Roll with it.

by **Seven Xu** on March 20th, 2012, 12:02 am

Spring 43, 512 AV
Twenty bells.

Alvadas had been kind to its denizens, this evening; with the threat of djed-warped beasts waning—for a second time—the sun had lit the sky ablaze and the Trickster had met it with a sheet of hoarfrost. Every rooftop glistened and wept in the evening’s dying light. The Sun and Stars was not exempt; every time a weathered door would scrape furrowed hardwood, a chill breeze would reach into the small tavern.

When no one managed to come or go for a few chimes, the comfort of the hearth would warm fingers and inspire merriment, a welcome change from muttered complaints over the late winter frost and the tavern’s lack of bar staff. It was slow, when it got busy; Seven was alone, his paltry height stretched atop a barstool in his attempt to mend their moving mosaic.

“Gods.”

Seven hissed as he sucked air through his teeth. Two white hands fell from tiles and defeated shoulders slumped. Several more tiny shards of sky fell, when he relinquished his futile hold on a broken ceiling, and he cursed, dropped from his precarious perch atop a wobbling stool, and gathered fragments of orange and pink from the floor. His burned foot rebuked his efforts, and he winced.

“Ale, ale!” Seven’s head swiveled over his shoulder, and he fought off the urge to wrinkle his nose. That’s one way to ask for it. Deliberate honey swarmed saccharine over his voice, when he replied, and made for the bar to fill empty mugs with lukewarm amber.

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 20th, 2012, 12:29 am

It was a chilly night.... That alone was enough to make Bones feel drowsy and tired... He was a dhani... And his kind, the constrictor, did not do well with the cold... He had spent the day searching for and fighting monsters, keeping the city safe... So he was rather sore, and ready to rest his body...

But he had not yet found his way home, and so was still walking as a chill wind blew by... And then he noticed a place near him, he had drank there a few times... Though he was not really one for alcohol... But he was so sleepy from the cold, he doubted he would make it home if he did not warm up somehow...

So he found himself pushing the door open sleepily, he probably looked like he was about to drop... Slamming the door behind him, he made his way to the bar, and sat down heavily...

He almost dozed off right there, but he was starting to wake a bit from the warmth of the hearth. Eventually he was alert enough to gain the attention of the barkeep, and to sleepily ask for a drink... "I will take a... lager..."

He then finally looked up, and noticed that the ceiling looked different... Certainly not the same as it had last time... But he could not quite put his finger on what was different... Maybe it was just the cold seeping into his brain, as the door was opened again...

by **Seven Xu** on March 20th, 2012, 1:20 am

“That’s a silver rim,” Seven remarked, sliding the wooden mug of frothing lager to the bedraggled man at his bar. It was surprising, most drank the cheaper swill; it all came from the same dock, anyway. Seven couldn’t tell the difference, but he trusted his partner was of competent stock and discerning taste. “You can pay now, or later, if you plan on staying.”

However, it wasn’t Seven’s place to threaten a man twice his size with the consequences of not paying.

The halfblood bent to pluck two glassy tiles from the floor. They swarmed with the palette of twilight. He dropped them on the countertop, and caught the silvered stare of his newest patron. “We’re falling apart, here,” his blood irises drifted ceilingward, “But I should be thankful we’re here to fall.”

That should have been the end of it, but Seven found himself dwelling on an unnaturally bright stare. Like moons, set deep on a sun-ravaged face. Lids fluttered; he could have been wandering the streets for most of the day, or longer. The halfblood could sympathize. He reached within himself, tried to summon charisma that was not his own. Another call went out for drink, wine this time, but Seven ignored it.

He poured another mug and dipped an increasingly obvious stare into the foam head that hid its golden prize. Polished wood met a pale bottom lip, and he drank. “A lot of people come in here with stories of other colonies and cities; it’s hard to tell fact from fallacy, with most of them. Have you heard anything?”

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 20th, 2012, 1:53 am

From far off, Bones heard the man mention paying... Bones took a sip of the lager, before feeling around in his pack, and eventually coming out with a pair of silvers... That would pay for this one, and the next one. He did not want to have to reach back and go through the effort of getting out another...

Of course his intimidating size and demeanor usually did scare people. There was certainly something about him, something animal like... And when he caught someone in his glare... It was like he was examining prey... Or so he had been told by some guy... Though Bones could not quite recall who... He was pretty sure he was dead... Oh well, people often died around Bones, not even always by his own hand... He just tended to be were the dangerous things were going on...

