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 Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:07 pm
 The Cart's posted here almost permanently these days.
The Cart is a simple caravan, perhaps fifteen feet long and eight feet wide. A horse is always nearby, standing near a hay bale and a water trough that's almost always full. It doesn't look like much... until you look closer.
Before it got destroyed, the Cart seemed quite dingy and disgusting. Now it seems... cleaner. Newer. It smells better. And the surprises don't stop there. The inside of the Cart is much bigger than the outside - in fact, the inside seems to be an RV. The shelves lining the walls are stocked with various goods, some of which are fake and some of which are real. The whole Cart is surrounded by a mostly-invisible, dark, flickering shield, thanks to a black dragon scale hung just inside the door.
At the back of the Cart, if you were to ever go in, are the Merchant's private quarters. It's a small room, with a queen-sized bed, a small chest of clothes, a black box on the nightstand containing various... things (you really don't want to know the specifics), and a shelf on the wall with a few magick books. The Merchant is looking for donations; most of his collection was destroyed when the Black Dragon burned down the Cart.
The wares themselves are fake at best and dangerous at worst. Don't let this guy try to sell you "actual" scarabs without making sure they aren't spray painted first, or the dragon egg that turned out to be an ostrich egg. And who could forget the "phoenix" feathers that were just goose feathers dyed orange? Despite that, there's almost always something real. There's a paintbrush (whatever you paint with it comes to life), an orb that turns the user invisible, and every once in a while, a jar or two of essence of Sol.
Aside from that, the Merchant himself is a great source of information. With contacts all over the world and more knowledge of local legends than the Headmaster himself, this is definitely a handy man to know.
As long as you can pay the price, anyway.
Welcome to the Merchant's Cart!
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:13 pm
 Mυиα Neנeм 「Yєαя 3」 Lυcιαηxxxxx╳ sᴛᴀᴛᴜs﹕ υɴ-cυrѕed
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
⒈"Speak" ⒉Thoughts ⒊'ASL (Sign Language)' ⒋Paper pad
「Halloween. The night air felt crisp and damp against the back of Muna's neck, jacket only partially protecting him from the way chill was creeping into his body. Muna rubbed his arms in annoyance. Living in NYC for a good majority of his life had led him to become very accustomed to cold weather, but he had never been a big fan of it. His heels clicked silently against the stone of Justus' paved pathways as he approached the cart, rubbing the skin full of slowly rotating farsi in the hopes that it might make him feel more warm.
Once he had made it there, Muna knocked on the door briefly. Had it been any other day, Muna would have probably just gone it, but it was Halloween. There was a very high chance that Merchant had something better to do than hang out with a loser kid, but coming to his boss had never done him any harm before. There was always a good chance that Merchant was sitting and doing his finances or something.
Muna sorely hoped that Merchant was spending the night mostly unoccupied. The third year was entirely sure that the older man was the only one he could stand to be around right now. Sometimes being a Lucian just sucked s**t.
Scarlett was going to chew his ear off later, but as it was he didn't particularly care. There were just too many reasons stopping him from going.
A breeze passed by. Muna trembled a little. Please let this irresponsible adult be inside, He mentally pleaded.」
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:38 pm
 Ｔｈｅ Ｍｅｒｃｈａｎｔ
xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxsᴇʟʟᴇʀ ᴏғ ϙᴜᴇsᴛɪᴏɴᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛs
▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
Of course the gross man was home.
Halloween was always slow business, probably because there were more cop cars out than usual. Merchant's plans for the night had been to go out, maybe drink with Xander, call Marianne to see if she wanted to come for a movie marathon, et cetera. Merchant didn't really care for Halloween, but he did care for the business it brought, so he was busy scribbling clearance tags for all the Halloween-themed merchandise he still had.
A knock at the door - that was unusual. Merchant hadn't called anyone, and he wasn't expecting anyone. His sign was turned to CLOSED, so it wasn't a customer. (And if it was, it was a stupid one.) Sighing, Merchant got up to go deal with who he was assuming was probably a cop. That is, until he opened the door.
