Leafiara (prime)/Tales/Proudly Introducing...

Original Story: Jastatos 29, 5116

Proudly Introducing...

The Moot Hall clerk pretended to look interested, nodding along absently with a vacant smile as the girl standing before him prattled on. She'd been rambling about her pent-up frustrations with authorities and officials and had moved on to something else by now, he was pretty sure, though he paid her no mind. At least her red hair and green eyes were charming, he thought subconsciously.

"One day my own name will precede me, you know," she was currently saying, "and then I won't have a need to register for this type of thing. In fact, I'll unregister! Who would need this once I'm famous enough? Everyone will know who 'Leafi' is, from the greatest knights to the freshest turnip farmers!"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure," he said, not even knowing what he was agreeing to. "Now, if you would just place your signature--"

"I mean, it's not that I like how things are now, you know? Only days ago Kayse thought that I appreciated..." the girl stopped and shuddered, then leaned in and spoke in a quiet tone as if she were talking about the lands' greatest taboo. "Formalities!" Leafiara let out a breath, then resumed standing straight. "But I'll tell you there's a difference between being formal and just being kind," she said, nodding sagely.

The clerk blinked twice, languidly and barely following along.

"You have to meet people on their own terms--you understand what I mean, right? If someone's soft-spoken, I'll be soft-spoken to them. If they're lively and energetic, I'll be more me. And that's why I'm here too. I'm not signing this for me, don't you get me wrong, but the truth is that the people I serve in my line of work want me to sign it. It's... reassuring." The girl nodded.

The clerk jumped at his opportunity. "It is, it is. Right here," he said, indicating a line on the registration paper, and pushed a quill in its inkpot toward her.

Leafiara took the quill, but then tilted her head sideways and shot a mischievous grin at the clerk. "There's no charge, right?"

"Not at all, just like the last time you were here."

Leafi nodded along, smiling. "Right then!"

The clerk snapped back to attention and watched her sign the paper with no small amount of glee--this was the moment he'd been waiting for, after all, when she'd be done and out of his hair.

"You have a good evening," she finally said, returning the quill and pushing the paper toward the clerk. "I have a feeling that I will," she added, and started humming to herself.

"That's very nice," the clerk said. "I hope you do--and good evening."

Leafi raised an eyebrow. "No curiosity why?"

The clerk forced a smile and chose his words carefully: "There are many things a man isn't fit to know, chief among them a lady's secrets."

"Oh, it's nothing like that," Leafi said, tilting her head at him. "It's just that tonight we're going out to slay demo--" Leafi hesitated, then relented: "Actually, I guess you're right. You don't want to know about this one." She gave him a wink, then twirled on one foot and dipped into a quick curtsy. "Thank you for everything!" she said, then waved, turned quickly, and dashed off.

The clerk furrowed his brow. "Was she about to say--demons? No... couldn't be." He shook his head, then grumbled. "Of course she stops talking at the only moment when I would have liked her to continue." He knew he'd missed his chance; just outside the window he could already see her flagging down the town's most famous half-elven runner.

"Tell everyone you see!" she said excitedly. "It's official now! High Lady Leafiara, heroine extraordinaire, is on the job!"

The clerk groaned. Youth.

Milestone Notes

Would you believe that when Eyes of the Dawn started, Leafi herself had only recently joined the lands? She's not even five months old in real time (started near midnight on June 2) and it was pretty much yesterday when she's been through:

• invasions where she was level 10-ish and couldn't do anything except lifekeep (memorable moment: someone encouraged her by saying at least she was getting rid of the stink)
• invasions where she was level 20-ish and other clerics were raising twice as fast because she only knew the basic Raise Dead and there were too many characters with high spirit that she had to avoid
• invasions where she was level 28-30-ish and at least knew Life Restoration, but had to make really awkward attempts at justifying from an IC standpoint why she couldn't use chrisms (because she was F2P)
• invasions where she was level 45-ish and had the small triumph of surviving three hits from a crusader in offensive stance
• invasions where she was level 50-55-ish and had the bigger triumph of getting a crusader on her strongest foe list

And now she's level 70, heading out to slay demons (or at very least raise the fallen who are better at slaying demons) this very night. It's all kind of unreal to me and my 10-year-old self (or whenever I first played GS3) is pumped that one of my characters made it this far, so I threw myself this mini-party post! Hope you enjoyed.

Looking Back - From Ivastaen 17, 5118

Ha, this silly, energetic, and sometimes oblivious girl. :D I love how she's lecturing the bored clerk about meeting people on their terms while, you know, completely failing to meet him on his terms!

The time for her to "unregister" her High Lady title came much sooner than expected when she attended a court session in Vornavis shortly after this for the first time. The stiff and formal environment was so alien to her, as an easygoing half-sylvan, that she freaked out over holding a title that might make her seem in any way like nobility.