It's in the Book
Log Info
- Title: It's in the Book
- Emitter: Jay
- Characters: Andelena, Dolan, Jay, Robert, Slixvah
- Place: A06: The Soldier's Defense
- Time: Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 3:38 PM
- Summary: Integrity is recovering at the Soldier's Defense, and Andelena and Robert come to check on him. Slixvah appears for other reasons, and Dolan walks by with a group of guards. The various acquaintances introduce the strangers in their group and suggestions are made regarding training and armour. Finally a date is set to teach the bluejay to fight with his sword and not his mouth.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=<* A06: The Soldier's Defense *>=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
This hospital is composed of rock from the surrounding Redridge, which lends it a comfortable feeling of solidity. Inside, frescos line the walls. They depict warm, cheerful scenes intended to encourage healing among the sick and ailing. A small fountain towards the back of the foyer is fed by the nearby river, and a number of benches surround it, providing a place for conversation.
The entrance to the hospital is guarded often by Sunblades, its interiors tended to by the Hearthguards. Older Hearthguards tend to patients and oversee its operation, while for the younger it is an opportunity to practice their skills and hone their trade. The servants garb themselves in Althea's colors, with a stole representing the City of Alexandria on the outside, to recognize their service to both.
The building itself is quite large, though built in a way to make it appear to be a collection of smallar buildings rather than one large one. The Soldier's Defense is known for its ability to feel "like home." While it is still a hospital, it arguably accomplishes this feeling of peace and serenity better than many counterparts, with the benefits passed on to its patients. Across one of the walls are a series of paintings depicting the hospital's many benefactors over the years. The first in line is the painted face of an unknown soldier, who the hospital was first dedicated to.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Andelena 6'0" 180 Lb Human Female Redhead with steel-grey eyes and powerful build. Dolan 5'10" 174 Lb Human Male Brown-haired human with scars down his face. Jay 5'9" 145 Lb Eaglefolk Male A perky male Blue Jay with a discerning eye. Robert 6'3" 235 Lb Human Male A middle-aged Cerenzan with a friendly, fatherly vibe. Slixvah 5'8" 130 Lb Eaglefolk Female A rust red and white Egalrin covered in veils, ribbons, and shawls. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
It's a few days after a brawl at the Ox-Strength, which is like saying it's a day where there's air. The Soldier's Defense is no stranger to hosting the brawlers who lost in that engagement, if they bother showing up at all. What's a few lost teeth among... partners.
So there's good news! Having a beak means no teeth to be lost. Still, it could be cracked, or twisted, or have any manner of complication that a hypochondriac might latch on to.
Not that Integrity C. Truefeather, esquire, is known to over-think things. He is a lawyer. The 'C' is for catastrophizing, "Are you sure I'm okay? I don't want to be discharged if I'm not one hundred percent. You have malpractice insurance, don't you?"
One figure that wasn't a part of the brawl was that of a different Egalrin altogether. A white and rust red feathered fortune teller, waltzing in the front door with a pep in her step.
Such step stops upon spying a familiar blue jay. She walks backwards out of sight. Preens herself quickly, smooths back her crown feathers and fixes her veils before striding back in with just as much gusto. "Hello lovvies! I'm here to lend a han-- Oh! Mister Truefeather!" she feigns surprise, giving a wave to the blue jay and diverting course.
She's schmoozing.
The Sunguard who made sure the blue-jay egalrin got out of the Ox-Strength Tavern alive happens to be in the building today--which is to say that she strides in, tall and gallant as the spring breeze carries her white cloak aflutter on the wind as she walks in not long behind the rust-and-white egalrin.
Her steel-grey gaze settles on Integrity. "Hey, fella," Andelena calls out to him, "you doing alright? Came in to check on you."
"He's absolutely fine, and we don't carry insurance." A healer answers, handing a sheaf of papers and a small bag to the blue-jay. "Sue the city if you aren't happy with your free treatment. Finish the pills for your concussion."
The healer heads off.
"Well I will! Will!" Integrity hops in place, cawing after the vanishing back, then turning to meet the others. "Slixvah! Sunguard! I'm... uh... uh..." He is torn between playing up his injuries and looking like a weakling fledgling to Slixvah.
