Trash Panda

Masters of the Sea

Sorry it's taking me so long to get a reply done!
I ended up hanging out with friends all of yesterday, so I didn't have time to finish my post.
I'll get started on it pretty soon ^^

Messengers of Heaven and Hell

Roman’s first thought when Abigail answered the door was: Damn. His dark eyes swept over her form. He hadn’t expected her to dress up too since they were going to be having dinner at her own apartment, but here she was, standing in front of him in a smoking hot outfit. He licked his lips. She looked incredible. He was definitely glad he had decided to pursue a second date with her now. He just hoped the payoff wouldn’t take too much longer.

“Me?” he pressed a hand to his chest in exaggerated surprise when she complimented him. “I’m just glad I put on something kind of decent. You look gorgeous, Abby.” He stepped inside once she had invited him in, taking a moment to look around.

It was easy to tell that the apartment belonged to a woman. The place was much cleaner than his bachelor pad, and it smelled a lot better too—although that was partly due to the scent of delicious-smelling food that came from the kitchen. There was also a table that was already adorned with plates and silverware for dinner. He could tell that she had spent quite a bit of time preparing for their date.

“It’s the least I could do, since you offered to make me dinner,” Roman smiled when she mentioned the flowers he had brought over. “I figured if you provide the food, I should bring the ambience, you know?” He shrugged. “If you have a vase, I’ll put these on the table.”

P.S: Don’t tell Abigail Astor. The words from the note flitted unexpectedly through his mind, and his smile faltered. It was such a specific demand. He wondered why the mystery person didn’t want Abby to know about the meeting. She didn’t look like anything special, aside from her inexplicable beauty. It didn’t make sense why someone would want him to keep something like that from her.

He toyed with the idea of telling her just to spite his stalker, but something made him hold his tongue. Perhaps it was his instinct for self-preservation—he didn’t know who this person was or what they wanted with him, after all—but he couldn’t bring himself to disregard the note so easily.

It’s not like it matters, anyway, he reminded himself. I already decided I’m not going.

“So, what’s for dinner?” Roman asked, putting aside his thoughts about the note. “It smells great.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Really? I thought it was higher in CA for some reason.
Probably because my friends from SoCal were always talking about how expensive everything is there xD
They came to the university I go to because the tuition was cheaper than their in-state options

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

“It’s henbane,” Crow explained, slinging his bow over his shoulder again. “Do you remember Evelyn—the tavern keeper from the village we stayed in before we crossed into Younis? Her daughter, Hazel, is an herbalist. She makes medicines for the people in their village, since there’s a lot of illness there. She and I used to—” he trailed off, turning slightly red. “Err… we used to know each other when I lived there. Anyway, she taught me about plants like this one. Henbane is really useful for a lot of things, but I used it as a pain killer.”

He plucked one of the flowers from the stalk, spinning it between his fingers. “If you rub the petals on your skin, it causes numbness. It’s great for taking away pain.” He looked up again to meet her gaze. “Sometimes, it’ll make you hallucinate too, but if you have a dagger in your side, it’s a small price to pay for the relief. Here, I’ll show you,” he pulled one of the small yellow petals off of the flower and reached for Penelope’s arm, pressing the petal to the inside of her forearm and massaging it along her skin with his thumb.

“Don’t worry,” he smirked at her. “This isn’t enough to make you hallucinate. At the most, you might feel a little lightheaded for a few minutes. But you can’t feel me touching your arm there anymore, can you?” He let go of her and dropped the petal, watching it flutter down to the grass at their feet. “That’s not why I took it though,” he eyed the plant in his hand contemplatively.

“Henbane can be used in battle too,” Crow said, meeting Penelope’s gaze seriously. “It’s tricky to work with, but if you apply the right amount to the edge of a blade, you can make your enemies become too delirious to fight when you cut them. You just have to be careful not to use too much if you don’t want to kill them, because if too much henbane gets in your body, it can paralyze your lungs and make you stop breathing.” He held up the arrow in his other hand. “I think we should use it when we get to the castle. I’ve had enough practice with it on myself that I think I can turn it into a nonlethal weapon.

