11 Chirreb 4385: (Chirreb 5) Rescuing the Prisoners

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Though we didn't actually charge for the stronghold. Purrzhon wanted to search the rest of the hideout first to see if any of his stuff was around and catch any stragglers and set off any traps. Safely. To make sure they didn't go off later and cause trouble for us. That was the plan anyway.

Purrzhon especially wanted to go to the holding cell and free anyone who was in them which was atypically thoughtful of him.

There were a couple of prisoners in the cell and both of them claimed to be hostages for the behavior of two bandits -- the Cani, Faefen, was a bandit's daughter, and the Orren, Outcast, was a bandit's lover. They begged us not to hurt their loved ones and swore that those particular bandits were only helping the rest because the hostages would be tortured and/or killed if they didn't. The Orren looked like he'd been tortured and killed a few times anyway. Faefen readily gave us the description of her father (we hadn't seen him yet) but getting Outcast to describe his lover took longer. Outcast had been scared to explain the relationship and scared to tell us any more details and Faefen had been locked up with him long enough to be loyal to him so she wouldn't either. Outcast tried to get Mirhandrax to swear that we wouldn't kill Outcast because of what his lover looked like.

Purrzhon growled. "Stupid Orren. I am smelling your mewellicapfriend on you already. We do not kill you for being a monsterlover."

...
No one actually contradicted Purrzhon but ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Nightbloom and Mirhandrax looked especially uneasy.

"A mewellicap?" I asked.

Outcast cringed. "She's not like the rest of her kind! She's sweet and caring and honest! We didn't want anything to do with the rest of them. All we wanted was a peaceful life together, but after they found us ...."

"So what does she look like anyway?" I asked.

"She's red with jagged white stripes on her wings and the most beautiful eyes, like amber flecked with topaz." He gazed off into space.

We all looked at each other.

Outcast grew alarmed. "What? What is it? Oh cruel Accanax, you've killed her, haven't you?"

"No no no, we didn't kill her!" I waved my hands hastily.

"We didn't?"

"Nooo well not more than once anyway and she came back from that if we did I mean she was alive when we threw her into exile with the others."

Outcast buried his face in his hands and wailed in despair.

"Well how were we to know it's not like she said 'please don't exile me forever I secretly hate the bandits but they have my Orrenfriend hostage'," I complained.

Mirhandrax gave me a look.

Nightbloom coughed. "She did. Actually."

"... she did?"

"She did," Mirhandrax admitted. "But after she said it they all started making outrageous claims like that. And she was a monster claiming that she was being forced into robbery. How were we supposed to know such an unlikely story was true?"

Trust looked at Purrzhon. Purrzhon licked one forepaw. Trust yelped, "You could smell him on her too, couldn't you? You knew she was telling the truth!"

Purrzhon growled, "I am smelling the intercourse on her, rrai, but if 'consent' has a smell I am not knowing it, and I am not taking the word on it of the robber and killer who attacks me."

Trust whined. Outcast threw himself at my feet. "What have you done? What have you done to my poor beloved Elisia? How can I find her again?"

We explained about the dead tree trunks and the temporary rope and Outcast wailed more and demanded that we do the exact same thing to him. "I must be with her! I cannot live without her!"

"Um I'm an Orren too and even I don't think that's a very good idea," I said."

Mirhandrax and Purrzhon had gotten kind of bored of this and started discussing strategy again. Purrzhon told Outcast to shut up and Mirhandrax told him that maybe we'd do something for him and/or Elisia later but first we had to deal with the rest of the bandits.

"And please, please don't hurt my father!" Faefen pleaded.

Comments

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Romance is such a source of doom.

Orren are, too, sometimes.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Hey I'm an Orren and I'm not doomy!

