Seated on the shores of Lake Lovalus, Rharne serves as the home of the Lighting Knights, the Thunder Priestesses, and the Merchant's guild. This beautiful trade city is filled with a happy and contented people who rarely need an excuse to party.
He'd been so caught up in the process of drinking and reveling that he didn't give much care nor concern for time. See today was a day that still depressed Patrick, enough to where nobody would know what he was up to. Last Arc he had plenty of distraction at the time but totrial? Let's just say he had loads of free time to think. Plenty to worry about and even yet, still able to dwell on the fact it had been two arcs. Two arcs since that day happened to him, since he'd been left alone in this empty world of Rharne. Yes. Two arcs ago he lost his bigger brother to the streets of their home, slaughtered because he came too discovering the secret of a liar. Of a pretender that only wanted to cover his tracks.
No sign of Kar had been discovered since Patrick revealed his involvement in Dominek's death, and still his brother had yet to be brought to justice by this wrong. So today had been a day Pat disappeared from the local crew, and bounced himself some free beer and ale in the process. Sure he'd pay for it later, if he got caught with it of course, but in the meantime he needed to blow off a load of steam somehow. No. Not by the company of another, though if that came later then he'd happily take that as well. No totrial was much different. He'd drank himself stupid on the top of a building in the Glass Quarter, with the perfect little view of the rest of the city below.
See Pat chose to climb up to the roof of this building in particular to help blow off such steam, and so earlier throughout the day the word would've spread afterwards. Bottles. Emptied bottles of alcohol were being discovered falling from the sky, some down in the Earth Quarter and maybe even the Dust Quarter; that is if his throw proved far and hard enough to make it. By the time he became hammered however that quickly changed, his throwing of the bottles lessened at that point and he'd slowed in drinking. Still it had been enough to spread some small word throughout town, given the gallant expectations of nobles and their gossiping. Patrick didn't care one bit however.
He just paced around the rooftop and watched the sun set, his idleness driven to another thrown bottle as he overhanded it from the neck. There came a glint in the sky from the soaring glass, as gravity took it downward so that it may bust in some Ilaren's forsaken spit of crevice in the city. Nonchalantly he carried out with the opening of another bottle, the cork pulled out by his teeth as he spat the damned thing to the floor. With a drunken bounce in his step, Patrick held the glass high to empty the contents of beer down. He didn't even like beer, even if this had been a free case of it honestly.
Regardless he continued this pattern, that is if somebody came along to put an end to his tirade.
"He's been up there for breaks," Lena heard whispered between two worried looking women as she walked through the Glass Quarter on this twilight evening. Lena's footsteps naturally slowed. She wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but the strangeness of that sentence gave her pause. "He keeps throwing the empty bottles over the rooftop - and now he's even started emptying out full bottles!"
Lena couldn't help herself. "Excuse me," she said, coming up to the women, smiling apologetically. "But who's on the roof? What's going on?" The women looked to each other. "That poor boy," the older of the two said, pointing up to the roof. Lena looked up, and her heart sunk when she saw who it was pacing drunkenly. "I don't know who he is," she said. "I do," sighed Lena, shaking her head. "Don't worry, I'll handle it," she assured the women with a strained smile.
Patrick. The man she had defended. Who infuriated her and intrigued her all at once. Sighing, Lena came to the base of the building, looking wryly at the stream of beer Patrick poured over the side. Well, that was one good thing. At least he wasn't drinking all the alcohol. "Patrick," called Lena, her voice dry. "Come down here. You'll fall to your death, you idiot." She stepped back, her hands spread out to show she meant no arm, smiling wryly at the man. Hopefully, he would recognise her, even in his drunken state.
Vivian adjusted her shield as she walked through the streets of Rharne, looking up at the sky. She was on patrol, but it was a quiet day so far, no trouble. Then she saw the glass bottle flying through the air. And the person it was about to land on. Running forward, Vivian raised her shield and covered the citizen that the bottle was bound for. The bottle smashed against her shield and she started heading towards the direction the bottle came from.
