The Hell Hole that is Home

Molly sits silent for a moment. Dead orange eyes flickering from Rai to Cebra, then back to Rai. His ears twitch as he could hear a bit of commotion outside but thought nothing of it as they were preparing for war after all. “Don’t blame yourself. My kind have a tendency to be too stupid for our own good. It’s just in our nature.” He shrugs, although rather surprised the church didn’t believe her even with his cloak pin. Usually the backing of a white was good enough to be listened to. If he had thought it’d go that sideways he would have gone himself, however if that then who to prepare Teirni?

Gritting his teeth in pity he studies Cebra, as if judging if he were in good enough condition to continue. The poor man had to have fought tooth and claw to have gotten out of Rome alive with a half-executed reaver in tow. Sure enough he looked like he’d been dragged through hell once already but who was he to turn him down if he wanted to continue. Just as Molly was about to speak up, the door to the bar swings open to a still silent Hayseed.

“Out with it.” Molly hums, rather annoyed at being interrupted.
With a deep breath Hayseed sets a cloth sack on the wooden table with a loud thump and rattling of its contents to free up his hands to speak. He quickly signs a few quick gestures as Molly squints.

“The ballsy fucks sent a messenger… with that.” He crosses his arms over his chest in frustration.
Hayseed clenches his jaw, refusing to sign any further, just staring hard at Molly, bloody tears welling at the side of his scarred and marked face. Molly seems to pale even further than a corpse should before slumping down further in his seat. He is silent for a moment before slamming his fist down onto the wooden table as the sack seeps a bit of reaver ash as it splinters under his gauntleted hand.

“Of course it’s her.” He murmurs as Roth suddenly catches on and seems to bite his own lip to stay silent.
“Roth, Hayseed, show him where he can help. We’re going to beat these fuckers or we’ll all be dust trying.”

“Molly, are you going to b-”

“I just need a moment. I’ll catch up with you.” Molly’s eyes well with blood as he stares straight to Cebra. “This is what happens when you love one of us. You get handed a bag of bones and dust one day. Remember that.”

Roth takes the que to lead Cebra somewhere else, lest the man lose his composure. “Sorry you had to see that. Molly um.. Ari and Molly were kind of a-”

Hayseed quickly gestures to his ring finger in a sort of rough-sign language.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say married… Lets just say the two have been close for about thirty years or so.”

Hayseed rolls his eyes before making the gesture again, this time with a bit more dramatic flair.

“Whatever. You look like hell. How about you rest a moment while we finish dragging up every scrap of metal we can and- what in fucks name.” Roth stops short as what seemed to be a procession of reavers marching their way through the gates of Teirni. About fifty, all fresh and equipped for a fight.

“Ox?” Roth calls to a whitecloak in the ranks as he stops his horse.
“Hey, thought you could use the help.”
“What the fuck are you doing with your men here!? You’re supposed to be in Folgino. In fact all these fuckers are.”

The white cloaked reaver hops off his horse, boots clacking in the street mud. “Yeah. But one of my men came running back from Rome saying a guy beat the ever loving shite out of him the other night to steal a girl off the pyre, I decided we might want to take whatever threat would drive a man to do that seriously… So I might have changed our plans a bit.”

“Ox, you crazy fuck. They’ll scorch your ass for this.”
“What are they going to burn 56 men over it? If they ask, we stopped for provisions.” Ox smiles brightly as The horn to the gate blares once again to allow another few ranks of reavers. “Looks like more than just my lot are coming.”

Ox then looks Cebra up and down before laughing under his breath. “Helluva thing you did to Korra’s balls. He’s been walking poorly ever since… Hey, Sorry about your girl, I’m sur-”

“She’s alive.” Roth asserts.
“You’re shitting me.”
“I am not. She’s alive. Anyway, you boys get set up. We’re going to teach this man how to use a ballista.”

“Right. I’ll catch up later. I gotta tell Shryks about this.” Ox waves as he leads his horse near the tail end of his group.

“Looks like your trip to Rome wasn’t all for nothing. We’re getting reinforcements regardless, lets just hope it’s enough… Anyway, ever shot a crossbow before? We’re about to set you up with a really big one.”

Cebra pays attention to Molly and his words steeped in frustration, he does not acknowledge the claim that he has feelings for Rai. He was not one to easily give away his feelings either due to training, programming or just the natural instinct to protect Rai and himself. At the same time those words echo in his mind and cause him to be pensive for a brief moment. He's had a fairly long life and seen the bones of people he once cared for deeply, it had not turned him cold but made him always follow his mind over his heart. Then Rai came along and made him falter, he was willing to follow his feelings about her despite whoever she may have been. At this point he was too fascinated by her to turn away now.

Cebra's stride is with a limp but still he manages to keep up with Roth. He doesn't say anything to the reveal of Ari and Molly's union, though it explains the outburst. "I'm good to fight, been through worse before. I could use some water and a cloth though." A lie he told as he could no longer rely on his ability to recover, make advanced weapons or use great strength. It was then that a formation of armed soldiers marched into view, Cebra thought they might be here to seize him from the garrison and his eyes sunk. As it turned out they were here to reinforce this place. Cebra averts his eyes when the commanding Reaver brings up the violent altercation from earlier, he didn't feel particularly great save for the fact he managed to save Rai. It was so rare violence was a pleasure for Cebra more than a necessity, a means to an end and preferably the last arrow in his quiver.

"I did what I had to, nothing more." A stoic gaze as he meets the commanders eyes, this soldier is ready to work.

"Crossbow?... Right. Yes I've used such a weapon before."