A Meeting of Small Minds
Log Info
- Title: A Meeting of Small Minds
- Emitter: Paenitia
- Characters: Paenitia, Gadget, Jinks, Smythly
- Place: A10: Temple District
- Time: Friday, June 25, 2021, 2:50 PM
- Summary: Paenitia flies into the temple district on Ramirez, having jumped off the mountain again. She lands and discovers Gadget and Mr. Jinglewidget, who escaped the Fey and are happy to see her. She is happy as well, greeting her fellow adventurer, who invites her to drinks. Paenitia accepts, enjoying drinks, and notices a nearby gnome who is suffering hangover - and therefore must know a lot about drinking. She calls him over, introductions are made, as well as lewd offers to Gadget and Ramirez, which are declined. Jinks is surprised to discover Tarien has paladins, and Paenitia laughs it off. The three new amigos head off for drinks, with Mr. Jinglewidget happy with his promotion.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=<* A10: Temple District *>=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
The air of solemn, heavy divinity in the area is often broken by laughter. The dual presence of the deities Althea and Daeus, man and wife, stand towards the center, with their children and their children's temples positioned around them. The presence of the divine is felt not only by their temples, but also by the actions of their worshipers. The great plaza is as a social center, paved in brilliant, white flagstones and covered in benches and sitting areas. Priests, acolytes, and servicefolk of all stripes roam the plaza, going from one task to the other.
At the front of the temples of Daeus and Althea, at the Plaza's centermost point, rests a great fountain, the cheerful waters reflecting the Sun during the day, and the Moon and Stars at night. The fountain is strategically centered, and is oft a place for wisdom and lesson-giving. It is not uncommon for a priest of some stripe or the other to stand there, surrounded by the curious and faithful, delivering messages of hope or contemplation. At other times, it and the plaza become a landscape of celebration of the holy holidays.
Few vendors are seen in the plaza--the nearby temples provide most food or services. Towards the west, the great Bridge stretches across the river, and towards the east, the Redridge mountains. The plaza rests in the midst of it all, the temples massive and grand on the Alexandrian scale.
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Appearing, in Order -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Gadget 3'6" 38 Lb Gnome Female Beautiful and unnatural. Jinks 3'4" 39 Lb Gnome Male A gnomish fellow in fancy garb and jewelry. Paenitia 3'0" 34 Lb Halfling Female A Lucht knight, dark skinned in bold feathery finery. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Sir Silently Standing Guard =-=-=-=-=-= Smythly 2'6" 30 Lb Goblin Male Stone faced Goblin. With a big hammer. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
It's a warm day for all of Alexandria, and the Temple District is no exception. Humid, still, veiled in mists and hazy, it's not exactly a nice day. Everything is a pale grey, merging in the distances. Clerics and faithful move about on missions from gods, and lay worshippers come to make obeisances.
And a voice calls from above, "Hola! We land! Ground, I know you hide somewhere and will not escape Ramirez's feet. Anyhow that hear, ware!" A high-pitched voice with the timber of a child and the weight of adulthood. A Lucht's voice, oddly accented, accompanied by the heavy flapping of wings.
Out of nowhere a horse-sized peacock appears. Rushing like a white meteor. He calls, 'Ruuaaaah!', a warning. He lands now.
Dressed in her red dress, Gadget hears and heeds, Mr. Jinglewidget the albino capuchin jumping onto the clockwork gnome's back as she runs with a furious ticking and tocking like her arms contain a dozen pocketwatches all going full tilt. She turns once out of the way, watching the hippogriff land. She makes her way back and calls up, "Paen!" Pronounced 'pain'. "You survived! I'm so glad to see you safely out!"
Expelled at a half-stumble from the vomitorium of Tarien's Temple, Jinks squints against that haze as if blinded unfiltered noonday sun. He clutches a tin cup of something acrid but (presumably) potable in one hand while the crimson coat draped over his shoulder conceals his other arm entirely. You can almost hear the sandpaper sound of his eyelids as the little fancy gnome blinks deliberately and makes his way-- slow and stiff-- towards the fountain. He croaks something indecipherable passing by a few vaguely familiar blurs on the way and falls to sitting on the edge of the plaza's centerpiece, lifting the cup as he does to brace and keep its contents from sloshing out.
