Miletus Roleplay

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Chazz recovered quickly from the fairly light hit and was able to balance himself easily. His reaction was to swiftly drive his elbow into Makari's chest.

The combined efforts of Darast and Elyse seemed to bring the elf around, though Darast could tell it was grudgingly. But as long as Tarian would listen to them and not do something to put himself and his companions in danger, it didn't matter how willing he was. "That's what we were plannin' on," Darast said. "Anyways, now that that's settled, why don't ya come chat with us fer a while, Tarian?"

Airon was a bit disappointed that the issue was solved so easily. "I'm boooooored. C'mon Valtteri, let's go do something!"

"Hm..." Azrael glanced at Casimir again. Chazz seemed to be a bit attached to the boy, so he could see why he wouldn't want him coming along. However, they needed all the help they could get. "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now... we need to focus on preparing to enter the base." He didn't see any need for further discussion; a life of being hunted like animals wasn't something he wanted for any of them.

Makari grinned. "And his little Chazzy especially, I'm sure. I think they spent way too much time together; Chazz is a lot like him now... transparency and all."

Casimir couldn't imagine Azrael being soft at all, but both Gabriel and Makari seemed to think he was. "Him? Really...?"

Elyse smiled when Tarian complied. "Good. We'll leave as early as possible tomorrow; we shouldn't stay in this dangerous area too long anyway." Darast then suggested that Tarian stay and talk to them. Elyse wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she didn't protest. It might be a good opportunity to help the guy get his head on straight.

Valtteri looked to Airon and was glad for the opportunity to get away from these people. There was something about them that irritated him. "I'd be glad to get out of here," he replied with a nod. "I don't know what we'll do in this place, though." There wasn't much to see in the village.

Chazz nodded. They would need to figure out what to do with Casimir when the time came, as there were other things to be concerned about. Storming the main base would be incredibly dangerous, no matter who went along. "Right, preparation." Chazz had a feeling that he knew what Azrael was getting at. "We need to be prepared to fight some very skilled opponents." He hoped that the man couldn't tell that he hadn't been training.

Gabriel laughed at what Makari said. "Yup, I'm not really surprised. Chazz always tried to be just like him." Watching that when Chazz was younger was always so adorable, he thought. Gabriel looked to Casimir. "Yeah, really! He'd never ever show it though, because he's really self-conscious. You know someone like that."

"Very well." Tarian could see that these people would be easy to deal with, as much as he hated just complying with them. The man then asked if he would talk with them, and all he could think about was how that was the last thing he wanted to do. However, listening to them could be useful. Tarian glanced at Elyse, who seemed to be staying as well, and then looked at Darast. "Chat?" He folded his arms. "About what, exactly?"

"Hmm, let's go out and assess the situation. Maybe we'll get inspired!" Airon suggested. He headed toward the door and exited the inn. When he got outside, he looked around at the village. He could see there was one specific area where people tended to pass by quite often, and there was a tree growing right next to it.

"That looks good...." he said. "Prime throwing things at people territory."

"Well, y'know, we're gonna be travellin' together and all, so I figured we could get to know each other a bit better," Darast replied. "Might make things go a bit more smoothly 'n' stuff."

Azrael nodded. "Are you ready to start training today?" It was only then that Azrael noticed the blood on Chazz's knuckles. He frowned. "Or did you run into trouble on the way back here?" There was no point in training with the man if he wasn't in good condition. It would be impossible to assess how he was doing like that.

Makari's grin widened at what Gabriel said. He definitely remembered Chazz emulating Azrael. He snuck a glance at the two. "He's been trying to act extra tough since you guys show up," he said, snickering.

Casimir looked a bit confused when Gabriel said he knew someone like Azrael, but his face soon lit up in realization. Gabriel must have been talking about Chazz. "Yeah... you're right. I do." He smiled; he was glad he did. Things would have turned out a lot worse otherwise.

Valtteri looked at the tree Airon was talking about and smirked. "Eggs," he said. "We should get some eggs to drop on them. The market is just over there and a backwater hick village like this will have plenty of eggs for sale."

Elyse nodded in agreement. "Where in elven territory are you all heading, exactly?"

"Oh..." Chazz looked down at his bloody knuckles. It probably looked like he had run into rogues or something. "No, it's all right, nothing happened to me. When we went to the kid's father... he said some things. I shut him up."

