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Vedette Niveue-Uthral ([info]in_the_service) wrote in [info]adusta,
@ 2010-09-06 00:18:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:ithacles, vedette uthral

inebriation duty (ithacles)
It didn't matter if there was four feet of snow on the ground or if it was summer, they would still be out guarding either way. Vedette certainly didn't mind the fact that they'd had to walk around in circles to pack the snow down so they could stand around without the men's legs freezing. In fact, she delighted in it. At first it'd begun as a journey out into the woods and changing shifts with another five soldiers, but it had soon turned into three of the men that accompanied Vedette and Ithacles complaining about the cold. Even Ithacles, when he felt like talking, complained. His cot was finer then the rest of theirs. Vedette's was merely made to look like the other men's coats, but it wasn't nearly as warm as theirs. Two of them had built a fire after clearing the snow away from the ground completely, and the other man set about fixing what Vedette assumed was stew.

It could have been poison. They tasted the same.

After they were fed, and set to their duties all of them began to exchange their flasks. Vedette had with her a flask filled with a peach schnapps, sweeter than the rest of their drinks, but if she'd put wine into her flask it would have tasted poor. She wasn't as fond of brandy, or whiskey so this was what she'd chosen before leaving the castle. She knew, eventually, that the alcohol was going to make her warmer than she would feel comfortable with out here in the snow. She also knew that eventually Ithacles would be drunk, and she didn't mind that so much. This guard duty was just, pointless? She didn't want to say that out loud. But they were guarding a forest in the dead of winter. The orc wouldn't attack here and now.

Certainly no one with any brains would.

The three men with them took to their drinking quickly and soon enough all of them had sat down against a log they'd dug out of the snow beside the fire and passed out. They were warm enough, apparently, and didn't take their time drinking, where as she still had a nearly full flask and Ithacles was armed with the men's flasks and his own. They had another log to themselves on the other side of the fire, and Vedette had positioned herself as far from it as was possible. Ithacles seemed to be having a good time, either way.

He'd been laughing along with all of them until the men had passed out.

"Are you enjoying this?" She glanced over at him with a smile on her face. "Out here in the cold?" She raised her eyebrows then put her flask to her lips and tipped it back until a mouthful of the peach liquor filled her mouth.

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-06 07:51 am UTC (link)
"No? Of course not. I can't feel my face."

He slapped himself with a glove to prove it. The air was simply frigid. And absolutely still, just a wall of cold pressed right up against your eyeballs. And hushed, that dead heavy air of winter set all around them and black. You could see about thirty feet out with the fire, the stark silhouettes of tree trunks crisp against the inky dark. Silvery mists of snow drifted between the trunks sparkling in what muted yellow light caught them.

It would be sort of comfortable when he got drunk. So he tipped the flask up once more, all tucked down into his bedding with a wool skullcap pulled over his eyebrows.

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-06 08:04 am UTC (link)
"You won't be feeling much of anything if you finish your flask. Well, except maybe a bit warm." Vedette capped her flask.

Vedette was pretty sure he was exhaggerating, but maybe she should have been more concerned about him being cold. She was insanely concerned about the fact that he'd probably get so drunk that taking off his jacket would be appealing. Well, maybe not that appealing. He enjoyed drinking but he wasn't stupid. Vedette nodded towards the fire.

"You could always lay down beside the fire. I'll warn you if it throws sparks your way." She should have offered him her jacket. Or perhaps went to her pack to pull out one of the wool blankets they'd been sent off with. She glanced back towards where the packs were piled, but only ended up uncapping her flask again and taking another pull.

"Or I could go get you one of those wool blankets we brought up with us."

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-06 07:31 pm UTC (link)
"Or you could keep your god damn trap shut? Yeah?"

And then he scooped a handful of snow up and tossed it her way. He was fully prepared for her to overreact and pretend as if she didn't know it was a joke. That's how women are.

