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 Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 6:03 pm
☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ Ĵ ʊ ɳ σ
_________JOURNAL CONTENTS
page 2
_________ю what did you say? [contest entry]
_________ю campfire evening [prp]
_________ю nothing to gape at [prp]
_________ю as long as they keep drinking [solo]
_________ю questionable morals [prp]
_________ю a step backwards [solo]
_________ю a tramp [solo]
_________ю cooking and travels [prp]
_________ю monsters? [event solo]
_________ю a learning experience [growth solo]
_________ю barter & haggle [event solo]
_________ю dust for days [prp]
_________ю rowdy this evening [prp]
_________ю to market! to market! [prp]
page 3
_________ю who are you? [prp]
_________ю mysterious wreckage [event solo]
_________ю wagon wars [prp]
_________ю may it take you far [solo]
_________ю stage 2 [crafting]
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2015 6:22 am
☷ ENTRY ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷
_________WHAT DID YOU SAY?
_________Location: Sauti
Juno had given the matter some thought -- more thought than Juno gave most other matters, that was for certain. He had thought about it most of this morning, and a good deal of yesterday, and honestly, he had been thinking about it ever since his father came to visit a few weeks ago. Now Oleksy was reading to head back to Jauhar, and Juno knew that the time for thinking was over.
He had a plan.
It was about damn time, he had a decided, that his father took him along on his trip. His mother had nothing to say against it, so why all this hemming and hawing? Juno had been old enough to travel since the day he figured out how his legs worked, and he’d been practicing it ever since. The only difference now was that he’d finally leave Sauti; it was a significant difference, yes, but it wasn’t as if he’d be making the journey all by himself! His father made this trek several times a year, and by the looks of it it wasn’t even particularly dangerous. Besides, wasn’t Jauhar his home too, in a way? He was half-shifter, and that gave him half a right to see the jungle. And half a right, well, that was enough for the wily prentice.
He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, this time.
It was the day of his departure, and he found his father sitting by the fire with some of the men from their nomadic band.
“Brought you something.” He sat down beside him, red hair tumbling over his pale gray shifter skin. Oleksy quirked an eyebrow as his half-breed son deposited a fat stoppered jug into his lap.
“What’s this now?”
“Kiriko’s new brew. Best in all of Sauti, he says. Why don’cha try some?”
The older man laughed. “I’m about to leave, little bug.”
“Aw, won’t you have just a bit?” Juno grinned, looking hopeful. “I wanna know if you like it.”
“Alright, alright.” Oleksy hated letting people down, Juno had realised. He was going to use that fact to his advantage.
* * *
“This stuff,” The shifter drawled, “This stuff is goooood.”
He had gone through half the jug already, and Juno… may have ‘forgotten’ to mention that the brew was at least twice as strong as the stuff they usually drank. Now he just shrugged and smiled innocently.
“You think so? I was worried, you know. That folks like you, from the jungles I mean, wouldn’t have the stomach for it.”
Oleksy laughed, loud and brash. “Aw, c’mon! Why, I know some who’d go nuts for this kind of stuff! If I had a barrel or two to sell, well... I’d be a happy man!”
Juno’s smile turned maybe just a hint less innocent. They had talked about this at first, and Oleksy had, on several occasions, tried to trade several barrels off the brewmaster. But Kiriko was not a man who cared about trading or profits or anything of the sort. He made his drink for his own people, and didn’t see any use of sending it all the way to Jauhar when it could be drunk just as well back home.
But Kiriko had taken a liking to the half-breed boy with the red hair, as of late.
“I’ve got three.” Juno shrugged.
“What?”
“Three barrels.”
“No you don’t.”
“Sure I do.”
Oleksy knew his boy wasn’t a liar, as conniving as the grin on his face was starting to look.
“Fine. You have three barrels. And you aren’t even supposed to be drinking, you’re too young. So...:”
“So…?”
“So are you going to sell them to your father?”
Juno made a show of thinking about it. “Well… no.”
Oleksy settled back down and took another drink from the jug, shaking his head. “Then what’s your game, being all coy about it?”
The prentice shuffled closer and spread his hands. “I was thinking about a partnership “You know, I’d sell the liquor, and we’ll split on the profit. Even halves, of course, on account of you being my dear father and all.”
Oleksy quirked an eyebrow. He was drunk… but he was still a businessman.
“Halves?”
“Halves.”
“That’s a mighty generous offer, considering I don’t have to do a lick.”
Juno rolled his eyes. “Well, there is something I need from you.”
A quiet second passed.
“Transportation. To Jauhar. Just me and the barrels. No skin off your back.”
Oleksy’s face went from startled to amused to annoyed in the span of a single heartbeat. “Child, you are just about the most stubborn creature I’ve ever met. Some days I wish you could meet your sister, you two would get along like -- like --”
How it was Juno’s turn to jump from emotion to emotion, ending up with a queer mixture of shock and amusement written over his face.
“My what?”
“Nevermind it.”
“You said sister.”
Oleksy took another drink. A very, very long drink.
“Dad.”
“Just… just load your damn barrels in the wagon. And not a word about it to your mother, or I swear I’ll toss you out in the middle of Tale and leave you there to dry right up.”
“Yessir!” Juno grinned, scrambling to his feet. He wanted, of course, to know the rest of this intriguing new ‘sister’ story… but he had a long journey ahead with his father, and with three barrels of Kiriko’s thunder-brew riding in the wagon behind them, he was sure he’d manage to weasel out what he wanted to hear.
