[OOC] Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

[BuzzingBee]

Ack sorry that took so long and it's so short. My friend came over so I got a little distracted cx Plus I wasn't sure if we should just skip ahead a little bit yet lol

[Rogue Sloth]

No worries! Do you want me to skip to the campsite?

[BuzzingBee]

I'm good with that!

[Rogue Sloth]

Do you want to share the timelines here pretty soon? It could be good to make sure there aren't any discrepancies between them. I don't think there will be, but it doesn't hurt to check ^^

[BuzzingBee]

Sure that sounds good! I'll get mine up here in a moment!

[BuzzingBee]

Timeline for Penelope :

Year 1

My Hider

- After taking about a month off from being a knight, she's finally about to go back to her old job, however, she still doesn't want to accept the fact that their mission was a failure. She convinces William to accompany her on a last ditch effort to try and figure out who took the staff and with any luck, get it back.

- Their efforts are far from successful. The closest they get is running into a mercenary that seems to know the language but refuses to tell them anything and instead tries to kill them. Penelope earns a nasty scar from her forehead to her jawline during this fight. William ends up killing the mercenary and argues with Penelope until she finally gives up in her desperate search for the staff. It seems that war is unavoidable and she begins to try and let go of her hope for a life with Crow.

- On the way back to the inner cities, Penelope stops to visit Abraxas' family as well as his grave. She pays her respects and personally apologizes to the family for causing his death. Her apology is not well received once the family learns the full story. Still feeling terribly guilty about his death, she doesn't beg for forgiveness and does her best to move on.

- Penelope returns to her old job. Eventually she runs into Olivia, who is quick to pester her about Crow. After some skillful digging, Penelope tells Olivia a bit about Crow but leaves out some parts, especially the part where she was going to run off with him. Olivia merely knows that Penelope was forced to give him up in order to return to her old life.

- A couple months into the first year, Penelope is approached by a baroness named Mia and offered a position as one of her lieutenants. Penelope accepts, deciding to try and focus back on her career now that she can't be with Crow.

- Penelope and Olivia begin to hang out more, becoming friends of sorts. They occasionally go out drinking together. Penelope also picks up on a thing or two from Olivia's influence and has a couple of meaningless flings and one night stands. Mainly as a way of trying to move on from Crow.

- Later into the first year, John and Layth come home from the outer villages. John confronts Penelope about her failed mission and her crazy effort to try and track down the staff. He thinks she's becoming reckless so he forces her to step down from her position as a knight.

- Penelope's forced to study more deeply into the habits and behaviors of average noble women. She gives her teacher, an older noblewoman named Beth, a very difficult time. With her job and main reason of staying behind now pried away from her, she nearly considers leaving it all to go be with Crow since she is unable to protect her family like she originally planned.

- Despite being against the lessons, Penelope does learn much more about what is expect of noblewomen who aren't knights. She learns to dance, organize the staff, and more about business. Most of it doesn't really interest her though.

- One day, Mia appears and argues with John until he agrees to let Penelope return to her regular duties. John, however, isn't happy with the situation and decides that if she must continue as a knight then she should be married. Finally coming to an agreement, Penelope is able to continue her career as a knight, but is unhappy about having to marry.

- Penelope begins to work alongside Mia, both training and helping with organizing preparations for the declaration of war on Younis. She finds that the baroness is rather enjoyable company and begins to admire the impulsive yet clever woman.

- Now that Penelope is back working with Mia, she meets a few new faces amongst their forming battalion of knights. One of them is Naida, who's company Penelope comes to enjoy as they have similar dislikes of noble life. She even begins to become friends with the other female knight and before long, Naida begins to spend time with Penelope and Olivia, forming an interesting trio that occasionally stirs trouble.

- Penelope's family is more distant than ever as she is not on board with her father arranging for her marriage and Layth has grown envious over her new rank as lieutenant for Mia. Layth eventually makes a scene about his displeasure with the situation. It ends up causing a sparing match between him and Penelope. Penelope nearly won but Layth broke the rules to over power her. Mia dismisses him and develops a strong distrust and dislike of Penelope's half brother.

