Chains of Command (ball)

[Alexander Faircroft]

51st Winter 515AV
8:45AM
Between Syliras and the Mythin outpost after the opening.

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

The day had started off regularly enough Alex had awoken and donned his armour heading up to Ser Greyhearts office. Alex let out a long and drawn out yawn as he did only a couple of hours sleep had been gifted to him across last night. Rapping his knuckles slightly over the large oaken door of his Patrons office he stepped inside slowly. Inside Ser Greyheart was hovering over a stack of requisition orders and patrol routes. Flicking his hand towards Alex without even looking up from the papers. He’d never known Alex to be late and as such assumed it was him. Greyheart then slid a half filled sheet of paper over to him. “You’ll be on patrol today with Ball.” Before Alex could even say one word. Greyheart sensed that he would object and simply lifted his head to stare his squire down. “You’ll follow his orders and do as he asks. You got it?” Alex grit his teeth and gave his patron a strongly disapproving look. Nodding slowly and taking the paper work. Apparently it would be only himself and ball on the patrol. The paperwork had a set of requisitions for himself to go and speak to certain people. The quarter master and the stable hands. A horse and several weapons his patron wanted him to learn how to use.

Alex grumbled stepping through the castle arriving at the quarter master and being furnished with a short sword and a double bladed sword. Great…two more weapons for him to learn how to use and no idea for him to learn how to do so. Alex grumbled lightly and slipped the shortsword into place on his belt opposite the bastard sword on his left side. And the double bladed sword sat on his back alongside the bow and the great sword of his own. He now felt like a literal walking armoury combined with the shield strapped to his arm. Picking up the requisition papers he trudged slowly through the castle awaiting to find Ball.

Finally requisitioning a simple horse from the stables and leaving the papers there he climbed atop it settling himself gently into the saddle. Unsure of how to hold his balance too well for the first couple of strides with the sheer volume of gear he was wearing he let the horse lead him gently onwards.

A half-bell later Alex made it to the front of the castle and spotted Ball atop his riding dog. Not sure exactly how to proceed, he walked his horse over slowly attempting to look more firm atop it than he actually was. “Ball.” He spoke in his usual soft tone, if with a small edge of annoyance. “I’ve been requested by Ser Greyheart to accompany you today on this patrol as your…Subordinate. Needless to say I’m not entirely happy with this.” He breathed out the words now, using a small sigh to mask the edge of anger across the breath of his voice. A small smile crossed his features, not entirely faked, he might actually if he was lucky get a chance to see just what ball could truly do…And why he’d lost to the small ball of clay so many days ago now.

On balls commands he would follow them at least in direction. But if the commands fell out of his own personal moral scope. He’d flat refuse irrespective of the consequences. He was a moral man first. And a knight second.

[Ball]

"My Speaking"

My Thoughts

Ball was mounted on Imass's back with a glower on his face. In his hand was a crunched up bit of parchment that read simply: Patrol with Alexander Faircroft and the date. Ball didn't need to know the name by heart to know who the squire was, because they showed up fairly soon. With a look of distaste on their face. “Don't look so troubled to see me squire. It isn't like we are meeting on the battlefield against one another. This is just standard patrol duties. Shouldn't be too troublesome really. It's winter if you haven't noticed. All this white shyke is cold, ain't nobody out there. If we are lucky we are lucky we might see some Yukman and we can punch things.” Ball nodded.

I am not exactly thrilled with this either. But if you just shut your trap and listen we might still come out of this alive. Gods above we don't get surrounded by a horde though. He grimaced and looked at the gates. Nodding above Ball motioned with a hand at the gates. As the knights pulled the gates open Ball nudged his mount beyond the threshold and waited for Alex to follow. Watching the squire though on the horse Ball frowned. He seems tense. Almost as if he wasn't meant for the saddle. Or just new to it. “You spook that horse and he tramples me and my dog I will personally break your face. Relax. You look like you are made of the shyke you are wearing.”

Ball groaned to himself, I am going to have to teach this boy how to ride during this. Gods above please make this an action free patrol. I am not going to drag this petching idiot back to the city. shivering in the winds of Winter Ball studied Alex, “Relax your knees there squire. You are going to keep squeezing them and the horse is going to bolt.” It was clear that Ball didn't ride horse, he was much too small for that, but he could see the horse and rider were struggling together. Horse wanted to go forward faster, but the rider was jerking backwards on the reins.

Credit :

Created goes to Raus for aiding in the photo manipulation, Myself for color and transparency manipulation as well as box code. Character is accredited below

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Alex exhaled slowly puffs of white piercing into the cold air. As usual the small globule of clay was crass and brash with his words. Alex wasn’t happy but he wasn’t outright wearing it. And of course he’d noticed it was winter. The snow was almost over his ankles even on the horse Then again he was much heavier than ball was atop the dog so between them they were almost the same level out of the snow. Still Alex worked the horse back and forth getting some advice from ball as to how to calm him down. Easing his grip he lazed his hold with his thighs on the horse. Despite the small clay guy being a completely brash piece of work he was actually fairly good at what he did.

Wheeling the horsed around in long arc he chose to take the horse and himself on a path next to ball rather than behind him mostly so that he wouldn’t have the dog tumble into the huge tress that he’d create with the horse. “I know you don’t want to be here. And I don’t either. But could we lay some ground rules? Like not being as callous as you usually are?” An honest tone to him it wasn’t that he didn’t want Ball’s help but his general manner made it difficult to even hold a conversation with him. And despite that Ball had already pulled his arse out of the fire. He paused a moment atop the horse, the slow trot through the snows something both he and the horse had in common, they didn’t enjoy it.

