I apologize for being absent for a while. I had to force-disconnect myself from the internet for a while and it made doing play-by-post games difficult.
However, that is part of the reason for this post. I've realized that I've been putting way too much time into play by posts, and have signed into WAY too many games for me to reasonably handle with my current workload and changes to my life situation. I needed to cut down the number of games I am in, and this one is one of them. I am sorry. I was having fun, but these games were getting to be one of my causes of stress, and that was what tipped things for me. Thank you for the opportunity to play with you all, and I am sorry for the inconvenience.
Raze has kept quiet during this conversation, but he has an ear turned to it. Sometimes, as a bouncer, he learned much just by pretending he was as dumb as the post he leaned on. He wasn't about to change the habit now.
Raze was having trouble sleeping anyways, so he was just lightly dozing when the call came out. He hops out the wagon and trots to the front. "Hey 'sup?" he asks.
Raze will walk along the caravan wagons, keeping pace and occasionally changing sides He'll hitch up to sit on a wagon for short breaks, and then get back to walking alongside them again. Mostly, he has his face turned to the woods, feeling (quite guiltily in fact) more relaxed and at home here than he cared to admit. It was dangerous, sure, but nothing he couldn't handle. And for the other threats... there was always silver.
"Well ma'am." he says in a parody of humility. "If'n you truly believe you can do my job better, why not we switch?" he grins at her with a snarky show of teeth. "Or are you afraid I'd look better in your clothes than you?"
Raze's generally bored expression lights up when he sees Rhun, his lips spreading into a grin as she casually disparages him and his fellows. Once she's on the wagon, he turns away and scratches his nose. "Well... This is going to be interesting."
So, Rhun, for those of us who use our sniffer a lot, what kind of smells do you have? :P It would be weird in any other game, I swear. I figure you'd smell like gunpowder, metal, and perhaps whatever hair product you use, but do you like, have a perfume or something?
Raze will then chuckle to himself for the rest of the morning. Of course, it probably just makes him look more like a bandit.
It sounds like the merchant is the one she's talking about, right? "Heh. Merchant ends up being the one late." Raze chuckles. He ignores Marya for the most part and talks to the other guards. "C'mon then, let's get these things out of their ruts while we wait. If'n he doesn't show, I guess we made an easy 50, eh?"
"Nope." Raze replies almost right away. "Guard the carts, don't look in, pay some now rest later. Got it."
Well, this is going to be fun. I think I'll take a few sniffs of the carts when the idiot's asleep. If I don't someone else will, and they prolly wouldn't tell me.
Raze sits at the table, his head hung back across the back of the chair and yawns, his fingers laced behind his head. An empty cup that reeks of bad coffee sits before him. A hat, one that obviously did not belong to him nor would it fit his head right, sits on the top half of his face to block the sunlight coming through the windows and door. While not a 'night' person like Vaki might be, he gets bored easily.
After moments of silence, he'll speak up out of nowhere. "So Val," he begins. "Where did you go after all this time? Coupla times I thought you'd died."
Raze, now sitting up and attentive, shrugs at the merchant, waiting to see what everyone else's 'cred' might be.
Raze sighs. "All right. Why not?" he says. He'll take her over to Willem once he knows he's had a few drinks but not too many. He makes Lyneth sit at one of the empty bar stools and moves over a few seats, leaning over the bar and knocking on it, winking conspiratorially.
"Hey Willem!" he stage whispers. "Thanks for the break, needed that. Oh speaking of... Don't look now but I think you have an admirer." he grins. "You should go uh... get to know her?"
He will leave it to them at that point and go back 'to work' for the rest of the night's shift. It'd be a shame he'd lose such a sweet gig, but that's life for you.
"Yeah. Go out the back, come around front, and rent a room for the night." he says. "It's going to be suspicious if you just materialized out of thin air to guard the caravan. Other than that... it's nearly the full moon, and that's a fun time for us, but you HAVE to curb your instincts in town. Survival tip. Get that urge out one way or the other, but don't take it out on the people here." he adds. After a moment, he scratches his chin. "Come to think of it, though... There's this cattle farmer out of city limits who was getting really touchy-feely on some of my girls... It'd be a shame if he suddenly lost some cows."
He shakes his head. "Anyways. Just, biggest thing is, keep in your human skin, and you'll do fine. Gotta kill a man? Do it with a knife. Even a faint suspicion of werecreatures will drive the town into a frenzy... or even worse, an inquisition."
