#wanderingmercenary

"That sounds lovely."

Oh! Someone he’d yet to meet! Bowing his head slightly in greeting, he adds in a soft ‘hello!’ before turning his attention to the cookies stacked up around the room, then back at the nice lady that… smelled kind of like a dog?

“Well, if you can’t have cookies…” He starts, sorting through the itinerary of other items he’s got squirreled away in his room. After a search, he returns with a small glass jar filled with peanut butter. “I do have this! I think it’s what you wanted — we don’t have it back home in Valentia, but some folks from other places recommended to have it with bread and such. Didn’t get to try, but there’s always next time.” His hands extend, jar on hand, with a grin on his face. “Here you go!”

“You think you can beat me just ‘cause you’re bigger? Well, I’ll surprise you; watch this!” Ike threatened, trying to shift Kai one way or another in this little wrestling match of theirs. His boots scuffed in the dirt, and he really was putting his all into moving her, but no matter how strong he was for a child, it didn’t really compare to someone like Kai.

With one, swift movement, Ike was left grunting on his back -- a surprisingly shrill screech escaping him at suddenly being pinned.

@wanderingmercenary vs. @simple-and-clean358 Coin Toss: Van strikes first

“We began this bracket with a vampiric and a lycanthropic and now we have a match between two different lycanthropics! What was that saying about lone wolves howling alone?”

.

“We can see our competitors transforming now, with Van rising in height into the wolf-bear hybrids that wolfskin are known for. Meanwhile, Kai has grown into a large, white wolf. I’m not familiar with their race, but all the same, it shall be a good match to watch.”

VAN: 9 strike ; 19 defense 

KAI: 4 strike v. 14 defense

VAN: 4 strike v. 10 defense

KAI: 14 strike v. 12 defense

Kai manages to get behind Van and pounces on the wolkskin like an Akita leaping onto a bear. This knocks Van forward, breaking his concentration and Van reverts back into his human form.

VAN: 19 strike v. 14 defense

Just after reverting back, Van rolls and cuffs Kai with his elbow, catching the white wolf hard enough to break concentration. Kai shifts back into human form as well. . . 

“It looks like this has just become a fist fight, rather than a furred one!”

KAI: 18 strike v. 19 defense

VAN: 12 strike v. 12 defense

The pair get each other into competing holds, with one in a headlock while the other is grappled around their middle. They growl and break apart to strike again.

KAI: 15 strike v. 11 defense

VAN: 5 strike v. 7 defense

KAI: 14 strike v. 4 defense

Kai reaches up to touch the necklace given to them as a favor before lunging forward in the final strike. For a moment, it looks like it will miss, but the white wolf-shifter connects, landing a last hit against Van and winning the match.

“Bravo! It looks like our white wolf friend will be continuing on to the next round!”

“ I swear, I’m gonna find th’ most hole-in-th’-wall tavern in Ylisstol and just hide out there ‘till it’s over.”

@wanderingmercenary

Send me 🔥 and my muse will have to confess insecurity, fear or dark thought no matter how much they want to hide it

“Sometimes… Well, sometimes I think about my father’s decisions as Exalt. Before Plegia, my father was well-loved. His policies were fair and just, and my earliest memories of him were of a kind and caring man. Then came the dreams he had about an evil that would rise out of the sands and swallow the world up in darkness and despair. He wanted so badly to avert these prophecies that he named an entire people as heretics and sought to wipe them out…

OH THAT MAKES ME SO CURIOUS??? How would Puck react? Is this the first time he’s returned? Is the trip a surprise? Is the girl a surprise? Did he bring her as a buffer so Puck would not murder him in front of company? What sort of girl would Gabe fall for? I mean, it would be a BIG deal to bring an outsider into the vestiges of his past life. He would have so much baggage. 

Thisby is a place where:

His parents died

His one true love best friend died

His dreams died

He had an affair with a married woman, who is probably still living there

He almost left his younger siblings homeless

He is known to everybody on the island and they all know his business better than he does

He still smells like fish

How much would she know about Thisby and what it means to Gabe? Would he conceal everything from her behind his shiny new mainland facade? Would the evasiveness and tension and the shame and the hurt spark and explode among the bonfires? Would they cross paths with Peg? Would there be jealousy or, possibly worse, indifference? Would anyone’s heart be cut out neat? Or would all the hearts be too broken to be worth the effort?

Or perhaps this mainland girl has long-since cracked Gabe’s shell, freeing him from the weight of secrets so that he could become rather philosophical about it all? Would her eyes light up with curiosity and recognition as the things she knows about Gabe suddenly come into focus in this strange place? Could he dance with her through the streets like a tourist? Would he be able to find some bit of happiness on Thisby, enough to carry away in his pocket as the ferry takes him home—to her home—to their home?