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 Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2012 5:25 pm
 A bard among the Stormborn was a lion who ought to be regarded with respect and carry an air of dignity about him. Bards were keepers of history as much as the lawspeakers were, as well as being keepers of legend in both song and story.
Unfortunately, Solvtorn was not a true bard. A true bard would have trained with the pride's lawspeakers for several seasons and then been apprenticed to another bard until that bard decided he was sufficiently educated. None of the pride's four bards had ever offered to take Solv on as an apprentice. Not even the female one.
Maybe this had something to do with the fact that Solv himself was sort of a figure of ridicule in the pride. He was no warrior and had managed through his utter ineptitude as a fighter to make himself into a perpetual victim for the reavers of his own age and a little older. And then others had seen that this was the way things were done and joined in. He hated them all except Gunnar.
Although Solv was not on his way to deal with reavers at the moment, he was still not a happy freeborn. His hat. His hat that he had won from Galning in epic battle. His magic anti-hangover hat. It wasn't working. He needed to have a crafter fix it. If it wasn't working, Solv just looked silly wearing it.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 12:07 am
 Talaitha could not understand most of the Freeborns. They were so strange. Those that did something like the bards or the crafters made sense, but the Freeborn females that Tal had encountered so far were not ones that did something, unless you counted ordering around Thralls. Perhaps some day she would make some kind of sense of the others that shared her rank. She really doubted it, though. The lioness had other things to worry about anyway. Things like crafting were there to occupy her mind and time. Tal got her brain back on task and looked down at the cloak she was working on. Lesedi had certainly brought in a fine pelt to be made into a cloak. It did not surprise her from the male Reaver. He had a fine eye and good taste when it came to what he wished to put on his body. There were a few things she had made for him so far with things he had brought to her. This cloak was going to take the longest by far. Tal's own cloak, a black leopard pelt, draped over her back as she worked. It might not be THAT cold, but she liked the look of the cloak and it did a nice job of advertising her skill as a crafter.
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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:14 pm
"You can't possibly be cold," Solv observed as he came upon a freeborn he knew made herself out to be a crafter.
He was pretty sure she was an outlander, so maybe that had something to do with her evident susceptibility to the brisk climate of the Myrsky Syntynyt stronghold. He didn't really like outlanders all that much, but they were generally more inclined to like him than lions who were trueborn Stormborn, not having observed him growing up.
"Did you fashion the pelt yourself?"
As a bard, Solv knew there was a distinction between making something and fashioning something. She obviously had not made the pelt. The credit for that must go to the leopard to whom it had once belonged. Or perhaps his parents. She had made something out of it though, and that something wasn't bad-looking. He began to have hope for his hat.
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Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 2:39 pm
Tal heard the approach but did not look up from her work. She had so much to do on this cloak that she did not want to lose time looking at random passerby. It was not as if she had to have the cloak done by a certain day or time, but she wanted to get it done quickly for Lesedi so he could wear it around the pride. He trusted her to make something that would make him look more imposing, then she certainly needed to make him feel the trust was well placed. The lioness would be working on it for sometime she was sure, but at least it would be perfect when it was done.
The voice addressing her took her by surprise. Not many spoke to her. She looked up and eyed the male that was standing so close watching her. Her tone was kind her voice was sweet, but Tal had been gaining a little steel in it. "Of course I am not cold. I simply like the way this looks. I did indeed fashion this cloak myself." She smiled at the male. "I thank you for taking notice of my work. What brings you to speak with me today?" She made note of the zebra that the male had in his possession, but thought nothing of it. He might be bringing it to her for some reason, or he might just like having the thing around. It was best not to assume anything.
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Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:49 pm
"And so, because you're not cold, you're obviously not working on a second cloak for yourself," Solv reasoned with a smirk. He was feeling smug and pleased with himself for no particularly good reason.
He stood there without saying anything else for several moments even after she asked him what brought him to speak to her. As far as he was concerned, Solv thought the answer to her question ought to be obvious. He was wearing a zebra head on his own head. The zebra's head had flowers coming out of its nostrils. Obviously he was having difficulties with that.
"It doesn't look as though what you're working is anything out of the ordinary as cloaks go, but how are you at fixing bespelled accessories?"
Likely he would have to talk to a priestess about getting the hat to work as it was supposed to, but if a crafter could take care of it for him, that would be better. Solv was very reluctant to bring something as frivolous as his hat to the attention of a priestess except as a last resort.
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Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2012 8:09 pm
Tal nodded to what the male said and let him have his silence for a bit. He would get around to what he wanted eventually. She was in no hurry to get rid of him or anything. Besides she could listen and work at the same time. Depending on what she was doing, she could even speak and work jointly. When he spoke, her suspicions about his hat were brought back up. So he WAS here about that zebra head. Why anyone would want to make THAT into a hat, she wasn't sure, but to each their own. Bespelled? Usually that kind of thing she would let to a priestess or a god, but perhaps there was something simple she might be able to do for him.
"If it is already bespelled... perhaps I can do something for it. Tell me a big about your accessory. What is it supposed to do? Is there anything out of place you noticed on it regarding its original appearance compared to its current appearance? I have heard that these things can cause spells to not work as they should, and something with appearance I can easily fix." Tal was very sure of her ability when it came to making things look nice or fixing something so that it would function as it was intended... it was just magic she wasn't too sure on. Her confidence would hopefully put the male at ease, though.
