Sea cookout and tales - RPLOG
Participants
Date
28/6/477
Log
A fine evening down by the docks. The Bird Stain has been scrubbed as clean as that usually desultory place can get, although the main event is being held on the Rose Walk, where three gigantic pots have been set up side by side, heated by fire magic to prevent scorch marks from accumulating on the cobblestones. As many lines of beings are queued in front of them, passing their ingredients to the priests managing the event and getting their hands stamped so they can return after the stew's been cooked.
The entire event is rife with chit-chat, and it also appears that someone has sponsored a copious quantity of drink, too - which has only served to raise spirits.
Down to the docks a well dressed water folk with an air of self importance makes his way to a make a deposit of his catch. A modest catch, a small bony fish that he wishes to deposit before any turning of meat occurs, as he has committed the prep work for them. Besides, eating a ram might put some folks off. As he approaches the lines he gives a gentle bow to any sailors he sees, their important works not forgotten.
The smell of fish is what clues Angus that he's nearing the maritime district, which means he's getting closer to where the cook-out would be. The fox dressed casual for today, wearing a cotton tunic over his trousers as a pound of Salmon is tucked under his arm. He offers the Haddock a smile when he notices them, nodding in greeting before he looks around and takes his place in the line.
Millicent makes her way onto the scene, one hand in her pocket while the other held a few fish dangling from just as many strings. It wouldn't be proper for another fisher to be absent on such an occasion! Stopping to greet a few folk along the way, she approaches the pot with her offering, a smile on her face.
Jera arrives at the Maritime district on the way to the beach...though the commotion attracts him more right now. He spots the many pots of fish and all the offerings, realizing that he's not quite ready. He gives Angus a small nod and pats his hip to see if he's carrying the pistol gift before heading off for a short while.
"Welcome! Welcome!" The gargantuan cast-iron pots are so large that one requires a stepladder to even reach the top - which is not a surprise, since there must be hundreds of beings present this evening. All that one can see of the contents is the steam rising from the top, which only makes it more of a mystery. It's not just fish which are going into them - shrimp, eels, small crabs, seaweed, saltwater or fresh - so long as it passes the scrutiny of the priests present, it goes in.
Will it blend? That's the question, and it's a hard one to answer - the smell wafting down is uniformly fishy, although there certainly are enough spices about to cover up any strange tastes should they surface.
Off to another side, stools have been set up under an awning to catch the most of the sea breeze, while another priest reads relevant verses from the First Text. Something about fishers of beings, whatever that's supposed to mean.
Pierce eyes the priests curiously not sure what they have to do with all this but their work lets the workers relax so they can't be all too bad. He presents his ram, and then proceeds to wave to the strangely dressed fox. What an interesting... dress for someone lacking any noble graces. He was no fish that's for sure.
After depositing her contribution, Millicent steps back and sets her other hand in her pocket to join the first. Taking a look around again, she wanders off to converse briefly with one of the other fishers, casting a glance towards Angus. She wasn't expecting any nobles at a thing like this, certainly.
Angus presents the Salmon to the priest, sniffing at the pots curiously before he leans back with a cock of his head. "My, this will be an intresting stew." He states to no one in particular as he steps back to look over the crowd, his hands going to his pockets as he notices Jera, giving them a nod as they walk away.
Once he's clear, Jera takes a gryphon form and flies out towards the ocean near the maritime district, swooping down and raking the water with his talons to snag a large fish. He makes the short flight back, dropping the large tuna in front of the pots before circling and taking his landing in a clear spot and shaking dry a little.
"Thank you," the priest says as the contributions are taken and everyone's hand stamped with the local church's seal so they can come back later. "It certainly will be an interesting stew - we get a different one every year, even if it always smells a bit fishy. Still, we make sure that nothing strange gets put into the pot, so you can be rest assured that the worst you might end up with is a slightly upset stomach. The fact that you have to eat what's been cooked also dissuades anyone from putting anything strange in."
Under the awning, it seems that the reading of the First Text is over with, and that the meat of the event - the telling of tales with plenty of drink to grease tongues, and water folk sure do have many tales to tell.
Millicent smiles faintly as her ears perk at the thought of stories to be heard and told. In the meantime, she slinks over towards Angus and raises her brow. "What're you doin' down this way, fancypants?" She says it with a grin and without a hint of malice, clearly teasing.
Jera sniffs at his paw where the stamp is and then shrugs, rearing up even as his feathers fluff out a little proudly from his catch. He heads over towards Pierce and stares him over for a bit, tilting his head and looking the fish over for a moment. "Do I bring you to the pot too?" He blinks. Having not seen a fish being before.
