Private Role Play (don't post unless invited)

[The-Preantepenultimate]

Jesus Christ, but was this woman stubborn. Yeah, sure, he had unwittingly bumbled into her trap, but of the two of them, one had ended up weaponless, upside-down, unconscious, and shoeless, so who was really having the harder time here? And what was this talk about killing? That seemed a might extreme.
The woman was making it very hard to be a gentleman--how was he supposed to be a flower of chivalry if she was making it so hard on him? He had not expected this at all, even from a warrior-woman.
Although, perhaps the greater part of chivalry lay in overcoming hardships and still remaining civil? After all, there was no virtue in easy tasks. Iulus took a deep steadying breath.
"Maam (miss?), there's no need for talk of murder, especially over shoes." (Women were supposed to like shoes, maybe that's why she seemed to serious??) "I sincerely doubt those will fit you. There's also--" he tugged ineffectually at his bindings, "--no need to tie me up. I'm not going to hurt you. Squire's honor."
If worst came to worst, he could possibly break his way out of the bindings, even without his gauntlets to focus his magic. He wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't scare the woman. If he did, he expected the problem would come more from her blade and less from gentle, timid spirit.

[Cecily D Aria]

Lynn raised her eyebrows at him. Was he trying to play dumb enough, so that she might lower her guard? Was that his strategy? This was honestly throwing her off. She had never meet someone this wide-eyed, and simple. Were all elves like this? Was this how things were in the Capital?

She shook her head, as if to clear it. "Seriously, if you are trying to play to my compassion, it's not working, so you can drop the act," she said. "If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't have wasted time dragging you all the way over here. I would have killed you while you were upside down and helpless. So just, cut it out already." She crossed her arms again. "I'm not interested in any wordplay, either. I don't want to here you won't hurt me, and then have your teacher come and put his sword through my neck."

[The-Preantepenultimate]

Iulus was torn over whether to feel insulted that he would go back on his word like that, or flattered that she thought him capable of such deception. Still, he doubted it was a compliment. He decided to go with mildly peeved.
"Okay." He said. "So you're not going to kill me, but you are...acquiring my things. What exactly is your ultimate plan here?"
While he spoke, Iulus felt the surge of magic rising in his fingertips. Maybe he could summon his gauntlet to his hand, if he didn't like her answer.

[Cecily D Aria]

Lynn glared at him, as he hit right on the head what her problem was. She really had no idea where to go from here. She didn't want to kill him, but letting him go was very risky. She could take his stuff with her, and that would lower the risk for her, but he would probably end up dying.

"You've complicated things," she responded, looking away from him, sharply. "Right now, I'm just going to get supper." With that, she went over to her bag to take out some jerky.

[The-Preantepenultimate]

That was...not the answer he was expecting? He supposed that, if her were going to try to retrieve his glove, this would be the time, when her back was turned. But now she was facing towards the glove itself, and that would be a problem.
Wait, no she wasn't. Where was his gauntlet? It had been stretched out by the fire, right next to his bag, and now...
He caught some movement out of the corner of his eye. His gauntlet, with the one prosthetic finger, was slowly crawling away from the fire, the pinky finger dragging itself along in a way that resembled a spider with one leg.
The finger was both mechanical and magical, and it wasn't unusual for odd things to happen when the two were mixed: in fact, his glove had often started twitching creepily on his hand in the past. It had never shown this much initiative, though.
He decided the woman probably wouldn't take kindly to his glove becoming possessed and skittering into her woods. She might even think it was his fault and shoot him. He tried a different tack. Maybe he could distract her?
"So, er, I never caught your name, maam."

[Cecily D Aria]

Lynn regarded him for a moment and then decided there would be no harm from it. "I'm Lynn," she said, and then she heard movement. She was quick to get her bow off her back and an arrow knock. She crouched down and her eyes searched for any sign of trouble.

It was then that she spotted his gauntlet crawling away. She trained her sight on it, unsure of what it was and not willing to take any chances. Then she heard the sound of hooves running towards her. She turned her head just in time to see the boar coming her way. She couldn't turn in time, so she just threw herself out of the way. She rolled, dropped her bow, and pulled her knife out as she was back on her feet.

[The-Preantepenultimate]

Oh, good. She had been distracted from his freakish glove by a giant boar. A really big boar. That was currently charging...right towards her.
Iulus' gauntlet seemed to jump off the ground and slip onto his hand of its own accord. And the ropes just seemed to snap off his body. And he found himself running towards the two without seeming to try.
The girl, Lynn, just managed to dodge the first sweep of its wide tusks, and she rolled with characteristic grace out of the way. It would turn around though, and that girl and her knife were probably no match for a beast he had once seen disembowel four spear and shield-carrying men. By the time the boar turned around, his feet had carried him in front of Lynn. The boar surged forward, foam dripping from its mouth, obviously enraged. Iulus felt the same calm he always had, right before he used magic: no longer bumbling or clumsy or oblivious, but tingling with power, and confident. That boar wouldn't defeat him. Nothing in the universe could defeat him, the way he was now.
Iulus raised his gloved hand and moved it as though he were backhanding the boar. The boar was slammed to the side as if hit by an avalanche. It smashed through the nearest tree, and the next...
In fact, Iulus thought as he came off his magic-high, he had possibly gone a little overboard, as the boar continued to sail through the thicket of trees, and finally skidded to a halt 50-odd yards away.
Yeah, Iulus thought as his legs gave out and he slipped to his knees, I definitely went overboard. He felt like he was going to pass out. Again. Or maybe throw up. Or maybe both at the same time?

