Closed 11th Helping Hands

[Kaleidoscope]

11th Spring 516 AV
Outside the Sanity Center
12th Bell

If you were near the Sanity Center at the middle of the day, you would be sure to see an anxious, fretful looking man, one who would pin a small notice to the wall of the Center. It wasn't large or grand, or covered in colour. But it's message was plain enough to see.

My grandmother has gone missing this season. She is short and stooped, with thick curly grey hair. She was last seen wearing a yellow dress and a purple hat. Anyone who can find her will be rewarded 10 gold mizas and a home-cooked meal.

It wasn't long before the sign attracted attention, of course. Every Alvad loved a good mystery. Perhaps not everyone wanted that mystery solved... However, in the days that followed, the small and unobtrusive rumor circulated, and anyone who tried to find the woman in question... just couldn't seem to find her.

Maybe it was a dead end, a prank left to fool people into wasting time. But anyone who had seen the man posting the notice would know that he truly had been anxious, afraid even. 'Granny was in poor health', he said, and 'Granny has started to do this more often'. Have a heart , would be what his eyes said.

The search for this missing old lady continues...

OOC Information

• This is open on a first come, first served basis. Unfortunately, however much I would like to write a quest with everyone partaking at once, it would invariably turn into a logistical nightmare. So: this thread becomes closed after the first 5 people join.
• Please be mindful of others and feel free to search as a team, or individually.
• Most importantly, have fun! And if you have any questions, send me a PM.

[Raylan Ramsey]

11th Day of Spring, 516 A.V. (12th Bell)

Raylan's crawled out of darkness slowly, beating back images of dreaming with slow opening eyes. He was breathing in quick, short gasp. Then suddenly a yawn. When he had fully awakened, he could not remember why he felt such panic? The memories of his previous dream were as distant gossamer webs in the back of his mind. Raylan waited a full minute in silence before giving up trying to remember the dream, positioning himself into a low crouch within his tent. He remained fully dressed from the night before in his white long sleeved shirt, brown pants, and bladed boots; he found it always better to remain fully dressed in case of surprises. He then put on a black coat over his clothing and set a black mask over his face.

There was little reason for him to wear the black mask, but never knew who or what he'd see upon exiting the tent. So the masked offered him some small amount of anonymity. He eyed the closed flap of his tent with some trepidation, not knowing where in the city he could now be. Given that he had already woken up on top of a building once before, he took in a deep breath then stepped outside. himself camped out in front of the Sanity Center. Raylan's mouth practically fell open upon seeing it. It was as if the god of Illusion and trickery were playing some type of ironic joke on him by placing him in front of the housing authority. "Funny... I'll be getting a house soon. It is only a matter of time." He spoke aloud although mostly to himself.

Upon looking around, the one person to catch his attention appeared to be a man who allowed fear to rule him. He watched the man pin something to the wall of the center. "Interesting?" Raylay mused aloud to himself as he worked on braking down his tent, storing things away into his backpack. It took him a chime, but he eventually managed to pack everything up. Slinging the pack over one shoulder, and carried his mandolin in a playing position in both hands.

He walked over to the note the fidgety man had posted it, reading over the contents of the posting. Raylan's fingers began to absently strum at the strings on his mandolin in hope of gaining the Frightful-Man's attention. The tune he played was a simple one, his fingers shifted slowly from string to string. Letting long dawn out extended notes do most of the work, playing what sounded like an small lullaby. Walking over to the man as he played, looking into the man's eyes.

"A lost Grand-Nan?~ Oh, this just will not do~ I shall try my best to find her, good man.~" He spoke in a singsong voice, trying as best as he could to match the melody of the lullaby.

[Micah Frostfawn]

The Sanity Centre had quickly become Micah’s favourite locations within the City of Illusions. It was the only real anchor in the dizzying city, a drop of stability in a forever whirling, twirling pool of water. Most her days started with the Vantha actively seeking out the Sanity Centre to use the building as a start point of her adventures throughout the city. Of course, she soon became hopelessly lost regardless, but the experience of wandering down the twisting streets was not unpleasant. It was entertaining, to say the least, and oddly relaxing to know that for as long as one could work, one’s surroundings would change around them.

Less frequently, she would step inside the building to ask the kind but somewhat mad Serenity a question about the city. So far the woman had been extremely helpful, if not a little testy when Micah’s questions became unintentionally frustrating or impossible to answer.

