Blood Ties

[Arlo Creede]

80th Zida, 717

It was close to midnight when Arlo returned to the boat that he and Vega had bought together, and were living on together these trials more than ever before. The last they'd spoken though she was heading off for a visit with her father, and he was up in the crow's nest, gazing up at the stars that had just started to come out for the night. He might have gone with her then, but instead had thought she might like some time alone with her family. With that in mind, he'd told her he'd be there when she got back. And in the meantime he'd watch the skies and dream up a couple new stories. Turned out, that decision was one that would end up changing things in ways that Arlo hadn't begun to conceive of just yet.

The events that had unfolded had done it in an odd sort of way. In a haze of sorts, contradicted by utter clarity. But once he'd been left on his own at the tavern, at the bar, there was only one person on all of Idalos that he wanted to see, and wanted to tell about what had happened. "Vega!" Arlo shouted once he was back on deck. In his haste, he nearly tripped over the lantern and sack he'd left there after he'd climbed down from the crow's nest. "Are you back?" When he couldn't find her up top, Arlo went to the top of the stairs and shouted down below. "You there, Vega?"

Whether he found her on board or had to impatiently wait for her to return, once they were together again Arlo grabbed her bodily up into his arms and swung her around, kissing her soundly when he put her back down on her feet. "Guess where I've been? Go ahead, guess." He didn't really give her the chance to try before he told her, "I've been out drinking and fighting." As he said it, he rolled up his sleeve that was torn and recently bloodied, to reveal a scar that was new, but for some reason didn't necessarily look it.

"Fighting and drinking with Cassion," Arlo explained. And when the fight was over and they were sharing a drink, he told Vega, Cassion had sliced in own arm open and clasped one wound over the other, letting their blood mingle together before the gash had closed itself up. "You know what that means?"

[Vega]

She'd got back a few breaks before, having spent some time with her father. When she got back, she'd called up to the crow's nest where he was, or she thought he'd be. But he wasn't. Wondering if he'd fallen asleep up there, which she really didn't think was likely, Vega dropped her bag and clambered up the mast, using the knots in the rope and her legs to give herself more speed. But he wasn't there. He had been, though, she knew. Vega frowned and clambered back down, making sure that she was careful of the ice this far up and yet getting down as quickly as she could without friction burns.

Then, she'd searched the ship.

What made her really worried was that all his things were still here. Her hands on his leather armour, a deep frown crossed Vega's face. "Where are you, Arlo Creede?" But at least his sword was gone and his pistol crossbow. So he hadn't been kidnapped by marauding slavers. Or pirates. Or even a bunch of Rharnian grandmothers who remembered him and his "fair face" from all those arcs ago. "Why didn't you jus' leave a note? Cos I can't read, but still. I'd know no one stole you. Unless, of course, it said 'elp, someone's stolen me, love Arlo. That'd be ironic."

She went and sat up on deck for a break or two, but he didn't come back and she was getting really cold. In that time, Vega sat and carved some wood. A rack which she would attach to the wall, with hooks on which he could attach pans and utensils. Once it was on the wall, she would create a "hood" for over it to keep the pans in place no matter how rough the seas got, but first it was a line of deep, well spaced hooks which, she'd discovered, needed a real attention to detail in order to be appropriately curved. She worked on those, using sandpaper wrapped around a small circular piece of wood she'd turned previously, so the circle of the hook was even, until the cold meant that her hands weren't able to work out from underneath the blanket and so she went below decks. Lighting the lamp, Vega moved into their bedroom and looked, suspiciously at the bed. Picking up Bruce, her stuffed bear, she turned and walked back out.

The room that was going to be his, where he kept all the navigation books and maps and things wasn't finished, but it was a room and so she went and sat in there, taking the hooks with her, the blanket wrapped around her and the stuffed bear. "So, if 'e's jus' up an' disappeared again, we'll jus' 'ave to wait till 'e gets back." Vega said to Bert and she frowned, deeply. The first time he'd done this, it had been one night. The second time, it was three. She guessed that might mean if they followed the pattern that it was either five or seven depending on if it was just adding two or whether it was doubled and one more. Either way, she'd best get prepared.

So, when he got back, Vega was in the store trying to work out what they had and what she could, conceivably, cook for the next few trials. She wasn't going to use any of his pots, she knew that much and she smiled as she thought it. That bloody one had nearly been the... "Arlo!?" Had she heard him? "Arlo, I'm here!" She had heard him, she was sure and as he called to her, she turned and dropped the potato she'd been looking at rather suspiciously and she ran out of the store room.

