PM to join The Otter (Aira)

[Demitri Maebourne]

60th of Spring, 515 AV The building was in every way the picture of "quaint." The walls were made of large, rounded stones that seemed to be stacked haphazardly into the perfect structure. It stood out against the background of the city; that's likely why the girl entered in the first place. She didn't look like most of the patrons. A bit more raggedy, a bit less cleanly. She looked like she belonged at the Kelp Bar down by the docks- and that was, in fact, exactly where she'd spent most of her time this season. No matter; today, she wanted to do something different. It was rare that Demitri found herself in such a nice establishment as World's End Grotto. The front lounge area had a warm and welcoming atmosphere; even during a lull, it still held a small slew of friendly patrons. This cheered the girl even more when combined with the brightness of the spring morning. In truth, she had come here for a change of scenery- perhaps she was also getting away from daily doses of fishy green Kelp Beer- but now that she was here she felt better than she had all week. In nearly two months of her time in Zeltiva, this was the first day she'd decided to come here; her only regret was waiting so long. She sat at a small table with an inexpensive but quite lovely breakfast, playing Ships with a deck of cards she'd bought that very morning. She laid out the cards in small piles, face down but for the one on top of each, then placed the deck off to the side. Then she went about sorting them by suit and value, a small smile gracing her lips as she did so. It wasn't the most exciting way to pass the time, but she'd been getting enough of that in her current line of work. It was strangely soothing; she remained like this for a few chimes, her hand moving lazily about the table to pick up one card or flip another between small bites of food. She wasn't certain of all the rules, and was probably playing the game wrong. That never bothered Demitri much, though. If she had the basic idea, she'd attempt it as if she was an expert. Perhaps that's why she got herself in so much trouble... But it wouldn't be any sort of fun if she didn't try! Not a bad day, this one. She'd be sure to repeat it, provided she could rack up the mizas.

[Aira Lyedan]

Aira's barely used clothes were in nice and still pristine condition for the reason she spent most of her time as an otter. She giggled as she walked into the Worlds End Grotto, when she noticed someone playing some sort of game. She tried to resist but she couldn't she wanted to know how to play. So she walked to the table and smiled wide. " Hello, I was wondering if you taught me what you are playing..." She asked hoping she would. It looked like fun as she obviously was occupied with it and maybe she could teach molly, that would show her, that she did more than just swim in the sea. She would learn how to play this game, that would show she at least learned things still. "I mean if it is alright, i just thought it looked rather fun." She said as she had spent a little time watching before walking up. Aira hoped that the woman would let her. It did look like fun. " I am Aira" She said with her smile still on her face as the rather naive young woman just stood there, hoping to learn the secret to this game that so occupied the woman before her. Aira still needed to find a job.. but she kept being called to by something inside herself to search for someone, she couldn't explain it. She needed to find whoever it was as she was tired of the call. She felt it everyday and sure when she played it went to the back of her mind, but when she wasn't distracted it took the forefront of her thoughts.

[Demitri Maebourne]

