Tag: Basteaux Renaulier

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duskrecluse:

nebula1984:

Destiney was frustrated to say the least. Not to mention running out of ideas on how to deal with his stubborn streak. Barely a response at all to her words. One very short sentence. Dismissive at that. It was troubling and almost heartbreaking.

“Basteaux… Please.” Her tone was soft and pleading as she looked up at him for several long moments. Finally she lets out a heavy sigh before turning away from him to sit down on the ground. Tucking her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. Daisy flutters over to sit on her shoulder and pats her cheek. “I don’t know what else I can say to you…”

She was trying. She was ‘trying’ in more ways than one, to Basteaux, but as he takes a deep breath of clean air and slowly releases it, his tense shoulders ease. His bow is set on the ground beside her, and a moment later he joins it. He doesn’t speak immediately. Instead he spends a long moment listening to the water run by.

“You’re a warm-hearted soul, Destiney,” he finally says. “I’m alone out here for a reason. Whether or not you agree with that reason is irrelevant. It’s a burden I have borne for all the years so far, and was my own choice to undertake. And I would hate to see someone else hurt or killed because of something I did.” Reaching out, he rests one large hand on Destiney’s head and gives her hair a little ruffle.

“Sometimes you remind me of her. My sister. And I’m honestly not sure what to do about it.” He gives her a sidelong look from the corners of his eyes. “What do you think we should do?”

Destiney was caught by surprise when he actually sat down beside her. She had completely expected him to walk off and leave her here. Blue eyes watched him with curiosity, wondering what he was going to do now. Listening quietly as he spoke.

Hair ruffles! Her eyes widened in surprise. She remembered doing such behavior to her brother when they were little. The action had almost made her completely forget the other things he had said right before it. It took a long moment before she could manage to get her brain to cooperate again.

“Maybe you don’t have to do anything about it really.” She smiles softly an gently nudges him with her shoulder. “I don’t want to try and replace her. I’m not asking for you to leave being out here. Or change your way of life. Well not really beyond letting me be your friend. Letting me help you share the burden even just a little bit. Sometimes all it is, is moments like this. Sitting beside one another and sharing in that feeling of not being alone. That someone cares. Not letting your heart be burden so badly like I found you tonight. It helps with healing to have someone there.”

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Destiney was frustrated to say the least. Not to mention running out of ideas on how to deal with his stubborn streak. Barely a response at all to her words. One very short sentence. Dismissive at that. It was troubling and almost heartbreaking.

“Basteaux… Please.” Her tone was soft and pleading as she looked up at him for several long moments. Finally she lets out a heavy sigh before turning away from him to sit down on the ground. Tucking her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. Daisy flutters over to sit on her shoulder and pats her cheek. “I don’t know what else I can say to you…”

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duskrecluse:

nebula1984:

Destiney chewed on her lower lip as he finally admitted to part of what was troubling him. Saying she was sorry for his loss felt hollow. She knew the pain of that kind of loss. How much it hurt. Words seemed hollow in comparison.

There was an urge to hug him but knew he probably wouldn’t welcome the contact. Not that kind of contact. Especially in his current state. Instead she merely walked over to him and tried to lightly put a hand on his arm in a gesture of comfort. “Basteaux… I know words can not make this better… But I understand the feelings. Please don’t let this destroy you. I know we’re two different people. Yet I understand the rage and pain of that kind of loss. I was down that road when my father died to Imperials. Whatever you need right now… I’d like to be there for you.”

Every muscle tenses and Bast shifts slightly to move his arm away from the touch. There is no force in it, no raging strikes or violent brush-off; just a quiet rustle of fabric as he pulls away. “Going on four years,” he says, shaking his head. “I only found out recently. Between that bit of information and Briar, I don’t think–” he breaks off and reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose and rub the inner corners of his eyes. “How I feel about it makes no difference. She’s long gone now. The world is the same today as it was yesterday, or last year, or five years past; I already made sure of that when I removed her from my life. I have no right to mourn a loss I already forced once upon myself.”

