Out and About (Chyril 27th - TT)

[Valya Nix]

Steady, now.

Val balances on the ball of her right foot, her skirts caught up in her left hand. Slowly she hops to the next cobblestone. Again she balances herself, this time on her left foot, her right leg extended out behind her. Softly she begins to hum a tuneless little tune. Her counting song was usually for blackbirds but today she was counting cobblestones.

“One for sorrow,
two for joy,
three for a girl,
four for a boy…”

For each new number Val skipped to a new stone. Her voice was soft and sweet, the voice of a girl who was singing for herself alone.

“Five for silver,
six for gold,
seven for a secret
never to be told.”

Standing on one stone she raised herself up onto her tiptoes and twirled around like a music box ballerina.

“Eight for a wish,
nine for a kiss,
ten for a time
of joyous bliss.”*

Done with her game she makes a little curtsy to the invisible audience. Valya had been exploring the area around the Dragon with growing confidence, feeling more comfortable all the time. On a quiet street she fell to amusing herself with solitary games much as she might at home. Lost in her own little world she was only vaguely aware of anyone else on the street as she knelt down a few feet away from a shop wall to practice pitching banners.

*folk song/rhyme

[Grey Wolf]

It was a quiet day and people were busily filling the street going about on their business, City Guards prominently visible at every street corner, patrolling the city heavily armed and wary. Even outside of the Outer Ring the patrols were heavy, but the guards did not stop anyone, even though their eyes often shifted upwards to scan the rooftops. Memory of yesterday was still sharp in their mind and none of the guards wished to end like so many other bodies they found yesterday, shot by rooftop archers. It was near the Dragon that Yelena finally encountered a familiar face, the man who had struck her with his door leaning against a wall and observing a girl that passed the time skipping along the cobbles.

The people passed by Valya some staring at her like she was mad, and some smiling in amusement, a group of street urchins nearly running into her, but by some mysterious method they flowed around her like she was a rock in the middle of river and they water. She did have an audience, a tall muscular man, dressed in a sleeveless shirt resting against a wall, dark circles under his eyes a testimony to an obviously long night he had spent awake.

[Valya Nix]

Val skipped her banner across the ground, trying to land it as close to the wall as possible. Naturally, in her one person game she was cleaning up. Focused completely on her diversion she never even noticed the man watching her until an errant throw ricocheted her banner out into the street. “Oh, wait!” She popped up and chased the rolling coin over to where it came to rest against the boot of the tall leaning man. She knelt to grab the coin and then looked up, and up…and up. The coin disappeared into her belt pouch and she gave the man a shy smile before she straightened up and skipped back a step. “Seems that one, eh, got away from me.”

[Yelena Kintessia]

Yelena recognized the man, as soon as she saw him. Ah, he looks a bit nicer when he's calm. Jordan, was it? He didn't even apologize for what happened the other day. She would have went up to talk to him, but he was already preoccupied with the coin-rolling girl. Her feet stood planted where they stopped. She was curious to how he would talk to someone else, and whether or not she would get that apology. Or even if he remembered.

[Grey Wolf]

The man was polite enough to move his boot aside, giving the girl plenty of room to pick her coin up and smiling politely, if wearily. “My boot got into its way. Did I ruin your game?” He glanced at the spot where the girl stood before the coin got away, unsure if he should have allowed the coin to roll along. “What was it you were doing over there? I have never seen anyone play a game like that. Children around here usually play in groups.” Valya did not look like a kid, but she had to be one in Jordan’s eyes as she behaved appropriately.

[Valya Nix]

“No, you didn’t ruin it, I missed is all…” Val tilted her head and looked at the man, her dark eyes wide and curious. Now that someone else had entered her mental radar she seemed sharply intent on studying him. He looked…tired, she determined.

“It’s a game. The stable boys taught me, though Helena scolded me something fierce and said gambling isn’t for young ladies. I don’t see how it’s different than mother’s card parties, but, anyway…You skip the banner at the wall, like you would skip a stone across the ocean, see?” Valya mimed crouching down and tossing a coin. “And the person who gets one closest without it bouncing back wins ‘em all. I was just practicing, seeing as I don’t have anyone to play with as of now.” Valya balanced on one foot and rubbed the toe of the other against the back of her leg.

At his last comment she looked slightly offended, “I’m seventeen yaren old, and no child…” She jerked her little chin and looked sideways at him out of proud, narrowed eyes. “But I’ll over look that since we just met. What’s your name? Oh, and I could teach you how to play…if you like.”

[Grey Wolf]

“Ah, that game. I know that game, but it is commonly played by more than one person. So, you were practicing I would wager.” The game she described was indeed one played by children, the grown ups having other ways to wager their money and fleece the unsuspecting fools that came along. “Seventeen eh? And what might be your name then, young lady? I’m Jordan and I think I could probably teach you a trick or two about the game you just played. There is this thing you can do with your wrist that sends the coin spinning so when it hits the wall it hugs it and stays close.” He fished a banner out of his pocket and showed it laying across his palm. “Here, let me show you.” Grasping the coin between his index and middle-finger, Jordan flicked it towards the wall, letting his hand slide past the coin and sent it spinning. It struck the ground and slid along it, hitting the wall and bouncing off, only to have the spin pull it towards it, again and again, until it rested right against the wall and rolled along it, finally grinding to a halt, a hair’s breadth away from it.

