Rinkaiel

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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Sareth
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by Sareth »

"Oops," mother commented. "I guess that got his attention."

"What?" I asked, watching as Marcus dropped himself into another wave. "What's that?"

"Nothing," mother replied. "Oh, you're going to burn if you show off that much skin. Here, let me rub this salve I bought at the apothecary into your skin."

"Uh... thanks?" I responded. I was, after all, a big girl. I could get most of it myself. Being babied by mother seemed a b*EEP!* "MOTHER!"

"Hmm?"

"Those have cloth on them!"

"Oh, sorry dear." Mother didn't sound particularly repentant.
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Graybeard
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by Graybeard »

Layla (and Zachary), Ace (and Joe), and Faye all converged on the front of the inn at the same time, coming from different directions. Greetings (including one shy, discreet kiss) were exchanged, then Joe had something to say.

"It looks like you're being watched. There's been a Seeadler guy up on the jetty ever since I left to get Ace. Seeadler don't make good surveillance people; with the fingers, they're too easy to recognize. But he's there, watching you. At least I presume it's you. There aren't many other guests here and the others seem pretty innocuous."

Layla wasn't so sure about that, based on what the young father on the beach had told her, but she didn't get a chance to say anything about it before Faye spoke up. "Well, let's do an experiment. You've got a good make on him, right? I think we should take Ace out and show him the vineyard, if that's going to be home away from home starting in a couple of weeks -- no point in trying to rent a flat if we can get in there. So let's all head out there and see if this Seeadler watcher follows us. Joe, Layla, you're tooled up, right?" Nods all around; even Ace, not normally a shooter, had a pistol along just in case. "I really don't think the 'fish,' as the low-lives call them, are going to try anything, but we've got enough firepower if they do."

The women turned to go, but Ace stopped them. "Mind if I get settled into my room first? We should have time to get out there and back before it gets dark; it's only ten minutes from town, right?"

"Sorry, I forgot," Faye apologized. "That sounds good. And let me tell you about the sleeping arrangements..."

She didn't have to say anything; Layla's violent blush, and shy smile, told Ace all he needed to know.
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AdamZero
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by AdamZero »

(You bast'd)

I splashed myself into the waves as I pushed Jasmine's considerable motherly assets out of my mind. As typical when I tried to push something out of my head; It just came right to the front. Still, the cold was helping. I surfaced a bit only to find Jamie being rubbed over with a sort of cream that made her skin shimmer, for whatever reason.

I relaxed and let myself drift in the water for a mom- Ah hell no.

Sally was walking up and sitting next to Jamie, opposite Jasmine, waving at me before starting up a chat with Jamie. She was wearing about as much as Jasmine; though on her, it covered considerably less.

I wasn't ever getting out of the water at this rate.
"Now he's gone too far. NOONE ATTACKS AMERICA'S FOOD COURTS!" -Deadpool.
"Don't be so naive. I've got ulterior motives. MANY. Two, maybe three. Probably Four. I am one BIG ulterior motive." The Great Teacher, Onizuka Eikichi.
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Sareth
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by Sareth »

[OOC] You're welcome.[/OOC]

I pulled the sand from Nera's hands for the umpteenth time, then lay back, using Ayiee's stomach as a head rest. She was a surprisingly soft pillow, considering she was created of who knows what crystalline substances or some such. I looked down my body to where Sally was sitting.

"You don't say. A mole?"

"Yep," Sally replied.

"I never noticed."

Sally snickered. "I'm guessing you were in a bit of a rush."

My eyes slid to my mother. "Er..."

Mother simply rolled her eyes. "My daughter can be rather unobservant at times," she commented. "You have to get used to it."

"I am not," I replied. "I'm plenty observant."

"Oh? Prove it," mother commented.

"There's a Seeadler watching us from over on the pier."

"Watching us?" Mother replied. "Given your endowments, I'm thinking he's watching Sally, not 'us.'"

"Cold, mom. Real cold."
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Graybeard
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by Graybeard »

Rooming arrangements made (and with Layla having made it quite clear that Ace could sleep on the fold-out bed if he wanted to ... but that her preferences were otherwise ...), the Gewehr contingent headed off for the vineyard.

