[Arya]
During the morning and on the way to Leilon, arya would just walk around chatting with everyone and basically just learn everyone's names and other basic stuff. If anyone want a longer interaction or asking her questions in return just let me know😊
[Pine]
That morning it was perhaps a little easier to see that the tabaxi, or if they were perceptive, former tabaxi, was not feeling rested. There was an exhaustion that seemed to linger around him after their run-in with the wraiths, but he did seem slightly more given to conversation than the previous day.
"Pine," he said when the introduction was made. He would contemplate her presence with them, her previous questions, and her actions, before adding, "We are here because the souls of the dead are not moving on as they should, and it is part of my task to help fix that. Why are you here?"
His voice, more noticeable than before in the crowded tavern, was unsettling, especially to someone with acute hearing. It held the echoes of other voices within his own, otherworldly.
[Arya]
She would look back at him curiously. "I have never seen anyone like you before. Do you look sort of deathlike cuz this is your purpose in life, to take care of the dead?" She is just asking this in a normal
conversational tone, not as if it is a sensitive thing to ask at all.
[Pine]
Pine would eye her, not seemingly offended by the question, but not necessarily pleased either, although when was he ever?
"Perhaps if you answer my question, I would answer yours."
[Arya]
There is not a change in her expression. She is just smiling back at him. "I think for similar reasons you are here. I heard rumours about things happening here and it did not sound like it was good things." She pauses for a moment as if contemplating how to explain. "You could say I am sort of from this place and I don't want bad things to happen to it."
[Pine]
The weight of his gaze remained steady upon her, assessing and judging those words, as stoic as she is smiling.
"Bad is a relative term," he would say after a period of contemplation, "but so long as your actions do not impede my purposes here, I have no problem with your presence with us."
Another long moment, one that it might be clearer is just his general nature, considering things before speaking, unhurried.
"I look like this because I fell in service to my Gods, and they found me sufficiently useful to grant life to me once more. Of a sort. Death is their domain, not life."
[Arya]
"True, I should say bad according to me and maybe for you to although maybe for different reasons." She would look him over, like she was memorising details and then return to her smile. "This world seem to deal with gods in many ways. Do they dictate your life for you then?"
[Pine]
As the conversation remained firmly in the information giving variety, Pine would seem to relax a little more, less potentially hostile, although the feeling of unease influencing people around him, and the tones in his voice, remained. Thankfully for them both, it seemed also to keep away the local bugs that were quite prolific in the area.
"Clerics are often dictated by the wishes of their Gods, that is the nature of the calling. Mine have been more... active in guiding me in recent times than I believe most Gods are with their clerics, but I would rather have that guidance than not. My actions in the Icespire Peaks were important to their plans, and I did not wish to fail them. There is always autonomy, always some manner of choice, but I made my decision when I agreed to become their agent in this world, and I am content with that choice, and glad of their guidance to better achieve their goals."
He would consider her, much as she had done the same; a quiet passing of a moment, fur shifting ever so slightly in the wind that came down past the Peaks towards the coast they were travelling towards.
"And you do not worship a God?" he asked, "I do not know much of religions, outside of what funerary practices I have gathered over the years. I know it is quite common for elves to worship their patron deities, but more far flung religious practices are not known to me well at all."
[Arya]
She almost chuckles at this and reply: "I am not an elf. There is a kinship of some kind but their way of living are as strange to me as yours. This whole worshipping and gods and beliefs are... strange but interesting." She pauses and looks around at the others as they are preparing to leave. "It seems travelling with your group will be very interesting with so many different thoughts, wishes and intents."
[Pine]
His ears twitch backwards for a moment when he was corrected, not necessarily in anger, but in discomfort, before they flicked back up again as he gave her his full attention.
"Interesting is a word for it, I suppose. It is not a peaceful journey you will undertake with us. Death is always very close at hand. If the tasks were easy, they would have already been done, after all."