Inhaling quickly, Basteaux lets the breath out in one short, sharp gust. “I need to stop allowing myself to drink to excess, remind myself of my place in this, and go home. Your offer of comfort is made out of kindness, but it’s more than I deserve.” Self-pity doesn’t weigh his shoulders, he instead glancing down at her with a quiet sort of pained resolve. “Goodnight.”

If Dest had fur she would have bristled like an annoyed cat. Thankfully she didn’t though. Stubborn male. Should just let him walk away. Should just let him be an idiot if that was what he wanted to do. Instead she found herself standing in front of him. All six fulms of sassy healer now that nothing else had worked.

“Basteaux…” She huffed before pulling the book from her waist and bringing it up to bop him lightly on the head, yet hard enough to make a point. “That is -not- a healthy way to deal. She is your sister for Twelves sake. You have every right to mourn her, four years late or not. My brother ran away from us at fifteen. Had I found out he died in the years he shut us out I would have still mourned his pain in the butt anyways. He is family to me just as your sister is family to you regardless of whatever happened between you. You may not think you deserve kindness but you are going to get it anyways because despite what -you- think… I think you do deserve it. That maybe it is long overdue even.”

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Destiney chewed on her lower lip as he finally admitted to part of what was troubling him. Saying she was sorry for his loss felt hollow. She knew the pain of that kind of loss. How much it hurt. Words seemed hollow in comparison.

There was an urge to hug him but knew he probably wouldn’t welcome the contact. Not that kind of contact. Especially in his current state. Instead she merely walked over to him and tried to lightly put a hand on his arm in a gesture of comfort. “Basteaux… I know words can not make this better… But I understand the feelings. Please don’t let this destroy you. I know we’re two different people. Yet I understand the rage and pain of that kind of loss. I was down that road when my father died to Imperials. Whatever you need right now… I’d like to be there for you.”

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duskrecluse:

nebula1984:

duskrecluse:

nebula1984:

(continued from here @duskrecluse )

Destiney didn’t show any sign of being afraid of him. Her hands were folded behind her back casually as she looked at him. Daisy fluttered off her shoulder to go plop her sparkly butt onto a nearby rock. Almost as if the fairy was giving the two of them space.

“Because I want to.” She said it casually as she looked up at the night sky and closed her eyes for a moment. She looks down at the water before crouching down to pick up a pebble. She plunks it into the water. “Do I need a reason to want to help someone or be their friend?“ Another pebble and another plunk into the water. Her voice dropping softly. “I know what it is like to want to be alone and isolated. The guilt and pain that eats away at the cracks in your soul. It’s in your behavior tonight. I can see the storm in your eyes.”

She blows out a sigh as she dusts her hands off on her pants as she stands up and looks at him with a smile. “Then again maybe I assume too much. Besides! Maybe I just have a weakness for beautiful music. Maybe I’m just jealous the woods get to hear it so purely and unaffected.”

‘I can see the storm in your eyes,’ Destiney says, and the rest of the world turns to white noise. The aforementioned eyes widen and Bast stumbles a half-step backward. It must be an inadvertently accurate turn of phrase. There’s no way she could know.

She keeps talking- as if her words have not already set him reeling. Basteaux struggles to comprehend her continuing speech, to cudgel his mind into properly hearing and translating sounds into words. He’s better than this. He can hold a proper conversation without going to pieces. Even intoxicated, he can do this.

“You may have some understanding of being alone,” he finally agrees, his smooth baritone cracked and jagged. “But this is not nearly so simple. Trust me when I say that I am not the man you seem to think I am. You’d do better to stay away from me, and I should know better than to allow you to have gotten this far. Especially if you see the storm in my eyes. That should be your direst indicator to run.”

A slight tilt of her head, a curious look in her gaze. Still no hint of fear or that she might turn and run away. Too stubborn for her own good maybe. Yet playing with other dangerous predators had seemed to numb her fear. Or maybe she didn’t really fear her own death. It was hard to say. Something she hadn’t really giving a lot of thought to.

