Welcome to Gaia! ::

Leaning back on her chair, Soibhan stretched like a contented feline as she surveyed the outdoor patio. At first, she'd pegged the place as too upper-crust for her tastes, but the owner had been as down to earth as anyone she'd ever had the pleasure of meeting. The little pub was clean and well-loved, and the patrons were of the type that tended to stick to themselves and those they drank with. It was unlike any of the other taverns she'd frequented since coming to Palisade, and it was a nice change.

Not only that, but the booze was fantastic.

"This place is too good for you," Desmond said flatly before taking a pull from his cup. The blacksmith had invited himself right along without asking, but Soibhan had been too tired to care. Now she sent him a withering glance that seemed to be growing less and less effective on him as the days went by. Liadain, his beautiful, aloof Guardian lay in the corner by the fire and she flicked an ear at her Chosen without opening her eyes.

"Aye, and a barn floor be too good fer yer arse, Desmond Gray." She kicked at his chair and he panicked as the chair legs he'd been leaning on started out from under him. A laugh bubbled up from the Gaelic woman and she raised her glass to Raj, the gypsy seated primly across from her. "Give me a toast, friend. Things are goin' well, fer once. Gettin' more and more recruits every day, and some o' them ain't half bad at fightin'."

Rajani's warning about working hard was not to be taken lightly.Training in the regiment under Macaire made Edgar thank repeatedly the powers that be for Lord Ashworth's armsmaster, not because he had taught Edgar to fight but because that training allowed him to keep up with this training. But never had he felt more at ease than after a long day of sparring and wrestling and running and all the excess energy that kept him up some nights drained from his body.

And every few days, new recruits arrived. The presence of other like-minded individuals reassured him, even if they were not always of the same mind. Edgar wondered when they might all meet. Word around the regiment was that some of the other recruits were temporarily unavailable, off tending to family matters or sailing the seas north of Sunderland or any other excuse. These recruits might one day become his brothers in arms, he told himself, and they might fight and live and die beside one another.

A humbling thought, but so were many others. The power a mug of ale could hold over a person, for instance, which was something Edgar had tried and found wholly unpleasant. He didn't mind a drop of wine, though. "Something red, if you please," he told the owner, searching for a free table. Perhaps it was his upbringing and something about Lord Ashworth had rubbed off on him after all. The idea was hardly pleasing.

He was set to make for a table to the side, unbothered by other patrons, but Dardanos paused and Edgar could feel the buck's recognition in his mind. The gypsy's dark hair marked her and Edgar made his way over while Dardanos turned his bright eyes toward the doe in the corner. Edgar saw the buck's tallying up of individuals involved, and nodded. What a bunch, he thought to himself, though Rajani was still his main focus. Thanks were in order, he thought, for her recommending him to Macaire.

"I won't bother you much if you prefer to be left to your business, but I wanted to thank you for your recommendation," he said when he was close. "They help quite a bit." With plenty, though he didn't specify.

At the new voice addressing her, the gypsy slid her gaze over to see a newly familiar face. "If it isn't Edgar, and Dardanos, too. Glad to see Macaire has left you intact. Why don't you take a chair and meet another of our merry band." She did not count Desmond, fairly or not. Perhaps Soibhan had adopted him, but that was not quite enough for the gypsy.

Regardless, it ought to be interesting to see how the pair got on. Rajani made it a point to never get completely knackered, so she was still plenty composed enough to notice the Gaels woman's sudden spurt of recognition, even while the other woman was clearly well on her way to drunken oblivion.

"Unless you have already met," she said, probably more to herself than to any of the others. She suspected they were a little more preoccupied with each other than with her just then.

Perhaps this little encounter would be more interesting than she first thought. Assuming she was not forced to intercede on anyone's behalf, of course. Soibhan looked fit to be tied. The gypsy was not quite certain whether she was in the mood to deal with hot tempers tonight. She was meant to be relaxing, after all. Still, it appeared that her prediction for trouble was about to be fulfilled before her very eyes, if rather sooner than she might have hoped.

He's....ignoring me?? She all but felt herself puffing up like an indignant cat. Clenching her hands into fists at her sides, Soibhan bared her teeth. "Aye, we've met. This here fool tried ta stop me from handlin' Lochlan," she spat, voice low. Commending herself for her unusual restraint given her level of intoxication, Soibhan kept her butt firmly planted in her chair, but she was fuming.

How dare he just waltz right up to their table and blatantly ignore her? And the way he kept looking at her suggested he thought her an addled viper or something.

Her gaze went to Dardanos and she softened imperceptibly. At least his Guardian was a right noble creature.

"Why're ye here, Ashworth? Isn't this place a little beneath ye? And what are ye thanking Raj fer?"

"Oh it has a name, does it?" He said of above-mentioned stallion before remembering that he was limiting his interactions with her. A barely concealed scowl, then he returned to conversing with Rajani. Though the subject at hand was hardly wonderful, Edgar seemed to prefer talking about the crazy one than directly to her. "Ah yes, I learned that the hard one, I imagine." He had a certain policy regarding fools and death*, and it applied perfectly here. The last time Edgar had checked, fools were the ones who threw themselves into harm's way, not the ones attempting to pull them back from it.

He shot Soibhan a look across the table when she said his name, and felt some irritation flash through him. Being associated with that name did not particularly sit well with him, but neither did he feel it ought to be spat out in such a fashion by such people as her. For an addled viper she was indeed to him, almost begging to be antagonized. There passed a moment in which his eyes narrowed and his gaze just dared her to pick her butt up off her seat and do something else stupid.

