Rogue Sloth

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

The sound of swords clashing faded into the background as Crow put distance between himself and the rest of the party. He huffed, wrestling his wild breath under control while he watched the trees around him for signs that any of the mercenaries had taken chase. In the back of his mind, he knew it was a bad idea to isolate himself from his guards. Chances were high that he was their target, since they had been riding to Younis in order for him to negotiate with the foreign king. If any of the killers realized he was alone, there wasn’t much he could do to fend them off with only a pair of daggers at his disposal.

However, it was a risk he was willing to take when he had Otto within his line of sight. The missing baron had a lead on him, but the former thief had more experience navigating forests in the thick of a pursuit. Even though he wasn’t used to being on this end of a chase, he wove through the trees with muscle memory that flooded through him like a wave, and the meters between them decreased quickly until he could see the whites of the other man’s eyes when he looked over his shoulder.

It didn’t take long for him to close the gap completely. As soon as he had the noble within reach, Crow leapt to tackle him, and they both collapsed into the brush. Otto let out a surprised cry and grunted as he hit the ground. His body broke the viceroy’s fall, so for a moment he laid dazed. The armor he was wearing—different than the glistening, ceremonial garb he’d been sporting before he’d disappeared, the former thief noticed—had protected him from any serious injuries though. He only needed to get his breath back after the impact, and once he had it, he writhed underneath Crow’s grasp. “Let me go, you filthy cur!”

If there had been any doubt in Crow’s mind that Otto still thought of him as a criminal, it was gone now. All pretense of respect had fled from his tongue, and his true colors had risen to the surface. The viceroy scoffed and took the baron’s wrists in his hands, pressing them into the grass while he sat in a way to pin him down with his weight. “Not until you tell me what you were doing with those mercenaries,” he demanded.

Otto struggled against him, but he wasn’t the frail, malnourished prisoner he had been two years ago. With the strength that came from a healthy, well-built body, he held the other man down with ease. “I don’t have all day,” he barked impatiently, letting go of one of the knight’s arms to draw a dagger from underneath his cloak. He touched the edge of the weapon to the other man’s throat and leaned over his head with narrowed eyes. “Either you tell me why you’re working with those murderers, or I tell the others we have one less enemy to deal with on our way to the castle.”

It was an empty threat of course. While he had improved in his ability to fight and stomach the sight of blood, he still didn’t like the thought of killing another person without doing so to defend himself or someone else. He also squirmed internally at the thought of telling Rayner that he’d cut his father’s throat, since the lieutenant was insisting Otto wasn’t a bad guy. Ending his life wasn’t in the cards, but because of his reputation as a criminal, he was sure the baron wouldn’t expect him to have a moral compass. He could use the older man’s assumptions against him. If Otto wanted to look at him like a villain, then he was happy to act out the role.

The ploy seemed to work too, as the knight stiffened at the feeling of the cold blade against his skin. A few heartbeats passed as he considered the viceroy’s options before he squeezed his eyes shut and hissed, “It isn’t my choice.”

Crow furrowed his brows, “What was that?”

“I said this isn’t my choice!” Otto repeated himself a little louder, his eyes darting to the nearest trees as if he was afraid of being overheard. “Now let me go. If I’m seen like this, they’ll kill me and my family.”

That wasn’t the answer Crow had been expecting. He pursed his lips, perplexed. It was difficult to tell if the baron was being honest with him or if he was just making up a lie to escape. “Why should I believe you?” he asked sharply, measuring his voice to avoid giving the other man any hint that he was swayed.

“Because I’m telling you the truth, you stupid peasant!” Otto snarled. “You think I wanted to help them sabotage the king’s plans? I have been loyal to Albin long before he was even crowned! They ordered me to assist their ambush weeks ago and said that if I refused, they would kill Rayner and my wife.”

“Weeks ago?” Crow echoed, his heart hammering against his ribs. If Otto was telling the truth, that meant the men had approached the baron while they were still in the citadel. He wondered if that was why he’d seen one of the mercenaries in Bellmare. However, the knight’s response still gave him more questions than answers. “The king was going to send me to Gorm until only a few days ago. Do they not want negotiations to happen with either kingdom?”

“No,” Otto shook his head. “Their plans changed when King Albin’s did. You weren’t supposed to be the target.”