“Basteaux… Nothing in life is simple. I’d be a fool if I thought that way. I have seen and been through so much in the last eight years. I appreciate your concern for my well being however… I don’t scare that easily. But…” She holds her arms out wide, her expression as calm as her voice. “Do not decide for me what is best for me. If you are such a danger then prove it. I think you don’t give yourself enough credit.” She moves a arm forward, almost extending the hand towards Bast as if to offer him her hand. Soft icy blue aether flickering at her fingertips. “I can protect myself.”

“The Basteaux I met… The Basteaux I see… Is strong. Yet I see something wrong as well. I just want to help. Because I care.”

“It is better for everyone that I do not ‘prove it’,” Basteaux replies. “It is not a lure I give into by choice.” As Destiney reaches toward him, the aether dancing on her fingertips, Bast actually recoils and takes several more steps away from her.

After a moment of watching the play of light on her hand, Basteaux lifts his gaze to meet Destiney’s. When he speaks it’s with more stability, although there’s a brittle aspect like they’re both walking a fine line. “What is magic to you, Destiney? Is it a tool? A means to an end? A drug that you need to keep getting a fix of to survive?” The change of subject is abrupt and the questions are anything but shy or tentative. Yet he still appears to be the one feeling fear.

Destiney hadn’t missed that recoil at her aether use. Her hand closed and the sparkling light vanished. His questions making her contemplative. Her hand opens again as she glances off towards Daisy on the rock. The sparkling fairy flutters over to the waiting hand, spinning about like a dancer.

“Magic is not a drug. Nor is it entirely a tool or a means to an end. Magic for me is life. It is not good nor is it evil. It is all in how one decides to use it. I am still breathing after I tried to kill myself because of the very magic I can now preform.” She smiles at Daisy as the fairy stops spinning to sit down on her hand, little feet dangling over the side of her hand and kicking in the air. “Daisy once worked alongside my Uncle and together they saved my life.” A small, soft smile as she moved her gaze from her companion to the duskwight. “I use it to heal. To save lives as mine was saved. I might still at times work with a bow as that day that we met. But my main profession now is as a healer. Yet Daisy is a product of that magic and I would never consider her a tool. She has her own personality. She is her own being. Much like the elementals that call the Twelveswood home.”

On By destiney1984Leave a comment

duskrecluse:

nebula1984:

(continued from here @duskrecluse )

Destiney didn’t show any sign of being afraid of him. Her hands were folded behind her back casually as she looked at him. Daisy fluttered off her shoulder to go plop her sparkly butt onto a nearby rock. Almost as if the fairy was giving the two of them space.

“Because I want to.” She said it casually as she looked up at the night sky and closed her eyes for a moment. She looks down at the water before crouching down to pick up a pebble. She plunks it into the water. “Do I need a reason to want to help someone or be their friend?“ Another pebble and another plunk into the water. Her voice dropping softly. “I know what it is like to want to be alone and isolated. The guilt and pain that eats away at the cracks in your soul. It’s in your behavior tonight. I can see the storm in your eyes.”

She blows out a sigh as she dusts her hands off on her pants as she stands up and looks at him with a smile. “Then again maybe I assume too much. Besides! Maybe I just have a weakness for beautiful music. Maybe I’m just jealous the woods get to hear it so purely and unaffected.”

‘I can see the storm in your eyes,’ Destiney says, and the rest of the world turns to white noise. The aforementioned eyes widen and Bast stumbles a half-step backward. It must be an inadvertently accurate turn of phrase. There’s no way she could know.

She keeps talking- as if her words have not already set him reeling. Basteaux struggles to comprehend her continuing speech, to cudgel his mind into properly hearing and translating sounds into words. He’s better than this. He can hold a proper conversation without going to pieces. Even intoxicated, he can do this.

“You may have some understanding of being alone,” he finally agrees, his smooth baritone cracked and jagged. “But this is not nearly so simple. Trust me when I say that I am not the man you seem to think I am. You’d do better to stay away from me, and I should know better than to allow you to have gotten this far. Especially if you see the storm in my eyes. That should be your direst indicator to run.”