Angus turns as Millicent adresses him and flashes her a smile. "Why not? It's a nice social event is it not Miss?" He counters, shrugging his shoulders a bit as he looks her over with curiosity.
Indeed, there are many tales to be told! Takes of rough seas, of encounters on the waves, and of course, of the ubiquitous sea monsters. Most of them give all impressions of being tall tales, although the sailors' descriptions of teeth and tentacles - somehow, those two seem to factor in a lot - at least try to be believable, even if the only tale that might have a grain of truth to it would be the leviathan sighted some months ago. Alcohol is passed out - rum and coarse beer - and it's an uphill task to keep everyones' minds off their stomachs until the seafood stew is ready.
Millicent nods slowly at Angus. "I suppose that's a good enough reason! I just didn't expect to see nobles out on the docks!" Ah, but now it was story time! "Well... I don't have any great feats or accomplishments, but there was the story of the eel I found out in the river on one of my fishing trips. A most unusual eel! One that glittered like gold, with diamonds for eyes!"
When the tales of Leviathans come about, Jera loses interest in Pierce for a moment as he lets his sling bag carrying his possessions drop a little so that he can rummage through and carefully pull out a simple string necklace with a large tooth hanging from it. "The Leviathan got our ship once." He added. "We dinged it up a bit. Got a tooth as proof."
Angus gives Millicent another shrug of his shoulders, smiling softly as he moves over to let her tell her tale. He crosses his arms, tail flicking a little in amusment as he eyes Jera's neckless, before turning his gaze on Millicent.
At Jera's tale, there's a smattering of applause and a few respectful clearings of the throat, then from the throng: "Ain't the only one - many saw it back in the day when we were blowing those pirates to kingdom come. But aye, still a great deed, and a great trophy. Y' can share details, if you'd like."
Millicent's, though, is received with more than a grain of salt, although many of the gathered water folk applaud, just to be polite. The liberal application of alcohol makes even the most dour water folk a little more inclined to put their feet up and let the world go by, after all. After Jera's tale, a shark launches into her own story of the krakens of old, excellent sailors and purveyors of the deep. "...and though they have been redicovered once more, Creators be blessed, there are still so many more things they could do. Would we have the chance."
Another smattering of applause, and the tales continue - one about sunken treasure in a coral reef, another about spearing an enormous specimen of a greater ram and it pulling the boat through the water for a good half-mile. Eventually, the fishy smell wafting from the pots tells everyone that the stew's about done.
Millicent grins softly at the notes the skepticism. "Oh, it's true! I still have it, in fact. I fished it up and mounted it on the cabin wall of my boat." Of course, it was a statue, but she needn't clue people in on that. That'd detract from the mystery! Besides, food smelled like it was almost done.
Mmhmm. Not even the sharpest arrow could pierce the beast's hide. It was like he was covered in a layer of earth and water magic or something. We managed to pull the boat hard portside with some of our own wind magic to fight the storm...mast almost being torn right off by the strong winds as the beast reemerged and /almost/ swallowed us whole...and then cannons filled with everything we had left on board, broken pieces of the deck, barrels of rum...anything that was hard and shootable. Arrows, magic firebolts...threw everything at it and only just.../just/ managed to best it." Jera tells the story the best he can, winking at Angus to see if he wanted to add in. Though he realizes he's taking a lot of space up with his wingspan fluttered out and curls them back again. The smell of fish distracted him a little too...
Angus blinks as he is given a wink, standing up straight as he clears his throat and just smiles. The scent causes his nose to tickle, his gaze flicking to the pots before turning back to the tales being told.
Pierce looks rather concerned, he'd heard reports of a gentle, intellgent giant of the deep, and here they were battering it with cannons to glorify its teeth? What a morbid story.
"Ach, a bit of a tall tale. Even the drink?"
"But he's got the proof - that there tooth's as big as a fist, maybe more so."
"Well, could've always -"
Thankfully, the discussion is turned by the arrival of the stew, coming up in large clay bowls, shoddily fashioned as if someone knows that they're going to be broken soon, anyway. Everyone's hand is inspected, and the bowls are served, filled from spigots at the bottom of the pots. The contents are indescribable, mostly clear, salty broth with a sheen of fish oil on the surface and bones at the bottom, with the occasional scale that escaped the scaling. It also appears that plenty of spices have been used, notably pepper, but the sense of community is what matters most, aye?