[Cecily D Aria]

"What the hell?" Lynn asked as Iulus jumped in front of her. Not only did he suddenly get out of his bindings, but now he was, what... defending her? Not only that, but he was staring down a full grown boar. This couldn't possibly be the same person who had bumbled into her trap, could it?

Then he pimped-slap the boor back into the trees. WHAT?! This could not have been the same have been the person. There was no ******** way. She was a moron. She had been bullying a dragon this whole time.

"Hey, hey, Baka!" Lynn said, when he finished his magic, and then looked white as a sheet.

[The-Preantepenultimate]

Iulus blinked blearily. Okay...okay. He wasn't going to throw up. Not at this very moment at least. And passing out twice in a few hours in front of the warrior woman was completely unacceptable. No, he was going to say conscious if it killed him.
Everything was...kinda shiny? And his ears were ringing. But his vision hadn't become dotted yet, so that was a good sign.
He heard Lynn say something through the clamor in his ears.
Baka?
That wasn't Imperial or common? Was she talking to him?
Iulus tried to stand, but fell hard on his rear back onto the ground.
"I don't know what that is..." The weakness and smallness of his voice surprising him.

[Cecily D Aria]

"Don't worry, it fits you," Lynn said, her hand hovering behind her back like she was worried he might fall. "Trust me." When it seemed he wasn't going to keel over at this very moment, she strode over to her bag and got a flask of water. "Here," she said, and held it in front of his face. "Drink. You'll feel better." She hoped he would be okay. As much as she didn't want to admit it, he had probably saved her life. So now, she guessed, they were even.

[The-Preantepenultimate]

He accepted the water with shaking hands.
"Ah...okay. Good." It fit him? What did that mean? Something good?
...No, Iulus was naive, but not stupid. He knew this woman wasn't his biggest fan.
She was also, it seemed, not an Amazon. For one thing, not wearing armor. Second, she really didn't look like she wielded a spear or a broadsword. Third, now that he was standing, he realized that she was only a few inches over five feet tall, and the top of her head wouldn't even reach his chin. In fact, he wasn't sure why he had thought she was one in the first place. Okay, maybe he was a little stupid.

"Okay, um...about my shoes...could I please have them back? I understand I messed your trap, Miss Lynn, and I'm very sorry. I have money, could I pay you for them? And whatever the value of the animal I kept you from getting, and anything the trap could have caught."

Granted, she would have to give me my money back to pay her--

Iulus' train of thought was interrupted by twitching in his glove. The finger was acting up again. He would have brought it up to his face to inspect it, but he couldn't be sure it wouldn't poke him in the eye, and besides, it was kind of gross, he thought. He didn't want Lynn to see it--although, he thought, less because it would offend her gentle and timid spirit (he was beginning to suspect that there was a lot more to women than Sir Gallant had told him, at least, to women outside the capitol), but his gentle and timid spirit probably couldn't handle any insults at this stage of his day. He gripped it tightly with his right hand, but it showed no signs of de-animating, at least of the time being. Well, if nothing else came up, it looked like his next destination would be someone who could fix his prosthetic.

[Cecily D Aria]

"You can drink all of that is you want," Lynn informed him. She looked off in the direction the boar had gone flying off in. She walked over to her bow and grabbed it. "I'll be right back," she said, her mind ticking too much for her to really think about his shoes, or his money. She wasn't sure his money would enough be good here, and if she got her hands on a dead boar... Well, then, she could get new shoes and replace the rope he broke, at the very least.

She had her bow and an arrow nocked as she ran off after the boar. If she found ti stunned, she would be quick to dispatch it. It seemed that this bloke bumbling into her trap might be worth it after all. And she probably wouldn't have to kill him.

[The-Preantepenultimate]

"Oh, uh good. Thanks."
When his prosthetic gave a particularly large jerk, Iulus sighed and slipped the gauntlet off his hand. He wouldn't be able to use any more magic for at least a day, so if the glove wasn't giving off the illusion of five fingers, what was the point? Besides, she had already seen his hand without his glove off, and his stubby fourth finger was way less disturbing that the animated pinky.
Iulus took another few deep swigs, than poured water over his head, which helped somewhat the overheating that came with magic recoil. It plastered his unruly hair to his forehead, and water dripped down his jaw off his chin. Ah, bliss.
He watched Lynn go over towards the boar, and felt a little trepidation. What if it wasn't really dead? Well, he had unleashed a full-power kinetic toss and tossed the hog a pretty good ways, so it should be deader than dead, but he had heard of stranger beasts in the forests down here. He shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other, looking from the outside a little like an overgrown puppy. And then he decided to follow. He nearly tripped the first step, but regained his balance and ran after Lynn with far more heavy and clumsy steps than the girl's.

[Cecily D Aria]

Lynn had quickly found the boar, with its neck snapped. Perfect, a nice clean kill. She approached it, and gave it a good solid kick, to ensure it was quite dead. When it didn't react, she put her arrow in her quiver and her bow on her back. She then grabbed the boar by its feet and began to drag it back towards her camp.

She got it back about a third of the way before she saw Iulus stumbling towards her. "What are you doing, Baka?" she asked him. "You look like you're about to fall over. You should get yourself back to the camp and sit down." No, this definitely was the same person who wandered onto her trap. He certainly was a strange one.

[The-Preantepenultimate]

Oh, good, it was dead. And he was dead tired, so that made two of them.
"Ah, okay. Sorry for bothering you. Do you need--I mean, do you want--can I carry that for you?" Actually he could barely stand, but he couldn't exactly say "just kidding!" and stumble back into camp and to sleep.
He blinked blearily at the girl. Something was...off, about her. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about her was different from any elf he'd seen. He cocked his head, further aggravating his resemblance to a puppy, albeit a sleepy one.