It Always Starts the Same [ Jack & Soulhallow ]

[Jackalope]

It was the same old, same old for the evening, with the same ruckus crowd and the same noisy howlers and the same smells of spilled beer mixed with the same mess of food tossed to the floor with one booming sweep of a laughing man's arm. The names and the faces were different, mostly, with the occasional familiar one stuck in among a wave of the untried and excited and the tried and silent. Some of the silent ones he recognized from when they were excited, bouncing brats off to their first murder or their first knighting or their first dragon. They were full of enthusiasm and bold as the young, but their first adventure never turned out quite right and they were back again, quiet and thoughtful with scars on their faces and nightmares in their eyes. He'd seen it all firsthand when he was young and exuberant, but that was so long ago that the sun herself had probably forgotten.

He cracked a grin and snorted at his train of thought, derailing it with the turn of his head as he filled another three mugs, sending them off on a haggard server's tray before yawning and stretching. Drystan was a handsome enough fellow, tall and broad with sharp grey eyes and a crooked grin, stuck in a time somewhere in his mid twenties with the scars of his early years across his body and one in particular running across his face, just to the left of his nose and down his cheek to under his jaw. He was infamously cursed, an unlucky fellow who--in the rising wave of success with the pride of the King at his back--fell victim to a particularly easily amused enchantress who thought it might be funny to let him "get a little age on him".
That was roughly seventy years ago and he hadn't aged a day since. He had come close to death a few times though, and while the skin would heal and never scar, it was a slow and painful process and being able to not age did not mean he wouldn't die horribly. Retirement, he found, was much more to his liking and so instead of going out on great adventures with harrowing tales to bring home, he worked in the inn that belonged to a friend of an old friend. It was boring, no doubt, but he broke up the occasional fight and drank the occasional beer and hell, it worked out just fine.

Drystan hummed and ran a hand through his dark hair, his sun-bronzed skin stuck in the healthy tan of the outdoors man despite his mostly-indoor lifestyle, and yawned widely, flashing his canines and nearly inhaling a bug in the same motion. Coughing loudly he cursed under his breath and spat the fly out to the floor, scrunching up his face as he crushed it beneath his boot before licking his lips unhappily. Business thankfully called in a distraction to the awful taste and he turned back to the crowd, tugging thoughtlessly on one of his earrings as he nodded and filled the order; same old same old, beer and beef.

 

[Soulhallow]

Walking through the doors of the Inn he had chosen to spend the night in, Elric smirked. There was quite a crowd at this Inn tonight, normally there were less faces to be seen among the crowd, but that was not the case tonight. He sidestepped a pair of boisterous drinkers that were having difficulties proving they weren't drunk yet by walking in a straight line, the results were a loss on both sides of the debate and the ensuing laughter and slaps on the backs on each other reminding him of a recent time when eh had been with his fellow mates. It wasn't too long ago, but the last few months had felt like forever with his most recent bounty he had been chasing.

"Stop thinking about the past you old fart, you're still young as of yet," he thought to himself. The trip to the bar counter was short and was devoid of any more obstacles to avoid, as Elric disregarded the people near and around him. He set down his bag at the foot of a bar stool, and plunked his butt down, not caring how unforgiving and hard the surface was, he wanted a mug of good ale before anything else tonight. He watched the bartender look him over, not sizing him up, but definitely curious about his attire. Elric was wrapped in a lightweight, sturdy, waterproof cloak that shrouded his face which peered out from the cowl of the hood. Removing the hood, you could see he wasn't that old at all by his attributes, a scruffy layer of facial hair having grown in the last few days gave him a roguish aspect to the piercing blue eyes and long black hair that adorned his face. The rest of his attire aside from the bag he had positioned on the floor beside his seat, being a pair of moccasins with which he could move soundlessly in and a pair of trousers including an array of pockets with various objects inside of them

 

[Jackalope]

Drystan had long since learned to recognize a "battle weary" soul--even if the most battle that soul had seen was a quest across the country--and if his years had told him anything, it told him that the newest man to wander into the inn had had some rough days. A lazy grin spread on the man's face and he filled up a large mug, grabbing some bread and meat and plopping them on a plate as he ambled over, hipchecking the bartender out of the way to set mug and plate in front of the newcomer. "Had a bit of a harsh time of things, eh?" He rumbled, eyes crinkling in a smile, "You look a bit like a dragon sat on you."

