Munch Toss
Tenebrae - Saturday, April 19, 2014, 10:13 PM
-=--=--=--=--=--=<* A07: Local 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.
"Most people never understand them no matter how long they live here," says Sandy, "And it's fine. I've done it before too, you know." She sniffs, then she eyes Crow. His arrival. Just /eyes/ him. Since he's nearby and approaching. "Who the hell are you supposed to be?" she asks.
Crow smiles at Sandy, apparently used to being stared down, or possibly just unsurprised by the reaction. "Nobody important," he answers calmly. He gives Talon a gentle nod and a brief smile, leaning against the staff as he looks between the two of them, asking Talon, "You ok?" Sandy gets her own inspection, though nowhere near as intense as the one he's receiving in return.
She looked relieved to hear her say that. She was ever so stuck up on how to make impressions and not to be the one kept out of things. She was your typical overly nice girl. "It makes me happy to hear that Ma'am." She turned towards where Sandy was staring at when she spoke to someone. She spotted Crow not too far away coming closer. "I am alright good sir." Upon hearing the voice it sort of dawned on her. "I remember your voice now. I heard it yesterday at that event in the Church. We only spoke for a bit of time. Along with Miss Namira I believe. I never got your name I do not think..." As again she looked far too apologetic for something out of her own control.
Near the edge of the market stand a number of small shops. Shacks, really. One particular low slung structure is home to a nervous little goblin, and sports a sign advertizing 'Roast meat on Stik! Cheap!' In all not an unusual sight. But a small number of large, blurry Korrites have gathered around the place, grinning at each other and sway slightly with signs of far too much drink. The group shoo each other back, leaving a large open spot in front of the shop. "Okay! Ready!" shouts one. Understandably, the goblin merchant is having a quiet panic attack.
Pendleton strolls from the bridge, trailing a thread of smoke from a small brown pipe in his mouth.
Sandy peers at Talon for a moment, then eyes Crow a moment longer. Then? WEll.. then thee's commotion and she just puts a hand over her face. There is a sigh. JUst a sigh.
"Crow," the Half-Sil offers by way of introduction to Talon, nodding quietly now that more formal introductions are being made. Overall, his manner is quiet and reserved, his clothing mostly earth tones, the cloak pinned at his shoulder hiding most of what's underneath of it.
The ruckus near the edge of the market draws his attention, however. His gaze moves slowly over to where the Korrites have gathered around the goblin merchant, brow furrowing a bit as he takes in the scene, trying to make sense of what's happening. He doesn't move to offer assistance, or move at all really. He simply watches, for the moment, waiting to see what happens.
From behind the goblin's shop shouts are made. "One! ...Two! ...THREE!!" A moment later, Munch comes sailing over the top of the shop, arms and stubby little wings pinwheeling wildly, before crashing into the cobblestones. There's a brief moment of quiet, before the golem starts to pick himself up. "It worked! It totally worked! That was awesome! ...and I think my wrist is broken." A loud cheer is raised by the followers of Kor, with many calls for ale, and orders for roast meat on a stick. More praise is given to the fellow who launched the golem, but a fair bit of back slapping is offered to the projectile as well.
Pendleton assesses the situation over a puff or two of smoke, then a grin steals over his face. He steps over to the commotion, and bellows out, "A party of Kor? And why was I not told? I would have brought ale! Ha ha! 'There once was a Korite from Blar, Who had a great sword without par...'" He peers down through the moving haze at the golem with curiousity.
Sandy eyes Talon a moment more, but her eyes are drawn now to Pendleton, Crow, and Munch. The first of thelot gets stared at. "Hey... it's.. it's you!" She points at him. "I remember you! from somewhere!"
Crow steps back a bit as the golem comes soaring from its origin. "What...?" He looks to the others, hoping that someone could provide an explanation of exactly what just happened, and why so many people seem to be gathered to witness the spectacle. But it only takes him a second to notice that Munch isn't actually strictly -organic-, and the confusion gives way to curiosity, the half-sil moving closer for a better inspection of this new marvel.
"...salt. Salt...salt." The Mourner repeats the word to himself a few times during his walk along the merchant stalls. He has a rumpled list in one hand, and a sack in the other. "Salt... Soap. And more salt." As the golem's shadow soars overhead he comes to a halt. A halt just long enough to look up, and then scramble underneath an awning.