Demitri was fading off into her own little world, almost entranced by the monotony of flipping over card after card to sort and stack, when someone's voice pulled her back to reality. "Hello," a girl said. "I was wondering if you taught me what you are playing..." Demitri looked up to see a dark-haired girl with bright blue eyes, nicely dressed, somewhat short and ever the friendly kind. Her eyes sparked with a hint of curiosity as she listened to the girl explain herself. "I mean if it is alright," she continued politically. "I just thought it looked rather fun." She paused a bit, still processing- it seemed these little quiet meals were slowing her down- before showing the girl a wide, welcoming smile. "Of course I can teach you," she cheered. "Have a seat!" "I am Aira," the stranger said, and the Sunberth girl's smile grew as she pushed her deck of cards into a clumsy pile and began reshuffling them. "Nice to meet you, Aira," she said with her usual overt enthusiasm. "I'm Demitri!" Perhaps it was just an odd run of good luck, but Demitri always seemed to encounter new and friendly faces when she went out like this. She supposed she just wasn't used to such a trend; in Sunberth, the best-case scenario for approaching a stranger was being brushed off immediately with an mmph. Even so, she very much enjoyed Zeltiva for this very idea, that you did not have to fear any ill will from the people around you. Once the deck had been properly shuffled, Demitri began laying out the cards. She wasn't exactly a teacher of any sort, but she could at least show someone where and how to lay out pieces of paper. "This game is called Ships," she began, and then started setting up the game again. "So this one goes here, right-side up. Then this one goes upside-down, and this one goes on top... Two here, and then one... Three, and another one on top... And four, and five, and then the rest go over here." She laid out the cards quickly, some appearing to flash onto the table while others flew away haphazardly and needed to be caught. Ships required a bit more set-up, which might have struck the girl as a bit less "fun." But Demitri didn't think that was such a big deal with single-player games like this. Besides, playing this in her free time had made it much easier for the girl to memorize the Zeltivan deck; and that made it all the easier to trick fools out of some nilos. With the setup complete, she looked back to Aira with a sheepish grin. "I know it's a lot to put together, but does it make sense so far?"

[Aira Lyedan]

Aira watched with rapt attention as Demitri placed the cards in some predetermined order. She smiled and helped catch some of the rogue cards as her new acquaintance seemed to know just what to do. It was funny how a card game could require so much setup. She tried to make mental notes, this was hopefully going to be something she could repeat. " Yeah, I think I get it so far. I haven't seen you here before, I am glad to meet you. Thank you for teaching me, I rather enjoy games. " She said with a smile. Aira observed the table making notes of the set up. She was confused one one thing. So she pointed to a couple cards. "What about these, why are they there?" She asked raising her hand to her chin as she waited for an answer. She wondered what you did next in the game. Aira watched and waited observing the cards and the actions of the woman before her.

[Demitri Maebourne]

The girl had watched with a surprising amount of interest, even helping Demitri catch the runaway cards. "Yeah, I think I get it so far," the girl began when asked if she understood. At this the self-proclaimed card shark grinned merrily, pleasantly shocked to find she had managed to successfully show someone a game like Ships. "I haven't seen you here before, I am glad to meet you. Thank you for teaching me, I rather enjoy games." The young girl smiled as she said this, and Demitri smiled in kind. A hint of laughter hid behind her eyes, though. She likely wouldn't have seen her here, given that the Sunberth girl so often preferred company of a more nefarious sort. After all, thieving was not only a job, but a hobby, and maybe even an addiction- she liked to have justification for her daily actions. "No, I suppose you wouldn't! I was just in the area, and I thought it might be nice to stop here. After all, the place is so very pretty!" She almost spoke of how much nicer it was than East Street, but stopped herself; it wasn't like Sunberth, where everyone lived in the Sunset Quarters with the same amount of absolutely nothing. The thought occurred to her that she might be judged here. Maybe not by Aira- she seemed an unfailingly friendly sort- but it wouldn't hurt to be quiet about things like that in these finer areas. "It's my pleasure to teach you," Demitri continued, finally breaking from that train of thought. "That's great, because I love games!" "Oh," she said as Aira asked another question. "Well, these are here just for starters. The idea is that you have to put all of the cards back in order, starting with God like it's a low card, and working all the way up to Mountain. Each suit has its own pile, one of these four places-" she gestured to an empty space above four piles of cards- "And you take the cards in these rows and move them around until you free up the card you need." Demitri sucked on the side of her mouth, brows knotting slightly as she heard her explanations become more complicated. She felt she'd done a rank job thus far of teaching the game... didn't seem to be anything she could do about it, though. With a sigh she continued, explaining with a great deal of uncertain pausing the way that one stacked cards to get them out of the way, and the way one took three at a time from the deck and only worked with the top one. Ships could be an honestly boring game, depending on the person- the amount of steps one needed to take was almost nonsensical. Demitri carried on, however, hoping as she spoke that it made some semblance of sense. Finally, she looked up at Aira once again, a friendly albeit somewhat anxious expression on her face. "Is there anything else? Do you want to do one together?"