tushanshu_logs | [EVENT] YARD SALE

[EVENT] YARD SALE

Characters: Come one, come all!
Date: June 3rd - June 8th
Location: The City of Keeliai
Situation: To welcome the warm weather, the kedan are hosting a city-wide yard sale! Buy, sell, trade, haggle to your heart's content.
Warnings/Rating: Shouldn't need any, but please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

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A few tenured Foreigners might remember the last instance of a city-wide yard sale from three years prior, but to most, this will be new. In an effort to raise spirits, capitalize on the near-perfect weather, and just make a few spare juulan, the kedan are turning the city into a maze of hastily erected stalls and tables, where everything from kitschy handcrafts to illicit illustrations, to nebulous inventions that may or may not actually do anything, are being sold. In a way, it's a little bit of clearing the air between kedanese neighbours.

Despite the currently cool view on the Foreigners by the kedan, they'll be able to get fair prices and full selection all across the city for the Yard Sale, and they'll be just as encouraged to set up a spot and sell something of their own, even if it's simple.

It's the spirit of the thing, after all.

FIRE SECTOR

The extravagance of the Sector remains evident even in something as low-key as a street sale, and because of that, many an enterprising kedan are flocking to the district to see if they can score some really high-end items for very little cash - items such as jewelry, merchandise from the spas that dot the Sector, and many other luxury items. Some of these are bought up with the likely intention to be resold at higher rates later, but no one seems bothered by that probability.

Some of the numerous brothels have placed scantily-clad "saleskedan" outside their doorsteps, who are surprisingly glib about advertising their services. It's widely understood that it's a look-not-touch demonstration though, and anyone who makes an unwelcome move is likely to get a headslap from the nearest person. Liquor houses, on the other hand, are offering finger shots of their prized blends, with bottles available for purchase as well.

Haggling over prices is expected here and approached with the excitement of a gambling challenge! In fact, some sellers may just bet the purchase on whether you can guess the correct outcome of a coin flip, a high-or-low card draw, or even something that looks like roulette, except with a rainbow of colours instead of numbers.

EARTH SECTOR

Clothing and textiles are the key items being sold in this district, with a special emphasis on detailed beadwork, leather tooling, and precisely coloured weaving. A few of the clothing merchants are holding a competition of "who can copy a Foreigner's outfit most exactly" and the wise would encourage this, if only to get a copy or two of hard to replace items. The results will be sold at a discount to interested parties, but tipping for acknowledgment of their skill is generally expected and widely appreciated.

Other types of items being sold are pottery, of both the functional and decorative types, and stoneware like statuary. If you're looking for a replica of a carved idol back home, this is the place to commission it.

The kedan here are less receptive to haggling, simply because their stubborn natures clash with the objective. They'll budge a little, but underbidding them by too much will turn them sour and grumpy.

METAL SECTOR

Here is where the majority of quirky inventions are showing up, some useless and some genuinely helpful. The Metalworkers have already cleared everything being sold here as non-proprietary, so there won't be anything groundbreaking as far as technology goes, but a lot of the items are more geared toward personal conveniences than anything really high-tech.

For some bizarre reason, the most prominent thing for sale in the Metal Sector are clocks. Every kind of clock one could think of has found its way to the streets and stalls. Clocks for every occasion: a clock that will chime only once every fourth Tuesday but otherwise keeps perfect time. A clock that will chime in the morning if it's going to rain, or at night if you should drink an extra glass of water before bed. Clocks that are counting down to the next time you're going to have a streak of bad luck. And newly popular, clocks that are counting down to the turtle's sinking.

Kedan in this Sector are fairly ambivalent to haggling; they will, but they don't usually initiate it. They are pretty defensive of their inventions however, so calling their wares useless or similar will probably end up raising the price, just so they can try and make it go to someone who'll appreciate their genius!

