Today and tonight were times to let loose and just relax and not think about any of the world’s problems, even if you caused them now and then. Sirona was pleased to hear about the fairgrounds and the other attractions that were happening over in Canelux and had sent a message to all of her Clergy that should any of them wish to attend to the festivities they were welcome to do so. After all they needed some fun in their lives and experience something different now and then the chance to come to the festival and just relax would be welcome to many of them.

Sirona herself was there to, dressed in plain clothing that hid any of her curves and evening gloves on her hands, so the only skin that was showing was a bit around her neck and her head. She carried no weapons, she would have no need of them here anyway, and her usual companion, Lume, was currently perched on her shoulder using one of Sirona’s wings for support. Sirona reached up and scratched the owl griffin’s head as she walked around the fairgrounds, her white feathered wings tucked up as much as she could, so she didn’t accidently bump them into someone.

At the moment Sirona was scanning past some of the confectionaries and she had a few treats in a bag already. She was nibbling something crunchy to, and if someone looked closer what she had was a bag of fried grasshoppers with seasoning on them. Being from Onnen, or at least that’s where she had spent most of her life since waking up in Revaliir, eating insects was something she was accustomed to. It wasn’t strange to Sirona to be eating them like candy, since they were sweetened and had some salt on them.

She reached up and Lume snapped one from her hand and crunched on it while he ate. The whole time the owl griffin was keeping an eye on the hellhounds and hellcats running around the place, weary of them. So he wasn’t about to leave Sirona’s side. A few people seemed to recognize her, some nodded in respect or greeting others glared and Sirona didn’t blame them. She ran into a couple of her Clergy and only chatted a moment to make sure they were ok and having fun, otherwise she left them to their own devices.

Shiloh was walking through the fairgrounds, which wasn't a surprise knowing her habits of preferring to see things personally. There were plenty of vendors and rumors were flying about some of them pulling schemes to get customers to pay or leaving them with a nasty hex. While the theme of this fair was 'trick or treat', the rogue personally preferred having the benefits with none of the downsides. Being tricked wasn't always harmless or fun. Unfortunately she wouldn't be doing any investigating today as she was attempting to herd ferrets while keeping a tight rein on four different leashes while only having one pair of hands. Her arms were crisscrossed as the leashes were being pulled every which way as she was being towed along by four harness-wearing fur noodles. "Everybody in single file! Niall, don't walk too close to the strangers or they'll step on you! Heiko you're pulling the leash, slow down! Furin–stop trying to steal things people dropped on the ground! You don't know where that's been! And Raiju–don't lick the merchandise!" 

Having Niall was one thing, but after gaining three more magical weasel-like creatures it was a juggling act to keep them all in line. Bringing easily distracted, furry creatures to the fairgrounds was probably not the best idea in hindsight. It was supposed to be a family outing, but with new sights, smells, and sounds all around–it was a miracle the ferrets were still in view. As she attempted to walk the ferrets without getting in the way of other visitors, she was trying to untangle her arms so she could reel them in before one of them got their grubby paws on something breakable or edible. Within the crowds you could hear her loudly apologizing to others that had the misfortune of being nearby. "Popcorn!" The  panda ferret Heiko yelled as a whiff of the stuff drifted downwind. "I smell caramel! And butter! And cheese!" Piped up the blaze ferret Raiju, standing up on his hind legs. "Cheese! Cheese! I love cheese!" And then Furin was off–the dark-eyed white mustelid breaking into a full sprint…until being stopped by the body harness. The ferret flailed its little front paws until its owner caught up. 

Letting out a sigh of relief, Shiloh was then surrounded by all four ferrets as they began begging for snacks. "Can we get popcorn? Can we, can we? Pleaaaase?" They begged in chorus. "…Alright, alright. We'll get some popcorn. Only one bag though–you still need to have dinner." Tiny cheers and happy ferret sounds filled the air as they began to hop around wildly, and they eagerly followed when Shiloh made her way towards the popcorn stall. Shifting the grip on her leashes into her right hand, she looked at the flavors of popcorn they had. "And what will it be for you, lapochka?" Came the voice of a beardy man with a very thick accent. He was turning the drum which held the kernels and oil, already in the process of popping into fresh, hot popcorn. "I'd like a scoop of caramel, powdered cheese, chocolate dripped, and plain butter popcorn. For one bag, please." The large man nodded, and began to take a bit from each of the four flavors she requested, handing her the warm paper bag once she had paid. "Many thanks, lapochka. May the moonlit night smile for you." With a forced smile, she gave him a nod out of courtesy before steering her four-footed brood to a place to sit.

