Sorcha rang the doorbell once and waited. MARI explained that the elder needed her immediate assistance in a matter. She was not one to turn down aid to anyone, much less her esteemed leader. She had been bored anyway. Sorcha had just finished sending to Evgeni until he had fallen asleep. It had become something of a nightly ritual which did not always end in success. Some days the Tacharan could not seem to sleep at all and they ended up having long discussions well into the night. Evgeni had gone through a period of about forty eight hours of sleeplessness so she was not surprised that he dropped off into exhausted slumber early this evening.
Alfarinn opened the door, looking equally mistified. Sorcha wondered what MARI was trying to do. Hopefully the AI was not trying to play match maker for the Elder. That would be... awkard. Sorcha was fairly certain she was not Alfarinn's type.
[Cheers!] She held up her cup of Barney's brew and slid into the door when Alfarinn stepped back. [Would you be willing to explain what sort of aid you re...quire?] Sorcha found that the room beyond the elder was full of people.
Alfarinn smiled at her, the expression containing some small amount of sympathy. "You have been drafter to be my partner."
[Woah, wait a minute, mate.] Sorcha backed toward the door. [You haven't even bought me a drink yet.]
The elder laughed and reached for her hand. Sorcha took hold of his and reluctantly allowed herself to be led into the room. It couldn't be an actual date with four other people involved, right? There was not some strange Norse ritual that involved kinky sex practices and witnesses; at least none that she remembered.
"We are playing a game of trivia. MARI noted that I was without a partner for the game. Apparently she selected you for the task."
[Ah, this is the immediate aid that you required.] Sorcha laughed inwardly and relaxed. She noticed that Alfarinn's shoulders lost an edge of tension at the same time.
"Yes, if you have something else to do then I understand."
Sorcha shook her head and then turned to the other people in the room. She knew Aishe and Cris already. She waved at the dark haired girl while Alfarinn made introductions.
"This is Kem, our newest Elder, leader of Nachton." Alfarinn pointed to the tall white haired man sitting on the floor. "Aishe, his team mate and fiancee. This is our Security Chief, Christian, and his team mate, Rowan." She nodded to the redhead and gave him a smile. He was cuddled up against Christian and under a blanket. She noticed that both his hands were bandaged in layer upon layer of gause. "Everyone, This is Sorcha."
Alfarinn showed her to one of the chairs. "Shall we discuss strategy before we traunce them soundly?"
[I think we can safely just traunce them.] Sorcha signed to MARI, who was watching the room from the television monitor. "How will you be deciding who has the right to answer first?" If it required calling out then she was going to be a rather worthless team mate.
MARI blinked at her and then turned to face the entire room of people. "I will ask a question and then chose who will be allowed to answer the question by who raised their hand first." She looked directly at Rowan. "Would you prefer to raise a leg instead? Or another signal may be designated but it must be agreed upon before the start of the game."
"Excellent." Alfarinn sat down on the floor near Sorcha's chair. "Thank you for joining us, Sorcha."
((OOC: Our Overly Confident Leader in blue. If you want to end it here then we can close the thread. If you would like to reply then we can close it after that. ))
Message For You (invite only)
Rowan saw nothing and heard nothing as he staggered through the entrance to Liefde. He had very little ability to focus and what he had was pinpointed on the office down the hallway that he dragged himself in to.
He had pulled his ruined hands inside his sweater sleeves. His hood was still covering his head but he wasn't naive enough to think that made him blend in. He knew there were burns around his nose, maybe his mouth as well although it had been tucked into his sweater. The rest of him felt numb. Truly numb. He kept seeing her face. The face of a little girl who shouldn't be dead.
So who was he now? Was he Icarus?
Why was he even thinking of it in those terms?
Cris's office door was unlocked; he was still working. Hopefully his partner was still inside. Although he hated for Cris to see this, not out of vanity but because he was loathe to bring trouble to Cris's doorstep, Rowan couldn't go anywhere else. So he pressed his bruised shoulder against the door and pushed it open, practically falling inside.
