Let's Jam {Vsevolod}

[Maxodis]

"Yep, alcohol will do that, but I prefer ale and cider and such. I've had vodka once and hated it. A hedgehog once tried to pay me with what he said was a rare bottle of it. I took one sip... and could barely swallow it, so I told him to keep it and I took a very fancy wine stopper instead."

Vsevolod grinned despite himself, his tail idly swishing behind him. "Indeed. Drinking vodka straight is nothing but punishment. Nowhere near as bad when it is chilled, or if you are fortunate enough to be surrounded by ice." He huffed in amusement, slipping the flask back into in inner pocket of his coat. "I would offer you the chance to try vodka again under such conditions, but you'll have to forgive me. I try not to make a habit of sharing drinks with creatures who wake me with snowballs and tickle my throat with blades."

His posture eased further as the stiff drinks he'd taken not only loosened him up, but worked wonders on his hangover. He was finding it much easier to think when his skull did not feel like splitting, and he did not have to focus his will on not emptying the contents of his stomach at her footpaws. With the alcohol, the smoother side to the ferret's nature was more readily apparent. For a moment it occurred to him that there was once a time that he didn't require the effects of alcohol to act less rigid. He abandoned the thought immediately and pursued another.

"The... records room, you mentioned. Yes, I remember the place. I cannot say I had the opportunity to visit it much myself. Mostly I recall punishing a group of recruits when they thought to ransack the volumes within for no reason other than to be destructive."

[Nagini]

"I would offer you the chance to try vodka again under such conditions, but you'll have to forgive me. I try not to make a habit of sharing drinks with creatures who wake me with snowballs and tickle my throat with blades."

Morwenna laughed and then said, "Even if you'd offered, I would've declined, especially if it tastes even worse cold." She had no desire to try vodka ever again. Once had been quite enough, thank you.

"The... records room, you mentioned. Yes, I remember the place. I cannot say I had the opportunity to visit it much myself. Mostly I recall punishing a group of recruits when they thought to ransack the volumes within for no reason other than to be destructive."

"Well, I applaud your punishing them," Morwenna replied. "It'd be a shame if all the records got destroyed, not to mention a potentially large strategic loss."

[Maxodis]

"Well, I applaud your punishing them, it'd be a shame if all the records got destroyed, not to mention a potentially large strategic loss."

He murmured his agreement, his ears perking forward unconsciously. He studied her with more interest, shaded by heightened caution. Her name, her face, nothing about her character seemed familiar. Yet she knew him, well enough to be inspired to throw a snowball at his face to be certain of his identity. Vsevolod had not lived and prospered for as long as he had by ignoring such critical if not subtle instances such as this.

There was also the matter of her knowledge, and even appreciation, of the records room. An armed beast was one thing. An armed beast who knew him better than he knew her was another. An armed beast who could read, another still.

But a creature who understood the significance and value of such droll things as the old records kept stored in the dark, forgotten room?

That was a creature to be regarded seriously.

He chose to take another approach to dealing with her. He straightened his jacket and stepped out of the shallow pile of snow around his boots. Slowly striding past her, he watched his breath cloud in front of him as he spoke. "How does a soldier turn into a mercenary with questionable morals," he asked quietly. "especially a soldier who knows how to read?"

((As with all my other hasty replies, bleh))

[Nagini]

"How does a soldier turn into a mercenary with questionable morals," he asked quietly, "especially a soldier who knows how to read?"

Morwenna openly shrugged and then laughed out of pure amusement. “That's a good question,” she said, watching Vsevolod as he walked past her, “but it’s one that I can’t answer. I’m not a soldier turned mercenary.

“I’m more like a noble's daughter turned mercenary,” she explained, “and if you’re wondering how that happened, I suppose it was simply because I found the work very interesting and rewarding.” Morwenna didn’t feel like diving into her mental archives to see if she could remember exactly what had made her want to be a mercenary.

“I’ve always been this way morally though,” she said plainly, “and to answer part of your earlier question, I know how to read because my mother taught me to do so. She also taught me to write and such, and I’m quite good at all of it. Is it really so surprising for you to find a literate creature?”

[Maxodis]

“I’ve always been this way morally though, and to answer part of your earlier question, I know how to read because my mother taught me to do so. She also taught me to write and such, and I’m quite good at all of it. Is it really so surprising for you to find a literate creature?”