Bones looked at what the man was speaking off... The ceiling... And finally he noticed what was wrong, it seemed... Damaged... Bits were falling off, and cracked... The enchanted ceiling was not what it once was...

As Bones took another sip of his lager, he looked up to see the man was still there. He seemed to have poured another mug, though he was still holding it, not passing it off to some patron. Then he took a sip for himself... Well he hoped that meant he was going to drink it himself... Not that he sipped orders before delivering them...

Bones listened as the man spoke to him, and took a few moments to think. After taking one more sip, he finally responded, taking his own time in doing so, and speaking with his snake speech.

"Not much... I have been here ssrough sse whole ssing... Ssough I do hear bitsss and piesesss... It doesss ssseem sse damage isss widessspread... It wasss not jussst usss who wasss hit... Ssough Caiyha alone knowsss who all wasss affected..."

Bones took another sip of his lager, before continuing on...

"I can tell you one ssing... Keep your door latched. Monstersss are everywhere... I wasss out fighting and hunting ssem all day... Me and sssome guysss cleaned out a nessst of ratsss ssat had taken up resssidence in a abandoned ruin of a ssshack... Essept ssey weren't normal ratsss, but djed mutated ssings... Each one was 4 foot long, if ssey were a inch, wiss a mouth full of fangsss and teess each sse the better part of a foot long..."

Bones took another sip of his lager, as he finished his tale, his reason for looking so exhausted obvious, and the smell coming from his gladius on his back even more so... He had cleaned it... But the stench just would not come out... He turned to the man with red eyes once more...

"You ssseen or fought any of ssem yet? All over sse city... Oh... And I'm Bonesss by the way..."

He said this last bit, putting out his hand to the man, imitating the human greeting he had seen so many times...

by **Seven Xu** on March 20th, 2012, 2:59 am

Seven listened intently to the stranger’s tale.

At least, that is what he tried to do. It was a task to make sense of the man called Bonesss, who sipped and hissed a barely intelligible story; Seven regretted the decision to say anything at all.

Perplexity had twisted the halfblood’s countenance; his mouth was drawn wide and flat and his brows were attempting to join in the middle of his forehead. A hand snaked out between them to fumble around the pair of silver rims he was granted, and he took another sip of the lager as if it could wash the candid look from his face.

“Thanks for the advice,” reds tipped between that unnerving stare and watered down amber before he relinquished his mug in favor of shaking the proffered hand. White skin clashed against calloused copper. The nails on Seven’s thumb and forefinger were black as pitch, and he had let them grow beyond his fingertips. Combined with the waxen complexion, it was hard for any southern Kalean to overlook whose blood ran through his veins. “I think.”

The hand retreated behind the wooden mug again. Seven’s mouth reveled in bitter aftertaste, before he took another drink. “I’m Seven,” he paused, pushed on the back of one venomous white point with his tongue, and added, “my name, that is. Seven.” Ssseven. Seven grinned behind his mug’s rim.

“So what sort of accent is that? It’s nothing I’ve ever heard before.” Only after he asked, did he realize how callous such a question could seem; maybe the poor man was thrown on his head as a child, or maybe he had a fascination with the sound of his own voice. Lunatic or lackwit, Seven ultimately decided that neither was capable of finding offense in the inquiry.

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 20th, 2012, 4:09 am

Having concluded his story, Bones took another sip of his drink, having noticed something else about his drinking partner... He was very pale... and had red eyes... And had black nails... Though maybe those were just painted... He wracked his brains trying to think of who else he had met that those qualities had reminded him of...

But he could not recall... They had an interesting meeting... They had run into some mercs... Been attacked by them... Killed the lot of them... Bones had nudged one headfirst and unconscious into a pond... Were he assumably drowned... And each of them had gotten rid of a corpse in there own way... Though he had not seen how she planned to eat him...

He tried to recall if she had ever said were she was from, but she had not... And since he had almost no knowledge of races besides his own, myrians, and humans... He was not able to make the connection between this man, and the woman who he had met, who most would have known was a Symenestran.

Bones of course did not take offense at the question, he heard it far to often. Everyone noticed his speech problem, which was common amongst dhani, but since few knew of his race except those who had lived near them... They were little better at figuring his race out, than he was at figuring out any non-humans.