She had one such question prepared for Serenity today, one pertaining to a statue she had passed the day before – thought logic went against it – she believed she’d heard the figure speak to her. Micah would have put the strange sensation down to her mishearing, but then she’d noticed a man hurling an angry statement back to the statue before marching off.

Statues couldn’t talk, everyone knew that.

And yet…

Micah knew not to assume anything in the city of Illusion, and so she had decided that the wisest thing to do would be to enquire at the Sanity Centre. Despite it’s name, the centre was perhaps the most logical, sensible place within all of Alvadas that the Vantha knew of.

As she approached the comfortingly familiar building, Micah’s attention was momentarily distracted by a fidgety, edgy looking male standing outside of the Centre. She watched him pin a small, unobtrusive notice on the wall with shaking hands. Shortly afterwards a second male, this time one playing a mandolin, joined him by the wall. Was this some sort of double act? Micah doubted it; the first anxious male was taking no part in the song, and instead merely stood there.

Cautiously the Vantha approached, keeping a wide berth from the two men lest she interrupt something. Her Common was far from perfect, and her reading of the note took concentration and time. Slowly she picked out the words Grandmother, missing, yellow and – perhaps most importantly – 10 gold mizas. Subconsciously the image of her own grandmother filtered into her imagination, and the young green-eyes Vantha winced minutely. A lost Grandmother – how sad!

The idea of not helping the poor fellow and his grandma never even crossed her mind. Instead Micah approached the harried looking man, pointed to his note, and offered simply: "I will help."

[Ashnah]

It wasn't unusual for Ashnah to make her way to the Sanity Centre after she'd figured out what was directly around her own home. Not because she had questions. She did, but she liked finding answers herself. Not because it was reassuring to see the one constant in an ever-changing city. Ashnah loved the chaos. No, it was because it drew people with questions, who were worried or lost. In short, people who could use the services of someone who was willing to run around the city for or with them. To bring them to wherever their favourite shop was today. To find their friends, their dog, anything and anyone that was lost in the change. She'd have spent her days exploring and seeing where everything was anyway, she might as well share that knowledge and help people. Plus clay didn't usually pay for itself.

Today a posted sign drew her attention.

'My grandmother has gone missing this season. She is short and stooped, with thick curly grey hair. She was last seen wearing a yellow dress and a purple hat. Anyone who can find her will be rewarded 10 gold mizas and a home-cooked meal.'

Well that wasn't good! The miza would be welcome of course, the home cooked meal would be wasted on her though. More importantly though, someones old Grandma had gone missing! The oldest Pycon reached maybe thirty years. There was something impressive about just how old the other races could get and how much they must have seen and experienced. It was when she'd resolved to help that the noted the trio of humans. Eavesdropping, as you did, she figured that the older distraught man, well he ought to be if he'd lost his elder, had posted the note, and the other younger couple were likely looking to help. Thoughts of the reward had already been lost.

"Hey! Hello, excuse me, down here."

Larger than most pycons and at less risk of being stepped on, but still quite used to having to speak up to get attention.

"Hi! We should work together! If we split the city and quartered.. Well. I guess there's three of us, but I don't know what word that would be. Anyway! If we split it up, we'd find her faster, and there's less chance she'd go where we've already looked."

They might ignore her, she was little after all. Or they might be more concerned about the reward and not want to share. In truth, Ashnah would have fairly cheerfully foregone any share for herself if it was a problem that kept them from looking for the elder in the quickest most efficient fashion.

There was an awfully lot that the Pycon knew nothing about, but finding things in Alvadas was one of the very few things not on that list.

[Lucas Arias]

Unlike the other people that had recently moved to Alvadas Lucas hadn’t used the Sanity Center yet. He preferred to find out things on his own rather than having them explained to him. No, he had just been on his way to the Stallion’s Rear to get a little drunk, but had gotten lost and ended up in a completely different part of the city instead. He had gotten lost a lot recently, but then it was hard not to when the buildings around you moved!

Since he was already near the Sanity Center, he decided that he might as well go in and ask them what he was supposed to do about the people trapped in the Weaving, whether he was supposed to free them or just leave them there. He’d been wondering about that recently. Just as he was about to step through the door, a nervous looking man that pinned a note to the Wall caught his attention though. He decided to investigate. In Alvadas even a note pinned to a wall could potentially contain something unusual and exciting.

