RP:I Do Not Think You A Mouse
Summary: It is the library that Meri finds Chekhu tonight. Their conversation starts out pleasantly enough, Chekhu gives Meri a gift, they discuss what brings Meri to the library, but the tone by the end is serious.
Library of Rynvale
This library has the feel of something royal, as if commissioned by the governor himself to help bring Rynvale to the forefront of all the cities of Hollow. Education, it appears, is a chief concern of the governor. The walls are lined with books of everything imaginable, only comparable to the selection at the Great Library of Cenril. To the north of the entrance is a magnificent staircase, made of the finest materials and the handrails inlaid with gold leafing as the steps pierce through the cathedral ceiling that bear the mural of a famous painter in Rynvale, Garretto the Blind.
Chekhu is moving here and there through the library, making as little noise as possible. It has been a couple of weeks since the attack on the city - for which the foxkin was mercifully not present - but the unease in the area is still palpable. Mutterings and harsh words, quick, furtive looks and hurried feet, all tell Chekhu a tale of a city still in some turmoil over its mortality. Why in the name of the gods she has returned here, over the deep salty sea she fears so much, is anyone's guess, but here she is, with firm ground beneath her booted feet and the smell of books strong in her sharp nose. "Hmm," she murmurs, eyes alighting upon a book far thicker than the others. She shifts a bag she is holding from one hand to the wrist of the other, then picks up the enormous book and squints at the cover. A snort of laughter, and she places the book back down. "Tax records?" she scoffs under her breath. "Why are people wanting to be reading those? Boring, and make little sense." She turns away, continuing to peruse the shelves, looking for something interesting...something fanciful, more like. Ever since learning how to read, Chekhu has become fascinated with the idea that people write down their stories, put them in one place and one form so that they never change; her people are fond of the oral method of storytelling, where each version of a given tale tends to spin a little differently than the last. The little bag she holds crackles occasionally as the foxkin brushes too close to a table here, a shelf there. There is something bulky in the bottom.
Meri admittedly is not the sort to come to a library without reason or purpose. It's not that she does not have an appreciation of knowledge, but most of the knowledge she gains is from first-hand experiences and conversations with other people more knowledgable in their subjects. Books were her fall back plan, or her default when she was not sure that she wanted to ask too many nosy questions about a subject that a tattoo artist probably should not be interested in. Chekhu is at the library awhile before Meri even arrives, but Meri does arrive. The librarian is ignored, for the same logic that Meri will be applying to most people in this building, the woman instead trying to browse the stacks for the subject she is after....but she looks more lost and confused than anything. Hands plant themselves upon the curves of her hips as blue eyes roam isle after isle until they land upon a particular Foxkin. "Hey!" she calls out in a volume that earns her one shush and one hard glare from the few faces that are present. Meri rolls her eyes and booted feet bring her straight over to Chekhu, greeting the Foxkin with a smile. Closer now, her voice becomes a whisper, "Hey, what brings you out here? You looking up anything in particular? Maybe want to try helping me look something up?" Meri likely could use help with this, even if she was unwilling to ask most faces due to a lack of trust. She liked Chekhu though.
Despite her naturally impulsive personality, Chekhu knows well enough to keep her voice down in a library; doing aught else is a very good way to get tossed out on your ear, after all. As such, she limits herself to a silent leaping tackle, which she halts with a snap of her spine and a twist of her body so that she lands directly in front of Meri instead of barrelling bodily into the other woman. "Right," she says in a stage-whisper, but her eyes are twinkling with merriment. "Not everyone should be pounced. No pouncing in libraries. I know, I know." Her laugh is low and throaty, a contrast from the usual yip her mirth takes. "Missed you, you know," she murmurs, taking a step back and raising the bag by one hand. "Been running around Rynvale thinking maybe I would find you, but I didn't. Didn't want to just drift around your shop, me. Perhaps not wise. Being on the move is best, I think. Anyway, here you are, and here I am, and here is gift for you!" Despite her caution, Chekhu is very pleased at being able to present a gift, and both the pronouncement and her thrusting of the little bag toward Meri are somewhat more forceful than they ought to be. Chekhu instantly squats down, hiding her scarlet head behind a shelf and essentially ducking out of sight, lest she receive the ire of the librarian or a nearby patron seeking quiet. From her newly lowered vantage, she whispers, "Looking for what? I am only learning to read not so long ago. Maybe I can help, maybe I can't. Will try though if you want me to."
