[Flashback] Gambling isn't everything

[Bob Barton]

Summer 504 AV

Bob after leaving his Uncle Marny in Zeltiva took to living alone wherever he could. Back then word on the street is if you want to know more about the world, meet all kinds of people or become just another face in the crowd, Syliras was the place to be. Keeping that in mind, Bob headed over to Syliras when Zeltiva no longer had anything to offer him. "The world has everything I could want, and the world is my playing field" Bob thought to convince himself into leaving.

Bob's first stop upon reaching Syliras was the Spinning Coin. The excitement overtook him seeing all the other games being played there. Cards and dice were the games Bob was more familiar with then but in the Spinning Coin, games with pigs, dogs, chickens and people? That opened a whole new world, a world Bob thought he already knew a lot about. If he has memorized the book properly though, he'd know there was a fine print under games that mentioned, "Never bet on games which have too many variables. This includes betting on animals like dogs, horses and ostriches. You'd most probably lose out!" And Bob did lose out on a lot, most of his money which has been allocated to gambling. Now with only enough money to survive for a few weeks at most, Bob had to find out something else to do.

Days passed Bob has been walking around from place to place in Syliras aimlessly. Without any money to gamble, all he could do now to pass the time was by trading stories he already knew from the others. From hotspot to hotspot, tavern to tavern he went passing by the bazaar in Stormhold Castle. Everytime he passed the area, he noticed people with unique talents displaying their skills, busking for some extra coin. He wondered to himself whether it was really worth it for them to risk themselves doing that just for some extra money? He had heard that the Knights have a no busking policy, carting off unfortunate street workers to gods know where because they don't seem to be contributing anything. That was until he saw the hats and containers full of coins in front of them. After that Bob changed from thinking of the risks and rewards to thinking what talent he was to attract the coins. Gambling? No he had no more money to spare for that. Storytelling? He could but he doesn't know that many good stories yet. "So what can I do?" he thought to himself.

[Bob Barton]

A few days passed and Bob finally figured out something he could do. He learnt the water reimancy to help him with gambling so why not use it for cheap parlour tricks as well? That should be able to work if he does it right. So he started planning on how he was going to present these tricks of his.

The day after that Bob went to the bazaar again, this time ready for whatever the world would throw at him. In his case, he was really hoping that they would be throwing coins at him more than anything else. He took this little space between a few other performers and arranged his props while waiting for some people to come to him. A few hours passed which made Bob feel like an idiot for even trying to do this. The container in front of him was as empty as it was when he got there. The sword dancer performing in the spot besides him noticing Bob's glare at the container suddenly said to him "First day? I can tell, you are barely doing anything to get anyone's attention." Bob turned his gaze to meet the woman and just nodded. The woman smiled at Bob and told him "Why don't you stick around till I'm done here? I'll show you some of the ropes after, ok?"

Bob spent the rest of the day at the street watching everyone else enjoy the performances or get a lot of money from the said performances. A few people did come to Bob when the other performances no longer had space to accommodate them, Bob wasn't even the second choice, he was a lot further down the ladder than that. But for those people he surprised them a little with his water reimancy tricks he used for gambling as taught by the book. With the dice trick he would roll a dice in a cup and try to predict what number would turn up, of course using his res to control the number to suit his prediction. And for the card trick he would manipulate the res already on the cards for some tell signs only he would know to predict what card the other person has taken. No one was the wiser or maybe they just couldn't bother to expose the trick but by the end of the day Bob was getting pretty much fatigued, predicting some results wrong and eyes becoming a little red.

[Bob Barton]

The sword dancer took Bob outside the city to where she was camping with other buskers and said "Listen your act is pretty interesting, but its still unrefined and full of mistakes not to mention too boring and direct for anytone watching it. That is something you cannot afford in this line of business" She paused to see Bob's response and he only nodded again before she continued "I can help you a bit with it, but I am not doing it out of the goodwill of my heart. You can practice and refine your act a little more and until your act is good enough while you help me with my act by maintaining my swords, bringing them to me, making sure my money is where it should be. You know? Simple things even you can do. And during that time, I'll teach you on how to become a decent performer until we can part ways. Agreed?"

Bob thought about it for a few moments. Still a boy in a sense not knowing about the world and his new master only wanted cheap labour he could supply, he agreed to the deal sealing it with a firm handshake. The woman smiled as she said "Good, now why don't you get some rest inside?" gesturing at the tent "You look worse than my brother ever since he flopped that sword eating act." Bob didn't like the image of that put into him by the woman so he gulped, said thanks and hurried inside the tent to rest still thinking on his act and how to improve it. For once in his later life gambling was not the main subject in his mind.

