A Child's Plaything

[Taische]

Requesting Artifex, because he plays along.

The last time Taische had been to Radasanth, she'd gotten herself into trouble long before she could see anything interesting. Today, however, the uncle who was babysitting her had unfortunately turned his back for longer than three seconds, and she'd gone off on her own, straight into a shop that had all sorts of weird stuff.

Among them was a mockery of a common child's toy; a black yoyo that was perfectly smooth and sparkled subtly from millions of fine grains in the stone. Taische had had a few wooden yoyos in her time, and they could be fun, so she slid the string loop onto her finger and spun the toy for a test. It was heavy, much more than any other toy she'd had. But its balance was perfect, and once it got going, it moved like a dream.

She had a little money. Maybe it was a lot of money. She knew she could buy a lot of candy with it, anyway. (Still being in the care of her mother, money wasn't really a huge concern for the little girl.) Maybe she could also have a new yoyo.

Approaching the counter, the little girl set her prize down. "Hello!" She greeted cheerfully. "How much for this?"

I'm looking for a six ounce, fine grain black granite, perfectly balanced yoyo, please. :D

[Artifex Felicis]

The counter was completely empty! There wasn't even a little pastiche of a shopkeeper there, or a sign saying that the shop was closed. It was weird, normally a shop filled to the brim with magical artifacts and odds and ends always had something there.

After Taische stood there long enough to feel awkward, an eye floats into the room from somewhere behind the counter. It's a blue eyes, and glows with a soft magic and hovers around the young girl, spinning around her. Somehow it blinks, an eyelid of magic closing around Taische and giving the impression of capturing something. The little eye nods, then zooms around her in a sweep before diving back behind to counter, going up and over and through a small hole in the back of the shop. There’s a soft bonk, then a larger thump as something falls onto the ground. There’s a couple light, quick steps, and the door opens with a creak.

A small girl, just a smidgen shorter than Taische steps out and closes the door carefully behind her. Her hair is messy and disheveled, and the cloak she wore over what was obviously pajamas was wrinkled. The floating eye resumes its perch on the small hole, trained on Taische. The young girl yawned again, stepping to the side of the counter and grabbing a large stool. She tugged at it, producing a high pitched squeal that opened one eye wide in annoyance. She groaned, and dragged it behind the counter and climbs onto it.

“Hel-“ She breaks off, yawning again, trying to hide her wide mouth behind a small hand. She laughed, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair to clear her eyes. They’re bright and awake now,not much trace of sleep. “Hello!”

“Welcome to my Aunt’s shop! Can I help you with anything…” She nodded, then bit her lip, voice trailing. Her eyes fell onto the yoyo that Taische had placed upon the counter. She blushed fiercely, determined to move past it!

A pregnant moment passed as the young shopkeep girl swallowed, wallowing in embarrassment. At least nothing was stolen, or the eye would have zapped her.

“So that’s one of the things my Uncle brought back from his travels! It’s made out of this super smooth and cool stone stuff, and made by hand! It's harder an' tougher than steel even!” She nods, not specifying which of her large family it was. She had her winning smile on, the smile she used to get extra dessert. “It’s worth 500! But I was old I’m supposed to sell it for 230, because Uncle managed to get it for a lot cheaper than that, and he said it almost all profit anyways. There’s some extra string too, it’s around here somewhere…”

[Taische]

Taische shuffled her feet during the long wait. Was this a real shop? Was it a ghost shop? Was a monster about to pop up from behind the counter? What if it was a giant wasp? What if it was behind her?!

She was so wrapped up in her imaginings that she let out a short, startled shriek at the magic eye, clapping her hands over her mouth and involuntarily flaring a bit. Hopefully no one would notice the slight char marks on the floor. She rubbed a boot over the worst of it, trying to clear it away, but that only spread little black crumbs around the floor.

She snapped to attention when the... was she a kid? She had an older face than Taische, but she was shorter than her. She also didn't seem quite real. Was she the ghost store's ghost keeper?!