Once she let go of the leashes, all of the ferrets were crawling over her to get at the popcorn bag. Niall got a hold of the paper with his teeth, Raiju was standing up while Furin and Heiko were busy climbing on top of each other to snag their favorite flavor. They ended up spilling the popcorn all over their owner's lap, but none of the delicious bits fell onto the ground. By the time Sirona found her, Shiloh was 'trapped' on the bench with all four of her pets swarming around the open paper bag in her hands. With a pained grimace, she made eye contact with her since her hands were occupied. "It's feeding time. It's only been two hours but they already burned off their lunch."

Sirona sensed within the crowd that one of her fellow Deities was close by and turned to head in that direction. She had an idea who it was but didn’t want to be make any assumptions, and while she’d approach no matter who it was, who it was also determined how she would greet them. Turned out it was Shiloh, sitting down on a bench with four fuzzy creatures scampering around her eating the popcorn that had been spilt on her. Sirona walked closer unable to keep a small grin off her face at the sight. ”Hello.” Sirona would have greeted with Shiloh’s first name to but she didn’t know if Shiloh wanted that said in the open at the moment.

The pained grimace on Shiloh’s face was enough to wipe the grin off of Sirona’s face as she watched the little fuzzy things eat away at the popcorn. ”Lume here eats a lot for his size I think to.” Sirona commented and that got her an annoyed hoot in her ear but she grinned and held him up another grasshopper for him to eat, which he snatched up. Sirona then patted his head. ”Proving my point, my little piggy.” She scratched him under the chin and then looked back to Shiloh, Lume watching the ferrets from Sirona’s shoulder.

”Since they’re eating all your popcorn, do you wanna try my grasshoppers? They’re sweetened with a bit of salt.” Sirona offered holding the bag out. ”I know, it might seem odd for someone like me to be eating them, but since I spent so many years in Onnen before finding out my true past I’ve gotten used to eating them.” She shrugged.

There was a flap of wings and Lume was away from Sirona’s shoulder and dropped down on the other half of the bench from Shiloh, watching the ferrets with his big owl eyes. ”Have you been in the fairgrounds long? I was just about to have a better look around now that I have had a snack. We can walk together for a bit if you like?”

"Flying takes a lot of energy. Just like running…" She gave a sidelong glance at the four-footed bandits tunneling into an empty popcorn bag. Two of them were biting the paper while the others were licking the remaining cheese powder off of it. It was a good thing she didn't come wearing her good clothes. She didn't turn down Sirona's offer for the grasshoppers, though she already knew four pairs of eyes were already eyeing them too. "Sure, I don't see why not. I've heard of people putting cooked insects in candy before, and grasshoppers are probably the better tasting out of them." To the angel's explanation on why the grasshoppers weren't odd to her, Shiloh replied: "At least they're not scorpions. I heard the carapace is pretty awful." Looking down at the ferrets standing on their hind legs and staring at the grasshoppers, she sighed. "Yes, I'll let you try some. Later, not now. We'll come back tomorrow." "Awwww…." There was a collective whine that was hard to say no to, but she wasn't going to budge. There'd already been too much excitement for them today, and they couldn't spend the whole time snacking. "It'll taste better when you wait for it." The rogue told them, but Raiju was dejected. The blaze ferret flopped down on his belly over her knee. "But…but crunchy bugs." 

