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Ⅱ Autumn Vikare

Space: 4

It was hard to tell whether the chattering of her teeth came from excitement or the chilly climate. As she bundled her coat tighter around herself, a grumbling squeak from beside her right sponge clot affirmed that it was definitely the cold. Reaching up, she adjusted the hem of her fur-lined hood.

“There, there, Cat,” she chided. “We'll get something warm soon and then you'll have lots of fun! First though, we need to get a good look around. I can't believe you insisted on staying inside all last night.”

Another squeak, no less petulant than before. Autumn patted the lump in her hood.

“Don't get saucy with me.” Autumn said sternly. “You wanted to come as much as I did, and the least we can do is look for something nice for Dianea since she brought us all this way. Besides~!” Letting out a hum Autumn skipped a step. Arms extended she landed in a twirl, snow spinning around her. “Isn't it lovely? We never get anything like this back home.”

With a third indignant squeak, Caterpal burrowed deeper into the hood. Autumn dropped her hands to her sides, scowling. “Cat,” she started, using her most authoritative tone of voice. “You know I hate it when you mumble. Actually...” Expression thoughtful, she reached up once more to grab the hem of her hood. This time however, she lowered it across her shoulders.

“I think some fresh air would do you good,” she finished. Then, as disdainfully as she could, she closed her eyes, turned up her nose, and looked away. Caterpal could do nothing but settle down on her shoulder, brooding.

“Oh, look!” Autumn gasped, her make-believe bad mood forgotten. She pointed down the street, where a ritzy and glamorous booth decked out in a rich shade of red stood. She was not accustomed to seeing such splendor, much less in such a common colour. “Isn't it gorgeous? We have to look. It'll just take a minute. Hang on, Cat!”

Grabbing hold of her coat, so that it would not drag through the snow, Autumn set off towards the booth at a brisk jog, snow crunching underneath her boots. She longed to open her wings and skim over the snow, but they were pinioned beneath her coat. The cold air stung against the sensitive membranes, and made it difficult to fly. More than that though, they might have attracted unwanted attention. While her mutation was far from being a cullable offense, some had thought it wiser to keep a low profile. For the time being, with the temperature as low as it was, Autumn was happy to oblige.

Reaching the booth, Autumn noted a smartly dressed tealblood behind the counter. He had a certain air about him that Autumn could not quite place. Sophistication perhaps? Vremea was undoubtedly very sophisticated, but... no, something about this troll was different. As her gaze wandered over the rest of the booth's trappings, her eyes settled on on a boardgame. It was so cute, it seemed out of place among the rest of the ornaments.

“Is it free to play?” she asked. Ever since her very near disaster in Nucleo's café, she had become keenly aware of the concept of economy. When the tealblood confirmed it, she plucked Caterpal from her shoulder.

“For being so patient,” she told him, “you get to go first.”

Caterpal gave her a look that said he was unimpressed, but nonetheless batted the spinner with his tail. The arrow whirled dramatically, before coming to a stop on a three. Caterpal beamed. Autumn smiled but said nothing. Following the instructions, she scooted her piece forward three tiles. She leaned in to read her result.

“A swan lusus?” she said, grin broadening. “Wouldn't she just love to eat you up?”

Caterpal let out a huff in reply. A hasty series of flashes reminded her that she still had to take her turn.

“As you wish,” Autumn replied and flicked the spinner. Eagerly, she waited for it to land on a four, as unlikely as she knew it would be. Instead however, the arrow drew to a stop on... a one. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caterpal bouncing up and down in excitement.

“I just didn't want to show you up,” she said simply, and scooted her piece forward one more tile.

Was: Space 5
Now: Space 16 (I think)

Nucleo was dazzled at seeing Odette in person, right there! She was so pretty and elegant, it was hard to pay attention to the board game. There were so many questions he wanted to ask the red blood but he found himself nervous. She was a celebrity and everyone knew they got hounded with obnoxious questions all the time. He didn't want to possibly be another one of those annoying reporters or fans! What to do?!

Swallowing, he decided to hit the spinner and try to concentrate on the game for a little while. Perhaps once he calmed his nerves he could figure out what to do.

Roll: 3 + 2 = 5

Peikoe was getting better at this whole "being Peikoe" thing. She'd (mostly) stopped tugging on the ends of her short dress and touching her fake horns. (The latter involved a lot of hand-slapping on Aandes' part in the early stages of development.)

