OOC: This thread is for Dacia, Trinithiria, Dyer, Tobias, and Jaemys

It was an unseasonably warm day for the month of Thawing. The wind was light as lazy clouds floated along. A mosaic of patterned stones formed the surface of the plaza. At the center there was a magic glass fountain flowing with crystal clear water. The four entrances to the plaza were stone archways with raised portcullises.

Merchants hawked their goods from their tent stalls. Customers milled about and haggled over prices. Smells of freshly cooked meat wafted through the air. Root vegetables, tools, and pack ponies were for sale as well as more exotic collections of dried flowers and spices. One salesman with a thick Rao accent made a show of smashing beetles with a large hammer and smearing the paste on the hands of onlookers to show his products properties. The property being it stained things red.

Armed and armored guards stood throughout the plaza watching over the proceedings. Though their helms hid their expressions they were betrayed by their stifled yawns. The occasional drop from last night’s rain plinked off their helmets.

Dyer, currently a blob with 2 thick legs and a chest on top of it, with pseudopods coming up from each side to hold it down, stops at the beetle display, "You'd have better luck with the carmine dye if you just suffocated or gassed the beetle, and removed the shells. Then boil them down. You'll make a much more colorfast dye and a darker dye, as well. Less mess from insect guts, too. It's called Carmine, after the beetle species in question." Having corrected the apparent apprentice's poor methodology, Dyer moves on.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:17, Tue 19 Mar.

The merchant called out in broken Ceran to Dyer. "How you suffocate a beetle?" He shook a beetle and yelled at it, "I wring your neck! I wring your neck!” He muttered in Rao under his breath and continued with his demonstration. A nearby guard raised an eyebrow at the interaction.

Dyer stops, "A jar, an air tight lid. A little patience. If you are impatient, put in a little poison. Shouldn't your master have taught you this already?"

Jaemys was wondering the market, just lightly browsing. The only thing he was really thinking about buying, aside from maybe something more exotice to eat, was a new deck of playing cards. The last set he'd had...well, someone had been a sore loser and flipped a table as prelude to a fight. He hadn't been able to get the cards back in the confusion and chaos, or the aftermath.

He hadn't been playing to gamble really, anyway, just pass the time, but some people took that sort of thing more seriously. It was the first time he could remember ever being accused of cheating as well. Him? Cheating?? The idea was ludicrous, especially as he hadn't been really trying to win money. The friendly game had turned out to be anything but. He let out a small chuckle and shook his head.

He stepped along with a light heart.

Trinithira moved through the plaza nigh-dumbstruck with wonder. So many sights, smells and sounds of utterly alien sorts had her mind whirling. The sheer number of people, their individual strangeness, their casual disregard for each other and a million other things competed for her attention.

One finally won out though, as she watched a man crush beetles merely to smear their essence onto others to demonstrate the color of it.

It was utterly barbaric! And fascinating too. She'd heard from her teachers that most of the other races, even some of their own cousins, had very little regard for the life around them and they killed lesser creatures on a whim.

To hear that in the confines of their temple, a world away from such practices but to see it with her own eyes was something else entirely.

Of course what Trinithira did not know was that there were eyes upon her as well. The sparse strips of silk she wore certainly garnered some attention but the blatant obviousness of her newness of the area had certain others seeing her as an easy mark, though with the proximity of the guards and the conspicuous lack of pockets to pick and no obvious coin purse had them leaving the little coppery-skinned elf alone for the time being.

Trin looked away from the dye salesman to Dyer, stared a few seconds at the strange blob-creature, blinked a few times, and then turned to go to a nearby stall that had some delicious-looking fruit. The turn almost had her running into a tall armored man with long, golden hair, making her eyes go wide. Her training saved her from embarrassment however, as she spun lightly out of the way.

Despite the unseasonal warmth, Dacia had her hood up, concealing her face as she meandered through the bustling marketplace, looking for a herb monger or apothecary to replenish her medical supplies. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to gawk at her exotic appearance, let alone interrupt her purpose there. The loud noises, jostling and general activity of both punters and merchant was somewhat overwhelming for her and she wished nothing more than to get somewhere quiet, warm for preference and if at all possible, full of books.

