Completed [The Drunken Fish] When Broken Can't Be Fixed

Kailani goes to The Drunken Fish to confront Azcan about his absence and loses something very precious in the process.

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A lawless town of anarchists, built on the ruins of an ancient mining city. [Lore]

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[The Drunken Fish] When Broken Can't Be Fixed

Postby Kailani on November 10th, 2018, 5:52 am

45th Day of Fall, 518 AV, 21st Bell


“Where the petch is he?!” Kailani growled as she stormed into The Drunken Fish, her brindle Akinva Deerstalker close at her heels. Her sea foam eyes carefully scanned the throng of people, looking for the telltale “boy wonder” tattoo that adorned her absentee lover. Ignoring the annoyed glances of patrons as she pushed by, she stormed up to the bar and slapped it to gain Father Manowar’s attention. “I said, where the petch is he?!”

“Oh, look, it’s you again,” the proprietor answered drily, looking up as he polished out the inside of a glass. “Isn’t it our lucky night?”

“I’m not here to make jokes with you, old man,” the Svefra replied, her tone scathing. She was not in the mood for his sarcasm. Kona growled at her side, a couple of the nearby customers backing up a few steps. “Where. Is. Azcan?!” It had been over two weeks since the last time she’d seen the drummer boy, and his absence made her suspicious. He’d shown up on her casinor in the middle of the night, spouting tearful words of his need for her, and then disappeared the next day. She’d reasoned that perhaps he’d been embarrassed of his drunken confessions, childishly retreating so he wouldn’t have to face her again. But with each day that passed and he still remained away… There was a sinking feeling in her gut. She hoped her instincts weren’t proved correct.

“Look, girl, don’t you be marchin’ in here demandin’ explanations of me in my tavern,” the man growled, leaning forward and shoving a finger at her chest. “I ain’t the boy’s keeper, you hear me? And I don’t owe you nothin’. Nothing but trouble, you. Now I suggest you back off before I pick you up and throw you out of here myself.”

“Petch you,” was Kailani’s less than kind response, tossing him an obscene hand gesture as she stalked away from the bar. “I’ll go find him myself.” Father Manowar rolled his eyes, returned the gesture, and resumed polishing the glass.

The Svefra started pushing her way through the crowd of people again, making her way over to the stairs with Kona in tow. With each step up, her stomach clenched further, more and more sure of what she was going to find. Her face was set with anger and resentment alike, her dog radiating the same energy at her side.

Taking a deep breath, she stopped outside of Azcan’s door and squared her shoulders. After a brief pause to collect herself, she rapped heavily against the wood three times and waited for an answer. When none came, she tested the knob. Finding it unlocked, she threw it open and stormed inside.

The sight that met her eyes was no less than what she expected, but it enraged her, nonetheless. Empty drawers, strewn about bedclothes, an echoing room that still smelled of his presence. It looked like he’d left in haste, the dresser drawers still slightly ajar with a lingering sock hanging from the top. Fury bubbled beneath her skin, her face flushed with ire as she threw the drawer to the ground.

Vagik son of a petching whore!” she shouted, tossing another of the drawers to the bare floor. “You abandoned me again?!” With a cry of pure and unbridled fury, Kailani threw one of the candlestick holders at the nearby mirror, the glass shattering and falling to the floor. “What is wrong with you?! Do you ever think about anyone but yourself?!”

The answer to that was a simple and resounding no, something the Svefra knew all too well. She should’ve known better than to let him into her life again. She should have walked away as soon as she laid eyes on his stupid petching face. What was I thinking? Kailani berated herself as she continued in her room-destroying rampage, overturning the water decanter and splashing its contents along the bed. How could I have been so stupid? I should have known!

Her streak of destruction was finally halted when she spied an object in the corner, a painfully familiar object that turned her vision red as soon as she laid eyes on it. Azcan’s drum. Letting the decanter clatter to the floor, she walked over and grabbed the instrument, holding it in her hands for a long, long moment. Furious tears welled in her eyes as she thought back on the night in the cave, the ride in her casinor where he’d played his drum and she’d danced at the helm. The moment held in the Tear of Tanroa, now forever tainted by his second abandonment.

