|
Post by Renathan on Nov 7, 2021 18:30:58 GMT -6
Renathan had wound up being completely unable to pick up a quest during the month of Vai Min Mur. This time of year orders to the Cache always seemed to uptick as people commissioned presents for their loved ones and their own pets for the various winter holidays that went on during the cold months. Renathan always did his best to meet the timeframes, but it meant that he left out for extra-curriculars less and less as time went on and he rushed to meet the time crunch. However, he did manage to scoop himself out a bit of time to go out to grab what he was hoping was going to be a quick quest (if there were any quick ones available) with his familiar, who he didn't spend near enough time with when he wasn't working, in his own opinion. The good news was that it was early morning when he left his house- and he had plenty of time that day. [1]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 8, 2021 16:37:25 GMT -6
The morning was fairly nice- it was a little too crisp for Renathan's taste (he never really liked the cold) but Auburn was positively invigorated by it. Summers were always too hot for Auburn's thick coat, so they often had to give her plenty of rest and cold treats (he froze seeds in ice sometimes in the fridge to help) as well as him mostly leaving her in the air conditioning when he was going to be gone for less than a day. Auburn was always sad and despondent after the summer, wishing to get back to being more around the mammalian again on his daily routines. Renathan drew his autumn shawl around his shoulders, trying to capture some heat on the way out to the quest board. Auburn, on the other hand, sat perched on one of his shoulders, 'singing' her own little song (less pretty now that she was an Izer, that was for sure) as Renathan walked.
[2]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 8, 2021 16:45:29 GMT -6
The sidewalk that Renathan was walking on was also cold on his foot pads. He wasn't quite used to the early autumn morning cool yet; wasn't it very hot outside just a week ago? Renathan doesn't bother pondering that as he strolled along. He walked past someone that was walking a silverfang vulticus (Renathan marveled at how big the great beast was) and glanced over at a beautifully manicured lawn (how was it all still green?) that was covered in the first frost of the year. It was positively ephemeral, he couldn't help but shaping his mouth into a round 'oh'. Auburn was still singing up on his shoulder. It was absolutely beautiful out today, despite the cold! The walk was just like that too, with the bright sunlight dripping along with the thawing frost from the edges of the buildings as the sun continued to rise.
He just knew today was going to be a great day!
[3]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 8, 2021 16:52:18 GMT -6
Renathan was sometimes prone to bouts of getting a bit too caught up in his work and feeling drained. Often times, his pets were the ones that really helped him to get out of those bouts of near depression. Often, this was seasonal. Renathan knew that soon enough, he was probably not going to get to enjoy life as much as he was today; so he drank it in like a plant does light and he basked in the beauty of the morning. He walked a little slower to the quest board that day because of that- and he had no sense of urgency. There were probably a bunch of different quests, since this time of year often had people requiring all sorts of tasks from others. He really enjoyed that about the Labs City and Pethia in general. There was just something about people reaching out to help others that really spoke to him.
Just being out with Auburn today was already making him so happy.
[4]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 8, 2021 17:03:43 GMT -6
After about an hour of meandering and really enjoying life, Renathan and Auburn do finally make it to the quest board. It was absolutely covered in quests, and for a moment Renathan is very excited. He'd have pick of the litter, so to speak, when searching for something for him to do! He hadn't ever seen this many quests on the board at one time, and some months he even hardly had a choice whether or not he was going to get a quest he was suited to or even sounded fun or not. He searches through them to find something he would be interested in doing. There was a call for some leaf raking, and a call for someone to help herd a group of farm animals out to a winter pasture. He could probably do either one of those, but neither one of them really caught his attention too much. He pats Auburn's soft mane as he skims the paper slips.
[5]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 15:37:20 GMT -6
Slip after slip of paper were skimmed through by the expert eyes of someone that actually hadn't really done a whole lot of pleasure reading recently. His eyes were a bit strained from all of the forms he had to go through. Setting up and upkeeping a business establishment required quite a bit of business-related reading and form-filling, so it wasn't long before his eyes began to feel the strain of looking at all of the slips of paper and trying to find anything that might interest him enough to take as a quest. Auburn did not seem perturbed at all whenever he finally backed up and lifted his mask slightly to rub at his own eyes. "Goodness, Auburn- there's so many this month." He says, surprise still tinging his voice. "Normally we get the scraps, don't we gal?" He probably wasn't the only person that talked to his pets as if they were people, but it still made him a little embarrassed if others saw.
[6]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 16:21:01 GMT -6
Regardless of however weird it might have been for the russet mammalian to have been talking to his creature, she trilled back at him in the way that an animal does whenever the owner is speaking to them regardless of whether or not they can understand (and in most cases, as in this one- they cannot). Still, Renathan allows his eyes to refocus and rest, and then he slips his palm out from under his autumn-chilled mask and then he reaches out to pick up a particular note that caught his attention. He opens his mouth a little bit when he sees it; because it had such odd handwriting on it. It takes him a moment to register that it had to be a child's handwriting- it was so sloppy and unrefined. As if the hand that had written it had not yet gotten used to writing the individual letters themselves in the practiced way an older kid, teen, or adult would.
[7]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 16:35:19 GMT -6
Renathan pulls the slip of note paper off of the quest board and pulls it closer so that he had an easier time seeing it. He wondered vaguely at first why the questing society didn't re-type this one. He had to re-read it multiple times because it was quite difficult to read the unrefined hand-writing that made up the request. The note is tiny, and the handwriting is even tinier (making the situation even worse). Renathan looks away from it for a moment over his own shoulder to see if the lights to the quest society building looks like they are on in a way that might suggest that someone capable of telling him about this particular quest might be there. He was interested; he liked to help people in need and quests from youngsters were usually of the 'needed desperately enough' variety, but this was so hard to read that it was really blocking him.