Don't be dumb. Ghosts don't have aunts and uncles. She does. But what if... what if she's lying?!

Maybe she was a ghost and didn't know it yet. Unaware ghosts got mean and scary when someone told them they were ghosts, so Taische decided not to tell her during the long, awkward silence.

Fortunately, there was something else to talk about!

"Uhh... I don't know if I have that much money." A hundred gold must be enough to buy maybe a whole house; why would a toy be more than twice that?

"Why's it so much?"

[Artifex Felicis]

"I think it's around here..." Hawl hopped down from the tall stool, not quite stumbling with the display of mediocre acrobatics. She waggled her arms, managing to remain upright; her ankles only surviving the awkward hop thanks to youth and a fierce denial of reality. She turned around, ruffling through the underside of the counter until she found the ball of string she was looking for. It was covered in dust and dust mites, eliciting a sneeze from Hawl as she set it on the counter for her customer like a proud, respectable merchant.

"I... Huh..." She blinked at her customer as she took in her words. Her eyes, forehead and tangled hair were all the young customer could see from this position. It was probably a good thing, considering how agape her mouth was. Hawl remembered her manners after a silence, recovering! "I don't think... you know how much money a hundred gold is..."

Hawl bit her lip, mind working furiously. It took her a moment to decide, and her head traveled around the counter to the side. She had to throw open the little door, darting out before it could snap back closed. Her bare feet pattered on the hardwood floor. Hawl's aunt had installed it so she could leave from behind the counter whenever she wanted, but she clearly never intended for it to be used by a young girl. Hawl couldn't life a large dog no matter how much she tried, never mind that heavy door!

"So... a hundred gold is enough for a couple nights at the inn, or maybe a really really bad house in the middle of the Spooky Forest!" Hawl wiggled her fingers, trying to put on a little show for the customer. She giggled, feeling comfortable now that she was on the same level as her customer. Now maybe they could be friends! "One that'd be by like, the weird monsters or the Big Cat or filled with centipedes or without any windows!"

"So really 230 gold isn't that much at all, I don't think..." Hawl nodded, sure of herself. She smoothed out her little work cloak. Now that her feet were visible, the little cats stitched along the hem seemed to dance as the small shopkeeper paced around the shop.

"I think we have a few more yoyo's though! We could get cheaper ones, or a wooden one! That'll only be like... 20 gold! But it'll also probably break after it rains. It costs 230 cuz it has a History."

Hawl managed to say this with a capital H.

"And it's supers strong and tough, and you will be able to use it forever! And anything less than that would be 'Detrimental to Our Bottom Line' according to Uncle."

"So it has to be 230 gold!" She beams!

[Taische]

Taische blinked. She hadn't said anything about amounts of gold other than that she wasn't sure she had a whole two hundred some of it. She ran her hand through her hair, glancing for the door to see if the uncle she'd slipped away from had found her yet. She didn't see him, the door wasn't opening, so she still had some time.

"But...what does it do? Rocks are tough. That's kind of what they do. Is there anything extra special about this one? What's its History?" That was the question she'd asked, or meant to ask. Was this smaller, older girl reading the thoughts in her head? Oooh. That could be bad. She could tell her uncle on her.

Another detail in the 'reasons a house costs more than a hundred gold' caught her attention. "Big cat? Like the Liviol cat my mom calls when we're getting into really big trouble? Or is there a different big cat?"

[Artifex Felicis]

"It has tons of History!" Hawl raised her little hands in the air in excitement! She was beaming now, bright and awake and unblinking as her stare bore into Taische. "It was originally in this one place and was used by this super cool guy, accordingly to my Uncle Reznik! He was in Fallien at the time, or maybe Salvar, or um... Dheathain?"

The girl falters a moment, biting her lip as her ruse of knowing the small objects History might be called into question. "An' he picked it up because Uncle Reznik is awesome! And he also helped some people by bringing them a big shipment of lumbar and they gave it to him as an extra gift,but he didn't want it since he wouldn't be able to give it the love and attention it deserved. So he put it in my Aunt Crow Jane's wagon, and she brought it to my Aunt Jess' shop to give it a good home!"

