Private Tales Soon

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
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Zael Castomir

Slayer of Ganfarred
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Character Biography
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ELBION COLLEGE
(during the events of Pinnacle)​


Deal's a deal.

The Department of Acquisitions had a top-tier expedition about to set out to the Seret Mountains, and for Zael, the only way he could get onto it was with the help of three College Students: Gierliadel, Herrim, and Yuna. The first two, all they really had to do was keep their silence on something that happened in the past. Yuna had done most of the work in getting Zael aboard, including persuading Gier and Herrim to let bygones be bygones.

Zael's end of the deal? Giving those three a quick rundown in some sword training in the interim week before the expedition commenced. Five days of it had gone well enough. Even pretty good. So was there anything the matter, if all was pretty good? Yeah, there was.

Yuna. Zael had upset her somethin' awful. Over the course of the five days, she got less and less angry, sure, but Zael knew that what he had shown her, even the things he had said, still bothered her. And, well, she had every right to be angry at him. Because he had betrayed her (and Gier and Herrim) before, and she was afraid that he might do it again on this expedition. Fair enough.

So what Yuna did at the end of the sixth day of training surprised him.
 
Now or never. Now or never!

Yuna had fretted day in and day out about what to do. And she was running out of time! This was a nightmare! Everything was supposed to work out just the way she had envisioned it, and then Zael had to show her that STUPID LETTER! Could she trust him? Could she? After reading that letter? What would he do; what would he choose? Would he betray her again to get some dumb artifact for the people he worked for? Or would he keep his word, do exactly what he said, and disobey orders just to make a point?

But now wasn't the time for fretting. Now was the time for action. See, Yuna happened to be a genius. Gifted with peerless, incandescent intellect! But sometimes having such astounding acumen left one's head in the clouds and, oopsie, blinded one to plain, simple answers down on the ground. And the answer was obvious. So obvious!

And now she only really had one night, this night, to make it happen.

The sixth day of martial training concluded in one of the College's courtyards. The sky above, clear of clouds, was streaked orange with the retreating radiance of the evening sun. Gier, Herrim, and Yuna alike each had worked up various amounts of sweat; Zael's training was relentless!

Like the other nights, Zael bid them farewell casually, said he'd be back for the last day of training a bit earlier than usual, and then turned to go. Gier and Herrim started back on the College together. Now or never!

Yuna rushed up behind Zael. Came to walk astride him in the courtyard. "Hey Firebutt," she said. "Busy? Ha, ha, don't answer that, you're not busy. And before you even say it, no, drinking at the One-Legged Flamingo doesn't count."
 
Five days of playing the stranger, and now Yuna comes bouncing up to him like nothing ever happened. Not that it was entirely out of character on her part, nor unwelcome on Zael's part. Just happened to be his line of thinking that he wouldn't see her in her usually cheery mood so soon, and especially not with the expedition looming so close.

"Wasn't even goin to the Flamingo."
 
He didn't slow down, but Yuna kept up with him.

"Oh? Really? Why's that?" A possible answer came to her right after she asked, and she made a show of gasping. "Don't tell me you're running low on coin!"

With the Fairweather fortune, Yuna had lived, and continued to live, a very comfortable life. It'd be nothing at all to help out a friend in need! And especially because...well...there was a reason she was talking to Zael now, wasn't there? And every little thing helped. Every little thing could be the difference that made all the difference.
 
"I am tellin you that," Zael said with a smirk. And before Yuna could interject (she had a tell where her lips would do this little wiggle when she was about to do it), Zael cut her off and said further, "Ah, ah, before you say anythin, I got it all figured out. It'll be tight, but the Department's coin will set my ship right afloat again."

Just meant that, until this expedition was in the books, he had to cut back on the drinks from the Flamingo. Too rich for his blood right now. And, hell, if it was one thing Zael was used to, both before the Academy and during it, it was lean living.
 
Drat! He knew she was going to say something! She'd have to figure out how he was catching on to that, but in the meantime, she'd just say what she had meant to say anyway.

"It doesn't need to be tight—stop smirking, that wasn't supposed to be funny!" Nevertheless, she reworded what she meant. "You don't need to be barely affording some room at an inn. You could...I don't know...stay in my room? Heidi's out in the field, so it's not like you'll be intruding on anyone. And then you can pocket the savings, you know? Use it for something fun."

Opportunity had knocked, and Yuna answered. She hadn't been expecting to be able to make this kind of offer, but it would certainly help, wouldn't it?
 
Zael couldn't help but to shift his sole eye over to Yuna with a look of both amused and bemused doubt. Really now? From cold shoulder right to offering him a place to stay—her place, no less. Again it wasn't completely outside of Yuna's character to go from one thing to another, but this to Zael seemed quite the stretch.