One victory at a time, now, one victory at a time.
[words : 941]
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Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:38 am
☷ PRP ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________CAMPFIRE EVENING
_________Juno & Zumei
_________Location: Sauti
_________Link
Shortly after setting out to travel with his father for the first time, Juno noticed Zumei approaching their camp. He shared some food and chatted with her for a while, until they became aware of some shouting in the valley below them. They investigated and saw a group of bandits attacking a caravan. Spurred to act, the two decided to roll some large boulders down to make the bandits think there was a landslide. Somehow, their plan worked! The bandits scattered without ever noticing the two prentices. It was the first time Juno had confronted a situation like that... and he sort of liked the feeling of besting bandits with smarts (and a little bit of muscle).
[complete]
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Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:40 am
☷ PRP ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________NOTHING TO GAPE AT
_________Juno & Padma
_________Location: Isd, Tale
_________Link
Arriving in Isd was exciting for Juno -- it was his first time outside of Sauti, and the landscape was thrillingly unfamiliar. So were the goods available for sale at the market, and this was where he met Padma. She tried to trick him into thinking one of the herbs he was sniffing at would have an adverse effect, but he laughed it off and they got along fine after that. They shared some Jauhar fruit, which both of them were unfamiliar with, and in general had a good time relaxing in the shade of a tree.
[complete]
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Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 9:43 am
☷ SOLO ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________AS LONG AS THEY KEEP DRINKING
_________Location: Sauti
Despite his intentions to travel on to Jauhar with his father (and his relative disinterest in politics), Juno had found himself unable to stay away from the conflict with the Alkidikes. Sauti was still his home, one way or another, and if his people were going to fight he decided that he might as well fight beside him – ‘fight’ being a rather creative use of the word, of course, because the only struggle he saw was in trying to keep the warriors fed and watered before, during and after the battle itself.
So in the days before the conflict he had parted ways with Oleksy, promising to catch up to him in Sulburi when things calmed down. It wasn’t likely that he’d have any trouble making his way there, not with whole troops of Oban soldiers making the same trek home.
He joined up with a crew of non-warrior supporters who ran a mess tent, and over the course of the battle they had their hands full keeping everyone in high spirits. Sometimes quite literally; Juno had taken from Oleksy one pair of capras and a barrel of Sauti beer, which he dispensed to those soldiers who required a very specific kind of… err, pick-me-up.
This was a sure-fire way to make friends, and by the time the battle rolled to an end he was in the good books of members from every race, tribe and social stratum. One such ‘friend’ of his was Birrazi, an Oban noble who had become quite fond of his beer.
“You’ve got some left, haven’t you?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’ve heard some sloshing in that barrel of yours.”
Juno was not a dishonest man… but even if he was, he might have put that sort of inclination aside for the time-being. Birrazi was wounded, but still very much upright and entirely capable of swinging her sword.
“Almost half a barrel, Bi.”
She grinned at this, her red eyes sparkling. “Well, what’n the world are you going to do with that now? It’s mighty heavy stuff, and I heard you sold your two little beasts off to some tired old Shifter. Are you going to drag it all home now?”
“Not home.” Juno shrugged. “I’ll be travelling out from here. But I’ll drag it if I have to.”
“You poor thing.” She sighed dramatically. “Listen, I’ve got an idea.”
He had a feeling he knew what it was, but he quirked an eyebrow in mock-curiosity. “Go on.”
“Why don’t you hand the whole thing over to me and my boys? That would lighten your load up, it sure would.”
Of course. Juno laughed, then shook his head.
“That’s mighty tempting, Bi. But I’ve got to make a living somehow, don’t I? it’s a long way back to Oba, and with all these soldiers travelling about I don’t doubt every innkeeper and merchant is going to be charging a pretty penny for the most mundane of necessities. Of course, I do want to see you and your boys happy, after you all fought for my poor homeland. So I’ll give you a good deal on it, Bi, if you want to buy it off me.”
“My, my.” Birrazi pursed her lips, and for a moment her fingers danced on the hilt of her sword. But it was still crowded in the camp, and maybe… maybe she actually liked this half-bred son of a merchant.
“I could manage that.” She finally nodded. “I’ve got some trinkets. Precious metal, these. How many do you want?”
She was gesturing at her collection of dangling gold bracelets, but as nice (and doubtless valuable) as they were, Juno did not seem convinced.
“They’re lovely, Bi, really. But I’m in need of something more practical right now. And something that wouldn’t attract quite so many thieves.”
She pursed her lips and gave it some thought, then held a hand up as if she had had some brilliant idea. “I’ve got just the thing. Stay put a second – I’ll fetch Tamim.”
* * *
He did stay put – partly out of curiosity, and maybe because this still had the potential to be a good deal. He didn’t know who Tamim was. One of the soliders who fought in her troop, maybe? He knew some of them by name (and none of them as Tamim), but there were several others he knew he hadn’t met. Did this Tamim have something valuable to offer? He sat on an overturned basket and pondered this while toying with his feathered bracelets.
Some time later, Birrazi returned. She was not, as Juno had expected, accompanied by any other Oban… but she was leading behind her some big lumbering beast.
“Here.” She said triumphantly, gesturing to the beast. “Tamim. He came bearing supplies for us, but seeing as we’ve gone through all those I’ve decided we can spare him. And you could use him, couldn’t you, what with none of those little capras to carry your things.”
Juno blinked at the thing. He had never seen anything like it before. It stared back at him with soft, patient eyes and sniffed at the dirt it stood on.
