[Adventure] Trouble in Moonwatch (Judge:TwoHeadsBarking)

[KarinsDad]

After Feall walks away:

"So, you came out here to smirk telepathically at the crazy lady behind her back again?" Sheeva asks Lan.

 

[Kalidrev]

"I'm over here Lan." Sheeva says wearily.

Lan and Faell find Sheeva sitting with her back to a tree in the densest, darkest section of nearby trees.

"Please go back inside Faell. I am totally safe here. Hobgoblins don't have as good vision as we do and besides, Lan can hear a dog fart on the other side of the village." Sheeva tries to laugh and be upbeat, but it sounds forced.

Lanharath sits down across from Sheeva so that she could look at him. He tries not to laugh at her upbeat comment, but knowing that it was a defense mechanism, he simply gives her a kind, knowing smile.

After Feall walks away:

"So, you came out here to smirk telepathically at the crazy lady behind her back again?" Sheeva asks Lan.

"We would never use our telepathic abilities to talk negatively about someone that we care about. We two have had our disagreements and we two don't see eye to eye a lot of the time, but we are here together now, and we need to get along. We don't think that you are crazy in any way. We would hear more...random thoughts emanating from you if you were."

Lanharath scoots closer, sitting next to her instead of in front of her.

"You were very brave in that last conflict. We are sorry that Val and us left you and Pok alone without more help in the house. We feel responsible for allowing the group to be ambushed like that at all." His brow furrows and his eyes look distant.

"We don't know why it is that we did not hear them coming sooner. Something must have given them the means to sneak up on the group without us being able to hear them. We were, for once, surprised; rocked on our heels, as it could be said, and we reacted in the first way that came to mind. Instead of protecting your flank, we used Val to gain an advantage against our enemy. We should have remembered that you had no-one to protect you against those that were inside. River jumped to soon when he planted his standard. He should have led you and Pok outside and shut the door so that all of us could handle the foes outside. These are the kinds of things that we should talk about when we get back to the group.

And for what it's worth...We agree with you about River. We don't understand his viewpoints on not protecting oneself. The enemy would not hesitate to harm him, so why should he not feel the same? We have come to ignore this, as he is stubborn and will not shift his thinking. Perhaps he is telling the truth about being punished by The Host if he were to harm someone, but we will tell you one thing. Never in our years have we met one who was a better healer. We think that may be how he operates. He won't raise a hand to harm someone else, but he can make sure that we survive. "

 

[KarinsDad]

"Survive? Why is it just about survival?" Sheeva asks bitterly.

"They don't trust me now you know. They're all afraid that the crazy lady will flip out on them again. Course, there's no trust in the world anymore since the war. Maybe there never was any trust. I see it in Pok's eyes every once in a while when he looks at me. He's afraid of me. He's afraid of my lightning and what I might do with it. He's afraid of all strangers... He doesn't trust me. He probably never will now. And that poor man that you yelled at. He's afraid too. He's a victim in all this and you just yelled at him, just to gain information. Reach our goal. The ends justify the means. And now that I freaked out too, I could make him crap his pants, just by looking at him. Poor bastard. What a fine pair we make. We're supposed to be the good guys Lan. I don't think those exist anymore. Not like the stories." Sheeva laughs faintly and sadly.

 

[CaBaNa]

Uncontrollable shaking overtakes Pok, the escalation in social interaction, and intensity with which it was being carried had him paralyzed with fear. *...* he thought, as he lay twitching behind the chair, eyes closed.

 

[Velmont]

River push the table near the front door to barricade it. As he looks around to see what else he could use, he sees Pok. He walks down and grab a chair and sit next to him. "Pok, are you fine? What scare you like this?" River knew the answer, or at least, his idea was most likely close to the reality, but he wanted to hear Pok tell it, or more, he would like Pok hear himself speak about his fear.

 

[Kalidrev]

"Trust is one of those funny things, Sheeva," Lan says, pulling out a coin and twirling it in his fingers. "It can be given to someone else for no reason at all. It can be taken away by others that don't believe you should have it. In most cases, however, it must be earned. Some earn it easily, with silver tongues, renting it out just to break their leases. Others earn it slowly, one small deed at a time until they have enough to finally get what they deserve. You have to choose which way you will earn that trust with the others, as do the rest of us with you. I know that we're still earning ours the hard way, but for what it's worth, you already have mine."

Lanharath stands up and twirls the coin in his hands for her to see before flicking it into the air and into an open hand of Sheeva's. At that, he gives her a weak smile and then leaves to go back towards the house and leave her to think about the parrallels of his metaphore of his words and it's link to the physical currency he had given her.

 

[CaBaNa]

Crawling as if he might squeeze under the chair, It's too much! he exclaims, ripping his hood back over his head.

 

[KarinsDad]

"You don't understand. I almost wasn't ..." Sheeva whispers so softly that even Lan almost doesn't hear her as he walks away.

As he turns around at the sound, she gets up and places the coin back in his hand, her hand still shaking.

"Keep your hard earned coin Lanharath d'Medani. I have no need of it. Nor will I ever. I thought you were the perceptive one. Your trust is not what I needed." Sheeva says, stalking past him back into the house.

 

[Kalidrev]

Lanharath spends a moment in the dark sighing. Too many days and nights spent in that awful Mournland had hurt his social abilities. All his life he had spent training for the day that he would be a part of the Thousand Yard Stare. Now that he was no longer a part of that group, he realized that he had never really been around people, in general. Never had to deal with the impact that words could have on people. He did understand what Sheeva had meant when she said "Your trust is not what I needed." What could that have meant? Lanharath doubted he would ever understand that one...

Walking back into the house, Lanharath tried to help with the baracade before they closed up the house. Embarassed about his failure to win over Sheeva, he tried his best to avoid her in the small house without seeming like he was trying to.

 

[CaBaNa]

After quietly helping to finish barricade work, Pok drags the chairs into a "fort" around the table. Pok ducks into the structure, settling into silence, and preparing for sleep.