|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:55 am
"Salted, please."
He smiled warmly, wondering what their relationship was. If he were to hazard a guess, he would've said they were at some point in a relationship. "Likewise." He didn't think it would be a good idea to just springforth into their conversation, so other than the pleasantries he remained quiet and ate what he was given.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:09 pm
Sunstrike nodded, growing serious and then looking a little confused.
"I'll admit that your note, took me by a little surprise. I wasn't expecting things to get that complicated for you." He tapped his fingers together and tried to meet her eyes.
"But it wasn't exactly clear, Owle, what happened? Did her real memories break through? Is she the demon again?" He looked at Siat.
"And we'd better start at the top, if I'm dragging Siat into a bit of it, he has to know what it's all about."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:27 pm
Owle popped open a jar of peanuts, and poured them in a nice little bowl, which she then placed in front of Siat. "There you are."
He would have guessed wrong.
"Eh...things always get complicated around here." After a few attempts at dodging Sun's eyes, she finally gave up and met them.
"Wait, what? A demon? She was a demon?" The surprise in Owle's voice was evident; Owle hadn't known that. "She remembered being a deity of air and darkness, up until Rafe sealed those memories away...at her own request. I told him he was an idiot for doing it; even kicked him for it. But I didn't force him to undo it."
She shook her head at his request to start at the top. "I don't know anything about her before she arrived at the Firebrand, and you asked me to look after her for a little while. Though Rafe said something weird, about you having made her body...apparently that caused some kind of problems?" She seemed confused, and had to pause to organize her thoughts. "Well, I wasn't there when it happened...but Rand told me about it afterwards. A little shadow creature appeared in the Firebrand, a shadow-child, really...and it attached itself to Tijae. At first it stayed seperate, she was just holding it. And then...it merged into her, and she...she passed out.
"Rafe brought her up the stairs, and put her in her bed, calling me back to the Firebrand. Before I knew what was going on, that good for nothing b***h Nyx shows up, saying that apparently the shadow-child was a piece of Tijae Nyx had kept locked away, and now it had gotten out, and was trying to merge with Tijae again. And...it was going to kill her, unless they could take her to the realm of the gods."
Owle sighed deeply, in remembered anger and helplessness. "I didn't want to let them, Sun. But Rafe persuaded me it was the only way, and he swore he'd go with her, and look after her...I trusted him. I don't trust them, but I trusted him.
"Everything was fine for a while. Then one day I came back to the Firebrand, and Rafe was...he looked like hell, Sun. Like he hadn't slept in days, and wasn't eating enough to keep himself alive. He told me...he showed me...what had taken Tijae. His brothers..."
Owle paused, and took a sip from a nearby glass of water she kept on hand. "Well, I never told you who Rafe is, did I? He is...was...the god of dreams, and his brothers, gods of nightmares, really have it in for him. They ambushed him while he was carrying her, taunted him, and...took her.
"I think she's still alive, and safe. Enough, anyway. They've got no use for her except to tormet him, and he's gone."
Again, that look of guilt, as if she were responsible for Rafe's disappearance, as well as Tijae's. "Honestly...I'd been hoping they'd release her. That maybe she'd come wandering back in someday. I can't go after her, Sun, not there..."
Owle cast wildly around the bar, looking for something else to occupy her attention. How could she explain that she couldn't retrieve Tijae because she didn't care enough, because in that realm resolve was everything and she didn't love Tijae the way she had cared for Rafe? How could she tell him she just hadn't been able to do it?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 12:45 pm
Siat sat there in silence for a minute, trying to attach meaning to what she said but not being able to come up with any substantial understanding.
"So... Tijae has been kidnapped by the brothers of 'Rafe' who owns the Firebrand and is a God of dreams along with his brothers who hate him?"
If he were a normal person, he would've thought this was slightly peculiar, to say the least, but instead his grin portrayed that he found something fun about the idea, as if he was told he was going to be in a fairytale. He popped a few peanuts into his mouth and gave them an idle chew, licking his lips free of the salt after.
"I think," He grinned broadly, his eyes shining as he removed his sunglasses, hanging them from his collar. "You'd best buy me that drink now, Sun."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:01 pm
Sunstrike listened with Siat and chuckled when the younger man replied.
"It's actually Rage that owns this place, Rafe is...was...a patron." He was thinking hard, processing it all, then he groaned in irritation.
"That woman...demon....godling, will be the bloody death of me. Owle, you know this means we're going to have to follow the trail, right? I mean, she can probably handle herself for the most part, but if she's gotten herself torn apart, I'd best pay a visit and confirm it. Otherwise..." He held his hands up and waved them about, as if to say all hell would break loose.
