#mikkaelos

[mcdraenei-blog]

“Do it again. I f*ckin’ dare yah.”

insanitywithapencil kyssandrith

[mcdraenei-blog]

(( Written from the perspective of (MU)Mikkaelos on (AU)Draenor a few days before the first (in game) attack on Shattrath City. ))

“It's not Vindicator armor that I'm looking for,” I could feel my smile slipping as I spoke – eh, not so much slipping away as it was pulling too long, too thin; too tight. Acidulous irk licked a burning trail down my throat to coil, unsettled, in my stomach. If it was an explanation this guy was looking for he wasn't getting one.

Distrust had etched some choice lines across his face from the moment I approached. A deep line between heavily drawn brows framing a set of ancient eyes, corners crinkled against unspoken thought. Thin brackets scored over an even thinner mouth, each end drawn down in obvious disapproval. “You have come to me seeking armor. I have told you, already, that I will not grant you use of a set of Auchenai Defender armor – even if it is temporary, as you say.” The Auchenai High Vindicator barely moved as he spoke. Not even his tail. With his hands behind his back, shoulders back, chest out, and chin raised, he cut a tall, proud figure. “We cannot spare armor of that quality. Not even to... freelancers who've offered their service in defense of Auchindoun.”

“Yet, you offer me Vindicator armor,” my smile tightened further. By now it had to have lost any semblance of convincing warmth. Still, I refused to let it go.

“Indeed,” his thin chin dipped into a singular nod. “You have stated that you are a former Vindicator. It is all we have left. Battle worn sets delivered to us from Karabor.”

A chill ran through the length of my tail, both hot and cold. Stepping back into any traditional set of Vindicator's armor was heretical enough. I was already breaking about three of my rules in just considering it. But encasing myself in a set unique to Karabor? “No,” I responded too quickly, dropping my gaze with a shake of my head. I didn't cross through the portal to relive my glory days as a Karabor Vindicator. No one needed that...

“Then you will return to the central encampment and rejoin your party with the rest of the civilian refugees.”

Anger flashed through my gut, startling its irk-filled coil to flare. Refugee. I was no refugee. Closing my eyes, I took a steadying breath to clear my head. No, I wasn't a refugee, but the 11 children we brought here were, and until the path was clear to take them all home, they were my responsibility. What hope did I have of protecting them without a set of armor to call my own? ...I couldn't afford to be unprepared. “No,” I replied more softly. Blowing a resigned breath from my nose, I lifted my gaze to meet his. “The roads are crawling with orcs and fel fuc–” I stopped myself. This guy looked too stiff to appreciate the poetry of a well deserved curse. "...fiends. It's not safe. Until the roads are clear, this is the safest place for my party and I. And...” Gods, I couldn't believe what I was about to agree to, but if it got me a set of armor... “For as long as I'm here, I'll serve to protect this place. Freelance, you know,” I dared to flash a smile, my tail curling behind me. “I'll take whatever plate armor you've got," I rumbled, trying to keep displeasure from my voice.

The High Vindicator's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. Almost. “Very well. I'll have one of the others get you fitted into a set,” looking past me, he waved a young, robe clad draenei man over. “When you've found a match, return to me for and we will test your proficiencies.”

The living coil of frustration in the pit of my stomach stilled suddenly and then began to retreat, its acidic candor hardening into something more subtle, protected; its descent deep enough beneath the bounds of my subconscious that I couldn't discern its meaning. I felt numb. “Proficiencies?”

“Yes,” finally, he smiled faintly, a darkly curious twinkle in his milky eyes. “Surely even former Vindicators can summon the Light.”

(( To be continued... ))

[mcdraenei-blog]

TMI TUESDAY!

I've got some older questions that I'll answer throughout the day. But, I'm taking new ones too!

Ask anything to, or about, my characters. Anything at all, and I will answer! But be warned: I'll ask you a character question right back. Anon is on.

[kyssandrith-ooc-blog]

You can tell she would be so done with this, but she expects it from him by now.

mcdraenei

[valdiis]

Late night innuendo battles with Shiny.

[mcdraenei-blog]

(( RP logs posted with jhuuni's permission: Mikk meets a kid on AU Draenor that looks a lot like him... ))

Jhuuni clopped slooowly over the thick grass and vines of the forest floor. It was unlikely she'd be able to sneak up on the older draenei but her trepidation held her back nonetheless. She sighed to herself and climbed over the last root separating him and her.

Mikkaelos stood with his arms loosely crossed, the left of which is still tightly bandaged but clean. A small puff of smoke caught in the fading sunlight over his shoulder. A slight turn of his head revealed that he was smoking - something small and hand rolled, by the look of it. If he heard Jhuuni approaching he didn't make it obvious.

Jhuuni cleared her throat but it looked like she'd have to form the first word. What was his name again? She had a distinct feeling it was 'Mikk,' much like her fathers' nick name, but the last thing she wanted to do was assume that. It was almost unsettling to believe. Another moment passed and she psyched herself up for ...she didn't know what. "Um, hello?"

Mikkaelos glanced over his shoulder, the plump cigarette just visible in a partially raised hand on the far side of his shoulder. When he spotted Jhuuni he didn't look surprised to see her there. One corner of his mouth twitched as if to faintly smile, but he turned his head away instead. "You again."

Jhuuni pouted when he turned his focus back on the vast jungle. 'Oh you again?' Really? He knew something and she wanted to know what. He looked so impossibly like her father and it was almost impossible to deny he had recognized her earlier with the scene he had made. Yet here he was brushing it off? What was he a long lost and estranged uncle? Her eyes widened as those thoughts strung themselves together in their mutual silence. An uncle? That was the best excuse she had come up with yet. "…Uh, yeah. Do-..did you want something earlier?"

