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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 14:33:20 GMT -6
That didn't stay her hand from purchasing from the first coffee stand she could find - it was a crime to not at least have a few pumpkin spiced things while it was in season - and allowing a bored boy to feed Ivaylo a COD egg while she was waiting. She didn't ask where he'd gotten it, but Vay cracked it open and horfed the egg down with no hesitation, while the charmed kid looked on. "Sarane are so cool. I'm gonna have a bunch of 'em when I move out - but just a bunch of drakes like this one! Since they're meaner and more awesome!" Leth didn't see it fit to dispel any notion that he had been feeding a baby drake. The closer she got to home, the more 'invested' the neigbours would be in her - she wasn't going to be able to escape all the way home without being accosted again. She thought it with a smirk, surprised at how much she was enjoying the outing. Strangely, the invitation to the party stubbornly clung to the forefront of her thoughts. Perhaps her brain knew better than she did that she ought to be out socializing with more people and fewer drakes. Ivaylo lv|3 ly|3 15
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 14:33:35 GMT -6
As she'd suspected, the further down the road and closer to home she got, it got harder to pass by many a cart unnoticed. She wasn't entirely sure how it happened, especially when she could literally see her cabin through the trees. But the satyr found herself caught up in a knot of her nearest neighbors, intent upon wringing whatever it was they wanted out of her before she could trek home. Their demands were loud and varying, and she found herself lost in them, the hopes for escape dashed. She forced on a smile; they really were just being kind and taking an interest in her, there was nothing wrong with that. It was just that she wanted to be home with her new little desert treasure. "She brung home another one o' them lizards! Instead'a celebratin' here with us!""We even left a note on 'ya gate!"Oh, that note? 16
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 14:33:54 GMT -6
"Ah, I dinnin' see it. Estelle musta' sole it out right under me, little rat-bastard." In this case, she felt absolutely no guilt over throwing Estelle under the bus. She'd definitely seen the note, and may have dismissed and thrown it away the scribblings she couldn't make out. It was just a piece of paper with words on it anyway, how special could it be? If somebody wanted something, they should probably find her in person, for there was little else that would actually... make it to her. "What wouldja sold, anyways? Dragon eggs an' meat? Y'making so many of the beasts now, how's it taste when ya' fry them eggs up for breakfast?""Heynow." She didn't have a lot to say to that, even if the old farmers sneered expectantly at her. "Ain' the place to sell my dragons. Y'ain't ever gonna sell one'a them gourds for enough t' buy one a' my whelps!""Mighty 'spensive chickens y'got!"17
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 14:34:07 GMT -6
To Ivaylo's credit, she didn't seem to care a lick about either the rukus or the insult. The little red took some offers of pets, and snapped her baby sharps at other hands, seemingly at random. Mostly Vay seemed like a pretty chill and opinionated lady, so Lethalia did indeed have high hopes for this 'expensive chicken'. Lethalia's smile turned more real as their visit went on, even if the throng of people were between her and the house. Chatting among them bought her some costume ideas for the party, and learned there may even be a few people she knew going - that would be nice. Of course she was goaded even harder about going once she mentioned it, but remained noncomittal for now. After being handed several small, jeweltone gourds, pumpkin spiced treats, and a basket to carry it all in, Lethalia extracted herself as quietly as possible, hoping to have paid her dues enough to not be reeled back in. 18
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 14:34:29 GMT -6
... ... ... Once safe just inside her front door, Leth let out a sigh and allowed Ivaylo to slinky out of her blanket into her new permanent home. Her tiny red hen snuffled the crate shelf fearlessly, stuck her nose in a backpack and skittered away before moving on as if nothing had ever happened, continuing down the hallway with or without the lady that had been manhandling her the whole time. Trailing behind, Lethalia let her explore unbothered, following just closely enough to yank the baby girl out of trouble if she needed to. She was a downright helicopter parent in comparison to hens! If only she could distance herself like they did. Not that she really ought to be letting a hatchling in the house to grow used to it, lest they demand to come back inside once they were a bear-sized broodhen. But it was way too cute not to do it. 19
