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 Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2021 5:27 am
Quote: It was already late in the evening but the merchant seemed unfazed by the passing of time. He sat, poised and elegant, watching the world around him. He didn’t seem bored but he sat, fingers laced atop the table; below it, he kept his toe tapping to some silent tune in his head. He was tall, by human standards, though while sitting down he didn’t seem particularly threatening. If you didn’t look at his face. He had graceful features--sharp and refined. His chin and nose tapered to a point, giving him an air of sophistication, but that, combined with his slitted eyes and pointed teeth, there was something undeniably predatory about him. He watched with a hungry gaze and a mischievous, nearly sinister smile. His ears were pointed and were prominent despite being tucked behind his vibrant, multi-colored hair. The most intrusive feature that indicated there was something not human about him were the curling horns protruding from his temples and the oil-slick black scales that brushed his cheeks and forehead. He was well dressed, in a fashion obviously otherworldly, and seemed to enjoy dressing himself up in glistening gemstones. His tables were somehow both simple and overwhelming; each table was draped with a dark purple tablecloth, all with extravagant embroidery in different designs. Scattered neatly atop the tables were an array of items that seemed to carry some magical weight to them. He did not seem intimidated in the slightest and, upon noticing that the barrier surrounding him rippled to allow his visitor to pass, he smiled. He did not rise to meet them nor adjust his position in the slightest. He followed them with his fierce eyes and greeted, in a silky voice, “Welcome.”
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Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2021 5:47 am
Sylvite wasn't about to forget the literal alien who had come to the city to trade last summer. She did her best to remember people, anyway, even if they weren't interesting, but the Merchant was, and anyway, he'd given her a couple of things to remember him by. She still had his business card in her Negaspace office. She hadn't found anything that seemed valuable enough to try using it, yet, but she'd looked at the card from time to time, and she'd been keeping her eye out for things he might like. That was why, even when she felt that unmistakable aura, she made a quick trip home before powering back up and dashing towards the impact site of the meteor, where he seemed to be set up this time. It was pure luck that she'd brought the little wisp with her. She shouldered through the barrier without even stopping to look at the sign, only stopping when she saw a familiar face behind the table. "Hi, Almadel," she said, grinning. "I brought you stuff!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:39 pm
For a second, it seemed like he needed to process who was speaking to him, and then his face lit up. “My lovely, Magic Soldier Sylvite! You’re as gorgeous as ever, aren’t you! You’ve been busy, I can see. So powerful! It’s good to see you again. And with stuff! Come, tell me how you’ve been. I’ve missed so much, haven’t I? --Did you find a wisp of mine? I’m sure you saw the sign out front. You know how this goes, I’ll pay you handsomely. I might have something to match that bracelet you took with you last time, unless you’re looking for something else to accessorize with?”
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Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 3:05 pm
"Yeah, that's me!" said Sylvite, spinning around so that the fabric of her cape-skirt fluttered up a little bit and he could get a good look at the sparkly pink lining inside. "Now with more magic!" She grinned. "It's been a crazy year, yeah. A lot's happened." Not that she wanted to go over it step by step, necessarily, because that would mean that she'd have to think about Cybele, and yeah. No. Not right now. Not when she was in the middle of shopping. "You're looking for these?" she hadn't seen the sign, but luckily, she hadn't had to. She pulled the little wisp out of her subspace pocket and let it drift slightly in his direction. She squinted at it as it left. "It's pretty cool, but I dunno if it screams Earth, exactly. I collected some stuff like that, just for you."
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Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:39 pm
Almadel laughed pleasantly and nodded. “I am! Good eye, you know exactly the sort of thing I’d be after. Perhaps not if they weren’t already mine, of course. My little wisps aren’t meant to be separated,” he explained, with a tired sigh. “But my landing this time around was a little rough and I’m afraid I broke a few things coming in. My poor wisps,” he sighed, eagerly scooping the one she’d offered. He leaned over behind his table and carefully tucked it away in the chalice of other wisps he’d collected. “Only good things have happened to you, I hope? I can’t make up for an entire year, but maybe I can get you something lovely to pay you back and cheer you up a bit,” he suggested. “Something shiny, perhaps? I look at you and want to see you draped in sparkles. Oh, I wish I’d brought my other box. I had such a lovely shawl. Pink, like yours, but with little pieces of starlight sewn in. Ah, perhaps next time.” He seemed thoughtful and pushed a few pieces of jewelry forward, but his eyes lingered on one particular medallion, with a unique engraving that seemed to keep catching his eyes. “Try this first, though. There’s a power about it. It might be pretty and useful. It doesn’t work for me, but maybe you could get something good out of it.”