"When?" He asked without turning his head.

Jhuuni gaped at the back of his head, jaw slightly ajar. His sheer denial of it all was making her even more suspicious - and frustrated. She took a breath. "You know, when you came up to me in line? Um-you looked like you recognized me."

Mikkaelos turned at the waist, just enough to look at her, but that's all. He studied her for one long moment, utterly detached... but curious. Finally, he lifted the cigarette in two fingers, "you ever smoked before?"

Jhuuni blinked. "N-no!" She denied much too quickly, too jarred to realize right away that he completely failed to answer her. She inched closer and around to get a better view of his face. She DID find the right guy right?

Mikkaelos huffed a laugh, the corner of is mouth quirking pleasantly. Sunlight caught the distant side of his face, illuminating its edge like a lining of silver around a dark cloud - and some light caught in the dimple at the center of his chin. "C'mere," he beckoned her forward with a wave of his hand, the cigarette butt glowing more brightly for a second.

Jhuuni tensed up immediately when he looked at her again and just stood there for a moment. Yup, definitely the right guy. The white hair was the jarring difference. "..What's your name?" She decided to ask before listening and stepping up beside him.

"Mikkaelos," he rumbled, handing her the cigarette.

Jhuuni wasn't exactly used to full grown draenei men handing her smokes. Those were mostly the sort of things you got from your friends around your age - those who knew what you liked and doses more tempered toward younger body to substance ratios. Another awkward moment passed before she, rather uncertainly, took the cigarette. Without thinking she tried a puff - utterly giving away her claim of ‘no’ before. She coughed once and smacked her lips. It tasted weird. "Mikkaelos? So..Mikk then?"

Mikkaelos watched her from the corner of his eye then chuckled quietly. "That's right."

Jhuuni 's cheeks flushed. His laugh, even just a gentle chuckle, was hitting too close to home. She shoved the cigarette back at Mikkaelos. "You didn't answer me before. Did you recognize me or something? Cause I recognize you-...sort of."

"Alright, alright," Mikkaelos half laughed, half huffed as he fumbled with the cigarette. Even the muscles in his hand were stiff and slow to respond. Light... those prods from the orc's electrified gronn stick had really done a number on his system. In the end, he successfully caught the stub of a cigarette in between two fingers rather than burning side down in the middle of his palm. "Easy there, kid. I don't know you. Thought I might, for a second there, but I was wrong."

Jhuuni bit her lip. He might as well have had taken the words out of her mouth. Though he failed to scrub the suspicion entirely out of her. She looked toward the still water. "...Really? Maybe I look like someone you know?" She didn't really give him time to answer before she continued. "My dad’s Mikk too, really similar name to yours. Or maybe my mom? Caarina?"

Mikkaelos' smile went brittle. He looked away before it broke, lifting the cigarette to draw the last of its fire through his smile's jagged edge. "So, you think I'm your father, or something." It wasn't really a question... but it wasn't not a questions either.

Jhuuni huffed and shrugged roughly. "No not really." She looked up at him as the end of the cigarette flared for it's last bit of worth. "I just...you look a lot like him okay? I saw you when you came to rescue us and-..." her voice trailed off and a shiver shot up her spine. "It's just weird that we'd both react the same way. Isn't it?" Or maybe it WAS all the trauma she was trying not to think about.

Mikkaelos huffed a single, humorless laugh, "we didn't react the same way - not like you think. You reacted like a scared kid who thought she saw her father. I reacted like a guy who thought he found the kid that swiped a crate of goods from him last week." The dark line of his brow rose as her peered down at Jhuuni. "Cigarettes, mostly."

Jhuuni didn't bother to hide her glare that time. "Liar." She was, quite possibly, just old enough to smell the very edge of that type of bullshit. Nonetheless, if anything would get her to treat something as a lost cause it was being talked down to. "-But fine. Whatever." There was more to this - something down so far in her gut screamed so but she had just decided it wasn’t worth it. If this was under any other circumstance her curiosity wouldn’t have been so easily dissuaded. But you know what? She was a scared kid and tired as fel. "Sorry for bothering you," She stepped back and turned round.

Mikkaelos made no move to stop her, but that didn't stop him from saying something, even if he didn't turn his head away from the setting sun. "Like I said, you're not the kid I thought you were. Not a thief. Definitely not a smoker."

Jhuuni stopped, opened her mouth, then closed it again. Nope nothing more worth saying - the crappy little cot given to her was calling much louder than this man's stand offish denial behind her.

Mikkaelos dropped the spent remains of his cigarette onto the mossy earth and extinguished it with a little grind from his hoof tip. With arms still crossed, a muddled mix of relief and regret stuttered through his tail. He did not follow her. It was for the best.

[kyssandrith-ooc-blog]

Slowly, Mikkaelos approached the mountain. Through fire and wind and rain, he trudged on his death-defying mission: to save Jhuuni from the evil catdruid monster Kyssandrith.

At last he arrived. Panting before the base of the mountain, he clenched his fists, and his singular uncovered eye narrowed.

"Kyssandrith!" he bellowed. "I've come for the girl!"

The catdruid smiled.

 She knew he had no chance. She knew his mission would be for naught. She knew that all she would have to do was say her peace, and he would turn away- never to be seen again. And so she opened her mouth to deliver her fearsome rebuttal-

"MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW."

Oh shit.

She'd left the Tongues addon enabled.

She was doomed.

insanitywithapencil mcdraenei

[mcdraenei-blog]

TMI Tuesday: Family!

On this edition of TMI Tuesday, send me an ask or two about my character's family. Anything from dynamics, to specific relationships, to traditions, to feuds – all family related topics count!