RP:It's All Khitti's Doing

Summary: Brand joins the Adventure's Guild.

The Rebel Room: Art Gallery, Cenril

Meri's new gallery is larger than the one that she hard in Larket, having opted purchase a warehouse giving the space a more industrial feel to it. Artists! This means that she's sometimes harder to find in this building than her little one-roomed shop back in Larket. She could be in her personal housing quarters, she could be in a storage area. Today though, she's really easy to find. She's in the main display/work place of the gallery doing what artists do best. Well. She's trying to. She also has a child, you see, and while she can continuously pay babysitters? Well that gets very expensive. So today Meri is multitasking and has braved bringing her child around paint. More than braved. Fleur is literally sitting in an oversized tarp in nothing but her britches (she's a baby, don't be weird) learning how to be a little mini-artist herself....Which means she is getting more paint on her than she is getting on the piece of paper. Paint is also good to try and eat, you know. Meri may later regret this fingerpainting adventure but Fleur is enjoying it and it is keeping her mostly distracted while Meri paints a thing for someone to come buy one day. Maybe. Possibly.

Thankfully, there’d only be one child in the gallery today. Khitti opted to leave Dominic on the ship with Dozla--she already had to drag Brand along, so she didn’t want to bring the kid too. “Look, I know you’re not too fond of guilds, but if we’re gonna go on adventures to spend time together, then you might as well join too.” He -did- end up joining the Warrior’s Guild after all, but the Adventurer’s Guild was so much better… because ADVENTURE! “Oh look. Fleur’s eating weird things too now,” Khitti said, pushing through the front door and heading on into the gallery where her sister and niece were. “It’s only going to get worse you know. First she’ll start with paints, and then she’ll make her way to solid things like pastels and chalk and charcoal.”

Brand read a new picture book to Dominic, not too long ago. A unicorn and his colored unicorn friends go on an adventure to Candy Mountain, and hijinx and chaos ensue. The main unicorn, Charlie, is less than pleased to be dragged along, but his friends are relentlessly cheerful all the way to the end. It’s probably not a good sign, Brand thinks, that Charlie the Unicorn comes to mind whenever Khitti babbles on about “ADVENTURE!” -- but here he is, along for the ride anyway. “Sup, kid.” Fleur receives a casual nod and he stands where he can keep an eye on her while the adults have their conversation. He’s going to make very, very sure to keep his nice clothes out of the child’s reach. (It’s slow going, but he’s -beginning- to wise up about the hazards small children represent toward a carefully curated wardrobe.)

The conversation that Khitti and Brand are having is overheard from the moment they enter the building to them actually locating her. This is really not impressive. There are no walls separating them. Those werewolf ears perk up when she hears Khitti trying to convince Brand to join the Adventurer's Guild. Brand does not seem nearly as enthusiastic about this ideas. Part of that Meri attributes to Brand being Brand, but it's a detail that Meri assuredly notes regardless. It's the single reason that Meri's not jumping with enthusiasm to try and encourage Brand to join the guild based on the sole fact she overheard them talking about it. She'll play dumb, act like she didn't overhear, and let them bring up the subject on their own....because Meri's not sure what an appropriate response to what she overheard would be outside of that. There are times she is more bronze than brains, sorry. "Hey you guys. Good to see the two of you. You both managed to sneak away from the kid? Is date night a bit later tonight for you two or something?" Brand. He thinks he is going to keep very sure that Fleur stays away from his nice clothes. But see? He also spoke to that kid. So now she wants to come say what's up...except she's not old enough to talk yet so her version of 'what's up' is trying to grab at his shoe laces and pant legs. She also makes the 'up' motion. And if Brand tells her no? She's going to cry...because #kids.