"Siat's right and I need to think, get a drink for yourself too Owle, this needs sorting." Then he calmed down and debated, drinks ordered.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:18 pm
"Right, what'll you be having?"
Her hands shaking at the thought of going back there, Owle barely managed to get them their drinks without sloshing it down their shirts. She herself stuck to water, which she drank until she'd calmed down.
"Thing is...I mean, I've no problem barging into any sort of realm of the gods, just...I don't know how. I had Nyx's help last time, but that was only cause her son was at stake, she doesn't like me..."
Owle's face fell, gloom giving it a grayish tint. "And she's going to like me even less now that I've rejected Rafe. He's gone and gotten himself killed over it, I think. So...we can't get in that way. I'm not even sure she'd listen if I asked."
Nervously, she started pacing back and forth along the bar, wishing someone was there to ask for guidance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 1:24 pm
"Beer'd be fine."
He sipped it regularly as he thought, there was nothing he could contribute to the conversation, so he let the two converse, content to sit and absorb. The only sounds he made were occasional scrapes of the chair and various eating and drinking noises.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:26 pm
Somewhere around the bar, there was going to be one frustrated yet excited little ball of energy trying to be covert. Often as he got away and into trouble though, Rand must have been good at it, so there probably wasn't going to be too much ruckus for a little while yet.
Which suited Kalis fine.
He stepped up onto the seat of a bench outside the bar Owle had only just recently managed to make him take a room in, so long as he was crashing there, and sat down on the table adjoined to it. It was a hot day, and he was suited to colder weather, so he'd gone ahead and removed his shirt a while back despite what modesty he might usually of thought it going against. The bar was just off the beach, after all. It did show off an odd sort of tanline, where he had a light golden tan around his face and arms, and was simply pale on his torso. His hands didn't help.
Both were darker than the rest of the skin on his body and rough where they should have been smooth, hard where calluses were abnormally thick. It was his left hand he was worrying at, but not the burn scars covering it. He had his wrist wrapped up with athletic tape, as he had since it had healed up enough that there wasn't any risk of the wounds coming open under aggravation. Kalis tightened those absently as he stared out down the beach, and clenched his hand. Open, and close. Open, and close.
It still seemed stiff to him, but it had proved servicable enough so far.
He probably wouldn't have stepped inside to bother Owle while she had company anyway, but he was thinking about something else. He had a wooden practice sword- he couldn't afford steel model tools, so he'd had to go with these toys- sitting next to him, and his mind was more along its line.
That, and hoping Rand bathed himself by now. Not that bruises would probably be too unusual on, but when they started showing up too uniformly around his wrists and the back of his hands, it might beg a question or two.
Be it as it may, the kid was more in the stages of trying to make up for discipline with enthusiasm, which was always a little tough. Even when you had a good teacher. Kalis could was good enough with his sword, but not so much at trying to teach the kid to use one. He had never been taught to teach, and how to take lessons was boggling him. As good as practical experience was, he needed to do more than go on forever smacking toys out of the kids hands.
With a sigh, he leaned back and fished a single ear piece out of his pant pocket, put it in, and turned his music on.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:27 am
"Yeah, I don't like the thought of dragging you back into the realms, but I don't think it can be helped. I could find another route, but you're all I have to work with. If it helps," He looked embarassed. "They don't much like me either."
He listened about the other goddess and thought about other ways of transportation.
"Well...how did Rafe usually access it? He was a dream god right? Did it have something to do with being asleep?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 8:11 pm
"Well, at least with you, it's not personal," Owle replied, picking up an empty cup and then putting it back down. Her hands were just searching for anything to do, anything to keep herself occupied. "I'll help you, Sun, but if you go in there with me everyone you meet is going to be your enemy. You okay with that?"
The only one who ever wanted me there was Rafe...everyone else either feared me because of what Thanatos made me do or hated me cause Rafe liked me and Thanatos didn't and I was a snarky loudmouth who kept backtalking the god of death.
A smile lit her face at the last thought. And while I am rather proud of that, it doesn't help. The only allies I had were Rafe's allies, and now that he's gone cause of me...
They're going to want to kill me, too.
Owle took a deep breath, trying to calm down, casting about for something, anything...and then it dawned on her, like the glow of a star in the deepest night.
Someone was outside the Firebrand.
"Kalis! Could you come in here for a minute, please? I could really use your help."
Her voice was quick, nervous, and somehow conveyed the impression that what she really meant was 'I could really use a hug.'
