bloodbound. (earinor & akira)

    • "Guess I'll have to trust you on that then, but ... I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean to get into that", Yujin mumbled, looking as if he actually was apologetic about what had happened. This was, by far, the worst thing that he could have summoned upon himself, wasn't it? Now, Richard was going to get all tense and eventually shut him out again, at least that was what he believed it to be. "Who knows, only one way to figure out - I'm sure we can get to Adrestia somehow, right?", he said, glossing over the fact that they both were talking about gloomy bullshit once more and for some reason, not only did he feel like Richard would benefit from it, but also ... "Fuck it, I'm sorry, okay? But ... let's do something that will take your mind off of things - I promise, it'll be fun!" Not that Yujin's friends were fun to deal with, but sometimes they just hung around there and didn't do much else to start with. Why wouldn't he just seize the opportunity and drag Richard there to introduce them to one another? They didn't have to get wasted right away. "Eugh, I really don't feel like going alone. If I could drag someone with me, I could at least make up a bullshit excuse - what about you? Maybe that'll get your mind off of things?" Those things, however, weren't as easily forgetable - but ... some things made the world go round, didn't it?

      "Fine then", he said, finally letting go of Richards hand and looking at him, trying to figure out something. Hm, where was this going to go? Probably nowhere sensical, so there only was one thing left to do, wasn't there? "Fine, fine! Get them yourself, you don't have to yell at me, I got it, I'm not that stupid!" But was he, really? He'd probably bring Richard whatever he asked for, just because he wanted to be nice and because it was easier to be his friend than his enemy - instead, he now stood there and grinned at him, as if he had figured something out that he actually wanted to do. "Why read a book when you're right there? You really are not willing to make friends, aren't you?" Not that he gave a fuck about it, sometimes his attitude seemed to be really all over the place and while he wouldn't describe himself as spoiled, he sure as hell wanted to be around Richard and figure things out for both of them, just because this poor sap seemed like he needed a friend, like he needed someone that wasn't just going to use him for their own amusement. "I'm pretty good at sewing wounds shut, treating them and making salves and stuff like that - not that I need it, but it's at least something I can do. Not like cooking ... or brewing tea, when I'm sick that is." Yujin faintly remembered having something akin to a mental breakdown because he fucked up a kettle of tea and that, in itself, was somewhat embarassing. "Too bad you don't get to say no - and now off we go!", Yujin said, grabbing Richard and lifting him up, only to run away from the harbor with him - now to figure out where those idiots actually were ...
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "It's fine... need to get over that anyway...", Richard grumbled and sighed deeply. Life was hard, that was all he could say about it. He couldn't have a mental breakdown anytime his family came up, right? And they did a lot, because of Richard himself, because he couldn't get any of them out of his head. "I'm going to go back and you stay here, end of story. You wouldn't want to come with me anyway.", Richard elaborated once more, there was noting for Yujin. If he wanted a sightseeing trip he was talking to the wrong person and why would a Silessian prince risk his life for the mission of a stranger, a sheep and all in all someone who didn't even want to be his friend. "My mind off of things...? Ugh... al we've done so far is fall into the sea and almost freeze to death and being sin, it's not exactly fun being around you.", he replied, he didn't want to go anywhere especially not if there were more of Yujins kind. Not wolves, Richard didn't care, but idiotic people who didn't take no as an answer and who for some reason clung to Richard like he was saving their lifes or something."Why don't you take your girlfriend then?", Richard asked, again Yujin for some reason wanted to spend time with Richard instead of her. Shouldn't he want to see her if he loved her? Not that Richard was able to judge their relationship.

      Finally Richard got his hand back and he almost caressed it with his other hand as if it was something to protect. He'd just hiss at Yujin if he tried to take it once more, maybe bite him? What was he even thinking?! "You aren't?", Richard asked daring, now he just wanted trouble, but he kind of was more childish than searching for a fight right now. "Because I don't want to talk to you and no I don't. I've told you a million times already, right?" Yujin would never get that, right? Maybe it had been a mistake he asked him for help with his list, maybe he should have simply asked around the harbor to find someone that could help him, instead of having to deal with the wolf prince right now. "Why can you do that but not brew a tea? That makes no sense, when do you need those skills anyway?", Richard asked almost being curious, but actually he just wanted to be alone. Why was he even still talking to Yujin? "Hey! Whoa! What do you think you're doing?!", Richard suddenly yelled out when he was grabbed, that was even worse than a no and yes it had been a mistake to talk to Yujin still, big mistake. "I won't have fun anyway!", he grumbled and tried to break free.

    • "Not an idiot, nuh-uh", he complained, as if Richard was going to believe any of that. Actually, he should have thrown this guy over his shoulder like a sack of potatos and called it a day, simply because he'd not have that much freedom to thrash around and it wouldn't look as stupid as it did right about now. "Yeah you did and I'm not taking no for an answer because you're just stubborn and I want to be your friend, so quit yapping like some scared puppy and get on with it!" Right about now, he'd expected a fist in his face or even more hurtful remarks about anything that was going on with him, but words were words and Richard was good at using them, so why not take away the only opportunity he had at being mean to him and bring him somewhere where he wouldn't want to talk all that much? "Survival is important and I mean, I won't be a prince until I die, you know! At some point, this life is going to end, at least when my brother assumes the throne and I'll just be some normal guy that is a prince on paper, but nothing more. Sooo, I do have to figure out who I want to be after that - and I like helping people, even the small and annoying blonde ones that can't shut up for their own good." Did he just call the former crown prince of Adrestia small? Well, Richard wasn't as tall as him, so it only was right to ... "Dragging you to where the fun is because you won't have any on your own, you bastard!"

