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 Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 8:13 am
So living alone was sort of... not great, though Teslaron decided to chalk it up to unfamiliarity with the practice and not lack of amenities that came with not being in a home owned (or at least managed) by him. His first few nights in an inn by himself were uneventful and unsatisfactory. And though he'd been aware of the fact before, it struck him with renewed vigor that things like food, shelter, and cleanliness apparently costed money. Of which he had very little.
If this was 'adventure,' he was already tired of it.
Still, it was necessary and exciting in its own way, and it gave him time to improve upon practices he hadn't had the opportunity to dedicate much patience to before. Thievery, small-talk, casual drinking (as opposed to the heavy kind), more thievery. Much more. It ceased to be an amusing pastime and activity that he didn't need to do just to see if he could, but one necessary for survival. He was used to a very reasonably moderate standard of living, after all, and he wasn't about to lose much of it.
The morning found him in the inn's common space, sipping from a mug of coffee and watching those filtering in and out of the room. It wasn't dreadfully early, but enough so that things were still quiet, and the morning's options for who-would-unintentionally-buy-him-breakfast not very great in number. Probably best to wait it out. At least for another hour or so.
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Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 12:24 pm
Living in a rental property didn't have the same appeal to Dris'rynne as staying in an inn. She stayed in one of the cities larger, well structured buildings on the third floor which held as much appeal to her as having her nails removed. Her upstairs neighbors fought often, thus the sounds of stomping boots on her ceiling, and the neighbors to the right of her...well, they weren't terrible, but they were nosey. Far too curious as to why a pregnant shifter was living on her own in Oba.
All in all she missed the quiet inclusion of inn life. Here she could be part of a thousand conversations while participating in none. It was why Dris'rynne often came for meals, and in the later morning hours she did just that. She wandered into the inn with all the grace of a woman in her later stages of pregnancy, with her distended stomach leading the way. Since her ankles and feet had taken to swelling Dris'rynne wore her boots less, and instead opted for the more natural, barefoot approach.
As she looked around for an empty table her eyes caught the form of a dreadfully familiar matorian, and on impulse she turned as if to leave.
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Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 8:39 am
Dris'rynne couldn't have escaped him, even if she wasn't laden with a tiny extra Earthling tucked inside a cushiony pocket of flesh and- Tit. More than he was accustomed to seeing on her. As soon as she came through the door, Teslaron's eyes found the Shifter woman. His expression brightened immediately. Though, he did have time to note that she looked rather larger than when they'd last crossed paths, breasts aside. How far along was she, anyway?
"Dris'rynne!" He called as he stood and swept toward her side before she had the chance to back out. The less-than-enthused expression on the woman's face was probably imagi- Mm, well, no, that about summed up how she always looked around him. "Where you headed off to in such a rush?" Tes questioned with a broad grin, as he trailed fingers down Dris' arm until he could swipe up her hand in his own. "You might as well have a sit; I'm sure you tire easily. Gods, you've gotten so fat."
He tugged her hand, lightly, with an almost fearful gentleness to coax her to follow him to his previously claimed table.
In the weeks since their last run-in, he had thought about her, more so than he cared to admit. More so than the usual amount of thought he gave pretty women, anyway, and certainly more than he thought about this one in particular. She'd cried, and that was so abnormal that it was far beyond unacceptable and strangely, weirdly offensive to him as well. When he peered back at her again, it was with a smaller, more hesitant smile on his face. "How have you been holding up?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 4:14 pm
Why was he so chipper? Dris'rynne narrowed her eyes, immediately trying to figure out what it was that he wanted. At least he was being considerate...at least, he was, until the f word was mentioned again. "Thank you for noticing," she groused, moving along behind him until they were at his table. The lightness of his touch wasn't missed; if anything it made her more suspicious. Tes was usually more touchy feely than this when he chose to touch her...
..but just walking past other tables, the scents of their meals wafting up into her nostrils made Dris'rynne swallow any complaints. She was hungry, and if this was the only table open, then she was just going to have to be a big girl about it.
