Consume [Open]

[Behn]

OOCMy power went out last night, totally ruined my post. I'll not be giving up on this thread just yet. It's only just getting interesting! I hope I didn't make you think that Behn's stand-offish personality means that I the writer don't want to rp with you, because I do. I'd like to continue if you would be interested. Behn cocked his head back as the rest of that pungent alcoholic beverage slid down his throat, and with it felt like his esophagus also melted and crawled miserably into his digestive tract. He wheeze as he slammed his mug, now empty, on that small creaking table, and motioned to the barkeeper to bring them another round. His request wasn't even taken back as Sara stood up. Did she think she was defeated? Did she give in so easily? Behn was shocked to think so. She seemed so tenacious at first, just to get his attention for a moment. It seemed now that all she really wanted was to use him, for whatever plans she had that he was unsure of. He shrugged lightly at these thoughts, not particularly let down that she was throwing in the towel, though it was refreshing to see a free woman fight for something so vividly, even if only briefly, for what she wanted. Asking a stranger to join up for some unorthodox idea as an adventure, that took guts, willpower. Behn felt a faint twang of cloudiness infect the insides of his skull as he sat there and thought for a moment. The Kelp Beer was potent, and Behn wasn't accustomed to drinking, especially not so quickly. It was an act of desperation to forget the past, to the best of his ability. "It was good to meet you Sara." Behn smirked as if surprised that he found Harper so intriguing at all. He hadn't been so friendly with someone (yes, how he acted was as close to friendly as he got) since he cared for that boy, Alabastor, in the wilderness. Shame he disappeared in the middle of the night. All the people Behn could consider friends, or more, seemed to do that to him. Behn reached up from his seat as it rocked underneath him. His hand gently wrapped around Sara's hand, offered to him in her announcing to leave. "You may not get the chance to see me again, I don't plan to stay in Zeltiva long. I have important things to do." Behn didn't realize it until after he spoke, but he mentioned something that, to a certain someone, might sound like an adventure, a chance to catch the winds in her sails and glide across the waters of obscure joy and happiness. Behn shrugged lightly, wondering how he could cover this with some excuse, but he was drawing a blank now. He was not a man of cunning words. And then two more drinks of Kelp Beer were set on the table before Behn. Grimacing heavily, he took one mug in his hand and stared at it for a long moment. All of a sudden, drinking lost its appeal in every way except to forget the incident in Ravok. That was appeal enough to force the harsh beer down though.

[Sara Harper]

9 Summer 511 AV

OOCoh good! haha Behn's indifference confused me lol ;] but I agree! it is getting interesting lol!

Sara smiled slightly. Aha.. She let her hand drop and stood staring at the drink that had just arrived at the table.
"Behn I'm starting to think that you've just let a brick fall from your stronghold...pray tell, where do you plan on going? I hope we have become acquainted just long enough that you could indulge? Afterall, we have just established you can't help me nor I you so what is the harm? she asked while sitting slowly back down into the rickity chair. No sudden movements, wouldn't want to scare him off now that he seems to be finally opening up. Sara reached for the drink and took a hefty swig. Not very lady like but the excitement was starting to sink in a bit and Sara felt she could use a little liquid courage. How could I be so quick to give up so easily? Sara was beginning to like Behn. He was an odd character, deffinately not as light hearted as she would probably like but perhaps Sara could find that simply pealing away the layers she'd find a man who once laughed, and smiled.

If Behn would have her Sara was rapidly thinking of finally being able to live her day by day on edge. Never knowing what to expect, never knowing what challenges she would have to face. Sara enjoyed a challenge to an extent of course. She enjoyed challenges regarding beasts and inanimate objects. Her people skills reflected otherwise sometimes. When she felt she wasn't going to get her way particularly with a man she would easily just go on her way. There would most likely always be someone else to seduce or play.
Sara didn't like to think she was selfish but since she was about 14 and her beauty was truly starting to bloom Sara had been easily corrupted and played by men. Sara learned quickly to turn the tables and used her beauty as a weapon. Its what she had to do to survive. She learned the ways of a proper lady while still maintaining her street smarts. She saw that men found an indepedant woman intriguing and alluring. Sure a man liked a woman that was obediant and submissive but to be fair, Sylira was full of women just like that. To see a lady who spoke her mind and came and went as she pleased, that was a respected attraction, and Sara was learning slowly to master it.

[Behn]

