Getting Guys and Getting Away (Repost)

[Jocelyn]

It was a beautiful day and though Jatasha could think of a thousand other things she would rather be doing, work was work and when someone had the coin, you took the job. Having said that, she was just escorting one of her customers, a very satisfied customer, out into the sunny afternoon and unless she was mistaken, she would have the rest of the afternoon to relax and think of ways to spend her new coin.

 

It was then that the brezze swept through and caught at her blond locks. She used her free hand to push her hair back out of the way when she caught sight of him. Carnhain. The last thing she wanted to do was parade a customer around in front of him. She looked around frantically to find a way out of this and almost missed the words.

 

She smiled at the man whos arm she held. "Berne, you really must be coming to visit again sometime. When you do have more coin and more gossip." She said with a grin. She caught sight of someone familiar and decided to go with it.

 

Berne was left with a mouth wide open as Jatasha swung away from him in a manner most unlike her and caught onto another arm. This one belonged to that of a beautiful blond that Jatasha knew. Not well, but enough that she was willing to use her to get out of a pickle. She looked back and saw Carnhain again, his eyes catching Berne. Light, if she'd stayed with him Carnhain would have known for certain! Just seeing the two of them together would make him put two and two togther. Light.. what was she going to do?

 

The blond whos arm she was now attached to looked at her and Jatasha smiled. "I do be hoping you do no mind my borrowing your arm. I be needing to make a quick get away."

 

Jatasha

 

Miria's mouth was set in a grim line as she walked back from training some raw recruits. Some of the men had mocked her ability with hand to hand combat, because of her small stature and sweet appearance. One had gone so far as to say she would be better suited to being dandled on his knee, but he had walked away - well limped really - with a white face and a tremendous pain in his crotch. She never used to be so irritable, but she didn't like being forced away from Kedyn to train a bunch of ogling oafs.

 

How was Miria meant to ensure Kedyn stayed true to her when she was forced from his side? She hated it, hated how clingy she had become, but there was little to be done about it. Somehow she had convinced herself that Kedyn would take the first opportunity to rid himself of her, because she was not pregnant with his child, and perhaps never will be. But she would not let that happen, would not give him the chance. It was why she had become his shadow, ever present and ever eager to please him. Losing him would be worse than death.

 

A hand snaked its way beneath Miria's elbow and she half turned in surprise, though the owner of the foreign arm kept them walking. Jatasha, was it? Miria was vaguely familiar with the younger woman, but had never considered to be on arm-linking terms with her. Big blue eyes blinked in confusion as Jatasha spoke. "I hope you don't mind my borrowing your arm. I needed to make a quick get away."

 

Get away? A brief look over her shoulder revealed Kedyn, strutting in that same pompous way he always did. Realisation brought a smile to Miria's lips and she patted the hand on her arm in a very girly, conspiratorial way. "I don't mind at all. In fact, I hardly blame you." She chuckled softly. There was no love lost between Carnhain and Miria, that was for sure. Kedyn would be held up with with some of the other higher ranking officers for a while yet, she knew. Part of the foul mood that had taken her. "Come I will buy you a drink and we can laugh together at the swaggering buffoon." Miria grinned as she led Jatasha towards the small town within the Citadel, to one of her favoured taverns.

 

 

Miria

 

"Come I will buy you a drink and we can laugh together at the swaggering buffoon."

 

Jatasha didn't know what to say to that comment so she kept her mouth shut. She didn't know many people in the Band and she hadjust used the woman's arm to escape what she feared could have been an akward scene. She decided it was best to just go along with it.

 

The tavern was quickly in view and the ale was just as quick to follow. Jatasha took a long drink of hers as she settled in next to Miria and looked about. Not too busy and yet still plenty of coin to be had in a place like this. Soldiers were always willing to spend their coin on ale and any other vice they could find. In a few hours the place would likely be packed. It was the kind of place Jatasha knew all too well and wished she didn't. She let out a sigh as she set her mug down. Perhaps it was a good way to learn more about Carnhain. "I be needing to thank you for your assistance." She said with a smile. "I did no want to have to face anything akward. I did no take you away from anything, did I?"

 

Jatasha Danica

 

A drink could be just what I need thought Miria, though how a drink could cure her inner turmoil she had no clue. Still, it couldn't hurt, and she needed to entertain herself while waiting for Kedyn. "I be needing to thank you for your assistance. I did no want to have to face anything akward. I did no take you away from anything, did I?"

 

Miria shook her head and smiled slightly at the thick Illianer accent. "No, you didn't take me from anything except from my miserable thoughts." Miria pulled a face and drank deeply from her cup, grimacing at the sour taste of the ale as she set it down once more. "Though it seems I'm not the only one having man trouble."

 

Clear blue eyes turned onto Jatasha, filled with curiosity. Miria had heard the conversation between Kedyn and Carnhain, she knew that Jatasha and the blonde buffoon had been intimate at least. So why was Jatasha hiding from him now? Had she rejected him now that he had come to his senses? The thought made Miria smirk as she watched the younger girl. It would not surprise her if Carnhain scared of his young lover, he managed to mess everything else up so well. How he outranked her still boggled the mind.

