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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 21:32:45 GMT -6
"The things that people will put up as jobs, I swear to the gods," said Noa. He was currently out in the city, looking around for... glass. Glass balls, glass objects, glass sculptures -- it was absurd. They hadn't even all been one type of object, and he was expected to just... find these? Without so much of an idea as to where to start looking? {Well, we aren't quite that unfortunate,} Rhys pointed out. {I had a quick scan of his thoughts, and I could see some of the shops he'd been to recently. We could start there.} Noa sighed. it was a reasonable suggestion, and he did want to get this over with... But what was making him cross was that he was being asked to do something like this at all. Every month he went to the quest board, and every month there was some fool with some fool's errand. 1
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 21:32:57 GMT -6
It paid, but sometimes Noa didn't know if it paid enough.
A part of him resented having to work like this too. Growing up, he had always thought that his parents had been rich. His family, historically, had been rich. They had also been powerful, but the power had come at a price, and every generation had tried their best to escape that price. The research costs had eaten through their wealth, until all Noa had to show for it was property. He didn't even have the luxury of inheriting his family's magical wealth; most of his parents' nodes were lost to him, lost in the fire that had started in the basement research room that had also consumed much of their work.
In essence, Noa was... not exactly starting from scratch, but definitely starting off from a worse place than he might have. Thus the odd jobs he picked up.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 21:35:27 GMT -6
He really wished they wouldn't be so... Well, it felt as if someone of his caliber ought to be taking on tasks that weren't just common errands, at the very least. He may not have been the mage his mother was, say, but he was still powerful enough that he could give many of his own beasts a hard time in combat. There had been one time when the request had been to kill a monster that had taken up residence in some other mage's tower -- a fool, that one, to let it get so out of hand, but still an interesting prospect all the same. And he would never have turned down the chance to study another mage's work, even if that wasn't something that the job had specified as a reward. Sometimes you had to look for ways to get your own bonuses out of the things you were asked to do.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 21:36:57 GMT -6
Alas, however, there hadn't been such a request in quite some time -- at least, not that Noa had managed to come in time to find, anyway. And so he was stuck looking across the city for knick-knacks instead, at the behest of a senile old Kapper.
"Okay, which shop first?" Noa said. They were already in town, and if he was going to do this, he may as well get some errands out of the way. If they ended up in a shop that he might have business in, he would take the time to take care of that while they were there, and then this endeavor might not be an utter waste of time.
{The Heavy Hammer,} Rhys replied.
... Well, never mind then. Noa sighed. Of course it would be a shop that he had absolutely no interest in. He really would be so lucky; it was starting to feel like one of those days.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 21:43:37 GMT -6
He didn't exactly stalk up to the Heavy Hammer, but he did sort of stare down anyone who so much as looked in his direction. Rhys's presence usually softened his own impression on other people, being the kind of creature who looked as though it ought to be accompanying a little girl rather than a grown man, but on this particular day, it wasn't enough. People shied away -- though it was just as well, since Noa was hardly in a mood to humor anyone either.
He strode into the shop, and the shopkeeper eyed him, the first person to meet his eye and return his gaze unfazed.
"What do you want?" the shopkeeper said.
"I'm looking for a kapper's glass garbage," Noa replied. Either this man had encountered the kapper and his things, and would know what he was talking about, or this place was a bust and they ought to move on.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 21:51:21 GMT -6
The man blinked, while Noa leaned back and crossed his arms, surveying the place. It wasn't anywhere he had ever been interested in seeing before, but now that he was here, he might as well have a look. It was... sober, and absolutely covered in weapons. A shopkeeper had to display their wares, of course, but he felt that it was a bit much, just looking at it all. How would someone even use some of these things in combat? He didn't know much about the physical fighting arts, such as they were, but magic served him fine generally, and looking at how heavy the weapons seemed, he wasn't keen on trying them anytime soon.
Seeing that an answer was not forthcoming, Rhys tried to intervene. {A nice kapper gentleman asked us to--}
"Gods, it talks," said the shopkeeper, eyes widening further. Right, they hadn't been here before, so that was to be expected.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 22:01:26 GMT -6
Rhys wilted, and Noa sighed. Speaking pets were... not rare in the sense that no one had ever encountered one before, but generally not terribly common either, and there were very few that were telepathic rather than simply speaking aloud. Faeron were generally not even of human intelligence, let alone spoken, though any creature that was a mage's familiar might enjoy special quirks that they might not have had before they became a familiar.
Rhys's telepathy was his own, however, and the man didn't seem to clock Noa's magic ability anyway. Noa could usually tell; he had enough energy now that most people with any sense for it had some sort of reaction to his presence, and what that reaction was generally told him something about them too -- their character, their own confidence in their abilities, or even how much they understood about magic to begin with. A useful litmus test.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 22:15:05 GMT -6
For the majority of people, however, they had no reaction to him whatsoever. And a man who worked with weapons... Well, it wasn't as if Noa was expecting much.
"Pets aren't allowed in here," said the man, recovering enough to decide he was cross about having been spooked like that. Rhys curled inward on himself even further, but Noa drew himself up to his full height and stared the shopkeeper dead in the eye.
