Senecio adn Tide II

[VisAnastasis]

( OOC: Yes, I was surprised at first, but it went into quite an adorable direction, so I'm shipppinggg so much right now! <3 <3 <3

When he awoke, he realized that maybe for the first time since he met either of them, he was the first among the group to wake up. Leaning at his side in her child form, was Melody, that, in absence of anything urgent or life-threatening, seemed quite content to enjoy in life's pleasures and play a lot and sleep in a lot.
 
Also, as was no surprise, there was no way Falcon would leave the two of them alone in that state. Svarik as well found him, sleeping on the armchair aside, from an angle where he had a good overview of the whole room. His sleep seemed light as if he slept for a bit already, his head leaned backwards since chairs in this room had lower back. From this angle, Svarik could see a new thing around his neck, peeking from underneath his shirt - a necklace with a bundle of keys tied to it. It was immediately clear why.

Anxious wary man, once everyone else fell asleep, simply put locks on the door and all windows, locking them neatly, and then putting the keys on himself, only able to fall asleep after doing that. Likewise, though, since he overslept yesterday, it must have seemed to him a perfect prank, to make sure Svarik can't let him oversleep again, because he will have to wake him to get out of the room. On the especially huge chains around door handle was a tiny note with written * If you can go out without making a noise, you get a cookie, if you make noise, you get two cookies, if you wake me up like a decent person, you get three cookies*. Next to Svarik's bed was a plate with a glass of milk and three cookies with rainbow sprinkles placed.

[Mirach]

Svarik first made sure if there are more cookies for Melody and then drank half of the milk and rebelliously started nibbling on a cookie without taking any of the offered options, but letting Conrad sleep while he ate.

[VisAnastasis]

When he moved the cookies, though, he noticed a tiny note beneath one, that had a tiny cute map of the room, showing a direction of steps to it. When he opened it, among their luggage, he found a big jar of the same delicious rainbow sprinkled cookies, with a *eat me* label written on it, and another tiny map on its side, this one leading with clues to the concealed spot at a side of the sofa, where he found a jug of fresh milk with *drink me* written over it, and the final map.

Falcon made dure Svarik could figure out it was a final one, because this one innocently gave step direction and tiny picture towards Conrad's armchair. It had a little clue, though - a drawn pocket. When he focused on Conrad's side, in man's pocket, wrapped in the cloth, were exactly three cookies, although these seemed of different kind and shape. However, since they were wrapped in a cloth it was hard to figure out which kind they were.

But one thing was for sure - Conrad definitely couldn't resist making it more of a proper scavenger hunt, and the first three cookies placed on visible spot were a trap, while he kept the real mysterious prize on himself.

[Mirach]

Svarik smirked at that. He took another cookie from the plate and watched Conrad with narrowed eyes while eating it, suspecting that with how light the man's sleep used to be, the walking around the room must have woken him a while ago. "I can't wake you if you're already awake, you know..." he said in a quiet but amused voice.

[VisAnastasis]

Falcon didn't reply right away, as if trying to keep an appearance of sleep as long as he could.
" Intent is important," he whispered conspiratorially in the end, not opening his eyes, his voice a little sleepy, but he was definitely woken a while ago." If I just wake up on my own, it won't be in good sport for your efforts, will it? That way you would only earn two cookies."

[Mirach]

Svarik chuckled and leaned towards Conrad. "In that case, wake up, sleepyhead..."

(OOC: Merry Christmas!)

[VisAnastasis]

( Ooc: thanks dear! <3 <3 <3 )

Conrad innocently stretched his arms above his head, *waking up* slowly.
" My, what a lovely day it is! It calls for proper greetings, " he whispered mischievously, opening his eyes. More than anything else, in them was an equal measure of softness and a timid reluctance at the sight of meadow king, but also an iron determination to finish the game the way he intended, with a worthy ending, and with weight of every word, " Good morning... My love."

[Mirach]

Svarik got a bit giddy with that as the monumentality of what happened last night hit him fully, and he got overwhelmed by it. He sat down on the bed, blushing and smiling so broadly that it would look rather foolish to a clueless observer. "Good morning," he stammered. 

[VisAnastasis]

Svarik's embarrassment and giddiness seemed just the perfect response for Conrad, the finest he hoped to get. He grinned widely, while standing up, and walked innocently toward Svarik, while he proclaimed with self satisfaction in his voice.

