Author: Bianca Bathory, Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:45 PM, Post Subject: Remember to Breathe[O,R]

When the door to tavern slammed opened the loner at the bar only raised their head up enough to glance in the direction of the door. The sight was an odd one indeed for this city; she was dressed in purple with waist length red curls with a slam clip. She dropped boxes to the ground as another female had entered with her, carrying their own box. The new girl had rainbow eyes from what Bianca could see from their place at the bar, odd indeed.

Bianca went back to ignoring everything but their drink when the door was opened once more by a man who started to beg the red headed woman for something. Bianca had to admit that if they were not in the mood they were in currently, they might be begging the woman for something else. This conversation piqued Bianca’s interest enough to eavesdrop, not that they were making it hard to do with raised voices. Who was this woman anyway?

Bianca’s fire orange eyes creaked open again when they felt the rainbow eyed girl close and they handed Bianca something. Puzzled, a drunk, Bianca took the card and looked at, raising a brow. ~The Lovers card? Inverted no less?!~ That was a bit too on the nose for Bianca’s liking; who was this woman?! Curious, Bianca turned on their stool, feeling a little woozy from the drinking and the lack of sleep the last few nights. Oh sure, they and Illiana had slept a bit, but after Illiana had left Bianca had not gone back to sleep, only drank themselves into a stupor.

Goddess?! Now that was something worth hearing as the man left with his tail between his legs, unable to get what he wanted. Finally seeing an opening to investigate, Bianca decided to take the chance on a chat. Getting to their wobbly feet, Bianca was only wearing a large puffy robe, their clothing up in the room still. As Bianca made their way over to the Goddess, card in hand, if anyone watched they’d see something unusual.

Bianca’s appearance kept shifting slightly, or was it from certain angles? Impossible to tell really. What could be seen was one moment they had a masculine built, the next it looked way more feminine, or somewhere in-between. With slightly slurred speech Bianca went over to the Goddess’ table and placed the card of the inverted Lovers on it. ”So HIC, sorry to bother you, my lady, but, may I inquire as to why you have given me this card?” Bianca asked trying to be polite, though it was forced and only working because of who they were talking to.

Author: Angela Rose, Posted: Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:25 PM, Post Subject: Remember to Breathe[O,R]

“Quickly now Raine… Tea time cannot be missed because of petty squabbles,” the goddess was almost charging through the streets of Vilpamolan. The first tavern she laid her eyes on was the one she went in. She slammed the door open almost in a sheer force of anger.

“Hey! Watch the fucking doo–” The barkeep stared at the oddly dressed noblewoman with waist-length red curls. Part of her hair was pulled back in a jeweled clip. She had boxes in her arms as she dropped them by the door.

“Raine~” Her voice cooed as Raine struggled with her own crate. There was a large bag of what looked to be maps on her side.

The smaller of the two women had shoulder-length pink hair and was dressed just as nicely as the lady she was following. “My lady said GOOD DAY SIR!” Raine was crabby as she used her leg to shut the door and put the boxes next to Angela. “My lady,” there was a whine from the rainbow-eyed girl, “why did we have to travel all the way here for the shipment?”

“Didn’t have anyone I could trust not to mess it up~” Angela said softly. “Hot water if you will. What tea blends do you have?”

“Maalik has been teaching me about alcoho–” Raine couldn’t finish as Angela put up her hand. “Tea for me too please.” That meant she was grounded as she sat next to her lady.

The door slammed opened again as a man stood in the doorway. “Didn’t you hear the barkeep?” Angela said with a bored expression. “Don’t slam the door~”

“My lady! I am begging you to reconsider,” the man came running and got on his knees. “Please!”

“You have begged me from dawn til dusk and now you trouble me into the night…” Angela sighed a bit. “Raine.”

“My lady has declined the wish for help. Please refrain from coming closer to her!” Raine hopped off the stool and put her hands on her hips. “It’s rude to bother a lady of her standing like this.”

“Please! My fields if you don’t fix them… I won’t be able to feed my family! Please! You are the only one capable of this.”

“Harvest season has come and gone… and you didn’t concern yourself with your family until now,” there was a dark look in Angela’s eyes as Raine got out of the way and went back to her stool. “You offer no coin, no pilgrimage, nor do you offer anything but your consistent whining. The cost of my healing your fields if five hundred silver a month if it has crop, the cost of me fixing the problem that you can’t find is one thousand silver up front, and making it all go away with the snap of my fingers? That is an entire year’s pilgrimage that you would owe me as that is a miracle. I do not do things for free. Not for the rich, not for the poor, not for friends, not for family. This is the way the world works. So if you want a miracle be prepared to work for it.”