 

"You were escaping Carnhain, weren't you?" Miria lowered her voice and leaned closer. "You can tell me, he certainly won't hear any of it from my lips." Miria smiled warmly, temporarily ignoring her own problems for the potential for gossip.

 

 

Miria

 

Jatasha looked at the other woman. She wasn't sure what to say. She had been running from Carnhain, but probably not for any reason the woman thought. Light, who would have? Who would think that she was trying her best to keep Carnhain from knowing what she was doing to add to her coin while she stayed at the Citadel? She had thought about joining the Band, had even talked to people to learn more about what they did, but nothing ever seemed to fit her.

 

Still, she seemed to be happy in the band and in a stable relationship if rumor was true. Maybe she had some insight into the male mind that Jatasha had never been able to gain. She sighed as they walked. "I do no want him to see what I do be doing these days." She said, shaking her head at the predicament. "He did be told what I was about in Illian, but I did be telling him it was long past. I do no want him to realize I was no able to make a new life here yet."

 

She wasn't ashamed of what she had done. She had started it too early to be concerned about what others thought of her, but Carnhain was different. He was... she didn't know what... but he was it whatever it was. "I do no want him to be disappointed with me. You do be knowing him longer than I. Do you think he be hating me, if he finds out?" She asked.

 

Jatasha Danica

 

Miria contemplated the slightly younger blonde over the rim of her cup, only the slight lift of a delicate brow revealing her thoughts. So she had returned to her...'profession'? Interesting. She had only been able to surmise at what it was, but the events that she found herself in now seemed to confirm her suspicion. From the conversation she had heard, Carnhain had been awfully confused after their coupling, no doubt due to his never having been in that situation before.

 

"I do no want him to be disappointed with me. You do be knowing him longer than I. Do you think he be hating me, if he finds out?"Miria blinked and set down her glass with an inaudible sigh. Clearly Jatasha at least had some fondness for Carnhain, undeserving as he may be. She would find no kindred dislike in this woman, evidently.

 

"Honestly, I'm not sure what he would think." Miria pulled a face. "I can't say that Carnhain is always lucid. Besides, he is not exactly a close friend of mine, regardless of my efforts to forge a peace with him." Miria thought back to the day she had attempted to apologise, and the uncompromising coldness in Carnhain's eyes. She had tried burn him, for Kedyn's sake! It was not she that had tried to kill her 'brother'! Yet Carnhain hated her with a passion. On that regard, Miria did her best to match him.

 

"Yet that is another story altogether." Miria lifted her drink to her lips once more, taking a deep pull and savouring the dull burn heating her from within. "I don't imagine he would be thrilled, from what little I heard of him speak of it, he didn't take himself to be just another customer of yours. No offense." Miria shrugged matter-of-factly. "Why aren't those days long gone? There is other work that you could do, or you could join the band. Or was Carnhain another patron, in your mind?"

 

 

Miria

 

"Another patron?" She shook her head, the look on her face showing both exasperation and fear. "No, he do no be a patron. At least, I do no be thinking of him like that. I do no know what he be thinking of it though." Doubt filled her at the thought, but if he thought of her like that, wouldn't he have come to her again?

 

"He be a good man, I do be knowing that much and he did help me out of a bad situation. But I do no be knowing what to do here." She said, waving her hand around the Citadel. "Where do you be going when the only skill you be knowing is how to pleasure a man? It do no be a skill I think the Band be needing on the road."

 

She looked down for a minute, trying to think of anything else to say or do. She truely had wanted this to be a place to change, a place where she could find a place off the streets and out of the inns. Somehow it had ended up like everything else, even with her fear of Carnhain's hatred hanging over her. "I do no even know how to start new."

 

Jatasha

[Jocelyn]

Miria chewed her lip as she thought. How did you find a way for a prostitute to start again, in a place like this? Wherever there were soldiers, you could guarantee that a woman could make considerable money by lifting her skirts.

 

"You can learn other skills you know." Said Miria at last. "I didn't know much when I came to the citadel, so they trained me. There is always need for more medics, or scouts, or any other corps would love to have you among their ranks. Or there is plenty of work in the inns, or the stables, even sewing uniforms." Miria took another sip and looked sideways at Jatasha.

 

"I guess it depends on how badly you want to start again, and whether you want to start afresh here. Where Carnhain is."

 

Miria

[TaeaDawn]

"I do no know what to do.  I did be thinking I could start over, but it do seem every time I think I be in a good place, the coin do run out and I be needing more somehow."  She shrugged, unsure of how to make her understand.  "I do no know what I be able to do, I do no know where I could be finding a home.  I do no see me in a great battle, or healing others, but I find I do be afraid to even try it."

 

"But Carnhain he do be trying to help me, when I do first be meeting him he did be helping me then too.  I do no know what to do.  The coin be better here than anywhere I do be working.  I do no know what else I do be doing here, but at least if he do be kicking me away I be doing it with a fuller purse when I hit the road." She said with a small snort.

