Open | Some used your name for glory

[kadia]

WHO: Colin, Kadi, and you.
WHAT: Catch-all/open
WHEN: July and August
WHERE: Various places in Northcliff Pass
NOTES: Starters inside. cw: mentions of a cult and the abuses of it.

Comments

Kadi

[kadia]

I. Herbalist

The mushrooms she gathered are mostly fenced to people in the marketplace. On the way in from the woods, she found an entire ring of morels, which are both valuable and delicious. But most of the things she gathered have medicinal value, so she follows Faro and Lance's tip and heads to the herbalist's. She knocks at the door, a waif in a baggy robe with the sleeves ripped off and a baby in a sling.

II. Seamstress

In the weaver's shop, Kadi waits for Leala to finish up with another customer while browsing through the fabrics. Grubby fingers hover over each, but do not touch, astounded and awed by the variety of colors, textures, and trim. Kadi's own robe, designed to hide a woman's shape, covers her from chin to toe in a rectangular block of beige. It is in wretched shape, with the sleeves ripped off to use as wash rags during her journey. It was technically washed a few times, but without soap and only in cold mountain stream water. The short shift she wore under it was also repurposed long ago. The only clean, semi-new thing she is wearing right now is a white sling with a baby in it.

Whenever Leala finishes up with her customer, Kadi approaches, maintaining some distance because, despite bathing before coming, she is self-conscious about smelling.

"Hello," she says tautly. "I need...everything."

III. Forest

She has a house now. Her own little house with two whole rooms. She has clothing that doesn't make her look like a brick and that has color. She loves all of it more than she could possibly have believed. But it's still the forest that feels like home the most.

Silfa is bound to her back and out of the way, a small lump of sleeping baby between her shoulder blades. Kadi has no fear for her safety in this forest. This is where Silfa was born and spent the first month of her life. The Earth protected them then; why should they have anything to fear now?

IV. At night, in the village

You might be up for any number of reasons--a nighttime call of nature, hunger, or simply an early start to your day, when Kadi can be seen as a flash of white against stone walkways, dressed only in a long shift with fitted sleeves, its skirts fluttering in the wind with her long red hair. Her eyes are open, but glassy, and she seems entirely unaware. Her bare feet nonetheless find their way up the stairs at the wall, where she stands as if in a trance, face toward the forest.

V. Marketplace

There is a smile on her face and color to her cheeks. She has her very own booth in the marketplace now, where she sells whatever she could not sell to the herbalist or the weaver. Mainly these are wild vegetables, mushrooms, edible nuts, and ripe berries. If you want to pick up something special for dinner, here is where you can do it.

And yes, that's a baby asleep in a basket behind her.

VI. Wildcard

V

[stableman]

There are toesies. There are itsybitsy toesiewosies sticking up in the basket, and Detlef can't help but look at the basket from the other side of the counter. A beat later he looks at the stall owner with a smile and nods.

"How old? This one is about five months now." He gently pats his shirt pocket, which has a black-and-white tail sticking out of it. "Her name is Moose, because she thinks she's much bigger than she is."

[kadia]

"About a month." Kadi looks proud, but the baby does not look one month old. She is a bit too dainty for that. "But she was early."

And she was born free. That's the most important thing. She was born free, and will grow up free. Kadi considers this young man, carrying a kitten in his pocket and acting like it's comparable to a baby, and...anyone who can be that kind and sweet with an animal seems like someone she could trust. This place may actually be the village that helps to raise her child.

[stableman]

"A month," he repeats. A foal would be walking right away, a kitten not too long after, but he's fairly certain that's too early for a baby to be walking and that's about the extent of his baby knowledge.

"I'm Detlef," he says a few beats later, holding out his hand. "Stablemaster, cat herder, general tender of animals ill and healthy. Welcome to Northcliff Pass." She's absolutely new. She may just be passing through, but it doesn't hurt to be welcoming.

[kadia]

Kadi looks at his hand warily. City folk, she has heard, will take any chance to rob you. That would be easier to do if she kept her money on her person. She shakes his hand.

"Kadi. I've got some herbs that could help your animals, if you're buying."

