(2023-08-30) Bruuk's Brothers: Never Underestimate the Power of a Good Wig

Details

Author:	inkie
Summary:	Sintha Fallon returns to Bruuk's with news. Annibeth is not pleased. Iphindra is horrified by clockwork animals. Arthur grapples with celebrity. Alaisa converses in three languages.
Rating:	T for Teen

Arc: The Bros of Bruuk's Corner

Sintha breezes expectantly up the stairs, and pauses when she sees the room is surprisingly empty.

[Sintha]: Gosh.

[Sintha]: Oh! Annibeth! It has been a minute, hasn't it?

Sintha drops cheerfully into the seat beside Anni's.

Annibeth glances up from the goggles in her hands, upon which she is tinkering using the very screwdriver she once loaned to Sintha. Her eyes narrow at the other woman. "Yyyyeah…"

Sintha smiles guilelessly back. "How have you been? I heard you had some adventures, hm?"

Annibeth snorts a little at the inquiry.

Iphindra lowers her head as she enters Bruuk's, riding her horse. Bruuk Barleybeard doesn't approve.

Alaisa stops right behind the horse and stares.

Iphindra eventually reluctantly agrees to leave the horse outside.

Alaisa slips past when the horse negotiations have concluded.

Alaisa heads upstairs, trailed by Iphindra.

[Iphindra]: Hello, Cobalt Company!

Alaisa looks between the two open chairs and quickly claims one of them. "Good evening, everyone."

Iphindra claims the other one.

Sintha sits up and smiles brightly at the night elf. "Hello! I'm not Coba– Ally!"

Sintha beams at Alaisa.

[Sintha]: Gosh, darling, how are you?

Iphindra nods. Right. People who come to this place aren't all Cobalt, or Bruuk's would have to close down.

Alaisa smiles back. "Hello, hello. I'm doing just fine. You're back from Northrend?"

[Sintha]: Only just. Well, a week or so ago, but it's been a whirl.

Annibeth brightens a bit at Alaisa's arrival. "Hey, Ally. What's new?"

Arthur waves.

Iphindra waves at Arthur.

Sintha sits up and beams at Arthur. "Hello."

[Arthur]: Hi! Hey, Anni! how's they blowing up?

Iphindra forgets each time that so many people come to Bruuk's. So many people she doesn't know. She shrinks in her chair, the vines in her hair reaching for the chair.

Annibeth waves. "Hey, Art!" She holds up her own goggles, upon which she's been tinkering.

Arthur tilts his head. "Oh, nice."

Alaisa asks in Darnassian, "[Remind me of your name?]" to Iphindra.

[Annibeth]: Whoooah, you speak Elf?

Sintha brightens at the talk of blowing up and Anni's tinkering, but is immediately distracted by Alaisa's Darnassian.

Iphindra blinks at hearing Darnassian. "[Oh! Iphindra!]" She answers back in her language. "[And you are?]”

[Iphindra]: It's not called Elf!

[Annibeth]: Oh… sorry.

Alaisa laughs as if Annibeth has said something particularly funny. "I'm Cobalt Company's translator. I'm Ally, lovely to meet you, Iphindra."

[Iphindra]: Nice to meet you too! And you too. *She looks at Art.* And you too. *She looks at Annibeth.*

[Sintha]: Gosh, Ally is just a prodigy with languages. She taught me Gnomish! For engineering, you see.

[Arthur]: Oh, are you an engineer too?

Sintha brightens again at Art. "I am. A siege engineer for the 7th Legion, as it happens. Sintha Fallon."

Annibeth mutters, "…an engineer who forgets her tools…"

Alaisa looks up at Arthur. "Care to sit?" she asks, rising and offering her chair. She inches closer to Sintha. "Already?!" She sounds delighted.

Sintha scoots over in her chair to make room for Ally, grinning. "Already. Well, I'm to join the training now. But qualified and everything!"

[Arthur]: Oh, here we are, offering each other chairs. It's definitely pub night at Bruuk's.

Sintha laughs gaily at Art.

Iphindra chuckles at Arthur.

Alaisa sits down on half of Sintha's chair and gives her a quick side-hug. "Congratulations. Do tell me about it later?"

[Sintha]: And what is your name, darling?

[Arthur]: I'm Arthur Reeves.

[Iphindra]: Oh!

[Arthur]: Battle mage of the Cobalt Blade.

[Iphindra]: One of the Cobalt Blades!

