Character Worlds' Fair

[Courtyard]

Just outside of the Entertainment Hall, there was a set of small signs, each promoting one of the stalls found within the hall. Some signs were larger than others, but just about all of the stalls were represented.

In front of this cluster of signs stood two fair-goers. One was a tall, dark skinned woman who looked like she could be anywhere from her late twenties to early forties. Her hair was drawn back into a slick, businesslike ponytail. She had on a thin, light-brown cardigan over a white button-up shirt left unbuttoned near the top, a slitted black pencil-skirt, and some short black boots. She was standing close to the signs, with a thin hunk of cardboard in her hands. The other person there was a man, light skinned and a few hairs shorter than the woman. He also looked younger, nearer to his early thirties or late 20s, with a round, almost pudgy face, although he wasn't what most would consider fat. His short brown hair was combed back as well, highlighting his nervous face. He was wearing a dark blue blazer, a button up shirt similar to the woman's, and a pair of jeans that gave him a very casual look. He was standing further away from the signs than the woman, tapping his foot and glancing around in frequent intervals.

"Would you just put it down?" he said after a few seconds. His discomfort crept into his voice

The woman smiled, pausing for a moment, "I will." another pause, "I'm trying to pick the best spot for this."

"Does it really matter? All he said was to put it with the other signs; I don't think we're... we're framing a painting here."

"Well we aren't just lying it on the ground either!" she snapped back at the man, "We're going to do a good job. We're going to make sure this thing is visible. Do you know how to impress someone, Felix? You do a good job. Here," she held out the rectangular scrap of white cardboard out in front of herself. "Where do you think it would look the best?"

"I don't care, and I don't even think we're supposed to be doing this."

"Care. Where should the sign go?"

The man dragged a hand across his face. He gave the sign and it's potential positions less than a second's glance before aimlessly pointing his finger at the base of the other signs. "There."

"I said care. Think about this. Put some effort into it. Just a drop. Where do you think this would get the most exposure?"

The man glanced around the area once more, then stepped forward, grabbing the cheaply-made sign out of the woman's hands, and quickly set it just below the lowest of the officially made signs.

"There." he said, gesturing at it, "Now it looks like all of the others. It'll fit in just great. Now lets move somewhere else."

The woman glanced at the sign for a few seconds, then at Felix, then back at the sign. "Not good enough." she said, picking it up, then carrying it apart from the other signs and setting it by itself, although still visible along the same path that would bring people to the signs. In fact, it was almost more visible because of it's isolation and the unique craftsmanship by which it was made.

Felix stared at the sign for a moment, then shook his head, "Well. That sure isn't gonna last long."

"No, but I think that's the whole idea." the woman said, before eyeing the signs placement for a few seconds longer. "All right, lets go. Felix, you'd better try and impress me today."

"I've got a month and a half to try and impress you, lady." he murmured.

With that, the two walked away, leaving the lousy piece of cardboard that constituted the base of the lousy sign behind.

Foremost on the sign, scrawled in black ink (from a ballpoint pen or something of similar size, as the numerous thin indentions on the cardboard's surface suggested)at its top read the words, Come see RUFUS, the ASTONISHING merger of MAN and BEAST. Below that were the words "For a fair price, ask Rufus to do anything*: posing, reciting famous lines, impromptu singing..." the last suggestion seemed to be etched in deeper than the others, as though scrawled through great pain. "...anything*!" And below that, in small writing, were the words, "*within reason."

Aside from that, there was some slight decoration in the form of a border around the sign's clipped cardboard edges, and a crude silhouette of what appeared to be a man on one side of the sign, and on the other side a similar silhouette of either an oddly shaped pepper with arms and legs, or a lizard.

Overall, the sign's craftsmanship seemed around the range of a B- middle school student.



[Entertainment Hall ~ "Rufus"] read the last three paragraphs above before this one if you haven't already.