“Who was?”

“That, I don’t know. I was only told that the ambush was to take place inside the citadel and that I was to help them get past the walls.”

Crow fell quiet for a moment and then went on in a lower voice. “I’ve dealt with these men before. They didn’t speak our language… How have they been giving you these orders?”

At that, Otto chuckled in a way that sent a chill across the viceroy’s skin. It was an empty laugh that was half defeated, half incredulous, and the words that followed were even more ominous: “They weren’t the ones who gave me the orders.”

“What do you mean?” Crow probed.

“They have eyes and ears inside the castle,” Otto revealed quietly, once again acting as if he was afraid of being overheard. “As high within the ranks as the king’s own court. I was blackmailed by someone I never would have expected. A friend who has betrayed us all for money and power—”

He didn’t have the chance to finish the sentence before an arrow suddenly pierced him in the head, and Crow jumped up from his body in surprise. Blood rushing in his ears, he spun around just in time to see the mercenary on the black horse turn the loaded bow in his hands toward him. The man must have broken away from the fight to follow them into the woods. And now that they were alone, there was nothing to stop him from finishing his job.

Swearing under his breath, the former thief dove behind the nearest bush just as the mercenary loosed his arrow. The projectile flew past his side, punching a hole in his cloak before it embedded itself into a tree behind him. He pressed a hand against his bruised midriff and ground his teeth. This was bad. He was too far away from his entourage to call for help, and if his opponent was anything like the mercenaries he’d faced years ago, he didn’t stand a chance against him in fair combat.

He couldn’t give up without a fight though. Gripping his dagger firmly in his hand, he peered through the leaves as the burly man walked his horse closer to the shrubbery he was using as a barrier between them. The mercenary was saying something in his native language that he couldn’t understand, but he paid no mind to the guttural-sounding words. Instead, his green eyes were fixed on the man’s torso as he tried to evaluate whether or not he was wearing armor. A half-brewed plan had started to form in his mind, and he wasn’t certain if it would work, but he had no other options.

So, as soon as the mercenary caught sight of him behind the bush and raised his bow to loose another arrow, the viceroy leapt into action. He threw the dagger in his hand before the other man could let go of his bowstring, praying to any god he could think of that the blade would hit its mark. And either the gods were listening to him that day or he’d stumbled upon an incredible stroke of luck, because even though the dagger didn’t pierce the metal plates underneath the killer’s cloak, it happened to cut through the string of his bow along its way, so the arrow flew askew through the air and fell short of its intended target.

Crow knew mercenaries always carried more than one weapon, so he didn’t take time to celebrate his success. While the rider dug through his belongings for another one, the former thief was already running back through the trees toward the knights he’d left behind. He sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him, spurred onward by the sound of hoofbeats at his back. Normally, he would have used the trees to his advantage by weaving between them to make use of the uneven terrain, but there wasn’t time for that when his enemy was seated on a mount that could outpace him faster if he didn’t move in a straight line.

Luckily because he’d ruined the mercenary’s long range weapon, the other man couldn’t attack him again before he closed the distance, and he covered enough ground to catch sight of the others through the trees up ahead by the time he was forced to throw himself to the floor to dodge the swing of a sword.

Preston noticed the commotion first and blanched at the sight of the viceroy being pursued by the only mercenary who hadn’t either escaped or been killed by one of the knights. “Percival!” he shouted urgently, pointing toward the two and drawing the others’ attention toward the skirmish.

Percy and the Younisian knights quickly steered their horses toward their enemy with their own weapons drawn, and the man on the black stallion snapped his head around toward them. Seeming to realize he wouldn’t survive if he lingered, he drove his heels into his mount’s sides and cantered back into the forest, disappearing around a thick cluster of trees and leaving Crow behind to climb shakily to his feet, surrounded by no less than seven guards. He rubbed his side with a wince and took in a slow breath, relieved that he’d managed to slip away at the expense of only one dagger and perhaps a few bruised ribs.

“Follow him,” the captain of the Younisian patrol ordered three of his men. “And try to capture him alive. I want to know who these men are and why they are trespassing in our territory in the middle of a war.”

The knights nodded and spurred their steeds to take chase.

