| Page 029: Appearances |
| Summary: | Stragen and Eyrian both look quite different due to recent events. |
| Date: | 10 August 288 |
| Related Logs: | Thieves and Liars |
| Players: |
  |
| Outside Terrick's Roost |
|---|
| A heavily-trafficked path outside of the Roost. |
| 10 August 288 |
Looking like a new person, Stragen heads along the path outside of Terrick's Roost, making his way from Four Eagles Tower into town. He's wearing new clothes - nothing too fancy, but certainly clean and fresh, unlike his rumpled and dusty garb that makes him look more like a highwayman than a mercenary. Even his leather jerkin is new, a fresh black quilted leather covered with yellow and purple heraldry that identifies him as being in the employ of House Terrick.
Word had gotten around to Eyrian's keen ear that a ironlander looking fellow, gruff and all was taken to the Tower. Seeing no sign of Stragen about in the town, she was thus given to believe him to be the unfortunate fellow. For a few days she had thought of ways to get in and even the more recent ones had begun to look into actually leaving. Her dark eyes lowered for the moment where she sits, her lyre missing, she is different as well. Dark hair is now red hued, marigold and calendula flowers having seen to the task. So a thick mass of rich auburn hair tumbles about her features and her clothes are now less..distinct, more normal for a woman of her age. Bodice and blouse and skirts..it seems performing in those days he had been gone had gotten her something - but her feet are yet bare. Her head lifts though and she blinks, focusing a moment and then staring. The jerkin is looked over and then a crooked grin curls her lip. She rises then, moving to follow as his shadow, weaving through the flow of bodies before she speaks up. "Purple looks awful pretty on you."
Stragen glances over his shoulder calmly, not one to jump or start or leap out of his skin at a sudden voice. And at first, he doesn't recognize her. But the realization slowly sets in and he laughs out loud. "My Lady, don't you look civilized and proper," he offers, continuing to chuckle. "I might've mistaken you for a lady-in-waiting or chambermaid of one of the families." He nods slightly. "Red looks good on you. Helps you blend in with these Riverfolk." As, of course, red is a common color in the Riverlands.
"Lady…let us not start that again so soon." Eyrian tells him as a quip. Her dark eyes look over his clothing and she frowns some. Her gaze narrows and then returns to his eyes. "So, gone and sold out have you?" She asks him, her chin lifting and head canting. "Have I gone and made a fool of myself to trust you, Stone?" Her brow lofts higher in question, her hand resting on her hip. "It seems to me you have found steady employment…"
"More like had my arm twisted into employment," Stragen explains, continuing to stroll but moving off the road onto a side path so that the two might be able to speak more open. "I could've been strung up or executed for what happened in the inn the other night. I killed someone. A commoner, though, but that doesn't reduce the severity of my actions. Yet, I wasn't jailed, I wasn't put in their dungeon. I was treated with respect and given good food and good quarters." Finding a good tree to lean up against, Stragen does just that, folding his arms across his chest. "And, well, Ser Jarod Rivers informed me there'd be no punishment levied against me. So I felt… obligated… to say yes when he asked me to serve his House."
Huffing a breath, Eyrian listens but doesn't like what she hears. "Gone all noble sappy on me…" The minstrel laments and then turns her gaze away, auburn hair shifting about her features. She worries the inside of her lip and then turns to look back at him. "Well that is that then. Good meals and a bed…I can't fault you for that." Admits the rogue as she considers him differently now. "I am to assume then you will not have…need of me or your plans. If that be the case, I shall flit and fly my way North.." She illustrates it a little, her lithe form shifting for a moment before she takes a stept to the side, barefeet brushing the ground. "-Obligated- as you are."
"Oh, don't be so melodramatic, Blackbird," Stragen says, rolling his eyes and curling his lip. "This was unforseen, but it doesn't change anything. It's not like my duties will keep me busy all the time. I'm still a commoner, and not a noble, which means I'm beneath their notice most of the time."
"It doesn't change anything?" Eyrian clucks. "And though I can pull off an act..it is but a true observation…dear Stone.." The minstrel proclaims softly and then tilts her head, "No by what I have seen…the Terricks have an unsual fondness for the commonfolk and my mind is of one thought that…whatever tasks you wish to complete…will not be easily done." Her dark eyes consider him and she stays, moving about to is other side, giving that uniform a look over. "It does not look bad..I do say…but…" She hesitates and leans in to say softly near his shoulder. "I do miss the dust.."
