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[Alyxandyr Finn]

4th of Spring. 513AV.

Life as a Kelvic was very often looked upon as a wonderful experience by those who did not know it. Many seemed to romanticize the life. Some even believed that clothes morphed with the Kelvic body. This was untrue. However, due to the fact that nudity was a prerequisite of shifting form, modesty is non-existent for this species. For the more beautiful members of the race that is a gift. For one such as Alyx, who owns very little beauty and is actually quite plain in human form, he actually excelled quite well at being in animal form, largely because he felt he was much more attractive in weasel form. His snow-white fur and soft black eyes were lustrous and shimmered with an inner glow. His human form he found distasteful sometimes, but it had more versatility to it. His ermine form, however, he was quite proud of. Not only was he adorable, but he was actually quite dexterous and nimble

Having only recently entered Nyka, he quickly found the locale beautiful and had set up shop at the Hostel, paying for a season in advance. He then proceeded to spend a small bit of time exploring the city as a human, but found he much rather enjoyed exploring in his animal form instead. So, quite often, he would depart from his room through an ajar window. On this particular day he was hopping from rooftop to rooftop. As he approached a small bazaar, he gazed down at it and his nose twitched with gleeful anticipation. It had been a while since he'd tested his agility. Leaping down he scaled down a drain, hopped to a window sill, skittered down a doorframe, and onto the cold stone pathway, skittering to and fro. Moving in ermine form was almost like dancing to Alyx, he enjoyed the fluid motion his form naturally granted him.

Dodging between the booted feet of patrons, Alyx loved moving in this form. It was small, agile, unassuming, and offered the perfect opportunity to scout a mark. Flipping between feet with artful dodging left and right, he found a likely target. Skittering up the side of a stall, he bolted across the counterspace, with just enough space for the shopkeep to interject, before leaping full force from the ledge. He was lost in the crowd instantly, so when he flicked his claws to drop a purse to the ground and it landed with a quiet thunk, He grinned, baring his razor-sharp teeth. Success!

He bolted towards his prize, squeaking in glee, and was about to reach the small coinpurse when a booted foot connected with his torso, sending him across the road to slam unceremoniously against a cold stone wall. He crumpled with a wheezing whimper, the booted foot belonging to the owner of the purse, who picked it up and turned away, but not after shooting Alyx a look of disgust. No doubt they had figured out what he was and what he had done.

By the feel of it, the contact with the boot had bruised at least one rib, so his moves were not near so swift now, but he unsteadily pulled himself to his feet and began to move, but found himself staggering sideways before plunking down helplessly. The vertigo of the impact had him woozy still, so he could do nothing, for the time being, but remain where he was, squeaking pathetically at the pain and disorientation.

Seems his skills were rusty after all...

[Ana Sol Starris]