"I'm going to move my legs a bit," he said. He rolled out of his bedding and crunched two small steps over to the fire. There were a few oval shaped bladders of leather full of water set up near the edge of the fire ring. He grabbed one with his gloves and brought it back over to his heavy furred sleeping bag. He dropped the thing in and nestled all the blankets around it, retrieved two of the flasks, and started walking off into the trees. Twenty feet out they were brightly lit with yellow, then suddenly the light dropped off to a dusky orange. Then it was all almost completely black.

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-06 07:41 pm UTC (link)
Vedette shook off the snow, although really, such a thing wasn't insulting for him to do. And it was just like Ithacles to be dramatic with his joking. She huffed in an annoyed way though really she enjoyed such things.

But human women were suppose to hate these things. She got up after him, but only tagged behind after he'd been walking for awhile. She still had her flask open.

She kept quiet because he asked, though she stooped down and grabbed a great handful of snow and packed it in her cupped hands as she held the flask by her teeth. She wound up and threw it right at the back of his head.

She was grinning when she pulled her flask out of her mouth.

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-06 08:01 pm UTC (link)
As soon as the snow hit him he was swearing. Oddly quick reaction for a drunk but it happened like this:

Thumpsh--"flogged in fucking public!"

He wheeled around and started shaking his shoulders all around, trying to get the snow to go all the way down his back instead of melting around his neck. Then he tightened his scarf to prevent that from ever happening again, stooped over, and looked for the flask he'd dropped. Pat pat pat he tapped around in the snow for it.

"If you just lost the whiskey I don't think we can remain friends."

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-06 08:06 pm UTC (link)
"I never said I was your friend." Vedette chimed from her place behind him, though now she'd taken to leaning on a tree and watching him with an amused twist to her lips.

She dusted some of the snow from her boots by tapping her boots against the tree, but otherwise she didn't move to go look for the whiskey.

"All this searching and jumping around ought to keep you warm, your highness." She was enjoying this just a little too much. She loosened her collar by unbuttoning it and pulling it open. three down and half her jacket was open but she didn't even so much as shiver.

It felt so absolutely wonderful out here.

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-07 03:41 am UTC (link)
"I never said I was your friend."

"Well, with us or against us, Captain Uthral...Here it is."

He came back up with the battered flask. The other one was peeking out of his pocket though it was hard to tell in the dim, sluggish firelight thhat managed to creep their way through the dead air. His gloves slipped twice on the knobbed cap before he managed to loosen it. He gingerly held the cap in his palm because the gloves were thick enough that he could easily drop it and not even notice.

"All this searching and jumping around ought to keep you warm, your highness."

"Thanks for the advice," he muttered before he took a drink. It was actually very good whiskey for once, aged in casks that had been used for sherry. His chest felt warm though it wasn't cold in the first place. Like he'd said earlier it was only nose and eyes that felt the sting of impossibly unkind air. He looked up and the strip of stars shimmering blue through the spindly branches looked closer than they should have.

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-07 10:37 pm UTC (link)
She pushed off the tree and trudged through the snow until she was beside him. She tapped her flask against his and smiled.

"Of course I'm your friend, Ithacles. I'm just wondering why you came out to do this duty. You could be warm inside the castle, looking at diplomatic documents or learning the lute.. something princely. Instead you're out in the cold drinking with your Captain." She tossed back the flask again.

She was beginning to feel warm.

"You're unlike any Prince I've ever known. Not that I've known many. Read about others.. But. You know what I mean."

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-10 08:13 pm UTC (link)
"Of course I'm your friend, Ithacles."

He slapped his hands together in applause with a stupid smile.

"That's more like it!"

He shivered inside his coat almost out of instinct--he didn't feel that cold anymore. He was distracted from her question when the bough of a tree shedded the great load od snow. Slumf! it all came down in a big pile.

"I get stir crazy in there, Vedette. It's an enormous castle but I don't think any building in the world is big enough to keep Lethe off your back. It's like being locked in a fucking closet!"

He gunned another mouthful of whiskey.

"You're unlike any Prince I've ever known. Not that I've known many. Read about others.. But. You know what I mean."

