Of the ... Two Seas!

[Anonymous]

"And stay out, one-eyed freak!" The heafty barkeep shouted, slamming the door of the pub in the wake of a very airborne boy. It wasn't all too uncommon to see people being booted out of bars on this particular square of the Yoreiq Isles, but the air that this one had managed to attain during his departure was impressive. Mesh didn't bother to land gracefully, instead flopping on his rear end and rolling about in a flurry of red and blue until he'd come to a complete, dusty stop.

"Oi..." The boy laughed, dragging one clawed hand to smear the dirt off his face, "And yer mother smells worse!" With that precious line, he pulled the bottle of unidentified clear fluids up to his mouth and took a long, luxurious swig. The bystanders were only halfheartedly appalled, pausing to gasp just before stepping over the poor idiot decked head to toe in a captian's uniform. Honestly, at this late an hour on the boardwalk adorned with the most pubs, Mesh had been forcibly expelled from alcohol-serving facilities at least for the sixth time. And it was hard not to keep recognizing him, what with the enormously fluffy crimson tail and vulpine ears tipped with an inky black just protruding out of his body in the most unceremonious way.

Disheveled and uncaring, Mesh pushed himself to his feet and stumbled in what could be considered either a drunken misstep or a permanent case of sea legs. "If that were my business, I wouldn't deny meh services. How else ya gonna make money, yeh fool?" He reasoned, flicking his tail behind him as if it were the only appendage capable of keeping his balance. His logic was somewhat sound, unless one took into account alcohol poisoning killing off every customer, but that was dumb. Alcohol poisoning was clearly a sign of a very capable bartender, no? And Mesh knew that, as long as they'd deny him his fix, he'd slink into the cellar and retrieve the stuff himself! Just as he was about to commit the act, one foot raised purposefully, he teetered backwards and tipped headlong into an innocent and somewhat soft something just behind him.

 "Bloody hell!" Mesh shouted in a last ditch attempt to perhaps verbally will himself upright, flailing his arms like a psychotic chicken to bid his momentum in favor of a vertical position! It was not to be however, as gravity is a law, and though Mesh hates hates hates to follow the law...

There was no denying that he was about to fall dead on top of into whoever it was he'd bumped into. "Oof!"

[Anonymous]

"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Why in the bloody sands did I even come here? I should have stayed half-buried in Essyrn!!" the young woman growled into the night. She had been convinced to spend most of her money so she could finally get a glimpse of the ocean, she had been assured that she would earn every cent back and more for her performances. Though, the young captain had given her a seedy look when he mentioned that her "exotic" dance would be more than appreciated. Ha! As if! No one had even watched her perform yet!

Adalade couldn't help but play with some of her long silver tresses, she was fuming. It was the most she could do to keep her mouth shut while she passed people on the streets, she wanted to pull one of her daggers out and demand them to help her find that captain.

Yelling to the left, her wolf ears picking it up more clearly than she had wished, Adalade didn't bother turning toward the sourse. She shouldn't even have been in this street at night. Bars and drunk men were some of the few things the wolf couldn't tolerate. At least she wasn't wearing her dancer's wear, she would freeze, there! A plus to go and chew on while she raved about the whole situation.

Completely lost, Adalade stopped to curse, "Of all the shitty a- AHHH!" Somone had just stepped onto her tail! By the sands it hurt! She was about to turn around when the culprit fell back, sending her falling face-first into the ground and leaving whoever it was on top of her.

"I swear if you don't get off me now I'll make sure you never have to get up again!" she snarled through sharp canines. Her threat wasn't so empty either, while one hand worked on getting her up off the ground the other was hovering over the dagger she could reach.

((Sorry for such a bad intro, I admit I'm still a bit sleepy from last night.))

[Anonymous]

The sky was spinning above him, stars swiriling round and round and further away from his mind. Or was he sinking into the ground, melting into whatever pliable and sweet smelling thing he'd toppled on top of? Whatever had happened, the rug had been ripped out from beneath Mesh's world, and disoriented wasn't strong enough of a word to describe the effect of falling backwards and being heavily intoxicated had on his mental stability.

