Difference between revisions of "Log:We'll Save the Kittens"

18 November 2017

Haruki needs some help with the Goblin Market. Czcibor may not be what he had in mind.

The Wayhouse, MT07

There's a scarred tin man sitting at the dining room table with a mug of oversweet and creamy coffee and a newspaper spread out as a work surface, patiently removing broken links from his chainmail hauberk and twisting new ones from a spool of steel wire with a pair of needlenose pliers. His mantle today is a subdued thing, even as strong as it is: illusory snowdrops carpet the floor beneath him and nearly-empty thorny rose vines with only the barest dusting of leaf buds curl up his chair and boots, and the scent of petrichor hangs heavy in the air. It's silent in here except for the sound of rustling maille and the occasional clip of wirecutters.

Haruki's here, looking for Czcibor in fact. He doesn't really come along to the wayhouse, apart from when he has a purpose. It makes him anxious just being here. He breathes in the scent of spring and exhales. 'Mmmm.' He starts unwinding his scarf, removing his mittens, shrugging off his coat, leaving his shoes in the mudroom. And then he ventures in, in search of Czcibor. His smile is soft, sweet, as he walks over to see what the man is working on. "Hello."

The Captain glances up from his work and smiles, eyes that uncanny featureless silver in his dark face, but crinkled at the corners to lend credence to the smile. "Hey," he says amiably. "Sorry about what happened the other week. Feeling better?"

"It wasn't you, or your fault," Haruki says. "And you were there, and good and..." he trails off with a smile. "Thank you. I get wobbly sometimes. I'm glad you're still speaking to me and don't think bad of me?" It's almost a question. "I'm going to get you some tea. Can I get you some? What you working on?"

"I don't think badly of you," the elemental says with a laugh, putting his work down. "Just that you may have some self-preservation and self-worth issues, but given the rest of us, it's a little hard to cast stones. And no, but thank you for offering. I have coffee. I'm just fixing my hauberk, a briarwolf bit through the sleeve." He gestures to where he's removed some damaged or broken links, and the pile of them on the table. "Going to have to melt them shut later, but it's well worth the effort." Given the patches of shiny versus dark on the heavy garment, it's been mended many times before.

"Are you okay?" Haruki asks, concerned. He seems to have forgotten about his tea, looking at Czcibor's arm. "Better your armour than your arm." He doesn't argue with the assessment of himself though. "I wanted to ask. Will you help? You're very nice and kind and maybe the goblin would listen to you about the animals?"

"I'm fine," Kowal says with another smile. "I can heal myself just as well as I can heal anyone else." His smile fades a little at the request, but doesn't vanish entirely. "The goblin won't listen unless it's in his best interest, or unless he owes one of us, or unless you have something to sell in exchange. And I will /not/ go unless you give me a binding oath that you'll neither offer yourself nor start trouble for yourself or the freehold. I can help you think of something to sell, though."

"Oh." Haruki smiles. "That must be really useful." As the smile fades he looks sad. "I will give that oath. But what if I do it accidentally?" He sighs. "I'm flailing about in the dark so often. I didn't want to sell anything because that would just perpetuate the enslaving of sentient creatures and selling of them. But maybe if he can be spoken to, made sure he's keeping them in better conditions, and aren't mistreated? Even that would be an improvement? Although it's still wrong and slavery."

"He has nothing to gain by changing anything he's doing," the Captain tells Haruki, patient and apologetic. "The best you can do short of speaking with a moral marketeer about seeing what can be done about the conditions in this particular market? Is buying that kitten and, as soon as you two are out of danger and out of the hedge, removing any obligation you placed on it by buying it. It's likely to wish to stay with you anyway, but you can forgive the debt for freeing it." And then he gives Haruki a flat look. "Selling yourself into slavery on accident is something you will have to try very, very hard to do. If you like, you can make a death pledge with me and open negotiations by stating it exists, which would render you useless as merchandise. But as far as your flailing about in the dark: that's why I offered to help you come up with something to sell. And sell you must. You can certainly bargain, and you can best the goblin at bargaining and still be within the rules, but a bargain must be made."

"There are other animals too," Haruki says. "I want to help them as well. I don't want to be complicit in this." He nods. "I can forgive the debt and help him find a forever home. Or gain the skills he'll need to be free. He's just a baby now, but when he's older. He's got to have family or something?" He shivers and shakes his head. "I don't want a death pledge. I don't want to die. So, what should I sell then?"

At 'I don't want to die', Czcibor has literally all of the body language that goes with rolling one's eyes, though the eyerolling itself is invisible. "If you break the pledge, I have a week to forgive it, and the goblin won't know I would, and wouldn't accept your offer because he'd think you'd die." Then he sighs. "If there's a litter of hedgekittens for sale, there's no way their parents are alive. Hedge cats are large, clever, fast, and deadly. My cousin died because she could outwit, outfight, or outrun them. There's no way to deal with the market and avoid being complicit unless you remain ignorant of all that's for sale, or by being exceptionally clever -- far more clever than I am; I've no mind for bargaining -- and tricking a merchant out of their wares. Again, I am the wrong person for that job. I have precious little market experience because I tend to avoid them entirely." He reaches up to rub his face tiredly, slouching into the chair, and the sound of it is that bizarre soft-metal scraping. "He said he'd trade for something with similar purpose, but it's possible to offer something that's precious to him, or worth a lot on the open market, which he can re-sell. Some goblin fruits are very rare and may do well as trade items; memories are always worth something; time off your life at the end of it, abstracts or impossibilities like the color of your eyes or your voice or the scent memory of your grandfather's house in late summer, your ability to do higher math or carry a tune..."