WATER SECTOR

It’s almost possible to have a full meal in this Sector without spending a single julaan, such are the free samples on every corner. The delicious smells encompass hundreds of different types of food, simple or complex, prepared or fresh, all sold from market stalls lining the streets and canals. If a particular specialty takes your fancy, you can always buy a large amount at a low price to take home - or you can eat it right there. It’s not uncommon to see families of kedan holding impromptu picnics in parks, or even occasionally in the middle of the streets.

Foreigners will be welcomed here, as chefs and bakers leap on the opportunity to test their delicacies on Foreign tongues and palates. Some chefs might even offer Foreigners the chance to work for them for the day as glorified food-tasters, making sure whatever they cook is suitable for selling to other Foreigners.

With so many free samples available (and almost forced on to unsuspecting passersby), haggling is seen as bad form in the Water Sector. It’s certainly possible, but don’t expect to make any friends while doing it. Oh, and watch out for the sea prunes. They may smell divine and cost a single julaan for a full bag, but they taste disgusting and will result in minor cases of food poisoning for the Foreigners.

WOOD SECTOR

Like in the Water Sector, a lot of the market stalls lining these streets sell food. Unlike the Water Sector, this food is rarely prepared. Most of it is produce either bought from, or being sold by, the Woodsmen - fruits and vegetables grown outside the city. Some of the Foreigners might recognise it as a kind of outdoor grocery store or a large farmer’s market.

Also being sold in Wood Sector is furniture, usually carved from - you guessed it - wood. Some of it is crudely carved, made to look natural and to add a touch of the outdoors to any kedan’s home, whereas others are very delicately and intricately carved to mimic interesting patterns or perhaps even particular animals and places in the city. Chairs, boxes, chests, figurines, tables, shelves, even small beds - these have all been made with long hours and large amounts of skill, making the practice of haggling a delicate one, and not undertaken lightly.

There are also a disproportionate amount of stationary stores selling things like black charcoal, blank journals and books, and thick parchment. They’re willing to sell entire batches for ridiculously low prices.

SKY SECTOR

The newly built Sky Sector has been quickly establishing itself as the art hub of Keeliai, angrily dismissed by those kedan who consider the worth of craftsmanship to be in the usefulness of the finished product, and happily embraced by those kedan with self-described ‘old souls’ and the ability to see life in a slightly different way. The new art studios in Sky Sector are using the yard sale to advertise; they’ve set up a large and grandiose outdoor gallery to show off the various types of art, ranging from small abstract paintings and jewelry to large statues and dedications. The smaller objects are frequently given away to anyone admiring them; many might leave the gallery with a small pair of free earrings or a frame carefully wrapped in paper.

These kedan will quite happily haggle over any of the larger pieces, and they seem to have a particular interest in doing so with Foreigners. They almost make a game out of it; talking as fast as if the gallery was an auction, deliberately trying to confuse and obfuscate. They’ll be delighted by any Foreigner capable of keeping up, and may even gift them the piece in question with no further haggling required.

CENTRAL KEELIAI

The center of Keeliai is, in many ways, a mish-mash of everything all the other Sectors are selling, with one notable exception: coupons. Businesses across the city make sure to have a table or a stall in Central, where their advertisements can reach a greater number of people - and one of the easiest ways to advertise is to hand out free coupons! These coupons vary as widely as the businesses handing them out do, but they all give the bearer discounts on the stated goods/services, and all coupons remain good for weeks after the yard sale ends. A single twenty-minute walk through Central can net you enough coupons to fill a decent-sized book.

In the spirit of neighbourly forgiveness, a small group of kedan are walking through Central and offering coupons good for an entire Sector, or for a particular chain of restaurants across the city, rather than just one business. They’re loathe to offer these to Foreigners, but will reluctantly do so if pressed. Unfortunately, if Foreigners try to use these coupons after the yard sale ends, they’ll quickly discover not all of the ‘participating’ businesses were informed of their participation - though most store and restaurant proprietors will honour the coupon anyway, just so they don’t develop a reputation of going back on their promises.

