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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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 Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 6:35 pm
Linnith’s gaze focused on nothing in particular as they began their journey back through the country and towards the city. With the previous conversations running through her mind, Linnith almost regretted being so open with the way her father was treating her. But it was out there already and there was nothing she could do to take it back. Sighing, she forced herself to focus back in on the present and caught ahold of the very end of Malikai’s words. “Hmm?” She blinked and glanced towards him, frowning for a moment. What had he been saying? Something about the country…
Right...visiting. “I visit a small farming village, outside of the city gates, often. My best friend lives there. Though I’ve never visited a home just out by itself, like yours. Even in a small village there are more people than you’d expect. Especially if they’re a farming town.” Linnith rolled her shoulders as her gaze darted away from Malikai.
She chewed on her lip, debating bringing anything up. Linnith doubted that Malikai would care very much about her most recent discoveries, but she couldn’t help but be curious on what his opinion would be. So, eventually she couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “Malikai...what...would you say if I told you I was female?”
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:03 pm
“Aye, tha’ much is true I know it,” Malik said. “I’ve worked in a town or two o’ that sort in th’ past—they’ll station a group of us if a spot has had dragon sightings or night raiders…got a few tha’ seem t’ make a whole livin’ o’ swipin’ an’ smugglin’ livestock.”
Malikai enjoyed riding. A great deal, even, and a good thing on occasion — since being re-stationed often meant at least some degree of it. It made the silences easier. Peaceful and filled only with the soft trod of hoofbeats of the gusts over the wild grass. When Linnith spoke again, Malikai glanced toward him, and blinked.
“I…thought y’ were, at first,” he said, and flushed, frowning. “I am sorry ‘bout tha’. I just guessed, due t’…the dress an’ all, I suppose. But y’ don’ look like a girl, I promise. Not dressed as y’ are an’ such. An’ I meant no offense if y’ were…worried about it, or some such.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:13 pm
Linnith sighed and shook her head. “No offence taken. I promise…” Her words trailed off as she mulled over the best way of explaining it. “The truth is...I am a girl. But I have…” He frowned, gesturing down towards her crotch and the offending male organ as she wrinkled up her nose. “What I mean is…” She tried to recall all the things the mage and her had talked about but was sure she was going to mess it up somehow. “I was born with male parts...a d**k. But in here…” She trailed off and tapped the side of her head with a finger. “In here I’m female. I like to wear dresses and design clothes and I wish I had breasts.” Her gaze darted to Malik, watching for signs of disgust. “Do you think I’m crazy…?”
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:36 pm
Malikai blinked. Stared. Squinted briefly, and then shifted his grip on his reins, trying to decide how best to tackle the statement offered to him—or rather, the initial one. At the word ‘d**k’, he coughed, openly startled, and shot his company a look. The boy wasn’t shy at least. But goddess, he was forward. Was this how all children spoke these days? Needless to say, between that and the rest of what was said, it took him a moment to recalibrate, regain his bearings, and process his own response.
“Crazy can mean a lot o’ different things, dependin’ on who y’ ask,” he said at length, speaking slowly and chewing over his words mentally before voicing them. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone…phrase a feelin’ quite like tha’, but…no. I think y’d have t’ go a good bit further’n tha’ t’ convince me you were ‘crazy.’” He eyed his company, assessing the boy before looking forward again. “Y’know, though…even if it might seem so a’ your age, it’s not all tha’ uncommon for boys—an’ men, t’ like doin’ any or all o’ those things y’ mentioned…”
He hesitated, wondering for a moment where he ought to stop, but in the end — no matter the parents the boy kept — he deserved to at least know what was out there, and that he wasn’t so ‘crazy’ as he seemed to think. He ventured a sidelong glance.
“Some even like other boys. Or men. Likin’ dresses, wearin’ ‘em, or…well, anythin’ y’ might think t’ attribute more t’ women—it doesn’t mean y’ are one, or make you crazy. When I was ‘bout sixteen or so summers, one o’ my closest friends, I think he’d chased more boys than I ever even thought o’ kissin’ girls.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:49 pm
“I am a girl, though.” Linnith felt her grip tighten on the reins of her hastar and she fought back the urge to just take off, right then and there. She knew Malikai didn’t mean anything hurtful or mean by it but his words stung all the same. “I hate my body ---I wish it were different. I hate that I’m expected to do or like ‘boy things’.” She sighed before continuing. “I don’t know how to explain it any better. I just feel like a girl. I’ve...never really felt like a boy before. Not even when I was younger.”
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2015 2:33 pm
“A’right,” Malikai said, wincing and backing off with a small frown of incomprehension. “A’right. Y’ feel like a girl,” he conceded.