"I was just holding them accountable! In case I was mis-diagnosed. You saw, right, you're witnesses in case these don't work?" He rattles the pills; it's like sabre rattling for the l-eagle profession. "I'm ok. /Allegedly/."
Every party needs a chaperone but it just so happens that this one is running slightly behind. Still, if you're slow-dancing, keep each other at arm's length; remember to leave room for Daeus! The pot-bellied stove is fine, too, so be sure not to touch it. Put a jacket on if you're cold.
Robert rounds a corner mid-conversation with an elderly Lucht Luckbringer in grey curls. Despite the size difference between them, they have that obvious camaraderie of the older generations; they're probably talking about how much more uphill things used to be, how much younger people take the gods' names in vain, or how they can't quite figure out why people like those Gustavian balladeers. (It just sounds like noise, frankly.)
There's a final exchange. Yes, Robert still has the alchemist's referral. Good. And the vial to get him started. Wonderful. He's a nice young man. (Everything is relative, after all.) The Luckbringer heads back to her works and Robert continues on down the hall, still smiling to himself as he repeats something the Tarienite said earlier that got him laughing.
"... that isn't the -mayor's- sausage, hah!"
Slixvah can't help but giggle at the exchange, her covering her beak behind a wing. "Sure you were, blue. All I saw was a nice ol' folk trying to fix a lil' boo boo on the noggin', and you're twisting their wing the whole time. Take it lax, hon."
"Sunguard?" She turns.
She blinks. Her eyes widen. "Oh /heavens/ I didn't know they made 'em that big! Sunguard? More like Sun-gain because gawd damn!" she thumbs her beak, giving her a wink. "Howdy, sugar."
She glances behind her, a feathered brow raising. "Hey Robby Bobby! What's good, hon?"
Andelena opens her mouth to address the lawyer's sudden clamoring for witness statements at a hypothetical trial to-be that surely would define some new seldom-used cornerstone of Alexandrian law... and then there's the compliment onslaught from the rust-and-white egalrin. A wide grin breaks on her face like the dawn of her god.
"Shit, lady, you're gonna make /me/ as red as some of your feathers. Good afternoon to you, too--I take it you know our fellow Integrity."
She also looks over at Robert and nods to him. "Hey, man. Keeping out of trouble?" she asks. "Hopefully no more owlbears in our future."
From outside the room where the group is, a clinkety-clanking that sounds like a group of Alexandrian guards ensues. That happens here, on occasion, whether questioning someone in a healer's care or bringing in someone needing assistance, but this particular group appears to be on its way out, and several voices are talking, among them Dolan's baritone.
"The girl's story, I'll buy. Sounds to me like she's just doing as she's told. The older man is up to something. I got the impression he's threatening her. Let her go and pin his ass to the wall. Let me know if you want me there."
"That's what the lady said!" The bluejay squawks automatically, hearing the tail end of a comment which gets him bobbing in place. "Robert! Robert! I'm over here."
Not to be outdone on compliments though, he tosses a few Slixvah's way. "She's as big as you are beautiful, Slix. I'll sign an affadavit to that. What are you doing here? I thought you were in Blar! You know the Sunguard too? She's great?"
"And what's this about owlbears? An actual owl-bear or a really big egalrin? My sisters are huge. Huge! You remember my sisters, right Robert?" Integrity is flapping his wings, as if he could make an air current to draw the older artificer faster. "You aren't hurt, are you? Do you need medical attention? I can make some noise."
Or more noise, as the case may be.
"We did have the one big supper, yes, it seemed appropriate considering how thorough you were with your assistance," Robert smiles wryly, scratching the stubble at his jaw. "Late-night 'debriefings' to make sure my daughter was kept to speed."
The big Cerenzan stops and tucks his chin, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tries to think. "Now I remember... 'Reluctance' because I was considering having a lawyer for a son-in-law. Then..." he takes a breath, "'Persistence' as you wouldn't let it go. Finally..." he sighs and looks up, shaking his head. "I can't remember the last, I'm sorry. I think I was coping with the wine," he laughs, teasing I.C.
"Actual owlbears, yes, and then our oversized insects; I'm making up for lost time, apparently." He lifts a hand in greeting to Andelena and Slixvah.