      Yujin carried Richard for quite a while, just before he dragged him into one of the huts that he could spot that had a few signs outside, all of which were written in thrian and none of which would make any sense in that scragly handwriting. In the end, Yujin knew where he wanted to be, knew in what fucking hellscape his friends were hanging out and when the owner of this place saw his ugly mug, the guy he was dragging along and the stupid grin on his face, he already looked somewhat sour. "I'm looking for Quan", he explained to him, who, in the end, pointed him down the narrow hallway. There were people in there, but most of their faces were hidden behind parchment and sliding doors and not all of those rooms were occupied to begin with - but there was a familiar scent coming from all of those, or at least the occupied ones. "I mean, I hope you'll have fun", Yujin laughed before he reached one of the doors at the end of the hallway - which hadn't been long to begin with - and slided the door open, upon which another waft of air hit him. Inside, sprawled around a wooden table and in what looked like a sea of pillows, sat three young men, all of which looked up upon seeing someone burst in there. "Yujin!", one of them yelled. "Yes, Quan? That's my name", he laughed, closing the door behind him, all the while two other sets of eyes were already on Richard. "So you aren't dead and you bring ... who the fuck is that?", one of the others said, his eyes still glued onto Richard. "We talked about this, stop bringing people that you fucked once and now like for two weeks, th-" "I haven't done anything like that, just be nice", Yujin sighed, before putting Richard down and giving him a slight shove towards the pillow sea. "That over there, the guy with the stupid grin, is Quan. The poor bastard talking in dialect is Jiahao, but you can just call him Jia and that over there, the one that hasn't said shit yet and is busy smoking, is Kun." Yujin spared Richard the rest of introductions, then dragged him down with him onto the pillow sea and suddenly, silence emerged, before Yujin grabbed the pipe that Kun was currently holding, basically stealing it from him, to take a puff himself. "Soo, what's your name anyway? Why are you here?", Quan asked, not really interested in the food that sat on the table or the fact that Jia was getting up to go and get something from somewhere, or at least peaking his head out of their door to find someone that could give them something. "Yujin didn't fuck you, right?" "QUAN." "Do you want some snacks?", Kun suddenly asked, sliding a bowl of food across the table to Richard - well, Yujin couldn't really disagree, they probably had spent most of their day drinking and smoking in here, which they hid pretty well, at least judging by the absence of empty alcohol containers.
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "How often do I have to tell you that I don't want any friends and I also don't want to see any of yours!", Richard grumbled, how the heck was Yujin that strong anyway? And how the heck didn't he lose balance when Richard was struggling like that? He soon enough gave up though. "You're the brother of king or whatever he'll be, so you're then technically still a prince. Thian nobility makes no fucking sense at all!", Richard let out, that Xu or whatever his names was, was going to be king when they head a queen that had nothing to do with him made no sense anyway. In Adrestia they won't even have a queen that had any kind of power, but that wasn't even the problem. There was one king only one, not multiple ones and one of which was king of kings, that was just complicated and when someone said a title you'd always have to ask which fucking one. "And I'm not small!", Richard added almost angry. He wasn't. Yujin was if anything a few centimeters bigger than him, that was all, that was nothing in the end and Richard would outgrow him at some point! Not that he planned to stick around and find out though. "I won't have fun."

      Richard couldn't do much and he calmed down when he noticed that his struggling and yelling only made more people look at them. Once Yujin stopped in front of some hut that kind of looked like a pub from the outside Richard already fell quiet and just didn't look the man in the eye that Yujin was talking to. Who the fuck was Quan? Richard got dragged inside, the air smelled weird and all in all it was very stifling. There were all sorts of doors and in the end Yujin opened one and dragged Richard inside. He found himself in front of three strangers which he looked at one by one, not sure what to say or do now. His chest felt weird upon this new situation and he didn't complain anymore, instead he tried to follow the conversation that was transpiring. The door was closed while every one of the three eyed Richard and it felt awkward, there was nothing special to see after all. He knew his blonde hair stuck out and mixed with the wolfish eyes he looked even more weird, though those weren't even common to these parts of Thria anyway. He probably would have looked less strange if he just had Adrestian eyes. One of Yujins friends started to talk but Richard struggled understanding him, there was some curse mixed in there but that was about all Richard could understand. Yujin answered, that Richard understood, but what did he not do? Richard was confused and acting like he didn't understand a word suddenly wasn't even an act. Richard finally was let go off, he could have let him walk in here like a normal person, but no, Yujin was an asshole and he almost shoved him aside when he finally put him down. There were a lot of pillows some of them were already occupied by Yujins friends but Richard didn't want to sit down and he asked himself why they couldn't just use chairs. The blonde followed Yujins explanation and eventually was forced down next to Yujin and now sat who knew where with strangers he didn't want to get to know. How the hell did he end up here? Richard was asked a question, well he understood it, but instead of answering he turned to Yujin. "I really don't want to be here...", he mumbled actually not angry for once but almost like he sought help of some sorts. He dragged him in here, he could drag him out again right? Richard turned his head again, understanding the question pretty good and his face said probably as much. But he didn't answer that either, just looked at the other person puzzled that suddenly shoved some food in his direction. Well at least he understood what he wanted from him, even though his words sounded foreign. "No thanks...", he simply grumbled.

    • "What is he, shy?", Kun suddenly asked upon seeing Richard denying the food he'd been offered, averting his own gaze as if that was going to help either of them with what was going on. Yujin did drag someone here that had fit right in, but theoretically, Richard really didn't want to be here - even though, no, he didn't care, Richard was going to stay here and they were going to have fun, one way or the other, especially now that he knew that Richard at least could understand simple thrian just fine. "Uh, dunno. Might be that he needs to warm up to you. Stop speaking in dialect and he might give you an answer you can understand", Quan said, scratching the back of his head and then eyeing Yujin, who was hogging the pipe - was that something he should hand over, or ...? "What's Jia doing anyway?" "Getting another pipe so we don't have to share one between use five." That was all there was for that exchange and still, Yujin looked at Richard, who, all of a sudden was not being the foolmouthed, selfabsorbed asshole he'd been before but rather, he looked somewhat tense, almost as if ... "I told you you are going to have fun, take a whiff and you'll be feeling better", he said, shoving the pipe into Richards hands - did he even know how to use that? Or were the fumes in here enough to get him high anyway?

