Playing in the Sandbox

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Skaimos took a bite of the pastry. It was warm and flaky, and had a filling of beans and meat that was quite delicious. As he ate the pastry, he gave some thought to what he should do next. He could look through the stalls some more, but there wasn't anything he was particularly interested in buying at the moment. Watching the tournament might be fun though. And perhaps he could find some adventurers or merchants who could use an extra hand. If the festival wouldn't help him, he'd have to do his research himself.

He looked around. The pixie and the Thri-Kreen seemed to be having a conversation. He also saw the Watersoul from earlier, eating her own pastry. She looked well traveled, so Skaimos decided to go talk to her and see if she knew of any caravans. Or at least have someone to talk to to pass the time.

He walked over to the Watersoul and smiled. "Greetings, Watersoul-san. How are you enjoying the festival so far?"

---

Alma almost chokes as she is addressed from behind. She coughs a bit, swallowing her food, before turning to see the Tiefling that addressed her. "Oh, ah, ahem... excuse me, Tiefling-san. Ah, yes, it is, um, that is," Alma stops and takes a breath. "What I mean to say is, I am enjoying the festival greatly, thank you for asking." She accentuates this with a quick bow. "And how do you find the festivities?"

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"From what I've seen, it's quite jovial. Some of the merchants are...less helpful than I would have hoped, but what can you do? But allow me to introduce myself. I am Skaimos Terai, at your service." He gives a quick bow. "I've recently left home to try to learn more about trading, in the hopes that I might set up a successful business. I was hoping to learn more from the merchants here, but it seems that they aren't eager to give away trade secrets to random people off the street. But enough about me; what is your name, Watersoul-san, and what brings you to the festival?"

---

Alma stands a bit straighter, preparing to give her practiced introduction. "I am Alma Lex-Iya, daughter of Arlano Lex-Iya...and..." Alma pauses to think, but shrugs and gives up. "And I don't remember how the rest went. I never liked introducing myself like that, anyway." She gives another bow, and continues. "My name is Alma Lex-Iya, Terai-san, and I am here to... well to have fun. It's a celebration of Nature's autumn, and I love the sights and sounds of the festival. And the smells, and flavors as well." She takes a small, proper bite of her pastry, flashing the Tiefling a small but warm smile.

"A pleasure to meet you, Lex-Iya-san. Yes, it is nice to see the change into autumn. The cherry blossoms are a very nice sight this time of year. As for fun, well, I believe I've gotten all the entertainment I can out of the marketplace. I have heard that there is a fighting tournament nearby, though. It's probably too late to see the first few bouts, but it should be entertaining to see the finalists duke it out? Would you happen to know where it is located?"

"The violence of the spectacle never truly appealed to me." She looks away, disinterested. "Though I suppose I could be convinced to attend, just this once. I believe if we follow the sounds of cheering crowds and screams of agony, we might be able to find it." She smiles again, "Lead the way, Terai-san." She falls in line next to him as they begin to head through the crowd.

"I am sorry that the tournament doesn't fully appeal to you, Lex-Iya-san. However, I am grateful that you are willing to endure it for my sake." Skaimos smiled as he and Alma headed toward the tournament. "Since I have little experience in matters of combat, I hope to be able to learn some battle strategies used by others in case I run into some...difficulties. Oh, would you like to me to show you a little trick I've learned? Think of a number, any number you like."

Alma, having had plenty of mathematical tutoring, is intrigued at the least. But she doubts the Tiefling's ability to impress her with a number trick. "Very well. I know my number. Now what?"

"Now, focus on that number in your mind." Skaimos then took a deep breath, and concentrated, trying to see if he could detect Alma's surface thoughts.

---

Rolling for Detect Thoughts...19!

Thriss broke off a piece of his pastry and gave it to the pixie regardless, the words of Uncle Istvan ringing in the back of his mind.

'Always be friendly to others. You never knew if they'll become potential costumers in the future.'

The sounds of the crowd cheering pulled Thriss back to reality. He looked to the side and saw a large mob of people gathering near what at first sight seemed to be a stage with 2 persons fighting each other on it. Having nothing better to do, he flashed one last smile to the pixie before making his way over to see what got the crowd so riled up.

Cyrta takes the offered food, not admiting her own hunger out loud right now, and was VERY thankful to the powers that be that her body did not make any comments on how hungry she is. "Umm... Thanks..." The Pixie said with a blush and mutters to herself. "I hate when I make a mountant out of a non-issue..." Then she tries to recolect herself and greet what she hoped was a new frend. So with as much pride in what she said and as friendly as she could sound spoke. "It is very nice to meet you, Thri-Kreen-san, my name is Cyrtanthus, I am a Former-Slave of The Ack'Cha Family... You may call me Cyrta if my full name is too much of a hassle for you to speak in Common." Then after a short pause she added. "And... Um... I've gotta admit, I've never been good with gender of your Race, dispite living with Thri-Kreen for years, but I think you are male?"

Thriss, noticing that the pixie was following and talking to him at the same time, slowed his pace a little bit.

"Pleased to meet you. My name is Thriss Nantuko and last time I checked, I was a male Thri-Kreen" he said with a slight small. He mulled over all the things she said. He had heard of the Ack'Cha family but he never knew they had a slave pixie. Former slave pixie, a second thought corrected him.

