[PRP] The Mighty Marketplace (Allegro & Peat)

[Slanndalous]

The Mighty Marketplace
Players: Petunia & Slan; Allegro & Hayden
Setting: Summer day in a public marketplace; hot and muggy

"What're you doin'? Stop, stop, stopit! C'mere..."

He didn't want to resort to dragging his girl thing all around the marketplace by an arm, people would get the wrong impression. Instead all he could do was wait until Petunia finished doing... whatever the hell she was doing. Which had something to do with picking at the grout between the cobblestone blocks that covered the marketplace square.

Her grimy little hands plucked at the stems of grass that sprung up between the grout and molded the soft mud under her fingers. Every few steps, the swamp girl would squat down and begin her ritual once more with extreme fascination. Most of the other passers by took a quick glance and continued on their way. Some were bold enough to stand and watch or make whispered conversation to their friends. They received a glare from Slan for their efforts.

Tired of waiting and the rubbernecking, the off-duty were-bunny grabbed Petunia by the shoulder and hauled her back up on her bare feet.

"Listen, you need to pay attention. We're here for you! Yer so picky about food, we need ta find something you can put up with.... ........ Hel-lo?" Slan waved a hand in front of his ward's brilliant green eyes, resulting only in a few blinks.

"I'm hungry...."

".... Yeah, I know..."  

[Olivia Solace]

Hayden was out with his boys once more, except this time instead of only the twins, there was now a third. He newest addition to the family, and my what a family it was. Three little boys, and their father, a humorous treat for all to see as they passed by, as well as an interesting one.

The family had decided that instead of staying indoors all day today they would go grocery shopping for the week. The weather had been nothing but humid and hot all week, and since Hayden noticed developing storm clouds on the horizon, he decided it was best to get the shopping out of the way while there was still some sunshine left above head.

As he picked through some vegetables, his three sons, Canté, Benjamin and Allegro all wandered off. They were still within Hayden's range of sight so he did not call for them to come back.

Taking advantage of this Benjamin scooted his way quickly to sweeter fair as he found the nut, fruit and candy vendors. Canté had followed him if only because he was not very pleased with being the one almost left behind with their father, and Allegro had also followed suit to make sure one one got into trouble, or worse.

"Don't touch things," Allegro said as Benjamin was about to stick is hand in the open berry bin, "We didn't pay for them so we're not allowed to eat them."

Benjamin made a face at Allegro and pulled his hand away, content with inspecting the contents with his eyes and not his hands. The boys were a lot calmer today than other days, mostly because it was so damn hot out they didn't really feel like causing a ruckus.

Allegro on the other hand was absolutely loving it. It was warm and nice and bright and the boy practically fed off the light, actually smiling more than he normally does at the bright sunny day. As he looked around the marketplace he noticed the barefoot little girl bending over every now and again to pull things up off the ground.

She was odd and it made Allegro smile a little, even if his inner mother-yearnings were telling him she was gonna get sick or something from the dirt all on the ground and the spores from the moss and weed. Looking over to Canté and Benjamin he nudged them both and pointed over to the girl. His brother's seemed rather disinterested.

"Why do you wanna go over there, Al?" Benjamin scoffed, holding his nose as he looked at Petunia, "She's a girl. Girls have cooties. And they smell like perfume."

"Cooties don't exist!" Canté said, grabbing his brother's hand from his face, "And if anyone has cooties, it's you."
 

[Slanndalous]

A shout across the marketplace brought Peat's attention behind her, big green eyes looking for the source of the noise. It was rather easy to spot the commotion what with three boys shouting at each other, and one of them unusually bright and clothed much differently than the others.

Were they making fun of that kid? Her brows knitted together in contempt. Twisting her arm out of her guardian's grip, Petunia ran across the marketplace, knocking a few pedestrians that walked ignorantly in front of her. "Hey!" She bypassed the odd looking one that held some kind of familiarity to her, which was perhaps what made her so eager to defend him. Petunia looked bout ready to shove the other two boys onto the pavement, but big hands grabbed her and neutralized her violent fists.

"What are you doing? I'm sorry k--Oh, damn. I mean--fu--uhh sh--shoot. It's you two.... Where's yer dad?"  

