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"I suppose." Garnet sighed, wishing that he had taken up Sarah's Safehouse's offer. "What do you mean, 'recruit' you? Are you famous or something?" He raised his eyebrows at the stranger. If this guy was famous, what in the world was he doing hanging around him? Besides apparently being very against going to his house and doing chores.
"Uh…" He ran his hands through his hair. To be honest, he had kind of assumed Garnet recognized him, though in hindsight that had been a bad assumption to make. "Kind of? I'm Romeo Heath. Though I would prefer if you called me Ro. Not Romeo." Romeo felt like it didn't belong to him. It belonged to the real Romeo. He was a fake, a farce, and the name didn't fit him.
"Oh. Never heard of you," Garnet said dismissively, taking a left out of the alley and continuing along a rather busy street. He didn't really care all that much for the famous people of Eretien. Unless that included the gods and Greg, in which case he did care very much. Regular famous people usually didn't want anything to do with him, so he just returned the favor.
Ro blinked, a bit startled. Most people in Eretien had heard of him. It was actually kind of nice to run into someone who hadn't. Of course, it also made him more curious, and he continued following Garnet. He didn't speak again, just kept following and hoping no one recognized him and tried to stop him to talk.
At least he'd stopped asking questions. Garnet could deal with a silent follower. He wove through crowds of people, which grew the closer he got to the docks. They were always busy. So it was a mystery why Greg and the Gang of Greg liked to hang out there so much. Maybe they were just really big fans of the ocean. Garnet skirted around a group of people practically blocking the entire road and burst into the docks proper. He immediately started towards the Gang of Greg's usually hang-out area, casually wondering if he could maybe lose Ro in the crowds. It would be very nice if that happened. Given Ro's previous stickiness, however, he was pretty sure it wasn't going to happen.
Ro kept following Garnet, sticking as close as he could so as not to lose Garnet in the crowds. There were a lot of people here, and while he wasn't sure why, he certainly didn't want to lose Garnet. Not when this was such a fascinating diversion.
Garnet glanced over his shoulder to find that yes, Ro was still following him. He sighed heavily and climbed over a stack of boxes blocking the way towards one of the more rickety areas of the docks, which meant that there were hardly any people over there. There were still people, of course. Just not as many.
"Hey, Garnet!" Garnet glanced towards the voice to see Gerdy waving at him. "You do know there's someone following you, right?"
"Yeah, thanks, I know. It's my new best friend." Garnet gave her a sarcastic smile. "Chances on Greg pushing him in?"
"Pretty high. He's pretty grumpy today." Gerdy sighed heavily. "That's why I'm out here. You know what he's like."
"Do I ever."
Ro made his way over the boxes, still following Garnet. He heard Garnet's words, and frowned a little. The water wasn't a safe place for him; it wore at his skin and started to melt it, turning him back into the earth from whence he had come.
Garnet continued on, eventually stopping in the shadow of a rather empty-looking warehouse. There was a gathering of old people in front of it, loitering around a very beautiful table. On top of it was an old tome. Greg was leaning over it, muttering to himself. The rest of the Gang of Greg were standing around, murmuring among themselves.
"Bah! This is impossible!" Greg exclaimed, slamming the book closed with a shout.
"Hey, Greg." Garnet gave the wizard a wave, wondering if this level of weird would finally drive Ro away. After all, it was him talking to a table with a sentient book on it.
Ro stayed a bit back, crossing his arms and watching Garnet quietly. He didn't know who this Greg guy was, but that was fine. He didn't need to know. He just wanted to hear. It gave him something to do rather than go home, and that was really all he wanted for now. So this was fine.
"Garnet? What are you doing with that city boy?" Greg asked, looking over his shoulder at Ro.
"We're all city boys, Greg. And I tried to get rid of him, but he was very insistent to come along." Garnet explained, walking up to the table and glancing at the book. "A History of Annamaria The Weaver," he read, looking back up at Greg. "What in the world are you trying to do?"
"There's something wrong with the city. I was just checking if she said anything about it." Greg muttered, crossing his arms. "Nothing."
"Have you tried summoning her? I'm sure the spell for that was in there somewhere."
"That was my next step." Greg paused. "You don't seem all that surprised to hear there's something wrong with the city."
"Ah, well, that's why I came here in the first place. Mabel said you knew something about the whole city-dying problem." Garnet glanced over at Ro, hoping that his ramblings had bored him. It was really quite awkward to be having a conversation with him lurking in the background.
Ro raised an eyebrow faintly. Summoning? Ah, here they were. City dying. He still thought Garnet was wrong, but that didn't mean he didn't want to listen. Sure, it was awkward and a bit weird of him, but it was fine. It wasn't like he'd followed Garnet home or anything.
"I don't know much. There's weird mold places." Greg waved a hand in the vague direction of the center of town.
"Weird… mold," Garnet repeated, frowning at him. "Maybe we should try and summon Annamaria first. She'll probably know something more than 'weird mold', right?"
"Eh, maybe." Greg sighed and flipped the book back open. "You have any yarn?"
"Yarn?" Garnet frowned and reached for the small leather case, roughly the size of his hand, attached to his belt. He might have a length of yarn somewhere in his holding case. Who knew what kind of stuff he kept in there. After a few seconds of searching, Garnet located a length of dark green yarn. "This work?" He held the yarn up to Greg.
"Yeah." Greg nodded and grabbed the yarn from him. "Everyone, are you ready?"
