middaeg | [Open Catch-all][March]

[Multiple times each week, Red Wine leaves the safety of the Bright Wall and ventures out into the more dangerous areas that this world has to offer. Sometimes with company, sometimes alone, but with more regularity than he does anything else in this place he can be seen walking into the Outer City to be of what use he can.

Some nights he stays close to the outside of the Wall, handing out water and food to less fortunate people living there. Sometimes he spends an hour or so entertaining a group of children by making paper cranes for them or playing his violin if he happened to bring it along (this is relatively rare, as he more often than not goes out to fight).

However, it's more common to see him cut straight through to the very outer edges of the slums. Here, where those infected and untreated live and Shades are a regular problem, he walks with his weapon drawn and a sharp expression on his ashen face. Anyone trying to sneak up on him here, be it accidentally or not, will most likely find themselves at the pointy end of a slim rapier with a demand for identification.

More often than he would like at the limits of the Outer City, he comes up against a Shade. What needs to be done with these creatures is not something he enjoys doing, but they are beyond reasoning and help. At times like these, he would much prefer to have some company. An expert swordsman he may be, but he has never needed to put much thought into his own defence.]

(( anyone welcome to assume they were patrolling/working with him any night ))

[It isn't all too usual to see Red Wine sitting down and writing, but at least a few days out of the month are spent sitting outside DiplomaTea (possibly after it closes, depending on how sunny the day is) under an umbrella with a cup of tea that goes largely ignored, writing line after line with what some may recognise as Momo's survey placed out in front of him. When he had first started this Red Wine had promised to come through with some information regarding his own experiences, and he doesn't intend to back down from that.

Still, it's turning out to be a more difficult thing than he first thought it would. Not that the questions themselves are hard to answer - certainly not - but it's hard to not put too much subjectivity into it. Though few know Red Wine all that well, those who do are well aware of his dislike of being here and of what the magic here has done to him.

Not for the first time, Red Wine sighs in aggravation and scribbles aggressively over the page, before scrunching it up and tossing it hard against the table, where it bounces and goes skittering to the floor. He plants his chin on his hand and stares at the paper ball moodily, not immediately getting up to retrieve it.

This should not be as difficult as it is.]

Edited 2021-03-07 21:56 (UTC)

[Yuki might be just passing by and grabbing a tea, but he can't help noticing the survey form and slightly watching out of the corner of his eye. He's been handing them out and hounding people (politely, he thinks?) for responses, just because he wants to help Momo.

It's odd, since he hasn't stayed to see people fill them out, to watch someone who appears to be struggling with it. A little frown flickers across his features as the paper is tossed.

Once he has tea in hand, he heads over to pick up the wadded up survey, and brings it back over to Red Wine, though he's as careful as he can be to not look terribly offended.]

You dropped this.

I didn't.

[Oh, he understands the meaning behind the words, but his frustrating tossing of the paper had been very much deliberate and he means to make that quite clear. Granted, he hadn't intended to litter and would have picked it up once he was done glaring at it. The form itself is on the table, very much uncrumpled, though he hadn't been writing his answers onto it directly.

There simply wasn't enough room.

Red Wine taps his fingers against the top of the table once, twice, fiddling with the pen in his free hand.]

I promised an objective account. It's proving more challenging than I expected.

Yeah, okay. I think you threw it, but I wasn't going to go there.

[Leave it to Yuki to be literal about it. His expression softens as he realizes what was thrown wasn't the actual survey.

He gives Red Wine time to talk, though, and listens without frowning or judging, because his own experiences would probably be hard to quantify as well.]

I don't doubt it. This place sucks. If weird stuff wasn't constant, I'd probably be happier, but we don't get that kind of courtesy.

I'm more accustomed to it than I was. [He replies, and though he sounds irritated still he seems to be directing that tone to the paper that Yuki brought back. Taking it in hand he unfolds it, and the neat writing that began at the top of the page clearly degrades closer to the end as he had started to become more agitated in his answer.

It stops in the middle of a word, where he had realised he'd been doing it again.]

But I think this is the fifth or sixth time I've attempted to answer these questions. I spoke with Momo when he first had the idea.

[He sighs and sits back, rubbing his face for a moment.]

And I am trying not to make my answer too personal.

[One of his favourite places, and somewhere he sometimes disappears to for days, are the twilight caverns of the underground city. Something about the place - outside of the lack of sunlight - is just so much more soothing than Aefenglom or Dorchacht, and at least twice a month he finds himself down there, sitting by the river that flows through it or walking through the caves dimly lit with glowing crystals.

There are many things that he dislikes about Geardagas, enough that he could spend all day getting himself angry about them, but this place is one small thing that he can honestly say he enjoys. He even enjoys getting into the occasional fight with one of the local monsters looking to test their mettle, with the 'rite of passage' being far less irritating to him now than it was the first time he ventured down here.