His knees were giving out and he expected to feel the cool polished floor against his face but what he felt, instead, was the fabric of Cris's suit. Instinctively Rowan reached out, but he drew his hands back with a strangled wheezing sound of pain at the motion.
Not one of his finer entrances, but certainly attention-grabbing.
Sorcha
12 years ago
Aishe
12 years ago
Aishe's question was answered in the next few minutes as Cris proceeded to change the topic entirely. It was clear that he did not want Rowan to dwell on the events of that evening, for she couldn't imagine any other reason why he'd suggest a game. She supposed, after mulling it over, that he might be trying to distract himself as well.
As Cris enlightened MARI as to his reasons for choosing Rowan as his partner Aishe smiled. She was certainly not married to the idea of being on Kiamhaat's team; if anything, she was tempted to join Alfarinn just so she could maybe, just maybe, beat him at trivia once in her life. MARI solved the problem before she could offer, however, so she stayed where she was and just grinned. She might not be much help but she would enjoy watching the battle of the Ancient geeks.
Of course, having Alfarinn's partner turn out to be someone equally knowledgeable and intelligent seemed unfair somehow. "I'm pretty sure we're hosed," she said to Kem, waving to Sorcha as she joined Alfarinn. "Unless you can manage to pull off some impressive answers."
Her fiancee responded by cracking his knuckles after greeting Sorcha, then going through an impressive (but short) set of runner-like stretches as if he were preparing for a marathon. Aishe chuckled at him. "Don't pull anything, Einstein," she warned. "If you sprain a braincell I'm only going to laugh."
Kem responded by turning, pulling her from the couch, and dragging her over his shoulder. He stood, crossed over to Alfarinn, and lifted Aishe down into his arms. Then he offered her to their leader.
"You sure you don't want to switch?" He said. "You could have her for free, even."
When Aishe responded by gently pinching him in a sensitive spot Kem yelped and put her down, tugging her back to sit on the floor with him. "All right, all right," he said. "I guess I can keep her!"
Aishe laughed softly and poked her tongue out at Kem. Turning back to Alfarinn and Sorcha she said, "I could always be convinced to defect."
The good humor might have been slightly awkward and possibly even a bit forced to begin with; it was as if they needed to work extra hard to keep the cheer high. Aishe didn't want either Rowan or Christian dwelling on the fire and the killer until they absolutely had to. Anything forced, however, was short-lived. They were all in good company and even though there was a murder mystery looming over their heads, it remained comfortably on the back-burner for a while. When Aishe looked over at Rowan and saw him fast asleep against Cris's chest, without any sign of discomfort, she breathed a sigh of relief. She could only hope he'd stay that way this time. Perhaps sleeping here, in a room full of friends making noise, was the most comfortable thing for him right now anyway.
As Cris enlightened MARI as to his reasons for choosing Rowan as his partner Aishe smiled. She was certainly not married to the idea of being on Kiamhaat's team; if anything, she was tempted to join Alfarinn just so she could maybe, just maybe, beat him at trivia once in her life. MARI solved the problem before she could offer, however, so she stayed where she was and just grinned. She might not be much help but she would enjoy watching the battle of the Ancient geeks.
Of course, having Alfarinn's partner turn out to be someone equally knowledgeable and intelligent seemed unfair somehow. "I'm pretty sure we're hosed," she said to Kem, waving to Sorcha as she joined Alfarinn. "Unless you can manage to pull off some impressive answers."
Her fiancee responded by cracking his knuckles after greeting Sorcha, then going through an impressive (but short) set of runner-like stretches as if he were preparing for a marathon. Aishe chuckled at him. "Don't pull anything, Einstein," she warned. "If you sprain a braincell I'm only going to laugh."
Kem responded by turning, pulling her from the couch, and dragging her over his shoulder. He stood, crossed over to Alfarinn, and lifted Aishe down into his arms. Then he offered her to their leader.
"You sure you don't want to switch?" He said. "You could have her for free, even."