Khitti watched Fleur approach Brand out of the corner of her eye with those paint covered hands and attempted to hide a smirk. Spoilers: it didn’t work well. “Maybe. If Dozla’s nice enough to keep watching him tonight. But, I wanted to bring Brand here to see if maybe, possibly, there was room for him in the Adventurer’s Guild?” She side-eyed Brand, waiting for him to speak up about it. He had every right to tell Khitti and her idea to frak off if he wanted too. Brand was a busy dude after all. “Since Lionel’s gone MIA again, as he’s wont to do, the lack of fighting things and doing the parenting thing all the time is driving us mad. Well… driving -me- mad.” Maybe Brand too? “It’d been an idea to get him to join the guild too, so I’m not going off fighting things and you know, almost dying again.” It’s clearly a trope with Khitti. “But, that’s if he really wants to. Not gonna force him into it. I’m perfectly content to leave him alone on the ship with Dominic for all hours of the day and for possible days on end.” You’d like that, Brand. Wouldn’t you?

Brand is already well-prepared, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, by the time Fleur comes near. (This is really not impressive. His dad sense was tingling. That’s a thing now, apparently.) Before the child can get her soiled hands all over his good pair of trousers, Fleur is scooped up and raised into the air over his head. An exaggerated grin adorns his face as he calls out, “Youuuu~! You’re ‘sup! What a surprise!” There. Problem solved. The kid can’t reach his pants, can’t reach his sleeves, and he’s gonna hold her out just far enough that she can’t drip or splash any paint on him, either. And she’s gonna stay there, safely out of the Wardrobe Danger Zone, maybe forever. Or at least until his arms get tired. Maybe Meri will take pity on him and get her kid to the sink before then.

Brand gives Meri a brief, pleading look as he holds her kid aloft, then goes back to grinning at the child. Kid logic, he’s learned, can sometimes be manipulated. If a child isn’t sure what to think about a situation but all the adults seem happy, they’ll decide to be happy, too. And Brand really needs Fleur to be okay with not getting paint on his pants today. “Hey, yeah, adventures are -great-,” he says, his grin straining at the edges as he talks. This much smiling hurts his face. “We just -love- jumping headlong into danger, don’t we, Fleur?” We wiggles the kid through the air, imitating a bird in flight. (Seven hells, kiddo, -please- be enjoying yourself.) “Gonna level with you, Meri, I’m mostly here because ‘adventure’ seems to like to find us whether we like it or not. We may as well be ready when it comes.” And if they can make some good money doing it or light some baddies on fire, so much the better. It’s rather therapeutic after a long day hauling cargo and dodging toy chickens.

Meri will only show so much mercy. Fleur is not being taken to the sink, but the werewolf does collect the mini-werewolf from Brand plops her on her hip. Look, Meri's clothes are not nearly as nice and they've already got splotches of paint on them, a few more will hurt nothing. Fleur...seems to handle this okay. She'd prefer to hang out with Uncle Brand but at least she got to say hi. Give her five minutes and she might change her mind, demand to be put down, and try this whole process all over again. Everything Khitti and Brand say is heard, though Meri's words are mostly focused on Brand this go round, only because he is the potential new member. "Well then I will level right back with you, Brand. You are welcome to join our Adventure's one way or another." Meri has known Brand long enough to know that he is not really hype about guilds. "But if you would like to join up with us, then you are a welcome addition. Normally I put on the requirement of doing some adventure or some other test as proof of skill. But given how many different scenarios we've faced together? That seems like a bit of overkill. So....If you do want to join up with us...Why don't you tell us about your favorite adventure?" No least favorite. Meri can guess. She does not really care to take a trip down memory lane to revisit that time they went to fight some undead and Khitti's sister and she died.

