| Don't You Know Who I Think I Am? |
| Summary: | Everyone's angry — except Nathaniel. And Kell. Kell's just confused. Teenagers, right? |
| Date: | 27 July 2012 |
| Related Logs: | Anything about Sela, Darek, Nathaniel and Aylene. |
| Players: |
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| The Green, Terrick's Roost |
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| The Green is a large field of deep green grass, nearly flat, that runs along the base of the towers. The road into town runs along the far edge, hemming it in neatly to a confined area where beyond a line of trees serves as a subtle windbreak. This area is most often used for drilling or practice for the guards but also serves as home for festivals, tournements, and another other gathering that might require the space for a large number of the local residents. A well-trodden path winds around the side of the wall and moves towards the coastline. Another heads southwest, toward Kingsgrove. |
| July 27, 289 |
The Green might have been busy earlier, but it has become relatively still, except for the sound of that harp that occasionally rides the cool breeze of early evening. In that stillness, anyone on the Green might hear the hoofbeats of a lone horse walking along the lane at a leisurely pace. The rider slows the horse when he hears another set of notes, and then stops the horse entirely. He sits for a few minutes, simply listening, before he decides to dismount. He leads his hoars to one of the hitching posts along that side of the green that is open to the road. Then he ventures across the green grass, looking for the source of that music.
Aylene isn't exactly hidden, but then again, she isn't out in the open. Tucked into the copse of trees, the blind bard is able to play her music all by herself, deep in her thoughts. The music takes a shift, her own anger starting to build up behind each note, reflecting the shifting turmoil that keeps spinning and growing.
Two figures traipse their way across the Green from the Tower portcullis. One is the dress-wearing Sela Hill, while the other is a simple looking boy with a mop of golden hair and an ease smile. They are chatting easily enough, and it is easy to see that Sela is quite happy and at ease. The two are well beyond eavesdropping distance as they face each other to say goodbyes. The boy reaches up to tuck a small flower behind her ear into the mass of dark curls, and Sela appropriately blushes a lush red in turn. With a chaste little kiss to the cheek, Sela parts ways with the boy. She starts across the Green, and when her gaze falls on Nathaniel, she heads toward him with a lightness to her stride.
Nathaniel stops at several points along his wandering path. At each pause, he cocks his head and listens. The snatches of music, like some unseen siren, beckon him closer, until he can see Aylene. He waits once more until the notes decrescendo, and he questions in a voice just loud enough for the girls' sensitive ears to catch. "Aylene? It's Nathaniel." Then he waits.
Sela continues onward toward Nathaniel even as he stops beyond the thatch of trees. She is close enough to catch the fluttering of conversation, and she blinks suddenly. "Nathaniel, Aylene…" She greets, as if making sure to announce herself ot the blind girl. She can hear the tears in the girl's voice, and she casts Nathaniel a curious look. She slips her hands into the hidden pockets of her mint green skirts. She purses her lips a bit.
You will no longer hear messages on channel <Misc>.
From the direction of the Four Eagles Keep is the sound of a horse moving at a slow trot and as the sound approaches those at the green, one can see the knight Kell mounted. He isn't in armor at the moment, in more casual wear more fit for a commoner than anything else. Kell was about to direct the horse towards the dirt path that leads to the coast but pauses as his eyes spies the small trio gathered at the green.
Darek spots neither Nathaniel nor Sela. No, he spots Flour Hands the bread-boy, the blond mop-top who just gave Sela a flower and got a kiss in return. He's not precisely following the boy, but he's not playing his fiddle at the moment, so at least he's quiet enough that maybe he could follow someone if he tried. In fact, he doesn't even have the instrument with him at all, for a rarity. With dusty, dirty splotches across the knees, back, and ass of his clothes, it almost looks like he was rolling around on the ground recently. Once Flour Hands starts to head back to the keep, however, Darek looses interest, and starts to meander over toward the Green, only to hear voices from the little copse of trees, and then to have those voices obliterated by the thud of hooves. Looking up from just outside the clutch of trees, he bobs his head in a polite greeting.
