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Daireem - Micc
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Lao-tzu
Ancient Thinker
12/31/2008 1:24:06 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 56
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

Lao-tzu thought it almost humorous that the girl had taken offense at a completely unintended slight.  Most pilgrims to the Mountain of the Way came by foot and would hear about his whereabouts at the nearest village.  To her own detriment, this girl was so stubborn and unconventional that she missed this tradition.

Raelan and Dante seemed a bit put off by her performance, although Lao-tzu sensed that all parties were aware of the act everyone was putting on.  The whole encounter had the air of an impromptu ritual.  Curious to see what his friends would do and how the girl would respond, the sage put on his calmest demeanor and waited for the others to have their say.



Raelan
inventor/mage
1/1/2009 7:06:19 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 94
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

(sorry Dante for best impact I had to introduce you too....)

Raelan had indeed blinked at the hostility of this girl on first contact, but as she continued he began to show a little strain keeping a straight face, the commandeering type, even at that young. He tapped his forehead with one metallic finger in an saluting sort of wave. He didn't normally vie for dominance but this situation begged it.

"Rather aggressive for a first meeting, but you did guess the sage correctly." There was a little laughter, as well as a tinge magic incorporated into his voice to give it a little extra force, not volume, force. Aggressive defense, make them parry to lose momentum. "I would be Raelan, and this man would be Dante, as much as names mean. I'm assuming that your name isn't entirely unimportant, and you were just saving yours till last?" This sentence was ended with a big friendly, grin, but he still had that knowing quirk to his smile.

This new girl could make for some fun verbal sparring matches. She was a bit rough, but refined people tended to get annoying, so it was better this way, rough honesty is actually a beautiful thing, the way nature intended it.
TheWalruss
Starcey Crystal
1/3/2009 7:11:37 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 44
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

(I'll go ahead and respond here, Dante, but if you want to add something before this, just let me know and I'll nix this post.)

Starcey found it interesting that the old man let this Raelan guy answer for him. Wise men are supposed to listen more than speak, she figured, so she was pleased he didn't directly admonish her or make a petty reply with some speech about manners.

That Dante fellow was better-looking up-close - probably some rich nobleman out "mingling with the common folk." But there was still something about him that didn't click with that perception...

At any rate, the important thing was that Raelan played along perfectly with that fancy way of talking and his commanding presence; she wouldn't have to divulge her real motives for quite some time, with the right kind of luck.

Replying to Raelan, snarkily: "Well, if you were a girl alone on a mountaintop with three male strangers, you wouldn't really feel like telling them your life story right away, either, am I right?"

Without pausing to let him answer, she continued, "Anyway, I'm Starcey, and my mom told me to come here to seek guidance and stuff. She said I could trust Lao-Tzu and stuff, so I guess it's ok."

Turning back to Lao-tzu, she said with an unsure voice, "My mom's name is Sugar Crystal? I think she read about you in an article or something."

With the last few sentences she gradually dropped her scowl and very subtly pulled her eyebrows up at the inner corners, pouted her lower lip the tiniest degree, and relaxed her facial muscles. Her body shifted subliminally from a pose of defiance and disrespect leaning backward to one of submission and deference leaning forward. At the same time, she pulled a cigarette from an inside pocket to cover the shift in posture, explain away the lip while keeping its powerful subconscious effects, and overtly display an obvious teenage-rebellion-type of behavior.

The idea was to fool the men into thinking she was just a softy who acted tough to overcome her insecurities; a softy who lets her guard down and shows her vulnerabilities when she loses confidence, and tries to hide behind a veneer of rebellion...
Lao-tzu
Ancient Thinker
1/4/2009 7:55:29 AM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 56
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

(err, I'll just follow through. Come back to us, Dante, we need your moral ambiguity and gentlemanly charm!)

The girl's skill at her game belied her age. Definitely the child of her parents.  Her stubborn decision to simply stay until Lao-tzu returned pointed to an even fiercer independent streak.  

On one hand, he thought, such a spirit will tend to make its demands known; on the other hand she is obviously dissembling. I fear that she may repeat the tragic error of her parents.  Perhaps this is why Sugar sent her to me... if she did.

The only thing to do was to play along and continue the ritual.  Lao-tzu smiled at Starcey as he would a child. With a glint in his eye, he said, "I am pleased that a young one such as you listens to her mother and seeks guidance; it reflects well on your generation. Please, let us go inside.  I promised my companions tea and would be glad if you joined us."