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OOC: The descriptions of the various sectors are only a guideline, and many other items can be found for sale all over the place. The only thing that's definitively banned everywhere are the sales of weapons and drugs.

If you haven't posted to and been approved on this thread regarding your character finding a possession of theirs, please do so before having them (or someone else, whichever way you want to do it) discover the object(s)!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ah!" Raine practically lights up, and all thoughts of abandoning the discussion in favor of obedience to social mores, or not peppering strangers with questions on magical theory, are pushed aside. She needs to know more. "Aer, yes, I've heard that term. That's odd-- in my world, mana has always been the force responsible for the persistence and propagation of life."

Yuri was less than helpful. Perhaps this stranger will be more so. Already he's told her more than she could badger out of Yuri. "How is it that your world has only recently acquired mana?"

Duke is the worst about how social things should work - maybe eventually one of them will realize that standing in the middle of the street talking isn't a great idea. However, this meant that either someone other than Yuri was here, or she had talked to Yuri. Vaguely interesting (perhaps it was interesting on the side of 'how can anyone stand him other than his friends'). But the idea that mana came first is more interesting.

"I do not know the exact details." He wasn't one of the ones who did it, just.. gave a boost of help right at the tail end. But aer was still something he had spent a long time working with. "As far as I was aware, an element was bound to aer, and a spirit was born of the process.." He sounds a little... conflicted, about the spirit part. "It was a move for stabilization. Aer was prone to falling out of balance, which would have negative effects on most in the area."

Whether or not they're impeding traffic takes a backseat to science. "Fascinating," Raine says, sounding like she means it whole-heartedly, and, "Explain. You do have spirits, then, and they're tied to mana. That follows. How many elements? Why was aer falling out of balance? Is there a source for aer, or is it simply something that's always existed? Can it be exhausted?" She's sounding more and more enthusiastic with each question, recalls only belatedly that she has to actually give her new target time to answer her.

Yes, she does, and eventually he's going to dump the same questions back at her regarding mana.

"A great many were recently created. ... Short answers - formula - or spell casting - elements are fire, wind, earth, water, light, dark, unaligned. Fire and wind combine into lightning, earth and water into ice. Aer falls out of balance due to the use of blastia, which was the technology that provided everything from clean running water to house lighting, to barriers, and because some had been hunting the race that maintains the balance. Aer surfaces in concentration from aer krene, which appear like glowing fountains. The fountains can dry, which had resulted in a desert. Life still exists there, however... " It's a desert. It's not exactly a great place to be.

"... Pick one to elaborate on." Please. He's not used to talking so much on a variety of things.

She'll be more than happy to answer, especially if he can withstand the explanations without his eyes glazing over.

Raine nods as he goes, assimilating the new and detailed information with what little Yuri had dispensed. She can almost understand that division of elements, and though she wouldn't want to take it up with Volt and Celsius, it makes more sense than anyone else's elemental system has to date.

She looks briefly horrified as she realizes she has to pick a topic, and cannot in fact have a ceaseless font of knowledge. She resolves that quickly, though. "Aer krene," she says, only a few seconds later, reproducing the unfamiliar syllables almost precisely as he said them. "You say it surfaces. From deep within the earth?"

He only wants to pick one topic to start, because some of the questions will cover other things. And so he doesn't have to remember so many questions while he answers.

"Yes. I am reasonably sure that it is less of a physical fountain, and more that that is how the aer flows up and out."

Logical. Even if she would rather have all of the answers at once, that's not actually physically possible.

"Then what causes one to dry up?" Raine wants to know. "If they're more conduits than anything else, drawing from a source that's obviously not exhausted if aer persists in the world, then something must affect the structure itself, correct? Do you know how?"

