OldCity Newsletter 21 - 08/28/06
From FiranMUX
<---------- GOSSIP HOUR AT THE NOOK ---------->
Over gently trolling waters by the pier hangs a sky mottled with light grey clouds. The sun, valiant in its efforts to be seen, all but remains concealed by the overcast sky; thus leaving the waters dank, the pier dark, and the shadows non-existent on this crisp March morning. Spring has arrived in the Old City, leaving it chilly and wet. It is on a crisp early spring afternoon that along the piers of the Sailor's Nook, by far one of the nicest locations in this area of gloom and disrepair, a hunchbacked male merchant -- old, thin, unsteady on his feet and smelling of ale -- pushes a rickety handcart full of various useless knick-knacks and tacky shiny things. He stops at one end of the pier, where a young, scruffy female urchin -- still but a child -- seems to have taken up post for begging.
Upon noticing the merchant approaching, the scruffy urchin immediately stops her begging and offers the merchant a large, toothy grin. "Hey, Salomon! What'cha got fer lunch today?" Then, thinking better of it, the scruffy urchin adds hastily, "How be business, anyway?" The merchant, far too used to the scruffy urchin's lack of manners and tact, simply chuckles as he procures a stale piece of grilled flat bread from his pouch and hands half of it to the scruffy urchin, whom gobbles it up with glee whilst the old man speaks. "Business be not too bad, Zahrenya. Though that Tobias feller be doin' better than me, that's fer sure! I hear that Tobias has officially taken over the Trade Office, ya know, and is lookin' for peoples' requests as to what to keep in stock. So if ya wants ta see some hand-me-down clothes in there, or mebbe some food, or a good weapon or two, let him know. He also helped free some Meg girl from one of those gangs. Seemed she gots kidnapped or somethin'. Hypeius and Niobe were there, too. Ain't that Tobias feller so helpful? He's a real swell guy."
The urchin rolls her eyes. "He ain't helpful, he's annoyin'! Always got his nose in somethin' or other. Iff'in he comes 'round here again while I's beggin', I'm gonna pop him one right in tha eye! Hey, speakin' o' Niobe, ya know how she went and popped out a kid in there not too long ago? Well, word on the streets is that tha one who knocked her up was Jariko Istems, 'cause he married her. Even moved in wit her an' everythin', like they do in the walls! Yep, that's right, Jariko Istems is officially off tha market. Ya should hear all tha pissin' and moanin' I gets from all tha young women I tell that to. Feckin' whiners, all of 'em! Yelda 'specially, that stupid wench. Hey, speak o' Drik, here she comes now!"
The scruffy urchin points to a female figure approaching the Barnacle. Indeed, it is Yelda. A drunk Yelda, to be precise, as is indicative of the haphazard trail she weaves on her way back to the Barnacle whilst singing at the top of her lungs, for all in the Nook to hear. "Hypeius be back from war, an' he came back a man-whore. Services all the womens he c'n find, an' if they pay 'em two stenis for 'is trouble, he don't mind! There'd be many a woman he'd deflowered, but he runs from women like they be Shammies he's such a coward. Not much o' a catch iff'in ye ask me, fer two minute service I'd rather 'ave him fer free!" Suddenly, Yelda abruptly stops at the door to the Barnacle, seconds before entering, and stares drunkenly at both the urchin and the merchant. "He can't go the distance, he ain't worth the cash!" she declares in a heavily slurred voice. She wobbles a little on her feet, then pushes the door open and disappears within the dimly-lit establishment. Raucous laughter emanates from the Barnacle shortly after.
The urchin and the merchant both stare at the door to the tavern with blank expressions on their faces. The scruffy urchin is the first to speak. "What tha feck? She been takin' poetry lessons from Vinoria or somethin'? Not that I's seen her 'round that much lately. Vinoria ain't left her apartment tha whole month o' February. Firs' I thought she might'a been dead, 'cause she was pregnant and about ta burst last I saw her draggin' her sorry ass 'round these parts, and y'know how tough birthin' babies in tha Ol' City can be now that Moira's not 'round no more. But Keeshan tells me she's still alive, just on bed-rest on account o' it bein' a tough birth, and that the baby's healthy, too. He was real tight-lipped after that, though. What tha feck is that all about? I swear, the poor sod's still feckin' whipped or somethin' ain't right with that there baby. Still haven't seen it or heard a peep from it, and no one else seems to 'ave either. Maybe Vinoria canalled it or somethin'. She never did like kids, even her own."
The merchant nods solemnly at that, as he takes a final bite of his grilled flat bread. "Speakin' o' babies, Agrafina's lookin' fer one. Turns out she's been havin' lots o' visions lately 'bout a seer child beein' born or somethin'. She's been spreadin' the word all through tha Old City -- and even tha walls, too -- for mothers o' newborns ta contact her so she can take a look at tha kid an' see if it's tha seer baby. Ain't that somethin', huh? Maybe I should go borrow me a waller baby ta show her, eh? Hahaha!"