She sat across from him, taking her sweet time in trying to find a comfortable position. Which, as she was finding out in the later months of pregnancy, was impossible to find. "Better. Somewhat." Subconsciously her left hand drifted to her stomach, palm splaying out against her distended skin as she spoke. "I've rented a place of my own. What about you? How have you been?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 8:49 am
Teslaron beamed at the woman across from him. "Hard not to, I'm afraid." Blatantly, his gaze slid down her frame assessingly, lingering for a moment on her chest and then dipping down to as much of her swollen stomach as he could see over the table. Gods, she really did just look so much larger each time he saw her. Maybe because he was accustomed to smaller or maybe because there was a sizable chunk of time in between their meetings, but either way, damn. His golden orbs flicked up, back to her eyes, and he grinned in the face of her obvious suspicion. "How much longer before you pop, huh?"
He propped an elbow on the table, chin in hand and eased forward expectantly. She'd asked him about a nanny, before. And even if he hadn't thought much of it at the time, now seemed like a different story. He'd left home, didn't have much else to tend to, and wanted (on some level he didn't quite understand) to be there for her. If nothing else, he could at least be useful.
"Good." He grinned. "Even if renting isn't exactly what you wanted, I think having a mostly stable base-of-operations will be good for you." As for himself... Well, Tes wasn't entirely sure what to tell her on that front. If it was Dris, he likely wouldn't have commented on it at all.
But it was. So he shrugged and tried to look nonchalant as he answered. "I'm staying here, though not much of interest happening beyond that. I- oh, I've an idea. Someone of your girth probably eats enough for an army, hm? Why don't I buy you breakfast?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2016 12:21 pm
She tried not to focus so much on on the way he was looking at her - that all encompassing look - and tried think on other things. Breakfast mainly, and how good a plate of xaraan eggs smothered in the inn's special spices would taste...
It was easier to think about food when the conversation wasn't constantly drifting back to her current physical state, but Dris'rynne should have expected that. She was getting fairly large these days, and if Tes was anything it was persistent. "Hopefully not too much longer. A month or two, at the most."
And if the healer's prediction was correct then she would go into labor much sooner than that. "-at this stage, with your size, I wouldn't be surprised if you were carrying twins." Dris'rynne hadn't been horribly surprised, given how many twins were in her family, but she still hoped that wasn't the case. She still hadn't found a nanny and trying to balance work with two newborns was a nightmarish possibility.
At his admission, she raised a brow, "You're staying here? Did you move ou-?" She cut herself off with a grumble, one that surprisingly didn't come from her vocal cords. Just the mention of food was enough to make her stomach growl, which was enough to bring some color to her cheeks.
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Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:01 am
'A month or two.' Had it really been that long since she'd been- er, knocked up? He knew it'd been a while, because of course it had. He'd even seen her several times since then, but it still felt... strange to think so much of it. That the 'popping' could be even that close at hand. Being alone with a kid and a job in a busy place like Oba, there probably wouldn't be a whole lot of time or chance for impromptu run-ins. Not like this.
Teslaron didn't let the strange sense of something too-similar to disappointment show on his face. Instead, he grinned the toothy smile that was his norm and beckoned for a tavern maiden to come over. If the girl was confused to see a Matorian and a Shifter sitting in an Oban inn, she didn't comment on it.
Tes elbowed their waitress' hip lightly. "I dunno if you heard before you came over, but it sounds like my lady, here could use a bite. You wanna hook her up with whatever she wants. Be careful, though; it might be the whole kitchen."
Despite looking moderately displeased by Tes' antics, the wench didn't seem phased beyond that. He had been staying here, after all, and the serving girls knew well and good who their least favorite guests were after hardly more than a handful of days. Still, she looked almost apologetically at Dris, as she waited for her order, then, once given, strode away to fulfill the request.
"It's not so bad, living away from home," Tes hummed in a slightly quieter-than-average tone. "I'm not really very used to it, but, I suppose I've never had so much independence before, so that's nice..."
