[Silver Silver Tavern] Death's a Bloody Thing (Volinir)

[Aello]

Summer 80, 512 AV Aello was tired after a long day out in the woods; tracking rabbits which the filthy wolves turned out to have gotten first. Petching beasts, the girl thought as she lifted her legs and set them against the table as she slid the rest of her belongings onto the floor. Always getting their noses into everything, her mind added as her fingers idly stroked the supple curve of her father's old bow. The single item she allowed to rest on her lap while her eyes grazed. Taking in every portion of the bar from her vantage point, in the far right corner from the door. A place slick with shadow; adding a certain level of concealment to her form, causing her to feel a bit more at ease. The grey danced over her flesh, as knuckles rippled. Muscles pulsating beneath a bed of pale skin. "Wonder when one of those petching maids'll come and ask if they can take some of the pain away," Aello grumbled under her breath. "Or perhaps, drown it out with their filthy silver drink. Tastes more like piss than anything else." The girl fell silent as red pigmentation pushed past the gates, flooding her cheeks. Creating a rosy haze as she crossed her right leg over the left. This is a new bloody record for them anyway... taking more than a chime.

[Volinir Orchid]

Volinir needed a drink. It had been a long day, and he just wanted to unwind. When he walked into the packed tavern, the bartender's eyes widened, and he hurriedly gestured at him, barking something to the maid that was lost in the hubbub before drawing a finger across his throat. Most of the other patrons didn't remember what happened three seasons ago, but he did. "W-would you like something to drink, sir?" the girl squeaked, glancing nervously at his hands. He nodded courteously to her, a faint smile playing at his lips. "Sir... That's a new one." he thought wryly to himself, "Yes, please... A silver sliver, and perhaps some bread as well." At around the same time, his eyes fell on Aello. His amethyst irises shrank to glistening halos around a black void as his eyes cut through the dim in her corner. It made them smart, but who could blame him for being curious? He couldn't lip read, but it was quite obvious she was annoyed. A quick look around the inn made it quite obvious that hers was the only table with an empty seat. "Make that two silver slivers..." he said absently to the maid as he strolled to the vacant seat and settled himself in. A chime later, two mugs of liquor were on the table, along with a small plate of food. He slid one tankard to Aello, then started eating without another word. It was habit not to speak unless spoken to.

[Aello]

As Volinir's chair scraped across the hardwood floor, boards worn smooth with end's excessive grate, discolored in that darks slipped into sickly cherries, Aello pulled her feet off the table. A tick later, boiled soles, crusted with mud fell to the ground. Clods peeling away from supple leather, long broken in. Muddied flakes scattered across the surface as her chocolate eyes lifted to royal violet. A single hand came off her bow to catch the mug, as her gaze began to graze. Dancing over the Symenesta for a moment. Taking note of skin far more pallid than her own, flesh drawn tight over ivory bone. Pink lines inching around his neck, and crawling up the sides of his face. Marks of brutality the aurist knew only too well. Smiling wickedly, the girl flicked her wrist, sending the glass back down the solid sweep of the table in a heartbeat. "No thanks," she muttered under her breath, as the silver liquid sloshed along the side of its glassy confines. "Don't need that shyke clouding my head," she finished with a small sneer. Her eyes sparkling with glimpses of nearby flame. Flickering as vaporous tendrils rose from the cracks between the planks. Illuminating all that would have been lost, when left only to the mind and its simplistic eye. The girl fell silent then, for a time, as she scrutinized Volinir's form. Finding it surprising that one such as him would venture so openly into a bar, considering how most of Ravok treated more... exotic races. Aello's gaze settled on his lips, two pale lines stretched thin, from which crumbs dribbled onto chin. They scarcely clung, considering how he lacked a set of whiskers, as though he had yet to grow into his manhood. But his nails, elongated black claws more than anything else, seemed to dig. White powder used to dust, and the occasional frothen grain rested along the supple curve. As though it were but a hammock, and they nameless entities upon a hiatus. The aurist couldn't help but smirk at the man's disheveled appearance. He looks even more pathetic than me, she thought, as her eyes fell to dirt encrusted skirts. Browns rubbed into whites so ferociously, that she appeared to be a fine steak seeking final funeral pyre, so the herbs could settle in. The woman shifted uneasily in her seat as her gaze rose to meet Volinir's once more. To take note of the clippings which poured out of the corner of his mouth. It reminded Aello of the squirrels she so often hunted, the way he held the loaf of bread. The way most of the sustenance wound up on the floor, or in his lap. Again, the aurist smirked, as she chuckled silently to herself. "That any good?" she asked as her fingers drummed on the table top.