" Not bad, not bad.... But don't you think there is something missing on the end of your sentence?" He suggested hopefully." Come on, if I could do it, you can, too. You can use any nickname you pick, of course... I overthought half the night to settle on the fitting one, after all, but no pressure. "

[Mirach]

Svarik chuckled with that. "Good morning... hm..." he formed a few words noiselessly, trying to find a best fitting one. Finally, he seemed to settle on "...love" as well.

[VisAnastasis]

Falcon snorted with that, but he seemed pretty pleased with himself - it was hard to quite put a name to his expression, but it was brimming with confidence.
" Well, you are copying my homework, but it is a good homework, so why not? I think that quality deserves some positive reinforcement," he sat down on the bed next to Svarik, and pulled out the cloth from his pocket. " Ready to receive your real three cookies?"

[Mirach]

"Okay," Svarik nodded. "But I'd rather like to know if you talked," he said, looking towards Melody. "It went well, I assume?"

[VisAnastasis]

" Yes, of course. It would be too awkward to just stay with her half the night while having that on the back of my mind, " Conrad explained while handing the bundle of cookies to Svarik, waiting curiously for him to see them, while calmly continuing the sentence. " So, our instincts didn't fail us. She agreed, but she is apprehensive of how complicated it may turn because she doesn't want to make Lipka pressured into saying yes just because the rest of us agree since that's what happened in her past life. So, in short, Melody says yes, but she is worried how it will pass with Lipka, so, pretty much it's no different from your and my conclusion. Well, I am calmer than her because you said if it came to choosing, you're not dumping me, " he reaffirmed Svarik's yesterday's choice seriously. " But still, I'd rather have you not sacrifice anything, either, you know. Either way, so far, we are either going to be a cluster of three, of the underground lord that has a cool girlfriend and a cool boyfriend... " he winked. " ... or a king who has an intimidating girlfriend and cool boyfriend who also has a girlfriend. Whether it turns one or the other will mostly depend on how you do, and I can't advise you much on it, but as far as negotiations go, I am willing to negotiate with her on any reasonable boundaries, empathise on reasonable... "

[Mirach]

Svarik nodded, content with that. "Well, that's two of three talks done at least," he smiled a bit and focused his attention on the cookies.

[VisAnastasis]

" Yes, and for the first time in my life, I had the easier part of the work cut out of me that you. I honestly don't know how to feel about it - it's such an unusual, tingly feeling, you know? " Conrad teased, but his eyes were on Svarik's hands unwrapping the bundle, as he seemed eager to see his reaction.

It was not without its merit, as when he opened the bundle, Svarik saw three cute lovely cookies. Each was of different shape, not of the most expensive side, but shapes were instantly recognizable and meaningful to Svarik. One was coloured with brightest yellow and shaped like a sun, other was silver and shaped like a star, and the last one was light blue and shaped like a drop of falling dew. They were all sprinkled with an excessive amount of glitter and shimmered on the morning sun. By the content expectant grin on Conrad's face, it was clear that he came up with the idea of the cookies to pass to the Svarik the good news of the talk he had with Melody, on a more meaningful way than just saying it.

[Mirach]

"Oh, I see..." Svarik smiled, carefully arranging the cookies on a plate. "Should we eat them together?"

[VisAnastasis]

" I didn't order you to eat them right away, so we can do as you feel like, " Falcon replied. " It was Melody's idea to get you something symbolic and tasty to reassure you about the progress so far and encourage you, and I was the one that came up with the details. It'd be nice to share them, but I fear Melody doesn't look like she's going to wake up soon... I was thinking of moving her to Tide's room, so she can sleep with Hans, since it seems he will sleep for a while more, and it is Tide's private chambers, and since she is any case won't be an only person left in the room, it feels more fool-proof that leaving her in this guest room here all on her own...

[Mirach]

"In that case I'll save the cookies for now," Svarik nodded. "You can carry her to Tide's room and I'll wait for you in the kitchen?"

[VisAnastasis]

" Deal. Let me just unlocks this all up and leave the chains at a side first. It's bad if people figure out I can't fall asleep soundly at a new strange place unless all entrances are tightly closed, but it's equally embarrassing if someone thinks that I have a creepy lock and chains hobbies, " he grinned a little, and stood up and took out the chain of keys, and began unlocking everything he put a lock on before and putting it away safely in the closet.

