#runemore

Runemore- ForestFairy

Grey stares up at the hut. He knows Topaz wants him to go and meet everyone in the town, she put it as a bulletin board request, but after he met up with Vera she-man and Mareen needs-a-shirt or whatever that guy’s name was back at the Inn, he thinks he might just turn in for the day.

He stares at the door, and looks over to the sign at the right of the door. Diamond Taste – Open 9 AM – 6 PM – Closed Tuesdays.

A café? He wonders, placing a hand on his hip, just above the shortsword he got from Gold and Amethyst at the blacksmith earlier. Though he appreciates the sword, a lot, the former was one of the reasons he wanted to go home and take a well-needed rest.

Nah, I can do this. It won’t be too bad. He says to himself, trying to be optimistic. He wonders if he was very optimistic in his life before the town. He doesn’t think so; it doesn’t seem like this thing. He guesses it was the cheeriness of the general-store owner’s daughter, Jade, rubbing off on him. Though, that might have been because she wanted him to buy the overstock of emeralds they had accidentally ordered.

He sighs to himself. A café wouldn’t hurt, it might actually be pretty relaxing. He thinks, and steps in.

“Customer! Hold your positions!”

I was wrong.

Grey stops as soon as the door flies shut behind him, staring at the clean round tables around the wide wooden floor before him, a long counter in the back. Behind it, a short-haired teenager in dark blue hops up like he’s just been crouching down behind the counter, holding a tin of cookies and slamming them onto the table.

Is that… Wait, no, that was a girl’s voice earlier… unless this is another Vera-the-Innkeeper case… He shivers at the thought. He had enough of that, especially just for his second day.

“Hey stranger!” The voice shouts again, and Grey nearly jumps in his place when a woman seems to pop up out of nowhere from the side. “Welcome to Diamond Taste!” She says with a derpy grin, her rosy eyes flashing in excitement.

“I’m… Grey.” Grey starts, still a little shocked by the sudden turn of events. He opens his mouth to speak further, but finds himself at a loss for the appropriate words for the situation. Right before he can conjure a good response, the young woman grabs him by the wrist and drags him across the room to the back counter.

“Jaz, new guy, tell ‘im what it’s worth! I’ll get the menus.” She says to the boy behind the counter before dashing upstairs.

The boy looks fairly frazzled with his hands up cautiously. Nonetheless, he calms down after a couple moments and smiles warmly to Grey, which helps his mood profoundly.

“Hello, I’m Jasper!” He greets in a soft voice. “Sorry about Fiori. She’s just excited because this place is finally open. It’s a small town so service is thriving and slow at the same time.” He laughs, and Grey feels slightly better about the place. “Ecstatic, but she’s a good chef. Not that I’m not; have a biscuit.” He offers, pushing the plate of honey-colored cookies towards Grey, who waves a hand apologetically.

“Oh, sorry, I’m not a sweets person…” He says, and Jasper looks up at him with an expression he’s not really sure of how to comprehend. He’s smiling, but his eyes are disappointed and threatening at the same time.

“You won’t know unless you try it.” Jaz says to him, with his small business smile. Grey stares at him and shuffles backwards slightly. He’s doesn’t think he’s fond of this boy anymore.

“Uh…” He stalls, and is only saved by the cry heard just after.

“Back!” Fiori cheers, hopping down the stairs with the menus in hand and slides down next to Grey and smacks one in front of him. There’s an apron over her poofy shirt and red-brimmed shorts now, all pale pink in all of its glory, making the woman seem much more feminine than she actually was. Grey looked down at her waist, where a frying pan and several pockets were clasped on tightly by string and a sash.

“You have a frying pan?” He asks.

“You have a sword?” Fiori deadpans before nudging the menu towards him. “But I forgive you because you got the very best! Just like you’re going to get now!” 

