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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 13:34:23 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"Doctor East..?" He hummed, his face scrunching up in strained concentration; attempting to recollect if he'd ever heard the name mentioned, though he paid much more time to the process than was probably necessary. With a punctual shrug, declaring his contemplation's end, he pressed his shoulder into the doorframe of the home and glanced over to Florence;
"... I see!" He declared, over the growing ruckus within the German peasantly banquet.
Lekalis stroked his chin, his face all tensed in seriousness as he chewed on his lower lip; the very image of a man on the cusp of a brilliant idea. A piercing, intellectual leer set onto Florence;
"There's something important I must tell you--" He began, his words fading as he stepped slowly into the home and swiftly took a step to the wall, vanishing from the doorframe as he waited inside.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Dec 31, 2017 13:52:02 GMT -8
"What is it...?" Florence followed after him with a frown that was hidden behind the neutral guise of the mask, towards the din, where it was overly hot and overly stuffy.
She wished Lekalis would choose somewhere quieter to duck into.
"It is difficult to hold a conversation while you are walking away."
The rabble in the room began to hush as the shadow of the plague doctor entered.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 13:57:50 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He reached out and gripped Florence's shoulder, meaning to pull her to the side; offering some awkward smiles and greetings to the various party-goers. His eyes scanned for the cask of wine, and the Schwarz girl.
"Just a friend! A Personal doctore--" He began to clarify, clearing his throat, as he offered a smirk, then grin; his brows raising and his features offering some semblence of haphazardness, shrugging as he flourished his hand up and out. His voice raising a touch below a yell,
"-- A drinking companion! Fret not, fret not... aheh..." He chuckled as he tried to comb his way through the crowd to a corner to breathe.
"... It is only difficult if you do not keep up." He assured with a wink and a bow of he brow, sprouting a cheeky flare of teeth as he found themselves in a prospective corner which immediately garnered a sigh of relief...
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Post by Vanitypirate on Dec 31, 2017 14:05:26 GMT -8
The rabble continued on, although a touch hesitantly. Children were ushered in away from the beaked doctor, in her swath of dark robes, mask like a scythe.
The Girl stood in the crowd, puzzled, but waited to approach.
"I am not your drinking companion. I must rescue Celeste from the Warrens." Florence insisted, stopping there in her tracks, as to resist the pull of her patient.
"What do you have to tell me?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 14:16:31 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
He duly stopped as she did, looking back swiftly, worriedly as she began to speak. His mouth quirked away, and he glanced to the side as he returned to Florence nodding attentively as he fidgeted with his hands.
Lekalis' occasionally looked off to the Girl, thinking how fast he could close the distance, grab the wine... Though he'd a feeling that something would have stopped him; some sort of contest or inquiry or critique on his drinking habits.
Instead, he quietly damned the jesterly girl for swiping his bottle of wine for naught but idle merriment. Though, he supposed procrastinating for the sake of merriment, especially with a life on the line, was particularly fouler than idle merriment.
"Fair point... You're not my drinking companion; though--" He offered an apologetic smile,
"-- Right, to the point. Do you remember when we celebrated our... Second expedition together..?" He inquired, swaying slightly; as his hand dipped into his satchel, his eyes drifting down to it as he continued.
"... O-or the more... recent times; before we'd depart for a venture, we'd oft' have a dinner of sorts." He continued, looking up as he pulled his hand out of the satchel to try and reach for Florence's least-bloody hand.
"We've no time for dinner, as you'd said... A-and drinks may take too long. But surely we've time for just one shared glass? We've not shared wine for a long while. It's good for the humors; and any muddying therein should be abated by that substance you'd in the phial!" He assured, his words pressing as closely together as the bodies in the house as he held a boyish smile and gleam in his eye.
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Post by Vanitypirate on Dec 31, 2017 14:21:06 GMT -8
Florence hesitated, but then shook her masked head 'no', and began backing away to the entrance, lingering beside the doorframe.
"I cannot, or Celeste may perish. I have delayed long enough. I do not have time."
But she still waited.
"Perhaps we may celebrate when I return from the Warrens. There is much to celebrate."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 14:29:20 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
Though he nodded understandably, the small bead of sweat on his brow was born more from a mind aflame with thoughts than a body packed amidst many more. His brow furrowed, and he didn't offer words for a time as he simply stepped on to pursue Florence;
Again, he reached out to grab at Florence's hand.
"Could you... spare me but a few moments more?" He implored, as he started to step away as well; looking to the cask of wine, hidden as it may be by the bodies, his mind would work to find it in theory, at the least.
"N-no, it's alright... Actually. Just... Would you pace yourself slowly? So I might catch you? I've some words to spare yet." He implored, though offered little time for Florence to reply as he suddenly pushed himself through the party to find the wine cask; Courcy as well as one of the few identifiable tables helped in this regard.
With both grace and brusqueness, he'd make to swipe the cask under the wing of his cloak in one fell flourish...
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Post by Vanitypirate on Dec 31, 2017 14:34:40 GMT -8
Florence watched him flounce about, and nodded, as she stepped outside of the room, much to the other party-goer's relief.
For a moment, they concerned themselves over the possibility of a plague in town, but ultimately concerned themselves more with their beers and their party.
The Crowgazer gave Lekalis another stiff wave, "I shall pace myself as I begin to prepare for my expedition," before making to leave the house.
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 14:39:40 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
With a huff, and a curious look about the party-goers; he held the cask of wine partially veiled in the crux of his arm, curtained by his cloak. His bemused look slowly shifted to one of utmost confidence as he strode long and swiftly to the mouth of the house. It didn't surprise him that the onset of sea-air hit him swifter than the realization that he'd strode on through and past the portal to the party.