„Oh my …“ he murmurred as he read the note. Lucas had a weakness for little old ladies, maybe because he had never gotten to know his own grandmothers. His one remaining grandfather had always criticized him and would likely suffer a heart attack if he saw him now with his hair currently dyed blue, a mark from Kelwyn on his arm, telling people their fortune of all things (not that he really cared about conservative, mean old men), but he preferred to think that his grandmother would have been a little more understanding and maybe even liked him and defended him.

„Is there any way I can help?“ he asked the man. „I’m good at finding missing people, you know. I used to be a squire in Syliras once – almost a knight, in fact - and I’m rather fond of a good home-cooked meal.“

He turned to the other people that had gathered around the man in the mean time (the poor guy probably felt a little overwhelmed by now) and took a good look at them. The pycon especially caught his attention, but he resisted the urge to grab her and poke her like some weird little toy. Instead he informed them,

„There’s four of us now, so we could in fact each search a quarter of the city. And you, Sir …“ he said to the man. „Should not worry too much in the meantime. Your grandmother will be found. Who knows, maybe she just decided to visit a friend or get something to drink somewhere.“

[Kaleidoscope]

The man glanced up from his hurried walk, wondering at the sound that brushed against his eardrums. Stopping in confusion, he stared at Raylan as he listened to the music, and then promptly stood still and exclaimed in surprise. "Oh!"

At that moment, another person appeared. It seemed like Alvadas was a busy place this day, and as the woman spoke up, the as yet unnamed man leaned forwards to shake her hand, saying, "Thank you, thank you, really..."

He was about to start to say something, when a strange shape appeared at their feet, seemingly made out of clay with a small city carved into its back. An Alvad through and through, the man didn't bat an eyelid at the smallest of the group, instead listening as carefully as possible.

As the fourth and final man gathered around, the man with the missing grandmother stared at each person in turn, amazement and bewilderment showing clearly on his face in turn as he caught the eyes of these four strangers. For a short while, words seemed to fail him, perhaps not expecting this sort of response.

He took a deep breath. "Thank you strangers, friends. I'm so very grateful." He stopped to smile at each one. "What are your names, and perhaps we can sort something out?" Gesturing to the Pycon and to the blue-haired man, he nodded at their proposals. "Splitting up would be a good idea. I would accompany you all but I must work, we're... we're a large, poor family, and..."

He broke off, swallowing to clear his throat before continuing. "Granny is very dear to all of us, and like you said, it might be possible that she's visiting a friend. But she's never, ever done this before. She might get in trouble, she's very accident-prone."

The worry was clear in his voice, thick like tar. "If you find her, could you escort her to the Sanity Center? You all know where it is, and as my home is difficult to find, I can get the rewards to you this way. Thank you, again. Thank you so much."

He shook their hands, each in turn, giving a tentative pat to the back (or head?) of the Pycon, and walked off hurriedly. Before he disappeared around a corner, he spoke something back over his shoulder... "Granny's called Agathae!"

OOC :

So! Thank you all for joining this little quest! I apologise for the slow start, but I have been away from a computer for about a week, and so have been unable to post. However, now we can get this show on the road. If any of you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send me a PM. Happy writing!

~Beautiful boxcode credits go to Firenze!

[Raylan Ramsey]

" I am a simple bard in a mask, so you may call me ... 'Bard'."He stopped playing his mandolin to give the Frightful-man a regal bow of his head. "If we find your granny, then I shall remove the mask upon sitting down to enjoy that home-cooked meal... It gives us both something to look forward too." After shaking the man's hand, Raylan just watched him walk away before turning look at his companions.

There was little reason for him to be so secretive. He just found it fun to play the role of a masked man. Raylan ran his eyes over 'the players', half curious how they would respond to their mysterious game of hide and seek. Did this task hold any sort of meaning beyond an amusing little diversion to them or perhaps a self-delusion that allowed them to think themselves something more than they were? To Raylan, it was the former; an amusing thing to pass his time.

A smile formed underneath his mask, those amber yellow eyes of his shifting to the 'second player' to join him. A woman of adorable allure. He found her green eyes to be her best feature. They were deeply beautiful in an artistic way. In fact, they were far too beautiful; they betrayed her by revealing the woman's Vantha heritage.