Furious tears welled in her eyes as she pulled her dagger from its sheath and held it aloft with a trembling hand. Setting the drum on the floor, she took another pause to contemplate it, memories of that cursed instrument flooding her mind. With a growl, she shut them all out and brought her weapon down, slashing the drum skin to shreds.

Kona stood guard at the door as Kailani took out her rage on the drum, cutting and crushing the instrument to pieces. Once it lay in ruin, she stomped the chunks repeatedly, crying out with each smack of her foot. Finally satisfied with the amount of destruction she’d done, she gathered up the remnants, opening the window and tossing them into the street below.

By this time, the Svefra had gathered a small audience at the door, the only thing keeping them back her dog’s warning presence. “Petch off!” she shouted at them all, face blood red as she shoved through the doorway. With a glare, she grabbed the drink out of the hands of the nearest bastard in her way, chugging it right in front of him before smacking him upside the head with the empty tankard.

Pandemonium erupted with her action, the man swinging clumsily in her direction. Kona leaped up and grabbed her attacker’s arm between his teeth, another of the patrons then swinging for the dog. Kailani elbowed the offender in the gut and grabbed the Deerstalker, weaving, bobbing, and running down the stairs amidst cries of confusion and rage.

When she reached the common area, the brawl she’d started spread out among the clientele. Different clusters were forming as the various drunkards started beating each other into the ground. Kailani found herself caught up in the wave again, a meaty hand grabbing her head and tugging her hair. With a growl, she shoved her head back into the other’s face, the dazed man stumbling a few steps. Reflexively, he grabbed the thong of her necklace and pulled, shells and sea glass clattering to the floor as the tie came undone. The fight now forgotten, Kai fell to her knees as she scrambled to retrieve it, but a booted foot came down on her hand just as it was within her reach. Crying out sharply, she looked up, only for a chair leg to come crashing down on her skull. Stars danced in her eyes before the room went black, the Svefra going limp against the floor.

NaNo WC: 1182


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Last edited by Kailani on December 1st, 2018, 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kailani
Daughter of the Sea
 
Posts: 153
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Joined roleplay: September 16th, 2018, 5:16 am
Location: Sunberth
Race: Human, Svefra
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[The Drunken Fish] When Broken Can't Be Fixed

Postby Kailani on November 11th, 2018, 5:28 am

Kailani awoke to a cold nose in her face and a wet tongue bathing her cheek. Groaning, she pushed Kona’s snout away and cracked open a single blue eye. “I’m an idiot,” she muttered under her breath, wincing at the insistent throbbing in her head. After that knock, she’d have a knot the size of a melon, she was sure of it. A tentative hand reached up to assess the damage, hissing and withdrawing her touch as soon as she found the bump on the crown of her skull. “A petching idiot,” she affirmed with a heavy sigh. She shouldn’t have come here. Her life was just full of “shouldn’t haves” lately.

“My necklace!” she suddenly cried as the memory of why she’d gotten knocked out suddenly struck her. Kailani sat up abruptly and almost immediately regretted that decision. The common room spun in her vision, unconsciousness threatening to overtake her again. A spurt of nausea rose from her belly, turning her head to the side and dry heaving. “Full of great ideas, I am…” she grumbled, inwardly scolding herself for her latest one. What was I thinking…

The Svefra cradled her head in her hands for the next couple chimes as she sought to regain her equilibrium. How could I have been so stupid? Will I never learn from my mistakes? A nose was in her face again, interrupting her reverie. With a sigh and a soft chuckle, she gently caressed Kona’s cheeks while she looked him over for any damage. A shallow cut by his eye, a few bumps on his ribs, and a swollen paw, but it didn’t seem anything he wouldn’t recover from. The poor thing had certainly been through worse. “Good boy,” she crooned softly, scratching his ears before placing a hand on his shoulders to steady herself. Using the sturdy dog for balance, she pushed herself up, careful to do so much more slowly than before.

