Personal Hero

Log Info

• Title: Personal Hero
  
• Characters: Rune, Harkashan
  
• Location: Fernwood Pub
  
• Summary: Run returns from a long time at her family's estate, and is heartily welcomed back by Harkashan.

It's been a rather long time now, that Harkashan has been traveling without Rune. And though he wishes he could use his longevity as some kind of excuse for it feeling less long than it does - that would most certainly be a lie.

Instead, he's been keeping himself busy looking into some rather odd matters in Alexandria. Be it about the matters of 'time' being odd, or the matter of Aelwyn's fool brother. Whatever the case may be, the lava-scaled Sith-makar has finally gotten himself a moment of peace.

And that peace is being spent at the Fernwood Pub. A few new lava-stones in front of him that he idly is toying with using one claw, whilst he is looking down with his head tilted all the way to the side towards a piece of paper with some theological discussions on it that, in many a ways, are boring him out of his mind.

The doors to the Fernwood open with no great fan-faire. In fact, almost no one even looks up as the half-sil trudges in, tapping her muddy boots at the door to get rid of the worst of the dried earth from them. It looks almost as if Rune had gone off the usual well worn roads in order to make her way back to the city.

Wearing a thick jacket and her fur-lined cloak, Rune is dressed for the colder weather, although it seems that some of that cold snap has finally started to ease. There is a measure of exhaustion in her features, with dark circles under her eyes.

With Harkashan being so focused on his lava stones and whatever studies currently seize his mind, it's easy enough for her to make her way over, then flop herself unceremoniously into a chair, throwing her pack down next to her, before he even has a chance to take notice. "Please don't tell me those are all for recently dead people. I'm already feeling bad enough for missing out on all the 'fun' that seems to have befallen everyone as of late." With 'fun' being said sarcastically.

GAME: Thoth rolls bluf: (20)+bluf: 20

GAME: Thoth rolls Bluff: (19)+0: 19

GAME: Rune rolls sense motive: (16)+9: 25

Harkashan is indeed deep in thought when Rune is slipping in. It's not like she's known the Sith-makar to be the most observant of the bunch. Such things often end up falling on her while the big one finds his skills... elsewhere.

It's only when the bench makes for a very subtle wooden creak, that his head tilts again and his nose moves up a bit. Sniffing at the air rather than looking at first. Recognizing her scent, he tries to hide his excitement at first. His tail only wagging /subtly/.

Instead, he shows his affection by naturally sliding an arm around her and bringing her up against his side, letting his warmth encompass her.

"Welcome home." He answers her. He does not yet engage on the matter of the head, and instead moves his head over and lays it on top of her head head.

As Harkashan catches her scent, he may very well pick up on others as well. Aelwyn most prevelantly, with hints of Cor'lana and Telamon as well. She must have already encountered some of the others on her way into the city.

Still, that shift of the arm has Rune leaning in against his side, giving a sigh as if she were coming home at last. The warmth of her Makari companion a stark contrast against the cold of the open road. "Thanks." At least, for now, Rune doesn't dive into what she hsa been doing. Harkashan would already know that she was called away to assist her father with some sort of matter in the Mythwood.

"So... Aelwyn tracked me down. He said I should pass along a message and dragged me right back into the usual Fiend and Fey shenanigans that I thought we might have just gotten over for a while..." She lifts her brows slightly, tipping her head to look up at his chin. "It never ends, does it?"

"It never ends." Harkashan rumbles, closing the paper and stuffing it into his bag, and taking out a small satchel for the stones.

"These stones are for the guards and prisoners that fell during the prison break." He then explains to her, as he carefully puts them away, one at a time. She's been with him for long enough, she can tell it's not a small number.

"Can Aelwyn's message wait, if it is about more troubles?" He then asks, before squeezing her a bit. "It's been too long. And I would like the first moments in a while not to be about troubles, and more about us." He rumbles affectionately.

A pause, before he notes; "How've you been?" A press of his fingers against her body. "You haven't been eating as much as you do when you're with me." Touching against her ribs. "You didn't sleep well either." He glances his eye down to properly looking at her.

"I am going to be fussing about you for the next couple of days. Be warned."

Rune's eyes shift as he starts to collect the stones, their gaze wandering up to the larger stone suspended between his horns. The way that he carries the dead with him is something she both respects, reveres, and also is saddened by in the same way. Yet, she is never one to push back against that tradition, knowing how much it actually means to him.

Instead, at the request to not bring troubles in immediately, Rune quiets with a nod of her head, "As he wishes." Her tone lightly teasing in that, perhaps trying to lift a little of his worries.

Her own expression sombers ever so slightly, with the half-sil offering a shake of her head, "It's my father, you know how it is." She doesn't delve into the details, but her relationship with the Archivist has always been a difficult one. "He calls when he needs something, but then it's right back to questioning my life choices." She admits with a soft sigh.

She tries to shake off that feeling, snuggling closer into his side. "I'm fine. Nothing a few weeks of good food and decent rest won't help with." Reaching a hand up, she scratches just below his chin, "What about you? Doing alright?"