In the Entertainment Hall, there was a stall that wasn't quite as full as the others. It was as sparsely decorated as the sign that represented it. In fact, it wasn't a 'real' stall at all, a fact that even a slightly observant eye could pick up on. The 'stall' consisted of a commandeered bench covered in a borrowed white cloth sheet, a small borrowed table covered in another white cloth sheet that sat in front of the bench, a small box on the bench with a few coins—some of different currencies—inside, and some more white cardboard signs, most of which said the same sorts of things as the one outside the hall had said, although one sign clarified that the "fair price" for Rufus's "performance" was in fact "whatever seems fair" to the one paying.

Another sign read " two three FOUR Freebies for ONE small favor". This sign was being retired by a curious-looking creature who removed it from a small bit of guard railing (stuck there with some borrowed tape), carried it around the table, and stuffed it under the bench on top of stack of other rejected cardboard signs. Once sign had been removed, the creature climbed on top of the table and sat itself down.

'Rufus' would be, to some eyes, as peculiar a sight as his sign promised. Less so to others, but he hoped that the novelty concerning the nature of his condition would be enough for them to look past that. He did appear to be, as his signs described, part human and part "beast", although "beast might have been a bit of an overly-dramatic word to use. His animalic side was more immediately noticeable, if only because just about any deviation from being a normal human being found on a human being quickly overshadows every other aspect of that human being's human-beingness. And so was the case for Rufus, for he looked quite a bit like a lizard dressing as a salamander disguising itself as a human being, or vice versa.

His skin was mostly a very dark black, close to pitch, although there was a large white splotch that ran from the lower part of his mouth down across his chest and disappeared somewhere below his waist. A poetic type might describe it as a "snowy cliff piercing the night's sky" before getting stared at for several uncomfortable seconds. Oddly, his skin appeared to be lacking scales of any sort, or if there were scales, then they were too small to be perceived by the naked human eye. Rufus's head was very similar to a lizard's in its shape, although it was smoother and rounder in some areas, and his eyes, though fairly wide-set, were an uncommon blue (the color of the icepack worn by the poet after getting punched in the head) and they were filled with more expression and marginally more intelligence than a common lizard's would be. He held his body in a manner that was similar to a human being as well, and the way his arms and legs were connected to his torso was closer to a primate's configuration than that of a lizard, although his shoulders were quite narrow. His hands were shaped almost exactly like a human's, although his fingers ended earlier than a humans, extending into a rather short set of claws at the ends. His legs were a little shorter than an average human's, though his whole torso was a little longer, making the relative difference seem even greater. He had a large and fairly long lizard-like tail, though perhaps not as long as some types of lizard's tails were, proportionate to the rest of their bodies.

He also looked very worn out. The whites of his eyes, though small, were notably reddened by a lack of proper rest. he had two long cuts on his left arm, just below the shoulder blade, that had scabbed over. He was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts that were covered in some spacey starfield design, and those with a keen eye for clothing might notice that these were actually a pair of boxer shorts, and he was likely lacking another pair underneath. Rufus hoped that anyone who noticed would simply shrug it off as a difference of species (although that might bring into question the legitimacy of his sign's claims that he was partway human), or if not that, then perhaps he would get a pass with regards given to the 'artistic' nature of his stall. With these things paired together with his generally tired aura, Rufus certainly seemed beat, which was just as well, given that his stall's operation had him sitting on a table and doing nothing the majority of the time. He'd only discreetly set up shop about an hour and a half earlier, yet business had been quite slow. He'd only made a jingle in his pocket, and he was starting to worry that perhaps he'd picked the wrong section of the fair to try his luck.

The entire basis of his stall stemmed from the words a man had given him about the unique nature of condition. And how the right kind of people would pay just to examine his figure in the operation of even very simple tasks or motions. But maybe those kinds of people weren't wandering in the entertainment section of the fair. Maybe they were all in the Showcase Hall, looking for more impressive cultural or scientific displays. Maybe he'd picked the wrong kind of "Worlds' Fair" to try a stall like his. He couldn't provide any science, any theory, nor any explanation for his condition, he could only offer himself and hope that the onlookers could provide the rest. Maybe there was just something completely repellant about his stall's quality that he couldn't do anything about.