Meri blinks when Chekhu just about pounces her as a hello! It did not at all seem like an aggressive gesture, that is not where Meri's surprise is stemmed from, it's just not the normal 'hello' that she is used to receiving. Ah well, Chekhu is part fox, Meri reasons. Gage pounces as well when he spies himself a Meri. "It is good to see you again too. I have been around the shop a bit, but I have also not. I met a drow that I call Bubbles, we were painting together outside of the shop a few days ago. I think you should meet her sometime too." Perhaps the foxkin and Iblis would get along, Meri had this hunch they might, perhaps because they both had the same wild qualities in their personalities. The issue of help is not addressed first, it cast aside all together, for it seemed rude to continue rambling on about her own plans and plots while she is receiving a gift. The bag gets her full and utmost attention, though she doesn't really pay the librarian much mind. Glare away woman, Meri is whispering! She is minding herself! Was it a no talking rule? Eeesh. Obviously Meri does not spend much time in libraries, she does not get the unspoken rules she should be following. The bag is opened and Meri finds....?
Within the bag is a box, wrapped neatly with red paper. When Meri should choose to unwrap it and open the box, she will find another, slightly smaller box, likewise wrapped, this time in blue. Within this box lies yet a third, without wrapping this time, and with a decidedly battered appearance. Resting inside this last box, nested on a cushion of black jeweler's velvet, is a peculiar thing, a necklace woven expertly from flowers and vines. It's an odd contrast, to be sure, this natural-looking necklace sitting where a ring or a bauble might otherwise be, but Chekhu beams. "Took me four days to weave," she says, flexing her stubby fingers. "Took the prettiest I could find, then had to throw some away because I knew they wouldn't suit you. No magic in the weaving, but no thorns in the wearing either. It should fit, if these eyes of mine are as keen as I think they are." She blinks owlishly at the necklace for a moment, then shakes her head. "But maybe gifting this thing was wrong? Fast? Unwanted?" She looks the slightest bit uneasy now, and shuffles her booted feet on the floor. "One thing I did was have a druid I know weave a keeping on it. Said to me a keeping makes sure it doesn't crumble or rot. Will always smell nice, like a forest. Will always have its bright colours." Chekhu falls silent, having gone apprehensive. Only now does she realize that her exuberance and her gift might both have been seen as presumptuous.
Meri would take the time to take out the box from within the bag, offering the bag back to Chekhu. From there Meri would hunker down right onto the library floor and proceed to open the red wrapping paper, the box, then the blue wrapping paper, then another box. By the time Meri gets to the third box there is a slight chuckle. Finally she sees what is within the final box, a lovely little necklace that seems so delicate. Given her knock for finding her way into trouble, it would most certainly be destroyed even if it does not rot or wither away as most flower necklaces do unless pressed dry. "Four days for you to make it by hand? It is very lovely and you are quite talented." Both compliment and fact, not everyone can successfully weave such delicate things together. Just like not everyone can sew. "And enchanted by a druid? You went through a lot of effort to make this gift."A beat. "Hm. Who is to say what is wrong or fast? That it a very complicated question, isn't it? But we've met a couple times now, have we not? So if it is a token of a friendship that you are giving me then I would be happy to accept it. I will keep it at the tattoo parlor, at my station, so that it does not get destroyed when I am out and about." Or you know, on a the deck of a ship hanging by a rope. Being eaten by spiders. THE SCORPIONS. Sigh.