"Look, Officer, this s**t's all perfectly lega-- oh. Kid." Merchant blinked and looked at the kid, in his fancy costume. ********' stylish as usual, but didn't the school have a Halloween party? Looked like the kid was skipping out. Why, Merchant didn't know, but that was Muna's business and it was up to him to tell Merchant or not.
At any rate, it was ********' cold and Merchant wasn't about to hold the door open for longer than he had to. "C'mon in, kid," he said, stepping aside to let Muna in. "That costume must be ********' freezing. Tea?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:52 pm
Mυиα Neנeм 「Yєαя 3」 Lυcιαηxxxxx╳ sᴛᴀᴛᴜs﹕ υɴ-cυrѕed
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
⒈"Speak" ⒉Thoughts ⒊'ASL (Sign Language)' ⒋Paper pad
「Relief quickly made Muna's shoulders relax as Merchant answered the door. He gave his boss a quick nod upon being offered tea, rushing inside to throw himself onto his favorite spot on the couch.
There was a 'whumpf' as Muna landed belly first, and he lied motionless for a moment before slowly crunching himself up into a corner. Merchant's cart was decently warm, but the heat was still taking a while to sink into his bones. What a great idea it had been to wear a sleeveless jacket.
'hope you werent doing anything important' Muna signed, taking a moment to slip off his heels before bringing his feet up on the couch. He decided not to add in the part where he was trying to avoid school, figuring that much was obvious and that it might make Merchant feel guilty if he had made plans prior to Muna showing up out of nowhere. 'i can like leave or smth if you need me to no bigy' 」
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 4:42 pm
Ｔｈｅ Ｍｅｒｃｈａｎｔ
xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxsᴇʟʟᴇʀ ᴏғ ϙᴜᴇsᴛɪᴏɴᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛs
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Merchant put the kettle on and opened the cupboard, tossing Muna a few tea bags to let him pick which he wanted. The kid looked like he was freezing his a** off, so Merchant prodded Jack until the drowsy man got up to go retrieve a spare blanket from the back. Merchant hoped Jack found a clean one.
'Nah, kid, you're all good,' he signed back, trying to make Muna a little more comfortable, because the kid was giving him a really bad vibe and he didn't like it. (Plus he needed to practice anyway.) 'My plans were to drink and watch shitty Halloween flicks with Mari if she was around, but that can be changed to watching shitty Halloween flicks with you.'
The world quite suddenly went dark, and it took Merchant a second to figure out that Jack had draped the blanket over him. By the time he'd yanked it off and tossed it to Muna, the half-elf had dozed off again on the other couch. Merchant grumbled something about useless assholes and turned back to Muna. It ain't exactly my business, but I gotta ask. 'If you're here in that getup then you're either skipping or working overtime and I doubt it's the second one. Something up?'
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:29 pm
Mυиα Neנeм 「Yєαя 3」 Lυcιαηxxxxx╳ sᴛᴀᴛᴜs﹕ υɴ-cυrѕed
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
⒈"Speak" ⒉Thoughts ⒊'ASL (Sign Language)' ⒋Paper pad
「 Muna let the tea bags fall into his lap, staring at them for a moment before selecting what he had figured was probably some sort of black tea. He tossed it back to Merchant after the other had finished signing, giving Jack a little absentminded wave as his eyes watched Merchant's hands.
'yeah ngl im in need of some shitty halloween flicks' He replied. Muna caught the blanket this time, a little amused at the amount of tossing and catching that was currently going on. Muna paused to wrap it around his shoulders, trembling beginning to cease. He was beginning to look a bit more comfortable, and after a moment of wrestling Muna managed to adjust himself so only his hands popped out of the blanket.
'skipping' Muna's hands paused as his mind automatically worked on a way to dodge Merchant's question. Then he frowned. Merchant was probably one of the only people in his life who wasn't constantly pushing him for answers in some way or another, and consequently Muna found himself actually wanting to tell the man things. 'I didn't want to waste the outfit and I figured today was the only day I could use it' He added in as to explain why he had bothered dressing up in the get up.