He stopped walking, and they stood now still a fair distance from the College's front courtyard, and the front gates beyond that.

"Alright, what's the occasion? You got this wellspring of generosity all of sudden, must be a reason."
 
"Can't I be nice?"

Zael's look shifted heavily toward the amused end of the amused/bemused dichotomy it had, and his expression alone said it all: Come on.

"Okay, okay, it's..." Shyness, shyness, of all things, overtook her, and she glanced down and away, "...well, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that when we set out for this expedition, and when we get there, that...it might be the last time I get to see you."

She hid her fidgeting hands behind her back, managed to look up again, and said, "It's true! Maybe you can call me a worry-wart. Maybe I am being dramatic about this. Maybe the Department's plan will go off without a hitch and there won't be anything at all to be anxious about." Either from the Pinnacle itself or from betrayal. "But I feel how I feel. And sure this seems sudden to you, but I've been thinking about this all week, and I've been meaning to ask and now I've finally worked myself up to it and here it is."

Yuna inhaled deeply, steeling herself.

And then asked, "Can we just...forget everything and have some fun tonight?"

It might be the last chance she got. Especially if, once the expedition was underway, and the Pinnacle was in sight, if...he ended up choosing his orders, winning his war, over...

No! She wouldn't let herself think that. The whole idea for tonight, for plan Now or Never!, was to subtly persuade Zael not to do that. And to that end, she needed to break out all the charm and cheer she had in store. Simply put, she needed Zael to like her more than the Pinnacle.
 
Zael listened to it all, and at the end of Yuna's explanation, the laying out of her fears, he just smiled.

"Tell you what," he said, "we'll have some fun tonight, and when we both get back from the expedition."

Sometimes, implication spoke louder than saying something outright.
 
Yuna, focused on the first part, missed entirely the second part of what Zael said, the implication he'd meant to convey.

"Really!? Yes!" Yuna pumped her arms down at her sides. "You won't regret it! I promise! I know I've been a little standoffish lately, but come on, can you blame me? That letter was a big shock, and, yeah, you were right, it couldn't have been any other way than the way you did it. I probably would've tried to kick you in the jewels or something impulsive like that if you had shown me the letter up front. But I don't want to be all sad and mopey or bitter and angry—there's a girl like that in Alteration Class, Gemina, and she's a rotten person, a real bitch too, just makes things miserable for everyone. Well, I'm not like Gemina! I'm way more charming."

She said, as she entwined her hands together and batted her eyes in a purposely over-the-top display of coyness.
 
"Let's go find Gemina then and have ourselves a contest."

"What!?"

Zael grinned. "I'm kiddin. Even if it'd be fun to rib her all night—those types just can't stand a little banter." Kress knew the Academy was full of those Gemina types. If it wasn't for his own boundless propensity for being a rebel, Zael, too, might've fallen down that well; but the more Proctor Kimble and the like tried to beat it out of him, the more and more his good-natured, lighthearted, easy-going character solidified and strengthened. If Proctor Kimble wanted it out of him, then, hell, Zael knew for a fact he was doing something right by defying him.

And good on Yuna for not letting herself be eaten up too much about the Pinnacle and his orders. Got a little rebel spirit in her too, making the choice she wanted to make.

"Alright, you know the city better than I do. What do you have in mind?"
 
"Well, first, we need to go to my room."

"I didn't agree to any of that yet."

Yuna quickly waved her hands to ward off any notion that she was trying to foist the decision onto him. "No, no, I just want to wash up before we head out, that's all! I won't take long."

"Sure about that, prune-fingers?"

"I am sure about that. Not the prune-fingers part, the—oh come on, I don't take baths that are that long."
 
"Last time I thought you drowned," Zael said as he started walking again.

Yuna kept up alongside. "What? You thought I drowned and you didn't come by to help?"

"Nope. Haven't you learned how to do a waterbreathin spell yet?"

"I know how to do a lot of spells! Unlike you in your College—"

"Academy."

"Whatever. 'Academy.'" Yuna fluttered her fingers about in the air. "OOOoooOOOooo! Big impressive Anirian Academy, where they teach you how to break rocks with your face, and occasionally a spell or two. Did they teach you a waterbreathing spell?"

"I can tell you what they did teach me."

"Oh yeah? What's that, Mister Fancy Pants Dreadlord?"

Zael surreptitiously had his hand hovering behind Yuna's behind. "How to bake some buns." A tiny burst of flame flicked out from his palm, hot enough to make for quite the heated surprise.
 
