RP:Dark Infatuations
Summary: Irenic meets a royal and is a little more gentlemanly than usual… Surprisingly.
Cerulean Flowers
In this newly discovered section of the Frostmaw mines, mist and fog forms as it is much warmer than the area around it. The environment in here could be compared to that of a sauna, as your skin begins to collect particles of water upon it from the dense humidity. Fauna grows wild here, though it is of a single variety: cerulean flowers with three petals each. It is a mystery as to how these flowers got here, or how they thrive in such harsh conditions. But, nonetheless, they are here, and they are flourishing in this outcropping from the mines.
Irenic is having better luck in the mines of Frostmaw than in Xalious so he's been sticking around and dogging and war-talk with the locals for it really isn't his business and he couldn't care less. His hair had been slicked back from the perspiration of hard work in the mines beyond so his mismatched gaze was unburdened, but soon that wouldn't matter for the fog was too dense from the heat of this cavern. With a grunt he unlatched the sword from his hips while the pick axe drops from his hand causing a clanking sound to echo in the air. He slips his damp shirt off and spreads it flat on a rock before lowering his six foot ten self upon a larger rock next to it as he attempts to relax with a bit of steam and sweat out the dirt from the mines. I mean it wasn't covered in soot, but it wouldn't go unnoticed of how it gathers with the glisten on his sweat in the valleys of his muscles…. He's nice 'eye-candy' besides the scarring and different colored eyes.
Josleen loves Frostmaw but hates the cold. The Thane came to the sauna seeking warmth. She wears an excessive number of layers over a modest bathing suit that covers up quite a bit of skin while still being elegant and sexy in a sophisticated way. She shed the outer layers and waded into the hot pool to warm her chilly bones. At the entrance of the cave a guard stands sentry, signaling that some dignitary or other must be inside. Normally Josleen can roam Frostmaw without a guard, but during wartime, security is heightened for the Thane, even within the city. Having soaked long enough, she joins the sauna and finds a tall, lithe, handsome stranger. She can tell immediately that he isn’t human by the angelic glow of his skin. She smiles politely and sits across from him. She tries not to stare, but can’t help sneaking a look from time to time.
Irenic noticed the guard after a moment and shortly after he was joined by fair looking half-elf. Irenic smirks back and gives a half-hearted bow fist over heart - the bending only tensing the muscles in the best of places. His own mismatched gaze was focused on a flower next to him as if in deep thought, but he couldn't help but to feel eyes on him as his gaze trails over to her now. A low gruff tone emits from him as he asks, "Is there something I might help you with?... Thane?" He remembered now from the coronation when she was dubbed thane of Frostmaw right before he left the dull party. He currently can't recall her actual name at the moment though, so he just leaves it at that while slipping out of his boots and massive ivory wings seem to slightly preen under her scrutiny.
Josleen spies the wings and has her suspicions confirmed. An avian. Had to be, for what other race has such radiant flesh and ethereal height? Now that he has addressed her, she may look at him more directly and without embarrassment. “Oh, forgive my staring. I rarely see your kind, especially here. I’ve been to Schezerade only once, as a child. What brings you this far north? Surely not the cold…”
Irenic shrugs at the providence name of Schezerade, "I am not really from anywhere important or anywhere you may have heard of." He was from a sort of tropical island and yes he hated the cold and even avoided flying in it. "I am use to the starring from when I was thought to be dead, so no worries there." His hands start to rub away the soot with his throw-away shirt and now it can be clearly seen that he is covered in quite the intricate tattoo - very warrior like and probably signifying something of great importance where he is from. His scarred lips spread in a wider smirk exposing crowded, but perfectly white teeth, "It's the quiet… The air is sharper and the mines are richer for the time being." His left wing curves about him so be may check on the growing feathers of what used to be a bald spot - he does not seem to ne the typical avian thus far.
Josleen grimaces slightly as the soot dirties the cave where others may some to enjoy the sauna. She says nothing out of politeness. “You mine?” She laughs in surprise, not having expected that. Avians who mine! Well, perhaps it isn’t so strange. They need stones to build with like any other civilization. “Perhaps I should have known.” She gestures with a wag of her brows at his soot. She looks at his bald spot and cants her head slightly to the side. Avians are typically quite proud of their feathers. “Mining injury?”
Irenic chuckled shortly, "Yup, mining injury." It's a lie, but he's not even being tried. His wings fold back to his athletic frame as his glance gets stolen for a second by the guard. "Mining for gems and such for gold. I am eventually going to purchase better armor." He sets his boots next to his weapon, pauses and repositions them and sits back but, no, wait, he shifts them again. He apparently has some form of OCD. When she wags her eye brows at him and 'checks him out' he fakes a gasp before his hands attempt to cover his bare torso, "Is the thane subjecting me to a flirtatious gaze?" He was merely teasing as those scarred lips smirk wider and the scarred left brow perks up.
