I created him specifically to be the guy who tinkered around with gunpowder for the Band.  Didn't know if he had been purposed towards that in an NSW sense since my brain ate itself.

... is Pahl Ebersol still available for me to pick up again?  Or is he now off-limits?

Janine's Green Ajah.  She discovered the Cloud Dancing Talent during one of her classes (might have been the battle weaves class, can't find the thread) when she accidentally engulfed Tar Valon in a sudden fog instead of just the training grounds.

I do have a set piece in the shape of an exclusive and entirely secret bar under the streets of Tar Valon that I would like a chance to flesh out a bit more, so that's a possible starting point.

That... was my favorite pancreas.  You can't just go down the road and get those.

... unless the med school is just down the road..

...I miss those days...

(Seriously, the med school at college used to do a haunted house for Halloween.  They definitely had the props for it.)

So... I want to start playing Janine again, but I need a good RP to get things going again.  Janine disappearing for long periods of time is sort-of built into the character: she's a Cloud Dancer, so she maintains a property well away from population centers for studies in weather manipulation (mostly for the sake of her gardening attempts to grow flowers from every region of the continent).  Anybody out there interested in coming up with something?

-looks-

-screams-

-jumps into Liitha's arms-

Kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it-kill-it...

-walks back to his dark corner-

-coughs at the clouds of dust cast up by his arrival-

-steps away briefly, then comes back with an industrial-strength air compressor and presses the trigger on the hose-

-coughs some more-

-sets the compressor down-

-sets up a few strings of color-changing LED lights on the dimmest setting-

-sits down-

-deep breath-

...

-more coughing-

-clears throat (again)-  Hi.

It seemed like weeks passed as Janine considered what she had just been told.  An information broker in the bar.  Now that was interesting.  Settling back into the tall chair, Janine gazed across the top of her brandy snifter at Margerit, absently admiring the scent of the brandy as she did.  She did not care if the other woman thought her rude; what had been said needed careful thought.

Unlike most Aes Sedai, especially Blues, Janine did not maintain a network of eyes-and-ears of her own.  She had only had a couple decades in which to start one, but she had never seen any reason to do so.  Her interest in weather weaves was unaffected by goings-on in the world.  The same was true for her interest in gardening.  Janine's only other point of interest was on the Blightborder, and the reports she received through the Green Ajah's own network of eyes-and-ears had been sufficient for that, thus far.  One day, she would have to put her own informants in place up north, she knew.  However, what Margerit was offering had nothing to do with the Blight.

Margerit herself provided another point of hesitation for Janine.  Here was a woman who was so adept at adopting a dockworker's facade that Janine had been genuinely shocked- something that she had kept hidden behind a mask of curiosity- when she dropped the accent for the clipped, clean pronunciation of Cairhien.  Janine had seen gleemen and other performers who could do the same thing without so much as a second's thought.  They could transition from accent to accent mid-word, something which always impressed Janine.  Therein, though, lay the problem.  Margerit's first accent could have been her true accent.  It could also be the Cairhienin accent that she had just adopted.  It could also be one of a large number of accents that one could find in Tar Valon alone, to speak nothing of the visitors from outside the city.

Janine finally returned from her thoughts and focused on the woman sitting across the table from her.  "You make an interesting offer, Margie, if I may call you that."  She took a sip from her snifter, allowing the brandy to trace exquisite fire through her mouth before swallowing it.  "However, I find that I am not in need of your services at this time.  My current sources of information are meeting my needs.  That being said..."  Janine's pipe had gone out.  Frowning at the bowl, she quickly channeled a small flame to the tabac, setting it smoldering again before she continued.  "I would like to be able to get in touch with you in the future, if necessary.  I would not expect me to request your assistance often; you probably would not hear from me for years at a time."

Tossing back the last traces of brandy, Janine lifted the glass of port that also sat on the table in front of her.  "What say you?"

OOC: I am really sorry about how long it took me to get back into this.

Also, I am opening the bar to people from the White Tower and the Warders for now while I work out how to proceed with the place.

I'm still here.  I run a bunch of the Band's NSWs, and I have Pahl, probably the closest thing to the stereotypical nerd in the RP.  Got done with a professional engagement, so I should be picking up activity quite a bit now.

So my notification thingie apparently wasn't working.  Sorry for the delay on getting back to you on this one.

... you just reminded me that all the NPC trainer bios that I had were lost when my computer died last year.  I need to rewrite the ones I didn't get archived.  Dammit.

No worries.  I remember that particular pain all too well; the bruises from my ass-kickings have yet to heal.

It did not take long for Janine's unspoken invitation to draw results.  Shortly after the barman left the bottle of port- quite an excellent bottle, too- one of the people from the dice game in the corner began to approach her table.  Glancing up from the embers in her pipe's bowl, Janine took in as much detail as she could as a mental exercise: dressed like a dock worker or somebody who spent a lot of time by the docks, dark hair, makeup, slight waver in her step to suggest that, while she was not drunk, she had had at least a couple drinks.  Janine's attention focused again on her pipe, which was just beginning to smolder properly.

The next time she glanced up, Janine found herself with company.  "This seat taken?" the woman asked before seating herself.  With the woman now sitting across from her, Janine found herself overwhelmed with the strange feeling that she somehow knew the woman.  It was impossible, of course; she carried herself like somebody from one of the harbors, and she even smelled as if she'd just come from the docks.  Still, there was something about her face that was tickling at the back of Janine's mind, crying for attention.

Janine squelched the voice; she would dwell on it later.

