"Garnet? What are you doing with that city boy?" Greg asked, looking over his shoulder at Ro.
"We're all city boys, Greg. And I tried to get rid of him, but he was very insistent to come along." Garnet explained, walking up to the table and glancing at the book. "A History of Annamaria The Weaver," he read, looking back up at Greg. "What in the world are you trying to do?"
"There's something wrong with the city. I was just checking if she said anything about it." Greg muttered, crossing his arms. "Nothing."
"Have you tried summoning her? I'm sure the spell for that was in there somewhere."
"That was my next step." Greg paused. "You don't seem all that surprised to hear there's something wrong with the city."
"Ah, well, that's why I came here in the first place. Mabel said you knew something about the whole city-dying problem." Garnet glanced over at Ro, hoping that his ramblings had bored him. It was really quite awkward to be having a conversation with him lurking in the background.
Ro raised an eyebrow faintly. Summoning? Ah, here they were. City dying. He still thought Garnet was wrong, but that didn't mean he didn't want to listen. Sure, it was awkward and a bit weird of him, but it was fine. It wasn't like he'd followed Garnet home or anything.
"I don't know much. There's weird mold places." Greg waved a hand in the vague direction of the center of town.
"Weird… mold," Garnet repeated, frowning at him. "Maybe we should try and summon Annamaria first. She'll probably know something more than 'weird mold', right?"
"Eh, maybe." Greg sighed and flipped the book back open. "You have any yarn?"
"Yarn?" Garnet frowned and reached for the small leather case, roughly the size of his hand, attached to his belt. He might have a length of yarn somewhere in his holding case. Who knew what kind of stuff he kept in there. After a few seconds of searching, Garnet located a length of dark green yarn. "This work?" He held the yarn up to Greg.
"Yeah." Greg nodded and grabbed the yarn from him. "Everyone, are you ready?"
"Ready," Garnet said, nodding. "You. Stay back," he said after a second of thinking, leveling a glare at Ro. If the man messed with anything, the summoning would fail and they would be back to square one.
Ro raised his eyebrows when he was addressed. "Wasn't planning on running up to your…yarn." he replied, shaking his head faintly. A madman, to be sure, but still an entertaining one.
"Good." Garnet nodded, turning back to the table. Greg placed the yarn on the table, then started tapping out a simple pattern with his staff.
"Annamaria, weaver of fates and/or destinies, please show yourself," Greg said, changing the pattern of the tapping slightly. The rest of the Gang of Greg started muttering about socks and scarves in order to tempt the lady there. Garnet gave a soft whistle, adding his magic to the stuff Greg was already weaving.
"What do you wizards want? Just look in the book, it knows everything I know." Garnet whirled around to see a rather sketchy-looking lady wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a veil over it standing behind him.
"We were just wondering about the city," Garnet explained, giving her a small bow. "It didn't say anything about it in the book, so…"
"Are you talking about the mold? Yeah, I'm stumped about that too. That's why it's not in the book." Annamaria crossed her arms. "I can't see anything about it. Every time I try one of my scarves disappears. And I like my scarves, so I've stopped trying. Good luck."
"Wait, you can just…" Garnet started, trailing off as Annamaria disappeared. "Knit more."
"That was useless." Greg set his staff on the table and thoughtfully stroked his beard. "Garnet, how do you feel about looking for the mold while we contact more gods? There has to be a source somewhere."
"Yeah, sure. Where should I start?"
"It's pretty heavy in the alleys by the Academy. That's a good place to start. And whatever you do, don't touch it."
Ro just listened, leaning back against the wall of the building he was standing against and listening. He could only hear Garnet's side of the conversation, which was interesting enough on its own.
"Got it." Garnet nodded. "I'll see everyone later, yeah?"
"For dinner," Greg agreed, already turning his attention to the rest of the Gang of Greg. "Anyone have any other gods we could ask?" Garnet spun, eyes locking on Ro. Right. That guy who was following him.
"Are you going to keep following me? I'm going towards the Academy." Garnet raised his eyebrows, starting back towards the main part of the docks. Hopefully, the mention of the Academy and unsaid merchant sector around it would convince the man to leave him alone. Though he had to admit just having a silent follower wasn't too bad. He could deal with it. As long as Ro didn't try to talk to him.
Ro thought about that for a moment. "I might." he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "We'll see what I decide to do." his mouth tugged in a smirk as he straightened up, running his hands through his hair. He'd head home sooner or later, sure, but not yet. Not now.
"Wonderful," Garnet sighed heavily and clambered back over the stack of boxes. He stuck to the outside of the crowd, wanting to move fast now. If even Annamaria didn't know anything about the mold, it must be bad. Hopefully, it wasn't so bad that it couldn't be fixed.
He followed Garnet calmly, doing his best to keep up through the press of the crowd. Was this annoying of him to be doing? Oh, without doubt. Was he going to stop? No, he was not. He was bored, and this would entertain him for a while.
Garnet hurtled through the streets, taking all the shortcuts and back alleys he knew to get to the area Greg had mentioned as fast as possible. Once there, he slowed down considerably. Not only because he knew that someone like him moving at any sort of fast pace in there would surely raise suspicions, but also because he needed to pay attention now. "Hey, Ro, if you're going to continue to follow me, you could at least do something useful. Look around and try to find anything that matches the description of "weird mold". Yell if you find it." Garnet glanced back at his follower, narrowing his eyes at him for a second before turning his attention back to the task at hand. So far, he'd seen nothing suspicious, but he knew they were bound to find it at some point.
Ro raised an eyebrow faintly. "Alright." he said slowly. Weird mold? He wasn't sure what precisely that meant, but he would do his best to look around. He supposed. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do, after all. So he just followed Garnet, keeping up with him pretty easily.