"It doesn't change anything," Stragen reiterates, remaining unmoving as she draws closer. He does glance downward at her, cocking an eyebrow. "Aye, it's going to be harder to convince folk I'm a bloodthirsty barbarian, now. Or, maybe I can just spread a rumor that states that the Terricks have Isles raider or mountain man blood in their history, which is why they took pity on me…" That causes him to smirk. "Ahh, the possibilities. Not getting caught will be the challenge, now. And as I said before, let me be the voice of our shadowy deeds. I wouldn't act… can't act now. It'll fall to you."
At his insistence, Eyrian gives a faint nod and steps back, turning to offer her back as she takes a few meandering steps in thought, brows furrowing. A keen gaze is sent sidelong at him from the corner of her eye. "And here I thought I was not supposed to worry my pretty little head…" She smirks a bit, that glint coming to her gaze before she moves closer then, facing him as her arms fold before her. "Very well, Stone of the Terrick Guard…if I agree to this…it means I wait and watch from outside those walls. We have much more at risk now…rather it is much more risky."
Stragen sniffs at the air. "Much more to gain, then, aye?" He responds. "We'll need to keep an eye out for recruits, too. People we can trust. Or, at the very least, people we can trust enough." A hesitation. "Tell me, Blackbird, do you trust me?"
At the mention of others, the minstrel gets a little shifty. Eyrian hmms at the word trust and then speaks, "That is a heavy …word, Stone." She admits and then adds, "I am not inclined to trust any..for good reason. But if I were to say that I trust you enough…to listen to you. Then yes..I do suppose I might." She hesitates and then turns it back on him, head tilting as now auburn hair brushes her neck. "And do you trust me then?"
"Hells no, absolutely not," Stragen throws his head back and laughs. "That's what makes all of this so exciting! I've no idea if you're going to stab me in the back." He lowers his voice, so that no eavesdropper or passer-by can hear: "After all, I do owe you for Lady Blackmane. I'd prefer to pay you back with coin rather than with my blood or humors on your blade."
Smirking at his laugh, Eyrian keeps herself a little more…quiet and she hmphs, "Blood? Really? Such a messy thing, I leave that to slow-witted folk that tend not to be so slippery…besides your blood would give me nothing but a horrible leather jerkin." She comments, a smile and brows furrowing as she plucks at the branding of clothing he wears. "Not really what I was hoping for…"
Stragen cocks an eyebrow, looking down at the now-auburn-haired minstrel. His arms slowly unfold, resting at his sides. "What precisely are you on about now, woman?" He asks, suspicion creasing his brow and causing his eyes to narrow.
"Ahhh so your distrust rears it's ugly head already.." Eyrian says and draws her hand back from that leather jerkin. "It was a jest, Stone. I know you know what that is…or has that new position gotten to you already?" It is said almost as a lament. "If it has, I would have mourn the loss of the sell sword I once knew." She winks at him and then moves to adjust that bodice that is rather…odd for her. So constricting.
"I was distrustful when we first met, and before you met me. It doesn't take being hired by a House to cause me to distrust anyone," he says, still giving her that suspicious look. Eyes travel down the silhouette of her shape as she fidgets in her corset. "And I'm especially suspicious of manipulative women. Or, those who would try to manipulate me." He cracks a lopsided grin. "What's wrong with your corset? Too tight?"
"Hmph, well I don't knife people I get into business with…not unless they mean to do the same to me…and I meant the only thing I'd get off your corpse is that lousy jerkin anyways…" Eyrian still attempts to set the thing into place, pulling at the edges of it. "You try wearing something that pinches her lungs. I do this for you…" She huffs at him, looking up through her lashes, "If that isn't a reason to trust me, I don't know what is.." She looks down at the clothing, tug - tug. "So remember that…next time you eye me like that."
Stragen rolls his eyes at that. "Aye, the sacrifices women make in order to please their menfolk," he says in a droll, sarcastic tone. Pushing up off the tree, he adds, "Let's not dally any longer, hmm?" He's managed to ignore, or not pay attention to, her subtle hints thus far. "I don't want too many folk to see us together. After all, if we're going to go about being… nefarious… we'd best try to look like upstanding citizens."
Laughing, Eyrian gives a shake of her head. "Men…" There is a sigh and her gaze narrows on him. "Diguise as it is, it still is irritating." She mutters and then takes a step back. "As you wish it, good sworn." She dips him a bow, spreading her hands wide to either side. "Till we meet again…I will attempt to look as upstanding as I can until then.." She smirks a bit and the rises, turning on a barefoot with a swirl of skirts to give a step away from him and rejoin the general bustle of the smallfolk.
Pausing a moment before heading off in the direction he was originally headed, Stragen does pause and regard Eyrian as she departs. "Aye, what women do to please their menfolk," he murmurs to himself. Shaking his head as if to scold himself, he turns and heads off.
