A Piktka Perfect Premise

[Mai Kobayashi]

Human imagination was capable of producing the most wondrous of things, the sheer number of islets making up the Pikt archipelago was a testament to that. Even if you stared at a map of this place for several days you couldn't memorize the name of every single Islet making it up. The mere fact that at some point people agreed on all of these was truly extraordinary. The fact they had come to think of so many of them a marvelous, miraculous, or even magical kind of notion. And then you came across things like this one. The islet called plainly; Islet.

Yeah, that was it. At some point, people sat down to name all of these places... (well that's how she imagined it anyway.) ...and somehow decided that that's the name this one deserved. Well, perhaps in the distant past perhaps it had deserved no more. Compared to the rest of the archipelagos varried and mountainous terrain this island was... well mostly flat to be honest. It was nothing but grain fields, peat bogs, lakes hills, and of course the reason she was here, to begin with; A ludicrous number of places that produced the amber gold, The nectar of the gods; Piktka.

It was for this reason that she had humbled herself to this extent. Certainly, a person of her stature should not be forced to demean herself in this manner, but there was no recourse. Humans were deceitful and untrustworthy creatures and though she craved to try the legendary produce of this stoically named Island, she had no desire to openly show herself to a bunch of these weak and yet frightfully bigotted things. Either they would panic if they saw her or they would try to capture her. Humans, especially on the seas away from the center of the world were weird that way.

Thus, she was currently hiding herself under a strange bonnet resting on the head of a burly and yet strangely meek seeming woman. The brimless headdress was lifted up ever so slightly, and two green orbs were staring out from under it. A small sweatdrop ran along the forehead of the woman on whom's head she had deigned to hide herself.

"Hey, how long are you planning to make me wait, Slightly big human?! Put some in the timble and pass it up here!"

A soft, hushed voice offered from between the gap between the woman's brown, unruly curls and the bonnet that was hiding the creature that actually wanted to be here. Here, being at the tasting room of the 'Illelach' production facility that happened to be one of the very famous producers of the Golden drink that made this unremarkable named Islet famous world over with those who loved their stoic drink. The woman looked left and right in the fidgety and flighty manner of an inexperienced thief that was trying to see if anyone was keeping an eye on her. There were about a dozen people here at the moment. The tour had ended a few minutes ago and now they had retired to the tasting room.

No one seemed to be watching her, several of them were talking amongst themselves, another was having an animated conversation with the bartender from a high seat at said bar. A few more had withdrawn to seats by themselves as this woman had. No one was paying close attention to her. Everyone was enjoying the experience of taste they had come here for. Or so it seemed.

She carefully retrieved a sowing timble from her pocket, put it on the table, and poured it full of the amber liquid resting in her glass. Making a motion as if to adjust her cap she passed the small silver thing up to the thing hiding underneath it that snatched it from her fingers with the greedy swiftness of something that had been kept waiting for far too long. From beneath the bonnet, the sounds of vigorous drinking could be heard softly emanating as the woman covered her mouth with her hand and whispered to herself.

"Hey, you had best nae forget. Ye promised me three more a'them gems, little thing."

The answer that came was the brim of the hat lifting up ever so slightly and a small hand, its wrist covered in a ginger-like fur, dropping the empty timble into the arch between the thumb and index finger of the hand covering her mouth.

"I promised, so I will keep that promise. We never lie! But you keep your end of the deal too! There are four more places to visit on the tour and you promised to take me to all nine of them! "

[Kami-Gaz]

The one day of shore leave she had on Pikt and of course and it started with her getting caught up doing work whilst she was off duty. What work? Some would ask? Well, it was some idiots robbing a local bank and making away with bags of cash. The local militia had been distracted around town in a pretty sophisticated plan for local small-time crooks, the one thing they had not counted on was “The Demon of the 45th” being around. It was something that caught up most of her morning, but was a good replacement for her usual morning PT exercises she would normally run with her squad.

Now because of her morning Heroics and making sure all of the culprits were handed over to the local law enforcement Cynna was late, and not just your average a couple minutes late. She was late enough to have missed half of the stops on the Pikta distillery tour. The one thing that she had been looking forward to ever since being reassigned to the North Blue… since essentially coming home to the island where she signed up to become a marine.