Khitti ’s heart fluttered a bit as Brand seemingly went into adorable dad mode with Fleur. Okay, it didn’t last long and was clearly fake, but that’s the way you gotta be with kids anyway. Or else they’ll scream for-frakking-ever. She pouted a little as Brand spoke to Fleur--she knew damn well that all translated to: Khitti just loves to jump headlong into danger, doesn’t she? Well, he’s not wrong, but that doesn’t mean she wants it thrown in her face! Again! Look, Brand. This is your fault that you fell in love with a fighty redhead, okay? Sheesh. Like you don’t like punching things. Khitti would let the two talk as she focused her attention on Fleur, “Are you gonna grow up and be an artist like your mother and aunt?” The redhead booped her niece on the nose, then scooped up a bit of black paint off the tarp where Fleur had been playing onto the end of her index finger. “Look! Now you’re a catdog,” Khitti said with a smirk as she painted on whiskers and a black nose. “You just need the ears is all.”

Brand actually needs to think about this one. Favorite adventure? Probably one of those times when he and Khitti got to have -really- good sex afterward. But this doesn’t strike him as an appropriate answer, especially with a toddler around. So Brand makes up something else. “Uhhhh, how about… the time I had to fight with a frost giant to free some prisoners during the Frostmaw War?” Does that war have an official name? Brand is no historian. He just kinda lives here and things happen, and sometimes he gets involved with the things because it’s better than -not- getting involved with the things. A laissez-faire approach to adventuring, so to speak. “I dunno, I jus’ kinda prefer the ones where I’m mostly in one piece afterward.” Brand likes living. Brand likes living, a lot. Brand would like to continue living, thankyouverymuch. And if he’s gotta sometimes throw some punches in order to do that, so be it.

Meri smiles toward Khitti. Given that Fleur was covered with paint already, Meri certainly did not mind Khitti turning Fleur into a catdog. It was pretty adorable to be honest, but Meri's attention can only go in so many ways! It was hard to process adorableness while also trying to converse about guild related things. Meri's smile fades Brand goes on to speak about his favorite adventure. and soon she adorns a squinty-eyed look for Brand. This look is transferred to Khitti, if only because she is trying to piece together if Brand joining was his idea or more hers. Eventually she comes to the conclusion that if Brand really was against joining then he probably would not even be here. Meri moves away from the group so that she can go to her stash of guild compasses. She has a small stash (like three) in that bag that she is prone to carrying with her while traveling. That bag is presently on a table that lines the wall, one of the few pieces of actual furniture in the gallery portion of the warehouse. This compass is presented to Brand to take if he so chooses, "Well, like I said you are welcome to join if you want to. Everyone takes a role when they join, I figure for you we may as well stick with the theme of Captain Brand...unless you have any other preferences?" You know, if he even takes the compass from Meri.

Okay so -maybe- Khitti did have a hand in this. But, isn’t it better to take precautions against Khitti getting possibly getting kidnapped/maimed/murdered/something else that’s worse by having Brand tag along? There was the argument that Brand didn’t -need- to join it in order to go on these adventures… But there was nothing wrong with making it super-duper-official, was there? Well, that was Khitti’s thinking anyway. Khitti caught that look of Meri’s and offered her an innocent grin in return. Nothing to see here, Meri. I promise. “I -think- that it was just called ‘The War For Frostmaw’... or something. Someone needs to change it. Make it sound more exciting.” There were many names that could’ve been used for that war, after all. The War Where Dominic 1.0 Did Absolutely Nothing Useful. The War That Brought KhittiBrand Together (And Subsequently Ruined Brand’s Life For No Less Than Two Years). The War Where Brand Had To Save Khitti’s Ass Way More Times Than She Can Count. Look, see? Lots of names. Khitti eyed the compass once Meri returned with it, then looked to Brand, “Yeah, we’ve all got fancy titles. I’ve got Spiritualist, Zahrani’s got Combat Trainer, Aira’s Navigator, and Scandal’s Researcher.” There’d been lots of other titles too, but those people had come and gone already, so there was no point in bringing it up.

Brand nods and takes the compass, briefly examining it for quality. There’s another nod of satisfaction before he drops it into his pocket. “Aye, Captain Brand will do, thanks. You need a ship, you know where to find me.” Or does she? He goes all over the place, after all. But Cenril is home, and to Cenril he’ll always return. Eventually.