IC [DW] From the Outside

[Binder Fred]

Slice just swept through all that rose-scented mumbo jumbo, although he did shoot her a look (He was her friend? Really? Make that a burningly bright miracle she'd survived this long!). But he was a bit busy tearing into that last piece of knowledge-meat at the moment.

"There's no way the Troll just 'happened to be there' on this many incidents, this close together," he ground out, the previously gathering wave of emotion now crashing down around him in earnest. Meaning: "The son of a bitch SET US UP! You hear that, Trick? Probably leaked Eogan's plan to the opposition too while he was at it, make SURE there'd be people needing 'rescue'!" That Tahnurson bastard sure as HELL was prepared for them, that's for sure...

If the Troll had been here right now, the big man looked like he'd have charged straight into him on general principle, not even bothering with his giant sword but going at it teeth and fist instead! (AKA the satisfying way!)

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

"Oh heavens!" Hawthorne says, her eyes widening in an overly-dramatic show of surprise. "The powerful Witching Troll, able to bend time and space across the land, has stooped to causing the soldiers of a nobleman, those not known for their overly-generous nature, to attack us for the purpose of gathering together a bunch of very reluctant strangers to act as her agents for an unknown plot!" Then her eyelids drop again. "I rather think one with such power would not need mortals to do her work. What if she simply saw us upon her land, in duress, and sought to hide us where she could, so that she could seek information she otherwise could not get, being as she is a troll? Witches are often powerful in their own demesne, and less so outside it. She has need of help, and so were we at the time. Cannot this be a case of everyone being in the wrong place at the right time? I do admit, I had other duties before she laid this charge on me, but I am not harmed by taking this quest. Indeed, I believe I may gain something valuable out of it in the end. Shall we fight and rage against the Witching Troll, for taking advantage of human greed or anger? I think we should merely exhaust ourselves to no effort."

She smiles a smaller smile. "We'll survive, thela," she says softly, a term of endearment used by mothers or children.

 

[Binder Fred]

"You don’t promise what He's promised to random yokels on a whim," glared back Slice, right hand tightening into a (warning?) fist. "Not if you intend to deliver even a tenth of it." And needs for help on that scale don't just happen to get filled on their own by sheer luck. Not in any world he's lived in!

Still... He obviously, forcefully tamped down on his anger - right thumb pressing hard against his black-smudged ring. She was right about some things.

"No, what this gives us is leverage, Silent Girl. If promises are all He's got, then we're sure going to demand advance on payment next time we meet! A 'show of goodwill'," he translated back with an annoyed look her way, since apparently you had to.

He was obviously still pissed at being tricked though, ferns, moss and delicate saplings silently screaming under his iron foot-falls... There would have to be a reckoning, somewhere down the line.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

"Perhaps it was not a whim. Perhaps it was fate," Hawthorne says. "I say we're needed here. Whom did you lose whom you love?" Slice's anger doesn't derive from simple cussedness, and Ushane knew how passion could turn to bitterness.

 

[Binder Fred]

Slice stumbled on a perfectly avoidable root. Then immediately shot her the wary look you reserve for the mildly insane -- usually trying to see if they're sliding anywhere near 'dangerously insane' territory... "What?"

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

"Whom did you lose whom you love?" Hawthorne repeats. "My own kin await me on the other side, and such a loss can hurt greatly."

 

[Binder Fred]

The big man just kept frowning at her, darkly nonplused: What was she-?

Then, he understood: "Oh, you asked for them back." Now that he could understand. All too well. Though: "Not the way I went." And his jaw tightened back up as his boxer's head swiveled back to the front.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

The big man just kept frowning at her, darkly nonplused: What was she-?

Then, he understood: "Oh, you asked for them back." Now that he could understand. All too well. Though: "Not the way I went." And his jaw tightened back up as his boxer's head swiveled back to the front.

"Not that," Hawthorne corrects gently. "I was already learning to serve Ushane long before I lost them. It's not the gods that fail us, but our own understanding."

 

[Binder Fred]

"Yeah. Sure," grumbled back Slice after a pause, still looking forward though a muscle had jumped in his jaw. "I'd respect them more if they shoved that kind of self-serving claptrap up where the sun don't shine and took their responsibility like MEN."

He sped up his gait, fractionally, leaving her to her own devices. "This conversation is done."

OOC: Changing one of Slice's Bonds to: Hawthorne is soft, vulnerable, but I will make her hard like me.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

"Yeah. Sure," grumbled back Slice after a pause, still looking forward though a muscle had jumped in his jaw. "I'd respect them more if they shoved that kind of self-serving claptrap up where the sun don't shine and took their responsibility like MEN."

He sped up his gait, fractionally, leaving her to her own devices. "This conversation is done."

"My father, and the family he served, were good men. But it was bad, cruel, and greedy men who killed them and destroyed their House. Not gods," Hawthorne says. She sighs and turns to the others. "My apologies, I did not mean to ignore you. Hawthorne, priestess of Ushane. What has brought the rest of you to serve the Witching Troll?"