Munch buzzes quietly, carefully flexing his injured wrist and popping the dislocated piece back into place. No serious damage, it would seem. Thin metal covers slide over Munch's eyes, blinking with a soft 'click' as he peers back at Crow. "...what? There a cobblestone lodged in my face again, or something?"
Show over, the assorted Korrite head their seperate ways, a few talking about forming a Dwarf Chucking League. One raises a flask to Pendelton. 'But his favorate sheath, was stole by a thief; a bard, with a tongue ex-tro-dan-ar!'
Pendleton guffaws and steps over to clap the man on his shoulder. "Ha ha! Name's Pendleton. Look for Brundelssen beers, or find me at the Fernwood, I'll buy you a round." He glances at Sandy, peers for a moment, then a light of recognition and he raises his hands. "You! Yes!" He carefully walks around the golem, eyeing it with either judicious caution or curiousity. To Sandy, he comments, "Yes... I'm not sure where. Battle of Sendor, mayhap? Pendleton Brundelssen, once cleric of Animus, now... well. Something." He grins, though perhaps not as broad as before.
"Probably. I vaguely remeber you," says Sandy with a grunt. She turns towards Kerbasy and points a finger at /him/. "YOU. Come over here. Now." Finger is crooked.
"I uh...heh. Me?" Kerbasy looks around and seeing that he's meant, plasters his smile into place. He rivets it into place like another man would armor, or a warrior wield a sword. ...and takes a deep breath. "Yes, of course. And how may I be of heh, service? I'm familiar with any number of funerary rites. You...you've killed someone recently?" he asks, and his fingers twitch behind his back at his own boldness. He nods distractedly to Crow, but keeps his gaze fixed on the threat, the sildanyari, in front of him.
"Yeah, you," says Sandy, gesturing at KErbasy again. "Come here." Then to Munch, she just grunts. Just /grunts/. "You again," she mutters.
Munch buzzes. "Me again. Or still. Whatever." The golem peers from Sandy to the Mourner and back. "What are you doing?"
Crow moves a little closer to the golem, the short half-sil staring at Munch with a keen interest. He circles around once, inspecting all of the various tubing and plating that makes up the creature before finally returning to the front. "It doesn't have flesh, but it can speak like a man." He moves to stare into the creature's magicite eyes. "Is this magic?"
"I'm not entirely sure," says Kerbasy, without moving his lips. He keeps very still, as a person would when facing down a python. He keeps his hands slightly raised, palm upwards. "Friend Crow...please alert th' constables if heh. This goes badly."
To Sandy, he gives his most serene smile. The one clergy practice in front of mirrors. Blessed be the kittens, that smile says. It is the smile of someone who kisses babies in one motion, and helps grandmothers across the street with another. "How may I be of service, oh demon elf, who surely has not heh, killed anyone recently?" ...bless the kittens.
Bless them.
"Keep it up and you'll be finding out how many bodies I have to my name," says Sandy, dryly, to KErbasy. She plants her hands on her hips and glares at him. "I have..."
She lears her throat, and looks aside. AS if this is incredibly difficult for her.
"I... require your assistance."
Munch is fairly used to people stareing at him. But this new guy is sorta creeping him out. "...what, you never seen a wargolem before?"
A blink behind his geeky lenses. "So y'/have/ killed someone." ...the silence that follows this statement could fill a tome. Kerbasy glances over at Crow and Munch briefly, as much as he dares, and then focuses back on the python. Sildanyari. Oh, damnit. Python.
"No. No, I have not killed /anyone/ lately," says Sandy with the kind of tone in her voice that almost sounds disappointed. There may also be a note of 'Kerbasy, you may be next if you keep it up' in there somewhere, too.
"There's this....girl. She's unaccountably terrified of death. She just realized what it /was/. I think you need to have a word with her. She's crying. A lot."
GAME: Kerbasy rolls heal: (1)+16: 17 <OOC> Kerbasy has no idea if Sandy is sick or not.
Crow seems surprised when the golem addresses him directly, stepping back and bit and blinking, hand clutching at his staff a bit more tightly. But Kerbasy's plea in his direction momentarily distracts him, the young man turning his attention to watch the interaction between Sandy and the man she's apparently cornered. He looks back to Munch, sighing apologetically. "Excuse me, war-golem. I'm being invited to intervene in a dominance dispute."
