So Sweet the Taste
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#15
Adam
My body is a temple
But I don't believe in God
So knock it down and build me something new

"Well what do they normally give you? Or more importantly, what do you want? If you've got something people need, you've got to lever--" Adam looked over to Amalia and his speech abruptly stopped as he took in how nervous she looked. As if she was being robbed at gunpoint, not sat on a bed with a friend. Taking a breath, he wondered if it was wise to say anything, to draw attention to it. If it was him, he'd want it to be ignored.

But Amalia was not him, and he'd put her into this situation.

Sitting forward, Adam put a hand on her knee. "Hey, hey. You're looking awfully stressed. You're gonna be fine, and you've got me here in case anything went on, right? And I've got so, so much experience." Truthfully, what they'd taken was virtually impossible to overdose on in such small amounts and he suspected once it actually began to work her anxiety would fade off, but for now it was here and she looked scared and he tried a soft smile.

"I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. So c'mon. Tell me about something happy. A story or a memory or hell, tell me about your big dude. Uhh...Deimos. His...I dunno, eyes or some shit. Or his dick, but I don't think that's your kinda story." With a low laugh he watched her carefully, hoping he had managed to lift her spirits.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#16
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
She doesn't know whether to flinch away or lean into it as Adam touches her knee softly, so instead she smiles sheepishly, staring down at his hand. "Sorry, I... I dunno. Maybe this was a bad idea. I should have thought it through." How many of her brash plans have worked out, lately? None. Not one. So why should this be different?

But Adam is a relentless force of energy, and Amalia feels herself softening a little at his insistence and reassurance. Deimos is a topic sure to bring back her smile, though the suggestion she tell about his dick has the baker turning a shade of scarlet, a sharp and bewildered laugh rising from her lungs. Thoroughly distracted, she punches Adam's shoulder playfully, clearly at a loss for how to reply. "He, ah... his eyes are blue."

She is not about to tell him about his penis. Not sober, anyway.

"Well, he's... he's from the same place as Kiada and Rexanna. Which is interesting, I guess? I think he was a king there, but he doesn't talk about it much. Wessex made him a general here, though, so maybe he'll realize he's too good for me soon." The words slip out without much thought behind them, surprisingly calm for their implication. Perhaps it is a sign that Adam's drugs are kicking in, that she is able to so easily voice her insecurities. Smiling faintly, she turns back to her friend, head back upon her pulled up knees. "But he makes me feel like I matter. Like I'm good enough, y'know?"
meet me where the falling stars live
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#17
Adam
My body is a temple
But I don't believe in God
So knock it down and build me something new

Adam had known many people like Amalia, and his grand conclusion was that they thought too much. Self-analysis was the death of fun, which was why he resisted it at every turn. If you never reflected, you never had to be haunted by what you saw in the mirror and if you never paused you didn't have to regain your momentum. No questions about what you were doing, no doubts.

But that was hard to communicate and he had not always followed the instructions he had made himself, so he just smiled encouragingly as she moved on. Unsurprisingly, she refrained from telling him about Deimo's downstairs (which he imagined had to be like, a sledgehammer. Dude was a mountain. Good for Amalia). "Just blue? Aren't people in love meant to go on about eyes being crystal pools into the soul or some shit?"

He raised his eyebrows when he heard 'King', suddenly wondering why he'd told everyone the truth about his life prior to Caido. As much as he hated nobility, it had a ring to it - I was a King before this, you know. The fact that Deimos did not want to talk about it made him seem very dull indeed.

Adam did know what she meant. Knew it well, knew it in the eyes of his ex-wife and in the soft pull of pain in his chest when he touched Pet's scars. There was a pause, then he said in a more measured tone than he usually did: "I don't think him becoming a general makes him any better. I don't...know if anyones actually good enough or not good enough for anyone. 'Cos we all have really different tastes, you know. Some of the people my friends have liked, I'm just...what the hell, but they're having fun. ...So uh, yeah." He shrugged.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#18
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
Thinking too much could very well be the title of Amalia's autobiography, the only skill in which she is certain she could take home first place and then some. So Adam's attempts at distracting her are welcome, if not entirely effective, drawing her a little out of the dark place inside her head that she has for these past weeks dwelled. "They're... what I imagine the ocean would look like," she replies with a bashful shrug, blushing again, not accustomed to voicing her feelings on the man she loves. "I don't know. I've never... never really been attracted to someone, before. It's still new for me."