“What is it?”
“He’s a quhar.” Birrazi laughed. “Best pack animal you could ever wish for. Strong, sturdy, and an easy keeper – these guys can go without food or water for days, if they’ve had a good drink before setting out. It’s all in this hump, see.”
She patted the animal on his big hump. He looked up at her and made a curious low moan.
“I know he’s big, but he’s a sweetheart really. He’ll follow you anywhere if you keep him fed and brush his coat out from time to time.”
Juno looked… well, dubious. He liked animals, he really did, but this one was… big?
“These are valuable beasts!” Birrazi exclaimed, seeing his expression. “If we hadn’t just won a battle, and if I didn’t want some drink for my men to celebrate, I wouldn’t ever dream of trading a trained quhar away for a half-barrel of Sauti beer. But you’re my friend, Juno, and I want to help you out; so here’s my offer.”
He looked at the quhar. The quhar looked at him and seemed to… sigh, almost, as if it didn’t care either way and just wanted to get on with its living. Preferably somewhere there was more fresh foliage for the eating, no doubt.
“Aw, alright.” He grinned finally. “I’m just teasing you. He’s a handsome-looking animal, and I’m sure I’ll be glad to have him. Deal!”
They shook hands, and she handed him the lead rope attached the quhar’s nose ring. He gestured her towards the barrel, which she hoisted easily onto her broad warriors’ shoulders. They stood there a moment, taking in the results of their trade… then finally bid each other goodbye.
“If you’ve got more brew by the time you get to Oba, you’re welcome to pay me a visit. Or two.”
“I will.” He promised, laughing. “You haven’t seen the last of me.”
* * *
He had to admit, it took him a while to figure the quhar out. It would take him years to figure the beast out entirely, but even when it came to packing up on their first morning together, the animal was a bit of a puzzle. Juno simply wasn’t used to working around something that big; he couldn’t even reach all the way up Tamim’s hump, and he wasn’t even particularly short. And how exactly were you supposed to tie everything up around that hump, anyway? He sort of wished he had asked Birrazi for some pointers before she left, but it was too late now. Her troop had left yesterday evening, looking a little tipsy and eager to get home, and for all the other sorts of animals there were around the camp, he didn’t see any other quhar.
He settled on figuring it all out for himself, and found a long length of rope left over from one of the tents.
Fortunately for him, Tamim seemed entirely content to stand there and let the half-breed flit around him, passing the rope this way and that until he found something that seemed to work (and not look excessively silly). It was probably a good thing he didn’t have too much stuff with him to begin with (having donated much of his supplies to feed the armies), really, or else the whole thing would have taken him a lot longer.
He patted the quhar on its big fluffy forehead when they were done, sort of enjoying the warmth of Tamim’s breath against his skin.
“Alright, big guy. Let’s get going, hm?”
The quhar released another one of his indifferent sighs. Juno worried, maybe, that he would not want to follow along – but when he stepped away the animal gathered himself up on his hooves and matched his pace with lazy efficiency.
“I think this is going to work out alright.” Juno told him, once they had put some distance between them and the quickly-dissolving camp. “You and I, I mean. I don’t know about the rest of this mess. People, you know, they never change… looks to me like they solve one problem only to start another. But as long as they keep drinking, I guess we’ll do alright.”
[words : 1557]
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 12:31 pm
☷ PRP ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________QUESTIONABLE MORALS
_________Juno & Chimelu
_________Location: Jauhar?
_________Link
[in progress]
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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:57 am
☷ SOLO ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷
_________A STEP BACKWARDS
_________Location: Jauhar
“Well, we’re not doing too badly, if I do say so myself.”
Juno patted Tamim’s flank, and stepped back to look over at his recently-acquired stock. The three barrels of beer he had left home with were long gone, but others had taken their place in greater quality and variety, all loaded up onto the big and ever-patient quhar. Juno knew what it all was, having a pretty good head for that sort of thing, but he still couldn’t resist the temptation to take a few moments and list it all back to himself. You know, just to prolong the triumph.
After taking stock of it all, he confirmed that he had:
1. A barrel of a cooling, herby wine from Tale
2. A barrel of prized Jauhar liquor made of fermented fruits
3. Three bottles of something peculiarly strong, of uncertain origin
4. Seven small bottles of experimental infusions he had created himself
5. A bag full of the grains and ingredients required for brewing more beer
6. Various herbs, plants and roots with intoxicating qualities (or so he’d been told)
And, despite the overwhelming presence of liquor and liquor related goods, Tamim also carried some things that hadn’t anything to do with drinking, but would serve him well in trading; cloths, beads and leather goods, that sort of thing. All in all it was an impressive haul, he thought – maybe not for an experienced trader, but certainly for a half-breed boy with one Oban beast and a clever idea… or two.
Yeah, yeah. He was doing pretty well for himself. How great it would be, to meet his father in Oba with all these new things to trade? That would impress the old shifter, he was sure.
Would it impress him enough to finally say a word or two about his sister?
Juno groaned at that thought, shaking his head and dragging his fingers through his hair. That all was still an unending frustration, for Oleksy had been stubbornly quiet after his initial slip-up in telling Juno he had a half-sister. And that just wasn’t fair! Juno didn’t like having that information withheld from him, even if the thought of a sister did worry him some – what if she hated him? He’d rather know a thing or two now; what her name was, what sort of things she did, what she was like, and so on. He could prepare himself a little then, maybe feel more comfortable by the time he did meet her. Right now the thought had him feeling a little… weak in the stomach, and he was certain that wasn’t his fault.
