Post by Kendry Yildirim on Feb 28, 2020 4:50:37 GMT
Kendry's laughter settled as Finn stood and began to sing the pirate shanty that even he recognized from his childhood living in Moten. The mercenary's gaze turned upward to watch Finn, completely fixated in his inebriated state. From his perspective, still sitting in the chair, the pirate captain seemed to glow with an ethereal light - maybe Ken's vision was blurred from being drunk - and his slurred singing, gathering the voices of all else in the room, sounded sultry and true.
In this moment, viewed through a drunken lens, Finn was the embodiment of the ideal of togetherness, sharing his song, his touch, his mirth… Kendry found it beautiful, and his emotions swayed him to tears.
This moment would not last forever. It would never be forgotten and always longed for - a turning point in the elemental's perspective on life and living, this he was certain of.
His hand, having slid to Finn's back, gripped at the coat the pirate wore. He dipped his head until it touched the counter top, quietly sobbing, embarrassed that drinking made his feelings fall away from himself for all to see. At least, hiding his face, he hoped his shaking shoulders would look like the uncontrollable laughter from before.
"I just want my mom and dad to love me again," Kendry sputtered quietly between sobs.
Finn felt the hand at his back, mistaking it for a more friendly gesture than anything until he felt the fingers curl into the material and his attention was pulled from watching the room that had burst into a veritable chorus line, turning to look at the mercenary now hunched over the counter-top, his back quivering. Was he laughing? Finn couldn't tell. He couldn't hear the sounds, exactly, coming from Kendry with how loud the room had gotten, his sensitive ears overloaded with mirth and merriment. It was only when his friend's broken voice, so quiet he almost had missed it, hit him that he paused. His grin faded away, slowly, an expression of sympathy and concern writing unspoken words through his handsome features. He turned in Kendry's direction, his arm curling around the elemental and pulling him tight against his side in a hug that was made a bit awkward by their positioning and Finn's inebriated state. He didn't know what Kendry meant by his words, other than the obvious meaning, of course, but why wouldn't his parents love him anymore? He felt it improper to ask, like it might just stir up bad memories or send the guy spiraling further downward. Finn knew better than to open old wounds, especially while intoxicated. It only made them more pliable, more easily torn wide. "It's alright, mate," was the best he could think to offer, leaning into the broken looking man and running his hand across his back in a comforting gesture.
He could understand, certainly. His mom loved him- at least, he was pretty sure she still did. It had been so long since he'd spoken to her. He hadn't written, hadn't made any attempts to check up on her, afraid it would only cause her pain...or guilt. He couldn't let his existence keep hurting her. He wouldn't allow that. But he was the poster boy for daddy issues. He had no clue who his father was, if the man even knew about him. Every time he'd pressed his mom for even a name she'd shut him down or changed the subject. He could understand the desire for one parent's love, he could try to fathom a mental image of what it was like to be desperately in need for either parent. Poor Kendry... Perhaps it was time to stop drinking, pushing their mugs away from them to indicate as much and Lavi simply nodded from where she'd been standing all this time, offering Kendry a motherly look of concern before shooting a stern one towards Finn. The Pirate didn't need more than that to understand what she meant. "Do you want me to get you home-?" Finn offered, leaning in close to speak softly to the mercenary, "Otherwise Lavs has some rooms upstairs I could help you to?"
"All Sins can be forgiven when somebody loves you"
Post by Kendry Yildirim on Feb 28, 2020 7:01:26 GMT
Kendry wondered if his parents had ever loved him, his memories wrought with the fights they had - their bond was breaking, and neither wanted the responsibility of the child they had created together.
He allowed himself to remain in Finn's hug for a few moments, and when the pirate offered to help him home, he stood and wiped away his tears. He wasn't sure how to answer, as he didn't have anywhere to go, but he was growing weary of being a burden to these kindhearted people he felt he didn't deserve the company of.
So Ken shook his head, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to make himself look proper. Wobbling slightly, a hand resting on Finn's shoulder to simultaneously balance himself as he stood and to silently thank his new friend, he started for the door. Along the way he steadied himself against tables and chairs, his drunken state making his exit seem more lighthearted than it was.
He felt like he was running away again, unable to discern if this was a good thing or a disaster, unable to comprehend that Finn's generosity was in fact for him.
Finn smiled when the other placed a hand on his shoulder, the expression folding downwards as he made for the door himself, indicating he had no intention of asking for anyone's help to get home. Yea- he'd been beaten and then drank enough to make even a werewolf like Finn feel rather sloshed. The Pirate was no where near about to let the guy stagger out into the street, in the wake of the disappearing sun, to go careening into a bunch of barrels in some alleyway to simply accept his fate and just sleep there for the night. Not happening. He reached into his coin purse and pulled out a handful of money that should more than cover their tab for the day between himself, Ken, and Emry combined. "Thanks for everything, Lavs," he called back to her as he made after the merc. "Anytime, Wolf," she responded, taking the offered coin.
