Another Mercenary Among Merchants

[Felypsa]

Eventually Rosaline pulled away because she sensed Fortuné wanted to, but she was all sparkly-eyed over the kiss, despite the fact that she had to initiate it. “Sparks!” she whispered dreamily, smiling up at Fortuné. Oh, she had been so far gone.

“Let’s go now!” she tugged him up, gesturing to the house. “Granma’s back in bed! Hurry, now, so that we can elope as quickly as possible!” For that kiss had made Rosaline realize how great of a life she had ahead of her. If only Fortuné was actually telling the truth, anyway. She hurried into their hut and rummaged around, before finding the place where the money was hidden. “How much do you think we need?” she whispered to her “lover.”

Outside, the fight had cooled down somewhat. Or, well, the suspicious person had dropped ice down the shifty character’s shirt and pants, so that apparently counted as cooling down.

[Aveilthé]

"Sparks?" inquired Fortuné confusedly as he looked at Rosaline.
He was rubbing his lips together, as if trying to heal them from
the hardcore kiss. Next thing he knew, he was being steered
hither and thither with the young lass. He found himself standing
inside the dark vicinity of the little house by the ocean.

Keeping his voice as low as possible, he uttered, "Err, enough
to keep us going for a long while?" He responded with an air
of awkwardness, but he was grinning at her like a silly little
kid. He was still recovering from that kiss.

Outside the house and on the beach, the shifty character clutched
her chest and backside in dramatization, then keeled over and
died upon getting frostbitten in areas unmentionable. The ocean
drifted her away and was soon forgotten by everyone, even the
postman.

[Relairah]

((AHAHAHA! You guys are so freaking funny! Keehee! *Giggling like mad* xP))



Jolene half grinned, half smirked confidently. "Who
said anything about you being a thief. I was just offering.
Never said I'd teach you even if you wanted to learn." Of
course, Jolene wouldn't mind teaching December, but stealing
wasn't exactly something one teaches someone else. So it'd be kind
of odd. So in that, she was glad the mercenary wasn't interesting in
being a thief. However, at December's next little question about her
she scowled, trotting along with her arms folded across her chest.
"Give me a break. No, I haven't been outside the city. But what does
that matter? Fish and rodents are pretty hard to catch... so are
birds... especially with only two daggers. I'm damn sharp with these
things, trust me a little would you?"

She continued along and sighed after a moment, "Okay... fine. But, I
didn't mean you had to rely entirely on me. I meant I wanted to
help," she muttered, glancing off. She hoped if they were going into
the city or market or anything that being beside a mercenary would
help the people who'd be after her to lay off. Oh well, she could deal
with it if they didn't. The truth was, she wanted to get out of here
too. Sure, she was just a little kid that they'd probably care less
about and prefer her not to tag along, but... they were the first
people she'd actually gotten to know at all in some way and she
had a sudden feeling of loneliness deep down. She'd never admit it
though.

Far off from December and Jolene, on the beach of the Escavas
another strange girl would join the group. She stood there a
moment, watching them and then giggled as she scurried up behind
the other two girls and pressed a random button causing water
balloons to randomly explode out of nowhere.

OoC: Forgive me if I'm not so good at comedy -_-;;

[Felypsa]

Rosaline smiled winningly at Fortuné, then reached into the storage of money. “I don’t want to take too much, that would alarm Granma…but we should take half of it.” That was quite a substantial amount of money in Escavas, and anywhere else for that matter. Rosaline gathered up the money into a purse-wallet thing, and handed it to Fortuné. For some reason, she trusted him to take care of the money. She was an idiot in more ways than five. “Let me write a letter to Granma, and then we can leave!” she whispered excitedly, hurrying to find parchment and a quill to scrawl a farewell note to her beloved grandmother.




December let out a long sigh after listening to Jolene, realizing that she had been needlessly short-tempered with the urchin. “I did not mean to refuse your help. Of course, at this point, I would appreciate any kind of help. I just do not want you to get too confident, then get caught or find that it’s not as easy as you thought.” The mercenary paused, uncertain whether she should trust Jolene, as she urged. But the street urchin had been with them for so long, ever since this whole escapade began it seemed, and had never once shown the kind of foolishness or treachery of either Rosaline or Taro, respectively.

