An unlikely duo (Aidan/Lyar)

[Aidan Lowell]

OoC: Takes place before "A Bump in the Road"

So... tomorrow was the day they head into the city. He didn't know what was in store, but it didn't feel like it would be a good thing. He turned his gaze over to Saturos and Syana, the new pair that decided to come along with him. Headed to Bern to find his sister, why didn't it feel like it wasn't going to be that simple? It was probably what X had said. It made him nervous, but...

The large man groaned, Aevian decided to stay behind by Lyar was still coming along. It was odd, but he was sort of relieved. While he had no trouble traveling alone... It was always nice to have someone with you. Slowly raising his hand and touching the still tender scar over his eye, he'd be stuck with it for the rest of his life. Good thing he wasn't really a looker to begin with, or he'd bemoan the death of his beautiful face.

Speaking of Lyar... "Lyar, are you awake?"

[Lyar]

Lyar, in fact, had been awake. Awake for the whole night, silently keeping watch like a faithful bloodhound at it's master's feet (despite the incessant chirping of crickets and the alck of anything to really occupy those hours of time.)...when Lyar was truly asleep, his snoring shook the rafters of his home...whether this was due to the intensity of his snoring or the potential shoddiness of his roof was debatable. the big man rolled a short ways from Aidan before slowly rising upwards, looking around in the early dawn sun," Aye, I am: friend." with this he gave a lion's yawn as he scratched his side...maybe sleeping, even for a little bit, would have been a good idea.

[Aidan Lowell]

"You should of went to sleep Lyar." Aidan muttered, almost in a parenting sort of tone. "Or atleast take acting lessons because you're horrible at lying." For a moment he debated if it was in fact that Lyar was a bad liar or if Aidan was just good at catching them after dealing with his sister and nobles in general. Quickly he caught up with his self, pushing the little topic aside when he remembered just why he 'woke' Lyar.

He thought for a second, looking for the best way to state it. "Back there, at the arena. Did you see a man with... with a sort of seedy look to him? Twisted smile, punchable face, and looking like he knew something that he really shouldn't?" He asked, describing the man as best as he could, but he sighed slightly. "Never mind, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have, not even sure why I asked."

"So, Lyar." Changing the topic suddenly, might as well since he had him. "I don't know anything about you, except you wield axes and are a bit unpredictable. Tell me a bit about yourself. Why exactly did you want to come to Bern?

[Lyar]

Lyar said nothing at Aidan's low toned chastisement...mostly because he didn't hear them in his current state, though when the mention of an arena was made audible, the giant snapped awake. Lyar always was an arena favorite, for both his victories, and because of what he did with most of the winnings, much to Mavick's frustration when his older brother took his prize money and gave it to a charity.

"Twisted Smile? Punchable Face? I do believe you refer to everybody I fought, because they all had twisted smiles after I punched their skulls in." his own twisted smile here, but the way he said it was his usual friendly tone," Though there was one man before that...who's face I dented in even more." a casual shrug here.

"..and all I know about your is that you are a shorter stick wielding version of myself...minus the humor." another shrug...shortly followed by a third as Aidan asked him another question," When you travel the seas like I did, you get a sense of adventure...I'd seen the shores of Etruria, the shores of Lycia, the shores of Sacae and the Shores of Bern...Shores shores shores and more shores! For once I wanted to go inside the country and see things for myself: Actually meet the people, you know?"

he bent over to pick up his large breastplate and began pulling it on," Of course now may not have been the most ideal time for such a trip but...it's been worth it. I've had some thrills, met some people, made some friends...what's there to complain about?"

[Aidan Lowell]

"That... wasn't what I meant, but thank you for the imagery." He saw Lyar's shrug and raised him sigh. "I was talking about a specific man, but he has a way of sticking out in memory so I'll assume you never spoke to him. That's good though, you don't want to speak to this guy. It took everything I had to not deck him, I don't think he'd be so lucky if he tormented you."

"Shorter stick wielding? No humor? I'll have you know... yeah you're pretty right about that." Back while he was a soldier, he was always being called a killjoy. That being from other uptight soldiers. "If you think I'm bad now, you should of seen me years ago. Believe it or not, I've loosened up. But enough about that, travel the seas you say? I've never seen much outside of Bern, but I didn't travel by sea. I traveled by air, if you think the shores are nice, you should really see Bern from above." After beating away the intoxicating memories of days gone by with a stick. A really big stick. He decided to continue his point.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to come along Lyar, I think adventure is a great thing especially at a time like this. I was more curious why you decided to come to Bern specifically with me. I can't imagine that I'm a riveting conversationalist, and Aevian left us a while back. You seemed quite interested in her, why didn't you stay?" Aevian, the axe wielding noblewoman. It didn't surprise him any that she stayed behind, she was probably off to have far more adventures then Aidan. Simply heading to the capital as opposed to trying to take it back from Ilia is a much more suitable backdrop for the adventure Lyar seemed to like.