IV

[infinitewatch]

There's someone who can always be counted on for wakefulness in the middle of the night, and that's the night watchman. Lance is midway down the path when he notices the woman, and he quickly picks up his pace, only to stop when he recognizes her as the girl from before.
She wanders up the stairs, and he watches for several moments before pursuing: he doesn't want to frighten her, but if she's sleepwalking, the city wall is hardly a place she should be. He ascends the stairs after her, waiting until she's some feet away before clearing his throat and asking:

"Miss?"

[kadia]

She stands still as glass, unhearing of him. Unfeeling fingers rest against the stone of the wall as the wind whips around her. What she sees and feels is entirely different from what he does.

Green and green, forest reflected in water, a lithe woman with a terrible voice and a demand with no compromise. Kadi opens her mouth to speak, but the forest is finished speaking. The forest saved her. The forest saved Silfa. Now, it gives its conditions.

Kadi wakes, shuddering and gasping.

"What?" She blinks, her eyes feeling oddly dry, and she looks at Lance in bewilderment. Why is she on the wall?

[infinitewatch]

"What?" he echoes, stepping back down a stair, at least glad to see that the woman is awake now. ...probably?

"Are you... all right," comes his careful query, and he glances her up and down.

I

[pestler]

"Over here!"

A voice sounds from the open window, which, upon further inspection, constitutes a countertop as well, a full storefront for the apothecary. He's beaming from ear to ear as the woman approaches, and already holding out a packet for her.

"Dad said you'd be coming. I set aside some thistle for you." He only blushes a little.

[kadia]

Thistle. Kadi smiles at the word, circling back to the window and setting a large bundle of wild herbs on the countertop. Lance must have told this young man that she is a new mother, something easily confirmed by the presence of a newborn in deep sleep against her right now.

"You're very kind," she says, sorting her herbs for him. Feverfew, witch hazel, echinacea, and any number of other woodland herbs. Most of them are dried, but others are fresh, and there are a lot of them. "I've been told you can be trusted to give a fair price for these. I'm sorry, we didn't use money in the commune."

[pestler]

Making a little 'ooh' face, Finian begins to peruse the given items, nodding with each one. "You were told right," he replies, and looks up with a little twitch of his eyebrows at the word 'commune'-- he isn't sure what it means, but isn't about to pry.
"I can give you coin or barter, whichever you prefer."

[kadia]

“Coin,” Kadi responds readily. “I have to buy a place to live. Or...is that how it’s done here? Buying?”

Colin

[keenly]

I. Detlef

"Can I show you something?" Colin crept into the stable late in the evening when most people have gone indoors and is now smiling at Detlef hopefully.

II. Hammer and Spoke

This is becoming his new tradition. As much as he is walled up in his little bakery, he has plenty of introvert time. Spending the evenings there too went beyond the what was necessary for introvert time and left him feeling lonely. He finally found a drink he likes and has gained comfort in sitting quietly and listening to conversation. During a bout of storytelling, he even (very shyly) ventures an entry of his own.

"So my, um. My da wasn't allowed to cook in our house after this? He-he...well you have to know my sister Catherine loved bacon. And once, my da cooked bacon and he, it, he burned it so badly..."

His audience is deflating. He blushes.

"So he was going to throw it away, but he looked back to the pan and Catherine was already digging into it. She had this streak of black...ear to ear, and she was gnawing in the middle of this strip of bacon, and she said, 'Da, there's still a little bit of bacon in there!'"

As poor as the storytelling itself was, the punch line at least gets a chuckle from a few people. But Colin has learned his lesson, and is not going to try this sort of thing again. He can't stop blushing after that.

III. Marketplace

It's not uncommon to see any number of animals wandering the marketplace, but it's just not a good idea for chickens to run about unattended, seeing as how so many people and creatures eat them. That is why Colin is darting through the crowd, his eyeline right around your feet.

"Excuse me, have you seen a chicken?" A beat as he realizes that's not nearly enough information. "Um. A hen, brown, with white specks? She's very friendly."

IV. Wildcard

[stableman]

He looks up from where he's sitting on the ground, struggling to try to fix a saddle and grins. "Anything." The saddle gets set to the side and he gets up to his feet, staggering a little before sitting into one of the chairs. His legs had cramped up a little, apparently.

