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 Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:54 pm
 It was an unusual pair, to say the least, who were wandering the streets and shops of Cyrus late one afternoon. A tall, thin young lady with long dark hair, accompanied by a short middle-aged woman in what was obviously a maid's attire, the latter mostly concealed by the massive pile of bags and boxes she carried.
The elder of the two huffed under the burden of purchases, and attempted, not for the first time, to put an end to the outing. "Rylan, I think that's quite enough shopping, don't you? You said this morning that you wanted time to prepare some sketches before your meeting."
The well-dressed young woman glanced over her shoulder briefly, "Sophia dear, don't be silly. There's plenty of time still, and I haven't been through this part of town in ages! We'll just go down this one last street though, shall we? Then we'll be on our way."
The packages swayed dangerously as Sophia resisted the urge to grit her teeth. "You said that five streets ago, if you recall."
Rylan waved a hand dismissively, "Nonsense, we haven't been out that long. And careful of that top box if you would, it looks about ready to fall."
In a calculated move to cut off the protest she knew was coming, Rylan glanced around for the nearest shop, and quickly made her way over. "Doesn't this place look charming? We'll just take a quick peek." She barely even took the time to notice the name as she slipped inside. Solace-something, was it?
The tiny bell above the entrance rung as the door was opened, the inside lit solely by the afternoon sun. As Rylan and Sophia entered, they would have been promptly greeted by an array of different smells; florals, baked goods, exotics, candies, almost anything one could think of.
Hanging out lazily by the island in the back middle of the store was Ment, an average sized teenager with white and red hair, tinkering with the ends of what seemed to be a mock-witch hat.
Hearing the bell echo as it went off, Ment picked up his head, blinking slightly at the newcommers. "Afternoon," He greeted, smilling a tad at the strangers, "Anything you need help with?"
Upon her first step into the store, Rylan had to pause a moment just to take it all in. The mix of smells was almost overwhelming, but she soon decided that it was a pleasant sort of chaos, and took a few steps toward one of the rows of shelves. Azalea, Clover, Cherry blossom... This was obviously the floral area, and just as she was about to wander further, the greeting from the back of the store drew her attention.
"Oh, good afternoon," she replied automatically, eyes still glued to the rows of bottles ('Lily of the Valley', 'Poppy', 'Sunflower'...), before she seemed to come to a decision in her mind, and turned towards the counter. "Actually, I haven't a clue what I'm looking for," she admitted, "But I couldn't possibly leave such a charming place without taking something with me. Perhaps you'd be willing to help me choose?"
Sophia, on the other hand, had chosen to remain quietly near the door with all Rylan's bags and boxes piled beside her, most likely for fear of breaking any of the delicate vials of oil. Despite her silence, it was obvious she was displeased, and she would alternate between looking at her small pocket watch with a frown, and looking at the odd attire of the teen working the counter with an even deeper frown.
Ment peaked past Rylan to Sophia who was standing by the door with Rylan's aquired items of the day. He rose an eyebrow for a moment pondering on how he could help one find something they didn't eve know they wanted.
"Maybe something that matches high taste? Or something on the exotic end, even?" Ment suggested, hopping down from where he was seated behind the counter and adjusting his skirt as he made his way over to Rylan. "We have all sorts of things here."
Rylan paused in her appraisal of the floral scents to consider Ment's suggestions as the teen approached from behind the counter, barely sparing a glance at the skirt as he adjusted it. It did match the hat nicely, though.
"While I do consider myself a woman of sophisticated taste, I should certainly like to see the exotics first. I do love oddities, they have such character." Smiling brightly, she offered a hand to the teen. "Please, do lead the way."
Ment took Rylan's hand gingerly with a smile, and led her straight over to the exotic fregrances table. You could practically smell each and every single scent on the table as you neared it, their own specific and special blend lingering towards one's nostrils almost in a teasing manner.Ment motioned to the table and the selection before Rylan.
"Most are heavy, strong scents, but we have a few that are a little lighter, but equally as decadent as the others," He commented, resting a hand near a pale blue liquid that smelled faintly of salt.
"My, there are still quite a few to choose from, aren't there?" Tapping a finger thoughtfully against her lips, she considered the options before her. "As I said, I'm not sure just what it is I'm looking for, so I suppose the only way to go about this is to do some sniffing, wouldn't you say?"
And with that she carefully plucked one of the tiny bottles from the table, the oil a pale yellow-gold. The liquid smelled strongly of spices and musk, and after considering for a moment, she placed the bottle carefully back in its place. Next she chose a deep ruby bottle, and repeated the process. She continued in this seemingly random manner, sometimes putting the bottle back in seconds, sometimes sniffing pensively for several minutes, before her eyes caught a glimpse of the oil resting next to the shopkeeper's hand.
It was a wonder she hadn't noticed it before; the blue stood out like a beacon among the deep reds and golds that dominated the table. Curiosity piqued, she picked it up and rolled it between her palms, watching the little bubbles at the top of the bottle as it moved. "This one's a rather odd color, are you sure it's in the right spot?" Stilling the motion of her hands, she brought the bottle to her face and peered closely at the tiny script on the label. "'Dragon's tears.' I suppose that does sound rather exotic, though somewhat depressing."
At first as she uncorked the bottle it seemed the faint smell of saltwater that lingered around it was all there was to the scent, and she was actually rather disappointed. Still, she took a second whiff, and this time caught the barest hint of something else that she just couldn't place. Like something quietly hiding under the water, just at the edge of your senses.
"...I think this one will do nicely."
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Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:02 pm
Lighting Prompt (Required to reach Lit Scent stage) You have just purchased an oil burner and a specific scented oil from the Solace Scents shop and you can't wait to light it! Now that you're home, it's time to find the perfect place to light that scent! However, strange things seem to happen when you do... particularly with the smoke...
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Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:15 pm
 By the time they returned home, Rylan had rather little time to prepare for her appointment, and so left Sophia in the foyer to take care of all the new purchases (not without some grumbling from the older woman).
Luckily the office was fairly tidy already, so it was simply a case of stuffing some stray papers into the nearest drawer, and emptying the trash basket of yesterday's rejected sketches. After a quick glance to make sure all was in order, she picked up aforementioned basket and headed back downstairs to take care of it.
Just as she passed back through the foyer, Sophia happened to be holding the little package from the incense store, about to put it away with the rest of the day's acquisitions.
"Oh! I'll take that one, don't worry about it." She took the bag from the older woman, then seemed to remember that she was still holding the waste basket. "Oh, do take care of this, won't you Sophia dear?" Leaving the basket on the floor, she whisked back up the stairs and to her office before the maid could object.
Setting the bag on the desk, she quickly but carefully unpacked burner, candle, and oil, and set everything up near the corner of her desk. After digging a small box of matches out of a drawer and lighting the candle, she made to toss the packaging away, then realized the trash basket was still downstairs. She wadded it up and was about to return downstairs, when there was a knock at the office door, and the butler calmly announcing that her potential client had arrived. A brief moment of panic ensued, before she hastily stuffed the garbage into the drawer with the remaining matches. Then, after taking a moment to smooth her hair and clothing, she called for them to enter, and held a hand out to the wealthy-looking middle-aged woman in the doorway.
"Welcome! Please, do have a seat, and tell me what I can do for you..."
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Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:39 pm
The oil burner from that charming little shop downtown was a wonderful purchase. The scent ended up being somewhat stronger once it was lit, I was quite surprised! Still, I found it most relaxing, and the little swirls of smoke are quite pretty. I'm not sure why I didn't think to get something like this for the house sooner! I'm almost tempted to go back tomorrow while I'm out and get more, but Sophia is so good about bringing fresh flowers in from the garden, and they smell so lovely that I certainly wouldn't want to overwhelm them. I do think I'll light the burner in the studio as I work though, perhaps it will bring inspiration.
-Rylan
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Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 4:45 pm
Awakening Prompt (Required To Reach Child stage) Having run into your last ounce of oil, you mournfully place it into it's burner and light it, letting the aroma spread throughout your home happily. ------ [For Those Who Want To RP Witnessing The Event]You leave for a moment, deciding you felt peckish after smelling something so wonderful, and grabbed a snack from your kitchen. When you return you witness something absolutely amazing. The end result of the incident being a child on the floor of the room. Describe the sight, and the reactions of both you and the child at the end of it all.------ [For Those Who Want To RP Finding The Child Only]Having remembered something you needed to do, you ran out of your home quickly, forgetting all about the burning oils inside. You return content, having completed your task only to find a small child wandering the halls of your home, leaving oily foot steps behind, leading to a cracked burner, and split candle wax. Describe your reaction, and how you deal with the oil tracking child.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 1:17 pm
It had been a quiet morning at the villa, and Sophia relished it. Earlier Rylan had swept out the door with a flourish and swirl of her coat, talking airily to no one in particular about an important lunch appointment to keep in town and dragging her brat of a nephew along to drive her to the city, and Sebastian was busy outside getting the gardens ready for the spring planting, leaving Sophia with the entire place to herself.
It was a wonderful feeling.
And perhaps best of all, without anyone underfoot she'd already finished most of her daily chores, and it was barely past two. With pleasant thoughts of spending the afternoon curled up with a cup of tea and a good book, she merrily pushed her little cart of cleaning supplies and fresh linens towards the last of the upstairs bedrooms.
