Welcome to Gaia! ::

Vaska's pondering was broken when a customer approached, his head lifting to gear his attention towards her now, giving a respectful nod in response, "Good day, miss." he replied plainly, not really wasting any time getting straight to business.

"Are you in need of any metal equipment, or are you in need of a hunters spoils?" his hands gestured to the said items as he spoke them, showing the examples he had here, "These are not all of what I have in stock, but the majority. Is there something specific you were interested in?"

Olivia's head titled to the side, confusion in her eyes at his odd response. He was talking about the cards? Oh wait, she realized, perhaps it was on her end, not being clear about wanting clarification on the comment he had mentioned. "Um..." was all she managed to mutter, unsure of how to exactly answer it, since it wasn't the subject she had asked about.

Though, she got her answer soon after anyways. And that at least pleased her, the questions on her face faded from getting what she was hoping for. "I was wondering what he had said," she nodded, taking in the information and filing it for later. "I could hear him, but not what he said. I doubt he'd get what he seeks though." There were rumors indeed about her reasons, but the truth of the matter was still the King was seeing no one and was locked away.

"I just hope the cards are something interesting." There were so many other possibilities that would make them a little anticlimactic. And it would just be more paper waste, how sad to clutter up the streets and bins like that.

"Oh." Olivia stated suddenly as her arms darted to the side of the table, as if something caught her attention. She dug for a moment, carefully peeling away layers of cloth of various means until she finally found what she was looking for. It was a simple strip of cloth, probably more unconventional as a sash given its weight - as it had been apparently an old curtain. But, it was a soft gold with orange accents embroidered in what looked like flower petals, and soft hints of blue beads throughout. But, it was what she had in mind.

"Would this work?" It had been what they were searching for, after all. Before they were distracted.

Ever curious, Crispin followed Harland's gesture, and quickly bent to fish a card up off the floor. He examined it tentatively. It looked like some kind of game card... black with some kind of ornate crown design, and a string of incomprehensible numbers. Crispin was not overly fond of games to really care. He thought about tossing it back on the ground -- for really, what use was this to him? -- but wisely decided to tuck the card into his tunic instead. He didn't want to be caught littering, after all. He could find a place to throw it away later.

He looked up just in time to see the two of his new acquaintances being... intimate? Crispin stared, baffled. Alastair didn't look or sound like a woman. Did the same gestures apply to other men? Somehow he found the idea silly, but couldn't shake the thought that he rather liked the display anyway.

"A pleasure," Crispin replied, rubbing at his pink cheeks. "Sir, ah... Kitty, did you say?"

For some reason Crispin could feel his cheeks heating up again. He quickly glanced away, and coughed discreetly into one of his bony hands, trying to regain his composure.

Sir Huxley will do! he told himself sharply. "Sir Huxley, then," he amended quickly. He glanced helplessly back to Harland. Crispin was uncomfortable, and now doubly unsure of what to make of Harland's friend, whom he still distrusted. But Harland himself seemed an upstanding fellow.

They're close. Don't begrudge Harland's choice in company so soon, Crispin chastised himself, folding his bony hands back over his chest. "Anyway, please, ahem, lead the way."

He hadn't expected much of a reply, so merely shrugged off her initial response to the question of the card. Certainly knowing what it meant already might have just meant you spent too much time listening to tall tales, and everyone knew that was wasteful. He had far better ways to use his time, and it seemed so did she.

He tilted his head at her comments, not fully seeing why she would hope for anything of interest from them. The two items combined would... suggest terrible things to come, would they not? Did she wish for such.

Still, she was entirely right, the man would get nothing for his request.The King cared not to see what new tribute they would bring, it was a far less likely they would care to hear the ramblings of the maddest of them all. "There is truth to that... though I dearly hope the cards are nothing." He eyed the girl a moment before placing the card away in one of the pockets hidden in the robe for conventional use. "If it has meaning, no good will come of it. If his words ring true." He added, as she darted away to a table suddenly distracted by something.