The next day Bob helped with the sword dancing act as instructed. Taking care of the swords, looking after the money and looking out at the crowd. The woman also told him to keep a close eye on how she did her act and how the crowd would react to it. Something Bob didn't really see any reason to do but just followed the instruction since Bob is now supposed to be focused on the act this would fall within what he should be doing anyway. The act was pretty popular, swords being flung all over the place in a fluid motion. Normally it would involve dummies or other fragile objects being "attacked" with so many strokes and slashes they almost seem to be a blur unless you were looking closely enough but no damage would be done in the end. But that was only after getting a volunteer from the crowd to get attacked first. Something which later that night the sworddancer would explain to Bob that one of the roads to success in performing would be to involve the crowd as much as possible. Sometimes instead, the act would require Bob to throw some things at the sworddancer which she would either avoid or slash it out if the way. Not in the crude way a normal fighter would, but each move a step closer to some goal almost like an artist. In a lot of ways, it reminded Bob about gambling because everything he would do on or off the table is only to make sure his pocket would get larger and heavier by the end of the day.

This went on for a few weeks. Bob would help with the act in the day and at night, the sworddancer would teach him more about performing and help him with his own act. Probably the close relationship between master and pupil became stronger because by the middle of it, the sworddancer trusted Bob enough to even try and teach Bob about the sword for performing and protecting himself. As she put it on the day she suggested Bob to learn how to use the sword "WHAT?!? You mean to say you want to become something as dangerous as a gambler without even knowing how to protect yourself? You're going to get yourself killed especially if they catch you cheating. No, don't say you don't cheat or how else would you get the idea for your act?" grinning as she put emphasis on cheat and act. It was then that Bob became an apprentice in an obscure sword style in order to protect himself. He did try to protest though to convince her that it was not worth wasting time teaching him something he would barely use "Come on...I won't get caught..." but that excuse was shot down when his master said "Thats what they all say until they get gutted in some alleyway."

No more spending the nights with practicing on dices and cards with a lot of strange movements and speeches to ensure the crowed is trained on the act, Bob had to share it with sword strokes, slashes, blocks and dodges with his master as well and she was pretty much merciless saying "If your opponents won't let up on you I shouldn't either right?" The only time he looked forward to sword training eventhough not that much is when his master tried to teach him how to use it to perform, and that means throwing heavy things at him but at least there won't be any blood from the cuts.

[Bob Barton]

Bob always hoped that the day he had to leave his master and go to another place it would be on a good day where the next time they met, they could have a good laugh about it and trade stories of what has happened to them. Something Bob can really look forward to because at the time he was under his master, she really shared some good stories. Stories about learning the sword, fighting off enemies, turning to performing and all the other interesting people she has met throughout her life. Life does not always turn out as people want it to because the day Bob was forced to leave Syliras was the day he was going to unveil his now brand new and beautiful act to the people.

The day went more or less like Bob wanted. With his new act, there were more people coming to him than his first attempt. This was mostly contributed by his newfound confidence to go out to the crowd and lure them in with a few tricks of his own. He made less mistakes now and was able to do his act with a little more mystique to it, the mystery brought forward by the distracting presentations to avert the onlookers from any trace of him attempting to use his reimancy. The presentation may have went beyond what he could actually be doing, the simple act of rolling a dice in a cup or showing a card to be drawn but as his master told him "The people come to see flashy tricks which will live on in their mind for a long time. If its boring they might as well go read a book instead of wasting their time and money on you." Bob was really happy because for the first time, he was actually doing something good besides gambling and this does not hurt anyone at all in comparison. Instead it was able to bring out a lot of happiness to them. Even Bob's master gave him a smiling nod of approval at one point when he looked back at her.

Suddenly all the buskers in the Bazaar street stopped what they were doing and frantically started to gather their money and props preparing to leave. Bob did not know what was going on and looked at the scene dumbfounded. Even the spectators gathered them started to dissipate from the back. Bob looked back to his master again and saw her doing the same thing. She saw him and shouted "Damn, I forgot to tell you. Nevermind, hurry up and gather your things and lets get out of here." Bob quickly took his things and followed his master as he ran down the streets. While they were running, his master explained "The guards and knights are coming to get us buskers right now apparently. We have a little signal which only we buskers would know and recognize when it happens and thats why" gesturing to the now emptying street as she said that. The pair headed straight for the city gates after that and went to their camp. After some rest, his master began to pack up her tent and said to Bob "Well its been a good time but I guess its time to move on until the heat dies down. Until we meet again Bob." Bob only looked at his master trying to hold back his tears from the knowledge that they may no longer be able to meet each other again and said "Thank you for everything Master. Yes maybe we will see each other again..." With that note his master left Bob alone at the site. Saluting him with her sword as a gesture of goodbye as she went.

[Secret]

[frame=black]THREAD AWARDS

Bob Barton

 

Skills

Skill	Gain	Notes
Rhetoric	1
Observation	1
Busking	1
Weapon: Sword	0	not enough detail
Reimancy	0	not enough detail

 

Lores

Knights Aren't Fans of Busking

Who Doesn't Cheat?

 

Notes

A bit too simple to award much. Skills need to be used in detail to receive proper experience for them. Also not everyone knows of magic, it's supposed to be rare for the common citizen. I suggest going into more detail on your use of skills, how you form the water, how you busk, how you learn the swords. Still enjoyable to read however, and for that I thank you.