Rising to her knees, she searched the floor around her with an increasingly hopeless desperation. A few crushed remnants of seashells were all that seemed to remain, Kailani reaching out with trembling fingers to pick up the cracked fragment of a once beautiful abalone. She clutched it tight within her fist, tears stinging her eyes. Here it was, the direct consequence of her impulsiveness. She didn’t care about her bumps and bruises—those would heal fast enough. But this… this would never heal. And there was nothing she could do about it.

“Rest of it’s gone,” a feminine voice sounded behind her, the seafarer whirling around to face whoever addressed her. It was the bartender, Cira, her freckled face mildly sympathetic. “The sea glass got taken near as soon as it hit the floor. What didn’t get trampled, that is.” The woman frowned as she peered a little closer at Kailani’s clearly distraught face. “It was pretty important, huh?”

A stiff nod was the sailor’s reply. “It was my mother’s,” Kai explained, voice low as her thumb stroked over the ruined shell. “It was… it was all I had left of her.” With a loud sniff, she straightened her spine, leaning on Kona again as she pulled herself all the way to her feet. “Serves me right, I guess,” she continued in a mumble, flashing Cira a strained smile. “That’s what I get for being such a damn fool.”

Cira declined to comment, glancing up the stairs toward the ruin of Azcan’s former bedroom. “It was a destructive night all around,” she said in a neutral tone before turning back to Kailani with a raise of her eyebrow. The woman flushed in response, looking down at her shuffling feet. “If I were you, I’d get out of here before Father Manowar sees what you did. The brawl’s one thing. That happens often enough. But the room…” She shook her head. “He’ll be none too pleased about that one.”

Kailani winced. “You’re probably right.” She gave Kona a gentle scratch between the shoulders before sighing and offering Cira a little wave of her fingers. “I think I’ll take that advice. And I, uh… I don’t think you’ll have to worry about seeing me here again.” The Svefra would avoid the tavern like the plague after her display of the night before; she had no wish to face the proprietor’s rage.

“That’s probably wise,” was the bartender’s dry reply, offering the Svefra a two-fingered salute before heading back to her station behind the bar.

A sigh escaped Kai’s lips, patting her dog’s back. “Come on, Kona. Let’s get out of here.” Blue eyes looked down at the floor, feeling a pang in her heart as she glanced over the shattered remnants of what had once been her most valued possession. Biting her lip, she tucked the cracked abalone into her pocket, and turned away. Can’t change it now. But at least she could keep a little piece. Perhaps it might serve as a reminder to rein in her temper.

I’m sorry, Mother, she thought as she and Kona headed for the door, one hand briefly lingering against the frame. She turned to look back at the tavern, heart in her throat. A tainted reunion, a final farewell, something precious lost… Kailani hoped she never had reason to step foot into this cursed establishment again. Nothing good had ever come out of The Drunken Fish, as far as she was concerned. She was more than happy to put it behind her.

The woman’s hand rested against her chest where once her necklace had lain as she finally stepped through the door, Kona close at her side. While destroying Azcan’s room and drum had been cathartic in a way nothing else ever could have been, she couldn’t help but wonder if that closure truly outweighed the price she’d paid. I guess we’ll find out…

NaNo WC: 972


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Kailani
Daughter of the Sea
 
Posts: 153
Words: 176158
Joined roleplay: September 16th, 2018, 5:16 am
Location: Sunberth
Race: Human, Svefra
Character sheet
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Medals: 1
Overlored (1)

[The Drunken Fish] When Broken Can't Be Fixed

Postby Kynier on December 1st, 2018, 2:46 pm

Grades!


Skill Rewards
  • Animal Husbandry: Dog +1
  • Endurance +1
  • Interrogation +1
  • Investigation +1
  • Larceny +1
  • Observation +2
  • Socialization +1
  • Unarmed Combat: Brawling +1

Lores Learned
  • Azcan: Abandoned her again
  • Kona: Survived worse than a tavern brawl
  • Larceny: Damaging a room at the Drunken Fish
  • Self: No intention of going back to The Drunken Fish
  • Self: Lore of Heirloom’s destruction
  • Self: Questioning the price of closure
  • The Drunken Fish: Nothing good had ever come out of there


If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to PM me.
Kynier
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