trans_9 | Post Mission Party At The Bar

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Post Mission Party At The Bar

Its time to unwind, relax and receive news of home. A pod pop occurred while some were on a mission and it's time to meet up with new friends, drink well with old, and relax.The Drunken Dragon has opened its doors and stands ready and willing to assist in forgetting the trials those on the mission experienced.

OOC: If you want a specific barmaid, just put their name in the subject. Otherwise, enjoy, intermingle and do as you like.

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"well I'm not very good at falling under sways," Kaya said. "I have enough people around me that would stop me from fully hating myself that much, and even if I didn't, I had training so I'd be able to handle myself in the worst times. My teaches, especially the ones on this ship, never sought to coddle me, and I intend not to let them down."

She shook her head. "Well, most aren't. I've told you already about Tui and La, and as far as I know, they were the only actual spirits to remain in the real world. Most of the spirits live on another plain entirely, although there are ghosts, and vengeful spirits too. They sometimes remain in our world to show their displeasure at the things humans have done to places they helped beautify."

She was, however, interested in the last thing he mentioned. "Oh? What spirits were these?"

"It has less to do with hating herself, and more to do with her trusting, sometimes naive nature. Which in essence, sounds a bit silly coming from one who is routinely called 'naive'." He raised both his hands and shoulders in a shrug.

"One was a small girl by the name of Pamela. She resides in a desolate, destroyed town called 'Darrowshire' in the south of what is now known as the Eastern Plaguelands. If Ronnae has spoken to you at all about the Lich King, then you know that he and his forces decimated many, many areas in Lordaeron."

"I was surprised to see here when I was there first there, assisting the very small group of Argent Dawn members keep the scourge population low. She had red hair in pigtails and a brown dress with a sunflower on it. Pamela was very adorable; perhaps a little over a decade in age? I am not so sure when it comes to Humans." His head rolled to the side slightly as he spoke of the event like it had just come to pass.

"I have seen many spirits, but at that time I had never seen one of a child. I went to investigate. She said that she was waiting there for her father...he had gone to fight, in what I presume was the battle that the village eventually lost. Her aunt told her to sit still but 'it had been a very long time since then'. There were very bad things that spoke to her, she said, and it would ease her mind and loneliness if she were to have her doll. Apparently it kept going missing."

Nokosi laughed, but that, too was a bit gloomy considering the conversation.

"Of all the things; a doll. But I, too, knew the desolate feeling that such a time alone brings. I set about to retrieve the doll, which had been torn, presumably by the other spirits in the village that attacked me on my search. She was very happy to receive it...and then asked me to inquire about her Aunt and Uncle. Her Aunt was also dead; a spirit like her. Her Uncle was devastated to learn of her death and that she still wanders the area, there."

He blew out a short sigh, shoulders sagging as he did. "After many years, she is still there. Presumably waiting for her father and other family. Perhaps she feels as if she must watch over the area? I do not know. I would have thought that a kind priest or paladin would have sent her along, but after seeing how optimistic she always is, even in her state...I do not see how they would have the heart to exorcise her."

"I don't think I'd ever call you naive, though I wonder if Ronnae would be able to take care of herself if someone from her world were to bring about some of her past demons."

Kaya was relatively strong: in most instances, she could be told things and she would react accordingly, or at least be able to hide her feelings. With a story like this, Kaya listened, and tried to formulate an answer, or at least say something, but found she was choked in tears.

"That's...so sad," she finally said. "The poor little girl."

"Ah, she is not as helpless as my words are making her sound. It would not be as easy as them attempting to talk her into such things and her going along with it; she would be thoroughly mortified, though." She could just own up to the things in her past as to suppress how big of a deal they were, but Ronnae was not that type of person, which was really the point.

"It is," he said, turning to look at the girl beside him. "But her idle chit-chat about everything and nothing; it is the type of thing that sends me on a trip to the Plaguelands every so often, despite the aversion I have to the terrible stench of that land."

With that, Nokosi straightened up a bit and lightly gripped the edge of the chair between his legs. His gaze was still locked to her face, even as he began talking.

"The other spirit; my apologies, as I cannot quite remember her name, was in Darkshore. It is a land that is north of Ashenvale, along the sea. I chanced upon a druid there while I was exploring the areas--after the Shattering, many places in Darkshore were left destroyed or the geography completely warped. This was the second time something like this has happened to that area."

"Anyways, the druid spoke to me of his lover. An elven woman with a sharp mind, as graceful as a Nightsaber, and a depth that spanned further than the lengths of the Great Dark Beyond. She lived in Ameth'Aran and they were as meant to be as the Moon Goddess and Malorne."