Flaxen District East Quarter Nyka, city of bright colors during the day, a somber chime at night; there were many streets, alleys, and backways to traverse and here Ana went and got lost- for the fiftymillionth time since arriving. Staying at the Hostel was awful, cramped, boring, she hadn't come from Spires just to lounge in a building doing nothing all day- but for pity sakes- she could at least learn to not get lost constantly. All the streets looked the same with their sand stone color, sweeping over the light golden orange were colors beyond imagination in the form of clothing. There were blues, greens, purples, yellows, reds, oranges, few white or black bits, and rarer still were the brown ragged robes of the Monks that patrolled the colorful streets with fists that struck hard. Spires with its green leafy nature, tree hugging Jamoura residents and in the nude kelvics and whatever have you, and what nots. Even there it had been an awful maze just to figure out! Oh yeah, it had different 'petals' that seperated into their apropriate categories but was finding them ever easy? No! It took her seasons just to become generally familliar with the place. If there was not a branch you should snap, a flower to avoid stepping on, or a petching spider double the size of a humans head that you couldn't squish- Spires was definitely not the place she should be in. Quite venomnous at the moment, the thief was stalking the streets against the colorful attire (which in turn made her stick out like a very sore thumb.) She threw her hands up in exhasperation every so often towards no particular thought besides being lost. Halting and moving to the side she looked about herself to see where exactly she was, and was amazed, it seemed to be some sort market of sorts. Come to think of it... She had crossed a bridge from the Celestial Sqaure, but where was she now? Flagging a small boy down she strode to the lad and asked as nicely as she could "excuse me, but what is this place?" Oh, the poor boy, bless his heart- he looked so frightened by the darkly eyed woman in mens clothing, he chattered out "t-the Flaxen District, mister" he was merely a pouch of skin, bones, muscle and blood- couldn't have been more than four feet tall. Something akin to pity entered her eyes as she pulled a silver miza out and plopped it into the boys hands, and just like that- she was gone with no other words. Now at least she knew where she was. Right, she thought as she would pass some stalls, browsing the wares curiously as she would walk. There of course would never be any food for sale within Nyka, a terrible thing to have learned her first day, she almost raged at Vysia for such a thing being enacted within a city. How was anyone suppose to feed themselves if all the monks had the food, dispersed it as they saw fit, and even then apparently alot of it was still being rationed. Precious resources? Ana's butt. This market was proof that the Nykans could trade self created items in turn for extra food from other cities, the culture just didn't make sense to her. Perhaps it never would, and unlike Spires- she probably would also never grow attached to the city because of those few matters alone. Not being able to buy food, ludricous.. Stupidest thing I've ever heard of. "These Nykan's and their fancy clothes.." She muttered to herself under the babble being exuded around her, golden honeyed eyes scanning her potential victems for their purses. Picking out those that looked like they had the most coin, and those that seemed to have the less, there was a certain way how someone walked about the streets; you could tell if they were rich or poor. Appearence was another, but petch, the clothes- all the Nykan's wore pretty colorful clothing. Colors generally being something offered to the higher classes, instead of the lower whom wore dull shades, mostly whites and greys, it was definitely a flip of Sunberths apparel. Not only that, she noticed some eyes lingering on her person (she never kept eye contact for longer than a tick though, and it could have been mostly her paranoia.) Petch, its like I'm a beggar in the streets, and they can see it... They know to watch out for me. She leaned against a stall, feeling quite stumped on what to do when all of a sudden something thin and wiggly shot out into the air. A passerby with a rather plump looking purse took a few steps more before halting, looking back, Ana's eyes followed where the purse could have dropped thinking perhaps it was a freebie. A rat! Ana hissed inwardly, something long and brown was scampering to the cut purse and squeeking in joy. "No.. Not a rat, too long.." She murmured, intrigued by the spectacle and even more amused watching the poor thing being kicked into a wall. Her eyes travelled to the 'victem' and then to his purse, indeed the strings were cut, or gnawed on, and if that 'rat' had lunged for the purse.. Then.. Ana's curiousity was sparked as she quickly made way to get to that 'rat' that had supposedly attempted a 'theft' if Ana could even call it that. There the poor thing was laying on the ground helpless, she felt a smidgeon of pity- just a smidge, but not enough to display empathy for the rodent. Kneeling, she stared at it, and then took a finger to poke at the vermin- hoping to lash her hand backwards if it made a move to bite her. "Well, well," Ana muttered under her breath, "what do I have here?" She picked the thing up by the scruff of its neck "either you're really smart, or a really compulsive rat that likes purses." It was simple conversation, she didn't actually expect the animal to talk back to her. Animals didn't speak... But Kelvics did.

[Alyxandyr Finn]

As he lay there a moment, images flashed through the Kelvic's head. It was strange, that in that moment of helplessness, he found himself remembering his parents. The bond was never something that had called to him as it had his parents and everyone else of his kind. His parents had never understood him, not really. They were wolf Kelvic, and had a sense of loyalty and justice that accompanied such a form. Alyx, however, had been born a short-tailed weasel and when he let his nature spread its metaphorical wings, he found that his parents had no firm grasp of his personality, which was deeply rooted in his base animal, as most Kelvic were. Proud, fearless parents had spawned a skittering, sidling, drifting, lazy child, and they were completely dumbfounded by the fact. They tried so fiercely to encourage him to become a bit more prideful and honorable, but were met with deaf ears. They had no real hope for their child; afterall, his base animal was prey to the base animal of those he descended from. Respect was non-existent, and they very quickly developed no real aspirations or goals for their son....a fact Alyx had been just fine with.

