Revision as of 00:50, 6 January 2019

Participants

• Aleera
• Bazalt
• Cirrus
• Flora
• Lyas
• Terry
• Zalthar

Date

5/1/482

Log

This is the beginning of the New Year's Joy parade, a much-hyped event that had begun as a drunken quip between two of Sweetwater's trade barons, but soon grew and blossomed like a fertile seed as Beings from all walks of life clamored for the celebration to happen. With the support of many of the noble houses, and the near totality of Firmament's business and trade interests (how better to start the new year than a celebration that will bring prospective shoppers from miles around?) plans began to take hold, and six months after that initial whisper the new year is being greeted with a roaring ruckus.

For his first time being back in two years, Baz sure picked a day to leave his loft. The wolf blinks at just how.. festive it is and grins. Tail flicking and twitching as he looks around the wolf looks amazingly happy-and relaxed. Having already enjoyed some food and alcholic beverages earlier, The wolf is just wandering around and sort-of mingling, enjoy the festivites as much as possible.

At the stall housing one of the many food vendors Lyas can be seen, clad in street clothes with a warm cloak thrown over the top. A bump in the fabric shows he has a sword underneath the cloak. The irritated look on his face suggests he's considering using it. The source of his irritation is apparently the vendor - as the tabby Cat gestures, the wolf behind the stand shakes his head. Some sort of argument is happening, though over the street noise, you'd have to be standing right next to them to determine what it's about. After a few minutes, Lyas turns away and stalks off, offended tail twitching behind him. His eyes scan the crowd, searching for amusement to forget about this less-than-fortuitous start to the year.

Sure, it might not be the best idea for Aleera to show her face too much today, but how could she be expected to pass up on a celebration like this? Besides, it's pretty crowded out today anyways.... Not that the feline is particularly good at 'blending in' or 'keeping a low profile'. No, she's shouting, cheering and laughing away as the marching band finally comes into view, and she's... probably causing a vendor a great deal of annoyance by sitting on top of a barrel near someone's booth. When combined with her height, that leaves her pretty high up above the rest of the crowd.

"Flora looks... Mildly uncomfortable at the amount of people, and by the looks of things, neither she, nor her children, have slept very well on the way over to Sweetwater. She's been absent for at least a few months, and LongTech's day-to-day operations have been taken over by Sveta, for the time being. Right now, though, she's mostly keeping an eye on her children, each of them dressed in a well-made tunic of sorts. Flora, meanwhile, is also idly conversing with one or two nobles... Even if her face says she'd much rather sleep.

With her typical, noble fashion sense (that is to say, absence of it), Cirrus peers through the crowd in her adventuring clothes, her straps pulled slightly tighter, buckles locked down tight, wary of any pickpockets seeing the crowd as a ripe harvest of drunken beings and loose coin purses. She tilts her head up into the air, nostrils flaring as some aroma of grilling protein manages to pierce its way through the miasma of bodies, the snow leopard beginning to nudge her way through the crowd towards the vendor. What better way to start off the evening than a snack!

Searching for amusement, Lyas's eyes soon light upon Aleera. He makes his way towards her immediately - they had made tentative plans to meet up during the parade, and it's a relief to see she made it. A grin flickers across his face as he remembers their recent escapades - truth be told, he still hasn't yet cleared the resultant hangover.

"Aleera!" He practically yells, creeping up behind the other feline. While he's trying to make her jump, the noise of the crowd might just warrant him shouting. He puts his hands on the barrel Aleera is sitting on, giving it a gentle rock for emphasis. Aleera might be in danger of getting pitched into the parade, but that's her problem!

The wolf glares daggers at Lyas as he walks off, shaking his head before turning his attention to another customer. His angry glower vanishes as if by magic, replaced by a practiced, saccharine smile aimed at the betusked hippo being that's approaching with gluttony in his eyes.

Small clan beings skitter in and out of the crowd, a tripping hazard for other beings in the best of times, but for Bazalt, a 7 foot tall canine seeing little more than the heads and shoulders of all the other beings around him, they're a serious issue. Serious enough that his feet keep bumping into the small creatures, forcing him to take measured steps.

Flora's feelings are echoed in some of the other nobles watching the parade. Still, a great deal of them look on with either greed or joyful contentment, watching their respective plans unfold. As this had been six months in the making, and with how tangled the webs of Firmament's nobility are, nearly everyone had a stake in this, large or small.

The purveyor of grilled meats and vegetables has a busy day ahead of him. The elderly ferret, two of his sons and five of his grandsons were all behind the normal-sized stall, working a virtual conveyor belt. Skewers are given to customers so quickly that it's almost a guarantee some of the payment will be missing by the end of the night. The nearby Aleera from her barrel perch can only be tempted by the aroma, even as she feels her barrel start to wiggle under her as the marching band nears. Not far, Cirrus approaches, attracte d by the aroma of these delicious treats as the many other beings that crowd this area.

Spooking a cat is... rarely a good idea even at the best of times, and... well. Aleera is a Water Folk and not a Graceful Folk for a reason. She perks up as her name is called, glancing over her shoulder and offering Lyas a toothy grin... just in time for it swap to surprise as she flails her arms at her side and topples forward. There's a quiet, short scream from her, drowned out by the sounds of the crowd and the parade, and then some annoyed grunting as she pushes herself up off of the... unlucky Cirrus that she just fell right on top of, dragging them both to the ground.

With one hand still resting on the snow leopard's torso, she pushes herself up, offering Lyas another smile despite the situation. "Lyas! Come 'ere so that I can hit you fer that!" it's... hard to tell if she's joking. Either way, she flashes Cirrus that same grin, except it's accompanied by the much less threatening words of, "Sorry 'bout that."