"I think it's inherited," he said. "Take a look at the family tree some time--I mean, my cousin's so fucking crazy they actually had to give him a better name."

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-13 03:29 am UTC (link)
"Oh! You mean the Champion of the... was it Cheetah? Panther?" Vedette smiled at him and gently punched him in the arm when he turned to look at her with his mouth hanging open a little in disbelief.

"I know it's Lion." She started to laugh, her cheeks were geting pink from all the alcohol. Her coat was half open and she didn't look even a bit cold.

"I don't blame you for avoiding Lethe, I avoid her all the time. But then you know.. It's much easier for me to escape." SHe bit her lower lip while smiling at him widely. He shouldn't have been so cold, but then.. even with all his jackets he was human.. or half elf.. or whatever it was.

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-13 05:22 am UTC (link)
When Ithacles was young, and Pathacles was still alive, Flaithriaoh had come to Faustben to meet the other heir of Ithunvel. They were standing around by a barrel of ale, his brother and cousin each with a tankard, and Ithacles with whatever they'd give him when no one was looking. Pathacles had an arm done up in a sling.

That one likes you, Pathacles said. More than likes, Flaithri added. Ithacles remembered looking over and seeming some daughter of some lord with her bright red done up in platinum combs. Ithacles might have been good with falcons and with a bow but he'd spent so much of his time in the fields learning the way wind moved and game travelled that he'd never so much as thought to look into girls.

How can you tell?

She just bit her lip, Flaithri said.

Well, Ithacles mentioned, they haven't fed us yet.

Yeah, you're a bit young still Flaithri said into his tankard.

So there was Vedette gnawing on her lip like it was going to give her information and Ithacles holding a flask in each hand.

"Yeah, Lion, they're obsessed with them. And it's easier to escape when every man in the fuckin' place can't get brave enough to make eye contact with you," he laughed as the sentence came to an end. Then he took another sip of whiskey, a small one on his teeth.

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-13 05:29 am UTC (link)
She laughed then, taking another drink from her flask before she held her other hand out to take one of his.

"I don't know why they find me intimidating. Or maybe it's because I'm a girl and a captain.. It makes no sense to me. I work just as hard as they do. I like jokes.. I enjoy sitting around and drinking." She was watching him, leaning her head to her side.

"You make eye contact with me all the time. No problem at all."

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-13 05:41 am UTC (link)
Yeah, Vedette, it was the girl part. He glanced down as if wondering how to phrase something, with a bit of a shrug. Difficult to tell a pretty girl she's pretty...

"Your nickname hasn't gotten back to you yet?" he asked.

"I have a nickname?"

"Aufrelein," he said in deliberate but upbeat Albrecht. She didn't react--probably didn't know that word, and why would she?--so he clarified with a wave of his flask.

"It means...not quite 'sexy' but...Doesn't translate directly. The girl every other woman hates and every man wants. Can't believe no one's said it in front of you yet."

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-13 05:49 am UTC (link)
Oh. Vedette opened her mouth to say oh, but couldn't. She put her flask back in her mouth and took another long drink. It was just dropping the last of the drink by the time she was done with it. Vedette was never comfortable with the way.. well she liked it sometimes. She just tried very hard to be professional here in Faustben. She had a job and a purpose..

It wasn't very becoming of a soldier to be.. like that. Or to have people see her like that. She didn't see herself like that. Some men had told her of it before Faustben.. warned her of it.

She just.. was the way she was.

"Ha.. Oh.. They're strange aren't they?" It was suddenly uncomfortably hot. She couldn't not look at him of course. He could look at her.

Did that mean he didn't call her Aufrelein then? Probably not.

He had women throwing themselves at his feet all the time after all.

"Prettier girls all over Faustben for them to fawn over after all."

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-13 06:03 am UTC (link)
"They're strange aren't they?"

He shrugged with pursed lips and pulled up brows. Not his call to make, after all. Also the strangest person in the immediate vicinity commenting on the strangeness of others--he should've seen that coming.