Rufus had no solid clue. He didn't normally do these sorts of things.



You can ignore the two characters in the first part of my post for now. I might write more for them later, but at the moment I don't feel I have the capacity to manage more than one character, so they are merely 'at the fair'.

edited 5th Oct '14 11:51:44 AM by Ryuhza

[Market Hall - Tevarian's Booth with Tamara]

"Honestly, I have no clue," Tevarian said with a slight sigh (or at least a mechanical approximation of such.) "I think the sword is looking for a particular kind of master, but I can't get it to say anything else than what it probably just said to you."

"Maybe you could figure out what it's looking for?" Tevarian said, "it might still be you, perhaps you just need to do something special, or look a certain way?"

[Market Hall - Nhesvrasila, Inc. - Shane, Ila, and Alice]

"Thanks," Ila said, placing the bag of equipment and receipt away into thin air as before. She then walked a few steps further to let Alice approach the stall, but instead of flying away, stopped after a short distance. Overhearing their conversation, she turned back towards Alice with a suspicious look, and waited to see what Shane would say in response.

[market hall - Youkai Showcase (Nioba, Lihiri, Adelphos 1, Iris)]

There was a brief burst of energy, and the tiny wyvern was torn from her shoulder. She stopped and turned to find a garishly-clad madman threatening to eat Mijo, with two armed girls at his side. Was this why they were so adamant about him coming with her? To educate him? They could have at least told her.

Iris ignored the girls for the most part and kept her attention on the man.

Giving Mijo's struggling body a brief glance, he began to stop and give up, an attempt at conserving his strength. She turned back to the man and spoke sternly and evenly with a voice that, despite her odd appearance, would be impossible to mistake as belonging to anyone other than a woman.

"I'm sorry, but my bodyguard isn't for sale." Her eyes were only slightly thinner than usual, as she couldn't afford to assume she could defend herself against this strange man. "Even so, I would not advise attempting to butcher a venomous, combat-bred wyvern for consumption. Mijo in particular would be very stringy and his variety of venom is allegedly flavorless and difficult to safely remove. I'm sure you can find something much better for lunch over there." Iris motioned towards the gaggle of food vendors from whence she came. That sounded almost like something Rikos would say...

As she spoke, Mijo turned his head as much as he could, which was very little, and began to try innocently scoping out Lihiri and Nioba, first visually, and then by tasting their air for magic.

edited 5th Oct '14 8:31:48 PM by CrystalGlacia

Market Hall (Youkai Showcase) (Mahiro, Nagako, Adelphos #1, Nioba, Lihiri, Marion, Iris)

Mahiro nodded in response to the not-dragon's choices. "All right, let me see here...."

He looked over them for a brief second before nodding again. "The necklace is a work from one of the most well-known jewelers in the Youkai Capital. To my knowledge her work is usually more intricate than this, but you can nevertheless tell since she signs her name on every - what in the great depths of Yomi!?"

He was interrupted when a series of events he didn't quite manage to catch all of lead to Adelphos making a mighty jump and landing, holding some squirming...thing in his hand. He stared at Adelphos with a wide-eyed, very startled expression, with his fangs instinctively bared a little. That wasn't everything, however; his head had also literally jumped off his shoulders and was now floating about a foot above the rest of his body.

He only maintained this pose for a moment or two. He then looked down at the rest of his body, and after emitting a loud sigh he reattached his head. Showing no sign that his head had even detached at all, he then turned back to Marion. "Yes yes, forgive me," he said, "Now isn't the time to be losing my head. I will need you to hold on for just a moment while I get this situation sorted out."

Afterwards, he shot a glare towards the rest. "If you must jump around like mad, at least be considerate and make sure you aren't around valuables. I would like my wares to remain intact and would appreciate caution on your behalf, yes yes."