Nathaniel turns his head to look toward Sela. He concedes in the next instant that she must have heard what Aylene said. He nods, and sighs before approaching the bard with quicker strides. "I'm here, Aylene," he answers in quiet gentleness, reaching out to touch her arms when he is near enough. "Men are stubborn at times," he comments. "I know. But you and I know the truth, and we'll face this together."
"Why won't he believe me?!" Aylene asks in her angry outrage. "I haven't ever had sex and he shouldn't think that I have. It's not my fault that Sphinx got blood on my dress and I didn't mean to leave it behind." She sniffles a little in her teenage hormonal emotional turmoil. "Sela? Sela you can tell Master Faulon that I didn't have sex! You believe me, don't you?"
Most people might consider themselves in a rather awkward situation — not Sela. She keeps her hands in her pockets, fingers twisting up the bit of fiddle string still hidden within them. She looks from Aylene to Nathaniel to Aylene again. "Have a Septa check you out," Sela suggests quite bluntly. "Have your Master take you to the Sept. But, I still don't see why any of this matters. You ain't a noble girl. No one cares about that." She exhales a bit, nodding her head. "Of course I believe you, Aylene. If you had, had sex, you wouldn't be so hysterical. When Kath Marshtin had sex the first time, she was elated for like two weeks." True story. Sela casts her gaze around toward the thundering of hooves, and then her gaze falls on Darek. She quirks her lips at him briefly before looking back to Aylene.
Maneuver his horse a bit closer to the people chatting, where one of the girls seem to be in distress, Kell appears to want to make sure that everything is okay, or perhaps he's just curious at the cause of the tears though since he's the honorable type, more the former than the latter. Once he draws closer though, he catches snippets of what the conversation is about which only causes the knight to shake his head slightly before eyes finds the bread-boy who is passing, a nod given to the youth first before his gaze settles on Darek.
Darek knows that look. He shakes his head at Kell, "I didn't do it." No prompting, no greeting, just the excuse. And it's an honest one, for a wonder. Of course, a certain word is being repeated time and again from inside the treeline, and it's drawing him like a bee to a flower, so his steps take him over in that direction. Speaking of flowers, he looks to Sela, gesturing toward the one tucked into her hair, "Kinda wilted, innit?" Nathaniel gets a bit of a nod, and Aylene gets a, "What's wrong, Miss Aylene?"
Nathaniel glances to Sela in the dying light of evening, while he still can see her, and the agrees, "She's right, Aylene. A sapta could prove you right. Then what could Master Faulon say? Would he challenge the word of a septa?" He glances once again to Darek. "She's upset, but it's a private matter."
Aylene sniffles and wipes away her tears with the back of a hand. "He didn't even want to hear it," she says in a little voice. "I tried telling him that but he just stormed off in a huff and said we'd have lessons later." She hangs her head miserably. When Darek arrives and inquires into her problems, she just gives a vehement, one word answer. "Boys."
Sela casts Darek a furtive look. "Wilted or not, I would still wear it. Rawn got it for me from some flowers some of the maidservants had picked to brighten up the place." She touches the flowers petals softly, the white quite nice against her dark molasses hair. "I suppose if it does start to wilt too badly, I will have to see if someone presents me with a replacement." Hint, dropped. Then she looks back toward the frantic Aylene. "Look. You gotta breathe, Aylene. You're startin' to wheeze. If you haven't done nothin' wrong, and all its goin' take is some poking and prodding to show that." Sela breathes out a sigh, glancing over toward Darek. "She's worried Master Faulon thinks she has be deflowered and thus not a suitable student. I say have a Septa maiden-test her. She'll pass, and then everythin' is right as rain." At least she said that all delicately enough, even if she did kind of half-ignore the private matter bit. Her gaze shifts back to Aylene. "Well, if he says they'll be lessons later, it sounds like he isn't givin' up on you."
