Almost as good as Oosquai (open to all, preferably low ranks)

[Locke]

Terric (as written by a tipsy Locke)

It wasn’t oosquai but it did the trick. Terric sat behind the barracks with a small group of Soldiers and Drin’far’ji and a rather bold novice. They had managed to get their hands on a few bottles of Tearin brandy. Sometimes after a hard day’s work, a few drinks more than necessary. He had fond memories of sitting around the fire with his spear brother’s filled to the eyes with oosquai. Two of the Soldier’s had begun to sing a bawdy marching song.

“Quiet, you don’t the Aes Sedai to hear us,” she hissed. She had also had the least to drink.

Terric took a long pull than passed her the bottle. “Down the hatch,” he said words slurring, “meet your toh in the morning.”

She took a drink and coughed. “This tastes like fire.”

“I know right,” said a glassy eyed Drin.

Terric didn’t know these Wetlanders very well but alcohol did wonders for making friends. He leaned his head back against the wall and listened to the Soldiers sing. The song was interesting to say the least. Something about a tavern maid who didn’t have a towel. For some reason she was taking off pieces of her garments to clean up spills. He clapped a long but didn’t sing. It was just not something Aielmen did. He glanced off into the darkness, he had tried to spread the word quietly. Maybe nobody else was coming.

[Corellis]

Elaile was absolutely exhausted. She had known Novice training would be hard, but she had been completely unprepared for everything else that came with it- the unending chores, the constant errands from anyone who happened to spot her white dress, the lack of even a moment of quiet time. She pulled at the collar of her dress; even the quality of wool used in making these things was unbearable.

She felt her steps dragging as she trudged back to her room, having just finished cleaning out the pigeon cotes. She mentally moved that up one spot on her list of "Most-Hated Chores."

How was this not considered torture? she thought to herself as she slowly made her way through the grounds.

She had never had to muck stables or clean dishes growing up as the Panarch's granddaughter. But at least those were things she had heard the servants talking about! Cleaning out the pigeon cotes? It was inhumane- the terrible smell sticking to her clothing, the feathers blowing into her face with every slight movement.

What she wouldn't give to have a moment to just relax and enjoy the cool night air. she thought rounding the corner behind the barracks.

Elaile stopped short, squinting in the low light. Was that a group of Soldiers? Their bawdy song reached her ears and her face split into a wide grin. Was that a group of drunken Soldiers?

Elaile paused for a second, unsure of what to do. Before her, a group of people her own age seemed to have escaped the drudgery of their day. What she wouldn't give to join in! But having grown up in the Panarch's Palace, she had been reminded every day by her tutors, her companions and the Panarch's advisors that as a reflection on her grandmother Elaile always needed to be poised, cool, aloof even. Perhaps that stiffness was why she had made so few friends in her first weeks here. Elaile bit her lip as she weighed her options.

Enough of being cool and collected, she thought striding towards the sounds of their revelry. She didn't represent anyone except herself here and she wanted at least a few minutes to relax like any other student.

Walking up quietly to the group Elaile revised her earlier expectations. This wasn't just a group of Soldiers, there was a Drin leaning against the wall and even a Novice sitting among the group. Smiling tentatively, Elaile looked around the group. "Ok if I join you all?"

She plucked an errant feather out of her honey hair and hastily threw it behind her. What a great first impression she thought ruefully.

[Locke]

Terric (written by a sober Locke)

Even intoxicated, an Aielman’s senses were sharper than the average Wetlanders. He heard footsteps and looked up to see a novice approaching timidly. Was she going to snitch? He weighed his options, knocking her out would just complicate matters, so running might be his best choice if he wanted to avoid trouble. Being the only Aiel Drin had its draw backs. If questioned he had no choice but to come clean, Ji’e’toh demanded it.

The young woman looked around there small group and gave a tentative smile, “Ok if I join you all?”

He gave her a glassy eyed wave, “Of course, but don’t tell the Amrylin of Gaval Hanania there will have to tie you up by your ankles.” He laughed and gestured to a mustached Saldaean Drin. The man grumbled and tried to assure her that he would do nothing of the sort.

Terric laughed again and passed her a bottle, “All jokes aside, strong drink and good companionship does wonders after a hard day” He reached over and plucked a feather from her hair.

[Corellis]

Elaile smiled gratefully at the Drin, and took a seat with the others, tucking her feet up under her white skirts and relaxing back against the Barracks.

