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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:24:48 GMT -6
Noa yawned wide as he walked up to the quest board, half-heartedly covering his mouth with one pale, limp hand. He looked haggard; there were massive dark circles under his eyes, so pronounced that they looked like bruises, and his slouch was even more pronounced than usual, as if he could barely keep himself upright. He was tired -- almost laughably so. Certainly he would have found it funny, if it wasn't happening to himself. He hadn't wanted to come here at all. The whole thing had been Rhys's idea. The Faeron hadn't stopped pestering him about getting out for a change of pace, and how he was going to find his death within the year if he didn't get some fresh air. Noa had ignored Rhys's entreaties for as long as he could, but eventually the incessant psychic drone had gotten to be too much. He relented, if with a great deal of resentment. 1
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:25:27 GMT -6
But he wasn't about to waste his time walking around in the cold to no end, even if it was in the name of his health. No, what he was going to do was pick up one of these thrice-blasted quests, so that he might at least make some money while he was being driven out of his home 'for his own good'. Rhys was here too, of course. Rhys always was, but in this case it was as if the Faeron didn't trust Noa to do as he had said he would.
It was fair enough, Noa supposed. If he could get back to work on the things he was supposed to be working on, he would have. But it wasn't as if this was a total waste of time if he was working on a job, even if he usually found the jobs from the quest board to be mind-numbingly inane.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:25:45 GMT -6
A cursory glance at the quests available to him didn't reveal anything that looked particularly interesting, but that was hardly a surprise. What people wanted -- and would pay money to hire someone to do -- very rarely coincided with how Noa would have chosen to spend his time. That was what the compensation was for, of course.
Rhys 'read' along with him by skimming Noa's thoughts, and for once he waited until Noa was finished browsing before making a suggestion. Maybe the Faeron was attempting to be considerate this time, what with how difficult it had been to get Noa out of the house in the first place. But when nothing piqued Noa's interest, Rhys nudged a particularly colorful note with the tip of his tail.
{What about this one?} he said.
"The toy factory?" Noa made a face. He had rejected that one out of hand when he had first skimmed it.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:25:57 GMT -6
Making toys was just about the furthest thing from his mind, since he didn't like children, and he hadn't really had any toys himself either, growing up. The closest he'd had to anything so childish were a series of old folk tales, but even those were as much grim as they were happy, and after a time he had grown tired of those too.
Rhys's countenance grew a little sheepish. {Well... I thought it might be fun to see what the inside of a toy factory looked like,} he said. {And, you know, since it's so close to the holidays, I bet they're really busy!}
Noa's frown deepened. "So they'll work me to the bone making frivolous nonsense," he said.
Rhys heaved a little sigh, then said, {The pay is probably really good if they're calling for last minute help this time of year. And you could probably just make a few magicked servants to do the simple tasks.}
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:26:45 GMT -6
Noa tapped his chin with a finger. This, finally, was a well made point of interest. "Well, if you put it that way, I suppose it isn't a bad prospect, as far as they go. Very well then." He took the listing off the board, then tucked it away into a pocket after committing the address on it to memory. If things didn't seem so promising once he actually got there, there was still plenty of time to renege on the engangement and find a different job to do. Or maybe the small excursion that this necessitated would satisfy Rhys's goal of getting him 'out of the house', and he would be allowed to go back to his research in peace.
The walk was frigid. Noa had teleported to the quest board with the intent to teleport anywhere else they happened to be going, and thus hadn't dressed for the weather.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:26:57 GMT -6
But if he was going to conjure a bunch of magical servants, then he had to conserve some of his magical energies, which meant that they were going to have to find this place on foot. Not to mention he didn't know where the toy factory was to begin with, and he did have to have a rough idea of where he wanted to end up if he was going to teleport at all.
All through the walk, he cursed everything he could think of: the weather, Rhys for making him come all the way out here, this blasted job, the thrice-blasted toy factory, and the very concept of toys in the first place. He was normally above such childish antics, but his mood was already rather sour even before he had gone to the quest board, and nothing that had happened in the intervening time had done anything to improve it at all.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:27:35 GMT -6
Besides, it gave him something to do besides trudging his miserable way along the frigid streets, awaiting his own death. And the heat of his ire was some comfort in the frigid cold, even if it wasn't much.
By the time he finally arrived at the address he was looking for though, he was pretty much ready to crucify someone. Rhys had begun hovering worriedly at his side, presumably hoping to prevent the untimely death of whatever poor sap had the misfortune of being the first to test Noa’s temper. {U-Um,} the Faeron said. {Just remember about the pay…}
“They had better be giving me a king’s ransom for this,” Noa muttered under his breath. He placed his hand on the door, preparing to enter, when it burst open and he was sent scrambling to get out of the way as a young man ran past him, screaming.
Noa blinked.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:27:56 GMT -6
{Is… Is he on fire?} Rhys said, voicing the same incredulity that Noa felt upon beholding the sight -- no, it was more accurate to call this a spectacle, wasn’t it? As he looked on, the young man in question ran around madly in circles, before some modicum of his wit seemed to return to him and he dropped to the ground and rolled himself out in the snow. Then he lay there for a long moment, breathing hard and staring up at the sky. Most likely questioning his choices in life and how they had brought him to this point. At least, that would be what Noa would do if he had been in this man’s shoes, though he flattered himself that he would never be so stupid as to wind up in such a farce of a situation.
