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Post by Morgan on Feb 3, 2020 22:33:12 GMT -6
Morgan probably should have took Nico with them again this time; they usually preferred to go quest-checking with Nico instead of with all of the others in the estate, but Ryuusei was being very needy lately, and Morgan didn't mind allowing him to spend more time with them. After all, he hadn't quite gotten up the nerve to tell Seimei about how he felt yet, and Morgan was fine with helping him through this and be distracted until he finally got the guts to do it. Thus, the bespectacled human walked alongside a golden shimmering tat-lung on the way to the quest, surprising aplenty of folks along the way. It wasn't common to see one of these beings, let alone one that actually seemed to be okay with a humanoid. Sure, Ryuusei was arrogant, but he seemed to have taken to Morgan incredibly well. It was mostly that Morgan wasn't all that annoying, but that wasn't normal for relationships among tat-lungs and humanoids (even if this one was more like butler-tatlung than master-tatlung).
[1]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 3, 2020 23:18:31 GMT -6
Morgan ignored most of the looks that they got. They were fairly used to it, anyway, with how they generally tended to do things. However, it was still nice to know that Ryuusei secretly enjoyed being gawked at, Morgan could tell that his chest puffed up when he was stared at. Still, they weren't out and about to prove a point about sentient beings or about whether or not it is possible to treat other beings with respect even though they were created by the labs. 'Circumstances of one's birth' Morgan remembered their father saying, after all. They thought about it more and more as they worked with the tat-lungs that had come under the care of their estate. They finally managed to get to the quest board, and Morgan was shocked, and a little baffled. For one, it was covered in some sort of... Vandalism?
No, it looked like a whole class of elementary kids had gotten to it.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 4, 2020 1:49:02 GMT -6
It was impressive, even considering the thought that maybe a large group of youngsters had worked on it. The board, typically cork in style with lots of little slips of papers for requests for help, was covered in a once-cream sheet of paper. The paper's once pristine color quality could only be surmised by the tiny little bits where the glitter had fallen off in some areas. The glitter itself was multi-colored but only in little cloudy blots, pink and red and purple in some areas. Some of these blots were in the... Somewhat questionable shape of hearts (or at least that was what Morgan hoped they were- otherwise it was certainly ah, questionable) and otherwise looked more like someone threw them onto some randomly splattered glue. There were words, but some of the cardboard letters had already fallen off of the board and onto the ground. Even Ryuusei looked amused as he gazed upon the monstrosity of a board.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 4, 2020 1:55:16 GMT -6
'So, is this something you humanoids do often?' Ryuusei conveyed to Morgan with an extra flourish of his tail, his eyes sparkling and his mane poofed. Morgan tried to give him a frown and shoot him 'the look' but wound up just busting out in a chuckle, and trying but failing not to bust out into complete laughter. Someone had gotten the quest board GOOD. It was just wholesome and pretty dang great. Ryuusei squints, and then baps Morgan in the back with the poof of his tail gently. Morgan still stumbled, and then pushed on his shoulder ineffectually. "Alright, alright, ya got me." Morgan manages. It was at this point (eyes still prickling from the little laughter tears in the corners of their eyes) that Morgan caught sight of Jolyne. Morgan and Jolyne didn't get along super well (it was mutual with the not wanting to deal with other folks so it was fine) so Morgan was curious to see that she was waving the pair over. [4]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 4, 2020 2:01:58 GMT -6
Morgan manages to sign to Ryuusei while conveying through the link 'We don't actually do this often, I swear. Gotta be kids that done it or something.' before reluctantly walking over to Jolyne, with Ryuusei following in step. Morgan crossed their arms, taking in the fact that this was that Hunter's Lodge individual, and then of course Jolyne as well. "So uh, do y'all always let kids decorate the board?" Morgan asked, in a somewhat flippant way. Then, they listened to what the pair had to say. So, were they frustrated because the person wasn't admitting who they are? Or is it more that they are unnerved about the person being able to sneak into their shops when they weren't able to be there? That had to be it. "Is this person g-getting in to your shops when you're gone to do this?" Now that took skills! Ryuusei tried to listen, but of course he didn't understand common quite well yet. [5]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 4, 2020 2:43:26 GMT -6
It turns out that this was the case indeed, and it suddenly made sense to Morgan as to why these folks would be concerned. Honestly it usually wasn't too worrying to get candy during Vakrah. People handed them to their lovers, sure, as well as crushes, but they also gave them to siblings, parents, children, friends... Vakrah was one of those months where people were supposed to tell each-other about how much they love each-other, and though Morgan didn't really bother to celebrate they did take advantage of cheapo candy during the month. Some of the BEST ones weren't sold any other time of year, it really was a shame. Morgan really loved those little candies with the spiky parts on them that tasted like fruit. They didn't eat a lot of sweets, but who would turn any down? After a little bit of listening to them, it seemed that Jolyne had an idea.