Behn lowered his mug from his lips as Sara decided to sit back down, even though she already announced her departure and offered her farewells. Behn cursed himself, or at least in his head he was. He didn't dare say the things he thought aloud. "Change of heart?" Behn had a feeling she didn't change her mind at all, but it was because she didn't change a thing about her desires that she caught onto something, something Behn had that she wanted. Well, he might as well have a conversation, it wasn't like it would get much further than that one way or another. "To be honest, I haven't the slightest idea where I'll go. I know what I need to do, vaguely, but not where to go, how to do it, or if I can. It doesn't make much sense, I'm sure, but I couldn't be more certain about my calling, my task. The means to complete this mission, it escapes me." That was both true and false. He knew how to do what he needed. He had the weapon, a greatsword (not on him currently of course), and a clean stroke killed a goddess just as it kills a man. Krysus's neck was not made of steel, it was flesh, and when severed, death occurred. Behn was confident of that, it was just making such a strike, finding just that goddess, it was all so hard to figure out. How? Behn lifted his mug to his lips, no longer bothered that Sara was still here, grilling him about his intentions and plans. "I feel like we're being unfair. I've shared more about myself than you have." It was somewhat true, though it wasn't really much of an argument. All Sara knew is that he had some plan that couldn't be worked with from Zeltiva, and that he was almost a sailor, and he was more guarded than the citizens of Syliras. What he knew of Sara was only that she needed to move like the sea. Still, Behn was more polite, surprisingly, than to interrogate a woman without reason. He was beginning to doubt that she had anything about her that needed worrying over. She didn't look like a fighter, drew too much attention to herself to be a thief, had no considerable amount of muscle or weaponry on her to lead Behn into thinking she was a mugger, bandit, or highwayman. What, then, was she? Not a housewife, too bold. Not a tavern wench, she seemed like she would be uncomfortable staying at such a mundane unexciting profession. What other options were there? "Perhaps I'll go fishing, or hunting soon. Food seems scarce in Zeltiva." Scarce was accurate, though nonexistent didn't seem far from the truth itself.

[Sara Harper]

9 Summer 511 AV

Sara knew it was going to come sooner or later. Questions about who she was, where she had been. fishing?
At Behn's inquire into her she tensed up a bit. Sara had nothing to hide. She just didn't necessarily feel the need to share. But Behn had a point it was only fair, even if the information she had recieved from him was very minimal.
Sara smiled and took another swig of the beer. Liquid courage.. "Oh my I guess we have been unfair! Well Behn, what is there to tell? I am a dead sea captains daughter. I have seen parts of Mizahar that many men die without experiencing that is for certain. I can fight the slightest bit. And well the only thing one needs to know about me is that I am here now. Trying to meet interesting people. Perhaps I will just settle down now at my ripe age of 21 and meet a dear man to call husband and raise children. Thats what women are supposed to do am I right?"
Even as she said it, disgust erupted inside of her. Perhaps it was the kelp beer. But settling? Oh to be the submissive little wife of a man with half the knowledge I have. What a thought indeed. Sara chuckled a little. The thought was indeed obsurd. She loved men. She loved men naked and then gone the next morning. No attatchments, no mess. Sara didn't want to have to answer to anyone, and she could easily live without anyone answering to her, but it didn't hurt.
I could go on a journey. Give me a chance to "find myself"..Isn't that what they call it? To "find oneself". I don't recall being lost. Perhaps becuase I was lost all along. I didn't know I needed to be found.

[Behn]

Behn watch Sara closely as she told what some might call a tale. Behn considered it more of a rant or brief monologue with few details and even fewer hints as to who she really was, which is what he was hoping to uncover. He gave a soft 'Hmm', a sign of consideration, before speaking. "Being a family woman? Perhaps. That is what most would expect of you." Behn had a woman, fiance, beautiful, young, pregnant with his child. They weren't married, they didn't have plans to be so until the baby was born and they were financially well off to enjoy it. Behn hadn't thought about it in years, but being a family man, a father figure, he was only days away from being just that. Then it died. "Nothing is guaranteed to happen as expected. You can be expected to marry and have children, but you may not. You can expect to find a faithful man worthy of dedicating yourself to, but he may die. You may expect many beautiful children, but may be barren. You can expect to be what everyone expects, but fate has a tendency, I've noticed, to force you to stop expecting things." This was, perhaps, the most philosophical thing Behn had ever spoken. He even caught himself bewildered at what he said. Of course, upon realizing himself sounding like some pious follower of Ivak preaching to a godless heathen, Behn leaned back in his seat and silenced himself, embarrassed for speaking with such certainty about things he didn't know. Only what he felt. "I expected to be a father. I was let down." Behn said it, despite his deepest desires not to, he felt a need to. Just to let her know that he wasn't just talking, but that he understood her in some way. She lost her father, obviously someone who was a landmark in her journey through life. Behn lost his lover and daughter before the former was married to him, and the latter born into the world. "Sara, I want you to know that I refused your offer because I don't expect to live long." Behn had known this for a while now. Challenging a goddess and her cult all by yourself was practically suicide, if not even pointless. His life would be on the line at every turn. "I need to make something right, and to do that I must kill someone. It's not an adventure of excitement or expedition into the unknown. I know how this ends, and I don't want to bring in someone else down this dark path with me." Behn sighed heavily as he took his mug and finished off his second helping of Kelp Beer. It was working wonders to expose his secrets.

[Sara Harper]

9 Summer 511 AV

"I want to come along Behn. If you'll have me." Behn intrigued Sara. He was attractive to her and he had focus and drive and a bloodfilled vengence never hurt anyone she supposed.

Death? She wasn't afriad. She was only 21 and had lived already an interesting life and yet it was all without purpose. If she died, she didn't care. At least at the moment she didn't care becuase what did she have to lose? She had been on the brink of death more times than the average warrior could even claim.

