Private Tales Unsafe House

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
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"Freezing out here..." Teddie thought to himself, trudging toward the location he'd been pointed to. "Surely this must be part of the test to initiate new members."

The chill in the air blew his earthy colored clothes in the wind, flapping like sails around him and threatening to lift him into the air. Teddie being as lightweight as he is, it wouldn't be a challenging feat to throw him asunder. The only thing keeping him down was the brown gambeson he had recently acquired. Not used to wearing heavy articles of clothing, he felt as though the weight of the gambeson matched his own weight.

Teddie had first met with Archer, a seemingly well meaning knight, to ask him if he could join up. Archer sized Teddie up, and the young man could see it in the knight's eyes; he knew this man saw him as a liability. Teddie's small frame and meek demeanor were a problem, and the man obviously didn't want to get himself killed protecting Teddie.

Archer was kind enough to direct Teddie to another man, Edsel, a squire alike Teddie who joined when he was of a weaker sort. The idea was that Teddie would have Edsel's mentor, Adelard, take him on too, so that Teddie might build himself up as Edsel did. Unfortunately, even Edsel recognized that this small-framed pup would only be a ball and chain to those around him in a fight of any sort. While he had the heart and spirit for this, he'd surely perish before he could be of much physical use, if the winter itself didn't take him.

Edsel pointed Teddie toward one who may be able to take him on, to help him build himself up and become something more than just a twig in the wind. To help him grow from a trodden-on sapling to the mighty oak that his spirit years to be. If he had the guts to survive her tutelage. Teddie immediately agreed. He'd throw himself into fire to prove himself at this stage, so this woman didn't scare him. Yet.

Edsel had directed him to a safe house where he may find her. A temporary accommodation the Knights of Anathaeum use to protect those who stuck their neck out to help.

"Look for the blue X..." Teddie muttered to himself, assessing the facades of each house he walked by, pushing against the cold air blowing in the opposite direction. He felt like he'd been out here for hours, peering at row house after row house, trying to assess them for markings. It had to be here. They wouldn't have sent him out here for no reason. They wouldn't have lied to him just to get rid of him... Would they?

That's when he found it. A beat up looking shack, with dark curtains blocking the light from the windows, wooden boards covering the spots where holes had been punched through walls, or rocks hurled through windows. It looked almost abandoned, and anyone would look past such a house on any other occasion. On this occasion however, Teddie had noticed the blue X, marked just above one of the windows, so small it was almost unnoticeable. By design, of course, to disguise it as the same filth that covered the other areas of the front of the house... Or was that just filth after all?

Teddie huddled closer to the house, arms folded across his chest and hands tucked under his pits to stay warm, peering up at the X through squinted eyes, hoping to discern if this was the place he'd find the only mentor that would dare take him, or if this was all for naught after all.

Mad Marta.
 
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A click of teeth sounded from an alleyway betwixt two ramshackle buildings across the way from the hut which the supposed prospect peered through.

"Look at him, Adelard," the dark haired woman sneered. Her visage adorned with scars, and inked with the artistry of needles and punctured skin.

Adelard.jpgAdelard struck a flame at the end of matchstick, cupped the gentle tongue of gold with one hand, and placed it into the bowl of his long stemmed pipe. Took a drag to let the smoking grass crackle and catch light. Flicked the fire from the matchstick and made rid of it as he moved his hand to shelter the nascent ember. "I'm looking," he said between puffs of smoke.

"Boy looks like he'll blow over, come a strong wind,"

A nod from Adelard, as the pipe weed crackled and caught fire.

"Like one good shove'll shatter him to pieces,"

A gout of smoke plumed from beneath the proud curl of his great moustache. "Without a doubt, Syr Martigan," he set the pipe betwixt his lips, and it knocked with the bite of his teeth. "Without a doubt,"

Syr Martigan squint her eyes. Lips pulled down into a frown as her voice rumbled with displeasure in her throat.

"Not all Knights of our Order are to be warriors, Marta, lest we forget," the older knight assured, and went on with his smoke.

"Bloody fucking shit piss," she muttered as shook her head and sighed. "Fine, fine, I'll see to the wee fucker, but don't go thinking I'll forget this anytime soon, Ads," Her eyes narrowed quick, and cut a glance to the mustachioed man.

His blue eyes shift to meet hers, and he gave a slow nod. White vapors trailed up from the bowl at the end of his pipe. The smell sweet and earthy.

Marta growled, and fanned the smoke away from her face. "Why do you always pick the worst grass," she stepped away from him, quick. "Smells like shit," she smirked.

Adelard laughed to himself.

As she grew closer to the wisp of flesh and bone, Marta let out a sharp whistle that cut the air in the boy's direction. "Aye, beanpole!" she called out. "Looking for a rat to bite you on the nose?" she approached fast. Hard. Like a badger cornering its prey.

Theodore Zurim
 
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Teddie almost leapt out of his gambeson at the sound of the woman's voice. His heart leapt up into his throat and his face flushed from panic. His head spun around as though it was on a swivel, searching for the source of the voice, until he spotted them; Adelard, the mentor he was hoping to find initially, and a woman who terrified him to his very core. The woman who, if he were lucky, would be his mentor.

That said, as she took each pounding and vicious step toward where he stood, quaking in his barely-fitting leather boots, he considered the possibility that he'd be lucky to survive this encounter with her and flee, rather than to have her teach him.

The thin young man opened his mouth to speak, but fear stole his words.
"I- I- I-" he stammered, growing more and more horrified as she approached, closer and closer.

