What girl doesn't need a good axe?

[furypatienceconversation]

WHO: Garnet and anyone who wants to drop by!
WHAT: Weapon shopping.
WHEN: Around midday.
WHERE: The Mid-Summer Festival in the Lost City of Amazonia
NOTES/WARNINGS: Dem thighs always need a warning. /ahem. Nothing as yet.

She had taken her arrival with her usual aplomb. The City of Tomorrow had been interesting, but she saw more things that she might need to take a closer look at when she thought about attending the Festival that everyone was talking about.

So that was where Garnet had gone. It was rather nice to be amongst fellow warrior women - not that she wasn't always, or almost always, but the attitude here was different. Pearl fought because Rose fought. Amethyst fought because, in her words, she was 'scrappy.' Garnet's reasoning was different. She fought because the battle needed to be fought, and she was able to fight it.

The reason she was looking intently at a weapons booth, though, was because...

Well...

Her giant axe looked a little lonely, and this place was, currently, a little closer (and definitely less laden with memory) than the strawberry fields.

Her lips tugged to one side, a hand at her chin, Garnet eyed a particularly well-made polearm. Reach, and a blade. Both of those were positives in her book.

Comments

[story_and_teller]

"They're quite nice, aren't they?" Loki asks, as she steps up beside the interesting-looking stranger.

[furypatienceconversation]

Garnet's answer was typically blunt: "Yes." But it was honest. They were nice. A bit small, but not everyone had her strength. "The reach could be useful."

It wasn't a destabiliser, but a well-placed strike could poof as easily as one of those ridiculous things.

[story_and_teller]

Loki glances over, arching an eyebrow.

"You look like you have reach on most people you'd meet."

[furypatienceconversation]

There's a simple response to that.

"Most. But not all."

Well. Unless she had her giant axe, but that was difficult to get out of her room. Even if it was awesome.

[story_and_teller]

Loki's smile widens, showing teeth this time, and she laughs.

"But not all," she agrees.

[furypatienceconversation]

She lifted her hand to her chin again. She wanted that polearm. The problem was...

Money. Thanks to Greg, she understood the concept of money, but it wasn't really something a Crystal Gem needed - at least, not the ones besides Steven. What did they use for money here? What could she use for money here?

Hm.

She stepped up to the booth, to the vendor, pointed bluntly, and asked, "Crystal Gems do not use money. What do you want in exchange for that?"

The woman, built strongly and still wearing her leather smithy apron, considered before responding. "A favour, perhaps?"

Garnet went quiet. Thoughtful. That could be dangerous. The futures she could see leaned both ways.

[story_and_teller]

Does she see the one where a nosy goddess pokes into her business?

"A small favour, maybe. It's a nice pointy stick, but it's not even magic."

[furypatienceconversation]

A possibility, but not one she had depended on. For some reason, futures involving the newcomer in green and gold had been capricious and difficult to follow.

"It's a masterwork," the woman running the stall protested.

To Garnet, she was right. It was a masterwork - and Garnet wasn't concerned about magic. What she did decide, though, was to guide toward a preferred future. "You are a master smith, but not a master builder. I will shore up your roof with stone in exchange for the weapon."

That seemed to strike just right - at least if the smith's widened eyes were anything to judge by. "I don't know how you knew that, but-- Agreed," she said immediately, and handed over the weapon without incident.

When Garnet took it, there was the softest clink as she curled her hand around the staff. "Tomorrow," she said, "at dawn."

"You know where my smithy is?"

"Yes."

"You Named Characters..." The woman shook her head, but then turned to another customer.

[story_and_teller]

The Magic 8 Ball of Loki's life is consistently inconsistent, especially now, especially this particular iteration of the goddess of mischief and chaos. It's a bit of a, as the kids say, thing.

"So, is the weapon worth its price?"

[furypatienceconversation]

There was no hesitation when Garnet said, "Yep," and rested it on her shoulder. It stayed neatly in place, partly due to friction and partly due to her shoulder puff. She could already see a few futures where this could come in handy against the homeworld gems.

She would have to practice a bit, though. After all, she didn't have direct experience with Pearl's spear.

"The manual labor is nothing."

[story_and_teller]

Loki briefly pulls a face.

"To each her own I guess."

[furypatienceconversation]

For once, she looked directly at her company and considered. She had known gems like that once. Sapphire had, anyway. Ruby... Well, until Sapphire and the Crystal Gems, Ruby had mostly known Rubies.

So there was one thing to say. "You have the bearing of an aristocrat."

[story_and_teller]

"That's because I am one," she says, shrugging a little. "Not that that means much in a place like this." Loki raises her chin, and gives a nod to take in the entirety of the city - maybe even the City.

"Here, what matters is the narrative, the stories we tell, to ourselves and each other. So. Maybe I'm a princess, and maybe I'm a queen, but I'm neither to anyone here."

With one or two exceptions of course, but Ikol hardly counts, in the Storyteller's mind. Not for this sort of thing.

[furypatienceconversation]

"I see."

And she did see. Whether it was common or rare for this woman to be understood, Garnet understood.

"Yours is an interesting position."

[story_and_teller]

"That's one way of putting it," Loki says wryly. "It also happens to be the truth, but eh, who's counting?"

[furypatienceconversation]

"Most aristocrats find themselves lost with no servants to serve them." And this woman had already admitted to a dislike of manual labor. There were other forms, that was true, but Garnet still wondered.

[story_and_teller]

"I'm used to doing without. Though trustworthy servants are nice," she allows.

[furypatienceconversation]

There's something about that that Garnet doesn't like. Mostly because she knows firsthand how a servant feels when suddenly free. So many thousand years and Pearl was still finding herself.

"So long as they're treated like people," she ended up saying. Pearl. Yellow Pearl. So long ago, the Blue Pearl... All of them. Treated as so little.

[story_and_teller]

"'Like people' doesn't mean much," Loki points out. "If someone isn't accustomed to treating people like people. It's a bad habit that so many of the high-and-mighty get into."

There's a thread of bitterness there.

[furypatienceconversation]

"Spoken like someone who has been in the presence of a Diamond." She had keen memories of those Diamonds. All the better to be glad she was no longer around them.

[story_and_teller]

Loki arches an eyebrow.

"Your aristocrats?" she asks.

[furypatienceconversation]

"Not anymore."

Understatement, to say the least.

[story_and_teller]

Loki flashes another grin.

"Good for you."

[furypatienceconversation]

Was the misunderstanding deliberate? Maybe no one would ever know. Bug all the same, Garnet answered, "Yes. It has been very good for us."

[story_and_teller]

"Most people do better when they throw off tyrants, and seek their own paths. It certainly makes for a better story. And better stories make for a richer, and more vibrant tapestry of life."