"The only place I know of where it happened, it happened long ago." Duke tilts his head in thought, trying to remember what he had been told of it. Wasn't much, that particular Entelexeia... "I believe it had something to do with the bloodline that allows for unaided aer conversion - how aer is used to power anything, the Children of the Full Moon can do so on their own. However, the consumption of aer by these Children is incredibly high - aer krene increase their output to dangerous levels. Too much aer causes uncontrolled growth, there is a point where the growth becomes decay. It may have shut down after withering life about it in such a way."

"Children of the Full Moon?" That's a fascinating sobriquet. "They're still human, then, simply descended from a specific bloodline?" Like summoners, at least to that extent.

The bit about growth causing decay reminds her rather starkly of the Tree gone uncontrolled, the roots that tore up Palmacosta, and Raine looks a little grave. "I believe I understand. Could it be fixed, or is it-- 'dead,' for lack of a better word?"

Duke simply makes an agreeing hum. "I am not entirely certain when they were known by that, but yes. That is the imperial family's bloodline, whether they have enough power to use it or not."

This is something that.. Duke blinks, tilting his head. "... When Phaeroh talked of it..." It was something of the fiery entelexeia talking of the past - there had supposedly been more than one Child involved in that situation, which meant it was likely from the Geraios era that this happened... "Not by time, it seems. It isn't running rampant after the initial.. deadening? of the area, it likely disperses or returns to the natural flow, thus the Entelexeia couldn't calm it and return the state..." He trails off, thinking.

"It may change, now. There are spirits, and mana, even if the krene isn't ... in use, it is possible they could help expand the greenery from the oasis that remains."

"Phaeroh?" Raine asks, mostly as a matter of course. She doesn't expect this person to be here, but exists in a semipermanent state of curiosity.

"Time alone rarely heals things that have been damaged so. But you don't know of any action that could be taken to fix it, either. What do the Entelexeia have to do with it? Yuri said they were sentients, but little else." She hums quietly, thinking, and before long comes to the conclusion she simply doesn't know enough. Not to mention is from a different world, and any solution she could posit would be impossible to put into development anyway, thanks to the memory erasure problem. Which she still hates.

"The latter sounds likely, if the conduit structure still exists." A pause, thinking again, and then Raine adds some of her own world's clarification. "My world has never had anything like aer, only ever mana. The source of mana is a great Tree, and from there it disperses into the world without other trouble, aided by the Spirits."

He would be causing a stir if he was here. "One of the Entelexeia who lived on that continent. He appeared like a great bird, at least partially on fire." Which he would probably be trying to do - set this place on fire, if he was here. Ah, well, Duke liked him regardless.

"Entelexeia are born of the aer, to tend the aer. Should enough disturbances arise, one will be born to consume the rampant aer. As far as I had been told, they generally live until something kills them - humans, or trying to take in too much aer. Thus very few look similar." Duke, none of them should look particularly similar to one another, you just knew a rare father-daughter pair.

A tree as a source of mana? "That makes sense as a life-analogy." Needing greenery and nature. But it also.. sounds a little problematic. A great tree - there's only one. "Does this tree follow the same needs as ... a tree that doesn't produce mana?"

"Of the aer, to tend the aer... they sound more like our spirits than your spirits do." Raine's mostly musing to herself. She may be wrong -- she just doesn't have the contextual information that Duke and Yuri do, and oh, if she could shake that out of Yuri, she would. He has to have absorbed more than he is dispensing, just by virtue of living in that world.

"It's a literal tree, yes," Raine confirms. Not just an analogy for life. "It requires soil and light and water. I would conjecture that it's hardier than a typical tree, by virtue of being composed of the essence of life, but I've never had the opportunity to study the living Tree. Nor would I want to risk its health now. When it germinated it birthed a spirit, as well, who is tied to the Tree and will tend and guard it, which should in theory eliminate... many of its vulnerabilities." Except for what killed the old Tree. But they'll make sure that doesn't recur.

"... That would perhaps be... fitting, perhaps, as dead Entelexeia are what became spirits." He still doesn't know how he feels about that. Other than a little angry they had to die.