On her way, Vivian had to shield a few more citizens from flying bottles, but others landed harmlessly in alleyways. Eventually, she was able to follow the flying glass to the Sky Quarter and then to a specific building. A few concerned citizens had pointed the Lightning Knight towards the proper building. Drunks in Rharne weren't exactly rare, given the cities propensity for alcohol, but most of the time it just meant they needed a guide home. Most Rharnian drunks were a happy lot. This was something else.
When she made her way to the right building, she found a Thunder Priestess already there. She was trying to talk the man down, but Vivian stepped forward anyway. "Sir, put down the bottle. You've nearly hit a fair few people with them." she said, showing her shield and the glass shards still embedded in it. "Come on down and we'll get you home where you can sleep it off." she said, her tone more authoritative than the Priestess's was. It was a nice little summation of the dichotomy between the two branches of Ilaren's servants, the caretakers and the defenders.
The beer he'd finished tasted a little sour at this rate but the bottle had been emptied once more, the bounce in his steps still remained as he paced drunkenly back and forth. Rather than throw the bottle this time he released it into the air, determined to kick it as far as he could into the Dust Quarter below. Goal. With a stroke of luck his boot was spot on where the toes landed their kick, and so the bottle had been chucked hard to soar out into the sky. Stupidly he gave a well earned fist pump as he watched the glass soar, until a voice from the street below beckoned for him to come down.
Patrick staggered to the edge of the building and at the ground below, his eyes in a squint as he proved increasingly drunk compared to before. "Llama?" He slurred even though it wasn't the right name to call, even then the stupidity of his act felt comical enough to laugh at. She wanted him to come down, before he'd hurt himself and fall over maybe. She'd probably had liked that, a lot of people would've probably liked that by now. "Fallin's not so bad! I climbed up here I can do it again!" He encouraged with a finger pointed a couple of times, yet more evidence to the situation of how drunk he'd become. "Y' know..." He stood tall and somewhat staggered back a little. "I don't think I wanna come down." At that point he'd taken another bottle and popped the cork, same as before, and nearly took a long and heavy swig from it's contents until...
"Huh? Who are you!" He squinted hard at the shielded maiden that came along to join them, surprised to find that it had been a Lightning Knight this time. "Oooooh no, did you come t' see me too? Am I- oh." His drunken rant had been cut short by another squint in his eyes, surprise had been found in the fact her shield had been hailed on by bottles. "Good catch! You might wanna go back down though, more's gonna come flyin' at any Bit now!" He encouraged as he slowly twisted around with the bottle elevated in a downturn. Bubbles were practically rising to the bottom of the glass while he gulped down the bottle some more, this time though he cut himself off midway and dangled the bottle between two of his fingers. After a loud obnoxious belch he scratched at his tummy, then looked down at the two ladies from over his shoulder. "You two should come up here! It's a great view honestly, best view in the whole city yet!" When he said this he brought out his arms in a beholding gesture, a few short chuckles made as he turned back around to continue his pace.
"Best view in the city." He repeated with another scowled swig from the bottle, determined to remain up where he was no matter how many times they beckoned for him to come down.
Off Topic
Forgot to mention in the first post that he's technically got a few bruises on the left side of his face, and -should- be limping but since his pacing is somewhat small the limps can barely be noticeable. Good lucking getting him down though ladies! It's gonna take a lot of convincing to pull that off.
Vivian listened to the drunks rambling rant, then sighed as he suggested she go back down to catch more bottles on her shield. She did notice the bruising on his face though, but she wasn't sure it as a thing. Given Ilaren's nature, brawling was also semi-common in Rharne, and rarely a major problem. Hell, there was a whole tournament type thing for brawling across the various taverns. When he offered for them to come up and join him, she nodded. "You know, I'll take you up on that offer." she said, smiling slightly. If she could keep him from turning violent, that would be good.
Climbing up the same route he had taken to get to the roof, Vivian looked around the roof. He was alone, which was kind of good. Drinking was normally best done with buddies, but in his mood, more people could have been worse. "Sir, if you don't mind my asking, how did you get those bruises? Participating in the local tournaments?" she asked, her tone polite. She kept her posture neutral, but if the man became violent, she'd hopefully be able to restrain him without hurting him.