"Ready," Garnet said, nodding. "You. Stay back," he said after a second of thinking, leveling a glare at Ro. If the man messed with anything, the summoning would fail and they would be back to square one.
Ro raised his eyebrows when he was addressed. "Wasn't planning on running up to your…yarn." he replied, shaking his head faintly. A madman, to be sure, but still an entertaining one.
"Good." Garnet nodded, turning back to the table. Greg placed the yarn on the table, then started tapping out a simple pattern with his staff.
"Annamaria, weaver of fates and/or destinies, please show yourself," Greg said, changing the pattern of the tapping slightly. The rest of the Gang of Greg started muttering about socks and scarves in order to tempt the lady there. Garnet gave a soft whistle, adding his magic to the stuff Greg was already weaving.
"What do you wizards want? Just look in the book, it knows everything I know." Garnet whirled around to see a rather sketchy-looking lady wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a veil over it standing behind him.
"We were just wondering about the city," Garnet explained, giving her a small bow. "It didn't say anything about it in the book, so…"
"Are you talking about the mold? Yeah, I'm stumped about that too. That's why it's not in the book." Annamaria crossed her arms. "I can't see anything about it. Every time I try one of my scarves disappears. And I like my scarves, so I've stopped trying. Good luck."
"Wait, you can just…" Garnet started, trailing off as Annamaria disappeared. "Knit more."
"That was useless." Greg set his staff on the table and thoughtfully stroked his beard. "Garnet, how do you feel about looking for the mold while we contact more gods? There has to be a source somewhere."
"Yeah, sure. Where should I start?"
"It's pretty heavy in the alleys by the Academy. That's a good place to start. And whatever you do, don't touch it."
Ro just listened, leaning back against the wall of the building he was standing against and listening. He could only hear Garnet's side of the conversation, which was interesting enough on its own.
"Got it." Garnet nodded. "I'll see everyone later, yeah?"
"For dinner," Greg agreed, already turning his attention to the rest of the Gang of Greg. "Anyone have any other gods we could ask?" Garnet spun, eyes locking on Ro. Right. That guy who was following him.
"Are you going to keep following me? I'm going towards the Academy." Garnet raised his eyebrows, starting back towards the main part of the docks. Hopefully, the mention of the Academy and unsaid merchant sector around it would convince the man to leave him alone. Though he had to admit just having a silent follower wasn't too bad. He could deal with it. As long as Ro didn't try to talk to him.
Ro thought about that for a moment. "I might." he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "We'll see what I decide to do." his mouth tugged in a smirk as he straightened up, running his hands through his hair. He'd head home sooner or later, sure, but not yet. Not now.
"Wonderful," Garnet sighed heavily and clambered back over the stack of boxes. He stuck to the outside of the crowd, wanting to move fast now. If even Annamaria didn't know anything about the mold, it must be bad. Hopefully, it wasn't so bad that it couldn't be fixed.
He followed Garnet calmly, doing his best to keep up through the press of the crowd. Was this annoying of him to be doing? Oh, without doubt. Was he going to stop? No, he was not. He was bored, and this would entertain him for a while.
Garnet hurtled through the streets, taking all the shortcuts and back alleys he knew to get to the area Greg had mentioned as fast as possible. Once there, he slowed down considerably. Not only because he knew that someone like him moving at any sort of fast pace in there would surely raise suspicions, but also because he needed to pay attention now. "Hey, Ro, if you're going to continue to follow me, you could at least do something useful. Look around and try to find anything that matches the description of "weird mold". Yell if you find it." Garnet glanced back at his follower, narrowing his eyes at him for a second before turning his attention back to the task at hand. So far, he'd seen nothing suspicious, but he knew they were bound to find it at some point.
Ro raised an eyebrow faintly. "Alright." he said slowly. Weird mold? He wasn't sure what precisely that meant, but he would do his best to look around. He supposed. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do, after all. So he just followed Garnet, keeping up with him pretty easily.
Garnet was pretty sure he looked suspicious, glancing into all the alleyways and in the cracks between the paving stones. It wasn't suspicious enough yet that people took notice, however. That was one piece of good news. The other good news was that he couldn't seem to find any weird mold. Although his objective was to find it, he felt better that it wasn't everywhere. That probably meant the problem wasn't too serious. Right as he was thinking that, however, Garnet spotted a strange, sickly-looking green-grey blotch on the corner of a building. "Oh, there you are." He let out a sigh and started towards it.
Ro continued to follow after Garnet. His eyes eventually found the mold, and he cocked his head. "Hm." he didn't crowd Garnet, but he certainly stepped closer as he studied it. "Odd." this was the mold Garnet had been referring to? It didn't seem like much, but at the same time, it was out of place.
(ooh hey what if the mold made Ro like. sick? bc he's kept alive by magic?)
(Ooh, yes, totally! The mold is basically the absence of magic, so it would definitely mess him up. Hehe, problems. :)
Garnet peered at the stuff, his lips pressed together in thought. It had to have a source. At least, he hoped it had a source. The whole ordeal would be much harder if he had to look for the biggest patch with no helpful hints at all. There was a narrow gap between the moldy building and the next one, and Garnet carefully peered down it, making sure to keep well away from the mold. He could sense something off about it, though he wasn't exactly sure what it was. Besides, Greg had said to keep away from it, and he trusted the wizard with his life. Indeed, there was a trail of mold winding down the side of the building and further down the alleyway, leading who-knew-where. Well, he was about to find out. Garnet carefully stepped past the mold, slipping in between the two buildings.