{ "submission_id": "3656678", "keywords": [ { "keyword_id": "66758", "keyword_name": "agender", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1680" }, { "keyword_id": "7338", "keyword_name": "disguise", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1420" }, { "keyword_id": "21", "keyword_name": "dragon", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "151699" }, { "keyword_id": "2193", "keyword_name": "fantasy", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "27493" }, { "keyword_id": "123", "keyword_name": "female", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1104184" }, { "keyword_id": "1287", "keyword_name": "food", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "9672" }, { "keyword_id": "10273", "keyword_name": "illusion", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "269" }, { "keyword_id": "10943", "keyword_name": "kobold", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "12393" }, { "keyword_id": "165", "keyword_name": "male", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1214523" }, { "keyword_id": "101880", "keyword_name": "mimicry", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "23" }, { "keyword_id": "3246", "keyword_name": "people", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "456" }, { "keyword_id": "22543", "keyword_name": "philosophy", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "81" }, { "keyword_id": "11673", "keyword_name": "trickery", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "161" } ], "hidden": "f", "scraps": "f", "favorite": "f", "favorites_count": "0", "create_datetime": "2025-07-05 04:48:25.452867+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "05 Jul 2025 06:48 CEST", "last_file_update_datetime": "2025-07-05 04:18:58.540856+00", "last_file_update_datetime_usertime": "05 Jul 2025 06:18 CEST", "username": "Meridianbat", "user_id": "10190", "user_icon_file_name": "189556_Meridianbat_meribat100.png", "user_icon_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/189/189556_Meridianbat_meribat100.png", "user_icon_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/189/189556_Meridianbat_meribat100.png", "user_icon_url_small": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/189/189556_Meridianbat_meribat100.png", "file_name": "5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.jpg", "thumb_huge_x": "291", "thumb_huge_y": "300", "thumb_large_x": "194", "thumb_large_y": "200", "thumb_medium_x": "116", "thumb_medium_y": "120", "files": [ { "file_id": "5628247", "file_name": "5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.doc", "mimetype": "application/msword", "submission_id": "3656678", "user_id": "10190", "submission_file_order": "0", "full_size_x": null, "full_size_y": null, "screen_size_x": null, "screen_size_y": null, "preview_size_x": null, "preview_size_y": null, "initial_file_md5": "e34aaad34c5e6fa75b36026bd19c4433", "full_file_md5": "e34aaad34c5e6fa75b36026bd19c4433", "large_file_md5": "", "small_file_md5": "", "thumbnail_md5": "a6c9ab65fc1b29dbce02c971a352d6cb", "deleted": "f", "create_datetime": "2025-07-05 04:18:58.540856+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "05 Jul 2025 06:18 CEST", "thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5628/5628247_Meridianbat_showing_the_ropes_-_coinage_and_commerce.jpg", "thumb_huge_x": "291", "thumb_huge_y": "300", "thumb_large_x": "194", "thumb_large_y": "200", "thumb_medium_x": "116", "thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "pools": [], "description": "The next leg of the journey, the quest for breakfast.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "The next leg of the journey, the quest for breakfast.", "writing": "[u][b]Vignette - Coinage and Commerce[/b][/u]\n\n[b]Meeritza and Yes[/b]\n\nOut on the street Meeritza couldn't help but feel like she stuck out. Normally she tried to blend in... but she didn't normally go around with what, she was assured, looked as if she was carrying around a whole coil of rope around her shoulders and waist. It wasn't what most people did. She could feel everyone's gaze upon her. Strangely, they seemed to notice her for only a moment, but then pass her by without a second thought. In a town where a thousand people from dozens of species traded for countless things every day, what was one girl with a coil of rope?