"Also, I don't believe I know your name. I'm Vivian, Vivian Shiryu. Who are you?" she asked, keeping her tone neutrally pleasant. Something had clearly gone very wrong for this fellow, and she wasn't sure what would set him off. If he tried to chuck another bottle over the city, she'd grab for the bottle before it left his hand. "Let's not do that, hmm? Wouldn't want someone to come along and stop your drinking because you accidentally hurt someone, now would we?" she asked, smiling slightly.
He paced a little further and looked on out over the city that stretched before him, his current empty bottle vaguely tossed just several feet away from him instead. Why he didn't know, but maybe it actually 'sunk' in that he'd almost hit somebody. All because of that Lightning Knight coming up here to investigate it too. Fucking knights. Right now he couldn't think as highly of them as he probably once did, most likely because on this Trial he lost the only one he'd ever cared about.... Two Arcs ago no less. The empty bottle he tossed aside landed on the flat of the roof next to him, with enough force to bust the glass apart as it crashed onto the stone.
Lena seemed disgusted by his behavior and proceeded to walk off, while the other remained as he popped open one of the three remaining bottles. What's that? She actually took him up on the idea of climbing up? Hah! Now there was a Lightning Knight that seemed to know how to have fun! As he popped the cork off his next bottle, his mouth opened with a bit of excitement as he drunkenly looked down at her. Wait a moment... there were two of her now? Since when did she have a twin?! By this point Patrick knew he had probably drank more than he should've, but even then he did little to regard those sure tell signs as he drank from the bottle like before.
Bottoms up seemed to be the constant idea with him, since he proceeded to gulp until the damn thing was bone dry. By that time the lady had managed to scale up to where he was, and proceeded to inquire about his most recent of noticeable marks. After another belch he looked from the sunset that swam in his vision to her, a bit of a sway in his stance as he chuckled at the question entirely. "Wha? Oh this? Heh, don't I wish." He remarked as he held the bottle upside down, his eyes narrowed with intensity as focus seemed difficult on seeing anything drop. What should he tell her though? He couldn't just outright say 'Oh I was recently held hostage by a couple of drug lords' and expect no repercussion. By now he probably looked more like a lunatic to them, if not a loose cannon they regretted letting go now that he was here.
"Just a minor disagreement with someone, learned-" He hiccuped in between the sentence, "my lesson after that to be sure." She then proceeded to give out her name with the indication she didn't know his, not surprising since Patrick did his best to avoid the knights these Trials. "Patrick Barnell!" He raved with sluggish enthusiasm. "Rharne's unluckiest man alive! Loser in all aspects of life no matter how hard he tries!" Now it seemed as though bitterness rang in his tone, as he turned towards the sunset once more with the bottle held behind him. Yet it seemed like the bottle slipped out of his grip, which surprised him since he thought it felt pretty secure in his hand. Sure enough inspection of this led him to realize the bottle had been taken, and that Vivian was the one responsible for ruining the fun in his attempt at another hurl.
"Whaaa? Oh come on!" He jeered with a wry and slightly cocky grin. "I haven't hit anybody yet have I?! Shields wouldn't count in this I don't think." He pointed out with a finger as he knelt to pick up one of the last two bottles remaining... that is until his balance failed him and he promptly landed on his ass next to them. "Woop. Shit..." He muttered slowly as he seemed to finally realize that he fell, the next bottle still grabbed as he started to pop the cork once more.
Vivian frowned slightly as Patrick called himself Rharne's unluckiest man alive, but didn't contest the issue. When someone was on this kind of bender, there was nothing for him. When he pointed out he hadn't hit anyone yet, Vivian smiled slightly. "Yes, shields don't count. But I'm up here now and not down there, so I can't catch any more." she said, sitting down next to him as he collapsed. Reaching over, she took the other unopened bottle. "Mind if I join you, Pat? After all, this is Rharne. No one drinks alone here." she said, cheerfully as she popped the cork on the bottle she had opened and took what looked to be a nice long swig. Truth be told, it was a light swig and mostly swallowing air. She had enough problems with depression herself without getting drunk next to someone else who was depressed.