Of course, the last job always does have to be the hardest. Tidying Rylan's bedroom was a daunting task any day of the week, even without her present to complain about her things being moved. If she'd just clean her own room... Abandoning that particularly frustrating train of thought, she took a deep breath and opened the door, bracing herself for whatever manner of mess awaited her today.
She wasn't prepared, however, for the mass of thick, bluish smoke that filled every corner of the room. It swirled and flowed like water, and smelled strange, but there was no heat or flickering light to indicate that a fire had started somehow. Concerned by the strangeness of the phenomenon, she pressed the edge of her apron over her nose and mouth and waded into the smog. It swirled and eddied around her as she bustled across the room to throw one of the windows open, though the smoke didn't seem to clear despite the breeze coming in. Figuring it would dissipate eventually, she turned back into the room and began looking for the source of the vile stuff. It didn't take her long to discover the culprit.
That incense burner. Rylan had been happily toting the thing around the house with her for the past week, oohing and aahing over it. It was a miracle she hadn't spilled the oil anywhere before this, but now the silly girl had run off to her appointment and left the candle burning- it had nearly burned itself out, but the oil must have overheated as it was billowing that foul smoke, and had started to bubble over and drip onto the dresser underneath. She scowled at the mess and blew out the candle, and stepped out into the hall for a moment to reach into her little cart for a cloth to soak up the spilt oil. Then she turned back into the room, and stopped dead in her tracks.
Big, dark eyes were staring back at her through the smoke.
She screamed.
It happened to be at that exact moment that Rylan walked through the front door, chattering away happily about the merits of wool vs. cotton to a rather stuffy-looking older gentleman, presumably another client. As the scream cut through the air she sighed deeply, looking altogether unconcerned, and turned towards her rather shocked company. "I'm terribly sorry, but I believe we'll have to reschedule. Another bat loose in the upstairs, no doubt. They must live somewhere on the grounds, and my maid, the poor dear, is scared absolutely to death of them."
She calmly pulled a little notebook and pen from her handbag and flipped through the dog-eared pages. "I'm afraid I'm booked rather solid this week, but I do have an opening on Friday and I must insist you join me for tea, as my apology for this inconvenience. There's a very respectable little café on main that serves the most amazing desserts, I'm sure a gentleman of your good taste would know of the place?" At his stiff nod of agreement, she scrawled a note on the appropriate page, and stuffed book and pen back into her purse before turning back to her guest. "I do thank you for your understanding, hold on just a moment and I'll show you back to your car. Sebastian!" The butler appeared seemingly out of nowhere with a polite bow. "Yes, Miss?" Already halfway to the door, she paused and called back over her shoulder, "Be a dear and go fetch the net, and meet me at the main stairs in a moment." She then very courteously showed her guest back to his waiting car, apologizing again and confirming the time of their meeting. The car then disappeared down the winding driveway, and she waited only a moment before turning back to the house.
When Rylan returned and reached the staircase Sebastian was already waiting, a long handled net in hand. He fell into step beside her as she started up the stairs and handed over the net when she made a demanding gesture, though he looked concerned. "Are you sure you should be trying to catch it yourself, Miss?" She waved her free hand dismissively as they reached the landing, and continued down the hall to where she could see Sophia's little cleaning cart, sitting abandoned. "Yes yes, I've managed it quite well enough before, you know. Besides, you couldn't see the poor thing if it flew right past your nose." He looked affronted, and huffed. "My eyesight is flawless, Miss!" "Of course it is Sebastian, of course it is. Now remember," she continued sternly, frowning slightly as she realized it was her own room the cart was parked near, "no matter what sort of screams you hear, do not open this door until I tell you to. I would not like to be chasing this one through the whole upstairs like last time." Ignoring the butler's somewhat guilty look at the reminder of that incident, she cracked the door open and slipped inside, shutting it quickly behind her.
As she slipped into the room, she nearly choked on the last wisps of the heavy smoke, but still her eyes automatically scanned the ceiling for the expected fuzzy black flying critter. What she did not expect to see was the little scaly child-thing being herded into the far corner of the room by the business end of Sophia's broom.
"Well," she said flatly, "You're not a bat."
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:04 am
It had taken several minutes, and more effort than she liked to admit, but finally Rylan had managed to pull Sophia away from the little intruder, and removed the broom from her grasp. "Now," she started, none too gently directing the irate maid towards the windows, "Let's get some fresh air in here, shall we?" Sophia scowled, and her gaze remained fixed on the thing huddled in the corner, but she did open the rest of the windows, though perhaps slightly more forcefully than was necessary. Both women watched as the little thing cautiously peeked out from the defensive ball it'd curled itself into and, determining that another round with the broom wasn’t imminent, slowly stood up.
Or, it would have, if it actually had legs.
Still, the odd creature managed to prop itself up against the walls on its stubby little tail, and even Rylan, who thrives on the unusual and eccentric, wasn't quite sure what to make of the thing. With the bright scales and pale fins, not to mention the tail, it didn't look anything like any child either woman had ever seen, and seemed to be behaving more like a cornered animal- little wonder, considering the force with which Sophia could swing that broom of hers. As they watched- Rylan curiously, and Sophia with something akin to pure malice- the fish-child matched the maid's nasty glare and shifted defensively further into the corner.
Rylan tilted her head at the little thing, and gave a reassuring smile. "Now now, there's no need to be frightened, I've disarmed the maid." She stifled a giggle at the stormy look said maid sent her way, and calmly perched on the edge of her bed- strategically placing herself between the two hostile parties. "My name is Rylan, I'm the lady of the house. I can't say that I'm sure why you're here, but don't you think we can discuss this like civilized people?" She took a moment to smooth out imaginary wrinkles in her skirt, and pointedly ignored Sophia's venomous mutter of "It's not a person at all!" "We are quite far from the City for you to have made it here on your own, surely whomever brought you here can be contacted to take you home?"
"Send it home?" Sophia barked, "You need a priest for that!"
"...As I was saying." Still ignoring the maid for the most part, she once again ran her hands across the cloth of her skirt- she never had been good at keeping her hands still. "Someone must have brought you here, could they be contacted to pick you up?"
At that, the child finally stopped glaring at Sophia and turned his full attention to Rylan. "You brought me here," he said quietly, still very much aware that he was walking on thin ice, especially with the broom-wielding harpy. As both women stared incredulously, he simply gestured towards the broken burner, still sitting on the dresser in a mess of wax and oil.
Unsurprisingly, Rylan hadn't paid it any notice as she entered, too distracted by the strange intruder. "Oh no, it's broken!" She sounded as though a favorite pet had died as she rushed over to the fallen trinket, and prodded miserably at the pieces.
Sophia's eyes, meanwhile, had widened in almost comic disbelief. "Rylan, give your head a shake! There's a monster in the house!" Her voice had gone just about shrill enough to shatter crystal, and she looked about ready to throttle the younger woman. "But I liked it!" she whined, "Did you break it?" The question was directed at both maid and child, and her gaze flickered between the two, unsure of which was more likely to be the culprit. Perhaps it had happened during the broom rampage?
Sophia huffed. "I certainly did not! You left it lit when you went for lunch, and it overheated or somesuch and boiled over, and it was spewing filthy smoke everywhere. When I came back in with a cloth to clean up your mess, that... that thing was sitting on the dresser!" She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself, with limited success. "The little beast must have come in through the window I opened to clear the smoke. It-"
"No." His voice was still quiet, but there was conviction in his tone, and that perhaps more than anything brought all attention back to him. "Please forgive me for interrupting, but-" he frowned, and looked Rylan straight in the eyes. "You did bring me here. I was there-" here he indicated the burner, "and then I was here, outside, and being assaulted by your cleaning staff." Unsurprisingly, he sounded rather sour about that last part. "I know it was you from your voice." He paused, brow furrowed as he recalled those vague early memories. "You were speaking to another woman the first time I heard you. I do not recall the name you called her by, but you were speaking about clothing of some sort."
Even as Sophia scoffed again, Rylan blinked at the creature, eyes slightly wide. "...The first time I lit the burner, I had an appointment with Mrs. Keller about an evening gown." That got a moment of silence even from Sophia, but she soon recovered. "You can not seriously be considering this. That-" "You call me a liar!? How dare you!"
Rylan seemed to have noticed something however, and promptly tuned out the rest of the argument as she examined the broken trinket. The glass cup had cracked down the side and the edge was chipped in several places, but the burner itself appeared in fairly good shape, laying on its side in a small pool of partially hardened wax and spilt oil. It was the oil that had caught her notice, smeared all the way across the dresser's surface away from the burner itself. On closer examination, the oily smudges did continue to the floor, in wide, irregular trails accompanied by shallow scratches in sets of five- claw marks, her mind supplied.
At this point, she there wasn't really any doubt in her mind that the trail across the floor would lead to the corner that the little creature still occupied. Nonetheless, first her eyes, then her feet followed, until she could kneel down in front of him. Ignoring how he shrank back slightly at her approach, she leaned in a bit and... Sniffed the air? "Well," she acknowledged, "You do smell like the oil."
That got another snort out of Sophia. "The beast must have bathed in the stuff, I can smell it from here!" Rylan shot her a slightly cross look over her shoulder, "There were hardly three drops left when I lit it this morning, so do tell me how all this could have come from just tipping the burner over." Because really, it did look- and smell- like the little thing had bathed in the stuff.