There was no doubt about it. Mesh had the spins. But at least something had caught his fall, something not quite as warm as he was, but it felt a lot better than the sand-caked Earth he'd been expecting. Certainly was a loud cushion to fall on, though, wasn't it? His large, furred ears flattened themselves to the sides of his head, attempting to ward off the harsh words being practically growled out of his 'pillow'. "Sorreh, lass..." He slurred in recognition of the distinctly feminine voice, evacuating her body in a less than graceful roll away from her, "Well, aren't yeh a fiesty one? No need to get all miffed, I'm gettin'." Pressing himself to his knees, he blinked wide aqua eyes down at the girl, taking her in for the first time since his back became intimately acquainted with her back a moment ago.

If there was one thing Mesh's mind could register right now, it was beauty. And this girl before him certainly was if he'd ever seen one. The sight of her pulled the corners of his mouth into a wild grin, and had him extending two hands to help her to her feet. "Oi... Never havin' to get up again doesn't sound like a sour deal, really, if I get to lay with somethin' as comfy as you! ... What's yer name, lass?" He purred, laying the charm thick in an attempt to butter her up after flattening her in the sand, "Yeh okay?"

[Anonymous]

Who ever this druken fool was, he wasn't getting off of her swiftly enough. It took everything Adalade had not to shift and just rip that stupid tail off him, after all he did step on her's...besides, it had smacked her in the face a moment ago.

Ugh! There were times when she loathed her wolf senses, right now was one of them. The alcohol he had consumed coated his breath. It nausated her to the point where she would have rather passed out than continued to throw more threats out. "Yeah, well move faster!"

After the weight had vanished off her back, she glanced up at the sleeze who had used her as a chair....why was he grinning at her like that? Geez, he just sat on her and now her was trying to flirt. Not going to happen, not with this wolf anyway. Smacking his hand away, she pulled herself off the ground and wiped the dust off her clothes. "My name is no concern of yours," she growled, "And I can't say that I share your sentiments, I think I would rather spend then night with a pig than with your wasted ass!" She hated drunks, "As for how I feel, I'm not sure, how would you feel after having your tail smashed and then sat on?"

[Anonymous]

If he'd had even an ounce of insight to her immediate hatred of him, Mesh would have tucked his tail between his legs and headed for higher ground. He'd had to wait until he had already decided to be sweet to her to discover how she felt, however, and the action of having his hands swatted away had his smile faltering. At least she was much shorter than he was, so he wasn't particularly intimated by the girl... just shocked that his charm was lost on her, that she hadn't been some easily forgiving and heart-warming girl, but mostly that she didn't like him. Didn't like HIM!

It broke his heart, overly sensitive from the depressing effects of the alcohol which so harshly assaulted her senses. "Neh, I'm pretty concerned about your name." He replied, angling his neck down to look way down towards the top of her pretty silver head, "And I don't blame yeh. Pigs, a smelly bunch, but maybeh even cuddlier than I am." His frown deepened at her next words, and he quickly stepped back and away from her, clutching his tail in honest sympathy, "Stepped on yer tail, did I? Don't be mad, lass. I didn' mean it." The bottle of alcohol that he'd tucked into an empty loop on his belt sloshed as he inched warily nearer to her, huge blue eyes obvious in their upset. Did she really dislike him? Just because of that? "An' I didn' sit on yeh, really. I fell, savvy? A difference between the two." He clarified with a swinging motion of two claws, inclining in two different directions with the word 'sit' and 'fell'.  "Meh name's Mesh, by the way. Can I make it better for yeh, lass?" He moved in even closer, bidding a dangerous proximity to the girl who wanted to inflict at least some sort of damage unbeknownst to him. Really, his getting so close was more of a product of having a greatly diminished depth perception at the moment. "Please? Didn' mean to hurt yah."

[Anonymous]

She stepped back, when he spoke the alcohol just hit her wave after wave. She about retched, "If it will get you to shut up my name is Adalade. Don't expect to use it often." Not giving much sympathy in to the hurt on his face she continued, "I don't cuddle. I never cuddle."

"Meant it or not you did. And if it wasn't for that poison," she pointed down to the bottle at his waist, "you wouldn't have." Her tail rose and was a stiff as a board at his smark-aleck comment, "Sat or fell it doesn't matter, I never wanted you on top of me!" Why couldn't he just go "fall" on someone else? "Look, I don't care what your name is. I don't care if you never meant to hurt me. What you can do to make it up is to get your drunk ass away from me and keep it away!"

