• Graded • Glory! Glory! What a Hell of a way to Die! (Graded)

[Gangui]

Early-Mid Ashan
The fields north of Middlecleft
The eve before the ambush of AA forces by SoJ

It was a sad and solemn day when Gangui heard word of Niv’s demise. The new-spring suns’ were intercepted by dark, gray clouds that billowed into the delta almost as if they were summoned by the men of Turkey Company to mourn the heinous death of their comrade Niv.

The young Tunawa was indeed a daughter of the enemy Moseke, but she shared the common bond of: faith in freedom winning over tyranny and slavery. Blood could be forgiven; the things in life we can’t change. But the choices each individual makes is something only the person is accountable for. No gods or magic involved in that. Freewill was real and it was a crime to stifle another living creatures freewill. This was a natural law the Tunawa and the mortal man agreed upon. Despite ideological differences, such a belief was enough to form an alliance of spirit and intention.

Thus, Niv deserved revenge.

Already she had been subjected to a disgusting time in Etzos… and she had bleed for Turkey Company. The action to kill Niv was a statement of tyranny shitting and pissing all over Freedom.

Like all great wars, Gangui took it personal. The vision of young Niv being set aflame… it burned his soul just as much as it turned sweet Niv’s leaves to ash…

Curse Noth and all his men! He wanted to flay Noth alive‍, but the spirit of man was within him, defining the best course of action was not cruel punish.

Alas, nay, Gan would take revenge with honor— by striking Noth down in battle for the world to see.

Riding from the depths of his fortress in Foster’s Landing, Gangui and a troop of sworn zealots fell south towards Middlecleft.

There were sightings of Al’ Angryel and their men in the area; a perfect opportunity for Gangui to meet his enemies in battle.

Naked, he sat in his tent contemplating all these things — as well as the tactics he would employ against Noth in the battle to come.

He didn’t need any armor this gloomy day. There was nothing to hide.

He didn’t groom his moustache either, letting his beard grow out plenty. There was nothing to cover.

He wanted Noth dead now. Now!

And he didn’t mean this rhetorically. There was no intellectual explanation for this one, it was mere emotion now. Mere humanity; the pure resolve of sickened-disgust towards the Avriel who killed Niv— the desire for vengeance against him and Justice to be served.

“What now?!?” Gangui screamed as his meditateive contemplation was broken by the presence of his bannarman in the tent.

“Ellen’wyn, sir,” the grizzled man said stoutly.

Gangui nodded and proceed to put on his robe. Though he had nothing to hide in battle, he did feel the need to cover up somewhat for Ellenwyn.

The flaps of the command tent rustled for a bit after the guard left. The commander watched intently for sweet Ellen to appear.

[Ellen'wyn]

The half-breed had considered ignoring the letter. It was clutched in her hand even now, crumpled and battered from her constant indecisive folding and unfolding. She opened it once more and looked at Gangui's handwriting. Closed it again. One of the men with a turkey tabard was leading her to what must have been Gangui's command tent. It was large enough to be so.

The journey over had been unpleasant, and she wasn't exactly sure where they were in the first place. She'd sat in the back of a wagon as it bounced and jostled over and off of what could barely be considered roads. Ellen was lucky that her arm and wing was bandaged so tightly to her chest that she could hardly move them.

Her arm had been fractured in several spots and the wing had been pulled--or rather ripped--from its socket. Her ribs were bruised in just about every place imaginable, and she still had two blacks eyes, though those were fading. On top of the bruising of her cheeks and lips, her face was a patchwork of light blue and yellow.

Gangui's soldiers had been aghast at the haggard sight of her when she confronted them with his letter back in Foster's Landing. They almost hadn't brought her, but she'd blustered and raged long enough that they feared she would hurt herself all over again, and finally conceded. He had definitely expanded, she noticed. There were quite a few men and women running about, making way for her and her escort. She received several looks but ignored them.

When the man entered the tent ahead of her to announce her presence she could hear Gangui shouting. He sounded different. Angrier than usual perhaps. Well, so was she. She fisted the letter tightly in her good hand and moved inside the tent when her escort waved her forward.