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 14:34:43 GMT -6
Watching Ivaylo poke around here and there, Lethalia mulled over the fact that she'd expected to be exhausted after being absorbed and spat back out by a mass of people. Instead she felt lighter, a tiny quirk of an unconscious smile still on her lips. All of this time being hold up on her own, trying to desperately make something for herself... somewhere along the way, she'd forgotten how much being around others invigorated her. Funny how someone whose heart aligned so deeply with adventuring and trading found herself in a stationary farmstead, cryingly close to resembling an actual business. One that was more self-contained than the social art of trading her handmade wares all over. Truly, she seldom saw people outside of taking her cart to sell at the farmer's market once a month or so. When did that happen, exactly? To think she got so absorbed in building this that she lost touch with that part of herself, the one that liked people. Ivaylo lv|4 ly|4 20
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 16:18:05 GMT -6
Maybe she should... actually consider going to this party. Until now, Leth hadn't even acknowledged there was such an emptiness left when her socializing dropped off, dying such a slow death so as to go unnoticed. Now that she thought about it, the silence of her house ringing in her ears, maybe missing people really was what had been wrong with her as of late. Ivaylo gave an angry squeak as a hoof stopped her short of nosing her way into the bathroom door, steering her instead to the stairs. Two little claws latched onto the first step without hesitation, hauling herself up the first step with a furiously twitching tail to give away the intense focus it required. Well, this would keep the henling out of trouble. "Comin' upstairs with me, Vay?" Lethalia asked her, hoping the trek would tire the little one out. Vay ignored her almost completely to haul herself up the next step. 21
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 16:19:19 GMT -6
They were so independant even freshly hatched like this little red, completely unlike mammal or humanoid babies. Then again, she'd hardly dealt with any warm-blooded little ones since getting into the sarane business... Should she even bring a baby like this to a party? It couldn't really hurt, since the invite said they allowed pets and all... Leth just needed to make sure she was sober enough by the end of the night to get them both home. What would she even wear? It wasn't a Vai Min Mur party if it wasn't a costume party, right? Some folk on the caravan celebrated it, and she'd been in the city long enough to become accustomed to this 'creepy' holiday instead of mere harvest festivals. The dressing up part - she got that, when it came to the kids. She'd even gotten the chance to dress Fawn up and go show her off to the town nearest her Godmother Vail's camp for 'trick-or-treating'. 22
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 16:19:49 GMT -6
(Which was still a strange enough custom to her on it's own - letting folk give your kid candy? intentionally??), and Leth had never had so much fun showing her off in her adorable faeron wings and springy antennae. But she had no idea what an appropriate 'grown up' costume might be, thinking on the glut of choices her closet for an idea to manifest itself. Yet to have understood all the different conventions of costumes, she thought on some she saw other adult women wearing at the faires - not in the least bit scary, more on the 'cute' side of dressing up with quite the expanses of skin showing. Was that what she wanted- what she was expected to wear? Or was she too much of an old fogey for that to be expected of her? There were many more considerations that went towards going to a costume party than she'd originally thought, but she had somehow decided she'd needed to go. 23
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 16:21:39 GMT -6
It took as long as Lethalia figured it would to make their way up the steps one sarane-baby step at a time, but eventually Ivaylo found herself in the upstairs den, inhaling deeply of the scents of it's normal occupants. Closing the door behind them so Vay didn't learn any 'tricks' about going downstairs, the satyr figured this was as safe a spot as any for the hen to wander if she was wrapped up in figuring out a costume. Heading over to her workbench, Lethalia glanced out the window to make sure all looked right about the farm outside, before diving into the bins of scrap leather and half-finished experiments for an idea; there had to be something she could muster into a costume within her leatherworking supplies. She plopped down on the bench next to her work table, puling a few large bins from below to be soon elbow-deep in abandoned projects. 24
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 16:27:08 GMT -6
