PM to join The General Shopper

[Gale Austin McCenry]

The General Shopper

12th of Summer, 514 A.V.
The General Store

"Okay Martin." Gale stooped over the small child as he picked up the infant and raising him to his arms. "We are going to go out, but I need you to behave." Gale looked at the child as he held him out in front of him. "You cannot throw a fit this time. " He tilted his head slightly, almost as if he was talking to someone who actually understood what he was saying. "You got it?" He didn't get anything more than a slight giggle from the child who apparently like the look on Gale's face. Gale took that as a 'yes, I understand Godpa Gale'. He was always making up what Martin was saying. It was like his new hobby. "Alright then. Let us get you ready."

Martin was in nothing more than his diaper, which Gale still hadn't gotten the hang of putting on him. At least not neatly. He was a fussy one and Gale always felt like he was going to break the poor kids legs if he made him stop flinging them around when he was changing him. That is not to mention that Gale hadn't fully gotten use to changing his diaper in general. After all, he had only been taking care of Martin for... let's see here. He got Martin on the 75th and today was the, what, 12th? That would be one, two, three... 17 days? Give or take? No, 27? It wasn't very long either way and diapers weren't the easiest thing to get use to.

Nevertheless, Gale pulled the baby to his chest, wrapping an arm around him and tucking one under as he worked his way around the room looking for his blanket. After the last time Gale had brought Martin to do errands with him, Gale had folded his blanket in the basket he bought. He grabbed the basket by it's long handle and pulled it up onto the desk. He unfurled the folded blanket and went over to the bed. The widower spread the blanket out flat and set Martin in the middle before wrapping the corners and edges around the smile child to secure him and to keep him warm.

He left Martin's arm free though, in case he ever got hungry. Gale could just hand him a milk soaked piece of bread instead of having to undo the blanket entirely. Besides, he rather enjoyed watching Martin trying to grab things as he stood or walked by something. It was adorable.

The artist picked up the child, grabbed his back pack (which was now completely fully of Martin's things, such as bread, milk, a diaper clothe, etc), and then finally the basket. He was finally ready to go.

"Let us go get some food." He smiled fondly at the baby boy. He was mainly talking about himself when it came to food, since he technically already had Martin's lunch. But he would, of course, be eating with Martin, which is why he included the us. That and he got in the habit to talking to Martin and saying 'us' whenever he had him with him. Which was more often than not, surprisingly.

Gale left the Grotto and made his way down the street, returning to the never ending dance on the plebeians as they walked, ran, and shuffled their way down the street. He needed to go to the General store first. He was out of vegetables. Again. He loved vegetables, especially salads. And basically anything you can put in salads.

Making his way through the alleys and street ways, Gale passed the fish market and came up to the docks, meeting the font door to the General Store. His eyes panned the room briefly, looking at the small signs handing on the shelves for the food isles. Not that he needed too, for he came here whenever he needed more vegetables.

The pessimist went to his right, going down an isle in which contained the store's vast selection of dried foods.

[Ricky Maze]

What's this? They were heading out again?! Oh how wonderful that was to hear! Martin could only watch his guardian as the Godfather talked to him, the blue eyes of his mother big as he curiously watched the man go on like the child knew what he was saying. Half the time Martin seemed to know what he did say, but that of course was only due to the fact the child was learning each and every day that passed by. By now of course he'd already gotten used to his parents not being around, yet even so he still missed them dearly as they had yet to come around and pick him up. They never usually left him with Godpa Gale this long! But for some reason the last time they left him with Gale they were sad, maybe because they knew it would be a while since they was going to come back for him.

Martin didn't. Not until now anyway, even then he didn't know when to expect them home. The child merely hoped that each day that passed was a day they finally reached Zeltiva once more, a day that would result with them knocking on the door and taking him home once more. What's this though? Gale made a face! A funny face! The child couldn't help but giggle as he wiggled his arms about, happy to receive the attention he was given from the Godfather that talked to him so often. If anything it was actually good Gale did this, as Martin had been learning a lot through talking. Even so the child still had so much more to learn, so many milestones to reach in life before too long hopefully.

Martin's smile would only fade as the expression reverted back into that curious state it always held, the child prone to watch Gale's hands as he slipped on the child's clothes to get him fitted for the weather outside. Come the time where he was wrapped in his blanket, the child had already held his arms out to be held as Gale picked him right up soon after. Of course with the way the two had been together in the short amount of time, he'd already thought of Gale as like a second parent. In a sense at least, for that's what Godfather's were... were they not? When they were finally off and the world awaited Martin's face would light up once more, a few giggles happened off and on with the people that stared at the two when they passed by. So many times did a person, especially a woman, look over and coo in awe at the child, even more wave as though they would've expected Martin to be able to wave back.