Gabriel laughed. "Again, I'm not surprised. He can't have Az thinking he's gone soft, oh no." He smiled back at Casimir. "Both of them can't let anyone think that they might have feelings... it's just so cute."

Tarian was already regretting his decision. He would rather listen to his brother's nonsense than get to know some uncivilized human who could barely speak his own language. Tarian chose to focus on the other one; her question was actually useful. "We need to go northwest of here to a city called Palmyra." It was a large city, but as it was also quite far, he doubted she knew it.

"Perfect!" Airon exclaimed. He scurried over to the market and bought a whole bunch of eggs for himself and Valtteri. He then went over to the tree and waited until no one was around to see what he and his friend were up to. When the coast was clear, he quickly made his way up the tree. He crawled out onto a branch and waited for his first unsuspecting victim.

As much travelling as Darast had done with his mercenary group, he'd never gone into Elven territory itself and didn't know many places deep inside it. He may have heard of Palmyra at some point, but he didn't remember.

"Gotcha," he said. "But man, ya picked a bad time to head down this way, huh? Right when all this mess happened."

Azrael nodded, glancing toward Casimir and Makari. From what Gabriel had told him about who Casimir's father was, it was easy for him to figure out what could have set Chazz off. He couldn't help but feel a bit proud of Chazz for standing up for the people who were important to him instead of just backing off. "He sounds like he deserved it. Are you ready to train? I assume Makari isn't." He knew that the man was recovering from an illness and it was more important that he was in good condition when they went to the rogues' base.

Casimir looked a bit amused. He wasn't sure if he would call it cute or not, but it was definitely a bit funny, especially since they were both like that.

Makari laughed and shook his head. "Even though they have the most feelings of all." He pointedly ruffled Casimir's hair; he knew exactly what brought Chazz's feelings out.

Valtteri climbed up the tree after Airon and hunched on a branch, poised to drop an egg on an unsuspecting victim. It wasn't long before a group of men walked by. Valtteri aimed for a bald one. "His head looks just like this egg," he muttered as he dropped it.

"Palmyra? We were actually planning on going there anyway," Elyse replied, "so this works out well. But yeah, the situation here is definitely awful..."

Chazz had to feel good when he heard how Azrael felt about what he had done. It didn't sound like much, but he knew what it meant. "No, Makari needs to rest if he's even going to come with us." However, even if he did rest, Chazz didn't feel comfortable with bringing him at all. "I'm ready to go."

Gabriel smiled widely. "You got that right. They're both so silly! When Chazz starts acting all tough, Cas, just tell him that." He then looked over toward the two people in question, wondering what they had been talking about so intently for so long. Gabriel knew that those two wouldn't just chat for the sake of chatting.

Tarian knew that he absolutely could not give them any idea of his involvement. Depending on how strongly they felt, it could very well be suicide. He sighed. "Ugh, yes. If I had known that this nonsense was going on, I would not have left Palmyra." It was clear to them that Tarian didn't care for humans at all, but he didn't think it would be hard to keep them oblivious.

Airon snickered at Valtteri's comment and watched him drop the egg on the bald man. The man's reaction was pretty great; Airon knew they'd picked the right thing to do. He noticed a woman with a hairdo that looked like it had taken some work, so he dropped his egg right on her head and snickered some more.

Darast nodded. "Well, I hope the trip down here payed off, then. What'd ya come here for, anyways?"

Azrael nodded. He had no intention of asking Makari if he felt up to training; years of knowing the guy made him trust Chazz's opinion on his condition more than Makari's. "Yes, let's." He led Chazz outside. There was a lot of open space behind the inn and Azrael supposed it would have to do. They could always find a field outside of the city, but the last thing they needed was to risk running into rogues. He set up a few makeshift targets for them to work with. "See how you do with these as a warm up."

Casimir couldn't help but laugh a bit. "I don't know if he'd like that very much."

"Nah, he loves it," Makari told the boy with a knowing grin at Gabriel. Makari had pointed it out to Chazz plenty of times and his reactions tended to be amusing.

Valtteri watched the people react to the eggs dropping on them them, a slight grin on his face. They really had no idea what had hit them. He dropped three in rapid succession on a man whose clothing looked expensive.