Ivaylo sniffed around the cubby beneath her workbench where she'd removed the boxes, drawn over by curiosity but not quite bold enough to interact with Lethalia directly just yet. Instead she was doing that 'thing' that cats do - making herself present and simply nearby, a curious eye flicking Leth's way every so often to see if the woman had been taken notice of her. Couldn't possibly let the human in on the fact that she wanted attention, now could she? The satyr smirked at the presence at her feet, scooting a hoof towards the hatchling just to see what would happen. Sudden movement was met with a (surely what Ivaylo thought was) terrifying hiss as she bristled, muscles tensing to make for a crooked sideways hop that didn't get her that much further away from the scary thing. Vay landed and hissed again, more indignant this time - she hadn't been here long, but she knew the hoof belonged to this lady already! How rude! Ivaylo lv|5 ly|5 25
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 16:31:06 GMT -6
Tamping down on her giggle, Leth took back her hoof and tried her best to not look Vay in the eye, teasing the hatchling into thinking it may have been unintentional. The hen looked flustered at her, but it wasn't long before she was back to sniffing around again. "Snoopin' around, Vay? Wanna' come'n help me?" she questioned, scooping the hen up before she could skitter further away. Ivaylo looked a bit lost when she was deposited on the tabletop, one moment on the ground and the next teleported up somewhere really high. She still managed a few angry squawks as she was lifted, pretty sure she had reason to be upset with the satyr even if she wasn't entirely sure why. "This'd be cute..." Lethalia mused to herself, digging a couple of narrow, long triangles from her scrap pile. She held them up to Ivaylo's head, letting them hang like floppy bunny-orbaru ears. She could attach them with a stretchy headband and it would be adorable. "Perfect!"26
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 17:24:36 GMT -6
... ... ... Lethalia kind of flew by the seat of her pants on this one, but that's just what she does. She'd gotten all the info she really needed about the invitation - that it was a costume party, tomorrow, and at the Archmage's tower. With pets allowed of course, to do otherwise was basically a social blunder in this city. She might not love the sound of that, but she did know exactly where it was, just like everybody else in the city. Enough information to go off of to get there! Still, the day gave her time to shape some leather scraps so they held their shape something like the shell of an orbaru ear. Wide, dark burgundy stripes had been painted down each one, hoping to mimic the classic stripes on an orbaru. If she'd really wanted to lean into it, she could have painted Vay's tail with stripes... but that felt a little bit like overkill. 27
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 17:34:15 GMT -6
Though the day before the party gave her the chance to make a little strap to tie her orbaru ears to Ivaylo's head, she was still hoping it was going to dry entirely on the ride into town. Having spent an amount of time on the hatchling's costume - for not much of a reason, if she was being honest with herself - Lethalia had to bring something she'd already been working on for herself. It was a little funny, but she could roll with it. At some point, she'd been messing aorund with making little helmets to set on her... sarane dummy. It sounded so stupid when she thought about it more. But she'd made some attempts to make it look cute and maybe more like a green drake instead of a brown. Of course it didn't dawn on her until she'd gotten a head and tail already made, that she might not want to pour craftsmanship and time into a literal target dummy. 28
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Post by Lethalia on Oct 31, 2020 17:39:07 GMT -6
Upside was, now, she had a costume with a charming sarane-head hat and tail to attach to a belt. Slap on some green leather wristbands and... ta-da? It was good enough. Mavelle was brought as her mount of choice; she could depend on the rugged little mare to not start anything when stabled with other partygoers' pets, and get her sorry ass home if she drank too much. See, she was being responsible. That and Mav was more than tolerant of another clawed, struggling bundle being dealt with on her back on the trek into town - just another day for this mare. "Migh' be th' place we're lookin' for," Lethalia informed Vay wryly, having to crane her neck to see the peak of the Tower as they neared it's foot. Normally drab cobblestone walls were instead lit in swaths of orange and purple, further streamer dancing off the tallest peaks. Magical fireworks sprayed into the skies just around the tower in cartoony looking pumpkins and ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns sputtering with sparks as if they were full of sparklers lit the walkway, floating a few inches off the ground. 29
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