Meanwhile, Percival slid off his horse to approach Crow. “Why did you leave?” he asked with a stern frown, limping on his wounded leg. “None of us saw where you went, and we can’t protect you if we don’t know where you are.”

Crow turned away from the trees to face the other man. “Otto was here,” he said between breaths.

“Baron Theroulde?” Percy blinked.

“Yeah,” the viceroy nodded. “He was watching us fight from a distance, so I went after him.”

“You could have told one of us,” the knight knitted his brows. “You were almost killed because you wandered away from the group. You should have stayed here.”

“I’m not a child,” Crow rolled his eyes and then grimaced again, pressing his hand down over his middle.

Percy glanced down at his torso and sighed. “I’ll take a look at that when we get to someplace safe… For now, did you find out what Otto was doing here?”

Crow nodded and parted his lips to explain, only to falter when Rayner ambled over. Unlike the others, the lieutenant didn’t seem to have sustained any injuries from the fight. “I’ll tell you later,” Crow mumbled under his breath, inclining his head ever so slightly toward Otto’s son. He didn’t want to break the news of the baron’s death in front of him.

Percival nodded, seeming to take the hint, and turned toward their comrade. “Did anyone see where Naida went?” Rayner asked concernedly once he’d reached them. “I thought I saw her take a hit from one of the mercenaries.”

At that, the color drained from the former thief’s face. After everything that had happened with Otto, he’d forgotten about his half-sister. A pang of guilt twisted his stomach, only to be smothered a second later by a surge of fear. The princess hadn’t been in good shape when her horse had galloped away from the fight, and he had no clue if she was even still alive. Their enemy’s weapon had looked like it had cut deep.

He cursed to himself and gestured toward the eastern side of the woods. “I saw her go that way,” he replied curtly.

Percival nodded once more and touched his own wounded leg. “You two go on ahead of me. I’ll catch up.”

Putting the baron out of his mind, Crow hurried with Rayner to mount their horses again. They headed into the trees briskly, sticking close together just in case any of the other mercenaries were still hiding nearby while they searched for the familiar shape of the princess’s horse. As the one who had convinced their father to allow her to join the mission, the former thief hoped beyond hope that she was okay. He didn’t know what he was going to do if they found a body in place of his sibling, and he held his breath worriedly as he scanned their surroundings for their missing member.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“You can pay me back by eating better when you move into the palace with me,” Caspian shook his head. He didn’t care about money. He had more of it than he knew what to do with ever since his financial advisor had walked him through his inheritance. Before his father had died, he’d been well off, but now he realized just how much the royal family had been carrying from monarch to monarch. Now, he could have purchased his own personal getaway island with cash along with a private jet to take him to and from. Two weeks’ worth of spoiled food was nothing, so he didn’t want her to worry about it, especially when he knew she had nothing after coming from the districts.

Looking over the dishes on the counters, he managed not to wrinkle his nose at the smell of the oldest plates. The entire suite was a little musty, but standing in the kitchen made the worst of it more prominent. Luckily, Iris seemed to remember which meals she had ordered recently enough to risk eating, and he nodded when she pointed out the pizza and carbonara. “Those sound good to me,” he said, picking up the tray in one hand and bowl in the other to bring back to the couch—away from the kitchen. While he could tolerate the old food smell for a little while, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stomach anything if the odor was messing with his sense of taste.

With a tilt of his head, he gestured for her to come with him and carried their slightly sketchy lunch over to the coffee table. “Sit,” he told her as he set the dishes down. “There should be plates and stuff in the cabinets. I’ll go check.” If Iris had been eating while he’d been gone, she would have burned through the limited supply, but he doubted she had even touched any of it. So, leaving her in the living room for a moment, he strode back into the kitchen and opened up a few cupboards until he found a pair of plates and some utensils to use with the pasta. A few napkins that had come with the other food was enough to get started on lunch, so he stepped back over to join her in front of the TV.

“Have you been watching anything good lately?” he asked, trying to lighten the mood as he filled a plate with a couple slices of pizza and a small helping of the carbonara. They’d talked about the hard things already—although not quite as much as he would have liked—so he wanted to end the visit on a happy note before he had to get back to the palace. “Football season is starting up again soon, so I’ve been watching the drafts when I have the chance. There’s also a new spy movie coming out in theaters that Jay told me about. It sounds really good, so we should see it together after you move in.”