Elyse nodded at what Tarian said and didn't say anything after Darast asked his question, as she was curious too.

Chazz nodded and went outside with Azrael. As the man set up some targets, he readied his bow and got out an arrow. It had been such a long time since he had used it, and he hoped he hadn't gotten sloppy. Azrael would not accept it. Once his mentor was ready, Chazz got into position. He hit the first two targets right in the center. However, he was feeling really off from not training for so long. The next shot was almost as good, but then the next was a bit pathetic. Chazz's final shot barely even hit the target. His horribly inadequate work made him cringe inside and he avoided looking at Azrael as he went to collect his arrows.

Gabriel saw that his brother and Chazz were leaving, but didn't get a chance to ask them what they were doing. He wasn't too concerned though. Those two needed to have their quality time. "Oh yeah, he loves hearing the truth," Gabriel said with a grin. "Hey Cas, would you believe that Chazz was a pretty soft spoken kid when I first met him? He was kind of shy, too."

Tarian knew that this question would come up at some point. "Airon and I just needed to speak with a relative who lives in this area. It was not even that important, which only makes this more frustrating." Airon would need to hear this story later just in case it came up again.

Airon couldn't hold back his laughter as he dropped eggs on the people below. Their reactions were just so hilarious. He wished they'd thought to do this in other villages they'd passed through, it would've made the trip so much more bearable. However, the villagers soon began to catch on to what was happening. Some of them stopped and looked up, trying to find where the eggs were coming from, and spotted the pair in the tree.

"Look! Up there!" a man called.

"You pests!" a woman exclaimed.

Some of the people picked up rocks and started throwing them at the pair, trying to force them down from the tree. Airon responded by throwing eggs back at them.

"Dang, that is some rough luck," Darast replied. "We came out this way to bring my cousin to her dad, but well... That attack just ruined everythin' fer a lotta people." He shook his head sadly.

Azrael folded his arms as he watched Chazz. The targets he'd set up were fairly easy to hit so the first two bullseyes didn't surprise him. He was satisfied with the third hit as well; Chazz didn't get it directly in the middle, but he still did a good job. However, the last two shots were disappointing. The last one barely even hit the target. Chazz had the same vantage point for each target, so this was obviously a case of him losing his momentum. Azrael frowned; the man usually had far more stamina than that. "Have you been training at all lately?" he asked, stepping closer to Chazz. "These are stationary targets in a straight line."

Casimir shook his head. "No... I can't picture that at all," he replied. The mental image of a soft spoken Chazz was just odd to him. "What happened?"

Makari couldn't help but smile at what Gabriel said. He remembered the first time he'd met Chazz. The kid had been so alone and he'd tried so hard to take care of Makari. It was the first time Makari had experienced that much kindness since he'd been enslaved and it had meant a lot to him.

Valtteri sighed as the villagers started freaking out and throwing rocks. He pelted them with eggs.

"What makes you think this is okay to do in our village!?" a woman called up at them.

"You'd swear we'd been throwing knives at them or something," Valtteri muttered to Airon, rolling his eyes.

"It's good that you two weren't hurt, at least," Elyse replied. She thought it was a bit strange that the other man would be with them if they were just going to visit a relative. There was something about Tarian that just didn't add up to her. However, she had to admit that it was possible she was just thinking poorly of him because of the first impression he'd made. "But the attacks were just so unnecessary... I can't imagine what kind of person you'd have to be to think that's okay."

Chazz had been expecting a reaction like that from Azrael. It was pretty clear that he hadn't been training, so there was no point in lying. "I... haven't trained for the past few weeks," he admitted, finally looking at his mentor. "I've been... busy." Chazz knew that Azrael wouldn't believe that; there was always time to train if all he had been doing was traveling. "Well, I was... distracted." Azrael could probably figure out exactly what was distracting him, but Chazz didn't want to come out and say it.

Gabriel had to smile as well as he thought back to that boy. "Well, he started looking up to Az right away. The guy was so tough and it was obvious that Chazz wanted to be just like him." It had made him a little sad to see Chazz wanting to change so badly. "I always kind of hoped he would just stay sweet and cute. Oh well, he's still cute."