He shrugs a little, although she would likely have enough insight to show his discomfort with that, although the 'why' was not as easy to discern.
[Arya]
She looked out far and seemed to be lost in thought for a while. "Death" she said this with a soft voice not with any fear or discomfort as she had noticed people in this world tended to do. "Your view of death are different from what I have noticed among the people in this world. Usually they seem scared, worried or discomforted by talking about it. I have never really given it much thought." She paused thinking again. "This might be dangerous but life is meant to be lived right? Otherwise death wouldn't matter." She started looking around not really expecting an answer. The conversation got a bit to serious for her taste.
[Pine]
Her lack of discomfort around the concept of death, or talking about it, seemed to relax the former tabaxi more, his tail seeming slightly less rigid, his ears ever so slightly less alert. It was rare for him, especially since his initial time in Phandalin, to have someone be entirely unworried about his calling, his aura, and the things that meant a lot to him that did not sit well with their own views. But this lady with the green skin, she was an oddity too, from a place where views were different, and it seemed to put him more at ease.
"Most view death as the stopping point. The end of all things. But it isn't. Life makes the path you tread, and although different, that path continues after death. Or it should. When the Gods of Death died, I think everything fell out of its proper place. The dead are not moving on, not as they should. My path is to help restore that, both for my Gods, but also for those who have lain trapped in this realm where they fell. The Talos cult are attempting to take that power for themselves, dooming souls to remain when they should move on, hoarding power that is not theirs, like greedy children."
At her comment about the way to live, there was one small quick of a smile, the first she had ever seen in him, although in some ways it resembled a grimance if you weren't paying attention. "Living according to who you are is important. If you feel this is the way to live, then for you it is. When things function well, those who die are held back mostly by regrets, or unfinished business. Living as you do, living by your ideals, there would be few."
Most things for him, it seemed, were cycling around his calling, around death. He was not a cheerful person, but neither was he dour as many could be. He was merely mostly neutral, largely devoid of the strong emotions seen in others.
From over Arya's shoulder, the red eyes of the cleric picked out the somewhat decisive and playful approach of the blade wielding half-elf, and some of his ease dissipated, a tenseness coming to his shoulders.
[Arya]
She looks back at him. She is a bit confounded about how someone could give so much thought about life and death and dedicating all his life on something like this. But people in this world still surprised her. "I think we have a similar view, that all life has its natural circle."
She also noticed the approaching figure. It reminded her of someone, when and where was that?
[Effie]
As both creatures - considering what they looked like it felt like a good categorization - turned to face Effie as she approached them, she felt like she might have interrupted a rather serious, or dark, conversation. She sensed it mostly from Pine though, as she couldn't imagine anything about Arya could possibly be something other than bright and colorful.
She ended her skipping with a last delicate jump, landing right next to Arya with a "Hey!" She adjusted her pace to match theirs as she asked: "Why are we so gloomy over here? Aren't you excited about the adventure ahead?" She asked cheerily, hoping to lighten the mood a bit. And as she remembered the 'why' of this trip, she added: "And uncovering whatever creepy thing that's happening around here, of course."
More curiously, what was Arya doing here too?
[Pine]
"Perhaps we do," he offered, before their conversation was interposed by the half-elf, landing with them like a performer, her voice cheerful but sat differently in the air from Arya's. False, in a way that he didn't trust.
"No," he said, simply, much as he had done to the bard that had latched onto their group. He had seen others like this before, in his travels, and they were exhausting generally. Even Factoré he only spoke to in short durations. The green lady would be better fielding this particular conversational interlude. It was just his luck that whatever kept the local bug population away did not seem to work as well on humanoids.
[Arya]
Arya widened her smile again. "I'm never gloomy, certantly not about a big mystery. I let others shoulder the burden of seriousness." She said this in a cheerful tone and a Quick glance at Pine.
She looked back at Effie. "And who do you introduce yourself as this time": She said with a grin.
