Closed Alcohol Tainted Blood [Eshe]

[Ollic Rimesage]

71st Day of Summer, 513 AV


Ollic had awoken on this beautiful day, fully refreshed and regenerated. He was in a chipper mood, making it through his first day on the job as a healer’s assistant alive. It was a fun day overall, Ollic accomplishing stitching up a young man’s wound to the arm given that it was his first time physically trying so, but it was also very stressful and emotional as he had found out that the childhood friend he had in Avanthal was standing right in front of him, posing as his partner in the health industry.

Tears were shed and hugs were shared as the day that was suppose to be minimally challenging and interesting to pursue became at the highest level of difficulty for him both mentally and socially.

They told stories about their past and they had laughs about things that weren’t meant to make either of them cry, but they did. Eshe was the one who had Ollic almost in tears, her on salty drops threatening to unleash his own. It was a good thing that a secretary came in at the last minute, or else the whole entire room would be flooded out.

Yesterday was the day Ollie had somehow come to ask Eshe in joining him for a drink at a tavern, and today was the day that his invitation was to happen. Eshe had willingly accepted his offer, suggesting the Scholar's Demise as the perfect location.

Hokato was still sleeping on the right side of the bed, trying to rest off her sprained ankle, her head lolled to one side, her tongue a rosy pink, sticking out from between her two canines.

It was late in the afternoon, nearing the time Eshe was to arrive. She had told him the day before that she too was living in the Solar Wind Apartments, yet Ollic forgot to mention which room he was in, or even which floor.

They were both going to come inside his apartment to chat and greet each other, he was sure, so Ollic didn't grab any thing he wanted to bring along with him just yet.
Stepping outside and closing the door behind him, Ollic slumped down in front of his apartment, guarding it with his every power, knees up to his chin, arms splayed out in an act of innocence.

He was minimally shaking with worry, trying to envision his prediction of how the night would go. He hoped that he wouldn't get in a fight with Eshe, rude words accidentally slithering out from between his lips. He hoped that once he had a few drinks or more, the alcohol would kick in and the anxiety and aches and pains would melt away.

All these thoughts and questions had his mind reeling. He was so absorbed in his fantasy house of misery that he didn't even see Eshe walk up the stairs and step onto the landing.

"Eshe, hi," he called out to her, standing up quickly, brushing off the invisible lint that littered his multi- coloured vest. "You're a little early.”

[Eshe Czardas]

Eshe had gotten up at the same time she always did, straightening her room and making her bed. Lazybones was nowhere in sight until she put food in his bowl, when he suddenly appeared out of thin air. Her feet were bare, as usual, and her clothes were folded neatly in the dresser. She had triple-checked the neatness of her residence, rearranging a plant or two and some paintings to make it more aesthetically appealing. After pulling on her skirt, blouse and slippers and making sure she had both her cloak and Lazybones, Eshe exited her apartment. The cat was perched on her shoulders, cloak folded neatly in her arms. Her hair was pulled back in a neat braid that draped elegantly over her collarbone. Now, to find Ollic. He'd forgotten to give her his room location and floor, and she'd forgotten to ask. No matter, he'd probably remember to wait outside. The girl eventually found him, just as she'd imagined. He called her name, and she waved. He was wearing another multi-colored vest. "Ollic! Of course I'm early. I like to be early. Are you bringing Hokato? I don't see her. What breed is she?" The dog he'd spoken about wasn't by his side, most likely in his room instead. Eshe wondered what kind of canine it was. A wolf? Maybe a Bozderon? A Jivatalas would be interesting. She had heard that the last one could detect ghosts. It'd be useful to a Spiritist. Her hand went up to stroke her cat's ears, and Lazybones regarded Ollic with a face that looked like he was constantly tasting something bitter. Of course, squash cats always looked like that. His coppery-orange eyes were half-closed, having just gotten up.

[Ollic Rimesage]

Secret :

Actually, Ollic has two vests of different colours. I’m sorry I didn’t mention that, but this is just so you know, if you’d like to change it.