\n\nShe passed by people who looked like giant insects, people who were short, tall, made of stone, had scales, tails, hooves, and who knew what else. She saw all the little folk who tried not to be noticed, and largely were. There were people who seemed ridiculously overdressed, men and women and unidentifiable in-betweens carrying seemingly impossible loads of things balanced on their heads. Telvin's Nest had everything.\n\nLuckily, Meeritza knew these streets. She had spent years familiarizing herself with its patchwork of tradehouses, craftspeople, tax collectors, and the territories of the underlings of society. It was much to her benefit that she knew how to talk to people, as it allowed her to flitter like a butterfly between areas that would normally get a person's nose broken. This has, in the past, allowed her to broker deals of her own, getting things that would normally be too difficult for others to acquire.\n\nToday, she wanted food. Cheap food and lots of it.\n\nHere and there were familiar faces and Meeritza called and waved to each one she saw. They would call back and make small comments, asking after her health and her luck, but as Yes listened there was not much of substance being said. It also occurred that no one ever seemed to see Meeritza first. They always looked over, appearing as of they were surprised to see her there.\n\nIt was more surprising, Yes considered, that it was surprising at all. Certainly no one had ever acknowledged the draconic magnificence that was their grand personage... because that wasn't the point of dragons. They were only seen if they wanted to be seen. But the others of the city were always talking to each other, always visiting and trading and doing the innumerable other tedious things they filled their short lives with. But this girl was ignored almost completely until she made her presence known.\n\nIt was also rather nerve-wracking to be so close to people. Yes's disguise was nigh impenetrable, but it usually worked as a result of being somewhere out of the way. The carts and crates and barrels, washing lines, banner strings... they all provided the most excellent cover for the particular subterfuge that Yes employed. People did, however, carry coils of rope or braids of line, or spools of cord on occasion, and Yes took a sort of silly delight in pointing out folks who were similarly burdened.\n\n\"Look at that one,\" Yes whispered, \"that one has a coil thicker that you entire leg! How in the world...\"\n\n\"I can't believe no one has noticed you,\" Meeritza snapped as quietly as she could, \"and yeah, that guy is a miner, they need big ropes for... um... digging underground I suppose.\"\n\n\"You [i]suppose[/i]?!\"\n\n\"What, I've never been down a mine,\" Meeritza admitted, \"I'm very much against crawling down little holes looking for gold or whatever.\"\n\nYes nearly blew the disguise with a surprised jolt.\n\n\"Gold is down in holes? Like, we could go down a hole and just... [i]get gold[/i]?!\"\n\n\"Don't you know where gold comes from?\"\n\n\"You big people make it, I thought,\"\n\n\"No,\" Meeritza sighed, \"people dig it out of the ground. Silver and iron and gemstones too. Mining. But everyone says it's really hard work. They used to make slaves do it back before the Divine Edict of Equality. Now only the evil gods allow people to own other people.\"\n\n\"Wait... people can own people? How does that even make sense?\" Yes wondered, genuinely confused.\n\n\"I mean, work has value. I think it's what actually gives things value. So I supposed people who don't care about other people only see other people as the value they can make.\"\n\n\"No,\" Yes interrupted, \"No I mean, how could someone ever allow themself to be owned? Why wouldn't you just... run away, fight back, or something?\"\n\n\"I don't know,\" Meeritza admitted, \"maybe they're tricked or forced, or maybe like... mind magic. Evil is evil for a reason. The gods themselves show us that.\"\n\nYes considered for a while longer.\n\n\"It's strange, but I can't imagine owning anyone. Willing, devoted servants, certainly. You larger yet lesser beings should certainly devote yourselves to such glorious personages as we dragons... but... we wouldn't actually *own* you. I mean... you *make* all the things that are worth anything... but you're not...\"\n\n\"We're not worth anything?\" Meeritza finished with a heavy dollop of sarcasm.\n\n\"You're not things to own. It just, it doesn't seem correct. You're not the same as things.