Nagako whirled around upon hearing her father yell, but she was seconds too late to see anything major happen. She did see her father's reaction, which made her raise an eyebrow, but other than that she couldn't see anything unusual. Even so, it took a lot to for her father to lose his composure like that, and she couldn't help but be a little worried.

She abandoned her position by the beetles and walked up to the front of the stall before looking over the scene, trying to figure out what happened.

Showcase Hall - [Martian Dynamics]

Dimitri waited just inside the covered area, gesturing down one of the coveralls-wearing employees with a slight wave of his fingers from where they were at his side, while at the same time straightening his slightly modified Martian flag pin; the same trick magicians use, left and right hands on different tracks. "Greetings, and welcome to Martian Dynamics' showcase. May I ask what you're looking for?"

[Showcase Hall - Martian Dynamics]

The alien approached Dimitri and offered a four-fingered hand. "Colonel Reyondh Agavhi, of Agavhi Militarized Security," she said brusquely, voice still hoarse. "I'm looking for nothing in particular - just browsing, at least right now."

I hate short posts.

edited 5th Oct '14 5:57:16 PM by nrjxll

[Market Hall — Nhesvrasila, Inc.]

Even with plenty of cashier's experience, Shane had to work to not give Alice his best "are you serious?" look. "UC-" He managed not to rub his temples. "Ma'am, we're a civilian self-defense company. I'm pretty sure AFGs that size are illegal, outside of stuff like the military and law enforcement. And even if they weren't, there really isn't any need for something that large, so I doubt we'd carry them anyway. Besides, it's just plain inefficient, since it's a lot easier to just enchant the armor to be magic-proof and not bother with a power supply."

He was about to go on to the next point when something stopped him. Maybe he could get a sale out of this anyway. It was hardly unethical, just a tad unreasonable. "But if you really need it, I suppose you could get maybe five or six of them and run them the length of the drone. I mean, with a six-foot radius, that's like a twelve-foot diameter, so you'd only need three of them to get all thirty-five feet of the drone, right? Plus a bit more for backup. Now, these run on AA batteries..." Shane pulled out an AFG and flipped open the back to show Alice. Two fully-charged AA cells were in there. "...but it can't be that hard to jury-rig them to run off a drone's power supply."

He laid the AFG back down. "I'm afraid that your second request, however, is impossible. At least where I'm from. Newtonian physics and arcane physics don't exactly play well together, so antimagic doesn't affect them at all. I know there's work trying to keep any projectile of enough momentum from entering an area using magic alone, but all the devices from that still waste their energy trying to push back the floor. The only real product that line of research has produced is invisible, intangible umbrellas for the exceedingly rich and exceedingly stupid, and then only because they're only working with water."

[Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]

Richard and Myles looked at each other. At the board behind them, plastered with writing about this exact topic. At each other. At Adelphos. Richard opened his mouth to say something, but Myles cut him off. "It's complicated," said Myles. He shot a quick glare at Richard.

Richard paused for a moment, then flowed back into his original shape and returned to his chair. "Well, let's put it this way: no. It's..." He scratched his head. "Organs do get rearranged to be like a wolf's, but wolves don't normally talk, so my voice? That's... not completely understood, but the voice doesn't exactly depend on physiology during transfiguration. Well, except when it does." He flared his wings. "It's weird."

"Or you can look at it the same way I once did," said Myles brightly. "Fucking magic."

"It's more complicated than that," mumbled Richard, so quiet he was almost inaudible.

[Market Hall — Youkai Showcase]

Marion blinked and took a step back in surprise at Mahiro's... display. That was new.

Rustling her wings a bit to calm herself, Marion coughed. "Hem... Yes, of course," she said. "Take your time." She glared at the people making the commotion and, for a second, seriously considered stepping in and yelling at them. Or at least calling security.

Not now, though. But if they kept it up...

Showcase Hall - Martian Dynamics

Dimitri accepted the handshake with a raised an eyebrow. "If you're private security, I doubt we sell much of interest. If you're a PMC, it rather depends on your budget for heavy weaponry or field fortification and engineering. Please, call me Dimitri."

