Link to guild: The Ryft
Character used in prompt: Antioch (x)
Prompt:
- Antioch's always found something oddly soothing about building things up and making things with his paws. When asked about his favorite hobby, he used to default to cooking, because, really, who doesn't like something good to eat? It was one of the one things he learned from both his mother and father, both willing to teach him a skill that didn't require any sort of magic, and their small tips and tricks allowed him to work towards the proficiency he has today. But in all honesty, cooking has always been a bittersweet task to focus on. When necessity calls for it, he'll make a dish to fill his and his guild's stomachs, but it's difficult to find full joy in a task he used to cherish doing alongside his mother and father, when his older siblings were out practicing magic that was always just outside of Antioch's reach. And when his father started to get sick, cooking became a task he would do to alleviate his father's work around the house. And when his mother retreated into herself in her grief, cooking became a task he would do to make sure that she would eat.
And when he set out on his own, cooking became a desperate necessity that stopped him from going to bed hungry.
Cooking can never bring him the same joy that it used to, but the one pass-time he'd say brings him the most... satisfaction, one would say... would be crafting furniture.
Antioch's father, before anything else, taught him the importance of crafting things by hand. Though a merchant by trade before settling down with Antioch's mother, he made what he sold, and took pride in his ability to do so. Antioch's father taught him how to create furniture (other things too, but mostly furniture), to put it bluntly. From start to finish, his father imparted to him every possible nuance connected to making high quality, practical pieces of woodwork, and Antioch soaked it all up like a sponge. Even after his father became sick, he still taught Antioch through words rather than practice.
No matter what he seems to face nowadays, Antioch finds nothing more soothing than the methodical movements of sanding down wood.
It definitely doesn't hurt that making his own furniture cuts down on costs. And he'd swear up and down that what he makes is far sturdier than anything he could buy.
Character used in prompt: Orontes (Hama)
Prompt:
- Hama purred as he licked the juices of the cooked chicken Antioch cooked for him off his paws. The market was bustling around him, like it always seemed to be, and his dark eyes carefully tracked those that passed by. Cats of all different colors, shapes, and sizes, as well as anything they carried with them, passed in a cacophony of sounds.
"Hama! Please stop wandering around. I don't want to have to find you when it comes time to leave."
"Wait, wait, wait. Look at that guy." Without turning his head towards his new guardian, Hama motioned Antioch over to sit beside him on the bench. As discreetly as he could, he tilted his nose to one of the cats in the crowd.
"The one in the blue cloak?" "No, no. The guy in the yellow patterned robe." Hama grinned as he took in the poor sap's figure. Distractedly, he rifled through the bag of stuff Antioch put down on the bench as he spoke. "I stole the guy's wallet out of his satchel a few weeks ago to get some bits to buy a sandwich. I mean, I did give it back, but it made him super paranoid. If you look closely enough you can see how he's still clutching it like an old lady, trying to make sure no one can get into it," Hama snickered.
"Hama." Antioch frowned in an attempt to chastise the young kitten, but the quirk of his lips gave him away.
"Told you from the get-go I'm a pickpocket." Hama grinned, but cleverly switched his expression into a pout as he turned wide, dark eyes onto Antioch. "You wouldn't rat on a kitten, would you?"
Antioch merely snorted, but idly looked out into the crowd as the two sat together. He hummed, short and low, in surprise. The cat really was clutching his back like an old lady.
Hama continued as he pulled away from Antioch's bag. Just cooking ingredients, bleh. "You'd be surprised what you can figure out from these cats just by looking at them. The guy in the yellow robe, for instance, is definitely part of a larger guild. The wallet I stole was pure caiyman leather, and you can't come by that stuff cheap. My guess is the Brigrade guild, they're sorta known for taking down alligators. Definitely a mage, too. Career mage, not a combat one; he's not wearing a speck of armor on him. And no matter how well he's dressed, no merchant would be dumb enough to be stolen from."
Antioch turned an impressed eye onto the younger cat. "You got all that from just a few glances, huh?"
Smug from the praise, Hama crossed his arms and smiled. "Only the best thieves don't get caught. And if you do your research, you definitely don't get caught." Hama, innocently sweet, then reached between the bags of food and held up Antioch's unsheathed obsidian knife in both paws. "Exhibit A."
Antioch's eyes widened as his paw immediately snapped to his, now empty, holster. With a deadpan look, he held out his paw, and Hama carefully handed the older tom his knife, hilt first.
"You're real smart, aren't you?"