Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 1, 2014 17:37:19 GMT
"Birds?" She tilted her head, furrowing her brows at his sudden change of subject around her debt. "You don't have to go around my debt. I know it exists, I want to pay it back somehow. I take more insult to the thought you'd find me unstable enough to be insulted by implying I have debt." She would have taken insult to something like that if it was not true. And even if it had not been, she would not blow up on Harana's face. She had reasons not to, for now. But if those reasons ever... No, no thinking about that. She decided to change the subject as she looked to the distance. It was something that could be considered just talking about the weather. "What gender was the person who wore these clothes before me?" It had been something she thought about for a long time. Lios' reactions had not given any real hints to the gender, and Shamees has not really said anything about him. She then looked to Harana once after a while, coughing. "Or. You can tell me while we eat or while we go to eat." She nodded as she begun to walk. She didn't know where the food was... But still. shamees
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Foreigner
Priest
BULLION:
Nazt
tag @shamees
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Post by shamees on Nov 1, 2014 18:12:54 GMT
Harana stared at Tsan'lo cautiously as if he suspected that she were a grumpy and angry bear in disguise. Her aloof words gave no comfort and only made him more wary, but he was going to put it at the back of his mind for now. He wanted to avoid the "serious stuff" as much as possible. "Okay..." Harana glanced down at Tsan'lo's clothing. This was what he heard them talking about. Harana thought this was Tsan'lo's original clothes but they turned out to be the clothes of their comrade who passed away, mutilated by Tsan'lo's very own hands. He hadn't been enlightened why. That particular tidbit had been left in his overactive imagination in which he pictured Tsan'lo had ripped it with her jagged teeth. He would be treading on the dangerous part again. Answering truthfully might be the best. He didn't know who the person was and he didn't think that Tsan'lo assumed that he did. "Well...it had to be a girl, right?" Much of the clothes were damaged but it didn't look like something a guy would wear. "We should go eat," Harana agreed, nodding. Harana led the way, leading them to the wagon with the distinct smell of fried fish just two wagons from Tsan'lo's. It looked like another storage room with boxes and crates. Their lunch lied atop several spread out banana leaves, speared with sticks. Harana didn't go straight for the food and scooped something out of a small box on top of a bigger box. "Hehe. You should try these out!" Harana pulled out a tray of small bottles filled with blue and white and varying shades of green, orange, and yellow substance. Some bottles contained finely grounded powder and others with small, dried vegetable-like flakes. Harana set them on the floor and pulled out a box that they could use as a table. "They're spices! Don't use too much though, because they're expensive. We have them at home too and Mom told me the same thing. Be careful with this one." Harana tapped a bottle with fine brown powder. "They smell good but when you eat a spoonful of it, you'll choke. They don't taste good with fish anyway." Tsan'lo
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Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 1, 2014 18:35:26 GMT
She nodded quietly to Harana as he simply stated that the former owner had been female. She thought about it for the time they walked. So if the owner had been female, and Lios seemed to have been close... No. It was private dealings, and she would let that go for now. What mattered now was all the good smelling food in front of her. The banana leaf table looked rather strange and unfitting in the wagon, but she was not a fashion designer or anything, so who knows. Maybe Ylissean nobles would take notice and it would become a new fad. "I know of spices." She nodded once as she grabbed what seemed to be something orange grinded into fine dust. She opened up the bottle, letting the smell of the spice slowly trail out as she could feel her tongue watering ever so slightly. She sprinkled a little bit of the spice all over the fish before closing the bottle and placing it down gently. She then, without even bothering to check for any forks or such similar things, started to rip away pieces of the fish and stuffing it in her mouth. She could feel her hands hurt a bit from the heat, but she slowly got used to it. It only took around a minute or two of furious, ravenous eating from her until the fish had been completely consumed. It could be described as a rather scary sight to some, with a little young woman eating faster than a hungry hound. But the sight was made better slightly with her mannerisms before and after eating, which seemed rather calm and refined. shamees
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Foreigner
Priest
BULLION:
Nazt
tag @shamees
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Post by shamees on Nov 9, 2014 1:35:52 GMT
