Worn and Dirty Hands
Emmett Palmer


Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
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#1
Note: This thread takes place about a day after the Queen meeting ME, and before the Monster Hunting Guild PQ.

Emmett usually liked the quiet of the fields when he was stressed, but today it felt like a ticking clock. Like a reminder of seconds passing as his control slipped, a constant waiting for the moment where he was sure it was about to all go tits up. Or...more so than it already had done. He wasn't sure what, but he had a feeling that something was coming. Maybe it was the rising tensions in Caido, maybe it was just farmer's superstition. Either way, it wasn't anything logical, so he tried to ignore it and get on with his chores.

He was on the further out fields, ones that he had honestly abandoned since his family had died. Having decided to try and bring new life to the messy land, he was working with a scythe and shovel to cut weeds and till earth, making the previously wild space into one much more contained.

Standing up for a break he wiped the back of his forehead and stood leaning on his shovel, looking over the green lengths of the land he loved so much. Recently, it felt like he hardly knew the landscape anymore.
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
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#2
Part of having a disguise meant breaking it in, making sure that people saw it and didn't immediately associate Jigano disappearing with Silversmith showing up. So the bard still made the occasional trip into town in his own skin, but he had begun to work on establishing the Silversmith persona as well. Darker skin and hair dyed with walnut husks, subtle lines worked into the skin of his face, a broad brimmed hat that hid the length of his messily bound-up hair, and an eyepatch on his right eye. He swung along with a gnarled walking stick, slouched a bit to take a few inches off his height, and when he came in sight of a young man working in the fields he tilted his head to the side consideringly.

The boy was familiar, in a distant sort of way. He'd seen him around some fo the larger gathering, Jigano thought, though he couldn't remember them ever being formally introduced. But the way he had spoken to the would-be tyrant the previous day had been nothing short of inspired, and was worth recognition. Walking over with a slow but purposeful gait, he joined Emmett in looking over the old-new field, and leaned on his stick.

"I heard you yesterday at the meeting, lad. Thank you for speaking up," he offered, with a nod of respect and approval. "You gave others the courage to follow. That's no bad thing. Helped the little lady show her true, bloody colors to all those there that might have thought she meant well, and that's a fact."
Emmett Palmer


Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: Lancydulac Offline
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Posts: 328 | Total: 8,707
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#3
Emmett heard someone approach and turned to see a man he distantly knew, someone he'd seen around before. His guard was up right away, wary of strangers after his outburst yesterday, knowing it would quickly lead to trouble (especially as he had not signed up to the damn army) but the man approached and complimented his speech and he relaxed.

"Thanks. I'm...not sure it'll make tha' big of a difference, though. I mean, I'm plenty mad about her bein' here, but I don' know what the hell to do. None of us do." How did you get rid of a Queen when you'd never had one before? He liked to think their people were less savage than to just immediately resort to murder, but there were no systems in place, no ways to challenge power.

"You uh...a natural here, then? I don' think I know you that well." He asked, going to sit on a rough stone wall.
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#4
The older man nodded in understanding of the farmer's words, looking out over the field again and sighing before going to join Emmett on the stone wall. "Standing up to her, speaking up, and letting others know they aren't the only ones against what's happening is important. If we let her be the only voice to speak out, we let her control the story. And it's not hers to write." He shook his head, but his frown lightened at the question, and he nodded his head as he introduced himself.

"No natural, lad, but I keep mostly to myself and live off the land in the outskirts, hunting and trapping and leaving well enough alone. People are all right in small doses, but I don't care much for towns. And especially not for kings and queens," he added with a grimace. "Not that there can't be good ones, but this looks to be a particularly bad one." A little would-be Osmund Zydow, pulling puppet strings and making people dance to her tune, was this Zariah. Offering to talk and then silencing all protest by force when she proved unpopular... unlike Zydow in that, at least. The old man had been clever enough to build his allies and resources for years before staging his coup of the Technic League.

"What do you do when you've got a particularly noxious weed spreading in your fields?" the old man asked curiously. "When it starts strangling your crops and trying to take over?"
Emmett Palmer


Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
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#5
The man's words gave him a sense of importance and he nodded, smiling to himself. Maybe what he'd done had been more than the angry rambling of an angsty young man. It felt good to feel that he'd actually done something against the threat encroaching on his way of life, even if in the long run it might not make that much of a difference.

Not a natural, which surprised him (most older people, especially those who hung around the farms, had been here for years) but Emmett respect the man instantly, from his common words to his sensibilities.

