|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 8:22 pm
Lillian awoke, breathing in the same stale musty woody air of the back room of the Cutlass. She raised from her pillow, stretching away the sleep from her rested joints. It was slightly cold in the room, but she knew it would change once she entered the kitchen. She swung her legs over onto the floor, slipping her feet into her too tight work shoes, and stood, quickly fixing her sheet for her small one person bed. She smiled as she made it, thinking that this was more then she could ever ask for.
Turning to a small bureau that held the work clothes, loaned by Mrs. Wells herself, she opened a drawer and pulled out a fresh chemise and a tough wool dress with cord ties on the front. It was plain, but the dress was very durable and just what she needed to get through a days work.
She put on her clothes and examined herself in the small piece of mirror that leaned against the wall on top of the bureau. There was one last thing that she needed to out on to complete the ensemble and that was her heavy duty whitish apron with added pockets. After tying it around her waist she gazed back into the mirror, looking closely through the smutty reflection of aged glass.
She found her self to be perfectly presentable after licking her fingers and rubbing out some of the dirt that had collected from working the past few days. She then tucked some stray short hairs behind an ear and thought 'That'll do.' She exited the room to enter in the warm kitchen that was run by the kind Mr. Smedley.
"I'm ready to start work Mr. Smedley. What sort of lesson will one learn today?" She asked, curious of what task she might be set to, only too happy to please the people who took her in when she thought she needed it most.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 9:25 pm
Sitting up after a long time moment, Amour glanced around. It appeared, that after talking to the young boy he had fallen asleep. Or perhaps he was drunk? Shaking his headm Amour brushed his hair back behind his ears once again. What was he to do now? Shifting his legs once again, the boy girl moved his legs off the table before gliding up standing fully.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:26 pm
Alexandra spent her free time holed up in the tavern or walking around the village. It is one of those times where she rather to be out and about instead of being holed up in her small hidey hole on the ship.
It was condience that she saw Jonathan walking back to the ship, she decided to follow him because she wanted to talk with him and perhaps apologize to him for giving him a cold shoulder and avoiding him. She hurries after Jonathan without making any sounds at all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:39 pm
Smedley grinned at the lass. "Well I thought we'd get a stew on for the patrons, and then..." the older man paused to look around sneaky like, "maybe a bit of pastry betwixt ourselves?"
Tieing his apron snuggly around his waist, the cook opened the cellar door and headed down to get the vegetables and saltcured meat to start the stew. Of course, this stew wouldn't be edible until the next day; the best kind of meals take time and love.
"You comin', lass? Hurry up before Mrs. Wells throws a tantrum."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:43 pm
A tall, lean, muscular figure peered into the tavern, curious. He didn't often spend his time in strange, cramped, dirty human places like this, but he'd heard he might have been able to seek out a ship to sail with here.
As the last gust of salty sea air blew in, he shut the door behind him and the putrid stench of alcohol invaded his acute sense of smell. Zale cringed. This bar was no place for a merman. Especially one as blindingly obvious as he. He would certainly have to pick up a cloak or something of the sort later, if only to hide his blue, striped skin. Against the azure seascape, he felt comfortably at home, but here he was uncomfortably conspicuous.
"Hey," he called softly as he made his way to the bar counter, directly across the entrance. "Anyone serving here?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2007 10:10 pm
Glancing around the tavern Amour stretched quitely. He moved about slightly, but never left his table. He wasn't sure what do now, shaking his head a bit he moved to sit down once again. Sitting down Amour leaned back in his chair tossing his long legs up onto the table. Sure girls did it all the time at class less places so it didn't seem improper to Amour. Fixing his kimono bottom, the girl-boy flicked his hair back over his shoulder glancing around.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:58 pm
Pushing the tavern door open, and not much caring if it closed behind her or not, a young woman in very damp clothing made her way inside. Her boots making an odd combination of scrapes and sloshing sounds as the water still inside moves about and the sand caked to the bottom rubbed against the floor.
