Breaking Pots with Pizzazz

[Saej Mirilla]

O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
― Edgar Allen Poe
¤

15th of Searing 120th Year of the Age of Steel
Sundered Rise¤

Headed through the Plaza of Jeweled Arches Saej had just finished a delivery to a shopkeeper. This day the shopkeeper hugged her and said thank you, paying her well, it would seem his baby niece had just been born. As she made her way out of the Plaza and towards the Low City she could hear from afar the sounds of someone playing a lute well enough. Charmed, Saej followed the sounds of music to find a crowd of people now standing around watching and indeed, as she arrived he had stopped playing. Instead the man was now juggling and grinning like hell, putting on a great show for the crowd which laughed and clapped along. One man, who looked to be a noble, was particularly entranced by, who Saej could now see, Shasco and gave a large sum into his cup. Shasco grinned at the man and then winked at Saej.

Saej was overcome with emotion and ran to hug Shasco, rushing up to him then and disrupting the performance. He hugged her back and she kissed his cheek. Juggling balls flung out of his hands and he managed to catch one at the excitement of the crowd.
“It’s been much too long! Here? In Kalzasi? And you didn’t find me first?”
Shasco grinned at her and winked again.
“I knew with a bit of luck I may run into you in time. I’ve only been here for two days!”
And with that, he addressed the crowd,
“That’s it for me today. And remember folks, another coin in my cup is whiskey later!”
The crowd laughed as it dispersed, not surprising he had them entranced. Someone tipped before leaving as Shasco was collecting his money, it was the noble again. The noble, she assumed from his well tailored clothes, gave Shasco a wanting look before also leaving.


Saej shook her head at Shasco as the two of them found a bench to sit and chat on. His clothes looked dirty still with road travel and his eyes seemed tired despite dancing with happiness. Saej took a conspirator’s tone.
“The noble? Really? Oh my gods Shasco you are insatiable.”
He shrugged and told her,
“I gotta make money somehow, it pays in this field well to use a bit of Mesmer. Gods you would think by now you’d get used to that.”
Saej frowned and bit on her tongue, keeping her opinions to herself. Instead she said,
“It has been TWO YEARS! I need to know, did you go back to the circus or where have you been? I hope time has kept you well, you look good.”
Shasco told her,
“I’ve just been around, out and about to different cities. Played for a moment in Alfsos, they didn’t quite like me there but I was down on my luck then, took awhile to get to where I could keep traveling. I knew you would be here. You haven’t traveled in some time then, what happened to the caravan business? Also, Saej, I’m not sorry to say you look old.”

Saej frowned at him again before scowling at him. This man to her was like a brother. They had known each other since they were teens. In fact it was his family that took her in for awhile and taught her about mercantilism. Being two years younger than she he was just a boy when they met but even then he instantly teased her.
‘Everything is always changing, growing, but some things never do change, do they?’
She thought as she punched him in the shoulder hard.
“Well we can’t all be part elf, can we? You don’t look like you’ve aged since you were eighteen.”
Shasco ran a dark hand through his elven braided afro and said,
“The barest of parts, I’ll be wrinkly and grey like you soon enough. Tell me about what you've been up to yourself.”

OOC; *note, none of Shascos "earnings" will be asked for-- this is simply for story purposes.

[Saej Mirilla]

O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
― Edgar Allen Poe
¤

¤

Saej told him the tale of the last time she traveled, how she took shelter in the chapel and was trapped there. That her horse was found and that’s how she was rescued. Shasco was somber through this all and listened well, nodding and sighing when she finished. He was quiet for a moment before saying.
“You want to go back, don’t you? Don’t lie to me Saej, I’ve known you for nearly half my life. What do you think that was? Sounds extremely creepy and I’m sorry this happened. Makes me feel almost guilty. Like I should have been there with you.”
Saej threw an arm around him and hugged him again.

“BOTH of us in that pit? Oh boy, how I wish you could have been there stressing me out more. We would have died that first night. Just teasing, okay that was in poor taste. But no, I do want to go back and investigate of course but maybe not soon. I feel like something may be there waiting for me. I don’t know what it was, I truly don’t. Possibly a secret antechamber to the church? I don’t really know. Anyway, other than that I also got a dog. She’s…. Not friendly. But may warm up to you if you leave her alone. You should come meet her! I’m parked right outside of the walls. Come see my wagon?”
Shasco hopped up and stretched, yawning then gathering his things into his bag while carrying his lute by the neck in his free hand.
“Sure, if you let me take a nap afterwards. I am so tired from these last couple of days.”