“Very well, Jolene.” December glanced around and held out the money she had extracted from Taro. “Since you know the city far better than I, could you tell me where I could get the best deal with this much money? I don’t want to spend all of it,” she added quickly, horrified by the thought of running out of food and money while on the journey.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the rest of our serious-minded characters, but knownst to us silly-minded roleplayers, the suspicious character cackled upon her conquest of the shifty character. Her triumph was short-lived, however, when water balloons collapsed upon her person, and she screamed, “I’m melting! Oh, what a world, what a world!” It is inexplicable that water from water balloons would cause her to melt, after she had been standing in the ocean for so long. However, she was mistaken; the water balloons did not melt her, but rather they made her sneeze violently for exactly 10.2 minutes, but upon the 0.3rd minute (which would have broken the world record up to that point), she passed away from oversneezing. This was a legitimate condition, and it had plagued many Escavans before, but it is most depressing because it causes the victim to deflate like a parachute in water. And so passed the suspicious character, who had previously been the last one standing. She would no longer cast suspicions upon anybody ever again.

[Aveilthé]

Fortuné fumbled with the money-purse as it was handed to him.
He gave one glance at it before he once again started to feel his
heart race. Then, Rosaline went to write a letter to say farewell
to her grandmother.

'What now,' cried the vampire to himself. 'Slip away,
or stay... slip away, or stay...,'

Once again he fought a long battle in his head. He even started
pacing nervously inside the living room, feeling the weight of
the money in his hands. This is what he came for, after all, and
Rosaline was too busy writing her farewell that she wouldn't
glance in his direction until she was finished, he was sure.

The floorboards hardly creaked beneath him as he started to
quietly ease towards the slightly cracked front door to sweet
freedom. If only he could just slip away unnoticed (something he
was normally good at, anyway), then he could make a run for it.
Something kept nagging at the back of his brain, something that
bit at his good conscience about leaving a poor young maiden
alone to weep her darling baby blue eyes out about how her
lover left her for money.

The discrepant lad halted in his tracks, a foot away from the door.
He chewed on his swollen lower lip agitatedly while tugging at the
damp, dark curly locks of his hair. He wiped a sweat from his brow
and turned on the spot and began pacing once again, weighing
the sin on his cold hand.

[Relairah]

Jolene grinned eagerly, her orange eyes lighting up.
"Don't worry, I've had experience with that one," she said,
dismissing December's little warning rather quickly. She was
perhaps a bit over confident, but even so, it was always dangerous
in the thieving business, that's why she liked it so much. And she
had begun to wonder something in the back of her mind. If she
could turn into a cat once accidentally, maybe she could figure
something out and turn at will. It would make life more interesting
for her. But she didn't let herself think on this thought right then.
She was far too excited that December was accepting her help.

She paused for a moment, glancing at the city around her then
grinned, "Of course, you do mean provisions... right? Follow me,"
she had said the last part for the mere sake of saying it. She knew
the mercenary would whether she'd told her to or not. With that she
took off, not bothering to look at the different buildings. She knew
exactly where she was going to. The only question in her mind was
whether she should take her to a shop or the market. Well... she
had a better chance of avoiding guards and the like in a shop thus
she made her decision.

It didn't take long before she stopped at a small building, rather
older looking and worn. She turned to December, assuming she was
behind and or beside her, "They've got just about everything
besides weapons here, at least not large weapons." With that she
opened the door and stepped inside. This was one of the few
buildings in town that she wasn't wanted in. In fact, she was
somewhat of a frequent customer, being as here she bought
everything she needed, of course with stolen money. Now, all she
had to do was wait on December.

The girl who had randomly dropped such apparently evil water
balloons watched as the one girl passed from over-sneezing. She
glanced around frantically waving her arms in an ecstatic manner,
wondering if anyone had been witness to such an event and she
then clasped her hands together and cried, "I shall never be able to
live with myself!" And she dashed at an inhumane speed across the
beach and disappeared into the horizon.

[Felypsa]

Rosaline was completely oblivious to the fact that her “lover” was wrestling with a moral dilemma, for she was happily writing a goodbye note to her grandmother, telling her not to worry and that no matter what happened, Rosaline would love her forever. She tactfully did not mention Fortuné’s name nor his significance to the Vaux family. Granma was used to her being courted, and so Rosaline liked to put it into her mind that she was running away with a responsible, capable man who just needed a little extra money to get things started. “You’ll hear from me again soon,” Rosaline concluded confidently. “In the meantime, have all my love. I’ll always think of you. Love, Rosie.” Smiling, Rosaline folded up the letter and left it on the table for Granma Vaux to find in the morning.

