• Memory • Fail

As one approaches the City of Nashaki, trains of caravans lead through the sprawling outskirts to the numerous open city gates. The largest gate is on the west side and leads past the fortified walls into an octagon of eight districts. Each district features unique markets and is maintained by one of the eight Towers that rule Nashaki. In the city, heavily guarded, is the prized oasis that supports the Nashaki people to flourish in such an unforgiving land.
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Ichabod Hyde
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7 0 - A S H A N - 7 1 8 . . . N A S H A K I
Hyde didn't have it in him to do much of anything except follow the unusual biqaj. It took most of his energy just to keep walking in a straight decent path. On occasion, he felt a hand at his arm or elbow or shoulder to help guide him. At some point, they got out of the hot Nashaki night air and into a cooler building.

He still had his (soiled and sandy) rucksack, and the clay cup that Kalba had gotten for him. He still lacked a shirt and he still didn't care much, except that dirt had started to cling to his sweat-lined skin. Hyde searched for a table once they entered the tavern, and he wanted to order liquor, but the attempt had gotten diverted before it even started -

- and instead, he found himself inside a new inn room with a refilled cup of water.

So, Hyde sat in the middle of the room - on the floor - rucksack laid beside him. He sipped at water this time. The chug of water from before had made him nauseous again. He ignored whatever it was Kalba insisted on doing, while he focused on the rippled liquid inside the cup.

They hadn't been there long. Long enough to get settled, but not much longer than that. He thought over what Kalba had said in the shop. A soldier... he sipped the water.

He looked at the bandages on his hand. Some reddish-brown spots dappled them, but otherwise it was clean. Hyde flexed his fingers back and forth in a fist, then lifted it somewhat to look at the room's lantern light between his fingers.

Hyde hummed in a low rumble, then he sipped his water. Then he got tired of drinking the water, and just wanted to feel cool again. Hyde jerked the cup enough that water splashed out and onto his face. He paused, while he felt the droplets roll over his face -

- then he repeated the splash. The drunk man then poured it over his head without care for the floor underneath him. He felt the water rinse through his dirty silvered hair, and over the shape of his ears. He set the cup aside. Hyde rubbed the water over his face and it felt nice on his sunburn.
word count: 403
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Saza Moshe
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Re: Fail

70 Ashan, 718 ‣ Nashaki
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Trying to take care of someone was hard enough. Taking care of someone that happened to be very drunk, and that also happened to be a relative stranger, was even harder. Saza did what he could to help the older man stay on the path and not wobble and waver too far, but there was only so much he could really do without feeling like he was overstepping somehow.

He reminded himself again that it was not his problem to worry about; Hyde was a grown man, he could take care of himself, couldn’t he? Yet he had not objected to the young soldier’s help thus far, which led him to believe that maybe, at least for now – it was needed. Everyone needed help sometimes, he figured, and he knew that if he needed it, he would’ve wanted someone to help him.

Besides, Hyde wasn’t all that bad. In fact, Saza didn’t mind him at all. He was a little strange… to put it mildly, but the youth figured that some of it had to do less with his character and more with the obvious language barrier.

(He’d even smiled at him, when he’d brought the inebriated human some water. Saza hadn’t been expecting the reaction, nor had he expected the sense of accomplishment that he’d felt in receiving it. Hyde had a nice smile, one that softened the charcoal-stained, sunburnt features, and he was pleased to have seen it, if only for a moment.)

Saza breathed out through his nose, his blue eyes fluttering shut for a trill. He stepped back and away from the small washbasin in the newly-acquired room, though he hadn’t taken a moment to cool or clean himself off. The youth was hardly as filthy as his odd companion in the first place, and it hadn’t been for himself that he had filled the basin with water.

Turning to look towards the center of the room where Hyde sat, Saza approached and sat down across from him. Legs crossed beneath him, he leaned back on his hands, and let his head fall back in a moment of rest. His frizzy blond curls fell back with him, away from his face. He heard the other man’s hum… but nothing followed it, so the biqaj didn’t lift his head.