"So," she began, returning her attention to the odd child and sounding remarkably matter-of-fact considering the circumstances, "You came from the oil burner, is what you're trying to tell us?" He nodded, seemingly calmer now that he was being taken even a little bit seriously. "That is correct."
Rylan raised a hand to silence Sophia before the maid could even get a word out. "Well, I must admit this is not quite what I expected to get for my 36 pieces. And a good deal more excitement than I had planned for this afternoon." He had the grace to look somewhat ashamed at that. "It was not my intention to frighten you, please accept my apologies." As the words left his mouth, the dragon child pressed his palms together in front of his chest and bowed to the pair, as well as he could without being able to really stand. Upon seeing this, Rylan clapped her hands together in absolute glee. "Oh, he's so polite! How adorable!"
Sophia's jaw simply dropped. "Are you MAD!?"
She ignored that outburst as well, and without any regard for propriety started to comb through the tangled mess the broom had made of his hair. "She really did make a mess of you, poor thing." She tsked slightly as she pulled a broken piece of the broom's straw from his hair, flicking it to the floor carelessly.
He didn't quite manage to hide his flinch at her touch, either uncomfortable with the invasion of his personal space, or perhaps just wary after the beating from the broom. "Please, there is no need for you to trouble yourself." He hesitated to try brushing her hands away, aware of just how sharp his claws were, and not particularly wanting to hurt the one who didn't want to throw him out the window.
It was soon a moot point, however, as Rylan seemed to decide that her fingers were not the ideal tool to sort out the bird's nest. "Well, this just won't do." She tapped her chin in thought, almost idly realizing that they were covered in a thin film of the fragrant oil. "Yes, we'll have to get you tidied up..." She tapped her chin a few more times as she glanced around the room, then stood from her crouch and started poking through the contents of the chest at the end of her bed, eventually coming up with a plain, but soft looking blanket. When she returned to her spot in front of the boy she promptly settled the blanket over his shoulders, tucking it up around him as best she could while he was still sitting in the corner. "We'll have to have another talk of course, and try to figure out this right mess, but there's time enough for that another day. For today, let's draw you a nice bath in one of the guest rooms, and try to sort out the right mess that's your hair at the moment, alright?"
The mention of a bath seemed to get his attention more than anything, so he nodded his assent and sat calmly while she fussed with the blanket a bit more, then lifted him into her arms and started for the door.
The moment before the pair left the room, he flashed a triumphant, sharp-toothed smile over his new guardian's shoulder, for no reason other than to aggravate the maid, before they swept dawn the hallway, and past the rather shocked butler.
When Rylan returned to her room some time later, Sophia was still standing in exactly the spot she'd occupied for the prior conversation, only now she was scowling at the oily smears left on the floor, rather than the creature who'd left them, and despite the temporary absence of said individual, it didn't look like she'd take kindly to being spoken to at the moment.
Rylan, however, never did have much of a sense for such things.
She took a few steps into the room, peering at the slick marks that currently held the maid's ire. "They shouldn't be terribly difficult to clean up, most are just on the hardwood, and I don't think the scratches are deeper than the wax. And the rug can be replaced, should it come to that." Sophia's thunderous look only darkened. "I think it's your mind that should be repla-" she cut herself off mid-sentence, disbelief over what she was seeing almost winning out over her anger.
Rylan, the eccentric, spoiled, queen of lazy, was cleaning up.
She'd brought a small cardboard box with her when she'd reentered the room, though with the mood she was in Sophia had paid it little mind, and was now carefully placing the pieces of the broken oil burner inside. When even the burnt-out little stump of candle was placed inside, she closed up the box and turned to leave again, pausing momentarily at the door. "If you don't think the rug will come clean, do let me know so I can go into town and choose a new one tomorrow." And with that she was out the door and down the hall, leaving Sophia alone with the mess once again. She sighed, suddenly feeling more drained than anything else, and began the task of wiping up the oily smudges.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:09 am
As surprising as his appearance here was, I find him quite endearing, and certainly the most well-mannered child I've ever met. Sophia thinks me mad, but this is hardly anything new. She's begun insulting my mental capacity again, but the fact that she's speaking at all means she's beginning to cool off. About the only thing we've managed to agree upon since is that another visit to the scent shop is in order. I suspect that she hopes they'll take him back, though with the sheer number of bottles in there I'd imagine that stylish young man would have his hands quite full.
I'd be rather disappointed if they did want him back, to be perfectly honest. I suppose that is a bridge that must be crossed if it comes, though I will hope for the best.
-Rylan
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 12:20 pm
-Incomplete-
You could cut the tension in the car with a knife.
Even though the return trip to the little oil shop had been agreed upon unanimously, absolutely nothing could lessen the sheer amount of animosity contained within that vehicle. Mostly between Sophia, seated in the front passenger seat beside the driver, her thoroughly confused nephew, and the little houseguest, seated in the back with his self-appointed guardian.
Of course, it didn't help matters any when the scaly little beast, held protectively against Rylan's side and bundled in a soft wool blanket, would smile triumphantly every time he caught Sophia's eye in the rear view mirror.
Luckily, the hour-long drive to the city passed relatively quickly, and before any bloodshed could occur the sleek black vehicle was pulling up in front of its destination. Sophia was out of her seat almost before the car stopped rolling, and was left tapping her foot impatiently as Rylan fussed over her charge, pulling one edge of the blanket around his face like a hood and tucking the rest carefully around his tail before picking him up and climbing out of the car as the driver held the door open. "Thank you Stefan, you're a darling. This shouldn't take long I'd imagine, do just wait here and we'll be back shortly."
"Good." With an expression that could curdle milk, Sophia waited for Rylan to step towards the shop first, though in this case it seemed more likely that she refused to show her back to the dragon-thing, rather than respectfully letting her employer walk ahead. "Now we can finally be rid of the thing."
The young lady paused suddenly, a cheeky grin spreading across her face. "Sophia dear, you really must pay closer attention." She shifted slightly to free one of her hands, and pointed to a sign in the front window. "The sign rather clearly says no returns." Then she employed her standard defensive tactic: darting into the store in question before the maid could explode.
"Hello~" she called out into the familiar rows of shelves. "Young man with the charming hat? Are you here?"
Ment was indeed there, though it wasn't him who Rylan encountered first, but the teenage boy's mother, Olivia. Turning on her heel, Olivia faced Rylan with a smile, putting down what she had been working on to address the woman, "Welcome, is there anything I can help you with?"
Ment was in the back room taking inventory, checking their current shipment of oils for any cracks or leaks or damage of any kind. Lately a few of their shipments looked as if they had been vandalized, though Olivia didn't worry so much that someone was trying to hurt them as she did that someone was out to ruin their business. No business, no livelihood after all.
Rylan blinked twice in surprise, then shook her head slightly. Of course there would be other people working at the shop, it was silly to think that one teenager was all the staff the place had. "Oh dear, I'm sorry. I feel rather foolish, but I was expecting to see the adorable young man who helped me when I was here last."
She glanced back over her shoulder as the door opened again and Sophia slipped inside, but luckily she remained silent, standing beside the door with her arms crossed and scowling. Seeing that she wasn't going to make a scene, Rylan turned back to the storekeep, smiling. "She's with me, so please don't mind her. Anyways," Here she idly twirled a lock of her chestnut brown hair around a finger- it was unlikely she realized how ditzy it made her look. "Not two weeks ago I happened upon your charming little shop, and I just couldn't bring myself to leave without buying something. The young man who was working at the time, he was most helpful~." She had to pause for a second here to shift the bundle of dragon-thing, still concealed in the mass of blanket and making faces over her shoulder at the irate maid by the door. "But you see, when I ran out of oil, the strangest thing happened. Unfortunately I was out of the house at the time, but I was so hoping that someone here could shed some light on the whole affair."
Olivia put down what she was working on and scratched at her neck a tad, a sigh coming over her. It had been awhile since she had to have this talk with anyone, mostly people who acquired these mysterious little children had managed to simply find each other and turn up at her shop and local functions. She definitely didn't feel like explaining this one out, so she made a glance towards the back room as Rylan finished her sentence.
"Mnn. Yes. I believe who you're looking for is Ment, my son. I'll get him for you. One moment please, "Olivia smiled, heading towards the back room where her white haired teenager presided.
Several words were exchanged hastily and Ment came sauntering out with a gigantic smile on his face fixing his hat which was practically falling off his head as if it had been knocked off.
"Hello there. 'Livia said something strange happened with your purchase?" He questioned politely.
Rylan grinned herself upon seeing him- that hat really was too adorable for words. "Hello again!~" she chirped, "Your- mother? Really? She looks fantastic for a woman with a child your age- anyways," here she paused again to adjust her grip, "I suppose I'll cut right to the point. Is it terribly common for monster-children to appear from your wares?"
She still didn't bother to show her burden's appearance- after all, she had no way of knowing that they didn't all look like him. "It was really quite a shock, poor Sophia there nearly had a heart-attack when he appeared. There really should be a warning label or somesuch, wouldn't you say?"
Ment scratched behind his ear at Rylan's words. Warning label, that's a good one, he thought to himself before speaking, "Well if we placed warning labels on our wares about magical children spouting out of them, we'd get no business. People would think we're nutters."
Ment gave a nervous chuckle before seriously answering Rylan's questions about the Scent child in question she had obtained through her purchase. He also wondered where the child was, as usually they were brought along by the guardian, thrusted into the shop, and questioned relentlessly about while they were sitting there disgruntled or confused.