His lips parted in attempt to speak, but refrained from doing so as he laid his eyes upon a collection of buildings on the back of a clay... thing? Raylan wasn't quite sure how he felt about the creature. Was he suppose to gauge its appearance like artwork? Or base its attractiveness off of equal human beauty? If the former, than the pycon was a uniquely interesting thing. If the latter, then the pycon was a disfigured aberration. For the sake of being nice, he chose to judge it as artwork.

Raylan continued to think about the avant garde meaning of the Pycon's appearance until he saw the young man's blue hair. He listened to the back and forth chatter between the group before adding his own opinion. He glanced to Lucas first. "Almost a knight? Of the things that you are possibly good a finding, apparently knighthood was not one of them." He chuckled lightly, mostly laughing to himself.

Raylan finally grew bored of the surroundings; his patience was hardly lacking, but it was painfully evident that standing in one place would offer him nothing.

"I think we should stick together, not split up. True, it may go faster. Or slower. Remember, this is Alvadas. The streets move and sway, rise and fall. We have a better chance of loosing each other rather than finding Granny Agathae." He began to run his fingers up and down the neck of his mandolin. "We would do well to remain as a group... and what an entertaining group we make: The Failed Knight, The Walking City, The Woman with Eyes of Rainbow, and The Masked Bard. I dare say that we are an impressive lot.

Raylan turned his attention to the city, raising his hand to point in a random direction of travel. "Let us find the Accident Prone Granny, together!" He emphasized each word by talking a few steps towards the direction he pointed. His eyes glancing through the eye holes of the mask towards each of his companions.

[Micah Frostfawn]

”My name is Micah Frostfawn,” The Vantha said in turn, giving a small and modest nod to her head in greeting, ”from Avanthal. I am a hunter.” She added the lattermost statement hurriedly, hoping that her job title would somehow explain her helpfulness in a way that she could not. The words were accompanied by a casual shrug of her left shoulder, over which hung a longbow and a quiver full of arrows.

Micah listened intently as the other volunteers gathered and spoke around her. Common not being her mother tongue, she was slow to translate their suggestions and hesitant to add one of her own. Instead, the Vantha merely listened intently, her brows knotting together as she disagreed with one ideas, nodding as she agreed with another. ”Together is best.” She chirped up eventually, nodding to the masked bard to her right. ”I am new to Alvadas. Will get lost in the city. No help if I’m lost.”

Her eyes, now sharp and red like blood, flickered to the faces around her. Though it was impossible to pertain what ‘Bard’ looked like due to his mask, his physical form seemed relatively toned and fit. Should the missing grandmother need to be carried back home– or perhaps wrestled back, if she did not want to return home like some rebellious teenager – the Bard was certainly more suited to heavy lifting that she.

The third member of their party was by far the most extraordinary, and though Micah had heard of clay-made critters known as Pycon, never before had she seen one. Instantly her mind was filled with stories and tales of this particular specimen before her, a strange miniature city on legs. What fascinating stories this creature must know!

And finally Micah inspected the blue haired male, the one who had earlier suggested they spilt up the group and go searching for the Granny independently. Considering that he was once an almost-knight, Micah wondered if the young man would have more idea about how to go about finding a lost person than she did. Indeed, before Micah had only searched for prey, animals to kill, and not grandmothers to reunite with their beloved family. The challenge that lay before her was brand new.

”I do not know Alvadas well.” She said in a jarring, awkward way. Her accent was foreign, lilting her words and twisting them. ”Maybe she left city and went outside?” though the consequences of this would be almost certainly grave for the old woman concerned, Micah seemed hopeful by the idea. Within Alvadas, she was not as useful as she would like herself to be. But outside, in the mountains, she was more at home.

[Ashnah]

A fourth joined them, with rather fetching blue hair, or at least Ashnah thought so. She could change her form easily enough, but unless she ingested ground gemstones or had someone paint her, she could not change her colour. Oooh, she probably could get someone to paint her though! There was a thought for later! In any case, she decided she liked him almost immediately. This wasn't particularly unusual, Ashnah liked basically everyone. He'd been a Squire though and she'd been told you had to be a pretty good person to do that even if he'd changed his mind about it all. Plus he seemed polite and like he was trying to comfort the worried man, which earned him points.

The mans response to all of this was quite gratifying. It looked like he'd been worried that maybe no one would help him. It was true that the average Alvad didn't worry too much about lost tourists, they'd turn up again eventually somewhere, but someone Granny was different. Of course they would help! She also noted the implication that maybe the family was not doing so well and resolved to see if she could find and check on them in the future. She went all over Alvadas after all, she'd find them again, of that she was sure. His pat was accepted with her usual good cheer. If he'd looked to put out for too long she could have made some sort of appendage for him to shake, but this was fine too.

