Your love give me such a thrill, but your love won't pay my bills | CLOSED

[charlastan]

Who: Stanley Pines [chalastan], Hawke [bloodmagics], and Cullen [morework]
Where: Outside, near the vendors.
When: October 22nd
Rating: PG-13?
Summary: Stan got a wedding wing in the last mod event and it's time for him to do the only sensible thing someone should do with a wedding ring - Try to pawn it off!
The Story:

[It's been a while since Stan's tried to sell anything to the vendors. For a while, he was out here every few weeks with a new pitch for them, anything that wouldn't involve selling off memories. There has to be SOME other currency they would take, right?

That was not the case. He was turned down every single time. He even resorted to classic prison currency and none of them would budge.

But now he's got something of actual value. Probably. So, it's time to see if those creeps will be interested - not that he's really planning on selling, necessarily. If it's worth anything, then he's gonna save it for when he actually needs it.

Still, he's not being very subtle. On his way there he's tossing it up in the air and catching it in his palm, singing to himself.]

Do do do~ Got a wedding ring~
Do do do~ Is it worth anything~?
Do do do~ Guess I'll find out!

[No one promised it was a good song, but what it lacks in quality it makes up for in volume.]

Comments

[morework]

"....but they are one of the few good things to come out of Orlais."

Everyone in Ferelden knows there are three, four of those at best. Granted, Cullen would not happily purchase expensive dog treats that smells faintly of ham and excess on any day, but. The dogs still shoot him glances that say he has an absence to make up for. And in Wonderland he has little use for the contents of his purse otherwise.

Cullen watches the dogs bound ahead towards the vendors. They never seemed troubled by the masked merchants, and Cullen always wondered if they had reasons beyond being natives themselves. He turns to Garrett, smiling, when a- sound diverts his attention.

"Someone is cheerful today," he mutters under his breath.

[bloodmagics]

"I still don't believe anything good can come out of Orlais. But if you have something good to say about them, I believe you."

He's pretty sure the dogs had taken Cullen's absence harder than he did, but it was close. Either way, he's never going to say no to treating them, so it's kind of a moot point.

"And I'm sure you were happy to --" Wait. That voice. Is he... It can't be a coincidence, and they both heard about the return of several missing items. Without missing a beat, Garrett takes off towards the source of the voice.

"Hey, hey!"

[charlastan]

Stan stops abruptly when he sees two fantasy-genre looking fellows march over to him. Uh-oh. He catches the ring one last time before hiding it in his closed palm behind his back.

"What?" he asks, before they can even say anything to him. "Can't an old man throw things around and sing to himself in peace?"

[morework]

Only one of them makes the connection so quickly. Cullen blinks instead. He holds no love for bards, professional or amateur, but-- He follows Garrett, keeping his pace. Up close he recognises the man from his early days in Wonderland. That crook who sold him an overpriced kitchen knife.

...Although that is just about where his crimes end. To Cullen's knowledge. He looks at Garrett, curious.

"Is something the matter?"

[bloodmagics]

"You can, if that's what you want to do," Garrett answers easily, trying to avoid putting Stan on the defensive. Not that he has any idea why you would want to do that, but. He glances at Cullen, "Maybe. We'll see."

Turning to Stan, he adds, "Did you say something about a wedding ring?"

[charlastan]

Stan sells a lot of chumps a lot of overpriced things, and honestly doesn't recognize him specifically, or the guy he's with. But he recognizes trouble when he sees it, and he keeps his hand firmly behind his back, with the ring still hidden there.

"Wedding ring? What wedding ring? I was singing about uh--"

This is it. His chance to come up with something good to get himself off the hook. Here goes nothing.

"...A bedding thing! Yeah, that's it. I was going to the vendors to get a bedding thing. Yep. That's definitely what I was doing and nothing with a wedding ring."

[morework]

Coercion checks will help make one's life significantly easier on many occasions. They provide additional options during dialogue. They can be used to obtain information, gain items, seduce other characters, avert combat, or collect greater quest rewards. If the required skill score is at least equal to the difficulty score needed, then the Coercion check is successful. In the following example it is not:

"You said wedding ring."