This left the woman with an issue, was she to meet the tour at the next stop? Or was she to blitz her way through and catch up? Well, she chose the latter of course, snagging her self a bottle from each of the distillery gift shops and sprinting like a mad woman. By the time she arrived at Illelach Production facility the group had finished the tour and were in the tasting room. Just in time for the good bit!

The door swung open to let a monstrously tall woman stride in through it. Her long flowing marine coat was replaced with a black one of a similar design, the arms torn off to reveal muscular arms and left open to show the well-toned body of a woman who looked like she had seen a gym. The half demon mask was clipped to her belt next to the hilt of her fantastically long sword that gently clinked against a bag filled with bottles of all kinds of Pikta. Her amber eyes scanned over the room as her free hand pulled on the lanyard that held her tour pass.

“Sorry I’m late!” She called whilst walking into the room and past nearly everyone to the burly looking woman in a bonnet. “Work called this mornin’! T’was a real pain.” She spoke before letting out a short quick breath to relax, her platinum blonde hair got brushed back in a quick motion and a grin appeared on her face. The free hand swiped the glass that was in the woman’s hand and moved it to her own lips, bringing it up and downing the contents.

“Ahh! Ohh that’s got a nice burn to it. But it is no McCallen’s!” Cynna spoke as the glass got placed down. “Oh Shit, did I nab that from ye?” The horned woman asked in a friendly enough tone.

[Mai Kobayashi]

"Waet de bl1#$%htin' f00kw%^&nk is wrong with ya, yae f@%$^$ywobblin Piktkaslicker?"

The woman who just had her glass of amber liquid forcibly parted from her hand stood up, slamming her fist on the table and glaring daggers at the monstrous marine in her civvies. Even were she not, it probably would not have mattered. The burly woman herself was not exactly small, nor frail-looking but she had not quite yet ascended to the realm of being called monstrous. Of course, no such trivialities held back an Islander when someone just came in, acted all friendly, and stole your drink right out from your hand! If the strongly-worded insult, which incomprehensible as it already was should not be fully replicated here, wasn't a clear enough act of hostility, getting up and punching the table surely was!

"Oww.. OWW! @%^$&%$*!!!"

Yet before Cynna could even respond to the clear and present provocation, the woman let out a cry of pain, and another before violently slamming her fist into her head, her OWN head that is. No rather... was she beating up not her head but her hat? Althehile flinging yet louder curses...? No more importantly was her hat winning?

This certainly seemed to be the case as it shot up of her head a good 2 feet after getting punched and came falling back down hard enough to, as it slammed back down on the woman's head, make her fall back into her seat dazed. The hat, a tammy as it was locally known, hopped off the woman's head and onto the table. For a moment it lay there, quite still. The brim lifted up ever so slightly and the hat spit out a piece of paper. No, to be more accurate it was a folded-up bill worth several thousand bellies.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! You really should know better than to part a lady with her drink though... More slightly big hum... I mean. Just Human. Yes. Because I am, as you can see, a hat. Tammy the hat, That is me! and the grumpy lady is Eiren. Eiren the human. But not my owner you know... Here here!"

The talking hat wiggled the bill of money around ever so slightly as its owner sat back in her chair, grumbling and rubbing the lump on her head, yet curiously not arguing with the Hat about the whole thing.

"Now now, Eiren. Why don't you go get us all some more glasses and a bottle? That sounds nice, right? "

The hat made a sort of pirouette in place turning to spit out the bill of money at the disgruntled Pikt nursing the lump on her head. The woman, who was evidently called Eiren, got up and though she was still cursing under her breath, made her way to the bar to go fulfill the errant her own hat had set her. For a moment the hat's brim lifted ever so slightly off the table and two bright green orbs stared out from under it and up at the monstrous marine.

"You don't talk like a local do you, human? Where are you from, what's your name? What are you doing here? Well, other than drinking, but that's obvious! I mean here as on the island here, not like... here here!!"

[Kami-Gaz]

Cynna was witness to quite the spectacle of Piktish insults, there was one calling her a female dog with a few more unnecessary swears that did little to paint the picture. The final word used being Piktaslicker was a local a local one and it was quite the insult to those that they thought were foreigners. Well shame on her, Cynna had served as a recruit here for a number of years and was pretty up there with the local accent. To the point that she was about to open her own mouth and offer a wonderfully worded retort that went along the lines of fish slapping her and her entire family for generations… but sadly something stranger happened.

