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THE THIRSTY MINNOW - EVENING
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Jennica is sitting at the bar, half-sipping at a cider though really just actively thinking nothing after a day of working trinket-level problems. The cow is dressed slightly better than usual, in a cute green summer dress that shows off her curves quite clearly.
Louma folds her wings back after landing outside the Minnow, glancing at a large puddle just outside the tavern as she heads toward the door, glad she doesn't have to slither through it to get in. Her tail holds the door open for herself until she's fully inside, making her way to the bar with a casual glance around on the way. She settles at the bar after moving a stool out of the way, ordering a glass each of red wine and water.
Jennica looks up at Louma, staring for perhaps a moment longer than is polite.
Louma catches Jennica's gaze, smiling with a nod to her as she finally settles into her coil. "Good evening. Sorry if I startled you when I moved the stool."
Jennica blinks, actually realizing she's staring: "O-oh! Sorry. I mean, no. Just uh... haven't seen your type before. Or is that offensive to say? Sorry if it is. Um. Sorry?" The cow looks decidedly sheepish right now.
Louma blinks, very slightly taken aback by the description before she's too amused by Jennica's backpedaling to be bothered. "Maybe a little bit, but you're alright. Though I don't think I've met you before, either."
Jennica smiles abashedly: "Oh! Right. I'm Jennica. Just kinda moved here. Nice to meet you?"
Louma tilts her head a bit at the phrasing. "Is it? Well, it is nice to meet you, Jennica. I am Louma. What brings you to Respite, if I may ask?"
Jennica blinks, musing: "Oh. Well, um, my friend had the idea that we should change place to move here from Vamas, a-and the opportunities to sell our stuff are better here. Or at least have been so f-far. We uh, um... reasons. Yes."
Louma breaks her focus from Jennica just long enough to accept her drinks, turning back to her moments later. "Oh, you're merchants, then? Plenty of room in the marketplace for more newcomers, what are your wares?" She conveys genuine interest, leaning against the bar while fully facing Jennica.
Jennica stares at Louma for a second before realizing she was asked another question: "Oh. We uh, these sort of trinkets..." She fishes up a small smooth rock-looking thing from her bosom. The 'rock' is actually a magically-smoothened magi-device: "T-this one helps my confidence s-so I don't clamp up when spoken to. I-I'm not sure if it works."
Louma blinks, blushing slightly when her eyes follow Jennica's hand unintentionally, looking back to the tinkerer's face as she speaks before being drawn back to the trinket after her explanation. "Oh, that's an intriguing talent! I'll have to make a point of dropping by your stall soon to see what you have!" She grins, looking back to Jennica. "And you're talking now, aren't you?"
Jennica blinks, surprising herself: "Oh. I g-guess I am." She glances at the smooth trinket in her palm: "Huh. It works?"
Louma smiles, nodding as she picks up her wine. "It must be. Certainly makes me that much more interested in your work."
Jennica blushes a bit, putting the trinket back into her chest fur, effectively hiding it: "It's not much. I just amplify ambient magic into a metallic shell, or make small devices with magic."
Louma blinks, pausing before taking a sip from her drink. "So they really are magic charms, then. Hmm. I know someone who might have to meet you~"
Jennica tilts her head: "You do?"
Louma nods, humming as she turns her eyes back to Jennica. "Mhm, maybe I'll bring her along to your stall when I visit. Are you and your partner there every day?"
Jennica shrugs, glancing outside: "If it's not monsooning like this week, y-yea. It's our living."
Louma nods, glancing along with her toward the window. "You're right, I can't imagine crafting your charms would be very easy with a cold."
Jennica shrugs, smiling: "It's supposed to pass pretty quickly, right? The rains, I mean."
Louma nods, turning back to the bar with a slight shiver. "Oh yes, the wind doesn't usually push so much rain over to us for very long. I suppose it's not such familiar weather where you've come from?"
Jennica shakes her head: "N-no. Vamas is... cold, this time of year. Snow and cold and wet and wind and... more of the same."
Louma shivers again, this time from her description of Vamas' weather. "Ah, so you're from Vamas? Quite the change to move here, but you did pick a good time of year for easing in. It gets very hot and dry here in the summer... Which lasted almost 7 months this year."
Jennica shrugs: "Relatively constant warm and dry is... easier for my craft. Ambient magic gets all weird in changing weather."
Louma tilts her head, nodding. "Does it? I had no idea, but I suppose that makes perfect sense. That makes me wonder, do your charms fluctuate a bit in how effective they are, or are they self-contained?"