Colin is gestured to another wooden chair. They're simple, but sturdy, and currently no one has to displace a cat to sit.

[keenly]

Colin is definitely tempted to grab Detlef and drag him outside the village walls, but he settles for a good look about and the quiet question of whether anyone might be about. When certain they are secure, he breaks a strand of grass off from the ground and holds it over the soil. In a few seconds, the grass grows from the bottom down--a base, a root, eventually growing back into the ground from Colin's hand.

[stableman]

He's been practicing, actively practicing, is the only thing Detlef can assume. After their last conversation he'd been fairly convinced it would take a lot of time before Colin would try using anything, but clearly something's changed.

A few moments of quiet pass before he's nodding, slowly.

"I've a little ability with plants," he says in something only slightly louder than a whisper, "but most of it is with animals. Maybe that's because that's what I practice and use it for, most of the time." Though there are certainly more than a few plants that are doing very well around the stables that owe more to him than nature.

"Do you... Do you have a goal?" A reason for the practicing? And using?

[keenly]

That gets some hesitation. Colin isn't sure he can put it into words. He looks down at the newly-planted blade of grass.

"I'm...not sure, actually. In my head, I think of making things lovelier, making things green and fertile. Making the village prosper. Getting it through hard times. But of course none of that is allowed and isn't very private at all. So it's, it's dreams, rather than goals, right now. Once I find out what else I can do, maybe there will be goals."

III

[engravitas]

"I see lots of chickens," comes the grim reply, followed by the quirk of an eyebrow as Colin elaborates. "...maybe."
A cursory glance around-- because, as far as people in town go, Colin isn't the worst-- and a one-shoulder shrug follows.

"Has she gone on the lam."

[keenly]

"Very much so," Colin answers apologetically. "Please, she's a really good layer." Not to mention very sweet. Chickens have a weird reputation among those who don't keep chickens.

[engravitas]

"I'll keep an eye out." It doesn't sound like much of a promise, and Ben is already lighting up a cigarette, either so unbothered or simply ensuring that everyone thinks he is.

[keenly]

Colin almost speaks again, until he’s suddenly gaping at Ben as if seeing him sprout a second head. The man is afraid. Of what? Of him? Of everything. Why? What is Colin doing wrong? What can he do differently to make it better? He tries backing away. Actually, might as well be safe and leave. With a belated nod to acknowledge what the man said, he turns and walks briskly away.

2

[sampler]

Back in Cliffside, before Nelda, Faro's evening tavern-time involved a lot more drinking and making eyes and mutely carousing. Northcliff Pass is much smaller though, and he can't pretend he's someone else here. So he's been doing much the same as Colin: quietly observing, enjoying the more chatty patrons gossip.

Some of that observing has been of Colin. From afar, as he did of people he was actually curious about. When the baker is brave enough to share his story, Faro's one of the handful that's attentive all the way through, even chuckling a little louder than he would naturally to try and soothe his embarrassment.

Yeah, he knows that feeling. As the focus shifts to a drunkard boasting about a big fish, Faro carries his tankard around the outskirts of the room, making his way over to where Colin's seated.

"I assume it wwasn't him wwho taught you to bake so well," he asks with a friendly smile before pointing at himself then at the chair beside Colin. Is it ok if he sits?

[keenly]

Colin gives Faro the space to sit down, smiling shyly.

"My mother," he confirms. "She was from Aguil. She met my father when he was a sailor. They fell in love and decided to move back to Maireglenne to become farmers. She taught me everything I know about flavors, really. The ones she was used to were so different. So she was always cooking and baking so she could have a taste of home. And so we could taste what she tasted growing up."

[sampler]

He settles in, tankard plonked on the table and body turned slightly towards Colin. Farogil listens intently, smiling at the fondness he can hear in the man's voice as he speaks of his mother's and her cooking.

"What was your favorite?"

[keenly]

"She'd get fish and freshwater prawns and make something with rice and saffron and her special spice blend. The spices are hard to come by, and there were six of us, so we didn't have it very often. I make it whenever my sister comes to visit."

A glance toward the fire, then back at Farogil.

"What about you? Where'd you learn embroidery?"