He was sure the question asked was a metaphor and could see where it was going, but he responded genuinely anyway: "I cut it out. Pull out the roots too. You gotta try n get it all, or it just comes back and it's always stronger the second time."
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#6
The older man nodded at the young farmer's response, seeing the sharp understanding in Emmett's eyes and knowing he didn't need to belabor the point any further. "So. You do know what to do. The trick is going to be getting up the courage to do it and seeing it through. Humans aren't weeds, of course, but the answer isn't so different." He sighed, leaning on one hand as he looked up at the crisp Leafchange sky, and his brow furrowed in thought.

"She's a strong one, though, I'll bet. It's not something any one person could do alone. But then, you weren't the only one unhappy at that meeting," he said, glancing over at his companion with a hint of a reassuring smile. "A weed that big will take many hands to pull out."

He reached up to adjust his hat, tilting his head at Emmett thoughtfully. "Do you bake your own bread, lad, or do you get it in town?" A complete non sequitur, perhaps, but there was a sly twinkle in his single blue eye.
Emmett Palmer


Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: Lancydulac Offline
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Posts: 328 | Total: 8,707
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#7
Emmett nodded, looking out over the field he had been tending to. There were weeds he could see there already, that he'd have to go and pick out later; he knew that while he did he would be thinking of these words. Was it really as simple as that? The old man admitted himself that weeds weren't the same as humans.

What did 'pulling them out' mean? As much as he was opposed to what was happening, Emmett was not the sort to kill. He was hardly the sort to hurt. The axe he had taken to Zariah's manor had been more for display than anything else.

"Uh...bit of both?" He asked, not sure where the question was coming from. "If I do buy it, I get it from Amalia. She's pretty good, but I find her crusts a lil thick sometimes, so I like t'try make my own too." Confused, he raised an eyebrow. "Do you...want some...?"
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#8
The farmer was thinking hard, and Jigano was content to sit and give him space for his thoughts to percolate. Analogies and metaphors comparing anything else to humans were always messy, imperfect things; people were too complicated to be condensed down to an easy platitude. But easy answers weren't the point, necessarily, though they were nice. His questions were meant to get Emmett thinking, to give him a constructive direction to take those thoughts other than the hopelessness and confusion their conversation had begun with. Where those thoughts took the other man, Jigano might not get to see until much later, but it would, he hoped, be better than bitter acceptance and resignation to the yoke that was being tightened around all the people of the Hollowed Grounds.

He didn't chuckle at Emmett's confusion over his question about bread, but he did smile a bit broader and nod his head, glad that he already knew of the baker. That would make things simpler. "No, I don't need anything like that. Amalia makes a fine enough crust for me, as well. But if you're looking for others who might be wanting to bake a loaf that the new Queen will choke on for taking too big a bite out of these lands, the Chandrakant is a good place to begin." Now he chuckled, nodding to the field. "And like things here, it'll be easier with many hands to help with the recipe."
Emmett Palmer


Age: 28 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Attuned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 11 - Endr: 12 - Luck: 10 - Int:
Played by: Lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 328 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#9
It took a moment for Emmett to really understand, but when he did a wide smile spread across his face. A proper gathering of people who felt like he did...? Nodding, he clapped a hand to the man's shoulder. "I see what you mean. Okay, sure. I'll go ask her about that kinda loaf." Talking in this kind of code made him feel excited, like he was part of a club, a group that might do something.

"Thanks for tellin' me." He told the old man, then started to shovel again. The job couldn't wait forever - if he wanted to continue talking he was welcome to, but Emmett had work to do.
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#10
Jigano had to hide his own smile as understanding dawned across Emmett's face, though he did unbend his disguise enough to wink at the farmer as his shoulder was clapped. "I think you're experience baking will come in handy then," he chuckled. "But strong hands and a steady heart will take you even farther. Give the good lady my regards when you see her," he added, rising to look over the fields with a smile for what he saw.

Not ruin, but potential. A field that could be coaxed to grow again with care and nurturing. Pull the weeds, turn over new soil, and come Flowerbirth there would be new corn or wheat or rye here, offering hope and life to the Hollowed Grounds. The soil might not be as fertile as other places, but it was what they had, and they would find a way to make it work until time and nature could heal the damage the barrier had done to the land and life within it. All it would take was time... and stubbornness. And they had the latter in plenty!

Without waiting for Emmett to ask his name the older man waited until the farmer was focused on his shovel before shifting to a winged shape and taking off to join a flock of nearby rooks and crows, just one bird among several, until the whole flock took off in a flurry of feathers.


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