Mingle - Emergency Potluck

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WELCOME POTLUCK

Greetings, residents! Those more observant sorts among you may have noticed a large influx of very crowded ferries. In order to welcome our new residents en masse, Town Hall is holding a potluck in Town Square. Please bring a dish if you are able and make a new friend!

All of our newest arrivals need only bring themselves. We look forward to welcoming you all into our community, and may your lanterns always be lit.

This event is open to all! In light of our new influx of prospective players following the Great Sail Migration, we've decided to offer a small public event to tide everyone over until the TDM this weekend.

Comments

River La Croix | OC (Dungeon Life Quest) | Existing Player

[somebodychildofanyone]

How many non-food tables are at this potluck anyway? River and her two apprentices are taking turns manning a table that has Various Weapons, Trinkets, And Bits Of Armor on it. A sign thereupon reads:

INFERNAL ARMS AND ARMOR
NO RELATION TO THE LOCAL DEMONS
COMMISSIONS AND ENCHANTING AVAILABLE
INQUIRE ABOUT APPRENTICESHIP!

River herself has turned out in her working clothes, having decided that while she loves the dress Annabel made for her there's just too much chance of getting dirty or having some manner of cultural misunderstanding that ends in a certain amount of fistfights, so the elf is in her tough pants, her shirt and vest, and her warm green cloak (also made by Annabel's hands, a fact not lost on River; sometimes when she glances over at Annabel she smiles dreamily while fingering the cloth). Come chat her up! One can find her at the table, getting tea, and also Eating.

[hate_gettin_older]

Someone new is studying the sign, with an expression of concentration that suggests that either he's used to a completely different alphabet or he doesn't read very easily.

He's also steadily making inroads on a heaped plate of food, which is probably not his first.

[somebodychildofanyone]

River is quite willing to be patient. She's also curious, to be quite honest, watching the newcomer's face to see what else catches his attention; weapons, maybe? If so, what kind? Do his eyes linger on the metal artwork, carefully forged with great strength to look delicate, perhaps the bracers and gauntlets that protect the hands?

What kind of man is this?

[hate_gettin_older]

He hasn't moved on to really studying the weapons yet, though they've certainly caught his eye with some interest. For the moment, he seems just focused on puzzling out the sign's meaning.

Finally he sighs, glances about, spots her, and moves closer.

"Scuse me," he says, gesturing at the sign, "what's that last bit say, after inquire about?"

[somebodychildofanyone]

"Apprenticeship," River explains in a friendly voice; her accent is musical, lilting. From the depths of her cloak she retrieves her pipe, carved in a skull shape, and also some tobacco to pack it with, which she starts doing in no particular hurry. "An apprentice is a student of a trade; in exchange for teaching and some wages, they do labor for their instructor. Y'know, clean the joint, do simple jobs like making nails - fuck me."

The two elves Somewhat Near This Table who are also dressed in work clothes raise their voices in hymn-like harmony: "The naiiiiiiiils!"

"I'm gonna kill them," River mutters. "Anyway, that kinda thing."

[not here]

[theydrewfirstblood]

"The naiiiiiii--oof!"

One of the elves catches some kind of dinner roll to the back of the head. There's no visible culprit in eyesight.

But River knows. Everyone knows--and if one listens very carefully, a deep quiet chuckle comes from a distance before all is serene again.

[hate_gettin_older]

The harmonizing elves get a brief weird look from the questioner, but that's all.

"Sounds like a good deal," he says slowly, like the idea's still very unfamiliar to him and he's not sure he's grasping all of it. "So it's like a job that teaches you how to do the job? Had one of those once."

[somebodychildofanyone]

"Yeah. Those two jackasses over there are my current apprentices, and that guy," River points out John Rambo with a thumb, pauses to wave at him, "is also learnin' from me but that's a personal arrangement. Where I'm from most skilled trades do apprenticeships, you kinda have to. Without an influx of youngbloods to do the bitch work nobody has any of the little things they constantly need, y'know? Apprentice carpenters make the bowls people eat out of, apprentice smiths mend your pots and pans, apprentice masons lay the bricks for your chicken coop, 's a whole deal. Vital work but, and this is key, fuckin' annoying."

[hate_gettin_older]

He nods, but frowns slightly. "Making stuff, fixing stuff ... how's that annoying?"

