Flashback Tut - kids, these days.

[Jayce Asher]

He could definitely see the anger welling up inside of Manx, but Jayce didn't know why at all. He didn't even see the reasoning behind Manx's prying, he just returned with as honest an answer as he could. "Well, my father's building ships for the brave, my mother's gone, and my children probably don't know me," He laughed and winked to accompany the last comment. He honestly saw no good reason for the passion Manx had about everything, maybe he was extremely jealous? "Would you mind sitting down here while I go and get dressed? The kitchen's just down the corridor," he pointed to his left, "Just ask Stephen to prepare us some food, tell him Master Asher sent you!" His voice became distant as he wandered upstairs, the question being rather rhetorical, because he was leaving the Inarta on his own downstairs no matter what the answer be; Jayce disappeared before he could even receive a reply. In his bedroom, Jayce stripped off his battle-worn garments, and padded off into his wardrobe room (We'd call it a walking wardrobe, but Jayce literally could afford a room dedicated to clothes). Most of the clothes he had looked the same, only slightly varying in style, or maybe it would be the hem, sewn differently or in different thread. The first thing Jayce thought to do, was to pick a colour, so he chose dark green, the colour of nature: he thought Manx would appreciate it. It was a smooth gauze tunic that he picked, Jayce would normally wear this when meeting women, or on special occasions. He wore it now, because he had a strange desire to impress Manx, as if it mattered how he was judged by him. To match the green tunic, he wore dark, heavy-satin trousers - they matched almost all shirts he had at his disposal. When he'd fit himself into the shirt and trousers, he felt it necessary to take off his shoes and leggings (they were more like tights, really, but there wasn't a word for them in Zeltiva). Bare footed, and in casual yet complimenting clothing, he decided it would be a good time to brush his hair. Jayce spent a lot of time brushing his hair, he brushed it after waking up, when he was bored, and before bed. He had managed to get most of the knots out of it, and styled it appropriately, in a slightly more rough fashion to how he normally has it - he didn't want to appear a total ponce. After finally getting ready for meeting his guest properly, he headed off down the stairs. He'd spent almost half a bell upstairs, and much could have happened in that time. He hoped that Manx wasn't causing trouble, but didn't expect him to be. Secretly, Jayce prayed that Manx had set alight to the logs in the fireplace, as he needed the warmth, but couldn't manage it himself. He sniffed, but couldn't make out the scent of food. As he neared the bottom of the grand staircase, his anticipation grew.

[Manx]