He smiled at the comparison, but continued the story despite the lack of knowledge she had on the things he spoke of. "During the War of the Ancients, Ameth'Aran crumbled and was left in ruins. Whiteclaw's lover died along with all of the others. With a heavy heart, he told me, he went with Malfurion into the Emerald Dream where they, and many other druids went into a deep sleep for many years."

"He told me that during his time in the Emerald Dream he had many vivid nightmares involving her spirit. It haunted him, he said. Those druids that slumbered recently awoke--after ten thousand years of hibernation."

Nokosi raised his eyebrows slightly as if he was appalled by the number as well. Ten thousand years of uneasiness, uncertainty, despair...only to wake up from the Dream and find himself in the ruins of Ameth'Aran. He saw her spirit there, he told me. She aimlessly wandered the ruins and he wished her spirit destroyed so that she would be freed, but he lacked the heart to do such a thing."

He dropped his head slightly and licked at his chapped lips. This was always the part that got him; the one that made his chest tighten and brought on the sniffles. Sure, to some it would be considered 'silly' and he most certainly wouldn't be considered 'masculine' for doing so, but he easily could care less than was usually required.

"Whiteclaw had someone else do it for him. When they returned, they brought with them an amulet that belonged to her. He questioned that perhaps it would have been better if he did it himself, but could not bear the thought of raising a hand against his lover. As soon as he opened the locket, her spirit appeared before him. He was confused, he said. He questioned if it could truly be her."

"The spirit told him that yes, it was her despite how cruel the ages were to them. He asked her then, if she hated him for having her spirit be destroyed; he only wanted to free her so that she would not be bound to this world any longer. She told him..."

There it was. Every time. Every single time he retold this story, at this particular spot his eyes always glossed up and were stricken with a dream-like haze. There may have been a sniffle, too.

"She told him that no, she did not hate him. He freed her and for that she loved him all the more. At that point he told me that she began fading; her ties to Azeroth were weakening and she was being pulled along. He was distraught, as you might imagine. Whiteclaw begged and pleaded with her to stay with him; he questioned just how he would be able to face the ages of the world when she was not by his side..."

His words trailed off as he rubbed his face with the back of his hands. "He said the last thing she told him was that they would meet again and that she would love him always."

Nokosi sighed and glanced at Kaya. "Ten thousand years. Ten thousand years. Can you imagine? Ten thousand years as a spirit, waiting in the ruins of a city for your lover to return. Ten thousand years of dreaming of regret for things that passed. Waking up and still having feelings so true, so pure and with such strength for another person? Such loyalty, even when he knows that he is poised to face the next few thousands of years without that one person that was his sky above, earth below and everything in between."

Nokosi pushed a few locks of wayward bangs from his face, and though his lips quivered at the threat of actual crying, he still maintained a bona fide, sincere smile. Such raw feeling of...well, any emotion, even anger, tended to get a rise out of him in some form or another.

"There are few people in the world who could say they had a passion for something or someone to such an extent. It is a glorious thing, no? Despite all of the negativity and heartache involved with it...I still cannot help but think that such a thing would have been worth having...and experiencing, despite how fleeting their time together was."

The other story, no less heart wrenching, still had its own glimmer of hope in it, one that she understood more than most. Of course it was sad: star crossed lovers who would never meet again, no one dying like Romeo and Juliet, but one living for years, asleep and then awaking to the doomed reality of not having the one loved most by their side? It was heart wrenching, and it was something she co0uld feel the pain of herself. For a moment she thought of poor Aang, stuck in a sort of sleep, awaiting the day that Katara would be brought back to him. She recalled the pain she inadvertently caused him, her love of Matt a dagger in his heart.

And she remembered her own torch. She could tell herself it was Katara's feelings all she wanted: for a long time, they had sustained her, with every passing of a person to pod, with every hardship she had to deal with. And it was something only she understood, something she could experience by herself. To some, it might have felt like a release, knowing she had never been Katara anyway, that the true Katara was here and all was right. The truth was, with all the pain it had caused her, it had been a blossoming of something true and good in her, the existence of love carried for a long, long time for Aang even if he had not been the one.

It was a heady feeling, one she thought of now and again and was ether filled with a quiet emptiness or a longing for the feeling of tenderness and love to come back again. But that was in due time.

And this story, she could feel the love between those two, the loneliness of knowing one was released while the other was not, the years you would live without being able to touch that person you loved. A log time wanting, unfulfilled. But that love, it existed, it was real, and made you a part of this world more deeply than anyone would ever know.

Without thinking, she had laid a finger on Nokosi's quivering lips, and though her eyes brimmed with tears, she was smiling.

"Yes. I don't have the years of longing there, or the experience, but I understand. Love is a double edged sword. If there was anyone on the ship who gets that, it is me. It's beautiful...and sad."