"Just a minute," Ace said once they were a block away from the inn; he was still blushing, which Layla, of course, found endearing. He extracted a pair of binoculars from his pack and focused on the man back on the jetty. "Nope, he's not moving. In fact, he's not even looking in our direction. There's something on the beach that has his attention, from the looks of it."

Marcus and his family? Layla wondered, but decided not to pursue it. Whatever was going on with that other group, she wanted no part of it. Her mission here was to get quietly moved into town, set up good cover, and get on with her "adult education." Getting diverted from that could come to no good. One of the things that had been part of her personal make-up from an early age, in fact had marked her as someone the Gewehr brain trust would keep an eye on, was a fierce resistance to getting distracted from whatever her mission happened to be. Until she was set up here, she wasn't going to let herself be bothered by extraneous things ...

... Like Ace? a voice in the back of her mind asked, and was quickly beaten down.

There were distractions, and then there were distractions.

Between her internal conflict, the pleasure she felt as Ace quietly rocked a sleeping (but still smiling) Zachary, and her mother's quiet commentary on the sights they were passing (she didn't want to wake the baby, after all), she didn't notice that the hack was passing by two seedy-looking men, dressed now in the uniforms of maintenance men from the inn, and heading back in the direction they'd come from.

Faye, however...
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AdamZero
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by AdamZero »

I watched The girls chat away and pondered just going back to the inn. But that'd be rude... but walking up to them with.... I felt my face burn hot against the cold sea water. There was THAT option...

...

Nah, I'd just adjust myself and risk it. There's a reason this suit had enough looseness in the front. I began swimming to shore, then for good measure did some libido suppressing image training... wasn't too hard considering my recent job. I shuddered and stepped out of the water, comfortable that I could manage a conversation without TOO much embarrassment.

Then some punk local ran behind me and jerked down my trunks.

I let a reflex kick in and I spun around pulling my pants up while the side of my knee collided with his head, sending him to the ground and surf.

He came up coughing up sand and salt, glaring at me. I flipped him the bird and kept walking back to Jamie and the gals.

"Some people." I grumbled, as I sat down near the group, helping Jamie keep Nera from eating the beach.
"Now he's gone too far. NOONE ATTACKS AMERICA'S FOOD COURTS!" -Deadpool.
"Don't be so naive. I've got ulterior motives. MANY. Two, maybe three. Probably Four. I am one BIG ulterior motive." The Great Teacher, Onizuka Eikichi.
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Graybeard
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by Graybeard »

"Joe, what do you know about those two who are working for Oskar?" Faye said quietly.

Joe hesitated a moment before answering, possibly to gather his thoughts, possibly to maneuver the hack to avoid a dog that had run out into the street, Faye couldn't be sure which. "Not much. They'd been working somewhere out on the northern frontier of our turf. Oskar knew them from somewhere, he never said where. When he got told to come up here, he talked to the big shots and got them to haul those two back into town, then send them with him. Next thing I know, here they are."

Actually, Faye had stopped listening after the "northern frontier" part, because that told her what she wanted to know. Cowboys, then, which is just what I expected. Or what Peter would call "cowboys and buttheads," for Luminosita knows what reason. The northern frontier is the dumping ground for over-aggressive incompetents ... and they seem to qualify. "Have they had any jobs here?" she asked.

Joe was pretty sure that by "jobs" she meant Gewehr wet work -- hits, kidnappings, shakedowns, all that. However, he decided to answer the question straight up. "They just came in and set up the liquor store when we took it over. They split time working there with Oskar. They haven't had any -- assignments from the outfit, which I presume is what you mean. If they've been doing any of that kind of jobs, they're free-lancing, as far as I know. Mostly, they've spent their time drinking and whoring, so who knows what kind of contacts they've made."

That explains much, Faye thought. "Well, if they're going off on some free-lance gig, they should be more careful," she said. "The damn fools stick out here like a turd in a punchbowl. Keep acting the way they are, and they're going to get themselves killed." Maybe by us.

