Buying a Cassock

The door to the office where Vaalyun has been directed is half-open, and there is an artifice-bedecked gnome puttering around inside. A copy of his poster, of which many copies are spread around the city, hangs on the outside of the door advertising Alik Sparkthrower's Wandering World of Wonders! Coffee and jelly donuts FREE with every purchase!

Well, if there are donuts, who can say no to that. Vaalyun, out of armor and dressed as a regular cleric of the Temple, knocks on the door hard enough to attract the attention of distracted gnomes, "Hello?" he says.

Alik looks around. "Hello? Ah! Hello! It is to be that repairing the reconduitizer, you are, yes?" he says eagerly, opening the door further and inviting Vaalyun in. At first he seems to limp, but on further inspection it's the other way around... one of his legs is artificially faster than the other, and pulls him along. "Over here it is being, behind the steam recondenser."

"Ummm... No. I think you've confused me with someone else. I'm here to order a new cassock. I heard you might be able to help with that?" Vaalyun says, stepping in but not going to fetch the reconuitizer, whatever that is. The Hearthguard's limp, though, is quite real, and his legs quite natural.

Alik blinks. Then again. Then "Oh! A customer! Excellent, excellent! Please, you are to be sitting? Wait here." It's not entirely clear what he does, but most of the office is taken up with a portable lab.

Alik dropped The Hoversmith.

The Hoversmith has arrived.

Vaalyun looks around for a place to sit in the clutter. It seems that everyplace is covered in piles of books and papers and drawings and sketches. Vaalyun shrugs, and sinks down to the floor, crossing his legs. It takes him a moment to bend his bad leg, but he manages it with little difficulty, after many hours in just this position. He pulls a set of prayer beads from the folds of his cassock's sash, and fingers them as he waits.

Alik takes a plate of jelly doughnuts from a hovering platform and offfers it to Vaalyun, who is more or less at eye level with him now. "So. A cassock, you are saying? What sort of Cassock are you wishing?"

Vaalyun accepts a donut, and murmurs his thanks, then says, "An enchanted one." He reaches into the folds of his current cassock, and removes a handprinted copy of information from the Althean library. It must be said, he has a fine bold hand, and is clearly trained as a scribe. He hands over the information.

"Well, yes, enchanted, I am assuming, or to me you are not coming. A tailor, I am not! But -- ah. Good. Yes." Alik looks over the paper carefully, and nods. "Yes, this I can be doing for you." He thinks a bit, and names a price. "Also," he adds, regarding Vaalyun's leg, "I can be building new leg for you! Better than this one."

Vaalyun smiles, and says, "That would be difficult with the current leg still in the way, and I'm afraid that I'm unwilling to part with it quite yet. Besides, it reminds me of humility." He nods again at the mention of a price, and says, "I think that I can afford that, yes. I appreciate you taking the commission."

Alik nods. "Good, good! You should appreciate, is quality work." He seems puzzled by Vaalyun's desire to keep his own leg. Or perhaps by the concept of humility. More likely both. "Well. If your mind you are changing, you are letting me know. It is... hm." He starts to scrawl notes on a nearby scratchpad, muttering words like "blessing" and "sanctuary" and "perceptual asynchronization". It's possible that he's forgotten that you're here.

"Ummm... Right." Vaalyun says, and he bends forward to use one arm to assist him in rising to his feet, keeping the half-eaten donut in the other hand. "I will certainly let you know if I decide on a new leg. In the meanwhile, how long should I expect the commission to take?"

Alik looks up, startled. "Mm? Leg? Ah, yes, leg! You are letting me know." Yes, he _definitely_ forgot you were there. "Ah. Time. Yes." He returns to scrawling complicated notation. "You return in five days, yes?"

"I shall." Vaalyun says, and then bows and touches his hand to his heart in the style of the Jade Isles. "Until then, walk in the light of the evening star, Artificer." And with that, he turns to depart.

Alik nods. "And, yes, something something the light of Reos' Forge light your, yes, whatever..." he mumbles distractedly.