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:09 am
Dris'rynne furrowed her brow, doing her best not to snort through her nose at his antics. Was this what he was doing with his free time? Harassing women? It looked as if the poor girl needed a break; a break from him.
Of course, her spiked ire could be based entirely on the embarrassment that consumed her when her stomach growled not once, but twice. "I can hardly-" She puffed her cheeks out, and swallowed back her pride. Too bad she couldn't make the flush darkening her cheeks go away so quickly.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, before opening them anew, passing a small, little sympathetic smile the waitress' way before placing her very modest order.
"What...prompted you to leave? You didn't seem to keen to go before, so I have to wonder what changed." She may have edged around it, but Dris'rynne asked, all the same. As warped as his home life had been, Teslaron had seemed so dead set on remaining, and now, to see him suddenly out on his own...it was a little...suspicious. Worrying? No, no, definitely suspicious.
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Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 10:10 am
Tes' golden gaze flicked to the Shifter woman's pinched brow. She really did very consistently look rather displeased with him, for all his adorably playful banter. He hummed softly, and skimmed the tip of his finger around his coffee mug's upper rim. He wasn't in an especially foul mood, himself, but... Well, there were certainly days that went better than they had been recently. He shrugged.
"I don't suppose anything changed," he admitted quietly to his mug, his earlier smile faltering somewhat. "I'm not needed, anymore. And I haven't been, for longer than I care to admit. But I stayed because I'm selfish, I suppose, and it was a familiar place with familiar people to cause problems for."
His fingers dropped to curl around the mug, and he took a sip, eyes slipping closed as he did. Teslaron was fine with his new situation, or such was what he told himself, but he was also a selfish man, and he always wanted more. "I'm not entirely sure what I'll do from here, yet." He flashed her a toothy smile. "But I'm free now, if you're ever in need, Moon Princess."
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Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 12:39 pm
"It was your home". No matter how one looked at it, that was the place Tes returned to at the end of each adventure, and where he felt he belonged, no matter how skewed that might be. And to not be needed anymore...Dris'rynne could sympathize with that. Just thinking about the family she had been barred from seeing was distressing, but she had already lived on her own for a while now.
To suddenly be thrust out into the world...
"Do you...happen to know anything about raising and caring for infants?" She broached the subject awkwardly, as if she were still trying to test the waters to see if it were a good idea or not. The hand that rested on her stomach moved, casually caressing her skin as she spoke, "The fact is I can't work and take care of my child all at once. And I'm not especially trusting so finding a nanny has proven...difficult." Impossible, is what she should have said.
Admitting that she needed help was difficult for a woman who was so used to micro-managing her life and doing it all by herself. In Jauhar it had been easy; her grandparents were always around to help with the girls if she had errands or chores to tend to. Here....she had no one. "If you need a place to stay, you can stay with me. I can't pay much, but I can offer food and board in exchange for help when the time comes."
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 9:55 am
Teslaron rolled his eyes with a quiet grunt. It looked and sounded, initially, like the Shifter woman felt sorry for him, like she thought he needed to be pitied. And that was very near to the last thing he wanted. He had half a mind to point out that she wasn't in much better of a position than he was, maybe even worse, considering she'd been left behind by some random ******** that she wasn't likely to ever see again and now had his leavings to deal with.
But he couldn't. He'd meant it when he said that children, intended or not, were a gift, and belittling that out of spite was beneath him. Before he could come up with a more appropriate form of retaliation, Dris went on, and it left Tes blinking owlish at her. But only momentarily.
In the next instant, his face split, smile broadening into a too-amused, toothy grin that was anything but false. "You aren't especially trusting," Tes repeated as he folded his arms over the tabletop and leaned his wight forward against them, toward her. "But you trust me, hm?" He prompted, craning over the table and close enough now that there was hardly more than two inches between their noses. "Or you wouldn't have asked."
The fact of the matter remained that he didn't have much hands-on experience with newborn infants or pregnant women, for that matter. All of his charges had had at least a rudimentary ability in personal upkeep when he'd met them, though admittedly, it didn't much feel like it, where two-year-olds were concerned.