"Assent... I am not sssure... I have alwaysss talked like ssisss... Were I am from... Everyone doesss... "

Bones paused there, taking another swig. But when he continued on, he was decided vague in his wording, not saying exactly were he was from. He tended to be protective of his dhani nature, and the secret that he was one, due to the reaction that being one would often entail... People thinking he was a monster... Running away screaming... Calling the guard, in cities that had one...

"I am from sse far sssouss of here... A much greener place... Lotsss of treesss... Much more life... Ssough ssisss city doesss have itsss own qualitiesss which I like... And it usssually hasss much lessss ssingsss trying to eat me..."

Most would be able to tell that Bones was speaking of Falyndar, though obviously little more than that. Though really there was no way to tell Bones was a dhani, unless he changed form before him. Most would just assume that Bones was a snake kelvic, which was a much more well known race, if they were able to discern his non-human nature at all. Though sometimes it could be picked up by the many ways in which he did not get human expressions or emotions down.

Wanting to carry the conversation away from his heritage, Bones pointed out some things about Seven, which he was only meaning as polite conversation. Though might also be taken as an accusation, or an insult... Bones had never really gotten human conversation and tones down, and so often what he meant to say in passing, was taken as a threat, or even for some odd reason, blackmail...

"I sssee you remind me of a woman I once met here in Alvadasss... Ssshe had black nailsss like yoursss... Ssough longer... And sssimilar red eyesss... And sse pale ssskin... Ssshe wasss a very good climber, could almossst go up a tree like ssshe wasss made of air... Could you by any chance be related? "

Of course Bones had no idea of Seven's partial heritage. In fact he had never bothered to ask the other woman's. He had only heard the word Symenestra in passing, and did not even know it was a race. Though it was funny how so often things Bones meant to say came across wrong... Or turned out to be the very things someone did not want spoken...

ooc/speech :

by **Seven Xu** on March 21st, 2012, 3:04 am

A woman?

The foreigner had struck a nerve, that was obvious, when the simpering halfblood on the other side of the counter planted his mug on the polished countertop with an audible thud. “First, I’m no woman,” he muttered tersely, white fingers like bones reaching for a near-empty mug to refill it. They were even, now. “Let’s get that squared off, once and for all.”

It hardly counted as confusion, but Seven was no stranger to his occupation; more than once he had been the target of roving hands that had found out for themselves that the blond behind the counter was not, in fact, a young girl. For that, he had long since affixed a sheathed dagger to his hip. Reflex had coaxed a distracted hand to its hilt, but it fell away, when his mug called him.

Seven drank.

“Second, I’m a bastard.” His shoulders lifted and sagged, “A Widow without the venom. It’s there, of course, but I’m no relative of this woman you met.” There’s a fool by the docks that spits when he talks, too; are you two related? Thoughts unspoken brought a thin smile to the halfblood’s lips. “I’m from the west, myself,” Seven offered to push the topic along. “Lhavit. Now I’m an Alvad,” his eyes tipped to the fragmented ceiling, “It takes time getting used to.”

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 21st, 2012, 3:39 pm

Even with Bones minimal skills at understanding humans, it was easy to see that Seven was now angry. Of course Bones had no idea why, he had simply been stating some facts, and so took a moment to try and puzzle through what he might have said to anger him...

But he could not think of anything... He was being really nice, had not made one death threat on the guy! For him, that was being exceedingly nice! Maybe it was just his problem, not Bones'...

"I never sssaid you were a woman, jussst ssat sssome of your qualitiesss reminded me of her... I can tell a male human from a female one... And what are you talking about? What venom are you wissout? Isss ssat sssome weird sssaying you people ssspeak? I lossse a bit in transsslation sssometimesss..."

Perhaps at this point, Seven might realize that Bones had no clue that the man here was any part symenestra, and so his defensive statement utterly confused him. He also had no idea about the reference to "venom", not knowing that sym had it. The only venom he knew of was in his snake cousins, the vipers, who were well known for it. But he was sure this guy was not one, so was even more confused.

Along with that, Bones did not completely understand the fact that there were many different races in the world... He knew of dhani, and of kelvics... And of myrians.. And the rest... Well he knew of humans... But he tended to consider everyone who was not a dhani, kelvic, or myrian, into the slot of being human. The rest all looked the same to him.