Obviously, he had offended his company in some manner, but he wasn’t sure what the child expected — of him, or anyone. So far as he could tell based upon himself and his own experience with others, there were expectations, surely, with regards to what ‘boys’ did and wore and enjoyed, and what ‘girls’ did, wore, and enjoyed. But to him, those were just that: expectations. And whether you ‘were’ one or the other was not defined by those things at all. If you were male, then you were male, and free to like and do what you pleased without that redefining your nature.
It felt at least, however, as though Linnith thought that enjoying ‘girlish’ things meant that he needed to be a girl, and was as such vehemently upset with himself — which felt misguided at best. Beyond that, it was distressing, but since his own attempt at encouragement had failed, Malikai didn’t want to risk exacerbating the situation. It seemed, among other things, to be a very personal matter, not one he understood, and not one he was equipped to cope with. Certainly not with a child he barely knew.
That, though, brought to mind the fact that Linnith had opted to breach the subject to him — a near stranger — which could have only negative connotations as to how many trustworthy and better candidates for such discussions the boy had in his life already. It couldn’t be many. It certainly sounded as though his parents were lacking in that regard, not that Malik was in any position to judge parenting styles at the current stage in his life.
Yet…
He sighed. “Y’ shouldn’ have t’ hate yourself, though, oi…? No matter what. A lot o’ people don’ have th’ body they wish they did, even if your case is a touch more, ah…drastic, I s’pose. Could be worse.” He shot a surreptitious glance in Linnith’s direction. “If y’ wanted folk t’ see you as a girl, feel like all y’d need is t’ keep growin’ your hair out an’ wearin’ dresses as you were.” It might get a bit more complicated than that with age, of course, but Malikai didn’t feel the need to go into detail. “I did think you a girl when I saw you…so better th’ body y’ have than a body like mine, eh?” His smile was tentative, meant to be encouraging, but uncertain. “I imagine it’d take a good bit more’n shovin’ me in a dress t’ convince any one of a crowd tha’ I was a woman.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2015 2:44 pm
Linnith’s cheeks flushed red at Malik’s words but part of her relaxed, easing the grip on the reins and letting her posture sag a bit. Her eyes remained on the back of her hastar’s neck as she spoke, though. “It’s not as simple as just wearing a dress. My father...he...he doesn’t understand.” She paused, sucking in a breath and letting it out slowly. “He says boys shouldn’t wear dresses. They shouldn’t like things that girls do. He’s burned several of my dresses before and has even slapped me for wearing them.” Linnith rubbed her cheek, wings twitching at the memory of the last time her father had struck her. “I...I feel trapped and al…” Linnith shook her head, glancing towards Malik for the first time in a while and giving him a small, apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. You barely know me. I’m sure you’d rather not hear about my problems.”
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 11:01 am
“Well, aye,” Malikai admitted. “I don’ suppose it’d be as simple as tha’ alt’gether, but eh…” He spared a glance in Linnith’s direction. “Sometimes it does take certain folk…longer t’ understand some things. My father’s a soldier, or was, an’ ‘e has some…strong opinion ‘bout things tha’ likely no one could change.” He frowned. “Doesn’ make ‘em right, but…”
Malikai shifted with discomfort. What Linnith said made him want to have the boy’s father jailed. Or worse. But it wasn’t his place in the slightest to say so, let alone do anything about it, and being left with nothing he could take action on left him with a guilty, anxious and churning knot in his gut. If he were a noble, perhaps, with standing to find out where the boy — obviously wealthy — lived and who his family was, then he might have had means to at least try, but as it stood, he felt helpless.
At the boy’s end comment, though, Malik frowned. “I don’ mind listenin’,” he said. “Obviously y’ need someone t’ talk to ‘bout this. I just…wish I could do somethin’ for—” Beneath him, his hastar slowed, wickering nervously, and immediately, Malikai frowned, glancing about and lifting a hand to signal that Linnith slow, too. “We might…” he said, eyeing the river, and then coming to his ‘conclusion’ a moment later when he spotted them—up ahead, a small cluster of peisios along the riverbank, “…have company. Back. Back up, if they ‘aven’t noticed us yet, we can take another route an’ get you home safe later.”
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 11:57 am
Linnith smiled at Malikai’s words. The older orderite was proof that at least some older folks might be more accepting (even if they didn’t fully understand) than her father was. Her biggest support, though, was her best friend Gwen and her ever accepting attitude. She’d always Linnith in whatever she wanted to do and had been the first person to ever see her in a dress. Sighing, Linnith went to open her mouth to speak. “I really appreciate this Mal…” Malikai spoke, cutting off the rest of what Linnith was about to say. “Wha…” Linnith’s gaze flicked, following Malikai’s and widening at the sight of the pesios coming towards them.