Uncurling a little, the baker lifts her head from her knees and places her hands on the bed behind her, her posture something almost relaxed. "What about Peter? Does he have eyes like a summer storm, or an evergreen forest, or stones in a pond?" Her voice is teasing, but curious, too. What is Adam like, waxing poetic on the topic of romance? He'd spoken of his wife before, but very little about the quiet man who seemed to have softened his roguish heart.

Amalia is pretty sure becoming a general must have some clout and superiority behind it, but she doesn't address her feelings now. Instead she lets her legs extend further, dangling off the edge of the bed as she stares at the stars upon her ceiling, made by Remi to glow in the dark. "I guess," she answers, not fully committed. "It just... it feels sometimes like everyone else is moving forward, and I'm just standing still." Getting married. Becoming generals. Running guilds. Gaining crowns. And here she is, in the bedroom of a bakery, sitting on a tiny bed and beginning to feel the effects of her first foray into drugs.
meet me where the falling stars live
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#19
Adam
My body is a temple
But I don't believe in God
So knock it down and build me something new

"The ocean. There we go. That's more what I expect." Adam laughed as he nodded approvingly, but when Amalia turned the tables and asked him about Pet's eyes, he immediately looked considerably less joyful. Clearing his throat awkwardly he rubbed the back of his neck and looked around the room as if searching for the answer among Amalia's furniture. "Well, y'know, they're uh...blue, I guess, but...not like an ocean, like...gems, or some shit..."

He was trying very hard to act as if he hardly knew what Pet looked like, as if he had not spent time staring in awe of just how pretty he could be when he wasn't worrying, or as if he wasn't completely crushing more than he had in a long time.

"But you're doing stuff. You got this new boyfriend, you made the shrine -- hell, you're the person closest to all these Gods and shit I've seen. And right now we're sat above your shop, Amalia. I don't have a fucking shop, and neither do a lotta people." He was well experienced in hyping up himself, and found it quite easy to turn that skill to Amalia given he liked her. "So you know, trust Deimos knows what the hell he's doing, cos the fucker's lucky. You feeling any different yet?"
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#20
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
If Amalia is bad about espousing the glorious beauty that is her lover's eyes, Adam is terrible at it. It makes her feel a little better, to know she isn't the only one who struggles with her feelings, who cannot give voice to the things that matter most. "Gems, huh. Very romantic, for someone who isn't in love." Her voice is teasing, a little mischievous. Adam tried so hard to play things casual, but the baker cannot help her confidence in the squishy interior beneath the thief.

He does his best to cheer her up, and Amalia knows she should be grateful, should count the myriad of blessings she has and stop complaining about what she lacks. "Not as close as Ronin," she says with a wry smile, unable to mask the little bit of bitterness that lingers in her tone. "And I only have a shop because my family has always had it. As far back as we've ever remembered. I didn't even want to be a baker, y'know? But then everyone died and I was the only one left and it just seemed wrong, to leave the bakery behind."

She's rambling, which is a better answer to Adam's answer than her actual one. Raising her hand in front of her eyes quizzically, Amalia squints, as though expecting it to move on its own. "I don't know. What should I be feeling?"
meet me where the falling stars live
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#21
Adam
My body is a temple
But I don't believe in God
So knock it down and build me something new

"Oh, shut up, it's just...the first kinda nice thing I could think of." Adam claimed, as if thoughts of sapphires had not crossed his mind before when he looked into Pet's eyes. As if he wasn't feeling telltale tugs at his heart everytime they kissed - no, he assured himself, he had just thought of gems because he was a thief.

He did not know Ronin too well, but from the drink they had had together he was surprised that the man was apparently close to the Gods. He had not seemed the devout type.

Adam had always gone for what he had wanted, maybe because he had never had much of a lineage to live up to. Amalia had seemed so right for the little shop; shy and sweet. But if she wanted to do something else, he didn't see why she couldn't just do it."...So if you weren't a baker, what would you be?"

"You might feel kinda fuzzy...or relaxed? Floaty?" He tossed the words around, unsure which would strike true.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#22
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
"And what was the second, then?" Amalia's voice is aggressively teasing now, a glint of fire in her glittering eyes. "Did you ask him to make out as soon as you met, or am I special?" Or was he special, this shy little thing who caught her friends eye? Either way, the baker is happy for Adam, and her happiness shows easily in her face.

It is a happiness which fades as he asks her what she would be, if she were not a baker. Flopping down onto her back, the girl hums thoughtfully, clearly giving this question more thought than it strictly needs. What would she be? "I was a librarian, for a little while," she remarks softly, but that doesn't feel right either.