"Come on," Finn huffed, hoisting Kendry's arm over his shoulder. "If you think I'm letting you try to navigate around right now on your own, you're crazier than Em thinks I am." His arm locked around Kendry's back in indication that no amount of protest was going to make Finn take 'no' for an answer. Like hell was he going to lay awake all night tonight simply hoping Riptide, here, hadn't face-planted into a puddle and was drowning in an inch of water or something ridiculous like that. If he had to attend a funeral for a death like that he'd reach into the afterlife just to smack the guy upside the head.
"All Sins can be forgiven when somebody loves you"
Post by Kendry Yildirim on Feb 28, 2020 7:39:42 GMT
Kendry wanted to protest when Finn took hold of him, but knew his complaining would be fruitless as the pirate helped to steady the stumbling mercenary. Instead, he leaned into the only friend he had, accepting it as it was as they exited Calypso's Fury. The sun was setting, the nearby buildings casting long purplish shadows over the two men who stood arm in arm.
Without coin to stay at an inn, Kendry was directionless.
"Y'can just head on back here when ya get tired o' walking," Ken slurred. "I 'ave no place to go, so, just leave me somewhere that'll please yer charitable Fishy Guts, but don't ya think 'bout takin' me back inside. I won't be a bother to none." There was seriousness coating his slowly spoken words. "Guess y'could throw me on a cart headed North to Sunama…"
At least payment was waiting for him up North, and disappearing from Taras for a while might be a good idea considering the one mercenary he didn't kill might raise suspicions in others of his profession. But Kendry didn't want to leave. Not anymore. He knew that now.
Work was easy to come by here, and it wasn't always violent like the majority of jobs he had done in the North. But work wasn't the only reason...
"D'you sleep on your boat? Does it rock you ta sleep?" He laughed slightly, rocking Finn with his arm for added effect.
"How dare you sir?" Finn let out an over the top gasp of shock, that was clearly for show rather than holding any genuine offense behind it. "Charitable?" The Pirate scoffed. "I've been called a lot of things in my days, 'liar', 'thief', 'swindler', 'dirty'....'what are you doing in bed with my wife?', but NEVER has anyone been so cruel as to refer to me as 'charitable'," spitting out the last word as if it was the foulest tasting thing to ever pass his lips. He chuckled for emphasis, shifting his weight to take on more of Kendry's so they wouldn't go falling sideways with the odd way the pair were now staggering through the streets like some sort of demented, four-legged beast. Despite Ken's protests, he was half tempted to drag the guy back into Lavi's and toss him on one of her beds upstairs, but, he wasn't about to push the guy's boundaries quite so far, even if it meant they'd be toddling about the streets until both of them crashed into an alley and passed out. He'd take him back to his own boat and throw him on his bed while Finn could take up sleeping in the chair by his desk, but he hadn't forgotten the disturbed look the lad had given him regarding ships and the ocean in general.
"I do," he confirmed with a nod. That bed is the softest thing I've lain in all his life, closing his eyes he could almost feel its warm, fluffy embrace with how exhausted his muscles felt and how fuzzy the overly-stuffed pillows, but not before he figured out some place for this guy to rest. "The Ol' Wolfsbane rocks me to sleep like a babe in a crib," he mused, a soft sigh escaping him. People who slept without the ocean singing them her gentle lullaby of tides crashing into the side of their boat were just straight mad-men. "There has to be someplace I can take you to sleep. You won't go into Lavi's. You hate boats- I'm not about to leave you in some cart like some farmer's sack of potatoes, love." The Captain insisted. "I'm tired, m'self, but I will drag you around all night until you pick a decent place to crash if I have to! I mean it, mate!" He could be more stubborn than a mule when he wanted to be.
Last Edit: Feb 28, 2020 8:00:45 GMT by Finn Whelan
"All Sins can be forgiven when somebody loves you"
Post by Kendry Yildirim on Feb 28, 2020 8:13:34 GMT
"You… You're so stubborn, y'know? The bush back at th' estate was pretty comfortable. Take me there, eh?"
Kendry groggily weighed the limited options in his mind - alleyway with barrels or alleyway with crates? The pirate at his side would be content with neither, he knew, causing him to click his tongue to his teeth and shake his head. So this was friendship - being endlessly and relentlessly stubborn about the well being of the other? Maybe he should just give in and let whatever happens happen... He was already spiraling out of his comfort zone by this point, so what the heck?
"Take me t' yer dumb boat then. Just don't drop me offa th' docks or I'll take ya with me an' zap the whole bloody ocean, got it?"
Even though he felt foolhardy from being intoxicated, the idea of even nearing the docks terrified him.
"Guess I'd rather burden th' Dread Wolf than th' sweet folk o' Calypso's."