"The wessst?... I've been ssat way a bit... Wandered for a while before sssettling in Alvadasss... Yeah, Alvadasss doesss take time to adjust... But I have been here for 15 yearsss now, ssso am pretty adjusted..."

ooc/speech :

by **Seven Xu** on March 25th, 2012, 12:44 am

The speech-impaired stranger seemed rather hung up on blood. A finger dove beneath a white upper lip, and he pressed a single white point, wincing as reflex took over and rewarded him with a spot of cloudy spittle. It dribbled down an unfazed palm. “Venom,” he repeated, wiping his hand across the slick-polished countertop; it left behind a trail of glistening wetness, “You’ve never heard the turn of phrase, kissed by a Symenestra, I assume.”

Even those who had only fables and horror stories of creatures from a cold abyss had associated bittersweet feelings with a Widow’s kiss. Seven preferred the hungry lips of one who deliberately ignored hearsay. He sucked in a bottom lip, and turned his ruby stare back to their broken ceiling. “I’m not sure I’ll ever adjust. It takes an open mind and a child’s heart, to simply accept illusion for what it is, and jump headfirst and unquestioning into chaos. I need more than that; that’s the reason I’ll always be outside looking in.” A cold wooden rim tipped against his lips again, and he took a long pull of his amber bounty.

There was a pause. Seven swallowed, and drummed impatient fingertips across a dying crescent of wet shimmer. Then, he dismissed himself in something of an apology. “I get wordy when I drink. Did you need anything else? We don’t serve food, but—”

“Ey, I asked for wine a lifetime ago.”

Seven turned, and was met with a disgruntled sneer from an ignored patron. Hot red crept up the halfblood’s neck as cold shot down his spine, and he stooped to gather a mug from a shelf below. “My apologies, ser, I must have missed that.” Sour red filled a waiting wooden mouth, and was slid across the counter.

“He missed it.” The man barked a laugh. His breath smelled of drink, and his teeth were brown and crooked. The tavern had never boasted a refined clientele. “Maybe I missed paying you for it, cocksucker Widow.” He turned with his newly filled mug, and lifted his shoulders in a dismissive shrug. “You know, it’s a wonder they let you kids open this shit-hole in the first place.”

Seven’s hands had become fists, and white skin had turned red beneath the orange glow of lamplight. “Idiots,” he murmured, more to himself than to Bones, “All of them. I shouldn’t even be here; pretending to like people was never my strong point, and I can’t raise my voice otherwise or they’ll beat me bloody and take the damn booze. Victor was always better at this.”

by **Ssafirsotibones** on March 25th, 2012, 9:31 pm

Bones looked at seven a bit oddly... It was not fear... He certainly did not fear the slight man... As for the venom... He had faced dhani with enough to kill in one bite... He did feel a bit of wonder, as to why exactly the man had fangs... As he was clearly not a dhani... Maybe some other race Bones had not heard off...

He was not to good at telling races apart... They all looked like weak little humans to him... Still more sentient to other base creatures, but not nearly as much as a dhani was...

"I try to not put much ssstock in rumorsss and ssstoriesss... Ssey ssso often get ssingsss wrong..."

Bones said this, thinking back to the stories he had on occasion overheard of what people thought dhani were. And though he was not going to bother correcting them, it was funny how often they got it wrong, or confused details from other stories... A dhani getting big enough to swallow a house... One that could inject its venom into a water supply, and kill an entire village in the sands...

"If sse fact ssat I believe it isss falssse hasss no effect on it... Isss ssere any point in not believing? You may asss well sssee asss true what you have no control over, and cannot be changed... Even if it ssseemsss impossible... Sse rulesss of sse world don't alwaysss apply sse sssame here asss in osser placesss..."

Then he looked over his shoulder as he heard a rude man talking to his new acquaintance. As he made some rude mention to Seven, and threatened to not pay, Bones smiled at him. It was clear that Seven was disgruntled over this, as he turned red. Of course he as the worker could not do anything... But Bones certainly could... And he was all warmed up... Itching to stretch a bit... Might as well go get the money the man owed...

Though he might not want to get Seven in trouble... Maybe he should at least ask first... So he turned to Seven, and spoke once more.

"He doesssn't look ssso tough... I could take him, and get sse money he owes... He callsss himssself a man... But I doubt he could bessst me in a manly contessst, to ssshow our ssstrengss."

Saying this, Bones showed seven his arm, and flexed, which though appeared quite small at first glance, was actually deceivingly strong, and clearly packed with muscles in every fiber. Much more than a human normally had in so little room, with little visible muscles unless you got very close.

speech :