Zuri and Olloch do Lunch - RPLOG
Participants
Date
10/9/478
Log
It is quiet in Eastbank today. The muggy heat of the day as even the bugs laying low, though it is pleasant under the dappled shade of the leafy canopy. It just seems like a really good day to be walking in the woods.
Zuri steps up towards the clearing, smiling as he glances around. It was not unusual for the salamander to come explore Eastbank Forest, and he always seemed to find something new and exciting whenever he did. It also helped that it was much more pleasant here than back in Firmament in days like this. The salamander brought little gear with him today, since his trip was intended only to be a pleasure stroll.
"Ah! Zuri!" comes a grunted greeting from a small clearing, "I hoped I might see you today! That straitlaced boy of yours not with you?" There, in the clearing ahead is a corpulent, opulently dressed boar seated at a small, well laden table. "Come join me for a bit of refreshment!" he offers.
Zuri smiles brightly as he recognizes the boar. The small amphibian dashes over to join him by the table. "Hi Mister Olloch, good morning!" He giggles. "You mean Rokarino? Nah, he's back home. Think he's studying or researching or something along those notes. Doesn't like to be disturbed when he's focusing like that." He looks over the sumptuous banquet, licking his lips. "Don't mind if I do!" He snatches one cream cake out of a neatly stacked pile of confectionary, taking a bite before turning to regard the spirit. "What's the occasion, sir? This is quite the feast!"
"I just like to take care of my friends," Olloch says, "We -are- friends, aren't we, Zuri?" The corpulent Spirit waddles over and sits next to Zuri, offering the salamander a chair of his own. "I was hoping to talk to you about a bit of a," he thinks for a second, "Business venture, I suppose would be the best word for it."
Zuri plops down on the proffered chair, nodding at the spirit's words. "Of course sir!" He smiles brightly. "We're good friends I'd say!" He takes another bite of the cream cake as he listens attentively, then nods again. "Always up for business Mister Olloch." He grins. "Business makes the world go around, after all! What do you have in mind?"
"I suppose you have some idea about the nature of Spirits?" Olloch asks, easing back into his seat and reaching for a round, red fruit and a small knife, "I think your friend Rokarion has probably given you his theories? So I am sure you have heard about how we prefer to acquire mortal agents out in the world, yes?"
Zuri swallows his bite of cream cake, then nods slowly. "Yes sir. I uhm.. I fear Rokarion doesn't trust spirits one bit. He feels you're all out on some big game and want to use us beings as pawns, or something like that." He nibbles on his lip. "And actually I was there when Mister Ser'ther acquired one such.. agent, in the House of Night. A friend of mine. Rokarion was pretty miffed at the whole thing."
Olloch uses his little knife to carefully slice the large red fruit in his hands in half, revealing the blood red seedpods inside. He sets aside the knife and starts to gently pluck little juice pods out. "I don't mean to offend," he snorts, "But your friend has a very narrow view of the world and a rather puffed up opinion of himself. Honestly, when was the last time you heard of a Spirit, like myself, calling on a mortal to do anything that they were not already doing? Honestly?"
Zuri scratches his head. "I haven't heard much of other spirit callers. Met a few in my travels, but never really asked them much of it." He smiles. "I have no ill feelings towards the spirits or their callers Sir. They've never done me any wrong." He giggles. "And as far as I understand you've been around much longer than any of us beings, so if anything we should be trying to get closer to you, ask questions about Promise and try to work with you. I don't know why Rokarion, or any other being, shows so much animosity towards you and the others."
Olloch nods, popping another handful of pomegranite pips into his mouth. "Precisely," he grunts after swallowing, "Understand, Zuri, we do not come knocking where we are not wanted. We only come when called." He holds up a meaty, fat hand. "True, I am known to come knocking, just a little bit, but only because I know where I am wanted. And I think that you and I might have something to offer one another."
Zuri scorfs down the remains of his cream cake, and reaches over to snatch a chocolate swirl instead. He smiles at Olloch. "You do throw the best parties, Mister Olloch." He chuckles. "And yea, I suppose you do have a lot to offer me." He tilts his head. "But what do I offer you, Mister Olloch? In fact, what do us beings offer to creatures so powerful as the spirits themselves?" He takes a bite out of his cake, eyeing Olloch with genuine curiosity.
Olloch sucks thoughtfully on another handful of pomegranite pips. "It is hard to explain," he confesses, "You don't have words for what we really are or how we work. But you give us a place in the world. When beings call upon us, we ARE. I know that does not make much sense, but we need you far more than you need us." The obese boar shakes his head. "That is all I can say, I fear," he snorts, "Rules and all." He grins a tusky grin at the little amphibian. "I DO throw the best parties," he says, "And with your help, along with others, we can throw even better ones. I've had my eye on that Snowmark fellow too, you know. There's a being who knows how to throw a party!"
Zuri giggles. "Mister Sven! He's the best!" He smiles at Olloch, then nods. "He's a really good friend I'd say, and he is a lot of fun! And a bit of a hunk.." He nibbles on his lip, then returns to the matter at hand. "I understand Sir, you can't say much. I think us beings are only afraid that the spirits will one day.. dunno.. get us all to fight each other, or whatever. I mean, that Kendrac fellow for example, he's downright psychotic from what little I know of him."