[Annibeth]: Yeah, Art's famous.

[Arthur]: It's just marketing.

[Annibeth]: Face plastered all over the place.

Sintha side-hugs Ally back. She blinks big, glowy eyes at Art. "The Cobalt Blade, gosh! I've seen the stories."

Arthur blushes.

Iphindra jumps and turns on her chair to look at Art. "You are a hero!"

[Alaisa]: It's certainly effective marketing.

[Sintha]: Oh I do recognize you now, in fact! Honestly I'm astonished I didn't sooner, what remarkable hair.

[Annibeth]: You should see some of the fan stories.

Annibeth snickers.

[Sintha]: You're — which one is it? Trouble? Or Mayhem? I get those confus–

[Arthur]: Oh no! There are fan stories?

Sintha turns a huge-eyed look on Anni. "Oh, darling, I have," she whispers.

[Annibeth]: Oh, Light… tons of 'em.

Annibeth gives Sintha a bit of a frown before averting her eyes.

[Arthur]: I'm trouble. Tadget is Mayhem.

[Sintha]: Right, you're Trouble.

Arthur is just barely keeping it together but he's definitely rosy-cheeked.

[Sintha]: There is a fifteen-year-old girl I know who lives to write fan stories about things, and you are all definitely in her catalog.

[Iphindra]: I meant to ask! Why are you Trouble? Is it because of engineering? And explosives?

[Arthur]: Well, those are good guesses! But it's because I make bad choices.

[Arthur]: Not on purpose!

Alaisa laughs, leaning against Sintha a little.

Annibeth mumbles, "Hell…don't tell May that. She'll start callin' me Trouble."

Sintha tips an amused sidelong look at Annibeth.

[Sintha]: Are you trouble, Annibeth?

[Iphindra]: Oooh! *She's definitely starstruck. More flowers bloom on her hair.*
[Arthur]: I'm not sure people take up enginering if they're not overly blessed with daring.

Sintha laughs merrily at Arthur.

Alaisa chuckles quietly. "I might be too cautious to be an engineer."

Iphindra nods. He's right. She's not daring, and she's not an engineer. The people of Cobalt Blade are so smart.

[Sintha]: Fortune favors the bold! Fortune also sometimes teaches the bold lessons.

[Sintha]: Or fails to.

[Sintha]: As the case may be.

[Arthur]: I just thought it was neat. And then I figured out it was useful!

[Sintha]: Terribly useful. I started it as a girl only because I wanted to make little clockwork animals, you know. And now here I am!

[Alaisa]: A siege engineer.

Alaisa sounds very proud.

Sintha nods firmly, beaming.

Iphindra suddenly turns her head. "Little clockwork animals?"

[Sintha]: Oh, gosh, yes, little — well, I started because I wanted to make rabbits, have you seen a clockwork rabbit? Absolutely the most cunning. But now I can do… squirrels, and little birds that sing — music boxes, really — and all sorts of things.

[Arthur]: Ooh. I'm considering my specialization. Gnomish or Goblin?

[Sintha]: Gnomish!

[Arthur]: I'm leaning that way. It's full of contraptions.

[Arthur]: I love a good contraption.

Iphindra is baffled by the thought of mechanical animals. "Do you have one? Now?"

[Sintha]: It is awfully full of contraptions. The technology is just remarkable, so elegant and — hm, do I?

Sintha rummages in her bag.

[Alaisa]: Do you?

Iphindra turns to Arthur. "Then go for Gnomish!"

[Sintha]: Oh! Here we are.

Sintha gets up and moves around the table, then sets a little jeweled rabbit on the floor.

Alaisa puts a hand down on the empty half of the seat as Sintha rises.

Alaisa leans forward in her chair to try and see over the table without actually getting up.

[Alaisa]: Oh, that's adorable.

[Arthur]: I made a mechanical squirrel for everyone in Cobalt Blade!

Arthur has also put a mechanical squirrel on the floor.

Sintha beams again at Arthur. "Gosh that's delightful."

Iphindra turns all the way around, with her hands placed on the back of her chair, her head poking above it, looking at the mechanical animals, curiously.

[Arthur]: They're good. You learn a lot of fine detailed tinkering, and you have a cute toy.

Iphindra stares at them. Observing them.

[Annibeth]: I got my hands on some schematics for one of those mechanical squirrels. Mine are a little rough. But they're more functional than fancy anyway.

[Alaisa]: What do yours do?