The cat Eshe held on her shoulder was both disturbing and extremely cute to Ollic, especially the way it looked, as though it were a parrot demanding a cookie. It’s face looked like it had been rammed into a wall a time or two, but it gave character to the roundness of the rest of its body.

Trying to remember correctly, Ollic thought he heard Eshe call her cat Lazybones, in the terms of a “he”. Given this possibly inaccurate information and the look that he gave Ollic, he thought it was best to just leave the topic of the cat out of the conversation.

Ollic lead his friend into his apartment, questions being thrown at him from all angles. “Are you bringing Hokato? I don't see her. What breed is she?"

He began with the first question, so abrupt in its words that he almost missed hearing it. “Hokato has been injured. You see, the first day I arrived in Lhavit I had a bit of an accident,” he told her as he shut the door to his apartment behind him.

He predicted this sort of greeting and conversation, but he hadn’t thought it would truly revolve too much on his pet. But Eshe looked morally concerned, her eyes wide in both excitement and worry as he spoke about a wounded animal.

“We were in a crowd when I had a little panic attack,” Ollic rushed the best part, feeling as though being panicked in a crowd of people was pathetic. “I started to run out of the crowd because my ‘broken nervous system’ was acting up.” At this part, Ollic began to tear up a little, having him find the need to blink his eyelids rapidly to send the droplets away.

“I emerged from the crowd, but I couldn’t find her,” he gestured to Hokato who now was sitting up in bed, head cocked to the side as she observed the cat with a weary gaze.

“I ran back into the crowd, anger boiling up inside of me as I saw her on the ground. She had sprained her ankle, someone kicking her and having her trip and land on it wrong.”

He fell onto the bed, physically asking Eshe to join him with his hands. She did so obligingly as he continued on with his personal story. It was just starting to get good.

“I yelled at people to get out of my way,” he chuckled, for he knew Eshe knew he wasn’t one to yell at people or more or less talk to people for that matter. “I picked up Hokato and we left the crowd that way.”

The next part was a little harder to explain. Ollic touched his nose with his finger tips, cringing in the process, as he put more pressure on it. It still hurt and it had been near close to five days.

“I ran into a man, and we had a little disagreement.” Saying it as a disagreement was putting it lightly and he knew that, but he wasn’t telling this story to alarm Eshe. He was simply telling her his story because she wanted to know.

“I told him his was arrogant and irresponsible and he punched me in he nose,” he paused to see Eshe’s wild reaction. “I was already famished and exhausted, yet I ran away. We eventually found the Solar Wind Apartments where I patched up Hokato in a splint and helped myself with my bloody nose.”

He then shrugged his shoulders, starting to pet Hokato’s snowy white fur as if it was to more intriguing thing in the world. “It’s no big deal.”

Before giving Eshe a chance to say something in counter to Ollic’s most unreasonable ending statement, he explained to her that she was an Ivaski.

“Do you want to know how I got her?” He asked, lips drawing thin as his mouth raised up in a childish smirk. He was somehow very playful today, like that of a kitten who had found a ball of yarn to play with. Perhaps it was just because he was worried about how the night would go and was trying to cover up his mild frowning, or perhaps it was because he just felt happy around Eshe.

[Eshe Czardas]

OOCFixed! Poor Hokato! She'd been injured, and in a crowd too. Eshe's eyes were filled with concern for the dog. The animal was sitting up, and she looked at Lazybones. The cat simply flicked his tail and stared back. Ollic was a very good storyteller. She giggled. Him, yelling? And disagreeing? So that's what happened to his nose. He explained that Hokato was an Ivaski before Eshe could say anything about it being 'no big deal.' "Of course I want to know how I got her. Why don't you tell me on the way to the Scholar's Demise? We should go get our drinks before it gets any busier. Of course, it's always busy, but you know." Eshe stood from her position on the bed, grabbing Ollic's hand and pulling him out of the door. Lazybones decided to hop down and nuzzle Hokato, purring.

