RP Everyone Anywhere and Else *Me (Thestarjar) and That Guy*

[thestarjar]

"Yeah, exactly! This place looks abandoned, anyway." Or so it seemed from a distance. She continued slowly moving forward with him until they were right at the edge of where the strange houses started. "Hmm," Theida mumbled, staring ahead at a still-burning fire over which a large metal... Bowl? Pot? Larger than any she'd ever seen was hanging.

 

[That Guy]

"I...guess only fire lives here now?" Hother moved closer; enough to get a better view, but not so much as to charge straight in. "This is...different."

 

[thestarjar]

"But... Even if that fire was supported by a rune, it'd wear out eventually," Theida said. "Maybe they had infinite-fire magic. Do you think that's why they left?" She eyed the wall of the building they were next to. It seemed like it might be flammable, probably. "To find somewhere with less flammable stuff?"

 

[That Guy]

"So..." Hother inclined his head, thinking. "...So whatever they're using the fire for must be pretty important, right?"

 

[thestarjar]

"Yeah. What even is that?" She went a few steps closer to the thing above the fire, which didn't mean much at this distance. It did, however, mean that she had to get back on the ground due to the lack of trees. "Wait, the whole ground's muddy! Why would they need to move somewhere less flammable if the ground's already all gross and wet!?"

 

[That Guy]

"Maybe it's...the wrong kind of wet..?" he tried, with no conviction whatsoever. "...No idea."

 

[thestarjar]

"No, water isn't flammable. That's not a thing," she said definitively. "Anyway, what's in the house things? It's not a crime to go into houses if nobody lives there anymore, is it?"

 

[That Guy]

He cast one last look around, a look of worry making itself evident.
"I suppose not. And it's not like we mean any harm, anyway..."

 

[thestarjar]

"Exactly! We're just exploring an empty place. It's no different from walking through an empty field," Theida said. She walked up to the nearest door and looked at Hother, and despite her presented confidence, she was glad she wasn't able to be the one to open it.

 

[That Guy]

As he approached the door, one last whine, reluctant in every sense, escaped him, then he reached up to open it.
"...Yeah!" he suddenly almost-barked. "It's just a house, right? What are we so afraid of?"
With newly-bolstered spirits, he opened the door and as good as marched inside.

 

[thestarjar]

Theida walked behind him, stopping before she crossed the threshold, as though doing so would end up trapping them inside.

The house itself was empty of people, from what she could see (and it looked like most of the house was visible from just the front door). The place was in disarray. "Looks like whoever lived here didn't even clean up before they left," Theida said. But then again, why would they, if they weren't planning to come back?

 

[That Guy]

"Well...Maybe..?" Hother was barely able to even think about how that conjecture was going to end, let alone voice it, before he cut himself off. Something sounded...what was the word? Imminent?

Sure enough, the sound of impatient feet rang out from what extraneous part of the house wasn't immediately visible, then something just out of sight shifted, and a shape emerged from beyond it, striding restlessly into view, and reaching its full height as it did-- a good several feet more than Hother, and every inch of it intimidating. There was some juxtaposition, though, between its harshly-scaled hide, plethora of teeth-- far more than any living being had a right to, Hother thought--and yellow, untrusting eyes; and its almost-scholarly attire: a dark, unassuming robe, and a modest, practical pair of spectacles straddling its snout.

"I don't have time for this," it sounded like it was mumbling, albeit with an accent unlike anything resembling the familiar. "Those ingredients cost three whole days to gather, and some tiny intruders aren't worth letting 'em go to waste..."
Hother tensed as it approached, unable to formulate a coherent plan for what to do next-- leaving it to catch him all the more by surprise when the beast shuffled past, lightly pushing him to one side as it went, paying him and Theida no mind at all, beyond adding, mostly to itself, "See? Harmless..."

 

[thestarjar]

Theida stared with possibly the widest eyes she'd ever had in her life at this monster, this terrifying beast who was talking and doing things and what's going on, wasn't this place abandoned. She was familiar with griffins of a similar size, but this was far more rough-looking than any griffin. Once it had passed by the pair and was at least a small distance away from them, Theida came partially out of her trance. She spoke in a rather loud, urgent hiss-whisper, perhaps not entirely out of the stranger's earshot. "What is that? What is that?"

