The longest range in Lambastia, the Tuun Mountains cover up much of the northwest. Unlike the harsh Fe'gan Mountains, the Tuun Mountains have varying temperatures, from very mild to slightly colder depending on where you go and which sections you explore. (+3 Offense)

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A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:05 AM

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Alain was polishing his cups. The shop stood empty of customers, which was unusual, but not unexpected, given that he had moved it into the mountains. Lower on the slopes, where hikers and picnickers abounded, he might have had better business, but it wasn't business on his mind today. In fact, it wasn't cups on his mind today either, though it usually was when he was polishing, no matter what others might have said about his hobbies--- and there was a great deal said, most of it behind his back. No, today Alain has cleared out the cafe and moved it somewhere secluded to give himself room to think. He was not quite at the level where he wanted to pace, or leave his store to take the air, but he had to admit that the thought had crossed his mind more than once.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:09 AM

All in all, everything was highly unusual for him. The reason for all this restlessness was... well, he couldn't quite place it, actually. For someone in his line of work, he was surprisingly bad at reading himself, though he allowed that he worked exclusively with clients who were not his own kind. He had no choice in that though. There was none of his own kind to be found, be it on the mountaintops or down by the sea, or in the deepest reaches of the forest. He had wandered all those places, and seen for himself how utterly alone he was.

And yet... There was this curious sensation, which had began a scant few days ago, that made him at once anxious and eager for something he could not name. It seemed to have something to do with travelling, from the way he itched to be elsewhere, but beyond that he couldn't put a name to it.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:20 AM

A sharp squeak made him pause in his ruminations. "Ah, my apologies," he said to the cup. He had been gripping it too hard, and polishing too roughly. He set the cup down, for he could do no good for it anyway in his current state, and looked out the window at the landscape again. The mountains swept high up into the sky. The shop was perched higher than most folk were willing to go, and settled in what otherwise would have been the edge of a remote patch of forest, but even up here the taller peaks seemed a world away. The thought occurred to him that he could put his cafe up there too, but all his sense warned against it. The last time he had done such a precarious balancing act, he'd nearly lost the shop.

Besides, whatever this urge was, it seemed to suggest that he go himself, without carrying his home with him. For that reason alone he should have distrusted it. At this point, Alain crawling out of his cosy little cafe was like a tortoise willingly abandoning its shell: unthinkable, inadvisable, and utterly outlandish.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:25 AM

But then again, he wasn't born with a shell, like the tortoise was. He had legs, and was in theory perfectly capable of moving himself away from the counter, around the tables, to the door and...

... No thank you, right back away from the door, and behind some of the tables too for good measure. He looked around at his shop, at the tasteful paintings and the prettily shaped hanging lights. When had it become so difficult to leave this place? It hadn't been his intention to tether himself to it when he began this enterprise, and yet, here he was. It helped that he could take it with him, and that suppliers were much more lax about making deliveries these days. He supposed it was mostly because nothing had necessitated that he did step outside in a long time. From there, it was all a force of habit, and the cafe was so attuned to his temper and particular needs that it was too convenient to abandon it anyways.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:29 AM

He sighed and shook his head, displeased with himself for indulging his own folly. This was exactly the kind of thing he reproached in others, though he had to admit that recluses were not exactly his speciality since he relied on the troubled folk coming to him. What was so difficult about leaving his home? He knew exactly the force he needed to open the door. Of course he did. The shop was so much a part of him that even the parts he seldom used, he knew full well. Not that people knew this though. If nothing else, it would discourage his customers from using his bathroom, and probably start stranger rumors about himself than even he could stand.

He sidled back up to the door again like he wasn't going to have anything to do with it. Just one push. See if it swings open. Maybe it was broken. He was just here to check that it wasn't, nothing more than that. He reached out one hand, gingerly...
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:33 AM

... only to be smacked in the face with his own door, which had the misfortune of happening to open inward. Not that Alain didn't know that either, but he hadn't exactly been expecting.

