(122-03-11) The Great What
The Great What
Summary: Stranger questions stranger in a "city of liars".
Date: 11/03/2015
Related: The Wild, Wild Life
Players:
Sun..Kygoxi..

Harbour Street
Oldtown

A narrow cobblestone street overlooking the Docks, snaking northward into Oldtown Square at the heart of the city, and curving westward to the harbourfront. Lined with aged stone buildings, these support the weight of timber-framed over-hanging houses that look none too steady. The dockside can be seen quite clearly from the street, with the Whispering Sound beyond.

The shops here deal with the business of the sea. Fishmongers with carts and stalls, heaped full with fish of all kinds, cry their wares. Taverns and brothels await the coin of sailors fresh from the docks. The shabby Widow's Walk Pension house stands here, awaiting tenants. At the South end of the street, nearest the docks, stands the Beakhead House, a structure made from the wood of a wrecked ship, with the curved beakhead tip of her bow serving as an awning over the door.

An array of strange temples, with stranger gods depicted upon them, are tucked away at the far end of the street. Opposite from them stands the slightly shabby-looking Sailor's Sept.

Life — in every broad, colourful, and often stinking shape — thrives on Harbout Street. It's loud, this afternoon, damp and warm, drizzly rain clinging to timber frames and awnings and making the cobbles slippery underfoot. One specimen of that life feels rather under threat of losing it; a pale, liverspotted fishmonger leans back in his stand while refusing to barter any further with the would-be customer who stands in front of him: the oddly, resourcefully clad figure with braids like whips and a single eye with all the warmth of a black pit. The other half of her uncommon face is hidden by a veil, even less welcoming. "You are a liar and a thief," she judges lowly, reaching to her hip.

It was a long, bizarre night for some of the city residents. One of them in particular ended up passed out in the alley nearby that very fishmonger's stand. He snores faintly, in spite of the drizzling rain that has soaked him through, but then someone tosses a bucket of water out of a window that splashes straight onto his face. He splutters awake with a start and a little grumble, looking around with a confused series of owlish blinks.

He is dressed in pretty typical clothes for the type of person who would be sleeping in the alley on a pile of trash… Simple roughspun trousers and tunic that are now thoroughly soaked. However, he also has mask with a fancy geometric pattern hanging half off his face, sadly crumpled from a night's revelry.

With a start, he jerks the mask off his face and scowls at it a little, then runs a hand over his head and through rough clumps of uncombed brown hair. "Ugh," he mutters a little, and finally drags himself to his feet and stumbles to the end of the alley. He spots the fishmonger and customer with a squint and a smirk. "Sounds like she's on to you Jak!" he calls across, still half-bleary and bemused from sleep but with a clearly friendly mocking tone.

The fishmonger snorts in offense at the comment from the alley. This isn't helping his cause. "Yer the thief, if you expect me to take what's offered while you steal off with my goods!" He's on the verge of shouting — if his already reedy voice screeches any higher, he'll attract more attention, a good thing, given that his bristling customer is armed several times over. She clasps the hilt of a small blade. When her hand slams sharply onto the stand, however, it's the opposite one, depositing a meagre coin; faster still, the blade comes out, an unusually long dagger that stabs the three fish that have been in contention. She slings the lot of it over her shoulder, skewered, and stalks carelessly for the alley to the tune of the fighmonger shouting, "Get back here, you bleeding savage!"

Kygoxi laughs rather gleefully at the fishmonger's ire, and brushes the rain out of his hair again, then again over his face to ensure that nothing unattractive is stuck to his face (since he /was/ just sleeping in an alley). He eyes the mask in his hand for a moment, and releases the many-pointed star that is pinned to it, tucking it into a pocket, before discarding the mask with the rest of the trash in the alley behind him. It's only then that he notices the armed female heading straight for him, and his amusement fades somewhat to a wary sort of smile.

Despite her quarrel, anger does not follow the armed woman. It leaves her in a single wave, left behind at the fish stand; but though no palpable sparks linger, though she has returned to stoicism, her half-face nevertheless appears carved with vicious intent, putting into question the critical look she gives Kygoxi. The fishmonger keeps yelling, but seems to think better of chasing after the rather frightful figure over a few fish. Just as it seems she's about to pass the apparent alley-dweller by, she says abruptly, "You know that man?" Her voice quick and low in an interpretation of the common tongue that doesn't quite line up with any of the Seven Kingdoms.

Kygoxi keeps a wary eye on the woman while he continues to go about the business of trying to get some of the water out of his water-logged clothes without actually stripping right there in the street. It's probably pointless, if it's still raining, but nonetheless. When the dangerous-looking woman approaches to ask her question, he blinks at her, glances to the fishmonger, then smiles. He still looks pretty wary, but he answers in a heavy accent, "In passing, maybe this is so." The wariness remains as he goes on to ask, "Why?"

