quest ( closed )

[nomnoms]

Who: Michael and Nanaue
When: September
Where: Tertiary Settlement
What: Convincing people to wear ugly masks!
Warnings: Manshark thinks about eating people sometimes

Comments

[nomnoms]

Nanaue grins wide beneath his mask, which he also turns on the villager.

Baby, helpfully, lifts both arms (flippers) out toward the man, again wanting uppies.

"TRADE MASK, HOLD BABY!"

Clearly, a trade even better than just the mask. He starts to take his own lumpy mask off, and holds it out to the poor, confused man.

"TRAAAAADE..." he repeats again, in case there is any confusion.

[familysucks]

Between being boxed in by a loud sharkman and an angel with an unrelenting grip, and now being asked for uppies by the most oddly-shaped (but also cutest) child in Solvunn, the man appears frozen in place by confusion. Luckily Michael is there to keep things moving by loosening the strings that hold his mask in place.

"That sounds like more than a fair deal."

Not really. Michael remains suspicious of Baby's power to manipulate emotion—but when it's not being used against him, it's an advantage to leverage. Maybe they'll offer Baby first, next time. Immobilize their prospective trade partner with complacency and simply slip the mask from them.

Those are thoughts for later. Right now, Michael snatches the mask away and moves over, making room for Nanaue to fit his probably still slightly-wet ghost mask on the man's face.

[nomnoms]

How well they work together! Nanaue laughs to himself as he moves to tie the twine of the lumpy mask around the back of the villager's head - now absolutely frozen in fear. Having used slightly too much clay, the weight of it is fairly uneven. This must be the intention of the artist.

With that done, he makes good on his promise and scoops up Baby, shoving the little seal child into the man's arms - who is forced to take it out of fear of dropping the creature. Baby sits placidly in the cradle of his arms, and - oddly enough, that does seem to make the man calm down.

"He's so soft..." the man remarks, attempting to look down at the baby seal through the mask that does not fit his face at all.

Nanaue nods to him, then nods at Michael, before placing the much smaller mask on top of his head. Like a hat.

"GOOD TRADE!"

[familysucks]

Whatever the intention of the artist, the mask is certainly serving its purpose. A lump of clay drips from the heavier side, the one already sliding low on the man's cheek. He has perhaps an hour of wear time left if he's very, very gentle with it. Perfect.

Michael spares a glance at Nanaue. Does it count as wearing the mask if he's treating it as another garment entirely? He decides not—and anyway, he's not devoted to following the Elders' commands to the letter. That's for the locals. They'll get the odd mask when Nanaue tires of it, which should be by the time they get back to the inn.

"Good trade," he concurs.

He watches the man, now petting Baby in silence, wondering at the softness of his fur. He does not seem inclined to put him down any time soon. There's a soft thwump, the sound of whacking someone with a feather pillow though no such pillow has materialized, and the man startles back to his surroundings.

"Ah, thank you both." He hands the seal back to Nanaue then puts his hands to the mask, an uncertain smile on his face. It's from the Summoned so surely it must be a good trade, right?

He turns and heads away in the direction he'd been headed before the two can level any new offers at him.

Michael turns to Nanaue again and motions at his new hat.

"The Elders will want to see that. Let's show them."

[nomnoms]

Nanaue takes Baby back, enjoying the warm feeling he gets from holding him each and every time.

"WINGS... HEHEHE..."

This is probably a secret, but it's okay. The man seems confused and probably doesn't understand what he means.

As they turn and Michael reminds him of their actual mission (one that seems to have slipped his mind entirely) he nods, dumbly, and offers it to his brother-friend, Baby remaining cradled in the crook of his other arm.

"BAD MASK?"

That was what it was about? The details are obviously... beyond him.

[familysucks]

His wings aren't a secret Michael makes an effort to keep. They aren't something the average person can see, so it's simply easier not to mention them. Angel isn't a term that means much to the locals. It's the leviathan jaws he prefers to keep under wraps—thankfully, the man gave him no occasion to use them.

Michael's used to being responsible for keeping sight of the goal. Nanaue loses focus more easily than others but he's also less argumentative than most about being put back on track, so all is forgiven.

"Bad mask." He turns it over in his hands. Nothing about it strikes him as particularly cursed. "Or bad magic, or bad materials. That's for the elders to figure out."