Harana took greater care with his meal. Picking it by the stick, Harana flipped the fish to a side and dashed a careful amount of spice across evenly. He made pauses longer than one interval to inspect his dotted art, gauging if it were the right amount for flavour. He shook out bits and bits of it as if he were adding in half fractions to make 0.92 exactly as 0.99. By the time Harana was pleased with the results and happily took his first bite, Tsan'lo was already done. Harana gaped at Tsan'lo with half-chewed fish in his mouth. How did she do that? Did she slurp on the fish like a vampire sucking a person dry of blood? Having not seen her display of ravenous appetite, Harana could only imagine again from Tsan'lo's calm look what went on when he wasn't looking. He took a bite and was reminded that he hadn't swallowed the first one yet. With two bites of fish in his mouth, Harana carefully squeezed them in and chewed with subtlety. Were his cheeks ballooning? He hoped not. “It's been pretty cold recently,” Harana said out loud. His teeth flashed for a second as he grinned out a chuckle. “Hehe. I wonder if it's going to snow.” Tsan'lo
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Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 9, 2014 10:42:19 GMT
Yeah, they were ballooning a little bit. It looked rather stupid. She tilted her head a bit at his mention of the cold. She was just about to ask why jump from something like spices and eating to suddenly talking about the temperature and the weather... Until she realized that people might talk about stuff while eating. She hadn't eaten with people for years, honestly. Last time was with her parents, and even then they never talked. It was always very silent, except for mother perhaps singing from time to time in silence. She proceeded to shrug with clearly no interest in the subject. "Maybe. A bit early for that, but stranger things have happened." She then looked around for some more to eat. She had regained much energy since yesterday, and she could feel how she had been not eating much yesterday. She hung her head a bit with a sigh when she noticed there seemed to be none of the delicious substance around. She thus begun to drum her fingers against the table as she waited for Harana to finish eating. She had never been great with being social, and it shined here. shamees
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Foreigner
Priest
BULLION:
Nazt
tag @shamees
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Post by shamees on Nov 9, 2014 11:24:46 GMT
By the time Harana had noticed Tsan'lo's impatience, he'd already asked, “Really? Like what?” She sounded like she had something to say! Harana imitated her action and looked around. Did she want some water? Thinking it could be a good excuse to move than talk, he put his fish down the banana leaf and stood up to retrieve two wooden mugs. He filled them with water from a barrel just a foot from where he and Tsan'lo ate. Harana returned and left Tsan'lo's mug in front of her. Harana continued to leisurely eat at his own pace, taking long chews and pauses before he would take another bite. He was starting to see the problem now that Tsan'lo had finished her food first. But rather than give the impression of being asocial, it seemed like she didn't want to talk. At least not while Harana was eating. Though he felt complied to finish his food quickly, he didn't make the effort. He liked chewing food and savouring the spices. He took out a bottle and dashed some into his fish again. Tsan'lo
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Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 9, 2014 11:31:43 GMT
She stared at the mug for a long while as she proceeded to very routinely ignore his question. She then lifted it up and started to chug, her eyebrows furrowing once she realized that it was not alcoholic. Sad, she could have used some ale to get her riled up for the day. She took down the drink in one go before slamming the mug down rather hard onto the table, seemingly out of habit more than anything. She then went on to ponder about his question for a moment before answering a simple "Lots of things." She then proceeded to linger for a moment before standing up and stretching herself. "I'll... Go and check on the others. I guess." She then headed for the flap of the wagon before looking back to Harana for a moment, as if trying to find some good words to use before simply nodding and adding a quick "Thanks for the food." before heading out of the wagon and into the cold, cold world. She hoped she would not bump into Lios. Or Shamees. Not sure why she was afraid of Shamees. The mongrel could not leave her mind at some points... It annoyed her. Then again, almost everything did. shamees
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Foreigner
Priest
BULLION:
Nazt
tag @shamees
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Post by shamees on Nov 9, 2014 12:37:41 GMT
“Feeling kinda uneasy 'bout this one.” “Huh? It looks good. All sharp from Valm. What are you talking about?” A cover went down and sealed a crate. “About this country. We should be heading west where Ferox is.” Two pairs of feet moved behind the wall of crates stacked on top of each other across Tsan'lo. “What brought this up all of a sudden?” The man took a long, uneasy inhale. “...Think the journey's starting to get to me.” His companion laughed. “Ya worried me there for a second, man. If you're tired, tell the Captain...” The two talking men emerged into sight and walked through the narrow isle in the room full of crates. The one currently talking was a huge muscular man wearing only a vest and torn shorts, and had hair on his arms, chest, and all over his face that left his glasses, thick eyebrows, big nose, and mouth looking crowded on the little space of visible skin. He was like a hobo from the streets, but he walked