[Mirach]

Svarik smirked and watched Conrad unlock everything. Then he left the room first, checking in front of the door, because he expected a delivery or two and wasn't sure where it will be since the room has been locked. If it wouldn't be by the door, he intended to ask in the kitchen.

[VisAnastasis]

There wasn't anything by the door, as it seemed that all sides concluded it was too risky to place it there since it could ruin a surprise - since it was something unanimously given to the king, there was no way Falcon wouldn't inspect it for safety first. When he went to the kitchen, Jake, who recently woke up for the new day or work, waved a hand to him to invite him to come closer, explaining him calmly how he was given two packages for safekeeping for his sake -he seemed unfazed by it as if it was nothing he was surprised by, but since word got around he knew Svarik from the capital, he seemed to Beings like the most reliable person to pass on something more secret to him, especially since he was on a route Svarik always frequented.

" You have two packages and two letters tied to both. "Jake explained. " I am keeping them here in my cupboard so that I can keep an eye on them, want me to bring them to you? "

[Mirach]

"Yes, thank you," Svarik nodded. "I thought they will be here."

[VisAnastasis]

Jake brought the packages from the cupboard. One, surely full of clothes, was quite big, but it was packed in plain simple wrapping - Alpha knew the appeal of his work, so he didn't want to make it even more tempting for others to open it by giving it beautiful covering too.
Janus, on other side, seemed to want to go by human conventions and asked his apprentices for help in how he should present the package to Svarik - he bough a little square box and wrapped it in wrapping paper with sunflowers, and took care to wrap not quite perfect, but best bright yellow ribbon bow he could manage, probably something he did the first time in his life.

Both packets came with two letters, one from each Being.


( OOC: Just wanted to ask for a quick advise :) Now at the start of January, the game design course that ate up most of my time in last six months ended, and since I wasn't at all at social media at that time, I hope with the new year I'll manage to find more time to draw for myself and be online :) I'm deciding on where seems best to post, I'm currently decided on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Artstation, to try and see if I like them. I was thinking about making a new DeviantArt account instead of returning to two old, to have a real new start, hopefully with more fresh art in next months :) but I am not too sure, I tried googling Deviantart's state, and it seems like it degraded a lot over time, and they got rid of a lot of beloved features, even got rid of categories, and that it's much harder to search and view things? Just wanted to ask you since you were there for all this time, what you think about it :) How is your current experience on dA? I'm trying to figure out what to do about it and what to expect because I am having a lot of mixed signals, wherever I search for impressions on changes people seem to hate the new way site works, and a lot of people seemed to be going inactive, but the staff seems determined to go in this new direction, so I am not sure what to think :/

[Mirach]

Svarik opened the letters first, not wanting to check the packages openly, in the kitchen.

(OOC: yes, the new site is a bit meh. It's harder to do a lot of things and the interactions went down considerably. When I post there now, a couple of favs is all I can expect. I just use it as an archive for the structured gallery that you don't have on tumblr.)

[VisAnastasis]

First letter was from Janus. It was written in the same quite poor handwriting Svarik read from the day before, as it seemed Being's the skill of writing was minimal, as it never had to write in the human language before and only recently learned it.

" Dear Mister Sir Svarik,

I received materials from you. I will take it was at your discretion that you thought long and hard on the proper amount, and that is the worth you put to it. I have to admit when we phrased our deal I asked it to give you the freedom to not go over your means, but you are the one to know best what that means for you. Still, you seemed to have tried your best, and it inspired me to give my best too. In light of it, it seemed fitting to me to sweeten my part of the deal. Instead of a couple of small items, I made both dimensions so that they can hold up to 30 small items. I thought it through, and money seems important nowadays, so I built it so that it also recognizes small grouped things like little coin pouches as one object, so you may hold a little bit of  emergency money in them, too, without worrying about the capacity of the locket being overwhelmed,
I hope the upgrade pleases you, greetings of respect,

Janus Eldergod "




( OOC: That's really disappointing, I was getting the similar impression, and wondering if it's worth it or not :( I guess it would be useful to make a new account just to keep track of art and watch a couple of people that are easiest to watch from there, and just write journals to direct to new profiles to tell people I am alive :) Are you mostly on Tumblr now? I've been off from social media for so long, but Tumblr still seems decent even though having wider reach is harder, and Instagram, for now, seems like it has most interaction, though not as many comments compared to likes... in short, I can't find a platform that gives as cosy vibe as old dA did, so it's hard to decide which to pick as the main one to focus on :/