Mana P3y1s04

Mana: And so it was written, anyway, Pokiehlember 3rd, Year 1, Luna's Day. Dawn - well, it's always dawn in Gnome, with that pale blue light coming in from the glow of the ceiling - but now it's actually, bonafidely, chronologically Gnome.
Mana: Rigo probably wouldn't be up if it wasn't for the rudest knock on his door.
Rigo debates continuing not being up… but the banging would probably disturb his neighbors. So he loosely ties his robe closed with that ridiculously long sash, picks up his wine gourd, and cracks the door open enough to blearily look outside. "I hope you know what you're doing."
Mana: There's the blinking, mildly startled face of a girl - mid-teens, probably? - with oily, matted hair staring back on you. "Uh, checking to make sure nobody was home. You know I asked like, six people and they all said this place was abandoned?"
Mana: She's wearing something like six jackets.
Rigo: "It is. You have awoken a terrible ghost. Your only escape is to run away as fast as you can, becuase my curse forbids me from passing over this threshold."
Rigo: "Also why are you wearing so many jackets?"
Mana: She tries to push you aside and enter anyway, but it doesn't really work - there's sort of an awkward dance around the seam of the door for a bit. "Pocket reasons."
Mana: "…Padding for falls!"
Mana: "… … …that whole, bundle of sticks thing, but for jackets, instead of sticks."
Rigo: "Ah well that makes sense." He steps aside so she can come in. "Fair warning, two people died of a plague in this house. That's why it's abandoned."
Mana: She rolls her shoulders on the way in, eyeing tarp-covered furniture. "Yeah, well, it's a slow and quiet way to go."
Mana: "You been squatting long?"
Rigo: "Only a couple of days. It's pretty comfy."
Mana: "Anyway, uh…" She ambles through, opening a few empty kitchen cabinets.
Rigo grins. "Awkward, huh?"
Mana: "Not gonna… have any company over, or anything. So."
Mana: "We'll just… occupy."
Rigo: "That's fine. I'm gone most days anyway. Being a ghost is very busy work."
Rigo: "What's your name?"
Mana: She pauses just long enough to let you know it's fake: "uh, Eudymius Splice. You?"
Rigo: "My friends call me Rigo. I guess since you're looking to move in, that makes you close enough to count." He tilts up his wine gourd, and makes a mournful face. "Are you sure you can't come up with a better fake name than that? 'Eudymius' is really awkward."
Mana: She exhales through set teeth, turning away. "Well, then, Arist'- wait, no…"
Mana: "(well, worked fine the first time I used it..)"
Mana: "…Midel? Is that a real name?"
Rigo: "Close enough, and much easier for me to pronounce. Nice to meed you, Midel."
Mana: "Yeah, same, Rigo. Let's not pay rent together!"
Mana: She opens the icebox. No ice, no food.
Mana: "So, do you just… eat out?"
Rigo tilts his head. Regrets it. But its too late, so there it stays. "Not from around here, I take it."
Mana: "No." She fumbles in her coat - one of her coats - one of the middle ones - and produces a little bag, tossing it to Rigo. Clinks with cash.
Mana: "Bring something back."
Mana: "Food-wise, I mean."
Mana: "For eating."
Rigo: "Alright, sure. But you're gonna owe me."
Mana: "Uh, that should cover it, right?"
Rigo favors her with a smile. "Mmhmm. But I'm doing the fetching and letting you squat, so you're gonna owe me."
Rigo strolls out the door.
Mana: It's a brand new day - the scent of breakfast, of the smoke of the morning, with a hint in the soap in the air as people set out their laundry.
Mana: People carry jugs full of water back from the river. Slung on poles borne on the shoulders of four laborers, a white, long-spined tiger, in cage, is carried through the twists and turns of the city. Right now, it's blocking traffic just in front of you.
Rigo drops a few coins on a vendor's cart as it rolls by, appropriates a breakfast pastry from another one in the same fashion, wanders through the district and into the Six Pearls.
Mana: A bull-headed man (literally, too, though I wouldn't point it out to him): "Hey, move it!" "We're moving it!" comes back as the response.
Mana: It holds you up a bit.
Mana: Eventually, though, you stride into the Six Pearls: Like stepping into a dream, the blue light wraps about you, the quiet of the city outside falling muffled.
Mana: The Mekida river - seen through gaps in the wooden slats underneath - flows smoothly, a soft background roar of constant noise.
Rigo takes a deep breath, both of relaxation and of 'oh man this place smells good'. "I keep forgetting how much I like this place."
Mana: A particularly colorful fish turns to eye you as the chef, Sarasetta - whose skin is of hammered brass - points his finger.
Mana: "Table for one?"
Rigo: "To go, actually. I'm fetching a lady breakfast and she's grumpy enough that I don't want to make her wait."
Mana: "Didn't think you had it in you." The chef pulls something red-scaled, with vicious, flared eyes like a Kabuki villain, off of some ice. And then - chop-chop-chop-chop!
Rigo shrugs. "She seems to want to stay in, so I don't mind bringing it to her. Curious what she's on the run from though. Maybe I'll ask her."
Mana: "This just came in, so I'll cook some up for you." He taps the head of the fish with the side of his knife. "Anything else come to mind?"
Rigo: "Nah, that'll be great. it shoudl be just cool enough to eat after I buy a few groceries on the way back."
Mana: "Yeah, hold on." And he starts cooking.
Rigo wouldn't dream of rushing a man in a kitchen. Besides, it's always a good show to watch.
Mana: Sliced, rolled in spices, steeped in a bit of the house sauce - then, set to grill over flame.
Mana: "Lots of people coming into Gnome last night. You know what's up today?"
Rigo: "Nah, I hadn't heard. Been distracted. Major influx? Trickling in a few at a time or a mass arrival?"