[Volinir Orchid]

Bread. Volinir never really knew what to think of it. The softer stuff could be chewed, which could be useful in avoiding drawing attention to oneself. It didn't agree very well with his stomach, however. A quick glance at her worn shoes and sullied skirt told him where she had been, or what her position was. He raised an eyebrow at her when she pushed the tankard back, then shrugged, "Suit yourself." and downed its contents. "Can't see what you'd use it for." The corner of his mouth twitched upward when he saw her examining him. He was used to people gawking at him at this point, though it didn't bring him any pleasure. "You've never seen a Symenestra before, azo?" Volinir shrugged at her question, his lips twisting into a mocking smile, sharp fangs flashing in the candlelight. "It's edible. Much like yourself." He wasn't in a good mood, and Aello's perceived teasing wasn't making it any better. For all his hostile language, though, he didn't hate her. Hate was more often than not too strong an emotion to describe a stranger. Though he was doing his best to conceal it, Volinir felt not spiteful, but sullen. For the most part, he was alone in Ravok, and his appearance and demeanor did little to change that. Most people didn't see that the isolation was self imposed, of course. They just saw a loudmouthed vagik. Volinir's smile faltered, and he returned to nibbling on his loaf of bread.

[Aello]

"Nah, it has just been a bit. Your kind tend not to walk among us, considering how easily many would come to sever your skin," Aello retorted as a cruel grin crossed her lips. A shimmer leapt into her eyes. Smoldering coals fixated on the gentle sweep of canines glistening with saliva. The supple curve of a Symenestra's fangs twisting into receding gum. The girl shrugged. "Do you honestly believe that someone as frail as you appear could spill the blood of a drunkard before they shed yours?" Aello asked. "Or even, that of a small girl? Seemingly unthreatening in form, and yet, if only you'd look at how the dirt has been rubbed into garment, woven into skin, perhaps you'd begin to wonder, and then realize what a fool you are." The huntress licked her lips, as though she had just dined on a meal of refined taste. One which caused her buds to burst as negative feeling subsided. She was mocking him again, and enjoying every minute. "It's amusing how the majority of your kind think the nail to be enough," Aello commented, her tone a rather playful one. "When they require something with a sharpened edge. A tougher blade." The girl's hand ran over the supple curve of her father's old bow. Petting it, as though it were a cat. Offering it a sort of reverence the Symenestra was likely to find a bit peculiar, and undeserved. Truly, it was. If only the girl knew... "Makes the pulsating rivers flow freely, as strings of blue and green are cut; as in the final instance of one's fleeting life," Aello finished. Not that you would know... He has yet to learn how to paint... OOCSorry this is both short, and absolute shyke.

[Volinir Orchid]

"Do you honestly believe that someone as frail as you appear could spill the blood of a drunkard before they shed yours?" Volinir smirked, raking his nails along the table, black claws carving canyons into the wood. "Appearances can be deceiving, huntress. One such as you should know." He rolled his eyes at her insistence that his nails were unsatisfactory. "A blade can be misplaced, or disarmed. The tooth and claw will never leave you." "Makes the pulsating rivers flow freely, as strings of blue and green are cut; as in the final instance of one's fleeting life," His brow furrowed at that, and he looked down at his half finished bread. Her mention of blood reminded him of Viratas, and the not too few transgressions he had made recently. He had not been a very good Symenestra lately. That would have to change. The distraction was momentary, though. He still had an outsider to put in place. Looking up, he sneered, "To what end? Would you shed blood wantonly, without purpose, simply because you can? Would you do it for your own selfish ends? I doubt you've family to feed, unless you are known by more than you appear to be." he took another swig of liquor. "But then, I suppose I ought to be more understanding. The subtleties of community are lost by savages such as yourself, after all."

[Aello]

"They may be pulled, as anything else," Aello replied rather calmly as her hand continued to pass over the surface. Her eyes narrowing to slits as the Symenestra continued to speak. Her gaze hardening as she clenched her teeth and spoke. "No, there is no need to shed blood without cause. Not that you would know, considering your kind. The way men harvest." She paused, allowing her jaw to slacken a moment. "But then again, how different is it from what I do? If you'd consider what my arrows do to the animals. It's a sort of rape, no? Except in my fashion, I serve more than one. More than the pitiful self." The girl came close to spitting she had grown so frustrated with the vile creature. Red pigmentation flooding her cheeks as her fingers furled, drawing across the weapon far more roughly than before, although, not enough so to cause it any damage. "In that the work done by a huntress, or even a hunter for that matter, feeds the bellies of many. Prolonging their lives by offering sustenance. While your work may fill the belly of one and sate the lust of another... it ultimately brings death. Doesn't it? As the poison sinks into the stream. Blackening rivers meant to run red?" The huntress smirked. "And as for a family... well, it's none of your concern. But all the same, that of a huntress is never traditional. In that friends become closer than family. They are family, the ones that follow in my wake. Share my shadow." Muddied eyes flashed dangerously. "And what of yours? Did you offer them to your young, or have you failed to get far enough in for that?" Her nails drew lazily over the supple curve. "If anything stranger, you are the one who knows nothing of community. Nor continuity, considering what your kind has done. What you are likely thinking and hoping of doing." She paused. "Among humans you are vile filth. Among most of the other races you are the same." The girl shook her head lightly, allowing the fraying edges of her chestnut colored hair to tickle the sides of her face. Splay across her pale pink lips before falling away; returning to their rightful place. "It is not us that makes you savage, stranger. It is simply the way you were born. How you act towards all that does not fall within your own race." Again, Aello paused, allowing her words to linger. "Don't you dare speak of another thing you do not know again," she warned, as she pulled her eyes away. Flicking them back, towards her quiver in suggestion, before letting them sup on skin the shade of moonshine.

