#R'zuhn Tia

[casualcatte]

RP Journal: 08/07/2020

Ah, all it takes is a nice trip out to the Night Raid Bounty Call to set the world to rights and remind you that the thrill of the hunt is one of the best things in life. As I stood in line to turn in my reward token, I was surprised to see Loksia put in an appearance. I know I invited her out and all, but I hadn’t really expected anything. She offered for us to take up a bounty together, so I let her peruse the bounty board while I waited in line.

[ Courtesy cut for another LONG one, folks! ]

Not long after that, R’zunh and Yihmu’ra came stumbling in with a mylodon head between them. Oschon’s Compass, it was enormous!  I hadn’t realized they’d taken on something so formidable. The two of them looked downright thrashed.  Nan’to quickly took care of them, so I stayed in line to get my turn-in done.  There would be plenty of time to see them after they’d been tended to. 

By the time I got back to Loksia, she’d picked out a coral-fetching assignment for us that seemed fairly easy. For my own part, I picked up the bounty for a mated pair of birds out in Yanxia that needed to be taken alive. That should be a good indicator of Edgard’s skill. After all, killing a hunt is an easy enough matter, but bringing one in alive is a whole new level of complexity, especially when these birds need to be harmed as little as possible. 

More waiting in line as we posted our bounties with the Bounty Officers, after which I decided to take a few minutes to check on Zunh and Mu’ra. For all that we may be new friends, I grew up around hunters in Tailfeather.  Hunters, near and far, are family by extension to me. I couldn’t /not/ check on them and make sure they were okay.  It would’ve gone against my entire upbringing. 

By the time I got there, Nan’to was done patching them up, so all they really needed was help getting to the common room. I helped with that and, once they were seated, I brought out the bottles of kumis.  Injured or not, I wasn’t about to let the two of them welch on a deal!  They promised, so they must perform!  Besides, maybe this alcohol was strong enough to make them forget their pain for a while.

Each of us took turns drinking, including a new friend in Z’rhun Tia.  Yes, journal, that’s right.  There is now a Zuhn and a Rhun in my life.  Like I didn’t have enough trouble keeping Edmond and Edgard straight at the time, now I have these two. At least they don’t /look/ alike, for pity’s sake!  One last victi--hunter joined in our shenanigans, an elezen by name of Zanshin Kutabare. Somehow, Loksia convinced him to drink an /entire/ jug of kumis on his own and that elezen was tra-a-a-ashed. He literally threw himself over the balustrade and fell down the stairs to the bar room, simply because he had to pee. Man, kumis is some pretty strong stuff.  And nasty.  I’m never drinking it again. I saved the last bottle to give to Nan’to, since he apparently likes the stuff.  I considered ita thank you for all that he’d done for Zuhn and Mu’ra.

The night wore on and it was clear that Mu’ra had way too much to drink, so it fell to me and Rhun to get both of those silly cattes to bed. I even had to go so far as to take off Zunh’s boots and tuck him in.  I did tell him if he asked for a glass of water or a nightlight that I’d sock him in the nose. Immediately after those two, Rhun and I had to put the elezen /back/ to bed, only then were we able to call it quits. 

We stopped over in the lobby for a bit and had the opportunity to talk to Tetsuyo Wulf and Nan’to for a bit. Tetsuyo seems really easy to talk to once you get him going. We chatted about common things for a bit and he told us of a big feast and festival they’ll be throwing next week, I think.  Of course I plan on being there. What crazy catte says no to free food? Rhun seemed to have the same idea.  But it was closing time, so it really wouldn’t have been polite to linger.

Rhun and I shared a boat back to Kugane and that’s where we parted ways.  I carried my batch of wool back to Bokairo, then took myself down to the Kogane Dori to see if I could haggle some decent prices to sell it.  I wasn’t about to mail twenty skeins of wool to Lorrendor in Ul’dah.

Speaking of Lorrendor, he snuck up on me while I was in the market. He came all the way from Ul’dah simply to visit me, he said. We sat in the garden near the embassies again, since it’s one of my favorite places in the city. But all that seemed to concern Lorrendor was Edgard. Edgard, Edgard, Edgard.  Why was I taking Edgard hunting?  Why was I testing Edgard’s ability? Edgard was probably such a better hunting partner. For Twelve’s sake, what is it about Edgard that concerns him so?