Match Up in Malibu [Bee & Summer]

“God, I hope not,” Jett pulled a face when Anna posed the theory that they might have to cook at some point. He may have worked in a restaurant when he was younger, but there was a good reason why he hadn’t been part of the kitchen staff. Cooking wasn’t something he was very good at, so if he had to put a dish together on the show, he had a feeling he wasn’t going to do as well as he had at the pool game that evening. If he ended up going home because he could barely handle scrambled eggs, his mother would never let him hear the end of it.

“Hell yeah,” David grinned at the suggestion of Jeopardy. “That would be a fun game.”

“Seriously?” Madison rolled her eyes. “Who wants to sit around answering random trivia questions all night?”

Jett brushed off her comment. “Jeopardy would be cool. I think they’re gonna change things up on us though. They’ll probably throw in a talent competition or maybe an obstacle course on the beach like American Ninja Warrior.” Anna was right though, there was no way to know. They were all participating in the pilot season of the reality show, so anything could happen. They were the producers’ guinea pigs until their contracts were up. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be excited or nervous about that, but the chance to stay in the oceanside mansion all summer was enough compensation not to think about it too hard.

“A talent competition would be great,” Madison grinned.

“Yeah, but if they run anything like that, they’ll probably make us pick a talent that we’re not famous for,” Bella pointed out with a laugh.

“I hope you’re all ready for amateur close-up magic then,” Jett smirked and turned to Anna. “Got any hidden talents you’d like to share with the group?”

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Yeah, there are lots of options to work with when we get to that point.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“That doesn’t matter,” Cas shook his head. “It’s not like that’s new or anything, and it’s never stopped us before.” He didn’t like the way Iris was talking. The fact that she was bringing up more cons to their relationship made him nervous that she was weighing whether or not to continue being together at all. So, when she laid out her fear that she wasn’t good enough for him, he didn’t waste a second as he replied, “You know I don’t care about the fact that you’re not a highborn, Iris. I love you for who you are, and I still want to be with you no matter what anyone else thinks. As soon as I take care of the warrant, we can put all the other stuff behind us.”

At least, he hoped so. Realistically, he knew they would still have a few hurdles to jump even after they were able to get away from the long distance thing. Plenty of highborns wouldn’t be happy with his decision to be with someone from outside the capital—and who had been part of the Scourge—so he would have some cleaning up to do when word got out that he had a girlfriend. Still, he wasn’t too concerned about it. He’d been doing a lot of work to establish his reputation since he’d been crowned king, so hopefully the people of Aspiria were happy enough with him so far that they wouldn’t lose faith in him over something so trivial.

Deciding not to dwell on it when he didn’t have much more time left with Iris, he pushed the thoughts from his mind. “Talking to you is always the highlight of my day,” he assured her with a soft smile. “Things have been hard lately, but no one can control that. You don’t have to be upbeat all the time for me to enjoy spending time with you.” He didn’t want her to feel like she had to make him smile every time they had a phone call. That was too heavy of a burden for anyone to carry.

Taking her by the hand, he led the way into the kitchen and shrugged when she asked if he was sure he wanted to go through the old food. “No reason to let it go to waste if there’s something to be salvaged,” he said, glancing over the plates that lined the counters. Some of the food was obviously old and very stale or spoiled, while other plates were a little harder to estimate. All of it was something he never would have been served by any chef who wanted to stay out of jail for giving a royal food poisoning. However, he’d had a few tough meals in the distracts, so he wasn’t as unnerved by the thought of playing roulette with the food that looked okay to eat.

“Do you remember which dishes you ordered most recently?” he asked, hoping Iris could at least give some sort of clue as to what they could have for lunch that wouldn’t give them stomach cramps. With another day packed to the brim with meetings, he wanted to give himself the best odds to avoid running in and out of the bathroom all day.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Cas will probably be a wreck when Iris is gone too. We should probably figure out how they'll reunite later xD Do you think she'll try to go back after she realizes Ethan lied to her? Or would it take more than that?