Ryuusei watched everyone's body language very carefully.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 4, 2020 3:13:48 GMT -6
Jolyne offers to give Morgan their Vakrah candy if they tried to figure out who this was and managed it, and Morgan squinted before the clause that more QP would be added to Morgan's account if they succeeded as well. Morgan nodded. Might as well; it looked like whoever defaced the board had removed all of the quest requests as well, so this was the only one Morgan knew that they were going to be able to reliably get this month. Morgan accepted this, and then turned around to let Ryuusei know what they were doing. 'So, we are gonna g-go and try to catch this individual that is breaking into these shops.' Morgan conveyed, and signed to him. Ryuusei seemed quite curious and asked quite a few different questions about humans and shops and social aspects along with currency. Morgan dutifully answered all of them. Morgan's plan was to go out tomorrow morning to watch the Hunter's Lodge with Ryuusei and wait. [7]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 4, 2020 3:24:26 GMT -6
So they went home that day. Morgan did all of the house work they needed to do, Ryuusei did whatever Ryuusei does during the day (Morgan knew that he spent a lot of time with his younger 'siblings', teaching them the things that he had learned and playing with them). Millicent was learning fairly quickly about different things, and Morgan was pretty surprised at how quickly she was going. Morgan fed all of the beings under their care, and then made sure everyone was comfortable before feeding theirself, taking a shower, and hitting the hay. They had an alarm set for early, and woke up before the sun came up. Morgan took the houluhs out and fed Millicent and everyone else and then took Ryuusei with them to go find a good hiding spot at the Hunter's Lodge to see if they could catch whoever was breaking into these shops to uh, leave candy or whatever.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 5, 2020 8:01:19 GMT -6
Morgan wasn't sure of the motivations that would cause someone to want to leave candy for people that presumably don't even know them. Something wasn't really adding up here; and who was dumb enough to give the same candies to two different folks that they were 'sweet on'? Morgan couldn't imagine how they would think that they could get away with that. The only thing that made sense was that no one at all would do this kind of thing that was at the very least a good person unless it wasn't what they all thought it was. Morgan wasn't expecting someone creepy, actually, so they weren't too worried. "So, Ryuusei, how are you doing today bud?" Morgan conveyed to him in triplicate. He was yawning. "Didn't stay up too late l-last night, did you?" They asked him. He didn't seem bothered, but when Morgan gave him a wink, he got a bit flustered.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 5, 2020 8:06:03 GMT -6
'I didn't tell Seimei yet!' He conveyed back, tail whipping in nervousness. Morgan chuckled, and then patted him on the shoulder. "I know, I'm just messing with you." Morgan said to him, giving him another pat. They were scoping out the little Hunter's Lodge shop, trying to find a good place to hide. "I dunno Ryuusei, maybe I shoulda chose the Questing Center." Morgan mumbled, after walking around the entire building trying to figure out where to hide. It may have been made of logs, but it didn't have much out there to hold onto or hide behind. "There 'ent anythin' here to hide your big shiny hide." After a little bit, they finally opted for the cardboard box cage out in the front lot. It had a few things to hide in and behind and was just large enough for Ryuusei to hide. Now, for the waiting. [10]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 5, 2020 9:26:20 GMT -6