Of course, one bottle of wine probably wouldn't do it, but she didn't want to take that risk. "So what makes you so unlucky, Pat? You seem a handsome and friendly sort, and that's good for a party at least." she said, her tone still friendly, as if she was just there for a good time and not there to make sure the man didn't chuck any more bottles out over the city. Still though, she couldn't deny she wanted to help Patrick too. After all, he was Rharnian as well, and therefore deserved the best she could give.
"And for that matter, where do you live? At some point, we'll have to go home after all, and we can't be getting there if we don't know where we live." she said, intentionally dumbing down her logic so her incredibly intoxicated companion could follow along. She had been in Rharne long enough to learn how well most drunk people could think, after all. Most of the time, they weren't a problem, though. Rharne tended to breed the friendliest drunks she had ever met, though the fact that bar brawls were pretty much a sport here meant that "friendly" didn't mean they weren't going to try and take a swing at you, but it was all in good fun usually.
Remarkably this lady had quite a valid point to consider, without her shield down there to catch his bottles; others were just liable to be hit with one of the emptied containers. He watched her with a nonchalant rub over his groin to alleviate a brief itch there, one side of his face twitched to more so create an "eh" sort of reaction to her. Honestly Patrick didn't mind being joined in his little drinkfest, although he didn't consider himself favorable company as of right now. Truthfully the knight was better off picking someone else to drink with, as Pat was only liable to flirt his way into her pants on a good Trial.
This wasn't a good Trial. Which could only mean he'd be even more regrettable if not miserable company, though really it was the knight's choice on whether or not she stuck around. When she inquired what exactly made him so unlucky, he scoffed and laughed as a first response to the question. What could he tell this woman about his life as of now? That definitely required a bit of a drink beforehand, which thankfully was a drink this time rather than a constant gulp. The drunkard didn't stop the loud obnoxious belch that followed either, as he sort of swayed a little in his spot from the level of intoxication he fell under. "What's not unlucky 'bout me?!" He enthused with another short chuckle, before she decided to inquire where his home was.
Well... that was fast. Patrick had been so caught up in the drinking, that he didn't even know if he'd be capable of fekking later. By now he'd probably be incapable because of how thundered he was, even though that wouldn't stop him from trying if something were to happen later... Regardless he looked about ready to sip from his bottle once more, though paused as the question did hit a thought in a direction somewhere. Home. Where was that located again? "Uuuuh, Earth Quarter! Down a ways past tha Boar an' Harlot, gotta detour into half ass middle o' nowhere." He rambled with a heavy slur before he took his next drink, his eyes narrowed with a furrow of his brows as he tilted the bottle back down. He meant to say "Oh" but with a mouth full of beer it sounded more like "Mm", and with a loud hard gulp he raised a finger up to drunkenly point at Vivian.
"T' start with! I was orphaned at a young age, just me an' my brother whose also dead." He raised his bottle as a rhetorical cheers gesture, before taking another couple of gulps from the lip. "I've had the shittiest luck with relationships, first girl left me after an argument. Next one fell for another man, and third partner just came back recently; tellin' me he's married with another." Patrick couldn't help but nod his head to the side with a minorly amused grin. "It's been pretty great. T' top it off my brother's murderer is still alive and out there, while to-trial makes two Arcs since I lost him..." His credible amusement seemed to die down then as he thought more about it, the bottle once more raised to tilt more beer into his mouth.
Again he came up with another "Mm" moment as the bottle was lowered, with droplets of beer drizzling from his lips as he pulled at the collar of his shirt. "Also I'm a freak now because o' this here," Right above his collar bone at the neckline was the bite mark which held a faint silver glow, "yeah nobody really knows 'bout it yet. Our lil' secret." He mused once more as he proceeded to drink what's left of the bottle, the contents below half from where he resumed.