Only after the young man sat back up did he realize that he had an audience.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:28:08 GMT -6
Noa had thought that maybe he would cringe with shame; that would have been the most entertaining outcome, if a little predictable. But instead he jumped to his feet and beelined over, nearly slipping on some ice but managing to keep his footing after a moment of wild and elaborate flailing.
“My gods,” said Noa. “We’re in a slapstick comedy.”
“Well, hello there! I assume you’re here because of the ad?” The young man held his hand out to shake, a big grin plastered on his long face. His hair, Noa noted, was singed. It might have been blond before it had gotten burnt mostly off. That the rest of his head wasn’t covered in burns was nothing short of a miracle, to say nothing of the state of his clothes. At his proffered hand, Noa glanced down at it, then back up, and slowly arched a brow.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:30:11 GMT -6
A moment passed, and then another. Eventually the smile on the young man’s face faltered, and turned into a sheepish laugh. His hand lowered back down to his side slowly. “Not the talkative type, huh? No, I get it." He waved off an apology that Noa had not at all been meaning to make. "All the same, welcome to Fabio’s Fun Factory, registered trademark! I’m, uh, not Fabio, of course, that would be my uncle. I’m-- Well, that’s not important. The important thing is that we really need your help!” The young man introduced the building behind him with a flourish. Indeed, there was a very large sign proclaiming the name of the place, each giant letter painted with a different lurid color. It must have been designed to appeal to children, since Noa couldn’t really think of it possibly appealing to just about anyone else.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:30:38 GMT -6
The young man paused only long enough to take a breath before launching back into his speech. “It was getting pretty busy, and we were behind on deadlines -- you know how it is, with the holiday rush and all! And so my uncle had this brilliant idea to bring in more automation, and we’d contracted this engineer to… Wait, maybe it was a mage? A mage engineer? I don’t really remember. Anyway, they came in and did the install, and--”
His rambling was cut off by the boom of what sounded suspiciously like an explosion coming from inside the shop. He and Rhys winced, while Noa raised both brows this time.
“... Yes, that’s… As you can see, it didn’t exactly go to plan,” the young man finished weakly.
In the small opening that this afforded him, Noa said, “Get to the point. What do you want?”
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:30:50 GMT -6
Clearly it wasn’t really about helping them put toys together anymore, not if the situation had gotten to this point. Ironically this might pose a more interesting challenge -- and one better suited to Noa’s arcane talents, even if it did also look to be a bigger waste of his energy as well as a waste of time.
But contrary to being brought to heel by Noa’s sharp tone, the young man actually brightened. “So you’ll do it? You’ll help us out? Thank the gods! You’re a real life saver, buddy, I really mean it.” He closed in, reaching for Noa’s hand with both of his own, probably to shake it vigorously, but Noa stepped out of reach and he tripped over himself to fall face first in a pile of snow. “Ah, not the touchy feely type, are you? My bad.”
“What’s. The. Job,” Noa ground out.
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Post by Noa on Dec 20, 2021 19:31:37 GMT -6
The young man still hadn’t actually told him what needed to be done, and in the meantime Noa was still freezing his fingers off. If this fellow didn’t talk any faster, Noa really was going to commit homicide. Unfortunately, in this case the chances of being paid for it were slim to none.
“Right, right. Well, there’s a big button that’s supposed to stop all this, but the problem is that it’s at the back of the shop, y’see.” The young man dusted the snow off himself, then jerked his thumb toward the door. There wasn’t a second explosion, but a sustained cacophony only barely muffled by said door had been ongoing, and showed no signs of abating. Noa considered asking what he was likely to find inside, but then dismissed the idea; it wasn’t going to be worth the long-winded spiel that he would get out of this blathering imbecile.
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Post by Noa on Dec 22, 2021 22:38:33 GMT -6
Better to just brave the door and whatever he would find within. It wasn’t as if Noa didn’t know how to protect himself. He relied on his creatures to do a lot of the heavy lifting for him, generally speaking, but someone of his own magical prowess could hardly be completely useless in a pinch.
And, of course, he had Rhys here with him. The Faeron wasn’t, say, Avander, but he had plenty of tricks he could bring to bear if things took a sharp turn for the worse.
With an impatient noise, Noa brushed past the young man who had first rushed out of the shop, and yanked the door open. The cacophony that he had heard through the closed door had absolutely nothing on the din that assailed his senses as soon as he opened the door, and even through his irritation, Noa couldn’t quite suppress a wince.
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Post by Noa on Dec 22, 2021 22:42:42 GMT -6
And then the first wave of surprise abated, and he took in what he was looking at, and… well, that didn’t make his mood any better, to say the least.
It was hard, at first, to even parse what he was looking at. The same lurid colors of the workshop sign were reflected in its products. Said products were now wandering about the halls -- or perhaps ‘careening’ would have been a more accurate description. Some of them moved as if they were being hurled, which was possible, considering some of the others seemed determined to destroy whatever they got their hands on. It was hard to tell for sure, since there were so many of them, but the machinery certainly looked broken enough.
... He just had to stop this. Right.
He took a deep breath, then waded into the mess. The sooner he started, the sooner he'd finish, and he just wanted this to be over.
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