Mallside 9: Waaagh!

[WarKitty]

Anima packs her book and battery-bottle back into her bag and reaches out a hand to the swirling song-container.
"A song of mine for a soul jar of yours, excellent."
When the container is ready, she starts to sing, a completely different song to the one she thought worth trading for a bird. This one is high and mournful and lingering, with words speaking of the maddening fear of death. Anima is not an excellent singer, but is at least competent.

The swirling smoke congeals as the song flows into the bottle. The woman smiles slightly, handing over the original bottle.

[Morty]

Erin's Emporium

"They don't go round where I can hear them. Most people gossip at my school about stupid stuff. Clothes, hair, boys, and so on. If they did, I'd pay more attention to the gossip." I went to a school with an Autistic Spectrum Unit, so I didn't socialise too much with anyone else. I don't know how true that gossip is, nor what shape it takes.

[Erin's Emporium]

"Well...I can ask Uncle Krayger I guess. It'll take a little bit, though..." Koshal concedes. He doesn't want to get in trouble but if Iknika insists...

"Okay then!" Iknika nods. "If I'll ever get a mount, it'll be a giant beetle. I've got a drawing of me on one, made by... uh, someone I met." She seems a little flustered.

[Earl of Purple]

Erin's Emporium

"A giant beetle would be cool. I'd go for... Hmm. Something that can fly. I can do that anyway, as a bird, but I can't cast spells as well. Need to shift back first." Birds don't have agile enough feet for the gestures needed to channel the magic into the shapes she wants. "A giant bird, maybe? Raven, or owl, though herons and swans are cool too." Herons are amongst her player's favourite birds, and placed quite highly. The largest on the list, too. Natalie got over any fear of heights she may have had because three of her shapes are more comfortable in trees than on the ground, and one can fly, so it wouldn't matter if she fell off.

[Recaiden]

For a moment, the customer looks a little dizzy.
"Thanks."
Anima takes the bottle, slides it away into her bookbag, and paces away, out of the market if she can.

[Deathkeeper]

[Erin's Emporium]

Koshal smiles.
"Well, I already have a horse; his name's Dune. But the town also has a flock of chocobos! Some of them can fly. They're super cute." he insists, thinking of the big fluffy birds.

[Morty]

Erin's Emporium

"A giant beetle would be cool. I'd go for... Hmm. Something that can fly. I can do that anyway, as a bird, but I can't cast spells as well. Need to shift back first." Birds don't have agile enough feet for the gestures needed to channel the magic into the shapes she wants. "A giant bird, maybe? Raven, or owl, though herons and swans are cool too." Herons are amongst her player's favourite birds, and placed quite highly. The largest on the list, too. Natalie got over any fear of heights she may have had because three of her shapes are more comfortable in trees than on the ground, and one can fly, so it wouldn't matter if she fell off.

Koshal smiles.
"Well, I already have a horse; his name's Dune. But the town also has a flock of chocobos! Some of them can fly. They're super cute." he insists, thinking of the big fluffy birds.

"A cute dog, horses and birds? Leave some to the rest of us, would you?" Iknika asks jokingly. "I don't know what it's like to fly. I already had to get used to not having tons of rock over my head once."

[Earl of Purple]

Erin's Emporium

"I don't actually know what a chocobo is. Flying is really fun. My robin-shape is my favourite. After this one, because opposable thumbs are great, and I can't use magic as anything else. Or talk. And carrying things is greatly limited, too." Natalie absolutely loves flying, and she uses bird-shape whenever she can. "It, um, might take some getting used to for you, though." Getting used to not having tons of rock under your feet is considerably harder, Natalie thinks, to getting used to not having tons of rock over your head. Though Natalie coped with the knowledge of tons of rock overhead by not thinking about it when she visited Brinika's family, and I don't believe she had visited the magic tree that gave her otter, chameleon and robin/chickadee forms at that point.

[Deathkeeper]

[Erin's Emporium]

"Chocobos are big chicken-like birds that are big enough for humans to ride on. Some are bigger, or have wings big enough to fly with. Leah said I couldn't have one though because I already had a horse." huffs the minotaur with crossed arms. He wanted a giant bird so bad!

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

"So you can't have a chocobo because you've already got a horse? Pshaw." Iknika shakes her head. "They must be really big for a human to ride them, though. I'd like to try flying someday. Somehow. Probably low and slow at first, though."