"Come on Auburn, I'm going to ask if anyone can read this."
[8]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 16:42:24 GMT -6
Renathan moves swiftly enough from the smooth white concrete in front of the quest board and up to the rustic log steps out towards the building. He checked the brass handle at the door and it opened smoothly. Someone that looked very tired and was drinking what had to be an extreme-sized coffee to get them pepped up for the morning looks up from the desk. 'Hello, can I help you?' He didn't blame the person for sounding so tired, they certainly looked it. He walks up to the counter holding the quest slip that he'd pulled from the board and he slid it over the counter as Auburn clutched onto his shoulder and trilled sweetly.
"I cannot seem to read this, I think a kid wrote it. Did you have anything on file for it?" He asks, as politely as he could. He wanted to know what was required of the quest, but provided it was within his wheelhouse he was already fairly attached to it.
[9]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 17:46:43 GMT -6
The person takes a quick look at the note and squints for a moment. Renathan could literally see the exact moment whenever the assistance desk individual figured out which one of the requests this was. The person pulls out a WATT with a custom design, and taps a little bit on it before bringing up a file. The person reads over it for a moment before explaining what the kid was asking for. At first Renathan listened to what he thought was a tale as old as time about some parents that were at odds. Then, he realized with a bit of extra horror at the end that one of the parents was most likely dead. That took a turn for the absolute ghastly. He blinked behind the mask, pink eyes a little wet. "Oh..." He says, face twisted into a frown beneath the mask. Auburn can feel his mood change, and she stops trilling abruptly.
[10]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 18:10:49 GMT -6
It would seem like there was a little kid out there that lost a doll at the local cemetery (it actually wasn't very far away at all) and wanted to go looking for it, but the mother refused to go look for it because she felt that there were nicer dolls at home. The worst part about this to Renathan was the WHY the doll was in the cemetery; the kid was visiting their father. It really made the mother sound heartless to him. He couldn't even imagine being like that at all, it just sounded like something out of a bad movie. So he decided that he'd go see if he could try to find the doll. He accepted the quest for himself, and soon enough he and Auburn were out the door and back into the intoxicating lovely morning sunlight. It felt a little colder, now- he knew it was because of the secondhand sadness he felt for the poor kid.
[11]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 18:44:30 GMT -6
It did not necessarily ruin his day in one fell swoop, thankfully, but it was quite the bummer to know that someone in town was treating their kid that way. Then again, Renathan had to remind himself that different cultures took care of their children completely differently. No one in his own culture would do something like this on principal; if someone in the family did not have time to do something like it another of the adults in any given household most likely would. Pethian households typically only had two adults on the average (at least in the Labs City) and this one only had one. If the not had stated that the mother hand been busy he would have felt differently. But 'nicer dolls at home' sounded very callous. Renathan decides to make it to the cemetery on the double- he practically power-walks over to the gate, Auburn being eerily silent the entire time.
[12]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 19:14:25 GMT -6
Renathan found that he was very glad that he had not gone out to look for the doll at the cemetery at night time. It certainly looked like it would have been a harrowing experience had he done so; already standing outside of the gates was a little eerie. It was silent in the cemetery that morning, the grass all covered in morning frost that was in the process of melting. Renathan could see where the sidewalk ended on the inside and that he'd have to get his feet dirty to walk through it. Still, he glances over the top of the black-painted iron gates to see if he can catch sight of anything out of the ordinary (namely, a doll near a grave perhaps) but instead he simply sees the grey shade of the several trees in the vicinity, and the bright golden sunlight flicker over the grass illuminated by it in a way that set all of the hairs on the back of his head standing. He pets Auburn for comfort and half out of habit.
[13]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 19:18:58 GMT -6
"Well Auburn, we're here." He murmurs to her, and the izer trills softly in 'response' to him. He puts his hands down consciously to his sides and then crosses one of his arms over the other one. At least the cemetery wasn't really spooky when it wasn't shrouded in darkness, so he was sure he'd be fine. The russet mammalian curled his double tails over around his ankles for a quick moment and then he pushes himself forward (stepping over his tails practicably) and past the gate with the name of the cemetery (something like 'Central Lawn' he didn't really notice) in an arc over the top of it in twisted iron and out onto the still quite greenish lawn and out towards the graves. The cemetery was a big one, so he wasn't entirely sure where to look first. Eventually he just decides to take it row by row, looking between the graves as he passes them.
[14]
|
|
|
Post by Renathan on Nov 9, 2021 19:23:36 GMT -6
Auburn was certainly extra cautious, but it was only because of Renathan's own slight anxiety. He wasn't sure what was coming over him. He was not afraid of cemeteries, let alone in the day. But he could not help but feel as if there was something there that should not be; something that was watching him. Following this particular inclination that there was 'danger' around was normally something that kept him from getting hurt. He'd been able to rely on it so many times before that he couldn't even imagine not following it. However, he did feel very inclined to find this doll instead of leaving immediately, so he just kept his head on a swivel. The odd thing was that he could actively tell that Auburn wasn't feeling it herself. That sort of thing tended to triangulate between them, and he felt like he would definitely know. That put him on edge even more.
[15]
|
|