"Well ma'am, truth of the matter is we don't exactly know. We've have had several people come back with fragrant children, such as myself, sprouting from the oils, but out of all the ones we've sold over the years it's been a rather small minority of them. That's kind of why we have the no refunds sticker on our window..." He chuckled.
She rested her free hand on her chin in thought for a moment, before nodding slowly. "It is somewhat farfetched, I suppose. I'd hardly believe it myself, if there were any other explanation."
She remained in her thoughts a little too long, however, and only half-heard his short explanation. She came back to the present abruptly as he mentioned the no refunds sign, and actually laughed. "Oh dear no, I don't want to return him! He may be a curious little creature, but he's the most well-mannered little thing I've ever me-" She cut herself off abruptly as the rest of his words finally filtered into her mind.
"Wait. Did you say you? You came from an oil? Young man, I mean no offence, but you look rather-" she waved her free hand around somewhat frantically as she searched for the right word. "-Normal."
It also seemed that the conversation was finally more interesting than making faces at the maid, as the blanket-covered bundle turned his head towards Rylan slightly, though not enough for Ment to see his features. "Please," his voice was quiet, but not unsure. "Looks matter little, did you not say?"
Ment couldn't help giggle at the prospect of looking normal. Maybe there were more teenage boys wandering the streets in witch hats, riding candy-cane brooms and wearing skirts than he thought there was, but him actually being normal? It sounded all like nonsense to him. I mean sure, he probably resembled normal people but no normal people resembled him that he was aware of.
"Us Scents are all unique in our own special way," Ment smiled, "I may look more closely to regular people, but I'm anything but. How many people do you know who constantly smell like peppermint?"
Ment gave off a chuckle, before noting the blanketed bundle talking before them. He was right, looks mattered very little.
"The oil children I've met come in all shapes and sizes. There's a teenage girl I know, Vanyel, she looks 'normal' like I do. Than there's another, Kaoru, who has trees sprouting from her shoulders and bark growing on her face. She's really pretty though..."
...
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:04 pm
 Fortunately for everyone, the drive back to the villa was considerably more relaxed. Even Sophia, though clearly not happy, seemed to have expected the outcome of the trip, and was only marginally surlier than before. Still, everyone was thankful that it wasn't long before they pulled up in the drive and piled out of the car, Rylan taking a few moments longer to fuss with the blankets wrapped around her little charge.
She wasted little time in starting towards the house, chattering away happily as she went. "You can stay in the same room if you like or pick one of the other guest rooms, though to be frank there's not much of a difference. The view over the gardens is the nicer view, if you ask me." He didn't seem to care much- he spent most of his time lounging in the bathtub anyways. "The room from before will be fine. I do not wish to trouble you more than necessary." She scoffed, though her smile showed it to be in good humor. "This isn't a bother dear, so perish the thought. There is little in life I enjoy more than an excuse to redecorate. We'll take another trip into town in the next few days so you can pick out some things you might like, and we'll figure out the rest from there." She lapsed into a brief silence, likely running a mental list of things they'd need to buy...
She suddenly stopped dead in the middle of the driveway. "You need a name!" Just a slightly important detail to have overlooked, that. "What would you like to be called, dear?" He blinked. "Do mothers not usually name their children?" This translated roughly to mean that he had no idea, hadn't thought about it, and didn't want to admit as much. He got a very undignified squeal and a tight hug in return. "You just called me 'mother'! Oh, you're just so cute!" Probably not quite what he'd meant, but it didn't look like she could be dissuaded at this point.
She was still absolutely beaming when they finally reached the door, Sebastian having appeared seemingly out of nowhere to hold it open. "You're certainly right, however most children are too small at the time to have any say in the matter at all. As you're a bit of a special circumstance in that regard, you should certainly be allowed to make your own choice. Wouldn't you like to choose what the world will know you by?"
Well, when she put it that way. "...I would. However I do not now any names aside from those living here, so I would humbly request your assistance." That had her grinning like a loon all over again. "I'd absolutely love to help! We'll find you the perfect name!" She turned back towards the door, where Sophia and Stephan had just entered. "Stephan dear, would you be a darling and fetch something up from the cellar for me?"
The driver blinked and raised a dark eyebrow in mild confusion. "Sure, Miss. What is it you want out of there? Celebratory bottle of wine?" As baffled as he was by the whole situation, anything that pissed his aunt off to this degree was worth celebrating in his books- in fact, that very comment had been enough to send Sophia stomping off towards the kitchen muttering angrily. +10 points.
Rylan raised a hand to hide her snigger at Sophia's exit. "That wasn't quite what I had in mind, no, though now that you've mentioned it, do feel free to choose something you'd like to drink with dinner. I may have a small glass to mark the occasion." She absently returned both hands to the task of holding the little boy when his balance teetered slightly- he didn't seem to want to put his claws near her, even to hold on. "What I'd actually like you to bring me are a box or two of Father's old books- ones labeled 'Language/Culture', specifically. I recall several that make mention of naming conventions and the like, I'm sure we'll be able to find some good ideas for a name. Nothing common or plain would suit him, so we'll have to do a bit of searching. We'll go sit in the parlor I think, it's a comfortable enough spot to settle in for the evening."
After Stephan nodded and left to embark on his box hunt, Rylan proceeded down the opposite hallway and into the parlor. After setting her charge down on one end of the sofa- including the prerequisite amount of fussing with the blankets, and repeated inquiries about his comfort- she then proceeded to start shuffling things around to her liking, and clearing the knickknacks off the coffee table to create some workspace.
She had just finished dragging the heavy table closer when Stephan appeared with a fairly large box in hand. Huffing slightly, he plopped it down as gently as he could manage beside the table. "Sorry if you wanted more than one box Miss, but there was just no way. I barely got back up that death-trap staircase as it is." She waved a hand dismissively, and after settling down on the couch, set to opening the dusty cardboard flaps. "This should do fine, we'll certainly be occupied for a good while with just these, thank you." Stephan nodded in acknowledgement, then promptly fled the room before she could decide she did want a second box.
A couple hours passed as they slowly but surely worked their way through the stacks of books, broken occasionally by one or the other asking to be passed a book (mostly the boy), random exclamations of good possibilities (mostly Rylan), and a few almost heated debates about the languages and naming conventions of various far-flung cultures (a shared effort). By the time they'd picked through the last of the tomes, a few laid on the table before them, sorted by the language in question, with small pieces of ribbon that Rylan had found somewhere marking the promising pages. Though Rylan's choices made up the majority of the stack, there were a few choices the little boy had made himself, though he didn't look terribly satisfied. She noticed this as she flicked through several of his selections (all with meanings like gold, gem, wealth, silver... There seemed to be a pattern here.) "Didn't you find anything you liked? Some of these would be a lovely name." He shook his head. "They are pleasant words, but not enough so to be a name, no." She hummed thoughtfully, tapping a finger against her lip. "Perhaps a combination then? Two-part names are not terribly uncommon." He looked skeptical, but eventually nodded anyways.
At that point, Rylan pretty much just started stringing words together to see how they sounded, sometimes stumbling slightly over the pronunciations the books provided, and waiting for some sign of approval. This continued for a fairly long time, with every combination summarily rejected by the boy with a frown and a shake of his head, until even Rylan's optimism was beginning to falter. She was down to the last combinations she could come up with (without starting to ignore the meanings and string them together at random), when she was stopped by a very careful poke to her arm. "The last one. Repeat it please?" She did. He thought about it for a long moment, mouthing the words soundlessly to himself several times, before nodding firmly. "Yes, that one."
For a moment she only blinked, a bit surprised at the positive response after so many failed suggestions, then her face split into a grin and she promptly scooped him into her lap and hugged him tightly, ignoring the slightly disgruntled look it earned her.
"Welcome home, Jiang-Chen."
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:12 pm
Apparently the little oil shop has this problem intermittently, so I wasn't the first to return with odd questions. Regardless, they didn't try to take him back- quite the opposite, in fact. I think even Sophia expected that- she was certainly crabby, but compared to what I've seen out of her this was a mild tantrum. I suspect she'll be making her thoughts about this known for a good long while yet. I have never met anyone who can hold a grudge like that woman.
After returning home we spent the evening in the parlor trying to find a name for the little dear. A whole box of books and several hours later, and even I was beginning to despair that we'd never find one, but in the end he did make a choice. Jiang-Chen, meaning 'river gem'- I think it's a lovely name, but mostly I'm just glad that we could find one that he liked.
The guest room he's been staying in the past few days is now officially his, and I've given him some things that I've never found a use for, just so he has at least a few things to call his own until we can go to town for a proper shopping trip. A pretty cloth-bound journal that I'd never written in, and a pair of fancy glass bottles that caught his eye. They'd just been gathering dust on a shelf in the parlor, and from the way he was staring, I think it a safe bet that he'll appreciate them a great deal more than anyone else here.
It's a bit strange, I'll admit. I never thought my life was particularly boring, until this week happened. I would be a liar though if I said I wasn't terribly excited about the whole thing!
-Rylan
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:15 pm
Is that how one normally begins such things? This journal is the first gift I have received since I came to be here. I am told it is considered therapeutic to commit ones thoughts to paper, though the entire household is baffled by my ability to read and write when, for all intents and purposes, I am under a week old. It is simply something I know, and I do not particularly care to dwell on it.