Hearing that his father was an artisan made Marx feel a bit lighter in the chest, accompanied with the light-heartedness of Jayce's response, he managed to ignore the incredibly over decorative house and he supposed that a lot of the artisans from Wind-reach might have similarly sized houses if their work was so important. Supposing that Jayce was going upstairs to get dressed more elaborately made Manx slightly conscious of his own appearance, which didn't happen often. Lifting his hand to his fringe, he let his hair free from behind his ear and it hung down over his right eye somewhat, being much less practical. He realized that he had left his bag outside and decided to walk out to retrieve it from it's space in the garden. It took longer than he remembered walking out into the wide open space to collect his rucksack and the decrease of light dazed him for a moment, but he soon arrived at his rucksack and picked it up - swinging it over his shoulder. He took this opportunity to place both arrows back into the quiver on his back as well, feeling the shafts of them rest against the mouth of the quiver and then hearing the friction as they sunk into place. He placed the bowstring over one of his shoulders and then relaxed the arm not holding the rucksack up once more. Turning to go back to the house, he noticed the breast-plate and shield of Jayce outside and decided to walk over to them, stooping to pick up the shield first and then hooking his fingers under the leather strap of his chest-piece. He lifted both items with a groan of effort and had to break into a short run towards the house; he didn't quite make the doorway before he had to pause for a moment and rest both items back down with a clunk. He decided to take a few minutes' rest before continuing. Able to lift the weights again, Manx could feel a burning sensation spreading this his entire arm, hand and the side of his body he was using to lift the heavy objects as he ran all the way back into the elaborate sitting room, practically throwing the shield, chest-plate and his own rucksack down onto the floor, not too far from the fire-place. Resting both hands to his knees, he bent over and breathed deeply for a few moments before standing up. He shook the strained muscles of his arm next to him - allowing them to loosen up after such a sudden work-load. Now going back to the original idea behind his trip outside, Manx reached into his rucksack and produced the brush that he kept there, it's frame was glass but the bristles were a coarse sort of hair. He ran the brush through his hair a few times and it made a rushing noise; his hair was surprisingly knot-free as he ran the brush through it, obviously avoiding the plaited part of his fringe. After this quick brushing of his hair, he placed the brush back into the rucksack. Deciding to remind himself more of home, and as Jayce had insisted he take to the place like his home, Manx walked over to the fire whilst simultaneously unbuttoning one of his belt pouches, to then pull out both a flint and steel from said pouch. Taking a light stroll around the fire, he located the huge metal snuffbox there and pulled it open quite delicately. After retrieving a handful of the tinder inside, he placed it on the very edge of the fire and held his stick of flint facing it. Shaving the piece of steel against the flint, Manx aimed the spark at the small pile of tinder until it was set ablaze; he backed away from what he presumed would eventually be a rather huge fire and watched as the flames began to bite into the supple-looking wooden logs that stood there in their marble coliseum like mountains, before catching flame.

[Jayce Asher]

Jayce was absolutely astonished when he saw the flames, blazing and crackling beneath the grand, ornate mantle. He rushed over to Manx, but stopped abruptly before him, realising suddenly that it wouldn't be wise to 'attack-hug' his guest. As if to make the situation less awkward, he sat down on the sofa behind Manx, peering into the fire (hopefully Manx wasn't too aware of him previously rushing across the room). The sofa cradled Jayce's behind, he always felt comfortable on these sofas, no matter what kind of day he'd put up with, and no matter what he was wearing. These sofas never failed to remind him of home. He gestured for Manx to sit with him, and then clapped loudly. The clap was obviously practiced, as it echoed down the halls, and was more than likely a louder clap than any Manx had heard before; his clap was that of a master, summoning a servant, and that's exactly what Jayce was doing. "Yes, Master Jayce?" Stephen appeared from out of the corridor suddenly, and carried a tray of wine, because it was Jayce's usual reason for clapping his attention. He stayed about 10 metres away from Jayce at all times, enough distance to not interrupt his master's affairs, but enough distance to be quick enough to suddenly move either direction. He wore simple garments, that reminded him of his position in the household. They weren't repulsive, however, as they had to be 'easy on the eyes' to the guests. "Go and fetch my friend and I some food, my father will be home when we've finished - so save some for him." He wasn't very direct when addressing his servants, but he didn't need to be, they knew him too well. They'd also mastered the art of being invisible when they weren't needed. The servants cleaned the house when nobody was home, and the kitchen was arranged again neatly before anyone had even finished a meal. Little was seen of them or heard of them, and that's how it should be in every rich artisan's household. It suddenly dawned on Jayce, as his butler disappeared, that he didn't really know what food Manx liked to eat. There were only few people in this world that preferred the goods of plants to the succulence of meats, Jayce sat quietly and hoped that Manx wasn't one of them. Kicking his legs up, he allowed the bare soles of his feet to catch the heat of the fire. "Well, tell me about you then, young man!" This was the first time he'd referred to him as a young man, he didn't really see it in him, but he wanted the Inarta to feel as comfortable as possible. He sat twiddling his thumbs, but with profound confidence - he awaited a reply, a gentle, kind smile on his face.