- John finally finds a proper nobleman to court Penelope and plans for them to meet soon. Penelope has very low expectations, believing that the marriage will likely feel like a business deal.

- The time comes for her to meet Gavin. And it goes just as poorly as she expected. He seems just as arrogant and self-centered as any other noble that she knows and his interest in the marriage seemed to boil down to nothing more than a business move. As a knight from the outer villages, courting her, a higher ranking guard, would allow him to advance his rank as well.

- Gavin and Penelope continue to spend time together. At first, things are still rocky as Gavin proves to be very by the book. He makes efforts to charm Penelope and at the very least, befriend her. Begrudgingly, Penelope tries to get along with him despite her general dislike of the other knight.

- Mia and Penelope continue to work together. Penelope learns a few more tricks and improves her fighting skills even further.

- Penelope meets Millicent, a very talented archer who's a little older than her. Despite being older, Millicent shows great admiration for Penelope and all she's accomplished. Penelope doesn't really understand why though, thinking most of her accomplishments to be failures or flukes. She also doesn't like the archer very much because Millicent seems to hold the law in much too high of a regard as well as being rather stuck up. Olivia and Naida don't seem especially fond of her either and tension is often high when Millicent attempts to push her way into their group.

Year 2

My Hider

- Mia decides to send Penelope out on a mission to one of the inner villages to speak with her sister and brother-in-law about preparations for the upcoming war. Gavin ends up joining her for this mission. Along the way, Penelope begins to learn more about Gavin and his reasonings for wanting to rise up in rank. Though she originally disliked how their courtship felt like a business deal, she grows a bit of respect for him wanting to aid the outer villages. Gavin, on the other hand, begins to actually fall for Penelope.

- Penelope meets Nina and Bennet. Bennet is intimidating until Penelope and Gavin realize that he's wrapped about Nina's finger. Gavin impresses Penelope as he seems to get Nina and Bennet's respect rather quickly, making her mission rather easy.

- The two young knights return back to the castle. Along the way, they run into a commotion in a marketplace, apparently caused by a young thief. Gavin is determined to track down the thief, Penelope is much more hesitant and tries to insist that they merely return to the castle and let the local knights handle it. Gavin doesn't agree and goes after the thief. Penelope follows his lead begrudgingly. They eventually track down the young thief, who's around 16 and inexperienced. However, Penelope prevents Gavin from capturing the thief and instead lets him get away, feeling sympathy for the young boy (reminded of both Crow and Hartley).

- There's a bit of tension between Gavin and Penelope after this and she worries he'll say something about her refusal to enforce the law. However, he doesn't. She hopes this means he'll just ignore her actions.

- Readying for war, Penelope finally meets Mia's other lieutenant, Tomas. Despite being a noble, he's quite humble and quickly befriends Penelope. She's also quick to notice his feelings for Mia, as he does a poor job of hiding them.

- The war has officially begun but Mia and her forces won't be sent out to the frontlines until later. Bennet leads his forces out first. Penelope works on her training, feeling nervous for the approaching day that she and the others have to leave for battle.

- Gavin and Penelope spend time together. He eventually questions her about the thief and her previous mission with Crow. Penelope eventually tells him a little bit about the mission and admits to merely being friends with Crow, explaining how it lead her to grow better understanding for those who break the law. Gavin seems to accept her despite his usual strictness.

- Gavin and Penelope begin to grow closer as they realize they have similar views on the kingdom, despite a bit of difference. It surprises Penelope but she actually begins to develop feelings for him. She grows bit more hopeful for this courtship.

- Penelope meets Bran, Alan, and Erica. Bran seems to think she has potential but looks down on her due to her age. Alan, she finds out, is a close friend of Gavin's and speaks fondly of his friend. Erica is William's new squire and Penelope is actually glad to hear that William is doing well after not seeing him for quite some time.