[somebodychildofanyone]

River spreads her hands, philosophically. "It's not like, annoying in and of itself, but when you make things you wanna...make things, right? Hone your technique, challenge your skills, get better. I'm not a master smith, I've got a long way to go, but I am at a point where making nails and mending pots just isn't a challenge any more, it's something that keeps my hand in the game but it's rote, boring, repetitive. The thing is...day to day, people don't really need a masterwork. They need their pot mended."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Huh." He considers that. "Guess I never got good enough at anything like that to get bored with it. Y'make weapons and that? Arms and armor?" Nodding back at the sign.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"Yeah, 's how I was trained. I picked up smithing along with the demon summoning, ain't no demon that'll answer someone who can't work a forge." Beat. "The demons at home, the ones here are assholes."

[hate_gettin_older]

"That's, uh. That's what the infernal part means?"

Edgar's trying to still sound casual, but he's never been very good at disciplining his facial expressions; demons does not sound good to him.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"Yeah. I work with hellfire, purest forge-flame you could ever ask for. Great for enchanting, works with any metal you care to put in it, doesn't need coal...it's good shit. Dangerous, but what fire isn't?" River shrugs, philosophically.

[abhorrently]

Another newcomer strides up to the table, and her eyes and focus go straight to the weapons first. A dagger, first, its sharp edge glinting as she turns it in the light and touches the metal as if it was a beloved pet and looks at it much the same. But the armor pieces as well - she picks one up, then another, testing their weight in her hands. Lighter is better, but still...

Finally, she sets things down, with a look of quiet disappointment. No money, no sale. She's accustomed to that much.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"If it makes you feel any better, they're display pieces."

The dagger first. Fascinating. This lass doesn't look particularly strong, so lighter blades make a certain amount of sense, but the fascination on her face looking at the blade...River's seen that before. She hasn't liked it, traditionally.

[abhorrently]

Her head snaps up like a dog hearing a whistle to the proprietress.

"More that I don't have the brass on hand to make you an offer that won't insult you. It's beautiful work, all of it."

And not with that gleam of infernal iron, so she can only assume the name is just an affectation.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"I try," River says modestly. "Forged in hellfire; won't find purer flame any time or any where, big boon to my work. What caught you about the armor?"

[abhorrently]

Hellfire? Her brow arches up thoughtfully - there are many, many questions behind it.

"Trying to think about what'd be light enough for regular wear. I'm a sorceress - I need freedom of movement in my body to cast and to evade properly. Anything too heavy, and my fighting suffers for it."

She so badly misses her favorite robes.

[somebodychildofanyone]

Gotta flex that light armor & shields proficiency lass, flex it.

"Oof. Ran into a...different version of that for myself. These runes, here," River taps one of the gauntlets, "these're to enhance a person's natural magical resistance. Basic feature of just about all armor back home, don't leave home without it. Big problem: also makes it difficult to move magic through my own body. I want heavy chain, but what I get is to go fuck myself."

[abhorrently]

Graceful Cloth hard carrying through two and a half acts, you will live on in our hearts.

"That's because it's drawing from you as a source instead of something as a shield. You make yourself the focus like that, it's inevitably going to bleed over. To channel through you still, you'd need to shift from internal resistance to external deflection, or somehow keep it along really tight paths so it all goes one way. Pulling out, not in."

She holds up a fist, letting her fingers unfurl slowly to punctuate her point, before dropping it. Doubt's creeping in, where she might have been more sure.

"...of course, given my luck, I've just insulted your entire culture and your craftsmanship, which is not the intention. It's still incredible, no matter the drawbacks."

[somebodychildofanyone]

"Nah, I figure it's just a different paradigm. The magic here's weird to me too, but I can't learn it overnight, y'know?" There's a brief glance in Neil's direction, with a briefer scowl.

[abhorrently]

Ah, the therapist. Not her favorite person either.

"Of course not."

But for more practical purposes...

"So long as I'm here, a question. Only metalwork, or do you ever do anything with leather?"

She still doesn't have the money, but it'll be nice to have goals.

[somebodychildofanyone]

"Vvveeeery limited leatherworking. That's a whole other skill set. I can do some basic stuff, and of course like, wrapping a grip, all that, but a leatherworker I ain't. Annabel might be able to, or might know someone who is?" River leans and points out her wonderful girlfriend. "She's a tailor but surely somewhere in the web of professional connections there's gotta be a surviving leatherworker here, right?"

[abhorrently]

"I'll have to seek her out at a point, for clothes as well as the leatherworking. Her work's beautiful, if that's all hers - but, same problem. I won't give her an offer for it that's unequal to the actual piece."

On credit only works when the other person trusts you enough to extend it.