Tales of Wrassling and Cages

Soldier's Defense, Late Afternoon

The Soldier's Defense has been rather light on patients ever since the miracle in the recent past where all had been cured of their injuries and ailments. But, just like time marching onwards, the trickle of injured and sick started pouring back in.

"That was the COOLEST thing I-I've ever seen you do!" a human teen with black hair and sparkling slate eyes fawns over a shirtless man, who was wincing from an Althean nurse stitching closed a large bite on his ribs.

Warrick sighs, looking a bit frazzled and unkempt. "Well, don't make me do a habit of it. Is Lomi alright?"

Cynthia bobs her head. "Uhuh uhuh uhuh! We're fine!"

He sighs again, this time in relief.

Bryn hadn't visited the Soldier's Defense, yet. She did see a few people step out of there today who seemed to be banged up, maybe limping, but happy? Her first thought is a tavern for the militant folks (by the name). Her second is a training post or similar? Either way, it's more than interesting enough for her to step in and take a peek.

Of course, the view inside isn't what she expected. Her impression shifts to ...barracks? flophouse? A mostly empty one at that, though it is daytime, so that's not so unusual. Her musing halts as she hears a familiar-ish squealing that draws her eye to the source and the shirtless Warrick. Well, she's pretty sure they wouldn't be holed up in a flophouse, since they have one to themselves. And what's the other person with him doing...

As she wanders over, she finally realizes the nurse's role and what she's doing to Warrick. "'Ey," she greets. "Looks like you found some fun."

Cynthia is the first to note a towering figure approach, as Warrick was busy holding up an arm for the nurse to get a better angle. "Oh! Hi uh- uh- B...rr..."

Warrick glances up. "Ah. Bryn. You could say that." The man has the physique of someone who works out quite a bit, or has a profession that does all the work for him. But his body has a littering of scars dotting it, the most egregious is that of a set of four long gouges of a scar that cut through a tattooed holy symbol of Serriel on his left bicep. "If you decide to go to the river, take a spear or something with you. I think some wildlife got displaced up stream and-"

His daughter cuts him off, "Me and my friend were out swimming earlier today and we was throwing each other off the wharf and it was a lot of fun then all of sudden Dad got up and told us to get out but we ignored him and then a couple of alligators bust out of the water and then a sith-makar shot at it and then Dad leapt in after and then mul woman jump in too and so did the sith and then we went to go get help and then we got back and then Dad was freakingwrestlingthealligatorandchokeditoutitwassofreakingCOOL!" she explains breathlessly at a hundred miles a second.

Warrick sighs and shakes his head, weakly gesturing towards his daughter and wincing as the nurse adds the final stitch.

Bryn continues to eye Warrick as he explains; first the freshly-stiched wound, then other scars, and everything in between. There's a blink when Cin adds her ..compacted and rushing additional details. But, hey, they are important ones!

"Wow! Really?!" she asks with not-dissimilar interest after her eye pans over to her. "And I missed it?! That must've been a hells of a sight!" Which has her looking back to Warrick, and his scars, and everything else. "N here I went to the baths thinkin they'd be more interesting..." Her lower lip juts out some. Or maybe that's just from the tusks.

"I'd take the baths overs that," Warrick grumbles, rolling his shoulder and thanking the nurse casually as they scurry off to the next patient. Seems like he's a regular here.

"Laaaame," Cynthia pouts before grinning up to Bryn. "Yeah! It was crazy! The mul'neissa lady was really neat too! She was doing all kinds of flips and stuff! Her rapier was really fast! And the Makari knew exactly what to do, it was really cool! It was a little scary when Dad got grabbed, but it worked out!"

"I am going to wear a dagger from now own with the sword," Warrick rubs at his face, fishing around for his alligator-bitten shirt nearby. "At least it'll make for an interesting story."

Bryn listens and nods with Cin, though her eye's still on Warrick. "Life's full of interesting stories. Ye look like you've picked up alot." She motions a hand at his scars. "Feel like sharin s'more? I love hearin stories." She even takes up a seat on a nearby empty bed, leaning forward, hands on her knees. "An next time ye head to the river, lemme know. I'll go with. Maybe something bigger'll try to eat us."

Warrick fixes Bryn an appraising look before slipping on (with a pained grunt) the nearly ruined shirt. "I hope not, but I'll be sure to do so," he mentions before he glances to Cynthia, who's watching him curiously. A moment is spared in thought, before he rifles around in his back and produces a few silver pieces and hands them to Cynthia. "Can you get something for us to eat, Cinny? Please don't get me anything spicy this time."