"I'm Elaile by the way, I don't think we've met before." She gave an embarrassed shrug "I actually haven't met many people here yet" She smiled at the Saldean Drin, Gaval, and waved away his protestations that he wouldn't be tying her up by her ankles. She found the threat funny; being tied up by her ankles couldn't be any more of a punishment than her daily chores.

She looked askance at the bottle the tall Drin had handed her and took a quick sniff. The smell made her eyes water and she quickly lifted the bottle to her lips and took a long pull before she could change her mind. Elaile swallowed twice before lowering the jug and stifled a gasp. She wasn't used to strong liquor, having kept mostly to wine before this. She quickly passed the jug to the man next to her, and then blushed when he plucked another feather from her hair.

"God, I must look a wreck." She ran her fingers through her hair and brushed ineffectually at her dress "I don't usually walk around like this you know- it's this blasted Tower. Can you believe they make us actually clean up after pigeons? Birds!" She shook her head in indignation and took a closer look at him.

He had a very distinct look about him, his hair light and grey eyes serious. She took a chance, hoping if she was wrong he wouldn't be offended "Are you from the Aiel Waste? My father was Aiel- Rondhn of the Red Salt Goshien." It had been mere minutes since she had taken her drink and already she felt the warmth spreading through her and her worries disappearing like water into sand.

[Locke]

Terric (as written by Locke and Nyquil.... what I'm sick)

The Novice took a seat next to him and accepted the bottle. After eyeing it suspiciously, she took a couple of swallows and gasped. Terric couldn’t help himself, he let out a chuckle. She blushed when he plucked the feather free. She began trying to clean her dress and complaining about having to clean the pigeon coop. At this point he wasn’t quite listening, his natural curiosity and stomach full of brandy had decided to conspire together and now he was examining the feather.

Her next words caught him by surprise. "Are you from the Aiel Waste? My father was Aiel- Rondhn of the Red Salt Goshien."

He couldn’t help himself, he cringed at the term Aiel Waste. He gave her a suspicious look, what daughter of an Aiel would make such a slip. “I see you, Elaile,” he said cautiously, “I am Terric of the Salt Flats Nakai, Aethan Dor” He reached for one of the bottles and took an exaggerated before passing it to the newcomer. “Tell me about your father,” he had questions, and sometimes a little liquor got answers.

[Corellis]

Elaile noticed Terric's grimace and quickly replayed what she had said in her head. She hadn't met many Aiel since moving to Tanchico and had forgotten much of what was correct in the Aiel world. The brandy seemed to be kicking in though because the normal compulsion she would have had to run over their conversation again and again till she spotted her mistake had all but disappeared. Shrugging off whatever faux pas she had made she forged ahead.

"I see you Terric." She at least remembered the correct response, "But there isn't much I can tell you. I only lived with the Goshien till I was six, and then my mother and I moved back to Tarabon to live with my grandmother." She paused. Even with the liquor loosening her tongue she didn't know how much she wanted to tell this man, or even how much she wanted to remember right now. This was supposed to be a night for relaxing she reminded herself.

"My father was a Cor Darei, and we all lived with his sept until....there was an accident and well, then my mother and I left and I don't know where he is now."

Great way to make new friends, she thought kicking herself mentally, tell them all about how your family has disappeared. Nice. and. normal.

Elaile leaned across the circle in a most unlady-like way and claimed the bottle back from the other Novice, taking another long swig in the process. This time she managed not to gasp, and she smiled successfully at Terric.

[Locke]

Terric

Bleh, burn these instincts, Terric thought and delved deeper. He could feel himself sobering up quickly. “What kind of accident? Why did it cause your mother to take you from the Three-fold Land?” He wanted to ask how a Wetlander ended up living in the Three-fold Land but he didn’t want to bog her down with questions.

Why did he care? He watched the Soldier’s start a new song. This one was a sad lament. Gaval Hanania and that Novice, whose name he couldn’t remember were laughing arm in arm. Why couldn’t he just sit back and enjoy himself? This new woman Elaile had just said too many strange things. Some things he just couldn’t let rest. That didn’t mean he couldn’t let himself enjoy this night. He did his best to imitate one of Murin’s roguish smiles and sat back to listen to her story.

[Corellis]

Elaile raised her eyebrows at the string of questions Terric fired at her. She didn't know if she had ever met someone so direct before. In Tanchico, the nobles all smiled and politely skirted the subject of her lineage and early life as if it had never even happened. Elaile decided it was refreshing to meet someone openly curious and not hiding an ounce of it. She briefly wondered if he was the same without brandy, as she weighed just how much to say.