Petting Raiju with one hand, she went back to answering Sirona's other questions. "I just arrived a couple hours ago. I did a quick browse of what attractions they had here, then I brought the ferrets out to have a walk. Speaking of walking, now you guys ate all that popcorn–you'd better start burning it off or you'll get chubby." Taking the leashes in hand, she stood up as the ferrets cleaned themselves off of any salt, sugar, or cheese powder left behind in their fur. They licked their lips, and soon were moving around their owner like a small pack of elongated rodents. "I'm here for work-related reasons–which probably isn't surprising to you. Rumor has it that some of the vendors here have been pulling some underhanded 'tricks' of the non-magical variety on the people here. Fairs and carnivals don't exactly have an honest reputation…if you get what I mean." If there was one thing that got under her skin, it was being cheated. It was one thing to be a racketeer, but swindling money out of people while failing to give the services you advertised was even worse. That was one 'trick' she wasn't going to allow.

”Yes, that it does, even if he likes to catch a ride with me more often than not.” She grinned as she patted Lume and watched the four little thieves finish up the popcorn and lick themselves clean. Sirona offered Shiloh a taste of the grasshoppers she was snacking on, and Shiloh agreed, though Sirona did notice the ferrets eyeing the bag. When Shiloh mentioned scorpions Sirona shrugged again. ”Ah, it depends on the kind of scorpion and how they are prepared, same with certain kinds of beetles.” She said it like it wasn’t something out of the ordinary, and for her it wasn’t.

Shiloh spoke to her companions, saying that they could have some of the grasshoppers tomorrow and the poor things looked like it was the end of the world for them for not getting any now. Meanwhile Lume hooted and flapped his wings as he stood on his back legs and Sirona scowled at him. ”That’s not nice, Lume, you shouldn’t gloat about getting some when they don’t get any.” A replied screeching hoot and Sirona scowled further. ”Fine then, no more for you either if you’re going to be like that.” Lume gave a sad hoot and jumped back to perch on Sirona’s shoulder and wings again nuzzling into her neck. ”Nice try, if you’re going to be mean than you get to live with the consequences.” Lume’s big owl eyes made him look even more sad than before but Sirona held firm and made sure the bag was closed while asking questions of Shiloh.

At Shiloh’s explanation of why she was here Sirona nodded, nope, she wasn’t surprised as to why Shiloh was here. But the mention of the vendors being shady did catch her attention. ”I wanted to get away from the Cathedral for a while and I think most of the clergy are somewhere around here to, I’ve seen a few of them already. I think we all needed the time away.” Sirona explained. ”But, if you’re interested I can help you figure out what some of these vendors are up to. People are here to have fun, not get scammed.”

"I'd appreciate the help. Simple scamming's easy to spot–like containers being smaller inside than they look on the outside, rigged weight scales, and fast-talking people into buying things that should cost less. It's the more involved schemes that I'm aiming for. Mamlak's markets have a reputation for cursed goods; it wouldn't surprise me if half of the trinket vendors had some in stock without disclosing the details to customers. It'd be impossible to pull every single one from the shelves, but at least I can try to buy out the more malicious objects before somebody else does." And once they were in her possession, she'd find a nice place to 'dispose' of them properly. That would include destroying whatever unholy forces were contained in them first. If she could neutralize the threats with the original item intact, then they could be repurposed. But if she had her way, she'd just scrap them and have them take a nice dip in the scorching caldera in old Apoy. It didn't matter to her if they were historical objects–cursed items had no value if their liabilities outweighed their benefits. The world wouldn't miss them. 

"I'll be browsing the area once I get these guys back to the Clepsydra. The walk should get all that sugar out of their system." As she turned to head off, Shiloh suddenly stopped and looked back at Sirona. "If you're looking for a place to start, try the fortune teller tents. Card reading happens to be vague enough to leave things up to one's personal interpretation." It was one of the oldest scams in the book. After the ferrets got their daily dose of running, they passed out in a pile aboard their owner's airship. Most of the time they spent hours in a deep sleep, so once they were out–they wouldn't wake up until much, much later. Shiloh changed her clothes, and put on a painted wooden mask she had bought from Kujishoku. Mingling with the crowds, she began to search for the other goddess to see what the angel was up to.

Although she hated how it felt, she activated her aura sight and opened her senses to detect if any cursed items were nearby. Doing so in a crowded area was overwhelming, but she didn't have many other options. She had artifacts that made searching easier, but it would be difficult to use them in secret while walking around. To make the strain bearable, Shiloh would open and close off her senses in short intervals so she wouldn't lose her trail.