The road to Getsemiel

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Graybeard
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Graybeard »

Sister Rose was hurrying toward the site of the magical flame, Argus not far behind, when Eli and Desiree swept by, the one with a face like a thundercloud, the other ... curiously dressed. Rose stopped short. "<Do we really want to know what was going on there?"> she thought at Argus.

------------

Meanwhile, Brad and Brother Tim were arriving at the other clearing ... just in time for Brad to behold something he never thought he'd see: the love of his life receiving, and apparently accepting, sympathy from a bipedal, rather perverted rodent.

"Sweetheart? I came as fast as I could. Is everything all right? We were terribly worried about you ... we ... I love you." There didn't seem much else to say, really.
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Sareth
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Sareth »

At the sound of Brad's question, Lillith turned away from Harker. "I'm... better. I'm sorry for getting so angry back there. It was silly."

Lillith stood up and attempted to remove a bit of the mud on her clothes, but failed. Her lips pursed themselves in displeasure, but she quickly shook it away. "I guess I should head back," she muttered, clearly a bit reluctant. She reached down and picked up Harker so that she could comfortably carry him in her arms. "I'm going to need a bath tomorrow, unless the tent has something available tonight. I'm cold and a mess."

As the trio began walking back towards camp, Lillith ducked her face down into Harker's damp but clean fur. Her voice was muzzled by his pelt as she spoke quietly. "Thank you, Harker. Just... ask nicely and be respectful, and I just might let you bring your paints."
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Alberich
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Alberich »

Tim kept a respectful distance. Whoever examined their dirty faces would think he'd been spending time with Lillith rather than Desiree.

He was not eager to get back to the campsite, and Sister Rose. He'd been crossing swords with another member of this expedition, and however much he felt he was in the right, something would have to be done. However good the training they got from Rose - and they needed it - he could not go into battle alongside his comrades, knowing that one of them might plant a knife in his back, or suspect him of wanting to do the same.

Would he call on Rose to settle the matter? She was wise and carried her authority well.

On the other hand, she was also Veracian, and Eli, like Maduin, seemed to have little respect for Tim's native land or its institutions. And he couldn't call on her protection in the middle of a fight, if Blaise invoked something dangerous (or at least, something dangerous manifested near Blaise), and she was fending off its attack.

No, they had to be able to trust one another. And for a group this size, facing the unknown, that would have to come from inside each of them. If Eli would not learn to trust Tim and be trusted, he'd have to be sent away. Complaining to Rose would not be enough. He thought over how to resolve this, while leaving Brad and Lillith plenty of time for their reunion.

Poor Brad - he was twice as devoted as any horse or dog, but he didn't evoke that same loyalty in her. Tim had a thought or two as to why that might be. But what Brad needed was good counsel from someone who knew more of the ways of women than Tim did...but would even that help with the elven women? Tim feared his new friend might well come to grief. Lillith was not cruel. Quite the contrary. But would her nature let her be kind to Brad, with the kind of kindness he wanted? Thinking about that was more restful than minding his own business...
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"Eli... do you have... feelings for me?"

For a long moment the half-elf didn't say anything. He reached up with deliberate slowness and ran a healing hand across the gash which the Brother's sword had opened up in his side.

"Wouldn't that be stupid." He muttered. "To be a little resentful about the women I woke up next to this morning parading around naked, hand in hand, with that... human who all but wags his tongue at you every time you're near him? To be a little resentful about being treated with all the emotional attachment of a numbered ticket at a farmer's market?" His temper was rising again, he could feel dull heat in his cheeks, even Desiree's pretty, anxious face couldn't stop Eli from wanting to hurt her feelings. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair, but there it was.

"Is it so hard to understand I might feel put out of place by you not even waiting til the bed's cold before you're eyeing up your next conquest?" He asked her.
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Graybeard
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Graybeard »

"Wait just a minute," Brad said, touching Lillith's arm. (She'd actually been murmuring graciously to Harker? Who would ever have imagined that?) "I think I can remember how to do this ..."