Slixvah chirps once, her eyes crinkling in a smile. "That I do. I know blue."
Her attention draws to the passing conversation of what sounds to be guards, but knowing not to put her beak in the wrong place, she just files it away for later. Words to parse for then. But for now...
She tilts her head to the side, attention solely focused on Truefeather. Her crown feathers stick up a bit as she giggles behind a hand. "A little on the beak, but I'll take it. Thanks for the kind words, hon. I was in Blar, but now I'm here. They got those teleport services real tuned in now. But nope! Don't know her! Never met her!"
That prompts her to shove a hand out towards the Sunguard. "Slivah Unmesi, though, can call me Slix, hon. It's what the cool birds do."
She tilts her head and scratches the underside of her beak as Robert explains further, but she just gives a slight chuckle and shrugs her shoulders. "Heavens hon, sounds like you've got more on your plate than just gettin' a forge up and runnin'."
"Yeah, I don't know Slix," the Sunguard says with a smile, "but I guess I do now. I know Integrity from making sure he didn't take an early dirt nap on two occasions--I'm the one who brought him here after he got socked right in the kisser."
Andelena pauses for a moment. "Or beak. You get what I mean."
She perks up as she hears a certain baritone voice, a bit of an impish look on her face. "Hold up, I'll be back--"
And the Sunguard spins about on her heel, going over to the direction of Dolan's voice. She ends up clapping a hand on the man's good shoulder once his entourage has disappeared. "Fancy meeting a man of your caliber here," she says, grinning from ear to ear. "Came in to check in on someone I brought in."
Dolan starts, at first, turning his whole body to his right at once at the hand on his shoulder, but on hearing the voice, immediately relaxes and brightens, a cheeky grin spreading across his face to match the one on hers. "Good of you, princess," he answers, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek if she'll allow it. He waves after the guards, who seems content to go on their way, and turns to face the others. "Ah, I see. How's the wing?" he asks of Slixvah, the grin fading only a little. "I feel like I spend way too much time in here some days. Hey," he adds to Robert and Jay.
"You know she never..." There's some things one doesn't say to a father, "... was that interested in my filings." Integrity is still flying towards the danger zone. He tacks, "You forgot Tempty. Tempty! Temperance! The holy warrior."
"And you can kiss with a beak! I'll show... oh she's gone." The jay's head whips to where Andelena was, then her back. He sees a lot of backs, it's not unusual. "Oh she's over there."
With someone else, "Hello. Hello! Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Integrity C. Truefeather, Esquire. The C is for Context. Context is my middle name."
His beak darts around to point at Slixvah, "You don't have to answer that if it might compromise some impending action."
"Ah." Robert responds, only glancing side-eye at I.C. as he offers, "It's difficult to associate that night with 'temperance.'" He did say he was drinking. He's smiling in amusement as his own little turn of phrase. The big bloke is only joking, however, and reaches across to give the egalrin a companionable squeeze on the shoulder. Then a pat on the back.
Slixvah gets a wider smile, "My back might feel like cold-forged steel the next day but I haven't had a chance to tinker for a long time. Gotta get while the getting's good, idle hands, and so on..."
"Good afternoon," he answers to Dolan.
Slix easily turns the missed handshake into a snap-into-fingergun motion. "Thanks for keepin' blue's head on straight."
Then Andelena's off towards...- oh! "Heya, hon!" she coos, humming more as she notes the pair. Her once-broken wing gives a wave. "Wing's right as rain! Thanks for asking! Been gliding from the mountain over yonder to get it back up in shape."
She blinks at Jay. Then snickers before raising her hands in mock surrender. "Honey, chill, alright? Dolan helped fix my wing. He's a good noodle. Ain't no one here trying to mitigate to litigate to get some stake for an interest rate. Rather just appreciate the consider-ate man and his muscle mate."
She mutters off to the side, thumbing her beak. "Damn I'm good."
She puts her hands on her hips before a quick salute is fired off with a wing towards Robert. "That's good honey! I gotta swing by there and see what you're workin' on. Oh, by the by, those sweets you gave Zofi and I? Absolutely wonderful."