Gesturing towards the thatched-roof cottage built into the side of the mountain next to a little brook, he started off on the path.  
Raelan
inventor/mage
1/4/2009 5:49:31 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 94
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

( Sadyes we can't be losing dante's spark and flare, you add the color to this story)

Raelan expected the parry, but not the dodge. He had spent a lot of time in the wild around animals, and enjoyed determining the inner animal style of the people around, Dante was likely Bird, with his walk and his style, there was room for Raelan to be wrong, but not so likely. Most likely a predator.

Starcey had just switched from a predatory brunt charge, to a prey bait, this warranted investigation, because her body language followed, when most people pretend you see more traces, she was good. He went with the more subtle aspects, her eyes were steady, focused, she had a target. She was in bait posture, but wasn't flitting, so she wasn't perfect at it. A few other muscle tendencies, and he'd decided.

She's predatory, her style he would see in time to classify type. He himself was predatory by instinct, but a lazy predator, and more prone to play with his 'prey' than eat it, but if it was going to die he always preferred to kill fast.

Lao-Tsu had mostly trained his animal out, or rather didn't display it, but Raelan saw a few hints, with more observation he may get some clues.

(I actually do this in real life, it's all the subconscious body language (and more) that most people never realize they use, and even more people never notice others using, at least consciously.)

Raelan cut off his retort that her name didn't equal her life story before it got past his throat, she'd expected his counter, and won the round, pursuing now would simply create more losses. Visibly, he blinked, and slipped out of his his playfully hostile stance. His smile however, after faltering a second, grew and the knowing, conspiratorial part of it simply shined more, and he nodded appreciatively to Starcey. He relinquished his claim on dominance for the time being and followed along, He needed to learn more about this interesting person before he could have more amusing matches with her.
Dante
Eccentric Assasin
1/6/2009 5:13:08 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 42
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

He listened to Starcey's rant and decided against speaking up against her. Dante decided Raelan had that covered. His guard loosened up upon seeing she meant no harm. He laughed a bit at Raelan's rebuttal. He examined Starcey, it was more of a inward examination of her than outward. Being an assassin he had some practice in reading people. It was a useful skill allowing him to see underlying motives, desires, and sometimes fears. Something didn't click right about her defiant than submissive just something...

'I'm just over-analyzing her' He coughed than it occurred to him. 'I haven't analyzed these other two...perhaps it is for the best' he remembered something one of his clients told him 'Your too cautious...constantly analyzing people, some things are better left to chance and some are better left unknown Y'know. By doing that you isolate yourself and eventually someone will see through that cheerful facade you have an'. Dante silenced the memory there.

He grinned "nice to meet you Starcey" Dante looked over at the cottage. "Yes let's go I'm parched" He followed Lao-Tzu the idea of putting his mark spell on Lao-tzu so Dante could have more insight into his mind was cast aside. He walked alongside Lao-tzu and asked "Apparently you have quite a bit of knowledge for people to be making pilgrimages". He paused a moment before continuing "Well I guess what I want to know is how are you so knowledgeable".

Anxiety is the essential condition of intellectual and artistic creation
TheWalruss
Starcey Crystal
1/6/2009 6:26:36 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 44
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

Excellent, she thought to herself, I'm in.

Starcey realized she hadn't convinced everybody quite as much as she had hoped, but everybody was playing along, and as long as social contracts worked as usual, things would go splendidly.

Remembering her hunger, Starcey replied to Lao-Tzu's proposal: "If that tea comes with crumpets, I'm game,"  and turned towards the little cabin. It would be cramped inside with four people, but the thought of something warm and tasty was almost inebriating.

She acknowledged both Raelan's smile and Dante's grin with "Nice to meet you, too" and a curt nod, after which she drew deeply of her cigarette, and blew the smoke away from the group.

On the way along the path, she stopped momentarily by her motorcycle to retrieve a small wooden box with an ornate design, which she hid - seemingly embarrassed - under her arm.
Lao-tzu
Ancient Thinker
1/6/2009 7:27:39 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 56
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

The old man allowed himself to be flattered by Dante's question.  The question sounded naive and perhaps even childish, but as he considered the answers he might give he realized that it was a very good question indeed.

