[PRP] Tidings at the Winter Market 2015 [ Distant Tidings ]

[Jun]

[imgleft]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... gs_jun.gif[/imgleft]Distant Tidings pranced about the Winter Market, poking his nose into this booth and that (especially at Rise & Shine's – the samples were sublime, though he wasn't quite up to trying his old friends' tricks just yet). The Frog Kissing? The Open Performance? There were so many options, and so many options he so merrily wanted to embrace – where in Swamp to start?! But, no – he was a trickster at heart, and the interesting Treasure Flip that the cackling, blazing Acha and the fascinating purple Kimeti were running certainly seemed the prankiest of the bunch. The screams that issued from time to time could be heard across the entire Market...and he'd just arrived to the sight of a golden Acha doe storming away in disgust from what looked like the desiccated corpse of a long-dead frog. Good times!

"What a lovely little set-up you have got going on," he quipped, surveying the crude clay shells with a speculative eye, "let's see what this one holds for me, then!"

He flipped.

Well, there was no token under there, but there was an unassuming little fruit. It was smooth and rather pretty, and had just the right give as he pressed against it with his muzzle curiously.

"That's not too bad, is it?" he said, and took an unsuspecting bite.

It is always particularly humiliating for a trickster to get tricked.

"Oh, no, that's very bad," he croaked, staggering away from the offending fruit, "very, very bad. That's vile. Well played, madam!"

And then the need to wash that bitter, bitter taste out of his mouth overcame all, and he rushed away in search of sweet reprieve – he'd be back for revenge later. After all, just one more go couldn't hurt, could it?

[Jun]

Can You glowed as the acha buck praised her and her assistant's hard work. She could sense a kindred spirit in him, and grinned evilly as she agreed, "It is grand, isn't it? Shells are all close enough to the same, and cover everything so completely, nobody can tell what they're getting until it's too late."

She watched eagerly as he considered his choices, and then his prize, and as he took a bite -! She erupted in gales of laughter.

"Got you good!" she cried, kicking up her back hooves with glee. She sang after his retreating form, "Now you've lost, you run away - run back to try another day!"

[Jun]

Truth be told, Distant Tidings wasn't particularly looking which body of water he was sticking his muzzle into (or he'd probably have chosen a less murky one, to be honest). He just needed water – any water – to wash that awful taste from the Treasure Flip fruit out of his mouth, and the pond had been right there. He plunged his head in and took a gulp – and a wriggling fish smacked into his mouth.

"Gwah!" he yelped, rising by instinct – the little bass, half caught between his jaws, followed. It didn't stay there for long, soon working itself free and plopping back into the water, but the proof of the fishing is in the, uh, fish, and Tidings' alarm soon turned to satisfaction when he'd realised that had netted a token for his involuntary efforts.

"I quite like this game," he decided, tossing his token up into the air and catching it in his mouth as he sauntered away. He'd caught a fish without even actually trying - surely that made him a consummate fisher. Perhaps he would be back.

[Jun]

Can You shared a special smile for her fellow trickster, ears flicking with amusement as he flipped and found - well, something, but not a lot of it.

"They can't all be losers, you know," she said piously, then tipped him a wink and a waggish grin. "See you tomorrow!"

END

[Jun]

"I'm back," Distant Tidings announced quite unnecessary, giving the blazing Acha who had mocked him so a hard sort of look that was also quite obviously admiring, "obviously a glutton for punishment, as they say."

He peered ever so closely at shell after shell, but it was just as she'd told him the previous try: they were all close enough to the same, and, indeed, covered everything so completely, nobody – including him – could tell what they were getting until it was, as it were, much too late. He'd watched as other Kin had tried their luck – and there seemed a good number of lucky winners lately, truth be told – but could not discern a rhyme nor reason to the placement of prizes and pranks.

"Ah well, I did ask for it," he reached out to an unassuming looking shell and flipped –

Well.

It was.

A token.

That was it. Simply a single token. A smooth, brown pebble, now glistening in the sun. Rather suspiciously, he poked at it with a carefully raised hoof – but a token it remained.

"Well, that's almost anti-climactic, wouldn't you say?" he laughed, winking at the doe, "I'd almost been looking forward to the horrors that awaited me – but I'll not say no to a little prize. Thank you kindly, madam – this time!"

And off he went, balancing his two tokens on his nose.

[Jun]

Can You shared a special smile for her fellow trickster, ears flicking with amusement as he flipped and found - well, something, but not a lot of it.

"They can't all be losers, you know," she said piously, then tipped him a wink and a waggish grin. "See you tomorrow!"

[Jun]

In a rather cheerful mood with his two tokens (so it was a little treasure yet, but after his previous horror at the flipping booth, there was no way to go but up), Distant Tidings wove his way, balancing his spoils on his nose, through the crowd and decided to drop by the kissing booth as he'd earlier intended. He wasn't especially averse to kissing frogs, and, if nothing else, there seemed quite an interesting story there. And, not to put too fine a point on it, the orange doe was fascinating. Quite, quite beautifully fascinating.