"Prettier girls all over Faustben for them to fawn over after all."

"Oh, of course, left and right," he agreed hastily. He closed up his flasks and thrust them into pockets so deep and padded that he couldn't even feel them hanging there in his furred jacket. "Maybe in the mysterious no-name village you're from."

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-13 06:07 am UTC (link)
Vedette turned her flask over. Nothing.

Right when she needed it the most.

She looked away when he agreed quickly. Of course there were prettier girls.. left and right.. and forward and back for someone like the prince of Faustben. Vedette closed her flask and shoved it into her pocket.

She wanted to go beat up a tree. Or something.

But he kept talking.

"What?

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-17 03:30 am UTC (link)
"What?"

"Huh?"

He tugged his head back on the sound and crushed his brows together, as if he was the one to be wholly perplexed.

"Which, uh, which part of that confused you? Sorry."

He beat his hands together to force blood to squeeze into the tight things that used to be agile fingers.

"Oh, no, I didn't hear you," she said back.

"I made a joke at your expense," he waved. "We don't have to dwell on it. Let's talk about your outfit--where's the ball?"

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-17 05:41 am UTC (link)
"Where's the ball?" Vedette said slowly, smiling at him. She had her jacket undone enough and realized how silly it must have looked to not be as heavy furred as he was. She was trying to blend in and failing, apparently. She shrugged one shoulder with a half smile pulling one side of her face up more than the other.

"Hopeing you can marry me again? Sorry, you had your chance." She laughed then.

"I drank a lot. I'm rather warm." She held out her hands, and when he just stared at her she seized his in her own and cupped her hands over his. It didnt cover hi larger hands completely, but she was rather warm. Warmer than she normally was. Out here in the snow, in her element, she didn't feel deathly cold at all.

Her cheeks were even just a touch pink. She rubbed her hands down his and hook her head a little while laughing.

"You're going to turn into an Ithaclesicle one of these days."

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-18 05:45 am UTC (link)
"I'm rather warm," she said. The only part of his skin exposed to the air was his face. So with her hands over his he leaned forward, pressing his cheek to hers.

"You are, actually."

"You're going to turn into an Ithaclesicle one of these days."

"You're not that funny, though."

Not much else to do though, right? Only one option seemed plausible. He fell back into the snow beneath a great yawning pine and dragged her with him. Gloves around her back he pulled the woman on top of his chest and held her close, pulling her bottom lip in between his own.

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-18 06:10 am UTC (link)
She laughed in his ear for a moment when he told her she wasn't that funny, but she knew she felt funny. Felt weak in her legs, and a thunder in her chest. He was too close. She shouldn't have taken hi hands. Normally she was better with her reactions but a lot of alcohol was a lot of alcohol. An attractive man had just pulled her down into the snow, which was by far one of her favorite places to be, and had captured her lower lip in his mouth while pulling her body against his.

It was hard to argue. But she was a little wide eyed. Her cheeks were a solid pink now, which was strange for someone who never seemed to blush.

"Huh.." It took her a few seconds.

Well. He was cold... Her hands pressed into the sides of his neck, between his skin and the fur of his jacket until she could splay her fingers and hold his face. She half closed her eyes and pressed her mouth against his since he had her caught there already.

Maybe this'd warm him up.

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-18 06:28 am UTC (link)
Ithacles thought about it and could honestly say that he'd never tried to kiss a woman who was this fully clothed. They were half buried in crushed powder snow in a heap of furs and gloves. Her surprisingly warm fingers around his jaw as if he was going somewhere.

I'm drunk aren't I?

His hands grabbed the backs of her legs, hauled her over his hips and forced her to sit up. He followed her and with one quick swipe of a hand he tossed his hat off into the black shadows. Put his mouth against her throat and pressed his tongue against her skin.

Yes a bit drunk.