Lao-tzu answered, "I have the great fortune of simply being very old.  All the phenomena of the world have their roots in the past, roots that are now obscured by the mists of time.  I have seen these roots first-hand, and have watched as the things that were grow into the things that are."

The group made it to the front porch. The sage continued, "My passion has always been to understand things better. This planet's magical affinity and subsequently my own have been instrumental in the pursuit of this quest."  

He nodded to no one in particular, produced a large iron key from somewhere, and opened the door. "Indeed, magic makes many things much easier, so much so that I suspect that there is a completely unrealized downside to its use."

The interior of the cottage was clearly larger than the outside, but identical in character to what one would expect.  Simple wooden furniture, spare cupboards, a bare table with a layer of dust.  Somewhere, a small animal made a tiny sound.

Inviting his guests inside, he said to Starcey, "My dear, you can eat whatever you like.  The larder is well-stocked in the same way my hovel is so roomy.  The tea, however, comes from the great slopes on the other side of this range."
Raelan
inventor/mage
1/6/2009 8:36:26 PM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 94
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

Raelan blinked in surprise, he'd expected something like this, but it was still surprising.

space expansion... or is it space borrowing? Possibly one of the reasons he leaves for his trips would be for the place to shrink if it were space borrowing, unless he was borrowing from elsewhere instead of elsewhen... but that's even more difficult, I would love to put up a detection sphere in here just to see, but that would be impolite. I'd thought of these but never got it to work.

a small warble from his midsection reminded him he'd been ignoring the fact that he was hungry himself with all the interesting things going on. He would wait for Starcey to open it first because he was nervous about breaking into people's things, even when invited... Just one of his things, but he wouldn't be far behind her, he'd been burning a fair bit of energy in his interest.

"I believe that is comes with some disadvantages myself, extra strain on mind and body I've noticed. It's like being too above average in intelligence, it's useful, but you see and understand things, so much so that you can no longer relate tho the vast majority of people around you because they just don't see what you see.

Hence a great deal of people with such great potential get into mind altering drugs to wash the strain away. That and the time it siphons that one could be using to do other productive things. Among a few other theories I have." He hated acting wise, it felt like pretending because there was so much he didn't know, so he rushed the last sentence, and blushed very slightly in embarrassment.

(yes, I'm playing him very much like myself, most of my characters are fragments of me, twisted, altered and expanded, this is a large chunk of me superimposed, the rest I didn't use is in my second, I'm still wondering how I'll play my third if I make them)
TheWalruss
Starcey Crystal
1/7/2009 5:09:11 AM

Level: 1
Experience: 0

Total Posts: 44
RE: Of Spaceport Markets

Well, that's a pleasant surprise!

Ignoring the discussion about wisdom and magic, Starcey walked over to the cupboards Lao-Tzu indicated, and opened them.

Various kinds of breads, herbs, dried soups, canned and jarred goods, dried meats and sausages (Lao-Tzu - let me know if you're vegetarian and I'll remove this bit, unless he keeps some for guests, of course), smoked fish, and some dozens of bulbs of garlic were neatly arranged inside the impossibly roomy cabinets.

I guess a refrigerator would have been too much to ask, but dang! That's a lot of food! she thought to herself, as she grabbed a big roll with some seeds and nuts and dried fruit pieces, and a small sausage to chew on.

She picked a seat by the rough little kitchen table with a nice view out the window over the valley, and nodded when Lao-Tzu gestured to ask if she would like tea.

When Raelan took his turn at the cupboards, Starcey said to Lao-Tzu: "So yea, my mom wanted me to give you this - 'as a token of her appreciation' she said."

She shyly handed the little box to Lao-Tzu. "You can go ahead and open it."

Starcey watched as he undid the latch and gently opened it. Inside was a little porcelain ballet dancer, exquisitely detailed. Recognizing its type, he lifted it out of the box, placed it on the table, and watched it balance elegantly.

"I never could figure out how these stupid things balance," she said, demonstratively tapping it in the face. The little porcelain ballerina reeled backward on the tip of her left big toe, but then rocked forwards like one of those bottom-heavy boxing dummies (except there's no way that tiny toe could counterbalance the whole porcelain figurine) and started spinning slowly.

"My mom collects them - she has a whole bunch," she said, watching the little ballerina spinning slowly around and around, still rocking slightly.
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