Joe snorted. "Let 'em." He clammed up and resumed driving ... but he'd told Faye what she wanted to know.

Meanwhile, Layla was busying herself fussing over Ace, and when he woke up, Zachary. Ace was just very slightly embarrassed when she started to nurse her son, and turned the other way ... but that wasn't a bad thing, was it? No, it really wasn't. Even her first husband had been a little squeamish about watching that activity --

Now why did I think about him that way?

She put her own muddled thoughts out of her mind, however, as the hack pulled up to the vineyard. "Uh, oh. That's Kalin, and he doesn't look good."
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4uk4ata
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by 4uk4ata »

There is something underneath, between all the thoughts, all the feelings.Something slowly flowing, like huge, breathing roots. I can not hear what it says, only that it does. Does it have a language? I don't know. Can this be Luminosita, somehow back there, behind and beyond all the world? The scriptures, from what I remember, show Him as much more... active. Yet if not Him, what is there?

Humans, old pastor Albrecht once said, are not meant to understand Luminosita. Even when He wants it, they never quite get things right. He was not quite sure why, however. Unlike the elves, they - we - did not try to rebel against Him. We were supposed to be better, his second attempt at getting things right, and there was no third one. So why? If he can do anything and everything, why must we be unable to understand Him even if He wants it?

Another question without an answer. Somehow this reminds me of Sharo looking for moles. Moles. Moles? I hear... see... feel, that would be the closest word - something stirring near me, in the beyond close to here. I pull myself back until my eyes see and my ears hear, and I find myself looking at the face of a woman. She reminds me of an icon, but she is no saint, saints never have moles. Or shirts like that. Layla, I remember. Her name was Layla. She wanted something.

I groan inwardly. Every time I try to meditate it is as like that, I need a lot of time getting my thoughts together. I hear myself saying something, and she and the man near her - wait, who is that man, he is different from the one I saw - look at each other as if it means something important. They look confused, though What did I say? I repeat it, to hear it myself. They will try to hide them. No, not these they, the other they. A man and a woman, not a woman and a man.
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Graybeard
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by Graybeard »

"Mom?" Layla threw a nervous glance at her mother, as Ace came closer to her side. "Can you see what's going on here?"

Faye cast a clinical eye on Kalin; she was remembering that thirty years ago, she'd wanted to be a nurse ... before the family business, and the business of family, had put the kibosh on that idea. Truthfully, she didn't know what to make of the man. He looked borderline delirious. She quickly ruled out malnutrition as a cause; he was thin, but not emaciated. Other than the mental disturbance, he didn't show any overt signs of disease. Some weird magical effect? Maybe, and he'd probably claim he was under a "curse" regardless of what the real situation was. Well, the course of action seemed clear, anyway.

"Let's get you to a lifemage," she addressed Kalin. "I think there's one in Tsuiraku-town, which is on the way back to where we're going. You're our hired help now, and we can't have you dying on us..."

---------

Meanwhile, the Seeadler watcher on the jetty ducked out of sight as he saw the two uniformed figures approaching the inn.
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Blackmail
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Re: Rinkaiel

Post by Blackmail »

((Sorry I've been posting less, classes have started again. =_=))

"Fuck!"

Zander absently stared down at the sand, ignoring everything around him for more reasons than one. He hated drawing attention to himself, hated that he was so good at it, and hated that he couldn't really help it. Besides, looking around too much was only making him uncomfortable. "Bikini" was too gratuitous a word to describe some of the swimsuits he could see around him at the moment, and he did not need any more distractions. Women...

Jamie had wandered outside for the moment, which made his job easier. Now that he didn't need to keep constant watch over the building itself, he contented himself with gazing around at the scenery (the natural landscape kind) and trying not to swear so damn much. He was paranoid about these ocean breezes flowing pleasantly past. One unfortunate gust could shift his hair enough to give away his ears, and that was not what he needed right now. When not keeping an eye on Jamie or watching the ocean he kept his head down and attempted to turn away from the wind whenever it blew in. Of course, being paranoid all the time only made him more agitated, and...

"Fuck!"

Yeah. That.
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