Three Men, One Cave
Log Info
- Title: Three Men, One Cave
- Emitter: Zerthos
- Place: A cave in Alexandros
Somewhere in Alexandros, there's three men stuck in a cave.
Well, that's a bit of a misleading phrase. They can leave, but there's currently a torrential downpour outside that's not going to let up anytime soon--so that means becoming about as wet as a sack of fish thrown into the Tornmawr, and that idea is about as appetizing as the rations that Zero's currently biting into, looking somewhat grumpy as he sits on a smoothed-over rock formation within the cave. The thunder roils in a way that's actually somewhat calming, thanks to the cave dampening the noise to make it sound even more distant than before. A cozy campfire warms the bones, and Zero has his cloak and other accessories off his body and drying over by it.
"This is dreadful," the bard laments. "I can't believe we got caught in this blasted storm. Augh!" He puts his hand to his chest and, in a touch of the dramatics, his other to his forehead. "But at least I am here with my two favorite men in the whole world."
GAME: Lheo casts Prestidigitation. Caster Level: 2 DC: 14
"We're lucky we found this cave," Lheo points out somewhat acidly, his own cloak and accessories similarly removed, but instead of relying on the fire to dry them, he's cast a minor cantrip and is currently holding a hand over the sodden over-robe he's stripped off, moving it slowly over every inch with infinite patience. As he does this, the garment is - drying - as if the water had been sucked from it by an invisible force. "Otherwise we'd be sleeping in the rain."
Theo is currently shirking out of his armor slowly. It had been something that he wasn't entirely sure that he should do given that the weather might drive something else into their cozy little cave looking for shelter. However, the thought of staying inside wet armor convinced him to shed his outer shell. Even his clothes underneath the armor are unpleasantly cold however, and he still has some armor yet left to disembark from. "Are we really?" He asks of Zero curiously. "I admit to being surprised on this account."
There's some subtle amusement in him as he talks. He eyes his brother's efforts with his spell and sighs a little wistfully at the fact that he himself is bereft of such useful magics.
Zero is just watching the two brothers with mirthful red-pink eyes, suddenly in rather good cheer when he was complaining just a moment ago. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they're removing clothes and armor. "We were even more fortunate that there wasn't something else occupying this cave, too," Zero remarks. "Not that I would make a very good meal for a bear--but that's never stopped people from trying." That's a dark little joke, considering, well.
He smiles warmly at Theo. "Why are you surprised? You're easily the two people I spend most of my time with outside of my residency at the TarRaCe." He calls it a residency, but it's really more of a 'nobody else has the slot on the agenda' deal. Music is better than no music.
Lheo barely looks up from his work, moving on from the over robe to his trousers, which he did not bother to remove. About halfway through those, he calls, "Brother, I can dry your things, if you will bring them to me." He's currently parked on another rock, some distance from the fire, and sets the over robe aside. "I doubt bears would find you more than a mouthful, Zero."
"Well, I'm glad you like us, at least."
Theo eyes Zero, but most of his attention is on his armor. He finishes with the upper body bits and since most of the lower parts are attached in some way it's fairly easier to slip out of those. Then the padding until he's made a nice little pile. He takes his things over to his brother as requested. "I suppose..." He glances toward his brother and shrugs. "Sometimes people are a little... on the outside."
Without the armor on the difference between the two brothers is a little more stark. Theo is after all rather more muscular in build than his brother is, and it shows without the armor to hide his musculature.
"I'm a mouthful, all right," Zero purrs. The peacock of a bard eyes both brothers a moment more before he looks at Theo with his own remark. The rather unabashed flirtatious manner of regarding the two gives way to a more curious expression on Zero's face.
"People present a certain way to the world, it's true," he says. "It was a matter of fact where I came from--to present one way to the world, to survive in that society, you have to. Even the more devout people have to fashion themselves a beautiful mask that, even if it is outlandish, other people would see and believe--or want to believe--because it's what it's all built on in the end." His voice is a little more... quiet and reflective now compared to his usual bombastic, cheerful, and alluring manner of speaking.
Either Lheo has not noticed the overt flirtation, or he is choosing to brazenly ignore it, continuing to work on his gear. Stripped of his own shirt, down to his trousers, he is an utter beanpole of a man, with little enough muscle on his frame to leave him looking unfinished. Similarly, he is snow-pale, even more so from the collar down. He seems focused, intent on his work.
"Thanks. I'm not surprised anyone makes friends with you, brother," he tells Theo absently, continuing to dry one piece at a time, never looking up until the last words. "Are you telling us you pretend to be something you aren't?"