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-18 06:37 am UTC (link)
There was one thing Ithacles was very very good at, well two things now that she was thinking about it. The first thing was being in charge, the second was kissing her. The being in charge part was for the better because she was completely devoid of any other thought then keeping him right where he was and doing what he was doing. Her breathing hiked immediately when he pulled her up and then pressed his mouth to her neck. Her hands wandered and her held her head back tilted enough to give him as much skin to work with as possible.

She was trying to think, and failing. Over and over again.

He's a prince!

He certainly is!

No! He's a Prince.

It didn't matter how much she argued with herself, her fingers were trying to pry his jacket open and get to more of his skin, while her body was trying to press as much against him as was possible without ruining the idea of getting his jacket open. It didn't bother her in the least bit that they were in a pile of snow. It should have bothered Vedette. Should have.

She was forgetting to act.

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-19 04:46 am UTC (link)
Most people don't kiss with their eyes open, considering how rude it is, but for some reason Ithacles opened his for a moment. Perhaps to get a look at the woman putting her warm nose in his ear. It sent a tingle down the entire left half of his body.

But for whatever reason he had them open, and one hand splayed up inside the suspiciously thin layers of clothing she wore, and he saw something move in the shadows. Ten yards out.

"Make noise," he said hesitantly.

"Really?" she said. And she gasped out a beautiful warm thing practically aching with everything goood about a woman. The she kissed him again.

"No," he insisted into her mouth. Then he tapped her roughly on the back and pointed.

Sure enough there was something. A bear. Just where it shouldn't have been; outside in the dead snap of winters. A huge black shape amongst all the other black. It huffed a breath out into the air and passed behind two trees.

Ithacles started clapping his hands together. Pat pat pat! behind her back.

"If a bear is startled it goes fucking berserk. You have to let them know you're near."

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-19 04:57 am UTC (link)
Vedette made another noise in her throat, but this wasn't anything like that tender gasp which had made the both of them warm at once. Instead it was a frustrated and annoyed thing. She turned her head and watched the black shape. Part of her wanting to stumble out into the snow and show the bear exactly how much she appreciated the inturruption, which was to say, not at fucking all. Vedette cupped her hands and clapped loudly behind his head. What noise could she make as a human to scare a bear.

"Should I just yell? Like. HEY!" And she yelled, turning her head so she didn't yell directly into his ear.

She kind of hated everything suddenly. She'd felt so good a second ago. Maybe she should have been more worried about the bear, but it was just a goddamned bear. She could eat a bear.

Well. Vedette couldn't. Iluq could.

"Hey bear! We were busy!" She was obviously drunker than she'd been in a long time.

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[info]ogreslayer
2010-09-20 04:40 am UTC (link)
"Should I just yell? Like. HEY!"

"Yeah," he winced.

He craned his head over her shoulder and watched the dark shape. It studied them for a long moment and his blood seemed cold. It was a little too sobering for comfort. He knew enough from keeping his own bear, knew what to look for. If it stood on its hind legs or faced them with its shoulders they'd most likely be killed.

"Hey bear! We were busy!"

It huffed again and began wandering away.

"Something must have gone in its cave and woken it up. They shouldn't be moving, this time of year."

He cradled Vedette gently and turned her away so that her back was in the snow, and then stood up. He offered her his hand.

"And we shouldn't be this far away from camp."

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[info]in_the_service
2010-09-20 04:49 am UTC (link)
Vedette stared at his hand for a moment, bewildered, had he honestly just.. he wanted to go back to camp. She stared at his hand, she didn't know where it came from but she was angry and.. insulted? Hurt? She took his hand and hefted herself to her feet. For a moment she wabbled there and his hand steadied her.

"Can you stand?" He said.

"Yes. Thanks." She muttered and started back toward the camp, and the fire. She couldn't believe that he'd just.. bear or not. It was incredibly hot out now and Vedette had no hope of cooling off simply by laying around in the snow. She trdged along, only side stepping once or twice out of the path they'd created in the first place.

There was the camp, and the fire. She flopped down beside the fire, uncomfortably warm, pulled a blanket around her shoulders and half over her head and closed her eyes.

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