Ramirez lands, gracefully and heavily, like a ship coming into port. He glides down and his hooves and talons strike the flagstones. The brilliantly white-feathered peacock-andalusian canters to a halt with extravagent steps. Peahens, should they be about, would notice him.
"Hola my friend!" Paenitia calls cheerfully, turning her masked face towards the voice. "We did, though I am cursed by faeries not to speak of it. I am glad you make it back too. I promise to keep you safe, yet it is easier when you do so yourself."
The pair, rider and mount, walk towards the gnome and her monkey. The crimson gnome with his cup noted only by the hippogryph. He is red.
"Agreed," Gadget says. "Fae curse or not, let us not speak of such things. Today is a happier day, as I can easily see the sun." Mr. Jinglewidget climbs up her half-prosthetic body to stand on her shoulders as Gadget walks. He then hops onto Ramirez and clambers up before giving Paenitia a hug.
Paenitia turns and hugs the whit capuchin monkey, giving him a firm and friendly squeeze, "It is good to see you, Mr. Jinglewidget!" It sounds like she's smiling, always hard to tell with her mask on.
She looks upwards, at the grey sky, then down again, facing Gadget, "Your eyes get better and see through the mists? The sun, he is a spot that hides from me, or is this more Fae curse and it is bright for all?"
Ramirez turns his head all the way around with his long neck, and beak-bumps the monkey.
Jinks sits, bow-backed and heavy-lidded staring down his execution in the little tin cup. There's slow, deep, and steadying breath to muster resolve and he's drinking the contents dry in one impressive gulp. He gags, winces, and shudders from crown to toes but there's a bit of color begins to chase the pallor out of his face. He arches his back expirementally and looses a little belch before lifting a forearm to cover his mouth.
Mr. Jinglewidget forehead-bumps the huge beak as Gadget smirks. "It's bright for everyone," she says, "worry not." She gestures. "Come down. I have a little coin. I would buy you a drink, if only for your promise of protection, to say nothing of my being safe today."
"Ramirez, I dismount!" Paenitia says. A white wing is extended and the Red Knight slides down it, carrying Mr. Jinglewidget, to land firmly on her feet. Bare feet, covered by rusty metal sabatons that match the rest of her armour.
"Let us drink! I have the joust later, a wine will provide the right courage." Paenitia set the monkey down and clanks over to Gadget to hug her. "I am glad you are safe, I say again. It is my duty and vows to protect."
She glances over at Jinks, propped up near the fountain. A fellow Tarien fresh from the Temple and who clearly imbibed well. She waves wildly, "Hola strange cursed man. How the drinks are inside today?"
A shrug to shift the coat and Jinks is sliding one arm and then the other into it, rolling his shoulders forward, and then doing up the buttons. He pauses, frowning, and tilts his head sorting through the blurs he'd passed moving towards the fountain. There was something... oh. He'd turned back towards Gadget just in time for the lucht to call his way, 'The nextday curative is effective but especially unpleasant.' A few sudden (and surprisingly lithe) steps and he's smiling warmly at Gadget turning his shoulder in a way that threatens to eclipse Paenitia from the conversation. "I wonder if we've met before?" It might be charming if his breath didn't smell of stale alcohol spoiling in the back of an alchemist's shop. <gnomish>
Gadget smiles back at him. "I'm clockwork lots of places," she says. "Grinding gears pinch something fierce." She moves out of his flirty radius as Mr. Jinglewidget interposes between the two gnomes. 'I guess it's good we're after good wine, then,' Gadget continues in common. <gnomish>
"Ha! Take care, he will ask if he can take apart and add some grease." Paenitia laughs, hands on her hips. Ramirez stands behind her, very, very tall. The Dark Lucht continues, "I hear the engineers at the mining machines. He will inquire on your calipers next."
She's shorter than both gnomes, and well hidden under her armour and mask. A strange, stylized man's face that has a wide grin and curled mustache.