with strength and curled fists. Definitely not a hobo one would openly call a hobo. The hairy man glanced at Tsan'lo as he continued with what he was saying. “...Won't do any good collapsing on us halfway through.” The other man – just as huge and muscular – ignored Tsan'lo, busily pulling out a crate and checking its contents with a gaping smile. While the hobo was a hairy man, this other person was clean, white, and bald. He wore a protective leather covering on his chest under a green vest strapped toward each other by a belt. Both the covering and vest exposed his midriff like Shamees' clothing but had no sleeves. He had a gold ring around his left arm, where black and white crescent-shaped tattoos spiraled like intertwining blades across the back of his shoulder to the left side of the top of his head. He had fingerless, leather black gloves and knife-holders strapped on his forearms that were empty at the moment. “Not before Sham-Sham,” the bald man confided. “He always gets the cold in a new country. Think he's holding up this time.” “It's his body's way of saying it's homesick,” the hairy man said, laughing as he struck something across a paper with a small black rock. The two men stopped talking for a while. They didn't seem to mind Tsan'lo's presence and were immersed in their work. Tsan'lo (rolled 68. baldy hairy)
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Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 9, 2014 13:53:20 GMT
... Huh. She didn't know there were more people in the group. Or well, she guessed that there would be, it would be hard for only what, three or so people to keep a whole caravan going. She waited for a moment to see if either of the men would pay any mind to her. It seems like neither really did, except for maybe a few looks of acknowledgement or such. She didn't mind, to be honest. They seemed to be even bigger mongrels than Shamees, although that was just her judging them by their clothing. Baring their midriff like that, eugh... And those chest hairs, that's just disgusting. Their leader had definitely gotten the look right. And now thinking about that again made her annoyed as she passed trough the wagon, simply nodding to the two as she pushed trough the curtain, heading for the next caravan. She was not sure on what she was looking for by now. It was strange... Very strange. shamees
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Foreigner
Priest
BULLION:
Nazt
tag @shamees
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Post by shamees on Nov 11, 2014 0:21:41 GMT
Tsan'lo had gotten nods back but they hardly turned to her, busy with their work and with the quieter conversation that started between them when Tsan'lo left. - It didn't take long for Shamees to be done with the map. There was no work left he could squeeze out of it. Should he trade with Lios and take the reins? Shamees pulled out nondescript books out of a small chest and set them aside to pick something from the bottom. The last he took out was a volume five inches thick that looked worn but well taken care of. It was a collection of fairy tales in his homeland. He hadn't opened it since he was fourteen or fifteen. Shamees found what he wanted. He retrieved a journal the size of a hand. It shouldn't have been anywhere at the bottom of the chest but it wasn't odd for items to shuffle in their containers, being mobile everyday. He returned the rest, leaving the lid wide open. The book was bounded by two polished wooden boards and sewn together by black hemp cord. Looking at the pages, they were like a geometric art of squares and rectangles, filled with bulky scrawls of paragraphs. Despite the excessive use, the text didn't feel or look embossed on the paper as if it were a replication for reading. Shamees didn't get the chance to read a word when Tsan'lo appeared. He looked up from where he sat on a crate. “What is it?” he asked without hesitation. There wasn't a hint of awkwardness. Shamees had asked with an impressive ability to act as if nothing happened. He didn't make a big deal out of it. But he hadn't been oblivious and deaf to think it was the same for Tsan'lo. It was going to come down on how she intended to pretend, or if she were going to be continue from where she left off. Tsan'lo
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Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 11, 2014 14:00:27 GMT
She stared at him for a while in thought before heading to lift up another crate, moving it so it was a feet or two away and opposite from Shamees before sitting down, simply staring at him. She had no words at the moment, they needed to come to her. So she needed to wait. "I need to... Talk. Not yet, later on. When I have good words." Unlike Shamees, her voice ringed of uncertainty, awkwardness, even a bit of shyness. Yet there was none of that traditional anger or annoyment, or pride, in her voice. None. Maybe it was a good thing. She shifted on her box awkwardly for a while before reaching a comfortable position, looking down at the wooden planks that compromised the floor of the wagon. She had heard earlier that this was not the homeland of Shamees. Where was the manlet from? Maybe... Maybe Valm? Maybe from the land of the conqueror? Could he be such a manlet if he was from there? Maybe she should call him something else. Maybe she should just call him... Shamees. By name. It would be the polite way. "I.. Uh. Well, I... Uh. Okay, Give me a second." shamees
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Foreigner
Priest
BULLION:
Nazt