Vivian frowned slightly as Pat asked what wasn't unlucky about him, but she smiled when he gave her directions to his house. She didn't figure he would be conscious much longer, but she would have to make sure he made it home afterward. After all, this was Rharne, and the drunk carts were never all that far away. The cities propensity for alcohol had created some very convenient ways to handle drunkards, and she had become very glad of them in a very short time.
Then she sat and listened to Pat's tale of woe and he had indeed had a very hard time with romance. She couldn't relate, she'd never had any interest in the physical or emotional side of romance, but she could understand why it would make someone depressed. When he brought up the murder of his brother, she frowned again. "You made a report to the Cathedral, yeah? I'll dig it up, see if I can make any progress on it." she said, her tone genial, before he showed off the scar and she actually choked on the wine she had been faking taking another drink of.
Once the coughing fit was done, she gave him a very intent look. "I've seen that sort of thing before. The beasts, they don't like their reflection at all. Mirrors are the key, I think, but I'm still working on it." she said, her tone serious. Then she nodded at his bottle and smiled. "So what were you planning to do when you finished drinking, Pat? It's a long way from here to your house, after all." she said, politely.
Normally under regular circumstances Patrick wouldn't have bothered, since Kar was long gone now and noone was able to find out where. But yes there had been a report on the man, shortly after the exposure that he was a spy led him to attack Patrick at the most opportune time. Ever since then Patrick had been waiting; though expecting the man to pop back in his life, almost seemed like waiting for rain during the season's worst drought. Indeed he felt it comical to even consider sharing the story with lady, but somehow her words weren't as empty as he'd thought they'd be.
Pointless as it was to entertain the thought he appreciated the good gesture, it showed someone else considerably cared in this lonely world the cursed drunk was in. Come the gamble where he revealed his shiny (almost literally) new scar, the knight impressed him even more with a bit of insight on it. She knew of them? That night there were mirrors placed all around him, keeping whatever he became caged in that basement. How long did Syroa watch him that night? How much did she enjoy seeing him suffer, and twist into the form of her horrific pet she loved so dearly. Her kitty or so she called him once or twice... Just the mere memory sickened him a little, though that could've also been the large amount of booze he'd consumed.
And now? Now he was left to fend for himself and deal with this vile curse, unsure of the best way to handle it save for what he'd just learned. But... where in Rharne could he keep such a monster contained? There were rooms in the cathedral decorated with mirrors, reflection rooms meant to be used for meditation purposes or so he believed. Dominek talked of them once or twice during his training for the Knights, somehow remembering that slightly improved the frown on Pat's lips. Even in death the brother somehow looked after him with memory, or that's how Patrick wanted to think of it since he was ultimately alone.
When the question came up as to what his plans were after this drunken episode, he couldn't help but look at her expectantly with a slight grin on his face. "What? Afraid I might try something crazy? Dunno really. Might try flying off the rooftop myself, see how far I make it before I hit the ground." He jested with a tilt of his bottle as the remaining traces poured past his lips, and quickly drained into his throat where he ingested what little remained. By then he practically tossed the bottle aside still with no regard, practically uncaring of the fact that Vivian was a Lightning Knight. "Relax Viv, I'm not that far gone." Though he kept another word out of that statement, as 'yet' could've implied the possibility he was heading there. For all he knew he might as well been, but that remained to be seen in the trials to come.
"I really dunno what I had planned..." He admitted with a sigh exhaled through his nostrils. "Goin home doesn't feel right just yet. Maybe a few more beers or drinks and then we'll see." Patrick shrugged with a minor grin shot to the girl, clearly he considered the idea of drinking until he dropped. Which honestly wasn't going to be too hard, since the world already swam in circles around him. Nevertheless he remained quite relaxed where he'd laid back, his eyes moved from the Lightning Knight to the sun which nearly set over the horizon. Strange. This could've easily become somewhere along the lines of romantic, were he not so drunk and caught up in the woes of his miserable past. Still one thing seemed quite sure after to-trial, he had met a considerably good person worth considering a friend. Even if this was just all part of her job as a peacekeeper here.
Good lucking getting him down though ladies! It's gonna take a lot of convincing to pull that off. 