Jinks clears his throat, his gaze dropping momentarily as he considers the mechanics of something or other. "I suppose not, then. I imagine that's the sort of thing you don't forget." He smiles again and then shifts his consideration to the monkey for a moment before remembering there was someone else and steps back to a more polite distance. He gives a start when he finally notices Ramirez, exclaiming 'bugger me!' and reaching towards the back of his belt before he catches himself.
Gadget laughs! "Oh, don't invite him!" she says. "Or maybe you're into that. Still, I haven't seen any hens of his kind around, so he's almost certainly pent up, so you're likely in there if you need a good buggering."
"No, Ramirez like the hen-mares. On this he is firm. He seek the peahens everywhere and does not find. It make him hot and ready to challenge." Paenitia explains, laughing. She's standing between two huge talons, that are lightly scraping at the flagstones, "We go to the Festival grounds after, to joust, or maybe the coloseum so he can rend the summoned animals."
The Dark Lucht looks once more at Jinks, "Oh, the introduction. I am Sister Paenitia Snapdragon del Haranna, Knight of the Pillar and Paladina of Tarien. This is Ramirez. My friend, she is Gadget, a mage of power, and her monkey-man, he is Mr. Jinglewidget."
Gadget giggles and looks at the capuchin. "What do you think about that? Mr. Jinglewidget: Monkey Man." The well-dressed, dapper monkey stands tall and proud.
"Coyote has paladins now," Jinks says with a belly laugh, his lips parting to reveal pearly teeth. The restorative draught has certainly worked its magic. "I mean no offense; it's truly wonderful and another firm reminder of how fast this world changes when you're not paying attention." He apparently doesn't see a point in revisiting the startled idiom and instead bows deep with one arm folded at the small of his back. "Jinks," he offers the oddly short and un-gnomish name as he straightens. "Formerly of the Point. Then Alexandria. Then Nowhere. And then Alexandria again."
Gadget gives a polite curtsy. "A pleasure to meet you," she says. "More than half of me was created here, so I'm fifty percent an Alexandria native." There is glint off the shining form that is visible beneath her dress everywhere below the neckline.
Ramirez whickers approvingly, it whistles through his beak. The men must stand together after all, though he is not sure about the drunken one who barely stands.
"Yes." Paenitia faces Jinks, her face completely obscured by the smiling mask. Her hair dark curls, a wide brimmed hat, rusted armour, and a cloak of enormous white peacock feathers with crimson eyespots. Her voice is completely deadpan as she says, "I am Tarien's little joke."
"I am from Isobar, as is all of me and Ramirez. Also of the Mad Dogs." The Red Knight adds.
"'Even a fool loves his own joke,'" Jinks offers in a way that implies he's quoting something. "I--" the voice is stolen from between his lips as realization slaps. He frowns and reaches into his sleeve, only to deepen his frown in consternation. He reaches inside his coat, pats at his hips, runs his hands down his trunk and then turns to look back towards the fountain. A muttered expletive. "If you've a mind to visit the temple I might join you. I... seem to have dropped something."
Gadget looks at Paenitia. "Is that where we're going?" she asks. "I'm treating you, but you get to pick where I buy you that drink."
"Yes, the Temple of Tarien is the good choice. Good cheer, and the Maze is best with drinks. And Ramirez, he like to perch on top."
'Ruaaaah!' Ramirez agrees. He can display regally, and spot challengers from afar.
"If they have the mine Rum, I drink like a minor." Or miner, hard to tell with her accent.
Jinks nods and starts that way forcing himself back from a jog. "Knew a tallman that would always say similar; 'drinks for sale and I drink like a sailor.'" The gnome 'hms' and smirks as he recalls, "Funny thing is he was. A sailor. 'Wind in my sails' if he broke it. Liked the Den."
"Ole! We go!" Paenitia doesn't have to hold herself back, she breaks into a run. Her armour holds her back. Short steps with a heavy clunk after each one, easily outpaced by everyone. "Three friends and we drink until the winds or Jesters blow us out."
'Ruaaah.' Ramirez agrees.
"No Ramirez, you guard the Temple. I be inside." The Red Knight corrects.
'Ruuaaah!' The peacock-andalusian is much more pleased with this idea, and like the miraculous, magical beast that he is, he launches himself into the air to perch on top of Tarien's Temple.
And the others, the three amigos with their monkey chaperone head inside.