Linnith swallowed, heartbeat picking up and rapidly beating against her chest. She did as Malikai said and pulled back on the reigns of her hastar. The beast bucked, already startled by the energy and magic it could feel in the air from so many dragons. But Linnith’s grip held and she eventually coaxed the hastar to turn and they took off, back the way they came and sticking close as she could to Malikai without getting in his way.
The moment Linnith let herself think they would escape, unnoticed, the sound of a nearby roar made her jump in her saddle. Groaning, she chanced a glance behind them and felt her heart lodge in her throat. Not only had the dragons noticed them but they were now following them and gaining fast. Linnith didn’t take the time to count them, too many were already heading their way. Instead, she quickly turned her attention back on the path in front of them and yelled out to Malik. “Malikai! They’re following us!”
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 1:28 pm
Two, four, six, eight—
Had he counted that one twice?
Malikai gave up, swearing beneath his breath, and spun his hastar. “Stay much out o’ th’ way as y’ can, but not too far!” he ordered, drawing his blade as his wings stretched behind him, catching the air and then heft his weight when he beat them. Much as he wanted the boy out of the frey entirely, he didn’t want to risk the flock splitting and several going off after him where he couldn’t do anything to protect him. Better that they stick close.
He did, however, do his best to draw their attention to himself. Sweeping up, he drove in for the first, and then down, earning roars and calamity. There were so many he wasn’t sure how the mass could possibly be tackled and defeated—but then, such was also the case, in a sense, when charging forward into an army. Minus the comrades in arms he was accustomed to.
‘Fortunately’ for he and his company, the flock seemed young, not as large as many peisios were, and sluggish, either from sunbathing or a recent meal. After the first several fell, however, the sluggishness ebbed, apparently ‘inspired’ into greater ferocity by witnessing loss of kin. Still, he managed to, bit by bit, draw them from the water — where their greatest source of a weapon was — and pick off those he could. Then, when they were winnowed down to the last handful, pain seared down his side, talons raking into him, and for a moment, as his back hit the grassy earth with a dull thwmp his vision blurred, limbs sluggish, muscles sapped, and breath gone.
But he couldn’t leave just the child like this.
He groaned, struggling to right himself under the shadow of the beast that had dragged him down.
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Tangled Puppet Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 2:03 pm
Linnith gritted her teeth, frustrated with herself more than anything. If she was stronger, and didn’t have a bum wing, she could be right there in the fight with Malikai. But she wasn’t stronger and her wing was useless. So she was resigned to stepping away from the fight and observing from the sidelines. She quickly moved her hastar away from the fight and dismounted as she watched the older orderite throw himself into the middle of the pesio dragons. She watched as he ripped through dragon after dragon, making the fight look easy. And maybe it was for him. Linnith flinched when she watched one of the dragons rip its claws down Malikai’s side. She expected him to push himself right back up, however, and when he didn’t, her heart skipped a beat.
“Malikai…!” Linnith’s feet moved before her mind even registered what she was doing. She stopped halfway between her hastar and the dragon, planting her feet and raising her arms up in the stance an archer might take. When she pulled back her right hand, light erupted from the stone on her bracelet and formed into a bow and arrow. She concentrated, pulling and pushing her magic into the arrow. When Linnith felt her head spin, a sign she was treading on thin ice with her energy, she released, letting the arrow go, splitting through the air straight towards the dragon.
The peisio only had a moment to register the arrow’s presence and looked up just as the light magic pierced through the beast’s neck. Linnith shrugged off the drain to her energy — surely one simple arrow wouldn’t be too much of a drain (even if she’d put more into it than usual) — and pushed herself back into motion. There were still more dragons and Malikai was still on the ground. She made it to her companion just as another dragon swooped down, roaring and angry at it’s fallen kin. “Malikai!” Linnith dropped to her knees, arm snapping up as her eyes focused on the dragon. She splayed her fingers and a shield of light appeared just as the dragon’s claws crashed down, making contact with Linnith’s magic instead of Linnith herself.
Already drained, but not willing to admit it, Linnith shoved more of her energy into the shield, causing it to spike out around the dragon. With one more push, the shield shifted and surrounded the dragon. Linnith closed her fist, causing the spiked shield to shrink and pierce through the dragon. When her arm fell back down, Linnith’s breath was labored and she was sweating — but alive. She’d used more energy than normal for just those two dragons and her body was not liking her for it. She slumped, dragging in a deep breath before letting it out slowly, trying to calm her racing heart. She didn’t know if there were more dragons or not and she doubted there was much more she could do.
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Miss Chief aka Uke rolled 1 100-sided dice:
25
Total: 25 (1-100)
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 2:04 pm
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