And I have nothing against romance but with a MEWELLICAP ewwwwwwwwww that's just nasty really it'd be for the best if they stayed separated don't you think?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I no longer make predictions about what is for the best, in romances, perhaps because of Lithia and her arrangement.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

But this is totally different from Lithia and Outcast is an Orren so he's bound to fall for someone else soon and he might've had a chance at a decent life if he hadn't thrown his life away on a MEWELLICAP already ewwwwwww.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I don't know if he threw his LIFE away, or do you mean that he gets killed later? Or jumps off the branch to try to find her?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

He might as well have I mean does it really matter? Who's going to want anything to do with a nonprime-lover?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

He's not going to smell like a mewellicap forever! Eventually he'll be able to just not tell people.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I guess if he goes into exile chasing her and doesn't find her then no one'll know.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Well, even if it's gross, Mewellicaps are sentient and sapient, and can be adults capable of true consent, so it's not necessarily 'rape', and it's not bestiality either. I guess it's just 'monsterality' (I don't know if that will translate), so it's not automatically the WORST thing a Prime can do sexually to another being, is it?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Well I'm sorry it came up in mine because YUCK I can't believe primes DO something so disgusting. Yes Khtsoyis and mewellicaps do get along as FRIENDS sometimes and I don't have anything against mewellicaps as a species but LOVING one that's just unnatural and wrong and EWWW. They're nonprimes! That makes them totally different from Primes and intimate relations with them is EWWWW. What possible good could ever come of it?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Maybe he enjoys yucky things? Like swimming in a swamp and getting all muddy, eating really messy pies with his hands, and making out with mewellicaps.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

... that might be EVEN WEIRDER than being a nonprime-lover! Although not any more disgusting.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Oops I wrote under the wrong comment there but you know what I meant anyway it's not the WORST no it's not even as bad as being a bandit. I mean we didn't kill him for it and we weren't even wanting to exile him particularly even after he asked. He's an Orren so I'm sure he'll want something different soon anyway.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

So file it under 'gross, foul, disgusting, and terribly ill-advised', but NOT under 'hideously evil and wrong in a sense that offends your base sense of right and wrong', like the various forms of rape out there should. I mean, I would assume that primes laying with animals would be a category worse than this, and THAT presumably happens somewhat, sometimes causing scandal, right? Gotta keep your sense of disgust grounded, you know?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ahhhggh primes don't have sex with animals where do you come up with these crazy things?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Then do you have a word for the concept? Is it written up as a crime? What crimes DO you have words for that are sexual? That might be telling on what people DO...

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Hunh. An honest-to-goodness monster lover.

I had wondered when that theme was going to come up in one of the World Tree journals I read (I seem to get a few through the internet, like we talked about).

I think this is the first instance of it *actually happening* that I can remember reading.

And I thought Mewellicaps were actually somewhat like Khtsoyis; ie, their places could easily have been reversed? And that also some cities where lots of Khtsoyis lived did not consider them entering to be doorwaying?


((Also, double check for typos, like in Trust's speech. 'coukd', for example.))

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

So they all secretly hated the bandits? Hmmm!

Anyway, if Purrzhon can smell the mewellicap on him, then no doubt some mage can give him a finder spell using that as a link and throw him off the side of the branch with a flying spell... It could be kind of a long trip, of course.

And of course, getting a mage willing to do that could be hard for him! But he'd better hurry, I don't imagine that kind of spell link will last for long.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I don't think the prisoners *secretly* hated the bandits they were pretty open about it. That's why they were prisoners!

I don't know if smell or whatever could be used for an arcane connection but Outcast did scour her quarters for stuff of hers so he's got some if he can ever find a way to use it before he loses interest and moves on to whatever the next shiny thing is.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Ah, I missed that! I figure they were captured in your attack on the bandits, hence, they were your prisoners.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh no these were the ones we rescued from the bandit's hideout I'm sorry I didn't make that clearer!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clarifying!

No doubt Outcast succumbed to what we would call 'Stockholm Syndrome', where someone comes to identify with and be sympathetic to his or her captors after having been held by them for a lengthy time. ^_^