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When he was able to gather his wits enough to look up, he saw Qual, looking ever so slightly amused at what he saw. If Alain had been even a hair less intent on salvaging his dignity, he would have scowled. It would be Qual. He had had but few failures in all his days, and in this case the world seemed to be dead set on never letting him forget that he had failed. Now that he had officially given up on the demon, Qual was turning up at the shop more and more often, to the point where Alain would have eagerly gotten rid of him if given half the chance. It was only professionalism that kept the fake smile plastered on his face, and his voice soft and cordial.

Soft and cordial may have been a bit much to ask just then though. "What are you doing here?" Alain asked offhandedly, as if he was merely commenting on the weather.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:39 AM

"I could ask you the same thing," Qual replied evenly, though that infuriating half-smirk stayed on his features. He reached a hand down to Alain, but it was brushed aside, and Alain stood without assistance, righting himself gracefully and brushing the dust from his clothes. Qual inclined his head and retracted his head, waiting for Alain to compose himself. "It looks to me as if you were getting ready to head out. I don't suppose you have business here?" Qual indicated their surroundings: remote, breathtaking, slightly chilly wilderness.

Alain had a great many things he would have liked to say, but he smiled with the ease of long practice and said, "Ah, I merely contemplated the possibility of getting some air. It does occasionally get stuffy in here."

Qual's smirk widened. "Oh, I'm sure it does," he said. Alain quietly seethed.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:45 AM

"You haven't answered my question, come to think of it," Alain said. He was serene. The picture of patience. He would not let this hung-up demon fool get to him. "What are you doing here? I don't suppose you have any business in these parts?"

Unfortunately, Qual was equal to his question. "But you know me so well, Alain. My business takes me to all sorts of places, especially parts such as these. What I am searching for is not so easily found." He was being smug about it, condemn him. He had no right to be so by-and-by on the subject; Alain knew full well how deeply he had been wounded to spur such a fervor in him.

Which was just the opening he needed. He could drive the knife a little deeper, now that he was no longer obligated to be nice. "And how is that search going?" Alain said in his velvety soft voice, an expression of gentle interest on his face.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:49 AM

He had the immediate satisfaction in seeing Qual stiffen, a conflicted expression passing over his face. But the shadow was gone as quickly as it had come, and even if Qual no longer looked perfectly composed, he was not as unsettled as Alain had expected, and therefore would have liked. He looked troubled, but the wrong kind of troubled. It was the expression of a man facing a dilema, not one looking into the face of a verdict he already knew.

"I've... had a little success, actually," Qual said. Alain's eyes widened before he could quite catch himself, though thankfully Qual's eyes were turned elsewhere. The demon stared at a painting, though his eyes were not focused on the picture, but instead something distant and imagined. Alain remained quiet. If Qual wanted to speak on this, he would need no prompting. The details were likely to tumble out all by themselves.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:54 AM

"It's not... her, but one of her sons. I am sure that he must be her son. Their abilities are not... alike, exactly, but he has her eyes, and something of her features in his face. When he laughs, I can see her in all the little creases of his skin. I did not remember her as well as I thought I did, but he reminds me too much of her." It was a long speech, and longer than Alain had been used to hearing from Qual. Their relationship had made his half of their conversations curt, by some wish of the demon's to thwart Alain's attempts to help him. Now, Alain supposed, they were at a point where more liberal sharing was possible, though he found that without the incentive of work, he himself was no longer interested. He would have loved to yawn in the face of Qual's story, in fact, but the demon was too rapt upon the telling, and wouldn't have noticed.

"What is he like, then? Do their personalities match as well?" Alain asked, though his primary goal by now was to keep the conversation's topic from drifting back to himself.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 3:59 AM

Alain had wrought better than he knew, if he meant to hurt Qual. The shadow that had lingered with the demon settled over his features again, and he shifted uncomfortably. There was a long pause before he spoke, almost long enough to pique Alain's interest again. At last, Qual said, "... No, he... He is... He has a little of her wildness, I suppose. He has wildness that she never had, rather. It is tempered by nothing, and fuelled by a fury that eats at all his reason."