[Ollic Rimesage]

So she was willing to listen to his forever longing story about how Hokato had entered into his life. Eshe, he realised, was like no ordinary girl. Most females would always blow him off, always cynical and stubborn, their finicky attitudes deterring him away from feeling any sort of attraction to them. This was another reason why Ollic had an eye out for men more than women. He still wasn't fully interested in men, but both in some equal way. However, the way Eshe acted toward him gave him a pull toward being one with the straights.

Eshe abruptly suggested that sharing his story would be a better idea on the way there, and he couldn't help but agree. He didn't want to be in a busy room full of people all talking to one another in obnoxious, attention seeking voices. Hopefully they would get their before it was too full.

Ollic had heard of the Scholar's Demise before, briefly being spoken by two men a few days ago, but being of the shy type, he never joined in on their conversation with inquiries. It probably would have earned him another punch in the nose anyways.

He noticed Eshe looking up at him with waiting eyes after he had been pulled to his feet, fingers inter-laced with hers. She truly wanted to know about Hokato and him and not in a sarcastic way either.

He was about to tell her his past after closing the door, but Lazybones was still inside. Ollic didn't know whether or not Eshe had brought him over to bring him along to the tavern or not, so he wasn't sure whether to lock in inside or not.

"Is he going to stay here while we're gone?" he said instead, looking back inside to see how the two animals were getting along.

"I don't mind having him stay here. Lazybones and Hokato could have their own little night out as well." That mischievous, little boy grin was back as he returned the waiting gaze back towards Eshe.

[Eshe Czardas]

"Of course he's going to stay there. I don't want him to draw anyone's attention. Besides, I don't know the Scholar's Demise's policy on pets. And it wouldn't be fair if Lazybones came along while Hokato had to stay in your apartment all alone." If the cat wished to stay with his Ivaski, then by all means he could stay with her. Eshe wasn't one to displease Lazybones. She knew what cats were like. The girl took Ollic's hand again after he locked the door, walking swiftly out of the Solar Wind Apartments. Best get there with time to spare. She hauled Ollic around Lhavit, going past shops and finally reaching the Scholar's Demise, all while listening to his story. It was, as expected, suited to pay homage to Syna. Eshe knew enough about it that at the dusk bells the mirrors were taken down for Tanroa and there's a drink special. Then at night, the candles burn blue for Leth. She especially liked the nighttime, it was serene. At least to her. If there were drunks, it wouldn't be fun. She still liked the night though.

[Ollic Rimesage]

Eshe was more than just sure of leaving Lazybones in his apartment, she was almost displeased with Ollic in having thought different.

His hand was stolen by the weight of the blue eyed girl as the two briskly sauntered down the stairs. Eshe had the glow in her face of excitement and adventure, her lips curved up at the edges in an expression full of surprise.

Ollic was in for a tour of his life as she pulled him around to different shops and restaurants. They walked past the Shooting Stars' Inn, the Sunrise Nook of which he had wanted to go to the day he had arrived, was attached to it, the lights inside turned off, casting shadows through the windows.

Ollic decided to tell her about the tale of Hokato, cocking his head to each shoulder every now and then as if trying to remember every little detail that came to his mind.

"I wasn't very young when my father went over to the island of Mura for training as a surgeon. He told me that one day he was out walking to one of the temples when he saw movement in the bushes. All of the sudden a large, white dog stepped out, its tail between its legs, wounds scattering its body," Ollic told her as they passed by a small shoppe with plants growing near the doors and windows.

"He took the dog in and helped its wounds, identifying its race as an Ivaski of female gender, not much older than a year at most. He told me that she must have been lost away from her temple master and had wandered in the forests trying to smell her way back to his location."

Ollic managed to barely step over a shard of glass that had somehow found its way in the middle of the stony street.

"When he finally came back home to Avanthal, he told me he had a surprise for me. At first I thought it was some books from the temple he had studied in," he chuckled but then his face went firm, "He had a pure ivory coloured canine with him and told me to name her, that she would be my best friend forever. This was after I had been diagnosed as a social catastrophe."

