Author Topic: Day Two - Heels and Wheels  (Read 50840 times)

Offline veekie

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #40 on: June 05, 2013, 08:32:07 AM »
Then best to move fast. It's quite a distance, and if another Master had taken up residence, you wouldn't like to meet them at night.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #41 on: June 05, 2013, 05:10:02 PM »
"No, it's pretty close... enough time to get changed first. We won't be staying after sundown, just watching." While hopping home and getting ready, Laoise explains her plans. "We'll split up so we aren't detected together. I'll watch for anything on the outside, you probe for bounded fields or Servants in spirit form. If you're confronted, just retreat and don't materialize. Don't pick any fights. Or footraces."
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Offline veekie

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #42 on: June 05, 2013, 06:22:14 PM »
No fights and no footraces. Got it.

Laoise gets the feeling that he'd probably find a whole new way of making trouble, but such is life.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #43 on: June 05, 2013, 06:28:14 PM »
Laoise stares into the air where Lancer is for a long moment. "...And no following the letter of my orders while ignoring the intent."
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Offline Bozwevial

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #44 on: June 05, 2013, 11:19:35 PM »
Lucía is evidently perfectly suited to be a traveling companion for Laoise. As the two girls walk to the restaurant, she talks happily and at length, but much to Laoise's relief, Lucía doesn't seem to be the type who talks to fill silence. When she talks, she's animated and full of energy, but she does let the conversation (as one-sided as it is) die out to enjoy the quiet afternoon now and again. Laoise learns along the way that her new acquaintance moved here from Spain because her parents were going to be elsewhere for work, and she's staying with her uncle for a while. She seems oddly cheerful for someone dumped into a completely foreign place, but maybe that's normal for more outgoing types.

With the rain gone and the air laden with the scent of clean earth, even the park seems less oppressive as the two (and one spirit) head past. Through a gap in the treeline, Laoise can see the spot where she and Lancer fought yesterday, still untouched by any caretakers. Lucía doesn't seem to know - or notice - that a segment off in the distance is scorched and torn apart.

The restaurant Laoise settles on isn't a good selection just for its food. There's an outdoor seating area that faces the temple, which should allow her to keep tabs on anyone coming or going from this side. Sending Lancer off to sweep up close is a little risky, but very few Servants would try an attack in the daylight. Besides, earlier today her Servant vanished for several hours and nothing bad happened. Surely there's no harm in risking it again.

Lucía's reaction to the menu is so astonished and full of wonder that anyone watching might reasonably assume she had opened it to find money inside. She pores over the descriptions for everything before settling on a noodle dish. The bowl that arrives at their table is massive. A miso, ginger, and chicken broth gently steams in the breeze, the noodles barely visible through a medley of grilled chicken, barbecued pork, prawns, and mussels. Smatterings of menma, green onions, wakame, and an egg complete what is decidedly not a light afternoon snack. Lucía, for her part, sits contentedly for a minute before taking a single bite, just...inhaling the steam happily. It's the calmest Laoise has seen her all day.
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Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #45 on: June 06, 2013, 10:18:27 AM »
Laoise has a secret. Whether it's because old man Fergus somehow predicted that they would be involved in a War or because he wanted them to understand the Eastern system of elements better, both Laoise and Aengus learned Chinese and Japanese from a fairly early age, and she is fairly fluent. But despite that, and despite having lived in Japan for six months, she never bothered to learn how to eat with chopsticks properly.

So far, it hasn't been a problem. Rather than risk embarrassing herself, she would just eat at home. At school she eats sandwiches for lunch, and when eating out she orders things she would be expected to eat with a spoon or with her fingers.

...But on this menu, there is only one main dish she can eat with a spoon.

The bowl she gets is smaller than Lucía's, filled with many pieces of tofu floating lazily in red sauce. No, that's not quite right. The tofu floats in a sauce of spicy bean paste, fermented black beans, chili oil, and rice wine. Green onions, garlic, chili flakes, and Sichuan pepper are sprinkled across it, as if solely for decoration, and a bowl of rice served alongside. Laoise stares at her afternoon meal.

...Mapo tofu. Or rather, malal tofu, the version without meat.
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Offline veekie

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #46 on: June 06, 2013, 10:33:59 AM »
Ooo, been a while since I had that. I wonder if it's authentically spiced...
Lancer is fairly drooling in his spirit form, and Laoise can feel the faint pressure that indicates he's almost materializing.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #47 on: June 06, 2013, 10:51:09 AM »
Laoise takes advantage of Lucía being engrossed in her own meal to shoot Lancer a glare and make a shooing motion, as if chasing away a fly. She points at the hill with the temple.
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Offline veekie

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #48 on: June 06, 2013, 10:52:40 AM »
Only if you save me some for later

His presence does fade however, as Lancer makes his way uphill, grumbling about missing meals.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Bozwevial

