PM to join Howling at the Moon (-Gianne-)

[Ishara Dossari]

When:The Eve of the 61st Day of Fall, Year 512AV
Where: Beaches, not far from Sanctuary



Three bottles of wine sat across from her, and Ishara stared at the firelight reflecting off the deep green of the glass, contemplating.

She'd come by it honestly enough. A frown darkened her eyes as she considered the truth of that inner statement...'Honestly' was a relative term, depending on what perspective you took on the whole situation. While threading her way through the streets of Riverfall this afternoon, an overturned wine cart had caused quite the hassle. Ishara chipped in, along with several others, to help pick up the cases of wine and load them back on the cart. The driver was a lean, wiry old man who wailed over the shattered bottles as strangers drew near to help. In fact, Ishara had the feeling that the assistance of so many hands had more to do with shutting the man up and getting him on his way than actually helping him.

Which is probably why these three bottles were overlooked, amidst the shattered wreckage of a broken crate and more broken bottles. The cart had already lumbered off when Ishara discovered them. Her cry of discovery died on her lips as she rose on tiptoe in the streets, trying to see which way the cart had gone, only to find him swallowed by the crowd. An hour of fruitless searching later, and Ishara threw in the metaphorical towel. So, here she was. Camped out on the beach before a small bonfire, evading the crisp edge of the autumn evening and debating on whether or not to sample the goods across from her...or continue her search for the winemaker in the morning.

It might not even be good wine!...Ah, but that was unlikely. Ishara knew of no winemakers in Riverfall reputed to be bad. This was good fortune, if anything! A wry smile replaced the frown from earlier, and she jabbed at the fire with a stick, sending a volley of sparks spiraling into the darkening sky. Fortune indeed! You could sell them, dump them, or drink them...Drinking by one's self was an activity that was definitely considered inappropriate, so that fetching idea withered and died. Selling them had some appeal, but if she were caught...Ishara's frown returned, mixed with a sense of dread as she pictured the wizened old face of the winemaker screeching at her indignantly over his 'snitched' wine.

"I should dump them out," sighed Ishara, rising from the sand and striding across the fire. She hefted one of the bottles up, studying the stained label against the warm glow of the fire, watching the light gleam across the bottle's surface. A shame...

[Gianne Basete]

Usually Gianne was quick to fall asleep each night, but not this time. Minor nightmares flitted through her dreaming mind and when she finally awoke she was fully alert and unable to drift off again. And yet she lie their a few chimes, staring at the ceiling of her room deep in the Within. Rhy was curled up against her hip, breathing deep and rhythmic. The sign of someone sound asleep. Lucky dog. Gingerly, so as to not awake her slumbering bondmate, she slipped the covers off and rolled out of bed. Rhy's senses were too sharp though and she lifted her head, making groggy eye contact. Gianne smiled and answered the questions she received through the contact with images of walking through the Sanctuary. A few laps around the complex to tire her jittery mind and she would be able to slip again into oblivion. Satisfied, Rhy gave a sleepy sigh and laid her head back down on the soft covers, drifting back into unconsciousness. With their mental contact disconnected, everything suddenly seemed very quiet. So Gianne quickly slipped into her clothes and silently left the room, going through the Common Room and out the tunnel leading to the outdoor level of the Sanctuary. The crisp night air filled her lungs with a slight sting, but it was refreshing. It bit at her cheeks and hailed the winter season that was closing in fast. She made a few rounds around the Sanctuary, going to see the horses, chickens, and other animals. They told her their varying levels of contentment, sometimes vying for a chance to communicate with her. Gill sent her waves of affection when she visited him, bringing tears to her eyes. This was the perfect place for them all. No predators, all the food they could ever need, shelter. Being a domesticated animal had huge perks. Yesterday she had gone alone into the grassland so as to not endanger Gill and witnessed a trio of wolves take down a massive stag. He was magnificent, but the canines had outsmarted and outran him, and he was now nothing more than food digesting in their full bellies. She was lost in thought, just about to go back to bed when she smelled the wood smoke blowing downwind. It was coming from the beach. Curiosity bubbled up inside her, threatening to make her burst with it at the seams. Who could possibly be down there so late lighting a fire? Curiosity then turned to suspicion. Gianne quickly entered the tunnel leading back into the belly of the Within, cut through the cave shelters and out onto the beach. To her left down the shore was the glow of the fire, and sitting there was the obvious shape of a woman. Purposefully she strode through the sand, the sound of her boots silenced by the fine grains and the calming roar of the foaming ocean surf. "Hello?" she called over the sound of waves, face contorted into an inquisitive and wary frown. The stranger was holding a bottle of something. Wine, she realized as she drew close enough. Her face relaxed a little into something more like a smile. Gianne had always been a fan of a good drink. She guessed the woman had come down here to enjoy the delicacy in peace. This was after all one of the most private and secluded areas for who knew how far in either direction. She stopped a few yards from the dancing flames, just inside the ring cast by its light. Her features flickered with the shifting column of fire, making her less clear than Ishara was, who was sitting right next to the blaze itself. She was a beautiful woman, obviously some exotic race other than just plain old run of the mill human. OOCSorry that this was so slow coming! Been hectic this week but things are finally slowing down for at least a day.

