T Risket — Roleplayer Guild

Fwishhhhhh

The familiar hissing sound filled the small blisteringly hot dome shaped building that was known as the Redson Forge as the only blacksmith in Valbree went about quenching his hundred and sixtieth horseshoe. As per usual a healthy grayish smoke was pouring from the single chimney at an extremely steady pace as a tell tale sign to everyone in town that Red was in fact hard at work despite the early hour.

Sighing for no one to hear Red mentally kicked himself for having pushed this specific project to the last minute possible, not that this was an uncommon occurance-though thinking of the regularity he found himself in this position made him all the more upset. Having known about this particular order from out of town for over three weeks he had more than enough time to have finished the job at a leisurely pace...as per usual though instead of working his actual job he had found himself procrastinating, each time promising himself that "after I catch this next fish" or "After I finish this sketch" he would "get right on it" only to find yet another distraction. 

In similar fashion though he was here finishing the order in just the nick of time-all he had to do now was let his latest monotonous creation cool from its currently oil covered steaming state, add it to the wheel barrel filled to the brim with similar finely crafted pieces and take them outside for a quick hose down. It was true that all the oil was mostly cooked off from the sheer heat of the metal but Red always thought a quick clean up gave them a particularly nice shine, because of this he always took the few extra minutes to do so before dropping off all his hard work in the drop box out front of his home for collection in the morning.

Through the few trees that separated his home and the road to town Red caught the briefest glimpse of Astrid and her dog walking by. Red, currently wheeling his cart full of metal, almost called out with a "Mornin!" but then remembered that saying hi could end up leading to an actual conversation. The thought of talking right now just sounded abhorrent after his all nighter-no, instead of talking Red was determined to just mind his own business, finish his work, and go to bed. He found himself pondering maybe making a sandwich or something before crashing in his bed when his train of thought was interrupted by what Red thought was the most annoying sound in Valbree.

----

"Mornin Red! Atleast for me anyways, I can tell by your sweaty soot covered nastiness that you probably haven't been to bed at all. Not to mention those awful bags under your eyes along with the-" Hope, Red's younger sister by several years, had seemingly appeared out of nowhere from Red's point of view. Having (intentionally) caught her brother in the middle of shoveling handfuls of horseshoes into the old collection box for the family forge. The way she held her hands confidently on her hips like some sort of super hero while beaming her signature giant toothy grin was almost comical in the way it contrasted her brothers blank, almost scowling, face.

"Yeah, yeah. I get it, Ok? I look like fertilizer. Somebody has to keep that damn forge churning though, not to mention feed the family. Oh, and we can't forget Dad's weirdly expensive medicine that doesn't work at all." Red punctuated the sentence with an unnecessarily strong toss of the horseshoes into the collection bin-with a loud clanging clatter they landed on the growing pile inside.

Raising her hands up as if in surrender but not dropping an inch of her smile Hope didn't skip a beat in the conversation "Sorry, sorry. Just tryin to get the point across that you need some sleep. Cooked you some eggs and bacon the way you like em, also woke up a little early and went ahead and took care of dad's meds. Tried to get him to eat but, well, he did his best."

The way Hope talked made Red sigh for what seemed like the thousandth time, though this was an expression of his own self loathing as opposed to any anger or stress caused from his sister. In reality Red found himself hating the way he still wanted to snap at Hope despite what he knew was her best efforts to just make life more bearable. Like always though he made no attempt to acknowledge this. "Allright, well, thanks. I might have a bite before I turn in for the day, make sure you give Dad his second dose later tonight because I might not-"

"Nope!" Hope cut him off "We are goin out tonight. Both of us. You know what today is?!"

"Uh...Monday? Rot it, I didn't forget an order did I?!" 

With a single chuckle Hope interrupted her visibly shaken brother before he could panic any further. "No, no, nothing like that. Least not that I know. No, I was talking about a certain painfully long winded message we got on the phone. You musta missed the call while in the forge."

The words long winded message immediately got the gears moving in Red's head "Mayor McByrd?" 

"The one and only. Mcbeardy called to tell us the big news-It's New Years Day!" Obviousley haveing been waiting for this exact moment Hope took her right hand, grabbed a handful of something from the pocket of her green leather jacket, and threw what turned out to be an odd mixture of sparkles and confetti into the air. 

"What the-Where the hell did you get that?!" Red hollered as he waved the concoction out of his direction in vain.

"Totally worth ruining my pocket"

----

After yelling at his sister for his now sparkly state and then eating his hot breakfast/dinner that had been prepared by the aforementioned glitter thrower Red went about going to his room. Last he had seen of Hope she was headed for town and Red found himself thanking the Goddess for this small miracles. Sitting atop his bed in his rather sparse room that contained little more than his dresser, a few bookshelves, and an impressive array of fishing equipment complete with accompanying small framed pictures of many memorable catches hanging from the walls. Surprisingly despite his clear interest in fishing he had no stuffed and mounted fish anywhere to be seen.

Pulling a cheap bottle of "Rotgut Whiskey" out from under his bedframe he just simply stared at the amber brown liquid for what felt like several minutes. Finally he unscrewed the cap and took a few long gulps straight from the bottle. After a few moments of letting the liquid devil work its wonders Red pulled out his old flip phone and began formulating a text to someone he hadn't talked to since he had been asked to leave the local bar one night-he hadn't technically been kicked out but the shear shame of being asked to leave had left him to embarrassed to return let alone talk to the regulars or the owner. 

Blunt and to the point the text simply read "You going to the picnic Wheaty?"
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