#romstarter

This wasn’t Rexly’s usual dive, this tavern was pretty nice compared to where he usually stopped for drinks. He’d been drawn in by the live music sign his usual spot didn’t really have live music a bit of entertainment(that wasn’t a bar brawl) while he had a quite drink sounded nice. 

He’d arrived early before the music had started and stole a booth to himself. He sipped his drink as patrons flooded in closer to show time. The singer must have been popular enough to draw this kind of crowd. Seats were becoming scarce and Rexly felt a presence of someone standing over him as he sipped his drink watching the singer as they sang. 

“You need something?” he asked turning his head. He pointed to the bench opposite his in the booth “Seat’s free if you want it, I’m not expecting company.” 

“If the question is ‘does your face hurt’, I’m gonna make your face hurt, so. Different question or go.” The vague threat the half-orc gave was accompanied by the point of a finger, a warning in itself. It wasn’t like the fight he’d just gotten in had been bad or anything, barely enough for the other guy to get hits in, but Grim just hated dumb questions when he wasn’t the one asking them. “So, what?”

Sarkesh had wandered in to the city center to look for something to eat. Lunch time had long passed but he’d been so busy sparring that he’d missed noon competely. He was fighting tonight, a big match for a spot above where he currently was. Though he’d been stopped a few times by some regulars at the fight club the third time being stopped when he just wanted something to eat was getting tiring. He wasn’t sure if they recognized him or not 

“Oh can I help you with something? I’m actually on my way to get something to eat.” 

The transition from too close to a battlefield into an actual city always threw Koda off a bit, when he did it. It was two different kinds of loud, and two different kinds of people looking at him. Near the battlefields, he got stares for his nice clothes. Outside of them, well...he was probably getting looks because his nice clothes were a mess. His main reminder to check what he looked like came when he realized someone else was looking at him. Glancing down, ready to fix his clothes and make a decent first impression, he noticed what was...well, that was definitely blood.

“Oh, damn. That’s. Not mine,” he said out loud, giving a snap of prestidigitation to clean it up. Once he was satisfied he didn’t look a mess, he grinned, but then realized what he said. “And it isn’t as bad as that sounded.”

Lore had found the best spot in the city that they could look at the sky without climbing on anything. Maybe some people wanted to walk where they were sprawled, they’d seen enough feet pass by, but oh well. Lore was looking at the clouds now, and they weren’t about to move until they felt like trying to earn some money. Grinning to theirself, Lore tucked a hand behind their head, humming quietly, ignoring the world around them until they couldn’t any more.

“Oh, ew, that’s not a cloud color.....oh wait, you’re a person! Hi!” they greeted, lifting their free hand to wave at whoever it was that decided to look down at them. “Watcha doin’?”

When one of the librarians at the academy had suggested that Hanna rent a cart for all the books they were checking out, Hanna had almost considered the idea before it became apparent that the librarian had been joking. Now, as they settled down with a cup of coffee at the closest café to the academy, a towering stack of books obscuring them from the streets, they were relieved they could get some reading done without the oppressive and claustrophobic walls that the campus seemed to have as of late. They were just taking their first sip of coffee, ready to indulge in bright, bitter taste, when the screeching noise of a chair being pushed backwards startled them just enough for their elbow to shoot out as their head turned towards the noise. With a clatter, the tower of books on Hanna’s table went tumbling down, cascading across the dirty stone street and flopping open on their bellies like lazy cats in the afternoon sun.

Gasping, Hanna put their coffee down and got to their feet, panic in their eyes. They should have known what a bad idea it was to take so many books out at once. The risk of one of them getting lost or damaged only grew the further away from the academy that Hanna took them, and Hanna could not afford to pay for most of these books if they were destroyed. Scrambling down to the ground, Hanna quickly tried to gather them up into their arms, checking them thoroughly for any tears or stains.

The sun was barely sneaking over the horizon as Efrain trudged across what remained of the docks in Whale Water Port. The wrecked hulls of ships no longer smoldered, but still haunted the water. Sections of the dock were missing entirely and other sections had compacted onto each other into a mess of splintered, broken boards. Behind him the city continued to toil in the aftermath. 

The days of panicked, flurried activity to get to as many survivors as possible had passed. Now it was time to rebuild, to remove bodies and see to them, and to try and move on in the face of Ivana’s taunting. This time, the silent moments where he was no longer needed as acutely, were always the most stifling to Efrain. He could cut down dozens of men a night, and had, but it didn’t change a thing. Homes were still dust, industry destroyed, and children were now parentless. And yet he’d keep doing it because perhaps one fewer child would be sent to the orphanages. Today he hoped there were at least two fewer, but that kind of hope only ever backfired. 

Efrain felt like hell. The clerics could only heal so much and he’d refused treatment for anything non-lethal. Many others had as well. 

Just as he was about to head back into the city, back to the bustle of other soldiers and citizens, he heard a creak of salty wood behind him and he turned to spot the newcomer. “Morning,” he greeted, purposefully leaving off the “good” usually customarily tacked onto the phrase. 

Date: May 21 Time: Late evening Location: Sideway street in Khaggon

@efraincrayhorn​

It appeared to be a common occurence to have more shadow than light in a city like Khaggon. Especially in the less affluent parts of town, where the workers resided and the streets were less likely to be overrun with guards and other martial representatives of the law. Ash had seen more of the king’s soldiers lately on her journeys back and forth between Myrefall and Khaggon. It was the sort of travel that allowed her plenty of time to experience the goings-on that the cities and settlements might not be the most privy to.

Clad in simple street wear and a dark cloak, Ash had been meeting with a new acquaintance over a few drinks, and she may have overdone it on the drinking part of it. She wasn’t too bad off, just a little off-balance and... Oh, who was she kidding, she was obviously past the point of tipsy by now. 

“You know...” Ash froze at the sound of an unfamiliar voice nearby. She turned around to see a pair of humans walk towards her, a man and a woman. “I was expecting the Liberator to be a bit tougher-lookin’ than this.”

The woman let out a dark chuckle. “It’s always the ones you least expect, isn’t it? Just ‘cause you look sweet and innocent like this doesn’t we don’t know what you’re really all about.”

Ash stopped herself from swaying too much and adopted as much of a confused face as possible. “I’m sorry... Do I know you?” She looked from the woman back to the man, playing the part of confused passer-by like she’d done plenty of times before. The Liberator... That was a new one.

The man seemed to buy it as he looked towards his partner. “Did... Do we have the right one?”

“You know those shapechangers.” She brandished the longsword at her side and threw Ash a stone cold stare. “Whether or not she’s the one, there’s no need to go back now.” The sword came out of its scabbard, pointed towards her. “You’re coming with us, or you die at our hands.”

“I... Please, I’m not who you think I am...” Her voice was shaky, partly from fear and partly to keep up the innocent act, but it seemed like they had made up their mind. “Help! Someone, please help!”

She really didn’t want to fight them and blow her cover like this, but that seemed to be what was happening here.