"YAH!" Yuna yelped, her feet fully leaving the ground as the force of her alarm bid her to jump, and, hands clapped then to her rear, she went scampering away for a few steps before calm met up with her. Calm, of course, meaning chagrin, spurred on quite strongly by Zael's wheezing, near breathless laughter. "You! Did you just burn my ass!?"

This didn't help Zael catch his breath at all. He pinched the bridge of his nose, and his hoarse laughs went straight into his palm.

"Oh you think it's real funny, huh? Oh just you wait. Just you wait! I'll catch you when you least expect it. Electrocute your bathwater or something. We'll see how funny it is when your sword is flippity-flopping all over the place! Did you burn a hole in my pants? You better not have burned a hole in my pants!"

Zael—barely—managed to say: "Who's...the Firebutt now?"

Yuna's face simply ignited red. For multiple reasons.

"You're unbelievable."
 
Finally, Zael's laughter subsided. Yuna was a riot to tease, and she took it all in good stride; and she certainly didn't take it without giving some back. He probably could expect a shocking revelation of the kind Yuna described in the near future, or, if she couldn't catch him in a bath, on the receiving end of some other prank conjured up from the devious depths of a mischievous mind.

"Look at it like this: we can add 'shoppin for pants' on the list of things to do tonight."

"Really? So I've got to walk all the way through the College, all the way up to my room, with a hole in my pants?"

"Yup."

"Arrrggghhh, I'll never hear the end of it!"

"Yeah. Everybody's gonna think you blew that hole out yourself, stale ale and rotten eggs style."
 
"Oh my—" Yuna clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her own laughter. "Was that it? Huh? That your master plan? 'Hur, hur, I'm gonna embarrass Yuna by makin everyone think she pooted.' Well guess what, listen, I know this might come as a shock, because every single boy who ever hears this acts all aghast and astounded, but girls fart too."

"That's not what I heard."

"And what have you heard, huh? Tell me your sage Anirian wisdom."

"I heard that 'ladies do not fart, but everyone and anyone else around them does.' And it wasn't an Anirian who said that."

"Yeah, who said that then?"

"Friend of mine."

"Well, show me this friend of yours and I'll show you a liar, liar, pants on—...oh fucking, goddamn it, I can't believe I almost said that."
 
"Here," Zael said. He had his cloak bundled up and attached to his belt; he'd worn it on the way up to the College, helping to ward off the chill of the winter's day, but, after having gotten the blood flowing with the day's swordsmanship training, he didn't much need it for the walk back. He unfurled it and handed it to Yuna. "It'll be a little big, but it'll cover that keyhole in your trousers."

"Aw, look at you, setting a girl on fire and then putting her out." Yuna donned the cloak (which was a little big, dragging some on the ground) and then added, "I'm not going to be so generous when I electrocute you, by the way."

"Well, Kress, what in the hell am I gonna do?"

"Flop around like a fish out of water, probably."

"Better hope so, or I'll dunk you in my dirty bathwater."

"That's all you got, tough guy? I'm quaking in my boots over here!"

"That's all I'm gonna tell you. You'll find out my other plans when it's already too late."

Zael started walking again; they were almost to the front of the College from the side courtyard.
 
Ha! His "other plans"—who did he think he was talking to? Yuna, unrivaled genius of the Fairweather clan, had plans within plans, all of which were far more intricate and elegant than anything Zael could conceive. Marks on stupid, asinine College tests couldn't possibly reflect the true depths of her intellect!

Observe!

"Soooo, pants shopping. That sounds like fun. We'll turn your cute little prank into an occasion."

"We'll get you some Fancy Pants too."

"Two things for when we—really? You're going to do that to me?"

Zael snickered, oozing satisfaction for having turned her own Mister Fancy Pants Dreadlord comment back around onto her. But then he twirled a finger and prompted her to continue. "Two things, you were sayin."

"Yes. Two things. First, you have to help me try them on."

"Had a feelin you'd say somethin like that."

"Well you're the one who thought it was funny to torch my tush, so I'm gonna sit there on the bench or whatever they've got in the private room, sit there with my hands behind my head, nice and relaxed, like a queen on her throne, while you get the honor of being my manservant for a minute and dressing me."

"Alright, your 'highness', you got it. And the other thing?"

That easy? Oh. No. She meant. Of course it was that easy! She had perfectly leveraged the ruination of her pants to her advantage. Hold your applause until after the second act, please.

"Second, you need to buy them for me. It's only right! And, look, I know you're tight on coin, but that just means you reeeeeally ought to consider my generous offer. My room will be a whole lot comfier than whatever washed-up inn you're staying at this week. Don't believe me? There's only one way to find oooouuuut."
 