Keeping the smile up and about, he swiftly looked about for the Crowgazer; his face aglow as his breath came swiftly from the brief spat of motion and adrenaline. He wondered if, in some way, Tilly's roguish nature had rubbed off on him... In good humor, at least; he chuckled to himself as he furrowed his brow at a uniquely corvine mask and broke back into his long stride to pursue it; raising his unburdened hand as he did so.
"Fair pace!"
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Post by Vanitypirate on Dec 31, 2017 14:43:15 GMT -8
"Now I am walking as you attempt to talk to me." Florence commented, and in the moment, she may have seemed even a little amused. Her limbs, still stiff, were more fluid than earlier.
She watched the sea sidelong from her lenses, and she knew there was only one other companion she could bring with her to the Warrens...
"What did you wish to talk about?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 14:58:51 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
"Don't worry; I'm much better at it than you, it seems." Lekalis smirked cheekily as he cleared his throat; the rush of thievery fading as he began to feel the weight of the cask. Enough to warrant a bit more of a haughty breath than he'd like, though it was scarcely breaking his typical even paced cycle.
Lekalis' brow furrowed as he seemed to register and digest Florence's words; his smile fluxing between breaths as his head cowed to his chest, occasionally looking to the cask, then back to Florence.
"...Ah, I..." His pace slowed, as he gauged whether Florence would do so in kind,
"... We'd discussed... How I wanted time to consider our... Love." He began, his tone shifting from its brisk momentus tone to one of somberness and contemplation.
"Then I... fell in with Tilly, yet... Yet I still think of you; I never want those thoughts to stop." He admitted, as he ran his hand over the mouth of the cask; trying to find some means of popping the lid.
Lekalis' onyx eyes set themselves onto Florence with serious intent.
"I... You mean so much to me, my dear Crowgazer. I've been through so much and you've always been there. You've always held me through my darkest times, and I feel I've never shared how much that means to me. What that means to me..." He offered a smile, sad yet warm as he hefted the cask of wine to more firmly rest in the pit of his arm.
"... The last time we weren't together on an Expedition... I'd heard mania broke loose. Likewise, foul play sprouted in my own expeditions without you." He explained, his brow furrowing as he seemed to realize how tangential the point was.
"Could you-ah- Help me... open this cask up?" He asked, stopping now...
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Post by Vanitypirate on Dec 31, 2017 15:15:02 GMT -8
"If it meant even nothing to you, I would serve you still. This was my promise to you."
The statement was matter-of-fact, as Florence stopped and watched the man fumble with the cask, utterly confused.
"But, have you considered it? What does it mean to you?" She meandered closer to the wine cask, head cocked, and she inspected it from afar a moment.
She identified it as a wine cask and deemed further investigation unnecessary.
"Why have you brought wine?"
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 15:29:48 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
The Ex-Lord paused, looking at her with some small semblance of surprise. He offered a quick smile in consideration to her words, before nodding and side stepping into the mouth of an Alley, just so he might hide the cask of wine in a small veil of shadows,
"Ah, I... have. It's quite why I brought the wine." He explained with another beaming smile to Florence as he took a knee, setting the cask mouthside up, and unsheathed his falchion.
"What you've done for me... What you mean to me; I've never had someone sway me so, someone I've held so close to my heart that the thought of losing you is... Is..." He frowned, as he worked the blade under the lid of the cask, slowly working one of the planks out.
"... It's a torment I don't think I'd survive." He explained somberly, though his typical sanguine tone seemed to slowly bleed back into his voice as he popped the plank out, and the scent of good wine gave some reprieve from the din of salt and sea.
"I know you fancy yourself a Doctor and little else; but what you've done for me has made you so much more." He explained warmly; looking up to Florence's cracked lens, he procured the crystal for wine and dipped it into the wine,
"May I see you..? I want to see your face again."
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Post by Vanitypirate on Dec 31, 2017 15:42:29 GMT -8
Florence was still, limbs limp at her side. She stood where she was, in the light of the fading moon, which had dropped well below the horizon. The golden echos of the fast-approaching sun began to color the sky.
"I shall perish within the next five years." She reminded him, stepping closer to the shade of the alley. Her light-gloved hands disappeared back behind her cowl, and she set about unmasking herself.
The fresh air was so sharp on her face. It was sticky with salt, cool and damp. The sensation was almost overwhelming, all at once, and her brows furrowed and her dark eyes squinted in the face of it.
She held up a palm, quietly, as if to scratch at her brow. She used it to shield her face from the ocean breeze.
"You must survive without me. It is all I have wanted."
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Post by Bloodtrailkiller on Dec 31, 2017 15:58:48 GMT -8
/Lekalis/
With some resignation, he nodded; looking up to her with some surprise, then haste as he stood up and swiftly closed the distance.
He raised the wine glass between them both, while moving to shield her face with the rather ostentatious collar of his cloak.
It had truthly been hardly a day since he'd seen her last, but in the light of unfiltered sun... Yet to rise, casting an almost angellic glimmer in her amusingly greasy strands of chopped hair and sharp angles of her face.
He smiled, nodded, and squinted at her; there was the faintest smell of body odor and dried blood fighting against the salty air, but the sweet smell of the wine he held between them, just below their chins, was enough fragrance to keep it all at bay.
He kept her mask in mind, and made sure not to squish it as he pressed his brow to hers.
"I shall... I'll always endure, survive. With, or without you." He assured, looking into her sharp, dark eyes which so entranced him as he brought a hand up to cup her cheek.
"But I'll always pursue you..." He added, kissing her lips delicately, as he brought his other hand to rest on her waist.
"... You've taught me how to Live. For the Love I have for you, I will persist... But I will not stand idle should you not be here, with me, in Life."
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