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

“That doesn’t mean your problems aren’t important to me anymore,” Caspian insisted with a frown. Crown prince or king, he’d always carried the burden of other people’s expectations on his shoulders. Just because he was busier than before didn’t make her less significant in his life, and he didn’t want her to think that he was going to forget about her just because he had more on his plate. It was hard to convey that, though, when he’d already fallen asleep for two of their recent phone calls. Even though it was the distance that was grating on him, not Iris herself, he wasn’t stupid. He knew how she would have interpreted his difficulty in even holding a one hour conversation with her over the phone.

The way she answered his question didn’t give him much hope either, and he felt his heart sink a little when she basically said that coming with him would be better than nothing. For the second time, he noticed that she didn’t show any excitement about being with him specifically. She just wanted to get out of the situation he’d put her in when he’d left her suddenly to take over as Aspiria’s next king. Somehow, the distance between them felt even more tangible than it had when they’d been apart for two weeks.

Worried that she was having second thoughts, he rested a hand on her leg in a feeble attempt to reach out while she went on to tell him about how miserable she’d been since he’d gone back to the palace. “I do enjoy them,” he assured her softly. “I enjoy talking to you, Iris. Some days, it’s the only thing I look forward to… I’m really sorry I didn’t answer the last time you called too. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to talk to you. I fell asleep because I was exhausted, and that’s why I’m here now. I don’t want us to drift apart.”

He fell quiet again, unsure what else to say. He could apologize until he was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he’d hurt her by being so unavailable recently. If the warden approved his request to pardon her for the crimes his father had held against her, then maybe things would get better. He had to hope so. After all, it was going to be easier to rekindle their closeness when they weren’t miles apart. He was king now too, so there was no one else in the palace who could stop him from letting her share his bedroom. Atlas never would have permitted it, but the guards were under his authority now. If he wanted her to stay with him, they couldn’t say no.

“Anyway, I’m here now,” he sighed, trailing his fingers across her thigh. “Even if you’re not hungry… will you please eat something for me? There has to be something in the kitchen that hasn’t spoiled yet. I’ll share it with you, since I’m skipping lunch to fit this visit into my schedule.” Getting up from the sofa, he offered her a hand. “Come on. Let’s look and see what you’ve got.”

Call To Action: Marginalized Groups Must Be Recognized In The Rules

@Nytem4re No one here is arguing that nothing should be done. All @Ammokkx and I are saying is that we haven't personally experienced this problem and would like to know more about it before pitching support for a change to rules and/or the way the mods have handled it historically. For example, what constitutes bigotry? What counts as a post that warrants punishment from moderators? I'm all for making marginalized groups feel safer if they are experiencing harassment here (honestly, if it's a big problem that the mods are *actively* ignoring, then I'm all for rallying to fix it). I just want specifics on what's been going on and how a solution would be done because other sites have overreacted to issues like these in the past and overcorrected in a way that punishes people who aren't even part of the problem. I'd hate to see that happen on the Guild.

Also, turning our questions around on us as if we're your enemies doesn't help the case. Whenever anyone wants to enact change, they're the ones with the burden of proof as to why the change should be made. Our asking for that proof isn't unreasonable in the slightest, and it isn't an attack on the original proposal. We just want more information. That's all. I don't know about Ammokkx, but I don't have a discord account, so I can't participate there or look at the conversations that have been happening.

Ultimately my question is what change would be made to the rules and how would it be at all different from a harassed user telling a mod about the problem, so the mod can step in and address the person who's attacking marginalized people? I'd appreciate more details than just someone repeating the same thing over again, please and thanks.

Call To Action: Marginalized Groups Must Be Recognized In The Rules

Legitimate question: What attacks have been going on toward marginalized groups on this site? Maybe my social circles here just haven't overlapped with those that have seen it, but I've never come across anyone who's here to terrorize or belittle someone from the groups mentioned above. I've also got some concerns about policing speech on the Guild unless this issue extends beyond one or two jackasses who could be dealt with by alerting the mods about their behavior. Adding rules doesn't stop people from being bigots, after all, and there will probably always be a few skulking around.

Second question: If this issue is prevalent enough to warrant action, what solutions are being suggested to handle it? I'm interested in hearing the specifics.

Amnesia [Suki & Summer]

Same. I'm also excited about Jacob confronting Iris. That'll be good dramatic fun to follow up our current soapy drama between her and Cas xD