\" Yes insisted.\n\nIt took a minute for Meeritza to decide on a response, but the one that kept coming up was the one she chose.\n\n\"I'm glad you think so,\" she finally said.\n\nThey walked in silence for a while more. The subject left them both feeling unsettled. Meeritza did her best to ignore the other people on the street and Yes stayed quiet and slack. Worse yet, it was well known that speaking of evil could unwittingly attract the attention of evil things. The gods and great spirits of all the high powers and concepts listened throughout the world, listening for opportunities for good or evil or any other thing.\n\nPassing through a street with particularly dangerous drainage routes, they felt malicious eyes upon them. Strangely, though, no hand was actually raised against them. Meeritza did a peculiar little dance as she walked, and the feeling of malice abated. The forces of evil and mischief had limits, and as long as those limits were obeyed, they were nominally safe.\n\n\"Ritz? Oy Ritz! That you?\" barked a shrill voice from the darkness of a ground-level window.\n\nMeeritza turned toward the sound, put her fists on her hips, elbows out wide.\n\n\"No, that's not me,\" she said flatly.\n\nA ruddy red figure somersaulted out from the window, followed by two more similar twirling bodies. They popped up and showed themselves to be a trio of ruddy red-brown reptilian people dressed in clashing colors of exaggerated patchwork. Each struck a pose of acrobatic grace that made onlookers think \"tah-dah!\" without it being said aloud.\n\n\"Beegou,\" Meeritza sighed, \"where are your other nestmates?\"\n\nYes watched, confused. Clearly these three were identical triplets. Not dragons certainly, and definitely lesser creatures than dragons, but for stature they were on a similar scale to the magnificent presence of a dragon, namely Yes's own, however they were more closely proportioned to a giant if one excused their tails and the bend of their feet so that they walked on their large toes with their heels in the air. But what was more confusing was that Meeritza spoke as if there was only one of them.\n\nAnd then they disappeared.\n\nFor a moment, vanishingly fast, a look of disappointment broke the small lizard-person's cultured expression. Yes considered that if it hadn't been for the draconic familiarity with reptilian expressions, it would have been completely unnoticeable.\n\nMeeritza stood with her arms crossed, \"At least you...\"\n\nTzzip! Tzzip!\n\nMeeritza dodged so fast that Yes had to grip extra hard not to be thrown off. Two stones clacked hard, one against a wall, the other against the cobbles. She had been out of the way before Yes had even been aware of the attacks, and they had come from two different directions!\n\n\"Still too slow you three!\" Meeritza laughed as two more figures emerged from two other windows. These had been up high in the building behind, and yet somehow the girl had noticed.\n\n\"How can you do that!?\" whined one of the two.\n\n\"It's not even fair!\" yapped the other.\n\n\"You just need to get better tricks, that's all,\" Meeritza taunted good-naturedly, \"you keep giving yourself away.\"\n\nBeegou huffed, \"What gave me away though? I've been practicing. The mirror doubles look exactly like them! I did our tumbling routine like we practiced. Everything should have been perfect!\"\n\n\"Look, I know that you, Reedah, and Eeyeu are doing well at your shows, but I also know when I'm being snuck up on. If you're all three in front of me, it's a fake out. And if I feel an ambush, it means you're about to use those slingshots you like so much.\"\n\nThe other two leaped out from their hiding places and made their way down via clotheslines and awnings in their limber and athletic manner. They joined their nestmate, taking the place that their illusory doubles had vacated. Together for real now, they struck their poses once again.\n\n\"Okay guys, that's great and all, but I'm trying to get some food. Good food that won't draw attention to me right now. That's where I'm heading, Is it too early for the underground kitchen?\"\n\nBeegou, Reedah, and Eeyeu slumped together, shoulder-to-shoulder and wore carefully matched grimaces of defiance.\n\n\"Maybe. or maybe ol' Roonaga ain't finished yet. She's got a big stew on for tonight and it could take all day,\" Reedah said, inflecting a note of innuendo into the mix.