“BUT MY LADY!” The farmer bowed to her. “Please!”

“DO NOT THINK THAT I CANNOT SEE WHY YOU WANT THIS,” Angela’s voice even seemed to make the wood of the bar shake. “I detest the—” Angela’s eyes went to the woman down the bar and she formed something in her hands giving it to Raine.

Raine hopped off the seat and went over to the redhead, “Here, from my lady. Orientation is important.” It was an upside-down tarot card of the lovers.

“Anyways, I detest people who think I owe them anything. Next time, you’ll pay attention to your home instead of gambling all your money away to the point where you can’t even pay to service the river that feeds into your crops.”

“How did you…”

“I see all…” She looked bored and did a shooing motion. “Go before I summon my husband. You do know what my husband has a reputation for… Don’t you?” Angela held a bored tone as the man stood up.

“I… You old bit–” Raine stepped forward and slapped the man.

“That is rude! You cannot ask for a favor and expect to get it. We get hundreds of thousands of prayers a day. We cannot answer them all. Now, you will leave or I will be forced to remove you myself,” Raine crossed her arms over her chest. “My lady’s tea time is important before she goes to bed and it is already LATE into the night. You do not trifle with the sleep of a goddess! NOW SHOO!”

“Enough Raine, he’s thick-headed,” Angela poured some tea into a cup and handed it to her avatar. “Drink up, please. I don’t need your feathers falling out.” The man had left quietly after being threatened this was good.

“…Yelena, I know you are here,” Angela smirked a bit as a slender vaewolf with red eyes bowed behind her after emerging from the shadows. “Make sure he doesn’t cause any harm to my people. You know what to do if he should.”

“Yes Second Mother,” Yelena bowed again and the girl was gone.

"What a tiring day we've had. It took us all day to get those pirates to give us this stuff…" Angela sighed. "I even resorted to making their ship grow roots."

Author: Bianca Bathory, Posted: Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:04 AM, Post Subject: Remember to Breathe[O,R]

Evening was slowing falling over the lands again as the full moon was illuminating the streets of the pirate city. But a full moon in this city was fare more active than many others. With the higher population of the wicked, evil and unlawful in this area, a full moon was an active time for many. For many more, it was the best excuse they needed to stay inside one of the many taverns in the city and be ‘safe’, while they ate and drank until the ‘safer’ morning arrived.

In one such tavern, the Blood Drop Inn, sat a lone figure at the far end of the bar, head down with more than their fair share of bottles around them. Fiery red hair, unkept for a few days by the look of it, fall around their head, half of long and would be hanging lose around their shoulders, the other half in corn rows pulled back. Though a few of the rows showed signs of coming apart.

As the night continued to spread across the city, more and more people filtered into the tavern, eager to off the streets for the full moon night. They took up the rest of the seats as card and dice games started to be played and the tavern servers got busy with drink and food orders. Once in a while the lone figure who only proved to not be passed out by making a hand gesture at the closest barmaid and maybe a small grunt, would order another drink. The moment the drink was placed before them silver was paid ahead of time.

The only time then the red haired person would raise their head would be to drink. In that fleeting moment if one was looking in their direction they would see face that would be hard to decide if it portrayed a female or male visage, and fire orange eyes that seemed to glow slightly in shadow. A strongly built figure with feminine curves, but if you asked your friend to look a moment later they might ask what you meant, since what they saw was a sleek and lithe built fighter that looked more masculine.

At the other end of the bar one of the regulars got the attention of the bartender. ”Hey, who is that? Weren’t they here last night?”

”Ya, hasn’t moved from there since then, just keeps drinking, but as long as she pays.”

”So, she is a woman?”

”Maybe, I don’t know, all I know when she orders a drink she pays, that’s good enough for me.” The bartender shrugged and walked away to fill an order for another client. Just then a shattering of glass filled the tavern and everything went silent as the bartender looked over to the red headed figure with a scowl. A shattered glass was on the bar top, having been crushed by the person, ale spilled across the counter along with shards of the glass. ”Bianca, kindly not break my fucking glassware if you can help it, or I will kick you out.”

The figure, Bianca, only glanced up from the bar top long enough to look at the bartender, their eyes clearly showed how drunk and tired they were. Without a word Bianca pulled a few more coins from a pocket and tossed them on the counter and then ordered a replacement drink.

A few seconds of silence again as the bartender quickly cleaned the spill and glass and replaced the drink with a new one and everyone went back to their own business once more.