Grey stares at her for a couple moments, still astounded by her energy. He hasn’t seen this much since the Jade girl. What was with all of these people and them trying to make him buy things? Even the Vera gir—MAN, tried to sell him a room at the inn despite his constant reminders that he had a house (everybody else in the town seemed to know immediately that he did have one, this was a suspicious exception).

Still, the menu didn’t look too bad. Too many sweets, sure, but some good meat.

Needs more burgers…Grey thought, scanning the menu. Yes, that was it. He gripped his empty stomach. Burgers would be a damn dragonsend right now.

“Did you eat a cookie?” Fiori suddenly asks, making Grey look up and Jaz’s ears perk up as his eyes locked onto the older coworker. She’s got a thoughtful expression on her face, and stares at him with intense rose eyes.

“What?” Grey begins ineloquently, “Oh, no, I didn’t. I—”

“You should.” Jaz says, and pushes the plate of attractive honey cookies towards Grey. Grey stares at his serious expression, and the boy nods like he’s trusting him with a treasure chest.

“No, no,” Fiori says, and pushes the plate away, “Ask for a cupcake.” She tells Grey with an equally serious face.

“He looks like a biscuit man.” Jaz says, and pushes the plate back.

“Actually, I’m neith—”

“Cupcakes are naturally better!” Fiori retorts, and shoots a defensive glare at Jaz.

“Biscuits are the embodiment of everyone’s hopes and dreams!” Jaz says like it’s the most basic knowledge in the world. Grey stops. Was this kid on mushrooms…?

But Fiori visibly flinches, and cringes in a cold sweat. Grey stares at her, she didn’t actually believe…?

“Well… Well Grey wants to try my food! Right, Grey?” Fiori says, completely unaware of Grey stiffening next to her.

Grey suddenly feels as uncomfortable as hell. It reminds him of when he was back at Topaz’s house, the apothecary, and her insane brother went all wild orc on him and had been yelling something about his sisters and a “damn soldier boy” before Cerise yelled something back and smacked him with a sack of medicinal herbs.

“M-Maybe he doesn’t want to!” Jaz shoots back, getting bolder, and Grey suddenly fears a fight.

“Hey guys!”

Fiori and Jaz both look up at him at the same time with vicious, yet wide eyes. Grey looks at both of them and drops his hands to his sides.

“Can either of you make hamburgers?” He asks, feeling hopeful.

Fiori and Jaz stare at him for a moment, and then slowly turn to look over at each other. “…Burgers…?”

Oh, Great Firesome, no.

“…You guys do know what burgers are, right?”

“Whoa, wait, I thought you just said hamburger, what’s with all this just plain burger now?!” Fiori shouts in a panic, holding up her hands. Jaz doesn’t look any safer either, staring at his hands as he tries to look for a solution.

Grey feels a sinking pit in his stomach.

“It’s… um… I…”

“You’re not just screwing with us, are you, city boy?” Fiori asks, giving Grey a look, and he raises an eyebrow.

City boy…? Grey thinks to himself, but pushes the thought away. “No, I mean… It’s just a sandwich. With beef, and other stuff.”

“I can think of like fifty different recipes that fit that description and none of them sound anything like what you just said.” Jaz says to him.

“They’re not that hard,” Grey starts, but then thinks for a moment, “At least, I don’t think so…”

He looks back at the two chefs, only to meet the sharp, intense stare of a pair of twinkling rose eyes. Fiori giggles.

Giggles.

Not good, Grey thinks, and steps back right before the woman hops up to him and grabs him excitably. Even Jaz jumps back from the two from behind the counter.

“Show me! Show me!” She pleads, an iron grip on his shirt shoulders as she begs him. “I’ll know every dish in your foreign book by no time, Grey!” She promises, and grins.

“Well I don’t think…” Grey starts, wondering how exactly he should tell her about his memory contition.

“No, don’t answer that!” Fiori stops him, and steps back only to throw a hand in his face, making him realize that she’s pointing at him. “Bulletin board! I’m going to be calling you out, mister! Official request, you better take them!”  She says, and then springs up in joy. “Alright!” She cheers.