The jaded ferret barked a laugh at her simple question, turning to glance back at her with a genuine grin. "In the times we live in, how is it not? They say knowledge is power. I personally have yet to hear truer words spoken." He pivoted on his heel, the fresh snow crunching slowly beneath his boot. "Literacy opens so many unpredictable avenues of opportunity, it can only be described as power incarnate. Given the right influences, a creature with proper knowledge can overcome any obstacle." He straightened his coat again, an automatic action born of long habit. "Books, novels, records... most everything written can be considered a physical manifestation of knowledge, to be interpreted, absorbed, understood, and applied in ways beyond the imagining of a single creature.

"Further, our dearly departed leader, forever may he simmer in his own pestilence, wherever he may be," Vsevolod began, his voice dripping with sarcasm with an accompanying flourish of the paw, "personally saw to it that literacy among our kind withered. N'Tashi thought intelligence to be a useless trait among his followers; soldiers were there to fight and take orders, not think and question them. His was a hypocritical belief, as at the same time he understood he could not keep a mental dominion over all of those beneath him at the same time... which, I suppose, is why I found myself so quickly elevated to the position I obtained.

"So yes, I find it to be particularly surprising to find a literate creature," He said, after taking a deep breath. "I also find literate and intelligent creatures such as yourself to be particularly dangerous." By then, his idle circling around her had brought him in front of her once more. He stopped his pacing, turning to her as a slow smile crept across his features. "But I also find them to be particularly interesting individuals, and prefer to keep their company, if only for my own selfish amusement. I hope you don't mind my speaking bluntly."

[greek101]

((Ooc: Okay, I asked Nagini a while back if I could post here, I hope you don't mind Maxodis...I really wanted to introduce Dakker and his thread wasn't getting any attention so I deleted it revamped it a bit , and was going to post it here...))

"Bah! Snow..." Dakker Kane Outmir muttered aloud as he hobbled through the melting snow, limping on his bad leg. "Oh, yes yes. You certainly are enjoying it aren't you?" He cursed and his voice change to a deep eerie tone. "All in due time, all in due time. That's what ye always say!!"

The demented young weasel giggled childishly. "Sure was 'is time t'oug'. Hehe, da way 'e screamed, bleedin' all o'er da place hehee..." His crooked tail swished back and forth in the wet slush. "You'll be 'avein' fun wit' dat un' fur a good long time yessir ye will..."

Dakker stumbled a bit over a hidden root beneath the snow. He was cold, wet, and hungry from walking all morning, but he rarely noticed these things. In fact, his molted crimson fur was damp from stumbling through the snow and from blood. His entire right arm was coated in it, and the rest was spattered about his ragged clothing. And in his paw he still carried his knife, also still coated in blood.

The smell of the blood was what kept Dakker from thinking about his other needs of shelter, sleep, and food. The rich, rusty sent flooded his nose and drove him onward. Where was he going? He didn't know. As long as there was more blood, and his friend Death was still there, then Dakker would be happy.

"Buts, ye 'ave mur fun wit' mea don'ts yah?" Dakker muttered aloud again as he continued to walk through the wood. "Yes, yes, ye likes a playin' wit' mea. Ye lets mea watch dem bleed. He, he...Bleedin'...Ah wonders w'o came up wit' dat word...."

In a rather sudden and spontaneous movement, Dakker lashed out at the nearest tree with his bloody dagger. The cut was deep enough to break through the bark and cause the tree to leak it's sticky sap.

Dakker laughed aloud. "Now da tree be a bleedin'!!" He continued to laugh as he stumbled about. Little did Dakker know that as he laughed at the 'bleedin' tree', he was in hearing range of more beasts then he knew of.

((Ooc: I hope that's good. If you guys want to find him, that's cool or if you want me to make him find you, that's alright. Just give me the word. ))

[Nagini]

"But I also find them to be particularly interesting individuals, and prefer to keep their company, if only for my own selfish amusement. I hope you don't mind my speaking bluntly."

"Not at all," Morwenna replied after he’d finished. She’d kept an eye on him while he’d walked and once he finished, the silver ferret was grinning once again. This time, it was simply out of being pleased at having found a kindred spirit.

"I quite agree with all that you’ve just said," she told him, "from your opinion about knowledge to you conclusion that I am both intelligent and dangerous. We have quite a bit in common there and you may feel free to keep my company. Given your current, ah, condition,—" she motioned at all of him as she said that, "—I doubt you have anything better to do, and I was planning to—"

"Now da tree be a bleedin'!!"

