[Scholars' Nook] An evening introduction

[Faith Augustin]

90th Ashan, 717

"And back again. It's quieter than it was." Faith said with a smile to Vince as they entered the Scholar's Nook for the second time that evening.

Glancing around, she spotted Padraig sitting in what had somehow become their place to sit. Not as far as anyone else in the Nook was concerned, of course, just them. The other trial, they'd come in for a quick cup of tea and other people had been there. It was most disconcerting. But that wasn't happening now, there he was and Faith's face told her delight at seeing him; she smiled a lot, as a matter of course, but the expression when she saw him was much more all-encompassing.

Turning to Vince, she motioned to the man sitting at a table next to a window. "That's him, just over there." She was happy to walk over with Vince and, as they walked she observed the place. "This is much more like I'm used to it being. It's rarely as busy as it was when we were here earlier. Except, once a season they have meetings of a group. The Intelligentsia, they call themselves and they get together and read and discuss stuff. Learning for its own sake, sort of thing." Faith glanced up at Vince and her expression was somewhat mischievous. "It's busy then, I tell you."

Weaving their way through the tables, Faith was sure to stay with Vince, not to lose him in her eagerness to get to Padraig. When they did arrive, though, Faith spoke to Padraig, "Fancy seeing you here. Padraig, this is Vince. We just met when he kindly let me share his table. It was very busy earlier. I showed him where the Spirit of Adventure was." Turning to Vince and gesturing for him to sit, which she would also do once he had. "Vince, this is Padraig. My fiance." What a strange word, she considered, but yet it gave her delight to call him it. "Vince and I were discussing the yellow dragon tree logs and the warm Faldrass sand. When we got to questions about properties of them and inventions and so on, I said I knew a physicist."

When the young man who was the co-owner came over, Faith ordered a cup of mint tea, then turned to Vince and smiled. "He does science. I do medicine and cooking." Sitting bolt upright, as she always did, Faith was as relaxed as she ever was in a public place. "Vince is a traveller, adventurer and does puppet shows," she explained to Padraig. "I may have over enthused about the sands."

[Padraig]

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Padraig had finished teaching a class just half a break before, and having dismissed his students from their lessons, he'd been quick to turn to his own. The Scholar's Nook tended to be quiet, this time of the trial. He'd found their usual spot empty, and had claimed it as his own.

His focus was on several open books in front of him, and the half filled page in his notebook. A cup of tea was positioned near his elbow, but had gone lukewarm and half forgotten by now.

Still, he sensed Faith's arrival just after she entered, and before she began to approach him. Funny how that happened. There must be some sort of scientific reasoning behind it. He glanced up, smiled at her, and then his smile turned into a curious one when he realized that she hadn't come alone.

The man beside her didn't seem familiar. But for the most part Padraig thought nothing of it. There were always new students or visitors coming, just as others seemed to be going. He stood up when she approached. "I just finished up a class," he explained with a grin. "My students have a funny way of reminding me that I don't know everything. So I figured I'd hit the books before my next class."

She was talking an awful lot, he thought. Faith wasn't necessarily quiet at home, or even out when it was only the two of them. But around others she didn't, or barely knew? That was unusual and worth considering the reasons why. Nonetheless he smile and extended his hand. "A pleasure, Vince." Then sitting back down, he closed his books and notes and set them aside.

"The yellow dragon logs and the sands on Scalvoris are a wonder," he said and then grinned as he admitted, "Enough all on their own to put an alchemist out of business. They make good reagents though." So the man wasn't a student necessarily, but a traveler, an adventurer...and puppets? "For a living, do you mean?" he asked. Somehow it struck him as a pleasant way to earn a few nels.

[Vince]

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Faith had, almost too excitedly, led Vince back to the Scholar's Nook. It wasn't that he minded the chipper attitude of his newfound friend but it was a bit jarring with how she had attempted to cut him down from his previous and flirtatious jest. "Yes, It's much quieter and a bit more roomy without so many scholar's hiding their noses into every nook they can find." He smirked like a child who had just snatched some candy without getting caught. He waited for Faith to look for her fiance s as she glanced around the establishment and in the meantime Vince had adjusted his grip on the barrel he now carried with him. It was only a few moments before they began to bob and weave between the tables, the short woman's feet carrying her rather swiftly while his own muscular body took a bit more of a slow yet long stride behind her in an attempt to keep up while avoiding bumping anyone's books or tables. She mentioned how sometimes there would be large groups having discussions and debates rather loudly in here and he could only imagine how heated those could get.