[Volinir Orchid]

The Symenestra's eyes narrowed. "Of course, someone like you would accept slop coming from sailor's mouths. Have you ever been to Kalinor? Have you ever bothered to even make the slightest effort to learn anything about us?" he bit his thumb at her, "I think not. You're deluded. You compare your own hunting to something that doesn't exist. You think yourself wise and poetic?" Volinir scoffed, "Your verse is pathetic, and your grand declaration that an entire group of people are nothing more than animals only reveals you for the pompous, ignorant boor that you are. Would you say that Kelvic are all stupid, or that every Syliran is a zealot? You think humans the only race capable of diversity. It's absolutely pathetic." he took another sip of sliver, curling lips displaying elongated teeth. "Friends? My dear, I'd be shocked if you had a casual acquaintance." Aello's threat only served to make him grip the edge of the table, his smirk twisting into a snarl. "Girl, don't think yourself omnipotent for possessing a weapon. Now, while I'm sure you just love solving your quarrels with violence, I think Jeb wouldn't like that." a short tilt of his head indicated the barkeep absorbed in wiping his counter with a cotton cloth. "So then, tell me, what makes you think you're a scholar on all things Symenestra?" the smirk started to come back, "Please, amuse me."

[Aello]

"Only what can be found in books," Aello replied, as her eyes grazed over the Symenestra's form. Wondering how he could have the heart to be so bold, when he appeared so very frail. When his form was so very weak. "And as for the rest, well, it depends on the being. Although, one is not likely to think little of the wild hearted. Much knowledge can be rendered from their innate ability to hunt." The woman paused as a peculiar grin crossed her features. "You are no better, dear stranger," she continued, as she ventured a cursory glance at the barkeep. "Although you contain your rage through a rather thinly veiled extension of your own tolerance. Now as for Jeb," she began as her eyes sailed back to Volinir, "he has seen more than his share of bar fights. Another will not cause his heart to ache. Or his ears to bleed, eyes water.." The huntress paused a moment, considering her words. "Never said or suggested such a thing. It isn't a surprise though, that you would choose to twist another's words. It happens quite often with your lot, doesn't it? Since you can't actually back up your claims, you use harsh words to make the cauldron churn in the hopes the vaporous tendrils and transparent bubbles will fall in your favor. When in reality, it only lends more light to your delicacy. The way the gossamer veil falls..." "Illuminating all your exploits as man severs the strings," Aello finished, her muddied irises glimmering as she took a moment to fall silent. Allowing her words to settle in. "Do tell, dear stranger, just what is your fixation on bonds. Friends or familial, and to the nature of one's blood?"

[Volinir Orchid]

Volinir allowed Aello's scathing criticism of Symenestra nature as espoused by books to drift in one ear and out the other. Whatever she read was meaningless. What one read could never compare to what one was. He was paying just enough attention to notice she was becoming verbose once more, though. "Again with the big words and metaphors. Just because you're hard to understand doesn't mean you're being eloquent, my dear deluded warrior-poet." he said. "Do tell, dear stranger, just what is your fixation on bonds. Friends or familial, and to the nature of one's blood?" That got an actual smile out of the Symenestra. "Oh, so you want to learn? There just might be hope for you yet." he said dryly. Volinir set his elbows on the table before continuing, his chin resting on top of interlocked fingers. "It's the nature of people, and, to a lesser degree, animals, to form families. Communities. Cities. One can't have a city without a community first, however, nor can a community form before families do. To put it more simply, civilization can't exist without bonds, and I think you can agree that without civilization, we're little better than beasts." he finished with a short bow of his head. "And the first bonds, the ones that come most easily, the ones that come instinctively, are the ones between family." A faint twinkle came to Volinir's eye as he continued. "Blood is, and means, much more than people give it credit for, my friend. Blood makes families, families make communities, communities make civilization. In a sense, blood is civilization. Of course, most take it, and their kin for granted." the Sym said regretfully with a slight shake of his head. "They don't respect what blood has given them. They shed it without a second thought. They're barely even aware of what they're doing. It would be pitiable, if it weren't so disgusting." With that, Volinir leaned back in his chair to give Aello time to absorb what was said, and to respond.