
She leans in and whispers something into Tanith's ear. Then she pulls back and says, "Will you help me? I would arrange for you and your children in the care of your golden wings to be cared for regardless, but should that come to pass... I would like to build them a refuge."
In the meantime, Corey has caught wind of Karasu's trap-making, and he helps with this, too, although... he adds onto Karasu's explanations by delivering a kid-friendly lecture on the virtues of ethical hunting and fishing. Or he tries. He's never given this particular teaching to children before.
Karasu gives Corey several fond looks, and between the two of them they've quickly stirred the older or more responsible of the children into an impromptu class on the virtues of hunting, and how to do it. They may not be the best at it, but between Corey's enthusiasm and Karasu's steady thinking they manage a fair shake at it.
Tanith looks at the children at play and at learning. She looks at them with a kindness that is unfathomable. They may not be her young, but mischievous creature at heart that she is or not, it seems she has a soft spot for 'good peoples' and these little ones are that. "I will help you."
She says it with determination and with firmness, her golden eyes circulating with the force of her will. It is said with such seriousness, that one almost can imagine that it's not such a small creature that says it at all, but one far more ancient and powerful than her size would indicate.
"I will help you."