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 Posted: Wed Dec 07, 2022 11:26 am
Variel 1
It was a lovely, peaceful day in Sauti...or so she thought, when she had a chance to wake up just a fraction she noticed a mote of sunlight streaming peacefully into the wooden room of the Inn that she and Viltre had stayed at the night before. All was well until the light sent a bolt of stabbing pain to her brain. She rolled instinctively away from the light and fell off the bed.
She groaned loudly. Now sore and achey with the worst hangover ever after the flash of impact pain, at least that was what she assumed it was and not a spontaneous deadly disease that was trying to split her skull in two. Even small noises from the rest of the Inn sounded like shouts to her. Eventually able to raise herself up a bit she couldn't see Viltre anywhere. What a crappy body guard to loose her employer!
"Viltre? Why is it so bright? Why is it so loud? Where are you?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 12:57 am
By contrast, her principal's morning was going quite well. He was safe. It was dark, close and snug. Aches spread from his bones and joints even as did Variel's, but without the intrusion of direct sunlight, his skull bore no splitting pain. These softer pains weren't enough to wake him, diffuse as they were. What did, however, was the crash, followed shortly by someone hollering his name just outside the wall. Or door. Whatever it was. His eyes opened wide, drinking in the gloom and everything within his surroundings. His cramped, confined surroundings. Atop a lot of folded- they were sheets. He wasn't moving, so they probably weren't boxed up. Didn't smell right, either. He did not speak for some moments as he took stock, but speak he would, in time. Softly, words came as a question. She'd maybe hear the sound, what with her oversensitive hearing, but little would be made out. "...Why am I in a closet?" Viltre checked under the sheet covering him, confirming several tactile suspicions. He lowered the blanket. More audibly, he spoke again, to no one in his view. "I have so many questions." The first he could find out himself, feeling around for a latch. When he did find it, the results were as immediate as they were dramatic. Tanned and relatively tall, he fell out of his alcove in the closet and into a tangle of slim limbs on the floor, a bit south of his bodyguard. The sheet managed to cover only by accident, winding around his form as he tumbled free. "Mmmnn… Good questions. Better one first: where are we?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 3:39 pm
She groaned again. "Closet?" She had no idea how he had gotten in there but his emergence was indeed most magnificent. This was part of the joy working in the field, you never really knew what would happen and she must say having her tall and most handsome and most importantly smart employer tumble out of the closet mostly naked was certainly a new perk...now if only the light would stop stabbing her right behind her eyes she would be able to enjoy the serendipity of the moment. She let her eyes rove over his smooth skin. Attractive. He was most attractive.. or she might still be a tad drunk. Who was to say. "I er..." she looked up at an antler chandelier in the bedroom they were occupying. "Zena.. I think judging by the building material decor and otherworldly draft of freezing air that was leaking in through the window. How poeple lived year round up here was beyond her. "Were...were we not in Sauti?" "Is it more comfortable sleeping that way?" She asked curiously.
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 12:00 am
Variel was many things, but as a spearman, she had trained to be observant. Or at least to read the body. Even befuddled with the aftereffects of drink, certain things might stand out to her, even glimpsed briefly. While she was built like her Janarim, all sleek strength and agile motion, her employer was all angles and whipcord muscle. No power to him, but the tensions spoke of speed and grace. Apparently to her taste, at that. ...As a warrior, however, the scars of his torso might puzzle her. They didn’t match up with most any striking angle or weapon she could name, and many of them old, faded things. Some few were more familiar, half at most. Only a few here and there, but... no, his were not a fighter's marks. "Not especially. I've slept in worse, though." He moved, sheet twisting with him and around so she never got too long a look at any one part of skin. Viltre soon wove himself into something like sitting. The hateful ache in both of their heads, now shared, gave his green eyes a squint to guard them and his skull behind. The mind cradled inside a throbbing head was still catching up, even to questions asked. "...Zena? I. Tinerr's an airship port, so I could see that. Why on Tendaji would we come to Zena?" Holding a hand up against the sliver of light, something else occurred. "Where did our clothes go?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 10:30 pm
She admired the view while she had it. There was something so pleasing in general about the male form. She noticed a few things; he was still relatively graceful (despite only wearing a sheet), he had rounded crystals of an interesting shape on his shoulders, and that he had scars that just looked off to her, she couldn't place what all of them were from but this boy had been through some things. She had scars sure, but not as many as he. It wasn't any of her business but well she was female so a small part of her wondered. "I don't know. I don't even like the cold. Did we hear a mark say something pertinant and follow them on board a freaking airship? How drunk were we exactly?" She looked at the closet..waking up in a closet drunk is how drunk they had been. "Did we er, do you remember...?" She trailed off unwilling to use actual words to ask if they had been intimate the night before.