[Ishara Dossari]

((OOC: No worries!))





Raj's half-hearted grumble surfaced a moment before Gianne's words rose against the backdrop of pounding surf. Ishara blinked and looked up, squinting to see past the glow and into the night. A woman was there, draped in shadow, her features softened by the light of the fire. This is a surprise... "Welcome," the flash of a quick smile preceded Ishara gesture as she beckoned for the woman to come closer and indicated a seat by the fire.

"Please, it is too cold to linger out there. Come. Sit."

Ishara set the wine bottle down by it's mates, and bent to retrieve her fire-prodding stick. Stirring the coals, she dispersed their heat and laid a couple more driftwood limbs on the fire. The wood snapped and hissed, and the flames that jumped across it glimmered bright green as the salt was burned away. The first time Ishara had encountered the green flames, she'd been startled...until a sailor in the marketplace had laughingly explained it to her one morning. Now, it was among her favorite reasons to camp on the beach.

Placing her stick to one side, Ishara dusted off her hands and turned to peer at the woman who'd wandered up. It was not usually an hour that she was accustomed to visitors, but company was always welcome in Ishara's mind. She missed the closeness of her family, and all the ruckus that came with it. Sometimes the silence that deepened the night along the shore here in Riverfall was unsettling in a lonely and vacant sort of way. Though this woman did not resemble her family, she had the look of the people of the grasses...Drykas, her memory provided, and the Benshiran woman nodded imperceptably to herself. Yes, they were horse people. Occasionally, a band ventured into the desert on their fine, wild-looking horses. Her brothers had even traded with them, all the while admiring their fine steeds. This woman's green eyes caught the firelight, and called to mind the first time Ishara had laid eyes on the sea of grass, tousled and rippling beneath the wind...

Ah, so long ago. But... a small, thoughtful frown pursed Ishara's lips as she realized she'd seen this woman before. Somewhere recently, too. Puzzling it out, she dropped back to her seat and leaned over to offer her hand, a bright smile replacing the contemplative frown of moments ago.

"I'm Ishara Dossari, and that catankerous, ol' goat over there," she bent her head in Raj's direction with a smile, "is Raj." The Silkena hound gave a huff and curled tighter into the nest he'd dug himself. With something akin to a smirk, Ishara leaned closer to Gianne and stage-whispered..."He is a bit grumpy when he doesn't get his sleep, you see."

The heat rolled off the fire as the driftwood limbs began to burn in earnest, and Ishara sighed contently and held her hands out towards the warmth to thaw. "I was in the midst of a debate," she explained, an indicative wave tossed in the direction of the bottles. "I've come by this wine, and...well I'm not quite sure whether to sample it or pour it out." She suddenly leveled a mischievious grin at the Drykas woman, as a new idea occurred to her. Drinking alone was not recommended, but with company...

"So! What brings you out on the sands tonight?"

[Syrah Steele]

She couldn't believe her luck. Syrah had been searching, for how long now? Maybe a few bells, and just happened to stumble across what she had been looking for.

A few bells back Syrah had been one of the last employees at the Winery, about to close up shop and go on home. When her boss came strutting up to her and told her a little situation that had gone on down in the city. Apparently the feeble, old man who had been delivering the boxes of wine to the Glass Gull had tripped over who knows what and tipped the cart over. Breaking a good few bottles. A couple of Akalaks under Blacks authority had been called down there to see which bottles made it to the private residence and which bottle had been broken. Reporting back they told Jonathon that every bottle except 7 had made it and of those missing 7, 4 had been found broken on the street. That left 3 missing bottles of wine, one of those bottles just happened to be called Godspirit.

