Wowow hi Horn!! Y'all keep me feeling young. I just finished a program with a youth orchestra and I'm very at the top of that age bracket now haha. I'm back to being a small here yayyy

Yoooooo

Did we? I'm on tour with Victorians and West and South Aussies who don't even know what Origin is hha

Join uuuuus, Arkin will absolutely train you good and it'll be fun :p 

Oh man, I have not kept track of any of Arkin's stats or literally anything useful. 

It's  a dice special and it's about as good as you'd expect that to be :p

Another maroon!! Poor timing, mate XD You got here just in time for Dice's gloating. 

(I am still around and I think Arinth is as well-I forgot about my tinker! Keen to push on if others are)

Tbh, I'm not really sure where we're at atm, but we are at the Citadel, post Tanchico. I'm sure you can bring your char back and retro Tanchico. 

Hiya Satrim! I'm BB, resident bard, eternal squire of the Cavalry-the best regiment in the Band. Pull up a stool, have a drink! *tosses the RR (raw recruit, that's you) a Bandy* 

Who's your favourite WoT character? Aaaaand favourite travel destination? 

Jimmy Buffet ahahaha excellent. Oh no giant rocahes, what fun! I'm looking into music performance psychology, specifically effects of attention :)

Whoops, I will wander in fashionably late then I guess :p 

I have no sympathy for long flights XD I am Australian! It takes way too long to get anywhere here, including elsewhere in our own country haha. I love your wot experiences though. Everyone has such epic memories associated with this series. It's so long, it practically demands a wot sized place in people's minds :p is Mat still your favourite char? Lan has always had a special place in my heart 

Also, phd buddies! I am meamt to start in six months though so I have a while to go yet. 

What kind of music are you into? Very important question. 

Oh, where are my manners?! I'm BB of the cavalry, resident bard, eternal squire of Dice (our cavalry boss-he'll be around I'm sure). Oh dear, I can't believe no-one has offered you a drink yet! Poor form, guys XD *tosses Hay a bandy* This is the cavalry brew, the best in the Band!

They are wee cavalry babies. They must do it XD

Not biased pshaw 

Welcome welcome welcome!!! *rolls in the barrels and party band* 

I'm BB, proud member of the Cavalry, Dice's eternal squire-you'll meet him soon enough-and resident bard. 

*pours a mug of bandy and hands it to the RR* Enjoy this! The best brew in the band! The others'll be along shortly to try and convince you of their inferior brew, but trust me, this is the best you're gonna get ;p

XD Arkin and Arinth are in the building! Prepare yourselves ladies and gentlemen!

Oh, he has ;p

Arkin grinned up at the sun, stretching and squatting to the floor and springing back up again. He clapped one of his neighbours on the shoulder. "What a wonderful morning, don't you agree?" he called to them, the bells in his hair ringing. 

The young infantryman next to him stared at him with a eyes full of sorrow and regret, and Arkin laughed, bumping his shoulder. Arkin was a small man. Bumping anyone's shoulder was more likely to send him flying in the opposite direction than push anyone over, but today, the infantryman stumbled. Ah, kids these days. 

Arkin gestured out to the world at large. The Citadel was bustling. It always was. Everywhere, people were trudging off to training or missions or bed, or the pub. More than a few glances were being sent their way though as the rock in the river of this hustle and bustle. Ahead of them were strangers. Black Tower initiates, a Wolfkin woman, and a silvery gate of power. What fun! What an adventure. It had been a while since one of these had been had. 

Those ahead still seemed to be in conversation, so Arkin starting singing the song he'd begun last night, hearing a chorus of groans from around him. Not from his singing-that was beautiful and rich as ever, thank you very much-but from the memories that song stirred up. Last night had been terribly fun, but that fun had definitely kicked off when Arkin had climbed onto a table and started this drinking song. He felt a brotherly kind of pride for all these Inn-mates who were having such a rough morning due to the fine performance he'd dragged out of them last night. 

He, of course, was a professional. It took a lot more than an evening taunting his Bandmates into stupors to get him frowning in the morning. As a scout, Arkin was mostly exempt from this call-out of course. He had far better things to do like pretend to be a guard of the lord's estate in the east, or hide in trees and yell at the scouts who were worse than him at it. They called it training the recruits, but training in Arkin's memory had never been quite that much fun. 

But this was an adventure! The good kind of adventure not like Tanchico. This one had the power and wolves and new places and travel by gate, all with a very limited chance of them being attacked. As if Arkin would miss that. So he'd tagged along with his Inn-mates. Arinth had said he would as well but whether or not the man made it out of bed in time for that remained to be seen. 

The group slowly began to move forward, and Arkin cut off his singing, spotting Ely in the crowd. He'd known Ely before last night, but he knew her far better now. He put his hand on her shoulder as they both passed through the gateway. She shrank away from it a little as they went through, and Arkin glanced up at it with a grin as they came out the other side. "Terin is ignoring me, Ely. You'll agree that this morning is a bloody wonderful morning won't you? Look where we are!" He gestured out once more, this time to a forest full of new smells, new people, new nooks and crannies. 