"I would have to trust you," Haruki says gazing at Czcibor. "Trust you with my life. How would I even know I could do that? I don't think I like the market. Would I be better speaking to someone more experienced? But then that means they're involved too." He nods. "He said, a loyal pet rock, or a flea circus. I could get a roach circus, but Vorpal says that wouldn't be good enough. Even though it was one of the things he suggested. And I thought maybe a chia pet, but with some sort of hedge plant? Like the sensitive plants? And I know where there's a dancing sunflower, that only dances when people are around. But I'd need something to swap for it. And Vorpal didn't think that would be good either. And he didn't think a tamagotchi or a furby would be of use, even though those are treasured childhood things that do have stories. He said it has to be pain. I'm not giving any piece of myself."

The Elemental shrugs. "I could make it death on my side too, as a penalty for not forgiving you. I don't know how many pledges you can hold, though, and I know you're part of the freehold." He pauses, thinking. "Or, without you having to make a pledge, I could temporarily take your words away if you started looking desperate enough to make a shitty bargain and sell yourself... which, by the way, actually, would be at cross-purposes to you anyway, since if you were suddenly owned by him, he would repossess the kitten." After a second, Czcibor rubs the back of his neck and tilts his head to one side, watching Haruki. "A well-trained flea circus wouldn't cost you a piece of yourself to sell him. Roach circuses are even more rare than flea circuses, so it's worth getting one to offer. If you have a sentimental attachment to the Furby or the Tamagochi they might also actually do, but only on a one-for-one basis. If you were to buy the entire litter of kittens, you'd need one item per kitten, or something of considerably more value than one inanimate childhood friend."

Haruki looks at Czcibor and shakes his head. "I wouldn't want to have someone's life as my responsibility." He considers. "That would be scary, not able to speak but it would make sense. And since you've asked. You asked." His eyes are wide as if it's so important. "OH. No. I don't want him getting the kitten back. Would a roach circus be a one for one deal? They've not been very good at learning tricks." He admits. "But I was working on building one anyway. My... Robbie's a roach though and I'm not sure if he'd be happy with me selling other bugs into slavery to save a kitten. As if roaches are less than kittens. Only... I sort of... I think roaches could survive it and they just get killed and killed and killed out here anyway. I'd wanted him to ask them if they were willing only I haven't found him." He nods. "You asked if I'd an attahment. Not like Vorpal who assumed I didn't.

"For reference -- if you're part of the freehold, you've already made one death pledge," Czcibor points out. "The whole idea is to not break the pledge. And my life wouldn't be your responsibility: my obligation would only be forgiving your oathbreaking if you were dumb enough to try selling yourself. I'd include it so that you'd trust me enough to pledge your own life against making that offer. But it's unnecessary, since you're willing to let me preemptively take your ability to communicate if you start looking desperate-- and since you know how useless it'd be since he'd just take the kitten back anyway." Then he thumbs through the broken links of his hauberk, thinking. "Robbie's a person who got changed into being part roach. Regular roaches aren't sapient, even if he can talk to them. Rocks-- and therefore pet rocks-- aren't either. Sapient hedge kittens are worth more, karmically, than non-fae roaches. Roaches don't give a shit unless they're not being fed, and a starving roach circus would be useless to a marketeer." Finally, he looks up at Haruki again, and the smile he gives is lopsided and wry. "You said they're treasured childhood things. Of course there's a sentimental attachment, and it would hurt to give them up. They were your friends when you were a kid." A little more quietly, then, and the smile even more wry, "I'm a person, but I'm also a toy soldier, Haruki."

"I didn't have a choice about that one," Haruki says. "If I hadn't made it they'd have killed me." He nods as things are explained. "Okay." And then. "Talk. Not communicate. Talk." He nods. "He did ask for a pet rock. A loyal pet rock." He nods. "They'd be cared for." He nods at Czcibor. "You're... you're you. You've a heart and love and you're you. And the toy soldier is a person."

Czcibor shakes his head. "I said I'd take your words from you; the contract is actually your ability to communicate. You couldn't write or sign or anything either. It would only be temporary; it is a contract, and I'd end it as soon as we were out of the market, instead of letting it sit to its conclusion." There's a pause, and he watches Haruki for a moment. "This is if you want my help; the strictures are literally for your protection, because your life is worth protecting, your independence and personhood are worth protecting." And then that crooked smile's back, and it looks more affectionate than anything else. "The toy soldier's going to hang on to being a person for his whole life. I'm the only one who can take that away from me, and I refuse to." But then he waves a hand. "Gather up what you can, figure out what you're willing to lose-- you might need to give up a lot of favorite toys if you have them, if you want the whole litter of kittens. And consider the options I've laid out for you in order to get me to go with you. You can take your time. I'm not going on the Ashen Hunt."

Haruki nods at Czcibor. "Okay. I'd have to trust you. And, what if I panicked? What if I fled? WOuld you still be able to remove it." He nods. "All my childhood toys? Everything that got me through the loneliness? If I gave up them all for the kittens. They're... they're just things." He sighs. "Kittens are more important than things. I will take your offer."

The tin soldier nods, and he looks approving, but sympathetic. "You're getting the idea of what it costs to use the Market, yeah. But that's a good bypass for something that would hurt someone else, too." He finally picks his coffee up and holds it in both hands; he takes a sip. "The contract ends on its own, but I sincerely recommend against running away from me if you panic. I can protect you if you're near me. If you run from me, you're prey to everything there and everything outside it as well."

Haruki nods at Czcibor. "It'll be okay." He smiles bright and happy. "We'll save the kittens."