Ellen stopped when she saw him. He wasn't wearing any armor for one, and his usual, almost iconic mustache blended neatly into a bushy red beard. The redhead looked him up and down, silent for a long moment, obviously thinking. She herself looked different aside from the bruises and bandages. Her usual braids were gone. Instead, her long red hair hung loose in its curls and waves down her back. The leather and furs were also absent. All she wore was her hemp base layer. It was impossible to put everything on and fix her hair the way she normally did with only one good arm.

Finally, Ellen narrowed her eyes.

"I got your letter," was all she said at first.

[Gangui]

Gangui looked at the redhead in the face for a long while before answering her greeting. All things felt surreal, almost as if he was in a timeless limbo. Everything except Ellen’wyn was dark and dull; her fiery eyes and hair where seemingly glowing in the dim light. It was these next moments they shared in silence, the moments where they merely gazed upon themselves, when Gangui actually felt some peace in his soul.

“Ellen’wyn...” his voice dropped flatly, like a noise from a hammer upon dense metal, a hoarse remnant of the mustachio’s deep boom.

In Gangui’s perspective time didn’t mean anything so he picked up right where they had left off, almost as if it hadn’t been many a fortnite since their last meeting.

“I should have never let you go that day,” he admitted suddenly. The truth behind these abrupt words could he heard in the anguish of his sigh, as his guilty conscious forced the gaze of his icy blue eyes away from the fiery woman.

Gangui didn’t know what to say. Many times he had rebuked her openly and maybe even unintentionally coerced her into doing things, however he decided to shed such behavior now. A tiny part of his soul wanted the explode in anger for some unknown reason, but he held back all in consideration for Ellen’wyn.

The large and beefy warrior approached her and parted his red robes in order to take a knee in front of her.

He knew he would probably get punched in the face or spit on or worse, but his father had always taught him to be kind and gentle with women because if he didn’t constrain himself, he would break them.

He reached out to touch her hands ever so gently despite having rough, calloused hands. That is when he noticed her in a battered and bruised state. Immediately overtaken aghast, he whispered hoarsely, “Forgive me for leaving your side…”

He dropped his head and kissed her hand if she allowed it as a symbol of his repentance.

[Ellen'wyn]

Seasons ago Ellen would have been embarrassed by Gangui’s affections and administrations. But she’d changed in the past several fortnights into something harder are more solemn. She’d come to Etzos a naive child, so inexperienced with the ways of the world.

Now a bitter young woman stood in her place. Instead of embarrassment, all the half-breed managed to feel was resentment—not only towards Gangui, but towards herself as well. Because it wasn’t only Gangui’s fault that one of Ellen’s only friends in all of Idalos had been murdered. The redhead had been too weak to save her, and put trust in all the wrong people.

So as Gangui knelt before her, mumbling his apologies and nonesense, angry tears began to brew. She felt the telltale burn behind her eyes. The tightening of her throat. The fact that she even felt like crying made her furious, which only made her want to cry more.

Ellen wanted to scream and rage. She wanted to tear up the tent and make him feel all the pain that was dragging her down. Orimar. The Sessfiend. Patrick. Niv. Obviously not everything plaguing her was the warrior’s fault, but he was here. He was the only one left.

Ellen did the only thing that seemed logical in the moment. As Gangui pulled away, the redhead balled up her fist and hit him square in the nose. She put all her anger and heartache behind it, driving into his face, and heard bone crunch. It didn’t make her feel any better, but she kept coming despite it.

She was crying now without realizing, pushing at him, screaming, each hit growing weaker and weaker as the tears came harder and harder. In the end she was a blubbering heap of bandages and feathers, sobbing and trying to wipe the tears away as quickly as they fell.

“Why does—everyone—here—leave or—die?” Hiccups broke the words, making it hard to speak. “Why—are you—only—one—left?”

[Oberan]

Review Rewards

Ganguini

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge: N/A

Magic: No magic exp

Other: N/A


Ellen'whine

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge:

Investigation: Some questions don't have answers
Investigation: A person's appearance can tell you a lot
Unarmed (Brawling): Throwing a punch
Unarmed (Brawling): Breaking someone's nose with a fist
Strength: Anger can make you stronger in the moment
Strength: The force required to break a nose
Meditation: Emotions can have significant impact on function
Meditation: Self-reflection

Magic: No magic exp

Other: Nothing because privacy is a thing

Notes:
It's threads like these that are the most unfortunate to be abandoned. The culmination of a series of threads suddenly cut off without warning, an emotional moment without resolution... It's a true shame, since I was rather getting into it.

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