Kelvic, by and large, were driven by need. Need to hunt and feed, to breed, to stake territory, to find their bondmate. In the end, however, Alyx's only need that matched that list was to breed, and not even to reproduce, but for the hedonistic pleasure of the act. He rarely ever hunted unless the lightness of his purse demanded it, had no territory to speak of, and somehow, strangely, his drive to bond was also non-existant. This made him a rarity among Kelvic, and so he wound up quite lost in it all. Kelvic developed a sense of wanderlust until they found bondmates, but Alyx never felt it. As such, he developed his own complex, deep-thinking personality with his own likes and dislikes, as was prone to happen to those unbonded well past sexual maturity. They were usually cleverer then their bonded counterparts, but also had a harder time bonding...but the bond still drove them. It did not do so to Alyx. He had never found the compulsion, instead desiring to make life as easy for himself as possible, and to be fair, bonding would make his life far too complicated and messy for his liking.

So as he lay there in the road, helpless, he realized that a stray cart's wheel could crush his body effortlessly and end his life before it truly got going. Was this how it would end? Run over by a clothier's carriage? Having done absolutely nothing productive with his life, short-lived though it was? As he pondered such things, at the same time he scoffed at himself mentally. Alyx was not the 'meaning of life' kind of being. He was the kind who simply rolled with the hand life dealt him, and if he had to deal with a shyke hand, so be it, he would make the best of it and come out on top any way he could, no matter how badly he had turn the tables. It was his odd luck, then, that what happened next was not infact a seperation of his torso via a wheel, but the arrival of a woman; clearly human by the look of her. As she crouched over him and reached forward to poke, what caused him to stall was her amber eyes. As he gazed into her honeyed orbs, he found the color slightly entrancing...he rather liked it, it both rattled him and made him feel at ease at the same time. He didn't like the rattled part, but the newness excited him.

As her playful contralto timbre rang through his largeish ears, He flicked one arm out to wave off her poking finger, but he was a moment too late. Next she grabbed him by the scruff, hauling him up to level with her eyes. He looked at her, and admittedly, her words amused him vaguely. It always startled him that other people only saw an animal; when he only knew himself as him. He knew who and what he was, and it had been him all his life, so he'd not thought any more on the idea that perhaps he could be seen as anything else. Though stoats were usually rather quiet, he offered an irritated twitch of his nose and whiskers at being hauled up like a run-of-the-mill rodent. He looked at her with clearly mildly annoyed eyes and proceeded to complete an incredibly human gesture. He crossed his arms, tapping one digit of his right paw against his left armfur in vague annoyance. This woman oozed playful confidence, and while a confident woman was an attractive quality, he didn't generally appreciate being manhandled...or womanhandled, as the case may be.

In this form he could not speak, but his mannerisms seemed to delineate him as having very humanistic behaviors, so much so that they were clearly not coincidental but deliberate, which signified him as sentient. Then he grinned internally. One didn't have to be animal in nature to smell their own kind. Most thieves could spot other thieves fairly quickly, and Alyx was no different. Even moreso, perhaps, because his underworld skills were even better than this woman's, if only by a sliver...but that was a very important sliver. Knowing her for what she was he bared his teeth in the ermine equivalent of a grin as he held out one paw to her, palm up, and clasped his digits together to rub them amongst one another. It was the universal hand symbol for money. She clearly saw him after her comment about compulsive purse-snatching, and he knew that she would not judge him for it as she was a thief herself.

He was clearly after money, and knew exactly what he was doing, and had communicated as much to her through a simple hand gesture. What she would do with this information he was curious to see...would her treatment of him shift in some subtle or blatant way, or would she treat him just as much like a wild animal hauled off by the scruff of his neck? This...woman...if nothing else she intrigued him, and he'd not been sufficiently intrigued in a very, very long time.