The quick non-guilty plea by Darek has Kell actually chuckling, amused by the youth's guilty conscious and doesn't seem to feel like troubling him any further, nor does he grow more suspicious. His attention does turn back to Aylene as his horse trots towards the group, trying to see if anything is wrong. From what he could see, the girl isn't injured or bleeding, but he does ask, "Is everything all right here?" The only thing that may denote that Kell isn't just a commoner on a horse is his scabbard and sword at his side, along with the Terrick badge sewn onto his tunic.
Darek smirks at Nathaniel, "I can see she's upset." He looks shocked at Aylene's response though, pointing curiously to himself and shaking his head, only to nearly repeat his words to Kell, "I didn't do anything…" Shaking off the protestation, he adds, "Good to see you're alright, though, Miss Aylene. Heard about the dress on the Green." Sela's words about the situation only confuse him more, "What's being deflowered have to do with music? Might help, really." And then he's got the flower to deal with, and he points up at it, "So what you're sayin' is that you got Flour Hands to nick something from the nobles for you?"
Nathaniel shakes his head, and takes a step closer to Aylene. Now standing beside her, he loosk at Darek. "When women are upset, they usually don't need everyone in the Roost looking into it," he answers. "Unless I'm badly mistaken, thats' true for her." He glances to Sela to see if she at least agrees. Then he hears the hoof betas, and looks over to Kell. "There's no trouble that requires a blade, set," he assures the man.
"I don't see why it's any of his business even if I did have sex!" Aylene says indignantly. "He's not my father and even if he were, I can do what I want." She gives a huff. "I should go do it just to make him mad." Her foot even stomps a little at the thought. "He can't tell me what to do." Jaw has set into a stubborn line.
At the words of the Knight, Sela turns her gaze toward him with a quick smile that illuminates her freckled face. Quickly, and with some ease, her words polish up with the lessons Lady Briallyn has been instructing her through. "I'm sorry, Ser. We are just trying to comfort an upset friend." Darek does cause her to scowl a bit, looking over toward him. "I didn't get him to do anything. They were leftover from the arrangements, and some of the retainers were taking them home anyway. He gave it to me." She huffs a bit, joining Aylene in some boy-cause indignation. She does glance over to Aylene. "No, he can't. If he doesn't want to give you lessons anymore, you find someone else to."
The reassurances from the others has Kell's concerns on anything immediately wrong washed away as he nods to the group, "Very well then." The knight does look at the blind girl before departing, "Whatever may be troubling you, Miss, I am sure everything will work out in the end. Especially with the support of your friends here." He nods at the others, before realizing she's blind and most likely wouldn't see the head gesture and feels a little foolish. With that, he bids the others 'Good day' and nudges his horse back in the direction of the coastline with his legs, clicking his tongue as well as if to tell Havok that it is time to move on.
You give Kell a cookie.
Darek, rebel-by-nature that he is, corrects Aylene briefly, "He can tell you to do whatever he wants." His smile sends dimples deep into his cheeks, the smirk even audible in his voice, "You just don't have to do it." He looks up to Kell, adding, "Unless you want to vouch for her or something." He holds up two fingers in a sort of promise-like gesture, "Knight's honor and all that?" Sela gets a smirk as she over-explains for her bread-boy, and Darek nods indulgently, "Yeah… sure…"
Nathaniel exhales when the knight decides to depart, and then glances to Darek and Sela before turning his attention to Aylene. "You heard what I said, Aylene," he assures again. "Whatever Master Faulon decides, we'll deal with this together."
Frustration builds on Sela's face as she glares at the fiddler. "Fuck off," she murmurs to him. "The flower is nice." Her expression darkens even a bit more as it seems as though Nathaniel is offering quite a bit of support to Aylene while Darek just frustrates her. She glances off toward Aylene, though her fuming does cause her to have no comment to the sappiness from the courier. She instead crosses her arms at her chest.