- Olivia takes Penelope and Gavin out for drinks. Mainly as an excuse to interview the new man in Penelope's life. Of course, Olivia also attempts to flirt with Gavin, who quickly denies her due to his feelings for Penelope. After that, the two don't get along very well as Olivia believes Gavin is much too strict and boring for Penelope and Gavin dislikes Olivia's willingness to go after the man her friend is courting.

- John announces that he'll be staying back to work as a palace guard for a while before he joins his children in the war. He tries to talk Penelope into stepping down from her position but she refuses. Tensions are still high between her and her father.

- Mia requests a favor from Penelope, one that the female knight doesn't like. She asks for her to speak with her uncle about contributing more to their battalion, believing having another baron contribute to their battalion would be rather beneficial. Penelope reluctantly agrees.

- She journeys to her family's manor, accompanied by both Gavin and Oliva. Her uncle, Edward Vermillion, is anything but welcoming to them. He at first denies Penelope's request and makes a point to mock her in front of the two. Gavin both defends her and manages to use his charismatic nature to get Edward to agree to contribute more to their battalion, even if a bit reluctant.

- Gavin begins to put a bit more effort into seriously courting Penelope, since it is no longer just a business move for him. He arranges for them to spend a day off together. They two continue to grow closer, sharing a bit more with each other though Penelope still keeps her history with Crow hidden from him. Their courtship finally evolves from what felt like a business deal to an actual relationship.

- Penelope finds outthat Edward has recruited Layth as his lieutenant, while this particularly doesn't bother her, Mia isn't happy about this development.

- Penelope heads out with the rest of the battalion, traveling to the border for war.

[Rogue Sloth]

Love it x3
I'll get Crow's up in a bit

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EDIT: It might take a while, because this site doesn't like the formatting I used in Word, so I'm editing it first ^^;

[BuzzingBee]

Oh dang hahaha looking forward to seeing it though! cx

Hopefully all that stuff works out ok! I tried to include Naida a little bit since I remember we talked about her, Penelope and Olivia getting along before.

[Rogue Sloth]

Got it to work!

Year One

- After Penelope doesn’t show up to the meeting spot they had arranged, Crow begins to worry for her safety. He returns to the tavern every night for a week until finally, he overhears a patrol of knights talking about how the mission had been a failure and the king never received the staff. He comes to the natural conclusion that Penelope must have gotten attacked and killed, which was why she never came back to him

- He spends the following two months mourning his loss. His grief changes him deeply during this time, and he ends up spending most of his days in and out of taverns, getting drunk to cope with losing Penelope. During this time, he has a few close run-ins with the local knights, but still manages to not to get caught because of Evelyn’s efforts. The tavern owner keeps him safe while he’s in no state to take care of himself.

- After the period of mourning, Crow finally accepts that he will have to abandon his plans to be with Penelope since she’s gone, and will have to move on with his life. He quits drinking and goes back to stealing. He initially just goes after local knights to ease himself back into it before he moves on to hitting bigger targets as he used to.

- With time, word gets out that ‘the most infamous thief’ is back, and his reputation spreads throughout the kingdom again.

- As winter approaches, Crow begins to realize that his life feels incomplete. He finds that he misses having the company of other people around him and that he no longer enjoys living alone as he used to. It is around this time that he runs into a rogue band of thieves near the inner kingdom.

- The leader of the thieves, a man named Jaxon, recognizes Crow immediately and propositions him to join the group, hungry to add his skill and reputation to their mix. Blinded by his desperate search for a community, Crow agrees to join them.

- He spends the following winter traveling and living amongst the other thieves. At first, he finds their company enjoyable because they all come from similar backgrounds and experiences. He even manages to rise up amongst them as something of a leader because of his skills and charisma, though he never officially takes on such a title.

