RP:Recruiting the Beekeeper
Stepping through the carven archway you are greeted by a seemingly natural spring of elaborate manufacturing. Hand carved rock and stone line the pool in a semi-circle, the polished rocks looking as if to be placed there naturally by the hand of a higher being. Upon closer inspection one would find the quality of stone to be much more impressive than previous glances allowed. Ornately carved into the stone are phrases and images of unknown identity. Most likely being connected to Schezerade, or perhaps an even earlier realm of Avian origin. Aside from the intricate stone is the main piece of the area, the hot spring. A delicate mist of greyish tint floats lazily atop the crystal pool below. The water producing a low, humming buzz indicating its relaxing heat and invite patrons in for a relaxing dip. Various linens and robes rest across a wooden rack to welcome the damp patrons into fresh, clean clothing. As you turn to leave it becomes clear that such a lavish spring is fitting for such a fine city.
Characters:
Satoshi's submerged herself up to her neck in the deliciously hot water, leaving just enough of herself free that she can rest her chin on the smooth edge of the pool and simply lounge. Cyromancer she may be, but even the little Ice Queen enjoys a heated soak now and again--especially when recent politics have left her body as a mass of tense stress-knots. It's enough to coerce her into taking an impromptu nap. Despite appearances, the foxkin isn't entirely asleep however, as anyone close by can hear her drowsily mumbling, "You're much too big to soak here too. We'll find you a bigger hot spring elsewhere. Stop pouting, hm~?" If one didn't know better, they'd think she was having a conversation with someone. Or -something-.
Neema did not like stairs. At all. Especially the set of slippery ones leading up to Schezerade's hot springs. If anybody happened to be in the hot springs, they probably heard a good five or six unpleasant sounding thuds, followed by an 'Ooof~!' each time the avian's tiny feet slipped up while climbing the stairs. Eventually she resorted to just crawling up the remaining steps, before standing upright when she finally reached the top. She peeks over a winged shoulder at the stairs behind her, and sticks out her tongue. "I'll defeat you next time. You'll see~!" Along with floorboards, stairs were on Neema's list of inanimate objects that she was certain were out to get her. Upon approaching the springs, the avian's face turns from one of anger at the stairs to a mixture of curiosity and confusion at the sound of somebody chatting with what appeared to be nothing. It took a bit for the familiar voice to register in her noggin as Satoshi's, but once it did, the avian's hat-covered head popped up where Frostmaw's Queen could see it, big goofy grin and all, "Hi there!"
Satoshi's in too docile a mood to be startled by Neema's sudden appearance--or perhaps the noisy approach has forewarned the foxkin enough--and so she merely opens an amber-speckled eye to look at the avian placidly. "Hullo, Neema-swan~. Just the little bird I was looking for. Escaping chaos for a bit of relaxing too~? This place..." Satoshi's words trail off into a yawn and luxurious stretch momentarily before she's settling back into place and resuming, "es almost as nice as napping in the sun, y'know?"
Neema 's face began to hurt from the big smile, so she clapped both hands on either side of her face and pushed, to shrink the smile down. Why she didn't just do it by moving her lips was something that even the avian didn't know, but she liked doing it that way. Sometimes. It looked silly. Her head bobbed with a nod. "Yep! Everybody is all angry and stuff way down there." She stretched out the word 'way', "I bet if people visited sky places they'd calm down a bit, you know?" Neema continued to nod, causing the brim on that big hat of hers to flap around from the movement. "It is! Except, I don't nap in the sun anymore.." The avian had bad luck. Once, while snoozing outside one day, she slept on her side so the sun only got half of her face. That resulted in a half face tan..thing.. It wasn't pretty. Anyway, Neema tilts her head off to the side a bit, lofting one little dot of an eyebrow. "You've been looking for me?"
Satoshi mimics Neema's expression with the lifting of her own brow as a faint grin forms on sleepy features. "I have~. Remember that group I mentioned to you and..." A brief moment is taken to cast about for the dragon's name, a clawed finger tapping out a thoughtful tune as she works to remember. "Ah, Twitchy, a bit ago~?"
Neema had to think for a fairly long moment. She remembered the name Eyrie, but not a face. The avian was trying to remember a face, for a group..Real bright, right? It finally dawned on her that that's not how groups work, and gave up trying to remember a face. Again, her head bobbed with a nod, so much so this time around that the hat slipped over her nose and temporarily blocked off her field of vision. She froze, confused for a minute because she was under the impression that everything had turned purple again, but fixed her hat soon after. Satoshi is given another one of those face-hurting grins, that's smushed back down right when it begins to hurt again. "I remember! Twitchy does too, I think..He's around somewhere."
