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12.22.2132 - Interview in ShantyTown

Started by Dray, March 30, 2008, 09:38:44 PM

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Dray

A cold day, but a clear one nevertheless, thought Temmit as he made his way around Nottingham Hall. The large courtyard of granite tiles was freshly shoveled as was typical of all the 'uppity' parks in the Winter.

Other than the Church of Kaine itself, Temmit didn't find any other building quite as obnoxious as Nottingham Hall. Finished just 30 years ago, the brand new granite building was the "main attraction" for theater extravaganzas and symphony concerts for the 'well-to-do' in the Kingdom.

Leslie had once told him of her "dieing to go", but Temmet deduced that the 200gp ticket, just for the last row of the balcony, was something her parents probably couldn't justify.

He made his way around the ridiculously sized building and towards the Nutcase. As expected, there was an unfortunate amount of the older kids, almost two dozen, hanging outside, including Emma who stood in line behind none-other-than Stew the lunchroom-lacky under the canopy in front of the small building.

As kids picked up there coffee and nutbread from Monty, or his daughter Luminda, at one of the two windows, they would turn and join their intimate groups milling about the adjacent Hall's courtyard.

Five kids were in line at the moment, with Stew in second and Emma third.

Johan

Temmit got in line, as was his wont, and waited patiently for his turn to get an adequate dose of sleep substitute.

While waiting, he cast about, looking for anything on interest; anything that caught his eyes as out of place.
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Dray

The only look he got was from a girl named Samantha, Age 16, and also from the House of Scribes. The girl rolled her eyes at him as if he had no business hanging out at the "Cold kids spot".

Emma noted that he had arrived with the pull of an earlobe, the common Whisper greeting, when he approached. She didn't speak to him though, as all in Whisper had an understanding that Emma needed to portray herself as "above the commoners" when in public. This ruse, more than anything else, kept her pretentious father off of her back.

Emma took it farther though and disn't speak to any of the popular rich kids either, which Temmit imagined made her existance when not in guild a very lonely one.

With a quickness that Temmit always appreciated here, he was next to order.

"Good morning Master Temmit," Monty said. "Want a spot of Nutbread with your coffee this morning sir?"

Johan

Temmit motioned an appropriate response to Emma, but didn't look directly at her.

"Aye, sir. Thank you." Temmit said respectfully. Monty usually objected to the formality, but Temmit enjoyed it. Monty was one of those adults who actually deserved respect.

He reached into his bag for his tall ceramic stein for Monty to fill. His stomach growled in anticipation. "A rather large piece, please. I'm rather hungry this morning."

A few pleasantries later and Temmit was standing out of the way, eating his nutbread, drinking hot coffee, and watching the people come and go.
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Dray

All the kids, including Emma were wearing the normal fare, heavy leather breaches, cloaks and jackets lined with rabbit fur. The popular item this Winter being handknit wool hats with a silly tasle at each side holding a ball of wool only a cat would find endearing.

Emme merely had her cloak hood up.

Time passed to a quarter-pass 8 dawnhand and Renee showed up wearing her school uniform with a long dark leather fur-lined cloak, he could see the tip of her longsword scabbard poking from beneath. The longsword was something most kids in the Capital neglected back at the school, despite the flack they received from teachers.

Temmit always loved watching the reaction from the older kids who didn't know the girl personally. For Renee had a reputation of being the toughest kid in O.C., one that she tried to maintain no less. Her walk in public was a confident and almost slow-moving military strut as if she was always examining the troops. And without failure it always made kids uneasy. Granted she could wipeout all the kids near the Hall should she so choose, but a bully was something Temmit knew she was not.

She made her way to the window, which was just again vacated, and got her coffee and bread. Without a word she pass bye in front of Emma, a signal for her to follow.

As was familiar, Emma did so, followed by Temmit, all three of them at an unobvious interval, knowing their friend would be around the very next corner.

Johan

Temmit rounded the corner with his drink on his lips and his hood pulled up against the mid-winter chill. Both ladies were there as expected. They moved towards their goal, not stopping for a too-obvious greeting, Temmit a few steps behind.
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Dray

With their hoods up, no one happening bye would even note who the two girls were, and Temmit was familiar with looking like a stalker.