Normally the company would never go out and search for a few missing bottles of wine, they were never worth that much and they could just grab a few more out of the pantry and go on their merry way. But no, this one was the new Godspirit wine. This wine was made from the mutated blue grapes, changing them into a completely new kind of grape. A black grape to be exact and it was worth a lot of money. 100gm to be precise. And Jonathon was going to make her go look for it.

This is what she gets for being the most trusted employee that had yet to go home. This is what she gets for discovering the new Godspirit grape. This is what she gets for being the daughter of a successful winemaker in Syliras. She sighed and told her boss that there would be no way she could find the wine. This city was huge and thief's were quick and stealthy, there was just no way. But Black made her do it anyway and that is exactly what she had been doing since he sent her on her way.

She went out on her late night journey knowing full well she would come back empty-handed. She knew full well that Black would be disappointed and she knew full well her ranking in his mind would go down significantly. That was something she couldn't afford, but there was no way she could get out of this one. She wandered throughout the city, not knowing where she was going, just searching in back alleys and other places she would think a criminal to be. Was this Blacks best choice? Sending a female out into a dark city to search for a thief without a guard of some sort? Syrah thought that maybe he was just too shook up to realize he had made a mistake.

Syrah had looked through windows peeked through open doors, eavesdropped in late night conversations on the street, and guess what? Nothing. Now she was wandering on the beach, no longer thinking of her job. Only wasting time so Black would think she tried her best. This is when she stumbled upon a lit fire.

The fire was small, but bright. Behind it, facing Syrah, was a small figure and the light of the fire told her it was a girl. Remarkably Syrah had stumbled upon this figure as she was holding a bottle up to the fire. And from where Syrah was standing she could make out the unique figure of the wine bottle. Each Bluevein Wine had a uniquely shaped bottle. The artists whom the Winery hired took great care in the work and provided astounding results. The shape of the bottle was for people to be able to tell the kind of wine in the bottle if the label were somehow scratched off or ruined. Syrah had memorized all the shapes, and the one that was held up to the fire was none other than the Godspirit. She almost laughed at her luck, but remained silent, wanting to spy on the thief before she intervened on her celebration.

Laying down in the sand, trying to move as little as possible, Syrah observed the girl. She saw that the girl had some sort of dog with her. That could cause as a problem is the animal was protective. She thought maybe she would be able to talk the girl into giving the wine back to her, without any violence because Syrah assumed a girl vs a girl is fine, but a girl vs a dog and girl is not fine.

She was a bit confused as the why the girl didn't seem to have opened the bottle yet. Of course this would be best on her part because if Syrah retrieved an open bottle, she would make the girl pay for it. It wasn't long before another figure started walking towards the fire. Oh, the girl was waiting to have a drink with a friend then. That isn't unusual, Syrah didn't mind drinking alone but some people did.

She heard the newcomer yell hello over to the fireside girl. It didn't sound like she knew the other. Huh. As the fireside girl spoke she realized that no they did not know each other, but she was inviting the other over to sit. Ok, so there is 2 girls and a dog now. Wonderful.

It was when the fireside girl spoke her name that Syrah had an idea pop into her head. She had heard that name before and she knew exactly where. The Glass Gull. She felt like she had seen her another time, but she couldn't recall. She didn't recall much from the night she heard her sister screaming, so remembering Ishara from then would not have been possible.

But now she knew that she could approach the group in a friendly manner and as she continued to listen to their conversation she also learned that Ishara was torn between drinking them or throwing them away. Syrah cringed, she would rather they drank it. That seemed to be what they were going to do anyway. If she waited any more she knew that the Godspirit would be opened and that poor girl would owe her 100gm which Syrah was sure she didn't have.