The woman’s hat attacked her, and it was quite the spectacle. Whatever was controlling it was really strong as it brought the woman down with ease. Then it moved itself to the table to get close to Cynna… What was underneath was a genuine surprise to the world travelled marine. It was a dwarf, a fairly tall one but still a dwarf.

“Curious…” Cynna muttered as she used her foot to hook a stool and slide it over so she could sit down and get a proper look at this talking hat. It was rare to see a dwarf outside of the new world. Her smile grew as she leaned her elbow on the table.

“It’s me day off, Dwarf.” The monster noted with her smug smile and chipper tone. “I’m from the Frost Kingtom, Ja?” Was added, Cynna’s original and thought to be dead and buried accent slipped through as it was mentioned. This was an inquisitive one, well all reports said dwarves were.

“I’m Cynna! I'm here because I thought it would be nice to spend me day off getting a drink and tastin' the best locals could offer.” It was a simple answer, something that could stand up to any scrutiny. Cynna wanted to have a nice day to herself and just socialise with some like minded Pikta lovers. Was that a crime?

“What about you? What’s ya name? Where ya from? What ya doin' here?” The covert marine asked with a light chuckle. This dwarf was commanding that brute of a Piktish woman around as if she were a child, she had a leadership experience. However, she was nice enough to talk to Cynna even after the stir she had caused. On Pickt there were two ways to make good friends. Drinking with them, or fighting with them and making up. Well Cynna was aiming to do both with the woman called Eiren.

[Mai Kobayashi]

"Dwarf?! How rude! I'm no dwarf, I am one of the Aen Sidhe!"

The tiny creature tosses aside the hat covering it with a surprising amount of force, sending it spinning almost two feet into the air before landing upside down on the table next to her. The creature hiding underneath it stood almost a foot tall. She was wearing a bright green outfit made of a fabric that seemed expensive even at a single glance. A quirky cap covered her bright red locks of hair and though she had a long tail to match like most dwarfs did she was rather big by dwarfish standards and also seemed to have an extra set of arms, a pair of strange brightly green eyes, and tufts of red fur covering her wrists, ankles and, around her neck. Most importantly though she sported a pair of shimmering nearly translucent wings.

"My name is Shayleigh, I'm what you humans call a Fairy! But, I'm not just any fairy either. I am the Fairy Queen!"

The jewelry adorning her small body indeed spoke of some wealth of means and the fact she was wearing 4 distinctly colored swords on her hips at least partly explained why this creature was bold enough to be out amongst humans on its own. Whether it just fancied itself a warrior or not, it clearly was capable of defending itself to some measure. The strength it was putting on display as if it was normal was evidence enough of that. The fact that it certainly was no normal dwarf was easy enough to see as well but made ever more readily apparent as it fluttered its transparent butterfly-like wings and took off from the table surface to come at a level with Cynna's face as it gave her a momentary huffy look before making an animated motion with all four of its hands.

"Where I'm from is a secret though... sorry but I don't trust big humans not to go and try capture our kind in a bag and sell them... if I tell you where I'm from. I am not saying you would do that, but everyone here could overhear you know!"

She made a large sweeping gesture around the room, indicating all the other patrons which were now staring at their table. Obviously, she had done exactly the thing she had hiding under a hat to avoid; draw everyone's attention. From the bar, the woman called Eiren groaned while the bartender was still cleaning the glass in his hands with a piece of cloth long after it was more than shiny. He simply stared with his mouth half agape. The tiny 'fairy' however did not seem to notice. She might deny being a dwarf but she acted in some ways as gullible and clueless as most dwarfs were reputed to be. Though she had at least shown some measure of 'mistrust' by refusing to say where she was from. When asked WHY she was here though, she fluttered down towards the table, hoisted up the empty timble with her two sets of hands, and held it above her head in a proud show, even though it was empty.

"I'm here to enjoy the Piktka! Why else would I bribe a big human to bring me in here?"

[Kami-Gaz]

Not a dwarf, huh? A fairy but not any fairy, the fairy queen… huh? That was all new to Cynna as she watched the small person reveal herself to the world with a streak of stubborn pride that would put even the horned marine to shame. Then the winged dwarf flew up to her eye level making Cynna’s smile a grin. This was going to be a nice and fun day of drinking, entertainment came provided. AS the fairy fluttered away the woman nodded, it all made sense.