He nods slightly. That makes sense. "A being bound to it, to care take it would make its survival chances higher." Sounds like an Entelexeia sticking to the Krene that it first woke, or fed from, or something.

"They-- what?" Raine blinks at this. "Yuri made mention of apatheia, but... how do they become a spirit? For us, the spirits -- the Summon Spirits -- are sentiences born of mana. Each has domain over an element: they're the purest incarnations of that element possible. Capable of perfect control of it. In the case of the Great Tree, the spirit attached to it... one might well call her the spirit of life itself."

She said it herself: she is mana, and she is the Tree. And she, too, was born of sacrifice.

"She'll ensure no mundane threat harms it, at least," Raine allows finally, keeping that more melancholy thought hidden away for the time being. They've only just met, after all.

Edited (o o p s) 2015-06-16 08:21 (UTC)

"It was part of the binding process. As far as I was aware, the apatheia was part of it." He's.. grumpy sounding. "Apparently at least some of the entelexeia's consciousness remains within an apatheia - and some part of the binding process ... does something, so that they move to be the elemental spirit..... Although I don't know how that will work with the very recently made ones..." They didn't have a bound element, all the ones that rained from the destruction of the adephagos.... "It seemed a little to do with the entelexeia's personality, if I think hard on it. Belius was calm and reasonable, but still devastating in battle, and became Undine." And Phaeroh to Efreet made sense with thought.

He refused to think further on the loss of Khroma.

Duke just has a nod for that last.

She doesn't blame him for being grumpy. That's a steep sacrifice to ask anyone to make, and she doubts any of the apatheia they'd converted to spirits had wanted to die. And he speaks about at least this Entelexeia like he knew them. "Why would it be different with those very recently made?" Raine wants to know.

The name Undine catches her attention. It's not wholly a surprise, that their spirits would bear the same names after all the other similarities, but it's still odd. "The Undine I met was much the same," Raine says, thoughtful. "Calm, well-reasoned, open to discussion even when her pact was held by another, but just as capable of great destruction. Much as water itself, I suppose." She pauses for a moment, wondering if she even should ask, then forges ahead anyway. "...Sylph? Gnome? Efreet?" She names Maxwell's elements first, as they seem most likely.

Duke wished that the group had, as that would make it easier to hate them for what they had done, but ... he was fairly sure that other than Belius, they had been asked.

"The four of the elements were made one at a time, in controlled situations with just a single apatheia, I am fairly sure." Or so he assumes, because he has no idea why Phaeroh would have been up at Erealumen. And the Child had mention Gusios... "I was involved slightly with the last - they were using the fractured apatheia from around Terca Lumireis - the world - at once... And then it also converted the Entelexeia that had became parts of the Adephagos."

"I will assume that Sylph is the wind one." He thinks a little... "Efreet of flame was visibly obvious, Gnome a furred animal for earth?"

"Then... all of the blastia in your world?" Raine looks a little taken aback, though it's only at the scale of the operation. If only exspheres could be gotten rid of so efficiently. "...Impressive. What is the 'Adephagos'?"

She opts not to go into details on Sylph's multiple nature. That will just confuse the point at the moment. Instead she nods. "That's broadly correct. Although... I'm not sure I'd call Gnome a furred animal. He's... strange. I'm not sure what I would call him, to be honest. Some of our party insist he's adorable. He carries a shovel, and wears... something like a bow."

Gnome, she considered, was perhaps the oddest of the spirits.

"All. It was likely made easier by already being in the upper levels of the ... livable atmosphere." Floating cities. Ah, the unpleasant topic-

"The adephagos is the name for the beings that come about when aer goes too far out of control, or an Entelexeia feeds upon too much aer in too short of a time. They first appeared ... more than a thousand years ago, back in the Geraios period, when blastia were first made and put to use. It eventually grew to be vast enough that the only way do deal with it was to erect a barrier about the planet, and shut it out." ... And obviously something happened to the barrier, which is why it was killed recently.