[Effie]
Effie smiled at the cheerful response from Arya, a big contrast to Pine's short and cold 'No.'. It seemed like this group had a wide variety of personalities that she'd need to learn to conform to somehow, if she was to be accepted as one of them any time soon. She normally used her communication skills to her advantage, persuading or even deceiving, to avoid conflicts or get close to certain people. But for some reason she felt like mostly being her cheery self around this group. Something about them reminded her of being a part of a troupe - she missed that. At least they seemed to have a common goal that would hopefully help them warm up to her eventually.
As for Arya's rather provoking question - "Just Effie, the contact.", she replied with a smirk. And before Arya - or Pine, who seemed very skeptical of her - could further question her presence here, as if to try to stay in control of what was being said, she explained: "I was sent here by order of Lord Neverember to investigate the cult." And lightly gesturing towards the others with her hand she continued: "And assist the dragon-slayers in doing so."
"And what brings you - Arya, is it? - To this part of our world?" Effie asked Arya, with a similar grin back.
[Pine]
Pine watched, arms folding across his chest at the interaction. He might not prefer being part of an exhuberant conversation the way others seemed to, but that didn't mean he couldn't learn things from them. The comment about the name 'this time' was curious, and worrisome. The woman, Effie, seemed to understand that, reiterating her place amongst the party as the contact with Lord Neverember. To Pine, who hadn't liked the man either, this wasn't necessarily a good thing. But he was practical enough to know that outside support from Lord Neverember, and his 'contact', would likely be beneficial, even if only for a lack of resistance to the group's presence and goals in the Mere.
[Arya]
"Dragon slayers huh... that sounds exciting. I didn't know of or come for this group of people but it is a Lucky chance. We seem to have common goals for the time being. And it is better with help than doing things alone don't you think?" She smiles and she seems really happy by the fact. She knows the benefits in others and the fact is it would be rather boring continue travelling alone.
[Effie]
"Yes, it seems Lady Luck wanted us to work together..." Effie said smiling back at Arya and completing the sentence in her mind 'Again.' - "This will be fun!" she exclaimed excitedly but not too loudly.
She then turned to face Pine, sensing that 'fun' wasn't what he would call this at all. "They say there's strength in numbers, at the very least you have to agree with that...?" She asked, with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
[Pine]
'Fun' was indeed not his watchword as it seemed to be for the two before him. He looked on, impassively, listening but showing no other signs of expression except for the flicking of the end of his tail.
"Strength in numbers can be useful," he said, and as he spoke the longer sentence, the echoes in his voice would be far more noticeable. The tones were multifaceted, haunting sounds from beyond this realm. "If they are competent, and trustworthy."
As he said the last, his eyes watched her unerringly, unnatural crimson judging what he could see. The group had learned that he was not the most perceptive of people in general, but the way those eyes watched the half-elf, with the weight of his calling surrounding him and in the tones of his voice, it might well seem like he saw into her very soul.
[ I was just running with his unease aura there. After checking, he actually has a passive perception of 18 :O ]
[Effie]
'Son of a troll, this cat is creepy...' She thought as she shivered hearing Pine's echoing voice and feeling that haunting, piercing gaze.
She shrugged it off before replying: "Then I'll just keep doing my best to prove myself to be both of those things." With confidence in her voice and finishing with a nod and a wink, as if closing a sure deal.
[Arya]
Arya did not react to any of the tension or uneasiness. "All these different personalities, it will surely be an interesting Journey." With that she strolled of and continued conversations with all the new people.
[Pine]
Pine would not seem to respond to the playful and jaunty wink that Effie gave him, but he would make a non-committal sound of acknowledgement to the statement as they walked. He watched as Arya moved off, his gaze sweeping over their group, now far larger due to Lord Neverember's interest in the town, and those that followed from the wayside inn. It was certainly different from his solidary existence on the mountains of only a half year or so ago.