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RESPITE MARKETPLACE - EARLY MORNING
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Bracvar sighs, looking out of the window of his rented room as the sun breaks over the East mountains, starting to bathe Respite in the first relatively clear morning in weeks. He smiles to himself, nodding along to a hummed ditty as he prepares his apron and change for the day, then scuttles on down to the bar proper for breakfast. Meanwhile, the crab's cart remains where he'd left it, a few feet behind his empty stall. The wagon, 6' tall to the top edge and covered in a heavy hide tarpaulin, has an odd aire to it. Occasionally, a strong enough gust of wind shifts the hide, allowing wisps of icy mist to fall to the ground, and a low hum emanates from within as the magitech powered cold generator inside keeps a respectable pile of ice from vanishing.
Jennica stumbles towards the marketplace, carrying an enchanted thermos with her. One of her earliest inventions was to figure out how to keep her morning tea warm for longer, and she's pretty proud of her invention. Tea is better once it's in her, though, and - hmm? She looks at the wagon that seems oddly... active. She steps closer, starting to inspect this issue. The wagon does seem alone and deserted, no harm if she takes a look at the source of the cold, right? Could learn something interesting and useful in this climate shifts the tarp aside and blinks at the heavy amounts of... ice? "How the... what's keeping all these intact?" She muses to no one in particular before glancing around. After a moment of hesitation, she climbs in.
Narrator: Inside of the cart, a quarter of the space is taken up by a pile of ice, looking as if it had been crushed and refrozen. Many colorful, meaty looking fish are on top of the ice, though they are kept cold enough that they don't loose too much odor. Dead center of the cart is a lidded box, around 1.5m by 1.5m, and 1m tall, which is unlocked and humming away with its task. At the front of the box are two frost-covered pipes that spiral into the ice, feeding it with a strong chill. If one were to open the box, they would find a machine similar to a compressor, though a very carefully shaped teal crystal glows from its containment on one side, a series of delicate-looking feeder tubes scattering out from the transparent containment tube to various parts of the cold generator.
Jennica hesitates for a second as she looks about the humming box, but her curiosity is currently taking a victory over her fear. She steps next to the box and carefully opens the lid, admiring the set of magitech with intense interest. "Oh... wow. This is big... how did one of these end up in here of all places?"
Jennica leans closer, mumbling to herself: "So this enchants that, which would mean... I didn't know that worked at this scale..." She's now definitely engrossed in finding out how this works and it would be a completely shame if someone were to come at the cart now.
Bracvar hums, picking cherry tomatoes from a bag and munching them happily as he scuttles his way through the marketplace, nodding and waving to other vendors along the way. He spots his cart as he nears the stall and slows after a moment of recognition. He takes a quick glance around, then approaches his cart, wondering why the tarp seems to have been pulled up at one side...
Jennica lifts a piece of the generator in her hands, careful not to interrupt the actual flow of the magic: "This is so carefully crafted... I hope I can create these one day..." Her back is to the tarp she opened, all her focus on the magitech in front of her.
Bracvar pauses on hearing a muffled voice, his eyes narrowing as he grabs a handful of the tarp in one hand, the other cocked in a fist ready to defend against a startled assailant. He pauses for a moment, holding the tarp down tight against the edge of the cart as he announces clearly; "Would be a right shame to find a skeeving fish thief in my cart on such a fine morning!"
Jennica yelps loudly upon the yell, then winces as the delicate crystal piece in her hands falls back into the container with a distinct-yet-very-unpleasant tinkling sound. "...ssshhhhit."
Bracvar lets out a harsh laugh, but pauses at the other sound, hauling the tarp up from the cart and stretching his legs to stand waist-high over the edge. "What the hell're yeh doin'?!"
Jennica yelps again upon the sudden sunlight, spinning around only to slip and fall on her butt, scared out of her wits. "Ack! I erp! S-sorry!"
Bracvar glares in a bewildered way at Jennica, mistaking her for a moment. "Emmeline?! What're yeh... No, yer not her, who-" He catches the sight of the broken container as he glances about, blanching as much as a crustacean can. "Oh yer fucking... You... Why-WHY?" He stumbles to form any coherent sentence as the crab's eye turns back to Jennica.
Jennica winces more than a bit: "I was just looking! It was an accident! N-not the looking, I mean I got curious and your tech is amazing - or was -" She winces again, wanting to sink somewhere beneath the cart: "I-I-I wanted to see how it worked and I wasn't thinking clearly and I'm sorry and I didn't mean to I'll make this back to you somehow!"
Bracvar gives her a withering stare, one hand gripping the side of his cart as the other slowly raises, pointing toward the marketplace. His voice is barely controlled, shaky, and sounds like it's not saying all of the words it wants to right now; "Get. Out." As he speaks, one leg arcs up, stepping over the side and into his cart.
Jennica blinks, then scrambles to her hooves and just about manages to get off the cart without falling over again. "Eep! S-sorry!"
Bracvar watches her go, grinding his mandibles at the sight of her before he turns back to look at his precious broken generator as the light fades slowly from the crystal. his other legs join the first inside the cart as his rage subsides into exasperation, crouching next to the box and poking at the broken parts. "Excellent. So very glad I woke up today."
Jennica turns to look at Bracvar over her shoulder for a second, before deciding that not saying anything is probably the best move right now. She picks up her thermos from the ground near her and quickly goes to her own stall to hide away from the world. "...Em is so going to kill me..." she mutters to no one in particular once she's 'safe'.