He would have to leave soon, if he intended on finding somewhere to stay himself. He’d given the innkeep half of the nel needed for Hyde’s room, with the promise that he would return later to pay the rest of it if his “friend” didn’t – but considering the human’s reaction the last time, Saza did not assume that he would want his continued presence once he fell asleep.

The sound of splashing water reached his pointed ears.

“Hyde?”

Saza lifted his head, and his half-lidded gaze watched the other man splash and pour water over himself. “You know… I just filled the wash basin.”

With a soft huff, the blond leaned forward and grabbed the cup. He lifted himself from the floor and went to refill the clay cup at the basin, and then brought it back to the human with a habitual (and only slightly unintentional) pout. Saza sat down a little closer, and didn’t reach out towards him, but asked, “are you good? Do you want some help?”
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Ichabod Hyde
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Re: Fail

7 0 - A S H A N - 7 1 8. . . N A S H A K I
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Hyde?

There it was again. That voice saying his name. Water dripped off from his hair and fell down in thin trickles over his neck. He didn't respond to the comment about the wash basin. Because he didn't hear it, and because even if he had, he wouldn't have cared. While Kalba claimed the cup, Hyde rubbed at his face with the bit of water.

When he lowered his hands, and opened his eyes, he almost seemed surprised by the cup in offer. As if by magic, it had refilled. His inebriated mind caught up soon enough, but he still looked at the water as if it were a miracle. Of course, Hyde didn't spend that much obvious expression toward miracles anyway. He blinked, slow and calm, then his eyebrows raised and he sipped some of the basin water.

Then he poured a handful into the cup of his palm. He used it to wash away the paint around his eyes. His good hand rubbed hard against the skin, and it seemed the best that it would get would be a faded gray rather than clean.

Help? He glanced up at the question. Hyde considered. Want... and need, were two different things.

Did he want help?

No.

Did he need help?

...

Hyde made a small rumbled noise in his chest. He set the cup aside, then leaned onto his good hand while he stretched out his legs. He glanced around the room, then asked, "Where are we? An... inn?"

He got up onto his feet with some difficulty as he felt the liquor wearing off, and aches crept into his bones. The older man made his way to the basin, and stood in front of it with the air of a habit. Hyde traced his fingers along the surface of the water.

"Drinks?" he muttered, then looked over at the biqaj. "Y' want to drink?"

His gaze turned back to the basin. He gathered water to splash over his face, and rinsed his neck of sweat and sand and whatever else had gotten on it. Balance steady while his intoxication mellowed, he washed over his arms next in splashes of the water. He cleaned in shallow rinsed scrubs of his hands against skin. His bandages became wet and the cuts underneath stung.
word count: 403
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Saza Moshe
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Re: Fail

70 Ashan, 718 ‣ Nashaki
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Hyde’s silent hesitation was as good as an answer. Saza lifted his hands in mock surrender and scooted back, content to leave the human be. If he wanted to wash himself from a cup and get water all over the floor, that was his choice, right? It felt awfully unnecessary, and it seemed messier than it really needed to be, but in the end, it wasn’t his room. He hadn’t paid with the intention of it being his, anyway.

A rumbling sound brought his gaze back to Hyde, and he followed suit when the older man leaned back on his hand. The cool floor felt nice against his calloused palms and bony fingers, and he took a moment to relax again, as much as he could. His visits back to the city were probably the only times the young biqaj ever took the time to decompress… and even then, he found himself taking care of other people more often than not.

What would his friends do, if he was the one getting drunk enough to need their help? What would Hyde do, for that matter? Saza couldn’t help a silent laugh at his own ponderings; he hardly knew the man, but he didn’t have to wonder what Hyde would do. Nothing.

“Hm?” he lifted his head, “yeah, we’re in an inn. We’re right by the Tower of Stone, if you know where that is. This is your room.”

Given the human’s forgetfulness a few trials before, Saza wasn’t all that surprised by it now. He’d seen the weird looks he’d given him before, the widened eyes and confused glances around, and he wasn’t sure that he expected Hyde to remember him again once he left. He did wonder why the man was so taken with his drinks… but like most things in his life, it wasn’t any of his business.

Hyde pulled himself from the floor. Saza leaned forward just in case he looked like he’d fall, but the older man managed, and made his way to the basin he’d taken the time to fill up. A little late, sure, but the biqaj figured he was better off there than scrubbing at his face in the center of the floor.