".... They have different appearances then. Gnome looked like..." Duke pauses, because... he didn't really get that good of a look, and it was only once. Well... "A long necked, long and thick furred dog, with more rabbit like ears, perhaps, with a tail similar to a seven branched sword."

"Evidently you were later able to deal with it in another way," Raine says, shaking her head. She's not unfamiliar with stopgap solutions lasting a lot longer than they reasonably should, but even so, the thought of just leaving an endlessly hungry thing there is a little alarming. "I suppose, going forward, your world will have to find something to use besides blastia. It sounds at least like you won't have the same issues with mana that we do..."

Their spirits will help a lot. And, speaking of spirits. Raine gives Duke a thoroughly bemused look. "Hm," she says at length, nonplussed. "Ours is predominantly bipedal. A roughly teardrop shaped body, pale brown with faint variegation; an expressive face, including whiskers. And, as mentioned, there's a red bow affixed to the back of his head, which... he has previously used as a weapon." She can't quite believe she's saying that last. She's fought Gnome and she still can't quite believe him.

"Are those the only four named spirits you're aware of?"

A slight nod. It wasn't his plan, but he did help, so he didn't quite feel like he was lying.. "I believe that the one who came up with the spirit conversion is looking into alternatives. I had not used blastia in years, thus..." It wasn't really his problem. Duke was just going to vanish back into the woods. ... Same problems, mana produced by a tree....? Hmmn, file away for asking later.

.... That sounds odd. "... Brown seems to be the same, at least..." ... How would using a bow as a weapon even work? Is it like channeling aer through fabric to make it stiff? But then again, would mana work the same way?

"Yes. Those four were the ones made prior to directing their power, and that of the blastia about the world, at the adephagos, which died and became the rest. I was walking away from that when..." Duke indicates where they are standing.

Interesting that he hasn't been using them himself, with the evident prevalence. That says something. "The origins of blastia aren't widely known, are they?" Raine wonders aloud. It sounds almost familiar, honestly. And it would make sense as to why such a murderous thing had been so widespread.

"Brown is the color of earth mana, when it's visible," she offers, with a little shrug. She doesn't have anything else to add on the subject of Gnome-- he's a strange one. Give her Shadow any day.

The last of what he says is a fascinating thought, though. "You mean, you'll have thousands and thousands of smaller spirits?" she says, clearly intrigued. "I suppose you can't tell for sure, if it just happened for you, but in theory shouldn't that be the case? Can they each possibly have their own domain?"

"Barely known, more like." And honestly that's his main problem with people. Besides the whole thing where he and his friend were promised by the empire that the empire would stop using the hermes blastia, if not all blastia, and they got attacked after.

"Fairly sure, yes." He thinks on it a moment more, and can't come to any other conclusion about the lights that fell - and also zipped away. Although that last bit... He blinks slowly. "There.. is the potential for that, yes. The means that they were formed wasn't ... meant, to produce more spirits or-" Here he waves a hand - to stabilize aer, to bind an element to it, everything he had said about the spirit process prior. "so it is definitely possible they all have different ... domains? Or perhaps that they all have the same. Or a great deal of them have the same, to the point where.. ten, twenty, a hundred, function together as one greater would."

.... Now he is interested in returning. Or at least looking for finding Rita, should the mage arrive, and hoping she was also from the same time as him.

"There's... something in our world that's more similar than I'd like," Raine admits with a little grimace. "Of immense use in many cities, and to combatants as well, but the price is too high." Her free hand has crept up to rest at her throat, like she's covering a pendant.

The matter of the spirits is much more palatable and interesting to consider. "Perhaps they'll form a-- a gestalt entity," Raine suggests, eyes bright with speculation now. "Or have the capability to do so. If I understood correctly-- apatheia results from the death of an Entelexeia, but one apatheia can make multiple blastia, correct? And you were converting everything. If that's the case, it seems likely the resulting spirits would in fact be predisposed to working together."

Edited 2015-06-20 06:44 (UTC)

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