[Manx]

Manx heard rushed footsteps and looked over quickly to see their source, but he only saw Jayce walking calmly over to a sofa that was behind Manx as he looked at the fire, he liked the clothing that Jayce wore and noted that it reminded him particularly of verdure; being one that respected and enjoyed nature in many of it's forms, Manx was attracted to the clothing choice - even the casual lack of footwear appealed to the young Inarta. He thought for a moment that maybe it was meant to appeal to him, but he quickly dismissed the speculation, it sounded silly for an artisan's son to seek to impress one such as himself. Though Manx took a moment to mentally declare that Jayce should have made his own food, he also thought that the efficiency that the servant appeared and the already known course of action was quite remarkable, it reminded him on Wind reach and how everyone's work intermingled like a complex web. As Manx stood there thinking of home and of this amazing new place and the new people he had met since leaving Wind Reach; the light of the fire danced over his scarred body, the lack of glistening from the delicate-looking patterns that ran in small groups on his body betrayed their true tissue nature, it removed the mask of silver from them and made them a disappointment on the canvas that was Manx's back turned to Jayce. Having seen the lack of footwear worn by Jayce, Manx thought that he should follow the owner of the houses' example and as such, he dug the heel of his left boot into the heel of his right and pushed it off of his foot. He shifted his weight quickly onto his now bare right foot and lifting the left, pressing this foot's heel against his right leg, he allowed the boot to slip off with a unison effort between friction and gravity and the boot fell to the ground. The noise from the boot hitting the floor melted into the sound of Jayce's voice that questioned Manx from behind and as such he turned around, walking towards Jayce, he decided to take a seat next to him (though having not noticed his original inclination for Manx to sit) and told Jayce the basics about himself: "You know my age and name" he started, searching for more information to tell before speaking again "I'm an Inarta from Wind Reach, which is over in Kalea, and I left there when I was ten" His information about himself was practically running dry, so he instead talked of his abilities, "I'm quite good with a bow and I can use a Talon pretty well, I want to learn to use both at once some day, one of these ones is my dad's that he gave to me" after saying this, Jayce indicated the two swords on his back - not singling out his father's sword. Turning his head then to Jayce, he looked up into his eyes with his own mosaic-filled orbs and asked the same of him: "What about you?". Manx's stature was quite relaxed and he managed to slump back onto the sofa behind him, leaving his arms draped messily across his lap.

[Jayce Asher]

'He's an Inarta', thought Jayce. He'd only heard of the Inarta on few occasions, as if they were mythical or something. 'Kalea', he knew that places like that existed, but he didn't think he'd ever meet anyone from them in his life time, and now one was sitting next to him! He didn't know what to say in response, but he felt it would be a good start if he talked about himself a little bit. One thing that Jayce did well was talk about himself, he thought about how he'd phrase it, but only very slightly, and then began. "I'm only one of the wealthiest men in Zeltiva! This is my house, or rather my father's, but he's not here. I'm the son of a woman deceased now, and my father crafts ships. He has worked on the Golden Jackal, you know!" He doubted he'd know about the Golden Jackal, but thought it would be best if he gave him a reality check, as to how skilled (or famed) his father actually was. "I've been fighting with a sword since I was eight, officially, but I've been interested in them all my life. I've only just started getting the hang of the shield, relatively speaking - I've been using it for about two years." He could go on and on about himself, but he didn't think the Inarta to be interested, and he could smell the food coming down the corridor. 'I hope he's hungry', he thought to himself, 'and likes Tortoise... and mullet'. The dish was as Jayce expected. Tortoise meat made up a good chunk of the platter, and Zeltivan Mullet was mixed in with the salad dressing. It was a cold meal, but all of the meat was cooked before-hand. Jayce didn't see it as 'just a cold meal', he saw it as a 'quick meal' - his servants were being lazy. He wandered down to the other side of the Living Quarter, and turned down the corridor, waving a hand at Manx for him to follow. The Dining Hall was equally as large, with a grand, ellipse of a table set in the middle of the room. It was arranged for feasts, though Jayce rarely ate at the table. At the ellipse's 'vertices', two chairs were erected, higher than the rest. These were the master chairs, and were to be the seats that Jayce and Manx would sit on, and they were designed to provide utmost comfort for anyone using them. They were tall (the back of the chairs extended to about a foot above Jayce's head when he sat), and intricate designs were chiseled into the wood above head-height. The chairs themselves were wooden, with red, leather cushions built into the woodwork. Melchior had bought the chairs a long time ago, so Jayce didn't know what exactly was inside the cushions, it was relaxing, though. The platters were set all the way down the table, and from one of the vertices to the other measured about 10 metres. Instead of chandeliers, a candelabra lit the whole table from the middle. Although Jayce wasn't keen on the idea of a cold meal, especially considering the season, the dinner looked more appetising when he was about to eat it. A wide variety of knives and forks were set in front of the high chairs. Only the platters directly in front of the chairs were ready with food, as the larger meal would occur later, when Melchior returned. Jayce sat down, and asked Manx to do the same. He hoped Manx would appreciate the comfort of the seats, because he'd risked being scolded by his father when he set them up. Nobody was supposed to sit on those chairs besides Jayce and Melchior. 'Oh well', he thought to himself often, because he found that he was the only person that understood him, 'My dad won't get back until later, so he won't know he sat on it'. Jayce picked one of the variations of knife and fork, Manx's cutlery set was unclear from this distance, but the young master assumed that the knives and forks were in order - and all there.