Carefully she got up and walked toward the group. Calling out ahead she said "Hey Ishara," trying to sound friendly. She sat down by the fire, knowing the girls were looking at her curiously. "So bad news," Syrah began, eyeing the bottle in the girls hands, "That wine you got there, cost a lot of money. And you may know that I work at the Winery? Where that bottle of wine was produced and I was sent to find it. See its a new wine. Really expensive. I wouldn't drink it if I were you." She paused, hoping the girl knew she was ordered to do this and was trying to be as nice about it as possible. "Actually I wouldn't even open it. Not a good idea. You would owe the Winery 100gm. This, those," she said gesturing to the other two bottles at Isharas side, "belong to a private buyer, who bought them from the Winery."

"Look I mean no trouble, but I'm going to have to ask you give that bottle to me." Syrah inched towards the fire more, not knowing how the girls would react or how the dog would react and was prepared to use the fire as a weapon.

[Gianne Basete]

Within Ishara's first few words Gianne could tell that she meant no harm. Her body automatically relaxed, and the traces of a smile pulled up the corner of her mouth. But even if she did mean her harm, this woman would have bitten off more than she could chew. She shuffled closer into the ring of light, allowing herself to be bathed in its warmth. It was a relief seeing as how the days, and especially nights, were getting colder as winter approached. With a sigh Gianne dropped to sit on the sand, basking in the heat of the green flames. Having grown up in Zeltiva, a coastal city like Riverfall, she'd been used to the sight since childhood. Sea-salted wood conjured magical colors when burned, and it often had a way of mesmerizing her. She watched her temporary companion just as she watched her, waiting for her to get her fill before speaking up. "And my name is Gianne Basete," she offered in the way of introductions. Gianne grinned crookedly at Raj, laughing at the remark at his expense. "Oh, I wouldn't want to talk if I were him either. He's obviously very comfortable. Handsome too." The hound had worked to set her further at ease with Ishara. If this woman had been trouble she would have been able to see that through the dog when their eyes met. Gianne leaned back on her hands, tilting her head thoughtfully as she examined the wine bottles and listened to what else there was to be said. Then, mirroring the sly grin with her own she shrugged innocently. "Why waste perfectly good wine? That's just plain silly. You must have been meant to... come across these bottles so why don't you and me enjoy them like they were meant to be? I myself am an admirer of a good drink. You can thank my father for that trait." She'd also apparently inherited her father's ability to hold liquid like a lidded bucket. It took a lot to get her tipsy, let alone drunk. Surely these bottles of wine would be like child's play. "I work up in the Sanctuary. I couldn't sleep - nightmares - so I went for a walk. I smelled the smoke of your fire. The breeze was coming in off the water so it carried it up. I guess we were just meant to have good fortune today, aye?" She smiled encouragingly, picking up one of sealed bottles from its nest in the sand. "What say you? Care to do the honors? We could make a right party out of this! A fire, drinks, and good company. If I had my lute we could have had music on top of that." But as she said it, that plan went down the drain. At least for the moment. She was facing the direction of the new woman as she approached from down the shore. Her face went from an easygoing smile to tense suspicion in record time. One of Ishara's friends? When the woman start though, it was proven to not be the case. Gianne looked the blonde up and down, soaking in this newcomers experience. Pretty, with an almost artistically perfect face. Gorgeous eyes, and worst of all skinny. She automatically resented her. Before Ishara could even open her mouth to reply Gianne had jumped on the defensive. Who was this woman to come up and claim all this information without proof? "No one is going to pay 100 golds for a bottle of blasted wine. That's ludicrous! Absolutely insane. I would barely afford to buy two!" The skepticism was heavy in her voice, like a thick tar dripping off her tongue. "How do I know you didn't just wander up and want it for yourself? Bah!" The woman was making minuscule advancements on the fire without invitation and that pushed Gianne over the edge. Her suspicion drove her to be even more rude. She made a dismissive hand gesture, and with a scowl toward the woman popped the cork off the bottle in her hands. "Oops."

[Limey]

Ishara Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Socializtion 1 Honesty: A Relative Term Opportunity Knocked (Or Shattered) Drinking Is More Fun With Company Gianne Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Socializtion 1 Trouble Sleeping Sending Out Good Vibrations A Hundred? For That?! Ultimatum Ignored Syrah Skill and Lore Rewards Skills Lore Observation 2 Lore: Godspirit Hunting For Stolen Goods Ultimatum Time Giving A Friend A Chance Additional Notes : Not a bad start, guys, really could have become something cool, and it ended on a nice defiant note from Gianne. Sigh... ah, well... Any questions or queries, please PM me.