[Earl of Purple]

Erin's Emporium

"Especially if one can carry you, Koshal. I mean, you look to be mostly muscle, and that's heavy. And you're tall, too." Muscle is heavier than fat, as it happens, and whilst Koshal isn't fully grown, he's already taller than Natalie will probably ever reach.

Natalie's also a little nervous that she might have inadvertently insulted Koshal a little, because she doesn't really know how to talk to boys. Either insulted him, or possibly flirted with him; either's a little awkward.

[Deathkeeper]

[Erin's Emporium]

"Leah had me take a ride on one of her flying lizards once, but I got really sick. I don't think minotaurs are supposed to go off the ground. That's why I don't try too much." he says, though he does levitate and inch off the ground just for effect. He hasn't forgotten about the power he got from the Alchemist's tower. He just can't use it to go more than ten feet up without a wall to hold onto because his fear of heights kicks in.

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

"That's a perk of being small. A lot of things can carry me," Iknika says. "Is Leah your lady? That you serve as a knight?"

[Earl of Purple]

Erin's Emporium

"A flying lizard? Must have been fun. I've not seen any giant flying lizards." Because usual-sized flying lizards are small enough to sit on your shoulder. She's also interested in finding out more about Iknika and Koshal's idea of knighthood, as whilst her father had been knighted, it was a ceremonial title and didn't come with any special training, nor required martial skills. Rather, it elevated him to the ranks of the lesser nobility, in a world whose society never demolished the gulfs between commoner, noble and aristocrat.

[Deathkeeper]

[Erin's Emporium]

Koshal nods, crossing his legs as if sitting down but not getting any lower, remaining perfectly in the air.
"She's a tiger-taur knight! She's been really good to me. She kind of owns the fort and the town, but that's also god stuff."
God stuff is confusing.

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

Iknika's ears twitch and point upwards when Koshal levitates.

"I don't have anyone I serve. Just lady Eschelle, who teaches me. Maybe I'll find someone, in time. Goblins don't have knights, so I'm making it up as I go. Learning the skills and hoping the rest will come later. When did you learn to do that?"

[Earl of Purple]

Erin's Emporium

Natalie grins as Koshal shows off, and holds her right hand open in front of her, empty, before closing it and tossing a coin into the air (from her empty hand) and quickly catching it as it comes down with her other hand. She clearly caught it, yet when she opens her fist, it's empty.

"My father was a knight. But it was just a ceremonial thing, an award for services to the Queen. Meant he was an Elevated Noble, letting him put 'sir' in front of his name, and came with a small estate. Also meant he could marry Mum without too much scandal; she was a Born Noble, whose family had a large estate and the title of 'lord'." Natalie is also a Born Noble. I remember her defining a social difference between the two, once upon a time. But I can't remember the specifics and besides, her homeland's a republic now.

[Reinholdt]

[Goblin Market]

Ilpholin wanders around the goblin market looking at the various wares offered for sale. She seems to be looking for something in particular and thus far all the window shopping isn't turning out well.

[Deathkeeper]

[Erin's Emporium]

Koshal eyes the magic trick warily, trying to work out if it's a trick or actual magic. He remains silent on this important issue.
"I don't really get politics. They're weird." is his conclusion to Natalie's story.

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

Iknika looks like she doesn't understand much more than Koshal does.

"Uh... yeah, I don't get that either. I thought a knight was just a warrior serving someone under an oath. And I'm not a noble, last I checked. But maybe I will be, if I get knighted?"

[Earl of Purple]

Erin's Emporium

"Knights started out that way in my homeland, too. We had a feudal, hierarchical society, with a queen on top and then various nobles and aristocrats with wealth and land just below her, and then merchants with wealth but not land, and then everyone else. Knighthood started out as a way to reward valour on the field of battle, but times change. Some soldiers are- were- still elevated, but wars were less common and the queen thought others who helped society should also get advanced to nobility, too. Politics are weird, but you need to keep an eye on it, sometimes. I learnt that." Since Natalie fled political upheaval to the Nexus, and that's why she's now a full-time inhabitant of GLoG, whereas before it was simply a place she came to visit her friends and go to school.

[Deathkeeper]

[Erin's Emporium]

"I don't really know entirely how it works. Lady Leah is a knight, but she kind of got the title because she did heroic things in the vein of her mother. And it's only reinforced by Lady Message, who is part of her. Charities are hard to explain." Koshal waves off that explanation. He had to take a long course on this.

