One plus Two-Hundred Fifty Some (Private, Prism)

[Julien Cervantes]

After arriving. Cycle 3 of Optia. Summer Era 14 PF.

Julien was in Arios. The quaint little island town was little more than what he expected: a place for odd balls who enjoyed their backward ways. They now needed gold in their coffers, though, so Arios naturally compromised to make a buck off tourism. Jules could only chuckled bitterly at the thought. They expected rich tourists, but instead they got another backward brat from the Dragon Isles of Carmelyn. Heh, life is damn ironic sometimes.

He never really meant to, but Julien slowly made his way past the busy market streets and into the darker alleys where the real lifestream of any city belonged. There were no rich store clerks here, or pompous middle class. He was looking for his brothers, those who shared his fate on Telath. They were the poor, the needy, the desperate. And should he happen upon a lone comrade Julien would easily check over his shoulders for witnesses before gently calling on the stranger.

"Where's the dirtiest pub this place's got?", he asked in low tones.

[Prism]

Julien’s idea of what Arios was after was wrong, they didn’t look for tourists to bring in their income though they did enjoy a tourist here and there. The primary income of Arios was from selling timber, and boy was there a lot to be sold with the re-growing forests of Arios. The people themselves didn’t seem to look down at the pirate boy, for he wasn’t the first nor last that they would ever see. Julien may not know it, but the pirates of this area and the island of Arios had an agreement of sorts that ended up benefiting them both.

The town of Arios was a small place and even the busy market only have a few people in it. Everyone seemed slow and lazy, this was just the day life of Arios. it was slow and the people went among their business in a lazy manner. They talked mostly just greetings as they met people in the streets or at the shops but other than that they kept to themselves. Even the children seemed less colourful in then others as they followed their parents or just getting out of schola. Arios was known for it’s joyous festivals and brighteningly parties, yet here Julien found nothing but lazy slow people.

The first person that Julien talk to was a dracon who look at the man in front of him and immediately knew that he was a foreigner. “Dirty? Well I wouldn’t step foot in the Stopover Tavern. Their glasses are dirty as anything I ever seen” he paused for a second. “It’s just over there” he pointed down the street to the correct building. “Not sure why you want a dirty place” he shrugged and was on his way.

If Julien went to the bar he would find that there were a few people in it sitting on bar stoles at the counter or at a table. There was a small band of ratta playing soft music on a small stage. After entering he was greeted by two beautiful elf maidens who walked together over to him.

“Greetings stranger” one of them spoke in a beautiful harmonic voice.

“Welcome to the Stopover Tavern, take a seat anywhere and we will be right with you” the other said and they both smiled sweetly as they went of to another table carrying two strange looking drinks. One was growing green and the other was a rusty red color but both were in a beer mug.

There was plenty of places for Julien to sit, but if he was expecting a rowdy place he had indeed come to the wrong place. Looking around he would see that some folks were playing cards and there were two throwing knives at the marked wall that looked as though it was made for archers.

[Julien Cervantes]

Julien frowned at the dracon, almost wishing that he could just stab the foul creature and get things over with. It was these dirty beasts that supposedly led the mighty dragons into near extinction; they adulterated dragon eggs and produced these ugly, stinky creatures. Pah! Eying the evil creature slightly, Jules moved toward this tavern and carelessly entered through the doors.

When the two elf maids approached him, he flinched slightly at their presence. He shook off the greeting and proceeded deeper inside. It was the throwing daggers impaled deep in a target of some sorts that piqued Julien's interests. Walking over, he regarded the inhabitants of the place with a sort of dislike. Was it always this lame on Arios?? Pulling a dagger from his belt sheath, he stood with his feet even in front of the target for a brief moment. Aiming, he lifted the dagger over his shoulder while holding the hilt between his four fingers and thumb: in a grip similar to the one used for holding a mug. He then flicked it as he stepped forward, intending to make it spin to add speed and accuracy to the throw.

[Prism]

Julien would be the only people in the island of Arios save for others not from the area that would ever give this dracon a bad look. Here racism was non-existent and not tolerated by those that lived on the island their entire life. If this friendly dracon knew that he was being discriminated against he didn’t show it in neither tone nor expression. However when Julien turned to walk away the dracon waved his hand and said “I believe the word you are incapable of saying is thank you. You are welcome” he laughed and was on his way.

The two girls grinned at the man as he actually flinched as they approached. It must be that word got around to him not to be flirtaious with the girls of the tavern for they were heavy hitters appearance be damned. Arios was an island of relative peace, the only fights that were fought were fought in good humour and unless safety was being observed only with words. That is unless someone got out of hand, but then it wasn’t often a one on one fight, it was a public running out of town…a mod scene. This hasn’t happened for quite some time, mostly because the island had isolated it’s self from the rest of the world for some time.

As he prepared his dagger the two men stood back and watched. The dagger stuck into the wooden wall of the tavern on the outer most ring. There were two ring and a center, each ring and empty space was half a foot wide with the center being half a foot in diameter. The locals nodded at the man and the bigger one said “We’re playin’ three a round. If ya’ need two more daggers we’ll let ya’ borrow ‘em.” Despite the two and a half foot miss of his voice was not full of ridicule or humour. Everybody started somewhere.

[Julien Cervantes]

Julien muttered and breathed heavily as he approached the wall and quickly snatched his throwing dagger. Turning to face the voice, he regarded the men for a moment before nodding. "I have daggers", he said simply before returning to the spot where throwing was done.

This time, he maintain the same throwing stance again. He paused, drawing a deep breath before throwing his hand over his shoulder and following through, flicking his wrist in the end toward the middle-most section of the board.