Foolish Errant

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

things got suddenly rather busy on my end, it should clear up now though

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Pryonn and Kaatl

As the tender set to the task of providing the requested meals, with just the slightest arched eye-brow directed towards the pompous knight and diminutive fairy, Pryonn let his helmeted gaze wander over the rest of the inn's patrons. Catching sight of two particular figures, the errant's voice reverberated "Ah! My fairy-friend, behold!" Kaatl, having just started nibbling away at an apple, followed the knight's gaze towards Klaus and Fleuri "Compeer-errants, the talks of town, fellow do-gooders no doubt!" The young errant's tone was resplendent with puerile giddiness.

Striding over to the duo, the knight raised a mailed hand in greetings as he addressed them with jubilant utterance "Good people! A knight of the Silver Repiners addresses you!" As usual, the fairy on his shoulder mimicked his gesture, one hand waving happily towards Fleuri and Klaus as she continued to munch away at the fruit held in the other "Would I be wrong to assume that the two of you are colleague-peers; fellow chivalric vagabonds questing in the name of goodness?"

Coming to a halt at the table, the overly-enthusiastic knight continued his excited uttering "May I join your merry round? And who is that puppy that you seek? Another damsel that needs saving?!"

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Back at the Town

From outside the tavern, the boisterous voice of a male reverberated, filtered through metallic grating and muffled through the door, but nonetheless easy to hear due to sheer volume "What hoh! Kaatl, behold! An establishment of drink and food! A gathering-place for the curious and questing meddlers, no doubt!" The voice was followed by another, replying with a bright and childish laughter of delight as heavy footsteps brought the two closer to the entrance.

The door swung open, revealing a massive, ironclad figure, easily more than six feet tall, face hidden behind a metal-visor. Upon his shoulder sat a fairy, one dainty hand thrust forward with glee, encouraging the knight to march onwards as her wings gave excited flaps, both to denote her emotional state but also to keep her balanced on the precarious seat.

"Hail, patrons and house-owners! Fairy Kaatl and Sir Pryonn we are!" the knight's voice bellowed with a good-natured greeting as he entered, raising a plated fist into the air "Perpetrators of goodness! Questers for the needy and the weak!" Tapping the knight's helmeted head, the fairy gave another excited coo as she pointed to the tavern-counter. Confidently, the armored giant strode towards the wooden patron-seats. Seating himself, disregarding the stool's precarious creaks of protest beneath his metal-weight, Pryonn called "Good owners of this establishment! This knight would ask for your grandest milk and finest apple, that thus my faithful companion might gorge herself on your house's goods!"

Even with other seats in reach, the fairy did not budge from her perch atop the armored shoulder, her wide eyes sweeping the inn's interior with a curious glint.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

@VitaVitaAR - an understandable worry considering my months of silence, but rest assured that I kept following what was going on in the IC and I remain quite on board.

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

@VitaVitaAR & @Raineh Daze - It seems there is an opening for my character to interact with a small part of the group - Fleuri and Klaus as they take their seats in the local tavern. May Pryonn enter the establishment, or would that interfere with some burgeoning plotline you had in mind?

@Crimson Paladin & @Noodles - Same request goes to you two, since it'll be your characters mine will interact with.

For the Lady! (Syrenrei x Foolish Errant)

It was hard to say if the knight was truly listening to the Princess's words, however astute they were for her age or status, so starry was his gaze, so unmoving and impersonal seemed his armored frame. To Tali it certainly might have seemed as if Lady Leanjah was having little effect and was likely just wasting valuable time conversing with one too locked in self-pity to listen to the advice of others.

But Leanjah, close and attentive as she dared to be, could notice the smallest motions of the knight's cranium, minute and delicate movements, as if he was adjusting his hearing ever so slightly in order to parse her words. It was not easy to tell, but the knight was listening.

