nexus_sages | Nexus Spring Market Fair

Seemingly overnight, one of the grassy areas edging the Forum has been taken over by a spring market and fair. Part state fair, part craft fair, part Renaissance faire, there are attractions for all comers. Tents and booths of every size, shape, and color are lined up more or less tidily, sometimes with wide avenues between them and sometimes with paths skinny enough to crowd a single person. Goods and treats from the far-flung corners of infinity are on display. The general organization has magic and alchemical goods grouped together and slightly separated from the other tents; arts and crafts fill the area around it. Goods such as clothes and jewelry, plants, and vintage and antique items are in the back. Food is front and center, between the entrance and the rides. This is perhaps not an ideal placement.

To one side is a brightly-lit collection of rides and games familiar to anyone who's been to a state fair. A ferris wheel, flying swings, and all manner of reasons to regret that last funnel cake are blaring tinny music and sporting blinking lights. Remember: rides first, then eat. Classic games that test strength, agility, and luck offer plush prizes sure to delight anyone until the fur rubs off. There are also some animal rides near the exit.

In the back of the roughly-fenced-in area are the exhibits. There's a petting zoo with creatures mundane and more exotic, all promised to be tame; practical demonstrations of new magical and technological wonders; a juried art show; and a stage hosting a variety of performers changing on the hour.

((This is an open event. If your character wants to have a booth selling wares or food, set one up. If your character wants to perform or provide other services, go for it! Please note what sort of service you're providing, if any, in the subject line of your top-level comment. Basically, just run with it and have fun!

I offer pictoral inspiration and ask that any pictures used in comments not be more than 300 px tall (and it looks better if you can keep it about the same height as your text). Code to have your text wrap around your picture below.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Cool." Wil's really rusty at making pottery, but he remembers the basics. "Bowls and vases and stuff are the easiest ones to do, right?"

"They sure are. Just keep it balanced, and a steady speed on the pottery wheel."

It takes him a few tries to produce something suitable, but fortunately clay is very moldable. Twice, he mashes it back together into one solid lump and starts over, not happy with what he made before. But at last, he produces a wide bowl that isn't lopsided enough to notice without careful scrutiny.

"Now that you have your creation, you can decide if you want to use the wet paints before it goes into the kiln. Or paint it when it is fired."

"Which do you recommend?" Hunter's the artist here, after all.

"I find the wet paints seal any cracks better, and make for a better end result. The trick with the wet paints is less is more."

"You need to use a thin layer of the paint for it to dry better."

"Less is more... I can get behind that."

"I have an assortment of colors to choose from. Paint to your heart's desire."

Call it stereotypical, but Wil goes right for the darker reds and blacks, two of his favorite colors. He paints alternating stripes up the sides of the bowl, trying to make them as uniform as possible. "Have you had a lot of people trying this out so far?" he asks as he works.

"A couple of people. I have been marking them as they go into the kiln, so people can identify them later."

"What'll you do if they forget to come back for them?"

"I am a believing of not letting anything go to waste. I would break them and then use the chips to create some mosaics."

"Huh. I guess that works. Points for recycling."

"I have a mosaic floor of my rose garden, that is unfinished."

Wil finishes painting his clay bowl and steps back from it, starting to clean off his hands. "You have a garden?"

"A small one, on the balcony of my apartment."

"That's pretty cool. I didn't know you could grow those like that."

"You just need a good trellis. In my former apartment... I had a roof-top trellis that I had built by hand."

"When I come over to write for your art exhibition, I'd like to see your roses. If that's okay."

"That is more than okay." Hunter smiles in response.

Another thought occurs to him. "And perhaps, you can help identify if one of my other paintings is magical in property. I don't want to display it publicly, if it is."

Wil pauses, a little confused by that. "You don't know if your own work is magical?"

"The painting had acted as a portal into a dreamlike setting. But that might have just applied to me."

"It is a painting of Kendra." Wil had met the Witch beforehand.

"If it's not magical, how would it have done that? And if it is magical, how'd it get that way without you intending it to?"

Edited 2016-04-04 02:54 (UTC)

"Those are good questions that I would love to answer, but can't."

Hunter crosses his arms in thought. "Another friend of mine had questioned if Kendra was facing any consequences, since her magical curse on me still exists. I was thinking of her when I painted her face. Then the painting itself brought me to where she was..."

"I am sort of uncertain of what to do with the painting. It feels wrong to destroy it, especially if it is connected to a piece of someone else."

"But I can not display it if the painting is magical."

Wil frowns. He's no expert in magic, but he does know it when he sees it, if he looks into it enough. "That's understandable."

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losthunter - 2016-04-04 03:00 (UTC) - Expand

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