Her head down, she grimaced at the thunk of a dyers mallet crushing beetles, forcing herself to hold her tongue as some kind of walking ooze casually corrected the Rao merchant over how to kill a helpless living creature. She averted her peridot eyes from the entire shameful exchange and told herself that it was the merchants livelihood and that it wasn't her place to step in for so small an issue, but felt in her heart the lie to herself. She stopped short, breaking her stride and bringing her feet together as she turned gently to the stall owner.

"Sadaya's peace lies upon those that bring no harm to others" she intoned softly, drawing the Eternal Lovers symbol in the air, mimicking the amulet that hung upon her breast. "Far be it for me to interrupt your business, but if only to preserve the peace of others, I beg you to cease this senseless waste of life and limit yourself to your professional use." The request was gentle, but there was a hint of iron in her voice.

Tobias sat quietly at a vendors stall enjoying a cup of freshly brewed tea and a delicious little pastry. He watched the various patrons, vendors and the guards. The market was bustling with activity this early in the morning. If the warmth of the morning was any indication the day would be nice.

The exchange between the blob like individual and the dye merchant was, to him, comical. He really couldn't tell though if the merchant was threatening the poor beetle or threatening the plasmoid. Which seemed even funnier considering the individual didn't appear to have a neck at the moment.

As the, he assumed, priestess or maybe pilgrim devoted to Sadaya spoke up against the merchants abuse of the beetles he shifted his gaze to watch the guards. They had already took notice of the interaction hopefully they wouldn't want to get involved.

The merchant from Rao gave a confused but sad look then reached below the counter to produce a small packet of waxed paper. Through the paper could be seen the contents, red powder. With his stubby fingers he pushed the packet towards Dacia. "Here. You take!" Without further thought he placed down his mallet and exhorted the qualities of his product mostly consisting of exclamations of "Bright red! Dark red! It colors!"

The guard closest to the commotion stretched his neck and looked on with interest. He seemed more than pleased to have a break from the boredom.

By a food stall a guard yelled at a young lady selling soup. With palms up towards him she tried to calm him. It only succeeded in angering him further. He lifted his mailed fist to threaten to slap her. A short old woman from the same stall interposed herself between them. Two other guards noticed and approached with hands on sword hilts.

Dyer, "You know, with different reagents used in the laking process, you can get different shades of red and even some nifty purple shades out of those carapaces. Even if you're going to be a one note dye maker, you should learn that note's variations."

Jaemys had a look on his face that was part bemused and part annoyance at the bug and paint yelling conversation that was going on at the one stall. He shook his head, not needing to be a part of that at all.

But then his attention was grabbed by a commotion at another stall. An angry frown set in to his face as he began stalking towards where a lady was about to get slapped, by the looks of things. By a guard no less!

"What seems to be the trouble here, sir?" There was definitely just a hint of steel to the 'sir' when he said it.

He usually tried to keep an open mind, but felt that an armored man resorting to slapping or threatening a merchant girl was just a baseless cur in his mind. Maybe there was more to it - he was willing to be proven wrong.

Well that didn't take long was the thought that crossed Tobis's mind. It had went from a fairly amusing show at the dye merchants stall to what looked like real trouble at a food stall. He likely may have said something, maybe not. but something else had caught his attention. He looked down at the cup of tea sitting on the table. Watching the ripples form in the liquid.

He stood and looked around, in a voise hopefully loud enough to here over the commotion. "Does anyone else feel that? The tremor running through the ground."

Trinithira had slipped away from the near-collision with the tall man with the pretty hair unnoticed, much to her satisfaction but saw that a situation was beginning to develop with the guards and one of the merchants.

Based on her studies she knew the abuse of power was common among the short-lived races, but seeing it in person was different. It left a bitter taste in her mouth and tempted her to intervene, to administer a lesson in proper use of force and authority, but she knew that these dull, large beings would look at her and think they could bully her as well. That would only result in an escalation. Far better for someone larger and more imposing to intervene, such as the tall, well-built, elf-kin.

Trin gave the barest nod of approval as the fellow inserted himself into the situation and she remained in his blind spot, just behind him and to the right should things turn ugly, ready to drop her meagre belongings to the ground in an instant and back him up.