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 Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2023 12:10 am
Quote: It was already late in the evening but the merchant seemed unfazed by the passing of time. He sat, poised and elegant, watching the world around him. He didn’t seem bored, even as he leaned forward and laced his fingers atop the table; below it, he kept his toe tapping to some silent tune in his head. He was tall, by human standards, though while sitting down he didn’t seem particularly threatening. If you didn’t look at his face. He had graceful features--sharp and refined. His chin and nose tapered to a point, giving him an air of sophistication, but that, combined with his slitted eyes and pointed teeth, there was something undeniably predatory about him. He watched with a hungry gaze and a mischievous, nearly sinister smile. His ears were pointed and were prominent despite being tucked behind his vibrant, multi-colored hair. The most intrusive feature that indicated there was something not human about him were the curling horns protruding from his temples and the oil-slick black scales that brushed his cheeks and forehead. He was well dressed, in a fashion obviously otherworldly, and seemed to enjoy dressing himself up in glistening gemstones. His table was somehow both simple and overwhelming; it was draped in a dark purple tablecloth, with extravagant embroidery in different designs. Scattered neatly atop the table was an array of items that seemed to carry some magical weight to them. He did not seem intimidated in the slightest and, upon noticing that the barrier surrounding him rippled when his visitor entered, he smiled. He did not rise to meet them nor adjust his position in the slightest. He followed them with his fierce eyes and greeted, in a silky voice, “Welcome.” Morishita had missed out on finding Almadel's table again the past couple of years, but this time she was determined to chase down that alien merchant again. It wasn't like he was hard to find, somewhat- last time he was like, what, on the edge of town? He had been on a hill that had a good view of the metro area, and he. Well, his appearance was unique enough to where it was hard to miss him, and she would have to assume he didn't want to be missed, if he was doing business again. She'd seen signs around asking for a certain kind of fruit, which she hazarded a guess to be referring to that one tree in town, but she wasn't about to go climbing trees just to get some fruit for him. No, whether or not he was interested in any shiny baubles this year, she'd be bringing something else, and he would hopefully accept it. It'd been a few years, and Morishita was powered this time, so she figured Almadel wouldn't recognize her, seeing as she'd been powered down last time, but, well. She had a bone to pick with him, and while the teen was certainly far too lazy to actually pick a fight with him, she did want a few words with him. Mostly because Rune still had the medallion, and she couldn't very well bring it back. "I would ask for a refund, but I don't have the trinket you traded me last time with me," the teen senshi grumbled, "Why didn't you tell me it belonged to my cat? Some trade deal that was."
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 10:59 pm
Almadel tilted his head just slightly. “You know, I’m usually pretty good with faces, but I can’t say that I recall our trade. You’ll have to refresh my memory. Which cat?” Of course, he leaned forward a bit, either eager to solve this mystery or eager to resolve this issue; neither could be clearly discerned from his demeanor. He seemed curious more so than distressed, and hardly seemed the least bit shaken up from her grumbling.
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 9:45 pm
Morishita wasn’t surprised that Almadel wasn’t particularly bothered over her fussing, if only because he did seem like the kind of person (alien?) that wasn’t bothered by much, which. Same? From what little she knew of her past self, Xochitl was largely the same way, which. Hey… just how long had Almadel been around for, anyway? If he was some kind of funky space alien, then he’d have been bound to have met all sorts of colorful folks from all across the cosmos, correct? She didn’t think she’d be able to get him to talk with just the trinket she had brought for trade today, but she also wasn’t about to go back out to the tree to go gathering fruit… and she also wasn’t keen on waiting around until next summer and hoping he’d be open for business again. No, there had to be some kind of deal the teen could arrange, some method of bartering somehow… If only she’d picked up on Xochitl’s business savvy, or at least some of her marketing skills. For the meantime, though, Morishita dug her senshi phone from out of subspace, scrolling through her texts from a certain Cosmos Squire she since regretted giving her contact info to, as she was constantly bombarded both with YouTube links to whatever song of the day the squire wanted to gush endlessly about, as well as cat pictures of Rune, seeing as the two were bffs. Finding a good photo to show, she held up the phone so Almadel could see the image displayed on the screen, of a certain fluffy white Mauvian, who was very proudly displaying a certain medallion pinned to her collar, that Morishita had traded for a couple years back. "Her name is Runelucia, but she goes by Rune, and very unfortunately, she lives with me," the teen explained, "We visited my homeworld a couple years back, had one of those past life memory things? Anyway, as it turns out, the medallion's hers." How it had ended up in Almadel's possession, she didn't know. Nor did she know why it had drawn her attention so back then, when she first chanced upon the merchant's table. What she did know, though, was that she felt a little cheated, even it was her own fault for agreeing to the deal in the first place.
