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It was, by all means, a beautiful day. But Ardyn was, by all means, a rather terrible person.
Despite the day’s beauty, Ardyn was still rather annoyed, for reasons that are not horribly important for this story. What is important, was that Ardyn was feeling rather… rather petty, though he always was in some way. So while he could very easily have left everyone else be, why would he?
Thus, that was how every poor soul within a mile of one Ardyn Izunia, found various belongings of theirs missing.
It was a farmer, who knew little of what was occurring. At first, the farmer thought they were imagining things, miscounted their carrots, perhaps they’d already picked that pumpkin. But they weren’t so naive to think that something wasn’t amiss. Especially when their take went missing. A cursory look around showed that it was in a lake. What? Who did that? With a sigh, the farmer waded out to get the rake, thankful that the lake was not very deep, not even knee height. But the farmer could not get very far with the rake, for they heard a sound, music. It sounded like it came from their portable radio, but it should have been off. With a frown, they looked at their work table, unable to find the radio. But the music never stopped.
They let out a sigh once again, wondering what Astral they must have offended to be forced to suffer through all this today. Following the sound of the music, they soon came across what looked like some kind of picnic, the radio sitting on the blanket next to food, their missing vegetables. Resigned, they picked up the radio, turning it off, and began to take everything back to where it belonged.
The next to suffer the eternal pettiness of Ardyn, was a poor shopkeeper, a seller of odds and ends. No one of particular remark, much like the last target. At first, the shopkeeper thought it was odd that one of the sunglasses he had for sale disappeared. Then he noticed a empty bottle sitting on one of his tables, where he displayed his goods to sell. How strange. Then a man, at least, he thought it was a man. The man wore many layers, ridiculous looking patterns, at least a shirt, vest, and probably two coats. The shopkeeper thought he could see a mess of red hair beneath the man’s absurd hat, but couldn’t be sure. Regardless, the shopkeeper decided that he did not want this man, who looked as though he hadn’t had new clothes in centuries, at his store.
“Sir, I have to ask you to leave.”
“But why? Am I not a valued customer?” The man’s voice showed his amusement.
“Leave, or I will be forced to make you leave.” The shopkeeper wasn’t entirely sure why, but he knew that the man was wrong. He wasn’t sure in what way, but the man just rubbed him the wrong way.
“How will you do that?” The shopkeeper gave the man little time to say or do much else. He grabbed his broom and began to swat at the man with it. The man ran off to avoid the broom.
After the shopkeeper was two neighbors, who were not particularly friendly, but weren’t particularly unfriendly either. Regardless, neither were prepared for one to find the other’s laundry in her pond, complete with soap. Then, clothing appeared in the second neighbor’s yard, right next to a bust of hers. The scarf and hat belonged to the first neighbor.
The last to be terrorized were the employees of a little cafe. They owner saw a strange man in even stranger clothes, who looked a mess, then promptly denied him service. That didn’t stop the man from, somehow, managing to steal some silverware, a plate, and salt and pepper grinders to attempt to have a dinner in the back of the cafe. He was promptly thrown out, when a employee found him. Then, he stole a mug, throwing it into the nearby river. Or at least, they all assumed it was him, they hadn’t actually seen him do it.
There were others who suffered the man’s pettiness. But those told here were the ones who suffered the most.
For today was a beautiful day, and Ardyn Izunia was a terrible man.