The man chuckled, his grin turning lop-sided, before he stepped away from the bar, cracking his neck absently, "Anything else you might want? Its been a good season for the locals--kitchen's fully stocked with all sorts of goodies. Not that these hooligans would know!" He raised his voice to finish, snorting at the resounding laughter as he rolled his eyes, "Very picky lot, our regulars. Beef and alcohol is all they can ingest. No green things, no orange things, no fruit shaped things or potatoes unless the potatoes are back up to a hunk of meat in a stew. And heaven forbid I put a chicken on a table."

He laughed again and turned his full attention back to the newcomer, tilting his head curiously at him. "Not to say there's a thing wrong if your tastebuds are the same."

 

[Soulhallow]

[[By the way do you mind if ooc is done in parentheses like these?? If so anyways I have to ask if you mind the different colors of text when I write back, I use them to differentiate the text a little easier for myself]]

Elric laughed heartily with the man before him, his mood changing instantly to one of happiness and wanting to converse. "Not a dragon, but my horse did in fact decide to try and plop his backside on me when I smacked his rump in hope to get him to move over off of my bed roll this morning. It was quite the scene if any soul would have decided to look over and notice me, but to my good fortune there were no passerby's at the crook of dawn," he said with a chuckle. Elric took that moment to dig into the plate set before him, loving the taste of it, I should remind myself to give the cook my regards, this is great compared to a lot of places I've eaten recently.

After he shoveled the food into his mouth, Elric looked at the man and asked, "Soo what do I owe for this right here," he gestured to the plate before him, "And what kinds of goodies does this kitchen back there store?" A twinkle appeared in his eye, his mind on the exotic foods they could have, or just something to divert his usual pallet from the normal. The laugh of the man before keeping his attention peaked with interest, I wonder what happened for them to have such a good season this time of year, Elric though tot himself.

 

[Jackalope]

[[ Fine with me. x] And yeh, that's okay. I used to do that more back on certain sites, but since I don't duo as much much anymore I've dropped out of the colors. xD So its def okay. ]]



Drystan rumbled his amusement at the story, pulling up a cloth and cleaning along the bar even while he kept his attention mostly on Elric. He shooed away a drunk man from the counter before he finally turned back to Elric, cracking a grin, "Sounds like a worthwhile horse, if you ask me. The more spoiled they are the more loyal they'll be, hm?" He chuckled, smiling to himself at his own memories, and moved to where a woman was piling up dripping dishes, absently taking them one at a time to dry them.

"Don't owe a thing for the plate." He chortled, shaking his head, "The owner has a history of adventures himself. He's an old coot but we share some things and....free food for the hungry returning from great adventures is a given." He winked and turned, his earrings tinkling softly as he set back to cleaning, "Well, the first plate is free anyways." He shrugged one shoulder in a long motion and picked up the dishes, handing them back to the woman with a mumbled word, casting his eyes back over the inn before he moved back towards Elric. "We have pretty much every vegetable you could imagine at the moment--a caravan came through yesterday and the boss bought everything that remotely looked like a vegetable--and we're quite well stocked on apples, grapes, that sort of fruit. Meat wise we've got your more typical beef, lamb, poultry and hog, but we've also got some more unusual reptilian meats an an especially rare section of dragon." His grin grew toothy, "The dragon I especially recommend. We have a surplus so its much less expensive than normal. One dropped right through the roof a week ago."