They passed through the fancy shops and businesses that were just north of the Hall. It was obviously quiet this early in the morning and they hardly encountered anyone. When they reached the main road that was parallel with the western edge of ShantyTown, Temmit watched the tops of the delpidated flat roofed buildings pass bye behind the wall. It amazed him that some of the buildings were the oldest in the kingdom, some of them didn't look like they would make it another week, let alone to have lasted a over two millenia.

Renee and Emma turned the corner and into ShantyTown, Temmit trotted up to walk almost right behind them, the precaution of being identified no longer being as important as their safety in the hard neighborhood.

They walked along the muddy streets and thru the narrow streets in between the tall residential towers that made up this quarter of the district. Temmit could understand why Fresenius was wiping out the eyesore known as ShantyTown, but cringed at all the lost souls he was creating, according to the words of his daughter.

On what was probably a parallel street a block over, a man started yelling profanity at his wife. A typical occurence that made Temmit take a step closer to his companions. A few more blocks passed, blocks of broken porches, babies crying behind broken windows and more than a few lumps of cloth which were people sleeping in the street. It was always disheartening to walk thru ShantyTown during the day.

At night it transformed into something else entirely, a place where inhabitions could be put on hold and soldiers, men and women could find entertainment at almost every corner. Temmit didn't come here at night.

Finally, after taking his fill of depressing living conditions and taking one too many alleys to get to the place, Emma and Renee stopped and pulled him into the group.

Renee was quickly all business.

"Morning Temmit. The next house on the left, kind of obvious by the sign I guess," she said looking over at it.

FORTUNE TELLER

"Supposedly the rumor is that Mia is available from 8 dawnhand and works until 5 nighthand," she said and handed him a small purse with a few coin.

Temmit looked at her with the obvious question.

"It's only a few coin, to make this all legit I am thinking you should get your fortune told in order to get to know her a bit."

(OOC, okay, its too late in the night to proofread, so I apologize beforehand)

Johan

Temmit stowed the purse away and committed himself. "I'll be back." He said simply. He pulled his cloak around him and strode towards the door under the sign.

He entered through the door, taking in the scene inside.
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Dray

As he stepped into a corridor that seemed to connect multiple adjoining rooms he was met quickly by a rotund woman wrapped with colorful silk cloths and an ungodly amount of costume jewelry. The scent of morning breakfast came with her and settled warmly over him. The woman had a spatula in one hand and a pitcher of milk in the other, her smile was contagious and Temmit felt he would take an immediate liking to her and her kind demeanor.

Eggs, bacon, honey on toast it all smelled lovely and suddenly that nutbread wasn't so filling after all.

"I was looking out the front window and saw you approaching young sire, how are you this morning? Here to get your future told by my niece?" the woman asked pleasantly.

Temmit scanned the corridor with his peripheral vision while nodding yes to her. The old horse-hair plaster walls of the corridor were covered with nick-knacks of various types, sized and shapes, a collection he presumed. The entry to the kitchen was missing a door but the door to the other two rooms were closed.

(OOC: I am only pausing for a moment to see if there is anything you want to do or say before I bring you into the Lion's den,,,,,erm I mean Mia's room).

Johan

Sense motive: Modified 23. Just needed to get a roll in. :)

Temmit smiled warmly back at the woman. "Yes," he answered. "At least, I think so. I am looking for someone named Mia? Surely she can't be your niece? Her father must have been a darn sight older then you, I'd wager."

He looked at the spatula in her hand. "But I'm sorry." He continued. "I didn't mean to interrupt your lovely breakfast. I can come back at a better time, if you like." He took a step backwards towards the door, hoping that she would stop him before he got too far.
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Dray

The woman let out a hearty belly laugh that shook the wall hangings, "Darlin you best not touch that doorknob after taking that silver-tongue out of yours.

Temmit stopped, happy with the comment, but kind of frightened by it as well. While he was frozen with indecision, he heard the chuckling woman turn and walk to the door at the end of the hall. She gave it a hardy knock.

"Mia? Mia darlin are you decent? You have a customer," she said while knocking. Almost immediately the door opened a crack and a pretty girl with long brown hair and green eyes popped her head through.