There's a low chuckle of amusement from Theo as he prepares to take any dried things from his brother as the spell wicks away the rainfall. He notices the shift in Zero's attitude immediately, and he glances toward his brother briefly. He seems as though he might say something, but just as clearly chooses to say something else. "You underestimate yourself as always Lheo. You are as steadfast a friend as I."
A small smile touches his face as he looks at his brother, and then he looks to Zero, letting his brother's question stand to the other man in the cave.
"Every performer wears a mask," Zero responds, his eyes moving to the fire. "We want someone to believe in the art that we are creating, we want them to believe the persona that we have cultivated. Half of success is believing that you can make it in some way, after all--even if really might not be the truth. For me, failure was not an option. My entire family expected success of myself and my siblings, my cousins--so I had to pretend at first."
Zero leans back a little in his seat. "I know I present myself as a swaggering peacock--a majestic beast of many colors to be admired and adored--but there is... more underneath the surface I have not dared to show to anyone. Yet being in Alexandria has shown me I can be free. I am that peacock and yet I am not. Does that make any sense?"
That, at least, seems to get Lheo's attention, and he pauses halfway through his current piece of padding, his hand lowering and the spell fizzling in his hand, with the half-dried piece of padding in his lap. He looks up at Theo. "Sure, for anyone who takes the time to get to know me. Few enough do."
"Huh. I suppose I never thought of it quite that way," he murmurs, then, looking up at Zero. "So who are you really?"
All Theo can do is meet his brother's gaze for that comment. He knows Lheo better than anyone. Better than Lheo himself at times it seems. His smile fades away entirely, and he stands there at the side of the man who looks so like him without saying anything further. For the first time in a long time, Lheo is doing the talking for the pair of them rather than him, and he seems to be willing to allow that shift to take place.
Zero looks at Lheo now, away from the fire that'd taken the brunt of his stare only a moment before. "A man in flux," he says, a little smile coming to rest on his lips, even if there's something a tad hollow there. "Somewhere underneath that confidence that's half-mine and half-not, there's a man, and I don't know who he is even though he's me. I look in the mirror and I know it's me, yet I don't understand fully who that man is. What motivates him beyond looking for a good time and surviving. Because..."
Here he visibly hesitates, the smile falling from his lips. "The world I came from before had rules and expectations. Follow them as a member of the nobility, and you will live a life of luxury with no care to know of the outside world, no care to know of a life beyond Charn. Then--I found myself taken and threatened with death even though I'd done everything 'right', and now I live in a world where it seems there are no meaningful rules--and the mask I'd worn then is gone. The mask I wear now is a pretty little imitation, refashioned for the place I occupy. Yet..."
Zero falls silent a moment more, before he turns to Theo. "Tell me again. What goddess is it that you venerate?" A seeming distraction from what he'd spoken on only seconds before.
The fire crackles in Lheo's silence as he regards Zero, the drying for the moment forgotten, the spell drifting from his hands. He exchanges that look with Theo, and snorts quietly, letting his brother answer the question. For his part, he re-establishes his cantrip with a quick word, as of one who has done that a million times, and resumes his quiet drying of their rain-sodden gear. Gradually, the room begins to smell less like wet cloth and more like woodsmoke.
Theo for his part seems almost reluctant at first to speak of the answer to the question that Zero asks. Then he smiles a little smile and replies simply enough with the name of the deity who's symbol is written on the tabard he'd discarded to dry. "Serriel. Why do you ask?"
"Because I cling to one old part of my past," Zero responds slowly. It's a tone that's wary yet betrays a vulnerability. "All art that my family produced was to be dedicated to one goddess--the goddess that the society I was born into believes gifted us nobles with our station, that we were selected and chosen by Her will. And I believed that for many years myself."
His eyes close. "And even though I have left that world behind and found another, I still find myself clinging to the Shadow Sorceress--the False Hope, as you call Her--because it is... a source of comfort that I had for so long. That I stand on the stage because of Her choosing me, because of Her choosing my people, my family. I..."
Zero gulps. "I want to turn away. But I do not know who to turn to in Her absence. Where does the lamb go that turns away from the shepherd of what the shepherd called a special flock, only to learn that there are many more flocks in the world beyond their own and that they are all as equally as lovely as his original flock? Even moreso, in fact, because they are free, and he... he is not. Even in leaving the flock, he still belongs to the shepherd..."
It takes a moment and he opens his eyes again, looking between the brothers. "Until he finds another."
"Nobody belongs to the gods, Zero. Not unless they choose to be." Lheo looks up at Theo now, smirking at him, but there is warm affection there. "Theo, serves Serriel because he wants to. I haven't set foot in a temple since I was a boy." He offers the freshly-dried piece pf padding up to Theo, then picks up the next, turning to Zero. "If it is another deity to follow you seek, ask Theo."