In any case, I seem to have found myself in a fortunate situation. The lady of the house, though odd, is fond of me, and that has eased a great many of the problems I could have been faced with. I am grateful for her hospitality, and she is pleasant company, if slightly overbearing at times. She seems particularly pleased when I address her as 'Mother', which strikes me as strange given our respective appearances and lack of real relation, but it is in my best interests to remain in her good graces, so I am willing to indulge an oddity or two.
My position is... less certain with the rest of the household. The barbarian maid and I remain on mutually hostile terms- I do not anticipate this will change. The other two, the driver and the butler, are less predictable. The driver seems to enjoy anything that angers the maid, which may be to my advantage, but it is too early to tell. I have seen very little of the butler- I am told he spends a great deal of his time working in the greenhouse at this time of year.
I have decided that for now the best course of action is quiet observation. Though I believe I am unlikely to be thrown out at this point, I do not wish to make things difficult for myself so early on.
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:05 pm
 The night was cool, humid and windy from the recent fall rains. The waterways running through the upscale shopping district ran high, another heavy storm and they would peak the walk-way banks and flood, though it didn't seem to bother the thick blue-haired child.
The soles of her mary-jane shoes pitter-patted against the cobbled stone on the ground, and her long coat swished against her sides as she walked. She was on her way to somewhere, anywhere; where she was going she wasn't quite sure but she knew she had to go there. Really she was just following her feelings.
A gust of wind shot through the the street, causing Tevadi to stop for a brief moment and close her eyes. The debris from the leaves dropping and the plants dying was being kicked around by these storms, and with the abrupt winds getting things in your eyes was inevitable.
It was such a rare occasion that he was allowed to wander at night- living so far from the city was a bother at times- that when his mother had to attend a dinner party late into the evening, Jiang had wheedled until she agreed to let him roam the streets until she was finished.
The unpleasant weather meant it was a quiet night- though people rarely saw him anyways when he took to the waterways, only an occasional flash of scales between the mats of dead leaves that clogged the surface of the water- most of the citizens were safe and warm inside their homes however, and Jiang was enjoying the chance to see the city without being bothered by passers-by, well-intentioned or otherwise.
So when he paused at a corner and peered above the surface to judge his location, he was surprised to see a girl standing alone in the street a few feet away. He watched her for a moment as she shut her eyes against a gust of wind, before deciding there would be no harm in announcing his presence. She looked about his age, after all, and he'd recently found that he rather liked meeting other people.
"Good evening." He leaned his elbows on the edge of the waterway, after sweeping away several soggy, dead leaves. "Are you out to enjoy the peace as well?"
Tevadi jumped at the sound of another's voice, her hair standing on end and causing more of a mohawk effect in her hair than she already had. With hands in her pockets, she peered around looking for the source of the voice that had greeted her only to notice the boy leaning himself up against the edges of the waterway.
"I..." Tevadi trailed off as another gust of wind swept by, her hair sweeping to the side of her head, "I am searching for somebody. Someone I do not know."
Tevadi's pale skin twinkled against the light given off by the street lamps and nearby shop windows. She approached the edge of the the waterway with hesitation and crouched down in front of the boy before her, starring intently into his eyes.
"Like me, right? You're like me."
White eyebrows rose in something halfway between surprise and disbelief, and briefly Jiang wondered if he hadn't just started up a conversation with a crazy after all. "I would imagine it is difficult to find someone you are not acquainted with. It is hardly my place to pry, but surely you have a reason to undertake such a task?" It was unusually forward of him to ask such a question, but it was the middle of the night, and the girl may or may not be nuts- for once, he'd let his curiosity win out.
He shifted slightly as the girl approached, taking his weight off his elbows and laying his hands across the cobblestones instead, black claws nearly invisible in the shadows. Her question sent his eyebrows nearly up to his hairline, the eyes beneath narrowing slightly in suspicion. "That would depend on what you mean, I suppose. We do not look terribly alike, as you can tell." He met her stare evenly, dark eyes against dark eyes.
"But I do not believe that is what you mean, is it."
Tevadi made a face and went quiet. She was weary of this boy, and though she had no reason to be she was. What if he was associated with her? Her paranoia would be founded and she would do well to conceal herself. On the other hand, he didn't display any signs of being in association, if he was he would know her and would not look so surprised by her words.
"They intend to lock her up," She murmured quietly, "I do not know her but they said they would lock her up. I have to warn her."
Tevadi went from weary to concerned and quiet once more, all within a matter of seconds. One would think she was crazy if it wasn't for the fact she was not. She was worried, truly worried, and the worry in her mind consumed her.
She looked back meeting his gaze again and whispered, "My meaning...You smell, and I smell, but we do not smell like they smell. People. We are not people like they are people."
She reached out hesitantly pointing at the boy's horns, "People don't have those."
Her strange, changing demeanor sent his eyes narrowing even further. Either the girl was nuts, or something was very, very wrong. "Please do not take offense, but I must ask: this person of whom you speak, has she done anything to deserve being locked up?" Whatever the answer, Jiang was starting to get the distinct feeling that this just might be the sort of trouble his mother always told him not to get into.
Contradicting his previous suspicion, her 'explanation' actually made him smile, though it was more a smirk than a truly happy expression. "Alike yet different, I suppose. The people here," He made a sort of sweeping gesture to indicate the city at large, "They have very narrow minds, do they not?" He pointed right back, at the girl's long, pointed ears. "People do not have those, either, if that logic is to be followed."
Tevadi shook her head no to Jiang's question. The truth was she didn't know herself if this woman had done a single thing wrong. It didn't sound like it, especially since they were trying to dig up information on her to bring her in. If she did something wrong wouldn't they already have information on her and already have brought her in?
Tevadi furrowed her brows as if in thought at Jiang's question, "I...don't know. I've never seen their minds. You can't tell if they're narrow unless they're outside their heads."
As she shook her head, he nodded, pleased by the response. "If that is indeed the case, then it is a truly noble task you have set yourself to." At least he wasn't dealing with criminals here in the middle of the night.
He tilted his head slightly at her reasoning, one brow arched in a somewhat arrogant fashion. "You can see their minds in their actions, can you not? Are people who look different treated as people? Are you?" Here he paused, a deep frown settling over his features.
"Because I am rarely afforded such respect."
Tevadi blinked at him, her expression turning to puzzlement, and than to a reserved sort of pain. She attempted to mask it best she could because she hated remembering it, and hated feeling it; she hated it. All the people who promised her homes and they all went away and left her alone.
"I don't know...I haven't...lived with people. I was alone."
She sat there for a moment, thinking to herself, And now I am a prisoner.
Well, that was awkward. He grimaced, and glanced away to the side. "Please accept my apologies, it was insensitive of me to speak without knowing of your circumstances." He let his gaze wander the deserted street, purposely keeping his eyes away from the girl. "You must be very strong of character to have lived without the aid of others." He hoped the complement would smooth over the hurt in her expression- truthfully, he had no idea what it would be like to live alone. No vicious maids, at the very least.
"It's ok..." She murmured, shaking her head to relinquish the terrible thoughts from it. She scratched her head for a moment, the dark blue hair glistening in the light of the street lamps and star light. She had forgotten what it was she was talking about, having gotten distracted by this conversation.
As she starred half at Jiang, half through Jiang the sound of foot steps coming down the supposedly vacant street caught her attention and cause she her whip around to see who it was. It was a small group of men, two or three of them, with flash lights waving them down one alley to the next as if searching for something or someone.
These men put a scare into Tevadi that was written clearly on her face. If it wasn't for her already pale skin, you'd think she had gone white with fear. The girl panicked, shove Jiang by his shoulders down into the water, whispering urgently, "Get down! Get down! Before they see you!"
The girl quickly joined the half-dragon half-fish boy in the water, quickly holding her breath and dunking down deep into the water, her hair and her body looking almost as if she was melting into it.
He was about to protest the abrupt shove, probably with a loud statement about personal space, but her fervent whisper and subsequent plunge into the water next to him convinced him to leave the tirade for another time. Probably better that he remain unseen himself, anyways.
He gracefully let himself slip back into the water, and nudged a large mass of floating leaves over their heads to better hide them. It was more for his benefit- he may be the one able to breathe down here, but his coloration wasn't exactly made for camouflage. He glanced over at his companion and, though he knew she couldn't answer him at the moment, whispered quietly. "I would greatly appreciate a more detailed explanation, once those men have passed."
Tevadi nodded her head to Jiang slightly as the men walked by. One stopped to flash his light down onto the water-way only to see the pile of leaves that was covering them, though the reflecting light caused Tevadi to shrink farther down into the water in hopes of not being seen.
After several more minutes the men were finally gone and Tevadi had ruled it safe in her mind to surface. She scrambled up to the surface, giving off a gasp as she tried to regain oxygen into her system. It didn't matter if she was dubbed Midnight Cove, she still didn't have gills no matter how many times she sank into the water. She'd learn this eventually.
She waited for the fish/dragon-boy to resurface before frantically blubbering a thousand and one apologies to him hoping he wouldn't be a million times angry.
He surfaced somewhat more slowly- not having to worry about air helped- and took several moments to pick the soggy leaves out of his hair before paying any attention to the frantic stream of apologies bubbling from the girl's mouth.
