"I must say your choice of fashion places you as a visitor to this shadow as well ?"

She filled everyone's glasses with cider.

"Music and song are in my blood I suppose."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:15, Sun 17 Mar.

"I am. I am from Montevalno..." Tiny bit of a not-exactly-happy look there for a second.



"Oh? Might I ask what Shadow you hail from...?"

Ariadne took a sip of her cider, which was excellent, and ate some of the cheese, which was odd but not offputing.
She looked around the room, glass in hand (as an LA girl, she had learned long ago not to leave cups unattended), and tried to surreptitiously check out the crowd.    She'd gotten pretty good at surveying trouble spots and interesting people back home, but things were very new here.   The music was a bit subdued, but that let her concentrate better on her surroundings.  Jade was singing along with the harpist, and Ari nodded her head with the tune.
When a random woman walked up, tears in her eyes, it occurred to Ari that "Jade Singing" wasn't the harmless random thing that it should have been.   She winced and mentally kicked herself for forgetting, once again, about the weird magical shenanigans that were so common here.

She spoke up at the woman's question.
"We're from Tanus.  We're merchants, looking for new venues for trade and friendship"
Belatedly, she realized that she'd been hoping that they could just drink in peace, staying somewhat anonymous.
Ariadne realized now that a good cover story would have been a good idea.   Summoning up all she'd learned about Tanus, Ari started putting together a rough back story in her mind.

It had been a game, back in West Hollywood, when she and her friends had hit the bars after shooting on a movie or something similar.    The women had all stood out, especially in straight bars, even among a crowd of Hollywood drinkers, and always attracted a lot of attention, with many patrons asking who they were, what they did for a living, etc.   And they'd learned the hard way that talking about movie sets and stunt work was a great way to get swamped and bombarded with questions, and basically losing all privacy and any chance to relax.   So they took turns, with one of them inventing a job and sometimes backstories for everyone.  They'd figure out who's "turn" it was, and that person would, if the subject came up, introduce everyone, including fake names, and tell their "story".     The quartet of woman had been UCLA coeds taking a study break, a group of nurses getting off shift, kindergarten teachers getting courage to return to work the next day, or a bachelorette party after the groom hooked up with the caterer.   Having had a couple of improv classes in college, Ariadne wasn't bad at the game, though pretending to be a bride pining for her man had been a bit of a challenge, though not quite as much as pretending to be a nurse.  Nurses had very complicated jobs, it turned out.

This time, though, Ariadne smiled and looked at the woman, admiring her outfit and her hair, and went into the routine.
"Montevalno?  I've never been.  Is that nice?"

"I am Jasmine by the way." She smiles to the woman.

"Eh? Um... pardon me, but you don't seem like you're from... Ohhhh, you mean you've been sent here by Tanus, you work for them. Well that makes sense. Are you... able to talk about it?" She said it, Ariadne thought, like someone might say Did you sign an NDA?



That not-exactly-happy look again. "Mm. Some people like it."




The return-smile is geniune. "I'm Marlena. Marlena Archarossi." And there's that look again. What is it... dissatisfaction? A bad memory? A family thing? Let's see, what have I been told about Montevalno, again...? each cousin thinks...
This message was last edited by the player at 00:25, Mon 18 Mar.

Ariadne smiled, though inside she winced, forgetting that the variety of people in Tanus wasn't as varied as she'd have liked.  But their new friend had accidentally covered for her, so she rolled with it.  She spoke in a friendly way as she discussed details.
"Yes, exactly.  It's all merchant business, and you know how they get.  But that's business, and we're here to relax, after all."

She looked at the woman, really trying to get a feel for her mood, and frowned gently and spoke in what was hopefully a sympathetic way.
"Are you alright?  You seem upset, or sad.  Is there anything we can do?"

Didn't realize it rolled the first time.

18:32, Today: Jade rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,3.  Shadow Lore.  For knowledge of this Montevalno



Jade thinks a moment on her Golden Circle Lore.

Marlena nods and smiles. It's genuine, though just a little guarded.



"No, not at all! And after hearing the song of, ah, Jade, here... and I..." Marlena slumps slightly. "It's that obvious?"



(Didn't know quite what you meant at first, but I figured it out: Yeah, okay.)




Montevalno is known to be a dramatic Golden Circle Shadow where the families often scheme to get more power, prestige, status, money, and/or revenge... Maybe this is family trouble? Or Marlena's on the run? Or... a scheme failed...? Or she's having trouble with one...?

Ariadne tried to get a bead on the woman.

OOC: 19:39, Today: Ariadne rolled 9 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,4.  perception. – 9

 

Jade blinks surprised her guise had been seen through that easily.

"Oh, is their family trouble ?"

Marlena doesn't seem evil nor scheming. She doesn't seem like she's having romantic troubles, either. Honestly, though, she reminds Ariadne of... something... something she's seen before on Earth... A woman unhappy about... her family? ...Rejection?




Marlena looks glum. "You could say that... It's not really anything new, though..."

In reply to The GM (msg # 207):

Ariadne gave her friendliest smile
"Well, it's new to us, probably.  You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to, but if it will help you, please feel free to say whatever you'd like.

"We are pretty friendly for the most part. We just wanted to enjoy things with a pub crawl before we are off on mercantile business."

(Hmmmm... give me a CHR roll, Ariadne... but you get an extra +1 to it)

OOC:20:20, Today: Ariadne rolled 11 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 4,6.  charisma. – 11

"Well, it's just... do you folk know much about... magic...?"

Jade/Jasmine smiles a bit.

She gives Ariadne a slight nod that it is ok if they wish to talk about magic.

Ariadne gave a friendly wry smile.
"We're not....unfamiliar"

"Oh, right, Tanus, huh. I guess they're not exactly strangers to magic. And then there's... wherever you're from." Marlena takes a big drink of cider. "So uh... what do they think of magic... where you're from...?"

"It is fairly common at least knowledge of it. Practitioners much less common but I am familiar with it. What seems to be the problem magically ?"

Ariadne gave a friendly shrug.
"I've met many who are scared or scornful of it, but I'm not of that opinion.  I'm not one to disparage a useful skill."

"That's... yeah. Well. So first of all-- and please don't... I mean..." Marlena sighs. "I mean... here." She finishes her cider, hands Ariadne the small glass. "Hold that behind your back for just a minute."

Clearly intrigued,  Ariadne put the glass behind her back.  Oddly, this made her a little homesick, as ot reminded her of the flirty games she played with various bar patrons

Marlena puts her own hands behind her back for a second, closes her eyes, frowns, concentrating... And then brings her hands forward-- her right hand puts the same glass (sure looks like the same glass!) on the table in front of her.

But that's impossible, Ariadne is still holding th--

--No she's not.

Ariadne had had an idea of what was maybe supposed-t'-be going to happen, so she'd kept a careful grip on the cider glass-- so when Marlena had made her final move, Ariadne had brought the glass forward to-- wait, where'd it go? She'd had it, felt it, was feeling it, but somehow when she'd sent a message to her muscles, nerves, and skin hey bring that thing forward again, quick, her fingers were like "sure okay wait what thing? Did we have a thing still? You sure? I don't think that's right, is it?"

Marlena doesn't look proud of herself-- she looks kind of disgusted with herself, really...

Jade watched with interest and smiled surprised since she had been expecting something different.

"You can apport objects. That is quite a f... wait you don't seem happy that you were able to do that."