Ari ♫ ♪ ♬ (gracenotes) wrote in emillion, @ 2013-07-12 10:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !log, arielle chiaro, audrey leradine, sky min |
When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled...
Who: Audrey, Ari, & Sky
What: Hazing the bb, distracting Audrey, and making connections. In a brothel. Basically good times.
Where: Sapphire House
When: Today; just after 2:00pm
Rating: PG
Status: Complete
The idea had been inspired, if she could say so herself. The kid needed a guiding hand and, well, Aud needed a distraction, and she never could resist a kid in trouble. It wasn’t that Ari didn’t understand that loss hit hard - after Ancelot’s death the previous year, she had been insensible for weeks - but the sheer amount of alcohol Audrey was using to drown her sorrows was worrisome at best. So she had contacted Sky, arranged this meeting, and talked Aud’s skills up to high heaven on the way over - I might be the better bard but she’s the better bard; believe me, you won’t regret meeting her - and hoped for the best. The fact that she was taking a teenager to a whorehouse didn’t even occur to her as a problem - if he was going to be Thieves’ Guild, he’d see far worse long before he reached his majority. The ladies and gentlemen at Sapphire were nothing if not perfectly courteous - if also occasionally mostly nude. And so, she sailed past reception and through the common area of the brothel to the back door which hid the stairs leading to living quarters, trusting that Sky would follow as she traversed the familiar path to Audrey’s room. To say that Sky was trying his very best not to gawk would be an outrageous lie that not even he could try to cover up no matter how hard he tried. To his credit, he didn’t let Ari get more than twenty, maybe twenty-five paces ahead of him before he hurried to catch up. Most didn’t seem to mind, and some even winked and waved at him, and not just the ladies. Sky found himself at a complete loss of how to react to any of it, but he knew that he needed to move faster or else he was going to need a cold shower and soon, and that was not an embarrassment he was willing to handle right now. So he dashed to keep Ari within arm’s reach, and this time, luckily, they were in a hallway where there was no one to see, just people to hear. This was probably the least comfortable he had been in a long while. The only comfort he could find right now was knowing just how freaked out his parents would be if they knew he was here. His mother would probably faint. With that thought, he laughed as they finally stopped at a door. Then he remembered why they were even here. To meet Ari’s friend who could teach him about being a, ahem, “bard,” and he wasn’t sure if he hoped that this was part of the gig or not. Nonetheless, he was very intrigued about who was behind the door and a little bit uncomfortable and intimidated, though he’d never let either of them know it. He took in a deep breath as Ari knocked on the door, waiting with baited breath for possibly his new mentor. Audrey had been sitting in her room, her eyes glued on a gossip column in the newspaper. It was the only source of entertainment she had at the moment, and she wasn’t about to start picking up fine literature. With a swig of her flask, she continued to read the material when she heard knocking at the door. It was still morning (for Audrey at least, being a night owl and all). She was still wearing her pajamas which left nothing to the imagination. It was a small tank top and some shorts she had kept around. Opening the door, she blinked a couple of times before registering who was in front of her. With a flick of her thumb, she opened the flask and took a swig. Although she was nowhere close to a buzz, the smell of alcohol on her mouth was strong. Audrey’s eyes drifted down to the kid behind Ari. Clicking her tongue, she raised her eyebrows. “Who’s the kid?” He was young, probably twelve or something. Opening her door wider, she let the two in, ushering them inside and away from the whores who had other things on their mind. “Did you even think when you brought him here?” Audrey asked loudly as she shut the door. Another glance was given to Sky as she got close to him, almost as if inspecting him. Her hand came up to pinch his chin, forcing Sky to look up at her face. It then traveled up to push his mouth open with one hand and look at his teeth. “He isn’t a street rat, is he?” Audrey took one last sip before closing the flask and tossing it on her bed. “You’ll have to