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

"Politics really are confusing. Soldiers don't get a lot of respect from goblins. At least where I'm from. And politics are just a thing the rich goblins do," Iknika says. "So I guess knight can mean a lot of things, and we should just do our best and let other people worry about it."

[Earl of Purple]

Erin's Emporium

"Humans don't always get on with our neighbours. Especially when they're other humans. My homeland fought its closest neighbours pretty regularly- every generation, really. Soldiers are respected because of that. Protecting our borders from foreign invaders, and all that. Even if we invaded first, and sometimes we did that." Natalie doesn't particularly like that part of it, and that's something she's glad there's not so much of in Nexus.

[Terumitsu]

[Xizewell's Tall and Small]

In a way, this was probaly a good thing, right? Privalage and power.. And a place to stay on top of that. Or at least come back to. Still, despite all of that, here she was trying to find something to wear. Again. Simple robes were.. Well the fabric was nice enough but it was just bland and it was pretty much something she'd expect to find in a monestary. Sure, she could always wear the armor that came with her station.. But that was for official buisness and she was pretty certain that it would result in some weird questions both for and from the Empress if she just wore that around regardless.

Speaking of that... Well, that just compounded the 'fun' in having to aquire something new. Well, only by a little bit but still being able to almost double in height was not something that regular fabric was made to withstand. At least not in clothes form. And that was was why she was in this store and trying to ignore the cluster of pixies a few racks over chittering away about.. Actually what were they talking about? Worst part about taking a human shape was that she couldn't listen in on things as well without making it obvious. Oh well, it was probably nothing...Though she did notice that at least one of them started looking away when her eyes had wandered over to the group. Some things don't change nomatter where she went.

At any rate, back to her own problem: Finding dresses that would accomodate for tails and occasionally tall people.

[Gullara]

[Xizewell's Tall and Small]

Kitty walks into the store. How annoying. She was just shopping with Obriane a bit ago and she forgot something. To be fair, she's easily distracted by Obriane.... But now they're actually going over their budget. Oh well. The kitsune looks slightly miffed as she starts pulling some tights off a shelf.

[Terumitsu]

[Xizewell's Tall and Small]

For Alva, spending most of her time hiding her more supernatural aspects, watching another of her kind just brazenly walking in was.. Well, a bit of a shock and for once she was the one staring. Only for a bit, though, as she quickly closed her eyes and faced forwards to avoid any awkwardness. Taking a breath, she let it out slow in a wintery mist that quickly faded in the temperature-controlled before reafferming the veiling enchantment that kept her looking human (mostly).

Still, she wasn't one to just let things pass through inaction. Mischief didn't make itself, after all! So, rather soon, Kitty would find a supernally eye-catching woman sidling up next to her. "Oh hello! Trying to find something in particular?" she said with a beaming smile and a soft voice. Even though she wore only simple robes, somehow she was making them work on her figure far better than one would even beguin to suspect. "Oh! Maybe we can help each other out! My name's Alva, by the way." she said in warm tones as she held out a hand. Sometimes just being forwards was the best way about getting into someone else's business.

[Gullara]

[Xizewell's Tall and Small]

Kitsuki blinks in surprise when the other woman slides up beside her. "Hi, I'm Kitsuki." She recovers from her surprise to inspect this person. "I'm looking for tights... Larger tights." That's one way to put it. Her growing belly likely fills in the rest of the explanation.

[Terumitsu]

[Xizewell's Tall and Small]

"Oh congradulations! And actually I think I saw something over.." she began as she hid a hand behind her back and wove a simple spell. That was the thing with this kind of magic, though.. Just as she couldn't give herself extra luck or fortune, she couldn't use this to help herself. Alva suspected that this kind of innate magic was part of why her kind had such a mixed reputation.. Especially when the reverse forms were used.

But at any rate, there was a faint sparkle in her vision as she saw just something that looked like it might be just about perfect. Ah! There!" While they might not initialy look like something sized for a very pregnant woman, part of why Alva had picked this place was that it was supposed to accomodate for people that not only were odd sizes but who might tend to change betwen them... Which might explain why pregnant women were the secondary demographic seen in this store. It's kind of a waste to buy something that would only be good for a few months after all, right? "Would that work?" she asked. The spell didn't let her read minds or anything, it just divined what someone said they were looking to find if it was close-ish by although she swore her father had used it to make more than a bit of coin when he'd had a stint as a silver miner.