As the merchant guffaws and slaps his knee in amusement at his own apparent quick wit and cleverness, the little urchin offers up a few giggles as well as she pops the last of her portion of grilled flat bread into her mouth. Though her jaw works quickly to chew the stale food, it is not nearly quickly enough for her liking, and she resumes the gossip-sharing with a mouth still containing food. Little bits of flat bread spew from her mouth and litter the Nook as she speaks, though hardly anyone except the rats seem to take notice, and before long a little legion of rats pools at the urchin's feet to greedily nibble and fight over the available crumbs. "Ya think Agrafina lookin' fer a seer baby is somethin'? Wait'll ya hear _this_. Seems Yathel ain't holed up in his apartment no more. I ain't 'xactly _seen_ him, but I smelled him! He hasn't bathed since before I was borned, they say, and he sure stinks somethin' awful! I'm no more a fan of bathin' than anyone else 'round these parts, but not so much as takin' a dip in the canals fer years is jus' _nasty_. I stay away from the Vermenor Tenements just for tha reason alone! But I's smelled him 'round other parts o' the Old City, I swears it!"
The merchant breaks out into yet another fit of laughter, which now sends the ale he happened to be drinking at the time spewing out of his mouth; the remnants of which dribble down his chin and dampen his already-stained, raggedy tunic. "Ahaha! Oh, ye little scamp! Ye be tellin' tall tales again, eh?! Yathel ain't left his room in ages, he 'asn't! Har har har!" The scruffy urchin scrunches up her face, turns beet red, and begins stomping her feet in frustration. "I ain't lyin'! He left his room, I swears it!" However, the old merchant has by now finished his lunch and shared his gossip, so his lunch hour is officially over. He continues to laugh, clearly amused by this last little bit of gossip from his little companion, as he pushes his rickety hand cart away from the Sailor's Nook to peddle his wares once more, leaving the scruffy little urchin ranting and raving in the Nook about how Yathel really did leave his room.
<---------- PRAISE AND DISS SUGGESTIONS FOR THIS WEEK ---------->
-*- Praise Suggestions -*- ~ Hypeius - For coming back from war alive! Way to show those wallers the Old City has more competant people than their career soldiers.
~ Jariko - For doing the right thing by a fine Old City woman. Way to look out for your fellow OCer.
~ Tobias - For trying to get the Old City back on track. Someone's gotta do it, and he's doing a damn fine job, too!
~ Vinoria - For giving birth to another OC baby. Yay for future urchins!
~ Yathel - For leaving his room. Hooray!
-*- Diss Suggestions -*-
~ Hypeius - For being a bad man-whore! Go the distance or give it away for free, dammit!
~ Jariko - For getting hitched. Way to be a waller-wannabe!
~ Niobe - For taking the hottest piece of Istems butt off the market. Boo, Jarikiller stealer!
~ Tobias - For being a nosey busybody. Stop trying to run the Old City, dude!
~ Vinoria - For supposedly drowning (or otherwise harming) her newborn baby. Don't kill future waller-torturers, you crazy biznatch.
- Standard Disclaimer: These are only suggestions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of your FacHead, nor the people who submitted them. You are under no obligation to praise or diss anyone on this list. Always do what is IC for you, first and foremost. **
<---------- OOC SCHTUFF ---------->
- This concludes the first edition of your Vinoria-flavoured newsletter! Yay, etc. Please keep in mind that, while you can consider the contents of the newsletter general IC knowledge around the Old City, some things (or everything, for that matter) may or may not have been made up by me. I make no claims of truth! You know how gossip goes. (Also, I apologize if the colours are a bit much, but I'm not in a particularly creative mood at the moment. If you find that this newsletter hurts your eyes or just generally makes you want to go insane, I'm open to format and layout suggestions!)
- A Little-Known Command! Just like all of the other factions, we have our own version of @republic! The command is '@oc' (not to be confused with '@oldcity,' which serves to list all characters with the Old City tag), and may be used freely by everyone with the Old City tag. Need to meet with someone? Want a pair of boots made? Looking for a hitman? Posting on @bb 26 and putting up an @oc will not only bring attention to your needs, but also inform everyone else that someone is attending to the matter (as they'll see if it's claimed or whatnot). You'll never have to deal with turning down countless people via messengers and pages for things someone's already done for you ever again!
- Invision Discussions! There are currently a couple of threads on the Old City faction section of the Firan forums, and opinions are needed. Help make the Old City a fun, functioning place to play by adding your thoughts on the various topics currently up for discussion. Just please remember to remain civil and polite, make sure the criticism you offer is constructive, and try to propose methods of carrying out any ideas/suggestions you may have. (http://www.legendary.org/forums/index.php?showforum=37)
- Keep Our @bb Clean! Unlike most others, the Old City @bb (that's @bb 26, folks) doesn't have an expiry date for posts. That means that whatever you post will stay there forever and ever, unless you use the @bb/remove command to manually delete it. Please keep our @bb clean by deleting your posts that are no longer valid, as a full @bb is not good. (See 'help @bb/remove' for details, and you can always try '@bb/search 26/<your name>' to make the process easier.)
- A big thank you goes to Agrafina, Jariko, Niobe, and Tobias (in alphabetical order) for their contributions to this week's newsletter!
- Finally, I'm still new to this whole FH and newsletter thing. So while I get my feet wet, if you have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions on the current newsletter format, let me know. Like the narrative style? Don't like it? Don't care? Think my use of the Old City accent is totally off and horrifically wrong? Tell me! I'm open to any thoughts/ideas/suggestions/criticism you throw my way. :)
(And yes, I know this newsletter is huge and spammy beyond belief. Now that I've proved I am the Spam Queen, I'll be sure to cut it down next week!)