Once he considered himself presentable again- though he still looked fairly irate, he calmly held up a hand to stop her speech. "Your lack of decorum is astonishing, but given your apparent situation, I will accept your apologies. Under one condition." He paused briefly to remove a last stubborn leaf that had stuck itself on one of his horns, then leveled her with a piercing stare.
"You fear discovery by those men- why?"
Tevadi averted her gaze. She didn't like the look he gave her, it was similar to that terrible woman's back at the manor. Despite the chills resonating down her spine from his stare, and her wet and cold body she answered quietly and slowly, "They're...trying to stop me...from finding that woman."
She looked back towards him, though not at his eyes, instead she had contented herself with counting the matching scales on the boy's face. Black and orange, black and orange, shiny from the water.
"I ran away from there...Because they wanted me to help get information on her," She paused for a brief moment, "And I won't do it...I'd rather sit in his jail cell for stealing the bread than help him hurt that woman."
As she spoke, his eyes slowly narrowed further, but rather than his previous glare, his brow was furrowed in thought. This wasn't quite what he'd been expecting. Homeless or poor children stealing food wasn't uncommon, or so he'd been told, but everything came back to this mystery woman, and what she had or hadn't done. To be letting people out of prison to search for her, even petty child-thieves, meant the militia must have some stake in this. The militia whom he had been told, in no uncertain terms, to avoid at all costs- magic was outlawed after all, and if anyone had looks that screamed 'magic creature!', it was him. "This woman," he murmured, almost to himself, "what could she possibly have done to provoke such a search...?"
Tevadi pipped up to his question, even though it was not directed at her and was more of an after thought than anything, "I heard them say...That she is responsible for us being here. She's the one who sold us to our guardians...If you have one anyway..."
Tevadi proceeded to take off the coat she had been wearing, in attempts to ring it out. It was heavy from the water and in the cool air was making her most uncomfortable, though it didn't matter much as her clothes underneath were equally as wet.
"If I am a cove, why do I get wet?" She muttered to herself while she assumed Jiang was in thought. It was extremely uncommon for the girl to be so vocal, but these were uncommon times, and uncommon circumstances and in her search for this mystery woman she had taken to having to approach people.
Well, that jerked him out of his thoughts quickly enough. "What? Do you mean the oil shop?" He blinked at her, slightly wide-eyed. "I have been there. Mother brought me when she wished to ask about my 'birth', so to speak." His brow furrowed once again- if they were after someone at the shop, how long before they started chasing the people who originated there? Before they started chasing him? He sank slightly lower in the water, and glanced quickly down the street. His next words were a mere whisper, as though fearing the men from before would reappear at the slightest noise. "Are the only after the shop? Are we next?"
Fortunately or not, her next statement was just absurd enough to distract him slightly from his paranoia, and he raised his head again to give her an incredulous look. "How could you possibly be a cove, when you are clearly a person? Even if you were- a cove is always wet, is it not?"
"I was told I was a cove, a midnight cove," Tevadi answered, his previous comments escaping her frame of thought until she was satisfied with the amount of thought she put into this concept in her mind. "Maybe because I am a cove I invite the wetness..."
Tevadi made a face at this, before getting quiet once more. Jiang's previous comments had finally sunk into her mind and she quietly puttered around trying to remember things. She had been so focused on this woman from the oil shop that she couldn't remember exactly if they were after people like.... like them. She made another face and looked away.
"... I don't remember," She said quietly, "But they took some of us off the streets. Those of us who don't have homes."
That got her another odd look, and several blinks of confusion, before it suddenly occurred to him. "Oh, do you mean what you smell like- your oil?" He wasn't particularly fond of identifying himself that way, even to other scents , but he couldn't think of anything else she could be talking about. "Mine is dragon’s tears." He said, looking slightly sour- dragon's tears just didn't sound all that impressive, no matter how you looked at it. "I am Jiang-Chen." It wasn’t necessarily the wisest idea to introduce yourself to someone pursued by god-only-knows-who, but at this point it probably mattered little. If she'd fled prison and hidden out in the streets to warn someone she'd never met, he didn't think she’d give him up if she were caught.
He waited quietly while she seemed to wrack her memory, though the fact that the answer wasn't an immediate 'no' made him assume the worst. "…I see." He was fortunate in more ways than one to live as he did, it seemed. "It would attract far less attention, taking only those without homes. Nonetheless, this fails to make me feel safer." It wasn't that big a step up, in his mind, to go from taking odd kids off the street to taking odd kids out of homes.
"Tevadi," She said, pointing to herself briefly before commenting on Jiang's horns, "They're what make you a dragon, right?"
She shot out a hand to touch them curiously, but re-thought mid-grab and pulled her hand back quickly. He may not like that, and he already seemed upset with what she had said so there was no reason to make him any madder.
"Maybe... maybe," Tevadi started before trailing off into something else. "I should go. I need to find the lady in the oil shop. I need to go tell her about what they said. If I don't bad things are going to happen to her."
Tevadi got up and stretched a short bit, ringing out her coat once more, though her clothes still dripped heavily from the water that drenched them through and through. She did not want to be here if they came back. And she certainly did not want to get Jiang in trouble for being around her if they found her.
He acknowledged her introduction with a bow of his head. "It is a pleasure to meet you Tevadi, despite the circumstances." As he lifted his head, he couldn't quite manage to stop himself from twitching away from her outstretched hand, so it was just as well that she also withdrew. It seemed that she wasn't going to mention the near-breach of personal space however, so he decided to leave it be and answer her question. "Having these things-" he paused to make a vague gesture encompassing horns and scales and fins- "Does not make me a dragon. I have them because I am a dragon." If she could talk in circles about being a cove, then he felt entitled to vague statements about his own nature. If she didn't quite get it, then at least they'd both been confused at least once over the course of the evening.
The mention of the oil shop brought his own anxiety back to the front of his mind, and he subconsciously sank just a tiny bit lower into the water. "I do not know if it will help, but the shop is called Solace Scents. I have only visited once, and we traveled there by vehicle, I do not know the way." He frowned, trying to recall any landmarks along the way, but coming up short. That had been before he started becoming familiar with the city, and for most of the ride he'd been making faces at the maid rather than looking out the windows. He was almost regretting that choice now. "I recall it was on a small street, but little else I am afraid."
"... I like your horns," She said quietly, before facing away from him as he indicated that though he had been to the shop in question, he couldn't recall the way.
The small amount of information Jiang did provide Tevadi was extremely useful, whether he knew it or not. The small roads were down in the poor district, where traveling by foot was most common and the only way towards the markets were by the public transit trolleys. It meant she would start he search down there and look for the shop called 'Solace Scents'. It was definitely a start for her.
"Thank you for your help, Jiang-chen." Tevadi looked back to him, her pale blue-ish tinted skin showing a small pink twinge from her appreciation of Jiang's help. "I need to go now... I... Yes. I need to go. It was very nice meeting a dragon."
Without another word, Tevadi turned away from him once more and made off quickly. She had spotted another flash of light rounding a corner uphill from them, and she was in panic mode now. Almost out of sight down an alleyway she tripped, her still damp coat falling to the ground with a slush. Scrambling up, she went to grab for it but thought better of it and merely left it behind as she ran.
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:31 pm
I was finally permitted, after weeks of convincing and a great deal of effort, to remain in the city after dark for a few hours. I had hoped that the night would be a more peaceful time to see the city, as long as I remained far from the establishments where the unsavory gather. While I would not say that it was someone unsavory who found me this evening, the news they brought was alarming.
I met a girl, who will remain unnamed in these pages, who told me something of the circumstances surrounding a search she is on. Though I am well aware of the esteem in which magic and all things related is held among many, it had been my impression that, as long as I take care to disturb no one and remain clear of the most elite areas, no one would care to disturb me in turn. Now, I believe, that may not be the case.
To write even this much on the matter makes me uneasy. I do not believe any in the household would invade my privacy- even the harpy, despite our almost open warfare, is very professional concerning her duties cleaning the house. I suppose even someone of her sort wishes something to take pride in. Regardless, I will find a suitable place to conceal this book when not in use, in case of ...unpleasant circumstances.
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 10:38 pm
 It was a cool, but sunny day, and though the citizens of Cyrus were bundled up accordingly, it hadn't done anything to diminish the number of people milling about the shopping districts. Including Rylan, who had a busy week ahead and was out to buy what seemed like an entire closet's worth of cloth and trimmings. Before disappearing into what would be the first of many shops for the day, she'd absentmindedly turned Jiang loose in the waterway flanking the street, with a promise to find him somewhere in the district when she had finished. This suited him fine, and he quickly chose to leave the busier main areas- as long as he didn't stray too far down the smaller streets the waterways were still more than large enough for him to move about comfortably.
After a while of aimless twists and turns, he came to another corner and peered up above the water, glancing around at the nearby shops and squinting up at the street sign to get his bearings. He kept a careful eye on the people passing on the street beside him, still wary after that time a younger girl had shrieked and called him a sea monster. He was still a little sore over that one.
Keiko needed new clothing for the upcoming cold weather and Mia was a bit behind on clothing buying. Then again, Keiko did wear a kimono, so it had to be somewhat warmer right? The only place she'd seen others wearing such a garment as Keiko's was at The Jasmine Dragon, and she certainly did not want to bring Keiko to such a place. She didn't want the poor little girl swept away by an entertainers life style and look like one of those 'Geisha-types'. Ever. So she'd make due on her own, hopefully anyways. Keiko hadn't minded some of the stuff Mia had brought back anyways, a bit too colorful for her, but she wore them for Mia's benefit. The little girl knew Mia wasn't the riches woman on the planet, but she was a great guardian who tried hard and Keiko was happy with that.