He brought up the hunt again, how we “nearly died.” Gods be good and grant me patience, we didn’t almost die. Yes, I got hurt, but that was through my own stupidity and ill-preparation. The bara was critically wounded and bleeding out. It wouldn’t have had the strength to kill either one of us!  I’m a seasoned enough hunter to see that, so why couldn’t he?

It’s so INFURIATING how he treats me like a child and this isn’t for the first time. Why can’t he simply let me be who I am without trying to stifle me at every opportunity? I’m not his responsibility, I don’t want to be. Friend or not, caring or not, I am who I am. He either accepts this or he doesn’t. 

Then he had to mention Tristane. He had to /use/ Tristane against me, like his over-protectiveness was the same. It’s not.  It never could be. Tristane’s came from a place of love, a place of hope for our future together, of the dreams we hoped to weave. This is nothing close to the same. 

I struck him. I know that it was wrong.  My temper gets the better of me. I was just so angry, that he’d even try to put himself in the same league as Tris. Angry that he would try to use Tris as leverage for his overprotective nature. I couldn’t believe it. He went on to say I don’t want or need his manner of caring. I sure as /hell/ don’t if it means stifling me at every opportunity and trying to shelter me like I’m some defenseless waif.

Edgard. He kept mentioning Edgard. As if Edgard were as important to me as Tris. Surprise!  He’s not either.  Neither of them is Tris.  Neither of them could be. We’re all three of us broken.  And broken things can’t put one another back together.

It was after all this that Lorrendor decided to tell me he has feelings for me as “more than a friend.”  /Gods./  WHY.  What could he possibly have feelings about?  He doesn’t know me, he’s barely known me a fortnight! I can’t imagine what I’ve done or said that’s so earth-shattering as to inspire these feelings. I’m strong-willed, independent, with all the manners of a cave coeurl. I don’t get it.  I don’t.

I don’t have feelings for him OR for Edgard beyond friendship. I like them both for my own reasons, but both of them have a lot of baggage that they need to deal with first before they’d be good relationship fodder for /anyone/, not just me. 

Lorrendor says that it’s simply the man he is, like I’m supposed to accept that and be fine with it. Yet, on the same token, he can’t accept that I am the way I am. If we can’t accept such major parts of each other, how on Eorzea can we be anything other than friends?  Even as friends I get annoyed when Lor smothers me. I don’t want it. I don’t want to be protected.  I don’t want to be left behind while he goes to fight the big bad alone in order to keep me out of harm’s way. He can’t seem to understand that.

He went on to say that he cares about me. If he cared about me, then he wouldn’t have brought up Tristane. Certainly not in the /way/ he brought him up. Why do men have to be so /stupid/ and muck up a perfectly good friendship?  I never should have taken him on that hunt.  That seemed to be where everything went sideways.  Or maybe it was his whole trip to Kugane, after that first night, something in him began to shift and by the end of it, I hardly knew him as the same Lorrendor I’d met in the Quicksand.

He finally gave it up as a lost cause and left, presumably to go back to Ul’dah. Gods be good, let him go find some other woman to swoon and sigh and want to be protected by him. It’s never going to be me. 

Still, I was glad that he went. Bringing up Tristane hurt far more than I thought it would. I cried, for the first time in a long time. I cried so much because Tris deserved a better fate than he got. Tris loved me more than anything and we’d planned to have a Bonding Ceremony right there in Tailfeather where we met. We had our whole lives ahead of us and it was all burned to ash in one stupid moment when he decided to fight the Bandersnatch Alpha on his own, rather than follow the plan we’d made for weeks. All in order to protect me, to keep me out of harm’s way. Is it any wonder that I hate it?  It robbed me of the one person who ever thought the world of me, who believed I could do anything, except for that one hunt.  Idiot.

I never expect Edgard to show up at the times he does, it’s almost as if the hand of fate is determined to make my life a misery. Naturally, I was still crying from memories of Tris, which won a quip from the Ishgardian about how I actually had emotional reactions to things.  Idiot.  Of course I have feelings!  Just because I don’t show them to /him/ doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

What happened next… I can’t even really explain what happened.  I vented, he listened, we traded our usual banter, though my heart wasn’t really in it until near the end.  He told me to visualize a target as Lorrendor and throw rocks at it.  I chose the bridge across the pond. Admittedly, I’m a pretty good shot with rocks.  Bridge-Lorrendor would’ve been rendered unconscious with a pretty serious concussion. Between the banter, the venting, and the rock-throwing, though, I actually felt better. Edgard really can be a good friend when he puts his mind to it.  It’s strange.

