Come into my parlor... [Done!]

[Tigeress]

"Mmmhmm, sure thing hon." She rolled her eyes, smirking to herself though he couldn't see. Either he hadn't been to the marsh before, or he had been drunk upon entering. Not many people were so sure of themselves upon entering, and though they'd only begun to get a taste of the atmosphere, he didn't seem to be loosing his composure. Hm. Brownie points for him, then.

She considered his name for a moment, it sounded familiar, or maybe she just liked the sound of it. She couldn't decide between the two options just yet. "Varuna. If you were from around here, I'd say I'm sure you've heard of me, but you're not, so I won't." She scoweled a little as she stepped in a big puddle of hardening mud. It was just wet enough to throw her off balance, and she paused for a moment to suck her hand out of it. Pleasant.

"Watch your step." She commented dryly, visibly hunching in on herself in discomfort. She wasn't one for getting dirty, so one might ask why she lived in a marsh. Well... that was a whole 'nother story. The light had almost vanished entirely, leaving only the dim glow from the lanters which were hung in various points around the city. They had been enchanted recently after some young punk decided it would be funny to go through and break them all. She had been meaning to go grocery shopping that night, so she'd been very displeased.

She could spot the shop from their current location and seemed to perk up, her steps quicken in what looked like excitement, but really, it was just relief that she'd get to wash her hands. Yich.

Passing through town would be... interesting. She wondered if the big bad Aderlass would keep his composure if they came upon anything... nasty. She herself had been threatened multiple times on the way home. "I'm gonna SHANK YOU, BITCH!" Just wasn't as intimidating as it used to be. She sighed to herself and continued on, glancing back curiously now and then to see how her companion was doing. It was in her nature to enjoy a little bit of fright, she liked to make others squirm. It amused her.

The lights were dim in this stretch of murky walkways, she'd never known why, never bothered to ask really. "It's just a little ways ahead, promise..." Sure, the last part was entirely unnecessary, but it made a bubbling of laughter in her stomach that she had to stifle.

[Kasatsu]

As they walked the mouse took in the surroundings. He was surely glad that he had not grown up here – though he was betting if he had he would find Morganberry just as distasteful.

When she made the comment "Watch your step." he was able to pull his paw away from a puddle of mud just in time. That would have been disgusting.

He saw nothing that made him regret coming out here, though a few things succeeded in making his skin crawl or his noise being scrunched up in distaste. He felt reassured when the opossum informed him that their destination was just up ahead, though one would have to torture him to get him to admit it.

Looking around he scrunched up his nose. This was not a place that he wanted to make his go away resort to. Giving a small sigh he tried to remind himself of why he was here.

[Tigeress]

She noted a few of the glances and looks of distaste and smiled to herself. So perhaps that tough exterior Was just a male thing. She was hardly the kind of girl who needed protecting, growing up in a place like this, but every male she'd come into contact with had acted like she was. It made dating awfully awkward when you had more cuts and scars from hand to hand combat than the thick, burly male sitting across you. Of course, they also tended to be boring.

The male with her now was different in a way, he was amusing, and he happened to get on her good side early on. Her sarcastic and sassy comments were just a defense mechanism really, she didn't know how to turn them off. So far, he'd tolerated it, but she wondered if he would grow irritated. At least she knew how to keep him on his toes. Speaking of that, she carefully dodged a broken bottle of some sort, and pointed to it before calling over her shoulder to watch out for it. Hopefully he would heed the warning, he'd done well so far following her lead.

"That one there with the side light on." She'd learned a while ago that it was better to have the side lights or the back light on than the front ones. Stores tended to have front lights to attract business. She didn't want anyone to know this was a store. Her customers always met her in a remote location away from her shop/home, and everyone in the area that knew her, knew she lived in the house, but not that she also kept all of her pricey material and special projects there.

She scrambled around to the side and knocked twice, waited, and knocked twice more. It was a simple code to let Rindal know that it was her, and not some cracked out creepo come to pull a knife on him. She thought it had been a good idea. After a few seconds, the door opened, revealing a sturdy feline in his mid teens, two weights attached to his arms that he seemed to move effortlessly. They used to be a hindrance... until he started using them to work out. When he'd outgrown the small weights attached to his arms, he'd clamped on bigger ones to them. They never seemed to break, no matter how much weight was put on the little chain, as was customary for almost all magical Torquehelm bindings.