“Look…I never got the chance to thank you for the training in the prior occasions. It’s been…Helpful in future events. Both you and Archailist.” His words were not meant to be a suck up but more of an olive branch. An extension of a truce between them. At least for as long as this outing would take. He was trying to be the bigger man and build some kind of a bridge. “And I’ve dealt with Yukmen before…That wasn’t fun. Despite what you may think towards them it’s not fun dealing with something that could potentially kill me. Especially when it’s armed.” He gave Ball a side long glance.

[Tillie Brewer]

The frosty bite of the cold was able to bite through the fabric of her coat when the wind howled. She was traveling on foot, once again with her crossbow slung over her shoulder.

She was on trying times putting somewhat of a life together, being a sword for hire and chasing bandits into the wilderness or a hunter lying in wait for an elk or deer.
,
Hands in her pocket she couldn't help but curse the knight Alexander that had thoroughly stiffed her for her time and effort. Cheapskate probably scrambled for the moral high ground as an excuse not to pay her. She wasn't stupid she saw how he eyed the item in the box, he kept it for himself at her expense. Did she not deserve compensation for going belly first into snow and mud and having to take a life?

"I won't mention it in my report, as my gift to you"

She said making a rudely mocking tone and face as she quoted Alexander to herself. Bullshyke he didn't want to put in the report he fell on his ass to save face, what a clown.

Each foot moved one after another as she trudged through snow, she was looking for a lucky break. Anything, something, she needed to find a pay day soon or risk starving.

She could see two forms out in the distance heading towards her a man and horse and maybe a pack dog. Her hand slid out her spyglass and peered towards the shadowy images as she extended it's impressive length. His face, she knew that face.

Petch it's him again she hissed under her breath, now what's this she thought as her telescopic view peered at the dog. Something was riding it, but she noticed vague facial expressions between the two although dialect could not be heard. Alex seemed submissive towards the smaller one which she thought was comedic in a way.

Collapsing her spyglass she put her hands in her pocket and awaited them to hurry over and investigate.

[Ball]

“Callous? I am not being callous. Terse, brash, a jerk. Sure.” Ball looked over at Alex, “Callous… No. We are in the middle of several feet worth of snow, with no knights close by, and bandits and monsters that can kill us. I am not callous – just cautious.” Ball frowned and nodded before he turned his attention to the forest and path before them. A flit of glare caught his attention and Ball tried to alert Alex to halt as he surveyed the situation. It was gone before he could catch what it was. “Keep your eyes out, we may have a bandit scouting.” He pointed in the direction of the glinting amongst the foliage and white.

Ball sighed when Alex brought up their training, “Training is important. We can’t survive out here against Bandits, Yukmen, whatever if we are untrained. You don’t have to thank me or Squirrel Pycon. We do that for the same reason you do. Combat survival.” Ball snorted, “Yukmen swarm, they are deadly in packs, but on their own they are not as big of a problem as one may think. They are more manageable that way.” Petting his dog the small clay man tried to bury himself into the mass of fur below him, it wasn’t easy to do if he wanted to keep an eye out and actively surveying the area. He had to do a give or take with this scenario.

“I wish I had more clothes or a heavy arsed blanket.” He grumbled and shivered as the cold bit into his clay. “This cold is horrid.”

OOCUgh short… Socialization with Ball is never easy.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Talking with ball was like trying to argue with… Well stone. Alex just sighed lightly and listening to the Small pycon talk was interesting to say the least. Less callous more cautious? His words sure sounded callous. They may have had a bandit scouting? Alex glanced over. His eyes were sharp perhaps not quite as sharp as balls were but he caught the glint of something amongst the foliage. Alex simply spoke slowly. “Nice catch with that. But I don’t think it’s a bandit. Or if it is they’re a particularly sharp one.”

Still though Ball continued on marking down the words about how training was important. How it was expected of them. And then made the assumption that Alex hadn’t faced Yukmen before. Alex just slowly sighed and spoke out again his voice light and airy once more. “I’ve faced yukmen before, as I have bandits. They aren’t really trained in any capacity. So I see what you mean. However I was thanking you for the training as it showed me what I need to work on.” Alex was slowly but steadily trying to build bridges. Something anything to make this seem like less of a trial. And more of a day out on average.

Apparently ball was having difficulties with the snow. Watching him hunker down into the fur of his riding cog made Alex think. He wasn’t a Vantha, nor was he marked of Morwen. Still though the cold didn’t affect him as much. It was something he actively enjoyed, much more than the heat. He hated and despised unrelenting heat. “Sorry to hear that Ball… But we’ve got a few more days of winter left. Then it should start to get warmer for ya.” He gave a small smirk. Good natured but definitely a small jab in there.

The trial they were on took a sharp veer right away from the main city and into the treeline. Watching Ball and his dog try to skirt along the top of the snow drifts was not only interesting but occasionally very funny. Alex’s horse however just trudged along and through the snow. Alex remained quiet for a few chimes just listening to the surroundings and the open air. Then something that was mildly out of the ordinary. A small crunch of snow from a ways away. Steadily getting closer. Alex whispered lightly “Ball. We’re not alone… There’s something moving in the distance…” Less a stroke of luck more the instinct of an archer. And a survivor of Sunberth.

[Samuel Longwell]

Grading Complete Please edit your grade request thread so that it's obvious that it's been graded. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions/problems with your grade. Name: Ball XP Award: Riding: Dog 1 Leadership 1 Observation 1 Rhetoric 1 Teaching 1 Lore: Leadership: Sometimes you need to lead those you don't like. Self: Cautious not callous Rewards: +2 Shield Points Patrol Notes: Enjoy your grades