At the end of the night, he asked me if I was going to brood or if I’d need him there to hold his hand. There was something in the way he said it, something that made it seem like /not/ taking his hand yesterday had bothered him. So, I took it tonight. 

He had on those spiky, reticulated gauntlets that dragoons favor, I thought for sure I was about to cut myself on one, but I took his hands in both of mine anyway. I held him like that for a moment and -- maybe it was just my imagination -- he seemed /dumbfounded/ by it.  Edgard, the Perpetually Glib and Effervescent with his flirtations and witty rejoinders was rendered /speechless/ by me holding his hand. Gods, if I’d known that was all it took to shut him up, I’d have done it long ago. 

Still, I was grateful for the good turn he’d done in cheering me up, whatever small kindness I could give him in that moment… he deserved it.

[casualcatte]

RP Journal: 08/14/2020

I made it a point to go in to the Night Raid Bounty Call a bit early so I could discuss the matter of the Kouyou Twintails with Tetsuro Wulf. I’m all for a good hunt, but there were a couple of missing bits of information to the hunt details that would have been /really/ useful to know. Rightly, he seemed a bit annoyed, but I reassured him that the job got done anyway, but that he’d probably want to give that client an earful for the lack of full disclosure. I’d have approached that job /much/ differently if I’d known it was a mated pair with young. Still, Edgard and I got it done and that’s what matters.

(Courtesy cut for length...!)

I perused the bounty board and found the /perfect/ job to do next. It’s right up Edgard’s alley, so I’ll get to see what he’s /really/ made of or if his talk about being a dragonslayer is just that, talk. The job is to hunt a dragon in the Dravanian Forelands, even if it hadn’t been a dragon and perfect for Edgard, I’d have still taken it.  The Forelands are home and I’m not about to let some renegade beastie run rampant out there.  Especially not when I’m on my way out to Ishgard anyway.

I saw Loksia briefly while there and we arranged to take on the bounty she took for us sometime next week. She took herself off with a pair of her friends not long after, some talk of a spar going on between them on the beach.

I overheard some talk from upstairs, Z’rhun, R’zunh, and Mu’ra had returned from their hunt -- injured, of course!  I gave it a short bit before I went to see them. Zunh, of course, bruised already fractured ribs. Rhun cracked some ribs.  And Mu’ra broke an arm.  All-in-all, not too terrible, but still I would’ve preferred them to not be injured at all. I swear, I feel like I’m going to have to start following them on these hunts just to make sure they make it out in one piece!

I’d nearly forgotten about the Hunter’s Haven tomorrow. I should invite Edgard to come, since it sounds right up his alley.  A place to boast and tell tall tales of his hunting adventures?  I’m not sure there’s enough room in the Night Raid Headquarters to fit how inflated his ego would get.

I sat down in the bar afterward with Zunh and Mu’ra and a couple of their friends. Mostly talking to Mu’ra since he seemed the odd-man out. If there’s one thing I learned tonight it’s that Mu’ra really opens up to you when you give him nerdy book things to talk about. He’s especially interested in Nymian Marines and the like.  He would probably get along well with Miss Ironleaf, the elezen that runs the infirmary at the Stars’ Rest.  She’s even got a real-life faerie, just like the Nymians of old! 

Mu’ra expressed a desire to have one of their soulstones so that he, too, could become a Nymian Marine for true. I told him I’d keep an eye out and an ear to the ground for him, though I have no idea where to even start looking for that sort of thing. 

Everything began to die down not long after, even Rhun put in an appearance from the infirmary finally, if only to wolf down the food the Little Brothers had gotten for him. I took my leave not long after, since it was well past closing. 

Once that was all done, it was time to head to Ishgard. No doubt Edgard was already wondering if I’d even show up given that he’d had to do without me for an entire day!  I’d needed to turn in the bounty, though, and pick up the new assignment. I think he’ll be pleased. I also spent the day concluding all of my business in Kugane. It’s a pity that part of the reward today was a week’s stay at the Bokairo, because I wouldn’t really need it now. There didn’t seem to be a use-by date on it, so perhaps I can keep it for a Kugane-cation of my own sometime when the world gets to be too much.