 

Jatasha

[Jocelyn]

Miria frowned into her drink as Jatasha spoke. Her mother had entertained men for money too, and still she didn't understand it. The thought of any man besides Kedyn even looking at her was enough to make her blush. Why Jatasha wasn't doing everything she could to change her 'profession' was a little beyond her comprehension.

 

"I wish I could say I understand your predicament, but I don't." Miria shrugged slightly. She had her own problems, her own worries. Yet hearing Jatasha's story was putting her own troubles on the backburner. She wasn't selfish enough to think that her pathetic troubles were worse. "But I do know that this is one place where you could make a fresh start, if that is what you want to do. Everyone here has a history," Miria smirked slightly, "even me." Miria finished her drink with one last swallow and set it down, wondering idly if she should have another. "The Band is one of the few places that your past can be forgotten. Assuming you're willing for that to happen, that is."

 

Miria turned to look at Jatasha. "And I know Carnhain. As much as I may dislike him, I know that if you want to continue...getting to know him, you can't continue earning coin as you have." Why Miria was feeling the need to almost defend the man was beyond her. Must have been the drink. "Anyone with eyes can see he is taken with you, and if you want to see where that could lead, you can't expect him to be willing to share you." Miria smiled in a friendly way. When did she become so old? "Of course, your business is your own, so feel free to tell me to keep my nose out of it."

 

Miria

[TaeaDawn]

It was all true, but Jatasha wasn't sure what to say.  Miria's comment about Cairhein not wanting her to work the streets wasn't anything she hadn't already divined on her own, in fact it was why she had fled with the other woman in the first place.  And she had been told time and time again that the Band would train her and help her out of her current spot. 

 

"I do no be telling you to stay out of it when I did ask for your help.  You do be a friend, fortune prick me if it not be so, to say truth like you do.  I do no be needing more people in my life who smile politely because they must but talk behind my back when it be turned.  I... I will think on it though.  I will... I do not know what I will do, but I must be doing something else don't I?  Or it be time to leave and I do no think I be liking that idea."

 

Part of her recognized the fear inside her, the fear that her father had been right and there had been nothing else she had been worth but a few coins for a quick dunk, but she had always remembered her mother and her smiling face, her assertions that Jatasha was beautiful and smart and talented and could be whatever she wanted.  She wanted to be all those things, but she no longer believed them as she had when her mother had whispered them into her ear.  They were a beautiful glimpse of the past to her, a fragile as the way of the Leaf and yet just as impossible for her to hold onto.  Still, she had a few friends here now and she thought maybe it would be enough to help her through this.  Maybe it would be enough to make her think she was worth Carnhain and that he might someday think the same.

 

Jatasha

[Jocelyn]

"I wouldn't like to see you leave anyway." Smiled Miria at her new friend. It was funny, she didn't really have many close friends, besides Kedyn. She seemed to have alienated everyone in favour of him. A female friend was what she needed.

 

"Light knows I need an honest friend at the moment too. Men seem to do nothing but cause heartache, it seems." Miria frowned at the bottom of her empty cup as her thoughts returned to her own troubles. As much as she had been clinging to Kedyn, he only seemed to be drifting further from her, and that was devastating to her. If only she had been pregnant, none of these troubles would have happened. Then again, pregnancy would have been trouble in itself.

 

"Nobody ever falls in love with the knowledge that they are giving one person the ultimate power over them to hurt them, do they?" Miria sighed and signalled for another drink. "Not that it's intentional in anyway...but light, somehow things just get complicated, right when life seems to be perfect." Miria took a deep pull, savouring the burn deep in her throat as the drink slid down to warm her insides.

 

"I guess nothing is what it seems...sorry, I must be either boring or confusing you."

 

 

Miria

[TaeaDawn]

Jatasha smiled at Miria's response.  It was always good to know that friendship was reciprocated, and even moreso by words since Jatasha had little enough experience with true friends.  She knew from Carnhain's words that the people here were more likely to be the real sort rather than the false people she had known all her life, but she had never really thought to find a friend of her own.  And certainly not in the form of a woman that seemed to dislike Carnhain with as much passion as Jatasha liked him. 

 

Her smile disappeared as the question came about.  It was truth in it's basest, most cruel reality.  Love meant pain.  Men, in her experience, meant pain but she refused to stop believing that there wasn't something else out there, that there wasn't someone that wouldn't hurt her or turn her onto her back for a little coin.  Though she kept hoping that Carnhain would be the one, there was a part of her that still feared the day her lover would begin selling her out to his friends as well. 

 

She suppressed a sigh at the thought and tried not to think about it.  She looked up at Miria's words and smiled with a shake of her head.  "I be no bored at all, or confused.  I think there be no women in the world that be knowing a man who do no understand what you are talking about.  Men seem to bind us in ways we do no want, and hurt us in ways we can no be ever seeing."  She let a sigh escape this time.  "But... I do be thinking there be men out there that be worth it."  She raised her glass with a small smile.  "Light be blessed that I do see him soon."

 

Jatasha