      "So, you drag some random guy here, one that doesn't even speak thrian, doesn't introduce himself and it doesn't sound like you fucked him, either. Does that mean he's up for grabs?", Quan asked once more, his eyes wandering between Richard and Yujin, trying to figure out what their relationship was, before the wolf put his arm around Richards shoulder and pulled him closer. "Quan, you don't even know his name and you're asking if you can bed him? Stop being pathetic." Kun, on the other hand, was busy focusing on Jia, who, soon enough, left the room and thus, he had nothing to look at and yelled something about alcohol at him - Yujin could only guess that that bastard wanted to drink some more because clearly, neither had had their fill just yet, despite it being too early for this bullshit to begin with. Yujin looked at Richard, leaned over to the bowl on the table and grabbed the chopsticks that had been sitting there, only to also hand them to Richard - who still hadn't said anything useful. "Do you want to introduce yourself or is it fine if I tell them your name?", the wolf asked him, but he knew, well enough, that Richard probably needed to ease up a bit, somehow - which was why it only followed that he grabbed something from Jia's hands once he came back - Richards hands were full, though. "Ever had thrian alcohol? Give it a try." "Talk about being into someone." "Oh shut up, it's not like you're any better!"
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • Richard pretty much felt like Yujin was the only one that wanted to have him here. He didn't even want to be here himself and his so called friends didn't seem to like Richard either. Well he hadn't said a word so far, but in the end he didn't want any more friends to begin with, so maybe he should either tell them to fuck off, or stay quiet until they got bored. Though playing dead was pretty cowardly, right? Richard looked at Yujin who had this weird pipe thing in his hands, well that explained the smell but he still didn't know what it was. Richard also was still trying to decide how to play this, act like he didn't understand Thrian? That would men he could communicate over Yujin but that sounded like a bad idea, he'd just say bullshit in Richards behalf. So if he were to introduce himself what name should he use? They'd probably not be able to pronounce his Adrestian name anyway, so why not go with the cheesy stupid one that Nayantai gave him. It would have been easier when Yujin had answered his questions about his name to begin with, if he looked even more weird when he took a Thrian name upon himself and if the name itself was something stupid. Suddenly he got shoved something in his hand and just looked at Yujin bewildered. "Wha-- I.. what even is that?", he asked, not interested in finding it out so he just passed the pipe along to the next person who wanted it.

      This guy named Quan started to talk again and Richard felt inclined to not stay quiet anymore, lest Yujin would just answer something stupid for him. It was the other wolf that answered him, but Richard still wanted to make on thing clear. "I'm not.", he simply said probably surprising all of them with his ability to actually talk in their language and also that was the first thing he didn't say to Yujin right? Now that he got rid of the pipe he suddenly found chopstick forced onto him which he absolutely didn't want to use, because he probably looked like a toddler with those and besides, he wasn't really hungry. "I don't...", he started and just got rid of the chopsticks. "I'm not hungry." This was annoying and he sighed, eventually giving up, he needed to introduce himself after all, right? "Arikin. My name.", he grumbled in as few words as possible towards those three strangers who's names he already forgot again, shooting each of them an unapproachable glance. "No, I... it's way too fucking early for that!" And it probably tasted like shit. Whatever was talked about next Richard had no clue what it was about and he just looked between the two of them as if that would help him understand.

    • Yujin felt like either he'd made a mistake by dragging Richard there, which ... that wasn't anything new, or that he actually did this guy a favor and got him out of the mindset he usually found himself in. "You ... do know what a pipe is, right?", Yujin asked, just to make sure and watched the pipe wander to Jia, who now hogged both of them, only for Kun to snatch one and Quan to give a deep sigh and then get into some talk with Jia - that was nothing to be concerned about anyway. "Jokes aside, opium", the wolf explained and gained no reaction from the rest of the crowd that just kept chitchatting with one another, not even minding that someone was there all of a sudden. That, however, didn't mean they didn't care, which also was why they at least tried to warm up to Richard as soon as he'd walked into here - not that that had beared any fruits with the way this guy was acting. "You smoke it and just let yourself relax, but I mean, you don't have to if you're scared, you know", Yujin joked, trying a different approach. If Richard wasn't going to take things because someone asked him if he wanted to, maybe he could just force him to somehow - that, at least, was worth an attempt, wasn't it?

      Instead, he decided to dish out something that even made Quan laugh. "So he can speak thrian, why didn't you tell me that earlier? What a shame, you're cute." "Quan, stop flirting, who knows if he's even into men." "Or your ugly face." Both Jia and Kun had taken to roasting him, now that they themselves were bored and Kun finally leaned over to the table, grabbed some of the things on there to shove them aside and then dragged something out that looked pretty similar to a chessboard. Was it, though? "Arikin? You don't hear that a lot, but names are names", Kun said, shrugging with his shoulders before he started assembling the flat, wooden pieces onto the board - was he really going to break the ice with a game? Apparently. "Well, he does have a point Yujin ... and it's not like you have to force that stuff onto him", Quan sighed instead, leaned over the table and grabbed the dish from Yujin, only to drink it himself, make a face about it and then judge Jia in silence for his, obviously, terrible choice. "You don't want to eat or drink, so I'm guessing smoking is also off the table - care for a game?", Kun suddenly asked, looking at Richard and in case the guy didn't understand, pointed from the board to the blonde. "Do you even know if he knows the rules?" "Doesn't matter, who the fuck cares, Yujin." Ah, yes, Yujin sure loved his friends.
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • Richard looked at Yujin somewhat bewildered once more. "Yeah? I do?", he answered. Well that wasn't a lie, he knew what a pipe was but also that he never smoked one and if someone did that in Adrestia it wasn't whatever those people smoked. In Adrestia mostly old people did it, right? "Opium? Isn't that medicine?", Richard asked confused. His father got that, to help him sleep when he was sick, right? But he'd drank it and not smoke it. It also served as a painkiller, Richard got it once too, when he broke his arm, but that was about all he knew about that stuff. Either way, he'd probably made a fool of himself trying to smoke and he also didn't want to do any of this, right? This almost felt like bonding, or a party, neither of which he wanted. "I'm not scared!", Richard gave back at Yujin somewhat offended. He was just trying to trigger him into something, right? Better not listen to him and he already gave the pipe away so that was that, no need to worry about it any longer. At least now he knew what that smell was though.