Jennica shrugs slightly: "I try to make them self-functional, but nothing is ever... perfect." She gives a sheepish smile.
Louma nods, smiling back as she leans against the bar again. "Magic has it's own whims, hmm?"
Jennica takes a sip of her drink, nodding: "Y-yeah."
Louma chuckles, taking a sip from her own wine at the same time. "I hope your first impressions of our little town have been good so far, of course."
Jennica gives a slightly wary smile: "Y-yeah, I think so. Lively people."
Louma nods, humming. "Lively is a good way to describe some of our folks, yes."
Jennica shrugs, smiling: "I guess? N-not that I have much experience yet, Emmeline does most of the talk with folks." She blinks and glances at the trinket hidden in her chest floof: "Well."
Louma gives Jennica a friendly, warm smile. "You might surprise yourself here, a lot of folks are very friendly and forward, and to be honest, it's a bit contagious after a little while."
Jennica smiles, looking down: "I-it's been nice."
Louma nods, changing to have a sip of her water. "I will hope everything turns out well for you."
Jennica gives a small grin: "W-well, so do I." She pauses, then looks at Louma: "So uh... I t-think I've seen you around. What do you do?"
Louma giggles, giving Jennica a playful sidelong glance. "I thought you said you've never seen my type before~?" She chuckles again, shrugging. "But you may have. I'm a captain of the guard, though I do manage to sneak out of my office to wander a patrol once in a while."
Jennica blinks: "I mean, seen, met... s-something like that." She shrugs, then pauses as the words take root: "C-captain?"
Louma nods, straightening up a little bit, a subconscious need to look the part plucking at her now that it's been acknowledged. "It's not as glorious as you might be thinking."
Jennica considers Louma in this new light: "Gloriousness is relative."
Louma chuckles, shrugging slightly. "I hope that wont change much for talking to me, you've got more interesting things going for you in work than I typically do." She pauses, considering the thought that at least Jennica's job is probably more pleasant in it's exciting moments than Louma's as well.
Jennica takes a sip of her drink, musing: "Don't know. Interesting is also relative... but I do enjoy what I do. Crafting. Creating. Working on a trinket until it sings." She blinks: "W-well, not literally. I don't know how I'd make one sing."
Louma nods, thinking on that for a moment. "I'm sure that singing trinkets could make you a small fortune. Just as long as it doesn't involve trapping the souls of an orchestra inside a stone..."
Jennica blanches at the thought: "W-what?! W-who could d-do that?"
Louma blinks, shaking her head. "I wouldn't know, sorry! I didn't mean to alarm you, Jennica. Suppose that reaction is reassuring that you wouldn't try it, though!"
Jennica looks at Louma dubiously: "T-that'd be horrifying."
Louma nods once in strong affirmation. "Yes. It would."
Jennica shudders, taking a deep gulp of her cider. "L-let's talk about something else."
Louma nods again, taking a drink of her water. "Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Hm... How much of Respite have you explored so far?"
Jennica looks aside: "N-not much. I'm not... not really an explorer-type, if you will."
Louma hums, considering her for a few moments. "I see, I'm not a particularly good tour guide, either, unfortunately."
Jennica smiles: "I-it's okay. I'm fine not... not seeing all. I do my thing and it makes me happy."
Louma smiles, relaxing against the bar top and picking up her wine glass again. "That is what's most important, happiness and comfort. I think you may find both here among the rest of us."
Jennica leans on the bar for a bit, musing: "I hope so. I don't want to go back." She gives a quiet frown at that and doesn't elaborate, an expression that Louma is definitely familiar with.
Louma catches the expression, watching Jennica for a few moments before she turns back to look toward her drinks. "You're welcome here, of course. No shame to be had wanting to start a new life. A lot of folks here just want a clean slate to move on from when they arrive."
Jennica looks at Louma in slight surprise, then slowly nods: "Y-yeah. It's... it's me. That." She gives a sigh, then a smile follows.
Louma turns back to Jennica and smiles back. "A toast to clean slates and private pasts, then." She raises her wine glass, tipping it slightly toward Jennica before finishing the small amount of alcohol off.
Jennica pauses for a moment before lifting her own glass for a second and drinking it. "Y-yeah." She smiles at Louma.
Louma grins, turning her wine glass over to the bartender before the two continue talking on generally pleasant topics as the rain outside whips back up for one last thunderous downpour. Good company to pass time against the oppressive weather.