The Littlest Show (Jokor & Keres)

[Keres]

“Yes, Keres.” he responded. “You Jokor. Nice meet.”

He momentarily pondered this last word. That word seemed rather odd to him in this context. Why would you tell someone that they have nice meat when you see them for the first time?

He continued, “He,” pointing at the man-thing halfway in a sack, “Verduth. And he save you,” Keres finished now pointing at Jokor.

Kere's was emotionally overcome by the desire to fight this Jokor, but his instincts were adamantly opposed to casting him out. Considering the two, he could see a reason for either one. Although this person was a pickpocket, he had done nothing to Keres or Verduth, and this city seemed to operate entirely on the basis of minding one's own business, so by feeling the need to react to something that did not involve him he would cause more problems that he would possibly solve. On the other hand, unlike Verduth, who talked constantly, this one said very little at all. Thus he knew nothing about Jokor.

Verduth must be the deciding factor. Keres could not reconcile the two aspects quickly enough, and the pain of internal conflict was distracting him from the present.

[Verduth]

Verduth pulled his head out of his bag and produced three rocks. He never ceased speaking, it flowed out of him consistently. "Now I have this great idea for a juggling act," he threw the rocks in the air simultaneously and then had to dodge them as the came crashing down too quickly for him to catch them. "Though I'm a little rusty at juggling." Rusty, that's what these larger folks said when they weren't any good at something, or at least that's what he understood. He gathered the rocks up and held them out in Jokor's direction. "But you look like a spry young lad, I have no doubt you could learn to juggle. It takes a lot of agility and some quick hand work, you know." He looked between Jokor and the rocks. "On the other hand, these look like they might be too small for you." He tossed them aside. "We'll find something better later and then you can start practicing." He turned his attention to Keres. "And you, my good friend, were magnificent! The audience really caught on! That's the spirit." The little clay man put his hands on his hips and gave both of the men nods of encouragement. "And now that there's three of us, we'll do even better. We really need to sit down and get some plans laid out though." The Pycon scooped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I think we'd better get to that before we try to put on any more shows, and I need to procure us a better venue than the street." He was scrambling down from the barrel now. "Well, shall we disperse and reconvene elsewhere?"

[Jokor]

“Yes, Keres.”The man said. “You Jokor. Nice meet.”
Jokor strained to understand what the man said, Not quite used to dealing with people not able to speak the common language.
Suddenly voice of Verduth was heard loud and clear once more and Jokor turned to face it again. Seeing the barely avoiding a few small rocks.
"Though I'm a little rusty at juggling." Verduth held out the pebbles to him,probably forgetting again the difference in size.
"But you look like a spry young lad, I have no doubt you could learn to juggle. It takes a lot of agility and some quick hand work, you know." Ah, now he saw Verduth do a double take tot he size of those things.
"On the other hand, these look like they might be too small for you." He tossed them aside the pebbles landing right on the nose of a streetcat that wandered by.. "We'll find something better later and then you can start practicing."
After that he turned his attention to Keres, Letting Jokor be a bit dumbfounded after the waterfall of words,Did he even pause to breath?

"Well, shall we disperse and reconvene elsewhere?" Jokor was pulled out of his daze when he heard the clay thing adress them all. "Well the alley's are close by if you wan't a secluded place to discuss everything." Jokor gave what he hoped was a pleasant smile and not a grinn of glee. He never had to make the first one so It was quite hard to know how you did it.

[Keres]

Keres listened to Verduth as well as he could. The constant flow of speech was very difficult for him to follow, but he was usually able to glean the meaning, or at least some meaning. He watched as Verduth clumsily climbed down to the ground and listened to what Jokor purposed. He doubted that Jokor was going to try and rob them, but there was still something slightly unsettling about being alone with him, and not him specifically, but any human. Keres would have to adjust that attitude, but for now, he was inclined to follow Verduth's lead.

[Verduth]

"An alley? well we don't necessarily need that much privacy, but if the two of you don't desire something more comfortable then I'm game." He gestured to Jokor, "please lead the way my friend!" His mind was boiling over with ideas. Of course, he didn't know what kinds of skills Jokor might have, and Keres did prefer to hang around the audience, which was fine with Verduth, everyone had hidden potential, whether they knew it or not. "So my good friend," it wasn't immediately clear who he was addressing. "Please, tell us a little about yourself, we won't make a very good troupe if we don't know a little more about each other." The Pycon stared up at Jokor, a friendly smile plastered on his face. He started to walk, no idea where he was going. "Personally, I grew up in a Pyve outside of this fine city. But it's gotten to be the time when a Pycon just has to set out to seek his fortune." Not that Pycon's went around making fortunes, but that's what the larger creatures said when they left for adventure right?