"And he is young," Alain said. He was becoming bored again. Qual nodded, which only confirmed his suspicions. A teenage brat with growing pains. Never heard that one before. When Qual's attention was elsewhere, Alain indulged himself by rolling his eyes. The cafe could share his joke with him. They were veterans of many such cases together, and the cold drink machines in particular were only too well acquainted with the adolescent clientèle.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 4:04 AM

Suddenly, Qual's silver eyes snapped back to Alain, who stifled a bit of a start. "Could you... You couldn't help him, could you?"

Alain was really tempted to laugh just then. After a moment's thought, he allowed it of himself, and followed it up by saying, "Really? You want to ask me for help, after I've failed with you? I would think you the least inclined of anyone still living to come to me, begging a favor." His words could have been kinder, but they knew each other well. Too well, Alain hoped, for this to be shocking. The ones who knew him best knew that his kindness was a learned thing, all of it superficial. Well, almost all. He was sure there was something genuine in him somewhere, but he had no idea where it was, or when it would turn up, if ever.

Qual looked taken aback, then shook his head. "No, you're right, I just... It was an idea, that was all. I don't know anyone else who might..." He let the sentence hang in the air, unfinished.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 4:09 AM

Alain sobered, and rethought his words. That had definitely, absolutely been unprofessional of him. Granted, usually his cases were drawn in without their conscious knowledge, and a great many were unwilling types such as Qual himself had been, but he had promised himself never to turn down a case on account of anything. "It wouldn't be impossible for us to meet," he said, suddenly very interested in the state of his nails. Qual looked up, and there was a terrible hope in his eyes, so that Alain could not meet his eyes for fear that the demon might take it as a promise of something. The child must have been troubled indeed, he thought. Or perhaps that child was little troubled after all, and Qual was the type to become a paranoid caretaker. The thought of Qual fussing over any creature amused him a little, and cheered him out of some of the awkwardness that had been hanging in the air. He still could not meet the demon's gaze, but he said a little more jovially, "If you wish that I should see him, I certainly won't refuse. I may yet be able to prove my worth, with this."
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 4:14 AM

Qual looked entirely too relieved at this. Alain had to remind himself that he had promised nothing, had only said he would try. He hoped then that Qual really had exaggerated the severity of the situation, and it really was only an unruly teen--- but how long did demons, or even half-demons, remain adolescents anyway? This may turn out to be a bigger migraine than Alain had first anticipated.

And all of this, his sacrifices and inquiries, turned out to be for naught. As soon as the topic at hand was resolved, Qual turned to their original subject again. "Why were you at the door earlier?" he asked. His tone was casual, but Alain didn't trust it. Qual was not the same creature of guile that Alain was, so the off-handedness might have been real, but the disadvantage to their long acquaintance was that Qual knew Alain nearly as well as Alain knew Qual. He would not take it lightly if Alain told the truth.
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Re: A Precarious Position [Self]

Postby crow » 04/10/2014 4:31 AM

He would have liked it better if he were confiding in Blake, or someone else he was on better terms with. No, on second thought, Blake was the only one. As much as his relationship with Qual was still tainted with a passive-aggressive antagonism, there were few people who were as well-acquainted with him. Blake was, in truth, his only friend--- and Blake was elsewhere, doing his own thing.

How badly did he need to tell someone? Alain sighed. "I..." Qual looked up, surprised at the hesitation in Alain's voice. He was definitely not making this any easier. Alain cleared his throat, and attempted to start again. "When I was young, I had... a search of my own. Not for one person, as you have, but for a great number of people... My kind. I knew they existed, simply not where, and I... never found them, not a single one." It was Qual's turn to listen quietly, Alain's turn to 'spill his guts', so the saying went. He furrowed his brows. It felt a little sickening, to have it said like that, the words hanging in the air like an oppressive weight.
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