As the Princess's plaintive hand touched the knight's gauntlet, the helmeted head instantly twitched to set the visored gaze upon their contact. Rapidly jolting in subtle, miniscule motions, the knight scrutinized the dainty fingers, parsing them from different angles at a rapid pace. An instinctual response. A defensive measure. A touch that was led without aggression was foreign to Helbrecht, and for but a moment the girl could feel the massive, sitting frame shrink back ever so slightly from her presence, uncertain how to react to such a gentle gesture.

Looking into the knight's visor, the princess could have noted how the knight's veiled eyes stared back with renewed edge, clarity beginning to seep through the feverish sheen ever so slowly. Nonetheless, she could also see the occasional fly crawl over those unblinking, ceaselessly-staring eyes, the knight apparently beyond caring for the chitinous, hooked legs traipsing over his irises.

Was he even looking at her? With his gaze appearing so glassy, so detached, could it be that he was looking through her, having acquired a thousand-yard stare fit for the deluded?

Peering closer, the princess might have noticed another oddity to the knight's gaze. Tiny, silvery lines, akin to gossamer danced nigh-invisible at the very edges of the errant's eyes. The princess, endowed with generations worth of magical acumen, could have sensed the slightest, barest hint of something akin to magic. Too little, too strange for even moderate witches to register, but to Leanjah it was enough to give way for interpretation: These were eyes meant to see twisted and secret things. As such... could it be that the knight was staring into her, trying to peer for a clue to a riddle only he knew?

"I am knight, to dream the impossible dream.
I am knight, to right the unrightable wrong."
I am knight, to fight the unbeatable foe.
I am knight, to run where the brave dare not go."

A recital, almost a prayer, the knight's voice harsh and tired, but carrying a hint of fervor. With each sentence, his gaze rose a little more.

Still his helmeted view wavered, barely capable of looking into the young princess's eyes directly as he lamented "But what is a knight to do, if the victims become victimizers? What is a knight to do if his charges, if the innocent willingly choose to be villains?" With one hand gesturing across his bloodstained breastplate, the knight's voice took on a clear, unmistakable tone "You can see what I chose to do. I am a knight that struck down his own charges. Men and women who only wanted a better life, I killed them by the dozen. I tried to do good and only ended up committing a heineous crime."

For the Lady! (Syrenrei x Foolish Errant)

As the young girl spoke, unfettered by the sight before her, the knight's helmeted head gave subtle twitches, the starry gaze beneath shifting in sudden, rapid motions as he parsed the child's figure. Few dared to approach him when he was a more acceptable display, yet this one was the first in weeks when he was at his least commendable. The girl likely couldn't tell, but the knight's senses all remained sharp and focused, his foul sight belying a fully-capable actor.

"I am... healthy." the knight spoke, the creaking in his voice lessening ever so steadily, his tone gaining vigor "I am ready to fight... ready to serve. Always, ever."

Perhaps he would have found her laudable, this child that went to reassure a putrid stranger, trying to wrest from him his despondence. But while the knight's senses retained their acuteness, his mind was caught in a pressing myopia, a shortsightedness imposed by his despair that left little room for anything but the gloomy present; he had failed, he was unworthy. He was tainted, the very essence of his existence compromised.

"Truthfully, my Lady's heart must already weep, for I am not waiting for Her grace, but for Her judgement. Her knight has failed, and sinfully so. I wait not to be saved, for I can only be found wanting." His helmet dipped again, hollow gaze directed at the ground "All that's left is to wait in silent shame, for I am knight, and I shine no longer bright."

For the Lady! (Syrenrei x Foolish Errant)

At first the knight remained motionless, apparently insentient for the little princess's ministrations, the flies swatted away by her hands buzzing incessantly. So up-close, Leanja could have deciphered more of the armored frame's gore-caked form, the metal just barely peeking out from beneath layer upon layer of grime mixed with dried lifefluid. To the untrained eye the metal certainly appeared mundane, yet so set upon the imposing form, massive compared to the child even while seated, it did not allow for something as lacking a description as the word 'simple'. This steel-wrought work, seemingly covering the knight's each and every part with perfectly-interlocked plates, struck an uncanny balance between heftiness and flexibility, strangely-eerie even if it had been viewed without the horrid dressings of blood, dirt and flies.