speak to the matron if she’ll take him in. I can put in a good word, but I don’t like his eyes. They’re too rambunctious for a whore.” “Audrey,” Ari said on something between a gasp and a laugh, “focus. He’s not here for an audition, and I doubt he’d know what to do with the patrons downstairs.” He really didn’t seem to be the type. “He’s a pickpocket.” Such things were safe to say within the confines of Sapphire House, fortunately. No pretense about bards here. “And, sad to say, he keeps getting caught with his hand places it oughtn’t to be. Terrible waste of a face like his.” She gave Sky an amused look, knowing he was probably mortified. “I can’t take an apprentice, and Arwel will only teach him how to doctor smuggling profits - if he’s lucky.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, said, “Someone ought to help him out before he winds up in gaol.” Sky scowled and jerked away from Ari’s friend -- Audrey, did she call her? “Not a streetrat,” he muttered, though neither woman seemed to have heard him. He rubbed where Audrey’s hand had been, letting Ari do the talking as he tried to put his sweet and innocent face back on, but it was hard, especially when Ari started talking about his failings and his possible fate if he didn’t get any guidance. His nose wrinkled to show his disdain. “Better than you think I am,” he said a little more loudly, knowing that they would have heard that. But he just shrugged and decided, well, if this woman here was supposed to be an actual ninja, though she didn’t look like one in Sky’s best estimation, he had to behave at least a little. “And yeah, Arwel’s useless. Hoping you’re not.” As he jerked away, Audrey couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Easy, child,” she cooed with the softness of a mother’s voice, though her face held a completely different story. With her arms crossed over her chest, Audrey simply glared back at her best friend. Narrowing her eyes, she could see what Ari was up to. This kid was just a distraction from her drinking. Clicking her tongue again in slight disgust at the situation Ari was seemingly forcing her into. She took another swig from her flask. It was in that instant, Audrey had used Blink. The fake continued to stand in front of Sky while her real body stood behind him, arms crossed. She made eye contact with Ari before rolling her eyes and taking the kid into a headlock. “You come into my house asking for my help and imply that I’m the useless one?” Audrey’s double had dissipated into thin air leaving the real copy wrestle with the child. Letting him go and kicking his butt forward, she rested her hands on her hips. “Child, I can hear your fat feet waddling. You’re no more inconspicuous than a cactuar in a herd of chocobo.” Ari answered the glare with her most innocent smile. Sure, they both knew what was happening here, but the boy did need teaching, and Audrey did need distracting. Not to mention the fact that she thought they might enjoy each other’s company. Eventually. Once Audrey stopped drinking herself into a stupor and Sky stopped posturing. She couldn’t help a laugh as the boy was easily misled by Audrey’s tricks. It was comforting to note, too, that Audrey was still sober enough to use those tricks. She mused, “Perhaps a few lessons in manners would not be amiss, either.” He would hear much worse than her words - or Audrey’s - from others in the guild. The hazing was practically required. Every apprentice went through it. “I--hey!” His protest over Audrey calling him child died the instant that there were two of them, one that just stood in front of him and one that started manhandling like some piece of-- of livestock or something. When she let him go, Sky just stared, mouth agape, before an awed, “Cool!” slipped past his mouth, enough that he didn’t hear Ari’s remark. “How did you do that?” he gasped, stumbling ahead a bit and repositioning himself to stare at both women. So Audrey really was a ninja after all, wearing the most clever disguise! Ha! He’d forgive the headlock if she showed him how to do that! “Ninja ability,” she replied with an unenthused voice. Audrey turned to Ari and nodded. “I couldn’t agree more. His stupid mouth is a big problem.” Sighing, she looked back at the boy although she was clearly still addressing Ari. “I have yet to take a mentee. I am not here to make him a Ninja by any means, I myself still have much to learn. However, I can teach him the ways of a thief-- that shouldn’t be an issue.” Clearing her throat, she now addressed the