Saza was surprised by the question when it came – Hyde really wanted to go straight back into drinking? When he was only just starting to sober up? He didn’t think he’d seen the man anything less than drunk, save the few bits he’d spent in his room the other morning, and he was starting to think it was his permanent state. Saza pushed himself up and dusted off his knees.

“I don’t know if I should,” the frizzy-haired youth confessed, and left out the more important part – that he didn’t know if Hyde should. A crimson gaze watched the other man wash his hands, his neck, his arms. “Don’t you think you should get some rest? I mean…”

The biqaj gave a half-hearted shrug, “I’m not gonna stop you, man. If you don’t mind the company, I’ll join you.”
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Ichabod Hyde
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Re: Fail

7 0 - A S H A N - 7 1 8. . . N A S H A K I
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The answer Kalba gave confused Hyde about the inn room. His room? He couldn't remember getting the room, or paying anything on it. So, it wasn't his. Did he forget or was the biqaj trying to give him the room? Or trying to confuse him?

The dirt rubbed off from him while he washed. The water turned murky. He asked if Kalba wanted to drink, or wanted a drink. It'd be better if he slipped so far into inebriation that he couldn't bother with even the idea of confusion or trying to place the details of his location. Drink until the world went dark again and time passed unnoticed around him. Drink until he couldn't drink anymore. Ineffective for expediency, but suitable for his cowardice that weaved around the conflict of what he wanted and what he needed.

I don't know if I should...

Hyde splashed more water up and over his face, then his neck. He scrubbed at his arms, and under his arms, and he cleaned to cool his skin in the same way that a man with broken ribs forced himself to breathe to survive. There was little tenderness in the rinse while his hands slapped against the bare skin of his upper body. The water spread and dribbled and soaked through the waistband of his pants.

Don't you think you should get some rest? I mean...

A quiet noise, muffled by the sound of sloshed and slapped water. A gruff rumble in the back of his throat. If heard, though, the intention would be obvious: no. he didn't think so. He didn't think he should ever rest again and it was that thought which conflicted with his grimmer ideations. The older man didn't look over at the crimson gaze, but kept his sight locked on the water. It rippled and distorted the reflections of candlelight, darkened by the filth he'd cleaned off so far.

Hyde stared at the water, hand stuck in mid-motion between another rinse against his forearm. The biqaj said something more, but he didn't respond yet. Instead, he wavered in his standing balance. His sunburnt face felt warm again. He gathered the water and washed it again. A wave of nausea, of dizziness, and he managed to step to the side. He placed his back against the wall, then slid down to sit until the sensations of instability and sickness faded.

"Y' said..." he muttered in his slurred accent, then made a flurry of signals with his hands before he pointed at Kalba. He drifted forward, head tilted, and brought his knees back up to balance his forearms on them. A low groan, then he said, "...yeh'd get me a drink."

"Here," he added with a point toward the floor near him. "Drink here. Not..."

He waved a hand in a sweeping gesture, as if swatting the air in the direction of the door. Nausea swelled but he managed, "...there."

"Bottle," he added while he returned to his posture of riding out the sickness. He closed his eyes. Water still dripped from the smudged charcoal and soot, dripped along the stubble of his jaw in a mess of watery black. "Sumthin' str-awn..."

Whether the biqaj would understand (or listen) or not, Hyde didn't pay close attention. As soon as the nausea faded, he moved forward. Not up onto his feet, but onto his knees. Hyde crawled to the inn room's bed. It wasn't a grand affair but it was a bed. He pulled at the blanket, dragged the fabric onto the floor beside him. Hyde set his head against the bed's edge, for several trills, then he reached and grabbed the pillow to do the same.
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Saza Moshe
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Re: Fail

70 Ashan, 718 ‣ Nashaki
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Hyde cleaned, but wasn’t clean – he was closer to it than before, as he rinsed and scrubbed hard at the layers of sweat and grime and mixed, smeared charcoal, but Saza hadn’t seen the man fresh and clean yet.