Millicent gives a forlorn look to the stew as it's handed to her, but she takes a deep breath all the same. "Well, this should prove interesting." She blows lightly at the bowl's contents before bringing it to her mouth, taking a tentative sip.
Jera decides he wants to shift out of gryphon shape to eat less sloppily! He heads to the nearby shop for a brief moment to shift back into fox form, quickly getting dressed and carrying his pack, taking out a small pouch of spices in hand and keeping the tooth before going for his meal, approaching the familiar fox and his less familiar companion, snagging a bowl of the...admittedly potently thick stew and...deciding he needs more spice on that, sprinkling liberally before...deciding to watch the reactions first.
Angus takes his bowl and swirls it around, giving it a sniff before he sits on the ground right on the spot and decides to dig in, trying hard to ignore the taste as he shovels most of it in, picking through the scales and bones when he has to. "Not.....the worst I've had to eat."
Pierce is presented with a graceful bowl of soup from the organizers, eagerly taking into it as soon as possible, the taste of fish and pepper would do wonders right now, a taste of the sea, spices and life.
One by one, everyone has had their fill. There don't seem to be too many adverse reactions other than a few strained faces, and even better, not too many of the cheap bowls have been broken. Even so, after everyone's had their fill (or purpotedly so) there's still half a pot left over, which the priests promise to cart over to Mange Square later on for distribution. There's little to do now but to enjoy the stories and the sea breeze - the former of which is actually being copied down by a scribe off to one side, or at least, the more interesting of the tall tales.
Millicent snorts and nods at Angus. "I suppose it's not too bad, yeah?" Her eyes wander towards Jera, giving him a nod as well. She knew neither of these people personally, but they didn't seem like bad sorts. "I mean, not exactly the kind of thing we'd serve at our little meal stand, but not bad."
Jera finally takes the bowl up and sips. Sighing in relief as he realized that it didn't taste entirely unstomachable. Probably cause all the fish used was fresh, or that the priests were just that adept with working with the strangest sets of ingredients. He mumbles soft thanks for the meal and then nods in reply to Millicent, ears twitching a little. "You have a meal stand? Here?"
Pierce laughs, and to no one in paticular says "You know recently, down below the sewers I came across a peculiar aquatic beast in a pool of water. It was a real tough one, aggressive to a fault, I managed to scrape some of its skin to bring back to a little collector."
Angus takes his bowl, throwing out the scales and the bones as he smiles. "It's about on par with some of the stuff they serve in the military I can tell you that, which isn't that bad when you get used to it." His ears flick as he starts picking his teeth with a claw. "....I'm sorry miss I never caught your name." He comments as he wipes his hand on his pants, turning to give Pierce a nod in acknowledgment as he chuckles. "Must of been some beast."
Millicent offers a smile, then, bringing the bowl down from her mouth. "Millicent!" She follows up on the rest of her introduction when she nods to, and answers, Jera. "Yes. I own a riverboat with my sister. When we're not out fishing, we tend to set up a small stand on our deck to sell food out of. Helps round out the wallet a little, and there are always hungry dockworkers to be found! Mostly noodles, but there's plenty of seafood, naturally."
"I know that feeling, Angus. Once we had mud baked fish...except the chef forgot to remove the mud." The kit fox laughs. "This tastes so much better in comparison." At the mention of names he bows politely. "I'm Jera. No surname. Nice to meet you, Millicent."
Angus stands back up once more and offers Millicent his hand. "Angus Solacious at your service Ma'am." He flashes another one of his smiles as he offers the priest their bowl and spoon back. "And honestly, don't think to much into the surname I have. I'm not that different from a normal being."
Pierce nods to Angus, who his apparently a noble with poor taste in dress. Still, not a fish. "Yes it was something. I'm curious what aquatic wonders lie far off across the sea sometimes, and then you hear it from fine people like this and you don't have to wonder." he says with a bit of a laugh. "I'm Pierce, but please, call me Piero."
Millicent reaches out to take Angus' hand, but aside from that she just gives a wave. "Nice to meet you all. Been having a nice day, I hope? This is an interesting end to mine, certainly. Not that I'll complain. Always nice to partake in gatherings like this."
Indeed, as the pots are carted away and the booze begins to run low, the hubbub gradually quietens. Even so, it seems like this little even is going to be continuing for the rest of the evening, so long as there are tales to be told and tongues to wag. A priest stays by her post for the rest of the night, ready to deal with any disputes that might arise, but no one really seems to want to ruin a good thing.
A copy of the collected tales is painstakingly taken, with promises of copies for anyone interested later.