By which time he'd bounded down the stairs and Vega just had time to register that it was him before his hands were on her and he picked her up and swung her. "Arlo!" She squealed slightly in surprise at him doing that, though she was far from complaining. "What are you doin'? Oh!" The last, as he put her down and kissed her in a way that threatened to make her knees buckle. She held on to him and returned the embrace with all the passion she felt for him, her relief at him being here and her usual possessive fire. But then, suddenly, he was talking and Vega blinked over eyes which swirled in violet, indigo and blue, speckled with a vivid green. Guess where he'd been? "I don't..." she got no further than that because suddenly he was telling her. He'd been out drinking and fighting? Vega looked at him in surprise. Drinking and fighting? He was... "Arlo, there's blood. What... ?"

Moments ago, she had been delighted at him not being gone for trials, and then even more so for how he had grabbed on to her and swung her around, but he was bleeding and he'd been fighting. Vega looked at him, concern filling her and then her eyes met his.

People paid much more attention to her eyes, Vega thought, than they needed to. Arlo even believed that he could tell her emotions from them. Yet, his eyes were as eloquent, moreso, than hers. She could drown in them, the halfbreed knew she could, deep brown and filled with every emotion he felt. And he was delighted, overwhelmed and agitated too she thought, but mostly delighted. "Fightin' an' drinkin'? Well, you kiss me like that every time you do those things an' I'm gonna want you to become an' alcoholic gladiator. You ok?"

But it was Cassion he'd been out drinking and fighting with? Vega grinned at him, delight and pleasure for him lighting her expression. Did she know what it meant? Looking down at the scar on his arm, she thought about it and then she looked back up at him and her eyes were a very rare solid single colour. Pink. Hope "Is that 'is blessing, Arlo? Is it, really?" She felt tears of delight prickle her eyes as she blinked and she looked at him. It was, she knew and, for the second time in two trials, Vega flung herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around the back of his neck. "Oh, I'm so proud of you!" This time it was her turn to kiss him, all her pride and passion in there and then she started to laugh. Not at him, but in pure delight. "He marked you? Oh, Arlo, tell me? Tell me it all, every trill. Please?"

[Arlo Creede]

If what Arlo was feeling could be read just from looking into his eyes, if they were like Vegas, then his would be swirling from one end of the color spectrum, back and again and everything in between. If he was to be asked why that was, he couldn't have begun to explain why. He'd only be able to say that whatever he was feeling, no matter what it was, it was more than ever before.

"I'm alright. More than alright," he told her. And it wouldn't take more drinking and fighting to inspire him where she was concerned. Then she was back in his arms, they kissed again and he hardly got a chance to answer. Not that he minded any. "He did. Before he disappeared, Cassion gave me his blessing." But just like she'd seen him when she'd gone to visit her father, Arlo told her, he was up in the crow's nest looking at the stars. And suddenly it was different than it had ever been before. "It was like the sky came alive and the stars were painting pictures. I was writing down everything I saw, thinking, writing faster than ever."

And then Cassion was there, out of nowhere standing right where they were standing now. "He asked me about the boat, what we were planning. And then he asked me what I'd been doing since last he'd seen me. I told him about Sweetvine Woods, about the oh deer and the bees, the bears...I gave him a jar of the honey we got there. He asked if I wanted to go for a drink." Suddenly, Arlo paused and frowned. "You hungry? I could eat," he said and took Vega by the hand, leading her down below to the galley. He'd cook them up something while he told her what happened, Arlo resolved while pulling a basket of eggs out from under a cabinet.

Lighting the stove and throwing a pan on the heat, he tossed in some thick cut bacon and slices of bread to fry in grease and butter. "Anyway, so we were heading towards the bar when we passed an alleyway, and there were seven or so men that had a woman cornered and were planning on cutting her up. And without a thought," he remembered, "Cassion charged in and me after him. You should have seen it Vega. I mean, I handled two of 'em and did alright," he explained. But Cassion had taken on the rest single-handed and had sent one of them flying through the air like a rag doll. The last one, he'd knocked out cold with a pebble. "He was enjoying it too. Laughing all the while."

After cracking a couple of eggs into the pan to fry, he layered several slices of bacon onto two of four slices of bread, then laid the eggs on top before placing another slice of bread on top and handing her one. "The woman was gone when it was done. Guess she got smart during the fight. When we got to the tavern, we sat at the bar and had a mug, and he told me that he was pleased with what I'd been doing. He said it was time, and then he cut his own arm and when he took my arm and our blood mingled together," Arlo said with a curious frown, "It felt strange, is the only way I can explain it. Not painful, more like it tingled...I dunno," he sound around a mouthful of his sandwich. "Just different. More."

Cassion had let him ask anything he'd wanted, and Arlo reminded Vega of the story he'd told her once about the peddler, and getting lost in the woods. "I'd always been curious, especially after he'd told me that he'd known my mother. So I asked if it was him. he didn't deny it, but didn't say it wasn't him. He only said that there was a book seller in Ethelanum, where I might find a map of Talonir. He said the peddler might like it." But before Cassion had gone, he told Vega, he'd told him to keep doing what he'd been doing and not ever stop.