Cynthia grins with newfound wealth. "Yeah! I'm /starving/ after all that!" With no waiting for further input, she bolts out of the hospital.

Warrick watches her go, then smiles, chuckling to himself. "Just like her mother. Anyways- sure, any in particular you want to know about?" he asks, crossing his arms. "I've seen quite a lot of weirdness. Used to be a part of the Watch- the city guard-, and did some time in the Alexandrian Military."

Bryn's brows kick up at the look and stay that way as her head turns to follow Cin out and then back to Warrick. "Her ma got an appetite, too?" She moves on to the actual question and spends a moment in thought, tongue bulging her cheek some as it presses on the inside. "You must've seen all kinds of weird as a guard here. Only be here a couple days 'n already ran into weird."

Warrick shakes his head. "Her mother used to get excited over small things all the time," he smiles in thought, looking at the door where Cynthia bolted out of before he leans back to rest on his palms. "Yeah. It's sort of the charm of the place, why I like living here so much. Not only did guard duty, but I also took care of reports, so a lot of strange things came across my desk."

He chews the inside of his cheek, looking up to the ceiling. "... there was one time we had a problem where there was rather furious dryad had a rat friend get taken away. Yes, a dryad. I had to interview them in the forest north of here. Apparently, there was a druid that went a bit... loose in the head, that started living in our sewers. And befriended every rat they ran across. It was good for a time, as all the rats were going away, but then we had a rat problem later on. The... issue was, we couldn't ever find the druid. Because they could turn into a rat."

He looks down at Bryn, and deadpans, "And that's considered tame."

Bryn makes a light sound with Warrick's correction on inherited traits before going quiet for the tale, proper. A light snort follows, though it's still amused. "So you had a bunch of rats leave things be, then come back... and couldn't find the one leadin' 'em cause they looked like all the other rats? That's like chasin the wind. Hard enough to run down one rat when they're just a rat. Hated huntin them. Lotta work for half a bite."

"Well, they would come back in a wave of rats," Warrick sighs, rubbing his face. "They'd swarm the market quickly, steal a bunch of food, then retreat down the sewer grates. We /tried/ cleaning the sewers out, but they'd just disperse and scurry away. That's one of the cases that never got closed. The sewers just get too complicated the deeper you go."

A chuckle escapes him. "Yes. They're quite annoying. Even harder to shoot." He runs a hand across the parallel scars on his left arm, massaging it. "I'll take rats over undead any day though. Dealt with them enough to last a lifetime. You run into anything crazy yourself?"

"Raidin rats..." That's uttered with understanding, awe, and more than a little revulsion. That's even worse than what she was thinking. The rubbing draws her eye to the scar. "Guessin rats didn' give ya that one..." And now its her turn to share a tale.

"There was the weird time bird boy at the river. Wasn't tryin to eat anyone, but ... well, it was weird. Like time stopped for most everyone else. Then lots of talkin, askin how we felt about time stopping." A shrug. "'Fore that, got drunk, got in a bit of a fight, woke up in a cage. Got in more of a fight. Caught a sharp stick in the eye. That was a bit crazy, but led me here. 'Fore that was the same stuff I grew up with: movin, raidin, huntin, tradin..."

Warrick glances to the scarred arm. "No... the rats didn't." His throat subtly bobs. "That's a story for another time. Perhaps with a drink or three."

His brows furrow as Bryn tells her tale. Tales? "Bird.. boy? An egalrin boy? That is certainly up there in strange things that has happened." He blinks. "Wait- a cage? I'm sorry, walk that back. How do you go from a drunk brawl to ending up in a cage? Unless you mean jail?"

Bryn shakes her head. "Looked like a bird. Sounded like a boy. Don't really think it was either of those. Some powerful magic or somethin to do what it did." Then she looses a short, deep laugh while shaking her head again.

"Jail would've been nicer, I think? If they had one. Was a village on the edge o' The Desolation. Nothin like this place. We just finished some tradin there and I was celebratin gettin blooded. Marked. Full part of the clan. Celebrated alot."

She takes a moment to think, idly scratching behind an ear. "Some of it's pretty cloudy. Got mad. Hit someone. They hit back. I went black. Woke up gettin shoved in some kind of cage cart that alrady had a bunch of other folks in it. So I started hittin again. Still wound up in the cage, just bleedin alot more. They rolled us the rest of the way into Charn to some castle in the mountains. Some others rolled in, too; servants, maybe not slaves. Turned out they weren't even that, but a buncha sil and lizzerd folk from here out to free somebody. They got us all out, gave us a magic ride back here..." She waves vaguely around. "So here I am."