“Argh, nevermind it.” He muttered at himself, then patted the top of Tamim’s shaggy head. “Let’s go.”
* * *
They were winding their way through the jungles of Jauhar, making slow progress over roots and luminescent fungus. He’d been told that the residents of Jauhar themselves avoided travelling on the ground, that being the most dangerous place to be… but he could hardly expect Tamim to climb up into a tree, and frankly, Juno wasn’t sure he’d do all that much better himself.
He’d never had a chance to go tree-climbing in Sauti, after all.
So the ground it was, and Juno was altogether glad for Tamim’s presence. Surely the big quhar would scare away some of the native fauna? He did have those large and sharp horns atop of his head, although the prentice had never seen them used aggressively before. And regardless, it was just nice to have company… the jungle was a little unnerving, dark and so damp you felt like you were breathing in water.
It turned out, however, to be even more hazardous than he expected.
* * *
They had been travelling for a while when the bandits dropped out of the trees; there were five of them, all older and larger than Juno. It was a mixed band; there were two shifters and an Oban, and a woman who looked like she had some alkidike in her. The last – and perhaps their leader – was a Leaf man with his brown hair done up in a short ponytail. He had a mean grin and a big sword, and he approached Juno without any hesitation.
“Look what we got here – a junior merchant.” He cackled. “Running errands for your daddy? Fetching him some things, are you?”
Juno frowned, and stood a little closer to Tamim. Bandits! His father had told him about people like that, but he hadn’t been expecting to meet any. Surely they wouldn’t rob him of his hard-earned profits? He was hardly a wealthy profiteer, riding at the back of a wagon train loaded with fine fabrics and jewels.
“What kind of critter are you, anyway?” The man continued talking. Juno thought he was referring to Tamim first, but then realized that the question was addressed to him. The bandit reached out to touch a bit of his hair. “You sure are funny-looking.”
“None of your business.” Juno finally snapped, batting the man’s hand away. “I’m busy, and I’m going now.”
He laughed. The other bandits laughed. “Oh, you’ll go soon enough. But you’ll leave us this walking market stall, won’t you? Let’s see here, what do you have… oh my. Oh my indeed. Why, half-breed, you have good taste! How nice of you to put this all together for us.”
“It’s mine.” Juno narrowed his eyes. “Stop touching it, it’s mine.”
More laugher. The leaf earthling plucked off one of the bottles and opened it, taking a long drag and passing around to the rest of his band. Then he grabbed the rope that connected to Tamim’s neck and nosering, and gave it a confident pull.
The quhar did not move. Not an inch.
“Come on, stupid beast!” The bandit pulled again. And again. The others joined in, pushing from the back and whacking his sides with sticks. But Tamim stayed in place and watched them all with his patient eyes. Finally he shook his head, let out a HUR-RUHMPH and took a step… backwards.
Despite everything, Juno laughed. He kept laughing until the bandit hit him, shoving him down onto the ground.
“Fine, keep your stupid animal. We’ll take the good stuff.”
There wasn’t much Juno could do about that, dismayed as he was. He felt dizzy and faint from the blow, and sat on the ground dazedly as the bandits unloaded Tamim and disappeared into the jungle with everything he had worked so hard for.
Well, almost everything. Once he had recovered enough, Juno staggered to his feet and walked over to Tamim, putting his arms around the creature’s neck and giving him the best hug he could in the circumstances. He felt… miserable, really. But at least he still had his friend.
[words : 1132]
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Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:58 pm
☷ SOLO ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷
_________A TRAMP
_________Location: Jauhar
It seemed as if the world was conspiring against him.
The day after he was robbed, heavy rains began to fall on Jauhar. And if Juno thought he had seen heavy rain before… well, he had been wrong. Surely only an ocean could be any wetter than this damned jungle! It felt as if he was walking in, breathing and simply absorbing water every moment of the day. There was no escaping it. Rivulets of rain penetrated through the thickest of canopies, and the ground underfoot was squelching wet.
For a half-breed prentice with nothing to his name, it was absolute misery.
To make matters worse, he seemed to have been stranded in a rather remote part of the jungle. Of course, it was his amateur attempts at trading that had brought him here -- he had heard rumours about a famous brewer and made the trek out to see what he could learn (or trade, of course). That part of the voyage hadn’t been in vain. Juno had gotten the chance to see a master at work, all these jars and casks and bottles standing in rows, each full of something… at best delicious, at worst so potent you didn’t very much care.
But, of course, the singular bottle of liquor he had been able to procure from the brewmaster was stolen along with the rest of his belongings. All his efforts, wasted!
Maybe he wasn’t cut out for this.
He buried his head in his hands, perched on the edge of a root beside a big (and very wet) quhar. The beast was chewing on a ropy length of vine and staring patiently off into the distance.
“What’s dad going to think, anyway? He’d know better than to get into this mess.”
Maybe he’d been naive. He had met with a round of beginner’s luck, taking advantage of the conflict in Sauti to make some enviable profit. He had gotten to thinking, maybe, that it was always going to be this easy. But the world, it turned out, was hard and full of pitfalls. There were bandits, there were dishonest people, and there were rainy jungle days. Did he have what it took to make it through all this stuff? To become someone like his father, or like the old shifter, the master in his craft?
He was starting to lose some of his confidence.