At first glance one might have mistaken her for a merbeast. Her cheeks where blue from the mixture of wet clothes and cold air; and bits of kelp still sat twisted in her soaked brown hair. Sand, though she had tried rubbing it off, sparkled on her arms and face in the taverns light as she let her eyes turn the scene before her over a few times before finally walking to the bar and sitting down with a slight slopping sound.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 1:56 pm
Zale's earfins twitched slightly at the sound of the sloshing water. It was a sound he knew quite well, though he had hoped to escape it when he entered the tavern. It made him think of the sea again, and suddenly he longed to be outside gazing at the waves once more, waiting for something he couldn't contemplate.
Forcing himself to put aside such thoughts, the merman remained in his chair, hardly daring to turn around. It was difficult to ignore the newcomer who had just entered the tavern, however, espeically when the figure setteled itself on a stool right beside where he was stationed at the counter. The human's scent was overwhelmed by the smell of fish, salt, and the sea, so it was really no wonder that at first sight Zale confused the being for one of his own kind.
He peered at her out of the corner of his sapphire eyes. "What do you think you're doing here?" he asked her coldly. It was an odd thing, but Zale wasn't too fond of other merfolk. It was why he had hoped to put his past behind him and live peacefully among humans.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 5:53 pm
Farrin's body tensed at the mans' words. 'Drunk, chauvinist little...' she thought, growling inwardly at the territorial comment. She was full and ready to give the drunkard beside her a good telling off but even her dastardly glare fell short after turning to face him. He was neither the drunkard she was expecting or human for that matter.
"I could ask you the same thing merbeast." Farrin replied, her face and voice both full of surprise. If it was possible for her to move any farther away from him while still in her seat she would have. As a little girl she was always told stories of merbeasts and the ill luck they brought to humans on the open sea. Even her father had thought them to be bad omens. Yet here one was plain as day sitting at her side.
"And who do you think you are asking me about my place here?" She quickly snapped, regaining some of her composure. "Shouldn't you be out in the sea luring some poor sailor to their death or something?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:42 pm
At the reference of 'merbeast', Zale stiffened, realizing he hadn't been dealing with his own kind at all. Regarding the young woman beside him a second time, he realized with a start that she was, indeed, human. He opened his mouth to reply but seemed unsure of whether to apologize or be offended by the term. His expression was a mixture of both even as his mouth open and closed soundlessly like a gaping fish.
However it hardly seemed to matter, for she continued to speak. He tolerated her sharp words up until she commented upon his race's reputation. Zale slammed his fists on the counter top.
"Shut up!" he yelled at her, meeting her gaze for the first time. "Those singing murderers you speak of are not my kin! They have disowned me, and I renounced them," he informed her edgily. It was obviously a touchy topic for the merman.
Having had his say, Zale realized he would have been drawing attention to himself and quickly sat back down, running a webbed hand through his dark teal hair. He took a deep breath and exhaled through his gills, sighing wearily.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. "but that's why I was rude earlier. You'll have to forgive me, but you smelled of the ocean when you first walked in, and well, I..." Zale glanced at her, humiliated. "I thought at first you were one of them."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:26 pm
Farrin jumped a little at the merbeasts response. She had always been told they were a violent breed but this, this was obviously something very personal to him. Though realizing that didn't scare her any the less. Or move her seat farther away; tavern must have nailed the stools to the floor in case of theft.
"A-apology accepted merbeast." She replied, still slightly shaken from his outburst. Out of all the things in the world Farrin feared what was beneath the sea most. To her any creatures from there should remain there and should only be met upon death.
Though she couldn't help laughing at his explanation for insulting her. "You, thought I was a merbeast too? Simply because I smelled of the ocean?" She laughed loudly, it was good to laugh it washed away her nerves.
"I smell like the ocean because I was just in it! Or perhaps you didn't notice from my sopping wet clothes? Bloody bunch of merchants tossed me overboard while I slept - of course I am going to smell of the ocean when I just came from there. You are not that bright of a merbeast are you? Can't you tell what your own kind look like?" Then again he was the first merbeast she had ever met, so perhaps they all looked diffrent. Some more human, they were usually depected after all with human turso's and fish tails. Not some blue gilled humaniod like he was.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:52 pm
Zale fought hard to avoid showing his embarressment when she laughed. His cheeks darkened in a deep blush. "Not only that! You sounded wet, and I could hear the water in your boots sloshing since you walked in. Obviously few humans would bother coming into a tavern sopping wet and smelling like fish, right?" he defended. "One might think you humans would have the decency to sry off first. But oh no, not you!"