[Jokor]

Jokor smile only widened a bit when the pycon made a gesture to lead the way and motioned to the two man to follow him. "So my good friend," The little clay man said. "Please, tell us a little about yourself, we won't make a very good troupe if we don't know a little more about each other." Jokor stopped in his tracks completely bewildered that somebody would be wanted to know more about him. He stared down at the Verduth a friendly smile plastered on the little clay mans face.Teh little man began to walk in the wrong direction talking while he did it.
"Personally, I grew up in a Pyve outside of this fine city. But it's gotten to be the time when a Pycon just has to set out to seek his fortune."Jokor bend down and grabbed the clay man, cutting him off. "You are going the wrong way, let me walk in front." he turned towards Keres."So foreigner? you wanna follow,My home isn't that far from here and we can talk there." He started to walk towards down the road Verduth still in his hand.

[Keres]

Feeling that it was not the right time for him to start talking about his past, Keres simply said, “Yes. Foreign.”

The idea of going to this man's home was also unsettling, but it was also the best way to gauge who he was. Keres decided to take the chance. “Yes. You home well,” he said, knowing as soon as he did that it was wrong somehow.

Were this man leading them into a trap, Keres hoped that he would be able to see signs ahead of time. In the forest, from listening to his family's hunters, Keres felt that he could recognize an ambush, but here, in the city, an ambush may look very different. He was simply forced to go as lead and see what developed.

[Verduth]

Verduth experienced the strange experience of being carried for the second time in his life. He still wasn't exactly sure what to think if it. It was rather exhilarating to be moving so much more quickly than he ordinarily would be able to but it was a little disconcerting to have his autonomy stripped away. He heard the question posed and Keres response but wasn't sure he understood what the man had meant. He mulled the words over in his mind. "Perhaps you mean good rather than well, my friend!" The Pycon shouted this, unsure whether he could be easily heard with all the air flow that the pace of Jokor created. "Oh, or perhaps fine! Yes, Mr. Jokor, you're home is perfectly fine for our discussions. My, I say this is quite the speed you've got going. How ever do you keep it up? And things look so different from this high up. You larger creatures do see the world so differently don't you?" He was continuing to shout the words.

[Jokor]

Jokor nearly droped the small pycon out of shock when it began to shout. "don't yell, we can understand you when you talk, little guy!" Jokor took a few moments to regain his bairings and look around him to see if anybody was looking at them. "Well no harm done ,I hope lets go." He continued to walk down the road for a little while before he walked in in an alley, the sun being blocked out for a bit by the buildings at both sides.

"Don't worry about this alley, Its only a little while that it is this narrow," He trudged through the trash litering the little alley."the trash stays ankle deep though." He said ignoring the awefull stench that was hanging in the air, already used to it." The place where I usualy sleep isn't that far away anymore,One or two more alley's at the most. He paused at the end of the alley waiting a bit for the foreigner to catch up.
"Hey hurry up a little bit, I really don't want anybody to know where I ussualy sleep!" When Keres was close enough he took a turn left. "So what did you mean with troope Little man? And what did that guy do anyway," He asked the pycon he was holding in his hand while he was trudgin through the refuse,and why can't you speak Common?" He asked the man behind him. Just pointing over his shoulder, not realising that Keres wouldn't be able the quiestion if his common was that bad, let alone give him the reason. He stopped at a place where the buildings at the side where leaning a bit to each other, creating a bit of cover against the rain. "So we are here," He set down Verduth on a crate." What did you want to talk about little man?"

[Keres]

Keres followed along through ally after ally, through turn after turn until he felt very lost. Given, he could likely find his way back by smell, as each turn seemed to welcome him with a new wretched experience. Several times he could hear that the man, Jokor, spoke, but could not distinguish enough of the sound to make any words out of it. So he simply followed even as Jokor increased pace to just under a run.

When Jokor finally stopped and began moving as if they had reached their destination, Keres was appalled. Certainly he was accustomed to a primitive lifestyle, having lived the last five years in caves and forests with a family of Zith, but this was obviously worse. Sure the leaning nature of the walls provided some shelter from the rain, but there was no way it could have stayed dry in a storm. Also, there was no way to trap heat near you, in fact, from what Keres could tell, the only way to stay warm at all must have involved pulling the debris that littered the ground in the area over oneself while huddled in the furthest corner.

This was simply unacceptable to Keres. He began to feel something new towards Jokor, something of compassion and something of understanding. The woman whose pocket Jokor had been trying to pick had been well dressed, so her stomach would likely not have gone empty for whatever Jokor would have taken, while Jokor's life looked as if it demanded the risk to his life that such an attempt seemed to be. Keres had wanted to know more about this man, now he did.

Jokor sat Verduth on a crate just near what looked to be what Jokor had called his home and spoke, “So we are here. What did you want to talk about little man?”

Keres approached nearer and attempted to answer the question himself. “Work together. Verduth talk. I clap. You help Verduth.”