Kicking a rock out of his path, Ollic continued to tell his story, trying to leave out all of the unessential, painful parts he didn't wish to elaborate on.

“I don’t really remember why I named her Hokato. I think it means friend in some language or another, but she was with me from then and until now. That was near four years ago, before… uh…”

Fortunately, he didn’t have time to explain that Hokato was introduced into his life before his mother died, for they had arrived at a narrow corridor in which the Scholar’s Demise resided. As soon as the two entered, Ollic quickly found himself in a cavernous lounge, many people gossiping and conversing with one another, glasses of wine and ale strewn about the tables, some empty and some nearly just refilled.

He tensed up at seeing all of the people in front of him, but his reaction quickly subsided as Eshe’s firm grasp in his hand tightened in a comforting gesture.

The two quickly walked through the expanse of people, heading toward the back of the building to a rock counter island, passing candles that illuminated off a blue-ish glow. Only a couple of people were sitting at the bar, ordering as many drinks as they could afford, yet still managing to hold themselves up right on their stools.

A young man was reciting a poem in the far right side of the room, his hair parted down the middle, his eyes straining, trying to concentrate on the piece of paper he held in his hands.


“Darkness sweeps in, stealing away my heart,
For it is you as your malevolent hands rip into my heart.

My beloved beauty, why do you behave like so?
The question is the fairest inquiry of which I want to know...”


He wasn’t half bad, Ollic thought as he listened to the man read, but Ollic had more to think than just that. He criticised on how long his sentences were, contemplating on whether he should give him his advice or remain still, in the clasp of Eshe’s hand.

Ollic decided to stay, his obsession compulsions temporarily drowning inside of his soul, thrusting themselves into the back of his mind and its many things he knew about.

Suddenly, a mental image burst into his thoughts, supposibly needing to be locked away by his logical judgements. It was the image of a girl with blue eyes and ligt blonde hair… her name being Eshe. She was sitting amongst many pillows, when suddenly another image followed the one of hers. It was of a young boy with rosy coloured eyes that gave away the assumption of a mood full of embarrassment and love. He was writing something down on a piece of paper and then he handed it to the small girl. It was Ollic and he was writing his friend a poem about their friendship.

“Do you remember when I wrote you that poem when we were younger? It was the same day after we had met,” Ollic asked her, blushing slightly as he remembered how silly he must have been. It sounded almost like a love letter, yet he meant for its definition to display a friendly affection, a relationship of two childhood friends.

It wasn't like he wanted Eshe to think that they were just friends, though. They had shared a strange, overpowering connection when they were younger and they did so now as they sat at the bar.

[Eshe Czardas]

Eshe smiled and nodded. Of course she remembered the poem. She probably still had it, somewhere... Unless she'd left it with her parents. Which was more likely, unfortunately. Her face fell, guilt creeping into her soul. Blast it all... No wonder she didn't recognize Ollic at first sight. Unless it was just age. She'd remembered him, hadn't she? "Yeah, I remember it. Want to get something to drink?" She didn't bother waiting for his response, ordering two glasses of chianti, one for each of them. Eshe stared at the liquid, swirling it about gently. She didn't feel like eating anything, let alone drinking, but sipped it anyways. The girl barely tasted the drink on her tongue. "Hope you like this. I took a bit of a blind guess. If you want something else just tell me, I'll pay." She accompanied it with a half-hearted smile, as if she was torn inside. Eshe certainly felt like it. The noise of the Scholar's Demise had faded into the background, her mind shutting it out. It was only a hum now, and a quiet one too. Her eyes were fixed on Ollic, on his changing eyes and dark hair. What would he look like if he didn't comb his hair, and just mussed it with his hand? A pang of jealousy stabbed through her. Girls would probably fall over each other, especially if he smiled. Vantha were always pretty. The corners of Eshe's mouth turned down, and she looked back at her drink. She really didn't want anyone taking her best friend. He'd be preoccupied with whatever girl he was with, and no time for anyone else. She propped her head up with a fist on one cheek, putting her weight on her elbow. Why should she care? He was just a boy... A boy with a social anxiety problem, her conscience reminded her. Eshe made a dismissive noise, not quite staring at anything. Why was she so jealous? Her own eyes, normally bright and sparkling, were dull now. They were flat, like a wintry sky that Syna felt didn't deserve her glow. She absentmindedly traced a whorl on the table, sighed. She didn't know what to think or do.

