"Oh, I hardly believe I'm the only one here without a home yet, Din! That's certainly no reason to put me first," Jaffa explained and exclaimed with a cheerful pout. It was nice of Din to offer the first pick of the rooms to her, but he wasn't the only other kid in their group and she really didn't want to hold everyone up. Jaffa wasn't sure she was ready to make such a huge decision as which room to live in. Every other decision she'd made had been much easier. Someone's hurt or in danger? Help them! Eat a bagel or some crackers? Both! "Really, it's fine! Maybe the oldest of us should go first. I'm, like, I wanna say...36 months old? Wow...I'm getting kinda old!"

Raga speaks up, forcefully:

"No, Dink is right.  For some of us, this will be our only home.  For those of us -- Jaffa, and me, for starters.  We should get first choice."

"I-! But-!" Jaffa didn't really have a good retort anymore. She was the one who'd pointed out that it wasn't just her, after all. She felt bad about going before everyone else though. It hardly seemed like the nice thing to do. "Okay, no, yes. You're right, Raga, Din," she admitted, putting emphasis on Dinkar's name in an attempt at correcting Raga. Jaffa knew how it felt to have a bad nickname, so she didn't want Din to feel sad about his either. "Do you want to take the first room, Raga? I, uh, feel kinda guilty taking first pick..."

"You've earned that as much as anyone," Raga says.  "I say those of us without real homes look and see; we can probably work it out amongst ourselves."

With that, Raga marches upstairs to see these rooms that she's been arguing about sight unseen.

Jaffa wasn't sure she agreed with Raga in that she earned much of anything. Some days, she felt like all she'd been doing was try to redeem herself. She'd hurt someone and she didn't want to do that again, even though she sometimes had to. Grimacing, she turned around and closed the front door. Latching the deadbolt shut, Jaffa vigorously tested the door a couple of times to make sure it would stay closed. Couldn't be too careful.

Satisfied, she slapped her scaled cheeks to get herself back in order and started to make her way up the stairs. "Come on too, Din! Unless you wanna explore the main floor some more, I guess! It's a whole house!"

Upstairs felt like a better tactical move, so Din nodded and went along with Jaffa. He gave Raga a long, dirty side-eye as she went ahead of him, though.

The upstairs contains nothing but a large closet (empty) and four bedrooms.

So, four bedrooms upstairs, two downstairs, and a small kitchenette with small larder and a sort of common area with table and fireplace and chairs.

Each bedroom has matching furniture:
--an adult-sized bed, with mattress.
--a wardrobe, empty except for sheets and two quilts (each).
--one wooden chair.

Nothing smells musty or needs to be aired out. Must be magic.

The closet is empty, as is the larder.

The front door's deadbolt locks easily from the inside.

"I would like one of the upstairs bedrooms, I think.  One with a window that looks outside, preferably.  Other than that, it is all the same to me."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:26, Tue 02 Nov 2021.

"Eh, I don't really need a bedroom myself. I've already have one at home, but I'm thinking of renovating the one of the downstairs bedroom to an armoury. We could
put all kinds of weapons like that old lady's cane." Sarah says, stretching her arms casually,"Of course I'll be watching over that room and it's weapons, since I am after all the strongest and most proficient in the use of weaponry after all." so she says, though prior experience and bruises says otherwise on being proficient with weapons.

Having fully inspected their magical abode, she seemed satisfied.

"I too have a bedroom at home, so maybe we keep one as a guest room?  But an armory is exactly what we need, Sarah.  I shall think upon ways in which to expand it's contents.  In time, Vierna will appreciate my greatness... Heh and all of yours too.  Naturally."

No one could possibly accuse Anthielle of lacking ambition.

"Its a shame there aren't more quest giving ghosts around.  Oh well.  Din, do you have anything to say before some of us head home?"

"I sometimes crash with an old woman who thinks I'm her son," Din admitted, having never revealed this somewhat shameful bit of information to anyone. As far as he could tell, the old woman's son grew up and moved away long ago, and might even be dead. He wasn't a kid anymore, that was for sure. "I do chores for her, and she feeds me and gives me a place to sleep, but it's not really a home. More of a grift. I don't like doing it. So I think I might start staying here. Upstairs, on the left, I think.