“So a fairy queen bribing a local to take her around the distilleries so she can taste the good stuff, eh?” Cynna asked as she placed her hand palm up on the table so Shayleigh could stand on it, it would take quite the effort to climb up it as Cynna was just so big compared to the tiny feisty woman. “Don’t worry about people coming to take you away, I work for people who stop that. Been working for twenty years all over the world fighting crooks and criminals.” With a chuckle she looked over her shoulder to Eiren and the rest of the bar with a sharp gaze to make them all back down.

“Tell ya what Shay, why don’t you buddy up with me? Drinks are better with friends and good stories after all. I get the idea you and I will be Besties in no time.” The marine said as she returned her gaze back down to little Shay, this was some one with spunk that could probably hold their liquor in their tiny body. That was an element Cynna needed in a drinking companion. Her boss was nice and all but he was a Prissy West Blue Wine Drinker… there was no rescuing the lieutenant from that name now.

[Mai Kobayashi]

"Well... you know.. 'Bribe' may have been a bit too strong a word... I did ask Eiren to take me along. I thought it would be easier to get around that way and I did like the look of her hat, it looked comfortably big just like her! By your standards, she is big I mean. By mine, you are all big! Though I guess in YOUR, your standards that's a bit different from the rest of the big humans, whom I meant when I said 'your standards' to! You are strangely big too and all!"

She was trying quite hard to explain what she was actually trying to say in such a way as to have it make sense and ended up doing a fine job of complicating it to the point of being incomprehensible instead. She was busily gesturing as she spoke, first towards the direction of the bar, then at the gathered crowd, and finally at Cynna herself with the topmost pair of her arms. Meanwhile, the lower pair stubbornly held on to the silver thimble, as if she was quite reluctant to let go of the one thing in sight that was small enough to serve as a cup that she could easily hold herself.

"I see, then you must be a Hero. That's quite amazing. I wasn't born yet when my people still had heroes but my mother used to tell me about them when I was younger. Not when I was smaller though, I know you big humans like saying it that way but I haven't gotten any taller in at least thirty-five years. So it wouldn't be true you know! "

She looked at the hand placed on the table in front of her. Cynna appeared to offer it to her as a step up and she fluttered a small way up from the table surface. Her curious, wholly green, eyes were looking between the Marine woman's face and her hand. The words meant to comfort her got a slightly different explanation than most people would have probably given them and an equally endearing little skit appended on to it that told rather a lot about someone who had just tried to be mysterious about her origins. Well.. she clearly wasn't very good at that part...

"Oh! I see... Well, I do like drinking better with more friends and good stories too. Ok, Cynna was it? Is that like Cinnabar? The Mineral? It's pretty to look at but dangerous to touch. You aren't toxic like that, are you? "

Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked between Cinna and the offered hand once more as the large woman offered her a drinking partner on the premise that drinking alone was less fun, this was of course undeniable and the fairy fluttered down towards the woman's hand palm. She gingerly touched her toes to the woman's flesh, as if trying to ascertain she was indeed not toxic. Convinced that she wasn't going to immediately catch fire or fall over dead she landed on the woman's hand palm in a proper fashion. A quite endearing if ultimately useless gesture.

After all, if the woman was as toxic as the mineral then she wouldn't be able to feel any adverse effects quite that quickly. The fact she was aware of the material being harmful but was still so quickly convinced that it was safe was a little odd to reconcile. Unless you took into account the rather trustworthy... No perhaps gullible was a better word? nature she displayed. Then it made perfect sense she would be so easily convinced even if it was not logically sound reasoning by any means.

[Kami-Gaz]

The off duty marine watched as the rather tall winged dwarf made her show of her wings and ability to flutter as she begun to talk about heroes. That was a word sometimes thrown around to easily, Cynna did not consider herself a hero. No, she was just a woman doing her duty to help others that needed it. Real heroes were the ones that did great deeds and practically threw their lives away… like the late Vice Admiral Hoshiko. She was in the base when the announcement of her passing was made.

The woman pushed those thoughts out of her mind as little Shay made the observation on her name, one that got the combat experienced woman to flash an almost wolfish grin for just a moment before chuckling. That was quite a cute take on her name, the real twist on her name would get this dwarf laughing and crying.