Tarian nodded. The last thing he wanted to do was feign sympathy, but they already knew that he was wasn't fond of humans, so it would seem unnatural anyway. "Yes, it was definitely unnecessary. Those humans were not even hostile, so this was just a completely useless action." That was the only angle he could think of that sounded feasible. Just then, Tarian heard a commotion outside. He looked out the window again and sighed; it seemed like the only thing those barbarians could do was mob anything in their sight. "What are they doing now?"

Tarian said that the attack was a waste of time, though he didn't show any sympathy that Darast could tell. Aside from the racism thing, he started to think that maybe deep down the elf wasn't such a bad guy once you got to know him better. Maybe everything they'd seen so far was some sort of front he put up to strangers.

Their conversation was cut short when a commotion started outside. Darast headed for the door and said, "Might as well go see what's goin' on." When he got out to where the commotion was, he saw a bunch of people angrily throwing rocks at a tree, while eggs were coming from the tree toward the people. It was a pretty strange scene.

"People! What's goin' on out here?" he asked.

From up in the tree, Airon saw several more people approach the angry mob. Before it even registered who they were, he threw his last egg at them and it struck one of them right in the face. He then realised that the person he'd hit was his brother.

"Oh shit..." he muttered.

At first Azrael had considered the possibility that it had something to do with Makari's illness, but it wasn't like the man had needed constant care and Chazz wasn't a doctor. Between Chazz's shifty attitude and the situation at hand, Azrael had a feeling that he knew what Chazz and probably Makari, for that matter, had been up to. He leveled an icy glare on Chazz. "'Distracted'. What was distracting you so much?" It was apparent from his tone that he wasn't in the mood for Chazz beating around the bush.

"Oh..." Casimir considered that. He supposed Chazz did act a bit like Azrael, though Chazz was a lot less scary. He heard Makari snicker when Gabriel said Chazz was still cute. "I guess that makes sense. Is that man really your brother?" Azrael and Gabriel seemed like complete opposites to him.

Makari was starting to feel a bit tired, which annoyed him. He hadn't needed naps since he was a toddler and suddenly he was always getting tired in the middle of the day. He stifled a yawn and listened to Casimir and Gabriel talk. The kid seemed comfortable around his friend, at least.

Elyse looked out at the commotion and raised an eyebrow. It was definitely an odd sight. She nodded at Darast and followed him and Tarian outside to check it out.

Valtteri heard Airon after he'd hit Tarian and followed the elf's gaze. He grinned widely and threw seven eggs at Tarian in rapid succession.

Chazz sighed. He wasn't surprised that Azrael wouldn't leave it at that, but he still didn't want to talk about it. "...All right. I was drinking... for a couple of weeks straight or something like that." He hated seeing that glare; his mentor was so disappointed in him. "And then I had to recover..."

Gabriel smiled at Casimir's question. It wasn't the first time he had gotten it. "Yup, he's my older brother! Some people find that hard to believe after meeting us. We're just naturally different people, I guess!" he replied.

Tarian went outside with the other two. He had to know if these people had totally lost it. The humans seemed to be throwing rocks at something, and when he looked up to see what it was, something hit him in the face. Just as it hit, Tarian was concerned for a second that it was a rock. However, it turned out to be something much less damaging but much more messy.

"What...?" Tarian wiped the egg out of his eyes as he tried to get closer to see what was going on. Before he could even see, he felt himself being pelted again. They were flying so quickly and he was so surprised that he only managed to dodge the last one. Tarian had to get more egg out of his eyes before he could look up at the tree. "You..." He narrowed his eyes at Airon and Valtteri. "What are you two doing up there? Stop this right now!" Egg dripped from his clothes.

Airon watched in awe as Valtteri threw seven eggs at Tarian; he even hit him with six of them. It probably was also a pretty bad idea, but there was nothing to be done about it now. He was out of eggs anyway, so he hopped down out of the tree. A few people still threw rocks, but Darast stepped in and told them to stop.

Airon approached his brother. "Sorry about that... I really didn't mean to hit you."

Azrael was furious when Chazz admitted what he'd been doing. "What the hell made you think that was a good idea?" he asked sternly. It wasn't a rhetorical question. "You were being chased by rogues. Were you trying to get caught!? I'd like to think that you outgrew acting like that, but apparently that was too much to expect."

"Very different people..." Casimir agreed. "What's it like having a brother?" He'd always wondered what it would have been like to have a sibling.

Makari was struggling to keep his eyes open at this point and he soon started dozing in his chair.