"I'm the shopkeeper of 'Uncle Istvan's Antique Dealings' here in town." And that's about as much he could think of, not being accostumed to talking to someone who wasn't interested in buying something. As such, his mind wandered to what he thought to be casual dialogue he once came across in books he had read.

"Do you come here often?"

((Well, that's certainly high enough to pick up the correct number Lynt.))

The changeling girl is caught off-guard by the sudden charge, having thought Arcantos out of the fight. She manages to pull her large blade up in time to block one of the blades but, the other slashes her across the forearm. Arcantos feels a stab of pain just from the impact of the blades colliding, while his regeneration is certainly a lot faster than natural healing, it's still not fast enough to have knit his broken bones.

The girl tries to force Arcantos back as blue lightning leaps from her blade down his, giving him a painful shock that leaves his arm almost completely numb.

Honestly the Pixie hasn't even realize either of them were even moving, yet. Cyrta then laughs and facepalms. "Oh yesh... That was a dumb thing to ask..." She admits out loud after Thirss' 'Male Thri-Kreen' comment... "I don't know why I did more I think about it." Then about the time she realizes that both of them are moving and not just standing around at as Thriss comments about being a shopkeeper. "Oh..." She said as she glances around to be mindful of where she was and where she's going... Then after Thirss' final question. "Well... I'm not really on this side of town that much. I think... I normally just get myself lost by having fun on days like this. And just live day by day working as a Street Prepformer with my Fire Magics."

Unfortunately Arcantos just couldn't muster the force needed to push away the heavy blade with his numb arm and his stomp seemed to be slid away from the girl's foot by some unseen force.

Letting go of the blade with one hand, letting the weight just press down onto Arcantos, swirling wings formed around her fist as she punched him in the chest, releasing a blast of wind that knocked him away and on his back.

Skaimos managed to look into Alma's surface thoughts successfully. The number Alma was thinking of was...

"...Terai-san? But that's not a number!" Skaimos exclaimed. He then paused, then face-palmed. "Well, that sort of gives it away, doesn't it? Most people are usually amazed and wonder how I did it. But I suppose in your case, I should come clean." Skaimos sighed. "I am a psion, trained in the use of the mind to influence both the physical world and the minds of others. I tried to glance into your mind in order to figure out what you were thinking. But please know that I did so only to impress, not to intrude. Please forgive my brashness." He gives a small bow to Alma.

---

Alma grins slyly. "To be honest, I wasn't expecting a mind-reader. It seems I have doubly beaten you, though, because I was indeed thinking of a number." She only smiles wider as she looked at the confusion in his face. "Its all about perspective. When you read my thoughts, you only saw your name, Terai-San. But the name wasn't what I was thinking of. Understand yet?" As he shakes his head, she continues. "I could have been thinking Lex-Iya-San, or Kalnes-San, or any other name. The number I was thinking of would remain the same." As she sees realization refuses to dawn on the Tiefling's features, she mock sighed, as if lecturing a dense student, and then giggled. "San. In the older tongues, san also translates to the number 3."

((Bronymous, I have no idea if that would really work that way in japanese. Still, it was funny.))

Moving to parry another strike, the changeling was unprepared for the lightning that struck her and circled around her, as if to keep her caged in place. She grimaced in pain and raised her sword straight up above her head as flames rose up from the ground to converge on the flamberge and she hurled it at Arcantos who caught the blade between his own but, as the flames roared out in an explosive blast he was flung out of the arena, into the crowd.

The monks signaled that the girl had won and one of the clerics of Kord who was attending came up to Arcantos to heal his wounds, if not his pride.

Ramsus wrote:((Bronymous, I have no idea if that would really work that way in japanese. Still, it was funny.))

Pulled it straight from that Honorifics wiki page. Get on my level.

Skaimos smiled. "But of course. Truly, I have been bested twofold. I humbly bow to my superior." Skaimos gave an exaggerated bow to Alma. "Now, let us get to the tournament, before I find a way to embarrass myself further. Ah, here we are."

They had made their way to the edge of the crowd in time to see a Shifter lunge toward a Changeling. He first appeared to be attacking with his swords, but then seemed to spit out a bolt of lightning at the Changeling. The Changeling seemed trapped by the lightning, but then summoned flames to her wavy sword and threw it at the Shifter. The Shifter used his swords to catch the Changeling's in mid-air.

"Well, that's impressive. Now that the Changeling's disarmed, the Shifter should be able to finish-"

An explosion of flame seemed to burst from the Changeling's sword, blasting the Shifter out of the arena and into the crowd.

"...The Changeling must have channeled her magic through her sword. I didn't see that coming."

The crowd gave the Shifter some room as the monks went to heal him. Their attention soon turned to the Changeling, who was pronounced the victor of the match. Skaimos decided to approach the Shifter. "Are you alright, Shifter-san?"

---

"Oh my..." is all Alma says as she watches the Shifter get blown clear of the arena. In the confusion of the crowd around her, she almost doesn't notice as her new companion rushes off. "Oh, wait for me, please!" She follows him to where the Shifter landed, but says nothing else.

The Shifter gruffly thanks them for their concern and disappears elsewhere into the crowd, possibly to watch the rest of the tournament.