He never expects to run into other Mirrorbound while he's there, with it seeming to be far less frequented than the other cities, but to any that he does see he gives a far more open greeting than he would if he met them elsewhere.]

[Everett was a fan of the Underground, if not the best suited to it's... culture. When he stumbles upon Red Wine, he's looking mildly roughed up, hair tangled around his horns and glasses slightly crooked upon his nose. There's an attempt to straight out into a more presentable state, but the faun is left rubbing at his head more than he is effectively smoothing his hair out]

Oh, sir, a pleasure to stumble across you! Apologies I am... somewhat jostled. Another ram decided he wanted to test my mettle. [and Everett isn't exactly a rough and tumble sort...]

The act left me more dizzied than triumphant, I'm afraid.

[For a moment he doesn't recognise the faun, having only met him once and not too recently, but the underground city keeps him in a good enough mood to take the greeting with a smile and even a small chuckle at hearing what Everett has been getting himself into.]

They are insistent about it, aren't they. [He replies with obvious amusement, his arms folded loosely and fingers curled around his elbows.

Red Wine himself hasn't come out unscathed from today's scuffles, but has managed to avoid getting a black eye for once. A small cut along his jaw line is his trophy for his last bout.]

You don't look the type.

Positively not! [Everett laughs, at least having a good humor about it]

I am a diplomat, not a fighting bone in me I'm afraid. Yet, I've been cursed with this magnificent set of horns and fine stature. [he finally catches that his glasses are askew, fixing them to sit properly on his nose]

It's no wonder I get challenged. I'll take it as a form of flattery... so I can not feel so bad about getting trounced about.

It sounds like your pride didn't take the same bruising that your head did.

[Red Wine makes this observation with no small level of wry amusement, giving a small shake of his head. The monsters in this city can even overpower him at times, what on Tierra did Everett thing he was doing trying to fight them?]

Do you think you could use a drink after your trouncing? I was about to find somewhere to sit down for an hour or two.

My pride is certainly stronger than my head. I take such things in healthy stride, I should believe. [Everett is very willing and able to laugh such things off. Besides, he's a diplomat, not a warrior. Though his magnificent rack (of... horns...) would make others believe differently.]

A drink! Yes. That would be a delight to share. Have you a place in mind? I'm afraid I have not explore this place as much as I'd like, as of yet.

I do. This way.

[Still with that amused look playing about his face, he tips his head to direct Everett down the street and sets a somewhat leisurely pace to go at. It's strange how he feels himself far more at home here than in the busy markets and docksides of Aefenglom.]

What brings you here, Everett? I haven't seen you out in the streets before. [He sidesteps someone who isn't looking where they're going, then looks over at his companion.] Unless you're so often involved in scuffles that I haven't had the chance.

[In one of the outside seating areas of one of the slightly less seedy bars at the harbour district, a vampire is playing cards with a group of four sailors. Outside of running about in the Outer City and the occasional helpful quest he does for the people around Aefenglom, this is one of the ways that he - sometimes - makes some money.

The group are silent, as are the small number around them watching the game. Red Wine presses his lips together and slowly pushes the coin in front of him out to the centre of the table.]

All in. [He says. There's not a flicker in his expression of whether he's bluffing or not. One of the players immediately loses his nerve and folds, but the other three meet his bet. A moment passes, and then Red Wine gently places his cards down face-up on the table. A straight flush. The three losers groan and sink down into their seats, one of them reaching out for his drink. Around them, the gathered observers begin laughing and one of them slaps Red Wine hard on the back in congratulations. Not everyone seems happy with the results, however.

'How can they even think of playing with a creature like him?'

Red Wine stands the moment his keen hearing picks up those words, searching for the culprit.

Later, after all is settled, a brief fight is had and he's given the men who played with him a little of his winnings, Red Wine sits with his legs hanging over the edge of the docks and watches the reflection of the moon on the water.]

So. [He sighs to himself.] That's how it's to be. Again.

Edited 2021-03-07 21:55 (UTC)

[He always disappears entirely on the full moon, without telling anybody where he goes (though the reason, he thinks, is not one that he has to explain). Losing control of his shape along with everything else isn't something he's likely to ever accept, and it does not get any easier each time it happens. No one comes looking for him, and that's how he prefers it to be (no one should be trudging out into the Wilde to find him, anyway).

Though he moves around now and then during the night it's only when the time for the moon to set is growing close that he begins to consider heading back to somewhere safer. The first time this happened he had come back to himself several miles outside of the Outer City, and that had been an adventure in itself.

Little time to think about it, though, before he hears something moving between the trees. The large bat hanging upside down in the tree turns his head out of his wing and peers into the darkness, letting out a soft chitter without thinking. Just who might that be.]