Sintha tilts her head at Annibeth, her gaze bright with interest. She nods at Ally's question.

[Annibeth]: Pack' em fulla seaforium and send 'em into tight spaces to blow stuff up.

[Arthur]: Oh, that's clever.

[Sintha]: Oh! That is brilliant, Annibeth.

Iphindra gets up from her chair. She slowly goes up to the two mechanical animals, then stops in her tracks, listening to Annibeth. "Ex– explosives animals?"

Annibeth grins at Iphindra. "Oh gosh, yeah! I make explosive sheep, too!"

Iphindra looks worriedly at the rabbit and squirrel.

Alaisa smiles.

[Arthur]: They are toys. but I don't have seaforium in mine.

[Arthur]: I have decoy explosive sheep for that!

Iphindra now looks mortified.

[Arthur]: But they are toys. Not actually animals.

[Iphindra]: But– if the point is to explode, why do you give the appearance of innocent animals?

[Arthur]: It's mean, but —

[Annibeth]: To lure the enemy into a false sense of security!

[Arthur]: Yeah.

Iphindra pokes at the robot rabbit with the non-pointy side of her spear, which has a non-pointy side, tentatively trying to understand it better.

[Sintha]: Oh, be gentle, it's just a little toy, that one! Mine are… curiosities, ornaments, music boxes and things, as I said!

[Annibeth]: You oughtta see the look on a buncha Defias thugs' faces when a li'l squirrel suddenly starts smoking at their feel and they realize what's about to happen. It's PRICELESS.

Annibeth sighs. "Not that there's many Defias around anymore to pull that on. Seems like they're runnin' real thin."

Sintha cuts a sidelong look at Annibeth. "Surely that's a good thing?"

Sintha smiles warmly at Annibeth, her bestest best friend.

Annibeth frowns again at Sintha. "Yeah. Course it's a good thing."

[Iphindra]: But… Usually squirrels, they avoid people, they are fearful animals. They should know something is weird when the squirrel approaches. Unless they are friends of the squirrels.

Sintha crouches to carefully gather up the little jeweled rabbit and return it to her pack.

Alaisa folds her hands in her lap again as Sintha returns.

Sintha perches next to Ally again and does not stand in her lap.

Iphindra jumps, cat-like, towards the robot squirrel, facing it at its level. "Do you speak? I speak the language of animals. If you are a very good copy like you seem, maybe you will talk too?"

Iphindra kneels down.

Alaisa watches Iphindra, amused.

Arthur 's squirrel doesn't respond.
Annibeth puts her screwdriver away into her toolbelt.

Iphindra tilts her head. "Do you want to explode? Is that what you wish? Tell me!"

Sintha sits up a little to peer at Iphindra. "Trouble said that one doesn't explode."

[Iphindra]: He said so, yes, but he has sheeps like this that do. Maybe the squirrel knows what the sheep think.

Alaisa laughs.

[Annibeth]: Think I'll get on outta here. Nice seein' y'all… mostly anyway…

Arthur 's robot squirrel just does clockworky things.

Iphindra looks absolutely disturbed by this technology. Not because it's an imitation of life, but because they can be used as weapons in such a cruel way.

[Alaisa]: Take care, Annibeth.

[Annibeth]: You too, Ally.

[Sintha]: So good to see you, Annibeth!

Annibeth glares at Sintha.

[Sintha]: Take care of yourself, darling! *Sintha beams, oblivious to glares.*

[Annibeth]: Just… don't.

Sintha blinks big eyes.

Annibeth stalks out, simmering.

Iphindra 's flowers wither as she suddenly realizes Annibeth has left. "Oh, uh… goodbye!" she manages to muster.

Alaisa glances at Sintha and mouths 'just don't?' as Annibeth heads down the stairs.

[Sintha]: … oooh. I wonder what I did.

[Alaisa]: What's gotten into her?

[Sintha]: I've no idea! If I see any of the others, I'll have to ask them. The last time I saw her it was to tell her that Shay had gotten word of her long-lost brother.

[Sintha]: Maybe she had a falling-out with him? The brother, I mean, not Shay.

[Alaisa]: Hmm.

Sintha beams at Ally and says in Gnomish, "[She harbors some anger and mistrust for the nobility and wasn't aware I was part of it until very recently. I may have… met her under false pretenses.]"

Sintha laughs as though she's just made a joke to Ally.

Alaisa laughs as though Sintha has said an inside joke or something.