“No no, I’m not toxic. I can fight and do that well, but when I kill it’s not slow.” She boasted, lifting her hand up gently as she did in an effort to get the small woman eye level with her. Her amber eyes glinted in the light as she fully examined the small form in front of her. “No, my mother decided I should be a sweet girl like a stick of Cinnamon.” The woman did her best to stifle a laugh with her other hand. “She was beside herself when I picked up my first sword and won that fencing tournament.”

Cynna had done it, dropped the bombshell that she never dropped around her subordinates or her superiors. Hell, she never spoke of her personal life before becoming a marine, not to anyone. It helped to garner an air of mysterious badassary around the woman, something that helped her build a base that everyone could look up too. With a soft shake of her head those amber orbs scanned the room and looked for the booze that was meant to be coming their way.

[Mai Kobayashi]

"Hmmm.. but cinnamon itself isn't all that sweet is it? It's just... people often pair it with sweet things and it became associated with sweets but in the end, it is more of a dry spicy heat. Kind of like Pikta right? It's a taste best enjoyed with something or someone else, right?"

The tiny winged person observed as she tapped the finger of one of her free hands against her lips in a contemplative fashion and with another motioned towards the sullen-looking native at the bar. From the expression the woman called Eiren gave it became evident that she had half hoped she had been forgotten by the pair who had managed to draw all eyes in the tasting room towards them. Despite the fact that none were so bold as to stare directly their way after Cynna's quite disapproving glare, they all still threw glances over their own glasses when they thought they could get away with it. Neither Cynna nor Shay herself was inconspicuous at the best of times but especially now they were gathering quite the audience and it seemed like as much as Eiren wanted to avoid those eyes, the woman wanted the gemstones the Fairy had promised her more. As she approached the table with a bottle in one hand and a fresh pair of glasses in the other, the tiny person held up the timble towards her expectedly. Without a word, the sullen woman silently uncorked the bottle and poured the amber liquid into the tiny cup before roughly placing the two glasses on the table and filling them with a generous amount.

The Piktish native sat down in her former seat quite brusquely before she pushed one of the glasses across the table towards the marine silently. The newcomer who had taken her seat at the other side, or rather pulled it up on her own accord was obviously still not the Piktish woman's favorite person in the world. But it seemed as if she had swallowed up her fiery temper in favor of getting the reward she was promised. She just gave a grunt that might have been meant as some sort of pre-drink cheer but it was hard to make out. Mostly because she immediately downed her entire glass and set out to pour herself another as she pulled her Tammy off the table and put the hat back on her head.

"Yes! There we go, all good friends now. Let's have a drink to celebrate meeting interesting people and some good stories!"

The tiny fairy exclaimed happily from the palm of Cynna's hand as she raised the timble to her own lips and happily took a sip as if she was oblivious to the entirety of the tense situation she had caused.

[Kami-Gaz]

The marine raised a brow to the small fairy girl that was standing proud on the palm of her hand and cracked a wry smile at the comment. Was she being suggestive or just a little naïve in her comment? Given how she had been reacting and talking to Cynna it was likely she was just a bit naïve. “My ex-fiancé thought something similar… long story short he was left on the alter.” She spoke as the now generously filled glass was slid in her direction.

With a nod to the woman who had brought it she raised the glass in a cheers, moving Shay in close enough so her and her thimble could get involved. It was only fair that all parties in this little group got to put their glasses in before the first drink as a group. “Cheers!” The marine called before pulling her glass away from the bunch and taking a hearty mouthful of the golden liquid. The taste of good Pickta seemed to be brought right out with company, something just acted as a catalyst for the perfect taste.

“Sorry about earlier Lassie, I picked the best woman for the job and did what everyone Picktish does. Make mates with a fight!” Cynna noted as her glass was placed back onto the table, a chuckle escaping her and making her entire body rumble slightly. She had found a good pair of companions for this day of shore leave.

“Now, Shay. I told you some things about myself. Now how about you tell me more about you?” She asked, levelling the hand with the fairy on with her amber eyes that gazed down at the fairy with a sparkle of inquisitiveness. A fairy would be a bounty of fun stories, especially when drinking. Lieutenant Joao was never going to believe this.