"All I've ever wanted to be was better than I am, but that's not really something you can make a profession out of." Be better- how stupid those words sound now, the mantra she has held to since she was a child. Better than what? Better than whom? And when does better become good enough, or is she destined to languish forever below her expectations, always with a higher goal just out of reach?

She shakes her head and turns to Adam, propping herself up on an elbow. "What about you? If you weren't a thief, what would you be?" Floaty feels right, especially when she moves. Floaty and free, as though there are weights she's worn around her ankles that are finally falling away.
meet me where the falling stars live
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#23
Adam
My body is a temple
But I don't believe in God
So knock it down and build me something new

"There isn't a second. I like more than just his eyes - he has a pretty cock." Adam said bluntly, hoping that the filth might put Amalia off asking any more. She had always seemed quite shy, especially about bedroom things. As for whether he had asked Pet to make out right away, he snorted and shook his head. "No, I think I took him for a drink. You're special."

A librarian. Adam struggled to not pull a face at the thought of being surrounded by books all day. Horrid boring things that had never been open to him; words that danced all over the page with no meaning. "Well, you could do that again, I guess."

To be better, though. In some ways he thought it quite a good and noble goal, but he suspected Amalia held it more as something to berate herself with. "As you...y'know, learn stuff and do things, you'll naturally get better though, right? I mean, I'm better now than I was at 17. Fuck that guy." Speaking of...Adam nearly began his story, then he was asked a question. Maybe one that could actually lead into it better than his own words.

"Eerrrr, well. For a while I wanted to be like my old man. He was a farmer, first, but that's not what he was famous for -- he was this really cool rebel when our town got taken by this noble cunt. But...uh.." Adam sighed and looked out into the room, only able to speak because of the light feeling the drugs gave him. "He died, doing it. But I always thought that was good. You know, fighting to help people and all that. ...It's um...all of that is why I got the scars, actually. Kinda."
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#24
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
Adam is right to think that discussion of phalluses is a good way to discourage Amalia from a topic, but if he thinks it will be enough to halt her teasing then he has yet to discover how stubborn she can be. "What makes a... cock... pretty?" Though her cheeks grow pink and she cannot meet his eyes there is laughter and real curiosity in her voice. Pretty penises. What an idea. The girl shakes her head.

She is noncommittal as he suggests she be a librarian again, only shrugging in response, a discontent expression on her face. But the comment on being better in the years since seventeen does catch Amalia's attention. It takes her longer than it should to do the math, her brain already a little fuzzy, but eventually she gets there. Five years ago she was seventeen, a broken thing in the depths of mourning for the dearest person in her heart, her relationship with her mother fraying, her world rapidly spiraling apart.

Is she really so much better now?

The story Adam launches into distracts from these unfortunate thoughts. Amalia listens in intent silence as her friend sheds slight light upon his past, rapt and fascinated, her dark eyes wide and empathetic as though this were the greatest tale in time. "I'm sorry," she says softly, scooting a little closer to him, consolation and open affection in the proximity as she stares up at her friend. "I think that's good, too, but... it sucks for the people left behind."
meet me where the falling stars live
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#25
Adam
My body is a temple
But I don't believe in God
So knock it down and build me something new

Well. If she wanted him to describe Peter's genitals in great detail, who was he to deny her that honour? "It's a cute shade of pink that kinda gets lighter at the top, and it's not small, exactly, but like, delicate, and it's really symmetrical." Adam said these words with a tone of a man used to evaluating penises, and seemed to have no embarrassment at all.

Normally if someone scooted closer to him on a bed Adam would be thrilled, but when Amalia did it it felt almost like she was preparing to hug him if he cried - which mortifyingly, was a possibility. With a nod and another awkward push through his hair he continued. "Yeah. Well, I...I had this idea, as a kid, that I was gonna grow up and get revenge for my dad. You know, kid stuff." He tried to laugh and dismiss it, but couldn't fully get the sound right; the tone of his voice was too broken.

"When I got to sixteen I got my first guns, and I figured I may as well get serious about it - the asshole was getting old, and I didn't want him to die before I got a chance to do it. So...I worked out a lotta stuff about his house, and I bribed people to get in at the right time, everything you gotta do. And I did it - it worked...really kinda surprisingly well, actually." He was still smiling, a little, at this bit. Planning a one-man operation at sixteen was something he'd prided himself on, even if it hadn't panned out.
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#26
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
Adam launches into a great deal more detail than Amalia had anticipated, and she finds herself sputtering a little, blinking as she turns a deeper shade of red. She is grateful when he does not ask again for the girl to describe Deimos': he has already won this round, and the baker is happy to concede, backing down from the teasing thoroughly scandalized.