She's oh so observant when it's not for herself. Aylene looks in Sela's direction with a hint of concern and then off where Darek should be standing, sticking her tongue out at the squire/fiddler. "Boys are a pain," she complains. "Except for Nathaniel. He's nice. But all the others are just annoying," she offers comfortingly for the thief girl.
Kell does look back towards Darek as the squireling throws out a suggestion at him about vouching for the blind girl, which causes the knight to arch a brow, "I don't believe it is business for me to stick my nose in. And I doubt I can help her with this… issue." Which is the more diplomatic way of the Terrick Sworn saying that he isn't going to give his word to something he has no understanding of. "I get the feeling she isn't being troubled by bandits." Which is something he could handle.
Darek nods to Kell, "Nope. Despite all the worries and such. The bloody dress and all." So he can let people know that that's not something they have to look into anymore. Sela's cursing at him draws a blink, "Are you kidding me? I'm just flipping you some shit, and you're actually getting mad at me? The flower's pretty, fine. But it ain't as pretty as you, and he probably said some sappy thing like 'a pretty flower for a pretty girl.'" Or 'we'll deal with this together,' but he's not going to say that. "If he's even got the brains to say something that sappy. All his brains are in his biceps." He looks over to Aylene, "And I thought I was real nice to you, Miss Aylene?"
"And Rawn," Sela adds into Aylene's list of boys who aren't bad. "He's one of the baker's apprentices up at the Tower," she explains to Aylene. "He was wanting to know if I had plans tonight…" She crosses her arms at her chest, glaring a bit at Darek. Though, she does cast Kell a quick glance. "Oh, Ser… I'm sure you're also not that bad," she provides in passing. She is turning back to Darek as if to continue this little spat, but then he goes and says that she's pretty. That causes even the most angry of girls to pause. It also causes her to ask the most important question that comes out of that entire tirade, "You think I'm pretty?"
Nathaniel shakes his head when the knight departs. Then he says, loudly enough for the others to hear, "I'm no knight, but if it comes to vouching for Aylene, I'd stand before the King himself and vouch for her." It might be sappy, but it is truth, as his determined tone proclaims. Then he sighs heavily and glances between Sela and Darek. "Perhaps the two of you should talk privately," he suggests. "You might have your own fences to mend."
Aylene beams a smile at Nathaniel. "See, he is nice. Isn't he nice, Sela?" she asks brightly. "I should get back to the inn for my lesson before Master Faulon has more reasons to yell at me. But it was nice to talk with everyone again." Her nose wrinkles. "I don't want to go back. I don't want to get yelled at anymore."
A slight smirk appears at Kell hears that he 'isn't that bad' and doesn't really respond to that, instead letting Sela and Darek bandy about with compliments and flashes of youthful jealousy. With his concerns addressed though, the knight is once again trotting Havok away from the group, preferring the quietness of the coast for his thoughts now.
Darek smirks at Sela, "You know you're pretty, and now you're just fishing for more compliments, Miss Sela." And then Nathaniel speaks up, and Darek rolls his eyes dramatically. And then the courier butts into his own personal life, as he sees it, and he snorts hard, "Fuck your fences. Butt out, Letter-boy." Looking back to Aylene, he offers her a smile she can't see, and one arm, "Since your big damned dog ain't around, I'll offer you a hand back to the inn, if you'd like, Miss Aylene." See, he can be nice…
There is a bit of anger flashing through her eyes, and she steps toward Darek with her little, thieving hands balled into fists. "At least with Rawn, I don't have to fish." She turns swiftly from him, that little flower falling from her ear and curls to the grassy Green. Her anger lashes out to Nathaniel, though she just glares at him instead of shouting back along with Darek. The little thief starts to storm off, perhaps fueled even a bit more as the fiddler offers to escort Aylene. Fists still at her sides, she heads toward the township itself instead of the Tower.
Nathaniel turns to Aylene when she talked about returning to the inn. "That much is true," he agrees. "You shouldn't walk to the inn alone. If you'd like, take my arm. I'll guide you safely," he offers.