Every Veracian priest who ever conducted a smiting was expected to learn at least the rudiments of a Hygiene spell (the church called it a "Purification" spell to make it seem different from what the godless Tsuirakuans did, but the name really didn't matter), and that was true even in the Reformed branch, where the smitings were purely symbolic and rarely even mussed the smitee's hair. Brad had served as a Reformed priest serving multiple small towns in northern Veracia, none large enough to have a Reformed temple of their own (the denomination was only three per cent of the Veracian Church, after all, and would never be allowed to grow), some of them more ... suspicious of Reformed ways than others. He'd accordingly learned to put just a tiny bit more oomph into the smitings than was entirely routine among Reformed priests, still never enough to do harm, but enough that the spell sometimes came in handy; and so he'd learned the spell.

Magic surged from his fingertips, and the dirt (most of it, anyway) caked on Lillith's hair, face and blouse fell away, even as Brad himself puffed hard with the effort.

------------

Sister Rose didn't bother to suppress the smile that formed on her face when she came into sight of the pair and saw what her cousin was doing. How sweet of him... "Maduin set up his tent," she said to the pair (was Lillith really cuddling Harker? well, there'd already been plenty of surprises today). "You should be able to deal with the rest of that more conventionally."

She mentally added together, but without any real expectations that that was the way things would work out. However, one could always hope.
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Drusia
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Drusia »

"Wouldn't that be stupid." He muttered. "To be a little resentful about the women I woke up next to this morning parading around naked, hand in hand, with that... human who all but wags his tongue at you every time you're near him? To be a little resentful about being treated with all the emotional attachment of a numbered ticket at a farmer's market?"

"Is it so hard to understand I might feel put out of place by you not even waiting til the bed's cold before you're eyeing up your next conquest?" He asked her.


"Eli," I sigh. "I'm not eyeing him. And I'm not that detached. We're friends; I like you. You're the only one here I really trust... really care about. It's not love, but it's not nothing." I put my hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not looking for conquests, new or otherwise," I add. I'm not even all that attracted to anyone else here, except maybe Lillith and Brad, and I doubt they're interested in guest players. Probably shouldn't mention that, though. I doubt it would help.

-- Desiree
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"I.." Eli unclasped his hands, shamed suddenly by Desiree's kind words. "..I'm sorry. It's been a very trying day. We should get back to camp. I need some time alone. To think." He finished.
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Drannin
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Drannin »

Back at camp, Harker gently patted Lilith's head. "I'll take a rain-check toots. Some other time, 'kay?" Gently slipping out of her arms, he padded over to Argus. "Piece of cake."

Argus nodded. "Thanks, Harker." He vaguely wondered what had happened out there.

Harker glanced between Argus and Rose. "So... you two-"

"Finish that sentence and suffer."

"'Kay."
Porcelain Fish
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Porcelain Fish »

Tim and Desiree were filthy, and Desireee was nude. Given the fact that they and Eli alike looked rather scuffed-up and the two men were radiating animosity like testosterone-laden emotional furnaces, Maduin thought he could guess at something of what had happened there.

Ah, there was the touch, the comforting to words - to Eli naturally. So, the good brother was left out in the cold, at least for now. Maduin supposed that was to be expected. Still, there didn't seem to be any overt resentment present there between Desiree and Tim either. Tim looked like he was thinking hard. Eli just looked enamored once more by Desiree's readily accessible charms. Desiree looked . . . slightly apprehensive?

"Caught a couple of trout," Bryce said from behind him, holding up his prizes on a line. Both were large and well-fed, scales gleaming with health.

Maduin gave him a warm smile. "Have I mentioned lately that your many talents are both timely and pleasing?"

"Good to hear." Bryce grinned back at him. "FIgured I'd roast 'em instead of stew. I know Lillith hates meat."

"I would add "thoughtful" to your long list of virtues if it wasn't already present." Maduin tilted his head back playfully.

Bryce obliged him with a quick kiss. "I'll get this cleaned for dinner."
Alberich
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Re: The road to Getsemiel

Post by Alberich »

Oh, of course, the good old purification spell. Why hadn't he thought of it? Because you were never very good at it - you'd rather bathe naked in the stream and daydream. Doing as Brad had done, but for himself, he cleaned off the worst.

No, he decided, he was not going to raise this to Rose away from Eli. He was not going to be the bratty little brother who always told mom. If there was still an issue between them, that would not settle it. Better to get him alone and have it out the rest of the way, however that might be. And that might have to wait for Getsemiel.

For now, he hoped, there was the matter of some training.
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