At least she had riddled through his identity, which suggested she wasn't addled all the way. It was a thinly veiled mystery, he supposed, but he had never really given people an excuse to look into his background before. Things were changing though.

"You'll excuse me if my preferences in pubs do not live up to your evidently extensive understanding of my life," Edgar deadpanned, forcibly taking the challenge out of his gaze at the behest of his Guardian, who had alerted Edgar to the anger that lined Soibhan's body. Yes, yes, calm, I remember. But he could make no promises for her.

He turned pointedly away from Soibhan and back to Rajani, knowing that escalating the situation could reflect poorly on him. Much of his life had been spent proving that he was not merely a spoiled little lord, that he knew how to function as a normal person in society, and he refused to let all of that effort go to waste on her behalf. She was hardly worth it.

"The challenge is always welcome. As for the cause, it made perfect sense- wait, our?" Rajani didn't mean... them, or her?

*From his meeting with Alice in which he says, "Ah, well if they refuse your help, then you cannot blame a fool for dying."

The gypsy raised her brows at Soibhan's assertion that her new stallion was a fine beast, but did not contradict her. Rajani knew well the trouble that the wild beast gave the Gaels woman, but since it was a well-established fact that she was at least half-mad and suicidal, "fine" was probably a word that the pair of them defined rather differently.

The serving woman appeared and placed fresh drinks before them. Rajani frowned at hers in contemplation. If Soibhan was going to succeed in picking a fight with Edgar, would it be better to face it drunk or sober? She spared a glance at her friend, who she knew from experience was rather inclined to drink herself stupid when in a temper, and decided that perhaps one of them ought to keep their wits about themselves.

It was certainly tempting, though.

With a barely audible sigh, she pushed the drink aside and gestured to the serving woman to bring her something else. She tuned back into the conversation just in time to witness Soi taking unholy delight in goading the poor man.

"By default, I'm afraid," she confirmed the clearly horrified man's fears. "Neither Macaire nor I have any particular interest in nominally spearheading the group. Not that she can order either of us around." Besides that, Rajani suspected that she would soon be coerced into heading up one branch or another of the regiment.

"Soibhan, as the maddest one here, has the dubious honor of lending her name to the leadership. Macaire tends to the training. And I...manage the logistics and supply." And perhaps made a little more use of the Freds' smuggling contacts than was really fair. The thee leaders together bent their minds to strategy and tactics, and each found likely recruits. The gypsy figured it was only a matter of time before she was forced to take charge of actual people. Spirits forbid.

Soibhan felt her mouth drop open in astonishment at Rajani's dismissive attitude as to the gaelic woman's place within the leadership of their venture. By default, Raj? Is that all you see o' my position? At first, she could only sit there in bewilderment but then her anger started creeping back in, with an edge of sobriety accompanying it.

But when the goddamn noble opened his mouth again, she grabbed her mug and threw it against the wall as she surged to her feet. The mug exploded with the sound of shattering glass and spilled liquor. "Attached me name? I didna attach me name to anything, ye pompous jackass. I hold the now dubious pleasure o' creatin' this goddamn venture outta some misplaced sense o' honor in trying to protect people and teach them." She pointed a steady finger at Rajani but kept her furious golden eyes on the flippant man before her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Desmond staring at her, but wisely, he kept his mouth shut.

"Raj might o' let ye into the fold, but I'll be damned if I'll let yer overblown noble arrogance stomp all over what is supposed to be a group o' people united by a higher purpose. If ye got problems with me as a leader, then doona let the door hit yer arse on the way out. Or, better yet," she added, coming around the table to push a hand into his chest hard enough to push him back in his chair, "Fight me so that I can start provin' me worth to ye."

"Perhaps, but my experience tells me she's not only mad, but irrational and reckless - as she's proving right now - and none of those things make responsible leaders," he said to Rajani, forcefully leveling his tone because it was her and not Soibhan he was addressing. There was some sense in the gypsy's words though, if she was not a warrior and Macaire was not a leader. Someone had to do both. But try as he might, he couldn't see the crazy one playing that role without endangering someone somehow. It was all just a matter of time.

And then Soibhan was on her feet and all the drunken rage she might have held back earlier came spewing out. Such untameable anger, and that was exactly what made him doubt any leadership qualities she may or may not have. Edgar didn't bother questioning what business she had in protecting Sunderland's people and why she didn't just go home and protect her own people instead. It didn't really matter anyway. "Oh, we'll be united alright, just don't be surprised if that higher purpose isn't you," he growled. He had spent enough time with some of the other recruits that he wasn't about to abandon them in a hurry, least of all because of her. "It's not noble arrogance, miss, simply the well-deserved concerns of any man who has had the misfortune of witnessing you in action."

He knew she was going to stomp her way over a moment before she actually did, thanks to Dardanos, who saw in the tension of her body that action was due to be taken, and not friendly action at that. She had a hard shove when fired up, he would give her that, and Edgar didn't bother resisting when she pushed him back in his chair, nor did he bother dislodging her hand. "I don't need you to prove your worth to me. I'm not interested. All the fighting prowess in the world won't help you when you're drunk and mad." He leveled his gaze to hers, unfazed by her looming figure. "Right now you aren't fit to lead a horse to water, let alone a group of fighters."