There's a little bemused snort from Harkashan, causing a little plume of smoke to come from his nostrils, as she says 'as he wishes'. She can tell he missed her form of humor greatly. There's that little twinkle in his eye.

He then rubs her side up and down and steals a kiss to the crown of her head. "He is misguided. But he your egg-family." He remarks to her. "But he is not of your Caste."

A pause, then a nod from him. "I'm doing well. Things have been remarkably quiet around here honestly - until very recently. It's given me time to foster a greater tie with Thirku and the Deathsinging Dragon both." He explains to her. "So other than missing you a lot, I've been alright." A nod of his head.

The comfort of that touch seems to ward off some of the worst of it. Rune and her father may never see eye to eye on anything, but at least she had her own caste and kin, found along the way. "I think my sister overheard us arguing. Not like he ever lets me see her. Not since she was little." Her draw down a little with that sadness. "I just hope he treats her better than he did when I was young."

Though Rune doesn't speak much of it, Harkashan would be well aware that one of her biggest regrets with leaving home was severing those ties with her sister. The girl had been young at the time and the Archivist had already been keeping them appart for years to avoid Rune's 'wayward behavior' rubbing off on his other daughter.

"I... ran into Cor'lana along the way home. She's going to arrange that meeting with Blue so we can try to deal with the Golden Fate, at last." Some worry still remains with that. Even if the worst of the fight may be over, one never counts themselves done with the Fey.

"You have time." He answers Rune when she mentions her sister. "The more often you are there, the less ability he will have to avoid her meeting you once more." The Sith-makar remarks as he relaxes his posture a bit.

And his tail starts swaying more readily.

As the topic shifts to Blue, he nods his head. "I have prepared as well as I can with that matter. But indeed, as you said, the Fey Bullshit never ends. So I can understand being worried." Reading her expression on the matter.

Rune raises an eyebrow, the questioning look seeming to be a response to his comment about 'time'. Once, she had felt like time was something she was always running out of. The lingering phantom of death. Now she's faced it more than a few times and it doesn't quite loom as frightening on the horizon, but the life of an Adventurer is never one that starts with safety.

"It's awkward." Is all she says on the matter, further. Dealing with an overbearing, judgemental father, the woman who replaced Rune's mother, and a sister she only knew as a child, creates a lot of complexities in those relationships.

"I just keep wondering when the next axe will fall, you know? Following in my mother's footsteps was what drove me away from the Mythwood in the first place. It's what sent me to Am'shere, to you." Rune looks up, her expression speaking volumes of the fact that she doesn't regret those choices. "I spent years trying to deal with that loss. Let it lead me into bad places, and eventually good ones. Having it all dredged up again has been hard. And I don't know how well I'll deal with having to face that a second time."

Harkashan shifts his hand away from her hip. Not to pull away from her, but to lay his hand firmly on her head. He turns to her more properly. Moving his body forward, so he can crane his head a bit more to the side to better see her.

"You will deal with it as well as you can. And if you feel you aren't enough, friends will be there to lean on to prop you back up." He answers her with such great warmth in his voice.

"You can do it. And I believe that you would regret it if you did not try." Not that he thinks she'd ever back away from this.

There is a small quirk at the corner of Rune's lips as she looks up towards Harkashan, reaching a hand up to run her fingers along the side of his muzzle. "I know. It's... different this time. As a kid, I didn't have anyone to talk to, or lean on." It's a role her father should have taken on, but he was too busy moving on with his life. "I ended up in a bad place. This time, I'm not alone anymore, and you know how much that means to me."

Rune leans up and bumps her nose against his, which is a closer gesture to a kiss than most Makari can manage. Then, she settles back down and starts to take off her cloak and unbutton her jacket a bit, the heat finally settling into her enough that she doesn't need the extra layers.

"I assume all of our friends are doing alright for the time being? At least... other than the ones I know are dealing with issues?" The question is a bit vague, so Rune starts to tick off, "I saw Aelwyn, Cor'lana, and Telamon along the way... and I know Verna is apparently being held by some sort of fiend..."

Harkashan's head presses into her hands, and bumps against it like a cat might to its owner, welcoming the touch and bringing it further up along his muzzle. Eventually laying his hand over hers as she bumps her nose to his.

He then releases her when she settles back down. For a Speaker, Harkashan doesn't often speak during moments like that. Letting the moment speak for itself instead.

When the talk shifts back to their friends he nods his head. "Aelwyn is getting into trouble - but you probably already heard about that. It's a bit of a mess. Verna is looking into the fiend matter. And the head of Alexandria may or may not be acting out of sorts. And..." Pause.

"Verna is what?"

When Rune settles again, there is a curious look that passes her features. Being gone for weeks means that there is a lot of happenings that she has missed out on. In this case, she presses her lips together slightly, "Well, I was there for the circus show where Aelwyn nearly got his stupid ass killed." She murmurs, "He and I had words about that... he's too quick to throw away his life." There is some sadness in those words.

"He told me that his brother was posessed by a fiend of some sort, which managed to escape." Rune isn't sure if this is what Harkashan is talking about or not, but she leaves it at that. "He feels... responsible for what has been happening since then."