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 3:24 am
"Don't think so? Can't see our gear. If we were running down a mark, we'd have it at hand." Even if they had already done, they'd likely keep their tools nearby. Weaponry and maintenance equipment for her; for him, fiddly metal tools and assorted jewelry, false and authentic alike. Being without them... slim fingers tightened into fists, an unfamiliar position, the sheer's edge along for the ride. He was already naked, but that meant little. Eyes on his skin didn't bother Viltre much. His tools were another matter. This was the closest he'd come to feeling naked in a long time. The question brought a blink, and a furrowed brow. Certainly the room was furnished to emphasize the bed, which seemed plush and inviting. By itself that meant little. An inn of a certain status wanted to present its service to advantage, after all, and this was clearly a respectable place. Or catered to respectable clientele. A couple in a single room with a single wide bed, though, certain assumptions would come to mind. He checked beneath his sheet, but couldn't have said what he was looking for. "Would you like to have? Your guess is as good as mine, maybe better. Bit sticky, but I was definitely sweating in that closet. Mostly smell sawdust. And charcoal?" His own eyes finally wandered to Variel herself. No hurt did he find, no mark but barked knuckles. More recent than he remembered. Similarly, his hands ached the same as his limbs. What had they been doing? Odd. Cloth aside, she'd been showing a good deal more smooth leg than was usual. A detail stood out against her Oban skin. "Did you always have a tattoo of a rainbow keldari? On your upper thigh?" Wearing a wizard's hat to boot.
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 8:43 pm
"Too right about that, I'm fair at hand to hand combat but there is something so reassuring about good fine steel." She paused..thinking about it, looked him over. "Well it wouldn't be the worst thing, you are intelligent and passably handsome I suppose." She winked at him. "I wouldn't be upset that is for sure." She may be of noble blood but she had always felt the vast majority of them to be a bit too uptight about who they dated, except her sister, she got a really good guy and Variel was happy for her. She started noticing that the fabric on her skin felt ...different..nigh on silky. "This uh, this isn't my dress I can tell you that much." She was grateful to find that it was not he she had punched, she doubted he could slither away from her physically at the kind of quarters he would be in to need to be punched. If they did do something she was sure it had been more than willing on both ends. Not that she remembered all that much yet. She blinked. "No that would be a new tattoo, but one I have always wanted. The wizard hat is a bit of a surprise though."
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2022 6:30 am
While he had asked, the response shorted a few processes in his brain. The feelings it invoked were unfamiliar, would need sorting through. Hungover, Viltre was not yet master of himself, and felt his mask as it lay crooked on him. The whole time, his responses had been... muted. Colorless. His confusion real enough, but that too had been of a bland tone. The longer they were awake, the more aware the partners became. If she hadn't noticed already... If we we're going to be traveling together, she'll see around it eventually. Just be polite until it's untangled. And my head doesn't want splitting open. When there were words for the warrior, they came neutral, though not unkindly. "Thank you. That is kind of you to think." The notion of intimacy sat oddly in his mind. Later he might worry at professional boundaries, or else rationalize some benefit to a closer working relationship. If neither remembered... No violence had passed between them, that was sure. Not when the marks of their hands matched none on the other. ...But these were surely thoughts for later, once they were on better footing, had a context for all this. The tall thief made to stand, thoughts spilling out into mutters. "Unfamiliar setting, situation. Kit missing. Need further information-" An alarming wobble followed his attempt, along with fresh complaints from his skull. A hand slapped to the wall to brace and draw stability. "And water. Severely dehydrated. Closet reentry tempting." The sheet soon rearranged itself into a rudimentary mantle, a knot at the side and shoulder holding it in place. Too loose, obvious, no pockets, but it would do. The placid green eyes regarded Variel once more. She at least had been clothed. It didn't go with the tattoo, but that would've stood out with most outfits. "It wears well for you. Did you check the drawers yet?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2022 12:06 pm
Variel 5 She was learning so much about him this morning, there was a touch of the raw and ragged about his persona as he worked things out. She thought about all of the unexplainable scars. He had been through much. He deserved to have peace, though she felt that someone like him thrived on chaos instead. It could be hard on a soul to remain locked in a certain position for a long time though and she hoped he realized that. Not that it was for her to tell him anyway, none of her business. "Kind of me?" She smiled. "You are very capable and intelligent. Those things are more attractive than a pretty face alone. I know not everyone sees it that way but I cannot unsee it. Don't short change yourself Viltre, you are better at deals than that." She eyed him with a steady gaze..at least until the light stabbed right behind her retinas again. She hated hangovers, this was why she drank rarely. What had they been drinking? Fermented Quhar piss? Now that was a lovely thought. She wondered where his thoughts were