Then she flounced back to where Fortuné was waiting for her. “Let’s go now!” she said urgently, pulling him towards the door and outside. “Where to?” The idiot girl did not know the first thing about traveling or what it required. She was too caught up in the moment of romance.




“Provisions?” December echoed. “Of course.” But Jolene had decided not to wait for an affirmative answer; she just took off. Exchanging a significant look with Imi, December followed the street urchin more sedately, trying to make it look as though she were not chasing her. She strolled along, keeping Jolene in her sights but not making it obvious that she was following her.

Before long, Jolene came to a shop that December looked up and down carefully. Still open at this hour of the night? Quite a blessing, but December was suspicious of any store that was open this late. It probably had less-than-lawful dealings. That was none of her business, of course; she was only here to buy food and maybe some tools by using as little money as possible. According to Jolene, this was the place for all that. Convenient, December thought, stepping into the shop after Jolene.

She looked around curiously, judging the place. It looked ordinary and unobtrusive enough. She was a little out of place, with her mercenary’s outfit and sword, and Imi on her shoulder, but the customers did not pay her too much mind. Perhaps December had Jolene to thank for that. “Now what do you suggest, little expert?” The mercenary murmured to the urchin, keeping one eye on the door and another on the merchant.

[Aveilthé]

Alas! It was too late now, as Rosaline finished her farewell, and had
sidled up to Fortuné and gushed about where they were to go
now. Cursing his consciousness, the half-naked vampire turned
to the spot to look down at the girl's pale virgin face.

"Uhh," he responded, scratching his head as his thoughts were
delayed. "I... I guess we make a move out towards town. We
ought to get food and supplies, shouldn't we? And a horse for you;
I do not want you to be walking on this journey upon your beautiful
feet." Then, completely acting the part, Fortuné pulled Rosaline to
him if allowed and embraced her.

"I'm so happy," he said softly, though in his head he was crying.

[Felypsa]

Rosaline beamed up at him, overjoyed. “That is so sweet of you, darling Fortuné. You are so considerate.” Oh, great. It had started. The name-calling. If Fortuné didn’t escape soon, he’d be trapped forever. Rosaline was making those starry eyes at him like some kind of sick horse, except more affectionately. Still, it had the same disgusting effect.

She tugged on the vampire’s hands, urging him towards town. Little did she know that that was where her nemesis in Fortuné’s affection was currently situated. If she had known that, she would have backpedaled faster than you can say, “Pirate lady,” which was Rosaline’s perception of Rosaline. She would rather take no horse and no provisions than face December again. But little, idiot Rosie didn’t know. So little, idiot Rosie walked headfirst into hell.

oOc| that sucked a lot, sorry x.x

[Aveilthé]

"Lets go, then," he cried in mock-bracingly, smiling placidly at
Rosaline's goo-goo doll face.

Fortuné followed suit with Rosaline into the night and into the
deeper part of the city, to where he was unaware that the lass
he loved truly was somewhere within.

Holding the money as if it was his firstborn, he gazed up at the
many dark signs swinging on their rusty hinges from various
restaurants that appeared already closed or small, cozy bars
that were open virtually all hours of the night. Fortuné even
noticed that they had passed "The Knight Pub", the very place
he found Rosaline.

"I suppose I should find more suitable clothes, also," he muttered
to himself, tearing his eyes away from the swaying Knight Pub sign
that issued creaking noises from age. "But I must either find a place
to drop Rosaline off, or who knows what..."

Pausing a bit, he subconsciously scratched his chin. Yes, clothes
were very important; he didn't want any of the folk from Escavas
to question his bare chest and feet. But what was more important
was that he must escape from Rosaline, or risk being with her
forever, especially before he might unknowingly run into a certain
half-angel.

"Rosaline--err, darling, I think it would be best that I find an open
store that might have clothes."

Haha, fat chance. If Rosaline were to believe that clothing apparels
would be open this late into the night, she was truly a dense one
indeed.

"In the meantime, I would very much like you to wait somewhere
for me."

A big lie, of course, for Fortuné planned to never return. Of course
he despised himself even talking like this, for at this very moment
he was planning on deceiving her.

"And you should not worry, I feel quite alright too. My vampiric
instincts have not acted up lately."

This was quite true, for after yesterday, his energy was wasted
all into fighting Taro. Even in being a city brimming with humans,
the thought of that sword puncturing into his stomach made him
quite lose his appetite. Not to mention Rosaline's uber
show of adoration. Well, maybe not quite so much.