Morwenna cut off the moment the laugh hit her ears and turned her head in the direction it’d come from. Her posture changed then as well. Her stance was still loose to an extent, but it was not relaxed. Rather, it was preparatory, and she now held her glaive-guisarme properly with both paws.

"Just to be sure that I’m not going mad," she said, looking at Vsevolod and speaking in a significantly quieter tone, "you did hear that too, didn’t you?"

[Maxodis]

"Just to be sure that I’m not going mad, you did hear that too, didn’t you?"

"I heard it," Vsevolod muttered, turning in the direction the voice had come from "But I cannot promise you aren't going mad. Especially if trees bleed." His easy grin had vanished, to be replaced by a grim expression that fit easier to the faint frown lines showing through his fur. Though he had not visibly tensed as Morwenna had, he still managed to give off a strong aura of agitation at the disturbance. Though his first reactive thoughts were to reach for his weaponry, he abstained, instead slipping a paw inside his cloak to the metal flask he had sipped from before.

"In fact, I was just going to ask you the same question, as I am certainly not drunk." Nor did he have enough of the alcohol left to intoxicate himself severely enough to hear voices that weren't there, a sobering thought within itself. He made no effort to keep his voice quiet. Besides the noises they were making and the soft mutterings of the wind through the trees, it was an otherwise silent day, and sound traveled remarkably well in such conditions. If they'd been able to hear that voice, it was more than likely that whoever had made it would be able to hear theirs. Further, the snow on the ground was deep and fresh; there would be no quiet solution to the loud crunching their pawsteps would make if they attempted to slip away.

Spinning off the cap with a twist of his wrist and drinking a solid shot of the vodka, Vsevolod's frown deepened, his ears flitting back against his skull in displeasure. The most reasonable course of action would be to see for themselves who or what had interrupted them. Damn the luck. He still had a pounding headache from his hangover. This was turning out to be a horrid day.

With a deep sigh of frustration, he snapped the cap back on his flask and started off in the direction the voice had come from, his boots crunching audibly through the snow. "May as well see what that was about. Your mother didn't have anything to say about bleeding trees by any chance, did she?"

[greek101]

Dakker tumbled backward as he tripped on a tree root. Falling on his tail, he sat at the bottom of the tree in the little nook made by the roots, laughing.

"Ha ha ha....O yer such a joker ye be mate. Ha..ha..Bleedin' tree's..." He laughed aloud. Tears of mirth began flowing down his blood stained cheeks as he wiped his bloody paws across them.

As he wiped his paw across his face, Dakker slowly stopped laughing, his paw hovering over his nose. The blood. The blood that still dripped from his paw. It's smell. It's rusty smell. It was soo good. So inviting. He just wanted to..to...

Dakker's ear brought him out of his trance. Well, not really his ear, but what his ear heard. Voices...Footsteps...someone was neer...and coming closer...

Grinning, Dakker's evil mind spun it's twisted gears. From what he could tell, there was more than one beast. He couldn't take them by surprise, but he still could have some fun...

Hunching his back over, Dakker scrubbed more of the blood over his face and forced himself to cry more by itching at his eyes. Once he completed that, Dakker held his dagger like he didn't know what he was doing and began to tremble.

"No..No...Don't hurt me..." Dakker muttered aloud as he adopted a high, young voice he had heard off a young squirrel lad a while back. It sounded pathetic enough, Dakker was sure it would to the job.

Now, all he had to do was wait, his eyes flickering about like he was scared. Once the footsteps arrived, Dakker's show would begin....

(Ugh...Hope this is okay...)

[Nagini]

"Your mother didn't have anything to say about bleeding trees by any chance, did she?"

"No, she didn't," Morwenna said, trailing behind him. "Probably because trees don't bleed, unless you're talking about sap..."

When she heard a high-pitched "Don't hurt me", her suspicion only rose. It hadn't sounded like someone was being attacked (aside from the tree, if that counted), but she was willing to admit that not all assailants assailed loudly. She kept her glaive pointed in the direction of the voice and moved ahead of Vsevolod a bit, but, when she saw... something, she stopped.

"Is that a... child?" Morwenna asked Vsevolod quietly as she tried to get a better look at it from where she stood. She didn't want to actually go over to it. It looked so... odd.