When they arrived at the wagon Poppy came out to the edge of the wagon under its canopy and barked wildly, slavering and growling at Shasco, all hackles raised. Saej came up to her and patted her, trying to calm her down from the barking. When she was quiet Saej said,
“Her name is Poppy. I love her!”
Shasco looked taken aback, he was hugging his lute to him and it was as if all his hair was standing on end before he finally relaxed his posture.
“Huh, well you maybe could have got a bigger dog. I don’t think she’s quite the right size. Look at her, practically waifish.”
Saej rolled her eyes,
“Just come pat her head, she’ll warm up!”
He shook his own head back and forth, a braid coming undone and flopping to the side of his face in the flurry.
“No, that’s fine. I can see her from right here.”
Saej laughed.

[Saej Mirilla]

O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
― Edgar Allen Poe
¤

¤

After taking a nap in the sun, Shasco on the ground on his bedroll and Saej in the wagon with Poppy, it was nearing sundown now. The day was decidedly cooler with the sun’s heat becoming less and less. Poppy hadn’t taken to Shasco quite yet but she certainly wasn’t snapping at him anymore. Saej wasn’t sure what had come over her, usually she was just quiet and aloof of people but it just showed they had much more training to go. One thing she was certain of was that Poppy wouldn’t outright attack him even if she loved intimidating him at this point in time.

Together the three walked to gather some sticks for a fire, Poppy really just biting the sticks and giving chase to some if Saej tossed them while the two people gathered a bundle. On their walk they happened to find a bunch of clay pots, vases, and plates dumped in the woods leading up to the mountains. It would seem that someone had decided to use the area as a garbage dump, leaving a decent sized heap of the clay wares just there on the ground. They were mostly all broken beyond repair and some vines had begun to grow over them. Shasco lifted one out, removing it from its vine cage and inspected it.
“You know,”
He said,
“These would make a great target for practice. Do you still have the chakrams? I’ve gotten pretty good with my sling shot. I would love to show you. Maybe we could have a competition. See who can hit the most.”

Saej rather did NOT want to compete against him at anything, he was much more skilled than she ever had been for as long as she’d known him, but against her better judgement she said yes. If anything just to show off that she’d gotten the least bit better since they had last seen each other. Back then she was just buying her chakrams. They went back and dropped off the bundles, then returned to grab a few pots and vases for the game.

Setting up the pots on the ground away from the wagon Shasco brought out his slingshot, it looked nice. He grabbed up a few stones from around the area but also showed her his slingshot bullets he had in his possession “just in case”, which she took to mean should he need to harm. Her mind flitted back to earlier in the season when she got stuck in the mud and how that awful man had threatened her. How glad she was for Poppy, who could now be seen rolling in the dirt.

He let her go first and she took care in aiming, then let the chakram loose. It whizzed above the pot and landed in the weeds just outside of them. Shasco then took his own aim and shattered the pot with his stone, it broke with a loud crash-- absolutely obliterated.
“Hey Saej, if you own a weapon you really should be practicing more. I would hate for you to hurt yourself.”
He scoffed at her, giving her an eye.
Saej said nothing and aimed for the next clay ware, a vase.

[Saej Mirilla]

O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
― Edgar Allen Poe
¤

¤

Once again Saej missed, this time a strong wind throwing the chakram off course and way to the left. Shasco frowned at her and pulled on one of her long dreadlocks.
“All’s I’m saying is you won’t always have me or…. Poppy to protect you. You need to learn to use these. Look, I can show you one or two things about aim but I can’t exactly teach you how to use the chakram. Basically when aiming you need to keep the wind in mind if you’re outside as well as just bolster up that hand-eye coordination which you won’t get if you don’t practice. That’s all I have for that lesson, I’ll take my payment as dinner tonight.”
Saej put her hand to her face and scowled at him.
“Oh so you’re going to protect me now? After two years you just waltz up and then tell me what to do? You’ll never change will you? You know I am older after all?”
Shasco blanched at her sudden outburst, then puffed out some air from his chest.

“Okay, the reason I showed up here was actually because I have a favor to ask you. I want to go with you. Wherever it is you’re going next, I want to be there. I’m hitting kind of a stagnant point in my life and my parents are getting old. While I want to care for them I just… I need more than baked bread and rocking chairs. You know what I mean? If you really have some weird thing against me then fine, I’ll just go sister. But seriously I’m ready for something more. Call it intuition but I know you’re going somewhere. You always have and I know you always will. You’re big, like not just fat but large in your presence. I don’t know how else to explain it. You’ve got this thing Saej, I want to see if it’ll, I dunno, rub off on me.”

