|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 9:04 pm
"OMG, Dad," Vesna said from the passenger seat, shoving her phone into Lorenzo's face. "Look at Guy Smiley!!"
"I'm looking at the road," said Lorenzo, leaning away from the offending phone and staring resolutely ahead.
"We have to get a catsune. Or a dog. Or a catsune and a dog--"
"We'll discuss it later," parried Lorenzo, already deft at the smooth parental deflection not months after taking Vesna home. "For now you should put the phone away and look at the compass."
"It's called multitasking, Da- Oh! It's pointing that way now!" She gestured wildly to the left. Lorenzo said a rude word in Latin, made a sharp turn, and grimaced. Vesna smiled at him sheepishly.
"The plaza's coming up," Lorenzo noted. "Is the compass changing directions?"
"Nope. It's been circling around this spot."
"We should park and try walking, then," Lorenzo decided, pulling over. "You text Cesc."
Vesna pulled out her phone and typed furiously. First she replied to the all important pet pictures,
Quote: omG gaia_star KAWAII gaia_star i want like five of him emotion_bigheart emotion_bigheart emotion_bigheart emotion_bigheart
And then, with Lorenzo looking sternly over her shoulder,
Quote: oh yeah and the compass is pointing to the plaza or w/e we should check it out gaia_star gaia_star gaia_star
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 16, 2016 11:09 pm
Compared to their earlier car rides, filled with active conversation, the next leg of their journey was relatively quiet. It struck Claire how much their group had done that day and how tiring the whole adventure had been thus far. Jumping from a surprise bird attack to a quick tending of wounds, followed by the dispersing of the party guests to track down the stolen essences (to which she was still astounded that they had found three so far), it had been quite a busy day for the four of them, as was likely true of the other party guests as well. The brief surge of energy she had gained back from the stolen lunch at the cafe was wearing off quickly (the sprint after Bono through the trees had contributed mightily to that) and it was only as they parked at the plaza and Cesc asked his question that she fully realized it.
"A little, yes," she admitted. "It has been quite a day, but it seems we're making ground." She squinted up at the sky through the windshield - they were burning daylight fast. "How are you holding up? You and Vesna have been working quite hard yourselves." She put on the parking brake and shut off the ignition, gazing ahead for signs of Lorenzo and Vesna. After a beat, she climbed out of the car, shouldering her purse as she stood and scanned the plaza, one hand shielding her eyes as she looked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friendly Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 19, 2016 9:15 am
As they arrived at the city plaza, the glow of the sun began to turn a little yellowish, signifying that it is setting soon. The city plaza is pretty big itself, about the size of a football field. There is a water fountain in the middle of the plaza with benches surrounding it, and in each corner of the plaza is a small garden area with small trees and flowering bushes, each with it's own color theme. Benches are located in this area as well for people to relax in. Aside from that, the central area around the fountain is just a huge open space.
Various people had gathered here. Some jogging while listening to their phones, some just sitting on the benches, chatting up a storm with friends, some waiting for people as they paced. There is even a food truck not very far from where the group got off, serving delicious looking tacos that smells amazing. Hungry people had already started to form a line for it.
The compass pointed towards the far side of the plaza though, it almost seemed like it was pointing at the fountain, but is it? They will have to approach the fountain to find out.
At their current location, the sun is shining bright into their faces, so it makes them difficult to see very far in front.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 19, 2016 11:09 am
"Oh, I'm alright," said Cesc with a smile to Claire. He patted his stomach as they came out of the car and started toward the plaza. "I actually eat this stuff. Literally. We're doing good, and I get fed by good deeds. So I'm alright for as long as we need to go."
As they passed the taco truck on the way forward, Rhedefre indicated it to her. "But I know you guys don't--why don't you grab something to eat? Or after we catch this, if you'd rather. But one way or another, we should probably head back to Gambino soon…"
He greeted Vesna and Lorenzo with a wave then, and repeated the offer to Lorenzo to please feel free if he wanted to grab a taco. As he checked the compass, he squinted toward the fountain.
"Looks like it's in there…" he murmured, heading toward the water feature. "It's not a bad place to sit, either, if you'd rather we wait."
He approached the concrete sides of it, patting it, then dipping a hand in. "Water's fine!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 19, 2016 9:17 pm
Lorenzo, who hadn't had a chance to grab a bite of his meal before Vesna and Cesc had shooed them quickly out of the café earlier, looked longingly at the food truck as Cesc offered. But Vesna had been out of his sight to retrieve one fel essence as it was, and he wasn't about to leave her alone to find another.
"I can eat after," he decided. "If it's in the fountain, it shouldn't be too hard to find."
"Yeah, let's do it!" Vesna said, looking eagerly at all the people around the plaza. "And then let's have fun."
She floated over to the fountain and peered into it. The water burbled cheerfully, but the surface reflected only the sky above, just like all the mirrors in her house. People didn't show up in reflective surfaces when Vesna positioned herself so she'd be reflected in them, and she and Lorenzo had the hours of boring tests to prove it.