 

[That Guy]

It cast one last look back at the pair of them, wearing a look of disinterest, almost apathy, and general dismissiveness.
Hother's tail had already set to wagging with a curious mix of excitement, anticipation, and nerves.
"I guess we were right, then; there are--"

Before he could get another word out, a shrill ringing cut across, causing him to flatten his ears posthaste. It would seem the creature from before had gone to tend the metal pot they had passed on the way in, and was currently smacking the side of it with an implement not unlike what Hother would recognise as a common ladle.
"It's fine," it-- he, Hother settled on until proven otherwise; the voice sounded close enough to his definition of masculine, and calling it an "it" any longer felt insensitive-- called out, addressing some unseen entity. "There's only two of them, they're not armed, and they look pretty lost besides. Y'all can come out."

His message adequately relayed, he twirled the ladle around almost stylishly, bringing it back into the pot, and stirring it with what looked like much more concentration than should be called for.

 

[thestarjar]

Theida didn't recognize the stick-like tool the thing was using, but it seemed similar enough to some objects she'd seen in Hother's house. She began to figure it must just be a thing for bipeds to hold objects with their limbs.

Once the tall figure had called out, at least a half minute (that felt much longer) passed by before they heard some rustling around a few of the other residences. Several creatures came out, looking tentative. Some looked like the one currently stirring the odd liquid in the cauldron, but there were a few who looked like completely different creatures altogether. One of these different ones walked nervously up to the person-- person, right?-- at the cauldron, standing at less than half his height, with exposed skin that looked almost wet. He looked nervously at the two new arrivals as he spoke to the cauldron-stirrer. "Are you sure it's 'fine', Bristlecone? They look-" he lowered his voice- "They look really strange. Where did they even come from?"

 

[That Guy]

Bristlecone? Hother inclined his head. What a curious name.

"Of course it's fine." Bristlecone slowed his stirring to a pause, turned, and crouched so his eyes were more level with his interlocutor's. "By the looks of them, they're probably from far away, or else we'd recognise them, wouldn't we? Anyway, if they were dangerous, wouldn't they be trying to do something right now, instead of just...standing there, looking vacant?" He spared a glance towards Hother and Theida, then back. "Spindle, you worry too much. If they do turn out to be a threat, there's two of them, and a whole village of us, so..."

Without finishing his thought, he rose back up to his full height and resumed monitoring the bowl of concoction before him.

 

[thestarjar]

Theida looked around as more and more people came out of hiding. So it was indeed a fully-populated village that they'd intruded on, she mused, getting concerned about how they'd walked into a house and been entirely verbal about it.

The smaller one by the cauldron- Spindle, apparently- still looked anxious, but Bristlecone's words seemed to reassure him somewhat. "Yeah... You're right," he said, though he still didn't sound entirely convinced. "It'll probably be fine."

Getting antsy with so many strange people appearing, Theida took a hesitant step towards the cauldron, addressing the first being she'd seen in this town who wasn't her companion. "Uh, hey?" As soon as she spoke, Spindle turned with wide eyes in her direction. Apparently, he hadn't quite thought that the newcomers would engage with them. He didn't speak, instead glancing back at Bristlecone, the one she was looking at.

 

[That Guy]

Bristlecone turned his head and offered a half-smile, but, for the moment, didn't bring himself to abandoning the cauldron completely.
"Hey," he echoed, not mockingly, despite Hother's expectations, as the latter sidled towards the conversation for fear of isolation. "I'd ask how far you came to get here, but I reckon you probably don't have an answer for that."

 

[thestarjar]

"Hey," Theida awkwardly repeated once more. "Yeah, uh, really far. The better part of two days," she said, noticing now that the sun was starting to go down- not quite near sunset, but definitely a good ways past noon. "Just one day for him, though," she added, pointing to Hother with the end of her tail.

 

[That Guy]

He returned his gaze to the substance in the pot before him, almost appearing absent-minded.
"...So there's a good chance y'all'd've brought some supplies, if you were planning on travelling for so long, right?"