"Not so much work, really. My fingers are clever, and the druid is a friend. A hermit. But keep it where you won't lose it, I would like that." Chekhu looks down between her feet, then back up, remembering Meri's earlier question. "You were asking about a thing to seek? What was that thing, Meri, hmm? Something dark? Something dangerous? Something fun?" The merry twinkle has returned to her eyes, and the foxkin must endeavour to keep her voice quiet lest her excitement show there, too. "I'm your friend. If you need help, I will help. Just don't ask me to kill anyone pretty, yes?" She chuckles softly to show that she's joking, but in her heart is a flutter of unease. Many things are worth doing, but the darkest are perhaps best avoided.
Meri did not fully believe that Chekhu was -entirely- joking, in the back of her mind, but it was not something that the blonde was going to dwell over. The mess Meri has made on the library floor is cleaned up to the best of her abilities, placing box back inside of box and tucking paper away within the empty spaces of those boxes. The flower necklace obviously gets placed back within its box, but that box is kept separate from the others. It is only when Meri is satisfied with the cleanup job that she reaches into her back pocket to pull out a small rune. It was held out for Chekhu to examine, and yes it would smell of magic, though likely nothing particularly old and ancient. Meri goes on to explain, "The person that I got this from says that....All I need to do is wave my hand over it and speak her name and that it would take me to wherever she is. If I am in a pinch, for example, and want to escape. This would just teleport me right on out of there. She makes it sound so simple, like it is all just about finding the right spell, and then bam. I feel like it is probably not so simple. I want to figure out a way to be able to do this without having to go back to her every time I need a new little rune thingie." In short, Meri is not sure she wants to depend on the person she got this from longterm, but it is sort of a useful spell, no? "Books are a good place to start? Maybe not the books in Rynvale though...I do not know. Have you seen any books on runes in Rynvale?"
Chekhu stares closely at the rune in Meri's hand, then flares her nostrils, extends her neck and sniffs at it. "Magic," she confirms, "so at least you will not be depending on something that is only a rock. There is magic here, though if it can make you go places, I do not know. Me, I know only little bits of magic. Like that keeping...the druid is teaching me, and I have learned a little. Some say too that my herbs and cures, they work better than they should. But they always have." Chekhu falls silent, considering. "There are two things that are worrying me, Meri. First, you trust a person to get you out of danger, and what if they only place you in more danger, or what if by rescuing you they make you feel tied to them somehow? Dangerous, those strings, I think. The other thing that worries me, it is the magic itself. Magic that can make a person disappear is mighty." She wrinkles her nose. "I think of you whisking away somewhere by calling her name, whoever she is, and I think of a fish on a line. I don't like it." She sighs. "But I said I would help, and I will. There are books on runes here. I was seeing a small one that looked old, and a larger one that seemed new. I remember where they both are. Do you want them? I am good at finding. I can run to them and bring them back to you before you know it." There is trouble in the young foxkin's eyes though. "I just hope that you are knowing what you do, Meri. Fish-lines have hooks on them."
Meri in all likeliness does not fully understand what she is attempting to trifle with or request. It could very well be that after much research she concludes that she cannot have what she wants without the aid of a powerful mage that she trusts. Meri does not trust easily. If she did she would not be sitting here trying to find alternatives for the gift given. "Yes," Meri confirms with a nod, indicating that Chekhu should find those books that she has in mind. While the foxkin scampers off to do this, Meri would chew on the thoughts she has been left with. The first bit that Chekhu had mentioned? That had crossed Meri's mind, lightly and in ways. She was trusting someone to get her out of danger and she had no idea if the magic would work, she only knew that there was indeed magic within that little rock. It would not be until Chekhu returns that Meri tries to brainstorm with her. "So what you are saying is that...This is the hook?" The little rune in Meri's hand. "And the line, to draw me back to the person who gave it to me. I guess with some fish that hook and line can be released but only at the bidding of whomever is reeling it in...." Who is to say that there is not some sort secondary hook and line attached to this rune that Meri is not even aware of. Maybe it is not just a simple teleportation spell. "I was told to use it in emergencies only...Though I just presumed it was so I would not be popping in all the time. I guess what I was hoping to accomplish...was much the same thing. Except I would rather be reeled into say....a particular place, rather than to wherever a particular person is." But neither Chekhu nor Meri were equipped with this knowledge offhand, were they?