[Olivia Solace]

Cante, Benjamin and Allegro were all startled as Peat had made her way over to them, looking as if she was angered and upset. She must have heard Benjamin say that she had cooties and was coming over to yell at them. Cante looked over to Benjamin with his brows furrowed and pointed a finger at him, "Look what you did! She heard you say she had cooties! And now she's gonna beat you up!"

Benjamin stuck his tongue out at Cante and went to shove him, "She is not gonna beat me up she's just a girl! Maybe she heard you."

As Cante and Benjamin began to bicker amongst themselves, Allegro watched as the green eyed girl approached them all angry-like. He felt like he knew her from somewhere, but knew that couldn't be. The only girl he knew was the little girl down the street, and her hair was black, and she was only like three years old, and this girl obviously looked their age. He scoured his brain for a moment to figure out who she is, only to be startled as some guy with bunny ears came swooping up behind her and picking her up off the ground.

"Uhm..." Allegro began, starring up at the were-bunny.

As Cante and Benjamin heard Slan's voice they almost instantly knew who it was and ceased their bickering. Benjamin got really excited to see the were-bunny once again and looked around for the monkey that had accompanied him previously but did not see him anywhere, causing a pout to appear on his face.

"Hello Mr.Slan!" Cante beamed, "What are you doing here and who is she?"  

[Slanndalous]

Petunia's big green eyes looked up Slan's way with accusation and confusion, doubting his reason for holding her back was substantial. A pale hand brushed over her head and the little swamp girl glowered ever so slightly. She wasn't a prissy girl, Peat didn't need to be babied!

"Oh! Uhhh.... This is my...." What the hell was she? Petunia certainly wasn't his daughter. She wasn't a pet either. "She's... She's with me..." Yeah, that worked. "Her name's Petunia. Petunia, this is uh...." Gah, think fast! What were their names?! "Cante..." He pointed to one of them, hopefully it was Cante. "And uhm Benjy..." Something like that. "And who's that one? He wasn't with you guys last time ya'll were at the fair..." Did their father have another secret kid?

Poor guy.... Slan was amazed the man hadn't killed himself yet. He would have. Petunia was already too much for him as it was.

When Slan turned the subject back on the blond, Petunia's eyes traveled back to him as well. He was very strange, like her. And despite being younger than the others, she found this boy more interesting than the other two yammering boys.  

[Olivia Solace]

Allegro looked at Petunia curiously, orange eyes meeting green ones. From here Allegro could smell the little blonde girl. She smelled musty, wet, and had various plants growing on her; it was an interesting look and made it obvious she was not like his brother's Cante and Benjamin.

Oddly enough he did feel some sort of connection to her. He was unable to articulate exactly what this connection was, but he knew it was there. Some feeling like they had met once before, which he knew was impossible as this was the first time he had seen her.

He extended a hand to the blonde little girl before him and gave her a smile, "My name's Allegro."

As Allegro made his introductions to her, Cante and Benjamin were too busy discussing with their favorite carnival folk about their new brother and how he came to be. Cante had decided to tell Slan all about how they found the bottle, and brought the bottle home and put it in the cupboard, when Benjamin decided his story needed to end because it was getting boring.

Interrupting Cante, Benjamin screamed out, "AND THAN THE BOTTLE GOT REALLY BRIGHT ONE DAY AND WE HEARD A SMASH AND THERE WAS ALLEGRO. And now he is our brother."  

[Slanndalous]

Petunia stared at the hand for a few moments before she finally took it, her sour expression melting immediately once her hand wrapped around Allegro's. "Hi! I'm Petunia!" Her face split in two from a big smile, exposing a rather deep gap between her front teeth. Her fingers gripped the boy's hand with more force than necessary, but she didn't know any better. "But everyone calls me, Peat! You know, like compost. A big mound of organic mulch that like decomposes and then you, you know, use it for fertilizer. That's what I'm named after..." Her dark face beamed with obvious pride. What could be better than being named after something so useful!

"Ohhh really, well what a co-inc! Peat here came from a bottle too! I woke up a few weeks ago and she was just... sittin' there, chirping at frogs from the window...." Slan's eyes grew distant as he trailed off, reliving the bizarre night that seemed more like a nightmare in his mind. "Hey, where's yer dad?"  