Andelena blinks a couple of times as Slix is... well, /slick/ with her rhyming. "Fuckin' right you are, damn," she says, the slightest touch of awe to her voice. "That's incredible."
She looks back to Dolan and smiles. "I take it you know Slix too, huh? Look at us, helping those in need like proper holy people. Soon we'll know everyone in Alexandria if we keep this up."
There's a hint of jest in her last words, but that jest falls flat as Andelena seems to recall the business with the owlbears. "Beats being almost dead and hearing your armor creak underneath the weight of an owlbear. Just glad everyone here's in one piece."
Dolan had spent much of this exchange simply _staring_ at Jay, utterly nonplussed. Slix laying down the rhymes, though, draws a laugh, one that is wiped quickly away by the mention of the word _owlbear_. That had been a close call, and just how close is clearly visible in the way he suddenly tenses. "Guess so. Yeah. That was a bad business." Beat. "Remember I told you about the broken wing? That was her," he nods to Slix, then adds, "Glad you're all right."
Robert he seems to recognize as well, after a minute or so, but he turns back to Jay instead, blinking a few times. "What happened to you?"
"It's true." The bluejay confirms the artificer's summation of his sister, and refolds his wings after the back pat.
Slixvah's sudden soliloquy strikes him speachless. He stares at her a moment, beak opening and closing, and then he ruffles up to look larger.
There are questions! He ruffles up further and weighs the value of refusing to answer against prejudicing a friend of a friend, who unlike the enemy of an enemy doesn't automatically become one, even though it is the opposite. He's quiet a little longer; his injuries are a matter of public record.
Damn free health care!
"I was stabbed by a bee and knocked out in the Ox-strength." Neither sound serious, until he puts both hands on his waistcoat and spreads it to show an unusually large hole. "It was a big bee, and at the Ox-Strength, it was a tray. Allegedly. I don't remember." Perhaps a concussion and memory loss count as serious.
"It was a very big bee," Robert agrees, "but he was very brave. There is an argument to be made that the "C" stands for 'could stand to invest in better armor,' however." He looks over, picking at a stray bit of down from Jay's clothes and flicking it away. "Not that you know any armorsmiths..."
There's a quick laugh and a look at Andelena and Dolan, "That was a right mess, wasn't it? First time I had the old girl out of crates in almost thirty-years and the whole thing nearly goes to pot." He cups the back of his neck and rubs it in a mild version of chagrin, "Already cleaned out the aetherite conductors and resolved the hinge and buckle problems. Part of it is just moving around and getting rid of some of this extra bit around the middle..." he grabs at his love handles through his shirt. "Maybe the neighborhood kids will stop calling me 'Sir Cumference.'"
Slixvah is brimming with pride after that limerick, her leaning against the wall and brushing her shoulder off. "Thank you, thank you," he chitters happily before nodding towards the Daeusites. "Ya'll are such good little suns."
She glances to Truefeather, her rolling a shoulder and wing at the same time as she straightens herself up. Crown feathers puffed out. "Aw, sugar, you're good now though, right? Big bees mean big bee-sness. I hope you learned a thing or two after all that, blueberry," she coos, stepping forward to pat him on the shoulder with a smile in her eyes. A glance to Robert for more extrapolation as she then gives the shoulder a squeeze. "What a brave hawk!"
She turn she her attention to the rest of the group, her chipperness dampening some. "Oh no, loves. I'm glad Ya'll came out alright."
She blinks at Robert, then guffaws loudly, stepping past him as a wing pats him on the back. "Good one, Robby! Good one."
"But, alas, this bird's gotta lend a hand. Gotta see if any little ones got a boo boo that Slix can make vanish. Ya'll take care now! And blue!" She turns to Jay. Stares at him. Then chirps, "You got gusto, but ya gotta work on your bite if you're gonna chirp at everything. Talk to me later, I wanna know what's got your tail feathers in a twist."
With that, she skips off down a hall. "Toodaloo~!"
"Yeah, it was a tray," Andelena says in regards to what knocked Jay out for the count. "Was a damn shame. I /hate/ when I see people getting ganged up on. Especially a guy like you who was only there to try and get better. My offer still stands: come find me at the Temple for training."
She gestures to Dolan. "Or my man here. His name's Brydion--some people call him Dolan. He and I have been working together for a decade, and there's not a person I trust more in this damn world."