\n\n\"Yeah, and we know the scroungin's been real rough lately. Not a lot of food loads these days,\" Eeyeu added.\n\n\"But if you wanted us to get you a table, I suppose...\" Beegou added.\n\n\"Do the trick!\" they chorused together.\n\nMeeritza groaned, \"Really? You're going to hold my breakfast on me.\"\n\n\"DO THA THRIIICK!\" they shouted.\n\n\"Fiiine, fine. Who am I doing today?\" Meeritza demanded.\n\nYes was intrigued. What trick could she do that might outdo dodging attacks from ambush?\n\n\"Do the mayor!\"\n\nYes wondered what that could mean, and unconsciously tightened up to avoid being flung off if this was some sort of acrobatics...\n\n\"Why hello there my fine little performers,\" said a deep, jolly man's voice, \"have you been fleecing the crowds well so you can pay my taxes you little cutthroats?\"\n\nThe trio fell about laughing, clutching their sides. Yes's eyes were snapping around, trying to see who had spoken without giving away the disguise.\n\n\"Oh mayor Tildes, I do say,\" now an older woman's voice, one that dripped scorn and crotchetyness, \"why do you bother coming down here when you should be sigh entertaining me. I may be a withered old prune but I have [i]needs[/i].\"\n\nThe three were howling with laughter now, and more heads were popping out to see what was the matter. It dawned upon Yes that the person who had been speaking was actually Meeritza!\n\n\"You cad! How could you! And with Lady Abernost the wrinkliest dame in the city!\" cried another woman?s voice, followed by even more laughter.\n\n\"Tildes?\" came a gruff low male voice, \"What are you doing with these women?! You know I'm the only one for you! Now come make love to my goatly bits.\"\n\nLaughter from all around now, as everyone in the audience who had gathered was now enjoying the show. Meeritza was getting into her bit, gesturing and acting the parts. Her voice was amazing, able to go through a huge range and catch accents and inflections. Yes had never heard of the people she was imitating, but it was obvious from the people's reactions that they knew who these high-society people were.\n\n\"Ah declare!\" another pompous voice, this one baritone and male and inflected strangely, \"Your sins against the gawds of carnalitay-yuh shall not go, unpunished-ah. For stringing along these three-ah, and neglecting me-ah, you have brought [i]SHAME[/i] upon this city-ah! Now bend ovah, while I provide-ah. ABSOLUTION.\"\n\nMeeritza mimed swinging a paddle, mimicking the spanking that the fraudulent priest would be delivering.\n\nShe let the laughter go on for a while longer before she played her last trick. Now she pitched her voice high and raspy, reminiscent of a dog yipping but holding lots of matronly authority.\n\n\"Now you all had best let lil 'Ritz? get to her breakfast, else I?m gonna hit y'all with mah ladle!\"\n\nLaughs continued but now it died down. Several people came out to pat Meeritza on the back and thank her for the show. Several times Yes felt hands grab or brush, and it was everything that could be done not to drop the disguise and flee. But they weren't aware. No one commented about her strange addition. In fact, few people even looked. A couple of times Meeritza surreptitiously slapped a hand away, but after a while they were left alone.\n\nThe triplets took Meeritza by the hands and led her into a rather dark little place, down further than Yes would have expected the building to go from the outside. They gaboled about the act and their performances, grouched about people harassing them and giving vicious little accounts of their subtle revenges. For her part, Meeritza simply endured it, saying little more than a few responses to show she had been listening.\n\nAs they passed down further into the building, the scents of cooking food grew in the air. Scents that Yes had never smelled together and a warmth that was comparable to the bakeries that had the most abscondable treats. Trepidation vanished and desire took over as they made their way in, Meeritza having to stoop a bit as the ceilings and door jambs became lower.\n\nThe sound of crashing objects made everyone freeze, and further clattering saw everyone break into a run. Someone was causing trouble, and that meant someone was in trouble.\n\n...and by extension the [b]food[/b] was in trouble! \n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Vignette - Coinage and Commerce

