In the slums of Arcdale, a woman sits in "the great harvest" - a bar known for it's decent beer and livable rooms. It is one of the overall best places to sleep in this district. She is drinking a cup of hot tea, and glancing around the room every so often, as if surveying the people here.
A man walks in the bar he has a bow on his back sparks fly off of it every now and then. He has red hair, green eyes and a slightly elvish tint to his face and body structure, he has a robe which is open and under it is an almost skin tight shirt.
He looks around and upon and upon seeing the familiar face he smiles, waves and walks up to her "hey there," when he walks up and a snake peeks it's head up through his shirt, it's tounge pokes out at her.
"hello, Clifford"
the lady says.
"Been a long time since I've seen you. Had any good sex lately, or have you been training at the temple this whole time?"
A man sits at a corner table. He speaks in a foreign language and makes quite a show, cutting up and laughing, although it doesn't seem to be to anyone in particular. A more well mannered voice speaks in the same language coming from near him. Next to him in the booth is a weapon with a large silver ball mounted to a stick, roughly the size of a basket ball with the stick being the size a walking stick would be for him. Even at his massive stature.
His long, jet black hair goes down to his shoulders and he has bright blue eyes with yellow flecks passing through here and there. His skin is a deep tan from a life of work in the fields. Up and down his biceps are symbols and letters in a foreign language.
This way of life is even more obvious in his physique. His thick muscles are all even and well distributed and have an amazing sculpt.
His clothing is rather simple. He wears rough working pants with many pockets and loops for tools. He wears a vest of dark black leather without a shirt underneath. Between these a sash of well made material consisting of primarily red plaid with the ocassional streak of blue and green. A bit of the same fabric is tied around his weapon just below the silver head. He also wears heavy black work boots. Around his neck is a black string supporting a small metal horseshoe oriented like a cup.
On the table is a half finished mug of ale and a plate of meat and bread.
He grins "I've managed to sneek away every now and then, those guys may be stuffed shirts, but not nerely as bad as you would expect for monks" he smiles "and you, how have you been doing"
"I've got a new pet. wanna see her?"
she doesn't even let you answer, and takes a large constrictor snake from under the table, witch slowly wraps itself around her. the locals don't seem to care.
He leans forward over his table when the snake makes an appearance.
" So that's a serpent in'nit? First I've seen. Heard a lot 'bout em. Don't got 'em back home."
His voice is fairly pleasing to the ear and carries a lilt of what could be recognized as an Irish accent.
The snake in his shirt pokes its head out and tounged the air, cliff smiilrs, amused. "Very nice, as you can see Sasha has gotten bigger, though not as big as yours,"
"yeah, it is. would you like to hold it?"
"well i also got jib, and i can talk to all snakes now."
a viper is removed from around her leg.
cliff turns to the newcomer "they don't have snakes where your from, blimy that must be cold, not my kinda deal"
"Sure." He stands from his table and rises up to all of his towering 6'6. His weapon goes to a sheath on the back of his vest.
He holds his hand out to the python.
"Please do not let it touch me." A slightly tinny voice issues from the head of the mace in the same accent the man bears. It sounds more sophisticated than his but still fairly similar.
"S'not that bad. Got thick blood in ya and you'll be fine. S'the rain ya gotta get used to."
He looks at the weapon with a slightly miffed look. "Ya'r made a metal. What's it gonna do to ya?"
He raises one eye at the byplay, but doesn't question it, you hang out with Leyli long enough and you meet all kind of strange people, "ah but you have to bundle up, not the best of views"
He looks down at his own mode of dress. He in fact wears less than th monk does with his open vest and no shirt. "Now who ever said that?"
"Heh, let me rephrase, other than those insane enough to go without proper cover in the snow," he smiles at the newcomer.
"mm. yes, the strange ones..."
she hands roy the python afer hissing to it for a moment. it promptly curls itself around his waist a few times, so it can properly support itself.
"it won't bite."
she giggles.
"you're right, a weapon afraid of a snake is pretty funny."
she was looking down when she said that.
"Yeah, that kind of snake isn't one that usually bites, Sasha now, she has some venom, not that your weapon would be hurt by it, she would hurt her teeth trying" he strokes the snake's head. She seems to enjoy it.
leyli's viper curls around her neck passively.
He chuckles a bit is the python wraps itself around his . . . well . . . . pythons.
"I like the feeling. All smooth and textured. And it's not strange if you don't need em in the first place. Heh. If he won't bite I promise I won't either."
"Oh dear. It's on my handle. It's going to kill me."
"Oh please. I've smashed you into worse things."
"So. I don't think we've done names yet. Roy. You are?"
He attempts to offer a hand to each of them which is akward and restricted by the snake around him in various places.
"Leyli."
she holds out her hand for you to shake.
"I am Cliff Barton, nice to meet ya, so what brings you to town?"
He offers his hand, as he does so, his snake goes down his shirt and out his sleeve and looks at the hand smelling it with her tounge.
He shakes hands in turn, careful not to harm the small snake in the man's sleeve.
"Not much. Been here for a couple months now. Got a job doing horse work at a ranch just outside a'town. Trolling around the bars and inns seeing who's got the best product. Why ya got all these serpents here? Some kind of rule I don't know about?"