"Puttin me in dire straits," Zael said. "I might have to go rob a nobleman for his family heirloom or somethin."

"Oh you don't have to go rob anyone." A few titters rumbled in Yuna's throat. "Unless that's just something you do now. Fits, right? Because that's what you and your fellow lads call yourselves? 'We're Rogues, we're Rogue Dreadlords, mmmyeeeaaah, keep your coin purse close or else it's gone!'"

"That's not how any of that goes," Zael replied, though he couldn't hide his amusement at Yuna's caricature.

"Well, if you do need to rob someone, don't leave me out of it."

"You're right. Someone's gotta take the fall."

Yuna gave his arm a shove, smiling all the while. "You asshole."

Snickering, Zael circled the conversation back around to the initial point. "So, your generous offer. I'll keep it in mind—and tell you by the end of the night."

Honestly, Zael expected a repeat of what just happened, a shove and a little playful, if slightly irritated, banter, but that's not what came next. Instead, Yuna, showing a bit of uncommon restraint and subtlety, simply said, "Okay." Clearly she was happy about it, the mere possibility, but she wasn't jumping up and down or anything so effervescent as that. Which meant that all of that was probably going on internally. Leaving her in suspense like this might just wind up her Yuna-isms even more—that oughta make for a great night.

They entered the College together.
 
YUNA'S ROOM​


"Drat, this is just—excuse the mess!"

GAH! It was messier in here than she remembered! Maybe it was just some funny thing that happened whenever you had a guest come by your humble abode, where you felt self-conscious about everything. Well, the socks on the floor weren't some self-conscious boogeyman come to get her, those were—a bundle—of socks—on the floor. Heidi! What did she do, try out and fuck up some wind spell in here? Oh. Wait. Those weren't Heidi's socks. Oops. But there was more mess than just socks on the floor, so Heidi could get blamed anyway! It wasn't like she was here to defend herself so it was perfect!

"Oh that Heidi—ha, ha, ha! I love her to death but, mmm, let's just say she tends to like the 'lived in' look."
 
Confession time: Zael's old room back at the Academy, as soon as the standards got relaxed with the Revolution, wasn't the tidiest place either. But his room was basically like Yuna's was now; other Initiates, if the stories were correct, had managed to go far beyond the old sterile conditions. Chasmine, in particular, had apparently turned her whole room into a horticulture exhibit or something.

Zael glanced about the room, noting that the mess was particularly lopsided in its distribution.

"Isn't this all of your stuff?"

"Huh?"

Zael pointed. "Those are all your undergarments by the head of the bed, for starters."

Yuna looked, flushed as soon as she recognized them, but tried to play it off, "Damn it, how'd those get out?" She went over and started collecting all of them into a bundle. "Does everything in Elbion College grow legs and walk around when nobody's looking? Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha...ha."

Zael couldn't help but to grin. "It's not a big deal, Yuna."
 
DOUBLE DRAT! This was all of her mess! How'd she let herself get so untidy? This didn't exude the intellectual prowess befitting of her Fairweather genius! Oh. Well. She did, kinda, maybe sorta, know...how it all happened—namely that she was so preoccupied and stressed about Zael and the Department's Pinnacle mission that things readily got away from her—but that wasn't important right now!

Yuna picked up all her undergarments, all her socks, other miscellaneous pieces of clothing as well, and she went to her chest of drawers and pulled out a drawer and stuffed them all quickly and unceremoniously inside. There! Good enough for now! All her College stuff—the books and the parchments and the robes—could be put away later.

She leaned casually against the chest of drawers. "Ah, well, what can I say? I guess I wasn't expecting company tonight. You know, earlier this morning. How quickly things can change in a day, huh?"
 
Boy, was Yuna right about that. But there was no need to bring up any of the particular days in question—they weren't very fun examples of things changing.

Zael sauntered over to Heidi's bed. Tested its firmness with a downward push of his palm. "You sure Heidi won't mind me borrowin her bed? If I should decide to take you up on your offer?"
 
Aw, wasn't that sweet? Zael worrying about Heidi.

Yuna giggled. "What's she going to do? Come sprinting back from the field to the College to throw you out of it? 'Oh no, a boy is sleeping in my bed!' Like she has room to talk about that! Remember that little story I told you? Huh? Of me sleeping like a rock while Heidi and her boyfriend—"
 
"Lemme stop you right there," Zael said. He wasn't too keen on thinking about lying down in a pool of someone else's particular juices. Even if it was from a while ago and they were all gone by now.

"Just tell me Heidi washes her sheets."
 
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