And also not there. Tidings looked around, but the booth seemed entirely unmanned. The fascinating orange doe was nowhere to be seen, and no frogs croaked. There was, however, a pile of tokens on the table. Huh.

Tidings shrugged and purloined a pebble. No sense turning down a free gift (so to speak) – he'd just have to come back later for the frog and the doe.

[Jun]

Juggling his three tokens, Distant Tidings moved on to the booth next door – which happened to be the murky fishing pond. That served him well enough, he'd intended to come back after all, the consummate fisher that he was.

He had to admit though, without the urgency of bitter fruit filling his mouth, it took rather more doing to lower his head into the scummy pool...being able to actually see the dankness beyond the frogbit that coated the surface now that he was actually looking where he was going did deflate his bravado a little...

Nevertheless. He firmly closed his eyes and kept his teeth together, lowering his head into the depths...the frogbit leaves washed against his face, and he was just considering giving up the ghost – when a little flip of a something bumped into his muzzle.

He snapped and reared – it was a fish! A little bluegill. Splendid, splendid!
"Thank you kindly!" he all but sang as he collected another token – that was four now, and he had to hold them carefully between his teeth, but more was better than less, and he disappeared merrily into the crowd.

[Jun]

[imgright]http://i.imgur.com/Es8R3AC.png[/imgright]Distant Tidings trotted past the bouquet booth, then trotted back. There were quite a few interesting customers around the flowers now, and the bucks running the show were rather handsome too. Well, why not? He pushed around the flowers to his satisfaction - until:

"Oh, I quite like that! No? Well, I think it's nice this way."

And off he went, the bouquet proudly joining the tokens in his makeshift leaf sling.

[Jun]

Across the market grounds, Distant Tidings caught a flash of bright orange at the Kissing Booth – it appeared the beautifully fascinating doe was back at her station. Bouquet and tokens snug in the swinging makeshift leaf sling, he trotted back across the fair for a proper go at kissing this time...and he wasn't really fussed which he got to kiss. Up close, the beautifully fascinating doe was even more fascinating...and beautiful. Fascinatingly beautiful, one could say. She was not like the other Kin, that was for sure.

"Good day, miss!" he chirped brightly, weaving a little on the spot, "I came as soon as I could – I heard you had some frogs to kiss! I fancy myself rather an expert in kissing, frogs or otherwise...I've stolen more than my fair share of kisses along the way, I'd say." A bold wink.

"What a fine specimen," he exclaimed as the frog was presented before him, and bowed deeply, eyes closed, "if you would pardon me, dear sir or ma'am."

He did not open his eyes again before rising with a grand flourish and leaning in, puckered up. Perhaps he should have, for in his exuberance, he completely missed the creature and planted face-first in the dirt.

Well.

That was embarrassing.

[Jun]

Distant Tidings slunk off, face burning, as quickly as he could from the Kissing Booth, to the pond next door. He just wanted to bury himself in the ground forever but also not because dirt, as he'd just been intimately acquainted with, tasted vile. Dunking his head into a pond seemed like the next best thing, in that light. Miserably, he plunged his muzzle in – and quickly became more miserable: dirt tasted vile, but frogbit was just weird, all odd and pokey in his mouth. And it was quite the mouthful he'd taken – it was everywhere!

He hurriedly pulled out of the pond before he could accidentally swallow, and spat out the many...many little leaves – that was just...! Oh hey. It wasn't just frogbit he'd taken a mouthful of: the littlest fish had just escaped his jaws, reclaiming its freedom with the plants. He looked up at the impressive doe rather hopefully...

Another token to join his stash, a little treasure to soothe his humiliation.

[Jun]

Distant Tidings was not a Kin to be overly much dissuaded by failure (although the humiliation...yeah, it was pretty hard to forget the humiliation...) – and, somehow, after that spectacularly dismal showing last time round, he felt like he had something of a duty to actually kiss a frog for that fascinatingly beautiful doe. Surely he couldn't do any worse than he'd already done.

"Hallo, hallo," he smiled, approaching with significantly less bluster this time. In fact, he rather hoped she wouldn't recognise him. At all. "I'm here to kiss a frog!"

There was a strange roiling in his gut – it took him a moment, but he finally realised what it was. Nervousness. He was nervous about kissing – or to be precise, not kissing – a frog.

"Come on, Tidings," he muttered to himself, "it's just kissing a frog! How hard can it be?!" He tried very hard not to think about his previous attempt.

As it happened, he was so busy worrying about missing the frog that, focusing all his attention on the amphibian mouth, he failed to notice something was amiss till he'd planted the biggest smooch on...an...unusually warty surface.

Oh.

It was a toad.

For the second time in a row, he slunk away from the booth in shame, but at least he had a token to take with him this round.

END