shorter boy. “So, out with it.” Hands were placed on her hips again. “Unless you want to be called child for the rest of your life, you ought to tell me your name.” Ninja! But he wanted to be a ninja, too! Why couldn't she teach him? Thieving was so lame compared to ninja. But first, the bigger problem. "I'm fifteen," he said, "I'm not a child." But Audrey looked so stern, and she was certain not to teach him anything about being a ninja if he kept this up. But oh, the different names he could call himself to her, except that Ari knew his name (or, aha, did she?), and, well, ninja. "Sky. Sky's my name." A beat. "Teach me the ninja stuff." “No,” Audrey’s voice was stern, her eyes only able to muster glares at the boy. “Fifteen,” she scoffed. “You can’t even buy me a drink. Your impatience doesn’t help your cause, child. I’ll call you Sky when I feel you deserve it.” Audrey’s eyes turned to face Ari, sneering at her as she knew this brought her some sick and twisted pleasure. “You need to learn a hell of a lot more responsibility before you can even think of the word: Ninja.” Audrey sighed, placing her hand on her forehead. Faram help her. “Maybe patience, too,” Ari said, though that was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. She had always been terrible with patience - though, she supposed, in her training she had eventually learned to have some, if only because her mentor had been particularly demanding. Really, in comparison, Audrey was a kitten. A kitten playing with a mouse, maybe. Well, the boy would handle himself. “You’ll thank me,” she said, mostly to Sky, but partially to Audrey, too. She needed this right now, and what were friends for if not to bring you what you needed but didn’t want? She answered the sneer with another sweet smile. “I’ll feel better knowing he’s in good hands.” With that said, she stepped away from the two of them, walking over to settle herself cross-legged on the floor among a pile of the pillows Audrey had scattered everywhere. Pulling her lute case around, she unfastened it and removed the instrument. “Don’t mind me,” she said lightly as she began to tune it. Might as well amuse herself - and keep an eye on them - while they talked. “I could steal a drink for you,” he pointed out. No, he wouldn’t do something so brash and nick it out of a store -- yet. Bottles were harder to smuggle out unnoticed and Sky didn’t see the point in trying. Yet. But he could see if Arwel had a stash of booze, and it was something on his To Do list since Zhang kept his sake well-stocked and well-hidden and then, just before Sky left for Emillion, well-locked, but if Audrey was going to insist on calling him “child” instead of his name, well, he saw no reason to do this for her. So he crossed his arms and scowled at her instead. “Too late,” he said haughtily. “I’m already thinking it.” Ninja. There. “You’re missing my point, but I suppose than itself proves the maturity you lack.” Audrey sighed, hiding her face in the palm of her hand. “Such a child.” Audrey lifted her gaze and glared across the room at Ari. She definitely didn’t need this. Not right now. At the very end of the last word he uttered, Audrey had already picked up a folded hand fan and smacked down on his head. “I’ve had enough. Ari, this is a lost cause.” Lowering the fan, her free hand went up her forehead and pulled her bangs back. She was getting a headache. Ari looked up from her strumming, her expression remaining cheerfully unperturbed. “I don’t know that we were much better at his age,” she pointed out. After a moment, she added, for honesty’s sake, “well, maybe a little better, but he is a boy.” They had known their share of boys far cockier than this one. “Give him two weeks,” she said, in her most coaxing tone of voice. “Please, for me? Send him on errands if you like. Do you remember the time Master Pavarolli asked me for that very specific type of melon, and we scoured the city for nearly eight hours before he admitted to us that it didn’t exist in the first place?” Granted, having pulled Audrey into the hunt, her day had not been entirely wasted, but she remembered her frustration with clarity. A lesson in humility, her mentor had called it. “He’ll run them without complaint, too, if he wants to earn the right to think about ninjas.” She gave the boy a look heavy with warning: Push further and I’m not responsible for helping you any longer. “Unless he wants to go back to cooking Arwel’s books... until he gets caught by the wrong person and jailed. A shame if it went that way; I don’t think he’s a bad kid.” It was Ari’s Look that made Sky hunch his shoulders and stuff his hands in his pockets with a scowl. “Oh fine,” he said. “Whatever. I’ll be... good.” Well, mostly. Or at least the illusion of good. And he did want to learn all about being a ninja, and, well, Audrey was as good a place to start as any, even if she wouldn’t teach him anything useful for a while yet. But errands? Ugh. But maybe he’d at least be out and about in the city instead of stuck behind a desk in Arwel’s stuffy warehouse. Better than nothing, he guessed, and it wasn’t like Pyr was able to choose his mentors either, right? Ari always had a way to calm Aud. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly and nodded to Ari. Her gaze dropped back on the shorter boy, lowering herself and leaning forward so they were eye to eye. Aud’s nose was only inches from the boy’s as she glared daggers into his very core. “Two weeks,” she raised her forefinger and middle finger to emphasize the number. “You have two weeks to convince me not to throw you into the gaol myself.” Standing straight, she raised her arms over her head and stretched them out while cracking her neck. “Alright, you want something to do kid? Look out that window. My room is the attic, so while there’s three stories to this building, we’re on the fourth. Get out of my room. You can only use that window. If you break your leg, scream for help. I’ll be sitting here with Ari.” Audrey shoved his shoulder. “Go.” Now that she had given the boy an assignment, Ari was pretty sure Aud wouldn’t kick him out. At least, not until the two weeks were up - and if he knew what was good for him, he’d find his own way to endear himself before then. With the likes of Arwel as keeper, Audrey Leradine was going to be the best thing to ever happen to him. Because she knew it would amuse Audrey, who desperately needed amusing - and remind the boy exactly who held the power here - she began singing along with her strumming, making up words as she went. “Bravely bold Thief Sky Vaulted the windowsill. He was not afraid to die, Oh brave Thief Sky. He was not at all afraid To fall and die in a nasty way. Brave, brave brave, brave Thief Sky...” “Are you crazy?” Sky huffed after he ambled over to the window, opened it, and looked down. But, then, didn’t ninjas do this kind of stuff all the time? “Where am I supposed to go? Down?” He wasn’t afraid of heights. No, sir. He was just not used to anything this high. Trees back home, easy. A building this tall? Well, let it not be said that Sky was a coward. Besides, he wasn’t going to fall and break his leg. No way. There looked to be a ledge that he could step down on, and he had a good grip and his balance was decent, he thought. But then Ari started singing, which only made Sky scowl all the more. He turned to direct that look to her and crossed his arms. “I’m not going to die,” he snapped. But he didn’t seem in any hurry to climb out the window. Arching a brow at him, enjoying Audrey’s merriment, Ari kept right on taunting. “Brave Thief Sky ran away. Bravely ran away, away. When danger reared its ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled. Yes, brave Thief Sky turned about And gallantly he chickened out. Bravely taking to his feet, He beat a very brave retreat. Bravest of the brave, Thief Sky!” And if that didn’t get him over the windowsill, nothing would. Sky’s face flushed with anger and he clenched his fists. “I’m not running away,” he said through gritted teeth. “Watch.” Then he began his climb out the window, his eyes trailing for that small ledge he had noticed earlier. He turned so that his front faced the outer wall of the building, his fingers gripping the windowsill and his toes on that lone brick that was sticking out. Well, that seemed a lot smaller now that he was stepping on it. Crap. “So, what, now I go down?” But Ari kept singing and Audrey kept laughing. Sky grumbled and tiptoed across to the next... whatever his toes could find, which seemed smaller and less sturdier than the brick. He didn’t want to let go of the windowsill but he had no choice and how was he supposed to get down exactly? Great. “A little help?” But nothing came back to him. Okay, fine. He’d just have to figure this out for himself. So he scooted along the wall as best as he could, his fingers on occasion slipping but he always managed to regain his grip. Once he reached the corner of the building, his hands wrapped around the cold metal of the pipe, and he found his out. “Yes!” he