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Post by Swell on Nov 10, 2021 20:15:57 GMT -6
He didn’t really understand how he'd ended up in this mess. One moment he was strolling down the street trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible, next he was being assailed by a man just under half his height about glass figurines. While initially he’d wanted the conversation to end as quickly as possible, Swell’s helpful nature overrode that as he watched the older kapper become increasingly passionate about his work. Before the man had even finished his request he’d already quietly resigned himself to running all throughout the city looking for what were sure to be the most minute and easily-missed creations in existence. He sighed heavily, he must have looked quite the sight. Ever since he'd lost sight of the older man he'd been more or less doubled over carefully watching the ground and low edges of buildings. It was almost comical that such a small man had asked him, undoubtedly one of the larger people to pass by that day, to help find small items on the ground far below his eye level. So far he’d found a coin, several pieces of shiny trash, and what had appeared to be a small chunk of quartz, but the glass seemed to elude him. He felt a tingle of bemusement at the back of his mind. “Yes, ha ha,” he unfolded himself, returning to his full height to stretch, “laugh at the tall man by all means, dear Issui.” A mote of dusky purple smoke appeared before him and grew slowly forming itself into the familiar shape of a tortoise, the tingle of bemusement now growing to a crescendo of hilarity. 1
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Post by Swell on Nov 10, 2021 20:16:23 GMT -6
“Helpful as always I see.”
While their relationship had never been openly antagonistic, the shijin had never been the easiest creature to get along with, but she’d always been there. He couldn’t really remember how they’d come together, but he did remember how much less lonely the city had felt with her by his side. He could probably do without the creature’s silent snark and somewhat condescending mannerisms, but there were times when he felt that was undeniably a large portion of her charm.
“So are you so inclined to help, or should I just continue as before?”
The question was met with nary a flicker of emotion or interest on the part of the shijin.
“Excellent,” he sighed bitterly, ”back to it then.”
A part of him knew it would be too much to ask, but there had been a little vain hope that maybe she’d comply. As it stood she seemed more than happy to float just over his shoulder as he shuffled forward as close to the ground as he could physically force himself to be. He tried to retrace the man’s path through the city, but it was still so easy to get lost in the twist and turns of the city’s streets.
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Post by Swell on Nov 10, 2021 20:16:43 GMT -6
He had originally said that he’d come from the directions of the shops after having a rather large breakfast of steel-cut oats and fruit, but not melon of course he’d been sure to go into excruciating detail about how much distress melon put on his stomach. In his ramblings he’d mentioned passing by the park and several of the more frequented shops, but he hadn’t been exactly clear about in what order he’d visited any of the establishments or if there’d been a point where maybe his pockets full of glass figurines might have snagged on something. He tried to ask for further clarification several times, but the man had just continued to ramble.
“How did I let myself get roped into this mess?”
Mostly because he wasn’t able to say no. The older man had genuinely looked upset at the thought of losing his glass figurines and while that might not seem like a lot to some people, Swell understood how loss of even minor things could affect a person. Sometimes when he was alone he’d find himself missing seemingly mundane things that he hadn’t seen or touched in years. The blanket his aunt had woven him for his sixth nameday, the bracelet of smooth shells his mother wore, the first fish hook he’d made with his grandfather. They wouldn’t mean much to anyone else, but to him they were all a part of a past life. A part of him, but apart from him as he currently stood.
Maybe that’s what these baubles were to the old man.
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Post by Swell on Nov 10, 2021 20:17:01 GMT -6
Or maybe he was just giving the man too much credit and they were simple tchotchkes and curios he’d managed to pick up on his errands that day. Whatever the reason here he stood, or well crouched, looking for any small glimmer or glint to tip him off to the location of the lost items. The more he crouched the more he could feel his back begin to ache.
“If I don’t find something soon I’m going to-”
“Mom, mom look what I found!”