"You're out late. Who's that?" He asked, pointing behind her as he moved to fill the doorway imposingly. Varuna had known this was coming, but she still sighed and shoved her way past the male in order to get inside, which involved more ducking than shoving, actually.

"Rindal, Aderlass. Aderlass, Rindal. Now cut the crap and get inside." The feline grumbled something under his breath and opened the door, stepping aside but not entirely out of the way.

[Kasatsu]

He watched as the feline only half blocked. It appeared that the male was not one to take easy to strangers, especially those who wanted into his area. Raising an eyebrow at the male, showing interest in what this ‘new arrival’ would bring to the day, he made his way into the house – not pushing but he did not really try to ease in through the small space he had been allotted.

He was not about to outright threaten or attack the male, no he would let the feline do that first. Eying the weights he decided that regardless if he baited the male or not he would stay away from them. From how the feline was standing it looked like he had learned how to use them.

“Hello Rindal,” he greeted. He did not want to appear to slight his company, especially since it was he was invading their home not the other way around. “It is a pleasure to meet you I am sure.”

[Tigeress]

He noticed the male still tried to squeeze by him and narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't like being touched, and in his mind, this male had touched him. Yet surprisingly, he decided to try and make conversation, though the asshole seemed to be trying to be sarcastic. He growled under his breath until a harsh look from Varuna stopped him. "Sorry, wouldn't want to scare away your boyfriend." He smirked at this, watching Varuna's mouth positively drop as one tiny hand came to slap herself in the forehead out of sheer frustration.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" She asked, narrowing her eyes in return to his comment, tiny body fluffed with the evidence of anger and embarassment. Rindal could be quite a pain when she had company, but it happened so rarely, she still hadn't gotten used to ignoring him or finding ways to shut his overconfident little mouth.

"Yeah, yeah..." He grumbled, turning towards the small set of stairs. "Pleasure to meet you too, Aderlass." It was childish, but he'd put emphasis on the last part of the male's name to indicate that he thought of him as an ass, or perhaps a pain in his ass. Either one would have been in Rindal's nature. He was feeling particularily testy tonight, having been chased away from the curiosities shop by one of the older gang bullies who hung out in that general area. He'd just have to be stronger, then one day, he'd show him.

"Ah, well, here are the examples." She said, chuckling and shrugging as she looked around the room. A metallic bird hung from the ceiling inscribed with some kind of shimmering paint for the markings and eyes. A small metal windmill also sat in the corner, fully functional, just waiting to be put up somewhere after being painted or otherwise decorated. Rindal's weight lifting bars and benches sat in another corner of the room, not so obviously crafted by Varuna as well. "Pretty much everything you see in this room was made by me, and if it's not, it was made by Rindal." The entire room was filled with metal and wooden (that was Rindal's new material of choice he'd been trying out) animals, wind devices, directional pointers, and sculptures of people and places she'd heard of, but never seen. Benches, chairs, bedposts, and stands all waited for finishing decorative touches, some holding small silver bands. Varuna didn't like jewelry, but Rindal did, so she'd made some things for him for when he was older.

[Kasatsu]

Clenching his fist he was sorely tempted to slap the small feline for his attitude, though on second thought he figured that it probably would not do the male any good. Watching as the male made his way up the stairs, he figured that the lad was probably not used to male company – if any – and would need time to get used to him.

Bringing his attention back to female he looked around taking in some of their works. He was pretty impressed right off the bat. The metallic bird that hung from the ceiling was beautiful, animals, wind devices, and directional pointers decorated some of the space while many other objects occupied the rest. He was amazed to see that wooden works also decorated different areas. The furniture was also decorative and eye catching, the jewelry also so. He was pretty impressed with all of it.

“Who has been working with the wood?” He asked, specifically interested in those pieces since they were something new he had seen. His own teacher had only allowed him to work with jewels and metals.

His eyes landing on the weight lifting bars and benches he tilted his head, “Mind if I ask wot those are for?” They were an odd thing to have in the room, not that he could not see they had also been skillfully crafted by both or either of the female or feline, they were just an interesting choice of an object to have.