It still technically wouldn't be reuniting with the sea, right? And it would make good practice for if he really did have to escort the queen along a beach.
The boat? He must really be drunk to pick the ship, but it was as good a place as any as Finn turned back towards the docks, able to find his ship even sleepwalking, he was sure. He had a bond with that beauty. "If you're positive..." he stated, though, truthfully he was rather thrilled with the option. Showing of his boat, for him, was the same for a parent showing off their newborn child. He was delighted to, a near skip in his step now that they were heading for his favorite place in all the world. "I swear on my life, you'll not come anywhere near the water's edge," he assured his friend. Tipsy, he may be, but he was rather used to navigating even a boat's railing while being several bottles of rum deep. His balance was impeccable when it became a matter of life or death situation- or... a matter of 'life or electrocuted like he'd fallen into a nest of angry eels'. Either way.
"You can trust me," Finn flashed his drunken companion a sideways grin, "I'll get you into bed, safe and sound. Won't even know you're on a ship once that bed's got a hold of you." He nodded curtly, his eyes coming alight with a life that only those crimson sails rising into view could bring to them. There she was. The love of his life. "That's her, there," he pointed up to the wolf figurehead that barred its teeth down at them. His fingers dug in tightly to the other, locking in to the fabric of the man's clothing, doing his best to assure him there was no way in hell he was about to let him even start to edge towards the water beneath them as they stood at the gangplank leading upwards. "We're just taking a bridge over dry land, alright?" He told Kendry, pointing with his free hand up to the sky to try and get him to focus on the stars that were beginning to come out of hiding now that the sun had gone away. Anything he could think of to not let his friend focus on the water he feared sloshing about beneath them. Even drunk he felt ten times more sober now, his mind drawing up every remaining last bit of wakefulness to not even remotely allow himself to stagger while making his way upwards to his ship's main deck.
"All Sins can be forgiven when somebody loves you"
Post by Kendry Yildirim on Feb 28, 2020 15:29:11 GMT
Sky and sea blurred together as Kendry's fear began to sober him up, making itself apparent as his eyes swelled up with tears that fell silently. His soundless crying and tight grip on Finn were all that gave him away, his face a focused calm as they treaded the docks together. All he could do was trust his pirate friend at his side.
The Wolfsbane loomed over the pair, teeth bared, like a reaper about to sow their souls, but the thought of the figurehead rending his spirit from his body didn't seem as frightening as the water Ken could hear sloshing beneath the creaking wood.
One step at a time.
In an effort to blend himself in to the scene - to take the gaze of the sea off of him - he began to hum the pirate shanty Finn had begun back at Calypso's. Slowly, softly… His usually calming technique of grinding his teeth together to taste sparks was absolutely off limits.
A humming seeped through the Pirate's intense focus, looking to the side at Kendry to see moonlight reflecting off the tears that streamed down his face. Jeez- poor guy really did not like the whole water thing, huh? He kind've wanted to ask about the story behind that, sometime. A phobia like that, surely there had to be one. He'd met folk who simply feared the ocean because so much of it could be dangerous or unknown, sure, but never one who wept simply at standing over the open water. That was a fear with a reason. He imagined it had something to do with his electricity powers. It didn't take a load of book learning to know electricity and water didn't mix, but did it like electrocute and hurt him? Did he accidentally roast a punch of poor, innocent fishies- cause that just sounded like a helluva fish fry to Finn, so what was it?
The Ship's Captain helped to hum the melody along with his friend, helping the guy over the step onto his ship. It would be a shame to have helped him get this far only for the poor drunkard to miss the step down and go crashing to the floorboards. "There we are," Finn assured him, moving to his own cabin. "Water's way back out there." He deposited the guy onto his mattress and gave him a pat on the back. "It's not about to come anywhere near you in here, not unless it's in a cup. Promise." He gestured to the soft bed, indicating the other should get some good sleep, wondering when the last time he'd used a decent bed was considering he'd mentioned not having a real place to stay. "Night, mate," Finneas chuckled, moving to let his coat slip from his shoulders. It felt good to stretch out free from the weight of the day, his arms pulling upwards just before he flopped back into the chair behind his desk, tossing his hat to the side and ruffling his hair to fluff it a bit from being crushed beneath the thing. Home sweet home.
"All Sins can be forgiven when somebody loves you"
Post by Kendry Yildirim on Feb 28, 2020 16:22:05 GMT
When Finn's gentle humming began, Ken was suddenly among the blankets and pillows of an extraordinarily comfortable bed - how he even ended up there, he couldn't remember. The dock below his feet and the water below that was just…gone.
Damn, when was it that he last slept in a bed, even a dingy little one? Sunama, maybe, back home? Home… No, wherever he was right now, whoever was moving about the room nearby, this was what home felt like, right?
It lulled Kendry to sleep, and never had he slept so soundly.