Olloch snorts in agreement, eating another handful of pomegranite seeds. "Exactly!" he says, "And they call themselves the Life Court! Ha! Spirits of Battle, Lust and Vengeance claiming to be in the right just because they are part of the basest animal natures! And they call us Corrupt! Ridiculous." The boar smiles again. "Not to say that I am infallible," he says, "I have my dark side. But that just makes me like anyone else, right? None of us are angels." He fishes around in the husk of his pomegranite with a fat finger for the last bits of sweet flesh. "We all overindulge sometimes, but that hardly makes a person evil, now does it?"
Zuri takes two straight bites out of his chocolate swirl. He chews happily, tailtip wiggling happily. He does love his chocolate. "Not at all Mister Olloch! What's a cookie for if not for eating, right? And if it tastes good, have another one!" He giggles. "And yea.. I s'pose I have a bit of a dark side myself... not evil, mind, just.. less mainstream." The salamander scratches the back of his head pensively.
Olloch pats Zuri on the head fondly. "I embrace that, my little friend," he says, "And you should too. So, we come to my offer." The boar finally tosses aside his pomegranite and raises a fat hand into the air, where a beautiful crystal goblet forms in it, filled with some dark red liquid. "I would invite you to follow my path, Zuri Pondleaf," he says, holding out the goblet to the little salamander, "I bid you indulge."
Zuri had just finished biting another chunk off the chocolate swirl as the bid is given. Heeyes the goblet, wiggling his snout at it, then reaches to it with his free hand. With his mouth still half full of chocolate swirl, he rather fittingly washes down that treat with a swig from the goblet, and quickly downs the entire thing. He smiles at Olloch, almost proudly.
Olloch nods in approval. "I offer you all the pleasures of the world," he grunts and waves a hand at the table in an expansive gesture of welcome, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. The world is fat with good things! A fruit ripe for plucking, but not by just anyone, by YOU! Every excess is no crime, but rather, worship!" The boar raises his own glass to Zuri and drinks deeply.
Zuri giggles. "Thank you Sir! I'm glad to share in all this with you, at your side." He scorfs down the rest of his chocolate swirl in one go, then leans back on his chair to regard the laden table.
Despite all of the rich, delicious food that he has already eaten, Zuri feels that he could probably eat more.
Olloch reaches into some unseen pocket and produces a heave golden coin that he flips toward Zuri. "Brace yourself, young man," he says, "This might seem strange."
As Zuri reaches up to catch the coin, something strange happens. His lower jaw suddenly feels strangely numb and there is a pressure like a really good sneeze coming on as a pair of short, white tusks start to push up over his lip.
Zuri snatches the coin out of the air, but pauses as his jaw feels.. weird. He shakes his head, snorting briefly, only after a moment realizing that the pressure he feels is releasing in some manner and changing him. He blinks, feeling the tusks with his lips first, then his tongue. "Oh wow.." He licks the tip of one of the tusks. "A lot of stuff makes sense now, all those weirdly tusked beings. They're your callers, aren't they?" He wiggles his nose again, looking somewhat concerned... and what's best to alleviate concern but another sweet thing to chew on? He reaches over to snatch a pear from the table, struggling briefly with how to take a bite out of it with his new additions before he figures it out and bites a large chunk out of it.
Olloch winks. "Oh yes," he says, "Get enough of them together and they can even get me to show up at the Pig." He nods and snorts in approval at Zuri's cute little tusks. "They look good on you," he says, then continues, "Now I am yours and you are mine. Call on me, and I will come and you will come when I call." His porcine snout splits in a grin. "Now, that wasn't so hard, right?" he asks.
Zuri takes another bite out of the apple. He reaches up to touch his tusk as he chews, tapping his finger on the tip. "I like them!" He says with his mouth half-full, but only continues after he's done swallowing. He smiles up at the boar. "Not hard in the slightest, Mister Olloch!" He nods in agreement. "I will come when you call, Sir." He smiles. "And bringing you back to the Diseased Pig sounds like a plan for the future, for sure!" He taps his tusk again. "Sadly I feel Rokarion's going to give me quite the earful when I get home..."
Olloch passes a wrapped packet of cookies to Zuri. "Better share these with him," he says, "I made them myself and I am told I am a pretty good baker." He waves to the table. "Have your fill, little friend," he says, "I always enjoy watching people enjoy themselves."
Zuri takes the cookies. He eyes the packet for a moment, then giggles. "Usually he's the one giving me cookies. Thank you Mister Olloch!" He packs the cookies away, his tailtip wagging happily. He reaches over to snatch one.. no.. make that two cream cakes, and bites into the first one. He smiles up at the boar with a big smiling mouth as he chews, then asks in between swallowing and taking the next bite. "What now Mister Olloch? I suppose you'll have to go again... yourself and your fellow spirits never seem to stay around for long."
"True enough," Olloch says, "Always things to do. But I am never all that far away. Call on me any time." The corpulent boar rises from his chair with a grunt. "You take care of yourself, Zuri," he says, waddling away.
Zuri hops off his chair, still wielding both cream cakes in his hand. He waves with the half-eaten cake, still all smiles. "Goodbye Mister Olloch! See you around!" He wolfs down the half-cake, then snatches another one before starting his walk back to Firmament, one cake in each hand.