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #49 on: June 07, 2013, 12:12:29 AM »
Drifting uphill toward the temple, Lancer's extended senses don't run into the telltale signs of either a magus or a Servant's presence. The area, however, does have a strong feeling of magic about it, which Lancer recognizes as a bounded field just in time to keep himself from crossing its borders, which extend nearly half of the way down the massive hill. This is quite a large bounded field, but it seems to have been set up rather oddly. Anyone with half a gram of sense when it came to magecraft would know how to construct a field so that its energies couldn't be felt from outside the borders. If this field is leaking, then either it's unfinished, thrown together quickly, or a magus who didn't know any better set it up. Of course, Lancer knows that it'd be virtually unheard of for a magus to be powerful enough to establish a bounded field this large while not knowing how to keep it contained.

Meanwhile, Lucía slurps her noodles happily, oblivious to Laoise's one-sided conversation with the spirit. "This is wonderful! You get to eat this kind of food all the time? I thought Spain had good food, but yours is so much better!" She looks up from her bowl. "Oh, you haven't started eating yet? Did I do something wrong? I don't really know the etiquette..."
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Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #50 on: June 07, 2013, 01:39:20 AM »
"...No." There's nothing for it. Picking up the spoon, Laoise shovels some rice into the dish before taking her first spoonful. She blows on it to cool it down, a vain effort, before eating it.

Immediately, she thinks back to last night, when she saw Florianus von Einzbern's mouth terrifyingly backlit by the fire of Lancer's spear. She makes an effort not to let on the spiciness of the tofu as she chews it and then swallows. "...Arroz a la cubana is good."
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Offline Bozwevial

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #51 on: June 07, 2013, 11:48:02 AM »
"Oh, yeah, that's pretty good too, but I spent my whole life eating that stuff." Lucía waves her chopsticks around airily, snagging a small mussel with the ease of someone who had used chopsticks her whole life. She pops the hapless shellfish into her mouth and continues, "Where I grew up, I didn't have a lot of choice in what to eat, really. Now that I'm here, I have a lot more freedom. I can eat anything I like!" She grins sheepishly. "It sounds a little dumb, but that's an important milestone for me."
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Offline veekie

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #52 on: June 09, 2013, 03:58:29 AM »
Now it would be wiser to turn back and report. Lancer is decidedly not the wise type of hero as he edges around the field, probing it's quality, extent and shape without actually penetrating.


    Lore Assessment (4d3-8+3=2)
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #53 on: June 09, 2013, 08:36:22 AM »
"...I see..." Just a few bites in, Laoise's face is already heating up. She doesn't particularly have anything to say, but talking would at least give her an excuse to eat slowly. "...On a ship...?" Immediately, she regrets asking. The new girl isn't even wearing a real sailor's outfit; why would it mean she has anything to do with ships?
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Offline Bozwevial

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #54 on: June 09, 2013, 08:55:55 AM »
The bounded field appears to be fairly standard, apart from its size. It takes the ambient energies from the surrounding area and focuses them into magics used within its borders, but only for magi attuned to the field. It's also an early warning system, of sorts - anything human-like that crosses the borders trips the alarm and alerts anyone attuned to the field.

"A ship?" Lucía looks blank for a moment. "Oh, right, because of this! No, these are just because it was really hot when I left. To tell the truth, I'm kind of cold right now, but I'll have time to buy warmer things later." She fishes out more noodles and continues, "What about you? I don't think you grew up around here, did you?"
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 09:03:18 AM by Bozwevial »
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Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #55 on: June 09, 2013, 12:08:43 PM »
Laoise chokes her shame in three uncomfortably quick spoonfulls of tofu. "...Ireland." Rather than elaborate, though, she takes a big gulp of water and spoons some more rice into her bowl.
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Offline veekie

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #56 on: June 09, 2013, 12:45:11 PM »
Lancer debates piercing the field, but ultimately decides against something which might cost him in food later. He takes note of it's extent, before heading back to Laoise.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Bozwevial

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #57 on: June 09, 2013, 01:52:06 PM »
"Oh, Ireland! I don't think I'd have guessed. I don't know a lot about geography." Lucía peers closely at Laoise, brow furrowing in concern. "...are you alright? You look really red."
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Offline veekie

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #58 on: June 09, 2013, 01:57:00 PM »
Lancer's invisible presence returns to the shop where he observes his Master's antics with great amusement, Oh my, need help finishing that?
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Agita

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Re: Day Two - Heels and Wheels
« Reply #59 on: June 09, 2013, 04:43:58 PM »
"I'm fine," Laoise insists unconvincingly. She has, amazingly enough, actually gotten through most of her meal by now. When Lancer appears behind her, she throws a glance in his general direction before turning back to the table and reaching for her water... 'accidentally' knocking the chopsticks off the table.
« Last Edit: June 09, 2013, 05:32:42 PM by Agita »
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