No sooner than I crossed the Gates of Judgment, I was assessing the city and where best it might be to find the big dope when Edgard pretty much walked right up to me. I swear, it’s like he has this sixth sense on where I am at all times and can unerringly find me there.  It’s uncanny!

It was Banter as Usual  right off the bat, but I made it a point to deliver his part of the reward and tell him about the job I’d picked up. Or, at least I would have if someone hadn’t cranked Edgard’s flirtation meter up to eleven. Good Gods, I know he’s a flirtatious git sometimes, but this was really going overboard. I suppose I can’t really blame him for going ham, after all, I know he’s not serious about any of it. Maybe that makes me a safe person to just let loose and get it out of his system. Still, if he wanted to play as if he was Gods’ Gift to Womankind, I’d oblige him by not taking the bait.

After all, I’m a renown Centurio Hunter here. Any young hunter for malms around would kill for the honor of going on a hunt with me. Just because this was Ishgard didn’t mean that he had any advantage over me here.

He decided we’d meet in the Forgotten Knight and we could go over the details of the hunt. No sooner than I walked in was I greeted by fellow hunters and Centurio Clan members, welcomed as if returning home. There were old faces and new, eager glances in the hopes of a fresh hunt and a known Huntress looking for a partner. This is what Edgard walked into the middle of.

Perhaps it was just my imagination, but Edgard /glared/ at them, then he proclaimed loudly that I wasn’t the blue catte any of them were looking for -- could it be that he was jealous?  Concerned that I might actually choose one of them for a partner over him?  It’s a queer thought to think Edgard so possessive.  I know he’s said that I matter to him, but I don’t think I matter /quite/ that much.  So what gives?

It’s neither here nor there, though, as there were much bigger fish to fry in the form of one corrupted dragon. I rolled out a map of the Forelands and the flyer I’d gotten at the Bounty Call. Outlining the location and the quarry for Edgard, I listened to his input for a plan. He wanted to go in hard and I tended to agree. Dragons aren’t something you toy with. My thought was to have Edgard lie in wait in the high hills surrounding the Feast while I lure the beast out of the ruins and into a clear area off to the west, away from the rivers. It would mean entirely trusting my life on Edgard’s skill as a dragoon, but if he’s even half the warrior he claims to be, then I have faith in him.

While we had our discussion there was, naturally, banter among the hunters around us. Several of them cutting into Edgard’s attempts to flirt with me with flirtations of their own. Gods, I swear men think it’s a competition sometimes! One thing I noticed, though, is that Edgard got… aggravated, even snapping at some of them for their attempts. I swear, at one point, he even moved closer to me!  

It didn’t stop us from formulating a plan that I think will do fine. My only concern is leaving Edgard to the dragon’s mercy while I retreat up into the hills. I know this is what dragoons do, what they’ve been bred and trained for, but I can’t help but feel a little concerned. I’ll stick to the plan. The largest concern is where we’re going to find someone that speaks dragon to talk to Anyx Trine on our behalf.  Because I’ll be damned if we’re hunting a dragon without their blessing and risking the treaty.  Even we Tailfeather bumpkins know that much about Ishgard politics.

The flirtations from the hunters really seemed to get under Edgard’s skin, he even asked that we have these meetings elsewhere in future because it was all too distracting for him. Too distracting for Edgard Beaumont.  Imagine that!  The man is a walking distraction of goofiness and idle flirtation and he gets agitated over a bunch of hunters finding their bravado in their cups! They’re half the reason I tolerate Edgard as well as I do. I’ve been exposed to their banter for years, so I’m used to it and it doesn’t bother me.  Gods, it seemed to bother Edgard, though I couldn’t tell you why.

I’ll head out early in the morning to stop by the Convictory and look into the sightings of the Saurotaun that Lorrendor told me of, see if they bear any fruit. Damn, I meant to ask Edgard about the scattered pieces of the beast’s prey; that doesn’t seem like dragon behavior, but I’d like to confirm it with an “expert” so to speak. If this is, indeed, some manner of magical construct, it would explain so, so much. It will also change what I look for in the future. I’ve been hunting a beast, thinking in the patterns beasts do.  A magical construct won’t have those habits.  I’ll have to learn more about them to decide how to proceed.

I’m looking forward to the hunt. Despite his ego and his bluster, it will be interesting to see Edgard in his prime element. For now, I must rest.  It’s going to be a long, /long/ day tomorrow.

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