Then of course there were the times where Martin found himself grappling onto Gale's shirt, and found himself able to pull it towards his mouth to suck on the fabric some. It wouldn't be long until Godpa Gale would notice a soaking wet spot on his shoulder that's for sure! Finally they reached the destination, the place Gale needed to go to in order to eat. Because he too needed to stuff delicious things in that hole on his face, he too had to fill that annoying painful gnaw in his belly when he felt hungry! Martin had yet to fully discover what the mouth was and all it's functions, other than to literally taste everything he could grab, but that was all going to happen in due time when he was older. It wasn't much longer now until it would be his birthday, practically a season away if one thought about it! Well, technicality was a full season and most of another. Still. Who cared! It was a birthday all the same! Papa had to know for sure, because he counts the days every day.

Suddenly Martin missed Papa again, and Mama too seeing as how they were both gone. Yet he didn't cry yet, because he was too distracted by the new things he could see! That's right, there was toys everywhere. Edible toys that waited for him to try out, and if Gale happened to recall correctly about Telion's note, Martin himself was getting close to the point where he could eat a few solid foods. Of course it was still a good idea to stick with the bread, that tasted better than anything when it was soaked with milk. Martin noticed an orange pointy toy with a green end, sort of resembled a stick with leaves in a way but it was shorter and... pointier! He reached for it and hoped to get a hold of the toy, eager to try and see if he could put it in his mouth, just like he did with everything else!

"Dah!" He would say as he reached, hopeful that Godpa Gale would be awesome enough to hand him that wonderful looking toy!

oocOkay... so I had WAY to much fun with this post obviously. All the same, I hope you enjoyed Martin's little adorableness!

[Black Onyx]

Black stood by the foot of her bed for a moment, juggling a few coins within her fingers. She need to buy some food, but she had always tried to put it off, seeing as she didn't want to draw suspicion to herself.

After a moments of hesitation, she pocketed the six gold coins, she never carried too much gold, for anyone's pocket could be picked, if only one knew how. It was the know how of course, that stumped a few. Sometimes, it was also the appearance of how someone dressed that could fool someone.

She, herself was wearing the same outfit she always wore, a plain black shirt and pair of pants, her black boots as well as her cloak. The hood of the cloak, she lifted to pull it over her head, tucking the strands of her long black hair underneath it as best as she could.

Taking a moment of pause, she picked up her dagger from the bed, twirling the blade within her fingers for a moment, before tucking it away into her belt. Just in case she decided that she needed it for defense. After the death of her parents, she decided it was best to be ready for any scenario.

Carefully, she propped open the door to the room, poking her head out into the hallway to make sure that no one was present before turning into the hallway and locking the door behind her, pocketing the key afterwards.

Exiting the Grotto, she tucked her hands into the pockets of her pants and hunched her shoulders over, a strategy she had learned to develop to go unnoticed by most people. Lucky for her though, some people were just too focused upon themselves, which suited her just fine.

Upon reaching the docks, she paused at the front door, turning to look behind her, taking note of the people that were on the docks, before pushing inside the General Store, the familiar creaking and protests of the door soothing her nerves.

"Halabin!" She called out as she made her way towards the store counter, leaning her right forearm upon the counter top and angling her head as she waited for the man to come out from the back of his store. She was, as one would say, someone who was familiar with the man. After all, this was where she bought her carrots and apples from.

As the familiar head of grey hair and brown eyes appeared behind the counter, she pushed back the hood of her cloak, revealing her black hair and her own brown eyes, a smile settling upon her lips.

"Well, well, well." The old shop keeper said as he busied himself behind the counter, "It is you Black, I was beginning to think you had disappeared off the face of the earth. Hungry I bet."

A chuckle settled upon her lips as she shook her head in response, "Damn right I'm hungry. I'm just chasing the usual though Hal, three pounds of apples and three ounces of carrots."

The man shook his head as he busied himself with the order, "You're going to turn into one of those if you keep eating them." This only issued a shrug from the young woman, her gaze turning to scan the surroundings, taking note of a grown man with a baby, holding a basket.

A man with a baby? It was certainly something Black never usually saw, but then again, she was mostly paying attention to those that were worth having their pockets picked. She wouldn't pick the pockets of someone with a child, they had to support two people, not one.

Shifting upon the spot, she looked back towards the door that the old man had disappeared through, she didn't like standing in one place for too long, it made her edgy..
.

[Perplexity]

.
Howdy Ya'll!,

Unfortunately I see a few issues here. The first among them is that Mr. McCenry is missing several seasons worth of Living Expenses for seasons that he's been active in. Please remedy this at your earliest convenience. If you need assistance in doing so due to issues that might have arisen contact me as soon as you can.

The next issue is that this thread falls into the realm of a Guest Storytellingthread. As such it must follow the rules dictating such threads. Ricky, you cannot moderate NPC's if you are not actively within the thread itself without following the aforementioned rules.

Sadly due to these circumstances this has rendered this thread ineligible for grading. I do apologize for the inconvenience but let this serve as a guide toward how to manage threads similar to this properly in the future.


Happy Writing,
Perplexity
.