No, odd was putting it nicely. When she could see its missing ear and dirty clothes and such, Morwenna felt like grimacing and saying how disgusting it looked. And was that blood on its face? She held her tongue though, and limited her disdain by channeling it into a slow exhale.

The mercenary stepped back and put herself farther away from the strange beast than Vsevolod. "You can go first, captain."

[Maxodis]

"No..No...Don't hurt me..."

Vsevolod was far less reserved about petty things, controlling his reaction upon seeing the crouching figure among them. Immediately his ears flicked back in disgust. He quickly put a paw to cover his nose, as even at a distance the little creature reeked of blood, filth, and an odor that smelled suspiciously of rot. His eyes went to the dull glint of an abused, overused dagger, and then to the blood that covered it. If the putrid smells radiating from the creature weren't enough to keep the ferret from getting any closer, that dagger did.

"Is that a... child?"

"You'd be charitable to call it that," He sneered, turning his head aside slightly to breathe cleaner air. "Generous, even."

"You can go first, captain."

"Go?" Vsevolod looked at her as if she'd just asked him to bake a cake for her auntie's birthday. "You're daft if you think I'm going anywhere near that... whatever that is. If anything I'm going away. You'd be wise to do the same."

[greek101]

Shivering, Dakker quietly moaned in his high pitched voice. He could almost see the creatures that had approached, but he couldn't tell details. They looked like, ferrets or weasels or even stoats! Dakker didn't care really. All he could see was shadows, and he could only hear tones of voices, not actual words. One voice sounded feminine, and the other, masculine. Both voices sounded older, but not really old. If he had to guess they were middle aged, probably in their prime.

None of that really mattered to Dakker, they could be over 100 years old, he really didn't care.

He just wanted them closer.... Death wanted to meet them.... And Death wasn't being patient today....

"Help me.....Please...." Dakker moaned in the young voice, reaching out his free paw toward the voices.

_______________________________________________

((Ooc: Ugh...sorry it's a shortie.. ))

[Nagini]

"Go? You're daft if you think I'm going anywhere near that... whatever that is. If anything I'm going away. You'd be wise to do the same."

"Yes, but what if it follows?" Morwenna asked quietly. She wasn't expecting an answer, but felt as if she had to ask. Part of her wanted to just go over and decapitate it to put it out of its misery. A larger part just wanted to follow the other ferret and get the hell out of there.

"Help me.....Please...."

"Quit all that whining, whatever you are," Morwenna scolded strongly, looking more fully in the creature's direction. She saw it reaching out a paw and decided that if the beast got any closer, she might just have to stab it.

"You'll get no sympathy here," she told it.

[Maxodis]

"Yes, but what if it follows?"

"Between your polearm and my arrows? I think we can manage to work something out." Vsevolod regarded her with a disapproving look. What a silly question. Maybe she wasn't as intelligent as he'd previously given her credit for.

"Help me.....Please...."

"Oh stuff it!" He snarled at the pathetic looking creature. "You probably got yourself into this mess. Don't waste our time with your disgusting sniveling when that blood was probably handed down from your bastard father!"

He recoiled from his own outburst, somewhat taken aback from realizing how brittle his patience really was. The ferret was, above all else, proud of his personal control. Whether he had lost it from exhaustion, alcohol, or the rising suspicion that the pain in his chest was a developing illness he'd gained from sleeping in the snow, one thing was certain. He spun quickly on his heel, immediately and somewhat shakily stomping off. He was done with this situation. "I'm leaving." He growled to Morwenna in passing as his boots rent angry holes in the otherwise unbroken sheet of snow covering the ground.

[greek101]

"Quit all that whining, whatever you are, [...] You'll get no sympathy here,"

"Oh stuff it! [...] You probably got yourself into this mess. Don't waste our time with your disgusting sniveling when that blood was probably handed down from your bastard father!"

Dakker's eye corrected and narrowed. The game was over. Dakker stopped shaking and stood up straight, or as straight as his crooked spine and warped leg would allow. Snarling at the male ferret as he walked off, Dakker chuckled. "Well, well, well. He knows Father!" He spat at the ground cursing. "Be sure to tell the Scythe next time you see him, if you ever do, that his son is waiting!"

With a quick throw, Dakker tossed his bloody knife at the female ferret and charged the male ferret with bounding leaps, claws and teeth bared.