"Ah yes," he said, placing his hand over her own near his mouth and moving it up to his cheek. Being touched or caressed on the face was probably the most comforting thing he could think of. Ellistree had spoiled him in those regards.

"He asked to be alone with his grief, and though I am one to usually 'not catch the hint', as it were, I could do nothing but oblige." Nokosi closed his eyes and nuzzled his cheek into her open palm. "I have not met too many spirits that are so very forthright with their stories, but I am grateful for those they have given. It is as you said: they have much to offer through their experiences."

The hairs on the back of Kaya's neck stood up, but she tried to look casual about this touch anyway, smiling over at Nokosi. This was probably another way he showed affection, so she knew not getting overly excited about it was probably for the best.

Even if she did like it.

"There are some experiences, as bittersweet as they are, that have to be known," Kaya said. ":Love, to me, has always been something very powerful, and it isn't always nice and forgiving and sappy like people might think. Sometimes you have to fight with everything in your power to keep it, and in the end it might even hurt. But that she stayed a ghost that long, and he came back to her, is proof that even death can't part those feelings."

And she brought her pointer and thumb to smooth over his cheek.

"So I have been told by some. 'The pain of heartbreak is worth having', I was told. 'Once you have hit the absolute bottom of emotional pain, you then have something to gauge all other pain by, and you realize that really, everything else is not so bad in comparison.'"

He laughed suddenly and shook his head gently. "I will admit that those who frequent the taverns and bars are not known for their wisdom, but there is just a bit more to the 'local drunks' than tall tales and visions of grandeur. I will admit I do like the tall tales the best, though."

The corner of Nokosi's lips rose in a smile at her simple caress. Ah, it felt nice and brought back a slew of memories that he was only too happy to have popping up in his mind.

He brushed his fingers back and forth over her smaller digits, encouraging her to repeat the action.

"I think that people who go to bas for that reason do it because they're looking for a balm, for a time," Kaya said. "It's never easy to lose people you care about, and on that level, he lost a lot. Human beings, well, anyone who loves really, they need to find a way to escape that pain a little. Tall tales are nice and all, but they are a little easier to tell."

Kaya blushed a little, but brought her hands to his cheek again, smiling. "You;re a very tactile person, Nokosi."

"Oh yes, but that is the point. I like them because truth in Azeroth is generally far stranger than fiction. There is no real need to tell such tales, but those of bravado, heroic saves and stalwart saviors tend to be highly amusing." The Dwarf, Orc and Gnome who claimed to save Desolace from Deathwing sprang to mind.

"That and I find laughter to be a most delectable sound, even more so than the noises humanoids make that are commonly known as 'pleasurable'." The pitch, the depth, the feeling that could be conveyed in such a simple action! It was wonderful, really.

Nokosi placed both of his hands over hers and focused his gaze on her before returning the smile. "Thank you. Out of every sense, I am most partial to touch. It is the one thing that I could not live without; there is much one can tell with a single stroke. It is also the one thing I found myself constantly denied when I decided to see more of the cities and societies of Azeroth. 'Personal space' is an idea that was foreign to me at the time."

Truth be told, it kind of still was.

"I think I know what you mean. There are taverns where I'm from, and although I didn't frequent them often (I was younger at the time) there were still other ways of earing tall tales. Even as a little girl I was fascinated about picking up and leaving to go see the world with all of the things I would hear. They were just a far off dream then, but that's definitely changed now."

She decided it was be best to her not to react to the aforementioned topic of pleasurable sounds and focus more on what he was saying about laughter "For some people in some places, laughter is definitely hard to come by. I really envy how you see things sometimes Nokosi It's as if people always seem to grab your attention and are an endless source of amusement for you."

She smiled. "Yes, I noticed. And for me, well, I crave human contact more than I thought. I didn't used to: in fact, I was pretty much by myself back home until I met the GAang. Now, with the idea that at any given moment Stacy could go and take someone away, I like to know people are there, still with me."

"I am no one to envy," he said. He was being neither self-depreciating or humble; just truthful. "It is not something that is seen as a positive trait for most. It is a sign of immaturity, insensitivity and the inability to take things in a serious manner."

Nokosi simply laughed and shook his head slightly. "Of course, that would really be up for debate, in my opinion."

His eyes slid closed as he focused on the sound of her voice and the feeling of her hands against his face. As much as he was enjoying it, he really needed to let her get back to her nursing studies. Soon enough.

"It is the exact reason why I became so dependent on it; that was my only window to the world when I was younger and I constantly liked to be reassured that my parents were there, as my hearing was nearly as bad as my sight back then. Speaking of."

His head tilted to the side slightly as he spoke, covering one of her hands in violet hair. "You must tell me of your childhood before you met with the Avatar and the others. I would be most interested to hear of such."

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Post Mission Party At The Bar

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