Valtteri was quite pleased to see how successful his barrage on Tarian had been. Tarian, predictably, was less pleased. Valtteri got down from the tree and shrugged at the elf. "I can't believe that was you. You looked like a human from up there."

"I... I'm sorry..." Chazz looked down. Azrael was extremely disappointed in him and he had no excuse for his behaviour. "I found Makari again and we just... got carried away. We got lost in a forest and couldn't get out for days..." Chazz wasn't even thinking, the story just kept coming out. "And then Makari got sick... I was drinking and didn't notice until he collapsed." He shook his head, almost forgetting who he was talking to. "I couldn't help him... he got worse and he was suffering and slowly dying... so... I poisoned him. But... it didn't work, so I... so I tried to smother him..." Chazz rarely sounded this emotional in front of his mentor.

"What's it like?" Gabriel noticed that Makari was falling asleep and smiled at him. He wondered why he was so tired, though. "Well, I love having a brother! When we were growing up, he protected me and we both look after each other all the time. I'm grateful to him."

"I do not believe that for a second," Tarian snapped at his brother. "You are to remain where I can see you for the remainder of this trip." He sighed angrily as he continued trying to wipe off the egg all over him. When Valtteri spoke, Tarian shot him a cold glare. "In that case, you are even stupider than I thought."

Airon made a pouty face at Tarian. "There is no way you're gonna be able to keep me in your sight the entire time." He snickered at Valtteri saying he thought Tarian was a human from the tree, that was sure to get under his brother's skin. "Anyway, do we even have an inn room yet?"

Darast watched the pair emerge from the tree and get chewed out by Tarian. The situation seemed to be handled, so he decided to head back to the inn.

Chazz's apology did nothing to quell Azrael's anger. He was even less impressed as Chazz explained what he and Makari had been up to. However, before Azrael could say what he thought of that, Chazz started talking about how Makari had gotten sick. The man got really emotional as he talked about it and Azrael's expression softened somewhat. It was obvious that Chazz had suffered a lot for his irresponsibility and had almost lost his best friend as a result of it.

"So it's the poison that's still affecting him," he said, shaking his head. It was a shame; he'd have to inform Gabriel of that so he could make sure Makari rested as much as possible before they implemented their plan against the rogues. He could only imagine how hard it was for Chazz to think about this and wasn't sure what to say to him. "In that case... I'll do what I can to make up for the training you weren't able to do." His tone was a lot more gentle than usual.

Casimir couldn't help but smile. "That sounds really nice," he replied. "Actually... it sounds a lot like Chazz and Makari." Based on what he'd seen of the two and what Chazz had told him that night he'd been drunk back at the dorms, Casimir thought it was an accurate comparison.

Valtteri shrugged, unfazed by Tarian's insult. "No, I just have eyes. It's not my fault you look just like a human from a distance. This isn't the first time I've mistaken you for one, actually."

Elyse sighed at the bickering and decided to turn her attention to Airon, who had actually asked a sensible question. "I don't think you do," she replied. "Tarian was talking with us and then immediately came out here."

Chazz nodded to confirm what Azrael said first, but still didn't look up. He waited to be scolded for doing such a thing to Makari, but his mentor did not do that at all. Chazz looked at the man. "Azrael..." He was willing to help Chazz after everything he had done, and his gentleness was so comforting. It wasn't very often that Azrael was like this, and it meant a lot to Chazz. "Thank you... I'll... work hard to make up for it too."

"You know, you're right! I've noticed it before too," Gabriel said with a smile. "Those two have looked out for each other for years. It's so sweet... I'm so glad that they got reunited." He remembered how depressed Chazz became when Makari was rejected from the group. Nobody had known what would become of him.

Tarian still glared at Valtteri. He hated that he had been forced to bring him along just for his brother's entertainment. It was ridiculous. "Well, if you ever happen to find my arrow lodged in your skull, it's only because you look like a monster from any distance."

"Well, then, he should probably go get one and stop saying mean things to my friend," Airon said in response to Elyse, but loud enough for Tarian to hear. He then lowered his voice and said sheepishly, "He doesn't let me carry very much of the money because he doesn't trust me with it."

After he went back into the inn, Darast found Raphael where they'd left him. "Hey Raphie. Whaddaya think of those three?"