going. Was that a hint of panic in his eyes? She wished she could explain to him that he was a good man in more ways than one, but if he didn't want that kind of relationship with her that was fine too. She could go and find a bed partner it was no big deal. She just felt like he would be relatively drama free if he wished to take up the position. It wouldn't degrade her professionalism. She nodded at his thought processes. Logical. Direct. As they should be. She too wished for her proper clothes back, her dress was a bit better than a makeshift toga but it was also not her dress. She liked her clothes, the ones that let her move and flex and murder as she pleased. This frilly gaudy thing, if she had been sober it would have been like putting a cat in a soggy wet sack. But her drunken self apparently had no such qualms. The tattoo at least had come out nice...besides the hat. She wasn't sure if she should get another to cover that up or attempt to remove it. Or she might just keep it. Viltre would be the only one that would regularly have to see her thigh because of how they travelled or mid battle first aid. She did not care. She had scars all over and she was mighty proud of them. Startled from her thoughts she checked the drawers. "I think my pants are in here at least.. and what looks like your satchel?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 1:34 pm
The whole of the young woman's speech took him as flattery. Well-meaning, perhaps sincere, if more than a bit off-base. He was intellectually aware of his looks; maintaining them was all a part of his mask. "Pretty is a weapon, Variel. Surely you know this, being a handsome woman yourself." Nobility made use of it as often as possible. Which might well be part of why she was out here selling her blade. Short change? How apt. I know my value down to the last drop of blood in me. ...Or I did. Do I need to reckon it again- no. Luxury thoughts, for when security of position is confirmed. …May need to give her something to go on. Don't want her fumbling for answers at the wrong time.Young Kavensei paused, turned to face his bodyguard. "...Fair warning, still figuring myself out. Been lying professionally since I was four." The changes to expression were slight, if they were there at all. A fresh stab of pain, and he moved towards what looked like an ewer of water. Had to check it first, be sure it was, in fact, that particular liquid. Luckily, it smelled neither of alcohol or ammonia when he poured a cup out, and then another for the Oban spearman. "Do hangovers always make one maudlin? The sachel's not immediately useful, but it's good to see. Those papers and inks can do a lot in the right hands." He opened the door, poking his head out of the gap to take it all in. Just as handsome a place between the rooms as within them. Heavy carpets, calm scents, quiet at this time of the day. Whatever time that was. The whole feel of it struck Viltre as familiar somehow. He was about to leave when a couple marched past, their own muskier scents and tint of their expressions letting all click together. He'd jerked his red head back into the room, shutting the door just in front of his nose. He'd audited the books for a place very like this back in Yera. Old Vulir had sponsored several working establishments for the 'seamstress' trade (hem hem), and tended to check in on them every so often. "I know what sort of house this is now. We've managed lodging in an upscale brothel."
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:36 pm
Variel 6
She smirked at the familiar quote. "I appreciate the warning." It was a sign of respect..probably.
"They don't often make one cheerful. So yes, I expect it is more common than not."
Her mouth did drop open at that last tid bit of information. "A brothel..." She looked at the bed, she looked at him...then at the bed again then shrugged. "I am probably in a dress of a lady of the night arn't I? I am mighty curious as to if we drank the airship fuel last night, that was not normal alcohol."
She was open and honest see, but she was worried about what she might have done besides potentially having slept with the handsome leaf male. She had for sure punched someone.
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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2022 2:01 pm
"Mn. Apologies if I get depressing then. Never had one before." Well, she'd been told fair. If the woman still wanted him anyway, it could be worth a shot. Can get details in later. More important matters to attend at present. Like downing the water, getting some fluids soaking into his tissues. And going back to check the Tale-made satchel, see if more than the forgery/scribing box was there. As it happened, there was a large velvet pouch inside that jangled lightly of iron and bronze, alongside his makeup kit for disguises. "The most benign circumstance I can think up would be that our clothes are being washed, and they at least provided you a replacement. Not much we can do about the worse scenarios unless we jimmy the window and run as-is. There was some struggle yesterday, we instigated or were involved in it, and the madam was inclined to let us stay the night." Thus were the concrete elements Viltre could infer. All the rest was hay at best. For all they knew, the pair might have lost their clothes in a freak quhar accident on the airship. Unlikely, but with how often Variel mentioned those, what was one more? "...I don't think we drank the fuel. That doesn't sound survivable." Opening the pouch, he found the more direct tools of his trade. Lockpicks, powders, blank keys in several styles, fiddly little things of less identifiable use to the untrained eye. Alongside them sat a small note in a neat script. "This changes things." He removed it and showed Variel the note. Thought you'd want these back. We should talk.