[Manx]

To the young Inarta, the use of the word 'only' quickly became a derogatory phrase to be used to describe the man, his father was a craftsman and not Jayce himself - Manx tried to focus on the fact that Jayce had learned the sword and tried in some-way to convince himself that he'd needed to. With the smell of food attempting to move past his face un-noticed, Manx felt a pang of pain through his gut and tensed to 'hold it down' as he thought of it in his mind, his stomach roared like a beast as it was pinned down by his abdominals but refused to give up it's quest for this delicious smell. Manx noticed Jayce's hand signal this time around, and followed him down the corridor into the brightly lit and huge kitchen. The massive table reminded him of the kitchens at Wind Reach, where huge amounts of people would be sat eating with one another. Upon the inclination of Jayce, Manx sat at the complete opposite end of the table to him - it did not seem like the most practical placement but Manx had learned to expect that now from this household and this man. On the much larger chair, completely by itself among empty seats, Manx felt like something put on display and it made him feel uncomfortable - even with the distinct lack of people for him to be displayed to. The young Inarta never looked more childish that he did in that moment; suspended on the large chair, that was slightly too big for him, sat in an unknown city, in an unknown house, feeling uncomfortable. Manx smelled and saw the food placed in-front of him almost at the same time and swallowed hungrily at the sight, he was always forgetting to eat in his easily distracted ways and would much rather trespass on some stranger's land, than stop for a moment and eat some of the food that he had with him. Regarding the mass of cutlery in-front of him, the young Inarta observed that they probably had different uses, even though one set was more than enough. He looked at the plate with mostly meat on it and chose the largest knife and the largest fork to eat with, the metal was cold in his hands and felt like the only familiar thing to him at that moment. Beginning to eat straight away, he took a piece of each type of meat off with his knife and then stabbed into the thinner piece and brought it to his lips, he attempted to mask his hunger but failed as in his rush his two incisors scraped against the metal of the fork as he removed it from his mouth. The fish sent ripples of flavor through the young Inarta's mouth and Manx was taken aback by it's strength, the taste reminded him of fire to the point where he almost felt smoke in his lungs and ash in his nostrils and he swallowed the flakey fillet that he'd sliced off. He waited just a moment before impaling the second piece of meat and shoveling it into his unrefined palate. He took less of a liking to this second meat and as a result began eating this one first. As if possessed by a somewhat civilized ghost, Manx inclined his head and shouted with an empty mouth "The Food is nice!" to Jayce, expecting him to be quite hard to talk to at the other end of the humongous table. The child couldn't help but give a genuine smile.