[Market Hall — Nhesvrasila, Inc.]

Alice shrugged regarding the second request and said, "seemed likely, but I've seen a few too many impossible things to not ask. Now, let's see. Good thinking — a few smaller AFGs, properly spaced... hmm. Yeah, I think that will cover one well enough. Call it five of the six footers. That'll be five hundred dollars worth?" She opened her case and pulled out three tiny cubes of gold, weighing five grams apiece. With some magnification, one would find each was accurately marked in a miniscule, laser-etched "24K". "This ought to do the trick,"^* According to Wolfram Alpha, that's $573 worth of gold at present. By Alice's time, gold has weakened relative to the dollar, but she's still offering a fair deal. she said. Credit was out of the question — the less of a paper trail she left, the happier Alice would be with this day.

Then, seeing a new opportunity, she asked, "so, another question: you guys got any sort of chemicals to neutralize magic-users' abilities? I mean, aside from using ordinary tear gas to distract them. We're talking something you can chuck in a room of angry mages and their non-magic hostages, without the second group suffering any significant harm."

edited 6th Oct '14 5:20:12 AM by KillerClowns

[Showcase Hall - Martian Dynamics]

"Dimitri," Rey said agreeably to the human. The rest of his speech, however, made her wince a little, though it was impossible for an observer to identify behind the face-concealing sunglasses.

Crap. Because we are definitely a real unit and not two beings with a lot of pretty filework.

"Don't know," she said out loud. "If nothing else, our current clients have authorized me to act as a gofer for equipment for their little dig." She paused and looked over the stall thoughtfully. "Let's see what you got."

Incidentally, her grip is unnaturally strong as a result of heavy augmentation. Dimitri may or may not have picked up on this.

edited 5th Oct '14 9:44:51 PM by nrjxll

[Showcase Hall - Bindery of Leison] (Lyra, Amanita)

Lyra perceived Amanita's response and returned it with a nod of understanding. Ultimately it was not a question even Amanita, a goddess, could answer with certainty. As the earthy scent reminded Lyra of her town, a slight feeling of unease gripped her.

Normally, that feeling would lead Lyra down the path of reflection, but Amanita's sudden glare, accompanied with a question equally ominous, denied her. After a brief moment of recoil, Lyra formed a neutral expression; by itself conveying little, "Answers may be. Questions, on the other hand, shouldn't be. What marks the bounds of our knowledge are questions stemming from answers we have." Lyra said.

"I find it perfectly logical. Answers might never be found, but the question remains; yet if the question itself is forgotten, the answer will never be found." Lyra said. Still, Lyra felt that she was simplifying the problem. The question most likely would remain with her for some time to come.

Showcase Hall - Martian Dynamics

"Ah. In that case, you'll be wanting the DM series. Environmental conditions a concern?" Dimitri asked. He gestured to the construction machine with the bubble canopy, currently looking like a backhoe, while his other hand waved over someone with brochures and he snagged one. "The detailed information is in this," he held out the brochure, "but the short version is that the DM-series comes with a variety of attachments to perform all possible construction and earthmoving work from digging trenches to bulldozing to grading, and it can do so in pretty much any environment that a human wearing a heavy-duty astrosuit or a hard diving suit can survive in. Electrical power, silicon-foam batteries, good for about twelve hours. Recharge time depends on what you plug it into, though anything over two megawatts direct will probably damage the system."

[Courtyard]

They walked stiffly side by side by side, but almost exactly two feet apart. Their barely restrained bitterness and hostility thickened the air around them. However, little of this was betrayed in their faces. The tall young man, futilely trying to pat down his mass of curly, dark brown hair, was smiling brightly as he surveyed the area. He was simply dressed in a white dress shirt, green waistcoat and tie, and brown trousers. His dark green eyes shined with mischief, but if they happened to pass over his companion, they turned steely and cold. She was very short, not even five feet tall, and her flowing red silk robes made her seem even smaller. She had fluffy black hair, dark brown eyes, and rich, tan skin. Her makeup was thoughtfully applied in a way that made her as predator-like as her height would allow. Both of them had a haughty air that made one assume they were very wealthy.

