closed | nessum prison blues

[cozen]

WHO: Bastien, Byerly, Talin, Tav, Teren, and Vlast
WHAT: Prison break
WHEN: Mid-Harvestmere (October) 9:50
WHERE: Southern Tevinter. Not actually Nessum–the post title is a joke—but somewhere in the wilderness not too far from there.
NOTES: OOC post. General violence cw.

The trap is not immediately apparent. They're met by a man dressed as their contact, Georgios, was meant to be dressed. Maybe the clothes are a little too big on him—but the People of the Silent Plains have bigger things to worry about than careful tailoring. Maybe his manner is a little wary and skittish, but he's a freedom fighter on the outskirts of a war zone meeting a group of strangers, some of them wholly alien, to escort to the People's hiding place.

And maybe the plan was meant to go better than this. Maybe the Vints waiting at the end of the road with their grenades and telekinetic prison spells planned to mount a more organized attack, neat and swift, once everyone had been lured into long-parched desert ravine ahead.

But something gives it away first. "Georgios" grows a little too anxious on the approach; the wind catching his jacket and lifting it enough to show a flash of a bloodstain on the back of his shirt that's too dark and too maroon not to be from earlier this same day. A glimpse, if nothing else, of one of the people lying in wait ahead of them, something in their posture that twigs as too tense, not quite right for a lookout protecting a hide-out and only seeing an expected group of visitors on the approach. Regardless of what tips various members of the group off, it's enough forewarning for them refuse to be led quietly into the corral that's been set up for them.

Half a chase, half a fight. The grenades and dirty magic tricks still come out. So do more drastic measures: arrows, fire, the blunt sides of heavy swords. Threats to cut the throats of whomever's been caught first if whomever's still fighting doesn't lay down their weapon. One way or another, in the end, everyone's wrangled into a wagon, hands bound and heads covered with sacks to obscure their view of where they're being taken. No gags, though. There's no one out here to hear them.

Comments

[doneisdone]

A cryptic bark of laughter rings out from where Teren sits, and then she falls silent again.

[cozen]

Bastien's eyebrows go up at Tav's response—and up, and up. He gives Byerly an is he for real sort of look, half because it's an excuse to look Byerly in the face for a moment without it being a fretful, yearning thing, and half because is he for real. But of course he is for real. This isn't even the weirdest story Bastien's heard him tell.

His head swivels around to Teren when she laughs, curious, and he keeps looking at her while he says, "Shouldn't have led with you, huh?"

With a rifter, he means, and in another situation maybe he would say it with some real teeth. Being impressed by rifters' odd and wondrous lives all the time can get a little exhausting. But he doesn't want to give away what Tav and Vlast are. That might warrant a hastier response from the Venatori than the mere presence of anchors.

"Your turn," he says to Teren.

Odds seem even she'll refuse, but worth a shot.

[dirthsal]

Before Teren can speak up, Talin has a question—though he's not jumping his place in line, merely establishing rules:

"Is this only physical pain, or emotional as well?"

[doneisdone]

Teren opens her mouth, takes a breath, and closes it again when Talin interjects. If she's offended by the interruption, it doesn't show on her face, which is tired and wry as before.

[tadpoled]

Tav shrugs at the response to his story. In the short few months he could remember from Faerun, all sorts of things had happened to him. Nevermind the whole Urge that had now seemingly been defeated.

At Talin's question, Tav provides, "Pain is pain is pain. I don't see why we need to restrict to one or the other."

[allthatgleamsisgold]

Chains clink as Vlast stirs in his corner. He'd fallen into a fitful doze for the last hour, but the sound of voices drew him back to the waking world.

"Why dwell on pain here? Aren't we just playing further into their hands?"