[Lyar]

It was around the point that the Noblewoman was brought up when Lyar's head surfaced from the top of his one piece of armor, "Aevian? She was pretty, and I'll willingly admit it was my main reason of coming along, but...well, when you fight alongside a man, you forge a bond more powerful than any steel, and I was about to let a skirt, no matter how short it may be, get in the way of helping a friend." Lyar's logic was baffling sometimes. For someone you didn't converse with much...if at all, outside of planning objectives, and knowing little about them, how can you call them a friend? Maybe it was that part of Lyar that was still wholesomely childish, even for a man of his professions in these dark times, that let him be so caring...?

...or maybe he was as stupid as he said he was, one of the two. Sliding his arms into the short sockets in his armor, and then pulling on his makeshift iron gloves, he gave the man a pat on the shoulder,"Wouldn't you do the same? Helping a friend, I mean."

[Aidan Lowell]

"For a friend? I wouldn't hesitate, though it's been many years since one called me as such. I think the last real friend I had was a man by the name of Orion, we used to ride together. That was back when I rode a wyvern and not around in a suit of armor heavier then some people altogether." He tried to crack a smile, it didn't come out right. Instead he just looked kinda constipated. Erm, luckily Lyar wasn't staring at his face. "I don't really need help though, I'm just visiting my sister. I doubt it will amount to any more then that... Still for whatever reason you decide as to why you stick around... Thank you. This journey is infinitely more interesting with you around."

He let out a light groan as the plates of his armor clinked together while he stood. "I'm honored you consider me a friend." It seemed Lyar was a man who trusted easily, which was hard to find in a world full of skeptics and liars. Hopefully he was also a good judge of character, or he was the type to be taken advantage of easily.

[Lyar]

"Well, when you have a ex-Wyvern Rider, two swordsman of Ilia, and a giant around, how can a journey be anything but interesting? It's as grand of an adventure as those my little brother would read me!" Of course there was a small twinge of longing to pester Mavick, but he'd keep it in, the longer away from his brother, the funnier the reunion always was for him: that was the main reason he joined up on a Privateer's ship anyways. Lyar said nothing for awhile as he strapped his two axes to his back, before looking back down to his stick wielding little friend with a smirk,"...that and I'd like to meet your sister...though I pray she isn't like you, and likes to loosen up and have fun sometimes!" he gave Aidan a pat on the back here, beaming his giant sized smile.

Only with Lyar would that not be meant in a bad way. For some reason, whenever Lyar thought of someone's siblings, he naturally assumed they were little kids, and Lyar loved to play around with the kids back at Ostia or the ports he'd visit...it was just fun playing with short people who didn't sit around in their giant libraries all day like a certain purple haired midget!

[Aidan Lowell]

"My sister? Oh my sister is... well... erm... she's... She's my sister. That's all I can really say. Do you know what I mean?" He couldn't quite pin how to describe her, she was just his sister. She was the more clever and intelligent of the two, good with talking circles around people. He wasn't sure how Lyar would get along with her. "We're twins, though we don't really look much alike. It caused a lot of problems back in the day though." Er... Political problems, not getting the two mixed up or anything. It was never really hard to pick the two apart, Aidan never cried but Iris was always whining. Ugh, why was he thinking these things? It started to make him feel embarrassed.

"So, you have a brother then? Would that be the short angry mage I saw back in Sacae? I must say, there's not much of a resemblance." He remembered back when Lyar went off to talk to the mage before leaving, so Aidan put two and two together and guessed that was his brother.

[Lyar]

"...suddenly I forsee a muscular maiden with a scruffy beard." he put his hands to his head and closed his eyes as to joke about having Psychic Powers...of course he stopped soon enough given that he was joking around with a man almost as serious as Mavick was...though of course three times as calm...speaking of which:

"Oh yes...My Beetle-Sized Brother. I'm not really too sure about that either...considering I look nothing like my parents as well...especially the...you know..." he moved his hands up and down like a scale, "weighing" one hand heavier than the other,"Height thing. It's as if I absorbed all of the height or something...and our parents aren't even as that tall, though compared to Mavick....well to him everybody is tall!"

It was fun talking about his brother, even IF it was making fun of him,"We used to have a theory that I was adopted, but then dad would just get mad, Stand on a chair and bop me upside the head!"

[Aidan Lowell]

"A... muscular maiden with a scruffy beard?" He tried to imagine such a thing, it was hideously superimposed upon the picture in his mind he already had of Iris. And for that reason he had to gag the laughter trying desperately to escape, muffling it into painful sounding 'snrrk's. "Erm, Not quite like that." He tried to say with a straight face. Though, after a breath or two, he returned to his normal grumpy looking self.