( after months of magic build up, the low magic of the full moon feels good, and he feels inspired to work on his magic despite the contradiction. it's a challenge, but if he can master this basic locating spell under these conditions, surely he can do it at any time of the month.

so he starts, having borrowed one of Red Wine's ties earlier for the purpose. the closer you are to the person, the more powerful the magic, the book had said and there's no one in the city he would ever consider closer to him than that bastard.

so it should work, right? and he's probably not anywhere exciting, not with the full moon out—

and then the focus twitches, heading across the map of Aefenglom which is laid out, all but dragging his arm with it, bouncing back and forth at the edges like a dog trying to get out of the garden. )

The hell...

( he resets his magic, letting the focus drop onto the paper and staring at it a good long moment. did he do something wrong? ugh, that took more out of him than he was expecting, as well...

but no one ever improved by giving up after one try, so Steak breathes, stills himself, and tries again.

and it happens again, and this time Steak frowns. once is a mistake, twice... is Red Wine out beyond the borders of the city? at this time of the month?

there's only one way to find out, but it leaves him somewhat blind once he exits the city, trying the spell without a map and finding it to jerk him all over the place each time he tries it. but finally, finally it begins to behave as he reaches a copse of trees, staying still and true as he walks into the clearing.

dammit. nothing. nothing but an odd little noise.

well, there's one way he can always count on getting the bastard's attention, and that's by taking a breath and hollering )

Red Wine!

( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

[The whole point of this was so that he couldn't be found. Why would he want anyone to actually see him like this, particularly when he utterly loses himself to it during at least the first several hours? He could be a danger to anyone, and given that he can't see himself ever fully accepting this part of the curse this place puts on him he finds it makes more sense to simply get as far away from people as possible.

But, as he does with so many things, of course Steak has to ruin it.

He hears him coming long before he steps into the clearing, and he watches him from the tree in complete silence, just hoping that he will go away if he can't find him.

Naturally, this does not happen. The sound of him shouting has every hair on his body bristling up. Idiot.

There's nothing else for it.]

Shut up.

( Red Wine should really know by now that, if nothing else, Steak has the tenacity to track people down if he wants to do that. should know more than well enough that when it comes to himself, especially, Steak can't simply let something go.

though, admittedly, it didn't start out that way. he could have just stayed in the city so that Steak could see his spell was a success, not dragged the man all the way out here.

well. at least he knows it works. )

The hell are you doing here at this time? ( alone, presumably, given that he hasn't heard anyone else pipe up. ) Do you have...

( hm. probably can't have a death wish, given that Red Wine's already dead. ) Have you lost your mind?

( debatable that that happened several decades ago, but... welp. what else can he call waltzing into the Wilde alone in the middle of the night on a full moon? )

[Look, never doubt his ability to have a death wish despite already being dead.

From his spot high up in the tree he's sure Steak can't see him, but he can see Steak easily. He's part angry that he's here and part mortified for the same reason.]

You're not needed here, go home.

[Please just go home.]

( you know what's the worst way to make Steak go away? to tell him to fuck off without any further explanation.

he's as stubborn as a bull and always has been, and Red Wine telling him to leave only makes him more certain he should be here. so instead of turning tail, Steak leans himself against a tree trunk, folding his arms over his chest and looking in the vague direction of where Red Wine's voice comes from. )

What the hell are you doing out here?

( not needed his ass. that comment stings in a way he can't quite make sense of, leaving him bristling. )

That's none of your business.

[Red Wine is relatively certain that with the amount of effort it must have taken Steak to get out here, very little save for being attacked by something terrible could chase him off the spot he's on right now. The likelihood of that happening is far higher out here than anywhere else, but it would just be the vampire's luck that nothing caught the sound of the idiot yelling his name.

But Steak is not needed here. Not needed and not wanted. He watches him from between branches.]

Were you following me?

( even being attacked by something terrible would be dubious. if he could defeat it, you'd be damn sure Steak would be right back here, yelling at Red Wine for hiding.

but, for now, he's just here... yelling at Red Wine for making him come all this way out just to verify his spell. )

Don't flatter yourself. I tried something called a scrying spell.

( totally different, okay! )

On me, specifically.

[That sounds a lot like you were following him, Steak. And now he has to deal with... this. But at least it's keeping him focused. The sheer dread of actually being seen like this does wonders for maintaining coherent thought.]

Do tell me how that's different.

[And while he's at it, he can explain why he was looking for him at all.]

[Open Catch-all][March]

QUEST | Out of the City | OTA

QUEST | Surveying the Neighborhood... Once More, With Feeling! | OTA

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In The Underground | OTA

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Harbour District | OTA

Full Moon Shenanigans | CLOSED to Steak

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