Warrick scratches his head as Bryn laughs. "... yeah, I'm not too versed in that, must have been some weird magics for sure."

He tilts his head, listening as he picks up his back of things, setting each of the things out on his bed. Double checking his traveling equipment. "Oh, congratulations on that, I know that's really important," he mentions genuinely about the oruch tradition.

He can't help but frown as the story plays out. "That... sounds a lot like some adventurers to just pop up out of nowhere and wreck havoc. Especially with a magic flourish for a ride back. Glad you managed to get out at the very least."

Warrick resumes shoving things in his bag. Lots of jars of polish and weapon oil, anti rusting agents. Spare rags. "So what now then?" he asks. "You going to get back to your clan now that you're blooded? Or are you going to stick around a bit? Desolation is a bit of a ways away."

"Knew there's lots more past huntin prey, fightin off predators, raidin, tradin. Now I can see it for myself," Bryn explains. "I'll be stickin 'round. Be a long while 'fore I can get the coin to go back, anyways. Ain't in a hurry to be sharin a bedroll with scorpions nor digging sand outta every crevice, neither."

"Yeh, they're adventurers, I guess. Ran into one of them first time since all that just yesterday."

Warrick bobs his head, chuckling lightly. "I don't miss that either. Had to sleep in a lot of weird places when I was in the Arbalest division. So I get it. Airship rides aren't always the cheapest, but its an option."

He tilts his head. "Really? Bag gets clipped shut, and a longsword is unsheathed and laid on his lap, a rag drying off water. "Interesting. You'll end up running into all sorts if you're going to do Explorer's Guild work. For better or for worse."

"Met some interestin sorts so far," Bryn points out. "Have to see which way they go from there. Guessin it won't be dull, neither way." Watching him pack up she thinks a moment before asking, "Guild more interestin than soldiering or guardin? That why you left the others?"

The cleaning pauses briefly before resuming getting water out of the pommel. "I was honorably discharged," Warrick answers somewhat quietly, holding the edge of the blade up to inspect the sharpness against the light outside. "Would rather do that instead of adventuring to be perfectly honest. Safer. But-" he lowers the weapon, looking up at Bryn. "I do get paid a lot better for one. And, well, /someone/ has to keep an eye on the adventurers. Did you know the city has a budget set aside for collateral damage done by the Explorer's Guild?" Sword sheathe. "Did you also know that budget was eradicated in one night by an adventurer turning into a dragon and destroying a noble's city block?"

Bryn didn't know any of that and her eye widens accordingly. "They keep gold just for that? Must happen alot... 'Venturer's breakin shit, I mean. Not dragons in the city." A pause. "Right?" She hasn't seen a dragon in Alexandria, but she hasn't been in Alexandria that long, either.

Then her surprise is replaced by a growing, tusky, grin. "If one does show up, though, I know who'll wrastle it to the ground." A wink.

"It happens constantly. And the annoying thing is- it's actually cheaper to do it that way in the end. Paying the collateral is cheaper than defending against, say, a demon incursion that the adventurer's stop beforehand," Warrick elaborates, putting the sword off to the side. "I've never seen a dragon, and I don't want to-"

He stares at Bryn. Blinks. Then breaks into a hearty laugh, whatever deadpan expression that he keeps broken. "Hah!" He claps her shoulder. "You're funny, kid. If I do that, I better get a damn medal."

Speaking of medals without the 'd', two figures come bounding into the hospital, baskets held high over their heads as they do some kind of goofy dance. Cynthia has returned, as well as a Arvek Nar teen towering in behind her. "Hello Mister Rick," the Nar teen emotionlessly greets.

"We brought food!" Cynthia grins. "And I brought Lomi!"

"She spent all your money on sandwiches, sir," Lomi informs.

"Double stuffed!" Cynthia beams.

Warrick can only stare, then puts a hand over his face. But he couldn't hide the smile. He looks over to Bryn. "Want lunch?"

Bryn echoes his laugh for a moment and the shoulder clap just makes it that much louder. "Sure they'll make one for you for that!" Then there's the return of the food-fetcher. And friend? "Ey!" She greets Cin and Lomi and is about to say something when Warrick offers. "Eatin is one of my four favorite things to do!" If doubles aren't enough, she might just have to pick up s'more sandwiches.

-End Scene-