One day however, Keiko really did start needing a new attire to keep her warmer for those chillier days. Mia decided it was finally time to go out, however when the guardian had tried bringing Keiko to stores the little girl said she'd be happy with whatever Mia picked out and that she much preferred to just enjoy the day in the city. Mia had narrowed her eyes, the little girl was taking too much of a liking to city life. Oh course as a child Keiko couldn't leave, but as she got older Mia would certainly have to give her up. Mia shook her head, why was she even thinking about that? Watching Keiko leave, Mia went into the store for some shopping on her own.
If there was one thing Mia had been right, was that Keiko did enjoy the city. It was the place to meet all sorts of different people, and the city seemed to be so much more entertaining then the farmlands. Mia hadn't left her with any pieces so she couldn't really do much but observe other people. What she observed was very odd, a head suddenly popped out of the water and looked around. She was at it's backside and it probably wouldn't see her coming, but it was just so strange. Walking over, the closer she got the more the 'thing' resembled a boy. Feeling slightly confused, Keiko bent over, casting her shadow over him and poked his head. maybe she should have said something, she didn't want to scare the poor guy.
Had he not been so focused on peering up at the faded street sign- seriously, did they never repaint those things? It was absolutely unreadable- he may have noticed the shadow cast over his head, turned, and seen the girl without any problems.
As it was, however, the instant the finger touched his hair, the poor thing yelped, nearly jumped out of his skin, and vanished under the water with an awkward splash.
After a long moment, the orange and black scaled face slowly reappeared above the surface, carefully outside poking range, and looking thoroughly embarrassed. "My sincerest apologies," he muttered, "You, ah... startled me somewhat." Understatement of the year.
How lucky that a blush can't show through scales.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, "I didn't mean to."
He'd obviously been more startled then he led on, but Keiko didn't comment on that fact. Instead, she decided to examine his features, he was interesting at all and the scent just couldn't help her self. Though if she starred at him too long, he might actually find her rude. She decided to look at him straight in the eyes, then he might not take offence. Keiko let her scent drift towards him, she'd always been good at calming people down. Though Mia had warned her that if she didn't keep herself in check, she sometimes felt a bit sick.
"Why are you in the water?"
She titled her head lightly, curious as to why anyone would want to be in the water when it was so cold. Then again, he reminded her of a fish with his scales, so maybe he enjoyed being in water.
He seemed to rally himself fairly quickly once the girl apologized- common courtesy was a familiar ground for him. "Of course," he nodded. "Your apology is accepted." He didn't notice her staring per se- everyone he met tended to stare at him to some degree- but the fact that she at least looked him in the eye said that she had manners better than many. He gave her a small smile to show his appreciation of the gesture, and hoped that she understood. "I do hope that I did not splash any water on your lovely clothes in my, ah, less than graceful retreat." And he meant it- the cloth looked to be of good quality, and Jiang always appreciated fine things- though always more when they were his things.
Her question took him a bit by suprise though, and for a moment he only blinked at the girl, before actually managing a reply. "I find it somewhat difficult to travel otherwise, you see." He turned enough to flick his tail out of the water to emphasize, in case the girl hadn't been able to see his lack of legs through the sun's glare on the surface.
The girl didn't quite know why he was smiling but decided to smile back anyways, Keiko figured it might have been for her apology. When he mentioned splashing water on her dress, she didn't think he had because she would have felt it. Keiko decided to check anyways, then realized she probably wouldn't be able to tell because her dress was white. "No I don't think so." When his tail popped out of the water, Keiko did stare with her eyes wide and her mouth in a little 'o'. No wonder he was in the water! He couldn't even get out, he didn't even have legs. Keiko actually left sorry for him and apologized again, she should have figured the reason anyone would be in the water was because they had a tail. Though another question did bubble up and she slowly turned her glance from tail back to him.
"What kind of fish are you?"
She hoped it wasn't rude to ask, she hadn't meant it to be rude, she was just quite curious about him.
Ah, so she hadn't seen his tail at first. Considering her good manners earlier, he ignored her current staring, and waved off her second apology. "How silly. In that vein, I might apologize to you for your having legs, and being unable to breathe water. I am sure you do not feel the lack of these things which you have never had, and nor do I feel lacking in the way I am." Honestly, he didn't have any problems with the way he was, though it did irritate him that other people frequently did. This girl didn't seem to have any such issue though, and he was always pleased to meet someone whom he could speak to without any contempt- poorly disguised or otherwise. "Mother is very accommodating of me, as well," he continued, banishing the aggravating thoughts, "She will carry me if I must go somewhere without a suitable waterway."
By this point, he was beginning to expect her asking of little questions that he found odd, but he didn't get the impression that she meant anything by them other than plain curiosity. "I am a dragon," he stated simply, though it wasn't hard to hear the note of pride in his voice- it wasn't often he got a chance to, well, brag. "There is a variety of ornamental fish colored like myself, however, though I have only seen them in books."
Keiko nodded, he was right after all. There was nothing to apologize for after all, that had been a bit presumptuous of her now that she thought about it. He hadn't taken it wrong, which was a good thing because she actually liked talking to him. Keiko hadn't met many people, but she enjoyed the way he talked, so much more sophisticated then Mia. It was pleasant to her ears, and she let her scent drift a bit more, it tended to do that when she was in a good mood. Though she did try to keep it in check, she didn't want to make him sick after all.
"A dragon," Keiko looked utterly surprised, "that is amazing!" She found herself so plain now beside him, and she'd also forgotten to introduce herself. Sticking her hand out towards him Keiko smiled down, "I'm Keiko, I forgot to introduce myself before." It wasn't often she actually forgot something like that, she enjoyed meeting people quite a bit, especially other children who had come from burners. She liked this one a lot, introducing herself should have been her first priority.
He was pleased to see that she seemed to understand, and neither had taken offense- though, as he finally noticed the scent coming off the girl, he reflected that of the other oil-children he'd met, even those that looked most human rarely seemed to dwell on differences. He also couldn't help the slight widening of his smile as she reacted to his being a dragon- it was pleasant, to have impressed someone so.
At her introduction, though, his expression shifted into something almost disgusted, though it soon became apparent that the sentiment was directed at himself rather than her- just how had he managed to forget to introduce himself? "Please accept my apologies- my manners are not usually nearly so appalling." He returned the greeting in his own fashion- a bow of his head, with palms pressed flat together in front of his chest- before taking her hand gingerly, careful of his long claws. "I am Jiang-Chen. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Keiko."
"I find your manners very pleasing actually." Her tone held a slight purr to it, usually she used such a tone when she wanted something specific from someone, but she really did mean what she was saying and didn't want anything. "There's no need to be apologizing, I forgot as well." Keiko cleared her throat, she really had to keep that tone in check. Mia had warned her about it, something about getting in trouble with boys later on when she got older. Truth be told, Keiko liked to use the tone, she hadn't known any repercussions except getting what she wanted. All the time. So really, she might as well just use it all the time, it might actually be fun; she might actually have fun for once.
"Are you shopping today too? Well your mother." Mia was bound to be found in some store right about now spending to get Keiko dressed for winter. She really hoped winter would be as fun as summer, it definitely allowed her to drink more tea. "Mine is, she thinks I'm going to freeze half to death with only these. She says I could use some color too."
He still didn't look all that pleased with himself, though he did appreciate her words. "I thank you- and I will be sure to not be so remiss in the future." He noticed the slight change in her tone, but thought little of it, until she cleared her throat and it disappeared. How odd.
"Ah," that did explain why she was also wandering the district alone. "Yes, Mother designs and makes clothing for the higher classes- the change of seasons is a busy time, she tells me- she is likely still shopping for cloth." By the end of it, she'll probably have made something for him as well, though the changing temperatures bothered him little as long as the water wasn't frozen. "Do you disagree with her assessment? Could you not have accompanied her, and chosen garments yourself?"
"Well in the future you won't need to introduce yourself since you'll already know me." Keiko chuckled softly, she did hope she could meet him some other time. She wondered if he'd be able to swim to the farmlands or near there anyways, it would be nice to have someone to talk to once in a while.
"The upper class?" Her mood suddenly turned unsure, Mia had told her about society of course. The higher class didn't mingle with people lower then them, especially people who lived out in the farmlands. She'd never thought of herself of lower class, after all Mia provided her with everything she needed and Mia always seemed to have pieces for her to spend when she went out. Keiko suddenly felt very socially aware of her status in Cyrus and it didn't please her at all. She actually enjoyed Jiang-Chen's company, she didn't want to be unable to talk to him just because other people told her so. She frowned lightly, perplexed by the whole situation, though she'd answer his other question first.
" Well I agree to some point. I don't feel the need to be warmer then I already am. I mean, I'm a bit cold but nothing to cause a ruckus about," she paused thinking over what he'd said about choosing her own clothing, "well my mother says I have no sense of style. I cannot match clothing properly, and she says that kimono's a too much trouble for me to be fussing about right now." Although, Keiko had no idea what kimono's were a bit above Mia's budget. "She does try to get me into regular clothing, but I love my kimono, she won't buy more though." Keiko looked a bit uncomfortable telling him that her mother was a blacksmith, but she didn't have to tell him right now right? Jiang didn't need to know.