She still needed some work getting used to the acrylic nails, though. Rasali's need to succeed clashed with her desire to look inconspicuous as she struggled to pick up the dice for the night's go at Aandes' and Odette's booth.

Success! Well, more like she tiddlywink'd the dice into spinning forward with her nails. Still, they rolled, which was the real goal... Even if Rasali felt cheated in getting such a low number for all that effort.

At least the resulting scene from Odette's past was sweet.

Sascha had been en route to another, more hard core booth when something about this one caught his eye. He slowed down to a stop as he tried to pin what was so familiar about this setup.

Wait... Was this..?

Sascha's eyes grew. He almost didn't recognize her in poster form. She was all glitzed up in sleek costumes, dramatic makeup, and lacking a dirty pigeon chick. Odette Cygnet. Sascha knew a famous person. He was practically beside himself. His mild interest in a fellow building spelunker quadrupled as he set about learning more about this mysterious starlet.

Dancing? Dancing was cool. Was that what she was supposed to be known for? Being a dancer? Sascha had yet to understand what being a social icon was, but damn if he didn't want to.

"Oh my gosh! SHES SO PRETTY!!" Caiden called out as he saw the booth. "And its got GAMES!!! This is sooo cool! Oh i want to play! Where will i land? Odette is so cool! Is she really a famous star?! IS SHE HERE?! CAN I MEET HER?!" The boy continued speaking as he rolled his turns.

1-2 The wiggler trials are incredibly challenging, but you manage to emerge in one piece.
2-4 Settling into the city seems a wonderful choice. You and your mother settle into a hivestem block in New Hemisect.

Caiden studied the board with all its pictures and boxes and words, then moved on to the merchandise. It was all so well designed and cool. The brownblood looked down into his pockets and tried not to cry in disappointment. All he had on himself was some chalk for drawing on sidewalks and such. The boy looked sadly at the shirt and poster, and fallowed his dad off to the next booth.

"Thank you one and all for visiting!" Aandes announced. He held up some tickets. "Great spins, you three!"

TICKET WINNERS:

(Bellen! How did i get so confused last night)


"Congratulations! Big move today." Aandes gleamed at the large teen standing in front of him. He looked to be a picture perfect redblood. "Can I take some pictures of you since you were today's winner? Thanks!"

Secret castings? Fabulous.


What was with beautiful youths visiting the Starlight booth tonight? Aandes snapped photos of many of the passerbys, but this particular greenblood was quite striking in style and clearly hip with pop culture fashion.

"Great work, kiddo. Hey, I like your style. Do you have a special talent?"

---

And also an extra RP snippet!

Aandes watched as Caiden dug through his pockets and stalked away. "Hmmm..." He turned to Odette and whispered in her ear. "If that kid comes back, you may want to give him a shirt or some merchandise or something." Publicity!



We're open again!

"M-My picture? Uh, sure I guess," Fellah said, looking like a deer in headlights as Aandes snapped his photos. "So, uh, sorry if this sounds real dumb," he chuckled rubbing his neck, "But, uh, who is this Odette? I live out in the plains, don't get much new stuff out there. Everything you've got set up looks really great though! And the games snippets have been real interesting."

Speaking of the game, Fellah stepped up to spin the wheel while talking to Aandes to learn a bit more.
What looked like a promising roll, wound up setting Fellah back on the 12th space, before sending him just one past his previous spot to now sit at 16.

Odette was beaming. She assured Aandes that she was ready for this. "More than anything," She said to him, drifting over to her seat and making herself comfortable. The call from the crowd warranted her to smile and wave, and she even blew a kiss towards the voice's direction, for good measure.

This was still a part of the game she needed to get used to, just sitting and looking pretty. She always felt like she had to be doing something more, and had to fight her urge to fidget in her seat.

However, she had always been thoroughly skilled in small talk. Pleasant conversation came easy to her, and she had gone over the new version of her backstory so many times that she found herself remembering her real memories as the poetic story Aandes had invented. Suffice to say, meet and greets with the general public were the least of her worries.

Odette watched with sadness in her eyes as Caiden walked off with empty hands. Even the losers at her booth last sweep still walked away with some sort of prize. She knew the cost of the merchandise was important to supporting the rebellion, but it hurt her to see that the lowbloods like her couldn't afford anything of her likeness. She was a role model to them, but still inaccessible.

Giving away some merchandise to Caiden? "I'd enjoy that," Odette responded to Aandes, smiling at the idea. Finding a small t-shirt to get prepared, she kept her eyes peeled for the orangeblood.