Several seconds passed, the loathsome insects droning and whirring about, maneuvering around the princess and eachother, the knight giving no hint of having even registered Leanja's arrival. Then, with the dry cracking of withered grime-crust, the helmeted head slowly, sluggishly rose, iron-gaze indolently wandering up to meet the curious eyes of the little princess before him. Had she dared to try and peek into the dark confines of the visored helm, Leanja would have seen a pair of unblinking, bloodshot eyes staring back, pupils ill-defined beneath a feverish sheen.

But she could see, for just a moment, something the child might later liken to a glimmer of hope.

More parched creakings were emitted as the knight's arm rose. Specks and chips of dried matter flaked off the plated limb as the decrepit frame seemingly made to grasp at the princess with a slow, easily-avoidable motion, the knight's iron-coated fingers stretching out leadenly towards her face. Had Leanja kept her childish nerve, the motion of the decrepit frame would have halted just inches from her features, talon-like digits of the right hand hovering before her countenance for several seconds.

"You..." the voice coming from the helmet was hoarse, an ugly croaking befitting the delapidated figure "... are not She."

The claw-like hand wavering before the princess's delicate features lost all strength, the arm falling back to the knight's side with sullen lack of care. The anticipation faded from the inflamed eyes, the helm dipped once again.

"Water... not needed. My Lady... should come, soon..."

The knight's voice trailed off, giving way to the persistent buzzing of flies seeking their fill of filth.

"Young lady..." the putrid errant's tone came hesitantly "... have you seen... my Lady? Is she... near?" a pleading note all too evident.

For the Lady! (Syrenrei x Foolish Errant)

It was a high summer day, the sun reaching its zenith over the rolling plains of Itraniel. Sweltering heat pressed down upon whatever unfortunates weren't lucky enough to save themselves into the nearest shade, the nearby township of Klagain nonetheless continuing its hustle and bustle. The people of Itraniel were a hardy bunch, former nomads of the Vuibrivalon tribes until just a few years ago, and the rigours of their new lives would not impede their daily efforts, imperative as they were to maintain their fledgling nation.

The road to Klagain, winding its way through the simple verdant fields, was less busied than the town itself, featuring only the occasional peddling wayfarer steadily making their way across the half-cobbled path. Some might have successfully concluded that a commotion was afoot near the city and done well to avoid it.

Off the beaten path an overlookable sight could be bared to the curious viewer. In view of the road, a figure rested in the saving-shade against a tree, plated from head to toe, visored helm dipped downwards, one leg pulled whilst the other lay relaxed, the arms splayed to the sides without care. A few feet from him rested a rusted sword, withered and corroded. From afar, it seemed just like an ordinary tired knight, simply taking a break from what was likely a long travel. And so, none of the travellers saw fit to bother such a humble wayfarer.

However, should one have approached, the curious approacher would have been hit with an alarming sight. The figure's plates were encrusted with wasted life-fluid, what would once have been a sticky, crimson fluid now reduced to dry, flaking brown, pieces and bits of the desiccated stuff clinging all over the metal-frame. Some of it might have once emanated from tears and nicks in the plates, fueling the theory that the knight had been wounded, but most of it, simply for the sheer volume, likely wasn't his own. The earth around the figure beneath the tree was drenched, muddied, leaving the foolhardy onlooker only to guess just how much of the stuff had been wasted here. A trail leading towards the tree indicated that the plated figure had not spilled the matter anywhere close to this tree.

Next to register in the close observer's senses would have been the stench. Metallic. Sickly-sweet. Cloying. Then, the buzzing of flies, fat and eager, insectoid wings braving the sweltering heat to partake in the putrid meal, small throngs of the things filling the air in their relentless buffeting of the seemingly-insensate knight. Had the brave onlooker continued to suffer the sight, they might have concluded that this decrepit thing had been 'resting' beneath this tree for at least a number of days, if not weeks.

@Syrenrei

Blades of Iron Roses: A fantasy Knight RP

Thank you! I based the character on a variety of 80ies musicals