[Olivia Solace]

Allegro shook her hand, a warm smile spreading across his face as she spoke to him. He liked her, she felt...safe. Yes, safe. There was nothing menacing about her that he could feel, and he wasn't feeling nervous or shy by her either.

"That's really interesting," Allegro said, which sounded so silly coming from a child, but it as to him. He wondered if she named herself, like he had done, or if her dad had named her for her. It couldn't hurt to ask, and as he was about to when he than realized how entirely strong the hand shake he was receiving from Petunia happened to be.

Allegro couldn't help but grimace under the strength of the girl's hand, but tried his best to seem polite when he said, "Peat, you're hurting me."

As Benjamin took the time away from Slan to laugh at the fact his brother's hand was literally being crushed in a hand shake with a girl, Cante had decided to take his place as spokesperson for the family and went to answer Slan's question, "Dad is buying food up that way!"

Cante pointed him out up the hill, which was much farther from Hayden than Hayden had originally wanted the boys to be. Engrossed in his shopping, Hayden hadn't notice the boys wander so far from him, and therefore had yet to notice the random-happen-stance taking place down the market trail.  

[Slanndalous]

"Huh?" Her big green eyes looked down at their clasped hands. "Oh, ha! Sorry..." Petunia released her grip on the poor boy, suddenly fascinated by the muddy fingerprints she left on Allegro's hand. "I'm really strong for a girl, that's what Slan always says! I'm really good at catching frogs too, ya know. They are really fast, Slan can't catch them!" Her dark, dirty face split into a wide grin as she barked with laughter.

Her guardian simply ignored her usually loud ruckus she made whenever Peat opened her mouth. "Don't break your new friend, Peat..."

"I'm not!! Jeez..."

Hayden was easy to find once Benjamin, or maybe Cante, pointed in his general direction. "Hey! Hey, Hayden! HAYDEN!!" The arm flapping technique didn't seem to work either at getting his attention. "He needs to put you kids on a leash, you wander too far..."  

[Olivia Solace]

Allegro wasn't exactly pleased with the fact he now had mud covering his hand, but couldn't help but smile regardless. Peat's laughter was absolutely infectious, consequently he quickly found himself laughing right along-side her.

He couldn't deny that Peat was indeed strong for a girl. He hadn't met many girls up to this point, but she was the same age as himself as well as his brothers and he could tell from her hand-shake she was definitely stronger than them. They could probably take her combined, but individually she'd beat them down quickly.

"Frogs huh? I don't think I've seen a frog yet that wasn't drawn in a book," Allegro admitted.

"You don't put kids on leashes! You put puppies on leashes!" Cante said, laughing at Slan's words. The notion of putting children on leashes was absolutely ridiculous. What would putting children on leashes do? They weren't puppy dogs, it wouldn't keep them from peeing on people, because kids don't pee like puppies do, kids pee in the potty.

"Besides," Benjamin chided, plunking himself in between Cante and Slan with a mighty shove, "If we want to get Daddy's attention we blow our stranger-danger whistles."

Yes, Hayden had given them 'stranger danger' whistles. Loud, ear piercing annoyances that sometimes Benjamin liked to blow simply to see his father come running like a panicked rabbit.  

[Slanndalous]

"Oh my gosh, you haven't?! What is wrong with you?" She asked bluntly, too young to understand the deeper implications of her question. Her small mouth hung open for a split-second until it snapped shut once she thought of a brilliant plan. "You need to come over to my house, so we can catch frogs and fireflies and crickets! It's so much fun!" Her green face split in two with her big, yellow grin. Slan didn't particularly like to come with her into the forest to catch things, so it would be a spectacular trip into the swamps with a friend she could brag to about everything she knew about frogs. And she knew a lot!

Slan couldn't stop the slow, condescending smile that grew wider across his pale face the more Cante talked. No leashes on kids, huh? Well, he needed to come to the circus on their discount nights when the particularly disturbing customers came, equipped with leashes attached to their litter of children. Slan's boss really needed to seriously contemplate hiring them for a big-top performance.

"C'mere..." He beckoned both boys forward until he could pick up one of their whistles. He was short enough he didn't even need to bend over to blow it. How pathetic.