As they strolled up towards the table Vince smiled and waved his free hand towards the man named Padraig before setting the barrel down nearby the chair and shaking his hand with a nice and strong grasp. "The pleasure of meeting you is all mine. Yes, I was studying up on the ancient languages when your fiance asked if she could use the table I was at. Since it was rather crowded and I had no reason to object I said yes without hesitation." He smiled kindly before releasing the mans hand and sitting down, eyes glancing out the window before returning to the two of them. Faith seemed to be informing her companion of their short journey to the shop while he listened intently, curious of the stranger. "Hmmm it was a fun trip, I learned quite a bit about Scalvoris from your soon to be mate and will be sure to visit here again in the future. If what she says is true of these sands then I could find a great many uses for them in day to day life, not to mention with just a bit of ingenuity and some cash flow I could make a valuable commodity that other towns would just gobble up hahaha." Vince pondered a richer lifestyle with some silly inventions before relaxing and leaning back in the chair a bit, his posture by no means poor although quite relaxed.

Faith addled on about him for a little while, voicing out his profession and hobby of puppetry to Padraig while he sat there in an amused manner, she seemed so much more lively and bubbly around him so they must have been quite the pair together. Padraig seemed to be curious about his puppetry though wondering if Vince did that as his primary source of income. "Ahhh well. I wouldn't say that's how I support myself. It does snatch some nel here and there but nothing to ever satiate me. No most of my income comes from delving into ruins and selling artifacts and ancients texts to scholar's or merchants. That and the hide, meat and extras of the animals I hunt for food as I travel. I guess you could say as an adventurer I do a lot to get by but never quite overstay my welcome when it comes to towns." He enjoyed their company and the more subdued atmosphere of the cafe slash library during this time and found himself rather at ease. "I did plan to do a showing of my talents at some point, whether it be at night or within a break or two. I would have to visit my cart and horse though in order to set up the venue, maybe attract a small crowd or two."

[Faith Augustin]

It wasn't so much that she was worried about Vince, or unnerved by him but it was more that she was relieved to see Padraig. Once they were alone, later, the earnest young woman would tell her fiance, most seriously, that she thought Vince might have been flirting with her; she would tell him that after she had described to him exactly what had happened. There, of course, was the issue. She had no frame of reference and no skills for what to do in that circumstance. Her hand sought Padraig's and at the feel of that she relaxed and sat, pleased to be where she was and with who she was.

The two men introduced themselves and talked. Vince watched with an amused expression and Faith recognised it as such. He was a strange and changeable man and that did make her cautious, it must be said. She had found him biting his lip till it bled to be strange and his obvious flirtation was totally out of her experience. What undoubtedly seemed to him to be perfectly normal behaviour was strange to Faith and so she lapsed into her much more usual silence. Alone with people, especially those she did not know, she tended to revert to old behaviours, to what she knew; his actions when they had been alone were simply too erratic for her to be able to do that and it had left her feeling uneasy. Her hand in Padraig's wasn't so tight as to suggest she was afraid or concerned, but she kept close to him, her hand not leaving his.

Something that Vince said, though, caught her attention. She did not say anything until he and Padraig had spoken about the puppets and the logs and so on. In that time she was quite content to sit, her hand in Padraig's, and listen. Something, of course, which Vince might notice was that both of them had a feint but discernible glowing band around their forearm ~ his on the right, hers on the left. It hadn't been there earlier, but as Faith and Padraig got physically close in proximity, so the bands became more visible.

"When you say artifacts," Faith said, at an appropriate pause in the conversation, "do you mean historical old things, or specific to the Immortals?" He'd been specifically interested in the Immortals earlier, after all and he had recognised her mark as such which was unusual in and of itself. Glancing at Padraig, she smiled and tightened her hand in his.

[Padraig]

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Faith seemed tense, unnerved...something. Padraig couldn't quite put his finger on it, though it was all the more apparent once she sat down and took up his hand in hers. He'd want to ask her about it later when they were alone. But now wasn't the time or the place.

The man she'd brought with her seemed pleasant enough. A little formal seeming maybe. But maybe it was a first introduction that was the cause of it. Talkative anyway, the scholar concluded with a smile when he'd retaken his seat. "The ancient languages," he asked with a smile. "Any particular reason? Or simple curiosity?"

As for himself, he might be engaging in formal study, at least where physics and chemistry were concerned. But there were a number of other subjects and topics that interested him. And sometimes, knowledge for knowledge's sake was enough.

"A commodity?" he asked when Vince expanded on his interest in the sands commonly found in Scalvoris but rarely anywhere else. He was curious to know what the other man was imagining or might devise, given the right materials and the opportunity. But ruins, artifacts, ancient texts. Those things interested Padraig, but as a matter of study and exploration.

He got the impression that Vince's interest was more along the lines of profit. And the reference to wearing out his welcome brought a smile to Padraig's face. But a curious one. It might be just humor, or there might be some truth, if one made a particular sort of leap.