Iphindra picks up the squirrel in her hands, holding it under its arms. She shoves it towards Art. "I need one. I need to understand it."

[Arthur]: all right, I'll make you one. I think I have a lot of the parts already.

[Iphindra]: Thank you! *And that's how you get an autograph (basically) from the engineering hero you've just met.*

[Sintha]: Gosh, speaking of Shay, did you hear the news, Ally?

Alaisa hesitates. "Which news? Is there more news?" There's a good chance she has.

[Sintha]: Well, I suppose you have heard of the vice-admiralty, from your father or… elsewhere, hm? But that I'm to be an aunt!

Alaisa gasps. "Oh! That is new!"

Sintha grins. "I just about died." She did die, but that's unrelated.

[Alaisa]: How excited are you?

[Iphindra]: Oh! Congratulations on welcoming a new child in your family!

Iphindra puts the mechanical squirrel on the nearby chair's back, hoping it keeps its balance because it is squirrel-shaped. She gently pats it on the head.

[Sintha]: And to think I was practically prodding him at knifepoint even to meet the Duchess just a few months ago. Darling, I'm a genius, is how I am. I am as excited as is appropriate to true genius.

Sintha smiles at Iphindra.

[Sintha]: Thank you!

Alaisa laughs. "You are absolutely a genius," she agrees.

[Sintha]: If it's a girl and at least one of its names isn't Sintha I shall quit the family forever.

[Iphindra]: You would do that for the baby's name?

[Sintha]: … oh, gosh, no, I'm joking.

[Sintha]: I couldn't quit the family, the pair of them would be absolutely lost without me.

[Sintha]: Just lambs in the snow.

Sintha may or may not still be joking.

[Iphindra]: The… three of them. The baby also would be a lamb.

Alaisa laughs.

[Sintha]: Oh, well, the baby might be the cleverest of the three, one never knows. I did mean just my brother and the Duchess.

Iphindra needs to do research on how human babies work. They sound closer to young dryads and oviparous animals than she'd imagined.

[Alaisa]: When does your training start? Has it started?

[Sintha]: Not quite yet, but any day I am expecting to be called in. The rest of them have started but I only just got back from Northrend on the day they officially took up, and there's been… paperwork, and so on.

[Sintha]: Speaking of the training, though, I really ought to be going. Rest, you know!

[Iphindra]: looks around at the walls, and then at the ceiling. "I feel… I should go. I will see you again! Thank you for showing me poor innocent creatures! Goodbye! *She runs outside, her horse, Birch, waiting for her with its head poking through the front door.*

Alaisa nods. "Yes, of course," she says, and pats Sintha's arm. "Congratulations, Sintha."

[Sintha]: … gosh, she is unusual, isn't she?

Sintha watches Iphindra, and then blinks at Ally and smiles again.

[Sintha]: Thank you, darling. We'll do something, hm? While I'm here now, in Stormwind again?

[Alaisa]: I'd like that.

[Sintha]: As would I! *She nods firmly.*

[Sintha]: Lovely to meet you, Trouble! Next time I shall bring a poster for you to sign.

[Sintha]: Or perhaps one of Isla's fan stories.

Sintha smiles a little wickedly at Art.

Sintha waves goodbye to everyone. Farewell!

Alaisa puts a hand down on the seat again when Sintha leaves, rather than moving to occupy the entire chair.

[Alaisa]: How are you enjoying being a celebrity?

[Arthur]: I didn't think too hard about the consequences.

[Alaisa]: Oh, dear.

Arthur looks sheepish. "Fan stories. I… am not going to assume they're all wholesome adventure tales."

[Alaisa]: Oh, certainly not. Do you want to read some? Or is it easier to pretend it's not happening?

[Alaisa]: I know I would be curious, if it were me.

[Arthur]: Maybe — I am curious but perhaps this is another one of those bad choices.

Alaisa laughs. "Well, if you're going to be famous, fame for doing actual heroic deeds sounds like one of the better options."

[Arthur]: I appreciate you trying to help me cope.

Arthur laughs a bit.

Alaisa smiles. "Any time. I do know what it's like to want to keep some privacy as a public figure." She rises from the chair and stretches.

[Arthur]: Maybe I need a wig.

Arthur laughs again. "Perhaps we'll see each other again."

Alaisa waves. "Never underestimate the power of a good wig. Do take care."

Arthur waves goodbye to Alaisa. Farewell!

Alaisa heads downstairs.