Talon awoke form the somewhat dazed condition she was almost seemingly placed into. Noticing the sheer amount of new faces around her she kind of gave a small yip in surprise. Specially when she saw Munch. She had seen books with Pictures of War Golems, also the way they were created fascinated her to no end. She jumped at the chance to see one up close. Forgetting her place next to Sandy at the moment. she actually grabbed one of Munch's arms and inspected it. Looking all around him. Trying to find the power course.$r
Munch's skin is scaley and metalic, and quite warm to the touch. It flexes and moves beneath Talon's fingers like the skin of most any living thing. "...if you want to use that hand later, you should let go now."
Blink. He readjusts his lenses, the Mourner does. He does so to get a better look at the sildanyari, but there's a smudge on the glass, and he has to pause to clean it. "...uhm," Kerbasy says. "I uh, heh. Well...that's...well, I'd be glad to talk with her..." The trust in the air is palpable, because the end of that sentence is surely: '...if you're not lying.'
He glances over at Crow, and then what the man says reaches his ears. He blinks a few times, and looks back at his lenses. Oh, my. Look at how dirty they are! There's also, unfortunately, too much going on for him to notice Munch or Talon. ...but in his defense? He is being stared at by a python.
"Kerbasy. I am going to elbow you in the gut in a moment. I am not lying. You are going to talk to this girl so she stops interruipting my work with her unaccountable bloody /wailing/ and /nightmares." Sandu seems rather irritated about this. HOW DARE CHILDREN BY ALL CHILD LIKE AND STUFF.
She was so shocked at the War Golem talking to her, she didn't even hear the threat, or maybe she did but just ignored it. THe tears had started to well up in her eyes, just like with Sandy before. "I...I am soooooo Sorry. I didn't mean to.. Honestly, I was just excited... I have only read of War Golems...I am sorry.. I apologize." Tears starting to flow a bit more. She back away from Munch till she was behind Sandy again. Almost holding onto Sandy a bit in a fearful way at Munch.
Crow moves over to examine the situation unfolding between Kerbasy and Sandy, standing slightly off to the side of both, his arms folded over his chest in a neutral position, just observing the two. There's a kind of distant wonder there still, not as keen as with the wargolem, but noticable nonetheless. As nothing 'ugly' has happened yet, he turns his attention briefly back to Talon, hearing the golem's warning. "I believe it's self-aware. You should probably take that seriously. Self-preservation is a very deeply rooted instinct." "Even, apparently, in the case of funerary priests."
And wouldn't you know it? A, "...what did you do to her?" slips out from his lips before he can quite think. In Kerbasy's defense: Python. Priests are supposed to be wiser, however, much wiser than to place their hand in the viper's pit. This one seems to realize the mistake, and makes the Sign of Triangles (a version of Vardama's holy symbol) in the air in front of him. The gesture falters though, when Talon begins...
...begins. ...the mind blanks. "What did you do to her?" he asks, and it has now an entirely different meaning.
"I didn't do anything!" Sandy protests, promptly. "The gods be damned orphanage pawned her off on me for a couple weeks while they're out of room. So I have this damn kid in my house and she's all crying and such." She eyes Crow for a moment, then says, "Lots of War Golems are sentient, you know. Much spirit in htem as there is any of us."
Munch says, "Most, really. Eventually. For a lot it takes a while to 'wake up', while some start out that way. Though still takes a bit to get a handel on everything. Organics do all sorts of weird stuff, when you stop and think about it."
Crow sighs, shaking his head at Kerbasy. "You just -had- to go and prove me wrong, didn't you?" He takes a few steps forward, positioning himself closer to Kerbasy. Just in case. His attention, however, moves back over to Talon, wrinkling his nose at the tearful display before muttering under his breath, "I can see why," in response to Sandy's comment about the girl being pawned off on her. Munch's keen observation about the nature of organics, however, manages to earn the war-golem a smile.
Kerbasy adjusts his lenses. "She looks somewhat older than a kid," he says, with a look around Crow. "...Sandy, I don't think you can adopt someone who's over eighteen. Uhm. Well, th' least we could do is offer her a uh. Room and board at th' temple." He plasters on his smile again, and it's as nice as ever. As kind as ever. With a touch of strain at its edges. "It isn't as though we can't use th' help."
Munch gives Kerbasy a Look. "Maybe true for humans, but others age diffrently. Elves can be damn slow in reaching maturity." He nods at Sandy in a meaningful way.