Chekhu quickly returns with both books, holding them out on spread hands; the larger of the two volumes looks particularly big in the foxkin's grip. "What I say, Meri, is that if you do this thing, then maybe she thinks you owe her. Maybe she uses her saving you somehow. She ties you to her that way, and you must do what she wants or...or bad things happen. I get myself in and out of trouble on my own. Trust, it is a thing I only give after awhile, or after I know someone. if you trust her, the one who gave you this, then maybe I worry over nothing, me. But if you don't, or if you do trust her but she is dark-hearted, then you will be cautious, won't you? Here, books. You will read better than me." She continues to hold out both tomes. "If it was me who wanted to get you out of danger, I'd just come with you into whatever it was and make sure you got out. Drag you, haul you on my back if I had to. Best way to make sure a friend gets free of trouble is to be there." She smiles, white teeth flashing in the library's relatively low light. "But we all are making our own choices, and who am I saying that this is dangerous? Maybe I insult you, or your friend, or both of you? If so, that isn't what I mean. Cry pardon."
Meri smiles smoothly. "Wise little foxkin, trust is not something that should be given away freely. You play with fire and you are bound to get burned." Sometimes Meri could do well to follow some of her own advice, then again, getting into trouble is half the fun in her mind. It does not seem as though any opinion that Chekhu has expressed has upset Meri, she accept it all with a nod and little more to say on the subject. The words were heard, Meri could respect them. The books are also accepted, Meri still seated on the floor. The artist does not flip through the pages of the top book to read for detail, she is just briefly skimming and skipping several pages at a time while doing so. "Perhaps I will read them better than you, I am a slow reader though, so this will still take me time." She was not a voracious reader and had her main job to look after, plus all the mischief that she was prone to getting into. This project she is thinking of may very well be a slow brew. "Who is the druid that you are learning from, by the way? And would you mind dreadfully if you bring me any other books you find during your travels that you think may be useful to this subject?"
Chekhu unceremoniously seats herself cross-legged on the floor, folding up into a remarkably small space facing Meri at a distance of a few feet. "Druid likes privacy, so no, I don't think I'll be telling anyone who it is. I trust you, but the druid doesn't trust anyone, save maybe me, and maybe not so much even then. So I keep the secret and it stays a secret." She bobs her head, folds her hands over one cocked knee, then smiles. "If I am finding more books on runes, I will let you know. What is it you're planning though? Question for a question, they say." She smirks. "I trust a little right away, but only after awhile a lot. Break it, and it's gone. It's why I am alive today. I hear people have said foxkin are loyal. They're right. But we give the loyalty only after awhile, and it dies fast if killed with lies or betraying."
Meri could respect that Chekhu was not naming the druid, Meri was not exactly naming the person that she got the rune from. That seemed a fair and respectable exchange, she could be a reasonable woman...Except for the times she wasn't but hey. "What am I planning..." Tattooed shoulders rise and fall in a shrug, both books set aside for the time being. Meri would have quite a haul back to her shop, or her room, wherever she decided to go first. "Well I am planning to get on a ship that is going to take me and a few others off the shores of Rynvale. There will be fighting and I am hedging all bets that the ship will sink." Better to plan that it may than to sink to the bottom of the sea. "And then after that I think I will be in attendance of a group that is making an expedition into this place called the Shadow Plane?" Such was the talk at least. Meri shifted about where she was sitting, adjusting her position so that her legs do not end up falling asleep beneath her. "Other than that, I was kind of thinking that you just never know when you may need a back up plan out of a place? I mean. I don't think this is going to be something that I want to use just every day for like...getting around. Just. In. Case."