“…You’re…”

“Hm…?” Fiori looks up at Grey with hopeful eyes.

“…tiring.” Grey says.

Fiori gasps, and Jaz snickers from behind the counter. “Whoa there, partner!”

“But eager.” Grey tells her with a tugging smirk, and Fiori stops. “I’ll see what you’ve got.”

Fiori stares at him, but then her eyes start to wander as she thinks, tapping a finger on her chin in thought. She looks back at Grey, and then the floor, and then the window, and then at Jaz (who holds up his arms in an “X” form), and then back at Grey.

She grins.

“You won’t be disappointed in the slightest, Sir City Boy!”

“Grey.” Grey corrects her with a look. Or at least, that’s the name I thought of yesterday.

“Sure, sure.” Fiori laughs, and grabs her frying pan off of her side. “Just be sure not to get in the way of Mr. Pan!” She tells him, brandishing the pan in front of herself. Grey thinks for a moment about how well she would be able to fare with the thing.

He mentally shrugs, and grins the same way.

Weird people in this town.

--

LONG. For a DD update. BECAUSE OF GREY. But I managed to get a bunch of mentions in!

Also a buttload of notes  so watch out.

WITH A LOT OF JAZZ. HER HER.

But the mentions were fun to get into there too. Especially Vera.

Man, Verdant and Maroon have like the best bromance ever I swear. It's one of those cases where they're like SOULMATES but I don't think of it as in a romantic matter. Like BFFLs. They love each other like the Romans did.

Speaking of which.

 More notes about Runemore:

So Grey is our Amnesiac Hero, the general base for a Rune Factory protagonist. This also means he has a farm, fights monsters, and goes on a grand adventure and eventually defeats a great dragon (he earlier said "Great Firesome"; Firesome is the final boss dragon that rules over fire (obviously) in the second game). He also gets married to one of the many available bachellorettes in the town (Topaz, Cerise, Sapphira, Fiori, Diamonda, Pink, Jade, or Scarlet) (Indi and Perla don't count because of reasons. Safaia is the Evelyn, completely available fits the standards but has a more important romance to deal with. She's avalible as a bro.)

The Rosso Family runs the Apothecary, which is basically the clinic of the town (which is like suuuper small, think an old fantasy village where everyone knows everyone because there are only about 20-30 people). Ironically yet not, Topaz represents the main girl of the game, who find the hero and gives him a place to stay. She's more or less his first friend. 

As said, Jade's the daughter of the General Shop owner, who is Blue in this case. Yes, she did try to con Grey into buying their surplus of emeralds. It's the Sakaki family nature.

The Kimus run the Blacksmith! They don't have parents because that's a norm in RF. Mostly young adults on their own with a mom or dad or grandparent. It's very rare to see two of them. Gold mostly works finance while Am's like master hammer and blaze, but Gold's pretty skilled too. Fiori lives with them but works at the cafe with Jaz.

Speaking of Jaz, him and his dad run the Diamond taste! It's a cafe/bar/bakery/ect. He was fun to put in. 

And of course, Verdant and Maroon hang out at the Inn. Verdant's like the main guy there so people acknowledge him as the owner but Maroon's like the guy that does most of the handiwork and goes out on adventures in between. Vera came in like after he came back from one of his journeys when they were 16 and it's been pretty weird since. 

And picture.

Ignore those three losers at the top, they're from something else. But the below kids are Cerise, Runemore Jade (selling her emeralds), and some Verdant and Vera. I REALLY wanted to draw him as both sides, mostly in a Runemore fashion, and this is what came out. I like this version of Vera, he looks more like a crossdresser now while still looking like one of the prettiest girls in the series despite not even being a girl. And then I drew him looking like a boy yet STILL could be the pretty not-girl next to him and it WORKED. Damn Ross is lucky.

Okay I'd better end the notes here. Can't think of a DD fact right now so until the next update.