Well, time to get to the point.
'had a fight again'」
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Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 9:26 pm
Ｔｈｅ Ｍｅｒｃｈａｎｔ
xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxsᴇʟʟᴇʀ ᴏғ ϙᴜᴇsᴛɪᴏɴᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛs
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Merchant deftly caught the chosen tea bag and dropped it into a waiting mug. He watched the kid get settled in, watching him talk. Muna's sign language was pretty damn fluid, and it was kind of neat to watch. IInstead of saying anything, Merchant just watched Muna's hands, spelling words with the flick of a wrist and the curl of a finger.
A fight, huh. Merchant couldn't really say that he was surprised. The tension between Muna and his friends had been so thick lately he could practically see it. The kettle started whistling, so he took it off the heat and poured the water. It gave him another minute to think about what to say.
"Alright," Merchant finally said, speaking aloud considering his hands were full. "Don't expect me to cover your a**, kid. Like I said before, it'd be pretty nasty if the Council found out I was squatting here." He set the mug of tea on the table next to Muna and dragged the wastebasket over for the teabag. "Keepin' the outfit was a good call, though. You look pretty stylish for a night of cheesy Halloween movies."
True to his word, Merchant had a stack of terrible-looking Halloween movies rented, sitting on the desk. Merchant selected one at random. "The Gingerdead Man," he read aloud. "Sounds ********' awful. I'll make popcorn." He moved to the pantry to pick out a bag or two. (Or, in Jack's case, a whole damn box.) "While we wait, you wanna talk about this fight or nah?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:51 pm
Mυиα Neנeм 「Yєαя 3」 Lυcιαηxxxxx╳ sᴛᴀᴛᴜs﹕ υɴ-cυrѕed
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
⒈"Speak" ⒉Thoughts ⒊'ASL (Sign Language)' ⒋Paper pad
「 Merchant didn't look surprised. Well, that was to be expected. Muna was pretty sure everyone had been waiting for the tipping point. Honestly he himself had known that things would have to eventually happen this way.
'yeah dont worry I didnt think you would lmao' Muna signed, giving a little snort at Merchant's warning. Like Muna would ever ask anyone to cover his a** in the first place. He took his punishments as they came, no matter how unwarranted or how over the top they might be. That was simply the way Muna had been conditioned to be. 'thanks dont tell anyone I actually wore it b/c it's supposed to be matching with Shanta and End'
Muna paused to take a sip of his tea, peering at the cover of the video Merchant had selected. There was a life sized gingerbread man with an evil grin and a blood splattered knife. The third year could only expect the best. A slight huff of air escaped him at Merchant's comment, an amused expression crossing his face but quickly falling flat at Merchant's offer.
There was a long silence before Muna gave a long sigh and pushed himself forward from the couch. 'why not' He signed, placing the tea cup on the table. 'it's not like Im going to talk about it with anyone else.' Muna quickly took another sip of his tea, feeling horribly anxious for a second. He wasn't exactly in the habit of...telling people things. Especially about himself.
(It was moments like these when Bijan would flicker to the front of his mind, and Muna still felt a nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach.)
'ok well basically we haven't really been hanging out as much as we used to right. well vivian has a little sister idk if you knew but she has one and I sorta became friends with her because life is a big steaming shitpile of irony. anyways' Muna paused to take a sip of his tea, waiting for Merchant to process what he had signed before continuing. 'anyways shanta and end have been hanging out with their housemates more and I started going out a lot with Violet right cause we got closer but the thing is I didn't tell Shanta and End that I was doing it cause like...the first day we met Violet and realized she was Vivian's sister their reaction to the whole situation was kind of disgusting and made me feel a bit estranged I guess
and anyways I was mysteriously disappearing over the course of the week despite me like...going out to work 24/7 anyways and I guess Shanta was kinda irritated despite her and End never really going out of their way to tell ME what they're up to you know? and SO basically I was sort of ducking out of telling them I was friends with violet and hanging out w/ her because I knew they would react bad
and they followed me and found out I met violet and long story cut short basically Shanta and End had this whole argument about me doing something bad any questions b/c my hands are tired and you've probably lost track of my signing by now'」
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Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:38 pm
Ｔｈｅ Ｍｅｒｃｈａｎｔ
xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxsᴇʟʟᴇʀ ᴏғ ϙᴜᴇsᴛɪᴏɴᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛs
▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
Pop, pop, pop.