He scanned the area on automatic, mapping it out in his head, checking out the treeline, listening for the normal sounds of this particular forest so he could tell when it was disrupted. There was no real need. The Wolfkin had the area secure, he had no doubt, and they were expecting no danger today. But it was Arkin's job to know if some came anyway, and he was flaming brilliant at it. So he checked the tree-line, just in case. He spared a glance for the Sergeant running this little operation in case they wanted him to actually do some legitimate work, but he was in the middle of a conversation. 

Huh cool. Arkin can make an appearance! He's not exactly great at manual labour, but he'll be fun to have along!

Oh yeah, total noob over here :p

Found it! And Cass, I also replied to the medic thread :p

It was always a shock when a big man grabbed you by the front of your shirt. Arkin and Arinth weren't exactly strangers to physical contact, but right now, in this context? Arkin hadn't been expecting it. It was a rare thing to catch him by surprise. 

He'd been too busy grinning at Arinth's spewing of alcohol over the table, laughter and foam bubbling from his lips. Where had this come from? 

Arkin could have turned around and found out what was so funny, but he realised that he didn't really care. The most amazing thing happening in the room right now was Arinth, laughing. The darkness they'd trudged into was pierced with bright rays of laughter. It wasn't something that could banish those thoughts or memories. It wasn't something that was going to stop the nightmares. But right now? It was there, and it was wonderful. 

Arinth's eyes were wild, his face close, and Arkin couldn't stop smiling. He was right. He was absolutely right. Arkin lived by that every day. He could have died in Tanchico, but he was still here. So was Arinth. Both of them were still here, and they only had each other to thank for that. Each other and absolute blind luck. Arkin had never been one to let a second go by without filling it, but he understood this. These memories stole moments. They made new ones, ones that weren't so fun. Living in fear of those moments was no way to live. He doubted he was ever going to be able to get past it, not really, but he didn't have to wait for those moments. He could make his own moments. He could wrest them from the teeth and talons of the Seanchan and the streets and the darkness. 

Arinth leapt to his feet, sprinting out of the tavern. 

A few of the other inhabitants looked around at the noise and the abrupt exit. A few baleful glances from veterans at the bar, wide eyes from the newer recruits who recognised them from training. 

Arkin grinned, finishing both of their drinks one after the other before vaulting over the table and sprinting after Arinth. 

Arkin shrugged. "I live to serve." As he finally stopped running about and finally stayed still, he felt his muscles starting to relax, starting to ache with the familiar tension that followed a fight. He groaned, releasing all the urges to hold his body up and stay ready for a fight, sinking back into the table. 

Emrin made it pretty comfortable, all things considered. Even as Arkin let himself relax, he felt the pain in his leg start to dim. Well, it didn't dim, but it felt like he was further away from it. Like it couldn't quite break through to his mind that he was in pain. It was a strange feeling, accompanied by a certain cotton-headed dizziness, like he was thinking through a fog. Like he'd had too much to drink, frankly. That was strangely comforting. At least he knew how that worked. 

Relaxing into the feeling-too late to stop it now-Arkin watched the medic pull out skins and swabs and alcohol. He didn't try to drink that, knowing it was being put to better use. And those swabs looked far more comfortable than the brushes he'd had out a second ago. 

"Well I'm still here and the other two guys went running with their tails between their legs, so I'd say I held my own pretty flaming well, yeah. I typically try to put Arinth between me and people with swords, but it's good to know I rely on him for no good reason." 

Arkin nodded to the medic's gesture of starting. 

Hissing through his teeth as Emrin made contact more on instinct than anything, Arkin watched Emrin work for a second before his eyes drifted lazily closed. 

"Of course, one of them did stick an axe in my thigh, so that bit wasn't as fun."

His limbs were heavy, and his mind was quiet. That was new. Quiet wasn't a word people often applied to Arkin. He was either noisy or inaudible. There wasn't really an in-between.

Eyes slipping fully closed, Arkin felt the weight of his body holding him down against the table, the dragging weight of his limbs. Blood-bathed streets flared across his vision. He couldn't move.

His eyes snapped open, breath hissing out through his teeth as he jerked upwards, tight as a bowstring. He tamped down the instinct as soon as it began, barely getting his back off the table. His body had moved on its own, without his permission, but it couldn't get very far like that. Groaning at the dull ache as his muscles protested his sudden movement, he released all the tension that had jolted through him. Whatever Emrin had given him made it flaming difficult to stay tense. He hadn't even lifted off the table at all. He didn't doubt Emrin would have noticed his sudden tense jerk though. He held up a warding hand as he relaxed back into that cottony feeling. But he didn't close his eyes. 

Instead, he glanced down at his good arm, where a burning tree was flanked by a bear and a fox. His hand relaxed down onto the table as well, and the tightness in his chest floated quickly away. 

"Sorry about that, Emrin. I'm not hating our date that much, don't worry. My body just doesn't take too well to not being ready for action, you know? Continue on, good sir." 

Is it? XD Oops! YAY I am VERY EXCITE (also not sure where the thread is with the newfangled forum but I'll find it!)

*is tackled and stuffs face with brownies* Sure, what is it? XD