Darek looks over to Sela, starting to gape a little at her. Then Nathaniel repeats his offer, and he starts to laugh. He doesn't get far toward that, and then Aylene is scowling at him and he gapes again, "What the fuck-all?" He points at Sela, even though his words are for Aylene, "I told her she was pretty?" he throws up his hands, "I'm just not gonna say anyone is pretty anymore. First I get punched, then I get people storming off. The Roost fucking sucks."
Its probably a good thing Sela only slightly overhears now Nathaniel offering to escort Aylene, or she would just be even more angry. She is still marching with bouncing curls toward the township, though its going to take a bit to cross the Green. She suddenly wishes she wasn't in a fucking skirt — breeches would make this anger-infused fleeing much easier.
Poor Darek. Sphinx comes ambling up, carrying a large stick in his mouth and he jumps up on the squire on his hind legs, tail wagging. He wants to play fetch. There's a small growling huff as the dog tries to entice his newly found bff into a game. Aylene frowns. "Sphiiiiinx," she calls. The dog whines. He doesn't want to go. The girl's arm tightens around Nathaniel's and she gives a small yawn.
AUGH! DOG! Darek flinches away as the big gallumphing thing jumps up on him, stumbling backwards with a most un-rock-like yelp, and a flailing of limps, "What the fuck, dog! Get off! Get off! Get off!" That's definitely out of character for the usually relatively-composed (or at least cool) squire. It's not like the dog is trying to eat him or anything, but you wouldn't think that from Darek's yelling.
The sound of Darek shouting causes Sela to turn around — and to think she was almost off the Green entirely. She looks out across the Green at the large dog pouncing on the squire, and she blinks several times. "Oi! If anyone is going to be beating up Darek Boldt, its me!" She shouts out toward the others, and she grimaces a bit. With some hesitation, she appears to be starting to walk back toward where she had just tried to flee from.
Nathaniel says, "Sphinx? Come along, boy!" Nathaniel urges. Then, expecting that the dog will follow, he starts across the green, peering into the gathering gloom to avoid anything that might trip Aylene. When he sees Sela returning, and hears her objection, he calls, "He'll come along once he sees that we're leaving." He looks at the young woman beside him, and presses his arm against his side, offering that touch of security to her while they continue on their way for the road, and from there, toward the inn."
"Sphinx? Come along, boy!" Nathaniel urges. Then, expecting that the dog will follow, he starts across the green, peering into the gathering gloom to avoid anything that might trip Aylene. When he sees Sela returning, and hears her objection, he calls, "He'll come along once he sees that we're leaving." He looks at the young woman beside him, and presses his arm against his side, offering that touch of security to her while they continue on their way for the road, and from there, toward the inn.
"Sphinx! Bad dog." Aylene has no idea what the dog has done, but she has to scold him nonetheless. "What'd he do?" she asks of Nathaniel, trying to peer around, holding out her other hand for the animal to come up and sniff. He trots along, as beckoned, whining the whole way. His new friend didn't want to play.
Darek rolls from his back to his hands and knees when Sphinx has bounded off to play elsewhere, wiping his face and then rising to his knees to pat his body down as if to check that everything is still attached. "Thank the gods…" Casting a glare after the dog, he then grumbles, "Fucking beasts. Hate those fucking things."
Sela is still scowling, and even scowls at Nathaniel. "Unlikely," she retorts, though she does soften her voice for Aylene. "I will see you later, Aylene," she announces to the girl before her gaze settles on Darek. She stands a few feet from him, her arms crossing her chest. "Yeah… well…"
Nathaniel grins at the big black dog, and quietly explains to Aylene while they walk, with Sphinx bouncing happily around them. "He brought a large stick. He wanted to play. I don't' think that the young squire cares much for dogs. I'm sorry for that, but there's probably some reason for it." Slowly, they disappear into the growing darkness, leaving Sela and Darek on the green.