His half-sister had probably figured all this out, he thought -- wherever she was. Oleksy hadn’t talked much about her, despite Juno’s questions, but from what little he said Juno gathered that she was someone strong and capable. She defied the expectations of others and forged her own path.
Her name was Lucijah. He had begged out that much. What would she think of her half-brother, miserable and wet and (almost) alone?
It occurred to him then that she didn’t even know he existed. Clearly, Oleksy hadn’t wanted his two families to meet. Would she want to meet him, then? Or would he just be unwelcome evidence of her father’s dishonesty? A scoundrel of a son, half-shifter and half-wind, and a failure at everything he did? He groaned and shook his head, water running through his sand-colored hair.
Maybe Oleksy had been right about keeping them apart after all.
* * *
After a long and very uncomfortable trek, Juno finally arrived in a small jungle village. It was comprised in great part of houses that were built up in the trees, with interconnecting bridges made of vines. It all looked quite precarious and unsteady to him, and discouragingly unfamiliar. There was nobody around to ask for permission to ascend into the canopy, and he felt somewhat like an intruder as he climbed the closest of the ladders.
Tamim the quhar, of course, had to be left on the forest floor below. But he was large enough to discourage the local predators (and thick-skinned enough to ignore most of the pests) so he seemed not to mind, simply circling about and looking for something else to eat.
The ladder Juno had chosen emerged onto a platform surrounding a small hut. He heard voices inside, and approached the door to knock.
The door opened. A small, slender face peered through the crack.
“What is it? Who are you?”
The other voices inside had hushed. She looked at him uncertainly. He had the skin of a shifter, but it was unusually pale for what was (despite the dim lighting) the middle of the day.
“I’m travelling, miss.” Juno pulled on his usual smile -- the one that normally got him places. “I ran into some trouble with a band of bandits and I was just looking for a place to stay. I don’t have anything to pay with right now, but I could -- “
“Oh.” She stepped away from the door, her face growing dark. “No, we have no room.”
The door shut.
The same thing happened at the next house, and the next, and the one after. Shifters looked at him suspiciously, then waved him away. And, with this being a rather small village, there weren’t many other options left. Just two -- a large, multi-floor construction and a small little shack high up in the trees.
He went up to the big house, figuring that at least there they could not claim that there was no ‘room’. He knocked on the door, which was opened by a stern man holding a… yes, a hammer.
“Go away.” He frowned before Juno could even try his smile. “We don’t want any tramps here.”
Tramps?
The door slammed at his face. Juno looked down at himself and… for the first time, realised just how miserable he looked. His clothes were soaked. His hair was matted and wet. His bag hung worn and empty from his belt. He looked like… like a…
Well. Like a tramp.
He let out a long sigh that might have ended with a sob.
A tramp. That was what he was. That was what Lucijah would see, when she finally met him.
“Hey.” A slurred voice called from above. He looked up. “Hey, tramp.”
A slim, old woman waved from the small shack in the trees. She looked… well, she looked quite drunk, and very cheerful. She called him a tramp, but there was no malice in the word, and Juno felt hard-pressed to be mad at her. Especially after what she said next.
“You can come up here if you want. I don’t got no extra bed, but you can sleep on the floor. It’s dry. And then tomorrow, you come, with your animal, and haul some fruit for me. Then we’ll be even. Ok?”
Juno didn’t bother thinking about this offer. It seemed like a fair trade, all things considering.
[words : 1128]
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Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:54 am
☷ PRP ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________COOKING AND TRAVELS
_________Juno & Phaedra
_________Location: Jauhar
_________Link
Juno had been staggering through the jungle -- hungry, alone and terrified after having been robbed by a bandits. He came across Phaedra, who let him sit at her fire and offered him some of her meal (which was delicious). Amazingly, she also offered to lead Juno up to the Oban border, an offer he quickly accepted. Juno hadn't known it, but maybe more than he needed a bodyguard, he really needed someone to talk to at that moment, and Phaedra provided a patient and supportive ear for his troubles. She helped him look at his mistakes as something to learn from, rather than marks of failure. At the end of the conversation they realized that they were both looking for mystery family members.
[complete]
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:04 am
☷ EVENT SOLO ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________MONSTERS?Quote: With the recently discovered Yaeli, the land of Tendaji has been abuzz with talk and gossip about their new neighbors. They're odd, they're strange and skittish, their eyes glow - but that can't possibly be true most say - the word on the street is that they're starting to leave their island. Those that had met the Yaeli know that it's an odd thing to hear. They were terrified of the outsiders, why would they leave their safe villages... Rumors are filling the toxic island where the Alkidikes extremists were banished along with the Matron. Rumors of monsters clawing their way out of the earth with oil black skin and glowing evil eyes that are even weirder than the strange monsters that landed upon their shores just one year ago. The Yaeli say that their gaze can steal the soul of any person dumb enough to get too close and they're vicious beings trying to take their children. These rumors have reached the main land as well, mostly through the few Yaeli that have decided they would rather face the scary but similar earthling races than to have to find out what the terrifying monsters want with them and their land. Is there any truth to these rumors or are the Yaelians seeing things?
After having seen the defeated alkidikes marched off towards some uncertain punishment, Juno had spent some lengthy amount of time traveling back towards Jauhar. Staying mostly in small towns and even smaller villagers, he remained relatively unaware of what it was that had happened to them for a good long while. He’d hear a few things at the very beginning of the matter -- that they were taking a boat, that they were sailing away from Tendaji, so on and so forth -- but after that things were quiet for a while.