[Anonymous]

The poor boy still hadn't a clue what it was about him that was repelling her, though it was likely much more than just the stench of alcohol ebbing out at her from his breath. Still, he knew there was something, and as much as it pained him not to make a slew of innuendos with that 'on top of me' comment, or what with her pointing in the general direction of his crotch and declaring it poison, he bit his tongue. He didn't want to make her hate him further, not when he'd just made such progress learning her name!

"Arrite, Adalade." He cooed, smiling once again since she'd been swayed enough to give her name, "If yeh don't want to cuddle, I won't force yeh. I can do all the cuddlin' for us. It's just you made tha promise, not havin' to get up. What did ya plan on doin', then? Carryin' me?" He was teasing her, clear as day, but the arcing curves his tail was making as well as the playful glint in his eye told that there was no heat in his words. "An' if it'll make yeh happy, I'll keep my arse away from yeh. I'll only face yeh from now on, how's that sound?"

[Anonymous]

Well his silence was wonderful, at least she didn't have to listen to his horrible speech. She should just leave now, just saunter off and would hardly notice, he was too drunk to talk straight after all. So why did she just stand there? Maybe because she found it amusing how pleased he seemed to be with just having her name.

Any and all amuesment she might have had disappeared with the way he said her name, she loathed it. "You just don't get it do you? Would a slap speak clearer? If I had any intentions on cuddling with you then I wouldn't be so hostile now would I? As for you not getting up, no, I wouldn't bother carrying you. I'd leave your sorry carcass sitting there." Deciding to toy with him a bit, she gave a grin and swayed her hips with a hint of dancer's finesse as she got closer to him. "You know what I would love better?" her voice was sensual and she stayed up at him from under dark lashes, violet eyes glittering with amuesment, "If you disappeared right now and never bothered me again."

[Anonymous]

Mesh tapped a claw against his chin as if in thought, seriously pondering if a slap would speak more clearly than her firey words. Well, it would be more sobering, that was for sure! And he was certain that she could likely knock out a few fangs with a good, winded-up hit; after all, it was always the prettier ones who were the more violent and vicious, wasn't it? Just as he opened his mouth to tell her so, the statement poised on the tip of his tongue, she did something completely alien to Mesh.

"E-Eh...?!" Came out of his mouth instead, stammering, telling of the vastly lower IQ he had immediately sunk to the moment she sashayed over to him like... like that. He straightened up with every step she crossed closer to him, swallowing hard, until she was finally close enough that he could... could even smell her again! Though she was speaking, saying something surely, he couldn't understand a word that she said - he was far too busy boggling at her, eyes flared wide and a searing blush burning across his cheeks. There was something wrong here, something terribly amiss that a girl so very bipolar would be approaching him, of all people. It was ominous, it was dangerous, and something in the very recesses of whatever remained of Mesh's brain tried to warn him so, but... It was futile. Mesh was far beyond helping. So far beyond it, in fact, that when she delivered her cheeky little punch line, he merely tipped forward and dragged his wet, sand-papery tongue up the side of her face.

Yes, that's right. Mesh licked her, a lick laced with slobber and alcohol and love. "Neh, lass." He chirped, beaming with some silly grin, "I can't disappear. I ain't magic - I'm a shifter, savvy?" After illustrating this effect by batting her with the large and fluffy expanse of his tail, he sniffed the air pointedly and looked down in her direction, "You, as well, yeah? I can smell yeh, and yer not like the ordinary human ner frilly mage smell. So, why would ye want me to go away, I'm practically yer brother in arms!" Throwing his hands up in the air excitedly, and with his tail beating to and fro behind him much more like a dog's wagging than any sort of fox, Mesh continued with a smile like someone who didn't know he'd just signed his death wish in blood, "Adalade... Adalaaa~... Addy? Neh, I think I'll call you Lade... Lady! How's that, lass?"

[Anonymous]

Oh how amazing it was to watch him swallow his words, she prefered not having to listen to any more of his nonsense. She wasn't much of the flirtatious type but she did know how to make men fall to their knees. How amazing it was to be a woman sometimes. But her plan backfired. He licked her!

