Mallside 9: Waaagh!

[Fenric]

[Food Court]

Kitnick sighs

I see...

his left ear swivels at a somewhat distant "aww... what a cute little fox!", which he tries to ignore

Thanks... I guess lunch is going to be a bit late, now...

[Morty]

[Food Court]

"It seems to be aimed at people who are in a hurry and don't worry about the price, Fayyaad observes. It's not really his area of expertise. "There has to be a better place here, though."

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

Sam doesn't really understand the comment.
"Lunch for who? Is someone else with you?" he asks, oblivious to the word "whom."

[Fenric]

[Food Court]

Kitnick perks back up

There are other places to get food here? That would be great.

He grins sheepishly

No... I was worried that I'd have to get all the way back home, first.

[Morty]

[Food Court]

"Plenty of places to get food here," Fayyaad says. "Just look around. If there's something someone eats, you can get it here. I even once saw a place with... dextro-aminic food? Something like that. I don't know what it means, but the vendor said it's for a few select species and it'd just make me sick."

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

"Dextro-Amino is for people who are based on something other than Carbon, usually silicon. I think. It's"
A beat.
"What? I'm in the food business."

[Fenric]

[Food Court]

Kitnick nods with bright eyes as Fayyaad talks about other places

That's so cool! I've never been here before, and there are so many smells and they're all so unfamiliar that I really couldn't sort of what places were what... so I ended up here.

he grins at Sam's description

I understand... people tell me I talk about lentils too much sometimes, too.

[Morty]

[Food Court]

"That doesn't explain as much as you might have hoped," Fayyaad says. "But I get the gist of it."

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

"Yeah, I get that. Going through cities used to do that a lot for me." Sam says with a shrug. That big nose is good for something, after all.

[Fenric]

[Food Court]

Kitnick looks thoughtful

Other big cities... as big as Inside? This place is so unimaginably huge for me, I can hardly believe it. There were two hundred sixteen of us, and three hundred eight of the Akarthi... then the refugees came and there were so many of them that Home started to seem crowded and some of us came here to the Temple.

he chuckles

Well, it's not less crowded there. But then I finally got brave enough to head out into the city...

[Morty]

[Food Court]

Fayyaad's tail flicks.

"Refugees? What happened?"

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

"Yeah, Riverside is pretty big." he explains. He tilts his head at the fox at the rest of the explanation, though. He didn't understand any of that.

[Fenric]

[Food Court]

Kitnick chuckles

Sorry... still too used to everyone knowing everything. So...

A child's voice squees out "look at the cute liddul foxie, mama!"

That.

See... there was this city of kinda nasty elves that kept a bunch of my people as pets, and a lot of the Akarthi as slaves. But then these really nice people from a flying city came and rescued them and brought them to our city...

we were a bit sheltered and didn't really understand that there were other places in the world, so we just call it "Home".

[Morty]

[Food Court]

"As pets?!" Fayyaad asks, shocked. "That's awful. I'm glad they were rescued. Who are Akharti, though?"

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

Sam shakes his head.
"Powerful people ain't always right in the head. Never now when they're gonna use someone as a pet or a project for laughs." he grumbles to himself.

[Fenric]

Kitnick nods

Yeah... pets.

And the Akarthi are our friends. They're ... um... 'bout half again as tall as us, and stronger. Their ears are narrower and a lot shorter than ours, their fur is darker overall except for their bellies where it's white and the fur on their back and tails is nearly black with small white patches. They're really good at herding antelopes which are a bit too big for us, but we're better at gardening than they are and so we've worked together for as long as anyone can remember.

[Recaiden]

There. That wasn't so bad.
Alexis found the mall and only had to beat up one person on the trip here. It was comforting to be able to handle things without her petrifying gaze, and saddening to find herself already missing that curse. She steps gingerly inside and forces herself to do a little twirl, although she's truly not in much of a twirling around mood.
Today the gorgon is wearing, along with the normal sandals, a bonnet over all of her snakes, and a shapeless, stringy outfit that the raptors assured her 'could fit anyone'. And they were right, although they never said anything as to its level of comfort. And she's still surrounded by a nimbus of blazing light that silhouettes her regardless of the angle you look from. That's always there.

She steps up to a nearby directory and looks over the list of stores. Oh! 'Arcane Threads' should do to start and it's the very first one on the list. How convenient. Maybe this is going to be okay.

[Morty]

[Food Court]

Fayyaad's tail flicks.

"A whole community of fox-people, then? Is it in the Nexus, or somewhere else?"

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

Sam shrugs with half of his arms.
"Haven't heard of 'me, sorry. But there are plenty I haven't. And nobody knows what I am." He adds with a chuckle.

[Fenric]

Kitnick nods

Yeah! Well, us and the Akarthi.

And it's in the Nexus: on the far side of the Sea of Sand from here. They say it's like eight thousand miles west of the Temple.

[Morty]

[Food Court]

Fayyaad glances at Sam. He has to admit that the pig-man is rather strange, but he feels it would be rude to bring it up.

"Which temple are you talking about? There's... rather a lot here."

[Fenric]

(( LDK asked to be skipped ))

Kitnick blinks

Uh... huh... I suppose there would be...

The Temple of Inari, goddess of foxes and rice. Well, and for us, lentils! We didn't know what rice was until kinda recently - we grow lentils. It's a desert, and that swampy grass stuff doesn't grow within a thousand miles of our city.

But lentils are wonderful! I have six kinds in my garden at the temple, and I used to routinely grow ten back home.

[Morty]

[Food Court]

"Oh, I know about lentils. I also come from a pretty dry place," Fayyaad says. "The great city of Moran-Ir, to be specific. But it's not in the Nexus."

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

Sam just sort of stands there, embarrassed.
"I'm in Riverside right now, raised in Skyside. I don't really know much of anythin' about farming, just how to cook 'em." he admits.

[Fenric]

[Food Court]

Kitnick beams

That's great!

He looks at Sam

How do you like to prepare them?

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

Sam ponders the question.
"Used 'em in soups, sides. I've seen 'em used in a salad or two before but I think they do better hot, really. I do like soups..." he muses aloud.

[Fenric]

[Food Court]

Kitnick shakes his head

Soup! Soup is nice enough, sure, but there's so much more you can do! You have to stop by the temple sometime.

[McBish]

A small figure enters the mall. She has been watching the huge complex for a day or two. She has figured out that many people shop here for many things. So she figures there are many shops here and she would have a decent chance of finding work here. She is nervous though and quickly hugs the wall as she wanders around.

Clao is a dhabh, a living construct of various textiles. She is currently mostly rough wool gray wool, her cloak hiding the few patches still showing of burlap and fur. She has a basic humanoid appearance, only legs a torso and her head. Cloaked and hooded her glowing eyes scan the mall a light shade of purple. She doesn't go into any store's she just starts to make a circuit around the mall. Learning the layout, examining the stores and people here.

She does pause outside Arcane Threads looking into the store. She stands there stock still here glowing eyes brightening and growing a little bit. She manages to pull herself away from there and continue to explore the mall.

[Morty]

[Food Court]

Fayyaad gets the blank look of someone for whom cooking is largely a mystery.

"I'm... afraid my upbringing didn't put me in contact with either farming or cooking much."

[Deathkeeper]

Food Court

"Sure, I'll stop by sometime. I'm not a very spiritual person but whatever." Sam says with a shrug.