Bazalt looks around still, ears and tail flicking as he gently walks thru the crowd-or tries to-The wolf is near constanly apologisng to and at anyone he might be tripping over. "Lyas?" he called out-he was sure he had head his voice-but in this crowd it was uncertain. In any case his nose twitches as he catches the WONDERFUL smell of food-Oh he missed how lovely the food was here, which of course means he's now charting a course towards that grilled meat.

Flora's exhaustion, of course, is more from the fact that she's only this morning returned from Thera'dor, rather than from her involvement in the setup. She's left most of that up to Sveta. "Sorry, give Floraa moment, yes?" the tigress offers to a rather... Rambling bovine, before instructing her children to stay put, one of her guards to keep watch over the hyperactive, yet tired pair of cats, and gesturing for the other to join her while she heads to the ferret and his meats, happy to get away from the nobles, and to get some food for herself and her twins...

The snow leopard does her best to get to the skewers, a couple of scepters clutched in her paw. The cat was never the life of the party, but she knew how these festivals went - there's never any time for pleasantries! She's about to drop the coins into an outstretched, rodentlike hand until -

"Waugh!" Cirrus cries out, a sudden weight sending her sprawling onto the ground, bottom-first, scepters sent flying and colliding into beings and stone alike. Her sword somewhat awkwardly twists in its sling, the sheath swinging out and whacking her in the back of the leg. Nonetheless, she shortly finds herself face-to-face with a Siamese, her eyes blinking as she makes sense of her tumble. As the gears turn, she offers a disarming smile, wincing slightly as she clambers back up. "Oh - no trouble!"

"Nope. Nope," Lyas says, poker-faced, as he backs away from the grinning Aleera. "I'll come over there when you've had a chance to forget I did that." His eyes are drawn to the other feline that Aleera managed to squash. He pauses, searching his memory for a second. "... Cirrus?" he hazards, drawing the name from his old Freeswording days. He crosses his arms over his chest, hiding his plain clothing and bumping the hilt of his low-quality sword with his elbow accidentally. He's thinner and tireder than the last time he met Cirrus, a fact he's hoping she won't pick up on. One ear flicks backwards - he thought he heard his name from somewhere in the crowd. He puts that out of his mind, though. There's plenty of noise, dozens of Beings shouting for their friends.

Lyas doesn't go to help Cirrus to her feet, still warily staying out of Aleera's reach. He snickers a little at her predicament, stomping on one of her dropped coins as it goes rolling by. "I've heard folk throw money away at these celebrations, never seen it done yet though..."

The elderly ferret is making a killing selling these tasty skewers. This seems to be very much worth the time and money it took him to prepare for this, as he capitalizes on his prime position in the Main Concourse in a big way. Even as his sons and grandsons work behind him, he's still waving in customer after customer and passing on newly cooked, still sizzling, delicious snacks to all. He serves Cirrus with a smile, and then disaster! Seven other ferrety heads pop over the stall's counter to see what happened. As it becomes obvious everything is fine, the elderly ferret shoos his kin back to the field kitchen and resumes his business gladly.

"Consider it forgotten, 'en! I'm sure I can come up with a different reason to hit you instead," Aleera shouts back at Lyas, but then she turns her attention back to the snow leopard instead. The siamese cat's own smile widens a bit when she realizes that the woman she landed on isn't completely pissed off at her, and with that realization, she doesn't hesitate to hop right back up to her feet. "You two know each other, then? Maybe I won't punch you for knocking me over after all, if'n it caused this fun coincidence." She does take a moment to help gather up what scepters landed near her feet, offering them to the snow leopard she was formerly crushing shortly afterwards, "'ere you are, Cirrus. I'm Aleera, by the way."

"Is Cousin Cirrus alright there?" Flora offers, as she observes from a distance, trying to figure out what went on just now, before she, too, moves closer and closer to the counter, tail swaying behind her as she puts a few scepter on the top to collect some skewers. More than enough for her, and at least two for each of her children... Not that she seems in much of a rush to go back to talk with those same nobles some more.

Bazalt Baz arrives at the stall just as Cirrus falls down causing him to blink in suprise and confusion. "ARe... you okay their, miss? I knew it smelt good-but Didnt think it was deead-dead tasty." HE grins toothily as his tail flicks, already fishing some coins out for his skewer. He does now notice the other cat, making him blink again. "huh.. okay.. Maybe the joke was miss-Flora? Well been quite a while, ladyship." he smiles at her, bowing slightly. "How have you been?"

Lyas isn't nearly as generous as the others, not when it comes to dropped money. It's finders keepers with him, even when the 'finding' is done in someone else's pockets. Surreptitiously, he scrapes his boot backward, then gives a flick that sends the coin underneath into the air. He catches it easily, with the hand waiting poised behind his back. The tabby flashes his cheshire-cat grin at Aleera. "Well, I'd best mind when I piss you off so I know when t' dodge." That said, he slinks in close to join the other two cats, tail waving playfully. He's no longer hidden behind the vendor's stall, now, and has a better view of the parade as it goes past. This seems to distract him from the other two familiar Beings, hovering just beyond his own little cluster of three. "... How much are instruments worth?" he asks Aleera, voice low, a wicked smile on his face. He's got his eyes locked on the trumpet section of the marching band, their instruments gleaming bright with nary a dent amongst the lot...

Sitting on one of the nearby rooftops, a small, two-tailed feline is chewing on something tasty looking. Curiously, they pick a scepter out of their cloak and toss it into the square, aiming for it to clatter near Lyas. Other than that, they seem to, wait, where'd they go? Apparently, to a lower roof, a more shaded one.