[Ana Sol Starris]

What was this thing? Ana didn't know the family the possible kelvic belonged to, to her they seemed to be random animals, ones that could poof into humans and back to their animal again. It made her wonder if perhaps they could poof into a multitude of different animals given with time and practice, a gift that seemed so awkward to have been bestowed upon them- she wondered why it had been given to them? What made them so special to be gifted like this, and did they take the gift for granted? Or did they praise it, and the one that had gifted it to them- was it a god that had made them what they were? Did they originate as humans, or animals? Never having of seen a live birthing of kelvic, she thus pondered if the run of the mill animal was to blame, or maybe it was actually humans that had birthed the kelvic race? The rats mannerisms were quite human, and not at all animalistic so she had to assume that there was a human-like intelligence in those beady black eyes. The motions it was performing were rather amusing, and a smile cracked on her face, short, and brief before sighing and shaking her head. It definitely was a kelvic, and she couldn't ignore that- most animals this size after being picked up would most likely kick and squirm like unruly children "strange little rat.. Tell me, do you speak in this form? Human-Speak, I mean, and not that complicated animal language, have your kind been hiding common speech this whole time??" It was a barragement of questions as she would straighten up, taking him with her. Personally she wouldn't want the thing on her body, but if it were a kelvic trying to strike a deal, one made of larceny and all that sweet jazz, would she be able to work together with it and still not get caught? Generally she had always worked alone, and if she were to be honest- she wasn't quite sure how a rat would help her distract people and steal their purses. Since she had aquired a dagger, she had felt better about getting closer to people and simply cutting up the strings and be off on her merry way instead of trying to untangle the threads from the belt as quickly as she could. If she had a dagger in Sunberth, life would have been so much easier, she wouldn't have had to skulk about and be wary of who, and where she was stealing. Back then however, Ana wasn't too sure if she could have trusted herself to not employ the use of murder, and throat cutting with an item such as a dagger. "Tell you what, we kinda stick out like sore thumbs here, I'll bother you another time for that but I'll cut you a deal" She let her eyes flick around her, once to a monk, and then to the shopkeepers that were eyeing her suspiciously. "Catch my drift?" She asked as she would begin walking away from the area, and instead of letting him go, she continued to hold him by the scruff of his neck, not harshly, but firmly "though I suggest we leave before we attract more attention, strike another time, eh?" It wasn't like he had much of a choice, she had him in her hand but all he had to do was change.. Once in an empty alleyway where the walls were close together and the hum drum of the populace just a mere buzz in their ears, Ana sat on the ground, and then sat the rat on the ground as well expecting it to run away and that it possibly wasn't a kelvic after all; it now struck her mind about what possibly the kelvics human form was. Was the rat a child, like Kit the skunk all those seasons ago? Or a young woman like Lusa the deer, or Rail the tiger that was a sporting young man when in his other form. "I must be losing my mind, trying to talk to you like you're human.." Ana rubbed her eyes with the palm of her hand, and peeking past them to look at the rat "but did you notice how back there I stuck out like a sore thumb" she let the same hand gesture to herself. Her clothes were blacks and browns, with smatterings of white here and there with a wolf pelt stitched into the black cloak; not something a Nykan would wear "I just arrived here, and already I can tell how I dress is a problem... We'll have to work together another time, but what could you do for me in terms of" she replicated his money symbol by rubbing a thumb and two fingers together, not completing the sentence "and I, for you? What does a kelvic have need for the shinies?"

[Balderdash]

Delicious rewards! Happy days and jubilation!

Skill	XP Awarded
Observation	2
Persuasion	3

Lores: Man, Screw Collectivism, Nykans Are Gaudy, Location: Flaxen District, The Color Wheel of Wealth, Thieving Rat (Sorry, weasel) Alyx, Mommy Where do Kelvics Come From?, Obvious Foreigners Are Obvious

Items and Consequences: Repute: Southern Quarter +1

Oh, the humor! The tragedy! But alas, it was not to be. Enjoy your goodies!

If you have any questions or concerns about this grade, please PM me. A happy you is a happy Balderdash!