-Madame N.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 4:44 pm
"I've had one but I'm pretty sure his closest cousin is pond scum, not worth the hassle for men like that." She was intrigued though, the more she learned about Viltre the more she became idly curious about him. No matter which way this hot wind blew, it would be okay. "I wouldn't mind trying though, when you are ready." It wouldn't affect her career, he could simply say no if he were not interested. She would then look elsewhere. She was sure she didn't want to be alone forever though, even if she just had a fling or two and got some kids out of it. She wasn't sure she would ever find the kind of love that Reina and her parents had but that was okay if it was not her fate. If it became more important to her as the years wore on she would make a better effort. She looked at the note and looked up at him, an equal mix of dread and curiousity on her face. "So long as they don't think I'm joining as part of their crew of ladies...or we didn't get in debt to her.." She hated not knowing what was up. "I suppose we should find her and see if I can get my clothes back. This is a bit tight in the bodice." She liked air and clothing flexibility, dresses were only for at home where she was relatively sure she would not need to fight for her life.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2022 2:40 am
The water was already helping, and Viltre poured himself out another measure. More and more details came to light as his senses cleared and his eyes toned down their screaming. The red marks on the back of Variel's neck, for instance. Not wounds, but... and something the same hue on the rim of his cup. Taking up a hankerchief, he dabbed at his lips and found them sticky, smearing a wicked red on the cloth. Apparently something happened between us. Wonder if my lipsick belongs to the owner of her dress. The tall redhead paused, taking this new information and parsing it through his ache-skewed social filters. He also handed her another hankie and tapped the same spot on his neck to point it out. "Meant hangovers, but in hindsight, also applied to non-platonic relationships. That said, appreciate your patience. You might need a lot hanging around me anyway." And if you ever meet my parents. Merle was self-explanatory, but his father Vulir... Vulir was a whole experience. And not one his secondborn was sure of, given what he knew of the man's 'relaxed' views in life. None of his male siblings had yet married, after all... Spirits of the earth, but he was wandering this morn'. Back to the present. "If the staff are anywhere near as professional as their building, they'll know you aren't one of their own. It's a talent most seamstresses develop, same as the thieves. Its the punters who might make mistakes. Can't say more yet. Gotta get out to see how this place runs. When you're ready." Watered and equipped with his more-legal sachel, the Taleian waited for his Oban companion. As soon as they strolled down through to the hallway, the character of the house began to reveal itself. This was not some smoky little underworld den; this was an upright parlour house. A customer minded their place and questions here, else they would not be allowed back. From the look of some of the girls, the lack of scarring in what could be a risky business, young Kavensei wouldn't bet money that dedicated troublemakers left intact. Though there might still be a wager in the exact repercussion...
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2022 2:22 pm
Variel blushed hard, her dark skin showing it for a change. "Well, the offer still stands." She brushed the back of her neck, looked at the cloth he held stained with the same substance. "Might already have been accepted..." She wasn't a virgin so there would be no blood. She would have to determine if the scent of two people together was coming from her dress or herself. She had a feeling it was herself. Pity she didn't remember anything. "Any chances of hangover chased memories coming back at some point?" "Patience at least I have in abundance.." Maybe not with her little brother but he was an exception to the rule, she didn't get to where she was without being patient. "I am ready." She took a canteen of water too. Parties were dehydrating. Variel eyed the girls with professional curiosity. This wouldn't have been her first choice of job but she had heard it could be lucrative. Eventually a lady found them sticking out like sore thumbs, though she bet couples coming to places like this were not uncommon. "If you would follow me, I will take you to the madame." The woman turned, and fresh of face, led them to an empty sitting room. Turning around the woman, who was deeply beautiful in an almost ethereal way, tilted her head down. "I, am Madame Nao, welcome to my establishment. I trust you found your accomodations to your liking last night?" She smiled knowingly at them like a cat that ate the canary and the crow. She obviously loved drama, in hindsight Variel bet that she and her leafling employer had given her more than enough the previous night. Not skipping a beat. Variel curtsied as best as she could in the dress. She usually bowed but that felt..wrong in a dress.
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