The woman seemed to take Janine's silence as either indifferent or hostile, and she tried to start a conversation.  "Fine evening to be about.  What's your name?  I'm known as Margerit, though my friends call me Margie."  The paranoid part of Janine's mind threw up another warning at that statement.  Women bound by the First Oath often spoke like that, avoiding the outright lie while giving a name.  Relax.  You're here for a nice evening.  Stop dissecting everything that everybody says.

Janine smiled, a rarity that improved her looks dramatically, she thought, and said, "Pardon my poor manners.  My name's Janine.  Please, help yourself to the wine."  As Margerit poured, Janine tried to remember if she had had any part in her acceptance to the bar; she turned up nothing.  It was rare for Janine to leave her title as Aes Sedai out of her introduction, as well, but she did not want deference or care in a conversation in the bar.  The fact that she was Aes Sedai was obvious to anybody who looked at her face, but not claiming the title went quite a way towards making sure a conversation was actually balanced.

Manners in the bar frowned upon asking others how they gained entrance, so that subject was not one for discussion.  Taking another draw from her pipe, Janine held the smoke for a moment, then blew a simple smoke ring. As it drifted toward the ceiling, she asked, "Any luck at the table?  Those dock hands look a bit disappointed.'  Glancing at the table again, she saw the men beginning to stagger away in twos and threes, the game obviously over.  "Gambling has never been one of my vices, sad to say.  It looks like it could be diverting."

Definitely been a while.  How goes it?

I'm not sure yet, to be honest.  I'd like to RP with Sherper a bit before opening the thread to everybody.  That being said, I like the idea of this place, so I definitely want the word out there.

Sherper, is Ellisha masking her ability to channel?  If she isn't, Janine would be aware of it the moment she approached.

Excrement occurs when one celebrates in the nude.

What really sucked for me was the fact that my phone wouldn't let me post, so I couldn't even warn people.

"The Ways are sealed."

"Welcome back, Janine Sedai."

With a smile for the doorman, Janine stepped out of the exotic spice shop where she had been browsing and into one of the best kept secrets in Tar Valon.  Several of the other businesses on the street had doors leading into the same location, each with its own passphrase, but Janine only knew one way in.  Not that it would have mattered if she had known other ways in; the passphrases were changed twice a week, and each location had its own informant to whom one would speak to get the new passphrase.  Granted, the coded conversations with them also changed regularly, so it was sometimes difficult to keep it all straight.

A long flight of suprisingly dry stone stairs led down well below street level before opening into a large, well-lit room with oak-paneled walls, several small tables surrounded by chairs, and an ebony bar running halfway around the room.  The chairs were upholstered in fine leather, adding its scent to the other smells permeating the air.  There was fragrant smoke in the air, both from the fireplace in the wall- a fixture that Janine suspected vented its smoke through several chimneys above- and from the pipes that some of the other patrons were smoking.  Behind that was the faint smell of alcohol, probably from a spilled drink behind the bar, if the man scrubbing at the hidden counter was anything to judge by.  Giving the man  behind the bar a nod as she strolled to her usual spot near the fire.

The bar had no name.  It needed no name.  It did not advertise itself in any way.  The only way to gain entrance to the bar was to be invited by somebody who already knew about the bar, and even then it was after the inviter had served as a character witness on the initiate's behalf.  Janine had been initiated by another Aes Sedai, one of her many teachers as an Accepted.  It had shocked Janine when she learned that the bar did not choose its patrons based on their personal wealth; there were poor dock laborers who were initiates, some of whom were currently sitting around a table playing some sort of dice game.  Membership did not depend on wealth, only character.  It amused Janine to know that the overwhelming majority of the White Tower did not know about this place; she had only seen five different sisters in the bar in her many decades as an initiate.  She suspected that the few Aes Sedai who did know the place also held it to be sacrosanct; Janine doubted that any of them would even think to betray the trust of their fellowship.

The barman came to Janine's table, a snifter of what smelled like brandy on a tray.  "From a farmer in the Two Rivers, Janine Sedai.  Apple brandy, triple distilled.  He has been expanding his business as of late, and this came highly recommended."

"Thank you, Thom.  Can I also have a bottle of port brought here?  I intend to sit for a while, and I may end up having to entertain somebody who feels bored."

"Certainly, Janine Sedai.  I know just the bottle."

The barman left without a word of payment.  There would be no payment.  Alain Demorgan, the founder of the bar, had left a staggeringly huge fortune behind; it was still buying everybody's drinks, and it would continue to buy them long after even Janine's lifetime.  Adjusting her simple green woolen dress, Janine sank back into the leather chair and drew out her pipe from the small satchel she always carried.  She did not know how her evening would turn out, but she knew how it was going to start.

OOC: Welcome to the bar.  Let's see how this place develops.

There we go.  I'd kind of like to see how this develops.  Maybe it'll become something more than a one-off thing.

I haven't forgotten.  Either been busy IRL or getting halfway through writing the post when the internet dies or my computer crashes or I run out of time at the library.  Sorry.

It was a Yahoo! email address, and the Google search I did on it came up with a legitimate address and person attached to it, but I don't think I know them.

So tempting...

Sorry, chaotic week.

I'll get a post up some time in the next week.  I'd do it now, but I've only got a few minutes.

I can get behind that.  I've been around long enough that I really don't care about rank anymore.

How would you feel about a run-in at an upscale tavern or the like in their early days as Aes Sedai?  I know Janine would probably spend the first few years of her raising in the occasional bar in celebration of being rid of all the restrictions of being a novice or Accepted, and I really haven't done anything with her in that early bit of her time as an Aes Sedai.

Nothing concrete.  The two are around the same age, so they would have been training at around the same time.  I don't mind RPing retro as an Accepted if you want to do some sort of requirement towards your raising.

Did anybody add me to Skype recently?  I have a new contact request that doesn't look like any of the spam ones I've been getting with some regularity.