[Tigeress]

She watched his eyes wander the room with mixed feelings. She was very overprotective about her work, she didn't let just anyone molest her precious items with their eyes, but at the same time she was nervous... what if they weren't to his liking? Perhaps she had been declining in her skill, and that was why she'd had so few visitors and buyers lately. His eyes seemed to glimmer with interest however, and that made her perk her attention hopefully towards him for a response. He didn't comment on the quality of the work, however he seemed interested in Rindal's newest experimentations in wood.

"Rindal. He recently aquired an interest for wood carving and has been working diligently on a few pieces ever since. Those ones there are his first attempts. Very good, I'd say. The practice with metal has given him a good arm for tools, even ones he's not used to." She nodded a few times, taking in each of the sculptures and the two finely curved chairs that looked like they belonged in a home much more decorative and important than her own. The backings were blank, for now, but he had intended to carve some intricate designs into them after all the body work was done.

She glanced to where his question had come from next, smiling to herself and shaking her head. "Working out. Rindal is becomming obsessive about his body, and his strength. I have a feeling there's some unpleasant history with this boy that I don't know about. Probably the runt of the litter or something." It made sense, that he would want to become bigger and stronger if he was used to being picked on, it would also explain why he tended to pick on everyone else. Childhood insecurities tended to linger, she knew that well.

[Kasatsu]

His gaze still on the work bench he listened carefully to what she said in reply to his question. He was not all that surprised by the answer though, he had noticed the weights on the feline’s four limbs and it only made logical sense for him to use them to his advantage.

Nodding he let his gaze continue to scan the room.

All the works in the room were truly magnificent, he thought to himself. The jewelry so much so that he wanted to take them away with him and the wood works due to their unique – and well made quality. He was quit pleased with it all really, much more then he had thought he would have been.

He attention was still half caught on the wood and metal works done by Rindal, truly impressed with their makings, considering how young the boi was – both in age and what he would assume as skill since he was still learning the craft.

“Everything is quit outstanding, precious, and beautiful even. Would you mind if I viewed a few of the pieces up close, perhaps?” Though she had been willing to show him their works he did not want to overstep his welcome – he knew how protective one was with their creations.

[Tigeress]

She still folded her hands together anxiously as he continued to look about the room. Oh no, his eyes seemed to be fixed on the steel bands she'd made and inscribed for Rindal, and she knew that wasn't one of her greatest strength, those all having been done together in one week, the first week she'd tried her hand at jewelry and pretty things. Only one had a single jewel, a glittering yellow sapphire, she didn't know why he wanted it that colour, she would have guessed emerald to go with his fur, but it was his choice. A birthday gift, one that he was waiting to wear as he intended to have it enchanted, apparently.

That wasn't her forte and she tried to stay out of all things hocus-pocus-ey. She'd been lost in thought about the jewelry when Aderlass' voice broke the silence and made her jump, his comment making her tail twitch with pleasure. Ah! He liked them, good, that was very good. She put a paw modestly to her chest and flicked the hair from her eyes. "Well, thank you, I do try..." She coughed, trying to shake herself out of her flattered reverie, as he brought the second part up...

She was very touchy about her things, but Rindal, strangely enough, was not. Either way, she'd probably have to give the male permission, as she was trying to win over a spot in his new endeavours of opening a shop. "I suppose not, just... try not to touch, I just polished everything two days ago." What she didn't admit was that she polished them all every three days. She was extremely vain about the appearance of her work, and she disliked the look of dust and fingerprints. So unprofessional.

((Feel free to make up some in-depth descriptions of some things ^_^ she makes pretty much anything and everything in her spare time.... and she's had a lot of it lately >_>))

[Kasatsu]

He nodded in acknowledgement at her comment of his not touching anything. Making his way around the room, careful to not knock anything down, he admired the pieces of work with closer inspection.

He was pleased to find that closer examination did indeed show that the opossum’s and feline’s work was of remarkable quality. Yes, he would indeed have to show their work off at his gallery-shop.

Coming across a necklace he admired it. It appeared to be made from metal, three pieces of metal thinly twisted around each other separating every now and then to create a swirl or twist on its own from the delicate chain hung a dark green jewel.

“Are any of the works that you do enchanted by any chance?” He asked wondering as he continued on to the next piece or work – this time a chair.

Admiring the metal work that had been done along with the wood he waited for her reply. The wind chime, to his left, from which hung what appeared to be four kinds of birds also caught his eye.