He wondered if this was the only state he ever existed in. Dirty, and drunk, and dazed; he couldn’t imagine allowing himself to be the same. Maybe, he figured, it was just the side-effect of youth that he didn’t understand how a man could let himself fall so far.

He didn’t let himself ask how. It wasn’t his tragedy to know, and if he’d read him wrong, and the human came to such a state through boredom, well he didn’t really want to know. Saza remained on the floor, sitting comfortably with his palms against the floor behind him, and he watched the other man move away from the basin to slide down to the ground.

The biqaj hadn’t received an answer yet, but he figured that the older was simply mulling over the words, in his own way. Hyde didn’t seem antisocial, exactly… or, he didn’t seem all that rude about it. To Saza, he just seemed a little confused.

“Y’ said…”

Hands moved through a few quick motions, and vibrant red eyes followed them, but didn’t understand. Had he still not ever answered the question of where he was from? What language did he know, if Common proved so difficult for his drunken tongue?

“Here?” repeated the blond, and he shrugged a shoulder before giving a little nod. In the room was fine… that was probably better than trying to get Hyde up and down the stairs again, especially once he had a bit more to drink. It still concerned him that he hadn’t seen the man sober yet (at least, not for more than a moment), but he wasn’t in the business of telling people what to do with their time or their bodies… so he’d get him what he wanted.

Hyde moved to pull the blanket from the bed. Saza frowned out of habit as he observed, and leaned forward to begin pushing himself up. Once he was back on his feet, tall above the intoxicated human, he started towards the door. “Something strong. Got it.”

Maybe a bit more water, too… he leaned down, grabbing the clay cup from beside Hyde’s awkward attempt to get comfortable. Saza straightened back up, and as he stepped past the tired human, his free hand gave a little pat to his shoulder. If he was lucky, Hyde would just fall asleep… but then he’d have to leave, wouldn’t he? But surely it would be better for Hyde?

Whether he was looking or not, Saza turned his head and gave a little mock-salute as he reached the door. He smiled and said, “one bottle, coming right up. Don’t miss me.”

The youth opened the door and stepped out, and continued down the hall until he made it to the stairs. The tavern downstairs was considerably larger than the one at the previous inn, and he wasn't sure if that would constitute as a win in Hyde's mind or not. It meant more space, more tables to choose from, less attention in one spot... but it also meant more people. Saza made it to the bar and considered his options, going over the one request in his mind – something strong – but in the end he really didn't know what to get. His friends would know, but he'd never really paid attention to the drinks put in front of him. Some were bitter, some were sweet, some were good while others were... not so great. That was about all he knew. He pushed a couple more coins to the serving boy and grabbed a bottle of gin. He'd at least heard Hyde mention that.

When he returned to the room, he pushed open the door with his free hand and said, "I hope this is fine, I didn't really... oh."

Was Hyde asleep? Again? Saza frowned and softly shut the door behind him. The bottle was set next to the bed, and the biqaj knelt down beside the older man, setting a hand against his shoulder again to nudge him. "Well... alright then," he moved forward, slipped his arms beneath Hyde's, and though he struggled to get the man off of the ground, the bed was thankfully short and easy enough to get him onto. Saza huffed and rolled his eyes, reaching down afterwards to pick the blanket up off of the floor. It was laid over the sleeping human, though he couldn't recall if he'd seen him use a blanket the other night or not.

He couldn't just stay without permission... and he wasn't going to wake the other man just to ask him. Someone was probably around, and if no one was, then he would just find something private enough to sleep behind. Saza gently pushed the dying, silvered hair out of Hyde's face, and then he turned to leave the room.

"Night, Hyde," Saza murmured to himself, and locked the door from the inside before he took his leave.
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Kasoria
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Re: Fail

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Review Rewards

Name: HYDE

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge:
Resistance x4
Discipline x4

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriate to level

Name: SAZA

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge:
Caregiving x5
Strength x3

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriate to level

Notes:
Aww... this was oddly sweet, in a grimy sort of way. Definite "Polar" overtones in this character, Hyde. And Saza is just dragged along for the ride, reluctant but still weirdly attentive. What a mismatch. Let's see where it goes, and how BAD it can get!

If you have any questions, comments or concerns in regards to this review, feel free to PM.
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