[Valya Nix]

“My name’s Valya Nix. And rightly pleased to meet you, Mister Jordan.” She made her usual curtsy yet didn’t drop her eyes, fixed as they were on his face. She was vivid with curiosity. “A trick, you say?” Tricks helped you win, and winning was delightful. “Here, lemme try!” Manners instantly forgotten, as they so often were, Valya snatched up his banner and tried to throw it the way he did. Her nervous hands immediately fumbled the coin but somehow she refrained from dropping it. Her movements were overly exuberant but she tried gamely to put the same spin on the coin that he had.

[Yelena Kintessia]

From the way he spoke to the girl Jordan did not seem like a bad person compared to way he acted toward Yelena the day before. It might be a very good bet that he does not even remember. She watched him as he flicked the coin along the wall, teaching the girl a trick. He must have been really good at it when he was younger. Putting aside what happened to her the day before, Yelena stepped up to the two while they were still fiddling with coins. “Ah, Hello there.”

[Grey Wolf]

As Valya learned the trick Jordan showed her, was one that required quite a bit of practice, her coin impacting the wall at a wrong angle and bouncing against it once, skidding to a stop a good two hand's breadths away from it. "No, no, you are doing it all wro......" The man stopped mid-sentence, turning his head to regard Yelena, his brows furrowing as recognition flickered in his eyes, though he quickly caught himself and made a bland expression, smiling politely. "Hello." he smiled sheepishly and held a coin for the newly come girl to see. "We are passing the time with a coin toss game." Considering that an invitation, he showed no further signs he remembered Yelena, turning back to Valya and helping her grip the coin properly. "Like this. And then you flip your wrist like so, and make sure the coin hits the wall at an angle." he demonstrated the wrist flick in slow-motion. "Helps if you swing your entire arm slowly to pretend like you did not want the coin to go like that. Otherwise people might complain."

[Valya Nix]

Less nervous this time, Valya wings the coin with a bit more finesse. “Oh, my, yes. Tricks are no good if everyone can see how it’s done.” She tosses the coin, skips to retrieve it, and then throws it again. Val looks up at Yelena through her tumble of dark hair, “Oh. Hello, there.” She squints a bit at Yelena’s features and tilts her head to the side. Yelena looked familiar, as though she had spied her face somewhere in her whirlwind first few days in the city. “Don’t I know you from somewhere?” She smiles swiftly, her eyes crinkled up with pleased good humor. Without waiting for a reply she rushes back to the serious business of her game.

[Yelena Kintessia]

Yelena paused a bit to think about Valya's words and who she was. Almost immediately she recalled an image in her mind, which was a man greeting a woman using some visually appealing magick. “Ah, I remember you. We were at the Burpin' Dragon a night or so ago. My name is Yelena.” Yelena looked at Jordan again and sighed before turning back to Valya, watching her fiddle with her coin game. “How is your day going?”

[Valya Nix]

Valya looked exceedingly pleased to be remembered, chalking it up to her distinguished looks and fine personality. She tossed her head like a filly flicking its full dark mane hither and yon, then she popped to her feet, her motions all exuberant energy barely contained.

“Oh, my day? You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…” She looked from Yelena to Jordan and back, “Why, I fell right through the street though it looked as solid as this one here.” She stomped her small booted foot on the paving stones. “And right at the last moment, indeed, seconds away from my own untimely death, a man, he…” she flicked the coin into the air and caught it, “He caught me by my hand and pulled me free. Well, we went exploring the area with another two fellows, one, he, uh…” Valya paused, trying to think of a way to explain the phenomena of the dark elf’s coloring. “He was all, ehm, inky like?” She waved her hand around her head. “On his face? But it wasn’t ink, oh no, for I shook his hand and…” she showed them her clean palm. “So I figure it was just his way of being and, really, I think it looked rather smart with the white hair he had. But…” her voice drops a trifle, “I don’t think he took to me much.”

“Well,” she continued on, “all manner of strange things happened, I caught my head on fire, and I tripped over bricks that weren’t there, and I saw another dwarf, if you can believe…” She shook her head, out of breath. “But I suppose in the city one must expect the unexpected!” Valya motioned at the two others with a wide grin, “And how goes the day for you two fine personages?”

[Grey Wolf]

Jordan’s face showed no sign he remembered Yelena though he glance at him revealed a difference in the man. Peeking from the left side of his collar was a clean linen bandage, and his entire left shoulder looked a bit fuller than the right. The man frowned a bit at Valya’s description of her day, not quite understanding what she was saying, but he did not bother to ask. He did glance at Yelena at the question, shrugging and offering a short reply. “I’ve been lazy today. It was a long day yesterday so I decided to do nothing. But, you mentioned falling through the cobbles? Where did that happen? I knew this city was in shambles, but not that things were that bad.”

[Meridiuz]

Locked so that pre-recess threads can be wrapped up.

[Ashari]

SKILLS:
Valya
NEW SKILL! Knowledge [Playing Games] - basic