Meeritza and Yes

Out on the street Meeritza couldn't help but feel like she stuck out. Normally she tried to blend in... but she didn't normally go around with what, she was assured, looked as if she was carrying around a whole coil of rope around her shoulders and waist. It wasn't what most people did. She could feel everyone's gaze upon her. Strangely, they seemed to notice her for only a moment, but then pass her by without a second thought. In a town where a thousand people from dozens of species traded for countless things every day, what was one girl with a coil of rope?

She passed by people who looked like giant insects, people who were short, tall, made of stone, had scales, tails, hooves, and who knew what else. She saw all the little folk who tried not to be noticed, and largely were. There were people who seemed ridiculously overdressed, men and women and unidentifiable in-betweens carrying seemingly impossible loads of things balanced on their heads. Telvin's Nest had everything.

Luckily, Meeritza knew these streets. She had spent years familiarizing herself with its patchwork of tradehouses, craftspeople, tax collectors, and the territories of the underlings of society. It was much to her benefit that she knew how to talk to people, as it allowed her to flitter like a butterfly between areas that would normally get a person's nose broken. This has, in the past, allowed her to broker deals of her own, getting things that would normally be too difficult for others to acquire.

Today, she wanted food. Cheap food and lots of it.

Here and there were familiar faces and Meeritza called and waved to each one she saw. They would call back and make small comments, asking after her health and her luck, but as Yes listened there was not much of substance being said. It also occurred that no one ever seemed to see Meeritza first. They always looked over, appearing as of they were surprised to see her there.

It was more surprising, Yes considered, that it was surprising at all. Certainly no one had ever acknowledged the draconic magnificence that was their grand personage... because that wasn't the point of dragons. They were only seen if they wanted to be seen. But the others of the city were always talking to each other, always visiting and trading and doing the innumerable other tedious things they filled their short lives with. But this girl was ignored almost completely until she made her presence known.

It was also rather nerve-wracking to be so close to people. Yes's disguise was nigh impenetrable, but it usually worked as a result of being somewhere out of the way. The carts and crates and barrels, washing lines, banner strings... they all provided the most excellent cover for the particular subterfuge that Yes employed. People did, however, carry coils of rope or braids of line, or spools of cord on occasion, and Yes took a sort of silly delight in pointing out folks who were similarly burdened.

"Look at that one," Yes whispered, "that one has a coil thicker that you entire leg! How in the world..."

"I can't believe no one has noticed you," Meeritza snapped as quietly as she could, "and yeah, that guy is a miner, they need big ropes for... um... digging underground I suppose."

"You suppose?!"

"What, I've never been down a mine," Meeritza admitted, "I'm very much against crawling down little holes looking for gold or whatever."

Yes nearly blew the disguise with a surprised jolt.

"Gold is down in holes? Like, we could go down a hole and just... get gold?!"

"Don't you know where gold comes from?"

"You big people make it, I thought,"

"No," Meeritza sighed, "people dig it out of the ground. Silver and iron and gemstones too. Mining. But everyone says it's really hard work. They used to make slaves do it back before the Divine Edict of Equality. Now only the evil gods allow people to own other people."

"Wait... people can own people? How does that even make sense?" Yes wondered, genuinely confused.

"I mean, work has value. I think it's what actually gives things value. So I supposed people who don't care about other people only see other people as the value they can make."

"No," Yes interrupted, "No I mean, how could someone ever allow themself to be owned? Why wouldn't you just... run away, fight back, or something?"

"I don't know," Meeritza admitted, "maybe they're tricked or forced, or maybe like... mind magic. Evil is evil for a reason. The gods themselves show us that."

Yes considered for a while longer.

