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 Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 3:54 pm
 &  Location: Marketplace in Sulburi, Oba
Several weeks had passed since she set out on the path of becoming a novice Merchant. So far things had been going well~ She had made a couple sales to passer-by's intrigued by the pieces she had been stringing together at the time. Sadly, Sawenah had no real way to display her wares. Gathering the large fronds from the nearby trees she managed to weave together a few saucer-like dishes to hold her materials, but it was nothing worthy of presenting for sale...
With all her materials stashed away in a cloth bag dangling on her delicate shoulder's, Sawenah navigated the crowd, relying on her spear to ensure she didn't run into anyone. It seemed there was a crowd forming toward the center of the marketplace. It wasn't uncommon for earthlings to flock to Oban's capital to speak their mind; recruiting for whatever hopeless cause, preaching the salvation of various languages, and then there was always one or two extremists ranting about the War... Sawenah generally kept her head down and navigated through the stagnant crowd, but something caught her attention... One voice stood out above the crowd.
Strapping her goggles onto her eyes she adjusted the filters to lessen the light and was able to make out the blurred form of an Oban Prentice? 'What could one of such youth have to gripe about?' she pondered as she found a place to overhear his quarrel.
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:01 pm
"Take a good, long look at yourselves," his voice carried. It was steady but not deep. "How many of you can admit what we did was wrong? What we did to Matori and it's peoples? Forcing our beliefs on them, forcing them to be slaves?" He shook his head and held a hand to his chest. Zhen was upon a podium because he wasn't a tall earthling. "Once we accept what we did, not just out King, but us as a whole nation of people, we can set things right. We can not be at war. I believe if we start the bridge of repair and friendship, we can bring all the people of Tendaji together. No more losing loved ones in war, no more having to fear for our lives if we want to visit places outside of our great Oba.." He was getting hisses and boos, some people threw things at him. A tomato hit him square in the head, knocking him off his platform and to the ground. He landed gracelessly in a heap of cloth and loose hair as he was pelted with other foods. It seemed the extremists were out today. He knew when to stop. "Thank you for listening," he said as he stood up, wiping the juice off his face as tomato seeds and flesh stayed in his hair and on his shoulder. It wasn't everyone. Just a few. Unfortunately they were vocal about how they felt about people like Zhen, that think Oba should change and bend to fit in instead of stand out as a glorious battle nation.
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Posted: Sat Mar 18, 2017 4:38 pm
Lifting her Goggles to their rightful place on her head, Sawenah followed up the exiting crowd, and when a set of loyalist punks turned to get one last jab in at the prentice Sawenah spoke up in a low predatory snarl, "I advise you keep moving."
Standing a good head or so over most earthlings; If her height wasn't intimidating enough, her foreign looks and pointed lance would have them scrambling; once the area was clear she picked the remaining bits of fruit from his hair, "That took... A lot of courage, what you did~" a smile brushed her lips, "I don't recall seeing you around here." Taking the prentices hand she gave it a brisk set of shakes and chimed, "I'm Sawenah~"
Peppermint Coffee XP I imagine her standing at like 5'7"-8"ish... That's still pretty tall for Tendaji right?! (the height difference always threw me off in rp XD)
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:01 am
When someone came to his aid, Zhen was grateful. He looked up at the hybrid only mildly taken back by her looks and just gave her a gentle smile. He swallowed thickly and just started to pull his messy, now dirty hair back into it's usual bun and then blinked at her words. "Oh, it's hardly brave," he said, shaking his head and her hand after his bun was secured. "I'm Zhen. I'm.. failing, but trying to get people to see that we have to change. I'm sure you heard at least some of it?" He shrugged and adjusted his clothes now, dusting himself off. "Sawenah.." He was repeating it, testing it on his tongue. It was an odd name, but it fit her. Not in a negative way. "You're... tall."
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:40 pm
Sawenah giggled into her free hand, "I noticed that about myself~" It was amusing to see the honest reactions of earthlings. Noting her differences used to offend her, but it's what she is... She couldn't change that fact so making the most of it was all she had.
"What you did was very brave." Sawenah continued, "It's not easy for most to get up and speak to a crowd; let alone speak their mind and have a pretty different opinion from their crowd." after successfully plucking the last of the seeds from his hair Sawenah smiled, satisfied with her work, "There~ good as new!" she nodded to knowing what he said, "Change is hard... especially when you open with "Take a good, long look at yourselves" then follow it with, "Can you admit what you did was wrong"." the words weren't exact, and she knew it, "Pointing out people's wrongdoings doesn't make them want to change... it makes them angry." she was speaking from past experience, "They know in some way what they did was wrong... and they don't need a young man like you shaming them."