That did get a bit of a grimace out of him, though it was in good humor. "I refer to my manners in general- I do believe you know what I mean." Knowing someone, after all, was no excuse to be rude.
At her slightly hesitant question, he nodded. "She enjoys working with the more costly materials, I believe, and keeping abreast of the latest styles. She can certainly talk about them for hours on end if one gets her started." There was a bit of fond exasperation in his tone- clearly he had been subjected to the treatment before. "I do not meet most of her clients however- I doubt they would appreciate my appearance." Truthfully, he was probably leerier of the upper classes than she was, and he was technically among them.
Pushing those thoughts from his mind, he listened attentively as she explained her thoughts, nodding occasionally. "The weather will grow colder still, perhaps your mother simply wishes to be prepared for a cold winter?" He barely managed to hold back his snort at the statement about her style though. "I certainly see no fault with your current state of dress- perhaps it is your distaste for more common clothing that leads her to believe your style is challenged. I cannot say I agree with her assessment." He paused for a moment then, taking a closer look at the cloth of her kimono- watching his mother work gave him only limited expertise, but it was knowledge nonetheless. "I do not know that I would want to be dragging the hem of this through the mud and slush when winter does come, however- the cloth is quite fine, it would be a shame to ruin it."
Keiko nodded, "I know exactly what you mean, my mom talks about horses all the time." She knew exactly how he felt, the scent didn't think Mia even noticed that Keiko wasn't into the same things her guardian was. Then again she'd never voiced her opinion out loud, but Keiko didn't want to break Mia's heart if she ever did tell her. "Sometimes you just want to tell them that you aren't interested in the same thing, but it's so hard because you can tell they're happy to be telling you about those things."
"If one good thing does come out from this cold weather is that I'll be able to enjoy some tea far more often then in summer." Oh yes, tea would just be the thing to keep her warm during winter, but maybe it was for the best. Carriages could get pretty cold in winter time, and the one's that came to the farmlands weren't the best one's around. "Thank you, I quite like my style too." Keiko was glad that someone could appreciate her style, too bad she couldn't take Jiang shopping and not Mia. "You're right, I just do not see myself wearing pants is all." She didn't like the whole idea of pants in the first place, or having to look common and yet odd in regular clothing. "White does tend to stain quite easily too." Mia had tried to convince her out of her kimono, but had been unsuccessful. Jiang however, had given quite a good argument as to why she shouldn't keep it for winter. The farmlands and the market place would certianly be no place for her long dress.
Ah, a kindred spirit. "Perhaps it is simply something parents do." The tone he used said that he didn't expect to ever understand how they thought- considering who he had for a mother, this was probably quite realistic.
The comment about tea certainly grabbed his attention- one of Jiang's favorite small luxuries, he likely drank more of it than he did water. "There is certainly little better on a cold evening, though I must admit that summer weather never stops me enjoying a cup either." ...Drat, now he wanted tea. Maybe he'd see if his mother would be willing to stop at one of the smaller cafes before they returned home today.
He fell silent for a moment as he considered her wardrobe dilemma, then began to muse aloud. "Mother is commissioned for many winter dresses during this time of year, using heavier cloth in colors that are less inclined to take stains. Perhaps such a garment would be more to your taste than pants?" He really wasn't sure what else he could suggest at this point with his limited experience- he, for obvious reasons, had never had to consider the pros and cons of wearing pants.
Keiko sighed aloud. "I suppose so," Keiko tried picturing Mia not talking about her work for once, "maybe when I am older, I will be able to talk to her about the things I do." The chances of that happening were slim, her only real hobby for the moment was painting.
"You like tea too? We should go for tea someday." That would be nice, and she'd actually forgotten that he didn't have any legs. However, if he couldn't get to the tea, then she would make sure the tea would get to him. It couldn't be very hard to get tea around anyways, though winter might make it a bit more difficult then Keiko let on.
Thinking about it, what he was suggesting wasn't such a bad idea. Who said she had to wear pants anyways! Mia couldn't force her to wear them anyways, Keiko wouldn't even touch them. "That's a great idea!" Maybe she'd get some pale color, she liked mint quite a bit and it went well with her eyes and hair. "You know, for someone who doesn't wear clothing you have a great fashion seems." She was only teasing him softly, and she smiled to show him she was only joking.
He nodded in agreement. "Perhaps they hope us to share their interest- perhaps some day we will, or they will share one with us." It was easier to talk to someone with common ground between them- as it was turning out, he and Keiko seemed to have no lack of that, and it was showing in how much he was enjoying the conversation. With a casual flick of his tail beneath the water, he came up to the edge to one side of her, and leaned his elbows up on the street- even he got tired of treading water after a while.
His eyes definitely seemed to light up at the idea of going out for tea. "That would be wonderful." His lack of mobility didn't seem to even cross his mind- Rylan was usually more than willing to carry him around as long as she wasn't shopping. "I have heard that there are several places in the city that serve excellent tea, but have not had occasion to visit any." Now he'd have to look into where was the best place to go- maybe they'd just have to visit them all to judge.
"Well, as we were just discussing, when one has a parent who enjoys their work, they tend to enjoy sharing their knowledge." How fortunate that his parent's particular vocation gave him knowledge that was helpful today. "And to be fair," he went on, "When I am not swimming, I do, in fact, don an item or two." He wore a bit of a smirk at the last part, showing his good humor- it wasn't often that he relaxed enough to tease.
"Mia isn't very technical or artistic, if you saw her you'd understand right away." Keiko giggled at the thought of seeing Mia trying to paint, her guardian was after all wearing an eye patch. "She also is from the farmlands, I like the city. Maybe someday she will like the city as much as me." Keiko would make sure that Mia found it as entraining as herself.
"Well I think we should have more tea outings, the only tea I have at home is green tea. I'd love to taste other kinds, and a friend is always nice to have." She didn't know if he considered her a friend, but she's just decided right there and then that he would be her friend. They had interesting conversations and he liked tea, how could she pass up on someone she got along so well with. "We will have to go out soon for tea."
Keiko clapped her hands together, "you are officially the person I am going out shopping with, I need someone with some fashion sense." Mia didn't dress badly, but Mia also wore pants and not dresses. All these difference between the two was probably the reason Keiko adored her guardian so much, she read somewhere that opposites attracted and this was the perfect example.
"Ah," he said simply- having not seen the woman for himself, he was hesitant to make any judgments of his own, lest they turn out to be horribly false. As such, he was happy to take the slight change of subject offered by Keiko's mentioning of the farmlands. "I myself live some distance from the city, though not in a particularly agricultural area." By this he meant that the lot they lived on was large and forested enough that the noises and smells of the neighboring farms didn't bother them at the house. "I enjoy the serenity personally, though I admit freely that excursions to the city are equally enjoyable. This one, for instance." It was an oddly personal- if ambiguous- compliment, for someone who tended towards stiff and slightly distant politesse, but he was feeling oddly laid-back, so he didn't let it bother him. Maybe it was the way she smelled- it was certainly stronger than his own scent, and seemed to come and go in potency as they spoke.
The clap of her hands effectively refocused his thoughts, and he nodded in agreement at her statement. "It would be my pleasure to accompany you shopping, Keiko." He was obviously pleased that she thought enough of his taste to want his opinion. "You will have to let me know when you wish to meet." He paused for a moment, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully as he seemed to ponder a schedule in his head. "It will, of course, have to be early enough that we may stop for tea afterwards." From his tone of voice, this wasn't something that was optional, but he didn't really think she'd mind.
"It's nice, but I feel lonesome all by myself sometimes. The city gives you this wrap around feeling that I like, and there are always people in the city." It felt extremely lonely when Mia was away for the few hours of work she did everyday, and truthfully Keiko didn't like staying alone that much. Now that she knew she could have Jiang's good company while she was in the city, only made her resolve to stay within the buildings even more. Shopping and going for tea would certainly make things quite a bit easier for her too, and she wouldn't have to deal with all those awful smells that accompanied the countryside. "I agree, this has been quite --"
"Keiko?" The girl turned slowly to glance behind her, Mia was waving her over, yelling to project her voice over the large crowd. Keiko didn't want to leave just yet, but if Mia was ready to she would have to follow suit. "I'll be right back Jiang." Grabbing some of her kimono's end, Keiko ran on back to Mia. "Mia, please give me a few more moments. I've just met a friend and I'd like to meet him again! Do you have a piece of paper and a pen?" Mia looked back towards Jiang, her brow lifting ever so subtly as she observed him. It was nice that Keiko was meeting people, she looked quite excited about it, though Mia wasn't sure how she felt about a boy whit scales. "Sure, here hold this bag." Keiko did was she was told, holding the bag and giving instructions on what to write. Once she was done, Keiko handed the bag back to Mia, grabbed the piece of paper and ran back to Jiang.
"Here take this, that's the eta shop you can usually find me at. What days and at what time, I try coming in early so I can browse around the shops. So if you ever want to meet, that is where you shall find me. For now I need to leave, my guardian is calling. It was very nice meeting you Jiang, and I hope we meet again!" With that, Keiko handed him the piece of paper, gave him one of her brightest smiles and ran back off towards Mia, only turning one more time to wave at him.
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