The young man stopped before a sign, some distance from the others. This particular sign caught his attention not only because of its location, apart from the others, but also because the level of almost-not-shitty that it achieved seemed almost artful. Not to mention its content. This was satire, right?

"I'll admit that my curiosity has been piqued," the young woman said flatly.

"So has mine," he muttered.

She did not reply. Nor did she move. But he didn't want to be the first to do anything, for fear of criticism and a possible fight.

edited 9th Oct '14 2:07:30 PM by SnowyFoxes

[Courtyard]

He had no idea why he decided to come here, but he was curious about the place.

Akira stopped in the courtyard and looked around. He was a young man from Osaka, and had short dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and wore a red shirt and gray pants. He was carrying a black bag over his shoulder, though he had nothing too important; just an old camera and some notebooks.

He wasn't originally planning on coming here, but what was the harm of taking a little detour? Besides, exploring was fun. Now he just needed to know just what this place was called. Luckily, there were two people already outside, so he didn't have to look far to ask questions.

"Excuse me." he said, "Can one of you tell me the name of this place, if you know it?"

[Courtyard]

When they turned towards him, they were all smiles. Unless he was remarkably observant, he wouldn't notice that they were quickly scanning him, analyzing every detail. He was not white, the young woman observed, and she took comfort in this fact. The man thought nothing of it.

"Well, I'm not quite sure yet—"

He flashed her the briefest of glares; he wanted to be the one to speak first. This was petty bullshit, he knew, but he couldn't help it.

"—but I gather that it's a fair of some sort, with a wide variety of attractions. Such as... this." She stepped aside so the stranger could see the cardboard sign they were looking at. "I don't know what to make of it, honestly."

"We're being kinda rude." He chuckled and held out his hand. "So, the name's Jonathan. My friend here is—"

"I'm Seilaan," she said, a bit loudly. The second syllable was oddly harsh. "You can shorten it to 'Sei' if that's easier for you. Some people have a hard time, I know." She smiled brightly and twirled a lock of hair around her finger. "Renesian pronunciation is just... it's not something you master in one day. I understand."

She put an ever-so-slight emphasis on "some people" that made Jonathan's eye twitch.

edited 6th Oct '14 6:42:55 PM by SnowyFoxes

[Market Hall — Nhesvrasila, Inc.]

Shane took the gold and was looking it over when Alice asked her question. He almost did a double-take and dropped the gold. As it was, he flapped his wings once. Is she fucking serious? This wasn't helped by the fact that he couldn't tell how much the gold weighed. At least he had a scale underneath the desk for just this purpose.

"Ma'am," he said as he weighed the gold, "first of all, there's the tiny matter that that chemical weapons are kind of, you know, illegal. Literally everywhere. So we're not exactly allowed to sell them." Shane knew he wasn't supposed to get snippy with customers, but this was just plain ridiculous. And he'd seen plenty of ridiculous customers in his day. "And even if we were, as I said before, we're a civilian self-defense company. Assuming that sort of thing was legal, it'd have limited defensive uses for civilians. And with that little demand, it's unlikely that we'd stock them."

Well, the amount of gold was good. He didn't print the receipt just yet, though. "Now, will that be all, or are you interested in something else?"

[Showcase Hall - Bindery of Leison]

There was a long, dark pause before, slowly, Amanita nodded. Her expression suggested she disagreed with, but respected, Lyra's views. "Ask, if you must. You may find answers, yes. Perhaps they will not be as I fear. If so, I hope to hear." She offered a slight nod, and said, "on this note, unless you have more you wish to say, I believe I shall be bidding you farewell."

[Market Hall — Nhesvrasila, Inc.]

Alice shook her head and said, "I find your lack of imagination disturbing. We're talking about a solution that, properly applied, can defuse a hostage situation with no casualties or allow for the extraction of a wanted criminal with very little risk of them escaping or forcing law enforcement to kill them. Oh, and," she smiled proudly, "none of this is theoretical." She pulled out a business card with her name and scribbled some odd symbols on its back.