"He's my familiar," said Noa. "He can't exactly leave me, and if you're refusing me business on the grounds of my magic, then we'll have something else to talk about." This wasn't, strictly speaking, entirely true; there were spells to allow a familiar to venture further away from their masters. But those spells still cost a certain amount of energy to cast, and Noa wasn't about to waste his resources on that just to pacify a shopkeeper.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 22:18:18 GMT -6
He had more of it to spare than a lot of magic practitioners in the city, but it was his, and he needed it for his own use and research, not for making other people more comfortable in his presence.
The shopkeeper hesitated at that, so Noa forged on. "I'll make this quick, for both our sakes. Do you remember a kapper carrying a lot of glass nonsense or don't you? If you don't, I'll be on my way." It wasn't as if he was looking to buy anything here, and he rather doubted he would have occasion to come back -- unless he was looking for armor for any of his creatures, Noa supposed, but he really preferred the mobility they had when they were unencumbered. So he might as well be curt, if that would make this conversation go faster. Gods knew he wasn't in the mood for beating around the bush.
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Post by Noa on Oct 31, 2021 22:27:46 GMT -6
The shopkeeper shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said.
So much for that lead.
"Thanks," said Noa, though he didn't sound very thankful. Because he wasn't. He walked out of the door with that, since there was no more sense in wasting their time there. "Where to next, Rhys?"
Rhys was still recovering from his discomfort at the shopkeeper's unpleasant reaction, but he collected himself a bit after hearing Noa's question. {Ummm... I think there was a toy store...}
"Of course it's the toy store," Noa muttered under his breath. Did this kapper visit a single useful location? Evidently not, since they were zero for two so far. But he had only been asked to help search, and if he didn't turn up any results, that wasn't his problem. He was doing what he was being paid to do, so he was upholding his side of the bargain.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 17:35:42 GMT -6
Still, if he didn't spend an appropriate amount of time on this, then they probably wouldn't accept the fact that he hadn't managed to produce any results. So it was off to the toy store they went, though Noa couldn't think of too many places that felt like more of a waste of his time than this one was. Even when he had been a child, he'd had little enough use for toys. There had always been other, better things to focus his time on, and anyway his parents hadn't had the patience for that kind of foolishness either.
It didn't take long for him to locate the place, at any rate. The decor wasn't subtle. It wasn't a general store establishment either like the Supply and Demand, which sold a little bit of everything, and might conceivably have something that Noa would be mildly interested in. No, it was only toys here.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 17:38:09 GMT -6
And even standing outside it, Noa could feel a headache coming on. Granted that wasn't all that rare for him these days; they had gotten more frequent and more intense as he got older, just another sign of his body failing him and beginning to fall apart. It happened to everyone in his family, and as his condition worsened he began to understand some of his parents' behavior more thoroughly... Though he also felt that the progression of their decline in health hadn't been quite as rapid as his own.
One more reason to work hard at his research. One more reason to waste as little time here as he could. "Rhys," he said, through gritted teeth; if he waited much longer, he knew from experience that the pain could become overwhelming and cause him to black out. A city street wasn't exactly the kind of place where he wanted to do that.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 17:40:37 GMT -6
{Oh no, hold on!} said Rhys, and a faint light began to radiate from him almost immediately. It took one agonizing moment before relief swept through him, but Noa knew to expect that too. This kind of thing had happened so often that it hardly fazed him anymore, even if it was still pretty inconvenient. He took a few deep breaths, then sighed as the last of the unpleasant sensation in his skull faded away.
That was why he kept Rhys around. Having a familiar was useful, and having someone to talk to whenever he wanted was also convenient on occasion, but Rhys's primary purpose had always been to take care of his symptoms, first and foremost. And the older he got, the more he appreciated the investment -- both his family's, in procuring Rhys to begin with, and his own in training the Faeron to do all this for him.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 17:57:29 GMT -6
Well. Maybe he ought to be grateful to Rhys too, for sticking around. But the Faeron had certainly never given any indication of wanting to leave, and at any rate they were bound together now by the pact of a mage and their familiar, so there was no turning back anyway.
Once he felt like himself again, he pushed through the door and walked in.
"Hello! How can I help you, sir?" said a young man at the counter. Noa focused on him, trying to block out the shelves and displays of obnoxious stuffed animals that threatened to revive his headache. Why did they all have to be so lurid? At least the man who worked here was plain, though his apron -- why was he wearing an apron to work here, anyway? -- was in more of the same too bright coloring as the shop merchandise, so the only safe place to look was his face.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 18:11:00 GMT -6
He wasn't tall, though then again, neither was Noa; they were, if anything, of a height. He also didn't look like most of the people from around these parts, though he was human as far as Noa could tell. His smile faltered as Noa continued to stare at him, until Rhys gave Noa a slight nudge. {You're, uh, making him nervous. Should I ask or...?}
"Have you seen any glass... things around here lately?" Noa said. No need to beat around the bush. Either this man knew where they were or he didn't, and if he didn't, then Noa could just leave. That was rapidly becoming his goal, even with Rhys present to stave off the attack of another headache. Gods, he hated this place.
"G-Glass... things?" said the man. His smile was entirely gone now, replaced by a look of confusion that made Noa want to wipe it off his face.
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