"It's strange, but I can't imagine owning anyone. Willing, devoted servants, certainly. You larger yet lesser beings should certainly devote yourselves to such glorious personages as we dragons... but... we wouldn't actually *own* you. I mean... you *make* all the things that are worth anything... but you're not..."

"We're not worth anything?" Meeritza finished with a heavy dollop of sarcasm.

"You're not things to own. It just, it doesn't seem correct. You're not the same as things." Yes insisted.

It took a minute for Meeritza to decide on a response, but the one that kept coming up was the one she chose.

"I'm glad you think so," she finally said.

They walked in silence for a while more. The subject left them both feeling unsettled. Meeritza did her best to ignore the other people on the street and Yes stayed quiet and slack. Worse yet, it was well known that speaking of evil could unwittingly attract the attention of evil things. The gods and great spirits of all the high powers and concepts listened throughout the world, listening for opportunities for good or evil or any other thing.

Passing through a street with particularly dangerous drainage routes, they felt malicious eyes upon them. Strangely, though, no hand was actually raised against them. Meeritza did a peculiar little dance as she walked, and the feeling of malice abated. The forces of evil and mischief had limits, and as long as those limits were obeyed, they were nominally safe.

"Ritz? Oy Ritz! That you?" barked a shrill voice from the darkness of a ground-level window.

Meeritza turned toward the sound, put her fists on her hips, elbows out wide.

"No, that's not me," she said flatly.

A ruddy red figure somersaulted out from the window, followed by two more similar twirling bodies. They popped up and showed themselves to be a trio of ruddy red-brown reptilian people dressed in clashing colors of exaggerated patchwork. Each struck a pose of acrobatic grace that made onlookers think "tah-dah!" without it being said aloud.

"Beegou," Meeritza sighed, "where are your other nestmates?"

Yes watched, confused. Clearly these three were identical triplets. Not dragons certainly, and definitely lesser creatures than dragons, but for stature they were on a similar scale to the magnificent presence of a dragon, namely Yes's own, however they were more closely proportioned to a giant if one excused their tails and the bend of their feet so that they walked on their large toes with their heels in the air. But what was more confusing was that Meeritza spoke as if there was only one of them.

And then they disappeared.

For a moment, vanishingly fast, a look of disappointment broke the small lizard-person's cultured expression. Yes considered that if it hadn't been for the draconic familiarity with reptilian expressions, it would have been completely unnoticeable.

Meeritza stood with her arms crossed, "At least you..."

Tzzip! Tzzip!

Meeritza dodged so fast that Yes had to grip extra hard not to be thrown off. Two stones clacked hard, one against a wall, the other against the cobbles. She had been out of the way before Yes had even been aware of the attacks, and they had come from two different directions!

"Still too slow you three!" Meeritza laughed as two more figures emerged from two other windows. These had been up high in the building behind, and yet somehow the girl had noticed.

"How can you do that!?" whined one of the two.

"It's not even fair!" yapped the other.

"You just need to get better tricks, that's all," Meeritza taunted good-naturedly, "you keep giving yourself away."

Beegou huffed, "What gave me away though? I've been practicing. The mirror doubles look exactly like them! I did our tumbling routine like we practiced. Everything should have been perfect!"

"Look, I know that you, Reedah, and Eeyeu are doing well at your shows, but I also know when I'm being snuck up on. If you're all three in front of me, it's a fake out. And if I feel an ambush, it means you're about to use those slingshots you like so much."

The other two leaped out from their hiding places and made their way down via clotheslines and awnings in their limber and athletic manner. They joined their nestmate, taking the place that their illusory doubles had vacated. Together for real now, they struck their poses once again.

"Okay guys, that's great and all, but I'm trying to get some food. Good food that won't draw attention to me right now. That's where I'm heading, Is it too early for the underground kitchen?"

Beegou, Reedah, and Eeyeu slumped together, shoulder-to-shoulder and wore carefully matched grimaces of defiance.