Sigmund had told her to leave the sales details to others, so she simply said, "it's a wonderful substance we call AMON. A 'chemical weapon' only in the same way pepper spray is, so you needn't worry on that front. She tapped the business card and said, "if you're curious, you or one of yours can show us this at our booth tomorrow. Our folks will give you the full story then; we're willing to sell the recipe, you see. I'm not in sales, for various reasons." She didn't quite manage to hid a wry smile that suggested reasons had involved an incident (or incidents) that she had found far more entertaining than her employers had. "Until then... I shall be taking my purchase. A bag, perhaps? At any rate, thank you for your assistance." Her professional demeanor briefly faded as she offered a disquietingly child-like curtsey, but returned thereafter.

edited 6th Oct '14 7:46:36 PM by KillerClowns

[Courtyard]

Reneseain? That's new. Whatever that was, he would have to ask her later. For now, he just decided to introduce himself.

"Mitchi Akira." he finally said, "Just call me Akira." The two of them seemed to be close friends (or family), so he didn't suspect anything else. Instead, he switched his bag from his left shoulder to his right shoulder. "So, this a fair, huh? I guess you two decided to check out some attractions here?"

Sorry for the shortness.

[Market Hall - Nhesvrasila, Inc. - Shane, Alice, and Ila]

Ila patiently waited a short distance from the stall, planning on talking to Alice once she was done.

She most definitely had a few questions for her, and depending upon the answers, possibly business to transact as well.

[Entertainment Hall - "Rufus"]

A strange person walked through the Entertainment Hall - if she was in fact a person at all. She was about 5'7"/1.7m tall, her skin white as a cloud, and she had short, wavy dark gray hair, the color of thunderstorms. She was wearing silver lightning-bolt earrings, a sky-blue t-shirt, and a black medium-length skirt. She walked gracefully along the floor, her feet tracking water along the ground wherever she stepped, before stopping in front of Rufus's stall.

She looked at him with sky-blue eyes, and said enthusiastically, "Hi! I'm Hvpvdqia!" It's supposed to be practically unpronounceable.

"I'm guessing you're Rufus - what kinds of things do you like to do? Whatever you want is fine with me!"

[Courtyard]

"Yeah, pretty much. We're, uh, on vacation." Jonathan's smile was starting to look strained. "Together. 'Cause friends do stuff together. So what brings you here? You just wandering around?"

Seilaan took a paper folding fan out of somewhere in her sleeve. It was getting a bit too warm for her tastes. Hopefully they'd go inside soon. Then again, places full of people tended to be warm... ugh.

[[Market Hall – Youkai Showcase – Nagako, Mahiro, Nioba, Lihiri, Marion]]

The description of how deadly the wyvern was only made Adelphos’ smile wider. After all, it wasn’t the body he meant for devour, but rather the soul. However, a body as useful as this would serve well for resurrection.

Have you taken leave of your senses? the voice inside Adelphos’ head roared, You’re going to ruin everything. Hand the reins back to me before you cause any more damage.

Give me a minute, Adelphos thought back, Let me add the dragon to my army.

It’s barely the length of your arm, the voice replied, and it won’t grow any larger after you convert it. And how long do you think you’ll keep it with these many people around? Just hurry up and give me control so I can try to salvage this situation.

But this place is so dull, Adelphos thought pleadingly, this is the only interesting thing that’s happened all day. Just let me have the dragon and I’ll fight all of them off for you.

To what end? We hardly have thirty people. They’ll crush us if we reveal ourselves too soon. Just grab the thing when we’re ready. Just. Not. Now.

Aaarggh, fine. If it gets you to shut up, take it.