Chekhu tenses visibly at the mention of going on a ship, and the possibility of its sinking, then squints her eyes shut and purses her lips when Meri continues, speaking about venturing to the shadow plane. "No no. No no no," she mutters in a breathy little rush. "Dark and danger there. Mustn't go, mustn't go!" Her voice has risen slightly, becoming higher and more like her typical near-childlike tone. She shifts her small body closer to Meri, scooting along the floor without rising. "Listen, you," she says, and raises an admonitory hand. "You listen. Trouble is one thing. Death, you don't come back from death. I want to see your face again, not hear someone tell me they lost your body. I want to hear you laugh, hear you speak. I don't want to know you've gone away, then wonder for days and weeks and months if something ate you, or your soul was lost, or, or...anything like that. Please be careful?" It's definitely a question, complete with a sudden wringing of her small hands. "Please?"
Meri shakes her head. Chekhu's pleas would be falling on deaf ears and Meri would make no effort to even hide. "I have already said that I would be willing to go and I am not going to take it back." The tattooed one was hard headed and stubborn to a fault, even worse when people started telling her what to do it often made it her want to do it more. To an extent. She would not go out committing murder just because someone had told her not to, for example. Those things that she wants to do though? That she is told not to do? Meri won't be lingering on the floor any longer. The woman pushes up to her knees and from there moves into a crouch, where she pauses to chat just a bit more and pick up the numerous items she has collected during her trip here. "It is getting late and I am sure they are going to be kicking us out soon. Plus I need to haul this stuff back to the parlor before I head out to do my own thing." Which would consist of....? Given her future plans that she was willing to speak freely of with Chekhu, who the heck knows with Meri. "I thank you for the gift and for all of your help with these books. And I am sure that our paths will cross again soon." WIth those words uttered and books and boxes in hand, Meri moves to stand to her full height but not to depart quite yet.
Chekhu makes to rise as well, not wishing to let Meri out of her sight just yet. "You're a cold one," she says, and some semblance of calm has been reestablished in her voice. "You do what you do. I can understand that. Me, I can be cold too. I worry though, Meri. I won't try and shackle you but I worry. I said before and meant it. I want to see your face again. Just be careful? There are people you are leaving behind that will be sad if you don't come back. So please come back." The little foxkin reaches out a placating hand, then lets it drop. "One of these days I will go where you go and I will drag you back if trouble finds you. And Chekhu Makira, she keeps her promises." It might seem strange to think that such gravity could come from a foxkin shy of five feet tall, or that a voice so often childlike could ring with such conviction, but Chekhu manages the knack. "I'm not just a mouse in a bush, me. I have teeth. I'm not frightened easily. But I don't like friends hurt, friends gone. Don't like losing them, is all." This last is said in an undertone, almost too quiet to hear, and the wilder turns aside, shaking her head so that some of her hair spills down over her vulpine face. She starts to walk away then, moving slowly but steadily toward the library door.
Meri's blue eyes cut toward the ground and red lips twitch into a frown when Chekhu describes her as cold. That had not quite been Meri's intention, to be cold? She had wanted to be honest? She was going? What alternatives where there? A lie? A false promise that she would not be reckless and basically just throw herself in the face of danger? Eh. It will be these thoughts that will keep Meri lingering in the library, giving Chekhu the space to depart. "I do not think you a mouse in a bush," were the final words that Meri would give before silence falls and Chekhu departs. Meri would not follow. She would stand there and stew on those words, for better or worse, for several minutes. Was she cold? She probably was. Did she do something to give Chekhu the impression that Meri was underestimating her? Meri had hoped not, for that was a pet peeve. Those thoughts would go on before Meri too would take her leave, moving on her own path back to the parlor.