[Ollic Rimesage]

When Eshe remember his poem, Ollic’s eyes twinkled. It had been so long, and he found it strange how a simple prose could click on a switch, having him remember a tiny detail from so long ago. He felt proud as she smiled, her memories of happiness easily displayed on her face.

She ordered a drink for him, one he had not heard of before. He wondered if it was a dry tasting spirit of a fruity zap of wine. Taking a swig, Ollic’s eyebrows raised. He actually kind of liked the taste, for one who didn’t necessarily fond of such drinks. He considered himself more of an ale or beer kind of man, usually drinking an excess amount to try to dull his anxiety or the pain he felt in both his mind and his heart.

The mood that had once been excitement and anticipation, circling around Ollic’s head in an ethereal way, soon turned sour as Eshe’s smiling face turned into a frown. She must have been thinking about something displeasing or depressing, the way she looked at her glass as if someone had knocked the wind out of her.

“Are you okay, Eshe?” He asked her, trying to get her to look up at him by nosing into her view. “You were just happy looking a moment ago.”

How could things have turned so cold in such a hurry? Was the reminder of the poem he had written to her seasons beyond seasons ago a dejecting thing? Had he hurt her feelings by the words he had written to her now that she understood what they meant?

Perhaps she was hungry, and instead of taking up her offer on buying him a drink or two, Ollic decided to buy her some food.

“Fried onions?” he asked the bartender who stood across the counter from then, a dish towel in one hand and a glass in the other. He was focusing with all he could muster at a spot in the centre of the glass, but he managed to tear his gaze away from his work, nodding in acknowledgment toward Ollic.

“Also I’d like two glasses of ale for me and one for the lady,” he added toward the busker’s back. When did his tongue manage to speak such authoritative words?

“Are you hungry? I ordered us some fried onions. I, myself, am a little famished.”

Suddenly, they were no longer the only ones within a an arm spans radius who sat at the table. A tall man with a scruffy looking beard of unkempt hygiene came to sit next to him. His build was heavy and muscular, his eyes scanning over Eshe’s body, landing on the breast line of her shirt.

“Hello there little lady,” he said to her, ignoring Ollic’s presence entirely. He could smell the liquor on the man’s breath wafting in front of his nose.

The drinks had arrived and Ollic gulped down the glass of ale willingly, the spirit Eshe had ordered for him following suit.

“You look like a pretty fine piece of work,” the man continued, eyes trying to snoop down Eshe’s neckline.

Ollic’s veins buzzed as the alcohol surged through them. Why was this man suddenly sitting next to them? Who did he think he was to talk to Eshe is that unruly manner?

[Eshe Czardas]

"I'm fine, Ollic. I just feel a little sad. I can't remember if I still have the poem or not... I might've left it with my parents. They probably still have it, but I don't really want to go back to Alvadas." Just the thought of returning to the City of Illusions made Eshe's mouth screw up as if the wine was much too bitter. He ordered some fried onions, and her stomach growled embarassingly. She didn't feel like eating, but she was hungry. Ale sounded pretty good too. Better than wine, at the moment. She opened her mouth to answer Ollic. "Hello there little lady." Her eyes turned upwards to pierce the man who decided it was a good time to interrupt her with his breath smelling of alcohol and the rest of him like waste. He was staring a little ways below her face... A lot ways actually. "My face is up here, shyke-head. Now petch off if y'know what's good for ya. I'm not in the mood to deal with your kind." Ollic might be shocked by her language. She didn't care. She just wanted the man gone. Eshe took another sip of her wine, keeping her wintry gaze on the glass. Hopefully Ollic would keep his head and not do anything stupid.