"Well, it's hard to explain really- I don't understand it myself, but my mother has said that the accident had to do with a Portal Stone. One minute my father, my sister and my great-mother were standing next to this pillar, and then I blinked and they weren't. It was just a normal day until they disappeared, and so now it's easier just to call it an accident than explain the whole story to most people." She paused and glanced to the side seeing if he was bored and she should move on. His face still held that same smile and she continued haltingly. "My mother was an Aes Sedai of the Grey Tower. She had gone to the Waste to learn more about her Dreamwalking abilities and just stayed after meeting my father. On the day he disappeared, she packed us up and we left." She shrugged "She never explained to me why we didn't stay. She spends most of her time now traveling- I expect she's still looking for a way to bring them back....from wherever they are."

She had come to the circle to make new friends and here she was spilling her whole life story to a virtual stranger. Elaile waved away the bottle in its next pass. It was unlike her to talk so openly about her past and she wasn't sure if she had said too much. She looked questioningly at Terric.

What do you even say after something like that? she thought, wondering if she should just leave the group to their revelry.

The tone of their conversation had started lighthearted enough but she had completely ruined it with talk of her family's odd history. She had moved on long ago from feeling sad or sorry for herself; her mother was obsessed enough with the mission of finding their family- one of them had to at least live in the present.

"What about yourself?" she asked, trying to salvage the night. "How did you come to leave the Wa-" she remembered his earlier wince, "the Three-Fold Land?"

OOC: No DayQuil? Hope you're feeling better!

[Locke]

Terric

As Elaile’s story drew to a close, Terric reminded himself to read up more on the One Power and Portal Stones. From the very little he knew, Portal Stones required the Power to be used. One of the people who disappeared had to be a channeler. Her father maybe? The story itself was both sad and strange. She did not seem to be lying though.

Terric let himself relax again, taking one of the bottles and taking a long pull. Discrepancies always put him on alert but answers were comforting. So was the warming feeling of brandy in his stomach.

The Wetlander, Aiel blood didn’t make her Aiel, had questions of her own it seemed. "What about yourself? How did you come to leave the Wa-" she cut off, "the Three-Fold Land?"

He took another pull, and passed the bottle, reveling in the return of the warm fuzziness in his head. “Now that, young lady. That is an odd tail. A tail of honor and treachery.” He said this with a slightly wobbly flourish of his arm. His earlier lucidity slipping he continued his story, “I was sent across the Dragon Wall to find a thieving Wetlander. Well other Aethan Dor were sent as well, but I’m the only one who ended in these mountains. I was camped near the Wetlander city of Baerlon. I met these men, they came to make camp in my clearing.” He shrugged, “I tried to be sociable, I offered them a bird I’d killed. They called me a poacher. ‘What’s a poacher?’ I asked. ‘You killed our Wetlander Lord’s birds!’” he said trying to mimic the men’s voices. “I fought them and ran away. I saw the men meeting with about,” he couldn’t quite grasp the number through the haze of brandy, “a whole lot of men on horses with crossbows and halberds. I tried to come forward and explain. I even offered to pay for the birds. I got knocked out and tied to a horse for my troubles,” he reached for a bottle. Saddened to see it was almost empty, he turned it back and finished it. “And now I’m here.” He concluded with a shrug.

OOC: Meh Bronchitis, usually happens in the fall but whatever. Thanks for the concern.

[Corellis]

Elaile smiled as Terric settled into his story.

The man had a sense of the dramatic almost equal to a gleeman she thought as he flourished his arm drunkenly.

As Terric became more caught up in the telling, Elaile nursed the bottle of brandy she had been passed. The earlier awkwardness of her tale now over she wanted to relax and finally act like a real novice. And if that meant getting slightly drunk-well then so be it.

She practically choked on the brandy when he mimicked the "Wetlanders" who accused him of poaching. Light she would have loved to have watched that face off, a tall, imposing Aiel man demanding to be told what poaching was. Even drunk, Terric moved with a graceful deadliness she had only seen a few times before, and then only in soldiers twice his age. She was shocked that this group had succeeded in tying him to a horse and taking him anywhere!

By the end of the story Elaile was openly laughing and held up a hand in objection. "So you're tied to a horse, and then you're here" She grinned "How in the world did that happen? Were they Gaidin?" She saw him frown at the empty bottle he had been passed and instead gave him the one she had been monopolizing. It was still more than half full, plenty to keep the whole group happy for some time more. "And you never said if you caught the thief- did he get away?"