That didn't mean he couldn't learn, as most first-time parents did.
"I've not ever had to care for infants before, no," Teslaron admitted with a shrug as he settled back into his seat. "But if you want the help and trust me enough to give it to you, then I'd be happy to try."
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:07 pm
"You're going to make me regret saying anything, aren't you?" She tried to look anything beyond amused, but Dris'rynne couldn't help it; as much as she tried to act 'put off' there was something about that genuine smile that brought out a lighter side to her. Even her words, while crafted snarkily enough, lacked any real bite. "Does that surprise you? That I trust you?" It surprised her, even more so when she didn't immediately pulled away when he came so close to her face. It brought a flushed round of color to her cheeks, but Dris'rynne met his bold words by remaining still, clearly not backing down at all.
If anything she leaned in until their noses actually touched, an oddly promiscuous challenge in her eye, "Think you can handle it?"
When he settled back into his seat, she leaned back in her own and smiled as if the entirety of their closeness hadn't happened at all. "When do you think you could move in?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:35 am
Teslaron was fairly certain that Dris'rynne regretted everything she did with him nearly immediately, and it was only obnoxious perseverance on his part that they kept running into each other at all. So in answer to her initial question, he merely propped his chin in his palm and grinned at her. Admittedly, it probably wasn't in his best interest to try and make her regret it, since there were... His gaze slid as low on her as the tabletop would allow. Others involved, and he wasn't the sort to cause trouble for children. But he was sure that between he and Dris, trouble would happen, just the same.
"I am," he replied in response to her next question. "Surprised, that is." And since she'd specifically asked, he thought maybe that one deserved a little elaboration. "You don't generally look especially pleased by my presence, and I admit to being a little disappointed that you..."
'Slept with a stranger.'
It didn't seem much his business to point out- Or it certainly hadn't felt it before, and it likely didn't matter now. But he had thought about her enough since their initial meeting that maybe he'd sort of fancied the idea that he wasn't the only one... But then he'd just admitted he didn't think she'd liked him, anyway. It was all irrelevant. None of it mattered. He shook his head. "Whenever you'd like."
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 10:33 am
"I think I've always trusted you, Tes; hard to handle as you may be." There seemed to be no reason not to say it now, not in the situation she was in. She trusted him more so than others, and now...now Dris'rynne found herself waiting to see if he would let her down, like so many others, or if she could actually count on him.
"Are you...disappointed that it isn't yours? Or my lack of moral standing?" Certainly he wouldn't be alone in that; her family had already told her multiple times what a harlot she was, and how stubborn she was for not getting rid of the child or at least marrying to hide it.
"We can leave after we eat. Joke all you want, but I'm starving."
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Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:53 am
Well, that was hard to believe. He couldn't see why she would trust him, and there wasn't any especially swaying evidence that she really did- Except for their most recent encounter. Teslaron didn't know why his mind kept going back to that of all things, since having a girl cry on him really shouldn't be welcome, particularly not when he couldn't do anything about it. It was also the last time he'd seen Dris before now. A few short months, but it felt like eons. He shook his head to clear it of those thoughts.
He turned his attention instead toward the serious-sounding question immediately following the Shifter woman's declaration of trust. Gods, he usually wouldn't have touched this topic with a fifty-foot pole, but he had brought it on himself. "No," Teslaron muttered. "It's nothing so simply put as that." And it wasn't, but he still didn't think it was his place to comment further, whether Dris had invited it or not.
Rather than continue on that note, he grinned straight at her and snorted. "Besides, you don't think I'm of a mind to question your morals, do you? Me being a selfish thief, and all."
That aside, there was still whatever this arrangement held to look forward to. Obviously there'd been no way of knowing this was what the day would bring when he woke up that morning, but he was still well and eager to find out where Dris'rynne lived. It almost felt scandalous, somehow.
It was another handful of minutes before their breakfast was brought around by the same maid who'd come to take their order. She still looked disdainfully in Tes' direction, but his mind was on other things.
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