tag @shamees
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Post by shamees on Nov 13, 2014 2:11:46 GMT
Shamees didn't really know people well. Before he was spreading his gaze at maps, calculating opportunity, or stocking weapons like disposables, Shamees weighed life and death on paper and clashed with the inevitable with steel. He led a party of five, a battalion of hundreds, then an army of ten thousands. He was told that for someone who was raised as a soldier, he did more talking than fighting. A complete exaggeration – that's what Shamees would have thought it was until he had gone through it. Fighting went by in a blur. They usually went by for hours, for days, for weeks or for months, but war was such a state of constant change and chaos that there was not a complacent moment to hold onto. It was like a never-ending swim in the sea, in search of a driftwood right after another. Talking, interacting with people had a lasting impression, one to look back to, ponder, and think through again. Each thought fragment conjured a layer of live clay that learned to mold its shape on its own. As such, there were bigger things inside people's minds, a lot of things no one knew how to control. Shamees understood the struggle, but that was the extent of it. He didn't know their innermost thoughts, their most personal feelings, or their deepest desires. Shamees never tried to understand. Because to do that, he would have to break down his own walls. The way Tsan'lo was acting was peculiar to Shamees. Her struggle to bring out the right words didn't seem in-character. Why was she hesitating all of a sudden? He didn't know if this could count as giving her a second. Shamees decided to give the push. “Tsan'lo, would you reconsider working for me?” Tsan'lo
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Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 13, 2014 13:35:23 GMT
It was as if someone had rushed trough an invisible wall and shouted "Oh yeah!". That's how the awkwardness kinda snapped and twisted and topsy turned in a weird manner. "... Yes." She nodded once, shifting around on the box once more as silence ensued for a long while. "Except if you meant it in the manner of having me decide to NOT try and work for you out of gratefulness, in which case... No." She shook her head once. Silence followed once more, this time with the girl now having lifted her head from the wooden flooring and to watch the man more carefully. Confidence. She needed it. She breathed calmfully as she spoke once more, this time with much more confidence and even a bit of her usual edge in her speech, although very mellowed. "Pride is... I feel my pride is important to me. But I'm... I'm not using this to improve it. I... Well. I respect you, I guess." She gritted her teeth for a moment, possibly out of habit. "I've met a fair amount of people now in your group, even by glance. And... I'm impressed you've kept them well together." "They... Well. I don't know what the mechanic here is, I don't claim to. But they seem like people who respect you." "I just want to say that I wish to help. Possibly to..." She cut off there, slowly trailing off. Possibly to what? She didn't know herself. shamees
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Foreigner
Priest
BULLION:
Nazt
tag @shamees
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Post by shamees on Nov 13, 2014 16:46:37 GMT
Shamees arched an eyebrow but said nothing. She'd already admitted that she wanted to help out of gratefulness yesterday. Either she was being stubborn (a trait Shamees tried not to think of, as it never failed to raise his hackles) or being forgetful. He didn't know, but he was sure of what he'd heard yesterday. And somehow, she respected him again. He didn't know what she saw but Shamees wasn't taking any credit. He was starting to think that the word 'respect' meant two separating things for them. Shamees wanted to say, “That's too bad” and take back his offer. But he wanted to put an end to this idiotic issue. His change of mind had not been out of sympathy. “Right,” Shamees said in his usual business tone. Tsan'lo didn't have to keep making excuses. He was already set on a decision. “You'll pull the horses – ” Shamees pointed to his right, “— The back caravan, from dusk to dawn. No payment. Does that sound fine for you?” Tsan'lo
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Foreigner
Swordmaster
BULLION:
Oleg
tag @tsanlo
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Post by Tsan'lo on Nov 13, 2014 17:24:28 GMT
It was very absurd, really. She didn't of course show what she thought of the offer physically, except for a slight raise of eyebrow and a thoughtful pout. The man was obviously asking this to either get her to deny it completely and then admit to leaving, or to get her to work for a few days before realizing that the work was absolute cow dung and hoping she would leave during the night. She was slightly surprised that he mentioned no payment when she had earlier on already agreed to do anything without pay. Maybe he tried to hammer the suck of it all in. She was not going to give up that easily. She nodded once in a very simple manner before standing up and stretching herself. "I'm glad we reached an understanding." She then cracked her knuckles. This job would break her, and she knew it oh so well. Sure, she had gotten more powerful over night, but her wounds had still made her as weak as a newborn child. "Will I start right now, or?" shamees
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