      Richard turned his head toward Quan, gifting him his usual look and raised an eyebrow. "Tell me, if someone called you 'cute' would you really take that as a compliment?", he wanted to know. Which guy really wanted to be cute? In cute there was nothing about strong or manly, a girl was cute, but not a guy, Richard sure hoped he wasn't 'cute'. In the end they probably didn't take him for full, because he quite obviously was a sheep and despite not being untrained, he sure looked that way with clothes on most of the time. His clothes also made him look a little bit more tender and small right? That reminded him, he actually felt a little bit warmer now that he was in here at least. Richard followed what the other wolf was doing on the table, he was pretty sure he knew that game, his father had been into all kinds of games but Nayantai never wanted to play with him and got bored pretty easily. Well he had his children to play with him at some point. The wolf suddenly talked to Richard and he had no clue what he was talking about again. Well he explained it with a gesture. "I think I know the rules. But I'm not really into games..." Or drinking, or smalltalk,...

    • "Good, good - did you ever smoke something, though?", Yujin suddenly asked, just to make sure that Richard wasn't going to choke on a few fumes - and even if he did, well, that didn't matter much, they all had been there, done that, looked like a bunch of fools and then wondered why on earth they'd let themselves get dragged into that. Well, whatever. "Can be. In this case, it's dried and ground up to be made smokable and not considered a painkiller ... well, it is, but it usually just has relaxing effects", Yujin elaborated before yanking the pipe that Kun had from him, once more, just so that he could dare Richard again - this was going to work, wasn't it? But instead of going on full offense, he took a drag of the pipe himself, only to hand it over to the blonde after that once more. "Prove it, then", he simply said, giving him the usual smile and even if Richard didn't want to, the fumes in here were probably enough at some point to get him to relax a little bit, or something of that kind. Yujin himself felt pretty nice for now, not that he'd expected anything else, but there wasn't anything that had kicked in yet anyway. "If not, I guess you're just a wuss." Was this even going to bear fruit or was Richard already seeing right through that?

      Quan, on the other hand, looked quite stifled. "Uh, I wouldn't mind? I mean, a compliment is a compliment!", he said and then seemingly laughed about it. Gods, he was friends with some idiots and Quan, in whatever intoxicated state he found himself, didn't really get that Richard wasn't keen on being called cute. At least that, seemingly, got him to shut up and going back to enjoy fighting over his own pipe with Jia, who, by all means, was probably not going to surrender that, based on the fact that he still was the tallest in here and probably the oldest one, too. "No? That's a shame. Anything else I could offer you? Jia and Quan are just unreasonable idiots", Kun sighed, but the other two very much understood what he was saying, which resulted in them arguing, once more, only for Kun to grumble something back at them, but mainly ignore them. "Uh, do you understand what Kun is saying?", Yujin suddenly asked, leaning over to the poor guy to move one of the figure on the board, just in case Richard wanted to chime in if he played with Kun. "If not, he wants to know if you want to do something else if games aren't for you ... or if you'd like to play something else. We do have cards here and if you just don't want to eat something because chopsticks aren't your thing, I can get you a spoon or feed you?"
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "I... uhm... no?", Richard answered truthfully and he wasn't even sure how that worked. Just breath in or what? Couldn't be harder than sucking on a straw right? Whatever, why would he do this? Only because Yujin dared him? Richard wasn't an idiot that could be persuaded so easly by something so stupid. Still he listened to Yujins explanation and wondered how on earth the wolves came up with this form of taking opium in. They apparently did it so much they had a whole establishment in Silesse that just offered that and suddenly Richard wondered what all of this cost and how it was paid. If he took anything from here wasn't he supposed to pay with them? If it wasn't trade what did people use to buy things? In an establishment like that the owner probably didn't need 25 people to trade him meat, so... how the hell did Silesse work? All the thinking wasn't useful at all and Richard ended up with the pipe in his hand again. "What if I... don't know how?", he grumbled. Even though he watched Yujin Richard wasn't very confident that he could pull this off without making a fool of himself and knowing Yujin he had to do it anyway, it didn't matter if he said no a hundred times. It also didn't hurt, right? He'd just take it in one time and then he was done with this and could sulk in his corner and wait until Yujin let him go again, just like last time in his room.

      Richard wasn't sure if he had just embarrassed Quan or if he was an idiot and didn't get what Richard was saying. Well that was that and he had shut him up, good, only three idiots to go ad once they all had enough of him, he'd leave... or be kicked out which was also fine. Kun was the one trying to talk to him next apparently and he had no idea what he was saying, so he looked at Yujin sighing. "No clue.", he responded but soon enough got an explanation. Yujin went on and on and... what?! "That's embarrassing idiot!", he yelled out in utter shock, hell would have to freeze over to have Richard let himself be fed by Yujin. Taking a spoon would also prove what a fool he was, using the chopsticks as well, judging on how he did last time. Those things just felt unnatural in his hands and let them cramp, why eat like that? And what was that on the plate anyway? He now turned back to Yujins friend to get rid of him, he tried to be nice didn't he? "Just play with Yujin and I'll sit here and I... watch, I guess.", he answered and even slipped a little bit backwards to lean back and be more away from all of what was happening between Yujin and his friends, though this room was pretty small, so they all were in pretty close proximity. Yujin especially...