The Sunguard looks back over to Robert and smiles. "Bah. Kids are great, but... they can also be little shits. Gotta love 'em, though."
She waves farewell to Slixvah as she departs to attend to her duties. "Nice lady," she remarks.
"If it's weapons training you're wanting, either of us can show you a thing or two," Dolan agrees, his focus on Jay. "Slix is right, though, you might want to strengthen your arm if you plan to run your mouth." There's still some puzzlement there in the look with which he fixes the blue-feathered egalrin. "Though I bet you can swear a blue streak if you want to." His human eye brightens with laughter - apparently he thinks he's funny.
"Yeah, she's a good sort. Wonder what happened to the gnome, though." The matter of kids he leaves very much alone, except for a cough.
"But could you imagine me in that armour?" Integrity spreads his wings and wobble-walks, tilting from side to side. He stands even taller when Slixvah puts her hand on his shoulder and calls him a hawk. Squawk!
He waves enthusiastically, "Bye Slix, Bye! I'll find you later."
Then, when Andelena suggests he meet her for training at the Temple of Daeus, he points both wings at her, "I'll find you later!"
"And you. You!" Truefeather's wings turret to aim at Dolan, "I'll find you later Brydion. Brydion. Can I call you Dolan?"
"She is, she is." He's hopping and agreeing again. "Yes, I need some weapons training. And well... you know what they say. The best defense is a good offense, so I make sure to be as offensive as I can. Can!"
That's a plan that works, clearly.
"There is a gnome?"
"... (not too eager,)" Robert mutters to Integrity, steadying the egalrin with a hand on his back when his sometimes-lawyer begins literally jumping up and down for Slixvah. "We can get you into a chain shirt," he transitions smoothly, bringing his voice back up to a normal speaking level. "Size it up proper and you could wear it under your stylish threads..."
There's a look between Andie and Dolan, then back at Jay. Dad trying to decide if it's a good idea to let his boy play with the bigger kids. It's a passing thing but the reflex is ingrained. "I still can't reconcile you getting up to this sort of mischief with the bright-eyed and eager legal egalrin I met not so long ago," he admits with a sigh and a smile. "Just be careful."
Robert gives Jay the 'and I mean business' look before smiling again, turning to cant his chin up at the Myrrish pair. "We might have to make a whole day of it. I'm still scouring the rust off, myself."
"Hey, the more the merrier," Andelena says with a bit of a smirk. "We can all use the practice, I think. These times are fucking weird, and I wish it was just owlbears in the woods we had to deal with."
She looks back to Brydion. "Although you'll have to endure Bry here thinking he's funny. It does make him cuter, though, I gotta admit. Better a joker than a man with a stick so far up his ass you could move him around like a fucking puppet."
"Owlbears are the least of our problems right now," Brydion/Dolan agrees. "Trust me, I've got no intention of hurting him. No live steel, for starters." He turns his whole head towards Jay. "Yeah, I'll answer to either, more people here call me Dolan. Don't worry, although you keep that attitude up and you'll use it sooner than you think."
It is for Andelena, though, that he reserves the most intimate look. "People with sticks up their asses can't move when they need to, baby."
"A chain shirt? Won't that be heavy? Will I be able to fly with a chain shirt? Of course I can! And if I can't, you know some goblins, right? I can get some rockets. Rockets! Rocket take off." Jay briefly imagines himself strapped to an absurdly large bottle-rocket with a short fuse. "The kind that doesn't explode. Doesn't."
His hopping, popping and preening decreases once the female egalrin is out of sight. "I'm a lot older now, Bob, and I learned a lot." Mostly, to skip town frequently. Also, he's not a lot older. He is still bright eyed and eager for all sorts of things.
"Okay!" He agrees after Dolan speaks, then wing-wraps one around Robert's back. "Okay! So we're making a day of it? Which day? When? Tomorrow? The next day? Yes! I'm ready. I'm always ready."
"Well, that's ominous," Robert's smile is tempered as he responds-- but not overly-so! "Best to be prepared, then. We had a saying in the officer corps; poor planning leads to poor execution." He lifts his head, looking up and down the hall. "It was more colorful in its language but then we weren't saying it in Althea's house."