News did not travel fast over open water, he figured. Who even knew how long they’d have to sail before they got anywhere. And, for that matter, was there anywhere else to get?
A few weeks after his arrival in Jauhar (and the disastrous loss of all his goods to a filthy band of no-good traders), however, fresh news started to creep up from the coast. The alkidike ships had landed on an island. At first, the word was that it was some uninhabited, toxic wasteland… which he supposed was a suitable habitat for the women that had caused so much damage to his own homeland. But later on it became clear that the place was not only inhabited, but home to a whole earthling civilization.
They were called Yaeli, and they were… rather odd folk, by the sound of it.
The first time he ever heard one described was in Neued, where he had been lucky enough to be welcomed into the home of a Wind merchant for a night. The merchant, himself and her family were gathered around a table that evening, having just finished a rather homely and delicious meal.
“One of my friends from Matori visited a few days ago. I met him during the Oban War, and with us both being traders we kept in touch, helped each other with trading goods from here to there. Anyway, he says he’s seen a Yaeli. He didn’t go the Yael, but there was one that arrived with a fishing-boat.”
“So what do they look like?” Her daugher cut in. “Do they really have glowing eyes?”
“That’s what he said. Glowing eyes and dark skin, kind of like an Oban I guess. But their hair is… purple, almost. And their eyes are black, but they glow white. Well, that’s what the word is, at least. And the word is too that they’re nervous creatures, and don’t like strangers very much. This one who came with the fishing boat, my friend said she was almost in tears, she was so scared. The crew said she paid for her passage with some valuable gems, then hid under the deck for most of the journey and barely dared say a word to any of them.”
“Odd, that.” Juno frowned. “If she was so scared, why did she go on the boat? I mean, if she’s scared of a Matori fishing-crew… what relief would she have in Matori?”
“That’s just the thing, isn’t it! My friend is a gentle sort, see, and he managed to talk to her a little when she arrived. And by the gods, she was nervous, didn’t even seem to know what to do with herself. But what she says is that she had to leave her island, see. And that some others are doing the same. And that’s because there are monsters there now, and that she saw them with her own eyes. Big black monsters that grab you from under the ground and pull you down and suck the soul out of you.”
Juno quirked an eyebrow. “I wonder if that’s just the alkidikes they’re seeing.”
The trader’s daughter shrugged. “Well, the alkidikes are bound to be scary, if you’ve never seen any other earthlings before. But they aren’t black, and they don’t live underground. I mean, they didn’t live underground here, and I just can’t imagine them choosing to do it anywhere. They’re jungle-folk, like the shifters. They like it up in the trees.”
He nodded in agreement. “That’s what I was thinking. But what’s the chance that some strange monsters show up just when the Alkidikes appear? Seems like an odd coincidence.”
Everyone around the table nodded. It was strange, and Juno couldn’t help but wonder if the news had all gotten mixed up somehow. They were, after all, trusting all this to the tale of one terrified Yaeli woman, who… well, not to be rude about it, but who could very well have been crazy or paranoid or… anything of that sort, really. Only time would tell, he supposed. And since he was planning on heading towards Oba now, perhaps he’d soon hear some fresh news closer to the shore.
[words : 791]
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 6:30 am
☷ GROWTH SOLO ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________A LEARNING EXPERIENCEQuote: Juno had set out with bold ambitions of being a great merchant, but it turned out that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Forced to return to seek his father's help, he feels embarrassed and deems himself to be a failure. However, as he treks across Oba, he runs into a band of nomads. They laugh at his story, but they also share their own failures and mistakes. This makes Juno realize that failure is acceptable, and he resolves to make the best of his current opportunities rather than set lofty goals that he doesn't even have the skills and experience to achieve yet.
Well, there it was. The Oban desert. He sat on the stump of a tree that had been cut down (along with many others in what had once been the last stand between the jungle and the desert) and stared out at the expanse.
He’d been promised that it didn’t all look quite so desolate -- that there were water-sources sprinkled here and there throughout the land, where one might find shelter, and trees, and of course a cool drink. There were also apparently many settlements (many more than he had ever seen in Sauti or even Tale), and that the number of them would increase as he went further south, closer to the major cities. These, apparently, were so vast in size that they didn’t compare to anything he had ever experienced before… but all this was hard to picture when you were staring out at a vast and empty nothingness.
He’d parted ways with Phaedra, who was going to Tale to look for her mother, with some reluctance. Was he doing the right thing? He wasn’t ever properly sure.
He felt that he had to go to Oba. He missed his father, and he had had no luck in Jauhar on his own. But gods, this was embarrassing! Look at him, turning back to his daddy with his tail between his legs, with barely anything to show for all his foolish wanderings? All he’d really done, at the face of it all, was just enough petty trading to keep himself afloat… and even that had failed when the bandits took it all. So much for his plans of coming back with some rare liquor that he could sell for a hefty markup, to impress dear old dad!
He buried his head in his hands, sand-colored locks spilling over silver-blue shoulders. Tamim sniffed at the wind and let out a low call.
“I guess you’re going home.” Juno realized, straightening up and patting the quhar on the side. “Well, that’s something. Let’s head out before I get thirsty just looking at this desert.”
* * *
Their trek was hot, and, as he had expected it to be, thirsty.