Zhen's message wasn't wrong; many things needed to change, but maybe it wasn't just Oba. Maybe there needed to be healing on both sides; forgive and forget, let bygones be bygones, "You have a difficult path before you because you are so young most people will take what you say with a grain of salt." she shuffled out of the sunlight to ponder how to help him overcome the age gap.
"Spread messages through story~" she chimed slamming a closed fist into her palm, "as a Youngling, mama Lilah would always tell me stories... I always saw them as just that, but it gave her something to reflect back on with me, ya know what I mean?" Her partial stories would probably do more harm than good at this point but her excitement kept ushering her forward, "Even if you have to make them up... Like, tell a story of an Oban youth who witnessed the cruelty inflicted on his best friend, a matori youngling, because he was shirking his duties.... what made it all the more traumatizing for the boy was that it was his own father doing the punishing."
She was speaking so fast there was a good chance she wouldn't be able to recall what she said, but it could work! It would take the accusation, the hostility out of his message. Place the blame on fictional characters, but let the message be there. It wouldn't work for everyone, but if you can make a compelling story with relatable characters people will sympathize with the situation, and understand the cause.
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Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 9:59 am
His cheeks colored as this stranger pointed out the flaws in how he delivered his message, but from there it was lost. Zhen didn't understand anything the woman said after that and he just stared at her with a polite smile and nod. What else could he do? He did understand tell it through a story, and the Oban looked mildly confused. "I'm not a story teller." It was as simple as that. He wasn't taught a story to tell. He wasn't really given a format at all for how he was to approach others to try to get them on his side. Then she got started talking again and it was lost. Whatever she had been trying to say was lost again and he just gave that same polite smile and nod. "Thank you for helping me, either way," he said, clearly changing the subject. Maybe he was a bit defensive about what he was supposed to do. It was his job. He didn't have to preach to her because she wasn't an Oban, not even partly, from her hybrid looks. So he wasn't going to try to lecture her. He felt a bit sore, the place where the tomato had hit his face hurt, and the way he fell made his knees and arms hurt, along with his hip. At least he hadn't thumped his head on the ground, that would be the last thing he needed. "How can I repay you?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2017 9:57 am
"Repay me?" She muttered while placing a finger to her chin to ponder the notion, "I can't see why you would need to... All I did was scrape you up off the ground, pick seeds out of your hair, and scold you like Lilah used to at me." Suddenly becoming ashamed of her actions her posture slumped and she bowed, "I'm sorry... It wasn't my place to comment." Sawenah wanted to be helpful, and only had her own experiences to go off of. Using the closest thing she could relate to she tried to give what she hoped was useful advice, but it was in vain.
With a sigh she lifted her bag from her shoulders and set it to the ground, then plopped down next to it, "It's too late in the day to look for materials and usually I would be making necklaces now, but I'm not feeling that creative at the moment." her shoulders rolled forward into a slouch as she scanned the perimeter of the marketplace. The merchants were all at their stalls chanting and parading their wares as they attempted to make sales, "I wish I had a little cart like that..." Not nearly so big, but something to make her more official looking; well, more official than some wicker discs and twine.
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2017 6:57 am
"You're fine," he blinked, confused as to why her posture changed so drastically so quickly. The Oban prentice just sort of awkwardly patted her shoulder and shrugged. "I mean, you're right in your words.. What I could understand of them." He admitted it with color on his cheeks, embarrassed he couldn't understand her. "Oh you design things?" He perked up at that, grinning. "Necklaces? Do you have any on you that are already made?" Maybe he could buy one off of her. That would be a giant thank you, wouldn't it? Besides, he could give it to his mother. She loved new jewelry any time he went out somewhere new. She never asked for it, but he always got her a little something. "Or perhaps earrings?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2017 3:57 pm
Designing was a bit too generous to describe what it is she does, "Well, I got sick of relying on the kindness of others, so I'm attempting to make it on my own~" Sawenah grinned stupidly while digging out the finished trinkets in her bag, "I've made a few pieces..." she announced while presenting her work, "Just from things you find walking the streets in the early morning... You'd be amazed at what people drop."