"I know, my dear! That pub--you know, the one we've met in,
that is always open in the late hours!" He pointed at the creaking
sign overhanging an old, wide European-handled door that they
were passing. "Could you wait there for me?"

[Aveilthé]

OOC: I just want to say... It does not suck! But this does! *Points to my face*

[Felypsa]

Rosaline hated the idea of being from Fortuné for even half a moment. “I wish you had mentioned your need for clothes earlier,” she said unhappily. “We could have borrowed some from my gr—my uncle’s wardrobe. Some of those shirts and shoes he wouldn’t miss at all.” Rosaline had almost said her grandfather’s wardrobe, since obviously the man didn’t need clothes anymore, but she did not want to be reminded of the other identity of the man she was with.

Of course, Rosie was quite a dunce, if she didn’t think of finding clothes for Fortuné even though it was quite obvious he needed them. Perhaps she enjoyed the sight of his bare chest too much to think of covering it up. Silly, one-minded fool.

In any case, Rosaline was very much opposed to the idea of having to wait for the vampire. “What if you’re caught!” she cried out passionately. “We shall never see each other again, and I will never forgive myself!” She clung to his arm steadfastly. “Nay, Fortuné. I will not leave your side. That is what marriage is all about, remember? ‘Till death do us part.’” She smiled lovingly up at him. Boy, was she stupid. Of all the ridiculous maidens to be stuck with, Fortuné was lucky enough to get the most ridiculous one of all…

[Aveilthé]

Alas! It was too late! Fortuné would have smacked his own silly
face for not leaving earlier, but his good heart pulled him back.
Now he understood what Zayn had said years ago about him
needing some serious backbone.

For a moment, he let Rosaline cling on to him like a fatuous little
girl she was. He even felt himself redden some, but he would
certainly not allow her to go too far!

"My dear, I certainly cannot take your grandfather's clothes,"
he emitted softly and slowly, trying to buy some time to think.
"But we could stay at an inn until morning and... perhaps... d'you
think you could buy some clothing for me? And for yourself, if
you'd like, but I cannot be near sunlight..." Fortuné thought hard.
"Tomorrow night, I would like to buy you a ring!"

Privately, Fortuné wished that Taro's blade had really killed him.

[Felypsa]

Fortuné’s reminder of sunlight sent Rosaline reeling. “No! If you can only be out during the night, so will I! I promise to give you my love always, Fortuné. Becoming nocturnal is the least that I can do. I will sleep in the day, when you do, and go out at night. So now! It is nighttime, let us enjoy our time together!” Rosaline was not tired; she was too excited to be tired. She pulled him towards town, away from the Knight Pub, despite its sentimental value for them. “We will go back before the sun begins to dawn. We will sleep, and then we will leave again tomorrow night.” Foolish Rosaline did not think that in that time, her grandmother would find her and bring her home.

“You need clothes? Let us go find someplace that will let us buy some.” Eagerly, Rosaline pulled her vampire lover deeper into town, searching for a clothing store. Unbeknownst to our lovers, they were getting perilously closer to where December was now shopping for supplies with Jolene.

[Aveilthé]

"Right-o," Fortuné mumbled half-heartedly, allowing Rosaline to
take his bemoaning self toward any backlog store of clothes.

Thrice now, Fortuné had a sudden inspiration to slide off like he
was usually so good at doing, but every time, he thought of what
his mother would think of him breaking the hearts of young,
innocent girls. Kind of obvious for Fortuné that he was close to his
mother; how unfortunate for him, and may I ask forgiveness for
the rather unamusing pun. Might I add that his mother named him.

It would also be difficult to slip away from someone whom had
been careful to cling as hard as she could to Fortuné's hand or
arm.

One must understand the perplexities of Fortuné. Being a vampire,
but regardless, being of a compassionate heart which would never
suit well for the traditional dark vampiric lore. He had since brought
shame to all vampires; at least, to the very few that knew him.

And then Fortuné heard the young girl say of how she will be
nocturnal with him. This brought discomfort to him in ways more
than one.

"I'm afraid it will not be so simple," he uttered darkly, "unless you
want to be like me."

Fortuné had taken care to exercise control over his natural instincts
to turn Rosaline. Truth be told, it had been quite difficult, even when
he mentioned before that he "felt fine". He never felt worse.

Soon he would find the real meaning of 'worse'; that strange irony
unbeknown to the idiot lad.