Anyone looking into the conversation from an outside perspective may have seen this as a lover’s confession, but what Saej and Shasco had was something deeper. The deepest kind of friendship that needed no sexual love or tension. It was truly like being siblings while also knowing love and loyalty in its truest, most high form. This kind of love while it was earned it never had to be tested, even when they were angry. It also wasn’t something someone would easily walk away from. Sometimes they considered themselves soulmates, the kind that was cut from the same cloth. An idea that again had no sexual connotation but was just the divine fabric of Ransera’s reality pulling two people close together, tying them there inexplicably but forever.

Saej considered his words and said,
“You know I live for my privacy.”
“Yes.”
“And you KNOW I have little place in the wagon for you-- you can borrow my tent.”
“Sure, whatever you need.”
“And you really think you can just come here after two years, no mail, no message, and just ask to be a burden.”
“You really think I’ll be a burden? Saej, c’mon. I know you as well as I know myself. I can leave you alone really, I just… I just need a place to stay. Somewhere to call home. Please.”
“Fine… but stop picking on my throwing! Gods, you really get under my skin. But I have missed you, I can't lie about that. We'll see. I have been thinking about heading forward to Atinaw. Maybe starting an official merchant stall there. And you're right I have been thinking about travelling even onward from there. So creepy how you do that. I guess, honestly, I'll be glad to have the company. Even this 'fat' hermit gets lonely sometimes.”

With that she collected her chakram and tried again. This time sending the weapon whizzing from her hand after learning that the wind was going to take it left and trying to correct it. It would seem she had over corrected the throw, again it whizzed past but this time to the right, glancing the vase causing it to rock but not even tip over. Shasco took out his slingshot, loaded a stone into it, and slung the rock at the vase. The crash of breaking pottery could once again be heard, though this time it only took off the top, leaving the rest of it unharmed.

[Saej Mirilla]

O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
― Edgar Allen Poe
¤

¤

They had stopped talking, with the elephant out of the proverbial room, and now were just practicing with their weapons. While Shasco wasn’t infallible, he missed quite a few times, Saej was having the most issues trying to hit the pottery having not hit any a single time. She blamed the wind but it was more her lack of skill. There was no remedy other than doing as Shasco said and practicing more which made it all the more embarrassing. Eventually they were down to the last piece of pottery, a large red-clay vase with the handle already broken off.

The sun was low in the sky with the night encroaching fast. As trees shook with a slight wind now dying down with the setting of the sun, Saej thought she might be able to give one last heave and actually hit the pottery this time, gods willing. She threw an eye up the road towards the mountains where the Black Road lay and tried to clear her mind. Thinking of how it felt to drive her horse and mule up the road, the wagon wheels bumping behind her, the only thought being on the journey ahead.

In her hand she balanced the chakram and gripped it by its middle, feeling its weight while trying to focus on the chakram itself. Heat rose to her face as Shasco watched her, cheering her on silently even though he was the clear winner. She kept her eye on the target and feigned throwing once, twice, three times before finally letting the weapon fly from her hand. It whizzed in the air and once it connected, destroying the vase, Shasco lept in the air with a whoop.

Truth be told, she didn’t feel triumphant. If anything she felt utterly discouraged. How long would it take to become good enough to be formidable. Even though all he had was a slingshot a well placed bullet would do some serious damage. Here she was with what turned out to be an expensive and hefty weapon, two of them in fact, that she could barely use. Shasco was cleaning up the pottery now and returned the chakram to her.
“There, now just do that a few more times and you’ll be a master. We can practice more tomorrow if you want? Some of these are still good enough to set up again, might just be harder tomorrow. You down?”

At first Saej said no, then yes, then grimaced and finally said only,
“I’ll get dinner started.”
That night they spent it talking about plans for the future and what they could possibly sell. Shasco told her that he could be the muscle and help draw people to the tent, though Atinaw may be a hard sell for them. She knew what he meant, they didn’t take to foreigners too much there and with how discouraged Saej had gotten today about her incompetence with her weapon she was having her doubts about Atinaw. It would have to do for now. Sleep was restless but she felt better slightly when she woke up knowing Shasco was there outside of the wagon and they would be practicing more tomorrow.

[Taelian]

Saej

Lores
Thrown Weapon (Chakram); Paying attention to the wind
Thrown Weapon (Chakram); Having a clear mind with which to focus before throwing
Thrown Weapon (Chakram); Balancing the chakram by its middle
Thrown Weapon (Chakram); Throwing the opposite direction of the wind
Rhetoric; Speaking on the elephant in the room
Intimidation; Scowling to make a point

Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A

Points 5

Comments: Despite this being a combat learning thread, it was very cute and pleasant! I loved reading the dialogue; it was light-hearted and made me smile. Also, thought it was funny that Saej also got a new dog! Great thread.