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Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:34 pm
"Well, it's this hat," he said, cocking his head so that the zebra's tongue lolled over one of his eyes. "It's supposed to prevent me from getting hangovers, and it's not working anymore."
Solv was not sure about this outlander's qualifications. She didn't exactly exude confidence now that he had mentioned the nature of his difficulty. He shouldn't have been surprised by that though. After all, it was a magical difficulty and she was just a freeborn, and an outlander at that. She probably didn't even know the right kind of magics or how to invoke the gods and spirits of the pride or anything.
"I'm not crazy," he told her firmly. "I had to answer riddles to win it from its first owner and everything. So I obtained it fairly and according to the rules. Maybe it's the flowers? They look a little droopy."
Actually they looked quite dead.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 11:50 am
Tal listened closely to what the male could tell her of the hat. She wanted to know as much as she could before she took on such a project. Her sweet nature might have made her seem a bit under confident to most of the pride, but she certainly thought she could help this male with his problem. "I never said you were crazy, now did I? Take a deep breath. One really must know what an item has done and is supposed to do, before attempting to change anything. I would not want to get anyone cursed by messing with an item in the wrong way." Ah, her old friend logic. When put in with her sweet voice it usually calmed the other party. Not always, but it was always worth a try. Tal looked the hat over with a close eye and then nodded. "The flowers do indeed look quite dead. How did the flowers look when you got it? I have a few flowers here that look to be the same and are fresh, but if this is the problem you are going to have to replace the flowers regularly." The lioness put her project to the side and went into her den. She came out with a basket of flowers of all kinds. She had managed to get one of the Thralls to cooperate long enough to pick them that morning. That had been a fight and a half too.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 12:19 pm
"That is true," he allowed, taking a deep breath, as advised. In hindsight, that wasn't such a good idea, given that her den was filled with crafting supplies, some of which did not smell so good.
"Er. Blurry," he answered truthfully. He'd been drunk at the time. "But also less dead."
She hadn't said he was crazy so far, but Solv knew how his explanation must sound. In fact, now that he was sober, he was not entirely convinced that the whole idea of a magic anti-hangover hat wasn't more than a little bit ridiculous. Which was part of why he felt so defensive about the whole thing. He also couldn't remember if it was an idea he had conceived of while drunk, or whether it was just the acquisition of the hat which had taken place while inebriated, and he had perhaps heard of the hat's magical properties at some other time. It would have been nice to believe that he'd heard the hat was magical when he wasn't drunk.
"I think I can remember to do that."
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 12:41 pm
Tal nodded at the male's answer and started picking out flowers that matched the dead ones in the hat. She was going to do this and if it did not work she was sending him to a priestess to get it reblessed. "Well then, we shall change out the dead flowers and have you try it for a few days. The hat itself does not look as if it has been used hard... but if this does not fix the problem I suggest having one of the priestess' rebless the hat. Magic can wear off after all." She pulls out flowers very carefully and replaces them with fresh ones, making sure to anchor them so that they do not fall out.
The lioness was very efficient with her work, making the most of her skill in the shortest time possible. She hated to make someone wait longer than they had to because she got lazy or did something out of order thus taking more time. She might have been a little bit of a perfectionist in her own way, but she also took into account another's time. When she had the flowers replaced, she looked at the male. "There, does anything look out of place?" She wanted to make sure the male had not missed something earlier that he remembered now.
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:11 pm
Solv considered carefully what he heard the freeborn saying to him. He was hungover, or else he wouldn't be here at all, but it seemed to him that she was suggesting that he go out and get smashed again so that he could test the efficacy of the adjustments she was making to his hat. Sometimes life was just so hard.
"It looks all right to me," he said. "Thanks. I'll give it a go later on. I don't think it's meant to take care of preexisting hangovers. I think it's more to stop them from happening before they happen. Like...a preventative charm."
Also the more sober he got the less Solv wanted to be seen wearing this hat. By the light of day and with a killer headache, it looked like the sort of thing to inspire the worst sort of nightmares. For a moment he had an idea that maybe Galning had let it go too easily, and that there was a reason for that, but he dismissed it quickly. It did not do to doubt the hat.
He took it back and restored it to its precarious perch on his head, just in case it wasn't just a preventative hat. Then he turned around carefully and went in search of Gunnar. After all, he didn't want to get smashed all alone. Where would be the fun in that?
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Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:23 pm
Tal watched the male Freeborn leave and wondered over the hat. It was so ugly, even if it did what he said it should, who would want to wear such a thing? She had a feeling HE even saw it as ugly. Oh well, it could be worse, she guessed. Tal could not make sense of some of the members of her pride so she was just going to have to leave it be. Besides, she had a project to get back to. Strange Freeborns, if you asked her, but then Lesedi might say it was she that was the strange Freeborn, even though he liked that about her. Ah Lesedi, now there was someone that made sense.
Tal turned back to the cloak for Lesedi. There was much to do and she didn't have time to waste worrying over a strange Freeborn. Tal got her paws and teeth back to work on the cloak and her mind eased away it's distraction in the familiar rhythm of her task. It was much easier to lose herself in her crafting than worry over odd things. There were a lot of odd things for one to worry over if they went to that, and she just did not see the sense of wasting her time on it. Work to do, people to make happy, and Thralls to avoid if possible. Stupid Thralls.
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