"Oh, and he gave me this," he said, pulling a compass out of his pocket and handing it to her. "He said it might help me. I've looked at it a little. It's not like any other compass I've had. It's not broken. It's just different. All I know for sure is that it doesn't necessarily point north," he added with a shrug while finishing off the last of his meal.

[Vega]

If it wasn't for what had just happened, Vega thought as their lips met and she felt his arms wrapped around her, she might be taking this in a whole different direction. She needed to focus and concentrate, but the intensity of his embrace made it damn difficult and she had to force herself to stop kissing him. "Immortals, Arlo. I was worried about you," she whispered against him. He told her the story, or he started to, and Vega listened, entranced. The stars were painting pictures? That sounded astonishing to her and she watched him, trying to see what he was seeing, to feel what he felt. She couldn't, she knew, but she had to try. She had to. In her mind's eye, Vega saw him, telling Cassion about the Sweetwine, him giving the Immortal a jar of the honey and then she did a bit of a double-take. Eat? Well, she supposed it made sense when you'd just been blessed by the Immortal of Hunger. Vega nodded, but he was already moving, Getting things ready and talking as he did so.

When he talked about the men hurting the woman, Vega frowned. "I've 'eard that's been 'appenin' here a lot you know. Women gettin' attacked." But his description of the fight sounded astonishing and Vega watched him in amazement. "Is that where you cut yer arm?" She was worried about that, but it wasn't bleeding and it seemed to be almost healed over, in a way. Yet the scar was nasty. Was it a scar, though, she wondered. She wasn't sure. He handed her a bacon and egg sandwich and she looked down at it and then grinned. "This time of night, this is goin' straight to my hips, you know. But oh," She bit into it with gusto, her eyelids almost closing in pleasure. "oh, Immortals Arlo, that's good. My hips will live with it."

She'd never heard of the places he told her about, but she remembered the story of the peddler vividly, she told him. When he showed her the compass, she examined it and beamed in delight. "It's beautiful, Arlo." She'd eaten half of the sandwich by this point, but at this time of night, she couldn't eat more, so slid hers across to him. "Alright, so every mark, it gives you abilities an' stuff, yeah? What does this do for you? Other than make you more hungry than usual?"

Vega looked at him and spoke then, in quiet tones but as serious as she ever was. Moreso than was usual. "I am so proud of you, Arlo, an' this is so well deserved. You live your life in his name an' it's right." Their blood had actually mingled? That must have been an amazing thing. She looked at him and grinned. "A'right, so you know, you can do stuff now, like stuff that Cassion allows you to, grants you cos he likes you extra special?" Her grin was mischievous. "Like, I've been thinkin' about the Xiur mark an' that allows me to make people feel braver, or to calm down an argument. Ironically." She grinned. "So, what's the compass for, Arlo?" She looked at him and then a sudden, deep frown crossed her face. "Cassion doesn't have any rules about travelin' alone, does he?"

[Arlo Creede]

"It was one of them that did it," Arlo confirmed when Vega asked about the wound he'd gotten during the fight. "I've heard something like that maybe," He considered that, the stories about women being attacked, while finishing making quick work of his sandwich. "Anyway, it was the one trying to slice up the woman and he had a scalpel. Two knives in addition to that and he knew how to throw 'em that was for sure," he remembered. The bastard was a madman though, Arlo added. It had been plain to see even in a shadowy alleyway during nighttime. Of course there was all sorts of madness, he guessed, but some kinds were more dangerous than others.

He grinned though when she worried about the shape of her hips, and shook his head. "I like your hips. A snack near midnight isn't gonna change that. I thought it was just me though, being hungry after a fight. Tastes better than usual though doesn't it?" Arlo wondered aloud. Still, for the moment he put it down to his appetite, which wasn't at all lacking at the moment. So much so that when Vega handed him her unfinished sandwich, he polished off for her.

"It's a little bit like a work of art isn't it?" The compass, that was, even though he'd already realized that it didn't work in the same way as any he'd seen before. But then why would it? He couldn't imagine Cassion having given him just any old compass, even if it was an extra nice looking one. "I sort of think it'll help me find the way wherever I'm going, whether it's to the north or another direction." As for what other changes might have come with the mark, apart from feeling more...everything, Arlo couldn't say that he was sure just yet. "You remember when we realized I was marked by U'frek? It was only that at first. Realizing it."