A slight tilt of her head, a curious look in her gaze. Still no hint of fear or that she might turn and run away. Too stubborn for her own good maybe. Yet playing with other dangerous predators had seemed to numb her fear. Or maybe she didn’t really fear her own death. It was hard to say. Something she hadn’t really giving a lot of thought to.

“Basteaux… Nothing in life is simple. I’d be a fool if I thought that way. I have seen and been through so much in the last eight years. I appreciate your concern for my well being however… I don’t scare that easily. But…” She holds her arms out wide, her expression as calm as her voice. “Do not decide for me what is best for me. If you are such a danger then prove it. I think you don’t give yourself enough credit.” She moves a arm forward, almost extending the hand towards Bast as if to offer him her hand. Soft icy blue aether flickering at her fingertips. “I can protect myself.”

“The Basteaux I met… The Basteaux I see… Is strong. Yet I see something wrong as well. I just want to help. Because I care.”

On By destiney1984Leave a comment

(continued from here @duskrecluse )

Destiney didn’t show any sign of being afraid of him. Her hands were folded behind her back casually as she looked at him. Daisy fluttered off her shoulder to go plop her sparkly butt onto a nearby rock. Almost as if the fairy was giving the two of them space.

“Because I want to.” She said it casually as she looked up at the night sky and closed her eyes for a moment. She looks down at the water before crouching down to pick up a pebble. She plunks it into the water. “Do I need a reason to want to help someone or be their friend?“ Another pebble and another plunk into the water. Her voice dropping softly. “I know what it is like to want to be alone and isolated. The guilt and pain that eats away at the cracks in your soul. It’s in your behavior tonight. I can see the storm in your eyes.”

She blows out a sigh as she dusts her hands off on her pants as she stands up and looks at him with a smile. “Then again maybe I assume too much. Besides! Maybe I just have a weakness for beautiful music. Maybe I’m just jealous the woods get to hear it so purely and unaffected.”

“You don’t have to be alone.” (Cause I just seen these and it’s been a while since Dest last pestered Bast.)

On By destiney1984Leave a comment

duskrecluse:

nebula1984:

duskrecluse:

Basteaux recognizes the voice before the words fully register. He
curls his hands more fully around the wooden mug in front of him rather
than look up to the face he knows he’ll see. “Even if one doesn’t have to be, from another’s perspective, sometimes it’s better that way.”

He
breathes a sigh and looks up, squinting slightly in the dim light of
the tavern. “I know you mean well, Destiney,” he continues, “but you
would be better off simply forgetting my existence.
Surely there are
others more receptive to your attention?” There is, perhaps startlingly, something akin to warmth coloring his smooth baritone despite the words. It’s as he rises from his seat that the reason becomes more clear. Though he hides it well, there’s a lack of stability about him, each step deliberate as he makes his way toward the exit.

He stops with his hand on the doorframe, glancing back over his shoulder to his surprise visitor. “Goodnight.”

A deep breath before slowly letting it out. Nearly in a sigh. Stubborn to the core. However his words had struck a cord. Someone else that decided she was ‘too good’ for them. She hated that. Yet for some reason it only made her more stubborn than want to run off. She was totally not letting this go so easily.

She walked over to stand beside him, Daisy perched on her shoulder and merely watching the exchange. A warm smile that doesn’t quite meet her eyes as she looks to him. “I think I would much prefer not forgetting. Besides are you going to force me to stay put and not follow you?”

She shrugs and looks out the doorway into the night outside of the tavern. “Did you ever think maybe the Twelve decided you need a friend?
Nymeia works in strange ways.

Maybe it’s time for you to quit isolating yourself for at least one friend?”

Now that smile had a hint of mischief to it as she patted the book sitting against her hip. This time the smile did reach her gaze. “Worse comes to worse I could just give you a light bop on the head. Don’t try to tell me I’m ‘too good’ to talk to you or be your friend. We don’t know each other well enough for you to fairly make that judgement of me.”