[Jayce Asher]

Jayce was proud of himself for satisfying the young Inarta with the meal, and he felt a connection between himself and the foreigner. After another shockingly loud clap, the butler appeared, and before Jayce even acknowledged him in the room, took the plates away. "I'm glad you like it!" He shouted in reply, finding it amusing that Manx, who'd evidentally been annoyed only a short while ago, was brought so much pleasure in something as simple as shouting across a hall (this is, of course, what Jayce thought had brought the smile to the boy's face). "Would you like to see the rest of the house?" He set his chair under the table, and set off down a corridor. The house was warming up quickly with the fire on, because it was connected to a heating system under the floorboards. Soon, Jayce's feet were sweating slightly, leaving marks on the floorboard as he wandered across the house. He didn't normally stroll around barefooted, but he figured he'd do it more from now on. It was now nearing the hour of his dad's arrival home, and he wondered what his father would think to his guest. He decided that Melchior, being more of a traditional old man, wouldn't approve of the hyperactive nature present in the young Inarta. He turned down the corridor, and followed some of his footsteps back, "On second thoughts," he began, "Let's go into the back garden, you can show me some of your tricks with that bow!" He referenced the earlier situation, where Manx claimed to be able to shoot two targets with one draw of his bow. With that, he wandered down into the conservatory. There was a fresh pair of leggings prepared for cold weather, and some rather practical looking boots (though in truth, they'd never serve for anything other than attracting peoples' attention). He slipped into a thicker over-tunic, and left the laces unfastened. The long sleeves of his gauze under-tunic stuck out and contrasted in perfect compliment with the rest of his clothes. Once he'd made himself protected against the cold, he informed Manx that he could wear what he wanted from the right side of the room, and wandered down through his back garden again.

[Manx]

Watching Jayce rise from his chair, he didn't think an answer was needed and pushed his chair back along the wooden floorboards - quickly standing from the table. He rushed his footsteps as he sought to catch up to Jayce before he started wandering around the house which, he thought, was big enough to contain a maze of rooms. The heated floor was not only no problem for Manx's inert resilience to temperature, but he failed to noticed it at all, as the temperature of the floor in Wind reach would fluctuate depending how far away from the center he was and how active the volcano was beneath him. Manx almost staggered to a stop as Jayce turned around and suddenly re-plotted their course for the place they very first were, back outside. He could see that it had gotten darker outside and thought he'd better put on his Katinu and his boots before leaving the heated confinement of the house he was in. As he was walking out of the Kitchen, down the corridor into the large room with the blazing fire he'd lit earlier: Manx wondered what Jayce meant by 'tricks' with his bow, he wasn't quite sure of any fancy things he could do with his bow besides shoot it. As Manx slipped his feet into his boots he nearly yelled in realization 'Ah! I bluffed that I could shoot them both at once' he screamed internally in triumph. He saw Jayce walking into the smaller room containing outdoor equipment and expected he'd be putting on warmer clothes as well, he heard Jayce's offer of Manx borrowing clothes, but Manx replied "No thank-you, I have a coat" raising his voice slightly so that the sound chased Jayce down as he exited into the other room. Turning away from the way out for a moment, Manx moved over to his rucksack, taking off his bow, Weapons harness and it's attachments and dropping them, with an array of different pitched clunks to the ground, Manx reached into his Rucksack. A moment later he produced his Katinu - it was a deep brown color and was long indeed, Manx slipped it on over his head. His hands poked out of the arm holes that were just a tiny bit too wide to completely cut off the cold air that would be outside, the collar came up almost to his nose, but Manx undid the buttons at the very top of the Katinu and folded the collar down out of his face. The flaps at the bottom of the coat went quite a distance down his thighs but because of the split in them, he found no difficulty walking. Removing the Quiver from his Harness, Manx threw one strap over his right arm and then awkwardly placed his second arm into a completely separate strap, pulling them both his - he positioned the quiver onto his back. almost as an after-thought, Manx swooped down and removed the hand-made shortbow from the ground. Walking out of the doors that Jayce went through, Manx felt the temperature drop slightly around him in the smaller room that was a barrier between the warm inside and the cool outside. He looked at Jayce and followed him out of the doors into his garden. keeping a meter or so behind him out through naught but coincidence.

