Heroes of the Peloponnese Game Thread #3

[smartalec]

A few moments earlier...

"Isn't this great?" said Polytropos, grinning as they ran along the beach. "We're doing it! We took that trickster on in his own home and we planted a sandal straight up his back-side is what we did, and now we're going to finish this up for good. He's paid for it all and then some! Wouldn't like to be him now... ha. I hope badgers and wasps gnaw and sting him for centuries."

"More than that... we've got nothing hanging over our heads once this is done," he said, after a few moments' thought. "No enemies seeking vengeance, no great tasks, no satyrs or worse. Nothing binding us, holding us back! A return to the hero life! We're going to be free!"

[Shadani]

"We all remember the demon world we were trapped in, yes?" Eleni said between breaths, trying to keep up with the others. "The relic that brought us there, that trapped my... that trapped Aristarchus there. We found that in these swamps in the first place. We never did figure out what happened there, or what kind of precautions Aristarchus made after we rescued him. It is possible that his death set something in motion, in part... I mean, I still think the Satyr is nudging things along here, but his preferred style was always to manipulate threats that were already extant."

The sorceress paused a moment to catch her breath.

"Am... am I making sense here, or...?"

[Vanya Mia]

"Stop over thinking it." Kataramene threw Polytropos a grin, racing and dashing to be first to the fight. "We can do what we want. Go where we want. Seek fame in the arena, set up the school, or wander doing heroic deeds, or any combination as we see fit." She ducked low under a swing of Polytropos's sword, and stabbed an opponent about to strike his blind side. "Like we thought when we first left."

"But..." She gave a laugh, and tugged at Polytropos's cloak to hold him long enough to swing around and in front of him and surge ahead. "Me first! Catch me if you can."

[smartalec]

"Ough!" Polytropos put on a fresh burst of speed. "You're making sense, but so is she!" He called over his shoulder at Eleni, as he spurred himself on.

[Gulfwulf]

//Change of plans: we're leaving tomorrow and not today.

Damian nodded at El's words as he ran behind the others. "That <huff> makes sense, <huff> El. Do you think <huff> you can get <huff> back to that realm?"

While Damian was glad that the satyr was dead, the reappearance of the demons worried him. Would they be able to track those fiends back to their home and defeat them again? Or would they continue to pour out into this world and harass the village? He hoped that El could find the answers to those questions.

[Lazybones]

+2100xp for full-party IC posting.

[Vanya Mia]

(Server up, as some of you have already spotted, so it must be the same IP.)

[Gulfwulf]

//My wife and I are doing some major renovations to the back of our house, including replacing the kitchen completely, so I doubt I'll be around this weekend. Since we have someone helping us who's been in construction for over 15 years, I should be around next week. Have fun storming the castle.

[smartalec]

In the hours before rosy-fingered Dawn arrives, a man and a woman lie in a small house amongst olive trees, content to let the time linger as long as it pleases. He smells her hair as he huddles beside her, breathing her in. His fingers play up and down her arm. He watches her half-doze in the near-darkness, tired but determined not to miss a moment of her presence. He plants a kiss on the back of her neck, unable to help himself, followed by another as she mumbles and begins to stir.

"Made for each other," he whispers, unsure if she can hear him or not. "I like that. Means someone's looking out for us. Means we can win."

His arm slides around her waist, and he smiles.

[Vanya Mia]

In a light slumber she falls in and out of contented dreams, retaining nothing of the dreams but a feeling of achievement and comfort. Freedom. Freedom from the expectations of her childhood, from the traces of domesticity, from the disappointment engendered by differing desires and needs.

She stirs at his touch, sleepily shifting against him more to increase contact than anything else. Catching his hand with one of her own, then lifting it to plant a light kiss on his fingers.

"Because we look out for one another," she mumbles dreamily, "We're protecting our home and it's what makes us strong." She rolls to face him inside the embrace, lifting a hand to comb her fingers through his tousled hair.

"See, people know home is a place you find peace and feel safe, and can be yourself, but they don't understand. They think it's a place." She smiles. "But home is where the heart is, and that doesn't have to be a place."

The woman plants a kiss gently on his lips. "We're always home, so how can we lose?"