She put her hand in the water, and when she pulled it out, her fingertips were slippery.
"What's this for?" she asked Lorenzo. "Bathing?"
"It's just for decoration."
"Why's it full of coins?"
"People throw them in to make wishes."
Her face lit up and she wiggled her outstretched hand at Lorenzo, who gave her a piece of gold. Throwing it in, she scrunched up her face in concentration.
After a few minutes, Lorenzo cleared his throat and said, "Traditionally, you only get one wish per coin." He bit back a smile as Vesna started to try to rank her wishes, and threw a coin in for himself. Unlike Vesna, it took him just a moment, and then he looked back at the compass, angling it in a few different directions to try to get a better feel for the fel essence's location.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 22, 2016 12:18 am
"Honestly, I think some food might be a good move for us," Claire added in agreement to Cesc, with a flick of her gaze to Lorenzo. She remembered how he had not touched a thing at the cafe and felt a twinge of sympathy - he likely needed it more than her. "But first things first, let's find this essence." Given how the last they had found had been at a restaurant, she did not want to chance a surprise essence in their food. However, as she bent down to peer over at the compass as well, it was pointing away from any visible food trucks. She blinked against the hard sunlight and looked down at the fountain water as both stag and rusalka Raevan approached it in different ways. She smiled at the enthusiasm, looking down into the water glittering in the sun.
"It does look fine," she agreed, uncertain but curious. If anything, this adventure had taught her to have both in balanced amounts. She tentatively dipped her fingers in the water - it did, indeed, feel nice.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friendly Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 8:05 pm
As they circled the large circular fountain though, they would notice that the needle started to divert away from the fountain, still pointing in the same direction it was pointing before. Whatever it was, it was on the far side of the plaza, away from the fountain.
On the other side of the plaza, the sights are more or less the same. There wasn't a food truck, but there was a hotdog cart, a pretzel cart and an ice cream cart. There is also something else, something a little less legal. Propped on just a small table underneath a tree, there is a small street gambling stall. The fella who is manning the stall was a skinny fellow, average height with olive skin and black hair tied back into a man bun. It seemed like they were just playing a simple game of dice rolling, with the person who roll the higher roll win. A small crowd was gathered around the table, mostly middle aged men. The crowd kept cheering as the game goes on, the dude looked absolutely miserable as he kept on losing.
And it is at this small crowd of gambling men where the needle is pointing at.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 23, 2016 8:25 pm
Looking into the fountain, Cesc realized relatively quickly nothing seemed to be amiss there. He peered back over at Vesna's needle and sighed: too bad it wasn't the fountain. That was nice and contained and pleasant... For not the first time that day, he repeated to himself a deep sense of gratitude that his primary job was not finding any fel essences for the Lab.
"Oh, hey, we misjudged," he said, rising. "It looks like it's actually over that way..."
As he floated closer to where the needle pointed, he noticed a strange scene: a gambling stall with a man continuously losing. Well, actually, it wasn't that strange, he thought. Gamblers were usually pretty good at making sure the house won when the dice fell. But still, this looked like a pretty epic losing streak.
"See anything weird?" he asked his companions as he floated a little higher, trying to see over the small gathered crowd.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 25, 2016 9:39 pm
"Just that gambling stand," Lorenzo said, wrinkling his nose slightly in disdain. "We should probably inform somebody, he can't possibly have a permit."
"The needle's pointing right at him," Vesna said, frowning. "If he's touching the fel essence, then that's worse news for him than being reported. They're radioactive, right?"
"We don't know what the fel essence is, though," Lorenzo said, frowning. "Anybody in this crowd could have it- it might not even be something that a person can hold."
"We should still ask him!" Vesna asserted, but Lorenzo held her back gently.
"What do you think?" he asked, turning to Cesc and Claire. "I'm reluctant, but if somebody's safety could be at stake..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 25, 2016 10:04 pm
Claire tagged along at the edge of the group when the compass pointed them onward. She stood up straighter and stretched her back (which had started to complain from her hunching over the water), eyes following the line of sight of the group before she followed. Nothing about the plaza had seemed unusual to her at first - just a busy afternoon, full of food carts and revelers enjoying the sunshine. But the closer they got to the line of food carts, the easier it was to note what was really going on at the table. Edging the crowd that had convened around it, she frowned at the dice game, arms folded - there was nothing good about what was going on here. A little gambling in a designated place was one thing, but with a group growing as raucous as this one over a dice game, and one man looking as though he were ready to drop dead from misery. Claire glanced at the compass then back at the crowd - there was no mistake.
"Not at first glance," Claire replied to Cesc as he floated up for a better vantage point. Other than having the guts to illegally gamble out in the open, nothing about this seemed to strike her as particularly unusual. The losing man was likely sweating bullets, judging from his expression and posture alone, and Claire's frown deepened. Was he being swindled?