[Jayce Asher]

Unfortunately for the both of them, the darkness was amplified by the tall elms in the garden. They were twisted, gnarled, and their leaves started to turn crispy and orange, and fall. It would be a frightening picture, without the beautifully ornate statuary models, and the fact that Jayce didn't live in fear of anything, so he expected no harm to come from his garden. 'This just won't do', he knew. He needed at least some light for Manx to be able to show him his shooting, so he lit the candles around the perimeter of the grassy area. "I don't know anything about bows," he spoke with an airiness as he wind muffled his voice slightly, "Maybe you could teach me something." He didn't know exactly what he had in mind, but he didn't expect it to take a long time, and wanted to be out of the way for when his dad returned. Suddenly, Jayce remembered that his breastplate and shield were left outside (he hadn't noticed them in the Living Quarters after Manx brought them in earlier), and started to panic somewhat. As most high class, self-satisfied adults in Zeltiva do when they panic, he waved his arms around in alarm. "Where've they gone? Oh Gods, my worst fear! He left the gate open... they've gone... I was robbed, me, Jayce Asher was robbed!" A look of shock remained on his face for the duration of this panic, and he looked around desperately for answers, not bothering to actually put any logic - or even effort - into the problem solving. "Ah, they're not here, they're nowhere to be seen!" It really was quite pathetic, he simply stood perplexed in one spot, doing nothing more than complaining about the issue at hand. Jayce wanted to unsheathe his sword, but it wasn't even on his person - he didn't even consider how little it would assist him, only that he'd feel so much more confident with the familiar hilt in his hand. He relied on his sword a lot. His skill in the sword was what made him stand out above the other rich kids, and he knew that he was fairly unmatched in power among the rest of the brats. The addition of his shield was creating quite a name for him, in Zeltiva, as he's the one of the few wealthy artisan's sons to have done anything this productive with his money. 'Give me answers', he desperately wanted assurance from Manx that his belongings were unharmed.

[Manx]

Manx walked outside as Jayce did, he walked off to light the candles whilst talking and Manx strained his ears to listen. "I don't know about teach, but I can show you something - what do you want to see?", he wasn't too sure of what to show Jayce because he'd only even used his Archery as something practical, he never trained to do it with flourish or to shoot an apple off of someone head. Taking his bow down from his shoulder, Manx let it hang in his left hand as he stood there. His attention was quickly gathered by Jayce becoming frantic and waving his hands around rather uselessly as he said barely conjoined sentences about something he had lost. When he finally turned to Manx to ask him to 'give him answers' Manx spoke of the only things he'd known to be left out here - which was his chest piece and his shield that he'd taken inside for him earlier. "They're inside" He said bluntly, laying the subject to rest like he hadn't just watched Jayce walk to tightrope over insanity for the past few chimes. As an after-thought almost, Manx smirked slightly at having with-held the information from Jayce until after he'd stopped his frantic searching. "I took them in for you when I came out to get my rucksack, that I'd left" Manx added, surveying the expression on Jayce's face as if it were some trophy from a hunt long ago. Reaching up to his back, Manx curled his thumb and index and middle finger around the base of one of his short-bow arrows and drew it from it's quiver, he easily knocked the arrow and drew the string back to about half of what he would to shoot. "What would you like me to show you then?" He asked to try and continue the subject that they were on. The young Inarta's hair cascaded down over his high-collared coat like a fountain of magma as he looked up at Jayce, the candle light adding to this facade. The glass beads that hung in his braid parted the light and gave a sort of glowing mask to the tiny objects.