As the original personality took over, Adelphos gave a hearty laugh. “I can’t tell if my attempt at intimidation was just that bad or if you’re not that easily shaken,” he said, “Though I’ll lean towards the former.” He looked down at his hand, suddenly noticing the pain shooting up his arm as the wyvern still struggled. His blood was trickling down the beasts neck and onto the ground. He let go of it, careful not to let it sneak in a vengeful bite as it flew away.

“I apologize for my rather extreme reaction,” he said, sneaking his hands back under his cloak, “I was under the impression that I was being attacked, and I reacted impulsively. Force of habit, I’m afraid. But I believe I might have misjudged the situation.”

“And my apologies to you as well,” he turned to Mahiro. Though there’s nothing of value in your stall anyway. “This situation won’t arise again.”

[[Showcase Hall – Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]]

Adelphos looked back at the poster again, having followed Richard and Myles’ gaze there. It was after a bit of searching that he found it, the one on the topic of voice. “Oh,” he said, “well, to be fair, I hadn’t read it in its entirety. Though I probably should…”

He took a few moments to do just that. Some terms would come up now and again that were new, but the portraits were helpful in that matter. They were actually very well made, almost life-like.

“Wait,” he said finally, “aside from the rearrangements, the insides remain the same? Is disguising oneself the only use you can draw out of this spell?”

edited 7th Oct '14 10:35:31 AM by Elfhunter

[Market Hall — Nhesvrasila, Inc.]

Shane instantly came up with half a dozen reasons why that seemed like a piss-poor idea. But you didn't tell customers, "It's a stupid product and you're stupid for making it." You smiled, nodded, and said, Have a nice day, ma'am.

"I'll think about it," Shane replied. Probably not very long, but I'll think about it. He printed a receipt and dropped it in a bag with Alice's AFGs. Handing the bag to Alice, he said, "Have a nice day, ma'am."

Then he began looking at the card in his hand. Partly because he was thinking about it, but mostly because if he looked like he was thinking it over, Alice might leave more quickly.

[Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]

"Well," said Richard, "you have to realize that this..." He waved a hand at the board. "...is by no means a complete description of transfiguration. Full-body changes like are useful primarily for disguise, yes, but on smaller scales, you could temporarily close a wound to keep a person from bleeding out."

"And remember," added Myles, "this was also the first serious scientific work on it. Potential applications haven't been completely explored yet, if only because we don't know what's going on at each scale."

[Showcase Hall - Martian Dynamics]

Rey considered the device thoughtfully, one of the glowing lines set into her glasses flickering momentarily. She didn't really know a damn about excavation devices, but the thing sounded useful enough.

Should had my backup logging his spiel. Ah well.

"Okay, first issue," she said, waving one hand loosely. "You say a human. My - our - current clients aren't, and the proportions don't even match as closely as yours truly. And I'm guessing from that canopy that thing's not automated? Wouldn't be a problem if it was - the Theos are a lot more sensible about that then some folks - but I dunno if you can even fit a gluvpaki in there."

Showcase Hall - [Martian Dynamics]

Dimitri shrugged. "The canopy's not automated in the sense it will close itself or open itself automatically, if that's what you're asking, but it'll run with an open canopy. I'd offer to do some custom modifications for you, as we're honestly eager to get rid of the existing stock, but at the moment that may be difficult." He clasped his hands together. "Our production lines for this series are either no longer in Martian hands or converting to produce war material and ultimately rectify that problem. Modification is still possible, of course. But perhaps more expensive now that it would have to be subcontracted to a outside shop, particularly since many of them have also been mobilized in one form or another. Lot of people disassembling old Leos for conversion to Super Leos at the moment."

edited 7th Oct '14 2:42:37 PM by Night

[Showcase Hall - Martian Dynamics]

Rey's ears perked up - metaphorically, at least, as while they were somewhat larger than a human's they weren't any more mobile - at what sounded like a mention of wartime production. She shook her head briefly. "I actually meant, is the whole constructor automated? Or do you need someone to get in there and pilot the thing?"

She stepped closer to the DM and ran her fingertips over its side thoughtfully. "So, you guys are Martian, huh? Never met anyone from Mars before. Not quite what I was expecting..."