oh man THIS IS A CUTE IDEA I want in on this!! I just wrote lil snippets... Palmer's gathering and trading never entirely works out, ah ha ha ha.
-> Asuen
"I'd be better off giving up," Palmer moaned, face-down on the bar counter. The barkeep was used to this sight. He continued polishing his glass as the Meister (he was a Meister, wasn't he? apparently, so he had heard) made other pitiful noises, grinding his forehead into the material of the counter. "Who knew it'd be feathers? If I knew it'd be feathers I couldn't get... I'd... I'd..."
"I think you've had enough to drink for tonight, Alcion," said the barkeep with a touch of sympathy (along with the exasperation, tears were going to ruin the varnish). "You should head back soon."
"Yeah," Palmer wibbled, pitifully, into the bar counter. Ahh. He really had too much. Now he was starting to get weepy. Still, he gamely lifted his face and rubbed tired-looking eyes and guzzled down the glass of water that the barkeep put out for him. Slightly sobered up, he shook his head a bit and rose unsteadily from his stool. "Thanks for the drinks. See you again." He placed his money on the counter and headed out.
The streets were quiet this time of night and the cool breeze served to wake Palmer up more. He shivered and pulled his collar closer to his throat, squinting against the dark and wondering if he ought to get glasses. With these kinds of thoughts in his head, he saw them. A person. In the bag at their side, he saw materials. He saw the glint of-- of--
"YOU THERE," he roared and pushed himself forward at a mad sprint. The person looked up with shock (a fellow Meister, yes) as Palmer skidded to a stop in front of them, chest heaving. "Those-- feathers-- Allow me to give you something for them! I need them!"
After he'd calmed down and after he'd convinced the other not to call the authorities or a golem, he had his feathers in hand.
-> Lewin
"Master, we're going to be caught."
That was Asuen's voice, over his head. Currently, Palmer could only describe their situation as "bad". They were crammed into the cargo hold of one of the ships heading out from the dock. Palmer huffed quietly, shouldering back against his tall golem. He got a soft, reserved "oof" for his trouble, and then he folded his arms over his chest.
"We'll not be caught, if you keep quiet. This is the only way," Palmer muttered back to him. Overhead, there were the sounds of people stomping about on deck. Certainly, Palmer could have contacted the school or perhaps a proper source, but he'd been too late by the time he heard where this ship was heading. That only left one course of action: stowing away.
"I'm not certain this was entirely necessary," Asuen said, exhaling.
"It was entirely necessary! You think I didn't comb that whole city lookin' for the stuff I need? 'Course I did," Palmer grumbled and dug in his pocket. He pulled out a sheet of what looked like scribbles but were, apparently, Palmer's drawings of the materials that he needed for the next golem he was trying to create. "But no-one, and I mean no-one, has these things back there. And feathers! Feathers, again!"
Apparently, he had gone through some kind of trauma. Asuen fluttered his wings self-consciously. "Palmer, your voice is loud," he sighed.
"Ah, right. Right, sorry. I got this."
About twenty minutes later, the ship's crew caught them and, for the rest of the voyage, they had to do every little cleaning task on board the ship. But hey. Palmer got his supplies.
-> Drummer Boy (the current state of affairs)
"What the hell is this supposed to be, old man?" Lewin squinted at the piece of paper he was currently gripping in one of his hands. "Er." He looked back down at his feet. He'd collected several items during their stop-over, however... try as he may, he wasn't sure if they were on Palmer's "shopping list".
He'd been slipping out early in the morning, because there was a ship leaving and he was damned if it was going to leave without him. However, to his shock, Palmer was out of bed and shoving something into his hand. "Take this," he had said, "I need these materials. See if you can find 'em where you're headed. I've been having a damn hard time finding 'em here."
Apparently, not even other Meisters had spares they were willing to trade.
However...
How was he supposed to read these nondescript symbols?! Lewin stared down at the paper again, tried turning it clockwise, then clockwise again, until he'd made a full 180° with it and it still made no more sense than before. Palmer had written what he was looking for on the sheet as well, sure, but Lewin was admittedly not wholly familiar with these materials. If it were Asuen, then...
The thought brought on a surge of irritation and Lewin huffed, sweeping the materials before him into a bag. Hmpf. These would be good enough!
However...
"...No matter how you look at it, these ain't the materials I had on the list."
So said Palmer, when Lewin got back with his bounty. Pah! His Meister was so ungrateful!
-> an aside: Deji Woods Excursion
"Master!"
Palmer had a habit for rushing into danger. It couldn't be helped. Things were starting to wear on him with months of work. So he headed straight into the forest without forethought, and with a worried Asuen shadowing him. When the spider showed up, well, that was just fantastic.
Thank goodness for Asuen, who crushed it. He'd rose into the air at an alarming speed, then came crashing down onto the spider with his full weight, his wings tucked tightly against his body. Palmer didn't even know spider monsters could make those sounds, especially when they were being crushed. Huh. You learn something every single day, huh?
After a few minutes of Asuen telling him, in a soft but fervent voice to be careful from now on, please they headed on with spider silk in hand. And they came to the nest. Where Palmer promptly about-faced (grabbing some more spider silk because he was not coming out of this with nothing) and headed right back the other way, because forget that.
God. He hated spiders.