Beep.
The popcorn finished, but Merchant didn't get up to retrieve it. He'd been watching Muna intently - or rather, his hands. The kid moved those things so fast if Merchant didn't concentrate he'd miss out on every other word. It was fortunate he'd been studying up, or else he never would've been able to get the full story.
And bow howdy, was he lucky he'd listened, because otherwise Merchant would have been completely ******** lost. "Jesus Christ," he muttered, and then he switched back to sign. 'Alright, so let me get this straight.
The blondie that kicked it has a sister who now goes here, and you started hanging with her because the punk and the boytoy have been chilling with their housemates more than you, and you didn't tell 'em because you figured they'd react badly. And then they found out and did react badly. So boytoy and punk are pissed at you because you didn't tell them about what you were doing and you're pissed at them because they reacted just like you thought they would plus they haven't been hanging with you as much so you feel... estranged from them? Plus there's the whole deal with blondie's sister, whom both of them seem wary of but you don't see the point in blaming her for what blondie did.'
Merchant stopped long enough to slip the DVD into the player and dropped onto the couch next to Muna, offering him a bag of popcorn. 'That really sucks, kid. Sorry you gotta deal with all this s**t. You know what you're gonna do next?'
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Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 3:14 pm
Mυиα Neנeм 「Yєαя 3」 Lυcιαηxxxxx╳ sᴛᴀᴛᴜs﹕ υɴ-cυrѕed
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
⒈"Speak" ⒉Thoughts ⒊'ASL (Sign Language)' ⒋Paper pad
「 'it's not that I'm upset that they're not hanging out with me -- well yeah I kinda am but thats not like...the big thing I guess. and you're right about everything else but that's not quite enough to push me over the edge like I am now it's just '
Muna leaned back against the sofa, eyes fluttering shut for a moment as Merchant brought the popcorn out. 'my entire life has been nothing but people assuming how I feel and making my choices for me
and I thought after everything we had gone through Shanta and End would be the last two people to act like that
but. they did
Muna quickly shoved another mouthful of popcorn into his face, chewing fast to ignore the fuzzy feeling starting in the front of his chest. 'shanta not even letting me get a word in, end instantly guessing why I did the things I did and assuming he's gotten the entire gist of it when he's really only scratched the surface, both of them assuming that they have the authority to butt into the things I choose to tell them I'm not doing and tell me whether it's okay or not'
Muna paused in his signing, giving Merchant a moment to catch up as he sipped his tea. It was going a bit cold now, but he had warmed up enough to let the blanket cover less of his skin. 'of course Im gonna get upset, you know? especially when they were arguing right in front of my face about something I had done without even bothering to include me because they've gotten so stuck in their habit of--'
"--'Lways arguing." Muna finished in a hiss, voice raspy. He quickly cleared his throat, taking another handful of popcorn and shoving it in his face. He was staring resolutely at the t.v screen, eyes shining just a bit suspiciously. Muna's throat worked for a second and he gave a little sniff, quickly drinking down the rest of his tea.
'im not going to do anything. they can argue just the same without me trying to get in the middle of it and thanks to me not telling them s**t they can stop pretending like there isn't a giant a** rift in between us' Muna sniffled. 'pretending like I could play mediator was beginning to be a pain in the a** anyways so whatever' He signed grumpily, wiping his fingers on his coat out of spite towards the fabric. 」
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Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 6:38 pm
Ｔｈｅ Ｍｅｒｃｈａｎｔ
xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxsᴇʟʟᴇʀ ᴏғ ϙᴜᴇsᴛɪᴏɴᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛs
▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
Merchant was silent for a little bit. He turned on the TV and sat through previews of other shitty Halloween movies (consisting of bad editing that looked like a fifth-grader's PowerPoint) until the menu finally popped up. It looks like someone sneezed all over Photoshop. Perfect.