Her laughter rung in his acute ears, and Zale could hardly bare it. He felt his face burn in shame. "Exactly! Merfolk come from the ocean, don't they?" he justified. Though as he listened, he felt sorry for the poor young woman. Tossed overboard while she slept? What he wouldn't do to those men if he had been in her shoes... his webbed hand automatically went to the hilt of his sword at his side, and he gritted his teeth.
Then she was insulting him again, and all his pity and sympathy towards her evaporated. "Hey, don't get 'high and mighty' with me, human! I have a proper name, you know! It's Zale, and I would have expected better manners from a lady!" Frowning at her, he glared at her comment of not eing able to recongize his own kind. It really stung - more than she knew.
He sighed. "Look, it's ovious you've never before laid eyes on a merperson. (Mer 'person', not 'beast'!) If you had, then you'd know I look little enough like them. In fact, you may have seen one around and not known, for they can appear more human that you might realize." Zale rested an elbow on the countertop casually.
"Those more humaniod or those that have the ability to gain legs have webbed feet and hands and gills, and perhaps even pale, clammy skin. But they're certainly not so obviously fish-born as I." He rubbed his sore neck and stretched. "They don't have blue skin. No stripes. And no fins." He held up his arms to reveal to her the distinctive fins that ran up his wrist near his elbow. They were similar to that of a dolphin's, or even a shark's. "Sure, a wide variety or merfolk have fish tails, but even they have human torsos. More human than mine."
"Anyway, I haven't seen my kind in a long time. They abandoned me on shore as an infant. I glimpse them every now and then in the ocean, but I could not firgive their harsh decision. Perhaps I was too different for them to accept me." He rolled his eyes.
"Not as if I'm any better off here. I came from the Agean Sea, so I grew up in Greece. There they call the merfolk by those trecherous names - syrins, oceanids, nereids...those they blame for luring their young men out to sea. Countless times I have been scorned as the resulting product of a seductive sea-witch and a lost human." He shrugged his heart not really into it.
"Perhaps I am. Perhaps I'm part tiger-shark, or my mother was a fish. But no matter what I do to escape my past and lend in with the humans, the ocean comes back to haunt me. I just can't seem to leave it. So I'm looking for work as a sailor. But of course, what self-respcting captain would allow a merman aboard their ship as crew?" He chuckled bitterly.
"But enough about me and us 'merbeasts'," he remarked, nearly spitting the last word at her. "What's your story? Those merchants must have had a pretty good reason for throwing someone as charming and sweet as yourself off a ship in your sleep, am I right?" he commented mockingly, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:56 pm
"Commin Mr. Smedley." She had said, taking one last glance around the room before gathering her skirts and making her way down the dimly lit stairs. The wooden planks beneath her creaked, bringing back memories of being on board a ship, as she decended each one carefully.
If she thought the kitchen and her bedroom were musty, then the cellar had a smell to behold. Seeing as this was a port, and storms would crash against these shores more offten then not, the ground around the golden cutlass was moistened throughly. The moisture would then soak into the strongly enforced wooden walls through the earth and would create mildews of all kind that made the lower room smell as dank as it could have ever been. And although it was powerful, the rank stench was welcoming to Lillian, seeing as a good part of her young life she had traveled on ships that sailed the high seas. Always as a stowaway of course. This smell was very common to any hold below deck.
Once they arrived into the shadows, escaped smells from the sealed barrels began to waft into Lillian's nasal passage, of cured meats, soured vegtables, grains, rum, gin, and a plethora of different ingreediants that kept this establishment running. On a small table near the stairway was a kerosene lamp with a small flickering flame, casting dancing shadows on the old oak wood walls.
"What will we be needing for this, Mr Smedley?" She asked looking towards what was his sillohette, ready to use her newly derived skills of remembering where everything was for all the ingrediants that they would need to create this stew.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:16 pm
Farrin hadn't notice Zale's hand move to his sword until he had already began lecturing about her attitude and merbeast history. Noticing it now made her flinch. "You're quite right I have never seen a merbeast before." she commented, failing yet again to acknowledge his human qualities as she focused more on his hand. "Personally I would never have figured there to be so many variations among your kind. Though I guess diffrent regions would play as much effect on what merbeasts look like as much as they do us."