"So that's some of its history! I think Uncle Reznik'll be back in about a month if you want to talk to him about it!" Hawl never seemed to run out of breath, waggling her hands excitedly as she talked to Taische. She liked the girl a lot, she was an amazing listener! She hopped excitedly, scampering back behind the counter, collecting something small, then coming back quickly.

"He said it has this super neat thing, where if you swing it around it isn't gonna bonk into you or anything!" Hawl nods clutching a small wax paper bag. "And that it was really useful for him when one of his mages had to channel some magic through it. He said it was..." She coughed, her voice a facsimile of a gruff deep man's voice. "Unnaturally magically conductive."

"And no silly! The big white cat that's in Concordia Forest. He comes into town sometimes. He's silly, and sometimes has a girl cat too! The Liviol cats are SUPER big though! Completely different! There's lots of different cats in the world! It's the best!"

[Taische]

Just to clarify, this is a six ounce, super durable granite yoyo with 50 yards of catgut string (roughly enough to keep it in repair for literally ever). It is magically conductive and will never hit its user. Correct?

Taische frowned a little. It was a really nice yoyo, and she really wanted it. If a hundred gold wasn't really a lot, maybe she had enough. Her mom had given her some money just in case she got separated from her Uncle Storm and had to survive on her own for a little while, so maybe she had enough. She could find him again, so it wasn't like she had anything to worry about.

"Well. Let me see."

She pulled out her bag of coins and dumped it on the counter. "Give me a little while to count."

With that, her little hands started sifting through the pile, sorting out a row that grew ever closer to the requested 230.

[Artifex Felicis]

Taische is correct in what she is purchasing for 230 gp

Hawl stood, tapping her foot impatiently and unconsciously as Taische slowly counted out the little gold coins in neat piles. The littlest shopkeep left her customer alone for a few minutes, escaping into the back room and coming back with a green apple and a small plate. Her hands cut it up as her patience was slowly worn away byt he slow counting of the girl, her eyes staring at Taische with an unnecessary intensity.

"You should... let me do it!" She didn't bother to wait for her customer's reply, her quick little hands quickly counting and moving the coins in neat stacks of ten. It took her less than half a minute, her eyes unfocused on the task as she mouthed out the numbers as they came tumbling out, one after another.

"And done!" Hawl beamed, putting her forearm onto the counter and sweeping the rest of the large pile to the side and away from the neatly stacked 230 coins. She paused for a moment, her fingers thrumming on the counter. She nodded, deciding something with conviction! They rooted through the large pile of gold coins remaining, sifting through the entire pile and moving it slightly further back on the table as she stared intently at it!

"So this..." Hawl stepped back, proud! She pointed at the small pile she had made. "Is 230 gold! It's how much you need to pay!"

"And this..." Her hand patted the much larger pile of wealth. "Is 477 GP! You have a lot of money you know!"

[Taische]

"Oh." Taische blinked, looking at the two piles of money. When had she picked up that much coin? She'd thought she just had enough money for some food or maybe a toy; hundreds of coins was more than she'd ever thought about. "That is a lot. Okay, so you can have that pile with two hundred thirty and I can have the yoyo."

She started putting the larger pile back in her bag. Somehow, she was rich!

[Artifex Felicis]

"That's fair!" Hawl beamed, pushing over the yoyo, the string and taking the gold all in a single swipe! She learned a lot of interesting tricks with working at the shop! She nodded, giving Taische a thumbs up!

"Come again! You could get lots more stuff if you want! Even a boat!"

(TRANSACTION COMPLETE)

(230 GP to be taken from Taische, 477 remain.)

[Philomel]

Bazaar Thread Rewards: A Child's Plaything (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?30079-A-Child-s-Plaything&p=255528)

Rewards:
Artifex Felicis: (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?252-Artifex-Felicis)
150 EXP

Taische: (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?17565-Taische)
150 EXP

[Rayleigh]

All EXP added, and GP transaction complete!