Once again, however, Tamim had saved the day. Back in Jauhar, Juno had been able to rent him out to a crew that was building a treehouse. In exchange for the beast’s services in hauling some materials across the jungle floor, Juno had received enough money to purchase some supplies for the rest of his trip. He’d gotten a large waterskin, some dried foods, and very importantly -- a map. This was the first map that he had ever looked at, and he was quite impressed by it. It was a strange sense of power, holding a piece of the world in your hand like that. He’d glance at it ever-so-often, but there were few landmarks by which he could judge how far he’d come.
* * *
He was just about starting to worry that he was getting lost. They had walked two days, and still not come across any significant water source or settlement. There had been one small wet puddle, from which Tamim had been able to suck up some water, but that was all… and now Juno was running low on water himself, and the stuff that was in the waterskin had become so warm and pungent that it didn’t even taste all that refreshing. He stumbled on, shaking his head at his failure. Couldn’t he do anything right?! All he wanted to be was a great traveller, and a successful merchant, and --
On the horizon, a patch of green. And… coloured fabric?
* * *
They were Oban, with dark skinned with red hair and gold jewels, and they had never seen a hybrid like him. However, they were immediately friendly, perhaps upon seeing that he travelled with, in a certain way, one of their kind -- a native quhar. Or maybe they were just friendly.
“Sit down, sit down! Let’s all us have a look at you!”
What he had seen some minutes ago on the horizon had turned out, indeed, to be a patch of vegetation surrounding a small spring. But it wasn’t a settlement that sat around it -- only a temporary encampment of sorts, made out of four big wagons pulled by quhar (who all sat quietly in a patch of shade and sniffed at Tamim curiously when he came over). This all looked pleasantly familiar to Juno. Why, they were nomads, like his family had been! They dressed a little differently, in the bright colors and loose garb typical of the Obans, but they acted very much the same way, and he found himself hopeful that he would fit in.
It was almost dusk now, and the camp had already been in the midst of preparing for dinner when he arrived. Now those efforts were renewed with great effort on account of their guest, even as three of the elders sat down with Juno at the fire.
“What’cha you say you were again?”
“My ma’s Wind, from Sauti. And my dad’s a shifter. It’s him I’m going to meet -- he said he’d be in Sulburi. Am I… going in the right direction?”
“For Sulburi!” The nomad laughed, making Juno darken into a blush. “Hardly! Why, you’re much too far west! Would’ve made more sense for you to start in the east and follow the trade routes from Kalv. That’s much easier traveling than humping up and down dunes like you’re doing.”
Juno groaned, causing the little group to laugh again (much to his embarrassment). So much for being a great traveller!
“And why, you’re barely fitted out for travel like this. That waterskin of yours is nearly empty, and if you keep going this way, well… you would have dried right up, sure enough! How come you ain’t got more supplies on you at least? Dont’cha know anything about desert travel?”
“I had more supplies.” Juno mumbled, fiddling with a dried twig and dreading the embarrassment that was about to follow. “But some bandits took it all in Oba.”
More of the nomads joined them now, and they all begged him to tell the whole story. Juno felt that there was no getting out of it, not with so many of his host’s expectant eyes on him, and was forced to relay the whole embarrassing tale. The nomads howled with laughter, and Juno wondered if being the butt of a joke was all that he was good for.
* * *
But then something else happened.
As the meal was cooked and brought out to the group, and everyone -- easily over a dozen of them -- were seated by the fire, the nomads began to tell their own tales. They seemed to know all of each other’s tales already, and requested them by name.
“Ruil! Oh, oh, Ruil! Tell about that time you went in circles for four straight days!” One would cry -- and Ruil would dutifully tell the story, full of flourishes and apparent jabs at his own stupidity, much to everyone’s entertainment. Then would turn to another and say,
“Oh, and the time you thought Orrod was Serr? That’s a good one!”
And so it went on and on. Each nomad told tales of stupid mistakes, dumb miscalculations, comical misfortune and blunder upon blunder upon blunder. And why, they seemed proud about it all! Juno didn’t understand at first. They were all accomplished travellers -- here they were eating and drinking well in the middle of the desert, knowing which routes lay in all directions, knowing which ones to avoid and which ones to take and which ones were the safest bet when one had a cracked axle and all that manner of things. And still they laughed at themselves. Some stories were deep in the past, but some had happened last year… last month even. They laughed, and they moved on.
“I never did try to drive through a sandstorm again,” they would say at the end. Or “after that, I always made sure I kept the sun at my back”. Or even “well, since that time, I always make sure my quhar drink before me.”
And then Phaedra’s words came back to him, finally. A learning experience. No, that hadn’t been a nice word to mask failures. That was what failures were! Here were these folks, wise and clever people, who had failed many times, and come back swinging. And not only that, they seemed to accept the fact that they would fail again and again. Comically, ridiculously, embarrassingly, disastrously. And each time they would take something from it and move right on, and make the best of everything that came. Why, it seemed like everything Juno wanted could be achieved as these people had done it -- not by grasping at wild ambitions like he’d tried, but simply making the most of each opportunity that came your way.
He cracked into a broad grin and laughed along with them, eating and drinking his fill under the Oban stars, finally forgiving himself his own mistakes. Hadn’t he learned a thing or two? Hadn’t he come out knowing more of the world, and of the people in it? He resolved now not to worry so much about getting to Sulburi with an excuse planned for his father. He would tell the story as it happened -- perhaps with a few creative flourishes, as the nomads did -- and he would go from there. It was Sulburi, after all! It was supposedly the biggest city on all of Tendaji! Surely there were plenty of opportunities there for a young man who didn’t mind working hard and travelling distances.
He’d take things one step at a time, he decided, and allow Bergechi to guide him, in her own time, to the places he needed to be.