Satoshi buries her face in the crook of her arm to hide a grin at the beekeeper's odd antics, and it's from this position that the soaking vulpine continues the conversation, voice muffled but still musical and cheerful. "Are you still interested~? Boss gave me the all-clear and a promotion to start recruiting hopefuls. You're first on my list~, along with your odd saurian friend, of course."
Neema thought that Satoshi was about to sneeze when she moved, and moved to cover her face with her hands. The only problem with doing that was that she wouldn't be able to see. Neema was sorta really afraid when she wasn't able to see. Her hands kind of stopped midway from their movement to her face, frozen midair before she let them fall limp at her sides. Another nod is given. "Definitely! I bet it'll be lots of fun." Since her twitchy blue friend wasn't around, the avian would answer for him, "I bet Twitchy is still interested as well."
Satoshi's ears do a delighted little dance at the positive response. "Perfect~. Then consider yourself an airma-... woma-... air-avian?... Member of the Eyrie. Well," here the foxkin pauses, glancing sidelong at the beekeeper. "Boss has one condition, though. You have to be willing to let him into your mind for talkin' and such. We have to keep in contact somehow while in the air, y'know? Not too different from when Emiur was talking to you last time. Probably less bothersome, too~." The smirk and glance off into the empty space suggests Satoshi's directing that last comment at someone not physically present.
Neema looked a little bit put off with having somebody's voice pop up in her head, but she appreciated being warned about it ahead of time. The last few times she had voices talking in her head made her think she was going insane, since she was usually alone when the voices popped up. They stopped after she left the Fold, which caused the avian to think that they were a group of mind invading talk boxes. Good people, but mind invading talk boxes. Why boxes? Who knew. She just liked boxes, or something. Her put off expression turned to a more pleasant one, minus the big smile that liked to hurt her face. "That's fine, I think." Neema had to pause to double check her thoughts. "..Yep! It's fine. Just so long as I'm not being woken up by a bunch of silly chatter stuff..That's happened before. It was spooky."
Satoshi can't help but chuckle. "No, no. Definitely not a bunch of mindless mind-chatter" oxymoron, good one, Sato, "as far as I've found. And I've been with them for a bit now. Portea just likes to forewarn recruits that if the need arises, he -will- get into your brain to make sure we all get out of a situation safe-like. Psions are weird like that. So," the minstrel offers a dripping hand up toward Neema, coupled with a lopsided grin of fangs, "welcome and such, Neema-swan. I'll be your Air Marshall. We'll mostly be working together in training and whatnot~."
Neema held her hat on her head in order to keep it from slipping while she nodded some more. She didn't want the world to turn purple again. The unfamiliar name flew through one pointed ear, and in a short while would fly right out of the other until she caught a glimpse of the psion. "I'm glad," she says. "I'd be kind of scared if another voice popped up." The avian sort of liked the sound of somebody's voice popping up to help her get out of bad situations all safe-like. That meant she wouldn't have to think so much. Not like she thought a lot, anyway.. Neema smiles, and lets go of her hat with one hand to take Satoshi's. "Thanks! I like training. I think." Hopefully this meant she'd get help with figuring out how to hang on to Twitchy's constantly moving body without falling off. Silly dragon. She nods again, as if confirming with herself that she'd like training. "Yep, I'll like it. And whatnot too."
Satoshi heartily shakes Neema's hand once before breaking the contact in that lifelong habit of sparing people the feel of her icy skin. "Splendid~. We'll start..." the frost singer glances around as she dons an unhappy expression, suddenly reluctant to leave the comfort of the hot springs so soon. "Tomorrow! Yes. Tomorrow. Or the next day. You should see Cerinii-dove about getting your scaly friend some equipment so he's properly outfitted and such." Even -Satoshi- has the forethought to realize the clumsy Neema and the aptly named Twitchy are a dangerous mix without proper safety gear. And she's certain her favorite metallic scientist can fix the problem. Then the fun can begin.
Neema ended up making one of those goofy looking grins again, which made her very confused. What was she supposed to hold onto now? The hat slipping down would make the world purple, and not fixing her face would make it hurt. The avian was in a pickle. She decides to curve the oversized brim of her hat downward at the sides, so she is able to simultaneously prevent a hat slipup and shrink down her smile in a really odd looking way. Now she's able to nod. "I will! I haven't spoken to Cerinii for the longest time too." It'd be fun chatting with the old senator again.
Satoshi misses Neema's unique problem-solving display and following response, and the soft, rhythmic breathing coming from the kit-vampire is the obvious culprit. Seems politics, training, promotion, relaxing hot water, and the successful end to a recruitment have conspired to make Satoshi drift off to sleep, head resting upon folded arms. At least, as a vampire, she's not at risk of drowning during her nap in the water...