"I have a sword with skills that could always use improving. But I want to come along Behn. I know we don't know hardly anything about eachother but perhaps we'll learn. If you tire of me or I you, perhaps one morning one will wake to find the other moved on. I can live with that." Sara looked intently into Behn's eyes when she spoke. She did not smile, laugh, or smirk. She maintained complete composure, and eye contact. He has to know I'm serious. She allowed herself to look down at the table briefly and tucked a loose lock of her gold hair behind her ear then her eyes made there way back up again into Behn's intense eyes.

[Behn]

Was that a hiccup, a scoff, or just Behn choking on his Kelp Beer? Regardless of what it was, the man exploded into an arrhythmic cacophony of coughing and wheezing. Behn hurriedly set his mug back on the table and covered his mouth with his fist as he sat there for several long gagging moments as he fought the urge to explode into a saliva and kelp beer flood and drown the inhabitants of the bar. There were even a few turning heads that gave him a brief moment's interest before turning back to their own business. Behn finally caught a hold of his body's involuntary reaction, and forced them away with several more moments of gasping for air. "Of course not. I told you that story... well, petch. I don't know why I told you, but you're supposed to understand and accept my rejection." Supposed to, she was supposed to be a typical woman, a wife and future mother, didn't they already go over that? Hell, Behn even defended her position. He lifted his palm to his forehead and rested it gently there, as if trying to tap into mindful clarity. "I do not doubt your skills with a weapon or... your tenacity to survive, but I can't risk your life. this stupid journey I have before me, the point of it is to stop the death of innocent people, not... not to get another killed." Behn lifted his hand to his mouth as he burped softly, well, softly for an obnoxious burp, the beer was really hitting him. "And, as much as I'd love to have you around, I can let someone get close enough to lose them." Behn sighed as his hand moved up to his temples and began to massage them slowly, softly, impatiently. He was frustrating himself, only hearing his words after he said them, and only realizing what they meant after that. Drinking was a bad idea. Behn stood up suddenly, and having lost track of how much time or money was spent on Kelp Beer, he wavered lightly as he moved towards the door. "I need some air to clear my head." That and to leave the conversation behind. Talk of killing and her trying to join him, it all made him sick. He didn't want to kill, but it drove him mad to know that it was the only way to stop those who would kill for pleasure, for necessity. He had to endure it so others who deserved to live, could live. And if he died, so be it. He lost everything dear to him long ago.

[Sara Harper]

9 Summer 511 AV

Sara was beginning to hate herself for how she was feeling. It could have been the drink but Sara was very...confused

She sat at the table for a moment in a sort of shock as Behn clearly was having a torn moment and she was taken aback when he simply lurched up and walked out mumbling something about fresh air. She sat there for a moment and looked around as everyone was watching the scene. Sara simply giggled and smiled and tossed her hair back, "Ah a bit to much to drink for him I'm afraid, nothing to worry about." The men in the tavern laughed and carried on in their own discussions as Sara got up from the table and left coin for the barmaid.

He did say he'd love to have me around...who is he to decide whether my life should be at risk or not?! My life is always at risk. I'm a woman alone, I have been in more compromising situations to count, He'll just have to get over that. I'm too far into this now. My interest is peaked! If I don't go now I'll just wake up wondering, and worse waiting, for something else. I can't anymore...

Sara stepped out the door of the pub, the sea air hit her face, smell of salt flooding her nostrils. She looked left and right pulling her hair into the grasp of one hand so the breeze would stop blowing strands of gold into her eyes. She saw him stalking off. Sara broke into a bit of a trot so to speak, "Behn! Behn wait!"

[Behn]

Behn found himself lumbering down the street in a slowly moving haze. Behn, who was embarrassingly lightweight when it came to holding his drinking, had recalled the situation that just happened clearly, but in an odd sense, as if he was a third party watching the conversation. He saw himself being strong, convincing, and refusing the girl despite her eagerness to latch herself onto him, for whatever reason he wasn't sure. Behn saw himself winning the argument, if there was one, and finally settling the matter without need for further debate, but he also saw the man inside, miserable and desperate for a friend. Friendship, it wasn't a common thing for him anymore, and he was beginning to wonder if maybe that was truly the reason he was pushing her away, when she was so aggressively pushing towards him. If you didn't make a friend, you never could lose one. That's how his opinions became so vile and skewed once Aeyane was taken from his arms in such a heinous crime. If it had been disease or illness, Behn could have eventually accepted, but not murder, not rape, not torture, not what had truly happened to her. Behn turned, only to leaned backwards against a wall, using it to support his otherwise unbalanced weight. He breathed heavily, not from the drink but from the anguish he was feeling. Drinking was supposed to hide his feelings, but it only made them stronger, made him emotional, made him sick. Behn looked up and down the street a moment, seeing few people, one of them was Sara trotting after him. Still she was following him. He wasn't going to be able to get rid of her it seems. "Yeah, yeah, I'm here." Behn offered a smirk as he stood there, leaning heavily on the wall to keep his balance. "You know, I'm not usually like this. Er, well I wasn't before. I'm different than I used to be, I mean to say. It's been a tough day for me. That's why I drink on occasion."