His grumbling interrupted, he whipped his head around to see a small child with pointed ears, the hem of his mother’s dress in one hand and a beautifully crafted nyssa figurine made of a viridian glass in the other. He swallowed hard, when he’d accepted the job he hadn’t thought that it would require interacting with other people, let alone children. His brain kicked into overdrive as he began to weigh the pros and cons of the interaction. On the one hand if this was the only figurine he found all day at least he’d have something to return to the old man with, on the other interacting with people, especially with children wasn’t his strong suit. He’d gotten more than his fair share of odd looks as the day had progressed, and he was sure that the child’s mother wouldn’t exactly be welcoming to conversation.
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Post by Swell on Nov 10, 2021 20:20:42 GMT -6
As his mind began to run through every possible scenario and his anxiety began to spike he found the sharp pang of annoyance bringing his spiraling to an abrupt end. He blinked and slowly realized that Issui was floating directly in front of his face , blocking his line of sight from the excitable child who even now was still crowing for the attention of his mother. He’d almost forgotten that she could probably feel all of his emotions running just as he could her annoyance. He mumbled an apology and took a deep breath, as much as he dreaded the thought of intruding upon this mother and son he had made a promise to find the man’s baubles. Another deep breath and it felt like his legs were moving of his own volition as he strode towards the pair, the mother finally having reacted to her child’s pleas for attention.
“Dear I thought I told you not to pick up things you found in the dirt, I mean really-”
“Um,” he swallowed hard again, ”excuse me ma'am?”
She rounded on him immediately with a sour look on her face which quickly changed to awe when she realized the height of the man before her. The awe lasted only moments before a sour look crossed her features again.
“Yes?”
“Um, well,” he broke eye contact with the much shorter woman, “I see your son found a figurine on the ground, I was actually hired by someone to um, find that figurine.”
“Yeah well it’s mine!” The boy glared from behind his mother.
“Well,” he could feel the blood rush to his cheeks as the child continued to glare, “he was very upset.”
“You want this trash,” she grabbed the glass from her son’s hand and softly chucked it to the large humanism, “take it I don’t want to see it taking up space in my home.” The second the boy realized his mother had snatched away his treasure he began to bawl.
“Oh,” he struggled to grasp the figurine, “thank you!”
The woman said nothing as she pulled her child back down the street.
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Post by Swell on Nov 14, 2021 21:14:13 GMT -6
Alright, that had turned out better than he’d expected and he’d only had a slight interaction with other humanoids. At the very least if he didn’t find any more he could certainly at least come back with the nyssa figurine in hand to show the man that he’d at least tried to find some of his possessions. Truly he had no idea how long he’d even been looking at this point. Maybe he’d be able to just be able to head back, hand the man his figurine, and retire for the day, maybe go for a swim or something. As hope swelled in his breast he could feel a sense of general annoyance emanate from what he could only assume was the north of him and therefore Issui.
“Okay, okay,” he sighed heavily, “I’ll keep looking, you don’t have to be so cross.”
She hovered threateningly, or as threatening as she could make herself appear, across his vision fixing him with an appraising eye.
“Ugh you know I hate when you stare at me like that.”
She slowly blinked.
“Fine,” his shoulders slumped, he knew when he was bested, ”guess we'll continue.”
Once again he hunched over and brought himself as close to the ground as he could to continue his search.
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Post by Swell on Nov 14, 2021 21:52:18 GMT -6
Contrary to his difficult beginnings he found several more of the glass baubles in rapid succession. Two beautifully blown glass balls had been sitting nestled in a tuft of grass on the side of the path, a third that had missed the tuft had tragically broken, but that was unfortunately to be expected during a hunt for dropped glasses. Next came a brilliant violet snail which had been carefully set on a windowsill by a good samaritan. He couldn’t guess how many people might have already made off with the old man’s baubles, but with a total of four in hand he couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride begin to swell in his chest. Issui too seemed to be in a much more jovial mood, the shijin happily flitting to and fro while her companion combed every single inch of path he could.
Maybe pride wasn’t even the right word, but he couldn’t deny he felt good at the very least. He’d become so used to not really interacting with the denizens of the city that he forgot how genuinely good he felt while helping others.
“Maybe I should let myself be flagged down by eccentric old men more often…”
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