    • "Somehow I didn't expect you to be like that, but that's something we can figure out", Yujin chuckled. After all, Richard seemed to be more than just all bark and bite, but in the end, he didn't do much more than a lot of barking, wasn't it that? Sure, admittedly, Yujin could have figured as much, especially since the blonde was a crown prince and hadn't even dreamt about coming here, but now that he did, he wondered if any of this was actually hard for him to adjust to or if the sole thought of being unable to not fit in was haunting him and that was why he, for one reason or the other, forced himself into a hard shell that barely was being held together by himself if someone just found a right spot to annoy him with. "You put the end of the pipe to your lips and then you suck in the air, or in that case inhale the smoke - just one deep breath, and after that, you breathe it out", Yujin explained, still gave Richard a smile for encouragement and because none of the people present here spoke adrestian - or rather because the wolf believed they didn't - he added: "There's nothing to be embarrassed about, just give it a shot."

      Yujin moved another piece after Kun caught on and while this was enjoyable to play and the master of games hadn't even joined their little banter, he had hoped that Richard would've taken it from there and freed him of the burden of actually having to play this game. "Is his dialect that bad?", he asked, then chuckled. "Still better than embarrassing yourself because you can't use them, right? So what'll it be? Spoon, chopsticks or my hands?", Yujin teased him, still just eyeing Quan and Jia that had gone back to being nothing but two idiots, complaining about the simplest of things to one another - what were they even going on about? Hopefully nothing too important, because he couldn't be assed to pay attention to them. "Mhm, if you want to join in, just let me know", Kun said, but focused on the game, rather than Richard, all the while Yujin felt as if there was something slowly moving away from him, but for now, Richard didn't need to, even though he missed the extra weight on one side of his body a bit. The game itself wasn't that much fun, which was probably why he reached for one of the cups on the table and just reached back to Richard with it. "Drink something, that's just water", he told him without having checked the contents himself, but ... normally alcohol was served in different cups, so this should be fine.
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "Be like what?", Richard asked, he didn't know what Yujin meant. Stuck up? Stiff? Well he actually hadn't been before his life went to shit, but smoking wasn't all too common in Adrestia, he just saw some old people do it and maybe some wolves when he had visited Thria before, he himself and Dayan as well had reached for alcohol to relax and have fun and often enough also sex with one too many girls. Well at least now he knew why Yujin didn't bring his girlfriend, this seemed like a mens only round and she probably didn't want to see Yujin waste away anyway. Did Richard want to see it? Not necessarily. "That's... not really a good explanation...", Richard grumbled, he figured as much and it didn't help. But it didn't look so hard either, so he eventually seriously gave it a shot. Well only to start coughing immediately, his throat felt scratchy and he was pretty sure he didn't do that correctly. He also was pretty sure that most of the smoke didn't even reach his lungs, instead he now gave the pipe back to Yujin and tried to contain his coughs. This was embarrassing after all and he had better not done this. It felt awful too.

      "Can't understand... a word.", Richard replied, his voice scratchy and he still tried not to cough, but speaking didn't make it better. Starting with the chopsticks now was nothing more than a bad idea, it was only another opportunity to be embarrassed and thus Richard shook his head. "Not hungry.", he voiced, sounding ten times older than usual. He actually didn't want to check how many eyes lay on him at this moment. The cup he got was welcome, he needed something to drink, something to make his throat calm down, but before he did that he smelled on the contents. It did smell like nothing, so probably water for real. He emptied all of it right away, his throat felt a little better afterwards and then he leaned forward to get rid of the cup again. He placed it on the table and looked at their game again, well Yujin wasn't really good at this, was he now? "No need to mother me...", he mumbled though, he gave him food and water as if he was a child who couldn't just take what he wanted, or didn't know when he was thirsty. Next thing he'd ask probably was if Richard needed to piss. "I wouldn't do that by the way.", he told Yujin and cleared his throat once more. Man he'd never try to smoke again. "You'll lose if you do." At least his voice was sounding better a little bit?

    • "That ... boring? Does that sound mean? I just expected you to have more, I guess, depth to you. But then again, you probably also had rules you were supposed to follow", Yujin mumbled, knowing well enought that whatever he tried in that moment wasn't going to get him anywhere, it wasn't even going to reassure him something, but that was fine. Being in an opium filled haze could do Richard some good, could maybe let him relax for a while but that was all there was to it, wasn't it? Not only was this that poor guys first time smoking, he also didn't do it with some shitty tobacco, no - instead, he found himself in some opium den just inhaling that and it would've been enough to have Richard sit here, in that thick air that had been hazed up for a while, but Yujin wasn't going to let him off the hook, even though blondie over there immediately coughed once he took the first whiff and he found the pipe back in his own hands. "That's fine, happens to all of us and it still isn't all that uncommon", Yujin informed Richard, letting him cough all he wanted and not even sparing him much of a glance, all the while he was trying to win a game against Kun who, by all means, knew the ropes better than him. Or were they just bullshitting each other?