“I cannot force you to do anything,” Basteaux replies. For a moment his piercing eyes close and he rests his head against the sanded wood. “Perhaps the Twelve, in their infinite wisdom, have some plan or another. If they do, they’re the only ones capable of understanding it.” It’s difficult to tell if he’s being sarcastic, or if the edge to his voice is just simple tiredness. Either way, he opens his eyes again to look down at Destiney.

Her words have a ring of truth to them. While Bast never did say she was ‘too good’ for him, the implication had certainly been there. Past her, however, he can see at least one of the other patrons who’s taken an interest in their conversation. “Fine. If you insist on following me, then follow.” His steps are still awkward as he leaves the warm light of the tavern.

The moon’s light silvers him, softening some edges while at the same time throwing the angles of his face into sharp relief. About halfway across the empty span of hard-packed earth Basteaux stumbles and catches himself on one knee. Waving off any attempts to help him up, he rises back to his feet with a small grunt and continues toward the outer edge of the settlement.

One small triumph. Though nothing worth celebrating over. He had at least given in a small bit to her stubbornness. At least it was a step in the direction she wanted. Wanting to get him to accept the fact he could use a friend. She wanted to be that friend. Something about him intrigued her enough to try. Beyond any similarities he shared with a dead man.

A look of concern crossed her features when he stumbled to his knee but she allowed him to stand on his own. No sense in pushing too hard. It would only ruin any attempts she was making with him. Instead she just falls into step beside him.

“You do not seem the kind to drink to this point for no reason.” Her words soft and low, almost cautious. Her eyes looking skyward rather then at him. Almost as if making an observation rather then asking him for answers. Asking right out she knew would probably just get her the cold shoulder. “I’m not asking you to explain. That’s your choice. But if there is anyway I can help… I’d like to. No matter how strong we feel we need to be. No matter how tough we try to act. Eventually we all have breaking points. Someone to watch your back when you need a moment like this.”

“You don’t have to be alone.” (Cause I just seen these and it’s been a while since Dest last pestered Bast.)

On By destiney1984Leave a comment

duskrecluse:

Basteaux recognizes the voice before the words fully register. He
curls his hands more fully around the wooden mug in front of him rather
than look up to the face he knows he’ll see. “Even if one doesn’t have to be, from another’s perspective, sometimes it’s better that way.”

He
breathes a sigh and looks up, squinting slightly in the dim light of
the tavern. “I know you mean well, Destiney,” he continues, “but you
would be better off simply forgetting my existence.
Surely there are
others more receptive to your attention?” There is, perhaps startlingly, something akin to warmth coloring his smooth baritone despite the words. It’s as he rises from his seat that the reason becomes more clear. Though he hides it well, there’s a lack of stability about him, each step deliberate as he makes his way toward the exit.

He stops with his hand on the doorframe, glancing back over his shoulder to his surprise visitor. “Goodnight.”

A deep breath before slowly letting it out. Nearly in a sigh. Stubborn to the core. However his words had struck a cord. Someone else that decided she was ‘too good’ for them. She hated that. Yet for some reason it only made her more stubborn than want to run off. She was totally not letting this go so easily.

She walked over to stand beside him, Daisy perched on her shoulder and merely watching the exchange. A warm smile that doesn’t quite meet her eyes as she looks to him. “I think I would much prefer not forgetting. Besides are you going to force me to stay put and not follow you?”

She shrugs and looks out the doorway into the night outside of the tavern. “Did you ever think maybe the Twelve decided you need a friend?
Nymeia works in strange ways.

Maybe it’s time for you to quit isolating yourself for at least one friend?”

Now that smile had a hint of mischief to it as she patted the book sitting against her hip. This time the smile did reach her gaze. “Worse comes to worse I could just give you a light bop on the head. Don’t try to tell me I’m ‘too good’ to talk to you or be your friend. We don’t know each other well enough for you to fairly make that judgement of me.”