"I'm- I-" Teddie raised his hands to try and defend himself.
In his mind, he was bringing his fists up, ready to combat a foe in front of him.
In reality, he was recoiling away and holding his hands up, palms forward, to attempt to parry the first blow.

As she reached him, he glanced up at her, his light brown eyes peeking between his fingers at her, like a child at a puppet stage play, all too curious to see the monstrous villain puppet that terrified him so. He saw her scars, her tattoos, every wrinkle hiding across the reaches of her face. She had a kind of terrifying beauty, in her own way, that would have had Theodore in awe, were he not trembling at the knees.

He shut his eyes tight, willing more words free from his mouth.
"I'm looking for Marta!" He finally said, spitting the words out as soon as he gathered the bravery enough to speak them. "I- I was told I'd find her here."


Marta Martigan
 
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A smirk, sharp as a knife, curled across Marta's lips. All the more exaggerated by the silvered scar that cut straight up from her chin, and through her lips, just bellow her eye.

"Well, you done found her, pup," she craned her head, and her smile turned grin. "Marta Martigan," she thumped the leathers of her jerkin with a clenched fist. "Syr, Marta Martigan, mind you," she gave a small laugh, and eased as she skulked around him. Long, easy steps as she cocked her brow and frowned some as she measured.

"Stand up straight, boy, hands at your sides," she ordered, sharp and quick. A tut of tongue. "Name, and who bloody sent you,"

Theodore Zurim
 
She stalked around Teddie like a hungry lioness, and he a wounded gazelle. "S-Syr!" He yelped, and offered a salute.
Should he have saluted? Was that disrespectful being that he wasn't properly yet a squire? Had he already made a mistake?

Teddie shook his mind free from the grip of his anxiety and paid more attention to Marta. The smirk worn upon her face earlier had made him feel entirely unsafe, and the sudden change from a smirk to a frown gave his anxiety strength to come clawing back.

The orders she barked at him all but made his skeleton leap from his skin and run for the hills for safety. He followed her orders to the best of his ability as she slung them at him.
He straightened up his skinny form, hoisting the weight of the gambeson, fighting against the slouch it worked with gravity to force upon him.
He dropped his hands to his sides at attention, pushing against the urge to raise them up to steady his balance.

"Th-Theodore! Theodore Zurim, Ma-" His voice caught in his throat as he tried desperately to inhale the words, and suck them back down to try and save himself. "Syr!" He finished.

"A-and I was sent by... Well, other members of the Order. Archer. A-and Edsel, Syr."

Teddie cautioned a glance up toward Marta, terrified by the thought that her very breath might rend the life from his body, should she will it.

Marta Martigan
 
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"'Course it was bloody Archer and Edsel," her brow furrowed, and she held her temples with forefinger and thumb. "Take all the easy recruits, and leave me with the projects, why don't ya, you bloody slaggers," she huffed a long breath through her teeth. Drew in a longer one through flared nostrils.

"Alright," she said, nod to herself. "Alright," she said more slowly as she crossed her hands about her chest, her strong arms bulged with an easy strength. "Suppose I should trust in my sworn kin some, hmm?" she seemed to ask the boy, though her eyes were shut. Still thinking things over.

"Must've seen some spark of good in you, else, they would not have bothered," she laughed a harsh laugh at the thought. "I'll be fool enough to imagine," her eyes came open, and she leered at the boy. Theodore. " 'Fore I go and decide what'll need doing, tell me, pup," she jut her chin out towards the lad. "Why all this then?"

Theodore Zurim
 
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Teddie waited until he thought Marta couldn't see him before he mouthed 'projects' and furrowed his brow, attempting to decipher what it was she was intending to imply. He never had the opportunity to finish the thought.

As soon as her eyes closed, considering her options and the consequences of potentially taking him as a pupil, Teddie stole the opportunity to look her over again. The tattoo of the bird on her cheek spoke a contrasting tale to her scarred skin and furrowed brow. He was almost lost in his examination of it for a moment, contemplating the meaning of the tattoo and its reflection of her life. Her laugh broke his concentration and his eyes snapped ahead, just in time for her own to open once again, her cold, hard gaze cutting through him like a knife.

"Why?" He thought aloud. His vision was focused on her once more, the question catching him off-guard and breaking his focus on his façade for just a moment. While his eyes set on her, he saw something else; his memories. He thought back to his father, his upbringing, the path that was laid out ahead of him, the life of a merchant, and a hand pressed against the nape of his neck, gripping him, restraining him, and pushing him toward that path, despite his opposition.

"Syr-" he snapped out of it, catching himself, and returning to his usual meek demeanor. "I have things to prove. Not only to myself, but about myself to others." His eyes snapped forward to attention as he spoke, looking away from Mad Marta and ahead like a proper soldier. "I have my reasons, and I am determined to make this journey."

Marta Martigan
 
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Marta's gaze was sharp with scrutiny. The way he chewed on the question, and let it work its way through him.

His next word came sharp. Almost startled her. Her eyes, widened, ever so. Her lip, curled up, just a touch. Made the whole of her hard and angular features look just the itty bittiest touch softer. Like the curve of a fine knife, come meat the swell of its pommel.

"Things to prove, huh?" she tasted on her tongue. Shift her weight back and crossed her arms about her leathers. "About yourself, no less," she nod along. "Spose I heard worse reasons for joining up," grinned wide. Nod for him to follow and turned down the alley. Stopped half past the wall, fingers gripped at the lip. Her head peaked back out. "You comin?" She half laughed, head dipped behind the bricks again and her hand slipped from the stone.

Theodore Zurim