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Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2021 1:28 pm
"I mean, I knew you wanted this one because you asked for it," she said, watching as the wisp vanished into some kind of chalice. Sylvite had other things in her pockets. She had crystals from Negaspace and cat nightlights from the Internet, the most Earth place that she could think of. If he wanted to get his own stuff back together before looking for trinkets like that, though, she understood. She could always show him later. "Mostly good. The last month or so had been kinda weird, but," she shrugged quickly, still very determined not to dwell on any of that. "Pretty things make everything better, yeah? You know, you have to come back now. I wanna starlight shawl!" She glanced over the jewlery that he'd pulled out, but it didn't seem to catch her attention as much as whatever he was talking about, not until he pulled out the medallion. "Useful?" She picked it up, tilting it so that the face caught the light a little bit better. "How?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2021 4:34 pm
Almadel leaned back contemplatively; he promised to bring the shawl next time and, naturally, he’d already committed it to memory. “Oh, well ordinarily I’d tell you to try it on and see for yourself, but I suppose it doesn’t quite work like that. Not this one at least. It’s charmed,” he explained, “It helps dampen the energy you give off. Me, I don’t give any off, myself, so I get no benefit from it. I want people to find me,” he said, and that was at least backed up by the fact that he apparently had something hidden here that radiated a synthetic energy signature just to draw people in to him. “I picked it up a long time ago. I think it used to be more powerful, I think it used to suppress energy and power. It was used in training purposes, to make sure its wearer was relying more on wit and skill than magical power. Magic is, after all, borrowed, and can be taken away. Now, I think the charm has lessened somewhat--it only reduces the energy signature. You shouldn’t see any decrease in function, but it does conceal that energy signature of yours for a bit. Just in case you ever needed to lie low or slip under the radar a bit.”
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Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 6:44 am
"Oh, that's really cool," said Sylvite, her eyes practically sparkling as she flipped the medallion over a couple times in her fingers. Then she held it up to her collar and craned her neck, doing her best to see what it looked like against the fabric there. "It's almost good that some of the magic wore off. Like, trust me, I don't need to be weaker," she said. He'd understand that. How was she supposed to be the Magic Soldier without any magic? If she needed to test her wits or her regular reflexes, she could always power down. "But the aura can be a lot sometimes." She radiated an intimidating amount of power every time she so much as walked down the street, and ninety percent of the time she didn't really want to be intimidating. With one more flick of her fingers, she found the pin on the back of the medallion and she attached it to her clothes. "I'll take it!" Although, deal made, she didn't run off immediately. She still looked at all his other pretty things, her lips pressed together in thought. "So, Almadel, when you do come back, when you don't lose your wisps or your little star gems," because just trading for those couldn't be a good business practice, in the long term, "What kind of stuff do you want to trade for?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 7:00 pm
Almadel smiled immediately when she declared that she’d take it. He already had the wisp, so it wasn’t as if he needed to collect payment; now he could simply enjoy her presence. “It looks wonderful on you, excellent choice. I hope it brings you much luck and peace.” He leaned back at her inquiry and smiled when she asked about what he liked to trade for. “I like treasures,” he answered honestly. “I like things I’ve never seen. I’m weak for anything valuable, or powerful. It’s a habit, I’m afraid--self preservation is very important when you go to where I go. I don’t have magical powers like you, so I’m resigned to making use of what I have. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m looking for until I find it,” he admitted. “But I’m always looking for a good deal.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:06 am
Something valuable, huh? Something powerful. That pretty much crossed out everything she could have gotten for him from Earth, and she couldn't help the way that she squinted a little bit, her lips pressing to one side in an expression that was almost a frown. Like, it made sense that she couldn't swap a handmade bracelet or something cool from Wish for a magical artifact, but it didn't mean she was happy about Almadel's stuff basically being out of her price range. Which left the magical, unique side of things. "Can you go to Negaspace?" she asked, all at once, after not saying anything for a couple seconds. "I know you're bouncing around between planets all the time, but Negaspace is kinda different." She'd broken off and pocketed a small crystal back when they'd been looking for Feldspar in the Rift, and she pulled it out now. "This isn't too fancy. It's just an example, but, like, maybe I could find you something really cool down there for next time." There were ruins. She'd never bothered going too close before, but now there was a starlight shawl on the line.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2021 8:53 pm
He tilted his head inquisitively and leaned forward a bit. “Oh,” he said, with obvious interest. “Yes, that’s very pretty. It’s got a bit of power to it, doesn’t it? I can feel it from here,” he said, and reached out like he was thinking about touching it but might have thought better of it. Or, he just had manners. “Negaspace, that’s the source of your power or something, isn’t it?” he prompted, looking from the crystal and up to her. “I can’t get there, myself, no. It’s a special dimension, an unnatural one?” he guessed. “I can’t pass through all magical barriers. I’ve seen crystals like that before--and by nature of their rarity, I think they’re valuable. If you know how to tap the power within them, there’s a lot of potential. I’m not the inventive sort, myself, but I know there are those out there who are. I’d be interested in things like that, yes. If you could find me something special from down there, I’ll make sure I hold that shawl for you.”
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2021 4:04 pm
Oh. It was just a crystal she'd picked up, and he liked it. The grin was back, just like that. "You can hold onto it," she said, putting the stone down on the table and pushing it forwards with three fingers. "Like, a down payment or something, so you don't forget." It was nice to know that he couldn't go rooting around through Negaspace all on his own for a couple reasons, but one of those reasons was definitely that she should be able to find something interesting and different for the guy who had everything in her own territory, and she could enjoy whatever stuff he brought back from elsewhere. "It's the source of my power, yeah. Very magical." She wiggled her fingers for emphasis, although hopefully the slight aura coming off the crystal was emphasizing things on its own. "I'll get you something good. Promise." She gave a final nod and then stepped back, clearly on her way out.
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