The Masked Bard, as he named himself, was delightfully dramatic but she thought it was a little bit mean to call someone you'd just met a Failed Knight. No one had said anything about failing, perhaps he wasn't a Knight because he just didn't want to be. Or one of a million other possibilities. Almost Knight would have been okay. Sometimes people did not know when they were saying things that were mean though, so perhaps he just didn't know any better. Hopefully the blue-haired mans feelings weren't hurt! She did rather like the title of The Walking City though! She was still pretty sure splitting up would be faster, but she hadn't decided if it was worth arguing over yet.

When the woman, Micah, spoke up, she decided that together was all right. It hadn't occurred to her that those who volunteered might not be Alvads and almost as much at risk as the Grandmother herself. She thought about Micahs suggestion that perhaps Agathae had left the city all together. What would they do then? Finding things within Alvadas she was fairly confident about, but the rest of the world? It was so big! And there were so many very real things that might hurt you. She wasn't scared exactly, but it was a little concerning.

"My name is Ashnah! We can stay together if you're worried about getting lost. I don't know if it will be faster, but better to have to find only one lost person!"

A thought occurred to her.

"Maybe she did go outside, but we can find out easily! We can just ask the Gaping Maw if it saw her! Then we'll know for sure whether she's still in Alvadas or not."

It was perhaps more natural for a Pycon than any other race to think to ask a landmark for help and directions. After all, technically speaking she was only clay, why would the Maw be any less of a person than her. She'd never actually had a conversation with it before, never having entered or left the city, but she'd heard lots of other people talk about it. The Masked Bard was already moving off, but it sort of seemed as though he'd picked a direction at random. Which was okay, but maybe not the most efficient way to find something.

[Lucas Arias]

„How imaginative“, Lucas remarked, thoroughly unimpressed as the masked man with the mandolin and the questionable singing talent introduced himself as „Bard“. He probably thought he looked all cool and mysterious with that thing on his face. To Lucas he looked more like he had just escaped from an insane asylum.

Compared to the former squire who had made a whole city believe that male Konti did exist and that his father was the Grandmaster of the Syliran Knights himself, he was just a beginner. If it weren’t for the task at hand, Lucas might have taken pity on him though and taught him a thing or two because he was nice like that.

“I was actually brought before the Windoak”, he said, lowering his voice so that the man who was so desperately looking for his granny wouldn’t hear him. He let his gaze sweep across the area around them to see if anybody else was listening, as if he were afraid that his secret would be found out. “I just didn’t want him to know.” He gestured towards the poor guy. “He already looked a bit overwhelmed when you three arrived. If I had revealed that I am a real knight, he would probably have suffered a heart attack and broken down, and what would have happened to his family then?”

This was of course not true. Lucas had never been brought before the Windoak. He just told people in Alvadas that story because it sounded more impressive than “squire who went on a pilgrimage and never bothered coming back.” The tone of his voice was completely serious though, accompanied by the appropriate gestures and facial expressions.

“You do have a point though”, he conceded as “Bard” suggested that they stick together. “Anyway, I’m Lucas. Like Lady Frostfawn here I’m new to Alvadas, but unlike her I’m already quite familiar with the city. Getting lost on your way to work every day and being forced to walk through the entire city on your way back home does that to you. By the way, Micah, even if you don’t know the city yet, you can still see. Just follow us and keep your eyes open, okay?”

He smiled at her encouragingly before he brushed a strand of bright blue hair that had fallen into his eyes out of his face. It was getting a bit long. He would have to get a haircut soon.

“That’s a good idea!” he remarked and even applauded as Ashnah suggested that they go and ask the Gaping Maw. “Let’s go there first. If she hasn’t left Alvadas, we can always come back here and search the city.” He took a closer look at the little clay creature and couldn’t keep himself from asking, “Ashnah, does anybody live in the houses on your back or are they just for decoration?” It would be rather fun to always carry a group of tiny people around on your back, he thought. You’d also never be lonely.

It was then that he noticed that “Bard” was already moving, in a random direction, it seemed which probably wasn’t the best way to look for a missing person. He walked over to the taller and older man and poked him. “We are going to talk to the gate. Are you coming or not?”