It had been going so well, he was almost as straight as a board by the time she had stopped and his eyes looked as though they would fall right out of his skull. Not to mention the color his face had turned, anymore crimson and the color might have become permanant. That would have been amusing. She hadn't planned on him licking her though! It was...strange, it was disgusting and yet...she found herself blushing all the same. It had her so off guard that she was actually quiet as he commented about being a shifter and even giving her a stupid nickname. Ada was the pet name her mother had given her but Lady was just ridiculous. Just who did he think he was?

That snapped her back to reality, now her face was no longer red from embarrasment but from fury. She was tempted to whip a dagger out and cut off his tongue...but even at night there were too many witnesses for that. So instead she slapped him, not once but three times. Back-handed him twice and one good smack right across his face. "How dare you! I'm not some common harlot for your pleasure!" she screeched, he had just dug his own grave and now she was ready to bury him alive, "I don't care if you're a shifter! I don't care if you can't use magic! You will never call me Lady or even Adalade, I won't give you a chance to use either!!" A small crowd had gathered, she didn't even notice, she went right on raving, "I hope you die out here, drunk wasted and alone! If we ever cross paths again you'll regret ever having met me!!"

Adalade didn't wait for an answer, she pulled the maroon scarf out of her silver hair and rubbed it across her cheek until it was red with fabric burn. Throwing the scarf into her pack, she abruptly turned on her heels and stormed off. The crowd immeaditly parted to let her through, she was sure the anger was more than noticable. She prayed this Mesh was sober enough to feel those slaps.

[Anonymous]

Red was a good color for her, he'd decided, after he'd watched the color rise and stain her cheeks so prettily. He didn't register blushing as anything significant, since he was typically intoxicated enough on a regular basis to have his own perpetual flush, but it was certainly contradicting that she'd indulged in such an involuntarily display of fluster. It had him smiling crazily at her, a fangy, wolfish grin from ear to ear. So she didn't hate him!

But then, jeez! The woman hadn't said much more than two words, just psychotically hauled off and smacked him. Not once, not twice, but three times! And the backhanded ones hurt, jarred his head and twisted his neck until the tattered cloth tied into a cap over his hair literally fell off with the tremors. "Oi!" He shouted, throwing his hands up before his face in defense and surrender before she began scolding him of all things, and in front of an audience to boot! His eye grew wide and adorably wet, shimmering sadly blue as she was finally finished slapping him around and telling him off. "Yeh hope I die? Thaz a bit... much..." But if that was a bit much, it was stranger when she ground her scarf against her face until the skin was red with the irritation and went off in the other direction!

So, with his hand cupped over his offended cheek, he watched the woman storm away with no inclination to follow her after she'd so blatantly committed violence against him. There was no saying what a woman so volatile would pull against Mesh later, and even in the drunken haze of his mind, he knew better than to stalk after her. He simply didn't know her well enough, or long enough, to tolerate being hit. So instead, standing in the midst of a curious crowd, he shouted after her, "Yeh bitter wench! I already regret having met yeh!"

[Anonymous]

Good riddance to that drunken fool! Maybe they would have been more pleasant were he to have been sober.... then again likely not. She had been a little relieved to see another shifter..if he really was one, but he dashed that when he decided to drag his slobber across her face. Better to know none then him!

When Mesh yelled after her, she simply smirked. Her response was thus, she twisted her slender neck to look back at him over one slim shoulder, winked one violet eye, and blew him a kiss. So maybe it was a bit cruel, but she didn't care when it came to him. Turning back around, Adalade continued away from the murmurs and whispers, her ears filling up tidbits of different stories. The most common being that they were quarrelled lovers, as though she would ever like him!

The night no longer nipping at her with teeth made from the cold, she pulled out a thin piece of leather from her pack. Lifting up her silver tresses, she wound the piece around her hair and tied it off for a ponytail. Damn, it was late... her encounter with Mesh had thrown her off her original intent, find a place for the night. Looked like she'd be outside again. Waiting till she was mostly out of the town, she shifted and searched until she could find a secluded spot to stay for the remainder of the night. An open flatland of grass was better than hills of sand.

Changing back long enough to use her human hands, she sparked a small fire to life. The girl was far too tired from moments ago to do anything else but curl up as a wolf and fall asleep. For reasons she wouldn't fathom later, Mesh twisted his way through her thoughts and intruded upon her dreams.