As sketchy as it sounded, most of what she had collected wasn't something one would ordinarily miss or even realize they lost in the first place... Some things were honestly just re-purposed "junk". Sifting through the pieces she had made, Sawenah presented him a necklace, “What about this one?” She asked, “It's one of my favorites so far.” The necklace had a darkly colored scale with an iridescent glow in the sunlight and bright orange glass beads with intricate shapes carved into them on either side of the scale. “I think it's from a Janarim... Or something. They have beast battles all the time by the palace beast pens.” Sawenah chimed, “You can find all sorts of scales, claws, sometimes teeth!” her eyes widened with excitement. The items she found from the pens always went over well with customers.
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Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 8:29 am
She made sense to Zhen when he could understand her. At least she realized he had difficulties keeping up and seemed to slow down. When he was presented with a scale necklace, his eyes widened. It was beautiful! He looked it over in his hands and nodded a bit before biting down on his bottom lip. "It's absolutely amazing...." There was a sigh to his voice before he bounced on the balls of his feet. "So how much would it be? I mean.." It looked like it could be marked as a very high end item, one of a kind like the Janarim scales it was made out of. "Teeth? Do you make things out of teeth?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2017 5:01 pm
"When I can find them~" Sawenah hid a laugh with her hand, "They aren't usually given willingly." Every so often she would sneak into the royal taming pens after hours and scour the arena for whatever items of interest she could find. It wasn't something she openly advertised, for fear of backlash from the aristocrats at the capital, but most of the items she found there made for a quick profit.
As her laughter died she was faced with a more unpleasant task; the business of things. Pricing her pieces was the least favorite part of what she did. There was a constant fear of rejection or backlash for overpricing... so most of the time she undercut herself, "Umm..." she hummed while examining the iridescent scale, "30 silver pieces?" she half asked while focusing in on Zhen for any physical queues to determine if she guessed correctly.
Peppermint Coffee Does Tendaji have an official form of currency? XD
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Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 12:19 pm
Well her job sounded exciting. The only thing he did was preach! He clapped his hands together a bit and then tilted his head at the price. That was fine, honestly. With no flourish, he pulled his coin bag out from inside of that orange cloth that hung around his front and moved to count it all out for her. "Thirty?" He asked, glancing up and then down. He'd be a little strapped, but he still had coin enough for a room and some food. He'd just go back home tomorrow. No skin off his back. The prentice offered the coins out to her and just grinned. "Worth it, honestly." akuma_kessaku (I always just say coin. xD)
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 10:39 pm
"Wow, really? I-I thank you." she stammered while graciously accepting the coin in place of the necklace. Her face flushed as the transaction was completed, though it was likely not obvious. Trading was still a foreign concept to her; taking something of value for items she found, essentially. What they're paying for is the time she took to refine it into something worth the coin... Or at least that is what she tells herself.
Sawenah reveled in the moment of another successful sale until the silence stretched long enough for her to realize it was awkward, and she burst into a moment of nervous laughter, "Ha ha! Well..." her laughter trailed off as she tried to reign in the excitement, "Em- So what do you have planned for the rest of your day?" She asked, trying to fill the void.
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 10:23 am
He carefully pocketed the necklace, tucking it in his clothes out of sight. With that done, the Oban's attention turned back to the very tall hybrid woman he was talking to. She seemed so surprised someone accepted her own price. "Yes, you put work into it, and found the scale, and 30 coin is honestly well worth your effort." Zhen put on a soft smile and then tilted his head when she asked what he was going to do. "...Well I'm done preaching now, so I was going to find an inn and get some food soon! I'm rather hungry. Maybe I'll do some shopping... See," Zhen's hands clapped together, "I'm from a small village and we don't have a lot yet. So when someone ventures out, they bring things back. Seeds, cloth, whatever the village might need. Right now it's herbs for healers.."
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 4:05 pm
"Hmmm." Sawenah placed a finger to her lips, "I'm sure there are plenty of dried herbs you can buy in the markets here. There are at least two vendors I can think of just a few blocks down." She pointed out the directions while standing on her tippy toes to see over the heads of the earthling crowds. Herbs and spices were a pretty big thing in Oba; lots of uses from cooking to spirituality some for healing too~
Pursing her lips she scrubbed her knotted bun, "Not sure I've seen many healers around though. None that would be willing to pack up and move anyway." Priestess Saorise had been a healer in the war, but she hadn't seen her practice it unless it was an emergency. Healing was such a fantastic art, she didn't understand the Priestess's apprehension but she hadn't exactly practiced with her spear since the war either... maybe it would open old wounds. Sawenah gave a heavy sigh as her mind slipped to memories from her present situation, then blinked them to the back of her mind, "I... Could help you get some Herbs if you'd like? What kind are you looking for?"
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