      "He said if you want to play, just say something", the wolf translated, taking a whiff from the pipe and then another, before handing it over to Kun, who gladly did the same before passing it to either Quan or Jia, whoever it was didn't matter, but that way, they'd stop fighting over it until they both were baked enough to shut up, probably. "That's a shame, the food's really good", Yujin said, chuckled almost and then shook his head. Was he mothering Richard? Maybe he was trying, but teasing him was fun and while he didn't like to admit to it, sometimes all that mattered was making someone just be ashamed for no reason at all. "I didn't intend to, I just want you to feel good, that's all - so sit back, relax and if you need something, just ask anyone. Even if you can't understand them, Kun and Jia understand you as long as you talk thrian", the wolf reassured him and then went back to his game, not for long though, not until Richard himself said something that made him stop in his tracks. "And what else do you suggest I do? Move that there?", he said, pointing out another strategy that wouldn't immediately lead to his defeat. "You are quite knowledgable when it comes to these things, aren't you? Are you sure you don't want to give it a shot?" "Don't cheat, Yujin." "This is called taking advice, not cheating, Kun."
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "Boring? Because I never smoked? That's actually not common in Adrestia, places like this doesn't exist there. I've had enough fun while I was there trust me...", Richard explained. He wasn't boring, was he? Somehow that felt like an insult and he didn't want to be called that, though wouldn't it help to be just that? Maybe Yujin would back off then? Whatever, now he had tried to smoke anyway and it didn't go well, at least nobody was laughing at him. He still couldn't figure out why he was here in the first place, sitting on some thousand pillows with Yujins friends, most of which had given up talkin to Richard eventually, so that was good news. Sooner or later Yujin would get bored too, right? Or maybe Richard could just excuse himself and vanish back home, would Yujin be mad? Why did he bring him here in the first place? "I'm not boring...", he mumbled once more as if he had to hammer home that point. That kind of upset him. "Don't think I've done it right...", Richard pointed out and actually searched for another cup of water somewhere on that table. His throat felt fine as long as he didn't talk, but if he did he felt like the cough would start all over again right away. Was anyone as clueless as him at some point? Maybe he was boring...

      "I'm good.", Richard answered. Why did this Kun person not talk like all the other Silessians? He sounded like he had a stroke at some point and Richard couldn't make sense of his words. Then again, he didn't stop talking Adrestian and use Yujin as a translator, this was fine especially when he wasn't sure how his Thrian sounded anyway, it was probably apparent that he didn't exactly grow up with it. Nayantai only started a while later to teach Dayan and him, maybe that hadn't been for the better. Also he was pretty much inheriting Nayantais dialect if any, mixed with an Adrestian accent. "Is that what you usually do all day?", he eventually ended up asking, since he didn't want to talk about the food he didn't want to taste or the fact that he didn't want to ask anyone for anything. For now however his gaze fell back on the board. "Sure, why not.", was Richards answer, Yujin could figure it out himself eventually. "If you ask me like that, I'll rather watch you lose.", was Richards simple answer and he chose to say just that in Thrian for whatever reason. Maybe he'd rather help out Kun, but he didn't look like he needed any help. Well Richard was good at games, he played a lot, especially ones where one needed strategy. That was one of the few things he had been better than Dayan and that ended with him mostly playing against his father, because his brother didn't want to lose anymore. And the former king? Well if Richard won it was because he let him...

    • "Not because of that, you just seem like you've seen a bunch of things but ... uh, forget it, it's not that important", Yujin tacked onto that statement from earlier. Now he'd lost his way with words too and he wondered if he was doomed to sound like the idiot he was for the rest of his life or if all of that only came out when he tried too hard to impress someone. Quan hadn't been that wrong, Richard was cute, but judging by his reaction, not only didn't he fancy being called just that, he also seemingly wasn't in the mood to absorb all of that just yet. "I got it, I got it, you aren't. If you were, I'd not be sticking to you like I am!" That was just another confession of the fact that he was slowly losing his mind and the best way he could prevent that wasn't honesty, it would actually be to lie through his teeth and not let Richard feel any of the things that he liked to hear so much, but it only got worse when he thought too much about it, didn't it? "There's a first time for everything. Quan over there, YEAH YOU, threw up when he took his first whiff, so you're far better off than at least one of us." Was this going to help Richard? Who knew. "Are you talking shit about me?" "I'm saying the truth, you ugly bastard."

      Being here wasn't too bad, but Yujin wouldn't enjoy wasting away his entire day in this den, then again, he never came here this early and the fact that his friends were here either meant that one of them was trying to cope with something or they were, simply put, just bored out of their minds and had nothing better to do. "No", Yujin answered, eyes still focused on the board while he raised his middlefinger at Quan in the background that actually threw a pillow in their direction - only to hit Kun in the process, who threw it back at Jia. This was a mess, wasn't it? "Normally I actually study or take the library apart, go out and fish a bit, annoy my siblings or my girlfriend and come here once or twice a week, or whenever I need to calm down." No one would come to a den like this otherwise, at least not if there was nothing in store for them here. "Kun isn't here all that often either, but Quan and Jia tend to come here whenever they feel like it." Speaking of which, those two idiots were probably here since yesterday night and judging by the way they were behaving, they'd neither slept nor really been happy that anyone came in here, not when Kun arrived or he and Richard made their way in here. "Are y'all really playing a fucking game?", Jia suddenly called out, shoving Quan away from him and peering over. "None of your business", Yujin responded, then went back to Richard. "Pleaaase help me, Arikins?", he instead implored the blonde - well, this could only go horribly, couldn't it? He'd never been good at these types of games and the fact that he had spectators and was up against Kun, who at least knew something, wasn't making it better.
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "I've seen a lot of things, but...? End your fricking sentence, you're driving me nuts!", Richard replied since he had no clue what Yujin was hinting at. What he knew was that he couldn't let it go now that he heard it and that he'd think way too much about some stupid words that fell out of Yujins mouth, just because he was nosy and maybe a little bit insecure. Aside from that, he wasn't boring! Whatever Yujin thought he was wrong, but to prove that Richard first needed to know what this was about. He agreed that Richard wasn't boring, but that probably just was to shut him up. "Just what do you mean? If you believe it or not I went to a lot of parties, drank alcohol, had sex,... I just don't really feel like it right now for obvious reasons." He didn't need to explain himself, right? But still he did exactly that for whatever reason. He probably should just shut up. Wait! Was Yujin just riling him up so he could dare him to something stupid again? Damn it! "He threw up? Why?", Richard asked somewhat confused, ignoring the short brawl between Yujin and Quan. That was only smoke... well... maybe he was about to throw up at some point anyway.