[bloodmagics]

Sometimes, Garrett Hawke is remarkably easy to talk into doing something, or to convince of something blatantly false. This is not one of those times. Stan does his best, and Garrett is mildly amused as he tells what might be the worst lie ever, but not even that works on him.

"You said wedding ring," he confirms after Cullen speaks up. "Did it happen to show up outside your door when people were getting 'gifts?' "

[charlastan]

Welp. That didn't work. Stan drops the dumb guy routine and hardens his look. He should have probably expected someone would come looking for this thing.

"Maybe," he says. "What's it worth to you?"

[morework]

Cullen scoffs. A token from a white nightmare, a mocking reminder that Wonderland could rip everything they are from them at a moment's notice. The old man can choke on it for all he--

--looks at Garrett and remembers his mood, the days and even weeks after his own Mirror seized the ring. Cullen exhales slowly. They- have rather different ideas of its worth, don't they? He swallows the contempt on his tongue, and takes a firm step forward.

"Are you making demands over stolen goods?"

[bloodmagics]

He'd wanted the ring to be a surprise for Cullen, when he was ready. Then the Mirrors ruined everything, as they do and he'd been forced to reveal its existence.

"Are you --" Garrett gives a short laugh, "It's my property, if it's the ring I think it is."

[charlastan]

"There's a lotta rings out there," Stan says, innocently enough. "It could belong to any chump dumb enough to lose it."

This is probably not the right thing to say to these two, but Stan's already dug his hole pretty deep. Might as well keep going until he reaches China, right?

[morework]

Cullen's expression darkens, his voice lowers to match.

"Stolen, not lost. A white gold ring, braided, four words engraved on the inside. My Mirror took it. He proves difficult to reach, but an accomplice on this side would be another matter."

He advances another step. Gives the hilt of his sword a push with his thumb, to reveal its blade.

[bloodmagics]

Garrett's eyes narrow because he wanted to do this the nice way, but Stan is certainly proving to be a frustrating man. He nods towards Cullen.

"Everything is as Cullen said, all you have to do is let us check it. If it's not our ring, we'll be on our way with an apology."

He reaches out to place a hand on Cullen's arm, because hopefully it won't come to that.

[charlastan]

That sword is very convincing, mostly because Stan wants to live just a little more than he wants to pawn off something he got for free (though it's a painfully tough call).

He holds the ring out pinched between his fingers, out enough that they can clearly see that it's the ring they're thinking of, but he pulls it back before they can take it for themselves.

"I dunno. It's a pretty nice ring," he says. "You'd think there'd be some kinda reward for it or somethin'..."

Hint, hint. Hint, hint.

[morework]

One would think that in a world with next to no use for coin any offer would be instantly preferable to no offer, but apparently they have a rather low bar of another kind to deal with. Cullen has no intentions of running an old man through with his sword, but his patience for barter is near equally low.

He reaches for the purse at his belt, flips the gold coin he produces with his thumb, and throws it at Stan.

"One sovereign. And you walk away with the use of both your arms."

[bloodmagics]

"You tend to get rewards for returning stolen property, not for trying to sell it."

He's just saying. Before he can either threaten Stan himself (not as likely) or try to talk him into handing it over freely (likely on his end, but he gets the feeling it would be like trying to get a chicken to learn magic,) Cullen is offering him something.

"But in the interest of ensuring nobody gets hurt, there's your reward," he says, holding his hand out for the ring.

[charlastan]

Stan honestly can't believe that worked. You can almost see the dollar signs in his eyes as he hands over the ring and pockets the gold coin. If he can manage to bring that home with him (and if it really is solid gold) he'll be able to pawn it off and get some real cash for it - or save it for the apocalypse!

"Pleasure doin' business with you two," he says. It's not even a little sincere, but he skedaddles with his coin before anyone can stop him.

[morework]

Cullen watches the man leave with no small amount of distaste.

"At least now we know that your uncle Gamlen would have steep competition in this world."

[bloodmagics]

Garrett pockets the ring and immediately makes a face. That is not something he ever wanted to think about, but here they are.

"With any luck, that won't be something we ever need to worry about," he mutters, leaning over to kiss Cullen quickly. "Now, we owe a few someones some special food."