"Oh, uh....hi," she said to Temmit.

"Boy wants his fortune told sleepy head, you ready to open shop?" her Aunt asked her.

She looked at Temmit with a slight blush of embarassment. "Could you give me 5 turns to clean up my room?"

Temmit could see that she already knew his answer as she ducked back in her room and closed the door.

"I will make a plate for both of you darlin, just wait here for a few moments and us two girls will fix you up good," the large woman said and shuffled back into the kitchen.

Johan

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" Temmit asked. He had noted that people tended to be put more at ease when you offered help. While waiting for an answer, he looked about the hallway that he was in.

This was clearly the place of a person - or people - who liked stuff. Clutter. He looked for personal effects (pictures, awards, and the like) that might tell him something about the people who lived here. Most telling might be effects that reflected their feelings about the government (that family that had the statue of Emma's father came to mind).

Thus far, it seemed that young Mia was orphaned and taken in by her aunt. It sounded as though it was just the two of them living here too.

What else was the case had yet to be ascertained.
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Dray

Never before had Temmit seen such a confusing array of things put all in one place. An oil painting of some old guy in a white wig was surrounded by beerbutter corks, all stamped with different single and two words phrases like "Cold buttah", "Lakeshore Ice" , "KT Brew" and the like. Temmit remembered that it was a promotion effort to push the buttery liquid last summer, and it looked as if the wall had the entire collection of 24 corks.

"I am just going to put everything on one big platter for the two of you darlin," said the sweet woman from the other room. "You just nibble off of it what you want....now where did I put that platter, ah yes...."

While the woman started humming a ditty, Temmit continued his scan of the trinkets for more clues on the family.

Bronzed baby shoes on a plaque, an oil painting of Mia when she was probably 5, a theater mask, a lute only a doll could play, some crazy wall sculpture made out of thin strand of metal wire, a rough carving of a sailboat mounted on a block of wood nailed to the wall, the words Mia on the Lake written on it, a fake play sword with dusty runestones stuck to it, a clay bowl mounted to a backboard with Mia scratched at the bottom, a picture box with....

Temmit's heart froze in his chest.

Mounted within the picture box was a copper medallion about 3 inches in diameter with a Spire at its center, an open eye to the upper right of the Spire, with a full moon and stars in the sky behind, and a closed eye in the upper left, with a sun and sparse clouds behind.

It was definitively the symbol of the Hunters Patrol!

Johan

So many unexpected things in such a short period of time.

"Do you see what I see?" Smokey asked unnecessarily.

"Of course I do." Temmit thought back. He pulled his eyes away from the symbol and looked back to the carved boat. He shifted his eyes to see if anyone noted him gawking at the medallion.

He cleared his voice, searching for something disarming to say. The kindly woman seemed the sort who liked people, and liked to talk. "You've a fascinating array of remembrances here." He noted. "Tell me: who plays the tiny lute?" He asked, hoping that the query would be identified as a joking question.
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Dray

(OOC: Yeah, Temmit has had an UNCANNY amount of information dumped in his lap in the past 24 hours. Had you not scanned the wall though, it would have stayed there undiscovered - 100xp reward)

The woman gave a short laugh from the kitchen, it was apparent to Temmit that she wasn't even watching him, and intent on making their breakfast.

"Mia's toy when she was 3. Her mother once told me, 'I have no room for all of these memories'," she said in what must have been a mocking voice of Mia's mother.  "So I put everything on that wall."

She paused then said, "OOPS! Ah well, I guess I will eat that one."

"Everything on that wall darlin belongs to Mia, I wanted that dear fatherless child to always know that she was important in this world," she said.

Just then the door popped open, this time Mia's head had a dark blue silk cloth wrapped around it, with pretty gold stars woven in the fabric. A large loop earring hung from each ear, each with a delicate star charm hanging from it.

"Only two more turns sir, I promise," she said with a low-toned and sweet voice. She then peered at the kitchen. "And don't listen to whatever that woman says, she nuts," she teased and with a smile closed the door again.

From the kitchen he heard her chuckle and respond in a whisper to herself, "on second thought this one can go on Mia's side of the plate."