Then, as Harkashan asks about Verna, she raises her brows slightly, "This is what you didn't want to talk about." Though, there is a playful tone to it. "Verna was taken by a fiend, some of her life leeched away in the process. Auranar and Aelwyn and someone Aelwyn calls Serpent was there at the time. They think it might be the same fiend that had Aelwyn's brother."

Brows furrowed, she knits her hands together in front of her, "Cor'lana and Telamon believe there's also some sort of connection to the one of the Fey courts, and they summoned some Moon Dogs to help track the fiend in order to try to save Verna." After a pause, she bites at her lower lip, pensively, "I'm... not honestly sure I have all that right. It was a lot."

"Agreed. He puts his family before himself. And fails to see that he cannot save anyone if he's dead." Harkashan answers, swatting his tail to the ground. "That one lives with more flame than sense." He rumbles at her sadness.

The Makari then nods his head when she shows a bit of uncertainty in her expression. Indeed, this is what he spoke of. "He feels responsible for all of it, including the demon getting into his brother to begin with." Harkashan notes. "Luckily, we were able to excise the magic circle on... the inside of his brother's skull." He grimaces at that.

Turning back to the matter of Verna, he nods his head ina very slow manner. "It's worrying. Because that fiend is capable of summoning others. Ones with the ability to possess even the children of the Great Dragons." He points out. "It's more than I knew."

The idea of putting others before themselves, well... that is something that Rune can emphatize with. She gives a sideways glance towards Harkashan before admitting, "Sacrificing yourself for others is something I know all too well." She had sacrificed herself for Harkashan, afterall. "But this felt different. Like he was carrying the blame for their mistakes. That he was somehow at fault for all the poor decisions they made after he left, which is bullshit."

Rune looks down to her hands, her expression troubled, "I'm not responsible for my father's choices after I left, any more than Aelwyn is for his brother and the others. But good luck telling him that. He's as dense as a rock when it comes to that and it bothers me because I fucking care about the asshole." Her anger seems not aimed at Aelwyn, but the situation.

With a sigh, she adds, "Aelwyn wanted me to tell you what happened. Because you were already involved with dealing with the fiend, to begin with. He needs help trying to save Verna, because he feels responsible for what happened to her."

There's a deep rumble from Harkashan. Indeed, he knows that there's a fine difference between sacrificing yourself for others... and just making poor decisions.

"He is indeed, fairly dense when it comes to family. And I have..." Pause. Thinking. Then raising a hand to do a quotation-mark with his fingers as he adds; "Given him shit?" -- "About this."

He then sighs right on along with Rune. "Of course, even if he didn't ask for help, I'd give it. I may not know Verna as well as he does, but she's still an ally that needs protecting."

There is a shift of Rune's hands as she rubs them aganist one another, seeming to use the repetative motion as a way of calming herself. "Yeah." She confirms. "Went about as well as you'd expect. Idiot doesn't realize how much he means to people." There is a quick flick of her blue eyes in his direction, "Must be a Makari thing." She leans a little against him at that.

"What scares me... is just how powerful Verna is. Anyone or anything that could capture and hold her..." Rune doesn't need to continue the thought. Anything that powerful would be a real danger to most anyone except the strongest of adventurers.

"Simony is on the case, too. Whatever it is, it's just one more thing. One more fiend, one more fey, one more creature working at odds." She rolls her eyes a little, "As much as I wish we could rush out and save the world, I don't have a clue where to start right now, other than following those Moon Dogs wherever they might lead." She sighs, "But I think that's for another day. It's been a long trip and I'm just glad to be home."

"Hey, I know I mean lots to people." Harkashan lifts his body. "I try not to worry you any more than I need to." He croons, and bumps his nose against her cheek. "Part of why I stayed out of trouble for the most part." He adds to that.

He then tilts his head. "As for Verna, she may be powerful, but even a Shaman as powerful as her can be subdued when caught unawares." Harkashan notes.

"But yes, I agree with not chasing dogs right now. People better at chasing down leads are on this right now. Instead..." He leans a bit to the side, and then suddenly tries to lift her with one arm to put her over his shoulder while looking to stand. He's clearly being playful, using a bit of magic to bolster his own strength.

"Well, I don't expect you to stay out of /all/ trouble. I'd be a hypocrite if I did." Neither of them were particularly the sort to play it safe. There was too much going on in the world that they had the power to change for the better. It would be a waste to sit idle.

And then, she's being hefted up and there is a surprised squeak of sound from the half-sil. She isn't particularly big to begin with, but the gesture is still uncommon enough that she throws her arms around his neck.

"Alright, alright, just make sure someone grabs my bag, okay?" She isn't about to argue with her companion being enthusiastic to celebrate her return.

Harkashan slips his tail through the loop of the back, then lifts his tail - like some kind of makeshift tailbag. "Understood. I will grab the bag." He answers her playfully, and then grabs the other clothing with his free hand. He'd rather not leave any valueable articles here. "I have a Feast for you." He then rumbles. "Not going on an Adventure, but... I think it's time for a Feast for my Personal Hero." As he carries her off upstairs.