Fourth Step - back from that ledge my friend, you could cut ties with all the lies that [action]

[antivanleather]

[He'd been living in...a state of frustration the past month. Of denial. But with a week and some spent in the wilderness in tail end of winter Zevran sought to reconnect with the cold hollow that the Crows instilled in him at an early age, one that time with the Warden and several months here had worn away. Filled with food and restful sleep and pleasurable company. With sentiment. It was not something he could afford, that sentiment, that desire for companionship beyond the odd body in his bed or verbal spar. To want comrades was something a Crow did not do, and as much as he wasn't pleased by the guild wanting him dead back home he was still very much one of them. Old habits died hard after all.

Hunting, tracking, setting a spartan camp and keeping mobile- avoiding all others that might have been hunting, forsaking the company of his fellow villagers did little more than weigh upon the elf and leave him far too much time to think over the events leading up to and just after that odd valentine's shift. How he'd handled it, or rather hadn't. The conversation he'd had with Isaac just before leaving, or rather the argument. The time between then and now did little to sooth the ire it'd caused. He'd lost something there.

He didn't know he cared enough to get it back.]

[Days away and he'd intended to remain so for awhile longer but the fall of snow urges him back to the village. Bundled along with his camping gear on his back are furs that need to be trimmed and roots, dried meat and bundles of flesh from what animals he'd trapped and butchered while hunting.  It's a fairly sizable stash of hunting loot if he did say so himself, and he's far too much to keep to himself.  Perhaps after he cleans up he'll offer the finished furs or bits of wrapped meat to his neighbors, or any that stop him along his path. He waves his way in from the south, past the battle dome and up through the plaza to stop in the grocery store for a few vegetables, perhaps a bottle of wine to go with the meat he's still carrying, and then he makes his way back to community house 7.

The normally boisterous and cheerful elf is weary and quiet, without any quick smile or laugh to crack at those he passes. His leathers are grubby from time in the woods, his boots scuffed, his hair a loosely braided mess. He'll make conversation if someone engages him, and he will be polite enough, perhaps even offer a cutlet of venison or dirty joke if the company is pleasant.]

Comments

[antivanleather]

...your people have very strange stories, though the last seems a bit familiar and fare more likely, though instead of candy it'd simply be the wilds.

[universal_charm]

Like I said, I didn't originally make these up. But I guess those make more sense than Cinderella or Snow White or even Peter Pan.

[antivanleather]

I may regret this- but please. Do tell me more?

[universal_charm]

Uh... okay. Condensed versions, here we go.

Cinderella - girl's stepmom and stepsisters abuse her with enforced labor. She sneaks to this fancy ball, falls in love with the prince, has to vanish before midnight before the magic spell wears off. Prince comes looking for her with a dainty glass slipper, step sisters end up cutting off their heels to fit the shoe, but like any good tale Cinderella gets the guy. At the end, doves come and peck out her step-family's eyes.

Snow White - pretty princess gets hunted by her wicked step mother. She lives with four dwarves out in the woods, gets put into an endless slumber by her wicked step mother after biting into an apple, and is awakened by a kiss from some random prince she immediately goes off to marry.

Peter Pan - fairy boy kidnaps kids to bring them to this magic place called Neverland. Peter Pan never ages or grows up, but the kids do, and so when they get to old he kills them and kidnaps more kids. And there's something about Indians being on the island too and Captain Hook and the crocodile, but that might have been the kid-friendly version.

[antivanleather]

...























I was right.









I regret asking.

[universal_charm]

There's more, trust me. I don't understand where any of them came from, but they exist. Kiddy versions got made that are less... bloody, but those are the originals. Not like Greek and Roman myths are better, but I guess these are worse since they were supposed to be 'fairy tales'.

[antivanleather]

Fae and magic is a bit more real in my world, so cautionary tales are less for entertainment and more of the 'if you go into those fogged woods you may never come out alive' variety.

[universal_charm]

Probably makes sense. Back then, the wood ones probably had some validity to them, since all the wild creatures and whatnot. Not sure what the point of the princess ones were though.

[antivanleather]

Who does not like a tale of royal scandal? No one. It makes our lives seem so much simpler and safer.

[universal_charm]

Yeah, I suppose. Most of them have to do with evil step mothers and witches though, so they're not exactly scandalous.

[antivanleather]

Have you ever met a stepmother or a witch? There is scandal aplenty if they are feeling particularly avaricious.

[universal_charm]

I have met step mothers, but not witches. Remember, they don't exactly exist in my world.

[antivanleather]

Are you absolutely certain? There must be some witch hiding somewhere.

[universal_charm]

Yeah, I'm really certain. Trust me, they covered that in the middle ages and the Salem Witch Trails.

[antivanleather]

And you are certain there are none to be found on other planets?

[universal_charm]

None that we've come across. The Vulcans have some mental stuff, but it's not magic it's explainable through science. Everything we knew is. Science has kind of ruined the whole 'magic' business in my world.

[antivanleather]

I've had some...experience with that mental stuff. Your Spock is a talented man.

[universal_charm]

Damn it, I need have a talk with him about mind-freaking people. Seriously, has it done it to everyone on this planet?!

[antivanleather]

It was less mind freaking and more mind ravishing.

[universal_charm]

... Please, please tell me ravishing is in the bad sense and not the sexual kind.

[antivanleather]

...well there was kissing afterward.

[universal_charm]

_{[ His mind breaks, the tiniest bit. Just a bit, and he's not sure what it's from, but it's there. ]}

Right. Okay. He and I are having a serious talk.

_{[ Not that that wasn't the pot calling the kettle black. Not like they hadn't fooled around either. ]}

[antivanleather]

It was after a rather intense...mind. Thing. Whatever it is that he does. And I was not quire in my right mind. And the first time it happened he'd had chocolate- no actually that was the second. The first I was helping him put on his uniform when he first arrived and got a handful of his feathers. So it has happened more than once.

[universal_charm]

Okay, stop, please. I don't need to hear this. Really. Though clearly I need to have a talk with him... and remove all the chocolate form the apartment and send out notices to all the shops not to sell him any.

[antivanleather]

So you and I might have our sweaty entanglements but your Vulcan friend cannot?