In the Bear Cave || Duo RP

In this duo RP thread for Build a Bear (Writing Group) two members will role-play by using a smaller prompt/plot until they can no longer continue and/or the scene comes to a conclusion.

The writing support group is to help keep the writing juices flowing, and to free write in a way to help develop your characters. Try to keep it easy going, if you are stuck it is encouraged to share and help one another (in the main thread).

ROLE-PLAYING RULES:
- Third Person POV
- Authors are allowed (2) characters in one plot.
- Do not control a character that isn't yours, unless approved by the author.
- R-Rating w/ no smut.

_________pirates

previous prompt:

Quote

☼ "So... what brings you here?" ☼

Location: a local bar | Age: 21+ | Time: Thursday afternoon

The characters are strangers, and are having a drink a few seats away from each other, they talk and find out how the other ended up there. A fight in the bar breaks out afterwards, how do they handle it?

Purpose: to find out what has driven your character(s) to drink during the afternoon, and how they handle unexpected violence.

The bartender bobbed his head to the familiar sounds of a 80s tune while cleaning beer mugs. He had previously finished serving a customer who dragged their feet to a seat at the bar. The middle-aged bar owner shook his head and pitied the soul, it was a sight that he was used to, but it still affected him. He sighed; hopefully this time he wouldn't be the one to hear the stranger’s woes.

Nerissa exhaled heavily, taking a sip from her drink, the bitter taste lingered on her tongue, but there was something she enjoyed about it. The full moon was always tough on her, but this time, it was even tougher. She took a full on swig of the drink. “Another, please?” She asked the bartender, who nodded in response.

Noah looked around the place briefly as he entered the bar, taking in the atmosphere briefly. Sitting down a few feet away from a young woman drinking her own beer, he nodded briefly at her in greeting before taking an offered beer from the bartender. He generally wasn't a drinker of alcohol, at least not beer, his troubled mine was calling for it and he wanted to forget about his troubles for a little while.

Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes and just allowed the poppy 80s songs, possibly sung by Michael Jackson or Prince (He could never tell who was who half the time). But somehow this atmosphere calmed him.

He finally opened his eyes a few seconds later at hearing the girl asking for another beer and looked over in time to see the bartender fulfil her request.

"You having a rough afternoon too?" He asked half jokingly.

“You have no idea,” Nerissa chuckled at the young man, taking another swig of the refreshing beer handed to her. She licked her lips, ridding her mouth of froth. “So… what brings you here?” Nerissa asked, glancing at the young man with a kind smile. “Penny for your thoughts.”

Noah chuckled as well. "Maybe not," he took a sip of his own beer, relishing in the strange sweet yet bitter taste it had before shrugging at the woman's question. "Many things, really. Just parents trying to tell me what do with my life, hoping I'd follow in one of their footsteps," Noah then thanked the bartender for a refill and he then gestured to the stool next to her. "Mind if I sit here?"

“Go ahead,” Nerissa smiled, sipping her own drink. “I’m sorry about your folks, it’s not fair when they expect you to be like them.” She took another sip of her beer, drinking slower now that she had somebody to talk to.

"Thanks," Noah said as he took the bar stool next to her. He shrugged, to offering the woman a half-hearted smile. "It's fine. You learn how to cope with parents like mine after awhile." He took another sip of his beer before finally looking to her. "Since you heard my thoughts, can I offer my ears now?"

She nodded in understanding, taking a sip of her beer, pausing and considering whether she should open her heart to a stranger. Fuck it, she thought I'll probably never see him again. Nerissa smiled weakly. "It's my Mom's 50th birthday today, and I just wish she was here to celebrate it. So, I'm having a beer for her." She raised her glass.

(Sorry Effy!)

"Oh," Noah's eyes went wide and he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry to hear that. I can only imagine how tough it is to lose your mother. I beat she was a wonderful lady." He said softly, offering a weak smile of his own. Noah then lifted his glass as well, "Well, then I'll drink to her as well. Happy birthday to your mom."

"Thanks," Nerissa smiled. "Hey, I never caught your name. I'm Nerissa." She introduced herself with confidence, outstretching her free hand for the stranger to shake, turning away from her drink to look at her newfound friend properly.

"You're welcome, it'd be disrespectful not to honor a dead loved one." Noah said with a chuckle. He studied Nerissa's hand for a second before accepting her hand.. "A fellow N I see." He teased but Noah chuckled again, gripping Nerissa's hand a bit firmly as he shook it, "The name's Noah."

"Well, Noah. It's great to meet you," Nerissa smiled, watching two men in the corner, just by the pool table, argue, whistling lowly as things escalated quickly. She let go of Noah's hand, ordering a drink for herself and her new friend that she found in Noah.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Nerissa." Noah chuckled a bit, letting her hand go and resting his arms on the counter. He took notice of the two men as well and straightened some, ready to jump to Nerissa's defense if the two men tried dragging anyone into their squabble. "Some people become idiots when drunk." He muttered to her as he took the new drinks from the bartender, thanking both Nerissa and the bartender in the process. He felt that Nerissa could take care of herself if in a tight spot but knowing how easily many people could get riled up when drunk, he wanted to make sure she had some backup. it was just he was.