- They operate out of the inner kingdom, using their combined skills to steal almost exclusively from wealthy noble families. Because of this, they make a reputation for themselves and the local knights learn to keep a lookout for them. The thieves end up losing a few members as the knights begin to better predict where the group is going to strike next.

- As he continues to live amongst them, Crow begins to see the thieves’ true colors. He begins to notice that some of them steal from other members within the group, some take more than their share of loot when it’s divided from group raids, and many of them lie and spread rumors behind each other’s backs. He starts to feel less comfortable being among them, but he doesn’t want to be on his own again, so he continues to stick it out in spite of his concerns.

- One of the other reasons why he stays for so long is because of his affinity for a few thieves in particular: Simon, Alistair, Charles, and Rikki. They aren’t quite as greedy as the other thieves in the group, and Crow gets along with them quite well. He even considers them to be friends, despite his hesitations about getting close to other people.

- The four work well with him in group heists, usually following his plans while adding some of their own input to improve on his ideas. He comes to respect their individual talents and thoroughly enjoys stealing with them.

- Crow’s relationship to Rikki is a bit different from the male thieves. He views her in a similar way as the others, respecting her ideas and skills, but they also share a mutual physical attraction to each other that leads them to have a ‘friends with benefits’ type of relationship. They are by no means exclusive with each other—both would still have other flings with other people whenever the opportunity arose—but neither one is bothered by this.

- Crow’s inevitable breaking point with the group comes in the following spring. One day, a young boy happens upon the thieves’ hideout in the woods. Jaxon captures him before he can get away and rallies many of the other thieves to kill him. Crow is appalled that they would take the life of an innocent child who had stumbled upon them by accident and confronts the leader about it. Jaxon merely brushes him off as soft and kills the boy anyway. His actions open Crow’s eyes to the kind of people he’s been associating with and he leaves the same day.

- While most of the thieves in the group were rotten to the core, there were a few others who shared in Crow’s disgust for the way Jaxon handled the situation (Simon, Alistair, and Rikki—Charles had been killed by a knight), and they leave the group with him in the hopes that he will make a better leader than their last. Together, they form their own little band of thieves and continue stealing from the knights and nobles in the inner kingdom.

Year Two

- The next summer, Crow finds himself getting a bit homesick after being away from the outer villages for so long, so he and the other thieves travel to the village of Aramoor near the border. When they arrive, he finds that the war with Younis had just begun in his absence.

- With a bleeding heart for the peasants who were inevitably going to be ravaged by the battles, Crow tells the other thieves that he plans to stay and do what he can to help them. To his surprise, they find his decision honorable and choose to remain in the village with him. Together, they do their best to assist the villagers of Aramoor in the midst of the war.

- During this time, Crow discovers an unpleasant, personal side effect of being so close to the fighting. He gets unintentionally caught up in the middle of a number of battles in the village. Each time, the fighting triggers his PTSD from his childhood experience with the tax collectors, and he’s rendered unable to move. One of the other thieves, Rikki, notices his handicap the second time it happens and helps him get to safety. From then on, she stays close to his side whenever they get caught up in battles and helps him when his episodes occur. Her actions forge a close friendship between them that would have possibly turned into a romance, but after losing Penelope, Crow is afraid to get as close to anyone else as he had been with her for fear of losing them too.

- Over the course of the next few months, Crow’s PTSD fades of its own accord as his instincts to survive take over, until he eventually overcomes it for the most part (It still occurs on occasion, but he functions much better overall). A particular time that caused him to get over his episodes was when he was caught up in a battle and got run through with a sword in his left shoulder. Wounded and vulnerable on the battlefield, he had to fight past his panic to get away so he wouldn’t be killed by the knights. Ever since that accomplishment, his flashbacks and panic attacks came to him less powerfully, and he was able to work through them on his own.

- Finally able to fight without freezing up in battle, Crow steals a set of daggers from a Brerratic knight—he had sold all of his old weapons long ago to pay for food—and builds his skill with the blades until he is talented enough with them to hold his own against most opponents.