cackled with glee. He hadn’t thought it all the way through though, and he discovered it too late. He slipped down the pipe, his shirt catching on a nail or screw or something and not only did his shirt get torn up but it scratched up his chest also. He was a story up from the ground when his hands, raw from the friction, gave and released themselves from the pipe, and he landed on the ground with a indelicate THUD. “OW!” he yelled, and probably some more. Would they even hear him from all the way up there? It was the first real laugh Audrey had ever since Leila’s passing. She was doubled over, hugging her stomach and trying so hard not to cry. Ari’s songs had a way of cheering her up. With one eye open, she could only see his hands clinging onto the windowsill for dear life. Audrey’s hand went over her mouth and she crawled over her bed and closer to the window. As soon as he had moved away from the window, Audrey peeked her head out. Her free hand ushered the bard over as she pointed at the kid struggling to get down. “C’mon, brave Thief Sky. Don’t you want to be a Ninja,” she teased out, muffling her laughter. “Watch out, that pole is--” Well, that’s one way of figuring things out. She laughed again, and tried to hide her face in her palm. “This’ll be fun,” she said, turning to Ari with that very familiar grin she always wore. “C’mon, we should check he’s fine. You can heal him, right?” Of course, by c’mon she meant: Ari take the damn stairs. Crouching on the windowsill, she gazed down at the height with a smirk. She climbed down the same way Sky had, her foot light on the lone brick with her upper arms doing most of the work. Beneath her were three horizontal poles for laundry sticking from the building. Having done this a hundred times, she knew the pole could take her weight. Dropping, her hands caught the pole and she had begun to swing herself to the next, catching it like monkey bars until she had reached the same pole Sky had tried. Unlike him, she she had jumped to reach it, most of the weight as held with her thighs allowing to slide carefully down until her feet touched the ground. Digging her hands in her pockets, Audrey sauntered over to Sky with a wide grin. Poking his side with her foot, she raised her eyebrows. “You alright, child?” Ari gave the side of the building a considering look. She had scaled her fair share of walls, too, and she could make it down - almost certainly - but with the lute? Probably crazy. But... The kid was watching. It took her awhile, and she wasn’t as graceful as Audrey, and the instrument on her back kept threatening to drag her down, but she managed it, somehow. Her landing wasn’t elegant, but it was sound. She sauntered over, knelt and looked him over. “Anything broken?” she asked. With the way he had landed, it didn’t seem that way; she pulled the lute around and said, “All right, sit still.” Life Song didn’t take long, especially since he was barely scraped up. She had a notion his dignity was far more injured than his body. She sang almost perfunctorily, and finished the last chord just as the deepest of the scratches across his chest closed to pink and tender new skin. That was hardly fair. They made it look easy. He couldn’t quite cross his arms in a childish pout until after Ari had finished singing and his broken skin healed, and while he was curious about how her singing had done that he had a bigger problem: that he had made an idiot out of himself in front of them, had given them cause to be right about him earlier, and that, he could not have. “Again,” he spat. “That was a fluke. I’m better than that. Just you watch.” Audrey had crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head. “No, that’s enough. We’ll do something smaller next time. You’ll meet me in the mornings from now on. We’ll go climb some trees outside Emillion until your balance is better. Your arms are weak. They need toughening.” This would be a fun project. Ari had instilled some sort of inspiration in her as she gleamed down at the kid. “I’ll mold him to do good things,” she spoke to Ari, though loud enough for Sky to hear. “Alright. Get up, child. Enough lazing around. Might as well run errands for me while you’re here. And don’t think for a second I won’t know you’re shirking your duties. I got eyes everywhere.” Stepping back, she grinned at her best friend. “Thanks.” Ari grinned back. “You’re welcome.” It was good to see Audrey acting like her old self again. It was a rough time, sure, but it seemed like everything was going to be fine. |