He followed shortly after as she lifted up the bright cloth, sort of offering it up for judgement. Which certainly came as both brows raised briefly. The colors were as close as he'd seen that day to what he needed, and blue would compliment well enough. He'd heard they appreciated that. "Perhaps." He reached out, lightly lifting a bit of the fabric a moment and giving her a look at it being a rather dense cloth, questioning it. He said nothing of it, but he had to wonder. Then again, making use of what was available as normal for them, so he couldn't say too much. It still seemed to work, and if tied tightly it could certainly work.

He took to examining the stitching a bit to ensure everything seemed in place, looking for potential weaknesses that might cause trouble. While he was no tailor, he knew loose thread were bad. Not that he was finding any, the girl's work seemed solid enough for use. "Certainly the closest match to what I've been looking for today." He added. Far from perfect, but certainly around the right alley.

David smiled at Nkosazana as he stuffed the cookie in his mouth. A few words of thanks were muffled by a mouthful of crumbs. It was easier to think about cookies than potential herbalist eating beasts in catacombs, or terrible secrets in towers.

"I don't know, that's all I heard. I wish they had said more." David wasn't usually one to gossip, but you'd have to be inhuman to not be curious about something awful hidden away.

David choked on his second bite of cookie. Dirty dog? It was just a simple wave, could she have interpreted it that way? Clearing his throat vigorously, and ignoring the burning of his ears, he looked at Nkosazana, "No, not really. She's another herbalist, I see her around sometimes." He glanced away briefly, "Nothing like that."

The sudden commotion startled him, that strange man and his strange cards. He stared intently at the one his friend showed him, "I've never seen anything like that, but it doesn't often come up in my line of work that I have to examine codes." He looked away a little sheepishly, "I wish I was better at that sort of thing."

David quickly stepped out of his stall to pick up a card of his own, maybe he could examine it later, when it was easier for him to focus. "Maybe he just wanted to confuse people. He didn't seem all there himself."

Harland, externally, ignored Alastair's scoffing. He followed through just as he intended to, though he did think perhaps something had crawled up a particular bodily cavity and died if Alastair was in such a mood today. "Indecision becomes you," he mumbled as Alas listed all his names, talking around a smile he had plastered to his features.

"If I am to burn alive, I will do so with dignity," Harland assured him, turning very bright red and coughing to clear his throat as Alas gave him a decidedly indecent look. "Yes, let's not.. waste time, of course," he agreed, shifting his body as if he was either about to run away or head to the Scribe.

Harland was often a little too polite and cute with everyone; kissing the knuckles was simply a greeting, to him, though it was true that it carried particular past weight when he kissed Alas' hand. If he'd known Crispin well enough, he would have naturally received a similar gesture; Harland had never been particularly concerned about gender when interacting with his code of manners.

Gender or alignment, which could get him in trouble. Harland nodded in approval and smiled at Crispin as he attempted to be polite to Alas. He had an inkling as to why Alas was being such a tool to their new acquaintance, but he feigned ignorance and convinced himself he was just imagining things. "I wonder what it will be like, our new Kingdom... the one we observe, of course."

Harland beelined to the scribe, using this opportunity not to make eye contact with either Crispin or Alas: sometimes, he wondered what it would be like to profess fealty to a cause, to a King that didn't live in some tower. He wondered what it would be like, to forsake neutrality.

But he loved order so much, he couldn't imagine that.

Rex had already chosen a particularly large and delicious looking chunk of meat, picked it up, and taken a large bite. It was only after the sound of an irritated and impatient grunt that he remembered he needed to pay for his food and reached into his pocket to retrieve several coins for the merchant, coins that the might have made said merchant wish he'd just let Rex take the meat for nothing...ewwww...slobbery.

And there was another bite chomped and devoured.

"Apples?"

He gave Keel a curious look. What were apples? It was likely Rex had in fact eaten an apple before, however since he did NOT LIKE fruits, he had not bothered to learn the names of any fruit. Or maybe he hadn't eaten an apple before, he really didn't know.