And waiting it was! Admittedly, between Morgan and the big ole lug, things were very uncomfortable. Both felt folded up like origami, even though Morgan was pretty tiny to begin with. Still, Ryuusei was the more fun-loving of the two, and he found plenty of ways to annoy Morgan in order to keep himself entertained. Morgan was patient, and it was probably a good thing that it was one of their very few and prized 'good' qualities that they would deal with annoying or cramped situations for much longer than most people would probably care to. They had come under the cover of darkness, and they stayed beneath it hiding in the large bin for a good long time. The bespectacled human watched the hunter's lodge with falcon-eyes, or at least that was how focused they were. Thankfully with their glasses they could see the distance to both the front and back doors, and all of the windows.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 7, 2020 4:28:27 GMT -6
Morgan was really curious as to how this mysterious ah, benefactor (using the term incredibly loosely; honestly a lot of the junk that was being peddled here on these poor unsuspecting shopkeeper was pretty low brow all things considered) was getting into the buildings without security alarms going off. For one, Morgan figured the information would be useful for later. For two, Morgan was also pretty sure that the shopkeepers would LOVE to know that information, meaning that was something Morgan could probably blackmail more information out of the kid for 'not telling on them' (when really, Morgan had no plan to do that to begin with; it was useful for them not to know after all). While Morgan was doing a bit of devious scheming, poor Ryuusei had an itch at the very tip of his tail, and he couldn't get to it regardless of how much it itches.
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Post by Morgan on Feb 7, 2020 4:31:29 GMT -6
Of course, Ryuusei is just about tied up in knots just to be in this hidden position, and it is obviously just about driving him up the wall. He tried his best to wriggle to get to that tail tip, hoping that Morgan would get the dang hint already, but the human just wasn't moving, and was staring pretty intently at that settlement over there. He finally pushes Morgan ever so gently away, and whips his tail around to scratch it, the tail and his claws in front of Morgan while his body was in the back. He felt more like a bit of rope than a dragon, but he thought the situation was more humorous than a reason to punish the human, luckily for Morgan. He breathes on Morgan's shoulder now that he is in a slightly more comfortable position, and the human just about jumps out of their skin. "RYUUSEI!"
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Post by Morgan on Feb 7, 2020 4:34:48 GMT -6
The cry-out was loud and deep, and probably traveled a lot further than it should have had. Both Morgan and Ryuusei are surprised by it, and Ryuusei just HAD to make the jab. 'Say, aren't we supposed to be quiet and hiding and stuff?' He conveyed in the most childish, annoying way that Morgan could even conceive of. 'I didn't tell you to breathe down my neck! Yuck!' Morgan conveyed and signed back to him. He tried to hold back the tat-lung version of a chuckle, he really did, and because of it there was the result of Morgan's neck being breathed on AGAIN. "Ryuusei, not again!" Morgan was struggling to remain quiet, and that was just funnier to the big dragon. "We're gonna get caught now!" Morgan protested. Luckily, when Morgan glanced around again and tried to get them back into a hiding spot, they didn't see anyone else around. [14]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 7, 2020 4:37:33 GMT -6
That was the nature of serving dragons; they could be some very cruel and inventive masters. Morgan stuck their tongue out at him and he threatened to bite it off half-heartedly, no where near Morgan's mouth, by 'snipping' with his front teeth. Morgan crossed their arms, and then shoved him gently on the shoulder to convey their annoyance, and then raised their finger to their lips in a very obvious, SHHH that was half-quiet and half-voiced. Ryuusei finally manages to calm down, and Morgan looks back out across the lot again. Luckily for Ryuusei, there still didn't seem to be anyone around. A wind floated by, and caught one of the boxes, forcing Morgan to grab it and hold it in place. This was a very troublesome hiding place with a very troublesome partner, but Morgan did enjoy this. This was the most fun they had in a long time. They hadn't been doing very well.
[15]
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