Garnet was pretty sure he looked suspicious, glancing into all the alleyways and in the cracks between the paving stones. It wasn't suspicious enough yet that people took notice, however. That was one piece of good news. The other good news was that he couldn't seem to find any weird mold. Although his objective was to find it, he felt better that it wasn't everywhere. That probably meant the problem wasn't too serious. Right as he was thinking that, however, Garnet spotted a strange, sickly-looking green-grey blotch on the corner of a building. "Oh, there you are." He let out a sigh and started towards it.
Ro continued to follow after Garnet. His eyes eventually found the mold, and he cocked his head. "Hm." he didn't crowd Garnet, but he certainly stepped closer as he studied it. "Odd." this was the mold Garnet had been referring to? It didn't seem like much, but at the same time, it was out of place.
(ooh hey what if the mold made Ro like. sick? bc he's kept alive by magic?)
(Ooh, yes, totally! The mold is basically the absence of magic, so it would definitely mess him up. Hehe, problems. :)
Garnet peered at the stuff, his lips pressed together in thought. It had to have a source. At least, he hoped it had a source. The whole ordeal would be much harder if he had to look for the biggest patch with no helpful hints at all. There was a narrow gap between the moldy building and the next one, and Garnet carefully peered down it, making sure to keep well away from the mold. He could sense something off about it, though he wasn't exactly sure what it was. Besides, Greg had said to keep away from it, and he trusted the wizard with his life. Indeed, there was a trail of mold winding down the side of the building and further down the alleyway, leading who-knew-where. Well, he was about to find out. Garnet carefully stepped past the mold, slipping in between the two buildings.
( :D perfect!)
Ro cleared his throat faintly, something feeling odd as he followed Garnet down the narrow alleyway. With how close it put him to the mold, it felt…really off. The crystal in his chest felt like it was…pulsing? Or something of the sort. In any case, it was doing something it wasn't supposed to.
It was getting thicker the further down the alley Garnet went. He really didn't like this. The more mold there was, the more off he felt. He had no idea what the feeling was, but it wasn't good. The mold appeared to be collecting on and around an entrance to the sewers, which could mean the source was down there. "How do you feel about taking a trip into the sewers?" Garnet asked, glancing over Ro.
Ro was grimacing, one hand resting faintly against his chest. He felt really weird, was the best way to describe it. He squinted down at his hands, trying to figure out if there was dust or if it was just his eyes. If there was visible dust or cracking then that was a problem, but if there wasn't…he wasn't sure what was wrong. There was no visible cracking, at least.
"Uh…" Garnet frowned, stepping away from the sewer entrance and towards Ro. "Are you okay?" The man didn't look good, and despite him being a massive pain, Garnet didn't really want anything particularly bad to happen to him. "The mold is doing weird things, isn't it?"
"Uh…yeah." he replied, clearing his throat and taking a deep breath. "I'm fine." hopefully. If the crystal cracked, he would have to high tail it home to get Josef to fix it. The man would be pissed at him about it, though; he wasn't supposed to need a new crystal for a few more months.
Garnet stared Ro for a few seconds, debating whether it was worth it to press the subject. He decided against it. "Okay, then." Garnet turned his attention back to the mold. He wasn't going to be able to enter from there, since the entire thing was completely covered. There was no way he was going to be touching that stuff. "Anyway, you never answered my question. How do you feel about a trip into the sewers?"
Ro took a deep breath. "Uhm. Fine." He replied slowly. He would have to keep a close eye on his health; if he felt the crystal straining or cracking, he would have to leave immediately. Otherwise he would die. And maybe he wasn't real in the first place, but he still didn't want to die.
"Ah. Wonderful." Garnet gave Ro a strained smile. He'd really been hoping the apparently famous Ro wouldn't want to go down into the sewers, but that apparently wasn't the case. "You don't have to come, you know." Garnet started back down the alley, keeping well away from the mold. "I mean, someone of your… uh, status, really shouldn't be going down there, right?"
Ro grimaced faintly. "I don't mind going in the sewers. I'm curious about this mold." he was also curious why it made him feel so ill and strained, but that was not a question he could ask Garnet.
"Okay, then." Garnet shrugged, squeezing back out of the alleyway and starting down the road. He knew another sewer entrance nearby, but there was no telling if it would also be covered in mold. He hoped not. If it was, then they'd have to keep looking and it would take more time. Garnet knew he was being impatient, but he wanted to get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible.
Ro followed Garnet down the road, quiet and contemplative. He didn't say anything, just wondered why precisely the mold had affected him the way it had. Maybe it was because of the way he was made? He wasn't sure.
The next sewer entrance that Garnet found wasn't as bad as the first one, but there was still no way he was getting close to it. Same with the third one, but the fourth one is blessedly clear of that very sketchy mold. "Here we go. Finally." Garnet sighed thankfully, raising the sewer cover with a few quick whistles. A quick look down revealed that there still wasn't too much mold down there, which should make this sort of safe. "Down we go!" Garnet glanced at Ro, then started down the ladder.
Ro grimaced, but followed Garnet down the ladder. Hopefully everything would be fine. Things would be fine, this was fine. He wasn't going to die from magic mold. No way. He wouldn't let that happen.
Garnet glanced up and down the tunnel, looking for the way that seemed to have the most mold. However much he disliked it, that was the way he was going to be going. It seemed that the right had more. Wonderful. Garnet whistled a note, summoning a small handful of fire into his palm for better lighting. "This way." He started to walk, keeping as far away from the mold as he could.
Ro grimaced, following Garnet. The mold was disgusting, and it still made him feel…odd. He wasn't sure how to define it, other than just plain odd. It was disgusting.
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