When Aishe responded by gently pinching him in a sensitive spot Kem yelped and put her down, tugging her back to sit on the floor with him. "All right, all right," he said. "I guess I can keep her!"
Aishe laughed softly and poked her tongue out at Kem. Turning back to Alfarinn and Sorcha she said, "I could always be convinced to defect."
The good humor might have been slightly awkward and possibly even a bit forced to begin with; it was as if they needed to work extra hard to keep the cheer high. Aishe didn't want either Rowan or Christian dwelling on the fire and the killer until they absolutely had to. Anything forced, however, was short-lived. They were all in good company and even though there was a murder mystery looming over their heads, it remained comfortably on the back-burner for a while. When Aishe looked over at Rowan and saw him fast asleep against Cris's chest, without any sign of discomfort, she breathed a sigh of relief. She could only hope he'd stay that way this time. Perhaps sleeping here, in a room full of friends making noise, was the most comfortable thing for him right now anyway.
Rowan Murphy
12 years ago
The details of their game were decided as he lay comfortably against Cris. To his amusement or dismay, which, he wasn't sure, Rowan noted that now there was an additional person here to witness his discomfort. It was thought without inflection... Rowan wasn't upset at all, it was only amusing to him. He greeted Sorcha with a faint smile and a nod, lifting his bandaged hand to... he wasn't sure what. Wave? Shake? Either way he winced and laid his hand gently down again with a soft impatient sigh.
On any other night Rowan might have gotten excited about a recent-decades trivia game; he wasn't one to live life behind the scenes. He stayed in the foreground and kept up with modern trends. Tonight, however, he suspected his trivial knowledge might be woefully inadequate. His head was swimming a bit, his hands hurt, and he couldn't focus as well as he'd like to. It would have bothered him more if he actually thought Cris was hoping to win but he knew his partner better than that.
"Cris will know when I want to answer," he said lazily to MARI. He wasn't sure how he would indicate it to Cris but he figured he'd work out a method.
It turned out to be a moot point; the hum of voices and the sounds of occasional soft laughter were almost hypnotic. Rowan wasn't sure he'd actually managed to answer a single question before he felt himself slipping away again into a blanket of comfortable sleep, cushioned by calm feelings of peace and comfort and his partner's solid, loving embrace.
Poor Cris, he thought, he was really the partnerless one in the room. His partner was a vegetable. It was a fleeting thought; he sighed contentedly against Cris's chest and felt those wonderful arms tighten just enough. With a little moan of satisfaction he gave up any fight at all and finally slept deeply and soundly.
((ooc: All out. Especially Rowan... who will spare a few seconds to be mildly embarrassed about falling asleep during trivia - when he wakes up.))
On any other night Rowan might have gotten excited about a recent-decades trivia game; he wasn't one to live life behind the scenes. He stayed in the foreground and kept up with modern trends. Tonight, however, he suspected his trivial knowledge might be woefully inadequate. His head was swimming a bit, his hands hurt, and he couldn't focus as well as he'd like to. It would have bothered him more if he actually thought Cris was hoping to win but he knew his partner better than that.
"Cris will know when I want to answer," he said lazily to MARI. He wasn't sure how he would indicate it to Cris but he figured he'd work out a method.
It turned out to be a moot point; the hum of voices and the sounds of occasional soft laughter were almost hypnotic. Rowan wasn't sure he'd actually managed to answer a single question before he felt himself slipping away again into a blanket of comfortable sleep, cushioned by calm feelings of peace and comfort and his partner's solid, loving embrace.
Poor Cris, he thought, he was really the partnerless one in the room. His partner was a vegetable. It was a fleeting thought; he sighed contentedly against Cris's chest and felt those wonderful arms tighten just enough. With a little moan of satisfaction he gave up any fight at all and finally slept deeply and soundly.
((ooc: All out. Especially Rowan... who will spare a few seconds to be mildly embarrassed about falling asleep during trivia - when he wakes up.))