      "You... study? You?", Richard asked as if that was completely out of character for Yujin. Well in the end he definitely didn't believe him. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that hid behind some books and that generally was interested in anything for very long. What would he even read about? Some places he never would visit but gave up seeing? That was just stupid. "Pretty noisy here if you really wanted to calm down...", Richard pointed out, Quan and the other guy couldn't shut up, could they? In the end even a pillow was thrown around, so how was this in any kind relaxing? If that pipe should have fixed that, well Richard didn't feel anything, but he also did it completely wrong so that was not surprising at all. As if Jun was trying to prove Richards point he started yelling around something that Richard couldn't understand. Richard looked up for a short moment, but his attention went back to Yujin when he begged him to help and called him by a stupid nickname or whatever it was. Richard sighed, did he have a chance? Yujin literally carried him here against his will, so probably not. "Fine. Move B4 to D2. It'll hopefully lure him out and you've won in 3 more moves as long as you don't fuck it up.", Richard explained not even trying to whisper or conceal that he actually was helping. He was pretty sure that no one understood him anyway.

    • “All I’m saying is that I’ve seen a lot of stuff and I just didn’t take you, of all people, for someone that not only likes to party, but also I just thought you’d be someone that likes being alone all the time”, Yujin admitted. Richard didn’t seem like anyone worthwhile, at least not at first sight - it was almost eerie, thinking about the potential occurence of this poor sap actually fitting in pretty well and just living his life. Then again, he already had made it clear at the harbor that he had no intention of being here any longer than he needed to be and, well, Yujin wasn’t going to take that from him in any way, actually, he was just going to forget about it all and then hope he’d not find himself occupied with the stupidest of things. “We talked about you bedding some girls, not much of the rest, but knowing who you were, well, what your status was, it’s almost obvious that you’d pick up a girl at a party”, Yujin mumbled. Events like those in Adrestia didn’t exactly exists in Thria, nobody wanted them and nobody really needed them anyway, so they all just gathered once in a while or met up elsewhere, for some sort of trip, wasn’t that enough? “Never smoked anything before and that’s what you get for getting shitfaced first, then asking someone to pass you the pipe and, well, that’s how you throw up.” Quan wasn’t the most elegant out of all of them, but he’d been around for a while, hadn’t he?

      “Yes, believe it or not, Yujin of Silesse isn’t as stupid as he acts like”, he sighed. He shouldn‘t have mentioned that, should he now? There was no escaping it right about now, Richard was probably wondering if he was sane, but he very much was. “But I think I told you when I was incredibly sick and my brain was soup. That’s also why my thrian accent is fake when I talk in adrestian. It’s the same when you pretend you can’t speak or understand thrian - we both don’t want to be bothered”, he elaborated to Richard, who’d probably expected something else - an actual, nonsensical answer or something like, no, the wolf was lying to him, but unfortunately for both of them, Yujin was speaking the truth. “It’s going to get silent when the alcohol or the opium kicks in, trust me.” That was always the case and maybe, just maybe, someone was going to convince Richard to take another puff - but it wasn’t going to be Yujin, who made grabby hands across the room until Jia got up and gave him his, nice. “Should be easy enough”, Yujin replied, taking a drag from the pipe, which he handed to Kun after the fact, only for Kun to hand it over to Richard and actually smile at this guy - what the fuck, when the hell did Kun smile? “Makes me think, Adrestia has similar games like this, right?”, he asked as he moved the piece he’d been asked to and followed his opponents next move, just barely, with his eyes.
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "I like being alone all the time now.", Richard answered, but he hadn't been like this, not at all. If Yujin would met his past self he probably wouldn't recognize him. Sure, he looked the same but that was about it. Richard might have been a little bit more shy than his brother Dayan, but he had been good in concealing that. He had talked to almost everyone he met, he flirted with a lot of girls actually and he drank until he fell asleep. The next day both him and Dayan woke up with a headache and tried to remember what had happened, then they fought over who's girl was prettier or who drank more, some stupid stuff every time. It had been fun, Richard hadn't been against fun, he was now, because he felt like it was wrong to have fun when Dayan couldn't anymore. Since he was dead, Richard wasn't allowed to feel anything but the same. "Well yeah, it was easy to me to find someone who wanted a piece of the cake, if that's what you're saying.", Richard replied, but he also pic ked up commoners girls at times, dressed like a peasant himself, so if Yujin thought his title was the only reason, he was wrong. "Right... is that why you handed me the pipe first?", he asked, but Yujin wasn't that considerate. Anyway, it was hard to tell time down here right, but it sure as hell was way too early for all of this. Richard looked at the one and only Quan for a moment again and tried to figure him out, but he probably couldn't anyway.

      "Who'd bother you, none here speaks it except maybe me, Nayantai and some merchants at the harbor.", Richard mumbled, Yujin just liked to play games and liked to pretend that he was someone else, right? There was probably nothing more to it than that. "Usually when the alcohol kicks in in Adrestia it gets loud.", Richard pointed out, which was the truth and alcohol was alcohol right? It had the same effect either way, it just tasted different, didn't it? Richard watched Yuhin and Kun smoke once more, only to end up with the pipe in his own hands again. Kun was actually smiling at him, didn't he? For some reason Richard had the feeling those guys were overly nice to him, but oh well, time to embarrass himself some more. He tried once more to take a puff, only to cough once more, but it wasn't as bad as the first time. He used one arm to cover his mouth and the other hand handed the pipe back to Yujin. "Still don't... get it...", he mumbled between his coughs, then he looked back on the board again. "Chess you mean. Yeah. But I know a lot of Thrian games too. My father was pretty obsessed with those.", he explained with a soar throat and looked around the table. "I could use another cup of water actually...", he voiced once he didn't find what he had searched for.