The last part was said more as a thought then any comment. In fact Farrin was so worked up in picturing what other merbeasts could look like she hardly heard anything on his history. Let alone the question asked about her and the sarcasm attached to it.
"Oh they tossed me over board because I refused to pay them for the transportation in their desired method of payment. Which now that I think about it is kind of silly as they stole my blade so now my body is my only bartering tool for a room and perhaps a warm bath." Farrin told him in a very matter-of-fact tone, before kicking her legs ideally. "Oh and I think the captain wasn't to happy about me stealing his pants either."
Farrin smiled brightly at Zale for a brief second before suddenly changing her expression back to a less pleasant one. Talking with him kept making Farrin forget what he was, yet every time she looked at his face she shivered. No amount of humanity could take away his looks or the dreadful stories her mind attached to them. Part of her wondered if he wasn't really here in the tavern looking for someone to lure back to the sea with him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:09 am
"Oh really? I only know of two kinds - me, and them," he told her, not bothering with good grammer. So few humans seem to use it in the port city anyway. Why should he bother with it? "Damn fishwives...They're mostly females, and they look more human than fish."
As she spoke, Zale noticed vaguely that the young woman seemed to flinch. He assumed the cause to be of her uneasiness around him now that her suspiciouns of him being a merbeast were confirmed. Unfortunately, he hadn't noticed that his hand was still positioned on the hilt of his cutlass.
He listened to her story, shaking his head. Humans. How predictable giving into their animal instincts. It was odd - he thought they'd be more intelligent than that. ut fish had swum in the ocean long before the first mammal walked the land, and so he couldn't expect too much wisdom of their race. He imagined in the last recent hundred years, his own kind had become rather like humans in their manner of treating others. Then again, that could have just resulted from the prejudice they suffered themselves. Now the races wanted little to do with each other, but for a few curious merfolk who chose to walk among the air-breathers. And Zale.
"Their desired method, hmm?" he repeated, pondering the lady's situation. "Well now, that is a bit of a nuisance. Shame you couldn't put up more of a fight..." With nimble fingers, he swiftly picked out a piece of kelp from her dripping brown locks before she could protest. "You don't seriously plan to barter yourself for some silly, bug-infested box you call a room and a bucket of hot water?" His deep sapphire eyes searched her face, as if the answer to his question lay hidden there. Then, realizing he might have been making her uncomfortable with his intense gaze, he looked away.
"You stole the captain's pants?" Now it was Zale's turn to laugh. He laughed loud and long, harder than he had laughed all week. Even when Farrin smiled at him, he was still gasping for breath, his voice dying down. "Not a bad play, not bad at all..." His sharp vision caught her radiant smile before it reverted back to her hostile stare.
Why did she have to look at him like that? Wasn't he a living thing too, with feelings and emotions just the same as her? He thought he saw her shudder. An invisible knife cut him deeply. How could he have ever considered himself one of them? He would never fit in with these human beings. However, he refused to show her the hurt in his eyes. Instead Zale hoped to distract her with a sly smile.
"Well, human, since you have yet to tell me your name or call me by my own, I guess I'll have to continue referring to you as what you are rather than who you are. I could call you 'girl'. Or 'wench', or 'maid', even." Again he watched her for a reaction. It was obvious she was not comfortable next to him. Why was she still here then? Couldn't she move? Anything to keep his mind off the dislike she was showing him. She couldn't have expressed her disgust more clearly if she had yelled in his face.
"See here, girl. By your story I understand it must be hard for womanfolk to get around and make a living, particularly in a sea-city where the Mistress of the Ocean owns the hearts of all men." Zale looked her in the eyes, his coy grin still plastered on his face. His sharp, angular teeth were obviously inhuman; more likely they were that of some killer whale or shark. "So I have a proposition for you. I still have my cutlass. Together we can set out in search of a ship that will accept us both. That may be easier said than done, but we will do it. Once that happens, I'm sure you can learn some trade on deck with the crew and I can do the same. I'm not quite as skilled with this sword as I hope to be yet. I'll personally guaruntee you protection no matter where you go, so long as we travel together."
He fingered his blade before sheathing it and turning to face her. "So...what say you?" Zale knew what her answer would be, but he wanted her to say it. He wanted to hear it aloud, so it could e over and done with. No matter how much it pained him to hear it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