“What do you think?” he asked, looking up at her once more. “Want to try it?”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

You're hopefully making lots of money, at least :P
What's the minimum in California? AZ just upped ours to $11.50 as of this summer
It used to be $8, but it's been increasing over the last two years.
No one is happy about it though because it's killing our small businesses

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow rolled his eyes at Penelope when she flicked him. He didn’t like the idea of wasting precious time just because of a cut, but there was no point in trying to argue with her after she had made up her mind. He sighed. It was starting to look like he would still be relying on her in battle after all. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust her, but he wanted to be able to hold his own in a fight too. He supposed he should have known better than to get his hopes up though.

“You’re right,” he said after a moment, meeting her gaze solemnly. “I’ll do what I can, but I won’t push myself too hard, okay?” He leaned down to press a kiss to her lips and then smiled affectionately at her. “I’m glad you’re watching out for me, love, because gods know somebody has to,” he shook his head.

As they had gotten closer to the castle, he had noticed that his mood had gotten more bitter. He felt trapped, and whenever that happened, he always looked for ways to fight back or run away. Since he only had one option in this case, he was starting to get more desperate for a way to fight. If he had been on his own, he probably would have done something reckless by now. He was glad he had Penelope by his side to keep him level headed.

When Penelope went to go collect the arrows, he went with her. “I hope so too,” Crow agreed, navigating through a patch of underbrush to reach one that had struck a tree farther away. He turned to head back to the clearing, but paused as he caught sight of a strange looking plant at his feet. It had a tall stalk with jagged leaves and a small cluster of yellow flowers on top. He crouched down to get a closer look at it, and a smile crossed his lips in recognition. He reached for the base of the plant and gave it a sharp tug, ripping it up from the ground.

He walked back over to Penelope and held it up to show her, grinning excitedly, “Look what I found.”

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Dang, that's a while from now. Are you working more than full time?

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

Crow averted his gaze as Penelope began cleaning and redressing his injury. He hated how crippling his fear of blood was. The laceration in his palm hadn’t even been that bad, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at it. It wasn’t like it was anything new either. He had had plenty of wounds in the past that were far worse than a meager cut. He would have thought it would get easier with time, but instead he almost seemed to be getting more sensitive to it lately.

He gritted his teeth as Penelope poured water from her canteen onto his hand. The cold water stung, but it also felt cleansing. He glanced back and noticed that she had positioned herself in a way that would prevent him from seeing his injury while she worked on it. She must have caught his uncomfortable expression. He blushed. Even though he knew she was only trying to help, he found it embarrassing that she would have to go to such measures to protect him from something so small.

I can’t keep letting this fear control me, he thought with a new resolve that surprised himself. He was tired of being paralyzed whenever he saw blood. It was causing them both more trouble than they needed at this point in their journey. They already had enough to worry about without him becoming a liability every time they got into a fight. He had to do something about it.

Crow blinked, realizing Penelope had finished bandaging his hand. He shook his head when she said he should take it easy on his training, “We don’t have time to worry about that. You told me it takes a lot of practice to learn how to use a bow, right?” His stubborn green eyes met hers. “If that’s true, then I’m going to need all the practice I can get.” He softened a bit as she kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll help you get them. I think I saw where the second one went.”

Messengers of Heaven and Hell

World building is my obsession, so I like the sound of that :D

Really? Cool! I'm glad I could give you an idea ^^

No worries! I hope you feel better soon.
Sorry it's been taking me a while to reply!
I was going to yesterday, out I ended up going out with my friends all day instead.
I'm gonna start on my response pretty soon :)

Let Me Steal Your Heart [BuzzingBee + Dagger]

I can imagine xD

Awesome! Glad our schedules lined up so well