But in that instant, he hadn't known what else might have changed, what he might have been able to do. But later, a trial or two later, he told Vega, it was as if it all had the time to settle and I woke one morning intuitively knowing what he could do. "For instance," he explained after finishing off the last bite and dusting off his hands. "Do you know I can walk on water? Not very car I don't think. But I can also create a wave, a big one on calm waters." Of course he hadn't tried any of it yet, but somehow he knew that he could. "I'm guessing this is similar, it'll come to me."

Still, he grinned again and shrugged. Did Cassion like him extra special? "I guess so, or something like that. I think that maybe I can..." He paused, frowning a little, trying to sort out the ideas that were swimming round in his head. "Make a safe place for us when we camp. Or something like that. With my blood." It didn't sound very sensible but in a way, didn't it? It was his blood, but in a sense also Cassion's. And maybe the compass, like he already suspected, would show them the way to go. Maybe the quickest way too. It was all a jumble at the moment, but he figured it would sort itself out in time. "Of course not," he said, when she asked about rules. "In fact I told him about us being together," and pulling Vega into his arms, he kissed her again. "He said good for me, and he was right."

[Vega]

"We should look into that," Vega said, with a dark frown on her face, albeit a very fleeting one as she turned her attention back to him and what had happened.A scalpel and knives in the hands of a madman who was after him? Vega looked at Arlo and she grinned. "Yeah, well, 'e might 'ave been good, but 'e wasn't good enough." She'd been worried when she didn't know where he was, but even then her worry was about being concerned that he'd been disapoofed off, she told him. "If I'd known you were off fightin' an' drinkin', I'd have been jealous instead."

His comment on her hips provoked a chuckle. "Yeah, you like them 'ow they are. Too much of this an' I'll be gettin' chubby." She looked at him when he commented on how good the sandwich was. Vega had seen Arlo after many a fight and he wasn't usually like this. But the reason for that was simple as far as she saw it. "You've mingled yer blood with Cassion's. To whatever amount, there's Immortal blood in you now. That's bound to make a difference to 'ow you feel, innit?" Add in the emotions associated with what he'd just experienced, too, and Vega figured that it might take him a little while to regain whatever semblance of balance he had before. "Maybe, your new 'normal' will change, normal for you that is." It might be that other people would fret about that, but Vega grinned. "Long as you're you, it'll be what it is an' we'll jus' 'ave to spend more money on food."

He explained how he was feeling about the abilities he might have, or not, from the mark of Cassion and likened it to how he'd first realised and then made sense of the mark from U'frek. Vega nodded. It would come to him, he said and that was fine. There was no rush. But he could walk on water? "No, I didn't know that. That's very clever of you." She grinned at him and considered. He was marked by three Immortals, she considered and she looked at him as he polished off the last of her sandwich. Did he understand just how impressive he was, she wondered. The mark by Cassion was an achievement he'd sought all his life. Recognition by the Immortal he worshipped was immense. How would it change him, she wondered, and then a thought struck and she asked.

It delighted her that he had told Cassion about them being together and that delight showed on her face when he said it. Of course, at least part of that was that he wasn't expected to travel alone. Cassion did, she knew, and he seemed to be a bit prone, as Immortals went, to kissing people he'd only just met. So she remembered, rather vividly. Her pleasure at Arlo telling Cassion about the two of them being together was intermingled in that. She let out a squeal of surprise, though as he reached out and grabbed her, pulling her into his arms and kissing her. Her hands moved to wrap around him as he did that and she stopped thinking about anything else except his hands, his lips on hers and her own need for him. "You're both wrong," she whispered, her hands moving to his shirt. Lifting it over his head forced her to pull away from kissing him, just for a trill and she grinned at him. "It's good for me."

[Zip]

Overview

That's, um, a lot of smooching o_o It's a neat little thread in the aftermath of an immortal blessing. Vega and Arlo's dynamic is always cute and refreshingly excited. Enjoy your points.

@Arlo

Points

XP: 15/15

Loot/Injuries/Overstepping

Nope

Knowledge

Cooking: Midnight bacon and egg sandwiches
Storytelling: The story of how Cassion blessed me
Strength: Lift and swing
Strength: Excitement and adrenaline can give a temporary boost
Mark Abilities: Sojourn: Blood Son: Increased Hunger
Mark Abilities: Sojourn: Cassion's Compass: Points in a Direction, but not like a normal compass

@Vega

Points

XP: 15/15

Loot/Injuries/Overstepping

Nope

Knowledge

Carpentry: Carving a hook requires concentration to detail
Carpentry: You need your hands to be still in order to do detailed work
Carpentry: Make sure that hooks are even in their shape by using a small tube with sandpaper around it.
Climbing: Use your upper body strength to your advantage
Climbing: Use legs to build speed in the climb
Climbing: Make full use of knots when climbing a rope
Climbing: Take the weather / environment into account when ice might make things more difficult

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