Tears still streaming down her cheeks, she actually got defiant against Munch, even if he was going towards Sandy. "I will let you know I am above the age of Maturity for us! You oversized Junk pile!" Way with words she did not have. She kept her small grip on Sandy, her having been the first to truly meet her along with Crow. But She knew what Sandy looked like so she was a better choice in her books.
"What the hell?" says Sandy, looking down at Talon. She's confused. She shakes her arm aa little. Because she's been grabbed onto. "Not /her/, you nimrod!" She glares at Kerbasy. "She's a seven year old! And you you can stop crying now. STOP CRYING." She's not very good at this.
"Not for half-sil." Kerbasy replies, and then looks over his shoulder, towards the evening sun. "Bring uh...well. Just bring her by sometime this week. I've got to see to the shoppin list they gave me. ...hey," he says then. The 'hey' is directed towards Talon, and so it the smile. "We're going to get this straightened out." Kittens, that smile says. Little old ladies crossing the street, with puppies bounding behind them.
Priests, you see. Practice this look in mirrors. He takes a breath, and smiles again. "I'll ah, send some of the Hearthguards by this evenin'. ...excuse me. I'll be back later with th' Hearthguards. Pardon..." ...then he jogs off to see to his shopping. Salt. Salt and...whatever it was Mourner Kvenskan put there.
And, well. To round up some Althean priests. This sounds serious.
Crow looks over to Kerbasy. Then to Sandy and Talon, and finally to Munch, before stepping back a bit away from all of them, following a bit behind Kerbasy, staff clicking softly on the ground as he walks along behind the priest. "I think I'll go with you. In the forest, one of them would eat the crying one. There might even be a power struggle." He looks down at the priest. "I'd rather not be around to find out if the cities are as different from my experience as I'm starting to believe."
Munch's click with another blink at Talon. "Alright, you've told me. Now can you say something I'd care about?" Okay, so that's a little mean. But so's being called a junk pile. Just because he's got an exoskeleton doesn't mean words don't wound. He glances after Crow. "Nah, they get all sorts of mad if you eat people around here."
Talon looked to Kerbasy and waved him farewell, almost finally just now seeing him there. Upon Crow leaving himself, she waved goodbye to him. "It was good to see you again other Half-Sil!" She still hadn't truly heard his name yet, thus called him by what she saw. She didn't really pay attention to Sandy's shouts of stop crying. The tears still dropped slightly from what Munch had said earlier, although she did stop hanging on to Sandy. "You are a lot nicer than one would think Sandy." She said it so innocently, but seriously, daggers coming from her mouth. Just like when she called Munch a Junk pile. She had no real words planned thus said the first thing that came to mind.
"Yes. I'm well known for being a sweet little angel," remarks Sandy, dourly. She rubs her brow.
Munch blinks at Sandy. "Really? That's not the reputations I've heard."
Sandy gives Munch a withering glare. That is all.
She ponders a moment, but it clicks in a little bit later. "I believe she was being what is called Sarcastic Munch." Her tears nearly gone already, she was very quick with her emotions.
Munch nods. "Likely, but it's hard to tell. She always sounds like that." Turing to the Sweet Little Angel in question, he clarifies. "So the orphanage ran out of room, had a little girl who needed looked after.... and they sent her to you? ...they -have- met you, right?"
"Yes. Of course they have. Just.. shut up!" Sandy jabs a finger in Munch's direction. "Just shut up! I am going HOME." And with that, she tries to dislodge herself, turn, and go to stomp right off.
Talon holds on tighter, not wanting to be left alone. "Can't you stay longer? Please?" She gave a set of puppy dog eyes you swear should not exist. She most definitely did not want to be left alone, specially not after meeting Sandy.
Munch blinks again, but doesn't say anything. He was told to shut up. The golem does, however, peel the rather large axe off his back, eyeing the keen edge for a moment. Then his face cracks open, and a long, thin tongue snakes out, licking along the weapon. Go ahead Sandy, leave the young lady alone with the psycotic axe-weilder.
It would be a lie to say that she wasn't unnerved by the GOlem. IT was doing something strange and slightly out of character from what she saw so far. She sort of gripped Sandy even harder, in a sense of, wherever you go I am following right beside or behind you. "What is it doing?"
"Fine, fine. COme along then," sauys Sandy, irritably. Stomp stomp stomp stomp!
Munch buzzes in amusement, and puts his axe away again. Maybe his effort didn't actually help, but at elast he tried.
She quickly followed behind Sandy, giving a wave to Munch as she left. Again Emotions all over the place with this one.