- As he starts to put himself in a position to fight more often and witnesses more of the destruction caused by war, he begins to develop a deep-rooted hatred for knights. He can’t stand to see the way they only care about winning each battle and don’t seem to pay any attention to the bystanders who are falling dead around them. So, no longer afraid to kill to defend the people he came to save, he uses his weapons to protect himself as well as the other peasants in Aramoor, fighting off any of the knights who threaten the safety of the villagers, no matter which kingdom they came from.

- By the time fall comes around, Crow and the other thieves realize there is no longer anything they can do to save the villagers of Aramoor from the war. The battles have grown too intense, and they don’t have the skills or resources to protect anyone. So, with heavy hearts, they leave to save themselves and move on to the village of Silverpool, where they take refuge with Evelyn and Hazel Ansgot.

- While he is there, Evelyn reveals to Crow that she had received a letter from the king of Brerra addressed to him. Crow is initially disinterested, until she tells him the name of the current king: Albin Mannering. Crow is shocked to learn that the previous king had been assassinated and his own father had usurped the throne. Still, the new information does nothing to change his answer. He accepts the letter from her, but refuses to open it.

- Also during his stay, Crow has his first run-in with Hazel in years. Having just come home from traveling around the outer villages, she isn’t happy to see him, but with some prodding from Evelyn, she reluctantly agrees to treat the wounds he had sustained from fighting in Aramoor.

- While they are together, Hazel admits to him that she had felt used when he merely slept with her and left without even a goodbye, and he apologizes for hurting her. After this, they manage to get along at least somewhat tolerably, though it is clear to Crow that she doesn’t intend to let go of her grudge against him just because he said he was sorry. In the interest of avoiding conflict, he tends to avoid her unless they have to be around each other.

- After hiding out with the Ansgot family for a couple months, Crow and the other thieves move on to the village of Myrefall because Crow is concerned about the people in his home town. When they arrive, they find the people in bad shape, so they decide to stay and do what they can to help the villagers survive both the war and the cold winter.

- Even after winter ends, Crow and the others continue to stay put in Myrefall because Crow is reluctant to leave the people behind in the middle of the war. However, as spring rolls around, he begins to notice that he’s developed a small cough—one of the first symptoms of the illness that took his mother’s life. He starts to fear that he contracted the disease that so many villagers in Myrefall end up dying to, but not wanting to worry the others, he keeps it a secret and tells no one.

[BuzzingBee]

Yay!

Ah nice! It's great! cx I'm so excited

[Rogue Sloth]

Crow is a bad influence xD

Me too! I especially can't wait for them to run into each other again. It's gonna be very dramatic, I'm sure

[BuzzingBee]

He is xD Penelope is trying to be a good influence

Definitely lol Hope the readers are prepared for that rollercoaster

[Rogue Sloth]

It worked this time lol

Dude, I'm not even ready TuT

[BuzzingBee]

Ugh same ;-; this goodbye is already killing me

[Rogue Sloth]

I'm cry x'(

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EDIT: That might be my last one tonight. I want to keep writing, but I'm super tired, so we'll see ^^;
I probably won't be on much if at all tomorrow, but you can bet I'll be around on Sunday lol
So friggin excite

[BuzzingBee]

welp this hurts DX

So for my next post, should I just break it up into parts? I'm thinking I'll have the basic reply first, then that little bit of narrative that we talked about. Does that structure work ok or so you want to have them in separate posts?

No worries! And cool! Sunday's probably the day we'll really get things moving xD

[Rogue Sloth]

Probably separate?
I decided to start working on my next post now, so hopefully I can get one more in before Sunday!
I think I'm going to write one of Crow's perspective when he gets back to the village before I introduce the short time skip for his perspective

[BuzzingBee]

Ok!
Sounds good. I think I'll just include the basic reply, her tricking William then them heading back on the road

[Rogue Sloth]

Sounds good!

[BuzzingBee]

William hates Crow just as much as before again xD