Mana: "Trickling in. Underworld money, seems like."
Rigo: "Ah. Hm. Though really… it's all underworld money around here."
Mana: "Hey, most of the time you're just under, no money mixed up in it."
Rigo: "True enough. I'll keep an ear out, see if I can find out what's going on."
Mana: He packs it up, throws in a little bit of rice scooped in from his rice cooker. Little thick paper container.
Mana: "Settle for eight lucre?"
Rigo: "Beautiful. Bottle of rice wine?"
Mana: "Sure, eighteen in all."
Mana: He gets one out of the cooler.
Rigo puts down 25 and skedaddles before Sarasetta can try to make change.
Mana: From which bag?
[OOC] Rigo: his own. He's going to check her bag for realmoney before he uses it to buy groceries.
[OOC] Mana: Makes sense.
Rigo then goes and does some actual grocery shopping… after making sure the bag she tossed him had some actual money in it.
Mana: Sarasetta waves at the serenely skedaddling Rigo.
Mana: Checking it in a quiet corner:
Mana: Yeah, uh, this bag has real money in it.
Mana: She tossed you 1000 lucre.
Rigo boggles quietly. Then reties it, tucks it into his sash, and… there's no way he can spend that much on groceries. But he does get her enough for a couple days.
Mana: Yeah, there's no way. Your local grocery store's shelves are getting a little bit thin, too - I mean, you can find everything you need, but there's definitely been some supply trouble, looks like.
Mana: Prices up a little.
Rigo … for once doesn't actually have to worry about prices being on the up. Ah, the joys of having someone else pick up the tab. Which reminds him, he should go throw some money in the drawer at Toth's place. Later. For now he has breakfast and groceries to deliver… and probably a hell of a story to listen to.
Mana: You return to: "Hey, welcome back."
Mana: "Though, you're not on a fuel line or anything, so, do you… chop firewood? Help me out here."
Rigo: "Firewood? What for?" He sets breakfast on the table, except for the wine which is in his sash, and starts putting away groceries. "Say do you have one of those pouches in every jacket? Cuz there's been a real problem with pickpockets…"
Rigo mostly just wants to see if a bunch of Lucre is about to hit his table.
Mana: "I've got stuff." She says. It's not really an answer.
Rigo: "Right on." He tugs the moneypuch out of his robe and tosses it to her. "So whats your story, Midel? You casually toss me a pouch with a grand in it, but you want to squat in an abandoned house. You've got six jackets full of stuff and you're not from here… but you definitely are too clean to have been living on the road for any amount of time." He tugs the bottle of rice wine
Rigo: out of his sash and tilts it back for a few swallows. "Lots of pieces that don't add up."
Mana: "So, things are getting messy in Salamander. Especially for my gang."
Rigo: "Which one?"
Mana: "You know, the 'chiladas."
Mana: "So, I had some money on me, and my boss gave me the go ahead, so I went to ground while the going is good."
Rigo: "Mmhm."
Rigo: "You guys are the ones running drugs? Vipers are the ones with the swords? And then…" A vague handwave. "I'm a little hazy on Salamanders gangs, especially first thing in the morning and sober."
Mana: "Rats are import/export."
Rigo: "Rats. Right. Dealing with the crazy cultists."
Rigo: "So how many of the Enchiladas are going to ground in Gnome? Cuz apparently the gates have been swinging wide all night."
Rigo: "Lots of fresh faces."
Mana: "Not… a ton of us, or anything."
Mana: "…There's that auction coming up, though."
Rigo: "Auction?"
Mana: "I don't know. They have it in Gnome sometimes. When somebody needs to move a lot of hot product fast, it's like…"
Mana: "I don't know. Shout Last Auction, all sales final, people know it's big but don't know what it's gonna be, all the buyers bring their wallets and you don't have to make any complicated long-term money-shufflin deals."
Rigo: "Ah one of those. No idea what's gonna be moving at this one?"
Mana: "Nope. Don't even know where it is."
Rigo: "Ah, well. I'll burn that bridge when I come to it." He takes a seat in his chair and lays out breakfast with another pull at the rice wine bottle. "Dig in. My treat."
Mana: And she digs in. "This is…"
Mana: "Well, not as greasy as what I'm used to, that's for sure."
Rigo: "Greasy food is a terrible idea for breakfast. Makes a much better lunch." He takes another pull off the rice wine. "So how much of the Enchilada's bustling drug trade is actually happening and how much of it is bad press?"
Mana: "We've got it, it's hot, and nobody else knows what we've got."
Rigo: "And what is 'it'?"
Mana: "Moon-dust. New, perfect, Titania-unique."
Mana: "You know we were talking about getting it shipped out before the hammer came down?"
Rigo: "Ah."
Rigo: "Moon-dust. Is that literal?"
Mana: "Nope. Can't get up to the moon from here, anyway."
Rigo: "So of its not from the moon, where's it from?"
Mana: "This isn't really an ask-no-questions, tell-no-tales kinda arrangement we got, is it?"
Rigo: "Did I ever give the implication it was? I mean you can always tell me to stuff it, but I'm curious."
Rigo: "Besides, it's apparently hot enough that you had to drop out of Salamander and come live in my house… sounds like you could use a friend."
Mana: "Anyway, we mine it."
Mana: "It's, uh, a byproduct of a certain industrial process, let's say that's the ticket."
Rigo: "Huh. So the dust part at least is literal."
Mana: "Yeah. Ground down. You know."
Rigo: "Mmhm." He eats a piece of fish and chases it with wine. "Just do me a favor, yeah? Don't turn my place into a pipeline. I don't mind you living here, but don't deal from here or store it here?"
Mana: "Yup. Zero piping or lining or… that business."
Mana: And, so, for now, it was written.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License