"That might not be the best idea," she said gently, in answer to Vesna's suggestion, "It looks like things are not going well, and that might be cause for a fight. We're likely the only ones here who know what a Fel Essence is, and it wouldn't be a good idea to get in the middle of a gambling brawl." That was her main concern, and it seemed that Lorenzo echoed her thoughts. She nodded firmly to his proposal. "I'll try to find an officer. Maybe when the crowd breaks apart a little more, you guys can find out what's going on." Mind set, her eyes scanned the plaza for any sign of a police uniform.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friendly Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 30, 2016 7:54 am
As the team hovered over the small group, the dude with the man bun suddenly raised both of his hands. "I'M ALL OUT!!! I'm all out guys!! You've beaten me, I'm all dry!" A few in the crowd boo-ed, but they slowly dispersed starting from the very edge as the news went out. An old geezer in his sixties walked out from the middle of the group with some wrinkled money notes in his hands, looking absolutely gleeful as he stuffed them into his pocket.
Even when the crowd dispersed though, the needle on the compass was still pointing straight at the street gambler, who is now sitting hunched over in a folding chair, smoking a cigarette. "Lucky old man..." He muttered as he watched the geezer walked off with his money. Sighing heavily, he took a few more long drags from his cig before throwing it carelessly onto the street and began to close shop for the day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 31, 2016 7:10 pm
Wait a minute, Cesc thought, a realization dawning on him as he approached--the dealer was losing? Now that was an interesting piece of information. That never happened. Cesc looked for a moment over at the winner walking away with his money. Under other circumstances, Cesc would have bet the house THAT guy had a fel essence. Like, perhaps, the clover one he had in his backpack.
But the needle was pointing at the man closing up shop, instead. With his gentle air of calm geniality, Cesc came close to the stand.
"No luck today, ah?" He asked with a half-smile. "I thought about a round, but it looks like it was just one of those days, huh?"
Not that talking to a guy who'd just lost all of his cash was usually a good thing, but, hey. Worth a shot.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 8:42 pm
With this new information, Lorenzo seemed a little torn between alerting the authorities and simply talking to the man, and looked reluctantly over to Claire. But Vesna was already floating over to join Cesc, frowning a little petulantly.
"That sucks!" she sympathized. "I'm not super good at games either." Sticking out her hand cheerfully, she said, "It's okay, though! Let us get you a taco! I'm Vesna, and this is Cesc, and that's Claire, and that's my dad, Lorenzo, but he's kinda boring."
Lorenzo's head jerked away from Claire to Vesna's direction as he heard her saying "Let's be friends!" to a hustler.
"Vesna!" he admonished, striding towards her, but as he did, his stomach grumbled.
"Taco time!" Vesna said cheerfully.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 10:41 pm
Perhaps it was bad luck radiating all around, but as the party disbanded, Claire could not find a policeman for the life of her in the crowd. 'That shoots my plan in the foot,' she thought with a frown, tagging onto the back of their group. It was rather interesting that their first perception of who was winning and who was losing was turned on its head by the look of dread on the gambler's face. She looked at Lorenzo, just as helpless, as the two Raevans floated forward to engage the man. Inwardly, her danger senses were going off and she was still peering around for the sight of an officer, but if she sensed anything wrong, Vesna seemed unperturbed and cheerfully introduced them all.
"Hello --" Claire managed to say, before her mouth opened in surprise at Vesna's offer of friendship. It had been on the tip of her tongue to say something as well, but Lorenzo beat her to the punch, as did his stomach, and her gaze dropped to the source. She could not hide the small smile that flitted across her lips, and she covered her mouth apologetically. "Sorry, Lorenzo."
Claire's plan had gone up in flames before it could be enacted, so now she had to follow the Raevans' leads. Adopting what she hoped was a cheerful smile, she directed her attention towards the gambler, tagging onto the line of conversation that Cesc had started. "It doesn't replace what you've lost, but maybe a taco on us would help ease the pain. Or some post-game hunger, at least."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Friendly Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2016 8:01 am
The street gambler stopped and looked up curiously as the Raevans approached him, dark grey eyes glancing at their ribbons with a frown. He don't ask questions about people's appearances, that's one thing he learned working the streets.
"Ah yeah, one of my worst." He sighed heavily as he pocketed the dices on the table. "Oh?" He cocked a smile as Vesna offered to treat him to some tacos, honestly surprised that she did, and Claire as well. "Aaaw that's very sweet of you. I guess... I don't mind some free food." He's not one to pass on free stuff now. Pausing for a moment, he got up and approached the group a little, extending his hand to Cesc first. "The name is Rami by the way."
That was when a loud deafening POP was heard behind the group on the street, like someone fired a gun. Then there were wheels screeching, and people shouting and screaming as a small delivery truck came right in their direction.
"W-WATCH OUT!!!" Rami shouted as he pushed the group away.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