"Well, kid," he finally said, "I hate to sound like an adult, but s**t's not gonna get better if you sit and do nothing. I mean, all of you ******** up pretty bad. Shanta and End didn't consider your feelings, sounds like, and they've been wrapped up in themselves arguing about who the ******** knows. And you," he continued, pointing at Muna, "didn't tell 'em their arguments bothered you, and you didn't tell 'em that you were hanging with blondie's sister either." He paused to eat some popcorn. "Think I've seen her around town - the elf with the purple eyes? She looks pretty harmless, but d'you think they know that? Considerin' how s**t went down before, I don't blame 'em for being wary."
Merchant absently thumbed to the settings menu, selecting Spanish subtitles out of habit. "And you're really gonna hate hearing this, kid, but you ain't gonna get anywhere if you don't tell people if you're upset about something. And you don't have Bijan to do the talking for you anymore. Gotta figure out how to do it on your own. It's hard as hell, yeah, but there ain't a rule that says you can't lean on others for support. Like yours ********' truly."
Merchant paused for more popcorn and looked at the kid. "But you don't need me to tell you this, do you, Muna?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:42 pm
Mυиα Neנeм 「Yєαя 3」 Lυcιαηxxxxx╳ sᴛᴀᴛᴜs﹕ υɴ-cυrѕed
▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
⒈"Speak" ⒉Thoughts ⒊'ASL (Sign Language)' ⒋Paper pad
「 Muna had gotten the distinct feeling he had said too much. There was a childish part of him that disliked what Merchant was saying, that wanted to argue with the adult and justify his actions. He knew better, though. Muna knew he had made mistakes, and he knew that no matter how much justifying he tried to pull out it wasn't going to change the negative impact his choices had made.
He didn't like what Merchant was saying, but what was the truth if not hard to swallow? The third year had spilled his guts out to his boss for the exact reason that he trusted Merchant not to fill his brain up with useless comforts. The line about Bijan visibly stung, and for a second Muna's lips pressed tightly together.
'no' He admitted after a moment. 'you don't'
In the end, he had just been avoiding acknowledging it. It was easier to stay angry like that. Being angry isn't going to solve anything, though.
Muna didn't know to do. Despite his whining of playing mediator the boy had been taking an admittedly passive role in the midst of Shanta and End's feuds. Maybe that was time to change.
Not now, though. For now Muna leaned back and focused his attention on the giant gingerbread man taking up most of the screen. 'thanks' He signed after a moment's pause, tugging on Merchant's sleeve so the other would notice Muna's signing. Muna kept his focus strictly on the screen, avoiding glancing at Merchant's face. For a moment his hands began to start on what might have been a 'sorry', but it was never finished.
Merchant wasn't the one he needed to be apologizing to anyways. 」
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 8:49 am
Ｔｈｅ Ｍｅｒｃｈａｎｔ
xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxsᴇʟʟᴇʀ ᴏғ ϙᴜᴇsᴛɪᴏɴᴀʙʟᴇ ᴏʙᴊᴇᴄᴛs
▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂▂
Merchant really hated actually having to act like a responsible adult. Christ, he made his living through almost entirely legal ventures and the only reason he hadn't been arrested yet was because his girlfriend was on the organization out for his blood in the first place. That was one of the most un-responsible-adult things he could think of being. But at least what he'd said seemed to have some effect.
He hated being harsh, too, but when that was the nature of the truth that couldn't really be helped. (Besides, he hated sugarcoating the truth more.) "Didn't think so, kid," Merchant grunted, starting up the movie. The opening already had bad effects and he was pretty sure he could see the set in the corner. Perfect choice.
Merchant glanced down at Muna's hands when the boy tugged on his sleeve. He didn't say anything, though. He didn't have to. Merchant simply took another fistful of popcorn and returned his attention to the movie.
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