Theo nods to Lheo's words, taking the padding and putting it someplace convenient, but there's a small smile on his face one that he lets show to Zero. It's a soft sort of sad smile. "I could talk, and talk about Serriel, explain the reasons that I feel called to her service, but... I think there is a more important message that need said to you Zero."
Here he looks at the other man very seriously. "There are few that me and my brother count as true friends, but I think it fair to say that regardless of what deity you follow; we would both count you as part of our flock. Whatever Shepard guides us in the end, I am sure would be happy to count you amid their number."
Here he grins a little. "Though I think her Serriel whatever my brothers disinclination toward the religious."
Both Lheo and Theo's words have an effect on Zero. He seems profoundly relieved that they are both not turning away from him for his revelation that he follows Taara, but that they are offering him words of compassion. "I thank you both," he murmurs gently. "Truly and utterly."
His red-pink eyes look misty then, and he shakes his head as though that'll keep the tears away. "As foolish as it is, I feared telling you both that. I know that the Shadow Sorceress is not... beloved in Alexandria among the mages, and certainly not beloved among many of the peoples in the city. I have to turn away from Her--I know it in my heart, that I cannot continue on the bedrock of lies that I have been fed for so long. Yet--if I shatter the foundation, I fear I shatter myself. It is the reason I have not yet turned. And it is also the reason I am grateful for you both and for your friendships."
Zero offers a more genuine smile now. "It's nice to have friends. Real ones, and not the kind that will stab me in the back if it would benefit them in any way."
"I would not fault a man for holding onto the faith of his childhood; you were raised in this way Zero. That you know now that it is wrong speaks greatly to your character. With that held close you will surely find your path in time. I know that Serriel may not be that path for you, but if you ever are curious, or if you are ever in need of knowledge; I will do what I can to aid you." Theo offers these words seriously, glancing toward his brother who has remained silent through this discussion of deities. His eyes linger there for a moment and then he changes the subject just slightly.
"Fairweather friends are well and fine when the weather is with you, but I have never had a liking for that sort myself. Be true to yourself Zero; you're a good man." A small smile from Theo grows here, an unspoken thought chasing across his green eyes.
You're a good man. The words that Theo speaks make Zero react like he's just seen something impossible appear in front of his eyes. Red-pink eyes blink at the Serrielite, and then they stare at Theo, Zero's mouth opening slightly for a long moment.
"I--"
Zero shakes his head, and then he chuckles gently. A warm and affectionate sound. "No one's ever told me that before," he says. "Good at doing things, yes, but never that I'm a good person. That's..."
Words fail for the bard.
"If my brother said that, you'd better believe it." Lheo continues to work on the larger piece of padding in his lap, his hand moving slowly up and down the cloth. "I don't disagree, either." He speaks slowly, as if much of his focus remains on the spell. "One of my mentors used to say that it matters less where you come from, than where you're going. As far as I'm concerned, Zero, just you asking that question means you are headed in the right direction."
"Ah." Theo says softly, his eyes on his brother and a smile on his lips. "And if we are in agreement it must be doubly so." He seems amused by this, offering the bard a wide smile. "Now, being that you are a goodly man; perhaps you can stoke that fire a bit higher? It is damnably cold in this cave without armor on. How can you stand to have your shirt off also Lheo? You're going to catch your death of a cold."
Now this is a subject the bard can speak on. Zero grins widely as he goes to try and nudge the fire for them. "Yes, it won't do at all to have two strapping men catching cold on account of being shirtless in a cave," he says. "Now would it? Let me, ah... Get this wood in place, shall we?" The peacock bard has returned.
"Better than than a soaked robe, Theo. Close to the fire, it's not so bad." Lheo sets aside the next finished piece of gear and returns to his work on another. "It might be dry by now, could you check?" He sounds very absent, and nonchalant about it, so focused is he on his task at hand.
Theo heads over to the robes that are Lheo's, checking to see how wet they are now. "I'd give it another minute or two." He says cautiously. "It's warm but feels damp." He wanders back over to his brother so that he can stack his dry padding for the other man. "Regale us with a story while we wait Zero? Or shall I since it's normally your occupation?"
"I'd be more than happy to provide a story," Zero says, looking between the two brothers. "If I had a proper set of keys in front of me, I'd even add some musical accompaniment, but alas--we will have to settle for merely my voice."
He clears his throat, and then he sings. But this time, not in Sildanyari as he normally does. He sings in Tradespeech, so all three of them can understand.
It's the story of a man and his two friends.