    • "But you don't have to. You'll get lonely eventually", Yujin mumbled. Did Richard like that? Withering away all on his own, in that little hut of his and the only person around him was going to be that father of his that he sometimes didn't know how to handle? Yujin thought that Nayantai was scary in his own regard, sometimes because of the way he looked, other times because Richard made it sound like he was a pain to deal with, but no matter the circumstances, the young wolf wasn't exactly keen on getting to know the old one better - actually, he'd rather not know anyone his father called a friend, he'd learned that all of the old folk were insane, whether because of the war or not, but none of them were fun to talk to. "Cake? Isn't cake at least supposed to be tasty?", he teased Richard, before grinning and shaking his head. "Either way, they wanted you because they thought you were handsome or because you could give them something that they didn't already have, which doesn't mean that you really did." Though, if Richard was anything like him and if all of that served a definite purpose, he'd just brush them off anyway, give it no second thought and let all of that just go on until the next time he dragged home a different girl. "You didn't want to drink which I actually banked on, so I handed you the pipe because I want you to relax somehow."

      Truth be told, he wanted Richard to be less tense, to sleep nice for once in his life and if he couldn't do that, maybe he could get this guy to just relax while he was awake, but that's it, wasn't it? "One, I don't plan on staying in Silesse until I turn old and gray. The moment my father bites it, I'm out of here and as long as the borders are still open, I gotta get through Adrestia somehow." Not that he'd normally admit it, but here, he felt alone and secure enough to just let Richard know, someone who'd not know anything about what they were talking about right now anyway, at least not once they stumbled out of here. "Quan and Jia are already shitfaced, so no wonder it's loud. They'll either leave soon or they'll just pass out." If the latter happened, they could foot the bill which wasn't something that Yujin wouldn't appreciate, but whatever the case, it was bound to be fun enough for a while, as long as none of these fuckers had any stupid ideas and randomly started ... eugh, no. Yujin took the pipe, another drag with it and as he handed it over to Kun, Kun actually handed it to Jia, who didn't know what to do with two of them, but he seemingly wasn't complaining, as long as that meant that Quan was getting none - Quan, actually, was grinning back at Richard for no real reason, just for a second, and then winking at him. "You're embarrassing." "That wasn't meant for you!" Yujin could only laugh, but still, they always were idiots when it came to that - and Yujin actually reached across the table to get another water glass, put it against his lips first, drank a bit and then handed it over to Richard. "That's water, but anything else on the table isn't", he mumbled, going back to the game, but soon enough, he wondered ... eugh, no, thanks. "Which one? I mean, I'm guessing you mean Rain, Nayantai doesn't look like he likes ... wasting time?", Yujin added, watching Kun make another move. "Are you cheating?" "You're the one double-teaming up on me. Besides, if you could play half as good as you can talk with Arikin in some language I can't understand, you'd be winning." "Eugh, fine."
      Looking back, it maybe is like the toy carts you rode when you were a kid. But those toy carts could never go beyond the walls of the lawn. We want to follow the rugged concrete road beyond the wall. As we've grown, we've decided to leave behind the toy cart.

    • "Maybe I want to be lonely. Besides, having people around doesn't always make you no lonely.", Richard replied, people with power, such as Yujin probably knew that. Sure Richard always had someone in his life but he also knew that if he hadn't had his family all those people who spent time with him wouldn't have made him feel any less lonely. Wasn't that exactly what happened now? Only because Yujin and his friends were around, Richard didn't automatically feel less lonely. He still missed his family, his father and brothers and sister and he still felt like he didn't fit in here anyway, no matter what he did. On the other hand he also knew that he'd leave at some point, so why building up friendships when the only outcome was saying goodbye soon enough forever. Richard looked at Yujin again as he made a stupid joke and Richard rolled his eyes. "Who says I'm not tasty?", he asked back. Heavens, why the hell did he say that? Maybe all this smoke did something eventually, but actually he wasn't quite sure if it was that or rather the fact that the overall mood in this room was way higher than Richard was used to lately. But with one thing Yujin was right, Richard was handsome, right? At least for Adrestian standards, maybe not so much here. "Maybe the alcohol would have sat better...", Richard mumbled, maybe he should just try some, but he didn't reach for any of the drinks, he didn't even know what was in there. What did Silessians drink anyway?

      "Well you should hope he lives a while longer.", Richard replied, he kind of was allergic to talk about family members die. He knew that sometimes people said stupid shit, but he knew that when it really happened, it was awful. Even if the assassination didn't happen, he'd still miss his father very much, he died way too young too. Yujin had two younger sisters right? It would be unfair if their father died already, before they were finished growing up. "It's not even lunch time... are they always like this?", Richard asked, it was better to ask questions even if he wasn't interested in the answers, than sulk over his dead family. Richard didn't really look somewhere in particular anymore but for some reason his gaze had found it's way to Quan again and when he winked at him, Richards face only darkened and he avoided any further eye contact. What an idiot. Richard instead took the glass of water to rink half of it and then set it aside. He kinda wanted to keep the water for himself in case he needed it again, but oh well, someone would take it eventually. "You mean former king Rain of Fhaergus you twat?", Richard asked since Yujin was calling his father jut by his name, without any titles. That was rude. he also shot him a sour glance. "He'd already lost two times if I hadn't helped him and now crush him, he gets on my nerves."