[words : 1634]
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 8:09 am
☷ EVENT SOLO ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________BARTER AND HAGGLEQuote: Can be used toward Solo or RP reqLately, the local market places have been filled with new traders offering their wares. It seem as if many across the land are trying their hand at selling clothing, weapons, and trinkets. With so many new faces, now is the best time to go to the market and barter for the best prices. So go ahead and grab your goods or grab your gold and take a shot at bartering.
Well, there is was. Sulburi.
It was a lot bigger than he had expected. He had seen some large settlements now, in Tale and in Jauhar, but… nothing quite like this.
The ‘bigness’ of Sulburi had started sinking in even before he had ever laid eyes on the city, as the trade route that he and Tamim were following had become first quite busy, and then downright crowded. A few days ago, when the nomads had pointed him in the right direction, he had joined up with a trail that saw the occasional other traveller passing, with some outposts around wells where you could stop, drink, and rest under a patchwork canopy. Then, as they moved closer and closer to Sulburi, more smaller trade routes began to join up. Juno chatted to the travellers who followed them, and learned lots about the places where they had come from.
On the outskirts of the great town, however, the trail was more of a river, and he and Tamim were pushed into the great city as if they were on a raft following a strong current.
How… how in the world was he supposed to find his father in this?
* * *
By some strange twist of fortune, it didn’t take very long.
He had had the right idea to start looking in marketplaces… but there were a lot of marketplaces. Still, perhaps luck was on his side. At the fourth marketplace, he spotted Oleksy’s familiar broad shoulders, and ran, whooping and hollering, towards his dear old dad.
* * *
He slept in Oleksy’s room at a big traders’ inn, and the next morning woke up feeling energized and refreshed. He’d done it! Maybe it hadn’t been as triumphant a return as he had hoped for, but he had made it to Sulburi on his own accord. He had travelled through Tale and through Jauhar, and he had learned a thing or two.
Never one to rest on his laurels, he decided that it was time to find some work.
* * *
There was a rather big brewery in town, one that produced hundreds of bottles of beer each day. As far as he understood, it was brewed from some of the hardy grasses that grew in the better-watered regions of Oba, and that was certainly interesting. So why not start there? He searched out the owner of the place to see if he could make a deal for a job.
The matronly woman seemed a little doubtful.
“We can always use people to deliver our goods, and you look like you’ve travelled a bit, I suppose. But you’d need your own wagon to take this job. When you’ve got a wagon, come back and talk to me.”
* * *
Right. So to get a job at the brewery, he needed a wagon. And to get a wagon, he would need… another job, of course. To pay for it.
He spent much of the morning walking around like this, trying to offer his services to the various business and establishments he could find. He found that the process was almost comically like bartering for goods. Except for the fact that what he wanted was a job, and what he was offering was not trade goods, but his own labour. And, just as in haggling, he had to constantly pay attention to the behaviour of the person he was speaking to, trying to guess at their thoughts and figure out just exactly what kind of offer they wanted.
“I’ll work evenings if you need me to,” he’d offer to one. Or -- “I can do cleaning chores and the like, on top of other work.”
But it seemed that he was just a little too… well, odd-looking for most of the Oban business-owners to trust him. He came from some distant place, and was neither one race nor another. They would politely (or not-so-politely) tell him that they had no work available, and send him on his way.
* * *
Finally, he found himself at a bakery. It smelled strongly of yeast and flour, and the Oban man he spoke to was dusted so heavily with the stuff that he hardly looked Oban anymore -- more like a shifter at nightfall, if nothing else.
“I’ll do anything.” Juno offered, a little frustrated now. “I’ll work here, or I’ll clean, or I’ll bring your bread out to market for sale. I’m a hard worker, I swear. I just want to make a bit of money. I won’t make any trouble.”
After some hemming and hawing, the baker finally shrugged.
“Alright then. I’ll take you on for a few days, and we’ll see how you do. If you’re a hard worker like you promise, you can stay on. If not, I’m not even paying you. Deal?”
It was a pretty rotten deal, if Juno thought about it… but, well, he was getting tired of defeat.
“I’ll take it, mister. When do I start?”
[ words : 818 ]
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 6:24 am
☷ PRP ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________DUST FOR DAYS
_________Juno & Ichil
_________Location: Sulburi, Oba
_________Link
While moving sacks of flour, Juno accidentally spilled some all over Ichil, who had come to the bakery to buy bread. He did his best to smooth things over, and fortunately for him she was fairly calm about the whole matter. He tried to salvage the situation by fetching her the freshest bread in the building, and it seemed to work. They chatted a bit about their aspirations, and as they parted ways Ichil left him a sizeable tip. Given that Juno was in the process of saving up money to buy a sorely-needed wagon and draft animal, it was much appreciated!
[complete]
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2016 7:33 am
☷ PRP ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________ROWDY THIS EVENING
_________Juno & Ujana
_________Location: Kalv, Oba
_________Link
[in progress]
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 6:19 pm
☷ PRP ☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷☷ _________TO MARKET! TO MARKET!
_________Juno & Aaricia
_________Location: Oba
Juno noticed Aaricia right away -- like him, she was a hybrid. Unlike him, she was a hybrid of two completely different races -- fire and ice. Initially attracted by her striking looks, he quickly discovered that she was very charming and sensitive. Despite some initial nervousness, he loved the whole interaction and even managed to gather up the courage to invite her out to another meeting in four days' time!
_________Link
[ complete ]
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