"She's actually quite, er, 'feminine' looking." That was a weird thing to say about your sister. "She's probably about as tall as Syana, the red headed woman who's accompanying us." He began to think it over in his head. It's been so long. "But she has a way to make herself seem even bigger then me. I swear I don't know how she does it, but I feel like a little brother instead of her twin." Technically, he was right. It was the older sibling who inherited the house, while the younger ones became Captains in the military. It's a long long long family tradition, reaching back to the found of the house over a thousand years ago during the Scouring. He'd spare the family history though, because all that did was make him feel like a failure.

"I don't know. Never saw your folks, but I can believe it." He tried to imagine a smaller Lyar, he failed, badly. Instead all he imagined was a giant blue haired baby that was as tall as him. It was really quite silly. "Lyar, I think the only logical conclusion to make is that you've stolen everyone's height. That's why your parents aren't so tall. As you grew, they shrank." The serious man tried to joke, it came out completely serious sounding though. All with a straight face too.

[Lyar]

Lyar just gave a large shrug, as he smirked," I know what you mean. When Mavick flares up into another raving storm, he goes from four feet to five feet-" he snapped two branch thick fingers at that moment,"-Just like that. However, when I get angry! Well...you wouldn't like me if I got angry!" Boy wasn't that a fact. If Lyar, at Eight Foot Four, was already intimidating, imagine if that gentle smile was replaced the fury of the axe wielding titan that he very well could have been...it made even him shudder, as he visibly did so.

"Oh trust me, our father had to take on two jobs as I got older! But hey, I never got picked on...if anything I was the bully who never did anything!" oh the memories of being the bully of bullies. Just walking up to someone picking on someone else made them toss their lunch money and flee.

However, Lyar's jolly expression dimmed slightly as he looked to his two axes, then back to the knight below," Aidan...do you hate killing?" a sudden question from the joking and casualness.

[Aidan Lowell]

"Hrm..." He thought it over for a second. This conversation had been strangely imaginative, the thing that thinking of Lyar angry reminded him the most of was that of his wyvern. Which was... kinda odd to say the least. Maybe it was a testimate to how destructive it'd be, like a rampaging dragon. If it was a compliment or not he couldn't quite pinpoint. "No, I don't think I would Lyar. I like you this way." Loud, boisterous, and with a hidden deeper side.

Ah, there it was. "Do I hate killing people Lyar?" The spear wielding man grew silent. "I would love to say that... no one loves to kill. But I've seen far too much to know that isn't true." His head hung slightly, his gaze shifting at the hard earth beneath him. "Whether or not I love it or hate it doesn't change the fact that I am a man who has killed many, and will kill many more. In fact, it appears to be one of the few things I'm good at." He turned his head to Lyar, he couldn't call his self a man if he couldn't even look him in the eye as he spoke. "But I take no pleasure in it, and I wish it never had to be done."

He closed his eyes for a few seconds before finishing with a small grunt. "Yes Lyar, I hate killing. Do you?"

[Lyar]

The big man fidgeted from foot to foot, which, if one noticed despite the thickness of the tension from the conversation, would have been mildly amusing to watch.

"I...I don't know. I've killed. A lot. maybe not as much as you, but I've seen my share of violence and...well..." he looked over his shoulder to where the axes were strapped, and shuddered," I don't, and yet...when we are in the thick of battle, I look around at my friends, and how they are fighting for their lives and- I hear something. I feel something. From the darkest corner of my conscious, my soul, and maybe my stomach. A low rumbling...at least it starts that way..."

He took a deep breath, eyes closed as he recalled past battles, and with eyes tightly shut he continued," Yet the more I kill, the more battles I go in, and the longer they last, that rumbling gets higher and higher, and only now do I know that it speaks...maybe it's the killing, or maybe it's those magic experiments Mavick tried on me, but I hear this voice, and all it says is one word:

Kill."

The word seemed to echo in the giant's mind, his left hand sub-consciously reaching for one of his axes, before he lowered it as he opened his eyes, then smiled and gave a shrug," But maybe it's just the chaos of the moment, right?" the smile was a false one, better false than none.

[Aidan Lowell]

This didn't surprise Aidan. To be honest, the fact he brought it up in the first place almost instantly shot the thought in his mind. This wasn't a topic one brought up haphazardly, Lyar had something to say... and it probably wasn't pleasant. "In the thick of battle, blood boils and minds haze. It takes a strong will to not be blinded by the desire to fight or flee. That is the only time some men feel truly alive." He spoke with shut eyes. Not because he couldn't bare to look at his friend, but because he couldn't help but think of it his self. "Some men are... consumed by this. But... I don't think that's what's amiss here."

"A voice that speaks to you, you say? That doesn't sound like natural chaos, or even bloodlust." It sounds slightly more like Lyar was going slowly crazy. "I... don't pretend to know anything about magic. But what you say doesn't sound normal, perhaps... If it only grows louder then maybe it would be best if you don't fight any more Lyar." It was a stupid suggestion, and one that he probably already debated.

"However... you never answered my question. I asked if you liked killing. Do you take solace in ending the life of another? I am asking Lyar, the man in front of me. Not the man in battle, and not the rumbling of your mind."