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Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 6:21 am
Almadel squinted and leaned forward a bit so he could closely examine the Mauvian, and the necklace she was wearing. “Ohhh. Oh, yes, it’s all coming back to me.” Was it? Was he just lying to appease her? He was impossible to read. “Well,” he leaned back in his seat and his tail twitched next to him as he laid his palms flat against the table. “Just because it’s ‘hers’ doesn’t necessarily mean she would have been able to find it herself this day and age. You’d be surprised at how far things can travel. And it’s been, what, at least a few years since she had it? I won’t say ‘finders, keepers’, but she should really be more conscientious when it comes to her belongings. You can’t just leave important things lying around, someone’s bound to pick them up.”
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2023 11:21 pm
Morishita shot Almadel a withering look, before slowly putting her phone away; she couldn't tell if he was being serious or if he was just pulling her leg for the sake of appeasing her, and while it bothered her... she probably shouldn't be so hung up on whether a mysterious alien salesman recognized a specific talking cat or not. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, you probably never met her before," she said, with a sigh. "I think she thinks she's more of a big deal than she really is," the teen added, though the same could be said for her. Almadel went on about 'finders keepers' and how Rune should have kept a better eye on her belongings, and it took an awful lot of willpower to keep Morishita from dragging a hand down her face in exasperation, like she did any time Rune lectured her too much. Was he wrong? No. Did that mean she wanted to hear any of it? ... Also no. "Well, yes, but I think you should tell that to her, and not me," Morishita quipped, "Anyway, that's not what I came all the way out here for; I mean, I didn't come all the way out here to hear about what my cat should be doing with her own stuff, what I wanted was..." Well, she had come initially to complain about the trinket yes, but now... "Well, ideally, I'd like to make another deal with you, for something that I hope isn't Rune's again, but what I'm also interested in is... I want to learn more about this business you run. How it works, and how you're getting ahold of all this stuff. Or is that some sort of 'trade secret', huh?" Also, like, she wanted to know more about him, but not in the like, flirty kind of way.
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Posted: Sun Jul 16, 2023 5:48 pm
“Oh, I’ll make no secret of it. Everything I acquire is ethically sourced. Mostly. I’m not some thief or villain. I do a lot of adventuring, and you sort of just find things along the way. So many of these worlds are just empty. And these treasures have been left behind.” He hummed to himself and lifted what seemed to be an old hairpin. “Things that used to be so important, lost and forgotten to time. I like to give them new homes, new life. I’m respectful, of course. It’s why I trade, not sell.” His tail danced from where he sat and he seemed honest enough, even if smug little secrets still seemed to hide in his smile. “If you’ve got questions about anything in particular, I’ll tell you all I can. And if Rune is giving you a hard time, you send her over to me and I’ll be happy to sort her out. But–to business. Are you in the market for anything in particular? Or shall we sort through things until you find something you like?” He set the hairpin down and rearranged a few things, maybe to bring a few sparkling trinkets into view. Gold backed gemstones were plenty, and brilliant gemstones were embedded in them. Almost offhandedly he lifted a brooch with a large, purple domed stone. It glittered as if it had specs of diamond inside, and even without much light on it still shimmered brilliantly. “Almost as pretty as your eyes. It would look stunning on you, don’t you think?”
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