"I gotta agree with that one," Nerissa murmured back as a punch was thrown between the two men. "Holy shit." She turned on her bar stool to watch, keeping a close eye on Noah to make sure hew as okay with the violence. "Fight, fight, fight!" Nerissa chanted cockily, the bar joining in. She laughed and turned back around, taking a sip of her beer with a smug grin.

-

_________pirates

[Pre-facing this with I'm incredibly sorry, had a busy week]

Andraste was a storm locked under skin. In the sense that no matter what she did, she found herself agitated, angry and pacing either the deck of the boat or her captain's quarters at any given part of the day. When she would accidentally step in spilt alcohol or - god forbid - on a passed out crewmate she hadn't noticed it would only serve to make her angrier. Even looking out towards the horizon, the waves a sapphire blue glittering under the summer sun (so unfitting for Andraste), it did nothing to calm her. Instead she could only feel bitter that this time the sea had not been able to catch her when she had fallen.

So much for trusting entities that a) may not be real and b) she has no control over.

It had been weeks of being attacked by other pirates (their souls be damned), sitting on docks as her boat was repaired, unsuccessfully finding any treasure even though her sense of direction and finding things has never been such a failure as it has been these last few weeks. Every time she walks into the treasury on their boat, she first scowls at the ever dwindling gold and then sighs and rolls her eyes when she gets a look from her accountant, Damian.

She has dreams of throwing him overboard, sometimes. But considering he was the only one who could count (and one of the few who could read and write, too) and Andraste didn't have the time to do any financing herself, Damian was practically invincible within the crew.

Save for the few jests and jokes, that is.

And now Damian wanted to speak to her. Andraste wasn't particularly in the mood to face him, she had already threatened several hungover crewmates to knock it off or she would throw them overboard and leave them to whatever mysteries and monsters the sea had in store. Upon her threat, all but one had risen to it, grabbing the mops and buckets to start cleaning the 'partied out' deck. The one who hadn't, the one who had dared to talk back (we're just having a bit of fun, lighten up) had promptly been pushed off deck. She supposed she could tell Damian they had one less person to feed.

Even in a bad mood, Andraste eventually found herself in the little treasury room, leaning against the wooden desk with a few candles little around it. It was starting to look emptier than she had ever seen it before and she came to the conclusion that this must be a curse. There was, after all, not much other explanation for the fact she couldn't find any new treasure.

When Damian was younger, he had a set idea of how his life would go and where he would end up, and he would figure everything else out on the way. Most of these ideas simply revolved around him getting out of the rundown place he had called home since he was little, so he never put too much thought into any real specific way as to how that would happen. Still, nowhere in his ideas did he anticipate it being on a pirate ship. As the ship’s accountant for the most intimidating woman he’s ever met. Beggars can’t be choosers, he supposed.

However, if there was one thing Damian could have gone his entire life without doing, it was delivering bad news to Andraste about her beloved ship.

Damian wasn’t too keen on even suggesting that he was telling her what to do or how to handle her business. Mostly out of respect, but also out of a healthy amount of fear. He had already been somewhat scared of her when he first met her without a word ever spoken between them; now he was alarmingly good at pretending he hadn’t witnessed Andraste throw another impertinent crewmate overboard for overstepping. Damian wasn’t stupid enough to think that Andraste didn’t humor the thought of doing the same to him every once in a while.

Damian had only really ended up in the accountant position because despite her impatience and pride, Andraste was also reasonable. He couldn’t keep watching the treasury room get more and more empty, though. It was starting to stress even him out. He had tried numerous times to handle it himself because Andraste’s mood seemed to keep getting worse as the days went by, but despite being invincible in the sense that he couldn’t be killed, Damian wasn’t in any place that demanded respect either. He wasn’t a pirate, he could barely hold his own, and he knew that without the jabs slung his way. He knew that Andraste only took him ‘in’, so to speak, out of pity (even though she’d never say so) and not really because he would contribute to the ship before he took over the finances.

And he didn’t want to be a tattle tale because he didn’t think that would gain him any respect either, but he had to accept that he had to go to Andraste and tell her that unless she wanted to be empty-handed and bone dry in a couple more weeks, she needed to reel her crew in and tell them to stop. He didn’t even know what the hell there was to be happy about. He worked on how to have the conversation without expressing his intense annoyance with the situation and the crew for two days before he finally asked to talk to her.

Damian was already in the treasury room when Andraste arrived, looking over everything miserably. He stood up when she came in instinctively but he watched her sulk to the desk and gave her a moment of silence before he finally said, “We don’t have the gold to keep up with all this rum and damage on top of the repairs already being made. We’re going to reach a point where we can’t even feed everyone anymore. They’re spending more than we have to give, Captain. I can’t get them to stop.” It felt like all he was doing was reminding Andraste about her current run of bad luck. Damian took a deep breath between his teeth to keep his tone as even as he could. “You have to stop them before there’s literally nothing left.”