She comes to a full stop, more invested eyeing Kygoxi than speaking. Her visible eye narrows; flicks up, down, dismisses. "He is a cheat," she declares, spoken in the tone of plain fact rather than petty defamation. "All are cheats here and do not know how to barter. Who are you?"

Kygoxi smirks a little at her announcement. "Well. Yes. It is being Harbour Street," he replies, with a momentary grammar snafu no down related to his accent. His smile broadens when she asks who he is, and he gives a bow with a little guesture of his hand, and announces, "I am being the Great Kygoxi." As he rises, he looks down at himself and brushes at his tunic with obvious amusement. "Currently missing some of my…ah… Great."

Sun tips her head back to examine him in a new light as the "Great Kygoxi". Even her naturally unimpressed face becomes further unimpressed, finding him lacking, indeed. The toe of her boot turns, preparing to propel her on her way with her catch of the day, but instead she presses a dark eyebrow down and leans in — the physicality is nearly imperceptible, yet her presence bears down as she tells him, "Names hold power. You throw yours around recklessly."

Kygoxi leans back slightly, no doubt due more to her powerful presence than any actual feeling that she is coming toward him. He looks her over himself, smile frozen in place but his eyes a tiny bit calculating. Then, the calculation is gone, and he goes back to smiling affably, and gives a dismissing gesture. "The Great Kygoxi has nothing to hide," he claims, lightly. "What is it that people call you? Or is it that I should call you as I like?"

"Why should I give up my name to you?" She counters, a hint of disgust in her otherwise flat voice. As easily as she seems to dismiss Kygoxi one second, she contrarily becomes more intent on him the next. Her gaze rips him apart, trying to understand. "Tell me, did you earn your name?"

Kygoxi takes a full step backward, and finds himself backed against the wall of one of the buildings that forms the alley. He still smiles, wearing his smile like a mask, but glances to the side as though considering whether wisdom might be the better part of valor. "Ah, well, it is the custom, yes?" The question earns her an odd look, but quirks one side of his grin broader, making it a bit crooked, and suggests, "How about… You give me your name. I will tell you if I am earning mine. Fair trade, yes?"

She gives a discontent "mm" in her throat. She ducks her chin down and eyes the fish stand. Her motions are quick; a braid flicks, sways. "Fair trade. Is that like the fish monger's fair trade?" she asks skeptically, seeming to have already made up her mind that it is. "This is a city of liars."

Kygoxi apparently can't help himself. He gives a little laugh at her question, and replies, "Perhaps, perhaps. But we do not trust those we cannot name, mm?" he points out, brows lifting a little. He tilts his head, thoughtfully, "If you do not name yourself, I think I will call you…" He trails off, stroking his beard thoughtfully, and then brightens as it apparently comes to him. "I will call you Angry Little Pirate Lady."

So dubbed, she jerks her head back, standing straighter, her brow pushing yet further down, the series of furrows it creates lost under the disguised left half. Bewilderment is not common to her face and sits there strangely alongside suspicion as she attempts to determine if his words were insult or humour. She understands the first a good deal better than the last. "I should have asked what you are, not who you are."

Kygoxi continues smiling at her, searching her face thoughtfully. "Oh, I?" he replies, without dropping his accent. "I am nothing. A humble clown. I would be dancing for you, but I cannot dance in the rain," he glances toward the clouds, ruefully, then adds, "And I am missing my costume for dancing."

The more Kygoxi smiles, the more suspiciously she looks at him; slowly, however, the woman's chin raise and her features smooth, all as if to say, ah, now I understand now. "You are a joke," she rationalizes.

Kygoxi continues smiling, affably, apparently unphased by the statement. "Yes," he confirms. "Nothing to be taking seriously." He glances to the side again, catching a look up the street, and then adds, "If you look to the taverns, perhaps you will see me at performing, someday."

"Mummery," she replies, dismissing the concept, either preferring to remain rooted in reality or actually unable to grasp the appeal. Absent tradition manners — or not caring for those either at the moment — she simply turns to stride off with her catch of the day. Kygoxi is left with the blank dead eyes of three gaping fish staring at him instead over her shoulder.

Kygoxi gives a laugh at that, "Wizardry," he replies, with an eyebrow raised in challenge, unwise though it might be. Somehow, he seems to be more comfortable now that she's dismissed him as unimportant. He laughs again as she turns to walk off, and calls after her, "Goodbye, pretty little angry pirate lady!" Thus satisfied, he starts toward the fishmonger, who does not look at all happy to see Kygoxi approaching.

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