Rebirth and redemption

[Iron Dragoon]

Int:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+11 : 2 + 11, total 13[/blockquote]

Cha:

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+13 : 15 + 13, total 28[/blockquote]

[Anastasia]

A sharper pain as Latha is there, healing you.

200 damage.

"It's not working," Latha speaks gently, "I don't fee continuing is safe."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa shakes her head.

"Yes, fine. I suppose I shouldn't let stubbornness get the better of me. To the test, then."

[Anastasia]

"When all of you are prepared, I'll open a portal to the Beyond," Latha says, "Merely tell me when you're ready."

Consider this a last chance to do anything, prep or simply get a little bit of rest before trying, in case a night's sleep might help Alyssa.

[Iron Dragoon]

Yeah. I guess I can rest and give improvement one more shot and then go.

[Anastasia]

Rooms are provided. Yet you lie on your bed, sleep elusive - until there is a gentle knock on your door.

[Iron Dragoon]

"Come in."

[Anastasia]

Jarem enters, a bottle of wine in hand. Behind him is Antenora.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asks, then, "So, I was talking to Antenora and I mentioned there's a tradition in my world, a way we remember the dead."

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa nods, "Definitely a good time for it. Just us or everyone?"

[Anastasia]

"Just us, Emily's asleep and Dolmaya's off doing something," Jarem says. "Telling stories and remembering the best and worst of them. Probably happens on most every other world there is, but damn it, it's a good tradition."

"But three is better than two," Antenora agrees, as Jarem hops onto your bed and uncorks the wine. He has a pull of it before, "I never had much patience for the thinly veiled opinion that women are superior and men are trash. I thought she might like women, but no, she just dislikes men." A pause, a moment before, "One time, you were off doing something and the two of us trained together. She got the better of that one and I ended up on my back. She says some fool thing about men." A beat, "So I kicked her in the crotch."

Antenora blinks as Jarem takes another drink, "It turned into a brawl after that. We beat the Tempus cursed shit out of each other, rolling around in the dirt like brawling acolytes. Finally we end up separated because we've bloodied each other good and neither of us were going to escalate it. She looks at me, nose broken and a hand on her hip even sitting down, and she tells me that I punch like a girl."

A chuckle ripples through Jarem as he offers you the wine bottle, "Word of wisdom - don't laugh with cracked ribs, no matter how funny something she says is."

"...why did you kick her?" Antenora finally asks.

"Because I was sick of her attitude," Jarem admits openly, "Besides, saying that to me? She had balls, and I figured why not try and kick them?"

[Iron Dragoon]

Alyssa chuckles, "Yes, she had the fire. It needed tempering for sure. Did I ever tell you how I found her? Sitting in a grove of trees on the King's private land, threatening to murder anyone who stepped foot into the grove. Defying a sorcerer king along with fire and venom. It was as brave and courageous as it was hilarious and ridiculous. Most of what she did was that way."

[Anastasia]

"It was a wild passion, grumpy as it was fearsome," Jarem agrees. "Not animalistic as some of the more extreme nature types go, but deeper. Doppelgangers aren't really trusted if they're found out, and I think she had problems with that in her life. If life hits you hard enough, you either curl up and take it until you die, or you start hitting back."  Smiling now, "She'd have made a hell of a man. Maybe too aggressive, but she had the makings of a hell of a warlord in another life."

[Iron Dragoon]

"Well... She was a doppelganger. She might have been a man once. It would explain her attitude towards them, I think."

Alyssa smirks at Jarem.

[Anastasia]

An amused chuckle, "Drink up," Jarem prods before, "She and Bastian got along better, but Bastian simply didn't care what she thought. He wasn't interested in what she was selling with that. You ever got the same impression?"

[Iron Dragoon]

"I did. I think they would have been good for each other as best friends. He's too reserved and she likes pushing buttons. He would have exploded, and he would have shut her down."