Far more interesting is Adam's backstory, the person he was before he became the man she knows today. Tilting her head up to listen as he speaks, she blinks at the idea that he sought revenge. Has she ever wanted revenge against anyone? Zariah never quite got around to doing anything vengeful, and the Voice... well. That's a godly rabbit hole she is happy to avoid in her current state.

No, her life has been a charmed one in comparison to Adam's. Half the things he says she barely understands, especially with the substances working on her mind, but Amalia is coherent and intelligent enough to figure out the gist of what happened. "So you broke into his house," she says, frowning as she worries her lip. "And it went well. But you still got caught?" It is all she can assume, since this is the story of the scars.

Or maybe he robbed the man blind and then cut himself basking in the pile of treasure, like a particularly clumsy dragon. Stoned as she is, the Shield cannot help the giggle which escapes her at this particularly amusing image.
meet me where the falling stars live
Amalia
Adam Pikely
Smuggler's Liaison

Age: 36 | Height: 6'3" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 17 - Dext: 19 - Endr: 17 - Luck: 12 - Int:
Played by: lancydulac Offline
Change author:
Posts: 1,044 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#27
Adam
My body is a temple
But I don't believe in God
So knock it down and build me something new

"Er....kinda?" Adam tilted his headfrom side to side, trying to work out the best way to explain what had happened next, ideally with as little emotional fallout as possible; there was going to be some. It was inevitable, when the whole story had sent him into a years-long breakdown. "I got into his bedroom. And it's just him in there, sleeping."

He could see the room in his minds eye. A dark night, moonlight streaming in through three tall windows, one open. The shadow of spiked grates making a pattern on the floor, upon which laid a large rug. A fireplace to his left, a wardrobe, a desk containing papers that likely had the power to kill any one of his friends. And before him, just to the right...a large canopied bed with a sleeping figure.

When he'd walked up to the side of the bed, he'd looked so...old.

"So I got up to the bed and drew my gun." Adam lifted his fingers in the shape of a pistol and aimed it in front of himself and a little down, as if looking at someone laying in a bed beneath him. "And..and I..uh...I.." Oh no, here it was. A lump rose in Adam's throat and before he could stop it he had made a most uncool noise (somewhere between a sob and a squeak) and begun to cry. He roughly pushed the tears away. "Fuck. Sorry. I uh..I couldn't do it, Amalia. I couldn't shoot the fucker. He killed my dad and I couldn't do it."
Amalia Chandrakant
the Archangel
Baker

Age: 29 | Height: 5'6 | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Stormbreak
Level: 5 - Strg: 49 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 52 - Luck: 49 - Int:
JYOTI - Mythical - Starwhale (Humpback)
Played by: shark Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,098 | Total: 4,577
MP: 2580
#28
you drew memories in my mind I could never erase
painted colors in my heart I could never replace
There is something oddly serious in Adam's voice, something Amalia can sense even in her current state. A little unsteady, she sits up on the bed, curling her legs back under herself as she waits for him to continue his tale. This moment, she feels... it's important, and as much as she may have opinions about his actions and intentions, the baker knows that now is the time to hold her peace.

Her breath, too. Because as Adam raises his fingers in the shape of a gun Amalia feels her stomach drop, fear and denial bubbling up before he can say the words. She had thought he robbed the man in his sleep, but this implication is so much worse. Biting her lip, the girl sits, tense, waiting for him to confirm her fears, not wanting to hear those words. She had known he was a thief with a sordid past, but murder?

Murder is something else entirely.

So it is with great restraint that she keeps from sighing relief as he admits he hadn't followed through, hadn't hurt the man who hurt him so. She has no words to comfort him: it is the path she would have wished for him, but clearly not the one he asked for himself. What can she say, that would possibly help? That killing him wouldn't have made it better? That the man no doubt suffered in some other way? None of it can erase his sadness.

Nothing she says will bring back his father, just as nothing she does will bring back her grandmother.

So as Adam begins to sob Amalia sits quietly, not saying anything, only reaching an arm to curl around his shoulders, an offer of empathy and support.
meet me where the falling stars live
Amalia


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)


RPG-D