"Of course, unless I can steal some food somewhere, I might go back to the crazy old bat for some dinner."

He looked around the tiny house (which was no longer especially tiny, but that was how he thought of the place) and nodded in satisfaction.

"An armory sounds good. I want knives more than I want a battle staff. I'm more stabby than hitty, really."

He clapped his hands once and rubbed them together.

"Good job today, people. Tomorrow we work on weapons and loot."

"And food!" Raga rushes to add.

"Muffy has a point," Din agreed, using his own nickname for Raga in response to her own use of his more hated nickname earlier. "Food. And lots of it."

Raga looks around, seemingly looking for someone named "Muffy."

"I, hrmmmm...think I'll take the second room on the right upstairs? That should be good?" Jaffa said, more like a question than a statement claiming a room. "A guest room sounds like a great idea though! We could have, like, guests! In a room!"

Looking at Dinkar with an inquisitive stare, Jaffa asked, "I hope this pretend-sometimes-mom is treating you alright? The chores aren't too much? Not that I don't want you to stay with us, I mean! I just don't want anything to go wrong over there. Oh and yes, definitely yes on the food, Raga. I could really go for some bread...or even a rat right now..."

"Um..." What could Dinkar say about the old woman? She showered him with love and affection, but it wasn't for him. It was for a son that senility had returned to her in Dinkar's form. Frankly, it made him uncomfortable at times. Was that guilt? He was afraid it might be. "...she's okay."

With a kind grin, Jaffa patted Din on the shoulder with what was probably excessive force. She could worry all she liked, but if he said it was okay, there wasn't much more she could do.

"If you're sure, Din," she muttered, before turning to the group at large. "Maybe before you all go, we should come up with some kinda special dance or knock or baked good to perform or present to get into the house? That way, we can keep the door locked except to let the others in!"

"You really like food huh. Fine, I'll ask my grandma to bake one of her special cookies whenever I need to enter this house. Fair warning though, grandma likes to add one cookie that has a lot of raisins, so watch out for that." Sarah says to Jaffa,"Though I really need to find a sword, so next time we meet again, not only are we finding food, but finding a sword for me will be the next main priority."

"I've got no complaints! Fruit is good for the body and cookies are good for the soul!"

Jaffa hadn't been entirely serious about the need to bring a baked good, but if Sarah was just going to give her a raisin cookie, then how could she refuse?

...

She was probably going to have to tell her it was a joke at some point...

"A sword with a good grip," Dinkar said to Sarah, rubbing his nose. "We don't want you throwing a sword around by accident."

"Hey, that only happened for like the fourth time this month. Compared to last month,I've practically got the hang of it now. I'm practically a master swordswoman before I needed training, hah." Sarah says boastfully, then stretches her arm,"But anyways, it's almost dinner time, do you guys want to hunt down some food before we leave."

"I'm tired and if I don't get home soon... I'll be missed.  IF we are going to do something tomorrow, I can't help if I'm confined to quarters."

What she didn't say about getting home was the fact that a nice meal, warm bath, and manservant awaited.  Maybe she could sneak out some leftovers tomorrow.  Maybe.

Anthielle gave a wave and then exited the house, hurrying along the main road towards the Parkside Quarter.

"Alright, I'm gonna scrounge for food before it gets too dark.  Who's commin' with me?"

Sarah wanted to go along but she sees Anthielle leave and thinks that she should follow her example or incur her grandparents wrath and disappointing approval,"I'll have to go too, I don't want a miss dinner. If I stay too long, Grandma might accuse me of roughhousing again." Sarah says, her body shivered for a moment as she recalls the few scoldings she received,"Gah, I best leave quick to avoid such a fate once again." she says, waving her hand to the others as she follows Anthielle to the exit. However instead of Parkside, she heads to the opposite direction to the Shop Quarter, obviously heading to Nice Quarter.

Raga opens the front door and peeks outside to see what buildings they set the house down near.