"Eh. I can see what you're saying, Val."Raze says. "It would be nice to not be hunted everywhere we go, right? I mean I never thought we'd have to establish a nation to do it, but who'd want to attack a nation of badass shapeshifters, amirite?"
He chuckles. "Hell, we get set up like that, we wouldn't even need to raid anymore. Well, cept for fun, I guess. Meh."
Raze stands, popping his bull neck. "I'm Raze Redclaw." he glances in irritation at at Marya. "Lone wolf. I work here, so for f&@#'s sake, you gotta fight something out? Take it outside. The full moon's soon and I don't want to have to bounce family."
"Yep. Knew with this many of us coming you had to be one of them." Raze replies. "Been a long while. How's things? You grow your hair out? Looks good."
"They can hear you as well as you could hear them... if you were human." Raze replies. "Though the door is locked, and I'm sure with so many people around you'd able to scent a human lingering by the door."
So, I somehow closed the tab for this... and then it slipped my mind...
Sorry about that. ^-^'
How far behind am I?
Edit: So.... is the door open, or do I still need to open it?
It happens, I will post as if you followed the others in. Update tonight. You did not fall behind as the Holidays slowed my posting to a crawl this year plus falling and spraining my freaking ankle last night...
Raze, in human form, appears to be a naturally tall fellow, about 6'6" and nearly 220 lbs of pure muscle. He has sturdy features and it's hard to notice his face protrudes just a bit more than most peoples. This is offset by the fact his nose was broken really badly a long time ago and is not properly set. There's usually a strip of adhesived cloth across his nose keeping it straight since it gets broken often enough that he just keeps it that way. He has icy blue eyes. His hair is black and has some gray peppering it. He keeps it shaggy but short, and when shirtless (which happens often enough) he has thick chest hair. His hands and forearms are covered in many slicing scars, likely from broken bottles and drunks with knives. His fingernails are all permanently blood red.
Raze taps his chest with a thumb. "I'm Raze." he says cooly. "She... can introduce herself just fine."
He will look the newcomers over, making sure they're not going to cause any further trouble. "But since you're here, help us finish setting up chairs. Got a lot of warm bodies we have to fit in here."
Raze helps set up the tables and chairs, not noticing anything out of place. Perhaps it was because he was distracted with the other person in the room.
"See that's what I'm talking about. I have my ways but you don't see that. I don't lie with them; the only fun I get out of them comes from three things."
He holds out three fingers in order, counting off. "One, good booze. Two, good fights. Three, goddamn plumbing."
He picks up four chairs and moves around the table, setting them in place. "Two dozen? Someone's going to be bumping elbows." he continues placing chairs.
Raze rolls his eyes and stalks away to drop into a seat across the room from her. "Ah right, I remember now. Still the same b%!&% as before. All snarls and aggression. Gotta prove somethin'." he slowly claps his hands. "Bravo, you're the big wolf. Lets get this over with."
What the hell is going on? Something big must be happening if he'd send his own daughter to collect me.
Raze growls at her before standing. "Fine." he says.
He moves behind the bar and snags up the key to the party room. "Gonna need the big table." He says, waggling his eyebrows. "What? Nobody's booked it and I'll clean up."
He doesn't wait for a real response, walking by and scooping up the woman and tossing her over his shoulder. "C'mon then." he says loudly. "Let's see how good time time you mentioned is."
557 CY - 1st Day of Coldeven - The Free City of Narwell
** spoiler omitted **
Spoiler:
Raze will give a very momentary grimace, but he sighs a moment later. "It has been a long time." he says. "I guess Lockjaw's been missing me... or maybe you missed me, eh?" he flashes a wolfy grin. "So... what's the plan for the night? Full moon's soon, so if you have any plans for getting freaky, now's the time."
While he's playing at coy, he's also confident that he can make it out 'on top' if it turns to a scrap. Not that he's under the impression it's going to be, but confidence is sexy, right?
Raze harrumphs and sits down. Great, its gonna be one of those days. he thinks.
"You're looking cute."he says loudly enough that his boss knows he's 'taking a break'. "What's up?" he says quietly, learning close and 'appearing to be flirting.
Im gonna do the right thing and get a sniff (or three) of her since im so close. :)
Raze actually likes living in towns, and spends most of his time in taverns working as a bouncer. Usually he can get by just fine without anyone catching on he's not -strictly- human, but then has to move away if people give him trouble over it instead of... well, killing them.
