Imagination's taking me away

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September 10th, Open to anyone, midday

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Julian walked along the streets of the business district, pushing a wicker basket buggy filled with various items; food mostly, though other items were inside it.

Walking alongside the blonde jeweler was another equally blond little girl, who was clinging to his coat tails as the walked at a slightly faster tempo to keep up with her father's larger strides.

Julian was humming lightly as he made his way to one of the open stalls in the street market, looking over the wares, while the little girl, Lapis, looking around in a slightly bored manner.

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And trotting along with Julian and Lapis was little Caden as well. He was trying to help Julian push the buggy, whether he was succeeding with his help or not. They seemed to be going shopping, and that much was obvious.

Caden glanced around, glad that he didn't have to steal anymore. It never made him happy to steal, which was why he was glad that for some reason, people just cooed at him and gave him handouts.

To the ordinary onlookers, it would look like a father and his two children shopping.

"...~"

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At one of the stands, a woman in a black and blue attire (consisting of a top hat, dress, and high-heeled boots). stood and watched people pass by. She occasionally served customers by giving them stained glass pictures and various jewelry items. The sign on the stand said "Valiani Jewelry."

The woman looked to see Julian, Lapis, and Caden walking and smiled. She didn't really expect them to go to her stand and sat down, watching the crowd.

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Lapis yawned and glanced over to Caden, the boy who she had come home to find as a brother, and happily accepted.

Julian walked along the aisles, skimming over wares. Simple things, small toys, lanterns, daily needs items and a couple of shirts. Food mostly, is what his purchases consisted of. He looked up and caught the eye of a young woman behind a stand of jewelry. Being a jeweler himself, Julian couldn't help but want to talk to the lass, despite the fact his little girl was clearly bored out of her wits, almost dragging as she clung to her father's coat tails.

"Ma'am. My name is Julian Shard, I am a local jeweler around here. This is my little girl, Lapis, and my ward Caden. Pleased to meet you. I must say I don't think I've seen you here before. Are you local?" A very polite man, he was neatly dressed and his hair was combed back and tame. The little blond girl behind him had an expression of a child wanting to do anything other than this.

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Caden stretched a little bit as well, looking over at everything. He was clearly most interested in the toys and little gadgets that were up for purchase more than the clothes and food. He had too much of both nowadays, living with Julian, and had gained a little bit of weight and height back, though he was still a bit small for his age.

He glanced over at Lapis, following Julian over to the stand where the lady jeweler was. She smiled at them, so Caden smiled shyly back at her and proceeded to duck behind Julian.

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The woman was obviously mistaken. She stood up quickly and greeted them with a nod before Julian spoke to her. She glanced to his children and smiled, even though they looked like they weren't wanting to be there. Children's mentality. We've all had it at one point in life she thought.

The woman looked back up to Julian and smiled. "It's nice to meet you all... My name is Corina Valiani." she spoke quietly, but pleasantly. Meeting another jeweler was always a fun experience for her.

"Ah, I'm not local...I live mainly in Truesdale, but I'm here on doing errands and business." Corina then said.

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Julian chuckled as the two little ones were tucked behind his legs, peering out shyly at the woman, though Lapis looked more bored than shy. Caden's small size had worried Julian to no end, and he had no qualms in feeding the boy as often as was reasonable, trying to help catch up on the boy's lost size. He'd also begun purchasing larger amounts of milk for drinking, instead of cooking, and even spent the extra money for cocoa powder, to make the milk chocolate to help encourage it's consumption.

"Corina Valiani. A pleasure." He smiled. He liked meeting other jewelers, especially ones that weren't local. No competition! "I hope you've found out quaint little city pleasant?" He asked.

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Caden naturally would flail whenever Julian tried to stuff him beyond what he was capable of eating, except he was naturally skinny so he didn't get too heavy at the least. For all one knew, he was due for a growth spurt sometime soon, and that was when he would actually willingly eat all that Julian stuffed him with.

He knew he shouldn't wander away from Julian right now, the man would get worried, but it was kinda boring here... except if he wandered off, that lady would probably think he was rude as well.

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"Heh, it is a very nice city. Very calm too!" Corina said to Julian. She then adjusted her hat so that it wasn't falling in front of her face. "Would you like to buy something? Or are you just looking around?" Corina didn't look like she minded what the answer would be from Julian. Corina was not the type of saleswoman to kick someone away if they were only window shopping.

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Julian hoped for a growth spurt, and if he was going to be anything like his brother, it was gonna be a big one. Julian had already put money aside for Caden's new clothes.

Yes, Julian would get worried, but only because he almost lost Lapis in a tragic manner. He didn't wanna run that risk.

Despite this, Lapis was bored enough that she grabbed Caden's hand and dragged him back over to one of the earlier tables, looking at some of the toys.

"Seria is typically a calm place. Though our festivals can get rambunctious." Julian chuckled. "My apologies, I'm just looking." He could make his own jewelry, so he didn't need to buy some made by another person. "They are very nice though, you should have no problem selling these."

Julian turned to look to the kids, to notice that Lapis wasn't right there any more, and he had a brief moment of panic. "Lapis?! Caden! Where are you?!"

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Oh, Caden dreamed to be as tall as Reuben had gotten. He would no longer have to sit on someone's shoulders or climb a box or two to actually be able to see things! That would be a great thing for him to do.

Either way, when Lapis grabbed his hand and dragged him off to a table with toys, he followed her. Partly because he was interested in the toys too, and partly because Lapis shouldn't be wandering around by herself, no matter how used to it she was.

"R-Right here~." He called back to Julian, staring at the toys with interest.

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Corina seemed alarmed as well and looked around. "Oh dear, they've went off somewhere?!" she said in reflex. She then heard Caden's voice and looked over. Corina craned her neck a bit to see where it came from and then saw him with Lapis.

"Are they over there?" Corina asked, pointing to where the toy stand was.

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[Yiiiikes. Sorry. D8!]

Julian's expression of panic calmed down once he saw his ward and daughter, and he took a breath, excusing himself and walking over to them.

"What did I tell you two about wandering off?" He chastised gently, feeling the residual pangs of fear as he thought back to that moment when he couldn't find them.

"But I got bored." Lapis defended, causing Julian to let out a chuckling sigh.

"Regardless, come on." Julian would take Lapis's hand and hold his other out to Caden. Once\if it was taken, he'd return to Corina. "My apologies. Kids will be kids."

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Caden winced a bit. Yeah, he had told them about wandering off, but hey - he'd wandered off because Lapis had wandered off, and she shouldn't be wandering about alone, now shouldn't she? Still, he turned to the man as he approached them and chided them about wandering off.

"Uh huh..." It had gotten a bit dull, but there wasn't much that he could do about that.

So he just took the man's hand when he held it out and walked back over to where Corina was. Hopefully it wouldn't get boring again.

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(S'ok <3)

Corina smiled and shook her head. "That's all right~" she said. She looked to Caden and Lapis and smiled. They were adorable! Going back to Julian, she spoke again, "So um . . . Is there anything else?" Corina tried to break the possible awkward silence.