"Maybe. or maybe ol' Roonaga ain't finished yet. She's got a big stew on for tonight and it could take all day," Reedah said, inflecting a note of innuendo into the mix.

"Yeah, and we know the scroungin's been real rough lately. Not a lot of food loads these days," Eeyeu added.

"But if you wanted us to get you a table, I suppose..." Beegou added.

"Do the trick!" they chorused together.

Meeritza groaned, "Really? You're going to hold my breakfast on me."

"DO THA THRIIICK!" they shouted.

"Fiiine, fine. Who am I doing today?" Meeritza demanded.

Yes was intrigued. What trick could she do that might outdo dodging attacks from ambush?

"Do the mayor!"

Yes wondered what that could mean, and unconsciously tightened up to avoid being flung off if this was some sort of acrobatics...

"Why hello there my fine little performers," said a deep, jolly man's voice, "have you been fleecing the crowds well so you can pay my taxes you little cutthroats?"

The trio fell about laughing, clutching their sides. Yes's eyes were snapping around, trying to see who had spoken without giving away the disguise.

"Oh mayor Tildes, I do say," now an older woman's voice, one that dripped scorn and crotchetyness, "why do you bother coming down here when you should be sigh entertaining me. I may be a withered old prune but I have needs."

The three were howling with laughter now, and more heads were popping out to see what was the matter. It dawned upon Yes that the person who had been speaking was actually Meeritza!

"You cad! How could you! And with Lady Abernost the wrinkliest dame in the city!" cried another woman?s voice, followed by even more laughter.

"Tildes?" came a gruff low male voice, "What are you doing with these women?! You know I'm the only one for you! Now come make love to my goatly bits."

Laughter from all around now, as everyone in the audience who had gathered was now enjoying the show. Meeritza was getting into her bit, gesturing and acting the parts. Her voice was amazing, able to go through a huge range and catch accents and inflections. Yes had never heard of the people she was imitating, but it was obvious from the people's reactions that they knew who these high-society people were.

"Ah declare!" another pompous voice, this one baritone and male and inflected strangely, "Your sins against the gawds of carnalitay-yuh shall not go, unpunished-ah. For stringing along these three-ah, and neglecting me-ah, you have brought SHAME upon this city-ah! Now bend ovah, while I provide-ah. ABSOLUTION."

Meeritza mimed swinging a paddle, mimicking the spanking that the fraudulent priest would be delivering.

She let the laughter go on for a while longer before she played her last trick. Now she pitched her voice high and raspy, reminiscent of a dog yipping but holding lots of matronly authority.

"Now you all had best let lil 'Ritz? get to her breakfast, else I?m gonna hit y'all with mah ladle!"

Laughs continued but now it died down. Several people came out to pat Meeritza on the back and thank her for the show. Several times Yes felt hands grab or brush, and it was everything that could be done not to drop the disguise and flee. But they weren't aware. No one commented about her strange addition. In fact, few people even looked. A couple of times Meeritza surreptitiously slapped a hand away, but after a while they were left alone.

The triplets took Meeritza by the hands and led her into a rather dark little place, down further than Yes would have expected the building to go from the outside. They gaboled about the act and their performances, grouched about people harassing them and giving vicious little accounts of their subtle revenges. For her part, Meeritza simply endured it, saying little more than a few responses to show she had been listening.

As they passed down further into the building, the scents of cooking food grew in the air. Scents that Yes had never smelled together and a warmth that was comparable to the bakeries that had the most abscondable treats. Trepidation vanished and desire took over as they made their way in, Meeritza having to stoop a bit as the ceilings and door jambs became lower.

The sound of crashing objects made everyone freeze, and further clattering saw everyone break into a run. Someone was causing trouble, and that meant someone was in trouble.

...and by extension the food was in trouble!

", "pools_count": 0, "title": "Showing the Ropes - V6 - Coinage & Commerce", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "0", "rating_name": "General", "ratings": [], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "f", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "2" }