"I don't know," Owle answered Sun, her eyes trained to the Firebrand's door. "He always just...vanished into it. I never saw him go. I mean, I suppose we could improvise..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:12 pm
Kalis snapped forward with a start, and his eyes went wide, snapping around him. "What?"
No, that was in your head. In. Inside.
The "I need a hug" might have been in there somewhere, but between the surprise of having a voice cut through his music out of nowhere, and the urgency in it, he was only getting the quick and nervous part.
He stepped up quickly, tugging his earpiece out, falling back over his shoulder, and tapped the device off as he rounded about straight to the door and stiff armed it open, stepping inside sharply and looking around-
...to see Owle sitting with drinks and a friend.
Oh.
The red head he recognized... the fight at the end of Heaven or Hell, and at the bar after that mess, too, he remembered after a moment. He couldn't place a name though, and the other man he wasn't remembering at all.
"H'lo," he greeted, all around.
His pace slowed down real quick, half emberassed, and he crossed the bar to them at a canter. He stopped near Owle, and tugged at the knot in the shirt wrapped around his waist, looking at her curiously, as if to ask what she needed... without being all wierd asking what right in front of two people who hadn't heard anything because it had all been in his head. In a not crazy way that would probably seem crazy to them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 12:06 am
This was no good... and just when things seemed to be going so well....
Slash was lost in thought - so much so that he seemed to not have realized just yet that his bike was no longer on the road. In fact, there was nothing solid underneath it as it sailed through the air and very much intended to make a ten-point dive (with a three from the French judge) into the sand below.
Ker-thunk.
A few moments later a now sandy-blue haired man walked in, still with the sort of listless look of either a man who was daydreaming or one who was not among the living. Fortunately since he wasn't moaning or searching for brains it was safe to say the former was true.
The clinks and clanks of the chain hanging from his pocket as his hand played with it were audible as he began to pace around the room. He didn't seem to even take notice of the others, particularly Owle whom he had just left not too long ago at the hospital.
If anyone cared to look outside at the moment, they'd notice a racing-class motorcycle sitting on the porch just outside the window, lacking the sand that it's owner had collected.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:46 am
"Hey..." Sun placed a hand over hers, catching it when it came into view again. He was deeply concerned because he knew that 'I'd rather occupy myself then deal with this.' expression.
"You won't be going in alone, and don't worry about me. Everyone wanting to kill me is kind of getting to be the norm. Siat's really good in a fight, and I'm sure we could bring in...a few...others?" By this time Kalis had made his way to the bar and was standing there looking awkward.
"Hullo," He turned back to Owle and looked at her questioningly. In reality there was only one person he knew who could silently request help, and he was looking at her. The realization brought a smile to his face, and he finished what he was saying to her originally.
"Unless you're going to have that covered for us."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:17 am
It might take a few moments, to notice, what with the emotions running high, and other distraction, but Owle's silver bracelet was fainting glowing, a small shimmering glow, that was almost audible to the senses. A tiny, faint little bell like noise that chimes just out of reach but could almost be heard. But it sat there contently on her wrist, just warm and happy, almost like a dream that settled on you when you are sleeping. Just like how Oneiros appeared in Owle's dreams.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2007 6:29 am
Owle stopped her pacing when Sun caught her hand, just looking at him. She didn't relax that much at his words...but she did smile a little at the offered comfort.
When Kalis came in, the smile perked up a little, and Sun would feel Owle start tugging her hand away from his. Once he let go, Owle wordlessly ran out from behind the bar, as quickly as she could without looking like she was crazy, and wrapped her arms around Kalis.
She really, really needed that hug.
Her face buried in Kalis's chest, Slash's entrance went unnoticed. She didn't have very much to say to him, anyway. Perhaps he could help them...but she hardly knew him. She didn't expect him to face down gods for the sake of a non-cousin he'd just barely met.
Finally, she turned her head toward Sun, and, blushing, replied, "Um, yeah...sorta."
She sighed, and pulled away. "Kalis, this is Sunstrike. Sun, Kalis." A gesture to Siat, then. "This is Sun's friend, Siat. Siat, this is Kalis."
She did notice that her wrist was rather warm, which struck her as a bit odd, but she went on talking. "Kalis, I...um..." She looked guiltily at him, then at Sun. "You remember what I told you about Rafe? Where he came from, who was trying to destroy him when I tried to rescue him that time? Well...I think I'm going to have to go there again. Sun needs me to get back someone he cares about."
She reached down to rub the warm spot on her wrist, wondering what in the world was making her feel that way, and her fingers struck warm metal. She lifted her arm, bringing the silver bracelet level with her eyes. She just stared at it, her expression growing wider with disbelief and awe.
Are you still out there...?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