Josleen can immediately smell a lie. The Thane is a rather good liar when she needs to be, and lately she’s been lying about one thing in particular. The object of her lie and infatuation is never far from her mind, but for the moment she can focus on something other than the war, and other than Him. So Irenic lied. So what? He’s a stranger to her and she has no right to beg the truth. She lets it go, genuinely disinterested. He accuses her of flirting with him and she laughs into the back of her hand. “Yes, of course,” she says, grinning impishly at her own joke, and winking for good measure. In her mind, it’s impossible that she would flirt with him, and thus because of this obvious ‘fact’, she is free to make jokes. This ‘fact’ may be less obvious to Irenic, of course. She takes a clean cloth off the rock beside her and gently dabs the sweat off her chest and arms with the posture and air of a high class woman. Her long golden hair sticks to her temples and neck. “You mentioned armor. Are you a warrior, then?”
Irenic was set on the rock, but not without the perfect posture of a military man and weather or not that still applies to him remains to be seen. When she joked of flirting she earned anther short chuckle from him, "Careful thane… People will talk if you get mixed up with the likes of me." He really doesn't care either way if someone is flirting with him or not or why not - he is a gruff sarcastic arse and knows there are people who don't like him. The air was still between them for a moment and he figured he'd better cut the crap and go back to 'Sir Edlin' the Juggernaut in the Island Vere armies. His hands hold at his waist and that devious smirk shifted to a charming subtle smile. Just like that he seemed to be a different person all together, "Miss thane… You do not get to my age and have a past as I without being a warrior once upon a time… So, not currently, but maybe one day and once more." The airs he put on under the gruffness of his tone made him seem friendlier - it may be obvious now this man could be quite dangerous.
Josleen doesn’t yet know to be afraid of Irenic. He’s playful and seems harmless by her esteem. “Oh people will talk no matter who I get mixed up with. Comes with the station.” It probably helps if you don’t get mixed up with the enemy King, but sure, Josleen is the victim here. Why not. “If you were to become a warrior again, what would you fight for? To what do you owe your sword?”
Irenic does not how to rightly answer that question at first as those mismatched eyes set on her visage in the quiet… Was this a political question? Damn… He's tried to hard to avoid to have anything to do with this war. "Well… For now it's just been for the protection of the few I've gotten close to." He buries the urge to grimace at the fact that they have made him soft and pliable regardless of his stone exterior. "Secondly would be to serve Lar-" Again he resists a grimace and a soft clearing of his throat, he doesn't like to remember he was a slave, "Lady Dragana…" His glance again is to the guard as he feels anything he says will be heard or repeated, he hates it, but wont say anything on it. "Anything after that I have not considered."
Josleen ‘s nose screws up in confusion. Larewen Dragana? Josleen has never met her personally, though she has seen her at big events and knows off the Lady Dragana like any politically-minded person would. An avian and a vampiric necromancer? It doesn’t make intuitive sense. Her gaze scrutinizes the avian more closely. She sets down the cloth and sits up straighter. “Larewen Dragana? How unexpected. Why her?”
Irenic takes in a deep breath of the humid air before answering such a loaded question. 'Oh you know, I am hopelessly attracted to my captor - blah blah blah' quite the usual really. "Well… I almost died and her powers saved me, but not without a price." His subtle hint at his slavery, "But I will still serve her out of respect. I wouldn't be alive today if she had not found me." His notion seems noble enough and he is able to hide his underlying defiance quite well. His debt to her is only growing larger as of late with the refugee he brought her.
Josleen sweeps her hair around to her other shoulder. The humidity is starting to get to her. Irenic’s admiration for a dark character reminds her of her own infatuation and she suddenly wants to leave to get some space alone with her thoughts, afraid that her face would betray her secret if she lingers longer. “It would seem you owe her a debt. Though if the debt has been repaid and you wish to serve other causes, I would hope you are permitted to do so. If not…” She draws out the word, hinting to his difficult position. “There are people in the realm invested in justice for all. I may connect you to them.” Want out of slavery? Maybe Jos can help. “But I really should get going now. I’d shirked my responsibilities long enough.”
Irenic would stand and step closer to her not enough so to alarm the guard (he knows the drill well) but just enough so Josleen's favorite scent was permitted to her from his Avain form, "Merry part until he merry meet again Vain Thane." He would offer a playful wink and a smirk before he bowed to her once more, fist over chest and all, and made his way around the guard with a nod to end his afternoon with a smoke and some relaxation in the waters below.
Josleen feels a little dizzy as the scent she smells is of a man whose name she dares not speak. She chafes when Irenic calls her ‘vain’ but says nothing and lets him go.