The Cerenzan smiles down at Jay, crossing his arms. "... and I'm sure you could fly in full plate of starmetal with the proper motivation." He doesn't mention a narrow escape from a bedroom window that springs to mind. "But mithral might be more in keeping with a fashionable poppinjay hoping to strut lightly around town..."
As the talk of scheduling commences, Robert produces a small, soft-covered book from his coat pocket.
Obligations are compared. A date is decided. It's in the Book. It's official.
Dramatis Personae
Andelena, Redhead with steel-grey eyes and powerful build.
The first thing almost anyone notices about Andelena is that she is a tall for a human woman. Standing at six feet, her build is just as impressive, as her muscular frame is powerfully built. Her face is striking as well, with well-defined cheekbones, a moderate jaw, and gray eyes that peer at people analytically, like they have to prove themselves of being competent at whatever they're doing before she wastes any time on them. Her copper-tinted blonde hair rolls in slightly untamed waves down to her shoulders. Years of what appears to be a life used to the rough and tumble has worn into her face: she has the beginnings of wrinkles under her eyes, and her skin is textured as one might expect for someone with seldom access to smoothing creams to hold onto the fading memory of youth.
She dresses rather practically in well-fit steel armor, a white-and-gold cloak with the symbol of Daeus prominently on display draped across her form and fastened tight by a gold pin. A longsword of impressive make rests on her back, accompanied by a steel shield.
Dolan, Brown-haired human with scars down his face.
Straight, dark-brown hair falls over the face of this late-twenties-ish man, only partially concealing the trio of deep, furrowed scars and twisted flesh of the right half of his face beneath. Set into the ruined right eye socket of that face, otherwise sharp and smooth of features with fair skin, is a facet-cut, small green gem, set into a steel ring inscribed with complex-looking arcane runes. Its matching eye is a human one, chocolate brown and warm, over a straight nose and thin lips ready to smile. The rest of that straight brown hair falls to his collar, above a breastplate and a chain that holds on it the sunburst of Daeus. Over his back is harnessed a greatsword, positioned for easy release, should that become necessary, and a sturdy frame with good muscles looks strong enough to wield it. A variety of pouches and miscellaneous items are attached to the various leather belts he wears, the sure sign of one used to the road, and loose trousers and well-used leather traveling boots bear this out.
Jay, A perky male Blue Jay with a discerning eye. Integrity C. Truefeather, esquire and supra-genius is a Blue Jay Egalrin lawyer. He stands tall and proud, sharply looking around for a situation he can jump into and provide counsel. His leather armour is padded and puffed, cut for avian lines, with bolas and a rapier on his belt. He wears a blue lupin on his lapel. His crest is long, ready to pop up at any objectionable thing. He is full of energy, standing and strutting about with style and flourish.
Robert, A middle-aged Cerenzan with a friendly, fatherly vibe.
Robert is a big bloke from big stock and getting just a bit shorter and softer around the middle as the years pile on. He has dark, reddish skin and the build of a man who's spent his nearly-five decades of life at some form of manual labor or the other-- while also eating quite well. His hair is black where it isn't going grey, his hairline is receding, and the swirl at his crown is thinning.
Though the Cerenzan is starting to wrinkle, his blue-eyes are still sharp with an inquisitive intelligence. A smile rests easily on his full lips and he's perpetually afflicted by a five o'clock shadow. The older man seems perfectly comfortable in his own skin and content to take his time and enjoy the world around him.
Slixvah, A rust red and white Egalrin covered in veils, ribbons, and shawls.
Average in height, but large in personality, Slixvah is an outrageously decorated Egalrin. Her rusty red and white feathers don't sully her outlandish garb; in fact, it makes it stand out even more. Colorful and plentiful, ribbons adorn her wing joints and arms to make a dazzling display of splendor, especially when those wings stretch out to their ten foot span.
Loose fitting robes of a multitude of colors rest against her frame while various veils and shawls dangle from different sections of her clothes. One veil even covers her face, but she's quite often pulling it down to give a smiling twinkle in her sky-blue eyes behind her raptor-like beak.
There is usually a white-plumed thrush nestling in one of the many nooks and crannies of her swishy attire.