"Oh, for the best product, you want "beer place". Yeah, it's not a very good name... not many know about it. you don't go there for the company, but they do make a strong beer."
Sasha stares at the hand "Sasha, be good,"
Sasha turns back to cliff and hisses playfully as she returns to his neck
"I just like snakes. after i saw his familiar, i picked some up for myself."
She reaches for the python.
"I'll take that back, it you like."
"Well if they got good beer we could always bring our own company." He says with small laugh.
"if you're going to flirt, must you make it so obvious?"
He half-nudge-half-shoulders the mace's head.
"..." he remains silent after what he considered to be a subtle pass is 'revealed' by his back(seat) operator.
He gently unwinds the massive reptile from around himself and hands it back to her carefully.
"No preference really. Breathing all the way is nice though."
she giggles at the mace's comment.
>>so, what do you think?<<
>>why not? he seems nice enough. and quite muscular.<<
>> sounds good.<<
she puts the serpent under the table, and it curls up there.
"Pleasure to meet you. I am Ionstraim an Chogaidh."
The smooth headed mace hums in it's metallic voice.
"Oh yes. I almost forgot." He takes the giant weapon off his back and into hand. With a flick of the wrist an array of spikes eject from the large silver head of the weapon, revealing it to not be a mace, but a morning star.
"I here's been in my family since the beginning of the very first clan wars. The very fiercest warriors of every generation of our clan hand him down and train the next. My father to me my grandad to him and my great grandmother to him. All the way back through our history."
[I]"Ah, yes . . . . Arvonna was one of the finest warriors to bear me. Took a legion of men on her own. With my help of course."
Cliff raises one eye this is why he didn't make his bow or quiver intelegent and capable of speach, a waitress places a drink in front of him, and she recieves one of his most charming smiles.
"well, aren't you an old one."
she inches close to roy, paying attention to the weapon.
"So where are you from Roy?"
"Indeed. As of now, I have been to battle alongside 14 generations of McCallows. Roy here is the fifteenth."
Roy doesn't seem to mind. At all. He tries to discretely flex his muscles for her while she is near him.
"I'm from a large island to the north of here. My family owned a large area of land until about a year ago. We lost most of everything we have, so I hopped a boat and tried to find a better place. I wound up here. Didn't think it was much of an improvement until about half an hour ago." He attempts another pass.
"Oh dear ancestors that was worse than the last time."
This succenctly gets the mace replaced on his back.
This gets a snort from the archer, I am definitly going to like the weapon,
>>my my, he is certainly awful at this.<<
"waitress... run us a few beers. I think we'll need them."
The waitress arrives with them after a few moments.
"Thank ya love." He says.
"A toast to new friends."
"May your heart be light and happy,
May your smile be big and wide,
And may your pockets always have
a coin or two inside!"
He recites before downing an eighth of the tankard.
>>interesting<<
she picks up a beer, and participates in the toast.
He sets the mug back down on the table.
"So. Seems like I've been doing a lot of the talking. Why don't you two tell me about yourselves heh? You both seem quite interesting, with your snakes and all."
you can say that again "well I'm a local boy, and I'm a wizard of no small skill, and a good shot with a bow, though my weapon doesn't talk, nor is it quite so old, but it serves me well"
"i've always lived here. i was left at the preist's doorstep when i was little, by a mysterious eleven woman."
"I can assume as much as to guess that ya weapon's got magic to it. Might I ask as to what it does? Never been much of one for magic ma self. Been more of a self reliant kind a guy."
He looks at the bow the man has with curiosity. Magic had always just been something that was, although he had been on the bad end of a spell more often than he'd like.
"And that's where the two of us met"
"I see. And what, may I be askin, do ya do for fun round these parts? Other than drink a course."
"I can assume as much as to guess that ya weapon's got magic to it. Might I ask as to what it does? Never been much of one for magic ma self. Been more of a self reliant kind a guy."
He looks at the bow the man has with curiosity. Magic had always just been something that was, although he had been on the bad end of a spell more often than he'd like.
"Well there is magic on it to make it flexible so I never outgrow it and I always make full use of it, on top of that it has an enchantment that puts lightning on the arrow"
"Sounds like quite a thing, shooting lightning and all. Ya could really ring someone's bell with something like that! Heh." It would seem that it amuses him. He laughs, not in a derisive way. He is probably imagining someone being shocked by an arrow.
"It is definitly useful, I'll say that much" he takes a swig of his drink.
"Oh, you want to know what we do for fun, do you?"
she inches closer to Roy, and looks straight into his eyes.
"Ya stuff like arenas or - what are y- . . . . ."
He goes blank as it takes effect.
Looking straight at his eyes you can see they are blue with a yellow rim around the iris.
They seem to fade into a silver tint as he loses his volition.
as he falls prey to unnatural lust, a short make-out session occurs. When she's done, she flips her hair back and looks at him.
"That's part of what we do for fun. Interested in the rest?"
"It really is fun"
"Mortals . . ."
The weapon at his back says derisively.
"You should have just asked."
He downs the rest of the 7/8ths of his drink at once.
"Where to?"
The silver tint fades from his eyes and is replaced with a bright green.