[Gullara]

[Xizewell's Tall and Small]

Kitty takes the garment and looks it over, stretching it a bit, feeling the material. "Yeah, that's just about perfect." Oh right, the price tag. Hopefully not too expensive. "I've had to do a bit more shopping than usual lately, as you can guess. It's really inconvenient." She laughs a bit.

[Slii Arhem]

The Mall on a Mission (Closed)

This is a momentous occasion. A red letter day, if you will. A day that likely will not live on in infamy, but will go down as being slightly more interesting than your average Tuesday.

It's the day when a new race will get their first introduction to the Nexus at large. And it starts with a young, short, nervous woman anxiously glancing around the mall, her ears flopping around wildly with every twist and jerk of her head.

Spoiler: Race Intro: Gobbuns

Show

But before we tell the story of today, the story of days gone by needs to be at least touched on. Gobbuns, as a whole, were not a well-researched people up until very recently. In fact most who may have seen them furtively glancing out from under bushes in the Hunting Grounds probably thought them no more than some variety of small gremlin, or even a particularly strange, mutated monkey. Most wouldn't have given the thought that due to the Grounds' properties a race of goblins who had dug their tunnels too close to the edges might take on some of the more bestial traits of the creatures they shared the earth with, the small prey creatures that scrabbled and hid from the ferocious beasts above. But as time went on and more lapine traits emerged, the rabbit-goblin hybrid found its niche straddling the edge of the Grounds.

Eventually they encountered other peoples, those adventurers who would go in and slay for glory and rewards. Distrusting and fearful, they did not often extend a hand in peace, but even these barriers were broken down in time. Trade soon followed as the gobbuns were incredible craftspeople, whittling and carving tools and artworks with their massive, razor-sharp incisors. Their propensity to test anything they came across with these teeth, which could bite through stone, was odd to most who dealt with them. To a gobbun, anything you could bite through in one go wasn't a tool or material you could count your life on. Their front teeth grow endlessly and require constant wear, so most of them chew bits of wood or gnaw small stones idly, especially if they're nervous.

Physically gobbuns are not too unlike their parent species. Ranging from 1' tall for toddlers to 4' and change for particularly large females, their large, mobile ears are more rounded than an average goblin's, and higher on the head. They have a slight muzzle, and all of their bodies are covered in a short, soft fur that changes color with the season from a soft brown to a dazzling white in winter.

Those gobbuns that could be coaxed into seeing the cities took to them immediately, working hard in small jobs, mostly in industry, warehouses, and underground. Gobbun families, often numbering in the dozens, would all pool their money and buy up low-rent apartment buildings, renovating them into huge communal living spaces. Individual gobbuns aren't really seen out and about, mostly getting their supplies and foodstuffs by mail order or through computer, as the distrust of other creatures runs very deep in a race so often held as prey. But those who know them know they love to trade objects with people they trust.

Eswil can't help but be overwhelmed. Dressed in a short, bright blue leather skirt and a light orange vest that would seem cold this time of year for anyone who wasn't covered in thick, short, white fur, the 4'2" gobbun keeps turning towards the entrance to ensure herself it's still there. The noise of the city and navigating a bus route here had been bad enough, but this place was absolutely full of unfamiliar peoples and smells and oh god the noise. The droning of the music over the mall PA, the background conversation coming from everywhere!

But she'd been curious. They all had. And she'd been the biggest, the tallest, the most "People-like" of the younger generation who weren't satisfied with just each other and the capital A Adults for company. So she'd been elected as the first Scout. Which would have been an honor (if a deadly, near suicidal one) back in the Hunting Grounds. Here it just seemed silly. Didn't mean she was having any less of a heart attack over it though.

It's not like people weren't friendly, either. On the contrary, they seemed almost patronizingly so, treating most gobbuns as children or pets no matter how old or smart they were. But dealing with so many of them at once made her want to dig under a tree and hide until after dark when she could sneak home. Or bite through the femoral artery of the first person who tried to ruffle her hair.

So she stands there, looking lost and afraid and doing absolutely nothing beneficial for her race's public relations if they wanted to be taken seriously in the Nexus as a whole. She had a list of things that her kin wanted her to try to buy for them, but no sweet clue where to start looking.